The End of 2008

2008 is been an insane year for me. It started out bright, with me being excited about what the year would bring. The feeling lasted about a month, then my life started spiraling downhill out of control. That was a time when I didn’t yet have my blog, and quite frankly, I don’t want to get back into details. However, time went on. The world kept going. And I moved on. I grew up.

At the beginning of 2008, I made the resolution to completely fill a journal in one year. I previously had journals where I would write for a week then completely forget about it. Guess what? I actually kept my resolution.

In January, I made the decision to apply to college one year early. This was made possible due to the fact I spent that semester being homeschooled, and had the SAT scores to go onto college. I spent hours pouring over websites and deciding where to apply; this was made a bit difficult as some application due dates were January 1st. However, I decided to apply to four: St. Lawrence University, Allegheny College, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of Kansas. When April rolled around, I received my acceptance letters from all four colleges in the mail. St. Lawrence gave me a $30K scholarship, Allegheny a $40K, but I turned down them both (and FAU) for KU. I finally realized that I had spent basically my entire life waiting to leave Kansas without giving any of it a chance. Plus, I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving my friends and my home behind.

I met two of my best friends in 2008. Hillary and I skated together, and discovered one night in February at the ice rink that we had the same taste in music. Our friendship has grown, and now we share all of our embarrassing moments with each other. I’ve sorta known Tori for awhile, but we actually started talking in June. We’re basically twins. Almost.

In May, I started this blog!! Tori and Mary convinced me to begin blogging, and it’s been such a wonderful experience so far. The blogging world is amazing!! I keep trying to get my friends and family into it, but they have yet to be as enthralled as I.

I visited many places this past year. Washington DC, South Carolina, Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, Ireland. Plus all the small trips to St. Joe, Tulsa, St. Louis. I’m really lucky that my parents can afford to travel, and that they really enjoy doing it. I get to experience so many different places, and I’m very grateful!

College was also brand new this year. So far, I’ve nearly gotten hit by numerous bikes and buses, walked three blocks with my dress up in my underwear, run towards a bus only to have it leave me standing exasperated and embarrassed, gotten three unfair parking tickets, challenged those three unfair parking tickets and had them removed from my account, aced tests, failed a test, written a few ‘A’ papers, met new people, tripped going up and down stairs in front of people, and still have the ability to laugh at myself.

It’ll be interesting to see what 2009 will bring!

St. Louis

Was really uneventful, minus the phone calls about Logan. We had a great time, though; it was fun seeing my relatives there! And it was a good opportunity to use Clo, my new camera.

Logan is in the hospital

Update 12/30 at 4:17PM:

Logan is officially out of the hospital and is doing a bit better, hooray! Stellan, though, is back in the hospital, and does in fact have RSV. His doctors are going to sedate and intubate him to help his lungs get better. Please continue to keep the MckFamily in your thoughts!

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My baby nine-month-old cousin has been in the hospital all day and will continue to be there through the night. My aunt took him in after he was having trouble breathing, and the doctors are remaining cautious and keeping him there just in case. His x-rays were pretty clear, so I think they ruled out pneumonia, and he is negative for RSV (yay), but his oxygen sats were pretty low. Please keep him in your thoughts tonight.

Also, Stellan the MckMiracle over at My Charming Kids is battling a nasty cold and was hospitalized last night. He’s out now and back home, but please also send good thoughts their way.

Thanks guys.

Park Pictures

With my brand new camera

Merry Christmas

Well well well.

Christmas already.

It seems like we just had Christmas!!!

I wish I could write a wonderful post about Jesus, God, religion, and faith, but honestly, I’m not too sure why my family even celebrates Christmas. I suppose it’s simply because everyone else does. My mom goes to church occasionally, and my dad is a non-practicing Catholic, but I’m agnostic, and I’m pretty sure my brother still thinks Santa is God.

I am grateful for the fact that it brings our family together. All four of us in my family are such independent people that we tend to go about our lives in our own worlds; rarely do we mix our lives together. I mean, we try to eat dinner together every night and at least talk to each other on a daily basis, but we keep school, work, friends, etc. to ourselves. Okay, my parents don’t. But Will and I do. The holidays give us all a chance to calm down and talk a little more in depth about what’s going on, and I suppose that is what I’m most grateful for.

Oh yeah, I also really enjoy the month off from school.

Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday (J & I)

Wordless Wednesday (J & I)

Because spelling really IS confusing

Elena: “How do you spell phenomenal?”
Me: “P, h..”
Elena: “ARE YOU KIDDING? I already put the f!!!”

Caylee Has Been Found

I had so much hope that maybe, just maybe, Casey Anthony had simply given her away. Just to spite her mother.

But, as probably everyone now knows, Caylee’s remains were found about a week ago and today were positively identified.

Cry with me.

The Woes of Christmas Shopping

I LOATHE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

Don’t get me wrong; shopping for me is wonderful! If I had a million dollars, I’m sure I’d drop it in one day shopping. And I’d actually wear or use everything I would buy, because it would be something I picked out that I enjoyed!

But shopping for other people is pure hell. How am I supposed to find a gift that someone would love that is still in my price range? I like when I’m given Christmas lists, but that just takes the surprise out of everything. I like the surprise part!! I like seeing their faces when they find something unexpected yet amazing!!

I think the biggest problem is that I completely missed the creative gene. Like I’ve mentioned before, I draw people as stick figures. Still. My paintings consist of a sun, grass, a flower or two, and some stick people. Still. The only other thing I’ve ever drawn is a Jayhawk, and come on, that’s clearly not that creative.

One year, I bought picture frames, made a collage as the background of favorite things the person liked, and put his/her initials on top of the collage. Two years ago I made my dad a book-like picture frame (the kind that opens to show two frames?) and put pictures from my infancy through current day in there. Those were my two bright ideas, and since then, I’ve been creative idea-ed out. I’m pretty sure my friends are going to give me coal or something if I make them yet another mix CD.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.