I'm Back!!!! And With a Good Excuse Too!!!

Ok ok ok... I know what you all are thinking. My wonderful readers are all wondering..."WHERE ON EARTH IS CATIE AND WHY HASN'T SHE POSTED IN 18 DAYS!?!?!?!?!?" Well my goodness! If you would just give me a chance to explain, I would do so! How rude indeed to go shouting in my face like that, when I intended to post about- oh yeah, that was me shouting up there. Um... let me just explain my absence. In my last post, I promised to not post anything else, till I did my next day in the Utah series. (Series, man that sounds cool! to be doing a "Series" doesn't that just have a cool little sound, as if this blog is really worth something???) Anyway, the little journal that had my days recorded in it is currently missing in action. Rumors that it was last sighted at our computer desk have been floating around, and a search party is currently underway. So as you can see, I could not post because I could not find my journal, and I couldn't break my promise, which I just broke anyway and now Holly has to come and glare at meeeee!!!!! Speaking of which, I am sure most of you know Holly. (Who doesn't?:D) Anyway, she just got back from nationals at Texas, and on their way back, her mom got hit by a taxi, and was injured. (Nothing serious, as the reports tell me.) So be keeping Holly and her family in your prayers!!! Ta ta for now!
~Catie

Poor Short little post... *Tear*

This will be a short post, and then I PROMISE that if I post anything besides my next day in Utah, I will gouge my eyes out and cut my fingers off!! :[ .......... onnnnn second thought, maybe I will just let Holly come and glare at me... yeah, that should do it.

OK, I am sure everyone can guess, but this will be an almost pointless post. Sadly, there will only be one purpose for this little post. I understand how hard it must be for a post to be honored enough to make an appearance on my blog, and then serve such a small purpose, but then again, its getting awfully hard to find content posts these days, no matter what purpose they serve! Sorry, I am getting off topic here. Just wanted to let you all know that last night, I officially became a highschooler!!! Yup..... That’s it. Told ya this was pointless. Nothing more to say. Absolutely nothing. So I guess this is good- WAIT!!! I JUST REMEMBERED!!! Last night I had a really weird dream. If you want to find out what it was, go to Xanatos on my links, click comments on the first post at top, and read the last comment by me. There me dream be. Well what do ya know? This post had more than one purpose after all!

~Drama Queen

S.P.A.M.

Once again, I apologize to my readers for my delay in posts. I know you all have been anxiously waiting the next day in Utah, but a more urgent post awaits your eyes. What is it??? Read on to find out!

Yesterday, I got back from a really fun camping trip in Yosemite. It was my last junior high trip I will ever have, because this was the eighth grade final hurrah!! Now, the drive up normally takes about four or five hours. However, this trip happened to take place on Memorial Day weekend, and we were on the road for EIGHT HOURS!!! Fortunately, the only people in the car I rode in were Atalie, Emma, Claire, and Mr. Bailey. Compare this to the other car with... never mind. Most of you wouldn't understand what a big mistake it is to travel with the people in that van. It makes me shiver just to think about it! Anyways, we did get there eventually, and the background was amazing!! Yosemite is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth. Now, I could bore you all with a bunch off little details, but I won't, because the second half of this post is going to be dedicated to one thing in particular.

I will give you a hint or two. Think about the most disgusting thing you ever ate, and then multiply that by five. Now imagine the worst name ever given to a "Food" product. OK, now picture in you mind a flat pinky object looking like a cross between a piece of salmon, and a cow pie. If you still don't know what it is, just peek up at my title, and you should know by now. That's right, it is S.P.A.M. Not Spam, S.P.A.M. Want to know why I spell it that way? It cause it is not a name, it is four letters describing it, and they just so happen to spell something. Slimy, Putrid, Awful Mush! And THAT is how the name spam came about. Most people don't know this fact, mostly because I made it up... but it needs to be made known!! So by now, you may be wondering how I got from camping to spam. It’s really quite simple. Spam was brought along on the trip as a food source, and people actually ate it!!! I can not believe why anyone would want to put something so revolting into ones mouth. you ask my friend Holly how she feels about spam, I am pretty sure the answer would end up much like this post. Some may think, "Aw, its not that bad!" But may I remind you, that when you get a weird message in comments, what is it called? SPAM!!! That’s right, they needed a name for junky messages, and spam fit the bill! So now all of my reader know more about how I feel about spam then they will ever wish to know. I call that a job well done!

Oooo... The Suspense! Did I get the Job???

Ha ha, I love this picture!! I think my cousins baseball team was the dogers, so after the season was over, his family burned the hat!!! Ahhh... wish I could have been there. Back to the real post!

Well hello everyone, and welcome back to LIFE OF THE TEEN DRAMA QUEEN! There isn't really much to write about... oh yes, I do have one thing. You may remember back in April when I applied for a job at Oak Park. If you do not remember, then you obviously are not being faithful in reading my blog, and should be punished severely! Jk... So they finally got back to me, after I called twice and showed up to question when I could hear back........ I didn't get the job. BUT, that is only because they already had everyone they needed for that year, and the lady told me that I should try again next year, and I looked promising. So please, no comments saying, "Oh I am sooooo sorry, you must feel awful!" Cause I do NOT feel awful! I am perfectly fine with my current situation, so no sympathy cards!! (which reminds me, Michelle was going to give my debate partner Tim a sympathy card for having to put up with me at tournaments!! she never did though ;D) So I guess that’s just about it for now... stay tuned for more Utah journaling soon to follow!

~Catie!!

Gone. (Like yesterday is gone, like history is gone, just try to prove me wrong, and pretend like ur immortal!)

Hey ya all, welcome to Life of the Teen Drama Queen! I am Catie Rowlands, your host for today, and I hope you enjoy yourself thoroughly! As I write this, we are getting ready to leave for a father daughter retreat, and I will be gone till Sunday. So if I am not commenting on any simply splendiferous posts of yours, do not be dismayed, and think I am not interested. Just gone, that's all. Last year, it rained half the time, and we even had some thunder and lightning! Oh, and if you haven't read Michelle's blog recently, we just started taking horseback riding lessons. I didn't really enjoy our first lesson, cause I was on the verge of starvation, but I cant wait for the next one. So that’s pretty much all that’s going on in my life, so ta ta for now, and see you all sometime or another!
~Drama Queen.

P.S. In case you didn't know, the title comes from a song.

Day Five at Utah

This dog is our host familys dog.

Ok everyone; sorry about the delay... here is what you all have been waiting for.

DAY 5 AT UTAH

I woke up early, and couldn’t get back to sleep! We couldn’t find the leftover cinnamon rolls, so cereal for breakfast again. Last night, Michelle got to ride her host family’s horse bareback! She has a great family, as do we. Today, we passed out doorknob signs instead of flyers. It was FREEZING today!! And when I say freezing, I mean freezing! It SNOWED on us twice! Just tiny little flakes and they melted really fast, but still! Snow I tell you, SNOW!!! (The previous was unedited from my journal; to show you how furious I was with the weather) I have a nice warm fluffy jacket back at the house...sigh. Some people wore flip-flops... poor them! Nothing much happened the first two rounds. We stopped at a gas station for a loo break. I got a French vanilla cappuccino, and it was warm and wonderful. So we got round 3-4 done, and piled into a car. We had so many people, that some were hanging on the sides. Except for the cold blasting wind, it looked fun. I lost count of how many rounds we have done. We are going to lunch now, thank goodness! I am SO getting something warm. It was an awesome Mexican restraunt. We got to choose what went on our meals. It started to snow while we were eating. It was more like balls then flakes, so I called them snow dots. They were really cool. Once again, another long noisy car ride coming up. We stopped at a giant hunting store, and I got some cool stuff. Rachel got a giant stuffed fish, it was funny! Next we went to a place called thanksgiving point. I milked a fake cow! But water came out instead of milk thank goodness! Elise Michelle and I split an ice-cream Sunday. It was pretty tasty. A funny thing to eat on a cold semi-snowy day. Our ride to our next destination was very long and boring, as well as loud and annoying. We went to a collage coffee shop. They had two cute dogs. After a quick tour, we sang and had a little Bible study. The topic was people who did great things for God, I think... after that, we bought drinks, talked and played X-box 360. Elise was terrible at the games. I did ok, not to good, not to bad. So now we are back in the car. You probably could guess by now, but we have a van full of caffeinated hyper juinor highers. As it is 9:48 at night, this can bring no good. Sigh... sometimes I wonder if it is physically possible for some of them to be semi-quiet for five minutes! They probably even talk in their sleep! Can’t wait for tomorrow, I will be SURE to bring my big coat.
~Catie

Coming Soon!

DAY FIVE AT UTAH: Stay tuned for more exciting Morman filled Utah style fun, soon to air here on Life of the Teen Drama Queen.

Curtosy of yours truly, Drama Queen.

Intruders!

Last night started out as any ordinary night, except for two things... my window was open, and my dog was under my covers. Interesting... anyway, in the middle of the night, I was awakened to hear Beamer barking and growling on my bed. I did all I could to shoosh him, worrying that he might awaken the rest of the household. Normally, when Beamer begins barking randomly in the night, he will give up suddenly, and nose his way back under my covers, plop down on my feet and give them a good washing. (My feet, not the covers) But this time, he did not calm down and insisted on growling every five seconds, despite my well aimed whacks on his rear. After this had gone for a while, I heard Michelle's door beads jingle, meaning that someone was either leaving, or entering her room. At first, I was relived, thinking that Beamer was growling at Michelle, and she had probably just gone to the bathroom, and after she was back in bed, Beamer would calm down. At the same instant however, I also could not help but picture a knife wielding man leaving her room after finishing the job, and was coming for me next. Obviously I was not thinking clearly, being the middle of the night. So with this in mind, I was really quite relived when Michelle thrust her head in my room and loudly whispered, "We are being T.Pd!!!" I jumped out of bed, grabbed Beamer and hurried to my parent’s room, where Michelle was informing them of the news. I was also praising Beamer for his warning, even though I hadn't believed him. My dad was getting out of bed, and Michelle told him to get his new automatic airsoft gun. To my relief, he obeyed. We crept downstairs and peeked out our front door window. Sure enough, our front yard was sparsely littered with toilet paper, and there, working on our car, was a tall girl. My dad burst open the door, and fired a few rounds into the air, while shouting something, though I am not sure what. The girl began to run, and I followed, at the advice of Michelle to get the license plate number. I repeated the number out loud a few time to remember, while the girl hopped into her car and speeded off. As I hurried back to the house, I immediately forgot the number, as Michelle called out to me that there was another girl hiding behind the car. And there she was, with a hood held tightly around her head, preventing me from identifying the culprit. I called out to my family that, "Some person" was back here, and she began to run. I followed, but not to get the license number. I was curious as to the identity of the scoundrel. As she struggled to unlock her car, I managed to pull off her hood enough to tell that she was our neighbor and friend, Bethany Benson. BUSTED!!!!! Whoo ya, we caught her and her little friend whom I do not know red handed! Turns out, all the seniors were T.Ping all the juniors, which in this case, would be my brother who slept through the whole thing. So I returned once again to our home, and cleaned up a bit. Fortunately, our culprits were amateurs, and used extra strength T.P, which is very easy to clean up. So next time anyone decides to T.P. the Rowlands house, keep in mind a few tips.

1. Never come on a warm night, windows WILL be open.
2. Michelle does not sleep well on warm nights. (She didn't discover the crime because of Beamer, she heard people outside!)
3. We have an alert little dog, which will spend almost every night snuggled down by my feet, and he likes to bark at intruders.
4. Don’t use thick toilet paper, that stuff is SOOOOO easy to clean up, use the thin stuff.
5. We WILL find you, whoever you are, and we WILL seek revenge!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!

How Many Times do I HAVE to go Over This???

Picture above has nothing to do with the post, I just thought it was cute.

Hello everybody, I am back! I hope no one got to wondering where on earth is Catie Rowlands, and why hasn't she posted, but I have a worthy excuse for my absence. Since Thursday, and up till Wednesday at noon, I have been gone at a speech tournament, I came home Saturday night, and then the next day at one I left for a debate tournament. The results of my tournaments will be posted in a later post. After all this, I was utterly exhausted, up to the point I was unable to post till today.

There you have it, a 100% fully legitimate excuse for my absence. However, it is not I, but YOU who should be giving the excuses. Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen, there is a serious problem here on Life of the Teen Drama Queen!! What is it? YOU’RE LACK OF COMMENTS!!!!! Come ON peoples, we have been through this before! Do you realize that in my last FIVE posts, three out of those five have TWO COMMENTS!!!!! And the others have five...and three. Something is wrong here, dreadfully wrong, and I expect full explanations for each and every one of you out there who have neglected their duties as commentators. You may be saying, "But you have not commented on MY blog," But I have an excuse, you do not. Ok, sorry about the obvious fury, I will try to control myself. With that being said, I will be obliged to discontinue my Utah series until further notice.

One more thing before I am done, my linking thing-a-ma-jigger is going bonkers on me, so if your blog has not been linked, and you are a regular commenter, I apologize.

Day Four in Utah

Ok everyone, sorry about forgetting to put a picture in my last post. I forgot, but will try to do better this time.
Day 3
We had an AWESOME breakfast today. Sausage, eggs, orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, juice and more! Oh my goodness, our family is sooooo nice, and they have a long history of pets. At the church, Derrick gave us a talk about the day, and we were off! Another loud car ride…. Sigh. Our first round, nothing of interest happened. Kayla Danielle and I were a group together, and we all stuck little flyers advertising Derricks church, and a Christian book store on peoples door mats. Who knows what will happen with these flyers. (Actually, God knows!) I was terrified that someone might open the door as I was leaning over to stick a flyer under a mat, but no one ever did. So after three rounds, I was starving!! (Despite that big breakfast) still nothing exciting, except when Kayla tripped and lost her shoe. Now, the way this all worked was: Derrick would drop off a group or two at a street, show us a map and give us instructions, and we would walk down, and stick a flyer under a door mat, or through the door handle. After round four, while Kayla and I were making our way to the back of the van, Derrick gassed the car and it jerked forward a bit. I was already partly seated, so I just thumped down a bit, but Kayla was still standing, and she went flying down on her back into an empty row! My goodness she looked funny, feet in the air and all! Fortunately for her, we were the only ones in the van. Round five was nice and peaceful. On our street, it was our group and Michelle's group. Plus, the weather cooled down a little, which felt very nice. By now, I was VERY thirsty. Next, we went to the church for a little bit. After a race to the loo, Michelle invented a fun new game. Plus, I got a drink from the drinking fountain. Water at last… we had lunch at Chilies. It was very tasty. While getting into the van, Michelle tore her jeans on a place an arm rest had broken off! The funny thing was Max did the same thing coming in after her! So after driving forever, and after walking forever, we took a tour at the Brigham Young University. All we did was walk around on a roof and a guy explained what the different buildings were. My feet were tired of standing, so the tour wasn’t that great to me. But we did learn that Mormons paid less than non Mormons. Interesting… When we went home, we had a wonderful meal. It filled me up! This is a picture of Morphy by the way. After that, we played with Molleigh, (the daughter of the daughter who lived downstairs… she is nine) and did her dolls hair. This little girl is more mature than the rest of us! She has such patience with her little brother. Ttfn!!!
~Catie

Stay tuned for more Utah stories, here on Life of the Teen Drama Queen!!!

Day three in Utah

OK, time for day three at Utah!

Day 3

I scared Danielle this morning!! Ha ha!! (You will have to ask me what I did; I don't feel like writing it down, as it was not recorded in my journal) For breakfast, I had cereal and milk, but not together. The parents came home this morning, and were very nice. (OK, kinda complicated situation, but the mom and dad drive a truck most of the week, one daughter is married and living in the basement, (which is really nicer than the top floor) and another daughter lives upstairs and is getting married) In the car, we found Stephanie’s camera. We all sang, "Happy Easter" to the tune of happy Birthday in the camera, so that when she checks her photo's she will find a video of us! (At the time I wrote this, she didn’t know yet, wonder if she ever did find it...) The church service was great...they had coffee and cookies! Oh no, caffeine... So after the service, we went to lunch. I had enchiladas, but they were cold. So then we stopped at all the houses so we could change into casual clothes. I went like lightning! We then went to Wall-mart and played a fun game: everyone got one dollar, and the goal was to buy as many things as you could with just that dollar. I only got three colors of embroidery thread, so I lost by far! But they were pretty colors, and I will use them. Back at the church, we played hide-and-go-seek, and apples to apples. After that, we all just talked for a while. Boring, I know. For dinner, we went to sonic. They had tator tots!!! In everyone’s mad race for the coveted 'back seat' max got pushed down a ditch! Oh dear, I think Aaron was the culprit. Back at the church, we listened to testimonies of different people. They were awesome! I am sooooo hyped about tomorrow!
~Catie

My First Job!!

This will be another short, almost pointless post. Before I go into the specifics, you all may have been noticing how often I post nowadays. In the beginning, I would on average do one or two posts a month! My very first post actually stated that I would probably never be able to do one every day, but more like once a week. No, I am not trying to demonstrate my superior frequency in posting, I just happen to read my friends blogs more. And now that I actually READ blogs, I can fully appreciate a frequent poster. Now I will move on to the real reason for this post. Today, I filled out an application for (Hopefully) my first real job! You may be thinking what kind of job can there be for a 14 year old. I landed mine at a nearby swimming pool and tennis court area called Oak Park. If I do actually get the job, I will be working in the snack bar, maybe not the best job in the world, but it would be my first one and I am really excited that I might get my first job before Johnny gets his first job! Plus, Oak Park is really close to our house, so I could ride my bike there. I will let you all know if I do actually get the job. If not, I still have babysitting to earn my cash.

Day two in Utah

I was unable to get a picture in, so just use your imagination.

For today's post, I shall give you the second day of my Utah trip, straight from my journal, with a bit added, and a bit removed for full clarity among my fellow bloggers, and readers.

Day 2

I woke up with a cat on my ‘bed’! Our host family has three cats, one of which is a kitten. This cat, named Morphy, was very cute. I wasn’t very hungry this morning, having eaten a rather large dinner the day before, so I had milk for breakfast. (Sorry to bore my readers with pointless details, remember, this is from my journal) We were second to be picked up of all the girl groups. Don’t know (or care) where the boys are. So all the girls got picked up, and we met at the church for a quick overview of the day’s events, and we were off in the vans again. Our first destination was a lady who used to be a Mormon, and she told us all about the different things about their religion. When she showed us the outfits for temple marriage, I wanted to laugh out loud, they were so ridiculous! After we were done, she let us take some free pamphlets about different things relating to Mormonism. After that, we went to this creepy place called Hard Rock Café, with weird pictures, weird music videos, the place creeped me out! After lunch, we went in a mall for a bit. I sampled a hand lotion that smelt like cinnamon, and quite honestly, I loved it! A few of us girls went into a fancy clothes store, and Elise, Michelle and Kayla tried on some fancy dresses. Kayla was the only one who fit in her dress, (cause the others didn't realized there were zippers on the sides) and she looked beautiful in it! Next, we went to Temple Square, where the big Mormon ‘HQs’ are, in a way. We took a tour from two nice ladies. I felt bad whenever they mentioned things that I disagreed with. After the tour, we saw some brides and grooms after their weddings. The brides all had lovely dresses, and it made it hard to believe they had been dressed so ridiculously earlier. We saw one couple dressed before the wedding, and I just couldn’t believe how silly the would look very soon. We drove to a gas-station next, and got drinks. Many people got and drank energy drinks with two servings in them! EEEKK!!! We ate at another mall for dinner. I had Subway, and it was gooood! Some of us girls went ‘shopping’ but we only had ten minutes, and not one spent so much as a penny! For the car ride to our host homes, at least the boys were in a different car…peace at last! So we got home, watched the end of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the end of Pride and Prejudice, and the beginning of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Time for bed!
~Catie

A short meaningless post

This will be a very quick post, having nothing to do with my Utah trip. Sadly, the only purpose this post has in life is to inform you that I finally figured out how to have fun with my blog settings. To the well trained eye, and a faithful reader of Life of the Teen Drama Queen, it is possible that you might notice the different colors and design, the font for posting, the picture of a cute little hamster when I comment, even the color of the font!!!

Warning! In the very near, or very far future, you may experience blog changes within, or without. Do not be alarmed! These are all normal and necessary tests to determine the authors likes and dislikes of her blog.

My Marvelous Mission

I am quite sure that my fans out there are aware that I went to Utah over spring break for a mission trip. I had a wonderful time. I am also quite sure that you all are DYING to know how the trip went, and as I am not one to keep others in suspense, I shall gratify your ravenous desirer to learn about our mission trip. And so the story begins…….

On the trip, I kept a journal of each day’s events. The following several posts will most likely be excerpts from my journal for each day, with little bits added and removed for better understanding by my readers who would otherwise have no clue what I am talking about. Not that you don’t already……… anyway, before I begin the trip account, I must first cover some details that must not be underestimated in their worth for clarity in posts.

1: this trip took place in Utah. (No duh!)
2: Utah is almost completely inhabited by Mormons. (Or also known as LDS, (latter-day-saints))
3: Us little juinor highers, (There were 12 of us, eight girls, and 4 boys) were all paired up with a collage student. (Did I mention this was a collage/juinor high trip?) In a big bro big sis sort of thing.
4: Kayla, (My friend) Elise, (my arch nemesis) and myself had one collage girl between us, her name is Daniel.
5: we went to help out a church whose pastors name is Derrick smothers… he used to go to our church years and years ago.
6: I think that’s all the important details for now… so this time, the story will really begin!

Day One,
I woke up at six thirty, but didn't actually get up and shower till seven. My breakfast was scanty: String cheese, and a glass of milk. Michelle and I rode to the airport in the McAllister’s car with Elise Erin and Leigh. (All friends of mine, in a warped way…Erin is my best friend, but neither she nor Leigh went on the trip, as neither of them are in juinor high) we had a very musical ride. For lunch at the airport, Kayla, Michelle Elise and I ate at burger king. Elise had the most disgusting looking burger I had seen in eons… or maybe just months. We finally got on the plane. Kayla, Chelsea and I were in one row. I tried playing an in-flight trivia game, but alas! I am not gifted in the skills of trivia. Or in other words, I stunk!!! Michelle was better than me for crying out loud!! The flight was very short, and before we knew it, we were in Utah! A few of our cheap matching Utah
bags

broke during the flight. Poor Michelle was one of the unfortunates. All of our non-rolling duffle bags weighed a TON!! My poor shoulder was red before long, but eventually we got all the bags loaded in the cars. The ride to Springville took about an hour and I must say our van was far from quiet! Finally, we arrived at Derrick’s church, he gave us a talk about the next day’s events, and after that we were off to our host family’s houses. Me Kayla and Elise were all with Danielle. Michelle was all alone with her collage sis. Actually, she and Elise had the same collage sis, but Elise was with us for housing. So here we were watching sound of music on TV. Long day tomorrow!
~Catie

Stay tuned for more Utah stories, right here on LIFE OF THE TEEN DRAMA QUEEN!!!

To Scream or not to Scream, no Question Bout' That!

Some of my wonderful fans out there may be wondering a great many things at the moment you read this post. Maybe you wonder why I have been linking infrequent commentators, or what has been going on in my fun filled life? Allow me to try to answer them all in one post.

Starting with the linking. I got fed up with my rules about commenting, and I hate math, so now I will just link whenever I feel like it. If ur link is not up there yet, it most likely will be soon..... Or maybe not so soon. I don’t have all day ya know to just LINK LINK LINK!!!! I have a life here, so don’t worry.

Secondly, what has been going on in my life? To start out with, Johnny got his permit, and has started driving. The next two lines will now describe how I feel for his accomplishment.
AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There, now you know how I feel.

Also, this past weekend was a speech tournament for myself, and the self’s of others in speech clubs across California. All went well right up till the final round, in which I participated in. I had made it to finals in my speech on puppets, and as soon as I finished speaking, my voice started to drop. By the time I had finished packing up my speech stuff and was waiting for dinner in the gym, my voice was so bad I couldn’t even scream. I COULDNT EVEN SCREAM PEOPLES... DO YOU KNOW HOW DEVASTATING THIS IS TO A PERSON LIKE ME AT A TOURNAMENT WITH AN AWARDS CEREMONY AT THE END?????!!!?!?!?!?!? Since I still can not scream as I write this, I will now give one short yet loud scream in writing. Cover your fingers peoples, this could hurt. EEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! there, a strange scream in writing. Any ways, during the awards, while everyone else was screaming and clapping, I was left to: CLAP! Ya. CLAP! Ya. The WHOLE time. This tore me apart. And the worst part is, all my friends think it is wonderful that I can temporarily no longer be able to exert my voice to such lofty heights. Woe is I, the silent screamer. I can be thankful however that my voice wrecked after my last speech, which took fifth place I might add. Not bad really, two spots away from qualifying for nationals. However... this is NOTHING compared to some other peoples. My friends Holly and Tim qualified in their due, and Justin Willis at his first speech tourney ever, qualified. Yup, we all had fun. if I don’t comment or post for a while after this, its cause I am getting ready to go to Utah on a mission trip this Friday. That’s all folks!!

once again, this post is about snowboarding...

once again, the picture has nothing to do with the blog. i wanted u all to see our cute little pup.


After a short break in the blogershpere, I am back in the business. I suppose many of you are wondering about how our snow trip went. To cover the basics, no broken bones, temperatures very high, severe sunburns on arms and faces, snow very slushy, run away snowboards, and a narrow experience with the ski lift! After reading the above, you may be DIEING to know what happened with all that. I might be evil, and not tell you. Or, I might be nice, and describe my most memorable moment to you all………………….. ok, since you all have been SO good about commenting, then I shall tell you all about my harrowing experience with the lift. This was the second day, and us snowboarders were getting pretty good. Well, kinda good. Anyways, our moms suggested to come on the lift that leads to a bunch of intermediate and difficult runs. We agreed. Since the lift was a little bigger on this side, my mom said we should all three go together, instead of two on one, and one on the other. We decided that we would try it. I volunteered to be in the middle and we started down the line. As the chair was coming around and we were about to sit down, Michelle and Kayla, who were on each side of me, both sat down inward, leaving me nowhere to sit. If fell over, and since the lift did NOT stop, I twisted around and managed to grab the chair as it continued to move. I held on as it went higher, and higher, and finally they stopped it. By that time, my feet were dangling about four or five feet off the ground. In this tense situation, my mind was focused on two things only. 1: HOLD ON!!! DON’T LET GO!!!!! 2: this is really funny, I think im gonna laugh. I vaguely remember Kayla bursting into laughter and at the same time grabbing on to my hand and screaming that she would pull me up. I also saw some people running out after the lift stopped. One managed to grab my very high waist and scream for me to let go. I didn't hear this command for a little while. Partly because of my zoning brain, partly because of Kayla’s incessant laughter. I finally let go, and they helped me to an empty chair, and the lift finally started again. Some very important lessons were learned from that experience.
1: never have three beginner snowboarders on a small chair at the same time.
2: if the chair does not stop, don’t grab on to the chair.
3: beware of lift operators in conversation. (I mean, they should have stopped the lift as soon as I fell down!!!)
And so, you now know my most memorable and perhaps most embarrassing experience on that trip. Oh yeah, on our last run of the day, as Kayla and I were getting on that same lift, the lady operating it told me with a big smile on her face to not fall off. J That’s all folks!!!!

To Link or Not to Link...that is the Question

At last, I have finally figured out how to link! Actually, my mom kinda showed me how, but still! From now on, you shall always see those cool little blog names instead of some weird stuff that was on previously. You may notice I changed Johnny’s blog name a little, but surely you agree it was for the better. I mean, am I the kind of person who would lie about a name? NO, I am not. Some of you may also be wondering why your blog is not listed with the others. Here is why. YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN IGNORING MY FABULOUS POSTS!!!!! Here I have to newish posts, and the only ones to comment have been Michelle, my mom, Megan, and Stephanie!!!! Come on people, what is so hard about writing a short encouraging message to myself? And so, in light of this, my rules for linking go as follows:
Family members in my immediate family automatically get a link, despite how often they comment. In a prolonged absence of commenting however, I may be compelled to alter the name slightly.
Outsiders only get the COVETED privilege of having a link on my blog, if they average at LEAST a comment on every other post that I post, for about six posts. In the absence of comments for more than three posts after receiving a link, I may be compelled to alter the name slightly.
Lastly, if I happen to be a frequent reader of a blog, and LOVE it to death, I might, as a figure of my gratitude, link that blog. None of the commenting rules from above would apply, but if the blog started going down the tubes, I may be compelled to alter the name slightly.

I hope that now that you all are aware of my linking/commenting issues, my average comment number will increase. As I write this, my average comment per post is six. With your corporation, I hope to raise this average in the next, say two months to eight over a one week span after each post. Don’t make me come commenting on my own posts just to raise the average, I need help. And your the one to help. Plus, u get a link to boot! TTFN!!!!!

what i do when i am bored.

note to my readers. the picture to the right has nothing to do with my post. i was just bored, and thought the picture livened things up a bit.

Today is a boring day. Thus, I have nothing to say. Hey, I made a rhyme! Kool. I know that’s not how you spell cool, but its Kool to spell Kool that way. Well now, where was I? oh yes, I am bored today. Why? BECAUSE I AM EXCITED SILLY OVER GOING SNOWBOARDING NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!! Just to let you all know, our family RARELY gets out to the snow more than once a year. And to let you all know again, this will be our THIRD time!! WAHOO!!! THIRD I TELL YOU!! The first time, I just went skiing. The second time, I learned how to snowboard. (See previous post below, way below) and THIS time, Michelle, my mom, and Mrs Benson and Kayla Benson will all be heading out to the snow on Wednesday! We will go night skiing on Wednesday, and day skiing the next day. We will be spending the night at my aunt and uncles house, cause they live real close to where we are going. There, I let it all out. Now do you all know why I am bored around her? If not… THEN GET A LIFE. Jk, obviously you already have a life, or else you wouldn’t be reading this blog. For one thing, without a life, you kinda have to be dead. And another, only people with REAL lives would read my blog. So don’t get a life, just reread the above, and by now, you should understand why I am so bored. Yeah… so, Oh yea, Michelle will be teaching Kayla how to snowboard. That should be interesting, since this will be our second time ever… oh well, pray for no broken bones. Knowing us, I think we will NEED those prayers. Well, what else do I say? I have told you all you could ever want or need to know, and yet I must continue to write. WHAT CAN I SAY? WHAT CAN I DO? WHAT CAN YOU READ THAT IS SO INTERESTING THAT YOU JUMP IN THE AIR AND REDEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO COMMENTING ON MY BLOG?!?!?!? Ok, I feel better know. Sometimes, it is good to just let it all out. Oh man, I feel sooooooo good now. I guess I have nothing more to say, so… ta ta for now!

SnowboardingEXCLAMATION POINT

For some reason, the blogger thing won't let me do exclamation points, so bear with me EXCLAMATION POINT.

Well, its finally happened. After years of skiing, I have learned the intricate art of snowboarding EXCLAMATION POINT, EXCLAMATION POINT. *Pauses for applause* it is not an easy thing, to switch from skiing to snowboarding, especially since snowboarding is harder. Maybe snowboard to skis, that might do… but it takes the truly amazing one in a million special kind of skier to learn to snowboardEXCLAMATION POINT. And that truly amazing on in a million special kind of skier is me. EXCLAMATION POINT. *Pauses for a second round of applause* yes I, the great Catie Rowlands have snowboarded. Well, maybe its not as hard as all that, I mean Michelle and Johnny learned too, but it still is not nearly as easy as skiing. When you ski, all you have to really do is keep you feet from tangling, and learn to zigzag on the steep parts. But when snowboarding, you have to learn to lift your toes and heels to turn, how to stop, to get off a ski lift without crashing, (which is harder than it looks, trust me) and some other stuff. The hardest part definitely is going straight. The way I mostly do it, is a sort of zigzag, with my board almost completely long side forward. In fact, when a part got too steep, I would simply plop down on my bottom, and slide a little. I could pick up some good speed that way, sometimes better than snowboardingEXCLAMATION POINT. Then, when the hill wasn’t so steep, I would get back up, and continue down the hill in a more dignified fashion. I had some preeeeety good wipe outs, where one minute I would be sliding along controllably, and the next minute, I would find myself spinning out of control, my board leaving the snow, my back would go down and my feet up and I would end up lying down in the snow. Altogether, I had a blastEXCLAMATION POINT.