Whoa. It’s actually cool outside! For the last month or two it’s been miserably humid and hot, and this week was the first week in a long time that it’s actually been comfortable enough to wear jeans and a t-shirt. And I actually wore a jacket today! You’ve no idea how happy it made me to be able to do that. ^.^

Since I mentioned the youth retreat in my last post (I know it was forever ago, sorry!), I’ll just say that it was awesome! Turns out that Angie and I weren’t the only girls going, and Lauren and Tiffany came, too (you don’t know them yet). Even Beth came, and she brought Miller with her. The weekend was just tons of fun, packed with services, swimming, good food, and socializing with the youth group. My personal favorite was the campfire by the beach one one of the nights. We had the best thing ever -Reese’s smores- and Angie, Lauren, and I went down on the sand and stared at the ocean and just talked about random stuff. It was really cool because it was almost a full moon, so there was enough light to see all around us, and even to cast shadows. (Tiffany wasn’t with us because she fell asleep on one of the campfire benches.) All of us agreed at the end that it should’ve lasted longer.

Let’s see… Since I last posted, this is pretty much what’s gone on- not in order, of course: Sarah’s visit- tons of fun, and pretty laid back; the Kiefers’ visit- also fun, but left us all really tired; Paster John and Karen’s visit- good, but I didn’t do much with them; Pastor James and Julie leaving our church to start a new one- I still think it sucks, but there’s not much I can do about it; and now Mom and Mel’s trip to PA- they left last night. I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting, but oh well.

Today was kind of neat. After I went to our homeschool group at church, I got to stay home all day. At times it sort of felt like I had my own apartment and I was studying for college or something. Kinda stupid, huh? But at least I’m getting a chance to improve my study skills (or lack thereof). And Dad came home for lunch, so I got to take a break and talk to him for a while. I ended up getting my work done a lot earlier than normal, and having time to play video games. I s’pose I work better with less distractions. Though I still think the empty rooms are sorta depressing sometimes.

Gah! My left hand has been twitching on and off since this afternoon, and it’s driving me up the wall! It’s right in that little part where my thumb joins my hand. It’s okay now that I’m typing, but if it’s just sitting there, it’ll start up again. And my right knee hurts for some unknown reason. …Jeez, I sound like a whiner. I guess I kind of am, though. Ah well, I’ll stop.

Looks like I’m stuck on using “kinda”, “kind of”, “sorta”, and “sort of”. And “pretty” and “really”. And parenthesis. I need to practice my writing some more. I should go do that, but instead I think I’ll watch some Invader Zim on YouTube. Heh, I have this little Zim cartoon sitting on top of my browser, and every time I click it, it yells, “I AM ZIM!” Yay Zim!

Oh yeah, almost forgot: writing class is almost done- only two more classes to go! YES! I still have to take the final exam, though… but it’s still almost over!