Oh, the wonders of Plantain!

I was innocently yard-saling with Mom this morning (early, before we went over the JCHE conference and book sale... more on that in a bit...) and saw this lovely desk. As I wove through furniture to look at it, I suddenly felt a pain in my ankle, much like a piece of glass being stabbed into my skin, and then scraped in a circular motion underneath the skin around the stabbing point. I yelped, and bent over to brush/scrape/ANYTHING to remove the source of pain. But as I leaned over, I felt a tingling, prickling sensation all over my body, and then I realized I was sitting on the tarp that was laid out for the yard sale. The wound on my ankle was throbbing, and with each throb, it felt like I was being stabbed with the piece of glass again. At that point, I was too confused and terrified to care what it was that had bitten or stung me (I knew it wasn't actually a piece of glass) I just wanted the stabbing to stop. I was rubbing the injury unconsciously, not knowing whether it was the wise thing to do or not.

Mom located the bee, which I'd killed in frantic attempt to stop the pain. Apparently it was some sort of ground bee (the tarp was probably placed over its hive, and I was perceived as the threat) and it left a round hole in my skin, much like some sort of bite or something. It was raw, almost bleeding, and the area around it on that side of my ankle was becoming red and swollen, while a smaller, white circle was expanding around the red welt. This was, by far, the most painful bee sting I have every experienced. Regular, fuzzy, bumblebee stings are NOTHING compared to this.

I was terrified almost to hysteria to notice another such bee buzzing around me as I sat on the tarp in my bewildered pain, and I leapt to my feet and ran from the yard sale (without getting to check out the desk I was going for in the first place...). Mom followed, more sanely and looking for plantain.

Now, for those who may not know, plantain is what most Americans consider "a weed." But plantain is in fact a very useful herb, which my family uses constantly on mosquito bites, fly bites or any kind of bite or sting. It removes the poison and instantly begins to bring relief.

Unfortunately for me, however, this neighborhood appeared to be the typical American neighborhood in which everyone uses some kind of weed killer, and therefore has nothing but grass in the yards. We searched, with yard-sales in between, for possibly ten to fifteen minutes (maybe less, but it seemed like longer to me) before finally finding some in a wild area which appeared to belong to no one. At least, no one was cutting the grass, and no one was spraying weed killer. The plantain was very small, but I was so overcome with relief that I didn't care. I picked all the leaves, chewed them, and spit them on the sting.

That may sound disgusting, but you try getting stung by a ground bee and see what you'll do to ease the pain.

We continued yard-saling, and every time I saw more plantain, I'd pick it, chew it up and add it to my poultice.


The leaves aren't very well chewed up here. Mostly because I was too anxious to get them on my ankle, but also because they don't taste that great. This picture includes the first and second doses. The first dose was barely enough to cover the welt. The second dose covered the red, swollen area. At this point I was feeling well enough to think of blogging and taking pictures, which I think relieved Mom.

A little later, we were going close by our house anyway, so we stopped to pick a BUNCH of plantain (which I chewed VERY well), and apply it along with plastic wrap and an Ace bandage (just to hold it in place) so that I could yard sale some more instead of just sitting in the car while Mom shopped.

And wouldn't you know it... after all those weeks of me wearing an Ace bandage because I actually sprained my ankle, the first time a stranger says, "Oh, did you sprain your ankle?" I'm caught unawares, and end up blabbering something about a bee sting and "stuff" to "help it." Why didn't they ask when I could just answer a simple, "Yes"?

So anyway. I survived and Mom and I made it over to the conference. I hung out with Daddy and the boys until the late afternoon at the table promoting Christian Community Sports... featuring a poster board of pictures and info put together by Sarah and me... designed by Sarah... and almost all the pictures are pictures Sarah took. I was just the unworthy, completely in-artistic assistant, who cut tape and stuck it to the back of pictures and paper for Sarah to place. Pictures coming soon! =P

And now, I should have been in bed a long time ago, because we have the Greater Raleigh Championship Meet tomorrow, and I need my sleep.

~Lizzie

First Attempt at Flower Arranging

Mom brought me some flowers home from Costco today, because she knows I've been dying to try my hand at arranging flowers, and unfortunately, there's nothing of the flower variety to be found outside around our house yet.

I've never really tried to arrange flowers before because I had no idea how to go about it. All the arrangements I tried as a child (with dandelions and buttercups) never turned out like I wanted. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my first official attempt.


I wish the greenery didn't stick out quite so much, but that's the way it grew, and there was nothing I could do about it.


I waited until it was getting dark out to take the pictures, and the "Available Light" setting my camera kinda makes it look black and white...


But it's kind of blurry without flash. And the flash looked bad.


I love roses!

I really enjoyed arranging these flowers, so I'm going to try to do it more often, and maybe get some more ideas (I got some ideas from Trina's blog), definitely collect some more vases (from Goodwill and yard sales) and hopefully start my own flower garden this year.

~Lizzie

It's FRIDAY!

Here comes the weekend! Only, it's still a weekday, and I still have school. :( So this is a random post that I'm doing instead of school. (Don't worry, I'll get around to school eventually.)

This is my current desktop. It's a picture I took last week when we had all that rain... I like that it's focused on the water drops, but you still get the effect of the the clouds and the color of the sky. I didn't mean for it to focus on the window, but I'm very happy that it did.


Here's the rainbow that appeared on the same day. Unfortunately, it's pretty faint. I wonder if all those pictures of sharp, bright rainbows are photoshopped or if some rainbows really do look that way... this was the second rainbow, we saw another one a couple of days earlier, but I couldn't get a good picture. This is actually a double rainbow...


In this picture the rainbow appears to be ending right at our house. Unfortunately, we did not get home and find a pot of gold.


This was later in the evening, Mom and I went out grocery shopping. Still same day. It was a great day for sky pictures. I love clouds, and I really love it when there are rays shooting out from behind dark clouds. This might be my favorite ray picture ever... were it not for the telephone pole and lines. :|


This one makes me think of the Brandon Heath song, "Give Me Your Eyes" specifically the line: "All those people going somewhere, why have I never cared?"

This picture, to me, is really interesting. I see the clouds and the gold representing the beauty of God's creation, the American flag representing the principles that on which our country was originally founded, and the power lines a harsh reminder of what we have become: a technologically crazed and idol-worshipping nation, with leadership trying to separate us and our country as far as possible from God.


Yeah, I realize that sounds kind of cheesy. You could just say that this would be a great picture without the power lines.

And now I'll get off to something productive.

~Lizzie

P.S. So I realized that my theme messes up the pictures... you can click on them and see a big version. Sorry I don't have time to change my theme now, but I'll try to get around to it later.

Fair - First day

We decided to brave the crowds and go to the fair today, to see how all the entries did. We usually avoid going to the fair on the weekends because of the insane amount of people, but we survived today. We spent just the afternoon there and got a good start on our junk food consumption as well, with plans to go back again.

Our little excursion almost got cut off at the beginning, when we were looking for a place to park, and the streets and curbs were lined with cars. Daddy declared (half-seriously) that we were leaving. But we did manage to park, not too far from the gate.

The very first thing we did was to go to the Hobbies and Handicrafts building. Joel got a 4th place for his lego battleship.
Sarah got 3 1st's and 1 2nd.
The pumpkin, the Christmas glass, and the folded T-shirt are hers. As you can see, (or maybe you can't really tell, so that's why I'm making sure) the pumpkin and T-shirt got blue ribbons, and the Christmas glass got a red ribbon.

She also got a blue ribbon for her painted Christmas ornament.

Then we went and got the best corn on the cob ever. We've gotten it every year for a while now, and it when I had braces it would take the rest of the day to get all the corn out of my teeth (not to mention that I wasn't supposed to have corn on the cob....) but it was so worth it! It's so juicy and sweet and greasy..... yum.


And then we trudged along very slowly in a huge throng of people that seemed to hardly be going anywhere.


We enacted a buddy system so that if someone got lost, at least they'd have someone with them. (We're so smart!)


Sarah and I were buddies. We decided to pretend to be twins and walk around with our arms linked all day. Don't laugh, we were being fraternal twins.

We did finally make it over to the art building though, where Sarah and David's painting/drawing didn't win anything. And then we went over to see if David's muffins and lemon bars won, and they didn't win either.


David with his lighthouse drawing. The one directly above his head.

Sarah with her painting of a glass of water (half-full, or half-empty?)

We got our maple syrup cotton candy, and sat under the tree where we always sit to eat our cotton candy. Also where, inevitably, some kind passerby stops and offers to take a picture of all of us.

Joel didn't smile for any of them.

Daddy got this picture of me and Sarah by saying, "Hey, girls!" and clicking when we looked up. Yeah... great faces, right? I just had to share it because some people say we don't look alike.

And then we went to go sit on the same invisible bench we always sit on to take our group picture. This year we didn't get the usually inevitable kind passerby.



Instead, we got a strange and disturbing robot. Sarah and I saw it coming and started whispering to each other, "Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact...."


It stopped anyway, with its crowd of enthralled followers, (while Daddy was trying to take pictures) and told us to stand up, (we were sitting on an invisible bench! Couldn't it see that? I guess not....) and pay attention. And then the robot said something about how "he's only 21, folks, this is what uncooperative picture subjects does to you!" "Are they always like that?" When he finally left, "Good luck, mister. You're gonna NEED it!"

Then we had some onion rings, and tried to find the Crazy Mouse (our tied-for-favorite ride)... we couldn't find it, but hopefully we'll find it when we go back sometime later this week.

This is us up on a hill, looking for the Crazy Mouse. Or, rather, goofing off after giving up on finding the Crazy Mouse.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for most of the pictures. (If I'm in them, I obviously didn't take them, now did I?)

Installment número dos, coming soon!

~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