Home-school formal 2017

Last weekend, the 28th and 29th of October, I went up to Daniel's place for a home-school formal on the Saturday night. It was a lot of fun getting ready with Daniel's younger sister Susanna! The theme was "Deep Deep Blue" so a lot of the dresses were sea colors. I found a beautiful turquoise dress on trademe which I love!
I had an amazing time with Daniel and some of his siblings plus his brother's girlfriend, and it was really cool taking some group photos. Daniel and I attempted to do some dancing together, but I found that despite the fact that I'm good at ballet, I'm terrible at other kinds of dancing. I kept tripping over my own feet, and kicking his! Despite this it was really fun, and we did get better as the night went on.
We've decided we're going to have to try do some dance lessons in the future so that next time we can do more dancing without me tripping over. 
I really did have a wonderful time at the formal (even though I fell asleep a few times on the way back to Daniel's place), and I'm really looking forward to next years formal!  
These are some of the photos we got from the photo booth. We did get some full length photos in front of a balloon wall, so I'll do a post with those once I get them.

Restricted License

Hi all!

I've got some really exciting news! I sat my restricted license test on Friday morning, and I passed!!! I had a St John camp over the weekend, so I drove myself there and back again, which was really cool! It was also nice being able to drive to my boyfriend's house after camp, and spend a few hours with him before I went home.

The camp was to chose 24 kids to make up a squad to represent the South Island at National Competitions next April. I've tried twice before to get in and I haven't, so I'll see how I do this year. This is my last year to apply, as I'll be to old by the time the next competitions come, so I hope I do get in. I'll be finding out if I got in or not around 4 o'clock this afternoon, but I won't be able to say anything for a few days until they announce it publicly. Once it get's announced publicly I'll do another post to let you all know if I got in or not.

The kids are back to school today after two weeks of holidays, so it's quite strange having a very quiet house. I carried on with school work through the holidays, so I'm ahead of scheduled which is nice. Nothing much is happening for the next two weeks, so it will be awhile before my next post.

I hope you are all doing well!

~Rachel

Hanmer Holiday

Hi all, so it's been a while since me and my family went up to Hanmer, but I'm finally getting around to writing a post for it. We had to stay in a holiday house in Hanmer for 10 days at the start of last month while our house had earthquake repairs done. Although moving out and back in was not fun, the holiday itself was great. We drove up on the Friday after my siblings got back from school, and then on the Saturday, Dad and I drove back to move the furniture out, pull the carpets up, and screw the floor down.
My amazing boyfriend, Daniel, came up with us for that first weekend, and he was a huge help with the work on the Saturday. We also had some other friends over to help with moving furniture which made that a lot easier. On the Sunday, Daniel and I went to the hot pools which was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting to spend the morning with him before he left for home that afternoon.

The rest of the holiday is rather blurred, and not having any school work to do, or any of my other normal activities, didn't help in remembering which day was which. Although we didn't go to the pools as a family, we went of a bike together, did put put at two differant places, went to the animal farm, and when through the maze at A-Maze-N-Golf. The maze was a highlight of the holiday, and I have told my boyfriend that we ARE going there one day. 😜 Two of the funniest parts where when Ruth got such a fright she scampered behind me and stayed there for the rest of that part of the maze, with one hand firmly clutching my jacket! The other was when Hannah was jumping over some stepping stones and got completely drenched but the falling water!😂

We were very lucky to have our holiday house directly opposite the entrance to a dog walk and forest, so the kids spent a lot of time down there. Daniel and I went down their once with the kids, and then Ruth and I decided to go for a walk through the forest a few days later. We enjoyed the long walk and had a lot of fun, but the most memorable part was getting lost and finally finding the road a little way outside of Hanmer.

I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday, and it was great getting to spend the time with my family, going places, watching movies, and playing a lot of card games, without having to worry about school work, or work. It's nice being back home though, and our house looks great with the new carpets and painted walls.

So, there's the post I've been putting off for weeks. If I can get a hold of some photos, I'll try post them another time, but no promises. 

Exam Results

So, I got my ballet exam results today!!! I haven't gotten my report card yet, but my teacher sent these comments from it. "Very Highly Commended = 80-84% 'A confident prensentation of the syllabus. Aim to sustain turn out in steps and pointe work. Lovely movement qualities in dance performance. Most enjoyable'."

I am very, very happy with this mark, as it's the same as I got last year, even though this year I was dancing on a painful ankle. I'm very thankful though, as at the start of all my exercises I was without pain, even though I was in pain again by the end of them. I would like to thank the people who said they would pray for me, as it certainly did help. I was thrilled, and so very grateful that I was able to do all my point exercises except my first, without any pain at all.

Now, it's on to concert work! I'm going to be away in Hanmer for the next ten days, but I'll start dancing again after that. I don't know what the concert is going to be this year, or what role I'll play, but I'll post once I know.

Here's a photo of me after my exam. The skirt was only worn for the dance on pointe at the end of the exam.

Ballet Exam Coming Up

So, I've got my Intermediate ballet exam happening tomorrow, and I'm really nervous. I hurt my ankle a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to practice since then. I'm not worried about forgetting my work, but I am worried about my ankle hurting. My physio things it's safe for me to dance, so I'm going to be taking painkillers on the day. My dance teacher doesn't like the idea of me dancing, but I can be kinda stubborn... I don't really need to pass this exam, as I'm not going to be continuing next year, but I am hoping to do well. I won't know the results for a few weeks, but I'll post as soon as I get them.

Love

This is something I wrote a little while ago, and thought I'd share.



Falling in love isn't necessarily something that happens all of a sudden. Like, one minute you're not in love and the next you're head over heels for them. It could happen I guess, but I don't think it happens often. When I fell in love with my boyfriend it wasn't something that happened in an instant. I remember when I first realized that I loved him, but it wasn't when I fell in love with him. No matter how hard I try, I can't find a distinct moment when I could say: "That's when I fell in love with him." Love doesn't work like that, it's much more subtle. It kinda creeps up on you while you're not looking and all of a sudden you realize you're in love and you don't know how or when it happened.

Falling in love is so different from having a crush on someone. I used to like having crushes on people because there was that rush of adrenaline, people teasing you, it was fun! But love isn't like that. Love isn't fun, it's beautiful, mysterious, powerful, and ultimately scary.

When you fall in love, you find the things that were once so important to you, fading into the background. The awesome dreams you had, although you might still have them, don't hold the same excitement and importance that they used to. You find that the people who used to be the most special in your life, have stepped back, and someone else has taken their place. Your world suddenly becomes so much smaller, but at the same time so much bigger. You realize that what makes you the most happy now, is seeing the person you love happy. 

Love isn't something that can be explained. You have to feel it yourself to know what it feels like. And once you've felt love's soft fingers wrap themselves around your heart, you'll never want to live without them again.

Hello, and Welcome!

Hi,

I thought I'd better introduce myself before I actually post anything.

My name is Rachel, I am 16 years old, I'm the oldest of 6 kids (once baby is born in November), I'm a Christian. What else... I'm a writer, I've done ballet for the past 10 years, but this is my last year, I used to do karate, and I'm a St John cadet.

I can't think of anything else, other than I can be completely crazy at times. You have been warned.

I'm going to do my best to update this semi-regularly, but I can't make any promises. My boyfriend will probably remind me though, so I might actually succeed at keeping this up to date.😉