A Long Lost Blogger is Back! ;)

So here I am. I've been telling myself that I'll sit down and get a post written for a few weeks now, but it just hasn't happened- obviously. But, here I am! Since I've been gone a while this post will just be a mixture of random stuff. ;)


The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. These are some great books! I finished the latest one a couple of days ago and now have to wait a month until the last one comes out. Waiting can be so hard! But, it's not like it left on a cliff hanger. The last book is going back in the series, and the tenth one ended with a good, final ending. Still, I really wish I didn't have to wait for this one. Have you read the books?

Captain America. We went to see it a few weeks ago, and it was good! I really liked it. It far surpassed the other superhero movies I've seen in theaters this year (Thor and  Green Lantern). Can't wait until it comes out on dvd. :)

Baking is fun. People, let's face it, I'd bake something everyday if I could. A few weeks ago I made a Blackberry Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake. Judging by the way it was gone in a few days I think everyone liked it. The other day I made brownies. Homemade brownies are so much better than the mixes you get at the store. And, yes, the brownies are going fast, too. ;)


The Eagle. We got the movie from Netflix about a week ago and I really want to watch it! I might watch it later. If I do Josh will probably watch it with me. I hope he does because watching movies by yourself isn't any fun. Have you seen it?

I'll be the first to admit, this isn't the most interesting post. But it's a post, and right now I just need to get one up. I will leave you with a few of the pictures I've taken lately. Have a good week!

Which is your favorite?

~Haley

Saturday Fun

Last Saturday Mom, Lindsay, Josh, and I went shopping. I usually don't take money with me when we go to Target or the bookstore or wherever. Just because, if I have it there to spend, I'll more than likely find something to spend it on. So, it's not very often that I actually have some with me to spend... if I want. ;)  And, as you'll see, Saturday I brought money with me... and spent it. ;)

First we went to Hastings where I got these:

I know I could have gotten them cheaper somewhere else, but I loved the cover art! Especially Waverley's. :)

Then we went to Beall's, where I got these:

Okay, y'all need to know that two pairs were $6.00, one was $7.20, and the last was $3.00!! Yes, they were having a big sale. I am very happy with my purchases. Cheap purchases, I might add. ;)

On the way home we stopped at Sonic for Happy Hour, and the fun day ended with my all time favorite meal- hamburgers and French fries. So good! :)

Did you have a good weekend?

~Haley

The Next Food Network Star

Okay, so let's just say I was not happy about last night's elimination. Whitney, gone? Mary Beth SO should have gone instead. I like Whitney so much better. I'm sad that she's gone. :(

So, in the beginning I was pulling for Orchid, Whitney, Susie, and Vic. Those were my four favorites. Now only Vic and Susie are left. And, although I still really like them, I think I've decided I want this guy to win. :)

He kind of suddenly jumped out there and got really good. Now if he can just keep it up! He has a blog where he talks about each episode as they come on. It's pretty interesting. Just go here, if you want to see it.

Oh, and Mary Beth has a blog where she talks about the episodes, too. I haven't really read it, but Lindsay said it was good (she's the one who found both blogs). You can check it out here.

All right, so this post makes no sense to those who don't watch the show, but those who do watch it know exactly what I'm talking about. If you watch it-

What did you think about last night's elimination?

Who do you want to win?

Let me know!! :)

~Haley

Yes, I rearranged my room. And, yes, I have pictures.

Last Friday night, while cleaning up my room a little, I started thinking, "Hmm, what would it look like if...?"  So, I tried to picture my room with the furniture rearranged and decided that Saturday I was going to rearrange everything. Saturday morning I went up to my room armed with a plan and a vacuum cleaner. ;) I ended up trying a few different arrangements before settling on the one I'd tried first. After everything was in its new place it was now time to change where the pictures hung. Okay, so let's just say I'm not very good at hanging pictures. It usually takes me a few tries to get it straight. So I went and asked Lindsay if she would help me and she refused to have anything to do with it (she was probably thinking of the time she put about 10 holes in the wall for one picture. And, no, it wasn't that long ago ;) Yes, she very well may be worse than me when it comes to picture hanging. ;) So I went and tackled it by myself. And you know what? I did much better than I thought I would. The only thing I wasn't able to get up is my corkboard because I'm going to need some brackets for it and we don't have any at the moment. Soooooooo, that's what I spent last Saturday doing. And here are the before and after pictures-

Before-

In the before pictures my room's pretty messy because I'd already started moving things around ... a little... but mostly just because my room was messy to begin with.

After-

The monkeys are the only ones who survived the stuffed animal cut. ;)

I'm really liking it. It's a nice change! :)

But now I must ask:

Do you like it? Let me know!! :)

~Haley

Sherlock Holmes 2 Trailer!!

I first saw the trailer this morning on Samantha's blog. When I saw the trailer had come out I was so, so super excited my heart may've skipped a beat! ;) Then I watched it- twice. And now I have to share it with my blogging friends. :)

I absolutely can not wait for it to come out. Last December we got the first one from Netflix (Lindsay and I ended watching it 3 times in 2 days ;), then I read the books, and since then I've been waiting for the second movie to come out, or at least the trailer for the second movie. So anyway, I just thought I'd share all the excitement with y'all. ;)

~Haley

Yes, So Far It's Been A Very Busy Summer

Well, I am very sorry for abandoning my blog like I've done the past few months. I don't have an excuse, but a good reason for letting it go like I have. That reason being: blogging takes time and I usually don't have time for it. I have more important things to do. But, I do miss it. :) So here's an update on what's been keeping me so busy. :)

I started taking guitar lessons. I am very excited about that and am enjoying it a lot. So far it's proven to be very fun and I am looking forward to being able to play some cool songs. ;) Right now I can only play the first 3 strings, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere! I got a new one (I was using my Mom's old one that was like 30 years old and was too small for me) last Friday and am absolutely loving it! Maybe I'll post a picture of it soon.

School. Enough said. I am all but done with 10th grade and then will go directly into 11th. We take our long break during the holidays, so we're working through the summer. I actually think doing school in the summer and taking a break during the holidays is pretty nice. It's SO hot during the summer, so you're usually stuck inside and bored, but around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years your always busy anyway, because that's probably the busiest time of the year. And without school to worry about, it makes that time of year much more relaxed. Just my opinion. ;) Plus, I'd rather go out in the snow than  100 degree weather. And, no, I'm not just saying that because it's summer. ;)

My brother has been taking swim lessons for a while. That's every morning Monday- Thursday. Sometimes my sister and I go swim laps while he's taking his lesson. Swimming is fun and such good exercise! When we were little (like Lindsay 8 and me 6) we were on a swim team. Lindsay was really good! :) Yes, I'm bragging about my sis. ;) Lindsay loves to swim, but I like to. It's fun, but certainly not my favorite thing to do. Well, I'm more of a goof off in the pool, so swimming laps isn't as fun to me as just playing in the pool is. ;)

Reading. Okay, so y'all probably already know how I love to read- it's like my absolute favorite thing to do. So, yeah, I've been pretty busy reading. I thought it would be cool to keep track of all the books I read this year, so whenever I finish a book I write it on a list, write the author's name, and the date I finished it. Yes, I'm cool like that. :) Just kidding. But, yeah, it's been fun to see the list grow and grow. Plus it keeps me reading every day. I mean, I want to write as many books on that list as I can before the end of the year. Yesterday afternoon I got a book I'd been waiting for in the mail. I started it at about 6:00 p.m and read the first four chapters. Then I took a break and came back at 9:00, got in bed, and read the last 24 chapters. Yeah, I turned my light off at 1:45 a.m. It was just so good. I couldn't put it down until there was nothing left to read in it. ;) I'm sure y'all know what I mean. ;)

My family and I took a day trip to a nearby lake last Saturday, which was a lot of fun. We took a picnic, hiked, and drove around. I love doing that kind of stuff. I'm not a super outdoorsy kind of girl, like I don't think I would like camping  (which I've never done), but I love hiking and having picnics and stuff. And I love the scenery where we went. It was beautiful! I'll post some pictures soon. Promise.

"I promise.

And when I promise something, I never ever break that promise.

EVER!"

- Rapunzel from Tangled

Sorry, couldn't help but put that in. For some reason it just popped into my head when I promised y'all I'd post some pictures. ;)

Just a sneak peek of what's to come. ;) One of the pictures I took last Saturday.

Soooooooo, that's a little of what's been keeping me busy. I have to go now, though, so see ya sometime soon! Hopefully soon. Yes, I will post again soon, don't worry. ;) And, no, I don't blame you if you don't believe me. ;)

~Haley

He Won! Yay! ;)

Name- Scotty McCreery
Age- 17
From- Garner, North Carolina


The other day Mom and I heard on the radio that the last two contestants on American Idol were both country singers. When we heard that we wanted to see who they were and who we wanted to win. We don't ever watch it because it's just not our type of show, but since it was the finals and both of the singers were country, we made an exception.

Basically when we first saw them we both knew we wanted Scotty to win. And we both said he has a deep voice like Josh Turner or Chris Young. So I thought it was funny when I saw he sang part of  "Long Black Train", and "Your Man", both songs by Josh Turner, during the season.

Yesterday Mom and I tuned in at seven, but, besides seeing Scotty sing with Tim McGraw and Lauren with Carrie Underwood we really didn't care for any of the performances and mostly watched Ever After, which was on, too. ;) Finally, though, it was 8:55 and they announced the winners. And Scotty won! Yay!!! I really thought Lauren would win, and was so excited when the host read "And the winner of American Idol, season ten, is...Scotty McCreery!" Yep, Mom and I were very happy with the results. :)

I really like his first single- "I Love You This Big".

Can you tell I'm really glad he won? ;)

~Haley

a few random things

So yes, we got back on the 15th, I just haven't posted yet. I didn't take very many pictures, but Lindsay took tons and said I could use the ones she took if I want to post any pictures from the trip. Which I probably will, just not today.

This week we're going to go see On Stranger Tides. Did you know that movie made $346,400,000 in three days?! Now that's what I call a blockbuster opening weekend! Considering the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are some of my favorites I am very excited about going to see it. :) Have you seen it yet?

Still on the On Stranger Tides subject. We got the soundtrack last weekend and I just loaded it onto my ipod. So far I like it. I always like Hans Zimmer music, though, so that's no surprise. ;) I'm not sure if I'll like all the remixes. We'll see. I may end up taking them off, but who knows, I may like them.

Lately most of the pictures I post are taken by my sister (who takes great pictures, by the way ;). The reasons being: she has a really nice camera and likes photography more than me, so it only makes since that she takes lots more pictures than me and that her pictures are a better quality. But the other day I was editing the pictures I took on the trip and I was like "Gees, editing takes a long time." I use to like it a lot, and still do, but I never realized how time consuming it can be. And usually I'd rather be doing something else. So that's why I haven't posted my pictures from the trip- I haven't edited them yet.

Okay, so this was kind of a jumbled up, makes no sense post, but I don't care. I had to post something. Sorry I've been such a horrible blogger lately. I'll try to do better, I promise! :) I have quite a few post ideas, it's just taking the time to get them posted that's the problem.

~Haley

Giveaway!

My good friend Tawnee over at Tawnee's Tales is giving away a really pretty heart necklace. The giveaway ends this coming Saturday, so hurry on over and enter! :)

haircut and photo shoot

Last week I got my hair cut back to my shoulders, so when I got home Lindsay and I decided it was a good time for a photo shoot. We had fun, but after what must have been 200 pictures I was like, "How many more are you going to take?!" ;) Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.

This is my "Aren't we done yet?" look. ;)

Hope everyone's had a good week and has a great weekend! :)

~Haley

A couple of days ago...

We got a Wii. My brother has wanted one for a really long time, and his two year dream was finally fulfilled when Mom brought home his Wii the other day. ;)  He was ecstatic. So excited!

We got it set up last night and we've all had fun on it since. I myself especially like bowling. ;)

(We got a black one like that)

Fun stuff.

~Haley

I'm Happy

Last night me and Lindsay decided what to get with our two $5 Amazon gift cards that we got with our Swagbucks. You know what we decided on? The Parent Trap cd. Not the one with the score on it, but the one with the vocal songs from the movie on it. ;) Yep. I guess you could call us weird, but we had a tiny $10 budget and this cd is really neat anyway.

And do you know what else we got?

This-

Remember those funny Six Flags commercials they used to do? That's what I always think of when I here this song.

I was so excited about this song. Don't ask me why. I guess because it's just so fun and upbeat. But I just love it! ;)

So, yes, I'm happy. :)

~Haley

Thoughts of Spring Blog Party

I am joining in Lynnette Kraft's blog party. She has some really fun questions and prizes, so you should enter! :)

How would people describe your personality? (If they could only use ONE word.) Are they right? My brother said quirky, nice, and giggle box, but I think I’ll take quirky. Yeah, he's right.

What celebrity/celebrities would create a “Star-Struck” feeling if you saw them in real life? Okay, I thought about this for a while, and, in the end, just decided to say my two favorite actors ever- Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp. They’re my favorites because I think they’re the best actors of their generation and because they are in some of my favorite movies.

                  

Who is your favorite blogger?

I have a few favorites, actually.

Emily Rose at Ramblings of Emily Rose

Polka Dot at Life is too Short Not to Wear Red Shoes

Taylor at Proverbs 31... In Training

Lindsay at Content in Christ (my sister)

Eldarwen at The Faithful Elven Princess

Tawnee at Tawnee’s Tales

What is your comfort food/drink?

Food- Chocolate

Drink- Icees

Be brave – tell us something very random and weird about yourself. I love the color red and have four or five red sweaters. Don’t worry, they’re all different shades of red. ;)

Do you have a strong desire to do something you’ve never done? What is it?

White water rafting, ride on a train, go snowboarding, and fly on an airplane, to name a few.

Movies: Action, Drama, Romantic Comedy, Documentary, Comedy? What are your favorite genres? By far my favorite kind is action, but I also like drama, romance and cartoon.

Books: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Romance, Biographies, True Stories, Self-Help, Devotional/Study? What are your favorite types of reading material? I like fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, and true stories.

Music: Funk, Rock, Country, Jazz, Classical, Film Score, Blues, Classic Rock, Crooner, Alternative, Heavy Metal, Techno? What are your favorite types? My favorites are movie soundtracks and country- basically all I listen to. Give me some Hans Zimmer, James Horner, John Powell or Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, and Jason Aldean and I'm happy.

If you inherited a million dollars, what is the first thing you would do with your money? Buy myself a really nice camera, laptop, and an ipad 2, give some to my family, donate some, and put the rest in the bank.

Name one weakness of yours (confession is good for the soul). It would so be chocolate!

If you could live anywhere at all (and take all your loved ones with you), where would you go? Um… a horse or buffalo ranch in Montana or Wyoming- totally! Although, I really don’t think anyone in my family would appreciate living in either places. Just have that feeling. ;)

What’s something you consider yourself to be good at? (Don’t worry, it’s not bragging, it’s acknowledging a God given gift). Making people laugh. I can almost always get a laugh out of someone. ;)

What is one of your favorite things to catch a whiff of? Movie popcorn. The best!

When you leave a social gathering, do you wish: You would have talked more or You would have talked less? Usually that I had talked more. I tend to listen too much.

If money wasn’t a factor, what stores would you shop in? I wouldn’t change where I shopped, but what I got in the store.

What are your favorite animals? My absolute favorites are dogs, cats, horses, and monkeys, but I also like goats, cows, wolves, foxes, and deer. Yeah.

My favorite doggy ever!! Picture taken by Lindsay.

Are you a hopeless romantic? Pretty much. ;)

~Haley

Miscellaneous Ramblings

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd update everyone on what's been going on around these parts.

1. Sickness. Yes, we've been sick the past couple of weeks. It's really no fun being sick. Mom got sick first, then Lindsay, then I got the sniffles, but I was lucky and never got any sicker than that. Josh was sick last Saturday, but he only had like a 24 hour virus. Now, this weekend, Pop's sick.

2. School. We'd just gotten back with it when we got sick. Last week I did school, though, and I'm in one if those stages when I really like it. I read Johnny Tremain last week for history and loved it! I liked it so much I read it all in one day! ;) I spent the next few days of history just answering questions and stuff. Now I'm reading Carry on, Mr. Bowditch for history. I actually read it last year, but liked it, so I don't mind reading it again.

3. Our microwave has been broken for the past week. You never realize how much you rely on it until it breaks on you. I mean, really. That's how you defrost and cook chicken, heat up leftovers, pop a bag of popcorn.  It's sad how much you rely on it. Someone's supposed to come out Tuesday to look at it, and hopefully fix it.

4. Yesterday Lindsay and I groomed Toby. It was ridiculous. The whole day it had been really nice- not too cold, but not too warm. Then we go out there and  (1) The hose water is freezing, so Toby got a really cold bath (and Lindsay accidentally sprayed my pants like 3 times), (2) After the bath it was really windy and it got cloudy. He was shivering most of the time, and Lindsay and I ran in and got our jackets about halfway through. Gees, that was a long three hours.

5. It's been snowing most of the day, but it hasn't been cold enough to stick. About an hour ago, though, it started snowing pretty hard and sticking, so... we may have some sitting around in the morning. Who knows around here.

I took that picture when we were in Baton Rouge and have always liked it. :)

~Haley

My New Favorite Commercial

I saw this commercial a few days ago and thought it was really funny. All dressed up and "driving", the monkeys are just too cute! ;)

Isn't that hilarious?

~Haley

Birthday Recap

Last Thursday was a really fun day. It started out with donuts for breakfast, which was a surprise and real treat. I went crazy and got one chocolate with chocolate icing and sprinkles and two chocolate glazed ones. Gees!  After breakfast Mom went to the store and Josh and Lindsay wrapped my presents (that's when I did my Sweet Sixteen post).

After they got done we played Monkey Ball together. We played monkey bowling and monkey golf. It was tons of fun! ;)

After that we watched Toy Story 2. We hadn't seen it in years, so that was really fun, too.

Mom got me some roses while she was out. They're really pretty and smell so good!

Picture Time!!

For supper I picked hamburgers and French fries- my absolute favorite meal. Mom made it.  It was SO good! Thanks Mom! ;)

After supper Mom and Lindsay cleaned the kitchen while I fed the pets their supper. Then I opened presents. Some of the things I got are-

Books- Sherlock Holmes Volumes 1 and 2, Pearl Maiden, Lysbeth, Homer's Odyssey (about a cat), Dewey (about a cat), and Huck (about a dog)

Finding Neverland DVD and Master and Commander soundtrack

Pajamas. They're SO cute. They are purple and have sock monkeys on them. ;)

Picture frames. I really needed some to help decorate my room, and the ones I got are so pretty!

 After opening presents we had cake. I got an ice cream cake. It was chocolate cake with chocolate icing and mint chocolate chip ice cream. *happy sigh* I just wish we had more. ;)

My birthday plates. C-U-T-E. :)

And that pretty much brings an end to my day. I had a geat one!

~Haley