The Perks of Being Sixteen

Some people look back on being 16 and remember a really, really great time of their lives, and I'm sure some don't.  I personally think it's fantastic, and maybe that's partially because I'm able to do things like staying up for 29 consecutive hours and then bouncing back enough (by means of a three-hour nap) to write a blog post about it.   Normally, the idea of doing something like that would make me cringe. And maybe cry (another perk of being a 16-year-old girl!) Not today! And I thought maybe you'd want to live vicariously through me, because who doesn't want to spend 1.125 days awake, eating junk and watching movies? I thought so. So now you get to know what I was up to, hourly, for all 29 hours.

6:30 am, Friday | Burying my head under the pillow, as my little sister told me that "Dad says you have to get up now."

7:30 am, Friday | Cleansing my face at school instead of in the comfort of my own bathroom as a result of aforementioned burying.

8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Friday | Learning, which is the part of being sixteen that you either don't miss or aren't looking forward to, so I'll spare you.

3:30 pm, Friday | Blowing hot air because running fast does that to you.  Track practice was 10 200s, and it was good and torture-y all at the same time.

4:30 pm, Friday | Selecting a prom dress for a male friend of mine who lost at What Are the Odds to try on. We chickened out and got Slurpees instead, which was a good choice.

5:30 pm, Friday | Chewing and chewing and chewing Cubby Bears for the first time, which are basically the harder, worse tasting children of Gummi Bears from the dollar store.

6:30 pm, Friday | Awarding said Cubby Bears for prizes at a youth night hosted at my high school.  Because I'm mean.

7:30 pm, Friday | Rolling across the floor, ninja style, while playing Sardines.  I never, ever win, but that does not stop me from acting like the offspring of the FBI and Jackie Chan to hunt down whatever unfortunate person has to hide first.

8:30 pm, Friday | Blending a chocolate peanut butter protein smoothie, which is one of life's greatest pleasures, before heading to partay stop numba 2, a church lock in.

9:30 pm, Friday | Singing along to Frozen. And being way too happy about it.

10:30 pm, Friday | Catching my second wind of about five that night after almost nodding of during our devotion.

11:30 pm, Friday | Swinging, outside. At night.  It's one of those bucket list things that you just have to do and can't really be described unless you just do it. Go ahead, no one's stopping you.

12:30 am, Saturday | Laughing way too hard at Awkward Family Photos, the game. The board includes the likes of this picture and about 40 of its closest friends, and that is fantastic.

1:30 am, Saturday |

2:30 am, Saturday | Screaming because game of Sardines number 2 was just too much for my fragile nerves, and every shadow was an axe murderer who decided he wanted to join in the fun.

3:30 am, Saturday | Drafting this blog post after being assaulted by Nerf missiles and having a cold pop can rubbed on my face by high school boys with too much sugar in their system.

It'll probably come out sometime this week. Stay tuned.

4:30 am, Saturday | Honing my skills as a future 2048 record holder. For those of you who haven't played it, 2048 is a super addictive game that is available on the app store for free.  It's just as dangerous as it sounds, and I like to think I kick butt at it even though I don't, which is part of its magical addictive qualities I guess.

See that tile that says 1024? That's a big deal. 

5:30 am, Saturday | Hypocritizing, which my dad claims is the one word version of "being hypocritical." Anyway, by this point we had changed places with the boys who inspired the nun post and were making noise and scrolling through memory lane on our phones and liking it a lot.

6:30 am, Saturday | Leaving the lock in two point five hours before everyone else to be hard core and go work out for 194734 hours.

7:30 am, Saturday | Preparing mentally to head to Oak Pointe's exercise class demo day, which was 3 hours of back to back to back to back 20-minute samples of classes. We weren't sure if we'd make it. (We did.)

8:30 am, Saturday | Spinning, which is not the same as twirling in a dress but is actually really fun! I now give major props to my mom for voluntarily spinning three times a week for what seems like my entire life.

9:30 am, Saturday | Piloxing, (pilates + boxing + dancing).  Where do they even come up with this stuff? Also, sweating. 

10:30 am, Saturday | Drumming on exercise balls with drum sticks. Which is apparently a work out these days, despite the way it brought me back to the days of whacking the heck out of my mom's pots and pans as a 5 year old. I got hit in the butt by the lady next to me. It is a dangerous sport.

11:30 am, Saturday | Drooling while sleeping in the car, (not even kidding) and probably looking really attractive. Maybe something like this.

#Instalife

I've been kind of a jerk blogger recently, I realized.

"We get it, you've been a jerk," you say. (And get major props from me for quoting Sky High)
Really, though, I have. Its been, what, 10ish days since I've visited here? Life lately has been full of final exams, grad parties way out who knows where, my brother's baseball games, and late, long talking nights with friends. I'm the last awake in one of those right now; we've decided we have our best talks at 4 in the morning after too much chocolate and Fat Amy - you know those talks, the ones where you make big life decisions and talk about what you believe and what you want to be when you grow up. Luckily for me, I've got my phone handy and now that the girls have dropped off I can give you an update!

Due to the "fast, beautiful photo sharing" provided by Instagram, I'm able to keep track of what I've been up to; namely, sending off the 8th graders at my former gradeschool, wearing pink on Wednesday, dyeing my hair Aqua Rush (a rebellious color, according to the box), drawing with chalk, and becoming a ride warrior at Cedar Point.

Chalk + rain = tye dye chalk. Highly recommend!

I've coached these girls since they were in 6th grade, and I'm pretty proud of them!

Cedar Point with some of my favorites. 

Business in the front, party in the back?

On Wednesdays, we wear pink. (If you don't know what I'm talking about go watch Mean Girls right. now.)

I'll leave you with that. 

Love, Bella

Supersets and Summer Squash

Say that five times fast! Supersquash and summersets. . . super summer squash sets . . . Summer superset squash . . .

Ok, that's enough of a brain workout for a Saturday night.

Back to the supersets - I tried them for the first time this morning/afternoon, and it was great! After a late night with some good friends, I woke up around 11 a.m. (WAY late for me!) in the same clothes I had worn the night before . . . at least I remembered to brush my teeth. Anyway, those mornings-after always leave you feeling a little sluggish, don't they? They definitely don't leave you feeling in the mood to eat a nutritious breakfast, do your Bible Study, get ready for work, and then actually go to work - and yes, that was my agenda for the day. I definitely didn't feel like doing (dun dun duuuuuhhhh) supersets.

Luckily, that 2 days old shirt I was still wearing was very inspiring and around noon I dragged myself off the couch and got down to business.

Naughty, isn't it? It comes from a friend of mine who's a fantastic, hard core . . . badgrass cross country runner.

Anyway, the supersets I did cam straight out of the June 2011 issue of Susie, a Christian magazine for girls I used to get, but don't let that fool you -

A Mile In My Shoes

I walked four miles today.

Hey, I warned you that bootcamp was starting!

Yes, I did - here, remember?

The air was damp and the sky gray, so I carried an umbrella just in case. A long, pointy, hook-handled umbrella which I didn't end up needing, so I folded it up and carried it and probably looked like a paranoid teenage girl carrying an umbrella as a defense weapon or a dangerous teenage girl who participates in organized crime carrying an umbrella as a gun. In any event, I was prepared.

While walking isn't exactly strenuous, if felt great to get outside and be active. Maybe on this first day of boot camp, you're feeling a little undermotivated, in which case I feel you. I. Feel. You. That's why I documented my little adventure, so you can walk a mile or few in my shoes. I challenge you to do the same thing - I never realized how many cool things there were to step on until I did!

Lifestyle Change

Ahh, Memorial Day.  It's tradition around here to get the pool up Memorial Day weekend so that we can escape the heat for a swim with the neighbors. We have just one other tradition: walking to the Memorial Day parade in downtown Farmington and getting ice cream from Hershey's afterwards ( or as the last few parade participants walk by - we're mostly there for the ice cream.) By those standards . . . Today