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!