It's New Year's Eve...

so I thought I'd give an update of this past year! Not sure why anyone would be interested in reading the humble occupations of my year, but it can be rather interesting. So here goes!

January: Um...January. I really expected to remember things that happened a whole year ago? :P I know, I'll check my journal! I stopped writing in it in April, and I think I remember events pretty well from then on. *checks journal* Oh...duh! How could I forget? That was the month in which my sister and I journeyed to a large city about 4 hours from our house and auditioned for the summer intensive of their ballet company's school! That was a very exciting day. It was thrilling to be in such a big city, and in a major ballet studio! My audition left something to be desired, to be sure (it was the 15 and up age group, and everyone else had at least 8 years of ballet to my 2), but it wasn't horrible, and my sister said I had some of the highest extensions, so that made me happy! We had center on pointe, which wasn't much fun for me since I'd been on pointe for a grand total of...um...maybe 3 months? But it was okay. After the audition, we visited the priest who had been transferred from our church.
The pro-life rally at our church was that month as well. The girls' group had made a lot of quilts to donate to pregnancy help centers, which were much appreciated.

February: February is never terribly exciting for me, and from I can remember, this one was no different. The biggest thing was that I finally decided that I would not try to have a career in ballet, and that I have a calling to write. It was such a relief! :) Writing has always been the thing that was me.
One of my best friends (I'll call her Essie) also spent two weeks in Italy to visit the order of sisters she joined later in the year!

March: The first part of this month was mainly taken up by our youth ballet company's production of "Beauty and the Beast"! My sister (you know, I'm just going to start calling her Evangeline, which is what her username on the FTN Forum is - even though she never posts!) and I had been rather disappointed with how small our roles - the helpers of the fairy godmother - but they turned out to be wonderful! First off, we were on pointe and the other three fairy helpers weren't, which added a sort of hierarchy and more interest; and, best of all, the little girls in the audience loved us! I think we may have been the most exciting for them - we were fairies and we were "real dancers" in pointe shoes! After one performance, we went to find our parents in the lobby and I think at least 10 parents asked if they could take their kids' picture with us! It was pretty cool...they were so excited and some of them shook our hands and gave us hugs! It was so cute.
On March 13, my friend Essie was accepted into the order! That was very exciting and joyful, but also sad as she informed us she'd be leaving in September.

April: Essie and I had our last sleepover ever. It was a very fun, bittersweet occasion. We stayed up talking half the night, of course, and she told me all about her visit and we just talked. We had a lovely time!

May: We went on a pilgrimage to Holy Hill with our church - it was a wonderful time! We rode a bus there and back again, which was tons of fun; walked in procession to the main church (I carried the Altar and Rosary banner and man was it heavy!); and then attended Mass, for which our choir and choirs from two other apostolates sang (it sounded awesome the times we sang together!). We had a picnic lunch on the large, beautiful grounds, and then attended Holy Hour before returning home.
There was a dinner at church thanking everyone at church who cleans, sings, cooks, or anything else. As usual, my friends and I had a lot of fun helping at it and eating at it and cleaning up after it!
Evangeline turned 13 at the end of the month and we celebrated by going to our favorite pizza place!

June: I turned 16 at the beginning of the month! We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner...they had an amazing chandelier that looked like a ship (I'll post the picture when I get it off the camera...6 months later. :P We lost our USB cable.)! And I ate lots and lots of egg rolls and crab rangoon and bourbon chicken, so I was quite happy! ;)
There were two weddings at our church towards the end of the month, one on Friday and one on Saturday! Both were beautiful, and I had such a good time dancing at the second one!

July: For the first week we had ballet class, and then we headed down to the summer intensive! You can read all about it here and here.
We came back home on weekends. One Sunday was the church picnic, which was fun, as always, and I discovered I can roll down hills and climb through brush in a long skirt! :D

August: August...wow! What an exhausting, fun-filled month it was. The first week (which was also our first week home from the intensive) we went to the Company of the Immaculate Girls' Camp. It was fun for the most part! The next week was filled with class and rehearsals with the youth ballet company for Peter and the Wolf and the Ugly Duckling, which we'll be performing in March.
That same week, a girl from France came to stay with us for two weeks! Her family is friends of Fr. F. and she and her older brother came to see America! They happened to come at a very good time, too...there were parties galore, for birthdays, going-aways (that was the surprise party we had for Essie), and just people wanting to party! I think there must have been at least 6 or 7. It was a blast!

September: Essie left in the first week, which was a bittersweet occasion. I still really miss her. :( This is the post I wrote when she left.
This was also about the time I joined the Fairy Tale Novel Forum (for fans of the novels by Regina Doman - I'd read "Shadow of the Bear" in May), which has been amazingly fun and wonderful! I'm so happy to count all you forum people among my friends! After much hesitation, I also started writing a serial story called "Past the Ends of the Earth" for "Ink and Fairydust", the forum's online newspaper (click here for the latest issue), and I'm pleased to see that people seem to be enjoying it!
I also joined the Pevensie family in the role-playing on the forum, and I'm now Blanche Rose Pevensie, daughter of King Peter and Lady Rose! It's a lot of fun...we have exciting adventures which are great fun to go on, and I think it's helped improve my writing!

October: This was a pretty quiet month. I read and wrote a lot, did school...normal things like that. We prayed the rosary in front of the Family Planning Clinic as a part of 40 Days for Life, and there was another dinner!

November: I was sick a good portion of this month with swine flu, ear infection, sinus infection, goodness knows what else! I managed to write my essay for the Knights of Columbus Respect Life essay contest, though, and it won first place at the regional level for my grade!

December: Lots of Nutcracker-ing! Ahh...I love the Nutcracker...it's sad that that might havebeen my last one! We shall see. That month went sooo fast...it was kind of sad! But Christmas was lovely.

And so here I am, with 1 hour and 17 minutes of 2009 left! It was a good year with lots of changes, mostly for the better. I pray that 2010 will be wonderful and blessed for all of you!