May. 6, 2009 - Trip to Missouri

 On the way there we went right by St. Louis and got some good pictures of The Arch. We went through some pretty short mountains on the way, too.

 The motel that we stayed at was Munger Moss. How great is that? Anyway, when we got there my dad went in to get the key while my mom and I waited in the car. After a while of waiting my dad came out and told us to come in and check “this” out. “This” was a bunch of old toys that this old lady that owned the place had collected. She also had a whole bunch of turquoise rings and stuff in her little shop too. My dad asked her where to get good barbeque and she said that this place down the road called Dowd’s was a good place. Of course, being me I thought that she said the place was called Doubts and had some barbeque.

 After we ate we went down to the state park and fed trout fish. 

The next day we went to the garden festival and got some plants and there were these bluegrass bands then there also was this accordion, guitar, and harmonica playing yodeling old cowboy that was singing, playing and yodeling. We also got these yummy apple fritters.

 After that we came back and hung around the motel room for a little while. Then we went to this town that had a Bass Pro Shop, and we went there. This place was the mother of all Bass Pro Shops, it was the very first one and it was ginormous! It had fishing poles and stuff that you could buy but it also had these various water critters in fish tanks. Like one of the tanks had these 6 ft. long fish that looked kind of like sword fish only their noses weren’t long enough.   Another was open on top and had big trout and ducks in it. One of the ducks was bored I think because it was diving down in the water and chasing these 2 ft. long trout then coming back up again. In another tank there was this huge snapping turtle that was about 3 ft in diameter.

 When we left there we went to this barbeque place called “The Buckingham” and had this picture of this guy riding a pig. The funny thing about was that when we used to have pigs my mom and I would ride our pigs until we fell off. It was lots of fun.

 The next day we went to a store that had a Starbucks and we got donuts and coffee. Then we went to the park and hiked a 7 ½ mile trail. At the end of the trail there was this natural tunnel that had a spring just before you went in and we were sticking our faces in it, it was ICE cold yet really fun.

 When we got done hiking we headed home and for lunch ate at this retro diner, it was kind of fun. We got home around 9:30.

Apr. 22, 2009 - Mushrooms

 Mushrooms! I’m soooooo excited because the morels are up! Just incase you don’t know what morels are, they are really yummy mushrooms that you go and hunt for in the woods. They are soooooooo good! And here are some pictures…………

Apr. 21, 2009 - Puppies!

I am soooooooo excited my dog had puppies almost three weeks ago and they are extremely cute. They’re starting to move around a lot. Usually our puppies are black and white but there is one in this litter that is black, white, and brown. They are adorable. Here are some pictures………

Mar. 3, 2009 - The White Robber

  So the other night I had this dream that I was a robber. Except instead of the ski mask and robber suit being completely black I was dressed in bright white with a bright white ski mask.

 So now you’re probably asking “So what did you steal?” I’ll tell you what I stole, I stole the last three rolls of toilet paper that some old couple had in their bathroom. Now mind you this wasn’t any old toilet paper that I took, this was the super deluxe super thin floral print kind. After I got the three rolls of the super deluxe toilet paper out of the cabinet I put them in a white plastic bag.

 After that I woke up. Who knows what I ended up doing with the toilet paper? Maybe I used it for myself or maybe I sold it to the local pawn shop. I might have even been caught by the old lady and she beat me with her cane till I gave her back her toilet paper. Or maybe just maybe I was like the Grinch and brought it back, because if I remember correctly, I even took the small roll which was in the dispenser.

Jan. 30, 2009 - Uphill Both Ways

 Since it wouldn’t pack we decided to get the sled out. But we don’t have very big hills at my house except for one that is all the way back in the woods. So we went back there and started sledding. It was hilarious! Once we went down the hill we couldn’t get back up on our feet again. So while the person that just sledded down kept trying to get up the person on the top of the hill was rolling around in laughter at the sight of the other person.

 So after about an hour of that we went back up to the house. That was a workout! Talk about trudging through 10 inches of snow uphill both ways hauling a sled behind you!

Jan. 28, 2009 - Stellar Kart Concert

Guess what I did this last Thursday! I went to a Stellar Kart concert! And not only that but I also got to feed them supper before hand! This was my second time seeing them live. My friend and I got matching tee-shirts and had them sign them. It was great!

Jan. 17, 2009 - Another Bloomington Adventure

I went back to harp class in Bloomington for the second semester after Christmas break. And all was normal until it came towards the end of the class where usually if somebody brought their favorite CD the whole class would listen to it. Well I was the one who brought the CD so we played mine.

The CD that I brought happened to be the band that my friend is in which is a screaming Christian punk band. My teacher didn’t know what a screaming Christian punk band was, so I warned her not to turn the volume knob up very high. The first song came on and by this time one of the Paris Girls had this dirty look on her face and looked like her panties were in a bunch. So we listened to the song for like five seconds then Teacher turned it off real quick.

And by the way I don’t know if you remember but when I first started going to Bloomington I posted and there were this girls which I call The Paris Girls that had just gotten back from a harp competition in Paris, France. 

Then I gave her my other CD which was a fairly mellow Christian rock CD. So we listened to the first song and then turned it off.

 Then I don’t know how the subject got brought up but Teacher didn’t know what the Chicken Dance was, so my friends and I got up and did the Chicken Dance for Teacher.

Jan. 12, 2009 - Gravity Girl Rings in the New Year

 Just in case you don’t know what a lock-in is, it is basically the youth get together and stay up all night. And when I say all night I mean ALL NIGHT! Anyway we stay up play games eat and hang out.

 But as you can tell by the name of this lock-in, it ain’t no ordinary lock-in. First of all we weren’t in plain clothes we were all dressed up as a superhero that was real or we made up. Like there were people dressed up from shower curtains, to Mullet Man, Madame Mullet, to Chuck the chicken and the duck, to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, Madame Marshmallow, etc. And guess what I was! Gravity Girl! And when ever I threw things they fell to the ground! The whole thing was hysterical!

 Now the main activity was a superhero scavenger hunt. Where most of us were in our costumes and got into cars drove around looking for things on a list we got. And for proof of it we had to video tape it. Some of the things on the list were pumping gas for a stranger, washing a stranger’s windshield, singing happy birthday to a stranger, giving a stranger a valentines card, then we also had to find things to like cold stone, for rent sign stuff like that. And you would not believe how hard it is to get someone to let you pump their gas! My team didn’t even get to do it!

 We had to go back to a friend’s house after the scavenger hunt and watched the ball drop. Then we headed back to the church.

 At the church we did some games like superhero relay and coke relay.

 In the superhero relay all of us got separated into 3 groups and how it went was the first person of our team had to put on spandex pants, a superhero mask, and a cape, then they had to run to the other side of the gym pick up a baby doll and take it to the pastors wife (The mother), stand there and say the pledge of allegiance then run to the other side of the gym and go over and under, over and under these white tables and back to their team then the next person would go. And which ever team went through everybody won. It was hysterical!

Oct. 28, 2008 - Pumpkin Works

 This last weekend I went to this place called Pumpkin Works with my youth group. And if you’re not from around here you’re probably thinking, “Pumpkin Works? Is that like a place that you learn how pumpkins work?” No, instead Pumpkin Works is this place that has corn mazes and straw bale mazes and different stuff.

 So we all got in groups and went on these mazes. Well the first my friends and I did was this one dark maze called Mind Teaser. And boy was it a mind teaser! Besides running into stuff like concrete walls and getting a concussion, every time we thought we had found the exit we were at the entrance. This happened three times before we were able to find the exit.

 The first time my friend looked out of the doorway of the maze and asked the girl in charge, “Is this the entrance?” “Yes.” So we go back in and try it again and end up in the same place. Then the 2^nd time we go in we come out of what we thought was the exit and we come out all happy snappy when the chick in charge goes, “Got bad news for you, that doorway over there is the exit.” So we go back in and do it again this time we come out the exit, and believe it or not, I was the one leading it that time.

Oct. 23, 2008 - Sky-co

 So fast forward, we were on our way to Bloomington and we saw this airplane hauling a banner around and we’re like “What’s it say?” as we’re looking out the window of the car. The plane kept passing back and forth over the road but just far enough that we couldn’t read it. Then finally it gets close enough that we can just barely read it. As we’re straining to look we’re like, “Big …….. Savings……… GEICO” then we started busting. Then we realize that on the rest of the banner it had a ginormous picture of the lizard on it. So I said in a British accent, “By George Mommy, Godzilla is in the sky! He’s a flying GEICO!”

 So this week we’re driving to Bloomington and we see another banner and we see that it’s not the same as the last one so we figured that it was advertising something else. And we went through the same process of trying to figure out what it said. And got to the point were we could see that it had a face on it and Mom’s like, “Is it the lizard in a wig?” Finally it gets close enough and we’re able to read it.  “GEICO!  And it has a picture of the cave man on it.”  Then we started busting out laughing. 

Oct. 21, 2008 - Harpin' on Halloween

 1. An emo person

2. 1800’s hoop skirt dress

3. A girl from World War II

4. A witch

 And finally Mom thought of the perfect thing: A harp playing pirate. Then I said, “Yeah! And I’ll have a hook too!” I know your probably thinking, “A hook? How are you supposed to play harp with a hook?” Well here’s my plan. I’m going to have a hook that I can slip off my hand. Then when I go up on the stage I’ll take off my hook and throw it on the ground and start playing.  

 What do you think?

Oct. 1, 2008 - Comfy Chair

Well I went yard sailing the other day and I got tons of stuff including American Eagle and Aeropostale clothes, and this cool, comfy, room matchin’ chair. And you want to know how much I got it for? Five bucks! And I tell you what it’s the comfiest chair I ever did sit in.

 It’s so comfy I have to fight Patrick for it most of the time. Once I told him he should become one of the Veggie Tales pirates because he never does anything except sit in my chair. So, I think he would fit nicely with them.

Sep. 30, 2008 - Gettin' My Harpin' On

 Ella my harp teacher has these harp dollars which are a really good motivation for most of the students, except for the ones who would rather get a cookie instead of ten dollars.

 In master class it’s pretty laid back like the last ten minutes of class we have been listening to someone’s favorite CD that they brought. This week I was the only one who brought a CD so we played mine which was “The Anatomy of the Tongue and Cheek” by Reliant K. It was pretty funny because me and these other two girls were doing the Macarena to the music.

 Then a couple weeks ago when we were listening to some other person’s CD Ella started doing some version of the electric slide. It was pretty funny because you know you think of harp being an extremely graceful instrument and whoever plays the harp is completely graceful. HA! HA! HA! VERY FUNNY. We’re like the exact opposite of that, well except for Paris Girls they are always sitting quietly and being polite. And anybody that knows me knows that I’m certainly not that way.

Sep. 24, 2008 - I'M FAMOUS! (Well, almost.)

Sep. 11, 2008 - Making a Toilet

Sep. 9, 2008 - Harp Lessons in Bloomington

I’m so excited. I get to go to Bloomington, Indiana to the world’s largest harp department to learn harp. I get to have a 1-hour master class and a 45-minute private lesson.

A master class is a group class where you would have a couple people play and then the teacher would correct anything wrong then have the rest of the class comment on it. Except in this case we’re only allowed to say nice things about what they played. So I guess that that’s a good thing.

Well we’ll see how it goes.

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Ok well I started this entry before I went but I went last night and so this is what happened…

 I went to the school of music not knowing quit what to think, and I got there pretty early and there were two other students already there, one a girl about my age and a boy a little older than me. We waited for about 15 minutes and in the mean time all the other students had shown up, then at last the teacher came. We went inside the classroom and sat down. Then the teacher handed out these chocolate covered wafers and chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm! Chocolate! Then our teacher had two girls about my age come up and play, and it turns out that they’re going to Paris for a harp competition. Not Paris, Illinois, Paris, France! Well when they started to play and the first thing I thought was that I have a lot of work to do. These girls were amazing! Before I went there I thought I actually was pretty good, but that turned out completely wrong.

 But I do think that I can get a lot out of it even though it is a little discouraging.

Sep. 6, 2008 - The Cookbook Project

Well I’ve started up school for the year and on of the things my mom is having me do is a cookbook project. What I have to do is get recipes, (not Jell-O cool whip casserole) and lay them out like you would in a cookbook. Although I haven’t gotten very many recipes, so if anyone would leave recipe on my comments that would be great!

Sep. 3, 2008 - camp

Well about a month ago I went to Camp Camby with some other kids from my church. It was lots of fun.

 Camp Camby is a campground where the kid’s church camp was held. The camp lasted four days. There we did lots of fun games like dodge ball, kick ball, freeze tag, and lots of others. We had bible where we learned our memory verses in different fun ways. And we had craft, where we made a frame with either the picture of our group in it or picture of your self and lots of other stuff. When we had cabin time we pretty much sat in our bunk beds and talked with our friends, which was really fun. Then there was chapel. At chapel we sat down and listened to Pastor Brian talk about different things in the bible. A lot of times he would have a volunteer come up and help him give and example. It was really neat.

On Wednesday they had big blow up water slides and big bouncy things, which was really cool.

Anyway I really had a good tome at camp and made lots of friends.

Aug. 29, 2008 - Jamaica

While we were in Jamaica we did vacation bible schools. The bible schools were only one day each. And every time we walked into a church or school to do a bible school we would be greeted at the door with hugs from all the kids. That would just give me a burst of encouragement to know that they actually cared that we were there, and we weren’t just walking in there and doing this when they didn’t care that we were there.

At the bible schools we told the story of David and Goliath and The Prodigal Son. And we made balloon animals for the kids, made salvation bracelets, sang some songs and gave out candy and crayons.

On Sunday mornings when we went to church we had Sunday school then after that everybody gathered in the sanctuary and worshiped for about half an hour, listed to a sermon for another 15-20 minutes, then worshiped for another half hour.

 The worship there was nothing like the worship here. When they worship they don’t care what the person beside them is going to think. They get out in the halls and dance, sing at the top of their lungs, or do what ever to praise the Lord. One of the things I learned was that they are more thankful than we are, we have so much and they have so little, yet they give God more praise than we do.

Anyway this trip has really taught me a lesson. It taught me to be more thankful.

Aug. 27, 2008 - Bag Juice

Wow! I can’t believe I haven’t been here since April. Time sure did fly.  If you read my previous post you would know that I was going to Jamaica. Well I did, it was great! My first story is about going to the bar before age 21. I know you’re probably thinking “THE BAR!”  Yes the bar. I went to the bar just about every other night.

 I asked my Jamaican friend Wendy if there was an age limit on when you could drink alcohol, and she said as long as you can pronounce it you can get it.

 All right you’re thinking I drank alcohol while I was down there. No. I went to the bar to get this stuff called Bag Juice.

 Bag Juice is juice that comes in a bag (hence the name). It comes in many different flavors such as cream soda, pineapple, lime, orange, root beer, lemon, and many other flavors too. Bag Juice is a little bit like kool-aid except it was sweeter and didn’t taste as fake. And they were only 12 cents apiece! Bonus!

Since it is really cheap, our Jamaican friends told us, if you drink more than one bag juice a day in public people think you’re broke. Oh well that’s nice! I wonder if there are two different kinds of bag juice. You know like a Faded Glory brand and a Hollister brand of bag juice. “Ooh look at that girl over there she’s is drinking Faded Glory bag juice, she must be broke.”