*Sigh* I'm home.

Eric, Lydia, and I went out to Colorado last week to visit Jacque. For the first couple of days, I had a blast. It was so relaxing, and we got to hang out with a bunch of new people. On Friday we went sledding.




Saturday, we didn't do much. Jacque had to work in the morning. After she got back, we played a few card games, then went on a drive. In the end we walked up to a waterfall and took pictures of the mountains. Then we went bowling Saturday evening.




Sunday, we went to church. In the afternoon we went sledding again. The first part of that was fun, and here are some pictures.



The next part wasn't so great. Jacque broke her leg and was flown to Denver Sunday night. Eric, Lydia and I went back to Jacque's house in Alamosa. There we stayed for the next couple of days while Jacque recovered from surgery. Dad eventually brought her home Wednesday, and we left shortly afterward to beat a storm that was coming. We stopped for the night in Lamar and got home about 4:30 yesterday. Now we're all recovering. It's been a long week and hasn't turned out the way we thought it would. However, we're all thankful that God kept us all safe and that the only bad thing that happened was a broken leg.

It’s a long slow beautiful dance...

The beloved br--I mean cat has returned. Hugo has been living at some neighbor's and eating well. He was here at Thanksgiving and was fine when Jessica came, but when Rex came, enough was enough. He was not going to live with two dogs. We haven't seen him since then until yesterday. Already he's made several trips inside. :)

My grandma came out of surgery well. For those of you who haven't heard, my grandma S. broke her leg Saturday. It was a pretty major break in her lower right leg--both bones broken, with a total of four breaks. However, she was able to stand up today, and that's a good thing. She should be coming to the hospital in Sabetha Friday.

It's December, and I'm planning my summer already. I would like to go to TFY (Theological Foundations for Youth) in Pittsburgh, but that's three weeks out of my summer. I should get a job and all that fun stuff, but if I go to TFY, I probably wouldn't be able to do so.

Last week after the final Kreyole class, we were hanging around the church visiting. The Swifts sadly (to us) have moved to South Dakota, and they were in town last week to pack up the rest of their stuff. Well, they have a set of identical twins. I was talking to them, and they took off crawling across the floor. However, one of them had trouble making it to his destination. He ran straight into Lydia. Then he tried to pull himself up and discovered it was a face he didn't know!

Here are a few of the cool things I've learned recently:

Erasmus said, "I would to God that the ploughman would sing a text of the Scriptures at his plough, and that the weaver would hum them to the tune of his shuttle...I wish that the traveller would beguile the tediousness of his journey with this pastime. All communication of the Christian should be of the Scriptures."
I agree that we should spend much more time studying the Scriptures. However, does that mean we should spend all our time studying it? Should we neglect our schoolwork or our jobs to study the Scriptures all the time? David did say in the psalms that he loved to meditate on God's Word both day and night. It's an interesting point to consider.

Second thing I learned is this: "You create parallel structure in a sentence by using the same grammatical form to express equal, or parallel structure."

...Well, so maybe I didn't just learn that, but it was still cool. :)

My next assignment in history is to write a 5-7 page essay on the Christian influence of the Constitution, the Amendments, and the Federalist Papers No. 10 & 51 over time. Therefore, you should not expect to see me tomorrow, and if you do, please ask me why I'm not working on my essay.

Countdowns:

• 3 days before they busiest day of the month (TubaFest, girls' Christmas tea party, church Christmas party
• 8 days before Eric, Lydia, and I take the train to Colorado.
  

Wow, this was a really long post. I hope the next ones won't be quite this long.

Wow, it has been a very full week. School has been especially stressful with the end of the semester coming up with the desire to finish out the first half of the year well. I may not have everything that I wanted earlier, but I want to have good grades as well as understand the material. I have two weeks.

In addition to that, we had a band concert this evening. There was some dead space in there when the band and choir were getting to perform. I knew that I was going to play one Christmas carol to help pass the time, but when I got there, I found out that a string on Arizona's harp had broken. So I was asked to just play some more songs. It was awful! I blundered through some music, but it was not good. Oh well, I survived that mortification. Everything else was okay.

I also got my PSAT scores back this week. I was disappointed in my critical reading scores, but I guess my math was okay. Not great, but acceptable.

Despite the glum news I've given you so far, life is still good. I have my family, my friends, and a very warm stove to sit in front of whenever I get cold (which happens often :P). I'm very blessed.

~Luke 2:8-18

Are You Serious???

So I just found out further instructions for MAACS playoffs, which are January 13th. I knew I would have to have my piece memorized and an original copy found by then, but I didn't know the date for sure. That's not the twist. The twist is that I have to have five copies mailed in by Jan. 9th. I know, count 'em: one, two, three, four, five. Normally, we only have to have three. And to find the music in less than a month...I really need help. Would anyone happen to have "Nocturne" in F Minor by Chopin, op. 55, no. 1?

Good news: I sent in my letter to Jane Austen yesterday. I decided to do this contest, which is called Letters about Literature. To compete, you have to choose a book that you really enjoyed or made you think about something and write a letter to the author. I selected Pride and Prejudice. It was a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving break is over. I had a marvelous time. I don't have all the pictures uploaded yet, so you'll have to wait patiently. I might show you one or two, though. :)

It's hard to believe November is almost over. Usually November is, to me, one of the longer months of the year. This time it's just flown by! In just over a month it will be 2007!

In the meantime I've started back up on school. After a week of very few assignments, it felt good to get back in the swing of things. Moby Dick is proving quite a challenge; I never knew there was that much to be said about Sperm Whales! Physics is fun. :)

I've decided that I have a new favorite author: Karen Kingsbury. I've just finished reading and Fame and Forgiven. They are the first two books in the Firstborn series, which follows the Redemption series. The Redemption series is about the Baxter family and how they have to struggle through death, near-death experiences, and (as the name of the series indicates) redemption. The Firstborn series is a follow up and and tells the story of Dane Matthews, who is the son of John and Elizabeth Baxter. They had given him up for adoption when he was born, and now he's making his way back to his family and to God.

Here is a picture from the psalm sing Sunday evening. All of those girls you see in the picture squeezed into one pew. I think all of us were very hot by the time it was over. :)

Thanksgiving break was good. I enjoyed having numerous guests in our home. We had lots of fun and laughter. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the camera to most of the events that we attended, so not many pictures can be found on my photobucket site.

Wednesday we didn't do a whole lot. In fact, I did quite a bit of school. Thursday, we went to Topeka. There I ate lots of food, lost the first game of the foosball tournament, played a couple of chords on a guitar, saw my cousins, and played football on a real football field. That's quite a ways to run! In the end we tied, 18-18. After we got home, Eric, Lydia, and I went over to Grandpa's and watched the Chiefs beat the Broncos.

Friday...I got up at 3:45 and bought a camera. It takes nice pictures. However, it didn't come with a memory card, so Dad ordered one for me, and hopefully it will come in the mail next week. When we got home, almost everybody went outside to help Dad put up the curtain to the finishing building. I stayed inside and did some school; then Jessica and I fixed lunch. Yesterday evening we went to Window Opening, which is an annual event in Sabetha. Most of the stores stay open late, and hordes of people walk Main Street being treated to goodies. There are usually some good sales, too. Afterward, the Rippes brought leftover pie from Thanksgiving and we sat around and talked.

Today Jessica left. Tomorrow Jacque, Erin leave with their dog Rex. That dog had a blast chasing cats. :) In the evening we'll be going to the Thanksgiving psalm sing. I am so excited about that right now. I love psalm sings! And I'll get to talk to all these cool people that I haven't seen in forever. :D

This Thanksgiving I'm very grateful for all the family and friends that God has given me.

Another Day

Today was essentially an unusual day. We did school in the morning and had music class in the afternoon. I tried to sing loudly; I think it worked because the person sitting next to me could hear me. Unfortunately, she also said I missed some of my notes. When the older group had the activity time, we played I Never. It went pretty well, although some people were in the middle more often than others. Maybe it's because they were faster; maybe it's because they haven't done all that stuff, although I personally believe it was the former.

Then Eric and I sped (not really!) down to Rippes' so Eric and Austin could practice for tomorrow. Then we went to band; it was so cold in the building and I had neglected to take a coat. I borrowed Austin's for a little while and kept my hands inside my sleeves. That helped a little. Back at the Rippes' we had supper. Brandy and I played Slapjack while more practicing occurred. We even tried to bake a batch of cookies, but we forgot about them. By the time we took them out, they were "well done."

I forgot the exciting part. When we got back from band, there was an oppossum! I didn't see it until after they finally trapped it in the huge ugly bush after getting Doggen, a flashlight, and a stick. When it was located (way up in the branches), Ben came out and shot it several times. I don't know if he ever got the head. A running commentary was kept by the boys on where he did shoot it, though:
"Nope, that was the neck."
"Hey, you got it in the stomach."
"Oops, I guess we can't have possum belly for lunch tomorrow." :P
"No, you didn't get it in the head. You shot it in the posterior!"

Finally, it was declared dead, and we all trooped inside out of the 30 degree weather.

Now I'm home, safe and sound. :)

It's a Party!

Today was Lexi's birthday, so after Kreyole class tonight we went down and had birthday cake. She turned six today. She, Taylor, Lydia, and I played Cops and Robbers for about an hour before we left. Most of the time Lexi was the cop, Lydia and I were the bad guys in jail, and Taylor...he couldn't decided which side he was on. He hung out with us in jail and followed us around when we "escaped," but he helped drag us back to jail and screamed out where we were whenever we were hiding. He was so funny.

Thanksgiving is drawing ever closer. I've made a goal to complete by that time: be completely caught up on school. It will be very difficult to fulfill, but I'm going to try. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, and I don't want the threat of school looming over my shoulder the whole weekend. School really is fun, but not compared to having the whole family home (plus more!)

Some of the people that will be at the Scoby house over Thanksgiving:

Chuck

Erin

Jessica

And of course...

...plus Mom and Dad and the cats. :)

"Trick or Treat!"

Taylor

Taylor, Alexis, and Sierra

Lexi

In order to give everyone something to actually read when they come here, I thought I might post. Life has been busy with school and other stuff. Physics is incredibly hard, but I think it's going, albeit slowly.

I drove around Topeka today with my mom in the passenger seat. It was fun, and only one car honked at me. I think the experience wore everybody out, though. It was a pretty quiet ride home.

Daylight Savings Time ended, and I barely noticed. Right now the date on my watch is wrong, but I'm not getting up that much earlier in the morning. Hm...

...this was fun. :)

"You cannot let him near the chest, man, trust me on this. You can mistrust me less than you can mistrust him. Trust me." --Johnny Depp

You scored as Mr Bennett. Very cynical and a bit world-weary, you take delight in mocking people. But you do have a kind heart, deep down inside. Mr Bennett 80% Charlotte Lucas 75% Mary Bennett 70% Elizabeth Bennet 70% Kitty Bennett 70% Lady Catherine de Bourgh 65% Mr. Darcy 65% Lydia Bennett 65% Mr Bingley 50% Mr. Wickham 35% Mrs Bennett 35% Mr. Collins 25% Jane Bennett 25% Which "Pride and Prejudice" character are you most like? created with QuizFarm.com

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Pictures from almost and eon ago

The Pumpkin FarmThe Train

At the Windmill

Uncle Larry

funny.

Hinrich vs. Collison

http://hawkzone.cjonline.com/stories/101606/haw_bullsonics.shtml

When I first started following the KU basketball team, Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison were star players. Then they went to the Final Four! Then they made it to the championship game! Unfortunately, they lost. After that season, the two graduated and moved on to pro basketball: Hinrich with the Chicago Bulls and Collison with the Seattle Sonics. I was so excited to see that their teams played against each other, and at Allen Fieldhouse to boot!

You know when it's cold when...

• You wear shoes all day and your feet are still cold.
• You add yet another blanket to your bed.
• Your brother wears shoes all day.
• Your sister wears a sweatshirt.
• You consider wearing a coat on top of your sweatshirt when you go outside.
• The computer room is a very nice place to be.
• The temperature outside is the same (if not lower) than it was when you woke up.

It's fall! Grandpa even combined some corn the other day. However, he told Dad that he'd go back to doing other stuff--even if it was fun for a day.

The PSAT is coming up! Less than a week before we go take it. Oh boy. I'm going to take a practice test and see where I am, but I'm pretty sure the math section is going to be the hardest part. :(

I should go do English with Lydia. We have a lot to cover!

New Pictures

Research Becomes Fun

Well...the actual research isn't so fun, but reading about the making of the atomic bomb sure is. Eric, Lydia, and I (and perhaps Justin) are going to give a presentation on the invention of the atomic bomb and explain why and how it was made. Today I was reading about how it was made. It is so complex! Then I read about the testing of Fat Man, the first real test of the bomb made with plutonium. It worked. Now to see if Truman is brave enough to order Fat Man dropped on Japan. Was it worth the cost of so many lives? or the risk of something going wrong?

feeling better :)

well...I was kind of glum yesterday, but I'm all better now. All the company went home, and our house was empty! I went fishing with Eric, and that helped a little even though I caught a fish. Eric didn't even get a bite. Today I had my piano lesson, and it went well. We decided we weren't going to work up a trio because we've been awfully busy this school year and aren't sure we would have time to get it ready. I'm okay with that because I have a ton of stuff to do this year. I haven't studied for the PSAT yet, and that happens in a mere two weeks. Hm...I shall do that today.

photos!

I was tiring of Blogger and was about to abandon my faithful blogspot. Then I came to tell you I was moving and discovered that it was updated. I am now using Blogger beta, and it is so cool. I can goof around with my template so easily now--it's a lot of fun. Much, much easier to edit templates and links.

But in case you're wondering, I am posting more often on my Xanga, which you can also get to through the link in my sidebar. If you don't have a Xanga account, I will usually copy those posts onto my Freewebs blog so you can comment there if you want. The link to my Freewebs site is also in the sidebar.

Go to Eric's blog for a funny joke. :)

What I've Been Working On...

Still in progress.

Much thanks to Austin for all his work (he really did most of it :) and everybody else who offered their advice. It is still under construction and will take a while to get much up there. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy it.

A Very Late Description of Horse Creek

This is about a month after the fact, but today I talked about church camp in church this afternoon. This is what I intended to say in my talk, but naturally it didn't go quite so smoothly. :)

I had a slightly unique experience at Horse Creek this year. Instead of sleeping with the profusion of senior gals down the hall, Joanna and I partnered up and co-counseled the junior girls. We had five girls in our room, but only two were juniors. The other three were in junior high and couldn't fit in the senior cabin. Mrs. Mann, the speaker for the juniors in the morning, came up to our room in the evenings and led devotions, so Joanna and I had a pretty easy time.

Pastor Mann was the speaker for the older group, and his topic was wisdom from the book of Proverbs. In his first study, we learned there were five purposes for Proverbs: attaining wisdom and discipline, understanding words of insight, acquiring a desciplined and prudent life, helping people on all levels of life (that is, for the simple, young, or wise), and to sharpen the mind. Study 2 was about God and man and why we should fear and trust the Lord. Study three spoke on friendship and what it takes to be a good friend. This carried over to Study four, which was about proper speech. In order to be a good friend, we must guard our tongues and use discretion. Things like gossip and slander can easily ruin a friendship. Pastor Mann spoke in Study five about sexual purity and used Proverbs 7 as an illustration how to not live.

As for recreation, Lydia and I ended up on the same team: Deranged Pouncing Wombats. Unfortunately, our team lagged throughout the week. We lost the Bible quiz on Exodus, the kickball tournament, and the big relay race. It wasn't until Wednesday night when we recruited Andrew and Pastor Mann that our team offered any competition. As a bit of fun on the last night of Horse Creek, we played Capture the Flag in the dark with glowsticks. Despite having three other teams attacking simultaneously at one point, the Deranged Pouncing Wombats achieved second place in that game.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had about two hours of free time in the afternoon. I usually sat on the beach and lifeguarded about an hour. Wednesday afternoon, I offered my advice as Jacque judged the sandcastles. I also played a game of volleyball, but our team was so scattered that we didn't manage to play more than one game in the tournament. Julia and I competed in the canoe race and placed third with a time of 2:30. Andrew and Eric placed first, and Luke and Will came in second. Not telling who placed after us, but we were not last. :)

Despite the fact that camp was more than a day shorter than usual, I thought it went very well. Some adjustments had to be made in the schedule, but it turned out well enough. I'm interested to see what happens next year.

I thought life would begin to slow down last week, but it hasn't. It seems I've been going full force! I'm working in the afternoons and (ugh) beginning to think about school. I want to finish early next year, but history will take a long time. I will be doing US history, physics (oooooh boy), advanced math, Sketches from Church History (that should be interesting), Vocabulary from Classic Roots (this is getting scary), Wheeler's Latin, and English Workshop. Oh, and then I'll be reading MacBeth, Moby Dick, and Pride and Prejudice. I think that's all, but you never know. I think I will enjoy literature the most this year--either that or Sketches.

A few days ago I learned that we were having our kitchen wallpapered. Yesterday it happened, and it looks nice. I'd show you pictures, but I'm too lazy to download them off the camera.

And I'm off! :D

Psalm 32C

from the Book of Psalms for Singing

What blessedness for him whose guilt
Has all forgiven been!
When his transgressions pardoned are
And covered is his sin.
O blessed the man 'gainst whom the Lord
Counts no iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is not
Deceit or treachery.

When I kept silent, my bones aged;
My groaning filled each day.
Your hand oppressed me day and night;
My moisture dried away.
Then I to You admitted sin,
Hid not my guiltiness;
I said, "I will before the Lord
Transgressions now confess."

Then You did all my sin forgive
And take my guilt away.
For this when You are near at hand
Let all the godly pray.
The rising floods will harm him not.
You are my hiding place.
And You will comfort me with songs
Of victory and grace.

RULES TO ENTER KANSAS

Applies to each person as they enter Kansas.

Learn & remember: East Coast and California-types pay particular attention!



1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup
truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get
dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

3. They are cattle & feed lots. That's what they smell like to you. They
smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-70 goes east and
west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.

4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $200,000 combines
that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try
to understand the concept.

6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of pheasants are coming in, we
WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to
your ear at the time.

7. Yeah, we eat catfish and mountain oysters. You really want sushi &
caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.

8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of pheasant season. It's a
religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you
can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats,
vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.

12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served
over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know
how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

13. High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the
Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards - it
spooks the fish.

15. Colleges? Try K-State or KU or abunch a' others. They come outa there
with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at
passing pickups when they come home for the holidays.

16. Anhydrous Ammonia is used as a fertilizer! Let us catch you trying to
"cook" something with it and we will "cook" your you-know-what!

The End

It's over, but I had a blast last week. From counseling at Horse Creek to swimming with my family to working (well, that wasn't quite so much fun) . . . it was great!

The Beginning of a Very Busy Week

This week is going to fly by so fast! First, I have to set my alarm tomorrow morning and pack for Horse Creek. I might need to take my alarm, too, so that should remind me to put it in my bag. :) From Monday afternoon until Thursday morning I have Horse Creek. Thursday I rush back and work until five. Immediately after I get off work Lydia and I go to a birthday slumber party (yay!). Friday I work, and then my dad's family is having a picnic. At 6:30 that evening we go to the rodeo parade. After that some will go to the rodeo while some will come back here and butcher a pig. I will be at the rodeo. Saturday we eat the pig.

Finally! I found Andrew's other sandal. Andrew finally decided it was time to wear his sandals again, so I had to remember where I'd last seen them. I knew I'd recently had one out didn't know where the other was. Well, I found the one that was still put away but couldn't remember where the right sandal was. I began digging in all the boxes in the closet. In the process Jacque decided to sort through some of her boxes. Now our room is a total mess -- it doesn't look as if we cleaned at all. However, we really did throw away a ton of stuff! I did find the right sandal downstairs in the closet, so everything's all good.

In the process of cleaning I found three books: Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. I've been wanting to read some more of Dickens and am curious to read Hard Times for myself. I was wondering where I had put Pride and Prejudice. I've been looking for it for two years! The Count of Monte Cristo just sounds interesting.

Cleaning and organizing is so much fun. It's amazing to find the cool stuff you lost. The feeling of accomplishment I get when I rid myself of unwanted clothes, papers, etc. is really cool, too.

Happy birthday, President Bush!

Home Again

I'm home! The retreat was pretty good. We got there for a little more than a session Saturday morning and then ate lunch. We had free time almost all afternoon; part of it I spent playing soccer with some others. Unfortunately, we played right next to a wooded area filled with stinging nettles and poison ivy. I didn't get anything, but some were itching pretty badly by the end of the game. After the injury-riddled game ended, I ate a really, really good hamburger for supper. I love grilled beef.


At 8:00 everybody went swimming. It was fun, even though I couldn't see very well. We played sharks and minnows in the deep end, and I actually caught Eric when I was a shark. He was one stroke away from touching the wall, but I got him. :)

Around 10:45 we started making s'mores. I had one cold because I didn't want to roast any marshmallows, but then I tried grilling one on the coals from supper. The chocolate melted pretty well, but I lacked the patience for softening the marshmallow. Everyone soon migrated to the campfire for silly campfire songs. Jacque and I sat in the back with Joel and listened to him question the origin of each song: "Why do they come up with these? And how? I mean, what's the connection between fish and chips and vinegar and muck and pop??? And why do they sing a song about coffee when they could make tea just as fast? I suppose they want that tea in a tin coffeepot! and so on..."

At two o'clock the next morning, Jacque, Jackie, Joanna, and I tired of the wild game of ping pong (without the ping pong table) we were playing and went to bed. Sunday morning we listened to Mr. O'Neill discuss the reasons behind evolution and how some of them fall through easily. More people arrived, and we had a church service at 10:30. We learned that the glory of God can be displayed through anything--even a pot. :)

After dinner I got to play with two little kids and take Isa to the "ocean" to throw pinecones into the water. Following a short psalm sing, we all went home and slept a lot.

Life is back to normal now--if it ever is. The Fourth of July was great. We went to Robinson to see a spectacular fireworks show. Afterwards I saw two little boys each kiss a toad for a dollar. However, one of them didn't want his dollar and gave it back (he just turned three).


A picture for your enjoyment.

The band concert went pretty well. Despite the fact that the first conductor on the agenda never showed up and we had to skip a song, everything went smoothly. We had a pretty good turnout, but everyone sat as far back as they could. It was weird because I'm sure they couldn't hear nearly as well.

One more week of work completed. It was pretty busy. Not only was it very hot, but everyone also wanted to go camping. One kid came in with two toes all bloody, so I patched him up and sent him home. He was so sorry that he dripped all that blood on the floor and kept apologizing for it. I just sent him home and cleaned it up.

I still haven't decided when we're going to leave for the retreat tomorrow. We need to make it there by 11:00 at the latest so we don't miss three sessions, but if we leave at 8:00 we can make it for the 9:30 session. I have so much stuff to do. Why am I on the computer???

In a few minutes I need to go change clothes and grab a bite to eat before I leave for band practice. Only one more rehearsal before the concert tomorrow night. Aah! Oh well, it will be fun anyway.

I took a needed break from work today and did several loads of laundry. I also finished reading Robinson Crusoe. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I had never read the unabridged version before and was interested to see what it was like. It did have a great theme! Also, I knew it Daniel Defoe was one of the earliest prose writers. That was actually my main reason for reading it.

I think it would be so cool to research the different eras of literature and write about how literature developed into what it is today. I'd like to know how literature has changed over the years (besides the sentences used to be really long).

My new favorite song is "Wherever You Are" by Jack Ingram.

I smell pizza.

Foolishness

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands."

I love music. As challenging as it is to hit the right note, especially when singing, I really enjoy making a joyful noise. As band practice drew to a close this evening, I almost wanted to go through all the songs again (well, most of them). I am finally seeing how the pieces fit together to form songs, and it is so cool when I see that happen. However, the pieces are not yet fitted, and I cannot wait to see that happen.

For all interested, the Atchison Community band will be performing next Tuesday night at 6:15 at the Atchison Community Park.

Now I am off for a night of sleep before I get up early and practice for my piano lesson tomorrow. :)

Fried

So today at work only one lifeguard was scheduled. Thinking I might have to sit outside but not entirely sure, I donned my swimsuit before I left home. I did have to sit in the sun for about an hour. Unfortunately, I neglected to slather on sunscreen. My back is a deep shade of red--except for where my ponytail was. There I have a white strip down my back.

I went to an ice cream social last night. I love homemade ice cream!

Good Times

We had a fellowship dinner after church today. That food is amazing. Despite the fact that we have a small congregation, we have lots of excellent cooks.

I have new shoes. I went shopping with Dad, Mom, and Lydia Thursday. That was fun, but I'm going again tomorrow--this time with Eric and Jacque. Eric's getting new shoes, so that will be fun. :)

I am all done with chemistry. I am so glad to be finished. That was probably my hardest class this year. I did learn a lot, but nine months at a time is long enough.

This evening Eric and I sat on the front step and chewed sunflower seeds. I didn't do too many, but Eric did. So did Sadie. At first she would just lick the shells that we had spit out and were lying on the sidewalk. Then Eric gave her a couple of fresh seeds, and the used shells were never the same. She loves sunflower seeds! Every time Eric got a new handful, he would give some to Sadie. Usually, Sadie would finish first and sit around waiting for more. Meanwhile, the cats looked on in amusement.

I like this music.

http://www.milkmoneypromotions.com/analaurabrio/

Girls' Night Out

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your comment. My family and I do have a lot of fun and keep fairly busy.

Last night, the Sabetha/Seneca homeschoolers put on an end of the year program. After the program a bunch of guys started a game of basketball. I was in a dress and couldn't play, but I was in there and was talking to one of them. All of a sudden this ball comes spinning through the air, directly at my head! I ducked. It was very fortunate that I did because the ball smacked the wall right behind my where my head had just been and went bouncing off towards Justin. I guess being short is a good thing: I would have had to duck a lot farther and might have done more than just sloshed my lemonade in my cup.

On the other hand, being short is slightly awkward. I took Dad out to the field in his pickup this afternoon. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the seat to slide up so I could reach the pedals. So all the way out to the field I perched on the front of the seat and hung on to the steering wheel whenever we went up hill. Dad fixed the seat once we got to the field, and I sat normally on the trip back.

This evening Lydia and I went over to a friend's house for a game of volleyball. It was fun. Poor Molly, playing on a high school volleyball team then coming to our party where no one really knows how to play volleyball. Afterwards, we sat around and had s'mores and cookies. Yum.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a wedding! :D

Major or Minor?

Haha, I keep trying to change all my songs in a minor key to a major one. During my lesson, it is not unusual for Mrs. Wenger to say several time that IT IS NOT IN A MAJOR KEY. She's really nice about it, though. I just don't learn that it's okay to play in a minor key. :)

Geometry is over!! Finally. We did find my book, too. It was in the closet. I took the semester test just to pass the time and because I didn't want to do the funny looking worksheet everybody else did. I got a 91% on that, but the grade already in the gradebook was the 100%, so I just tossed the one I took this morning. It was fun, anyway, and I finished before everyone else. :)

Now, I suppose I'd better finish school, and dinner's ready. :)

Swing, batter! ...oops, that's baseball. :P

I love basketball. This evening (kind of spur-of-the-moment), the Rippes and the Scobys went into the city hall to play a game of basketball. Well, pretty soon there's five other guys who wanted to play. None of us had any idea who they are, but it was a fun game of ball. Four of them couldn't have been older than thirteen, or else they were small for their age (i.e. they were not taller than I). Even so, it was a very well matched game. The Rippe/Scoby team lost to the Stranger team by one point (29-30). I didn't even know we were keeping score until halfway through the game! :D

School's going alright. I suddenly tired of vocabulary, but then I did more history and Bible, so that's okay.

Jacque's in Louisiana right now, hopefully in Cameron. She'll be gone all week, and while she's gone, I have her computer in my room. Unfortunately, I also have to creat a PowerPoint presentation for the Shakespeare class we've "started." Fun, fun. :P

One Hundred

One hundred posts. Wow, that's a lot. I can't believe I've actually spewed that many words in less than a year.

I went to summer band in Atchison this evening. I've been looking for more of a challenge with my bells and feeling like the homeschool band isn't enough. So I went tonight, and I'm looking forward to all the work I'll have to put into this music.

Two more periods of geometry class, two more chemistry classes, three days until the end of the year program, and two months of school. Actually, I could get school done in a month if I wanted to badly enough.

Psalm 95:

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the desert,

9 where your fathers tested and tried me,
though they had seen what I did.

10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways."

11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
"They shall never enter my rest."

Spring Picnic

The spring picnic was so fun last night. Yesterday, Jacque's car got serviced in the morning. Dad went in over the noon hour and switched it for the Bravada. So Mom took the Concorde into work, which left Jacque's car and Dad's pickup. Since we couldn't fit two drink coolers, and large cooler, bucket of softballs, a box of tableware and hotdog buns, and a crockpot full of baked beans in Jacque's small two-door, we put everything on Dad's huge diesel and rumbled down to Fairview. While most kids ran around in the blazing heat, *martha, *jacquie, and *i (we mixed up our nametags for fun) sat in the shade and ran the softball throw. It's interesting to see that some homeschoolers are extremely athletically driven while others just do whatever strikes their fancy. I most often fall into the latter group. :^).

Eventually, supper time rolled around, and even more families showed up. I was happy to see a family from KC there. It had been a long time since I'd seen them! After a plateful of hotdog, baked beans, and various other dishes, I headed over to the basketball court to see what was happening. I played for a while, but then I finally got thirsty and left after Moose made a basket. Then I came back and watched Austin and Mr. Bryant go at it. Those two are quite the match when it comes to basketball. It doesn't matter that they were on the same team--they're still really good.

I also played a little volleyball and some baseball. I even tried to hit left-handed. I can do that better than I can throw with my left hand. Trust me.

Funny story: Justin was bouncing a basketball around before supper and accidentally hit Liz in the nose. She threatened to take revenge. Several minutes later, Dustin looks over and says to Liz and her sister, "I know what the difference between you two is. Liz is always smiling, and Chris just has this weird look on her face all the time." He put on such a funny face that I laughed. As payback, Liz and Chris decided they should take the boys' food for themselves and make them go to the end of the line (which was really long at that point). However, they must not have liked the food choice because the two girls decided to wait until later to eat. :)

That's pretty much it.

It is amazing who you see and what you learn at Wal-mart. It's also scary what you learn.

Jacque's home.

School's happening.

Yay for homeschool picnics! :)

Another Spring Day

I love spring. It was pretty cool this morning, but it really warmed up this afternoon. After music class, I went outside and enjoyed a game of soccer. In case you didn't know, playing soccer with a bunch of 10-12 year old boys is very scary. No, it's not just scary--it's dangerous. Strangely enough, it's even worse than playing football with them. There was a lot more contact in soccer than there ever is in football.

Guess what? My glasses are officially broken in. I smashed them twice, and they fell off my face twice in that rowdy game of soccer.

Once I warmed up there, I was ready to go. I went to band. According to two of my three sources, band was to begin at 5:30. Austin said it started at six, but I foolishly did not believe him because Mrs. F. said to be there at 5:30. So I went and got there at 5:20. One person was there. I helped him get the microphones working and everything (I talked :D), and finally people started showing up at about 5:40. I finally figured out that we were supposed to be there at 5:30 to set everything up and to start rehearsal at 6:15. If I had known that, I wouldn't have left home before 5:30! I couldn't even go to the library because it closed at 5:00. Oh well, it's over.

Somebody called me a (dumb) blonde today. Can you believe that? :D

Who is my conscience?

The end.

Nearing the Middle of May

Wow, the weather sure has been weird lately, especially the temperature. Tuesday it was kind of hot, and I was in flip-flops most of the time. Mom even turned the air conditioner on! Then today it was freezing. I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt and definitely not flip-flops. Halfway through the morning, Lydia informed us the reason it was so cold in the house: nobody had turned off the AC. Fortunately, it has since warmed up.

I'm doing school--lots of it. Summer, come hither!

I ate fish for supper tonight, and it wasn't that bad. The funny thing is it didn't really smell very fishy. Maybe it's because in comparison to the fish I usually handle (live and slimey) it wasn't very fishy. Or maybe it's because I drowned it in tartar sauce before I took a bite.

Guess who will be home in six days? :D

My Birthday and Surrounding Events Thereof

When I awoke three days ago on Tuesday morning, I soon discovered that we would have additional goats on our farm. What I did not know, however, was that Sparkler was going to have three kids! Unfortunately, two were breech. The vet came out about 11:30 Tuesday night and pulled them. He discovered that while Sparkler was trying so hard to have the first kid, she puntured her uterus. It got infected, and she died yesterday. It was a sad event. On the other hand, all three kids are doing very well. We were all surprised that they made it. Now they're bouncing all over the place. I would put a picture up, but it is unbelievably hard to get a picture with six kids and four kittens. The kittens constantly join in the fray, and Twinkletoes habitually takes her naps with them. :)

Tuesday morning we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was really good, I enjoyed it. Not only was the play funny (Bottom and Puck were hilarious), it was well done. I cannot imagine having the energy of those actors. We should see more plays.

I did have a really good birthday. It is so great to be seventeen! I even got two phone calls wishing me happy birthday, and I enjoyed them immensely. I don't have any pictures of my phone calls.

Yesterday morning I woke up with an incredibly sore throat. It was enough to make me wish it was my birthday every day. I sent my brother to the store for cough drops. He also came back with Mountain Dew and Whoppers. I am beginning to enjoy the taste of Mountain Dew again, but it sure wasn't good yesterday!

This morning, I determined to make everyone believe I was well. We went to hear the Br. Co. extention agent give a presentation on the Columbia shuttle recovery. It was really neat to see since he was pretty heavily involved in it, helping to run the GPS and GIS systems.

Afterwards, I went and picked up my new glasses. They're pretty similar to my old pair except for the fact that the lenses are about twice as thick as before.

Finally, our bathroom will soon be in working order. Yesterday morning I listened to a really loud noise as Dad cut apart our shower. When the dust settled, he set to work putting in our new shower. It is a good deal smaller, but it's pretty and unmarred.

I thus depart to prepare for a pizza party!

What I did today...

I went fishing this evening. Lydia was the only other person who caught more than I did, and I reeled in five fish. Three of them I unhooked myself. :D

1. Lydia: 7
2. me: 5
3. Dad: 4
4. Austin: 2
5. Eric: 2
6. Brandy: 1

Total: 21 fish.

I also went to the optometrist. :(

I'm going to see A Mid-summer Night's Dream tomorrow. The only other Shakespeare play I've seen is Hamlet. However, I have also read Romeo and Juliet and plan to read Julius Caesar--sometime.

"We made it! We did it! Praise the Lord!"

Wow, the musical is finally over. I'm amazed at how well it went and how many people showed up. There were a lot of people there! Austin ran off 99 programs, and we ran out, so we copied off about fifteen more before it started. Many of the audience I didn't know and had never seen before, but that was even better!

Now I'm so excited I don't think I'll be able to sleep! We did it!

Eric is home from Nationals. Everything is back to normal--if that's what you call it.

We will have a decent production of Psalty's Camping Adventure Saturday evening. I'm so thankful for our director; she's done a fantastic job this year. I'm looking forward to seeing the final thing. :)

I'm almost liking school again. I get to write this paper on my family history in English. I didn't mean to make it a big deal, but now I'm going to write about my great and great-great grandfathers. Since I never met them and know very little about them, I'm going to outside sources for help. It's kinda cool, I get to learn about an Irish immigrant.

That's my story.

This Is What Happpened

A New Template and the Art of Writing Book Reports

I tried to play with my template, doing my own colours and everything. Unfortunately, something went haywire between the preview and the republishing. It failed. Now I have a different template, but it is sure to change as soon as I find something new and better. I'm sorry you couldn't read my profound opinions for a day.

Right now I'm writing a report on Great Expectations. I recently realized I do like writing book reports; I just take forever to get into them. When I wrote a report on Oliver Twist, I spent hours and many sheets of paper trying to find the perfect approach. Finally, I ended up writing a three-page evaluation of the characters. This time I'm pointing out the themes in Great Expectations. It should be fun. I remember when I hated writing book reports, especially when I had to tell the plot. I even tried to get Eric to write it for me. He refused. So I sat down and started writing. Eventually, I had a three-page plot and a two-page everything else. Once I start, I have to include every detail, and the words just pour out. It's so fun! :D

Now that I've spent ten minutes describing my delight in writing book reports, I should walk the talk. Oh, joy.

Update!

A certain someone complained that no one had updated recently. In response, I am now updating. However, I think that this certain someone should update and set an example for certain persona in the International Network.

Has anyone wondered why when someone says a pun, he inserts parentheses -- whether or not he intended the pun? It just seems a little stupid to say if he meant to pun on a word because it would be like immediately telling the answer to a joke and forcing everybody to laugh, whether they got it or not. I think that you should covertly insert puns and not point them out for the whole world to see. This way, it's all the funnier for readers.

That's the extent of my opinions right now. The weather outside is sooooooo nice. I opened my bathroom window most of the day and let the cool breeze float through into my room as I sprawled out on my floor with my schoolbooks. It certainly made school more enjoyable.

I did something kinda sorta strange (to some people) today: I read the last quarter of Gone with the Wind, but technically, I've only made it to chapter six. Now I know how everything turns out and don't want to read the middle of the book. I think I will anyway. It's not a hard book to read. I just wish Ms. Mitchell had lived long enough to write another book.

I only have two more music performances before the end of the school year. My antepenultimate performance was Saturday -- a piano recital. It didn't go really well, but I thought I faked my piece pretty well. You couldn't tell how much I goofed unless you really knew the song. I hope not many people did. :P

The Cat

favorite subject

Today my favorite school subject is putting everything away. I know it's lame and not really a subject, but I love organizing all the books and work and packing them away, never to use again. I don't really mind grading, either, but I like recording the grades more. Isn't it so weird? :D

I can do it myself!

As I was cleaning up the dinner dishes this afternoon, I came to the conclusion that everybody, whether he is the president of the United States or a school janitor, has something to prove. He may have to prove that he can lead a nation or keep a clean floor, but he is going to make sure he does a good job. I myself will admit that I want others to have faith in my abilities. I get upset when my sister tries to help me in the kitchen because I want everybody to praise me for my achievements and to see that "I can do it myself!" It's a sinful desire in all our hearts.

One area in which we try to prove ourselves is in salvation. We don't want God to take control and so attempt to downplay the gift He gave us through His Son. The Law, if kept perfectly, provides a way of salvation. However, no one can keep it all because we are sinners. Unfortunately, we are slaves to that Law before Christ intervenes. The point is, we try to prove ourselves competent even in the realm regarding our souls.

As you go about your daily activities, think about your actions. Think about what they mean and if you are serving God with them. If you are not, you are probably serving yourself and trying to prove that you don't need Him and that you can do it yourself.

"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 10:12).

"She Don't Tell Me To"

Every now an' then, on my home,
I stop at a spot where the wild flowers grow, an' I pick a few,
'Cause she don't tell me to.
I go out with my boys all right,
But most of the time I call it a night before they do,
'Cause she don't tell me to.
Sunday mornin', I'm in church,
An' my butt an' my back an' necktie hurt, but I'm in the pew,
She don't tell me to.

Any other woman I know would have tried,
To control me and it would be over.
Plannin' on my goin' on my own way attitude.
All of that stubborness melts away,
When I wake with her head on my shoulder,
An' I know I've got to love her,
Until my life is through,
'Cause she don't tell me to.

Well, I got demons and I've got pride,
But when I'm wrong, I apologise like she's mine to lose,
'Cause she don't tell me to.
Well, I got dreams in this heart of mine,
But nothin' that I wouldn't lay aside if she asked me to.
'Cause she don't tell me to.
An' she don't even know,
That she keeps lookin' for the next right thing to do,
'Cause she don't tell me to.
Yeah, yeah.

Any other woman I know would have tried,
To control me and it would be over.
Plannin' on my goin' on my own way attitude.
And all of that stubborness melts away,
When I wake with her head on my shoulder,
An' I know I've got to love her,
Until my life is through,
What else can I do?
What else can I do?
Whoa, I love her,
'Cause she don't tell me to.
She don't tell me to.

Every now an' then, on my home,
I stop at a spot where the wild flowers grow, an' I pick a few,
Yes I do.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

It's raining, and I just love it! The only bad thing is that we have puddles on the porch for me to mop up. It's a never-ending job. Still, it's raining a lot. I like it.

I finished reading Great Expectations. The end was a little dissatifying, but I don't know how I would have changed it. I really like Dickens when he makes a book really good at the end. Usually the first half of the book is just to set up the story, but then he brings everything together in such and exciting way. I never would have believed Magwitch to be Estella's father. That was just awfully interesting to know that Estella was in fact not of noble birth.

MAACS was great, the retreat was great, and the testing was okay. I'm glad it's all over. Lydia and I would be going to Nationals with the duo in April, but AACS took the piano event out this year. It was disappointing. :( We still have a recital a week from Saturday, then I think I'm accompanying Eric in a recital in less than a month. I really need to work on that! In a little over a month, the music class will be putting on Psalty's Camping Adventure. I don't -- I mean, I know -- we're not ready for that.

I depart to continue mopping...

All the way home I'll be warm!

Testing went well today. I thought the hardest test was the Reading Comprehension, but the others weren't bad. The vocabulary test was super easy. The science test wasn't as easy, but it wasn't bad. I'm glad I'm taking chemistry this year; it helped a lot on the test. Since Dad drove us down (the roads here weren't all that great this morning), we had to squeeze three people into the backseat of the car. I'm sure we all stayed warm. :)

We finally got the schedule for MAACS. Yay! We only have to go down one day. Yay! That's pretty cool. However, that one day is Friday, so we will be late arrivals to the retreat. I'm pretty sure we won't get there before 6:30.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

It's snowing. We didn't go to testing because the roads are so bad. I actually don't think it looks terrible outside right now, but it looked that way this morning, and it's supposed to get worse. However, I still don't believe that we'll get the 12-16 inches of snow that were predicted.

Hey, cool, this means I can get lots of school done today and be even closer to finishing school on time. Wouldn't that be great??

Sad News

Unfortunately, Eric and I are not going to TFY this summer. Since over thirty applied, they turned down all the sophomores so that they would trim the attendance to 26. It's disappointing, but this way I can get a job this summer without taking a month off. Also, I can use this year to grow in my walk so that next year I will be more prepared than ever.

Atchison Auditions went pretty well. I was not overly impressed with anyone's performance--myself included--but nothing went wrong. The judges were very nice, and they didn't say anything very bad (almost everybody got all excellent scores). It just wasn't . . . stellar. Everybody got 1 ratings, but nobody got a 1+ rating. I don't know if those still happen anymore, but it was kind of disappointing. It was just my opinion. However, the event earned everybody a chocolate ice cream cone afterward!

Story!

Today at dinner, Dad was was trying to tell Eric what happened in a movie. This was a heated discussion over a girl's name because nobody remembered what it was.

Dad: Her name was significant.
Eric: Significant? Why was her name Significant?
Lydia: No, Eric, her name was not Significant!! Her name was significant.

the great outdoors...and school

I finally wanted to go outside today. I never really have wanted to before, but it was so nice outside that I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, I had loads and loads of school to do (and still do). So I hastily scanned my chapter in chemistry, called it read, and went outside to play for a couple of minutes. I suppose that means I will be utterly confused in about an hour and a half when we talk about the chapter . . . my fault completely.

One of the reasons I wanted to go outside today was that we have a new mower. It's a Grasshopper, and I love it already! The deck is about 10 inches wider than the John Deere, and the mower has a zero degree turn radius. Sweet! I even got to drive it around some, and that was pretty cool.

Proverbs 23:12--"Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge."

Only about 17 days until the retreat. That's coming up really fast! It's kind of scary, I don't know how we're everything's going to be done by then. I know it will work out just fine, and the pieces are starting to come together, though. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone then!

Skiing was a lot of fun Friday. It wasn't very difficult, either, although I didn't really stay upright well. :P I also have a few bruises here and there and sore muscles, but I want to go again sometime. Maybe we can get the homeschool group to go.

Some of the things I really need to do today include a chemistry test, and English paper, a history paper and test, and practicing the piano. That should last me all afternoon!

I have this really long list of all the things I want to do. Unfortunately, I will never even dent the list. Some of my desires include the following:

• Finish school. I am so close to being done with Typing, and that's cool, but I'm not seeing the end very well in the other subjects.
• Finish reading Pilgrim's Progress. I knew I was bad about starting classics and then never finishing them. I think I'm on chapter 7.
• Write. I had this grand planning at the beginning of the semester that I would write all these papers, enjoy revising them, and they would all be great. The few papers I have written are still hard to read, and they are far from great. I guess I'm still just an aspiring writer.
• I want to research. I want to find out the story behind St. Patrick's Day, I want to know about leaprosy and if there is a cure for it, and I want to criticize Johnny Cash's life. I watched Walk the Line today, if you can't tell.

On a nice note, I get to go skiing tomorrow. That will be fun. I've never been before, so it should be an adventure.

My link of the post is this. It's a link to a website that gives you a bunch of music that is similar to a song or artist's style that you provide. Pandora's pretty cool. I've never heard of some of those artists that they give!

As to my being gone from here for a long time, I've decided that my website is more fun than my blog. On my website I keep lists--lots of fun. You should try it sometime. :) Also, I write very short essays every once in a while that I don't want to get lost in the jumble of a blog. They would fast disappear into the Archives where I would never find them again.

This is Martha's Sister

I didn't take her password or anything like that. It was already in the computer. So, I got on here to change her links, but you know how I am. I can never figure blogger out. I didn't have it long enough to figure it out, so I can't change her links.

All in favor of people who have broken links on their sites change them raise their right hand...never mind...post here and tell us. Great!

Have a nice day! :)

Martha's Sister.

Cake, Anyone?

This afternoon Mom came home and had this craving for chocolate, so she was going to make brownies, especially since Eric needs something for his lunch tomorrow. However, we only had one square of chocolate. What were we to do? I went to the store and got baking soda, then came home and made Texas Sheet Cake (it's chocolate, too :P). However, I wasn't really looking closely at the recipe, so I mistakenly added 1 cup of sour cream to the batter instead of the 1/2 it called for. I quickly fished half (roughly) of the sour cream out and put it back in the container before finishing and putting the cake in the oven. Unfortunately, I had 1/2 c. of chocolate-covered sour cream. Sooo...I made another cake. We have a lot of chocolate cake if anyone wants some. And it's good--I made it. :)

We watched Baby's Day Out tonight after I finished cleaning up my cake mess. It was hilarious. Eric said afterwards, "It had enough slapstick to last a lifetime!" While I wouldn't go quite that far, it was bounteously full of it. Baby Bink was great.

It was nice outside today. At least, I think it was. I didn't actually go outside after it warmed up to 60, but I heard lots about it, and our house was very warm today even with the heater turned down. Our porch does a lot for heating our house. :)

I'm readying Pilgrim's Progress. Let's see how far I progress through the book before I get distracted.

Oh yeah, I told myself I was going to bed early tonight. Oops.

Pictures

Have you any idea how hard it is to get our clothes to coordinate? We three younger kids are getting our picture taken this afternoon, and it is unbelievable hard to find the right clothes. I finally brought down a ton of shirts, and we got something worked out. Mom really wanted us to wear red, but I think Eric and I are wearing blue. Wow, it's hard. Anyway, then Lydia is getting some pictures of herself taken, and then I'm hoping to get some shopping in. Lydia needs some new jeans (she ripped her good ones rabbit-hunting, if you can believe that), and I'm hoping to find some black slacks somewhere. By the time that is all over, everybody will definitely need a chocolate fix. :)

Template

I know my template is really ugly right now, but please bear with me.

Cool Kind of Day

Wow.

Today was pretty cool. I had geometry class this morning, and Lydia had a clinic visit this afternoon. I didn't go--I took Eric down to Rippes' so he could catch a ride to his violin lesson, then I stayed and watched The Parent Trap. It was the new one. Anyway, Lydia's clinic visit went very well, much better than anyone expected. PTL, she's taken off high risk, and now she doesn't have to go down until May. That's really cool. Plus some other stuff that we were worrying about wasn't really that critical. All in all, I think my day has gone well so far. Except that I had to follow this pickup that didn't want to go above 55, and then he turned his blinker on more than 1/2 mile before the exit. There was no other place he could turn off! I finally got rid of him when I turned off, but it made for a longer drive than I thought it would.

Excitement!!!

I am so excited about the skating party Saturday. A whole bunch of my friends are going to be there. That will be so much fun to see them all and talk to them!!!

At the spelling bee tonight, Lydia did very well. We almost had to drag her there, but she beat Justin, which means that she is going on to the Br. Co. Spelling Bee (Justin is, too). Also, I got to compete in the older category. I beat Mr. Ulmer and Mrs. Schmitz, which is exciting. You should ask Austin how to spell umbrella, though. :)

Anyway, Dad just hinted that I should be thinking about getting off the computer--maybe even going to bed. I suppose that is something to consider. We have geometry class, piano lessons, and chemistry class tomorrow.

History

I think out of the 60-some posts I have made on this blog, the title that seems to pop up the most often is about history. I'm actually not doing too badly in the school subject right now--I like my grade, if you really want to know--but I'm still having a lot of trouble enjoying it. I have no fascination with the subject and would just as soon leave the past behind.
However, that is impossible. History is about real people. I was talking to a friend the other day about history, and during that conversation I realized that I should be thankful that all those guys way back then did all the stuff they did so that I could be who I am today. If Edison hadn't created the lightbulb or Paul Revere hadn't made his midnight right; if Calvin hadn't taken his stand against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church; if King John hadn't signed the Magna Carta; if Paul hadn't spread the Good News; if Christ hadn't come down to earth, died and risen again; if all of this hadn't happened and more, I wouldn't be here today. I should be thankful that I can sit at the computer with a light beaming from the ceiling (and the computer screen) with the freedom of speech so that I can write this, um, essay. I should be thankful that someone cared enough to tell everyone that the Bible is the Word of God and that Christ cared enough to give me life.
This morning's sermon was "God Has a Hand in History." Whatever has happened, whether it was two minutes ago or 3000 years ago, God knew what was happening. It was all according to His perfect plan.
The topic for the retreat that our church is hosting in March (hooray!) is the Christian Worldview of history--or something like that. Right now I'm looking forward to hearing about it. In the meantime, I will diligently study my history book and try to remember why knowing the names of Chinese guys is important--even if I will never be able to spell them.

I'm so good. Maybe I should be a detective. :) Actually, I think it's because I can't keep a secret that I can find out other peoples'.

It's really cold out. It was so nice, and then it rained. I suppose I should remember that it's January and there's supposed to be three inches of snow on the ground, but it makes me really want to stay inside. In case you didn't know, it rained last night. Now everything's muddy and cold. Especially when you stand outside for two hours doing nothing.

A while ago, I was reading movie reviews at worldmagblog.com, and I came across this really cool review of Narnia. You can find it at allthings2all.blogspot.com, but you have to scroll down some to get to it. Or you could go to movies.worldmagblog.com and search the archives. Whatever, but I recommend reading it.

Story

I was going to tell you all a story, but I guess I forgot. I guess it wasn't really that funny.

I lost my English paper for a while yesterday, but I found it this morning. I was greatly relieved. Now the computer is getting old and really wants to retire, but we're refusing. Nobody knows how five people would survive on one computer. :P

It's really nice outside. I'm thinkin' maybe I should go outside today, but I don't know if I will.

Aagh! That story is floating the back of my mind, but I cannot remember it!!

Well, I'll tell you about my chemistry test. It was fun. I love doing tests when I know the answers. :) I was doing my history test this morning, there were four essay questions, I wrote three pages.

I can't believe I lost that story! Well, I guess I'll go talk about Rabindranath Tagor (that's what my English paper's about).