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.

Camp

Question: What would be the point of a blog if I didn't use it to broadcast my opinions and beliefs to others? It wouldn't be anything but an amusing little journal! I told you I'd tell you what I thought about kids and camp, so here goes. Every single child should have the chance to go to camp at least once in their life. It's such a positive experience. Usually, when somebody starts talking about a child's self esteem, I pretty much stop listening, but hear me out. A child's self esteem isn't the most important thing. But it is important. Camp builds confidence. The opportunity to be away from Mom and Dad for that length of time is really good for a child. As long as the camp is well run and trustworthy, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of homesickness to make a kid grow up. There are so many challenges and opportunities to try new things. Even dealing with problems, such as not getting along with another camper, are learning experiences. The whole week is a learning experience. 

So many people have misconceptions about camp. It really is a safe, positive experience, as long as you find the right camp. 

I've been attending a Christian camp in Williamsburg, VA for four years now. Next year I intend to be a counselor there, if they'll have me. The best part about a well-run Christian camp is that it is a chance for kids to grow closer to God. The beauty of nature combined with interesting, relevant teaching from fun, respectable Christians has been a great blessing to me in my life. 

So, think about it. Do your own research. Send a kid to camp!! And if you're looking for a great camp for special needs kids, do some research on Camp Holiday Trails. 

Okay, well, I'm done. Please forgive my rambling. I just figured I'd get my thoughts out and together in one place. Have a great day!

Ella

Today

Holy cow, what a long day. Haha, and it's not even over. Today was a big church-wide work day at the church property. Hopefully *gulp* just a month until we move into the new building!!! Yay!! I couldn't be more excited. I thought it was never going to happen. It was so amazing, just walking through the building and seeing all the stuff that was going on. Sound equipment on the stage. Stalls in the bathroom. Lol I get excited about the dumbest things. But what matters is, everywhere you go, you can see progress. We're making strides!!! It's so close I can taste it. After four long years (seven months for my family) my church is about to finally move into it's very own building. Ever since the church was planted about four years ago, they've been meeting in a rented building on Saturday nights. And my family joined the church just in time to make the exciting transition and be 'in' on all of the relationships before there's a ton of growth when the church finally makes the jump. 

Thanks to this amazing weather, we've decided to go ahead and start meeting outside at the church property. We don't have the permits necessary to meet inside, but at least we'll be on our own property. That announcement was a goose-bump moment in church yesterday. When Pastor Jon told everyone, there was about a fifteen second pause, and then spontaneous applause. Awesome. 

Well, I'd better close for now. I am technically babysitting. Fun. I'll check in tomorrow.

Some Fairly Pointless Rambling For The Sake of Being Able To Say That I Blogged Today

Another week has passed without me doing anything about the boring state of my blog. Believe me, I'm trying to think up something. The main function for this thing is to give me something to do when I'm bored, so I guess it's doing it's job. This has been a relatively quiet week, especially compared to last week. Nothing much to report. 

I can't believe the school year's almost over. It's going to be such an awesome summer! My aunt and uncle are coming home for three weeks. They're missionaries, and I haven't seen them in four years. Vacation Bible School is going to rock this year. With my mom and Joy's mom in charge, we can know that we're all going to have a blast. I finally made the decision to volunteer with kid's vbs instead of participating in youth vbs. That wasn't an easy decision to make. I'm probably going to be entirely ostracized for it, but I just couldn't miss a year of spending time with the kids. First and Second grade is where I always plugged in at the old church. I've always loved having that time to just give back to the church, and those kids are such a blessing! The rest of my summer is sadly empty. I always love being busy over the summer. I don't think I'm going to be going to camp this year. That's something I've always done. I feel very strongly about camp, but that's a story for another post. Meanwhile, this post is getting too long, and I need to start my day. 

Today

Yay! My spacebar works again! I have no idea why it wasn't working, all I know is that I can blog again. It's been a relaxing weekend so far. Church last night went really really well, besides the fact that I'm still a little hoarse. I had laryngitis earlier this week, so singing was a little difficult. I guess I just assumed that you knew that I sing with the church band. What's really awesome is that about half of our band is below the age of 25. Myself and Joy sing, Joy's older brother plays guitar, and Stephen plays drums about half the time. I've always thought that that was cool. Kid's rock!

I've recently noticed that I always rock back and forth when I'm typing. I think it gives my mom the creeps. I don't know why I do it. Amusing, to say the least. I'm so weird. 

I have my fingers crossed that every last one of my neighbor's four-wheelers and other motorized contraptions break down. That way I may have some peace and quiet in which to finish reading The Complete Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm. That and writing is probably how I'll spend the majority of my Sunday. Plus grocery shopping with Mom. Wal-Mart with babysitting money is fun. 

A Thought

Nobody cares what's happening in my stupid life. Nobody cares that I'm going to do nothing but chores today. So why am I blogging about it? I don't know. This is exactly what I said I wasn't going to do. My blog is, for the time being, quite boring. I'm working on it. I'll figure it out when I have the time. Which isn't today. For now, I'm so dead sick of fighting this battle with my stupid spacebar. It's sticking, and I'm having the hardest time not typing likethis(withnospaces). I leave now to enjoy my breakfast before sacrificing my day to chores, for the greater good and my mother's sanity. Dirty children's bathroom, here I come!

This CrAzY Week.

Hi everybody. Sorry it's been so long since I posted. Actually, nobody reads this stupid thing anyway, so I don't know why I pretend that you (my reader) are real. Aaanyway, It's been a while because this has been an extremely interesting week. Spent the night at Grandma's on Sunday. That was interesting to say the least. It was me, my three little siblings, and my two little cousins. I made dinner. Grandma and Pawpaw had to leave before we got up, so I was in charge until about ten. Then I entertained the kids all day Monday and part of Tuesday. It was actually pretty fun. It was really good to spend time with my cousins. We used to be so close, then I got a life (which is to say, a busy social schedule), and their schedule filled up, and we never see each other any more. Then babysitting Tuesday night for some kids at church. Bible study on Wednesday (pizza at Joy's house without Joy. She went to a concert.) More babysitting last night, for a bunch of homeschool kids from the community. I actually had a really great time. They were a really well-behaved group, with the exception of the run-away two-year-old who refused to be entertained. A little bit of creative babysitting on my part was all it took. Have you ever played Phase 10 with a toddler? So it wasn't Phase 10 as much as 'Put All The Cards In The Right Color Pile'. Fun. My pastor's kids were there. They, being a good deal older than the rest of the group, did complain and try to give me a hard time at first, but they're such good kids. In the end, they were a really big help. I couldn't thank them enough. 

All of this has left me looking forward to a kick-back-and-relax sort of weekend. And Mom has just informed me that I have to clean the bathroom and vacuum the dining room today. Lovely. No more time just now. Algebra and chores await. Hide me!!!!!

Note

Ha! So much for getting over my fear. Here I sit pathetically trying to type this post with one finger taped to the other. Remember how I said yesterday that my finger hurt? Well the stupid thing got progressively worse and worse over the course of the day, and now I'm convinced it's broken. This makes life extremely difficult. And I'm sure that my usual 84 words per minute average has plummeted to something nearer 20. Ugh.

Flying Things

My little brother Andrew rocks. He's helping me get over my irrational fear of flying round things. Basketballs, volleyballs, footballs, and the like. I can't stand them. I have the hardest time teaching myself that the object of the game is not getting away from the ball, but trying to get the ball. I am very good at dodge ball! My first instinct is to protect my face, and if my hands are over my head, I'm not going to catch anything. Right now as I'm typing, my fingers are very sore from throwing the football with my little bro. Too frequently things didn't work out correctly and my fingers were all that touched the ball before it went flying in another direction. So this is an ode to my awesome brother Andrew, for putting up with a wimp like me and helping me get over my fear. Way to go, bud.

 

T.B.D. I Rock the Drop

Okay, so if you haven't checked the link to the right yet, please do. This whole thing is for a great cause, and I can't think of many things I want to promote more than teen literature. Kudos to whoever thought this thing up! For those who don't know what it is, T.B.D. (Teen Book Drop) is an event taking place on April the 16th. Teen Readers everywhere will be taking a favorite book of theirs and leaving it in a public place. What a way to reach out, and to connect with other teens! So visit the Readergirlz site by clicking on the 'I Rock The Drop' picture here on my blog to find out more. Have fun rocking the drop! 

Random Thought

Okay, I am officially using the word 'hate' entirely too much. I promise to work on it. There's too much to love in this world to spend all your time dwelling on things you hate. I apologize.

Things I Hate About Blogger

Blogger is retarded. This is unfortunate, because I currently have no other options available to me, and I'm already addicted to blogging. Get this. This morning, I tried to upload a new template, and it deleted EVERYTHING I'd already done. So it's taken me this long to get everything back up and running. It's a major shame, because the background was really cute! It was like this notebook that had all my posts on it, and then the background was all these colorful wispy things. So cute, and it made sense, 'cause I'm an aspiring writer. It's also unfortunate that I'm scarred to death to post any of my own writings on here. I've heard horror stories of people blogging their writings, and then it turning out that the service provider owned everything that they wrote. I know, I know. The privacy policy on this site says that they won't do that to me, but I have trust issues with the internet. I can't sign my name on a piece of paper, I can't get whatever they're promising me in writing. I can't shake their hand. I much prefer face-to-face communication. But that would be much less like a blog. So here I am stuck writing about whatever I'm thinking about, and not able to write about what's really on my mind, which is my most current story. Maybe some day I'll get around to writing something just for my blog, and try not to care about who technically owns it. However, I don't have time for that right now. With Easter, I'm sorry, Resurrection Sunday, less than a week away, and the school year almost over, I don't have time for much. The call to get done with school early is louder than ever this year, with my Aunt and Uncle and baby cousin coming in from Guam the last weekend in May. Pray for me, because I have three hundred pages of Algebra still to do. Speaking of which, algebra is calling my name, and I only have a few minutes before it tracks me down. I've got to go for now, I'll try to get back on later.

A Pet Peeve.

I hate hate hate hate HATE HATE motorcycles, mopeds, dirt bikes, four wheelers, and golf carts. "Why?" you ask? Because they're all I see, all I hear, every single weekend during the spring, and every single stinking day during the summer. My lovely next-door neighbors act like they have nothing better to do than ride back and forth in front of my house, all day long. What is that about? I don't know. I don't care. All I know is it's driving me nuts!