I'm Not Very Good at This, it Seems...

Hi! *waves* Sorry 'bout that.

So...guess I'm kind of late to the dance with the whole Benedict XVI resigning, but hey! I mean, it's just the first time in 500 years a pope has resigned, right? No biggie.

Kidding! I am still a little in shock about the whole thing. And reading posts like this:

http://www.taylormarshall.com/2013/02/did-blessed-virgin-ask-pope-benedict-to.html

And this:

http://www.taylormarshall.com/2013/02/st-malachy-prophecy-why-pope-benedict.html

are not exactly helping. However, we know that whatever happens, God will always take care of His Church. We also know that it might be a good idea to start saying a daily Rosary and/or going to weekly Confession/Daily Mass, yes? :D

In all seriousness though, I'm not sure what to think of the whole "prophecy of St. Malachy". But parts of it seem to coincide with the Fatima secrets, which I do believe in. Long story short, I'm still doing my research and will post whatever results I come up with. Or I might just post another couple links to what other people (who are smarter and more knowledgeable than I) are saying about all this stuff on their blogs.

As far as the papal conclave, it's really exciting! I remember watching the news channel on TV, before Pope Benedict XVI was elected, while everyone was waiting with bated breath for that white smoke to start rising. :D This is also a primary prayer intention at my house at the moment, because, being huge traditionalists that we are, we would rather not have a Cardinal such as Shoeborn or Oullet be elected. Just sayin'. Not that we believe either of these men would consciously harm the Church, but...they're not big fans of our Sacred Tradition and prefer (as in Shoeborn's case) to hold "balloon Masses":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Lom28KSlg&feature=youtu.be

I rest my case.

(By the by, I know I'm going to be yelled at for the above comments, but I can't help it. Those are my opinions. I'd really rather not have them, but there you are.)

So! Exciting things are happening, peoples! Both in the great big world out there and at right here at home...I officially don't have to take the SAT again (I can't remember if I mentioned that in my previous post or not...and I'm too lazy to go back and check teehee), I have some very big scholarships I'm working on AND...I may or may not have met somebody in my classes this semester...:D

Ahem. So yes. I'm still alive and monitoring the happenings outside my little sphere of existence, however I am really busy. But I will try to post something once a week from now on. *nods solemnly* Now I need to go catch up on what everyone else is blogging about. ;)

OH! Also before I go, Happy Middle of Lent to you all! I know you're all enjoying it ever so much. ;) I also want to say that I'm reallyexcitedandjumpingupanddowninmychaireventhoughI'msittingbecausethisSaturdayis
myBirthday!!!!!!! :D

So yeah. That is all. ;)

~Grace

Soooooo...Happy New Year?

I AM STILL ALIVE!!

Ahem.

Now that we have that cleared up...;)

I am terribly sorry for not posting in...what? Over a month? Yeah. Unfortunately, nothing really exciting happened in that month for me to tell you a story about. Unless you want to hear my final SAT story...well, okay. You talked me into it.

(Actually this is going to be more of a rant on how low the standards of our public school system have slipped...consider yourself warned.)

So...I walk into the highschool -- which is about as big as 5 hotels smooshed together...just sayin' -- to find my fellow SAT-takers dressed to the nines in...pajamas. Seriously, guys? I know it's Saturday morning, but if I can drag myself out of bed and at least run a brush through my hair and put a pair of jeans on, so can you. And it's not even that early. Work with me, people!! :P

Now really, it went pretty smoothly, for the most part. Except none of the kids knew how to write in cursive. Or sign their name in cursive (what are they going to do when they have to sign important legal documents to, gee, I don't know...get a student loan for college? Buy a house? Get a car?), or bring their IDs with them when they left the room during the breaks. *headdesks* Plus, they were loud. And talking most of the time. Which is weird, because I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be. One of the guys was even making goat noises. I "kid" you not. (Hah! See what I did there? Ayyyyy?? :D)

But the one thing that made it really interesting was when one of the guys in my class got caught trying to use his cellphone. In the classroom. On the last section. Right before we were about to be let out. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

Do public-school kids have any concept of the "real-world"??? Please tell me this is just a fluke, because....I mean, really?? :P I mean, I'm sure most of them did fairly well on the SAT, and I'm not saying they're all idiots. Not by a long shot. But they have no concept of responsibility, or being an adult! I mean, the whole reason they're taking the SAT is so that they can get into a good college, get a good education, and be successful adults, right? Btw, I don't actually think that college guarantees you a successful career, but it doesn't hurt. Neither does learning a little responsibility and good work ethic.

Anyways, end of rant. If y'all have any interesting SAT stories, please feel free to comment and share! :D

As far as New Year's resolutions...I have a million and one things I want to do this year. Whether or not I actually get them done is another story. ;) But I do have three main ones:

1. Be less of a smart-mouth. I don't know if you have noticed or not, but I tend to try to make "clever" remarks without thinking about whether or not I'm going to hurt anybody. Sooooo that's one of the faults I have that I'm hoping to at least minimize this year. :)

2. Figure out long-term plans. Let's face it; I'm a teenage girl. Stability is not really my middle-name at the moment. But I do need to try to set out and solidify some plans I have for the next few years, at least. I'll keep you updated. ;)

3. Learn how to really pray. This is one that I should have been working on for awhile now, but I'm finally going to stop procrastinating about it and do it. Starting with at least one rosary and one holy hour per week, plus reading St. Theresa's The Interior Castle. We'll see how it goes. Pray for me, haha. :)

So there you have it! Pretty much my life between Christmas and present! Except for my college classes this semester, but I'll save that for the next post...hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say next time! ;)

Happy New Year, y'all!

~Grace

October is here!

Wow! Y'all get two posts in the space of a week! Don't you feel lucky? ;-)

I'm very excited that it's finally October (even though I feel like this year can't possibly be going by this fast, and I'm only dreaming and I'll wake up soon and it will still be April)! It seems like it is now officially Fall, which happens to be my favorite season. The cool weather, the colors of the changing leaves, Thanksgiving, all of it! I love it!

But I have decided I'm going to spoil the fun by making myself achieve some goals by the end of this month. And I've decided to post those goals on here so that I feel like somebody is keeping tabs on me because honestly, that's the only way I can get anything done.

So! Here are my lofty ambitions for the month of October:

#1: Finish editing "Chosen". Some of you may remember this book as the one I wrote two years ago during NaNoWriMo, but still haven't made more than a few tentative and half-hearted stabs at editing. So this month, I'm actually going to do it! Inspiration has struck! I WILL have this book edited and up for sale by November! *nods firmly* Another reason I'm doing this to make up for missing NaNoWriMo next month. :'(

#2: Drink more water. Okay, what? How did we get from dreams of writer-dom to a simple health tip? Well, here's the thing. I've found myself going for days where the only liquids I consume (is that the word I'm looking for?) consist of 2-3 cups of coffee, 1/2 a cup of milk in the morning, and 1 glass of water at dinnertime (and sometimes I don't finish the water). That's it for the whole day. So I think unless I want to dehydrate to death, I need to start carrying a water-bottle around. Plus I've found that drinking more water keeps me more alert. So it's a win-win situation. ;-)

#3: Exercise! Even if it's nothing more than a couple sit-ups and push-ups every morning, I feel so much better when I engage in something physically challenging daily. I mean, something other than chasing small children around.

#4: Work on getting rid of one item from my confession lists. Because I'm getting tired of confessing the same things over and over....and over again. :P And I'm sure God is getting tired of hearing the same things over and over...and over again. :P :P

#5: Finish Algebra 2! Surprisingly, this is the one goal I actually feel confident I can accomplish. Don't ask me why though. I might start doubting. ;-)

So there you have it! Do you have any goals for this month?

I'll Think of a Good Title Later On...

I sincerely apologize for the absence of new posts over the past couple of weeks. Things have been kind of crazy, getting a school-schedule set up and getting everyone into the habit of sticking to the afore-mentioned school-schedule.

A couple new things going on...I am now a registered voter in Virginia! Happy days! I would be excited, except for the overwhelming feeling that my vote will probably not make any difference whatsoever. I guess I'm voting for Romney-Ryan,but really I don't see how they can win. And call me a conspiracy-theorist, but I honestly believe the current administration will pull some crisis out of their hat (like a war with the Middle East?) to postpone the elections, and then grant themselves emergency powers. You know, like what happened here:

"For a safer, and more secure society..."

*cough*

Before I'm branded a domestic terrorist...

In other news, next month is the Northern Virginia Buddy Walk to raise money for Downs Syndrome research! So if you'd like to donate to my team, here's the link.

School is going really well. Math/Latin/Rhetoric are all coming along quite nicely. I finally got my missing paycheck. Everything's fine and dandy. So I don't know why I should be...eh, never mind.

Hope y'all have a good week!

~Grace