Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sorry, I don't have much to say
Whoo...I'm back! :) I worked Thursday and Friday, yesterday and today, and then the weekend was busy-ish as usual...though I did have time for a nice nap on Sunday, and if I hadn't had that nap I think I'd be crawling in bed right now.
As it is, I'm fine, I don't really have much to blog about, and I'm not working until next Thursday. Eight days off!!! I think I'll recover the dining room chairs.
No really, I am going to recover them. :) I know that was really random, but we got all the materials to redo them and then were busy with the fair and everything, so it's been on a mental to-do list to get them done "after the fair" (along with a bunch of other stuff!) and since I've got time, I'll do them now.
Dad jokingly said today when he saw me knitting, that it was only 50 weeks until the fair. Ack, if you put it that way, it doesn't sound very far away! For instance, if I assume I can get on average one item done per week, that's only 50...which is twice as many as this year, so that's not a problem by any means, I'd be okay with that. But I wouldn't really be able to get one thing done per week, and there will be some weeks where I don't get anything done, so fifty weeks doesn't sound like much time. It also explains why the year goes by so fast..."a year" sounds like an awfully long time, but if you put in weeks, fifty-two weeks doesn't sound like so much. Or maybe it's just me...
ANYWAY! It just amazes me how fast time goes sometimes.
Oh, and just to, I don't know, clarify? Prove a point? I'm not sure... My "Battleship" game has five boats:
Carrier: 5
Battleship: 4
Destroyer: 3
Submarine: 3
Patrol Boat: 2
(This is in response to all the comments on this post!!) ;)
My game says 1996 on the bottom of it, so I don't know if maybe they went back to the way they originally made it or what. According to this Wikipedia article, there was a set of boats with the names Uncle Jim said, but my new game has the other set, so maybe it's just a random choice as to what they call the boats in each version of the game? Do any of my readers have a version of this game with different boats? There's at least one game with a newer box, but I don't know if the game itself is any different.
I think I'll go see if Dad wants to play a game of "Battleship".
As it is, I'm fine, I don't really have much to blog about, and I'm not working until next Thursday. Eight days off!!! I think I'll recover the dining room chairs.
No really, I am going to recover them. :) I know that was really random, but we got all the materials to redo them and then were busy with the fair and everything, so it's been on a mental to-do list to get them done "after the fair" (along with a bunch of other stuff!) and since I've got time, I'll do them now.
Dad jokingly said today when he saw me knitting, that it was only 50 weeks until the fair. Ack, if you put it that way, it doesn't sound very far away! For instance, if I assume I can get on average one item done per week, that's only 50...which is twice as many as this year, so that's not a problem by any means, I'd be okay with that. But I wouldn't really be able to get one thing done per week, and there will be some weeks where I don't get anything done, so fifty weeks doesn't sound like much time. It also explains why the year goes by so fast..."a year" sounds like an awfully long time, but if you put in weeks, fifty-two weeks doesn't sound like so much. Or maybe it's just me...
ANYWAY! It just amazes me how fast time goes sometimes.
Oh, and just to, I don't know, clarify? Prove a point? I'm not sure... My "Battleship" game has five boats:
Carrier: 5
Battleship: 4
Destroyer: 3
Submarine: 3
Patrol Boat: 2
(This is in response to all the comments on this post!!) ;)
My game says 1996 on the bottom of it, so I don't know if maybe they went back to the way they originally made it or what. According to this Wikipedia article, there was a set of boats with the names Uncle Jim said, but my new game has the other set, so maybe it's just a random choice as to what they call the boats in each version of the game? Do any of my readers have a version of this game with different boats? There's at least one game with a newer box, but I don't know if the game itself is any different.
I think I'll go see if Dad wants to play a game of "Battleship".
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Random Wednesday
How about a random post?
What? All my posts are random?...hmmm.... :)
Well, my grandparents are off to Oregon to visit my aunt and uncle and cousin...they left this morning at7 (excuse me: 8) for a 1:00 (1:30 even??) flight from Charlotte. It only takes a little under two hours to get to Charlotte, so they'll certainly have plenty of time! Mom and Colin went over to say bye to them before they left and Mom came back looking slightly amused. "They've become hobbits," she said, "they wanted to get down there with enough time to have their second-breakfast." :p
A couple weeks ago, one of the days I was working I took the baby out for a walk and ran into (not literally) a couple Jehovah's Witness ladies. I'm not sure whether I was better off to have the baby with me, or not. Since I had the baby with me, they just handed me a tract and then went on and on about the baby and how cute she was. One of the ladies just kept talking and talking about how much she liked babies and about when she was a new mother. They seriously didn't give me a chance to get a word in edgewise and explain that this was not my baby! :p Good grief...and if they happened to notice that of course I have no ring on my left hand, they probably thought I was all the more desperately in need of their "gospel" tract! I wonder how old they thought I was...maybe they assumed I must be older than I look, but I don't know.
When I was up at camp I was telling a lady that I have one little brother who's twelve years younger than me... "So, he's about 3 or 4, right?" "Noo...he's 7" "Oh, honey, you're older than you look then!" *sigh* Yes.
Mom's birthday was a couple weeks ago and we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not sure how the subject came up I think Grandma must have been talking about shopping or something, but at some point in the conversation, Grandma says that she wants to get a nice white blouse (which isn't unusual, she's usually looking for the perfect "white blouse") and she'll wear it with her jacket and spread the collar over the lapels like Sarah Palin wears her shirts. Cue silence while everyone chews slowly and digests this fact. "Oh! Hmmm..." I can't find a picture of Sarah Palin with that sort of outfit on, but I know what she means, because I think that's a common style with female news anchors as well. Not that Grandma fits into either of those categories...
So, my fair entries. I got the baby afghan I was working on finished and the apron.
The sweater and the paper mache pear didn't do so well! The sweater is going to take a lot more messing around and figuring out than I had time for before the fair. And the pear kind of, well, something happened to it. Plus I wouldn't have had time to get it painted nicely.
The sweater I was going to add sleeves to, but I need to wash it first and see if it will shrink any, because the way it is now, the sleeves are going to have to be huge, and that will look funny. I'm looking for another sweater pattern at the moment because I got some nice burgundy, bulky yarn on sale and I'd like to take a break on the pink sweater and work on something else for a while!
The pear had problems. The good thing is, I know exactly how I'll make it next time. I started out with a balloon and I shaped it with masking tape. So it had pieces of masking tape all over it, which made the layers of newspaper strips bumpy. So I ended up making a paper pulp to put all over it and smooth it out. And it did smooth it out, unfortunately the balloon had already deflated, so when the wet pulp got through to the newspaper, the hard newspaper which was the only support at that point got all soggy and crumpled.
From this angle it doesn't look too bad...
But this side doesn't look so good:
Oh well, when I try again I'm going to use the same base, except I'll use the really cheap masking tape that's more papery, and I'll start with the pulp, and that should work. Because the pulp dried really hard, it just smooshed the newspaper.
Here's the apron I made, it's reversible:
Here's what happens to your shirt if you don't wear an apron while pan-frying pork chops!:
The smudgy spots up at the top are where I started putting stain-remover on it. It certainly looked polka-dotted though!
We had a church fellowship this past Sunday at the Beasleys' house and they have a new puppy. I'm not much of a dog person, and I prefer big dogs like German Shepherds or something, but this little puppy was awfully sweet. He didn't want to hold still for a photo:
He's obviously part basset hound and so cute! And I didn't realize dogs did this too, I thought it was just cats, but I didn't really want him on my lap all over my nice dress, so of course he came running over to the couch and hopped up in my lap and settled right down. :)
Finally, here's a video I took a couple weeks ago. It's awful quality, but I wanted you to see the weird cackling sheep baby toy. I don't know why it doesn't scare babies!
Now I need to go find a sweater pattern. :)
What? All my posts are random?...hmmm.... :)
Well, my grandparents are off to Oregon to visit my aunt and uncle and cousin...they left this morning at
A couple weeks ago, one of the days I was working I took the baby out for a walk and ran into (not literally) a couple Jehovah's Witness ladies. I'm not sure whether I was better off to have the baby with me, or not. Since I had the baby with me, they just handed me a tract and then went on and on about the baby and how cute she was. One of the ladies just kept talking and talking about how much she liked babies and about when she was a new mother. They seriously didn't give me a chance to get a word in edgewise and explain that this was not my baby! :p Good grief...and if they happened to notice that of course I have no ring on my left hand, they probably thought I was all the more desperately in need of their "gospel" tract! I wonder how old they thought I was...maybe they assumed I must be older than I look, but I don't know.
When I was up at camp I was telling a lady that I have one little brother who's twelve years younger than me... "So, he's about 3 or 4, right?" "Noo...he's 7" "Oh, honey, you're older than you look then!" *sigh* Yes.
Mom's birthday was a couple weeks ago and we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not sure how the subject came up I think Grandma must have been talking about shopping or something, but at some point in the conversation, Grandma says that she wants to get a nice white blouse (which isn't unusual, she's usually looking for the perfect "white blouse") and she'll wear it with her jacket and spread the collar over the lapels like Sarah Palin wears her shirts. Cue silence while everyone chews slowly and digests this fact. "Oh! Hmmm..." I can't find a picture of Sarah Palin with that sort of outfit on, but I know what she means, because I think that's a common style with female news anchors as well. Not that Grandma fits into either of those categories...
So, my fair entries. I got the baby afghan I was working on finished and the apron.
The sweater and the paper mache pear didn't do so well! The sweater is going to take a lot more messing around and figuring out than I had time for before the fair. And the pear kind of, well, something happened to it. Plus I wouldn't have had time to get it painted nicely.
The sweater I was going to add sleeves to, but I need to wash it first and see if it will shrink any, because the way it is now, the sleeves are going to have to be huge, and that will look funny. I'm looking for another sweater pattern at the moment because I got some nice burgundy, bulky yarn on sale and I'd like to take a break on the pink sweater and work on something else for a while!
The pear had problems. The good thing is, I know exactly how I'll make it next time. I started out with a balloon and I shaped it with masking tape. So it had pieces of masking tape all over it, which made the layers of newspaper strips bumpy. So I ended up making a paper pulp to put all over it and smooth it out. And it did smooth it out, unfortunately the balloon had already deflated, so when the wet pulp got through to the newspaper, the hard newspaper which was the only support at that point got all soggy and crumpled.
From this angle it doesn't look too bad...
But this side doesn't look so good:
Oh well, when I try again I'm going to use the same base, except I'll use the really cheap masking tape that's more papery, and I'll start with the pulp, and that should work. Because the pulp dried really hard, it just smooshed the newspaper.
Here's the apron I made, it's reversible:
Here's what happens to your shirt if you don't wear an apron while pan-frying pork chops!:
The smudgy spots up at the top are where I started putting stain-remover on it. It certainly looked polka-dotted though!
We had a church fellowship this past Sunday at the Beasleys' house and they have a new puppy. I'm not much of a dog person, and I prefer big dogs like German Shepherds or something, but this little puppy was awfully sweet. He didn't want to hold still for a photo:
He's obviously part basset hound and so cute! And I didn't realize dogs did this too, I thought it was just cats, but I didn't really want him on my lap all over my nice dress, so of course he came running over to the couch and hopped up in my lap and settled right down. :)
Finally, here's a video I took a couple weeks ago. It's awful quality, but I wanted you to see the weird cackling sheep baby toy. I don't know why it doesn't scare babies!
Now I need to go find a sweater pattern. :)
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Cool T-shirts!
Threadless has some neat t-shirts...although some of them are a bit strange.
Here are some cool ones.
This t-shirt is called "A Voyage to Lilliput".
Voyage To Lilliput T
And $12 isn't a bad price for a Threadless T...but goodness they're small! I'd have to get an XL for it to fit after allowing for shrinking!
These are also cool...
You Sank My Battleship (that reminds me, I haven't played Battleship for a long time!)
What Makes It Go?
The Day The Fire Brigade Went On Strike (aw, look at the little elephants!!)
The girls shirts are on sale until the 12th...I thought it said until the end of Oct., but I must have read it wrong. Hmm...now I just have to decide whether I really want to pay $12 for a t-shirt. :)
Here are some cool ones.
This t-shirt is called "A Voyage to Lilliput".
Voyage To Lilliput T
And $12 isn't a bad price for a Threadless T...but goodness they're small! I'd have to get an XL for it to fit after allowing for shrinking!
These are also cool...
You Sank My Battleship (that reminds me, I haven't played Battleship for a long time!)
What Makes It Go?
The Day The Fire Brigade Went On Strike (aw, look at the little elephants!!)
The girls shirts are on sale until the 12th...I thought it said until the end of Oct., but I must have read it wrong. Hmm...now I just have to decide whether I really want to pay $12 for a t-shirt. :)
Monday, October 06, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Dixie Classic Fair
Umm... Oh great. Ah-ha! The fair! That's what I was going to blog about...I knew I had something I was going to blog about, but it got pushed aside by a bunch of other blog ideas. Okay, the fair.
We got there about 12:30 or so and made our way to one of the shows, "The Rhinestone Ropers" I believe was the name. That was fun to watch, they did rope tricks, and whip-cracking, and things with a horse and stuff like that. And they asked the little kids to come up if they wanted to try to twirl a rope, and Colin went right up there and did it...while I gaped at him and then rummaged for my camera. I don't think when I was his age I ever would have just walked up there and done something like that...I wouldn't mind now, but not back then!!
After the show was over we ran into some friends of ours (the family that has the farm up in Pinnacle...I've mentioned them before). So we talked to them for a while, and fixed this sign:
They were asking us which shows we'd gone to, and were wondering whether they should try to go to the show across from the Rhinestone Ropers. And in the process we realized that the printed sign said 1:30, but the hands on that clock were mixed up so it looked like 6:05!
"Oh, that needs to be fixed!" says the dad. "Helena," he says to the oldest girl, "go fix that!" But she just stood there and shook her head...finally the dad ran over there and fixed it himself. "Okay! Now I can go on without that bothering me all day!!" :p We were all laughing about that!
After that they went off to find some lunch and we went and looked at the chickens. What a LOT of chickens!
Dr. Seuss chickens:
Pine cone patterned chickens (these are so neat-looking!):
More patterned chickens:
And chickens that looked like those fuzzy marionette things (if you've ever been to a homeschool convention you probably know what I'm talking about! Otherwise, you're out of luck because I simply can't find a picture of one...):
Dad started sneezing while we were in there and decided he's allergic to chickens...Mom and I think it was probably the cedar bedding they were in, but I don't know. I suppose you could be allergic to chickens...
After that I think we ate lunch, and then we went and looked at the exhibits. I entered 25 things and got ribbons on 11 of them...which considering that I didn't have as much time this year to work on stuff isn't too bad I guess. :) And I think I'll enter a pound cake next year, because I didn't see any entered in the "cream cheese pound cake" category. Oh, and there was quite an upset in the scones category... *cough, cough* That's a bit of an inside joke, so if you don't know what I'm talking about don't worry about it. :) I didn't enter scones this year though, so it's not my fault...
And we had a funnel cake...or two actually, between the four of us:
Okay, so I don't like people dressed up in those costumes (like mascots) where you can't see the person at all...because you can't tell what sort of creep could be inside. So anyway, at the fair they have these people dressed as the characters from the comic strip B.C. wandering around...which is fine, as long as they stay away from me. But Mom and I were sitting and talking about our entries and stuff when I looked around and found one of those things hovering right by my shoulder!! I shrieked of course, and it pretended to be scared by me, but I was not happy. :( I'm not scared by much, but I don't like those things...and I know it's just a person in there, but they shouldn't go sneaking up on people like that!
Anyway...
There was this neat dragon made out of heating and air components:
So, that was the fair...no rides, although Colin said he wanted to ride on some ride. He would have been scared when he got up there though! :)
I don't think this post is very interesting...I just realized I'm really tired!
We got there about 12:30 or so and made our way to one of the shows, "The Rhinestone Ropers" I believe was the name. That was fun to watch, they did rope tricks, and whip-cracking, and things with a horse and stuff like that. And they asked the little kids to come up if they wanted to try to twirl a rope, and Colin went right up there and did it...while I gaped at him and then rummaged for my camera. I don't think when I was his age I ever would have just walked up there and done something like that...I wouldn't mind now, but not back then!!
After the show was over we ran into some friends of ours (the family that has the farm up in Pinnacle...I've mentioned them before). So we talked to them for a while, and fixed this sign:
They were asking us which shows we'd gone to, and were wondering whether they should try to go to the show across from the Rhinestone Ropers. And in the process we realized that the printed sign said 1:30, but the hands on that clock were mixed up so it looked like 6:05!
"Oh, that needs to be fixed!" says the dad. "Helena," he says to the oldest girl, "go fix that!" But she just stood there and shook her head...finally the dad ran over there and fixed it himself. "Okay! Now I can go on without that bothering me all day!!" :p We were all laughing about that!
After that they went off to find some lunch and we went and looked at the chickens. What a LOT of chickens!
Dr. Seuss chickens:
Pine cone patterned chickens (these are so neat-looking!):
More patterned chickens:
And chickens that looked like those fuzzy marionette things (if you've ever been to a homeschool convention you probably know what I'm talking about! Otherwise, you're out of luck because I simply can't find a picture of one...):
Dad started sneezing while we were in there and decided he's allergic to chickens...Mom and I think it was probably the cedar bedding they were in, but I don't know. I suppose you could be allergic to chickens...
After that I think we ate lunch, and then we went and looked at the exhibits. I entered 25 things and got ribbons on 11 of them...which considering that I didn't have as much time this year to work on stuff isn't too bad I guess. :) And I think I'll enter a pound cake next year, because I didn't see any entered in the "cream cheese pound cake" category. Oh, and there was quite an upset in the scones category... *cough, cough* That's a bit of an inside joke, so if you don't know what I'm talking about don't worry about it. :) I didn't enter scones this year though, so it's not my fault...
And we had a funnel cake...or two actually, between the four of us:
Okay, so I don't like people dressed up in those costumes (like mascots) where you can't see the person at all...because you can't tell what sort of creep could be inside. So anyway, at the fair they have these people dressed as the characters from the comic strip B.C. wandering around...which is fine, as long as they stay away from me. But Mom and I were sitting and talking about our entries and stuff when I looked around and found one of those things hovering right by my shoulder!! I shrieked of course, and it pretended to be scared by me, but I was not happy. :( I'm not scared by much, but I don't like those things...and I know it's just a person in there, but they shouldn't go sneaking up on people like that!
Anyway...
There was this neat dragon made out of heating and air components:
So, that was the fair...no rides, although Colin said he wanted to ride on some ride. He would have been scared when he got up there though! :)
I don't think this post is very interesting...I just realized I'm really tired!
Friday, October 03, 2008
In the year 2043...
Okay, so this is pretty much what's going to happen to my uncle Jim... ;)
Bluetooth Headset Cyborg Song
You should check out their other videos on YouTube. What's especially nice is that they can actually sing well! Mom posted one of their videos on her blog too...
Right now I have bits of about 4-5 of their songs going through my head! :p
Here are a couple other good ones:
Gas Prices Song (that one's my dad's favorite...it's pretty funny!)
Wales and Badgers Song (also good...basically they're all pretty good.)
Oh yeah, I'm actually at the fair right now...and I was at work yesterday when my post posted...yay for scheduled posting! :p
Bluetooth Headset Cyborg Song
You should check out their other videos on YouTube. What's especially nice is that they can actually sing well! Mom posted one of their videos on her blog too...
Right now I have bits of about 4-5 of their songs going through my head! :p
Here are a couple other good ones:
Gas Prices Song (that one's my dad's favorite...it's pretty funny!)
Wales and Badgers Song (also good...basically they're all pretty good.)
Oh yeah, I'm actually at the fair right now...and I was at work yesterday when my post posted...yay for scheduled posting! :p
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Weekend retreat pt.2
There were new ropes courses since the last time I was at camp... so that was neat to figure out how to do the new ones. Oh yes, you're roped in the whole time for all of these things. You put a harness thing on that goes around your waist and legs and then you're clipped to various belaying ropes at different points and people down on the ground control them. But the ropes don't help you at all, you can't hold onto them for stability...if you do that, the people belaying will usually give you some slack so that it doesn't help any! :p I was telling my grandma about this and she was looking terribly worried, and then I realized I hadn't told her that I was roped in! There's no way I would do any of these things (and no way they'd be safe) if I wasn't roped in! :D
There was a zip-line, but to get to it you had to go across two stretches of metal cable. I got stuck at the point on the second run where the cable comes down and meets the bottom one, because you can't hold much of the top one anymore, so you have to inch over and grab onto the rope that hanging down. Well, I had my feet as far apart as they would go and still couldn't get my foot on the other side of the cable which is what I needed to get a hold on the rope. The guy who was on the second platform to clip me into the zipline was trying to be encouraging, telling me I could do it, he'd gone across it and if he could do it I probably could, I was probably more flexible so I should be able to get it... "NO! I'm probably NOT!" I snapped as I about fell off. He was right though, I did finally manage to inch my right foot over so I could get my left foot on the other side of the cable and grab the rope. That one was almost the hardest one to do!
I didn't get any pictures of the ropes course, so I've tried to sketch the things so you can tell what I'm talking about...maybe. I've mentioned I can't draw very well, right? :p
(click to enlarge)
Then there was a great big swing where you climb a rope ladder, somersault into a cargo net, climb up the cargo net to get to the platform where they hook you into the swing and then you jump off the platform. That was fairly easy, once you struggle your way up the rope ladder it's a matter of falling into the net (without your head going through the holes!) and then getting facing the right way to climb up the net...and remembering to not use your knees to help you climb because you'll just get stuck. Then when you drop off the platform there's about a split-second where you think you're never going to stop because at that point you're just flying through the air and the harness and ropes aren't offering any resistance (it's basically a big sling shot to start out!) then you get to the end of the ropes and you're sitting in your harness and swinging. And at some point your stomach finally feels like it's back where it belongs. :p
Then the last one you climb another rope ladder (a little more stable than the last one), get up to the top and go across a bridge made of steps about three planks across with a big gap between each of them. They're not really that far apart, but the whole thing wobbles...I was intending to stop on each one, but once you I got going and too much momentum to stop without falling so I just ran across all of them! When you get across that you climb up a swinging rock-climbing wall (you know with the little hand and foot hold things screwed into a board). Above that is a horizontal telephone pole and you walk across that and then walk back across it half-way and then you can jump off. The trick to the pole across the top is to just look at the pole, plus I have pretty good balance so since it didn't swing and I tried to ignore the fact that I was 30-something feet off the ground it wasn't too bad. What really amused me was that people kept saying I looked like a ballerina when I was balancing on the various things! :p I guess just because I have good balance and on the telephone pole I just walked right across it instead of shuffling or putting each foot right in front of the other and I went fairly fast really. I don't know, that's just how it works for me...keep moving and get to the end before I start wobbling was what I was thinking!
Our speaker, Ray, did that one also, right before I did it...it was really funny. The guys talked him into doing it, and he was talking the whole time, "I think I'll take my Bible up with me!" "I can't believe I'm doing this!" "This is just insane, why am I doing this?!" and then when he got to the top and had to walk across the telephone pole he looked down and then he looked back up real quickly and said very quietly and matter-of-factly "I think you'll need a new speaker". :p
So anyway, the ropes courses were fun, and it wasn't raining by then, so there was only the residual dampness from the past two days. Saturday morning we did one of the low elements that they call "walk on water" and it was just a little too realistic! :p It's cables strung between trees (about a foot off the ground) and the idea is that there is an imaginary river running underneath them and you have to get your whole team across without losing anyone in the water. Everyone had the option to stay inside, or play disc golf, or do the low elements. Everyone who did something outside was soaked by the time they were done!
Friday night I didn't get to sleep until almost 2 because I stayed up playing carpetball until my arm got tired. Then Saturday night I got to bed closer to 1:30 or so because a group of us were up at the lodge playing "signs", which was a lot of fun. I took some random pictures while we were playing but most of them are pretty blurry because no one was holding still! :)
The guy in the green shirt is our speaker:
Mary's in the middle:
Oops, Charity (blue&white shirt) must have bounced just as I took that picture!
Everyone looks bemused while Ray spazzs about something:
When it's too wet outside to go rock-climbing what do you do? Why climb the chimney in the lodge of course! :p
That's the littlest Hylton kid, the four-year-old...he just climbed right up there while his mom held her breath and looked very worried. He got higher than that on one try, but I didn't get a picture.
There was a little cat up at camp and he just loved for me to carry him around and hold him.
Milo asleep on my lap:
Milo with another girl's hoodie over him...that was the most patient cat I've ever seen!
I held him through the whole evening service Saturday night, and then he sat next to me on the couch during the first service on Sunday. At one point on Saturday the other girl who liked to carry him around was walking around holding him over her shoulder and supporting his feet with her hand and he just stretched out and went to sleep!
Well, I think that's everything about camp. :) I'm not sure that I'd go again...if there were more people I knew then I might go, but otherwise I could find something else to spend the $25 on! :D
There was a zip-line, but to get to it you had to go across two stretches of metal cable. I got stuck at the point on the second run where the cable comes down and meets the bottom one, because you can't hold much of the top one anymore, so you have to inch over and grab onto the rope that hanging down. Well, I had my feet as far apart as they would go and still couldn't get my foot on the other side of the cable which is what I needed to get a hold on the rope. The guy who was on the second platform to clip me into the zipline was trying to be encouraging, telling me I could do it, he'd gone across it and if he could do it I probably could, I was probably more flexible so I should be able to get it... "NO! I'm probably NOT!" I snapped as I about fell off. He was right though, I did finally manage to inch my right foot over so I could get my left foot on the other side of the cable and grab the rope. That one was almost the hardest one to do!
I didn't get any pictures of the ropes course, so I've tried to sketch the things so you can tell what I'm talking about...maybe. I've mentioned I can't draw very well, right? :p
(click to enlarge)
Then there was a great big swing where you climb a rope ladder, somersault into a cargo net, climb up the cargo net to get to the platform where they hook you into the swing and then you jump off the platform. That was fairly easy, once you struggle your way up the rope ladder it's a matter of falling into the net (without your head going through the holes!) and then getting facing the right way to climb up the net...and remembering to not use your knees to help you climb because you'll just get stuck. Then when you drop off the platform there's about a split-second where you think you're never going to stop because at that point you're just flying through the air and the harness and ropes aren't offering any resistance (it's basically a big sling shot to start out!) then you get to the end of the ropes and you're sitting in your harness and swinging. And at some point your stomach finally feels like it's back where it belongs. :p
Then the last one you climb another rope ladder (a little more stable than the last one), get up to the top and go across a bridge made of steps about three planks across with a big gap between each of them. They're not really that far apart, but the whole thing wobbles...I was intending to stop on each one, but once you I got going and too much momentum to stop without falling so I just ran across all of them! When you get across that you climb up a swinging rock-climbing wall (you know with the little hand and foot hold things screwed into a board). Above that is a horizontal telephone pole and you walk across that and then walk back across it half-way and then you can jump off. The trick to the pole across the top is to just look at the pole, plus I have pretty good balance so since it didn't swing and I tried to ignore the fact that I was 30-something feet off the ground it wasn't too bad. What really amused me was that people kept saying I looked like a ballerina when I was balancing on the various things! :p I guess just because I have good balance and on the telephone pole I just walked right across it instead of shuffling or putting each foot right in front of the other and I went fairly fast really. I don't know, that's just how it works for me...keep moving and get to the end before I start wobbling was what I was thinking!
Our speaker, Ray, did that one also, right before I did it...it was really funny. The guys talked him into doing it, and he was talking the whole time, "I think I'll take my Bible up with me!" "I can't believe I'm doing this!" "This is just insane, why am I doing this?!" and then when he got to the top and had to walk across the telephone pole he looked down and then he looked back up real quickly and said very quietly and matter-of-factly "I think you'll need a new speaker". :p
So anyway, the ropes courses were fun, and it wasn't raining by then, so there was only the residual dampness from the past two days. Saturday morning we did one of the low elements that they call "walk on water" and it was just a little too realistic! :p It's cables strung between trees (about a foot off the ground) and the idea is that there is an imaginary river running underneath them and you have to get your whole team across without losing anyone in the water. Everyone had the option to stay inside, or play disc golf, or do the low elements. Everyone who did something outside was soaked by the time they were done!
Friday night I didn't get to sleep until almost 2 because I stayed up playing carpetball until my arm got tired. Then Saturday night I got to bed closer to 1:30 or so because a group of us were up at the lodge playing "signs", which was a lot of fun. I took some random pictures while we were playing but most of them are pretty blurry because no one was holding still! :)
The guy in the green shirt is our speaker:
Mary's in the middle:
Oops, Charity (blue&white shirt) must have bounced just as I took that picture!
Everyone looks bemused while Ray spazzs about something:
When it's too wet outside to go rock-climbing what do you do? Why climb the chimney in the lodge of course! :p
That's the littlest Hylton kid, the four-year-old...he just climbed right up there while his mom held her breath and looked very worried. He got higher than that on one try, but I didn't get a picture.
There was a little cat up at camp and he just loved for me to carry him around and hold him.
Milo asleep on my lap:
Milo with another girl's hoodie over him...that was the most patient cat I've ever seen!
I held him through the whole evening service Saturday night, and then he sat next to me on the couch during the first service on Sunday. At one point on Saturday the other girl who liked to carry him around was walking around holding him over her shoulder and supporting his feet with her hand and he just stretched out and went to sleep!
Well, I think that's everything about camp. :) I'm not sure that I'd go again...if there were more people I knew then I might go, but otherwise I could find something else to spend the $25 on! :D
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Weekend retreat pt.1
Okay, so I did warn you it would be a while before I posted anything, all the same I apologize. :) At least I left some comments and stuff so a few people knew I hadn't fallen off the mountain or been admitted to the hospital with multiple fractures... Not that we ever got around to doing much that was dangerous enough to cause any of those or other disasters. It rained all day Friday, all morning Saturday, and didn't clear up and get sunny until Sunday. So I had a very damp weekend!
Dad took me up to camp and we got there about a quarter to one...and didn't find anyone at the lodge. Hmm...not good. So we drove back down to the Hylton's (camp director and family) house to see what was up. So Andy (the director) came out and talked to us a bit and told me to take my stuff up to a cabin and then just come back down to their house to hang out because the canoe trip was probably not going to happen. So we did that; Dad helped me get my stuff into one of the cabins, we compared cell-phone signal strength (lousy up on the mountain), and then he took me back down to the house and headed home. So I talked with the few girls who were there already because they were working there, and then Kim Hylton and her parents were working on making snacks and stuff for the evening, so I helped them. I made the pigs-in-blankets, and by the time I was done with those another lady (Sandy) had gotten there, and Beka who I knew from homeschool camp and we three rolled some sort of sausage meatball thingies.
Then Beka and Sandy and I went and decorated the tables in the dining hall up at the lodge. The tables didn't turn out too bad considering what we had to work with...each of the tables was two folding tables put together and we didn't have enough white tablecloths for all of them, so there were white tablecloths and some randomly-patterned vinyl ones that were driving me crazy because 1. they didn't match, and 2. they were wrinkled. I finally suggested that we throw them in the dryer and that helped a lot! :p
Beka:
Dining hall:
One of the tables:
After we were done with that, Beka and I went and played air hockey and foosball with the Hylton kids which was really funny. At one point we were playing foosball with one of the little girls who was maybe 8 and the youngest boy who is 4 and he was on the side with me and since he didn't really know how to play we weren't doing very well, but he kept saying "Come on, Natawee!" because he thought I wasn't doing as well as I should have been. Finally he sighs in exasperation and says to his sister "Let's switch girls" and pushes me out of the way! :p "Reebeka," he says to Beka, "you come play with me." I thought that was funny too, because I remember Colin calling my cousin Rebecca, "Reeebeca" when he was little. :)
So Beka says to him "Don't you want to be friends with Natalie?" and like little kids do, he gives me this suspicious look and stubbornly says "No". He knew Beka already, so he was used to her, but he hadn't ever met me before and he wasn't sure yet if he liked me or not! :D By that night though while everyone was eating snacks he was wanting me to carry him around and play with him and everything. :) Ah, little kids are so funny!
Let's see what activities did we have Friday night? Well, I guess most of the people got there a lot later because they weren't coming for the canoe trip (which was canceled, by the way). So everyone had snacks and then went upstairs for the message and some games that were supposed to help you get to know people...they didn't work very well. You would think dividing into groups and then standing in circles and having everyone say their name and where they were from would work somewhat, but it was pretty noisy in there, so most of the time you couldn't hear the people real well let alone remember their name later!
Our speaker was interesting...and he was extremely hyper too! I'd met his wife that afternoon and I was surprised at how hyper he was, because she was really sweet and soft-spoken and not at all hyper herself! :p
It was neat to hear how he was saved and everything; he grew up in Jewish mysticism and such and hadn't ever heard anything about what the Bible said, and he wasn't saved until he was twenty-two, and when he told his family about it they kicked him out of the house. (That's the condensed version anyway...) He was funny too, he was telling about how before he was saved some people had gotten him to go to a few Bible studies and he finally decided he'd go to one of their Wednesday services, and he walked into the meeting in the middle of prayer and he said they were praying for him, saying "Lord, save that boy Ray, he needs you, Lord!! He's going to hell!!!" and then after the prayer they're all like "Oh, hi Ray!" and he said he felt like turning around and running back out the door! :D
Anyway, he based his messages on Acts 1-4, and Peter and John, although he had us flipping all over to various other passages. I thought it was very interesting, especially since some of it was passages and things that we've been studying in church recently. Pretty much all of what he said I agreed with although there was one thing that I can't remember now, but I remember thinking that I hadn't ever heard quite that explanation of something and I wasn't sure that I agreed. It's slipped my mind what it was though. And then during his message Sunday morning he said "Well, I'm not a 'Calvinist' but when I was first saved it almost felt like it was predestined.....but I knew I had the choice to accept Him or not, and I did"... and I sighed inwardly, but I think I avoided making any sort of other slightly exasperated sound. :) I expected that though, I was surprised he hadn't said anything earlier. I told our pastor's wife about that, and she said that she always wants to say "Don't lean one way or the other, just stand in the middle!" Yep, because you can go in an extreme either way, for instance the Hyper-Calvinists that believe you shouldn't even tell unbelievers about the gospel, or the Arminian view that you can lose your salvation. Anyway...
The camp is affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren, or Brethren assemblies (which is the kind of church my grandparents go to). And let me tell you, that Wikipedia article is spot on, down to the hymnals being referred to as the "black book" and "red book"! It also describes the way they do communion...which I was familiar with since I've gone to church with my grandparents a few times. It's like, express communion...they pass around the bread and everyone takes a piece and eats it immediately, and then they pass the grape juice (that article says wine, but it's usually juice) and everyone takes a cup, drinks it, and puts it back in the tray. Since it was a rather big crowd up at camp it took maybe a minute, but at my grandparents' small church they're usually done with each element in about thirty seconds flat! We got done and I was thinking, "wow, that was really meaningful!" *insert sarcasm* I mean, yes, it was communion, but with no thought behind it or taking much time to pray or anything, and I was really thankful to remember that next Sunday is communion Sunday at our church!
Another time I bit my tongue and didn't say anything was when I heard two of the ladies talking and the one was encouraging the other that it was fine that she didn't want to have children, because of the end times and what Paul said in Corinthians, and that it would be better not to bring children into a world where they'll be persecuted. I managed (just barely) to keep from spluttering, but really...I mean, I understand that it's a matter of doctrine as to how you interpret 1 Cor. 7, and they would take that to mean right now...and I think part of what Paul says does apply to us now as well, but he also said "in this present distress" referring to the persecutions by Nero and I don't think that necessarily applies to now, or not in quite the same way. Moreover, Paul didn't say anything about not having children if you were already married, he only said that it might be better not to marry. Okay, so that's clearly a disagreement on what's meant by that scripture, but then the ladies went on to talk about how if they had kids they couldn't have been up at camp and doing fun things like that, or be able to go on with their careers as well...and that really irked me! That's pure selfishness...selfishness that they've excused with 1 Cor. 7, I suppose. Anyway, all that to somewhat explain what I was going to say next, which is that I didn't feel like I had much in common with many of the people up at camp.
The people were nice, and it was fine as long as we were doing something, an activity or playing a game or something like that, but there was also an awful lot of free time where everyone was talking and not only did I not have much in common with them, they all knew each other from church, or they'd been up at camp many times before, and they didn't really try to get to know anyone else. I was telling my grandma that, and she said they decided not to go to the Bible conference at Myrtle Beach like they've done the past few years, because it's the same way. She said the old people do the same thing...they and another couple are the only ones from their church, and everyone else knows each other and doesn't try to get to know anyone else! Good grief, I thought it was just lingering childishness from the age-group up at camp, but apparently they don't outgrow it!
Well, I didn't want to leave this on a low note, but I really need to divide this up or y'all will never get through the whole thing! :p I did enjoy myself, it just wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. I'll post the rest tomorrow, along with a few more pictures. :)
Today was the day to take stuff to the fair, so I took Dad to work and dropped off everything but the baked goods on the way back. Then Mom and I finished up our baking and I took the rest in the afternoon. So now we wait until we go to the fair on Friday and see if we won anything! :)
Dad took me up to camp and we got there about a quarter to one...and didn't find anyone at the lodge. Hmm...not good. So we drove back down to the Hylton's (camp director and family) house to see what was up. So Andy (the director) came out and talked to us a bit and told me to take my stuff up to a cabin and then just come back down to their house to hang out because the canoe trip was probably not going to happen. So we did that; Dad helped me get my stuff into one of the cabins, we compared cell-phone signal strength (lousy up on the mountain), and then he took me back down to the house and headed home. So I talked with the few girls who were there already because they were working there, and then Kim Hylton and her parents were working on making snacks and stuff for the evening, so I helped them. I made the pigs-in-blankets, and by the time I was done with those another lady (Sandy) had gotten there, and Beka who I knew from homeschool camp and we three rolled some sort of sausage meatball thingies.
Then Beka and Sandy and I went and decorated the tables in the dining hall up at the lodge. The tables didn't turn out too bad considering what we had to work with...each of the tables was two folding tables put together and we didn't have enough white tablecloths for all of them, so there were white tablecloths and some randomly-patterned vinyl ones that were driving me crazy because 1. they didn't match, and 2. they were wrinkled. I finally suggested that we throw them in the dryer and that helped a lot! :p
Beka:
Dining hall:
One of the tables:
After we were done with that, Beka and I went and played air hockey and foosball with the Hylton kids which was really funny. At one point we were playing foosball with one of the little girls who was maybe 8 and the youngest boy who is 4 and he was on the side with me and since he didn't really know how to play we weren't doing very well, but he kept saying "Come on, Natawee!" because he thought I wasn't doing as well as I should have been. Finally he sighs in exasperation and says to his sister "Let's switch girls" and pushes me out of the way! :p "Reebeka," he says to Beka, "you come play with me." I thought that was funny too, because I remember Colin calling my cousin Rebecca, "Reeebeca" when he was little. :)
So Beka says to him "Don't you want to be friends with Natalie?" and like little kids do, he gives me this suspicious look and stubbornly says "No". He knew Beka already, so he was used to her, but he hadn't ever met me before and he wasn't sure yet if he liked me or not! :D By that night though while everyone was eating snacks he was wanting me to carry him around and play with him and everything. :) Ah, little kids are so funny!
Let's see what activities did we have Friday night? Well, I guess most of the people got there a lot later because they weren't coming for the canoe trip (which was canceled, by the way). So everyone had snacks and then went upstairs for the message and some games that were supposed to help you get to know people...they didn't work very well. You would think dividing into groups and then standing in circles and having everyone say their name and where they were from would work somewhat, but it was pretty noisy in there, so most of the time you couldn't hear the people real well let alone remember their name later!
Our speaker was interesting...and he was extremely hyper too! I'd met his wife that afternoon and I was surprised at how hyper he was, because she was really sweet and soft-spoken and not at all hyper herself! :p
It was neat to hear how he was saved and everything; he grew up in Jewish mysticism and such and hadn't ever heard anything about what the Bible said, and he wasn't saved until he was twenty-two, and when he told his family about it they kicked him out of the house. (That's the condensed version anyway...) He was funny too, he was telling about how before he was saved some people had gotten him to go to a few Bible studies and he finally decided he'd go to one of their Wednesday services, and he walked into the meeting in the middle of prayer and he said they were praying for him, saying "Lord, save that boy Ray, he needs you, Lord!! He's going to hell!!!" and then after the prayer they're all like "Oh, hi Ray!" and he said he felt like turning around and running back out the door! :D
Anyway, he based his messages on Acts 1-4, and Peter and John, although he had us flipping all over to various other passages. I thought it was very interesting, especially since some of it was passages and things that we've been studying in church recently. Pretty much all of what he said I agreed with although there was one thing that I can't remember now, but I remember thinking that I hadn't ever heard quite that explanation of something and I wasn't sure that I agreed. It's slipped my mind what it was though. And then during his message Sunday morning he said "Well, I'm not a 'Calvinist' but when I was first saved it almost felt like it was predestined.....but I knew I had the choice to accept Him or not, and I did"... and I sighed inwardly, but I think I avoided making any sort of other slightly exasperated sound. :) I expected that though, I was surprised he hadn't said anything earlier. I told our pastor's wife about that, and she said that she always wants to say "Don't lean one way or the other, just stand in the middle!" Yep, because you can go in an extreme either way, for instance the Hyper-Calvinists that believe you shouldn't even tell unbelievers about the gospel, or the Arminian view that you can lose your salvation. Anyway...
The camp is affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren, or Brethren assemblies (which is the kind of church my grandparents go to). And let me tell you, that Wikipedia article is spot on, down to the hymnals being referred to as the "black book" and "red book"! It also describes the way they do communion...which I was familiar with since I've gone to church with my grandparents a few times. It's like, express communion...they pass around the bread and everyone takes a piece and eats it immediately, and then they pass the grape juice (that article says wine, but it's usually juice) and everyone takes a cup, drinks it, and puts it back in the tray. Since it was a rather big crowd up at camp it took maybe a minute, but at my grandparents' small church they're usually done with each element in about thirty seconds flat! We got done and I was thinking, "wow, that was really meaningful!" *insert sarcasm* I mean, yes, it was communion, but with no thought behind it or taking much time to pray or anything, and I was really thankful to remember that next Sunday is communion Sunday at our church!
Another time I bit my tongue and didn't say anything was when I heard two of the ladies talking and the one was encouraging the other that it was fine that she didn't want to have children, because of the end times and what Paul said in Corinthians, and that it would be better not to bring children into a world where they'll be persecuted. I managed (just barely) to keep from spluttering, but really...I mean, I understand that it's a matter of doctrine as to how you interpret 1 Cor. 7, and they would take that to mean right now...and I think part of what Paul says does apply to us now as well, but he also said "in this present distress" referring to the persecutions by Nero and I don't think that necessarily applies to now, or not in quite the same way. Moreover, Paul didn't say anything about not having children if you were already married, he only said that it might be better not to marry. Okay, so that's clearly a disagreement on what's meant by that scripture, but then the ladies went on to talk about how if they had kids they couldn't have been up at camp and doing fun things like that, or be able to go on with their careers as well...and that really irked me! That's pure selfishness...selfishness that they've excused with 1 Cor. 7, I suppose. Anyway, all that to somewhat explain what I was going to say next, which is that I didn't feel like I had much in common with many of the people up at camp.
The people were nice, and it was fine as long as we were doing something, an activity or playing a game or something like that, but there was also an awful lot of free time where everyone was talking and not only did I not have much in common with them, they all knew each other from church, or they'd been up at camp many times before, and they didn't really try to get to know anyone else. I was telling my grandma that, and she said they decided not to go to the Bible conference at Myrtle Beach like they've done the past few years, because it's the same way. She said the old people do the same thing...they and another couple are the only ones from their church, and everyone else knows each other and doesn't try to get to know anyone else! Good grief, I thought it was just lingering childishness from the age-group up at camp, but apparently they don't outgrow it!
Well, I didn't want to leave this on a low note, but I really need to divide this up or y'all will never get through the whole thing! :p I did enjoy myself, it just wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. I'll post the rest tomorrow, along with a few more pictures. :)
Today was the day to take stuff to the fair, so I took Dad to work and dropped off everything but the baked goods on the way back. Then Mom and I finished up our baking and I took the rest in the afternoon. So now we wait until we go to the fair on Friday and see if we won anything! :)
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