Testing, testing, 123

Well, what do you know? The end of school is approaching once again. I don't know when normal schools let out for summer, but our school is letting out sometime this week. Yay!
Of course, the end of school does have its disadvantages, namely, a lot of tests. I've heard from some of the other students that Springfield Academy has always been a big fan of tests, and this year (so far, anyway) has been no exception!!
The testing started yesterday, and will continue until about Wednesday, when we will be finally let out of school!!!
So far the tests have been pretty brutal. I have a bad feeling that I didn't do so well on a couple of them.
On a happier note, I invited Jenna and Libby to stay over at my house tonight! It will be the second sleep-over that I've had at our "new" house, so I'm pretty excited! Hopefully it will go well, and we'll manage to sneak some studying in somehow!!

Bye!
Dakota

The Trip to the Woods!

Hello!
Yesterday morning I woke up at seven to get ready to go to the woods with Kirsten. I wasn't quite sure what I should wear, so I chose something that I felt was artistic. After all, photography is art, sort of.
I showed up on Kirsten's doorstep at eight o'clock sharp, just as she was coming out.
There was a bit of an awkward moment as we stared at each other. I had the weirdest feeling that I might have been just a little bit overdressed.
"Kirsten," I said to break the silence. "You kind of remind me of Kelly in that jacket."
She looked confused. "My sister Kelly?" she asked.
"No," I told her, now confused as well. "I mean Barbie's sister Kelly."
"Why do I—" she began, but stopped. "Never mind. I don't really want to know why this jacket reminds you of Kelly."
During the walk to the forest, Kirsten was peu communicatif, that is to say, she didn't talk. Or if you want to be literal, uncommunicative. I didn't start up any topics since my last one had been such an epic failure.
By the time we reached the forest, I was ready for the action to start. Then came the surprise.
Photography is not a very active activity. For the most part, once Kirsten found something she wanted to take a picture of, she stood very still, and took a lot of pictures, until one suited her fancy. I'll freely admit, the process bored me.
I mostly watched Kirsten take pictures. One reason was that I'm not all that crazy about forests. The other was that I've never used a camera before, so I didn't really know how to use the one my mom was lending me. I would have asked Kirsten about it, but she seemed happier when I was quieter. Also, I didn't want to seem like a complete newbie, even though that's exactly what I was.

Well, I have to get off of the computer now, so I don't really have time to write about today in very much detail. Click on the pictures below to see them bigger! Hopefully they will give an idea, no matter how vague, about how today was.

Until next time!

Jennifer Elaine

A new hobby?

Hello! This is Jenna.
I don't know if I really hit on this too much in my other post, but I have always been involved in a lot of sports, and really liked all of them. So when I heard that our school was having "career day", and that we were supposed to come dressed as what we would like to be when we are older, I already knew what I was going as.
I showed up to school in an old soccer uniform of mine, not so much because I want to play soccer, but because I hoped that it would convey that I liked sports.
It didn't occur to me that maybe I would run into a hobby that I liked more than sports.
You know Kirsten Larson, right? Well hopefully you do, and hopefully you also know about her love of photography.
Previously I haven't been very interested in taking pictures. It always seemed like it was something that some people do somewhere, but I've never had any experiences with photography at all.
But when I saw some of Kirsten's photography yesterday, I found a fascination that I've never had before for art related things. I discovered that maybe I would like to be a photographer.
After class I found Kirsten and talked to her. I asked her if sometime I could go with her when she was taking pictures.
She hesitated at first, apparently having some reservations. After a little thought though, she decided that I could come. "I'll be going out to the forest this Saturday, if you want to come. I'll be leaving at about eight; you can meet me in front of my house." She told me.
I was thrilled at the offer, and fervently told her that I would come.
Well, that's about all I had to post about. I will probably post about the trip itself on Sunday or Monday, so be watching for it!!!

Jennifer

A Day in the life of Dakota

Hello! This is Dakota.
This post is really more of a "how my day was today" kind of post, rather than a real, deep story post. And although it's a post about my day, it's not very comprehensive . For instance, I didn't include those little details, such as what I ate for breakfast.
Oh well.
I figured that I should update the blog, and I didn't have a lot of other material, so this is what I settled on.
School was kind of hard today, but thankfully, it was an early release day. I was home by about eleven o'clock.
No one was home when I got there. Mom and Dad were both at work, my brothers were all still at school, and I supposed that Grandma was taking Mr. Poo to be groomed.
I ran up a couple flights of stairs to get to my room.
When we came to live here, it was most convenient for Grandma to make my room in the attic.
When I first heard about where I would live, I was a little apprehensive. As it turned out though, the attic is, in my opinion, one of the nicest places in Grandma's house. It is pleasantly away from the rest of the house, so I can enjoy a lot of peace and quiet.
After I did my homework for a while, I decided to take a break. (See picture to the lower right.)
Right as I was in the middle of singing one of my favorite songs, my brother William, who is closest to my age, walked in. I stopped singing instantly, and stared at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the some of the stuff on my bed.
"Just, um, chilling. School was kind of hard today, and I need to relax." I said.
He snorted. "If you chilled any more, you would have a permanent cold."
Well isn't he clever.
Just so you know, that sort of thing is about the extent of our ordinary conversation.
"Well," he said. "I just came to tell you that Grandma called to say that she will be home soon."
He started to leave, but paused in the doorway. "You might want to put some of that stuff away before she gets back."
He was right. Grandma has never been happy about the idea of food in a bedroom, and I'm not sure how she would like to see cookies and leftover sushi balanced precariously on my mattress.
As soon as William left, I quickly cleaned my room up. The food was returned to the kitchen, and I was in the living room waiting for her with freshly brushed hair by the time she was back.
So, that's basically what I did today. I'm sure you were all dying to know.
Oh, and if you're wondering where Kit has been lately, she has been busy helping her mom and brother repaint their upstairs hallway. So, she really hasn't had time to post.
Well, until next time!
Dakota

Much ado about nothing

Hi, this is Dakota!
Maybe the title is a little misleading... it wasn't quite nothing. Still, there was "much ado" over it.
As you may know, I go to a very competitive school. And when I say very competitive, I mean very competitive. Like, the kind of school that will do whatever it can to 1-up another school. Yeah.
A while back (About a month ago, really.) there was a large contest that our school was entered in. Long story short, our school lost.
The headmistress of our school was not pleased at all. After a thorough examination of the school, she decided that it must be because the school was too lenient. She called a big meeting, and most of the teachers agreed with her.
So, she made a lot of new rules and regulations. One rule, is that there is now a school uniform. Basically everyone has to wear a pleated skirt, and a neat shirt, or get in trouble. The colors don't matter.
My grandma was thrilled. She had also been under the opinion that the school was somewhat.... lacking.
It was her idea, not mine, not my mom's, to have me dress in what you see me wearing in the picture.
At school today, the whole atmosphere was a lot different. It was more rigid, and to the point today than it has been in the past.
The classes seemed very long. I didn't really think that the uniforms made us any more efficient than we might have been; I was too busy fidgeting and squirming to notice.

The headmistress did say that the new rules would probably just be enforced until we didn't need them any more, i.e., until we start shaping up. I'm just hoping that she doesn't think we need them for very long!!!
Oh, and on another note, I can keep Sally! We spent a lot of time looking for her previous owners, and since none we're found, I officially have a cat! Grandma isn't thrilled, but I didn't really expect her to be.

Dakota