Oops. Just Kidding.

Okay, so it apparently wasn't Blogger that was being stupid. It was me. -.-

I added the tag to the wrong post, lol! So, here it is:

I've been tagged by the lovely Bethany, a fellow LotR fan.

Rules: Tell 30 things about yourself! It's as easy as that.

1. I have never ridden in an air plane.

2. I can sometimes make my eyes change between blue and green, and once I made one blue and one green at the same time. I don't know if that's even really possible, though. Maybe it was just the light.

3. I used to have hair almost down to my waist.

4. I can speak Elvish a TINY bit.

5. I wear my mood ring on my left ring finger all the time, and when I get married, all my friends joke that we'll have to have a Ceremonial Removing of the Mood Ring :P

6. My favorite candy is M&Ms and Hershey Kisses.

7. I hate jelly beans and skittles.

8. So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

9. I'm obsessed with names.

10. I love eerie sounding music.

11. Indian (like, the Asian kind, not the Native American kind, lol)/Arabic culture is my favorite.

12. I take a long time to make decisions of the heart.

13. I like pizza hot, warm, and cold, and I will eat it three meals a day for days on end if posisble. I never get tired of it. Really. Never.

14. I'm terrified of crane flies.

15. Only about six people call me by my really-obvious nickname.

16. I love food, but I don't like to eat. (I cannot explain this at all.)

17. I'm addicted to the computer.

18. I used to start tons of clubs when I was younger.

19. I used to want to be the first woman president.

20. Getting new followers makes my day. (Really, it does. I have no idea why. I guess it's just good to know that people care about what I have to say.)

21. I go to the best church ever XD

22. My biggest, deepest desire is to have an older brother.

23. My favorite books ever are the "Farsala Trilogy" by Hilari Bell.

24. I *love* the classic Disney movies (especially Aladin).

25. I love the Disney show Phineas and Ferb.

26. So do my parents. We actually got my dad a Phineas and Ferb beach towel for his birthday.

27. I'm singing the Cheetah Girls' "It's Over" for my audition. IF, that is, I can find the sheet music...*moan*

28. Kendra means "fire-sprung", but Kenda means "from the clear, cool water"

29. Smells remind me of things.

30. I have a weakness for older brother characters.

The end :)

I tag...
Abby
GracieTheFirst
Cavender
BJHamrick
Ciaraaa:)

The Beaches of Ministry

Memory Day! :D A peek into my past...

When I was around two years old, I attended play practice for the Christmas play at my church. I was too little to have a part, but I went along anyway, I guess. During a break in practicing, the adults went aside to talk about some details and make some decisions. Meanwhile, I convinced the older children and teenagers to march around the sanctuary being camels. When the adults looked up from their planning, there was a train of teenagers stomping around the sanctuary pretending to be camels—with me at the front of the procession.

Haha, I don't know if that should really count as a memory--I don't remember it all that well. Mostly I've just heard the story told.
----------------------
First: Thank you, Rochelle Blue for the question! Yay!! So, the rest of you guys are off the hook--for now -.-

Classical Conversations (my weekly "school") was today. It went much better than last week. My class is slowly getting back to its old self. In biology, we looked at a piece of thread and some cheek cells under a microscope. That was pretty interesting, fun, and funny :) I had the best cheek cells :D Lots of epitheleal (spelling??) cells to sketch.

Cassidy and her family stayed for dinner (Domino's pizza), and we went to the revival service at another church where our church band played again.

We have the best church ever :P We play real music, clap, sing, and praise God! Some of the people were kind of shocked that we actually had DRUMS and ELECTRICE GUITARS, but after a few minutes, they seemed to like it. Of course, by the end of the songs, the 23 people who showed up from our church were basically the only people still standing :)

I liked the pastor's sermon a lot. He talked about how funny it is that we make plans, clear our schedules, pack up, load up the car, rent a beach house, take our stuff down to the beach, put on sunblock, set up the chairs, and then try our very best not to get wet or sandy.

Huh?

He said that that's kind of how some of us Christians are about God. We're really excited, but then we get to the "beach" of ministry where it can get a little uncomfortable, and we're ready to step back out of the water. It was really thought-provoking, and the pastor was really funny.

Well, I'm supposed to get off the computer at 10:15 since school started, and it's 10:20 right now, so I better go. Thanks for reading, and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't hesitate to ask questions for Question Day :)

Thanks for reading, y'all!

OHH! I almost forgot! (Shame on you, Kendra.) I've been tagged by the lovely Bethany, a fellow LotR fan.

Rules: Tell 30 things about yourself! It's as easy as that.

1. I have never ridden in an air plane.

2. I can sometimes make my eyes change between blue and green, and once I made one blue and one green at the same time. I don't know if that's even really possible, though. Maybe it was just the light.

3. I used to have hair almost down to my waist.

4. I can speak Elvish a TINY bit.

5. I wear my mood ring on my left ring finger all the time, and when I get married, all my friends joke that we'll have to have a Ceremonial Removing of the Mood Ring :P

6. My favorite candy is M&Ms and Hershey Kisses.

7. I hate jelly beans and skittles.

8. So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

9. I'm obsessed with names.

10. I love eerie sounding music.

11. Indian (like, the Asian kind, not the Native American kind, lol)/Arabic culture is my favorite.

12. I take a long time to make decisions of the heart.

13. I like pizza hot, warm, and cold, and I will eat it three meals a day for days on end if posisble. I never get tired of it. Really. Never.

14. I'm terrified of crane flies.

15. Only about six people call me by my really-obvious nickname.

16. I love food, but I don't like to eat. (I cannot explain this at all.)

17. I'm addicted to the computer.

18. I used to start tons of clubs when I was younger.

19. I used to want to be the first woman president.

20. Getting new followers makes my day. (Really, it does. I have no idea why. I guess it's just good to know that people care about what I have to say.)

21. I go to the best church ever XD

22. My biggest, deepest desire is to have an older brother.

23. My favorite books ever are the "Farsala Trilogy" by Hilari Bell.

24. I *love* the classic Disney movies (especially Aladin).

25. I love the Disney show Phineas and Ferb.

26. So do my parents. We actually got my dad a Phineas and Ferb beach towel for his birthday.

27. I'm singing the Cheetah Girls' "It's Over" for my audition. IF, that is, I can find the sheet music...*moan*

28. Kendra means "fire-sprung", but Kenda means "from the clear, cool water"

29. Smells remind me of things.

30. I have a weakness for older brother characters.

The end :)

I tag...

Abby
GracieTheFirst
Cavender
BJHamrick
Ciaraaa:)

Sleeping Beauty's Make-Over

It's Name Day!! WOOHOO! My personal favorite :D

I'm going to go with Sleeping Beauty's name, Aurora. It means "dawn", and it comes from the Latin.

Why that name, you ask? Keep reading.

Okay, now that Name Day is out of the way, let me tell you what I've been doing today :)

First, I started reading "The Da Vinci Code". Both my parents have read it, and they told me I would really like. They said it's intriguing and well-written even if it isn't all historically accurate and some religions are falsely portrayed, including Christianity.

I'm only a few chapters into the book, but it's everything I hoped for so far! It's extremely well-written and fascinating, the story just draws you in. Author Dan Brown uses all the words that I know and never have to use! Haha, I'm such a nerd, but it really excited me to be able to exercise my ridiculously huge vocabulary.

I'm not far into the book at all, but I'll definitely let you guys know what I think when I'm done. Even now I can tell it's going to be one that I highly recommend.

Besides reading, I've been sleeping really late (10:30am today), reading blogs, writing painfully few words, and coloring print-outs of Disney characters.

I've gotten really into coloring the past couple of days. I'm a serious perfectionist about it, too. So far I've colored Meg (from Hercules"), Aladin and Jasmine on a horse, Peter Pan with Tinker Bell, Ariel sitting on a giant clam, Sleeping Beauty with Prince Philip, and Belle with The Beast.

On Sleeping Beauty, I decided not to color her as she is in the Disney movie. I colored her luxurious curls brown, gave her a red crown, an orange dress with red color and sash, and drew on a ruby ring for her ring finger. If I do say so myself, she looks way better than Disney has her ;D She looks mysterious and fiery, not Little Miss Perfect in Pink. I made some terrific changes to Bland Prince Philip, too. He's dressed in red, orange and black with jet black hair. He looks awesome. If I do say so myself.

I am way too into this.

Anyway, the mission trip is in two days! *gasp* Lizzy was getting nervous today, and now I am, too...*deep breath* Oh well. I know I'll be just fine, and having Matt and Lizzy to watch out for will make me feel better anyway. Too bad Daniel isn't going this year, though. Having him around is like having an honorary older brother.

Hmm.

Well, I guess that's about all I have to say.

Oh, wait, let me rant really quick about having writer's block: DANGIT! WHY CAN'T I FREAKIN' WRITE?? WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE? SURE, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M WRITING TOWARDS ANYMORE; SURE I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I WANT THE STORY TO END; SURE I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO TAKE THINGS ANYMORE; BUT FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, KENDRA! WOULD IT KILL YOU TO CRANK OUT A COUPLE O' PARAGRAPHS??

Okay. I'm finished. Thank you, goodnight, carpe noctem.


P.S. Just for the heck of it, I'm going to tell you the names of my main characters in "The Mirror" along with their meanings. I chose the names carefully, and all of their meanings have significance.

1. Paige: young attendant
2. Darren: small great one
3. Lila: of the night
4. Arawn: unrestrained wildness
5. Narcissa: sleep
6. Luken: light
7. Aerona: poison berry
8. Nyoka: snake
9. Lita: sorrows

Darren's, Narcissa's, and Nyoka's name meanings are the most fitting, but the rest of them are pretty important, too.

Let me know what you think if you want to.

Excuses, Excuses

I am evil and must be destroyed.

I didn't post yesterday.

But I have a fabulous excuse!!

Ready? Here it is:

I had no time.

I woke up at eight and had time to get dressed, eat, and skim over some peoples' blog posts before Maddie and Ryan were dropped off at my house. (I'm babysitting while their parents go to a home-school thing.) So then the next six and half hours were spent hanging out with them!

Things We Did:
1. Fed the fish at the lake
2. Fed the ducks at the lake
3. Saw the cutest ducklings EVER
4. Played a mystery and deduction game called Crack the Case (Maddie, who's seven, is REALLY good at that game!)
5. Watched the Bilbo's birthday party part of Lord of the Rings
6. Played a lot of hide 'n' seek
7. Ate lunch (cherries and Hot Pockets :D)
8. Went down to the "beach"
9. Took my dog on a walk
10. Watch part of Hannah Montana
11. Lizzy and I showed them our dances

I think that's it.

So then at three thirty, they get picked up and I start packing to go to a sleepover at Ellie B's.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but a couple of days ago, I GOT THE FINAL BOOK IN THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS TRILOGY!! YAAAAAY! Yeah. Sorry.

So I finished packing and called Ellie to ask her if I could come early. The party started at six, but my parents wouldn't be home from the home-school thing, so a family friend was gonna pick me on her way home from work and drop me at Ellie's, and just take Lizzy home with her. I also told Ellie that I was almost done with the Mortal Instruments book, and that if I finished it before I had to leave, I would bring it to her. Her response:

"Hang up. Go. Read. NOW."

Lols :)

So I sped read like 150 pages and finished the book two minutes before the family friend came to pick me and Lizzy up.

So, see, it's not actually my fault I didn't post.

...

Okay, yeah. Still my fault :P

Sorry. I'm making like no sense probably. I'm going to come back tomorrow and read this and be like, "WOW". But I'm reeeally tired. That's why I'm not making a lot of sense (if any at all). I got to sleep around four last night (sleepover at Ellie's), and woke up at nine forty-five. So, that's really not that bad. But I'm still a little out of it.

I had a really good time though! Two of Ellie's friends from private school came, and they're so fun and nice. We all had a great time together. And we watched Veggie Tales at like three in the morning. So that was FUN!!

Lizzy used to love Bob the Tomatoe. He was, like, her favorite.

Okay, wow. I usually make a little more sense when I've had... *counts on her fingers* ...almost six hours of sleep. I don't know why this time I'm especially...incoherent.

I also just drank a coke, so I'm hyper and about to crash at the same time.

I'll shut up.

No dark thoughts today yet, but I'll let ya know if I come with a good Carpe Noctem idea.

Carpe diem. Peace out.

(And if you're reading this blog for the first time, I promise I'm not always this...scattered? Whatever. Bye.)

OHH, and ONE LAST THING:

Thanks for following, Mike!!!!!

Advertising

Tadadadadadadaaaaaaaa!

Sorry. Sudden outburst. I'm hyper right now and I don't even know why. All I've had to eat today is Honey Nut Cheerios and orange juice. *shrugs*

Well, playing with the little kids last night was fun. Not amazingly fun like sometimes, but still fun. A kid who doesn't usually come to band practice came, and he is not as aquainted with his imagination as one might hope. We wanted to play orphans, and he goes, "What's that?"

Maybe I'm asking too much of the kid, but, really, it's not that hard to figure out. Probably I just have a wacked idea of what a "normal child" is because my friends and I and everyone I play are...well...not normal. Anyway, it was still fun, but different than usual. But I relearned how to make Jacob's Ladder and Cup And Saucer and the Witch's Broom with a string, so it's all good ;)
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Today is Name Day! I'm going to start doing names of my followers! I'll start with the unusual ones, and move on to the more familiar ones. Or at least that's what I WAS going to do.

I tried Googling the meanings of several names, and there wasn't an entry for them! Apparently, some of the names don't exist or something! Crazy, huh? The names that I tried and couldn't find meanings for are:

1. Aegis
2. Krevan
3. Araken
4. Earwen

Weird that Google had almost NOTHING for those names. I love them all and think they're so cool! Too bad I can't find the meaning. If any of you four are reading this and you know what your bloggername means, will you email it to me so I can use it for a later Name Day? My email is embersmokeman@yahoo.com. If you don't want to, that's fine, too.

Since most of the unusual names are, um, unusual, I'm going to go with...Ellie B first! She's one of my best friends, so she seems like a pretty good place to start.

Alrighty. Ellie is a nickname, but because I don't know if it's okay to give out her real name (it's something you would never guess from "Ellie"), I'm just going to use "Ellie" anyway. Ellie means... *tries to remember without having to Google it* ...darn. Okay, Google, here I come...Oh, wow! Another multi-meaning name! Here's what I got:

Noble, exalted, sun ray, shining light, foreign, famous warrior (all those were from one site!), light, most beautiful woman.

Wow, that name is PACKED with meanings! I think the one I've heard most often is "noble, exalted", though. Or maybe light. Anyway, Ellie, you have a pretty powerful name!
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Oh, and check out this blog. It's done by a girl named Meggie, who is a friend of Lizzy's (my sister). Lizzy said her blog could use some publicity. So, here it is!

http://hehehehahahagirl.blogspot.com/

I'm sure she'd be thrilled if you just dropped her a comment or something :)

Oh, and here's Ember's blog, too:

http://furieritekachina.blogspot.com/

Haha, sorry. I feel like I'm boring you with commercials or something, advertising blogs like this! LOL! Okay, ttyl! Carpe diem!

Best Book and Being Better

>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

That's how I feel right now. My computer is being unbelievably retarded. I've been trying to load the same page since--are you ready for this?--LAST NIGHT. I've been trying to get to the same thing since LAST NIGHT! I started trying at four in the afternoon, tried until six, ate dinner, came back, tried again until ten-thirty. Then I got up this morning, did math, then came back and tried for FOUR MORE HOURS. IT WON'T FREAKIN' LOAD!!!!!! I'm so mad I can't even BEGIN to explain how annoying this is!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay. Sorry. I actually have some really happy stuff to tell you! I FINISHED THE FINAL FARSALA BOOK LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! It was soooooo good! I actually cried because it was over. Yeah, I actually did that. But I was so sad that the books are over! I love the characters! They feel like friends. I thought I felt like that about other books, but this time the feeling of closeness with the characters is unbelievable. I feel like I know them, and now they've left. Their story is over, and I'll never know what happens after this. I love them!! *sigh*

Best books I've ever, ever read. Sorry, Inkheart, Eragon, Twilight, the Mortal Instruments trilogy, the Farsala trilogy surpasses all of you. Sure some things were sad, and some things were unexpected, but...wow. Just wow. Hilari Bell has to be one of the most brilliant writers ever. Seriously. I'm speechless. Amazing books, amazing ending, amazing characters, *sob* I'm gonna miss them so much! *soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooob*

*wipes eyes* 'Kay. I'm done.

Oh. Guess what? That page just loaded. *blinks* Well...yay.

Aaaaaaand my week is back to being amazing :)

Tonight I get to play with the little kids! I'm so excited! Playing with them always reminds me of...better times. Times when I was the little kid and was being played with. Good times. I'm glad to be able to help these little kids have memories like that of their own.

It's sunny today! My garden is lookin' good. The seeds haven't sprouted yet, but the tomatoes and pepper plants look happy. They're still pretty small, but they look healthy so far. I've planted squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. Red peppers, I think. Lol, I can't remember for sure...but I'm pretty sure they're red.

Oh, whoops! Today is quote day! Alrighty :D Here's the quote of the week:

"That doesn't matter," said Jiaan. "What matters is that we have to be better than the Hrum. We have to be. Because if we're not, then it's all been for nothing. All the fighting, all the deaths. For nothing, unless we're better than they are. ...It's not about my father. It's not even about the Hrum. This is about our honor. We have to be better than they are, or it doesn't even matter whether we win or not."

That's a quote from, you guessed it, a book in the Farsala trilogy. I tried to pick a meaningful passage that wouldn't spoil anything in case any of you want to read the books (I HIGHLY recommend them).

Isn't that quote so true? If you're fighting for something, you have to want to be better than the people you're fighting. If you want to be in the popular crowd, you ought to want to bring about good changes, too. Same if you want to be the president. You can't run with the intention of being a worse president than the one before you. You have to be better. It's not about the old president. It's about you. It's about you being better.

*shrugs* I don't know. It just like that passage. And when you read it in context, it's even better.

:)

Carpe diem! And remember, be better :)

Couch Potatoes Can't Apply Makeup

So yeah. That's what I've felt like all day, lol! I'm so lazy. I watched like two whole episodes of Nanny 911. Yes, I did. And it's even pretty outside today!!!!!! I have to get out of the house! What is wrong with me? Okay, I know what's wrong with me...

I'm afraid of ticks. How pathetic is THAT? There was one on my shirt Friday after I took a walk, so I freaked out. And now I don't want to go walking in the woods anymore. And that's like my favorite. :( I'm such a wussy!! I'm not sure why, but ticks seriously creep me out. *shudders*

Someone stopped following my blog. Apparently they realized that it's not healthy to listen to the rants of a weird-o like myself ;)

Tomorrow is my sisters dance rehearsal! My mom won't be home from speaking at the practicum, so I'm going to have to do her hair and makeup. O.O HELP! I hope I do okay with that. I'm not completely incompetent in the art of beautification, but I'm not exactly an expert either. And I've never tried to apply eyeliner to anyone but myself. I'm also a big believer in less is more, so I hope I can bring myself to put enough on her so that she doesn't look washed out under the lights. I'm pretty sure I'm over-thinking this.

I started the final installment of The Farsala Trilogy today!! So far, it's fine. Not great or anything, but, I mean, I'm only on page like twenty-five. I'm not sure why I'm not at least halfway finished yet. Either I'm being lazy, or I just don't want the trilogy to end!! I think it's a little of both.

*incoming sarcasm* You should be proud to know that I wrote 619 words today. *sigh* I know, I know. I should be doing more than that, but at least I'm writing AT ALL. Yesterday was better. I wrote like...oh. Less than that. Well, one day recently, I wrote a bunch. I don't remember what day, Saturday or Sunday maybe. But I HAVE been writing. Promise :)

Tonight a family that goes to our church is coming over to eat ice cream, return my dad's tiller, and help us fix a problem with the stupid printer or something. Haha, I love having good friends! Abby and Jarrod are so much fun. I've mentioned them before. Abby is seven, Jarrod is nine. They crazy and fun :) So I'm looking forward to this evening.

Well, that's all I can think of to say! Hope I didn't bore you to death...anyway, carpe diem!