Girl for God!

• Nov. 22, 2009
Stitching Cards

I have fallen head over heels in love with stitching cards!

While being sick for 9 days (and I still am - grrr!), I found I had way too much time on my hands! So I started stitching cards, because the day before, some of my friends got together at my house for a girl's club called "TODKAH". (Now I know that sounds weird, but it's actually an abbreviation for "Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home." Since that's such a mouthful, we just abbreviated it!)

We all had lots of fun poking holes in the card and then pulling thread through the holes to complete a wonderful picture!

Here are some of the patterns that I've tried out:

Basic flower
On this one, the pattern designer colored the finished card in with soft chalks. It's optional, and I chose not to color mine in, because I like the thread by itself, but you could color it in if you like it!

Christmas Ornament
This one I found to be a bit tricky, because the two lines above and below the scrolls on the ornament are not punched. You have to find the two holes that match up and then stitch strait across. Because there is one vertical strait and 4 horizontals, you have to set the pattern on the card exactly strait, otherwise, even if it is the tiniest bit crooked, you will be able to tell when it's done.

Christmas bauble

Rose flower
This one was really fun to do. I especially liked the roses!

Rose stitching card

Christmas Tree

Form-A-Line stitching card Christmas tree pattern

"Two flowers" (they look like poinsettias to me)

Two flowers card

I also did a "hybrid" between the "Two Flowers" card and the "Basic Flower" card. I printed out the "Two" card and cut out one of the actual flowers. Then I taped it onto the Basic Flower card where the blossom should be, and I came out with one poinsettia! Very pretty! It makes an awesome Christmas card.

Now, let me warn you, Prick and Stitch is a bit time consuming. It goes a lot faster if you don't tape it down every time you go onto the next section of the pattern. (For example, the next petal on the flower, or the next leaf, etc.) Every time I've looked at a pattern and said "Oh, that looks easy, it should be done in 10-20 minutes", and I stitch it, it takes almost twice as long. Now, I'm not saying this to make you think that you shouldn't do this because "it takes ages and ages to make a card", I'm just saying if you have 5 spare minutes, stitching a card might not be the best option for that time, unless you know that you'd have to put it down and put it back later, or you are a speed sewer!

Oh, and as a side note, where it says to "stem stitch", you might want to work that area in back stitch instead. It's a lot faster, easier, and it looks nicer to me!

Enjoy stitching cards!

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• Sep. 30, 2009
My new Snake

Guess what! I caught a Garter Snake on Monday, and Dad let me keep it! It was so cute! He wasn't all that enthused about the new move into a terrarium, unfortunately. He did start to feel at home, though, except that he wasn't happy about me intruding every once in a while to handle him a bit and get him used to me.

I had to release him, though, because hibernation season was almost here.

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• Sep. 28, 2009
Sidewalks

I don't know how, but these past few months I've had BIG machinery digging in front of my house, and I keep on forgetting to tell you! Anyway, all the work is done, and now our street has sidewalks. Now they're tearing up the road with this really weird machine! (At first, Mom and Brittany and I thought it was melting the tar off of the old road. Turns out, it was really grinding up the road.)

I will get pictures out ASATCGB! (As Soon As The Camera Gets Back....LOL...it still hasn't returned from factory repair heaven...)

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• Sep. 27, 2009
New Blog!

Hi again, I just wanted to say that I made another blog about an online computer game called Howrse. (Weird name!) Anyway, you can find out more at: http:www.homeschoolblogger.com/ilovehowrse.

Have fun!

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• Sep. 25, 2009
4H Camp

I just got back from an awesome camp for homeschoolers. It's called Outdoor School and IT ROCKS! I love it!

Anyway, it's only for homeschoolers, so that made it a bit harder for me to find some friends to go to camp with me. I ended up going with two homeschooled friends named Hannah and Chloe. They are awesome friends!

On the first day of camp, I was put in a different cabin than all my friends! Boohoo! It was my counselor's mistake, as she was new and didn't really know what to do. Anyway, the camp leader, Coach (that's her camp name, not her real name), fixed it all so I would be with my friends. They were in cabin 2 (mine) then they were moved to cabin1, then cabin 2, then cabin 1 again! How annoying and confusing would that be???

At camp there was so much to do.

I got to do Wind Energy (where you build a blade for a wind turbine and see how many volts you get),

Drama ( you make different shapes with your group, (waterfall, tomato, etc.) and other fun games, such as Improv),

Nature Hike (we got to go on a hike and identify different trees, etc.),

Wildlife (looking at different animal pelts and pointing out different characteristics about them),

Fishing (Catch and Release, I didn't like it that much because I like to catch and eat fish, but the lady in charge pointed out that to stock the pond with fish was a bit expensive, about a dollar a fish.),

and Dutch Oven cooking (that was awesome! I thought you could only make soups and stews in those, but he said you could make pizza, cake, cookies, anything you wanted! Cool! Then at the end of class, he made some apple-bread pudding that was HEAVENLY!).

They gave you two hours of free time every day, but you had to be with a buddy, or a counselor would pull you out and drag you around camp. I did Archery, Canoeing, Tree Swings (which is a really, really, really, really tall tree with a rope hanging down. You climb into a harness and put a helmet on, then run and jump off the platform and go in circles around the tree. It's really popular, so for a 2-minute ride, you have to wait 15 minutes-half hour in line!), and Snakes.

Snakes is totally awesome. I had that as a class last year, but not this year, so I went there during free time. There is this guy, who is TOTALLY into snakes, as well as his daughter and wife. So they bring almost all their snakes there. Abby is their biggest; a ground boa (not boa constricter!). I think the smallest is a rainbow boa, but I'm not sure.

My favorite snake there was Queen Elizabeth, a King Snake. She was not nearly as large as Abby, but she was still pretty big. She must have felt attached to me because she anchored herself extremely tightly to my arm and wouldn't let go, then decided to go explore me! I held her (or she held ME) for about 20 minutes. It was really fun, but challenging, because all the other people were holding corn snakes in a "corn snake party" or one of a couple other bigger snakes, and King Snakes' prime food source is other snakes. People with Corny's kept on coming up to see Queen and I had to keep telling them (politely with some urgency in my voice) that they had to get away before Queen felt hungry! Yikes!

Another thing they did at camp was games! That was really fun. There was a game called Diamond Smugglers that we played the first night. There were two teams: the Smugglers and the Cops. The smugglers had to hide diamonds somewhere on their person, go across a certain line, and trade their diamonds with another smuggler. Then they had to walk back over the line, and give their new goods to a counter, who would count all the diamonds that had been smuggled across. However, their was a catch: there were the Cops, who would interrogate you and make you do stuff if they thought any of the diamond smugglers were suspicious, but you could lye to them. If they had enough proof (or what they thought was enough proof), they would take you in to the detectives. The detectives would plainly ask if you had any diamonds, and you would answer Yes or No. You couldn't lie to them; they were counselors. If you had diamonds, you handed them over and the Cops team would get a point for every diamond. If you didn't have diamonds, and you'd tricked them into thinking you had diamonds, then you answered No and the cops team would get negative points. It's really fun!

Another game we played was a night game called "Mission Impossible." It was awesome! Last year's was really hard, but this year's was quite easy. You had to take a glowstick and walk down the playing field and drop it in the collection basket without getting caught by one of the counselors, who can make you do anything. Propose to a tree, kiss a tree, run across a certain area screaming at the top of your lungs, recite a bible verse, sing a silly song, anything! And they probably will take your glowstick, too. It's super fun!

I loved camp. I hope I'll see you there next year if you are homeschooled and you live close enough to attend!

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• Sep. 18, 2009
Balderdash!

Have you ever played the game "Balderdash"? How it works is this: there is a box of cards with 5 different categories on each card. You draw a card, then roll the die to determine which category you will play from. (Weird Words, Incredible Initials, Marvelous Movies, Laughable Laws, or Peculiar People. If you roll a six, you get to choose any of them.)

Then, the person who is the "Reader" reads whatever the word, etc, is. For example: "twanke" (a weird word.).

Next, the reader flips the card over and writes down the correct answer on a piece of paper.

Then the rest of the players write down their made-up answers (which range from outrageous to mundane) and hand them to the reader.

Finally, the reader reads all of the answers, and the players vote on which one they think is right. If someone votes for your idea, you get to move one space on the board. If you guess the right idea (the one on the card) you get to move two spaces on the board. It is really fun!

Anyway, last night, my family played that game, and I decided to put the questions and answers on here as a little "test' to do for fun. You should enjoy it!

Marvelous Movies (you will need to guess what the real movie is about):

1. "Bad Jim":

a. Jim-Bob's country still is poisoned by his jealous cousin, Skip.
b. A monkey escapes his cage in a zoo and holds his keeper hostage for a six pack of beer.
c. After a cowboy buys Billy the Kid's house, he becomes Billy the Kid himself!
d. A charming family story about house pet turkey Jim, who ends up on the table for Thanksgiving-despite the children's protests-because of his bad habit of drooling.

2. "We Don't Want to Talk About it":

a. Two twin brothers marry two twin sisters and their firstborn children look identical.
b. A 1990's movie where a man cheats on his wife, they get divorced, and then the wife kills herself.
c. Story of twins who are joined at the hip who make a living working at the circus.
d. A mother refuses to accept the fact that her daughter is a dwarf.

Weird Words (guess the "real" definition of the words below):

1. kakkerlak

a. This type of bird is very cheap, found being sold in New Zealand, and is nicknamed Kakkerlack because it "lacks the Kack."
b. A technique used by Amish craftsmen to finish wood using oil and resin.
c. An albino cockroach.
d. Russian popsicle.

2. fumet

a. Deer droppings.
b. Planks that make the wall on a flume.
c. A Finlandish nickname for a clutz.
d. A French fumigator, pronounced Foo-May

3. swallet

a. A disease contracted by giraffes, which impairs their ability to swallow.
b. Male purse.
c. A new type of wallet that is catchingly named "Swallet."
d.A place where streams disappear underground.

Incredible Initials (guess what the initials really stand for):

1. I.M.F.C.

a. Independent Machinists For Christ
b. Immaculate Mary Fan Club
c. Incorporation of Macintosh Family Computers

Laughable Laws (Fill in the missing words to the sentence that will fulfill the true law in Finland):

In Finland, it is a crime to read...

a. The Torah to a Muslim during the holy month of Ramadan
b. Instruction manuals while you have been drinking
c. Donald Duck comic books, because he did not wear pants
d. Graffiti on restroom walls

If you'd like to take a guess at what you think the correct answers are to these questions, please do! You may leave your answers in the comments section here, and I'll let you know how many you guessed correctly. After a little while, I'll post the correct answers here for you. Have fun guessing!

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• Sep. 5, 2009
I'm sick again!!! Argh!!!

Yes, I'm sick again. I got sick on Tuesday and I am very sorry for not telling you earlier. Here is a "timeline" of my symptoms:

Tuesday evening: While playing a new laptop (HP Pavilion d6) I start to develop a sore throat. It isn't that bad, but in the middle of the night I wake up to the most horrible sore throat I've had in my entire life. Mom and I both wonder if it's Strep Throat.

Wednesday: My throat is not as bad. I have a fever.

Thursday: I feel fine! No sore throat, just the tiniest cough that only pops up a few times that day. I am planning to go to a friend's house for a luau and swim party sleepover that's on Saturday! I am even able to have my first violin lesson with a violinist who could easily be world renowned... she just has chosen to give lessons to the kids in this county and lead the only youth orchestra in the county! (She also has young kids and her husband is in the war in Iraq. So that's understandable that she's still at home.) In the night I wake up with a bad cough.

Friday: The day of the party! The only problem is this stupid germ decides to give a new set of symptoms. I have a bad cough, and the sniffles. I also have a clogged ear (my hearing is sort of impaired. It pops every once in a while which feels real good!). Mom decides that I can't go to the party, because after noon, I am getting progressively worse.

Saturday: I feel horrible. I have the worst cough on the planet. I am constantly coughing and I can't breath through my mouth otherwise I cough. Cough syrup barely helps. I have to keep throat lozenges in my mouth constantly to keep myself from coughing. I have a fever, too. Tylenol doesn't help it, either. If I'm this bad tomorrow, mom is going to take me in to Urgent Care to see if I have Bronchitis (or as my Grandpa says, Bronchio. LOL) I have a wheezing feeling when I breath after coughing, or breathe hard. It is sort of an indescribable feeling. It is more like a rumbling in my lungs. If you know what I mean. My dad knows what I mean because he grew up in a smoker's home and was constantly catching pneumonia and bronchitis. He still catches Br. and Pn. very easily. He caught it last year, come to think of it.

So I am basically a couch potato (or computer potato!) for the time being. Mom is a bit sick, and Dad has the cold, too, as well as my sister, but I have it the worst out of all of them. Mom and Britt are recovering nicely. I just wish I could recover as nicely, too!!!! Grrrrr!!!

Update: I am feeling perfectly now! The dr. gave me an inhaler, some cough syrup that puts me to sleep, and antibiotics.

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• Sep. 4, 2009
Camping trip!

My Dad and sister and I went on a camping trip recently and had tons of fun!

When we first got to camp, we unpacked, had a very healthy snack (consisting of a Zinger and one of those serving sized bags of chips) and set up all the tents. Then we checked in and paid for our site. On the short walk to and from the pay station, my sister and I caught 2 butterflies. They were very stupid butterflies, apparently, because they flew around right near us, so we caught them and put them into our tent, which we decided to put more butterflies in and call "The Butterfly Pavilion." Then we had lunch. (Note: Lunch was only about 15 minutes after snack.) Lunch was a sandwich, a serving size bag of chips, a zinger, and a can of pop. (Again, a very healthy meal. ) Can you tell that Mom wasn't with us???!!!!

After that we went fishing for two fruitless hours. However, we found out that Hemlock Lake fish enjoy grasshoppers! My sister's line was the only one Dad wanted to rig up for a bobber, so I never got a bite. Instead, I was the official bait-finder for my sister! Once I found a giant green cricket, but then it started to nibble at me and I freaked out and set it down. (Later I found out it was a Katydid.) My sister caught one baby brook trout, but it was too small to be a keeper.

Then we went back to camp and had a snack, and went on a hike that the Forest Service signs said was supposed to be around 2 miles, but in the end was about 5 miles each way. Ha ha ha. And the first half of the trail was extremely steep. We found a ton of Katydids in several glades sunning themselves. We also found a red one, but we don't know if it's a giant red cricket or a red Katydid. My sister squashed it, of course. Grrrrrrrrr. I wish she hadn't done that!

The hike finally ended at a very high-up rock where a watchtower used to be. Dad also said there was a small cookstove (it had been there the last time he was up there, which was years ago) but some person had decided to kick it off the ledge down a 200-foot drop. GRR! There was virtually nothing that indicated it had been someone's home a long time ago. Dad said there used to be lots of tins, and pots and cans, etc, but there was nothing left up there except a few boards where the watchtower had been taken down. Bummer.

The hike down the trail was a ton easier than the hike up! We sang lots of "camp" and VBS songs. (If you know the songs: Pharoah, Pharoah, Jesus Got Heaps of Lambs, God's Not Dead.) The hike was definitely worth it!

After that we had dinner, and then Dad and Brittany saw lots of fish jumping, so we went fishing again. However, only the baby brook trout were jumping, but since they were jumping we just assumed the big fish were biting, too. But of course, they didn't.

The brook trout were very fun to watch! I think they should have brook trout perform in the Olympics for Acrobatics! (Really, they flip and twist and do dolphin-jumps and all sorts of other stuff. They are very entertaining!)

We also watched the bats flying over the lake. They were flying for the same purpose the baby brooks were jumping: to catch bugs. The bats were very hard to see, because the lake was virtually black (this is around 7:30) and the bats were black, too. The only way to see them was to find them in the steam coming off the far part of the lake, or the bats that were flying right in front of us, in a fairly reflective patch of water. Several times the bats even flew over our heads! When they got close enough to us in the water, we could even see their furry little bodies! (Oh, so cute! LOL)

Then we went back to camp and let our butterflies go. (By the way, only one survived.) Then we went to bed!

The next morning, we had breakfast (instant oatmeal, muffins, and hot cocoa), and started to pack up. Then we went fishing again. No bites. So we went fishing at a different part of the lake, and guess what? We got enough fish for our family to have a meal! Yahoo! (BTW, they were very good.) Dad taught me to cast, and that ended up leading to a little (or big) problem. Anyway, I flipped my bail open, then cast, and it crossed right over Brittany's line. Ooops! Dad told me to reel in and run down the shore as fast as I could, and I did that, but at the time forgot that my bail was still open! Big oops! It was really funny, me running and reeling in as fast as I could but my line still going out like crazy. Finally, I realized that my bail was open, so I closed it and that was that.

All in all, it was a great camping trip!

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• Aug. 31, 2009
Things my family can never be

If you read this post, I can almost guarantee that you will laugh harder than you ever have. (My family did.)

There are some things my family can never be. Here is a list of my family members with what professions would not suit them well.

Brittany:
Police officer. Every time we watch COPS, she jumps up and shouts, "Taze him! Taze him!" Yeah.

Dad:
Wedding coordinater. My dad thinks that the Darth Vader Theme (you know, the song that plays in Star Wars every time Darth Vader shows up?) is the wedding march. So instead of the pianist playing "Here Comes the Bride" when the bride walks up the aisle, the Darth Vader Theme would play. It would be almost as if the marriage was doomed since the wedding.

Mom:
Waitress. She always says she can't be a waitress since she's so clumsy. And, when we were at a hotel for during a missions conference where Josh McDowell was speaking, she accidentally dropped and broke some orange juice glasses right in front of Mr. McDowell. He thought it was funny! Mom was very embarrassed to drop glasses right in front of anyone, let alone a nationally known speaker.

I hope that was a bright spot in your day!

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• Aug. 25, 2009
Me and my (lovely) relationship with spiders

As I told you earlier, I had the biggest spider I'd ever seen crawling all over my hand last night. That majorly renewed my fear of spiders. I was just getting over it, too...I was at the point were I could almost pick the daddy longlegs up. Rats. However, this is not the reason of my post. What I wanted to share was my (lovely) relationship with spiders.

I used to LOVE spiders. They were to me what horses are to me now. I loved them. I picked up every single spider I found. I probably kissed a few.

However, this blissful love of spiders only lasted for a few years. It's only so long before you discover black widows. And I did. In a most unpleasant, freaky way.

I was taking down some boards that were leaning against the wall, when I found the cutest little spider! (Of course. Spiders love woodpiles.) Actually, it was pretty big. And it was a really pretty black color! I held it by the legs and was having fun looking at it, when I realized I hadn't told daddy about my new, cute, beautiful little pet. I said, "Dad, I found a really cool spider!' He didn't pause to look at it, because I was always finding spiders. "It's big." No big deal, I found big spiders all the time! "And black." He paused for a moment, then started work again. I turned the angry, writhing spider over to look at its belly. "And it has a really cool red thing on its belly!" He whipped around, barely looking at the angry, large black spider that was even now writhing and flailing, trying to gain a foothold somewhere on my hand, so it could take revenge. And it was being pretty successful, its head almost in reach of a finger it could bite. He shouted "Drop it!" and in one swift motion slapped it out of my hand and ground it into a million pieces with his boot.

I was pretty upset with him for killing my precious pet. Until he told me that is was a black widow, that it could have killed me. Then I ran inside the house and cried.

I never played with spiders again. I never loved a spider again. In fact, I hated spiders. To me, now that the ugly truth that they could bite and kill was revealed, spiders were the most despised, filthy, deceptive creatures on earth.

Just now, I have been overcoming my fear of spiders enough where I could handle Daddy Longlegs. Until the spider that decided it wanted to take refuge in the fake aquarium plants decided to crawl all over my hands. That freaked me out so bad. And renewed my fear of spiders.

So I guess it's back to the starting point, where my hatred of spiders began. Sigh. I guess I'll never totally overcome my fear of spiders, unless I watch Charlotte's Web once a day for 5 years.

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• Aug. 25, 2009
Back to school shopping!

Yesterday I had lots of fun with my mom. We went shopping for back-to-school clothing. Now, you may be wondering why I would be purchasing back-to-school clothing since I'm homeschooled. Well, my sister and I always get to pick out one special outfit that we get to wear for the first day of school. (Or maybe more than one if there is a smashing sale or one of us finds an outfit we absolutely love, and we already have an outfit, and the 2nd one is really cheap.)

I picked out a really cute pink blouse with floral embroidering, and a black skirt with flowers on it. I will post pictures of it as soon as my stupid camera comes in from the shop. It's pretty bogus. I also have another camera I won from the spelling bee, but that one broke, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! That makes me pretty frustrated. LOL

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• Aug. 25, 2009
Pregnant fish...or not pregnant fish

Yesterday when at a local pet store to get crickets, my mom started to look for little cute fish to put in my fish tank. The only thing we could find was the guppies (of course, every store has those!), and one in particular happened to catch my eye. He is a typical little guppy. But if you look really, really, really close, you can see some very beautiful markings that are a little different. He is small and sort of opalescent white, except his long flowing tail is yellow with black spots. (So far he sounds just like the other guppies!) But there is a salmon-pink streak right where his tail starts connecting to his body. He is just gorgeous!

I also wanted to have another guppy in my tank, and I was able to get a female to go with him. She is sort of ugly, like all the other females of the animal kingdom. She is plain silver, and her fins are just clear. However, when the light shines on her, her fins are transformed into dazzling blue. It is amazing. I picked her out because her stomach was bulging incredibly. Just to be safe, though, I asked the fish attendant if she had Dropsy. I guess that was a stupid question to ask because there had to be at least twice as many males as females in that one tank, and she definitely was NOT acting sick.

So anyway, I bought the pair of guppies and took them home. Before I could put them in their tank, though, I had to clean the tank out. It was a bit of a mess, so to speak. Anyway, I put them in another tank. (They were still in a fish bag from the store.) Then I proceeded to clean out their new home. I had to stop halfway through, though, because it was time for dinner. After dinner, I went back to cleaning out their new home. That included scrubbing some fake plants I had taken out of the tank before dinner. And when I picked one of them up, I felt something big tickling my hand. I looked down and screamed. The biggest spider I had ever seen (besides black widows, of course) was crawling ALL OVER MY HAND. I majorly freaked. Then my mom freaked out because she thought I had cut myself on one of the tank ornaments (like the little glass fishbowl). She was able to squash it for me. But that really freaked me out! Eek. It still makes my skin crawl.

Anyway, back to the subject. About 2 hours had elapsed since I took the guppies home. I put the male guppy in the tank and the pregnant female guppy in a floating breeder that I then put in the tank. I put food in the tank and both the guppies didn't show much interest in it (but the two tetras did!). I didn't really take a good look at the female, because she's plain as day.

Fast forward to this morning. I have my computer time. Then I look up the gestation period of guppies. 28 days. "Hmm", I think, "that probably won't help me because I don't know how long that guppy has been pregnant." I walk into the bathroom to see if my guppy has given birth yet (but I probably know she hasn't). Then I sort of freak out. Then mom wakes up, and I ask for her to get in the bathroom. Because my guppy's stomach is FLAT. No babies in the breeder box, no fry in the big tank. I freak out again. The only solution that we could think of is that the guppy was already 28 days pregnant. Then she goes and drops her fry in the fish bag that's floating in the other tank. It only takes about an hour for birth, so that's no problem. Then she and her hubby have a snack. Of guppy fry. So bye bye, fry!

It's okay because guppies breed like...guppies. In other words they breed pretty much like rabbits. One of my grandmas had around 5 guppies, and then she had 15, and then she ended up with 50+ guppies in her tank. She had pregnant females in that little tank around the clock! So If I get another pair of guppies (which I do plan on doing) that will really increase my chance of having guppy fry.

Signing off,
Kelsi

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• Aug. 23, 2009
New Frogs!

I caught a frog at a friend's house recently, and I also found one in my backyard (to tell the truth it "flew" off of a chair when Dad picked it up) and I put them both in my old hermit crab/lizard terrarium. (I would post pictures but both of my cameras are broken. With the same problem. And one of them is in the shop getting fixed, but the other one has no warranty. So that stinks.) The frogs are so cute!!! I will post pictures as soon as the one camera gets returned from the shop. But that may be months away, since it takes forever (or so it seems) for the cameras to return.

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• Aug. 23, 2009
An awesome recipe I found!

Hi again, sorry I haven't posted for a month. Or two. It's totally my fault.

But anyway, back to this delicious recipe I found! It's Cinnamon Rolls, only made with homemade biscuit dough. I made it for breakfast on Saturday. I was going to make baked doughnuts with my mom, but we couldn't find any recipes. Only for fried doughnuts. And those are WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too unhealthy.

So here's the recipe:

Sweet Cinnamon Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk*
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup milk, optional

*You can use a powdered buttermilk with water, or make your own "buttermilk" with milk and and a small amount of lemon juice or vinegar.

1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl and mix well. Stir in vegetable oil. Add buttermilk and stir just until blended.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Roll dough into a 15x8-inch rectangle.

3.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fareinheit. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan lightly.

4. Spread softened butter over the dough. Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle over butter. Roll up rectangle, jelly roll fashion, starting from one long side. Pinch seam to seal.

5. Cut the roll into 1 1/2 inch slices. Arrange the slices, cut side up, in prepared baking pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven. Pour milk over the top, if desired. Serve hot. Enjoy!

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• Jul. 23, 2009
Sorry I haven't posted for so long!

Posted in About Me!

I am so sorry I haven't posted for the past several weeks. I was busy and sick and I sort of forgot to post. I am just so sorry.

Here is what I was doing since the 4th of July.

On the 4th of July my family and I got to go to my Grandma's house for a special desert sundae. Then we got to watch the fireworks at a nearby park, and then lit off our own. It was so fun. When we got home I think it was 11 something!

For two days after the 4th of July we got to just lay around the house and do pretty much nothing, but all the while mom was booking a campsite for us at Silver Falls State Park! We had such a blast there. We hiked up around several of the waterfalls, and even a trail that had a segment where there were HUGE garter snakes. Like almost ball pithon sized garter snakes. Subsequently, my sister dubbed it the "Trail of Snakes." On part of the trail, our family could hear a couple of crows cawing so loudly at each other it sounded like a couple of monkeys! Seriously!

The only thing that dampened our spirits was that I had a stupid ear ache and the apple cider vinegar/rubbing alcohol treatment was not working on it. Mom wanted to take me in to Urgent Care after we got home from the camping trip but the next day was Saturday, and that was the day our church was going up to one of our church plants in Greshem to host a VBS thing for the kids in a certain apartment complex. I couldn't go, of course, because the pain was enough to wake me in the night and send me crying to Mom. So Mom left me with Grandma and Grandpa and they took me to Urgent Care. The doctors there told me that my problem was that my eustation tube was no draining correctly. So they gave me Sudafed PE, which healed my ears in just a couple of days. But I do officially hate Sudafed now because it made me cry for absolutely no reason at all. In one episode, I was crying and crying, and I just sat down and asked myself, "Why am I crying? I have absolutely no reason to be crying, but I am. In fact, I have all the reasons in the world to be happy!" But I still was crying. It was like how my mom said she was after she had me. Dad came home from work and said, "Hi, honey, I'm home!" and all of the sudden she started bawling and bawling. Except my crying came from Sudafed, not hormones. Now I am over my sickness, but I got another problem.

Ear infection. Yup, you heard me right. I got Swimmer's Ear. It stinks. My mom took me in to Urgent Care, and they gave me the diagnosis, as well as two medication prescriptions. Both prescriptions were ear drops. One prescription was for a pain reliever, the other was for some antibiotics. When my mom went in to pick the meds up, one of her church friends (who is a pharmacist) made the UC doctors change the prescription for one of the ear drops so that it wouldn't cost as much. The new ear drops were not inferior, but they were a lot cheaper. About $100 cheaper. (Our family doesn't have traditional insurance anymore. We have a medical "savings account" that we can use for any medical expenses we might have. Right now we are saving up for braces for my sister.) Surprisingly, the ear drops for the antibiotics actually felt more like a pain reliever than the real pain reliever. Funny, huh?

Two days into my treatment our family was able to dogsit one of my absolute favorite dogs in the world: Toby! Toby is a cute little black pug. I just love him. We got to keep him from a Monday-Friday. We decided that if we ever got a dog, it would definetly be a pug. Our whole family loves Toby!

Now I am over my ear infection, and I can swim. But I wouldn't want to; the pool is disgusting. I mean really disgusting. Like so-green-you-can't-see-past-the-surface disgusting. Thankfully, my dad came home from a backpacking trip recently, so he was able to treat the pool. I think I will be able to swim in it tomorrow.

Life has been very busy the past week! Tons and tons of fair entries to prepare. Yesterday I entered 6 entries (2 photos, a clay dragonfly, a clay heart-shaped jewelry box, a table runner, and a birthday card for Oregon)! Today I had only 3 (a decorated cake for Oregon (which was a monumental task since I made many state symbols out of fondant), a cookie jar with 3 types of cookies inside (for the Grandma's Cookie Jar contest), and one entry of chocolate chip cookies), but it was still very time consuming. Tomorrow is the easy stuff: Floral entries. All I have to do is go outside and cut flowers, and then arrange some of them.

That's all for now (which is a lot since I haven't posted for about a month), but I will have more soon, including what the fair was like and what places I got for entries. Well, signing off!

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• Jul. 7, 2009
Truth Tuesday: The day that the sun stood still

Posted in Truth Tuesday

You may remember the story in the Bible where Joshua needed more daylight to win the battle. Joshua prayed to God, and God had the sun stand still. The Israelites won the battle, of course. And now there's a story circulating that NASA scientists have, through science, actually found that "missing" day! What tremendous proof that God's Word is true!

But then the truth: NASA scientists totally deny these claims that they have found the "missing" day in the solar system. NASA is not even WANTING to find this day. NASA is not Christian. They are pretty much anti-Christian.

But even though they haven't found this day (yet), God's Word still stands, and His Word is always the truth. So don't dismay.

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• Jul. 7, 2009
(belated) Money Monday: Saving money on school supplies

Posted in Frugal Tips

Whether homeschooled, public schooled, private schooled, or charter schooled, we all need school supplies. But they can be so expensive!

Buy school supplies either in July or a couple weeks before school. School supplies are very cheap this time of year. They are also very cheap a couple weeks before school. You can spend very little on pencils, notebooks, markers, and all sorts of other stuff.

You can buy supplies at garage sales extremely cheaply. You can get supplies very cheaply at garage sales. You will probably find more school supplies at a garage sale where a teacher is either retiring, or changing professions. The teacher will be probably selling all of their school supplies/teaching supplies. This is another way to get at cheap school supplies.

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• Jul. 7, 2009
(belated) Food Friday: Heavenly Chocolate Truffles

Posted in Recipes

I really love truffles and ever since I found this recipe, I've loved them even more! This recipe was originally for mice-shaped truffles, and when I typed it out for mom, she must have changed it to plain truffles, so as a fun twist you can make them mice-shaped if you like!

Truffles (or mice truffles)

4-1 oz. squares semisweet chocolate, melted

1/3 cup sour cream

1 1/4 cup fine chocolate wafer crumbs (about 30 cookies)

In a bowl, use a fork to mix the chocolate and sour cream. Add 1 cup of the chocolate wafer crumbs and mix well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour or until firm. (You can also put it in the freezer for half an hour and you will get the same results.) Place the remaining crumbs on a plate. Usuing small amounts, form the dough into any shape you like and roll in the crumbs. Repeat step until all the dough is used up. Decorate each truffle with candies, sprinkles, etc., to your taste. Refrigerate until firm, about two hours (or, again, cut time in half by putting in the freezer for one hour). Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to one week. Makes about one dozen truffles.

Decorating option: To make mice-shaped truffles, roll a small ball of dough out. Insert two almond slices towards the front of one end of the dough ball for ears. For a tail, take a piece of licorice and divide the licorice into strands. (It helps if the licorice is made up of 2-3 strands twisted together. Then all you have to do is unwind the piece of licorice.) Cut the strands into thirds, and then insert one third of licorice into the truffle for a tail. Make sure you put the licorice into the opposite end that the ears are on! Completed mouse truffle.

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• Jul. 2, 2009
New frog!!!!

Posted in Pets

You'll never believe this. I was outside at dinner time yesterday spraying my snails with water (so they stay moist and active), and when I got to my red snail's jar, I lifted up his hiding place, and I had to look again, because there was a fully-grown frog!!! there who had slightly burrowed into the muddiest part of the jar. He is so cute! I think he came in to the habitat through a large hole in the cheesecloth covering the jar. (By the way, I rearranged the cheesecloth so that the froggy couldn't get out.)

I went to get some crickets for him to eat, but they were to large. (They were sized for lizards.) I don't think I'm going to feed either my lizard OR my frog with those crickets, because in just one day, all but about 5 died. Yikes! It's really creepy, because some of them will still be moving their heads and breathing, but they are slowly dying. I think it's some sort of disease. I think I'll get crickets at the OTHER pet store (which, by the way, is right across the street from the other one!).

I'll try to get pictures of my frog later.

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