The Straight Up Facts

So...welcome back to my blog! Notice I've figured out how to fix the spelling mistake in my blog title that was forever wrong. Score one for me! Now awhile ago, my pretend sister, Mary Kate, tagged me in a getting to know you tag. So I decided that a long time later I'd finally do it. Head on over to her blog, Defined by the Dance to read hers! I have a little down time, so here it goes!

The rules go a little something like this:
1. List 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer 11 questions left from the blogger that nominated you
3. Ask 11 questions for those you nominate
4. Nominated 11 bloggers that have 200 followers or less
5. Go to each bloggers page and let them know that they have been nominated
6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog

I have a similar problem that Mary Kate had when she did this tag, I'm not really a popular blogger and don't have many followers, or follow many people. So I'm going to change the rules up a little bit and tag 1 person. So Sara, I hope you enjoy this challenge!

Facts:
1. I have a generally large family, since the average family size is about 4 people. I live with my mom, dad, 2 younger sisters (Breanna and Ashley), and a younger brother (Brady). Breanna is 12, Ashley is 10, and Brady is almost 8.
2. Although we live in town, my family has a crazy kinda farm going on in our backyard that we aren't technically supposed to have (but we won't tell anyone that, right?). It started with just 4 chickens, then my dad got the brilliant idea to get a turkey (yes, a live turkey, whom I hate), and then we got 2 pygmy goats which are the cutest things in the world. They're out newest addition.
3. As you probably know by now if you read my blog posts, I'm a dancer. I've been dancing since I was 3 and I just turned 15. I currently take ballet, lyrical, jazz, and am on the dance team.
4. I'm very much single and am very happy being so. I've never been into the whole dating thing. While all the girls in middle school had a new boyfriend every other day, I've alway been perfectly content with my friends. Of course, I've had the little middle school crush, but never a really serious relationship. I don't plan on it any time soon.
5. I do not have a cell phone, which is extremely weird for a normal 15 year old. The problem is, my parents don't have a cell phone plan; they use track phones where you have to add the minutes. If I want a phone I have to pay for it by myself. I don't have a job yet and am not willing to fork out that much money from my bank account to pay for a cell phone. I'm perfectly happy with my iPod touch for  now.
6. I picked up my first Harry Potter book in 8th grade at a book swap (yes, a little late, I know) and I've fallen in love ever since. I'm a major PotterHead and probably annoy my friends and family to no end, but oh well. I'm currently reading Half Blood Prince.
7. Giraffes are my favorite animal. Not completely sure why. It could be because of the fact that I'm super short and giraffes are tall, or because my aunt told me that they giraffes have one of the biggest hearts of all land mammals. Who knows. Giraffes are just cool.
8. I love country music. That's what I grew up listening to, living in a hicktown. I remember being 3 years old and singing to Sara Evans and Shania Twain songs. I don't mind pop, but it doesn't have the same feel as country to me. I'm not fond of rap at all.
9. Math is my worst subject. And when I say my worst subject, I mean it even comes behind Spanish.
10. Although I love to dance, singing is my true passion. I've been singing since I could talk. I've taken voice lessons on and off since about age 8, but I've finally found a teacher I really like and have been taking lessons from her since March.
11. I have 3 best friends: Rachel, Violet, and Michelle. We've been inseparable sine 7th grade. I don't know where I'd be without them.

Mary Kate's Questions:
1. If you could change your name to anything, what would it be and why?
That's a good one. I think I'd change my name to Lavender because purple is one of my favorite colors, my best friend's name is Violet, and it's just a plain cool name.\

2. Name one thing that you're really no t good at that you want to improve on.
Ballet!!!! I just finished my first year of "real" ballet (I took it like every other 3 year old little girl like a billion years ago). And to put it simply, I'm really awful at it. But hey, you can't learn everything in one year.

3. What's your favorite childhood memory?
I really struggled with this one. I have sooo many childhood memories that are fantastic. The one that is sticking out in my mind right now is when I wrote up notes for all of my neighbors in colorful marker inviting them to a "concert" where I sang to my karaoke machine. All of them came and I felt like a superstar.

4. You get one superpower for a day. What and why?
I'm going to go really oldschool here and say flying. Just imagine it; you save tons on gas money, you can go wherever you want to go in half the time, and you just feel so free.

5. What inspires you?
Right now, Danielle Bradbery inspires me. She was just the youngest person to win The Voice at 16. Just think about it; she's only one year older than me. She's incredibly shy, a lot like myself at times. But most importantly, she's never had a singing lesson in her life and she performed twice in front of people. All she did was sing her heart out in her room, just like me. It's incredible. It inspires me to do something incredible.

6. Have you ever broken a bone or had an injury that requires stitches?
I'm going to be very boring here and say no, I have not. I've never been seriously injured. Just little cuts and bruises and hoping it stays that way.

7. Skydiving, Bungee Jumping, or Scuba Diving?
I think I'd start small with scuba diving. It'd be incredible to see all those fish right up close. But next I'd def try skydiving.

8. How are your baking skills?
I'd say they're pretty decent, as long as I'm paying attention to when to take stuff out of the oven. Nothing compared to my friend, Rachel though. She has a cupcake biz and all that jazz.

9. What role does music play in your life? Can you sing? Do you dance? Is music necessary for normal function?
YES YES YES YES. Music plays one of the biggest roles in my life. I'm not athletic or artistic at all and music is basically the only thing I'm good at it. I can sing, and I love it. I also dance. Of course music is necessary for normal function. Take anything but my radio.

10. Do you have any siblings? If so, what role do they play in your life?
I have 3 younger siblings and they play a huge role in my life. I have to be a good role model, babysit, go to tons of sports games, all of that stuff, but it's worth it. It won't be like this forever.

11. Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog after I read one of my aunt's friends blogs. It was hilarious and just seemed so easy and fun. I love to write and I'm kinda shy and awkward so this was a perfect way to get my thoughts out. Plus barley anyone reads this, so I can say most of whatever I want.

My Questions:
1. What's your wildest fantasy?
2. What's the weirdest dream you've ever had?
3. How good of a cook are you?
4. What's your biggest turnoff?
5. What's one thing that a lot of people don't know about you?
6. Who was the last person you hugged and why? What do they mean to you?
7. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
8. Would you rather go back in time or to the future? Why and what moment would you go to?
9. What's your favorite movie and why?
10. Are you afraid of any animal? Why?
11. Why did you start this blog?

Thanks Mary Kate. I had fun doing this!

Dance Problems

Just going to give a fair warning that this blog will be a complaint about dance. Feel free to not read this. I just need to get some things off of my chest.

Don't get me wrong, I love to dance. I've been dancing since I was 3 years old, and have been going nonstop. Back then, my dance studio was the only one in our tiny town. It had lots of business and I was learning. Perfection.

But the last few years have been completely different. First, one of the main dance instructors at my studio left and formed her own studio, which also happens to be in our tiny town. This took away a lot of business. After that, our studios have had somewhat of a feud going on. Talk about dance drama.

Another bad difference is the fact that since I was about 10 or 11, I haven't learned a thing. We have one actual teacher in our studio; the rest are "advanced" students who teach classes. Some of them are only 2 years older than me. Another problem is our studio owner. Our studio owner is a complete nut job who doesn't know how to run a business or be kind to people at all. The woman goes to a psychic. I believe that makes the point clear.

This is my 4th year of being on the dance team. It is very unorganized. This year I just don't even want to go to dance or even compete. The only thing holding me back is my amazing friends that I've danced with forever, my dance teacher that I love, and the fact that since I've been going to this studio and haven't learned as much as I should, every place I go it is going to be very challenging for me to keep up. I don't really want to be labeled as the "slow dancer." But I know that it's important to get better, and at some point you will be on the bottom.

So this is it. Next year I am going to take my dancing to the next level and find a new studio with tougher criteria, organization, and just a place where I can learn. I want to be the best that I can be, and I'm not going to improve if I stay here. It's tough to leave the studio and people that you've danced with all your life. But I know I need to do it, and honestly, I can't wait until this dance season is over.

So bye bye current dance studio. See you in the rear view mirror.

Turkey Eggs?

So last weekend, my three best friends spent the night at house. We had a really great time. Ever since summer of 2012, we started a youtube channel. On our channel, we post really stupid videos of ourselves doing stupid things. But not all of them are stupid. We also make music videos to popular songs. If you want to get a huge laugh at our stupidity, check us out: ChocolateOwl1513. But anyways, we made another music video to the song "22" by Taylor Swift. It was really fun to film.

After that, my one friend had the idea to make some cookies. So we looked up this really easy recipe for Nutella cookies and made them. Well the funny thing is, the dough looks a lot like poop. Like an unbelievable resemblance. So we decided to play a little trick on my mom (yes, I know. Four fourteen year olds playing that old trick). We put the dough on the toilet seat and in the toilet and then just walked away. A little later, we heard my mom yell, "ASHLEY! WHAT IS THIS?!" She had spotted it. We all ran to the bathroom. Stifling giggles, my sister, Breanna went over and got some on her finger and ate it. My mom just started laughing. (So the real question here is, if one of us ever really does try to eat real poop, will my mother try to stop us? Or will she just laugh? Thanks, Mom). But my mom was really confused. So we eventually told her it was Nutella. She thought our dog, Jack, had done it. For all of you out there horrified about my sister eating off of the toilet, it's ok. It's just Breanna.

On to the real meaning of the title of this blog. My family has three chickens and a turkey. When we first got our turkey, my dad was sure that it was a male. It's huge and it struts. But last weekend, my dad came down from feeding our poultry and showed us an egg. It was a giant, speckled egg. He then announced to us that the turkey had layed it. This was a huge surprise to us. Our turkey is laying eggs. That's just weird to even say. So either my dad, the animal expert, is wrong, or we have a bisexual turkey.

After hearing this, my one friend brought up the fact that we had used a giant, speckled egg in the Nutella cookie batter. So yes, we were eating turkey eggs. Not really sure how I feel about that one yet.

But apparently infertile turkey eggs are kinda rare. Turkeys are only suppose to lay, if they even lay anything, maybe twice a week. Well our turkey lays at least once a day! My mom and I also found out that these eggs sell for up to $3 an egg! Sweet! So forget college. I can live in my tiny town for the rest of my life selling eggs and raising turkeys. Future = done.

Christmas Spirit

Merry Christmas everyone! I actually had a very nice, quiet Christmas. I never go anywhere exotic or do anything super special like some people. But that's ok. I enjoy spending time with my family.

A lot of times everyone gets caught up in the cookie baking, present wrapping, shopping part of Christmas. Christmas can be very stressful so sometimes it's nice that it's over. But I don't know about any of my readers out there, (is anyone out there?) but it didn't feel like Christmas at all this year until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve we got a very beautiful snow. It was so magical and pretty and it finally felt like Christmas. But now Christmas is over and I've kind of lost my chance of being in the Christmas spirit.

Or have I? Of course, Christmas spirit isn't all about the cookies, present wrapping, and shopping right?  I was taught that Christmas spirit is believing Jesus was born on Christmas Day. I really do believe that, so maybe I haven't lost my chance. Jesus is with me everyday. So I guess I really do have Christmas spirit everyday.

We almost didn't make it to church on Christmas Eve. It was kind of hectic. We have to drive over a mountain to get to our church. Mountains and snow don't really mix. Especially when barley any plows have gone through. It's also a bit of a problem when you're already running behind and the road is closed and you have to go a different and longer way. To top it all off, your family has the music that everyone is suppose to sing in about 2 minutes and you're still inching your way along the snowy road. But anyway, we made it and everyone sang and everything turned out just fine!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Hurricane Sandy

Remember that crazy storm that happened about a month ago? Well I'm going to talk about it now :)
The day before the weekend of the storm, all of my teachers and classmates were talking about how terrible the storm would be, and how they had to prepare, bla bla bla. Well it turns out that that same weekend I had a lot of fun plans going on. So I refused to believe that anything, even a hurricane, would ruin my plans. I thought everyone was just over reacting and we would only get a little bit of rain and maybe some heavier winds than usual. Boy was I wrong.
Though only 1 of my plans were ruined (our towns annual halloween parade), the storm was much worse than I expected. Our area got hit worse than the other areas around us though. I probably jinxed it...
On Sunday night the school called and cancelled school for Monday and Tuesday. Monday during the day, nothing really happened. It just rained. But Monday night is when the craziness started. The lights in our house started flickering, the wind got crazy, and the radio was going beserk with bad weather announcements. So of course, my 7-year-old brother was scared and slept with me that night. The next morning when I woke up, our Internet and phone had been knocked out, but we still had power. We were actually one of the only houses on our street to keep power.
To cut to the chase, school was canceled almost all week because most of the schools were without power. I have to say, 4 days without Internet or phone are very boring, but at least we kept power. Most of our town had to go live with relatives or friends with power for the week. But school continued on Friday and everyone here is safe. I'm praying for all of the people who's homes and areas were devastated by the hurricane.

**the following pictures are: A) a tree that fell on my neighbors porch.
B) while we were off school, mom had to get us out of the house so we went to party city and Brady noticed this Justin Bieber display and looked at me and said "really..."
C) while we were on our adventure, mom took us to sweet frog! Our fret time since the beach. Yum :)

September/October 2012

I haven't blogged in ages. It always seems like that's how all my posts start out. So what has everyone been up to? I've been super busy! Everything started all at once and now I have no time for anything! So here's what I've been up to recently:
Breanna celebrated her 12th birthday! My little sister is growing up! She's a middle schooler now. We ride the same bus, get up at the same time, come home together everyday, etc. She's a really great kid, though. I love her so much.

Next, my best friends and I went to our freshman homecoming. It was SO MUCH FUN! I had a great time with my amazing friends. We danced, laughed, got all dressed up, and had the best time. We all can't wait until the winter formal!

We went to see my favorite singer ever!! I watched him all throughout American Idol and knew he would win! I finally got to see him and it was an amazing experience. Scotty McCreery! He is so talented and has such a great personality.

Ashley celebrated her 10th birthday! My baby sister is in the double digits! That's a big deal! She's still super tiny and petite, but she's growing up to have a great (but particular, much like her grandmother) personality. She will go far, I can tell. Love her <3

We spontaneously bought an apple tree! Dad, Brady, and I all got in the truck one day and picked out an apple tree. Our little tree is happily growing in the backyard.

Last, we all went trick or treating. I decided to dress as Mary Poppins and my three best friends were Katniss Everdeen (from The Hunger Games), The Mad Hatter, and Superman. Brady was a cowboy, Ashley was an old man, and Breanna was thing 1 (my cousin was thing 2)

I hope everyone had a great September/October and an even better November!

Summer Closure

It's the third day of school and I'm already longing for summer again. I'm frustrated with my homework and can feel a hard working year ahead. But I also think it's going to be one of the best years I've had. I missed all my friends and those classes where someone does something hilarious and the whole class just bursts into laughter. But anyway, here's what I did the last few days of summer...

My friends and I went tubing down the creek for the first time (notice the 3 large tubes in the back?) It was a very interesting experience, involving cow manure, but anyway, it was still a blast!

My baby cousin, Denae Brielle was born. She's so tiny! I can't believe how small she is! But isn't she sweet?

Breanna came up to me one day and said, "Water is so much more fun in a mug!" Haha, I died.

And lastly, I got 3 new pairs of shoes! Moccasins, sneakers, and my personal favorite, cowboy boots!

Note: Sorry for the bad quality pictures. iPod's aren't exactly pro material.