Rubber Ducks Forever!

A year after Northland

2011-12-02T23:03:00.002-06:00

So, I haven't posted in a year. That must mean I'm not much of a blogger. Trust me, I have had many ideas, but never the patience to sit down and type them up.
A few points from the past year.

I finished my year at Northland International University (NIU) with my spring semester back in April, and wasn't sure where I was going after that. I toyed slightly with going back, but I wasn't sure what I was going to major in. I also was toying with the idea of transferring to the University of Central Missouri (UCM) and majoring in Dietetics. Why? Because I took basic Nutrition at Northland and LOVED it. I didn't want a degree for a career, but simply for knowledge's sake. And it would keep me occupied and off the couch for the next few years.

After a talk with Mom and Dad, we decided the Lord was leading me to stay home, which would mean pursuing the UCM idea over another year at NIU. The plan was fairly straightforward. CLEP out of 5 classes, take 5 at a community college, transfer my NIU classes, and finish the degree in three years. I enrolled for Chemistry and Human Anatomy at the community college and applied to UCM, sending them an NIU transcript. On November 10th, I received an email.
"Congratulations, you have been accepted to the University of Central Missouri."
So far so good. I rather expected to be let in. On the heels of that, however, came another email.
"Because of the accreditation held by NIU, we will be unable to accept any transfer credits from there. We will, however accept the community college transfers."

Ok . . . so there go 37 credits that I now cannot transfer at all. Great. So that's put a stop to things. I'm still enrolled to take Intro to Accounting and Physiology next semester at the community college, but I think the UCM idea has dropped out of the picture. Will I end up back at Northland? I kind of don't think so. I don't see God leading me there at this point.

So, for now, I can't see my way any farther than next semester at Longview. What happens in the Summer? I've gone to Summit Ministries these past two summers, but I don't think I'll be there this next summer.
Will I be sitting on the couch doing nothing? I doubt that too. God has provided me with two jobs this year. Both are part time, work from home jobs that are perfect for the college student. One is a data entry job online and the other is sewing for Momo Bands. So even if I don't end up back in college, I'll keep occupied with those for a bit.

Do I feel that I need to have my life and occupation for the next year planned out? Not really. I had no idea I'd get these jobs. I wasn't looking, and God dropped them right in my lap. Even if I have no idea what I will do next year, God knows what I'll be doing and he'll show me when he's ready.

And that pretty much sums it up. That's the brief overview of my life in the past year and where I'm headed (I think) in the next.

GOING HOME!!!

2010-12-15T20:42:00.001-06:00

Well, I'm almost done with my first semester at college!
The angel food cake was AMAZING, and the fudge the next week was awesome!
I'm done with all my finals except for the sewing class, and that final is tomorrow morning. I get to go home in less than 24 hours!!!!!! I can't wait!!!

Life in general

2010-12-04T11:50:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a LONG time since I last posted. Too long, I think.
Anyway, I have been in college now for about three months, and I've been loving it. The classwork has been much easier than I thought it would be. Part of that probably comes from not being in English class, which I have to take next semester. :P The Lord allowed me to test out of English 101 and Basic Computer skills, which opened up my schedule to be able to take Foods 1 and Clothing. Those were the two main classes I wanted to take in the first place. Foods is AWESOME, and I get to cook every Friday. This last week we had a cake lab and I got to make an angel food cake, which was amazing! Next week is candy lab, and I don't know what I'm making yet for that one. I've finished two of the Clothing class projects, and I'm working on the third, which is a dress.
I've registered for all my classes for next semester, and it turned out that I can't take World History 2, which kind of stinks because I'm LOVING the 101 course. However, it's not all that bad because I get to take Nutrition instead. Because the plan is to only be here for 1 year, I wanted to take as many of the Home-Ec classes as I could, and I had wanted to take Nutrition. So next semester, I'll be taking Foods 2, Sewing for the Home, and Nutrition, in addition to a few others.
I'm in the orchestra here and that is more fun than just about anything. We've been practicing Christmas music for the Christmas concert coming up on the 10th of December. I can hardly wait for it!
We only have one more week of school left until finals, which is really hard to believe, but it's so nice at the same time!

I can't think of much else to post except that it's 27 degrees outside and it's snowing lightly and it's been snowing lightly for 4 days and not sticking.
Anyhoo . . .

College plans

2010-06-20T16:00:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm off to college in September. I know, it shocked me too. I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but tuition is miraculously paid for, and I'll be attending in the fall. I don't know how much I'll be able to post from college, or if I'll be able to get on at all, but I'll see what I can do!

All the good stuff about life that I'm sure you were dying to know.

2010-05-25T20:50:00.003-05:00

Well, life around here has been pretty uneventful. We had a piano recital on Saturday, and a violin/cello recital on Monday, and now it's Tuesday and nothing much has happened.
The air conditioning in my car doesn't want to blow out cold air, so I swelter in my car with the vents shooting me with warm air that makes me sticky. Of course, we fixed the air conditioning last summer and the summer before that, so if it's going to be a habit that the AC has to be fixed every summer, it's probably not worth the car.
I bought an old wooden ironing board at a garage sale, but it has a crack all the way down the front and needs some work. I plan to ask Dad or Grandpa help me repair the crack, and then I want to sand and paint the ironing board before buying a cover for it.
I also have a dollhouse that needs painting. I stripped the old paint off of it last year, and it needs sanding and a re-paint this year, I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. :) I may sand and paint it outside when I get the chance to work on it, but I need to wait for the rain to stop.
Then, I bought several different colors of satin from Hobby Lobby (in 1/8 yd. segments) so I can attempt to make princess dolls with it. These are the type of dolls I make, http://littlefeltdolls.blogspot.com/ so I'm going to attempt a princess or 5 this time. :) We'll see how it works out.

Well, I don't really have anything else to say, so what shall I say? I have nothing to say.

Post Nationals Post (no pun intended)

2010-05-05T22:46:00.004-05:00

Hello all! So, I'm back from Nationals, and I had an awesome time!
My team, Shazam got over the fact that we weren't supposed to be a good team and pulled off a fourth place finish! Twelfth place was expected and we would have been content with that, but 4th was a total surprise and was totally awesome!

This is our team talking to the quizmaster before the quiz. The quizmaster is the person who asks the questions and tells you if you get them right or wrong.

Here we are quizzing. It got intense at times!
And one of our quizzers answering a question.
And our official team picture. Shazam!
As I had hoped, Riven won Nationals! It was a TERRIBLY intense three quizzes, but they pulled it off! To win the championship, you had to win two quizzes, not just one. Well Riven won the first quiz, Revelation won the second one, and Riven just pulled off a win in the third quiz. I'm proud of our top team!
Here they are with their awards.

And on a less happy note, I tried to back the van out of the garage before Nationals, but I forgot to watch the side-view mirror. There goes $150! :P

All in all, life is good and fine and awesome and great. :D We leave in ONE WEEK to pick my sister up for summer break. I can hardly wait!

Nationals!

2010-04-19T22:48:00.003-05:00

Well, the 2009-2010 Bible quiz year is coming to a close. Tomorrow morning, I leave for the Nationals quizzing tournament! Who hoo!
My team isn't good enough to win, but our top team, Riven, probably is. So far in my quizzing career, I haven't seen Riven win Nationals stage, but I hope to see them win this year. :D
I'll update later after Nationals is over.

First day of Spring

2010-03-24T20:42:00.004-05:00

We had an awesome first day of spring! We got 5-8 inches of snow! :D On Friday, it was 64 degrees outside, and by Friday night, it was 32 and snowing. We had several inches on Saturday morning and it snowed until Sunday afternoon.

By Tuesday, it was back up to the 60's and by today the snow is practically gone.

We're trying a new thing for our garden this year. We bought soil pellets from Wal Mart. They look like little hard brown discs.
Then you water them with 10 cups of warm water and they turn black and get puffy. Then you plant the seeds in them and wait for them to sprout!
When the seedlings are big enough, you move them to the garden in the pellet.

Before the seedlings are that big, you cover them with a plastic lid which produces a greenhouse effect to keep the moisture in.

Not much activity here, huh?

2010-03-09T11:39:00.001-06:00

I haven't been posting lately, but I'm probably due for another one. I have tons of pictures to post, but I don't have my laptop right now which has all the pictures on it. My sister's laptop died, (or went into a coma) so I sent her mine for the present.
Hope to update later!

Pictures!

2010-01-27T20:39:00.007-06:00

Ok, I'm going to make a few different posts for this because I already have some pictures on my computer, and it will make them easier to post. :D

Some of these are out of order, but that's ok. :)
For my brother's 7th birthday, I made him a football cake! The goalpost broke after the picture so I had to replace it with cardboard. :)

Thanksgiving apple pie!
Planning the menu.
Playing Stock Market. (that was fun to watch!)
I was supposed to cut the pie.

Bad picture of me operating the microwave. I don't know who took the picture.
Sarah made an Indian costume to wear.
I took this picture because it struck me as funny. The gravy boat was empty.
Must have been something with the light. Still nothing in there. :)
Aunt Marcia bought a Nativity set that fits inside itself.
Grandpa brought chocolate turkeys.
The other Grandpa re-did the white board for December.
The bush in the side yard turns BRIGHT pink every year!
I'm getting hours to get my license, so mom sat in the back seat and watched me drive. :D
I had to re-do the paint on the porch because it was peeling and getting quite ugly.
This was Hannah a while ago. I found the picture again and decided to post it. :D She'd probably kill me if she saw it.

Power Surge

2010-01-26T22:27:00.005-06:00

We had an interesting experience yesterday. I was in bed, and my space heater was humming as usual, and suddenly the humming got a lot louder and a bit higher and the heater was making a little clicking sound. I looked at it and it looked like it was off, except for the fact that you could hear it and it was still oscillating. Well, I was a bit weirded out until it popped somewhat loudly and and sounded like it was making sparks. (I didn't see any) There were a few flashes from outside of the window and the heater began to smell really really odd. (like a hot electric smell) I jumped up and unplugged the heater for fear it would catch fire or something. Everything else was dark, and I heard mom hollering for David, so I figured the power had gone off. However, in just a few seconds, I heard something about "fire" and "go get Rebecca." Then Sarah hollered down the stairs, "Rebecca! We need to go across the street, the power line to the house is on fire!!!"
That was a bit scary, so I ran upstairs with my heart beating and ran to the family room to find Mom on her hands and knees unplugging the TV and phoning the fire department. Sarah and I ran outside to the back yard where the main power line (that runs from the transformer to the house) was nicely flaming. EEEEEEK :D It would shoot off a shower of sparks and then drop a few flames onto the ground, so there were two nice little grass fires. Of course, we were both barefoot and the hose was unplugged. Wonderful. So I sprinted around the house and found a few old concrete chunks and a brick, so I handed Sarah a concrete chunk and I took a brick and we pounded out grass fires while the wire burned itself out.
Evidently, all the lights that were on upstairs had gone brilliant eerie white and the TV had stared shooting sparks and pouring smoke. (it smelled AWFUL) The wire caught fire in four or five places and was shooting flames pretty high. (it was reduced to a small flicker in one spot by the time I saw it)
We heard sirens so we went into the front yard as three fire trucks, two ambulances, and two fire chief cars pulled up. (and I'm barefoot and in my nightgown) :D
The firemen asked if everyone was out of the house, and then they looked at the power line in the back yard and asked to see the main breaker box in the house. Now, the breaker box is downstairs in a closet, which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that we had two families over the day before and you had to dig your way through the basement. Oh great. :oops: The fireman got through and turned off the power to the house, which Jonathan and Sarah had attempted to do earlier. After he went upstairs, Mom sent us all down with flashlights to clean up the basement. :-? We weren't a moment too soon. No sooner did we get it all picked up and tidy when 6-7 firemen and a state inspector showed up at the door asking to see the breaker box. *phew* Just in time!
The firemen called KCP&L (Kansas City Power and Lights) and they came and replaced the wire. Then the state inspector said that a lot of the electrical wiring in the home didn't pass inspection and was potentially hazardous, so we had to all an electrician to fix that.
Grandpa, (who lives across the street) said that our house was supposed to get 220amps (or whatever unit, I really have no clue) anyhow, 220 normally, and we suddenly got 440 which melted the insulation in the wires, shorted, and started a fire. The wires that power the bathroom downstairs had fused and almost ignited there as well.
One thing that was kind of annoying was that we had a guy come in a few years ago and do some work in the house, and he did some electrical work. However, when he needed a tube or pipe for the wires to go through, he used an old gas pipe and he hooked the wires directly to the outside current instead of the breaker box, so there was constantly a super high voltage running through that gas pipe that you couldn't shut off. It's a mercy [i]that[/i] didn't explode with the power surge!

So, we had a very eventful day. :D Both of our TVs were totally fried and dead, and my space heater is dead as well. What's kind of funny is that the Newegg Shell Shocker deal for yesterday was an HDTV, normally $400 but reduced to $180. :D
Nice, huh?

Fire trucks in front of the house.
Our driveway. You can see an ambulance in the background.
There's one more fire truck, an ambulance, and a fire chief SUV in the background here.
This part of the wire was on fire when I saw it.
But mom said this part was on fire too. :)

I don't think it's suppose to be split like that! :)
They took the meter apart to fix everything.

2010

2010-01-01T00:41:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!
I know I know, that was very creative. Very generic. And everything else that comes with staying up until after midnight. :) It's 20 'til one in the morning, so don't ask why I'm sitting here trying to kill myself with tiredness, I don't know either. :D

Tomorrow, we're going to Nebraska for our Christmas with the Nebraska relatives. We had Christmas with all of my Mom's side of the family, which would be people from here in Missouri, some from Montana, and one from South Carolina.
I may get to drive up to Nebraska, which would be REALLY nice since I'd get nearly twelve more hours of driving in. I don't know how I'll get all the dark hours I need; I don't drive in the dark very much. :(
Oh well.
I probably should go so I can go to bed so I can get up so I can drive tomorrow and not fall asleep on the road!

Oh, and did I forget to mention that Nebraska beat Arizona 33-0? :D

Happy 2010!

YIPEEEEEEEEEEE!

2009-12-17T15:27:00.000-06:00

She's home she's home she's home! :D
La dee dee da! Dance dance dance!
Skip skip skip!
Jog jump HOORAY! :D

She was awake all of last night so she's sleeping on the couch right now. :)

Yay!!!!!!

2009-12-15T13:49:00.000-06:00

I don't have my laptop back yet, so I can't post pictures, but I wanted to post and say that . . .

MY SISTER IS COMING HOME IN 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I know, I know . . .

2009-12-06T19:13:00.002-06:00

I BADLY need to update my blog!
I have a ton more pictures that need to go on, but my laptop is being sent off to be fixed. It decided it was going to turn off whenever it felt like it and it didn't stay on for more than five minutes or so. (Unless you were trying to get it to shut down.)
So . . . I haven't forgotten the blog, I just need to wait for 2-3 weeks or so until my laptop is fixed.

Pictures!

2009-10-06T10:06:00.009-05:00

These pictures may be all out of chronological order, but I'm sure you'll forgive me for that! :)
This is Matthew making dessert! Crisp-filled apples, or something like that. (It was really good!)

We had apples with a dollop of ice cream! (doesn't it look good??)

That Wednesday, we went apple picking in St. Joe!
Jonathan, Hannah, and Caleb picking apples.
Mom walking back to the tree after filling her bag.
Sarah filling her bag.
My bag. :)
When you polish a fresh apple on your sleeve, or something, it really shines as if you'd waxed it.
They had some pretty big pumpkins there, but we didn't get any. We picked about 5 bushels of apples, and made most of them into applesauce.
Before we went apple picking, we went grape picking. (See, I told you they were out of order!)

We ended up with 80 pounds of grapes, and we made them into juice once we got home.
That Friday, we had all of the little kids from the church over. David entertained one of them with his guitar.

We picked all of our carrots!
Some of them were HUGE!

The sad part was, we didn't get to them in time, and they ALL rotted. :(

Grandpa came for a few days to celebrate his birthday!

The other Grandpa came and re-did our white board things for the new month.

We finally picked and ate one of our home-grown watermelons! It was really sweet and really good!

Having company and being company

2009-09-20T22:14:00.002-05:00

Last week, Grandma McClurg and Aunt Marcia came here for a few days. Since Aunt Marcia will be in Ukraine for most of October, they came to celebrate the October birthdays early.
This week, Grandpa McClurg and Aunt Marcia came to celebrate Grandpa's birthday, which was on Saturday. We watched a Huskers game on Saturday, but they didn't win. :( It was really close, though! Going into the second half, we were ahead by 5 points, all field goals. :D They had one touchdown and two field goals. We managed to hold them off until the last minute and a half of the game, and then the Hokies got a touchdown. :( :( :( Oh well. It was a one point game, so we didn't lose by that much.
Tonight, we went to the Anderson's house!!!! We cooked hotdogs over the fire, and Matthew made some kind of fried apple dessert. It was like an apple crisp with the crisp part in the middle of the apple. He had cored all of the apples and filled the middle with the crisp filling. It was really good!
We sort of kind of didn't really play music for a while upstairs, and we talked about making an album that night, but we never did. :D

I'll post pictures later!
Rebecca

Sliced watermelon

2009-09-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

I took one of my clay watermelons, sliced it, and painted the inside. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. :D

Clay stuff

2009-09-08T11:48:00.004-05:00

Here are a few of the clay miniatures I've been making.
Watermelons . . .
Vegetables in a basket . . .
Pumpkins . . .
Loaves of bread . . .
Fruit in a basket . . .
Donuts . . .
A few miscellaneous things. The gold things are fireplace tools.
And blueberry bagels.

Pictures!

2009-09-06T19:58:00.002-05:00

This is the biggest watermelon in the garden so far. It's not quite ready to pick yet. :)

Here's Mom! She says she looks dead in the picture, but I told her that dead people can't smile. :)
David and Hannah are compiling versions of Little Red Riding Hood that we had to do for writing class.
Sarah, Jonathan, and Caleb are playing Battle for Wesnoth.
Exciting, isn't it!?
And me. :) Self-portraits are interesting. Mom said I got Great-Grandpa Heter's eyes. When I smile, my right eye is smaller than my left eye.
I didn't get one of Dad, but I will later.
Bye!

Labor Day!

2009-09-06T19:05:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is Labor Day and it's also Grandpa Heter's birthday! I have to clean someone's house in the morning, and then we're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch. I may try to buy him a present before we go, so we'll see how life plays out.
Babysitting went pretty good this week. I was at their house all day on Tuesday and then all day Friday and Saturday. It's tiring, but it's also fun. :) Sarah went with me on Saturday so that I could be a little more free to clean, and that was a good thing. We brought Holly the rabbit, and they thought that was a lot of fun! (I'll have to post a picture of Holly later.) :D
Dad gets to stay home from work and there's no school, so we'll be free for a lot of the day, which is nice. :)
We did a mass bedroom switch yesterday! Since Alicia left, I had the largest bedroom in my house all to myself, so Mom and Dad decided we needed to do a bedroom swaparound. They put the three boys in the basement room which is painted all light blue and white and has flowery curtains. I'm now in Caleb and Jonathan's room which is red and yellow and has the words "CALEB" and "JONATHAN" painted above the windows. :) Guess we'll have to repaint.
I need to get back to work on Christmas projects again! I know it's still a few months away, but if I keep telling myself that, then it will be here before I know it and I won't be ready. I'm working on a secret surprise for some people (Alicia knows who!) and I'll post some pictures of it once Christmas is over. :) Don't want them seeing it before hand!

Life . . . not that interesting. :)

2009-08-31T16:36:00.002-05:00

Well life keeps moving!
I'm the official math tutor for our homeschool, and my students are pretty easy. They all understand their math and do quite well on it.
I called a lady today to tell her I was interested in working at their corn maize, and she was really excited about that! She told me she needs me to babysit her 6 kids tomorrow at 10:00, so I'll be over there tomorrow. It will be interesting babysitting 6 kids all by my lonesome! :) Hope I don't go through the roof or something. :D It shouldn't be too bad since they're pretty much old enough to take care of themselves. Well, it's six kids 10 and under, so they'll still be a handful.

Addtion change :)

2009-08-27T13:06:00.002-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa came back over today and changed our white board again! :) The new design looks better with the rainbow border, but, just between you and me, I liked the foxes!

Sarah got braces this morning! She and Mom and Caleb went to the orthodontist, and when they came back, Sarah was a regular metal-mouth!

He said that Caleb will need the mouth-appliance-thingy-whatevertheycallit. :)

School Room Addition

2009-08-27T08:55:00.003-05:00

Mom decided she needed something to go over the top of the white board, but she couldn't decide what she wanted. So, Grandpa came over and measured the space between the top of the board and the ceiling.
BEFORE:
AFTER: (Mom said she doesn't like the colored border with the foxes.)
Here are the five foxes. Aren't they adorable??? :D :D

Grandma and Grandpa aren't sure they like it, so they're going to come and put something else up. I'll post that later, but here's what we have for now. :)

School starts!

2009-08-25T11:35:00.007-05:00

We finally started school today! We spent yesterday rearranging the school room, and here's how it turned out!

We put the artist's palette names on the wall next to the XP computer.

We put the book names on top of the bookcases.

The school desk names went on top of a shelf that goes over the desk that now holds my laptop. (Dad put the code into it so I don't need the cable!!) Under the shelf, (that mom got at a garage sale), we put the pictures of the boys and the girls, and the "Rules for Teachers in 1872."

Mom bought two white boards at Lowe's and screwed them onto the longest wall in the school room. (Alicia, the way this is facing, if you go to the right, you would be in the entry way.) :) Grandpa came a wrote "Welcome back" on the board. Actually, since this picture was taken, he's drawn an apple with a mouse in it. I'll have to photograph it and post it later.

We moved the shelf that was on the piano and put our little animal puzzles on it.

This is the way the desks are arranged now. They're all facing the white board.

The flags are being hung from the lamps by magnets. We moved Mom's desk to this corner and tacked up the chalk-board names.
The American flag is on the other lamp. :)

We got some Colorado peaches from the store!!!! They weren't quite ripe when we bought them, so they've been sitting in bags on the counter for two days. Now they're softer and juicy, but they're not as sugar sweet as they used to be. :(

Our tomatoes are turning out beautifully! Mom has already canned about 6-8 jars of tomatoes. This year they're coming out like your "ideal" tomato. No bug spots or anything, and that perfect little "blotch" of green and stem on the top. They are actually really pretty. :)

VA/DC/College trip

2009-08-22T19:34:00.012-05:00

Hi everyone! We just got back from a week in VA taking Alicia to Patrick Henry College. The first thing I need to say about this post is that this is a very long post and it has a lot of pictures in it. (It may actually be the pictures that make it long) :D
This picture is us outside of a subway station in DC.

Us on the Subway. Mom and David are holding onto the pole and Caleb and Jonathan are "train surfing." :)
Ok, maybe Jonathan was holding on. That's Alicia behind him.
At one of our stops we were a little surprised to see what looked like trees growing on the top of a building! I'm still not sure what that was for or how they did that.
Now we were waiting for the tour bus to take us on the 2 hour "Taste of DC" tour. It took us around to see the most famous buildings and monuments in DC.
This is the Capitol building.
And the Washington Monument . . .
This was all we could see of the White House. We were about 100 yards away from it behind a fence, and that was as close as we could get. (I had to zoom up to get it like this.)
The Lincoln Memorial.
The Jefferson Memorial.
Then we went to Arlington National Cemetery.

It's just astounding to see how many men gave their lives to preserve our country and our freedoms. It's a powerful and sobering visit when you go there, but it's very worthwhile.
We went to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier just in time for the changing of the guard.
The old guard.
The new guard getting his gun inspected.

The new guard. The whole ceremony is really awesome to watch.
I just had to take a picture of Caleb, Jonathan, and Hannah in the subway on the way "home" again. They were all standing with their backs to me and it made a cute picture. :D
We spent the next day at Mt. Vernon. This is the East Front of the house. Washington said he had an East front and a West front. He said he would have no friends coming in the back door, everyone was welcome at the front. (Technically, this would be the back porch.)
That's quite a view to have in your backyard!
This is George Washington's coach.
This is the tombstone of one of his relatives. Even though the tour guides are not allowed to say anything about God in the tours, the gospel is still proclaimed at Washington's tomb.

This is the slave memorial.

And the West front of the house. The second window from the left on the top story is a fake window. It was built there to keep the house looking symmetrical, but there is no window on the inside. That part of the house is a large dining room that is two stories high, so there is no reason to have a window there. From the outside you can't tell it's fake because it has glass panes and what looks like curtains behind them.
We had hot dogs for supper, but nothing to cook them with, so Mom dug around in the van and found two hangers!
After supper, We went to PHC and heard Dr. Farris speak!

Then we got Alicia settled into her room. This is her with a name plaque that Grandpa made for her.
He made these "place cards" for all of us kids to put at our school desks. I'll bet we have fancier name cards than the public school kids do! :)
This is the new student center at Patrick Henry! It was a $31 million project, but the college owes no money on it. They have a no-debt policy and they refused to go into debt on any of their buildings.
This is Founder's Hall, the main building where the HSLDA office is also located.
David did hambone (handbone, if you prefer) on the stairs while he waited for us to finish settling Alicia into her room.
This is the president of the college and his wife. They spoke after supper. (This is the next day, by the way.) :D
This is Patrick Henry at night, right before we said our last good-byes to Alicia.

Then we headed back to the hotel for the night, and went home the next day. We are still recovering from the trip. :)
We had a great time and we are anxious to get Alicia back at Christmas time!

Cute little animals!

2009-08-02T15:16:00.003-05:00

We have a baby rabbit living in our yard! He's really cute! (Makes me want to own another one!)

We also have a chipmunk living in the drainpipe. (I hope he doesn't drown!)

Mission: Impossible!!!

2009-08-01T20:08:00.009-05:00

Thursday July 30th was Mom and Dad's 21st anniversary, so we kids decided to make it a good one!
After breakfast, we all went out to play four-square on the driveway, and Mom went in to take a shower. So . . . we decided to have a conspiracy! Since Mom and Dad were going out for dinner, we decided to sabotage the car! We painted "Just married 21 years ago" on the windows, taped streamers to the car and filled the car with balloons! We also put giant dark chocolate bars on top of the passenger sun-visor so that if Mom flipped it down, they would land in her lap!
Once Dad came home from work, we all got busy stuffing balloons into the car and painting the windows. (We couldn't do it before Dad got home or he would see the car and say something to Mom.) We didn't know what time they were going to leave, so we all made anniversary cards for them to stall for time if we didn't have the car done. When we saw that they were about to leave, Alicia pulled out the cards and they read them thinking that was all and it was sure sweet of us! Then, we all escorted them out the car and they were surprised! (By the way, we painted the windows with white shoe polish.)

Once they drove away, we all went back inside to sabotage the house. :) :) :) :) :) We hung streamers from the doorways into the dining room and their bedroom. I made a cake a decorated it, and we made the table look all nice a pretty! We made a banner to go in the bedroom and we bought helium balloons to go with that.

We put votive candles in little dishes of colored water and put those on the front porch, and then we were ready for them to come home!

What a sweet couple!
I don't think I've had that much fun in a while!

Wisdom teeth . . . and all that :)

2009-07-28T19:30:00.002-05:00

Well, I got my wisdom teeth pulled. It was actually about two weeks ago, Thursday the 16th. Mom called the oral surgeon on Wednesday afternoon (the 15th) to ask when I could come in, and they said "Oh! Just bring her in tomorrow morning at 8:30!" So, we did. It was kind of short notice, but that was probably a good thing since I was SCARED TO DEATH to get them pulled. (I've never been put to sleep before.) :)
It all went great, the surgeon we went to did a really good job, and I'm healing pretty well! The right half of my chin is still a little numb - I don't know why - and my back teeth hurt a little to chew, but other than that I'm feeling great! The swelling is gone so I don't look like a chipmunk anymore. :D :D :D :D :D

18!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-06T18:20:00.004-05:00

Today is my 18th birthday! Cool cool cool!
My aunt bought me a digital camera that is the neatest thing since sliced bread. (You know, before sliced bread, what did they compare to?)
I want to buy myself a rabbit for my birthday; I think it would be cool.
Jonathan had a baseball game, we watched that. They actually played really well!
We had two apple pies for dessert, and we watched Mission Impossible during lunch and supper! (That was too cool!)
I have to go to bed now because it's 11:30 PM, but I'll post later if I think of anything else.

4th of July!

2009-07-04T22:47:00.005-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our Fourth of July/Independence Day celebration!

First of all, Hannah and Alicia set our table all pretty and patriotic-like.

We had CHERRIES! I LOVE cherries!

Dad grilled brats. I don't like brats.
We had corn on the cob! I LOVE corn on the cob! But, it gets stuck in your teeth . . .

We also had watermelon! I like that too.

Here is our whole feast! Makes you hungry, huh?
And, all the people!
After supper and a Mission Impossible movie and a game, we went to Legacy Park and watched fireworks!

That was about it.
Impressive, huh?

Senior Outing!

2009-06-27T21:43:00.010-05:00

The homeschool group that I graduated with, MPE, held a senior banquet for any student who wanted to go. Well, I wanted to go, but the banquet was during Bible Quiz Nationals, so I couldn't go. (I'd rather quiz than go to a banquet anyway!!) Dad said that to make up for it, he and Mom would take me out to a nice restaurant for dinner after graduation. So . . . last night Mom did my hair up all fancy like and we went to the Cheesecake Factory out on the Plaza! I wore the dress that Mom made me for graduation, so I felt all pretty! (totally a girl thing, I know . . . ) :D
Here are a few pictures.

So first, Mom did my hair up all nicely!

Someone called that hair style the "up-do" but I think it should be called the "bouquet of roses."
Me and my awesome Daddy!
I ordered a chocolate cheesecake, but I wasn't sure I'd like it! (I'd never had cheesecake before)
Actually, it wasn't that bad.
It was really good, but I was too full to finish! (no fair!)

Almost ready . . .

2009-06-16T19:41:00.002-05:00

We just took a trip to Branson Missouri, and we had a BLAST!!
Ok. That's all I'm going to say.
WHY?????????????
Well, because I want to post pictures from the trip with the post about the trip, but I don't have any of them downloaded off of the camera yet. And of course, I'm too lazy to go and do that right now, and I would have to download them onto my laptop instead of the family computer because the laptop's faster, and then I would need permission to connect the laptop to the internet and get the pictures uploaded. Lot of work, isn't it?
LAZY BUM!!!!!
Ok, ok, you don't have to shout! I heard you loud and clear!
Our phone connection went out today, and the phone company said they couldn't possibly make it out here before the 21st. Oh great. We have go for a whole week without a phone!!!!!! Oh well. We'll survive.
I hope.

Now it's officially official!

2009-06-08T16:37:00.002-05:00

Last Friday, I officially finished high school!
I had already had the graduation ceremony on May the 8th, but I still had schoolwork to finish. I had piano Keyboard Merits to prepare for, and I had history to finish. Both of those were completed on Friday, and that is WAY TOO COOL!!!!!!
I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

ha ha

It will not help

2009-06-01T19:21:00.002-05:00

The news headlines in KC today were reporting the murder of an abortion doctor. Now, I always think the world can use one less abortion doctor, but think of it this way. This doctor was probably (and most likely) killed by someone who was pro-life and hated abortion. But does that help the pro-life cause? Not really. Now, the abortion doctor and his cause are viewed as "victims" and pro-lifers are seen as the aggressive nasty dangerous people. People would think of us as insane. After all, if we're campaigning so hard to save all these babies from being murdered, why do we think it's all right to murder abortion doctors?
Some things are worth fighting for, but if you use violence in your fight, no one will listen to you anymore, and you will be fighting for a lost cause; a cause that you just lost.

Random ramblings . . .

2009-05-16T10:02:00.002-05:00

Hi. It's me. I know, not that interesting. :)
I have a piano recital today. I don't want to have a piano recital today. I want to sleep today. I think I'm still recovering from graduation and open house. Mom and Alicia have come down with bronchitis, so their hacking away nicely.
We've been watching the old Get Smart. It's pretty funny, and poor Max has no more brain than a chicken. :)
I got the first four chapters of First Corinthians memorized! We're having a family memorizing challenge to see if we could have the first 4 chapters of 1st Corinthians done by Friday (yesterday) and the first 4 chapters of 2nd Corinthians done by next Friday. That shouldn't be too hard.
I'm about to murder the official BQF quiz committee! They made all the verses quotes! I think they're trying to make the quizzers slow down their jumps, but you may as well try to make highway drivers slow down. Ain't gonna happen. :) I think they think it'll cut down on errors, but I think it will make errors skyrocket! (If you're not a quizzer, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.)
I want to buy paint stripper so I can strip the paint off of one of our dollhouses. It has old gloppy white paint on it, so I want to strip it, sand it, and re-paint it. Someday I hope to build a dollhouse and make everything that goes inside of it. I wish I was better at woodworking so I could make really pretty furniture for it. It would be neat to be able to make fancy beds and tables and chairs for the house.
I wish I had something else to say, but I don't.
Oh well.
Woe is me.
Poor me.
Tee hee.
:D

The Awesome Power

2009-04-29T14:42:00.005-05:00

During one of our quizzes at Nationals, I looked up to see three former quizzers at the back of the room. They had come to watch the quizzes, and I thought that was pretty cool. A few hours later, I was on my way to my hotel room when I saw two of the boys hurrying toward the door. One of my teammates asked them where they were going, and one of them replied, "Joe's mama isn't doing well. We have to go." It occurred to me that she had had a stroke a year or so ago, so I figured she was back in the hospital again. Later that night, I was on my way up the elevator with a few other quizzers, and one of them got a text message from her brother (one of the former quizzers). It read, "The doctor says it doesn't look good. Mrs. Dame has bleeding on her brain and has 48 hours to live."
That shocked everyone.
We told the news to three of my teammates, and they were beside themselves. One of them said "All right guys. We need to pray; right now." We formed a small circle and started praying. More people joined the ring, and we told them what the news was, and they began praying too. Several of them were sobbing. One of my teammates began to pray begging God for a miracle and asking Him to heal Mrs. Dame. Other's prayers were the same, although I thought it was somewhat of a waste. After all, she was bleeding in the brain, and had 48 hours to live. Back in Bible times, God healed people like that, but He doesn't do that anymore. My prayers were for the family, and that they would be able to get along in life without her. We prayed for a few minutes, and then Eric said "All right guys. We all need to hold hands." We formed a circle, (by that time, about 15-25 quizzers had gathered.), and we went around the circle, each of us saying a prayer. After a while, one person began to quote verses from the material we were quizzing over. A few others joined and began quoting verses from material that had been quizzed over years ago. Someone started up the 23rd Psalm, and with different people taking up lines from it, we recited the whole thing. one boy started up a song, and we sang for a while. We were there for almost an hour before our quiz leader said we needed to get to bed. (it was 10:40 pm) :)
Once Nationals was over and just before we left for home, Mr. Gossell called us all together and told us that Mrs. Dame had undergone surgery the night we got the news, and it had gone wonderfully. The doctor said she would only be in the ICU for a few more days, and in his own words, "It was a miracle."
Wow.
And I'm sitting here saying "yeah, God doesn't do that anymore!" Somebody shut me up! Luke 1:37 says "For nothings is impossible with God." I need to believe that for myself. What a powerful moving experience!

Nationals!

2009-04-28T17:06:00.005-05:00

We're back!
St. Louis was awesome! We stayed in a riverside hotel, so we had a great view of the Arch from the window. Too cool. :)
My first day of quizzing was super great! We got second place in the first quiz, third in the second, and then we got 7 firsts in a row! Of course, we had the easier teams that day. The next day, we had to quiz the top teams from 7 different ministries, so that was a little harder. Still, by Saturday, we had placed 12th out of 45 teams! Saturday was a little rougher, and we ended Nationals in 19th place. Still not bad, but not as good as we had hoped.
This year, a lot of things happened differently than they usually do. For the last 5-8 years, RiVen (our top team) and By Faith (St. Louis's top team) have taken the 1st and 2nd places at Nationals. This year was different. For one thing, By Faith didn't even make it on stage! 2,nd, Wisconsin's top team, Clay, took the first place trophy and RiVen got second. Another difference that took place was the fact that two of our teams made stage. RiVen, our top team, and Crunchies, our second team. I don't think that that's happened before; two teams from the same ministry making stage. (Oh, btw, if a team "makes stage," that just means that they were in the championship quiz.) Another unusual thing was that James Gossell got the award for top quizzer in the Nation! What's unusual is the fact that he did that last year too. It's not very often that one quizzer gets the top award twice.
Well, I have more to say, but I think I'll say it later. I have to finish Physics. :(
Oh well . . . that's life . . . :)
Rebecca

I adopted some big brothers . . . :)

2009-04-20T10:26:00.002-05:00

We had the Anderson family over yesterday and we had a blast! I made snickerdoodles, most of them were fairly small, but one batch of them were mini cookies. One problem. David's twin brother (I can't remember if I have his permission to put his name here) thinks that mini cookies are supposed to be dipped in cookies dough! Oh well . . .
Hannah, Sarah, and Katrina dressed up all fancy-like and told me to be the queen. So I put on an old bridesmaid dress and a silver-paper crown with plastic jewels. About 7 minutes later they told me they didn't need me as queen, so I got demoted and took the dress off. Then they told me they wanted me to be queen again, but I decided not to.
Then I asked David Anderson if he wanted to help me with the dishes, and he didn't. John didn't either, so I did the dishes while they all played bluegrass and Matthew looked up stuff on the internet.
Alicia and Matthew had a NERF dart fight. That was pretty funny! I think Alicia likes having a "big brother". :) (Ok, I do too!)
I think we finally convinced them to watch Fireproof with us! We have Bible quiz National's this week, and graduation right after that, but maybe we can have them over after that. Mom and Dad showed Mr. and Mrs. Anderson a few scenes from Fireproof, but didn't let them watch the whole thing. Matthew said he got it from the library, but hadn't watched it yet. We told him not to watch it yet but to wait so we could watch it with them. (Mom said she wanted to be there to see him cry, but I highly doubt Matthew would cry.) :)

I have to go make muffins!
Bye!
I may not post again until after Nationals.
Rebecca

Communist President

2009-04-07T13:21:00.003-05:00

The more I hear about Obama, the more I dislike him.
He's exercising his power as if he were a dictator, and everyone is obeying him like he was a dictator!
He has no sense of morality. He probably admires Lenin and Stalin and dreams of being like them. (These may be random ravings, but I'm having a "mad at Obama" moment. :) Please excuse me)

If you read my post "A Warning to Heed" from back in November, you can see that the way Obama got into power is much the same, if not exactly the same, as Hitler! How could American people do this? Haven't they studied history? Haven't they seen what happened in the past? Do they want that sort of thing to happen again? Why won't people wake up!?
I want to scream at them and shake them and yell "CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT THIS MAN IS DOING TO OUR COUNTRY???" If I called him a communist, people would call me an insane fanatic. They won't listen until all these things happen, and by that time it will be too late.
Why can't we wake people up? What can we do? There must be something we can do to get people's attention before our country falls! What can we do?

Someone didn't get the memo . . .

2009-03-28T20:25:00.003-05:00

I thought it was spring!!!
Hmmm . . . it started raining yesterday and it was getting colder and colder, and some of it was freezing. This morning it began to rain again, and by noon it had turned into snow. It's been snowing all day and by now we have about 6 inches!!! :( I was ready for it to stay warm!! I didn't want snow again!
The funny thing is, we never got this much snow in one day during the whole winter! It officially spring, and now we get it. Ah well . . . it is really pretty, but the roads are terrible! The snow is really heavy and wet, and just about the time the trucks get it cleared, it gets covered again. We probably saw about 15 cars that had run off the road into the ditch, so I guess it was slippery too!
Gtg, chores to do.

Getting closer . . .

2009-03-21T12:16:00.002-05:00

Well, I got my cap and gown about 2-3 days ago, and we'll pass the rest of them out to the other graduates on Tuesday. I have to finish my senior display board and make a few more dolls. I have the body for one doll made, but I have to figure out how to dress him/her. It's a different shaped body from the other ones I've made, so it might take some more time to dress.
It's getting closer!! I'm almost done with high school!!!!
I finished literature for the year yesterday, so that was way too totally cool!!

Birthday!

2009-03-14T15:48:00.004-05:00

Well, Jonathan's birthday went really good! I had to decorate 48 cupcakes, and by the time I was done, my hand was REALLY sore! I did about half of them with the number 11, and the other half said NERF. After a little while, I decided I was tired of putting the letter "F" on the end, so I did three with "D's" so we had three cupcakes that said NERD. That was kind of funny.

The Anderson boys made Jonathan this AWESOME gun for his birthday!

My Grandpa saw the gun and said it was a remarkable piece of woodworking. Coming from Grandpa, who has done LOTS of amazing things with wood, that was a high compliment!

Busy day

2009-03-10T19:44:00.002-05:00

Thursday is Jonathan's birthday. We'll be having a lot of people over to have a NERF dart gun fight. Should be interesting . . . I have to figure out what kind of cake to make and how to decorate it. I''ll have to post pictures of the birthday boy once the birthday has happened.

Quizzing . . .

2009-03-07T20:23:00.002-06:00

Well, we had the tournament today, and boy was it awesome! SWAT almost made it into the championship quiz, but we just barely missed it! We ended up in 5th place out of 18, so we were really really happy! Alicia, Jonathan, and I got medals for memorizing 100 quote verses. Then I got a trophy for being on the second all-star team, and Alicia got a trophy for being on the first all-star team, so that was really totally awesome! We have our first National's practice next Saturday, and Nationals is from April 22-26. my Nationals team is named The Resistance, which I think is really too totally cool!

Just ducky! (and chicky) :)

2009-03-07T20:04:00.007-06:00

In my last post, I said that I had made 4 little grad hats for four of my rubber ducks. Here are two of them. (the other two look exactly the same)

And the chicky!! Isn't he cute?? We put him in a cardboard box and cut a window in it. We covered the window with a thin plastic sheet, so it worked great for a window . . . in the daytime. In the night, the window acted more like a mirror, and the poor chick would go crazy trying to cuddle up with the "other chick."

Hmm . . .

2009-03-04T14:16:00.002-06:00

What shall I say on this fine day?
Hey! I was a poet and didn't know it!
blah . . .
I am almost done with one of my stories, but I can't seem to find the "inner dicipline" to sit down and finish it.
Regionals was really really good! The chairs we had to sit on were terrible. They were too low to the ground to suit me, but I guess it wasn't bad. One of our Summit teams won the championship quiz! It was really cool because they are one of our regular season teams, and they beat two of the other ministries' top nationals teams!! Way cool.
I have to finish making the dolls for graduation open house decorations. Should be really fun . . .
I made 4 little graduation caps for 4 of my little rubber ducks; they're really cute! (I'll have to post a picture.)
Out of the 10-or-so eggs that we got, only one of them hatched, and that one doesn't look to healthy. He's a lot better today than he was yesterday, so we'll see if he makes it to Friday. (It was a 4-H dealy thingy, so we have to take the chick back on Friday.)

Don't know what else to say, so I'll say farewell for the present.
I have to go iron some things. Fun . . .
Rebecca

Regionals!

2009-02-26T19:51:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Iowa where Bible quizzing Regionals will be held. Alicia, David, and I will be on the same team with Dad coaching. (coolio!) We were told that we may be taking 10 people in our van, which will be really super awesome! I'll post later once it's over and tell how it went.

Nothing interesting . . .

2009-02-24T15:52:00.002-06:00

Well, quiz-offs went really good, and Alicia, David, Jonathan, and I all qualified for Nationals. Sarah didn't make it, but last night, we got a call from one of the quiz committee members saying that one girl was not able to go to Nationals and Sarah was the first alternate! So Sarah can go too! That's pretty cool.

Alicia made a pretty deluxe arrow for our arrow war. She has a paper arrow that has intricately cut arrows inside of it. Another boy from church joined the arrow war by contributing a solid steel arrow. (way too cool!!) It makes a really cool sound when you drop it on a hard floor. :)

I'm graduating from high school this year, so I have a lot of things to get finalized. I have pictures to scan in so David can make a slide show, and I have to finish my senior display board. I made a little doll with a graduation cap and gown on. She's really cute!

I don't think I have anything else to say, but I'll come back later when I think of something.

Rebecca

YEAH!!!

2009-02-07T16:14:00.003-06:00

We had our last regular Bible quiz of the year today, and it wasn't too bad. I'm still in 12th place, Alicia is still in 3rd, and the team in in 6th! That means that I can get a top 14 quizzer award, and because the team in in 6th place, Alicia can get a top 7 quizzer award! (in other words, I'm on the second all-star team, and she is on the first all-star team)
Quiz-offs is next week, and that decides who gets to go to Nationals this year.

How is he viewed?

2009-01-27T19:06:00.002-06:00

Do Southerners think of John Wilkes Booth as a hero or as the man who destroyed the future for the South? I'm currently in the Civil War era in history, so I'm wondering.

Randomness . . .

2009-01-13T16:56:00.001-06:00

I really really want to go to Hobby Lobby!!!
I love gingerbread!
I don't want to go to college next year.
I want David to continue his game so I can see what happens!
I want to finish my story(s).
What's a vortex?

A really NICE arrow

2009-01-04T17:02:00.004-06:00

At church today, John Anderson's brother, David, gave me a block of wood with a really nice arrow carved into it!

Mom thought it was beautiful and she put it up on the mantle. I made 5 felt arrow pillows to give to him on Sunday.
This war is painfully fun!

Just a thought for thought

2008-12-30T21:31:00.002-06:00

When my Mom was younger, her grandfather would carve beautiful pieces for his grandchildren as presents. My mother received many many carvings and even a few small but lovely pieces of pottery. When he died, she was sure that her days of getting things from her grandfather were over. On this Christmas, she opened a gift from her Grandmother, and there in the bag was a small clay dish and two carvings! It made her cry.
Later, I was putting away gift bags for next year when I came across the one Mom got her treasures in. For a fraction of a second, I wondered if she might like to keep the bag, since it was one that Grandpa's things came in. Then, I had a thought.
Worshipping the Virgin Mary because she birthed Christ is like Mom taking that bag and keeping it in her room, treasuring it and loving it forever because it was what the wonderful gift came in. Why treasure that bag and forget the gift? Why worship Mary and forget Christ?

Hmm

2008-12-10T15:40:00.002-06:00

I want to post a bunch of pictures, I just don't think I have any pictures to post.
Hmmm . . .
I'm writing a story or three but none of them are done yet. I'm having a problem with part of the plot in one story. Do I go with kidnapping and a Russian conspiracy, or something else?
I hope Alicia and I can go to Hobby Lobby today! (that's come up a lot lately, hasn't it?) :) The roads aren't as slick as they used to be, so it would probably be safer to drive than it was yesterday.

Nutcrackers!!

2008-12-09T21:22:00.002-06:00

Well, I think I mentioned that we have about 50 nutcrackers, so I thought I'd post a picture and show you!

Pretty cool, huh? Now we just have to find places to put them all!

Quick updates

2008-12-09T16:19:00.002-06:00

SO . . . we had a slight change in plans. Mom went to take David to the insurance agency, and she did a donut at the end of our street. So she came back home and said that we were not going to piano lessons, and we couldn't go to Hobby Lobby. WHAAAA!! Boo hoo! sob sob. Oh well. :)
We did get out the nutcrackers, and now they're all lined up on the hearth: we haven't put them around the house yet. Other than that, I don't have a whole lot else to say.

Winter is coming!!

2008-12-09T12:38:00.004-06:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, I don't really know why. Maybe I've thought I was too busy. Maybe I was too busy. Maybe not. :) But anyway, as I'm sitting here, it's snowing really hard outside (AWESOME!!!) and I'm having bronchitis leftovers: a cough and somewhat stuffy nose (NOT awesome).
I have piano lessons this afternoon, so I hope the roads are safe! Alicia and I are going to Hobby Lobby after piano to buy Christmas decorations for our bedroom. We want to decorate it just for us, and we're getting excited thinking about teh things we could buy for the room!
We still need to get out the nutcrackers. We have all the other Christmas stuff out. You know, the tree, the lights, the wreaths, the others odds and ends, but we have about 50 nutcrackers in boxes that we haven't unpacked yet! It's about time to get to those, don't you think?
Oh, and for an arrow update, John Anderson gave me a "get well card" when I was sick. It was a 3x5 card covered in arrows! I made three paper snowflakes with arrows cut into them, so I'll show them to John and his brother on Sunday.
I have more to say, but I think I'll say it later.
Cya!

A Warning to heed

2008-11-04T08:59:00.001-06:00

The lady writing is a REAL PERSON WHO WENT THRU THE HOLOCAUST and all the horrors of GERMANY and she feels so led to write to US today and warn us...
Hymn to Hitler
by Lori Kalner In Germany ,

when Hitler came to power, it was a time of terrible financial depression. Money was worth nothing. In Germany people lost homes and jobs, just like in the American Depression in the 1930s, which we have read about in Thoene's Shiloh books. In those days, in my homeland, Adolph Hitler was elected to power by promising "Change." He blamed the "Zionists" around the world for all our problems. He told everyone it was greedy Zionist Bankers who had caused every problem we had. He promised when he was leader, the greedy Zionist bankers would be punished. The Zionists, he promised, would be wiped off the face of the earth. So Hitler was elected to power by only 1/3 the popular vote. A coalition of other political parties in parliament made him supreme leader. Then, when he was leader, he disgraced and expelled everyone in parliament who did not go along with him. Yes. Change came to my homeland as the new leader promised it would. The teachers in German schools began to teach the children to sing songs in praise of Hitler. This was the beginning of the Hitler Youth movement. It began with praise of the Fuhrer's programs on the lips of innocent children. Hymns in praise of Hitler and his programs were being sung in the schoolrooms and in the playyard. Little girls and boys joined hands and sang these songs as they walked home from school. My brother came home and told Papa what was happening at school. The political hymns of children proclaimed Change was coming to our homeland and the Fuhrer was a leader we could trust. I will never forget my father's face. Grief and fear. He knew that the best propaganda of the Nazis was song on the lips of little children. That evening before he said grace at the dinner table, he placed his hands upon the heads of my brothers and me and prayed the Living Word upon us from Jeremiah 1:4-5Š 'Now the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to The nations." Soon the children's songs praising the Fuhrer were heard everywhere on the streets and over the radio. "With our Fuhrer to lead us, we can do it! We can change the world!" Soon after that Papa, a pastor, was turned away from visiting elderly parishioners in hospitals. The people he had come to bring comfort of God's Word, were "no longer there." Where had they vanished to while under nationalized health care? It became an open secret. The elderly and sick began to disappear from hospitals feet first as "mercy killing" became the policy. Children with disabilities and those who had Down syndrome were euthanized. People whispered, "Maybe it is better for them now. Put them out of misery. They are no longer sufferingŠAnd, of course, their death is better for the treasury of our nation. Our taxes no longer must be spent to care for such a burden." And so murder was called mercy. The government took over private business. Industry and health care were "nationalized." (NA-ZI means National Socialist Party) The businesses of all Jews were seized; (Perhaps you remember our story in Berlin on Krystalnacht in the book Munich Signature) The world and God's word were turned upside down. Hitler promised the people economic Change? Not change. It was, rather, Lucifer's very ancient Delusion leading to Destruction. What began with the propaganda of children singing a catchy tune ended in the deaths of millions of children. The reality of what came upon us is so horrible that you in this present generation cannot imagine it. Our suffering is too great to ever tell in a book or show in a black and white newsreel. When I spoke to Bodie about some of these things, she wept and said she could not bear to write them. Perhaps one day she will, but I asked her, "who could bear to read our suffering?" Yet with my last breaths I warn every Christian and Jew now in the name of the Lord, Unless your course of the church in America is spiritually changed now, returning to the Lord, there are new horrors yet to come. I trembled last night when I heard the voices of American children raised in song, praising the name of (a presidential candidate), the charismatic fellow who claims he is the American Messiah. Yet I have heard what this man (a presidential candidate) says about abortion and the "mercy killing" of tiny babies who are not wanted. There are so few of us left to warn you. I have heard that there are 69 million Catholics in America and 70 million Evangelical Christians. Where are your voices? Where is your outrage? Where is passion and your vote? Do you vote based on an abortionist's empty promises and economics? Or do you vote according to the Bible? Thus says the Lord about every living child still in the wombŠ "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated youŠ" I have experienced the signs of the politics of Death in my youth. I see them again now. Christians! Unless you stand up now, you will lose your freedom of religion. In America priests and preachers have already lost their freedom to speak openly from their pulpits of moral danger in political candidates. They cannot legally instruct you of which candidate holds fast to the precepts of scripture! American law forbids this freedom of speech to conservative pastors or they will lose their "tax exempt" status. And yet I have heard the words of (a presidential candidate) pastor Damning America ! I have heard the words of (a presidential candidate) damning and mocking all of you in small towns because you "Cling to your religionŠ" But I am a woman whose name is unknown. My life is recorded as a work of fiction. I have no fear of reprisal when I speak truth to you from the pages of a book. (Though the Zion Covenant books are mocked and condemned by the Left in America .) I am an old woman and will soon go to be with my Lord. I have no fear for myself, but for all of you and for your children, I tremble. I tremble at the hymns to a political leaders which your children will sing at school.(Though even now a hymn or a prayer to God and our Lord Jesus is against the law in public school!) Your vote must put a stop to what will come upon America if (a certain presidential candidate) is elected. I pray you will personally heed this warning for the sake of your children and your grandchildren. Do not be deceived. The Lord in Jeremiah 1:7-8 commands every believer to speak up! "Do not say, 'I am only a youth,' for to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you, declares the Lord!"
I am in Prayer for you, and for the Church !
Spoken to you in the authority of Jesus the Christ, the Name Above All Names,
Lori Kalner

More people over!

2008-11-03T16:38:00.003-06:00

On Sunday, we had a church planning meeting at our house, during which, some of the young people watched Gary Cooper's "Sergeant York." After the planning meeting, we had a prayer service for the election at in our family room. It was pretty tightly packed in there! The prayer service was actually the idea of one of the other men in our church who wanted to have a surprise birthday party for his wife afterward. So we did, and we had a LOT of fun! We had alomst 50 people in the house, and one family stayed until 10:30!
I LOVE having lots of people over, but I think we're done until next year, which really isn't that far away!

Pray for our Country

2008-11-03T16:37:00.001-06:00

This upcoming election is one of the most (if not THE most) important in all of American history. It is important, more so than ever, that we pray for our country. 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Prayer is our most effective and powerful weapon. John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.We have direct access to the throne of God, and no political parties can stop us or block our prayers, or keep God from hearing us. We would ask that Obama would be kept out of office, and that the winning candidate would turn his heart wholly to the Lord. Neither major candidate is truly someone we would choose, but we trust that God is in control. There are two things that are imperative that we as the children of God do not neglect: voting and prayer. Pray for the souls of the candidates and their running mates, and pray for the right candidate to be elected. Then go to the ballot box and vote as you are led by God. Please send this to family and friends, and see if we can't let the power of God swing the election! Matthew 18: 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. God does hear us when we pray.

A new arrow

2008-10-31T13:38:00.002-05:00

One of the girls in our youth group told me that she missed playing the flute and wanted to join our "orchestra"! We said YES OF COURSE!!! So she brought the flute on Sunday, and said to me:
"I figured that if I wanted to be a part of the orchestra, I would have to make an arrow!"
So she pulled out an dark blue felt arrow with glitter on the edges. I thought it was pretty funny!

Ok, just a note. If you want to join the orchestra, you don't have to have an arrow! John Anderson's older brother(s) started it, and he and I picked it up from there, but it's not a requirement. :)

The nuttiness continues . . .

2008-10-15T11:31:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, I made an arrow out of shiny gold paper and showed it to John Anderson. He said it was silver, (the light must have been at just the wrong angle) and he said that he was going to make one out of metal! I asked him where he would get the metal from, and he said he would just take it from somebody's car. Bad idea. :) I don't know if he'll actually get a metal arrow or not . . .

Hayride!

2008-10-08T21:44:00.004-05:00

I said in an earlier post that I would tell you about the hayride once it had come, and it has come. That is, it came about 2 weeks ago. :) I am slightly late in posting this, but that's all right!
When we first got to the house, I was met by John Anderson, one of the boys from our youth group. Now, in order for you to understand this, I have to tell you what happened a few week ago. At church, my sisters and one friend and I often play our violins along with the hymns at church, and one week, John's older brother came up to us and told us that if we were playing sharp or flat, he would simply hold up a paper with an arrow on it pointing either up or down. So he went back and sat down, and another one of his brothers holds up a paper with an arrow on it pointing up. Then, the pointed it down, and then . . . sideways. How in the world do you play sideways? Anyway, it went from that to a paper with 2 arrows, then 4, then 8, and then at the baseball game, I brought a paper that I had covered with over 200 tiny arrows. So, back to the hayride, when we got there, I was met by this boy and he had a huge grin on his face and said that he had something for me. His little sister came out of the house with a rolled up piece of paper and handed it to me. When I unrolled it, there was a paper about 3 times as big as mine, covered in arrows! The next day, which was Sunday, I held up my paper with one arrow and the words, "I surrender." He said it was a good thing because he was tired of drawing arrows. :)
Then they brought out their potato gun and shot hedge apple, walnuts, and old caulk tubes at an old door they stood up in the middle of the yard. It was pretty funny, especially when another boy brought his potato gun and shot dirty rainwater straight up in the air!
When we went to eat supper, my brother David got up to get something else to eat, and John took his empty water bottle, thinking it would be a great joke. It didn't work quite right, beacause David had hardly had a chance to sit down again and the first thing he said was, "All right. Where's my water bottle?" Oh well . . .
After we had eaten and shot a few more rounds of gunk at the door, (well, by this time, it was mostly being shot straight up), we went on the hayride. I sat next to John and his brother, and we were trying to come up with some cowboy songs to sing. John suggested we sing "Red River Valley", but I said it probably wasn't a good idea. After all, the first line of the song is, "Come and sit by my side if you love me." He agreed that we probably shouldn't sing that one. :)
They were going to do more than one hayride, but the 1st one took so long that it was too late by the time we got back. Well, they may have done another ride, but we left before that.
I LOVE hayrides, and I hope we can do another one next year!

Quiz Day!

2008-10-08T21:21:00.006-05:00

We had a GREAT quiz on Saturday! Alicia was well enough to participate which was wonderful, because I don't know what we would have done without her! Our quiz team for this year, as I think I have said before, is called SWAT and stands for Saints With A Testimony. Below is a picture of the team. I am on the bottom right, Alicia is on the bottom left, and my sister Sarah is on top of me.

At the end of the quizzes for the day, I had placed 23 out of 110, which I don't think was too bad! Alicia placed 14(!!) and Jonathan, who is ten and a new quizzer, placed 21!!! That's AWESOME for any quizzer, much less a new one of that age!

Quiz Crisis

2008-10-01T19:47:00.002-05:00

We have our first quiz on Saturday, and we have a MAJOR crisis!! Alicia has pneumonia! (is that how you spell that?) She is our chapter 1 person and if she is gone, what will we do? I could try to get it before Saturday, but it would be 80 verses, and that is a BIG stretch!

Brother Blue hair

2008-09-27T15:21:00.001-05:00

This picture is just for Jazz Howells! It was crazy hair night at Awana.

2008-09-24T14:09:00.003-05:00

We had quiz practice yesterday and I quizzed out! (5 right is a quiz out and 3 wrong is an err-out). One of the questions I answered was from a chapter and verse that I don't ever know! I can't wait for the first quiz!

Hayride!

2008-09-22T13:11:00.005-05:00

On Saturday the 27th, we will be going to a hayride at the our friend's house! I LOVE hayrides! I don't have much more to day about it for now, but I will post about it after Saturday.

My family

2008-09-21T17:06:00.015-05:00

Here is my family!

This is my Dad and Mom . . .

Big sister Alicia,

Me! Rubber ducks forever! (See the big duck in the background?)

This is David . . .

Sarah . . .

Jonathan . . .

Hannah . . .

and Caleb!

That's all of us! And if David won't kill me, I might post funny ones of him later, and just to make up for it, I'll put a couple bad ones of me on. :)

Dolls

2008-09-21T16:22:00.010-05:00

I like making little dolls! Here are a few of my favorites.

This one has a dress made from leftover velvet used on bridesmaid dresses at my aunt's wedding.

I liked the way her hair turned out! (you can see it better from the back, but I didn't post that picture!) Curls are hard to work with.

For this one, I copied a piece of music by Brahms and shrunk it down on Microsoft Word!

I REALLY like the way the Indian family turned out! The seashell on the mother's dress is real. We picked up about 200-300 shells along the shores of a lake here in Missouri and that was the smallest one!

This is the cowboy. No, the hat doesn't fit him. boo hoo! oh well . . .

Quizzing!

2008-09-21T15:40:00.010-05:00

Last year, I did Bible quizzing for the first time ever. The material quizzed over was Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Colossians, 1-2 Timothy, and Philemon. I had to memorize Colossians and Philemon. Boy was it fun!!!! My team last year was Confession. Below is a picture of the team. I am on the far left (but I am NOT a liberal!) with my sister, Alicia, next to me.This year, out team name is SWAT, standing for Saints With A Testimony, but we don't have a picture yet. (Actually, we don't even have our team shirts printed yet!) I have to get a price for them so my coach and I can compare prices and see whose is cheapest. The quiz material for this year is the book of Luke. I have been assigned the 20's to memorize and I already have all of chapter 20 memorized, it just needs to be solidified.

This was my team from Nationals. The shirts say "Heir Force" on them.

How do you blog?

2008-09-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

Hi! This is my first blog ever, so I'm not quite sure of what I'm doing. In fact, I'm not even sure that I am posting this in the right spot. I would like to post some pictures, but i don't know how to do that either. Oh well . . . I guess I'll figure it out sooner or later!