Paradise week

ALRIGHT!! I know this post is half a year overdue but I'm finally going to blog about my wonderfully amazing cruise that I went on in November of 2009 (hold your excitement). Well let me tell you I LOVED it. It was a 7 day-7 nights cruise in the carribbean and it was a week of paradise. I've never been so happy in my life! It was so unbelievable! I still dream about it and wake up so sad that it's not a reality. Let me tell you cruises are addicting...I will definately go on another one at the first opportunity. Let me tell you a bit about it and I will definately include pictures at the bottom of this post! Alright so on Sunday we drove down to Galveston and up until we got on the boat we all figured something would go wrong and we'd miss our trip. When we finally stepped foot on the ship it became a reality albeit an unbelievable one. It felt too good to be true! We got to our rooms (which were suprisingly nice for the price we paid) and unpacked. As soon as we set sail we explored the boat. It was the most amazing thing ever! We spent 4 days at sea and 3 days on land, making stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Our first stop was in Jamaica. We went on a zipline tour through the jungle. Jamaica was cooler than I expected it to be. Everyone talked so cool and boy was it beautiful! I'd always thought that "ya mon" was a steroetype...I didn't realize people actually said it after practically every single sentance. It was so cool. The rest of the week we were saying "ya mon" and "no problem!" The Jamaican way of life is just so chill and laid back. Even though the majority of them live in poverty they are still all so happy! Our bus driver was legit. He kept making jokes and talking in his awesome accent, he also taught us alot about Jamaica (their flag colors are yellow (for the sun) Green (for the beautiful lush vegitation) and black (for the people (lol) and also for the poverty that they endure)) Our tour guides on the zipline tour were all hilarious. We got to see a guy climb a huge coconut tree and we also got to try coconut water, and coconut jelly (neither of which i enjoyed much) There were 5 different lines on the tour each one getting progressively higher. The smalles was 250' above the jungle and the tallest was a whopping 1,600'. At first the jump was a little scary but by the end we were hanging upside down over the jungle. After the tour we went to the little gift shops in the area. They were really over priced but I got a rasta hat complete with dreads and well I don't regret it, I wear it often ;P. Our next stop was in Grand Cayman. We went on to sting ray city for our onland excursion. It was so cool! We brought our own snorkeling stuff and we were able to swim with sting rays and even feed them. It was kind of scary to be honest (those things are HUGE) and of course with the recent tragedy of Steve Erwin it made me a little uneasy to be so close to their barbed tails. Skyler ended up getting a hickey when one of the rays mistook his arm for a piece of squid ^_^. The water was really salty, I'd never been in the ocean before and I didn't realize how salty it was, after a few snorkel fulls of ocean water we were all ready to get out, but the water was just so beautiful! We also got to swim by a coral reef and see a ginormous eel. After the stingray city we walked around the shops and stuff, but they were pretty pricey so we didn't buy much. Cozumel was really fun too. We didn't go on any excursions (except my dad who went scuba diving) but we did get to shop all day which by my standard is a pretty great day! Am I right?! It was really fun trying to bargain with the vendors, I got pretty good at it, I was able to get 30 bucks taken off of a hammock chair (which is sitting in my closet as I write...lame) The male vendors kind of cracked me up. I've learned enough spanish from work to get the gist of what they were saying to me "¡Mi amor, Viene aquí! " or "Es tan guapa como una princesa" it made me laugh. If I'd been alone I might've been slightly creeped out but I just laughed it off. We took some really neat pictures and I had alot of fun. It was a beautiful place and even though it was like a thousand degrees I really enjoyed walking the streets. I've decided I really LOVE traveling and I'm so happy I got the chance to visit these places. I hope to return to them someday and travel to more places in time. I had alot of fun and maybe one day I'll be a veteran cruiser (I met this one lady who'd been on 27 cruises) The boat was great, I had alot of fun at sea and they had so many activites at all times of the day. I really loved it and I'm soo thankful I got to go on it. Check out the picture slide show I've put up!

Why I don't work out in public

OK so I've made a new years resolution to be more healthy. I make this resolution every year but I was really serious about it this time. I even made sure I got a gym membership! I really wanted a membership to Gold's Gym since well that's the place to be, BUT my dad got me a membership at the YMCA...not quite as cool but I suppose it serves the right purpose. ANYWAY I went into the YMCA really excited to get back into shape. So i get on one of the free treadmills and go to slide my ipod into my pocket...only I didn't' have pockets so instead I had to stick it on the little shelf on the treadmill. So I'm running pretty fast. I'm on like eight...heck I'm bookin it. I'm runnin I'm runnin and my arms are movin pretty fast. up and down up and down...up and....down on my ipod cord. Ipod flips in the air. I try to catch it. MISS. It hits the treadmill. I bend over to pick it up. Stop running. Treadmill is still going. My feet slid off the edge. My face hits the treadmill. It's still on. Mom screams. YMCA people run over. I get up, huge burn on my face. left cheekbone to the middle of my chin...eyes watering nose feels like its bleeding (luckily it wasn't) I scramble for my ipod and get back on the treadmill and continue running...except my knees and face kind of hurt...Anyway YMCA people surround me and they're all concerned...there's really nothing wrong with me and I am fine. They're all asking if I need ice or anything and I'm just grumbling "no I'm fine..my fault" and I don't really want to turn around so she can see the huge mark across my face. So I pretend its all cool so I don't draw more attention to myself. but people around me arestill staring...it was soooo embarrassing, but looking back it was pretty flippin hilarious...my mom likes to tell everyone she knows...her favorite part is telling people that "everything was fine and then I just see Bree disappear" I don't think that part is too hilarious though.
I never wanted to go back after that...but i did anyway. Obviously I got an arm band, and avoided the treadmills like the plague. SO if you ever want to know why i hate working out...there ya go.

A.D.D

I think that I've got it. I have a really hard time focusing on pretty much everything! I got on my blog today...for the first time since September might I add...to write an entry about my amazing cruise...that I went on in November :O...and well lo and behold I've been on blogspot for 2 hours and I have yet to even start a blog about my trip. I would do it now, but it's late and 5 am seems to come really early. So what have I been doing on blogspot for the past two hours? I would like to blame Lauren. for the hold-up. What can I say? "I am" addicted to her blog. It's probably the funniest thing I've read in...ever. It seems as though funny people attract hilarious friends . I ended up blog jumping to a a few articles that had me crying (with laughter of course) and since i did a pretty strenuous ab workout the other day I don't know if that was the smartest thing. Anyway after several blog articles, a few episodes of the HILARIOUS Lawrence Welk (Whelk?) show from SNL, and a box of tissues I am done with the computer for the night and I am going to bed. Hopefully The "Cruise Blog" gets online sometime soon...before I forget everything :P...as if I could forget a week of paradise :D.

Shenanagins

Ok so i got sent to my room today. I don't really think I deserved it, Skyler sure did but I think I should be blameless...I also don't think I should have to pay for the hole to be repaired. I don't really mind repairing it but I think Skyler should pay for it, afterall his foot put it there.

It all started yesterday, we were sitting down on the couch and Skyler was using my pillow so of course I took it so I could lay on it. So he pushed me off the couch. Why? I don't know, it was my pillow, I brought it out of my room for myself and I leave it alone for five seconds and he snatches on it. So naturally I took it back, he pushed me off the couch, I grabbed him on the way down and pulled him off as well. He then proceeded to try to pin me to the ground (because he thinks that I can't still take him even though he's my height. HOWEVER I can. So we went at our little wrestling match for a while and I was winning. I had him pinned but then he changed the rules to Sambo (you have to tap out) so I had him in a full nelson and Dad said I could break his neck so I had to let him out of it. So he got a reversal on me and I had to get him back on the ground so I lifted him up ready to slam on the ground and he struggled....long story short, he kicked the wall and now there is a softball sized hole right below the outlet....

So now my dad is making us both pay for it. Here are my arguments against this.

1. this is the 4th hole Skyler has put in a wall, he has not had to pay for the prior 3

2. I didn't actually put the hole in the wall. I didn't insist on wrestling, but when a challenge is called for I can't back out! Skyler started it and of course ended it

3. I said that since Skyler didn't have to pay for 3 holes he should have to pay for this one by himself. 3 strikes you're out. Even if my dad still blames me I shouldn't have to pay for one hole when three others went unpaid for.

Comment me and let me see what you think. I intend to debate this injustice. I could use some back up because my dad already favors Skyler.

R! S! T!

For those of you who don't know what RST is it stands for Ready Set Teach. It's a program through the school that allows juniors and seniors to be an intern in the world of education. I do want to be a teacher. I have since I was little (well after I realized a store checker wouldn't get me very far with only 8 bucks an hour, come on I was 4) so upon coming to this school I decided to enroll in this class which is suppose to help you learn to work with children and also to give you a little bit of firsthand experience in the teaching field. Well today was our second visit to our assigned classes,my first visit wasn't what I had expected, I sat in the back of the class room and graded papers for the teacher I was helping, I didn't get to talk to the class and Mrs. * didn't talk to me all that much either. So I didn't have very good feelings toward the teacher I was stuck with. I was supposed to help the kids with their work and eventually teach them a few lessons. So today I didn't expect much from it. Well I went today and we started out in the computer lab. It started out good and Mrs. * said i could walk around and help the kids with their math games and talk to them a little bit just to get to know them better. So I walked around and talked to some of the kids. I am in a 3rd grade class and the kids are only about 8 and 9 so they are still young and cute. Then the little boy that I was talking to needed help on his game so I went over. This class is a math class, which btw is my worst subject ever but hey it's 3rd grade right? can't be too hard can it? Well apparently it can. He was playing a math game which was based on "Who wants to be a millionaire?" and the computer asks you math related questions and you have to try to answer them and get up to a million dollars. So the question was about decimals, you had to choose the decimal with a 6 in the tenths place and a 7 in the thousandths place. and the numbers were .067 .607 .760 and .067 So not really thinking i said it's .067....well that was wrong. I totally had a brain fart and thought that there was a ones place in decimals...well there technically is but not to the right of the decimal...so he got it wrong and he was one away from getting the million dollar prize...I felt bad and I was like "I'm so sorry buddy I didn't think about it enough" he was nice though and was like it's ok, you did your best, so then i was like "aww this little kid is so cute." they all were. So then after we left the computer lab I went with them back to their class and i took the lower math group outside to work on their division. There was this little boy who was such a cute kid but he had ADHD and he forgot to take his medication that morning (or so Mrs. * had told me anyways) and so he could not focus to save his life he was funny though. He would be talking about one thing and just in the middle of it all he would all of a sudden change subjects...it was so funny. After that we went back to school and my day went back to being boring.

I was also the cow yesterday, this time I was actually at chick-fil-a though. It was really fun and all the kids were attacking me and pulling my tail and trying to lift up the shirt on the cow so they could "see who was really underneath there" so I had to dissapear for a bit until things calmed down a bit. Then we all had a chicken dance competition and it was way fun. It was muey caliente in there though.

well I'm off to the library to find some good books.

The Cow goes Moo

So it's been a while since I've updated this...I know I know I have no excuse even if this is like the 1st time I've had more than an hour on the computer all week. Well I would first like to inform all of you (two people who actually read this) that I have been unofficially promoted to team leader at Chick- Fil-A. I know hold your applause. I say unofficial because all of the candidates for the position are doing the work of team leader but only a few will actually become one. So wish me luck. I would also like to inform you that I am the new cow at the Chick-Fil-A events that we do (football games, promo events, parties, etc.) So next time you see that CFA cow kicking a field goal at the UT games it might just be me.

I got a car...I don't know if that has been mentioned previously but I did. It is a White 2001 Ford Escort. It's a trusty little car and while I didn't like it at first I've grown fond of it and I like zipping around town in it. It is white though which was probably my biggest problem at first. White in my opinion is a waste of a paint well it isn't even a color it is the absence of one. I know that white is the color of purity and all, which makes sense so i'm not dogging white, it's a nice...fake...color, Purity is the absence of evil therefore colors are evil and it makes sense that white would signify purity...that's probably why the amish wear white and black....cuz they think colors are evil...which is odd but no offense to them, not that they'd ever read this because of the whole no technology thing.

So it is 11 o clock and i'm pretty tired and I should go to bed before I get really tired so that I can't wake up for seminary tomorrow and then I am grounded from my little color deprived car. I'll just end with the story of my day yesterday. So I woke up at 6:30 to my mom screaming "BRIANNA YOU'RE LATE FOR WORK!" So then I sit up freaking out and I look at my clock to see just how late I am and I realize that I am not late. I was supposed to be to work at 7 am yesterday to don my Cow suit and go dance like a fool with little children who are somewhat afraid of me. Seeing as how it was only 6:30 i told my mom to stop screaming I still had 30 minutes to get there. To be fair I can see how she thought I was late, you see even though daylight savings time was last Sunday my clock still reads the time from before it ended. I do not change my clock to match the time changes of daylight savings time...I think it is a waste of two or three minutes (depending if the minute has just changed and I have to wait for the next minute to be as close to the time on my phone as possible) I alsp think it helps me to get up on time better, you see, I wake up at 5:45 every morning. So when I in fact hear my alarm clock go off and my clock says 6:45 I think I am late and I hurry, it is a way that I trick myself into being on time for seminary. Then of course when DST begins my clock is already where it is supposed to be just in time for summer when I lose all care of what time it is. Anyways so I leave for work in my gym shorts and my spiffy CFA shirt and I get there at 7. I end up having to wait for a bit and then we are off to The Cowboy Jesus Breakfast. I do not call it that in any disrespect to the Savior that is actually what the event was called. Anyway I helped set up our booth where we were handing out free breakfast chicken biscuit sandwiches and then I changed into the cow. I believe I'm much like superman. I walk into the bathroom a regular person and I come out completely transformed into someone that makes people happy (with a few exceptions that are afraid of me, i mean come on I am a GIANT COW after all you can't help but feel a little nervous) The cow suit, let me tell you, is probably my favorite position to be in for a few reasons. 1) I don't have to wear my uniform 2) I don't have to talk to people that make me mad 3) I get to act and dance like a fool and no one knows who I am (aside from the people I work with but in that case it's a good thing) So they had a live band there playing Christian country songs when the manager is like "Bree go out and dance with the little kids" So of course I do, this is a hard task seeing as how I am a giant cow and the shoes I have to wear are like wearing those swimming flippers where you can't walk heel to toe because they are so huge and you have to really life your knees to dance. I am clumsey enough without adding a huge cow head and flipper size cow "hoofs" luckily I made it through the event without falling on my face. I'm trying to acquire some of the pictures so as to be able to add them on here. You will know when I have succeded. Well thanks for tuning in to the whole story if you've made it this far. More Cow tales to come. ( I think i'm doing another event on Saturday) Keep it Real

Why yesterday sucked so bad

So for mutual last night we were supposed to have a focus night (each girl picks a thing that they enjoy and they get a whole night to demonstrate and teach the other girls) so of course I picked the guitar. I probably should tell you that i have a job now, at Chick-fil-a and don't get me wrong it is a great job, I LOVE it! I work with some great people (others not so much) and it isn't too difficult. The only problem is I have way too many hours. I work like 25-30 a week...with school and stuff the combination isn't too great. So I asked for Wednesdays off so that i could still go to mutual and the manager said that was fine and that if i was ever scheduled just to let her know so that she could fix it. So on Monday I checked the work schedule and I wasn't working on Wednesday, well I guess i didn't look at the date or something because it wasn't this week's schedule, it was still last weeks schedule and it hadn't been changed yet. So I get this call at 6 last night from my team leader telling me I was an hour late for work. I told him I wasn't working and that I had wednesdays off but he insisted Iwas scheduled and that I needed to come in ASAP. I told him I had to teach the lesson for a church thing and I couldn't come in. He said they really needed me and that I really needed to come in. So i said fine i'll have to cancel on my other plans i'll be there in 20 minutes. When i got there I saw that I was scheduled and I was so mad. They didn't even really need me but there I was. I was mad about the call that while I was getting dressed I just broke down and started crying...I don't even know why! I wasn't in trouble or anything. I was really excited to teach guitar though and because of work I didn't get to do it so I was really sad about that, I ended up having to call my leader and explain that I couldn't make it and I felt bad and I wa angry that I hadn't been able to go to the one thing I'd been looking forward to all day. My mom ended up filling in for me so it wasn't too bad but now I missed out and I'm still mad. Otherwise work is alright I guess. It gets in the way of schoolwork so I think I'll need to cut down on my hours a bit so I can graduate next year and go to a college I want to go to. Well I have to give a talk on Sunday and I have to do my homework. CYA