Well, I'm finally posting again. This last week has been busy. Yesterday was the only day I got to relax a little and I got a fever and a headache. At first I thought I might have the flu but based on my last bout with the flu, I don't think I have it.

Friday we also went to the church to record audition tapes for swacda. What is swacda, you ask? It stands for South West American Choral Directors Association. My siblings and I are auditioning to be in one of the honor choirs that will sing at the convention in February. I really hope we all make it!

On Wednesday, my small group set a record! We actually made it through a chapter in our book in one night! That may not seem like it should be an astronomical event, but, my small group is always so off track that sometimes we don't get anything done!

Well, thats all I have to say, goodbye now.

-Ellentia

Indian Tacos! Get your Indian Tacos!

Boy does that phrase ever get tiring! We have been working the taco stand a lot since it opened last Thursday at the state fair. We worked the 13th, 14th, 17th, 19th and 20th. We are also going to work today and tomorrow. Needless to say I am exhausted. We also had our grandparents visiting from the 10th to the 16th.

On top of everything else I have school to do and I am not doing a very good job of keeping up. Last week I almost didn't get it done because I had two essays to write and I didn't start them till Saturday! I don't plan to repeat that mistake.

We decided to stay at the fair after we finished working yesterday and the armbands for the rides were on sale so dad decided to buy them for us. There was a log ride and we were just finishing our second go-round and Nat told the attendant to splash me. So what did he do? He picked up a cup and drenched me. I was so mad at Nat. I had even said that I didn't want to get too wet (that's probably why he said it).

Well, I need to go do some school, so goodbye for now.

-Ellentia

More stuff and Tacos

So not much has really happened since I last posted. My grandparents came in yesterday from a trip to Hot Springs.

Yesterday I had my history class. It was quite funny when my teacher tried to start a tape and she didn't know what to do so she didn't plug the video player in and when she couldn't get the tape to go in she started saying the player ate her tape! I was trying not to laugh.

Today we had choir practice and a health meeting to go to. This year the choir is getting new dresses (for the girls) and last week we tried to vote but it was very unorganized and we didn't get anything done. This week, we got called down one by one to vote and so everybody got to pick the dress they wanted to vote for. The health meeting was for the state fair food booths. We had to go because we will be working the same taco stand we worked on the 4th of July to raise money for dresses and tour.

I have to get off now to help with dinner, so long!

-Ellentia

*edit*

Here is the video that is the same idea as the video on Specter's blog.

Stuff

As Specter has noticed, I'm home. I would have posted sooner except that when I was going to post I discovered that jc had already posted about the trip so I decided to wait till I thought of something else to write about. I still don't have much to say but since I had a request to post I decided to go ahead.

One thing I am excited about is Philip. I think he might turn out to be left-handed! I am left-handed and I need a partner in crime! I am the only one in my immediate family that is left handed so I have high hopes for Phililp. Just for fun here are some statistics and trivia (I'm not sure if they are true though)

• Did you know that only about 13% of people are left-handed? (I looked this statistic up and found two sites that had the same number)
  

• Left-handers have an advantage in softball and baseball because we stand closer to first base (this I can say is true from experience).

• Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness.
  

• During the 1600's, people thought left handers were witches and warlocks.

• They say everyone was born right handed, and only the greatest overcome it (he,he,he). ...Brilliant Author unknown

• August 13 is left-handers day

• The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. So only left handed people are in their right mind!

I had fun reading these statistics and random trivia, hope you enjoy them to!

-Ellentia

Weekend trip!

Well, were headed off to my cousins wedding tomorrow morning (she lives out of state), I will post when we get back! Wow, this is the shortest post I've ever typed!

-Ellentia

1/2 plus 8 :D

Last Saturday our church had a mission outreach day. All the youth went to a place called the Infant Crisis Center which is a place people can go when they need help taking care of their babies and/or toddlers. I was assigned to package diapers. I and the 3 other people working at my table packaged around 2000 diapers in about 2 hours! What we had to do was take the diapers out of their original package and put a certain number into a plastic sack. We were supposed to get as much air out of the bags as possible but I was the only person who figured out how to do that. I was very tired of diapers by the end of the workday.

While we were working the subject turned to dating (imagine that). The pastor that was working with us shared his opinion of what the ages of the two parties involved in a date should be. He said that the youngest girl a guy should date should be half his age plus 8. For example:

Lets say the boy in question is 18. Take his age and divide it in half and you get 9. Add 8 to 9 and you get 17. So 17 is the youngest that a girl he dates can be. I thought that it was a funny way to determine the age of whoever you date!

Now, to end my post, I thought I would type up a clip from one of my favorite books. However, to get the full efect of what this says, you MUST read it out loud:

A clip from
Fox in Sox:*

(Fox)
Bim comes.
Ben comes.
Bim brings Ben broom.
Ben brings Bim broom.

Ben bends Bim's broom.
Bim bends Ben's broom.
Bim's bends.
Ben's bends.
Ben's bent broom breaks.
Bim's bent broom breaks.

Ben's band. Bim's band.
Big bands. Pig bands.

Bim and Ben lead
bands with brooms.
Ben's band bangs
and Bim's band booms.

(Mr. Knox)
Pig band! Boom band!
Big band! Broom band!
My poor mouth can't
say that. No, sir.
My poor mouth is
much to slow, sir.

(Fox)
Well then...
bring your mouth this way.
I'll find it something
it can say.

-Ellentia

*If you would like to read the compleat story of Fox in Sox, you will most likely find this tongue twisting book at your local library in the children's section.

Home again

Hello, Hello! We're back from our weekend trip to New Mexico for my cousins 4th birthday! Happy Birthday Samantha! It was good trip and we got to see my grandparents, my cousins, my aunt and uncle and my great grandma. However the hotel's pool water had so much chlorine in it that it burned your eyes just sitting next to the pool! (that was sorta random, I know)

The scenery was, of coarse, just beautiful! Unfortunately we didn't see much on the way up there because we didn't leave our house till about 6 pm! On the return trip though, we got to see plenty. The car trip up wasn't much fun. It was cramped and dark most of the way and with 2 little ones you can just imagine what that was like. The car trip home was much more comfortable because dad drove a different car home (we got our great grandmothers old car) so there was an extra seat. However, dad had much different trip home.

Since he had to be back in time for church on Sunday he left Saturday afternoon. Well, on the way home the alternator in his car quit working so the battery rand down. And on top of the car troubles it was raining cats and dogs and the roads were flooded because of hurricane Erin! And we thought we were safe from hurricanes up here! So he had to wait out the storm and while doing so he missed church. Thankfully he was able to fix the car and got home Sunday.

Well, I must get back to school, so I will have to go.

-Ellentia

Redhawks!

Last night we went to go see a Redhawks baseball game. I have been to minor league games before but they don't really count because I was to little to remember them. It was a lot of fun. The Redhawks (the home team) played the Memphis Redbirds. Jc said said that Redbirds wasn't a very manly name.

Anywayz, we had enough tickets to invite some friends so we had a lot of fun. During the national anthem there were cameras scanning the crowd and we were on the screen at the very end.

On the Redbirds there were several left-handed hitters and one fouled the ball into our stand twice in a row! It was quite funny when the same lady let out the same terrified shriek both times!

Because we had little ones and because we wanted to stop for some ice-cream after the game we didn't stay for the whole game, we left about a half an inning early. I don't know how the game ended but when we left the Redbirds had one point (they got that in the first inning) and the Redhawks had zero. It was a pretty slow game, but it was fun.

Well, I don't have much else to say so I will end this post.

-Ellentia

14!

Sunday was happy day for me because it was my birthday! At youth that night I (and 4 other people) were recognized and then almost squashed to death because my youth minister had everyone else get a running start and give us a hug!

That night I opened presents and got some lovely beads and buttons from my family for making jewelry. My grandparents got me High school Musical, a scarf with fringe and the very necessary birthday shirt.

Yesterday mom made me an incredible chocolate cake with chocolate glaze and filling! She even got a flower from the garden to put on top! It was really yummy! It was also the cake I had picked out a few months ago to have!

We also went out to eat at one of my favorite places, Red Lobster! We never get to go there because Dad and Nat don't like seafood. I had shrimp and it was really good!

Well, I need to get off now, I have lots to do so I will have to close this post!

Ellentia

Fish tales, fish tales, fish tales are stories that seem to good to be true!

So this last week Sunday through Wednesday our church had a musical camp for kids going into 1st-5th grades. And since my parents were running the camp, I was of course drafted. It was kinda like VBS except it was from 9:00 to 2:00 so it was a lot longer. The kids learned how to play orf instruments and how to play hand chimes while learning a musical called Fish tales. I will be singing the songs for weeks.

I got to help teach the kids how to play hand chimes. I thought that it would be relatively easy because we only had about 10 to 20 kids in each group and we only had each group for 30 min. Boy was I wrong! Getting the kids to listen instead of talking and dinging the chimes was next to impossible! The funny thing was that the older kids were the most difficult! The younger kids mostly did what we asked them to, whereas the older ones wouldn't do anything you asked them to!

I'm done complaining now.

I was amazed at how well the performance went! The kids learned the songs and the hand motions and the lead parts learned there lines and the whole production went off almost perfectly! Some of the soloists bobbled because they were nervous but other then that it was great! I am so glad the whole thing is over!

Last night we had youth and I played volleyball. I was terrible! And the worst part was that every time I made a mistake (which was quite often) jc complained at me! Even so I had a lot of fun being terrible! Well, I have to go now!

-Ellentia

So I know it's been a while since I last posted but really, nothing terribly exciting has happened till yesterday.

Yesterday was Mom's birthday! So Happy birthday Mom!

Also yesterday, Mom and jc picked up jc's friend who is visiting for a few days (she lives in Texas).

Monday jc is leaving for camp.

Other then that and besides school, nothing exciting has happened for a while. It seems like everything has slowed down for the summer. Even our youth program is taking a break!

Well, I need to get off now, so, good day!

-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

Indian Tacos

I think I will start out by saying Happy 4th of July, even though it is a little late. Yesterday we went to a parade. We had to get up early to get a good spot to watch but it was worth it. I enjoyed the parade but I would've enjoyed it more if half of it wasn't advertisement. They weren't even very good floats sometimes. There were some, however that I really enjoyed, such as the boy scouts at the beginning of the parade:



And the firetrucks:


And the Star Wars people:

And the lovely horse-drawn carriages:

All in all it was a good parade!

At about 4:00 (after a nice swim) jc, my brother and I all worked an Indian taco stand at a 4th of July festival. Why would we do that you ask? To earn money to go on a choir tour at the end of the year.

It was SO hot inside because the taco shell was what they called "Indian fry bread" and you cook it the same way you cook a funnel cake. Then, the beans were on a big stove so they would stay hot and the heat emitted by the grease and the stove was enormous. However, the tacos were really good!
-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