So, vacation was GREAT! We did go to Chattanooga, and we visited the aquarium, zoo, and Ruby Falls. It was so much fun! It was so different there, too; all of the shops and stores were right next to each other (and they were so small), and so many people walked everywhere. Plus, everything looked more... green. It was really, really cool. I think F, K, and J enjoyed the aquarium and zoo most. We've got a couple pictures somewhere that I might actually be able to upload for you, so I might edit this post later and add those. The house we rented for our vacation was pretty tiny, but we made it work - and there was a piano in the living room, so of course I was happy.

  I started this new drawing over spring break, and I think it looks pretty good so far. It's not done yet, but I'm almost finished with the actual outline. Once that's done, I'm gonna color it in and then maybe outline it with pen. The hardest part so far has been figuring out the angles and proportions for the arms and legs - the girl in my picture has both arms in the air and one leg off the ground. I think the hardest part after that will be trying to color in blonde hair! We'll see, I guess.

  Speaking of seeing and pictures, I have my final Memory Project! I think it looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I'm in school right now, and my phone hates any form of communication here, so I can't upload that picture either... but I'll do it this afternoon, as soon as I can.
   On Wednesday, I was inducted into the National Honor Society at my school! Technically, I was supposed to be a member already, but we ended up totally missing any information about the induction ceremony last year. But now I'm an official member! I've got the certificate and card to prove it. :) It was really cool, seeing how many of my friends were there too... we were all talking and hanging out while we waited for the ceremony to start. It was great listening to the leaders of the club talking about the four pillars and then having us all repeat the pledge.
   There's some fantastic stuff going on right now with the littles... I don't know how much I'm actually allowed to say right now, but as soon as I can, I'll post a full update on that. My mom posted a thing in her "Lorenzen expansion pack" group, so if you're a part of that, go read it!
   Life is a little stressful right now... not going to go into full detail, but things are definitely crazy. Everyone is freaking out at school because finals and AP exams are almost here... I don't know how I'm gonna do on my AP Calc exam. There's been weird stuff with my nursing too... currently we're looking for a new one. Plus there's this thing with one of my friends giving me the silent treatment... not fun there, either. But there's not really anything for me to do about any of these things, so I'm trying to just keep myself busy with books and art! And poems, too, but that goes without saying.
   Ooh, speaking of writing. My friend Jake and I are actually to the writing stage of our book, and it's really fun! He's a lot faster than me - I'm still on my first chapter, and he's turned out three or four, I think. But we'll get there! It's gonna be a cool thing. And even if this never gets published, it'll be SO awesome to be able to tell people that I (co)wrote a book!
   Does anyone else ever just get a kids song stuck in their head for no reason? Lately I've been on this Disney loop. I mean, that's not completely unusual for me, but it's been happening more often. "When Will My Life Begin" and "Now I Finally See the Lights" from Tangled are great songs... and I'm still stuck on "True Colors" from the movie Trolls, too. Yep.
 
   Well, I hope y'all have a great day, and a Happy Easter!

(I had a poem that I was gonna post here.... can't find where I put it. I'll edit that in later, too.)

   So, not last Friday but the one before, I ended up in the hospital. (I know, fun times, right?) I had a pretty high fever and was vomiting, and so when we got to the ER, they admitted us. Which sucked, but whatever. My mom and I thought it was a stomach bug, but they had us stay for a few days just in case it was a line infection or something awesome like that. They let us go home yesterday - and I would've been back to school, but I didn't have a nurse, so there's that. Hopefully I'll be back soon! I'm missing my friends and classes.
   The little kids (K, J, and F) were so excited when we got back home! It was kind of cool to have a welcoming committee of screaming children. And they were so super cute, acting all clingy with my mom. I'll admit, the peace and quiet at the hospital was a little nice, but I missed my family a lot.
   Our new cat, Luna (have I told you guys about her yet?) is settling in pretty well, I think. She doesn't get along with the dogs 100% of the time - I think she's scared of them - but she absolutely worships Abi. And Luna is so cuddly. She'll literally just lay there and let you pet her for hours, and she purrs the entire time. Her fur is almost entirely black, with just one or two tiny white spots on her stomach, and her eyes are sort of yellowish-green. She's great!
   The art club's Memory Project is going really well! Everyone's pictures are looking fantastic. A lot of the other members are using paints and things, but I decided to stick with what I know best: colored pencils. Luckily, my parents got me a ton of awesome colored pencils in various colors - even an entire pack in just flesh tones! I think my drawing is looking pretty good, and it's nearly done; I'll see if I can upload a picture of the finished product!
   This past Saturday, I went on my first college tour! My mom and I visited GGC, and while I wasn't completely sold, some parts of it were really cool. Their honors program looks fantastic - they put on Shakespeare plays and do some cool journalism things. The dorms are also pretty cool; they're all suite-style and you get your own room, and share a kitchen area and bathroom(s) with your suitemates. I'm planning on registering for a tour at KSU soon, and maybe UGA as well.
   Today, I took the multiple-choice section of my mock AP Lang exam... it was surprisingly easier than I expected it would be. My teacher scanned in my Scantron answer sheet, and I got 48/55 right! Which, according to our conversion chart, equals a 103... and I haven't even taken the free-response section yet! I'm just hoping I'll do this well on the actual exam. I'd love to make a 5 on the test!
   The schedules at school are weird this week. All of the sophomores are taking the Gateway tests (remember me freaking out about those essays last year?) and so they've rearranged the schedules for our classes. It also doesn't help that we have Friday off, since spring break is starting. But speaking of spring break - we're talking about actually doing something this year! Usually we just stay at home and hang out, but we've been talking about maybe going to the aquarium or some museums. I think it'll be lots of fun, and the kids are gonna love it too!
   Okay, so there's this Disney movie named Trolls... it has some great music, right? But lately I haven't been able to get the song "True Colors" out of my head. It's an awesome song, and I love it - but it's starting to get a little annoying! I've tried everything to fix it... I've even sung "The Song That Never Ends" to myself. It didn't work. I fear that I will live out the rest of my life singing the harmonies to this song, originally performed by a chorus of tiny, colorful, dancing trolls.

I hope you're all doing well! Have a great day!

   I've decided that I am going to start writing again! Writing a book, I mean. It's going to be a realistic fiction novel - and it'll be kind of like my life. Not exactly, but similar. I'm trying to come up with a name for my main character; I want her name to mean "strong" or "fighter" or "courage", something like that. Any ideas? I'm getting tired of baby name sites, haha.

   Speaking of books - I finished reading like, four of them this weekend! Admittedly I did have a long weekend, having had Friday off of school, but still. BOOKS! I read this one called "A List of Cages" which was so good but sooo sad, and two of the "Song of the Lioness" books called "Alanna: The First Adventure" and "In the Hands of the Goddess". The latter two were written by Tamora Pierce, who is one of my all-time favorite fantasy/adventure authors.

   In the next couple of weeks, I'm going on my first college tour! It's not to my top-choice college; we're visiting Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). I've heard good things about them, and the dorms are supposed to be awesome, and the have all the classes and degrees that I want. Still, I'm looking at Kennesaw (KSU)! I can't wait for the tour; it's going to be cool looking around and seeing what everything's like. I'm a little nervous thinking about going away to college (my mom is freaking out, I think), but I'm really eager to go out and see the world and be independent. I think it'll be pretty great.

   I've started drawing some more, too! My friend and I are planning this manga; we're going to try and create it ourselves. He and I are coming up with the story together, and I'm going to try and illustrate it all. It's either going to be incredible and the best thing anyone's ever seen/read, or it's going to look terrible; I'm hoping for the former. But I've been working on my concept art for the characters and whatever, so maybe we'll be okay!

   It's kind of weird now that Readers Rally is over... I have more time to do things I really want to do. Of course I enjoyed reading the books for RR, but at the same time it was a little bothersome that I couldn't choose which books I was reading. Now, since the competition's finished, I can read whatever I want; and instead of creating questions for my team to review, I can draw; and instead of practicing on Quizlet all the time, I can practice my keyboard. Don't get me wrong - I definitely had fun with RR and can't wait to lead the team next year! But this down time is pretty great too.

A poem for you! (I don't even remember when I wrote this... oh well. Enjoy!)

Where am I?

I do not know this place, this world, this universe;

Cannot recognize the faces of those around me.

Have we met? I cannot think,

Do not recall;

I am sorry.

Who am I?

I do not know myself, this body, this mind;

Cannot recognize these emotions and thoughts flowing

From the tips of my fingers down to my toes.

I don’t know myself;

Do not understand who I am,

Why I am here;

What is my purpose?

Even now, I can feel these thoughts

Slipping away,

A gradual fade.

Back into nothingness.

Hey everyone!

I don't know about you, but I've had a pretty crazy weekend! Fun, but crazy.

On Friday, my sister came home from college; since it's her spring break, she'll be visiting for a week or so. It's cool having her here (especially since she sometimes buys me ice cream). It's funny, though, seeing how much she's changed since she first started college - from the time she goes to bed, to the time she wakes up, to the things she says and does. And her hair is still bright pink all over, but she's thinking of adding some purple too.

Saturday was my Readers Rally competition; it took place at Berkmar High School. My friends/teammates and I carpooled together - we drove two cars for the seven of us. We reviewed our books and questions the entire way there. Once we got there, we checked in and then went and walked around the book fair, which was pretty cool! I bought the book "I Am Princess X", which was ironically one of the Readers Rally books.
When it was time for the actual competition to start, we were all pretty nervous; this was the first time that any of us had competed. The first round was a bit of a fail for us; we only had 30 points compared to the other team's 110. But the next few rounds were actually really good, with us getting 100-110 points! We had a couple more rounds in which we earned 30-40 points - I think we were starting to psych ourselves out again. But in the last round, we earned 140 versus their 10! That one was EPIC. I still can't believe we managed that!
I answered the most questions out of anyone on my team, which was kinda cool.

And yesterday, we had my grandmother (Mommom), my grandfather (Papa James), my aunt (Aunt Leslie), and my cousin (Debra) over! It was pretty fun. We dyed Debra's hair black (it had been dark brown with blonde in it). She looked really good, I think, though my mom joked that she looked kind of emo/goth, since her skin is pretty pale. Then we played foosball, which was great - I beat Debra, and James then proceeded to destroy me. She and I teamed up against my brother, and though he did beat us again that time, it was a pretty close game.

I'm still a bit tired from the excitement of this weekend, but it was totally worth it!

AND I wrote a poem. Ta-da!

Ink drips -- drops --
Down to the paper.
Splash, stain, smear.
Spoiled.
The paper will never be the same again.
You cannot retract the act,
Cannot undo what is now done,
Cannot fix what has been broken.
A permanent flaw, a fault;
A blot, a splotch;
Unable to be erased, effaced;
That one drop of ink sinks down
Into the paper.

SAT results are in!

My SAT results came back a few days earlier than I expected -- I got the email last night!!

I scored a 1420 out of 1600!! I'm so happy. I'm in the 98th percentile nationwide, and the 95th percentile of college-bound juniors and seniors. I scored really well in the Reading and Comprehension sections, as well as the English/grammar section. I did pretty well in math, too, though not quite as well as I did in language arts.

Happy dances for all!

Hi peoples!
    I swear, this cat is insane. She was laying on my lap and purring just a minute ago, and then randomly decided to attack my hand and run away! James, get this creature under control! I do love Abi, though; she can be pretty sweet when she wants to be.
   I dyed my hair the other day, and am going to touch it up today! I wanted to try the ombre thingy (that is how you spell it, right?), so I've got brown hair now, and the ends are blonde! I like it. Definitely not as drastic of a change as my sister's hair, though -- Aly just dyed her entire head "magenta"! It's quite the fashion statement... maybe I should try that someday.... hmm.
   I'm getting a little nervous, since I have my Readers Rally competition not this Saturday but the next. I've been frantically re-reading all the books, but I'm still worried that I'll forget all of the details. This is the first time I've actually joined Readers Rally, and we've had two of our teammates decide they didn't want to compete... so we're down to the minimum number of competitors. I don't know what we'll do if someone can't make it! But it will be fun getting to the competition -- my mom said she'd carpool, so we'll be driving in the new "church bus"! We've even joked about painting the windows. Could be interesting!
   I'm supposed to get my SAT results in 5 days!! I'm a bit freaked out about that too. I mean, I know I can always take it again if I have to -- most people take it at least twice -- but I'd still like to do well. I'll let you guys know what my scores are when I get them!
   In AP Lang, we've been learning about Romanticism, right? Well, we've started looking more specifically at Dark Romanticism, which means... wait for it... POE! Edgar Allan Poe may not have been the most "romantic" guy (haha), but his writings were definitely dark! We've finished "The Raven", which is super good but a bit over-taught, and "The Fall of the House of Usher", which is one of my favorites. I do wish we'd read "Annabel Lee"; it's a great poem. What are your guys' favorite poems/stories by Poe?
   My hands have been doing this weird tremor-y thing lately. It's happened before in the past, but recently it's become way more frequent and more noticeable. We haven't gotten them looked at yet (we have called the doctor, they just haven't called back). I'm hoping it's not anything serious... my mom's guess was essential tremors, but again, we don't know for sure. It actually seems to get worse -- my hands will shake harder -- when I'm excited or nervous about something. Like, when I'm playing keyboard for worship at church, or playing Super Smash Bros. with my friend. It's weird.
   The art club at my school is doing this really cool thing called the Memory Project! It's basically where we contact an orphanage or other organization; they take pictures of the children they are caring for and send us the photos. Once we have the photographs, we draw or paint the kids, and send the artwork back with a picture of ourselves! I'm really excited to be doing this. "My" kid is a little girl named Jhakelin, and she's so cute.

I hope you're all doing well! Have a great day!!

*A poem, based off the idiom "cry me a river".

Cry me a river,

Sing me a breeze;

Dream me a rainbow,

Paint me the trees.

Dance me a desert,

Laugh me the light;

Scream me the storms,

Speak me the night.

Hello, peoples!

   It's been a long while, and for that I apologize! Lots of things have been happening lately, with school, the doctors, adopting, moving, etc. And, I will admit, there were quite a few times when I simply forgot to update, even though I had time. But I promise I'm going to get better. I'll try to post at least once a week, starting now.
   We've got a lot to catch up on!
   For Christmas, I got tons of art supplies (like awesome skin-toned color pencils and my favorite kind of pens, yay!) which made me pretty happy! I also got some gift cards to buy clothes (and I found the cutest dress). But honestly, the best part of Christmas morning was watching everyone else! James got an instrument he wanted - ukelele? Guitelele? Something like that. He was so excited! And the kids. Oh, the kids. They got new bicycles, and I swear they were freaking out. They were so happy! Everyone always gets one super big special gift, and James' was the instrument. Mine was this thing for my face that I honestly can't remember the name of (but I love it!). K got an Elsa doll that sings in English and Spanish, and she seriously won't put it down. J got a toy vacuum, which caused severe jealousy in the others. And F? He wanted to be like "his James", and so he got a little toy guitar!
   School is actually pretty difficult right now. Not because I don't like it -- trust me, I still absolutely love it! -- but because my classes are presenting a real challenge for me this year. The two most difficult to understand are currently AP Calculus AB and AP Micro/Macro Economy. I don't really understand integrals, antiderivatives, and all of the monosponies and oligopolies. Until this year, I didn't even know those were words! AP Language Arts is fantastic. We've finished our Puritanism unit (we learned about the Salem Witch Trials) and Realism unit (analyzing the Declaration, and Crisis by Thomas Paine). In AP Physics, we've started our gravity unit, which is actually pretty fun! Orbital velocities and all that. My French II class is learning about food, and currently I'm working on this one assignment where I have to create a menu of French foods for a restaurant of my own invention. Naturally, none of it can be in English. Yearbook is cool - we're a bit behind schedule but catching up! I no longer have a spread team; I'm working by myself which is nice. In Contemporary Issues in Education, I'm still working as a teacher aide in one of my favorite teacher's classrooms, so that's pretty awesome!
   Our house is still pretty crazy. I mean, it won't be quieting down for a long, long time, with the kids and all. We're still in the process of moving, but it's starting to feel like home. The living room and kitchen are painted, with new kitchen appliances; our paintings and pictures are being hung up. We're beginning to master the art of packing 7-8 people around one dinner table!
   And the littles. I mean, they still drive me crazy - I expected they would. Little siblings, after all! But they've also gotten way more comfortable with us, and some pretty funny and cute things have happened. I've discovered that J's favorite thing to do is snuggle, and F likes it when you sing "Apples and Bananas". K just wants to go outside and ride bikes.
   Ooh, and speaking of bikes - I've finally started to go out and ride mine when I have free time! It's fantastic. It's got three wheels, which makes it easier for me to balance; and it's actually a bit easier for me to pedal than most bikes, even though it wasn't designed to be that way. I can't go very far, since I'll get way tired and out-of-breath. There's also this steep hill by the house that I'm not supposed to go on, which limits me some more. But I like to ride in the two little cul-de-sacs right next to our house.
   So, my wheelchair totally broke down a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, but it wouldn't even turn on... which meant that I had to use my manual chair for a day or two. And then, my friend's wonderful mom let me borrow their extra chair and charger! So, while it may not be perfectly me, I have a hot-pink electric chair for school. I can continue to run people down in the halls - yay!
   I've joined the Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D) club at my school. We meet on Wednesday's, and it's lots of fun! The other guys in the club - and yes, so far they are all guys - are pretty crazy. We have lots of interesting discussions. I was playing the villainess, Countess Blackstone, but the heroes kinda killed her... so today, I get to play as a new character that I created! Her name is Arilyse, and she's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.
  I took the SAT on January 21... I think it went pretty well! There was a bit of a problem when I was registering -- some sort of issue where a coordinator at my school was supposed to set up my testing site, but didn't. But I went to the counseling office and then spoke to the College Board directly, and we got it fixed! The test itself was pretty easy, especially in the two Language Arts sections. I really enjoyed those. The math-with-calculator was okay, but... math-without-calculator was sorta terrible. I guess we'll see how I did soon -- the scores are released later this month!
 
   Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Write me a poem.
With scribbles and scratching, let your thoughts
Run straight out from somewhere deep inside your mind.

Sing me a song.
Open your mouth and let the words
Pour out from somewhere deep inside your soul.

Hum me a tune.
Whistle and whisper and let the music
Soar out from somewhere deep inside your heart.