Could you pass a driver's test?

"You" in this case meaning me.

Created by Auto Insurance

Maybe I need to spend more time with that driver's guide. . .

~Sophia

Please help me out!

My dear few blog readers, I'm in need of your help.
The Piece County Council is closing down my skating rink. The ice rink is located in Sprinker Recreation Center in Pierce County, which hosts a variety of different activities, including Zumba, Yoga, Ballet, Karate, dog obedience classes, Church meets, Tennis, Hockey and Figure Skating, as well as many others.
I know skaters who have skated as long as ten years at Sprinker. I've only skated for two; I love it. What about these people who've dedicated their lives to this artful sport? The families that come to skate instead of sitting in front of the T.V., the seinior citizens who stay fit by playing tennis,and the kids who stay out of the streets because of hockey. If they take away Sprinker, then there's no other place to skate. People will be put out of jobs, into the streets, and children who've been skating all of their lives will have their dreams shattered.

The skating rink is the main problem, with the rusty, unstable, dangerous roof, as well as other problems. The whole center is in disrepair, and it's gotten so bad that it's being closed in October. The council just wants to shut it down instead of fixing it, even though plans for rennovation have been in place for years. They have the funds, but don't want to use them on Sprinker.
The most common argument I've heard against remodeling Sprinker, is that "people don't want to spend extra tax dollars on a select group of elitists" and that "if you want to skate, move somewhere that has a rink". I'm not taking that. They should come see the "elite" little four year-olds having a blast in their beginning group lessons. People drive a long way to get to Sprinker, and the closest rink besides that is Kent.

What we (people who want Sprinker remodeled) want is for the Council to get moving and give us a place to do our activities while they fix our rec center! We hope that if we make enough noise then the Council will reconsider! I attended a rally yesterday and we got media attention, which is great. The next move is to attend the council meeting. It would be earlier, but one of the council members is on vacation.

Help save Sprinker! Show support by emailing, phoning or writing to a council member, let them know that this is not okay! I know that most of y'all are on Facebook. Just join this group and add to the numbers. Check out Friends Of Sprinker. For more information about the problems with the center and the Council, see here, here, here and here.

~Sophia

The cooking weekend

I made some yummy carrot cupcakes on Friday for Father’s Day. The little carrots on top were fun to shape and roll in cinnamon “dirt”.

There were some left over to share at the Fort on Saturday!

The event was a big cooking competition. It was a cold dreary summer day, and there were very few volunteers and visitors. It was a slow day that I spent mostly chatting :)

It was painful torture to sit in front of the judges and watch them taste all of the delicious food that was prepared! There were about eight entries I think, and they all looked fabulous.

 

Hope you’re weekend was as tasty as mine :) Off to find a new recipe to try for a birthday tomorrow!

~Sophia

What happens when the 3yo finds the camera. . .

Or more specifically, when the three year-old and the eight year-old are bored.

Here are some of his more artsy shots:

~Sophia

Lovin' the new Netbooks

We just acquired two netbooks for school purposes. Coincidentally enough, they arrived two days before school ended. Funny old world, isn't it? ( Cap'n Jack Sparrow accent there, peeps) Summertime!

We've been enjoying them a lot; they're really easy to carry around. For school. Because we're doing a class unit on fairies and horses.

Very studious, serious girls.

Click here, hon. . .


They really like this subject!

I think we need to convince the sun that yes, it's okay to come out now, it's summertime.

~Sophia

A Song

Today's the ninth; music video day!





This is one of the worst music videos I have ever seen. I love the song though; isn't it expressive in the music and feel?

~Sophia

P.S. Sorry that the youtube screen is cut off. I'm still looking for the perfect template :)

Headin’ towards the future. . .

Remember the test I needed to take to get into College classes? I posted about it a while ago. Well, I took the test and passed the writing and reading portions easily. However, I didn’t pass the math section. With a little tutoring  from big brother, I passed the math portion last week with flying colors! So now I just need to sign up for my classes and I’m good to go this fall.

School ends this week, so I’m just wrapping up all of my school subjects; I’m excited for the summer.

~Sophia

How I met Evan Lysacek

Hello there. It’s been quite a while since I posted, so forgive me if I make such an exciting event sound boring.

Last weekend I went up to Seattle with some friends to see the Smuckers Stars On Ice tour. It was completely amazing! We saw Todd Eldredge, Jeremy Abbott, Meryl Davis & Charlie White, Alissa Czisny, Yuka Sato, Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto, Sasha Cohen (my skating idol), Evan Lysacek, Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo, Michael Weiss and Miki Ando.

We met up at the skating center and then drove to Seattle. The bruises on my upper left arm testify to the high percentage of PT Cruisers and VW Bugs that are on the highway from Tacoma to Seattle. Luckily I was sitting in the front, so I was able to duck to the side when I heard, “No take backs!”. We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory, then hung out at the sculpture park nearby. It was overcast, chilly and windy, but it was fun.

In front of the Key Arena was a sign that said, “No outside food or drink. No camera flash or video cameras.” My friend’s mom (for the sake of the story, we’ll call her Patty) said that we should just shove our water bottles down our shirts. We did, much to the hilarity of my companions, and Patty put the bag of cookies I brought up her shirt so it looked like she was pregnant. I wasn’t able to stop laughing about that for a while, so when we were done we passed the checkpoint without incident.

We found our seats; Patty got front row seats on a discount through something, so the view was wonderful, and perfect for pictures. While we watched, we ate cookies, said, “I can do that!” occasionally, and in my case, frantically took pictures.

Todd Eldredge

Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo

Alissa Czisny

Ben Agosto (He played a Van Halen song on the ice! One of my favorite parts of the show)

Meryl Davis & Charlie White ( they did their Olympic routine, apparently. I wouldn’t know, I don’t have television. Olympic routine or not, it was the best I’ve seen ever)

Michael Weiss

Sasha Cohen (I got some amazing, crystal clear pictures of her. I also got some videos)

Evan Lysacek

After the show, we took some pictures. Touching the ice, sitting in our seats, etc. Another girl from our rink was there, and she found a fan-club pass on her seat. We went with her and sat down, but the guard said that only the person with the pass could meet Evan, but we could watch. When the line thinned down, Patty told us to get in line surreptitiously. In horror at the act and in abject terror of being caught, we snuck into line. We weren't thrown out, but the guard said, "Okay, group picture, not individually, since only one of you has a pass." Tee-hee. Thank you, Ms. Guard. We all got our things signed. If we had known, we would’ve brought our skates! I think that one of my friends almost passed out, until she saw Evan. I was standing behind her, so I heard her say, "Thank you. Bye, I love you." I was laughing too hard to say anything but thank you to Mr. Lysacek, but he was laughing too, so I can say that I shared a joke with a famous, gold-winning skater.

Seattle at night is beautiful. As we walked back to the car, we all gushed about how fabulous the evening was, and Patty apologized for encouraging us to perform questionable and possibly illegal acts. We forgave her.

Such an unbelievable event! It’s so cool that I know how to do some things that the pros do. I think that we counted seven or eight maneuvers that we could do, excluding getting onto and off of the ice : ) It was a completely amazing experience and I am grateful to have attended!

~Sophia