Holidays and Identical Twins

Bonjour, my dear, faithful followers. Happy Wednesday to you. I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday, I know I sure did. Quality time spent with family, eating good food and making tie-dye shirts. Oh, the joys of being bizarre. 

I have a question for y'all. Have you ever met somebody just like you? I have. I thought I had when I met my friend Joy. Weelll, I was wrong. Very wrong. My identical twin is my cousin Spring. She's 13, so we can't really be twins. Believe me, I thought of that already. 

We've sent each other letters sporadically over the years.  We've met in person only once, but we were instant friends. She and I recently started emailing back and forth, trying to get to know each other a little bit. The more we talk, the more we find out we have in common. So, here goes.

We both hate algebra and science.

We both love Jonas Brothers.

We both tend to remember everything.

We both love Chronicles of Narnia (movies and books).

We both have lots of little siblings (though she has a lot more than me).

We both love Jane Austen.

We are both budding writers.

We like most of the same kinds of music (except that she loves country. Yuck.)

We're both into beading.

We both homeschool.

Okay, so you see what I mean. I've found my long-lost twin. My only wish is that we'd been able to grow up together. I'm sure we would've been the best of friends. Love ya, Spring!!

The Most Bizarre Camping Trip Ever

Hey, everybody, I'm back! It was a wonderful time, but I'm ever so glad to be home again. It was officially the weirdest camping trip ever in the history of man-kind. Okay, so that might be an exaggeration, but life was odd. We had your usual long, miserable nights in a tent. Thankfully the bugs weren't too terrible. It was during the day that things got...interesting. Of course, camping with your pastor and his family is going to make everything a little bit weirder. Have you ever noticed that pastor's kids-well, you know pastor's kids. I don't have to tell you. They're great kids, though. Both of my brothers have made some really great friends, and my little sister has quite possibly found her soul mate. That might just be me being an overly-romantic older sister, but the two of them are so cute together, and he is just so sweet to her. Everybody say it with me: awwwwww! 

Anyway, back to the weird. First there was The Attack of The Killer Marauding Squirrels. I have one word: Evil. They were evil. During the time that we were all down at the beach, several of the area squirrels attacked our campsite, going through our trash and eating a hole through the plastic tote that held most of our food. Evil. After that, the little monsters must have told every squirrel they knew that they had found easy food, because for the rest of our stay, our campsite was infested with squirrels. And I mean infested. The creepy little things were everywhere!!! And never again shall I say "Aww, look at the cute little squirrel!" 

I shall merely say "EVIL!"

And further weirdness, I now present you with The Greatest Fish Story Ever. Okay, so all of us were down at the beach, and Pastor Jon stuck his fishing pole in the sand to come over and talk to all of us. He walks back, and the fishing pole is gone!! Several hours later, his middle son (Anne's future husband) catches what he thinks is a fish. He reels it in, and his 'fish' was nothing other than Pastor Jon's fishing pole!!! As he continues to bring it in,  he finds that there is a gigantic catfish on the end of it!

So, you can decide for yourself if it was The Most Bizarre Camping Trip Ever. All I know is that I had a wonderful time, and the campground is absolutely gorgeous. I promise I'll post pictures soon. 

Unfortunately, I must now bid you all adieu. I have to start this day, because nobody's going to do it for me. Have a wonderful day.

Ella

Oh wait, I almost forgot. Nicole's surgery is today. Please please please pray for her.

Oops!

Hey, everybody. I am so sorry. I didn't realize that I had comments blocked. I asked you to talk to me, and tell me what you think, and you couldn't! All my fault, I'm sorry. Aaaanyway, that's all better now, so drop me a line whenever! We're leaving for camping today, so I won't be able to get to my blog until Wednesday. And I have a prayer request. My dear dear friend Nicole is having surgery done on her mouth on Wednesday. Please just keep her in your prayers. She's scarred.

Goodbye All! 

Sat, May 16

Hello, hello, hello! Happy Saturday to you all! I love the weekend. I always have. Especially when I'm so close to being done with school. Every Saturday seems like a little taste of summer. 

Went to a baby shower  for a friend of my mom's this morning. No comment. 

We leave for our big camping trip tomorrow!!! It's gonna be so fun! Gonna read and write and study for the Bible Bee. Oh my gosh!!! I haven't said anything about the Bible Bee yet! I am so sorry. And yesterday was the last day for registration. I am an idiot. Check out www.biblebee.com for deets. And if you're a 'bee-liever', please please please talk to me!!! 

Okay, well, I have to go. Mom just informed me that we're headed "to town" (translation: Walmart). 

Blah the second.

Eh, I changed my mind. I thought of something to talk about. 

I decided what I want to do for my sweet 16. Yeah, I have a lot of time to plan, but I might as well decide now. I want to have a murder mystery party! Unfortunately, the story line needs to be just right, and I can't find anything that fits the bill. I, understandably, want to be the center of attention, so I want a character that would be the center of attention. I want it to be something classy so that I can dress up fancy. I don't want a wedding story, because I would want to be the bride, and I don't have a significant other to play my groom. And picking from among the guests would be just plain awkward. My mom says that if I had a guy cousin, that he would be ideal. Except all my cousins are girls. Therefore, no weddings. On top of all that, I want something a history related. I want to be in period dress, and the period has to be one of a select few. I want something clue-based, not scripted. How lame would that be? A scripted sweet 16. And it has to be co-ed, because even though I don't have a beau, I have plenty of guy friends. I get the feeling I'm being too picky. I just want it to be perfect. Thankfully I still have nine months to plan! :)

Sooooooo, if anybody knows of a great murder mystery, please let me know! I'd appreciate it.

Well, I had better go. TTFN!

Blah

Yes. I know. It has been entirely too long since I blogged. I won't even make excuses. I wasn't busy! The mere idea of blogging simply bored me. I don't know why I'm even writing right now. I don't have anything to say. You know what? Never mind. I am not writing today. Goodbye.

Sunday, May 3 and the Time Since Then.

My dear readers, I apologize to you for being unfaithful. I should have blogged Sunday, but I did not. In all actuality, it was such a bizarre day that I needed some time to decide how to blog about it. It was very much a surreal experience. Not that anything amazingly wonderful, or incredibly awful, happened. Just that it was a very bizarre day. The day started with a simple trip all the way out to Pembrooke to pick up Joy's birthday present. While we were there Mom decided that Andrew and Anne needed new Bibles, so we spent about an hour longer than we had planned at the book store being harrassed-I-mean-helped by a very odd employee. I think my mom thought he was funny, but I simply found him slightly creepy and extremely irritating.

The rest of the day was very rushed. We ran home to Suffolk, picked up Brandon, came home just long enough for me to repair my make-up and wrap the birthday present, ran to pick up Josh, and made it to the party about six minutes early. The minute we got there, the action slowed to a crawl. Nobody wanted to be the first to walk through the door into the elaborately decorated living room of Joy's house. It was kind of hilarious. We finally pushed Josh into the house, but he wouldn't go a step further until I was in the lead. For the next two hours, I had two awkward teenage boys who didn't know what to do with themselves following my every move. I would take another step further into the kitchen, they would follow me. I sat down at the kitchen table when we were ready to eat, they took the seats on either side of me. Hilarious. Besides that, the party was fun but uneventful. After it was over, both of the guys came back to my house to hang out, Josh out of necessity (his family was at his little brother's baseball game) and Brandon to keep him company. 

Josh left around 6ish. Around 6:30, half of my old youth group shows up in my back yard. See, they're still meeting at my next-door neighbor's house, and youth was over. It was surprisingly not nearly as awkward as I thought it would be when I saw them trecking across the field between my neighbor's and my place. Still, very odd. Very odd indeed.

The time since then has been quiet and unremarkable, not counting the fact that I have four algebra chapters to finish by the end of May. I spent about two hours at the library yesterday afternoon at the mercy of my grandmother, but that's not exactly exciting. Ah, I might as well tell you anyway. I can't escape being boring. Around lunch time yesterday, my grandparents came over. Grandma promptly informs me that she had to go to town and asks if I would like for her to drop me off at the library. Well, I could always use a trip to the library, and the book I had placed on reserve was in, so I agreed. Little did I know that I would be stuck there for, like I said, two hours. Ugh.

Well, I had better sign off for now. Schoolwork calls. 

A Week is Behind, The Crazy Weekend ahead (And some junk about Kid's Night)

Wow. That's all I have to say. Wow. A fairly ordinarily week over, I'm all ready to start this slightly insane weekend. I've got to head all the way out to Pembrooke tomorrow with my dad to pick up a birthday present for Joy. Sunday is her sweet 16. She's having a theme party, and the theme suits her, and everybody else involved, perfectly. Since I'm pretty sure she hasn't found my blog yet, and probably won't before Sunday (even considering her level of internet usage), I can tell you what I am going to get her. (Aside: Yes. I know that that was an AWFUL run-on sentance, and it's bothering me too. I simply decided not to care and write it the way I heard it in my head. Forgive me.) Aaanyway, I'm going to get her a copy of the brilliant Gail Carson Levine's brilliant book Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly. A very good gift considering the fact that Joy is an aspiring writer. And she loves Gail Carson Levine. It should be really awesome, especially considering the fact that I have a really cute new outfit to wear. Well, kind of new. The skirt is from last summer, but nobody at the new church has seen it yet, and it's in great condition, and the top is brand new from Wal-Mart. 

Okay, what's left? Oh right, Kid's Night. So you all know that my mom is the children's ministry director at our church. What? You didn't know that? Well, you do now. Anyway, as children's ministry director, it was her job to organize the quarterly Kid's Night. Everybody had hot dogs at the church property and played a couple of games. My mom found this brilliant way to combine all the seemingly random stuff we did into a theme, all leading into a presentation of the gospel. Yeah, she's a smartie. The whole night went off without a hitch, and there was a really impressive turnout. Something close to 25 kids, plus about 10 adults and 6 teens. Practically the whole youth group was there, so I had an awesome time. A truly awesome time. Hangin' out with Brandon, Joy, Stephen, Josh, and Aaron. Well, not so much Aaron. He's more like a kid than a teen, and he chooses to spend his time with them. Which brings me to the ride home. Ugh. So mom offered to give Aaron and his little brother a ride home. You'd think that we'd all fit in a fifteen passenger van, right? Wrong. Aaron had spent part of the ride in the back seat with my brother Andrew, but then we realize that my dad doesn't know how to get to their house. So Aaron has to come up front and sit with me, which would have been okay, except that my dad's guitar stuff was taking up the entire row except for the end seat where I was sitting. So Aaron perches himself on my armrest, about two inches from my shoulder. Needless to say, it was probably the most uncomfortable fifteen minutes of my life. Especially considering the fact that every time we turned left, I was terrified that he was going to land in my lap. Can you say awkward? I can. Awkward! It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if it had been somebody I liked. Not even liked liked. Just liked. Me and Aaron don't really get along. 

Well, I have to sign out for tonight. It's getting late and the kids are waiting on me to start the movie. We're watching Prince Caspian. I'll try to get on tomorrow, but no promises.