Okay....

so I know that I have not posted in a while, but I have been sooooo busy.  Here is a small recap of what has happened the past 3 weeks.

• One week we did sister cities, that was when Sakurako came.  Sakurako is a Japanese exchange student that we had come and stay at our house for a week.  She lives in Mikawa, Japan and is 14 years old.  It was a lot of fun to have her come and stay at our house.  On the first day she was here we took a tour of downtown then we went swimming at the city pool.  On the second day we took a tour of Yorozu, they are a HUGE supporter of sister cities. After that we took a tour of the elementary school.  That evening we got to take her to church.  On Thursday we, actually I don't remember what we did during the day. At night though, they put on a ceremony for us it was really good.  On Friday we went to Lake Winni!  It was very fun!  After lake winnie we went out to eat at sticky fingers.  On Saturday we went shopping all day- it was sooooooooo fun, it was tax free weekend here which made it even funner.  The next day, Sunday, we went to church in the morning. After church Sakurako packed to go home and we had a small good bye party then she was taken to Nashville were early Monday morning they would depart to go back to Japan :( . It was fun while it lasted.
  

• Another exciting thing that happened was that school started back again. I started HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!  It is a very exciting thing. I am going to a different school than Lucy is, I have a very small class- a total of 11 people are in my entire grade!  It has been fun. 

• Not much else has happened since school started this weekend has been fun though! Last night Meredith Matheny came down and stayed the night with Alyson, (I couldn't go- I wasn't feeling well)  Also last night it was family night at Hickory Creek (Ella and Molly's school) They watched Nims Island.  Anyone ever seen it?  They said it was really good.  Also last night it was Warren County's first football game of the season!  They lost- of course.  Lucy plays in the band so she go to see the whole game for free!- She had to play in the band the whole time though.  So then this morning our stake had a service project. We cleaned up one of the cemeteries. It was tons of fun because I got to see a lot of my friends that don't live her. After that some of us went swimming in the Catens pool.  Then we just all hung out till tonight, when we went rolling (and got caught)  since we got caught we helped them clean it up. We had a friend with us that does not belong to our church and we told him this is how you go rolling "Mormon style".  It was fun!  now it is time to go to sleep and let me tell you- we are all going to sleep well tonight!

Another New Buddy!

Leah has decided to enter the exciting world of blogging! This is very exciting! I am sooo excited! Click here to see her blog

New buddy!

Alyson Caten has just entered the exciting, fun, and enjoyable world of blogging! Congradulations Aly! I am very excited! If you would like to visit her blog just click here, of here, or here,





or here



maybe even here

100 squares

Heather Matheny's family is adopting a little boy from China named Max. Max is going to go to a very good family! They are making him a quilt out of 100 patches that family and friends got him. This is such a sweet thing! They are calling it 100 blessings for Max. If you would like to praticipate click here, or on the first link because there is a link to were you need to go from there. It is a very good project they are doing, and you should help! I know that I am, because I have already bought the fabric! Good luck Max!

Camp

Camp was awesome!!!! I don't have any pictures because they are all on Lucy's camera and I don't know where she is at this moment. Maybe, I will have time a little later. Here is the major events of girls camp:



Tuesday-

• We got there


• I found out that I got to room with Meredith Matheny and Lindsey Riches- yay


• That night we had President Maredith come and speak with us- he is a great speaker and always has a great message.

Wednesday-

• We had Certification.
• We had a "hike"
• We got to go on a wonderful Night Walk that Megan G. made for us- it was absolutely awesome!

Thursday-

• superhero training
• skits- preformed by cabins. Our cabin did superhero idol. I was Simon, Paula, and the other guy, I cant remember his name

Friday-

• Lunch or disaster, I think it turned out as a disaster, we had no pickles and the cheese had water in it :(
• talent show night, Megan G. Lucy (my sis) Leah P. and I did a superman skit. We got the theme song of superman and acted it out. The stake leaders did a funny skit, go to moms blog to see it. I am serious that it is funny- they all dressed up as chickens and did the chicken dance, remember that this is not a bunch of kids, but a bunch of adults!

Saturday-

• cleanup time :(
• award time- I got the craft cabin award. It was a radio that looks like something little tykes would make, but it works! I also got a bee water bottle, a purple bracelet, and a whole lot of candy!
• good bye camp: (

I also did Secret Sisters at camp. This is were you spend about $10 on gifts for the week and when you get to camp, you get a name of a girl at camp. Everyday you give your "Secret Sister" a gift. I had Meredith Matheny and I gave her:

• a water gun
• clay and chalk
• Hannah Montana gummies and pop rocks
• These glasses that are a straw, you put one end of the glasses in the drink, and the other in your mouth when the take a drink, it goes all the way around there eyes and then into there mouth. I also got her a nail kit.
• On the last day I got her wax melts. (wax, tea lights, and a special container thingy that holds the wax and the tea lights while they are burning)

Amber Hill had me and this is what she got me:

• a really nice journal
• a picture frame
• gummy bears- yum!
• a huge lolly pop and a wind thingy (you hand it up and it twirls around in the wind)
• she gave me something else, but i don't remember what it was.

All in all, camp was , as always, awesome!

Nancy Drew

Have any of you seen Nancy Drew? We bought it the first night that it cam out because my mom and little sister are HUGE fans of her. Anyway, we were going to have a Nancy Drew party. We would get all the boys out of the house, invite the Caten girls over, eat Nancy Drew casserole, and watch Nancy Drew. Everything was set and we were going to have it on the day that Nancy Drew came out, unfortunately Ella got sick. This is not just a cold, but something that catches (I don't remember what it was exactly). We had to call the Catens and reschedule :(. That was like 2 moths ago and guess what we did tonight?


You got it! We finally had that party. The boys were going to be out of the house anyway tonight because it was the father son camp out. We invited the Catens, Mathenys, and Solomons. The Mathenys and Solomons couldn't come, but the Catens still could! It was back to the original people. We didn't have the Nancy Drew Casserole though. We had something much better- Waffles. There is a small story behind my waffle maker.

For Christmas last year I wanted a waffle maker, but not just any waffle maker- oh no. I wanted the best kind there was, like at hotels. I wanted a Belgian waffle maker. Christmas at our house came and went and I didn't get it. Then I went to my grandmas for Christmas and I got it! I was soooo excited. when we got home we had the waffles and they were absolutely awesome! They were so good that we decided that when we had all the young women over for the 6 month planning party this is what we were going to have. The party came and all the girls were here and guess what? The waffle maker doesn't work. I was upset. Don't worry though, the story has a happy ending. My mom called the company that makes the waffle maker, told them the story and they replaced it!! :) It was a happy day!

So we had this party with the Caten and the Hale(me) girls. It started about 5:30 and we didn't really do anything until about 6:00. At 6, we ate. then about 7, we put on Nancy Drew. It ended about 9 and we talked and did nothing till about 9:45. Then the Catens had to leave and we got ready for bed. It was a good day, and I enjoyed it.

Party pictures part 2- hair

We (Lucy, Lyndi, Leah, Paige, and I)decided that my hair would look better with gel, hairspray, a hairdryer, and even a fan put to it.





This is Lyndi, hairspraying my hair





Here I am showing off my hair
We were still working on it
This is the back
I might be leaning back a little bit, but not much in this picture, that is all hair spray, gel
Sorry this picture is sideways, this is me, with the hairdryer

this is lyndi trying tomake her hair as cool as mine, even though it just stayed like it was( mainly because her dad came then)
We crimped Leahs hair, it was very pretty, just like her moms!

Rachel's Party, part 1, the skittles game

Elder Carter told a story about us on his blog, so here is a post dedicated to him. Have any of you guys ever heard of the skittles game? I hadn't either until a couple of years ago when elder Ben Carter came over and taught us how to play. When Elder Carter played this game, he actually threw it up on the carpet, and then ate it again!! The object of the game is to get as grossed out as you possibly can, and then throw up because you ate so much. How you play is.. You take a big bag of skittles. the first person draws 2 skittles from the bag. If they are the same color, you may chew. If they are not the same color you just have to sit there with them in your mouth and not chew. More often than not, you draw out to different colors. If you draw out 2 of the same colors, chew fast, because you have to stop chewing when the next person draws out 2 of the same colors, or if it gets back to you. This is Lucy after not chewing for a while.
Page, trying to keep them all in.
Lindy, she couldn't stop laughing.

Beautiful me!

Yeah!! I drew out two the same color!
Poor Leah (both the picture above me and below) she only got to chew like 2 times the entire game! Needless to say,this is NOT her favorite game

It was kinda hard to keep it in, as you see from Lyndi's face.

I don' t know what happened here, but it looks like a skittle that didn't want to get eaten. Part 2 to come. What happens when this group of girls gets into a bottle of hairspray and gel?

All along the watch tower

These are my brothers and their friends.

William is at the drums.

Harrison is at the bass guitar.

Their friend Hayden is playing electric guitar.

Their other friend Bryce plays rhythm guitar and is singing.

congratulations on learning to play that whole song in one day!!

Riches- family

This is the whole Riches family (only one generation) They were all dressed up in old-thyme clothes and had this picture taken, one of the boys in this picture is on a mission and one is supposed to get his mission call sometime this week!! congradulations!!
This is Megan Riches- she is also an awesome person!!
The girl in green is one of Jessica Riches friends, the girl in blue is Jessica Riches- she is also awesome!!
This is the youngest Riches- Kayla, isnt she cute!! The Riches are an awesome family!!

At the Riches -Lindsey

Lindsey Making a fish face.







This is actually Megan (with Lindsey in thebackground, with braces) trying to look like a boy, note the picture in the background, that is one of Lucys favorite pictures.

Okay so today, Sunday, I woke up and went to church early with my dad. The reason that i went to church early with my dad is because I got to go to the Cookville Ward with the Riches!!! We have had so much fun!! These are all pictures of Lindsey Riches. She is AWESOME!!! I couldnt figure out how to upload more pictures than this, so I am going to post another post about Megan Riches.