Shadow

My sister's lovely little cat has been very industriously making herself annoying recently, so as a day-after-Sarah's-birthday post I decided to rant about her cat. As I type, my forearm is sticking to my desk because of some milk Shadow spilled. Excuse me while I go wash my arm and wipe the desk off. Again.

Yeah, so that story deserves a good paragraph. Daddy left a glass of milk up here on my desk when he was doing some work on my uncooperative computer. Shadow decided she wanted to drink and stuck her face into it (no, I wasn't watching..... I've just seen her do it millions of times. Usually to glasses full of water that are on the edge of a table/desk..... Yep. They fall and shatter. So I should be grateful, right? This time it was a plastic cup.....) until she didn't fit anymore, and then she tipped it over. So my George Muller biography is drying out, and I had to "clean out" a whole bunch of papers... lucky I didn't desperately need any of them.

Yesterday morning she brought in a black snake (again, INSIDE the HOUSE!!!!).... which was promptly trapped under over-turned trash-can (by Mom) and there he waited for Daddy to get home. A couple days ago, Shadow brought in a live bird and began tearing out its feathers under David's chair. Again, it was promptly trapped (this time in a empty yogurt container) and replaced outside. (Miraculously, it survived. We think, anyway. It disappeared after a few hours, while Shadow was locked upstairs.) She also brought in 3 rabbits last summer, plus innumerable mice and birds.

Then there's Shadows obsession with clean water. She has this nice metal water bowl. We even sometimes put ice in it (another of her obsessions). As soon as we give her clean water, she drinks a little and then puts her paw in it, and swirls the water all around (naturally dirtying the water with cat hair and such). Then she refuses to drink it.... because it's dirty. When her water is dirty, she licks the faucet to our filtered water (which is gross, because that's OUR water!!).

She also likes to jump onto shelves (usually ones that are mounted on the wall... and NOT with the weight of a full-grown cat in mind! Fortunately, Shadow is pretty skinny, so she hasn't broken any shelves yet, but they wobble precariously, and she usually knocks stuff off of them.

Then she likes to stand on my keyboard, which makes it make annoying noises, like "bonk, bonk, bonk" over and over..... plus she likes to stand on it while I'm trying to type, obscuring my view and usually messing up my typing. She also likes to scratch on the side of my computer, and her claws catch in the cooling fan and make a scalp-tinglingly HORRIBLE noise.

She tries to open doors, which is disturbing because the door handle jiggles loudly and very redundantly.

And last, but not least.... during thunderstorms, she likes to create blood-curdling meows and pace/jump on my bed and crawl all over me. The thunderstorm doesn't wake me up... she does. I don't think she understands that she's SARAH's cat.

Here is a picture of Shadow:


As you can see, she is a black cat, but she is most decidedly blonde.

And after all that..... we love her anyway. *shakes head and smiles*

~Lizzie

Happy Birthday Sarah!

My dear little sister is now 15 (a very scary thought...). It is worth noting that she is also taller than me, an accomplishment that will NOT get her out of being my "little" sister. She has asked for a mall trip and a chocolate chip cheese cake.... So I'll get off to my part of fulfilling her wishes.

~Lizzie

Prince Caspian = Awesome!

So here's my PC review.

Acting: I'm not really great at judging acting, but I thought it was good. Better than the first film. Not awesome though. I didn't notice anything particularly great about it, and nothing made me wince either. The four kids have gotten better at their acting, and everyone else cast were just good actors. It made everything nicer, and less painful than LWW. :)

Directing: I'm not a big fan of Andrew Adamson's directing. There's nothing wrong with it, I just don't care for it.

Digital Effects: These were really good. I have a strange obsession with CG stuff and I always notice when it doesn't look real. I didn't notice anything in this one. Probably the least realistic thing in there was the river god, and he really was OK, 'cause I've never seen a river god other than him. :D
Aslan was amazing. He was so big, and beautiful, and completely looked like he was really there.
There were moments when Reep looked less than perfect, but mostly, he was awesome!
The effects in this movie were better than the first film.

Music (score): I didn't really notice it, except when some one was actually singing. So that a good thing in my opinion. It means that it was good.

Cinematography: Very nice. No complaints on that one. I did kinda wonder about the lighting in the treasure room though...

Adaptation: First with the script. It was cheesy. Not as cheesy as the first film, but still cheesy. There were some good lines, and some funny lines, but they all seemed to have a bit of cheese sprinkled on 'em.
The best lines were the ones straight out of the book. I was so happy when they put Ed's line, "I left my torch in Narnia" in there! Also millions of other little details. The planets crossing paths at the beginning. The fireworks as Caspian runs away. The chess piece. The apples. Ed fighting Trumpkin. Trumpkin shooting the bear. Pattertwig actually being in the movie. Ed delivering the duel challenge to Miraz. Peter hurting his sheild arm during the duel. Peter walloping off the Telmarine lord's head. Aslan saying that because Caspian doesn't think he's ready to be king, he is. Reep losing his tail, and getting it back because the other mice are willing to cut off theirs. And some others I've forgotten.
There were some changes I didn't like, but some made sense. I didn't exactly like the night raid on the Telmarine castle, but if they had put in the movie only what was in the book, it would've been rather short.
Peter's character change I didn't really like. Making him so arrogant... but he got better, and it added drama to the movie. Which could be a good or a bad thing.
The change in Susan I liked even less. It wasn't necessary to make her fight. It only made the movie less realistic. (Like she could really be strong enough to throw an arrow hard enough to kill some one who's wearing armor!) Susan and Caspian's romance I didn't like either. It was very unnecessary. There was some stuff in the book that hinted at then flirting, so that was fine. The kiss was WAY to much though. I just hope that I still feel that Caspian's worthy of Ramandu's daughter in VotDT.
I was very sad when they didn't put the part where Lucy wakes everyone up in the middle of the night to follow Aslan, and Ed is the first to see him besides Lucy. That was a rather big change, making Aslan come in later. It was good, and it worked well. It's just too bad they didn't have that bit in there.
There was also some changes I liked. (amazing, right?) The calling back the White Witch scene wasn't all that different from the book, just more creative. It was a great moment for Edmund too. When he broke the ice, I just felt like shouting "go Edmund!!" Actually, there was alot of parts where I felt like doing that. :D
I imagine that it was extremely hard for them to adapt Prince Caspian, you can just read the book and tell. It's not cinematic at all. So they did good for what they had. Maybe they could've done better, but they did good.
The violence didn't bother me at all. It's nice when the violence is more realistic. It was actually closer to the book that way too.

Costumes: I liked the costumes. Everything was neat and creative. The difference between the Temarine costumes and the Narnian ones was very nice.

Makeup/Prosthetics: That was very nice too. I didn't care for Lucy's hair, but I got used to it fast. Caspians hair could've been dirtier, (the Narnians didn't have showers or shampoo after all.) And Susan's hair at the end didn't look great, (I think I have problems with curling hair) but it's OK.

Overall: It. Was. Awesome. There was a few thing I didn't like, but the huge amount of things I loved made up for them. I wish they hadn't made some of the changes they did, but it'll be alright. Edmund was great!! He is even more my favorite character now. I can hardly wait 2 years for him to be a more main character in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

--Sarah

A business venture....

As most of you probably know, Sarah and I are in a theatre class and we're going to perform "Annie" in June. (June 14 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Tickets are now available if you want to come.....) About 2 months ago, our director, Mr. Green, informed us that the people playing orphans would need to have costumes sewn... the responsibility of the parents or something. In other words, he wants a particular costume, and he's not providing it.

Sarah and I aren't playing orphans, so we didn't need to do a costume and decided instead to help our friends Kara and Rachel with Rachel's costume. (Kara and I did most of the work.... mostly because we only had 2 machines.) We weren't sure exactly how to go about sewing a costume, so my mom taught us how to do most everything. It was soooo much fun! It seemed like a daunting task at first... we had to make a pioneer-type dress, pinafore and bloomers. We had some not-so-perfect moments... like when the first sleeve turned out to be 3/4 lengths when it was supposed to go all the way to Rachel's wrist... and when we nearly died laughing over a mistake which involved sewing across the front of the dress (where no sewing was necessary) but we ended up with a very nice finished product, and we really enjoyed making it.

So we actually decided to make a business out of it. Some of the other orphans in the class haven't started their costumes yet, and we're hoping that we'll be allowed to start our business by making their costumes for them (for a price, of course) but we hope to eventually provide any type of custom order from costumes to everyday clothes. We even have a name, but since we're paying royalties for it I don't think I'll share it until we have it copy-righted, or whatever it is you do to names.... lol. :D

So anyway. I'm really excited about this..... Kara nor I are planning to go to college, so this will be a great way for us to be productive and earn some money while we wait for God to show us the next stages of our lives. I hope it works out!

Some of you may remember my post back in February "Getting Nowhere Real Fast" where I was raving about how confused I was about my future plans. I am very happy to announce that I have felt completely at peace about not going to college for almost a month now. I am certain that God's plans for me do not involve college, and ever since I've released myself from the idea that I *should* go to college I've had all these exciting ideas about businesses and what I can do with my newfound freedom. I can't wait to see what God has for me up ahead.

I'm always coming up with kinda weird pictures to describe mental/spiritual occurrences, and I think I will share this one. All of the options and "shoulds" for my future were in my hands. I was trying to pick through the chaff and the wheat all by myself and asking God to help me separate them. God was telling me to just let go. So then I finally just threw them all up in the air, and God blew away the chaff and let some plump grains of wheat fall back into my open hands. He is so good.

~Lizzie

Grrrrr.

The floor in Sarah's and my room recently became visible (entirely by magic) so I decided to vacuum. I got out our faithful vacuum cleaner, dubbed "The Vacuum of Sauron" by Sarah (can you tell that she doesn't like the vacuum?) and got ready to vacuum. I turned it on and.... something definitely wasn't working.

The roller brush was completely entangled with hair (a disgusting phenomenon that is, unfortunately, almost completely unavoidable when half the people in a family have really long hair). So I grabbed a screwdriver and scissors, and set out to remove the roller brush, clean off the hair and deposit the hair around Mom's magnolia tree (in an effort to keep the deer from terrorizing the poor little tree). I returned the clean roller brush to the vacuum and was about to replace the cover and begin vacuuming, when I noticed that one of those belts (that appear to have no use whatsoever) was decidedly out of place.

Of course, it's in a very small place, and the belt is really tight. I nearly broke all my fingers and 2 pencils before I decided that a very long screwdriver was needed. Let's not go into detail about how long it took to get the belt back on, or how many times I nearly screamed in frustration as the belt was ALMOST in place... and then slid off again. The belt finally back in position, I started vacuuming about 2 hours after I originally came up with the idea. Within seconds, a very nauseating smell that smelled something like something burning filled the room.

I'm almost ready to throw the vacuum cleaner out the window (imagining doing so is very satisfying). I have no idea what's wrong with it. Sometimes it makes that smell when the hair needs to be cleaned out, but I already cleaned out the hair! Maybe the bag needs to be replaced..... but I replaced the bag fairly recently and it usually doesn't make that smell when the bag is full. Urgh. I hate vacuum cleaners. I want wood floors in my room... then I can sweep and scrub the floor. Sometimes I'm certain that I was born in the wrong century.

*sigh* I guess I'll go change the bag. Accursed vacuum.

~Lizzie

> (x) did the quiz thing

I have finally decided to post again. (!) But only because I somehow enjoy putting X's in between parenthesis, so that everyone knows all the completly pointless/stupid stuff I've done. :D

Put an X by all the things you've done and send it to all of your friends. Make sure you send it back to the person who sent it to you!!
> () smoked a cigarette
> () crashed a friend's car
> () stolen a car
> (x) been in love
> () been dumped
> () shoplifted
> () been fired
> () been in a fist fight
> (x) snuck out of your parent's house
> (x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
> () been arrested
> () gone on a blind date
> (x) lied to a friend
> () skipped school
> () seen someone die
> () had a crush on one of your internet friends
> () been to Canada
> () been to Mexico
> () been on a plane
> () purposely set a part of yourself on fire
> () eaten Sushi
> () been skiing
> () met someone in person that you met on the internet
> () been moshing at a concert
> (x) taken painkillers
> (x) love someone or miss someone right now
> (x) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
> (x) made a snow angel
> (x) had a tea party
> (x) flown a kite
> (x) built a sand castle
> (x) gone puddle jumping
> (x) played dress up
> (x) jumped into a pile of leaves
> (x) gone sledding
> (x) cheated while playing a game
> (x) been lonely
> () fallen asleep at work/school
> () used a fake id
> (x) watched the sun set
> () felt an earthquake
> (x) touched a snake
> (x) slept beneath the stars
> (x) been tickled
> (x) been robbed
> (x) been misunderstood
> (x) petted a reindeer/goat
> (x) won a contest
> (x) run a red light
> () been suspended from school
> (x) been in a car
> (x) had braces
> (x) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
> (x) had deja vu
> (x) danced in the moonlight
> (x) liked the way you look
> () witnessed a crime
> (x) questioned your heart
> () been obsessed with post-it notes
> (x) squished barefoot through the mud
> (x) been lost
> () been to the opposite side of the country
> (x) swam in the ocean
> (x) felt like dying
> () cried yourself to sleep
> (x) played cops and robbers
> (x) recently colored with crayons
> () sung karaoke
> () paid for a meal with only coins
> (x) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
> () laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
> (x) caught a snowflake on your tongue
> (x) danced in the rain
> () written a letter to Santa Claus
> () been kissed under a mistletoe
> (x) watched the sun rise with someone you care about
> (x) blown bubbles
> () made a bonfire on the beach
> () crashed a party
> (x) gone rollerskating
> (x) had a wish come true
> (x) worn pearls
> () jumped off a bridge
> () ate dog/cat food
> () told a complete stranger you loved them (for the fun of it)
> (x) sang in the shower
> (x) had a dream that you married someone
> () glued your hand to something
> () got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
> () kissed a fish
> (x) sat on a roof top
> (x) screamed at the top of your lungs
> () done a one-handed cartwheel
> () talked on the phone for more than 5 hours
> (x) stayed up all night
> (x) didn't take a shower for a week.
> () pick and ate an apple right off the tree
> (x) climbed a tree
> (x) had a tree house
> (x) own more then 15 pairs of shoes
> () worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
> () gone streaking
> (x) are scared to watch scary movies alone
> () believe in ghosts
> () have done doorbell ditching
> (x) played chicken
> () broken a bone
> (x) been easily amused (I'm doing this aren't I?)
> () caught a fish then ate it
> (x) caught a butterfly
> (x) laughed so hard you cried
> () cried so hard you laughed
> (x) cheated on a test
> () have a Britney Spears CD
> (x) forgotten someone's name
> (x) French braided someone's hair
> () gone skinny dippin in a pool
> () been threatened to be kicked out of your house
> () been kicked out your house

Also, you can probably expect a decidedly more positive review on Prince Caspian than Lizzie's sometime soon... ish. I might want to see the movie again before I do it. :)

--Sarah

Annual stupidity

It's that wonderful time of year again.... warm weather, breezes, green grass, flowers, bright sun.... and sunburn. Every year I live in perpetual trepidation, anticipating this traumatic injury in every lovely sunny day. And then I get so used to the anxiety that I just forget about it, and that's when the problems begin.

I held on to my fear of sunshine for a commendable amount of time this year. And then one day, our neighbors called and asked to borrow our lawn mower and it became necessary for our grass to be cut as soon as possible so that our mower would be available for our neighbors. So I foolishly decided to cut all of our almost 3 acres of grass.... between the hours of 11am and 2pm. It was a lovely day, not too hot, with a cool breeze and I'd been wanting to attempt whatever pathetic sort of tan a red head can possibly get. I even decided to wear a sleeveless t-shirt since I've gotten slightly sunburned already this year in a farmer's tan pattern.

By the time I got inside, my shoulders were already a frightening shade of pink. And they got worse. By about 5 o'clock that afternoon, every single little movement caused my baked skin to burst into fiery tingles. I couldn't even lift my arms to put my hair in a ponytail.. and my hair brushing against my arm made my skin sting.

You would think that I would have learned my lesson after one such occurrence, but the sad truth is that this happens every single year. Sometimes more than once. It's pretty ridiculous for me to think after nearly 17 years of having the same skin that it will suddenly be able to just sit out in the sun for 3 hours in the middle of the day without frying into a crisp. But every year, that's what I think. "Oh, it'll be fine this time. Maybe I'll just get a little burned." *sigh*

Ever as stupid, but now mostly recovered,

~Lizzie

Prince Caspian

We saw the midnight showing of Prince Caspian (and the theater was almost empty! I expected more fans would be there for the first showing.) and I have now stewed over it long enough that I can write a lengthy opinion on it. Be warned that there are spoilers, and that my opinion is most decidedly negative, so if you haven't seen it yet and hope to enjoy seeing it, please don't read any further.

The very first moments in the movie began destroying Peter and Susan's characters. Susan is looking at a magazine when a young man introduces himself and says that he's seen her around the school that she attends. He asks her name and she lies, obviously in disgust of him. Lucy runs up and calls Susan just after she tells him that her name is Phyllis. Lucy came to get Susan because Peter is in a fist fight. Cops break up the fight, and Susan asks Peter what it was about "THIS time." And Peter replies that the person bumped into him and then demanded an apology.

Peter and Caspian have a very rocky relationship. Both seem to not like the other, and Peter is very arrogant and demands power. He seems proud of his status as "High King" and unlike in the book, seems to want to reclaim his throne, rather than help Caspian claim HIS throne.

Susan fights all during the movie in a very feminist manner, including dive-bombing the Telmarine castle on gryphons. I've never liked Susan very much, even in the books, and the way she was portrayed in both of the Narnia movies so far just disgusts me. I have a lack of respect for Anna Popplewell's acting and everything in the movie annoyed me. Especially how the romance between her and Caspian was played up. She kisses him at the end and I was nearly gagging. Don't get me wrong, occaisionally I enjoy romance, but this... ugh. Anyway. Moving on.....

Actually, not moving on. Now I have to rant about how the romance ruins Caspian before I move on to what else I hated about Caspian. I'm so mad that they made Caspian appear to be in love with Susan. Now I won't be happy in Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Caspian marries Ramandu's daughter, because it will seem like he's being unfaithful to Susan, even if she does drive me crazy. Augh, I can't believe how terrible this all is. I am SO glad that Andrew Adamson won't be doing any more Narnia movies!

So anyway, the rest of what I hated about Caspian. Oh, wait, changed my mind. What I liked will be a shorter list, and therefore easier to write. I actually kinda liked Ben Barnes' acting. Amazingly enough. But I didn't like him as Caspian. I like how he looked. He looks like I wanted Caspian to look. I liked his accent. And I liked when he meets Aslan for the first time, and Peter, Susan, Edmund and he are kneeling and Aslan says, "Rise, kings and queens of Narnia" and Caspian remains kneeling. That was cool. And that's all I liked about Caspian.

I absolutely loved Edmund. That's the good thing about this movie: as much as it made me hate Peter and Susan, it doesn't really matter because they aren't in Voyage anyway. Edmund was awesome. I loved that he helped Peter in his fight, even if the fight was stupid, and I loved when he stabbed the ice that the White Witch was in, and I loved his line after he destroyed the Witch to Peter "I know, you had it sorted" (Peter was gazing at the witch in spellbound stupidity). Skandar Keynes did a great job with his part. And I was ecstatic at the end when they included my VERY favorite line from all the books "Bother, I left my new torch in Narnia!"

Lucy still kinda irritates me. I don't like Georgie Henley. But I liked Lucy much better in this movie, and I anticipate liking her even better in Voyage. She was really cute when the Telmarine army was marching over the bridge of Beruna, and she stood at the other side with her tiny little dagger held up like a sword.

I'm wildly excited about Reepicheep!!!! He was sooooooo perfect!! I've never seen a picture in the books or anything that perfectly captured how I imagined him, but they really did it. He was exactly right. Absolutely perfect. (Infinitely better than the horribly huge costume in the BBC version... *choke*) Everything about him was PERFECT. And they included the bit about his tail, which I had been so scared they would leave out.

I hated that they had a battle at the Telmarine castle (which was a huge failure and made Peter look like an idiot) before having the battle after the duel. I liked how they did the duel. That was pretty cool. The battle afterwards was ridiculous though. There were hardly any Narnians and tons of Telmarine troops and yet somehow the Narnians weren't wiped out.

But as long as I just try to forget about everything that I hated, it's so nice to finally have the perfect image of Reep, and I really liked Edmund. So hopefully, Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which is my favorite book) will be good. I trust Michael Apted to do a good job. (You can't imagine my disgust when I found out that the director of 'Shrek' was going to do Narnia. I hate Shrek.) I think it's set up perfectly for Michael Apted to refresh the series.

~Lizzie

The quiz-thingy that everyone's doing.

Yep, I'm the kind of person that might actually consider jumping off a cliff if everyone else did it too. I mean, if so many people are doing it, there has to be a good reason, right? :P

Put an X by all the things you've done and send it to all of your friends. Make sure you send it back to the person who sent it to you!!
> () smoked a cigarette
> () crashed a friend's car
> () stolen a car
> () been in love
> () been dumped
> () shoplifted
> () been fired
> (x) been in a fist fight
> (x) snuck out of your parent's house
> (x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
> () been arrested
> () gone on a blind date
> (x) lied to a friend
> () skipped school
> () seen someone die
> () had a crush on one of your internet friends
> () been to Canada
> () been to Mexico
> () been on a plane
> () purposely set a part of yourself on fire
> () eaten Sushi
> () been skiing
> (x) met someone in person that you met on the internet
> () been moshing at a concert
> (x) taken painkillers
> (x) love someone or miss someone right now
> (x) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
> (x) made a snow angel
> (x) had a tea party
> (x) flown a kite
> (x) built a sand castle
> (x) gone puddle jumping
> (x) played dress up
> (x) jumped into a pile of leaves
> (x) gone sledding
> (x) cheated while playing a game
> (x) been lonely
> () fallen asleep at work/school
> () used a fake id
> (x) watched the sun set
> () felt an earthquake
> (x) touched a snake
> (x) slept beneath the stars
> (x) been tickled
> (x) been robbed
> (x) been misunderstood
> (x) petted a reindeer/goat
> (x) won a contest
> (x) run a red light
> () been suspended from school
> (x) been in a car
> (x) had braces
> () eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
> (x) had deja vu
> (x) danced in the moonlight
> (x) liked the way you look
> () witnessed a crime
> (x) questioned your heart
> (x) been obsessed with post-it notes
> (x) squished barefoot through the mud
> (x) been lost
> () been to the opposite side of the country
> (x) swam in the ocean
> (x) felt like dying
> (x) cried yourself to sleep
> (x) played cops and robbers
> () recently colored with crayons
> (x) sung karaoke (improvised karaoke!)
> () paid for a meal with only coins
> (x) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
> (x) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
> (x) caught a snowflake on your tongue
> (x) danced in the rain
> () written a letter to Santa Claus
> () been kissed under a mistletoe
> (x) watched the sun rise with someone you care about
> (x) blown bubbles
> () made a bonfire on the beach
> () crashed a party
> (x) gone rollerskating
> (x) had a wish come true
> (x) worn pearls
> () jumped off a bridge
> (x) ate dog/cat food
> () told a complete stranger you loved them (for the fun of it)
> (x) sang in the shower
> (x) had a dream that you married someone
> (x) glued your hand to something
> () got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
> () kissed a fish
> (x) sat on a roof top
> (x) screamed at the top of your lungs
> (x) done a one-handed cartwheel
> () talked on the phone for more than 5 hours
> (x) stayed up all night
> (x) didn't take a shower for a week.
> (x) pick and ate an apple right off the tree
> (x) climbed a tree
> (x) had a tree house
> (x) own more then 15 pairs of shoes
> () worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
> () gone streaking
> (x) are scared to watch scary movies alone
> () believe in ghosts
> () have done doorbell ditching
> (x) played chicken
> () broken a bone
> (x) been easily amused
> () caught a fish then ate it
> (x) caught a butterfly
> (x) laughed so hard you cried
> (x) cried so hard you laughed
> (x) cheated on a test
> () have a Britney Spears CD
> (x) forgotten someone's name
> (x) French braided someone's hair
> () gone skinny dippin in a pool
> (x) been threatened to be kicked out of your house
> () been kicked out your house

~Lizzie

A video and pictures

This is Joel and David, rocking out to TobyMac.

They still don't know that I was doing video.....

A couple pics of the really dark cloud we had on Mother's Day.

Some pictures from the cold and slightly wet baseball game today.

This the cutest kid ever.....

An older kid stole his hat today.... just as a joke, and he gave it right back, but I don't know how he could do it. The worried look on T's little face... *sniff* It was so sad... and cute.
His family better watch out... someday I'm going to steal him. :P

~Lizzie

What a week...

It was quite busy, in a fun way. The only frustrating thing was trying to get all my schoolwork done. Monday wasn't too busy, the only place we went was a Hawks middle school game in the afternoon. But because it was a Monday, I was just unproductive and got hardly anything done. And then Tuesday I got up, ate breakfast and left for my piano lesson, and then went straight to swimming. We came home for a couple hours in the afternoon, and I got some school done. Then we went to a Hawks varsity game (they beat Ravenscroft!), came home and went to bed. Wednesday I got up and got a little school done. Then we left for swimming and water polo, and then went straight to the middle school Ravenscroft game (we lost). We went home, ate real fast, and went to the Wednesday night Radical meeting, then came home and went to bed. Thursday, I got a bit more school done (but somehow forgot my Chemistry homework... urgh) and then we left for swimming, went from swimming to another middle school game, went straight from the middle school game to theatre, and then came home and went to bed.

There's a kinda funny and pretty embarrassing story about me getting lost driving to theatre and consequently, getting my friends (who were following me) lost also and I haven't decided if I want to tell it....

But other than the really boring explanation of all that we did... I don't think I really have anything to say. Oh wait!

Wednesday in water polo, since 4 of the older guys were missing, Coach decided that a boys vs. girls game was in order. It was awesome.... we girls stomped them! Of course, it wasn't really fair, since we had all the older girls, and some of the older guys were missing. But still, we won! 14-4. :P And usually we'd lose, even if some of the guys were missing. We were all excited.

And some more serious (but still happy) news is that I've finally decided what I WANT to do after I graduate. I'm still not sure if I'll actually get to do it, but at least I know what I want to do now.

What? Okay, fine, I'll tell you. I want to stay home, keep swimming and doing theatre, and add in some things I've always wanted to do, like sewing, cross-stitching, basket-weaving, improving my poor cooking skills, exploring interior design and all sorts of things that I've never seemed to have time for. I'd also like to do some traveling.... and I might try teaching beginner piano lessons again. I just don't want to graduate and then tie myself into 4 more years of school-type learning. I want to learn all the things that I've wanted to learn! And anyway, if, by some miracle, I discover that I miss math and science, maybe I'll even do more school.

So here's hoping that what I want to do is what God wants me to do. I feel really peaceful and decided..... we'll see!

~Lizzie

Today was the day.

I sat in my dad's car, palms sweating and talking to myself. "Calm down. You'll be fine! Don't make eye-contact, remember everything you've learned. Focus. Focus......" *insert dramatic action music here*

I called Mom and announced that I had safely arrived. I left my cell phone in the cup holder and hopped out of the car. I grabbed my backpack and followed the swarm of public-schooled teenagers toward what I hoped was Building 200. This was it. The day I'd been dreading. Spending my whole Saturday morning taking the SAT surrounded by "normal" adolescents.

Outside of an apparently locked Building 200 was a very small amount of students. All very calmly waiting for something to happen. I saw a guy chattering with some friends and waving his admission ticket around aimlessly, and my heart stopped cold. I forgot my admission ticket. I ran out to the car, and called Mom, who sent Daddy to the rescue.

I stood on the sidewalk waiting for Daddy to get there and watched what seemed like thousands more test-takers seeping into the school. The calm kids that I'd seen sitting outside of Building 200 were obviously the nerds and geeks. Now arriving were the cheerleader/volleyball/popular girls and football/truck guys. Almost late, they sauntered in with their Abercrombie and Hollister labels, perfect hair, and disdainful looks. I was sure that if they noticed me, it was only to criticize my still-wet hair, Seahawks sweatshirt and old loose jeans.

Daddy delivered my left-behind admission ticket, and I hurried back to Building 200. There were at least 100 people standing outside the building. I stood there in the crowd, feeling short and claustrophobic, wondering if we were supposed to be just standing there. I worked my way to the front of the crowd to see if I could figure out what to do. As I squirmed politely through the throng of chattering American teens, a man jumped up on the air conditioning unit and began shouting something I couldn't hear. "Dude, he should like, get a megaphone or something" I heard from somewhere behind me.

Once I finally got close enough to hear what the man was saying, I understood that I was supposed to go over to an inconspicous wall of the building where I would find a list of groupings and room numbers.

First task: Alphabetically determine where your last name falls and remember the corresponding number (mine was T-801-11). Decipher code (Trailer # 801, room 11) and make your way to your designated testing room.

I found Trailer 801 easily, and room 11 was the first room to the left as I entered the building. I presented my recently aquired admission ticket and photo ID (driver's license) and dropped in a desk with relief.

For 15 minutes, we sat waiting for the last students to trickle in. I amused myself by mentally laughing at all the kids who apparently couldn't complete the first task successfully. "Is this the B's?" a guy asked frantically as we got closer to starting without late arrivals. "No," the proctor replied for what seemed like the 10th time, "this is the H's." "Man!" the student exclaimed as he hurried off. I've determined that the illogically placed information sheet is to eliminate anyone who doesn't listen to the man on the A/C unit.

Finally we began filling in our personal information on the answer sheet and test booklets. This was also amusing, as one of the students asked "What goes in box 9, again?" even though the boxes were labeled. *shakes head sadly* I'm not trying to be cruel... that could have been me. But it wasn't. :P

We finally began the test. To my horror, the essay was first. I had convinced myself that it was best for it to be last.. and it wasn't last. I don't know why I thought it was. The essay was the worst part for me. My writing HAS to be inspired. I write blog posts when I'm inspired... I cannot write on demand. And 25 minutes isn't long enough to write a decent DRAFT of an essay! But 25 minutes is all I had. And I filled a page with my almost-essay.

The other 9 sections went fairly well. They weren't as hard as I was expecting. Some of the math was even kinda easy.... most of it wasn't though. The worst part was trying to concentrate and not throw in the towel during nearly 5 hours of filling in circles. And the breaks were ridiculously short. I went out in the hall to eat my snack, and almost got left out! The proctor closed the door on me and I had to rush in to keep them from starting back without me.

When the test was finally over we signed a statement promising not to discuss the problems or essay questions until we got our scores and then were dismissed. I ran to the parking lot in hopes of getting out before the parking lot was crowded with all the other kids leaving. No such luck. It actually took me 10 minutes just to get on the road.

Now I intend to relax. I'm immensely relieved that that is over, and even if I got a horrible score, I'm never going to take the SATs again! Never, ever, ever. I'm really not sure why I took it, because now that I've finally convinced myself that I have the freedom to not go to college if I so choose, I'm determined that I don't want to go to college.

~Lizzie

Unpleasant surprise

Yesterday morning I checked my email, and there was an email from CollegeBoard labeled "Your SAT Admission Ticket." "Hmm," I thought, "I wonder why they're sending it so early. I'm not signed up for the SAT until June." So I opened the email. And woe is me, somehow I forgot which date we had decided on... and I'm actually signed up to take the SAT THIS SATURDAY!!

I guess I can take it this Saturday, but I was thinking that I would take it in June, so now I am unsettled at having to take it so suddenly and I was hoping to find that one of my friends might be taking the SAT at the same time and at the same test center so that I could have a fellow homeschooler as I traverse temporarily into the world of public-schooled people. But alas, so far I have not found someone.

I'm scared... I hate taking tests.

~Lizzie