In Which There are Pictures of Random Things

In April, Katrina and I decided to make pie. So we made apple pie and it was good!

And here are a few pictures from the homeschool game night we had! It was a lot of fun! And we clearly demonstrate that one can never be to old to play a rousing, intense, and competitive game of musical chairs. 

Changing gears a bit...about a week ago, Rachel came over to help us work on some painting at my Grandpa's house. Because we're planning to house the groomsmen and so forth down there for the wedding, we have a good incentive to get work done down there.

Then we made tissue paper flowers! We've made quite a few over the past couple weeks...I think we're up to about 60 or 70. We'll be using them to decorate for the wedding.

And here, our flower girl poses with the flowers... :)

Another part of our wedding prep is cake practice. Luckily, we have neighbors who have willingly volunteered to help with this, in the form assisting with the eating part. Saturday evening, we found ourselves in dire need of said assistance. So we ate this cake and it was good.

And finally...a couple days ago I bought a vehicle. It's a 2003 Ford Escape. Here, Katrina poses in...the driver's seat. And actually...it'll be a little under 10 years before she can sit there for real. Scary, yes?

Holy cow.

I have to share this screen shot. After roughly 4 hours of working on this online precalc quiz...I got a 100%. You'll understand my great and vast rejoicing when you understand that my current gpa for that class is a C-. It may actually be possible to get a C+ in this class after all... Anyhow, that was rather encouraging to me :)

Catch up time!

March was a busy month! I know we've posted about the trip (to an extent), but I haven't yet posted anything about the church camp retreat, Cadet Leadership School, the bridal shower, the cleaning day, or the actual trip to Florida. But, today is a Day To Get Stuff Done, so here we go.

Chronologically, the first thing that I haven't yet blogged about is the church retreat we went to. I put all my pictures up on google+, and honestly, I think most of the people who would be interested in seeing them have seen them, so I won't put them up again. However, if you are one of the few who want to see them, let me know and I'll email you the link (I think I'd rather do that than put the link out here on my blog. Cause of all the creepy criminals and stuff who stalk me, ya know). Anyhow, our entire family went to Camp LiLoLi with our friends and their church group. Another family we're friends with went as well which was fun. We girls again got to sleep in the loft above the chapel, which means that we definitely did stay up late talking. Just like last year, we had church services, played lots of games, went sledding, helped out in the kitchen, talked, and played even more games.

Cadet Leadership School was the last weekend in February (I think?). I was on public affairs and admin staff, and Hosanna was in Foxtrot flight.

Jessica's bridal shower was the first Saturday in March. Because of her work schedule, she didn't get here til Friday evening and left on Sunday, and since Kevin was working, he wasn't able to come up with her. But his sisters Christina, Lisa, and Catherine came up. We had a birthday party for Joanna and her little friend Megan Friday evening.






Later that evening, the older kids (Jess, Christina, Lisa, Annetta, Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, Catherine, Logan, Jordan, Duncan, Megan, and I) went down to the church to set up for the bridal shower! As you can see, it was lovely and purple. (photo credits go to Jess)

The bridal shower was the next day, and it  went well! We had perhaps 60 ladies attend to bless Jess with a nice shower. We played some games (MC'd by yours truly), had a short devotional from Mrs. F, and ate some snacks put on by the ladies of our church. Jess got a lot of gifts as well.

That evening, a representative from Mary Kay came to give Jess and 10 of her friends a lip and facial treatment because Jess had won some sort of prize from David's Bridal.

The second weekend of March was the day that we had a cleaning party at my Grandpa's house. We had a huge dumpster...we started with it empty and ended with it stuffed full. We took a trip to the dump, also. Logan did tall person work on the wall over the stairway, and the rest of us found random jobs hauling stuff out to the dumpster, cleaning, and moving and organizing stuff. (Photo credits from the cleaning go to Clayton.)

After we cleaned, we came up to our house for a pizza supper. We made great progress on the house...we're very appreciative of the people who came out and worked! There's still a ways to go, but Annetta and I went down this evening and did some stuff...we have vacuuming and setting up of furniture (hey, if anyone knows of anyone who's getting rid of beds/mattresses, let us know!), but the vast majority of the interior work is done.

Okeydoke...that's all for this post! Thanks for reading!

Day Eight - almost there!

I can already hear the screams as you've realized I have posted again..

(Whether they're happy screams or screams of horror, I prefer not to think about.)

I actually have two days to tell you about because, yesterday, we went to the mall and I know how much any guy who happens to be reading this would want to hear about our shopping trip. ;)

(To clear up confusion, I'm skipping a few days. We may as well pretend they didn't happen, because you don't get to hear about them. However, if you're inclined, fill in the blank with whatever exciting adventures you like - a hostile takeover of the house by raging terrorists, a small tornado that for some reason only targeted this house, or maybe the animals from the nearby zoo decided to live here for a while...
It all feels true...)

I digress. Anyway, yesterday was a great day. Why? I found a cute shirt at a bargain price at JCPenney's. (The guys are allowed to groan; girls are expected to squeal.) And guess what? I wasn't herding around two little kids because they were playing at Bounce-a-lot. (My dad got to watch them. He is a superhero.)

Bounce-a-lot is something some clever person came up with after tripping over the little kids at the mall who are running around in circles because their mom is taking forever to pick out the perfect outfit/perfume/shoes. Basically it is a giant bounce house. And they charge an outrageous price because they know you'll pay it. They had fun, though, and so did I.

Then we went to Wal-Mart. I took Katrina to get cat food and conditioner and Josh went with daddy to get groceries. Katrina and I went in the right door - there was a taffy vendor outside the main entrance and he happened to be giving out free samples to anyone wearing green pants. (Katrina was wearing green pants.) Things like that restore my faith in mankind. :) 

I have to get up and make lunch, so I'm going to fast forward to this morning.

Yay for bath day. Who knew it was possible to bargain  with a six year old? (I prefer the term bargain over bribe.) Apparently bath time isn't as much fun now-a-days as it was when I was little. Ah well. She's clean now, so that's what counts...

Oaky, the natives are getting restless..
 This could be my last post for a while, people, so *sniff* farewell! 

-Cinderella

Day Four: At A Friend's House

Day Four: Annetta reporting.

Today, Josh, Katrina, and I drove over to a friend's house to spend the night. We arrived at 11 o'clock, and ate lunch; and it is currently 4:21 p.m. 

I know how much you all wanted to hear from me, so I've graciously decided to blog for my fans again... (You may laugh as derisively as you like, I can't hear you.)

I have my two friends, Kim and Rachel with me, and they are co-writing, just to give credit where credit is due. :) I apologize in advance for all the pictures. If you don't like pictures, close your eyes; this post isn't for you.

Do you know how much luggage is necessary to pack even for an overnight trip? To give you an idea, below is *gasp* a picture! This is only some of it...  

(Hosanna, that is NOT your backpack. I would never steal it. Never. It only looks like your backpack , 'k?)

the girl's luggage

 Me being the wonderful babysitter that I am, I forgot to comb Katrina's hair...since Sunday. I know. So, fortunately, Rachel was able to do something with it. No tears either!

Katrina's cool hair

 Okay, people, now I can introduce Kimberlynne and Rachel. Kim is on the the far left, I'm in the middle with Katrina, and Rachel is on the right. Oh, and notice the pretty pink walls! They just finished painting and redecorating their room, and I have to admit I love the way it looks! (No jealousy here, folks, none at all... :P)

this is one of the "nice" pictures; I can't vouch for the rest...

 Four girls taking pictures...you know what that means. Silly faces. Get used to it; we've got more coming right up...

 Here's a picture of our lovely nails...we should open a salon, don't you think? Try to guess which is which, if you dare.

 We dug out the accessories at this point. :) Notice the flowers...the picture is a little dark.

 More accessories...hey, we're girls. Don't judge. Hat and scarf time!

 Individual pictures...

 Here is where you can be jealous. We got cookies. :) They were delicious, by the way!

Katrina apparently likes cookies :)

Maybe some of you are wondering where Josh is in all of this...

Kim and Rachel have six younger brothers, so Joshua has been in good hands! In a couple of hours, we'll be eating supper, and then the girls have a chick flick to watch. No boys allowed!

Now that we're done regaling you with our adventures, it's time for you to comment and tell us about your normal/wonderful/exhilarating/humdrum/awesome/or whatever-the-case-may-be lives. 

Four (almost) down, six to go!

Cinderella signing off.