Oh, beautiful weather!

I love every season, but I always feel most excited about the season that is just beginning! I think God planned them perfectly so that when fall is here, I'm exactly ready for it... summer is neither too long nor too short. And then fall with its cool breezes, warm sun, falling leaves smoothly segues into winter, with freezing weather making the perfect condition to sit inside under a warm afghan by the fire with a book and a cup of hot chocolate or hot tea. About the time you're tired of being stuck inside, spring brings cheerful birds and fresh, cool mornings, with lovely flowers and new life. And then summer is back: gardens, summer flowers, swimming, cold lemonade and breezy moonlit walks...

I think I would be perfectly happy in a cozy little house in the middle of lots of land, with my own garden, and no reason to leave every day. My life is so crazy, sometimes I wonder if maybe I should be enjoying home life more... taking care of a garden, hanging clothes out on a clothesline, baking all the things it seems I never have time for, cleaning, sewing, playing piano just for fun, reading... but with my previously mentioned schedule, I hardly have time to get all the other work done.

On Monday, I have to go to my lesson, and help teach. That takes all afternoon. In the morning, I have to eat breakfast, do schoolwork, eat lunch and leave. And I don't have enough time to finish my schoolwork. I leave from my lesson, pick up Sarah at band, go home, help fix supper, eat, try to finish schoolwork and go to bed.

On Tuesday, I have to get up, eat breakfast, do school ("school" includes practice piano) and leave for swimming. We eat "lunch" at about 4 in the afternoon when we get home (starving!) and then Sarah and I leave for dance and theatre. We get home around 8 and eat supper. This past Tuesday, our director decided to spring auditions on us, so I have 4 days left now to prepare a song and monologue for audition. And I don't even know what character I would like to try out for!

On Wednesday, I get up, eat breakfast, do school and leave for swimming and water polo. Again, we eat "lunch" after swimming when we get home around 4. Then I have a few hours to do school, help fix supper and eat before we leave for our Wednesday night prayer meeting (Radical Wednesday). We leave at 7, and don't usually get home until 10... sometimes 11.

On Thursday, I get up, eat breakfast (is this redundant yet?), do school and leave for swimming. We eat when we get home at 4. Sometimes I take Sarah to band and we don't get home until 6. Then we help fix supper, eat and I usually waste the rest of the evening because by Thursday, I'm so exhausted that I don't even want to think about doing something productive (sad to say...).

On Friday, I get up, clean my room, eat breakfast, and clean the living room and foyer in preparation for my piano students. I have a student that comes at 10:30am. Then I practice piano, help fix lunch, work on school or cleaning my room (or the monologue, song and character analysis that I STILL HAVEN'T DONE!!! Ahhhhhhh!!) and on the first Friday of every month I have my "once-a-month" students at 3 and 3:30. (That's today, so right now I'm home by myself, because Mom took the boys to basketball practice, and Sarah went with them. Daddy's at work.) On the days when I don't have afternoon students, I usually take the boys to basketball practice. They get home around 4. (Hmm... we seem to get home at 4 a lot...) Then I have the rest of the afternoon to clean, work on school, practice or whatever I need to do. Fix supper, eat, usually watch some TV, and go to bed.

Saturdays don't really have a schedule, but there's usually something that we have to do around the house, or maybe shopping that needs to be done. I like to sew or do some fun baking or "deep" cleaning where I clean out junk that I somehow collect like a magnet.

On Sundays we usually stay home and do the bare minimum of work and relax. If we don't, the next week is even more stressful and hectic than the last week. You can only go, go, go for so long before you explode, crash and burn.

So if you noticed, I have a lot that I should be doing right now instead of writing this blog post. It's sometimes so overwhelming that I just shove it all aside and do something useless, like writing this post... it actually helps, because it organizes my thoughts and gives me a break so that I don't go completely insane.

And then I take a few minutes to wish that I could have a homey life ("wash day," "baking day," "cleaning day"...) sigh, and then go do SOMETHING that I need to do. I'm trying to keep ahead, and I think I'm doomed to be behind... behind in what is the variable. =\

Let the usefulness now resume...

~Lizzie

Superbowl XLIII

I'm not a huge football fan (this was the first game I watched this year), but I do enjoy the superbowl. It's always nice to have a good excuse to eat tons of junk food, drink soft drinks, go crazy and shriek like a maniac. And I always enjoy watching commercials that are apparently worth millions of dollars. This year, the minimum was 3 million for 30 seconds.

However, this year I was actually cheering for a team. Just a combination of liking Kurt Warner, and somehow acquiring a dislike for the Steelers (despite never watching games... need to reconsider that one). I'm not going to describe my feelings during the game because I don't know any of the terms (I know touchdown! hehe... he. Heh. Never mind) so I'll just say, if you don't know, the Cardinals lost, and I am sad.

The commercials were also sadly disappointing. For at least a third of them we had to take regular breaks to check the weather (oooh, the temperature is steadily dropping AFTER NIGHTFALL and the doppler is totally clear. Amazing) and the acceptable ones were generally boring.




The career builder one was my favorite. I was seriously laughing. Sadly though, it doesn't seem that funny now.

This is Jessica and David waving cell phones during the halftime show... like all the people in the stadium were.

It was a lot of fun. Even if the Cardinals did lose. I guess I really don't have a right to care since I didn't follow the games all season.

Happy February!

~Lizzie

Inconvenient vanity.

I got my braces off a little more than two years ago (wow, doesn't seem that long) and I went to the dentist with my newly straightened pearly whites only to have him mention "Now with a little whitening treatment..." Yeah. His sales pitch almost worked. I mean, no way could I afford his "one hour" treatment that was guaranteed to make my teeth blindingly white. But after that I was no longer satisfied. Who wants to have wonderful straight teeth (after two and a half years of pain getting them) and only have everyone notice that they're not-so-perfectly white? I got whitening toothpaste, I brushed with hydrogen peroxide and used a whitening mouth wash. Then I finally caved and spent $20 on a box of white-strips. And yes, even as I'm typing I'm wearing those little pieces of plastic that are guaranteed to make my teeth blindingly white... for a year. And then you need another box. It wouldn't be so bad they were at least comfortable. But they slide all around, the "gel" (which feels like goo) seems to get everywhere BUT on my teeth, and I have to wear them over and over... for the rest of my life? Yet, after having this conversation with myself again and again, here I am, frozen with my tongue in an awkward position, finally having the strips plastered to my teeth in the proper position, waiting for my 30 minutes to be up so I can go throw the strips out, rinse, and examine my teeth for any signs of hygienic whiteness.

~Lizzie

Brace Yourself

When you see the rushing wind, feel the pouring rain
Hear the thunder now, as the clouds roll in
And you’re blinded by the lightening
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying
It’s okay, you’re not alone
You may be scared to death but I won’t let you go
You may think the sky above is falling
But can you hear Jesus calling?
"Jesus Calling" ~ 33Miles

Thus begins four years of Barack Hussein Obama as the president of the United States. Be prepared for much worse than you were expecting. Trust me, it’s best to imagine the worst. Then you might be pleasantly surprised. Hoping that it won’t be as bad as you thought only sets you up for disappointment. That’s what I get for hoping that McCain would make it. Now I’m fully expecting everything I didn’t want and more: the banning of homeschooling, the beginning of communism, the return of terror attacks, schools becoming training camps for “Hitler” youth, the persecution of Christians, infanticide, the end of the world and the return of our Lord. Actually, the return of Jesus doesn’t fit on that list, because that would be a good thing that I will hope for my whole life. I did want to get married and have a dozen kids first though.

Something gives me the feeling that Obama might not be just ‘an’ anti-Christ, but maybe THE anti-Christ. Yes, I know many people have been suspected of being the anti-Christ for approximately 2000 years. And no, I haven’t really researched it, mostly because I’m freaked out about Obama enough as it is and I have plenty more pleasant ways to spend my time than reconciling his description to the description in the Bible. Not to mention that it’s enough for me that he’s been called “the Messiah” (which he does not deny), that he’s proclaimed himself to be our Savior and that so many people like him despite his creepiness. If Obama gets mortally wounded, I won’t be the least surprised when he rises from the dead…. on the third day. Just horrified and disgusted.

Don’t panic, life on earth has always been pain and frustration cushioned by little pleasantries and sweet moments. It’s just that I only recently realized it. And believe it or not, I'm actually a happy person sometimes... mostly when I don't have time to think about deep things.

Does 'easy' rhyme with 'greasy'?

~Lizzie

What a gray day...

It's such an awful depressing day outside (in my opinion) and I'm really tempted to do a dull complaining post.... since not much good has happened to me today. But I think instead that I'll do a wry complaing post and try to wring a chuckle out of my readers.

I slept really hard from 11 to 9, and woke up feeling strange. My entire body ached from swimming, dance, swimming and water polo. And even after sleeping in, I still felt so tired that the last thing I wanted to do was get up. But I did.

And I drove Sarah to her art lesson, and then went grocery shopping. It is a fact well known that precisely 87.22% of all shopping carts are evil. Yes... they have personalities. And those evil 87.22% are adept at picking shoppers who are having not-so-awesome days. You thought you picked the cart? Well, that just shows how sneaky they are. The government could learn some tips from shopping carts.

So today, the particular shopping cart that picked me was innocent looking enough. It was even close to the door, instead of being miles away in the almost-empty, depleted tunnel of shopping cart storage. It even appeared to work fine until I'd gotten so far that I didn't want to go back and get another cart. And then it started swerving to the left. Some carts not so evil as this one will swerve gently, and in wide open spaces. This cart swerved sharper and more suddenly and maliciously than a cart shoved by two young boys, and it made sure to swerve when there was an elaborate display of parmesan cheese nearby. However, that is not the end of this particular cart's talents. It also made turning right insanely difficult.

Besides the annoyance of swerving and not being able to turn right, those two faults combine to make an action worthy of being considered a third fault in its own right. Imagine this.... I'm looking at the organic juices on the right, and to the left are shelves and shelves of wine bottles. (I see you wincing... my story is too predictable.) I finish selecting juice, and begin to move forward. The cart immediately swerves to the left, into the wine bottles. I try to stop and turn the cart to the right to compensate for the swerve to the left and encounter the 2nd fault: turning to the right is almost impossible. The cart then accelerates by itself and sweeps down the entire row of wine bottles, sending them crashing to the floor. People stare and the store employees come running.

Don't worry, it wasn't all that awful. I managed not to hit the wine bottles. But as I jerked the cart to the right with all my screaming muscles, I did see that scenario flash before my eyes. Somewhat how I imagine one sees one's life flash before one's eyes in situations where you think you might die.

After that close call, I made it through the rest of my shopping without further mishaps (thank goodness) and as soon as I was through with the cart, I gave it a nice shove into the brick wall of its home as payback. (Yes, I'm fond of such petty but satisfactory retaliation....)

I got home with Sarah, and even started feeling better. Until we got to swim team. Warm-ups weren't so bad, and we had an easy 50 set. But then, we did 3 200 IM's split lane and I was supposed to lead. (This was because I was in the Silver lane for all that were curiously wondering how I managed to lead Platinum.) I tried, but my muscles were refusing to work well, so I ended up making Sarah lead. And then I sat out the 3rd 200 in an effort to recover. That didn't work either. Then we did 20 25's on the :30. That worked pretty well, actually, cause I barely made it, and then I got out of the pool, climbed on the block and dove off so fast that I didn't have time to get dizzy and fall off the block.

By then I was almost completely exhausted. And we did relays. It's very sad.... there are three things we do in swimming that it seems most everyone enjoys: relays and two games, Sharks & Minnows and Capture the Flag (flip-flop). I have difficulty deciding which I hate more. I used to think that Sharks and Minnows was the worst, but then we played Capture the Flag yesterday and I think it's worse. It goes on longer, and there's the potential for getting grabbed, kicked, scratched and then pulled to the surface and tagged more than once in Capture the Flag. In Sharks and Minnows it only happens once and then you get to be the one grabbing and tagging. You do still get kicked and scratched as a shark though.

However, I'm quite certain that relays involving corkscrew are worse than both of those games. Corkscrew, for those that don't know, is a torturous practice not worthy of being called a stroke. You take one freestyle stroke, and then roll to your back and take one back stroke then roll again and take a freestyle stroke and so on and so forth until you arrive at the wall. Hopefully the wall arrives before the wave of nausea. When I was finished with my leg of the relay my head was pounding, I felt sick, and my muscles were completely limp. I eventually dragged myself out of the pool, mumbled something about leaving early and went to take a nice hot shower and change into my dry clothes.

I survived and made it home, and I feel much better now that I've had a snack and sat around comfortably doing nothing. Hopefully I'll be fine tomorrow because I won't get a relaxing weekend this weekend. We have a lot to do.

~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

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

Driver's Ed.

Sounds normal, yes? Driver's Ed is the thing that nearly every young teen in the world can't wait to do, because after they finish, they'll finally be able to drive!!! Before you drive though, of course you have to take the classroom part.

My last day of this was 2 days ago.

I went on the first day, excited and somewhat nervous. Lizzie had finish her classroom part about 2 1/2 years ago, and from what she told me, it seemed like alot of fun. Her teacher was really nice and funny.
Also, I was doing it with friends (Kara & Nathan from swim team, and Daxton who was more of a acquaintance.) This would add to the overall funness of it, and make it less boring.
I thought it would be boring because I already knew how to drive, so I thought I wouldn't learn anything. I was wrong. I learned quite a bit (and I'll get to that later.) My Dad had even taken me out on our dirt road in his Volvo a couple times.

So I got up at 6:30, packed up a lunch and notebook, and arrived at least 20 mins early.
After all their overly-strict rules, and roll call we split up alphabetically. (Luckily I ended in the same class as all the people I knew!)
And then we met our teacher. He was a football coach. I imagine he was a good one too; he was big, mean and unforgiving. Which works for football. Not Driver's Ed. Practically everyone in the class got in trouble with him.

The other teacher apparently was no better. She seemed a little crazy. At any random time she would burst into our room, and start talking in a very loud voice. At lunch one day I heard some one tell some one else what some one ELSE and said about her: "You know that water bottle she's always drinking out of?? I don't think that's water."

We did the whole class of the computer. Module1, topic1. Quiz. Topic2. Quiz... etc. Through 10 Modules, whos topics ranged from 3 to 6, whos pages ranged from 1 to the 20's. We also watch corny movies, took 2 15 min breaks, and 30 mins for lunch.

On the last day we did drunk driving, where you would drive around a cone-course, once normal, and once with "drunk goggles" on. Everyone did really well. I'd say that overall, less cones were hit when the person had the goggles on.
NBC 17 news was there doing a story on these goggles. The reporter interviewed two people, then filmed them driving. When they drove with the goggles, she actually TOLD them to hit the cones (!!!!) in order to make it seem that the goggles work really well!!! I will never watch the news the same way again....

And now what I learned:

- I'm SOO glad I'm home schooled!
- a new interesting way to crack my neck.
- ABS means Anti-lock Brake System.
- I don't need glasses.
- way more than I wanted to know about organ donating.
- girls like to get attention by screaming at bees
- guys like to get attention by kicking things and acting silly.
- Driver's Ed isn't quite as fun as I thought it would be.

I also built alot of character. :D

--Sarah

"Annie!"

Yesterday was the longest day ever. Field of Dreams had a dance recital at NRCA right before the first performance of "Annie" and the recital ran over, so "Annie" was pushed back from 2 to 2:30. We got into makeup while the recital was finishing, and for the next 9 hours, I had enough makeup on my face to make 3 awful orange tans.

The first show was very much like a dress rehearsal. We'd never run through the entire show all at once, so there were a lot of things we discovered about costume changes, missing props ("Oh, yes, the check. I'd almost forgotten... oh, wait, I did forget. Drake, do YOU have the check?" "Uh, no sir.....") but it went fairly well, and it was soooo much fun!

By the end of the first show, I felt like it was 9 at night or so. And Mr. Green dismissed us for a mere hour before we had to come back and do it all over again. So I went to go get out of costume. My hair had so much hair spray in it, it felt like paper. And the mic tape on the back of my neck was stuck in my hair (WHY did they put *2* pieces?!?) But I finally got back into my "me" clothes and ate my cold chick-fil-a sandwich.

Aaaand then we did it all over again. The second show had a much more enthusiastic audience (led mostly by Eddie's [Mr. Warbucks] cheerleaders. They screamed and clapped and everyone else followed suit).

I was less stressed out in the second show so in some ways it was more fun. We danced backstage, and I got to be in Hooverville in the second show. That was a BLAST. It was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again. Every show reminds me just how much I love theatre.

I was really crazy and hyper afterwards. Entirely on adrenaline... I hadn't had any caffeine that day because it's bad for your vocal cords, especially if you're trying to sing. Some of us headed over to Wendy's for frosties, and Sarah, Allie and Jess rode with me... we were rocking out to TobyMac with the windows down and the sunroof open and I confess.... I was driving with no hands ... but just in the NRCA parking lot. And it was mostly empty.

Then Sarah and I came home and stayed up til 2, watching the play on DVD. Someday I'm going to sing onstage and NOT be flat. *frown* But anyway. I want to take voice lessons.....

Now I'm really sad that it's over. But at least my days won't be empty. Tomorrow we have swimming, Tuesday we have a meet, Wednesday we have swimming, Thursday we have water polo, and Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday, we're going camping! *whoooooo*

~Lizzie