Tiffani and Moi

I took my CHSPE test the other day, and Mama surprised me with a trip to the beach with my great friend, Tiffani:) Joy! It was super, super fun- we played at the beach, spent the night, and just had fun. Love ya, Tiffani! Here are some pictures from our weekend fun!

    

< Us screaming!!! At nothing in particular, of course, just at the camera:-)

                                           (Below) in an old telephone booth:)

      

To the Groomers They Go!

Our babies, Lilly and Chester went to the groomer's today... aww! So after they came home, we took them into the backyard for the sweetest photos. I love it when they pose like this! I mean, you've got to admit it! They're 'dorable!

Me and my Miss Lilly-girl, my pet and dolly.

Alexandrea and Chester, who is actually her puppy-dog... and Grace-Hope, who was dying for me to take a picture of her.

Models =EnchantE

To the left is my good friend Hannah (aka, Zeekie). She, Karah, and I were at the park for our Bible study. (Missed ya, Tiff!) We discussed our chapter in A Young Woman's Walk with God, by Elizabeth George, than afterwards took a photoshoot of ourselves.


To the right is Karah- don't you think she'd make a lovely model?

Then here is Hannah and Karah- back to back on a rock over a waterfall at the park. 

The last picture of the day, and my favorite! - lots of fun on a simply gorgeous day!

From Apples to Applesauce

So, we made applesauce, and I can state from experience, forty pounds of apples does not turn into forty pounds of applesauce. This is a picture of our applesauce bouncing in the pot of boiling water,  just staying upright.

First, we washed the apples, chopped the apples, and then baked the apples, which altogether took about an hour and a half. By this time you can probably imagine some of the proud exhaustion I (we!) went through. AND some of the lessons I have learned but forgotten, some of them too late- such as do NOT put a can of apple sauce in a pot f boiling water to seal without the can even havinga seal on it- obviously? It looked pretty on there to me. And to not touch a can without a pair of rubber gloves on- for, indeed, ladies and gentleman, we were performing a most delicate operation on a glass can:) The results? Perfectly delicious and delightful cinnamon-y applesauce. Yum!

This was what was happening to the dogs in the mean time: yep, that's Chester's head atop of Lilly's back. What a silly pooch! Honestly, this is a more accurate picture of what they weren't doing- this is a picture of them resting after the applesauce making was over... guess they were as tired of scrounging for dropped apples as we were of canning them!

Home- Made Applesauce couldn't Ever be Yummier!

Temporary Home...

Well, it's time to say good-bye to my beautiful old home- it sold today, and is no longer in our hands. It's a bittersweet moment; it's good to be on our way, but, on the other hand, it is like saying 'au revoir' to an old friend. If you know your home as well as I know mine, you know what I mean;(

Ol' Bill Waters

I decided to write a ballad for composition... it could be a funny ballad... or an interesting ballad... or a scary ballad. I decided to do the second, and named it To Freedom with Miss Tubman. Enjoy! (By the way, some of the grammar is off because I was trying to use voice intentionally.)

Ol’ Bill Waters was goin’ to freedom
He’d asked Miss Tubman, “Anything I can do?”
He was ready, he’d been waitin’ for a long, long while-
Oh, what was Bill Waters wantin’ to do?

He was on his way to freedom, freedom
Was on his way to joy!
To a life of peace, and happiness,
With his only little child, a boy.

Miss Tubman arrived just a few moments later,
With a pack on her back, and shoe’ in her hand,
She looked at Bill Waters, and she looked at the child,
And said, “Let’s get goin’ to freedom land!”

He was on his way to freedom, freedom
Was on his way to joy!
To a life of peace, and happiness,
With his only little child, a boy.

Old Bill Waters was crossin’ the river,
But the bay of hounds he did hear.
He cried, and he saw his son’s eye fill with fear,
But, “Come on, Ol’ Bill! We’ll play it by ear!”

He was on his way to freedom, freedom
Was on his way to joy!
To a life of peace, and happiness,
With his only little child, a boy.

Into a stack of some sweet-smelling hay
Plunged Ol’ Bill, and his boy.
He was nervous, and afeard;
Miss Tubman saw his tears, and sang him an old slave joy:

“You are on your way to freedom, freedom
You’re on your way to joy!
To a life of peace and happiness,
Along with your own little boy.”

“You’re givin’ him a life of freedom, freedom
Without no killin’ work.
To have a life of peace and happiness,
What a thing for your little Burk.”

Well, the dogs went past that stack of hay,
Much to the excitement of Bill.
Harriet smiled, made a grab
Of Ol’ Bill’s right hand, and off went they, not to stray.

He was on his way to freedom, freedom
Was on his way to joy!
To a life of peace, and happiness,
With his only little child, a boy.

Early that morning, before the dawn was grey,
A white house did they spot.
“A freedom house,” as Miss Tubman said to Bill,
“Where you surely won’t be caught!”

“Only one more day to freedom, freedom,
One more day till joy!
With a life of peace and happiness,
What a thing for your boy.”

So Ol’ Bill pushed on, quickly to the house,
And softly knocked on the door.
Harriet gave the password; they passed,
Where there weren’t no fear of the war!

Bill had made his way to freedom, freedom
Had made his way to joy!
To a life of peace, and happiness,
With his only little child, a boy.

How to Pet a Dog in Three Easy Steps

My Lilly is a whiner- and this is excusable, because if you have one of the cutest dogs in the world, she has to be a whiner.... right? Well, right. Of course right! And she has her very own way to be pet, too:) So this post is about how to pet a dog- meaning Lilly.

1. First, wait until she sticks her nose under a lazy hand. This is really actually very funny, because when you're just sitting there, all of a sudden you will feel a cold nose under your hand.
2. Start at the top of her, namely her ears, and she will help you out from there. Sometimes she will move so you can start petting her back, at other times the back of Lilly's neck is her favorite.
3. If/when you are petting Lilly's back, she will, at sometime or other, flip over so you can start to pet tummy- and how she loves you when you do this to her~ you turn her new best friend.

Congratulations! You have now learned to pet Miss Lilly! Now, if she doesn't lick your hand off, you may come and see her anytime you like:)

If...

There's this really, really, fantastically incredible poem by Rudyard Kipling called 'If.' It's very simple, but it's sooo true.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Hurray!

I get a night with MOMMY tonight:) :) :) *Insert countless smiley faces here* It's been a long while since we've had a nice long night together, and so, just to prove what happens to us both, I'm posting a picture of the last time we stayed up late... not necessarily all by ourselves. Please excuse the hand of Alexandrea's sitting in the midst of my marmee's shirt.

So... what does this have to do with the title of my post? Well, tonight mommy has rented the movie, 'Julie and Julia'. Which, I've heard, is an interesting, excellent movie. When she and I saw the commercial, it had my favorite singer (Francesca Battistelli) playing my favorite song on there. So she said, "Let's see it- soon." That was just before it came out. So I'm happy about this evening.

Happiness Is

So Alexandrea and I had one of our afore-mentioned happy nights, tonight. We walked together (with the dogs, of course). We rode bikes together (well, up and down our street). And we hahahaha'd together. The result? A happily created picture of the above. It's showtime!

I'm not a Dog...

...And yet I am, in a way.
Okay, here's the truth, plain and simple: I was not born loving to chase balls. Yet every March I find myself looking forward to doing just that. At the BNP Paribas Open near my house in Indian Wells, though, I spend countless hours chasing down the yellow court ball: the tennis ball! Ballkids began on Monday, and we have another session tomorrow, from 11- 9. When I say 'we' I mean my beautiful sister Alexandrea and myself, of course:) And we get excited about it, believe me- as in jumping up and down excited. Not because we play tennis in general, but because we get a chance to see and serve a collection of top tennis players from around the world. Coolio!