Wolf Hunter

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Busy Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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!

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

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

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