It Can't Get Any Better Than This

21 more days (or 3 weeks)...

I know that last time I said that I was going to try to get to sleep before 11, but then Mom got on her laptop and started watching Dancing With the Stars, and Ashley and I had to watch it. It ended well after midnight. The next day during history, we watched a movie about the pilgrims (bad idea in school if you didn't get enough sleep). My eyelids were drooping like crazy and I couldn't stay awake. I would actually fall asleep and start dreaming and I did that multiple times during the movie as I fought to stay awake. One time I started to tip over in my chair when I dozed off. I was telling Sariah about that and she said that I have to force myself to stay awake. I asked how, and she said to not put my head on my desk. I told her that I didn't put my head on my desk even though I wanted to super duper badly. I was sitting up as straight as I could without looking like a dork to keep myself awake, but nothing I did worked. Yeah, I didn't want to fall asleep in class, so even though my eyelids were drooping I put my head on my desk because that would keep me awake for sure. I'm not that stupid.

On Thursday, I played Young Women's volleyball. We lost both games, but we're getting way better. We put on makeup so that we'd look like Indians and I put my hair in two braids. The first game was super close. I only got to play half of that game, so I was a cheerleader which was pretty fun. Karlie (the oldest one there who's a junior...) was getting so mad. The ball went over the net and straight toward Rainee but she called "mine!" and tried to jump in front of Rainee so they didn't get the ball and she started yelling at Rainee that if she calls mine then she should let her get it. I got mad because it headed right toward Rainee and she had every right to hit it so I told Karlie to chill and stop and then she got mad at me too. She kept on jumping in front of people to get the ball which really made us upset and she was just in such a bad mood. We wanted to win, but we were just trying to have fun and she wasn't making it fun at all. We kept on telling her that if the ball doesn't go in her area then don't hit it. She had to control everything in the game and she was in a really bad mood. She even cussed a couple of times (yeah, don't do that during a church thing...) and you could tell that no one liked her. At the end, she was saying how that was dumbest thing she's ever done and she's not going to do it anymore. Good we don't want you to come. It's not like we'll die if we don't win, we're just there to play. It took all of my self control not to punch her, she was such a brat. She's the same in basketball too. It makes me miss those days when she didn't live here.

About a half hour after I came home from volleyball Grandma Carol came over and she brought Toby's babies (Toby is the chihuahua that we had for about a year before we gave him to her because no matter what we did we couldn't potty train him). He had five babies, but one was still-born and the mom ate the other one (isn't that horrible? D: ) so there were only three left. There was one girl and two boys. One of the boys, who I said should be names Gabriel or Gabe for short, reminded me a lot of Toby. He looked like him and he just kinda sat there and shook but he was so adorable. I started saying to grandma that it wouldn't be good if we got him because we'd probably end up getting rid of him, but then I saw her frown at me with the look that she's pretending to agree with you but she doesn't like what you said. I then realized what I said and thought no, that's not what I meant! What I meant was that I wouldn't want him because he would be a wimp like Toby, I didn't mean that I would get rid of him. Great, now she won't let me get one. It's not like we keep any of our pets anyway (feeling guilty Mom? Misty... the cat that you absolutely loved who we took in when she was a poor abused-ish stray... Lizzy... who you still say you wish was here with us... all of those cute baby kitties who I cried over for a long time... Daisy... the beagle who was my most favorite dog in the whole world who meant everything to me... Now are you feeling guilty?) But anyway, there was another boy who my cousin named Pork Chop because he was the biggest and then there was a girl who was the smallest of them. Pork Chop and the girl where jumping all over the place and trying to lick my face while Gabriel just sat there. I wanted to keep the girl dog because she was so pretty and funny. Dad said I could have her if Tina (the Mom of my cousin who owns Toby's wife) said I could. Yeah right, Tina will of course say no because we'll just get rid of her again like all of our other pets except for Silly (Misty...Lizzy...Daisy...turtles...). Of course, Hannah and Dad had to bring up that we get to keep Ginger while Grandma and Grandpa Stevens are on their mission so then Grandma said I probably shouldn't keep her since we'll be getting another dog. But we're not keeping Ginger permanently! Just a year and a half! And I don't even like her that much! I still want Toby's daughter, she is the cutest dog and she's so sweet even though she ruined my basketball shorts a bit with her nails from jumping up and down on me.

I learned to tie a knot in a hair elastic with one hand!!

On Friday night, I didn't really feel like hanging out with anyone so I just ignored the phone when Sariah called (sorry Sariah I know that drives you crazy) but then Dad answered the phone and so I said I could hang out. She came over and we just talked for a while and then went up stairs and had dinner. Sariah mentioned that she had been IMing Ethan and he had said that he was really bored so we told him to come over (Dad always said that his name sounded like a soap opera name 'Ethan Drake'). At first we just went downstairs into my room (The door was open and there was an odd number! I still think that's a stupid rule!) We talked for while in there and then we looked through my amazing scrap book while they marveled at how I looked when I was younger. They say that I look a lot like my sisters, but I only see the resemblance in this picture of me at the beach in California in 2003 where I looked like Hannah and everyone thought it was Hannah. Otherwise I don't see it. We then went upstairs and played Pit and we included Hannah because I'm such a nice big sister and we needed one more player. I said I needed a pen so Hannah brought the whole box of pens. Thanks... After we did like three or four rounds, we started throwing pens at each other. It then turned into this big pen fight where we would throw pens repeatedly and run all over. Hannah threw one at me and it hit me on the face so I gathered up a huge pile of them and she ran for it. She hid in the kitchen curtains so Ethan pulled them back and I threw all of them at her. Hannah and Emma were going crazy like all little brothers and sisters do when their older sibling's friends are over. They were screaming and running all over the place and showing off. Oh well, I did the same thing to Ashley, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't super annoying. After about ten minutes we put them away and I showed Ethan "All of Me" on youtube because I said I was learning that song on the piano and he didn't even know what it was. I then went over to the piano and he told me to start playing it. I slowly played the first line with hands together probably off tempo. Next, I played the song that I made up and I started playing all of these songs that I haven't played in a long time. I couldn't tell if he was getting bored or not but he kept on telling me to keep playing so I'm not sure if he was. If he was bored, then he's a good actor. At around ten, him and Sariah went home. When they left, I told Hannah that it's okay if she hangs out with us (Ashley never said that to me and we're closer together in age than Hannah and me) but she needs to tone down a little and not get so hyper and weird because that's when I get impatient. Yeah, I didn't feel like hanging out earlier that day, but that was dang fun!

Today, Mom made me wake up at 10 AM (how dare she!?) and said to Hannah and me that if we hurry and get our chores done that we can go shopping. Hannah asked me if we could switch chores so I said yeah, what the heck (can't you tell I'm Utahn?) oh dang golly. I quickly picked up the house and I even moved the sofas downstairs so I could vacuum under them. I soon realized that no matter how much I vacuumed, the stuff kept on spitting back out onto the carpet. I saw that the gunk holder was filled way beyond capacity. I tried to take it off of the vacuum, but the idiot who last emptied it put it back on wrong so I couldn't get it off. I told Emma to tell Mom that I needed help. Mom didn't come so I just layed down on the carpet and waited for her and I think I was out of it for a little bit because it was all a bit fuzzy. When I came back to my senses, I walked upstairs and told Mom I needed help and she said "in a minute" which means "no I won't" or "I'll tell you that, and then conveniently forget to help you". I just sat on the sofa and was off in Lala Land for a while before I started bugging her again. She went downstairs and successfully yanked off the gunk holder. I could've done that myself, but if I broke it then I would be in trouble. If she broke it then it was all good. I soon finished and went upstairs to see that Hannah wasn't close to finishing the kitchen which is usually my job. I tend to finish it pretty quickly. She then decided that Sylvester needed a bath. I just walked away thinking to myself that she was just stalling. After a couple of minutes, I heard Sylvester do his scared meow (it's so funny, I can usually tell what each of his meows means now) and Hannah screamed. I came into the bathroom and found Sylvester in the tub and the bottom of Hannah's pajamas wet. He had freaked out when he saw the water and had peed on her foot. That's new (climbing up shower curtains... biting Mom and making her bleed like crazy... scratching me... making me terrified of bathing him... trying to squeeze out of a crack in the shower and choking himself... yup, that's definitely a new one). Mom then had to pick up Ashley from her friend's house and had me fold all the laundry (Good girl, Celeste! You quickly finished your chores and did a great job! Now do some more!) and told Hannah that if her chores weren't done when she got back then she would be in big trouble. Never doubt Mom when she has that look in her eye... (just kidding, well no, actually I'm not). While I was folding clothes, I mentioned to Hannah that I could've done her chores, mine, and Ashley's in the time that it's taking her to do the kitchen, and she was getting mad because I was telling her the counters, fridge, microwave, and cabinets still weren't clean. That's part of what I do every week.

When Mom came home, Hannah was sorta done, so she just got grounded. She got off easy that time. After an hour, she just took Emma and me shopping since Hannah wasn't done and Hannah had insisted that she didn't need any more clothes to last her for the whole winter. Mom just said whatever and left with us. We went to Payless and Target to get shoes for Emma. She couldn't find her shoes and they were all old anyway. While we were looking, I had to carry her since she wasn't wearing any shoes. To think I used to complain about holding her when she was 18 months old, now she's really heavy! We then went to Kohl's and got some jeans for me and two very cute yet surprisingly cheap shirts. All of my jeans were getting too small for me and it drove me crazy to wear them because it was a bit embarrassing. I only had one pair that fit me somewhat well, but they had a hole in a very bad place so I had put duct tape on the inside of it to cover it up and so that it wouldn't draw people's attention there. Nice huh? I was so happy to get new jeans. Dad said that I deserved more clothes since I didn't complain once about having jeans too small for me. Brownie points! That's because I'm his favorite daughter... We got a couple nice things for Emma too that were cute yet cheap I also got a pair of tennis shoes because the only other pair that I had I've had since before I moved here. I changed into my new pair of jeans in the car so I didn't have to wear that other one any longer that I had to. I hate changing in the car, but I couldn't stand that pair any more. It's not like anyone really saw me anyway and at least I'm not changing into a leotard where you can't wear underwear. Ugh, bad memories.

Mom got some things we needed at the grocery store while I tried to find Emma a bathroom. We were at Wal-mart, and the bathroom was closed for a while because they were cleaning it. The lady cleaning had said something about one in the back but I couldn't really understand her because she had a strong Chinese accent (and yes, it was Chinese, not Japanese or Vietnamese-ish). I went to a place in the store where I had never been before which was by the car stuff. I never had a need to wander over there but I couldn't find a bathroom. I went and found Mom and told her that the bathroom was closed and I couldn't understand the lady so Mom said to tell her it was an emergency and Emma had started to dance which scared me because I didn't want her to have an accident. I looked for employees to ask where another bathroom was but I was a bit shy because none of them looked too inviting. I eventually found a nice employee and she said there was one back by the electronics. I went over there and lo and behold! There was a bathroom! I had never been in that part before and I hadn't even know that it existed. That was my amazing story, and Emma didn't pee her pants.

Just something to think about Cheryl if you're reading this, in two weeks you and Jim will be married, and for Mom, in five years I can be married, and for Stephanie, in a few months (well a bit more than a few) you will be the same age my mom was when she had Ashley. One more to haunt Hannah, by the time you're married, you're precious cat will be dead. Sorry, but I had to say that.

So, my life is still as full of adventure as it always was and it can't get any better than this!

Je vais voir la plupart des gens vous dans deux semaines ou mes amis soit demain ou lundi!