Disturbing Photos No. #2

Please do not even ask. Because honestly, I don't know.

Wrestling

Seth and Joshua have had several meets and can now be officially known as wrestlers. 

Cousins

Our family spent Thanksgiving weekend at my Grandma's house. Aunts, uncles, and lots of cousin were there. Havalah hit it off with Alice, who is a year younger than her, and it was so cute to watch them play together. :D

Spring Mill State Park part 2

You can't go to a state park without taking a walk on at least one of their many trails in the woods.

We saw lots of big, old trees. Some were as old as 300 years!

One trail wrapped around a huge pond. At the edge of the pond was a small waterfall that lead into a creek. Seth stood on the top of it and froze his toes off.  He looks pretty happy about the experience though.

And of course lots of pictures were taken of everyone . . . 

Spring Mill State Park

Saturday our family spent a whole day at Spring Mill Park. It was super fun! 

This little creek runs behind a small village.

The interiors of these old buildings were just as they might have been in the 1800's. In some buildings, volunteers were dressed as pioneers and performed various tasks. I watched some candle making and a lady baking over an open fire. 

This is the meeting house. I preached a sermon in it but Seth fell asleep listening to me. 

Even though it's the end of October, lots of things were still very green.  It was a fun day trip!

A Goofy Day

One day in July Mom, Exie, Seth, and I went to visit Qix who was staying a week with Mara Unni.

We dressed a little wacky . . .

Acted a little strange. . . 

Tried out a few unusual hairdos. . . 

And all in the middle of Dairy Queen!

A Day in St. Louis

Two weeks ago, Mara Unni, Exie, Havalah, and I went to St. Louis to celebrate Rachel's birthday. Hosanna and Havalah had a lot of fun playing together-so much so, that when it was time for us to leave, Havalah was almost in tears.

Rachel wanted to eat at Jilly's Cupcake Bar for lunch. We all got sandwiches or quesadillas and the serving sizes were so large it was almost impossible to finish! The cupcakes were absolutely amazing. Sadly, I can no longer remember the names of the cupcakes we bought, but one (maybe this one?) was lime, another one lemon (possibly the one below) and the third some sort of aloha islandy flavor. :D

Joshua Quote

Joshua: "Naomi's the BEST SISTER EVER!!!"
            [looks sideways at me] "No offense, Keturah."

Dad made 10 Cup Cookies today. I'm very proud of him :D

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26412869@N03/)

An Unbirthday Celebration

There are so many people in our family that we have one birthday every month. In a couple months such as June, August, and September, there are two or three birthdays. But no one was born in April. Being the party-happy family that we are, in April we celebrate our unbirthdays. Mom got the idea from Alice in Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse are always celebrating their unbirthdays (it's an occasion that happens many times because you have 364 unbirthdays a year!). For the celebration, we dress up as a character from Alice in Wonderland, and then we play a series of games (pin the grin on the cheshire cat, anyone?), ending with the mad tea party. The mad tea party is my favorite part, because, well it's mad. :D

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6) 




"Well, in out country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
(Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 2) 


Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
(Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 5) 

Drew

One afternoon at Rachel's house, Exie and Drew went for a walk. Drew was being very adorable and so Exie kept snapping photos of him. I guess he just loves his aunt.

 

Rachel made 10 dozen cookies while we stayed with her and we got to eat some. They were delicious. :D

A Weekend Trip

I'm very excited because tomorrow Ian, Qixi, Exie, and I will be going on a little weekend trip. We are traveling to Rolla, Missouri, where my sister Rachel lives. While we are there, we will be attending the last performance of Seussical the Musical which I have been looking forward to these past two weeks. Mara visited us today and she brought homemade Bento boxes for us to eat on our trip down. Also, she made a CD we are not allowed to listen to until we get in the car and start traveling down the highway. I wonder what kind of songs it will have on it? Mara will be guest blogging, so enjoy!

A Lovely Evening

Tonight I have had a wonderful evening. Mara came over and we went to Qixi and Exie's flute recital, which was quite lovely (there were a lot of snacks too :D). When we came home, we ate Chinese food from our local Ho Wa and reminisced. Then, we watch funny videos on YouTube (including this and this). Since then, we've been on three different computers having wild conversations on Facebook. I love my family. :D


P.S.
I came across these stunning pictures of animals. Take a look!

When we were young, some friends of ours produced and directed plays. One year, they decided upon You Can't Take it With You. Mara and Jonathan had gotten parts in the play and there was one slot left. It was the part of a G-Man who didn't say anything, all he did was walk on stage and then walk off.
But that didn't matter to Ian. Ian desperately wanted the part. He tried out for it, and then spent the next several days hoping he would get it. When the casting was finalized, Ian saw that the part had gone to someone else.
He was very upset. I remember Ian sitting by Mom on the porch crying. Mom tried to console him, but it was no use. She told him that one day she would direct a play and Ian could portray the main character. I didn't believe Mom and neither did Ian. After a couple days, Ian got over his disappointment and the incident passed from my mind.
Several years later we moved to Indiana. Ian became involved in our local homeschool group and he decided to participate in drama. He auditioned for (and got) the part of Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. Sadly, the drama director was retiring. A Christmas Carol was the last play she was going to direct. The board of directors for our homeschool group was looking for a new drama director. So Mom said she would do it.
After much contemplation, Mom decided it would be fun to produce You Can't Take it With You. The auditions came and went and Mom spent a lot of time casting the various parts. Finally, she was able to decide. She cast Ian as Tony Kirby, one of the main characters.
At that time, none of us remembered the day Mom had told Ian she would direct a play he could be in. It was a slight incident that had passed from my memory completely. However, a few days ago I just happened to remember the day when Ian and I scoffed at the words Mom had comfortingly said to Ian, that she would direct a play and he would get a role. I had laughed out loud. I had thought, "Yeah right, that'll never happen." But it did. So I am offering a word to the wise: Never disbelieve your Mother.

Havalah's Toast

One morning Havalah asked me for some toast. Like the angel I am, I gladly complied and popped some bread in the toaster. When I went to butter the toast, it was gone. Looking around the kitchen, I spied the culprit. Ian was munching on some hot toast. Havalah was upset, so I told Ian he had to toast some bread for her. Feeling guilty, Ian put some bread in the toaster. He left the kitchen and forgot about Havalah's toast. When he remembered, he went to the kitchen to retrieve the toast. But it wasn't in the toaster. It had just been thrust into Naomi's mouth and it was lathered with Nutella. Havalah burst into tears. So Naomi got a slice of bread, wedged it in the toaster and stood guard over it like a mother hen watching her chicks. The toaster popped and out came some hot toast. Naomi buttered it and handed it to Havalah, who gladly bit into her long-awaited toast.

The moral of this story? When you toast bread in our kitchen, you have to watch it closely or someone will eat it. 

An Exie Quote

Mara Unni very generously bought us three girls necklaces with a little Japanese girl hanging from the chain. They are way to adorable. :D Anyway, Qixi and I were talking about naming ours. I finally decided to name mine Mitsu and Qixi settled on Kira. So Exie decided to name hers as well. However, she was lamenting the fact that she didn't know any Japanese names. 

I said, "Just think a little and I'm sure you'll come up with some. You've read parts of Japanese manga, haven't you?"

She said, "Yes I have, but I can't remember any." Her face fell, but a couple minutes later it brightened. "I know one," she said, "Hong Kong!!!"

A morning run

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Qixi, Exie, and I go running (erm-hmm, jogging) with our neighbor JoBeth. I really enjoy it! So, here's a little list of things I like about jogging.

• It motivates me to get up early (we jog at 6:15 a.m.)
• I feel refreshed afterwards
• It's good for my muscles
• I get more accomplished during the day (funny how getting up early does that to you :D)
• I have fun talking to JoBeth and getting to know her better!

A different kind of week

These next few days will be rather different, because this morning, Mom and Mara Unni left for Paris. Dad drove them to Chicago where they met Rachel and they all boarded a plane for Montreal. From Montreal, they'll be flying directly into Paris! This is the first time Mom has traveled out of the country, so it's a fun and exciting new experience! Qixi and I are running the house, so we'll be having a bit of an adventure as well. Today went smoothly, so I was very happy about that. Qixi and I had classes in the morning and mid-afternoon. When we got home, our siblings had already finished their school, so we cleaned a bit and played outside because it was so nice today. Then we had supper, prepared by Qixi (a yummy pot roast with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots), and spent an enjoyable evening. Exie and I even watched two episodes of a Korean drama Mara Unni is lending us!

P.S.
Here are some pictures of Paris in black and white!

Where has time gone? It seems to have flown by, and I hardly know where to start. I guess I should begin with where I left off (which was quite awhile ago). For Mara's birthday, we went to New Harmony, which is a little town in southern Indiana, and spent the weekend there. We strolled through antique stores, drank coffee, watched kdrama late at night in our little cabin, and took walks in the state park. It was a lot of fun!