Hey everyone!! Hope you all had a great Christmas holiday and have a wonderful New Year!

            For Christmas we didn’t really do that much; we were host and hostess on Sunday (Christmas eve) and so we had company for lunch and in the evening, some of them stayed until 1:00 a.m.!! It was fun!! Then for Christmas day we just kinda sat around and played monopoly with the whole family. (Something we don’t have a chance to do very often.)

            I have a question to ask you all, should I close down my blog?? I just don’t have enough time to update anymore and I don’t like it when people wait for months to update so I thought I would rather close down than to update every month or two and be annoying to ya’ll! So I thought I would ask everyone what they thought…. Comment me on that!!

            Lately I have been pretty busy with school on Mon., Thur., and every other Fri. it keeps me hoppin’!! It is a lot of fun, but it has been nice to have a break for a week for Christmas break!

            Well I just thought I would write a quick update!! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

                                                               Amber

            I know, I know, don’t even start! I should have blogged sooner, but you know I just didn’t feel like it so I didn’t, not that that is a good excuse. After school starts we have to do it for part of school so hopefully I will be better at keeping it up!

            Well we haven’t done anything of much importance in the last month and a half, but I will tell you a few things.  We went to Indiana for a reunion on the 22-23 of July and had a blast.  We have gone camping and that is always fun no matter how many times a year we go! And there is the normal shopping about once a week for us and Grandpa’s, I always enjoy going shopping, except grocery shopping, don’t much enjoy that!!
            Oh, yea and I have been busy helping mom with the inventory for her book business; I like that most of the time. I get to do most of it on the computer and put the books on the shelves where they belong.
            Has anyone ever played Bad mitten? It is really fun, we got it at Wal*Mart and have it set up in the yard and Serena and I like to sneak out every now and then to play for a while, even Dad likes to play with us sometimes!
            Well it is about that time of year to start school again isn’t it?! We haven’t started yet, but we have almost all of our books for this year, we are using some new stuff which is kinda exciting. And I can’t wait to start my business classes at a local elementary school. (It is in a different building then the school students.) They are going to teach filing, accounting, computer, and I am not sure what else for sure.
            I can’t think of anything else to write so I guess I will go now, comment me please!!!
                                                Have a Great day, Amber -%-(@

O.k. I am finally updating! Seems like forever since I blogged, but maybe it hasn’t been that long.
            Hey has anybody ever raised Monarch butterflies?? We do, last year we raised around 180 butterflies, but mom said we are NOT going to raise that many this year, at least not at one time like last year. So far we have raised about 5 butterflies and we have 7 little caterpillars and one egg. If any of you don’t know what I mean about raising Monarch butterflies, we find the eggs and caterpillars on milkweed, which grows by a lot of roads and in fields, just about anywhere. Then we have an aquarium where we put the milkweed in jars of water, usually we have to change the milkweed about every day or two, then when the caterpillars get about the size of your pinky finger (usually about 2 weeks from the time they hatch.) they start to look for a place to go into pupa stage. They usually got up to the highest place they can, normally they go to the top of our aquarium. Then they will spin a little silk, stick the end of there body in this silk and they hang there for about 24 hours and then shed their skin and after they shed their skin they are a green thing and after a bit the green part will harden and stay there for about 2 weeks. When it is time for it to come out it will turn clear, you can see the butterfly inside, they’ll come out and just hang there for a little while and dry off, then we get them to climb on our finger and take them to a plant out side and put them on a flower with juices or whatever they eat.

            It is really fun to carry them around on your finger! Since you raise them from just little they are used to you and aren’t afraid of you. Last year we let anywhere from 5-12 butterflies go everyday!! That was fun to see how many were going to come out of there pupa ea day.
            Well we didn’t have a very exciting 4^th of July, it rained quite a bit on Tues. morning and then some more that eve. We were going to have a church picnic that afternoon, but it was too wet so they said it was postponed until 5:00 but then it rained some more and it was canceled. So we just lazed around the house all day playing games and reading. That was o.k. but I was looking forward to the picnic. We went on a bike ride then later in the eve with our dad, I like bike riding, except going up a couple of steep hills that we had to go up.
            O.k. I think I am going to do a book report on the last book that I read.

It was by Carol Cox, and it was one of those books that have four stories, usually the people in the stories are related. I like to read those when I don’t have the next in a series I am reading or just don’t know what to read next!
            The first was about a girl, Judith, that was going to New Mexico by wagon to live with her Uncle and the people that she was going with dumped her along the way. Then she decided to dress as a boy for safety, some guys find her and take her with them to the ranch they were herding cattle to. (Along the way they find out she is a girl.) The ranch owner’s wife was very ill and Judith ends up taking care of their two children until their mother finally goes to the east to get treated, by that time one of the herders and her fall in love. (He was one of the ones that found her on the trail; also the owner’s brother.)
That one was good; the second was about the girl that Judith took care of before she married Jeff. Lizzie was more of a tomboy and ends up falling for this guy that helped them catch a runaway horse and started working for them. And there is another ranch hand that has liked her for a long time and now he can get his own ranch and was sorta waiting for her to notice him so that he could marry her. Lizzie finds out that this other guy, Tom, was leading her on and didn’t like her, so she gets really depressed and then after a while she sorta likes Adam, the guy that wants to marry her. And one time she overheard him praying that she would notice him and like telling God that he thought he was supposed to marry her and that he loved her. That opened her eyes, and then I think it was that day that she got stuck in the barn because it was raining really badly and then he came back from praying and they were together there and he proposed and she accepted!!

            The third was about a girl, Rachael, her dad died and her and her sister are taking care of the farm all by themselves and then they find out they have a really big debt to pay the bank and might not be able to pay it off by the time they have to. Then this guy that worked with their dad shows up and wanted to help them on the farm, but knew that Rachael wouldn’t take charity so he said he would help them to repay what he thought he owed their dad for helping him one time or something. So he helps them pay off their debt and he and stubborn Rachael fall in love and get married.

            And the fourth is about Rachael’s younger sister, Violet. It actually starts out with Willie Bradley, Lizzie’s brother, he has to baby-sit three orphaned children who his mother’s cousin (he is a lawyer) brought with him to take them to their legal guardian and decided to visit his cousin first. Anyway, then the lawyer brakes his leg and Willie has to take them to their guardian. (Which he was not happy about.) before they get there the three kids run off with wagon and go to Violet’s place and say that Willie was mean to them and stuff! He ends up staying at Violet’s place which is the town where this guy lives. He isn’t there and Violet and Willie fall in love and the three kids end up being adopted by the sheriff.

            Well hope that wasn’t too boring for you, but I just sorta felt like sharing a bit about that book. The title is Sagebrush Brides. Well better go, tonight we have a surprise b-day to go to and I have plenty to do before then.

                                                       - # - Amber - # - 

 

I know I know, I am way late in updating, just didn’t feel like blogging these last two weeks. That isn’t a very good excuse, but it is all I have!!
       What a storm we had on Wed. night and on Thur. there was a tornado really close to us, there were two people who lost their whole barn, others lost parts of their houses, trees. Everybody was out of electricity for a while, we were out all day Thur. others were out until just this morning.  I really pity those who are still out and those who had a lot of damage.
       Sat. the 24^th our Uncle from Iowa came out to pick up a car he bought on Ebay and he stopped by our place for a few hours, we enjoyed that. Then we just relaxed the rest of the day!!
       Well I got tagged, so here are my answers:
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4 and write what it says.
The moment Tom spotted the marked deck of cards he…

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?
Mom’s computer desk at which I am sitting at.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
We don’t watch TV

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
4:30pm.

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
4:31 I didn’t look, I promise, but that was pretty good!!

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
a video the girls are watching upstairs.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Out of the Navigator, when we came home from church.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
my friends’ blogs

9. What are you wearing?
a ratty denim skirt and a checkered button-up shirt

10. Did you dream last night?
Can’t remember, isn’t that weird?!

11. When did you last laugh?
At the restaurant we ate at for lunch

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Nothing except some hooks for coats, I am In the basement

13. Seen anything weird lately?
A guy with a braided beard and pony tail, to me that is just plain weird

14. What do you think of this quiz?
The questions are interesting and it is really long!!

15. What is the last film you saw?
Cheaper by the Dozen 2, it is really funny!

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
that is a hard one, probably some new clothes for one, not sure what else.

17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.
I like Meg Ryan movies

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
One thing would be that everybody would get saved, there are lots of things, but I can’t take the time to list them all!!

19. Do you like to dance?
I don’t dance, so no

20. Comment to George Bush:
you are doing a good job and keep Jesus first

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Sherena or Alexa maybe. Not sure about middle name

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
I have no clue!
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
No

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gate?
Welcome home!

25. 3 people who must also do this quiz in THEIR blog:
Luv4languages, Gotapony, and oneoffive
            Well that took lots of space now I better go, Serena wants the computer and I have other things to do yet brofre church tonight. Probably won’t get to update until next week because we are going camping this weekend. Hope everybody has a great Fourth of July!!         Amber

Greetings and Salutations one and all!! Does that sound dumb, thought I would try it for a change.
Well I am trying to think of a new weblog title, something not too long, but not something too boring.
We are having soooo much fun at Bible school, it started last Mon. and it ends this Fri. (not on sat. or sun.) We have like almost an hour of class time then we have recess and we always play prisoner's base which is soooo m uch fun!! Then we have another 45 minuted of class then the next 15-20 minutes we spend in devotions with all the classes together. Then whoever hasn't left yet plays prisoner's base afterwards until everyone leaves. That is why I haven't blogged in like forever.(More like a week and three days.)
    I have been tagged again!
1. What is your dream vacation? Oh, boy, maybe hawaii or maybe a cruise
2. What do you want to do for an occupation? I've thought of restaraunt work or just like cleaning, baby-sitting, somethin g like that for just right now when I don't need loads of money to pay for stuff!!
3.   If you could meet someone from History, who would it be? Maybe...well...too many people!
4. Is your side of the room clean? For the most part, but you wouldn't notice it with all the OTHER CLUTTER ahem, ahem.
Well better go, I want to go to some other peoples bloggs, read, do some of my bible school lesson and then maybe sleep some before church tonight! See ya later, Amber
Some friends have wished thee free from care
Others Joy and Wealth.
Some have wished thee blessings rare
Long life and constant health.
My wish for thee is better far.
Than all thy friends have given
That when thou leavest this world of Care
Thy soul may rest in Heaven.

When the school of life is over
And the teacher says dismissed
May you have a better vacation
In a better land than this

            I am not sure what I am going to write about today, I have been sitting here trying to think of something, but my mind has gone blank.

            Oh has anybody ever read the Christy Miller books by Robin Jones Gunn? She also wrote the Sierra Jenson series. I love the Christy Miller series, it starts when she is 14 and in the last book she is like 21 or 22. It has 12 books in the series and then it has 3 books when she is in college, those are like twice the size as the 12 book set. It is a Christian series and it is about a girl, Christy, who moves from Wisconsin to California and she meets this really nice guy, Todd, and they become friends and about the 10^th book they start to get serious about ea. other. Anyway I wasn’t going to tell you all about it, but it is about her spiritual life too and she isn’t one of those perfect girls either, she makes mistakes too.

            Then the Sierra Jenson books are about Christy’s friend, Sierra, who she met on a mission trip, she is a little younger than Christy. They go to college together and become good friends. I like those books too, but it doesn’t near cover as many years as in the Christy books.  

            Well mom has sorta decided what I will be doing for 9^th grade; she hadn’t really decided what to do yet. There is an elementary school that has classes for 9^th graders; you come every Tues. Thur. and every other Fri. They teach you accounting, filing, and also some computer stuff, I think there is more but I don’t remember. It lasts all year and mom said they let you go sorta your own pace. Then for the rest of high school it would be pretty relaxed.
    I just now looked at my commentz from last post and see that I have been tagged!! Here are my answers:
    1. What are you wearing? A tan shirt w/ a denim jumper
    2. What is your favorite animal? Probably a dog or cat, so original huh??!
    3. If you had to move somewhere else in America where would it be? That is a hard one! North Carolina or maybe Indiana (where mom's family lives.) But only if the church moved there too!!
    4. What are 3 good movies? oh boy! Ice princess, princess diaries 1-2, and Coyote Summer for a start!! 
I don't have anything that goes with this guy, but he is soo CUTE!!

            Better run I’ve got quite a bit of laundry to do today yet. 
                                       Leave me comments!

                                       -%-@ Amber @-%-

Hot is definitely the word for this past weekend! All of us girls got sun burned pretty badly. Crystal’s face is actually getting puffy because she got too much sun!

We went camping this past weekend with one other family. We left on Friday and came back on Monday around 11:30am. It was a lot of fun!! We spent almost the whole day Saturday swimming and then Sunday afternoon we had one family from church come over for the evening.

After we got home on Monday afternoon we unloaded what HAD to be unloaded then we quick got ready to go to our church picnic. We got there just in time for the women and children’s game! We played v-ball for quite a while, and then we ate supper and played more v-ball and just had fun with our friendz.  

It was soo hot that the little kids had a water balloon fight and later when we were playing v-ball some of the younger kidz would pour water on us and give us water to drink. It felt really good and it didn’t take long before you dried off.

             I can’t wait for Summer Bible School!! It is so much fun. We go to the bible school that our Grandpa’s church has, so it is conservative Mennonites, but there isn’t really anywhere else to go and we usually have lots of fun. It starts next Mon. and it lasts for two weeks, but we don’t have it on Sat. and Sun. nights.

            Guess I will go now I don’t really have anything to talk about and I better go eat lunch, my stomach tells me that it is way past time for lunch. 
                    Bye ya’ll!!!!                     -%-@ Amber @-%-

Last wed. Night at church the sermon was about the Prayer veiling. Our pastor has taught on this subject before, but he was just bringing it up again. In 1Cor. 11 from about verse 1-16 it talks about the covering or veiling.

(I hope I can say all this in a way that you understand.)

Verses 3-16 say 3. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is the God.  4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonoureth his head.  5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7.  For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9. Niether was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. 13. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14. Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him? 15. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. 16. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

It says that the order of leadership is God, Christ, Man, Woman. So we are to submit to our husbands/ or in my case my Dad, and he is to submit to Christ and God.  

It also says that if we don’t cover for prayer and prophesy it is the same as if we would shave our heads, and if it is a shame to be shorn or shaven then we need to cover. The man is the glory of God so if he covers he is dishonoring God; we are the glory of the man, so if we don’t cover we are dishonoring our husbands or Dads. (And God.) Woman was made for the man, not the other way around!

 Verse 14 asks if nature doesn’t teach us that long hair on a man is a shame to him. I agree totally, it just doesn’t look right for a guy to have long hair.  

Another thing, it says to cover our hair, that doesn’t mean just half ways does it?? What we (Mom, Serena and I.) wear is a lacy sort of material, (not that all we wear is lacy, but it stays on better and we just like the design and stuff.) and some materials are too thin so we made it double because it is see-through and that isn’t really covering either if you can still see your hair!! We have a few different shapes or patterns that we like, one is sorta like scarf, but it is more the shape of our head, straight in the front and rounded in the back. It isn’t like huge either, but it is big enough to cover our hair when it is up in a bun or something. We wear it when we pray and worship God, like by singing. We also wear it during church, because you are praying and singing and giving the glory to God during church.

            Well I hope I explained everything so that you can understand what I mean. And I don’t want to offend anyone, but this is our belief and just wanted everyone to know about my big step in life! Pray for me about it, I know that mom sorta paved the way for Serena and I a long time ago, Grandpa’s didn’t like it when she started to wear it this way and now that they have accepted her wearing it this way hopefully they won’t say much about us doing the same. And it will be hard sometimes doing something that no one else in our family does, we might get some stares during prayer or whenever we have it on!!

   Well thank you for listening to me, everyone have a fun Memorial Day.    
                       -%-@ Amber @-%-

 

 

O.k. everybody, I don’t plan to write much today, my sister said that she doesn’t always read mine because they are too long, is that how everyone feels? If so I don’t have to write so much, but I get on a subject and I just keep typing! That isn’t why I am not going to write much though; I don’t have much time to type today. We have piano at 3-4:30pm today then after that mom, Serena and I are going to church, (we just started to have Sunday evening service.) Dad can’t go because he gets up so early for work and has been losing sleep because of his allergies right now and he can’t stay up too late or he gets tired on the road and that is NOT good.

I am glad we are having church on Wed. eve, I like going to church, I like singing and I also like to hear the sermon. And yes I admit I like seeing my friendz too.  I also like being busy during the week, we usually keep pretty busy between taking care of grandpa’s, homeschooling, (is it spelled homeschool? My spell-check says home school!) Piano, some church activities and of course all the other normal life things that have to be done. (Like laundry, I do all our family’s laundry.) And now summer, that is always so busy.

            Oh, I finished my book today, it is about a couple that wanted children but couldn’t have any, the wife had always had trouble exepting not being able have children she really wanted to have a baby of her own, she also dealt with not trusting God with HIS plan. But when she seen that adoption was part of God’s plan she agreed with her husband to adopt a baby. They end up having an un-wed pregnant girl live with them until she has her baby so they can adopt it. (She is only 14!) Then the baby dies before it was born. They end up loving the girl and adopt her, she (the girl.) had had problems with not trusting people because she assumed nobody loved her and the couple only had her at their house because she was carrying the baby the hoped to adopt, which was true but they start to love ea. other without knowing it! Later on the couple adopts four year old twins. Hope I didn’t miss anything important, and hope you could understand everything.

     This did not turn out to be very short, but it was shorter than some of my blogs.

                                             Later!   -%-@ Amber @-%-

 

 

P.S. If you are wandering what those things by my name, they are roses sideways. And thanks for the comment for those of you who commented me, aahheemm... hint hint for those of you who didn’t!  And I know this color doesn't go with my template, but I don't care!!

Greetings on yet another rainy day! Today wasn’t just raining all day, but it was that on and off stuff.

I guess I will do a little update on what I have done in the last two days.

            Sunday evening we had service and there were five of the youth boys that ea. were given a subject to speak on, that was interesting.

After we were dismissed we didn’t really have much to do so Ann, Serena and I joined another group (Kayla, Hannah, and Heidi.) that seemed like they were having no trouble finding something to talk about! We had fun talking to them; sometimes it’s fun to talk to people that you don’t normally talk to, not that we ignore them, but for some reason we don’t usually end up talking with them.

            Mon. I did quite a bit of research for my New York lap book, which lasted until around 1:30-2:00pm. After that I did some laundry and just the normal pick-up-around-the-house. Surprisingly we haven’t had too much going unless I am getting used to busy life and when we don’t have something to do everyday then it seems like we aren’t doing anything!

            Tues. (today.) I went to work with Dad, he leaves around 2:30-300am every morning. He got a new truck just recently and I just haven’t gotten to go along yet to try out all the new gadgets. So we left around 2:45 and boy does that make it seem like a long day! He is a local truck driver; he delivers sawdust to the farms around here. Mostly dairy farms, but he does have a few horse places too, those are fun to go to, and you can look at all the horses there and everything.   I lasted until about 6:00 am. and I couldn’t stay awake anymore, I had stayed up late the night before and didn’t get very much sleep. We ate at 12:00 or so, we had pizza! And Mountain Dew! Dad has been hounding me about liking Mt. Dew, he thinks it is not good for you, but neither is coke or coffee if you drink too much! He asked me if they are allowed to sell it to minors! The last time I drank it it so happened that the next day I was laughing pretty hard about something and Serena goes “see now you are acting all giggly ‘cause of all that Mt. Dew yesterday!” Anyway, after lunch we had a few more loads and then we went home at 2:00-2:30pm. And then I got hooked on the book I started on the road and I fear I didn’t get much done at home! I was reading “The Long-Awaited Child” by Tracie Peterson, it is really good. I will have to tell you’ all what it is about later because I haven’t finished it yet.

            Has anybody ever kept track of how many books they read? Serena, Anessa, and I had a contest to see who could read the most books in a year and of course Anessa won, but I still don’t think that was quite fair because we moved that year and did NOT have time to read much less try to win a contest. Anyway the prize was like $5-15. Worth of a gift. We gave her a $15. Certificate for mom’s book store. And right now I am just keeping track just for the fun of it.

            Well I will go, somehow I can’t write little bloggs, I get talking about something and the words just keep coming. Sorry if it gets boring.    Bye!
                                         -%-@ Amber @-%-