Changes!

So I haven't updated this in a while. I will do so now.

I update my other blog more frequently if you wish to watch that one, too: http://notyour-average.blogspot.com/

Quite a few things have come up in the Priest family... school has started up. We'll go youngest to oldest:

Oliver is now in the 2nd grade. He loves school, which is great. He has quite a bit more homework than he used to have, which he really didn't like at first, but he's getting used to it; he likes learning.

Grace is in the 5th grade and has been running for Co-president for the student body at school. She also does safety patrol, which she loves. She really likes being a big kid now. Grace is also taking flute and piano lessons and is getting better at both. She went on a field trip today to see the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. She has been extremely excited to go on this trip and had an excellent time today.

Sally is now a freshman in high school. She thinks high school is way overrated and extremely dumb, but it has its perks. Just like Molly and I did. I hate to think that we gave her that impression, but she's always been a bit of an independent thinker and chooses her own way of looking at things. She is one of the fastest members of the swim team and, though it's a bit too soon to say anything, I personally think that if she keeps working at the pace she's working at, she'll make State with her swimming speeds. She does distance swimming. Her most recent amazing accomplishment was the 500 yard freestyle (20 lengths of the pool) at 6 mins and 11 seconds. And this was just during the 3rd week of the school year. There are still a good 8-9 weeks left. Though she's currently dealing with swimmer's ear and isn't allowed to get in the pool for a while, she still works out and does weights. She also may audition for the Iowa All-State Orchestra. She may not make it this year because she hardly has time to practice with swim team, but going to auditions this year will help her to know what the audition is like, so this next year, she can practice her butt off when she's not swimming and maybe make it at least one of her other years in highschool.

I have started college and have turned 18. Most of my updates are on my other blog. Link again is: http://notyour-average.blogspot.com/ I'm loving college, especially being at an extremely small college, where there are a total of 22 people who are Music majors. And that's total, not just my class. Seniors, Juniors, total of 22 people. I love it, though. There's definitely a team kind of idea/mood to the whole group of both students and professors. When we have our recital class (a class where every music major comes and listens to fellow peers perform prepared pieces... hehe just thought that'd be fun to type.. anyway..), we listen and critique our peers, and the mood of everything seems like we're discussing things as musicians, all of us, not as educated adults v. students. It's so cool. And I absolutely LOVE it. Though the gender factor (it's 7-3) is kind of a downer (plus, it's CLARKE COLLEGE.... if you add the idea of Dubuque PLUS crazy college students who love throwing parties... yeah. This area is something like 2nd on the list of most drinking per capita in the world or something (2nd only to a place in Germany I believe, at least it used to be), and Clarke, UD and Loras can be thanked for that. ;-) ) Ya. not my kind of crowd. So this weekend I'm going to a multi-stake YSA Conference in Nauvoo. It should be really fun and a great experience, and I hope to meet some people and make some friends. Oh, I also had my last day of work at the Humane Society today and I start work at Dairy Queen on Thursday. I am in 2 orchestras, too: the Dubuque Youth Symphony and the UWPlatteville Symphony.

Molly is busy busy busy!! On Thursdays, she has class from 8 am-10pm! And she has wednesdays and fridays off, but she works then. She no longer works at the day care. She now works for Americorp, which is something I can't explain. :P Look it up. She works at an elementary school though, helping kids at risk. She absolutely LOVES it. I don't get to see much of her, but when I do she's usually either busy, working on school work, excersizing (which she is getting sooo fit she looks awesome.. I need to start :-o ), but she's almost always happy. :)

This fall the Priest family has gotten RID of cable TV! It's gone! Turn on the TV and you get nothing. And I LOVE it. Love love love it. I don't mind TV, but I perfer to do something I love, and I love doing something useful. Watching TV is not useful. Unless you're finding the weather or checking something on the news.

Mother and Father are excersizing and dieting like crazy and the results are showing! My dad has lost about 70 lbs and my mom almost 30. And they're not nearly done yet. My dad wants to lose a total of about 95-100 lbs to be back at the weight he was in the army. A lot of that was muscle. But boy he looks great. Today they even went through the closets and got all of the clothes that don't fit them any more and took them to the Discovery Shop and other charitable places, and good will. Took around 6 giant garbage bags full of clothes. I'm so proud of them! :)

holy cow I just heard a firework go off nearby and something went bang in the backyard and it got my heart pounding.

Goodness I should stop ranting and go to bed.

Well, that is our family update!