Yup, we picked him up from the airport yesterday at precisely 4:53 pm. His plane was delayed about 23 minutes, it was going to land at 4:30, which was annoying. Anyway, we're all very glad he's back. And he brought presents! I got a CD of Handel's water music, which I'm going to have to listen to...maybe while I do quizzing...that would be cool.
Youth was last night, and it was table-top game tournaments. Ping-pong, pool, air hockey and fooseball. Oh yeah, and Golden Eye, an N64 game. I entered all of them, and got to the second round of ping-pong and fooseball and then lost. Air hockey and Golden Eye I didn't even make it to the second round, and in pool (which I have never played before in my life) I made it to the third round because the second guy I played (a sponsor) sunk the eight ball off his first shot! It was...amazing. I rather like pool, I've decided. Anyway, it was fun, and the winning people got cool trophies Brian made that light up.
Today is theory class, which I have mixed feelings about...we have to go over modes again, which I really don't like, and probably some other stuff. Terms might be fun though, and we will get cookies. I really want to go shopping tomorrow! I hope I can...
~Sil
30 September 2006
27 September 2006
Odd?
Here I sit, at the computer, with a fleece blanket and a Slurpee. Does that seem odd to you?
But that's not what I sat down to say.
Several interesting things happened today, the first of which being - my piano lesson. My teacher gave me a little band pep talk, which cheered me up, and we tried unsuccessfully to get through my whole lesson. It didn't work. It never does. I did, however, show her my Davy Jones and Two Hornpipes PotC pieces, which she liked, and my Emma and Pride and Prejudice pieces, which she also liked. We took a quick look at Sonata in G major (Beethoven) but not a real long one, and then I sat down to do some quizzing outside while my sister had her lesson, which I'm afraid didn't go as well. I always feel bad for her, because I don't think she really likes piano that much even though she's obviously talented. She also super super SUPER sensitive to any type of criticism and my teacher will not hestitate to criticize you until there's not tomorrow. Which is the mark of a good music teacher, but not really very good for my sister. Anyway, I never know what to say, because I'm quite different from her and I don't really experience it the way she does.
Band was awesome, I had a really good time. We got a new piece called Early One Morning in which I get to play tambourine, triangle and crash cymbals (yay) and I'm going to do two duets at the Christmas concert with our main percussionist, whose name is Dylan. He's autistic. They're a song from the Muppets and Accidentally in Love from Shrek. So that was pretty cool. We rehearsed Cold Snap, which was SO awesome because I have a piano part and it sounds really good, especially with the saxes. Thankfully, we did not rehearse Air For Band, which I am not very good at, or Modal Song and Dance, which I am okay at but not real good. I also learned that we actually have an imbalance of high instruments to low, not low instruments to high as I had originally thought. So I need to rethink some of those piano parts, to make it so that I play more low stuff. The director brought a keyboard for me this time, which was good except that the chair was too low and the keyboard was too high, so I had to sit on my knees, which isn't the best posture for playing. I also learnt, to my annoyance, that a piano is considered part of the percussion in a band. I mean, please. Can you have a career playing the triangle? No. Can you have a career playing piano? Definetely. All our trumpets are guys and they goof around a bit.
On a bit of a more serious note, we went to McDonald's for supper today (that's not the serious thing, even though I don't really like McDonald's) and I read in the newspaper an article about a 20-year-old woman who got sentenced to ten years in jail for murdering her newborn baby. First, let me point out the inconsistencies here. So, you can get sentenced to ten years in jail for killing your newborn baby, but if you'd had an abortion a DAY earlier, not only would you have gotten off scot-free but the government would have paid for it. Does anyone else see something radically wrong there? As you should be able to tell by reading this, I am rabidly (okay, not rabidly, um...avidly) pro-life and I think all that pro-choice stuff is...ahem...how 'bout I don't finish that statement. How is it okay to murder a baby, whether it's inside a woman or not? How is that baby not a person? How come one day it's free to kill a baby and the next day, apparently after it's been born and is officially a person, you can be sentenced to ten years in prison? Can SOMEONE in society make sense of this whole pro-choice worldview? Because I think it's a feeble attempt at justifying something that can't be justified, by people who are too ashamed to own up to their mistakes. Pretty soon it'll be legal to suffocate a two-year-old because they stole your last chocolate bar. Pathetic.
Sorry. Got ranting there. I could have gone on for a long while yet, but I won't.
~Sil
But that's not what I sat down to say.
Several interesting things happened today, the first of which being - my piano lesson. My teacher gave me a little band pep talk, which cheered me up, and we tried unsuccessfully to get through my whole lesson. It didn't work. It never does. I did, however, show her my Davy Jones and Two Hornpipes PotC pieces, which she liked, and my Emma and Pride and Prejudice pieces, which she also liked. We took a quick look at Sonata in G major (Beethoven) but not a real long one, and then I sat down to do some quizzing outside while my sister had her lesson, which I'm afraid didn't go as well. I always feel bad for her, because I don't think she really likes piano that much even though she's obviously talented. She also super super SUPER sensitive to any type of criticism and my teacher will not hestitate to criticize you until there's not tomorrow. Which is the mark of a good music teacher, but not really very good for my sister. Anyway, I never know what to say, because I'm quite different from her and I don't really experience it the way she does.
Band was awesome, I had a really good time. We got a new piece called Early One Morning in which I get to play tambourine, triangle and crash cymbals (yay) and I'm going to do two duets at the Christmas concert with our main percussionist, whose name is Dylan. He's autistic. They're a song from the Muppets and Accidentally in Love from Shrek. So that was pretty cool. We rehearsed Cold Snap, which was SO awesome because I have a piano part and it sounds really good, especially with the saxes. Thankfully, we did not rehearse Air For Band, which I am not very good at, or Modal Song and Dance, which I am okay at but not real good. I also learned that we actually have an imbalance of high instruments to low, not low instruments to high as I had originally thought. So I need to rethink some of those piano parts, to make it so that I play more low stuff. The director brought a keyboard for me this time, which was good except that the chair was too low and the keyboard was too high, so I had to sit on my knees, which isn't the best posture for playing. I also learnt, to my annoyance, that a piano is considered part of the percussion in a band. I mean, please. Can you have a career playing the triangle? No. Can you have a career playing piano? Definetely. All our trumpets are guys and they goof around a bit.
On a bit of a more serious note, we went to McDonald's for supper today (that's not the serious thing, even though I don't really like McDonald's) and I read in the newspaper an article about a 20-year-old woman who got sentenced to ten years in jail for murdering her newborn baby. First, let me point out the inconsistencies here. So, you can get sentenced to ten years in jail for killing your newborn baby, but if you'd had an abortion a DAY earlier, not only would you have gotten off scot-free but the government would have paid for it. Does anyone else see something radically wrong there? As you should be able to tell by reading this, I am rabidly (okay, not rabidly, um...avidly) pro-life and I think all that pro-choice stuff is...ahem...how 'bout I don't finish that statement. How is it okay to murder a baby, whether it's inside a woman or not? How is that baby not a person? How come one day it's free to kill a baby and the next day, apparently after it's been born and is officially a person, you can be sentenced to ten years in prison? Can SOMEONE in society make sense of this whole pro-choice worldview? Because I think it's a feeble attempt at justifying something that can't be justified, by people who are too ashamed to own up to their mistakes. Pretty soon it'll be legal to suffocate a two-year-old because they stole your last chocolate bar. Pathetic.
Sorry. Got ranting there. I could have gone on for a long while yet, but I won't.
~Sil
Annoyed!
I keep losing jewelry! Last night I took off my jacket when I got home and my necklace got caught and the clasp came off, so I know it fell somewhere in the house but I can't find it. It's annoying. So today all I wore was earrings, and I might wear my little treble clef necklace, just because piano is today and band is today and the only way that thing's falling off is if someone comes at it with a pair of scissors.
Keep the comments coming, guys! And for those who asked (or maybe it was just one of you...), here's some info on middle children. The writer of the book, Kevin Leman, says that middle children are conundrums, and he even has a chart that describes how their personality traits can be contradictory. So, for example, on the one hand, middle children can be lonely, quiet and shy OR sociable, friendly and outgoing; impatient and easily frustrated OR laid-back. It's quite interesting, and a combination of all the traits he lists fits my sister (middle child) perfectly. And I mean perfectly. She's sociable and friendly, but shy at the same time, impatient and easily frustrated but not very competitive. It's amazing. According to him, middle children are the hardest to read of any birth order.
Youth last night. We played a game that was, for lack of a better name, called "Who's my Neighbor" which basically meant we all sat in a circle and made sure we knew who was sitting beside us, and someone was in the middle. So the person in the middle points at a person sitting down at random and says, "Who's your neighbor on your right/left?" and if they don't answer within five seconds, they're in the middle. But if they do answer, then the middle person says "Do you like your neighbor?" and if the person sitting down says yes, then everyone has to get up and switch seats, and the ensuing chaos means usually that a different person gets left in the middle, because there's one more person than there are chairs. BUT, if the person sitting down says NO, they have to give a reason ("She has glasses" "he's wearing a hoody") and all the people who fit that reason (who are wearing glasses or a hoody) have to get up and move.
So that was fun. Then we did Bible study, which was really thought-provoking. I quite enjoyed it. We also got our 30 Hour Famine prizes (FINALLY) and I got a baseball cap. It's cream-colored with 30HF on the front. Which was good, because I needed a hat.
And we almost have our youth band organized! So that's exciting.
I'm looking into a couple of computers, one an Apple IBook and one a Macbook. The Macbook one costs $30 more, but I'd get free shipping, and according to my uncle it's a really good deal. Except I don't have as much money as I need yet - it's $1079. So I'll have to do some saving, but I think I only need another $100 or so.
Dad's home in two days!
~Sil
Keep the comments coming, guys! And for those who asked (or maybe it was just one of you...), here's some info on middle children. The writer of the book, Kevin Leman, says that middle children are conundrums, and he even has a chart that describes how their personality traits can be contradictory. So, for example, on the one hand, middle children can be lonely, quiet and shy OR sociable, friendly and outgoing; impatient and easily frustrated OR laid-back. It's quite interesting, and a combination of all the traits he lists fits my sister (middle child) perfectly. And I mean perfectly. She's sociable and friendly, but shy at the same time, impatient and easily frustrated but not very competitive. It's amazing. According to him, middle children are the hardest to read of any birth order.
Youth last night. We played a game that was, for lack of a better name, called "Who's my Neighbor" which basically meant we all sat in a circle and made sure we knew who was sitting beside us, and someone was in the middle. So the person in the middle points at a person sitting down at random and says, "Who's your neighbor on your right/left?" and if they don't answer within five seconds, they're in the middle. But if they do answer, then the middle person says "Do you like your neighbor?" and if the person sitting down says yes, then everyone has to get up and switch seats, and the ensuing chaos means usually that a different person gets left in the middle, because there's one more person than there are chairs. BUT, if the person sitting down says NO, they have to give a reason ("She has glasses" "he's wearing a hoody") and all the people who fit that reason (who are wearing glasses or a hoody) have to get up and move.
So that was fun. Then we did Bible study, which was really thought-provoking. I quite enjoyed it. We also got our 30 Hour Famine prizes (FINALLY) and I got a baseball cap. It's cream-colored with 30HF on the front. Which was good, because I needed a hat.
And we almost have our youth band organized! So that's exciting.
I'm looking into a couple of computers, one an Apple IBook and one a Macbook. The Macbook one costs $30 more, but I'd get free shipping, and according to my uncle it's a really good deal. Except I don't have as much money as I need yet - it's $1079. So I'll have to do some saving, but I think I only need another $100 or so.
Dad's home in two days!
~Sil
26 September 2006
Little bug?
I think there might be a little flu bug going around - my sister's stomach wasn't feeling that great last night and neither was mine, and apparently my brother wasn't feeling too good either. We all seem okay now though, so it must have been just some weird little thing.
And sadly, my other little blue star earring is indeed lost. It's really too bad, I only wore them for about a month. And they were from this cool place called The Plaid Giraffe where I went with my aunt and uncle. And what good is one earring? I did have kind of a cool idea that I should get gold hoops and wear them with my Elizabeth Swann costume at Halloween, to make me look more piratey. She doesn't actually wear them in the movie - call it artistic license.
I came up with a design for our new quizzing shirts this year, and I personally think it's kind of cool. I don't think any quizzers read this, and they're not supposed to know whose is whose, so I think I'm safe to say what it is. It's CIA in big red letters, and then underneath in smaller ones it says "Christ In Action". I also had a neat idea for this upcoming quiz meet - The Little Orange Book Awards. You see, all our little Acts booklets this year were plain orange, whereas in past years they've had pictures on them and there wasn't much opportunity for decoration. So I thought it would be fun if people entered their decorated books and we decided which ones we thought were best. The only thing is, I don't know if people would enter. I would have to make it pretty simple, I guess.
Oh, and I finished The Lost Colony! I started reading it again, too, but I'm reading this book for school called The Birth Order Book, about how your placement in your family affects your personality. According to it, firstborn children are: conscienctious, well organized, serious, goal oriented, achieving, people pleasers, believers in authority, perfectionist (haha), reliable, list-makers, critical, scholarly, self-sacrificing, conservative (of course!), supporters of law and order, legalistic, and self-reliant. That pretty much describes me to a T! I would post a review of The Lost Colony but nobody I know has read it and it would be really hard not to spoil it. So I'll wait.
Dad's home in three days! If he were on the phone he could tell me exactly how many hours until he's here. I think he misses us just as much as we miss him!
And last but not least...I was rather proud of my outfit today. I've become quite creative lately. Just thought I'd say.
~Sil
And sadly, my other little blue star earring is indeed lost. It's really too bad, I only wore them for about a month. And they were from this cool place called The Plaid Giraffe where I went with my aunt and uncle. And what good is one earring? I did have kind of a cool idea that I should get gold hoops and wear them with my Elizabeth Swann costume at Halloween, to make me look more piratey. She doesn't actually wear them in the movie - call it artistic license.
I came up with a design for our new quizzing shirts this year, and I personally think it's kind of cool. I don't think any quizzers read this, and they're not supposed to know whose is whose, so I think I'm safe to say what it is. It's CIA in big red letters, and then underneath in smaller ones it says "Christ In Action". I also had a neat idea for this upcoming quiz meet - The Little Orange Book Awards. You see, all our little Acts booklets this year were plain orange, whereas in past years they've had pictures on them and there wasn't much opportunity for decoration. So I thought it would be fun if people entered their decorated books and we decided which ones we thought were best. The only thing is, I don't know if people would enter. I would have to make it pretty simple, I guess.
Oh, and I finished The Lost Colony! I started reading it again, too, but I'm reading this book for school called The Birth Order Book, about how your placement in your family affects your personality. According to it, firstborn children are: conscienctious, well organized, serious, goal oriented, achieving, people pleasers, believers in authority, perfectionist (haha), reliable, list-makers, critical, scholarly, self-sacrificing, conservative (of course!), supporters of law and order, legalistic, and self-reliant. That pretty much describes me to a T! I would post a review of The Lost Colony but nobody I know has read it and it would be really hard not to spoil it. So I'll wait.
Dad's home in three days! If he were on the phone he could tell me exactly how many hours until he's here. I think he misses us just as much as we miss him!
And last but not least...I was rather proud of my outfit today. I've become quite creative lately. Just thought I'd say.
~Sil
25 September 2006
Earrings
I have good earring news and bad earring news. The good news is - I bought two new pair of them. One pair is dangly and silver with little blue stars (I'm a sucker for blue and stars) and the other pair is just dangly and silver with little sparkly bits. The bad earring news is that I think I may have lost one of my glow-in-the-dark blue star earrings that I got for my birthday. I haven't looked in the van yet, so it may be there, so I guess there's still some hope. I need to buy an earring holder, they're getting all tangled up with each other in the little box I use.
I also bought the fifth Artemis Fowl book yesterday! Well, actually, my friend took me shopping - it was her birthday present to me - and bought it for me. I'm about three-quarters of the way through, and it's pretty good! Artemis is finally experiencing adolescence, which is amusing, but he should be fifteen - he was fourteen in the last book and I'm older than him now. Holly is Captain Holly Short again, and I was pretty scared that Butler was going to get incapacitated for a bit there but I think he's okay. There are two new characters, Minerva (who is another genius, aged twelve) and N-degree-1. He has a little degree circle in the middle of his name but I don't think Alt codes work for Mac so I can't make one. He's a imp, and hopefully he'll get a real name soon! Mulch doesn't have much of a part in this one, which is relieving - his explosive flatulence, luminous saliva and multipurpose beard hair were getting annoying. Foaly is, as always, the technical consultant that sits back at base and manipulates the cool technology. Root is still dead, which is sad, I was hoping he'd come back to life, but Wing Commander Vinyaya has more of a part. She's cool.
Quiz practice on Sunday went well - I think I may have talked too fast while I was doing the summary, which makes me glad I don't have to do it every week. I sent the quiz directory to my coach but it came out wrong on her computer and none of my nice formatting worked, so we need to redo that because much as I know we needed a quiz list, Futura and a nice equalized table is much better than Courier with a haphazard sort of table. Plus I have my pride! If I'm making a quiz list, it's going to look GOOD. Anyway, we did some scorekeeping, and I learned stuff I didn't know, which was fun. Then I went shopping with my friend, which was also fun. I saw some nice earring holders at Icing (by Claire's - apparently it caters to the 'mature teens and young adults' more than Claire's, which could also be called Cheap Jewelry Central) and I want to go back and get one.
Oh dear, it's almost ten and I haven't done any school. Oops.
~Sil
I also bought the fifth Artemis Fowl book yesterday! Well, actually, my friend took me shopping - it was her birthday present to me - and bought it for me. I'm about three-quarters of the way through, and it's pretty good! Artemis is finally experiencing adolescence, which is amusing, but he should be fifteen - he was fourteen in the last book and I'm older than him now. Holly is Captain Holly Short again, and I was pretty scared that Butler was going to get incapacitated for a bit there but I think he's okay. There are two new characters, Minerva (who is another genius, aged twelve) and N-degree-1. He has a little degree circle in the middle of his name but I don't think Alt codes work for Mac so I can't make one. He's a imp, and hopefully he'll get a real name soon! Mulch doesn't have much of a part in this one, which is relieving - his explosive flatulence, luminous saliva and multipurpose beard hair were getting annoying. Foaly is, as always, the technical consultant that sits back at base and manipulates the cool technology. Root is still dead, which is sad, I was hoping he'd come back to life, but Wing Commander Vinyaya has more of a part. She's cool.
Quiz practice on Sunday went well - I think I may have talked too fast while I was doing the summary, which makes me glad I don't have to do it every week. I sent the quiz directory to my coach but it came out wrong on her computer and none of my nice formatting worked, so we need to redo that because much as I know we needed a quiz list, Futura and a nice equalized table is much better than Courier with a haphazard sort of table. Plus I have my pride! If I'm making a quiz list, it's going to look GOOD. Anyway, we did some scorekeeping, and I learned stuff I didn't know, which was fun. Then I went shopping with my friend, which was also fun. I saw some nice earring holders at Icing (by Claire's - apparently it caters to the 'mature teens and young adults' more than Claire's, which could also be called Cheap Jewelry Central) and I want to go back and get one.
Oh dear, it's almost ten and I haven't done any school. Oops.
~Sil
23 September 2006
Hobbits!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BILBO AND FRODO AS OF YESTERDAY!
Yes, I know I didn't post yesterday. Sorry. But I did do my science test and I think I got a decent mark, even with all those annoying definitions. And I got some quizzing done. So it wasn't all bad. I mean, that wasn't all I did, but those were the major things.
Today I'm going to practice that band music more - it's pretty hard and I want to have it close to up to speed by Wednesday. By the way, I'm playing Air for Band, Modal Song and Dance, and Cold Snap. That was for the benefit of Robyn. Air for Band and Modal Song and Dance are, in my opinion, pretty boring, but maybe that's just because I don't have an actual part. Just the condensed score. Cold Snap is cooler (er - no pun intended!).
Oh, and I forgot the funniest story! Me and my friend Daniel babysat four kids on Saturday night a week ago, and there were two girls about five or six and two boys about three or four. Anyway, they were really rowdy, so I told this story about a tiger who had dentures and his friend the leopard stole them. Don't ask. Anyway, it was totally off the top of my head, and then the mom of one of the little girls comes up to me on Tuesday evening, whhen she had running club and I had bible study, both at the church, and says, "That story was amazing! Aoife repeated the whole thing to me before she went to bed!" (Aoife's the little girl. Pronounced Ee-fa.) Which took me totally by surprise, but it was gratifying. A good sign for someone who wants to write books, too!
Anyway, we went to the corn maze last night, and it was way easier than last year. Fun, too. I got really muddy but it was still enjoyable, and, as should have been very predictable, my friend and I got asked if we were twin sisters. We laughed and said no, but we should say yes sometime and see what happens. Might be interesting! We always get asked at quiz meets at least once, so there will be opportunity.
But I'm going to go now, because I REALLY need to get that quizzing done and I'm kind of hoping I might be able to get to Jacob today and see if they have any of those awesome cords lefts.
~Sil
Yes, I know I didn't post yesterday. Sorry. But I did do my science test and I think I got a decent mark, even with all those annoying definitions. And I got some quizzing done. So it wasn't all bad. I mean, that wasn't all I did, but those were the major things.
Today I'm going to practice that band music more - it's pretty hard and I want to have it close to up to speed by Wednesday. By the way, I'm playing Air for Band, Modal Song and Dance, and Cold Snap. That was for the benefit of Robyn. Air for Band and Modal Song and Dance are, in my opinion, pretty boring, but maybe that's just because I don't have an actual part. Just the condensed score. Cold Snap is cooler (er - no pun intended!).
Oh, and I forgot the funniest story! Me and my friend Daniel babysat four kids on Saturday night a week ago, and there were two girls about five or six and two boys about three or four. Anyway, they were really rowdy, so I told this story about a tiger who had dentures and his friend the leopard stole them. Don't ask. Anyway, it was totally off the top of my head, and then the mom of one of the little girls comes up to me on Tuesday evening, whhen she had running club and I had bible study, both at the church, and says, "That story was amazing! Aoife repeated the whole thing to me before she went to bed!" (Aoife's the little girl. Pronounced Ee-fa.) Which took me totally by surprise, but it was gratifying. A good sign for someone who wants to write books, too!
Anyway, we went to the corn maze last night, and it was way easier than last year. Fun, too. I got really muddy but it was still enjoyable, and, as should have been very predictable, my friend and I got asked if we were twin sisters. We laughed and said no, but we should say yes sometime and see what happens. Might be interesting! We always get asked at quiz meets at least once, so there will be opportunity.
But I'm going to go now, because I REALLY need to get that quizzing done and I'm kind of hoping I might be able to get to Jacob today and see if they have any of those awesome cords lefts.
~Sil
21 September 2006
Rain. Again.
We wouldn't want sun or anything, oh no. Let's rain for a week STRAIGHT and see what effect that has on people in general. I know it's not making me any more chipper than I would normally be. I mean, if it's going to be so cold and rainy, could we at least have some snow please?
Band yesterday was good - turns out I had nothing to worry about. I just listened this time, but he gave me music for next week. Three songs. In two of them the piano parts are just the condensed version of all the other parts, which means I can't possibly play everyone at the same time but I'll be playing high mostly because we have a bit of an imbalance of low instruments to high. I think that's what he said, anyway. At this point I'm a bit band-lingo-illiterate. The third song actually has a piano part, which I'm excited about, because it means I get a solo and that I'm actually contributing something different. And I'd just like to say right now that I'm sorry, everyone who's reading this who plays the clarinet or the sax or...eh...bassoon...but I think I have the best instrument out of you all - I can do a solo all by myself, I don't need an accompanist, piano is adaptable to pretty much any situation...I'm sorry, but I think I have the best one!
And now that that's out of my system, we have three trumpets (all of whom are guys) an alto sax (also a guy) a bari sax, one girl who can do clarinet or bass clarinet as the situation demands, one clarinet, two flutes, a snare drum and me! Oh, and one of the trumpets is a bassoon as well, but I don't think he has it right now. So that's pretty cool. The only thing I'm a little worried about is - the piano sure isn't brand-new or anything. I hope it's even passably in-tune. And I hope I'm not a complete failure when it comes to watching a conductor while I'm playing.
Oh dear...I feel so bad about this week, I'm going to need to do some serious studying for my science test (tomorrow. Groan.) because like I usually do...I left it all until the last minute. I feel a bit stupid. And I got almost no quizzing done yesterday, which means I'm WAY behind schedule, and - well, I guess someone could make an argument at this point, what am I doing sitting here? And the answer is - I want to delay it as long as possible.
But before I go - Bill, another guy who volunteers for Mike, told me the funniest story before he dropped me off at him last night! So his mom was at the pancake breakfast for Mike (you remember that, Monte Solberg was there) and met me. So later, I come up in the conversation and she says to Bill, "You know, she reminds me a lot of me when I was younger." Because she had a lot of younger siblings and a lot of responsibility. So Bill says, "Oh really, Mom? Were you brilliant?" and I laughed! I said "Bill, I'm flattered!"
Yes, I know, I'm going.
~Sil
Band yesterday was good - turns out I had nothing to worry about. I just listened this time, but he gave me music for next week. Three songs. In two of them the piano parts are just the condensed version of all the other parts, which means I can't possibly play everyone at the same time but I'll be playing high mostly because we have a bit of an imbalance of low instruments to high. I think that's what he said, anyway. At this point I'm a bit band-lingo-illiterate. The third song actually has a piano part, which I'm excited about, because it means I get a solo and that I'm actually contributing something different. And I'd just like to say right now that I'm sorry, everyone who's reading this who plays the clarinet or the sax or...eh...bassoon...but I think I have the best instrument out of you all - I can do a solo all by myself, I don't need an accompanist, piano is adaptable to pretty much any situation...I'm sorry, but I think I have the best one!
And now that that's out of my system, we have three trumpets (all of whom are guys) an alto sax (also a guy) a bari sax, one girl who can do clarinet or bass clarinet as the situation demands, one clarinet, two flutes, a snare drum and me! Oh, and one of the trumpets is a bassoon as well, but I don't think he has it right now. So that's pretty cool. The only thing I'm a little worried about is - the piano sure isn't brand-new or anything. I hope it's even passably in-tune. And I hope I'm not a complete failure when it comes to watching a conductor while I'm playing.
Oh dear...I feel so bad about this week, I'm going to need to do some serious studying for my science test (tomorrow. Groan.) because like I usually do...I left it all until the last minute. I feel a bit stupid. And I got almost no quizzing done yesterday, which means I'm WAY behind schedule, and - well, I guess someone could make an argument at this point, what am I doing sitting here? And the answer is - I want to delay it as long as possible.
But before I go - Bill, another guy who volunteers for Mike, told me the funniest story before he dropped me off at him last night! So his mom was at the pancake breakfast for Mike (you remember that, Monte Solberg was there) and met me. So later, I come up in the conversation and she says to Bill, "You know, she reminds me a lot of me when I was younger." Because she had a lot of younger siblings and a lot of responsibility. So Bill says, "Oh really, Mom? Were you brilliant?" and I laughed! I said "Bill, I'm flattered!"
Yes, I know, I'm going.
~Sil
20 September 2006
I'm in!
I'm into the Edmonton Home-School Band! I am so excited! I phoned my dad in Toronto last night and I probably hurt his ear, I was so hyped. Sorry, Dad. Anyway, I'm a little nervous because they'll probably want me to sight-read stuff and my sight-reading could be better. I think other instruments have it easy when it comes to sight-reading (don't kill me, Robyn...). And I have no clue how bands work or how often we practice and I haven't even met anyone there (though I'm hoping that someone I know will coincidentally be there - I know homeschoolers through quizzing, maybe some of them are in it) and it, annoyingly, practices in a church up north, which is no small drive (at least I don't think it is) so maybe, if it turns out to be weekly, I'll figure out a bus route I can take rather than making my mom drive me there all the time. It might not be so bad, except that the practice is from 4 to 5:15, which is real rush-hour traffic. On the way back, anyway. Or maybe once I get to know someone there, we can car-pool. Oh, and I get to play percussion! I've never played percussion before!
So today is going to be a little nerve-wracking. At least I got to sleep in. Well, until 8. Which is better than 7. And I'm wearing my Evenstar pendant for the first time in a while, because I felt like today was kinda special, and my gold-colored sixteenth note earrings. I didn't wear the little necklace with the treble clef on it though, because that felt like overkill. Yes, Robyn, I know that you can have no overkill when it comes to music. But still.
Let's try to think of something other than band to talk about. Oh, we had youth bible study last night, which was fun - we played a game where everyone wrote down obscure facts about themselves, mixed them up in a bucket, and then Bryan and two other youth sponsors drew them, read them out loud, and we had to guess whose was whose. The ones that didn't get guessed after five guesses got to go in a draw for later. Then we did the actual bible study for about 40 minutes, and prayer time after that. The girls always take a good 30-45 minutes for prayer time, and the guys finish in 10 minutes, so that was funny. But Bryan did give us cookies, and told us not to tell the guys we got them. And I didn't get to hold Ellie, because Carissa was holding her and she started to cry and so she handed her to me and of course that didn't stop her crying. So I gave her to Natalie and she fell asleep.
Anyway, I need to get a whopping load of science done and a pretty large amount of quizzing, and I should probably practice before I go to piano lessons, so that's all for now.
~Sil
So today is going to be a little nerve-wracking. At least I got to sleep in. Well, until 8. Which is better than 7. And I'm wearing my Evenstar pendant for the first time in a while, because I felt like today was kinda special, and my gold-colored sixteenth note earrings. I didn't wear the little necklace with the treble clef on it though, because that felt like overkill. Yes, Robyn, I know that you can have no overkill when it comes to music. But still.
Let's try to think of something other than band to talk about. Oh, we had youth bible study last night, which was fun - we played a game where everyone wrote down obscure facts about themselves, mixed them up in a bucket, and then Bryan and two other youth sponsors drew them, read them out loud, and we had to guess whose was whose. The ones that didn't get guessed after five guesses got to go in a draw for later. Then we did the actual bible study for about 40 minutes, and prayer time after that. The girls always take a good 30-45 minutes for prayer time, and the guys finish in 10 minutes, so that was funny. But Bryan did give us cookies, and told us not to tell the guys we got them. And I didn't get to hold Ellie, because Carissa was holding her and she started to cry and so she handed her to me and of course that didn't stop her crying. So I gave her to Natalie and she fell asleep.
Anyway, I need to get a whopping load of science done and a pretty large amount of quizzing, and I should probably practice before I go to piano lessons, so that's all for now.
~Sil
19 September 2006
Quizzing
This week has been a fun quizzing week so far - on Sunday everyone gets to put their name in a draw once for every time they read this weeks' section (Acts 2 vs. 37-46 and Acts 3) and I've already done it twenty-five times. I plan to do it one hundred times by the end of this week, just to ensure I get something out of that draw - I am singularly unlucky when it comes to draws of any sort. We (the A quizzers) are also supposed to make our own quizzes and bring them to practice, so I worked on that this morning. It got a little tricky on a couple of questions, but I got them all made up and now I just have to write them on little blue cards I made last night, and I'll have a quiz. Fun!
I totally forgot to mention, in my panic about my cords, that our friends' dog came to stay with us over the weekend. He is so adorable, I love him. His name's Miracle (because their mom said if they ever got a dog it would be a miracle) and he's six months old. He's a Yorkie/Shih-tzu cross, and therefore slightly smaller than my dog (Bandit), who is a Cocker spaniel/Shih-tzu cross. And basically the two of them rolled around all day doing the same thing over and over - Miracle jumps up and starts to chew Bandit's ear. Bandit tries to bite Miracle's paw and Miracle hangs on to Bandit's ear for as long as possible before Bandit shakes him off. Then Bandit tries to chase Miracle and Miracle hides in some small spot Bandit can't fit into, and Bandit barks at him. Miracle eventually comes out and they do it all over again. And though Bandit seemed annoyed, he looked like he was moping a little the day after Miracle left.
We're currently stealing batteries from all over the house to put in the keyboard - mom has no more rechargeables that aren't being used, so Ben has stolen some from Will's Game Boy, I stole one from by alarm clock, I scavenged one from mom's desk drawer and we're hoping we can keep it working until mom buys some more rechargeables. I have a sneaking suspicion she's holding off to minimize the time we spend on the computer. Tsk tsk.
~Sil
I totally forgot to mention, in my panic about my cords, that our friends' dog came to stay with us over the weekend. He is so adorable, I love him. His name's Miracle (because their mom said if they ever got a dog it would be a miracle) and he's six months old. He's a Yorkie/Shih-tzu cross, and therefore slightly smaller than my dog (Bandit), who is a Cocker spaniel/Shih-tzu cross. And basically the two of them rolled around all day doing the same thing over and over - Miracle jumps up and starts to chew Bandit's ear. Bandit tries to bite Miracle's paw and Miracle hangs on to Bandit's ear for as long as possible before Bandit shakes him off. Then Bandit tries to chase Miracle and Miracle hides in some small spot Bandit can't fit into, and Bandit barks at him. Miracle eventually comes out and they do it all over again. And though Bandit seemed annoyed, he looked like he was moping a little the day after Miracle left.
We're currently stealing batteries from all over the house to put in the keyboard - mom has no more rechargeables that aren't being used, so Ben has stolen some from Will's Game Boy, I stole one from by alarm clock, I scavenged one from mom's desk drawer and we're hoping we can keep it working until mom buys some more rechargeables. I have a sneaking suspicion she's holding off to minimize the time we spend on the computer. Tsk tsk.
~Sil
18 September 2006
I did it!
I'm happy now. No more gum stuck in cords. And, just so that next time someone sits down to watch a movie and finds gum of the seat of their favorite cords, here's what I did:
1) Left them in the freezer overnight. I don't know if this contributed to the overall effect, but that's what I did.
2) Used an iron and some WD-40 to work it out of the fabric. Basically, you heat the iron on the lowest level possible, iron the spot with gum for a second, and then dab some WD-40 on a napkin on the spot. Then work it out with your fingers. This part took a while, but it worked.
3) Used a Sunlight Yellow Bar (I don't know if that's the official name) for stain remover to get rid of the WD-40, and in the process conveniently got some of the rest of the gum, which was pretty stuck, off.
4) Washed my cords in the washing machine. Cold water, a little bit of soap, and when I took them out you could barely tell there'd been gum at all.
I would just like to take this opportunity to say that a Sunlight Yellow Bar is an AMAZING thing. I love them. One could probably get tomato sauce out of a white shirt, and then some. I'm very relieved.
And it's getting sunny out! Today is improving!
~Sil
1) Left them in the freezer overnight. I don't know if this contributed to the overall effect, but that's what I did.
2) Used an iron and some WD-40 to work it out of the fabric. Basically, you heat the iron on the lowest level possible, iron the spot with gum for a second, and then dab some WD-40 on a napkin on the spot. Then work it out with your fingers. This part took a while, but it worked.
3) Used a Sunlight Yellow Bar (I don't know if that's the official name) for stain remover to get rid of the WD-40, and in the process conveniently got some of the rest of the gum, which was pretty stuck, off.
4) Washed my cords in the washing machine. Cold water, a little bit of soap, and when I took them out you could barely tell there'd been gum at all.
I would just like to take this opportunity to say that a Sunlight Yellow Bar is an AMAZING thing. I love them. One could probably get tomato sauce out of a white shirt, and then some. I'm very relieved.
And it's getting sunny out! Today is improving!
~Sil
Make up a title yourself
Yup, you can come up with your own title...I'm kind of anxious and I'm not in the mood. Want to know why? Well, you better, because like it or not I'm going to tell you.
We went to the theater yesterday. To see Over the Hedge. It was an okay movie, not one I'd buy or anything, but kinda cute. Anyway, halfway through the movie I discover that I've been sitting on gum stuck to the theater seat. Normally this would only be an annoyance, but I'm wearing my nice black cords and I practically had a conniption right there in the theater. So needless to say, I didn't exactly enjoy the rest of the movie. I'm so mad! What kind of a person sticks gum to their theater seat? I buy pants that fit me about once a YEAR and then I have to go sit on gum with the nicest ones! I don't know HOW it's going to come out, and it has to! I love those pants! Why couldn't Ben have sat there, who doesn't care what the heck his pants look like as long as they keep him warm, or Susie who has like five gazillion pairs? And how the heck could I sit on gum without even LOOKING? And I mean, maybe if it doesn't come out we could go back and get another pair, but what if Jacob Outlet doesn't have them anymore and then I'm RIGHT back where I started? It's not fair!
I'm going to make myself so mad I won't be able to concentrate on anything. And that won't be good. Breathe.
Breathing...looking for good things that happened yesterday. Right. Well, the new guy from Saskatchewan was at quiz practice, and he seems really nice. I think our team's going to do really well this year. I also wore my new shirt from Reitmans, which I quite like. Boy, it's kind of hard to think about the good things. Maybe I'll come back later once I've calmed down.
~Sil
We went to the theater yesterday. To see Over the Hedge. It was an okay movie, not one I'd buy or anything, but kinda cute. Anyway, halfway through the movie I discover that I've been sitting on gum stuck to the theater seat. Normally this would only be an annoyance, but I'm wearing my nice black cords and I practically had a conniption right there in the theater. So needless to say, I didn't exactly enjoy the rest of the movie. I'm so mad! What kind of a person sticks gum to their theater seat? I buy pants that fit me about once a YEAR and then I have to go sit on gum with the nicest ones! I don't know HOW it's going to come out, and it has to! I love those pants! Why couldn't Ben have sat there, who doesn't care what the heck his pants look like as long as they keep him warm, or Susie who has like five gazillion pairs? And how the heck could I sit on gum without even LOOKING? And I mean, maybe if it doesn't come out we could go back and get another pair, but what if Jacob Outlet doesn't have them anymore and then I'm RIGHT back where I started? It's not fair!
I'm going to make myself so mad I won't be able to concentrate on anything. And that won't be good. Breathe.
Breathing...looking for good things that happened yesterday. Right. Well, the new guy from Saskatchewan was at quiz practice, and he seems really nice. I think our team's going to do really well this year. I also wore my new shirt from Reitmans, which I quite like. Boy, it's kind of hard to think about the good things. Maybe I'll come back later once I've calmed down.
~Sil
16 September 2006
Wide games!
Well, there was no corn maze yesterday, because the place shut down due to weather. But youth was still SUPER fun - we played games over the whole church. First we played Sardines, and I didn't know how to play at first but apparently one person hides and the rest try to find him and when they do, they hide with him. So Tyler hid, and it took me and girl named Amber AGES to find him. When we did he was in the baptismal tank! So smart! So about 25 people were huddled together in the baptismal tank trying not to giggle. At the end, Erin and another guy (Andy) were the losers because they never found us. Don't worry, Erin, I still love you!
After that we played Grog, which was hilariously funny - one of our youth sponsors got a weird mask and a black hoody and went around trying to catch us, and we were supposed to hunt for flashlight pieces all around the church, and when we got two pieces, the top and bottom of the flashlight, Natalie gave us batteries for them - and as soon as we got a set of three different colored flashlight, we got the secret weapon, which killed the Grog. Very fun. Everybody was kind of exhausted after that, so we played a halfhearted game of Kick the Can and an even more halfhearted game of Capture the Flag, and then hung out until 10 pm.
And the most funny thing about the evening was - I wore black, so that it would be easier to play games in the dark. But I picked that exact evening to wear my GLOW-IN-THE-DARK earrings. I got so used to people going "Your earrings are glowing!" and I have now determined never to wear that particular pair to a youth wide games event again.
But it was very fun. And I'm not really looking forward to today...I need to do some quizzing, I'm babysitting this evening, chores need finishing (insert groan here) and all I want to do is get cosy with a blanket on the couch or maybe the computer chair. I guess there's always Sunday afternoon for that. I also need a shower.
Oh yeah - and I was right, Mom told me to put on an extra sweater. But she did end up turning the heat on in the evening, so it was all good. I stood underneath the vent in my bathroom and was very warm.
~Sil
After that we played Grog, which was hilariously funny - one of our youth sponsors got a weird mask and a black hoody and went around trying to catch us, and we were supposed to hunt for flashlight pieces all around the church, and when we got two pieces, the top and bottom of the flashlight, Natalie gave us batteries for them - and as soon as we got a set of three different colored flashlight, we got the secret weapon, which killed the Grog. Very fun. Everybody was kind of exhausted after that, so we played a halfhearted game of Kick the Can and an even more halfhearted game of Capture the Flag, and then hung out until 10 pm.
And the most funny thing about the evening was - I wore black, so that it would be easier to play games in the dark. But I picked that exact evening to wear my GLOW-IN-THE-DARK earrings. I got so used to people going "Your earrings are glowing!" and I have now determined never to wear that particular pair to a youth wide games event again.
But it was very fun. And I'm not really looking forward to today...I need to do some quizzing, I'm babysitting this evening, chores need finishing (insert groan here) and all I want to do is get cosy with a blanket on the couch or maybe the computer chair. I guess there's always Sunday afternoon for that. I also need a shower.
Oh yeah - and I was right, Mom told me to put on an extra sweater. But she did end up turning the heat on in the evening, so it was all good. I stood underneath the vent in my bathroom and was very warm.
~Sil
15 September 2006
Brrrr - with wind chill!
It was colder today than it was yesterday. I want to turn up the heat but I kinda have a feeling my mom will say, "Go put on an extra sweater if you're cold," if I ask. I might as well give it a go, though. Shoot! I just remembered - I was supposed to turn off the heat before the kids I'm babysitting left for school and it's still on over there. And I don't have a house key, the girl has it. Darn. I hope it isn't really a big deal.
My special limited edition LotR DVDs came yesterday! They're so pretty! And there's TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY minutes of movie-making documentary on each one! I only watched a little bit of the FotR one, but it was good and I want to watch more - though when I'll have time is debatable. It's amazing, the theatrical and extended editions of each movie are all on one double-sided disc! SO much easier to bring places!
The corn maze is tonight, but it looks like it's going to be approximitely three degrees above zero out, and getting colder as the night progresses, so I don't know if we'll still end up going. I wouldn't mind playing games at the church, personally. But the corn maze would be fun. I don't know, I guess I'll be fine with whatever we do.
I'm getting better at this awesome piece on my grade 8 piano book - it's called Sonata in C- and I love it! So pretty! I'm also working on a Sonata in G+ by Beethoven and a weird piece called Puck. As in, not a hockey puck but the fairy person, like in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I refuse to call him an elf, elves are tall and beautful and immortal, not those little annoying people that dance around singing in high shrill voices in Disney movies. Anyway, I'm also working on the Davy Jones theme, which starts out really pretty like a music box and gets progressively lower and more sinister-sounding until the end, when it goes back to being music-boxy. I think, from the same book, I'm going to do Two Hornpipes, which is practically THE only cheerful piece of music in Dead Man's Chest. Oh, and of course the Pride and Prejudice theme. And D flat major...for technique, even though that's not NEARLY as interesting.
I'm freezing! FREEZING! I'm going to go put on more clothes and try and convince mom to turn up the heat!
~Sil
My special limited edition LotR DVDs came yesterday! They're so pretty! And there's TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY minutes of movie-making documentary on each one! I only watched a little bit of the FotR one, but it was good and I want to watch more - though when I'll have time is debatable. It's amazing, the theatrical and extended editions of each movie are all on one double-sided disc! SO much easier to bring places!
The corn maze is tonight, but it looks like it's going to be approximitely three degrees above zero out, and getting colder as the night progresses, so I don't know if we'll still end up going. I wouldn't mind playing games at the church, personally. But the corn maze would be fun. I don't know, I guess I'll be fine with whatever we do.
I'm getting better at this awesome piece on my grade 8 piano book - it's called Sonata in C- and I love it! So pretty! I'm also working on a Sonata in G+ by Beethoven and a weird piece called Puck. As in, not a hockey puck but the fairy person, like in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I refuse to call him an elf, elves are tall and beautful and immortal, not those little annoying people that dance around singing in high shrill voices in Disney movies. Anyway, I'm also working on the Davy Jones theme, which starts out really pretty like a music box and gets progressively lower and more sinister-sounding until the end, when it goes back to being music-boxy. I think, from the same book, I'm going to do Two Hornpipes, which is practically THE only cheerful piece of music in Dead Man's Chest. Oh, and of course the Pride and Prejudice theme. And D flat major...for technique, even though that's not NEARLY as interesting.
I'm freezing! FREEZING! I'm going to go put on more clothes and try and convince mom to turn up the heat!
~Sil
14 September 2006
Brrrr!
September made up its mind to get cold so fast it's unbelieveable! The weather was above 20 last Thursday and today it feels like it could snow, it's so cold. Or maybe that's just the wind. Anyway, I'm glad we're going to the corn maze on Friday, because if we waited until any later in the year it would get too cold. As it is I'm going to have to wear quite a bit in order to stay warm. Today I walked over to babysit at 7:30 and I was freezing. I could have worn my coat but it's a really short walk so I didn't bother. Today I'm going to have to get school done super-fast - I need to be back there at 2:40 because the kids get early dismissal on Thursdays. I don't have to frantically study for my science test, though, because it was going to be tomorrow and then I decided I'll postpone it a week and start on the next module while I study for the test of the first one. I hope that made sense!
I could also skip piano today if I really need to, because I don't have a lesson until Wednesday and I only need to get in five practices, and I've already done two. Today is one of those days (and yesterday was too) where you really don't want to do anything, you just want to sit down with a good book and something warm. And quizzing, of course. So far, Acts has been way easier to memorize than Romans, which is good, because this section had 36 verses and I would have serious trouble getting them done in a week if we were doing Romans.
I should run - I need a shower and science definitions need memorizing. So today I will walk around the house muttering, "Metabolism...anabolism....catabolism...abiogenesis...autotrophs...heretotrophs..." while my brother walks around muttering, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place..." and memorizing Acts 2. Speaking of which, I was really scared to mack-tack my quiz book because I had drawn an awesome map of Middle-Earth on it and I was scared I would have to pull off the sticky stuff and it would get wrecked, but it went really well. Flawlessly, in fact.
~Sil
I could also skip piano today if I really need to, because I don't have a lesson until Wednesday and I only need to get in five practices, and I've already done two. Today is one of those days (and yesterday was too) where you really don't want to do anything, you just want to sit down with a good book and something warm. And quizzing, of course. So far, Acts has been way easier to memorize than Romans, which is good, because this section had 36 verses and I would have serious trouble getting them done in a week if we were doing Romans.
I should run - I need a shower and science definitions need memorizing. So today I will walk around the house muttering, "Metabolism...anabolism....catabolism...abiogenesis...autotrophs...heretotrophs..." while my brother walks around muttering, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place..." and memorizing Acts 2. Speaking of which, I was really scared to mack-tack my quiz book because I had drawn an awesome map of Middle-Earth on it and I was scared I would have to pull off the sticky stuff and it would get wrecked, but it went really well. Flawlessly, in fact.
~Sil
13 September 2006
Wednesday
Whew. Time for some breathing space. On Wednesdays I only have to do math, science, piano and quizzing, so I'm not so rushed.
Youth last night was awesome! We didn't start the Bible study, but just kind of had an intro sort of evening. We played that game where you stand in a circle and stick all your hands into the middle and randomly grab someone else's hand, and then you have to get untangled. There were four teams of six, and our team won, because of Parker's logic - if every second person crosses their arms and the other people just grab their hand, three people twist and you're untangled! So that was fun. Even more so, because we won (says the insanely competitive me).
Then our youth pastor (Bryan) kinda talked about what we want to do this year and how things are going to work. So we gave suggestions about activities, things we liked last year and things we didn't. and also talked about a youth band - yay! Maybe seven or eight people were interested in that, so we're going to see what we can put together. While Bryan was talking, we were passing around some string and scissors, and people cut off however much string they wanted. We didn't know what it was for until later - when apparently we had to say one personal fact about ourselves for every finger-length of string. I had five...sort of...using my littlest finger and rounding up...and they were: 1) I am obsessed with Lord of the Rings (at which point Erin, across the room, shouted "I won the bet!",the meaning of which is still a little foggy to me. Am I that predictable? I guess so), 2) I am homeschooled (it was going to be "Will Turner has to get his girl or I will assassinate Gore Verbinski, but some people hadn't seen DMC yet and I didn't want to spoil it), 3) I have four younger siblings, 4) I forget (that wasn't it, I just forget what it was) and 5) Ben is my brother. He was there too. I'm going to have to make it clear to him that at youth, there are guys. With hats. And EVERYBODY's hat gets stolen at least once during the year. So he can't sit down and sulk whenever it happens.
Anyway, we had a draw for some prizes, and I didn't win anything but I had candy from earlier, when our team won the knot game. So that was okay. I also got to hold Ellie!!! Finally!! She got passed around the whole time. She's eight weeks old and she's the daughter of Bryan and Natalie. The youth pastor and his wife, in case you haven't been paying any attention at ALL during my last posts. She is the most adorable baby EVER. I hope Natalie asks me to babysit sometime!
And for once, nobody asked if me and Erin were related! Wow!
Anyway - more later!
~Sil
Youth last night was awesome! We didn't start the Bible study, but just kind of had an intro sort of evening. We played that game where you stand in a circle and stick all your hands into the middle and randomly grab someone else's hand, and then you have to get untangled. There were four teams of six, and our team won, because of Parker's logic - if every second person crosses their arms and the other people just grab their hand, three people twist and you're untangled! So that was fun. Even more so, because we won (says the insanely competitive me).
Then our youth pastor (Bryan) kinda talked about what we want to do this year and how things are going to work. So we gave suggestions about activities, things we liked last year and things we didn't. and also talked about a youth band - yay! Maybe seven or eight people were interested in that, so we're going to see what we can put together. While Bryan was talking, we were passing around some string and scissors, and people cut off however much string they wanted. We didn't know what it was for until later - when apparently we had to say one personal fact about ourselves for every finger-length of string. I had five...sort of...using my littlest finger and rounding up...and they were: 1) I am obsessed with Lord of the Rings (at which point Erin, across the room, shouted "I won the bet!",the meaning of which is still a little foggy to me. Am I that predictable? I guess so), 2) I am homeschooled (it was going to be "Will Turner has to get his girl or I will assassinate Gore Verbinski, but some people hadn't seen DMC yet and I didn't want to spoil it), 3) I have four younger siblings, 4) I forget (that wasn't it, I just forget what it was) and 5) Ben is my brother. He was there too. I'm going to have to make it clear to him that at youth, there are guys. With hats. And EVERYBODY's hat gets stolen at least once during the year. So he can't sit down and sulk whenever it happens.
Anyway, we had a draw for some prizes, and I didn't win anything but I had candy from earlier, when our team won the knot game. So that was okay. I also got to hold Ellie!!! Finally!! She got passed around the whole time. She's eight weeks old and she's the daughter of Bryan and Natalie. The youth pastor and his wife, in case you haven't been paying any attention at ALL during my last posts. She is the most adorable baby EVER. I hope Natalie asks me to babysit sometime!
And for once, nobody asked if me and Erin were related! Wow!
Anyway - more later!
~Sil
12 September 2006
Firsts
Youth Bible study starts tonight. Mom's running club, SoleMates, also starts tonight, and my brother will be coming to Bible study for the first time, since he's in grade 7 this year. And my little sister starts ballet lessons today. So it's actually going to be rather full.
I babysat this morning, and it was good that I got there early because I walked around to the back, seeing as that seems to be the door they always use, and knocked. Nothing happened. I couldn't even hear anyone inside. So I opened the screen door and knocked again, on the real door this time. Still nothing. Then I rang the doorbell, the functionality of which I have doubts about, and waited. Nothing. So I did end up going around to the front, where as soon as I knocked they opened the door. I dunno, does that seem weird to anyone else? But anyway, I was right on time, so that was good. The mom was running a little late, and so she and her - um - I don't want to call him her boyfriend, it sounds so juvenile - how about significant other? - were in a bit of a rush. I hope the kids were on time for school, I got them out the door a little late. I'm sure they'll be okay, though. I couldn't believe all the snack food they took for lunch! I mean, it was practically composed solely of sugar. It can say fat-free - but it doesn't mean sugar-free! Maybe I'm just picky, but boy, if I had that much snack food every day you can bet I'd weigh a lot more than I do.
Anyway, I had leftover KFC for breakfast (we had it for supper last night) and oatmeal for second breakfast. I'm feeling very hobbity lately - I eat before I go babysit and after I come home. Now I need to start have elevensies and afternoon tea, and dinner as well as supper. They'd have to be really small meals...I don't eat that much!
I did go to Mike's yesterday, and got myself caught up on data entry. Mike's going to be in Ottawa until Saturday, though (I'm pretty sure it's Saturday) so I'm not going to go again until then, because he does sorta need to be there when I'm doing it, in case I come across weird things, which happens pretty consistantly. I guess it's good that I'm taking a break, though, because life seems to be getting pretty busy, what with piano and quizzing and babysitting and Miking (your name is a verb now, Mike. Aren't you proud?) and you know, sleep is good too. Well, no, I'm not that busy. Definetely more busy than I was this summer, though!
I think that's all for now. Lots of school still needs doing, and a little bit of quizzing, though I memorized up to verse 13 of Acts 2 today and and I only need to do one more.
~Sil
I babysat this morning, and it was good that I got there early because I walked around to the back, seeing as that seems to be the door they always use, and knocked. Nothing happened. I couldn't even hear anyone inside. So I opened the screen door and knocked again, on the real door this time. Still nothing. Then I rang the doorbell, the functionality of which I have doubts about, and waited. Nothing. So I did end up going around to the front, where as soon as I knocked they opened the door. I dunno, does that seem weird to anyone else? But anyway, I was right on time, so that was good. The mom was running a little late, and so she and her - um - I don't want to call him her boyfriend, it sounds so juvenile - how about significant other? - were in a bit of a rush. I hope the kids were on time for school, I got them out the door a little late. I'm sure they'll be okay, though. I couldn't believe all the snack food they took for lunch! I mean, it was practically composed solely of sugar. It can say fat-free - but it doesn't mean sugar-free! Maybe I'm just picky, but boy, if I had that much snack food every day you can bet I'd weigh a lot more than I do.
Anyway, I had leftover KFC for breakfast (we had it for supper last night) and oatmeal for second breakfast. I'm feeling very hobbity lately - I eat before I go babysit and after I come home. Now I need to start have elevensies and afternoon tea, and dinner as well as supper. They'd have to be really small meals...I don't eat that much!
I did go to Mike's yesterday, and got myself caught up on data entry. Mike's going to be in Ottawa until Saturday, though (I'm pretty sure it's Saturday) so I'm not going to go again until then, because he does sorta need to be there when I'm doing it, in case I come across weird things, which happens pretty consistantly. I guess it's good that I'm taking a break, though, because life seems to be getting pretty busy, what with piano and quizzing and babysitting and Miking (your name is a verb now, Mike. Aren't you proud?) and you know, sleep is good too. Well, no, I'm not that busy. Definetely more busy than I was this summer, though!
I think that's all for now. Lots of school still needs doing, and a little bit of quizzing, though I memorized up to verse 13 of Acts 2 today and and I only need to do one more.
~Sil
11 September 2006
New week
It's Monday. Monday is always slightly depressing, because it's the first school day of the week, but it's okay usually. And I did get to use my new microscope today, which was kinda fun - I looked at thread and hair and stuff under it on slides and then I got to use this cool blue methylene chloride stuff to see cells from the inside of my sister's mouth. Pretty neat. So science took a while today, and there's still almost everything else that needs doing - though I did do quizzing earlier this morning, and I don't need to do it again until later.
Oh - and at 7:30 this morning I started my new babysitting job, which was pretty cool - I basically walk over there at around 7:25 and hang out with the kids (a girl and a boy, maybe 10 and 7) until 8:15, when they leave for school. I also make sure they have their lunches and all the school stuff they need, and I'll go back at 3:30 to stay with them until 5 when their mom gets home. I can't believe I'm getting PAID for this! $20 per day! And the really upsetting thing is - my mom has started talking about paying TAX. Yes. Tax. And I'm fifteen. Something seem wrong there to you? Yeesh, a girl starts making some money and all of a sudden they want me to pay TAX!
A new guy, from Saskatchewan, is moving to Edmonton and he's gonna be on our quiz team. He's in grade 12, and he sounds nice - it must be hard to move to a new school and a new church (heck, he's in a new PROVINCE) in grade 12. Anyway, it'll be nice meeting him - and he went to Internationals! As in, competition from ALL OVER the US and Canada! So he's going to be on our A team, with me and some others. I'm not sure how that's going to work, since teams are composed of three or four people and we're going to have five A quizzers. I don't really think anyone wants to sub, either. But I'm sure it'll work out.
Anyway, the first quiz practice yesterday went really well. The rookies went off to do their own thing while the rest of us practiced, and near the end our pastor and youth pastor came in with a Happy Approx 16th Year of Quizzing cake. Nobody knew how long our church had been doing quizzing so they estimated. It was quite funny, seeing "Approx" on a cake. But it was very sweet of them. After that we left before the service ended to take Dad to the airport. So he's gone now - but we know he got off the plane all right, because he used his roommate's cell phone to call us. He's getting his own cell phone today.
Gotta finish school before 3:30 because I'm babysitting and going to Mike's tonight. At least, I think I am. Assuming it's okay with my mom.
~Sil
Oh - and at 7:30 this morning I started my new babysitting job, which was pretty cool - I basically walk over there at around 7:25 and hang out with the kids (a girl and a boy, maybe 10 and 7) until 8:15, when they leave for school. I also make sure they have their lunches and all the school stuff they need, and I'll go back at 3:30 to stay with them until 5 when their mom gets home. I can't believe I'm getting PAID for this! $20 per day! And the really upsetting thing is - my mom has started talking about paying TAX. Yes. Tax. And I'm fifteen. Something seem wrong there to you? Yeesh, a girl starts making some money and all of a sudden they want me to pay TAX!
A new guy, from Saskatchewan, is moving to Edmonton and he's gonna be on our quiz team. He's in grade 12, and he sounds nice - it must be hard to move to a new school and a new church (heck, he's in a new PROVINCE) in grade 12. Anyway, it'll be nice meeting him - and he went to Internationals! As in, competition from ALL OVER the US and Canada! So he's going to be on our A team, with me and some others. I'm not sure how that's going to work, since teams are composed of three or four people and we're going to have five A quizzers. I don't really think anyone wants to sub, either. But I'm sure it'll work out.
Anyway, the first quiz practice yesterday went really well. The rookies went off to do their own thing while the rest of us practiced, and near the end our pastor and youth pastor came in with a Happy Approx 16th Year of Quizzing cake. Nobody knew how long our church had been doing quizzing so they estimated. It was quite funny, seeing "Approx" on a cake. But it was very sweet of them. After that we left before the service ended to take Dad to the airport. So he's gone now - but we know he got off the plane all right, because he used his roommate's cell phone to call us. He's getting his own cell phone today.
Gotta finish school before 3:30 because I'm babysitting and going to Mike's tonight. At least, I think I am. Assuming it's okay with my mom.
~Sil
09 September 2006
Band!!!
Like I mentioned earlier, I found a Homeschool Band, and I emailed the person in charge and she said that they might be doing a jazz ensemble (which means they'd need keyboard/piano people )if the number of people on the advanced band is somewhat on the smaller side - and she's going to get back to me in about a week! I'm so excited, I hope there's room!
Youth Summit was last night, which was fun - there was a cool speaker, and two bands. Everyday Sunday and Fusebox. Everyday Sunday isn't really my type of music, too loud and sorta out-of-control, but Fusebox was quite good. I got home around 11:30 pm so I was pretty tired. Slept in this morning, though, which was good.
Chores need doing, sorry this post was so short, I'll be back on again later!
~Sil
Youth Summit was last night, which was fun - there was a cool speaker, and two bands. Everyday Sunday and Fusebox. Everyday Sunday isn't really my type of music, too loud and sorta out-of-control, but Fusebox was quite good. I got home around 11:30 pm so I was pretty tired. Slept in this morning, though, which was good.
Chores need doing, sorry this post was so short, I'll be back on again later!
~Sil
08 September 2006
Babysitting
I'm pretty happy - I just got a regular babysitting job for the next week that could possibly last for quite some time after that. I also babysat this morning for two little girls, ages 3 1/2 and 1. Mom says I'm going to have to start saving for college soon, but I'm going to buy my own computer first. Hopefully an Apple laptop. The family I babysat for actually might be getting rid of their laptop, which is an Apple IBook (I think he said it was called an IBook), so the dad's going to look into it for me.
Went to Mike's last night, and for once wasn't tired - if dad hadn't wanted to go home I even maybe could have gotten a start on entering the new memberships we brought in, but my little brother needed to get to bed. So I'll probably go and catch up on Monday. Maybe it was the cookies that kept me so awake.
Anyway, tonight is Youth Summit, which will be fun, but it lasts till midnight. Whew. I'm not sure how I'll stay awake. And my dissection kit for Exploring Creation with Biology came today, which is sort of interesting and sort of gross. There's a lobster, a frog and a fish to be, er, dissected. Lovely. Could be interesting, though.
School needs doing, quite a bit of it, so I'm going to fly.
~Sil
Went to Mike's last night, and for once wasn't tired - if dad hadn't wanted to go home I even maybe could have gotten a start on entering the new memberships we brought in, but my little brother needed to get to bed. So I'll probably go and catch up on Monday. Maybe it was the cookies that kept me so awake.
Anyway, tonight is Youth Summit, which will be fun, but it lasts till midnight. Whew. I'm not sure how I'll stay awake. And my dissection kit for Exploring Creation with Biology came today, which is sort of interesting and sort of gross. There's a lobster, a frog and a fish to be, er, dissected. Lovely. Could be interesting, though.
School needs doing, quite a bit of it, so I'm going to fly.
~Sil
06 September 2006
Piano Lessons
Piano lessons went very well today. We (my teacher and I) spent the first 20 minutes of the lesson discussing the books I had, if I planned to continue piano after grade eight (I might as well do grades nine and ten, because I can) and more importantly, my exam results. Just so I can brag again, I got eighty-eight on my grade seven Royal Conservatory exam, and my comments sheet was on my teacher's bulletin board, which made me feel special. She said she was very happy with my mark, and she sort of went through the comments and discussed them. She said that if I felt as though the examiner didn't make too many positive comments, it was because he marked me so well and needed to make some constructive criticism.
I was so relieved to get a good mark, because the guy was pretty snobby and he made me super nervous - he wouldn't even let me try the piano before I played! He just went straight into the exam and said "Would you like to play your studies first, or your repertoire?" which was an odd question to ask, because I had marked it clearly on my form. So I said, "Um, could I try the piano first?" and he put on this sort of affronted how-dare-you-ask look (I might be exaggerating a LITTLE) and said, "Oh, well, we don't have very much time and we can't do that for everyone," which basically, I think, meant "You're no special case, why should I?" which made me kind of mad, because I wanted to play a formula pattern and a cadence, that was it. It probably took him longer to refuse me than it would have for me to try the piano. Even concert pianists try the piano before they play! Boy, I was mad. But the rest of the exam went pretty smoothly, except I had false starts on two of my pieces (I'm still kicking myself about that). I was so relieved when I got out that I started to cry, which was stupid because it went well. One of my teacher's other students had a really bad experience with him so I'm glad it was okay.
Anyway, that made me feel pretty cool, and then we started this neat piece with a key signature of six flats (ouch) called Puck. I'm also doing Sonata in C minor and a Sonata by Beethoven, as well as the Pride and Prejudice theme and a couple Pirates pieces. Probably Two Hornpipes and the Davy Jones music box theme, or Davy Jones playing the organ. An hour-long lesson sure didn't feel like long enough! But I'm really glad I had such a good first lesson.
Then we went to the library and I finally got some reading material, and got slurpees before we came home. It's our Wednesday tradition, we always get slurpees. School went well today, probably because there was less of it (Wednesday is a half-holiday - I only have science, math, quizzing and a couple other little things) but I decided to stay home from Mike's tonight because I need some down time. To blog, and read The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus trilogy, second book) and eat Reese's Pieces. And maybe do some quizzing.
Other good thing - I got to sleep in this morning! Yay! I got up shortly before nine, which was really nice because I was tired. I did have a strange dream, though. We were dropping off my friend at her house, and for some reason we stopped at my other friend's house and got her to walk my friend home. Which was odd. And the sky was an odd creamy white sort of shade, and there wasn't a sun. I just remembered that part. Then for some reason me and my dad slept in a house with no roof, and my quizzing booklet turned into a computer with no internet, which disappointed me because I wanted to check the Arwen-Undomiel forums. Then it ended. Weird, eh?
Oh, and I found out the Crocodile Hunter died! He got stung by a stingray! That's so sad! And he has a wife and two kids, a boy and a girl. It was really bad luck, people don't often die from stingray stings, but he was swimming above one filming for a TV series and it flicked up with its tail and got him right in the heart, I think. I read it on CBC.ca, I'm pretty sure. I feel so bad for his family. I remember him from about six years ago...I was at my grandparents' house for a week with two of my cousins, and we watched the Crocodile Hunter a lot, and my cousin did a really funny imitation of him - "This is the most poisonous snake in the world - I'm just gonna hold it up REAL close to my nose" - complete with Australian accent, and...I don't know...for some reason that makes me really sad.
But I did find an ad for the Edmonton Homeschool Band in our Education Unlimited newsletter, so I emailed the person in charge and hopefully she'll send me back some information. I hope there's a spot for a piano in their bands! Or maybe if there isn't, she can refer me to a homeschool jazz band. Anyway, it looked pretty interesting.
I thought my posts would get shorter when school started, but they're really long now. Weird. Anyway, I'm gonna go read, and eat candy.
~Sil
P.S. Oh yeah, I forgot - the roof got done today! It looks really good, with new shiny black shingles. And Amazon STILL has not shipped my special limited edition LotR DVDs. Amazon!!! Hurry up! I ordered probably a week ago!
~Sil
I was so relieved to get a good mark, because the guy was pretty snobby and he made me super nervous - he wouldn't even let me try the piano before I played! He just went straight into the exam and said "Would you like to play your studies first, or your repertoire?" which was an odd question to ask, because I had marked it clearly on my form. So I said, "Um, could I try the piano first?" and he put on this sort of affronted how-dare-you-ask look (I might be exaggerating a LITTLE) and said, "Oh, well, we don't have very much time and we can't do that for everyone," which basically, I think, meant "You're no special case, why should I?" which made me kind of mad, because I wanted to play a formula pattern and a cadence, that was it. It probably took him longer to refuse me than it would have for me to try the piano. Even concert pianists try the piano before they play! Boy, I was mad. But the rest of the exam went pretty smoothly, except I had false starts on two of my pieces (I'm still kicking myself about that). I was so relieved when I got out that I started to cry, which was stupid because it went well. One of my teacher's other students had a really bad experience with him so I'm glad it was okay.
Anyway, that made me feel pretty cool, and then we started this neat piece with a key signature of six flats (ouch) called Puck. I'm also doing Sonata in C minor and a Sonata by Beethoven, as well as the Pride and Prejudice theme and a couple Pirates pieces. Probably Two Hornpipes and the Davy Jones music box theme, or Davy Jones playing the organ. An hour-long lesson sure didn't feel like long enough! But I'm really glad I had such a good first lesson.
Then we went to the library and I finally got some reading material, and got slurpees before we came home. It's our Wednesday tradition, we always get slurpees. School went well today, probably because there was less of it (Wednesday is a half-holiday - I only have science, math, quizzing and a couple other little things) but I decided to stay home from Mike's tonight because I need some down time. To blog, and read The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus trilogy, second book) and eat Reese's Pieces. And maybe do some quizzing.
Other good thing - I got to sleep in this morning! Yay! I got up shortly before nine, which was really nice because I was tired. I did have a strange dream, though. We were dropping off my friend at her house, and for some reason we stopped at my other friend's house and got her to walk my friend home. Which was odd. And the sky was an odd creamy white sort of shade, and there wasn't a sun. I just remembered that part. Then for some reason me and my dad slept in a house with no roof, and my quizzing booklet turned into a computer with no internet, which disappointed me because I wanted to check the Arwen-Undomiel forums. Then it ended. Weird, eh?
Oh, and I found out the Crocodile Hunter died! He got stung by a stingray! That's so sad! And he has a wife and two kids, a boy and a girl. It was really bad luck, people don't often die from stingray stings, but he was swimming above one filming for a TV series and it flicked up with its tail and got him right in the heart, I think. I read it on CBC.ca, I'm pretty sure. I feel so bad for his family. I remember him from about six years ago...I was at my grandparents' house for a week with two of my cousins, and we watched the Crocodile Hunter a lot, and my cousin did a really funny imitation of him - "This is the most poisonous snake in the world - I'm just gonna hold it up REAL close to my nose" - complete with Australian accent, and...I don't know...for some reason that makes me really sad.
But I did find an ad for the Edmonton Homeschool Band in our Education Unlimited newsletter, so I emailed the person in charge and hopefully she'll send me back some information. I hope there's a spot for a piano in their bands! Or maybe if there isn't, she can refer me to a homeschool jazz band. Anyway, it looked pretty interesting.
I thought my posts would get shorter when school started, but they're really long now. Weird. Anyway, I'm gonna go read, and eat candy.
~Sil
P.S. Oh yeah, I forgot - the roof got done today! It looks really good, with new shiny black shingles. And Amazon STILL has not shipped my special limited edition LotR DVDs. Amazon!!! Hurry up! I ordered probably a week ago!
~Sil
05 September 2006
School Craziness
Oh boy, today feels like a huge blur in my head, which hurts.
I woke up at eight, which felt early even though I've been doing it for the last week or so anyway, and ate and sorta stumbled through some schoolwork. It'll get better, I guess, as I get more used to it. So I spent the morning mostly doing that, and I did get in a chapter of the Silmarillion (Of The Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor). I think I finally understand how it all works with the Avari and the Vanyar and the Teleri, Noldor and Eldar. I think I do.
After lunch we went to the music store (FINALLY) and got all my grade 8 books, as well as a few extra that I bought - Jane Austen's World, a music book from the BBC versions of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion. I mostly bought it for the P&P music, but I'm sure the others are good as well. I also got the PotC: Dead Man's Chest music book, which is awesome. It has the Jack Sparrow song (15 pages!), the Kraken theme, the Davy Jones music box theme (a sort of haunting song that I really like for some strange reason), I've Got My Eye On You, Dinner is Served, Wheel of Fortune, Two Hornpipes and the Davy Jones organ song, which is quite similar to the Davy Jones music box theme. I love them all. I also bought a Narnia music book, but I failed to read the small print that said "Inspired by" at the top, which basically means that it's not the movie music, it's just artists who wrote songs about Narnia. Don't get me wrong, I love those artists (they're almost all Christian - REALLY good Christian artists) but it seems like all the songs are basically the same, so I'm returning that one.
And you know what was really funny? If I had had enough time at the store, I would have systematically talked myself out of every single item, including the cool little treble-clef necklace. Which I did end up buying. If my mom hadn't been there to practically grab the money out of my wallet and hand it to the cashier (I love you, Mom), I would have walked out with absolutely nothing. Which would have made no sense - because it was birthday money! Birthday money is for spending! So anyway, that was pretty funny. As soon as I got home I did, in fact, talk myself out of all of them, but by then it was too late, So I'm glad Mom made me get them before I chickened out.
After we got back I did Math, and was rather depressed that I'm on lesson 1 out of 120, not including tests, because math is NOT my favorite subject. But I'll survive. In fact, I noticed that if I did one lesson every single day including weekends for about five months, I'd be done by the end of February! I should do it! I probably won't, because I'll be to lazy, but it's an interesting idea.
Computer was nuts, an hour was barely enough to do everything I wanted to do and I missed blogging (which is why I'm doing it now) and I didn't have enough time to read the ThunderDome thread on Keep to the Code, which is the Jack/Elizabeth and Will/Elizabeth debate thread. It can get pretty heated on there, but I do enjoy reading it. I also didn't have time to make a playlist of my favorite LotR/PotC and Christian music, but that will keep.
I just finished data entry at Mike's, and I am completely wiped. I actually got Dad to take me home early, and then one of our friends took me instead so she could see our patio. It's pretty. But I have a headache and I still need to do some quizzing and boy, did today feel nuts.
Piano starts tomorrow. I hope I can keep all this on my plate!
~Sil
I woke up at eight, which felt early even though I've been doing it for the last week or so anyway, and ate and sorta stumbled through some schoolwork. It'll get better, I guess, as I get more used to it. So I spent the morning mostly doing that, and I did get in a chapter of the Silmarillion (Of The Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor). I think I finally understand how it all works with the Avari and the Vanyar and the Teleri, Noldor and Eldar. I think I do.
After lunch we went to the music store (FINALLY) and got all my grade 8 books, as well as a few extra that I bought - Jane Austen's World, a music book from the BBC versions of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion. I mostly bought it for the P&P music, but I'm sure the others are good as well. I also got the PotC: Dead Man's Chest music book, which is awesome. It has the Jack Sparrow song (15 pages!), the Kraken theme, the Davy Jones music box theme (a sort of haunting song that I really like for some strange reason), I've Got My Eye On You, Dinner is Served, Wheel of Fortune, Two Hornpipes and the Davy Jones organ song, which is quite similar to the Davy Jones music box theme. I love them all. I also bought a Narnia music book, but I failed to read the small print that said "Inspired by" at the top, which basically means that it's not the movie music, it's just artists who wrote songs about Narnia. Don't get me wrong, I love those artists (they're almost all Christian - REALLY good Christian artists) but it seems like all the songs are basically the same, so I'm returning that one.
And you know what was really funny? If I had had enough time at the store, I would have systematically talked myself out of every single item, including the cool little treble-clef necklace. Which I did end up buying. If my mom hadn't been there to practically grab the money out of my wallet and hand it to the cashier (I love you, Mom), I would have walked out with absolutely nothing. Which would have made no sense - because it was birthday money! Birthday money is for spending! So anyway, that was pretty funny. As soon as I got home I did, in fact, talk myself out of all of them, but by then it was too late, So I'm glad Mom made me get them before I chickened out.
After we got back I did Math, and was rather depressed that I'm on lesson 1 out of 120, not including tests, because math is NOT my favorite subject. But I'll survive. In fact, I noticed that if I did one lesson every single day including weekends for about five months, I'd be done by the end of February! I should do it! I probably won't, because I'll be to lazy, but it's an interesting idea.
Computer was nuts, an hour was barely enough to do everything I wanted to do and I missed blogging (which is why I'm doing it now) and I didn't have enough time to read the ThunderDome thread on Keep to the Code, which is the Jack/Elizabeth and Will/Elizabeth debate thread. It can get pretty heated on there, but I do enjoy reading it. I also didn't have time to make a playlist of my favorite LotR/PotC and Christian music, but that will keep.
I just finished data entry at Mike's, and I am completely wiped. I actually got Dad to take me home early, and then one of our friends took me instead so she could see our patio. It's pretty. But I have a headache and I still need to do some quizzing and boy, did today feel nuts.
Piano starts tomorrow. I hope I can keep all this on my plate!
~Sil
04 September 2006
Patio DONE!
...Well, not quite. We still have to move the Arbor Bench and sweep sand into the cracks between the stones, just for stability, but the really back-breaking work is done. Thank goodness. We moved all the blocks this afternoon and we're all exhausted!
Today actually did not begin in a most promising manner - I got stung on the botom of my foot by a wasp (I stepped on it with no shoes on, by accident) and it hurt unbelievably; and I discovered that my right ear piercing is infected, or at the least, irritated. The wasp sting has since stopped hurting, and I think if I keep cleaning my ear and wearing my silver earrings, it should be okay. So the day did improve, especially when we got Arby's for dinner and, just recently, frosties for dessert. My mom got an Iced Capp and I was envious until I remember that if I had an Iced Capp now, I'd be up until 3 am. I might go bike and get one tomorrow. If there's time! Oh dear...now I've made myself thirsty.
Tomorrow school starts - tomorrow I have to go get my piano books - and tomorrow evening I'm helping Mike with data entry. Tomorrow might be full. Plus, more patio work will be happening tomorrow.
I have found a couple of websites for making an Elizabeth Swann pirate costume. I'm really stuck on the idea, I would love to do it so much. I also thought it would be quite amusing if my siblings (who actually get to trick-or-treat) were Jack, Elizabeth and Will. But they weren't really keen on the idea. I hope I get invited somewhere for Halloween so I can wear it!
I have now discovered that I did no quizzing today. So I might be up a little later doing that, but that's okay, I guess. I won't do a whole lot, because I do have the rest of the week to play with.
And so I am off to bed, or quizzing, and then bed.
~Sil
Today actually did not begin in a most promising manner - I got stung on the botom of my foot by a wasp (I stepped on it with no shoes on, by accident) and it hurt unbelievably; and I discovered that my right ear piercing is infected, or at the least, irritated. The wasp sting has since stopped hurting, and I think if I keep cleaning my ear and wearing my silver earrings, it should be okay. So the day did improve, especially when we got Arby's for dinner and, just recently, frosties for dessert. My mom got an Iced Capp and I was envious until I remember that if I had an Iced Capp now, I'd be up until 3 am. I might go bike and get one tomorrow. If there's time! Oh dear...now I've made myself thirsty.
Tomorrow school starts - tomorrow I have to go get my piano books - and tomorrow evening I'm helping Mike with data entry. Tomorrow might be full. Plus, more patio work will be happening tomorrow.
I have found a couple of websites for making an Elizabeth Swann pirate costume. I'm really stuck on the idea, I would love to do it so much. I also thought it would be quite amusing if my siblings (who actually get to trick-or-treat) were Jack, Elizabeth and Will. But they weren't really keen on the idea. I hope I get invited somewhere for Halloween so I can wear it!
I have now discovered that I did no quizzing today. So I might be up a little later doing that, but that's okay, I guess. I won't do a whole lot, because I do have the rest of the week to play with.
And so I am off to bed, or quizzing, and then bed.
~Sil
03 September 2006
MORE Patio
Still working on the patio. Mom and dad are outside working on moving dirt and sand, I think. We went and got a ton of paving stones, which look nice, but they're heavy! I can't imagine how we're going to move them all into the back yard. Our Arbor Bench is also done, and it's lovely. I would take a picture of it, but the digital camera's been missing for quite some time now. Dad is leaving for Toronto a week from today for training for his new job, so we have a lot of stuff to get done.
Two of my friends came over today and we quizzed each other on Acts 1. It was pretty fun, and we all decorated our workbooks with highlighters, which looks pretty cool. They made their little booklets really pretty with scrapbooking material, and mine has a map of Middle-Earth drawn on the cover that I worked on this summer. I'm rather proud of it, actually.
Youth Summit is this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. It should be quite the event! We're also going to the corn maze later in September. And - this is the best part - I think we're going to have a youth worship team! Like, a regular one! And we might be able to do worship team for the quiz meet in October, which will be awesome. Altogether, this year is going to be a fun, if a busy one. Piano starts this week, which I'm REALLY looking forward to, and I get my new books on Tuesday. The only downside is, of course, starting math again, and getting up earlier. I really enjoy my sleep! I know it sounds totally wimpy to complain about having to get up at 7:30 or 8 every morning when kids who go to school get up at, like, six....but I don't want to!
I think, if I get invited anywhere this Halloween or I have an occasion to dress up, it would be really cool to go as someone from PotC. I think I would do Elizabeth's piratey costume. I would love it! I'm already thinking up plans for a costume when I have nothing to do!
~Sil
Two of my friends came over today and we quizzed each other on Acts 1. It was pretty fun, and we all decorated our workbooks with highlighters, which looks pretty cool. They made their little booklets really pretty with scrapbooking material, and mine has a map of Middle-Earth drawn on the cover that I worked on this summer. I'm rather proud of it, actually.
Youth Summit is this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. It should be quite the event! We're also going to the corn maze later in September. And - this is the best part - I think we're going to have a youth worship team! Like, a regular one! And we might be able to do worship team for the quiz meet in October, which will be awesome. Altogether, this year is going to be a fun, if a busy one. Piano starts this week, which I'm REALLY looking forward to, and I get my new books on Tuesday. The only downside is, of course, starting math again, and getting up earlier. I really enjoy my sleep! I know it sounds totally wimpy to complain about having to get up at 7:30 or 8 every morning when kids who go to school get up at, like, six....but I don't want to!
I think, if I get invited anywhere this Halloween or I have an occasion to dress up, it would be really cool to go as someone from PotC. I think I would do Elizabeth's piratey costume. I would love it! I'm already thinking up plans for a costume when I have nothing to do!
~Sil
02 September 2006
America's Funniest Home Videos
We did, indeed, watch AFHV last night. I love that show, it makes me laugh so much - especially when my dad laughs, and somehow whenever he laughs I want to laugh, even if I don't know what's funny. We watched an hour and then all sorta wandered away - and then discovered it was on AGAIN! So that was fun. There was a really funny one about a squirrel who got into a house when a whole extended family was there for Christmas, and they tried to chase it out with pool skimmers and I think one hockey stick. It was the funniest thing. The poor squirrel!
Then my mom told a story about how once she was home alone, I'm not sure how old she was but she was still living at my grandparents' house, and a squirrel got into their living room. They had golden retrievers, or at least one, but the dogs weren't allowed out of the kitchen so my mom had to convince their current one, Dee, to come get the squirrel, while she stood there sorta cheering Dee on.
Our patio is coming along! We finished digging, laid and leveled the gravel, and brought home some of the paving stones we're going to need. They're super heavy. A friend of ours is coming to get some of the dirt we had leftover today, which is a big relief because we didn't know what we were going to do with it.
I wish it would get colder so I could wear some of my new clothes. I got a super pretty shirt from Reitmans, but it's a shirt for colder weather and it's too warm here still. What annoys me is that I spent half the summer trying to find clothes that fit me, and now I have to do it all over again in winter! It never ends!
And now, since Robyn tagged me...
Random Bookishness
1. Grab the nearest book. (Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth)
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences (or paragraph) on your blog along with these instructions:
5. In Dunland the Dunlendings preserved their ancient language and primitive culture. In the Third Age they hated the Rohirrim, who had driven them out of the northern valleys of Ered Nimrais and the plains of Western Rohan, and so they frequently attacked that country. The two greatest Dunlending attacks on Rohan were in 2758, when they were led by Wulf, and during the WR, when the Dunlendings were aroused by Saruman.
6. Tag five people. Umm...let's see...my mom, I know she reads this; and if my friends' mom happens to be reading as well, I tag her; and of course Emily; but I don't think Josh has a blog so I can't tag him...Robyn can do it again if she wants to, aaand...that's all I can come up with!
Yes, I know I'm a nerd for the nearest book being a LotR encyclopedia, but I need it here to look up facts.
~Sil
Then my mom told a story about how once she was home alone, I'm not sure how old she was but she was still living at my grandparents' house, and a squirrel got into their living room. They had golden retrievers, or at least one, but the dogs weren't allowed out of the kitchen so my mom had to convince their current one, Dee, to come get the squirrel, while she stood there sorta cheering Dee on.
Our patio is coming along! We finished digging, laid and leveled the gravel, and brought home some of the paving stones we're going to need. They're super heavy. A friend of ours is coming to get some of the dirt we had leftover today, which is a big relief because we didn't know what we were going to do with it.
I wish it would get colder so I could wear some of my new clothes. I got a super pretty shirt from Reitmans, but it's a shirt for colder weather and it's too warm here still. What annoys me is that I spent half the summer trying to find clothes that fit me, and now I have to do it all over again in winter! It never ends!
And now, since Robyn tagged me...
Random Bookishness
1. Grab the nearest book. (Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth)
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences (or paragraph) on your blog along with these instructions:
5. In Dunland the Dunlendings preserved their ancient language and primitive culture. In the Third Age they hated the Rohirrim, who had driven them out of the northern valleys of Ered Nimrais and the plains of Western Rohan, and so they frequently attacked that country. The two greatest Dunlending attacks on Rohan were in 2758, when they were led by Wulf, and during the WR, when the Dunlendings were aroused by Saruman.
6. Tag five people. Umm...let's see...my mom, I know she reads this; and if my friends' mom happens to be reading as well, I tag her; and of course Emily; but I don't think Josh has a blog so I can't tag him...Robyn can do it again if she wants to, aaand...that's all I can come up with!
Yes, I know I'm a nerd for the nearest book being a LotR encyclopedia, but I need it here to look up facts.
~Sil
01 September 2006
Crazy!
Mom said we could go a little crazy on the computer because school starts on Tuesday. So, here I am, going crazy! And listening to the PotC soundtrack (again). Rather than driving my family nuts by playing it on the piano OVER and OVER and OVER again. So I guess that's good!
Went to Mike's again last night. It was fun, and we hung around until after 11 pm, while I got sleepier...and sleepier...and then, when I got home, I read for a couple minutes and rolled over to make sure I had all my stuffed animals - and fell asleep! So my lamp stayed on all night, until about 6 am when I woke up and was slightly disoriented to find it on. Then I kinda went back to sleep until 7ish. I've been waking up way early lately, it's really weird, but I guess it's good since school is starting soon and I won't be able to sleep in. And early morning is a good time to do quizzing, if you're trying not to let your brother get ahead of you with his SIX hours of studying yesterday.
I'm currently part of an EXTREMELY interesting discussion on a PotC forum I happen to be on - (http://forums.keeptothecode.com//viewtopic.php?t=6959&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) regarding Elizabeth and whether the third movie will end with Elizabeth choosing Will or Jack. Personally, I'm a Will/Elizabeth fan all the way, but there are quite a few in favor of Jack/Elizabeth. Watch out for the BB, however...she tends to be a bit of an annoying opponent!
I'm off to memorize Acts 1 verses 6-8, and polish verses 1-5.
~Sil
Went to Mike's again last night. It was fun, and we hung around until after 11 pm, while I got sleepier...and sleepier...and then, when I got home, I read for a couple minutes and rolled over to make sure I had all my stuffed animals - and fell asleep! So my lamp stayed on all night, until about 6 am when I woke up and was slightly disoriented to find it on. Then I kinda went back to sleep until 7ish. I've been waking up way early lately, it's really weird, but I guess it's good since school is starting soon and I won't be able to sleep in. And early morning is a good time to do quizzing, if you're trying not to let your brother get ahead of you with his SIX hours of studying yesterday.
I'm currently part of an EXTREMELY interesting discussion on a PotC forum I happen to be on - (http://forums.keeptothecode.com//viewtopic.php?t=6959&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) regarding Elizabeth and whether the third movie will end with Elizabeth choosing Will or Jack. Personally, I'm a Will/Elizabeth fan all the way, but there are quite a few in favor of Jack/Elizabeth. Watch out for the BB, however...she tends to be a bit of an annoying opponent!
I'm off to memorize Acts 1 verses 6-8, and polish verses 1-5.
~Sil
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