Hello Sixteen

I turned sixteen this month. (For privacy reasons, I will not disclose the actual date) Here is the account of my birthday  festivities.

First, I had my Sweet Sixteen birthday party. Due to scheduling, I held my party before my actual birthday. (Personally, I like that better. That way, I get two days to celebrate my birthday. What could go wrong?)

Now, I have been thinking about this party for a while. Almost a year ago, I decided that on my sixteenth birthday party, I would get a limo. And I did. Now, I didn't have the whole party planned out a year ago, so I spent the week leading up to the party planning, making reservations, sending invitations, and what not.

Then came the party.

Now, I love parties. I love the people, I love the food, I love the music, and I love the laughter. For my sweet sixteen, I wanted to make it sweet, so after a homemade dinner, we all got in the limo and went downtown to eat dessert. (A very yummy dessert, I must say. I got the chocolate mouse cake.)

After exchanging our share of spooky dream stories and other normal conversations like that, we all got back into the limo and dropped everyone back off at their homes, which took a while, since some people lived farther out. All the better, that means more time in the limo.

When the limo pulled into my driveway, I was so tired. My best friend was spending the night and we thought that we were just going to go to bed. But really, what fun is going to bed, and how often do you have a limo in your driveway? 

So somehow we manged to find the necessary energy to have a ridiculously fun midnight pajama party in the limo. Yes, you heard me right. Midnight. Pajama. Party. In a limo. This said party was complete with little sisters, pillow fights, peanut butter m&ms, and Taylor Swift. When we got home, we crashed. But that was one of the best nights ever!

And that wan't even my birthday;, that was just the party.

On your birthday, people always ask you if you "feel different". What do they expect the answer to be? Of course everyone's just the same as the day before, only happier because they ate cake and received presents.

I did feel slightly different, though. The day was full of possibilities and fun.I ate brownies for breakfast and painted my nails pick with my best friend. I went out to a Mexican restaurant with my family and then we saw Man Of Steel in theaters. (The move was very good, and I recommend it.)

I opened presents and then we ate cake. I love those words: and then we ate cake. I had Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. (Picture shown below.) Maybe Marie Antoinette wasn't so far off when she recommended cake. After all, cake makes everything happier. (I tried to think of a situation that cake couldn't make better, but failed. If you can think of one, please share.)






I'm sixteen now. Do I feel different? Maybe. Well, not really. But I am excited for what this year holds. I'm excited for what God will show me this year, and the places that I will grow in Him.

Hello sixteen. My name is Hannah. Let's go places.

Hannah 

Rambing About Randomness

I can't decide what I want I want to write about, so I will just ramble on about randomness.

Random Thought One: Chocolate Chip Cookies. There is some chocolate chip cookie dough sitting on the counter calling my name. But I have already had several bites, and I asked my sister to slap me if I took another bite of the dough. The only thing is, my sister isn't in the room right now... Self control, Hannah, self control...

I get up and put the cookies in the oven. I sneak a bite of cookie dough in my mouth, and my sister, now back in the kitchen, spanks me.

Random Thought Two: The spanking was worth it.

Random Thought Three: I am very excited to see Star Trek Into Darkness.

Random Thought Four: Three days later, after I saw Star Trek Into Darkness, had a birthday party for my sister, and finished up the second week of my local ballet intensive.

I've been busy.

Random Thought Five: But Star Trek Into Darkness did not disappoint. Just thinking abut it makes me cry and laugh at the same time.

Random Thought Six: Birthday parties are fun, very fun.

Random Thought Seven: And birthday cake is yummy, very yummy.

Random Thought Eight: You're probably tired of this randomness, but I will leave you with three very important words, and one very funny video.

Here are the three very important words:

GOD IS ENOUGH

And if we live by these words, trusting that they are always true, then there is no need to worry or fret or stress. All we need is God, because He is enough. And if you are a son or daughter of God, then you will always have Him with you, therefore you will always have enough. Why, then, do we depend on circumstances and people to be "enough" for us? They will fail, but God, will never fail; His love will always be enough no matter what.

Okay, I'm done preaching. 

And here is the promised video:

Enjoy randomness, laughter, and whatever other joys God places in your life. Because life is more fun when your laughing.

Hannah

Ballet, Ballet, and More Ballet

Hello! Today has been a rainy day, stormy even. In fact, during ballet class today the power went out. We were in the middle of marking a variation and the lights and music went out. Did that stop us? No! We kept on dancing, singing the tune to make up for the loss of music.

Ballet has been very exciting lately. A few weeks ago, I performed at my studio's recital. I always love recital day. We got up and go to the theater in the morning, and we rehearsing and prepare all day. When I step onto the stage I feel so excited and happy and confident. Backstage is full of laughter and make up. Then comes the recital itself. I get slightly nervous, but once I'm on stage, all I have room to think about is dancing. I performed a variation from Swan Lake's pas de trios. Also, my class and the younger class performed a ballet dance to a dub-step like music. It was so much fun, and the audience enjoyed it too.

I had three weeks off from ballet, but now summer ballet is in full swing. When I was younger, summer ballet seemed like a waste of my summer, but now I spend many weeks of summer training. This summer is different than last summer, though, because I am "going off." (That means that I am going out of town, to a bigger city, to train for ballet.) I am going to spend three weeks at Ballet Austin.

Even though I have been preparing and thinking about this next step for over a year, I can still hardly believe that I am going. I am nervous, excited, and unsure all at the same time. Part of me just wants to stay at home, but the other part wants to see what I can really do. I'll let you decide which part won.

I leave in two weeks. Wow, I can't believe that I just wrote that last sentence. I don't know how often I will be able to post when I am at Austin, but I will try to keep you posted.

Hannah

P.S. This is a picture of my variation costume. I loved it! I felt like a princess while wearing it.

Work and Play

It's been too long. Way too long.

I could tell you that I've been busy, but I still could have posted something! The truth is, once the charm of having a blog wore off, all that was left was the work part of it. And did I really want to do the work as well as the fun? That seemed to be the question. And I have come up with an answer.

Yes.

Yes, I do want to do the work as well as the fun. As I am growing up, I am realizing that work is a very crucial part of fun. After all, eating cupcakes is fun, but first you have to make them. (And afterwards you have to clean them up, the hardest part in my opinion.)

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't really like work. My birthday party is coming up, and it is going to be very fun! But before the party, I have to send the invitations, make the reservations, clean the house, and cook the food. Basically, I have to work for my party.

Another example is ballet. I had my ballet recital a few weeks ago, and it went great! But before the recital I had to put in countless hours at the studio, as well as all recital day rehearsing and getting ready. Was it worth it? YES!

So even though I like having fun, work is still a necessary part of life. This is a fact that I am learning over and over again. I am learning not to be scarred of work.

I have had so much going on, and I can't wait to share it all with you! And I have a lot of exciting things coming up!

Hannah

P.S. Here's a random picture of a cat. Your welcome.