I AM BACK ON THE MAP!

HIYA FOLKS! sorry it took so long for me to write on here! i have been back for a week now i think and have been happily doing nothing the whole time :D Well besides homework (when i can focus long enough lol...) and running (YAY... i am sooo pathetic right now, i cant even run a whole mile without being pretty winded and having to walk some....) and cleaning my room (veeeeery slowly...). Got my schedule fix up, these are my classes for first semester: Theater Arts 2 rotating with Art and Design, then Algebra 2 Trig, Clothing 2 alternating with AP European History and last but certainly not least American Literature and Composition Honors! woooooo! and for el secondus semester i have: Algebra 2 Trig and then French 2 and then Psychology 1 alternating with AP European History and finally Physics. TA DA! i am not sure whether i will actually be taking Physics or not, i want so see how AP Euro and Algebra 2 is first ^_^ so i might switch it out for Drawing and Painting 2 alternating with Web design or something like that if i think its to hard. OH! i also got a car kinda :D lol well its officially registered in oregon to me and it has insurance under my dad and i get to use it, but my mom will probably need it for when she is in the states lol and since Rocinante (namesake of the wonderful little toyota) is Don Quixote's horse first i will let her use it whenever she needs it. Hopefully she wont need it much though! She is applying for Swedish residency! i think thats pretty cool, and it means that i can visit her there, she has even mentioned even driving to Paris! (you can, there is a tunnel under the sea to Denmark or somewhere near there) which for me is SO TOTALLY AMAZING. so lets all keep our fingers crossed! :D

The time between leaving Sweden and getting home was pretty epic, we stayed at a house that my mom's friends were out of for two weeks (with permission....) for about a week. We did a lot that week, mom in particular. it was so great going through the storage unit that had everything that my mom had left in the us besides what she brought back from Sweden for her trip and Rocinante. I got so much stuff :P mostly costumes and books, because i need so much more of them :D then we drove through bend and dropped stuff off (sorry i didnt stop so say hi to anyone) then went to portland and hung out with my grandpa Ben and Lisa his wife and my Auntie Tana and her kids Selene and Isabell ^_^ i really like them, particularly Selene, she is 13 and pretty cool :) so while we were with Tana we went to this really AMAZING food place, i would recommend it. it was the best restaurant food i have had since the Grove, and that is saying something, they had me at soup appetizer... it was just a simple tomato bisk, but it was soo yummy.... and then i had this salad.... i was in love! it had pine nuts and this wonderful vinaigrette.... and then i had a burger (sans bun of course) that was nummy and then they had this chocolate wheat free tort! it was so chocolatey and good with berries (raspberries and blackberries and blueberries) suffice to say it was good.... and if you are ever in portland go to The Observatory, yup. it was even beautiful in there! their decorations were so cool, like lots of bare light bulbs hanging at different heights and such, there were these really neat pieces of art that were like paintings but in wax, i forget what it is called, and the music was really fun, deathcab for cutie and such :) really nice atmosphere :) so go there! lol then we went to some city between Santa Barbara and San Fransico and gave Paddy to his dad... i miss the bugger.... .... anyway, then we stayed at Clayton's for a night and then we went to Padme's ( i love her! lol oh and it was cool because she is going to burning man, might even be there now!, so we got to watch prep for the playa) and we stayed with her and her roommate Peter for two nights and then went and stayed at Fiona and Ryan's for a night, then drove to oregon! lol yeah, pretty epic :) to all my dearest of dear friends i will give better details another time, because we need to get together my sisters and i have been separated far to long! lol

love

~K

P.S. i wouldnt mind hanging out with the cross country'ers either lol

Cultus and yard work and school supplies, oh my!

okey dokey everybody, we are officially narrowing in on the close of summer, and i must say im definitely going to miss the long days of sunshine and friends. M,S and i just got back from cultus as you already know, and overall it was a blast. There were some uips and downs. As far as the downs go it was just a few annoying people and many painful blisters. But the camp itself was a great experience; im still dazed we ran a mountain! way to go everybody, we are all insane. So now, its just been running in the morning and yardwork during the day, though ive been trying to slip in some time with my friends. Thanks so much to M,S, Chase, Hayati, James,Preston, Karen,Kelly, Desmund and Robbie :) it has been nothing short of amazing running and bonding with you this summer, i cant wait to see what the new year will bring. And as for K, you need to get back here, the sisterhood is lacking a huge part :( but i know you have been having a wonderful time bouncing around on an international scale. Well, thats about it, besides trying to fit a few more good memories this summer, its a smooth ride to the next year :) Love to all mentioned and more ~T

Cultus and more!

Hey guys, it's hard to believe it is August and that school is coming up pretty fast. Today I went the DMV and took my driving test (again) but this time passed! I was so relieved considering the testers seem to like to see you uncomfortably wait as they tell you what you did wrong.
I have spent this last weekend at Cultus with my schools XC running group and as I suspected it was a blast! We ran a ton, ate a ton, went tubing (which is awesome btw!) and did a whole bunch of competitions against one another. Boy but after 4 days of no shower I pretty much loved coming home and having one plus a 4 hour nap :p. But coming back I feel so accomplished cause I ran a mountain and actually improved my running skills. From here on out I am not sure what else I will be doing this summer. I am waiting for an e-mail from the school giving me furthur info. on AP hw and link crew stuff. We are juniors now girls! It's exciting to think we are growing up so fast...and yet it's kinda sad too. Hope you are all doing well!
Love, S
P.s. T and M thank you so much for helping me through being sick that one night. I'd rather not recap what stupid thing I did on here haha. But you guys are awesome! I had fun running at Cultus and sharing a tent with you guys!

Technically its a new day here

you all are in my yesterday. and i am your in tomorrow. a strange and boggling concept. soon, ever so near it comes!, i shall join in the happenings of the day before. i know not what to do with myself, ha! i dont know if i want to stay or go, part of me wishes for both. what can one do? i leave in the early morn of sunday. but one more full day in this place that has become a home. though i often feel awkward when forced to speak. i shall return, be my feelings what they may. for duty and love and cetera. i plan to stay up from this coming morning to my departure. in hopes of getting some rest on my trip. we will stop in chicago for six hours or more. i know not what we shall do there. the list runs on. lists i should say. things i shall miss, things i do miss, things i will be doing soon, things that i have done, plans for coming months, thoughts of passing hours. i am happy that this brings out my poetic muse once again, for i have been missing it. perchance i may write more before i leave this not-so-foreign-any-longer land for one much more often trod. till then my doves i do miss you all. particularly my Love.

ps i do consent that this linguistics may be from my reading far to much Victorian literature

Turning around the Mood

Haha I read over my birthday post a few days ago, and was like wow i sounded so depressed. So I thought I might as well write another post so that everyone doesn't think i am sad all the time. Just letting you know I had a ton of fun at my birthday party (which lasted until like 11pm!) It definately helped melt the rest of that terrible day away.
So lately I have been working for a neighbor down the street in her yard and getting paid for it. And every wednesday after XC practice I go on over to my moms work and work at family kitchen for a while. Today it was defiantely hard work, and my feet started hurting from standing so much. Next week i will be going to Newport with some friends, like i had mentioned earlier (the yurt thing) and I have talked my mom into letting me come back one day early so that I can go to the fair! (BTW the day I am able to go T is Friday, the day before the last day, hope that works out for you and everyone you are probably going to invite.)
And YES M I am going to go to Cultus! I am pretty excited for it, considering you guys will be back for it and it sounds like a blast! Anyways, thats about all that I am up to lately, besides the fact that I am going to try to take my drivers test again the day after I come back from Cultus, hopefully I pass. See you guys soon! It is sooo cool to be able to say that! Haha!
Love, S
P.S. Congrats M on getting your laptop and good luck with your work!

Bless my heart, i think i am developing a Virginian drawl

hola mis amigas, i just had to write because i am so stoked that we are all getting back within a few days! (except s, who is LEAVING THE DAY AFTER WE GET BACK, AHEM) :P so that means one day opportunity for the fair, which i hope works out, that would be a blast. AND CULTUS, which i am stoked and a little nervous for. So anyways, S, im sorry about your birthday being kinda crummy, and i hope you are feeling better, you know we will all be cheer you up with our stupid jokes soon enough. M, yeah she sounds like a brat, but that would be way cool if you were able to buy a laptop! it would certainly be useful for school, glad you are back soonish :) K, i have been reading more in your posts than i have in my 600 page book, but its all good to hear. Sweden really does sound like a beautiful place, and i cant wait for you to tell us all about the experience in person. As for me, well as much as i have enjoyed seeing my dear family, i am ready to come home. I miss my dad, and my buddies and my pets. Even my poor, neurotic little girl, whom i know is hiding under my bed hyperventilating. i went by the old stone house on my own the other day, the one that all of the ghost stories are about, that was built in the late 1800's. I loved that house so much, it was a very special part of my family, but its new owners are taking good care of it. im off to see more family i have never met before tomorrow, not much else going on. Oh yeah, all of the blackberries are ripe here, so ive been snarfing those like crazy. Anyways, i miss everyone, i will be home soon

~T
P.S. thank you K, for that warm and fuzzy comment on my post. Love you too

Sweet 16

Hey guys, well as you all already know today is my birthday, my sweet 16. And so far it has started off to a pretty rough start. I got up this morning and went to the DMV to take the driving part of my test. And promptly failed it... I cried some of the morning then had to pull myself together to go to the camp i've been working at this past week. Watching after kids while feeling crummy isn't a good mix, but i pulled through.
Anyways now I am assigned to clean house because I am having 22 people over tonight to celebrate my birthday. Honestly, I am not in the mood for a party. But we'll see how it goes. Talk to you later.

Love, S

i promised

more info, but i am sorry i dont have to ability to be as enthusiastic as i was :) some things have gone down that are not quite to my liking but i really hope it makes things better.

anyway, so today we went to the stockholm city hall, which was pretty neat, the blue room and the gold room and all that. not my favorite place we have gone but it was cool, i wish that we had gone up to the tower but it was a long line and mom and paddy did not want to. had french fries for lunch lol im gonna die of a heart attack. just been sittin on my bum since then, going for a run later to feel better.

yesterday we went to a cool garden of this sculptor it is called Millesgården. you should look it up if you can. the sculptures are beautiful. its very peaceful. sat and drank tea and planned what would happen when we got back to the us. dont know if its good anymore lol. but it was pretty.

day before that we were kicked out of the house, paddy and i, we went to Gröna Lund. basically a theme park. it was pretty cool, were were there for about 5 hours or so. then we went home. i didnt want to. i wanted to stay. to see this one band that i had heard doing their sound check near the beginning of our outing. paddy made me leave, i wish i could have heard him. i did find out his name though Johan Palm if you are interested. some kid who was on the Swedish Idol 2008. he is 17. (i thought he was younger... lol) he is kinda cute though lol. music is alright. havent heard much yet, about two songs. they were better live lol.

the plan for when we get back is that we will spend about a week in SF and then go to grandpa's with alex? if he deigns to come. then take paddy home and hang with T (todd, mom's friend) also possibly with alex, if he chooses. and then go home. take mom to the air port, get someone to come so that i can take the car back and have a car (this is if mom is coming back to sweden after we are gone, which we are not sure about yet, geez) if not than just going home for me :) i will be home and done moving around the 25 or 26th depending on mom going to sweden or not.

bye

*K

PS we are leaving for the coast tomorrow. dont know how reliable posts or email (even though no one emails me lol) will be. i will tell about it after i get back if nothing else. also will be going to go see Harry Potter on opening day, though there are no midnight showings that would be good for me to see, and anyway i wanted to see it at nine in the morn so that i could be seeing it at the same time as the person and friends i love at home ;D if you plan to see it midnight. but i will be seeing it later in the day i believe :( oh well there will still be connection i hope.

pics!

new hair cut...funny face!
yup
ok, here are the pics of the new hair cut i got today! enjoy!

ill add more pics later...but im pretty busy! love ya guys!

~M

so! more stuff!

anyways, a few days have gone by, and i know you all have missed my little updates soooo much lol but i would like to share anyway!

so, three? days ago we went to a museum. it was an almost completely preserved ship! the ship was called the Vasa and it was supposed to be this great war ship, but on its maiden voyage (this is on August 10, 1628!) it sunk. lol. it only made it about a thousand meters or something like that. its pretty much the oldest preserved ship. ever. which i think is pretty cool. it was BEAUTIFUL. you have no idea. the thing looked like the ship in Goonies, sans barnacles and weeds and gold lol. so pretty, but it was just wood, all the paint had come off over the long time it had been buried in mud. but they found samples of the paint, and showed a model of what it looked like painted, holy crap! it was so bright and colorful! it was all red and gold mostly, rather gaudy lol. anyway, we spent like 2-3 hours in there and it was really neat, i saddly dont think we got any pictures because it was to dark in the building for mom's cell phone camera, and my camera is dead, and full lol.

OH and the day before yesterday we went to another great museum, it was a work of art i swear it. the whole building was a work of art. it was this viking museum. and it was rather small i suppose, but the way they did it was amazing. everything was so tasteful and beautiful and just wonderful to look at! it wasnt like usually museums that try and cram everything in there, everything was laid out, spread out, and so nicely displayed! instead of filling the place to its capacity they made everything to its best. there was a lot of cool stuff too, like dead people ;P and all sorts of bits they left behind. jewelry, some clothing, toys, tools, boats, carts. they used to do what the egyptians did, almost, put the dead people in a boat with prize possessions and horses and dogs (dead... sad) and they would burn it or something else. high up people mostly i think. it was really neat. then they (the museum) had this section that was all about questioning. like 'what defines a family?' 'what defines your culture?' 'what do you fear?' 'who defines what you believe?' it was great! it linked us, our modern lives with the past in a way i have never seen a museum or anything else do. i really loved it. there was this one room its only about as big as half my bedroom, or less, for those of you that know, and yet it had so many walls and stuff that you had to weave around to find new interesting objects. and yet id wasn't claustrophobic. i digress, so you weave in and out looking at all these tools with little blurbs near them about them and where they were found and usually each section had a question, like 'what makes industrialization' 'how does tools show evolution' and such, and then you go around this corner....................................................................................................................................................................................... and BAM you see these brushes. lol not old brushes. like toilet bowl cleaners, and toothbrushes with spiderman, and hair brushes. i laughed out loud so hard! it was great! i was shocked and absolutely engaged! i loved it. we spent another 2-3 hours here lol, and then they were getting to closing and we were like NO! (we meaning mom and i, paddy was done a LONG time ago lol) because there was another whole two exhibits that we didnt get to see! it was on medieval art i am pretty sure, but any way, we had like three mins and we rushed though (just enough to be like 'we have to come back' lol) and it was also so beautful! like they had recreated a church! high ceilings and stone and all! with WONDERFUL things placed around the room, it was so open and yet everything was great. there was also a exhibit on Mary/Maria the mother of christ and what she means to women and men of today, and what real women mean today, what is the perfect woman and such, i wish i could read swedish *sigh* (they dont always translate everything to english) i picked up a magazine that is about 'The Ideal Woman' well, it says that in swedish.... the whole thing is in swedish.... i dont know what i am going to do, but it looks interesting.

also that day mom had been carrying my bag (you know, the one i made?) and it had my water bottle and my book and my food and my money (which we were going to change that day to the swedish kronor so that i could USE it lol) and my notebook and my pocket watch and my everything i needed that day.... mom didnt put the lid on tight enough.... and you see where this is heading? yeah, so since my bag is so though thick a fabric and such we didnt know it was leaking for a while.... and everything got drenched.... its sad, but i think i lost a couple of poems because the ink bled in my notebook and then my book book is kinda ruined... well its rather water damaged still readable, but it wasnt mine.... i dont know what to do, i think i will have to buy Tammy a new book... (it was A Clockwork Orang if you are interested) and i didnt get to change my money that day because they dont take wet money.... *sigh* oh and i had to walk around stockholm with my bag empty and inside out, with a lot of crap in my hands looking like a idiot lol (not that bad, but kinda funny lol)

OH! i forgot about the outside part of the viking museum! it was really cool to actually. paddy thought it was the greatest part. you could do a lot of neat things like bake viking bread (flat bread lol) and dress like a viking, and carve ruins (yes with actual rocks and chisels, my god sweden is so trusting of its children! which is a good thing i think) there was even a place to do a 'archeological dig' but you had to sign up for it and i think pay a little more, anyway, it was full by the time we got there. there was also viking games, to make better warriors of course! like you could sit on this log that was held up by other logs, and you and another person facing you had pillows, and you had to knock the other one off without falling off yourself. paddy LOVED it even though he wasnt that good, he even made a friend! kinda, they played the game quite a few times and the other little swedish boy won every time, it was really cute ^_^ mom even told me that when they were in the cafe (they went without me, i was still in the exhibit lol) the little boy showed up and sat with paddy instead of his own family! which is just really sweet i think, because they couldnt understand each other at all! i mean they would talk at each other, but neither understood the other's language! but they were cute :D

anyway! so yeeeeah, kiegan like museums and likes to spend a lot of time there... lol

i am sorry that i have yet to tell you about yesterday and today but i have to go to bed, it is almost midnight and mama says... anywho! loves to all! especially my poor dear suffering lover lol!

night!

*K

PS I FINALLY STARTED RUNNING AGAIN! yay me!

pps i hope to have more pics up sometime soon!