The Last weeks of Summer

This summer has been one of the most amazing one yet. This weekend the family decided to take John and go to Lake Ocoee for White Water Rafting. It was sooo much fun! I even got to ride the bull ( the front part of the boat). John fell out once, then we both jumped in.
We stayed at this amazing cabin! It was so beautiful and away from everything. Some people that worked there said that there was a bear that was often seen near the cabin. We never saw it but we set out bait and checked outside every chance we could. Dad and I have ALWAYS wanted to see a real live bear other then at the zoo.
Since John loves to play with insects he found me a grasshopper looking bug that he said would eat warts. I have a little wart on my foot so we put the bug on my wart and it ate the whole thing off! It was awesome! WE even found dad a lizzard that you could stick to your ear and wear as an earring! Check out the pictures from the trip!(:

Summer!! :)

The summer has been absouletly amazing so far! I've had such a great tim getting tan and hanging with my friends! Tomorrow I leave for a mission trip with my church to North Carolina. I always have a ton of fun on mission trips and I know I will on this one.
I got to hear Brad Harrub speak today. He was AMAZING! I learned all about how the people have changed on this Earth for the worst. Did you know that in some states women and men use the same bathrooms?? That's crazy to me! I would not want to have an older man follow me into the bathroom and use the stall next to me. I also learned about how the ancient Greeks have influenced todays culture. Did you know that the word "gymno" comes from the word "gymnasium" and actually means "to be nude"? the ancient greeks made that word because the first olympics were held nude. I also learned about how homosexuality is coming into play in our everyday lives. There are now children's books all about their mommys or daddys being gay. I think this is terrible! Also there is more and more violence happening everyday. People don't realize it, but if you ask a techer 50 years ago what they most feared in a classroom, it was the gun chewing. Now it's kids coming in with guns trying to kill people. What has happened to America??
Well anyway, I went to the mall a couple of days ago to see some of my bestfriends I haven't seen in a while, we walked around the mall and really enjoyed seeing each other again.
I went to Florida the day school let out and got a great tan, then went to my aunts last week end to help my tan even more!
I hope you all are having a great summer!

School

School is going great! I have a ton of friends and my grades are FIANLLY taking a U-turn and going back up. We have the usually exciting TCAP next week, but the princible said that instead of watching movies like we usually do after the test, we have to go to all of our classes while our teeachers continue to teach. :(
I went to Willliam Loyd and Sherri's for Easter and met up with some of my family that I rarely get to see. I got in an argument with Uncle Don over football.
Amanda came home this weekend and missed my speech. She had an o.k. reason why. She said that I didn't act like I wanted to do my speech and take it seriously. In a way she's right but I ended up winning the thing, so I'm mad that she missed it. That's ok though. This weekend is the Fall Retreat with my church youth group and I can't wait! I know I'm gonna have a ton of fun!

Funny story from Lads

Although Lads to Leaders was a ton of fun with my friends and I winning awards and trophies my faviort story by far from the trip was about Alena one of my best friend. We were walking off stage when Alena suddenly tripped on the stairs grabbing one of the guys around the neck with one hand and his hand with her other hand. When she recovered and was back up on her I asked her how she tripped and if she was ok. she giggled and replied, "the only reason I tripped was because I thought that guy was cute and wanted to hold his hand!"
I don't know why but this cracks me up everytime I think about it.

It worked!

So thanks to mom and Amanda the hard work paid off! I can go! We're also bringing along two of my friends! I can't wait to go see my sister! I guess that even thought he didn't get to see my sad eyes, he did hear the sadness in my voice! :)

To bad for Sad eyes.......

Today my Amanda lovingly wrote on my facebook wall "Ashley, try to talk dad into letting you come down and seeing me Saturday Afternoon. We can also go see making music :)" I was so excited! I haven't seen my big sis in ages! SO I rang my father and said, "Father! I think we need to go see my sister, Amanda because I love her and I want to go to making music!!!!" His verry enthusiastic reply was as follows, "Ashley poo, I could care less about making music, and I really just want to be home with my family." By this point I was wondering why I get this excuse everytime I wanna do something. So I had to think fast, I couldn't put on my "sad" eyes because we weren't in person, remember I rang him. So I put on this cute little girl voice, you know the kind thats saying I really want something but I doubt it will happen but I'm just gonna try anyway? Well I used that and I begged like a begger begging for food when he came back with what he thought of as a good come back "Ashley poo, I just wanna spend some time with my family..." Ok now HOLD UP!!! Is Amanda SMITH not a part of his family??? So I was getting adgitated now. I finally just decided I wasn't gonna talk to him, and if I was it was gonna be a short answer. I think he kinda got the point and now Amanda isn't gonna come home next time he asks her! We're going on strike!

this is the worst time to be sick :(

Well sadly, I woke up this morning fealing terrible due to a massive headache and a little fever that later grew. All day I've been trying my best to heal myself by drinking cran apple juice and laying in bed. I have to be better by tomorrow because one of my close friends is have a party and we're all watching the movie "When a stranger calls" and having a bonfire and roasting weenies! I'm also hanging out with one of my best friends McKenzie, Amanda, and mom. We're going to get manicures, pedicures, and go shopping in celebration of Amanda coming home! So I must get better!