scraps from my workbasket

in the stars

2012-02-16T16:41:00.000-05:00

It has been an incredibly rough week. Incredibly.

And that's probably due pretty much one hundred percent to this piano competition on Saturday.

Now, in general, I love performing. I love being the center of attention. I love piano. I love performing piano. But only when I know what I'm doing.

[via pintrest]

Not that I don't right now. It's just, I didn't know a month ago. So it's been hard. In fact, I've had nightmares. Actual honest-to-goodness nightmares about Bach's Invention No. 13 (which was a thorn in my side at age fourteen and I vowed I would never play it again. Ha.) and Chopin's Minute Waltz (which I know I will love once this competition is over and the pressure is off). Mornings when I woke up feeling like I'd dropped off a cliff and left my stomach up on top - sure that Saturday is going to be an epic fail.

My parents have been helpful....some. They tell me to practice, which, of course, is wise, but annoying to hear - if you know what I mean. My siblings have been...themselves. My teacher told me today that she was proud of me - probably the first encouraging word she's given me about those pieces. Ouch. My friends have been supportive - but many of them are practicing for the exact same thing, so we all just commiserate.

Today, honestly, was awful. My piano lesson went well, my teacher seems confident, but all that pent up worry and overwhelmedness and tiredness and ready-to-be-done-itis kicked in on the way home and I was SO glad my spanish teacher cancelled class today because I was about to lose it. At home, I just sat in the bathroom and cried for ten minutes, begged God to help me just to get through this weekend, washed my face, and flopped on my bed. I thought I should listen to my iPod, but he refused to work (poor Gavroche has never been the same since his washing) so I did Government instead. Then I took a nap. Then I did more Government.

And Mama came up and sat on my bed. I knew what was coming. So I helped her: "Would you feel better, Mama, if I went downstairs and practiced?"

So that's what I've done for the past thirty minutes, and now I'm blogging. It's kinda therapeutic. And now all I want to do is eat something sweet and buy new music off iTunes. I don't care what, just something I don't have :D

But I'll stop venting now. It felt nice to write away my frustration. Sorry you had to get an earful though....

---------------

A few positive things DID happen this week. It's looking more and more like I'll get to head to Central America this summer for at least a few weeks. Titiana and I auditioned for a production of The Sound of Music and everything went really well. (we'll get our parts by March 2nd.) I went and picked up our tickets for Oliver!. And I had a particularly interesting dream last night that actually made me think this morning when I woke up, and has had me thinking all day. It triggered some interesting thought processes, brought up some questions, and left me with this phrase [an actual quote from the dream]:

[via pintrest]

"It's up there. My future. It's in the stars."

Strange, and thought-provoking. I have absolutely no idea what it means, and since I don't actually put any weight on dreams at all, it could mean nothing. =)

But I DO know that God is using, and has used, the stars to tell the entire story of salvation, as well as to announce the birth of His Son. And He knows what my whole life looks like, He can see how everything will work for His glory - even this nerve-wracking piano competition. It's actually comforting to know that He put every star in place - He made those glorious heavens. Every star has a name, and He knows each one.

Maybe there's a star with my name.

"When You Wish Upon A Star" jiminy cricket *hehe*

eighteenth.

2012-02-14T16:48:00.004-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

[via pintrest]

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day. I don't know why, but I also don't why anyone *wouldn't* like it. Honestly, LOVE is a word that encompasses so much, and RELATIONSHIP can mean anything from you and sister to you and your spouse or you and your friend. Even you and your pet. Anyway. :)

"A Whole New World" aladdin and jasmine

Mama and Daddy have always given us chocolate on Valentine's Day, and we always make and send valentines to grandparents and sometimes friends as well. Any excuse to make a craft, right? :D

[via pintrest]

"Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You?" the music man [1962]

And while yes, I am a *very* romantic person with lots of dreams, and I am looking forward to the day when I'll celebrate Valentine's Day with a particular type of special person.......I am happy as a cricket joyfully resting in the love of my family, friends, and most of all, Jesus Christ.

[via pintrest]

Yes, this is my eighteenth Valentine's Day...still untouched, unkissed, undated. (gosh, that last one makes me sound like some type of carbon-dated rock :P) Not that I'm counting :D But seriously. I'm so thankful that God convicted both my parents and myself about how important purity really is. Sometimes it feels like a restraint, other times I feel incredible freedom just knowing where my boundaries are. And the respect others have for me is something I would never trade for anything. You'd be surprised how honored a girl who's keeping herself pure actually gets from others. Priceless, if you ask me.

But that doesn't keep me from listening to sappy [or not so sappy] love songs and enjoying good romantic period dramas, chick flicks, or musicals. I mean, even *guys* like those sometimes. hehe.

Anyway.

[via pintrest]

"All I Ask of You" phantom of the opera

So, to get myself in the romantic mood, I spent Sunday reading the last three Little House books, plus Anne of the Island. Just because. I didn't even get into bed until nearly midnight.

Last night we had another group class [which was terrible piano-wise, but amazing in every other aspect.] and then hung out at friends' house for several hours and didn't get home till almost midnight again. And tonight we're going to Bible study, and I'll probably do something fun with myself afterwards in honor of the day - because I'm cool like that.

[via pintrest]

I hope you all are having a splendidly lovely day, full of love and joy! And never forget that there is Someone Who will always love you - no matter who else does or doesn't.

Happy Valentine's Day again from me to you!

♥xoxoxo♥xoxoxo♥xoxoxo♥xoxoxo♥xoxoxo♥

O.G.

{five} - peppermint love.

2012-02-12T18:52:00.001-05:00

a very strong weakness with yours truly.

anything and everything peppermint.

i've been known to have three candycanes in one day. (oops.)

and almost ate an entire tin of peppermint bark at Sarah's Christmas party in December.

as well as putting away more than ten peppermint mochas in the months of December and January combined.

this looks like heaven. and probably tastes like it too.

and my favorite ice cream is Whole Foods' Chocolate Peppermint ice cream. too bad it's only carried at Christmas time.

Hmm. Something tells me that these "love" posts are making me out to be a bit of a sugar-consumer, what with coke post and now peppermint...but hey. it's only every once and a while that I let myself have so much sugar, and maybe it's because those times are so few and far between that they are some of my favorites :D

{four} - 70s love.

2012-02-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

So, you think you and I have a lot in common? This one may throw you off a little :D

Due to the fact that our parents grew up in the 70s and early 80s, there is a lot of seventies influence in my music, movie, TV, style, and color tastes. It didn't rub off on all of my siblings, but let me tell you, it certainly did on me. When I hear something by John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, Bob Marley, James Taylor, or The Carpenters, I feel like I'm being surrounded in a Daddy-Bear hug. In fact, you've already heard what I do when I see one of those type of songs on jukeboxes or aisle speakers :D

My favorite TV shows are The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Star Trek, etc. My favorite colors are bright ones, like purple and orange and green and blue and yellow. And if we all dressed like the Osmonds, my worldly happiness would be complete. :)

come on, what's not to love!?

Now that doesn't mean that some of the lifestyles, political views, religious leanings, governments, or hippie sides of the 70s are appealing to me or my family. Believe me, the in-depth study on Korea and Vietnam I did for school last year did not leave me with a favorable impression of anti-American feel of the decade. But there is something good in every generation, and I just so happen to love the good of the 70s. :) To each his (or her) own, yes?

That said, let me show some of what I love, okay? And let's start with my favorite subject to do and discuss: MUSIC. Actually, the AM pop of the seventies is probably my favorite non-Christian/secular music genre. Period.

"Carolina In My Mind"

- James Taylor - 1968 -

"A Little Bit of Country, A Little Bit of Rock 'n' Roll"

- Donny and Marie Osmond - 1976 -

"Top of the World"
- The Carpenters - 1972 -

"Back Home Again"
- John Denver - 1974 -

And then, thanks to Dad, I have a special place for Reggae - that happy "life is good" music. :) I'm telling you, it maybe simple or repetitive, but if you just want to "feel good"....reggae's hard to beat. (haha, literally :P) Just the rasta hair gets on my nerves :P

"Three Little Birds"

- Bob Marley - 1977 -

"One Love, One Heart"

- Bob Marley - 1977 -

"Lion Sleep Tonight"

- Jimmy Cliff -

There are lots of others, but for the sake of your sanity, and mine, and my parents, I will refrain :D If I'm singing something and dancing around and you don't know the song...now you'll have a better guess :P

I also LOVE the style and colors of the 70s. Not the hippie style, the more normal style. Check these out:

I love peasant blouses - I had quite a few when I was about ten or twelve, but then I outgrew them. This summer will change that :)

I'm one of those weirdos who actually like different colored/pattern bellbottoms - maybe they'll be back in style soon! haha. Not likely.

And isn't it splendid that American Girl just released a new historical doll in 2010...Julie, 1974.

Sweet outfits, no?

And this brings me to another of the things I love about the seventies:

Donny and Marie Osmond

Let me say that I CANNOT get enough of their matching outfits. They are absolutely fantabuilistic. Very seventies, and very cool. And because the Osmond family is such a "squeaky-clean" bunch with a great image and a great family...I feel I have "leave" to like them :D

"The Umbrella Song" - on the Donny and Marie show- 1974-79 ( probably around age 18 & 16 here)

It's hard to see exactly here, but I love the way they look at each other when they sing - sibling groups are the best. Too fun :D

But the 70s didn't just produce good pop music or teen idols (*cough*), there was Christian music breakthrough as well.

Keith Green, sometimes considered the "father of modern Christian worship music", was preforming and composing in the late 70s and early 80s. His is a beautiful story of grace and redemption and God's pursuing love. Sadly, he died in 1982 in a plane crash at the age of 28 (along with two of his four children). But his music lives on, and his songs remain some of my favorite praise songs.

Oh, Lord, You're Beautiful

-Keith Green-

There is a Reedemer

- Keith Green -

---

So, boggled yet? Hehe. Told you these would be a little unusual :) But lest you worry, I think it's very important that Christians select their music carefully and not listen to anything that will arouse emotions or feelings that contradict God's will and desires and even His law.

Anyway - you have no idea what a fantastic time I had writing this up. I love sharing fun things with y'all that I love.

xoxoxoxo

O.G.

{three} - coke love.

2012-02-10T17:02:00.002-05:00

Well, not exactly any kind of coke love.

Classic Coke love. Classic Coke in Glass Bottles love.

...."Enjoy life" [1923]......"Thirst asks for nothing more" [1938]....."Passport to Refreshment" [1945].....

My parents drink coke - have for as long as I can remember. And even though they may not drink it as often as they used to and we don't buy it as often....that doesn't mean *we* don't like it :) (hehe, sorry Dad.)

When we went to SC this last summer, we stopped in the little pharmacy that Mama used to go to when she was little. We had Coca-Cola In Glass Bottles there, and I'm never going to be able to take plastic bottled coke seriously again.

...."Be really refreshed" [1959]....."Look for the real things" [1974].....

Glass is the only way to go.

It transports me back to another time.....

......."Red White & You" [1986]....."Open Happiness" [2009]....

Maybe it's a Southern thing.

{two} - prairie love.

2012-02-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

This really should've been Tuesday's post, but a day or two late is better than never! February 7, 1867 was the day our dear Laura Ingalls Wilder was born! And February 13, 1957 was Almanzo's birthday, so I guess this is kinda in-between.

The Little House series has been a family staple since I was too young to read. Mama read all the books aloud to us over a year and a half period (2000-2001, approx.) and I remember thinking as we read These Happy Golden Years, "This book is boorrrring...Laura's too old! Let's go back to Plum Creek when she's my age." And now... *cough* I'm actually older than Laura is at the start of Happy Golden Years. Two YEARS older.

Anyway, I did do a whole series of book reviews on the LH books back a few years, in which you can read more about my love of Laura and Little House. They were written when I was fifteen, so the perspective is a little different, and great fun :) I love old blog posts.

my favorite three books...wonder why???

I'm not sure if you all remember, but at the very beginning of I think Long Winter, the first chapter, there's something about Laura freshening up before breakfast, and it mentions that her braids are coiled on her head, but when they're loose, they fall to well below her waist, and undone, her hair is to her knees or something like that. Someday, my hair is going to be that long. Imagine all the fun you could have with it! (and yes, how much it'd weigh :P)

I've always wanted to go out West and see things...and to be honest, I'd rather visit Walnut Grove or DeSmet than do any of the other "typical" things people do when they travel to the Plains. I love that Laura and Almanzo and the entire Ingalls/Wilder clans were *real* people and lived real lives out there...paving the way for their descendants and other Americans after them. They had such spirit and determination, and had their fair share of hardship. The Ingalls family is amazing example of perserverance, and even the later saga of Laura and Almanzo is inspiring. They had to work SO HARD. For everything. Real, ordinary, every day heroes and heroines. I love hard-working people.

Ever since moving out here to the farm-ish place we live now, I've also felt like I have some kind of connection to the Wilder family, since the farm across the street was home for several years to Roger Lea McBride - a friend of Rose Wilder Lane, and author of the Rose Years series. Fun, yes?

And even though I love the books, I still actually enjoy the TV series - even though some of the story is very different. I think they kept the real spirit of the Ingalls family evident, and I even though I would've liked him to have a beard, Michael Landon makes up for it by being just an amazing Pa. :)

My Daddy and I have a relationship *very* similar to Laura and Pa. Actually, watching or reading their conversations in the books and the series is almost like eavesdropping on a talk I've already had with Dad. Especially the older Laura gets, and the more protective Pa becomes :D

And what's funny, is right now we're watching through Seasons 2 and 3, and I'm thinking, "Come on! Laura's so YOUNG, let's get to the *good* episodes when she's 15 and up." :D Yeah, in other words, when Manly comes on the scene. (Season 6) My books literally fall open at chapters where "important" things happen - and if you asked what my favorite literary couple was, I'd *immediately* answer Laura and Almanzo...mainly because it's a *real* literary story, and those are always the best.

Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler as Laura and Almanzo in TV series

How long has Little House and the Ingalls family been a part of your world? What's your favorite Little House book? And what do you think of the 1970s TV series?

Theme from Little House on the Prairie

{one} - shirley love.

2012-02-07T15:56:00.001-05:00

It *is* almost Valentine's Day...one week till, so it makes sense to do a week of love-stuff posts. Don't worry, I won't bore you or make you groan. This more of a series of posts about my favorite things. And *that* can always get interesting. Or weird. And the point of this series is to show you hidden (or not so hidden) love/likes/favorites of mine. Just so you get to know me a little better. And that's always nice, right? Actually, don't answer that. Anyway.
In a nutshell: several posts between now and Valentine's Day about things that make me smile.

{Shirley Temple}

I do not remember a day when I did not love Shirley Temple. I have watched Bright Eyes at my grandma's house more times that I can count. Marie would dress up and sing "Good Ship Lollipop" around the house ALL DAY LONG when she was like two. My earliest Shirley memories are of Little Miss Broadway. The Little Colonel has been a family favorite forever. And last year, because I wanted to, I made a list of all the Little Shirley movies I had not seen yet and made it a point to watch as many as I could. Heidi, Curly Top, Dimples, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Little Princess, The Littlest Rebel and a new favorite: Stowaway. Yes, I've seen probably around twelve or thirteen little Shirley films...and there are around twenty more. :)

Oh, that little girl makes me smile. Yes, some of her movies (actually...most) have a very predictable plot. Some don't even end very well, sort of abrupt, leaving a few ends dangling. Some of the songs are downright annoying. But I love it all. Every sappy, boring, black-and-white minute of them. :)

Below I've highlighted my favorites - the ones that strike a special chord deep down inside of who I am.

.....................................................................

Bright Eyes [1934]

This is my favorite of all of them. Just watching the song below fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling and memories of my grandparents' old farm and their cozy den and hot chocolate and the red leather sofa and the blue rug and everything that my early childhood was made of. I actually have a lump in my throat just thinking about it. Darn it, now I'm crying. *wiping eyes*

.....................................................................

The Little Colonel [1934]
A darling story of my dear South. Even if Shirley is the little Yankee :) Anything with Shirley, Lionel Barrymore AND Bojangles Robinson is gonna be good.

And I love, love, love the grouchy old Southern grandfather :D

.....................................................................

The Littlest Rebel [1935]

And here's my girl being a Dixie girl - my brothers love this movie, even though we all agreed it was a little unrealistic. And I didn't appreciate the stereo-types so much. For the little ones, though, they only had one real problem. The thought of climbing in Abraham Lincoln's lap was a little disconcerting to them - good little Southerners! :P

"...but I like chicken 'cause I'm from the South, singin' Polly Wolly Doodle all the day!"
.....................................................................
Stowaway [1936]

With a little more complex story line, this one that Leia, Julia and I watched together one night at Grandma's and had quite a jolly time. The whole idea of getting married just to adopt a girl and then plan on getting divorced as soon as you get home is quite a riot. Especially when the couple's in love and pretends not to be. Oh, this is a keeper! :D

.....................................................................
Little Miss Broadway [1938]

I've been watching this one for years and years and years. It's got one of the best casts of any of the Shirley films, and some of the best songs.The finale is....pretty classic, but fun. Lots of dancing, a sweet little love story, and Jimmy Durante :D

.....................................................................

What are your favorite Shirley movies? Or, better yet, what are some childhood memories that are so much part of you that they make you cry? :)

priorities.

2012-02-06T11:24:00.002-05:00

via pintrest

Right now, I feel like every single day of my life is about priorities. And even if I try to ignore them, they dictate every action during the day. And to make it simple, a priority is simply whatever you're doing right now.

Example: I'm typing a blog post. It's currently my highest priority. Practicing piano, working on school, exercising, those are all lower priorities at this exact moment.

Sometimes I get the feeling that I have TOO MANY things to prioritize. I need to work on school all day...I should pracitice piano for at least two hours day...it's been a few days since I did any kind of real exercise. How do you know what's the *right* thing to do with your time?

Some priorities are easy. When I wake in the morning, the first thing I should is read the Bible. That's not really negotiable. If I don't do devotions first, they probably won't get done at all...and then my day is off to a bad foot. And plus, God should always be first priority.

But the next decisions are harder. Is it more important to have a Government day? Or work on my worldview paper? Or study Spanish? Even if I KNOW what needs to get done by a certain date, I may just decide to go take a shower. Put off thinking for another twenty to thirty minutes until I'm back to where I started again.

And then, after that shower, you sit down and say, "I'm really going to work hard to today." And you reach for your textbook and then, "But a nice hot cup of tea would be very helpful." So you sit there and stare at the book, debating whether to get up and go downstairs or not. What's the higher priority?

Or that school subject you REALLY don't want to do. So you do another "equally important" one instead, and say, "I'll do *that* one tomorrow. In fact, I'll ONLY work on that tomorrow and I'll even get AHEAD." Uh-huh. Yeah, *right*. Honestly? Nope.

Or in the afternoon. You have, actually, gotten quite a bit of work done. So you feel like you can rightly take advantage of your free computer time. But you know that these next two weeks are very important for your piano playing. "But I'll practice LATER. All night!" Mm hmm. Sure........

So I live each day, reminding myself every minute I get of my priorities. Praying for guidance and the diligence to keep on track. Praying against PROCRASTINATION. (oh, my favorite word)

Aaaannnnnnddddd....counting down the days till I'm done with highschool for-evah. :D

my current life theme song:

"While I'm Waiting" by John Waller

sunday happies.

2012-02-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

{1} an early daffodil from our pastor as sort of a peace offering for throwing off my rhythm last night when he commented on Friday's post.

{2} signing into Blackboard this afternoon to see the following result for my first Spanish test of the semester:

{3} enjoying being a loner when it comes to the Superbowl since I'm defying my family, Julia, Jacob, Brianna, and most people in my circle of friends by announcing that I want the Patriots to win. I say it's because of my love for my Yankee cousins...but maybe it's just to be obnoxious :P I could honestly care less. :) EDIT (6:50pm): Halfway into the first quarter...can't seem to get into the Patriot spirit. So I'm now rooting for the Giants. Oh, yes. Fickle little me. Told you I could care less :P

{4} Officially crazy about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. That is one hilarious, smart, colorful, overall fantastic show. This song has me hooked [singing starts at :30]:

the video is from the 1999 movie version with the wonderful Donny Osmond as Joseph.

"If my life were important I would ask will I live or die?

But I know the answers lie far from this world

Close Every Door to me

Keep those I love from me

Children of Israel are never alone

For I know I shall find

My own peace of mind

For I have been promised a land of my own."

{5} supper with friends last night, celebrating Baby T.'s first birthday.

{6} two countries that have captured my imagination with plans for the summer/fall/winter.

{7} excited that my friend's college audition went well!!! definitely some sighs of relief from the aforementioned friend and our piano teacher *grin*

{8} oh so happy that my dear little iPod has recovered from it's little adventure. I'm so proud. :)

(he went for a little dip in the wash...and while his power button does not work - which has proved to be most inconvienent since it also is the sleep button so once the screen goes dark after thirty seconds or so there's no way to get it back on again without plugging into the computer - he has fully recovered.)

{9} Watching Ever After three times in one week.

{10} Being blessed by our wonderful, godly, Bible-believing and teaching church today, and absolutely THRILLED to see the group of older people who I love and revere so deeply and who I missed dreadfully when we left our other church, now coming to our church. YEAH!!!!!!

I'm happy today! :D

happily ever after

2012-02-03T16:13:00.000-05:00

danielle henry

"Forgive me, Your Highness, I did not see you."

"Am I to understand that you find me...arrogant?"

"Well, you gave one man back his life but did you even glance at the others?"

"I was not shrill, I was resonant. A courtier knows the difference."

"I very much doubt your style of resonance would be permitted in the royal court."

"You like him! Admit it!"

"Nope!"

"And I-I-I suppose, if you saw him again, you'd simply..."

"I would walk right up to him and say, 'Your Highness, my family is your family. Please, take them away!'"

"Good! Because here's your big chance, he's headed this way."

"M'lady, you may have anything you can carry."

"May I have your word on that, sir?"

"On my honor as a gypsy, whatever you can carry!"

"Then let's say God puts two people on Earth and they are lucky enough to find one another. But.....one of them gets hit by lightning. Well, then what? Is that it? Or, perchance, you meet someone new and marry all over again. Is *that* the lady you're supposed to be with or was it the first? And if so, when the two of them were walking side by side were they *both* the one for you and you just happened to meet the first one first, or was the second one supposed to be first? And is everything just chance or are somethings meant to be?"

"What Marguerite does is for all of us."

"I feel as if my skin is the only thing keeping me from going everywhere at once."

"Then I shall have to make you wings!"

"I know that a life without love is no life at all."

"And love without trust? What of that?"

"Madame, I know *exactly* how you feel."

"I was hoping you could help me find the owner of this rather remarkable shoe."

"It belongs to a peasant, Your Highness, who only pretended to be a courtier to save a man's life."

"I know. And the name's Henry, if you don't mind."

"I will speak for her. She is, after all, my stepmother."

"Your Highness."

....

"All I ask, Your Majesties, is that you show her the same courtesy that she has bestowed upon me."

"Leonardo, it's wonderful!"

"*You*, sir, are supposed to be charming."

"And *we*, Princess, are supposed to live happily ever after."

"Says who?"

"You know, I don't know."

[note: official review coming soon]

it's so beautiful today.

2012-02-02T16:25:00.000-05:00

"You Gotta S-M-I-L-E" from Stowaway (Shirley Temple)

plans

2012-01-25T15:53:00.001-05:00

When you're young, you have plans. Don't pretend you don't - everyone does.

Plans about what you're going to do with your *whole life*. Plans about where you're going to continue your eduction. Plans about where you're going to live, what career you're going to go into, even who you're going to marry.

[picture via pintrest]

But there are other plans that aren't so...big. Like which of the two Friday night parties you're going to go to, what day to go see that new movie, what day you're going to finish school for the year, how you're going to spend the summer, which Sunday School class to attend this quarter, whether you should work nursery or not, what jobs you want to apply for.

There are even rather silly-ish plans that girls in particular seem to enjoy: planning that dream house, where to go on your honeymoon, what your wedding will be like...even though you're not even remotely close to getting married. :)

[picture via pintrest]

Life is full of plans and decisions. Some are small and can be as simple to set up as "eeny meeny miney mo"...others loom so large we just curl up in a ball and pretend they don't exist.

Sometimes *other* people have plans for us. And they are annoying, si? There are times, yes, when we are happy for their *suggestions*, but we don't want them to plan what we do next. Come on, it's OUR LIFE.

But it really isn't, you know. I mean, it's not our life. It's God's life. He MADE us. And He has a very specific plan for each person's special life.

[picture via pintrest]

So instead of stressing about what's next, or forcing your way through hurdles on your own, ask Him a very simple question:

"What do You want me to do next?"

He will always answer. It may not be exactly what *we* were planning...but it is always the best way.

#thatawkwardmoment

2012-01-24T11:08:00.001-05:00

All of us kids love Jostie Flicks. We've seen them all (some *many* times) and of course were thrilled when the most recent season started up this month.

[^^watch the above JF for context^^] We went to Target yesterday. As Leia and I passed the baby aisle, I poked her and said, "Wonder if there's a 'Try Me' button anywheres?" There wasn't. :/ And I kinda forgot about it.

[not my picture]

...Until twenty minutes later as we let the boys visit the Lego aisle on the way out. Across the way from them were the school supplies, and at the end of one of those rows was one of those music sample speakers. Out of curiosity, I pushed Zuzu over to take a look. That's when I saw it:

And I thought, "WOW! It's 'Rhinestone Cowboy'!!! I haven't heard that song in a while. Awesome." And without thinking, I hit the picture of the cover.

If you want to hear what the ENTIRE store heard blaring across the speakers the very next second, skip the song to 1:09, and turn up the volume. All the way up.

As soon as I realized what had happened, I just kept nonchalantly walking down the aisle, and when my surprised and highly amused Mama looked out from the Lego aisle, all she saw was some random old man walking by, and she had no idea it was her own daughter who'd triggered it....

All the way in the bedding section, Leia heard the song and *immediately* knew who had triggered it. *sigh* Is nothing a surprise to them anymore?

The boys thought it was awesome, and came dashing over.

*deep sigh* But really, I was kinda proud of myself. :) It takes nerve and courage to tell the whole store something! And that song sounds great on a loudspeaker. Just glad I didn't know all that *before* I hit the button.

Well, maybe I learned a lesson.

But probably not. :) I'd do again in heartbeat.

xoxoxo

crazy old me.

thought processes

2012-01-23T16:00:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the lack of paragraphical (is that word?) posts lately, and the overabundance of random sentence posts. Just comes from having a lot going on everyday, plus school, plus exciting things going on, etc. This weekend was weird 'cause Dad was gone from Friday to Sunday so we had to do church and all that without him.

It snowed some more on Saturday night! It hasn't looked this white for over a year.

We had ice on the trees until this morning, but now the world is wet and green and brown again. Oh, snow! Please stay longer next time! No matter what the local DJs say, *we* like having you around!

Oh, yes. Umm....Marie took this picture. ^^^ That's how I spent a great deal of the weekend :) Although normally I was drinking a mocha or reading a book or watching the two hundred and fifty million Stratego games that were being played on the hearth :) And of course, piano practice. (see the piano leg near my head?) I have been having nightmares about the Minute waltz. It's an incredible piece, but I've literally had two weeks to learn it all. It needs to be done by Thursday *nervous chuckle* haha, not happening.

Over the weekend, I spent a few hours carefully setting up a new blog page. You can see it up at the top of the blog beside the other pages, or just click here. What do you think? Helpful?

Today I heard this wonderful song by the Flatts. It's been a while since I'd heard it and now of course I'm in a Flatts-ish mood. :)

"My Wish" by Rascal Flatts

School's been alright. I've felt productive every day, so that's good. I have about eight subjects I have to finish before May - in order to do that, they all need to be worked on *everyday*. Blah. But I'm pluggin away, and I like going to bed knowing that I'm on track.

*running feet* At this very moment these three hooligans are racing around the house, passing the computer about once a minute. *shrieks from living room* Craziness. Typing and carrying on a conversation with a four-year-old about how loud one to say "boo!" in order to get someone to hear you. We found it needs to be pretty loud. Who knew, right? I like having little girls around :)

Alright. Off to make myself something warm to drink and head up to finish that school.

Happy Monday!

O.G.

p.s. Brownie points to all of you who guessed correctly on friday's post. the fella is Elijah Wood [Frodo from LOTR], the movie is Oliver Twist, the character is Jack Dawkins [The Artful Dodger]

snow peace

2012-01-21T18:10:00.002-05:00

You know that peace that comes with knowing that you're doin' what God wants you to do?

Or the peace that comes from curling up in front of the fire with a peppermint mocha on a snowy day and watching Daniel Boone and doing puzzles with 4-year-old and 2-year-old girls?

Or the peace that comes from contentment because you've chosen to be happy with where God has put you?

Or the peace that comes from enjoying life and love?

snow peace.

guess who?

2012-01-20T20:46:00.002-05:00

Because it'll be easy for some of you and a total blank for others, here's a challenge:

Who's the guy on the far right?

What's his *real* name?

And who is he playing?

inspiration // ragtime

2012-01-19T16:05:00.001-05:00

I'm always looking for musicians to inspire me to higher levels of music. I found another one yesterday, and subsequently am over the moon and on the piano more often than not. :)

Current project: Weeping Willow Rag by Scott Joplin

After *several* very unsatisfactory videos watched, I found this ragtime musician who played it the way I hear it my head - definitely a win.

Meet: Wesley Reznicek from Missouri.

He reminds me uncannily of another musican friend of mine (playing style and dressing-up wise). Strange, because that friend has never played ragtime. Hm.

And of course, I wanted to see if he had any more videos. Piano-wise, there's nothing more that I love than ragtime played properly....so I enjoyed the thirty minutes I spent watching Wes play rag after rag....

Definitely inspired.

wordless wednesday

2012-01-18T13:58:00.001-05:00

saturday

2012-01-14T16:16:00.001-05:00

We spent the morning cleaning a deer. Not as yucky as it looks, actually. I skinned one whole side pretty much on my own (with instruction by Mr. Haden) and all my fingers got were a little sticky and lightly stickled with deer hair. We now have a whole bunch of venison in the freezer. *yum*

yours truly, Leia, Luke, Titiana

I just won a battle with the printer for our Christmas letters. Let me tell you - I am heartily sick those letters. They've been lying around our house for over a month, waiting for this and that and this and that and this and that. It'll be Groundhog Day before they're out! Golly. Anyway. The final twenty letters had to be printed today - and it took me about 45 minutes. Who'd of thunk?

On a random note: this morning, my friend in Ireland offered to help me with my Irish/Dublineese. After emailing me a few video links, he informed that there actually are no rules for the accent and it's one of the hardest in the world to learn. So why am I trying? Just for fun, I guess. Thanks, Benj.

Been making myself familiar with the Oliver! soundtrack. It's an old Broadway show (from the 60s with a revival in the 80s) and very popular with high school productions. Actually, another one of my friends is going to be the Artful Dodger in his high school production next month and I'm going to see it...but uncharacteristically of me, I actually don't know the songs. So I'm learning them. Because I'm cool like that.

Alrighty....time to fold the aforementioned doggone Christmas letters and hope nothing else happens to them before they get in the mail. *cheese n bread*

Thanks for all your helpful comments about The Sound of Music. It goes before the "board of directors" (Mama, Dad, and Leia) this week....we'll see what they say :) *wink* I'm inclined to sign up, since I don't really have to work on it until March. I have a good feeling about this. (that's a quote :D)

TTFN!

O.G.

p.s. hope the deer picture didn't gross you out. there are more where they came from - and you'll be seeing them soon *evil laugh*

"um" is....

2012-01-13T16:02:00.004-05:00

...when you realize this is your second post of the day. *gulp*

...when you google a celebrity to see if they're going to be starring in a movie you're looking forward to, and the drop down list of "helpful" suggestions reveals that that same celebrity is subject to rumors about dating the younger brother of one of your best friends. I'm serious. Small world, eh? Not that I care.... *coughing*

...when this little goof-ball is gracing your desktop:

...working on a worldview paper and the kitten comes to join you. And then Kitten decides that moving, typing fingers are really awesome things to try and bite. Ouch. Kitten decides maybe he should find somewhere else to play.

...spending the rest of your day smelling like Kitten.

...making the rather decisive decision to graduate highschool, and then take a break year.

...standing in awe of the doors God opens when you just say, "Here's my life."

...looking at the next year of your life and you honestly have no idea what's going to happen - you just know it's going to be great.

...when you cry quietly to yourself as you send an email, hoping to soften in some way the grief of your coach on hearing that her best friend (also a coach) is finally at rest after battling cancer.

...the feeling of surprise at learning that the great song you heard the other day is from High School Musical *craziness*

...dreaming about cellphones.

...realizing you have about a month to finish Chopin's C# minor waltz and Minute waltz, as well as re-learn Bach's Invention No. 13 and probably a Joplin rag.

Do you know something? "um" is a very expressive word.

cold. as in freezing. so help me.

2012-01-13T11:14:00.005-05:00

A running joke through our area right now is, "Oh, you mean it's not supposed to be 60 degrees in January?" It's really felt like April for the past few weeks - definitely southern weather for ya!

But today...I am cold. My fingers are cold and get windchill when I'm practicing piano or typing, my nose is cold, my feet are cold - even buried inside my new Christmas tree fuzzy socks. *shivers* I don't know what temperature it is outside, but it's definitely not sixty.

It's definitely a peppermint mocha day. Maybe a *two* peppermint mocha day. That would help my fingers for sure!

Moving on.

So.....here's a question that I need help with: I have a pretty steady flow of school work that I have to do from now until May-ish. I will be busy, but not overwhelmed. Spanish starts up on Tuesday, I have economics, worldview, government, math, science, literature, and finance all to work on. I also have piano to focus *very* hard on this month and February - after that, not so much. In other words, I'm busy - but really only until the end of February. Then it's pretty average.

That's the background. Savvy? Now for the build-up:

I've loved theater since I was six. I did two plays with two different groups here in town while I was in elementary school, one church play when I was eleven, and then directed two homeschool productions and one church production since. I've taken private voice lessons, sung in choir, taken ballet, etc. But all years ago.

It's probably a good thing I haven't gotten back into theater - it's not the most....godly of all industries. But it is great fun, and I've secretly missed it all these years. (that explains the acting out all the musicals upstairs when no one's around)

But now, I have this opportunity that's come up. I have until early February to sign up for a local production of The Sound of Music with a group I've worked with before. They're really neat people and put on *very* good shows. Anyone can be in them, you only audition for main parts. I think it would terrificly, fantasticly fun.

BUT....is it a good idea? I mean, I'm trying to wrap up school, I have a lot other things going on. But rehearsals for the musical don't start until March....so it wouldn't conflict with piano. Rehearsals are either Sunday or Thursday nights - no problem, we're already in town both nights. But would it be too much????

I really don't know.

And, in case you were wondering, I haven't really talked about it much with Dad or Mama. I just don't know if they'd think I was crazy or not. It's just been so long since I've done anything like this.....

ANYway. That's me problem. (talkin' like a pirate)

You know what? I'm happy that the only "problem" I have right now is trying to decide whether to do a musical or not. *hehe* Oh, the silly little things that take up our brain space!!! Sometimes I wonder how old I really am.

*happy sigh* Life is Good.

(but still cold :D)

one of those "dear" posts

2012-01-12T15:54:00.001-05:00

Dear Sewing Project,

Boy, that was messy. Let's not do that again, okay?

I understand now that you can't make mistakes with taffeta.

Thanks for the lesson,

a girl and her seam ripper

Dear Jill,

I wish I could've known you better.

Know that you will be missed, and our prayers are with your family.

Rest in peace,

a grateful swimmer

Dear Transcript,

Who needs Science anyway?

Not me.

a belligerent student

Dear Phantom,

I'll come watch - believe me,

Wouldn't miss the Artful Dodger for the world!

Don't forget school, though.

the annoying one.

Dear Kindred Spirit,

Guess what? You'll be here to celebrate graduation!

We're waiting for the party until the fall, sort of an 18th bday thing too.

Miss you,

O.G.

Dear Jacob,

You can have my pizza next time too.

In fact, let's plan on it.

not that hungry

Dear Barney,

Wanna know somethin'?

You're not just for little kids.

xoxo

a member of your happy fam-uh-lee

Dear Waltz in C# minor,

We're friends now, right?

Thought so.

Next week, then.

madame no-trills

Dear Piano,

Sorry for the neglect.

It won't happen again.

*crosses fingers*

a well-meaning musician

west side story

2012-01-10T16:13:00.000-05:00

More broadway! Are you ready?

About....let's see...about five years ago, Jamie Bernstein - daughter of composer Leonard Bernstein - came to here for a fundraiser for one of our local highschools. Yes, it was early '07 I think...so yeah, five years ago. At the end of the Peter and the Wolf concert-thinga-ma-jigger that she narrated, the band played "America" as sort of a tribute to her father. Not the from-sea-to-shining-sea one....the wall-to-wall-floors-in-America one. :) I LOVED it. I remember sitting up in the top of the Preforming Arts Center, tapping my toes and pulling on Mama asking what the song was.

That night, Dad found the WSS dvd we had, and they showed us the community center dance scene (boy meets girl) and "America."

Ever since that day, I've had a desire to see West Side Story - all the way through.

This weekend, I finally got my wish! Mama, Dad, Leia and I sat down for two and a half hours stuffing Christmas cards into envelopes (no, they're still not mailed - oops!) and watching this very tragic musical.

My parents (Mom especially) don't *normally* sing along to anything. Just don't. But for some reason, it was different with WSS. Dad sang nearly every song along with the characters (quietly of course, to avoid the evil eye *wink*) and Mama was humming the songs all during the day leading up to that night. Very interesting.

So, onto the musical itself.

It's Romeo and Juliet - and you'd be surprised at how faithful it sticks to the story. I actually *knew* what was going to happen next. Sort of. Honestly, I thought the characters were more interesting in West Side Story.

Bernardo. You can't say it "Berr-nar-do." Try this: "Bearr-narrd-o" and roll the "r". Splendid! <3

Really the best big brother I've seen on screen in a long time. He's protective of his lovely little sister Maria (roll that "r" - "marr-eyah"). She doesn't always appreciate it, though.

He's the leader of the Sharks - the gang of Puerto Ricans trying to make their way in America. They're having a rough time of it though, because of the gang of New Yorkers who feel like the Sharks are trespassing their street.

One rather interesting thing is the amount of spontaneous dancing by the gang members. They even fight with ballet. It took a little getting used to. *wry grin*

This is part of the American gang. See the guy flying high in the middle with the yellow jacket? It's Riff, the Jets leader.

The problem comes with Maria meets Tony, a former Jet, at a dance. Tony's not a member of the Jets anymore because he really just grew out of the whole gang thing and - to quote his friend - got a stinkin' job. :) But he showed up at the dance to back up his buddy-like-brother, Riff.

Tony's a delivery boy - and that's a coke he's holding. *chuckle*

Which is too bad, really.

From then on, it's Romeo and Juliet through and through.

"Tonight, tonight, it all began tonight/I saw you and the world went away...."

Beeyoutiful song!

The whole bridal shop sequence ("I Feel Pretty" and "One Hand, One Heart") is probably my favorite stretch in the whole thing. Maria is so bouncy and lively and happy. And she "plays" like I do :) Which is actually realistic, since we're about the same age. *yikes!*

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty! I feel pretty and witty and gay!"

And then Tony comes, and it's all sweet from there :) I *love* their play-acting. *This* is the part where I got a little teary-eyed and had chills up my spine. I love how they made Anita and Riff part of their wedding party. "Look! Mama's crying already!"

"Make of our lives, one life/Day after day, one life..."

But their story doesn't end with that lovely song of hope for the future.

There's a war on, and Riff wants help.

Speaking of Riff, this is one of my best victories. I LOVE spotting actors in different movies when most people can't tell that it's the same person. Hard to explain, but here's the idea. Take a good look at the picture below on the *left*. That's Riff, the Jets leader. See the picture to the right? That's Gideon Pontipee, youngest brother of seven in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Same actor: Russ Tamblyn. *bingo!*

Well, it's showdown time. Jets and Sharks agree to a Rumble. Whoever wins is the best, and the war for the street stops. Before each gang goes to the meeting place to have the council, they sing songs about why they are the way they are - sort of. Two of the funniest songs in the whole musical, I assure you!

The immigrant Sharks and their girls - lead by Bernardo's girlfriend Anita - sing "America" - highlighting the pros and cons of living in a city where they have more opportunity, but are discriminated against.

And meanwhile, the "juvenile delinquent" Jets sing "Gee, Officer Krupke" - a romp making fun of the way officials try to rationalize their behavior :) They also frankly explain why they're on the street. "I'm not anti-social, I'm only anti-work..."

Level-headed, yet in-love Tony jumps into the council in time to keep the war from being fought with guns or knives. "Fair fight!"

But both groups come armed....just in case.

Well, the "in case" part accidentally happens.

If you know your Romeo and Juliet, you know that two guys die.

Then, this is the part I have a leetle problem with. When Maria learns Tony is the one who killed her brother, she's upset, naturally...but not for very long. She doesn't even look *sad* that 'Nardo is dead. Anita is more emotional. Maria just says that she loves Tony this, and loves Tony that, and when he climbs into her room from the fire escape (!!!) she yells at him for ten whoppin' seconds and then just cries. And ummm...he stays in her room all night *polite cough*

And it goes on....Chino, Maria's jealous suitor, is enraged because of Bernardo's death and grabs a gun to roam the streets in search of Tony. At the same time, the Jets try to calm their emotion at the death of Riff and seek vengeance on the Sharks. Anita tries to deliver a message from Maria to Tony and ends up getting hassled by the Jets and, out of spite, tells them to tell Tony that Chino shot Maria. Which is false.

And we're all set up for the heartbreaking finale.

Contrary to my normal musical-watching attitude, I didn't cry at the end. I just felt sad and sorry that three strong young men had to die so young - without any of their dreams really coming true. And the reason I felt so sad about it was that there really was, and is, gang war-fare in large cities. Young people do get killed...and that's really sad.

But anyway.

West Side Story was just what I'd hoped it would be - better in some cases. There were parts I didn't like (the rumble and Antia being roughed in particular), but overall, I enjoyed it. The songs are fantastic. Some of the lyrics aren't as epic as Les Mis or Phantom, but they are right up my alley. Literally. *wink* Lots of Spanish :)

So, if you're ready, give it a shot! (but not literally! *wink*)

dreams of the future

2012-01-03T08:02:00.002-05:00

y'all are probably tired of me saying, "2012 is going to be awesome" or "it's going to be the best year of my life" or other things along those lines. and i can make you even more annoyed if i tell that you that i don't know why the previous statements are true, and even if i had an idea, i wouldn't tell.

2011 was a growing year. a big growing year. many of y'all will remember when our friend tommy went to be with Jesus last march. that was very hard. very hard. it rearranged my priorites and how i viewed my life. it's actually a little scary how much i changed in just three short days.

we also did swim team for the first time in five years. it was exciting, and eye-opening, and fantastic. everyone thought i was older than sixteen, i got to coach and swim, and a made a whole new slew of friends.

i watched the one year anniversary of getting my driver's permit slip by in may...and then the year-and-a-half anniversary in november...and the two year anniversary is coming up....and still no license. i've become a better driver for sure, but this whole license thing is starting to get on my nerves. esepcially when friends younger than me already have theirs....*sigh*....such is life.

this year has also been an emotional rollercoaster, for undisclosed reasons. lets just say that day dreams that were cute when you were twelve and thirteen take on a whole new face when they are still in the back of your semi-consciousness at sixteen and seventeen. courage to win. even when *melodramatic singing* the phantom of the opera is here inside my mind *coughing* (sorry....remember? i listened to the whole soundtrack yesterday :P) but i'm seeing all of this as a reminder that i'm still young, God is still shaping me (and my friends), and i need to let Him plan my future - not me.

oh, 2011. you gave me les miserables. for that, i will be forever grateful. i also listened to that soundtrack yesterday, and was surprised to have tears spring to my eyes and even spill over when the first chords of the overture sounded. the memory of the experience stayed with me during the entire time i listened to it, and i felt the same joy and sadness i felt at the actual show when the finale ended and i realized i was alone again in a theater box and cosette and marius and valjean had left me. i cried a little then because i was afraid i would forget the show too quickly...time has shown that false - thank goodness!

oh, 2011. you were good to me. actually, let's correct that: God was good to me in 2011.

looking ahead now to 2012....

i have a lot things i want to do, and i also have a few goals. i don't really do new year's "resolutions" per se, but goals and things-i-want-to-do are fun:

get my driver's license

graduate high school

learn to swing dance

make at least two more dresses for my "real-life" wearing wardrobe

go on a missions trip (or two...)

read the Bible in 90 days

get my quota of push-ups-i-can-do-at-once up to at least thirty (right it's at ten...blahhhh)

i've been thinking a lot about the quality of life i'm living. about how blessed i am. how much i have. and how much most people don't. y'all, my heart's been prodded this past six months. i'm tired of just being a Christian. i'm ready to go out and do. romania, nicaragua, uganda, ethiopia, china, and here in the united states.....the harvest is sooo great.

i'm really excited :)

xoxo

O.G.

lazy monday

2012-01-02T16:00:00.003-05:00

today, i am...

...happy that we finished all the cleaning, decoration-taking-down and straightening this morning

...resting from a weekend of awesome fun and parties

...listening to my favorite shows on my iPod (all of My Fair Lady and Les Mis so far, working on Phantom now) while I am...

...working on my new sewing project! Butterick 5605 (view B), with maroon taffeta. It's not the easiest pattern I've done, but I have high hopes :)

...excited that a new year has begun! what will 2012 hold, i wonder?

...looking forward to being deck marshal at a high school swim meet on wednesday - should be interesting :P

...making a 2012 calendar

...wishing our little orange kitten would grow up very quickly and learn right from wrong (as well as how to use a litter box *every* time - not just *most* of the time)

...enjoying my last week of Christmas break

...hoping that Nana and I can start work on my new blog design soon

...quoting Gnomeo and Juliet, a new movie we watched last week: "oh, my giddy aunt, do you just hear all that what are you doing here?!"

hope you all had a great weekend, and a great break!

happy new year!

last post

2011-12-31T23:44:00.000-05:00

of 2011!

this past year has flown faster than i ever imagined it would. it's held many exciting events, as well as sad ones. i still cry, tommy. it's held a lot of firsts, and set up a path for many new adventures. i've had more emotional ups and downs this year than ever before. oh, it's been crazy - but crazy is fun.

this next year is going to be awesome.

really awesome.

i can feel it in my bones.

God, thanks for 2011. thank you for showing me what's really important in life. thank you for tommy and his testimony. help his family and all of us as we approach the one year mark. thank you for all the opportunities you've given me this year. thanks for the pool and the people i met there. help me continue to build those friendship and reach out. thank you for our wonderful church and our declaration of intent and baptisms this year. thank you for our farm, thank you for the time we got with caspian. thank you for our friends. thank you for our lives. thank you for love.

please let 2012 be just as amazing. teach us more, open our hearts, open our minds.

in Your holy Name.

amen.

jolly holiday

2011-12-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

oh, i'm having a jolly holiday! no cares in the world, just lying around the house doing diddly-squat.

sort of.

i am having a jolly holiday, i do have no cares in the world, but my "lying around" has simply extended to sleeping in until eight or nine each morning (i'm usually a five-thirty or six am riser), and i've been cooking a lot for new year's. but it's all fun stuff.

today, dad and all us kiddos went on a seven-mile hike that was rather vigorous and took all day. we got great exercise, saw some beautiful views, explored the wreck of an old plane (crashed in the 60s), and met two hikers at the little AT shelter off the path. we were all very tired and cold afterwards, and i changed into my pajama pants as soon as we got home :) *cozy*

yesterday, i talked on the phone with my dear Katy for an hour and half, since it was her birthday. oh, i can't wait to have y'all close to us again!!!!!!!

i've also been reading. the phantom of the opera exceeded all my expectations, and i felt like i was reading the "behind the scenes" of the musical - not a new story altogether, as some might think. also re-reading jane eyre, since i have my own copy now and no one can tell me not to mark it up :P just got the part when jane's walking around outside of thornfield hall and gets her first sight of mr. rochester. *shivers*

oh, and we have friends coming out for New Year's Eve, the Cavaliers' bowl game that night, another party on New Year's Day, a possible night at Grandma's next week, a high school swim meet to attend and pool friends to catch up with.....such a jolly holiday.

also, see this?

do you know what it's called?

it's called: new sewing project. definitely a jolly holiday. more info coming soon :)

are you having a jolly holiday?

something special

2011-12-26T18:08:00.001-05:00

"it seems that the day holds something special/something holy, not superficial/so here's to the birthday boy who saved our lives/it's something we all try to ignore/and put a wreath up on your door/but here's something you should know that is for sure/Christmas must be something more...."

- christmas must be something more // taylor swift

for your information, i am still wearing my pajamas. yes, i am aware that it is almost bedtime again, but my pj pants are so warm and soft and brand new that i just couldn't bring myself to change. thanks leia, for the cozy gift :)

i'm also sipping a peppermint mocha - my new staple drink. four in two days. hmm. maybe not such a good idea....but all were decaf, so i will not have a headache tomorrow and thursday. (no "addiction" this time - haha.)

my poor tummy is not feeling the best at the moment - something to do with a sudden overload of sweets and food in general in a very short period of time. i think i shouldn't eat anything for about a week, just to start feeling normal again. not even thinking about maintaining weight - utterly pointless. in january. of course.

Christmas 2011 was just lovely. we celebrated with the maryland cousins on the day before Christmas Eve, and then with our in-town family on Christmas Day. lots of fun, lots of joy, lots of excitement. we missed Mark (first Christmas he's ever missed :/), but he was with us in heart and spirit, and all were pleasantly surprised when he called us in the middle of supper, using a hard-earned two minute phone call. Funny though, I thought he with us already. Hmmm. (^^see picture above ^^)

We also had Christmas on the 23rd with our cousins from out of state:

i also felt the miracle of the incarnation very strongly this year. i spent a lot of time meditating on the fact that the Holy Spirit actually worked with nature in the womb of a virgin (who was mostly likely younger than myself) to bring about the birth of God. birth of God? how amazing is that? God became man. just think about it. "fullness of God in helpless babe...." joy to the world! amen?

i think i said way back in August that i thought next summer would be the best summer of my life. i really didn't know why i said that, i just felt it. well now, this summer seems to be shaping out to be just that. can't exactly tell you why yet, but lets just say it could involve a lovely several-week trip to new england :) plus more, of course. *excited jumping*

oh, something a little random: i spent about an hour on Christmas Eve making gift tags for presents. i'm very pleased with what i came up with. i love markers :)

and my brothers are now wearing make-up. oh joy!

okay, lovely people. i'm off to watch The Young Victoria (thanks Grandma!) and then to bed to dream away the beautiful night - because we all know that night time sharpens and heightens each sensation, and darkness stirs and wakes the imagination! *cackling*

really going now.

xoxox

O.G.

p.s. also got the book The Phantom of the Opera to add to my collection - been reading all day and am crazily in love with it :)

then one...froggy christmas eve?

2011-12-23T06:20:00.000-05:00

I'm a singer. Always have been, and hopefully always will be. We have hours and hours taped of singing and dancing shows I put on, as well as private jam sessions in the kitchen or bedroom. When I was two, I had a large repertoire of songs and "acts" that Dad had taught me that I could perform at the drop of the hat.

One of those songs was "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - a song and movie I have loved since toddler-hood. (even the snow monster scared me every year :D)

As the story goes, when I was two or three (we were still living in our first house), I was heard to be singing Rudolph as follows:

"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games
Then one froggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say
'Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?'
Then how the reindeer loved him, as they shouted out with glee
'Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!"

I do actually remember arguing with Dad about the correct word - foggy or froggy - and "winning" the argument. (most likely due to Dad's 30-year-old maturity in not stooping to fight with a two-year-old)

Ah.....Christmas memories......

christmas program 2011

2011-12-22T13:42:00.001-05:00

to see pictures of last years program, click here. this year's program was unique 'cause Leia, Andrew and I wrote and directed the whole thing (with lots of help from other youth in the church)

calling the cast attention (pre-show)

ready for the big night! (Marie, R., Titty)

the choir

Liam

white christmas

2011-12-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

warning: this is a rave review. i love this movie - a deep heartfelt love. it makes me sniffle and sigh and look forward to the day when i have my very own knight on a white horse. i've seen it twice this month already, and most likely will watch it twice more. love, love, love. xoxoxo. <3 <3 <3.

two war buddies - Wallace and Davis. two sisters - Betty and Judy.

Due to an "angle" of Judy's, the guys come to see the girls preform:

Judy and Davis get along fantastic right from the start - and they're entire goal for the rest of the movie is to get Betty and Bob together...and don't even notice their own relationship :)

beautiful dance numbers throughout!

Unfortunately, the girls are in trouble with the police, so the guys help them out by sneaking them out the window and then stalling the officer by doing the girls act for them:

oohhhh it was funny :P "Sisters, sisters...."

The two acts end up in Vermont together over Christmas and start rehearsing a big show for Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, the two romances are going along just fine splendidly

this scene is beyond adorable :)

...but then, the house keeper overhears a telephone conversation and tells it to Betty, and it puts Bob in a very bad light. She leaves the inn without telling anyone to start a career of her own in New York.

the male dancer in this picture is George Chakiris -

most famous for his role as Bernardo in the film West Side Story

But her knight comes after her, and even thought it takes a while, it all turns out lovely in the end.

Of course, I didn't give you a very good plot description, but that's because the plot itself is a little hard to explain. You just have to enjoy it :)

There's lots of dancing and musical numbers...

....some better than others for sure. *wink*

Oh, it's hard to tell you why I love this movie so much. I love Bob and Betty - a very realistic relationship. I love the knight on the white stallion analogy they use - my favorite one of all the "boy-girl" pictures. I love the shenanigans of Phil and Judy as they try to bring their two favorite people together. I love the friendships. I love the music. I love the dancing. I love Bing Crosby's voice :) I just love everything.

note: Titty (who loves this movie too - see a trend here?) observed that in many of the dance sequences the female dancers are pretty much wearing bathing suits with feathers. *snorty laugh* *coughing* Okay. Moving on. the warning: I know this sounds strange, but I've noticed that that doesn't seem to bother girls as much as it does guys. But since I know for a fact that Scraps has picked up at least three male readers in the past six months, I thought it only just and fair to warn you. Oh, you're welcome. I love you too :)

White Christmas (1951):

strength of characters: *****

strength of plot: **

overall: ************************************************** (that's 50. count!)

"and may all your Christmases be white...."

not the best quality, but love it for my sake :P

life snapshot

2011-12-20T20:25:00.001-05:00

just put my baby sister to bed. i love that girl with all my heart. after i'd diapered her (she still uses them at night), zipped her up in her "cozywarm" and was rolling around on the floor with her before reading a story, she stopped, got up on her knees, put her hands on her knees, grinned at me and said her adorable unique baby accent:

"i nee go pah-yi."

i just looked at her, thinking oh baby, i just got you in your pajamas....seriously? but i just said,

"okayyyy..."

and then she added:

"i wah go en sissy's baff-room."

and then she really gave me a smile - one of those irresistable ones.

what do you say?

so i took her....and it wasn't really that much effort. :) and then we danced all the way back down the hallway, looking at ourselves in each mirror while i sang the chorus of a taylor song to add to the effect. i can't believe how fast she's growing up - seems like yesterday i held her in my arms when she was minutes old, with tears on my cheeks knowing that i had just witnessed the most beautiful thing in the world. i have tears in my eyes now remembering it. "oh, darlin' don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up, just stay this little...."

today we went to gab and vivi's while our little sisters (theirs and ours) were at another event. we had a little tea party, played scattergories, and then talked and listened to music and danced for an hour :) nothing like dancing to songs you all know the words to and love with the music up loud and no one within earshot to complain. love my friends! (and my music!)

we put our tree and decorated it the other day. leia and titty strung our porch with lights, and we're planning on putting the colored bulbs on the back porch later this week. the mantel has a lit garland on it, with three candles (the trinity) in the center. the advent wreath is lit each night, and the menorah is on the top of the piano. our umpteen nativity sets are all over the house, and either the computer, the cd player, the ipod or the radio is playing christmas music all day long. oh, i love christmas.

christmas song to share - my all-time favorite of the non-hymn songs:

we showed the little ones Rudolph tonight for the first time this season. my favorite of all the animated christmas movies! it never gets old. "there's always tomorrow for dreams to come true...."

hoping you have been blessed by the Christ-child during this season already, and that you all will feel His peace more and more each day.....

love you all - nighty-nite!

christmas in conneticut

2011-12-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

Titty and I watched this movie about two weeks ago (no one else felt like staying up to watch a black and white movie :D) and afterwards, we just looked at each other and didn't really know what to say. It's definitely not your average Christmas movie.

It starts with Jefferson Jones - the war hero who gave his food to his buddy to keep him alive. In the hospital recuperating, Jones is in the best of moods...except for the fact that the nurses won't give him the food he wants. They keep saying his stomach isn't ready for real food since he went without it for so long.

His buddy, because he went without food for a shorter period of time, is getting all kinds of great food. He recommends that Jones make really good friends with his nurse so that she'd give him more food. ("the Magoo" technique) So, Jones ends up sweet-talking the nurse so much that she the two of them are as good as engaged.

But the problem is, Jones isn't in a real hurry to marry her. She thinks it's because he's never had a real home. So she decides to give him a real home experience so he'll warm to the idea.

They both love a magazine column written by a housewife with an eight-month-old baby living on a beautiful farm in Connecticut. This lady is an amazing cook and Mary (the nurse) writes to the editor to ask if her "Jeffy-boy" can visit the author's house for Christmas.

Sounds like a splendid idea? Exactly.

Except that....

..the columis - Elizabeth Lane- t is living an apartment in New York City, not married, can't cook, and gets all her descriptions of farm life and her beautiful farm house from her friend's farm in Connecticut.

Problem.

So the movie is about Elizabeth's desperate attempts to first of all, get out of the situation, and then when that doesn't work, her hilarious attempts to re-create her ficitional home for Jeff.

In order to use her friend's house, she finally agrees to marry him. But due to timing and unexpected difficutlies, the judge is unable to finish the ceremony. So the couple just has to *pretend* to be married during the few days.

Oh, and they needed to have an eight-month-old baby really quick.

Elizabeth, Jeff, Mr. Yardley (editor), John Sloan (Elizabeth's pretend husband)

Too bad Elizabeth doesn't know how to take care of children. Good thing Jeff does. Unknowingly, he helps her *very* much by bathing and dressing the little one :)

Too bad Elizabeth doesn't know how to cook either. Good thing her dear Uncle Felix does. And good thing he agrees to come up to Connecticut with her.

Too bad Elizabeth falls in love with Jeff, since he's already "engaged."

Too bad Jeff falls in Elizabeth, since she's (to all apperances) "married."

The movie is full of funny moments, cute interactions, and well-written dialogue. Oh, and unexpected complications - like when the brown-eyed baby girl is changed for a blonde baby boy and then gets "kidnapped"....or when the nurse Mary Lee comes up to see her "Jeffy-boy" unexpectedly (and Elizabeth didn't know he was engaged)....or when the judge keeps coming back to the house to finish the wedding ceremony and has to keep waiting....when Mr. Yardley begs for Elizabeth flip just one pancake for him and she has to learn how in just a few minutes...

I will say, there are some awkward and not exactly appropriate scenes when Elizabeth is flirting with Jeff and she's supposed to be acting married and all...she asks some weird questions. (We do learn later that Jeff knew she was not married the whole time - the honorable Felix couldn't stand the deceit) But that's only a few minutes.

The last ten or fifteen minutes of movie just had me watching literally with my mouth open - couldn't believe all that was going on :) But we had a fun evening, Titty and I. :)

So, I would recommend Christmas in Connecticut if you want something....different and funny. Just don't expect it to be anything particularly profound: just cute.

Christmas in Connecticut - Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall

strength of characters: ***

strength of plot: ***

overall: ****

o holy night

2011-12-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

'Til he appeared and the soul felt it's worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices!

Oh night divine, oh night when Christ was born!

Oh night divine, oh night, oh night divine!

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother

And in his name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise his holy name!

Christ is the Lord, let ever, ever praise we

Noel, noel! Oh night, oh night divine!

"O Holy Night" - Josh Groban

tuesday randomness

2011-12-13T15:49:00.000-05:00

This not a very "themed" or even coherent post, it's more of a ramble...so think hard and try to keep up with me :D

Lots of things going on in my mind these days! The Christmas program on Sunday night was *fantastic* - it was adorable and couldn't have gone any better. Lots and *lots* of pictures to share...but I have to download them all first, so it might be a few days :)

*sniff* I'm still missing my Caspian-boy....and will for a long time, I know. It's sooo hard to say goodbye, especially that fast and unexpectedly.

Group class was last night - Christmas group class. It was a very busy day, what with ferrying people back and forth from our teacher's house to Grandma and Grandpa's, shopping in between, dashing across the street to practice our duet with Julia, and then group class itself. But it was fun, and I had a hard time winding down :)

Christmas music is so awesome. I've been listening to the radio or my iPod non-stop really since Thanksgiving. Seems like every song brings back more memories than I can handle! :)

This is silly, I know...but recently I've had this ridiculous desire to buy a fancy dress. Like, a really fancy dress. Prom-ish. But where would I wear it? And why? *sigh* I'll just content myself with trying on all the dresses at Penneys - and that's almost as fun as buying one, because you can still twirl in the mirror...and you have like twenty to try on instead of one :) Come March, you'll know where to find me *giggle* Maybe I'll convince Leia and Gab and Vivi to join me...hmmm....

I FINISHED MY ODYSSEY TONE PAPER!!! You have *no* idea how exciting that is. ONE MORE WEEK OF WRITING AND THEN I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

---

Okay, just had an idea. Below is a bit of a "Dear Boys" post - but not really, since I don't like the blog that hosts it and don't feel like linking up. Haha :)

Anyway.

I've had a lot of "little thoughts" running around in my mind and wanted some way to "vent" them - and since my blog is an extension of my brain, I decided to up them on you. It wasn't until I started writing them out that I realized that the idea of the "Dear Boys" blog meme fit them perfectly...for obvious reasons.

Soooo....

Here's a peek into the crazy jumble that is my brain:

dear recruit,
i miss you!!! you can make it - don't ever give up.
thinking of you every day...
love,
your cousin.

dear bethlehem star,
you stole the show - one of kind performance!
never to be forgotten
big hug,
the director

dear jacob,
i'm coming to a meet in January - i promise.
fist pump,
your big sister

dear phantom,
it's just a purity ring - don't get jealous
last night was awesome - we need to laugh more often.
adios,
your oldest friend

dear dad,
thanks for telling me i'm being a good daughter
it's hard sometimes, but i'm trying.
i love you more than you know
hugs,
elzbieta

dear polar bear,
i miss you more and more everyday
it's hard to believe you're really gone.
love,
me.

dear scott,
this whole post is just weird.
agreed? thought so.
see you tomorrow. =)
guess who.

Free as a bird! Off I go to do something fun....

christmas memories // the ghost of christmas-past

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Oh, stories from the past! They make us laugh, blush, cry, and remember the "good old days". I feel like sharing some of these memories with you - so get ready for a good load of stories this holiday season :)

Many years ago (could've been 2006, not sure), our extended family was gathered at our old house (in the neighborhood) to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. That evening was also our old church's Lessons and Carols service, and Leia was doing one of the Scripture readings. Before supper, Julia, Leia and I decided to try to do some kind of little play for Grandma. Being our crazy twelve-year-old audacious selves, we decided on A Christmas Carol. We had about thirty minutes to come up with it before supper.

We figured we could cover most of the parts, but of course we'd need Christopher's help. *cough* But, we also knew that Chris normally just wanted to ham it up, rather than actually help. But we cast him anyway and moved on to practicing Scene 1.

I was Scrooge, Chris was my nephew, and I believe Leia was that secretary person. Christopher was also going to be the Ghost of Christmas Future (who he called the Grim Reaper - go figure) and everyone else was various other characters (I don't remember them all).

So, it was time to run through Scene One. I sat down behind a little sewing bench, wrapped myself in a very old black dress coat, and begin to write furiously on a piece of scrap paper. At the proper moment, The Nephew entered, and said his line.

Kind of.

Instead of the "Merry Christmas, Uncle!" I *expected* to hear, my "Nephew" sauntered into the room and sang "Merry Christmas to you" to the tune of the last line of Happy Birthday. Losing all self-control, the room erupted in laughter, and I attempted to save the scene by responding "Bah, humbug" in my sternest tone that was wobbly with laughter.

Chris, feeding off the attention, replied with a dramatic look of shock and surprise, "Whoooo, baby! I'm outta here!" and sprinted off down the hallway.

At this point, we were doubled up and rolling on the floor laughing. Julia didn't think it was as funny as the rest of us did, but she was having a hard time not smiling.

Regaining control of myself, I stood up, and shouted, "Alright! We're trying that again!" Everyone got set up again, and someone cued Chris.

Looking up expectantly, wondering what *this* run-through was going to look like, I peered down the hallway.

No, the Nephew wasn't coming. A figure in a long black cape brandishing a yard-stick came sweeping down the way, growling in a deep voice, "I am the Grim Reaper....I am the Grim Reaper."

That was the end.

We never preformed that show - we haven't even tried another one since. But those thirty minutes went down in the annals of Crazy Christmas Memories, and the story gets repeated every year, funnier and funnier as time goes by. Christopher doesn't really remember it all that much, but takes our word for it :)

Christmas memories...what would we do without them?

ten years ago today

2011-12-10T20:05:00.001-05:00

the first installment of the most epic film trilogy of our time premiered in the UK. it was the released in the US on the 19th, and in New Zealand on the 20th.

to date, it has earned $870,761,744 making it the 25th top grossing movie of all time.

and more than the money, the fellowship of the ring brought the first part of Tolkien's inspiring trilogy alive for millions of people around the world, and was a breakthrough in the history of film making and special effects.

hurrah for 10 years of Middle Earth!

as long as there's christmas

2011-12-09T15:36:00.001-05:00

I just discovered this song - and it's becoming one of my favorites this season. It's from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas - but the version I'm in love with is sung by Michael Ball (*almost* my favorite Broadway performer ever) and Elaine Paige.

"As Long As There's Christmas"

sung by Michael Ball and Elaine Paige

There is more to this time of year
Than sleighbells and hollies
Mistletoe and snow
Those things will come and go

Don't look inside a stocking

Don't look under the tree

The one thing we're looking for

Is something we can't see

Far more precious than silver

And more splendid than gold

Is something to treasure

But is something we can't hold

As long as there's Christmas

I truly believe

That hope is the greatest of the gifts

We'll receive (we'll receive)

As we all pray together

It's the time to rejoice

And though we may look different

We'll all sing with one voice

As long as there's Christmas

I truly believe

That hope is the greatest of the gifts

We'll receive
As long as there's Christmas
We'll all be just fine
The star shines above us
Lighting your way and mine

As long as there's Christmas

I truly believe

That hope is the greatest of the gifts

We'll receive
As long as our guiding star
Shines above
it'll always be Christmas
There'll always be a time
When the world is filled with peace and love

just a note: this video is the only one I could find on either YT or Grooveshark that was the version I wanted of this song...and the video is actually a Harry Potter video montage of sorts with the song as background. Just so you don't click on it and go, "what?!?" :)

thank you

2011-12-08T13:36:00.001-05:00

thank you for all the lovely comments on yesterday's post. it's been hard - looking out the window and noticing what I *don't* see: a big beautiful white dog snoozing on the porch, or carrying wood, or running and barking at cars, or playing with Elsie. and the noticing what I *do*: Elsie...all alone. she's doing well, i think she'll be alright (*please* let's hope she hasn't read Where the Red Fern Grows :/), and she's acting normally...but it's not the same, i know.

here's to the new world Jesus is bringing us at the end of time - a world with no more pain or sorrow or death!

and no more tears.

bye caspian.

caspian

2011-12-07T08:32:00.001-05:00

Caspian. The craziest, funniest Great Pyr that ever was.

When we brought him home in October 2009, he and Elsie only weighed seven pounds each.

They grew fast.

Caspian - October 2011 - 120+ lbs.

Caspian was always a little...strange.

He'd run circles around the house - fast - three or five times, without barking. Just....because.

He was a licker. Licked everything and everybody he met. Which was not appreciated. Also famous for chewing things.

January 2010 - big snow!

When the puppies were so small we still couldn't let them roam around, we'd keep them shut up in the "barn" under the porch during the day and take them out for walks every few hours. Caspian *hated* his leash, and *never* walked. He sat. And got dragged. Sitting as regally as possible, he would obstinately not walk and allowed us to pull him around bumping on his rear end....he never gave in :) He also took a while to get used to the electric fence...a few zappings and then he was fine :)

There were many times in the past two years that I've looked him in the eye and said, "What am I going to DO with you, Caspian!?!?!" But I loved him.

notice his tongue? (he's the dog to the right)

We all loved him.

Elsie loved him.

January 2010

Lily loved him.

snuggled up - april 2011

He was always frisky and cheerful, ready to play.

He loved to be with us, to follow us around, doing whatever we were doing.

When we came out to feed them or fill up their water, he was always so excited he'd jump up or lick, lick, lick....letting us know how happy he was to see us. More often than not, we'd push him down or say, "Enough, Caspian!", but that didn't bother him. He loved us, too.

He and Elsie would play together all day long, having "fights" where they did their best to look fierce and attack each other. Cool days were the best, 'cause then their fur wasn't too heavy on them. Those were the days when he just ran and ran, galloping across our property barking at whatever moved :)

He chased Lily, the cat. If he caught her, she batted his nose and ran off.

He was a good dog. Crazy, yes, but sweet.

Which is why it's so hard to say goodbye.

When Elsie and Caspian were little (days/weeks old), they and their whole litter had seizures. These stopped once they were weaned. Caspian had one more the day after we brought them home, but none that we knew of since.

Until yesterday.

All day, we watched as our strong, brave puppy experienced seizure after seizure, closer and closer together. For most of them, Dad, Leia, Mama or I was outside with him, holding him, stroking him, letting him know we cared.

The vet didn't know what was wrong. They gave us a sedative for him in case a seizure was too strong or went on too long. Dad gave it to him around 8pm to give him body a chance to rest. Even though he appeared to be sleeping, he was panting - a desperate attempt by his body to cool him off.

We did all we knew we could. When I said good night to him, and saw him lying there in the barn panting, I had a feeling it was goodbye too.

Sometime between 11:30pm last night, and 5:30am this morning, our fluffy "polar bear" passed away. He was just a little over two years old.

I'm bawling like a baby right now...I'm going to miss him sooo much.

It was so hard yesterday. Holding him, and there was nothing I could do.

This morning, in the pouring rain before breakfast, we buried him under the Cannon - our favorite old tree stump on the hill. We're going to use the white rocks that are all over our property to make a white mound over the spot. Our monument to our dog.

Bye, Caspian-boy. We'll miss you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caspian

September 12, 2009 - December 7, 2011

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

centuries past

2011-12-05T21:19:00.000-05:00

I love drama. I love costumes. I love dressing up. As our across-the-street neighbor observed to my mama a little while ago, "Jo really belongs in another century." *sigh* Ain't that the truth? You don't know how often I wish I could wear my "Thanksgiving" dresses as normal wear and people wouldn't say "Oh, is that a costume?" I wish we still dressed out of Pride and Prejudice, or even medieval times. What if men walked around with coats and top hats downtown? Or....hats with feathers?....*cough cough*

I wish we still had balls and parties to look forward to all the time I wish regency/county line dancing was still a normal part of life. It's no fun learning to line or square dance when there's no place to do it. But even more than the dancing and the dresses and the top hats, I wish we still walked with the dignity of those "centuries past."

In centuries past, men behaved like gentlemen. They respected women, opened doors for them, stood until they were seated, rose when they entered the room, put their own desires aside to be of service. Women knew that they would be honored regardless of whether they were pretty or not, and could count a gentlemen for assistance. They knew what qualities men admired, and got their attention by being ladylike and dignified, showing good character or ability....or by dancing well or playing an instrument. :) Oh, polished and refined society.

And now?

Girls wear clothes that do not honor themselves or the Lord, they load their faces with make-up, they walk in a manner that is anything but dignified, they even starve themselves....all in a desperate attempt to attract attention, be someone they are not, or prove something. And some, when they don't succeed to be that all elusive "Something Else", end their lives.

This saddens me beyond what I can say.

I wish there was some way I could sit down with every hurting girl, and tell them that Someone Very Special loves them, and He doesn't care what the world says - He think they are beautiful.

Now, I pray for those girls I *do* know who are struggling with this, and I pray that God will give me more and more opportunities to share my faith with others in the same situation. Considering that I've gone through much of those issues myself, I know how they feel.

Oh, Society. What have you done to us? Why have you lead so many astray to do things that harm themselves and others? Why have you pushed them to the point of no return?

Lord, help us come back. Help us reclaim our dignity as women, and embrace our role in the home and the world. Help us shine Your light in the darkness, bringing others to Yourself. And comfort those who weep and are hurting - captives in their minds to the things of the world. Release them, and show them Your love through us. Amen.

~~~~~

p.s. On a more humorous side, after writing all of the above, I stumbled across this video featurette from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. And ironically, they almost say the exact same things I said in the paragraph that starts "Men behaved like gentlemen..." Why don't we just junk everything our current society offers, and everyone just go back to life in the 18th century. Our slogan can be "Back to Pride and Prejudice!" :) Join me....please.....*chuckle*

tiger pride

2011-12-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

Clemson (38) - Virginia Tech (10)

It was a splendid game! Spectacular drives by the offense, 25 first downs during the evening, a total of 240 passing yards, and 217 rushing yards. And one beautiful 53 yd. touchdown pass from Tajh Boyd to Sammy Watkins.

In addition, only 5 penalties for 35 yds. for the Tigers last night, 0 turnovers, 0 interceptions, 0 lost fumbles.

A good night all around.

Good work, fellas. The ACC title is yours!

what a day for football

2011-12-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

Oh, we had hopes.

We had *confidence* that the South's two biggest rivalries would both end in our favor.

Saturday, November 26th. Our chance had come: after an amazingly good season, our dashing Cavaliers had a chance to take down the Hokies in our final regular season game (due to our incredible preformance during the previous games, we're going to a bowl!).

Oh, how we hoped!

We spent three hours of our life rooting our guys on....

We were *so* proud of our defense....And we were really hoping our offense could take advantage of great field positions...

But it just wasn't our night.

Cavaliers (0) - Hokies (38)

First home shut-out since Clemson smashed us in 1984, 55-0. (That was my Mama and Dad's first football game at UVA, BTW. First game of the season, and they were first-year students)

But since our happiness is not dictated by whether our favorite football team wins or not, we moved on with life, had ice cream for dessert and then decided....

....to change channels and watch Clemson inspire us by beating the Gamecocks for the first time in three years. Well, that was the hope.

We were inspired. For a while. Ellington is amazing. That guy can RUN.

But, once again, our hopes were not to materialize.

Tigers (13) - Gamecocks (34)

Oh, such is life.

But the season ain't over yet. UVA has a bowl to look forward to, and Clemson heads to Charlotte to fight for the ACC title.

Against whom?

Whoever won the UVA vs. Tech game.

Ahhhh.

Yeah.....it was kinda important that we won that one. Whoever won earned the spot as winner of the Coastal Division. And then the opportunity to play for the title.

That would've been really exciting.

But, oh well.

So, today, we follow the ACC title game.

Clemson vs. Virginia Tech

And what do we say?

C-L-E-M-S-O-N!

Virginia Tech is a *good* team. And that's an understatement. They have an amazing quarterback who can pass, run, and block. He's incredible. Hopefully they won't just win. Clemson beat them earlier in the season, so Tech's been looking forward to a re-match. Hmm.

Of course, whether the Tigers win or lose tonight, life will march on and we won't be the worse for it. But it sure is fun to get excited about something every once in a while, and hope that a team will win and get pumped up. It's just important to remember what *really* matters in life, and not get too caught up in it all.

But still.

I hope they win :)

happy december!

2011-12-01T20:22:00.001-05:00

only 24 days till Christmas!

I feel like I owe y'all a life update to make up for my lack of interesting posts lately.

Truth is, lots has been going on, and it's been hard to stop and put thoughts into words and add pictures.

First of all, school is wrapping up! I can hardly believe this semester is almost over. It feels like yesterday that it was August and I was bouncing around the community college campus in lightweight short-sleeve tops sporting sunglasses and a dark tan, still living in the swim team world :) And now it's Christmas again. Time flies. We had Spanish oral exams today, two of my friends and I did a skit about the "Academy Awards" :) B. was the TV anchor, I was the reporter, and S. was the movie star. It was great fun. We had a "red carpet" (kitchen rug :D), S. wore glasses and a boa, and we had a microphone. Oh, the drama :)

New addition to the "farm family": a four-week old kitten we found looking very forlorn on the side of the road. The little fella had a vet visit on Tuesday and they didn't find any internal problems, and only had to treat him for mites in his ears and those nasty worms that kittens generally get. He's gained some weight, and has quite the personality.

<<< Meet Simba

He's really Leia's kitten. She's been wanting and praying for one for a *long* time - and this was a completely unexpected answer :)

As you can see, she likes to...um...decorate him up a little. He's currently living in our bathroom. It took one hour to house train him, so life runs smoothly :D

Life's been throwing me some interesting situations lately. Besides the more difficult things I mentioned a little while ago, there have been some more humorous things going on. :)

I think I may have mentioned this already, but Leia, Andrew, and I took over the church's Christmas program this year, and yesterday was our second-to-last rehearsal. I think we made some great progress, and the actual things is going to be quite splendid. Titty and KEK are singing a ~~duet~~ solo together (sorry, inside joke :P) of "O Holy Night" with me accompanying. It sounded beautiful yesterday - their voices really sound splendid together.

Randomly: on Sunday, a dear lady at church (also one of the funniest people I know :D) offered to be my wedding planner. For free. Which is fantastic of course....but I'm not getting married anytime soon as far as I know. Did y'all know anything about that? Hm. Didn't think so.

Our Thanksgiving feast at Grandma's was marvelous, as usual. Because the FTRs weren't there (they'd come down the week before - more on that in a minute), Julia and I got to sit at the "adult" table again - always fun :) It was also our last holiday with my cousin Mark before he's off to bootcamp. Yes, he's joined the Navy! It's quite exciting, but a little sad. He'll be gone over Christmas, and we can't call him or send him a package or anything. He can write to us and we can write back...but that's really it. Nine weeks with no contact. Our family doesn't really work that way :/ Especially around Christmas time. *deep sigh*

Though, because his birthday was on the 19th *and* he leaves in just two or three days, my aunt and uncle hosted a birthday/good-bye for him on his birthday two weeks ago. Jess and Tom came down, and we took the opportunity to take a picture of the *entire* clan for the first time since the FTRs wedding (and Zuzu wasn't even born then!):

This is us! And we most of us live within thirty minutes of each other. It's a splendid life. :)

Also, someone else in the family just had a life milestone. Titty turned 13 on November 8th, and, following our family "custom", we had a Blessing Ceremony/Bat Mitzvah for her on the 13th. That actually was the second day of my pneumonia, and I didn't go to church that morning. I felt well enough in the afternoon to come in and join in the party, but that was just the beginning of it all :) Anyway. Pictures from the day:

Hard to believe how fast my little siblings are growing up!!!

Since school's been tapering off (just a week before I'm done until 1/16!!!!!), I've been doing some more "free reading". Rose in Bloom, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice....my favorites just get better as time goes by :)

And of course, with Christmas season upon us, the Advent wreath is out, Christmas music is playing 24/7 (at least in our bedroom *grin*), Christmas shopping is being planned, everyone's working on piano pieces for Christmas group class, and the decorations come out this weekend!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...."

xoxoxo

O.G.

this makes me happy

2011-11-25T14:55:00.001-05:00

I was just looking through some pictures from this past month or so, and found this one:

good times!

thankfulness

2011-11-24T09:50:00.001-05:00

"Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise
Who fashioned and made us
Protected and stayed us
Who guides us and leads to the end of our days
His banners are o'er us
His light goes before us
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished
As forward we travel from light into light"

today, I am thankful for many things.

immediate and extended family
my family is amazing. i love how close we are, how we do so much together, how much we enjoy each others company. my parents love each other and love us. my siblings and i enjoy spending time together and doing projects and activities together. my dad's side of the family lives here in the same town and we see each other very often. my cousins are my friends. my aunts and uncles on both sides stay in touch. my grandparents love us and spoil us.

faith

what would my life be without Jesus Christ? nothing. absolutely nothing. of all things, i am most thankful for His sacrifice so that i can live in Heaven with Him forever. Jesus died for *me*. how awe-some is that? it's incredible. thank you, Lord.

church

our church is one of the biggest blessings in my life. we love to fellowship together, to learn together, play together, sing together, and just enjoy each other. we love Jesus, and we love each other. Christ is the focus of our gatherings. iron sharpens iron.

friends

i'm blessed with an incredible network of friends spanning continents, countries, states, cities and neighborhoods. i have friends in all walks of life, all ages and stages of life. i love my friends.

music

my life would be very dull without music. i am so thankful that God gave us this way of expressing ourselves. my life is a song - with ups and downs, crescendo and descrescendos, major and minor transitions, key changes, and lots of forte and fortissimo, piano and mezzopiano. oh, life is song!

random things

i'm thankful for food, red leaves, cold water, soft grass, beautiful animals, fluffy clouds, summer days, crisp nights, fuzzy socks, stripy sweaters, the color purple, movies (*yeah*), period costumes, and love.

i'm thankful for many, many things. and it feels good to be thankful.

¡feliz del dia de accion de gracias!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

{fall fashion: in-town day - outfit one}

2011-11-20T19:33:00.001-05:00

"In-Town Days" are difficult when trying to decide what to wear. A "normal" In-Town Day begins very early, as we have to have the car packed (lunch, coolers, piano and school books, backpacks, eight children, etc.) all before Departure Time at 8am so we can get to piano lessons on time. Normally our piano lessons are on Thursdays, so Leia and I also have to pack for the CC since we'll be dropped off on the way home.

Since we live approximately thirty minutes (more or less) from town, quite a bit of time is in the car. Five of us take piano lessons, so while one or two are having lessons, the others run errands with Mama. More time in the car, but also time in public in stores. And then, of course, you have school remember. That's an hour and twenty minutes in a chair, and then about thirty minutes of "free time" while I wait for Leia, and then we both wait for whoever's picking us up.

That makes outfit planning hard. How to dress "up" for town, but be comfortable for up to six hours away from home? Sometimes "fashion" is sacrificed for comfort. But now that I'm in my third semester of juggling this extended In-Town Day, solutions are in sight! And since I'm pretty happy with some things I've come up with, I thought I'd share them.

Today is a little different, since we canceled our lesson last week due my pneumonia and are doing our lesson today instead. (no lessons this Thursday - or school either - because of Thanksgiving)

FYI: I hate having my picture taken. As Leia was taking these, she commented, "Photo shoots are awkward." Couldn't agree more!

scarf: nordstrom's (tyson's corner)- sweater: old navy (75% off sale yesterday!) - skirt: j. jill - cowboy boots: bootville (christmas present three years ago) - earrings: sonya's (st. croix, usvi)

it has begun!

2011-11-19T11:09:00.001-05:00

Today our local lite rock station started playing Christmas music! Of course, not really...just a "preview" all day today and all day tomorrow in preparation for *next* weekend when it starts for good.

Some people may be content just to wait until it *really* starts, just stick with Thanksgiving for now. But not *cough* yours truly....oh, no, I'm not waiting. :)

"Five---gold---rings! (ba da bum bum bum...)"

I'm wearing my Christmas socks. Cheers!

interesting facts about: pneumonia

2011-11-18T09:02:00.001-05:00

- contrary to popular assumption, one does *not*, in *any* way, feel COLD when one has pneumonia.

- your abs get as much exercise as they do the first week or so of swim team (if you haven't swam for several months). Or....at least they feel like it.

- you cough *a lot*.....and it *hurts* like....um....never mind.

- you can get pneumonia in one lung or the other, or both.

- people still frequently die of pneumonia (don't worry - I won't. That's mainly in third world countries, or among the elderly or the very young)

- On a personal level, I fell into that all elusive 1% of people taking my medication who chose to quit because of how serious the side effects were. I am not coming within a MILE of that drug for the rest of my life. Last night was the most miserable of my existence to this point.

But after night comes day! And I'm feeling *much* better at the moment. Everyone else is off galavanting or working, only Titty is hanging out with me. So we have my playlist going full blast ("Oh what a beautiful morning!" - what a song to be listening to... :D) and she's doing her science test (Apologia...everyone, let's give her our sympathy) and I'm trying to relax and stay comfortable.

I'm actually pretty much completely dehydrated. I have to fight to stay hydrated even during a normal day, just because I don't think to drink anything. I've started having my glass always full and making myself drink when I go through the kitchen, and that helps. But I'm used to the crushing headaches and emptiness that comes with being dehydrated. But being in that condition at the present moment is anything but "okay". Dad kinda hinted at the fact that if I get too "dried out" I'd have to be on IVs...zounds! I just don't want to get sick again....and my stomach doesn't seem to like water very much at the moment.

This is funny: I slept *maybe* two hours last night (that's *not* funny - no laughing!), but one during those six other sleep-less hours, there was a time when I was not getting sick and not in excruciating pain, and I was just thinking...."Wouldn't be nice to have a nice glass of tomato juice right now?" TOMATO JUICE!?!?! Good *grief*. And my next thought? "Or maybe grape juice." Oh, really, my dear? Tomato....or grape? Those are your top two?

What *is* this pneumonia DOING to me?

Listening to "The King's Birthday" from The Young Victoria. <3 that movie! I haven't seen it in months, though. Separation anxiety....*giggle*

BTW, this is post is to make *me* feel better. Which is why it's rather long and very scattered about. But it's doing it's job. Hey, I almost make being sick sound like *fun*! That takes talent. *bows deeply amidst rousing applause*

What's everyone else doing this fine, November, fall-ish Friday? Any of my college football fan friends looking forward to the second-to-last weekend of normal-season play? Any plans for the weekend?

"Friday, friday, gotta get down on Friday, Friday...." Sorry, just felt like tormenting you by trying to get that song stuck in your head. I'm listening to "Scales and Arpeggios" so I'm in no danger :P

Okay, love you all, and if you have a moment, just send up a prayer that I'll be on the mend by tomorrow. I have a weekend full of things I *really* want to be able to at least participate in - and if I have another night like last night, I'm not gonna be doin' nuffin' atall.

*cough*

Yours truly,

O.G.

who feels like captalizing and putting periods after her initial this morning *grin*

another pity party

2011-11-17T16:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday afternoon, sitting at the computer, minding my own little beeswax. Feel a flush literally creep up my face. Mama is standing by washing machine. "Mama, my face is hot." Checks it. Sure enough. Five minutes later, still there. "You have fever."

Five days, two missed church functions, endless nights of fever and coughing, endless days of exhaustion and sore stomach muscles (coughing *hurts*) later...

"Your temperature's 104." Calls doctor.

Today, missed first half of Spanish class to visit Doc. Listens to lungs for *maybe* two minutes.

"You've got pneumonia in your left lung."

Right. Awesome. Splendid. *Exactly* what I always wanted!

Prescription filled in town. At my request, Dad drops me off at CC to finish class.

Leia's class lets out ten minutes late.

Mama doesn't pick up till 3:10.

Medicine kicks in - with all the side effects listed on label. All.

Still sick, still miserable, with added pain and cramps...and on an empty stomach.

My life, friends. My life.

----

But I will survive! Yes! I will last this illness out. I will not die. (hopefully :P) I will not....give up. I will live with my misery until it is gone - hopefully by Monday at the latest. (Doc said end of the weekend...)

My humor has not died, but my stomach pains are excruciating. I do not feel very funny - although I am cracking myself up at the moment :)

Love you all, and don't worry about me. I'll pull through. *wink*

xoxoxo

*cough*

so.

2011-11-16T07:16:00.001-05:00

I was burdened yesterday. Heavily. Normally, that means I just don't post for a few days. But I felt that this time I should share it here - since I'd been convicted recently of not really being myself here on the blog, all y'all see is my "good", slightly crazed side....rarely my gloomy side. See, being a passionate person, you are for the most part very upbeat and running on air, but if something crops up that makes you sad - you *plunge* down into dumps. Not depression or despair (if I nursed it, that's a conceivably outcome), just deep gloom and sadness. It's a hard personality to deal with - yes, there are definitely times when I do not know myself.

But anyway.

After a long talk with Mama, and both of us giving this burden over to God, I woke up this morning free from that load. Granted, it's not over yet, but I'm no longer under the weight.

Thank you all for your sweet comments - I was encouraged to see so many friends come around me instantly. God bless y'all.

Lighter posts coming soon, I promise! I have a lot to share....

what do you do

2011-11-15T15:40:00.001-05:00

...when life throws you too many quick punches in a row?

...when people you love and thought you knew, change?

...when things come to light that show gaping wounds, ancient scars, and a salt shaker up-ended above them?

...when people you trusted aren't trustworthy?

...when people have two sides - one side with all the appearance of goodness, the other revealing a corrupted heart?

...when people profess to be Christians - but show anything but Christian behavior?

...when parents neglect children and teenagers who need love above all else?

...when you see people you've come to love and care about deeply wounded by other people you both love(d) and care(d) about?

...when all of the above are taking place around you to people you love and you didn't know?

...and then you learn all of it in less than two days?

what would you do?

what am i going to do?

i'll tell you:

pray.

'cause that's all that's left.

my babies

2011-11-12T11:04:00.001-05:00

pictures taken by mama at our across-the-street-neighbor's house.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T11:07:00.001-05:00

Since today is Veterans Day, I extend my thanks to all those noble Americans who have served our country in the past and now, in war and in peace, in combat and behind the scenes. This country would not be what it is today without you.

And on a more personal level, I would like to thank my Grandpa for the thirty-two years he faithfully served the United States of America in our Navy - joining in 1952 as enlisted seaman, and retiring in 1988 with the title of Commander. Thank you for your service and for setting an example to your grandchildren of determination and patriotism.

God Bless America.

nota bene: this is my 500th post!

amazing grace

2011-11-10T15:36:00.001-05:00

this is one of those movies that I don't think I've mentioned all that often, which is a little strange since it's one of my favorites. I can't count the times I've seen it....I actually watched it twice when Leia and I spent the week at our neighbor's farmhouse. *sheepish grin*

William Wilberforce. A man of God. A noble man. A man who knew right from wrong, and was willing to stand up for what he believed - even if no one else agreed with him.

"why don't you ask them?"

And his friend William Pitt the Younger, aspiring political activist who was determined to harness Wilberforce's passion to conquer the major social injustices of his day.

Oh, I watch Amazing Grace when I need to be inspired. When I need to reminded of what *we* can do in God's name to change the "unchangeable".

"do it, wilber."

Random Note: For some reason, I only like to watch it when the room is completely dark - and always at night. One of those snuggle-up-on-the-couch-with-a-blanket-and-do-school movies.

Yes, the film does tackle a sobering topic, but what a glorious picture of men uniting for a common cause under God!

"Your life is a thread. It breaks, or it doesn't break."

It's a story about young people.

"No one of our age has ever taken power."
"Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. So we will do them anyway."

It makes me laugh. Often. Amazing Grace is very quotable - and the fact that everything is spoken with a British accent just makes it better. Say "patriotism" like so: "pat-tri-ah-ti-sum" and it sounds much more legit. :)

"Something for the...uh...war effort. Patriotism and all that."
"And since when have you been interested in the war effort, patriotism, and...all that?"
"Well....I'm not."

Love the "Jacobite"....good old Thomas Clarkson. Can't you see him in the barricade beside Enjolras? (sorry.....I'm still in Les Mis world :P)

It's a love story, too. I love how Barbara believed in Wilber, was always there to back him up. She inspired him to start his work again, she held him up through his battle to overcome his addiction to opium, she was a true helpmeet.

"Yes, he will have a fine voice like you!"

It makes me cry or tear up - either one without fail. Even if I've seen it ten times. Definitely chills up my spine at the final scene.

"Noblesse oblige."
"What the bl**dy h*ll does that mean?"
"It means my nobility obliges me to recognize the virtue of an exceptional commoner."

And I always come away ready to change the world somehow.

"Remember that God made men equal!"

I love that it's a true story about a real man who had a real idea and a real goal....and he really did it. He overcame all the odds. Granted, it took a long time, but he pulled it through.

"Because after night come day."

It took courage.

"I never change."
"Well, hurrah for you."

"God has set before me two great objects."

I *highly* recommend Amazing Grace. Just be aware that it is about the slave trade, and that isn't pretty. So maybe not suitable material for those under twelve or thirteen or so. Believe me, you will not wish back the two hours you spent watching this. In fact, the time will fly. It's a true story, it really happened, and with God, all things are possible.

"When people speak of great men, they think of men like Napoleon - men of violence. Rarely do they think of peaceful men. But contrast the reception they will receive when they return home from their battles. Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power, a man who's achieved the very summit of earthly ambition. And yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war. William Wilberforce, however, will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow, and remember: the slave trade is no more."

we now have...

2011-11-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

...three teenagers in the house! Yikes! Today, Titty turns thirteen years old.

the March girls: November 1998.

Outer Banks, NC (actually, it was Bald Head Island...not sure if that's in OBX or not)

Favorite picture *ever* of "Ta-ta" (her nickname 'round here). If that face doesn't make you choke with laughter I don't know what will. :P

With Grandma out at the farm (remember the cart?)

notice the dark spot above Titty's eye? Stitches. She cut her eyebrow falling on shoe shelf when she was just over a year old.

Snow bunny! xoxoxo

Titty is Something Else. Always was, still is, always will be.

Now Zuzu wears that little dress :)

Classic Titty face. Love the relaxed posture. (FYI: That's Uncle Roy with her, and Grandpa's leaning against the door)

More mess. Are we surprised? Never! *chuckle*

Sixth birthday, I believe.

I love you a *lot* Titty, m'dear. We are so much alike, share so many similar interests and likes and dislikes. I'm thrilled to be here watching you grow up, and I pray that God will continue to work on your heart and mold into the young lady He wants you to be!

Oh, my crazy, beautiful, goofy, wild Titty.

Life with you is never dull.

presentación: martes, 8 de noviembre, 2011

2011-11-08T12:05:00.000-05:00

¡Hola! Mi presentación esta tarde es sobre mi experiencia en Washington D.C. cuando mi madre y yo fuimos allí por mi cumpleaños el mes pasado. Música es una parte muy importante de mi vida, y me gustaría muchos espectáculos de Broadway y otras tipas de música también. Pero, hasta que recientemente, no vi ningún espectáculo de Broadway, en Nueva York o otro lugar.

Pero, en veintiséis de octubre, mi madre y yo fuimos a Washington para ver el espectáculo Les Misérables en el JFK Auditorio de Los Artes. El auditorio de Kennedy es muy magnifico, con mucho carpeta roja y arañas cristales grandes. Comíamos en la cafetería que domina la ciudad. Pudimos ver muchos monumentos, el río Potomac, unos puentes, y el plantación Arlington.

Mientras esperamos por el espectáculo empezar, fuimos a la tienda cerca de vestíbulo. Entonces, eran las siete en punto, y permitimos ir a nuestras sillas. El espectáculo empezó a las siete y media y continuó a las diez y media de la noche.

Les Misérables es un cuento romántico, pero es un poco triste y muy emocional también. Hay seis caracteres principales: Jean Valjean, Fantine, Javert, Cosette, Marius, y Eponine. Cada carácter es muy humano, con características real. El cuento es sobre la vida del Jean Valjean, y también una rebelión de los estudiantes en una universidad en Paris en 1832. Ahora se llama “La rebelión de junio.” Lo nos enseña cerca de la vida de los pobres en el centro de Paris durante ése tiempo.

Hay muchos caracteres muy buenos en la musical, pero mis favoritos son Marius, Cosette, y Eponine. Marius es un estudiante en la universidad en el centro de Paris. Un día, él era con su amigo Enjolras en el centro, hablaban sobre una revolución querían empezar. Vio Cosette y fue una amor a primera vista. Cosette es la hija adoptada de Jean Valjean (otro carácter). Eponine es la amiga de Marius. Ambas Cosette y Eponine aman Marius, pero Marius solo ama Cosette. Por eso, Eponine canta la canción “Soló para mi” sobre su amor por Marius que él no tiene. Marius y Cosette cantan la canción “Un corazón lleno de amor” juntos.

En adición a música, me gustaría disfraces y trajes. Porque Les Miserables le ocurrió en el siglo diecinueve, la ropa de las personas es muy diferente. Los hombres llevaron chalecos y chaquetas todo al tiempo, y las mujeres llevaron vestidos con faldas largas. La traje de Eponine es un poco diferente y muy reconocido, porque incluida un sombrerito café y un abrigo trinchero.

Los canciones y la libreto de Les Miserables es muy inspirativa y fuente. Los compositores Claude-Michael Schönberg y Alain Boulbil hicieron un trabajo espectáculo. La orquestra grande consiste de veintidós personas, y casi veintisiete actores/cantadores.

Actualmente, quiero que ustedes escuchen a una canción de Les Miserables. Se llama “La Canción del Pueblos” y la canta por los estudiantes que quieren empezar una revolución. Encontré una versión de esta canción en español, y Uds. tienen la letra enfrente de Uds.

Letra en Español

Canta el pueblo su canción, nada la puede detener

Esta es la música del pueblo y no se deja someter.

Si al latir tu corazón oyes el eco del tambor,

Es que el futuro nacerá cuando salga el sol.

¿Te unirás a nuestra causa? ¡Ven y lucha junto a mí!

Tras esta barricada hay un mañana que vivir,

Si somos esclavos o libres depende de ti

Canta el pueblo su canción, nada la puede detener

Esta es la música del pueblo y no se deja someter.

Si al latir tu corazón oyes el eco del tambor,

Es que el futuro nacerá cuando salga el sol.

Ven dispuesto a combatir, hay una lucha que ganar

Muchos hoy van a morir,

¿Estás dispuesto a derramar

Tu sangre en las calles de Francia por la libertad?

Canta el pueblo su canción, nada la puede detener

Esta es la música del pueblo y no se deja someter.

Si al latir tu corazón oyes el eco del tambor,

Es que el futuro nacerá cuando salga el sol.

-----

I'm giving this presentation in Spanish class this afternoon - the text and pictures are ones I'm using. Pray for me! *grin* I think it will go great. I'm also using my souvenir booklet for photos of the cast - but you can see all those on the post I did on Les Mis last week.

Something else is going on in our house today - but I'll be posting abou that when I get home from school :) You get two posts in one day this time! *chuckle*

memory

2011-11-05T12:51:00.000-04:00

Cats - Ran from October 7, 1982 until September 10, 2000, making it Broadway's second-longest running musical, second only to Phantom of the Opera (Jan. 26, 1988 - present day). What do Phantom and Cats have in common? They were both written by that musical genius: Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Memory, turn your face to the moonlight
Let your memory lead you
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is
Then a new life will begin

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Burnt out ends of smokey days
The stale cold smell of morning
The streetlamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Sunlight, through the trees in the summer
Endless masquerading
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun

Lovely, lovely song. I feel Webber-ish today. Anyone want to sing me a song?

giveaway winners!

2011-11-05T12:37:00.002-04:00

Finally :) Thanks for hangin' in there with me.

For the donut pushpins:

Stephanie!

For the lovely blue and white jewelry set:

Hayden!

For the brown earrings:

Bree!

Congratulations, girls! Email me as soon as you can and I'll tell you how to claim your prizes!

Thank you everyone for joining the party - I had a blast reading everyone's party answers and your birthday wishes. I love my blogging friends :)

xoxox

O.G.

checking in

2011-11-03T08:40:00.004-04:00

Hello, lovely peoples.

Guess who this is?

Yes, I know it’s been a while.

For the past five days (and we still have one and a half days to go), Leia and I have been across the street house sitting for our neighbor. We’ve been able to get a lot of school done, due to the long hours of quiet. But the drawback is that there isn’t any internet over here. So the only chance we’ve gotten to check email, blog, read blogs, check anything is when we come back to our house for meals, or when we’re at school.

“Pepino cantador! (Singing cucumber) Pepino cantador! (Singing cucumber) Pepino cantador! (Singing cucumber) Cante, cante, yah! (Sing, sing, yeah!)” Oh, I can’t believe this song is STILL in my head. Maybe if I stopped listening to it daily on the iPod, I wouldn’t go around singing it. “No comprendo?! I’ll show you ‘no comprendo’!” VeggieTales. Gotta love it.

My birthday giveaway is now closed – I’ll probably end up posting the winners this weekend, once I’m home. It’s just too hard to juggle that right now.

I have a lot of things to share with y’all. The past two weeks have been full of milestones, some spiritual, some just from life. But *deep sigh*, you will have to wait until I have more consistent internet for that. *grin*

In other news, I’m sort of doing NaNo this year. I’m not doing it officially, but I do have a story that I want to finish, so on November first, I started working on it again. So, for the past three days, I’ve added a thousand + words to the story. We’ll see if I can get it up to 50,000 by the end of them month. Just with school, and final exams coming up the first week of December, I didn’t want to have the pressure of NaNo over my head. But I did want to challenge myself to finish this book – so off I go. Yeah, bet you didn’t really know I was much of a writer. Well, I blog, but I mean writing books. When I was little, I wrote *a lot* more than I do now. But I still love to do it when I get the itch. So we’ll see where this particular story goes.

"I am weak, but Thou art strong/Jesus keep me from all wrong/I'll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to Thee...." I love that song. Such a great message, and I have so many memories attached to it :)

Hmmm….anything else I wanted to say to y’all while I have the chance? Seize the time!...... Oh, I’m playing the middle name game today. That means I call my friends by their middle names, and see how long it takes for them to figure out I’m talking to them. *evil chuckle*

OH! Right. So, Leia, Scott, Elise, Erick and I (all middle names – ‘cept Leia :P) have taken over our church’s children’s Christmas program. Remember last year’s? Well, it was so much work, my piano teacher wanted a year off. So the teenagers stepped in, and we now have the reins! Rehearsals start next Wednesday night, and we’re doing it on Sunday night, December 11. Oh, boy. I actually think it will go off great, but it’s going to be a challenge – working with all our wonderful but slightly crazed middle schoolers :P

“I think I love you/So what am I so afraid of?/I'm afraid that I'm not sure of/A love there is no cure for/I think I love you/Isn't that what life is made of?/Though it worries me to say/That I've never fel this way...." Sorry, that song is playing in my ear, and since I love sharing my songs with you, I have posted it in a moment of weakness. :)

Alrighty, I think that's it. See you as soon as I can! :)

Oh, is this awesome or what? (click to make it bigger) Hint: check the play-count.

Yours mysteriously,

O.G.