Washington Day 4 Pt. 2

     We made it over to our lunch reservation just in time. We were having lunch at the Space Needle in downtown Seattle! We browsed around the gift shop at the base of the Space Needle. We were actually invitied to go up to the resturant early. So we got in the elevator and took the 30 second ride 500ft up to the resturant. We were seated next to the window and enjoyed a really yyummyyy lunch! Following our lunch, we went out onto the observation deck and walked around there for about a half hour.
     After our lunch, we had a few hours to kill before the baseball game. So we decided to go to the Woodland Park Zoo. We walked around this beautiful zoo and enjoyed looking at all the animals! We lost our zoo map in the flamingo exhibit..and had a short staring contest with an monkey. We had a bunch of fun!
     We hung out there for a few hours and then it was about time to head over to the Mariners game! We stopped by gas station quick to pick up some energy drinks! We took off and drove back to downtown and  found a parking spot and walked to the field.
     We walked in the stadium, handed the man our tickets and found our seats. We had an amazing view in left field! And since it was the Mariner's home opener game, there was a bunch of pregame ceremonies for us to watch! And at 7pm - the first pitch was thrown and the Mariner's vs Astros game was underway! The Mariner's scored a run in the 1st, 3rd and 5th inning. Making the final score 3-0 -- Mariner's winning their home opener :D
     After the game we drove back to Burlington and took drive along Burlington hill. Then once we realized that it was 12:30....Chris dropped me off at Tami's...and that was the end of one of the best days of my life!

Washington Day 4 Pt. I

Monday was finally here! The day that Chris and I been planning for for so long!

    We got up at 4:30 and were on the road down to Seattle by 5am! We took the hour ride down to Seattle. Once we got there, we started looking for the Original Starbucks. We drove around down town Seattle for about 20ish minutes looking for Starbucks so we pulled into a parking spot by the Pikes Place Market and gave up. As we got out of the car, we were facing the Original Starbucks! We walked in to those cozy coffee shop! The worker woman was very perky for that early the morning. She took our orders and then asked how Chris and I got to be together. Chris told her our story and it pretty much made her day. She said she was going to make our coffees extra special now :)

    Once we got our coffees, we walked down to this corner longue area and happily sipped our coffees. After we finished our coffees, we walked over to Target City. It was the greatest Target store I'd ever been to in my life. We were wandering through the movie section, when Chris decided he was going to buy me a movie. He knew how much I loved "Pitch Perfect" from the other day, so I am now the proud owner of that movie:) Then we realized that this store had wifi, so we hooked up to the wifi, and I logged into my Skype and Chris and I were able to Skype with my mom, sister, brothers and dogs for awhile! It was super awesome to have been able to do that! I know they were pretty excited about it too :)

     Following our Target City adventure, we walked over to Pikes Place Market, a super busy farmers market in Seattle. It attracts so many tourists every year! It was such a lively place! Everyone there was so loud! But very friendly! One of the vendors stopped us and made us try a chocolate noodle. It was an actual noodle with a chocolate taste to it.....he assured me that by eating this my day would be made so much better....yeah he lied. It was so nasty! We kept walking around the market, we walked out onto this balcony which overlooked Puget Sound, it was so fun!

     After our wandering about in Pikes Place, we went back out do downtown and walked through the stores there. We went into a BUNCH of sports stores. While we were wandering through the store, my dad called me and asked how my trip was going and told me about his trip with my brother, Jeremiah in Chicago!

    By this time is was close to 11am, we got back to his car because we had a reservation for lunch at 12. So we hopped in his car and took off....

To be continued....

To Kelsey

Kelsey, my friend, you are movie deprived. I still love you, but I want to help you in your deprivation of good movies. Your life will be complete once you have witnessed these mind blowing movies. You will thank me numerous times for my involvement in the completion of your life.

1. IRON MAN 1,2,3
2. BATMAN BEGINS
3. THE DARK KNIGHT
4. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
5. THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN
6. PITCH PERFECT
7. HULK
8. SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNSTMAN
9. SAFE HAVEN
10. TWILIGHT
11. NEW MOON
12. ECLIPSE
13. BREAKING DAWN PT. I
14. BREAKING DAWN PT. II
15. NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE
16. TOTAL RECALL
17. TRANSFORMERS
18. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
19. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
20. GREASE

I think this should keep you plenty busy. Enjoy ;)

Washington Day 3

     Sunday morning was a busy morning in the Schoolland household. But every one was out the door on time by 8:45am! We took our hour drive down to Burlington URC. Our drive was a rainy one, but it was lovely drive, including passing a herd of elk!
     We got to church and we met up with some friends and hung out a little bit before church. As the time for church to begin approached, Chris and I went and sat down and listened to the sermon.
    After Church, Chris and I went back to his house and started cooking lunch for some friends we were having over. His sister, Emma also helped us. While everything was cooking and we were waiting for the Schoolland's and Lukas to show up, Chris and I went downstairs and watched the Michigan Wolverines basketball game from the night before! By the time the game was about over, the food was done and everyone had arrived. We all crowed around the table and ate some awesome food.
    The reason for having our friends over was to watch "Pitch Perfect." So once the food and dishes were taken care of, we all moved to the living room and watch what is now one of my favorite movies!
    Once the movie was done, we still had some time before church so Tami, Lukas, Chris and I went on a walk around in the neighborhood.
     A few hours later, we were back at church. Following the church service, I was able to talk to some of my friends that I hadn't seen since August! It was so good to see them again, and I can't wait to see them again soon!
     After hanging out for a while, Chris and I headed back to his house and watched the last Twilight movie with Derek and Miriam!
     During the movie, his parents came home from their trip in Idaho. So I met them and we talked for a little bit, but then it was an early bed time for everyone that night....becuase Monday was a big day...starting at 4:30am:)

Washington Day 2

     After our Twilight marathon ending at 6:30am Saturday, we all went to bed for about 6 hours. We got up and found out that the Mariners game was on TV so Chris and I watched that. Once the Mariners game was done, we ended up watching part of Lord Of The Rings and a few episodes of Spongebob :)

     Once 2:30pm came around, Chris and I left to go pick up Tami and Lydia to go up to their house for the remainder of the day. After we had picked them up, we made a quick stop at the grocery store and bought some snacks for our hour long drive to their house.

     Upon Arrving at Tami and Lydia's house, we all made our way upstairs and sat around talking for a couple hours. Then we went back downstairs and had some super yummy homemade soup Tami's mom made. We had a really nice meal and spent the majority of the meal talking about sports.

     After dinner, we thought we'd take a walk, even though it was a little old and sprinkling just a little. Chris, Tami, Lydia, their brother and I headed out for our walk. Just a little way down the road, there is a bridge that goes over the Cascade River. We hung out there and took a bunch of pictures.

     We walked back to Tami and Lydia's house, said goodbye to Chris and went back up to their room. Tami, Lydia, their sister Martha and I decided to pop in a chick flick and watch that right before bed. After our chick flick ended, we were all exhausted from the night before, so we went to bed and crashed.

Washington Day 1

Home from the best trip of my life!! Washington was amazing and even better than I expected:)

We left about 5am Friday morning and headed down to the Chicago Midway Airport. We got to the airport, checked in out bags, and made it through security. After finding our boarding gate, we went and got McDonald's for breakfast. Then we boarded the plane! After a 4 1/2 hour flight, we had finally landed in Seattle. :-D We got off the plane and walked toward the baggage claim. As we walked through the doorway, Tami threw herself at me and hugged me :) I walked over to Chris and he hugged me and gave me a Red Bull :) We found our bags and left the airport.

We all piled into the car and decided to go to the Alderwood Mall, outside of Seattle. We all went into the mall and started wandering through some random stores. Chris and I went to the Mariners Team Store and he got me a Franklin Gutierrez T-Shirt :)

After the mall, we went back to the Visser's house. Chris, Tami and I got in Chris' car and went out to Wendy's for lunch.

Following our lunch, we went to Tami's sister and brother-in-law's house. Tami and I hung out for a few hours, doing hair and playing with her nephews. Toward dinner, Chris came back and picked us up and took us to a Chopped event happening at their church.

After being at Chopped for about an hour...we got bored. So Chris, me, Laura and Jason went back to their house to begin our Twilight marathon. We managed to watch 4 out of the 5 movies. We started our marathon around 9:30pm and decided at 6:30am to go to bed.  Our Twilight marathon was quite the night....one of my favorite parts is when I dared Jason to eat a whole bag of PopRocks and drink an energy drink at the same time. He described this expierence was "an explosion in my face."

So that was Day 1 of the most amazing trip of my life.

Reasons I love Alyssa

1. She is AWESOME
2. She is a newly infected with the One Direction Infection
3. She loves cookie dough and fruit dip and cinnamon rolls
4. She finds British men attractive
5. She enjoys shopping with me
6. She is hilarious
7. She is on the same wave length as me
8. She loves Harry
9. She does random acts of kindness
10. She gives me piano music
11. She is groovvyyyyyyy
12. She makes all my classes at school interesting
13. She understands me
14. She has a contagious laugh
15. She drives a chick magnet
16. She cooks chicken for a living
17. She loves puppy dogs
18. She wears suspenders
19. She bought the same iPod as me
20. She randomly bursts out in song
21. She calls me terms of endearment
22. She rattles off random facts
23. She has a groovy room
24. She goes to church
25. She finishes my sentences
26. She calls me her "other half"
27. She calls us "peas in a pod"
28. She smiles at me randomly
29. She randomly tells me she loves me
30. She is pretty
31. She loves Cow Tails
32. She makes up random words
33. She decorates my Spanish workbook
34. She leaves me random notes
35. She wears bright and bold clothes
36. She is totally random
37. She doesn't like Goldfish
38. She makes random noises
39. She tells me secret stuff
40. She works at Chicken Coop
41. She talks in random accents
42. She makes up words
43. She carries on conversations with herself
44. She loves cologne
45. She uses sttrraaannnnggggeee analogies
46. She's not afraid
47. She is gonna bring me lunch at work
48. She wants to sit in my carry on
49. She slaps her face
50. She is always full of surprises
51. She is so cool
52. She speaks without thinking
53. She blushes!!! But not as much as me...
54. She carries around piano books in her purse
55. She is really good at baking cookies
56. She has cool eyes
57. She has hairy arms
58. She's a poet
59. She has a CrAzY Adam's Apple
60. She wears converse
61. She can shoot water through her teeth
62. She shoots me crazy looks
63. She is NOT A MAN
64. She always sits by me:)
65. She is indifferent to pancakes
66. She desires to be a normal girl
67. She can roll her tongue
68. She loves the number 14
69. She is the same shoe size as me
70. She breathes heavily when she sleep
71. She randomly talks as a sophisticated person would do
72. She sings to me
73. She takes pictures of her feet
74. She likes to go camping
75. She had pet ducks
76. She gives me her dog's hair off her clothes
77. She can balance on a podium
78. She likes when I crack my thumbs
79. She has a hot tub
80. She grosses herself out
81. She is turned on by bowties
82. She has multicolored toes and fingers
83. She talks to dogs
84. She likes to share her cheese fries
85. She likes Red Bull
86. She gets computers to obey her
87. She is my best friend
88. She always listens to my pointless stories
89. She likes to share candy with me
90. She is comforting
91. She is a blast to hang out with
92. She keeps me entertained at school
93. She keeps me company in the middle of the night via phone
94. She loves me even though I'm stupid
95. She has cool socks
96. She is groovy
97. She can read my mind...
98. She hugs me!
99. She makes my day always eventful
100. She is the greatest friend anyone could ask for

24 More Days!!

As my departure for Washington approaches,  more plans are falling into place!

Roller Skating, basketball, volleyball are still in the plans! Along with our Twilight marathon:D

But the day I'm planning on going to the Mariners game has turned into an all day thing! We have so much planned for that day now! We are thinking about heading down to Seattle around 6am. Depending on traffic, we`ll arrive in Seattle between 7-7:30am. We plan to go to the ORIGINAL Starbucks for breakfast. We are thinking about going to the Seattle Zoo, Aquariam and Pikes Place Market. Niether one of us has been in the Space Needle...so we decided we`re going to do that! For lunch, we`re going to a famous burger joint that is supposedly really good! Around 5pm, we are going over to Safeco Field. They let people into the field early that day! We plan to watch the Mariners batting practice and maybe catch a home run baseball! Before the game begins at 7, we are going to go through the room displaying the history of the Seattle Mariners! Then we`ll make our way to our seats to watch the Seattle Mariners beat the Huston Astros!

I'm absolutely dreading April 10.....I won`t be ready to go home.....but I'm thinking of all the fun times I'm going to have. This has really been a test of my patience, but it's coming!! I can't stop thinking about going back to one of the most beautiful places in the world:)

1D Mall Story

Alyssa's love for One Direction grew with each passing minute.

We decided to have a girls night, just her and I at the mall. So when that Friday finally arrived,we were stoked.

The school bell rang and we were out the door and headed to her car. We get in, turn on One Direction REALLLLYYY loud and head for the mall. I'm pretty sure we got some funny looks from fellow drivers as we danced at every stop light.

We get to the mall and find an empty parking spot. Alyssa pulls in and puts the car in park. As we get out, she looks at her parking job and becomes dissatisfied. I directed her in correcting her parking error. She was then satisified with her parking and we ventured inside the mall.

As we go into the mall, we had a mission. We were seeking to follow the trend set by the one and only Louis Tomlinson. We needed a white shirt with blue stripes and braces.

We found the braces with great ease and purchased them promptly.

We begin our search for the famous white shirt with blue stripes. We went through many stores and failed everytime. When we had an epiphany. Let's look in the guys section!!!

So we had to JCPenny and look in the guys section. And there is was. On a table, all folded up, as THE shirt. White with blue stripes. We spot it and run over to it. I pick it up......and was totally gobsmacked. Yes, it was the shirt we had been looking for.....but to our dismay....we were shopping in the toddlers section....so needless to say, we didn't buy that shirt.

We were half successful in our mall adventure. We each got our new pair of braces...but we still our on the journey to find THE shirt.



*Braces - British slang for suspenders
*Gobsmacked - British slang for shocked, surprised

1D success story

As the school year began, my love for 1D had greatly increased. I was the only one in my small high school who had the One Direction Infection, and that had to change...

My best friend, Alyssa, was in love, deep, deep, love with the music of the 60s and 70s. She had pictures of the BeeGees, Herman's Hermits, Bay City Rollers, and the Osmond's hanging in her locker. I knew I had to intervene.

I had Alyssa look up a few songs and showed her some pictures. She showed little interest in what I was trying to show her!

Around this time, Pepsi had a new commercial starring One Direction and Drew Brees.

As usual, Alyssa and I were texting. I don't recall what we were talking about, but she texted me and said "Jessica....I have to tell you something" And I reply "Yes?!?!?!" And then the truth came out in her next text when she said, "I think I'm in love with One Direction"

I was beyond thrilled! As our conversation continued, she tells me she already has a favorite! She tells me she believes she is in love with Harry Styles, who is still her favorite to this very day. I'm incredibly proud of her.

1st time I heard 1D

The time I first heard One Direction

I was roller skating with some friends and family. We were skating around the rink, when we randonmly stopped by the carpet. Kaitlyn, Bethany and I  were talking when "What Makes You Beautiful" came over the sound system. They both squealed with excitement while I stood there, looking dumb. They were singing along while I stood there, looking dumb. We began skating again while the song played. Kaitlyn and Bethany were quite gobsmacked that I`d never heard this wonderous boy band.

Following the roller skating party, I went home and looked up the song again. I listened to it over and over.

And over the next few weeks, Kaitlyn had me listen to their album "Up All Night." I was hooked.





gobsmacked - British slang for shocked, stunned

52 days

My name is Jessica Bil. I currently live in Michigan, BUT in 52 I will be in the state of Washington! I will be staying with one of my best friends for 5 days!

We have been planning on the different activies that we will be doing while I'm there. We are going to play volleyball, basketball and go rollar skating with the others members of the youth group at her church. She wants to jump into the Skagit River sometime with me.....but that's not going to happen! She plans to have many all-nighters, staying up doing each others hair and nails while planning our weddings.

While I'm there, another friend and I are going to have a Twilight marathon. It's going to be crazy!! At least there will be plenty of popcorn and Red Bull. We`re thinking about doing it all night! We will be watching the movie on their 50inch TV!

Probably the most exciting thing I'm looking forward to is attending the Seattle Mariners home opener game with another one of my awesome friends. We are going to listen to One Direction all the way to the game! We are going to be wearing matching shirts of the player Justin Smoak. It should be an amazing night!

 It's going to be one of the best times of my life, I can't wait!