Happy Homecoming Week!

I cannot even believe that it's my last homecoming week. It's been a blur- I remember being a freshman and thinking I had so much time ahead of me. And now I'm a senior and everything is my last. :(

There's just something special about walking into school on the Monday of homecoming week. A buzz of excitement fills the hall, as decorations cover the walls, ceilings, doorways, and staircases. It just makes me so happy, and makes me love being in high school even more.

Today was Movie Monday. We could dress up as any movie character and there were some stellar costumes! My favorite was either a girl who dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite and was so spot on that most people thought she was a guy, or one boy who dressed like Tom Cruise in Risky Business. His shorts were so short under his shirt that he looked naked from the shirt tail down. You would think he would have gotten dress coded, but he's a biker and XC runner with the best legs to ever happen so I think everyone, including the teachers, were okay to see them all day;)

My friends and I planned to dress up like the Scooby Doo crew, but Mack and I ended up being the only ones who did. We pulled off being Daphne and Velma, despite it looking like we were a lesbian couple. Then again, that's pretty typical of us so yeah really nothing was too different.

I wish I would have thought to be Juno earlier because I would probably pee my pants laughing at myself all day as a fake prego. Halloween is just around the corner though!

Then tonight was Ruff n Tuff. I have never been so stressed for a game my whole life. I screamed and screamed, and was close to tears but in the end WE WON so that's all that matters! It was the most nerve wracking game ever. The juniors won the first game, and we came back to win the second game 28-26, and barely won the tie breaker at 15-13. I'm still high on the adrenaline of winning!

my true blues, my 5ever

soul sista

#oooahhyouwishyouwereasenior

xo
Hannah

Happily Hannah

 What makes me happy...
   all things Christmas
    rainy, grey days
    ice cold vanilla Coke
      days filled with movies
     the perfect statement necklace
       perfectly polished nails
      the high you have after running
          a lit up city
       striped leggings
           the softness and sweetness of baby skin
          drinking out of mugs
        the flickering light of a candle
           sand in-between my toes and the sun on my skin
         the sound of waves crashing on the beach
    Italian food
     the silence of snow falling under the moon
       anything striped
   writing and reading the thoughts that fill my soul
     singing as loud as possible
   epiphanies
         life with those who make me happy.
  
Yay! If you're reading this that means you got to my new website! I've been itching to change my blog URL for a while now. I've been blogging for close a year and half now and have been wanting some change. I was going to change my header and all that snazzy stuff but I just haven't gotten around to it. So that will come at the start of the new year most likely:)

It's still the same old blogging by the same old Hannah. Update your bookmarks, and make a list of what makes you happy. It truly is the little things, people.

xo
Hannah

90 Days

perfect.

The number one thing that the man I marry should know is that I love Christmas more than words can describe. I have so much love and energy for it I could probably power a small continent Russia. Christmas just consumes my soul. I have to give credit to my parents for making Christmas the most wonderful time of the year for me as I grew up.

What I love most about the holiday is not necessarily the day itself, but the season. I think it's a time of happiness, love, and a time we come together and remember what is important in life. It's a time of tradition, but also a time for new beginnings. I love the music, even if it starts playing early. I love the lights, strung anywhere and everywhere. I love the snow, and how it's like a blanket of peace amongst us. I love the cold that makes us wear big puffy coats and turns our noses red. I love the movies and their messages. I love Secret Santa and showing my friends how much I love them. I love the decorations and the festivity they bring, but also how they remind us of the special things that only come out for a part of the year. I love the food because duh. I love the busyness of the stores and all the people out hustling and bustling. I love the smells and their warmth. I love it all.

Today marks 3 months until the best day of the year. 90 days people! And you know what that also means?! A beginning of the celebration! I may or may not have started listening to Christmas music constantly on Monday. I think it's safe to say it's the best music out there, but you know, everyone's entitled to their own opinions.

For tonight's 3 months till Christmas celebration, I will be listening to Christmas music while I do homework, and then put on my Christmas pjs and watch Christmas With The Kranks and drink peppermint hot chocolate. And of course, I'll light a Christmas candle.

So here's my favorite song for you all the enjoy today! 90 days until Christmas!

xo
Hannah

The Thing About Failure

via

Most people go through life accentuating their successes, the positive things in their world. Their perfect ACT scores, their 4.0 GPA, their winning point at a sports game, the large amount of money they make. We as humans try to mask our mistakes, our failures because we are afraid of others reactions. But failure, in so many forms, makes us so much better.

I still remember my first 'big failure'. I'm a big time perfectionist, but have only recently learned to live with grace. Academics are where I strive for the best, and know now perfection is not always attainable. It was a freshman English reading quiz on "Huck Finn". Our teacher had told us beforehand that we would most likely have a reading quiz everyday. I diligently read the first few chapters for homework, reading each word, absorbing the book like a sponge. I annotated, and later reviewed SparkNotes to go over any key points I missed. It was the first quiz in my honors English class and I felt the need to prove myself to my teacher.

Then the quiz happened. Yikes. There were questions that everyone were boggling everyone. I was so stressed out when I didn't know the answer, despite my best efforts to prepare. We scored each other's quizzes and I remember the pit in my stomach when I saw I had got a 4 out of 10. English was my best subject! I had read! The quiz went into the gradebook as a very small portion of my grade and did not impact my overall grade at all for the semester. But that one little failure helped me through the rest of high school and the failures I've had along the way.

Failure is sometimes inevitable even for the best of us. Sometimes, no matter how much you study or go over the chapter, it just might not be your thing. I can remember countless tests and quizzes from chemistry to European history to calculus that did not necessarily reflect my strongest grades, despite hours and hours of studying. But they taught me it is okay to have a little bump in the road.

But failure does not just come in the form of tests at school, it comes in several other forms. Friendships and responsibilities fail too. As a daughter, I know their are times where I've messed up. I know when I've hurt my parents, and when I've slacked on my household responsiblities. And boy, I feel the guilt. But these times of failure have only made my relationship stronger with my parents.

High school has truly taught me about friendship, the revolving door. You may start out with a lot of 'friends', but as time goes on, people leave. Then you're left with some friends, but even with the ones you thought would spin in circles with you forever, eventually find a new door with new opportunities with people who they better relate to. And then you're left with your true blues, as you spin and spin around with, until you're dizzy, laughing and enjoying your time together that's gone by too fast.
I have had friendships fail, and bring me to a raw pain.  It hurts, it's loss. I can argue all day long whether or not it was the fault of one or the other, or I can come to realize you cannot change failure. It happens, and it's done. But you can decide how you react to it and how you learn from it.

When people say the little things that you fail don't matter, it's true. That history quiz you bombed? In twenty years, it's not going to determine who you are. The math test that wasn't too hot isn't going to make you any less hot. The small failures in life are some of the easiest. They set us up so we can learn to accept what may come in the future. I used to work myself into such a frenzy over these little things; if I failed this test, then it will lead to me failing the class, which will lead to me having a bad GPA, which will lead to me going to a bad college, which lead to less opportunities, which will lead to a bad life... It's a vicious cycle. But there is much bigger, life changing failures out there... a divorce, a miscarriage, foreclosure. These failures are not to blame anyone, we can't always control the way things work out in life. Just remember that with each small failure now will come a softened blow, and multiple later successes.

I do not ever wish for the reversal of these failures. I have a whole new level of awareness. They have happened for a reason. I have grown as a person because of them. They taught me not just about life, but about me, and what truly matters. Emily Dickinson's wise words again resonate in my life, as she reminds us "Success is counted sweetest/ By those who ne'er succeed". Find your silver linings, lovelies. Happy Tuesday.

xo
Hannah

Why You Should Never Take APES

the core value of apes.

Dear prospective AP Environmental Science students,

STOP. DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT SIGN UP. 

This class is a deceiving class. Yes, it is easy. But the amount of work you are required to do is insane! Like reading two chapters a week. Yeah, two chapters a week. How are we able to absorb any material if we have so little time to do anything?!

Also, you will learn you are most likely an awful person. You have a large eco footprint and there would need to be six more earths if everyone lived like you. Ironically though, you print the most papers for this class. HA! I thought we were trying to be sustainable?!

You will learn things, but nothing that makes you go "a-ha!". So far, everything that I have been taught was info I already knew, or knew enough about. I can almost guarantee you I will never ever be asked what my environmental worldview is when I'm an adult.

Really, I don't know how else to explain why you shouldn't take this class. It's just a drag. Well I suppose if you're a flaming liberal who drives a Prius and composts, this is the perfect class for you. However, in my white, affluent, conservative, suburban community, it is a class well advised against taking. So children, do not be swayed by upperclassmen telling you how "easy" the class is, you will up spending hours on environmental history timelines and answering chapter questions until your hand falls off.

xo
Hannah

Not So Humble Hannah

Sometimes in life, I think that it is okay to be proud of your accomplishments. Especially ones that are spontaneous, successful, and pretty kick butt.

Good ol' Jimmy was going to ask Amanda to homecoming. They're BFFs, and more like brother and sister than anything else, but Jimmy knew how much fun it would be if the two of them went together for their senior homecoming. But if there's one thing that Jimmy is less proficient in, it's girls/relationships.

enter Hannah.

As Amanda's soul sister, I take on the wonderful responsibility of making sure Jimmy asks her in the right way. Not too grand and lovey, but not too cheap and lame. So as I was sitting here, on a Friday night, doing my science homework (yeah, I'm the kid that occasionally does homework on Friday nights. #nerdstatus) I dreamed up the most brilliant plan. I texted Jimmy, waited for the response, and drove like a mad woman to get to Dollar Tree before it closed at 9pm. By the way, it was about 8:43pm when this happened. Fifteen packs of glow sticks later, Jimmy and I (plus Olivia because mother doesn't like me going places late alone), were at the grocery stores, buying flowers and candy. We sat in the parking lot and assembled some letters together, as the plan was to spell out 'homecoming' in glow sticks on Mandy's driveway.

When we got to Amanda's house, we silently were assembling the glow sticks on the driveway when the garage door OPENS! We were freaking out, and grabbed the glow sticks and hid behind my car across the street. Amanda's dad pulled out and left without seeing us. We quickly made our glow stick display, when Amanda's dad came back, this time with her brother in the car. We explained to him what we were doing, and I went to get Mandles. Her dad said she wouldn't be asleep, but he was wrong. I silently walked into her pitch black room to wake her up. Sorry about that Mandy haha! I told her there was a crisis to attend to, and made her put on some clothes. We walked out to the driveway, where Jimmy was waiting, and Livi was videotaping. It was so darn cute! Amanda was still in a state of waking up as we snapped some quick pictures so she could go back to bed and get sleep before taking the ACT the next morning!

love this girl

I can honestly say that this was one of my best ideas to date, and am so happy how it worked out! Boys, take note. This is a great way to ask the ladies!

xo
Hannah

The Mid-Quarter Struggle

since I don't have a picture for this post, here's a senior picture;)

In my opinion, school is only great never. Just kidding, just kidding, relax I still care about my grades.

I am just exhausted. This happens every year, every semester. Well this year, it's already hit and we're not even a quarter of the way done.

Teachers begin to slowly pile more homework on us, and I get caught up in the undertoe. I don't necessarily drown, but I get really tired from struggling to stay afloat. This year hit even harder with college and senior stuff. I can't wait for it to slow down.

Late nights are frequent, large cups of coffee in the morning are required, and looks begin to fade.

So I apologize for my lack of posting lately. I'm sad I haven't been blogging more, I have hardly even kept up with the blogs I read. I'm looking to change that ASAP. I hope all my readers still love me because I love them!

xo
Hannah

Making Lemonade

via Pinterest

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade"

       Oh what a cliche. But cliches are cliches for a reason; they work. They're relatable. They're true.

As I've grown older, I've become a better people reader. Maybe it was the loss of friendship I suffered that shook my world for months, of just becoming more aware of those around me that helped me to become a better people reader. Regardless, I see people more for who they really are. And I am so tired of surrounding myself with the people who don't make me happy. Those who bring me down, those who are selfish, those who don't care about me, even when I care about them. Friendship, or any relationship for that matter, is a bicycle built for two; you can't get anywhere with just one person pedaling.

To make lemonade, you have to have all the ingredients. You can always get sugar and ice, but lemons aren't always there for you, perhaps for the better. So when you get them, don't just let them sit there. Do something with them. Make the dang lemonade. What else are you going to do with the bitter fruit?

So here's to my true blues! The sugar in my lemonade. The ice that keeps me cool, calm, and collected (even if it takes a while for me to cool down). They take away from the not, angry bitterness some lemons add. Keep throwing lemons at me life! I am not afraid of their sour. I've got my sugar, my ice, my everything nice.

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they make the best of everything."

xo
Hannah

Catch Up Part Two

Today we'll quickly finish playing catch up on the blog!

Last Thursday, was Tri-M induction. Tri-M is basically music national honor society, and for 'modern music masters'. The ceremony involved reciting a really long pledge that everyone kept messing up, them losing my certificate, and having three Ms painted on our face, as per tradition. Afterwards, came pictures of course. And an Amanda-Hannah chat session in the parking lot, followed by following Jimmy home. We're a ton of fun.

holding my invisible certificate

friends for 9 years! my little 11th graders aren't so little #shortieprobs

mandy and jim, bffs

amanda just loves to be held! ;)

i just love my soul sister

Saturday night was my friend Hannah's party. I love that girl so much! I can't believe she is 18, an adult! That's insane. I wish I would have got pictures of the party. Amanda did a great job of helping Hannah's mom making it look all cute and perfect. It was a surprise party, and Hannah sure was surprised! It was great:)

At the party some of us had a little too much Dr. Pepper, and that resulted in us needing to get some air. Which also means having Jimmy drive us around so we can sing super loud. And find an empty parking lot to take pictures in;)

too cool for our own good

we don't know gang symbols so we flash hearts

classic us

we just have too much fun

 This week I promise to be a better blogger! Hannah will not be MIA! 

xo
Hannah

Catch Up Part One

I'm really upset at myself that I've been such a bad blogger lately. I don't mean to be, I just get so caught up in getting done what NEEDS to be done, I forget to go to my creative outlet every now and then!

So let's play catch up:)

It's been raining like crazy here in CO! Luckily, where I live has not been flooded, but most of my dad's family in Eastern Colorado and my mom's parents who live near Boulder have really taken the grunt of it.  I just can't even get over how all this rain came so fast! One of my uncle's lives 3/4 of a mile from a river that has widened over one mile in the last few days. When you run a mile, you know how long that is.  My grandparent's old neighborhood is flooded; one of their friends who still lives there had to be rescued and taken to dry ground in her husband's fishing boat. It is insane! But for now, I will enjoy all the rain that has thankfully not flooded where I'm at! It's the perfect Hunter boot, candle lit, warm tea, Mindy listening weather. :)

Speaking of Mindy, let's just take a minute and talk about how much I love her new album. I calculated the numbers of times I've listened to the album since I bought it on Monday night, and I'm 28 hours, or 40.9 times. Sorry it's just so perfect. Currently, my favorite song is Finding Home.

Now for a little XC update. These pictures are all from last weeks meet in the Springs. It wasn't my best race, and I was not a big fan of the course, but so be it. However, my runner's high afterwards was higher than ever! To say that Mackenzie and I were a party on the bus is the understatement of the century! This week's race was great! I loved the course so much (it was all flat and downhill, praise the Lord). The weather was cool and perfect. I took off a whole three minutes and ended up running a 28:36. Best day eva. Oh and just so you know, we don't cancel XC because of rain. We have practiced all week in the pouring rain, and it is the best feeling ever! To an onlooker, I'm sure it's hilarious to see all these kids soaked to the bone, running around a park, with their two coaches standing in the middle yelling at them.

literally right after we ran

pre post race high

hot bus + sweaty runners= miserable us

but sonic can easily fix that issue!

So for now, I'll leave it at that. Tomorrow will be part two of catch up, featuring Tri-M inductions, a surprise party, and the memories high school is made of.

xo
Hannah

A Brief Pause

I've been gone for a while on this blog. I don't know why, but life has been overwhelming now.

Overwhelmingly beautiful.

Last week was one of my favorite weeks of my entire life.
Monday, we had no school.
Tuesday was just fantastic.
Wednesday included Panera and a candy shop.
Thursday was perfect beyond words description
Friday was easy, exhausting, and exactly why I love high school.
Saturday I got to go to Sonic. And my car battery died there at midnight haha
Sunday was a day of studying and homework out the wazoo but managable.

This week has continued to be pretty fabulous.
Monday I did pretty okay on my APES test and I got Mindy's NEW ALBUM!
Tuesday Mindy retweeted and favorited one of my tweets, and replied back to me! (I died)
Today I got asked to homecoming.

So yeah, you could say life's been pretty good to me.

Here's a photo dump...

i love food. especially ribs.

seXC models

post race beauty-- don't you love how sweaty we are?

WE LOVE SONIC

SO MUCH

running in the rain oh running in the rain! representing rutgers!

yeah we're pros

somewhere over the rainbow

s/o to my homegirl mindy <3 best album yet!

i may or may not have screamed because of this. I LOVE MINDY MORE THAN MY MOM

presh

very hip, very modern

typical target shenanigans. you should see the other ten pictures

I will catch up tomorrow on all of these crazy events. Life is just the best.

xo
Hannah

It Was a Fantastic Day

I think having Mondays off every week would be the best idea in the whole world. Today was probably one of the best days ever. I probably say that about a lot of days on the blog, but this was just one of those ordinary days that was totally extraordinary.

Tuesday is a day I have classes all day. AP US History, AP Environmental Science, choir, and college composition. Most of the time, these days are sooo long and dreadful, but today was just perfect all the way through. History was easy (it usually is honestly), we watched a video in science, choir was just great as usual (ahh I love Honors Choir soooo much!!), and English was nothing horrible.

Then came cross country and it was a hard day, but today was my breakthrough day!!! Usually, when we run to the park, I hate every second of it. It's slightly uphill, and it's hot, and it seems long. In reality, it's like a mile and a half. Today though, I was able to run and talk and not even feel exhausted! It was a milestone!

Afterwards, Mack was oh so kind to treat me to Jamba Juice. She's the best! Brenden and Matt asked if we wanted to join them for some pho, and we gladly obliged. We ate some amazing noodle soup, and talked and laughed for a good two hours. It was a very Hollywood moment, two guys and two girls at a restaurant, laughing obnoxiously for hours. But heck, that's what I love about being a teenager. I love those cliche moments:) Oh, and an extra bonus?! Brenden paid for our food! Thanks for a free dinner Brenden!

Pho was followed by quite the dance party in Mack's car to Ellie Goulding, our favorite. She gets me in the zone for cross country, and just makes my life 9849238923 times better. This is our current anthem.

We ended up in the school parking lot, talking for another hour. Boys, if you want to date us, we are not high maintenance. Hit us up asap, we're the best homecoming dates you could ask for! Mackenzie and I specialize in long, deep talks, that leave us in motivational moods (hence this blog post)

So there wasn't some monumental event that made today better than the rest, but it just was. I hope everyone had the best Tuesday ever, because this one was one for the books.

xo
Hannah

OH! And Mindy released a new song off her new album (one more week people!) and I love it!!! It's a different style than the usual Mindy, and I think it's pretty perfect.