proper post coming later. (just wanted to let y'all know I'm not dead. Yet.)
I was sick for the past few days, so I didn't get one done yet. =P I'll try on Saturday!
~K~

Dreams...

Okay, here's a dream I had the other night; your job is to interpret it.

I was at my friend's house because there was an Indian attack. As in, Indians-with-bows-and-arrows. I never actually saw them, I just knew they were there. So, to keep us occupied, we took pictures with my friend's iPhone and regular cell phone and camera. (Why he needed both phones, I don't know!) Then we all went into the basement and played video games, messing up his brother's score, until we got hungry. Later we went upstairs and had snacks, being careful to stay our from in front of the glass sliding doors, because we could get shot through them. Suddenly, a girl came riding up on horseback (from the next cabin, perhaps? We weren't in cabins, but that's the impression I got. Like in a settlement back in the 1800's.). I opened the glass door for her, and she jumps off the horse and runs into the house, saying that the Indians are right behind her. This happens twice, with the same girl.

Then, around midnight or so, we decide that the Indians are gone (I guess), walk out in the dark to our car, and drive away.

And that's it!

I don't know why I dreamed that. I don't know where any of it came from! I talked with my friend on Facebook a few days before then. Other than that, everything came out of the blue.

So, explain to me the deep meaning! What fears of mine are exposed by that dream? =D good luck...

Newsboys have a new song out! Actually there are several, but I'm only going to listen to the one: "Born Again." And then I'll buy the cd and all the other songs will be new to me. =D That's always the best way to do it.

The song sounds different (of course) because it's Mike Tait singing instead of Peter Furler, but I like it anyway. The new voice in there is good. I've always wanted to hear of Tait, since practically the only things he did were DCTalk and his own band (from whom I've only ever heard one song).

Anywho, go check out the song! There's a video for it at Newsboys.com.

Later!

~Kiwi~

Aww....

Aww, I should threaten to leave more often. Got me a lot more attention than I've gotten in quite a while! ;-)

Okay okay okay, I won't leave. I'll stay put for now.

Sooo, what am I doing today? Feeling guilty when reading an interesting book instead of homework, but then feeling miserable doing homework instead of reading my book! Do you ever find yourself in such a predicament? It's a lousy one to be in, I can tell you that! But I chose read the 225 page book instead of 12 pages of Chemistry this morning, and paid for it this afternoon when I had to do the chemistry anyway. =P Making choices stinks!!

The other night I made a movie. A really dumb movie, but I'm going to paste it together on the computer and maybe put it on here. Late nights do something weird to minds, though. Weeeeiiiiirrrddd...
The title (so far) is "World's Greatest Detective vs. The Camel Theif!"

I'll try to stick it up here next week sometime! In the meantime, keep reading, keep commenting, and thanks! :D
~Kiwi~

(I just had to stick this super-cute picture of my second-cousin, Hannah, on here!! We saw her and my cousins and a few aunts & uncles over New Year's.)

suggestions, anyone?

It appears I have to supply my own comments now. =P thanks, Kristen, for the one lovely comment on my last post, tho! (And yes, it is scary!)
could someone please comment? Or shall I simply ditch the whole blog-thing and carry on in my lonely existence, thinking no one cares about me. *sigh* No, wait! Kristen cares! =D Okay, I'll go around happy now. (but seriously, some more feedback would be awesome, too....)
~Drama Queen~

Cards, Commissions, and College!

I just finished a new card today. Actually, I've had most of the art done for several days, but I just now got around to putting it all together. Now I have five or six cards to put on Etsy, plus four Christmas cards. My goal is to finish designing and painting ten more by my birthday in March. Then I'll start the Etsy shop in mid-April. I hope.
Too bad things don't always go according to plan, eh?
Ten weeks to do ten cards. That's just one card per week! I can handle that, can't I? Y'all heard me say that, right? Someone please come shoot me if I don't. (no, please don't really do that. It's not nice. But you could come give me a stern talking-to if I don't.)
Oh, and I'll be busy over the next 10 months as I work on a commission: several paintings my Grandma wants by Christmas. I've got a busy year ahead of me!

I broke in my new palette the other day. It's so great to have a large surface to spread all my colors over, and not having to wash out colors to make room for others! And the new paintbrushes are great.
Yep, I know, I'm crazy. But crazy's not all that bad, is it?
(stop laughing at me)

Mom says that maybe I should pursue one of my other interests in college, rather than art. Art classes are expensive, and I may want to spend the money on something more worth-while and productive. So, for the present, I'm researching Elementary Education at Whitefield college, which would be distance education courses. My friend did her college work through them, and said she enjoyed it. We'll see. But, even if I do that, I plan on taking a few watercolor classes at the community college eventually.

~Kiwi~

What shall I post about???

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

I've been copying out part of Return of the King, and then I also copied that poem. 


At some point in time over the next few days, we're going down to my grandparents' house for a joint celebration of my sister's 20th birthday and my brother's 9th. We may very well get to see some friends while were're down there because my Dad has to pick something up from their house. And, if the girls are there, I'm going too! I haven't seen these friends since July or so.


Oh, guess what else!!! I just realized that I hadn't told all of y'all about this already. We got The Best Christmas Present we could have been given this year! Any guesses as to what it was?


WE SOLD THE HOUSE!!! 


It was the Monday before Christmas, and for the past week or so since these people had made the offer we were always kept guessing as to whether or not it would actually go through. Something would go wrong, then was ironed out, then something else would go wrong....Mom said  that she didn't believe it would really happen until the buyers actually signed the papers. We were all afraid of something else going wrong last-minute.
But nothing did, so, after 2 1/2 years of waiting, we are RID of that house. What a relief!


We're getting ready to go out now, so I'm going to cut this short.


See y'all later!!
~Kiwi~

Samwise the Brave meets Owl City??

"We shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually — their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on — and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same — like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?"

I love that quote... Sam is ever hopeful, loyal, brave, more courageous than a king, simple, loving, and a wonderful friend. Oh yes, here's the part in the movie that was derived from that quote... One of the best parts in all three of the movies. :)

Sam: "It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, its only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, and meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turnin' back, only they didn't. They kept goin', because they were holdin' on to somethin'."

Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?"

Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fightin' for."

Oh my goodness... I feel like crying and laughing at that part, every time I watch it. :) Sam's hope and courage in the face of seemingly undefeatable darkness is amazing... and his words are so true. :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful after-Christmastime! ;)

 That's directly from my friend's blog. I watched The Two Towers the other night and decided I had to put that quote on here.....Then I checked her blog and guess what she put on there! So instead of typing it out myself, I copy-and-pasted. 
I'd say that Samwise Gamgee the Brave is one of my favorite LotR characters. If I were a hobbit, I'd wish I were Rosie Cotton. =) 


The other day, while scanning through radio stations, I discovered "Owl City." I'd seen Matt featuring them on his Free Christian Music Blog, *doesabitofshamelessplugging* but always forgot to check 'em out. Anyway, a song caught my attention, so I stopped and listened to it. Lo and behold, it was the people I'd been meaning to look up! So here's "Fireflies" by Owl City. 




I'm still not sure of what the song means, or if it really has a meaning, but it's kind of catchy isn't it?

I'm working on my 2010 To-Do List. One of the things I want to do is consistently post twice weekly. Keep me to it!!
I'll go ahead and get my second post ready to go on Saturday. So long!
~Kiwi~
p.s. did the title catch your attention?

the Post-Christmas Post

Howdy folks! Merry Christmas! I'm tempted to sit here and give you an itemised list of all I was given for Christmas, but I'll just cut it short. Mom and Dad gave me art supplies (I love new art supplies!! Give me a sketch book or two, and some pens, and it'll keep me occupied for hours.) and a pretty charm bracelet. Mom made the bracelet herself.
And my Christmas was fun and if you want to know all about it, you can ask me, but I won't sit here and bore the rest of you. Because I know that some people don't like long descriptions.


2009 To-Do List-----The Results
Here's what I got done:

1. Win a big contest. (Michael W. Smith concert! =D)
2. bike down the great-grandaddy of all hills at medium to top speed
3. got lost in a corn maze (That was awesome fun. It's going on my 2010 list, too!!)
4. found someone who wanted to squaredance with me (easy)
5. learned to square dance a bit better (hard)
6. watched all the LotR movies again (love 'em)
7. watched a meteor shower (awesome)
8. got my green bike fixed up nicely (Looks snazzy now!)
9. got a digital camera (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!)
10. got signatures from 11 famous people 
11. went to two concerts (Two amazing concerts. Thanks Kris)
12. visited friends in Iowa several times (not nearly enough, though!)

Things I didn't get done last year:

1. I didn't earn money to go to Lifest in 2010.
2. I didn't buy lots of cds. (I only bought one: In The Hands of God).
3. I didn't get an Etsy shop set up. (But it will be up and running by next Christmas, by George!!)
4. I didn't have a chance to try bleach-pen designs on tee shirts. 
5. I never did sleep in a tent. (This year!!)
6. I didn't quite get around to an all-day bike trip (This year!!)
7. I didn't get a painting sold this year. (because I didn't do #3)
8. I didn't make any music videos (although I almost did several.)
9. I didn't get two hundred posts on here (but this is my 150th!)
10. I didn't quite get the hang of double-dutch jump roping. (we never got past 10 jumps. =P )
11. I didn't get my picture in the newspaper (to my knowledge)
12. I didn't go to a drive-in theater (not much worth watching!)
13. And I didn't get around to asking a stranger a random question. (even though that should have been the easiest thing on the list!)

So I ended up not doing more than I did do! =P Oh, well, I guess I'll just put a lot of those things on my 2010 list, and get them done then!

What's on your 2010 lists?

~Kiwi~

p.s. I'll give you a 'happy new year' post tomorrow or Sunday. Too tired to do it now.