I will explain - no, there is too much. I will sum up.

Because I haven’t been keeping up, I’ll briefly (or not so briefly) go over what I’ve been doing over break.

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The First Week: Sick. *sneeze*

Christmas Eve: We spent Christmas with family. It was good to see everyone again, and to eat good food!! Amazing.

Christmas: We opened presents in the AM. I got one of those cool back rest think with the small arms on the side; they sit on the floor or the bed. It’s good for college. Anyway, it’s black leather/pleather, which will match my décor. After presents, we finished cleaning the house for the girls coming to our annual church conference, and then went to some friend’s/distant relative’s open house. TheOnlyBrunette (my sister) and I sat in the living room with the men and watched basketball and football. Lakers lost, *cries*. We were there for most the afternoon, having a great time simply relaxing. Around 7:00 we left to pick up some people who were staying at our house for conference. We picked up Texas Danny, Texas Sarah, and Macy from the hotel, though not very quickly; we stayed in the hotel lobby visiting with other family and friends who also happened to be there.

The Day After Christmas started the conference. I “got” to drive our very full van around all weekend, playing the chauffer. There are 11 seats, and, for most the time, 11 people. It was loud, crazy, harder to drive, and lots of fun. The Lord gave us all a safe drive, for which I am extremely thankful. Anyway, Sunday was the first day of conference. I wasn’t there very much because DJRH and Sunny had their reception that afternoon. I missed the whole afternoon of conference, which was disappointing, but it was good to see the two of them and to meet DJRH and Jimmy’s family.

Monday, the 27^th: More conference. It was fun, even though I couldn’t play football (stupid skirts). Nothing terribly exciting happened that day. The coffeehouse that night was enjoyable, though. A few of us played next-person-who-walks-through-the-door-you-marry game. After a few embarrassing encounters, we altered the rules to be anyone who is single and eligible. We thought marrying people who were already married would be rather inappropriate, especially in a church setting. ;)

Tuesday, the 28^th was supposed to be the beach party, but no, it rained. Since when does it RAIN in SoCal?? Especially when I’m on vacation??? The nerve. So we went to the meeting room instead. Some people played hours and hours and hours of Round Robin, while others played hours and hours and hours of Risk. MistaBlades and I rearranged some of Beck’s names in her phone. For instance, when she called Tim Z., she got Timbo. She thought that she had mixed them up herself, but when it started happening more and more frequently, she got suspicious. You trusted Mistablades with your phone, Beck??? ;-)

Right before dinner, a bunch of us girls went out to accompany Lady Lisa to get her ears pierced, who was motivated by Lizard Breath (lovingly so-called) who had gotten hers pierced earlier that day. The pizza was already half-eaten by the time we got back, but we got some nonetheless, and then joined in watching the extended version of Return of the King. That was a rather late night. But it was a good, relaxing day.

Wednesday, the 29^th: We went back to the meeting room for YP meetings. They went well, we had different speakers this year. Three people from Teen Mission International and someone from Voice of the Martyrs spoke. It was a good change (not to discount the regular meetings).

Every year after the YP meetings, we go out and do an activity. We’ve been roller skating, rock climbing, broomball etc. We have been broom-balling for the past two years, but last year the body count was rather high, so we dropped that idea and went roller skating instead. Anna broke her wrist first thing, and TheOnlyBrunette followed close behind with a banged-up knee. The way this rink does their races in crazy. Instead of going in a circle or something logical like that, we had to skate full speed to the wall, stop ourselves, turn around, and come back, crashing into the wall so as to not lose any time. My mom forgot to stop herself with her arms, so se stopped herself with her forehead instead. She had quite the knot for the night. The winner for the night was Lady Lisa. She also was doing the races, and in trying so hard to win, slammed full speed into the wall. No one, including herself, thought anything of it. After the races were over some of us trooped off the rink, where the following conversation (or a close replica thereof) ensued:

TAB: Lady Lisa, your chin’s bleeding.
Lady Lisa: It is? *Looks in the mirror*
The Rest of Us: Lady Lisa, you need stitches.

Her wrists looked kinda funny, so they took her to the hospital to get her chin stitched up and her arms looked at. She ended up with 8 stitches and 2 fractured wrists. =( I hear she is doing well, though, and is keeping her spirits up.

Thursday, the 30^th: We had a free day this year, so I went shooting with a bunch of the guys. I kinda figured that Beck or Lizard Breath or some other girl would come, but they didn’t. Oops. I shot all the big guns again, which I like better than the wimpy .22s. ;) If you want to know what I shot, ask TAB or MistaBlades. Oh yeah, a .12 gauge (sp?) shotgun and TAB’s gun which I can’t spell. They put big bullets in the .38 special, so that was interesting to say the least.

Lady Lisa’s 16^th birthday is this week, so we had an early surprise party for her. Our house was packed with people. I love that. I am going to be expert hostess when I have my own house.

Friday, the 31^st: We had until 7pm to do whatever we wanted, so we went SHOPPING!!! Oh yeah!! Grandma gave TheOnlyBrunette and I Bath and Body Works gift cards for Christmas. Happily, there was a huge sale, so I got $50 worth of stuff for $25. Rock on, me. =) After shopping, we went to see Phantom of the Opera which was SO GOOD!! Not as good as the play, of course, but pretty darn good just the same. *the music of the niiiiiiight* What a great book/play/movie/soundtrack. I recommend it.

The NY’s party at the Wrights was pretty cool. We didn’t do too much, just Round Robin, football, and “fellowship.” I can’t believe it’s 2005 already. Boy, time flies. I can remember standing in front of the Johnston’s house waiting for all the lights to go out in Y2K. (I never thought anything would happen, by the way.) I’m feeling so old!!

Conference went really fast this year, but it was fun. I didn’t get sick this time *gasp* so that’s nice. I always seem to get sick after the long week.

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Mom, my sisters, and I did more shopping today. We had gift cards, so we bought a lot without spending much money. I got a blue striped long-sleeved shirt, a ring, a dark blue collared shirt, and dark blue shorts. The dark blue shirt and shorts were on clearance at the Quicksilver outlet. The shorts were originally $49.50 and I got it for $7.?? Yet another good buy for the Stephanator. =)

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One more week and I have to go back to school. =( I’m looking forward to seeing my friends again, but I really don’t want to go back. Although it will be nice to do what I want when I want. It’s so annoying to have to ask for permission to do anything, or have parents hounding me to go to bed. It’s only 10:30 for heaven’s sake!! *Any*way.

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Tonight we’re watching the Sugar Bowl. Cheer for Virginia Tech because USC beat them, and Auburn is undefeated. If Auburn loses, we will be undisputedly #1 when we beat Oklahoma tomorrow night. =D

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Hooray! Burritos for dinner!