=P

Oh, goodness, I didn't realize it's been son long since I blogged! I'll try to catch you up with what's been going on with three things I've done since I last blogged:

1. I spent a week at my friends' house in Illinois working at VBS. I helped with the 4th-6th graders this year, which was a bit different from what I was used to. Firstly, up until this year, VBS always went from 9:00-12:00, but this time they chose to try 5:30-7:30. I don't think it worked as well. The kids were more tired, the workers were more tired, and having it in the evening made it feel like VBS took up the whole day. That doesn't make much sense, but it's like we spent the whole day waiting for VBS to come along, and then we did VBS, and then it was time to eat and go to bed! Okay, it wasn't that sudden, and we did stay up late, it was just different.
But still a lot of fun!! We made tye-dye shirts one day.
The offerings the kids brought were collected and given to my friend, Miranda (whose house I stayed at), for her trip to Honduras. (She went to Honduras yesterday, and she will be living with a missionary family there, helping them educate their son, and also helping them with their various ministries. Miranda will be back in the U.S. in November, then return to Honduras come December.) The first day, over $100 was raised, the second we had over $200, but, of course, I can't remember the total amount collected. But it was pretty high.

2. The week after I returned from VBS, I stayed overnight at a friend's house. My friend, Queen Lucy, was in Mongolia with her father on a short-term missions trip, and so I spent some time at her house, helping with her younger siblings. That was a fun time! I am a little ashamed to say that it's so much easier to get along with OTHER people's younger siblings than my own! I guess it helped that at least three out of the five of them were absolutely thrilled to have me there. =) [Not sure if the older two were "thrilled" or not, since their older and their boys and so they don't come sit with me or give me hugs....I think that'd just be a little weird...lol]
So I was glad to be able to go and help Lucy's mom and give her a bit of a break.

3. Play Practice!! We've had two practices for our Talent Night Play so far, and then we'll be doing another one tomorrow at 1:00. The actual show is tomorrow at 6:30, but I don't know what order the acts will be in. So far it's all going relatively smoothly, although the third practice is very needed. We haven't gone through the whole thing without a stop yet, which Really Needs to be Done, since we can't very well just stop and start over again in front of the audience!

So that's most of what I've been doing lately. That and driving myself places, applying for jobs here & there, and making play props. What three interesting things have you done in the past week or two?

~Kiwi~

Oh, I don't know what to write about right now. I suppose I could write about VBS, but I don't really feel like doing that right now. I don't know why. I could write about my job search, but I haven't actually been searching yet, just applying at Culver's. I could write about my failed driver's test, but what's the fun in that?
Maybe I'll write about the driver's test I just passed a couple hours ago......=)
~Kiwi~

200th post!!

Howdy! I am now posting from our Own Computer in my living room. =) We bought a new computer yesterday, and it's lots faster than the one I was using earlier this week. It hasn't been named yet, because I am unsure of its personality. Let's have a moment of silence for Fritz-Angus and Larry and Bob.

A Eulogy, For Bob and Larry

By Kiwifruit

There's a lonely place in our house,

An empty space in my heart

Left by my dear old friends

Who last night did depart.

Better pals none could wish;

We had times together quite merry

Just the three of us

(Their names were Bob and Larry).

They were not simple folk,

Rather complicated instead

Not always complying to my wishes

When something else was in their head.

Sadly, the end came soon

On the day Larry met his fate

My brother wanted to play with him

And we got there too late.

A new fan was needed,

One we could not procure

We had to let Larry go that day

His death could neither be nobler nor truer.

Three days after Larry,

Bob bit the dust

A broken heart is suspected

I know I heard it bust.

Now when the office is entered

Two empty spaces meet my eyes

The spaces our computers filled

I hate all these goodbyes.

(I wrote that two years ago, when Bob and Larry originally died.) My brother revived both Bob and Larry temporarily, but then Larry crashed again. And Bob is sooooo slooooow that it almost isn't worth getting on there. Plus he doesn't blog.
I'll have to start writing a eulogy for Fritz-Angus next. What rhymes with Fritz or Angus??
'O hum. I'm sorry, I don't seem to have as much to say on here as I thought I did! I'm going to Illinois today for VBS again...=D So excited about that. I might be helping with/teaching tye-die, which ought to be...interesting, considering I've never done it before!! Nothing like a first time, is there?
I'm going to type up a quick post to auto-post on Wednesday or Thursday..

Oh! I just remembered! THIS is my TWO-HUNDREDTH POST!! Sorry, I'm not going to tell you 200 random things about myself. 100 was hard enough, but adding 100 to it...Not happening!
Thanks for reading my blog! =D
~Kiwi~

another boring title for an interesting post...

So far this week has been better than the last one. I called Miranda and talked to her on Sunday. In VBS, they averaged 18 kids per class (And considering that our record of 13 last year was a handful...), the songs were really good (no "Wiki-wiki" or pointless ones), and the theme was Australia. Of all the years I had to miss, the had to do an Aussie theme! How frustrating. I like Aussie stuff. It would give me a chance to talk in my (probably awful) Australian accent for an entire week!!! Rats! Apparently the skits were hilarious. Considering the actors Miranda told me were in it, I'm not surprised!
But there was a musical that came with the VBS stuff that the kids will be doing in August, and I think we might be invited down for that. :)

Sis and I signed up for the church's talent show this Saturday. We changed our minds on Monday, so our....project....is being put together in less than a week. But it's looking good! We'll film it on Saturday and I'll put it on here for those unfortunate folk who can't be there.
Short Stuff, KK, JS, Sis and I signed up for something without knowing what to do. And now we're stuck half-way through the week with a half-formed idea but only half the time needed to practice in! I can't tell you about that, either, just that if we can make it work, it'll be good. Real good. :D
The main problem is that Sis has a new job that requires her to work 2:00-8:00 pm, so she can mostly practice only in the mornings. SS, KK, and JS's brother, Pen Name, works from morning to late afternoon, so he can only practice in the evenings. See our problem? But we'll figure something out. We always do. And if we can't, we could just stand up there on stage. I'm sure that last-minute-panic would give us ideas. ;)

Monday night I went to the church softball games with JS and her family. They were okay. Our C league team didn't do too well, but they tried hard. Between games, three of Kristen's younger siblings hauled me off to play catch with them. (I think they probably had to have an 'adult' with them and I was the closest thing. :) Allow me to relate some of our conversation. (A. is an 8-yr. old girl, D. & E. are 6 & 7 [?] year old boys.)

Me: "throw me a higher one, please."
E: "Okay." (grunts as he throws the ball.)
(I hop a bit and catch it.)
A (slightly awed): "Whow!! You caught that!"
D: "Next year, you should be on the church softball team!"
Me: "But I'd be the only girl."
A: "That would make it even better!"

They're fun. :) It's nice to know that someone thinks I could make the softball team! They're all wrong, but that's still cool.

Tomorrow morning (I hope!) we're getting together with JS, KK, and SS to practice our stuff. I can't wait! And tomorrow evening maybe we can get together before Bible Study and practice with Pen Name. *crosses fingers*

Now a few quick pics before I go.

This is on my door. I think that it describes me to a 'T'. :)

What's this? The first person to guess it correctly gets 15 blogger points. Good luck!

'bye!
~Kiwi~

How do other people come up with interesting post titles???

Hello sadly neglected blog and blog readers. I'm sorry about neglecting you. :( I feel bad about that.
I finished the Feelin' Feminine Challenge last Sunday. I don't have pictures loaded on here yet, but I can tell you about it.
Thursday (Day 4) I wore a pale purple skirt with a peachy-orange shirt. Most of the day I wore my hair in ponytails, but, while preparing for Bible study, I discovered it is now long enough to braid again! Since then, I've worn my hair in braids 4 or 5 times! For accessories I wore a pair of home-made earrings.
Friday (Day 5) I wore a denim skirt and a pink shirt with a brown tank-top layered over it. I did my hair in braids (No, that's not repeating, because I only wore braids for two hours on Thursday) and wore a tan-and-pink Newsboy-style cap. :) I forgot earrings. I hate forgetting earrings. I need to start carrying some in my purse.
Saturday I wore that black skirt I had worn on Monday, a blue shirt, silver earrings, and my lovely black Eeyore hoodie. I had put my hair in braids on Friday, while it was wet, then left them overnight. In the morning my hair was all wavy, so I pulled some back in a clip, and left the rest curley.
Sunday morning I wore a skirt and a shirt. I don't remember which ones. Then, for volleyball, I wore that black skirt again with a green shirt, my hair in braids and a red bandanna.
I should have gotten more pictures, because just reading this wardrobe list is reeeelly boring.

This past week has been boring....nothing much happening. Rachel, you were absolutely correct. I was bored and gumpy and all that because last week was VBS at our old church. (check out last year's posts on it: pre-VBS, mid-week, post-VBS) Sis and I were invited again, but she has a new job and couldn't go. Supposedly, I was going to be busy, too, and I didn't know until Sunday that I would be bored-outta-my-gourd all week, and by then it was too late. >:( Miranda, Rachel, and Abbie, y'all need to convince your church event co-ordinators that it is imparative they do another session of VBS in August. Imperative! I had almost resigned myself to my VBS-less week because there was a Paul Colman concert that Sis and I were hoping to go to today. I mean, it's not VBS, but a concert would sorta make up for a boring week, right? It would, but on Sunday I found out that I'm not going. >:-( So that's why that post was so unhappy. *sigh* Kristen, Owan, Heather, and some others are going to the concert today. "You'd better enjoy it!!"

But the rest of the week wasn't too bad. I didn't do anything of importance. Monday I made something for Jordan. I'll tell y'all about that when I have pictures on here. *evil little snicker* >:D
Tuesday was rainy and slow and boring, which didn't help my mood.
Wednesday we had our first sweet corn of the season! We're within biking distance of a farm market, so I rode down there and bought a dozen of what must be the sweetest sweet corn ever, anywhere, at any time in the past, present, or future. I love good sweet corn. Oh, and to make it better, we watched a Cubs vs. Phillies game in which the Cubs won. :) That was fun.
Thusday was Bible study.
Friday we went to the Madison Re-store, and then to Paoli. Paoli is a small-ish town with quite a few interesting shops. There was an antiques store, card store, beaded-stuff store, an Upper Class Art Gallery (one chair there = $2,200, one little wooden shelf = $300, little-bitty wooden box = $78!!!! We are deffinately "Lower Class" people. Imagine paying twenty-two hundred for a chair! Wow. After that, I'd be scared to sit on it.), and a more interesting art gallery. I liked the second gallery better. It had more art work that, if I could afford it and had a place to put it, I would buy.
And then Short Stuff called, and it turns out that The Play that we were going to perform for the church talent night is most likely canceled. The other lead can't rehearse with the rest of us until Tuesday night, and Sis works until 8:00 or so, meaning she can't rehearse before next Saturday.....the day of the talent show. Rats. But we'll find something to do.

I have to go eat lunch now. I'm not per'tically hungry, but we're going out later, so I'd better eat. My appologies for any misspellings. The spell-check refuses to comply to my demands, and I don't want to read through the post again.
G'bai!
~Kiwi~

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place...

Well, I'm home again, after that long, grueling-yet-incredibly-fun-filled week of VBS. Sorry it took so long to post again. This past week has been full of nothing. Has it already been more than a week?? Almost two weeks??? How time flies. This is a quick overview of what happened:


The theme (I don't know if I mentioned this already or not) was sort of 'tropical island-ish', with lots of flowers, leis, and surfboards. Mike, Justin, and I led the 3rd & 4th graders together for the week. Most of the kids were fairly easy to control, except for a pair of brothers and one kid I'll call James. James tried to eat part of his plastic lei, his name tag, two pieces of paper, and his Styrofoam cup. Mom says we should have just let him do so, a bit of paper wouldn't hurt him, but it was distracting the other kids, especially the part with the lei. One little boy tried to eat the school glue, but I got it away from him in time.

Just a quick summary: twelve kids in one day (our record) was hard to handle. A total of fifteen kids showed up, but not all on the same day. One bag of ice was used (headache), three band aids (all on the same kid), three broken flip-flops (one broken on purpose by James), four worn-out leaders (by the end of the first day!), five craft projects left behind and never claimed, six songs and their motions to memorize in five days, ten towels left behind for leaders to remember (after water games on the second and fourth days), and about twenty billion papers, crafts, and other things for the kids to forget and the leaders to remember (we finally came up with a solution; put all papers and craft projects in the 'homeroom' for the kids to pick up when their parents come and get them.)! But would I do it all over again? Of course! The only thing I would have rather done that week is move. Yes, I would have done a few things differently, but I would love to go do that again.



So what's new with my life now, you ask. I'll try to boil down the answer to one word, but I don't know how well that will work. Here goes!

Nothing.

Well, that was easier than I expected! But it's true, nothing much is happening now. Last Friday, we all went to our friends' house for lunch and to spend the afternoon. We went bike riding together with three bikes. There were four of us. Rapunzel and Hotshot (we all have nicknames) each rode a bike, and then Cobra and I rode the third. It is new and has pegs on the back so a second person can ride. First I tried pedaling while Cobra rode on the back, but the seat was too low and the handlebars too high for me to ride comfortably. So we switched places, which worked really well. However, she got tired of pedaling after a while. She stopped the bike and I tried to dismount. It didn't work--well. I did get off, but, let's just say it wasn't very graceful. Have you ever been walking along, when all of a sudden your foot turns? Like, instead of stepping on the bottom of your foot, you suddenly step on the side of your foot, and in doing so, trip? That's what happens to me all the time, and that's what happened then. I was wearing flip-flops, so two of my toes got half the skin scraped off, and I had to wear an ankle brace for the next three days. But it's almost back to normal now. :-)



PAINTING NEWS:

I'm working on a Christmas card idea which involves a pine tree with two cardinals in it, in front of a snowing, dark grey-blue sky, with snow on the ground, and a wide border around it. But it needs something more. I'm not sure what, but it needs something. And I need to decide on a color for the border. I tried red, but that distracts too much. And the painting itself needs more detail work. With more detail, I might be able to get away with a red border, w/out it distracting. Suggestions, anyone? I'll put a pic of it on here once I get a satisfactory practice one done.



Here are the results of the poll on Chicken Little characters: Kirby (the little alien) was the favorite with four votes. Chicken Little, Fish Out of Water, Runt, and None of the Above tied for second place with three votes a piece. In third (with two votes) are Abby Duck, Turkey Lurkey, and Morcupine Porcupine. Buck Cluck only landed one vote, and Foxy Loxy and Melvin (Kirby's dad) completely lost. I liked Chicken Little (of course), Fish Out of Water, Kirby, and Morcupine Porcupine best.



Okay, that's all for now, folks! Adios!

~Kiwifruit

VBS

I'm doing this at my friend's house (Hi, Miranda) after the first hard day of VBS. Man, those third and fourth-graders are a tough bunch! Talk about worn out, and this is only the first day! Oh, well, I love 'em all! The boys are... well, they're being typical little boys. They don't want to sing or dothe motions, but that's okay. I'm thankful to have other helpers in my group. (Thank you, Other Helpers!) They sit and listen better than they did last year, but some really strange topics came up during craft time. Two of them (brothers) were talking about how they like to eat dog food and arguing a bit over what flavor is best. I really don't know what to think of them! Abbie (Miranda's sister) just reminded me of something else I forgot. They were coloring pictures of a beach scene and surfboards (three surfboards, to be exact). After one girl finished her art, I asked her "Which surfboard would you ride first?" "The pink one, then the blue one, then the green and yellow one." she replied. One of the brothers piped up with "I can ride two boards at once!" and the girl said she could, too. He had to out-do her, of course. "I bet I could ride all three at the same time!"
"You don't have three legs!"
"I'd stack them on top of each other."
"But what if one slips out from beneath the rest?"
They both looked at me like I was crazy. "Superglue."
Ah, yes, Superglue. The most reasonable answer out there. Why didn't I think of that myself??

I need to get off now, I hear supper preparations in the other room and I'm HUNGRY! I'll try and post again tomorrow or sometime. Abbie told me last night that the "computers are turned off and we would not appreciate you turning them on to post at midnight tonight!"
Have a good day, y'all! Pray that I stay patient with these kids! We had 11 of them today, and will probably have a few more tomorrow.
~Worn-out-but-still-happy Kiwifruit
P.S. please pardon any typos. This keyboard is not very friendly to me.

Card ideas/VBS next week!

Hello, all you people out there somewhere! What are you doing today? Other than reading my blog, of course. :)

I don't really have anything 'specially interesting planned for today. Probably just more sitting around reading, playing on the computer, and watching TV.

Last night at about 10:30 I was lying there in my bed, trying to sleep, when an interesting Christmas card idea popped into my head. So I, naturally, had to get up and draw it out so I don't lose it in the night and be out of one good card. I fumbled around until I found some paper and a pen, then sat on the corner of my sister's bed and sketched it by the dim light of an across-the-street street lamp. I think that with a bit of polishing up, I could make it into a really good card. And then, if I find at least one more idea that would go with it, I could sell a nice, hand painted set of cards. And then I need to come up with some more to go with the snowman one I did for our family's card last year. What could I do that would go with a snowman? Or should I do four similar snowman cards? The snowman I've got done already is in front of a dark, dark, dark, dusky, grey-blue sky with snowflakes falling. He has a red and green scarf on, and a matching hat. On the snow beside him is a little cardinal. Around it all is a thick golden border.


On Sunday, Rapunzel and I are going up to a friend's house in L---, IL to help out with our old church's VBS program (we moved from there five years ago). It'll be our fourth year in a row helping with VBS. It's been neat watching the kids grow up. The first year I helped with the preschoolers, then spent the last two years with the 1st and 2nd graders, and this year my friend (her name is Miranda) signed me up to work with the 3rd & 4th graders. In 2006 I was run ragged, chasing after the kids. One's middle name must have been Trouble, he was so trying. On the next-to-last day, right at the end while we were standing in the sanctuary singing, I turned around and didn't see Mr. Trouble anywhere, so two of the other leaders and I were searching all over the place trying to find him. It turned out that his mom had come and gotten him, but nobody figured that out until we had been searching for quite a while. There needs to be some kind of check-out system to check out all the kids from 4th grade and down. Last year two of the boys didn't want to wear name tags, and the problem with that was that they look so much alike that it was hard to tell them apart. I have one of their tags, and it's torn, dirty, chewed a little bit, and mutilated! Oh well, I still love doing it! This year I might bring a magic marker and just write the names right on the little boys' foreheads! Hey, that is a good idea....
Does anyone have tips on how to keep name tags on little boys without writing them on their foreheads or threatening them? JK! I don't threaten them unless it's to tell them to 'behave or I'll separate' them.


I'll post again tomorrow or Sunday (if I have the time), and maybe during the week. It depends on things. See y'all later! (wait, X that. Write y'all later!)

~Kiwifruit