After a recent phone call from Janine, I was inspired to plant some pumpkins!! In between crepe myrtle trees, there are now pumpkin and cantelope seeds!! Nathan had already planted the canteloupe seeds earlier, from seed from the ones that we had planted last year!! I will try to keep you posted on their progress!!

In other news, school starts in exactly one week. We will do school for two weeks then have at least four (maybe five if we can convince mom!) days off for when Janine comes home!! It will be my first year in high school!!

We have had this window frame for a long time, and ever since we put up the valence in my room and redid the curtain on our closet, I have wanted to redo this little frame. it already had some fabric in it but it was old and fading.

And here's the finished product.

COOKIES

these particular cookies are peanut butter criss-crosses dipped in melted chocolate.

They made 60 cookies, that is before Dad, Mom, Janine, and Nate came by! There were 56 dipped in chocolate.

We (Lorissa and I) got the recipe at Bakerella . She had it back in August and had dipped both sides in chocolate with peanuts chopped up on top.

Two Random Pictures

This is a Easter lily that we planted last year. There are a bunch of them in our front garden.

My Hair!!

Janine has been really pushing me to show her pictures so here they are!!

I got about ten inches cut off, which will go to Locks of Love.

Buckets of Rain and Hail

Last night at about 10:30, a severe thunderstorm rolled in. It lasted about half an hour and was "the fiercest storm I've ever seen" said Mom which was seconded by Dad. Since my room was in the front of the house, all the rain and hail, which amounted to almost a tenth of our yearly rain fall, was raining right on my window. This morning I was looking at the rain gauge and I glanced down and there was still some hail around one of the little flowers.

In other news, tomorrow, I’m planning on getting my hair cut. It will hopefully be about 12 inches be sent to Locks for Love!! They need about 8 donations for just one wig, so hopefully I can help with 1/8 of a wig!

Swimming!!

Yesterday Dad convinced me to say that if the pool was 66° I would go swimming. It was 66°!! I jumped in a couple times and numbed up to it!! It was actually quite refreshing!!

Flowers

The flower bed right in front of the house is flowering (see Lorissa's blog), so I decided to take some pictures. I was wondering around taking random pictures with the flowers and went into the den saw the flashlight and boom!! a light bulb went on in my head.

These particular pictures I took and Lorissa edited and cropped(thank you, Lori!!).

At first, I just had the flashlight shining straight at them, but I found that it made the flower extremly white and out of focus. So I put a sock(yes, a sock, it was clean:) in front of it and found that it gave a much softer light. Then I taped the flower to the sock and snapped a picture!

You may have noticed that there is a little logo at the bottem of my posts. This is the Picasa logo, and, if you have Picasa, you know it has a little button that says 'Blog This' . I decided to try it and found that it goes a lot faster than regular posting!

Fantastic Books

Right now I'm reading this wonderful series, The Lord of the Rings. I'm almost to the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, and can't wait to start on the third.

We have watched the movies before, now some scenes in the book really stand out and are very vivid. So now I want you to tell me whether you have read the book, watched the movie, neither, or both, using the sidebar survey gadget!

Of Worms and...Eyes

So Lorissa and I were outside today and we decided to look under a round cement thing. We found this four inch long worm. It was moving somewhere fast (for a worm).

It was there with its friend Wiggles. So we had Squiggles and Wiggles. (not named by me)

So then we had a helicopter land in the field behind us to spray. And, because after six years of living out here, we are still not used to such sights as a helicopter spraying, we had the binoculars out. and so then Nate and I decided to try this:

This is the best one; the others were even more blurry and not as close up.

Baking!

Once again we have succumbed and made Dad's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies! After this I made some biscuits. And today I making rolls for with our turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Thanksgiving all over again!! Here are some pictures of our adventure!!

The first ingredients.

Gooey goodness!

Watching them bake!!

The finished product!

The First Day of School.

Today is the first day of a whole semester of studying. :) By 10 o'clock Mom had already given us our assignments, we just have homework.

Speaking of Mom, today is her birthday!! Happy Birthday Mom!!

Christmas Break

I received a canvas for Christmas. It already had the circle around the r and the r itself. The other wobbly circles were freehand. The blue should have been a shade or two lighter and the brown more even.

On warm(er) days, my siblings and I go out to play four-square. this generally becomes very competitive and all of us tired and worn out.

We have taken down our Christmas decor. Does that mean that we were de-decorating, or just corating?

Have a very Merry Christmas!! Janine is here safely and we are all enjoying having her around. We are also excited because it is Christmas break!! Have a great week.

Janine!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited because today is the day!! She will come home in 11 hours and is (hopefully) in a shuttle bus on her way to Atlanta!! We will pick her up this evening!!!! I can't wait!!

P.S. We did not (to the disappointment of all) get any snow. :(