Les Miserables

Wednesday morning I finally got to see the movie I have been waiting for most of the year. Les Miserables! It was completely wonderful and amazing. Definitely not recommended for young children (under 13) just because of the theme and there are also some suggestive scenes. PG-13 is a very appropriate rating for this movie. It is about a man who is put on parole and breaks it because he wants to change his life and cannot while being on parole. His name is Jean Val jean. He meets a woman who is dying and has a daughter that she cannot take care of. He takes young Cosette into his keeping and raises her. Cosette grows up and falls in love with a man named Marius. A love triangle comes into play when Marius' friend Eponine (my favorite character) is in love with him, but being a typical man, Marius does not realize it. Jean Val jean wants to take Cosette over to England from France because it is not safe for them anymore. Cosette and Marius are devastated, but Marius has to stay and fight in the French Revolution. I will not tell you anymore about the story that way you can still enjoy it. The music is phenomenal and the acting is fantastic. If you are interested it is a musical based on the book "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. The book is really really good too.  I will warn you the book is very long, but worth the read. (Also the movie is very sad, but since the name of it translated into English is 'the miserable' that is kind of expected)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I had a wonderful Christmas today. We got up at 6:15 and I played "Carol of the Bells" to wake everyone up. (I did warn them I was going to do this) Then Caleb played "God rest ye merry gentlemen" on his guitar. Then I read the Christmas story from the Bible and we prayed. Everyone opened their presents and was very happy. We had sausage balls for breakfast, which are my absolute favorite. My grandparents sent me and my mom a Cricut mini, so we were trying to figure that out. Then we played a card game called 'Pit' which is really fun. We had turkey, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes for lunch. After that, we all pretty much just laid around. Over all it was a really good Christmas.

My crazy weekend

Now that I have caught everyone up, I can tell you about last weekend. Saturday my mom, Caleb, and I all went to see the Hobbit movie. Dad was sick so he could not go. The movie was pretty good, but it did not follow the book real well. The book was much better. We did a little bit of Christmas shopping, grabbed some dinner, and then came home. Sunday Sharyssa, Rebekah, Josiah, Katherine, and I were signing in church. It was also my piano recital, in which we signed again. I played 'Carol of the Bells' as a duet with Mrs. Greene. It was really fun! Everyone else did really really well. The last person to play the piano was phenomenal! He played 'Sleigh Ride'. After the recital, we all went down into the fellowship hall for snacks and apple cider. After that, we came home and sat around the rest of the day. Today is my calm down day. Bella has been pretty agreeable, besides the fact she is in time out right now, and there is not rush to get anything done. Christmas break is delightful!

A little catching up to do

I really don't know what was going on when I last posted, other than I did not finish the Seattle posts. I got to the end of my journal that I kept, so I do not remember the rest of the days that well anymore. I will start with Thanksgiving and go on from there. Actually I will mention that I got contacts the week before Thanksgiving. Izzy did not recognize me and would hide for a while. Then I asked if she was my 'nonkey ninin' (monkey minion) and she got all excited and said "yes Kiki"

Thanksgiving was just me and my family. We made lunch and had way to much Turkey. :) Then I took a nap and the rest of the family just sat around all day. That pretty much sums up my Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. It was Caleb's year to put the angel on the top of the tree. We got out all the boxes and ornaments and made the long endeavor of putting the tree up, We have an artificial tree, so it requires being assembled and  'fluffed'. Fluffing the tree is my least favorite part because your arms get all scraped up. Not much happened the rest of the weekend...or the week for that matter.

That next weekend though was mine and Sharyssa's annual Christmas sleepover. We take turns for whose house it is at, so this year it was my turn. My mom and I picked up Sharyssa and we got our nails done at the mall, then went to lunch at Panda Express (in the mall). We came back to my house and took a walk then worked on 'Held'. Since our brains were dead, we watched a little bit of 'Castle' and then made no-bake cookies. While the no-bake cookies were cooling we looked at wedding type stuff. Then we had a tea party in which we came up with nicknames for each other that we had a long time ago. Sharyssa was Ms. Magnolia Dolittle and I was Ms. Amber Honeysuckle. We exchanged gifts and then went to bed. She got me a music box that plays 'Masquerade' from Phantom of the Opera. I love it a lot!! It was a Saturday so the next day we had to get up and take a shower quickly and get to church.

Thursday that week, was gingerbread cookie day. Isabella was quite happy about this experience. We made two batches and that is about 10 dozen cookies. :) They were for the Christmas tea at church that Saturday though so we could not eat many of them.

As I just mentioned the Christmas tea was Saturday. My family had to be at the church at 11:00 so that everyone else could set up. I drew a Christmas tree on the dry erase board in the fellowship hall and goofed around until everyone else started showing up. Most people did not get there until about and hour before. The tea itself was quite fun. The teenage girls had a table to ourselves, so we were a little goofier than if we had to sit with the adults. We did not get home until almost 7:00 that night. 

Seattle Day 3 (Thursday)

Hectic is the only word that comes to mind. We all got up really early and ran to Panera for breakfast. Then the boys left us and we went to some stores on the Landing, which is a giant shopping center. It is kind of like a giant outdoor mall. It was freezing cold out and I didn't bring a jacket, so I got one at one of the stores we had to go to. Auntie's car was being fixed by her own personal pit crew. (aka Caleb, Dad, and Papa) She came in the Jeep to take us girls to IKEA. We were meeting Brian's mom, Michelle, at IKEA so we walked a little ways and then turned around to go back to the door to wait for her. Once she got there, we walked around looking at things and grabbing what we needed. Then Auntie came in her Subaru, which was fixed, to pick us up. The boys followed her to make sure nothing went wrong. They took all the IKEA stuff and put it in the jeep so that we did not have to try to fit all of us in with the stuff into the Subaru. We then went to Michael's craft store to grab the craft stuff needed for the wedding. Then we went to LifeWay Bible Bookstore because Gram needed some stuff to take back to Alaska. Jack (Brian's dad) came and picked up Michelle while we were in the bookstore. Then we stopped at Auntie's and picked up something she needed to take to a friends house. We dropped by her school and got the coffee pots for the wedding reception. The kids all ran to her and screamed with joy when she came in. It was so cute!! Next we dropped the things off at her friends house. Then we went to pick up her veil and bouquet. The lady who made them has a little boy name Finnigan who is absolutely adorable! Since all of our tasks for the day were accomplished, we drove into downtown Seattle and went to Dillitante. It is a magnificent chocolate store and restaurant. They did not open for about fifteen minutes, so we went and got Auntie's bridesmaid's gifts. We went back to Dillitante to eat dinner. It was delightful. I had a white hot chocolate and some hummus with really addicting crackers. Auntie took us back to her house and we got to meet Brian. He will fit into our family quite nicely. :) We went home and then chilled out for the rest of the night. End of day 3!

The Arrival of Autumn

When I woke up this morning, it was only 42 degrees!! It was actually really cold! I took Izzy outside for just a little while to play with bubbles and I had to wear a jacket over my sweater. I am quite happy it is finally getting cold outside. Right now we have cakes cooling because we need them cooled off really fast. We are making a special ice cream cake for our friend's birthday and taking it to him as a surprise later. :) I need to go help.

Seattle Day 2 (Wednesday)

I got up at 6:30 and wrote a little bit in my journal. Of course it was dark because I didn't want to wake up any one else. Papa got up pretty quick after that, so I did not get too much done. We started coffee and hot water for tea. I had vanilla caramel tea. It was delicious. I had a peanut butter bar of some sort for breakfast. We sat around most of the morning just doing a little bit of planning. Right before lunch I started to work on the the banner for the reception hall. Markers and glitter glue are my friends. WE all had leftovers from dinner for lunch, then the boys took a walk down to the water. I stayed at the house and worked on the banner for a while. When the boys got back, they and Gram went down to the ceremony site and reception hall to learn where they both were. After a while, we ran to Jack in the Box for dinner. While we were ordering, Auntie called and said her car had broken down, but she had a ride coming. We came home and ate dinner, all worrying about her. In the process of us eating, a car accident happened right outside the house we were staying in. Everyone ran outside, but Caleb and I were told to stay on the porch. It was terrifying to watch as two infants and a first/second grader were pulled out of the car. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Everyone came back to the house and we finished dinner. I read a little, then Dad and Papa left to go look at Auntie's car. They already knew what was wrong, but they wanted to see how hard it would be to fix. Caleb and I played a game of "Battleship" which he won. Then I went to bed. End of day 2! :)