Black Friday!!

ugh. Black Friday. Tired. Sick. Broke (jk). Happy. That pretty much sums it up. But for the sake of my none existent readers, I will elaborate.  We started off with Kohl's. Go  figure, If you know me well enough and ask me were I get my clothes, 99.9 % of the time I will say Kohl's. I got a $36 skirt for $7, and two sweaters for $18. We then went to Walmart where I got my game. By then  I wasn't feeling too well.. Maria decided to look for a dress for her winter ball at her school. We traveled the 20 min commute to the Montgomery Mall. We started out a JC Penny, and no luck, we then went to Macy's where Maria bought a dress, but still wanted to look around for something better. By now I was dragging my feet, begging for a drink, and sneezing every five minuets. Not Pleasant! After that we went to Forever 21.  We were in there less then a minuet. We then went to look for the car. We came out of the wrong exit and had to walk to the other parking lot. By then I had fully developed blisters. We got to the car. My Aunt and sister went back to Macy's to return the dress and re-buy it with there coupon. I got to stay in the car! And that is my story. Somehow I feel that it is no where close to how bad my dad feels. He left at 11:30 Thanksgiving Day to start shopping. Oh well. what can I say??? My family LOVES to save money!! 

Thanksgiving Day.... !

Hey, I haven't posted in FOREVER!! Happy Thanksgiving peoples who never read my blog... gobble gobble. Let me start with.. IT SNOWED ON THANKSGIVING!!! Today I ate one and a half plates of food. Mostly starches like stuffing, corn pudding, and mashed potatoes. I lay down on the couch and dozed of. It is like my Dads mom (my grandma that lives in Africa) always said, there is a string that attaches the upper eyelids to the stomach, the heavier the stomach becomes, the further the eyelids get pulled down. I woke up to rolling off the couch, landing right on our hard wood floors. Comfy. I was overjoyed to have to choices in entertainment. Watching more football that involved two teams that I don't care about, or watching my cousins play monopoly. I have spent about 20 mins watching football, and an hour and a half of watching a boring monopoly game. Then the fun part came. I got to play SOCCER!! I played my dad, and beat him two times. Then I played me 26 year old cousin and beat her.. Shockingly it wasn't to challenging.. *chuckle chuckle*..  All in all I am stuffed, tired, (It is 11 o'clock and my cousins left.. :(... ) and I can not wait for the Black Friday shopping tomorrow!! Khol's is having an absolute BLOW OUT sale, and I am the BIGGEST Kohl's shopper EVA!! As you have probably noticed by all the caps, I am VERY HIPPER from all the cups of like PURE caffeine I drank.. ah.. I can't wait till Christmas...

A Party, a Horse, and a Newspaper... How Do They Connect? THEY DON'T!

I am throwing a swim party for the 5-8 graders at Grace Academy. Grace is a group of home schoolers, we all meet, and do extra curricular classes together, such as art, cooking, gym, music and ministry, scrap booking, photography, and pooling weeds. (Don't ask) It took me a day to send out the invitations, I asked everyone to R.S.V.P. 5 people out of about 20 have responded. I am kinda stressing out because the party is tomorrow, so I am hoping that all of them will respond today. Maybe I am being a little over ambitious, considering what time it is...    

But anyway, life have been pretty hectic these last few weeks, like at our farm (yes we have a farm and 2 horses) Scout, (my horse) isn't being very good, I give him a D RING SNAFFLE BIT, which has no leverage, meening that if he throws his head up, I have NO control, and I can't get it back down. So I changed to a REGULAR SNAFFLE BIT. It gives me much more leverage. But even then, Scout didn't like the bit and still would throw his head up, shake his head, and snort. I walked around the big pasture on him with someone leading me, it went fine. Later that day, I rode him with out a lead, and in the small pasture. He was not very good, He would dance around, and throw his head, and spook. So we are thinking about getting another horse that is older, and has its manners hammered into its head. Because we really don't want to have to re-teach scout his manners every time we go up there, because we are not up there enough or long enough. I am sure we could teach Scout, but we rather not... 

Maria has been chosen as one of the writer for the teen section in the local newspaper! She is so exited! We are all very proud of her. She had been working on her article that she would send in to try to be on of the selected writers. She sent in one of her 2 articles "I don't like the Jonas Brothers" and "Face Book Etiquette" I don't know which one she actually sent in, but either way, they liked it! She then wrote an article titled "Back to School" Her editor liked it, and said that he would put it in this week. What is really nice about this, is that there are about 60 writers for the same section, so when they find inspiration, they write, send it in, and get it published. So there is no demand as to how much or how often they have to write. So, congrats Maria!

Bow Hunting II

I have been to my violin teachers house twice. This is how it went the first time I went to his house. I showed up with the bows. He took one look at the black bow, announced that it was carbon fiber (not at all pernambuco wood which is the best wood to make bows with) and that It would most likely sound like crap. What did I say in reply? "Crap!" I played the bows for him. He decided that the one from Fred's shop that is not the fat one was the best. I agreed.  We decided to look a while longer, but still hold onto it

 About a month later, we had gone to Elizabeth's and Fred's shop again. I picked out 3 bows at Elizabeth's shop. One was made of a wood that she had no idea what it was. It had a very pretty ringing tone, and was very loud. One was made of pernambuco wood, grown in Brazil. The very best wood you can get. It had a very pretty melodramatic sound on the lower strings, and an energetic sounds on the higher strings. It rung allot on the lower strings, but not very much on the higher strings. The third bow was one that Elizabeth made herself. It was made to sound and act like a $30,000 bow that some really famous bow maker made. It was my favorite. It had a beautiful ringing sound on every string, and was very nimble. I also picked out 1 more at Fred's shop. It have a creamy sound to it, but didn't ring very much.

  

     My mother called my teacher and told him about each bow. From the sound of it, he said not to get the bow Elizabeth made. She is not well known enough to price her bows that high, plus it didn't even have her frog on it, which she said she would make for us for another $2,000. We didn't care about the frog. It is just valuable on the artistic side of bows.  It does not change the sound at all. But it does take away from its value. My teacher also said not to get the bow that we don't know what kind of wood its made from. He said that she is a bow maker, she should know what kind of wood it is, and the fact that she doesn't is a really bad sign. So all that was left was that pretty bow. 

    Here is a link to a diagram of a bow to help you out! Click   HERE.

 We went to my teachers house, and I played all the bows for him. He said  that he wasn't impressed with any of them, that they where all run of the mill, and not to buy them. He know has some of his friends looking around for me. So all in all we are back to square one.     :(

Anniversary Chmanniversary...HIBACHI!!!

Happy Anniversary!! Today Is my parents Anniversary. Our well pump is broken, so we are currently out of water. My dad wanted to take us out to eat, so we went to the Y to shower. I felt very uncomfortable showering there.. when ever somebody walks by, the shower curtain blows up.. when we got back, my dad had flowers for mother, and was ready to go to a HIBACHI GRILL!!! So while Daniel, Papa, and I where waiting for Maria and Mama to put on there makeup and stuff, I went into the laundry room, and saw a cake that said "Happy Birthday Kathleen." I went to papa and said...

"Why did you get a birthday cake for mama? Is it her Birthday?"

He said "No. It's our Anniversary."

"So why does the cake say "Happy Birthday?..."

"Does It? Oh shoot.."

He then tried to scrape off the words, but that didn't work, so the cake now said "Happy Birthda Kathleen!" While he was trying to scrape off the letters, papa sent me upstairs to get mama's Mothers Day cards that he had lost....

The Hibachi Grill was sooo much fun!! The cheff would flick the extras at us, and we would try to catch it in our mouths. Maria caught EVERYTHING the guy flew at her.. any way... thats all!

Bow hunting

Today we went bow hunting. In total we caught a bear, a lion, and a rabbit...... I wish! We drove to Fred Osters shop. He is the man that looks at instruments on the Antique Road Show. I looked, and played 32 bows for an hour and a half. I played more than 32 scales, played a section of a song at least 30 times, and played the section of another song at least 30 times. I picked 2 bows. I was hard work, and I was very glad when it was over. Yesterday we went to a lady's shop, and looked at 9 bows. I picked the black one. It responded well, and had a nice sound. It was also the one that they lady that owns the store was going to buy. She said that if I wanted it, I could have it. I feel bad, my mother is very proud of me for having such good taste at a cheap price ($300). The other bows are around $700.. I don't think it's that cheap..... When we got home, I played them all, and liked the black one allot. One of them from Fred's store was fat, heavy and quiet. The other is fine, but it can get a little hard to control on the REALLY fast parts. My mother made me play them with my eyes closed, and pick the one I liked the most. The first two times I said that I hated the fat one, and loved my old bow. What can I say? I have been playing with it for over a year... Tomorrow I am going to my violin teachers house to play them for him, and to see what he thinks. We are going to meet him in the afternoon at his house in Philly. He told me to bring my swimming suit, because he got a swimming pool, and that I am welcome to come over and swim any time, as long as I want, any time of the day... Some ones excited! I wonder if he know that we have a swimming pool.. I will let you know what he thinks!!!

FUN!!!!!!!!!

We have spent the last few weeks tearing out the downstairs carpeting and hardwood, and the entire kitchen (the men did that). Now the installation has begun. The workers are coming in, as a result I have lost all privacy, and have been very bored, in the way, and tired. They come any were from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm, and the latest they have stayed is 5:30. Why am I tired you may ask? Because for the past two weeks I have been woken up by the sound of drills, rotary saws, circular saws, electric and held saws, and the most popular: a NAIL GUN!!!! I swear those things sound like gun shots!! So, as a result, I have been doing everything in my power to hasten the results. Such as...

1. Playing the Piano very loud every time they stop working to listen to the climax of the basket ball/baseball/football game on the radio station. 2. STOP playing the piano really loud when I hear the electrician yelling to each other from the kitchen to the basement. 3. Watch them while they work, to make them nervous and hurry them up. (this is yet to happen)... The results? Our kitchen should be finished in about to weeks!!! Ahhh, the hard wood of your labors..

Just My Same Old Theories..

I was going to tell you about my crazy weekend, and I wrote a really long post about it, and saved it.... BUT IT GOT DELETED!!! I have come to the conclusion that there are computer fairies, and computer devils. Our house seems to be completely inhabited with computer devils. My theory is that I had this perfectly awesome post all ready to be published neatly tucked away in a file, waiting for my mother to look it over and give it the o.k. But! Alas!! The computer devil got jealous and forked it away with his fiery pitch fork to be tortured in his fiery furnace. My point? Make sure that you get a computer that is inhabited with computer fairies. How do you tell? Just ask the sales clerk. If he makes a weird face, it is STUFFED with computer fairies. If he chuckles, and says yes, it is full of fire fairies (AKA COMPUTER DEVILS)!!

A new way to ruin the day.

My aunt visited for a week. It was enough. Not for me, for her. It was her last day visiting. She took me to Uno's Pizzeria. The waitress came up and asked us what we would like to drink. I looked at my aunt questionably, she nodded her head. After her approval, I ordered an Orange soda, and she ordered an Iced tea. The waitress came with our drinks, we got in a very involved conversation about the brain and the heart. Which just happened to be what I was studying in science that week. Soon the waitress came to take our orders.My aunt ordered a personal deep dish pizza. I then ordered a regular deep dish pizza with mushrooms. After the waitress had left, I informed my aunt that if I didn't bring some home for Maria, she would get upset. I was shocked at how well that excuse had worked. She looked at me and then told me..

"You know what? You are one neat kid. You are just so special!"

"Thank you." I responded smugly as I tried not to laugh.

We then got back into our conversations about the heart and brain. I got excited again, and spilled my soda all over my aunt. This was a month ago, and I am still laughing about it. The look on her face was priceless! A touch of confusion, a bit of question, and a lot of realization that the soda was going to spill right on her. I laughed hysterically while I apologized and helped to mop it up. She looked at me with a face of disapproval and smirked. That just made me laugh more.

Later in the car, after I had a great time teasing my aunt that it looked like she went in her pants, and enjoying delicious pizza, my aunt challenged me to say I was sorry without cracking up. I accepted the challenge, and told her I was sorry that I spilled soda all over her, and it made look like she went in her pants. It took me about 3 minutes to get it out through fits of giggles. This repeated about 10 times before I could say while grinning, and occasional giggles. Finally, after 5 more minutes, I could say it with a straight face, I was very proud of myself. Then my aunt told me that it didn't count because my lips were quivering the whole time. Epic fail.

Spill, Rinse, Repeat......

One of my aunt's favorite stories to tell me took place when I was about 5 or 6, and I was addicted to icy's. My aunt had taken me to Penn State, where she teaches. She was talking with one of her colleagues while I was intently sipping my icy. I was wearing a beautiful new white fluffy dress. And this is how she tells it.

"I took you to my work, and I was talking to one of my colleagues. You were just a little doll. You had on this white dress, and you were sipping your blue raspberry icy. Well, as I was talking, I here this barley audible pitiful 'Aunt Nancy?' and I look down, and there you are with your big blue eyes looking up at me, brimmed with tears. You had spilled the icy all over the front of your dress. I took you to the bathroom and cleaned it off. But I was still afraid that it would stain. I hurried you home and took the dress off of you and put it in the wash."

Once again, Aunt Nancy saves the day.

We might seem strange at first...

We just ate out at Olive Garden. What an experience. First, Maria and I had a competition to see who could get the most cheese on their pizza. Later Mother was looking at Maria. Maria looked back at her and said..

"Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you are right now!"

"Well how is that?"

"You always look at me like that when you are thinking how pretty I am."

"Wow! How did you know that I was thinking that?!"

"Ugh. Mother...."

Me, being extremely jealous of my sister rapped my arm around my adorable older sister's shoulder, and continued to wrap it around her face. I then smiled and tried to get my mother's attention. Strangely, the only person that told me to stop was my Grandmother...

Later on we were going home and Maria was driving. It seemed that the only thing that my mother could say was...

"Who can hit you, who can hit you???!!!"

After she said this about five times I took the liberty of asking my sister...

"How are how are you you doing doing?"

My sisters response?

"Yep, that's pretty much how she talks!"

Later on in the car, my mother and grandmother were looking at different glazes for the kitchen cabinets in a magazine. A pretty catchy song came on that apparently caught my mother's attention. She started to dance in her seat. My grandmother did not notice because she was still looking at the magazine. She started to ask my mother a question and looked up, she stopped in mid sentence. She looked pretty shocked. What scared me was that the only way my mom could think of to dance in her seat, was to jiggle her arms, and bounce up and down.

What color are YOUR eyes?

One of my Grandmothers favorite baby stories is when I was walking around telling people what color eyes they had.

"Your eyes are brown, and yours are green, and yours are blue!"

When I got to my sister, I announced that her eyes where also brown. Apparently she was not happy about this, and insisted that her eyes where hazel. When my Aunt asked me what color my eyes where, I paused for a minute, and then answered...

"Blue!"

"Right!" My Aunt replied.

I was very proud of myself for defeating that trick, or at least what I thought was a trick. Finally my Grandfather came up and asked me what color his eyes were. I stared at them long and hard, thinking.

Well, they're not really blue, and they're not really that grey... I know what color they are!

Innocently I looked up at my Grandpa and answered..

"Your eyes are the color of old!"

Music, Music, and more Music!

Today I had music lessons. To put it in short, my music teacher scares me. Apparently I was not putting enough energy into the piece. He walked behind me and held the bow with me - helping me push it. He sent my bow surging off of the strings, and onto the bridge. He continued to saw at the strings. He told me that I needed to put that amount of energy into it. I tried. It still was not good enough. He took my violin from me, and just played the E string - which just happens to be the highest, and most shrill. As he was playing it, he danced around the room smiling and laughing. All the sudden he stopped. He asked me if I would excuse him for one second. I graciously agreed, happy for the break. As he was talking on the phone the main things that came up were - him teaching another student, teaching a music majors class at a high school, and a recital that he was planning. Wow....

Youth Group

Youth Group is changing. At the youth group I go to, normally we sit in a circle, and do our devotion books. But every first Wednesday, we do a project. So far our projects have been - Going to a retirement home to paint peoples nails, making posters for canned food donations, and going shopping for needy people. But this week it was different. We played a human game of cranium. Our first assignment was to make the word "SPRING" on the floor with our bodies. I helped to make the G. Oh Yeah! Other examples of what we had to do are - make the word "MOM" with out bodies, act out American Idol, act out Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, and 76'ers. I still don't know how the guys got it... we also had to sing as many songs as we could think of with the word "LOVE" in it, and others with a girls name in it. My favorite was trying to make a two story pyramid. When it was my turn to run up and get my assignment, I was in shock. I had to get my team to say "Amazing Grace" by drawling it like pictionary. Sadly, no one got it. But the last question was the grand finally. We had to make a human knot. Needless to say, that was a bit awkward. We all got in a small circle, and stuck our hands in front of us. We then grabbed random hands. then some of us tried to duck under the circle. I was the only successful one to get all the way under. After the third try, we all gave up. And that is my crazy Wednesday.

Grandma's Make-up

I have been known for trying to do my families make-up. (My aunt, Mother, and Grandmother)

Every time i have tried, it always got messed up. One time I was doing my Aunt's eye liner, telling her...

"Don't move!"

She did more then move. She sneezed. Needless to say, that she did not look very nice by the time i was through with her. I tried to do her make-up again a few years later. It was actually looking pretty good! All I had left to do was the eye shadow (this time i had chosen not to do eye liner). I snapped closed the blush container, and announced that i was almost finished. I could swear that I heard a sigh of relief come out of my victim. I rummaged around in my Aunt's make-up container, trying to find some eye shadow. At last, success! I had found what i was looking for, it was a very nice set, and name brand. It was a nice variety of shades. Purples, browns, pinks, silver, and a shimmer black. I didn't even take the time to consider the other colors, I went right for the black. I was nervous that i would mess up the wonderful job i had done. My aim was to put it on her eyelids. But I did way better then that! Not only did I put it on her eyelids, but I also managed to get it on her shirt, and cheek. I sighed and ran to the bathroom for a wet tissue. I tried to clean it off of her cheek, but only succeeded in making a black smear. Once her eyelids were fully covered in black, up to her eyebrows, and all hope had drained out of me, I declared defeat, and told my Aunt she could look. I wish you could have been there.

Just today i did my Grandmother's make-up. For once I was happy with the results. And it was also the first time she kept it on. She showed it to my mother, and my mother said..

"wow! that actually looks pretty good!"

Sadly that reminded me of the picture we have of her when she got her makeover from one of us. She had her hair in 4 pigtails, lip liner about an inch from her lips in all directions, and dark green eye shadow. I wonder if i had anything to do with that...