a choice

I had many opportunities today to use my mommy's parenting techniques. I think they might take practice.

Also, one of the little girls... Gabrielle... I took her to the bathroom and stood outside (she was afraid the lights would switch off while she was in there), and what do you know but 20 seconds later the amazing acoustics of that room begin to deliver to the whole hallway a ...ah... very interesting rendition of Jingle Bells, shortly followed by the Prince of Egypt version of When You Believe. :P

Kathryne

kids

I totally wowed the kids with my awesome and incredible talents (i.e. I made a paper airplane that flies straight), and now they respect and love me.*

Kathryne


*In my happy place, aka Katie's Alternate Universe, aka I WISH SO BAD

Megan...

...made my day.

Kathryne

--

Couldn't begin to talk about today.

Work was horrendous... worst day yet... but work is over at 5 and I needn't dwell on it for 15.5 hours out of the day. Which is pretty nice.

Kathryne

fwooooooo.

today was interesting.

last Bible Force.

saw Christine. <3

David & Megan & Emily over at varying times.

VBS praise team + me at the Sunday evening service.

Random Facebook conversations with strange people. heh.

Kathryne

woah.

I did fail my driving test for real this time. I panicked and didn't parallel park close enough to the curb :(

However, Caleb's party tonight was epic. Lightning bugs, glow sticks, hula hoops, binder clips, clover crowns, spinning games, fireworks... and people I love dearly.

I think I am more predisposed to enjoy people's company than I might admit.

Kathryne

crazzyyy

6:45 wash hair, get ready.
8:15 work on costume.
8:40 leave for work.
2:15 almost cried at work. try to get kids to listen up. they tickle me instead.
2:40 perfect demonstration of grace. Italian foodfest. (yum much?)
5:20 home from work.
5:25 try to finish costume.
6:13 I am now Elizabeth Bennet. with curlier hair.
6:17 DOUG'S PARTY.
8:30 walking around the second-most beautiful woods in the area. mmm.
8:35 clover crown complete. ALLITERATION. <3. and I feel like a wood-nymph.
9:40 swing. swing. swing.
10:00 three songs of charleston variations. took me longer than it should >.< ... but fun regardless :)
11:00 home. finally. bed.

tomorrow I ACTUALLY take my driving test, hopefully pass. I leave the house in 8.75 hours. wheee.

Kathryne

projects

Got some essential elements in the mail today... got out the wood varnish... am almost-happy with my craftsmanship on this dress... I am feeling very content.

However, my one small discontent is that I am starting to miss people-of-the-female-persuasion-who-are-also-my-age-ish. (cough-Megan-Rachel-Christine-cough!!!) Or, actually, anyone I can have a conversation with... about the sorts of things I want to talk about, who is not my mother... am I just getting greedy now? :P

Kathryne

not going to be a woodworker when I grow up

but otherwise, today was pretty good.

every cloud has a silver lining, to use a terrible cliche... even bureaucratic inefficiency. (read: couldn't take my test because the system that was supposed to say I took two weeks of torture... I mean, driver's ed... failed. YIPEE.)

So instead I got the day off, was able to begin a book I got for graduation, ate more chicken salad and pasta salad and The Amazing Salad, and worked on the 50 jillion birthday presents to give in the next month.

...actually, only five. Doug, Caleb-1, Caleb-2, David, Kirsten. Oh, and Dan's graduation present, that's important too. And Rachel's graduation present, but I already have that.

Blood, sweat, and tears, that is all I am going to say. But it's fun. and now I am hungry, and tonight looks like a project-oriented all-nighter.

Kathryne

Summer Solstice

Good day.

My LIT training is becoming invaluable to me at work.

It only took three minutes for me to rant my way out of the day's ARRGGGHHH moments.

And the Solstice party was great.

Deep fried oreos = WIN.

Also, beginning to find washing dishes peculiarly therapeutic. Especially after cookingish (read: trying and failing), scrubbing things with soap is something I can do.


I realized today how much I like to multitask, even if it is doing one thing while talking to somebody while thinking about something else. I dunno why. But I realize that I CAN'T do that at a daycare center, and I CAN do it while washing dishes. hmmm...

Kathryne

Zzzzzzz...

SO EXCITED about a BAJILLION things.

Today at work I was falling asleep on my feet, literally, and it is a good thing there were only 28 kids and there was some structured activity, like an hour-long "science" assembly. Otherwise it could have been bad. I mean, I did spend a good 30 minutes in the nurse's office with a girl who had the worst nosebleed I've ever seen in my life, which was probably the time hardest to stay awake.

And I am making serious progress on my costume for Friday... :)
AND I located a wood-burning tool... and not one, but two! and possibly three! OH the CHOICES!
ANDANDAND I got *a few* Barnes & Noble gift cards for graduation, which means I can finally buy my very-own copy of Till We Have Faces, which I am just dying to read again.
Aaaaaannnddd I take my driving test on Wednesday.
ANNNDDD I have a new layout! It makes me happy.
And we have SO MUCH party food leftovers... I had pasta salad, The Awesome Salad, chicken salad, and fruit salad tonight. and a peach. yum.

I am just overall happy.
And I have like 5 new devotional books, including Streams in the Desert, and I want to just do them ALL at once! I think I need to start waking up earlier.

Kathryne

Inspiration and Debit Cards

I finally figured out birthday presents for three different people who have birthdays in the coming month... one left.

And I discovered the magic that is not-having-to-borrow-my-dad's-credit-card-and-pay-him-back-cash-even-if-that-means-spoiling-his-Father's-Day-present-because-I-have-my-own-debit-card!

wheeee.

Kathryne

biscotti.

THANK YOU DOUG <3

Also, swing dance.

Kathryne

daycare centers

...are the place to go if you are looking for:

1. Sparkly and/or light-up tennis shoes
2. Injuries
3. Faked injuries
4. Middle school girl drama
5. Legos

Kathryne

better than yesterday.

today's smile--

Jacob (6 years old): Miss Katie, my nose is bleeding!
Me: Why is that?
Jacob: It just happened. It's because it is very warm and I am hot-blooded.
Me (amused): And who told you that?
Jacob (picture of seriousness): My mom.

:)

(seriously, though, I have seen more injuries and.or "boo-boos" in the past two days than I EVER want to see.)

Kathryne

o.0

8 hours.
35 children.
45 minutes of structured activity.
7 hours 15 minutes of free play.

2 adults.
1 college student.
1 me.

1 crazy, crazy day down.
32 to go.



small group was good.
and I'm reading a neat biography of C. S. Lewis, since the library does not carry anything actually written by him that I haven't read.

Kathryne

success.

Mime in Reading, PA today.

Happiest moment: getting every single mime-box into the four suitcases. Whoever did it before, with shirts in the boxes, is now my hero.

The ride home was also great. River roads may not be fun to drive, but they are fun to ride.

Kathryne

I like lists.

1) I woke up this morning to find half my comforter on the floor and my sheets completely pulled out of their (very secure) tucking-under-the-end-of-my-mattress. Weird...

2) Texting is weird. And leads to very laughable conversations.

3) Nathan's grad party! I love my family. I love that I can disagree with Nathan about anything... and we mostly do, especially literature... and we can talk about it rationally and without worrying about hurting anybody's feelings for not having the same favorite book :P (Crime & Punishment, by the way, is very good. Regardless of the fact you think it is 3x as long as it needs to be... any repetition of thoughts/actions is integral to building the psyche of Raskolnikov. If it were short he would be a different person.)

4) RACHELSBALLETOHMYGOODNESS<3 ...and Ed. hehe.

5) The Neon Dance was fun. I've never crashed a party before. But I apologized profusely to the people in charge. It was only the last hour of a 4-hour event... I would have paid the $3.75 if I had change!

There were more things that made me smile, but I promised to only make lists of factors of 50 or 3, and I don't feel like going all the way to ten. I have to get to bed!

Kathryne

Finalized.

I turned in all the paperwork for my job today. Fingerprints, background check, etc.

I also had my pre-college physical. Including Hepatitis A shot. funstuff.

And it was my last day doing school stuff. We sang. It was really great. I mean that in the humblest way possible, of course.
(EDIT: one of the songs was. The other was ... meh. iffy.)

I also finished Oscar-the-stuffed-replica today! I did not realize until after he was finished that his ears are too long and make him look more like a cow than a hamster :(

And this is my 550th post. But never fear! While the rest of my comments about today refer to finishing something, this does not. Unless you are talking about finishing the 550th post... in that case, yes. But I'm not done with the Optimism Initiative. :)


This has nothing to do with completing anything, but Megan's grad party was tonight. That was nothing short of epic. And I got to make clover crowns!

Kathryne

shower of blessing

Today I got news from the National Merit whatsit... I got a scholarship I totally did not remember applying for, way back in 2009! :)

Also, I got a full-time job! WHEEE!! had to get fingerprinted and everything, and the guy at the station was totally nice.

And I ate Graeter's ice cream and Christine's cappuccino flats.

And I talked to my mom for like 2 hours.

I AM IN HEAVEN PARADISE.

Kathryne

progress?

Girls' Ensemble = highlight of day.
We had pizza and cherry Pepsi (not as good as Coke, but whatever).
Then we made beautiful music and skipped in circles and laid on the floor and laughed like maniacs. I did have my jungle-woman hair on today.

It was my last time in that building, ever. I began my school career there, in preschool, at the program run by the church, and then 11 years later came back when my new school began to rent out space... and remained there until I finished grade school in the selfsame building.

I parallel parked for the first time between two forreal cars today. And I didn't die. I was like 18 inches from the curb, but it's alright.
Then my dad insisted on acting as a traffic cone when we practiced again. Seriously? That is kind of evil, but kind of genius.

Kathryne

ouch

I think I have titled several blog posts that exact thing.

today that comes from staring at a computer screen for five hours trying to make the mime DVD come out right in places where the camera glitched, and get the volume stabilized across the whole thing (it may or may not have worked).
and then from sewing my finger to a blanket, but that need not be discussed :P

also today, I chose my classes for the fall semester! how exciting!

and failed a leeetle bit less at parallel parking.

Kathryne

poetry and prose

Choir practice! yay! it went really fabulously and we ended about an hour early. I will give you a sneak peak of this Friday's masterpiece-in-progress... shh! don't tell!
I also did not die from riding my bike there and back. almost, but not quite. It is a superbly bad idea to ride your bike 2.5 miles on very hilly terrain directly before singing. Takes all capacity for breath control down like 37%.

Then, after practicing parallel parking (GRRRR) and yelling at my computer for freezing up at the mime DVD (doubleGRRRRR!!!) and trying to read outside but being eaten alive by mosquitos (must I go there?), I decided to vent my frustration by writing a Veloquence post about grammar. Specifically, the evils of contractions.

Kathryne

Barn Dance :)

After spending the morning at church and the afternoon with my grandparents, I got to go to (dun-duh-duh-DAAH!) Barn Dance. the second. At least, the second-for-Katie.

I had a grand time dancing. I especially enjoyed the Spanish Waltz and, yes, the polka. Even though I collapsed at the end of it.

Isn't it funny, by the way, how acting in sole interest of maintaining one's dignity results in about a 240% increase in the chance that one will lose said dignity in a way approximately 173% more humiliating than before?

Also, I have a stomachache that is probably resulting from fatigue and ...yeah, being tired.

CIAO.

Kathryne

coconut cream pie

is surprisingly good, all elements (cough-coconut-cough) considered.

also, my job interview went surprisingly well, all things (cough-only8weeksavailable-cough) considered.

BUT!!OH!OH!HEY! genuine happy moment--
just located the Notre Dame First Year of Studies summer reading list...
AND I'M ALREADY READING ONE OF THE BOOKS ON IT.
for fun.
because it was only 25 cents at the library.

bed now.

Kathryne

"I'm so confuuused!"

Don't tell my mom, but scrubbing tile grout and washing the dishes and rearranging my bookshelf could be slightly refreshing brainless activity after school lets out.

Of course, that mindset has not completely left... my current pet-project is researching Howard Kelly, one of the best scientists and doctors of the late 19th century/early 20th century, and a strong, Bible-believing Christian. His biography is fascinating. He lived in my county for a while... built the Liriodendron Mansion (which is gorgeous) for his wife, the daughter of a Prussian colleague. This is after, of course, he started as one of the four founding members of Johns Hopkins, and lived as a cowboy, and all :)
And then my grandparents came, and we were talking, and all of a sudden it gets quiet and my dad goes, "Are you graduating from high school or seminary?" And Kristen says, "huh?! What?! I'm so confuuuused!" ...and then we all start laughing.

Kathryne