8th grade – Ava's Journal Entries!

June 10, 2007

10:13pm

Yesterday (first day of summer vaca weekend) me, Meryl and mom walked downtown to the post office. On the way home we walked by the farmer’s market. It was pretty cool looking. We didn’t buy anything. Then that night me and Tabitha went to Hannah’s house for a party. We had a water fight. 8^th graders and 7^th graders against 6^th graders! I got really wet! It was a ton of fun though! All the 6^th graders had all the water guns and the 8^th and 7^th graders had cups of water. Haha! Then me, Tabitha, Rhonda, and Maria hung out, talked and danced to my CDs! Everyone danced and sung along! 😊

Then today, I went over to Tabitha’s mom’s house. We ran through her sprinkler and went over to a playground nearby. We ate subs for lunch. It was good!! I rode my bike home and mom took me over to Delia’s house. We watched Epic Movie (not that good) and had mac and cheese and smoothies! Now I’m home! And I should go to bed soon!

TTYL!

Ava Estelle

Present day me: Boy did I get into a lot of fun stuff when I was a kid. I was so lucky to have this many friends who wanted to do all these things together. I cherish these memories. They have made me who I am today to some degree.

June 9, 2007

June 9. 2007

7:12 am

I just woke up twelve minutes ago. But I just wanted to write about the last couple of days. Thursday, the 8^th grade class went to an amusement park two hours away! It was so awesome!!! I hung out with Tabitha, Courtney, Rhonda, and Brit. The first ride we went on was the Extreme Swing. Me, Courtney and Rhonda went on it, if Brit would of went on it, Tabitha would of….but whatever. We went on more rides, ate lunch then went on some roller coasters. 😊 I love rollercoasters and Tilter and Scrambler! That was pretty much the Thursday.

So, yesterday (Friday) was the last day of school! 😊/☹ I was happy for no more homework and then sad for no more friends. Well, in the morning right away, we got our class 2007 t shirts! They were ugly. (gray with blue lettering. All our names were on it though!) We all went to the cafeteria for signing of things and breakfast. Then went to the auditorium to watch Happy Feet! I love that movie A LOT! 😊 After the movie we got into groups and went in stations around the 8^th grade house. That whole thing was kind of boring…but oh well. After that was lunch, we ate outside in the back of the school! Then we went to the front of the school to DANCE! And of course, take pictures. <3 my hobby!

After the “8^th Grade Celebration” we all went into the auditorium to watch the slideshow. EVERYONE started crying…surprisingly, I didn’t cry at all. I gave lots of people hugs. That was the last day of middle school. <3

Ava Estelle

Present day me: I remember this day and how bittersweet it was. Some people were crying much more than others. The situation was, after this school year due to the school zones in our city, our class was being split in half basically by going to different high schools in the fall. I had friends going to my high school and had friends going to the other high school. It was sad because I knew it’d be more difficult for us to stay friends being in different schools, and different parts of the city. Some of my friends felt like our class was one big family and I felt that way too. I remember getting along with pretty much everyone that I had classes with. I made a lot of memories with the friends I had in middle school. During high school and after I’ve stated I’d go back to middle school again over any other time in my life. The days and times were just so much fun, and everyone had a good time! When I’d bring my digital camera to school, I’d get pictures with classmates that I’d never thought cared to be my friend, but they did! I made more friends with my creativity and openness. Wow, I’m missing that time.

Anyway! Thank you for reading my entries! The rest of this year and the following years will be my high school time and many different things will be happening!

June 3, 2007

Confirmation Sunday!!! Wow today was an awesome day!! I woke up this morning soooo nervous about the service. I curled my hair, got my dress on (a little scare with that, the zipper wasn’t working but we got it after the millionth try.) We got to church around 8 for pictures. But all we did until the group picture was hang out. So, it was alright. And I was getting less and less nervous as the minutes passed. When the service started, I was okay, almost excited. I read the gathering prayer and got confirmed! Had communion and then after the service I (and all the others from my confirmation class) went to stand outside of the sanctuary so everyone could say congrats and shake our hands. I said a LOT of thank you’s during that. I smiled a TON that morning. (Dad even came to church!)

After the service we headed home, got the food for the party, and headed up to the lake with Mrs. Willow and Cathy following mom and I. During the party we sat around, talked, ate, had the LOVELY cake, (with mine and Mrs. Willow’s pic on it!) and after a few families left the rest of us went on the boat! (Oh, I opened presents from everyone before we went on the boat) after the boat ride, me, Eddie, Meryl and Mrs. Willow’s daughter went to play catch in the street. HE was outside and I swear he was looking over at us! Hehe! IDK! We played catch for a while and then Mrs. Willow left. So, it was us 5 and Cathy. She hung out with us til around 8 and left. So, we’re staying at the lake on a school night. First time! Hopefully dad will wake me up at the right time.

<3 gooooood day!

Ava Estelle

Present day me: This was an awesome accomplishment day for me but also a really sad day at the same time in hindsight. A few weeks before the date I was to be confirmed at church I received a letter from my pastor. She was our teacher all school year. She spent every Wednesday with us at church, along with other numerous events and trips over the year. We had a lot of requirements to accomplish during that school year to be confirmed. This letter I received at school one morning from a girl who was also in my confirmation class. It was from our teacher/pastor and the message she wrote was she wasn’t going to be able to join us for our confirmation Sunday this year. There had been a note slipped into her mailbox at church with a death threat written on it. Everyone assumed it was from someone without our congregation. Because of this threat she decided to leave town before our confirmation Sunday. We didn’t know our last time we saw her was going to be our last time. Only one person from our class ended up staying at that church after this momentous day, fourteen of us shared. We experienced so much love, compassion, and friendship during our year learning about the church. I was legitimately ready to be an actual member with my own name tag within everyone else’s in the entryway. I remember always being excited for that since our first year there. Then weeks before the end, before celebration, is heartache and sadness. I will never ever forget this experience I had with getting confirmed in the Methodist church. I am shaking a little even writing this out because it was so emotional.

Another part of this entry is Mrs. Willow. She was a teacher of mine in middle school, then was my mentor during my confirmation year. I was so happy to learn she was a member of my church!! It was a really special relationship I had with her. It was strange going from being her student in class to being mentored by her and able to call her by her first name instead of Mrs. Willow. She is such a kind soul and I’m so grateful she was a part of my childhood.

Lastly, when I mention HE in this entry that isn’t God I’m referring to. It’s a boy who lived across the street from our cabin/lake house. I didn’t know his name at this time, but I knew he was a little older than me and looked cute! So, I was always hoping he’d come out and hang with us while we were playing catch in the street, right in front of his house. Every time we visited the cabin, sometimes I’d see him get off the bus with his brother! Other times I’d walk down the long driveway to “check the mail” and see if he was hanging in his yard. Hahaha oh the memories that come back while reading these entries! Thanks for taking the time to read this momentous moment of mine!!!!! 😊

March 24, 2007

Yesterday we got up, packed up all our stuff in the van and drove up hwy 1 in the late morning. My parents wanted to drive up that road and stop on the beaches and take pictures. So, we did. We made it into San Francisco and mom wanted to go to Golden Gate Park, so we drove around for like 3 hours… I don’t know. It was a day spent in the car. We stopped at a busy gas station. As dad was filling up the van a homeless lady came up to him and started complaining about tampons and she needed clothes. Then she said, “Can’t you say something?” and dad goes, “Well, I’m sorry.” She comes back with, “Bitch!” haha. He jumped back into the van pretty fast. It was in a really run-down neighborhood. So yeah. We just kind of drove around for like the whole afternoon. We ate dinner at chili’s and we tried to take our time to eat Our Last Meal in California. When we got into the van when we were done it was 8:30! We had like four hours until we needed to be at the airport. What was there to do? We just went to the airport extra early. The End!

<3 It’s good to be home!

Present day me: I have come to realize now, after reliving this trip through my entries, that almost everything my parents wanted to do with us, after my aunt and uncle had their time, we didn’t accomplish for one reason or another. One reason was, they didn’t properly research their locations to determine how to get there or what to expect while being there. I know we didn’t make it to Golden Gate Park because my dad couldn’t figure out how to get there. Which is pretty lame…. I feel that I have learned from those mistakes. Also, the internet is way more prevalent now than it was back in 2007, for two parents of three children. They’ve never been too keen on spending time online.

March 22, 2007

Yesterday us five got up, drove up hwy 1 to Muir Woods! It had more giant Redwoods! It was actually a pretty cool place. We got there and had lunch, then walked on the many trails for about three hours. Then dad wanted to drive through Berkeley College. We got lost finding Berkeley. But when we did find it, we had to pay to drive through campus. So, we didn’t see anything at Berkeley! Dad and mom were kind of disappointed but oh well. Then we were all hungry and mom and Eddie had to pee. So, we set off to find a restaurant with a bathroom! We found a bathroom, but the restaurant couldn’t accept credit cards. So…. we went to the grocery story to get dinner. It was a fun day!

So, what we did today! We got up and I asked dad what we were going to do today, he said we’re going to the Big Foot Museum in Felton – just outside of the city. That place didn’t open until 1 o’clock, so we went downtown to check out the stores. We went to Palace, the scrapbooking store. Where I went last time with Aunt Penny and got all the cool stationary stuff. And we looked at other stores. Oh yeah! I watched The Family Stone on tv. And Meryl, mom and me went on a walk down the beach before we went downtown. We drove to the museum, and it ended up being closed, so we just drove back to the house.

Ava Estelle

Present day me: The redwoods were amazing!!! I remember taking many pictures while there.

A few years prior to this time I had the opportunity to visit my Aunt Penny in California all by myself. I wasn’t too scared of flying alone because I had done it a few times with my family already at that age. When I was with only Aunt Penny, she and I did a ton of shopping and sightseeing. I only had a couple days with her for that trip, and I had a great time! I got so many cool scrapbooking, notebooks and writing things from that store – Palace. I dreamt about going back between the two visits I had to California as a kid. I hope I can visit again someday. I also remember how the beach was around the house we were staying at. There were sections that the ocean carved out underneath the land where the houses stood. I wanted to explore one, there were a few, while I was with Aunt Penny. But, by the time we walked back to the house for me to change into my swimming suit I changed my mind, and we did something else.

I am so grateful I wrote about this trip as it happened. Me today, would not have remembered all of this without my entries to remind me.

March 20, 2007

Early morning

Okay so, on Sunday what we did was the five of us: me, Meryl, Eddie, mom, and dad, went to the SC Boardwalk. There were rides, rollercoasters and tilt-a-whirls, some cool stuff! The Giant Dipper was the name of the rollercoaster we went on. It was an old wooden one. Red and white and made rickety sounds for the whole ride. Me, Eddie and Meryl went on this ride called the Tsunami. That ride was so funny! It spins and the two inner people would get pushed against the outer one haha! The second time we went on Meryl was in the middle and I was on the end. The person came around and made us switch!!! Haha! So yeah, that was pretty much that day.

Late morning

So, yesterday we drove up to Big Sur. Basically it’s just a road on the side of the mountain overlooking the ocean. The road was labeled HWY 1. It was really beautiful! Highway 1 is famous for the views, there are a couple bridges that were featured in movies. That was pretty cool. Aunt Penny took us to her “secret beach spot” called Pheiffer Beach. There were rocks all over and cliffs. The water would spray all over when it came through the rocks. That was really pretty too! Aunt Penny said in the summer it was a nude beach…..ewww!!

We drove up the mountains and went to a really cool restaurant called Nepenthe, they had really good burgers. We all had the same burger with different things on it. There was a store under the restaurant, Phoenix. Dad bought me a set of hand-made lights. They’re really awesome! We went to Carmel beach, there is a town called Carmel. Famous people live there, Aunt Penny said. The beach was nice – the Pebble Beach Golf Course was off in the distance.

Then we drove over to the 17-mile Drive. And during that we saw the lone Cyprus tree. We walked through pebble beach golf course. We also stopped at this point on the drive to see a bunch of birds. And there were squirrels that came really close to us when we called for them.

After all that tourism we rented Borat and Employee of the Month. Borat was funny in some parts but then really stupid too. Employee of the Month was good!

Well since I wrote in here of the last two days, I suppose I should write in here for today!

Aunt Penny and Uncle Ron left right away this morning. So, we had the house to ourselves. We chose to go to the mall. Meryl got a backpack, Eddie got a PS2 game, mom got a pair of pants and me and dad got books. We were only there for two hours. The mall wasn’t that big. Then we came home and lounged around for the afternoon. Dad made tacos for dinner. They were good and then I told mom I wanted to go get ice cream. So, we went downtown, (me, Meryl, Eddie and mom) and found a Marini’s store with some ice cream there. That was some GOOD ice cream! So, we walked around downtown, we just got back a little bit ago. Fun evening.

<3 Ava Estelle

Present day me: This was a really fun entry to revisit as an adult. It makes me want to relive these days again with my current partner, friends, and family. I remember it being so exciting to explore the nature around the area. It made me learn how fun it is to travel someplace new.

I remember going on that ride with my siblings and deciding to be the one sitting on the outer side, they push against while the ride spins. The guy who was working made my sister and I switch because she was a tad wider than me at that point. I remember feeling good he thought that of me, but then kind of bad that she had to be on the end again. I remember the feeling once my aunt and uncle left, and we were at the house just the five of us. It felt a tad deflated. But it also felt nice to do our own things. We still had a few days of our trip left!

March 17, 2007

Well early this morning we got to Aunt Penny’s house at about 2 o’clock. Then we slept and got up at like 7am. We all went on a walk on the beach, then we went to Noah’s Bagels for breakfast. I love Noah’s!!! After breakfast we just walked around down there. Then we drove to this mini-Redwood trees site. It was really cool! One tree we could walk into the trunk of it! And still had room! The girl that showed us the inside said people used to use it for a honeymoon spot in the late 1800s. That’s pretty cool! After we went to the redwoods, Aunt Penny wanted to get some hot chocolate. Me and Eddie got milk chocolate. Meryl got white chocolate. It was really really good! The chocolate was really rich! You kind of needed to drink it along with some water! But it was good! Hehe. After the hot chocolate we went to the boardwalk to see the sea lions! That was cool! Me, Eddie, Meryl and dad got caramel apples. Mine and Meryl’s and dad’s had caramel, white chocolate and cinnamon on it. Eddie’s just had caramel. They were good! After that we came back home, and mom and dad got groceries and Uncle Ron and Aunt Penny, me and Meryl went out for lunch and did some errands! That was cool. We went to this BBQ Texas grille restaurant. Good food! After the errands we came back home and sat and tried to fix the hot tub (the heater wasn’t working) so, we hung out for a little bit, we had a little trouble with the tv and dish satellite. So, I helped Aunt Penny with the customer service for it. Then after that (we did A LOT today) me, Meryl, mom, and Aunt Penny went to get manicures and pedicures!!!! That was fun. I got pink on my toenails and fingernails. Then this cool flower design on my two thumbs! Very pretty! I <3 my nails! Ummm, so yeah, now we’re waiting for Uncle Ron and Aunt Penny to get back with the pizzas for dinner. It’s 8:30pm! And I am hungry!!! Today was so much fun!!! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! (I used a green pen to write this entry)

<3 Ava Estelle

Present day me: This was our first day in California! I remember that as my first manicure and pedicure ever and I felt so cool! It’s really incredible the number of things we did that day! I don’t remember it being so jam packed. I’m glad I kept track of our trips! Visiting the giant redwood trees was a very memorable part of visiting California!!

March 11, 2007

Today was the Sunday I was supposed to go to the nursery at church, but there were already people signed up for it. So I just went to Sunday School. Then we got home and ate lunch. Then me, Meryl and mom went to the humane society for 2 hours! We hung out with all the kitties and in the big cat room a lot of them were sick or one of them was breathing kind of weird. So, that was kind of sad. But after that we got home and Eddie, Meryl and I went for a BIKE RIDE!!! It felt awesome!!!

<3 Ava Estelle

Present day me: This was my 8^th grade year, and I was also working towards becoming confirmed with other kids my age at the time. So, the requirements for confirmation were many! One of them was volunteering within the church for a set number of hours. I had experience working in the nursery with my mom so I tried to do that as my hours when I could. Also, bike rides on a nice day at that age are so precious and nostalgic.

March 10, 2007

Saturday

Well, a month ago today we were in Mexico!! Wow, time as flown by. But in a week, we’ll be in California! Yay!! This year has gone by fast so far. And there’s good things happening! Except on Thursday night when mom and dad got into a fight and mom said she wanted to just go down to see Sylvia. But instead, she just went out with Cathy. Soo yeah, I guess it’s all good now. And this whole past week we’ve been talking about putting Dil, our senior cat, down. Mom and dad both said we should put him down before we go to California. Because nobody is going to be here to watch or clean up his pee. Soooo, I hope this next week goes fast! I think dad has to take him in anyway. So, it’s hopefully not going to be that bad. So, I’ll just keep watching Charmed season 4 at the cabin.

<3 Ava Estelle

Present day me: What a peak into my life as a 14-year-old. I remember our cat being so old and frail. I still miss him! This is interesting to read later in life.

March 4, 2007

Last night we went to the cabin, ate dinner and then came back home at 10 o’clock because the heat went out up there. This morning we didn’t go to church. I don’t think mom really wanted to. So, I just stayed home all day and cleaned, made oatmeal cookies and got a new AIM screen name. Yep. So, I’ve been online most of the night talking to people. Me and Delia had a pretty interesting convo. I guess that’s about it for today. We have a late basketball game tomorrow at our school. I’m not that nervous about it, there is only one more game left after that and basketball will be OVER!!! Yay!! But I had fun and I actually know how to play too. Can’t wait to show Gayle and Linda my mad bball skillz! Haha!

Oh yeah. I have decided NOT to let Gayle get to me anymore. And I will not “egg” her on. I will be the older person and not get her mad. I don’t care what she does. I don’t care what she gets. If she’s boasting or rubbing something in my face, I’ll just ignore her. Who cares?? It’s not like I HAVE TO be friends with her. But I guess let’s just see how the next couple of weeks go by. If by the time we go on this trip together, I’m not liking her, then I’m going to have Tabitha come with. Okay, that’s about it. Gnight<3

Ava Estelle

Present day me: I remember the rivalry between Gayle and I. She was only two years younger than me, but we were both the oldest in our respective families. I am grateful I only had to be around her for so long. As I grew up and got a job later during high school, we never spent time together. But when I was only 14 and had a life of random friends and she was one I could instant message with and start a little drama. I admit, at the time I enjoyed it, but I also knew that it was a game that shouldn’t be played. So, this part of my entry was pointing that out I think.