The weekend that I get to spend with the Riser’s hasn’t come around yet. We don’t even have a date set up. We did but the first date I had to post-pone because that time would no longer work because we’re having some relatives stay at our house. So we set up another time and I had to post-pone that, too, because my parents needed me to baby-sit. I feel bad for having to keep on rescheduling (holy cow, I spelled that right, I thought for sure Microsoft Word would have underlined that), but Mrs. Riser says that it’s no problem and that it’s no hassle at all. She is very nice.

Oh, and it’s not going to be a weekend. It’ll be a week beginning. On Sunday my family will leave me at Church with the Riser’s and then they’ll drive me half-way home and drop me off at Home Depot with Coie on Tuesday.

 I love this set up because now I get to stay at Church longer than we usually do (Being the pastor’s family, they stay at Church longer than we do).  I love having fellowship with the people at Church and I value every moment that I get with anyone there. You know how I’m always saying “I REALLY want to move to Maryville”? You’ve probably seen it 20 million times here on my blog. Well, our Church is in Maryville. That’s why I want to move down there so badly. But why I love our Church so much is because I’ve learned an ENORMOUS amount of stuff from the sermons and from the many godly examples set for me. I’ve grown so much closer to God ever since we’ve started coming to this Church. If you ever want to listen to a sermon (or more-after you hear a sermon, believe me, you’ll want to hear another one, and then another one, and then another one…) go to www.GraceMaryville.org Mr. Riser is going through Romans chapter 16 (he is right now but I probably won’t get around to transferring this word doc. to a computer with internet to post this for a while). Some of my favorite sermons are in Romans 12. I got several copies of the sermons and listen to the repeatedly. He packs a LOT of important Much-Need-To-Know stuff in his sermons and he talks fast and so I usually catch some extra stuff when I listen to them again. I wish I could get copies of his sermons on Romans ch.12. I’ll download all of them when we get faster internet. Oh, and I’m so very excited because they (whoever is in charge of the web-site, I think Mr. Walker is, he’s cool) put all of the sermons on the Church site! I just can’t wait for faster internet to download those! :-D

Oh boy, wow, I sure jumped from subject to subject really fast.

Well, now you know why I want to move to Maryville. :-D

Alrighty, now I’ll tell you about the last two weeks (I’m going to load this entry, most people don’t read entries that end up as long as this one will, but that’s ok because the only reason I really have this blog is to keep records and be able to read about stuff I will probably forget in 3 years). The first weekend, Mom and Coie went to Minnesota for a convention that they had to go to for their new job with Rosetta Stone. They left on Thursday and got home on Sunday.  I was so bummed because we didn’t get to go to Church that Sunday. But it’s ok because my friend saved a copy of the sermon for me…but I still missed the fellowship. So while they were gone, Dad worked literally most of the time (he has two jobs, one at night, one during the day). So I babysat my siblings all weekend and we had lots of fun after we got all our school done. We ran around the fireplace (which is a big brick thing that separates the living room from the dining room) 5000 times and then played hide-n-seek in the dark 20000 times, then we watched Mulan 35 times, and then we got ready and went to bed.  Actually, while they watched Mulan I did one of my favorite things to do (you guys can guess what that is if you want). Actually, it was more of a two-things-at-once thing. Dad also bought tub of ice cream and a bunch of candy bars and we chopped up those and mixed them with the ice cream (the way Marble Slab does it). It was really tasty. (I told Mom about this over the phone and she said that they weren’t getting much to eat up there and they’d probably lose 20 pounds and us kids would find it)

We also did a lot of recording. I am making another family video. I need a program with 4-screen to finish it, though.

And then Mom and Coie left the next Thursday and got home that Sunday. We missed Church that Sunday, too. So I’ve had two whole weeks without going to Church. Goodness. It’s hard enough waiting 6 days for Sunday. I’m so happy we’ll be able to make it to Church in two days. I sure wish we could move closer (Yes, that was off subject). We can’t make it to small group Sunday evening, though, because we’re having some great friends over and they’re going to butcher two of our goats (for free, too!).

Hmmm. There was something else I was going to say…ah, got it. I’m now writing for a magazine. The mag is called Godly Girls. I’ve only sent in one thing so far, but the magazine owner wants me to write for them regularly. I get my own column, too. I named it Living for Him. Dying for Him.

Okie doke. This is entry is long enough. I’ll be surprised if you comment and tell me (TRUTHFULLY) that you read the entire thing. :-D                                      

Dear Grandma Sharon,

When we watched Mulan it reminded me of being at your house watching it there. I thought of you the entire time I watched it. Only made me miss you more. How is Grandma Agnes and everybody else? I wish we could come out and see everyone. And go to your house and have Inn-n-Out or something (I'd say Papa Murphy's, but we're so fortunate as to have one out here by our Church now). I've also been thinking about Aunt Lilian a lot lately. I can't remember why, though. I need to get off the computer, now. I've been on long enough. ;-D I love you and I miss you very very very much (bet you did't know that :-p )

-Ryann                                          

I almost forgot my password for this blog. Good golly it's been a long while since I've blogged.  OH! Speaking of golly (that was our goat's name, Golly), all of our goats FINALLY had their babies. And now we recently found out that another one of our goat's are pregnant. I'd be a lot more excited about this, but I'm  not a goat lover. However, soon enough we'll be selling goats milk and I'll be getting paid for the milking! WOOHOO! (no, that's not a sneeze, that's a way to say "I'm excited") Speaking of getting payed, I've started my own business. I now own all of the chickens and I sell eggs $2.00 a dozen. I get a little over 105 eggs a week, and I've found enough people to sell all of those eggs to. That pays for their own feed and I get enough profit for myself, so I'm satasfied. :-D I know how to butcher chickens on my own, so I can also sell chicken (Haven't gotten that far yet). On Tuesday I had to butcher 2 chickens for dinner because mom wanted to make something but we didn't have chicken. Tomorrow I have to butcher 3 more. I don't really like butchering chickens. It's a pretty nasty job. I especially hate it when the flies find the chicken and the 'Unwanted For Cooking"  pile. They drive me nuts. One thing that I really don't like is eating the chicken. I'm the only one in the family that doesn't like eating my chickens (or the eggs). So I do all that butchering and don't eat ANY of it. But sometimes I have to. I get really lucky if Mom doesn't have me eat everything on my plate. So far I haven't had to eat either John or Mark. Poor fellas. I'm that way about the goats milk, too. I do the milking but I HATE HATE HATE the milk. Why does it have to be this way? Maybe I should stop being so picky. Oh, one more thing, we may be butchering one or two of our goats this Sunday (no, not as a sacrifice). I am SO happy happy happy. I told you I wasn't a goat lover. But hopefully I don't have to eat any of it. Maybe I can skip dinner for the next 5 years...

I have more to say, but I don't have time to type it all out right now...maybe I will next year...:-P

-Ryann

-Edit-written on April 1^st posted today…

On Sunday night we (Me, Coie, Mom, and Emmi) went to our Small Group. I am usually asked help watch the younger kids while the adults have the bible study. But this time my friend said she didn’t need any help. So I went inside and participated in the bible study, which was about prayer. It was very interesting to me. Mr. Riser mentioned a book on prayer that costs $300 dollars and has 1500 pages! I forgot who wrote it. I wish I could get that book (rather, borrow it).

After the bible study, I went over to Mrs. Riser (who had gotten my attention and waved for me to come over to her) and she said “Ok, don’t explode” I think she told me that 2-3 times. I said “Ok” wondering what she meant by that. And she said that she wanted me to come over to her house and spend a weekend with her. Even though she made that clear, it didn’t quite click for me right away (I was pretty slow that evening).

 And finally I put it together that she knew that I would be very excited and I’d explode with excitement. I really like the Riser family and am always excited to see them, so I’m especially excited to get to spend a weekend with them. She told me not to get too excited because I probably won’t go over there for a while. As much as I felt like I would, I didn’t explode. She said that she wanted to teach me some stuff about crocheting and/or knitting (which I’m especially excited about, I’ve been wanting to learn more stuff about crocheting & knitting). I thought about this for a little while wondering why she wanted me to come over. And finally I went to her and asked her and she said “Because I love you!” (I told my dad about this convo. and he goes “Aw, that’s cute”--his often and expected reply about something sweet, nice, kind, etc.). I feel totally special.

I’m so excited about this. When she invited me I wasn’t so sure if it would happen. But Mrs. Riser went and talked to my Mom about having me over and Mom said I can come over-that’s when I got overly excited. I’ve been giddy all day today and was all day yesterday. I just can't wait for this weekend to come along!

Oh, speaking of yesterday, me, Dad, Coie and Bo went up to Cumberland Gap (40-50 miles from here) to help Miss Tina, a lady that Dad works with, move to Morristown. She only had 3 other people helping her. About an hour after we got there and just about finished loading the uhaul, Coie had to leave for work. So she took her car and left. Me, Dad, and Bo got to drive the Uhaul down to Morristown (where Mom would come and pick us up) and helped unload (I haven’t ridden in a big truck since I was 10, it was pretty fun and brought back a ton of memories. I miss going with my Dad to work). When we finished, Mom picked us up and while we were driving down the neighborhood street we saw a man in a car parked next to a lady probably in her late 40’s, who was lying on the road. It looked really suspicious, so we called 911. While we were waiting for the police and ambulance (who someone else also called for) to come, Mom got out of the car and asked her if she was OK (Oh, by the way, the man was gone by now). She told Mom to go get her cigarettes. Mom asked her if she thought anything was broken and the lady again told her to go get her cigarettes. When the lady heard the ambulance she got right up and left. So Mom talked to the police about it and then we left quickly because Dad had to go to an appointment. And Miss Tina, who noticed the ambulance and police 4 doors down from hers and went to go see what the matter was and also saw us leaving, called Dad and let him know that the lady was just having a fit because she didn’t have any cigarettes! (Oh, by the way, the man in the car was the person who had later called the ambulance; I don’t know why he was parked so close to her, though). Ah, yes, one more thing about this…Today my Dad’s phone (which is used as an alarm clock) rang. So I hit a button meaning to turn off what I thought was the alarm, but was actually someone calling. I heard someone say “Hello?” and I thought “Oh, shoot” and quite embarrassed I answered it. The voice on the other side said “hello this is so-n-so from the Morristown police department” “Uh, one moment please!” and I hung up. I’m pretty sure that he was just calling about the whole thing yesterday. He didn’t call back. That was pretty embarrassing.

On another note, here’s a funny story about today:

 My 4yo brother came running in the house saying “I need to get a shirt on!” And I said “Ok, then go get one” without looking at him. And then he came to the kitchen (where I was) and said while putting on his shirt “I gotta worm” that got my attention pretty quick “You got a what-what?” and while he stretched it out he said “A worm.” “James, that’s gross. Take that outside.” I think that worm was the same on that he found under the rocks 5 hours ago. I had gone outside to check on him and when he saw me he went “Hey, look, I got a worm!”

Me “Uh, that’s great!” (trying to sound excited for his ‘amazing’ find) “Go give it to the chickens.”

Him “Um, no thanks. I wanna keep it”

Me “alright. What are you going to do with it?”

James “I don’t know”

Me “What did you name it?” (assuming that he had)

James (after a thoughtful moment) “Simba”

We haven’t seen Lion King for years and know nobody with that name. How in the world did he come up with that?

I don’t know why, but he has some sort of fascination with worms and loves them. His favorite thing to do outside is Worm-Hunt.

Ah, he just came in the house and I asked him what he did with the worm and he said “I let it go”

Me “did you give it to the chickens?”

Him “No, I let it go”

Me “HOW did you ‘let it go’?”

Him “I put a big rock on top of it and smooshed ‘em”

I was pretty sure that dry worm would survive…

Today I was thinking about ice cream and about my favorite places to go for it and my favorite flavor. Which reminded me of a conversation I had over the phone with my aunt Jessica, who, by the way, is moving down here to Maryville, TN That way, when we’re ready to move closer to Church, we’ll move next door to her…I’ve got it all planned out, Juss, how do you like my plans?

Anyways, here’s sort of how the convo went:

Me “Yesterday me and Coie went to Marble Slab, which is the BEST place to get ice cream.”

Her (Oh, hang on a second, I forgot what the ice cream place she said is called, so I’ll just call it ‘Stone’ because I know that word is in it…) “No, ‘Stone’ is the best place. (AH, I just remembered what the place is called: Cold Stone)

And we just sort of fought over it for a while and finally she asked:

“Have you ever even been to Cold Stone?”

Me “(hesitate) Uh, er, um, sort of…no…But have you been to Marble Slab?”

Her “……..no”

And after that was an explosion of laughter.

I’m very, very, bummed because I have to miss Church 5 times within, I think, the next 3 months because Coie and Mom will be gone on Sundays (each Sunday they’ll be at different conventions). We can’t make it to Church because we need two drivers to transport Dad, me, Emmi, Bo, Dip, and James to Church (our car only seats 5). Why can’t we just say “abba cadabba” and have our van fixed so we could make it to Church? Isn’t there a problem with this picture: We have 4 vehicles on this property and we don’t have enough seats to make it to Church? (I know, that sentence was tweaked and didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle. :-P)

So, I’m listening to a CD by Chris Rice right now, it’s pretty good. I like his ‘Fly to Jesus’ song. A CD that I want really bad is the newest by Tim Hughes. And I’m hoping Mr. Sensenig will come out with another CD. I’m really big into music. And most people I know know that, so guess how many CDs I got for my birthday….9 or 10. I love them all (I mean the CDs). And then I was asked what Coie wanted for her birthday and I told them something that she REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted, which is something that I wanted just as much: a CD by Brandon Heath. And she got it. But she barely saw it after she unwrapped it…it was in my hands and on it’s way to the CD player. I think I’ve listened to it more that she has…well, maybe. A couple times me and Coie listened to the whole thing twice Sunday (remember that we drive 3 hours or more for Church and Small Group). Well, the Chris Rice CD is over, so I’m going to put on the Brandon Heath CD now. Thanks Juss.

Okie, doke, I’m going to sign off now and get my USB Flash Drive Cruiser and move this Doc. Over to a computer with internet (dial-up, rather). Right now it’s 3:33 PM. Let’s see how long it takes for me to take the time to ask Mom to get on HSB, get on dial-up. –EDIT- It is now 5:50 PM (Same day). I seriously thought it would take me days or weeks!

-Ryann

Dana, I have heard a lot about you and have much respect for you. Can I have your address so I can write you? If you don't want to give your address over the internet you can email it to me, if you want. My email is, um, er, uh, I have to ask my Mom, I totally forgot my own email address...ok, I asked her and she forgot,too. But you can email me in her acount: JeneferIg@ gmail.com (I put a space there so virus's won't go through and pick up our email, so take out that space). I hope we can become great friends!

Grandma Sharon, I miss you SOOO much. How is the whole family out there? Please tell Grandma Agnes that I say Hi and I miss her very, very much. I almost cry whenever I think about her. I hope we can make it out at the end of the Summer. If we can get the van fixed we'll make that trip to come get our junk out of the storage place. I REALLY want to see you again SOON!!! What did you do for Easter? Whatever you did, I hope you had a great one! I love you!

Megan, can I have the link to your blog, AGAIN? I don't know how many times I'm going to ask you for it before I get it memorized!  :-D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my AWESOME, FAVORITE,  NEATO, WOODWORKING, COOL, etc. UNCLE CHARLEY!!!! We made you a 'birthday package' and we'll send it to you (or, try to) on Monday.

Jess, thanks for calling me earlier! Sorry if I totally talked your ear off...actually, I probably didn't. If I had worn your ear off you certainly wouldn't have asked to talk to Dip (in otherwords, asking for another chatterbox). I enjoyed talking to you! I love you soooo much! Hurry up and move down here!

Goodness, this is a long post!

Ryann

Well, Jess wants me to update my blog again, so I am. Happy? Ok, good, bye.

Never mind. I might as well tell you what we did for Easter while I'm wasting my time anyway...

I got up at 7:00 (I think it was AM, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was...:P ) and got in the shower, ironed my skirt (AFTER my shower), checked on the chickens, got breakfast, did laundry, and got ready for Church. We (Me, Coie, and Emmi) left at 9:15 got at Church at 10:30 and immediately went to go reserve seats for the other half of my family. We thought the Church would be really crowded. Which we were surprised to find that it wasn't  at all. And seemed pretty empty even after the service started. At the end one of the songs a little boy in the back yelled "YES, I DID IT!" I have NO idea who said it or why he said it. But his parents were probably pretty embarressed because (literally) the entire Church heard and laughed at it.

After Church we went to a friend's house. We stayed for lunch but had to leave early because we wanted to celebrate Bo's birthday at home. I was pretty bummed we couldn't stay for volley ball (my favorite game). So we came home and watched a movie that I got a while ago and kinda just sat around. It's 9:12 and we're going to celebrate Bo's birthday in 20 minutes, before Dad has to leave for work (He works a night shift at Berkline).

Jessi, Bo is totally excited about his gift card. He wants to go refill our paintball guns' Co2 tanks so we can have a war. And why are you asking other people to come to my blog and talk me into wanting to move up there? Not going to happen! WE ARE MOVING TO MARYVILLE (I hope and pray). Which is no where near AK. So if you want to be close to us, YOU move down HERE (and bring Charley and Grandpa). Oh, by the way, at Church we were talking to Mrs. Beemer and she asked us if we planned on moving to AK and we told her "no" and that we're not interested in moving up there and it's WAY too cold and that we wouldn't like it up there and she said "Oh, well, someone's gotta love the weather up there, thank goodness it's not you!". See? we're not the only ones that don't want my family to move up away.

To Jessi and Charley's friend, Miss Dana, Thank you for commenting on my blog! Great to meet someone that knows my awesome aunt and uncle. I hope to meet you in person someday. Maybe someday we'll visit AK and meet you then. I think I've seen a picture of you when Jessica came down here with a massive picture book with probably a picture of everyone in AK (that picture book was really huge).  :-D I do beleive AK is a neat place, but I still don't want to move up there. You may have caught that earlier. Has Jessica told you anything about that? She's trying to get us to move up there. But I don't want to leave our Church.

The sermon this morning was REALLY good. You can listen to it at www.gracemaryville.com . I'm going to listen to it again later.

Um, Da Ja Vu. That was really weird....never mind.

I'll try to blog in another couple of months....

By His Grace,

Ryann

IRTYC: For my birthday I'm having some girls from Church over and 2 others. All but one girl has to drive 1 hour and 15-30 minutes to get here! Unfortunately, Sami (one of my best friends) can't come. She'd rather dance :-P (Just teasing, Sam). I think I can wait 5 more whole stinkin days for Papa Murpheys, maybe. It sure seems like a long time to wait. :-D

On another note, I have some REALLY bad news. My family is thinking about moving to Alaska. I would hate that. I think I already told you this. But I'd just really like to stress the fact that I don't want to move any further from Maryville!   I'll tell you how much I don't want to move away: Last night I was in the bathroom and I could hear my Mom talking on the phone with my aunt Jess who is in AK trying to get us to move up there and I was listening to all that mom was saying and I thought about all of the people I would miss and finally I just started crying. No one saw me because I was in the bathroom, so it was ok. And you know that I hardly ever cry. This is a really big deal to me.

Well, if we do move, I know that it's all apart of God's plan. And I know that ALL things work together for good (Romans 8:28). So I shouldn't be so upset, worried, etc.

I love you sooooooooo much. Hopefully we can' come visit you soon!

-Ryann

Oh, yes, and THANK YOU so very very very much for the Papa Murphey's coupons! We'll be using those for my birthday! I think that's the biggest reason I'm excited for my birthday to come! Papa Murpheys, mmmm. Ok, I'm getting hungry. I need to go right now, I just wanted to thank you for that. We're going to go celebrate Coie's birth now...

I love you so much!  I miss you.(Did you know that?)

Love,

Ryann

The other day, we received a box from one of my most favorite people on earth and inside was a CD that I've wanted for so long: Chris Tomlin-See The Morning CD! Oh, I'm so happy! Music is a big thing for my and I love it and love getting CD's--especially my favorite ones :-D :-D

I also got some other early presents: Sherlock Holmes book, another Sherlock Holmes book, another Sherlock Holmes book, and one more book: Sherlock Holmes. I'm in heaven.

Oh, yes, and my grandparents in MI gave me some early presents, too--another early birthday. :-D

Um, how many birthdays are you supposed to have in 14 years?

Tomorrow me and Coie are going all the way up to VA for my ortho and afterwords we'll go celebrate her birthday. I don't know where we'll go, yet, besides Starbucks and Ruby Tuesday. I love taking the long drive with her up there. She's so special to me and I enjoy spending time with her.

Dear Grandma Sharon,

Thank you  Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you, and Thank you. You just totally made my day! I've already gotten started on the Sherlock Holmes and found it quite difficult to put down. :-D

I love you so much. I dreamt that we came to CA and I saw Grandma Agnes and I miss her so much that in my dream I even started crying! And I don't cry often at all. I just really miss her! I haven't seen the CA family in so long, I miss the all! I love you and miss you so much!!!

By His Grace,

Ryann

Dear Grandma Sharon,

I think I'll head over to your house right now.....there is a terrible storm over here-worst storm in Feb. that TN has ever had recorded in history. 44 people have already been killed by it this morning. Please be praying for those families. I was told that there are tornados all over the east.

I have to go now,

I love you so much!

-Ryann

So I've been tagged again from DRGNfly1010, good thing too, otherwise you may not have heard from me for another 5 weeks....

I have to say 6 random things about myself and then tag 6 other people....

1. I love my Grandma Sharon and LOVE getting commetns from her.

2. I want to get rid of this blog but I keep it going for ONLY two reasons-1. It's the easiest way for me to communicate with my Grandma. 2. To keep in touch with some friends here on blogger.

3. I want to move to Maryville

4. I don't have a TN accent...but I can make you say TEN in a TN accent....just spell T.E.N. really fast...

5. I'm probably the most social person in my family

6. Sunday is my favorite day of the week

Ok, I tag Sami, Grandma Sharon, "Mariel", Mrs. Drews, Mega Mog, and Aunt Juss.

Dear Grandma Sharon,

Today was really warm. I was sweating all day-literally. What is weather like over there? Has the fence been fixes and the trees cleared? I'm sorry that the fence was hit. But as long as the car detector thing still goes 'DeeDoo" whenever you get a visiter, everything is ok. I loved that thing. :-D Today is Dad's birthday, but he's working. So is Coie. Me and Coie bought him a gift over the internet and it doesn't come in until Tuesday so we'll give him a second celebration then. Who says you can only celebrate one's birth just once a year? :-D I have to go clean my hand now, it cut and it's all bloody now....I love you and I really miss you. How does Grandma Agnes like her new room mate? If she doesn't like her, count on me to come over and be her room mate.....:-D

By His Grace,

Ryann

P.S. Sami, are you serious? If you are, I'm totally bummed. But it's all apart of God's plan. Hopefully I'll get to see you soon!

My friend Sami said that she tags anyone who wants to do this tag and I decided to do it just for the sake of it:

8 Things I Want to do Before I Die:

1. Get the Chris Tomlin ‘See The Morning’ CD

2. Marry

3. Go on a plane

4. Meet my Grandpa

5. Go caving and repelling

6. Move to Maryville

7. Move to Maryville

8. Move to Maryville

8 Things I Say Often:

1. Gee, Golly, Wilikers

2. Mom, I want to move to Maryville

3. Mom, Can we move closer to our Church?

4. Mom, Can we try to make it to the small group tonight (We drive 5 hours and 15 minutes for Church and Small Group on Sunday and sometimes we don’t make it to the SG because of gas and I hate missing it)

5. Mom, Guess what? (She always knows what I’m going to say/ask, right, Mom?)

6. Hi James, are you going to work? (that’s my 4 y/o brother)

7. I’ll make pancakes in the morning (never happens)

8. Um

8 Books I'm in the middle of 

1.Pursuit Of Holiness by A.W. Tozer

2.Gems From Tozer by A.W. Tozer

3. Stepping Heavenward (don’t know the author and I’m too lazy to check)

4.The Bible

5.A book by Elizabeth Elliot (forgot what it’s called)

6.Science of the PC

7.Streams of Civilization

8.Economics (By Tom Rose, a lot of things are in there that are false, but I have to read it for the school program I’m doing)

8 Songs I Like:

1.Awesome God-Rich Mullins

2.Amazing Grace-Chris Tomlin

3.Here I Am To Worship-Tim Hughes

4.Live Out Loud-Steven Chapman

5.O The Deep, Deep, Love of Jesus-I don’t know who wrote it

6.There’s a Mercy Me song that I really like, but I can’t remember what it’s called

7.How Great is Our God-Chris Tomlin

8.Glory Be to Our Great God-Fernando Ortega

8 Things That Attract Me to My Friends: 

1.They’re Godly

2. Nice

3. Kind

4. Loving

5. Helpful

6. Respectful

7. Cheerful

8. Talkative

By the way, I only have a couple friends my age that are like that. And the majority of my friends are either adults or kids between 1-5. 

8 Things I've Learned This Year: (This might be hard, it’s only been one month!)

1. Um, Buddha was a real guy and he was nice and he died by eating spoiled food.

2. Spartan parents were only allowed to keep their sons until they turned 7 and if their kid was physically/mentally messed up they had to leave them in the wild to die (get eaten by wild animals, starve, freeze, etc).

3. Let’s see, what else have I learned in my History book??? Alexander the Great was a Prince

4. I’ve learned A TON from the sermons this year

5. I learned that I make my slashes backwards

6. I learned what ice pots (on the road) look like

7. If I don’t wear gloves on the quad all of my blood in my thumb either freezes or leaves

8. Ants move vveerryy ssllooww in the winter

There, sheesh, that took forever. Gee, Golly, Wilikers. Ok, I have to go to the bathroom.

-Ryann

Dear Grandma Sharon,

It snowed really hard today and the pond it totally frozen over. I walked on it a little bit and jumped on it and slipped. I could not crack the ice by my self so I got a heavy rock and threw it off the deck and that cracked it.  What's the weather like over there? Have you gotten any snow? I hope that all of the family out there is doing well! How is Grandma Agnes? Please tell her I love her and I miss her.

I love you and I miss you very much!!!

Last week Coie took me to my Ortho appt. (that's in VA) and after that we went to the Austin's house to drop something off and they surprised us with a big ol' basket of stuff. One thing that was in it is the Sherlock Holmes Hound of The Baskervilles video that us Ig kids acted in. The bloopers is the best part. There was a lot of Coie in there. We watched the bloopers several times and laughed our heads off throughout the entire thing. But before we watched that and the movie I wanted to make a deal  with Coie to NOT MAKE FUN OF EACH OTHER. She didn't agree to that--unfortunately for her.

Um, I had something else to say, what was it???? Nevermind.

Dear Grandma Sharon,

I didn't know that the Abes were renting their house to you. That's pretty neat. I wish I could see them again--I wish I could see YOU again! Speaking of houses, I wish we could move. The Lord has blessed us with such a wonderful Church in Maryville and I REALLY  want to move closer. We have a hard time participating in the small fellowship groups Sunday evenings because we live so far, but if we lived closer we could go every Sunday. I love being with the Church and I especially enjoy playing with the 4 year olds. Today a 4 year old ran at me at Church and hugged me and I wasn't expecting it at all and I dropped my stuff. :-D

Thank you for visiting my blog, Levi, and for commenting. I love hearing from you. I really miss you. Your cousin,

-Ryann

My 2nd favorite Christmas Card last year said this:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.

If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgivness. So God sent us a Saviour.

-Roy Lessin

That was sent to us from MI from the same Grandma I had this coversation about favorite Christian artrists:

Me: "I like Steven Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Wavorly, Tim Hughes, etc."

Grandma: "I like...um, you know...the dead one..."

Me: "Oh, right, I like him, too. Rich Mullins?

Grandma: "Yeah, that one"

Dear Grandma Sharon,

I wish you could have come for Christmas, but since you missed that you can come for all of our Feb. birthdays. :-D

We heard from the Abe family at Christmas. They sent us a card and present. I still remember them and Jeanie from when we went to DisneyLand.

I love you so much and I really miss you! I have to go now, my hands are so cold that they are stiff-making it really hard to type!

Thank you for the comments, Levi! It's great to hear from you. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

By His Grace,

-Ryann

P.S. You guys probably won't hear from me in blogger world for a while. I get too many better things to do than spend my time typing away. But you can call us, Grandma Sharon-better yet, visit us :-D

So I've changed. I don't enjoy blogging as much. There, Sami, is that a good enough excuse? And what makes you think I should put all my time in blogging? :-D Also, 7 kids at 13?! Hmm, well, is 4 kids at 9 as good as that? :-P What's wrong with Rescuers Down Under? I like the mice, even after watching Ratawhatever-it's-called (you know what I"m talking about).

Baby-sitting went really, really, well. I enjoyed the whole day. At about 1:00, the Suich's came and picked me and Emmi up and took us down to The Live Christmas Tree--which really was amazing. And then we went to the Goggans house (our friends were having a birthday party) and Mr. Butcher and Michael and Jonathan came and picked me up. Emmi stayed at the Goggans for the night. Mrs. Butcher said that the boys had to be in bed by a certain time. So they left and Michael showed me a couple songs on the piano, they showed me their train set, we played The Game of Life until Jonathan got bored, and we played legos. And by then it was bed time. They got ready for bed and then we prayed and then I went and got ready for bed. I slept in a room right across from them and it was really cute hearing Jonathan, out of the blue, singing Ring Around the Rosies. :-D

As usual, I couldn't sleep for another 1-2 hours after laying down (that is totally normal, sometimes it's longer at home, I can't figure out what the problem is-I stopped drinking coffee after 12:00, that didn't work, so I stopped drinking coffee period, still didn't work. Then I stopped listening to music through the night. Nope. Still can't sleep, do you have any idea what else I could do to help me sleep besides taking pills?--I totally refuse to do that). And it's also normal that I wake up two or three times during the night. And I did. But the second time, to my surprise, I woke up to see Mrs. Butcher talking to me. She said I could sleep on the bed. Then in the morning, I asked her about it because I just remeber her saying something about sleeping on the bed and I thought she said something about wheels, but she didn't. She said it took some work to wake me up, and then she offered me to sleep on the bed (I was sleeping beside it). I was kind of embarressed because I don't remember saying thanks or anything, but she said I said "No thanks". :-D

I had a lot of fun baby-sitting. I really hope to do it again! I am glad that I got to watch the Butchers because they're really sweet.

Ms. Jaynee, thank you for the advice, I got that after my baby-sitting, :-D I'll remember that for next time. :-D

Charley, about the whole insanitary thing...that's ALASKA. Why can't you move down here and see what it's like? Much cleaner. BTW, the Butchers house was very clean.

Dear Grandma Sharon,

Thank you SO VERY MUCH for the box and the yarn and goodies!!! I have already used up the entire ball of the black and white yarn and part of the other ball. I turned into a scarf for a friend who I'll be giving it to today. We sent you a box, too. Coie drew all over it. Have you gotten that?

The whole Olbrich family and Grandpa Bolen are coming down 2 days after Christmas again! If you came it would make Christmas five million times better.

I probably won't be blogging again. And if I do, it won't be for a long time. But I'll check to see if there's a comment from you. I just read another story from Sherlock Holmes and it was awesome. Now I'm in the middle of one called The Death Valley or something like that, it's very interesting. I love you so much and I miss you and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, please tell the the whole family out there Merry Christmas from us.

Love,

Ryann

Holy Moly it’s been years since I’ve last blogged!!! I have been so busy and there are WAY too many better things to do than blog (bible reading, cleaning, helping my siblings, etc). That is the reason why I haven’t blogged in forever. Well, that’s one reason of two reasons. The second is that I have so much school to do and find it hard to get computer time.  

Anyways, I just got the most exciting news! Mrs. Butcher (goes to our Church) called about an hour ago and I picked it up. She asked for mom so I gave the phone to mom. She walked into the kitchen and I stayed in the living room with my siblings (they were-actually still are- watching Rescuers Down Under) I could hear Mom saying “Yeah! She would be delighted to watch your kids….Well, we could meet halfway because our house is so far and we’ll drop her off…..” and she kept going. I had assumed she was talking about either me or Coie baby sitting her three kids. I was pretty sure that Mrs. Butcher wasn’t asking for me, but for Coie (I was trying not to get excited about it and then have Mom come and tell Coie that Mrs. Butcher wanted her to baby sit). I argued with myself and thought “Well, if she said ‘we’ll drop her off’ than that would mean me because Coie can drive.” Then I thought “No, they wouldn’t ask for a 13 year old to baby sit”. I tried not to get excited. But I still really hoped. So I focused my mind half way on the movie. Then my Mom got off the phone “Ryann, Mrs. Butcher wants you to baby sit her kids on Saturday and we’ll pick you up on Sunday after Church” I bounced out of my seat and hugged her. I’m SO excited! This will be the first time that I’ll baby sit on my own. The funny thing is that I don’t know the butchers very well, but they still asked me!

Ok, you probably don’t care, but I’m so very happy.

So anyways, we had a great Thanksgiving. We had our Grandparents and my Aunt from MI. We had a great time. We must have played the same card game about 7-8 times.

What else? Ah, we went to a Christmas party at the Butcher’s house that our small group had. I had a wonderful time. I sat with Johanna (Pastor’s 4 year old daughter) and  Audrey (Another 4 year old girl) on a foot piece and Johanna sat in my lap and Audrey lay on me on my right side. Johanna started rocking back and forth so I put my arm around Audrey and we rocked back and forth, back and forth, then I started tickling both of them (You should have heard them giggling together, it was so cute!) and then we continued rocking and laughing until I realized that Melissa and Jennifer (my two best friends at Church) were trying to get the 19 kids to be quiet. Yep, my corner was the loudest. No, I’m just kidding. I thing the corner with the boys (ages 13, 12, 10, 8, 7,7, and 4) was the loudest. Heehee. :-D

We played white mouse (it’s like white elephant, but for kids). The boys got Barbies. The basement was about to explode with all of the laughter. On my turn I took Jacob’s (7 year old, I think) Barbie and gave it to one of the girls. And he got a new gift. No, I didn’t want it. :-P

Ok, well, to me all of this was so much fun, but I’ll bet you’re snoring-either that or you haven’t even read down to here. Well, I have ONE last thing to say: My lower back is K.I.L.L.I.N.G. me.

I'll blog again later when I feel like it, have time, am caught up with my school, and have something to blog about. I still have stuff to blog about, but this is long enough.

-Ryann

I was sitting on the floor with James (4 year old brother) about 15 minutes ago, going through our Church’s website looking for a sermon that I wanted to listen to when I came across a picture of Mr. Riser (Pastor) and I said “Hey, James, who’s that?” and expecting an “I don’t know…” from him, you might imagine how surprised when he said “Oh! That’s God.” Mom and I laughed so hard. And James, probably assuming he was wrong, tried to reword what he had just said “Er, That’s the god of the Church?”

Just thought I’d share that with you.

This morning, I woke up at 7:00, but I didn’t get up until 7:30. I felt totally fine and I was almost wide awake. But when I stood up my stomach hurt extremely bad. I had never felt that much pain before. So I turned around and leaned on my bunk bed and stood there waiting for the pain to pass—which was only getting worse. The next thing I knew, I had fallen and hit my head and shoulder on my bookshelf and the wood of my bed. By then the pain in my stomach got worse. But I didn’t feel anything on my head or shoulder because I was too focused on my stomach pain. So I rolled back onto my bed and lay there for about two minutes and then the pain went away (mostly) and noticed that my head was wet with sweat and then I could then hear a sizzling noise in my head and it hurt. I would have stayed there and waited for my headache and the sizzling to go away, but I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. So I got up and went upstairs (I was very dizzy). As I had gotten in the house (My room isn’t connected to the house) the pain pretty much went away.

I still have no idea what had caused all of that. And I have no idea why I fell without noticing it. You would have thought I would have been able to catch myself. And the really strange thing is that I was standing up and my legs just went out and I fell (I’ve done something like that before, too).

So that was my morning. I am still quite confused. I don’t feel sick or anything. Oh, and earlier today, I noticed a bruise on my right arm (I had hit it on the shelf). But there’s no mark on my head.  

 In other news:

Yesterday we went to my friend’s house. I had a ton of fun playing chess (and winning). I played with Sami a little bit. She was pretty busy. You should have seen her keep all of the younger kids in order while making cookies and at the same time cleaning up hers and their messes and keeping everything clean, etc. She’s one amazing girl. I also played/talked with Alyssa, she’s funny. I REALLY liked the Roy’s chip dip. That stuff was really good. And one more thing--it snowed yesterday! Yippee! (sort of)

Ok, I have to go now,

-Ryann

P.S. This is like the fifth symptom of MS that I've had. I'm hoping it's all coincidence and that I'm just a klutz that can't always controll my legs (I have had many walking problems).

Dear Grandma Sharon,

Yes, please do tell all the relatives that we all miss them…not the possums. :-D

I knew that Zach was younger than me, but I thought he was at least two years younger. I didn’t realize he was only a couple months younger! We have two people at our Church that had their birthdays on Halloween, too.

I really like the Sherlock Holmes book you got me. It’s really awesome and very interesting!

I love it when you comment on my blog! The main person I hope to have a comment from is you.

I love you and the whole family out there!

Megan,

Sure, you can be tagged by it, too. I’d like to read it by you. Can you remind me what you’re blog is? It’s not on HSB, I know that…

1. Sky? Mr. Lowe’s first name (he goes to our Church, his name is Sky Lowe)
   
   2. Yard? Pond (We’ve got an acre pond in our yard)
   
   3. Table? We need a new one, it is meant to seat less than eight people….
2. 
   4. House? I love our house and property, but I would like to move closer to our Church. (We drive literally an hour and a half, not half an hour)
   
   5. Dog? Slobber
3. 
   6. Cell? Guns
   
   7. Mom? Books
   
   8. God? Prayer
4. 
   9. Pizza? Depends. Either “gross” or “that sounds ok” or "Ooh, I really want some Californian pizza. Not the greasy southern stuff."
   
   10. Siblings? 6. I want more siblings.
   
   11. Fruit? Apples
   
   12. Religion? Christian
   
   14. 21yrs old? Coie, even though she’s 18…I know, I can be random, you have to know me in person to understand me, and even then I’m never completely understood.
   
   15. Grandparents? Well, I've got 8 right now (either that, or more), but I lost two last year. We went to one of the funerals in IL but the other one was in CA, so we missed that one.
   
   16. Chocolate? Head ache (or, "ooh, that stuff can be really bad for braces)
   
   17. Wild Animal? James
   
   18. Circus? YIKES!!! or motor cycles
   
   19. Park? Boring (unless you’re going to Marine World)
   
   20. Snake? A person that we know that was bitten twice by a copper head (poisonous) and he didn't go to the hospital and he's totally fine.
5. 
   21. Dreams? Weird
   
   22. Guns? Me (Yes, I think of me when I hear ‘guns’). Or I think of Star Wars Gungans(I hate that show)
   
   23. Iraq? War or a Tennis Racket
   
   24. Country? Our property
   
   25. New York City? Crowded with creepy people
   
   26. Color? Blue
   
   27. Shy? Nope, not Santa (I can't explain)
6. 
   28. 100 Yrs old? Crayons ( Don’t ask, I have no idea)
   
   29. Candy? One of the 12 year olds at our Church
   
   31. Good Will? Yuck (for many reasons)
   
   32. Target? Red. Or guns.
   
   33. Favorite Perfume? Girly (Don’t have any)
   
   35. kids? Helping.
   
   36. Jeans? Dark Blue.
   
   37. Favorite Animal? Um…
   
   38. Favorite Name? That’s an extremely hard one for me.
   
   39. Pancakes? Every Morning
   
   40. Age you look? I’ve gotten an 18.
   
   41. Computer? Me
   
   42. Personality? Humorous, weird, random, social, etc.
   
   43. Job? TOS Magazine (My Aunt used to own that and I used to work for them)
   
   44. Mood right now? Tired.
   
   45. Wind? Uh, I don’t know but a feather just went up my nose.
   
   46. One State? California
   
   48. Sports? Fun
   
   49. Magazine? My cousins
   
   50. Last time you felt sick? Well, I had a head ache this morning. But I hate admitting that I’m sick. So I say “Uh, I’ve got a head ache and a stomache ache and I threw up 2 hours ago and I’m very sore and I’m tired….BUT I’M NOT SICK”.
   
   51. Hot? Pink-just kidding….
   
   52. Winter? Grandma
   
   53. Fall? Grandma
   
   54. College? Grandma-no, I think of Coie.
   
   55. Boys? My brothers. Speaking of which, I have no idea what Dip is doing, he’s on the top of the couch messing with the ceiling fan.
   
   56. Fake or Real Plants? Real, as long as I don’t have to find a spot for it to have enough sun and I don’t have to water it (totally kidding)
   
   57. Water or Juice? Water
   
   58. Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi?  Diet Coke
   
   59. Rain or Shine? rain
   
   60. For a roommate who would you rather want a girl or boy? I already have one, my sister. :-D the ONLY problem with that is all she does at night is make me laugh so I can’t sleep. She is a very  silly girl and I’ve been blessed with such a great sister to be my room mate.

Dear Grandma Sharon,

I haven't seen Zack and Kevin in a long time! How old are they? I miss them! The main thing I remember about them is that they really liked legos. You had a ton in that room, it was great. :-D

I really wish I could be there to see everyone! I miss you all so much! Hi back to Aunt Lil and Uncle George and everyone there and also to Grandma Agnes!!!

Oh, by the way, about 2-3 three minutes ago, I went outside to the carport and there was the most hidious, enormous possum you'd ever see! Ugh, it was ugly. I'm going to have a nightmare. Emmiko almost tripped on it before it ran behind the trash can.

Goodnight,

-Ryann

At about 4:30, while I was babysitting my youngest brothers, I washing the highchair when my four year old brother came to after watching his Clifford movie and said “Ryann, I pweaze have something eat?”

“No, James, not now”

“Ryann, I, uh, have a muffin?”

“Do you want to get fat?”

He ignored my question.

“I pweaze have your coffee?”

“Hey, James, do you want to get fat?”

“uh, no, I don’t want to get fat. Can I have a muffin?”

So I gave him my coffee that I had just made and he gulped it down immediately. I think he forgot he wanted a muffin. Goal achieved.

I know, quite random, but I had nothing else to blog about. :-D

-Ryann

Sami, thanks a ton. You’re the most awesome bestesterests friend I’ve got (after my sister). :-D

Dear Grandma Sharon,

What are you guys having for thanks giving? We are kind of having two. Coie shot a turkey that was on our property last week and cleaned it and cooked it. And now we’re going to have Grandma Sally and Amy come for thanks giving. Erin won’t be able to make it because she’s in CA with Grandpa Bolen. And Grandpa Jim might make it. I wish you could come, that would make all the difference for the better :-D

I was thinking about Grandma Agnes yesterday and wanted to call her. I hope she’s doing well. Please tell her I said hi. I love you and the whole family out there. :-D