Snow Day!

Well. Ok. Not really.
For some reason classes weren't cancelled today, despite the
SIX INCHES OF SNOW!!

After class we all went out into the huge snowy field and built snowmen!

Two snowmen, to be precise.


Actually... to be precise, a Snow-Pope and a Snow-Luther.


Yes.


I know.

Somehow we wound up taking teams, and Summer and I took the side of Pope Snowius III (because his name was so awesome)... and Snowius and Luther started an inevitable argument...

Seriously? You thought Snow-Luther and Snow-Pope could be in the same field together? no no no

Here's how it went:


Snow-Luther: Heyyy Snowius, you've got a huge bootie! (he did by the way... we could both stand on it) Oh and by the way I've got a hammer and some nails!
Snow-Pope: You get yosef away from my church doors! VANDALISM!!
Snow-Luther: Whatcha gonna do, hit me in the head with your potpourri holder?
Snow-Pope: Get back here Wormface! I send my legions afta you!

at which point Summer and I, being the Papal legions, tackled Snow-Luther, yelling "Counter-reformation in yo face, Lutha!"


If you have never tackled a snowman, you MUST. At some point in your life. It is one of the most rewarding experiences ever.

Also one of the dampest experiences ever... we were completely soaked afterwards. Brr!


After that the Reformation Minions tackled Pope Snowius III and the church leaders turned into snowforts for the massive 40 person snowball fight that ensued. It was pretty amazing.

Yet another of those amazing moments that would probably only happen with homeschoolers.

what i'm doing right now

working on my gown for the Civil War Ball... the color doesn't show up well in pictures, it's not that reddish in person.

Drinking loose-leaf tea (it's so much better than bagged! i'm a tea-making queen. ya! come have tea with me sometime and see!)

...and then it just got silly. I'M A SEWING MUPPET!!

dut doo dah dah dum.... manamana!

hey monolog, check out my t-shirt. yes, it's the awesomest ever!

thomas p. stalker insurance is watching you

I told you I had some stories to tell. #1:

Last weekend my friend Emily came over, and we went to see the late Heath Ledger's last movie, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus


-which, by the way is amazing. Go see it! Terry Gilliam, of Monty Python, produced/directed/visualised it, and it is gorgeous and wonderful, and somehow they managed to work around the whole "the star died" thing quite well.-


and when we got out, we went over to the mall to eat and watch the ice skaters. So, we're walking around, minding our own business, when suddenly, out of the blue, looming in view, I catch sight of a group of people I know.


Ok, you're thinking, why is this a problem? Isn't it ok to see your friends?


Ah ha ha ha. I thought you might be missing the idea.

You know the kind of friend who you kind of know, and you'd be completely fine with hanging with them, and you're both friendly when you see eachother in class and in your comfort zone (aka the place where you're accustomed to seeing them) ? The ones you like but you're not so sure how they feel about you?

[silence...silence...bueller...class, anyone?...bueller?...]


No? It's just me? Bah. Sheep, you lie!


WELL, thats the kind of friends these are, except one, who I know rather well, BUT I have reason to suspect a slight crush is happening there (on his side, not mine) and therefore I tread lightly.


So for many reasons, its awkward to see this feller away from all the old familiar places. Emily and I are standing there, in the store, and all of a sudden I COMPLETELY freak out, panic, grab Emily's arm and dive behind (more inside, really) a clothing rack to hide until the storm (aka large group of aquaintances) has passed.


Well, you know how it always is after you've insanely hidden from perfectly nice people. No? Just me again? Well, after that little adventure we felt as though we had to keep on hiding, and therefore logically decided that stalking them around the mall was the safest method. Think about it, if you're following them, there's no chance of them coming up behind you, suprising you, and finding you out! So we proceeded to stalk.


How did we not realise at the time how weird this all was?


After a while, we lost them, and decided to go get some coffee and watch the ice skaters fall on their booties. So we're sitting here in a little low fenced table/sitting/eating area, just minding our own business, when the awkward group comes and sits right behind me. Now, we'd been sitting there for a long time! We were ready to leave already! And add the people we're avoiding to the mix, and we really realllly wanted to leave. Panic panic panic.


Cue fat lady and baby stroller.


The best way to illustrate this is, in fact, with an illustration:

So we escaped, ate sandwiches, and today while looking at some of awkward friend's pictures I discovered that they went to the same sandwich place we went to... FIVE MINUTES AFTER WE LEFT.

AAAAAAA!!!

Happy Ugly Sweater Day!

Tonight Layne and I went ice skating to celebrate both Christmas, Ugly Sweater Day, and Talk With a Fake British Accent Day. Turns out the Galleria has the largest indoor Christmas tree in America! We feel fancy now.

Aaa! Big tree is coming to get my ugly sweater! Now... I feel burdened to say this. The sweater I'm wearing is my dad's (that's why it fits so awfully... I'm not really rectangular, people)... and I want to clarify that on him it is a really awesome Christmas sweater. It's simply the fact of a girl wearing it that makes it that. On him? Not ugly. On me? Um, yeah.

We got to the rink during an ice dancing show, so we had to wait an hour... so we tried on formal gowns!

I love the picture on the left. While we were in the store we talked in British accents the whole time. It was FUN!

Finally on the ice... we had to accept that we looked like spazzes. Yikes. We got pretty good by the end though, I could skate on one foot like a fancy swan.

...My teeth freak me out in this one. Actually I look pretty awful in all of these. Oh well. The sweater in person was more of a Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping kind of look... not just... like... Frosty the Snowman.

We named the tree Bill, and decided that someday we will be in charge of decorating it, and will put a moustached face on it. Yes!

There was this really cute guy there, and he was an amazing skater! Fancy jumps and stuff! Plus, later on he put on a really awesome logger hat with a fur pom-pom on top. Nice.

Waiting for the Zamborghini to be done (isn't my face crazy red!?haha). Yes, a Zamborghini is a really fancy Italian Zamboni.

Attempted ice dancing. We both fell down only once!

We're gonna make this a tradition, it was so much fun... even though I'm partially dead today. My feet blister really easily because they're shaped funny from so many broken toes. Plus we skated for TWO 1/2 HOURS. Go us! Next year, however, our costume of choice will be... ugly sweaters, funny stockings, sparkly ice princess eyeshadow, and FLUFFY TUTUS!

(p.s. the winter olympics are my favorite.)

(p.p.s. i was a little scared of ice skating, and i'm not now... so theres something off the list!)

It Must Be Stopped

Because of where I am sitting to study, every time I look up I see a mirror.

and because of some weird genetic trait that somehow nobody in the Pyles family has noticed yet, every time I do this, I make a face.

Not a cute, look at me making a cute little face kind of face. An "oh, I'm so sorry I just made your children cry" kind of face. The sort of face that makes me despair of ever making a pretty looking face again.

So... I tried to take a pretty picture. It didn't work. I dodged from myself.

And then the Pyles family face making genetic curse prevailed. I deleted those pictures.

This Must Be Stopped.

(i sent one of the genetic curse pictures to elliebird and it got tumbler'd. heed this warning!)