Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Back to work

I got back to work on school today...it didn't turn out as bad as I expected. I was able to get some science and Algebra done.
I was dreading the Algebra, because when I left it (in late May :| ) I had completely messed up a lesson and was hopelessly lost. Well, it made sense today and I did fairly well on it...hopefully that was the lesson I had to redo(!)... it wasn't very clear. There were two lessons, but the other one didn't seem to have anything wrong with it....I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
I just about managed to forget what my science module was about as well, even though I've done it a lot more recently. I really have a problem getting Biology to stick in my head....I'm not very interested in it, so that's probably the reason. I found the Phys. science fascinating, and did fairly well at it...oh well.
I'm doing the study guide for the module at the moment, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to tell from that what I need to go over again. It module 14 so I only have two modules to go after that!
I need to work on History too, but Mom and I do some of that together, and I don't remember where we left off, to read my part of it. I'll have to get that figured out tomorrow.

I would say it was a fairly satisfactory day of school, satisfactory day in general actually. I managed to stay awake to do school, I got some gardening and knitting done, and I got my bathroom cleaned, plus I have time to blog...not bad.

I realized yesterday that I forgot to get a picture of the sweater which I knit for my little cousin. I thought I'd made it a little big, but it turned out it fit just about right! It was still a little bit too warm for it when we were out there, but it should be good when it gets really cold out there.

It's getting cold here....this was the first day so far that I was freezing this morning. I don't like the heat, but I don't take the cold very well either...oh well, I changed from regular jeans to my flannel-lined ones though, that helped some.

I was remembering today that when I was talking to the lady at Talbot's in Oregon, at some point we got around the talking about the casual style of Oregon. She said she thought that it's more casual everywhere these days, which I agree with, but what I couldn't really explain to her was the South. To a certain extent the South will never be casual... it's tradition, certain ways you do things, and all that, that I don't think will ever go out of style in the south! How do you explain that? The certain unwritten things that are expected of you if you're a proper southerner (which I'm not)...nothing against southerners, just something that some of them still stick to. Anyway, I think that's why I felt more comfortable out there, I'm not a proper southerner at all! :)

Ah, let's see, what else? It seems like there was something else about my vacation that I was going to write about... I wish I could remember things! Oh, I need to post some pictures when I finish getting them all uploaded and labeled, etc. Hmm... oh yeah, I want a Honda CRV now! That's what my aunt has, and I really enjoyed driving it...it's really easy to park, one thing I really need! In fact it took me awhile to remember how to drive our car...for one thing the shift/clutch (you know, I have no idea what that's called) is up by the steering wheel on our car and it was on the floor in the Honda."Yeah, I remember how to drive, just not this car!" :)

Our car's in the shop right now actually because there's something wrong with the transmission. It's been making sort of screeching/grinding noises for awhile and it just got worse the past week. I drove it Saturday night to go babysit, and I'm very thankful it didn't stop working or something then! We have a car from the shop right now, some sort of Infinity, but we're having some problems...I'll post more about that when I find out what's going on! :) I can't drive it anyway, because it's stick-shift and I haven't learned to drive stick-shift.

Well, that's all for tonight! I'm really going to work on this posting more often thing....now that I don't have any readers anymore!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

I'm back!

I'm home that is...
Our plane got into Charlotte around 11 Wednesday night, so we didn't get home and to bed until about 2 probably! Not fun... especially since we had to get up at 9 the next morning and take my cousins to West Virginia to meet up with my uncle. Apparently when the alarm went off Thursday morning, Rebecca asked me if I wanted to get in the shower or should she go? Supposedly, I mumbled something unintelligible and rolled over taking my pillow with me. At which point she asked me why I was sleeping with a pillow and I told her to "Get in the shower!!!!" I barely remember all of that though! I just vaguely remember that it seemed like she kept bothering me when I wanted to sleep! :) They hadn't seen how I act in the morning when I don't want to get up, because I hadn't been sleeping that well the past two weeks and usually got up before they did!

So, anyway, I managed to get up finally and we got started, although a little bit later than we intended. It was raining almost the whole time it seemed. I think it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes or so to get to W. Virginia (Tamarack travel plaza is where we decided to meet up), so we made fairly good time.
And of course, guess what's at the travel plaza? A cat...I'm getting rather tired of there being cats everywhere I go! I don't really want another cat!

I drove on the way back...the most driving in the rain that I've done. It took a long time to get back because we got stuck in traffic on 77. There was some sort of tractor-trailer accident up ahead and it took a long time to get past that.

I think I'm finally getting used to being back home again! I actually got my suitcase unpacked within a week...that's unusual! I usually hate to unpack stuff so I let it sit in my suitcase until I use it...not this time...well, there is a lot of stuff on my floor instead...

It's hard to explain to someone who wasn't there, all the craziness that went on the past two weeks! I've discovered this while trying to explain to my mom why something was funny...."See, this happened, so then we remembered that later, at one in the morning..." I think that had a lot to do with it... lack of sleep. Speaking of lack of sleep, I just forgot what I was going to write...aghhhh!

Also, speaking of craziness, I who am not scared of very many things at all...except for a few really irrational fears...suddenly freaked out when the plane was landing in Charlotte. I have no fear of flying, I don't get sick...Rebecca was the one who was freaking out if any of us were. Well, I look down and see that the runway is all wet because it's been raining a whole lot in Charlotte...I grab Rebecca's wrist (I really meant to grab the armrest, but unfortunately for her, I got her arm first) and freak out because for some reason I think the plane is going to slide off the runway since it's so wet! And Rebecca just laughed at me! Which is what I deserved, but still! :)

Also I'm trying to figure out what city we saw from the plane when we were going over Missouri...the little map they showed on the airplane screens showed that we somewhere between Dixon and Saint Louis and that STL was maybe, 64 miles away? I'm trying to figure out if you could see that distance from a plane. I should have written down the latitude and longitude, but by the time I found my pen they weren't showing it anymore. Whatever city it was it seemed pretty big and spread out...and it looked really neat from the airplane, lots of lights.

The Redmond airport that we left from in Oregon is a really tiny little place. There's only one "gate" which isn't even designated as a gate, in fact it looks more like a hospital waiting room!

There were two line through security, but I don't remember if both of them were even open. Poor Andrea...she told me I probably didn't need to bother taking my belt off, because she got through security at Charlotte and her belt had a lot more metal than mine...so guess what, her belt sets off the metal detector, plus she had a little bottle of hand lotion that she hadn't PUT IN A PLASTIC BAG! I really don't see what the point of the plastic bag is, except to limit the amount you can carry. In other words I don't see what the point is of putting one little bottle of lotion (when it's clear that's all there is) in a bag, which is what the security guy did. I suppose if we'd had to go through security in another airport it would have needed to be in a bag...

So, that's that...I can't think of anything funny that happened on either of the planes on the way back...Rebecca, Andrea, am I forgetting anything funny? I would think if it had been anything really funny I probably would have remembered.

So that's all for now! I really should go take a nap before church tonight!

Oh yeah, I meant to mention "Good Monsters" (that Rebecca mentioned) is the Jars of Clay CD we were listening to...just for clarification...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Just one more...

Okay...so Andrea and Natalie are upstairs packing, and I'm all finished, so they kicked me out of the room. We are all feeling kind of cranky and depressed about leaving.

This morning the three of us got manicures and pedicures for the first time ever. It was really nice, but none of the people there could speak English...so it was kind of confusing. The lady who did mine was hilarious but Andrea ended up with this very strange man who "kept cutting her with his fingernails". I got a french manicure and my toes are midnight wine...like my guitar. I miss my guitars.

After that we were in a huge hurry to get to the High Desert Museum by 2:00 so we could "meet Thomas the otter". So we were all excited about that because otters are really cute and we were going to *meet* a real live one! But when we got there (a little after 2:00) Thomas was behind glass sleeping in a little corner...and that was about it.

Then we went outside and looked at the other things they had there...which weren't really worth the $45 it cost to get in. There was a path with various signs on it telling you to "close your eyes and listen to the rustling of the leaves". The birds of prey part was all right, but some of the things there were a little disturbing (like the stuffed vultures sitting on a half-eaten stuffed roadkill deer).

Inside, in little tiny cages were a bobcat and a lynx. I was feeling really bad for them because they had hardly any space to move around and it must have been so boring for them. We also went into this "walk through history" or something like that. Part of it was in a coal mine, only for some reason we thought it was supposed to be a battlefield...which reminded Andrea of this Haunted Battlefield we went to once that scared her. And Natalie thought it was too dark in there and I wasn't going in by myself. So Natalie put her cell phone on lantern (which didn't really do anything, but it made her feel better) and we realized that the exit was right around the corner and that it was just a very boring coal mine, not a very exciting but really strange Haunted Battlefield.

On the way home we stopped at Safeway to get Starbucks for the last time (sob!) and listened to Good Monsters very loudly. We drove around a little bit so we could listen to all the good songs and it was all very depressing. I don't want to go home yet! I am really loving it here (and I love FBC!).

Well...I should probably get ready for bed. I have to get on another plane tomorrow morning. So hopefully that'll go a little better than it did last time.

~Rebecca

Sunday, October 21, 2007

I casn't ytpe...can't type that is...

And the smoke alarm thing has nothing to do with that post...just another of the weird things that has been floating around this week!

We had Chinese food last night! It was pretty good...

I think we're going to go to a corn maze tomorrow. That should either be really fun or really lame! :)

We went hiking today, Rebecca mentioned that...well, when we were hiking up Pilot Butte these two ladies and their dog were walking the other direction. So, I tried to get out of their way and ended up slipping on the edge of the trail, because they were taking up the whole trail! And on of the ladies is like "Oh dear!" in a really insincere voice, but that made it sound like I'd just fallen down the mountain and seriously injured myself...not that she cared, it was just very tragic!
Luckily it wasn't too muddy where I slipped or I would have been very mad...uh, madder than I was!

We found a letterbox at Pilot Butte (Yay!)....here's what a letterbox is: http://www.letterboxing.org/ We looked for one on the hike where we carried our purses, but couldn't find it.
Oh yeah, since everyone's pretty much agreed it was the purses...I have no idea why I carried my purse! Well, it started out as a nice, paved trail, so I guess maybe we were thinking it was just going to be more of a walk not hike. Plus I guess I thought I needed it for my keys, cell phone, and stuff. I figured out yesterday though, that I can fit all that stuff in my pockets! :) Although I had letterboxing stuff with me on the hike, and I didn't when we went bowling Saturday.
They had a metal air-hockey table at the bowling place....so we played some air hockey too, but a metal table is deafening...all the "pinging!".

As Rebecca said, we went to FBC again... I wish we were staying through another Wednesday, so we could go one more time.

I really like it out here in Oregon...it's just really my style! Everything is fairly casual, and outdoors oriented, and just really cool! And it doesn't seem like people care about conforming so much... I don't know...I just really like it out here! I don't want to go home!

Now I can't think of anything else to write...and if I think about leaving too much I'll get depressed...lovely!

Oh, look...a smoke alarm...

This morning we went back to FBC...and once again, it was really awesome. I am really gonna miss this youth group when I leave. We were all feeling kind of depressed as we pulled out of the parking lot. I am really liking Oregon, and I'm not quite ready to go back to Ohio yet.

Later on we had our traditional try-to-keep-Rebecca-from-falling-off-an-icy-cliff hike at Tumalo Falls. The little trail up to the top of the falls was all slushy and icy, and my Chucks don't have much tread on the bottom...which you'd think I'd have figured out by now. But it was actually not that bad and I made it out alive (and so did Natalie, who had to drag me down to the car).

After that we hiked to the top of Pilot Butte, which was fairly easy. They must've forgotten to put the ice on it before I came. On the way home we stopped at Starbucks because we were freezing to death. Natalie got a machiatto just like Elijah Wood in "Everything is Illuminated"...which is a very good movie to watch when you're as tired and insane as we were (and Natalie says machiattos are very good).

Oh...and we've started this hiding-in-the-closet-and-jumping-out-at-people thing. It's really very fun.

Well...have a lovely day...and maybe some toast, or a bagel! (Now all of Natalie's readers think I'm insane...oh well)

~Rebecca

Friday, October 19, 2007

Finally...a post from Natalie!!

Okay, Rebecca is writing this for me because I have problems with the keyboard. (Actually I ended up typing this, because I can't dictate without cracking up the whole time...most people will recognise my problems with commas...that's not Rebecca!)

Anyway...starting with the flight, it wasn't too bad except for the last part. The last plane we were on was a really small plane and for some reason this guy thought he had the aisle seat, even though one of us did...so I was sitting by the window and Rebecca and Andrea were on the other side of the plane. I wished I'd just sat in the aisle seat (where I should have been anyway) because the guy didn't talk the whole time, and for some reason he seemed really nervous about flying. He was paying very close attention to the flight attendant's presentation, and kept fidgeting the whole time...I have no clue what his problem was!! I felt like I was blocking the window too, because he kept looking out of it and I was kind of in the way. Then Rebecca was on the other side looking green so I'm trying to look around him and ask her if she's okay...so he's sitting there, looking from one of us to the other as we're trying to talk...and kept doing that almost the whole time! Weird...

Then there was some "artist" lady sitting a few rows behind me talking to this poor guy who at first was trying to sort of ignore her. He finally gave up and just got interested in what she was talking about.

See...(and this is an almost exact quote)....it's really, really nice in Bend. There are bears, and deer, and other animals. Because, see she's a wildlife artist, so she makes pictures of all these wonderful animals, but the thing is...and get this...she doesn't use pencils and paper! She uses glass and metal and like the horns of some animal. And she did this really neat picture with metal and glass....and it came out really beautiful!!! And he should look at these samples of her art, and she has a business card she can give him too (she's really reasonable)...and he's welcome to stay with her if he visits again, because she knows that he's a nice kid.

So, anyway, crazy artist lady...the guy managed to at least sound really interested in what she was saying... then he started a conversation with the little girl sitting in front of him which led to some discussion of Norwegian names, because the girl's name was Anika...

Then the artist lady was telling him that her son was very tall, he couldn't even stand upright on planes, and she told this guy that he was about 6 foot 4...and he seemed rather surprised...

So that was the last part of the flight over here...very interesting!

Let's see, what else has happened...Rebecca told about the cat, and youth group and all that. Oh, a cat showed up at youth group too...it's rather frightening the way I attract cats!

We went shopping a whole bunch of places on Monday, Rebecca and Andrea found coats at Maurice's. When I was paying for the coats the girl working there asked for a phone number, so I gave her my home number, of course, and she's like "Where are you from??!!!" Which was kind of weird, but I liked it better than the fake politeness you get some places. Out here it seems like people are either totally silent or fairly outspoken. We went to Talbot's during our shopping trip and I got stuck talking to the saleslady while Rebecca tried something on...and the lady would not stop talking! She was nice though.

We went hiking on Sunday afternoon and for some reason it seemed like everyone was staring at us...I'm not sure if we really don't look like we're from Oregon, or if it was because we were carrying our purses while hiking, or because Rebecca was wearing a Cubs hat, or what, but it was weird.

Okay, so I can't think of anything else to write!

I bought a hat today....just for a random fact, if anyone cares!
We watched a movie last night "Everything is Illuminated" it was pretty good...kind of depressing at the end, because it just sort of ended suddenly, but it was still good! :)
And a lot of other random stuff that has kind of been floating around this past week, but no one would really know what I was talking about! Just one random quote that I think could be used for so many things...
"You can do a lot in 7 minutes, but not too much"...and don't worry, it wasn't referring to anything bad! :D
Well, I'd better go! We're going to go watch another movie: "Roman Holiday" which we've all seen before...but it was so good we're going to watch it again!
Bye-bye!...wow, that was random....

I wish I had my own blog...

...then I wouldn't have to keep posting on Natalie's...

Yesterday Aunt Nancy took the kitten to the Humane Society to see if anyone was looking for her...and she came back without her. Turns out that the kitten (whose name is Lily) lives about three blocks away and she ran away from home three weeks ago.

On Wednesday night the three of us went to this totally awesome youth service at Fellowship Bible Church (or FBC, says Natalie in a *cool* voice). It was really great because it was one of the only churches I have been to where the guys didn't think it was too "girly" to worship God and the kids weren't overly obsessed with being cool. We're going back on Sunday morning.

Well...I'm going to type out a blog post for Natalie. She has something against this keyboard and its weird shape that makes it terribly hard to type on. And then we might watch *squeal!* Roman Holiday...which is one of my mostest (Natalie had a heart attack over that) favorite movies of all time. It's good. On a related note...she's also freaking out over this Jars of Clay song and its "poor" grammar:

http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/lyrics/new/track.asp?track_id=5137

But it's a fantastic song and we've been listening to it in the car at high volumes. I sound like an ad for Jars of Clay but the whole CD is good. And loud. And fun to play on the guitar.

This seems like a bad way to end a blog post...but that's too bad.

~Rebecca

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Guest Blogger!


Okay...since Natalie won't post, I'm going to. We had a very interesting flight over here and overheard some very interesting conversations on the plane. And some of us were feeling a little bit airsick. So that was fun. There was also a very nice man glaring angrily at me on the second plane, so that was fun too.

On Friday Natalie opened the back door and this adorable little kitten ran inside! She is so sweet! The last few nights she's been sleeping in our room and purring at extremely high volumes. And Archie just loves having her in his house!

So...how was that? Should I post again later??

~Rebecca

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Once again

Okay...so maybe I should rename this "Natalie's Monthly Blog"? Since that's about how often I get around to posting...if even that often! And I seem to have a developed a habit of posting that I'm going off somewhere, then not posting that I ever got back! Luckily most of my readers know me in person...

Anyway, let's see, last time I posted, I was getting ready to leave for a canoe trip. Well, that went alright I guess, the river was very low because we haven't been getting much rain, so we kept getting stuck...I was the one in our canoe that got out and pulled it off of the rocks, and as a result I feel like I walked probably half the river! I managed to slip several times and cut my knees up pretty bad...one still has a red scar on it. Plus I still have some slight scars from last time we canoed, two years ago!

What else has happened since then? Oh, my birthday! Yeah, that was fun, I got a lot of cool stuff including a tripod...so hopefully my pictures will be less fuzzy now!

I've been busy with fair stuff...that's all done now, we went and picked things up yesterday. I got 6 1sts and 2nds and 3 3rds. So I didn't do as well as last year, but a lot better than I expected still.

I made a cake for my friend's birthday last Wednesday:

I decorated cupcakes and entered them in the fair, but I didn't get anything on them. They were rather last-minute, because I was planning on doing something else on them, but the icing came out the wrong color, so I ended up doing something completely different that I could do fast. I've decided I just do better on cakes anyway...there's more space, so your theme isn't confined to a three inch round.

Right now I'm busy with (or should be busy with) packing! I'm going out to Oregon with my two cousins. We're going to go stay with our aunt and uncle, and see our new little cousin! We're all really excited about that. We're going to be out there for two weeks, and I'll try to maybe post on here occasionally!

It's confusing getting three people's plans and packing coordinated, especially when two of the people are in Ohio and we're communicating through email!
I was confused enough with my own packing, even though I had Colin and Gracie "helping" me...maybe that added to the confusion?
It was just too much for Gracie though...I came back to my bedroom and found her like this:

I guess she wanted to go too! I was just cracking up though, that she was completely filling the space she had there, even if it was really narrow!

So that's what I've been up to...that and wondering where the fall weather is! It still feels like Summer...I'm going to be glad of the 50-60 degree weather in Oregon!

We're leaving probably about 4:30 tomorrow morning, because we've got to drive down to Charlotte...fun. I'm not looking forward to that part of the trip!