We are men of action, lies do not become us!

The Curious Anomaly of Free Time

2011-12-26T19:49:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! (A day late, but really, is it that important that the timing be perfect?) I hope you all had a great Christmas with family and/or friends, and hopefully remembered that it's not all about parties, presents, and pork (I don't know about you, but we had ham for lunch), and took time to say thank you and happy birthday to the Savior of the world! And hopefully (I know, lots of hope going on here) you've done better than I have at managing your time!

Every time I get really busy, I think about all the things I wish I had time to do. Things like craft projects, books I want to read, food I want to cook....blog posts I mean to write.... But somehow when I finally get the free time, I never do anything I meant to do! That's the Curious Anomaly of Free Time: when free time finally comes around to a person, they NEVER do what they originally intended to do with it!

A prime example of this is my entire first semester at school. I had most of Tuesday free and all of Thursday free, and each week I planned all the useful things I was going to do during my free time. Then, without fail, every week I would accomplish very little of what I said I would. Now that I've been on break for a full 2 weeks, with nothing to do and no one to see besides my immediate family (that's what happens when your family moves and you go home for Christmas to a city where you don't have any close friends), you'd think I'd have time to turn out all sorts of clever blog posts or amazing projects. But alas, my life has consisted of Pinterest, painting pinecone flowers, and fruitlessly brainstorming business name ideas so I can sell jewelry from my Etsy shop. Meanwhile, my sister is making me feel like a slacker by putting together a fabulous scrapbook, my mother is making me feel lazy by running a bed and breakfast AND keeping up with normal housework, and my brother is making me feel like a neanderthal who knows nothing about technology by somehow apparently knowing everything about everything to do with electronics and the internet.

This is what I get for being satisfied with myself. I spend so much time looking at craft projects and decorating ideas that I know I can replicate and understand that I don't stop to replicate! With all that in mind, I'm going to go to Goodwill and buy stuff to make boots, just because I can. Then I'll come back and make them, and maybe if I'm really ambitious I'll post about making them. And maybe eventually I'll get around to working on my potential jewelry business, finding textbooks for next semester, and cleaning my room.

Happy Monday :)

Vikings, and My Lack of Responsibility

2011-11-20T02:17:00.000-06:00

One more day of classes, and then break!!!!! I am so insanely excited to see my family, you have no idea! Initially, I was not going to get to go home for Thanksgiving, but plans have been made (and then re-arranged) so that my sister and I get to go home Tuesday! I've never been away from them for so long (geeze, around 2 months) and I'm doing just fine, but it's not my preference :/ And yes, I do realize it will get longer and longer every time, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!

But nonetheless, college is still fun! I am done with most serious homework till finals, so now I can relax a little. Although today I may have relaxed a little too much, seeing as I slept super late, didn't clean my room, didn't work on my drawing project, didn't start my math, and definitely didn't do laundry. What did I do, you ask? I may have spent an obscene amount of time on Pinterest, if you must know. But hey, now I have even more things to think about trying! That is, when I stop procrastinating......and re-pinning stuff......and trying all the worthless things I find..

However, the day was not a total loss! Tonight I went to Viking Feast hosted by my residence hall (the honors hall, because we're all nerds), and it was quite fun! There was a whole (gigantic!) roast pig that was delicious, fighting demonstrations, a stew competition, door prizes, I think dancing, and some people even dressed up (myself included, because I never say no to wearing a costume)! On the whole, it was a happy event! Except when the frat house across the street launched a water balloon at the fighting.....ring? I guess? Anyway, it hit a girl in the face and our hall's RD went over to talk to them (followed by several angry vikings) and I think the police were called too. But other than that, it was a fun event :)

And to top off this extremely unproductive (but fun) day, I ended by watching the Fellowship of the Ring (extended, of course) with some friends :) So I guess I don't have any reason to put off doing what I need to do, because I don't have any large, pressing homework assignments, I don't need any more sleep (I got 10 hours last night. Yes, be jealous.), I have had my time to relax and catch up on e-mails, fb, and pinterest, I've got in my social time, and I'm not sick (at least not too sick). So I guess this means I'll have to be responsible and do laundry and work on my drawing assignment tomorrow, and start in on math Monday. Cause we all know that's what I want to do between classes Monday :p

I hate thinking of titles.

2011-10-19T23:13:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a while! I do believe in my last post I complained about having way too much time. That has passed. Life has sped up quite a bit with homework and cleaning out and packing everything I own into a box or cramming it into my dorm room. Such are the joys of your family moving! But on the whole, life is good, and I am doing well (though a little sick at the moment).

By far my favorite class is Drawing I. I love that I can spend 6 hours of class time a week drawing! And, my teacher says I'm doing really well, and that's always encouraging! Eventually I'll remember to take pictures of some of my drawings and then I'll post them.

Physical Geography is also a lot of fun, mostly because I have a fabulous teacher. Before tests, he has a review session where he answers as many questions as we care to ask, AND he brings us coffee! Last Thursday we went on a field trip around the north west parts of the state and hiked around some mountains, visited the muddy remains of a river, glanced at a windfarm, and toured a cave. Best field trip ever :)

The last few months have flown by, and weirdly enough I'm enrolling for spring already! Because I'm in the honors college, we get to enroll the same time as seniors as freshman! The only people who enroll first are grad students and all non-freshman honor students. Yep, tis nice to be an honors student :) If all goes well, I'll be in 12 hours of art classes, choir, and an honors seminar called Magic Ring Allegories which will cover Tolkien, Wagner, I think Plato, and someone else. It should be a fun semester :)

In the meantime, if you need to waste time, I would highly recommend Pinterest.

College Life...So Far

2011-08-31T00:07:00.000-05:00

Well, since I last posted I've gained a week or so of 'real' college experience going to class and being totally in charge of whatever happens to me. So far it's gone rather well, I've made it to class on time every day and even felt prepared every day! I like all my classes except College Algebra, which is unfortunate because it will take the most time to get right. But I think my Physical Geography class will be interesting enough to make up for it :)

My Drawing I class is interesting, and challenging, because I don't have a very steady hand and I'm not good at copying what I see, which is basically what we're covering. I don't feel intimidated by the other students though, because I'm in a class with mostly graphic design majors, not the people who will go on to major in drawing or painting, so they're not the best at drawing either, which is encouraging!

One really neat aspect of this week was that Wednesday and Friday Dr. Z. Randall Stroope directed the choir I'm in (he's not our usual director), and he's one of the best known choral directors/composers currently, and it was very neat because he is so good! We're learning Carmina Burana to perform in the spring, I'm excited for that!

The weirdest thing so far is that I have a lot of extra time so far. I know it will pick up as the semester continues, but so far I have a lot of extra time. I need a job! I don't have one for the first time in over 2 years, and I'm not sure how to handle all this extra free time! I guess I could spend it writing extra credit papers for Freshman Orientation, but I really don't want to, and I doubt I'll need the extra credit. Oh well, I'll figure something out! Maybe I'll make jewelry or paint or draw something cool. I'll post pictures of it if it's not too bad :)

Welcome Week

2011-08-21T00:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I realized it has been quite a while since my last post, so I thought I'd share a little of what's been going on in life :)

Tuesday the 9th I had the opportunity to see an incredible exhibit with my grandparents at the downtown art museum called Passages. It is the private collection of Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, containing ancient manuscripts of the Bible starting with the torah and continuing through more recent editions of the Bible. It was absolutely incredible! When you enter the exhibit, they give you an ipod touch and when you put in the number of whichever exhibit case you were looking at, it plays a commentary on the items inside the case telling you all about the history of the pieces and the people related to the pieces. There were so many wonderful pieces: a 1st edition King James Bible, a Tyndale Bible (which I read from through the glass), Esther scrolls, giant hymn books for choirs, even a portion of a dead sea scroll! I especially loved the cases with illuminated manuscripts, they were beautiful! There were so many rooms and cases and Bibles, if you listened to every one and spent some time on every one it might take you all week to get to the end! I could have spent all day and longer in the exhibit, but I only had a few hours. If you get the chance to see this exhibit, go! It really can give you a new perspective on how much was put into the Bible you read today, and how many people gave their entire life to preserve it!

Last week I packed and cleaned out and re-organized my room in the hopes of getting it all packed up by the end of the week.. Didn't exactly get it all done, but I made a dent! Monday morning I moved into the residence hall and my new room! It seems so strange that I am old enough to move out, I don't feel that old. But apparently I am, so here I am. All week there were events and breakout sessions and parties to go to as part of the 'Welcome Week.' I have walked more this week than I have in a long long time! I don't understand how someone could gain the 'freshman 15' when you have so much farther to walk than usual. I do have a bike, though, which makes getting across campus in 10min way easier!

I love my hall, most people are very friendly and everyone wants to make friends and be social, which makes for a happy place to be and get to know new people! We already have 'Stout Hobos,' people who wish they were in Stout so they come just to hang out with us. On the whole, the facilities are so much nicer than most halls, so I'm really glad I made it in!

Thursday morning I went home (and came back Friday), and it was so weird having to pack to come home for the night! But I'm sure I'll get used to it. I just hope I get used to everything pretty quick, like remembering to do laundry and keeping up with a lot of different classes at the same time!

This is a very rough sketch I did of part of our living room :)

100+

2011-08-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

This has been the hottest summer I can remember! This summer we have had 40+ days of 100+ degree temperatures! But not gonna lie, I don't really mind too much. I don't like the cold very much, so the heat is just fine with me!

One fun thing you can do when it gets this hot is bake cookies. I know, I know, bake in a hot kitchen when it's practically baking outside?! But actually, you can bake outside..........in your car! Just put the car is in full sun and put the cookie sheet in the dash with all doors and windows sealed for about 2 hours, longer if it's not so hot, shorter if it's 109 like it has been here! Just a warning: they won't turn out brown and smooth like oven-baked cookies, so if you wait for them to turn brown you will have hard, dry cookies! They will still look like cookie dough, so just look for them to be mostly dry looking and check them if you're not sure. Just don't let too much heat out!

Thursday was my last day to watch the girls. I've been babysitting them for 2 years now almost every weekday for at least 2 hours, it's going to be strange to not see them! I am happy-sad, I am really going to miss them and all the random crazy things we did, but I am not going to miss trying to get them to practice piano and clean up their lunch dishes! I guess that's how life goes, eventually everything moves on!

I've also had my last day at the jewelry store Wednesday. I went in to teach the next girl how to maintain the books and file the paperwork, which took a long time because there are 2 programs and several steps for each transaction. The hardest part is putting each transaction in a category, such as supplies or utilities, because the list is a mess with extras and strange wording. The files are the same way; it's an adventure trying to figure out where to file something! Hopefully she'll be able to wade through the mess (which I did not create, I just inherited!) without too much trouble.

Now that I'm finished with all my jobs, I've got to find a new one! I've never had to apply for a job, because both the babysitting and the jewelry store jobs were given me by a recommendation, so I'm a little nervous about getting a job. I just hope I can find something that's not in food service or heavy people contact! (I'm not much of a people person)

The rest of the week has proved to be quite crazy! Yesterday, being my birthday and the wedding of my small group leader and the tax-free weekend, was rather hectic. I did get a way fancier party on my birthday than I could have ever had otherwise, lol!

Props if you actually made it to the end of of this post, I tend to ramble when I have a lot on my mind :)

Feeding His Lambs

2011-07-29T00:36:00.000-05:00

Ever since church camp a few years ago, I'll periodically think of the story in John 21 where Jesus reinstates Peter. We went over it in my camp small group one day, and before that I didn't really know it very well at all. It struck me as interesting, because I don't know of any other events or stories quite like it in the New Testament. Recently, I have come to understand verse 15 a little more personally, in that I feel convicted to literally do what it says: feed His lambs. The thought of people not getting to eat is awful to me, and I want to do everything I can to get people food. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to make this happen regularly though.

Recently I got the opportunity to help make food for two 8th grade girls from a Confirmation group I helped lead last semester who both recently had surgery. Now, neither one were in any danger of not eating, but it is a step in the right direction to care for those going through something rough. One of the girls injured her arm over spring break, but due to recent complications had to have the break re-fixed and start the healing process all over again. The other had surgery on her shoulder, and will have a long recovery. I complain every day with regularity, but I've come to realize that I am the most thankful and complaint-free when I work to help those who have something real to complain about! There is real joy in giving your time to God and serving Him through kindness to His children, and if I would spend more time on that and less time on me, then I'd be much happier and healthier!

With that in mind, I have been helping out at VBS this week in the evenings. I have been somewhat grumpy about it, because I didn't exactly have a choice to help or not, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it is a blessing. So many kids come who don't get regular attention or access to crafts and fun activities, and I get to help them have at least one really fun week this summer!

One very neat project we are doing at VBS is making origami cranes to send to Japan. Each crane represents one prayer, and our church is trying to make and send 1,000 cranes. I was told that many years ago, a church in Japan sent our church 1,000 cranes (and prayers) after some sort of catastrophe or natural disaster, and now we are sending them 1,000 cranes (and prayers) in response to the earthquake. I love that the body of Christ is so connected that we can make something as simple as paper cranes with a group of children from around our city and make a difference halfway across the globe!

'Cause I'm busy! Busy! Terribly busy! You've no idea what I have to do!'

2011-07-26T00:03:00.000-05:00

Ugh, so much to do and not enough time to do it! I've been trying not to think too much about everything that has to be done before I move out because if I do, I might just get over-stressed and quit trying. So I made a list of what had to happen, and it looked ok. Then I remembered everything I forgot to write down :P

Currently we are trying to clean out half our house, literally, and have a giant garage sale this weekend. This entails going through all my clothes, books, arts and craft supplies, and closet! The closet and clothes weren't too terrible, actually, but everything else is going to be no fun. I am a pack rat. A crafty pack rat. As such, I do not like to clean out, ever. What if I need something a little ways down the road and then find out it was sold at a garage sale for $0.25?! It is kinda fun, though, to see how many faces I can get my Dad to make by telling him I'm going to keep something ridiculous ;)

Dad did let me go through all the old hardware and screws and such that he was throwing away and I found some pretty cool stuff to use in my jewelry. Hopefully I can make some neat pieces from it!

College is closing in fast, and now I have to try to find a job :/ it's strange, I've worked more hours than most people my age, and yet I've never had to apply for a job, they've all just been given to me on a silver platter! Which means I have no experience with resume's or interviews, so I'm not sure how well this is all gonna go down. I don't even have any workstudy allotted, so it is gonna be decently difficult for me to find a good job.

On a random note, this spring I entered the duck tape Stuck at Prom scholarship contest, which is a contest for the best duck tape prom outfits for a couple. My 'date' and I didn't win, but I did just find out that we got honorable mention for my jewelry! The prize came in the mail today: 23 rolls of duck tape and a plush duck toy! Now if only I know someone who could come up with what to do with all that tape...

Why I don't bike as often as I should

2011-07-15T23:29:00.001-05:00

As you might know if you creeped on my profile, I like to bike for exercise. Keep in mind that I bike around my neighborhood. Now, when I go for a ride, there are good things, such as exploring the neighborhood and being outside, and there are bad things, such as gravel and stop signs. But there are 3 things I dislike especially.

1. Cars
Now, one might think to themselves that unless you ride on main roads, cars should be going slow enough and infrequent enough to not cause much trouble. Well one would think wrong. Whenever one attempts to go for a ride, all of a sudden, everyone is coming or going, as if they were waiting for you to start before they went anywhere! In addition, Cars think they own the road, and drive so as to let you know that you are in their way and you need to move your slow-pokey self off the road so they can start speeding again.

2. Hills
I realize that the point of biking is to get exercise, which requires work and sweat and possibly a little pain, all of which a hill will induce. Now, if I go for a ride sans any major hills, I can get good exercise and go for quite some time before I feel like I must head home for fear of collapsing and dehydration. But when I go for a ride and decide to ride up a hill of much consequence, that feeling sets in about halfway up. And by the time I reach the top, I sort of feel like dying a little.

3. Dogs
I am not an animal hater. In fact, I rather enjoy dogs and cats and almost anything else you keep as a pet. But not rabbits, they make me sneeze. However, I do not appreciate riding past a house and getting chased by a loud, furry, angry ball of terror that seems to think it owns the street and can therefore bite your feet off for daring to ride by!

Now, I realize that there are also wonderful things about bike rides, such as sprinklers. There is nothing better than riding through a big spray of water on a hot, dry day. And people watching; I love trying to figure out what they think of that strange, pale-skinned, fluffy-haired girl on the bike two sizes two small for her. Actually, I got a 'new' bike that fits me, so that doesn't really play a role in what they think of me anymore.

I also realize that all of these problems could be fixed if I would bike at a park or on a bike path, but that takes at least an extra 30-40 min to load everything up and drive there and back, and who has time for that?! Not to mention that there is a severe lack of sprinklers on bike paths.

Everyone Fails Every Now and Then (or All the Time)

2011-07-14T17:07:00.008-05:00

Well, yesterday was an adventure! Besides my usual 2 girls, I had an additional 2 girls for most of the day. They usually do a good job of entertaining themselves without any help from me, but this time the younger two wanted to play with clay, which was a giant [fun] mess with a lot of cleaning to do afterwards. They used a whole jar of plastic flatback gems which ended up completely covered with clay-water, so they all had to be washed. Next, all four wanted to do blindfolded makeovers, which, while wildly entertaining for me to watch, is also rather messy and potentially stressful when you don't like your makeup or get perfume sprayed in your eyes. After completing the makeup, crazy hairstyles was of course the natural follow-up, and after they finished each other, they decided I was next up for a, special, hairstyle. I'm not sure how they managed to get so many pipecleaners in my hair all at once, I think they used half the package!

During the afternoon, we ended up locked in the study because the cleaners were there and needed us out of the way. The girls convinced me it was a good idea for me to play a Mario game with them, but I basically failed at that, so I think I'll stick to playing video games when no one is around to watch me :P

After work I made my weekly trip to the jewelry store to practice my jewelry making skills, and started the wire-making process to make some earrings to match the necklace I just finished. This time I started from scratch and got to melt the silver down and pour it into the mold with Rafael's help. Then he assigned his step-son (who's about my age and has been learning for about a year) to help me if I needed while I rolled and pulled the wire. I've pretty much given up hope at ever being good at pulling wire. I can roll it square just fine, but once I start pulling it round, I just can't physically get it. Last night I spent at least 3 min trying to get it through one hole, which is embarrassing when there's someone your own age watching you fail miserably :/ At least I didn't lose my grip and fall on my behind like I did last time! Eventually he just pulled it for me, which was prolly best since I ripped the skin off the inside of one of my fingers and blistered a few others. I'm gonna have to figure out how to get better at this!

Today, I only had the oldest girl, the younger one is at camp. She slept in till 11, so I had all morning to myself! The rest of the day we made cookies (which I burnt) and played Scategories. So far this week, I think Scategories is the only thing I have consistently not messed up in some way or other. I'm hoping I'll have better general success for the remainder of the week!

Eh..

2011-07-13T08:20:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's been a lot longer than I intended between posts! But then again, I haven't done anything overly noteworthy to write about. I did finish my first necklace that I've been working on at Rafael's though! Tonight I'm gonna start the matching earrings :)

Other than that, nothing that exciting has happened. Work, college prep, a few friends here and there. I don't have a lot of time to do anything, and at the same time I have all the time in the world! It's strange. But now I've got to leave for work, happy Wednesday!

The Texas Giant: Safety Hazard?

2011-07-07T22:53:00.009-05:00

Well folks, I had an amazing time at Six Flags, one of the best! Which is saying a lot, because I've been to that specific Six Flags at least 12 times. I even did something I've never been able to do: I rode all the major roller coasters in one day! Plus all the smaller coasters, except for Runaway Mine Train. The New Texas Giant was amazing! We ended up waiting hour and twenty minutes for it because they had to take one of the trains off, but I'm so glad we waited!

Due to an odd number of people, I rode the Texas Giant with a stranger, which usually proves to be uneventful, but sometimes yields an interesting experience. This time, the lady I sat with seemed fine until we started getting strapped in, but quickly started to panic about the safety of the ride. The attendant came by and checked the restraints, and when he finished, she called him back over and asked if he could double check her restraints. He chuckled, and thoroughly re-checked it for her. Then, (pardon the slight rabbit trail) a lady in the front of the train tried to sneak her purse on and buckled it into the seat with her. This of course was frowned upon, and they wouldn't let her ride with it. She made a ruckus and refused to leave it behind, so they had to unlock her car and she left the ride. Then they had to re-check all the cars, and the lady next to me, looking pleased, sort of giggled and said, 'Oooh, triple check!' And then promptly had them check her seat a fourth time.

All in all, it was a great trip! So great, in fact, that I could barely pull myself out of bed for work this morning. I can't help but wonder if the girls can tell when I'm extra tired, because the younger one did all in her power to frustrate me. Every day, both girls are required to practice piano for 30min and read for 30min. Not that much, but the 8 year old fusses like there's no tomorrow! She started throwing piano books around when I asked her to practice, and then she started crying about how terrible her life was compared to her older sister's. And while reading she asked every 2min how much longer, and complained about how boring the book was. I'd finally had it when she threw a fit when I asked her to brush her hair before lunch, and was 2cm away from not giving her lunch and cancelling the movie we were going to see, but didn't because that would make the older one mad, which would mean endless fighting the rest of the day. I'm going to keep hoping that eventually the girls will realize that just doing what they're supposed to do without complaining takes less time and energy, and just do it without making me ask them 42 times every day!

More Flags, More Fun!

2011-07-05T17:19:00.006-05:00

Well, my month of 'no work' has come to a close, and today I went back to being a nanny. It's funny how I'm busier during the time I'm off from my usual job than I am when I'm working! But tomorrow I am taking off for a much anticipated and very confusing trip to Six Flags! I say much anticipated, because it is one of my favorite places to visit, and I say confusing, because in the last 3 days we have had more changes in plans and decisions to make than I can keep track of! But I think we finally have it all figured out and we are going to have amazing fun :) Can't wait to ride the new Texas Giant!

Yesterday being the 4th of July, our family and some friends went to a parade in the morning and tailgated in the evening before fireworks, as is our usual tradition, which was quite enjoyable! The parade is becoming less and less exciting every time I see it, though. Basically, if you see it once, you've seen it a hundred times. But it is a good chance to celebrate with my community how truly blessed and great our nation is, and that is a chance that doesn't come up too often!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to paint I go!

2011-07-01T13:51:00.005-05:00

This week has been yet another busy one! Monday and Tuesday I enrolled for next semester, which took a lot of time and brainpower. I think they tried to throw every bit of relevant information at us in as short a period of time as possible on Monday, and then make us spend the night in the dorms before we enrolled so we'd forget it all :P

Tuesday night was quite wonderful, however! In honor of the release of the Lord of the Rings extended edition on Blu Ray, they showed all three movies in select theatres on the three Tuesdays leading up to it, and I went to go see the Return of the King with my dad. It was way cool to see it on the big screen, because I was too young/hadn't read the books when they first came out.

The rest of the week has been a mixture of painting the outside of our house, throwing together yearbook pages, and a few other random tasks. In some ways, I can't wait for school to start so I can be done with all the little things that need to be worked on (like painting the house), but in other ways I wish these days would go on forever because the anticipation of college is prolly way better than all the homework and tests. Plus, I have way more flexibility right now! But I suppose I don't have a choice either way, so it doesn't matter too much what I'd prefer :P

Road Trip: Quartz Mountain

2011-06-26T14:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend my sister and friend and I took a gander down to Quartz Mountain to watch/view the performances and art/photography gallery from the summer arts institute camp. For some reason, they said I was in charge, made me do all the driving, and blamed me if anything went wrong :P All the students at the camp work for two weeks in their discipline and then perform or have a gallery, and I was blown away by how incredible they all were. I had a friend attending for art, and another for creative writing, and of course they were both wonderful!

We camped Friday night in a tent, and that was (of course) quite an adventure with broken tent zippers and grumpy camp security. We spent at least an hour and a half experimenting with a fancy camera doing light writing and other fun things, which turned out far cooler than I anticipated! Props to my sister for all her great photography skills!

We also had all sorts of up close wildlife encounters totaling at 5 skunks, 2 porcupines, and 1 deer (that was was literally only 3 feet away), in addition to all the bees, scorpions, bugs, etc. that you usually see.

Hiking and swimming in the lake did not happen, because we woke up tired from not sleeping well and feeling rather gross and dirty to be going to fine arts performances. But we drove around and saw the lake and mountains, and ate lunch at a tiny little restaurant, which was fun. We generally had a grand time, with no major mishaps to make into an interesting blog post, lol

In other news, I'm off to orientation and enrollment tomorrow, which means I'm going to have to decide what I'm going to minor in, and what language I'm going to learn. I hate decisions :/

Hitchhiking Bum?

2011-06-23T21:00:00.006-05:00

Note to self: do not forget to keep an eye on the stove when you start boiling something. Thank goodness for Mom who is way smarter and more on the ball than me!

One more day of camp to go, and then the real camping begins! Well, more real anyway. I keep thinking to myself, 'Just make it to the end of this week, and everything will relax!' and then I remember, 'Oh yeah, I have enrollment and a house to paint and my room to pack up and a yearbook to put together, never mind.' Sometimes, I most definitely feel like I should just skip the whole college and work and responsibilities thing and be a hitchhiking bum. And then I remember that I prolly wouldn't make it for more than a week doing that, and decide to be responsible again.

But hey, if I ever decide to be a hitchhiking bum, I can prolly discover some new, innovative art form or recycling method and make it big, and not have to be a hitchhiking bum anymore! I'll let you know if that ever works out, lol

SAM Camp: Day 3

2011-06-22T23:19:00.005-05:00

It's been a long week, and I'm only half done! But so far, I've learned calligraphy and Zentangle, and all sorts of new songs and hand motions.

I also realized that I have a strong desire to know what on earth goes through those kids heads all the time. With some kids, you can tell, but there's always that one that you just can't figure out. One moment, they're poking their neighbor's eye out, and the next they've decide you're their new best friend and won't detach! And then there's those who won't do anything. They just wander from station to station with this blank, glassy stare when you ask them to do something. But they're all cute, which is why they make it through the week alive :P

I think the musical is going to be adorable, which is frustrating cause I'll be missing it :/ Mind, I am going camping with my sister and best friend and we will be going to hear and see some incredible art performances and galleries at Quartz Mountain, but still, I hate to miss the kids.

Tonight we had another incredibly beautiful sky, and it was all I could do to watch the road while driving my car and riding my bike! I suppose that's one good thing about the big, flat plains without forests, you get to see the sky whenever you want.

Whelp, I suppose that's all for now.

Here's a picture of the Zentagle I drew yesterday :)

SAM Camp: Day 1

2011-06-19T21:55:00.008-05:00

This week, my mother is putting together her usual children's musical and day camp at our church, and I have the privilege/misfortune of helping all week. I do enjoy helping, I just don't always have as much patience as it requires.

For my jobs this year, I am helping with the musical rehearsals, the drawing and calligraphy classes, hand chimes, and I have a group of kids to keep up with at lunch. The musical went well, I think it'll be a lot of fun! And although I enjoyed helping with the drawing and chimes, calligraphy turned out to be my favorite class, because I got to sit there and learn and practice with the kids! You'd be surprised how difficult it is to make nice, even strokes in the correct order, direction, and size! But it was neat to practice, and maybe by the end of the week I'll have something to show for it.

I ended up feeling rather awful by the end of the day, and slept through the last hour of rehearsal on the most fluffy, pillow-y youth sofa imaginable! I may just spend the night there this week, seeing as I have to be there so early anyways..

Tonight, I think we are under some sort of thunderstorm warning, which always gets me excited. I don't enjoy the damage they bring, but I am left in awe after watching clouds and rain and storms, they are magnificent! It's not really reached us yet, but it started raining with the sun shining through the clouds, like something out of a painting. Amazingly, my camera actually captured the sky decently! Now I may have to sketch or paint it, or some variation of it.

This is pretty much what I actually saw, while the next one is my extreme just-for-fun editing, and not remotely what it looked like :)

Adventures in Chain-Making

2011-06-19T17:53:00.013-05:00

Since November 2009, I have had the opportunity to work for a locally well known and respected jeweler, Rafael. I work only Saturdays and mostly just file paperwork, open the always locked door for customers, file new jobs, answer the phone, etc. But every so often, Rafael will teach me little bits about jewelry making; nothing too much or too complicated, but still, I will take any experience he offers to me.

This week, after telling me how much he wishes I was a jeweler and could help him, he offered to let me come in after hours and teach me about anything I asked (within reason). My first project is to make a large-ish chain. I started by pulling some silver into wire, which might have worked well if I hadn't lost my grip on the wire, slipped, and fallen on my behind :P After I accidentally pulled the wire much thinner than originally intended, Rafael annealed it, and I wound it onto a mandrel to make round links for a chain. I started to solder a few closed, but had to go home before I got very far.

Yesterday, I stayed late after work to finish soldering all the links together into a chain that was prolly about 14in; I think I will make a big clasp for it next time and make it into a necklace. I got progressively faster at the soldering, and figured out how to make it work [almost] every time. I even got lots of practice lighting and tuning the torch, since I accidentally put it out every other time I used it! Maybe sometime I'll post all the little tips Rafael has given me and I have figured out.

A side effect of soldering is all the discoloration on the silver, which makes for an interesting look, so I took a picture of all the rings I soldered closed before putting them on a chain.

Back to Blogging

2011-06-17T11:39:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been an extremely long time since I've been on here, and lots has changed since I was a regular blogger. But I'd like to give this a try again, and see how it all goes. I prolly won't be very regular, with starting college (eep!) and working and getting my jewelry off the ground (hopefully), but we'll see.

In the meantime, since it's summer and I'm thinking about how much fun it would be to travel, but won't get to travel, I thought I'd recount my favorite family trip that we took several years ago. This was written for a scholarship contest, that I did not win, but it was lots of fun anyways :)

In the fall of 2008, my family and I took a trip like no other. My dad wanted to take us to see several major national parks and do some camping along the way. So in September, our family took off from Oklahoma to visit the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands. However, since the details of the trip could easily fill the pages of a small book, I will stick to writing about Rocky Mountain National Park, my favorite part of the trip.

The first real challenge of the trip started before we left: getting all of us in the van, along with two weeks worth of clothing and equipment. This would have been easier, however, if there were not seven of us, with two in car seats, filling the seven passenger van. Perhaps we ought to have left the littlest one with the gypsies. However, with a car top carrier and some expert packing, we squeezed everything (and everyone) in. After staying the night in La Junta, Colorado, challenge number two appeared in the form of a dead car battery. But with some help from the local Walmart and a new battery, we were back on the road.

Now, between all the excitement and stress of starting such a large trip, we had to figure out an efficient method of getting in and out of each campsite. At first, this might seem easy, but unloading seven sleeping bags, pillows, suitcases, and random paraphernalia is not exactly simple. The campsites did make this easier, though. We decided to stay in Kampgrounds of America (KOA) kamping kabins, and they worked out great for us, as they had a picnic table and grill, and access to community showers. The cabins did sleep all seven of us, but for the most comfort, again, I would suggest leaving the littlest child with the gypsies and bringing six or fewer people.

After two days of travel, we finally made it to Estes Park, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. September was a fantastic time to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was not overcrowded, the weather was great, and there was no snow except in patches above the tree line. However, it was a bit chilly, and we were all glad to have long sleeves. For our first venture in the park, we drove up Trail Ridge Road, which takes you through the mountains and up 12,183 feet in elevation. The view from the summit was simply incredible.

We spent the rest of the time in the Rocky Mountains hiking and viewing the wildlife. My favorite hike was the trail up to Emerald Lake. The trailhead is at Bear Lake, and the trail is 1.8 miles one way, taking you up just over 600ft in elevation. On the trails, and just about everywhere, there were numerous animals to see, including deer, elk, and chipmunks that scurried all over the place, even on our toes once or twice. The last thing we saw in the Rocky Mountains were two large elk, sparring just beside the road.

Whether I was standing on top of a mountain, or down in a valley watching incredible animals face off, the whole park left me breathless. This vacation turned out to be one of the most fun and exciting experiences we have had together as a family, and I cherish all the time we spent together.

Thank goodness we did not leave the littlest one with the gypsies!

2009-10-10T15:40:00.005-05:00

I realize, some of you may think I have fallen off the face of the earth, as I am not usually this inconsistent, but rest assured, I am fine. Just very busy (and I have a facebook now, so that takes some of my time too). School is taking so much of my life, I have the PSAT and the ACT to study for (PSAT is next Wednesday), and I am working on two math programs and two science programs. One each of the math and sciences will be done soon, so I will have more time next month (hopefully).

Right now, we have my grandparents and two cousins visiting, in honor of it being 1 year since my grandpa's heart attack. He is doing fantastic! Since we have family in town, Jc also came to stay for the weekend. I hadn't seen her in several weeks, so I was glad she finally came home yesterday. She had to work today, so she drove all the way back to Norman, and she will be coming back here tonight. That is a lot of driving.

So, I am going to have another jewelry booth next month! Our church has a craft fair every year, and I get to go this year! I am very excited about it. I am going to have to work hard to get it all ready though. I need to get a State Tax ID Number, so that I can be really official (and order from wholesalers). I am not looking forward to the paperwork, but since this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I should probably get some experience.

Today, I went to a class meeting. There are enough homeschoolers in the metro to have several graduation ceremonies, one of which usually has upwards of 30 or 40 kids from around the state, which is the one I am planning on graduating with, and it's the one Jc graduated with. It is strange to start thinking about graduating already. I am signed up to be on the yearbook committee and the activities committee. Now, I will finally be able to use my amazing yearbook skills again ;) I almost ran for an office (treasurer), but I decided that it would probably be too much for me to do, so maybe I can be chairman of one of the committees I'm on.

~Ellentia

2009-09-18T08:31:00.004-05:00

So, this year, everything has been rather crazy. I am feeling far behind in school, although so far I am doing okay. I just have a lot to do. Tuesday, I went to an ACT workshop, by a guy named Chad Cargil. He is an interesting person, and he had lots of great information. I now just have to figure out how to use it all.

Yesterday the state fair started, and the admission was only a dollar so we decided to go. It was absolutely crazy! It had rained all night Wednesday, so I was hoping that there wouldn't be so many people there, but alas, it was quite full. Mostly, we just walked through the seemingly endless arts and crafts exhibits. They have everything from pumpkin dressing contests to photography to duct tape creations! I entered a few things and one of my photos got 8th place, which is a real accomplishment because I was competing with my little point and shoot with adults who have fancy Nikon and Cannons. I also entered a jewelry set, hair comb set, a drawing and several other photos. My drawing and other photos didn't get anything, but my jewelry got first and my combs got second. I am very happy.

This next Sunday, the girls in our youth group are starting a "mentor" program, which means thay 2 or 3 highschool girls will lead 3 or 4 middle school girls in a small group every Sunday. I am SO excited! I have been totally pumped about this ever since I heard about it. We have our group assignments and from the looks of things, we will have a nutty group. But, I am looking forward to getting to know the girls better.

I ought to go now, as I said earlier, I have lots of things to do, so, goodbye for now.

~Ellentia

Pure Awesomeness.

2009-09-08T19:25:00.005-05:00

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/feature-homemade-roller-coasters-that-provide-backyard-thrills

2009-08-29T16:34:00.003-05:00

So, it has been longer then I thought since I last posted. A lot has happened since I last posted, Jc has moved to the dorms, so I haven't been around her much. She did come home last night, though, and spent the night. So far, everything is going well for her.

Today our church had a "Servant Day," which means that members of our church signed up for different projects and we went all over town working at charitable organizations. I went with the youth to the Infant Crisis Services, a place that helps mothers with young children, and helped bag food and sort cloths. It was fun to spend time with friends, but I am so tired now.

This afternoon I had to brush down the pool, which is harder then it sounds. It really wears your arms out because the brush (mainly the handle) weighs so much. I also have entered many, many crafty things into the fair, and so I have to work on finishing those projects in about 2 weeks, which is not nearly enough time. So far, all I have started is the drawing, but I need to start everything else.

~Ellentia

Back to normal?

2009-08-13T15:54:00.005-05:00

I have always thought that there isn't any "normal," but I am more convinced now then I ever was. I have done all sorts of things that don't fit into this category, from spontaneous outings with friends to simply having a different schedule every day. It wears me out so much that sometimes I wish there was a normal to return to.

Anywho, after we got home Sunday night (our trip was great, by the way), I have felt like I have had a million things to do, but I never can remember them all. Choir starts next Tuesday, as does my babysitting job, so I will have more to adjust to. The following Monday, the all consuming and imposing history class starts again. I am excited though, to be back to seeing people regularly again.

I really have so much to do this year, but it should be fun. I will enjoy babysitting, and my jewelry business is always fun (if time consuming). I am hoping to get a webpage for it this fall sometime. I will also get my license in a month or so, which will be cool. I don't have a car, but I will be saving every possible penny so I can maybe get one next year.

Last night I was at a small group sleepover, and we made a late-night run to Taco Bueno (not that terrific). Anyway, I jammed my finger getting out of the car (climbing over a seat), and it hurts dreadfully now. I iced it last night, but it is still swollen and a little purple in one spot, and I am starting to wonder if there is something I need to do about it.

I need to go do other things now, so I will go. Have a happy, un-normal day!

~Ellentia

Florida!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-06T19:53:00.004-05:00

I'm in Florida! We came down here Monday and have gone to the beach every day since. It has been so much fun to be here in the summer. We usually come to visist our grandparents for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We still go to the beach, but there is so much more you can do when it is warm. I tried not to get a sunsburn, but I failed and now my back and shoulders are in pain
:( I am still having lots of fun. As my birthday was Wednesday, we were supposed to have a picinic by the bay with as many family members as possible (33, to be exact), but it raied so we re-located to our grandparents house. It has been great fun so far, but now I have to get off. I'll post again when we get back on Monday. Till then, goodbye!

~Ellentia

Dayspring!

2009-07-25T10:53:00.005-05:00

To answer your question, Petr, in laser laser tag, at least the version I played, you have a laser gun and a vest with sensors on it and you just wander around shooting at other people's sensors. It records your score, and then prints out a score card. Very simple, but it can be quite fun.

As mentioned earlier, this last week was camp. It was totally amazing! First off, all of the girls from our church were in on cabin (there were two different rooms), so there were about 30-40 girls in one building having way too much fun way too late at night. The best part was how we did role call every night. The first night, when our name was called, we made animal noises (and gestures if we wanted). I was a lion, so I jumped over a few beds whilst roaring. The next night we died dramatically, the next we played the game where the first person starts a story and the next person adds on and the last person finishes it. The last night we played the no teeth game, in which you have to hide your teeth with your lips and then make the strangest noise possible without showing your teeth. It was good fun.

My small group was great this year. We were all focused so we didn't have to worry about staying on topic, and we had lots of good discussion. There were all different beliefs represented, and people were very open. I loved our leaders, they were very good about getting us onto good discussion topics.

I did manage to wear my ankle out the first day so I had it wrapped the whole week, preventing me from swimming, hiking, playing ultimate or volleyball and I wasn't supposed to jump or run. I did do a bit of that though. I injured my ankle playing softball in '06 and I think what happened with it is that when I went hiking on the first day, I worked it too hard, causing it to hurt.

Nat was at camp too, and he did something most of you may not believe. On Wednesday, he shaved his head for one of the games. I knew it was coming, but I still couldn't believe it, and I'm still not used to it. He was pretty much bald when they did it, but there is some hair growing now.

I don't have pictures on the computer yet, but they will be coming shortly.

In other news, this next week is the kids musical camp, and I am going to have to learn all the hand motions today and tomorrow, and I will have to be working from 8-3 all day Mon.-Thur. plus extra on Thursday. I'll have to let you know how it goes!

~Ellentia

2009-07-18T13:36:00.002-05:00

Once again, I am posting. As I mentioned earlier, I played laser tag last Tuesday, which was lots of fun. I didn't expect to like it, and I didn't do very well, but it was fun all the same. Unfortunatnly, one of the girls in my small group was in a wreck on the way to play, so she didn't get to come. She is okay though, and the wreck wasn't her fault.

Next week is Dayspring (church camp)! I am actually excited, and I am usually not really excited. I hope I have a good B.A.S.I.C. group (Brothers and Sisters In Christ), it will be sad if I don't. It should be a fun week, especially with the girls from church, we have all become really good friends these last few months. So, barring any major drama, it should be a great cabin this year. We recently got a new middle school youth pastor, and he will be at Dayspring. I am excited to get to know him better, he seems really neat.

Well, that is all for now, I'll be back next weekend with lots of pictures and stories to tell!

~Ellentia

2009-07-12T21:41:00.003-05:00

So, this has been a long week, but not in a bad way. It just never seemed to end. We have a summer Bible/book study, and last week was a big bonding time for us. It isn't something to share, but it was an incredible morning, and if everyone in the Church could be part of something like this, the Church would be such a different body of believers. We are reading Acts and a book called Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. It is about spiritual growth, but it is unlike any book on the same subject. I didn't like the first 4 chapters at all, I disagreed with quite a bit, but the 5th and 6th chapters were good. It is an interesting read, at the least.

In two weeks is the annual Summer Arts and Music Camp (SAM Camp) and in preperation for it, Mom and I went to Dallas on Friday to visit a camp similar to ours that did the same musical that we will be doing, Go, Go Jonah! It was a fun trip, and we got to go into the different classes. I went to a handbell class and a quilting class, which was fun. That night we got to see the performence, which was good. The main kids did well, except that they didn't know the lines perfectly. The singing was good (thankfully) and overall it was very enjoyable. There was a bit of excitement during the show, about halfway through the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building. Thankfully, there was no fire, one of the sensors accidentally went off, but we had fire trucks there and everything. The kids weren't shaken up too bad though, so after 10 minutes we went back in and finished the show. We got to our hotel about 9:30, and we had been up since 5am, so we were very tired. The logical solution? Stay up reading and watching Food Network, of course! Needless to say, we didn't leave very early. We did get to stop at DQ, a rare treat because the only one in OK is far south. It was a good trip.

On Tuesday my small group is going to play laser tag (my first time, can you believe it!) so I will let you know how I do. But until then, goodbye!

~Ellentia

Colorado!

2009-06-29T21:12:00.001-05:00

So I just got back from a fishing trip to Colorado. It was great fun. Before we went, however, we stopped at Quartz Mountain last Saturday (the 20th) to hear Leighanne's first choir concert. It was fantastic! She did amazing. Funny story, we were going to have a picnic with her saturday for dinner, and so we brought KFC to the porch outside the cafeteria. Just as we got there, it started to rain. It didn't stop. So, we did the logical thing, and sat outside in the rain to eat our fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits. I had to drain the water out of my plate several times, my napkin disitegrated
and we were all quite wet by the end of it.

My grandparents then took Nathanael and I to Colorado and we got there on Monday. We fished Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and didn't even get any bites. It was very discouraging. I did catch just about everything except fish, though. Rocks, trees, bushes, branches, grass, the bottom of the river, my jeans, my fingers, and lots of the long, slimy green moss that grows in every river on the planet.

Our grandparents starved us the whole time, giving us oreos, chocolate, ice cream, hot chocolate, pork chops, stew, burgers, mexican food, and other yummy things, making a hike on Wednesday very necessary in order to lose some of the weight I'm sure I gained. We hiked upriver to a big rock that we climbed up, and the view of the mountains (we were in a valley) was spectacular. I also love climbing rocks, so that was fun. But we had to go back after that, because it started raining.

It rained Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, so we had to stay inside. We played games, and I drew for a while. Wednesday, when we tried to eat outside for lunch, it started raining. This time we were able to go inside, though. After not catching any fish, we went to visit my Aunt who lives in Colorado for her birthday on Thursday. I had to order trout at a restaurant in Pagosa Springs in order to get my fish! It was good though.

The drive from Antonito to Bayfield was totally amazing. Words cannot describe how beautiful the mountains were. My camera died just as we got to the best part of the drive, but I got some pictures later. I don't see how people think that the world could have been created by chance after seeing something like that.

For my Aunt's birthday, we went to the Bar D Chuckwagon, which is supposed to be outside. You'll never guess what happened. It rained. So they had to pull the cover over all the tables to keep us dry. It was yummy food though, and the show afterwards was quite good, and very amusing.

Friday we drove to Albuquerque to see my other Aunt and Uncle and cousins. For dinner we went to a place called Genghis Grill, wich was "Mongolian Stir Fry." I don't usually like stir fry, but you went through a line and put all the raw ingriedients (only the stuff you like) into a bowl and then give it to the cooks who all stand around a big, round grill. It was good.

The biggest problem with the trip was that the bathrooms were very primitive, and there were no showers, so I only got to shower once in the 5th wheel. I was glad to get to my Aunt's house just so I could feel clean again. Saturday morning we got up extremely early in order to go back to Quartz Mountain for Leighanne's second concert. Once again, it was amazing! She even had a part in a small ensemble that were the bells in the most difficult song the choir director had ever directed in his life, and he directs a professional adult choir! She did fantastic, of course.

Amazingly, we got home Saturday evening in time to swim (the pool is finally open!). It felt great, seeing as the temperature at Quartz Mountain was about 107. And I was used to the nice, 75-80 degree weather of Colorado!

(pictures to come later)

~Ellentia

Summertime

2009-06-14T13:49:00.002-05:00

I keep thinking to myself, why am I so busy? Am I not supposed to be less busy during the summer? But somehow, I feel more busy. But, I am enjoying everything that I am doing. I had so much fun in Nac two weeks ago, I wish I could have seen more people, but there's only so many people you can see in 3 days.

This next week is VBS at our church, and I am signed up to be a crew leader. I am very excited, but by the end I will wonder (as I always do), why did I sign up to help this year? It might not be so overwhelming, except that we have around 500 kids come every year, so the whole church is covered in decorations and crazy kids running around causeing as much trouble as possible.

I will get a rest the next week, though. On Saturday we will be meeting my grandparents at Quartz Mountain to hear the choir that Jc is in perform. The next day, my grandparents are taking Nat and I to Colorado to go fishing! I am so excited! The last time I went fishing, though, I fished for several days and watched everyone but me catch a fish. Even my 9 year old cousin caught a fish on her mini barbie doll poll. But, maybe I will catch something this time. I really just want to eat it though, fresh grilled fish is delicious!

~Ellentia

Pictures!

2009-05-31T16:47:00.007-05:00

These are from last weekend. I and my brother and cousins all walked down to this park in our neighborhood.

This is after graduation.

The other senior that I will miss the most!

They just had to jump into the picture!

The cake! We ate, and ate, and ate that cake all weekend!
This was the party at our house afterwards. This isn't everyone, there were still several people yet to come.
One of the guys paid some girls to spray her with silly string.
She wasn't the only one who got sprayed.
She got a laptop!
Measuring the hair....

An excellent summary of these two!

~Ellentia

Graduation and Family

2009-05-24T13:09:00.004-05:00

I am worn out! Since Jc graduated on Friday, we have had lots of family in town. I have really enjoyed seeing all of them again, we have all 9 grandkids/cousins in town! On top of all this, there were of course lots of grad parties, lasting late into Friday and Saturday nights. But it was all lots of fun! I can't believe Jc is graduated though! This means she will be moving out at the end of the summer! I won't get to see her every day! It will take a lot of adjusting.

This afternoon, Jc had her dance showcase, and so we all went. I didn't enjoy any of the dances, except for Jc's (hers were the only ballet). Everything else was bad dancing, bad choreography, bad costumes, and put to bad music. Afterwards, we went to Bricktown and shopped at Bass Pro, then ate dinner. I had way too much, considering that I wasn't particularly hungary when we ate. I am glad to have a chance to relax, now. I feel like I have been going non-stop for the past week. I will enjoy the break, because soon I will be busy again.

(pictures to come at a later time)

~Ellentia

Home Again

2009-05-03T14:20:00.005-05:00

I am ready to lay down and do nothing for a week or two. We had a blast on tour. I don't have any clue where to start. We did well in our competition on Friday. Not amazing, but much better then last year. On the way to Atlanta, we stopped at John Brown University and did a workshop with the choral director there, and got our t-shirt material there (the idea for what to put on the t-shirts that we made later). While Dr. Smith was trying to get the sopranos to sing, he had all of the ladies say "I am woman, hear me roar!" in a very high, silly voice. So, that's what we put on our shirts. The funny thing was that one of the tenors was better at it than the sopranos.

I lots of fun at Six Flags, and I got to ride a coaster called Superman, that you ride laying on your stomach, in order to simulate the flying sensation. It was very cool. On Sunday we went to a church that was very similar to our church in Nac. I enjoyed going, and it makes me miss First Christian. We had some down time on Sunday, so some of our room pranked Micaiah's door. He was somewhat surprised to find a giant Zoborg on his door. That night, we went to a Japanese steak house that is like Shoguns. It was a lot of fun, I haven't ever done anything like that before. The next day, three of us pranked two of the girls' doors (including Jc's). The door pranking is for seniors, and the other girl is one of the original pranksters, so it was fun to do her door.

Over all, it was a great trip. I could go on for hours telling you all about it, but you probably wouldn't be too interested, so I'll stop now. I will have to post pictures later, they're not on the computer yet. On Friday and Saturday, the OCHEC Home School Convention was going, and I had a booth to sell jewelry. I haven't ever had a chance to sell before, so I learned a lot. I didn't sell a ton, but I did really well, considering my total start up cost, and the experience that I gained is invaluable. I am so tired though, I had to get up early and act "perky" and awake both days. I almost fell asleep sitting at my booth! All in all, I am so happy with how it all turned out.

~Ellentia

Concert and Tour

2009-04-22T12:06:00.007-05:00

Choir concert is over! It was, in my opinion and my parents opinion, the best concert since we have been in the choir, so out of 5 or 6 concerts, it was the best. We sang really well (as far as I can tell) and it was not particularly long, although it could have been shorter. Ladies ensemble did fantastic on our first song! I was so proud of everyone, we all breathed together when we were supposed to! Our second song was not as great, but it was still really good.

Jc had the big senior solo/duet this year, and she did amazing! It was beautiful, Jc, you did great!

The choir did quite well second half, we nailed our two a Capella pieces, one even had 4 key changes that went perfectly! It was amazing to be part of such a good performance with this choir.

After concert, we of course all went to IHOP, the standard after-party location. We had great fun, and I even got a picture of Jacob on my first try!

Then, the traditional syrup chugging! All seniors who come to IHOP must chug syrup before they can leave. This year, four of them did it! Miciah drank the full bottle. I don't think anyone has ever done that, most just drink some of it. The girls allways pour it intlo spoons and only have 1-3 spoonfuls.

Nick came back from Germany on Monday and after meeting his family, he came up to Okc and met with us and Carolyn, one of our friends that has been talking with him on Facebook and then over the phone. He came to concert and to IHOP afterwards. This is the best picture I got with him in it. Carolyn is the one who is hiding her face.

TOUR IS TOMORROW! We are going to Atlanta, GA, and I am so excited, I can't even tell you how excited I am. Especially since we are spending all day Saturday at Six Flags! And they have lots of big rides, including a roller coaster that you stand up on the whole time! I am so glad we have plenty of time to spend there. We are going to do all sorts of fun things, like go to the aquarium, dialogue in the dark, and a Japanese steak house! We will, unfortunately, be visiting The Body exhibit, but I will be going with the group that stays outside that part. I have no interest in seeing what the human body looks like. I am sure it is made wonderfully, but I don't need to see it, especially since I get grossed out just looking at the advertisements for it! I also have moral issues with it. Unless they can prove to me that the bodies were honestly retrieved, I don't want to support it.

So, since we are leaving tomorrow at 4am, I won't be on again for a while, but I will let you all know how the trip was as soon as I get back!

~Ellentia

2009-04-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter!

~Ellentia

Thoughts of Good Friday

2009-04-10T13:20:00.005-05:00

Good Friday, probably the most hopeless day that ever occurred in history, especially for Jesus' Apostles. Have you ever thought about how they must have felt? In a few hours, their whole world as they knew it came crashing down. The man that they had followed and believed in for three years was condemned to die. My thoughts would be mostly wondering about what would happen next. Would He manage to avoid the death sentence? What would happen if He did? If He didn't? Where will I go now? What will I do? Will I be next on the cross? Probably this would have been the scariest day in the Apostles lives. We are so blessed to live now, and to be able to look back on this day, knowing that it all turns out better then any story ever could. We can look at the Cross with the hope that comes with knowing that it couldn't last. If only we always looked at everything this way, with the hope that comes from knowing that no matter what happens, no matter how we hurt or how much is taken away from us, we will someday meet again in heaven, and that can never be taken away by anyone, not even the Devil himself.

~Ellentia

Thoughts

2009-03-27T18:26:00.006-05:00

I have decided that a person's life, any person's, could be compared to a faceted gem. There are many different kinds of gems, and within each kind, there are many different colors, sizes, grades, shapes, clarities and inclusions. Just like there are all sorts of people. The facets represent the different parts of our lives. When light hits the gem one way, a particular facet is illuminated, while others are only partially illuminated or else are completely dark. In the same way, in life (at least in my life), there are some areas that are working out beautifully, with "everything goin' my way." But at the same time, there are invariably those areas where it seems that everything is crashing down, and nothing could go worse.

The past month or so has been an excellent example of this for me personally. And now, to add to the dark facets, Jessie is still in the hospital in Colorado, unconscious and in critical condition. Yesterday evening, about 70 people went to her house and we all wrote messages or scripture on big yellow or green ribbons and tied them all over their property. By the time they were all up (including some that were there before yesterday), everything was fluttering with yellow or green. The more time goes by, the more I realize how serious this accident was. It is going to be months before she is significantly better, and maybe longer, because she hasn't woken up yet. I can't possibly imagine the pain and worry her family must be going through. However, there has been lots of good that has come from the accident. Our youth group is pulling closer together and many people (myself included) have said that they have started to pray more throughout the day. I personally have started to think about my priorities, and whether or not they are straight. Life is so short, what if it had been me that was hurt? If I were to die today, am I ready?

Jessie's house is 30 min away so Jc and I rode with a collage guy there and back. On the way back to the church, we came up with 5 things we wanted to do before something happened to immobilize us or before we died. One of mine was that I want to learn how to rock-climb and repel and work my way up until I can climb up and repel down Devils Tower. Chase said that if I did, I would be the coolest person he knew. It will probably be a while before I will get to rock-climbing, and after that it will be even longer before I make it up Devils Tower. And yes, there is no apostrophe in "Devils."

~Ellentia

Eagle Cam

2009-03-23T17:17:00.003-05:00

This website is really interesting, you should pay a visit and watch the eagles.

http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html

~Ellentia

Happy Birthday Phil!

2009-03-19T09:00:00.003-05:00

Today is Philip's birthday, he is now 3! And, in our house, when you turn 3, you can eat chips. Every one of us has had to wait until we were 3 in order to eat chips, thanks to Dad who was sorta kidding when he made the rule that has now lasted around 17 years.

I can hardly believe how big Philip has gotten! He talks in complete sentences, he can count to 1o, he is almost completely potty trained, and he is just as cute as a button! We love you Phil!

On a more serious note, our youth group went on a ski trip and one of the freshman girls hit a tree on Monday and was seriously hurt. She hasn't been awake since the crash (they have kept her sedated), and they have done surgery twice to reduce swelling in her brain. Please pray for her, she is not doing very well.

~Ellentia

Wolf Hunter

2009-03-17T10:54:00.000-05:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)

Busy Week

2009-03-12T20:50:00.003-05:00

The past few days have been exciting. Tuesday it was announced that Dad will be taking over the homeschool choir next year, yay! The current director (Mrs. V) will be stepping down at the end of the year and Dad will be the head of the choir. In addition, our current secretary will be resigning as well. She has worked so hard, all volunteer work, and has made it possible for many choir members to earn the money to go on tour. Thank you Miss Kitty!

Last Saturday Jc and I babysat 7 kids! That was truly tiring. 6 boys, 1 girl, including 3 babies! I was so tired afterwards that I decided to stay up till 1 (not counting the time change) attending the last 2009 ACDA concert. It was a really good concert though.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will get my permit. I have to take a reading test before I go to take the written test and eye test, so I will get to spend my whole morning in Edmond taking tests. Fun. But, I will finally get my permit (a month and a half late) and I will start working my tail off trying to get in the classroom and driving hours to get my license in 6 months.

Today I found out that there is a chance that I might be able to set up a business and sell handmade jewelry at the state-wide homeschool convention in May! That would be so much fun! I would have to get a Sales Tax License, or something like that, in order to sell. It shouldn't be too much of a problem though. The real problem is that the convention is May 1-3, and Jc and I were possibly coming down for Court's graduation. I would have to pick between the two, and that will be difficult. I would love to see everyone again, but I haven't kept in contact with very many people, so I am really not good friends with most of the people I would be around. If I decided to stay, though, I could go to my history class' paintball party, and that would be fun as well. I will have to think about this some more.

~Ellentia

Winter Jam

2009-02-26T23:13:00.003-06:00

Last night I went to Winter Jam, which is a big concert with Toby Mac, Branden Heath, Hawk Nelson, Tony Nolan (the speaker), New Song and Francesca Battistelli. I have got to say, it was so much fun! My small group went together, but some of the girls got armbands so we didn't sit together, but we were really close, they were in a box above and to the left of us. I have wanted to see Toby Mac ever since I missed seeing him at a Six Flags concert, and he was the best part. We had to leave a little early because some of the girls have school tomorrow, but we only missed the last 20min, including Jesus Freak : ( I wish we could have stayed to the end of the concert, but I was glad that we got to go. It's funny how I kept hearing songs and thinking, "I didn't know they did that song!" I knew more of the songs then I thought I would.

Tony Nolan was also really good. I have heard him twice before when he was touring with the Casting Crowns Lifesong tour, and I remember liking him. I found out a lot about him that I didn't know. He has an awful background, but he is a really good speaker.

Before the concert started, there were a few groups who did a "pre-concert party." One of the groups is called PureNRG and it is made up of 3 kids who are in 8th and 9th grade (I think) and they did hip hop and sang, very Radio Disney-like (they have been on there before). I am not too fond of that style, but for their age, I was impressed. They were good dancers and their singing wasn't too bad either.

Nathanael went too, but he went with the middle school boys from our church. Apparently they were sitting right above us, but we never saw them.

~Ellentia

2009-02-20T19:07:00.007-06:00

Last night we watched Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. If you have not seen it, I suggest you go rent it. It is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, and it is really good. I'll post a review sometime on Writer's Critic. Afterwards, Mom said that the man who played Bruno, the bad guy, looked like Bill Murray, so then Dad had to hook up his computer to the tv and show us some clips of him from youtube. That somehow led to watching the Blues Brothers, a Blazing Saddles clip, and then we watched a clip of Gene Wilder, and another of Pete Seeger. We also listened to Rawhide, which was how we got started watching Blues Brothers. Don't ask me how the rest got started, I don't remember. At some point, I don't remember when, Dad showed us a clip from the Vicar of Dibley. I was impressed with myself, I actually followed and understood everything that the girl said. I guess I got practice on Wednesday at small group. Anyways, here is the clip he showed us:

I think that would be fun to use for a conversation starter.

After all this, it was after 1 am before I got to bed, which made for a very late morning.

Oh yeah, we finally got our microwave on Saturday, which means we waited about 3 weeks to clear up some problems with Sears, that were not our fault. Something went wrong when we ordered it, and it just went downhill from there.

Tomorrow I am going to be busy from the time I get up to the time I go to bed, literally. I am going to a workday in the morning, but I am leaving early to volunteer at the Library Booksale (it is supposed to be humongous) and then I am going to babysit the rest of the afternoon and evening. This will make it difficult to finish my history paper that is due on Monday. Hmmmm, maybe I should go work on that.

~Ellentia

Tornadoes

2009-02-10T18:08:00.006-06:00

Well, we had an interesting day. Choir was nice this morning, Dad came and ran the girls sectionals, and we got a lot done. After we got home around lunch, it got very dark very fast. Apparently, there were supposed to be severe storms today. Well, severe is almost an understatement. At least 3 tornadoes touched down, and one was only 2 miles south of our house. One, in Edmond, lasted around 10 min! You can watch the video here. I don't know about all my friends, but I know several of them lived close to where the tornado hit, so I hope they're all ok. We also got plenty of hail, some of it pretty large:

There was significant damage where the tornado that was close to us hit, and a Target lost it's roof and a Chucky Cheese lost part of the back of it's building. Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby also lost some doors, and maybe more. This is inconvenient because I need to get some things there as soon as possible. So Gabby, if your birthday present is late, its because the tornado closed down the store and I couldn't get what I needed in time to get it to you on your birthday.

~Ellentia

There is no good title for this post

2009-02-05T07:26:00.006-06:00

It's been longer than I thought it had since I last posted. Today, being the 5th of February, I could get my drivers permit. However, since I haven't studied at all for the test, it will not be happening today. Hopefully by next week, though, I will get my permit.

I have been in a weird mood lately. I guess part of it is that I have had 20,000 things running through my brain all at the same time. It does things to you to have too many things to think about. Mostly, the things have no immediate effect, and won't have any effect for several months, so a lot of it is not necessary. I guess I will have to try to calm my thoughts down a bit.

I'm excited for tomorrow, one of the girls in my history class is having a Gone with the Wind watch party. I did watch it last week (for the first time) but hey, who wants to miss a party? It will be the first time that I've seen any of the people outside of class, so it might be a little strange, but it should be lots of fun.

School is going to drive me crazy. I am sick of algebra. I am sort of behind too, so I have to do as much as possible. My biggest problem is that sometimes I don't understand what they are trying to tell me. I then miss a lot of the problems and my grade goes down. Sometimes it takes me a week of working on it to finally understand what they are talking about. Biology is frustrating too, but I'm just tired of doing it. Thankfully I understand it.

I am going to be so sad when Jc graduates. She has been visiting collages and applying for scholarships and filling out applications. Thankfully, all the collages she's looked at are within an hour and a half driving time, so she will get to visit often.

~Ellentia

Ice and Reviews

2009-01-27T12:00:00.005-06:00

Today it is very icy. When Mom picked me up from class Excell (the group that I take my classes from) was getting ready to cancel the rest of the classes for the day. We stopped at Wal-Mart and the Library after Mom picked me up and we had quite the adventure trying to get through an intersection. It was concrete, and so it was much icyer than the asphalt. Mom was thinking about turning around and skipping the Library but by the time she decided to make a u-turn she had got to the concrete and just slipped when she tried to move. Great. We slid into the turning lane and sort of inched our way forward, sliding the whole way. It didn't help that there was a good bit of traffic (including 18-wheelers and a herse), but thankfully everyone was being patient. Then, we attempted to go straigt but that didn't work so we had to try and slide around the corner to get out. It took probably 10 min to get out of that intersection. Everyone was slipping and sliding all over the place and I was glad no one else wrecked (there was one just passed the intersection).

So, Jc and I have started another blog together called Writer's Critic (I put a link on the sidebar under "Interesting Blogs"). We will post book and movie reviews that give ratings of various aspects of the item being reviewd. Granted, they will be biased reviews, but hopefully they will give you a better idea of whether or not the book or movie is worth your time.

*edit*
I wrote this post yesterday, but the weather is even better today. It sleeted all night long, essentially a heavy frozen mist, and has continued to do so all morning. It looks like it snowed, because the ice crystals are so small. The cool thing is, you can hear it. Millions of tiny drops of frozen rain pinging and hitting the ground. I wish I could record it. Maybe I will try. As he cannot safley go anywhere, Dad went outside and slid the two little ones down the driveway on a piece of cardboard. Endless fun.

~Ellentia

Movie Review: Inkheart

2009-01-24T20:10:00.006-06:00

Overall: 4.5

Recommended: Yes

Age Group: 11 and up

Acting: 5

Script: 4.5

Story: 4.5

Scariness: 3.5

Profanity: Hardly Any

Language: Once

Violence: Moderate - Quite a Bit

Blood and Gore: None

Alcohol/Drugs: None

Magic: Moderate - Quite a Bit

Comments:

I really enjoyed this movie. It was well put together, no major plot holes or completely unbelievable story lines. It was full of action, though. But, no blood. It did have a good amount of magic, but it wasn't any sort of spells, sorcery, witch-craft or other dark magic, but there were lots of creatures that were from magical-type books. I would definitely recommend it. It is a bit scary though, so not for kids who get scared easily during movies. But, for kids and teenagers 11-12 and up, it is worth seeing.

For a more in-depth review, visit pluggedinonline.com (may contain spoilers).

~Ellentia

Sewing, Inaugurations and the Zoo

2009-01-22T17:45:00.007-06:00

I keep saying to myself, "I could post that" and then when I have a chance, I totally forget. I guess I should write it down while I'm thinking about it.

Right now I am sewing a pair of pants and last night I sat down to work on them. I pined and marked and lined things up but when I sat down to sew the material wouldn't feed through the machine. I tried again (after undoing the knot in the thread) and it still wouldn't go. I then noticed that the feed dogs (the tracks that pull the material through) were not coming up high enough to catch the material. I looked in my book and couldn't find anything so I looked online to try and see what was wrong. The only thing I could find was that the feed dogs had been lowered, but I didn't know how. So, once again, I looked in the book, and finally found that there was a way to raise or lower the feed dogs and that was what had happened. Yay for little brothers, they just cause all sorts of wonderful problems.

On Tuesday, our choir director brought in a tv so that we could pause class and watch the inauguration. For the most part, our choir is anti-Obama (myself included) and so you can imagine what it was like to watch it with them. There were constantly "smart" remarks and plenty of hooting when the words got messed up. I must admit, I am curious as to what will happen during this presidency. I wish that I could know without experienceing it.

This afternoon we went to the zoo because it was 75 degrees outside.

Notice, the deer is trying to eat the fence, at least that's what it looks like.

This was one huge turkey!

Grizzley Bears

Western Hognose

Rattlesnake

Berries

Me

The wing-span of a bald eagle can be up to 7 ft. Since, in general, your arms are as wide as you are tall, you would have to be 7 ft tall to actually reach from one end to the other!

Bald Eagle

American Alligator

Cute Children

~Ellentia

Microwaves, Plays and Pink Oranges

2009-01-18T14:06:00.001-06:00

It's surprising how you don't realize how much you need something until it's gone. Our microwave quit working on Tuesday, though it had all the appearances of working. It is much more time consuming to use the stove or oven to heat up leftovers than when you use a microwave.

Last night, Mom, Jc and I went to see Newsies at a children's theater. It was not, however, Disney's Newsies, it was written by Mark R. Morris Jr., the owner of the theater. There were about 20 kids ranging from 4 to about 16-17 (Mr. Morris' six kids were in it too, and his wife was the choreographer). It was a pretty good show, not badly written, but they needed tons of vocal help. They had very little problems saying lines and no problems projecting, and most of them had a good stage presence, but they did more shouting than singing. They did mostly sing in tune, but they were singing as loud as possible and stretching and straining their voices. It was almost painful to listen to! One of the boys was naturally loud, so when he sang as loud as he could, it was overpowering! He was one of the better singers though.

I went backstage a little ways during intermission and the building reminded me of Lamp Light. However, they didn't have half the junk and clutter of lamplight. I miss being in shows there. I wish that I had been older when we lived in Nac, I could have done a lot more shows at Lamp Light, and I would have been in the "adult" chorus, which is way more fun than the kids chorus.

Have you ever heard of a Pink Orange? Sort of an oxymoron. Mom got some at the store the other day. They taste a lot like normal oranges (slightly different), but they are pink. The picture below doesn't look very pink, but the oranges we had were a grapefruit color, except orange-sized.

~Ellentia

2009-01-07T07:45:00.005-06:00

Hello. So, back into the normal routine. It's nice to be back though, I missed people over the break. Class has started, choir has started. However, because I am working on some things with my voice, I am switching to Alto for a while. It is very different to sing harmony than melody. I was trying to pick out the melody and so I had to really work to sing the harmony. It is a good challenge though, I will hopefully get better at reading music.

Today is Dad's birthday. Happy birthday Dad!

Quote/Passage of the Day, from Oliver Twist

"I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed the fat gentleman. "My dear Mrs. Maylie- bless my soul- in the silence of night, too- I (r)never¯ heard of such a thing!"

With these expressions of condolence, the fat gentleman shook hands with both ladies, and drawing up a chair, inquired how they found themselves.

"You ought to be dead; positively dead with the fright," said the fat gentleman. "Why didn't you send? Bless me, my man should have come in a minute; and so would I; and my assistant would have been delighted; or anybody, I'm sure, under such circumstances. Dear, dear! So unexpected! In the silence of night, too!"

The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempted in the nighttime; as if it were the established custom of gentlemen in the housebreaking way to transact business at noon, and to make an appointment, by post, a day or two previous.

I have enjoyed Oliver Twist a lot more than I expected. I like the writing style of Charles Dickens, sarcastic but not overly so.

~Ellentia

Did You Know? (and a few other thoughts)

2008-12-23T21:04:00.010-06:00

I found this on a blog of note. It goes to show what Dad has always said, it's not what you learn, it's learning how to learn. And, so what? This question really got me thinking. Are we really living in the best times? And what would make them the best times? Technology? I could argue on either side. On the one hand, people 200 years ago didn't know about or want our modern toys and gadgets, so they aren't really missing anything. But on the other hand, I love taking pictures, and point-and shoots are quite new. And those just barely scratch the surface of then vs. now. But, technology is not the most important thing. It isn't anywhere near the most important thing. In the past Christianity was the accepted religion in places like Europe and North America, but this does not mean that all people then were wonderful godly people. There were still drunks, thieves and people who had no religious inclination, just like there are today. As well, there was a lot of segregation in the church because of money, nationality and gender. Doesn't it say in Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." And although today the church has become much more welcoming and accepting, we now fight, argue and break apart fighting over whether or not you should play instruments in church, or if girls should wear pants or skirts, or if you must be baptized in order to go to heaven. In many ways, people for the last 2000 years have totally missed the point of what it means to be a Christian. To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is the most important commandment, followed by loving your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:29-31). I think if we all worked more to fulfill these two commandments instead of the comparatively trivial points of doctrine, we would be much closer to what we are called to be doing.

I realize that last bit didn't have much to do with the video, but the video is what triggered it all.

~Ellentia

Merry Chrismas!

2008-12-18T13:29:00.005-06:00

Yay for last minute projects! Some of them will not be finished in time for Christmas, but that is okay, they are still fun. It has been a while since I last posted. I never seem to get around to it as often as I used to. It's not a lack of material, it is just a lack of remembering/desire. So, if you are looking for something to read, I would suggest that you visit one of the interesting blogs that I have linked. I have visited them all frequently and I have not found any objectionable content, so do not fear.

I am so excited about Christmas! For the first time, I actually have money to buy presents so this year they are really from me, not Mom and Dad. We are haveing an interesting Christmas this year. Instead of being normal and waiting till Christmas day to open presents, we are opening presents on Chrismas Eve so that we can leave early Christmas morning (4 am ish) and be at my Grandparents' house that afternoon. All of Mom's siblings will be there with all their kids so for the first time we will get a picture with all the grandkids, as well as our parents, grandparents and great-grandma. Four generations,Yay!

So in case I don't see any of you before Chrismas (Ha!), Merry Christmas!

~Ellentia

The Week So Far

2008-12-09T17:29:00.005-06:00

So, I wished for snow and it came! It snowed for quite a while this afternoon, but only stuck a little. Oh well, maybe more is on the way!

I have a story to tell. *Disclaimer: It is not recommended to eat anytime soon before, after or while reading this story.* Yesterday (Monday) Dad was taking me to history class. On the way there was a dead squirrel in the road. Well, Dad hit said squirrel and it splattered all over the car! It was probably the nastiest thing I have ever witnessed. Be glad you didn't have to ride in the car splattered with squirrel guts!

Other than that, it has been a good week so far. We had a party in History class and we had enough food for 3 times as many people. After eating, we played Mafia for a while and then played a game that is essentially I Never. We had 17 students so it was a lot of fun. I am glad to be done with class for the semester but I will miss seeing the people.

Tonight we had the last choir sectionals as our concert is in exactly one week. There were only 2 sopranos and about 8 altos but we sang through all our songs anyways. I think we are ready for concert, we at least don't sound too awful. Last spring we did quite bad at concert. I think that was partly due to all the dancers having to miss choir and all the solos and simply having too much music. I hope we do much better this year.

~Ellentia

Mythbusters

2008-12-04T08:42:00.005-06:00

So, I was watching Mythbusters last night and Jamie and Adam were trying to separate two phone books that they had interlaced the pages of. How much pressure do you think it would take? Watch the video to find out:

Now, do you want to know how much force it took to separate those phone books? 8,000 pounds! I was quite surprised. That means you could hang the two cars in the video from the phone books and they wouldn't break. That's some serious strength!

So, I have been babysitting this whole week. My choir director was not happy that I missed sectionals but since it is the only time I have missed anything since September, I don't feel too bad about it. The two kids I have been babysitting for are 2 1/2 and I think 10 months. I didn't get to meet the younger one (Carter) until yesterday because he was already asleep when I got there the other times. Both kids are so cute and they are both quite fat, but babies are supposed to be fat. Tonight Jc is babysitting for them so it will be awhile before I see them again.

On Sunday our girls ensemble will finally sing in church. I am a little concerned because we have never been all that spectacular and it has been awhile since we worked with mics. But, whatever happens, I want to get it overwith and start fresh in the spring.

~Ellentia

Scary

2008-11-24T13:59:00.001-06:00

Math and Thanksgiving

2008-11-19T07:40:00.003-06:00

That Cleptomaniac video is going to be removed. It comes on automatically and it is really starting to annoy me.

Anywho, I have found it increasingly difficult to come up things to post and when I do, I often forget to post them. I think this probably has something to do with the fact that I haven't spent as much time on blogs. I found something to post though. I love creative math, and this is just the sort of thing I would do if I didn't know better!

I wish math were really that simple. When you throw in significant figures and pi and fractions and x's I get frustrated.

So, last night at sectionals for choir (where just the girls practice) our choir director decided that we had done so well we deserved another song to learn. Great. Now we get to sing a song with the elementary choir. We also get to sing a song with middle school and elementary called Paint Christmas December, Paint December Christmas, Paint the town December.... Something of that sort. We will get to stand on stage and pretend that we are painting a wall while we're singing a cheesy song. Marvelous. I wish we didn't sound so good, maybe she wouldn't have us sing those songs.

This year our small group decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner together so tonight we will eat while we talk. It isn't going to be classic Thanksgiving food, but it will be lots of fun. Including our family Thanksgiving dinner I will have been to 4 such meals. One with our whole youth group, one with our choir and one at small group. Dad said that if the average person gains 4 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will have gained 16 pounds. I love you too Dad.

~Ellentia

2008-11-10T08:46:00.004-06:00

Well, it has been a miserable week for me. I was sick with a cold last Sunday-Wednesday and then got something with similar symptoms to the Flu early Saturday morning. I had left for a youth retreat Friday night and felt just fine but Saturday I woke up with an awful cramp, mainly in my shoulder. I ended up leaving early and the rest of the day and through late Sunday night I was really sick with a pretty high fever. However, I woke up feeling a lot better this morning.

Tomorrow we have a big choir concert with several other public school choirs. Supposedly there will be around 400 to 450 people singing! It should be fun just because of sheer numbers. But I also like most of the songs. There is one that uses the words from one of JFK's speeches that I don't like, simply because I don't like the words. Also because there is a part where the choir sings "Let the Word go forth" 18 times in a row, it gets really creepy sounding after about the 5th time. I am singing in a group of girls who have a part that we will sing over the choir on this part, but I still think it is creepy.

Last night it rained for the first time in a long time. I love the sound of rain. Last week I was supposed to turn in some mapwork for my history class but it fell out of my notebook before I put it in my bag and so mom had to ask that it not be counted as late work. I would have turned it in myself today but my teacher has sensitivity to illnesses so I had to send it with dad. Next week is the last day that my teacher will be there, she is going to be out the last few weeks so I need to be well next Monday for her last instructions.

~Ellentia

Bits and Pieces

2008-11-01T12:53:00.003-05:00

So, it has been a while since I actually wrote a post. I guess it is just easier to use something that is already written. I feel like I have been terribly busy with school, but it's also possible that I am just suffering from bad time-management. Monday I had to turn in my big poster project for history. I was so glad I had it finished last Saturday so I didn't have to do anything on Sunday. I then had to complete another project and study for and take the 9 weeks test that isn't given at the 9 weeks point.

I also babysat all Wednesday night. The people had tickets to the first official Oklahoma City Thunder game. I had a good time though, the kids are the age of Libba and Phil so I was used to that age of kids. After Zander and Zella were asleep I watched tv (I know, but I was told I could). Have you ever watched the show Prototype This on Discovery? It is a cool show! On the one I watched in two weeks they built a car that could move directly sideways, park over other cars (completely automatically) and drive over other cars to escape traffic jams. The Trafficbuster. The wheels they found were the coolest part though. They are Airtrax wheels, I would suggest looking them up.

Last night we went to the Pops Oklahoma Philharmonic symphony. It was called Hitchkock and they showed clips from four Hitchkock movies, To Catch a Thief, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a train and North by Northwest. However, the symphony played all the music. It was a really fun concert.

This afternoon we are going to another OU game to take tickets. The game doesn't even start till 7pm so it will be extremely late before we get home.

~Ellentia

October 23

2008-10-23T16:52:00.003-05:00


Smurfs, Having a Smurfy Day Source

Spotlight: In German, they're called "Schlümpfe"; In Hebrew, they're known as "Dardassim"; the Spanish call them "Pitufos"; and Italians call them "Puffi." In English, they're called Smurfs, and they're celebrating their fiftieth birthday. Smurfs first appeared on Oct. 23, 1958, as guest stars of the Belgian cartoon Johan and Peewit, drawn by Pierre Culliford (aka Peyo). The little blue creatures lived in a forest somewhere in Europe, and no non-Smurf could find them without a Smurf guide. The first — and for a long while, only — female in the group, Smurfette, was created by their archenemy, Gargamel, who hoped she would cause jealousy and dissension in the group.

Quote: "No casting spells on your own." — Papa Smurf, stating the first rule of Smurfdom

Question of the Day: Is there such a thing as a green smurf?
In the original comics, green Smurfs are considered to be wild and mad, and many of the regular Smurfs are afraid of them. More

Word of the day: coddle
A cooking method most often used with eggs, though other foods can be coddled as well. There are special containers with tight-fitting lids called "egg coddlers" made specifically for this purpose. Coddling is usually done by placing the food in an individual-size container that is covered, set in a larger pan of simmering water and placed either on stovetop or in the oven at very low heat. The gentle warmth of this water bath slowly cooks the food. Coddling can also be done by gently lowering the food into water that's come to a boil and removed from the heat.
(© Barron's Educational Series, Inc.)

What's for dinner? And how do I make it? This week we'll sample some cooking terminology.

Previous words: clarify, caramelize, braise

Today's History:

Brutus: committed suicide after losing to Mark Anthony and Octavian in the Second Battle of Philippi, a war fought to avenge the assassination of Julius Caesar (42 BCE)
War of Jenkins' Ear: British PM Robert Walpole reluctantly declared war on Spain after a ship's captain brought in his ear, pickled, and told the House of Commons it had been severed by the Spanish coast guard (1739)
Hungarian Revolution: spontaneous protest began, marking the first anti-Soviet revolt; many thousands were killed or fled; the Hungarian Republic was declared exactly 33 years later(1956)
Moscow Theater Crisis: Chechen terrorists took 700 hostages; many died during a Russian raid the next day (2002)

Today's Birthdays:

Johnny Carson (1925-2005): host of The Tonight Show
Jim Bunning (77): pitcher-turned-politician; also, pitchers Al Leiter (43) and John Lackey (30)
Pelé (68): Brazil's most famous soccer star
Michael Crichton (66): author of Jurassic Park
Ang Lee (54): Oscar-winning director of Brokeback Mountain; filmmakers Philip Kaufman (72) and Sam Raimi (49) share this birth date
'Weird Al' Yankovic (49): pop parodist; country star Dwight Yoakam (52) also has a birthday today
Ryan Reynolds (32): actor, Definitely, Maybe; actors Michael Rupert (57) and Masiela Lusha (23) also celebrate birthdays today

Thia post has been brought to you today by www.answers.com

~Ellentia

funny quotes

2008-10-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

I have made good judgements in the past. I have made good judgements in the future.

I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.

I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.

If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure.

It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.

It's wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us.

The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make.

The global importance of the Middle East is that it keeps the Far East and the Near East from encroaching on each other.

The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.

Votes are like trees, if you are trying to build a forest. If you have more trees than you have forests, then at that point the pollsters will probably say you will win.

We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not happen.

What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.

I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it's always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can't do that. It's gone, gone forever.

All of the above - Dan Quayle, former Vice President

I think those last 2 quotes sum up all the other quotes! I think part of the problem is that he tries to be clever and gets his words mixed up so it comes out really funny.

~Ellentia

Portable Tripod

2008-10-02T16:47:00.004-05:00

So, I have been looking for something interesting to post and I have found it. I don't know if it works but I will be trying it sometime since it will cost practically nothing!

DIY: The Super-Small Bottle-Cap Tripod

Wed, 2007-01-17 21:16 — udijw
When you are going on a field trip, you want your tripod to be small. Small and light. It would be best if it can fit in your pocket. When Ron Uriel saw the post about the wrap-able tripod, he had an idea. Why not use the 1/4" bolts in other ways. He told me about an idea to make a small tripod from a coke bottle.
This sounded like an interesting idea so I got to work. First I got several coke bottles (you can learn allot about a person by the bottle caps he uses. In my case, the gray-silver cap suggests I drink the diet version of the bubbly beverage). I also needed a 1/4" hex bolt, a 1/4" hex nut, and two of those round thingies called washers. For the finishing touch I used some sand paper. (If you are not into coke or diet coke you can use the beverage to perform the Mentose and Diet Coke experiment - just make sure you retrieve the bottle)

The first thing I did was to drill a hole in the middle of the bottle cap (note - after this step you can no longer use the cap to seal the bottle :) I drilled using a small drill to mark the middle and enlarged the hole using a 1/4" drill. See the picture for the drilled caps. You can use the sandpaper to even up the top of the cap (not a must). You can also see how the diet cap ended up smoother then the regular one.

Now you make cap sandwich: you take the bold and you slide one washer in; then you screw the bottle cap onto the bolt and slide another washer.

Lastly you tighten the nut on the outer side of the cap. Make sure you tighten the nut pretty well, other wise, you will have trouble removing the camera from the tripod.

This is it. Very easy.
The next step is to find a coke bottle. Fill the bottle with water or sand to make it heavy and stable. Now place the bolted cap on bottle and plug your camera in.
Now a word of caution here: this tripod will work great for point and shoots like canon A620 or A75, I would not try my D70 with SB800 and 100-400 lens mounted on this fixture.

www.diyphotography.net/the-super-small-bottle-cap-tripod

~Ellentia

National Parks

2008-09-22T12:39:00.010-05:00

So, on our big trip from Sep. 7 to 18, we visited 6 national parks and monuments. Originally we were going to only 5 but we added Devils Tower on our way to Mt. Rushmore. In order (with pictures) this is where we went:

Garden of the Gods (on the way to RMNP)

Rocky Mountain National Park (see the Elk?)

The Grand Teton National Park

Yellowstone National Park (first National Park created)

Devils Tower National Memorial (first National Memorial created)

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

The Badlands National Park

We did a lot of hiking on our trip. That is, a lot for me. For those of you who walk several miles on a regular basis while heading up an elevation of a few hundred feet, we didn't do an excessive amount. But I discovered how out of shape I really am when half-way up a 2 mile hike (elevation over 200 ft) I was extremely tired. I did make it all the way up though, and it was worth it! It was beautiful up there! I also liked Alberta Falls.

And of course, the ever excited chipmunks.

At the on our way to the Tetons we drove through a snowstorm. I still am not used to snow. We also went on a hike and afterwards Phil was exhausted.

At Yellowstone the first thing we saw were Bison (not Buffalo!)

Then we proceded to Old Faithful. The earlier pic is from the second time we saw it, the first wasn't nearly that big. We also saw lots of hot springs. They all smelled like sulfur, which I think smelled like a rotten egg.

We only spent a little while at Devils Tower but you could see climbers on it. Some were at the top, but most were on their way up. The record climb to the top was made in 18 min unassisted.

Mt. Rushmore was totally amazing. We saw it at night first. The lighting ceremony was really cool. The next day we walked the President's Trail. We got to go right under the monument. Phil thought we saw a moose, and maybe we did. An albino pygmy moose!

We then saw Sylvan lake and climbed all over the rocks. It was really pretty.

Next, and last, we went to the Badlands, so named because an explorer said it was "a bad land to cross." They were actually quite nice to look at.

We saw lots of animals up-close. We saw Elk sparing, a mother Moose and her babies, Chipmunks, Mountain goats, Bison, Ducks, giant Crows and Fish. But according to Phil, if it had four legs, it was a Moosh.

<@>------#------<@>------#------<@>------#------<@>------#------<@>
The day after we got home (Friday) we worked at the taco stand for the state fair. We worked 8-5 Friday and Saturday and on Sunday from 6:30 to 11:45, except Nat stayed till 2:30 to finish the clean up since it was the last day. I had class this morning, otherwise I would have stayed too.

Now, I'm going to have to work triple speed on school to catch up in everything, but the trip was well worth it!

~Ellentia

Home!

2008-09-19T22:38:00.002-05:00

We're home! We had a great trip and saw all sorts of cool things! I can't post much now because we're terribly busy but I will post soon!

~Ellentia

2008-09-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Samantha Cinderella Scott

Narrator:

Doctor:

“You’re somewhat sick;
I think a shot should do the trick.”

Narrator:

He said,

Doctor:

“You won’t begin to bleat or bawl.
I doubt that it will hurt at all.
I don’t expect to see it bruise
or swell your arm and start to ooze.

“There’s little chance of bellyaches
or fevers, chills, or sudden shakes.
It’s not supposed to cause a cough.
Your arm will likely not fall off.

“I’m guessing that there won’t be lots
of itchy red and purple spots.
Convulsions, too, are fairly rare.
I think you’ll get to keep your hair.

“In fact, the chance is nearly nil
that you’ll become intensely ill
or grow a ghastly greenish hue
or turn into a kangaroo.

“It’s nearly certain that you’ll not
become a fish or flowerpot.
I’m quite convinced it’s fair to say
you won’t turn into mush today.

“But if you start to shake and cough
or if your head should tumble off,
if you become a moose or mule,
you’ll get a day away from school.”

Narrator:

Samantha Cinderella Scott:

“Bring it on!”

The End

Adapted from the poem by Kenn Nesbitt in When the Teacher Isn’t Looking

~Ellentia

Rules for the Bus

2008-09-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Rules for the Bus

Child:

Said our driver in September
as we climbed aboard the bus,

Driver:

“There are rules you must remember.
Number one, you do not cuss.
Do not squirm and do not wiggle.
Do not squeak and do not squawk.
Do not laugh and do not giggle.
Better yet, don’t even talk.
Do not ever let me catch you
with your feet out in the aisle.
Sit as rigid as a statue
with a stiff and silent smile.
And you will not wear your mittens,
and you will not wear a mask.
And you will not bring your kittens,
and you shouldn’t even ask.
And you will not play with bubbles
or a yo-yo or balloon.
And for causing me such troubles
you will get them back in June.
Now the day is here. Begin it
with the words I have to say.
Kindly take a seat this minute,
and let’s have a pleasant day.”

Child:

Well, I listened very closely
to the messages I heard,
and, in all this time, I’ve mostly
followed each and every word.
I have tried to pay attention,
but of this, I must confess.
There’s a rule she didn’t mention,
and today it caused a mess.
It is not as if I planned it
with an evil attitude.
I am not that underhanded,
and I don’t mean to be crude,
but it causes quite a fuss,
and it might even be unlawful
to have climbed aboard the bus
when you have stepped in something awful.

The End

Adapted from the poem by Eric Ode in Rolling in the Aisles

~Ellentia

Time to go!

2008-09-06T20:10:00.005-05:00

So, the eve of our big trip. Tomorrow we are leaving after church and we will be gone for just under two weeks. We are visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills of SD. I have always wanted to see Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore so I am very excited! In honor of the trip, I got a new (and bigger!) memory card for my camera so I can take lots of pictures.

Today Jc and I worked at another OU game, but this time we worked selling programs. We made a lot more because we almost sold out and there was only three of us on a team. I am thoroughly exhausted now. Thankfully, it didn't rain and it wasn't too hot, although it was pretty warm in the sun. When we went into the bleachers to sell I got a lot of glares because people couldn't see over me. It's funny, they didn't glare at the food sellers. Well, I need to go now, lots of things to get ready before we can leave, but I will post while we're gone.

~Ellentia

Barcode

2008-09-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

Enjoy! (and let me know if you want a more challenging puzzle, I have different pic's and cuts that are available)

Puzzle courtesy of JigZone.

~Ellentia

The Mirror

2008-08-29T13:21:00.004-05:00

So, a while ago I saw this video on www.quirkology.com It said that for most people, they either figured out the trick right away, or they never figured it out. I didn't figure it out until Jc watched it with me and we did a little searching (she was the brain behind it). So, can you figure it out?

Don't worry, if you can't figure it out, in a few days Jc will post another video that might help explain it a little better.

~Ellentia

Olympics

2008-08-14T20:45:00.004-05:00

It's funny, almost as soon as I posted those terribly boring three paragraphs, I remembered that I was planning on doing an Olympics post. I have been staying up until 11:00 or 12:00 every night to watch the games. I have really enjoyed them. My favorite event was definently the 4x100 mens freestyle final. However, the men's and women's all-around individual competitions were really good. If you didn't see the mens 4x100 freestyle, you really missed a good race.

The commercials have been good this year. In my humble opinion, as a whole, they are better then superbowl commercials. The best individual commercials come from the superbowl, but all around, there are more good commercials in the Olympics. My favorite commercial, though not strictly Olympic:

And another good one:

There are so many great athletes who are in the Olympics this year, but there were also lots of people who didn't make the team. Here are the honorable mentions:

~Ellentia

2008-08-13T12:57:00.003-05:00

So, since I last posted, nothing really exciting has happened (maybe that's why I have taken so long to post again!). I am loaded down with school this year and to be honest, I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done! Each subject by itself (except Chemistry) isn't a problem; but putting them together is going to be tough.

Okay, enough school. This year I am planning to enter into the state fair competitions. The deadline for entry forms is Friday. I need to hurry up and get my entries settled. Thankfully I don't have to have the actual piece finished, I just have to have the forms mailed in. Surprisingly (ha ha) there are a ton more categories then there were in Nac, and it is difficult to know which ones I'm looking for.

Dad has finally re-started the girls ensemble at church. I love the song he picked! I hope that we can learn it fast so we can spend more time on the fine-tuning. I am a little worried that the middle part will have some trouble because the girls in it, as far as I know, have not done a lot of singing, and the song is syncopated. But, I am not too worried, because Dad is an excellent teacher and the girls will probably do fine.

~Ellentia

NM!

2008-08-04T19:22:00.007-05:00

So, last week was a lot of fun. Our family minus the father and daughter who work went to New Mexico. Nat went fishing for a few days with our Grandpa and Mom and I learned how to quilt from my Great-Grandma. Libba watched movies while we quilted in the mornings and Phil just ran around making a nuisance of himself. Enjoyed learning how to quilt and if I had time I would probably attempt a small quilted somthing-or-other but since I already have way too many hobbies that I am working on, and school is about to start in earnest, I figure it would be a good idea to not start something new.

While I was in NM, I signed myself in to Bondage. Literally. Remember the Oklahoma History class I was in last year? Well, the teacher, Mrs. Bond, also teaches American History. I shall have to slave away for her again this year. It will be a little easier because I know what to expect now. We also signed up for choir again this year. I was going to do a different choir because I am not fond of the way the homeschool choir is run but it didn't work out. Oh well, I will try to ignore all the frustrating things that happen every 30 seconds.

So, now for pictures from our trip:

First, some scenery. It is so beautiful in NM. As M0m says, the sky is the bluest in NM.

The clouds were spectacular on the trip to Las Cruces.

These are the Organ Mountains, my favorite mountains. Las Cruses is right by them so you can see them a lot in the city.

These are the Organ Mts. at sunset. I wasn't in the best spot for picture-taking though.

More sunset.

Friday we went to the park.

It was hot.

This is Mom and Mimmie quilting.

This is the water tower that mom and I walked to Saturday morning. It was a lot longer on foot then it was on a bike.

I thought I would close with some cactus flowers. (there isn't a ' at the end of cactus is there?)

~Ellentia

Dayspring!

2008-07-26T11:01:00.012-05:00

So, I am finally back from camp. I am glad to be back, I was so tired by the end of the week (sleep deprivation does that to you). My BASIC (Brothers And Sisters In Christ) group was really awesome! We all really got to know each other and in the middle of the week everyone was participating in the discussions. I learned so much from everyone in my group.

The camp is located in this really cool red canyon and on one side there is a cross at the top that lights up at night. You can hike up to the cross but you're not supposed to hike anywhere else. I did anyways. There was a place where the rock was at an angle and there were handholds and footholds so some friends and I climbed up that. It was more difficult then the trail but it was a lot more fun.

Of course, every year there are the usual free time activities, volleyball and basketball tournaments, swimming, hiking etc. and this year I was on a volleyball team. I think were were the worst team but I had fun playing. It was rally scoring and best 2 out of three games. Our first game we lost 15 to 3 and the second game we lost 15 to 5.

At the end of free time there were electives you could go to. Connecting to God through art, connecting to God through relationships, connecting to God through culture and connecting to God through conflict. I went to all except the conflict one. The art one was arts and crafts, you could draw, paint, make beaded things or make paper things. I decided to sketch. The relationships and culture ones were open questions and discussions.

The most annoying part of the week was the first night. One of the girls started shrieking because she saw a mouse and then all the other girls started shrieking. It was rather funny because they all started jumping on beds and suitcases. I personally didn't care but the other girls were scared out of their wits so at 12:30 we all had to pack up and move to a different cabin! I was not happy. It's not like the mouse was gonna eat them in their sleep! My friend and I named it Joany, and it was a very cute mouse. I voted to catch it and keep it as a pet. Somehow I was overruled.

So, now for the pictures. These are in no particular order:

This is the cross at the top of the canyon that a lot of us hiked up to; me for the scenery and others for the cell phone reception.

View from the top of the cross

Mountain Men!

This is the lovely foot circle at the cross.

Hiking buddies at the cross, notice the cell phone ;)

This looks like a cave but it is only a few feet deep.

Before we had free time we had total group and we would play games. If you lost, there was a punishment. This is the punishment for Jc, on the right.

Every night after worship we had "late night". This is at the disco dance.

This was the Spider that I found in a window, it is still alive.

During BASIC we had a butterfly land on Steve's hat. It sat there and licked his hat for about 15 minutes. We named it Steve Jr. because it seemed to like Steve.

There were lots of animals at camp (of course). This is the baby deer, I didn't get a good picture of the mother.

There were also goats, about 12 of them.

There were canvases and oil pastels in the Tabernacle and people could draw during worship, there were some pretty awesome drawings.

This is the cool climbing place that we found. It wasn't really that difficult, but it was a lot of fun!

This is our unofficial devotion group that met the first three mornings. I missed the last one because I was so exhausted that I woke up after it started.

This is the chapel that my BASIC group was supposed to meet in but it was so hot that we met right outside the chapel.

And this is my totally amazing BASIC group!

This post has taken forever to create and there are a bazillion pictures but I couldn't decide which I liked best. Well, that was camp.

~Ellentia

Camp

2008-07-21T11:52:00.001-05:00

I'm off to camp, be back later!

~Ellentia

2008-07-18T08:15:00.005-05:00

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted. This week I have been home all week long except for Wednesday night; and tonight I am going to a party. I am so ready to be out of the house for a while. I bet though, that Jc wishes that she had more time at home (at least I wish it for her).

I was going to post parts from a funny e-mail that we got but I can't get to the e-mail right now. So, instead I will post a quizz:

Okay, that didn't work, I will try again later...

~Ellentia

Running in the Rain

2008-07-12T18:31:00.003-05:00

This evening Philip was being very fussy, so Jc and I went outside for a walk with him and were joined by Mom and Libba. As we started out it began to rain lightly. We continued down the street and then turned back for home. After we dropped off the little ones and Mom, I suggested that Jc and I walk around the block once and then come inside. It wasn't raining too hard and Mom agreed. I would not have made the suggestion to walk more if I had thought that in a few minutes it was going to rain in earnest, but as it turned out, we were only halfway home when it began to rain much harder.

At first this was alright but then I realized that we were going to get very wet. We began to run as it rained harder. We passed a few cars and some people on their porch and they must have thought we were very odd indeed to go walking in the rain. I didn't really mind though, it was a nice outing in the rain. We finally got home, dripping wet. I felt like we ought to have snuck in through a window or something. But since we had asked, and received permission, to go for that walk in the rain, we had no real reason to sneak in the house. My hair has punished me for getting wet though, it has become most difficult. I will probably have to wash it to calm it down.

~Ellentia

Kings' Dreams and Schemes

2008-07-11T10:50:00.005-05:00

Well, the music camp is finally over. I can't wait to see the video of the show! The performance was last night and to tell you the truth, those dear little campers did fantastic! The show was of course a huge success. The song with the black light worked really well. We practiced with the black light before the performance but there were lights on that we couldn't turn off so the effect in rehearsal was not nearly as neat. During the performance we had the room completely dark and we had a few extra black lights and all the kids started oohing and ahing on stage when everything started to glow. Us three stick girls had fluorescent pink dowels and they really popped in the black light.

For the Daniel in the lions den song we had five little kids dressed up as lions. We hadn't ever practiced with the costumes or even put them on the kids and one boy was way to big for his costume. However, they all looked really cute! There were lots of things in the musical that were really cute and funny, it was probably a good thing that I was running the words in the back because I was laughing too much to have been backstage.

I am glad it's over though. It was fun while it lasted but if it had been much longer, I probably would have collapsed!

~Ellentia

Kings Dreams and Schemes, the story of Daniel

2008-07-08T17:13:00.005-05:00

Wow, it's only day two of the children's music camp and I'm already exhausted! I have been helping those dear little campers learn to play hand chimes correctly and many of them are resisting my well meant suggestions. If you tell them to set the chimes on the table they bang them on the table. If you tell them to quietly pick the chimes up they promptly try and ring them and seem surprised that it makes a sound! However, when they are supposed to be playing, half of the kids suddenly lose their desire to ring the chimes and the other half seem to feel it's their duty to ring twice as loud and often to make up for the kids who aren't playing!

After four such sessions with the campers, we take a lunch break and then get to watch the little dears run around outside. Yesterday they played kickball and one of the kids hit a homerun, passing by all of the fully loaded bases and managed to be the only one who came home that play.

I have also been running the words for the songs on the projector and attempting to learn hand motions that involve a long dowel. During one of the songs three of us "teen leaders" are going to add to the effect and kneel on stage and wave dowels around. It will be dark and everyone (including those darling kids) will have white gloves on and there will be a big black light to make the gloves and dowels glow. This is going to be fun...

~Ellentia

4th of July

2008-07-05T18:36:00.003-05:00

Well, I hope you all had a happy 4th of July, we did. I will post pictures later, after I get them uploaded from my camera, right now I really don't want to undertake that adventure.

Nat was in a parade and afterwards we went swimming (I got a little sunburned, drat). Then we had a cookout with some friends for dinner and finished the day with the fireworks. Overall, it was a pleasant day. (I hate the word pleasant, but I can't come up with a better word to use.)

~Ellentia

13!

2008-07-02T13:45:00.007-05:00

Wow, today we officially have 3 teenagers in our family. Nat turned 13 today, happy birthday Nat! He had a party last night that consisted of water, Bill Cosby and no sleep. Okay, maybe they got a few hours of sleep, but that's it. We also pulled out the chocolate fountain that we got for Jc's party in June. Since Nat was at camp when we got it we kept it a secret and surprised him with it last night. Overall, I think he and his friends had a good time.

Preparations...

Lighting the candles

~Ellentia

Not Much

2008-06-30T16:15:00.005-05:00

Yesterday Mom, Jc and I all came back from picking up Jc at camp. The concert on Saturday and encore on Sunday were both wonderful. Great job Jc! I hope to join you next year!

The summer music camp for kids is approching fast, and with the coming of the camp, my babysitting is increasing. Libba and Phil are determined to drive me crazy! Haha, Phil has picked up the habit of staying in bed after I wake him up from nap. He'll shake his head and say "no" and then about 15 to 20 min later he'll call and be ready to get up! I wish I could do that in the morning...

~Ellentia

Lord of the Dance

2008-06-24T13:01:00.004-05:00

I was recently on a website and noticed a song called Lord of the Dance. I was surprised to discover that it was sung to the tune of Simple Gifts, an old Shaker hymn, and that it was the song that played several times during the Lord of the Dance show. I found two different versions, but I think that the second is better known.

She danced on the water, and the wind was her horn
The Lady laughed, and everything was born
And when She lit the sun and its' light gave Him birth
The Lord of the Dance first appeared on the Earth

chorus: (sung between all verses)
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, you see!
I live in you, and you live in Me
And I lead you all in the Dance, said He!

I danced in the morning when the world begun
I danced in the Moon and the Stars and the Sun
I was called from the darkness by the Song of Earth
I joined in the Song, and She gave Me Birth!

I dance in the Circle when the flames leap high
I dance in the Fire and I never, never die
I dance in the waves of the bright summer sea
For I am the Lord of the wave's mystery

I sleep in the kernel and I dance in the rain
I dance in the wind, and through the waving grain
When they cut me down I care nothing for the pain
In the spring I'm the Lord of the Dance once again!

I dance at the Sabbat when you dance out the spell
I dance and sing that everyone be well
And when the dancing's over do not think that I am gone
To live is to Dance! So I still Dance on.

I see the Maidens laughing as they dance in the Sun
And I count the fruits of the harvest one by one
I know the Storm is coming, but the Grain is all stored
So I sing of the Dance of the Lady, and Her Lord:

The Horn of the Lady cast its sound cross the plain
The birds took the notes, and gave them back again
Till the sound of Her music was a Song in the sky
And to that Song there is only one reply:

The moon in her phases, and the tides of the sea
The movement of the Earth, and the Seasons that will be
Are the rhythm for the dancing, and a promise through the years
That the Dance goes on through our joys and tears

We dance ever slower as the leaves fall and spin
And the sound of the Horn is the wailing of the wind
The Earth is wrapped in Stillness, and we move in a trance,
But we hold on fast to our faith in the Dance!

The sun is in the southland and the days grow chill
And the sound of the horn is fading on the hill
'Tis the horn of the Hunter, as he rides across the plain
And the Lady sleeps 'till the Spring comes again

The Sun is in the southland and the days lengthen fast
And soon we will sing for the Winter that is past
Now we light the candles and rejoice as they burn
And we dance the Dance of the Sun's return!

They danced in the darkness and they danced in the night
They danced on the Earth, and everything was light
They danced out the Darkness and they danced in the Dawn
And the Day of that Dancing is still going on!

I gaze on the Heavens and I gaze on the Earth
And I feel the pain of dying and rebirth
And I lift my head in gladness and in praise
For the Dance of the Lord and His Lady gay

I dance in the stars as they whirl throughout space
And I dance in the pulse of the veins in your face
No dance is too great, no dance is too small,
You can look anywhere, for I dance in them all!

And now, here is a different version:

I danced on the morning when the world was begun,
I danced on the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from Heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth

Chorus: (sung between all verses)
Dance, then, wherever you may be
For I am the Lord of the Dance said he
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance said He.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,
But they would not dance and they would not follow me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John
They came with me and the Dance went on.

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame;
The holy people said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me on high
And left me there on the cross to die

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone
But I am the Dance and I still go on.

They cut me down and I leapt up high:
I am the life that will never, never die.
I'll live in you if you live in me
I am the Lord of the Dance said he.

-Ellentia

*edit*

Wait wait, I found two videos that I like better then the first one:

Alzheimer's Eye Test'

2008-06-22T15:32:00.004-05:00

Count every ' F ' in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...
(SEE BELOW)

HOW MANY ?

THERE ARE 6 -- no joke.
READ IT AGAIN !
Really, go Back and Try to find the 6 F's before you scroll down.

The reasoning behind is further down.

The brain cannot process 'OF'.

Incredible or what? Go back and look again!!
Anyone who counts all 6 'F's' on the first go is a genius.

Three is normal, four is quite rare.

I found all six the first time I counted. However, to make sure that I got them all before I looked to see how many there were, I counted again (going backwards) and only found four. Do I count as half-genius? ; )

~Ellentia

Lord Of The Rings In 60 Sec

2008-06-13T23:01:00.001-05:00