Weblog of a 18 year old homeschooler, aspiring actress and singer. "Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th." ~Julie Andrews~ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:17:00 -0600 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:17:00 -0600 So, I was babysitting the other day, and I took along my camera. Here's what I got while John was napping. I love taking mirror shots. I don't know why - I think it's the challenge of getting the frame JUST right. and, it's a bit narcissistic, but I love taking pictures of myself. That way, I always know exactly what expression or pose I want, and I don't have to spend time arranging other people - I can just snap away. and lastly, I LOVE to edit photographs. We have such fun technology now to be able to manipulate pictures however we want, and it's so much fun to experiment! That's all for today - I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!! ~Sarah Beth http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/747707/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:17:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/747707/ Terribly sorry I've been absent for a while.... school and all. I do have a very few pictures for you all however! First the ones from the Halloween show. Both Rachel and I were in it  -Rachel played a scary little trick-or-treater and I was a vampire. Singing 'Loathing" with my arch-nemesis, the werewolf in the background. Rachel's poem. She was a fairy princess. :) This was a mimed skit, done to Sally's Song from Nightmare Before Christmas. It was my favourite one to perform. Singing about "Good 'n Evil" with my backup dancers And here we all are - Beka and I were vampires, and Rachel as the (not fairy at this point) princess.   The next week, I was asked by the director of the show I was stage managing (sorry, no pictures there) to help out with the VA film festival. I of course said yes, and I ended up dressing up as Ariel (from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid) and greeting people going into the big theater. Funnily enough, they were showing The Little Mermaid, so I got some VERY excited little girls coming up and talking to me. It was SO much fun!! In front of the theater - it's a REALLY nice theater!! This girl was dressed up as Taylor Swift... nice idea and all, but it would have been so much better if she had smiled. Just a thought. This was the best part - talking to all the little kids! The girls were friendliest, but there were some little boys who didn't mind telling me ll about their sword-fights with each other. :) So there you have it! Both of these were so much fun (I LOVED the costumes for each!) and the fact that I got to work with my little sis in one and kids in the other made it so much more fun to do. And now I plan like dressing up as Ariel to any and all costume parties I might have in the future. And now I'm gearing up for finals! School is almost over - I can see the horizon! I've signed up for classes next semester, and I'm looking at all my options for next year, of which there are many. I'm looking forward to my winter break, because I'm going to be out of town for a month! I've been invited to spend Christmas with my best friend in Pennsylvania, and then New Year's with my "little sister" up in Connecticut, and I'm so very excited. Lots of work to be done between now and then though, so goodbye for now! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/746677/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/746677/ Certain people have been asking me for writings done in my English class - and while I feel as though you would be bored stiff by my essays, we're into poetry now, and I wrote a Shakespearian sonnet. This sonnet has no name, because I am not good with coming up with names. The Sonnet Help me to understand why One can make promises they do not intend to keep? And although you want to believe his sigh He’ll push you ‘till you have to weep. A broken vase, shattered on the ground Glass and flowers mingling on the floor Splashes of color and glitter abound While reality slams us right into the door. And, if the flowers are gathered up, Will they still live and shine anew? No, one may die while in the cup Though drenched with heavy dew. While he says “I’m sorry” My face is turned away. disclaimer: I never said it was a great sonnet... oooh, and also (to show off that yes, I actually have learned something in English class) the form of a Shakespearian sonnet is: a - introducing the topic b a b c - introducing the metaphor d c d e - building onto the metaphor f e f g - closing g http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/741372/ Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:02:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/741372/ We took a field trip last week! I had a 2-day break last week, and Mom the girls and I and I decided to go up to Yorktown on the 19th - which just happened to be the anniversary of Cornwallis's surrender in Yorktown. It was pretty cool, and Mom and I enjoyed ourselves very much. Rebekah and Rachel... well. They tried. For an hour or so. Shadows on the lawn. I do like shadows. The Monument. There were a lot of big-wigs there, including the President of the Virginia chapter of the DAR (daughter's of the revolution) Waiting to see the Muster on the Green... Rebekah and Rachel were rather bored. There were two families who had come all the way from Mississippi, all dressed in Colonial clothing. They were pretty cool. This was SO much fun to watch. They demonstrated different formations, and shot off their muskets. It was rather smoky, after they shot 'em off. They have bayonets, and they're not afraid to use them against the British! Oliver Bear also managed to tag along for the ride. On our way to Williamsburg's Yankee Candle! She always makes me laugh... See? hahaha Our fearless leader. Oliver was safely buckled in too. At Yankee Candle! It was really pretty. Dare I say it... even prettier than the one up in Mass. I know. It shocked me too. And I still feel a little disloyalty saying it. See? So pretty. This is the Christmas room. We all had a really good time (including Oliver) and I loved being able to go on a field trip with Mom and the girls again! I've missed being with them during the day, since I'm at school every day now. It's been a slow adjustment, but I think we're all getting used to it. Except when it comes to the dishes. I still come home to the same amount of them in the sink every night. Wonder how that happens? ~Sarah Beth http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/739657/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/739657/ So, I had written out this BEAUTIFUL post about fall and how I'm doing here.... and then it got erased. So, I'll give you the shortened version - Fall is here, it's cold, and they finally turned on the heating at School. Home is a different matter - Daddy's still refusing to turn on the heat. However, we have a freeze warning for tonight, so we'll see how long he can hold onto the thermostat before we girls overpower him. I went on another walk in the woods last week... here are the pictures! Shadows are my new favourite thing. Very pretty, but probably HIGHLY poisionus berries. My allergies did not appreciate the beauty of the goldenrod. Colourful leaves... I need to play round with the lighting on this one. This is entirely natural composition. I didn't have to do a thing except take the picture. and lastly of our woods trip - the majestic evergreens. Or, they would be, except that I think a lot of them are dead. But it made for a good picture anyway. The last picture I'll show you, is to get you into the October mood. I'm currently rehearsing for our Drama Club's Halloween show, where I play a vampire. I'm not going to look exactly like this, but I had fun playing around with the 'creepy' settings on Picnik. Look! I sparkle JUST like Edward! tee hee. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/736118/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:46:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/736118/ I decided yesterday to follow the path behind the school.... it was rather exciting, and I took pictures, especially for you-all. Thumbs up on the path being semi-dry.... rain was on the forecast yesterday, and I was worried that it might hinder my hike. But I don't mind a little mud. The beginning of the path - see? not too much mud. The trees were very pretty - until they rained on my camera lens. Tut-tut, it looks like rain. More trees. Then I found a cheery path down which I trotted.... For some reason, I think this picture makes me look like an elf. I found a nice little tree (this was the view from said tree) under which I had lunch... and read my English Homework. It was a very nice little hike, and I plan to do it again sometime..... hopefully when it's more sunny! ~ Sarah Beth http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/725363/ Wed, 9 Sep 2009 12:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/725363/ This is the really pretty pond behind the arts building - I have my lunch here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are sooo many dragonflys zooming around... I was surprised that this one stood still long enough for me to take a picture! The pretty little daisies. and more daisies! Hey there! and this is the back of the arts building... hopefully we'll have more pretty days like this one and I can get some more nature pictures. ~Sarah Beth http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/723952/ Fri, 4 Sep 2009 14:48:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/723952/  Today starts my second week at this government-run institution. It's fine, and I like my classes I just don't like being at school all week long. Oh well, at least I like my classes - history is going to be so much fun! I love the teacher, and I already know most of this stuff, it's just being shown at a different angle then I'm used to. English is.... well, English. I like my teacher, but I really don't know what on earth we're supposed to do in this class. Hopefully I'll have figured this out by the end of the week. Math class is ok. It's math. blah. My ASL (American Sign Language) class is a blast though. The teacher is Deaf, and as soon as we enter the classroom, we are supposed to turn our voices off. It's been hard trying to communicate, but we've been doing a fairly good job, and she makes the most amazing expressions ever - I wonder if there are any Deaf movies out there.... she would make an amazing actor. Other than that, I haven't really done much. I'm at school around 30+ hours a week, which is great for homework, but not so great for the state of my room. Johnny is happy because I've been able to keep it messy, just the way he likes it, but it's starting to annoy me. I'm going to have to figure out how to be motivated enough at 11pm to do laundry. At least I have my kitty to help me... ~Sarah Beth http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/722602/ Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/722602/ I'm back! I'm back from all my adventures of the summer, the good ones and the bad ones. I'm sitting here at school typing this, thinking how very much I don't want to be here right now, but I am resigned to my fate; so as a last hurrah, I'm going to share my pictures and some memories with you. :) So the first one I have for you is from our cupcake-decorating party/picnic that I had with all of my very bestest friends, 3 days after I arrived in CT. from left to right we have: Aaron (who really was happy to be there, contrary to his face) Oliver, Me, Jess, Cayla, Laurabeth (Oliver's cousin) and Sarah's hands. Arin was taking the picture. An example of the cupackes, right here.... The picnic part of it was pretty fun too. Here we have Jess and Cayla squishing a mosquito. Then we decided to act 8 instead of 18, and we built a fort in the living room! Some of the lovely ladies. That day was really fun, and I was sooo blessed to have all my friends in one place! Next came a day that I spent in Sarah's friends bathroom getting my hair cut! I had been wanting to get it cut for a while, but had neither time, nor money. So one day after Sarah's show, her friend Jerilyn came up and informed me that she would love to get her hands on my hair, and I told her to go for it! She's also an awesome story-teller, and she had me in stitches the entire time! She was mean with the hair-dryer though. That thing was HOT! I loved the end result. I am sooo happy with my hair right now. Y'all would laugh if you saw me pass a store window - I have to look in, because I can't believe that it's really my hair! One of my last days there, we did another picnic. Only this was a strictly ice cream picnic, which are awesome, and I'm determined to have more of them next summer. we all went wading in Sarah's lake. It was such a nice warm day... and the boys attempted to skip rocks. And they actually skipped.... most of the time. Talking animatedly. :) The best part of the day was when the sun started going down. Spencer suggested that we take silhouette pictures. Which we did, and they turned out AWESOME! Here are a few. My friend Aaron and myself - I love how you can still see the twinge of red in each of our hair. Oliver and myself. Beka and me. <3 This one's my favourite. The very last day we all went up to Yankee Candle, but Mom has all the good pictures from that. And now I'm back at school, missing my friends terribly, and wishing that I could be in Connecticut. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying History, tolerating English and Math, and am terrorfied of American Sign Language. And that is all for today. Cheers! Sarah Beth. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/720925/ Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/720925/ Hi everybody! For those of you who remember (or the 4 of you who actually read my blog, lol) My best friend Arin and I were in Walt Disney World last week. We had an amazing time, and took lots of pictures, and made even more memories. However, I'm leaving to visit with Arin in Pennsylvania (which will then turn into a two-week visit to CT) so I'll just leave you with a few pictures of our week. :) Here we are - an hour before the park opened! It was COMPLETELY worth it though - we got right on all the rides we wanted to go on. At the 3D show - it was soo cool, because they also use wind and water effects to make it seem as though you're really there. awwwwww ~I didn't take many pictures at Epcot, which is where we went on our second day~ France was really cool  - we had never been in it before. A lotus blossom in China. My highlight of the day - lunch with the princesses!! ~3rd day - Hollywood Studios~ Arin and Minnie hit it off first thing. I want to be Belle someday.... I was siiiiiiiingin' in the rain!! And of course - a visit to the Big Cheese. ~4th day - at Epcot again!~ Arin enjoyed the artwork in France - she wants to be an artist. Wait - this telephone has a cord. How do you use something like that?! I probably could have spent the whole week in Epcot alone! ~5th day - Downtown Disney - aka, shopping!!~ Arin decided that with the Economy downsizing, Pooh must have decided to downsize too. Yummy Ghirardelli ice cream. I already can't wait to go back!! Now I'm off to PA and CT - see y'all in 3 weeks! Cheers! ~Sarah Beth.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/714030/ Mon, 3 Aug 2009 20:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sarahbeth/714030/