Catch Up To My Life

Apologies in advance for not posting for a while and for having a super long post, once again! :0)

Well, I thought was doing pretty good keeping up this blog. Hahaha, that changed over the holidays!
OK, let me try to catch y'all up in somewhat coherent order.
December 13: The Christmas H2O. I'm not posting pictures because this is just a quick run-through on what's gone on. Check the h2o blog, maybe Mrs H2O has updated it! :0) Anyway, it went really well. We played a story game where everyone wrote three lines on a piece of paper, crumpled it, threw it in the middle of the room, grabbed another piece, wrote two lines, crumpled it, threw it, grabbed another, wrote two or three lines for an ending, crumpled it, threw it, and then had to read the next story we picked out. It was hilarious! Some of the stories were incredibly funny. H2Oers should recognize these following quotes:
"Except for the Bear, who came back and killed the king."
"So his master went to his police car, got some tear gas, and...well, let's say the cat never came back."
"She went to her room, pulled her pillow off her bed, and pulled out a bazooka."
"Yes, Dresilla was a vampire fairy godmother."
LOL! I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. We have some strange minds in the group (I mean seriously, turning a fairy godmother into a vampire?!?!? LOL, that’s for you, Justin). Maybe sometime I'll post some of the best stories.
Then we played a gift game. I got to start out, yippee, which I didn't want until I remembered that the first person also is the one who usually gets what they want. So....yeah! The most popular gift was a 12 pack of Mountain Dew, so many people wanted that it was really funny!
OK, moving on...December 19: The BIG Christmas concert, “Amahl and the Night Visitors”. It was a little crazy…OK, so like a lot crazy! We had three performances total that day, with the big finale one being the evening performance. I was so nervous I started shaking. Luke S told me my face was “white. As in the color of my shirt white.” I think the last time I was this nervous was probably my first piano solo at Federation. But, it went off pretty good, there was some miscommunication and all but nothing super serious. And we impressed a few doubters, which is always nice to be able to prove we can do something.

Something really major happened on December 21, but I’m going to devote a whole blog post to it so I’m jumping over that for now.

Hmm…let’s see….the next big event would be January 1^st, the party we had at our house just this past Thursday. New Year’s Day/housewarming/game party, to be precise. :0) The big deal of the evening was the big Capture the Flag game we had once it turned dark. We’d cleaned up a section of the woods (we had help from some of the T crew...thanks!) above our pond and divided it up with glowsticks. Oh yeah! No video game can beat a good game of Capture the Flag! The first game was over so quickly, I really didn’t do much other than work on organizing the border patrol. The second game we played, Mary P and I spent over half our time in the “enemy” territory, wandering around trying to find their “flag” (blue glowstick) and their prison. We found their prison, mainly because I listened to Caleb P and Colin C’s shouted conversation on where to take one of their prisoners. I didn’t even have to follow Caleb. Oh yeah, and we made a jump for the glowstick. Mary actually got it, then got tackled by Colin. She tried to throw the stick to me because I was almost in our territory, but it slipped right through my hands. Sarah S, who was on the other team, picked it up just as Owen mistakenly tackled her. They both landed on me and Colin dogpiled on the top of them.

So of course they decided we were prisoners and had to be taken to prison. Right after we got there, Josh’s time was up so he slipped away, met Sam in our territory, and they decided to rescue Mary and me. They pretended like Josh was a prisoner again, and they went right around Caleb P, touched us, and said, “We’ll be taking them back with us, Caleb.”

Caleb sputtered and grumbled about it but since they played by the rules, he had to let us go! :0) The night ended with bruised shins from crashing through brush piles, scrapes and scratches, and various degrees of soreness, but that was completely OK because it was so much fun!

January 2^nd, we played Frisbee at Willard because it was almost 60, very unusual weather for January but that’s OK cause we had a LOT of fun! :0) We had enough people that we just split into two strings per team and changed each string out every two points, which was fine because it gave me a chance to catch my breath. It was kind of a brutal game—the longest in this group’s history. We played to 23-21 because you have to win by two points. And my team didn’t win. Oh well. It was still fun!

And yesterday, Josh and I went over to the Hs for a surprise 21^st birthday party for Joy. Heehee! Quite a lot of fun…we all lined up on the road by the Hs and waved to Joy as she went past! Once she got over her initial shock, we had cake and ice cream, then we went downstairs and played Mad Gab for a while. That is one fun game! We also played Frisbee, and I got switched to the other team in the middle of the game to make it more “fair”. But that was OK. I didn’t play super well, but I was kinda sore and achy from Frisbee the day before and Capture the Flag before that. Jessi, Colin and Rachel, who didn’t play Frisbee, watched “The Inspector General”, a silly old movie with Danny Kaye in it. I’ve seen it once before, it's OK, one of the types were its best if you stay up late to watch it. :0)

And today…well, I’m working on my writing stuff. So far, I’ve researched a possible market for a devotional I wrote, emailed some interview questions to people, am writing a query letter, have emailed some friends, have posted on this blog, and tomorrow I’m going to sign up for the Writing For the Soul conference in Colorado Springs next month. Yay!

And hopefully later tonight or tomorrow, I’ll fill you in on one of the biggest happenings of my life so far. Until then!

Who Turned THEM Loose on Their Own?!?!?

Yep, I'm sure that's what some people thought. This is the official blog about my graduate group's 2008 trip to Silver Dollar City. What a day!!! It was exactly like an h2o, only smaller but probably just as noisy and rambunctious!
I drove over to Rachel and Colin's house, then together with Liz we all went into Springfield to meet the rest of the group. The Ts kindly let us use their shuttle bus, yay! I was official DJ for the group, so I brought a stack of CDs plus made my own special CD comprised of random Christmas songs from Mannheim Steamroller, Casting Crowns, David Crowder* Band, Kutless, and I don't remember who all else.
So, we all piled into the shuttle bus. Justin was driving (scary thought). Within seconds of him starting the bus, Sarah calls out, "Daddy, I need to go to the bathroom!"
"I thought I told you to go when we stopped last," Justin said.
So then everyone started doing it to Justin. "Daddy, Colin pushed me!" "She's invading my space!" "I'm tired!" "I'm hungry!" "Are we there yet?" "She's still invading my space!" :0)
That was only the start of the craziness. I kept the volume up pretty loud the entire way there and we all enjoyed singing and laughing. The Ts had provided red licorice (SDC tradition), Dr. Pepper, and trail mix. Mary P brought some cookies. So we nibbled snacks all the way down there. Oh yes and listened to a couple of songs from Justin's computer, which were the automated voice from the weather station singing Christmas carols. Someone seriously had way too much time on the night shift! "Jingle....bell.....jingle.....bells....jingle all the....way...." Yeah, it was kinda sad.
Here are some pictures from the afternoon. They're in random order, btw.



Guess who this is. I'll tell you at the end of the blog.


This is Sarah T. Yes I actually got her to try on the leprechaun hat with the beard, it was pretty funny.

This one of Joy is even better. With her eyes crossed like that she looks like a cartoon character.

Yours Truly!
In the Mine Shoot-out ride. Rachel and Colin are in the front (Rachel is on left) Then Joy and Liz in the back (Joy is on the left).

Waiting in line for The Christmas Carol. I don't think the play is as good as when it ran the first year, but Owen and Mary had never seen it, so we had to go see it. And ps, I have no idea what I'm doing, probably showing how big something was in a story. As most of you have figured out I'm like my mom and talk with my hands all the time. :0) Side note: Man, the angle he took this at makes me look super short next to Owen!

The Mine Shoot-out again, me on the far left, Mary's back, and Sarah's hand. :0)

The guys of the grad group, except for Chris C (on the left arm of the chair). We ran into him and he hung around with us for a while. Anyway, continuing from Chris, there's Joel, Owen, Colin...and in the front who else but Justin.

Owen, Mr. I-Hate-Pictures-Taken-Of-Me

Colin and Rachel

A disturbing picture of Justin known as the "disembodied head pic". And no this was not photoshopped. It was in the Mine Shootout, I turned and tried to take a pic of him and Owen. Owen moved, obviously.

Waiting in line for the Christmas Carol again....Owen and Rachel

The girls of grad group. From left, me, Joy, Mary, Liz, Sarah, Rachel in the front.

So yes, needless to say it was a crazy day. Cold, but well worth it. The way home was pretty crazy too, we listened to music almost full blast. Lots of craziness. I got home about 11:30, I think.....I dunno, its been over a week. Then Mom and I stayed up late talking about the day and everything, so it was nearly 1 by the time I got to bed.

The leprechaun picture at the beginning was Justin. Who else?

Coming up next, a post about the h2o!!


(And btw, you may wonder what the video below has to do with grad group. Nothing except Justin was involved in both of them. This is a Merry Christmas video he sent us....pretty funny, actually. Enjoy!)

Concert Jitters

OK, compared to the last couple, this is a pretty short post. Enjoy!

So, this last Saturday was the big orchestra Christmas concert bash! Whoohoo! I am so glad half of my Christmas performances are over!!!!

This year's concert was at Praise Assembly, Siah's church. It's bigger than Asbury, so we could comfortably seat all the performers and the audience for the first time in three years!

My family got there about noonish. I ran up the stairs to the balcony and claimed a spot in the choir section immediately by dumping my messenger bag and coat there. Then I went back downstairs, retrieved the keys from Mom, and went outside to bring in my black skirt for the performance (I was already wearing my red shirt) because of cours being me, I live in jeans so I wore jeans there. I popped the trunk and......no skirt. So I ran back inside and said, "Uh, Mom? I think I left my skirt at home."

"Surely not," she said.

"Yes, I did. It's in my room hanging on my closet doorknob." This is why I dislike performances. There's way too much stuff to remember to get. So Mom called Dad and asked him to run home and get it for me. His truck broke down in the middle of the driveway too, so he had to fix it and get back...sorry Daddy...love you! :0) But because of that, I got to perform the preconcert with the Bel Canto orchestra in jeans! I never thought I'd get to perform in jeans. So that was a nice first.

Coming up next Friday is our big performace at "Amahl and the Night Visitors" which I'm no longer really nervous about, because Saturday we performed the Hallelujah Chrous beautifically! For the Glory was shaky, but all the other songs went pretty well. And the upper classes sounded really good. I didn't get really good sound because I had to sit up in the choir loft throughout all of it (Mom & Lisa M said I looked bored, but its my "listening-to-music" face because I'm concentrating on the different parts to see how they sound) so that was kind of a bummer. Jingle Bell Rock sounded really good from the last time I'd heard it, they were hitting the high notes pretty well. Major improvement. All you guys did such a good job!!

Grandma and Grandpa L came for the concert too, yay! Thank you!

Sunday was the graduate group trip to SDC, which was fun!!! However, I really want pictures, and I didn't get many on my camera, so I'm going to wait and ask Justin and Rachel if I can get pics from them.

Saturday is the h2o, I'm super excited! That's going to be sweet! We're playing the gift exchange game, and everyone's supposed to bring a funny gift that's "new or used, but not alive." So I know that some people are going to bring something dead, that's the way their brains work. I have two sweet ideas and I'm having a horrible time trying to decide between them. Josh and Hannah won't dare do either of them! :0( Oh well........

OK, I'd better get back to my serious writing. See if I can't get a couple of pages or so written today. TTFN!

Thanksgiving Shopping Madness, Christmas Decorating, and Concert Friends

Oh wow! I'm doing a blog post twice in a week's time! What's wrong with me?!?!?!? :0)
OK, so I've been running like crazy this entire week. Forgive me if this is a little disjointed!
OK, last week's wildness started Tuesday. Josh had soccer practice. Now, most kids could just go to soccer practice and it wouldn't be a big deal. But homeschool families turn EVERYTHING into a social gathering. So the entire family goes to soccer practice, except for Dad, who's working. I like going to soccer practice, don't get me wrong. It's a good place to hang out or just write or read. So anyway, we went to soccer practice and also picked up my cousin Joseph. And went shopping. I have a bedframe now, yay!
Wednesday, Josh and Joseph set up my bedframe and we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more! And listened to Christmas music! It was great; my family normally refuses to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, whereas I listen to it year round. But I managed to talk my mom into letting me play Christmas music all day on our living room stereo. Yes! She couldn't believe she was letting me do it. Wednesday night, some more family showed up: Uncle Jamie and Aunt Kristin; Uncle Daniel, Aunt Michelle, Laura, Jenna, Bekka, and John. I chatted with them a little bit. I wasn't in the best mood by that time because Wednesday afternoon, I go a letter from the Christian Writers' Guild that my novel that I submitted for their contest, The Second Crown I: The Quest, hadn't been accepted into the semifinalist round. So I was kinda bummed. But Monica gave me a good kick out of feeling sorry for myself. Now I see the positive side of it. I can put The Second Crown back into one novel, clean it up a bit, and send it in elsewhere. And I know some of you have been asking for statistics, so there were 132 entries in the contest and only 4 made it to the finalist round.
Ennyhoo....where was I? Oh yeah. We didn't get to bed until 12:30 or so Wednesday night. Thursday morning, the rest of Joseph's family (Uncle David, Aunt Karen, Sarah, Emily, Ruth, Lydia, and Luke) came. Thursday was a long day of food and feeling extremely tired because I ate way too much turkey and Frog's Eye Salad (which isn't as gross as it sounds). :0) If it was possible to OD on Frog's Eye Salad I probably did because I hadn't had it in forever. And pumpkin pie. I've been craving pumpkin since October!
I went to bed around 10:30 Thursday night because I wanted to get up early and shop. Which I did. 4:30. That's A.M., for those of you who don't believe that I can even pronounce those words! Mom drove me to Willard, and Rachel C picked me up and took me to Bass Pro Shop where we met Kristin S, Anna, Mrs H, Mrs B, Ashton, Joanna, Jerusha, Liz, and Joy. We shopped there for a bit, then headed over to the mall. I got two pairs of jeans at JC Penny's. Mom, Hannah, Kristin, Jamie, and Ruth joined us, then we went to Sears and found a Snoopy t-shirt I didn't get because I couldn't find it in my size. We went to Mardels after that. Hannah found a really cool long sleeved shirt that says "prayer warrior" on it. I like it! And then to Kohls, where I found a cute plaid long sleeved shirt.
After getting up early, shopping, and eating lunch, we went to play Frisbee!!! Yes, I know we're so weird! We actually had a lot of people there, so we divided into two teams, then divided each team into two and switched out every point. Actually one of our teams was down a girl so Joy, Anna, the S's cousin Abby, and I took turns subbing in. I had a few good plays. I got the Frisbee away from Justin, which made him a little irritated since I'm a bit shorter than he is, and I hit the ground and turned a beautiful backflip, I scored a couple of points, I helped score a couple of points, and I made a beautiful diving catch, my first ever!
After playing Frisbee, as if that wasn't strenuous enough, we went to the T's (Justin, Sarah, and Jake's family) and hung out there all evening. Their house is crazy! The guy who built it had way too much time on his hands. The sidewalk had lots of old coins cemented in it, the wellhouse had bullets and all this weird stuff in it, and the fireplace had coral, shells, and a couple of small statues and stuff cemented in it! I love their house! The living room is this beautiful paneled wood and the house kinda of rambles. I love rambly houses!
After eating pizza, we gathered all the kids (quite a task...there were a LOT of people there!) and went outside to play Capture the Flag with glowsticks. This game was better than the last time I used glowsticks for Capture the Flag (that's when we played at the M's after small group and Josh fell on a rock and had to have four stitches in his knee). I spent most of my time behind the house, holed up behind a tree or in the shadows, watching for my opportunity to catch some of the other team. I never personally tagged anyone, but I did help prevent a few attacks. Jake B and I spent about 15-20 minutes stalling each other, staying on our respective sides of the territory line, but making fakes and trying to get past each other.
We quit Capture the Flag after a while, since quite a few people left, then we tied to play one round of Werewolf, which didn't work so well. So we went inside and played Signs. Mom, Dad, Aunt Karen, and the two younger kids left about 10:00, but the teens stayed until 11 or so. Since it was our first time at the T's, Justin loaned Josh his GPS so we could get back home. Josh discovered he hates GPSs. The biggest thing that annoyed him was one time, we were taking this long right curve, and the GPS kept saying, "bear right." Josh was like, "If I went any more right we'd be in a hay field!"
Saturday, as if the past few days hadn't ben enough, we went bowling with pretty much the same group that had been at the T's. I don't remember what I bowled, because I did horrible, and I don't know what Josh or Hannah did because they were on different lanes than me. Had A good time laughing and talking with Liz, Joy, Mary, and Sarah, though. Afterwards, the Ts, Joy, and the H kids came over to our house to hang out. We played Apples to Apples, which was hilariously funny. I played a really good joke on everyone. All the older kids (Josh, Siah, Justin, Sarah, Joy, and I) sat together at a table downstairs. They all went upstairs at one point to get more food.
I switched everyone's cups around. I was good in the way I did it. I switched mine and Josh's, Siah's and Joy's cause they'e observant, and Justin and Sarah's. Well, Justin comes galloping down the stairs, sits down, and takes a big gulp of "his" drink without even looking. I just busted up, laughing so hard I couldn't sit up straight. He was like, what's your problem? Well, then everyone else got down and discovered the switched cups. Sarah held Justin's cup up and said, "Uh, Justin?"
"Eww! I drank after my sister! Disgusting!" Justin switched their cups back.
"This is going to come back on you, Thea," Joy said as she switched her's and Siah's cups.
"I know. What's the matter, Sarah, you don't like drinking after your brother?" I teased.
"I don't mind drinking after any of my siblings, except Justin. He leaves floaties."
:0) I was rolling! Sarah kinda got me back. While we were all sitting up in the living room, talking to mom and dad, I was sitting on the arm of our couch one minute and the floor the next. She pushed me off the couch! I think that's why I was so sore the next morning....
Yeah! We're nuts! Sunday, we decorated the house for Christmas! Whoo-hoo!!! Mom went crazy, though, this is the first Christmas she'll have room enough to have all of her snowman collection out. I counted she has around 90 snowman (give or take a few, most likely give). We also had small group for the first time in several weeks, which was nice to see everyone and do our Bible study again. I'm missing it this Sunday to go to Silver Dollar City with the graduate group, so it was kinda nice to have it last Sunday.
Monday we did nothing! Except for school, more decorating, and my writing assignment. :0)
Yesterday we went to a Casting Crowns Christmas concert in the evening. They had several other groups with them too, Pure NRG, Avalon, and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Pure NRG was a techno-pop group and I kinda liked them. Avalon's OK, and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra was kinda fun. It was definitely one of the quieter concerts I've been too. We even sat most of the time!! Afterward (we're getting into this bad habit) we went out with the Ts, Luke S, Joy, Siah, and the Ms. At first we were going to go to Braums. So my family, the Ts, Siah, and Joy get to the closest Braums, the same one we've been to several times after other concerts. And as we start walking toward it...zzzzzip...the lights go out.
"Oh great. They recognized us and said, we don't want them back!" Mom said.
Actually it was 10:30, which is when they shut down. So we went to Steak n' Shake instead. I'm actually happy, because I got a huge Turtle Caramel Chocolate milkshake...mmmmm! So yummy! Luke and Jake T named me Turtle, it seems like I'm acquiring nicknames right and left! Oh yeah, Galen was there too. Hehehe, wild. Mom and Hannah were both hyper...Justin kept making Hannah laugh and fall into giggle fits, and Mom just about did once. But he and I were laughing about something one time, and I was like, "You know what, if we don't stop, we're gonna go into a giggle fit ourselves and then we're gonna b teased like crazy." So we stopped. Galen made some comment about snow being in the forecast, then threw a handful of shredded paper all over our table. :0) I sat with Joy, Siah, Jake, and Luke, and I don't remember what we talked about....not much, I think we were all so tired we were silly. I remember something about some medical stuff, which Joy and I cut in the bud b/c we didn't want to get sick over our milkshakes. Oh, something about Jake, yes....but I won't be cruel enough to display his wonderful nickname for all to see. :0) Oh yes, and Sarah joined our table onc her dad showed up, cause Mr T sat with Justin, Mom, and Lisa M.
Then today, we went over to S's and helped get H2O invitations ready. Sound like a full week? It's not stopping yet! Here's the schedule for the next week or so.
Thursday (tomorrow): soccer practice
Friday: orchestra, Winterfest recital
Saturday: End of the year Christmas concert/company
Sunday: company/Silver Dollar City (me)/Small group (rest of family)
Monday: nothing as of yet
Tuesday: soccer/orchestra performance
Wednesday: nothing as of yet
Thursday: soccer
Friday: nothing as of yet
Saturday: H2O!!!!
Then after that, the next Thursday we have Jessi H's graduation! (Jessi's blog is www.anurse'slife-jessi.blogpot.com). And that Friday is our huge Amahl and the Night Visitors performance! At some point I'll try to post about all of our wonderful events, though I'm making no promises until after the holidays.
Ohhhh, the lovely madness of the holidays! Peace on earth?...bah, humbug! :0)

Sugar and Spice, Relatives, and Friends

Well, Friday was our last orchestra rehearsal before Thanksgiving break...then we go back Dec 5th, practice, play that night at Winterfest, and the next day is our big Christmas recital. Should be interesting. I'm really looking forward to Dec 7th, though, that Sunday. Justin and Sarah's family had extra free Silver Dollar City tickets, so we're doing a graduate group trip down there! Yay!! I love going to SDC in the winter, because they decorate like crazy for Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year down there!
But, back to recent events. Saturday, we resurrected the Sugar and Spice girl's group. My mom knows how to weave baskets, so she taught a class for about 20 girls and moms. It was actually a lot of fun. Hannah, Sarah T, and I were supposed to be helping. But I'm not a big basket-making person. In fact I've done it once, and that was a round-bottom basket. The one they made Saturday was a square-bottomed basket. So I had no idea how to do the bottom or anything like that...yeah. So much for my helpfulness! :0) Oh well. I had a lot of fun just yakking with Liz, Joy, Sarah, and another girl named Jordan. Here are some pics:






Explanation on that last pic: Sarah's family brought those yummy stick cookies that I can't remember what they're called...anyway, Sarah made the comment that they looked like cigars. So w took this picture and I photoshopped in the smoke. :0) We're crazy, I know!
I thought we'd have Sunday at home, but Dad changed his mind about going to Iola to meet his family. Mom didn't go because her cold is going to her chest, which means unless she stays out of the cold, she'll get bronchitis or pneumonia again...which I am determined is NOT going to happen this year! So we met Grandma and Grandpa M, Shawna, Jeremy, Jessica, James, and Choppers in park at Iola. We hung out there for a while, playing on he playground equipment and eating lunch, then went over to another park to shoot baskets. We actually ended playing a basketball game--Josh and Jeremy on Choppers, Hannah, Jess, and me. Not cool. They beat us by I don't know how many points. We were too embarrassed to keep score.
On the way home, Mom called and said she'd invited the Sunday Frisbee group over, but just the Ts and Ss were coming. So we hurried home. Mom said the house was fairly quiet until we got there--she said we didn't know that Josh, Hannah, and I could be such a source of loudness! :0) Sam and Josh disappeared pretty quickly to yak in private. So Justin, Jake, and Andrew played Cranium versus Sarah, Liz, Anna, Hannah, and me. Needless to say, the guys lost. Badly. Like they weren't even halfway around the board when the game ended. But it was fun! Liz is hilarious to watch when she's drawing with her eyes closed...she makes all sorts of funny noises! One of the things that the guys drew for us girls to act out (Anna actually acted it out and we had to guess it) was a tornado. :0) Mr. Tornado Nerd himself (Justin) was extremely annoyed he didn't get to do that one! I got a new nickname--Word Nerd--because I successfully spelled the word luscious and spelled backwards the word leisure, both under thirty seconds. I love it! :0)
Andrew and Liz almost had to act out Marilyn Monroe--but Andrew was like, "No, that's too awkward! Draw another card!"
I'm planning another Apricotpie post on my funny fairy tales, entitled "Tips of Etiquette For Princesses" and one of them is something I came up with last night in our random dinner conversation: "When kissing a frog prince, wear lip balm to prevent warts." ! :0) Yes, I admit it, I'm weird. If you haven't read it yet, go over my profile and read my "The True Story of Sleeping Beauty" and leave me a comment! :0)
Ss left about 9. The Ts stuck around til about 10. We showed them the tornado pictures, then just sat around and talked for a while. We all told funny stories...I think my favorite was Justin and his dad shooting their chickens out of a tree with bottlerockets. I told mom I want chickens just to do that! :0) Sarah and Jake just about got to walk home for telling some funny ones about Justin! :0)
So in all we had a great weekend. Next weekend is going to be extremely hectic. Wednesday night we have family arriving, then Thursday more family and Thanksgiving, Friday we're going shopping with some of our friends, then playing Frisbee, then going to the Ts house for pizza and fun! Yay!
The next weekend, we have Winterfest, the Christmas concert, and SDC!!! I love the holidays!!!!

Medieval Ballads, Skits, and Traitors in Our Midst

Oh wow.... :0) Warning, long post ahead!
OK, so the medieval feast that I talked about in last post is officially done. Was, as of 10:30 Saturday night. We had so much fun!!!!!
We'd volunteered (or been volunteered) to help set up. My family got there on the dot, 1:00, and no one else was there, so Mom turned around and went to a gas station to get a coke. Well, diet Dr. Pepper, actually, but I still haven't kicked the Texan habit of saying "y'all" and "coke" for all sodas. Digression.
So we went back to Mt Comfort Church, where we were having this. We were STILL the first ones there, but S's showed up a little later. Both of our GMCs were packed to the gills. We unloaded them, then Jacey D, Joy, and Mary P showed up to help us set up the thing. Mary and I put up the "rock" walls and made sure they'd stay up, while Liz and Joy put paper over the tables and hung the castle banners on each wall. Then we put up the "fireplace" we'd made. Joy arranged a bunch of cool looking goblets, and a scroll of parchment, on the mantel. We hung two shields on either side of the fireplace and crossed a cardboard sword and axe over the fireplace. Then we hung some plastic weapons on one wall and put the other two shields on another wall.
Then Josh, Liz, Anna, Andrew, Joy, and I rehearsed our skit, which I'll talk about in due time. We barely got dressed and everyone started showing up. I couldn't believe it took us that long to set everything up--3 hours! Bu it was pretty elaborate, too.
How many girls does it take to make one wreath for a candle? This was actually kinda fun....

This is putting up the head table's "rock wall". Some of those were a pain to keep up, and every time someone walked by them quickly Mary and I cringed. But thankfully none of them fell. Oh and that's Joy btw.
So for a while, we all mingled and talked. It was pretty sweet, everyone in their medieval outfits and all. I wore my dress with black flats, a tied leather belt, and my vambraces I made. Josh wore his monks outfit, Hannah wore her blue dress with my silver conch belt and blue socks, cause we couldn't find flats big enough for her (actually we found a pair of silver flats that would've looked reall pretty, but they were TOO BIG! for once!) :0)
Everyone had amazing costumes. Joe and Wyatt had found some leather vests and looked pretty good. Monica's dress was amazing...it had huge bell sleeves! So did Mary's. Jacey D's dress was very pretty, and she tied ribbons around her shoes to make it look like she had ballet flats. Very good idea! Galen came as a monk too so he and Josh were joking about being "brothers in the cloth" and such. :0) Kellan came as one of the younger helpers and was the official bodyguard for the head table since he had plate armor and everything. He looked pretty stiff and formal, as you can see below.
Luke wore his "Aragorn" outfit and had given himself a scruffy looking beard. He looked like a good rough-and-tumble mercenary. Sam came as an executioner with a huge axe he'd made and black clothes with a black cowl. He looked pretty intimidating for a while, until he took the cowl off. And we also had a hunchback (Mr. S) a dragon (Owen) a jailer(Arlen) and a samuri (Amos B) to name a few. The guys all had a specific person they were...the girls just dressed up as nobles. Good excuse to wear a pretty dress! :0)
Then we all drew for tables. Each table was given a castle name, and we'd put the castle names in two boxes, one for guys and one for girls. Whatever castle name you drew, you had to sit at that table. Josh got to sit at the head "royal" table, and was chosen for king (only cause Justin T and Joe M refused to be king). Mary was supposed to be queen, but Josh decided that she was his sister instead so it wouldn't be awkward, and besides monks didn't marry. Anna was a princess, Abbi C was a lady in waiting, Justin was some relation to Josh and head steward, and Joe was the king's bodyguard.
In between each meal, people had to entertain. We had thirteen skits...actually, more, because some people did some impromptu stuff. It was pretty neat. Zach and Sam B did a song (it looked kinda strange to have electric bass at a medieval feast, but hey, it was a cool song!).
Then Monica, Abbi, the other Heather (Fopias), Greg, and Mr. T did a skit together that was like all these old people in a waiting room, who had all these funky things wrong wth them. "I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure." "You have amnesia and deja vu all at once!" That kind of stuff. Lots of laughs and I think it was one of the funniest skits there!
Oh, gosh, what was next...oh yeah, Rachel and Colin did something amazing! Rachel "brought" Colin as her pet bear Devin. It was hysterical! (Yes Togo, I know I use that word too much). So their skit was really going on all evening as Colin wandered around stealing people's food and stuff. Colin even stole the king's chicken! Their act was Colin doing all these funny tricks and stuff.
And here's a funny pic of Joe and Colin aka "Devin the Bear". :0) You can't tell but Joe's holding a dagger up, like, "Get away from me, bear!"



Jake B read a love poem, and did really well! Only Jake B would do something like that...
Duncan wrote a ballad about a knight named Sir Slim who had a mullet and didn't live happily ever after because "he was a fairy-tale non-conformist", and it was extremely funny!
Jake, Joe, Wyatt, and Galen were an embassy from a foreign country (Jake and Joe bodyguards, Wyatt the embassador, and Galen the officiating monk) who presented a treaty to Josh...who turned them down! I knew he would too as soon as Wyatt finished reading the treaty because Josh got this huge grin on his face.
Luke and Josiah H did a "medieval" remake of Abbot and Costello's "7x6=28" routine. It was really funny...Luke's costume and accent didn't go together at all, so that made it doubly funny! And Josiah's single act was the recitation of the "band of brothers" speech from Shakespeare's "King Henry V". He did it very well, even though he claims he skipped a line. I didn't notice! And I didn't know he could be such a good speaker! His inflections and motions were great!
Owen came as a "dragon" and did his entertainment outside. He dumped cornstarch in his mouth, lit a torch, and blew the cornstarch into the flame so it made it poof up. It was neat!
Justin, Sarah, and Jake T are in for it with me now. They got their skit ready, and then Justin came out and said, "OK, we need some volunteers." Of course he promptly starts doing eeiny-meeiny-miny-mow on people and "randomly" picks Rachel, me, Owen, and Jake B. I knew as soon as he started coming down my side of the tables, I was like, "Oh no, he's gonna pick me, he's gonna pick me, don't pick me...drat." I've teased him one too many times! So it was "Medieval medical procedures". Scary. As soon as I heard the title I hid behind Jake and Owen. Traitors when they pushed me forward. Then Justin had Rachel read the stuff. Mine was that for some illness or other, I had to close my eyes...and eat a "cockroach". So they made me close my eyes, and open my mouth, and stuffed something in it. I just held it in my teeth for the longest time, until Jake T was like, "eat it, Heather!" It was only a York Peppermint Patty, but I was about ready to shoot them! Then to cure snakebite Owen had to stand on his head, and for something else Jake had to whirl in ten circles while rubbing his stomach and patting his head. Rather comical! :0)
I missed Caleb P's, but it was a tale of him and his faithful companions Sir Ohsis-of-the-Liver, Sir Cumference of the Round Table, and one other guy trying to catch these smugglers.
James' was he played this knight who had a scroll about how to win fair maidens. Every time he tried to compliment a girl using the scroll, though, he messed up and the girl got mad at him! Joy, Liz, and Anna were very brave to do those! Then when he finally got his compliment right, on his own, it was to Rachel. "Say you will be mine!" And Colin from the audience yells, "No!" And Rachel merely holds up her hand with her ring on it! :0) Hilarious!
Mary recited a poem about this man and his wife who had a contest; whoever spoke the first word had to get up and shut the door. It was pretty cute.
Hannah, Jerusha, and Joanna sang a Latin song, Ubi Caritas, and did an excellent job!
And our play was...heeheehee! Joy, Liz, and I were three ditzy fairy godmothers from sleeping beauty. It got messed up because Sleeping Beauty's fairy godfather, Josh, gave her the gift of sensibility where men are concerned. So its about us trying to get a prince (Andrew) to rescue the princess (Anna) though various mishaps like a collapsing bridge that I made with my magic, to the prince catching an alligator, to Fauna the fairy creating rosebushes when she's under pressure. Then at the critical moment the princess rejects the prince and Josh drags him away to our protests. :0)
Joy's parents came halfway through the feast as beggars. The king decreed that they had to perform before they could be allowed to eat. Mrs. H recited a funny poem about being a queen, and Mr H did his egg-in-a-glass trick.
Oh yes, and the best one yet! Kristin read us a deal at the beginning about etiquette and such, and warned us tha there might be traitors and assassins in the feast. Well, then in the middle of the feast, Mr. Storer as a hunchback comes in and denounces Jake B, James, and Justin as assassins. Of course Justin sputtered because he was related and all. They took Justin away to be executed (by Sam, who else!) after Siah jumped on him and blindfolded him. :0) James, Jake, Joe, Luke, and Siah all had weapons drawn at one point ready to do a sword fight when Chip told them not to, and the guys took Jake and James away to be executed too. But the king pardoned them and allowed them to come back to the feast. It was really, really hysterical! We were all laughing and carrying on.
Justin went on the prowl too. Since he was steward, he'd walk behind the tables and he had this fascination with carrying Mary's dagger as he walked. Made some of us rather nervous.
The salt for the meal was put in front of the king and he had to specifically allow someone to use it before they could even touch it. Zach and Sam B ate over half of the shaker full, it was disgusting. And Zach had it once and was shaking it over everyone's food, which was a no-no cause each individual person had to ask, so Joe as the bodyguard went over and took it from him!
Here's some random pics too.

This is Jake, Joe, Wyatt, and Galen presenting the treaty to the king.

This is James eating an apple slice off a dagger, and Jake wondering "Hmm, could I do that?" in the background.

This is Kristin reading us the rules and etiquette of a medieval feast.

Gotta love the intimidation factor here. Luke's the guy with the big knife threatening Justin the guy who's nervously smiling.


:0) It was so much fun! I can't wait until next year. I'm thinking about going as a jester. Whatcha think? :0)
Oh yes, and a quick note: we played Frisbee yesterday afternoon too. The Ts got to play with us, it was so much fun! Monica's brother Rob was in Springfield so he came to play too. Unfortunately my team lost, try 16-21. I killed my hip diving for one that I ended up not catching. Siah and Monica had a nasty collision. Monica popped her neck, back, and one rib out, and Siah bruised his ribs and gave himself a nasty concussion. Ouch! If you want to read their accounts, go to Siah's blog here and Monica's blog here.
After the game, Monica, Greg, Abbi, Fopias, Rob, Owen, Justin, Jake T, Sarah, Josh, Hannah, Mom, Mr. and Mrs. T, and I went to Panera Bread for supper. And coffee. I got a caramel latte that didn't taste anything like caramel. Yucko! I hate the taste of coffee without somehting strong to cover it! Yes, I'm weird in more ways than one. But we had fun just yakking, and Jessi H and one of her friends ran into us there so they ate with us. And afterward, Mom, Josh, Hannah, Justin, Sarah, Jake, and I stood around talking for forever. Those kids are great! They're so funny! And I found out that it irritates Jake to have me yank on his hoodie strings so they're uneven. :0) When we got to Frisbee (I drove Monica's cool car there btw! It handles pretty sweetly) Jake came up to me and said, "You did something to me last night, that I don't remember, but I'm going to gt you back for it!"
"Oh, really? Let me refresh your memory," I said, and yanked on his hoodie strings! :0) Aren't I a turkey?
OK, I think that's all considering it's 11:30 and I'd like to get to bed ometime soon. G'night all!

If You Give A Woman A Screw Gun...

Let me give you a piece of advice regarding the title. DON'T! Just don't. The end result isn't good.
Why? Well......Mom bought me some stuff for my closet, so it actually has some shelves instead of just a clothes rod and floor space. I've actually discovered I can now have all of my hanging clothes out year-round, which eliminates one box of off-season clothing, which gives me more room for my shoes and other junk. Yes, I have a lot of junk, but trust me it's very necessary junk. :0)
So, since Dad's been taking college classes and came home tired (this was Monday night) Mom and I decided, "oh, well, we'll just have him find the studs in my closet for us, then we can hang up everything." Uh huh. Right.
Bad idea.
So Dad got the horizontal stuff up for me, and Mom and I took over hanging the vertical stuff so we could hook on shelves and clothes rods. This is what happened...

It took us about five tries to find the stupid stud for this one piece (the first pic) and the second pic of is some of random holes we ended up knocking in the wall. So yeah. NEVER give a woman a screw gun...at least a woman in this household.
Monday was a success in another area though. We had Joy, Kristin, Liz, Anna, and Mary over and us girls worked on stuff for our medieval h2o! Yay! It's going to be super cool! We made some cardboard "rock" walls to put behind the tables, to hang banners on, and Joy came up with this really neat looking fireplace idea. Then Mary and I painted four shields to hang on the wall (a gold one with a blue cross, a silver one with a red horse's head, a blue one with silver moons, and a red one with gold diagonal stripes on it). Mary, Liz, and I also made some cardboard weapons. I went for the out of the box stuff and made a wavy-bladed dagger and a mace. Yes, the mace is 3d and it looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself. We also tried out some different foods for supper, and Joy made some banners, and Liz, Anna, Joy, Andrew, Josh, and I got a play together. We'll see how it goes.... :0S I've heard so many hints and ideas from people on what they're doing (cause we all have to have some sort of entertainment planned) and I really can't wait to see what strange, crazy, goofy stuff people come up with! I have a few tricks planned too... :0) Of course, Heather can't go without playing some sort of prank!
Mom got my dress hemmed this morning, and it is soooo beautiful! I love it! Can't wait to wear it! I also took an old leather coat I bought at a flea market, and cut the sleeves off, pulled the linings out, took all the stitches out, and made three vambraces. Vambraces are the arm braces that they used to wear around their arms--could be made of leather or metal. Archers wore the leather ones most of the time to stop the string from snapping their arm. Ummm, like Robin Hood or...here's a better example, Boromir in FOTR. He wears some cool metal vambraces. I think Aragorn wears them too in TT and ROTK. Anyway, I made a pair for me and one for my friend Jake B. I helped him and Joe M come up with ideas for their costumes. Oh yeah, and today I helped Andrew S come up with a costume. He's going as a prince. :0) Hannah has a gorgeous blue dress that Joy H is currently finishing for us, made of this thick, semi-slick material that looks like something a prom dress would be made of. Her sleeves are just belled, not slit like mine. I know blue and silver is very typical, but this dress is made for silver to be matched with it! But it's really pretty! She's definitely going as a princess, and wearing my silver conch belt. I'm going as...umm, well, a princess/adventurer. Leather belt, leather boots, maybe my vambraces. Josh is going as a monk. He's got a perfect outfit and everything...and I mean come on, Saint Louie! :0) How did he get canonized before he died?
I'm going to definitely take some pictures and post them. In fact I'll prolly take pictures of all my friends, and some with my friends, definitely. Good food, entertainment, castles, swords, best friends...who needs anything more for a fun night? :0)
What else has been going on? Not much....oh, Josh's soccer team started indoor practic Tuesday. They looked pretty good, from what I watched. And of course the election...gag. Let's skip that. Annoying, plus I don't want to get into it or else I'll start using a sledgehammer, not a crowbar (WVA thing). Just let me say that I found out something Sam S and I agree on (and with our history, trust me, this is a record-making day): Sam and I both voted Constitutional. :0) And I know some of my friends are going ot get after me for it...oh well, taking a stand hurts sometimes.
Mom found this cool quote today in my great-grandpa John T. Holt's WWI diary. He's talking about the war in a letter to his sister:

"One learns and sees something of human nature, life, and things, and I think it should be broadening. There is self-sacrifice and comradeship and I think it should make us better men.
And we all look forward to that day when we again can have peace restored and hope it can be a lasting one so that all the misery suffered by this war shall not be in vain but that the whole world could be the better for it.
We all have our tasks and lessons to learn in life's school; our own roads to travel with its sunshine and shadows...."

My great-grandpa wrote that!!!! I love the last line, especially the "our own roads to travel with its sunshine and shadows..." I want to write a poem with that line in it. I don't think Great-Grandpa would mind if I borrowed from him. :0) At any rate I thought that was a cool, appropriate quote considering the times we're in. Kinda sad that Great-grandpa and his comrades didn't really succeed in making this world all that better. I mean, sure, WWI and WWII would've been horrible had it turned out any other way, but look where we are today. Especially America. Saddening.
But to end on a happy note, I've been only working on my new novel, Roliwyn, for less than 6 months...and I'm already page 115, word count 51, 250! That's close to halfway done! Yes!
Random note before I go: I'm listening to one of my favorite songs from when I was a kid; "Jesus Freaks" by DC Talk. :0)
TTFN! Until whenver I get the medieval h2o post on the blog, at earliest Monday!

If You Give A Guy A Chainsaw...

IF YOU GIVE A GUY A CHAINSAW, THIS...

BECOMES THIS.

OK, quick detour...call me strange, I'm blogging when I should be working on my new novel and I'm eating an ice cream cone minus the ice cream. I love the taste of a plain waffle cone, it's kinda like a burned krumkake (crumbly traditional Norwegian dessert we make at Christmas). But that isn't the real reason for my post. My real reason is that about a month ago, when we did a small group picnic at Fellows Lake, we had designated a day for small group to come over here and help us clean up all those monstrous trees that had been knocked down in order to clear a spot for the house.
So last Saturday, 8:00, here comes the E's van, Uriah M's truck, and the S's van trundling down our driveway, trailers in tow. I wasn't exactly the most "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" (to quote Mary P) b/c I'd been stupid and stayed up really late the night before. Oh well...within fifteen minutes of their arrival, the dads and Luke got their chainsaws up and running...


They zipped through the junk in the middle of our circle drive and down the right side of the house (if you're facing the driveway from our front porch). That left Krystina E, Josh, Joe M, Wyatt M, Caulen L, and me to pick up branches for a burn pile and logs for our firewood piles. Mom came out sometime later to begin burning and Hannah came out with the camera as the "official photographer".
So, I managed to be my usual klutzy self and trip all over everything, prompting the guys to start calling any trip by any person "a Heather". "Oh, you just did a Heather!" Thanks, boys! Joe turned the best one, though. He jumped on a rock that looked solid, and wouldn't you know it was the ONLY one in the ENTIRE woods that completely rolled over. :0) Somehow none of us got seriously hurt. I was very surprised. We had minor injuries...bruises and bumps and smashed fingers and the like, but nothing major.
I earned a new nickname from Luke and Wyatt--Pint-sized Goliath. Oh yeah!
Umm...we forgot about the half-burned logs below the septic field, so when we went to pick all that up...yeah. We looked like we'd been through a fire after we were done. Soot was all over our clothes, in my hair, on every exposed bit of skin...yup! I have a sore shoulder still from a branch coming down on it...thanks to a certain fifteen-year-old who I won't mention his name...*clears throat*... Unfortunately Mom didn't get a picture b/c when we came in to lunch, we all scrubbed it off as quickly as we could. But right after lunch we had to go finish up down there, and by that time it was slightly windy, but pretty hot, and it's dusty down there...so we ended up with soot and dirt sticking to us! "Washable tan" as Togo (Greg T) says.
Mom is a pyromaniac...I warned them but no one would believe me until Jim W saw her heading out ot one of the brushpiles, matches and gasoline in tow. "You use GAS?!?!" he said. Of course she does...the bigger the whoosh the better. Actually, that's Josh. The two fires Mom lit didn't whoosh. But when I saw how much gas Josh was putting on the one he lit, I stepped behind Wyatt. When he touched it off, it made the ground shake and exploded bits of leaves and sticks out from underneath the brush! :0) I think Dad's fire took the prize for the most explosive, though. He lit it about twenty feet off our back deck, and we felt it all the way down below the septic field.
This is taking a break right before supper, from left Wyatt, Uriah, and Jim.
Luke and I fell asleep while waiting for supper, leaning against the dog kennel.


Oh yeah and once the younger girls showed up, Hannah, Alex, Shelby, Amanda, and Sarah, pulled a good prank on me. They effectively gave a sequel to the prank war Hannah and I started several weeks ago, that I'd thought I'd won. Maybe I should post the story I wrote about that...hmmm. That would be kinda fun. Actually I've posted it on Apricotpie, it's "The Great Prankster War" so if you want to check it out, go here.
Anyway, I won't leave you in suspense on what the girls did to me. They hid in my room, and when I came in, chucked cupfuls of shredded paper at me! :0) It was actually really funny, and after that they swept my room for me.
All in all it was a great day, we got a lot of work done along with being able to hang out together. Thanks everyone who came to help us work!!!!!

Maniacal Time of the Year

It seems that the fall is always the craziest time of the year for us...not that the year really slows down much at all anyway. Since July, we have done:
I went to Barnabas for a week, and I got to help Courtney again!!!! It was great to see her again but not so much with everything else. Barnabas has changed a bit and it was kinda disappointing, but I won't dwell on it.
Orchestra started up again....wow! We had a lot more new people this year. Thirty new guitars! We're now overrun with guitars!! :0) The new choir, Bel Canto, is off to a good start this year, and of course we have the other choirs too. Miss Krista, the choir director, asked me to try out because she needed one more alto to fill out the Bel Canto and Concert choirs. I'd told her I'd do it if she needed me but I was kinda of looking forward to not having any classes this year. But it's OK, I'm having fun!
Josh moved up to second chair in the viola section, and Hannah got first chair in the first violin section...oh yeah! I'm going to brag on my little sister a bit. The choir she's in, the Mezzo Singers, perform tomorrow night at a hymns concert with a community and the Springfield Symphony! My little sister gets to sing with the Springfield Symphony backing her up!!! Now is that cool or what?
The goats are fine, Halley, Sirius, Scottie, and Copper are fine...but we added two more puppies to our menagerie. Hannah bought Logan, a full-blooded Golden Retriever, when I was at Barnabas. That's twice now it's happened to me...they got Copper while Josh and I were at Worldview and now Hannah got Logan while I was at Barnabas! But that was OK, he's cute. Right now, he's in this long lanky stage and he keeps tripping over everything. We call him "Moose" cause he's so big. Then I got Bronwen, who is a sweet German Shepherd/Labrador mix. That may sound kinda funny, but she looks a lot like a shepherd except for one ear that droops like a lab's. She's my baby, even though she has this little problem of puddling when she gets excited...yeah, I'm hoping she grows out of it!
We got the house painted! It was great! I didn't like the color Mom and Dad picked out at first, Taos tan, but it looks really cool with green doors and our green roof, though the dream of red doors really died hard for me. :0) The S's came over one day to help us, and we got pretty much one coat all the way around. Then Rachel C came over the next day and she helped us get one coat on the few spots we missed while Dad and Josh got the entire back of the house, which required scaffolding, completely done. Then another day (after waiting forever and again because of the all the rain we had) the M's came over and helped us finish it out. Ummm, imagine Wyatt and Joe and me with paint...bad idea. Bad, BAD idea. I'll leave it to your imaginations to fill in what happened.
We got landscaping, and it looks so nice o have grass growing around the house! Granted there are a few bald spots, but it looks a lot better than just dirt.
The inside of the house is pretty much done too. Mom wants to repaint the downstairs bathroom (after all that work we went to texturizing the paint and everything!) and we have the stairs to carpet and the rec room to paint. Other than that, we are done!!!! Yay!
Now, we need furniture. Mostly Great Room furniture, though it would be nice sometime in the near future to find bedframes for us kids. But yeah, we're all so glad that we're done with the house!
We got a barn put up too, it's really nice because the goats are away from the house and we have a place to store the tractor, the hay, the Suburban "Mater" since we never use it anymore. Very nice.
In a couple of weeks, our small group is coming out to help us clean up round the house, like getting those enormous trees chopped up. Hopefully I'll remember to get some pictures of that (since I forgot to take pics of painting the house) and hopefully I'll remember to post that blog sometime soon after it happened. Hopefully it won't turn out like that non-existent moving blog...*sheepish grin*.
OK, one more piece of news and I think I'm done for tonight...I got The Second Crown sent in! Yay! I think everyone who reads this knows, but for those that don't...I've bee working on the first half, The Quest, of my completed duology, The Second Crown, to get it into the Operation First Novel contest that I could enter since I've been taking my writer's course. I thought I had to get it sent by Oct 1 so it'd be postmarked by then, but about the beginning of September I looked at the rules and found out it had to be IN by then. So Mom and I (with help from Monica T and Josiah H) got it edited in time for me to send it in by September 22nd. I feel so much more relaxed now that it's in and I can take a break from it for five months (I promised Mom no more editing until the results of the contest in February). I'm definitely enjoying the freedom of doing purely the creative side of the writing process right now.
That said, you now understand my title for this post...and I'm going to bed! If you're shocked at the early time I'm going o bed rest assured I probably will not actually fall asleep until 11:30 or later. For you morning people who are reading this...you will never understand. :0)