Fair day #2

We went back to the fair with several friends to see the 10th Avenue North and Jeremy Camp concert. We got to the fair about 2, got some food, then the guys wanted to check out a crumpled SUV. We all admired Sarah's art entry. Then we went to the bike show. Unfortunately, the schedule was printed wrong, so we killed an hour going to the Village of Yesteryear, and then went back to the bike show. After the bike show, we went over to the expo building for the Dazzling Mills Family show. It wasn't quite time for the show, so we walked around and looked at the exhibits in the Expo center.

The show was great!


Vic eating a fried pickle.



They're homeschoolers! Our entirely homeschooled group screamed and cheered when this was announced, drawing the comment from Mr. Mills that "Well, THAT'S not obvious!"

After the Dazzling Mills Family, we went to ride some rides. About half the group wanted to ride Fireball, so we all got in line, and then they closed the ride. A few people rode the only real roller coaster. And then we had to split. Because of a very important Hawks baseball game, half of our group had to leave. The rest of us went to the concert.

The concert was AWESOME! The end.

After the concert we rode the ferris wheel...

From the top!

From the ferris wheel, I took a picture of the ride next on our list: the swings!

Sarah and Jessica, in their seats...

Yep, I took my camera! I like this shot, too...

Then we headed home, exhausted. So much fun! I love the fair.

~Lizzie

Introducing!

Two nameless models. If you remember the sewing business that my friend Kara and I tried to start last year, this is the booster attempt with a focus on: doll clothes.


They are pictured here with our first two attempts. Kara's is the peach dress, and mine is the maroon. They won 3rd and 2nd place in the state fair, respectively.

The red head came with a name already (I hate that) and it is NOT staying. "Stacey" is so "Barbie" when it comes to dolls.

I love her red hair, and green eyes, but her face is plain (she reminds me of an early American Girl doll, and for all their popularity I've never thought that they were very nice dolls) and her coloring unfortunately unrealistic for a red head. The pricing for this doll was MUCH better than American Girl prices (very cheap with the coupon), though, so I am happy with her.

The Madame Alexander dolls I found while researching on the internet. Her vinyl upper body is nice for lower neckline and thin-strap tops, as seen in the picture.


I was very excited to find that they are sometimes available at Costco beginning in October for the holiday season. However, over the phone, Costco informed us that they would not be carrying them this year. The next week, Mom surprised me with her after a trip to Costco! The employee was apparently mistaken.

Her skin is beautifully creamy, her eyes a rich chocolate and her hair is unbelievably silky. She also has the ability to tilt her head, as well as looking up and down (like my Elsie doll). American Girl and the Springfield collection dolls (my red head) can only turn their heads from side to side. Amazingly enough, she was also fairly inexpensive (much, much less than American Girl!)

Suggestions for names are quite welcome! I'm thinking of Flanna for the red head and Rowena for the brunette...

~Lizzie

Doll dress

My friend Kara and I made doll dresses to enter in the state fair. This is mine, on my doll, Elsie.

I couldn't get the lighting right... so I have two versions.
The washed out version:

The fuzzy, yellow version:

Maybe between the two you can get an idea what it really looks like. =P

Details:

Full length shot:

I had a lot of fun sewing this dress! We threw them together pretty last minute, so now I'm eager to do another doll dress with more planning and more care.

~Lizzie

TCC First Annual Dads & Daughters Night

This was not the first Father/daughter dance I'd been to. I've been to one that was in a slightly decorated gym, where everyone brought a snack to share, a hired DJ played all the "usual," there was no room to sit, less room to dance, and it was lots fun. Until one night, I listened to one of the songs that was played, and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wish I could say that one song was all it took for me to want to leave, but it took three reprehensible songs, and then I was ready to leave and never come back. And that's what we did.

I always enjoyed the night spent with my sister and daddy, (even when the songs were horrible) and I missed it this year (it was always around Valentine's Day). Then, just a couple weeks ago, Mr. Finneran announced that he was planning a Christian Community Dads & Daughters night for August 13th.

I was excited about the idea, but I confess that at first, I wasn't too happy that it was going to be right after hours of swimming and water polo. I ended up having to miss water polo to get ready in time (30 minutes might be enough for Sarah and Jessica, but it's not enough for me!) It was worth it. The messy little room at TAC was transformed by Mrs. Finneran, Mrs. Jacob and my mom into an elegant and lovely dining room and dance floor. The fluorescent lights were out and the lighting was provided by candles, soft lamps and Christmas light strands. Pink and white streamers, light pink balloons, beautiful table cloths, and delicate doilies all added a special touch. I could never believe it was the same stark, unfinished and harsh room we'd had our swim team awards banquet in.

Sarah and Jessica, preparing for a picture together...

Sarah and Jessica

We had a meal, Mr. Finneran gave a devotional talk, and then the dads presented their daughters with a rose. Since my mom was responsible for getting the roses, I had seen them ahead of time, and already had my heart set on one that was not quite as bright pink as all the others. When Daddy picked our roses for us, he picked for me the very one I wanted!

My little brothers and some of the other young men were being the waiters, and they were all so cute, refilling drinks and offering more salad, or more sparkling apple cider. Little Torin was especially adorable, he was so excited to be a waiter, so eager to do anything, and very serious about his job.

My brother, Joel, and Torin, "helping" the DJ.

Then the DJ (who played the piano during the meal) cranked up the dance music and we danced. Then we ate cake, and danced some more.

Jessica and her dad, dancing very well...

It was all over way too soon. It was such a special evening, I'm so glad to have the night with Daddy and Sarah back. And the older girls are looking forward to planning an similar event for the dads and moms sometime soon!

Our table...

Sarah, with her lip-like heart candy from the dance.

Our roses... (there were three left over, so the three moms who were in charge of decorating and the six hours of hard work got a rose each as well.) Can you see the difference between mine and Sarah's and Mom's?

It was so nice, I can't wait to do one for the moms!

~Lizzie

"It's cute... not saying I like it, but it's cute..."

- Sarah's opinion of this little arrangement.



I had been feeling sad about cutting Black-eyed Susans because they almost always have little baby buds on the stem that are too low to fit in the arrangement, but too high to avoid being cut along with the main flower. But today I decided to try sticking them in their own little vase instead of throwing them away, and they ended up looking better than I imagined they would!


This is the arrangement of Zinnias that I wanted the long Black-eyed Susans for. (It's kind of blurry, but the flash looked much worse.)

Sarah and I are very excited about Wicked coming to DPAC April/May 2010... but I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have a problem with the witches and wizards and magic in Wicked. After all, I rejected Harry Potter because of Christian objections to witchcraft and witches being portrayed in a good light. Glinda is a "good" witch. There is witchcraft in Wicked... flying on brooms and such. Wicked seems more like an innocent story than Harry Potter, but it still centers on witches who are supposed to be "good." I'm very torn. I feel that I should be objecting to Wicked too, but I've heard that it's such a good show, and I have the soundtrack and the music is fantastic... and it's not like I'm a child that could be fooled into thinking that real witches are good just by a show!

Also, J. K. Rowling (a professed witch) has said that she intended Harry Potter to encourage American children to experiment with witchcraft! Wicked is just another Broadway musical: typically slightly cheesy, with no mind-blowing intent beyond being a well-acted and well-sung musical... the witches are just another twist in a thread of musicals with all-too-similar romantic plots. Right? At least I have 8 months to think about it. Thoughts are welcome. =)

~Lizzie

Baptisms and Memories...

I've always been told I became a Christian when I was four. I don't really remember it, but I never questioned it. When I was 8, we went to a typical Baptist church, and some of my friends had decided to get baptized. In light of the up-coming baptism, many of the sermons began to center on verses about baptism, and I began to feel guilty and pressured to be baptized. After all, I was a Christian, so I should be baptized, right? I finally asked Daddy to take me to see the pastor so that I could get into the pre-baptism class/study that was required. But then I chickened out. Looking back, I'm glad I did.

March 24, 2003, I heard a radio program that finally struck home. The pastor's point was that if you claim to be a Christian, but still haven't surrendered your life to Christ, then you probably aren't really a Christian. And that you were particularly in trouble if you didn't remember becoming a Christian. He recommended that if you didn't remember it, that you rededicate your life to Christ and then write the date down, so that when the Devil gave you doubts you could come back with that date. I got the feeling that he was talking directly to me. I'm still not sure if I really was a Christian before then or not, but my official date is March 24, 2003, and that's when my life changed.

That summer, we joined the Christian Community Summer Club for the first time, and started going to a "house" group that met at the pool. At one of the August meetings, the pastor announced that his daughter Kara had asked to be baptized and that a baptism would be held at the pool in two weeks. I instantly knew I wanted to be baptized as well, and that it was right this time. Exactly five months after I finalized my faith, on August 24, 2003, I was baptized by Coach Matt and my daddy, along with 4 others, Kara, Matt, Sean and Kyle. It was so much more special to be baptized in an informal setting by my daddy and another man I respected, instead of a Baptist pastor that I didn't even really know.

This past Wednesday, July 22, 2009, I got to watch as all 3 of my siblings were baptized by our daddy, our Coach, and the two other men in our fellowship group, Mr. M and Mr. J. Along with my siblings, there were the rest of Kara's siblings, Rachel, Trissa and Torin, the one who asked for the baptism, Hannah J. and her sister, Rachel, and Chandler M. It was so exciting for me to see all my siblings publicly confess their faith in Christ, and so sweet to see all 9 of those children and young adults baptized. We had a meal together beforehand, and played in the pool and celebrated with dessert afterward.

Here are some pictures from the baptism 6 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) and some from last Wednesday.




Me, Kara and Sean... we look so young!

Praying for me to grow in the spirit and walk with God the rest of my life... along with other things. =)

With my daddy! And you thought I was short NOW...

Sean, Matt, Kara and me... I don't remember what Coach was saying. And too bad Kyle isn't in this picture. I think he was on the other side of Sean.


Pre-baptism talk... missing Rachel J. I ALMOST got everyone. :\

I'm only putting pictures of my siblings because there would be way too many pictures if I put all of them...






Praying for them...




~Lizzie

Meets!

Okay, so I haven't done any meet posts this summer yet, and that's mostly because Natalie has found bigger and better cameras to borrow, so I don't have any pictures. Sarah does, but you have to be on Facebook to see them, as Sarah has almost nothing to do with the blog any more.

But just in case anyone was wondering, we've won all 3 of our meets so far.

And here are the two pictures I managed to get on my camera...

Obviously, I'm in this one... Mom took it for us. This is our 15-18 girls relay team.

Sarah, taking pictures with her Canon Rebel XTi... dangerously close to the edge of the pool.

I hope everyone has a nice 4th of July tomorrow!

~Lizzie

Wow, what a trip!

We managed to leave at 1:17am (only 17 minutes late!). It felt very odd, because I'd spent the whole day getting ready and I was ready to go to bed... but it was time to leave. I was hoping that I'd be ready to go in time to sleep about 2-3 hours before we left, but that didn't happen.

I made muffins and pizza rolls for breakfast and lunch on the way up. (They lasted for breakfast and lunch on the way back too, and we just ate the last pizza rolls.)


Pesto and sun-dried tomato pizza rolls.

Mixed-berry cornmeal muffins and blueberry muffins

Pizza rolls (recipe from Trina's blog). Originally pepperoni rolls... I made these with ground hamburger, and, like Trina, I put the sauce in the roll instead of dipping. Dipping was too messy for a car trip.

I made two pans of the hamburger pizza rolls.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures on the drive up because it was either dark, or I was driving or I was asleep. Sarah got some. She will post them... or else.

This is the swimming pool at our motel room. We arrived, unloaded, got into our suits, went down the pool... got to swim a little bit and then? It thundered, and started raining, and lightening was everywhere.

This is the view from our second-story motel room of the pool. In the rain.

Joel didn't want to swim anyway.

I failed to get pictures at the rehearsal dinner. I also failed to get pictures at the wedding. I don't know what I was thinking! I was just enjoying it all... Mom and Sarah got some pictures. But Chris and Kristen wrote their own vows, and they were so sweet, I immediately wished that I had thought to get it on video!! *bangs head on desk* I also wish I'd recorded the toasts. The groomsmen were amusingly unanimous in their expressions of awe and shock that CHRIS was married the first out of all of them. And he apparently told one of the groomsmen (AJ) only about a year ago that he would purposefully schedule his wedding one day after AJ's just to make sure he won. And, uh... he lost. AJ said the purple shirt and tie (his groomsman attire) did NOT count as payment for the bet. :P

But I am getting ahead of myself. Before the wedding, we managed to swim in the pool after all. It was the perfect temperature water, and it was a nice sunny day. We all got nice sunburns. So we swam, and then ate lunch, got dressed, packed up and checked out of our motel room.

The wedding was beautiful, and very unique. Kristen carried a bouquet that I believe was composed of Gerbera Daisies. The bridesmaids were in deep purple, the groomsmen in light purple dress shirts and ties, and Chris was in a darker purple shirt and tie. (I really like the idea of having the groomsmen and groom in a color and not tuxes.) The daisies were bright pink, orange and yellow. It was all very sweet and refreshing.

The reception was a full dinner. It was very formally set up, but some people changed into more casual clothes. The men in the wedding party had to suffice with just changing from dress shoes into flip-flops.












The wedding party table.

First dance.

Cutting the cake. (Yes, like a stupid amateur photographer, I cut the cake out of the picture. Get over it.)

Feeding each other the cake. Chris suggested that they step back and try to toss it in each other's mouths... Kristen almost went for it, but didn't want to risk messing up Chris's shirt.

It was a really special trip. I'm so excited for Chris and Kristen. I wish they lived closer so that we could see them more often! Kristen really brings out the best in Chris. He's always been a great guy, and a really nice cousin, but he was usually reserved and Kristen gives him so much joy. I've never seen someone so altered (in a good way) by a special someone. I know they will have a great life together. I just hope they're around enough for me to see it. =D


And now... can you see the "I didn't get much sleep, and now we're going to travel through the night AGAIN?!?" behind Sarah's smile? We left Illinois at 8:30pm for NC. We got home this afternoon at 12:15pm.

I drove a grand total of 8 and a half hours, and 621 miles.

It was fun!

~Lizzie