Thursday, April 5, 2012
You know what?
I have a REALLY spoiled little sister. You know how I know? Because today I called her my little cuite- patootie, and you know what she said? "No Kayla. Pretty-patootie!" :)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Wow
Can you believe it's already April? I can't. And that it's 2012? Nope. Time has gone by so fast. I remember when it was New Year's Day. Hey, I remember New Year's 2010! I think it's amazing how sometimes time goes so slowly, like when your birthday is a week away, or when you're watching a football game, your team is up with 20 seconds to go, and it seems like the game will NEVER end! Or then there's the times when it goes so fast, like when you are at a friend's house, and before you know it it's 8:00 at night, and time to leave.
Time is a funny thing. Every single day you only have 24 hours. That's it. No more, no less. And yet, sometimes it seems like there's 48 hours in a day while other times it seems like there's only 2. :) But not only does it seem like the days go by fast, so do the weeks, months, years even. Hence the fact that I'm shocked it's already April! :D
We've done some pretty awesome things so far this year. We've hosted a surprise party, where I got to sing in public for the first time, (scary! :D) we went to the Gaslight Theatre with some of my family, we've been to Family Fun Days twice, we've been to a friend's house for dinner, where we had a BLAST, 3 members of our family have had birthdays, and that's just to name a few. Plus, I can think of several things that we're doing this year. My great-great aunt is coming to visit sometime soon, we just don't know when yet, I have 2 recitals that I'm going to perform in in May, our aunt and cousins are coming to visit from the Middle East for the summer, I'll turn 15 in July, and that's just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm pretty grateful to God for giving us such a great life with great friends and family to share it with. :)
Time is a funny thing. Every single day you only have 24 hours. That's it. No more, no less. And yet, sometimes it seems like there's 48 hours in a day while other times it seems like there's only 2. :) But not only does it seem like the days go by fast, so do the weeks, months, years even. Hence the fact that I'm shocked it's already April! :D
We've done some pretty awesome things so far this year. We've hosted a surprise party, where I got to sing in public for the first time, (scary! :D) we went to the Gaslight Theatre with some of my family, we've been to Family Fun Days twice, we've been to a friend's house for dinner, where we had a BLAST, 3 members of our family have had birthdays, and that's just to name a few. Plus, I can think of several things that we're doing this year. My great-great aunt is coming to visit sometime soon, we just don't know when yet, I have 2 recitals that I'm going to perform in in May, our aunt and cousins are coming to visit from the Middle East for the summer, I'll turn 15 in July, and that's just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm pretty grateful to God for giving us such a great life with great friends and family to share it with. :)
Monday, April 2, 2012
Howdy!
Hey guys. Sorry, I meant to post about Family Fun Days last weekend, but every time I tried for one reason or another the pictures wouldn't load. And since it's been such a long time since I've posted pictures, I didn't think that you would want ANOTHER word-only post. The only problem is... I don't have any pictures for this post either! (hehehe) Sorry guys. :) Part of the problem is that most of the pictures are taken on my mom's camera, which is a really nice, expensive camera, and the pictures are actually too big to load onto Blogger. It really stinks. It takes such nice pictures, but then I can't load them onto anything. Rats.
Let's see... what should I talk about? Well, I guess I can find some stuff :) I have a way of finding PLENTY to talk about when I don't think I do. :D
Oh, let's start out with this... I'm really excited because starting Wednesday I'm going to start taking voice lessons! I've been wanting too for a long time, but I haven't had a chance. I'll be taking them from my pastor, who also happens to be one of the best singers I've ever heard. That's probably why he's our worship leader too. :) But anyway, remember how in my last post (or maybe it was the one before that, I don't know) I mentioned a recital that I was going to sing in? Well, last week after church I asked Mr. Addleman if he could help me try to pick a song that would be good for my range... and it turned into an hour-long voice lesson. :) It was SO much fun! I love, love, LOVE to sing, but I've never actually had any formal training. So it was a really new and fun experience. On the way home from church I heard Mom talking to Dad about maybe doing voice lessons, and now I'm taking them! We decided to start this Wednesday because it was the first week of the month. I'm kinda' nervous, but really excited too. So, wish me luck for that! :)
Hm... What else could I talk about? Well, how about I talk about our weekend? THAT was an adventure! Dad took Friday off so we could go down to the farm for the weekend. So, Friday morning we hopped in the car and headed down... only to discover when we got there that we didn't have any water. Yeah, not good. Both Dad and Jonathan tried to fix it, but they couldn't. And that means it was REALLY broken, because Dad can fix anything. I'm not kidding. Anything. It's really nice. But this time it was too much for him, and so we had to call in a well-guy. We have our own well on the property, which is really nice, but you can't just call the water company and see if it's a problem on their end when it's not working. The problem was that he wasn't going to be able to come until 8:30 Saturday morning, so we decided we couldn't stay there, and decided to go home and come back the next morning.
So, while this was all happening with the water, we were also having electricity problems. Yeah, seriously. It's not that the electricity wasn't working, it was that Dad wanted to do some stuff with it, and it wasn't quite working the way he wanted it to. The boy's and girl's rooms, which are right across from each other at the house down there, were on the same breaker, and so every night when we would both have the lights, the fans or the heaters, depending on what time of year, and stuff like that on, things would short out, and that's not very safe. So, Dad was trying to split them, and it wasn't working so well. He was really frustrated by both that and the water, and so we decided it would just be better to go.
And while THAT was happening, a truck load of gravel was delivered to the house, and quite a few of us spent a long time shoveling it all out. When we had first gotten there, we found 3 nails outside on the ground, and Dad decided it was time that we go get gravel. They aren't all nails from us, Mom says that she thinks the only thing that was ever farmed on that property was nails. :) I'm not kidding. Over the almost 5 years that we've owned that place, we have picked up about 6 5-gallon buckets on nails. I'm not kidding. They're all over the place, just sitting there. We've never gotten one in our tires before, (thank the Lord) but other people that have come over have. We even have some friends that, when they come, park all the way at the end of the driveway because of the nails. They won't even drive the car up to the house. That's how bad it is. So we went to go get gravel. That didn't take long, and they delivered it about 2:00. My hands are STILL somewhat red and blistered from shoveling so much rock. :) AND, we still have another truckload coming! They aren't open on Saturday or Sunday, and it was too late in the afternoon to bring the other truck load, so they are going to bring it today. We aren't going down there though, we'll wait until the next time we go down there to deal with it, which will probably be weekend-after-next since next weekend is Easter.
So, about 6:00 we left, grabbed Wendy's for dinner, and went home. The next morning we got up and left around 6:30, and then got delayed for about 20 minutes on the freeway because of construction. So I bet you're thinking by now, 'Could it have gotten any worse?' well, that's kinda' what I was thinking. Well, let me tell you now, it did. But I'll talk about that later. Not long after we got there, the well guy came. It didn't' take him too long, and he to the water back on. I don't know what he did, because I wasn't out there, but I CAN tell you it only took about 15 minutes for him to do it. So he left, and we kept going on with our day. Dad kept working on electrical stuff, and so he and Jonathan went up into the attic to work on splitting the wires while I stood down at the breaker box and turned breakers off when he told me to. It took a few hours, but Dad got that worked out, and people started showering and stuff so we could go to dinner. Dad said that since Jonathan did most of the work that day, that he to to pick where we went. He wanted to go to a new cafe in town, but they were closed, so we went to this place called the dining car instead. It's a old caboose railroad car that they turned into a restaurant. It's a really neat place. The room that we always sit in, (because it's the only one with tables big enough to fit us) has a tv in it, and while we were waiting for our food we were watching the Ohio St. vs Kansas game. Both of my mom's parents graduated from Ohio St. and so they really like it. They even have a Ohio State bathroom! Yeah, they're devoted fans. So the fact that Ohio State was in the Final Four was pretty exciting. I was actually kinda' upset about leaving that weekend because I wanted to see the game, but it turned out we got to see it anyway! Well, the first half anyways. It was pretty upsetting that they lost by 2 points. :( But getting back to my story, after we left the restaurant we went home and went to bed.
Now, I still have some more story to tell, but since this post is getting awfully long, and you're probably bored out of your brain, I'll sign off for now. I'll finish writing the story later today, ok?
Let's see... what should I talk about? Well, I guess I can find some stuff :) I have a way of finding PLENTY to talk about when I don't think I do. :D
Oh, let's start out with this... I'm really excited because starting Wednesday I'm going to start taking voice lessons! I've been wanting too for a long time, but I haven't had a chance. I'll be taking them from my pastor, who also happens to be one of the best singers I've ever heard. That's probably why he's our worship leader too. :) But anyway, remember how in my last post (or maybe it was the one before that, I don't know) I mentioned a recital that I was going to sing in? Well, last week after church I asked Mr. Addleman if he could help me try to pick a song that would be good for my range... and it turned into an hour-long voice lesson. :) It was SO much fun! I love, love, LOVE to sing, but I've never actually had any formal training. So it was a really new and fun experience. On the way home from church I heard Mom talking to Dad about maybe doing voice lessons, and now I'm taking them! We decided to start this Wednesday because it was the first week of the month. I'm kinda' nervous, but really excited too. So, wish me luck for that! :)
Hm... What else could I talk about? Well, how about I talk about our weekend? THAT was an adventure! Dad took Friday off so we could go down to the farm for the weekend. So, Friday morning we hopped in the car and headed down... only to discover when we got there that we didn't have any water. Yeah, not good. Both Dad and Jonathan tried to fix it, but they couldn't. And that means it was REALLY broken, because Dad can fix anything. I'm not kidding. Anything. It's really nice. But this time it was too much for him, and so we had to call in a well-guy. We have our own well on the property, which is really nice, but you can't just call the water company and see if it's a problem on their end when it's not working. The problem was that he wasn't going to be able to come until 8:30 Saturday morning, so we decided we couldn't stay there, and decided to go home and come back the next morning.
So, while this was all happening with the water, we were also having electricity problems. Yeah, seriously. It's not that the electricity wasn't working, it was that Dad wanted to do some stuff with it, and it wasn't quite working the way he wanted it to. The boy's and girl's rooms, which are right across from each other at the house down there, were on the same breaker, and so every night when we would both have the lights, the fans or the heaters, depending on what time of year, and stuff like that on, things would short out, and that's not very safe. So, Dad was trying to split them, and it wasn't working so well. He was really frustrated by both that and the water, and so we decided it would just be better to go.
And while THAT was happening, a truck load of gravel was delivered to the house, and quite a few of us spent a long time shoveling it all out. When we had first gotten there, we found 3 nails outside on the ground, and Dad decided it was time that we go get gravel. They aren't all nails from us, Mom says that she thinks the only thing that was ever farmed on that property was nails. :) I'm not kidding. Over the almost 5 years that we've owned that place, we have picked up about 6 5-gallon buckets on nails. I'm not kidding. They're all over the place, just sitting there. We've never gotten one in our tires before, (thank the Lord) but other people that have come over have. We even have some friends that, when they come, park all the way at the end of the driveway because of the nails. They won't even drive the car up to the house. That's how bad it is. So we went to go get gravel. That didn't take long, and they delivered it about 2:00. My hands are STILL somewhat red and blistered from shoveling so much rock. :) AND, we still have another truckload coming! They aren't open on Saturday or Sunday, and it was too late in the afternoon to bring the other truck load, so they are going to bring it today. We aren't going down there though, we'll wait until the next time we go down there to deal with it, which will probably be weekend-after-next since next weekend is Easter.
So, about 6:00 we left, grabbed Wendy's for dinner, and went home. The next morning we got up and left around 6:30, and then got delayed for about 20 minutes on the freeway because of construction. So I bet you're thinking by now, 'Could it have gotten any worse?' well, that's kinda' what I was thinking. Well, let me tell you now, it did. But I'll talk about that later. Not long after we got there, the well guy came. It didn't' take him too long, and he to the water back on. I don't know what he did, because I wasn't out there, but I CAN tell you it only took about 15 minutes for him to do it. So he left, and we kept going on with our day. Dad kept working on electrical stuff, and so he and Jonathan went up into the attic to work on splitting the wires while I stood down at the breaker box and turned breakers off when he told me to. It took a few hours, but Dad got that worked out, and people started showering and stuff so we could go to dinner. Dad said that since Jonathan did most of the work that day, that he to to pick where we went. He wanted to go to a new cafe in town, but they were closed, so we went to this place called the dining car instead. It's a old caboose railroad car that they turned into a restaurant. It's a really neat place. The room that we always sit in, (because it's the only one with tables big enough to fit us) has a tv in it, and while we were waiting for our food we were watching the Ohio St. vs Kansas game. Both of my mom's parents graduated from Ohio St. and so they really like it. They even have a Ohio State bathroom! Yeah, they're devoted fans. So the fact that Ohio State was in the Final Four was pretty exciting. I was actually kinda' upset about leaving that weekend because I wanted to see the game, but it turned out we got to see it anyway! Well, the first half anyways. It was pretty upsetting that they lost by 2 points. :( But getting back to my story, after we left the restaurant we went home and went to bed.
Now, I still have some more story to tell, but since this post is getting awfully long, and you're probably bored out of your brain, I'll sign off for now. I'll finish writing the story later today, ok?
Friday, March 23, 2012
The rest of our week (hopefully!)
I say hopefully because I may start rambling again, and it'll become somewhat long. :) I'll try not to though, ok?
Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah, I had just finished with violin lessons on Thursday. So now to Friday.
So we have some friends who made some posters for a science fair recently, and we wanted to go see them. We were SUPPOSED to go Thursday after violin... but Mom kinda' forgot. So we were trying to work it out so we could go on Friday with them. The only problem was that we weren't sure if we were supposed to go help Uncle Robert like we did yesterday or not. Well, it turns out that we didn't, so we tried to get a hold of them. They were gone all morning long, though, and we had decided that, when it was about 2:15 and they still weren't home, that we were just going to go down without them. Well, right as we were about to walk out the door, they got home, and we worked it out so that we were going to go pick up the boys and take them down with us. (They live 5 minutes away from where the posters were, so it wasn't like it was a long way) Now, with our new car, it was only a 7 passenger, so we had to kinda' cram the boys in. David sat on my lap, and... I won't tell you what Jonathan and Will did, because you'd probably be pretty shocked. But no, we didn't tie them up on the roof. :D But anyway, we got there, and went to go look at the posters. It was REALLY neat. There must have been 1,000 posters there, if not there. But we went and looked at the boy's posters. It was pretty cool.
After that we went and dropped them back off at their house, and then we went to Costco. See, for all those people reading this who have small families, you won't be able to relate to this. Costco is a MUST HAVE in our family. Getting lots of the things we need in bulk for really cheap is necessary. The Costco that we go to, there is a lot of space in there that is going to be used for other buildings, and we all decided that if we had a Costco, a Wal-Mart, a Sunflower, and a Fry's, we'd NEVER have to go into town again. Well, except for church or going to see our grandparents. But we'd never have to do any shopping. :)
So Dad met us there after work, and after that we went out to dinner. Now, where we went was a truckstop, so I'm pretty sure if I mentioned the name quite a few people reading this wouldn't know what I was talking about. (Except for the people that live here, of course) So I'm not going to mention the name. But we LOVE that place. Oh, and btw, they have the best chicken sandwich ever. It's awesome. But see, I'm rambling again. *flick myself* Kayla! Stop that! ( :D ) We were there for a long time, because they had a lot of large parties coming in, and so they were a little backed up. Or at least that's what the waitress told us. I don't know, she may have ben making excuses. :) So by the time that we had eaten dinner and had dessert, (which was pretty rare, because we never have dessert there, but it came with our food) it was about 7:45. So, we went home and we all FELL into bed. We were pretty tired. :)
Saturday we went back to the MacDonald's house for dinner. It was St. Patrick's Day, and since they're Irish, I think it's a pretty big holiday for them. So they invited us over, and we had SO much fun! There was also another family there, and we had fun with them too. Most of the kids were all playing together, and it was really fun to watch. Wes and I were eating on the side of the house sitting down on the ground, (I know that's a wierd place to sit, but for some reason I like sitting on the ground while I'm eating) and Wes was telling me about his project, which I would have loved to hear about on Friday, but when Wes was telling people about it, Will kept bugging me trying to get me to take him and Jonathan (and a bunch of other kids, as it turned out) to look at some more posters, so I didn't get to hear it. So anyway, Will comes around the back of the house, sees us sitting there talking, and decides to call the dogs to come eat our food! I STILL can't believe he did that! And he had a big grin on his face when he did it. Aye aye aye. *sigh* The little stinker. :) So after that most of Wes' food was gone and there was dirt in my lemonade. I bet you can guess that after that we moved to the table. :)
So after we finished eating, Will, Jonathan and most of the other kids were trying to get us to play hide and seek with them. Well, after awhile we gave in, and they all went to hide while we counted. Well, actually we weren't counting, we just sat there and waited a few minutes. So then we went around to the back/side of the house, where everyone was, and started looking for them. Now, you have to understand that the MacDonald's yard is pretty small, and there wasn't very many places to hide, which made it REALLY easy for Wes and I, who were the seekers. We found Jonathan within about 10 seconds and after that it didn't take long to find everyone else. So Wes and I kept joking with the other kids about how it didn't take us very long to find them, and Will was like, "What?!? It took you 10 minutes to find us!" I guess he didn't realize that we had JUST come looking for them! :) What I didn't know was that Katy Webster was also playing, (I thought she was inside) and I had already walked past her on the way to find everyone else, and if Lee hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known she was there! She was hiding pretty well. :) She might have been there for hours!
After we ate and had dessert, we all went out front to play football. It was fun. Wes and I were the team captains, (which is pretty obvious because we were the oldest) and we picked our teams. The only problem was that both Hannah and Will wanted to be on the same team, and when Wes picked Hannah and then I picked Will.... Well let's just say there was a VERY long dispute about that. :) But we finally got the teams worked out and started to play. It was a lot of fun. :) It was kind of hard though, because again, since Wes and I were the oldest, it made sense that the two of us would guard each other and try to keep the other one from getting the ball. Well, after I caught a pass and ran it down for a touchdown... Wes stuck on me like GLUE! I pretty much just gave up after that. :) But I still had Will and Katy on my team, so it worked out pretty well. It was really dark, because the street light in front of their house was burnt out, but that didn't really matter because we were used to playing in the dark. We always play after church in the dark. Now, it's not always THAT dark, we do have lights at church, but it's still somewhat hard to see the ball.
About 20 minutes after we started playing Mr. MacDonald came out and said it was time for music. When they had first invited us, they had said that we would take some time and work on music stuff. So, Hannah and I brought our violins with us. Hannah played violin a couple of times, with me playing once only because she asked me to, Katy played piano, Will played violin, and then Hannah played some more with Mrs. MacDonald accompanying her on piano. After that Wes and I went.
Remember back in January when I posted about the surprise party for Mrs. Goodale, and the video with the song that she, Wes and I did? Well, about 11:00 Wes iMessaged me (iMessage is kind of like texting) and said that Mr. MacDonald had asked if Wes and I would do that song for them that night. Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald weren't at the party, so they didn't get to hear it. We went back into their back room to practice it, because Wes hadn't played the song since then. Annabeth was already in there, which was fine, but by the time we had gotten through the first chorus, Hannah, Sarah, Jonathan, Will and Lee were all in there being loud and singing along in their play-annoying voices. We didn't even get to practice the bridge. *sigh* But eventually we went back out there and preformed it, and I think it went really well.
The only problem that I have with it was that whenever I sing in front of people, especially by myself, I get really nervous, which makes my voice really quiet. That in turn makes it harder for me to sing the high notes, and even when I do, they sound kinda' scratchy. So there was a little problem with that, but I was talking with Mrs. MacDonald the next day, and she said that if I were to sing in front of people more often, that that would help. In fact, I'm actually starting to get ready for a recital in May that I'm hoping to sing in. But I'll post more about that later.
But see, I'm kinda' rambling again, so I think I'd better move on. Besides, after music we left. :)
Sunday we had church and fellowship, but I'm not going to go into too much detail about that because there really isn't much to go into. I will say though that it was a pretty great night. :)
Let's see.... We didn't do anything Monday, and Tuesday was pretty quiet too. We did go in the afternoon to help Uncle Robert, (remember, my last update post was posted from his laptop?) but we were only there for a few hours. I don't really have anything to post about that. Wednesday was pretty quiet too, but Thursday after violin we did go back to help Uncle Robert. He was pretty grumpy at first, but then he took a pain pill and he was all happy again. :) We were supposed to go back today, but then Aunt Tracey called and said that she didn't need to go to work until 3, and Michael was going to be home after 4, so they didn't need us.
So today was a pretty normal day. We didn't do anything special.
We are going back to Family Fun Days tomorrow, so I can post about that after we get home. Mom will be there this time, so hopefully she'll take pictures.
Oh, and sorry, I just realized that I wrote this whole entire post without actually saying that I didn't have any pictures. Oops! We were all having so much fun on Saturday that the camera didn't even get taken out, and there really wasn't any need to take it to Uncle Robert's house with us. :) But like I said, I should be able to post about Family Fun Days tomorrow.
Sorry this was so long. :) Like I said, I tend to do that. :D
So, until tomorrow!
Kayla
Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah, I had just finished with violin lessons on Thursday. So now to Friday.
So we have some friends who made some posters for a science fair recently, and we wanted to go see them. We were SUPPOSED to go Thursday after violin... but Mom kinda' forgot. So we were trying to work it out so we could go on Friday with them. The only problem was that we weren't sure if we were supposed to go help Uncle Robert like we did yesterday or not. Well, it turns out that we didn't, so we tried to get a hold of them. They were gone all morning long, though, and we had decided that, when it was about 2:15 and they still weren't home, that we were just going to go down without them. Well, right as we were about to walk out the door, they got home, and we worked it out so that we were going to go pick up the boys and take them down with us. (They live 5 minutes away from where the posters were, so it wasn't like it was a long way) Now, with our new car, it was only a 7 passenger, so we had to kinda' cram the boys in. David sat on my lap, and... I won't tell you what Jonathan and Will did, because you'd probably be pretty shocked. But no, we didn't tie them up on the roof. :D But anyway, we got there, and went to go look at the posters. It was REALLY neat. There must have been 1,000 posters there, if not there. But we went and looked at the boy's posters. It was pretty cool.
After that we went and dropped them back off at their house, and then we went to Costco. See, for all those people reading this who have small families, you won't be able to relate to this. Costco is a MUST HAVE in our family. Getting lots of the things we need in bulk for really cheap is necessary. The Costco that we go to, there is a lot of space in there that is going to be used for other buildings, and we all decided that if we had a Costco, a Wal-Mart, a Sunflower, and a Fry's, we'd NEVER have to go into town again. Well, except for church or going to see our grandparents. But we'd never have to do any shopping. :)
So Dad met us there after work, and after that we went out to dinner. Now, where we went was a truckstop, so I'm pretty sure if I mentioned the name quite a few people reading this wouldn't know what I was talking about. (Except for the people that live here, of course) So I'm not going to mention the name. But we LOVE that place. Oh, and btw, they have the best chicken sandwich ever. It's awesome. But see, I'm rambling again. *flick myself* Kayla! Stop that! ( :D ) We were there for a long time, because they had a lot of large parties coming in, and so they were a little backed up. Or at least that's what the waitress told us. I don't know, she may have ben making excuses. :) So by the time that we had eaten dinner and had dessert, (which was pretty rare, because we never have dessert there, but it came with our food) it was about 7:45. So, we went home and we all FELL into bed. We were pretty tired. :)
Saturday we went back to the MacDonald's house for dinner. It was St. Patrick's Day, and since they're Irish, I think it's a pretty big holiday for them. So they invited us over, and we had SO much fun! There was also another family there, and we had fun with them too. Most of the kids were all playing together, and it was really fun to watch. Wes and I were eating on the side of the house sitting down on the ground, (I know that's a wierd place to sit, but for some reason I like sitting on the ground while I'm eating) and Wes was telling me about his project, which I would have loved to hear about on Friday, but when Wes was telling people about it, Will kept bugging me trying to get me to take him and Jonathan (and a bunch of other kids, as it turned out) to look at some more posters, so I didn't get to hear it. So anyway, Will comes around the back of the house, sees us sitting there talking, and decides to call the dogs to come eat our food! I STILL can't believe he did that! And he had a big grin on his face when he did it. Aye aye aye. *sigh* The little stinker. :) So after that most of Wes' food was gone and there was dirt in my lemonade. I bet you can guess that after that we moved to the table. :)
So after we finished eating, Will, Jonathan and most of the other kids were trying to get us to play hide and seek with them. Well, after awhile we gave in, and they all went to hide while we counted. Well, actually we weren't counting, we just sat there and waited a few minutes. So then we went around to the back/side of the house, where everyone was, and started looking for them. Now, you have to understand that the MacDonald's yard is pretty small, and there wasn't very many places to hide, which made it REALLY easy for Wes and I, who were the seekers. We found Jonathan within about 10 seconds and after that it didn't take long to find everyone else. So Wes and I kept joking with the other kids about how it didn't take us very long to find them, and Will was like, "What?!? It took you 10 minutes to find us!" I guess he didn't realize that we had JUST come looking for them! :) What I didn't know was that Katy Webster was also playing, (I thought she was inside) and I had already walked past her on the way to find everyone else, and if Lee hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known she was there! She was hiding pretty well. :) She might have been there for hours!
After we ate and had dessert, we all went out front to play football. It was fun. Wes and I were the team captains, (which is pretty obvious because we were the oldest) and we picked our teams. The only problem was that both Hannah and Will wanted to be on the same team, and when Wes picked Hannah and then I picked Will.... Well let's just say there was a VERY long dispute about that. :) But we finally got the teams worked out and started to play. It was a lot of fun. :) It was kind of hard though, because again, since Wes and I were the oldest, it made sense that the two of us would guard each other and try to keep the other one from getting the ball. Well, after I caught a pass and ran it down for a touchdown... Wes stuck on me like GLUE! I pretty much just gave up after that. :) But I still had Will and Katy on my team, so it worked out pretty well. It was really dark, because the street light in front of their house was burnt out, but that didn't really matter because we were used to playing in the dark. We always play after church in the dark. Now, it's not always THAT dark, we do have lights at church, but it's still somewhat hard to see the ball.
About 20 minutes after we started playing Mr. MacDonald came out and said it was time for music. When they had first invited us, they had said that we would take some time and work on music stuff. So, Hannah and I brought our violins with us. Hannah played violin a couple of times, with me playing once only because she asked me to, Katy played piano, Will played violin, and then Hannah played some more with Mrs. MacDonald accompanying her on piano. After that Wes and I went.
Remember back in January when I posted about the surprise party for Mrs. Goodale, and the video with the song that she, Wes and I did? Well, about 11:00 Wes iMessaged me (iMessage is kind of like texting) and said that Mr. MacDonald had asked if Wes and I would do that song for them that night. Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald weren't at the party, so they didn't get to hear it. We went back into their back room to practice it, because Wes hadn't played the song since then. Annabeth was already in there, which was fine, but by the time we had gotten through the first chorus, Hannah, Sarah, Jonathan, Will and Lee were all in there being loud and singing along in their play-annoying voices. We didn't even get to practice the bridge. *sigh* But eventually we went back out there and preformed it, and I think it went really well.
The only problem that I have with it was that whenever I sing in front of people, especially by myself, I get really nervous, which makes my voice really quiet. That in turn makes it harder for me to sing the high notes, and even when I do, they sound kinda' scratchy. So there was a little problem with that, but I was talking with Mrs. MacDonald the next day, and she said that if I were to sing in front of people more often, that that would help. In fact, I'm actually starting to get ready for a recital in May that I'm hoping to sing in. But I'll post more about that later.
But see, I'm kinda' rambling again, so I think I'd better move on. Besides, after music we left. :)
Sunday we had church and fellowship, but I'm not going to go into too much detail about that because there really isn't much to go into. I will say though that it was a pretty great night. :)
Let's see.... We didn't do anything Monday, and Tuesday was pretty quiet too. We did go in the afternoon to help Uncle Robert, (remember, my last update post was posted from his laptop?) but we were only there for a few hours. I don't really have anything to post about that. Wednesday was pretty quiet too, but Thursday after violin we did go back to help Uncle Robert. He was pretty grumpy at first, but then he took a pain pill and he was all happy again. :) We were supposed to go back today, but then Aunt Tracey called and said that she didn't need to go to work until 3, and Michael was going to be home after 4, so they didn't need us.
So today was a pretty normal day. We didn't do anything special.
We are going back to Family Fun Days tomorrow, so I can post about that after we get home. Mom will be there this time, so hopefully she'll take pictures.
Oh, and sorry, I just realized that I wrote this whole entire post without actually saying that I didn't have any pictures. Oops! We were all having so much fun on Saturday that the camera didn't even get taken out, and there really wasn't any need to take it to Uncle Robert's house with us. :) But like I said, I should be able to post about Family Fun Days tomorrow.
Sorry this was so long. :) Like I said, I tend to do that. :D
So, until tomorrow!
Kayla
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Etsy shop: Borettoart
So, I was offered the chance to have my Etsy shop featured on a blog, and in return, I'm posting an article about their shop on my blog! They have some beautiful artwork in their shop, and it was a pleasure to work with them. :)
1) Who is behind Borettoart?
An artist in love with color and an Italian dreamer in love with art. Together we are a happy young couple who lives of their passion in the land of kangaroos and koalas.
2) Tell us about your work process.
We like to imagine our artworks as a jungle where the viewer can easily get lost and dream. Each of our artworks is an wordless poem of love.
S: Our original paintings are created with vibrant acrylic colors and a palette knife. This technique allows me to give a beautiful texture to my paintings and to transfer almost instantly my emotions to the canvas.
L: I spend hours looking for the perfect image for my original collages. Every piece of paper has to tell me a story, have something special. I love creating beautiful and unique miniatures.
What makes us really happy is sharing our artwork with others, because at the end of the day, what is art if not sharing?
3) Where do you get your ideas from?
Most of our art is mainly inspired by our daily life, (manly beach painting) our surroundings, (blue opera house painting) our dreams, (rooster collage) or our travels. (Paris painting)
4) Apart from creating things, what do you do?
We love food! We love cooking, trying new recipes and surprising each other with new flavors. But also traveling, discovering new cultures, getting lost in small streets, fishing with old fishermen, smelling new perfumes... But our only and new passion is creating art.
Our details:
Blog: borettoart.blogspot.fr/
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/borettoart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/borettoart
Website: www.borettoart.com
Please check out their shop and look at their beautiful work!
Kayla
1) Who is behind Borettoart?
An artist in love with color and an Italian dreamer in love with art. Together we are a happy young couple who lives of their passion in the land of kangaroos and koalas.
2) Tell us about your work process.
We like to imagine our artworks as a jungle where the viewer can easily get lost and dream. Each of our artworks is an wordless poem of love.
S: Our original paintings are created with vibrant acrylic colors and a palette knife. This technique allows me to give a beautiful texture to my paintings and to transfer almost instantly my emotions to the canvas.
L: I spend hours looking for the perfect image for my original collages. Every piece of paper has to tell me a story, have something special. I love creating beautiful and unique miniatures.
What makes us really happy is sharing our artwork with others, because at the end of the day, what is art if not sharing?
3) Where do you get your ideas from?
Most of our art is mainly inspired by our daily life, (manly beach painting) our surroundings, (blue opera house painting) our dreams, (rooster collage) or our travels. (Paris painting)
4) Apart from creating things, what do you do?
We love food! We love cooking, trying new recipes and surprising each other with new flavors. But also traveling, discovering new cultures, getting lost in small streets, fishing with old fishermen, smelling new perfumes... But our only and new passion is creating art.
Our details:
Blog: borettoart.blogspot.fr/
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/borettoart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/borettoart
Website: www.borettoart.com
Please check out their shop and look at their beautiful work!
Kayla
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sorry for the lack of posts!!!
Hey guys. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have had PLENTY to post about.... just not much time to post about it. We've had a really busy few weeks. So, if you'll bear with me, I'll do another one of those REALLY long posts, ok? :)
So something that I never told you about (because I haven't been posting recently, and this is a pretty recent thing) is that my Uncle Robert has cancer. Well, ok. He DID have cancer. Let me explain. Remember a while back when I posted about him getting into an accident? Well, that was a God-ordained accident, because when he started having some pain in his rib-area, they took him into the doctor. They thought it was because of the accident, and he was still sore. But anyway, they took him in, and they discovered that he had a cancerous tumor on his kidney. Well, they decided to remove the kidney, and hope that the cancer hadn't spread, and that the surgery would just take it away. Well, the surgery was last Tuesday, and from what we can tell, the cancer is all gone. So we're all very grateful for that. Actually, right now I'm typing this post on his laptop because we're at his house helping him if he needs anything. He really is doing pretty well, but we're still here to help. It's just me, Jonathan and Hannah here. Mom went home with the little ones because today is Daddy's 40th birthday, (I'll post about THAT later) and she wanted to get home, get the house clean and make a nice dinner for him. My cousin Michael actually got home from work earlier than what we expected, but Uncle Robert said he didn't want us to go home yet, so we aren't. :) Right now while I'm typing this on his laptop, Hannah is on Michael's laptop playing a game, and Jonathan is playing on Uncle Robert's xbox. :) Ok, so just to let you know, this is not what it's like all the time, with people playing games on the computer and playing video games, but hey, we're at our uncle's house. He's allowed to spoil us while we're here, right? :D
Our last week has been pretty crazy. Last Tuesday we went to our Nana's house to celebrate the winter birthday parties on Mom's side of the family. Recently we went to my other grandma's house to celebrate the birthdays on Dad's side of the family, and so Tuesday we went there. It was a lot of fun. I got to make a casserole, and guess what? One 9x13 casserole has 2 POUNDS OF CHEESE IN IT!!! Yeah, it's awesome. We actually made it again to take to church on Sunday for the potluck. It was really good. :) But anyway, I'm getting kinda' off subject. :) So after awhile my aunt, uncle and cousin came. Aunt Jenna is a high school English teacher, and I guess she was tied up at a meeting. So she was a little late. It's always a lot of fun when my cousin Nico comes, because he's 7, and absolutely LOVES to play with us. His favorite thing to do is wrestle. :) And I'm perfectly willing to play with him, because I only see him about 4 times a year. They live here, but they're awfully busy, plus they live about an hour away from us. So it's a special treat to see him.
See? I'm getting off subject again. *sigh* Ok Kayla. Concentrate. So my uncle made tacos, which I LOVE. That's another special treat.... Uncle Doug's tacos. Mmmmm. They're really pretty awesome. But look at me, I'm rambling. I seem to be really good at that. I've acutally had a friend come up to me when I was talking to another friend, and say to me, "Kayla, WHY do you always say everything in like 500 words?!?" :D And I guess I do. I'm actually really good at talking a whole lot. I don't know, I guess it's just what I do. Oh well. :)
But anyway, back to the party. After we ate came the presents. Jonathan got a new K'nex set, which he really likes, David got a pair of skates, and Hannah got a gardening set. She really likes flowers, and has always wanted to garden. So Nana got her quite a few different kinds of seeds, some soil, and some pots. She's already planted quite a few of them, but then one blew over in the wind so she had to replant it. But anyway, not long after presents we left. It was a lot of fun. I think we have pictures, but I still have to get them off the camera, so I'll post those tomorrow. Not long after that we left.
Thursday we had violin lessons. It went better than I thought it would, and that was good. Miss Anna (our teacher) got kinda' upset with Mom though. :) You see, there is a year-end recital in May that out teacher wants us to play in, and Mom had looked through our music book and picked a song for Hannah and one for me. Now, they weren't songs that we had gotten to in the book yet, but we tried them. I figured out the notes for Hannah, and she learned her song really quickly, which was nice. Mine..... Well let's just say mine was a little harder. Ok, awfully it was way harder. Normally I don't have problems with figuring out notes on music, but this time I was having a really hard time with it. So, on Thursday we went to lessons, and at the very end, right when we were ready to walk out the door, Hannah decided to mention to Miss Anna my problems. Well, she wasn't exactly very happy that we had skipped ahead in the book. She said that by the recital we will get to the song Hannah's supposed to do, but that there's no way that we'll get to mine. So, she followed us out to the waiting room and kinda' scolded Mom. But she was very nice about it. She's a pretty patient lady, which is nice. :) So it all worked out ok. It's just now I know that we can't skip ahead, and that I'm going to have to pick a different song. :D
Well, I'm probably boring you to death by my rambling by now, so I think I'll sign off. I'll work on another post later this afternoon with what else we did last week, ok?
Kayla
So something that I never told you about (because I haven't been posting recently, and this is a pretty recent thing) is that my Uncle Robert has cancer. Well, ok. He DID have cancer. Let me explain. Remember a while back when I posted about him getting into an accident? Well, that was a God-ordained accident, because when he started having some pain in his rib-area, they took him into the doctor. They thought it was because of the accident, and he was still sore. But anyway, they took him in, and they discovered that he had a cancerous tumor on his kidney. Well, they decided to remove the kidney, and hope that the cancer hadn't spread, and that the surgery would just take it away. Well, the surgery was last Tuesday, and from what we can tell, the cancer is all gone. So we're all very grateful for that. Actually, right now I'm typing this post on his laptop because we're at his house helping him if he needs anything. He really is doing pretty well, but we're still here to help. It's just me, Jonathan and Hannah here. Mom went home with the little ones because today is Daddy's 40th birthday, (I'll post about THAT later) and she wanted to get home, get the house clean and make a nice dinner for him. My cousin Michael actually got home from work earlier than what we expected, but Uncle Robert said he didn't want us to go home yet, so we aren't. :) Right now while I'm typing this on his laptop, Hannah is on Michael's laptop playing a game, and Jonathan is playing on Uncle Robert's xbox. :) Ok, so just to let you know, this is not what it's like all the time, with people playing games on the computer and playing video games, but hey, we're at our uncle's house. He's allowed to spoil us while we're here, right? :D
Our last week has been pretty crazy. Last Tuesday we went to our Nana's house to celebrate the winter birthday parties on Mom's side of the family. Recently we went to my other grandma's house to celebrate the birthdays on Dad's side of the family, and so Tuesday we went there. It was a lot of fun. I got to make a casserole, and guess what? One 9x13 casserole has 2 POUNDS OF CHEESE IN IT!!! Yeah, it's awesome. We actually made it again to take to church on Sunday for the potluck. It was really good. :) But anyway, I'm getting kinda' off subject. :) So after awhile my aunt, uncle and cousin came. Aunt Jenna is a high school English teacher, and I guess she was tied up at a meeting. So she was a little late. It's always a lot of fun when my cousin Nico comes, because he's 7, and absolutely LOVES to play with us. His favorite thing to do is wrestle. :) And I'm perfectly willing to play with him, because I only see him about 4 times a year. They live here, but they're awfully busy, plus they live about an hour away from us. So it's a special treat to see him.
See? I'm getting off subject again. *sigh* Ok Kayla. Concentrate. So my uncle made tacos, which I LOVE. That's another special treat.... Uncle Doug's tacos. Mmmmm. They're really pretty awesome. But look at me, I'm rambling. I seem to be really good at that. I've acutally had a friend come up to me when I was talking to another friend, and say to me, "Kayla, WHY do you always say everything in like 500 words?!?" :D And I guess I do. I'm actually really good at talking a whole lot. I don't know, I guess it's just what I do. Oh well. :)
But anyway, back to the party. After we ate came the presents. Jonathan got a new K'nex set, which he really likes, David got a pair of skates, and Hannah got a gardening set. She really likes flowers, and has always wanted to garden. So Nana got her quite a few different kinds of seeds, some soil, and some pots. She's already planted quite a few of them, but then one blew over in the wind so she had to replant it. But anyway, not long after presents we left. It was a lot of fun. I think we have pictures, but I still have to get them off the camera, so I'll post those tomorrow. Not long after that we left.
Thursday we had violin lessons. It went better than I thought it would, and that was good. Miss Anna (our teacher) got kinda' upset with Mom though. :) You see, there is a year-end recital in May that out teacher wants us to play in, and Mom had looked through our music book and picked a song for Hannah and one for me. Now, they weren't songs that we had gotten to in the book yet, but we tried them. I figured out the notes for Hannah, and she learned her song really quickly, which was nice. Mine..... Well let's just say mine was a little harder. Ok, awfully it was way harder. Normally I don't have problems with figuring out notes on music, but this time I was having a really hard time with it. So, on Thursday we went to lessons, and at the very end, right when we were ready to walk out the door, Hannah decided to mention to Miss Anna my problems. Well, she wasn't exactly very happy that we had skipped ahead in the book. She said that by the recital we will get to the song Hannah's supposed to do, but that there's no way that we'll get to mine. So, she followed us out to the waiting room and kinda' scolded Mom. But she was very nice about it. She's a pretty patient lady, which is nice. :) So it all worked out ok. It's just now I know that we can't skip ahead, and that I'm going to have to pick a different song. :D
Well, I'm probably boring you to death by my rambling by now, so I think I'll sign off. I'll work on another post later this afternoon with what else we did last week, ok?
Kayla
Monday, February 27, 2012
Family Fun Days
Note: I did write this post yesterday, I just wasn't able to get pictures until today. :)
Ok, so let me explain what this is.
Basically there's a church close to where we live that puts on Ranch Family Fun days once a month from October through May (except December). Some friends of ours have friends that go to that church and told us about it. Our friends were supposed to come with us, but that didn't work out, so it was just us. David woke up looking and sounding absolutely horrible with a cold yesterday morning, so Mom decided to stay home with him. The rest of us got ready, piled into our new van, (I'll explain that in tomorrow's post) and left at around 7:15.
We were all in jeans, which I just HAVE to say, felt really wierd. For everyone here that doesn't know me, I think you can tell from all the pictures that we are a full-time skirt wearing family. :) We do this because it's Dad's preference. Besides, Mom and I find skirts way more comfortable than pants so I'm glad this is the way Dad wants us to dress. Now, we're not saying anything against all of those ladies that like to wear pants, but we don't unless it's impractical to wear a skirt, like yesterday.
But anyway, let's get back to the story. So we got there, got out, and wandered over to where people were. Now, we didn't know anybody there, and being that early in the morning I think the only people there were the ones that were setting up. One of the ladies came up to us and introduced herself. She was the mom of the family that our friends knew, and Mom has met her before. So she made us feel welcome, which was nice. Then a girl told us that some baby lambs had just been born that morning, and so we went to see them. They were so cute! After that a man came up and introduced himself, and he and Dad talked for a few minutes, and then we wandered back to the barn. (That's where most of the people were.)
The only thing kind of strange about this place was that they didn't have any animals. The bulls were brought in on a truck, the miniature horses were too, and the sheep had been brought in the day before. They didn't grow anything there either. So I'm really not sure what they do with that place, since it didn't look like a ranch.
But anyway, we wandered around for a long time. They provided yummy muffins for breakfast. As time kept moving it got harder and harder, because (those of you who go there will understand this) at our church, whenever someone new comes, they are surrounded by people making them feel welcome. Well, it really wasn't like that. I seriously think we were the only people there who didn't go to that church that was hosting the day. Everybody was talking to everybody else, the kids were all playing together, and we were kind of just standing by ourselves.
At 8:00 we went to go sign up for the activities that we wanted to do. The younger kids all found tons of things that they wanted to participate in, but I could only find one. All of the events were geared towards either younger kids or adults. The ones that I would be interested in required that you have your own horse. (Remember that I said that there weren't any animals there?) So that was kind of difficult.
Well, at 9:00 all of the events started. They opened with prayer, and then things started going. They started with the drag, which is the one event that I did sign up for. Basically, they had this big piece of rubber that they put on the ground that was attached to a quad, and there was a rope for you to hold on to. When your name was called, you went out there into the 'arena', which was a really big corrall, stood onto the piece of rubber, picked up the rope, and then the quad would start moving and you had to try and keep your balance and not fall off as you were drug around. Basically it was like surfing on dirt. :) When I got out there they asked me what speed I wanted, and when I said, "Medium," the driver said, "That means fast!" :) He really didn't go super fast, so I was glad for that. I thought for sure I was going to fall off but I didn't. Yay!
Then there were a lot of other events. There was a stick horse race, where you had to take a stick horse and race around an obstacle course, there was dummy roping, a little kids drag where kids were pulling kids, (See? All geared towards little kids.) mutton busting, which wasn't necessarily geared towards little kids, but I am NOT getting on an animal on purpose when I know that that animal has the intention of throwing me off. It's just not going to happen. There was also bronc busting with miniature horses, and then there was actual bull riding.
After that was over we left. Dad wanted to get back to Mom and David, and by that point it was already 11:30. They were serving lunch and having a church service, but we decided to get home. So we left. Mom and I were talking about it later, and we decided that now that we know what the events are, so we can know which ones we want to do next time, and once we start getting to know people, that it will be way better. Besides, our friends are coming with us next month, (I think) so that will help a lot having people that you know there.
And here are the pictures. Sorry, they were taken from Dad's iPhone, so they're kind of small, and they're pretty much all of the dummy roping.
And that's about it for this post!
Until tomorrow!
Kayla
Ok, so let me explain what this is.
Basically there's a church close to where we live that puts on Ranch Family Fun days once a month from October through May (except December). Some friends of ours have friends that go to that church and told us about it. Our friends were supposed to come with us, but that didn't work out, so it was just us. David woke up looking and sounding absolutely horrible with a cold yesterday morning, so Mom decided to stay home with him. The rest of us got ready, piled into our new van, (I'll explain that in tomorrow's post) and left at around 7:15.
We were all in jeans, which I just HAVE to say, felt really wierd. For everyone here that doesn't know me, I think you can tell from all the pictures that we are a full-time skirt wearing family. :) We do this because it's Dad's preference. Besides, Mom and I find skirts way more comfortable than pants so I'm glad this is the way Dad wants us to dress. Now, we're not saying anything against all of those ladies that like to wear pants, but we don't unless it's impractical to wear a skirt, like yesterday.
But anyway, let's get back to the story. So we got there, got out, and wandered over to where people were. Now, we didn't know anybody there, and being that early in the morning I think the only people there were the ones that were setting up. One of the ladies came up to us and introduced herself. She was the mom of the family that our friends knew, and Mom has met her before. So she made us feel welcome, which was nice. Then a girl told us that some baby lambs had just been born that morning, and so we went to see them. They were so cute! After that a man came up and introduced himself, and he and Dad talked for a few minutes, and then we wandered back to the barn. (That's where most of the people were.)
The only thing kind of strange about this place was that they didn't have any animals. The bulls were brought in on a truck, the miniature horses were too, and the sheep had been brought in the day before. They didn't grow anything there either. So I'm really not sure what they do with that place, since it didn't look like a ranch.
But anyway, we wandered around for a long time. They provided yummy muffins for breakfast. As time kept moving it got harder and harder, because (those of you who go there will understand this) at our church, whenever someone new comes, they are surrounded by people making them feel welcome. Well, it really wasn't like that. I seriously think we were the only people there who didn't go to that church that was hosting the day. Everybody was talking to everybody else, the kids were all playing together, and we were kind of just standing by ourselves.
At 8:00 we went to go sign up for the activities that we wanted to do. The younger kids all found tons of things that they wanted to participate in, but I could only find one. All of the events were geared towards either younger kids or adults. The ones that I would be interested in required that you have your own horse. (Remember that I said that there weren't any animals there?) So that was kind of difficult.
Well, at 9:00 all of the events started. They opened with prayer, and then things started going. They started with the drag, which is the one event that I did sign up for. Basically, they had this big piece of rubber that they put on the ground that was attached to a quad, and there was a rope for you to hold on to. When your name was called, you went out there into the 'arena', which was a really big corrall, stood onto the piece of rubber, picked up the rope, and then the quad would start moving and you had to try and keep your balance and not fall off as you were drug around. Basically it was like surfing on dirt. :) When I got out there they asked me what speed I wanted, and when I said, "Medium," the driver said, "That means fast!" :) He really didn't go super fast, so I was glad for that. I thought for sure I was going to fall off but I didn't. Yay!
Then there were a lot of other events. There was a stick horse race, where you had to take a stick horse and race around an obstacle course, there was dummy roping, a little kids drag where kids were pulling kids, (See? All geared towards little kids.) mutton busting, which wasn't necessarily geared towards little kids, but I am NOT getting on an animal on purpose when I know that that animal has the intention of throwing me off. It's just not going to happen. There was also bronc busting with miniature horses, and then there was actual bull riding.
After that was over we left. Dad wanted to get back to Mom and David, and by that point it was already 11:30. They were serving lunch and having a church service, but we decided to get home. So we left. Mom and I were talking about it later, and we decided that now that we know what the events are, so we can know which ones we want to do next time, and once we start getting to know people, that it will be way better. Besides, our friends are coming with us next month, (I think) so that will help a lot having people that you know there.
And here are the pictures. Sorry, they were taken from Dad's iPhone, so they're kind of small, and they're pretty much all of the dummy roping.
That's Hannah falling off of the sheep
Jonathan dummy roping
Hannah
That's Annabeth in the middle of ths stick horse race. :)
And that's about it for this post!
Until tomorrow!
Kayla
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