Virtual Tour

Since y'all have been after me to post pictures of my house and stuff, I've finally stopped procrastinating. When I went to Orchestra, I took Charity's camera with me.

The first couple photos are pictures of our house from the porch. Then I went to Orchestra. There were pictures are of Dordt, but they were really boring so I left them out. After that I drove by School. That picture was boring but I included it. The picture is of both the middle school and high school since they are connected. After that I drove by the library. About 5 years ago (or longer), someone threw firecrackers in the drop box and the library burned down. Now they are in the old high school (in the gym- you can see the basketball hoops). They are building a new building but the pictures of that were boring. After that, I drove home. Here are some random pictures (the children's park, a field, sheep, my uncles long barn, my other uncles semi crashed into the building (kidding), and a picture of our house from the road). I took other pictures, but that would have taken way to long of a time to load.

Most of these pictures I took while in the car. Sometimes I stopped, sometimes I was still driving. You can see parts of the car
in the pictures.

Random typing while waiting for my pictures to load... The long barn is about 350-400 yards. It holds cows. It used to be my Gramdpa and Gramdma Hooyer's farm. So my dad grew up there. They sold it to their oldest son (my uncle Paul). It once collapsed when my dad was young because of a whole bunch of snow on it. All done. Can quit ranting now!

Um...

This week, we had ITED's (Iowa Test of Something). So we sat in really uncomfortable chairs in the auditorium. It went from 8:15 to 2. It was kind of like the ACT tests.
Has anyone noticed a trend? So far, my school hasn't had a week were there was no interruptions. I think in a month or two, there will be one full week!!! (Gasp)
Today in Gym, we ran the mile for 'practice.' Gym was first hour. My legs still feel like jelly. There is a mural by the gym. On it is a violin. It bugs me every time I see it. It is disproportional, it has no chin rest, the end of the violin is missing parts, and the bow doesn't have a frog. It doesn't look like a bow. Like I said, it bugs me.
Ooooh, my favorite author (Terry Pratchett, a satirical master) came out with a new book and I just finished it! Yeah!!!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE EURO TRIP!!!!! MISS YOU! MISS EAU CLAIRE!! MISS TREES!!! MISS WATER!!!! MISS MEMORIAL!!!!!

Ranting

For the county orchestra, I'm first viola. NOT FUN! I like having to have someone to listen to in case I get off. Also, not one of the other violas can keep a beat. It's annoying. Plus, they are playing really easy songs, and we are playing The Gift! I remember I hated that song. Don't remember why, but I did.
Also, Tuesday, we had the equivalent to Arrive Alive. They had a driving simulator. You started out sober and slowly got drunk. It would give you a second delay simulating the alcohol delaying you. I'm sure you're all happy to know I crashed. I kept on swerving and I either hit a building or a car. I forget.
Tonight, we had '50's Night at church. We served hot dogs and rootbeer and stuff like that. It was sort of like the Italian Dinner but instead of having 2 seating's, people came whenever they liked so it was busy all the time.
Oooohhh! My parents saw a couple kittens under the deck!!!! I haven't seen them, but I can't wait to catch them, get all scratched up, and tame them.

1/2 Day Today

Weekend: boring. I babysat and washed tents. On Sunday, my uncle took me to a RCYF party. It was ok. It rained but they fed us. They also had really cute kittens.
Yesterday: Geek Day. Homecomming is this week. I petted Ashley (the wild cat). She went away a couple steps aferwards. Not much else to say.
Today: Pink Day and 1/2 day. It was kind of funny seeing guys in pink. Some were wearing girls shirts or bathrobes. Also our school server crashed. I still don't have a place to save things there (the U drive). So in computer App., we were allowed to serf the web. At memorial's web site, you can go to 'a day at memorial' or something like that. For 6th hour orchestra, it's a picture of Paula, Elisabeth, and me. Also I got to take home my clay lizzard today. I have viola lessons later today. Nothing else to say really.

Freshmen

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of nice Froshies out there. I even sit by some at lunch. But 2 of the freshmen boys are almost driving me to INSANE. (Just kidding-but they really are annoying)
One guy in my computer app. class once was poking my shoe. For no reason. And today, SC was playing MOC (our rivals apparently who wear purple). Because I was wearing my Memorial Old Abes shirt, he started hitting me over the head with a rolled up piece of paper.
Today in Art, some guy in front of me started hitting me over the head with a ruler! What is up with froshies and hitting me over the head?!
Like I said, don't get me wrong. There are some really nice people down here. Some of the guys will hold open doors for you or let you go in front of them. But hitting a girl you don't know over the head? No one in Memorial would have done that to me. From now on, I will wear my Memorial shirt whenever they have a football game.
On a different note, I think my sister is slightly color blind. She thought my black bandanna was blue. She says that sometimes red seems orange so here blue/yellow things might be messed up. Random picture of my sister being spider-woman. Ooh! In art, I met a girl who'd also lived in WI (I forget were). She also agrees that the water here is disgusting. I mainly drink bottled water now.

Iowa Rain

This summer has been really weird in terms of the weather. We went a whole month w/o rain. Let me tell you, everyone down here was really worried. Then we started to get rain just in time for the crops. But today I got my first taste of a "real Iowa rain" as my dad put it.
We had just jump started our car because dad had left the lights on. He decided to give the car some more time, we would go over to my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Mark. So we went there and talked for a bit. We also got ice cream and strawberry's. Yum! But then it started to down poor. The car was about 40ft from the door. We ran as fast as we could to the car but in that short time, I was soaked. My hair was wet all the way through and so were my close. When driving home, we couldn't see 10ft infront of us and we were only going 25 mph!
On a different note, we had 'Warrior Time' today. It is every Thursday. Classes are shortend. If you have missing work or are failing a class, a teacher will ask you to stay after school. If not, we can go home early (instead of 3:20, we get out at 2:35).

Odd things in Iowa

Tractors driving down the road
Really REALLY old tractors driving down the road
People riding down town streets with lawn mowers
People riding horses down gravel roads
Trees only by houses
Sunday: most buisnesses are closed
NO BOOK STORES
Old appliences (like old stoves, etc.)
My Grandma still washes all her dishes by hand
My Grandma doesn't own a computer
Sarah, Charity, anything else you can think of?

3 day weekend!

Well... What to say. Nothing much except family. This is my first chance this weekend to blog. The rest of my family has taken up the computer. My sisters had school today. Bwahahaha!!!
On Saturday, I babysat. They weren't that bad this time.
Today, we went over to my grandparents to eat Dinner (Lunch to those who aren't Dutch). Our Great-Aunts Grada, Arlene, and Harriet were there as well as our Great-Uncle Howard. When we were eating, my Grandpa told us about someone praying in Dutch and there was only one phrase that people could understand. He told it to us, and all the old people started laughing. I cannot tell you how weird it was. The punch line was in a different language. Living in a Dutch community is weird. A lot of last names start with Vander, Vande, Van, De, etc. (i.e. Vander Lugt (pronounced Vander Luckt), De Jong (De Young)). We also played this fun game called penny Rummy.
Do you all start school on Wednesday? Freshmen tomorrow? You guys ready?