Skittles, This is for You!

Here, Miss Skittles, are the pictures of our Formidable Secret Weapon (FSW for short). The first are of the large version, and after that is the Mini-Formidable Secret Weapon (MFSW for short). The MFSW was developed first, but the official FSW is scarier. Beware, Charles, be very wary!

Please Note: The following pictures may be unsuitable for easily frightened children and those with Triceraphobia.

Our FSW shall make snowmen shake in their big rubber boots, small children and animals flee screaming, and constructors of snow forts will wish they had made them with an army-grade steel core! Behold: The FSW, a.k.a. the TRICERATOPS!!

Look at him!

He's HUGE!

With a big head and sharp horns, he could trample us at any moment, but instead (as we were his creators)...

posed for a picture with us. I'm not allowed to identify anyone in that picture except for me (in the red hat in back) and FSW (and if you can't tell which one he is, you're hopeless!). We built him on the day after Christmas with a bunch of friends.

And here is the MFSW:

Isn't he cute? He'll be scarier when he's bigger, but he's cute right now. :)

Once again, cute!

But still, be scared, all who oppose me or Skittles!
Mr. Charles, is your snow fort made of concrete? Does it have metal rebar in it? Will it survive??? Just wondering.

Have fun with this, Skittles!

~Kiwi da Prehistoric-two-ton-stomping-machine-loving Fruit

Heyz, I'm back!

Okay, Here goes. The Winter Jam concert was amazing and I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. Stephanie Smith, I'm sorry to say, was not the best I've ever heard. She started the 'pre-concert party' right off with loud music that I couldn't understand. The only one I knew was "Not Afraid", which I hadn't heard since we moved four months ago. The best part about her performance was when some big, pink, hairy ape (I'm not kidding! Owan might have a picture to proove it...) ran on stage and stole her guitar.
Pure NRG was next, and they all have good voices but they're too.....Tweenish, if that's a word. For one thing, they perform on RadioDisney, so they have to be energetic and fast and do a lot of dancing and back flips, etc. Also, before the concert started and during the intermission, there were commercials for each of the bands playing on the screens. Pure NRG (made up of two girls and a boy) was advertising the "Precious Girls Club" where you can *plasters smile on her face and speaks in a very cheerful voice* "design your own Avatar, decorate your own room, and you can even earn wings so you can fly all over" this cheerful, happy town! Um, yeah. I looked at the site, and it's definitely for younger girls. And the poor boy had to help advertise for this totally girly site! Poor fellow. Needs a haircut.
Then Francesca Battestelli performed, and she was okay, despite the fact that I knew only one of her songs and she was quite reminiscent of Stephanie Smith.
Newsong came on after Francesca, and O boy, they were good! I've never really heard much of their music, but the ones they played, I knew. They did "New Song" and "Arise My Love". Wow, "Arise My Love" was amazing! No, amazing isn't quite the right word, but it's as close as I can get at the moment. Powerful? Anywhoz, they were great. And since I'd only ever heard them on the radio and didn't even know what they looked like, it was really weird trying to believe it was really them up there singing.
Hawk Nelson did a few songs (including "Friend Like That" and "Zero"). The lead singer (what's his name?? I keep wanting to call him Hawk Nelson, but that's not him.) had a smoke machine which he picked up and blew at the crowd. He also went down and sang in the audience some....but not near us. :(
INTERMISSION
The Afters were even better than I expected them to be! I'd seen a video taken at a live performance, and Josh sounded awful! But they were really good instead. They played "Never Going Back to Okay", "Ocean Wide", "Myspace Girl" (a really sweet song about how a former member met his wife), and "Beautiful Smile". I'm going to see them again! I hope.
Owan and her sisters introduced TobyMac by video, and then the Diverse City Band came on and.......TobyMac Himself! He's pretty cool. Loved his hat. They started out with "One World" (isn't there a 'Cheetah Girls' song by that title? Don't ask me how I'd know...) and followed with many, many, many others. Nirva is very pretty and has a beautiful voice, although we were kinda secretly hoping for Mandisa to pop out from backstage for "Loose My Soul".
Whoops, gotta go. I'll try to post tomorrow or day after? Oh, and Skittles, I'll show you that (heh heh heh) Secret Snow Weapon then. >:D
Adios!
~Kiwi da Mac'd Out Fruit

Big, Long Post/After the Concert, part 3

Okay, here is the afore promised post. I have divided it into sections, each headed by a big, bright red title so you can skim easily. Skip the boring parts if you want, no one's forcing you to read all of it!
Written on 1-12-2009
Well here I am (in a river of questions/can I pour my heart out/to a listening ear :), sitting at the table in my room, being bored. It has been one week since I was Banned from the Computer.
*edits out big, long, boring complaint*
So.
My past week:
Last Monday, we went to the library and I found Steve Taylor's Squint cd. As at least one of you knows (and the rest should), Steve Taylor has been a big Newsboys influence for a long time. He has written and co-written many, many, Many songs. On Thrive and Go combined, he wrote five and co-wrote ten out of twenty-one. I wonder where the Newsboys would be now if Steve hadn't joined forces with them? Maybe they'd be just as popular, or maybe they'd have disbanded long ago. It's just an interesting thought for all you NB fans out there. I should ask Peter where he thinks they'd be w/out Steve Taylor if I ever meet them...Anyway, I like his music somewhat. He seems to have tamed it a little in the NB cds.
And on to another subject.
Tomorrow [keep in mind this was written last Monday] is Daniel Kirkley's birthday! Happy birthday, Mr. Kirkley!
Regarding Guitargirl's comment, which was "Daniel Kirkley looks like a shrimp next to you. ;)"
Here is a row of little frowny-faces for you:

>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

And, just in case I don't get to post again before it, Jason Gray's birthday is January 18th. Happy Birthday, Mr. Gray!
Last, but not least, Monkey's birthday is on the 15th. He'll be 8!
Anybody else have a birthday this month?

Back to this past week;
Tuesday: I did school. Big whoop.
Wednesday: Um. I went out and joined my bro and our friends in the woods. We got bored. The ice on the creek wasn't stable enough for us to go on it safely, and we can't do anything on the Stronghold until Spring or Summer, so we got bored and cold.
Thursday: School. I started an interesting book for History. It's called At Her Majesty's Request, by Walter Deen Myers, and it's about Sarah Forbes Bonetta. She was an princess from some tribe in Africa. When she was five, King Gezo (from another tribe) had his warriors raid her village, and they killed the rest of her family, but brought her back to King Gezo. Their intentions were to sacrifice her. Two years later, and Englishman, Captain Forbes, was visiting King Gezo (on a mission from Queen Victoria to try to stop King Gezo's major role in the slave trade) when the tribe was starting the ceremony of killing all these captives to 'honor their ancestors'. When Captain Forbes saw this seven-year-old girl about to be killed, he tried everything he could think of to stop it, and succeeded when he told King Gezo that Queen Victoria would never murder a child, and if Gezo did it then Victoria would not respect him. So Gezo offered the girl as a present to Queen Victoria. She was quite delighted with this girl, whom the Captain named Sarah "Sally" Forbes Bonetta (HMS Bonetta was the name of Forbes' ship).
Anyways, this book was quite interesting. I enjoyed it. Check it out sometime!
Shopping: Thursday Afternoon: Rapunzel needed new shoes, so I went with her to the mall. I found a cute pair of Bermuda shorts at Kohls, but didn't buy them *kicks herself. Hard.* At JC Penny's there were two really pretty prom dresses that we almost had time to try on. But, even though we had already checked the other stores, Rapunzel decided that we should go back through them in case we missed something. Hmph. I'd much rather try on dresses that I'll never buy than look for shoes that we'll never find. :P Friday: Rapunzel had an exam for her college studies (she's going into Gemology. Did I ever mention that? It's pretty cool.), which our friend's dad was proctoring, so I went down as well, and got to hang out with two old friends. Hey Mir and Abbie! They gave us belated Christmas gifts of bath salts (I got Cucumber Melon, which smells amazing), and a copy of the 2008 VBS songs. I remember all of them! And most of the motions. The only one I don't remember is #4, which I refuse to listen to. It was a horrible song. But I know better now. Never, ever, EVER tell your friends what VBS song(s) you hate. They'll torture you for the rest of your life. *coughzachcoughmirandacoughabbiecoughisaaccoughcough* Now I have songs humming 'round my head that I haven't thought of in months.
Saturday: I sat around and watched Monk. It was an all-day marathon, but I only saw the equivalent of 2 1/2 episodes; 1 full and three halves. I wish I could have seen more, but we had supper with someone from church. But we might get to see a brand new one on Friday.
To Skittles: I like Monk! :)
Sledding: Sunday: We went sledding at a nearby park. It was a big, steep hill. I got tumbled several times, and my leg hurts now.
Avalon and Catfreak: has the youth group gone sledding at church yet this winter? That hill is quite tame compared with the one we went down!
We made a train with fifteen people and about seven sleds, and went (or tried to go) down that way several times.
Written on 1-13-2009
Today is Daniel Kirkley's birthday. Join me in singing? *sings happy birthday to Daniel Kirkley*
I hear rumors [later confirmed] that the Newsboys have their new song on their Myspace and Facebook pages. I wish I could hear it! But I'm not supposed to be on the computer, and anyways, Angus has apparently taken a vow of silence. And even at the library I can't do anything because Mom blocked my access to the Internet. >:-( hmph.
It's cold today and to be the same for the rest of the week. +1 degrees with wind chills of -20 or lower. Ugh.
Phone call: Yesterday I got to call my friend, whom I haven't talked to since we moved four months ago. It was nice talking to her again. She gave me the lovely news that she is never, ever, ever going out with Jake again, which was wonderful to hear. (Jake is one of the Goons back in Cornland.) She still has a 'boyfriend' (even though she's only 12!!), but at least he's not Jake.
Anywho. I'll stop writing now and do more schoolwork.
Goodbye.
Written on 1-14-2009
Hellooooo, again. I'm bored. B-o-r-e-d, bored. Yesterday Mom and Dad told the four of us that we were to figure out some system that we could use about the computer. *cuts out a long, boring explanation of why we need a new system*
Also yesterday, we went out after supper and bought Monkey a paint-by-number set [which turned out to have no numbers on the little pots of paint! How do you forget to put the numbers on the pots of paint???] and a professional sketchpad, since he's into drawing now.
Today I did schoolwork (I got a 94% on my science test! :), painted a tad (I got an idea for stationary and notecards), watched T.V. ( love the Mythbusters. <3),>

Goodbye.

Written on 1-17-2009

Phone Conversation: hello again. :) I just got off a 1 1/4 hour phone conversation with m'dear friend Dagmar! (don'tcha just love free cellphone minutes on weekends?)

A comment poll: Who amongst you have 'sit-down-and-write-a-pen-and-ink-on-paper' kind of pen-pal? What is the hardest thing about writing back? I'll explain the reason behind the question later, so as not to influence your answers.

Dagmar and I decided that maybe when we're 18 and 20 or so and one of us has a car of her own, we'll take a four-day weekend and go somewhere far away on that Friday. On Saturday, we come up with alter-egos and go about the town as our psuedo-pselves. We could be someone else for a day or two. Wouldn't that be fun? Going somewhere and being somebody totally different and not having to worry about what people think of you? I might just change to flashy and flamboyant clothing, concocting outfits no one else would dream of wearing. And we'd never have to go back there again, and very well might never see the people again.

Ohps, Mom and Dad are coming up. Lights out!

Written today (1-20-2009)

Ho hum! I'm back on the computer! I like you Angus! (Iway alsoway ielay otay Angusway allway ethay imetay.) He's still not talking to us. Rrgh. Um, let's see. On Friday, I got to see a simply hilarious new episode of Monk. Did you get to see it, Skittles? I hope you did, it had us all nearly dieing of laughter.

Saturday I didn't really do anything.

New Concert: Sunday I went sledding and was invited to a (DUN-DUN-DUN) TobyMac concert by Owan and Heather! It's on Friday night waaaayy down in Illinois (several hours from here), and all sorts of peeps are gonna be there: The Afters, Newsong, Stephanie Smith, Francesca Battistelli, pureNRG, and the site says Brandon Heath as well. None of my Absolute Favorites, but hey, it's a free concert (Owan and co. won 8 tickets. If I had to pay, I don't think I'd go), and I like most of the people, and it can't hurt, can it? Unfortunately, Rapunzel can't go because of work. :(

Owan and three of her sisters get to introduce TobyMac....by video. That's how they won the tickets; there was a contest to make a video introducing them which, if chosen, would introduce TobyMac at the concert.

I'm pretty excited about going. Not quite as much so as with the Newsboys concert I attended 'way back in '07 or the Bethlehem Skyline concert I went to last year, but still pretty happy to go. :) Thanks for inviting me, Owan! Thanks for letting me go, Mom and Dad!

Monday I went to the library. I have decided that Inkheart is not a movie I want to see, or a book I want to read. The next books in the series are Inkspell and Inkdeath. The lady who wrote them also wrote a bunch of trashy 'tween' books involving ghosts, zhombies, and who knows what all. Ugh. My friend said a teacher reccomended it to her, and while Sis and I were standing looking at the poster in the library, a librarian came up and told us that she loved the book and can't wait to see the movie. I might look at the book, just out of curiosity, but I'm not going to check it out. Checking out a book is like giving a vote in it's favor, and I won't do that for a book I know isn't very good.

So, should I go ahead and finish up this post (it is pretty long), or should I finish up telling about the DH concert? I think I'll just finish telling about the concert. I'm sure you-all are tired of hearing about it already, and there's no use writing another post that no one will read.
Bethlehem Skyline Concert

After we got the pic with Lanae' and Daniel, we trotted over to Jason Gray. He was already talking with someone, so we stood politely to the side and waited our turn. As he wrapped up the conversation, he suddenly clapped his hand down on my shoulder. I guess to let me know he knew I was there, but it almost made me jump! 'Twas quite startling! We talked. Of course. Jason had performed the only song by him that I know well ("Blessed Be"), and we thanked him for that. Jason said that he was afraid that everyone was getting tired of it, but we assured him it would take a lot more repititions for us to get sick of that song, because we very rarely hear it anymore. He told us to call our radio stations and ask for it. Then he posed for a nice picture with us. :)

Okay: Here was the highlight of the highlight of my evening. (remember that the highlight was getting to meet everyone.) I had not seen Glenn Lavender anywhere after the concert, so Rapunzel and I went over and asked his band mate Jason "Where is Glenn hidding?". Jason (Germain) told us that we should go hunt him down because he'd love it. So we did. Here is most of my conversation with Glenn Lavender:

"Pardon me, Mr. Lavender, but Jason gave us permission to hunt you down and force you to sign this."

"Oh, sure, no problem." He was packing up some things, but stopped to sign my book. Here's where it gets (even more) interesting.

"Can you sign it 'To Kiwifruit'?"

Glenn's head jerks up. "Who.. who's Kiwifruit??"

"I am!"

"You're Kiwifruit?!?"

"Yes!"

"I saw those comments and thought is was someone from New Zealand."

He signed my notebook with "To Kiwifruit!! Great to finally meet you!", then saw my ticket and offered to sign it, too. :)

And that's how the Bethlehem Skyline Concert Experience ended. I think that was a good ending, don't you? I was surprised that he recognized my nickname!

Thank you, Jason, Marc, Glenn, Jason, Daniel, Jaime, and Lanae' for making that such a good experience for me! I was very impressed at how friendly all of you were! I'll definately try to come to the next concert by any of you in my area.

Thusly ends my post. :) Farewell, all my readers!
~Kiwifruit

Quickie Update before the Big, Long post tomorrow or later.

Hey, just saying that no, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, I was just um, let's say removed from the computer for a while.
I have been writing out a four page long post in these past two weeks (that's four full notebook pages, front and back), and so I'm going to start typing that up now and post it tomorrow. This was just to say that I'm not dead.
Adios!
~Kiwifruit

Happy New Year!! / After the Concert, part 2

Happy New Year, Y'alls! Isn't it a wonderful year? I sort of expected it to be a bit different than last year, with all the hype and celebration. It feels like 2008 still. Now I need to practise typing '2009' 2009 2009 2009 2009............

I still catch myself writing 2007 occasionally. It'll take me forever to catch onto this 2009 thing.

A quick overview of the New Year celebration at church: We had two hours of singing/prayer to begin with. I nearly died of smothered laughter twice (thankfully during the singing, not the prayer! That would have been embarrassing!). The first time needs a lot of explanation, so I'll skip it. The second time, we were singing "Everlasting God" and it kept getting higher, and higher and higher so that even the worship leaders were having a hard time singing it! I was sitting next to a friend, then Rapunzel and two other friends. We all started giggling a bit, but the friend next to me and I got it the worst, and I laughed so hard I was crying by the end of the song. Thankfully, it was the last song....

Then some friends and I played a rousing game of Pit. It's an awesome game we got for Christmas from Mum and Dad. I won twice. Next, I played a lot of Apples to Apples and won two green cards in a row. I ended up with three, I think.

During the Apples to Apples game, one girl was trying to take pictures of another, who did not want to be photographed unawares. That was quite entertaining, trying to get pics of her. And then, after we got bored with it and some people had to go home, I stood around talking with my friend and her friend, who I'm not quite sure what to think of. He has a very confusing effect on people. Sort of a talent for getting your mind muddled. It's really hard to get a coherent sentence out around him.

Then, it became 2009, and the three boys left there (my bros and another kid) blew noise makers and laughed and clapped. Woo hoo! Somehow, it doesn't feel like the future. No flying cars, no hovering cities, no transporter beams....what's the point of '09? *sigh*

So. On to the "After the Concert, Part 2" part of me post.

*ahem*

Where were we? Ah, yes, I had just met one Daniel Kirkley. After chatting with Daniel Kirkley some, we moved on in the line to Jason Germain, who is tall and makes me feel short even though I was wearing two-inch heels. Here is us meeting him:

That's my book he's signing. I look sad, don't I? Well I wasn't!
Inbetween this picture and the next, he asked us:

"Sisters?"

*nod heads and answer in unison* "Yes."

"Twins?"

*laugh and shake heads and answer in unison* "No!"

"Oh, do you get that a lot?"

Ha! Argh! I wish we had used the answer that we have practised many times, but never had a chance to use: "Yes," I say, "She's the older by two years...." I thought of that, just as we were shaking our heads.

He also asked if I'm a musician. Because of the necklace I had on. (note to Mom: And you said no one would notice my jewelry! *reserves the right to say 'I told you so'*)It's some sort of musical sign, but you can tell from that description how much I know about music! I said, no, it's my sister's, but I do sing a lot.

Jason figured out that Rapunzel, Owan, and I could form a band.... :D He's really nice, too.

And here are, from left to right, Miss Kiwi, Mr. Jason Germain (all bent over so he could fit in the same picture with us and not have his head cut off), Miss Rapunzel, and a bad picture of Miss Owan. (Sorry, Owan! I don't know how to edit the picture.). Look at the guy in the background. Behind and to the left of me. Doesn't he look like Jason? When I first caught a glimpse of him, I thought it was Jason, with a bit of lip fuzz.

And then, we casually sauntered over to Jaime Jamgochian and Lanae' Hale. We enjoyed a good talk with Jaime. Rapunzel was in a musical year before last which included a song by Jaime. I'll give you the song title once I get it from my sis. Jaime asked Rapunzel to email her a link to it, or if we had Facebook to show it to her on there. So far, we haven't found it on the Web. :( And, somehow, Jaime avoided the camera and we have no picture of her. :'(

But, here're two of Rapunzel and me with Lanae' Hale and Daniel Kirkley:

This is a good picture of Daniel and me.

And this is a good one of all of us. I thought there were two messed up pictures, but I guess there weren't.
Y'know, here I look a lot taller than Daniel, but if I hadn't worn heels we would have been almost the same height.

And that's all I'll say about The Concert for now, because I still have material for one more post, plus copies of autographs. :) I'm getting quite a bit of Blogger Fodder out of this. :)

Note to Soul Skittles Regarding her Last Comment: Sorry I 'lied'. :) But I think you lied, too, in your last comment, about me having "like one thousand" up on you.

Note to Owan Regarding Several Things: This is a warning. Be very careful in all you do. You do not want to anger me. The last person to anger me.... well, let's just say that her movie collection was raided and it was Not Pretty. That's all I have to say. That and, how are your 'poachels'?

Note to All who Read This: My friend, HMS Avalon, wishes me to tell you that she wants a few more readers and y'all are all welcome to visit. At least, I think that's the message I'm supposed to give you.

And now I must go to Bed. Ugh. I don't like Bed.
Last thing: I'm going to try to blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and possibly once on weekends.
There. I'm done. Y'alls can comment now!
~Kiwi