Author: Ana

Thanksgiving Break

It has been really nice getting to have an entire week off from school for Thanksgiving. A week off allowed for me to relax, do homework, spend time with friends, goof around with my sister, and visit my family in New Mexico for Thanksgiving.

Getting a week off from school was great and I didn’t realize how much I needed it until the break arrived. I was able to sleep in, work on homework, read, and relax. Two of the books I read over the break were Land of Stories: Return of the Enchantress and Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After is a book that accompanies The Selection series by Kiera Cass (my favorite book series by the way). Land of Stories: Return of the Enchantress is the second book of the Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer. I recommend both series to anyone who enjoys romance and fairy tales.

Thursday morning, my family and I packed up our car and travelled to Farmington, New Mexico to spend time with my aunt, uncle, and grandpa. On the way to New Mexico, we heard “Alice’s Restaurant” which is a Thanksgiving traditional song three times. Oh boy. There was plenty of wonderful food to eat when we arrived at my grandpa’s house and we had a good time together. In my opinion, spending time with family is very important, especially during a holiday. You get to catch up with one another and have a good time together. I definitely did not go Black Friday shopping, despite the good deals many businesses offered. To be honest, Black Friday shopping scares me. It gets so intense and personal for some people!

On Saturday my family and I were out and about running errands and visiting family friends. When we had time, my mom, sister, grandma, and I went to the local mall and found a great ugly Christmas sweater. It’s pretty ugly, but the ugliness almost makes it cute. When dinner time rolled around, my entire family drove to Zeb’s which is a buffet restaurant where you can pick a meal from the menu with a side from the salad bar, a meal from the meat bar, or the salad bar as a meal. I ordered a Alpine Burger that had a burger, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and sour cream on it (I added that from the burger bar). In the end, the food was good and we were all stuffed. Zeb’s is a wonderful restaurant that has a large variety of delicious food and great service.

Today my family and I packed up and are currently on our way home. Eight hour car trips are the perfect time to work on blogs, haha. It’s been pretty cold so far and there’s some snow up in the mountains.

Overall, I had a great and productive Thanksgiving break and look forward to more trips to New Mexico, time with family, and breaks in the future. I hope you and your families had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful week!

November 29, 2015
Baking Zucchini Bread

Zucchini bread is a very yummy and healthy treat to have in the fall. My mom always bakes zucchini bread during this time of year and it tastes amazing! It’s great for bake sales, at work, school events, or as something tasty to eat at home. Here is my mom’s zucchini bread recipe:

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 cup of oil
1.5 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of honey
2 cups of grated zucchini
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1.5 cups of chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Mix the ingredients well and fill the bread pans halfway. Bake at 325 for one hour. After it is done baking, check with a toothpick, and then allow the zucchini bread to cool before before removing it from the pan.

You can get two loafs of bread from this recipe.

Zucchini bread is great for bake sales, road trips, family get-togethers, parties, and as a snack. It tastes delicious, it’s healthier than cupcakes or cake (which still taste pretty good), and it’s fun to make with family.

Zucchini bread is great on a cold day with a nice, warm cup of tea. It also tastes really good with a big, cold glass of milk. If you decide to add nuts, pecans taste best in the bread. I hope you enjoy this recipe and have a good week!

Yummy!

November 1, 2015
How to Be a Babysitter

For about a month, I’ve been pretty busy babysitting. Being a babysitter requires social skills, time, responsibility, and creativity. Babysitting is extremely fun and I enjoy doing whatever I can to help others, so it’s something I’m doing more and more often.

I wrote this blog post for a school assignment and I thought it would be good to share with you all. Here are a few tips on how to be a great babysitter. Just kidding, these are actually some very sarcastic tips on how to be a babysitter. Enjoy!

Congrats newly minted babysitter!

Welcome to the wonderful world of babysitting! Here are a few tips on how to succeed in the babysitting industry:

1. Don’t exchange information with the parents. When you first arrive at the house, the parents will mostly likely ask for your phone number and maybe your email. Don’t give them your information and never ask for their’s. You don’t want them scamming you and remember the rules with stranger danger.

2. If you are babysitting when the kids have to go to sleep, tell them scary stories before bed. Make sure it’s scary to the point that the child is screaming and possibly crying. Kids love stories before bed, and by telling them a scary story, you accomplish another task on your babysitting list.

3. Feed the kids a bunch of candy and sugary foods. Most children love sweet treats like candy, cookies, and ice cream so give them what they love! You’ll be extremely popular with the little ones and watching them bounce off of the walls can be very entertaining.

4. Make yourself at home. A majority of parents will tell you to “make yourself at home” which basically means “get comfortable and do whatever makes you feel at home”. Eat the food, watch some T.V., and even sleep in the parents’ bed if that makes you feel at home. If you really feel like making the house feel like your own, change up the place a little and let our your inner interior designer.

5. Show the kids where all of the dangerous items are. By telling the children where the dangerous items are, they will be aware of them. Make sure the objects are visible and easy to reach just in case the kids need to defend themselves or use any of the items.

6. Leave all of the doors and windows open. Leaving the windows and doors open allows for fresh air to circulate throughout the house. Also, everyone on the outside can observe what is going on inside the house, and you, the fearless and protective babysitter, can observe everything that is happening outside so you can protect the kids.

7. Introduce the concept of procrastination to the kids if they have homework. Homework isn’t important until the night before it’s due, so emphasize that to the children. Procrastinating will improve the kids’ performance in school because performing under stress forces kids to work harder to get their homework done.

8. If the family you’re babysitting for has pets, leave the doggy door or cat door closed. The doggy door or cat door is the only way a pet can escape, so by closing off their only way of escape, you prevent them from running away.

9. Respond to every phone call the house receives. The parents don’t need any messages. You’re there to answer the phone so you will answer and make decisions for the parents.

10. Remember that YOU are in charge. You are the one getting paid, so you need to make it crystal-clear to the parents that they pay you the amount you want to be paid, you will do what you want, their children will follow your rules, and the parents arrive at home when you tell them to. If you tell the parents to be home at 9 pm, and they say they’re running late and will be there at 9:45, get out of there. The kids were your responsibility until 9 and after that, they aren’t your problem.

Good luck!

October 18, 2015
Happy Homecoming!

Homecoming week is one of the busiest and most enjoyable weeks of high school. There’s a big football game, many activities, and also a huge dance. My homecoming was last night and it was amazing and also exhausting! Here are a few tips on how to make your homecoming dance and week a success.

1. Attend school activities. School activities during homecoming week are highly-attended most of the time and they’re super fun. Why not enjoy time with friends and classmates and show some interest in your school? Events like powder-puff which is the girls’ flag football game, the homecoming dance, pep assembly, and the big football game are special, exciting, and memorable. If you don’t go, that’s okay but you’re missing out on a lot! You’ll value high school a little bit more if you go to these events!

2. Participate in spirit days. This goes along with the first tip. At most schools, there is a theme for homecoming and during the week you dress up to get in the spirit of the theme. For example, at my school the theme this year was Vegas and throughout the week we dressed up like flamingos (Flamingo Hotel), Romans (Caesar’s Palace), and tropical (Mandalay Bay. We also did two spirits days for school pride and class colors. Getting involved in spirit days is really fun and silly. A majority of people think that they might look ridiculous wearing a toga to school, for example, but when the whole school gets involved, you can all look silly together and have fun.

3. Make smart decisions. Most often at the homecoming dance or on the way to the dance, students think it’s okay to break out the alcohol and drugs and do whatever they feel like doing. I strongly disagree with these ideas and believe they’re insane. There is never a good time to do illegal and inappropriate things like drugs or alcohol as a minor, in my opinion, let alone a school dance. You should avoid drugs, alcohol, and other dangerous or risky behaviors. There are plenty of other ways to have fun at a school dance, like dancing (what a concept), playing games, and so on.

4. Have fun! Homecoming is a special time of the year and take advantage of it! You only have four years of high school and homecoming only comes once a year so make the most out of the time you have.

To make homecoming week one of the best weeks of the school year, just remember to attend school activities, participate in spirit days, make smart decisions, and have fun! Happy Homecoming!

October 4, 2015
Top Ten Ways to Recover From Surgery

On Sept. 16th I had surgery on my ankle to create a groove for my peroneal tendons and repair my retinaculum which is the connective tissue that holds the peroneal tendons in place. My tendons actually weren’t torn but they were believed to be, so that was good news! The retinaculum was extremely stretched out though, so the doctor had to cut it and then sew it back together. I just wanted to let you know that in no way am I a doctor or professional in the medical field, all of these tips were created and based off of personal experience. Recovering from surgery can be a hard thing to do, so here are my top ten ways to recover from surgery.

10. Keep yourself occupied. Watch TV, play games, read a book, talk to people, and do whatever you can to keep your mind off of pain and the surgery. You’ll be in a much better mood this way.

9. Sleep. Sleep does wonders for your mind and body. It gives your body time to relax and heal.

8. Check on your blood circulation often. This tip applies mostly to people who are having surgery and will be in bed or unable to move a lot for a few days after. Move your legs around, massage yourself or have someone help you, stretch, and get up, IF YOU CAN. Please don’t hurt yourself when you do this. By doing this, you’re keeping your blood moving and preventing blood clots.

7. Take time off from work or school to recover. You should definitely not go to work or school a for a few days after surgery. You might be in pain and/or have very little energy and you don’t want to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation at work or school. Take all the time you need to feel good enough to return to work or school. It’ll still be there when you return.

6. Stay positive. It can be really hard to have a good attitude when you’re in pain, but keep a smile on your face and think about good things and you’ll feel better and help your body heal faster.

5. Eat food. Right after surgery, you might feel slightly nauseous because of the anesthesia; this varies from person to person. Make sure to take it easy on the food at first, maybe some soup or a smoothie. After a few hours or after the nausea goes away, eat whatever you want.

4. Drink lots of water. Drinking a lot of water will keep you hydrated and flush out all of the medication and anesthesia.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Right after surgery, you’re in absolutely NO condition to do things all by yourself. Just let your friends or family know what you need and they should be supportive and willing to help you.

2. Relax. This tip goes along with #10 and whether you’re lying down, sitting, or even sleeping, do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Relaxation helps ease the pain and keeps your mind off of the surgery.

1. Follow the doctor’s orders! This one should be a no-brainer, but for some people this tip can be hard to follow. Please do what your doctor tells you to do! Stay on top of ice, elevation, medication, go to post-op appointments, and whatever else you have to do. It’ll make you heal faster and feel better.

Ice and elevation 😉

I hope my top ten ways to recover from surgery have been helpful or will be helpful to you in the future. 🙂 To those of you who have had surgery or are going to have surgery, I wish you the best of luck and a speedy recovery!

September 27, 2015
Summer’s End

The season of summer will end on Tuesday this week. Time flies by! My sister had this poem on her website not too long ago and I thought it would be good to use for this occasion. Here’s a poem to celebrate summer’s end, enjoy!

The season of school vacation and fun,
And the big and bright, big sun,
A time to relax and play,
Longer is the length of the day.

Walking on the beach,
Or eating a juicy peach,
Biking on a mountain trail,
Or aboard a cruise about to sail,

The grass and trees are beautiful and green,
When camping it’s a beautiful scene,
The thunder rumbles and the lightning crashes,
There are tennis matches and 100 meter dashes.

And even when the summer is gone,
It never stays away for long,
And even though the tan lines fade away,
The summer memories will always stay.

Goodbye summer, hello fall. I hope you all had a wonderful summer and look forward to the upcoming season. I hope school is also going well for all of you that are in school and you’re studying hard and having fun. Have a good week!

All material is protected © Copyright 2015 by anahorvath.com

All material is protected © Copyright 2015 by allysonhorvath.com

September 20, 2015
Out With the Boot, In With a Cast

Injuries can be tough, especially when you’re not quite sure what’s going on, or what to do. They can also challenge your patience and character. That was kind of the case for me last week. On September 2nd, it was bye-bye boot, and hello cast.

If you can recall, I was put in a boot in August due to peroneal tendon subluxation, which is the subluxing or dislocation of your peroneal tendons over the lateral malleolus. This subluxing can occur because of a loose or torn retinaculum (a sheath that hold the two peroneal tendons in place), a shallow groove in which the tendons sit, or something specific with the peroneal tendons.

Anyways, I saw the doctor on Wednesday and the tendons were still coming over the lateral malleolus and there was still a lot of pain. The next best thing to do was apparently put it in a walking cast. (No crutches at least, yay!) The cast will have to stay on for a month, and the intent of having my leg in a cast is to hopefully immobilize the tendons better than the boot did.

With the little amount of time I’ve had this cast on, I can tell you all that they’re pretty weird. When the technician first put it on it felt kind of soft and it was a little wet. After a few minutes the cast warmed up, hardened, and then I couldn’t move my ankle! I thought it was a really weird feeling. The thing I liked about wearing a boot was the fact that I could take it off to shower and scratch my leg if it was itchy. Those are things that I definitely cannot do with a cast on. Wearing a cast is a new challenge for sure.

Even with the many visits to doctors of all sorts, I was curious to know what was actually going on with the tendons, so to get an image of that, I had an MRI done on Thursday, the next day. The MRI showed that I had a longitudinal tear on one of my peroneal tendons. Longitudinal tears are not common. (Not good!)

The cast has been a huge struggle for the past week, and my family and I wanted a second opinion on the cast and my ankle. It’s so hard to do daily tasks like bathing and even walking! My mom and I went and saw a orthopedic surgeon this past Thursday. He informed us that there was a very unlikely chance that my tendons would heal in the cast, and surgery was the best way to go. I did get my cast off and my foot is back in a boot until the surgery.

So this upcoming Wednesday, Sept. 16th, I will be getting surgery to repair the torn tendon. The orthopedic doctor/surgeon looked at my MRI and noted that I had a shallow groove, which makes it more likely for the tendons to come out of the groove again, so he will shift one of my bones back 1 cm to trap the tendons where they’re supposed to stay. Then they’ll put screws in the bones so that they’ll heal together and then I’ll have to wait for six weeks, in a boot. I might even be able to walk five days after the surgery. (Woohoo!)

Never in my whole life did I expect to be excited for surgery, but I am truly excited to get this over with. I’ve been having issues with my left foot for about a year in a half,first the sesamoid and now the ankle issues and tendon, and I am really starting to get frustrated with everything that is going on. I want to thank everyone who has been supporting me and doing their best to help me get better and find answers. I look forward to a speedy recovery and hope to be back on the courts soon! 🙂

September 13, 2015
Garden of the Gods

Yesterday, my dad planned a surprise trip to Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs. The ride in the car seemed to go on forever and ever but the long trip was definitely worth it.

Garden of the Gods is a national natural landmark and public park located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The park is 2.136 square miles and to tour the park, you can take a segway, walk, or drive.

On the way to Colorado Springs, my sister and I needed something to do to keep ourselves entertained, so we started looking at the license plates of every car that passed us. This eventually became pretty entertaining because there were a lot of cars from different states. I kept track of the different state license plates we saw, and in the end we counted 36 different state license plates! We saw, the Dakotas, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Indiana, Wyoming, Maine, California, Minnesota, Florida, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, Montana, Illinois, Virginia, Kansas, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alaska, Arkansas, Ohio, Iowa, Maryland, and New York.

When we finally arrived at the Garden of the Gods, it was amazing. There was this mini museum that showed what kind of animals live around the area and a very interesting and entertaining fifteen minute video on how the rocks formed the way they did. The formations of the rocks and the nature all around was majestic. Since I’m in a cast, it was probably best that we didn’t take the four-mile walking tour, so my family and I took our car and traveled around the park.

Overall, the trip was wonderful. The views were great, spending time with my family was fun, the rock formations were beautiful, and the fudge at the trading post was delicious.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend! 🙂

September 6, 2015
A Note to Incoming Freshmen…

School is starting back up. Yay? I remember coming in as a freshman into high school was a very new and overwhelming experience. So here’s a letter to all of the incoming freshmen. Even if you aren’t going to be an incoming freshman, you might be able use some of this advice.

Dear Incoming Freshmen,

Going into high school can be kind of scary and intimidating and overwhelming, especially on the first day, but you’ll get used to it. You might have trouble finding your classes at first and a hard time with your locker combo but like I said earlier, you’ll learn the tricks and remember what you need to, and everything will be okay. And if you don’t have problems with any of that stuff, then good for you! You really know what you’re doing. 🙂 The sophomores and upperclassmen might be intimidating and scary and mean, but they were once in your position and know exactly what you’re going through. They are actually pretty nice, helpful, and good to be around, once you get to personally know them.

Make sure you study hard and work hard in all of your classes. Take notes, ask questions, and try your hardest on everything. A lot of students think it’s okay and cool to put little effort into projects and papers. They think it’s cool to ditch class and “go to the bathroom” to hang out with friends. Honestly, it looks silly and kind of embarrassing. Think about it this way, is it more impressive to have good grades and be successful in school or be to known as the “cool” kid who never works hard in class, doesn’t turn in papers and homework, and ditches to go to Starbucks, or wherever people go when they ditch? In the end, all of your hard work will pay off and you can do whatever you want to do with your life. If you work hard in school, you can go to a good college, and then have a solid job and good life. Nothing comes just like that.

Also, be yourself. You probably hear this a lot these days. “Be yourself”, “don’t be afraid to show who you really are”, and “don’t listen to what others have to say about you” are all pretty common things said these days, especially to teens who are figuring out who they are. In high school, most people are figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. You might already know what you want to do with your life and you might not, and either way is okay. People will pressure you to become something and do certain things like ditch class or cheat and things like that. If you want to take that road, no one’s stopping you. If you don’t want to do that, then say no and stand up for what you want to do and what you think is right. Joining clubs or sports in school are good ways to meet people you want to be around. If you want to wear sweatpants and a t-shirt everyday, then you do that or if you want to join theater or do sports then you do that. To sum this huge paragraph all up, you shouldn’t feel pressured to be something you aren’t. Do what you feel is right and, well, be yourself.
And of course, have fun. Enjoy every moment and make the most of it!

Sorry if this note turned into a pretty long letter! Haha. I know all of you will do well your freshman year. I wish you all the best of luck with this year and the rest of your high school career. Make the most of your year, class of 2019! Good luck incoming freshmen!

Best of luck,

Ana Horvath

August 23, 2015
Coming Back to Kennebec Cafe

Last year, around this same time, my family and I travelled to Hesperus, CO to a wonderful little restaurant and bakery called Kennebec Cafe. We also drove around the La Plata Mountains that day.

This past weekend, while visiting family in New Mexico, we decided to visit the Kennebec Cafe once again. They have delicious food so, why not? If you can remember my blog about the visit to Hesperus from last year, we ordered pancakes for breakfast and they were HUGE! The pancakes tasted amazing, but a break from pancakes was definitely needed after that trip. This time, my family and I went for a late lunch instead of breakfast.

I ordered a delicious southwest burger that had pepper jack cheese, green chiles, and avocado on it with a side of fries and an Arnold Palmer (half ginger peach tea and half raspberry lemonade). The Arnold Palmer was really refreshing and the food was so yummy! The burger was done very well and the flavors in it worked well together.

The service was great, the food was tasty, and the company was wonderful. My family and I had a relaxing and fun day and a short but good weekend together. If you’re ever headed to Hesperus, CO or just traveling through the area, make sure to add the Kennebec Cafe to your list of things to-do, it’s worth it!

August 16, 2015