Family of Four...And Three Other Families!

VOTE ON THE POLL TO THE RIGHT! We have 44 so far. That's more than halfway, but we still need 39 more votes!

I JUST WATCHED THE BEST ALIAS EPISODE EVER!!!! It had all my favorite stuff, and plenty of Mr. Sark! <3 <3 <3 *SCREAM*

Today was the annual playing of Christmas Dollhouse! Every year, Lizzy, my mom and I get out all our dollhouse stuff and play Christmas with them. We play with each other, have a Christmas Parade, and open presents on "Christmas Eve". Unfortunately, we usually get so into it that we drag it out for a long time. We haven't even gotten to Christmas Eve since I was nine years old!!! I wrapped up presents for my dollpeople when I was ten, but since we haven't gotten to Christmas Eve...we never get to open the presents.

Well, this year we did!! We opened the presents, and I was absolutely so thrilled and surprised. I had no idea what was in the tiny dollpresents, so when I opened them, it was like really getting a present. I opened my favorite doll skirt that I've been missing for five years, a jacket I forgot I had, a globe, a CD player, a ball, and a pillow! The Parade was also one of our best. My dad videoed it :) Needless to say, Christmas Dollhouse this year is continuing in the trend of the Best Christmas Ever.

Wanna see some pictures? I took them all with the exceptions of the ones of Lizzy's and my mom's houses.

(**WARNING** TODAY IS KENDRA'S CLASH DAY. PREPARE YOUR EYES FOR MAGENTA SWEATPANTS, A PINK JACKET, AND A T-SHIRT WITH RED WRITING. ALSO, HER HAIR IS UNSTRAIGHTENED AND SHE HAS NO MAKEUP ON. JUST WARNING YOU.)

Captions at the top, click to enlarge. And by the way, do you prefer the captions at the top, or the bottom? I'm starting to think I might like them at the bottom, but what about you guys? Which is easier to process?

Here's my dollhouse all set up for Christmas! I got it when I was two years old, and have loved it for a long time. The girls' side of the roomThe boys' side of the room and the bathroom...I had limited space, okay?? :)Tommy and Timmatheep (there is a serious story behind that name) playing the pianoThe parents' room. Note the laundry basket ;)Mom's in the kitchen! Baby Gloria is in the highchair. See the jacket draped across the chair; I thought that was a neat little touch :)
Dad and Cody watching TV. Yes, the Christmas tree is decorated with paperclips :)Christmas wreath!Lizzy's dollhouse setup. A newer model, seeing how she's two years younger than I amMomma doesn't have a dollhouse, so she always makes her with some of our furniture and blocks and odd things around the house. Her houses always end up looking the best anyway! Here's a look at her living room:The parkAn overview of the downstairs with the dollstuff out. It's not usually this messy; we've been wrapping presents.You were probably wondering what that line of stuff was. Or maybe you guessed. But anyway, it's the Parade floats! Here's another picture, with Rudolph in the lead, as always :)The kids who aren't on the floats ride on Rudolph :)Here's my family's float
Lizzy's family's floatMomma's float, with some other "neighborhood" children on itAnother angle, with Momma's legs in it, hahaThe Christmas Queen :)SpectatorsThe view from the backLizzy and I moving the Parade floats along their route :) Notice the random bald spot on my head...LOL! Weird. I don't think that's usually there...YAY!!! After five years of waiting, my family finally opened their presents! They're all holding them, except for Mom and Dad, who are wearing theirs :) I'd been looking for that awesome skirt for a long time, and I'd completely forgotten about that jacket.Everyone's in bed on "Christmas Eve night"! Wonder what Santa will bring them in the morning...?
:)

Okay, now for Christmas Countdown. Since there are only FOUR DAYS until Christmas, and there are four people in my family, I'll tell each person's favorite part of Christmas!

The Logan Family's Christmas Favorites:

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Amber Logan - Coming home from the Christmas Eve service, and that feeling, and going to bed...The whole Christmas Ever cheer.

Daddy Logan - Having special time with family

Momma Logan - Decorating the house

Kendra Marielle Logan - The time leading up until Christmas. All the parties and traditions. But if I have to pick one favorite part...well, the traditions! I love them. The Cross Collection, the Open House, Christmas Dollhouse...they're what make Christmas "ours".

MERRY FOUR-DAYS-UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

P.S. I have some more pictures of me, my friends, my dog, and the house in the snow. Would you guys be interested in seeing them?

Imagination and Irritation

Memory Day! Peek into my past... ( ;) )

When I was about ten years old and Lizzy was eight, my parents left us home for an hour or so to go to band practice for our church. Things were fine at home for a little while, but then Lizzy and I heard a noise coming from my dad’s office. It sounded like my dad talking on the phone, so we weren’t bothered by that, until we remembered that our dad wasn’t home. Then we sort of freaked out a little. Lizzy demanded that I go and check in my dad’s office to see if someone was there. After a lot of arguing and freaking out together, I did. I didn’t see anyone, but both of us were convinced we had heard someone.

The rest of the night we kept hearing people! Upstairs, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in our parents’ bedroom. We finally decided that the intruders had to be invisible. It was the only explanation. I had actually been doing some research on invisibility cloaks for a story I was writing, so unfortunately I knew that being invisible was actually possible. Lizzy and I ended up calling our parents, who were more than little ticked off at me for getting us both all scared.

For a long time after that, I really believed that there were people in my house wearing invisibility cloaks. That’s definitely one of the downsides to having a powerful imagination.

So, yes; I've pretty much always been this paranoid and, um, creative :)
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FIRST: Thanks for following Lisabailey! You rock!! ;)

FIRST AND A HALF (because "second" sounds too late): Thanks to Bethany for making the wonderful new header for the blog! Yayayayayayayay! I love it! Do you? She says she likes working with photoshop, so if you have the need for a banner as well...

Classical went well today. Our class is really back to its regular self, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside XP It does, okay?! I love how we all laugh with and at each other, and so much more. Most of us have been together since eight grade, and some of us from even elementary school. We're a pretty tight bunch ;D

There was a Latin quiz this week. Some of you may know that Latin was not exactly my focal point this week. Let's just say, I studied lightly at the most. So, when the teacher announced that the Latin quiz was today, it was one of those You're-Joking-Right?-Please-Be-Joking-Oh-No,-You're-Not moments for me. Despite my horrors, I actually did pefectly fine. The quiz was EASY.

The logic quiz...hmm...In my defense, whoever wrote the book is a flat-out HORRIBLE teacher with NO LOGIC EXPERIENCE or GOOD WRITING EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER. All he talks about is crap like Simple Aprehension and Verbal Expressions and Comprehension vs. Extension and all this junk that has to be put into confusing over-lapping categories! I HATE IT! I *love* logic, so when someone like Mr. What'sHisName comes along and writes a terrible logic book (which we frequently have to change in class because it's INCORRECT), it makes me MAD. Can you TELL?

Lol. Sort of. No, actually, you know what? Not lol.

Other than that, today has been fine. The teacher really loved my "Paradise Lost" paper, which is a major YAY because I loved the book. I hate it when I write a bad paper for a good book.

Tonight I have soccer practice :-/ Normally I don't dislike soccer at all. Normally, I actually love it by this time. The only problem is our coach isn't a great coach. He's not BAD, and he's really nice, he's just not the best coach in the world. So, I feel like we never really learn much. AND, he doesn't make us run, which might be a good thing, except that it means that I'll just STAY out shape instead of improve. Humph.

Desirae Mayes story: I think I wrote some last night, not much, but some. It's going okay. Still not great, and I doubt it will go anywhere. Still, it's good to be writing SOMETHING again, you know?

No play practice tonight :( None, actually, until Friday! *sob*

Hmm...I think that's all for now, folks. The What Disney Movie is Your Favorite? poll is about to expire, so if you'd like to cast your vote, go for it! So far 18 people have voted, which is an all-time high for me :) Yay and thanks, y'all!

Carpe diem!

Memory Day and Lil' Miss...POPULAR??

FIRST THINGS FIRST: NEW FOLLOWER!!!!!!!!!!! :O Thanks, Kevin the Awesome for following! :D :D :D Made my day! Well, it was already made (read on), but you made it even further ;)

EDIT: *SCREAMS AT TOP OF LUNGS* SPARKLE4JC12 IS ALSO A NEW FOLLOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O :O :O :O IS THIS JUST FOLLOW-CARPE-DIEM DAY OR WHAT??

I AM SO PSYCHED! OMG! I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THIS! DO YOU PEOPLE REALIZE I AM ONE FOLLOWER AWAY FROM MY LONG-TIME-SECRET GOAL OF FIFTY (50) FOLLOWERS??????

*SCREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS*

Sorry.
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Memory Day:

The place where my church meets, there is a “huge” dirt hill. At least, it was “huge” when my friends and I were nine years old. I played on that hill with my friends every chance I got. We played on it after church, after Wednesday night Bible study, even after the classes for our homeschool group that met at the the church building. We played slaves on it after church and Bible study, but after homeschool classes, the Hill became a place of war. We homeschool kids had divided ourselves into two teams, and we battled for control over the Hill.

Needless to say, that hunk of dirt and weeds was a big part of our lives.

We loved playing on it. It was the best playground imaginable. We had trails coming off of it, we had carved steps into the back side, there was a hole in the side for treasure, it was a kids paradise.

That’s probably why the news of its planned demolition hit us so hard.

Well, it hit me hard anyway. When I found out the Hill was scheduled to be destroyed and flattened out to make the church yard a prettier-looking place, I was devastated. I asked my dad if he would tell the bulldozer guy not to do it. My dad said that the hill really did need to go; it was ugly and not useful to anyone. I kept pestering him, though. Finally he told me that if I loved the hill so much, I should do something about it myself.

Being, well, ME, I began plotting what to do, and decided that I would make a petition. I grabbed a piece of lined paper before homeschool group one day and labeled it Save The Hill. I went around telling the kids what I was doing, and before long, I had a ton of signatures. I did the same thing at church the next week. By the time I was finished, the paper had almost a hundred signatures. When the guy came to destroy the hill, I showed him the paper, and told him why we wanted the hill to stay. He actually listened to me, a little nine-year-old girl.

I finished explaining and held my breath. He shrugged.

"Okay.”

I was speechless. My idea had actually worked! The Dirt Hill is alive today, and still sitting happily behind the church building :)
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Well, play practice is just one big YAY after another! I had another one tonight, and it went probably the best yet. Gosh, people are so nice to me, I almost wonder if they want something from me. It's utterly ridiculous! All these popular people are coming up to me and talking to me. I really wonder if there's a catch to their friendship...The kindness is awesome, and I like everyone a lot, but it's crazy!

Things That Happened At Practice:
1. I got a compliment on my hair being so pretty.
2. I got a compliment on my pig tails.
3. I got a compliment on how cute my purse is.
4. I got asked if I had a Facebook by four people.
5. I got invited to someone's Sweet 16.
6. Someone made someone else move so they could sit beside of me.

*blink*

:O

Did I MISS something??? I don't think I'm really this giant popular-girl magnet! And get this: Mr. Lead Singer Who Plays Shang-the-Captain passes me and goes, "Hi, Kendra!"

*eyes bug*

:O

I hate to get used to this. I love it, probably more than is healthy, LOL, but it can't last, right? I mean...hmm...Any thoughts? I don't want to seem like an ignorant "home-schooler", but does anyone have any advice/guidance/suggestions/theories? Are these people just super awesome and nice, or is something going on?

You know what I think? I think I'm just too darn suspicious of everyone! LOL!

As for the singing, I wasn't sure what I was (alto/soprano), so the music lady made me an alto. Turns out, I usually sing soprano harmony. I CAN sing alto, no problem, I just natually hear the soprano and so it's hard for me not to slide up to that. I'm getting better, though.

Okay, anyway.

Classical went well today. We're getting back to our full selves now. It takes us a little while to get our class chemistry back. Cassidy is getting to see the real us more and more...*evil laugh* Hopefully we won't scare her off :P

Ben (the Dare Devil) got to read something something with a British accent, as he requested. I thought he would totally butcher it, but it was completely authentic-sounding. I was impressed.

We looked at a tape worm and some bacteria under the microscope. The tape worm had eyes. *blinkshudder* Ickkkk. And the bacteria was boring. But we also looked at a Hydra Budding, and that was AWESOME. It seriously just looked like a magenta squid. Very cool.

Well, I guess that's all that's been going on...

Thanks for reading, talk to you later! :D :D :D :D Don't forget, theories on people being so nice are more than welcome :)


P.S. Vote in the poll! Pretty pleaseeeee :D

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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 :)

Slaves and Studying

Last night was so much fun!!!!!!!

I had to skip dance, which was definitely NOT (I had to study), but I got to go with my parents to band practice for our church. After I studied, guess what I did? I PLAYED WITH THE LITTLE KIDS!! My favorite thing to do EVER! (Not really, but close.) That is so much fun, let me tell ya. Two nine year old boys and two seven year old girls.

Wow. It's weird thinking about how old they are now...I've known Ryan and Maddie since they were three and one, and Abby and Jarrod since they were four and six. THEY'RE SO BIG NOW!! I feel all...old or something, lol! Anyway.

We played--you'll NEVER GUESS--slaves.

YES, SLAVES! To some of you, you're like, "Oh, the big deal is that they played slaves. Okay. Got it." But the people who have known me since I was little know that it's a big deal because THAT'S WHAT MY FRIENDS AND I USED TO PLAY/DO, TOO. It felt so strange to be playing it again. Weirder than you can imagine. Like stepping back five or six years.

It was also weird because Ryan was a lot stronger than I remembered him being. In like two years or so, he's gonna be able to take me out. Which is weird, because I'm not exactly WEAK OR SOMETHING, and he's only NINE. And he's not, like, fat or anything (lols). So that was weird, because the first time me and Abby and Maddie tried to "escape" (we were the slaves, Ryan and Jarrod were the owners), I figured I would let the boys catch me, and then after a while, I'd just push them off of me and run away for real.

Only I tried and Ryan caught me by surprise, and then I was on the floor, blinking. Huh? Lol! It was hilarious. I was like "Wow, you are a lot stronger than I remembered." Of course, then I got up and outran him in like six steps and was ready for him the next time, but it was harder to get away than I expected. So yeah. It was just weird.

And now I'm thinking this has to be at least ONE OF the weirdest posts I've ever written. *shrug* I know it's weird that I like playing with little kids, and it's even weirder than we play SLAVES, but, hey, that's just me :) And it was really fun. You should try it sometime ;)

Also today, I saw someone I hadn't really seen in a long time. It was awesome. Not going to say more, but I think I already have in a post...let me find it...ah, here it is: http://puelladei.blogspot.com/2009/01/randomness-at-its-best.html Read that. And the comments. It explains it a little.

Studying went okay today. Physical science, not so great, American Government and memorizing my poem to say for the class are both going GREATLY!! So, I guess two and a half out of three isn't bad. Not bad at all.

"Mirror" still sucks, but I think I'm coming out of writer's block. Maybe. I started writing some of the sequel, and it's at least getting me out of the rut. The only problem is, I have such GREAT IDEAS for the sequel, and for the next generation, but I really, really, REALLY didn't want this to turn into a series. I really wanted to write ONE BOOK, and then just be DONE. But noooooooooooo. My characters have to keep having KIDS in my mind and cool stuff like that. And so much more. *moan*

Over all, it's been a KILLER two days. Despite exams. Who woulda thought, huh? Guess you never know. Carpe diem :)

We're Closing!

Guess what? We're closing on the House on the 27th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll probably move the 28th! Wow! It feels so much more real now. And kind of sad. I love the new house, and I hate this one (lol), but I'm really going to miss the yard. Maybe that's crazy, but I just really love our yard. I have so many memories in it. And it's HUGE! Lots of grass, and a little dirt turnaround thing that my sister and I used to play prairie in and stuff :) There are cool trees, and little trails in our woods, and a fire ring, and an awesome weeping willow tree and the view from my window is AMAZING. I just don't want to leave the yard!

I like the yard in the new neighborhood though. It's nice, but not so friendly. More...I don't know...perfect. Lol, you know? Hmm...

At any rate, we're closing on the house, and I'm super excited! I hope the move is smooth. I don't want it to be this long, drawn-out, super stressful ordeal, you know? Oh well. We're finally moving. Yay!