Liebster Award

Like I said in my last post, Sam tagged me for the Liebster award. Thanks Sam!

Here are the rules:

-Link back to the blogger who tagged you.

-Answer the 10 questions that blogger asks.

-Nominate 10 other blogger at the maximum.

-Let those Nominees know they were tagged.


Sam's questions to me:

1) What is your family’s strangest tradition? Hm... Our family really doesn't have many traditions, let alone strange ones. Unless you want to count my dad's crazy tradition of going to Walmart or someplace like that on CHRISTMAS EVE to get stocking stuffers. That may be somewhat crazy.

2) What is/was your favorite subject in school? My favorite subject has always been Bible, but lately I've been enjoying History. This year it's been all about Goverment and Economics. That's been pretty interesting.

3) What is your favorite book of the Bible? Either Psalms or Song of Solomon. I just love Psalms, and as for Song of Solomon, I'm such a sucker for love stories. ;)

4) Favorite cartoon/animation (now or as a kid)? I always loved Scooby Doo, but I also like Loony Tunes. One of those two.

5) Funnest song you've listened to? Non-Christian, it'd have to be Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson. Christian, Gold by Britt Nicole.

6) Do you speak any amount of any other language not including pig-latin? Well, I can't even speak pig-latin, so..... Hahaha actually I used to know a little Sign Language, but it's been such a long time since I've worked on it I've probably forgotten most of it other than the really simple stuff. I also know a little bit of Spanish, just because it's neccessary where we live. There's a lot of Hispanics here.

7) Was anyone in your family born in another country? Nope.

8) What nationality are you (besides American. I'm talking heritage.)? My Dad's side of the family is Scottish, and my Mom's side is German.

9) What was the last thing you saw in theaters?  Catching Fire. I LOVE the Hunger Games!

10) What song do you feel was written just for you? Wow. That's a deep question. :) There's actually a couple. Gold and All This Time by Britt Nicole, Play On by Carrie Underwood, The Climb by Miley Cyrus, and Reflection by Christina Aguilera.

Ok! Now for my 10 questions!

1) In your opinion, which holiday is more important for a Christian? Christmas or Easter?
2) What's your favorite book series?
3) Which do you prefer? Emailing or writing letters?
4) Which verse in the Bible has the most meaning to you?
5) What animals have you owned in your life?
6) What is/was your least favorite subject in school?
7) Who's your favorite Christian artist?
8) What was the last thing you saw in theaters?
9) Are you more of a Mama's or a Daddy's girl?
10) What's the strangest gift you've ever received?

And I tag:

Bethany and Sarah Fast,
Kayla Surber,
And everyone else I know that blogs has either done it recently or doesn't have time, so that's all. :D

Kayla

Update

I am SO sorry it's been so long since I've posted! Between sickness, music lessons, school and 20 blankets to make at all times, it's been pretty hectic. :) I have tons of pictures, but I'm not gonna post them tonight...

I thought I'd give an update on my Aunt Tracey. Thank you all for your prayers! For those of you from church, I know we've still been praying for her, but not many details have been given, so I thought I would update y'all.

She's doing really well. In fact, last weekend, she came down here for the whole day. That may not sound significant, but it is if you think about the fact that it's about an hour and 20 minutes from her house to ours, and before her surgery she couldn't sit in the truck at all. So to be able to sit for over an hour is a pretty big deal. She said the only pain she has is there's a teeny tiny knot in her back, but it's barely noticeable. I'm so grateful, since she's been in so much pain for such a long time. And her mood is much better now. She's back to herself. :)

My business is keeping me, well, busy. :) It's funny, I always seem to have so much to do, and yet my bank account always looks very empty. :D I enjoy what I do though, which I suppose is all that matters. It is hard when you're trying to save up for a car though. :) My parents are awesome, though, and said they'd match whatever I earn. :)

Thanksgiving was really nice, although it was hectic. Now that we live way out here, only have of the family will come out, so we always have to go into town, and to both of my grandparent's houses. We normally go to my mom's parent's for food, and to my dad's parent's to hang out. I like getting to see all of our family; ever since we moved out here we don't see them very often. Danielle was funny. Most of the family that was there except for the grandparents she didn't remember, so it was amusing watching her. One time my second cousin John picked her up, and she just stared at him for like 5 minutes straight with a blank look on her face. :D

Danielle is almost 11 months old. Holy cow. I can't believe she's almost a year old. And get this, she's walking. Yeah. She's walking. It's driving me crazy. She's growing up too fast. She stands now with no problems whatsoever, and is getting better and better at walking all the time. It's really cute, if I say "Danielle, give me a kiss," she'll turn and give me her forehead to kiss. Today she even turned and kissed me on the lips. It was so sweet. I love her so much. :)

School is going well, although I haven't been able to work on it though. I believe I'm still on schedule to graduate at the end of February though. That's actually kind of freaky to think about how close that is. I mean, that's like 2 and a half months. Everyone asks me what I'm going to do after I graduate. The truth is, I have no idea. Right now I'm just focused on graduating. :D I have considered maybe branching out from Etsy and starting my own website. I don't know yet though. I don't have any intentions of continuing any education after I graduate, so pretty much I can do whatever. I think I'd like to start some nursing home ministry, and possibly do some babysitting. I don't have any grand plans though.

Although, in order to graduate, I have to fix a little problem I have. See, back when I went to go help Aunt Tracey, I figured 'Well, she'll probably sleep a lot, so I'll bring the laptop so I can get some school done.' Well, I had too much to carry, and since I was only going to be there for one night before Hannah took over, I decided to leave it. Four of my discs were in their sleeves, and since my Geometry disc doesn't have one, I always keep it in the laptop, which is where it was. Well, the next day Hannah came to help, and she took the laptop with her to watch Monk. Well, somehow, my Geometry disc got lost. Hannah thought she put it in one of the Monk cases, but it's not there, and neither Grandma or Aunt Tracey have seen it. So, with only one unit out of 10 left, my disc is lost. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Actually, I've struggled a LOT with Geometry, and I really don't feel like I understand, so I'm actually hoping it stays lost. That way, we can go and get Geometry in the curriculum that I like way better, and feel like I understand. I'll have to start over again, but I can get it done pretty quickly. If we get it ordered quickly enough, I could still finish in February.

Violin is going well. I just keep working on my songs. Nothing new necessarily going on. I was going to play in Mrs. MacDonald's December recital last Friday, and she was going to accompany me, but she just felt like she hadn't put as much time as she needed to into the accompaniment part, and was just so busy getting ready for the recital, that we decided we'll do it at church for special music sometime next month. Fine with me. I'd much rather do it at church than at a recital. I know everyone at church, I don't know many people at the recital.

Voice is going SO well, and I'm so happy about it. I know it may sound easy (it did to me when I started), but it is seriously so much deeper than just singing (right Rachel?). I struggled with it for forever and ever. I've shed so many tears about it, and wanted to give up so many times. But things are finally looking up, and I'm so grateful.

And I feel like I need to talk about Mr. Addleman. He is the ONLY reason I didn't give up over a year ago. He is so encouraging, even when I'm totally screwing up. Even at my recital, when I messed up SO badly, he was such a big help. He didn't say anything like "You did great, don't worry about it", but he still made me feel better. After the recital, we both happened to be taking stuff out to our cars, and we were the only ones out there, so he pulled me aside and asked me what was going through my mind at the time. I told him I didn't want to think about it, or I'd start crying again (I already had 2 times that night). He told me some embarrassing stories from when he was my age during performances to illustrate, and he said "You know what? I messed up pretty badly, but the sun still was shining. I woke up the next day and put it behind me. Now you've got this experience under your belt, plus not to mention the fact that this is your first time playing and singing at the same time in front of people. You'll do the same thing. You'll wake up tomorrow, the sun will still be shining, and you can put this behind you."

Yeah, he's pretty great.

This is the first thing musically that has ever been hard for me. Music in general is easy for me. I picked up both violin and piano right away. Singing is the first thing that's been difficult for me, and that I've really had to work at. And like I said, if it weren't for Mr. Addleman, I would have given up so many lessons ago. I've shed a lot of tears in front of him, there's been a lot of hugs, and a lot of encouraging words. I think to myself all the time how I couldn't do this if anyone else were my teacher. And it certainly helps that he was my tee-ball coach when I was like 3 or 4, so we've known him and his family for years and years. It's weird though, before I started taking lessons, I barely knew him at all. I don't really remember him from tee-ball. Haha, I actually remember him from before tee-ball. Dad took me to a father-daughter conference, and he was speaking there. I remember Dad telling me "Hey Kayla, that's going to be your tee-ball coach", but I was busy with something else. See, they had punch there, and it had ice cream in it. And being like 3, punch with ice cream was the coolest thing EVER. So I don't remember anything else from that conference other than Dad telling me that, the ice cream punch, and being sad when Dad wouldn't let me have any more. :D But anyway, I'm getting off track. I just wanted to say how great Mr. Addleman is, and I absolutely love taking lessons from him. :)

I know Christmas is in like 2 weeks, but truthfully, I'm not really feeling in the Christmas spirit yet. Our house here doesn't have any outlets on the outside, so we can't put up lights. We can't have our regular tree because of Danielle. We have one to go on the table, but we haven't gotten that up yet. I did get to do some Christmas shopping for sibling today though, which was kinda' fun. :) Pretty much the only Christmas-y thing going on around here is Christmas music. Jonathan, Sarah, David and Annabeth are all playing in our church's Christmas service, so they practice a lot. Then there's Pandora, which is awesome. :D

Saturday we went to the zoo, which was fun. My aunt works at a nursing home, and they (or something to do with the nursing home) were hosting an event at the zoo. There was dinner, Christmas lights, and all kinds of cool stuff. It was fun. Neither David nor Annabeth remember the zoo, and it was Danielle's first time. They actually got pretty disappointed, because since it was so cold, NONE of the animals were out. Like none. I think the whole time we were there we saw peacocks, an otter, giraffes, and a duck. David was like "I don't like this zoo!" We had to explain to him that it was night, and it was cold, so the animals weren't out, and that we'd take him another time during the day. The dinner was actually awesome. They had beef, chicken, rice, brownies, rolls, and Pepsi. :D I love Pepsi. :)

I don't know how many of you use social media, but I thought I'd bring this up. I don't post pictures on here very often because I can't post from my iPad very easily, and it's really hard to load the pictures onto the computer (It's really had to explain). Well, in case any of you are interested, I do have Instagram. I post pictures on there all the time, because I can load them right from my phone. My username is kaylacam97. I also have a business one, which is kaylascorneretsy. Just thought y'all might be interested if you want to see more pictures. My main one is private though, so you have to request to follow me.

Ok, that's about all I have to say right now. I've got a little more work to do before I go to bed, and then we have to leave the house at 8:00 tomorrow for music lessons. We're also going to Dad's softball tournament tomorrow night, which'll be fun.

Oh! Also, my friend Sam tagged me for a questionnaire thing, so I'll be doing that soon!

Surgery, math and other random stuff

Wow, it's been busy around here! Well, I suppose not too busy compared to some people I know, but busy for us. :)

Last Saturday, something terrible happened. My phone screen shattered. And I mean shattered. It was terrible. No one knows what happened. I had only used it once that day, set it face down on the counter, and continued with the day. Well, later on I picked it up because I was going to take it with me to the store, and the screen was busted. I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how it happened, but the only thing I can think of is that people weren't paying attention and put dishes on it after breakfast. They were all piled up in that area, so that's the only explanation I can think of. Anyway, yesterday Dad and I took it to the Apple store to get it fixed, and we got my iPad fixed too (It was cracked because my uncle accidentally stepped on it about 2 months ago). The only problem was I actually ended up with new devices, so I've been having to get all my stuff on both of them. I can get back everything except my texts are gone, my contacts are gone (Rachel, please text me so I get your number again!!!!), and my notes are gone. The notes aren't a big deal, most of them were just ideas for new blanket combinations, and I remember most of them. The only major deal is that I lost my notes for my custom sizes. I kept track of all the blankets I've made, how to make them, and how much I've charged for them. I texted them to myself, because I think if I remember correctly they weren't wanting to email, and then I lost my texts. :( So my sizes are lost unfortunately. Oh well, it's not the end of the world. The only other thing I really lost is certain pictures of Danielle when she was little. Most of them are on the blog or Instagram, but there are certain ones I just couldn't bring myself to delete because she's so cute. :) I wanted to back everything up into iTunes, but it's not on the laptop anymore (long story). Ok, I'm done rambling about my phone now. It's fixed, and that's all that matters.

I've had my blankets on sale for awhile now, which has been nice. I had put them on sale recently, but then took them off, and then I decided to put them back on again. Mostly it's just because I have money to buy the stuff I need, but there are certain things I want to get but I can't because I don't have money for them. Like there are tons of new blankets I want to make, but don't have the money to buy the yarn for them. Oh well. I'm doing ok now. I just had a custom order this morning (light pink and light gray ripple), and I have another one that I'll set up on Friday once the lady gets payed. I love doing custom stuff. :) :)

I've really been focused on finishing school now that I've finally started 12th grade, and my parents made it so much easier for me. First they said that I didn't have to do Pre-Calculus since Calculus is a college course, and I don't have any intentions of going to college, but then they said this week I don't have to do Algebra 2 either!!!! Yay! So all I have to do is finish Geometry and I'm done with math! Yay! I'm hoping to graduate in February, but we'll see. I probably could graduate earlier, but with it being my last year of school, I don't want to rush too much. Plus I only do school 4 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) since I'm gone on Tuesday and Thursday, so I already have more to do as it is. I'm so close to being done I could taste it! I still love school, but I am anxious to be done. :)

My aunt has had major problems with her back for years, and Tuesday she finally had surgery so they could put some rods in her back. The surgery went well I hear. Apparently the doctor said she must have been in lots of pain because I guess there was a lot messed up back there. Anyway, she's coming home today, and then tomorrow I'm going to be with her. She's going to need someone with her at all times for up to 2 weeks I guess. Hannah and I are going to rotate helping her. I'll go tomorrow, be there Friday, then Hannah'll be with her Saturday and Sunday. After that I don't know. :) To everyone from church, thank you all so much for your prayers for Aunt Tracy! I know she and Uncle Robert really appreciate them. :)

Oh, one more thing. Thank you all for your prayers about the situation with Dad's customer. I decided I really don't have much of a choice but to make them, which I am. It really isn't that big of a deal in retrospect, it's just a pain because I don't really have that much time to make them. But, I suppose I'll figure it out. :)

Ok, I suppose that's all for now. I've got to finish working on a blanket, and then I've got to figure out what I'm taking with me tomorrow. :)

Pictures Update

 

So, I finally sat down and got all of the pictures from my phone onto the computer. Yay! So I can post some pictures!

 

So, just so ya'll know, in case you don't have experience in this area, taking selfies is REALLY awkward. But I don't have any good pictures of me ever, so I have to take some every once in awhile....

 

 

This is the new violin concerto my teacher asked me to learn a couple weeks ago. I've learned it, and got it pretty much memorized. It's so much fun to play. Yesterday at my lesson we did a duet for this song, and it was so awesome. :)

 

 

(I so love my violin)

 

 

Yesterday I also had a pretty awesome opportunity. I got to teach a class! My teacher had to leave early yesterday, and realized halfway through our duet that she forgot to call and cancel with a certain group. When she found out that I knew one of the kids (he goes to our church, and just started taking lessons with her), she asked me if I could teach. So, I took Jonathan (who was with me) over to piano and then came back to the school. There were 3 boys in the class, and they were all pretty little. I think the oldest one was probably 7. Miss Anna said that they were just learning rhythm stuff, so that was pretty easy. I've seen her teach little kids before, so I had a pretty good idea of what she did.

 

One of the kids wouldn't say a word, and the other one wouldn't stop talking. Nate (the one kid I did know) was the only one who behaved. :) The first one who got there was the one who wouldn't talk. I kept trying to get him to tell me what Miss Anna had been teaching him, but since he wouldn't say anything, we basically just sat there staring at each other until Nate got there. :D His parents were trying to get him to talk, but he wasn't having any of it. I think he was scared of me. :D

 

I was so glad that Mrs. Fox (Nate's mom) was there. She was such a big help. She was telling me everything that Miss Anna was teaching them, and was so helpful. If she wasn't there I would have been at such a loss. I've never taught anything before, but I'm glad that they were all beginners.

 

 

These are just some flowers I bought for Mom a couple weeks ago, and I got a pretty picture of them. :)

 

 

Dad and I at my voice recital a couple weeks ago. I actually can't think of any pictures other than this one that we have of just Dad and I.

 

 

I don't know how well you can see this, but Danielle has started crawling, and crawled under the piano bench when Sarah was playing. So I got out my phone to take a picture, and she moved. I told Sarah to take her and put her back under for the sake of a picture, and needless to say, she was NOT happy about it. :)

 

 

A view from our horse corrall. I took pictures of them for ya'll, but I was having a hard time getting those on the computer. I'll try again later. But you can see Skippy in this picture.

 

Last Sunday we stayed home from church (Danielle was sick, and Dad didn't want only some of us going), and had a bonfire. We played games, roasted marshmallows, and Dad told ghost stories. They were actually pretty good stories, except, as is characteristic with my Dad, they all ended with the main character getting eatern. :D Oh well. :) It was nice to get to use our firepit. Since we built it last October or November (pictures here), we've only gotten to use it three times. It was nice to sit out there again. :)

 

 

And of course, I have to end with a picture of my gorgeous sister, because you know, that's how I think every post should end. :) This was taken the day of my recital too. Hannah got her all dressed up, and she even left the headband on the whole night. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer request

If ya'll think about it, I have something I need you guys to pray about for me. Also, I kind of need to just blow off some steam.

This is kind of a long story, but I'm going to try to explain it so you understand. It's kind of complicated.

Earlier this year (like probably February or March, I don't remember exactly), I went to work with Dad, and I happened to go to an appointment with a realtor who's bought blankets from me before. I'd never actually met him before, but he had bought blankets 2 times (I think) before. He decided then and there that he wanted to order 4 more. Ok, great! He paid me then and there, and we talked about what he wanted. He said that pretty much I could do whatever I wanted, but he did have a couple guidelines. He wanted 2 for boys and 2 for girls, he wanted one of them to be a shell, and he wanted one of them to be a specific blanket (one that I'd made for him before). So I got started. I made one a peach, light pink and white shell, I made one a navy and white ripple (which has actually become my most popular blanket the last couple months), one was the specific one he wanted (a dark blue and dark green stripe), and one was a white, paddy green and rose pink (think watermelon) ripple. So I followed his guidelines, right?

Well, not long after he got the blankets, Dad tells me that he wasn't happy with them. He didn't say why specifically, he just didn't like them. I was somewhat confused because he told me I could do whatever I wanted, but whatever. Dad had given him my business card, and he was supposed to email me and tell me what he wanted this time.

Well, the end of July I did get an email. He said that his wife wanted 2 light pink and white striped blankets, and 2 light blue and white striped, but if I couldn't do the blue ones than he wanted 2 turquoise and white ripple blankets instead. So ok. I made the blankets, and put a fringe edge on them, since that's what on the original listing. Everything was fine, and I sent them with Dad.

Well, Dad hasn't seen him much recently, but he saw him today, and so he got the new blankets and gave him the old ones back. Well, wouldn't you know it,  I got another email today, and guess what? He wasn't happy with these either. He said that he didn't want the holes in the blankets, and he didn't want the fringe. He told me he wanted 2 light pink, bright pink and white ripples and 2 aqua and white ripples. Does that sound like it's anything like the blankets he asked for before? They're completely different!!!!! I mean, making them over once wasn't so bad, but twice? This is 12 blankets he's asked me to make so far. I've done exactly what he's wanted twice before, but for some reason he's not happy. Dad actually says he thinks it has to do with his wife. Ugh! It's so frustrating. I mean, what do I do in this situation? It seems rather ridiculous to make another 4 blankets for him, but it seems like bad business to tell him "I made what you ordered, suck it up." I'm just so frustrated. This is the third batch he's asked me to make. And you know what's weird? The first 2 times he ordered blankets from me, he was perfectly happy with them. No complaints whatsoever. And now suddenly I can't make him happy.

Sorry, because I know that I'm rambling. I just need to blow off some steam. Today I went from almost crying to want to throw something into the wall to being resigned about. If ya'll could pray for me, I'd so appreciate it. I need prayers for patience, and that I'll have the right words to say (I haven't replied to his email yet). It's just rather discouraging. I've had customers before who haven't been happy (I don't think it's ever been my fault,  just like in this instance), but every time we came to an agreement. This time it just seems like I can't please him!

Ok, I'm done now. Again, prayers would so be appreciated.

Life update

My life has been kind of been interesting lately. There have been ups and downs. There have been great times, and there have been some not so great times. But, God has been helping me through it, and I've certainly been learning to trust Him in the process. :)

One of my favorite ups lately has been that I got my license!!!! I'm really liking that, and I think Mom is too. Yesterday while everyone had piano lessons (I'm the only one who doesn't have lessons, so I just sit there for 2 hours), I went to Walmart to get the oil changed in the van (it was WAY overdue) and pick up some stuff for Mom. That was fun, although I think Mom wasn't sure I'd make it home. :D She had me call her both when I got there and when I left. :) At least I know she loved me. :)

I had a voice recital last Friday which was...... Well, I'm not sure how to put it. It was good, but it was bad at the same time. It was good in that I got all positive feedback, which was awesome, plus I got the learning experience, but at the same time I messed up so badly. I did Who Am I, and I played the piano too, instead of singing to a track or having Mr. Addleman accompany me. I've played in public before, and I've sang in public before, but I've never done both at the same time. I'm not sure if that helped or made it worse. I think it may have helped in that I didn't have to just stand there, but it may have made it worse in that I wasn't able to completely and fully focus on my singing. I'm not sure. Anyway, I was doing fine nervousness wise until the person who performed before me got up. Then it was like a huge wave of nervousness just hit me all at once, and I just wasn't able to get rid of it. My voice was shaking throughout the whole song... We have a video, but I can't bring myself to watch it. I'm kind of resigned to how I did, and I'm worried if I watch it all go back into self-pity mode. :( I'm SO insecure about my voice, and I'm just so blessed to have friends and family who encourage me in that area.

I've started violin again, and I'm so loving it. I missed it so much when I wasn't able to play. You seem something happened during the summer (when I didn't have lessons) to my violin, and I wasn't able to play it. I think it had something to do with the humidity. Anyway, my violin was out of tune, but the pegs were so stuck I couldn't turn them. So I couldn't play. Well, time for lessons to start again rolled around, and I brought my violin to my teacher to see if she could fix it. Well, she couldn't, and suggested we take it to a certain place in town so they could fix it. Well, they supposedly did. They filed the pegs, and replaced the bridge, which I guess had gotten warped. Well, Hannah had had a sleepover at my grandma's house the night before, so went to get her, and Mom wanted me to try my violin out while we were there. So, I got it out, and it went out of tune again. One turn of one peg, and the whole thing fell apart. Like seriously. The strings came out, the bridge fell off, the tailpiece completely unattached itself from the violin, the works. I was so sad. Well, I couldn't do anything about it, so I had to just leave it. The next week my teacher looked at it, and said it was easily fixable, and during my lesson let me borrow one from the school. That afternoon we took it to a different place to fix it. Turns out one of the screws that was holding the tailpiece on was stripped, so it just came off.

Anyway, my violin is fixed now, which I'm so thankful for. I didn't realize how much I missed playing. In 3 lessons I've gone through 3 songs, which is so much faster than I went the first 2 years. In some ways I like having lessons by myself one, and in some ways I don't. But, Hannah likes doing cello so much more than violin, so I'm happy.

I'm finally a senior! I started 12th grade, and I'm so happy to be doing something other than just math. I still have math to do, but it's certainly nice to be doing my other subjects too. So far it's pretty easy, but I'm doing Physics for science, and I was told by a certain friend that Physics is pretty terrible. And that coming from someone who's going to college to become a microbiologist. Ugh.

Danielle is crawling, and loving it. She never. stops. moving. And it certainly keeps us on our toes. :) She's loving discovering all the stuff that she couldn't get to before, especially the tile. She loves crawling on the tile. :)

Hannah started cello lessons this year, and loves it. It's a group class with 5 students in it, which I think she likes more than individual lessons. She especially loves it that one of the girls in the class goes to our church, and we've known their family for several years. That's just a bonus. :)

We got a third horse! Her name is Shiloh. The guy who gave us the first 2 came over last weekend, and brought this one. We were just supposed to look at her, but wouldn't you know it, she ended up staying. She's such a pretty horse. She didn't have a name, and Mom came up with Shiloh. I think it's a really nice name. She's a paint horse, and her hair is so soft.

My business has been going ok overall. It's been somewhat slow, but I suppose that's good. I'm not super overwhelmed. I have a couple custom orders that I'm doing, which is fun. Like I've said before, I love doing color combinations that other people have come up with. Plus, I can take pics of those blankets and list them eventually.

Ok, I've got to go now. I've got to finish my school today and then I'm off to the post office and Safeway! We're going to a fellowship/church service/camp out tomorrow, and I hope to have tons of pics from that!

Newest Danielle Pics

I absolutely adore my little sis. These are some of the pictures I've gotten of her lately.

 

Sleeping on Sarah's bed

 

It's so cute. She knows when I hold my phone up to her that I'm taking a picture of her and to smile. It's so adorable!

 

 

 

 

And my personal favorite...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day Fireworks

Yes, I know. Labor Day was awhile ago, but I've had these pictures on my phone for awhile now, and I really wanted to post them.

Our small town has an amazing fireworks show every year on the 4th of July. Well, this year it was too windy, and they couldn't do them, so they postponed them until Labor Day. We had 2 families over for dinner, and met another one at the fireworks show. I wish I had gotten pictures of the actual fellowship, but at least I have fireworks pics. The show was quite a bit shorter this year than last year, but I'm pretty sure they were short on funds. They have to pay $1 million for insurance, since they do the show at the only high school in town.

Ok, enough blabbing. Now for the pictures!

 

I love the colors in this one

 

This one was way bigger than I was expecting, and I didn't get the whole thing. :D

 

Purple :)

 

I love the clarity of this one. I took way more pictures than I'm posting, but I had to delete most of them because they were all blurry.

 

And my favorite by far. :) This was from the finale at the end. Hope you enjoyed!

Chicks!!!!

So yeah, I've been kind of a bad blogger. I've tried to get some good posts done lately, but I'm just never able to finish them. So here I am, trying once again to actually update ya'll! :)

So yes, the horses did come. I just don't have any pictures of them. They're all on the camera, and we don't know where the cord is. Tomorrow I'll go out and take some to show you. Once I do that I'll upload them and tell ya'll about them. :)

The chicks also came awhile ago! We ordered 75, but some of them died on the trip here. I think we ended up with 63.

 

They're quite a bit bigger now... I'll take some more pics of them too. But I wanted to show you these. Aren't they cute? :) :)

Horses are a no-show

As you can probably tell, due to my lack of posting about them, that the horses haven't come yet. The person who was supposed to give them to us couldn't come last weekend. I think it's good because it gives us more time to get ready. So, they may come this weekend (Sunday probably, since Sarah, Dad and I are at my grandma's house right now getting ready to go to the first U of A football game {yay!}, and tomorrow we're in town all day), but probably next weekend. So, as soon as they come I WILL post pictures! Cross my heart. :) I'm excited for them to come, and can't wait to share them with all of you!

Anyway, just wanted to give you an update and let you know that the horses have not come yet. Just didn't want you to think I was ignoring you or anything. :)

A New Bible

When I got saved about 5 or 6 years ago, Dad bought me a beautifyl Bible. A big study Bible with my name engraved in gold on the front. It's gorgeous. And I still have it and love it. But unfortunately, it's showing signs of wear. Pages are ripping, the cover is bent, and it's not looking as great now as it was. Most of the wear and tear comes from taking it to church. It goes in a big bag with all of the other Bibles, and sometimes gets dropped or things like that. I want to keep it nice, since it's very special for me, so I decided it was time to get a new one. I've been wanting to get one for awhile, and had been thinking about it, but I just hadn't.

Well, the other day I got an email from Thomas Nelson. It said:

"Thank you for downloading the New King James Version translation on YouVersion. We hope you enjoy reading the Bible and discover a clearer understanding of God's Word. To help further your Bible engagement we would like to extend a special offer from Thomas Nelson Bibles of 30% off any Bible or Biblical reference book at thomasnelson.com"

And so, they gave me a 30% off coupon! Yay! So, of course, I went on and looked at the Bibles. I got permission from Mom, and found this one:

 

http://www.thomasnelson.com/bibles/nkjv-ultraslim-bible.html

 

It's such a pretty color, and it's supposedly small, which is good. I'm pretty excited for it to come. :)

 

 

Etsy Talk

Like I have said in previous posts, I enjoy talking about my business, so I'm going to. :)
My blanket count right now is actually pretty low. I only have 8 blankets to make for orders, plus 4 for someone Dad works with. So, I don't have much to do right now, which makes me HAPPY!!! I love doing this, but there are a lot of other things I want to do too.

For instance, I've had some time to work on new blankets. I have a show I want to do the beginning of October, but since I don't have any blankets in stock, I need something to sell. So, I've been working on some new stuff. The good thing is, sales are somewhat slow, so I can do that without it putting me behind. I've got one done, and one in progress. One is a brown and bright pink shell, and one is a light pink, light yellow and lavender shell. I like both of them quite a bit. As soon as I get pics I'll post them. But anyway, I've been having a lot of fun coming up with new color combinations. I also figured out how to do the shell with a bigger size hook, but still make it the same size. The shells take the longest by far, but this cuts down on quite a bit of time.

I've actually had to do a lot of figuring stuff out lately. I figured out how to modify the shell, and I have 2 orders right now that are for custom sizes. I like getting to come up with new sizes, although they're pretty much always bigger, which means they take me more time. But it took me forever after I started doing custom orders to figure out that I should write down how many chains I did, how many rows I did, as well as how much I charged for it. So now I have a very nice little repertoire of sizes. It makes my life SO much easier. :) Unfotunately, both of these happen to be sizes I haven't done already. :D Oh well. :)

This question is more for people that know my shop, and found me through Etsy, but it may apply for everyone. I'm curious. What are some color combinations that you think would be pretty that I could add to my shop? I've got more ideas than I can count, but I can't tell you how many times I've had people custom order colors, and I've gone, "Wow, I would have never thought of that, but that looks amazing!!" So I'm asking. Are there any colors that you think would be pretty together?

Ok, I guess that's all I have to say right now. It's been pretty slow lately, so there isn't much to talk about. :) Adios!!!

A new addition

Hey ya'll!!!!! Sorry it's been so long since I've done a decent post! Things have been so crazy around here lately. Why you may ask? Because we're getting....

*drumroll*

Horses!!!!!

Yup, this weekend 2 horses are coming to live with us. Someone that Dad works with is giving them to us. They're both boys, and they're 19 and 20, I believe. So they're older, but that's good because they'll be good with the little kids.

So, we've spent over 2 weeks now getting ready. Because we had absolutely nothing ready for any sort of large animals. Like, nothing. No fence, no shelter, nothing. So we had to start from scratch. Another person that Dad knows (you'd be surprised at how many people he knows) had some really cool panels that he sold us for really cheap. They involve cutting, grinding and welding before they're ready for a fence, but they're still really cool. The fence is almost done, and they're putting a roof on the shelter. I say they, because truthfully I haven't been doing much to help. Because I have blankets I have to get done and stuff, Mom decided to put me inside. So I work on the cooking, cleaning, laundry and taking care of Danielle, and they work outside. Fine with me! Besides, after 2 weeks of seeing pretty much just me during the day, Danielle is finally starting to like me. :)

Things were going well, and they were almost done, but we had kind of a blow. Yesterday the guy who is giving us the horses came over, and there's a LOT to modify. I would explain, but it's hard without pictures, which unfortunately I don't have right now. Let's just say there's a lot more work to do. But that's ok, we want the horses to be safe and not hurt themselves.

And that's why I've been gone! I will take TONS of pictures on Saturday (or Sunday) when they come. Everyone's pretty excited, except for Jonathan. He's never wanted horses. But I'm sure he'll warm up to the idea once he gets to know them!

Who Am I

So, Monday I went to my dear friend Rachel's house, and we did some recording! She has all this amazing equipment, and she was kind enough to let me use it. I spent a couple hours there, and we came out with this song. I'm pretty happy with it overall. It's a lot higher key than I'm normally comfortable with, although I'm didn't have to strain to sing it at all. Also, there are a lot of flat notes, but hopefully they're not too noticeable. Would ya'll listen to it and give me some opinions? I'm singing the melody, and Rachel's doing the piano and harmony. (Btw, isn't the piano AMAZING?!? I love hearing Rachel play.)

Who Am I by user75024389

Thanks Rachel for letting me come!!! (And btw, I already know what song I want to do next hehehe)

My favorite song of the week: The Lost Get Found

So, I thought it would be fun to start posting what my favorite songs happens to be every week! The song I'm starting out with has been my favorite for a long time: I sing it all the time, and I've worked on it in voice lessons for a couple weeks now. This one is "The Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole, who happens to be my favore singer EVER right now. And this is my favorite song by her. Enjoy!!

 

Kayla

A Special Opportunity

So, I might have a special opportunity coming up in the next couple months. I don't know if it'll happen, but I'd sure be happy if I did.

So, Mon had been talking about getting us into 4-H this year. I did it briefly a couple years ago, which was fun, but no one else has. So, we were gonna start this year. Mom went to get some more rock for our driveway the other day, and was talking with the lady there about it, because her kids do 4-H. Well, we thought it started in September, but here it starts in January, because our fair here is at the end of September.

Well, Mom and I had talked briefly before about what I would be involved with. Nothing really suited me except for cake decorating and crochet. The cake decorating sounds awesome, but Mom and I were concerned that the crochet would be very beginner oriented, and I would get bored. Then Mom came up with an idea. I could help teach. Sure, why not? I know enough to help teach a beginner class.

So back to the rock lady. She and Mom started talking about me and the crochet (I wasn't there), and the lady said that she didn't think they had a crochet class, (even though the website said they did), but that if someone was willing to teach it, they'd jump all over it. So, there may, just may, be an opportunity for me to teach it all. by. myself. I'm pretty jazzed. I think it'd be so much fun to do. I've wanted to start teaching for the longest time, but I never have had the chance. And now,  I might! We'll have to wait and see. Again, it doesn't start till January, but the lady suggested that we come to this month's meeting and talk to some people. I would be do excited if I could do this. Plus, it would give me an opportunity to meet people. I haven't met any other girls since we moved here. It would be nice to get to know some people...

What do you think? I this cool or what?!?

Etsy Talk

So I'm finally cutting down on the amount of blankets to make. I'm a little sad, because in the last 2 weeks I've only sold 2 blankets, but I am grateful to not have so many to make. I have a couple custom orders to make, 4 for one of Dad's realtors that he works with, (He bought 4 awhile ago, then decided he didn't like them, so is trading them) and a blanket to make that is going to Hawaii! 

One of the coolest things about this business is knowing that stuff that I've put so much time and effort into are being used by babies all over the world. :) It's a really cool feeling. I've shipped to Qatar, Australia (several times), New Zealand, France, Canada more times than I can count, and tons of other places, it's really pretty cool. I'm so glad I decided to start shipping internationally. 

I finished 2 blankets today, which made me pretty happy. One was close to being done, but it's still a good feeling to finish it. And now I'm starting on a third. A lot of people need them by a certain time, so unfortunately I'm having to move some people up to get them to them on time. I feel bad for making other people wait, but what can I do? If someone needs it for a baby shower, it can't be late. I've been having a lot of people ask when their blankets are going to be shipped. Thankfully pretty much everyone is so  nice about it, and completely understand.

I did have one customer today, that asked me, and was pretty rude about it. Even thought I made it very clear to them when they purchased that it was going to be awhile, (that was 3 weeks ago) they were very rude and said that they didn't appreciate having to wait almost a month. I replied and said as carefully as I can, that I have 15 + blankets to make at any given time, and I'm having to make pretty much a blanket every day to keep up. I tried to be very professional with her, and tell her that I don't mess around, that I crochet every spare minute I get, and that I had other people ahead of her that I need to take into consideration. And then I didn't say this, but there's also the fact that I have 6 siblings, I'm still in high school, and to get pretty much all my colors I have to drive 90 miles. Do you think I handled it well? I'm not used to having people be rude with me. Most people are so nice and tell me that it's fine, and whenever I can get it will be perfect. It's a little unnerving. 

Ok,  I'm done now. I have one more question though. Does it bother you all when I talk about my blankets? I'm sure it probably bores some people. It just means a lot to me, so I like to talk about it. What are your opinions?

Of Water Parks

Blog post

Sorry, but I have to make this quick. Yesterday morning when we came back here after going to the water park Friday, I forgot my charger. It's a new charger Apple came out with, and we don't have any others in the house. So my battery is almost dead. I'll get it tonight when we go back in for church, but I didn't want to wait. I figured I needed to get a post up pretty quick.

The water park was pretty fun, but guess what? I left my iPad in the car. :( oh well. My aunt took pics.... I'll ask her to email them to me. 

Anyway, it was fun, although truthfully I was lonely most of the time. Everybody had their own "groups" that they were hanging out with, except me. Every time I turned around the person I was hanging out with was gone... Plus not to mention the fact that I could never find anyone. You'd think with 19 of us altogether I'd be able to hang out with someone... The person I'd normally hang out with didn't come, so.... It was still pretty fun though. The slides are awesome, although after taking a ramp up, and then climbing 2 flights of stairs to get to the top of the slide... By the end of the day I thought I might pass out. :D I'm actually amazed my legs weren't screaming yesterday. :D

We went out about noon and ate lunch in the car. Everybody had different stuff, and we shared a bunch with each other. Pretty much we just had a bunch of snacks, which was neat. After lunch we got cupcakes and sang to Mrs. MacDonald. It happened to be her birthday that day. :) 

We went back in the park, and played for about another hour. At about a quarter to 2, all of the lifeguards started running and blowing their whistles all at the same time. It was pretty freaky actually. Turns out there was lightning less than 10 miles away, so everyone had to leave the water for at least 35 minutes. We were planning on leaving at 2 anyway, but I have to say it was a little disappointing to have to leave early because of lightning. 

We got back to the town house late, and Mom and Dad were both worn out and decided to sleep there instead of going back home like we had originally planned. So we rented some movies, and just relaxed.

In other words, it wad a pretty crazy day. :) I was so happy to just be able to relax yesterday. I got 2 blankets done, which was nice. I only have 14to go right now. That's the fewest I've had in over a month and a half, which makes me pretty happy. :) I think it makes my parents happy too, because it means just that many less trips to Walmart. :D

Ok, I'm done rambling now. Adios!!!

My birthday and other random stuff

So, I got my new iPad a few days early!!!! When I was in town with Dad on Tuesday, we had time between appointments, so we went by to get it. I love it. :) I'm still trying to get everything set up right now.... My Safari bookmarks, my Bible app, my Etsy app......... It's kinda fun actually. So anyway, like I said, it's a lot easier to blog with. Hooray!!!! 

My birthday was amazing. I wish I had a bunch of pictures, but I only have a couple. Like I said in a previous post, I has a chocolate peanut butter cup smoothie for breakfast. Ah was it amazing!!! Anyone who knows me knows I L O V E chocolate and peanut butter. So that was like heaven. 

Anyway, not much actually happened on my birthday. It was actually a pretty normal day. School, weeding the garden, devotions... But we did get to go get fudge. Hahaha :D There's a little country store down here that makes amazing fudge, and I convinced Mom to take me. :) I got guess what? Chocolate peanut butter fudge. :D I actually wanted orange cream, but they didn't have any that day. So I went with that. 

Oh! I never talked about church! So at our church we always make sure to sing to anyone who's had a birthday in the last week, or has one coming up. Well, Dad always makes sure to do announcements (the time we do it) when one of us kids has a birthday, because he loves making jokes about us and embarrassing us and stuff in his usual Mr. Cameron way. So of course, he did them this time. I was actually pleasantly surprised when instead of making jokes, he brought me up, read some scripture, and them gave me my purity ring. It was pretty sweet actually. I wasn't expecting it at all. I knew I was getting a purity ring, I even knew what it looked like, but I wasn't expecting it yet. It was pretty sweet of Dad. I'll have pictures of it at the end.  

Yesterday was a pretty nice day. I got up, got ready, and Dad and I left at 6:30. We went to 2 houses, and then my voice lesson. It went well, although it was uncomfortable at times. What he's trying to do is get me more comfortable singing in front of people, so he decided to video me. Yeah, I kinda hated that. I'm just not that good at singing in front of anyone, and it was really weird to have him video me singing. But hey, at least I was singing my favorite song ever at the time. :)

After lessons we went to Walmart, where I got yarn, something to fix my ring, (it's a little big) and I looked for a new swimsuit top, but the only ones I could find went down way too low in the back. I don't get how people could wear that stuff. :(

Hmm... Let's see. After Walmart we had another appointment, and then we went to get the iPad. We weren't there very long, so I just had time to pick it up, drop off the check, and pick up my violin. I had sent it with them on Sunday because there was something wrong with it, and I couldn't get it to work. But thankfully Will fixed it so everything was good.

After we left there we went to another appointment, and then to Walmart again to get a case for the iPad. Then we went to dinner. Dad decided to take me out for my birthday. Well, we couldn't decide on where to go all day long, so at the last appointment Dad asked the people there. Well, they both (the realtor and the home inspector) came up with a steak house close by. So, we went there. Felt kinda stupid actually, because I had never been to a steakhouse before, and so the menu meant nothing to me. Dad had to tell me what was good. I ended up getting a Filet Mignon (I think that's how it's spelled) with a baked potato and a salad. Then we got ice cream for dessert. I was so stuffed, but it was good. 

And that was my Tuesday. They're always so busy. Sorry if I bored you with it. It's interesting to me anyway. :)

Um, I guess that's it. Here's the pictures!!!