I am greatly enjoying my study on the character of Lydia Bennet. She's so interesting...and silly.

a conversation

Jenna: Do YOU know how to do leeks?
Clarissa: I don't know.
Jenna: Well, I think I do......I think I saw Rachael Ray do it once.
Clarissa: That's a funny quote.
Jenna: You should remember it for me, so that I can post it on the blog.

Okay, so the last line isn't exactly what I said. ;) Clarissa and I made some delicious-smelling baked apples and some messy-but-fun-to-make potato and leek soup for the Scarlet Pimpernel book club Christmas party. All the food turned out well; nothing burned!!! :)

Bits and pieces

- Two days ago, I discovered that some of the carpet in the basement (which is where my room is) was completely soaked. Something leaked in the storage room, and there was water all over the floor. Nothing was ruined, but Mom and I still had to clean it all up. Mom got out the shopvac and I mopped up puddles with our camping towels. I don't know what caused it, but it hasn't come back, so that's a positive thing :)

- This is our last week of school before Christmas break! Although I will be studying for the ACT, doing this driver's ed program that my mother wants me to do, and catching up on some schoolwork...isn't that what Christmas break is for, so you can catch up on schoolwork?

- My first band concert was on Monday. Playing in front of people is not something that I excel at, let's just leave it at that :)

A Tag

Shaylynn tagged me! Dear me....

1- Have you been asked out? Once....I said no :) lol

2 - Where was your default picture taken? The theater basement. Mark Hickle took it.

3 - What's your middle name? Adventure. No....seriously. Adventure is my middle name.

4 - Your current relationship status? wouldn't you like to know....

5 - What's the first thing you do when you wake up from a nap? Try to unglue my contacts from my eyeballs.

6 - What is your current mood? Quietly contented

.7 - What color shirt are you wearing? Blue

8 - Missing something? Don't tell my orthodontist, but I had lost the bottom part of my retainer for a couple weeks. I found it yesterday :)

9 - Current Favorite Quote? I have a bunch!

10 - If you could go back in time and change something what would be? Probably a lot of things, but one thing recently....I would do everything in my power to prevent myself from getting sick so I wouldn't have to miss a performance of Scrooge.

11 - If you must be an animal for one day, what would you be? a bird.

12 - Ever had a near death experience? nope.

13 - Something you do a lot? Sing. Read.

14 - The song stuck in your head? Part one of the Messiah.....grrrrr.

15 - Least favorite household chore? Sweeping and emptying the dishwasher.

16 - Name someone with the same birthday as you. A bunch of people. I just don't think I know any of them.

17 - When was the last time you cried? A few days ago when I found out that a lady from our church passed away.

18. - Have you ever sung in front of a large audience? maybe....:)

19 - If you could have one super power what would it be? flying, invisibility

20 - What's the first thing you notice about the opposite gender? Smile, eyes, hair color.

21 - What do you usually order from Starbucks? a french vanilla cappuccino.

22 - What's your biggest secret? I'm in the FBI.

.23- What's your favorite color? red....dark red.

24 - Do you still watch kiddie shows or tv shows? Neither very often. Depends...I like to watch Star Trek on youtube. When I'm at my friends' house we watch Deadliest Catch, Cash Cab and Say Yes to the Dress.

25 - What's on your walls? an old broken violin, some Elvis records, my duckstamp ribbon, a drawing of Spock that a friend of mine did. I have several framed things that I'll hang up if I EVER get my room painted.

26 - What are you? 1/8th Swiss

27 - Do you speak any other language? I can sing several French songs. But I can't understand them.

28 - What's your favorite smell? Mountains.

29 - Describe your life in one word! Eccentric?

30 - Have you ever kissed in the rain? nope.

31 - What are you thinking about right now? what I'm going to make for dinner....hmm..

32 - What should you be doing? folding clothes.

33 - Who was the last person that made you upset/angry? I don't know. I don't remember the last time I was really angry/upset.

34 - How often do you talk to God? whenever I need Him, whenever I want Him, whenever I thank Him. That amounts to a lot.

35 - Do you like working in the yard? Depends.

36 - If you could have any last name in the world, what would you want? MacNeill :) lol

37 - What is your natural hair color? Brown. Plain brown. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder.

38 - Do you have many friends? I do. I have a bunch of people I consider my best friends. You're probably one of them.

39 - Who is your role-model? my parents and grandparents.

40 - Do you like your life? I like life, here and now, life and I made a mutual vow. Till I die, life and I, we'll both try to be better some how! Where there's music and laughter, happiness is rife! Why? Because I like life!!!

I now tag:

My mother

because I can never remember....

A new favorite site of mine...because I can never remember. lol.

http://www.todaysdate.com/

Confessions of the Day

I haven't done this in a while, so to make up for it I'll give you TWO confessions.

The first confession is:
Sometimes, when I'm shopping somewhere and see a large sign reading "Clearance" I want to start yelling in my best George Bailey/Jimmy Stewart voice, "Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence!"

Fact: I have actually done that in a store before.

Second confession:
Whenever I hear the word "generally" I think someone is saying my name. Every single time. And I'll turn to look at them, but it always turns out that they aren't saying my name. And then I feel foolish for falling for it again.

So if you want to annoy me to no end, stand behind me and say the word "generally" periodically. It'll drive me crazy.

I don't recommend it:)

My Thanksgiving Weekend

Pieces of pumpkin pie: 2

Servings of mashed potatoes: 3

Movies watched: 5

Number of times I cried during movies: 5

Number of walks taken: 1

Naps: 0

Football games watched: 0

Hugs given: 1,935,200

Newborn babies held: 1...more on this later :)

Sleepovers with friends: 1

Sleepovers with cousins: 1

Number of times I heard our relatives bash the Cardinals: quite a few

Number of times we bashed the Cubs: quite a few:)

Projects knitted: 1

Black Friday purchases: 4

Look at this little man! Issac James was born around 4:30 on Thanksgiving Day. He is so precious. Congratulations to Mommy Emily, Grandma and Grandpa Baxter, and Aunts Amanda, Jessica and Courtney.

Speaking of Aunt Courtney, she's a senior this year! She had her senior pictures made when we went to Harding homecoming, and Megan and I snuck into a few of them:)

My New Favorite Book

For quite a while, my favorite book has been A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Yesterday, that changed when I finished The Great Gatsby.

Goodness. The Great Gatsby is a well-written book that I thoughly enjoyed, although because of some innapropriate language and content, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless...well, let's say your parents should read it before you do. Unless you're an adult. Just make good choices, okay? Okay.

So A Wrinkle in Time has been knocked down to second place. For the time being...

I have too many books on my "To Read Eventually" list.

Scrooge

We just finished Scrooge! And, in case you didn't get to come see it, here are some pictures:)

My sister, Becca, and Eve Dilly....aren't they beautiful?

Joel Nisbett as Bob Cratchit....I just love the colors in this picture.

The dance scene...I'm the third one in the line.

That's my leg in the white dress, behind the gold skirt:)

Me (Miss Dilber) with Benjamin (Tom Jenkins) and Mrs. Tupper (Mrs. Dilber)

Scrooge surprises the town by forgiving their debt. Scrooge was played by our much loved Papa Stanley, Mr. Kevin Edwards. He did a marvelous job!

Why I Haven't Posted in Soooooo Long

A short (silly) story inspired by John Nisbett.

I was sitting out by our pool a few weeks ago (despite the fact that it was closed) while drinking some pink lemonade and pondering the purpose of fingerless gloves when a large black limousine drove up. A strange figure stepped out. He was dressed in black, and was wearing a black cape lined with red satin. He had black hair, and he had a widow's peak. It was definitely a vampire.

So the vampire walked up to me and said, "Hello, my name is Dracula. I was wondering if you had a computer I could borrow."
I replied, "I have a computer but you may not borrow it. Go away."
He got kind of mad and laughed, "Mwa-ha-ha."
I asked him to stop. I don't like scary laughing vampires.

Now, this is the point in the story when I should have gone inside to get some garlic...or is that for werewolves? I don't know. Rachael Ray was talking about it on Food Network a couple halloweens ago.

So, Mr. Dracula decided that the best way to get my computer was to trick me. So he said,
"If you close your eyes and count to 372, I'll give you the complete second season of Star Trek: The Original Series on DVD." This could have been my first mistake, but what Mr. Dracula didn't is that I can count to 372 in record setting time. Like, really really fast. So by the time I got to 372, Dracula was only just getting into his limo, STEALING my computer. I ran after him and called him a crazy hooligan.

I had to get my laptop back, so I devised a plan to trap Dracula. I spent three weeks making a huge sign that said,

"WELCOME TO THE COFFEE BARN, the newest coffee shop in town, FREE WI-FI, excellent coffee too!"

and I hung it in front of my house. Then I recruited some friends to sit in my living room and pretend like they were patrons of my fictional coffee shop. Why did I do this, you ask? Because I just happened to know that vampires cannot resist coffee shops and free wi-fi...and hopefully, Mr. Dracula would bring MY laptop with him.

The next day, I saw a black limousine pull up in our driveway. I called the police and asked them to send a car over. Dracula entered our little cafe and seated himself near a window. He then pulled out MY laptop and started taking advantage of our internet while he waited for my clueless sisters...I mean, my experienced waitresses. They were in the kitchen on my mother's laptop, googling directions for how to make a frozen caramel latte.

In about 7.8 minutes, a police car drove slowly up the driveway. I went out to explain what the situation was, and invited them in.....for "coffee."

Sneaking over to Dracula's table, I whispered in his ear, "Sir, there are some fans of yours over by the piano. They would like a picture with you if it's convienient."
He smiled and got up. As you can guess, the "fans" were the policemen. They took him in on charges of laptop stealing, disturbing the peace and loitering at Wal Mart.
"Thanks for calling us, miss," one policeman told me, "We've been after this one for a couple weeks."
I smiled. I got my laptop, and they got their man.

So, yeah, that's why I haven't posted in so long. Thanks to John Nisbett for the inspiration :)

P.S.....COME SEE SCROOGE! We open tonight!!!

Bike Wreck

We went camping this past weekend.
We froze.
We rode bikes.
We ate sandwiches made with store bought bread.

Fact: I have not had a bike "wreck" in a very, very long time. I have had my chain slip off, but you don't fly off your bike if your chain slips off.

Or maybe you do. I don't know. But I personally have never been thrown from my bicycle because of chain problems.

I'm not really sure how it happened. I was just riding along and all of a sudden I was falling off my bike. I fell....hard.....on my left side, scraping up my leg and elbow. I have a pretty bad bruise on my left hip, which is kind of weird, knowing that I broke the fall with my right side, and a couple other random bruises. I'm going to have some nasty scars. Clarissa took a picture just minutes after it happened, and I expect it will show up on her blog before too long :)

awwwww:)

My daddy got me an orange and white kitten! Dad saw on my earlier posts I mentioned that I wanted a kitten, and so he looked on Rollanet and found a free 12 w/o.

The kitten is adorable. He is, like I said, 12 weeks old. His face, forehead, back and tail are orange and the rest of him is white. I've named him Jefferson. At the moment, Jefferson is exploring my room. He watched me clean out my desk drawers for twenty minutes at least, just sitting there staring at me. I'll take a picture of him and post it tomorrow:)

Thanks Daddy! I love you!

Confessions of a Student Driver

I drove in town today for the first time.

Yes.

With stop signs and cars and intersections and everything.

It was awesome.

Except I didn't like the speed limit being 25 mph. Honestly?

Honestly.

My *NEW driving philosophy is,

"A little whiplash does a body good."

This is probably a incorrect statement.

But it's my motto. And I'm sticking to it.

Especially when I'm not slowing down fast enough to please my mother and she starts yelling "Stop stop STOP". Or when I turn and she says, "That was good, except for the little bit of whiplash you gave us all." then she chuckles "Haa haa ha."
Then I respond with,

"A little whiplash does a body good."

*I say "new" but what I mean new as in "just came to be" not "having replaced the old one"

:)
I <3 driving.

A Pirates of Penzance Wedding

On the way home from church, my sisters and I had a brilliant idea.

A Pirates of Penzance themed wedding.

I know.

It's pure genius.

So we then planned my wedding.

All females in the wedding party will be dressed as the Stanley sisters.

The groomsman will be dressed as pirates.

The ushers will be dressed as policemen.

The bride (me) and groom will be dressed as Mabel and Frederic.

I want the song "Dirait-on" played as a processional. "Dirait-on" is a choir piece that I sang at Harding Honor Choir two years ago. It's an absolutely beautiful song.....when done correctly. Don't bother to look it up on youtube. I've spent hours looking for good recordings, but in every single video I watched, there were one or more of the following problems.
1. Incorrect French pronunciation....this really bugs me.
2. They sang it super, super slow....it's supposed to be slow, but not THAT slow.
3. The choir was really bad....like, they just didn't sound good.
4. The recording was really low quality and you couldn't even hear that well.

It was a disappointment. If you are set on hearing this song (which I recommend, if you like French songs sung by choirs, like I do), maybe you'd have some luck on iTunes.

So anyway. I kind of want the song "Don't Stop Believing" played at my reception, but I'm not sure how people would react to a secular song:) At least Dirait-on is in French and sounds like a wedding song.

So there's my Pirates wedding.

I'm not getting married any time soon....I promise.
And this is just for fun. I don't actually expect my wedding to be like this, although I DO want "Dirait-on"....and "Don't Stop Believing":)

I want a kitten.
Or some baby bunnies.
Or a little beagle puppy.
Or some little ducklings.

I really don't care. I just want a baby something that I can cuddle with.

Probably a kitten. I'd really like a kitten. A little orange one.

My cats ran away/died when we moved to out new house.

Maybe I'll get a kitten for Christmas:)