Getting used to a whole new style of dress is a little challenging. For one thing, I'm used to having something "tight" around my waist, because my other dresses had a belt with a belt stiffener in them. These go in at the waist, but they are much looser. I have a difficult time trying to decide if it actually fits or if it really IS too loose.

The cape is a lot different as well. It basically comes down in two points at the front if that makes any sense and it's all loose, so it can fly up any time it feels like it. Spiking it volleyball is interesting. After I hit the ball and I'm coming back down the cape flies in my face, so I can't really see anything until I land.

The covering is different, too. I'm hoping that MY covering will fit better. I'm wearing Jillian's (my sister) for now until I get one of my own. Hers don't fit bad at all, but they slide forward on my head really easily. These coverings are see-through, and therefore much lighter than my other covering. Its SO weird, when I walk I can feel air blowing into my ears even though I have a covering on. I still haven't gotten used to that feeling yet.

So far Mom has got almost three dresses done for me. The one dress should be done tonight. While I don't mind not sewing, I am looking forward to being able to tweak my pattern so it fits me the way I want it to fit. Mom and I just don't exactly get along when she's sewing for me. I know how I want it, and she doesn't care because she thinks it looks fine just the way it is, but it just bugs me to NO end.

Last Wednesday was volleyball and softball. Thankfully I managed to get out of playing softball, because I don't know how to play it very well, and I'm not very good at it. Some of the other girls didn't want to play, either, so we snuck off and got numbers to play volleyball. See, when we play outside we sometimes play both volleyball and softball. We separate the youth group into two parts. One part numbers off into two teams for softball, and the other part numbers off into four teams for volleyball.

I was on a really good team. No thanks to me, of course. We played all three of the other teams and beat them all at least once. It was fun. I hate playing outside, though. Especially because we play on cement. I'd rather get a grass stain than be afraid of falling on the cement and burning a hole through my dress. I didn't wear knee pads, because I'm afraid that I'll get too brave and really ruin one of my dresses.

On the way home Jillian and I hit a deer. It was awful. We saw it on the side of the road, and of course, Jillian started braking, but I knew even when we just first saw it that we were going to hit it. It was one of the sickest things I've ever seen. I just kinda felt sick to my stomach afterwards. It actually didn't dawn on me until later that we could have been killed or injured or that the van might be "injured". I was just feeling so sorry for the poor deer, and hoping it would die quickly.

It took out a headlight, the turn signal, broke the grill, and messed up the hood a little, but we were very thankful that it wasn't worse.

Ariel