So Whats For Dinner?

My mom has been sick since Saturday! Still, she makes an effort to figure out whats for dinner.

Sunday morning, my dog had an accident in my room and my mom cleaned it up and carpet cleaned my whole floor! She did all of this even when she felt sick. I have a super mom!

I've been helping out too. I made dinner for my siblings on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. I also made lunch yesterday and made dumplings for dinner. Today I made fresh bread for lunch.

Faith

The Patient Mom

In school we are talking about the Indus Valley. So, I have to read a couple of these Jataka Tales retold by Noor Inayat and one of them is called the Patient Buffalo. My mom noticed some similarities between the story and our family. Here is the story:

A Giant-Like buffalo with mighty horns lay under a tree asleep. Two mischievous eyes peeped through the branches, and a little monkey said:

"I know a good old buffalo, who's sleeping 'neath the tree, but I'm not afraid of him, nor's he afraid of me."

And he leaped from the branch on to the buffalo's back. The buffalo opened his eyes, and seeing the monkey dancing on his hip, he closed them again, as it only a butterfly were on his back.
Then the rascal monkey tried another trick. Jumping on the buffalo's head between his two large horns, he held the ends and swung, as on a tree. But Buffalo did not even wink.
"What can I do to make my good friend angry?" he thought. And while buffalo was eating in the field, he trampled on the grass wherever he wished to graze. And the buffalo merely walked away.
Another day the mischievous monkey took a stick and knocked the buffalo's ears with it, then while he was taking a walk he sat on his back like a hero, holding the stick in his hand.
And to all of this the buffalo made never a murmur, though his horns were strong and mighty.
But one day, while the monkey sat on his back, a fairy appeared
"A great being you are, O buffalo," she said; "but little do you know your strength. Your horns can break down trees, and your feet could crush rocks. Lions and tigers fear to approach you. Your strength and beauty are known to the whole world, and yet you walk about with a foolish monkey on your back. One blow of your horns would pierce him, and a stroke of your foot would crush him. Why do you not throw him to the ground?"
"This monkey is small," replied the buffalo, "and Nature has not given him much brain. Why then should I punish him? Moreover, why should I make him suffer in order that I may be happy?"
At this the fairy smiled, and with her magic wand she drove the monkey away. And she gave the buffalo a charm by which no one could cause him to suffer again, and he lived happy ever after.

I think the moral to this story is Patience pays off. I am not very patient. Seth is a lot like a monkey.

Faith

Hello!

Hi! I'm going to try and write a couple of posts every week.

Last Night

Last night was the second time I've gone to youth group. So far, aside from waiting till midnight for my dad to be done with practice, I like it and think it's fun.

Last night we played two games outside. In one of the games you had to roll a ball with your head from one side to the other side. The other game you had to crawl with the ball between your knees or your ankles to the other side.

Then we went inside and ate pop corn while they talked about the new series we are going to start. I am looking forward to the next youth group meeting.

Faith

My Puppy

I have one of the best dogs ever! She is so cute and obedient.

Okay, so sometimes she's not totally obedient. But I still love her.

Although it was almost four years ago, I remember the day my dad brought her home like it was yesterday.......

I was playing next door with my friend Chaunte when her older sister came and told me my dad was bringing home a puppy. I was so excited that I waited for Jasmine (that's her name) on my swing set. She was the last girl puppy, the runt. We didn't have food or anything for her so we had to run to the pet store, puppy and all. She was a good puppy. She loved to sit on our laps, and now that she bigger she still thinks she can sit on our laps. Jasmine will always be my little puppy, no matter how big she gets.

Faith

Book Review: The Golem's Eye

I just finished book two of the Bartimaeus trilogy; The Golem's Eye. This book is by Jonathan Stroud and takes place in England.

The main characters in this book are Bartimaeus( a djinni), Nathanial a young magician, and a girl named Kitty Jones.

Mass chaos is going through England, an unknown figure is destroying big tourist attractions and the mysterious Resistance has unleashed a crazed afrit( a powerful djinni) who is killing people at random. Nathanial's career is on a thin thread as he fights to gain power.

I am glad I am reading the books in order, because if I wasn't, I would have no clue who or what anybody was. I like these books for their continuous excitement. I would definitely recommend them, but you should read them in order. The first book is called The Amulet of Samarkand.

Faith

School

All through out the summer I have been doing little tidbits of school. Like math, spelling, and language. But after Labor day we are going to start a new curriculum. It is called Tapestry of Grace. In this curriculum first we are going to be studying the ancient Egyptians. We also get to help plan our week. I am so excited and cannot wait.

All my friends started school last week, and I'm still on summer break!

Faith

Summer

I had a very eventful summer this year! I went to church camp (as I have told you in the past),
my sister and I went to visit my grand parents and my aunt and uncle in Arizona, I went camping with my family, and to finish my summer my other grandparents and my other aunt and uncle are coming to visit next week.

My time in AZ was really fun. My aunt took us (me, my sister, and my cousins) to lots of fun pools to beat the heat. My grandparents took me to fun places too. Like the Arboretum with all the beautiful plants. Also, a place that had Native American ruins. I'm glad I went to Arizona, even though I missed my parents and my brothers.

When we went camping at Starved Rock, I got to bring my friend Sarah. It rained a lot while we were there. Although, we didn't get to go hiking, we got to fish ( I didn't catch any fish but like my dad says it isn't called catching it's called fishing) and swim. Through the rain I still had fun being with family and friends.

Faith

Girls Night Out

My brothers were invited to a baseball game birthday party this last Saturday night. It was decided that my dad was going to take them. So it was just my mom, my sister, and me for the night.

For dinner we got to go to Chili's. It was really good! My mom and I shared a boneless buffalo wing salad.

Then after that we went to Toys R Us, since Kylee still had some birthday money.

Next, because of our up coming trip to AZ, we went to the Barnes and Noble, the one with Starbucks in it, and Kylee and I both got two new books. We also, of course, got coffee and two DELICIOUS cookies. It was really fun.

Faith

Making Noodles

Yesterday we bought a pasta maker. Than, last night my mom and I made noodles. They were really easy to make.

All you had to do was make the dough with just flour and eggs. Then after it sat for a little bit you could take a ball of the dough, flour it a little and crank it through the flat attachment. You do this a couple of times, and when it was thin enough you are ready to crank it through the pasta cutter attachment. You then just lay the noodles out to dry for a bit and boil them when you are ready. It was really cool, even though you had to crank it.

We made fettuccine noodles and they were delicious!

Faith

A Trip To AZ

In less than two weeks me and my sister are going to Arizona for seventeen days. We went last year for two weeks and it was a blast.

I am so excited because I'll get to see my aunt and uncle and my cousins.

I'll also get to see my Nana and papa.

I am going to have so much fun, I can hardly wait!

Even though I'm not looking forward to the hot temperatures, it's worth it.

Faith

The Camp Cafeteria

Now, the camp cafeteria was a totally different story from the camp lake. It's food made me think my mom's was cake. Luckily, they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So on more then one occasion I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my meal.

There were pitchers of water lemonade/juice on the table. If there was still water in the pitcher they would leave it on the table for the next group who sat there. To me, I think that's kind of gross.

Then there was KP duty. For some of you who don't know what KP duty is, I'll explain. Each group had to scrape food of dishes for 45 minutes until the next group was ready to do their shift. Thankfully, we only had to do this once.

I had fun but I am still glad to be back home.

Faith

The Williamson Lake

Camp was so much fun! But I'm glad to be back home.

One of the most fun things at camp was the lake.

Lake Williamson was no ordinary lake! It had water slides and a lot of other stuff. There was a zip line, something called the blob, and some other fun things.

The zip line was a long wire that is really far above the water. You hold onto this bar and go along the wire until the person at the deck clangs the bell. When the person clangs the bell, you have to let get go and drop into the water. When I did this I got a lot of icky lake water up my nose!

Then there was the blob. I didn't actually go on the blob, but I can still tell you about it. It was a big long blow up thing in the water. Someone would go down to the end where the hole was and another person would jump of a high deck on the front of the blob and the person on the end would go flying into the lake.

Yet another blow up thing was the ice berg. Now I did try this one but did not succeed on getting on. the ice berg was pyramid shaped and had lots of handles on three sides of it. The third side was smooth. if you reached the top, you could slide down the smooth side.

Another thing to do on the lake was to go canoeing. Canoeing, I found, was not an easy thing. My canoeing partner, Jenae, kept telling me to put my oars in the boat because I was paddling on the wrong side. I have to admit, the lake was great!




Faith

Does Spaghetti Sauce Go On Salad?

Last night my mom made spaghetti. We of course had salad with it. My dad was just about to tell my mom something when he noticed he was pouring spaghetti sauce on his salad! So he had to eat his salad with sauce on it!! He said it didn't taste good. When he had a new plate of spaghetti, he poured bacon bits onto his spaghetti! Do you think it is a coincidence that his birthday is today and this happened yesterday?

Happy Birthday daddy!

Faith

P.S.My brother is throwing a temper tantrum because I won't put another one of his creatures on my blog.

Kung-fu Lizzard

Once again I am writing about a creature from one of my brothers' imaginations. But this time its Seth's creature.

He has created a predator for the baboon tiger called a kung-fu lizard. The kung-fu lizard is a big lizard who does kung-fu. This is what he eats: Sweets, meat, baboon tigers, and fourm eyes. They like to run very fast and do kung-fu. They are green and have red spikes down their back. Since I was writing about Josh's creatures on my blog, Seth wanted his creature on my blog. I had him draw one for me. That is what a kung-fu lizard supposedly looks like.

I am so glad that my brothers give me something to write about when I don't know what to write!!




Faith

Warm Weather

It has been so nice outside! It has been in the 80's all week.

Since it was nice out, me and my siblings had a water gun fight. By the time we had to come in, we were all drenched!

All the flowers and plants and trees are blooming. Everything is so pretty, and the plants fill the air with a good smell.

I am so glad that God has given us this beautiful week.

Faith

Fourm Eyes

My little brother has a very vivid imagination. He has now created a creature that is eaten by the baboon tiger, this creature is called a fourm eye. It gets its name from the four eyes it has. We, my family, learned of this new creature this morning. We also learned from our creature teacher that fourm eyes don't have long hair and, as I already told you, are preyed upon by the baboon tiger. These are some of the things fourm eyes do: They like to chop down trees, they like to run from the baboon tigers that eat them, (Because they always come), they like to juggle, and they like to color. This is supposedly what they eat: Potato soup, cooked broccoli, cooked carrots, spaghetti and meat balls, and almost everything except humans. As you may have guessed, I called Josh in for all of this information. He'll probably make up more things throughout the day. You will probably hear about more creatures later this week.

Faith

P.S. We also learned this weekend that Baboon tigers don't have shells they USE turtle shells for blankets!

Baboon Tiger

For the past few weeks my family has been learning about the baboon tiger from my four year old brother Joshua.

This ''Bamboo Tiger'' (He means baboon) is a creature that is in the monkey family and the tiger family. Me and my family learn more about this exotic creature everyday. Today we learned they eat sharks and eels. We have learned that baboon tigers have a shell. These are some of the things they supposedly eat: buffalo, meat, cooked carrots, broccoli, snails, humans, sloths, dogs that aren't brown (Because our dog is brown), meat loaf, tacos, and tortillas. (I called Joshua in for all of this information, a lot of it is new to me.)

I just got another upload of what they eat, hold on, okay they also eat tree bark and anything that doesn't stink. Now you know as much as I do about baboon tigers, and maybe even a little more.

Faith

P.S. I wonder what I'm going to learn next!

The Bean

Last Friday we went on a field trip to the Chicago Art Institute. On the way there I had to read the directions. Thanks to me we didn't get lost. After we parked and walked all the way to the front of the Art Institute we remembered we left our lunch in the car! So we ran and got our lunch and we were still a little early.

The rest of my day in the museum was pretty cool. Well, except when we got lost. It is very easy to get lost, it is a huge place. But in the end we finally found our way out.

Even though we got lost we still had enough time to see The Bean in Millennium Park. This bean was created by Anish Kapoor. It is made from eighteen tons of steel and is twenty feet tall, thirty feet wide and sixty feet long in the shape of a bean. You can go under it and all around it. I liked that when you look into the bean you see yourself and everything around you but it looks different. Like in a fun house mirror. I like the creativity of it.


Besides getting lost, I had a really fun day.

Faith

The Ultimate Gift

Last week Mrs. Kathryn, the children's ministry director of our church, gave me a book to read called The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. I liked this book so much I finished it in a day! I can't wait to go see the movie!!!!!!

This is a book that teaches you about the important things in life. Jason Stevens is the main character. When a rich relative dies, all Jason cares about the money he may inherit. But before his great-uncle died he set up twelve tests to help Jason learn about the important things in life. If Jason doesn't pass the twelve tests, he won't get the ultimate gift. But the rest I can not tell you. Find out if he reaches the ultimate gift by reading the book.

Thanks Mrs. Kathryn!!!

Faith

Bird Nest

Last Saturday it was really nice outside. So, of course my mom was out in the backyard. There were a lot of twigs and straw by our grill. My mom open it up and there inside was a gigantic bird nest!

For the past few weeks my mom and dad have been constantly clearing all the straw and stuff out of the grill. They didn't know that a bird wanted to live there! This last time we just left the nest alone.

My parents told us to not bother the nest.

On Monday my brother and sister went out and opened the lid of the grill. In the nest was a small, blue robin's egg. My mom went on the computer and read about robin eggs. Would you think that a blue jay would eat a robin's egg? Well they do, and crows too. We have seen some suspicious black birds out in the yard but we don't know if they are crows or black birds. We just hope no egg-eating birds get the eggs.

Faith

P.S(I conviced my dad to go take a picture of the egg and he lightly tapped on the grill, just to make sure she wasn't in there, and she flew off squaking! But he did get this picture of the nest.)

Camp

I just can't wait until June!!!!! Because, thanks to my Nana and Papa, I'm going to camp! This is going to be the very first time I've ever gone to a camp. I'm excited that I get to room with my friend Madison. And another of my friends from church, Jenae, is also going. There are a lot of different churches going to this same camp. So I'll get to meet new people from all over. It's going to be super fun. I'll get to swim and hike and learn more about God.

I know my whole family is going to miss me while I'm gone, but especially Jasmine will. She even misses me if we go to the grocery store. She goes through the house trying to find me. I just hope she wont get too sad.

Faith

Last Weekend...

Last weekend was really fun! Since my friend , Sarah, had spring vacation she got to stay for a whole weekend. On Friday, we went to see a movie. We were aiming to see Night At The Museum, but we ended up seeing Happy Feet.

On Saturday morning, Sarah and I got up and made pancakes and eggs. I made the pancakes, and Sarah made the eggs. After that we played with clay. Home made CLAY, not play dough. We made clay dolls. Since people were coming over that night, we had to clean the basement. So, we pretended that we cleaned basements for money. The people who came over had kids and Sarah and I had fun baby-sitting them.

Then on Sunday, Sarah got to go to church with us. That was fun too. All in all I had a pretty good weekend.

Faith

Lemon Velvet Cake

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and, of course, I wanted to make her a birthday cake. She wanted a lemon velvet cake. So I made her one. It is one of the most delicious cakes I've ever tasted! So here are the ingredients and how I made it.

1 package lemon cake mix
1 package lemon instant pudding
¾ cup salad oil
1 cup of water
3 eggs

First preheat the oven to 350. Then mix all the ingredients together until it looks smooth. Pour the batter into greased 9x11 pan. Cook for 30 minutes.

Icing:
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice

Mix these together after the cake is done and warm in the microwave. drizzle over the cake.
Enjoy!

I hope you like the cake as much as I did.
Faith

Pets

The first pet I ever had was a ferret. Yes, a stinky string of fur. Ferrets belong in the category fast, and also weasel. I always had bad allergies while we had Chandler, the ferret. After we got rid of him, we found out I was allergic to him.

My second pet was Justus the dog, he was a boxer. My dad thinks he was the greatest dog in history. Yeah, he was a good dog, but not the greatest dog ever.

Then there came fish. We've had many fish. We've also had a crawdad. For awhile he was fine living in the fish tank. Then, our neon fish started disappearing. Soon, all our fish were disappearing!! We started buying expensive fish, and what do you know those started disappearing too. Then one day we came home and saw half a fish in the crawdads mouth. That was the end of the crawdad.

Then there were the rabbits. My dad and our next door neighbor built a hutch for the bunnies outside between our houses. We shared the bunnies with our friends. There was Thumper, the cutest, Cloe', the hungriest, and last but not least, Duchess, the fastest. The bunnies were so fun. You could pick them up and take them about anywhere. The bad thing about Duchess being fast was that there were woods in our back yard and she was hard to find when she escaped. If you put Thumper down, he would just sit there and wait for you to pick him back up again. Duchess had babies one winter but it was too cold and they didn't survive :( When we left N.C. we had to leave our bunnies with friends. That was sad.


My next pet is still living and she is a boxer too. She is the most spoiled dog in the universe. Her name is Jasmine. In 2004 our dad surprised us when he brought home this cute bundle of fur. Jasmine was the runt of the litter. Today, she is three years old and is only two feet tall. I have to admit, she has the cutest puppy face I've ever seen. Who knows what kind of pet I'll get next time.

Though I'm thinking maybe a duck....

Faith

Eggs, Eggs, And More Eggs

I love Easter! Especially the bright colored eggs. But this year I'm thinking different about eggs. This year at church, they're going to drop eggs out a helicopter. How are they going to fill all those eggs? Well, they had to be hand filled by people, including me. So back bent, I fill these eggs day after day. But not only fill them, tape them as well! Okay you might think that's easy but not all the eggs are matched, so it also adds to the long hours. I guess its not that bad, after awhile you get used to doing it. I still continue to fill the eggs, but more happily. It will be fun to see eggs falling out of the sky.
Faith

Book Review- The Whipping Boy

I just finished reading The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. This book is set in medieval times and is about a prince and his whipping boy. The heir to the throne could not be whipped when he misbehaved. So they picked a boy from the street and he would be whipped whenever the prince was naughty. The prince is called prince brat in the book so you can imagine his whipping boy got lots of whippings!! One day the prince decides to run away to cause turmoil. He asks the whipping boy to come with him. They go off on an adventure but I am not going to tell you any more you will just have to read it yourself!! It was a great book and I highly recommend it!!

Faith

Great Friends

We had such a great time in North Carolina! They have a creek not far from their house and we went down there and caught five salamanders.The next morning we went to go check on them and only one was left!

I have three Wee Three Friends dolls and we spent a lot of time playing with them on rainy days. We also had fun playing a card game called Loot.

We went to see Bridge To Terebithia. It was really cool. It was a lot like the book. We would stay up almost all night talking and telling stories. I am so grateful to have friends such as these.


Faith

Where Are My Glasses?

I am so excited that we are in North Carolina! But we had a little trouble on the way. I had given my mom my glasses before we got in the car. It had been about two hours since we left the house and I wanted my glasses. My mom had thought she had put them in the glove compartment. We looked all around and still couldn't find my glasses. I started to get upset when my dad asked my mom if she was sitting on them. She got up and there were my glasses! Luckily, they were not harmed.

Faith

Blogging

First my dad, and then my mom started blogging. I asked myself, why not start your own blog? So one night, my dad got me started. The most fun part is picking out a name for your blog, it can be funny and silly, or just about anything you want! The other fun part is picking a background. After all that, all you have to do is fill it with posts. You can post about your life, or stories that you write. You can do book reviews about your favorite books too. Blogging is real fun, I think everyone should do it.

Faith

Lego Symphany

This is something really funny that I saw the other day. We were looking for videos of symphonies for school when we ran across this. My brother's and sister play Star Wars Lego all the time. I bet they never see this playing their game.

Enjoy!!!

Faith

Smiley-Kylee

Doing the laundry takes a long time. So we always set a time and see if we can make the time. Last Wednesday, when we were doing the laundry, my little brother Josh decided that he did not want to help. When my sister Kylee gets angry, I call her Hopey-Mopey because her middle name is hope. When she is happy, I call her Smiley-Kylee. Kylee was mad that Josh was not helping, so I made up a game. The game was that we had to scare away Hopey-Mopey and free Smiley-Kylee before the time ran out. Soon we were done and had all the clothes put away. Then we started making up names for our self. Here are the ones we came up with:
Good:Faithy-Waithy Bad:Angry-Adele

Good:Smiley-Kylee Bad:Hopey-Mopey

Good:Merry-Michael Bad:Sinister-Seth

Good:Jolly-Josh Bad:Weeping-Wil

Mighty Gaurd Dog

It is so exciting that me and my family are going to North Carolina to visit some friends. Especially since we are going to be traveling in our new car! But when Jasmine, my dog, first saw the new car, sitting in our garage, she freaked out! I was in my room when Jasmine started barking like crazy. My sister, Kylee, was getting dog food for Jasmine in the garage. So, of course, the garage door was wide open. Jasmine was jumping back in forth in and out of the garage, still barking like crazy. We still can't get her to go anywhere near our car. She'll warm up to it, eventually.

Tooth Money Mishap

It is always exciting when you loose a tooth, especially when you find money under your pillow the next morning. The morning after I lost my tenth tooth, I looked under my pillow to collect the money, and all I found was the envelope I had put my tooth in. What could have happened? I thought to myself. That night my mom asked if she could see my tooth again. I riped open the envelope and sure enough, there was the missing money! The envelope was sealed and looked just like it had when I first put my tooth in it. OOPS!

Faith