Manny's Memento

Some Older Photos

2011-12-29T16:23:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos from a while back that I love but failed to post:

Two kids who live in the neighborhood close to our guest house. Actually, the boy (who is on the right) sits right outside the guest house door everyday while his mom sells (mostly) clothing. Soon, I hope to print out this photo and give the photo to his mom. He is so cute! :D

Junior, a kid of one of my dad's employees. He is awesome. (Really cute, too) :)

You'll be seeing a couple more photos of this cute guy. (I really can't resist this kids' eyes. He is so stinkin' cute.)

This photo is pretty blurry (due to the kids jumping around), but you can really see how happy (most) of the are.

I love this photo because that kid is so cute in it. :)

I took photos of our new house today (we move in on Sunday). And of the lagoon that we have to cross to get to it. And of the beach (that is a 2 minute walk from our house). Sadly, I am missing the cord that connects my camera to my computer. So, when I find it, I will post pictures of our house.

"Utter holiness, crystal pure, was Amy Carmichael's desire. She did not see how any true Christian could have a lesser. 'If we are not clean when we bear the vessels of the Lord,' she wrote in May of 1894, 'we may profane His holy name in the things which we hallow. Our very service a defiling thing!...'" -A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot

An African Wedding and A Mongoose

2011-12-23T05:27:00.000-06:00

Ahh, wedding photos. (I am sick of wedding photos) :) The wedding went good...but in Africa, an event isn't complete without cultural complications, so there were lots of those. But in all, I think it went okay.

It was a lot different than an American wedding. People were on their phones during the ceremony, people were walking to a fro, some taking photos (with cameras and phones). They had some singing and dancing, an offering (to help cover wedding costs.) and food afterwards. The ceremony was the most challenging to photograph. The lighting was really dim, and people were constantly moving...so be prepared for not-so-great photos, but the Africans love them! :)

I started the day out at the compound where Ben lives (and where the groom and his men were getting ready)...he was supposed to take me to where the bride was getting ready, but that plan didn't work out. So, I stayed with the men.

The Groom (left) and his Best Man

From the compound, I went on to the church.

Guests waiting for the Bride and Groom to arrive

Then, the Groom arrived:

They put yards of cloth along the ground (picking them up after the groom walks on them, then putting them in the front again)...It is a sign of respect.

The Groom waiting for the Bride to arrive.

One of the women who laid down the cloth for the Groom/Bride to walk on, also waiting for the Bride.

Finally, the Bride and her party pull up.

The Bride's party entering the church.

Almost all of the Bridesmaids have made it in!

Flower girls (throwing candy)

The Bride and her father.

The Bride and party sitting down.

Next, there was singing and dancing (praise songs):

Then, there was an offering (to help cover wedding costs):

And, an African wedding isn't complete without someone talking on the phone during the ceremony:

Next on the agenda, there was a choir singing.

Then, there was a sermon.

And finally....:

The Bride and Groom stood up to get married. :)

They exchanged rings:

Then kissed:

During the ceremony when the kissed, I had people pushing me the whole time while they tried to get a photos, so none of mine turned out. I had the couple kiss when we took formal photos.

The Groom helping the Bride down to pray.

Legalizing the marriage....

The cake. They never actually ate it. :)

Then, we left for formal photos. My dad and I went (can't go anywhere without Dad!!). I had no idea where we were going...but then we pulled up. You see, there is this public garden in the middle of the road right in the middle of the city here. Right by S.K.D Blvd. On both sides, there is a busy road, and roads in the front and in the back. Surrounded by traffic, buildings (ugly ones) and exhaust fumes. Earlier that day, Dad and I passed this "garden". I was asking him about formal photos, and he said when we passed, "Just be glad that you aren't taking these photos admist the traffic and diesel smoke!" And waddya' know! That is where I ended up. At the time, I was about to faint. Now, it is extremely hilarious. Apparently, that garden in the middle of traffic is THE place for wedding photos.

When we got there, some guy took charge of directing the photography...so I stood back for a while thinking my turn would come. Finally, I realized that he didn't intend to give me a turn. I sent Dad to talk to him. The guy would organize the photo, take the photo, then ask "You finished?", when I was off to the side and couldn't take the photo. I was really "peeved" (thanks, Balloon Shop) at the time, but laugh at the dude now. Finally, Amos, one of my dad's employees pulled him to the side. Then, he got the memo. He would organize the photo, then step to the side after he was finished. Needless to say, I didn't do as much work for the formal photos as I anticipated. Somethings about this bothered me immensely...like how he positioned them with the traffic in the background, in a few photos, there is a red motorbike helmet in the background, sometimes, how he positioned them didn't even make sense. But I was glad to have a little break.

Okay, I had to post this one. Apparently, the Bride wasn't informed that the Groom was supposed to pick her up. :D

I took photos of the rings while we were standing waiting for the car:

While we took the formal photos, someone stole the battery from the car that we drove. I'm not sure how they started it, but we finally headed back to the party. We had food, then came back to the guest house. The wedding started 3 hours late and finished up right after dark. :) So much about the wedding! Let us talk Mongoose.

This is a mongoose. Our mongoose. Yay. (Ahem, sort of). Her name was Bree (given to her by her previous owners), but I don't think that it fits her very well. We decided on the name Mae, but we all have trouble calling her the right name. I call her "brat" (brown rat), monkey, and mongoose. How this all came to be, blame it on Ryebrynn. :)

The people who own the guest house (who live upstairs) went into the bush for a day and brought back this mongoose. The girl who brought it back, she left two days ago for America to go to college. And, her family leaves for furlough in less than a month. So, they needed to find a home for their new pet. Leave it to Ryebrynn to offer us! :) Now, we own a mongoose. She is great when she is sleeping. When she is awake, she squeaks and goes to the bathroom. :) And demolishes food.

Mongoose is really hard to take photos of. She likes to move.

I will end this post with something that I saw on Facebook:

Not I, but Christ be honored, loved, exalted,

Not I, but Christ be seen, be known and heard;

Not I, but Christ in every look and action,

Not I, but Christ in every thought and word.

Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord,

... Oh, to be lost in Thee,

Oh, that it may be no more I,

But Christ that lives in me.

Not I, but Christ to gently soothe in sorrow,

Not I, but Christ to wipe the falling tear;

Not I, but Christ to lift the weary burden,

Not I, but Christ to hush away all fear.

Christ, only Christ, no idle word e'er falling,

Christ, only Christ, no needless bustling sound;

Christ, only Christ, no self-important bearing,

Christ, only Christ, no trace of I be found. "Not I..."

-Danielle Engle

The Beach and Other News

2011-11-27T18:46:00.000-06:00

Going to the beach was awesome. I would be mostly satisfied if I could just sit and stare. The only time I've ever been to an ocean/sea/gulf was to the Gulf of Mexico two years ago when my aunt got married and my dad said it didn't count. So, I was really excited. When I got in, I realized that swimming in the Atlantic was totally different that swimming in the Gulf. It was cool, and more violent.

It was high tide when we went, and the waves were pretty big. At first, I didn't really take Dad's advice of "be careful. It'll pull you out, pull you in and then all over again" as literal. then I was pulled out by the out current, then in by a large wave, going under the water, having another wave go over me and my lungs scream "AIR!!!" I took his advice as literal. That never happened again. It wasn't as enjoyable as I had hoped it would be. I had to get out several times because I was so tired and didn't want to die. But in all, it was awesome.

These Liberian kids were sitting on the beach when we came. Over the course of an hour, they slowly came to the water. Though, they wouldn't go out farther than this.

On a different subject:

Nutella!!!!

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have a Nutella obsession or am addicted to it. Actually, I've only had it twice (counting yesterday...not today, though, because it was all eaten up yesterday!). The first time I had it was when one of Mom's friends brought over supper and stashed some Nutella in the bag (which was about 2 months ago). That was the only time I had ever had Nutella. But I loved it. I ate it by the spoonful. And it makes me oober sick. Really sick. But I still love it anyways. I love it, it hates me. :) And this is the reason:

The first ingredient is sugar. The second vegetable fats (which I am guessing consists of something like corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, etc. Gross.). And still, I eat it by the spoonful (and even the fork or a (table) knife ful). So, anyways, Mom, a lady who is staying in the guesthouse and I walked about a mile to a little store. I found this Nutella spread (obviously, it has a different name, but it is Nutella), but it was almost $6.00 USD. Both Mom and I agreed that it was a one time treat.

I've met an unexpected, awesome new internet friend over the past week. (I'll call her Watermelon :D) She has been an awesome encouragement and we've been emailing often (which is great because I want to keep in touch with as many people from the states as I can {which in code, family {cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents} means please email me!!}.)

Exciting news, y'all (at least for me). I have been looking in to selling my photography, and I applied to a stock photography company. They accepted me!!! They have to confirm that I am who I am (I sent in an I.D), and then I will be able to submit photos. Also, I am praying about setting up a website and selling my photography in prints/canvas/mugs/whatever you can think of. I would have some photos up, people would email me (or something like that) which photo they want and on what, then I would place the order and it would directly ship to them. What is your opinion?

There is a big rat in the guest house. No, really. He is big. And he is a RAT. I just saw him jump through a hole in the screen (on the window) and go into a stand up cabinet that is in the corner of the living room/dining room here in the guest house. A few days ago, our fellow guesthouse-mate went into her bedroom to set out d-con for this rat and it was ON HER BED. It is a really ugly, scary, nightmarish rat.

I was in the market two days ago, and a little boy walks up carrying something on his head. I look to see what it is that is on his head, and he is carrying dead, dried monkeys. At first, I thought they were babies!! I saw a face, and I couldn't believe it. "That kid is carrying dead babies on his head!" was my first thought. But then I realized that these "babies" had tails and were monkeys. No way am I ever eating monkey. I draw the line there. NO DEAD, DRIED MONKEYS FOR ME. EVER.

I've noticed a two things about Liberian English in the last two days:

When I asked a little girl, "How old are you?", she looked up at me with confusion painted on her face and she had no idea what I was talking about. After a few tries with that, yielding similar results, I finally realized, that whenever a Liberian asks me how old I am, they ask, "How many years?" When I asked this little girl this, her face lit up and she said that she was 7. Crazy how that works.
When you tell a Liberian something like, "Have as much as you want" (in the context of food), or, "You can come to us if you need anything", they will respond, "No problem".

A week ago, my parents offered a friend my photography for the friend's wedding (they had an African wedding, but they are now having an "American" or, "Western" wedding). So, here I am searching things like, "How to take wedding photos," or, "List of must-have wedding photos". :) The wedding is on the 10th and is the only semi-professional thing I have ever done. I have random panic attacks about it (like just earlier, I thought, "What if all of the photos come out blurry???"). If you could, I would really love for you to pray for me.

I am sad to say that it is 1:41am here and I am up way past my bedtime. :) Good night.

Africa Photos- Round Two

2011-11-23T12:33:00.001-06:00

The road to the market.

A store front. People seem to sell whatever they can get their hands on. I didn't have much time to just stop and look, because H. wanted to start taking photos right away.

These guys had just come from school. They actually stopped us and asked for a photo. :)

Yummy food that was fried right before you. I wanted to get a picture of the girl frying the foo,d but she didn't want me to. The top food is plantains (when we bought it, they were then laced with a hot pepper sauce), the food to the right is sweet potoato, the bottom food is doughnut things, and the left side, I am not sure (we didn't buy that). All of it was really yummy (but I didn't have doughnuts because of my allergy. But, if it is a doughnut "type-thing" it has to be good.).

This girl just couldn't stop smiling and laughing. She was so happy the whole time! She really liked getting her picture taken and just giggled and giggled when I showed her the picture I took of her.

The market had a lot of different types of beans.

I love this picture. This is what happened every time when someone would get their picture taken. H. would be smiling and the kids would be laughing.

I was standing pretty far away, and this girl was sitting and posing. I tried to get a good photo, but my lens has a limited zoom.

Smoked fish. Yum! :)

Hot peppers at the market.

I have over 400 more pictures like these. I had planned to post more, but posting this much is a lot. :P Eh, so, to say the least, I am tired of uploading photos. Hopefully these will tide y'all over until I get my rest. :)

Africa Photos- Round One

2011-11-22T09:03:00.000-06:00

This is the right side of our bedroom. Awesomely, the whole wall is books upon books. :)

This is where Jake, Vren, Ryebrynn and I sleep. The guesthouse doesn't have air conditioning, but we have an okay-good breeze during the night. The windows have slits of glass (which you can close to make a complete glass window), iron bars (which are molded into designs....so it doesn't look like a jail) and net. Last night, it rained a lot (all night, too). It was actually really nice. The house was pretty cool with a humid breeze coming through all night.

This is our water filter. Sadly, the water here is always warm-luke-warm. Though, yesterday, when we ate at the restaurant, the water bottles were really cold, and were half-frozen. :D

The wall around the compound is tall, has broken bottles "built-in", and has barbed wire on top to prevent people entering without permission.

The guest house has laundry facilities out back (and the house-like thing is a well).

There is a banana tree in the backyard!

The owners of the guest house own a cute dog named "Crush". :)

Welp, I need to go. We are about to leave for the ocean! Hopefully I'll post pictures of going to the market tonight.

Life in Liberia- Day One

2011-11-21T18:22:00.000-06:00

We flew out of Wichita on the 19th to Atlanta. A few things I learned on the pre-flight (in the airport, checking bags, etc) and on flight:

Airport employees don't enjoy checking 18 pieces of luggage, close to 50 pounds each, not including the metal trunk that weighed around 100 pounds.
When your bags are checked, they go through a x-ray thing and the employees take out anything that sets off an alarm. The took out my honey, new bottle of apple cider vinegar (unopened), beeswax salve and sea salt and checked them for "questionable substances". To say the least, I wasn't very happy to have rude airport people digging through my bag.
It is really, really, really hard to leave family. I must've cried a gallon. And yet, I still can't wrap my mind around "We have moved here. It isn't summer camp."
Jake really likes to talk while you are trying to read on a flight. (Ahem.)

From Atlanta, we flew to Ghana (this flight was pretty bad for me....I had some trouble sleeping and the food was really horrible full of MSG and margarine. Can you say, "Ewwwww!"?) A few things I learned pre-flight and on flight:

When you go down/up an escalator, try not to fall off while trying to adjust your suitcase on the step above you. You might fall. (No, I did not fall. But I almost did. It was one of those "I'm about to die!!!" moments.)
When you get on the underground train that goes to and from terminals, walk fast through the door and try not to get your suitcase stuck in between the door when it shuts. Also, hold onto the bar when it starts. If you don't, you'll fall into the middle-aged guy standing behind you. I learned these both from experience.
Bathrooms on planes SCARE ME.
The only comfortable place to sleep is on Dad's shoulder. Seriously, the only place I slept was on his shoulder. I'm not sure if he enjoyed it or not, but I enjoyed my sleep a a lot. :)
Airlines are experts on flying. Airlines are not experts on tasty and healthy food.

When we arrived in Ghana, we had to stay on the plane for about two hours while some of the passengers de-boarded, people checked our passports and tickets into Liberia, and security/cleaning/new crew/new passengers boarded. Then, with lots of Liberians in tow, we flew into Liberia. When we were about to de-board the plane, the flight attendant said, "Use extreme caution when stepping out of the aircraft." My first though was, "Well, that doesn't send a very good message." :) When I de-boarded the aircraft, it wasn't as bad as the flight attendant made it sound to be. Sure, there was a three inch gap between the de-boarding stairs and the airplane, and it had just rained so the stairs were wet, and I was carrying my backpack (that didn't even fit on my shoulders, it was so packed tight. Very painful) and my carry-on suitcase and I was in Africa, but it was all good. I slowly made my way down the stairs (without slipping. I must say, it took some skill) and we boarded a bus that took us to a building where you went through immigration, received your checked baggage and went through customs. We stood in line for immigration for a while, finally got up to a box type thing (sort of like where you buy tickets at a baseball game) with three-ish holes punched in the front where you talk to the person sitting in the box. It took sort of long to get from there to the baggage, but it wasn't bad. We walked onto the baggage pick-up and it was like we have in the US: a moving line of luggage. With the exceptions of: we were in Africa, there was lots of yelling (that is how Liberians communicate), lots of touching (if someone needed past you or walked past, they would put their hand on your shoulder or just pushed past), and baggage helpers standing on the conveyor belt getting from one place to another.

We took around two hours to find all of our baggage and only lost one bag. It hopefully comes tomorrow on another flight. During this time, I was acquainted with my first Liberian bathroom. (Don't laugh. This is a really serious subject). When I opened the door and stepped in, I tripped. (Seriously, don't laugh). There was a step up (I've noticed in most/all genuine Liberian public bathrooms, there is either a step up or a step down) and I hit it and almost came face-to-face with the floor. Oh, yes, I do enjoy being intimate with a bathroom floor. In the stall, when you closed the door, it was almost dark. I glanced around for snakes, spiders and lizards. :) When I went to wash my hands, the soap bottle was on the floor and the water came out of the sink at a trickle. I really had to work to wash all of the soap off. Leaving the bathroom, I was sure to "use extreme caution" (as the flight attendant would put it) when stepping out. :) At that time, we were just leaving the baggage claim. We were all really tired of being at the airport and just wanted to get out of there. We had arrived at 4:30pm (Liberian time), but had told our driver to be there at 4. We left around 7pm. Dad went up and talked to a guy in customs (which consisted of a room with three isle-type things where you get checked three different times (the checked things like what you have in your bags and your passports, visas, etc.)) and the guy just let us go through without going through all three "stages" of customs. I was really glad for that. No more standing, if our driver was still waiting for us. :)

When we got outside, we were flocked by people who wanted to help us (for money). We found our guy holding a sign with our name on it. So, in a whirlwind in which I wasn't sure of what was happening, we were escourted to a truck where we packed our luggage into. Then, we got in a car to follow the truck. The car had two front seats: the driver and Dad. Three back seats: Jake, Mom and Ryebrynn. And, a trunk: Vrenith and me. Oh, yes, the trunk was very comfortable for the 45 minute ride. It was dark when we drove, so I didn't see much but head lights. I curled up into a ball and fell asleep, but had trouble un-curling. We arrived at the guest house we are staying at, brought the luggage in and went to sleep. Ryebrynn woke up at 5:30am and was loud for the next five hours, in which I tried (key word: tried) to sleep. I woke up around 10am and took a shower. Three rules about our shower times:

If you turn it cold because you haven't stopped sweating since you stepped on the airplane, it comes out at less than a trickle (almost not at all). If you turn it hot, it comes out in torrents. Needless to say, it was a hot (hot) shower. And I didn't enjoy it.
You can't let the water get in your mouth. My cheeks probably looked like fish cheeks.
You will never dress dry. You will be wet when you get out of the shower, and when you finish drying, you will be wet from sweat.

After I showered, I met one of Dad's Liberian friends. When he left, the people who run the guest house came and talked to us. They have at 17 year old daughter (I'll call her "H") who, when she was 14, started taking photos of Liberia and selling them. With that, she funded a new, very expensive camera and is funding her up-coming college days. She invited me to go with her onto the Liberian streets to take photos, after 4pm when it is cooler. I excitedly said yes, and then our family went to eat.

We walked to a mostly American, but with Liberian specials, restaurant that we finally went with because we were too hungry to figure out anything else. About half-way there, I started feeling pretty nauseous. When we got inside, I couldn't move or else I was afraid I would toss my cookies. When I thought the waitress had brought water (but she hadn't), I looked up and started barfing. Not a pretty sight. I hadn't eaten since the day before around 3:30pm ish, and hadn't drank my hydration of water that morning, and had taken my Malaria pill on an empty stomach. I finally got a bag and finished up my business. Dad escorted me to the bathroom where I cleaned up and I felt much better. When I got back, Jake was feeling pretty bad, too. He then threw up and we were both barf buddies. :) After that, we both felt much better. We drank lots of water and ate Liberian (which consisted of: rice with the following sauces: cassava, potato greens, fried okra and goat soup). It was really yummy.

When we got back to the guest house, some of Dad's Liberian friends arrived and they talked with everyone until H came and told us she was leaving to take photos. With my camera in tow, Vrenith and I followed her around. We went to a market and into neighborhoods. There were some people who wanted their picture taken and even asked. There were some who said yes when I asked. There were some who said no when I asked. There were some who asked me right off the bat to not take pictures of them. There were some (though, a very small amount) who actually hid their children or sent them home and were scared of us. There were some who yelled at us when we took pictures of others (with the others' permission) and asked us how much money we got for doing this and who we did it for. Thank goodness, for the last few groups of people, H speaks Liberian English and was able to understand the Liberians, speak to them and get us out of unpleasant situations. At one time, we had a group of guys follow us around taking pictures of us with their camera phones. I was so glad H talked to them about it. She told them that we asked when we took pictures of people, and that they should, too. Everyone around (except for the guys) yelled their agreements with H, and in the end, the guys backed off and had deleted the photos of us. H is really good a maneuvering through situations like that, and ignoring people who asked us if we got money out of this. In all, it was an awesome time.

When I got back, the others were gone, and Mom had just arrived back from the market (she hadn't bought much Liberian food, due to lack to knowing how to cook it). I learned that, while I was gone, a family member had offered my photography services and I now have a job taking pictures at my Dad's friend's American wedding on the 1st of December. Good thing I don't know how to take wedding pictures...... :) We then ate spaghetti and got on our computers.

And, now is now. Photos coming tomorrow. It is close to 12:30am here, and I really need to get to bed. (Sorry, Mom and Dad) I hope everyone is having a great day/night/whatever time it is where you live!

My Thoughts on Doctor Who

2011-11-15T19:16:00.001-06:00

Recently, Jesus has brought to my attention several things that don't bring Him glory and turn my thoughts towards the things of man. One of these things is Doctor Who. Below, I will explain this as well as I can. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts (in a Christlike way). The things I will mention are things that Jesus has set upon my heart, and they are not things that I am telling you that you have to do. Do not do anything, in any part of life, unless Jesus has called you to do it.

I've been reading Leslie Ludy's "Set-Apart Femininity" recently (for the third or fourth time!), which is where all of this has started. Through her writings, Jesus has been whispering His heart to me, and His wants for me, including a change in my Doctor Who habits.

"Becoming a Christian is a lot more than just saying a sinner's prayer and gaining assurance that we'll go to heaven someday. It is a sacred exchange. It means entering into a holy, eternal covenant with the King of all kings. It's giving up all that we have and all that we are in exchange for all that He has and all that he is. When we invite Christ into our life, we don't 'make room' for Him admist our selfishness, sin and worldly pursuits. Rather, by that power of His grace, we are transformed and made completely new- adorned with His spectacular beauty. Our bodies actually become the dwelling place of Almightly God- we house His very Spirit within us." -Set-Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy, pg. 84

Reading this book, I have to continually question my habits, wants and ideas. The first and foremost question I have to ask is this: "Does this bring me closer to Christ? Does it give Him glory?". If I answer "no", then I would go on to more specific questions, depending on the category. In this case, I went to the "Entertainment Questions", that Leslie Ludy's book had provided. These included:

Do I watch movies and shows that glorify darkness or perversion, mock God, or make sin seem noble, even in subtle ways?
Do I justify my participation in Hollywood's ungodly messages? (Hint: If you catch yourself thinking things like, As long as I don't agree with the bad stuff in this movie, it's okay for me to watch it, or This movie has a good message if I just ignore the sin and profanity, or Every other Christian I know would watch this movie, and it's only rated PG-13, so it's probably fine, then it's time to let Christ reshape your standards.)
Do I turn to TV or movies for a counterfeit version of rest, refreshment, and enjoyment instead of going to Christ for the real thing?
Am I addicted to movies or TV shows? (Hint: If you are unwilling or unable to go without these things, that's a sign that they have an unhealthy hold on your life.)
Am I willing to use the time I would normally spend being entertained by Hollywood to further my prayer life or deepen my relationship with Christ?

Do I watch movies and shows that glorify darkness or perversion, mock God, or make sin seem noble, even in subtle ways? This question opened my eyes to see several things that I hadn't seen before. Doctor Who mocks God, in subtle and non-subtle ways. The whole show is dependent on the "fact" that aliens exist. But what did God do in the beginning of time? He made one place for living things to live: Earth. Therefore, the show's basis on aliens mocks God's existence and Creation. The show promotes the belief in evolution, the big bang ("The Big Bang", big bang number two), and also, recently, cast a wary eye on beliefs themselves ("The God Complex").

On the sin side, I had noticed before that most of the companions had a trouble with modesty. Rose couldn't pick out a shirt that stayed down, Martha liked her tank-tops and Amy fancies mini-skirts. I have had several thoughts thinking, "I hope that Jake didn't see that....".

Amy cannot stay with one man. She chose Rory when the Doctor disappeared, but when he came back, she suddenly turned on Rory and tried to kiss the Doctor. The message of this appears to be that it is okay for girls to jump from guy to guy, wait their whole life for "the one". Eventually, she chooses Rory, but, even in engagement/marriage, seems to put the Doctor before Rory. But what does the Bible teach? One man, one woman. Your heart is for one person alone (besides Jesus), and you shouldn't have any shadow of doubt of who that is when the time comes.

The whole cast uses cuss words here and there, and frequently uses the Lord's name in vain. In my ignorant state, I passed over them. But then, I would find myself, more and more, coming back to these words in my mind when the "appropriate" thing happened (like, if I was surprised, I could think the Lord's name in vain). Watching and listening to the cast do this made me develop a carelessness towards foul language. This reaction isn't something that shows that I don't trust in Jesus, (I don't trust Jesus enough to protect me from these thoughts....) or shows that I am not a very good Christian. It shows that I had allowed myself to constantly be showered with Satan's messages and I didn't even realize it, because I wasn't on the prowl against subtle sin. I shouldn't have the mindset of, "I just need to be careful about what I watch," or "I need to make sure that this doesn't show in my life." I need to have the mindset of, "I shouldn't put this in my mind in the first place!" Should a Child of God willingly listen to people spit upon His face? (Use his name in vain). Should I watch/listen to something that will make me develop a careless attitude towards sin? I think not.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

Do I justify my participation in Hollywood's ungodly messages? This question hit right where I had been protecting myself. I kept finding myself, in the middle of an episode, thinking, "Oh, my, I don't believe that," or, "That was sinful." But then, I would find myself annoyed (a side-effect of a foothold of Satan) and brush it off saying, "If I don't agree with the bad stuff, the episode is great," or "Besides the sin, the episode has a great message." I even had to explain this whole argument to Mom and Dad a few times, too. Instantly, when I read this question, I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and heard Jesus gently whisper His thoughts to me. "You don't believe in this....but still you willingly accept the messages and don't blink an eye?" I hadn't even thought of it that way...I might not be fully believing in the strong messages (I was slowly giving into the subtle ones, already), but yet, I was willing to sit down and bombard myself with ungodly messages and feed myself this.

Do I turn to TV or movies for a counterfeit version of rest, refreshment, and enjoyment instead of going to Christ for the real thing? Many times, when Jake, Vrenith and I were watching the old episodes and had a lot to go through, I would announce, "I am tired and bored....let's watch Doctor Who!" I hadn't even realized it, but I was going to Doctor who for rest, refreshment and enjoyment! And at that point, I didn't realize the real gift of rest, refreshment and enjoyment was so much more. I had never experienced it because I was turning to Doctor Who instead of the One who created all. "It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desire which He creates." -Amy Carmichael When I finally realized what I had been doing, and really experienced true rest, refreshment and enjoyment, I truly agreed with Amy Carmichael's statement. "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." -Jesus, Matthew 11:28

Am I addicted to movies or TV shows? When I honestly answered this question, my stomach did a flop. Even at that time, I wasn't willing to give up Doctor Who. All throughout me answering these questions in my journal, my flesh cried out, "But you LOVE Doctor Who!" And now still, if the right quote is quoted, or the right song played, my flesh claws at my insides calling to be let out. "O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle." -Psalm 140:7 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." -Galatians 2:20a But my strength is not my own, it is Christ's. He covers my head in the day of battle against the flesh. And He always wins.

Am I willing to use the time I would normally spend being entertained by Hollywood to further my prayer life or deepen my relationship with Christ? Immediately after reading this, my heart screamed the answer that I thought I was sure of: "NO!" I wasn't willing to give up my wants for the wants of Christ. But as time wore on, and Jesus was knocking on my door, "Come follow Me" He said, I finally told Him that I would try it once. And, wow, was I amazed. Having time with Christ so over turns having time with the Doctor! Jesus showed me, once again (and is still showing me) that He is worth it all.

In summary, I don't watch Doctor Who anymore. And I am evaluating, one my one, my other media habits. During this time of evaluation, I am currently not watching any movies or TV shows. Though, after I am finished, I don't think that I will go back to mindlessly watching a Disney movie. Jesus is so much more.

At Grandmama's Cottage

2011-11-12T21:48:00.000-06:00

Before I was diagnosed with Celiac disease (a sensitivity to gluten type thing), I never, ever made anything out of a box. If you could make something from scratch you made it from scratch. No if, ans or buts. Making things out of boxes was taboo. Now a days, it is humbling when I bake. I have to make everything out of a box. If I tried to make something from scratch (which I have. Not pretty), it would most likely flop, unless I used a specially crafted gf recipe and a special flour mix. Gluten-free baking is not easy. And it is expensive. I don't have the skill or the money to experiment (just yet). I made peppermint pinwheels (mostly) out of a box today.

In reality, peppermint pinwheel dough isn't sugar cookie dough, but this time I had to let it go (this is the first Christmas gluten-free, the first batch of gluten-free peppermint pinwheels).

So, I mixed it up (and instead of using margarine and rice milk as the box called for, I used good ole' butter and cow's milk) and divided it to color the red:

Then, Grandma rolled both colors out:

Then we smashed the colors (okay, maybe a little gentler) together, rolled them up:

And it in the fridge to become more firm. After it had served it's time in the fridge, I cut it, baked the cut cookies, frosted them, sprinkled candy cane on them and they became these ummy, yummy cookies:

My grandma is genius. They taste exactly the same (almost, with a little texture difference). :D

After we finished the cookies, Grandma, Jake and I put up the Christmas tree.

Looking at it really puts one in the Christmas mood.

I also put the garland around the stair well and put up the stockings (under the garland).

This is my favorite ornament. I put it smack dab in the middle of the tree, in plain sight.

I learned something today. Christmas trees are very photogenic and are pleasantly addicting to take pictures of. I must've spent 15 minutes taking pictures of it and must've taken over 30 pictures. There is something about the Christmas feel and the soft lights.

View from under the tree

I was taking pictures of a doll thing and noticed how the tree lights appeared in the background (sorry about the focus of the photo. It was the doll's hat thing and it was the only thing that really brought out the tree lights nicely):

I thought that the lights were really cool. I have seen plenty of photos/paintings with the lights looking like that, but this is the first time that I actually captured it.

In the Christmas spirit, I researched Indian Christmas traditions:

Traditional Christmas Greeting: "Merry Christmas", "Christmas ke Shubhashai" (Hindi)

Decorations:

Garlands are made of colored palm fronds. There is also a garland made of jute rope.
The bows are dyed orange.
The Christmas trees are covered in green silk, colored stones and gold paint.

Traditions: Though India is not a Christian country, there are Christian communities throughout India. The main concentration is in the southern tip of the country. It is believed that St. Thomas the Apostle brought Christianity to India.

During the weeks before Christmas, children go caroling house to house. On Christmas Eve there is usually a dance for the teenagers held at the local high school or community center. Banana and Mango trees are decorated. In some areas, small clay lamps are placed are placed on the edges of flat roofs and on the top of walls.

On Christmas Eve, Christians go for Christmas shopping and buy new clothes and shoes. It’s a tradition to attend midnight mass with new appearance to bring Christmas spirit in families and communities. Once they reach home, they celebrate Christmas by lighting fire crackers.

On Christmas Day, the family eats breakfast and afterwards the gifts are given out. The rest of Christmas Day is spent visiting family and friends. A homemade ginger wine is served on this day in some families. Special pastries (Kulkul, Laadu, Chaklyo, Nevryo, etc.) are served; these pastries are made by all the family members and are dyed red and pink. The main dish served Christmas Day is a pork dish (Vindaloo). It is served with a rice dish that contains slivered almonds and raisins. This rice is colored with saffron, which turns the rice, a subtle yellow color. A Christmas cake similar to fruitcake is served for dessert. Some families exchange Christmas cake on Christmas day along with Christmas Sweets called “Kuswaar.”

I don't know how reliable this info is: I searched "Indian Christmas traditions" and clicked the first result. Though, it is fun to read about it. :)

Exciting Things

2011-11-11T16:51:00.000-06:00

Lots of exciting things have been happening around here. Despite Jake not liking me putting everything in bullet points, I am going to. :)

We bought our tickets to fly to Liberia for the 19th (8 days!). Whewf, that is really close! I've packed most of my stuff (consisting of clothing, books, piano books, and herbs/tea.) and am wearing only the things I am not taking. I'll have two carry on bags (one computer bag or purse and one small suitcase) and two large checked suitcases (one of my stuff, the other of family stuff {i.e. school books, toiletries, games, etc.}). The checked bags need to be 40 pounds or less. I weighed my bag last night: 55 pounds. Yeah.
Moby and Beatrice got sprayed by a skunk last night. Uhg. They smell. :[ We can't pet them, and Moby is suffering (he is a very social dog. He is suffering emotionally, and probably physically. Like I said, he is a very social dog.). Queasy wasn't sprayed (she has been before and learned her lesson), but Beatrice has jumped on her ("playing", she calls it) and transferred the smell. I am suffering greatly from lack of petting the dogs. I love the dogs! :)
Dad fixed my laptop screen, which has been broken for 2 years. :DD

For those of you who are grimacing in disgust, the hands are not tattooed, they are "henna-ed" (painted with henna, a natural red herb). They do this a lot in India. :D

One of my best friends in Kansas City turned 20 today. I am really excited for her!
Jake recieved "The Errant King" (by Wayne Thomas Batson) for his birthday. I had totally forgot that the Swiftstorm tribe would be in the acknowledgments and in the book, so when I opened it I totally freaked out and said, "HOLY COW! I'M IN THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS!" Yep, that is me.

I grabbed the book off of Grandma's fireplace and Jake didn't even notice. :) He doesn't even know that I moved it from and back to where he put it!

Jake has read only through the prologue, so we have only found Vrenith's name so far. :)

Swiftstorm Tribe in The Errant King.

I'm off to help Grandma! We plan to put up the Christmas decorations (since we won't be here for Christmas, Grandma is putting all of them up early) and make peppermint pinwheels (gluten-free. This will be interesting....). :D I love peppermint pinwheels.

That Church I Mentioned--A Tribute

2011-11-09T12:55:00.000-06:00

This was that church back in June. My great-grandparents attended this church faithfully for their whole lives until they switched to a smaller building due to lack of attendance. They got married in this church on Feburary 14, 1935 (my grandpa was then born a year later).

This is that church now. About a month ago, we drove past it (it is a mile or two from the Farm) and the siding was gone. About a week ago, we drove past again, and this is what it looked like. Grandpa said that they took off so much wood on the bottom half, that when the wind got up to speed, the roof fell in.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

I was walking through this church for 30 minutes, plus, in June. It wasn't a safety hazard (besides a few stray nails and slipping on debris) . All it needed was a strong woman to sweep, a few men to carry away junk and a hammer and nails to fix a few holes. There was no reason (in my mind) that this church should have been torn down (except for money, and I think that the church standing is A LOT more valuable than lumber gained for tearing it down). There are just those types of people who value money over history and family (history, family: as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, my great-grandparents were married in this church and attended it faithfully for their whole lives, up until they moved to a different, smaller building)

(Name of the church) was organized in September 1899 with 33 charter members, immigrants from Poland. The first church building was built and dedicated in 1907 and remodeled in 1944. Two missionaries went out from this congregation, namely, Mable (last name) to Arizona and Selma (last name) to Africa. In 1955 the membership was 123. (Gameo.com)

In Which I Finally Blog

2011-11-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

I must admit that I have had several chances to blog. But I won't say anymore. :)

We are expecting SNOW tonight! :D The only problem is that it has been sprinkling rain all day long, thus the ground is wet, thus thus the snow won't stick.

The Farm has several perty trees that are turning.

Grandma's front lawn

There are lots of leaves on the ground, and one tree in Grandma's front yard has lost all of it's leaves.

Antique bowl found in the Blacksmith Shop

We've been finding all sorts of cool stuff around the Farm. Including dead animals that the dogs enjoy chewing on. Yum.

The Garage located right after you drive into the Farm yard, to the right.

There is a real perty tree that we hooked the tire swing up to (the tire swing is broken, though. We need to fix it!). We figured out when trimming that the tree limbs have thorns....the hard way.

Perty but thorny tree

We don't have a washer at the Farm, so I've been washing things like curtains by hand (in baking soda and vinegar, my preferred cleaning agents! Then soaking them in essential oil infused water) and hanging them out (sometimes overnight to get a nice Farm-y smell).

I think that I have a slight addiction to taking pictures of washing hanging out. :)

Moby still loves to sleep. Usually when he is outside, Beatrice keeps him busy by jumping on him, so when we bring him in for the night (to sleep), he sleeps in until 10ish. When we try to wake him up any earlier, he will actually not listen to you. You'll pull him up by the collar and he will plop back down. :)

Beatrice waiting for a car

Beatrice has found a new hobby for herself. She loves chasing cars. She will sit by the road and wait hours upon hours for cars to drive by. She has had some pretty close calls, though. Earlier this week, she was lying in the middle of the road (yes, she also waits in the middle of the road, too) and a car drove right over her and after it passed, she chased it. She surely lives for adventure. :)

Beatrice hiding and waiting for her next victim

Moby and Beatrice also enjoy barking at and "rounding" the cows when they come close to the Barn for water (they live out in the home pasture--someone rents it). It is really funny to watch Moby bark at them, because he jumps up and down and gets really excited. The cows run around but I am afraid that the dogs will get stepped on. :)

Sunrise at the Farm (to the left is a building that you can store grain in, and to the right is the silo)

Yesterday, Dad chopped up half of the bushes in the front of the house with a chainsaw and we loaded them on the tractor to take to the burn pile.

We pulled the bushes and tree to the left of the house and the left of the stairs. We hope to pull the bushes to the right soon.

Before we pulled the bushes out (click on the picture to be able to read my note)

The soy beans have been harvested and winter wheat has been sowed.

This is the chicken coop. There are no chickens in there, obviously. It is full of junk-ish type stuff. If it was cleaned out, it would be awesome for chickens. I've been working through the stuff, but it won't be clean before we leave. But, if I had chickens in there, it would be awesome. They would be in there sometimes, but mostly be out. :D

This is the Blacksmith Shop. It has a lot of cool stuff in it, including a hand-powered sharping wheel, old nails, old tools, and old bowls (which contain old nails).

This is the cellar. I've been reading about preserving food in a cellar and got really excited, because, for once, I actually have access to the things that I am reading about! :) It is pretty dirty in there, but I was determined to clean it up. But then, when I opened the door, I spotted a large snake skin. Lets just say I closed the door and ran away.

The Barn and the place where Grandpa stores hay. The pasture where the cows are at is directly behind the Barn.

A lane leading up to a church

I'll leave you with this: I hope to blog soon about the church that I mentioned above. I love(ed) that church.

THE Doctor, Computers and a Special Guest

2011-10-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

THE Doctor

A random clip art computer thanks to Mr. Google

Who is the special guest?

Ahh, the Doctor. The good ole' Doctor. Doctor who? (for those of you who've seen the season 5 finale). I've been feeling inclined to going back and watching some old episodes for the sake of Ecclestion, Tennant, Rose, (NOT Martha, sorry), Mickey, Jackie Tyler, and Donna. The problem is actually two problems: we don't have Netflix anymore, and we don't have internet anymore. BUT, my lovely mother thought up a solution: she has a friend who has a tv. Not just any tv, mind you. A large tv with Netflix connected to it. :D So, Mom devised a plan to ask her friend if we could do a Doctor Who-a-thon while her kids are at school. Happy!

And other happy newsies: my laptop that I broke the screen to it about a week after I got it, is finally getting a new screen (I've had it connected to a desktop for two years)! I am very, very excited. And to fix Jake's bad battery problem (his computer battery can't hold a charge), we bought a new battery. And to fix Jake and me having to share a computer cord, we bought a computer cord! Very happy me.

Let's do a happy-happy-sad-happy sandwich. That means that it is time for the sad part: my famola's co-op has a teen Bible study, and I went to the last one I'll ever attend without realizing it. And I didn't take pictures. :'( We'll be in Oklahoma next Saturday, then the next Saturday at the Farm, then the next Saturday we'll (hopefully) fly out to Africa. And all this makes me very sad. :(

So, here comes the happy bread-stuff to complete the "sandwich":

Millard the MK will be at my family's house tomorrow!

That purple sentence speaks for itself.

I Don't Like McDonalds

2011-09-16T18:40:00.001-05:00

But McDonalds will have to do.

It is my personal opinion that eating at MDs kills, but MDs has free wi-fi so I'm trying not to be overcome with sympathy for those Americans who don't realize that they are killing themselves with what they eat...and I am trying not to listen to those teenage boys being obnoxious in the next booth over.

I'm wearing a long sleeve, long jeans, socks and a warm vest right now. And I am very happy to wake up in the morning with freezing cold toes, arms and a cold nose. :) (Not to mention that Vern likes to...ahem...play a game called "take-the-blankets-away-from-Manny"). It is a slightly bad thing to go downstairs (with my cold toes) and realize that all of the extra living-room blankets are at the Farm. But nontheless, I love cold.

We left Beatrice at the Farm over the weekend (we brought Moby with us because he is a very social guy and suffers emotionally and physically when not around people). I wake up during the night with a worriesome heart about Beatrice being killed or something...but thank God that I can pray. :) I could worry all day long about everything if I couldn't just give it over to God.

I'm reading a book called, "The Book that Made Your World" by Vishal Mangalwadi and read this saddening bit:
"In 1994, India's Roman Catholic bishops invited one of our (India's) most influential public intellectuals, Dr. Arun Shourie, to tell them how a Hindu looks at Christian missions...Shourie condemned missions as a conspiracy of British imperialism. When Britian colonized India militarily and politically, Shourie argued, missionaries were brought in to colonize the Indian mind. Mission's he said, were the worst form of colonialism, since they harvested our souls; they subverted (to overthrow or overturn from the foundation,to pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith) our culture."
I am in grief over this bit. To think that Indians believe that missions wanst to destory their culture makes me so sad. I for one, think that Christianity won't survive in another country when you take the country's culture out of the believers' lives. I pray that missions will keep the culture in people's lives when bringing the gospel to them.

I have to leave to go to a friend's 18th birthday party tonight..this should be super fun. :)

Farm Life

2011-09-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

We cancelled the internet at the house (in the city). And right now we are living at the Farm, which doesn't have internet. I never thought that I would have a day or two set apart for "going into town". :D So, this all means that I don't have much time on the internet, thus I'm not going to be a very good blogger. To entertain you, some random farm tidbits:
-Beatrice and Moby have tasted the taste of farm-dog life: eating rabbits, chasing after cows (Beatrice got in a lot of trouble for that one), chasing the neighbor's horse (Beatrice also got in a lot of trouble for that one, too), ect. :)
-We have wild sunflowers growing on the side of the road that we live on, which means fresh flowers to put in the house!
-We continue to harvest millions of cucumbers (slight exaggeration), and have harvested 3 watermelon (2 good ones) and have one on the way.
-I learned to drive a four-wheeler today. Mom is learning to be brave.
-I've (accompanied with Jake and Vrenith) slept in a tent for two nights (we've been at the Farm for three- the first night I slept in the back of the car). Tonight there is supposed to be a cold front, which means that I will be sleeping in the tent again! The house is okay to sleep in, though it has a weird smell (mold), and we could never camp in the city and we are taking advantage of the country.
-I wash my face and brush my teeth with the pump outside every morning. I love it!

Welp, it is time to let Vern on the computer (we are at Wendy's 30 minutes away from the Farm {which is the closest we could find internet} and it closes in 10 minutes!). We'll be back home on Wednesday night, and until Sunday but probably won't have much internet time there either. Don't expect me to blog. :)

Lots of Random Little Bits

2011-09-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say. Not much happens around her...well sort of. But I'll save that until the end of the post. :) "I blog now. Blogging is cool." (Points to whoever can guess what phrase (phrases) that is based off of!)

I've been listening to an awesome song lately- I Wanna Know You Like That by Anthem Lights. Air1.com had it up for free a few weeks ago. It is an amazing song. It helps me get through my math, which is a great feat.

Last night, Dad took Jake and me to Bible study (with our co-op's teens) in his Chevelle. And he wore his new, cool shades:

He really enjoys his shades. It wasn't even sunny when he drove us last night. It was storming. :)

The morning glory's are blooming, though a little late. They were awful perty this morning in the morning sun mixed with the 60 degree weather that we are having here in Kansas.

On the way to Bible study last night, we stopped at a stop light and I looked to my right and saw this view. The light held red long enough for me to get my camera out and take a picture.

I trans-planted my almost-fail begonias to a bigger pot and they are thriving now. I'm glad that they look more than a stick, because they are one of my mom's favorite flowers. She remembers her grandma always having begonias during the summer.

This is a side view of my big flower pot. It looks pretty perty right about now.

This is my herb garden right now. I've labled all of the herbs, so if you click on the picture you should be able to see what they are. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully transport all of this to the Farm where we are sort-of living right now.

I watched this awesome video today:

Seriously, you need to watch this video. It is well worth the seven minutes. There are several more like this on http://ellerslie.com/Bravehearted_Thots.html All of them need to be watched by everyone. :)

Now the end of the post...and the news that I have:

My family and I are moving to Africa. West Africa to be semi-specific. Liberia, West Africa to be very specific. Please pray!

Doctor Who and Pickles

2011-09-03T14:30:00.004-05:00

This is me right now (and I won't move to the center of the post...oh well)

I'm (not so patiently) waiting for Doctor Who: Night Terrors (Season 6, Episode 9) to become available to watch. Right about now, it has just finished airing in the U.K. This website will soon put up the episode to watch. Almost any minute, actually.

To keep me occupied in the last hour, I've made pickles:

Dill pickle spears. They'll sit out on the counter for 3-7 days before they are ready. I'm using a process called "lacto-fermentation".

and I took pictures of my most recent food creations:

Sweet pickle slices made with honey- these were lacto-fermented and just finished up two days ago.

Mayo that I made last night when I realized that I had just used up the last of my other batch- it is made with egg yolk and olive oil, thus the yellowy color.

Sweet Onion Poppyseed Dressing. It is made with apple cider vinegar and olive oil as well as honey. I was afraid that the olive oil and/or the vinegar would be too overbearing when I first made it, but neither of them are.

Now that I've killed some time writing this post, I think that I'll go check to see if the episode is up now. :)

2011-08-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

My Kind of Season

2011-08-05T14:15:00.000-05:00

Is a season that looks like this:

and includes this too:

Pumpkin Shake (thank you, marthastewart.com for this lovely photo)

and this:

Sweet potato casserole (lets imagine that it is healthy- made with honey/agave/stevia instead of brown sugar)

and this:

turtleneck (thank you, shopsmart.com for this photo)

and it also includes crisp, cool autumn mornings, cuddling under a blanket, wearing knee-high socks, actually being able to wear jeans without breaking out in a sweat, the colors of fall- brown, red, gold, yellow, orange-, feeling warm and cozy, cold red cheeks, lightweight gloves, and:

mums-

orange mums

purple mums (thank you, scotts.com for this photo)

red mums

yellow mums

Note- all of the photos are not mine, with the exception of the first photo. All of the photos came from a google.com image search.

I Decided to Update My Blog- Consider Yourself Lucky

2011-08-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

Random news:

I lost my camera charger. My camera has been dead for about a month. :P I can't find it here at the house (though there is a good chance that its here...but there are boxes everywhere!!), and I might've left it at my grandparent's house (and it might've fallen out of my camera case while I was using the camera..._).
I've been watching Doctor Who with Jake and Vern- I can safely say that (~~I am addicted )~~ I really like the show. I miss Christopher Eccleston (even though I really like David Tennant). It stinks that Eccleston only stayed for one season. (And- the last bit of ramblement about Doctor Who) Jake and I found a wooden telephone box that looks (sort of ) like the TARDIS! Though, it isn't bigger on the inside. :D
My computer had a virus thingy, but when my uncle took it home to try to purge it, there was no trace of a virus. Weird.
My licorice basil plant is now huge- it looks like a (really) mini tree- but with purplish-green leaves and with purple/white blooms. :) I'd post a picture, but my camera is as dead as a doorknob.
My family and I have been enduring the age of the ants. They are everywhere, especially by the laundry room. Mom was shampooing in the living room, so the couch is in the dining room (which is close to the laundry room). We've been sitting on the couch to watch Doctor Who, and we have to stop every once in a while to wipe an ant colony off of the couch and off of ourselves. :P Turns out that my hand sanitizer (that I made- alcohol, water, and essential oils) is deadly them. But, after I kill "all the ants" more come from the endless supply (where ever they may be stationed at).
Beatrice has now learned to kiss (lick) on demand. It's quite entertaining. :)
I found a cool retro bag/suitcase thing at a thrift store. It's awesome.
I really like Fruity Pebbles. Which is a bad thing. I also really (really, really) like whole, real, healthy foods. And Fruity Pebbles isn't in that whole, real, healthy foods category. Stink.
And, the last random pellet of news- I stink at writing blog posts. I try to make them look longer with pictures, but now my cover is blown.

Just Because I Blog A Lot

2011-07-14T23:09:00.001-05:00

Bea found out how to open the door and escape. She actually got out once, so now we keep it locked. :)

This is close to my favorite restaurant, an Indian place. They have gluten-free stuff, including (flat) bread. :) This is why I love the restaurant (other than the reason that it is Indian food):

WE SERVE VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE, DAIRY FREE OPTIONS
	If its all about healthy food We need no further introduction
WE COOK FROM SCRATCH

We believe that Authentic food is the way food is cooked in India (No Preservatives, No Processed Food, No Microwaving)

We use fresh vegetables and Meat

We Cook from Scratch

For us Spice and Heat are two different things(we make our own spices and do not take premixed top of the shelf spices)

We use not artificial colors or dyes and are against the use of those in anything on our menu

We do not use MSG or BHA/BHT

We do not use Hydrogenated oils in cooking

My crazy bedspread that my aunt gave me (made by an unknown person a long time ago). And, no, my bed is not made in this picture. :P

Little Bunny

this

VERSUS

this:

Big Bunny

Booksneeze Review: The Final Hour, by Andrew Klavan

2011-06-29T10:56:00.001-05:00

"Most people have to die to get to hell. I took a shortcut." Thus starts Andrew Klavan's The Final Hour, the last book in the Homelanders series. Man, oh man, this book was a great finish to the series. There really isn't anything to say...if you've ever read the previous books, this book is written in the same style, and has all of those plot twists that you've encountered in the previous three books. :) FIVE whole stars to this book.

As to how I got this book, I recieved an email from Booksneeze.com a while back. (Though, the offer is not valid to anyone who did not get the email.) Read below:

The BookSneeze Team is providing copies of the final installment of the Homelanders series, The Final Hour, to reviewers who have already read the previous books in the series. If you can answer the following question, we will add The Final Hour to your BookSneeze account—and it won’t affect your ability to request more books.

What was the name of the man Charlie was searching for at the beginning of Truth of the Matter?

Classic Moves

2011-06-05T10:06:00.002-05:00

Demon Beatrice

GO FOR THE NECK:

LICK THEM:

LAY ON YOUR BACK:

ATTACK FROM THE TOP:

RUN AWAY:

Roses Galore (What To Do With Them?)

2011-06-02T22:18:00.001-05:00

I kind of lied. Okay, I did lie. But unintentionally. I decided not to dry all of the leftover roses. I decided to use them all to make whatever I can while they are still fresh.

As you have already seen, rose honey:

Rose honey

And, all the things that I made today: (The titles all link back to the source where I found the recipes.)

Rose olive oil:

Rose petals in a jar

Rose olive oil (Sorry about the photo being blurry....it looks great on my computer stuff, but not on blogger.)

Rose vinegar: (recipe note: the recipe calls for cloves, but I used cardamom instead. I'm not very fond of cloves) and herbal vinegar (I used fresh rose petals, rosemary, basil and sage):

Rose vinegar: just the rose petals and cardamom pods

The finished projects: herbal vinegar on the left, rose vinegar on the right.

And, I making rose "dusting" powder, but I don't have pictures of that.

Welp, I am officially rosed out for the night...but tomorrow I start another search for more recipes, as the rose petals are drifting to the dry side fast.

Prepare For The Onslaught

2011-06-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

My camera arrived today. I was sitting in the front yard eating Veggie Straws (which are very tasty, by the way). When the UPS man stopped in front of my house, I couldn't breathe. Then, it got worse...he grabbed a package and went next door. *Gasp!* I wasn't breathing by then. Alas, he went back to his truck, grabbed a package and headed towards me. I opened my package right there in the front yard. Yes, there was a time I wanted to send it back because I was so dumb...I couldn't figure out how to attach the strap, therefore, I couldn't use it. Then, I couldn't find my point and shoot camera to take the memory card from. Then, I couldn't (and still can't) find the case I purchased for it over 3 months ago. But, my smart, oh so smart, father came home in the nick of time to attach the strap...and I found my camera (but my case is still missing). So, here comes the onslaught of photos:

Dried Carnations

Spot, the family chew toy

Moby

An Indian (not Native American) outfit I found at Goodwill.

Flowers make me happy

Peppermint

Bea was trying to take a nap. Note, trying. (Notice that her feet are spread out behind her.)

More flowers!

The windowsill in the dining room. It used to be covered in thyme, lemon balm, peppermint, lavender, and rosemary plants. :)

Rose bush. This was before I snapped off all of the roses. (Note: This picture became blurry when I added it to my post. Sorry! It looks great everywhere else...but here.)

I decided a while ago that I wanted to make rose water out of all of the roses on the bush above. But I had to wait until they were almost dead, and I had to wait until I could take a picture with my new camera. Today, all of those blocks have been kicked down. The roses had been enjoyed to their full extent, and I had taken a picture of the bush when it was full. So, I started cutting off rose after rose, until I had cut off about half of them. Then, I proceeded to rip the petals off of the stem and cut away the white part at the bottom of the petals (which are bitter, which would make your rose water bitter). I filled up a bowl (with the petals) then measured to see how much I had. Turns out, I over estimated way too much. I used up half of what I cut off! Below is a picture of the rose water I made:

If you want to read the process of making rose water:

(the process is copied from Tipnut.com- http://tipnut.com/how-to-make-rose-water-4-recipes/)

Fresh rose petals (3 to 4 quarts)
Ice cubes
Distilled Water
Enamel canning or stock pot with lid
Deep, heavy heat proof bowl

Directions:

Fill the bottom of the pot with the rose petals and pour water over them until the petals are just covered. Place the bowl in the middle of the pot. The rim should be at least a couple inches higher than the water. If you have a canning rack, you can set the bowl on top of that so the bowl doesn’t sit directly over the heat. A pyrex loaf dish underneath the bowl would do the trick too. Set these in place first before adding the rose petals and water.
Cover the pot with its lid, but position the lid upside down so that you have a dipped “container” to hold the ice on top (to be added later). Now turn on the heat and bring the water to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, fill the top of the inverted pot lid with ice cubes. Turn the heat down and keep at a bare simmer for about two hours.
Top up the ice as needed and quickly peek occasionally to see that the petals don’t boil dry.

This process will enable condensation to form on the top inside of the pot lid. The condensation will drip down into the bowl inside the pot, the liquid inside the bowl is your rose water.

Afterwards, the liquid left in the pot was red/pink. The rose petals were white. :) I kept the liquid so I could color things with it (baked goods). I have a whole jar full of it!

What to do with lots of left over rose petals....I am making rose honey (it has to sit for 2 weeks to steep). And I am drying the rest.

Rose honey

Welp, thats all for today, kids. And remember, God made you special and He loves you very much. (Comment if you can tell me where that statement comes from!)

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-05-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

AHHHHHHHHHH!

Mark this day. I just bought a camera. THE camera. That I have wanted for a long while. That I've been saving for for a long while.

It was almost painful spending all of the money I've been earning for over a year. Eh, but no. :) I'm too excited to be in pain.

This guy (in the video) totally pounds the piano, awesomely, of course. Though Jake disagrees, I like this piano-only version of "The Battle" from Narnia better than the soundtrack version. But, I am biased towards pianos. Very muchly biased.

Random Update- And A Book Review

2011-05-20T23:42:00.001-05:00

(Ah, it turns out that I'm not that bad of a blogger (just a bad blogger). I realized that I had blogged on the 11th. Yippee!)

WARNING: The below picture might dig up memories of a coffin Janner stayed in for a total of 5 days (2 days, then 3 days) in North! Or Be EATEN. Beware: Memories of the ~~Fork! Factory!~~ are dangerous.

Hmmm, this picture won't flip to to the right place. Sorry!

The inside: (No, there is not a person on the inside):

Book review for "Plain Wisdom" by Cindy Woodsmall and Miriam Flaud- given to me by Blogging for Books:

This book is a look into "Old Order Amish" life. It consists of mostly stories, from which they draw out a Biblical principle. Mostly all of their principles are solid Christian principles (ones that are the foundation of Christianity are set on). (Most of)The principles are not the authors's own opinion.

There are several recipes in the book, but I was expecting more, like some special only-Amish recipes. Most of them are things that people who aren't Amish encounter every day.

Overall, this book is good for the stories. It is fast read, and a read for when you want to turn your brain off. The age for readers would probably be older women, as the stories seem more targeted towards women and mothers (and aren't particularly interesting to any others that aren't moms or women). 3 stars.

I just had an awesome afternoon/evening with tons of friends. Lots of laughing included. And good food. And a muddy puppy. :)
I'm reading North! Or Be Eaten right now. Totally an awesome book. I especially love Oskar's random quotes. Hey! Cool thing, go to www.wingfeathersaga.com. It is Andrew Peterson's blog for the Wingfeather Saga. On the side bar, there is a gadget for Oskar's Quotes. :) Though, I couldn't find my favorite- In the words of Vilmette Oppenholm in her essay on the decline of free cupcakes, "How awful!" And, another that I really like- "In the words of Bimm Stack, "I’ve an idea! Attend closely to me and you might find your shoes." Aw, shucks, I just really like them all! :)
Have you ever heard of Operation World? It is super awesome.
I have a piano recital on Sunday afternoon. Excuse me while I barf. I am playing "In Dreams" from Lord of the Rings (I'll post a video sometime of me playing it...), an Italian song, and a Celtic song. Blegh. I do not like getting on a stage in front of a whole crowd of people................The whole "imagine them in their underwear" thing doesn't work for me.
Apparently, some guy thinks that the world is ending tomorrow (the 21st) at around 6pm....not sure how this exactly works, since there are time zones. AND: "And the Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." -Matthew 24:14 Do you think all nations are reached yet? I'm not so sure......
OOooh, hand henna from India (no, I did not go there....I bought it at an Indian store):

Interesting fact, Mumtaz (the name of the hand henna) is "excellent" in Arabic. And this is from India...where the majority speaks Hindi, which is not exactly Arabic....If you ask me at least. :)

I hope y'all have a good Saturday. For those who have to labor through Saturday chores, I feel for you. I have to labor on Saturday's too.

Life

2011-05-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday (night, at about 1:30am), my life was over. And I am so glad. All of my (and the family's) activities are OVER ('cept for piano and guitar, but those aren't exactly work. I immensely enjoy those two activities.). It is time for some rest.

This morning, I woke up and was thinking about what I had to do today (like read North! Or Be Eaten). I all of a sudden drew in a quick breath, thinking that I had to do my co-op homework (that I had "forgotten to do until today"), that is "due tomorrow". The trick is on me. Co-op ended last week.

I've been loving this song. I decided that as of right now, it is my favorite song (which is an incredible feat for me. I can never choose my favorites to anything!).

I got my ears double pierced about two weeks ago. I'd post a picture of them (I know, weird of me to think of that), but my camera doesn't connect to any computer now'a'days, which is bad because the only way to get pictures off of it is through a cord (my computer doesn't have a memory card slot and I can't afford one of those fancy memory card things you stick in the USB.). I have about 1,000 pictures/videos to download. Bad idea to let your brother use your camera, the brother who likes to drop cameras.

Chai tea. Indian chai tea! 'Nuff said.

Beatrice. She has grown a lot. When playing with Moby (the whole biting, growling, pushing each other over game), she used to go under him. Now she can't fit. :) Oh, and she loves to bite. Awesome. She is sort of potty trained (but does go in the house when we don't remember to take her out), but in the mornings, she usually goes to the bathroom when we come down because she is so excited. She held it all night, and didn't go in her kennel, only to go when she gets really excited. Not so awesome.

I hope y'all are having a good week. I an going to finish my week with some rest and relaxation. :)

I Am A Great Blogger.

2011-05-07T19:39:00.002-05:00

Not really. Sorry, followers. I will post soon, I promise!

Booksneeze Review: Knitting Knee Highs

2011-04-28T16:56:00.000-05:00

"Knitting Knee Highs" by Barb Brown. Given to me for free from Booksneeze.com.

About the book-
This book, Knitting Knee Highs by Barb Brown, is (as you can tell from the title) about knitting knee high socks. This book consists of 20 knee high sock patterns.

My thoughts-
I was really excited about this book. I've learned the basics of knitting, but I'm no pro. I was looking for a book that was an intro sort of thing to knitting socks. But when I received the book, I found out that the author assumed that her audience would be advanced knitters (unlike I am). So, the patterns were too hard for me. The patterns in this book would be perfect for the experienced knitter, but not for a knitter who only knows the basics.
This book has style. The socks are creative and beautiful. The problem is, that in trying to be stylish, the models (who model the socks) lost a sense of modesty. All of the sock styles are modeled by someone; these models could be wearing a short, sleeveless dress, to a tight dress, to short shorts. This is my main con for this book; there is no modesty. Almost every page has a model on it, so you can't get away from the problem.
This book is great quality (physically). The cover has a nice thickness, neither paper thin, nor cardboard thick. And it is glossy too. The pages are a nice thickness, with a slight gloss. The binding is tight, and won't be coming apart easily. The only thing to worry about is scratches in the gloss.

Overall-
PROS:

A variety of patterns. From lacy-type patterns to warm thick patterns. From "old-fashioned" styled socks to more modern styles.
Nice sized book. Quality pages, quality binding, quality cover.
Pictures of the finished socks (con: immodest models).
(This can either be a pro or a con) Moderately hard patterns for the experienced knitter.
The sock patterns are for knee-highs.

CONS:

(Could be a pro or a con)- Hard patterns. Not good for the basic knitter.
No sense of modesty. The immodesty goes far enough that I am not keeping the book.

Rating-

Two stars.

Cruella de Vil

2011-04-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

She is vile. She is evil.

She is CRUELLA DE VIL.

I was "inspired" by the "Dreams?" thread on the Underground to write about this frightening lady (if you could even call her that), Cruella de Vil.

I once had a dream about her. A reoccurring dream. Over and over and over again.

"If you die in your dream, you are really dead (in real life)", I've been told.

Cruella de Vil has poisoned me before (in my dream, of course) and killed me. In front of her restaurant, the one that I faithfully, day after day, labored in. The green smoke in the restaurant irritated me, the customers and my co-workers were rude and mean. Worst of all, my boss was Cruella de Vil. One day, I came out of the restaurant and there she stood, with an apple in her hand (Snow White flashbacks). She cornered me and made me take a bite. Then, I fell on the sidewalk, and never woke again, until I woke up from the dream, that is.

This lady is cruel. She is fictional, but all to real to me. I still cannot watch One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It gives me the creeps. I go back into my dream when I watch it. Horrible Cruella.

Ryebrynn pointed out to me that Cruella means cruel, and if you smoosh together de and vil, you get devil. No coincidence, I think.

Sorry if I am depressing you, or if you really like this character, Cruella de Vil. But, I forever stand in this position. And you shall forever hold your peace, if you don't speak up now.

WHO WILL STAND UP FOR CRUELLA DE VIL?

Training Ahead

2011-04-25T20:35:00.000-05:00

Potty training. We had an accident today. Whoops.

Not biting training.

Not being in the dining room while we are eating training.

Not jumping on people or things training.

Et cetera.

Beatrice

2011-04-25T18:37:00.000-05:00

Over Easter weekend, my family gained a puppy. :) More pictures coming soon!

Moby is really jealous.

Blog Award (Catching Up)

2011-04-20T19:06:00.001-05:00

Thank you, Goldarrow (at Arrowhead Reviews) for giving me the Stylish Blogger Award!! Hey, I think this is the first award I've ever been awarded. Double thanks, Goldarrow!!

Sooo, according to the rules:

To accept this award, I must do four things:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Award 15 great bloggers :D

4. Contact the bloggers and tell them of the award.

Seven things, eh?

My favorite color is purple.
My favorite (non-fiction) books are by the Ludys.
I have a disease. Gasp!!
I have an imaginary friend named BOB.
I love food.
I would rather get a handwritten letter over a long email.
My feet are claustrophobic.

15 people. Do I even have 15 people's contacts on my email?? Okay, okay, I have 22 contacts...but only 13 that I have emailed in the last 6 months. Ha! (Sorry if I repeat anyone who has been rewarded this award recently, and if you've already gotten this, you don't need to do it again!):

Jordyn at A Separate World
Ness at Nessa's Blog
Jaavere at Savannah's World
Millard at Shining Light
Hannah at A Day In The Life Of Me!
The Director at Castles, Quills and Cameras
Jakey at Pen In My Hand
Silver Angel at Silver Angel's Musings
Storyteller at Storyteller: A Writer's Journey

Okay, I'm outta people. So, if anyone else wants to jump in and fill in the 6 other slots, please do!

Review: Radical by David Platt (Catching Up)

2011-04-20T18:04:00.001-05:00

Sorry, blog followers. I'm clogging up your dashboard. I've got lots of posting to catch up on. :)

This book has been reccomended to me countless times. So, when I joined Blogging for Books and saw that I could get it for free, I did.

This book is on the topic of Christian missions. It is very, very Biblically sound (taking the model for missions straight out of the Bible) and full of stories. It tells of the cost that giving up your life for Christ and for the lost takes, it tells of the rewards that it gives. The books is very balanced, looking at both sides of the view. I think that *everyone*, from Middle school (maybe even younger) on up through 99, should read this book. It opens your eyes to see the need of the world, and the needs of yourself.

This book gives all the glory to Jesus.

It Comes From My Mom's Side

2011-04-20T16:27:00.000-05:00

I'm indecisive.

I can't decide: My blog title.

I need something general.

Something like: Manny's Memento.

Hey, I like that.

Do you like that?

Yeah, so indecisiveness comes from my mom's side.

But (for) now, I've decided.

I'm changing the title and the "design" of my blog.

Construction is now UNDERWAY.

Chilly Willy, the Best Penguin Ever!

2011-03-07T11:58:00.000-06:00

Chilly Willy. Eating a (dande)lion!

Over yonder, on Eldra's blog, A Day On Daremo, she is giving away (not the penguin), but some of her sister's (Leauphaun's) drawings, which are extremely awesomely awesome. To enter to win:

(Directly copied from Eldra's blog:)

-Become a follower of this blog, or any of Leauphaun's: Drawings, Paintings or Photography. If you already follow one of these blogs, you must follow another in order to be entered, unless, of course, you already follow all four. - Worth 1 entry.

-Post about this giveaway on your blog, then send me the link to the post. Take the picture below and put it in the post. - Worth 2 entries.
-Leave Leauphaun a nice, long comment on any of her three blogs, (Drawings, Paintings or Photography) explaining what you like, what you don't like, or what you'd like to see her do. A "that looks amazing" doesn't count (although they are nice to hear). Make sure the comment is meaningful. - Worth 2 entries.

-Put up to all four of our blog buttons on your sidebar. Make sure that they link back to their appropriate blogs. All the buttons are available on my sidebar. - Each worth 1 entry.

Winners will recieve:

(Directly copied from Eldra's blog):

The first place winner will receive three drawings of their choice, sketched out by Leauphaun herself.

Second place receives two drawings of their choice.

Third -- you guessed it -- receives one drawing of their choice.

Winners will be emailed a copy of their drawings, as it's awkward to send artwork through snail mail. Don't leave your email or your drawing requests yet; only the three winners will need to do so.

The contest ends March 25, midnight, PST.

You might want to head over there and enter...there is some competition. *Bwauuhh!*

This Is War {And More}

2011-02-24T11:32:00.001-06:00

Watch this video. Watch it again. Watch it again.

For more "Bravehearted Thots", click here. {Edit: If you want more of this bravehearted stuff, read Eric Ludy's book, "The Bravehearted Gospel"}

I have also just watched this video (below).

I have recently found an awesome resource: sermonindex.com. Sermonindex.com has over 18,000 sermons from people like A.W Tozer, Jackie Pullinger, Paul Washer, Corrie Ten Boom. Ian Thomas, and tons more. Some are audio, some text, some video. It is well worth checking out. (Wow, this sounds like an ad!)

Go and do something, since you and I were not called to play video games, we were not called to sit in front of a T.V. We were called to advance a Kingdom.

Book Review: Sabbath, by Dan B. Allender

2011-02-13T14:31:00.000-06:00

Sabbath, by Dan B. Allender

What I was expecting:
When I received this book from Booksneeze, I was expecting a Biblically sound book, one that drew most of it's information from the Bible.

What I found:
The introduction didn't jump up to my expectations. As stated in it, this book "invites you to consider the sabbath from its ancient roots to its current practice". So, I found that this book is mostly based off of the identity of the sabbath through the culture of which it is being practiced in (in this case, American culture). I kept reading, even though I had a little red flag pop up in my mind. But, I assumed that the book would be an O.K book if based off of this, but still in light of the Bible. I thought that maybe it would get better as I read deeper into the book. Then, in chapter one (page 26), I found a direct opposition to the Biblical sabbath. Allender states: "Humanity is not made for the sabbath; sabbath was made for all God's creation: male, female; slave, free; Jew, Gentile; believer, unbeliever; beast of burden, and the ground itself." Remembering a word search that I had done (in the Bible) before reading the book, Mark 2:27 popped up into my mind.
"Then he {Jesus}said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

I kept reading, until the end of chapter two, and then stopped. There where too many contradictions to the Bible. There were many adult references that I didn't want to read. It was too much focused on self (not God). I did not read the whole book. I only read the introduction, the first chapter, then the second chapter.

Conclusion:
In all, if you want to see the sabbath of the American culture (focused on self), read this book. If you are looking for a Biblically based book, do not read this book.

My rating: . Two stars.

Gotta Run, But.....

2011-02-10T18:48:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos that I took in the last month, to give you a glimmer of hope that someday, somehow, I will post a real blog post:

(Lemon poppyseed cake)

(I'm sorry if I'm making you hungry...I've been taking lots of food pictures lately!)

Hope

2011-02-09T00:25:00.002-06:00

I am alive. Lift up your chin, I will post soon. -Manny

Smelly-ness

2011-01-06T12:41:00.000-06:00

Very muchly smelly:

So very awesome, terrific, yummiful smelling. Not really. This, my friends, is my new experiment, my developing sourdough (bread) starter (yeast).

Before my starter came along, this (above) was my experiment. Sprouting wheat, drying it, and eating it (grain is more nutritional when sprouted).

The sprouted wheat (after about 3-4 days).

It dawned upon me that I have a habit of putting "ness" as a suffix to many words (and the suffix "ly", too!). :)

I Am Just Weird Like That....

2010-12-28T12:45:00.000-06:00

I make my own shampoo and conditioner. I make my own deodorant. I don't wear make-up (but if I did, I could get my foundation off of the tree in my backyard!). I brush my teeth with baking soda. I make my own dishwashing soap (so when it is my time to wash dishes, I don't have to use the commercial brand). I make my own hand soap (you wouldn't believe the weird concoctions I make up on a daily basis. Just ask Jake or Vrenith.)

So, in other words, to make it more simple for you to understand, I make all of my own cosmetic stuff (if shampoo and such is in the cosmetic industry) except laundry soap (if that counts at all!). :)

In my free time, I like to read up on real, whole, raw food (local, organic, raw). And herbs. And how to use herbs for medicinal things.

I hate taking medicine. Yuck! I use herbs and real food to heal any sickness that I catch (right now I am taking garlic for a cold. It's working great!).

Right now, I am trying to find a local source of meat, dairy and eggs in my area. I am also researching "soaking" grains, beans and nuts. And sourdough bread vs. yeast bread.

Yep, I am just weird like that. :) Any questions?

Christmas Fun (And a Very Important Conclusion)

2010-12-26T16:58:00.000-06:00

Settlers! (Settlers of Catan, the best game *ever*).

Cheesecake!

I tried to hang up the stockings with tape, but it didn't work (see picture). And, there is the tree in the background! (I won't post a picture of the whole focused tree, because there are pictures of my brother and sister (and me.) on there. :D

It's the three wise men stuffed with little plastic balls. ;)

Pine cones and very yummy smelling candles.

Christmas music!

Bread.....with a very interesting array of wrappings: two gallon zip locks, a towel, and foil. :) I couldn't find anything else!

AND now, duhduhduhduh, my very important conclusion. I've come to the conclusion that I would much rather make my "randomness" blog very much more randomness by merging it with my other blog (in other words, I'm deleting my other blog and making this blog my "everything blog"). It's much easier to keep up just one blog, and it just occurred to me that *everything, everywhere* on my blogs are random. :D So, when you try to click over to my other (non-existent) blog, it won't show up. And, it's a lot easier for you, too, readers, because now, you only have to check on blog! This blog won't change at all, except that I might be posting almost every day now. ;) Be excited! *wink, wink*

Much Christmas-ish Randomness

2010-12-22T19:33:00.002-06:00

-Told from my mom's point of view- "We {my parents}raised you so you wouldn't believe in Santa Clause, but at Christmas time, you would go to church and tell all the other kids that they were dumb for believing in Santa Clause. After church, the parents would come up to me and tell to please tell my daughter not to talk about Santa Clause (the fact he is a myth) in sunday school."

-Checkout lady at the grocery store- "You sure must love this hot cocoa." *Me*- "It's for Christmas. My mom sent me back in to get more". Checkout Lady- "Oh, I was saying that you must love it since you're buying then in individual packets." I ended up buying fifteen individual packets of hot cocoa.

-Millard reminded me about herbs and fish when he commented on post, "Of Herbs and Fishes":

"I've used tee tree oil on other stuff too! It's actually good for lots of things, lungs, acne, smelling odd. Yup!" -Millard

About fish: Aneth sadly died, face down in his bowl. Ryebrynn buried him in a macaroni and cheese box in the backyard.
About herbs- What Millard said about TTO is very much true. (How did you get such knowledge, Millard? And, yes, TTO smells *very* odd. And tastes odd, too.). As my family knows, I love herbs and medicine. When you mix the two together, it's almost too good to be true. And so, I *have* mixed the two (which is called "herbalism." Just as a side note, I *do not* believe in "plant spirits", "witch craft" and the such). I blog more about herbs at my other blog "Almost Everything".

I saw a new tax service store today called "Manny's Tax Service" (except the tax serviced used my real name). It was depressing. I'm not much into taxes.

Hershey kisses- white chocolate candy cane. No need to say more.

Thanks, readers, for actually reading my crazy blog, and for sticking with me even thought I'm a horrible blogger. :) Merry Christmas!

The Worst Christmas Song Ever (Says Yahoo)

2010-12-20T17:33:00.000-06:00

Dominick the Donkey- an italian Christmas song.

I had never heard of this song before I found a Yahoo page about the worst Christmas songs ever. The people who dislike it so much did a good job of "erasing" if from all Christmas music stations and so on. :)

This video shows quite a selection of interesting donkey pictures. A very interesting selection. Who put together this video, anyway??

After I saw this for the first time, I went around the house unwittingly making the weird "hee-haw" noise. Then, I couldn't get to sleep, all because of Dominick the Donkey running (no pun intended) through my head. So, to end this post, watch the video at your own risk. It is quite a funny song, and I think the risk is worth it. But only watch it once. Once you have this song running through your head, giving you no mercy, remember, I gave you a warning. :D

Biting My Nails

2010-12-14T15:59:00.002-06:00

Swift Storm or Silver Tree???? Who will win the tribe contest? Yep, so here I am biting my nails, feeling sick, waiting until the final tribe report is sent in to Mr. Batson.

Vanadil Fever

2010-12-14T11:48:00.000-06:00

Fingers aching.

Sleeves rolled up.

Braids being pulled...

Papers strewn around.

Web sites a many.

Red, straining eyes.

Yep, it's the vanadil fever.

Random Socks (With Wickedly Awesome Stripes)

2010-12-10T21:55:00.000-06:00

A week ago. Not so busy.

Today. Busy day.

Yes, so very random.

Christmas!

2010-11-24T16:11:00.000-06:00

Oh, wait. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. It isn't even after Thanksgiving, which is when it becomes slightly O.K to start listening to Christmas music. I guess I broke that rule. :)

Happy Thanksgiving all-elves (and other folk, too)!

Of Herbs and Fishes

2010-11-23T19:28:00.000-06:00

From my personal blog (posted today):

"Last night, I soaked my head in tons of herbs, then rubbed in some oil mixture (peanut oil, canola oil, olive oil and honey) and then some homemade lotion. Twas' all for a "bad case of 3 and a half years of dandruff"."

Twas' a second introduction to all of my two followers, if it didn't scare them away. :D HA!

My sister (Ryebrynn, metioned yesterday) recieved a fish about two weeks ago...and now today, I have found out that it has contracted "fin rot" due to the stress of moving. Tis' hard on little sister.

But never fear! Manny is here! I searched it, and it turns out that something called "tea tree oil" is the cure to it...and I have it (bought it for my "extensive" {I wish it was extensive} herb collection)! So, I put a drop in his bowl, and either he will die, or...LIVE! I hope for the latter.

'Specially For Millard

2010-11-22T12:29:00.001-06:00

I heard from a little Jayhawk that Millard enjoys Carol of the Bells, especially at Christmas time. So, the below videos are my attempts at playing the song nicely between horrible and slightly good. :)

If you asked my piano teacher what horrible thing I do the most when I play the piano, she would answer, "She plays toooooo fast!!" Or, I hope she would, because that is my problemeo. :) Sorry for all the mess ups! (Note: and, if you asked my guitar teacher the same question about guitar, he would probably say the same thing) :)

And, just for fun, the below one:

Jake did some "special effects" with this video. Interestin', isn't it?

A conversation between an unknown (to all the elves, but sometimes referred to as, Ryebrynn) sister and me, on the topic of doctor wellness checks and shots:

Me: Nice status. Yes, we are FORCING you to go for your own good.
Sister: no you are not! any mama said i probably have to have a shot! shivers
Me: Awh, shots aren't that bad!
Sister: they are HUGE needles doctors meanly poke you with!
Me: Nope, the needles aren't that big. Small things, they are.
Sister: no they are HUGE!
Me: Nope, I saw one today.
Sister: THEY GAVE YOU A SHOT!? Shakes In Fear
Me: I didn't say that they gave me a shot. I could've seen the needles when someone else was getting a shot. :D
Sister: Faints

The End

Slightly Ridiculous?

2010-11-12T14:43:00.000-06:00

You may be wondering why I titled my post "Slightly Ridiculous?". This is because when I got on my gmail today, I had 3 inbox emails...all automatic emails (like blog updates and such). And, 25 spam. So, the reason for titling this post with such a weird name is because I thinks that it is slightly ridiculous that I didn't have any "real people emails". :) I guess that you could blame it on my lack of sending out "people emails", but once in a great while I'd like a personal email without me prodding anyone. Ha! Spammers are so social. {Whoo, when I did my spell check, the suggestion for "spammers" was slammers! Sounds about right. :D}

Today is a rainy, cold, chilly. clammy, cool, frigid...you get the picture. I like it. I could live in Canada (or Maine, or Minnesota) all year 'round! 'specially Maine (but, I've never been there in my life...so sad.). I do wish it would snow....snow is great...snow is awesome. Rain is a bit wet...snow is "cleaner" you could say. :) You know what, snow would be much cooler if it was purple!! That would be great! :)

Cheers! This is my longest post yet! Well...out of 3. :)

Garlic and Jelly, Oh!

2010-11-10T22:45:00.000-06:00

Garlic and jelly...interesting.

I am sorry to say, but my household has been struck with the sniffles! And sore throats, too. I've been giving everyone big doses of garlic and onion. Yep, homemade and all-natural. I am trying to avoid doctor appointments...For me, the garlic is actually working...tastes nasty mixed with water, then drank, but working. :)

Jelly...I made apple jelly today! With real sugar, too! {Which is great, because we usually make things with Splenda.} Delish. :D

I'm sorry to be short and sweet, but I've got to go and finish up some last minute school work! (Darn that schoolwork!) :)

Jellybeans!

2010-11-09T20:50:00.000-06:00

Hello, all few, and dear, readers! My first post shall be short and sweet. :D

The first subject...~~purple~~ jellybeans. Jellybeans...those little beanish sweets. YUM!

Soon, I'll post a review about Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire by WTB (Wayne Thomas Batson). Great books!

PIE!

Short and sweet, as I promised! I'll hopefully be able to blog tomorrow! :)

-Manny, the pie maker and baker.