The Loveliest Time of the Year

Hello, everyone. How's your day going? My day is going quite well. I have a wonderful idea for a story, and I plan on working on that today. I suppose you're wondering why I've written another blog post in one week. Crazy, I know. I've decided that today would be a good day to explain why I never blog.

 I like to think I spend my days frolicking with my pets, writing stories about wild, mysterious lands, and dressing my dolls in their wonderful handmade clothes. But the truth is, I'm just a boring, lazy teen who likes to procrastinate more than anything else in the world. At the moment my pets are sitting patiently as they watch me play around on my computer, lots of unfinished stories are waiting for their endings, and my dolls are lying around naked wondering what happened to that new shirt I've been working on for a month. It's tragic, I know, but that's why I'm here today. Perhaps if I keep up on my blog, I can slowly get better at not putting things off. I know you enjoy reading the things I write, and I enjoy writing them for people to read. I love people's responses to my posts, and I love putting a smile on someone's face. If I start blogging more, it will help me improve my writing skills, which I need, seeing as I'm in the middle of about ten different stories. I can show you all my doll clothes that I make, even if they're not the greatest, because you probably won't even see all the flaws. I can provide you with short stories to read (I have a few good ones that I've almost finished). I can even give you lots of pictures of my animals, including all my new chickens. I'm certainly not lacking ideas for new posts, I simply have to take the time to write them down and share them here. Once I get started on something, chances are I'll keep it going for a long time. Now that I've started blogging again, I think it's safe to promise many more posts in the future.

On a lighter note, it's currently my favorite season, and it feels like it. I love walking on the crunchy orange leaves and feeling the delightful crisp air on my face the moment I step outside. It's wonderful to be able to wear sweaters outside without being too hot or too cold. When I look outside it's obvious that it's fall, and that makes me smile. Fall makes me want to go outside and take pictures of my dolls, go for a bike ride with Rosey (fat old thing that she is), or just walk around and enjoy the beauty.

Well, I've been working on this post for about an hour, so I should probably end it now and work on something else. I'll be back soon!

A Little Medley in Time for Spring

As I was sitting here browsing Facebook and sipping tea, there was only one thing on my mind: I should probably blog. For the past few days I've been thinking about how many interesting topics I have to write about, some happy, some sad. I suppose I ought to start with the sad part, since no one wants to end anything on a sad note, and the happier part is much longer than the sad part.

Well, you know how I live in a house surrounded by tall, beautiful trees? Heh. Not anymore. Our new neighbors clear-cut their property and now all that's left are stumps and slash piles. It makes me very sad to see the woods I used to walk past almost every day gone. To make matters worse, though, another neighbor is logging now too. Now, these woods were the ones I used to play in all the time. I went over there yesterday evening and looked at all the trees that had been cut down. I have many memories of those trees, and it pains me to think that I'll never be able to make more.

Now that the terribly sad, frustrating part of my life is out of the way, we can get on to the happier parts.

First, we have some wonderful newish chicks. We actually got them a few months ago, but they're still just as cute as they were when they fit into my hand. I have two very special ones in the group. At first I had planned on picking out one special chick to be my pet and naming her Barrow after one of my favorite "Downton Abbey" characters (yes, I still love that show), but then the smallest chick of the group, an Ameraucauna, was acting awfully sick. Daddy noticed her, and Mother and I held her and fed her and gave her water until we went to bed that night. In the morning we expected her to be dead, but she was fine! I was a bit funny, though, because I had named her Sybil after "Downton Abbey," and then she happened to be the chick who almost died. It was all rather appropriate for the poor thing. Anyway, Sybbie became very close to people because we held her so long and took care of her, so now she and Barrow are my two pet chickens and they always stick together like the best of chick friends. I'm afraid I don't have any recent pictures of the two at the moment, so here's a picture of when they were much smaller.

Sybil is now white with black instead of yellow and black, but Barrow has basically the same coloring (Barrow's a Buff Orpington). When they were little I had lots of fun setting them up with the dollhouse furniture. I do love to play with my little chicks.

You might remember that this time last year, my brother, his wonderful wife, and, of course, my nephew Walter came up here from California and we had a family reunion. Well, they're coming on Wednesday to stay for a few days. This time, though, I have two nephews to play with and take on walks down the (treeless) driveway. The last time they came, Margaret was pregnant with Owen, who's now eight months old. We saw him when we went to California in the fall, but of course he's completely different now. I'm sure you'll be waiting for me to blog all about their stay here and how much fun we all had, which I shall certainly do.

I'll be quite busy in the next few days, as one of my other brothers, Patrick, is coming home on Sunday, and Sunday happens to be Mother's Day. I must also do a great deal of cleaning this week. My room's just a bit of a mess at the moment.

I'll talk to you all in a few weeks!

Hi!

I'm afraid this blog has sat untouched for far too long. I did at least want to get a post in before Christmas. Don't worry about the second part of my birthday story: it will come before the end of the year. I'm so sorry for the long wait.

Anyway, I am enrolled in school. Wait, let me rephrase that. I am taking an online English class with which I am almost finished. If I must be brutally honest, it's quite silly. It's all answering questions, and my teacher seems to enjoy dwelling on stories/poems/speeches about sports and black segregation. I had to read To Kill a Mockingbird, which was fine, but there is a very interesting, long story connected to one of the assignments I had to do. I shall tell it to you some other day, as it commands a post all to itself, and "An Adventure (or Two), Part 2)" must come first.

Well, I've complained enough and it's getting a bit late, so I shall leave you to ponder what I have just said (or not; it doesn't require pondering).

Bye!

A Little Medley

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, was a very special day at our house.  You see, I love Ireland and I am partly Irish, so St. Patrick's Day is my favorite miniature holiday.  And I love corned beef.

Here is what we had:

Soda bread, corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes.

My animals have been doing very well.  A few days ago I thought Salieri (one of my ducks) had been stolen by an animal.  When I found her under an old rabbit hutch in the ducks' pen, I thought she was dead, so I poked her with a stick and she shifted and quacked a half-quack.  I discovered that she was simply laying eggs under the hutch.  Good old Sally.

Sara has been reveling in eating all the nightcrawlers Mother and I have been digging up in the garden, and Scarlet cares about her crickets just as much as she always has: she loves them.

Well, it's getting late, so I should probably stop writing and finish my Latin before I go to bed.  You may expect me to blog again soon: I forgot how delightful it is.

  

A Little Medley

I shall begin this post by saying that I am sorry for not blogging, and when I did, the posts were dull and short.  At first I was too sick with the flu to write.  Then I was catching up in life.  Then I was busy lazy.  Then Easter came (more on that in a moment).  Now I'm back!

As I said, there would be more on Easter in a moment, so here's how my Easter went...

"It all began on Friday, March 29th.  The day was lovely with all its sunniness and greenness.  'Twas indeed the day Matthew, Margaret and Walter were coming.
"On Saturday, Patrick and Sara came home and Chris and Kari came for quite a while with Beyonca, their friends' two-year-old daughter.  We went to our neighbors' house, then came back to our house to have dinner with Mom and Don.
"Sunday was, of course, Easter.  We had some very special guests, Meghan, Rob and Joshua.  Meghan is my cousin, Rob is her husband and Joshua is their child.  We ate, did some archery and chatted.  Of course different people did different things, but it would take too long to list all the activities.
"Monday was the day Mother and I took the little Newhall family to the car rental place.  We said goodbye and then left them to drive to Margaret's family's house.
"Walter was the most amazing, wonderful baby ever, and I'm very excited to see him again!"

...and that was how my Easter (and visit with Walt) turned out.

Today Mother and Daddy went to the farm store and got some chicken feed for our chickens.  They brought me home a wonderful surprise: two ducklings!  They're black and yellow and their names are Salieri (hopefully a female) and Victor (hopefully a male).  I plan on raising them into show ducks, like what I did with Henna, only she was a show chicken.  After Henna died, it seemed pointless to try to train any more chickens, but I'm excited to see how smart and cute my little ducks become.

A Little Medley

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately, but as you know, four of my pets died recently.  Now, when I wake up in the morning, I check to see if Sara and Scarlet are alive and well.  Whenever I go to throw something in the garbage I expect to hear a piercing squeal.  At first I have to admit it was nice, but now I'm getting used to it.  Two or three days ago I thought I heard Bobby clawing at the window, and on Saturday Mother put his old bed in the laundry room for Raf.  It's much more lonely going down to feed the chickens without seeing a bald head and a chicken who doesn't squat for me to pick her up.  The wagon and crate and pole we used for games and training are being used for other things or are just lying around.  I only have to fill up the pet spray bottle about every other day, even when I spray Sara.  I never knew my life was so full of annoying animals until they went and died on me like that.  I never knew how important it was to tell a little black guinea pig to shut up and dump food in his bowl.  I never knew how important it was to tuck a cat in bed with a towel and sing the Winnie the Pooh theme song to him.  I never knew how important this was...Someday, when Henna is too old to perform, Hoppy will take the stage herself, but until then, the two will be working together... I never knew how important it was to stand by a dark cage and spray, spray, spray.  I especially miss my Bobby though.  He was a big part of my life.  Now, because of him, I can't listen to the Toad song "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted."  Don't worry, though.  I'll continue to get animals throughout my life, as long as it's possible.

Let's now move on to a lighter subject, shall we?  Rainbowland is a fairly light subject... usually.
I've added a new character, Rafael le Marre (from a book, though he's nothing like the man in the book), to my stories.  As you may have guessed, he's a Black Rider.  He has dark brown, slightly wavy hair, bright green eyes and is 6'4".  There is a slight pattern with the Black Rider Masters I've civilized. Benedict Jones, 27, caramel brown hair, soft green eyes, 6'2", Toby Williams, 27, black hair, black eyes, 6'6", and Rafael le Marre, 27 (almost 28), dark brown hair, bright green eyes, 6'4" are all 27, go from brown hair and green eyes to black hair and black eyes and then back to brown and green and their height increases and decreases by 2 inches.  Oh, and they each get injured twice.  Once to get them caught and the other to increase their friendship and trust with Daisy.  Mostly I do that to keep it simple and easy to remember.  Lately I've also brought out the soldiers a little more.  There's a wounded one in the hospital now, instead of Deuce being hurt, but Deuce still hasn't left the stories.  If you know Deuce well - meaning you've read most or all my Rainbowland posts - you might be wondering if that's good or not.  It is, because Deuce is quite a crucial part of the stories.
I must go now.  Writing about Rainbowland has made me want to play it.

A Little Medley

To start off, I'm going to give you a Janet-to-Janet conversation:

Janet:  I wanna find out the definition of "looky."

Janet:  Looky - also lookie - means: "to draw attention to what one is about to say."  The example sentence is:  "Looky there!  You've gone and broken it."

Janet:  Broken what?  Your arm?

Janet:  I bet he broke some ribs, and his arm, and his leg... and I bet he had a concussion, and a sword wound to his side, and an arrow wound to his other arm... how exciting is that!

Janet:  *Gasp* and he lives in LOA, Rainbowland!  That was Deuce speaking in the "example" sentence!

Janet:  I need to get my iPod Touch and coat and get outside!  I should ride my bike today.  Oh, wait, I should record this in my blog or something.

Janet:  Let's make a Little Medley.

Janet:  Okay.

That is a true conversation I just had with myself.
Now on to my kitten!  I've decided to let you guess his name.  With hints, of course.

1.  It begins with the letter R.

2.  Its second letter is either E or A.

3.  It's a classic name.

4.  People pronounce it many different ways.

5.  Its meaning has to do with God.

Have you guessed it yet?  Keep on thinking and you'll get it.  If you do guess it, it'd be nice if you left a comment saying you know it (or think you know it), but you don't have to.  By the way, I'm hoping I get my kitty today, tomorrow or Friday.  Then I can write Kitten Part 2!  I felt like putting two exclamation points back there, but I refrained myself.
I really need to get outside, so A Little Medley is, believe it or not, smaller than usual.

A Little Medley

As I write this, I've got my precious turtle with me.  Now you know this has got to be good.
My kitty will be joining my pack in a few weeks.  Hopefully.  When I do get her, pictures will be everywhere, by the way.
NaNoWriMo is coming up very soon.  I just have to think up a book to write, that's all.  I think I've finally decided to write about Rainbowland.
I can't wait for next week!  Chris, Kari and I are going to carve pumpkins.  Mine is the first orange one I've ever had from our garden.  It's going to be a Zombie Pumpkin with innards dyed with red food coloring sticking out from his noggin.  I'm definitely going to win the annual pumpkin contest we hold!
I'm 5'2", and Mother is 5'4".  Not too long ago I measured and found my legs to be an inch or two longer than Mother's legs.  Today I was looking at Mother as she bustled about the kitchen and noticed how funny she looked with her legs being the teensiest bit longer than the rest of her body.  That's pretty normal, I believe.  Now the thought that crossed my mind was:  "If she looks like that, imagine how I must look!"  Don't get me wrong, though.  I love my long legs.  They come in handy so much.
Now, here are some real life faces of mine:

My disgusted face.

Sort of a disgusted face.

Playing, dancing around the room, making odd faces...

A Little Medley

Hello, how are you all?  I'm well, but I could use a nice splash in the pool.  Well, on with the medley.
I've been thinking about it, and the only things that go bump in the night in my room are possessed tarantulas, impish bearded dragons and disturbed turtles.  I don't have any ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, but my pets make up for it.
Ugh... that girl... she can make a conversation out of a prayer!  I'll bet she could talk about Rainbowland for hours.  Speaking of which... did you know that Daisy's stepfather's fiftieth birthday is on Saturday?  Everyone is coming.  Also, you probably didn't know that Ian has a brother.  His name is Glen.  No, he's not named after Glen Phillips, I just happen to like the name Glen.
My blog posts have been rather short lately.  I do hope they're not dull!
Little side note:  I didn't really feel like correcting this, so there might be several mistakes.

A Big Medley

Hello friends, I welcome you to A Big Medley.  Have a seat and enjoy the fun!

Music:  My three favorite bands and musicians at the moment are The Decemberists, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Glen Phillips (of course).  I'm really stuck on The Hazards of Love.  I don't know why, I just am.  My new favorite Toad song is Crowing.  I've been listening to it since I was like, five, but just recently I started really liking it.  I think my favorite album is Fear, but it might be Dulcinea.  I did a little star count and they both came out with 54.  Now for Glen Phillips albums, I've always loved Winter Pays for Summer.  Of course, I like Mr. Lemons a lot, too.  My favorite Glen Phillips song is Waiting.  I think.  Maybe it's Have a Little Fun With Me.  Oh, in Duck and Cover, Glen Phillips mentions the album's name (Winter Pays for Summer)*.  Ooh... I've got Blood Pressurize stuck in my head.  And True.

Toby Monk:  He's the sweetest little guy.  I wish I had gotten a picture of him and said, "Parting is such sweet sorrow".  But I didn't.  Anyway, you're probably wondering who Toby Monk is.  Well, I should probably tell you.  He's the chipmunk I saved from Mr. Bubbles and Rosey.  I named him after Toby Williams and Adrian Monk.  Two fictional characters.

Monk Quotes:  Over the months, I've made a list of Monk quotes.  Now I would like to share them with you.

Well he was stabbed in the aorta.  He was gone before he hit the ground.

~ The Coroner, Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival

I can't believe you're not the craziest man in the room...

~ Sharona, Mr. Monk and the Twelfth Man 

There he is! The greatest detective in San Francisco.

~ Sharona, Mr. Monk and the TV Star

Chews or pees on... chews or pees on...

~ Monk, Mr. Monk and the Panic Room

Dog lick hand!

~ Monk, Mr. Monk and the Dog

Adrian, you are more than the love of my life, you are my life.
~ Trudy, Mr. Monk and the End Part II (I think.  Might be part I)

Take care of her.

~ Ethan Rickover, Mr. Monk and the End part II

And my favorite...

Speedy dates, no!  No, no, no... that's like Dante's seventh circle of Hell!  ♥

~Monk, Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater

Thank you for being so patient and reading this far, and I'll be back tomorrow with some Saraness!  Oh, and excuse all mistakes please.

* One way or another, the winter pays for the summer

Won't get what you wanted, but what you got'll be good