Duplos are the Greatest

This picture is from August 2, 2004. Rachel was 6 and Harrison was still 4. One summer night they decided to build a Duplos tower with Dad all the way up to the ceiling. It entertained them for a long time.

Now, six years later, Ryan and Dad brought out the Duplos tonight and found themselves doing the exact same thing. Pretty cute. It's funny how the towers were built the exact same way too, with a wider and sturdier base, and narrowing into single blocks. Now that I'm looking at it, check out Dad's outfits in the picture above and the one below. The EXACT same. Scary.

Look up "Hypocrite"

And you will find, in BIG BOLD letters the name Whitney Kemmey. Or at least you should find his name when you look it up!

Usually, when I get in trouble around here it is because I am up too late doing homework, or snuck staying up late doing homework, or I set my alarm for 3 am to get up early and finish homework. I have a procrastination problem, and it is very well recognized. I try and do work on the weekends, but I am seriously the most productive between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. I am a night owl--I can stay up super late without a problem, and usually I can always get up the next day for school. Granted, I'll be dozing in English class, but I'll technically be there. As for punishment for my rebellious late night homework activities, I've gotten kitchen forever (which is a horrible sentence in this household), my dad's taken away my homework before, and he's banned me from babysitting.

But, my dad is the BIGGEST hypocrite. I swear I inherited my procrastination and late night productivity from my dad. I blame genetics. Should I really be getting in trouble for this? This morning I woke up for seminary at 5:15 am, and all the lights were on in the basement still. I walked over to dad's office, and lo and behold, there dad sits at 5:15 am still doing homework (he's in his master's program). Now, he juggles a full time job, his family, church callings, and school, so he does have a little leverage over me. However, he spent his weekend playing Magic (some nerdy card game), Black Ops, Mass Effect, and some other random XBox games. He could have planned out his weekend a lot better and began the assignments he knew he had due this week. He seriously waited until the last minute.

Unacceptable, dad. You need to manage your time more effectively and use the weekends to your advantage. Your sleep is important and you need a good nights rest each night to be more productive.

Hey dad, does all that sound familiar? Yeah. You're busted. :)

Orienteering!

Today we had our orienteering field trip. It was awesome, and our group did really well. Ann, Amanda, and I won first from our site :). For orienteering, you strategically go around the woods with a compass and a contour map looking for posts, and racking up points. We found twelve posts, and got 44 points in three hours.

Our group--Amanda, Ann, and me. We all wore red scarves and gloves.

We went a while without finding a post, so when we finally found another one it was exciting.

There was a little grave in the woods from 1937. It was really neat. Right near it was another broken headstone that was empty, but there were flowers by it.

Our group!

Amanda and an arched tree

Post!

It was really fun :) And JROTC won nothing, again. Riverbend got the stone of shame, again.

One More

Twenty years ago , my mom and dad got married.

They knew they wanted children. My dad wanted 12 kids and my mom thought she would have about three. But I guess kids are just such a joy :)

Gray was born on February 8, 1992. Mom always said he was such a good baby. He was 7 pounds and a half ounce. He came on his own, and was born at 4:23 am in Rhode Island.


Next came me. I was 7 lbs, 11 oz. I was born on August 16, 1993 at 11:59 am in Virginia Beach. I wasn't the worst baby, but I did give my mom some trouble when it came to eating and naptime. I would always want food, and never want to sleep.


Suzanne was third. She was born on October 7, 1995, and weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz. She was born in Fredericksburg and was born at 11:23 pm.


Rachel, another girl (which Gray didn't really like), came on July 20, 1998. She weighed 8 lbs, oz and was born at 1:18 pm. She SCREAMED as a baby--constantly. It annoyed us all, but she sure is cute.


Finally a boy!! Harrison popped into the world on September 28, 1999. He weighed over 8 lbs, 7 oz, and was born around 3ish in the afternoon. He was an excellent baby, my mom says--so easy.


Tanner was number 6, and came on February 1, 2001. He was born at 1:15ish pm, weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz. He was another easy baby boy!


The boys wouldn't stop coming! Bryce was our Christmas baby, and he was born on December 19, 2003. He weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz--the biggest baby so far! He was born at 2:53am. He was a good baby, but he had a HUGE head!


Ryan was number eight. He was born on May 25, 2006, on Grandpa Gray's birthday. He weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz and was born at 3:23 pm. He was a HORRIBLE baby, because he would NEVER sleep. But he made up for it, because he was/is so cute and so smart as he got older!


Finally, mom and dad are having NUMBER NINE! We are all hoping that it comes healthy and happy, but I would be really ecstatic if it was a girl! All of us kids are SO excited. There will be a FIVE year gap between Ryan and the new baby! Mom is about 11 weeks right now, and the due date is June 4th--my graduation! Mom will get induced around 38 weeks, though. We cannot wait!!

New Baby!! :) What a cute little blob.

Oh Boy

I am going to be a zombie this week. 1500 word research paper about global warming due in just a little over 24 hours. Total words right now. ZERO. I am the golden student.

Goodbye

Everyone that really knows me is well aware that I am not the biggest fan of pets--all kinds. However, for some reason back in April we went to Virginia Beach for spring break and I got two hermit crabs just for fun. I brought them home and then did pretty well. I initially took good care of them and kept their cage clean and moist and made sure they always had water and food. I was an okay little pet owner. However, over time, I became more busy and those poor little hermit crabs just fell lower and lower on my to do list. They are extremely boring, and you aren't even supposed to take them out of their cages and play with them. So they just sat.

After a while I felt guilty and again took care of my pets, but they wouldn't eat. They just sat there ALL day and ALL night looking pathetic and hating life (or so it seemed). I hemmed and hawed over whether I should just let them go and be done, but I felt guilty if I did because I knew those two little hermit crabs would never, ever make it.

On October 10, I just decided that they HAD to go. I couldn't keep them any longer. I decided to just set up their cage with their food open and lots of water near a shady tree in my backyard. I left them, and about an hour later I went back to check on them. They were gone and I couldn't find them anywhere. For some reason, it was kind of sad. Let's just think they are off having a better life somewhere.

Their previous home--in a cage sitting on the counter.

The crabs: the orange and black shell was named Herman and the tan one was named Winston.

Ryan helped me "set them free"

Their set up

New York

This past weekend Andrew, one of our long time friends, invited Gray and I up to West Point. We left on Friday afternoon and Mr. Brimer drove for a long time. I used the car ride to catch up on some sleep. We stopped at a hotel in New Jersey, about an hour out from the academy and stayed the night. The next morning we got up and finished the drive to West Point for the football game.

We got there at about 10:30 and eventually met up with Andrew. Army was playing VMI this weekend, and they won 29-7.

They had parachuters drop out of a helicopter and land on the field before the game started. The parachutes were West Point flags.

Close up of one of the parachuters

Army vs. VMI

The flag they unrolled on the field during half time.

After the football game was over, Andrew showed Gray and I all around West Point. The building designs are very pretty, but Andrew said the gray walls get old. The view by the Hudson River is awesome, though, so we stopped and took a few pictures near it and Trophy Point.

Near Trophy Point

Andrew and Gray--They've been best friends since 5th grade.

Andrew and I in front of the Hudson

Gray and I

We finished walking around and met up with Mr. and Mrs. Brimer. West Point has an awesome library. Mr. Brimer was creeping, and took some pictures of us walking.

We left West Point and we went to Out Back. We enjoyed some good food and then we went back to the West Point Motel where we were staying, hung around, and then got ready for the Halloween dance. Pretty simple but very fun.

All of us before we headed out.

The dance was pretty fun. West Point plebes are pretty interesting to watch. We ended up leaving early and then just walked around the little town outside of the academy, Highland Falls. It's a pretty dead town, but there was a McDonalds, so we went over there and got some ice cream and talked for a while. We all were getting pretty tired, so we dropped Andrew back off and then we went to the hotel. I crashed pretty quickly--practically the instant my head hit the pillow!

Mr. Brimer picked up Andrew the next morning and we all drove around to find some breakfast. We ended up in Newburgh at a diner that was really good. We ate some really delicious food and had a good time just driving around.


We had to take Andrew back. Around 1ish we dropped him off near his barracks and we got on the road back to Virginia. It was definitely a fun weekend--I never thought I would be going up to New York. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Brimer for everything!

One last picture!

I'm a Delinquent

Today I was sitting in AP Java class at the end of the day and I get called down to my administrator's office, which can never be too good. So as I was walking down, I was trying to think of anything I could have done or any reason I would be called in. The only thing I could come up with was leaving school early too many times, but each time I had a note, so I didn't think that was it.

Well, turns out I was written up. Seriously? Somebody wrote me a referral. I had no idea. Evidence:

Well, apparently my bus driver wrote me a referral because I "was told twice to face forward but continued to sit with [my] back to the aisle and this is a safety violation". It was from October 6, and it is now the 28th. My administrator looked my name up and decided I wasn't the most pressing issue, because I am a good with NO discipline record and great grades.

My administrator didn't care at all about the referral. It was a waste of his and my time. He just dismissed it as a warning and it didn't get recorded on my file. He jokingly told me to frame it or scrapbook it. Blogging about it is better.

Please Hurry

This week will hopefully go by quickly. I have my to-do list already planned out. After I finish all of this I will be in NEW YORK on Saturday morning. With all that crap I have to do and going to school everyday, the week should go by fairly quickly, right? I'm hoping so.

I am the Ultimate Procrastinator

It is 100% true. You will probably never, ever meet someone in your life who procrastinates more than I do. In fact, right now I am using this blog post as a way to procrastinate. You see, I have a 2,000 word research paper on The Scarlet Letter due on Monday. It is Saturday night. I only have 400 words.

Quote

A lengthy but worthwhile exerpt from President Thomas S. Monson's remarks to the Young Women in their March 2009 General Meeting:

My final plea tonight is that you have the courage to stand firm for truth and righteousness. Because the trend in society today is away from the values and principles the Lord has given us, you will almost certainly be called upon to defend that which you believe. Unless the roots of your testimony are firmly planted, it will be difficult for you to withstand the ridicule of those who challenge your faith. When firmly planted, your testimony of the gospel, of the Savior, and of our Heavenly Father will influence all that you do throughout your life. The adversary would like nothing better than for you to allow derisive comments and criticism of the Church to cause you to question and doubt. Your testimony, when constantly nourished, will keep you safe.

Friday

Overall this was a good week. Parts were long, but it was great. Hopefully the weekend is good as well :)

It is Fall

Ryan had his preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch this week, which he loved. He went to Snead's farm and played on slides, rode on a tractor, and picked a pumpkin. As soon as I came home from school he wanted me to help him carve it, so I did. I couldn't say no to his cute four year old excited face.

Carving it up.

I made him pull out all of the pumpkin guts and seeds.

Us with the finished pumpkin. It is supposed to be "scary".

Life Savers

I make to-do lists like they are going out of style. For some reason I can never use an agenda--they just do not work for me. I forget to write things down and I really don't like having to look at 7 different days of the week to figure out what I need to do. To-do lists are my life savers. I make one at the beginning of the week with everything coming up. I am not the most organized person in the world, but these things help me. Here is my to-do list from this past week. I had a whole page and tons to do:

I love it when I finish something and then I get to cross or check it off my list. It's a good feeling. I am pretty sure I will make to-do lists until the day I die.

Where on Earth

Has the time gone? Really. Ever since school started up again, I rarely ever find time to update this thing. I didn't even pop in to say happy birthday to my mom or harrison on this thing. I am a slacker.

Recently, mom turned 41. FOURTY ONE. Dang, she is old ;). Harrison turned eleven. Suzanne's birthday is this week. Crazy. School is crazy too. I am tired of school and really want this year to be over. Fast forward, please? Thanks.

However, it is fall. I LOVE fall. My favorite. Too bad it doesn't last very long at all. Leaves are changing, it is pouring rain (bleck), and the temperatures are dropping. I love fall colors and smells.

Anyways. Hope you enjoyed this ramble-fest. It successfully distracted me from doing homework for a few minutes.

Oh hey. Here's a cool blog I found. Love it. www.newdressaday.com

Check it out, folks.