Well, sorry about that long absence guys. I got sick with what I think was the flu Friday evening and stayed sick until the next Thursday. And I was really sick. I had such an awful soar throat that it was almost too painful to eat and I had high fevers and couldn't go to sleep or stay asleep. All I could do was lay around and read. I am so glad that I am better. In other news not much has been going on since I last posted. It snowed here on valentines day and there were all these storys on the news about the problem of getting your flowers delivered. Today jc, dad and I went and looked at tvs (we are buying a new one) and dad was hard to please. He wants one under $1000 that is reasonably big, doesn't fade when you look at it from the side and has a good picture. I wonder if he'll find his perfect tv. We have our grandparents visiting with our two cousins and it has been a full house, especially during dinner. Our cousins are both boys and they and my younger brother sit at a table in the other room and they are so noisy they could bring down the house! All they do is go back and forth from playing on our gamecube to playing basketball to playing in my brothers room. Just for fun here is a little cartoon:

Dad just came in with a tv! I guess he found one he liked. It is a 42 in LCD tv. It's vizio brand and their unpacking it right now. I guess they forgot that its past dinner-time :0

-ellentia

An old withered flower

An old withered flower
Swaying limply in the breeze
Had a little treasure
That it refused to leave


But at the first gentle wind
The treasure crashed to the ground
Unnoticed by all
Making not a sound


A hard cold bed of gravel
With little bits of straw
Was the only thing at the bottom
Ready to break the fall


But the little treasure did not give up
Pushing through the gravel
As though it was nothing
But it still had far to travel


Up up up to the surface
The little treasure pushed its way
Up tho the surface higher it climbed
Waiting for the day


It broke the surface
A wonderment to all
Ready to grow a
Stem so tall


A stem that would soon have
A flower with petals
With color so bright
It could win medals


Slowly over the spring
It grew with great measure
Waiting for the summer
To unlock it's treasure


Then one wonderful
Cool summer morning
Ocher colored petals
Spread without warning


At first they were dismissed
As they looked like crumpled paper
But soon they were unfurled
To show that they were greater


The loveliest flower of them all
Standing high through summer
In the fall lost its luster
as the petals lost their color


Soon it was an old withered flower
Swaying limply in the breeze
With a little treasure
That it refused to leave...


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Girls Retreat!

Well this last weekend was lots of fun. Our youth interns planned a girls retreat for middle school and it was a lot of fun. The theme for the weekend was unmasked so we made plastic masks. They weren't intended to be scary but they were kinda creepy. Well, I broke my rules for getting ready to go somewhere (in this case the retreat). I spent about two and a half hours total getting ready, yikes! It wouldn't have taken quite so long except we were supposed to dress for a fancy dinner and when I was fixing my hair I noticed the there was a steady stream of blood running down my right thumb. Apparently I had re-opened a fairly deep cut that I managed to give myself while opening a box about two weeks ago (but thats another story). So I had to stop and take another ten minutes to clean and bandage my wound. On top of that I was on the way when I realized that I had forgotten to bring shoes! We turned the car around and I jumped out, grabbed the closest pair and raced back to the car. Well, of course being the un-organized person I am, after dinner when I went to put away the necklace I had worn I realized that I couldn't find the bag I normally keep it in. No biggie. Wait, that bag is also the bag I keep my expensive locket in. Great. I looked high and low... and couldn't find it. I had the leaders ask everyone to keep an eye out for it and continued the search. No luck. I was thinking to myself that I really didn't want to tell mom that I had lost said expensive locket but I knew I had to so when she got there I told her the bad news. On the way home I happened to look down in between the seats and what should I see but the expensive locket in it's bag. If only I had closed the pocket the bag was in.

Quote of the day:
"When I feel the urge to exercise, I sit down until the urge passes."
-Mark Twain

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Snow!

This morning when I woke up I discovered that a thin, powdery snow had fallen all over. The wind was blowing and the snow was getting picked up in the wind and was blowing around in little gusts that looked very pretty. Later on it started snowing again and this time the flakes were bigger and it looked like we were inside a snow globe! Right now everything is coated in a thin white film and it looks like the classic snow village (except without the big piles of snow). Tonight we are supposed to get a second wave of snow and tomorrow we are supposed to get a third and final wave of snow. Alright! Enough already! I won't say anything more about the beautiful white snow. Yesterday we saw the coolest tv show. It comes on at 10:00 am on PBS and this week it is like a science class. It even gives a test at the end! Next week it will be math. I'm not sure about weeks to come but I really enjoyed the science show.

Interesting question of the day

On Ford commercials in Texas they close by saying "Ford is the best in Texas". What do they say In Oklahoma?

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I'M BACK!

Well, I am finally posting again. I had switched over to beta and because of some slight confusion I haven't been able to sign in until now. Well, a lot has happened since I last posted. If you have been reading jcp's blog you know that we are now trying to get moved in to our new house in a new town. A lot has happened since we have been here. On Sunday our car broke down at the Fearings house and we had to borrow their car to get up here so we didn't arrive until 2:00 a.m. I sliced my thumb open on Monday. On Tuesday we lost our water. On Wednesday we went to our new church for the first time. On Thursday we got our water back and Friday night turned out to be quite interesting. I was peacefully sleeping and dreaming, well, I can't remember what I was dreaming but that doesn't matter. At about 4:00 a.m. I heard this big crash! Of course the first thing that pops into my head is that someone threw a rock through our window and I was waiting for the culprit to crawl through the broken window. To make matters worse I was the only one awake. Well, after a few minutes of silence I woke jcp up and we discovered that a CD shelf that had some dolls and glass decorations on it had fallen over on top of a picture frame and the glass had broke and made a really loud noise. Now, if I had been fully awake and thinking strait I would have realized that a burglar wouldn't have made that much noise but at the time I didn't think about that. Today we get to clean up and arrange our new house. Well, that was our week. Be glad it wasn't yours.
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Christmas play

Hello! Today my church is having the childrens and the adults christmas plays. well, in the childrens christmas play, the girl who was supposed to play one of the two main charicters is sick and probably won't be ther so guess who got picked today to fill in? You guessed it, me. I won't have to memorize anything because I'll just read the lines out of the book but I do have a short solo that I have to learn and my voice is kinda hoarse because I am just a tiny bit sick. Well, I guess I will just have to do as good as I can.
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Home!

WE'RE HOME! In case you didn't know, jc and I have been gone for the past two weeks and we just flew home yesterday. We were visiting my grandparents in New Mexico. I had a great time, even though I missed everyone at home terribly. We shopped every day of the second week except Sunday! Jc and I bought presents for everyone in our family who lives in New Mexico to save on shipping. On the way to My grandparents we stopped at a place called White Sands Missile Range. It is a government testing area for missiles and rockets. But why call it White Sands? Because there is white sand all over. There is a place where you can drive though the dunes and park your car and get out and hike up and slide down the dunes. The only problem? I got buried in the sand and it was about 45 degrees out there. The only really strange thing was that there were puddles of water every where. Apparently it had rained a few weeks ago and the water never dried up. One of the things that continually amazed me was the mountains, and the sunsets, and the open plains, and the clouds in the sky....... If I tried to describe it all, I would forever be at a loss for words. I was continually reminded of how great our God truly is. When the sun was just about to disappear, it would turn the Organ mountains pink for a minute or so, and then they would go back to normal as if they had never changed. New Mexico is just gorgeous. Well, I had better close this post now, it's gotten too long already.
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The great snake hunt

This morning a termite guy came to our house to check for termites. He found no such beasts. Instead, he found two snakes by a hose in our front yard.

Of course I just had to catch them and take pictures because I think snakes are facinateing. The first snake was no problem, I just scooped him into the bucket.

It was about 8 inches long. The second snake however, was a differant story. It was the nicer looking snake of the two (they were differant kinds) and it was also a little faster. Of course you can't put the two snakes together, so I had my younger brother finde another container to
hold it in.

I tried once to catch the snake. Failed. Oh well, I will try again. Failed again. Then on the third try, I had it in my bucket. Half of it anyways. I thought that it was the same size as the other snake but it was a little over a foot long. It got away. No picture, no capture, nothing. Well, I thought to myself, I still have the other snake.

Or so I thought. I went back in the house and about two hours later I went out side to check on it and it had escaped. I thought it was gone for good but once again I was wrong. It was in the mum that was next to it's holding bucket.

I poked and prodded it with my paint stick and it kept on sliding away.

Then, When all hope was lost, I was able to knock it out of the plant and after chasing it all over my front porch I scooped it up once again. I took a few more pictures and then I left it in peace.
I bet it's tired.

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WOOOOHOOOO!

I am so excited I'm not even going to mention the fact that I haven't posted in a long time. MY SISTER AND I ARE GOING TO STAY WITH MY GRANDPARENTS FOR A WEEK AFTER THE REST OF MY FAMILY HAS LEFT AFTER THANKSGIVING AND WE ARE GOING TO FLY HOME BY OURSELVES! I can't wait! We are going to have their house to ourselves for a lot of the time and we can watch movies and get on the computer and watch tv (we don't get cable or satellite at our house) and play board games and have a ton of fun. They even have bicycles so we might be able to ride bikes. It will be so fun! We will go up with my family the Monday before thanksgiving and then everyone but me and jcp will leave the Saturday after and then we will stay a week and then leave the next Saturday! I can't wait!

I also have to post this picture I took of a four leaf clover my friend found after a long bike-ride that must have been at least two miles long up and down hill after hill... Also we found giant acorns and edible flowers, also in the picture.
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Well, it's been a long time since I posted but I am finaly back. Yesterday there was a swimming party for the homeschool teens. Before that we went to the park and played softball with the homeschool teens. I had a lot of fun at both events. Last time we played softball I didn't have much fun because the bases were to far back and so the only way you could get on base was to either get a great hit or the other team had to drop the ball. This week the bases were much closer and the teams were more fair. I had a lot of fun. Then, at the swimming party I had a blast. We've never had a swimmingparty before and so I wasn't sure how it would go off but it went great. We jumped off the diving board, had chicken fights, sat in the hot tub, ate pizza and cookies, played marco polo and sharks and minnows (the former worked better) and many other things. The best part about it though is that we are going to have another swimming party in febuary! Yes! today I have my last two softball games of the season. Well, the last league games at least. We are going to play in two tournaments later.
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Well, it's been a long time since I posted but I am finaly back. Yesterday there was a swimming party for the homeschool teens. Before that we went to the park and played softball with the homeschool teens. I had a lot of fun at both events. Last time we played softball I didn't have much fun because the bases were to far back and so the only way you could get on base was to either get a great hit or the other team had to drop the ball. This week the bases were much closre and the teams were more fair. I had a lot of fun. Then, at the swimming party I had a blast. We've never had a swimmingparty before and so I wasn't sure how it would go off but it went great. We jumped off the diving board, had chicken fights, sat in the hot tub, ate pizza and cookies, played marco polo and sharks and minnows (the former worked better) and many other things. The best part about it though is that we are going to have another swimming party in febuary! Yes! today I have my last two softball games of the season. Well, the last league games at least. We are going to play in two tournaments later.

NEWS FLASH!

Google has bought YouTube! Unbeliveable! Just two years ago the company was being created and now it has been sold to Google for 1.65 billion dollars! Thats a hefty price! The company hasn't made any profits since it was created! So why would Google want to buy it...

Read more

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Softball, softball and more softball!

Well, today I had two softball games. Well, I was supposed to have two softball games, it ended up being three. The first was at 9:00 so I had to be here at 8:00 to get warmed up. The night before I spent the night with the coaches daughter and we stayed up till after 11:00 watching Star Wars-Return of the Jedi. Its strange, while my friend and I were watching Star Wars our little brothers were at my house watching the Princess Bride. You would think it would be the other way around. Not that I have anything against Princess Bride, I think it is a great movie, its just funny the way we watched Star Wars and the boys watched the Princess Bride. The games today we were missing a player so I had to play catcher. It went great the first game and I caught well, probably better then I ever caught before. We won and what made our victory even sweeter was that last week we played the same team and they beat us 12 to 0. This week we beat them by, well... I don't remember the score but we beat them. The second game was good to but I had to catch again and about halfway through the game I was exhausted. We won that game to and the score was 10 to 8. Then, although we were supposed to be done we played a third game because the team that was supposed to play didn't show up. I had to catch again and I almost collapsed. Now, under normal circumstances I would have felt better but the third game started at 3:00 and I hadn't had lunch. The only thing I had was Gaiter-aid. Thankfully Dad went to Arbys and got me a roast beef sandwich that I ate in my spare moments during the game (along with an apple and a few bees who joined me). We didn't win the third game but the odds were against us. #1, we had already played 2 games. #2, it was hot. #3, the umpires wasted about 15 minutes at the beginning of the game because they were trying to get out of umping the game. #4, it was hot. #5, we had to bring in two subs because not everybody could stay. #6, it was hot. We should have won the third game. We could have except we ran out of time. I wonder whose fault that was. *cough cough* the umpires! Another thing that made me mad was that the umpire wasn't calling everything correct. Two people were called out who weren't out and he called strikes that were balls and balls that were strikes. I remember one incident where our pitcher threw a perfect screw-ball and he called it a ball! A ball! I was mad. Everybody there except the umpire thought it was a strike! I think he should've been overruled. Well, this post is already to long so I will close with a good remark (since the last bit has been negative), We played excellently today!
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Well hello! This Frieday I had my first two softball games of the season! We unfortunatly lost them both. In the first game I got on base twice and I scored both times. That game we got three runs total and I scored the first and the last of them. The second game was terrible. Only one girl got on base and it was only because the firstbaseman bobbled the ball. Still, I think that she should get a medal for actualy hitting the ball. The team we were playing had a pitcher that could get by just about everybody. After the games we came home a got ready for a court of honor for one of the boys in our homeschool group. I thought that the ceremoney was very nice although I had to miss a little bit for baby Phil. After the ceremoney there was refreshments next door and after the refreshments some of us played basketball and I had a lot of fun playing. Then yesterday a friend and I worked on our duo interp speech that we have decided to do. We got a lot done in the three hours we worked on it and I am excited about it. The only problem is that the tournament we are planning to go to will be very tough competition. Last year one of the duo speeches was a story that they had written and copy writed and then they got a coach to help them. So we will be up against tough competiters but we shall survive! Well, I need to go now, bye!
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P.S. The date is messed up, I posted this September 26, 2006.

Well hello. I haven't had much to post about but now I have enough to make an interesting post. Last Friday we had a teen party at our house and I had a blast. While the parents planned the rest of the year, the teens got to play four-square, basketball and any other game you could play outside. I enjoyed four-square. After the meeting was over we all had pizza hut and by that time it was dark enough to play vampire freeze tag, a game that I couldn't play very well because right before we started I turned my ankle and it hurt very bad. After that we played hide and seek but some of the teens got board so they climbed our tree with all the vines and all three of them got poison ivy! The one place in our yard that has poison ivy and they found it. I feel bad because I told people that I didn't think there was any poison ivy in our yard. Well, I guess they won't be climbing up our tree any more. After the party I spent the night at a friends house and I must admit it is rather strange to leave your own party. Then we went to the zoo on Saturday and after that we went to dairy queen and got ice cream. But apparently dad didn't realize that the large blizzard is enough ice cream for four people because he ordered a large for me to split with my brother. We ate it all. Now, on Sunday our church had the big 40 days of community kick off and for the youth we had a jello bowl, meaning we played games in jello. There was a slip and slide with jello on it, there was a jello toss, there was a jello relay race along with a few other games. Well, at the very end of the jello bowl we had a jello war, but just before that my youth ministers daughter slipped on the slip and slid and sprained her neck. They took her to the hospital and she stayed home from school the next day. We are all thankful it was nothing more serious. I saw her fall and it wasn't pretty. Also, another guy in the highschool group slit his knee open on something under the slip and slide and he went to the hospital to have it stiched up. But, other then that the jello bowl went well and I had a great time. Today I am going to sell yearbooks to the homeschoolers at Wal-Mart. Fun. I am also excited about this Saturday because I will get to change my earrings out. YEEESSSSSS! I have been waiting for six weeks to change them out. Now, I don't think there's anything left to post so I will close. Until later, goodbye.
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