Tea party :)

Hello :)

So it's taken me a while to get them onto my laptop, but I have photos from my birthday! :)

My aunt let me use her house as the setting for my tea party. 

Everything was perfect.

(we mixed and matched tea sets to put a little bit of quirk into it. Also: yes, we had fig newtons. I'm weirdly obsessed with them.)

(Melanie and her lovely crayon art -- doesn't she look gorgeous?)

(Stephanie and I! She's so awesome.) :)

The tea party was absolutely wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for a more fabulous 17th.

~ in other news...~

School has fit right back into my routine as though it never left. 

Pre-Calculus is probably my hardest subject.

But then, math was never my strongpoint.

English, however, shouldn't be difficult to pass.

We're reading The Great Gatsby next semester. 

:D

I read it as a Freshman, but didn't really pay attention.

This time I'm super excited to read it, and will probably ace all of the quizzes. 

(fingers crossed!)

I seem to be very easily distracted lately. 

For example, I decided to take pictures yesterday for no apparent reason.

As you can see: totally random and without point.

But as they say: c'est la vie. 

I hope your weekend (and Monday) was fantastic.

xoxo,

Danielle

thoughts, Tristan, and toddlers

Hey :)

It's been a crazy week! 

This is my thought process:

Yesterday was fun!

I got 5 hours of community service hours through decorating (not a bad way to earn hours), and then picked up Tristan to hang out all day. 

There's no limit to the things you can do in a Super Target with lots of time to kill.

My sister and I stayed at Tristan's house for his great uncle's birthday party...

we didn't know his name until we sang Happy Birthday.

Also, apparently it's awesomely normal to sing Happy Birthday both in English and in Spanish when you belong to a family of Puerto Ricans.

It was cool.

:)

Earlier this week, I went to the Myraun's house to watch the kids for a bit.

They're so flippin' cute.

I'm pretty sure that the only time Hannah puts her feet on the table is when I'm there.

I don't technically encourage it, but it is pretty funny.

We ate pizza.

Phase 1...

... and Phase 2.

This is how Joey likes to blow on/lick his pizza.

Like I said:

 so flippin' cute.

I get to go back to their house today! :)

The weekend should be fantastic.

(Friday just so happens to be my birthday.)

However, since today is Wednesday (and not Friday), I'd better do my laundry.

Actually, Wednesday has nothing to do with it.

Mostly it's the issue of not having any clothes clean. 

xoxo,

Danielle

Friday Faves!

Hello, my lovelies.

:)

It's Friday once again.

Lately every day has felt like Friday, really.

There's less school, but just enough stress to make it... well, not Sunday. 

Anyway, here are my faves.

(1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7)
5 found on Pinterest.

Descriptions might be short today, seeing as my brain has seemed to have ceased functioning properly.

1) Well this is certainly a fantastic way to describe my utterly boring amazing life. ;)

2) How could this not be in my favorites? This one image represents the entire show quite accurately. (business and shenanigans mixed together to successfully cause bouts of unstoppable laughter.)

3) Banana nut pancakes :) Have I mentioned how much I love breakfast food? Because I do. Quite a lot. If you make me pancakes, waffles, french toast, pop tarts, oatmeal, or even cereal... well, we'll probably be best friends forever.

4) I thoroughly enjoy being around people that not only tolerate my weirdness, but include themselves in it. If you're around me enough, I can guarantee that you will experience such weirdness. I must say, it's relatively contagious.

5) This made me giggle so. much. I really want to draw faces on my fingers! I could make a whole family...

6) Carpe diem! You'd think that after so many years of Latin that I would get tired of seeing this everywhere, but recently I've decided that it is the vintage version of YOLO (a saying which I have always found quite annoying). However, I doubt 'carpe diem' will be popping up on t-shirts any time soon. 

7) This, my friends, is The Paris Opera House. Isn't it marvelous? Someday I will go there and temporarily satisfy my wanderlust. I'll dress up and everything. :)

Oh! I got my class schedule yesterday. 

Mom and I had a very long meeting with the principal, and we worked everything out. 

Ta-da!

(Yes, I will have plenty of trouble with Advanced Math... and possibly Anatomy.)

So, there it is. 

I swear, my summer is nonexistent. 

Everything revolves around school!

But hey, maybe it will flip and the school year will be an absolute breeze. :)

Well, I suppose I'd better get to watching Pride and Prejudice.

(I have such a hard life.)

;)

By the way...

I made pasta today.

Nobody was poisoned upon consumption.

I hope your weekend is as successful as my pasta.

xoxo,

Danielle

Car accidents. SATs. Green shorts. Kuersten.

Hey, y'all :)

Okay, so if you were on your way to Ocoee HS for SATs on Saturday, you probably saw a car crash.

That was me in my totally awesome green shorts.

But don't fret! I and the other driver are doing just fine, thank God.

It was actually kind of funny when a girl at the school went "Oh were you in the crash? I recognized your shorts."

So apparently it's not normal to be able to take the SAT right after a car accident, but I think I did pretty well.

If not, I'll have a perfectly good opportunity to re-take it next year.

This is what the rest of my day looked like:

(basically relaxing and not really doing anything)

I don't always eat chocolate, but when I do it's fancy schmancy chocolate from Europe. :)

(or whatever else we happen to have in the house.)

By the way, I love my sunglasses.

I bought another pair exactly like them so that I could keep one pair in the car and one for whatever else.

Anyway, after that I attempted to take pictures of my neighbor's dog, but the battery died and I ended up with this:

(He's that brown fluffy thing next to the cabinet.) :)

After that, I went home and, through multiple pictures of myself that have no real purpose applicable to life, produced my new profile picture:

Also, this:

Because I'm that cool.

Sunday was much easier to live with. :)

My friend Kuersten came over and we took pictures all day!

I think we both looked very J.Crew-esque.

Don't you?

 :)

Basically, Saturday was extremely weird, and Sunday was really fun. 

By the way, I love polka dots.

I hope your weekend was absolutely amazing!

xoxo,

Danielle

P.S., here's a video of Kuersten and I dancing to Italian music.

Prom 2012

Prom was on Saturday night!

It took place at the Wyndham Grand Hotel, and the decorations were amazing.

I don't know who put everything together, but they did so very well!

I absolutely loved my dress. I could swear God led me right to it in the store.

Since I had roughly two hours to get ready after work, I did everything myself. Mostly I was just winging it, since I know I can do it over again next year.

 I tried quite hard to not make everything look overdone.

 I think my hair and makeup turned out fairly well.

^Katie and I before prom.

^ Luke and I before prom.

All in all, prom was lovely! A ton of my friends were there, and we danced so much.

TFA even had artists drawing caricatures of the students. :)

I hope your weekend was absolutely wonderful!

xoxo,

Danielle

High fives, houseboats, and homework

Hey there.

Lately I've been super busy (what else is new). It's almost that good busy though, when you're relatively happy with the events on your planner, even if they are so very close together. 

For example: 

My planner seems close to crazy, but I like working and parties and... well, not so much homework. So like I said... almost.

Anyway, today was fairly average. I went to school and ate watermelon. We had a chapel schedule because my English teacher's son, Ryan, was home from the army. We got the opportunity to listen to him tell us about serving in Afghanistan. 

It was pretty cool. Please pray for him, as he goes back in a week.

Also,

IT'S NATIONAL HIGH FIVE DAY!

Just thought you should know.

By the way, I'm currently obsessed with houseboats. I could definitely float away right now.

^This is my favorite one. Such a perfect picture!

^This one's just plain cool.

So I've noticed that on the days I have work, I seem to be way more efficient afterwards. I guess I sort of get into the groove of productivity. 

Speaking of productivity, I have to do my laundry. (That's right: I do my own laundry. Because I'm responsible. Because I have a job and not a butler.) ;)

Have a lovely evening. I shall post again tomorrow.

What? I can't possibly miss Friday Faves.

xoxo,

Danielle

P.S., I work tomorrow from 10-3. Come visit!

Long anticipated post! (for me, that is)

Hello, there. :)

Long has it been since I last laid eyes on this page intended for the inspirational creation of wild tales of adventure!

Translation: I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but I wasn't able to get online for most things until I was caught up on French class. Ah, c'est la vie! ;)

*Please note: there are some photos missing from the group below, but of course I included the ones I have!

• First of all, I went to Aunt Becky's house on Thursday night and stayed there all through Saturday. We had breakfast for dinner and s'mores. (My aunt's the best.) I even got to wake up on the couch to little kids whispering about me.

It was awesome. 

Somehow, I managed to fit all of the necessary items for three days into three carriers: my every day bag, a shoebox, and an RL duffle bag. 

It was quite the (much needed) change from the usual smallish suitcase. 

• S'mores!

I don't think there was one kid that ate his/her s'more the normal way. The most popular method was deconstruction, although Joey preferred to keep his intact and somehow eat only the marshmallow. 

• Saturday night was a birthday party at Disney! My friend used one of the Bay Lake Tower's hotel rooms for the party. We went swimming, ate pizza and cake, and played phone tag. I must say, it was one of the best birthday parties I have ever been to. 

Happy birthday, Delanie!

• On Sunday I played croquet with my family. Very proper, right?

Wrong.

There is no end to the silliness that goes on during croquet with my family. 

                                

• We also had pizza on Sunday and fed some leftovers to the ducks near our house. They're very 'friendly' ducks. They love to get really close. So they can bite your ankles. Fun times!

• Monday was fairly ordinary. There were no incidents, but also no exciting happenings. Mostly I did homework and pinned all day. Oh, and I happened upon this sight when I woke up that morning! The way that light comes through my window blinds can be so flippin' cool sometimes.

• Today was slightly above average. Probably because I love my school. Also because people texted me today more than usual. (you know that temporary illusion of popularity? yeah, I experienced that.)

Why yes, we do drink tea in monogrammed cups and have ice cream in Latin class. :)

• It may have helped a little bit that I got my J.Crew catalogue today.

Okay fine, I'm totally obsessed with J.Crew. (What do you mean, "It was obvious?")

Well, that concludes this post. 

I promise that I will try my hardest to blog more often than I have been. Life is for sharing, right?

xoxo,

Danielle

Make-up post/ Friday Faves

I know, I know!

You're mad because I haven't blogged. All week.

Believe me, I am also going through blogger withdrawal. Unfortunately, it happens to be very difficult to develop a compilation of acceptable photos from other peoples' memory cards. (You know who you are. -- cue menacing stare.)

But I'll get them eventually. :)

Regardless, I couldn't just skip an entire week of blogging!
                                                                                        

So starting with the weekend... (DN '12!)

Oh my goodness! I had the best time at Disciple Now. Honestly, I had no idea how fun a church event could be. I could go on and on, but let's just skip to the pictures.

(Although I must say: the people I met and caught up with at DN were probably some of the best people I have met in a very long time.)

(Left to right in back: Ciera, Rachel B., me, Stephanie, Hayley, Rachel S., Lori

Left to right in front: Dahlia, Kaitlyn, Abby)

Below: Jesse(our student pastor) and Donna Dumaine(assistant to the student pastor and general church staff and body). They, along with the rest of our very cool leaders, dressed up as gangsters for the first night, in accordance with the Revolution theme.

(Note: above pictures were taken by various people)

                                                                                       

Later on (Sunday): 

I went to the Myrauns after DN! Every time I visit them, whatever joy I left behind comes back and finds me.

*Pictures will be uploaded ASAP.* I myself am waiting on them impatiently. (Aunt Becky has them... *ahem*)

                                                                                       

Monday: 

Thankfully, my super-cool-you-wish-you-attended school gave us Monday off. :)

Mom, my sisters, and I got pedicures! Magic Nails Salon and Day Spa is the best place for pedicures I have ever been to. 

The rest of the day was spent mostly watching Seinfeld and catching up on much-needed rest.

                                                                                     

Tuesday:

Tuesday it was school as usual. Isn't it just the worst when you have to even think about school the day after a wonderful break?

Fortunately, some students had the bright idea of playing basketball during lunch. Some people should really play for our team. (They're quite good.)

The last picture is my favorite.

                                                                                       

Wednesday:

Wednesday I went to life group. We watched the seniors' videos from the DN scavenger hunt. They were so very funny! Someone ended up chewing the earth worm. (Biting down wasn't required.)

                                                                                   

Thursday: 

Thursday was pretty average. Oh, except that after math class we practiced baseball with Paul and then I went out and got shoes. :) (by the way, Paul throws a mean knuckle ball.)

*Pictures of school will be up soon.*

                                                                                       

Also, on a side note: my alarm clock has been on my floor for a very long time. It somehow fell behind my dresser and landed exactly like this when I tried to hit the snooze button a while ago. I haven't moved it because that would mean unplugging it and going through the tedious process of resetting the time. Why bother?

                                                                                   

By the way, check out this recipe! I have a very strong desire to make it when the weather gets warmer.

(courtesy of Lemon Fire Brigade)

Grapefruit Pomegranate Champagne Sorbet

Makes 1 quart

 

2 1/2 cup grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed, strained, no pulp

1/2 cup pomegranate juice, freshly squeezed, strained

1/2 cup sugar + 2 tb

1/2 cup champagne, quality does not matter

2 tb lemon juice freshly squeezed

 

Squeeze grapefruits, strain for pulp, and reserve liquid.

Place a fine mesh sieve strainer over an appropriately sized bowl. Place the pomegranate seeds in the strainer and crush them of their juices, just until there’s not a drop remaining. Discard or save pulp and seeds. Reserve juice.

In a medium-sized sauce pot, combine 1 cup of grapefruit juice with the sugar and heat until completely dissolved. Remove from heat, and add the remaining juices and champagne. Refrigerate until thoroughly cool. 

Add mixture to ice cream maker, freeze and churn for 20-25 minutes, just until sorbet comes together.

Transfer mixture into desired serving container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

                                                                                  

By the way (again), this is practically the key to positivity!

(source)

Good philosophy, eh?

                                                                                      

Friday Faves!

It's been so long...

(1, 2, 3, 4)

1) This print is so cute. :) I love the song it's based off of! I would hang this in my room if I could.

2) I want this swimsuit! Lately I've been very drawn to green, and this suit would compliment my sandals perfectly.

3) Mac & cheese is not just for kids. I would eat it all day, every day if I had the patience to sit there and wait for the pasta to boil.

4) Did you know that Pandora has comedy stations? I only recently discovered this, and have been listening to Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, and... (drumroll) Jerry Seinfeld! (He's my favorite) ;) I've also been listening to the various albums of Maroon 5. 

                                                                                 

Well, that concludes this post.

Yes, it's a bit disorganized and haphazard, but I posted! :) This can now go down in history as the longest post on my blog.

Stay tuned for pictures!

xoxo,

Danielle

P.S., my friend Kaitlyn (pictured above in DN pics) has started a blog! As soon as I get the link, I'll post it. :)