*shudders*

I watch movies to escape real life. I DO NOT watch movies to see the hero killed right after the heroine finally gives in and admits to loving him. That was probably the worst movie I've ever seen in that respect.

I have two main rules for entertainment: 1. The good people always live happily ever after and 2. The bad people either realize the error of their ways, or are punished for their misdeeds and rendered incapable of interfering in the happily ever after of the heros and heroines.

Now I'm depressed. Is entertainment supposed to make you depressed? I DON'T THINK SO!

~Lizzie

Weekends are like... 2 days out of 7

So this just randomly popped into my head last night:

During weekdays it's like you're riding around the block of your neighborhood... shotgun in a convertible sports car... with a crazy maniac driving. Swerving all over the place, stopping and starting randomly...etc. On the weekend, your crazy chauffeur stops at your house for a quick break. While you're inside, trying desperately to calm down, and get as much rest as fast as possible, he's still in the car. Reving the engine, blaring music, and occasionally honking the horn. Once your time's up, you're back out there for another go-around.

*is rather proud of herself for accidentally thinking of such a perfect analogy*

--Sarah

Some things should never be shared....

*glares at Sarah* Thanks, but no thanks. (She's sharing her cold.) So now I'm frying myself in my Seahawks sweatshirt, sweatpants and socks and I just had the worst breakfast imaginable.... trying to fix the effects of Sarah's generosity before I actually really get sick. Right now all I have is a slight sore throat.

Here's a picture of my delectable morning meal:

From left to right, we have: a glass of water (for taking the pile of vitamins on the right), a small glass of echinacea tincture mixed with concentrated cranberry juice to disguise the awful taste. Then a glass of grapefruit juice mixed with superfood. *gag* Superfood is comprised of seaweed and orange peels, among other things just as disgusting. And now I'm sucking on a Vitamin C tablet. I think it's supposed to be orange flavored.

And yes, I used three glasses just so I could give you a picture.

So it's only 9:30 and so far my day isn't going so good. Besides the beginnings of a cold, the Hawks baseball game that I was looking forward to was canceled. *pout* And on top of that, the Plugged In Online review for Eagle Eye came out, and it's not good.

*sigh*

~Lizzie

Never watch trilogies..

Pirates of the Caribbean, LOTR, X-Men .... all started out okay/good and ended terrible. It's like the producers go, "Ah, I know, let's sucker some people in with 2 great movies and then bum them out with the 3rd. If we all do it, they'll never suspect that we're intentionally disappointing them, they'll just think it was slump. And then we do it all over again with another trilogy. And what really great is that when the first movie comes out, they won't know it's a trilogy, so even if they figure it out, we can still grab them with the first movie and have them so hooked on the story-line that they'll watch the others anyway, even though they know that it'll be horrible."

The director of the Bourne trilogy messed it up though. He did an entirely good series and woke up the public, and now we can recognize horrible endings. I'm not sure whether or not to be grateful. Anyway, all that to say, *spoiler*

Never watch the X-Men series. At the end of the trilogy, the hero kills the heroine to protect humanity when all he had to do was give her a shot. And it would have been just as easy to give her the shot as kill her. It royally stunk.

I can't believe the ratio of movies I like to movies I despise.

~Lizzie

Radical Wednesday

We had a nice prayer meeting, with only a few interruptions.... David fell out of his chair, (read more about that here) some mature people over the age of 10 were playing with.... shoes. Someone had an unfortunate case of the hic-ups, a stack of boxes were almost knocked over by someone, and another someone tried to steal someone else's keys. All during prayer.

I really enjoyed the meeting though, after we stopped talking about all the disturbing things going on in America, even more so than usual because Mr. M was there and brought his guitar so we got to sing. The M's don't come very often.

Then after the meeting, we were all standing in the parking lot talking (pretending to leave) and two of the *respectable* older boys found... a squished snake. Yep. And then? They picked it up. Yes, with their bare hands. Boys are so weird. And THEN..... the older one (you'd think he'd know better... being 19, right? No.) takes it over to his sister and wiggles it by her shoulder. She and I thought it was fake at first. *I* didn't believe that they were crazy enough to TOUCH it if it was real. So then we realized it was real and freaked out. AND THEY WERE STILL HOLDING IT. *shudders* That is soooo much worse than the typical chase-girl-with-a-frog trick..... UGH!

*shudders again*

~Lizzie

*is proud*

Hannah and I have been trying out for platinum together ever since the spring or so.... and today, we both made it past the 10 50's on the :45!!! I'm so excited, I've been dying to make platinum ever since Joel made it last month.

*sighs happily*

~Lizzie

Mondays.....

It seems like on Mondays everyone's intelligence is lower than normal.... maybe too much TV over the weekend? And I feel so lucky that this universal daze falls on the day that I drive the most. On Mondays I take Joel and David to basketball (and attempt to finish my math book from last year to the sound of dribbling balls and hoarse shouts), then we come home, grab something to eat and I take Joel to baseball practice, drop him off early, and rush to Wake Forest to pick Sarah up from band... always arriving a few minutes late. Then we run errands and go back to pick Joel up from baseball. Today I encountered at least 5 people who didn't know how to drive, and 7 people who couldn't read speed limit signs. Nothing is more frustrating when you're late than to be stuck behind a car that's just coasting around. Hello... the speed limit's 45! Whyyyyyyyy are you going 30?

When Sarah and I got to baseball, Sean was pitching and Mark was batting. Sean threw a ball, and Mark teased, "Air ball, Sean! If it'd dropped down about 20 feet it would have been a good pitch!" A little later, they switched; Mark pitched and Sean hit. Sean hit a foul and Mark taunted, "Is that where you wanted it?" It really cracks me up how the guys are all friends but they still tease each other like that.

Joel's started taking strange drinks to baseball. On the way home he announced that no one has yet managed to guess correctly. "Christian guessed orange juice... and Sean guessed apple juice."
"Well, how are they supposed to know to guess pomegranate and mango juice?" I asked, incredulously.
We're probably the only people in the world who drink mango juice instead of orange juice. Actually, our usual stock of juice includes cranberry, pomegranate, mango and occasionally apple.

Then my day of driving was topped off with a two-mile long line of cars backed up over the 540 overpass, which we cross over on our way home from baseball. We probably sat there in that line of cars for 10 minutes.

I'm looking forward to the release of two movies.... "Eagle Eye" coming out on the 26th and "An American Carol" coming out October 3rd. I don't know if they're going to be any good or not, but the trailers look pretty interesting to me.

Barbie

I was just cleaning off my bookcase and found one of my old Barbies. My sister and I spent hours of our childhood playing with these dolls. I never really understood why my dad disliked them so until just now, when I suddenly realized how fake Barbie looks. And I don't mean in the sense that she's made of plastic.


Everything about her is impossibly "perfect." Impossibly thick and perfect hair, flawless skin, a completely impossible figure (which the dress disguises as more believable) and ridiculously long legs considering her that they are almost 2/3's of her entire height.

This is to show how ridiculously small her waist is.

Her eyes are freakishly huge with a permanent sparkle, her nose too small to allow adequate breath, and her mouth is set off by one perfect tooth. And you can't see it in this picture, but in each cheek she has one perfect, delicate dimple.

This was my "me" doll. Given the unvarying face and figure, what made her "look like" me was the green eyes and red hair. I didn't consciously think it, but somewhere inside, I always thought I'd grow up to look exactly like her, from the large green eyes, nearly invisible nose and perfect dimples to the tiny waist. But certainly minus the plastic lines.

Never mind that as a child I was short, pudgy and had the crookedest teeth ever. Not to mention no sign of dimples (my brother Joel got them). Oh, and did I mention my freckles?

With a role-model like Barbie, it's no wonder there are so many girls who are starving themselves and getting plastic surgery to try and achieve a Barbie-like "perfection." I'm not sure if Barbies are still popular. It's been a long time since I've meandered down the sparkly pink toy aisle at Wal-Mart. But I hope that little girls aren't still being inundated with this false view of beauty. Barbie should at least have room in her tiny torso for internal organs.

~Lizzie

Ugh.

We just finished watching "Middlemarch." I usually like those "Jane Austen-y" type movies, but this one wasn't Jane Austen-y at all, although it pretended to be. It was about 6 hours of absolute torture, for a merely tolerable ending. For the first half, Sarah and I got so tired of it, that we were begging one of the characters to die. And every time the scene changed we would say, "Oh, he's dead! Aw.. no, he's not." He did finally die though, and we burst into cheers. We did the same thing with another character in the second half. A bad guy was going to let another man die, and Sarah said, "Oh, he's bad! But I'm glad he's killing that guy." All the characters were so annoying, I wouldn't have been sad to see the whole town blown up at the end. Or even in the middle to save me all that time. Better yet, right at the beginning would have been good. Or maybe even NEVER MAKING THE MOVIE. That would have been perfect.

I'm not sure what is about Jane Austen, but while her characters have flaws, at least there's something about them that makes me like them anyway. None of her characters are perfect. Except maybe Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But the people in this movie.... ugh. I didn't like any of them. I think Middlemarch might have just displaced 2001 Space Odessey for "the worst movie I've ever seen."

*chokes* Must see Pride and Prejudice.....

~Lizzie

I love......

... sunny days with a gentle breeze and the smell of fresh-cut grass.

... cool nights with a full moon, thin mist hanging over an open field of dewy grass shining in the moonlight.

... throwing my hands out, looking up at the sky and spinning around in a summer rain and getting completely soaked.

... running down the beach at the water's edge with the sun rising and shining on the ocean.

... sitting around a campfire curled up in a camp chair with sparks flying up out of the fire and the stars above.

... drinking hot chocolate and watching snow fall.

... being inside a warm house, reading a book and listening to rain.

... going off the diving boards at the pool until it gets too dark and then hanging out and eating ice cream for another half hour.

... staying up late (early) watching movies and devouring chocolate and sugar just to stay awake.

And a million other things that just seem to make any day perfect.

~Lizzie

My life needs a pause button.

Or, as Monk would say, a 'picture freezer' button....

Recently, it has been brought to my attention (again) that I have not been posting as often as I should be. (read: as often as Lizzie) Therefore, I shall now post a post explaining why I do not post. Ironic, right?

First, I have no time. As I write this I am continually reminding myself of the numerous other thing I should be doing instead.
Right now, I'm in the middle of 3 art projects, need to start 4, and have then all finished by the State Fair deadline. Which is in a little over a week... I think.

Also, I should be practicing flute. Some of you know that I have recently joined the Lighthouse Christian Homeschool band. Having never been in a band before, I REALLY need to be practicing right now. BTW, for anyone who cares: Band is the reason I'll not be at Water Polo for a while. (Who knows how long a while is...)

Tuesday is voice lessons/Broadway dance class/musical theatre, an I gotta practice for that too. *is overwhelmed, and bangs head on desk* .... I decided, I am definitely not a dancer, unfortunately, it a requirement for musical theatre. We're doing "Oklahoma!" BTW. Somehow, it's gonna be made do-able.

Then of course, there's swim team, Radical Wednesday... baseball and basketball (OK, I don't do those, but they still use my time.) Yesterday, I had a grand total of about 30 mins of free time from 6:30 AM 'till 8:00 PM. (Don't get me wrong I enjoyed nearly every minute of it, it just doesn't leave time for posting)

That's just my first reason, but don't worry, that was my main one, the second reason will be shorter. :)

Second, I have nothing to write about. (Have you noticed this post doesn't have a plot??) Nothing worth writing about happens to me that doesn't happen to Lizzie, and we can't post the same thing. *Hehe*

That's it. (See? I told you the second reason would be shorter)

Random Question: does it seen strange to any of y'all that I enjoy mowing the lawn?? My neighbor was making fun of me yesterday for enjoying it. [/random question]

There you have it, in a considerable more amount than a nutshell, the incredible hectic-ness of my life right now, and the reason I have not been posting. Be happy. Be VERY happy. ... or else.

Now, if you will please excuse me, (no applause necessary) it's 6:15, and I have only had half a energy drink, half a 6 inch sub, half a root beer, and a few potato chips. Needless to say, I'm hungry. (ever thought it was funny that people say "needless to say" and then go ahead and say whatever it was that was needless to say anyway?)

--Sarah

Randomness

Whenever someone finds out that I'm homeschooled, the first question they usually ask is, "Do you like it?" with the inflection in their voice making it sound as if they were asking if I liked eating dirt. I always answer in something of a shocked tone. "Yes, of course I like it!" I mean, who wouldn't like not having to get up at 5 to go to a building full of teenagers and a few adults trying to keep their sanity, keep order and cram information into unwilling heads? Instead, I get up with a full night's sleep, eat a leisurely breakfast with my family, do school work at my own pace (actually learning something!) and then head off to swimming/theatre/dance/voice.... where I get plenty of socialization with my friends. The weekends are nice, but I'm certainly not dreading the return of the weekdays like most public-school kids do.

So, I was just musing about how my perception of time has changed. I remember about 12 years ago, on the day after my 5th birthday, I couldn't wait to be 6. (I'm not sure why.) So I asked my mom, "How many days til I'm 6?" And she told me that since my birthday was only yesterday, it was another whole year. And I was devastated. That was like forever. But now, 12 years later, it doesn't even seem that long ago. Now I understand what my parents meant when they said, "Time flies." That used to confuse me so bad. I wonder what changed. Time isn't going any faster than it ever did, but it feels like it is. Perhaps the difference is that when you look back, you remember the good times. And, you know, "time flies when you're having fun."

~Lizzie

Silent readers

I don't try to keep my blog a secret from my friends, but I don't usually say, "Hey, I've got a blog! Here's the address if you wanna read it!" I'd feel weird saying that. But recently, I've been pleased to discover that some of my friends have managed to find my blog. For example, I took my water polo ball to the first practice this week and one of my friends says, "Oh, is that your water polo ball?" Before I said anything. "Yes, it is.... how did you know...??"

So anyway, I'm really happy that you guys are finding it without me having to awkwardly promote my own blog. And all that was to say that I'd love it if y'all would leave comments. You don't have to have a blogger account. If you go to the comments page and click the "Name/URL" button, all you have to enter is a name. You don't have to do a URL. I would be delighted to hear from you!

Also, if you want to comment on an older post, I have it set up so that I get emails notifying me of any comments on my blog, so don't think that I won't see it.

btw, Sarah has a very pathetic lack of posts recently, so I'm inviting everyone to pester her for a post. :P

~Lizzie

Move the Picture 2

Sarah and I went out to get some art supplies and groceries and stopped at the mall just to see if they had any good sales. (They didn't.) And have you ever noticed that people at the mall seem to have a less than average understanding of how parking lots work?? I got stuck with the back of my car sticking out in a somewhat busy area going by the food court because I made the mistake of trying to go down a parking aisle behind a car that stopped in the middle of the lane waiting for a van to pull out of parking spot. Then, after the van finally got out, it was coming our way, but the car in front of me was in the middle of the lane, and I was to the left of them trying to pull in as far as I could and keep my trunk from getting blown off.

So we had a van coming our way and we had the entire lane blocked. The car managed to pull around and get in the parking space, but I was stuck because a huge group of people walked right in front of me, and the van was just sitting there. I could feel the glare. The people sauntered on down the middle of the lane (people walk sooooooo slooooowww) and I finally managed to get out of the van's way. Then I barely inched along as the mall-goers continued to give me no room to get by. I did eventually park. Miraculously.

But anyway, the whole point was to mention the Move the Picture petition of a month ago. A&F still has that picture up. I guess the protesters lost. And I bet A&F keeps that picture up even longer than they originally would have in the first place. "www.movethepicture.com" is a blank page now. They just slunk off quietly like whipped dogs. And really, that seems like how we, as Christians, take everything. We can fight vigorously for a day or two, but when it comes down to it, we usually don't have the endurance, strength and belief in our cause to keep fighting. We just give up.

I hope that changes. We will probably have to fight for the right to homeschool in NC in the next decade. I hope we fight to the end, and never give up. And I hope we win.

~Lizzie

Beach vacation 5

I thought about putting these two quotes on the quotes blog... but I decided that it was a more fitting vacation post.

We went to see Fort Fisher. Sarah climbed up on a cannon and shouted, "Fire at will!" Pretending to be an officer. Then she switched characters. "Who's Will?" The soldier asked.

We went swimming (yep, even with the dangerous rip-tides.... don't worry, a surfer-dude commanded us out of the water - only surfers and lifeguards are allowed in "dangerous waters" - and we obediently didn't swim any more) and David was behind Sarah and I as we tried to get past the breakers. David squawked and we turned around. He had a shocked and terrified expression on his face and he stumbled and almost fell. We got worried. "What???" We asked, as he righted himself. His face contorted. "I stepped on a fish!" He wailed. Sarah and I doubled over laughing. It was soooo funny. But you really had to be there.

~Lizzie

Beach vacation 4

The picture edition...... Yeah, we're home now. Hurricane Hanna forced us home early.

Joel... being Joel.

Still being Joel.

David on the beach.

Sarah taking pictures of the sunrise.

One of the deer tracks.

One of my sunrise pics.

We make shapes with our Bananagrams tiles...

Making shapes. (Not playing the actual game yet.)

Guess what my shape is?

Joel made the White House.

Some kind of shell creature.... they hide in the sand until a wave comes, and then they pop up.. I guess to eat. This was a whole big group of them. I absolutely love watching them.

David throwing sand.

Daddy and Joel playing frisbee.

Sarah sitting with her camera.

I felt like writing my name in the sand...

The sea turtle nest that so unobligingly hatched 15 minutes too late.

Another sunrise.


Two sandpipers.

A tiny lizard... he was about 3 inches long.

My stuff. David and I got skim boards on Wednesday. He learned how to skim board. I tried. After several undignified and somewhat painfull falls, I learned how to do it with only one foot... and hopped along with the other to keep from falling. Hopefully I'll get it eventually.

I got a video of David skim boarding, but I'm having trouble with my video software, so I'll upload it as soon as I can get it fixed.

~Lizzie

Beach vacation 3

Well, I should have known that my luck is way too rotten to work. We started our horrible 15 minute walk down the beach to watch for the turtles, and I noticed a light down on the beach (waaaaaay in the distance).... "wait... that's not the pier lights. AHHHH!! They're out already!!" (The turtle patrol people hold a light out near the ocean because the turtles like to go to the light.) Mom and I had started out ahead of everyone else, so I called Daddy and screeched something about the light. Then Mom and I started running. Daddy said that they would drive. So about 10 minutes later, I finally arrived at the scene of the turtles, with cramps in my legs and completely out of breath. Just in time to see about 6 turtles crawl into the ocean. So at least I got to see them. I know now that they're about the size of quarters. But needless to say, after a total of about 7 hours sitting on the beach waiting for them, I'm completely bummed that I only got to see the last 5 minutes. And what's really annoying is that the turtle people dug them out of the hole early because of the hurricane.

*sigh*

~Lizzie

Beach vacation 2

We saw the turtles last night! It was sooooo cool!!

Well, that's what I should have gotten to say anyway. We went down last night to watch and the turtle patrol man informed us that the nest had hatched about 15 minutes after we left Tuesday night. We sat there for 3 hours and nothing happened... and then as soon as we leave, they hatch. *pouts* And then they told us that they excavate the nest 2 to 3 days later to get the stragglers out and they were going to do that tonight.

We do have another chance though, so we sat with the second nest til 11:15 last night. The turtle people left before we did. Nothing happened. Then, while we were walking back down the beach to our cottage, we passed the first nest (the one that hatched without us) and it had been dug out by a dog/fox type creature. So no excavation either.

Need I mention how horribly disappointed I'll be if we don't get to see SOME turtles?? *sniffle*

~Lizzie

Beach vacation

I'm actually attempting a post, but it might end up really short. However, the aforementioned issues with the laptop have magically disappeared. The 'o' key is fine, and the space bar isn't taking 2 hours to insert a space.

So anyway. After we get home I will hopefully post tons of pictures that will make everyone sufficiently envious. And hey, if anyone wants to come join us for the rest of the week, the lower level of our cottage is available.... :P

Sarah and I got up this morning at 6 to get pictures of the sunrise and then we checked on the sea turtle nests. Last night when we were walking we met some "Turtle Patrol" people sitting around 2 nests, and they said that if we came out between about 8 and 11 tonight and tomorrow night that we'd probably get to see them hatch!! They didn't hatch while we were out there tonight, but hopefully they'll hatch tomorrow night. I just hope they don't hatch NOW. We should be able to get a video too, which I will upload to YouTube and then to my blog when we get home this weekend. That is... if we get the video.

This afternoon we rode the ferry over to the ugliest lighthouse I've ever seen. I've forgotten its name. No real loss, I'm sure. It looked like a glorified light pole. And you weren't even allowed to climb it. The ferry ride was a lot of fun though, and we got some ice cream. :D I think it was Oak Island....

We're having a great time, and I'm soooo excited about the sea turtles. I've seen the nests several times before, with the orange tape and sign threatening a fine of $500 for tampering, but I've never had the opportunity to see them hatch, and I would dearly like to see it.

Oh, and before I go, I have to make fun of the condos next to us. I think they've all checked out now, but when we checked in, there were people jammed into a tiny little pool.... about 10 steps from the beach. Maybe they were concerned about the rip tides.... I'm sure there was a good reason, but it just looked silly. :P

And Sarah and I saw deer tracks on the beach this morning. That was weird.

~Lizzie