Tagged

Emma from lovingbigsis.blogspot.com has tagged me... So basically what I have to do is write 10 things about me.

1. I read the whole Lord of the Rings series every autumn. (I started this last year.)
2. I read the whole Narnia series every time I get sick. (I've gotten sick once...jk)
3. My eyes are blue.
4. I work on a horse farm with my brother.
5. I have trouble pronouncing new words. (And old ones, like bagel, Taylor, or Stuart.)
6. I have a blog.
7. I dream of writing on a Scandinavian hillside.
8. I went to the UK this fall.
9. My favorite animal is a milk cow.
10. My sister's telling me what to write, but since that isn't about me, I'm writing what my sister is telling me to. :)

And I'll tag:

Chloe at Holy Magnolias!!
Jordan at Ramblings Of A Princess

I know there are more of you that I'd like to tag, but I forget your blog addresses! *whoops* don't worry, I have them stored somewhere... In which case, anyone who wants to be tagged, can be. :)

Journey To London: Third Stage

So we have reached the third stage of our journey: Airport. Destination: London. (:-O)  We have a nonstop flight. I got through security OK.... *sigh of relief* Except, the beeper thing kept going off whenever I went through it, and the security guard decided I had way too many bobby pins in my hair.... So he had to call for some "female assistance" to make sure I wasn't... um... carrying anything suspicious. They decided I was fine, and we were allowed to proceed. But that was the only eventful thing. The last time I went on a plane, I was three. And it wasn't a big deal to me then. And now we're about to fly, and I have butterflies in my stomach at the thought of even taking off. :) I am excited.

 Sisters. Fellow Pilgrims. (not). But.... Fellow Travelers. (yeah). :)

 For my Daddy. :)

The above picture was taken and posted because of a name my dad has - "Broo HopHop." And we thought it was funny, especially since dad's such a coffee person. :)

 Continue to pray!

What You Get When You Combine Rootbeer, Fear, and Exhaustion

I do apologize for not posting recently... This past Wednesday I traveled last minute down to West Virginia to visit my very good friend Olivia Howard. Some of you may remember a like visit last year in July/August. I was going to go on Thursday, but then we discovered that Mr. Clarke was in town, and going home that night! It would save plenty of gas for us. (The Clarkes only live 30 minutes from the Howards, and the distance from our house to the Clarkes is 3 hours... to the Howards, 3.5). So... having 15 minutes to pack, I did that.... and then...

(okay, short interruption for apology... I know I make long introductions! sorry!)

I went down to Southern Ohio with Mr. Clarke. We had a very interesting conversation that involved math/engineering, politics, government, prison, poor people, the abolition of the slave trade, history, and all sorts of stuff. :D It was very intelligent and fun.

So here I am at the Howards.

And now on to the actual post...

The Howards have a little apartment attached to their garage. It includes a kitchen/breakfast area, and then upstairs is the main room they use for schooling, or sewing, a library, bathroom, and a big bedroom. So during the time I'm here (till July 4) Olivia and I are staying in the apartment! The other day we bought rootbeer and ice-cream for - can you guess? Yup! rootbeer floats! So we had some one night... and then last night decided we needed more. There was enough ice-cream for us each to have one. We brought the stuff from the kitchen to the bedroom, and prepared and enjoyed them (thoroughly) there.

When I was little I watched a rather scary show on tv.... I don't need to go into specifics about it, but for years I had a dread of windows at night. I hated them... unless they had curtains or blinds. Even though I'm older now, whenever I pass by a dark window at night, it makes me nervous and giddy. What I saw when I was little terrified me to such an extent, that it never really went away.

Now, when we were done with the rootbeer floats, there was still a little more than a third of a 2 liter bottle of rootbeer left... It needed to go down to the fridge... but it was rather late, and Olivia and I both were exhausted from working in the garden all day... hauling 50 pound rocks from a creek up a hill to the car... plus a number of bricks... for landscaping... and a whole bunch of things.... In short, neither one of us felt up to getting up and taking the rootbeer downstairs to the fridge...

And also...

I was nervous about the windows....

"We'll just leave it and put it away in the morning," Olivia said.

"But Olivia... if we don't take it down, it will get flat, and lose it's fizz, and then tomorrow it won't be good!" I argued.

"Well... it's okay... just leave it..."

So I left it.

But after fifteen minutes, the bottle of rootbeer was bothering me. There wasn't any point in letting it get flat, was there? That would be a waste of good rootbeer!

What were we going to do?

...

I looked at the rootbeer. My martyrdom was drawing nigh. There was but one option, and one only (that we would consider) to save the rootbeer from flatting and that was....

to drink it myself.

I took a deep sigh as I submitted to my fate.

And then....

Drank all that was left of the rootbeer...

...experiencing the consequences all through the night.

Go Figure...

Adrenalized With La Rochelle

So, yesterday Rachel came to visit! (Oh, and I call her La Rochelle because... I do...) Actually, she came up because she participated in something called National History Day. She wrote a paper about Thomas Edison, and went all the way to the State Competition, won first place, and is going to Nationals in Washington DC in June! Hurrah! But anyways, there was this reception for the National History Day people in Cleveland, and... uh... she came for it and took advantage of the opportunity by staying with us! (Hurrah, again!) Right now she's hugging me saying, "I'm so happy I got to stay with you guys!" What can I say!

So anyways, whenever we two are around each other, ever single care that we've had is entirely abandoned, because of the immense encouragement we are to each other. But this goes really far... I mean, we get not just hyper, but adrenalized. I've posted some pictures of her visit so far. As most of you know, she's an amazing photographer, and so I posted some examples of her amazingness. :P



Talk about red lips... :P

Isn't she sooooo cute??

Um, no comment?

Rachel seems to have a talent for taking pictures of people when they're in the middle of doing something... Like, chewing an apple. :p

My little boy Boo! :)

Okay, so the only reason that I posted this blurry picture is because one of my eyes is blue, and the other is green. I just thought that was weird/cool!

Aw...

This picture is amazing... She's so sweet and "innocent" in it... I just wish it was like that all the time. *huge wink*

I don't know what it is about Tirzah... She's so photogenic and I can't help posting pics of her. :)

And the only reason I post pictures of me is because this is *my* blog. ;)

I *love* Rachel's face! It's so classic!

Is that really what I look like when I read my emails?? I need to smile more. :P

On the way to the Western Reserve Historical Society for National History Day reception. :)

Wow... Talk about beautiful.

Okay, so I love this picture of Rachel. She hates it. :P

aw...

She's so unbelievably adorable...

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...

LOL! Olivia's face is hilarious!

And WHY do I post embarrassing pictures of myself on my blog? I don't even know. My self-esteem level has dropped 40%.

Ramblings Of A Tired Girl

I'm sitting here trying to think of something to post about, and realizing that that's a rather pointless thing to do. However, I've decided I want to write something right now because the idea of going upstairs to read Great Expectations isn't very thrilling right now... and I would like to do something thrilling. Writing is thrilling, you know, at least for me. :D The reason Great Expectations can't be described as thrilling is because Chloe told me how it ends, and it renders me extremely sad, you know, because I don't like it when people can't marry the person they love.

I was reading the Bible yesterday, and I saw in 1 Corinthians (I think it's 1 Corinthians?) the passage that says: "Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." I think that's what it says. Anyhow, I was really convicted, because for an extremely long time I did not like the idea of growing up. Can't say that right now it's too appealing, but honestly I was convicted. I want to be a child. I delight in those little childish things. I really love being a girl, and I'm filled with a kind of bliss (ya know... bittersweet...) when I look on all those memories I had from my really early days. I'm still young, but I'm furiously enjoying my youth as passionately as possible, because these days will never come again, and I know that I'll miss them. But that verse convicted me. I do need to be mature in my thinking. I was a child, but I'm growing up, and my thinking needs to grow up with me. I'm not exactly sure how to be mature in one's thinking, but I do think that it can start with studying the Scriptures, and one thing I dearly want to learn is wisdom, which will help me be mature in my thinking.

Do you know, I'm rather sorry that I can't write anything better than that tonight. It's almost impossible you know, for me to do better tonight. I'm in a strange state of mind, and that state of mind is telling me (I don't know which part of me) that I need to go to sleep. And as an end note, I don't like it when my foot goes to sleep, because it means that it's going somewhere that I want to go without me.

*****Because I Think We're Nonsensical*****

I don't even know why I humiliate myself like this. ;)

"parting is such sweet sorrow..."

We Live Too Close To The Power Plant

Our computer recently got "relieved by accident" of all the information on the hard drive... So, Luther and Olivia are attempting to re-fill our picture albums with new pictures. :P

You've gotta love those eyebrows of Luther....

In The Army....

Of the Lord, of course! :)

But you CAN'T wear a helmet without wearing it fashionably... Good grief!

And some people's sense of fashion is different from others...

Don't you see why I love my daddy?

Brace Yourselves.....

Rachel edited this picture of me with the comment that I am Linguini's daughter. :P Isn't it lovely?

This Is Just A Classic Picture

No Comment Except....

... Some hunter I'll make!!!

The 2008 Annual Unisversal Big Ugly Beauty Pageant!

Some of you may know about this, and some of you may not. So in case you don't, and even if you do, I'm going to explain. For the past three years, Olivia Howard's birthday party has been a Big Ugly Beauty Pageant. In other words, the Ugliest Girl wins. Only on this day is "You are perfectly hideous!" a compliment. The first year was Local; the second National; and the third Universal. Last Tuesday was the Universal and Final Big Ugly Beauty Pageant of Wheeling, West Virginia. (There actually is a town called Big Ugly in West Virginia--hence the name of our show.)



The contestants are as shown below (in age order)



Chloe ~ Francesca Margarita Tequila Josephina Cuervo from Barcelona Spain

Allison ~ Rosa Bella Roma Rigatoni from Rome Italy

Olivia ~ Host

Jordan ~ Sydney from Australia

Ruby ~ Angus O'Beef from "Dumbeden" Scotland

Rachel ~ Just Jennifer from Hollywood California

Emma ~ Arriet Daft from Bath Britain (actually her real name was Harriet, but with the accent it sounded like Arriet.)



And now, whether your prepared or not, here are pictures from the best, the ugliest, the most hilarious and hideous Big Ugly Beauty Pageant! (Okay okay, I know I don't sound professional...)

Told you it was hideous... This is me, dressed up as a Scottish shepherdess.

Hey, Olivia looks pretty!! That's not right!! Actually, she was the host... She didn't necessarily HAVE to look ugly. She can't really make herself look ugly. She's too beautiful. :D

Rachel, on the other hand... (she's right here with me posting, so she doesn't mind that I said that. :D)

Rachel, me and Olivia after the first half was over... Three more hours to go... *sigh*

Allison... She actually looks Muslim. In this picture, she wasn't from Italy. She was actually playing the part of a murderess. I'll explain in later pictures. :)

One Big Ugly and one Little Lovely

JORDAN!!! And such a Jordan picture too. Rachel says she looks like a rabbit. :P And the reason for her obesity!?!?! It has to do with Allison's murderess picture. Again, I'll explain in later pictures... When the right one comes up. :)

Our wonderfully patient and funny film crew, Mr. Howard INC..

Here is Francesca with her Smart Balance. She's a Bull Dancer, and apparently, "This helped all the dancers in the school keep their balance on the horns."

A close up of my eye. Isn't it beautiful?? You gotta love those eyebrows. :P My makeup was supposed to imitate that of a sheep. :P

Jordan eating her lunch...

It caused much hilarity...

Rachel... Lovely Jennifer. :P

I don't have an explanation for Olivia's expression... But for Jordan's obesity, here goes... Mr. Howard researched Big Ugly on google just to see what would come up. He found a newspaper headline from that town saying, "Big Ugly Woman Killed" and so we decided to do a news report to go in between BUBP segmants about her death. Jordan was stuffed with pillows, and the reporters fought about how she was killed, and finally decided that she was strangled. And so we re-enacted the strangling. Allison was the murderer, and Jordan the hugely obese victim. There, it's all explained. :)

Me and Emma both looking very bad indeed.

Andrea, Tirzah, and Willa played the parts of the news reporters. :) This is Andrea (Clarke).

I posted this picture mainly because of the way Rachel looks in the background, holding Jordan's hands. It looked like something... so... movie-ish or something... I don't know. But I thought it looked kind of cool. :)

Tirzah....

Ugh.

Allison and Chloe. Chloe's eye makeup looks like a devil, doesn't it??

Just a behind-the-scenes picture.

Adorable Seth watching all this ugly ladies act weird.

Tirzah in the dressing room. There was about two feet of clothes on the floor... Yeah.

**sticks tongue out**

Trying on dresses...

Allison...

Hahahahaha! We pick the worst dress combinations for this thing. Fashion matters not.

Willa... :D

Olivia. :)

Emma was a chimney sweeper... However I accidentally called her a swim cheeper. :p I think she looked adorable.

Typical Jordan.

Even more typical!

I didn't purposely have three pictures of Jordan in a row. But oh well!

Rachel looks OK...

And I just love this picture. We have to end the post with a pretty picture anyhow. It doesn't do to have an ALL ugly post. :)

And that's it! We might have little snippets of the pageant up, but we'll see. :)