A mysterious gift

We received a mysterious gift this morning.

After several seconds of frantic knocking on the front door, we shouted "come in!"

Nothing. A few seconds later, more knocking. I went and opened the door and was greeted by some not-so-subtle giggling from two girls hiding behind the car. On the ground in front of the door, is a piece of paper. I picked it up and closed the door.

Once inside, investigations reveal a poster of a red stick man and woman kissing and saying "I love you" in speech bubbles with a few colorful hearts floating around them. We are thoroughly perplexed.

Less than five minutes later, Isabel enters the house and sidles up to the counter nonchalantly. "What's this, Emma?" she asks innocently, pointing at the mysterious paper. "Oh, someone left it at our door," I answer. I will play along. "Do you know what it is?" she asks. "No, do you have any ideas?" Ha. I've caught her now.

She studies it quizzically for a few seconds and then says "It looks like Elmo to me. It looks like it might be Elmo and his wife kissing." At this point I am having trouble holding it together.

Elmo has a wife? I thought Elmo was more like preschool age.

She flips the card over. "Oh, yeah. Here Emma. It says "Me and my wife Smoochypoo, love Elmo."

Smoochypoo???

"Oh, wow! Elmo sent us a letter!" I said. "Yup, that's neat, all right," says Isabel. "And you have no idea when he left it?"

"Not a clue," I answer. "Did you see him?"

"Nope. Me and Shalom were at her house making...something."

She now decides she may be giving too many clues and decides to subtly exit the room. After she leaves I lean my head on the door and here her say laughingly to Shalom "She really thought it was Elmo who left it! We so tricked her!" (Hysterical laughter as they run away.)

The joys of being 7

I guess it's all good.

On those exciting days (i.e. Friday) I have no time to blog.

There you go.

Thursdays are a mediocre day.

Not much usually happens on Thursdays.
Grandma and Grandpa Miller are taking Eli and Ethan and Eden and Nate to the beach this morning. They go out with them most Thursdays.

Generally speaking, Thursdays are kind of a boring day. In comparison to Fridays, they are somewhat abysmal.

Fridays are an exciting day. We have piano in the morning, sometimes we go to the library after lunch and then choir later in the afternoon. Plus after Friday I know the magical day is coming *Saturday*

Saturdays are fun. Sometimes I work, and sometimes we just do nothing.

Sundays are good. We go to church, and then come home and spend the rest of the day mooching about and chilling together.

Mondays are too busy to be boring. We don't really go anywhere or do anything but it's always hard getting back into school after the weekend.

Tuesdays are fun as well. We have choir in the evening and usually we drive home with our friend Esther Ruth so we get to chit chat in the car.

Wednesdays are a little bit boring too, I guess. But I can generally amuse myself with practicing choir music from the night before, and trying to think of things to do on Thursday.

Then comes Thursday again. Sigh.

But maybe Thursdays could be a nice day. A little breath to think about what's coming up next. A little mini sabbath within the week.

I could change my thinking about Thursdays, I think. Boring could equal calm.

A 'boring' mindset could just be discontented. A 'rest day' mindset could be really nice.

At least I have time to blog on Thursdays.

Something to think about. See you tomorrow :)

Oh dear, oh dear

I didn't blog yesterday. Not good. This whole goal thing isn't going well.

I really have nothing to say. Also not good.

I guess I'll see you tomorrow.

Oh yeah! I have choir today. We're working on Bach and the Schoolmaster. Should be good :)

Back

I'm back. It's good.

I had a lovely choir camp. We learned all the Bach music for the Pacific Baroque Festival, we just have to practice it. Some of us jumped in the lake too! Last night we watched a Strauss opera and during the dancing scene we polkaed and waltzed around the back of the room. Jolly good fun.

Apparently Rachel and I were singing a duet in our sleep last night. From what we've been told one of us was singing and the other was grunting melodically. We had a somewhat heated argument about which was the singing and which was the grunting one.

This is a neat story. At choir camp I found out that the author of a book that I loved when I was about 10 is my friend's aunt! The Doll People (very good book, by the way, everyone should read it.) It's not a very common book but I found it in the library several years ago. Anyway, fun.

See you tomorrow :)

I'm not starting this well

Yeah. So I just got home yesterday, and now I'm off again today. So much for this 'every day' deal. Sorry folks. See you on Sunday :)

You can tell a lot about a person...

...by what they look for on Used Victoria.

Dad: It varies. Recently it was ski/snowboard equipment for the family. Now we all own our very own skis, boots, snowboards, helmets and goggles. Coincidence? I think not.
Also, a little less recently it was cars. Now we have a new car. The things that don't change are windows, doors and other home improvement items.

Me: It used to be ipods. Now I have a new ipod. Nowadays it seems to be electric pianos. I don't have one yet. Hmmm... I should go check out the newest ones...

Aaron: Lego and comic books. He is working on extensive collections of Calvin and Hobbes, For Better or For Worse and Garfield.

Mom: Whatever she wants, my dad looks up for her. Yeah, yeah. That's just an excuse to be an Used Victoria more.

In short, we are all used victoria junkies.

I'm a youtube junkie too. Generally, Aaron and Dad watch them with me too.
Aaron likes America's funniest home videos best. I'm into the talent shows like American idol, Britain's got talent, etc.

Yeah. Well I'm off. The internet is calling me.

We just watched this incredible video on youtube. It's the winner of Ukraine's got talent I think and it's very beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

this morning

One more thing...At church this morning Eli said "Today is a special day, and I won't step on anybody's feet."

Yeah.

Uh oh

We're leaving to go skiing tomorrow. So I won't be home for four days. And then when we get back, I'm leaving again for the weekend. So that could be bad. So I'm going to have to break my earlier promise and see you for the next couple days. I hope you can survive without me for a short while. Thanks a million :)
See you Thursday night or Friday.

I have nothing to say,
I have nothing to do.
So here's a little song,
I wrote just for you.

I don't know what to write
But I promised I would
I can't seem to think
But I would if I could

Today was normal
Just fine and dandy
Except that it didn't include
any candy

There you are, that pretty much sums it up.
That was a bit weak, hopefully I think of something better tomorrow.

Short and sweet today :)

Ethan has a rocket ship on the front of his pjs. It's orange with green wings. (Wings? Is that what they're called on a rocket ship? I don't know.)

But he is quite adamant that it's not a rocket ship, it's a carrot.

What kind of child is this?

Any boy prefers a carrot over a rocket ship has been well trained.

I taught him everything he knows :)

10 Things of Today:

1. Ethan loves the taste of kids tylenol (the liquid kind that's grape flavored.) If he wants some, he says "I have a beaver (fever), I need medecine."

2. I almost enjoyed my Science lesson (almost).

3. Four of the other kids are at the museum with my grandparents for the free admission week. I refused to go because I'm still scared of that mammoth.

4. Piano starts again tomorrow. I'm happy :)

5. I bumped my head on the ceiling in my bedroom, which I haven't done in months!

6. I am entering an Odyssey trivia contest. Does anybody know the name of the employee Lucy talked to at the Calvin Bloom company?

7. I made four pumpkin loaves yesterday. Two have mysteriously disappeared.

8. The other kids just got home from the museum and Eli says "We saw a big, big elephant that was super big and made loud noises. It wasn't real but it was really scary." See? I am justified.

9. Eli also says "And the deers were scary but the bear was nice." ???

10. It's only 12.47. There will likely be more this afternoon.

Emma

And they said...

So, we're putting on Ethan's 'handsome shirt' (any button up shirt) and after I got it on him I said "Ethan, you are super handsome," and he said "Yeah. I am handsome like a cow."

You know it, buddy :)

January 6th, 2009: Choir, etc.

In choir we are working on three main songs right now. The first one is a Bach piece called 'Der Geist hilft unser swachheit auf'(spelling?). My choir director said it means 'the Spirit helps us through all our hardships' roughly translated. It's a lot of fun. Another song is by Georg Tellemann and it's called "Der Schulmeister' Which means the schoolmaster. It is a little mini musical play with 5 songs and acting in between. It's about a schoolmaster who thinks he's a wonderful singer and the best at everything and his class is trying to prove that they're smarter than him. It's all in German but I can understand some of it. They need a few actors from our choir to play brats in the acting part :) We are performing both of those at the Pacific Baroque Festival in February.

Another song we are working on is called African Jigsaw. It's another musical play with lots of songs and some recitations in between. It's about Africa! (No kidding!) I think it's interesting but lots of the kids in our choir don't like it. I don't like all of the songs but I do like some of the more upbeat ones. I'm having fun :)

See you tomorrow!
Emma

More News years resolutions

As you may remember, my resolution last year was to start a blog. This year I am upping the antie.
I am going to attempt writing everyday. Doesn't have to be long, doesn't have to be exciting. Like a facebook status or twitter, uh, tweet? Not that I use twitter :)

So, in 2010 I am going to write a 'status of me' everyday. Less than a paragraph. A single sentence if that's what it takes. Maybe I'll make a novel out of it next year.

Can I really do it? Time will tell.
See you tomorrow!
Emma

Amazing grace how sweet the sound, the lion sleep tonight.

Oh brother. Miles and Isabel have started singing "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Apparently it's from a movie.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like meeeeeee
I once was lost, but now I'm found!
Was blind but now I seeeeeee

Aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Awe Um mum mum baway
Aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Aweeee Um mum mum baway

You get the idea. Try it yourself. The tune actually fits the words quite nicely. I cannot wait until choir starts again.

Another year...

Another year has passed us by.

8 Birthdays
1 Anniversary
1 Valentine's day
1 Christmas
1 Easter
1 Trip to Africa
1 New little Bambino (well, not yet :)
8765 Hours
525,600 Minutes
31,556,926 Seconds
One more year of life :)

Hope it was good for y'all too <3