Tuesday, February 28

Happy birthday to my little sis! She's nine today! Definitely one of my greatest blessings and greatest annoyances! Then again, that's what sisters are for...

Monday, February 27

Until we give You first place
Until we let You begin
To fill us with your spirit
Renew us from within
Nothing matters
Nothing's gained
Without your Holy presence
Our lives are lived in vain

Lord we want to know You
Live our lives to show You
All the love we owe You
We're seekers of your heart

Because your heart was broken
Because You saw the need
Because You gave so freely
Because of Calvary
We can now be
Called your own
Complete creations
Filled with You alone



The new song we're singing in teen choir at church. SOOOO pretty and meaningful!

Thursday, February 23

Setting: Dad, Cameron, Audrey, and I are coming out of Winn-Dixie.
Cameron: When I get home, I shall feast!
Audrey: On what?
Cameron: VANILLA WAFERS!!!!!

Mmmmm....smells like cupcakes!

I woke up at seven to bake on a Thursday morning.
Am I insane?
No, some would say I'm just efficient. However, judging from the reason of this particular culinary plight, I prefer to say that I'm just a good friend.  I hope it'll make ya happy later, You-Know-Who! :)

Tuesday, February 21

Meredith and Geoffrey learn to share - a cold, that is.

Sunday, February 19

Stars of Tomorrow concert

Geoff won a competition a while back, and on Friday night he had his performance with the orchestra. It was cool. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of him playing, because the lighting was bad, there were people in front of us, and various other reasons. I shall complain no more and instead show you the pictures. My mom took them, as I was not feeling well and in a bit of a mood. :)
 Geoff's dressing room door. I told Geoff I thought it was lame that they didn't even engrave a plaque for him. Maybe next time!
 Geoff in his tux in his dressing room. You could practically live in there, as long as you could bring in extra food. There was a shower and everything!
 The sign outside the college. Mom thought it was really cool and got all excited.
 The sign outside the Mattie Kelly. It looked pretty cool at night, did it not?
 Me and Geoff. We took three of these pictures and this is the best. And by best I mean that I looked the best.
 Back to business, people!
 Audrey, Cam, and Dad.
 Everybody thought Cameron looked so cute in his suit!
 Our friends who came to watch Geoff (Thanks, guys! It was cool to see ya!)
Geoff outside his dressing room. Doesn't he look starry eyed?
After that, we hung out in the hallway backstage for a while and had pictures taken. Lots of pictures.

Thursday, February 16

Anybody interested in writing a six-page research paper on Stalin for me? Anyone? Anyone?
My feet hurt... my head hurts... my arm hurts... my pride hurts...

Today's happenings

Today's was an interesting morning. Geoff has his two big performances with the orchestra tomorrow, so today we went to pick up his tuxedo. Fun times, I tell ya!
 The incredibly scary mannequin at the formal wear place. The weird thing is that they have it/him right inside the door, so he/it's the first thing you see when you walk in.
 Here he is! He seemed to enjoy the tux, and it actually didn't look half bad. Not that I'd tell him that or anything. :)
 The peanut gallery. The first time we went to the formal wear place, we got in trouble for giggling at Geoff. I think we were in shock or something. :)
 There were these really pretty flowers outside the library. Naturally, I photographed them. They look like Easter!

 After the library, we had time to kill before picking up Dad from work, and we just sat on campus. I took pictures of random things sitting around the car.
 My mid-morning snack. It didn't work like on the commercials though. When you take a bite of it, your hair is supposed to blow back and you're supposed to get goosebumps and open your eyes really wide. That did not happen.
The sports center on campus. I actually had to crop the shot because there was a stupid little golf cart in the way. CURSE YOU, GOLF CART!!!!!!
Now I'm getting ready for PE. Today is dodgeball, so I'll be black and blue when I get home! :)

Wednesday, February 15

You know what I love? Eating Valentine's chocolate right when you wake up JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN!!!

Tuesday, February 14

I'm Pinky and the Brain

My younger siblings are learning about the brain and the nervous system and such in their anatomy and physiology class, and today they read about the left and right hemispheres of the brain. So we took a test to see if we were right dominant or left dominant. According to my test, I am fifty-one percent right and fifty percent left. How did that happen? Anyway, according to that test, these are some of my characteristics: holistic, random, concrete, intuitive, nonverbal, and fantasy-oriented. I rather like this description of my reality-based brain functions: You process information with a basis in reality, but are not limited to it. You may recognize the repercussions of your actions, but proceed to do something anyway, in the heat of the moment. You can complete projects to which you are emotionally attached as well as random tasks. As accurate as this may sound, it also told me that I am an average mathematician and speller, so obviously it can't be relied on for everything! :)
Happy Valentine's Day!
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
  -William Shakespeare

Monday, February 13

I love to sing, so even though my voice is comparable to a howler monkey with laryngitis, I tend to do it whenever I can. My favorite songs to sing are hymns and worship songs, and I love to sing in a group cuz you can mess around with harmonies and such. This week in Sunday School, we sang the song, "I Love You, Lord" right before we started the lesson. It was so cool to hear all of us teenage girls lifting our voices in song to the Lord and how all our voices blended in harmony. It was sending chills all down my back and I was starting to get emotional because it was so amazing. Watch this video and you'll sort of understand. :)

Saturday, February 11

Historic Pensacola

Since I'm the events coordinator for SGA, I have a few extra field trips that I get to go to (since I, you know, planned them and all). Today we had a field trip to Historic Pensacola. It was a perfect day for a field trip, except for the chilly weather. I took lots of pictures, and here's a few of my better ones!

This is one of the gardens at the first house we visited. There were a bunch of herb gardens, a sundial, some old outdoor stoves, and some other stuff I didn't get a picture of.

Isn't this house so cool? I like how complicated the stairs look!

Somehow, my camera miraculously behaved and took great pictures the way I wanted them! Good job, camera, and thanks!

This is Christ Church, I believe. It was built in 1832, and had many purposes in the Civil War and stuff. Yeah, I'm not a history buff.

Ooooh, another fence! Seriously, though, even the fences were beautiful!

I know the focus is totally off on this shot and it's very busy, but I wanted you guys to see how pretty the orange trees looked. They were so bright and colorful!


This is some of the detailing on an old mirror inside one of the fancier houses. The lighting was bad in there.


Cameron likes to be comfy and we weren't allowed to use the furniture. Ah, to be eleven! :)

This thing is a little crooked.

See the pretty flower shape?

Half the roses were dead. I was sad.

The last house we visited. It had all these gardens and stuff next to it -  so gorgeous!



Look at the intricate details in the painting on there! I would so not be patient enough for that.


Wow, another fence! You can see some of the gardens I was talking about earlier.
Overall, great morning with family and friends! Our tour guide was spunky and very informative, and she was always right on the ball with everything - even when we got locked out of one of the buildings momentarily (that was fun!). Then we went and had lunch at a park. In the cold. We shivered. I am very ready for it to warm up!

Thursday, February 9

Chocolate

This morning has been totes fab so far! (I'm practicing my teenage girl speak, apparently!)
I slept until nine, read my book in bed until nine thirty, took my sweet time getting ready, then sauntered downstairs, ate a bowl of cereal while reading, read some more, then got caught reading and was made to do algebra. Ah, the life of a homeschooler! So besides that last part, it was great! Then I made some nom-noms (brownies) for the skating party later - so excited - and now it smells like brownies in my house! :)
Plus, I have a chocolate bar in my purse just waiting for me! I'm one happy girl! :)

Wednesday, February 8

My collection

Since we're considering selling some of our artwork at the local farmers market, I've been trying to build up a collection of artwork, since I normally don't have a lot just sitting around. Here's what I have so far!
Sadly, the color got somewhat washed out of this one. I have to say, I am very proud of that monarch butterfly in the lower right corner. Watercolor is not a medium that is typically very detailed (which is why I like it) but that butterfly has some very fine details. What say you?
This one is messed up in so many different places, it's not even funny. I think the term for a picture like this where features are exaggerated and stuff would be hyper realistic. I'm not sure. Still, I want opinions, so fire away! :)
This one I really don't like. At all. I messed up all over the place, but I've had several folks tell me that it's good, so what do you think? I might still put it in a box in my closet, though. :)
Sorry about the crookedness - the scanner was being weird. Anyways, this one I did a couple years ago for the homeschool art show, and it's still one of my best paintings ever. This one and the hummingbird I posted a while back are my favorites, I think. I like how the background is so drab and contrasts with the brilliance of the bird (the brilliance is a lot more brilliant in real life; the scanner didn't pick it up) quite nicely.

Watercolor is my main medium. I also like to mess around with photography, but I'm not that good at it. Stick to what you know and excel at it. Of course, I didn't always used to be good with watercolors. Here's one of my first ever serious paintings. Painting attempt, rather....
See, if I was a real artist, I could say, "It's an abstract painting, inspired by squirrels."
But since I'm not, I guess I'll call it what it is: EPIC WATERCOLOR FAIL.
Hey, in my defense, I was very inexperienced with watercolors at that point, and I was only ten. And squirrels do not lend themselves well to watercolors, with all their fur with the weird textures and stuff. Maybe I should try this same picture again and see how it comes out now that I have painted for four more years...

Monday, February 6

Yay! Birthday donuts!

Sunday, February 5

Saturday, February 4

Geoff told me tonight, "Good night, sister. Dream of daffodils and donuts."
Daffodils and donuts sounds good...or maybe ninja chipmunks...

Thursday, February 2

WHOA! Pomeranian gone wrong!!!!!