I am not dead!!

*headdesk* Yep, it's been awhile since I posted: Life. I shall say no more. But, to give you an idea of the goings on...

I would like to call to mind this picture ▼ At the time, I thought it was epic...

But NOW...... pah, not so much.
I would just like to point out that I am now suffering a cold and swollen knee from taking the latter picture. :] Ohh, the things we do for photography. Because of that winter madness, we have been TRAPPED inside for....... awhile. :P Actually, not THAT long, but enough to get to every one's nerves. Thus, we've learned to entertain ourselves. For myself...... I found a couple sharpies *sneaky gleam in eyes.* Is it just me..... or does anyone else get the severe urge to write everywhere when they have a sharpie in their hand?? Haha, no, I've managed to contain myself.... mostly. Here is my main creation:

Yes, I sharpied ALL of that! And even more, but you can't see it all here.

Yes, I like sharpies.

In other news. . . hm, there's actually not that much! I got to see my two-month old nephew for the first time last weekend!! ohmycrunchygoodness, he is ADORABLE! I can't even put into words how much I love this child! I dubbed him my little peanut m&m!

Peanut m&ms..... are amazing! Probably my new favorite candy, next to blue Sour Patch Straws and Reese's cups! I had them when I watched Avatar in 3D with a bunch of friends awhile ago. Speaking of which... well, it was an interesting movie; very sci-fi. My friend claims that they stole a LOT from Pocahontas, but I'm not too sure about that. Home much you like it just depends on personal taste, I suppose. As does everything. My favorite part was easily the glasses we got!! 3D glasses have come a looong way since the red and blue lenses of not-so-long-ago! ▼

▼◄◄

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Yep, that would be moi in the glasses! I actually wore them in public- with no shame whatsoever!!

I realize now that you can see my very unmade bed in the background-if anyone is looking close enough. In my mind, a clean room is a sign of a wasted life! Some questions come to mind as I ponder this subject-
1) Why do we make our beds, as we are only going to crawl into them in a few hours?
2) Is this a worldwide phenomenon?
3) Who decided this should be a regular habit?
4) what prompted that decision?
As you can see, I spend time deeply pondering these issues :D What was another weird rant I had..... oh, I was chatting with a friend the other day, and the conversation came to a halt. As a pickup, my friend asked, "so..... what's on your mind?" me: "cows." Friend: "Cows?" me: "Yes, they are my heroes. Without cows, we would have no milk. Without milk, there would be no ice cream. With no ice cream, there would be no happiness. Our world would thus be overrun by unhappy and- heaven forbid- HEALTHY people with no joy in their lives and our world would be enshrouded by darkness. Cows are therefore my heroes. :)"

My friend was stunned to silence. Yes, this is what I spend my time pondering ;) Just kidding, just kidding!

Well, I'm rather rambled-out now... not sure if that makes sense, hm.. but but but, I do appreciate your taking the time to read my ramblings and rantings! Have a splendiferous day

For the inspirational, novel writing drummers who put peanut butter on their roasted sweet potatoes :)

[[Man, I tried to schedule this post so that it would come out on time, but it didn't work!]]

November :)

• International Drum Month,
• Peanut Butter Lover's Month,
• National Novel Writing Month,
• National Fun with Fondue,
• Family Stories Month,
• Sweet Potato Awareness Month,
• National I am So Thankful Month (Wonder where they got that idea..)
• National Inspirational Role Models month,
• National Roasting Month,
• And several medical-related-things-awareness/appreciation month.

The second to last one... Roasting Month, does this make anyone else think, "THANKSGIVING!?!?!" Ah, I am SO excited! I can't believe the year has gone my so fast! It seems as if the year just started... and then WHAM, it's almost over! It really makes one think about things... appreciating the moment, I guess. Not living superficially, but realizing we can't do anything but learn from the past, and we are incapable of doing anything but pray and prepare for our future. It's a bit like that old cliche, "The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift- that's why it's called 'the present.'"

Tell me if anyone else sees some irony in this. In sports practice today, I bashed my toe when I collided with another player. I was lucky; I only got a [[very painful, albeit]] bruised and swollen toe. I'm not sure what the other player is going through- we crashed pretty hard. The thing is... we were playing volleyball!!! Isn't that supposed to be a no contact sport?! I mean, that's one of the reasons I picked it- minimal running and little-to-no contact. Just goes to show... something.

As for the rest of life... right now, it's lovely. I love life.

{I have to add this: November 4, 2004 - National Chicken Lady Day.

I'm sorry... what??}

[{( And looking back at my first paragraph (about the time flying?), A Dr. Seuss quote comes to mind: "How did it get late so soon?")}]

Post title in process of being created... Once author is inspired with something that fits

Goodness!! I've hardly been a good blog keeper! I am distraught to a point you cannot even imagine over the fact that I haven't posted in several weeks!! I am quite sorry.

Now, I check in to share a couple splendid discoveries:

1~ I think I've shared this with you before, but it deserves repeating: Dipping warm chocolate-chip-cookies in hot chocolate is, in few words, the BOMB.com!!

2~ Not that this a particularly new discovery, but I've appreciated it a lot more than usual lately: Sun shine is wonderful. Period. That's one of the beauties of summer; almost every day (When it isn't SCALDING outside), you can step out into the glorious cheerful rays of the sun. It really helps to lift one's mood, just to step out there for a moment and tilt you face to the sun. (The refreshment is especially welcome when your family keeps the house at the approximate temperature of an ice-box, as does mine. I kid you not, I wear my fuzzy socks and a jacket[s] in the middle of July!!)

3~ Improv Everywhere. Oh my crunchy GOODNESS!!! These people crack me up!!! In their words (From the site):

"Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 80 missions, involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City."

Seriously: they are hysterical!!! I would so do something like what they do!! My favorite is the "Food Court Musical" A couple agents go undercover to start a musical out of nothing in an L.A. Food Court!! PWAHAHAHA!!!! A couple of my friends and I are starting to put something together like this, actually! For more splendiforousness, check out the website, http://improveverywhere.com/!

4~ One of my many new favorite quotes: "A woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man must seek Him in order to find her." I'm not exactly sure who said that first, but PWAAAA, isn't it wonderful!?! So true, and that is what I am trying every day to do!

Numero FIVE!!: I know I had one... waaaaaiitt, what was it???? GoodNESS, I can't stand it when this happens!! I think it was something to do with a musical...? Oh, yes, I finally got to listen to the entire Wicked soundtrack!!! YES!! It is amazing!! I knew several songs already, somehow, but then I borrowed the soundtrack from the library and realized I'd missed a couple... So of course now I'm singing them all around the house, driving my family to the point of critical insanity!!

[Speaking of Wicked, here is another instance of my being incredibly into my music (Recall my former post "Surely I'm not the ONLY one..."): My brother had kindly loaded a couple songs from said musical onto my ipod (as I'm too technologically inept to do such a thing), including "Defying Gravity." Soooo, as I was listening to it on my little musical gadget for the first time... shall we say I lost myself?? In short, I was brought out of my imaginary little world by the sound of my sister laughing hysterically at the sight of me standing on the couch, passionately singing along to the last part of the song. "So if you care to find me, look to the Western Sky..." etc. What can I say? It's the best part of the song. How could I not? *Sighhhh*


That is all for now; dinner is calling my name! But, indeed, I really will try to post more often! (I really mean it this time!! It's just that I don't want to bore y'all with writing that sounds forced...) So, cheerio dear friends and readers!

A Lovely Day...

The sun is shining, the sky is clear, the wind blowing... I suppose that sounds cheesy. Today, after laying out in the sun for awhile, my sister and I went to enjoy some wonderful snow cones in the summer-i-ness of our backyard. (I don't think it is possible to enjoy a snow cone as much inside as you can outside. It's just one of those funny things...) My sister and I put on our snow-cone shirts to boot!!

Before anyone take that wrong (I realize now that that sounds kind of nerdy), let me elaborate; the other day, as my sister, mother, and I were shopping, my sister came across this adorable pink shirt with big white polka dots on it. She modeled it [and I thought it was just darn cute] but wasn't sure she would ever wear it. I think her words were, "Yes, it's [really] cute, but when on earth would I wear it??" And I promptly answered, "When you go get SNOW CONES!! Obviously!! It's def. a snow cone shirt!!" We laughed; because THAT made a whole lot of sense... :) At home, I have my own bright, candy-striped shirt, which makes me feel like a little girl from the sixties, but is soooo fun!! And thus explains, in more words than necessary, the snow cone shirt.

Anyway, after enjoying our snow cones in our snazzy snow cone shirts, we came in and watched "West Side Story". I hear it talked about quite a bit, but I had never seen it before. It was...... interesting. Definitely copy of Romeo and Juliet. The choreography was amazing, however!

Now, I sit here blogging to get out of setting the table. Clever, no? What else happened today...? A-ha!! I was listening to the Christian radio station, and the played a BRILLIANT song!!! It's by Johnny Diaz, and is called "[[There can never be a]] More Beautiful You." Good message!! It talks about how you are beautiful THE WAY YOU ARE!!!!! Boy, do we need that today in some places! The link to the music video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ks3R2BwyO0
Check it out!! Good stuff.

Holy cow, it's dinner time already!! I shall try to post some more later!! Til then...

Oh, once again, if anyone has any musical-theatre-audition tips or songs they cared to share with me, I would really appreciate it! I'm a mezzo soprano... who is reminded she must go to dinner now by the calling of her little brother. Cheerio!!

D

No, not a random title. While I'm bouncing from the moment, I must inform you that in voice lessons today, I vocalized a high D!! To those of you who hit E's etc. with no problemo, this may not seem like such a big deal - but when I started I thought I couldn't go past a C, then B flat, this makes me very excited!!! Anyway, that's all :)

♪♫♥♫♪

Purists and Pirates :)

Two things (Which, being me, are rather random):

1) Being the cookie nut that I am, yesterday was a bit hard for me. I had to make chocolate- chip-cookies from a package.*gasp* Yes, you read correctly; the dough was already mixed and all I had to do was put it on the pan. It felt so wrong. But we were pressed for time... They tasted fine though. :)

Number two
In addition to playing Wendy, I also get to play a pirate named Starkey! Woohoo! Three more lines!!! Fun, fun, fun!

To Let You Know...

Wow. For those of you who have been wondering where I have been, for the past week, I have been attending an utterly amazing retreat. It was a wonderfully deep experience. I truly felt Christ's love and Presence the whole time. I attended with about thirty-forty other girls; we spent Holy Week helping out at local schools, doing door-to-door missions, visiting nursing homes, and several other out-reach activities. But my favorite part was the amazing talks that were given. They really helped me to go deeper into my relationship with Christ. Words cannot describe the amazingness of my experience there. There is so much I could say; so many stories I could tell (Both moving and hilarious), but, somehow, they lose something in the retelling. Ergo, I shall simply simply say that Christ is and always will be my Savior, and my best friend.

.:.:.:.:.

In other news.... I received the scores from the standardized test thingy I took back :D I did pretty well; much better than I was expecting. My little brother SPECTACULARLY with a NINETY-EIGHT percentage score!!!!!!!! That means he is ninety-eight percent smarter that the national average of children his age!!! You can bet we had ice-cream to celebrate that night!!

Also... darn, I knew I had something else to say, but I don't remember it now! Does anyone else find it annoying when that happens? I certainly do.

To occupy my time while I try to remember what I was going to write about there, I shall inform you of my latest interesting word combination : Skulduggery jobbernowl. Yes, it sounds like gibberish, but these are REAL WORDS that I DIDN'T make up!!! Together, the words mean: A devious blockhead. Yes, I know it sounds mean, but I use it only when teasing my friends ;p. It is interesting to see the reaction you get when sounding like a toddler in your everyday speech

!Hmhmhm... I still can't remember what I was going to write about, so I guess I'll wrap this up and write about it when it comes to me. Until then... Cheerio!!

Which in English means...?

Haha, I've been told that I use big words on a regular basis in my daily conversation. I usually don't realize it, but every once in awhile I'll catch myself- as in lunch today.

If you don't know of my natural aversion to condiments, the following won't make much sense, so let me elaborate: I experience a gag reflex at the sight, sound, and/or smell of almost all condiments- especially ketchup, mustard, mayo, and ranch.

At lunch, my father and brother were eating some left over hot dogs with most of "the fixin's" (Mustard, ketchup...*gag*). As I was sitting at the far end of the table from them, I asked, in these exact words, "How can you bear to assault a perfectly innocent hot dog with such horrendous condiments?!" My little brother stared. "In English, that means...?"

I laughed. :)

Days Like This

I love days like this; when the sky is gray and the rain is falling softly upon the earth. The air outside is frigid, but inside the air is warm and welcoming.

On such days, I feel the fictional worlds calling to me. I want to spend the day curled in my fuzzy blanket and spend the day wrapped in a favorite novel (In my case: Narnia, Jane Austen, etc.). Or I want to write stories of my own; undiscovered tales pour from my fingertips to the snowy white paper; unraveling the lives of characters from my imagination that the world has yet to meet.

Or perhaps what I would want is to simply sit and gaze out the window; a warm mug of tea or hot chocolate in my hand, marveling at the wonderful world God has made.

In anyway, this is certainly my favorite type of day.

Random Updates

Whoa!! Oh my crunchy goodness!! I just realized it's been over two weeks since I last posted! Sorry about that!! There's just been rather a lack of anything to write about lately. I have about ten minutes before voice lessons, so here's a quick update on what's going on:

~Rehearsals for Peter Pan are going well- we're in the lovely blocking process. I have my lines (all 30 of 'em) memorized, for the most part, but that isn't the hard part; the hard part is really communicating what my character (Wendy, in this case) is feeling... getting inside her head, and showing the audience how she really feels about such-and-such... But anyway-

~I finished my English book for this school year!!!!! I have mixed feelings about that. I really enjoy creative writing and all, but I don't understand where in the world diagramming sentences is ever going to help me in life!! AH!

~ I have discovered Fiddler in the Roof- maybe one of my new favorite musicals in the world. The music is AMAZING!!!! I am now constantly singing "Matchmaker" or "Tradition" at the top of my lungs around the house... and outside of it :). It would be my dream to play Chava or Hodel onstage!!

~I need to go, but I'll try to write more later!!! Cheerio!

Danger! Danger!

My dearly amazing mother bought two packages of chocolate-chip-cookie dough from Papa Murphy's take-&-bake pizza shop yesterday... it's really good. Now I am only a trip to the refrigerator away from a spoonful of cookie dough at any point during the day! Eek!! I just ate about twelve cookies worth of it after lunch a today. Good time to practice self-control, eh?

TOMORROW!!!!- *Edited

Peter Pan auditions are TOMORROW!!! =D Please keep me in your prayers & wish me luck!

*Edit 2-12-09

Dang, what is it about auditions that make one's self so nervous? It's odd, though, or well, maybe this is normal, but until I woke up yesterday I had no problem whatsoever with the idea! Then when I got up, I was absolutely shaking- more out of excitement than nervousness, I think, but who knows? When the time came to actually read for a part, the butterflies had gone away! Very interesting.... Overall, I think it went pretty well! I don't know that I'll get the part that I originally wanted (Wendy), but there are so many fun parts in this play that I'm sure I'll have a blast; I just love being onstage!! The director said he would post the list on Friday, so I'll let you all know soon what the deal is!! Thank you soSOsoSOso much for all your support!! God bless!! Cheerio!

A Word on Words

Those of you who know me personally may have noticed that me vocabulary is not limited to the English language, or even any written language. I use "my words" (Words that I've simply made up, or interesting phrases that I've heard elsewhere) all the time. I'll also use actually words that you can find in the English dictionary, but that no one seems to know. To name but a few, there are:

-Awesomeness
-Awesomerest
-Ridiculousness (I use that one a whole darned lot)
-Skadoosh
-Flubberbuckets (A term I commonly use when referring to the makers of the "Eragon" film. What were they THINKING?!?!)
-Dandiful (Meaning "full of dandyness- I use it quite a bit)

Actual words that can be found in the dictionary (again, here's just a sampling):
-Collywobbles (Means, can you guess, a stomach ache!!! It's hilarious to see peoples faces when you go up to them and say something to the effect of:" I've got the collywobbles")
-Collimate (To make parallel- I don't use this one so much since there really aren't a lot of opportunities to employ it)
- Shillyshally (An extremely indecisive person-- so me!! My friends and I use this one quite a bit...)
-Fard (Ha HA!!! This is a favorite of my family!!!! Can you guess what it means?? I'll put the answer on the comment board!)
-Dandy. I really don't know how I got started on this one, but I use it on a daily basis
Phrases...

-Grand idear. Man, I mean the looks people give you when you say this!! "Did you just say "idear?" "Yes, i-d-e-a-r, ideeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaarr."
-For the love of cheese pizza!! 'Nuff said.
-Oh my crunchy goodness!!
Aaaannnddd.... I know there's a bunch of other ones, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Oh, here's two other real words: Fantstical & fantasticalnes. I have used these quite often, thinking they were "my words". I put them on an email or something awhile ago, and then spell checked it, thinking that they would be highlighted as an improper word, but they weren't!! So I looked it up in the dictionary, and sure darned enough, there they were!! "Fantastical" & "fantasticalness". Quite the interestingness.

Oh, and just so that we're all aware, "skadoosh" and "awesomeness" were my words long before Kung Fu Panda ever came out!!!! Actually, I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda, but I had been using those words around some one who had seen it, and they said something to the effect of, "Hey, did you pick that up from Kung Fu Panda?" "NO!!!!!" "Oh...well they use those words in them..." Sheesh people!!! What in the heck is up with this?!?! I've got to start copyrighting these or something...

First Freeze of the Year!!

Hello everyone!! It FROZE here the other night; I was sooo excited about it!! And I got some lovely pictures of the ice and such (yeah, I know, I'm a bit of a dork). This may not seem like such a big deal to some, but I was quite pleased that everything looked so lovely. =) Anyway, here they are; enjoy!

The ice hanging off the ladder on the swing set...

^I'm not quite sure what this is; some plant in the backyard, but I liked it. :)

The ground had this cool pattern all over it.

And *cough* the sticks.

I've got to go now, but... yeah, I like winter!! Cheerios!!

Is there something wrong with this??

So, this is a little random, but my little brother just beat me in basketball. Big time. In around the world, H-O-R-S-E, & C-A-T. I beat him in one-on-one only because I'm taller. Anyway, is there something wrong about that?! I believe that I am the only non-athletic member of my family... quite the unfairness. =P

Just have to share this...

Merry Christmas!!

As the title proclaims, I just have to share this: When we were fixing lunch this afternoon, we asked my 6 year old niece what she wanted to eat. It was a little loud & crowded in the room, so we apparently didn't get all of her reply; we heard, "A cheese quesidillia!!" so we made her one. Thus, we couldn't figure out why she was so upset with what we fixed her. "Isn't this what you asked for?" Was asked, indicating the cheese quesidillia. "No, I asked for a cheese quesidillia with no cheese!!"

It just made we laugh. I hope you are having a very merry Christmas!

Pics From The Play!! ( a couple)

As many of you know, I was Mr. Beaver the play "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". These are a little late in coming, but here are some pictures of the production! It was really a ton of fun. Except for my make-up. Which I didn't care for.

The scene with about 90 percent of my lines. Just sitting at the table...

"PETER! Untie him and give him some water!" At which point, during our first show, Peter flung the water canteen into the audience. (on accident) So I was like: "There you go again. (Pause. He wasn't doing anything) Well get it!" The whole audience laughed.

Yeah, that would be the make-up I wore... it wasn't my favorite... (And yes, I took out my earrings for the show)

What is this feeling?

... I believe it's called "warm fuzzy"!! (Prepare for cheesiness)Let me elaborate:
I was on the phone, talking with my very-awesome cousin for like two hours. It was seven or eight-ish. I came down stairs when I was done... to find that my family had decorated the Christmas tree without me. Needless to say, I was quite upset. But then, (as it was my dad & brother who put most of the ornaments on...)being the perfectionist, not to mention girl, that I am, I had to rearrange almost all of the ornaments, which was almost as good. Then, listening to the "Tupperware" tape...

We turned on the tree lights. It was most lovely. It was almost like Christmas morning, the warming feeling you get. It was so... I don't know the word. "Warm-fuzzy" I guess!

Then we all ate a generous serving of peppermint ice cream (bluebell, of course) and eggnog. We the settled down to watch, "It's a Wonderful Life". But I was looking at our wonderful Christmas tree. :) That's all. Have a very merry Christmas!!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

"But the fire is so delightful...
Since we've no place to go;
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!"

Indeed, the weather here is quite odd. Frightful, as I said; so it was dog-gone near 70 degrees yesterday, and today, it is a mere 17!!! Is this not ridiculous?!?! I mean, I wouldn't mind so much if it would at least snow, but it's not even that!! It is just bitter cold. Maybe on Christmas... I'm dreaming of a white Christmas... with every Christmas card I write... *cough* Anyway, I need to get a life; I'm blogging about the weather!!! Sheesh. I'm sorry, I'm probably boring you to death. I'll try to post something worth reading soon. ;)

On Christmas Carols

Well a hello to all!! I was just sitting with my mother, stuffing Christmas cards, eating a "customized" trail mix (pretzels, raisins, marshmallows, and I WOULD have put chocolate chips in there but we were all out! *glares*), listening to the "All Christmas all the time" radio station, and I was inspired to write about Christmas music.

I've decided that there's basically three types:
1: The good ol', everyone knows em, traditional Christmas carols.
2: New, more contemporary, Christmas songs. (Christmas Shoes, Someone Special, Jingle Bell Rock, etc.)
3: My arch enemy. The "Updated" Christmas Carols. Where they take songs mentioned in category 1, change the timing, often certain words, and make it "Their Own". What ever.

I personally prefer the good ol', everyone knows 'em, not messed with Christmas carols. I mean, when they start messing with "Winter Wonder Land," "Here Comes Santa Clause," "O Holy Night," and countless others to the point where you can't sing along because the timing is so different then what you were expecting, you know you've got a problem. (Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the ONE and ONLY full exception, because they *generally* don't mess with the tune; they add electric guitars and what not. It's really cool =D)

Have you heard "Straight No Chaser"? It's a men's A Capella group that apparently just got back together. My big bro introduced them to me when he was home at Thanksgiving. Whilst I was stuffing Christmas cards and eating my trail mix, I heard them on the radio singing "Twelve Days of Christmas". It is probably my favorite rendition of this song that I've ever heard!! (They are, in certain cases, an exception to the category 3 rule.) Here's a link to the video of them singing "Twelve Days of Christmas":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

Less than two weeks til Christmas!! =D

"O, holy night, the stars are brightly shining,
it is the night of our dear Savior's birth"