December Already!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S ALREADY DECEMBER?!?

I can't!  It feels like the year has gone by waaay to fast.  I say that every year, but I feel like I haven't gotten enough done yet!  Do some of you guys feel like that?

Anyway let me start by talking about some things we did over Thanksgiving.
Every Thanksgiving pretty much our whole family comes over to our house.  That's 17 people!  That's a lot of laughter a lot of fun and a lot of mess.  I do admit I am a very organized person, so when one thing is out of place it really bothers me! And I absolutely hate clutter!!
And do take into consideration that there aren't only adults over at out house  we have three 8 year olds (my cousins and my little brother)  and one 5 year old.  That's a lot of mess!!  But I controlled myself and tried to stay out of the messiest rooms so I wouldn't just start cleaning everything!

Over Thanksgiving we went ice skating, we baked yummy croissant rolls (Pillsbury, those are the best!!) we planned on making gingerbread houses but we didn't have the time.  We also played the fun word game Apples to Apples a lot, and we went to a hockey game and our dad got us a suite to stay in!! The room was awesome! :)

Here are some pics!

My cousin Isabella :)

Me and Jessica with little cousin Matt at the suite!

Suite at Monsters Game!

Also real quick!  I have an ice show that's on Saturday and I'm doing a program with one of my friends.  We are skating to a song called Palladio by the band Escala.  They area a group of 4 girls and they play on electric cellos and violins!  They are so awesome! Wish me luck! :)

Thanks for reading!
-Alyssa :)

Cooking Class!

       Yesterday my mom, dad and I went to a really awesome cooking class at the Loretta Paganini Culinary School of Cooking.  We went to a really cool pasta making class where you get to make your own homemade pasta in the flavors of, original, spinach pasta, tomato pasta and even...

.............

Chocolate pasta!

With a delicious raspberry sauce! 

I know it sounds weird!  I even thought it sounded really weird at first too!  But once we made it in class and tried it, I thought it was one of the best pastas that I had ever eaten, like in my whole life!  The pasta making process was really fun too!  You have to roll out the dough, (it's only made with flour, one egg and salt.) and then you flatten it out with a really cool machine, and then finally, the coolest step, you put the now thin pasta in a different part of the machine, and the pasta gets cut into perfect noodle strips! It's so cool!

******

Anyway I did tell you (in my last post) that if the lemon ice cream that I made turned out good, I would share the recipe with you!  And the lemon ice cream was amazing!!  Here's the recipe!

• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 
  
• Another lemon, juiced
• 
  
• 2 cups of white sugar (If you aren't a person who likes things pretty sweet, cut it down to 1 cup.)
• 
  
• 4 cups of milk

• 
  

Here are the directions!! :)

In a medium bowl, stir together lemon juice and zest with sugar until smooth. Stir in milk.  Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers' directions.

Lemon Ice Recipe

Enjoy!!

Thanks

-Alyssa :)

Happy Halloween!

  First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!! :)   

Second, I have really good news, just on Monday I passed my intermediate moves in figure skating! I am so excited because now I get to start working on the next level called novice moves.  I am really excited to start working on these, they sound so fun!! :)

I am also going to make lemon ice cream this afternoon!  After I'm done with all of my schoolwork for today...By the way I have a test in every subject today!  Ugh..  I'll tell you if the ice cream is good though, and if it's really good I'll share the recipe!

This Halloween I will not be trick-or-treating mainly because I'm too lazy to figure out what I should wear for a costume and secondly I just kind of want to have a nice relaxing Halloween eating Almond Joys, Kit Kat's an of course Reese's.  One of the best candies ever invented if you ask me!

What are you being for Halloween?  Or are you not dressing up?

Have a Spectacularly SPOOKY Halloween!

Thanks
-Alyssa :)

Regionals and my Birthday!

                 I know I keep making excuses to why I haven't been blogging for a while, but I really have been super busy! Just on Saturday I was competing in qualifying regionals in Ann Arbor Michigan at the Ice Cube arena.  I love this arena because first, I competed there earlier in the year (so I was used to the rink and not as scared) and second I just love the name The Ice Cube!  It's so cute!! :)
Anyway, it was a great  experience that many people don't get to do, so I thought I might as well take this opportunity.  I skated really well while I was in my program.  I landed all of my jumps cleanly and I went in to them a lot faster than I did in my previous competitions.  I just wanted to go for all of the jumps no matter what happened.

Me and my mom (my coach) posing for a pic! :)

So I ended up taking 12th out of 18th, which isn't bad especially considering that I was doing the less complicated jumps than everyone else.  But I improved my previous score by three points!!  So I was happy because when you're competing, the only one you're really  competing against is yourself.  So I'm very happy with my placement!

Anyway yesterday was my 14th birthday and I had an awesome time!  My grandparents were over (they actually were watching me compete at regionals too!) we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, my mom made an amazing coconut, pineapple cheesecake, and I got some really awesome gifts!  I got some awesome cookbooks, I got the movie The Avengers, (I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!) I got some clothes + cute pink legwarmers for skating, and an amazon gift card!  This week was so much fun!! :D



Thanks for reading! :)

-Alyssa :)

A Cinderella Story!! YA-Highway

Today I will be participating in the YA-Highway Road trip Wednesday!

THIS WEEKS TOPIC IS:

 In honor of this month's Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer's CINDER, name a fable or story you'd like to see a retelling of. If you're feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!

At the end you'll see the twist I put into the story!!

   Cinderella did not have a good life.  Her stepmother and her two stepsisters were terrible to her.  She was treated like a slave.  One day Cinderella heard of a ball coming up, she wanted to go so bad, but her stepmother, and her two stepsisters wouldn't allow it. 

 Cinderella's eyes brimmed with shiny tears.  Everyone left for the ball and she had to stay behind doing chores...Then all of a sudden a short, plump fairy Godmother appeared and magically gave Cinderella a beautiful shimmering white dress!  Cinderella went to the ball and everyone thought she was beautiful.  The handsome prince wanted to dance with her, she graciously accepted.  After the dance with the prince, Cinderella knew she had stayed at the ball for too long!  

She ran as fast as she could and her glass shoe fell off!  The prince had no idea where she had gone so he searched all over to find her, and marry her!  Finally when he got to Cinderella's house, he put the shoe on Cinderella...But the shoe didn't fit!  Her foot had grown!  He didn't believe that it was she, that he had danced with.  Cinderella was devastated!  

He searched the rest of his life for the women who could fit into the tiny shoe.  Soon the fairy Godmother realized what had happened.  The fairy Godmother felt very sorry for Cinderella so, she turned her adorable dog Bruno into a handsome young man, and the two ran away and lived Happily Ever After. :)

Hope you enjoyed reading!! :)

-Alyssa 

Genre Favorites Blogfest!

Today I'm participating in the Genre Favorites Blogfest hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh!  In this Blogfest you have to...                     

List your favorite genre of:

Movie

Music

Books

And Guilty pleasure from any of these three categories!

Favorite MOVIE genre: Action/Adventure

I love action/adventure movies like Star Wars, Mission Impossible, and The Avengers.  All of these are so awesome!! :)

Favorite MUSIC genre: Pop music 

I really like any of the most new and current songs that are coming out.  I love the new song, Want You Back by Cher Lloyd, and Drive By by Train.

Favorite Book Genre: Fantasy, definitely fantasy.  

I love fantasy books, because it lets you explore a new world that is so magical and different from anything else!!

My Guilty pleasure: Comedy Movie   

My guilty pleasure is watching Blades of Glory over and over again with my family.  It's such a funny comedy movie starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder who are both male pair skaters who skate together.

Hope you enjoyed reading!!

-Alyssa :)

I'm Back!

 Things have been really hard for me lately, in my last post I was saying how I had just gone to Wisconsin for a week.  When we got back from Wisconsin, school was about to start so I had to start prepping and getting all of the school supplies that I needed, and then the next week we went to California for 10 days!  We had so much fun there though!  And then after California I had to catch up on all of the school that I had missed.  So that's the reason for me not posting for a while!  Sorry guys!  Just been so exhausted!!!

Anyway California was really awesome!  We visited Monterey, (So many sea otters + seals here, literally all over!!) Carmel, Yosemite, Palo Alto (we visited Standford!  My dad went to school there!) and San Fransisco!  Here are some pictures of our trip! All photos are taken by me!

We saw sea otters while kayaking!

Baby deer while hiking in Yosemite.

Yosemite.

Me and my sister Jessica from Write.Skate.Dream

Thanks for reading!

Alyssa :)

Trip to Wisconsin

                    On August 1st me and my family left for a nice vacation in Wisconsin.  We actually are on this vacation because my dad has some business meetings here.  We have already been to the cities, Lake Geneva, and Madison (the capital) which is really cool because right out of our hotel room you can see the capital building!  What an awesome view!  We still have Green Bay and Elk Hart Lake to go too.  We've done so many fun things just in the three days we've been here!
 We've gone on a great boat tour which took us around Lake Geneva (There were so many beautiful houses that we saw while we were on the boat!)
 We also have gone swimming in this amazing outdoor pool, where the water changes different colors at night, and we went to an awesome ice cream shop called Scoops.  We've gone there before, but we seem to end up coming back every time we visit Madison, Wisconsin.
I'm having a great time here, but I really miss my skating :(.  Good thing we brought our skates!!

I took this picture on a rooftop garden :)

Walking around Lake Geneva.  My sister, me, my dad, and brother Ryan.

Rainbow sherbet from Scoops!

Ice cream from Scoops, turtle ice cream, blue moon ice cream, and the ice cream I ordered, rainbow sherbet!

Thanks for reading!!
Alyssa :)

My Biellman

Hey everyone, this is a really short post but I just want to show you a video of me figure skating (taken yesterday) doing a what's called a biellman.  

What did you think?  I'm skating into it really slow because I'm scared that I might fall forward on my face!  I'm trying to get my leg into a perfect split but it's not quite there yet.  Hope you enjoyed watching!! :)

Thanks

Alyssa :)

Chocolate Cupcakes and a Movie

I'm so sorry guys that I haven't been posting lately!  I've just been super busy!

Anyway today I made delicious chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate frosting with my mom, and they were sooo good!  Like amazing, best cupcakes I've had!  Here's the picture! :)

  

What do you think?  Do they look good? :)  They were so moist and delicious and not all crumbly and dry like they sometimes come out.  I really dislike cupcakes that are like that!

*****

Chris Hemsworth :) :)

I just recently watched the movie Thor which is about the Thunder God who has a magical hammer that can make lighting, tornadoes, etc... Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman were the perfect people to play their parts.  The movie was so amazing!  It was full of action, it had beautiful graphics, some comedy and some really cute guys playing in it;)  If you haven't watched it I would really recommend it! :) :)

Thanks

Alyssa :)

The Fabulous Blog Ribbon Award!

I just got back from our vacation to our great grandpa's cottage in Michigan, and I had such an awesome time!  OK so to the point, a little bit ago I got awarded the Fabulous Blog Ribbon award by Jeff Hergett .  Thanks Jeff!

  In order to accept this award you have to:

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Name five of your most fabulous moments either in real life or in the blogosphere.
3.Name five things you love.
4. Name five things you hate.
5. Pass the ribbon on to five other bloggers.

OK here are my answers!

MOST  FABULOUS MOMENTS!!   


1. When I got my i-phone!
2. When I reached 100 followers!  Wohoo!
3. When I went to Regionals in Figure Skating.
4. When my mom and dad got back from their trip to India.
5. When I managed to get a 40 foot long putt in while I was golfing, when I was only eight!  I was awarded a golf trophy!  It's super small though, LOL.


FIVE THINGS I LOVE! 

1. I love to figure skate!  Most of you probably already know that!
2. I love to bake and cook!
3. I love my family!
4. I love reading!
5. I love romantic comedies!  So romantic and sweet!  *sighs*

FIVE THINGS I HATE!  

Don't mess with these guys.

1. SLOW COMPUTERS!  AGGHHHH!
2. When I get interrupted.
3. Messy rooms!
4. Running my hip into a protruding corner!
5. Squash soup!



Hope you enjoyed my answers!  OK here are the five people I'm passing this award onto!

Kathy McKendry

Mrs. Mommy Booknerd

Bonnee Crawford

Francesca Zappia

Azra


Thanks
-Alyssa :)

I'll Be Off!

      Every year most of my family goes up to my great- yes I said GREAT grandpa's cottage.  He turns 91 in September!  Anyway we always go up there around the 4th of July and we get to watch the fireworks while we all sit on our deck by the water.  It is truly awesome.  What also is awesome, is that the morning of 4th of July there's a huge parade where everyone throws out candy to the crowd!  We do a whole bunch of really cool things when we're up at the cottage like go fishing, riding in our teal, sparkly blue speedboat, play board games and card games with the whole family like, Apples to Apples and the card game called Demon.  I love that game sooo much!  But what I really need to tell you is that I will be leaving for a whole week and won't be posting because there's no internet there!  So don't think I've left all of you guys, I'll just be taking a little vacation!

*******

When we will be heading up to the cottage we will stop at out grandma's house first and then we are going to see the Broadway musical Wicked in East Lansing, Michigan at the Wharton Center.   I used to love watching the Wizard of Oz when I was little, and I know the story is about the wicked witch of the West,  Elphaba and the witch of the East, the good witch named Glinda.  I've read the story and it showed Elphaba as not wicked at first, she was actually pretty nice if you ask me!  She was just really shy and quiet.  Have you seen Wicked?  Have you read the book?  What were your thoughts on it?

I hope everyone enjoys there 4th of July! :D

Thanks
-Alyssa :)

New Haircut!

REALLY SHORT POST!



This is going to be a really short post, but I just wanted to tell you that yesterday I got a really good haircut, cutting off 5 inches of my hair.  My hair is usually long, but now it's a  lot shorter than what it used to be.  When it's down, it goes a little below my shoulders and when  it's up in a ponytail it just goes to the end of my neck.  Anyway I think my skating was a lot better today because my hair didn't take me off balance as much!  It actually really makes a difference believe it or not!  Here's a picture of my new haircut!  Tell me what you think! :)

P.S. It's my mom's 40th birthday today please go tell her happy birthday from over at Imagine Today! :)  

Thanks so much! :)

-Alyssa