Seattle Trip with the Theater Peeps!

I've only been to Seattle a few times, once to head on a cruise to Alaska, once on our way to Victotia, Canada, and several times as part of the Schools on Trains program with Amtrack. 

We usually go up and hang out with some of our homeschool friends, but this time was a little different...

 

Photo cred: Andee Zomerman

Theater geeks/homeschoolers unite! Here you see about one forth of the cast of Journey Theater's upcoming production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! :)

From left to right: Mrs. Sprague, Johnny Miller, Faith Harper, Widow Douglas (me!), Ben Rogers, and Mrs. Harper (and Narrator).



The train left at 8:00am for the four and a bit hour trip up to Seattle. We managed to grab the cool seats on the train: instead of four rows of two chairs all facing the same way, two of our rows faced the back of the train so we could sit in groups of four facing each other and talk.

We talked about Journey, Disney, Comic Con, and what we would do in Seattle that day.  The Lindleys, Hardmans, and Zomermans decided to hang as a group. We finally chose to walk down to Pike Place Market, find some lunch, then on the way back to the train we'd stop by the library.

Or course, as soon as we got to Seattle and started walking through town, it started to sprinkle.

Then rain.

Then POUR.

It felt like we walked for miles! It was really just about half a mile, but you try walking through the pouring rain in a town you don't know well.


Anyway, we hid under our hoods, stuck together, and managed to survive the down pour :)







We finally made it to Pike Place Market, but we decided to eat lunch at a sit down restaurant rather than walk around the market and try to find random things to eat.

I wanted to go to Red Robin, but everyone kept shouting me down. Can't imagine why... something about there being one in Oregon so it's not as cool? :)

We ran once more through the rain over to Hard Rock Café. All of us kids order off the kids menu because it was just easier to read then the adult one. I ordered the fried chicken wings with fries and ranch for dipping sauce.

By the time we finished lunch, it had finally stopped raining! We walked back over to Pike Place Market. We browsed the different stands, watched them throw fish across the room, and generally tried not to lose each other in the crowds.

Around 2:30 we popped out by the original Starbucks. You can't go to Seattle without visiting it, so we stopped by and each order a drink. I got a small Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. Mmmm, so good!



By the way, did you know that the Starbucks logo is actually a mermaid with two tails?

Yeah, I didn't know that either until this trip...

I also didn't know why it's called Pike Place Market. But, you know, that's just me being me.


We wander around the market area for while. We found this guy that could play the accordion really well and it made me want to dance! Oh, we also went to see the gum wall.

I'm sorry, but that place is just disgusting...

And the smell? Yeah, ok... let's just not talk about it.


We started to head back for the train station at 3:30. On our way back, we stopped by the library for something I was really looking forward to! The four of us (Lindley girls and Zomerman girls) ran around the children's section and found all the books that go with all the Journey shows we've been in!



Photo cred: Andee Zomerman

It was awesome! Charlotte's Web through Tom Sawyer... we found them all! We even found a stuffed Cat in the Hat and Horton to go along with our Seuss books!

We made it back to the train station with half an hour to spare before we left! We passed the time by singing the cup song and making up harmonies on the spot. I guess that's what happens when you get theater geeks together :)

We boarded the Amtrak train at five and were soon on our way home. It was a long four hours, but we passed the time by visiting the dining car, keeping the younger ones of the party awake, and talking about Journey (or course!!).


The train pulled in early at 8:30pm, we said goodbye to our friends, and we were home by nine!

Definitely a wonderful, action packed day! :D

Pre-Audition Jitters?

[Note: All my facts about the audition experience come from Journey Theater Arts Group since that's the only theater group I've ever been with.]

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If you're a theater person, you know exactly what I mean.

You've been practicing your intro and audition song for weeks (hopefully), asking your friends if they're auditioning, reading up on the show, and trying to think of anything but that minute and a half when you'll stand in front of a room full of people by yourself and try to earn a spot in the show. In a word, terrifying.

That being said, I have my tenth audition coming up this Friday.


Oh, and in case your wondering, the sixty seconds right before you walk up to sing are just as terrifying the tenth time as they are the first time.


I have heard people say countless times, "Wow, I could never perform in front of four hundred people! No way!" But in reality, we find it a lot easier singing solo in front for four hundred strangers rather than forty friends.

This is the way I used to explain it: "If I mess up in front of strangers, odds are I'll never see them again so it doesn't matter. If I mess up in front of friends, I'll have to live with it forever."


Of course, now I realize that whole idea is kind of ridiculous. You should strive to never mess up, no matter who you're performing in front of.


And if we can't sing, act, or dance well in front of someone we know, how can we be told ways to improve? Face the audience here, pronounce this word this way, you're doing a dance step backwards... all these things we can't figure out by ourselves. We need our parents, our friends, and our directors to help us out and make our performance the best that it can be!

Ok, mostly just our directors at JTAG... but you get the idea.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't be afraid to sing solo for a minute in front of people that love us, support us, and want to see us do our best.

How Much Do You Smile?

This morning when I fell out of bed and stumbled downstairs, my mom had Good Morning America on. Just as I plopped down on the couch it went to commercial.

Not that I really cared that much... I was still half asleep and who likes the news anyway? But then the commercial caught my attention:

"The average person smiles 100 hundred times a day. Keep your smile clean with our new mouth wash!"

100 times, huh? I thought. 100 separate smiles... Well, I seem like an overly happy person sometimes. I wonder how many times I smile in day.

So I decided to count.

~~~

[Here's a word of advice. If you're trying to count how many times you smile naturally, don't think about smiling. It makes you want to smile.]

So I got up at eight o'clock this morning. (stop laughing! that's early for me!) We started school around nine with history, physics, literature, grammar, and vocabulary. I was up to about 55 smiles by this point.

Then I went upstairs to watch a video about personal finance by Dave Ramsey.

Needless to say, I'm now up to 79 smiles :) whoops, make that 80.

Dum de da de dum, now lunch time is done. Hot dogs and hamburger buns... that was fun to figure out! 93 smiles so far.

Continuing with school: Some art talk and I read a chapter from Chad Eastham book "The Truth about Dating..." et cetera. Gosh that book has a long name... it makes me smile just thinking about it! Speaking of smiling, I'm up to 107 smiles!

~~~

Wait a second... 107? I've already smiled 100 times today!! And it's only... 2:50 in the afternoon!

Well, I'd have to say I'm not the average person then... and really, who is? You can't generalize people that way. We're all unique. Some people may smile 300 times a day, some only 50 times, maybe some don't smile at all.

And there are different kinds of smiles: Big smiles, small smiles, shy smiles, happy smiles, rude smirks, and the polite I'm-smiling-but-I-don't-really-mean-it smile. It depends on who the person is and what they are feeling.

Then again, you can choose to smile... you can choose to be happy, right?


I really hope you're agreeing with me right now...


Say YES!!! Because you CAN choose to be happy! I don't understand how people can be grumpy or mad about nothing and say "Well it's not my fault that I'm mad!"

Sorry, but yes. It is your fault. Because you chose to feel that way.

Ok, example time... Say someone cuts in line ahead of you to check out at the store. You have three options:

1) Tap them on the shoulder, explain that you were already in line and that they cut in front of you, and ask them to move behind you in line. You'll probably be slightly annoyed all day.
2) Stare at them for a moment, sigh heavily, slouch against your cart and face-palm, and keep sighing heavily as they take forever checking out, trying to make it obvious how annoyed you are. Now for the rest of the day you'll notice every little thing that could every possibly annoy you.
3) Either you wait patiently for your turn to check out or you shrug and move over to the empty line next door where you have a nice chat with the friendly cashier about nothing in particular, and it leaves you in a happy mood.

Everyone should fit into one of those categories. Personal, I consider myself an option 3 kind of person and I know plenty of people that would be right there with me. I have known some that would be option 1 and just a couple that would definitely be option 2... but that doesn't matter right now.

What matters is, you have the power to decide what you feel about anything that happens to you.



Even if you have to be this guy, the only happy person in a room of rude, depressed, and angry people, be the one that starts the happy party!!




Now I'd like to challenge you. How many times do you smile?

Seriously, count. It's just one day. Make dashes on a paper if you have to.

When you're done, it'll makes you think about how many times you've been happy and how my times you could have been happy but you chose to feel differently.

Good luck :)

SMILE!!!

10 Things You Didn't Know About Disneyland

I LOVE Disneyland!

You have no idea. How. Much.

There pretty much isn't a day that goes by that we don't talk about Disneyland. We've been to Disneyland five times over the past eight years, and every trip has been different!

Sometimes I think we know everything there is to know about it because we love it so much, but there's actually a lot of hidden secrets we didn't know about!

And I bet you don't know these things either.

(Unless you're a Zomerman) :)

 
1) High up in the Matterhorn is a basketball court for cast members to shoot some hoops during their breaks.
 

2) Disneyland is home to feral cats!

I know this is true because I've seen some: one trying to get food from guests at the Hungry Bear Restaurant and one sleeping in between the tiny houses on the Storybook Land Canal Boats. But there are many rumors as to why the cats are there...

At the Hungry Bear Restaurant!

--Years ago, more than 100 were discovered living inside Sleeping Beauty Castle.
--They first showed up at Disneyland shortly after it opened in 1955, and rather than spend time chasing them away, park officials decided to put the cats to work.
--Park officials decided in 1955 that feral lurkers from Orange County wouldn't be treated as nuisances; they made them employees. Renovation of the Sleeping Beauty castle two years later quantified the problem: more than 100 cats were found living in the unused portion. Evil fleas then riddled the area, as well.

Well, whatever the story, I do know one thing for sure about those cats. They are very friendly!


3) At least three babies have been born at Disneyland.

You had better LOVE Disney if you were one of these luck three... and you have a good excuse to go to Disneyland of your birthday each year :)

 

4) The buildings on Main Street U.S.A. are decorated to look like they have three floors, but it’s just an optical illusion!

The buildings aren’t nearly tall enough for three stories, but the designers wanted them to appear bigger. The ground-floors are nine-tenth scales, the second floors are seventh-eighths, and the third floors are five-eighths.

 

5) If you buy a Mickey balloon in the park and later in the day it pops or flies away, you can get a replacement for free.

Well, as long as you have the receipt. How nice is that, though? You don’t have to spend another ten dollars!

 

6) George Lucus was on the old version of Star Tours

This is a very popular rumor which I’m not sure is actually true... At the end of the ride, just as the Starspeeder is about to crash into a fuel truck, a nan in the control booth ducks down, then stands up and picks up the phone. He really does look like George Lucas... but is it actually him, or just a man in costume?

 

7) The telegraph in New Orleans Square isn’t tapping out gibberish.

When you’re waiting for the Disneyland Railroad in New Orleans Square, there is a telegraph on the other side of the tracks. It continually taps out parts of Walt Disney’s opening day speech in a variant of Morse code used by railroads

 

8) George Lucas is mentioned in the Star Tours waiting line.

When you enter the line, you can hear the loudspeaker ask of an “Egroeg Sacul” to come to the booth. That’s “George Lucas” spelled backwards.

 

9) Opening day as a disaster.

Disneyland was built in only 365 days. Maybe they should have took a little more time...

-Asphalt that was poured just hours before opening hadn’t fully dried so women’s spike heels were sinking in Main Street U.S.A.

-VIP passes were counterfeited
-Double the expected number of people showed up
-Rides broke down.
-There was a plumbers’ strike so Walk Disney had to choose between drinking fountains or bathrooms (He chose bathrooms, thank goodness...)
-There were bare patches of dirt around the park, so Walt had his gardeners replant weeds from the parking lot and label them with long, horticultural-sounding names.

 

10) Real animals on the Jungle Cruise?

Originally, Walt wanted to put real animals on the Jungle Cruise, but (thankfully) zoologists convinced him that they would all be asleep during park hours.

Walt did win in one aspect, though. In the early days of the park, live alligators were kept in a pen near the turnstiles. They were removed after a while though, because they occasionally escaped into the lagoon. I would NOT want to be around when that happened!!



There you have it! Ten things you didn't know about Disneyland.

What's that? You want a bonus? Well, this one isn't true any more, but it's still really cool... :)

11) For short time, if you yelled "Andy's coming!" When around Toy Story characters, they would stop what they were doing, hit the ground, and act like toys.

I know! That would be awesome!! However, they don't do this anymore. People have come up with all sorts of different reasons for this like they can't do it because it scares little kids or several character actors got hurt falling.

However, I have a theory of my own and snopes.com confirmed it. Since this meme went viral, at least fifty people shout out "Andy's coming" within an hour and a half, opposed to when the characters would only hear it one or twice a day. Can you imagine if they still had to fall? They wouldn't be able to do meet and great!

The Best Camping Spot

We're not luxury campers.

Seriously!! Just try to ignore the ten solar powered flash lights. 

And the electric griddle.

And the mini-fridge...

ANYWAY. We generally only go camping once a year. Silver Falls State Park, site B37 (or B39), second to last or last week of August, three to four nights. Every year since 1999. Amazing.

That being said, don't take our spot!!!

This year we have booked two camping trips and we're planning on another. In fact, we leave for the first tomorrow! Our church holds the annual Village Family Camp Out at Nehalem Bay State Park and this is the first year we are actually going!

We've been to Nehalem Bay before. I visited Family Camp for the day twice, we all went camping on the forth of July there last year, and last Family Camp my sister, my mom, and I went down for the day on Saturday.

We have yet to find the perfect site though...

We look for these three things in the perfect camping spot:

1. Privacy (Why would you want everyone to see everything you're doing?)
2. Shade (Sun burns. Cancer. Death.)
3. Space (If you can stand in one spot and touch everything in your site... you're doing wrong.)

In that order.

So, if you're thinking about going camping, here are some local camp grounds you should try. True, we haven't been to some of these, but we're planning on it!

~Silver Falls State Park: We used to stay in B39 but a few years ago we realized the B37 had more room and lots more shade! But either way, those two are the best in the park.

~Nehalem Bay State Park: We haven't yet found our favorite site yet, but we're going to look around this weekend! Definitely recommend staying here :)

~Champoeg State Park: The other day, we drove down there to look around for the perfect site. I've been to that place once to visit my grandparents, but I was really little then.

Oh. My. Word

That place is huge.

Champeog is to Silver Falls like Disney World is to Disneyland.

We drove by two loops for tents, then a bunch of cabins and a loop of sites for large groups of people. We FINALLY found the two huge trailer loops. The trees were smaller, gave barely any shade, and no privacy what so ever. 

~Stub Stewart State Park: This place is also huge, but it's built on a hill so I guess they really had no choice. 

Man, if you go biking there? Leg. Workout. 

There are cabins, trailer spots, and tent sites. PLUS they have sites with barns where you can bring your horses camping and ride them on the trails there!

Where do you like to go camping? Do you have a favorite site?

The Pros and Cons of an Empty Calendar

I know you do this. Every time you find your calendar empty for a week, you always do a happy dance and think "I GET TO DO WHAT EVER I WANT!!!"

This has happened to me every summer. I'm extremely excited for school to be done, but just three (three!!) days into my glorious freedom, I'm utterly bored. It's hard to go from a daily schedule to... nothing.

True, this summer has been a bit different. My calendar has been packed and I've barely had time to breath!

Until this week. And guess what?

It's day number three.

~~~~

Well, ok I guess I haven't just been sitting around all day. I've actually been doing some things I've been meaning to do for a while.

And that's a good thing, but there's something to be said about having a filled out calendar instead of having these empty space starring back at you from the page.

So, let's see... during the school year I'm in a small group bible study, Journey classes and shows, and I do school (duh).

In the summer, I do none of those. Thus, giving me a lot of extra time.

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

The Cons of Having an Empty Calendar
1) Boredom
2) Watching tons of movies.
3) Never going outside because you don't have to go anywhere.
4) Excessive sleeping. You don't have to get up and go anywhere, right?
5) Becoming a Facebook/Twitter/Pintrest/Instagram  ADDICT.
6) Get used to talking to people over the internet
6.5) And when you do leave your house and talk to people, you don't know what to do.
7) You see your friends very rarely
8) [this is for those very, very strange people in the world...] You have to spend time with your family.

The Pros of Having an Empty Calendar
1) Spontaneous trips to the beach
2) Film a short movie with your friends
3) Sitting down to read a book
4) Time to write a book
5) Your can go for a walk whenever
6) You have time to play a board game with your family (I don't CARE how busy you are, you always have time for this!!!)
7) Dance
8) You can go see a musical
9) You can go swimming
10) Your can go camping
11) Your can go camping again because it's AWESOME
12) Visit a friend
13) Your can go on a road trip to no where
14) You can swing on a swing for no reason
15) You have time to learn a new skill
16) You're always free if anyone asks if you want to hang out

~~~~~

See? There are way more good than bad things about having an empty calendar! Now, I'm not saying you or I do all those bad things, but don't you think it's best to get up and do something before we get to that point?

The word "bored" does not exist in your brain anymore.

Zip. It's gone. I took it away.

You're welcome.


Now go have a great summer!!

Senior Year? Bring. It. On.

Why yes, I am horrible at keeping up on writing blogs.

Why am I doing it then, do you ask?

Read the tittle of this post. Go ahead, read it. I'll still be here when you're done.



Exactly.

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This is blog number five that I've made over the past couple years.

This one will be better. I SWEAR!

I figured since I'm going to college next year and life will be changing, I might as well keep track of everything I do and let you guys in on my not-so-crazy-but-still-awesome life and last year of high school. :)

~~~~~

Let's see... what have I done so far this summer?

1) I volunteered at my churches Vacation Bible School.

I was the photographer! Ever day I took lots of pictures and videos and put them all (or most of them) into a music montage that would be played the next morning. They were each about two minutes long, set to one of the songs from VBS, and they each took about two hours to make.

I loved every minute of making them :)

And before you ask, yes they had to be perfect. I have to strive to make everyone of the videos I create perfect or I can't watch it without saying, "I could have done better."

If you want to see one of these styles of videos I made, you can check THIS one out. It's a summary of our past five trips to Disneyland!

...I'm a little addicted to Disneyland.


2) I wrote a book.

Yes. You read that right. A whole book.

Well, ok I haven't actually finished because it's really long... But I only have a few chapters to go! I wrote this book as a part of Camp NaNoWriMo. Those letters that are all smashed together stand for National Novel Writing Month which is actually in November, but it's so much fun that the website that organizes it decided to make an online 'camp' in July! I wrote 51,042 words in July which boils down to 89 pages.

To keep us motivated to write every day, my sister, my friends Andrea, and I made a Facebook called Cabin ACE (our initials) where everyday we would do these challenges relating to our book, i.e. Find a song that describes your book perfectly, draw the floor plan of your main character's home, and make a Facebook page on a document for your main character.

If you plan on writing a book, I highly recommend teaming up with some friends to keep you motivated.


3) I bought a Nook HD+

I know. I don't usually buy things like this. But I've always thought they were really cool and I've kind of always wanted one. I've been spending the last 24 hours trying to figure out how to add book to my library... hm. Do you know how to work this thing?

And both sets of my grandparents have more techy things than I do.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

4) I've watched season 1-5 and almost all of season 6 of Psych.

Wow. Ok. This show...!!

If you haven't see it -- Psych is a murder/mystery/detective/etc show that is SO different from any other murder murder kill kill show out there.

And the pineapple thing? Wait, let me Google this to see if I got it right... Thanks Google. So, for some reason someone decided to put a random pineapple in a few episodes. Trust me, it's hilarious when it shows up but I don't really get-- Wait, what? There's a pineapple in every episode??

...I will definitely be looking for those now.


~~~~~

Well, I think that's it for today... I'm going to go finish editing the second episode of Star Trek: Rogue Faction that I'm working on :)