Debate, books, and more in a Jar

Happy Birthday!

2011-12-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

We have two birthdays to celebrate today!! The birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and......Debate, books, and more in a Jar! Yup, today, exactly one year ago, this blog began!! So Happy Birthday Jesus and Happy Birthday to my blog!

Things are kinda out of wack, with high school, speech, debate, CHEC, etc. but I'll try my very best to post on here!!! Not that anybody actually checks this old thing anymore.... :P

Update again!

2011-11-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Yo peeps!

Oh, and all these awesome things are happening!! I got my ears pierced finally, and I must say, they look SO cool, if I do say so myself. Which I do. :P Let's see, our CHEC play is tomorrow, so wish me luck! Or, break a leg....lol!

So yeah, not much is going on but I'll update ya'll later!
Ciao!

Hello again!

2011-10-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah, its been waaaaay too long since I last posted. Here's a little update on my life:
We started CHEC (Christian Homeschool Enrichment Co-op) in September and its been a lot of fun. I like my classes and I'm starting to make some new friends! Which, as you all know, you can never have too many of!! School killed me, but I'm surviving. A lot of CHEC and debate homework too. OH YEAH!! And I turned 15! Woot Woot Woot!! Party in the house tonight! Yup, I had an awesome party. I'm missing two of my close friends, one of whom I really really really miss. :( They are both in public school and I haven't talked to one of them since my b-day! Speaking of which, I'm gonna go email her now.
Ciao, Toodles, Au revoir, and arrivederci!!

Fruit Pizza

2011-07-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to make a fruit pizza for the Fourth of July, but unfortunately we didn't have cream cheese. :( But I made on today! It was sooo delicious and super easy to make. Here's a pic.
In case you can't tell, I put strawberries on the outside, then grapes, then blueberries. I repeated the pattern and filled the inside with raspberries. Yummy!

Fashion Report: The Wedding Dress

2011-07-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I haven't done a fashion report in a long time so here's my catch up post.
First, I am NOT getting married, contrary to what Lizzy thinks. :) I'm just feeling romantic lately and I just love wedding dresses so I hope you enjoy this!
The History of the Wedding Dress
Wedding dresses weren't always white. Brides often just wore their best dresses for their weddings. Eventually, though, weddings gowns started to be worn in white. White represents a woman's purity and her virginity before her marriage.
Famous Wedding Gowns
Kate Middleton, the newly wed bride of Prince William of England wore a beautiful gown for her wedding. Her gown was designed by Sarah Burton and was made of lace and satin with a long train. Here's a picture.

Queen Victoria also wore a lovely dress for her wedding to Prince Albert. Her gown was made of white satin and lace with off the shoulder sleeves.
Here's a picture of Queen Victoria's gown as well.

Here are some pictures of this year's wedding dress styles.

Hope you girlz enjoyed this post!

Catching up!

2011-06-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. I didn't post last week's fashion report. But I can explain! It was our church's VBS last week and I was completely exhausted and busy too. So, I kinda forgot. But you guys and girlz can forgive me, right? Of course! Life has been so busy! I'm going on a Teen ACTS retreat this weekend and I leave on Monday for a girl's youth retreat. Then I have debate camp in August and a possible family vacation to the beach in September and another possible trip to Iowa for a wedding. Somewhere in there I'm going to try to fit in time to sleep and eat. Oh, and maybe a few sleepovers. Whew. So, what are all your plans this summer?

Fashion Report: Rompers

2011-06-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

This week's fashion report is about rompers! Yes, I know. It sounds like baby clothes but really, it's all over the place!
Here is a picture to give you an idea. Rompers are basically a shirt and short set connnected in the middle.

They are usually made strapless or strappy but are also worn short sleeved as well.

To dress a romper up I would wear dressy sandals or flats. To dress it down, I would wear casual sneakers. Hope you all enjoyed the post!

New Blog title help

2011-06-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about starting another blog about living on a farm and eating healthy. Anybody got an idea for the name? Just offer anything!

Fashion Report: Regency Era

2011-06-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Time flies so fast. I nearly forgot about this post today again! This week's post is about the Regency Era.
This gown is an example of the styles worn during this time period. The typical gown worn by women of this time period was high waisted and usually low cut as well. The sleeves were also usually long and the hemline, of course, came down to the floor.
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For those of you who are familiar with Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice, this picture is from the movie Pride and Prejudice. From left to right are Jane, Kitty, and Elizabeth Bennet.

Notice in this picture how the women also wore little jackets and bonnets. The more flowery and lacey the bonnet, the better!

I hope you girlz and guyz enjoyed this post! Comment and let me know if you like having pictures! Thanks!

My first AdSense update!

2011-05-28T08:09:00.001-07:00

Yippee! I have now acquired, thanks to you girlz and guyz, exactly $9.83! Another 17 cents and I have earned my first check! Thanks to all who've been clicking!

AdSense

2011-05-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Attention! Thank you. Ahem. You may have noticed that I have some advertisements on my blog. Now, it must be known that I loathe, despise, and utterly detest ads and commercials. However, if I allow google to post an ad on my blog with a widget called Adsense I make money for each time someone clicks the ad. If you would be so kind as to do so, I would be completely and eternally grateful to you. I'm not allowed to click the ads, (also kown as cheating) and I would be so very pleased and happy if you clicked them and then just closed it out. Unless, of course, you found an ad for debt free living to be so wonderfully interesting then you have my permission and blessing to keep looking at it. Do as you wish.
Also, I will stop excessively overusing adjectives, if you do. Although it is rather humorous and fun... :P Ooops...I did it again. :P

Fashion Report: Audrey Hepburn

2011-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

I really wasn't going to do another fashion icon this week, but, well, I kinda got behind and I almost forgot this week's post. And then one of my loyal subjects, I mean, followers, Miss Emily Tetsch suggested I do Audrey Hepburn. Seeing as I had no other ideas, I agreed! And here is your fashion report on Audrey Hepburn. Bon Appetit!
Audrey Hepburn was an actress from the mid-1900's. She was also a fashion icon as well, obviously, and she loved a lot of the styles that former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy liked as well. However, she had her own style too.
You may have heard about the Little Black Dress. Ms. Hepburn made them famous on the big screen. Other clothes that she liked were capri pants, and ballet flats. I myself adore ballet flats. Turtlenecks, and trench coats were also another major item. Personally, I think a trench coat gives an air of mystery and excitement. Audrey Hepburn was a daring fashion icon.
For example, she wore men's button down tops and managed to pull it off quite well. This fashion icon as well as Jackie Kennedy still lives on in fashion today. The ghost of famous fashion icons past still hide in today's styles. Look around and see if you can find them.

Fashion Report: Fashion Icon Jacqueline Kennedy

2011-05-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

This week's fashion report is going to be about a fashion icon. Jacqueline Kennedy, during her late husband's presidency, was considered to be a fashion icon for women all over the world. The clothes she wore set the styles for women everywhere. Pillbox hats, sleeveless A-line dresses, and suit sets with quarter length sleeves. These styles were known as the "Jackie look". Jackie may have been a great fashion icon but she wasn't a very thrifty person. She spent $45, 446 on fashion her first year in the White House! Wow!
After her husband's death, Jackie's style changed dramatically. She began wearing gypsy skirts, silk head scarves, large dark glasses, bright colors, and even wore jeans in public! (Women wore skirts or dresses in public only during this time) Some of these styles are coming back now too. Jacqueline Kennedy was a fashion icon in her time. She is still considered a fashion icon today.

Fashion Report: Maxi Dresses

2011-05-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

Starting now, each week I will do a Fashion Report post. I will talk about the latest styles, modesty, fashion icons, and other fashion related things. This week's Fashion Patrol post is going to be about maxi dresses.

What is a maxi dress you may ask? Maxi dresses are long, ankle length dresses that usually have some type of strap. This summer they are seen in floral prints and basically any color. Maxi dresses are popular with women's clothing and children's. Maxi skirts, which are just a long skirt are also popular. These dresses and skirts look very cute with wedge heels or strappy sandals and long necklaces. They also look good with a cute shrug, too!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Join me, Fashionista Raegan, next week for your next post!

Regional's!!

2011-04-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Our Regional speech and debate tournament was this weekend. Wow...what an awesome tournament!! During the social on Friday night, some of the parents performed their children's speeches while the graduating seniors judged them. It was hysterical! Competitors performed impromptu skits and sang funny songs. Out of the two debate teams in our club which qualified for Regionals, only one went on to the advanced rounds. No one in our club broke in speech but, we were all grateful for the opportunity to compete there. Maybe next year we'll all be in Nationals!

Modesty and Fashion..a perfect match- The teenage girl's dilemma

2011-04-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a pretty petite person. Because of that, I've been in childrens size clothing for awhile. I'm 14 now, turning 15 in September and I'm wearing junior size clothing more. I used wish that I could wear the more sophisticated, mature clothing sold in junior departments. Of course, now that mature and sophisticated means more and more skin shown, I'm not so eager to be completely out of childrens sizes. So, looking at this title, I notice that modesty and fashion used to be a perfect match.
Now, when people think about modest clothing they think about long ankle-length skirts, turtlenecks, or being buttoned up to you chin in lace. Not that there is anything wrong with long skirts, and turtlenecks. Is it really impossible to be modest and fashionable at the same time? Not necassarily.
But the problem is that the world has made modesty "unfashionable". And that really gets on my nerves! I've been looking for an Easter dress that is modest, sophisticated and fashionable. My only requirements are that it not be strapless, really short, or super lowcut. Is that really too much to ask department stores to do? Judging from what's in the stores now, the answer is yes. Why is it that fashion designers think that a girl has wear a very short dress, or very low cut shirt to feel beautiful? That's not the way we girls should feel! We should feel beautiful in our own styles and in modest clothing. Not in skimpy clothes that barely leave anything covered.
And now to offer a solution to this dilemma. Write letter's to stores that sell these "clothes" such as Kohls, Macy's, JC Penny, etc. Or, make petitions and have people sign them and send them to these stores. And one of the best things to do, is try not to buy these clothes. If you can't find clothes anywhere else, then buy strappy shirts and wear them with cute shrugs or under plain tees.
These ideas may not seem incredible but little things can do big things.
Modesty and fashion shouldn't be opposites. They should go together perfectly.

Books-again!

2011-04-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

You saw this title and thought, "She's already posted something like this before. Redundancy is not a virtue. Shame! Shame!" Yes, I know. Shame on me.......oh well! On with it! :P While packing up to move into our new house, I was reading through some old magazines and I noticed several interesting looking books in the reading column:
A World Away by TJ Smith
This is actually a series of books, this one being the first. Its about your typical geek. Dan Clay loves science and is so upset when the school bullies wreck the science fair, that he runs off into a forbidden forest. He gets lost and is transported into another world. He finds that his lost teenage brother is being held captive in a castle. Throughout the rest of the story, he and his 3 new friends set out to rescue his brother.
The Crystal Snowstorm by Meriol Trevor
A 13 year Catholic girl is living with her Protestant aunt in England. He grandfather, the Duke of Letzentein calls her to Germany. She encounters several mysteries and adventures throughout her trip and visit in Letzentein.
Just a side not to you guys, I have not read any of these books, to my great unhappiness, so I'm sorry if I got some of these thing wrong. I pulled the reviews from my magazines and wrote them in my own way.
Happy reading!!!

Wow..

2011-03-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

To expand on the above title, it's been quite awhile since I last posted. Guess I need to keep up better. I just got back from my last tournament. :( Well, besides Regionals. It was a lot of fun. I hung out with my friends, made new ones, and made some enemies too! As one might expect.....although Andres' cousin Mark may not be considered an enemy, he is in my book! :P Haha! I'm very curious as to what the new NCFCA resolutions will be this year. I know Stoa has already released their's, but NCFCA's will not come out until this summer....and yes, I will post about them when they are realesed!

Debate Camp

2011-03-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

My second debate post! I'm on a roll here. :P
This week, starting tommorow until Friday, our club is having a debate camp to prepare our advanced teams for regionals. Of course, my partner and I are not advanced (yet :P) but our coach is letting us attend. Well, me anyway since my partner can't come. I'm really excited because I think my partner and I can do really well with our case.(No, I'm not going to tell you what it is, its Top Secret) I can't wait!

The first debate post!

2011-02-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Amazingly, I haven't posted a single thing about debate, yet somewhow it wormed itself to the first word on my blog's name. So I thought I ought to post something debate-related. Last night at club, we discussed Counter plans. (My abv. for them will be CP) Being the person I am, I'm going to talk about CPs!!
Here are the things a Negative team must do in order to properly run a counter plan.
1. The negative team must be non-topical
2. They must solve the harms of the Affirmative team's case
3. They will have prima facie, or the burden of proof
4. It cannot co-exist with the Affirmative team's plan
5. Must have the same Inherency
6. Have a different plan accomplishing the same goal
When you are going Affirmative against a case you....
1. Prove the Negative team is topical
2. Prove that they are co-existing
3. Prove you are solving the harms better than the Negative team is
After our coach had stuffed us full with all of this delightful information, we had practice rounds; each team had a chance to go write a CP against another team and a chance to defend a counter plan against their case. My conclusion about CPs? I will most likely never run one, however interesting they appear.

Let's catch up!

2011-02-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

Wow!! Its been a looong time since I last posted. And its SNOWING outside!! Its BEAUTIFUL!! I love it!! We've had snow and ice since Tuesday! And now its snowing even more!! Yay!! Anybody else getting snow?? Here are some pics of the snow in our neighborhood:

This is how deep my slippers sunk in!!

And that one is my snow angel!! I love snow!!!!!

Pizza Faze

2011-01-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

Last night, we had homemade pizza to celebrate my little sister Abigail receiving First Confession. I kind of have to admit that I love eating pizza for breakfast, too. You may be wondering why I'm calling this a pizza faze but I've been thinking about the many different ways to eat pizza. Besides just pizza style. So I'm going to share some different ideas and recipes. My family makes pizza tortillas. I'll show you how.
Pizza Tortillas:
Wheat or White Flour Tortillas (1 per person)
Pizza Sauce (We use spaghetti sauce)
Mozarella cheese
And any toppings you want
Toast the tortillas at 350 degrees until warm.
On one half, spread with sauce, cheese, and toppings.
Fold the tortilla over and toast it until golden brown.

A website I really like is http://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/
She has recipes for Pizza Pockets, and Pizza Casserole.

Plus, we watched Despicable Me. Finally!! It was definitely one of the most hilarious movies of the year.

Tournament!!

2011-01-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

This tournament was awesome!! My lil sis, Haley, is qualified for Stoa Nationals and my friend Natalie and her debate partner Lizzie are qualified for Nationals also!!

Qualifying Speech and Debate tournament this weekend!

2011-01-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

Our first Speech and Debate tournament is happening this weekend!! I'm so excited! Here's a preview of what will happen tomorrow morning before we leave:
I'm refusing to eat breakfast, because I'm positive it'll all come back up again while we're driving. When we're at the tournament, I'll proceed to nervously hug my friends, and then rush off to my first debate round. Then I'll be thinking: THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!!!
I'll come back to the table and shock everyone by announcing that I'm hungry and that I'm ready to do it again!
Yep, then I'll come back and post about what an awesome weekend I had and shock you guys too!!
But you can wish me luck anyway.......:)

How about a heavenly slushie?

2010-12-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

This morning, Haley walked into our room with a heavenly slushie! It was the best!!! I bribed her into making me one, and it was DIVINE!!
It had rasberries, peaches, pineapple juice and sugar! Try it!