Today (Updated)

Hey!! I hope you all had a wonderful day. I know I sure did. 

I wound up with not only two boys, but two girls as well. A five-year-old and a three-year-old. We had a fantastic time. They were all great, and the baby is absolutely precious. 

But, boy, am I tired! Four children all day long can really take their toll on you. 

So I'm going to go ahead and close. I still have to figure out what I'm wearing tomorrow.

Goodnight!!

Today

Hey, guys. Just a quick note to let you know what I'm doing today. I've got a babysitting gig. The mom should be here in about an hour to pick me up. I think it goes 'til about four o'clock. I'm watching two little boys, one's three and the other's almost one. It should be interesting, to say the least. Wish me luck!

A blog to check out

Hey, folks!! Yes, I know, fourth post in one day. I'm really on a roll. I have another blog y'all need to check out. Check out http://cerinthe-confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/

It's a blog all about homeschooling and homeschoolers. Ohhh, I suppose I'd better be perfectly honest and tell you that It's another of my blogs, created under a fake name on another Google account. I'm Cerinthe. But that doesn't make a difference. Check it out and let me know what you think!!!

Explanation

Hey, guys. I should probably explain the two very odd pictures at the bottom of the page. They're both in memory of our Apples to Apples game Wednesday night. If you've ever played that game, you know that random conversations are bound to happen. The waffles are pretty self-explanatory. The green card was 'Special', somebody laid 'Waffles', and we all tried to decide whether or not waffles are special. From thence came the quote, "They're all waffle-ey and stuff". 

The feather thing came when it was my turn to judge. The green card was 'Crooked', somebody laid 'Feathers'. I thought it was a good one, others disagreed. It became a debate. 

Since then, Joy and I have decided that the term "Crooked Feathers" means a meaningless or stupid argument. 

So I decided to post those pics. Sorry. I'm random. 

Updates

Hey!! Just a couple of quick updates, and a little bit of news. 

1) I finally picked a murder mystery for my sweet 16. "A Dead Man's Chest" is the name of it. Check out http://www.freeformgames.com/pdf/intro_files/game_admc_intro.pdf for a taste of what we'll be doing. :)

2) We're going on Vacation!! (Imagine that in a sing-song-ey, I'm excited kind of tone.) Not much of one, but September 13-15 we're going to Williamsburg for some fun. Mom looked back on our summer the other day and realized that we hadn't had any fun this summer. So when everybody else is starting school, we're headed away to enjoy ourselves.

3) Bible Bee is less than a month away!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! (panic and terror). I have upwards of 1,000 verses to memorize, six pages of trivia to learn, and six books of the Bible to know inside and out. Wish me luck!! 

4) Spring is coming for a visit!! In September, her and her family are coming down. I can't wait!!!

Okay, I think that's everything. Thanks for listening!

Have a great day!

I'm back!!!!!!!!!

Well, everybody, I'm back!!! I'm sorry about that. I was going through something, and I kind of couldn't blog without talking about it. It's far from over, but I think I can handle it now.

I can't hope to fill you in on everything that's happened since I've been gone, but I can try.

Voice of Truth, the worship band from my old church, have gotten back together. My dad was lead guitarist. The band has been getting together every Thursday night back at the barn at my neighbor's. That's been enjoyable. Joy went with me night before last. We had a really good time. 

Wednesday night, most of the youth group came over to my house for food and games. We played some Catch-phrase and some Apples to Apples. We had a grand old time. Lots of silliness and fun. Joy actually practically moved in this week. She stayed Wednesday night and Thursday night. We had a blast. We always have fun when we're together.

Today I'm babysitting while Mom and Dad go grocery shopping. 

Something I caught myself saying today: "Okay, Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3. I'm going to the bathroom. If the living room isn't spotless when I come out, all three of you are staying in your rooms until Mom and Dad get home."

Sounds harsh? Not really. I'd been trying for ten minutes to get them to clean up their mess, and then I turn around and the boys are on Riley's bed wrestling and Anne is walking around aimlessly singing, "He could be the one, he could be the one, he could be the o-o-o-o-one." 

No, she's not in love. We'd just finished watching that episode of Hannah Montana, and we all have that stupid song in our head. What's really weird is hearing your seven-year-old brother walk through the house singing, "He could be the one." over and over again. I begged him to please please change the lyrics. Sing, "She could be the one" if you have to sing Hannah Montana at all. Then Anne started singing it that way. I just can't win for loosing. 

Well, Mom and Dad should be home pretty soon. After that we might go to the church this afternoon. Other than that I don't know. 

Y'all have a good day!!

Bizarre Moment

The pastor's boys are at my house. Carie's future husband is marrying
my cat. Don't ask me why. Boys are so weird.

Hey, guys. I think it's time for me to take a Blogger break. I might be gone a week or two. I'll let you know. Sorry, I just need some time off. 

Blessings!

~Ella

Well, I suppose I'd best stop being lazy and tell you guys something about VBS and how it's going. Me, Joy, and Micah had sixteen last night, nineteen anticipated for tonight. We've been told that our group is the largest, and the best behaved, out of all of them. I'm so proud of my little kids. Last night we had seven girls and nine boys. They're awesome. Absolutely awesome.

It's been a really fun week so far. I think that all of us volunteers are having about as much fun as the kids. Everybody's been doing a fantastic job.

I think me and Joy have been having the best time out of anybody. We've been corresponding during the day to coordinate our outfits for the night. Sunday night we wore yellow, Monday was blue, last night was red, and tonight is orange. It's so much fun. 

So, even though she and I usually keep up a steady stream of chatter while we're together, there's always a lull in the conversation just in time for us to hear the weirdest comments. We'll both tune in to somebody else's conversation at the worst moment, and not having any idea what they're talking about, we just have to laugh. Like last night, we'd been talking, and then we both got quiet for a minute just in time to year our youth pastor say to pastor Jon, "I knew it was you all along, honey." 

Yeah, like I said, weird. So last night we decided to just never stop talking again, and then we'd be the ones having the weird conversations that other people would have to listen to. 

The very first of which happened last night while our kids were at games. You see, all of the volunteers have matching baseball caps, but not everybody wears them on their head. A few people wear them clipped to their belt-loop. Stephen happens to be one of those people. He told me that it's because he just can't wear that kind of hat, his head is too oddly shaped. 

Last night I was trying to wear my hat kind of sideways, just to be silly, but it kept on straightening by itself. I complained about this to Joy, and commented, "Maybe my head is oddly shaped too." Weird-comment-that-wouldn't-make-sense-to-anyone-else number 1.

Well, we both laughed at that, and she said, "Great, let's find all the similarities between you and Stephen."

So I said, "Oh, no, let's not go there. You see, my mom has always said that if she finds a guy who blows his nose as loudly as I do, it's meant to be. The very first time she heard him blow his nose, she was convinced." Weird comment number 2.

Then began the portion of the conversation that I'm glad nobody heard, especially considering the fact that Stephen's mom was standing very nearby. 

I told Joy that my little sister Anne thought that he and I were meant to be too, so everybody's just against me. Then she says, "Don't worry about it. Everybody's been through that. The you're-supposed-to-be-with-Stephen phase. Even before he was in the youth group, everybody wanted him to get a girl." Now that would've been an awkward comment for anybody to overhear.

Shortly after this, one of our kids started having really bad stomach pain. Which means that every single one of our kids is going to be sick by the end of the week. Not looking forward to that. Wish me luck.

Well, dears, I had better be going. Everybody's bugging me to get off the computer, and my precious O'Malley needs a bath. Oh, wait, I didn't tell you about him, did I? We got a kitty!!! A precious little black and white kitten, whom we've dubbed O'Malley. I'll post a pic. 

Aaaaanyway, have a great day! 

A Change

Hey. If you noticed, which you probably didn't, I recently went through and changed all 'Dan' to 'Stephen'. You've probably guessed by now that I don't use people's real names, and Stephen suits my friend better than Dan. Dan was something I thought up spur-of-the-moment, and I just decided that I don't like it. I may change others, we'll just have to see. Thanks for your patience!

Hi! I hope you're having a wonderful Saturday. I know I am! I spent the e-n-t-i-r-e day at the church decorating for Camp Edge, a.k.a VBS. The church looks absolutely fantastic. There are tents and camping stuff, a waterfall, mountains, animals, forests, and all kinds of stuff. It's going to be the most amazing week. We had a blast today. Me, Joy, Brandon, Stephen, and Josh were all working together hanging posters and decorating. Hey, funny little story for ya. You know what a carabiner is, right? No? Look to your right, I posted a pic of one. Well, I had a whole bunch of them, all different sizes and colors. I walked up to one of the several campsite scenes (all complete with real tent) where Stephen and Josh were standing. I asked them what I should do with them. The tent had this little hookie-thingy on the door. Stephen looks at it, looks at the carabiners in my hand, and starts giggling. Like, insanely. He takes the carabiners from my hand, still giggling, takes the biggest one off the plastic thing that was holding them, and hooks it to the hook on the door of the tent. Then he stopped giggling, handed me the rest of the carabiners, and said, "Here ya go.", like nothing had happened. It was hi-larious.

Me and Joy tortured Brandon. We had these posters to hang in the hallway, three of them, and middle one had to be perfectly centered. We made him hold the poster on the wall, about a foot above his head, while we counted steps from him to the posters on either side. He was a trooper though. And the posters still aren't perfect. Oh well. 

It's going to be quite a week. I'm going to have so much fun. I'll try and post some pics. 

Have a nice evening!

Hello, all. Ten thousand apologies, I know it's been waaaay too long since I sat down and blogged. Things have been kinda nutty. I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day, I know I did.

If you think about it too hard, though, it's kind of melancholy. It feels like there isn't much to celebrate anymore......or maybe it's just me. I don't know.

My pastor's two oldest sons stayed the night with my little brother Wednesday night. Fortunately, Anne was also staying the night away, with Brandon's little sister. If she had been home, things would've been considerably more chaotic. Let's just say that she doesn't get along with the pastor's boys very well. (Not yet anyway. I'm convinced that one of them is my future brother-in-law. Don't tell Anne I said that.) Aaaanyway, they stayed the night Wednesday night, which means that I got about six hours of sleep that night, since they stayed up super-late and got up super-early. Put those boys with my brothers, and nobody gets a moment's peace and quiet. On Thursday my friend and neighbor Marie hung out all day (which severely interrupted the work I needed to be doing, but it was fun). It was quite a day, especially seeing as how Marie is on about the same maturity level as the boys. It was fun. 

Then last night we had dinner over at a friend's house. They're a great family. Brandice and Jay, and their two little ones, Nathaniel (who's six) and Bri (who's almost one). Precious. The food was great, the fellowship was better. It was an awesome night.

Unfortunately, playing all day yesterday means I have work to do today. Which means making popsicle stick boxes. Lots and lots of popsicle stick boxes. They're for vacation Bible school, I have about 53 to do, and Joy has the other half. It's been quite a project already, and I'm not anywhere near done. So wish me luck. 

Looking to the future a little bit, Tomorrow I'll be at the church all day, helping decorate for VBS, which is next week. It's going to an awesome week. Me, Joy, and a guy named Micah are working together as 'camp counselors' for the first- and second-graders. It's going to be amazing.

Well, I had best be going. Too much to do, too little time. Blessings!

Yesterday

Well, yesterday was interesting. Very interesting. Like I said, I had five children. Three of them were my siblings, and the other two were a set of four-year-old twins, one boy and one girl. Anne and Riley did a pretty good job of keeping them occupied, so all I really had to do was make sure everybody was playing nicely and handle snacks, drinks, and lunch. Pretty easy gig. Then church band practice last night. No comment.

Sunday was great. Church then Haley's party. She loved her gift. We swam in the pool, played the Wii, and ate food, namely hotdogs and insanely good bean dip. I came home with a wicked sunburn. It was just Haley, her friend Destiny, Joy and me. Pretty small group.

Church went well also. Except for the fact that, since one of our three microphones is broken, Joy and I were reduced to having to share a microphone. That isn't easy. I still don't know if the situation is remedied yet, but I sincerely hope it is. 

Today is nothing much. Dinner at Nana's tonight. We have some family in from out of town. It'll be nice to see them. Today I should probably study for Bible Bee, and I want to finish Emma.

Well, all, I should probably go. I hope you have a wonderful day!

I am babysitting five children today, two of them under the age of five. Wish me luck!

The Longest Day In History (almost)

Yesterday was the longest day of my life, or something very, very close to it. My day began at, horror of horrors, 6:30 AM. My brother stuck his head in my room to inform me that it was time to get up, Mom and Dad want the living room cleaned up before the boys get here. Ehhh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Mom offered to keep our Pastor's three boys while their mom drove Pastor Jon, two men, and a youth guy to the airport. Yesterday was the first day of the annual missions trip to Peru. Aaaaanyway, I was woken up at 6:30 in the morning to clean up my mess in the living room, which consisted of two pieces of paper, a pair of shoes, and a coffee cup. Yeah, that was a big enough deal to wake me up for. Aww, I'm just kidding. I'm really not as much of a grump as I sound. After breakfast, Mom drove me down the street to Grandma's to do some general cleaning (i.e. dusting, sweeping, etc.) in preparation for a get-together of hers this weekend. Around 11:30, Mom came and got me and brought me home, where I had twenty minutes to switch gears from cleaning to errand-running. Our first errand was a trip to a nearby church whose VBS program was similar to ours. They are very kindly lending us many of their decorations. Many of their decorations. About two truckloads full. Thankfully another lady from our church (Actually, she was the one who asked this church if they'd lend us the stuff. Our hero!) was there with her truck to help. There was an entire forest in my fifteen-passenger van, complete with a fox, two deer, a bear, a fox and a skunk. Mom couldn't even see out the back window. Ha, and we'd planned on going grocery shopping next. Well, that was out of the question. We had to make the 40-minute trip from down-town to our church way out in the boondocks. After we've been on the road for about fifteen minutes, Mom glances at the clock and realizes that we don't have time to make it all the way to the church and get back in town to get to the bank before it closed for the day, so we double back and stop at the bank. By now it's like, 2:00, and both of us are starving, so we grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-a. We then drive out to the church and unload. Remember, yesterday the temp was about 93, so by the time we're done there, both of us are dripping in sweat. We couldn't shop like that. So we stop at home, freshen up, and drive all the way back into town. We then spent about, eh, four hours in WalMart, two of which I spent looking for a birthday present for Haley, whose birthday party is tomorrow. We finally check out, which took about ten minutes in and of itself, and are on our way our of the store when I remember that I'm not the only one with a birthday party to go to this weekend. Andrew, Anne, and Riley also are attending a birthday party tomorrow. So we stick our two carts, full of about 400 dollars worth of groceries (Hey, it's a big family and we were shopping for a whole month!) at customer service and trek back into the store to get a birthday present for the little kid.

By the time we get home it's eight o'clock at night and I'm exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. Blah.

Thankfully, today has been much more restful. A totally chill Saturday, without even chores to ruin it. I spent much of the day reading Jane Austen's Emma. 

Well, my friends, I must bid you adieu. I need to help with dinner, and then decide what on earth I'm wearing tomorrow. Have a wonderful evening!

Okay, I promised I'd tell you how the concert went, so I will. I don't want to, but I will.

You can call me picky or hard to please, but it was awful. I felt so sorry for the band, the actual Newsboys. It was more of a Newsboys/DC Talk merger than a Newsboys concert. They did almost as much old DC Talk stuff as they did Newsboys. And Michael screwed up the lyrics to half the Newsboys stuff they actually did. 

But the worst part by far was Michael's behavior. He sat down on the stage. He crawled on the stage. He laid down on the stage. It was icky. My heart goes out to Jeff Frankenstein, Duncan Phillips, and Jody Davis, the real Newsboys.

The highlight of the night for me was the fact that Mr. Tait's microphone still had Peter's name on it. It was great.

All that being said, I have found two great new bands to like. KJ-52 and DecembeRadio were there last night, and they both put on a really good show. I enjoyed them immensely.

Our group was right next to the stage. And I mean right next to the stage. Close enough that if there had been somebody that I cared about enough to want to touch, I could've touched them.

The one time I tried to get somebody to touch my hand, some kid knocked into me, and knocked me into the guy in front of me, and I missed the moment. It stank. 

The youth trip yesterday was one of the weirdest I'd ever been on. Even the ride up there was weird. Joy's brother Cal rode in the trunk the whole way. We dubbed him 'Trunk Monkey'. The other people at the concert were weird. The time we spent in the park was weird. Our 'tram hostess' (that is, the person who talked to us while we were riding the tram from the park to our obscure parking spot in the 'Scotland Parking Lot') was the weirdest of all. She kept singing to us, and getting us to sing. The song went something like, "We're riding on the tram, we're riding on the tram, and we're eating Virginia Ham, and we've got some candied yams, we're riding on the tram." Yeah. Weird.

The ride home was the weirdest part of all. We were about half an hour away from being home, and suddenly, we hear this 'thump-thump-thump' noise, feel the car bouncing, and smell the distinct smell of burning rubber. Yes my friends, we had a flat tire. And get this. We had a spare tire, but not the tool to take the old tire off. How dumb is that? 

Pastor Jon showed up to help, followed by a random nice guy from Michigan, and my Dad. My hero! He picked up me and all of my friends and drove them back to the church so that they could get home. 

We found the answer to the question, "How many people does it take to change a tire?" 

It takes five girls supervising, two pastors, two guitarists, and a random nice guy from Michigan. 

Well, friends, I have to go. Mom is getting a little aggravated. I have chores to do. Wish me luck!

Alrighty, so if you haven't checked out the new Newsboys cd, titled 'In the Hands of God', you absolutely have to. In my opinion, it's their best work ever. A pretty good 50/50 mix of their signature pop sound and their awesome praise and worship. An awesome band, an awesome cd.

Definitely bittersweet, though, since this is probably the last cd they will ever make, or at least the last one with the one and only Peter Furler on it. Peter will be missed dearly. Not that I don't love Michael Tait, I do! However, he is no Peter Furler.

I will be attending my first post-Peter Newsboys concert this Sunday at Glory At The Gardens. I promise that I'll let you all know how it goes.

Sunday, June 14, 2009 marked a very momentous occasion for Abundant Hope Baptist Church. It was our first Sunday in our own building!! Isn't God good? After four-and-a-half years of meeting in another church's building, and two months of meeting outside rain or shine, we are finally in our new building!!!!!!! The atmosphere was that of a celebration. There was so much joy in that room. Thank you Lord! 

Well, I have to go now. Bible study tonight. TTFN!!

Oh, wait! I thought of one more thing. Who voted on my poll? You know, "Is love a spiritual gift?"

Who voted, and why do you think that. I really need to know, because my youth pastor is gonna grill me come September on why I think love, and faith for that matter, is a spiritual gift. I need to work on it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hey, everybody. I was just caught by the unconquerable urge to blog. I suppose that it's just because this is such an awesome moment. Actually, an awesome evening. Again, Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared are over. I'm at the desk, which is across from the dining room table, where they are playing a game of spades. Nobody else would get why that is so important to me. I guess that to understand, I have to take you back into my childhood. Back when they lived in the states, every single New Years Eve, and several nights during the year, Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared would come over to play spades with Mom and Dad. As we speak, the sound of it is transporting me back to when I was eight. I would sit next to Aunt Becky and listen, and watch. Sometimes, if I caught her in a really good mood, she would read Dr. Suess's Fox In Sox to me in between turns. 

Oh, I need to stop before I start crying.

Now, though, the only thing that's different is that my little siblings are awake (which they rarely where back then), and that little Cara Grace is with them. They're all in the next room watching 'King George and His Ducky' - a very silly VeggieTale, and a personal favorite of mine.

Well, I suppose I'll sign off for the night. But before I go, I submit to you a question: do you have any treasured family memories? Is there anything you'd like to share?

Everyone sleep well. Goodnight!

Hello, all. Happy Summer Vacation!!! Or, at least, it is for me. I don't know about you. I know some people get out later than I do. 

It has been an eventful few days. Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared came in on Thursday. It has been so wonderful to spend time with them. Three whole years it's been since i saw them. Their baby girl Cara is four years old. She's the most precious, adorable thing you've ever seen. Her laugh just melts my heart. I love her to death. I'll post a pic. 

I love spending time with my little cousins. Yesterday, all of us were at my grandmother's house. And I mean ALL of us. I guess a little family-tree-info would be helpful to you all. 

My paternal grandparents, we call 'em Nana and Papaw, have three children. Their oldest is my dad, then Aunt Becky, then Uncle Andy, who has recently separated from his wife. He has two children, six-year-old Hailey and four-year-old Calvin. And all of us were in Nana and Papaw's little house. The kids swam in their little blow-up-pool for most of the day. 

Today marked the beginning of my and Andrew's first annual Monopoly Tournament. It's going to be a week-long game of Monopoly, with some rather high stakes if I do say so myself. If he wins, I have to make him whatever dessert he wants for two weeks. If I win, he has to read any two books of my choosing. Which doesn't sound like it would be something I would want very badly, but believe me, it is. He's so closed-minded when it comes to books. It would be my opportunity to force him to broaden his horizens. I'm thinking The Comet's Curse by Dom Testa and Artemis Fowl:The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer. 

Well, I had better sign off for now. TTFN!