seejaybee14's Xanga

The Afters - Myspace Girl

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:04:53 GMT

BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE by KALEB NATION

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:15:49 GMT

I haven't posted in a while, but I want to now tell everyone about a book that's coming out. It's by my friend Kaleb Nation, called BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE. It's coming out 9-9-09! Already, you can preorder it on Amazon.com. Here's the link to do so.

I'm very excited for Kaleb! Already, the book is doing so well, and it's not even out yet! A few days ago, right after it was available for preording, it reached #350 in the list of books on Amazon, and just a few hours ago it reached #69 in the books: ages 9-12 list! I have a very, very good feeling 'bout this. Always have, actually.

Cover of Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse.

Picture of Kaleb Nation.

Did I mention how excited I was??

Congrats, Kaleb! I always knew you'd do well!

Merry Christmas

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:56:01 GMT

A friend of mine posted this in his Facebook Notes. I'm not sure if he wrote it. But I found it so funny, that I'd like to post it on here to wish everyone I know a Merry Christmas!

"To all my Liberal friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

-

To all my Conservative friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."

A Cold. Nice.

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:41:56 GMT

As tears run down my irritated eyes, I will try to write a decent post. Ah, thank you, Anna, for this lovely cold! It's just what I needed!

The Messiah sing-a-long went, I think. Unfortunately no tenors showed up, so Jacob, my dad, and some other guy tried to sing tenor, when they would've preferred to be in the bass section. I did half-decent. I didn't know the songs very well, but I managed.

At 7 on Sunday there was a Rosary for Conner. Dad, mom, and I went to it. It was really, really sad. There were a ton of kids from the public school who came, a lot of them I knew. Most of them were crying. A ton of other people came, too. I've never seen a funeral home room so packed. You couldn't hardly move at all.

Conner, RIP...

Today was Latin class, and besides that, I started reading The Iliad and The Divine Comedy.

-Catherine

An Attempt to Return to Blogging

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:29:26 GMT

Well, since it has been almost two months since my last post, I suppose I should probably start blogging again, because a few (*cough* make that one) person wants me to.

Since the day I signed up for this addicting thing called "Facebook", Xanga has become a whole lot less interesting. Sorry, Xanga.

It'll be hard to get back into the habit of blogging, but I'll try. It's just hard to think of what to write about. I remember when I could write up a post and talk and talk about anything, but once you get out of the habit, it's like, "Uh..." Maybe if there were more people I knew who were active bloggers, then I'd be more likely to write stuff myself (*hint hint*).

Okay, a little update.

In the past few months, I've been doing school, writing responses to NQLB questions (see this), studying Latin, being active in the pro-life ministry, doing stuff with my church's youth group, and other various stuff.

I also got Confirmed. My name is now Catherine Jean Gianna. My sponsor was my Aunt Lisa, and I got Confirmed by the Bishop of Lansing. Here's a picture!

My Aunt Lisa, Me, and Bishop Boyea. We match!

I've also been learning how to drive a car... which hasn't been that successful now that the roads are very, very slippery. Eh... ice-driving is not nice, especially when the roads are covered with snow, so you can't really tell where you are on the road when it's night.

And... I'll be 16 next month. Weird.

Now, here's what I've been doing recently in my every day life.

Today, St. Nicholas Day, I was woken up early by my mom in the kitchen, and then I decided to get up since everyone else was. Though I looked and acted much like a zombie, I was somehow able to eat the tasty treats that good ol' St. Nick left for us... as in, I was on the couch (probably looked asleep), when my brother shoved a Little Debbies by my nose. That "woke" me up. Thank goodness Anna didn't take any pictures of me!

My day was mostly spent reading Invitation To The Classics: A Guide To Books You've Always Wanted To Read. I'm on page 86, reading about Beowulf. Yeah, it was a very typical-homeschooler thing for me to do. But I've been wanting to read this book, and days when I'm not supposed to be doing school are the best days for it. Plus, not much happened today, so it was that or watch football with my dad (though I did do that, too. The Gators won!).

Also, today I've been thinking a lot about a guy I knew who died last night. His name was Conner. I knew him a little bit from different places. He had cancer. I found out this morning from my dad the bad news. I feel really sad right now thinking about it... he was only a few years older than me. Sometimes it doesn't make sense why some people die and others live.

On a brighter note, tomorrow I will be going to Mass, and then I will be singing with my dad at the (Handel's) Messiah sing-a-long that my town is holding. I'm not sure how good that will go. I mean, just listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQVQOW1c0DQ. That's one of the songs we'll be doing ("For Unto Us A Child Is Born"). I'm not sure I'll be able to handle those long scales. (I'm an alto, btw.) But I think that we might as well give it a try...

Final thought:
"Satire denounces
the world; wit penetrates it;
humor accepts it;
but nonsense transforms it."
-Cedric Whitman

Pax,
Catherine

Homeschool Potluck/H4L Bake Sale

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:24:46 GMT

Okay, so, I figured today that I really do like blogging, and it'd be quite a shame if I stopped. I mean, I've been blogging ever since I was twelve, people! I shouldn't just throw it away because I happen to be really busy most of the time.

So... to help with my plan of being able to blog, I actually got ALL of my Latin homework done today that is due the 14th! Ha! This is what my homework was:

Event		Latin 200 Class - 7:15 MTN - Click for HW due Tues 10/14.

Notes		1) Re-read Ch 20 parts II and III – slowly! Make sure you know all the new vocab!!! (Use Ch 20 packet to look up words you’re not sure of.) Pay attention to verb endings (future tense).….. 2) Do & check Exercitia V and VI…… 3) Do & email me your Ch 20 anchor words (again, just do 20)…… 3) Look at the Ch 20 grammar. How are you with imperfect & future?? Write out these sentences in Latin (use postulAre, dElEre, pergere, capere, convenIre – those are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd io, and 4th conjugation, respectively); we’ll go over them Tues. 1) I was demanding water, 2) You(s) will be deleted! 3) It was being deleted. 4) We will demand water. 5) Y’all were deleting errors (menda). 6) New books will be demanded. 7) Men were being convened. 8) You (singular) will continue this (hoc). 9) He was being captured. 10) We will be captured. 11) Y’all were continuing. 12) They will convene tomorrow.

Date		October 09, 2008

Time		Untimed / All day

And I got it done! Yay! So now I don't need to worry 'bout that.

Today, basically, I woke up (barely), got up, practiced my piano, read a book, baked two pumpkin cheese breads for the H4L bake sale, finished all my Latin homework, and then went to Lansing for the Homeschool Beginning of the School Year Mass.

Beforehand, we went to the basement and set up for the bake sale that we'd be doing after the Mass during the potluck. Jimmy brought his carrot cake surprise, Anna brought rebel bars, and I brought those pumpkin cheese breads. The other Homeschoolers 4 Life people brought stuff, and a few nice non-H4Lers brought a few things for us to sell, too.

The Mass went really well. We were able to get Noelle Garcia (former homeschooler) and her boyfriend to do the music for it. It sounded really nice, and it was nice for a change to actually enjoy the Mass. Last time we did something like that, my dad was in charge, and I had to play piano, sing, and play bass, and it's really hard to enjoy Mass when you're worrying about messing up on the piano... So, thank you, Noelle and her boyfriend!

Afterwards, we went downstairs for the potluck. The food was great. Everyone who brought food must've been Italian, because there was a LOT of pasta. Like, everything there was practically pasta and things to accompany pasta. Which was fine with me, 'cause I really like pasta.

The bake sale went AMAZING. It really worked out, because only one person brought dessert for the potluck, so everyone had to come and get something from us if they wanted dessert. Hehe. My breads were the first things to go, and next Charles's cheesecake. Everyone wanted that cheesecake, man. Basically everyone who saw that cheesecake was like, "... I'LL HAVE A PIECE OF THAT CHEESECAKE!" Way to go, Charles!

We made... (drumroll, please)... $146.05! Ha. I was right! Before we had started selling things, Hannah estimated we'd make around $65, I estimated $100 or more (if people were generous), and Charles figured around $85. Yay, now we're a tiny bit closer to what we need to go to the March for Life...

This year, we're figuring on renting vans to go to the March for Life, 'cause a bus takes a lot of effort. Not sure how much the vans would be yet (I think Kevin's on that). And of course we also need money for gas and other things we'll need. We need to figure out where we're going to stay still and stuff (very important thing to figure out). I'm hoping everything will go well, but we definitely need to get going on fundraising and stuff, because January will be here before we know it!

Here are some pictures from tonight!

Everyone eating.

Selling stuff to people hungry for dessert.

We forgot to bring a sign, so we ended up making one out of a paper plate.

The food, almost all gone by the time I took the picture.

Margaret (Laura's sister) and Anna (my sister).

Greg (Laura's brother).

Pax,
Catherine

Vlogs

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:11:58 GMT

People, I started vlogging. I do that around once or twice a week (have only done two so far), and you can see the vids here. For now consider this blog dead... I'll try to post once in a while, though, if there's anything Really Important to talk about.

-Catherine

Grandpa Burns

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:38:56 GMT

Ten years ago today, my Grandpa Burns died. Today I am taking the time to remember him, even with the little I can remember.

I was around 5 years old when he died. The only memories I have of him was when he was eating a strawberry sunday on a table in a large cafeteria-looking room, and also of him drinking a Coke at the same place. I think I remember one of my cousins wanting his sunday (maybe it was Katie), but he just kept eating it. Haha. I think I can also remember going to visit him with my Aunt Lisa, Jimmy, and my cousins, but very vaguely. And I also remember he liked Fig Newtons. It's funny how these memories seem to revolve around food.

I read what my Aunt Lisa wrote on her blog about him. It made tears come to my eyes... I wish I had been able to know him better. I should be happy that I at least got to meet him, since my Grandma Burns died before I was born. But at least I can still hope that I'll see all of them again someday with God.

My Grandpa and Grandma Burns, with Uncle Kevin (baby), my mom Linda (on the left), and my Aunt Lisa (on the right). Aunt Brenda wasn't born yet.

-Catherine

Prayer of St. Francis

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:20:53 GMT

This is my favorite prayer.

----

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

A Quick One!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:50:18 GMT

No, I'm NOT DEAD!

Due to a Great Amount of Recent Demand (aka one comment), I am posting! Sorry... I have been preoccupied with Facebook. That's my excuse.

I've started school again. Slowly getting back into it. My favorite subject would have to be... uh. I haven't figured that out yet. I really like biology so far! And astronomy. Haven't started doing geometry yet, just got the book in today.

Today was the first Homeschoolers 4 Life meeting of the new school year. Went well. Today was also piano lessons. And Latin class. And practice for the music we're doing for the Youth Mass this Sunday. Busy!

Oh, and also I'm going to try to make some Youtube videos! Yes! Finally!

Okay, we also got a new computer. A nice, fast one. It's awesome.

Within Temptation is amazing. Check them out.

Final thought: Facebook is addicting.

-Catherine

P.S. Happy now, "Clone"?