Colorado!

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

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

Running in the Rain

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

Rain

Why does it always rain on Wednesday? It rained last Wednesday and today (Wednesday) it is raining again. I don't mind the rain, in fact, I love listening to the rain but up here when it rains, it storms with thunder and lightning so if it's night, Libba has to get into my bed and that is annoying (I only have a twin size)!

Ah! Only two more weeks, one more project and one more test and Oklahoma History is done! We finished our textbook last week and that was exciting, soon we'll be done with the whole class! I am very excited.

Choir has been frustrating lately. I don't want to quit simply because it constitutes about a third of my social life! But, at the same time, it is driving me nuts! Mainly it is the choir director that frustrates me, but several of the people are quite obnoxious. But, I also like a lot of the people and have some good friends in the Choir. Well, you can't expect something to be perfect, but the choir is a ways off from being perfect. But, I really enjoy the devotionals we have on Tuesdays.

Okay, this has been a dis-jointed post. I think your idea, Jc, about the drop-down menu thingys was good. Well, back to doing useful things, like school. Farewell!

~Ellentia

Hapenings

I am in a good mood right now. I found out today from my history teacher that except for the paper I am currently working on I only have one more English comp. assignment till after Christmas! I am very excited about that. Today it is very cold and rainy. I forgot my jacket because I was almost late to class and almost froze because of it!

After a shopping trip I was talking to Nat and during the conversation he happened to look outside and see a skunk! It was waddling around in the grass, occasionally shaking off the rain. I have never seen a skunk so it was something new for me!

So last Thursday we were supposed to go on a retreat with our church over fall break (by the way, have you ever heard of fall break?). Unfortunately there weren't enough people so they just had a Friday lock-in. It was a lot of fun despite the fact that while we were playing Sardines in-a-can at 3 in the morning one of the collage kids was assigned to jump out at us on our way inside and when he did I was so scared that I screamed at the top of my lungs and punched him (he wasn't hurt)! Also one of the high school boys kept on jumping out at me and grabbing my ankle and locking me in dark rooms so that I was crying before long (I scare VERY easy) and even then he didn't stop! I was and still am very mad at him.

Well, I have some work to do for that paper I am working on so I must go!

-Ellentia

I was going to post some statistics like jc did but it took to much time, concentration and effort to look all of it up so I abandoned the idea.

I have had a very long week, even though not much has happened. Tuesday I had some friends spend the night and it was a lot of fun. We swam on Tuesday and we watched 3 movies. It was nice to have them over.

Wednesday evening wasn't so great. The kids at youth were in general just a bit mean and rough and it wasn't much fun. Tonight we have youth and I'm hoping it will turn out better.

It rained this morning. Even though it isn't raining everyday anymore the water still doesn't have anywhere to soak in so it just forms puddles in the grass.

Last night while mom and dad were out to dinner with some friends we watched Alfred Hitchcock's re-make of his movie (yes he re-made his own movie) The Man Who Knew To Much. It was really good and much easier to understand then the original movie.

Well, since I can't think of anything else to say I will close this post by saying thanks to all who still read my blog. I really appreciate it.

-Ellentia

RAIN!!!!!!

So you'll never guess what has happened every day for 17 days! It has rained every day for 17 days! The record used to be 14 days in a row from way back in 1937, ending the dust bowl. We broke that record Wednesday.

Thankfully there has been no tornado danger, just flooding problems. On Wednesday Sam Champion from Good Morning America was here to talk about the flooding. You can read the story they featured here.

I am ready for it to stop raining! It has rained almost all day and it's still going strong. I took these pictures about 20 minutes ago.

As you can see it's been raining really hard here.
That, <-- is our street :O








This is a video that jc found the other day and it made me laugh so I thought I'd post it. Don't worry though, I'm not going to start posting a video every time like jc does!

-Ellentia

**edit** I'm posting this pic so I can put it on my profile, that is all.

Guitar, Blackberrys and Rain

Well hello everyone, that is, everyone left. No one is really around these days. Except for Specter and jc (even though jc ''forgets'' to read my blog) and I.

Last Saturday was the most exciting day--the good kind of exciting that is-- I've had in about a week. I got to sleep in about an hour without getting in trouble and the I also got clean up after breakfast. yay. After we finished cleaning up I was sitting at the computer doing nothing productive when I noticed that it had gotten strangely quiet and sort of deserted looking in the main parts of the house.

Then, a voice from the distance calling to me. It was mom. So I go see what she needs and everyone is in there just looking at me. And Nathaniel has a video camera. Their all just staring at me. After a few seconds of akward silence Dad tells me to look behind the door.

THEY GOT ME A GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have wanted to learn to how play for several years but since we didn't have a guitar I had to learn how to play the piano instead. I doubt they'll let me stop playing the piano but hey, I can finally learn how to play the guitar! I'm very excited (as if you can't tell). I have been trying to play some chords on the guitar and I have managed to play some but it is harder then I expected. It hurts to play some of the chords. Oh well, I am determined to learn how to play, no matter how much it hurts at first.

We also went blackberry picking Saturday. It was very prickally. But it was worth it. I have never seen such big blackberries! I picked one that had to be at least 2 inches long! We picked for about 2 ta 3 hours and we picked a lot. I must admit though, I like the taste of dewberries better.

And, you'll never guess, it rained Saturday and Sunday, even though on Saturday the sun never stopped shining, which is to say that the clouds didn't block out the sun at all so it was bright and sunny outside, all the while it was pouring rain!

-Ellentia

Rain...

So as you can see, I decided not to post about the luau because I didn't feel like it. It was rainy at the party but we swam anyways. We also had a reverse limbo contest. Instead of going under the rope we jumped off the diving board and went over the rope. Of course I was the first one to get out : (

They also had a distance contest to see who could jump the farthest (they had a rope to jump over) but I didn't enter that contest. They played old music the whole time and I surprised myself by knowing a lot of the songs they played. At the end of the party, when it was just about dark, there were hundreds of fireflys all twinkling in the yard. I haven't seen that many fireflys ever, it was really pretty : )

It has been hot and icky here lately but today it cooled off and has been raining again. And I thought it wouldn't rain here... Well, I should probably get off now.

-Ellentia

CATS! and Seussical Jr. and rain...

So Saturday we went to go see CATS! It was AWESOME! I absolutely LOVED it! I have wanted to see CATS! live for a long time so it was sooooo cool to see it live! Jc had heard that the Broadway CATS! was very different from the West End Theater's movie (the one that I have) but they were incredibly similar. Both the choreography and the costumes were very similar. Unfortunately one of my favorite scenes from the movie was not in the show but there was a scene in the show that wasn't in the movie.

Yesterday we went to see the Seussical Jr. performed by a local children's theater. It was great! It was so funny watching another theater perform it because jc and I were in it last summer at a different theater. After the first number I thought oh no, this is going to be a disaster, but it was actually quite good! I think that my favorite characters were the Wickersham brothers, Mayzie and the Cat-in-the-Hat. They were all very good at their parts.

In other news not much is going on around here

besides
a
whole
lot
of
rain.

We were or are (I'm not sure which) under a flood watch. And I thought it wasn't going to rain as much up here. The only problem is that with rain comes severe weather and with severe weather comes tornadoes. In Nac a lot of rain in the spring meant it would be reeeally humid. Up here a lot of rain in the spring means a possibility of tornadoes. Fun.

Well I need to get off now but before I close: when jc posts a quiz, everybody takes it! When I posted a quiz, nobody took it! Whats up? ;)
-Ellentia

Spring break!

This last week has been fun. I signed up for a spring-break sewing camp and it just finished today. It was a three day camp and I made a purse, belt, hair scrunchies and finished my dress (the one I made for the ball needed a few touch-ups). I also had to do a little school because we took off a few days to go to my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party in Florida (I forgot to post about that). Last Saturday we (the older kids and Dad) went to the zoo to see what it was like, however there is an unspoken law that says everyone with kids has to go to the zoo on St. Patrick's day and the zoo was packed! We did have fun though and there was this cool little trail you could walk that had native Oklahoman animals. My favorite part was definantly the tram ride. It took us all over the zoo and was quite fun. The down-side to spring break is that there are no social gatherings (except at the zoo). Last night the most wonderful thing happened. It rained! Okc is much dryer then nac so it won't rain as much. My favorite kind of day is when the sky is overcast and it is raining intermittently the whole day.
-Ellentia

Agony! ! ! ! ! ! !

It's not fair!!! I was supposed to go on a canoe trip to the Caddo river in Arkansas and it got canceled !!! There are severe thunderstorms coming in and my youth minister didn't want to end up stuck in Arkansas without being able to canoe because there were to many storms. I am in pain! I hope that he has just postponed the trip and that it is not canceled. I had a friend invite me to spend the night tonight so I think that I'll call her and tell her that I can go. *tear* I have been looking forward to this trip for a year and now my hopes are crushed. With sadness,
-ellentia


ps I did a spell check jc, all of the words spelled correctly are not my fault