C=

I got a volleyball for my birthday. =) I like volleyballs. It's a Wilson beach volleyball, "the official volleyball of the Olympic games" or something like that. I need to re-figure the way I hit it, though, because hitting with my
wrists is causing bruises to form. =/ I'll experiment with higher up the forearm, but I don't remember bumping the ball that high up... Hmm... In the meantime I've played a long game with my garage wall. The score so far is Garage Wall: 125, Kiwi: 5. My five were a few lucky overhand serves that were just out of Garage Wall's reach.

Mom and Dad found me a lovely hope chest off of Craig's List. It's from the 1930's, we think, from a company that has since gone extinct.

Right under the "L" in "Lady" is 1936 penciled in.

It's a little taller than most cedar chests, and it has a drawer at the bottom. Isn't it beautiful? =)

My brothers gave me a little, pink Swiss army knife to replace my flimsy, dull one. Aaand my sister gave me a camera case, so now I don't have to worry about my camera's screen getting scratched.
Aaaand my dear friend Kate gave me a chocolate bar. =) She's now well on her way to my top-friends list with that gift! ;)
Aaaand my other dear friend, Queen Lucy, gave me a hat she crocheted herself! It's so perty! I'd put a photo of that up, too, but I can't go get my camera right now.

Twas a very nice birthday, wot wot?
~Kiwi~

p.s. We watched a bit of "The Madness of King George" the other day, and he was constantly repeating "wot wot?" and "hey hey?" It must have rubbed off on me. =)

Reflections on 18 Years of Life

In the past 18 years of my life, I have learned many many things. 

How to walk......how to talk...to tie my shoes....to ride a bike.....how to read.....how to avoid punishments....I've learned to do handstands (sorta) and cartwheels. I've learned to drive some, and how to fill up a gas tank (Dad: "You fill it and keep filling it until the gas pump shuts off. It shuts off by itself. The tank is FULL when the pump shuts off. It is not full until the pump shuts off. It is 9:20 on a Monday morning: when I ask you about it later I expect you to know that! Unlike your sister."). I can quote to you many many random quotes from random movies I've watched over these past 18 years. I've learned to play volleyball, softball, dodgeball, foosball, soccer, and (against my will) some football. I've made it through almost 12 years of schooling already! 

I'd say I have a decent amount of accomplishments for 18 years! =) 

Now to go find and open those Mysterious Packages that people have been trying to sneak into the house.....

And get some cake. It looks like a good cake! German Chocolate.... C=

~18 year old Kiwifruit

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~

"All About My Birthday" post

Hi.

Here's an "All About My Birthday" post.
Weekend-before-last, my Grandma M. was here for a few days, and she brought my birthday present up with her. She gave me some stationary and a neat activity book with invisible answers. When you fill in the spaces, it tells you 'right' or 'wrong' or whatever. When I first tried it, I was afraid it wasn't working properly, because nothing appeared. Eventually, though, the answers showed themselves, and now it's quick to appear.


Last weekend we went down to my Grandma and Grandpa G.s' house. They had two presents for me. Grandma said I could choose one to open, and they got to keep the other. You guys told me to pick the little one, so I followed your advice and opened that.* Inside was a little, bitty box with a fresh-water pearl bracelet and a shell(?) anklet! The bracelet has larger silvery-white, irregularly-shaped pearls alternating with smaller, purple ones. I like it 'cos the pearls are different, not the same-old round ones that are so often imitated. The anklet is cream-colored string, braided, with three pink dolphin beads alternated with pink cat's-eye beads. They're both very pretty. :-)
And then, Grandma and Grandpa graciously allowed me to open the other box, to see what I "would have gotten."
I carefully unwrapped the box (which, please note, was not covered in paper. They left the bottom unwrapped. *cheapskates!* ;D And please also note that the bow was not even taped on! They didn't even want to use a wee little bit of tape. *cheapskates* ;-P), which contained what I always wanted......a MICROWAVE OVEN!!! But, alas, I was disappointed when I opened that box. No microwave. :( Instead I found a bunch of packing peanuts and two other boxed items I 'always' wanted: a remote control (box) for model airplanes, and a Geek Squad thingy. Whoopedydo.
Digging deeper revealed a wrapped box. As I pulled it out, Grandpa asked Grandma "Do you have the blindfold ready?" Blindfold?!? Inside this box was a gift bag, and before I was allowed to touch that Grandma blindfolded me. You'll never guess what the bag contained.
I'm tempted to let you wait a while, so I can get pictures of it on here. But who knows when that'll happen, because Mom says we have to wait until Fritz is repaired before I can load the software for my new camera on.
Oops, I just gave it away! They let me keep the second present as well as the first. I got a digital camera!! And it's REALLY nice! It does videos with sound, and takes many, many pictures, and has face recognition, and I'm not sure what-all else!! That was really exciting. :-) Now I can take the "save money for a digital camera" off my "do in 2009" list!
That was really cool, and then on Monday we had another celebration at home. Catfreak and Avalon's family was headed up to the Wisconsin Dells for the week, so they stopped by, which was jolly-good fun. We went out to eat at Pizza Hut, which I've never done on my birthday before! When we got home at almost 9:00, we went ahead and had cake and ice cream. Da Boys gave me a bead Thingy-Ma-Jig for making......something. I'm not sure what exactly. You wrap wire around the pegs and make special links and such. Rapunzel gave me an Omnigrid ruler to help out with squaring my paintings. It's 9 1/2" by 9 1/2" with every eighth inch marked out. Mom and Dad gave me a Bible cover--purple corduroy with brown leather trim--and a sheet set. Doesn't it feel nice to slide between two fresh sheets?
So that was my family birthday.

And then right as I was going to bed, Dad called me into the office and showed me three emails I got: an e-card from my friend Miranda, on from her sister, Abbie, and an email from HKSmitty! That was really nice. :)
And then I saw that my Narnian Friend gave me a birthday post, and Guitargirl gave me a Kiwi picture which refuses to transplant itself to my blog. Here's a link to the post, though. And Owan gave me a post and a Pencil Picture. By the end of the day I was feeling quite loved and special. :) :) :)
*EDIT* Somehow, for some strange reason, I mistakenly missed Skittles's post to me!! OOOOOPS! I apologize muchly, Skittles. HERE is a link to the near-missed post. You gotta go way down. I got virtual cake and ice cream and cyberhugs, and music! Thanks, Skittles!!
Thank you, one and all, for making my birthday so special!

No one found my last song, which was "Crashing Down" by Mat Kearney. One more point for me!
Now, I will rise from my seat and go downstairs. 'bye for now!
~Kiwi da Fruit
P.S. Be sure to tune in Wednesday or Thursday for an Important Announcement!

*Quick question: Why did those of you who voted, vote for what you did?

My Life Since Last Monday:

Hi!
Thanks, all of you who voted in my poll. It made it slightly easier to decide! I'll tell you what I got on Tuesday or Wednesday, when I can put pictures on. :) Let's just say that the little gift was a good choice.
Last week was rather long. Jordan and I went to the park on Monday and Tuesday with JS and Kirsten. We did cartwheels and handstands and bridges, and we played the 'trust' game. Y'know, the one where you fall back into a friend's arms? That was entertaining.
Wednesday was....Wednesday-ish. Nothing important happened.
Thursday was looooooong. I didn't get all my schoolwork done on Wednesday, so I was trying to catch up on Thursday. My instruction sheet for Wednesday said "read Carry A Big Stick" and then Thursday's said 'write a book review for Carry A Big Stick'. I figured that to catch up, I'd have to read the book and write the review. So I curled up with the book and started reading. At first it was interesting, but after two hours I had only gotten half-way through. By the time I was finished, I was thoroughly sick of Teddy Roosevelt! It took me all day to finish the book. Carry A Big Stick is a good book, but you may not want to try to read all the way through it in one day.
Oh, and Josh Havens from The Afters was on one of the local radio stations! Just over the phone. "Ocean Wide," which apparently is a new release, was played.
Friday we drove down to my grandparents' house! I counted about 100 red-winged blackbirds, we saw two 'rafters' of turkeys (why 'rafter' and not just flock?), and a pair of swans in an over-sized puddle in a field. The field was just outside of our old farm, and there's a sunken spot in it that always fills with water. Why the swans chose to land there, and not in one of the nearby ponds, I don't know. I wish I'd had a camera, 'cos then I'd've taken a quick shot of 'em.
Saturday I slept in till 9:30 because I hadn't slept well. We went bowling for my friend's birthday, which was jolly-good fun! I can't remember my scores. They weren't terribly high, but who cares when you're just playing for fun? (by the way, hi Race! 'Twas nice seeing you again!)
Saturday night I opened the small present. I'll show you pictures of what I got when I get them loaded on here.
And we had Lime Cheesecake!!!! O, I want more Lime Cheesecake! I would be supremely happy if I could have more of that scrumptious Lime Cheesecake! My grandma made it. If any of you want to order one from her....;D I told her she needed to sell them, but she's "not sure" of the price she'd charge. :P
Sunday we went to our grandparents' church. We used to go there, too.....twelve years ago. Rapunzel and I saw a few people we recognized, but not many. Mostly they were adults who had taught our Sunday School classes when we were little.
I got to drive some on the way home, about 45 minutes. Man, I need to drive more often! I have trouble paying attention to every single thing: speedometer, mirror, mirror, mirror, make sure you're still on the road, slow down, speed up, mirror, oops, drifting to the left, don't over-correct, etc, etc, etc. That brings my time up to about 4 hours, 45 minutes.
I finished a new post on my Old Movie Blog, which you should go check out. It's for The More the Merrier, a 1943 movie with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. Hilarious.

Today, Mom baked me a second cake! Lemon with creamcheese icing. :)
Avalon, Catfreak, and family are due to arrive shortly. I can't wait! We haven't seen them in 6 months! :) :) :) :) :) :)
Tonight, Daniel Kirkley is doing that live show/chatting w/ fans. I wish that a Certain Computer *coughFritzcough* would suddenly find it's sound stuff working so I could watch it! That would make my day *hintFritzhint*.

An' that's what's happening here. What's new with y'all?
Does anybody know what to do with a "Friend Request"? I looked at the 'help' page for it, but it just got me more confused. I dislike this new Following Thing that Google/Blogger came up with.

The Song of the Day Contest: Owan and Skittles both got it! (Surprised you, didn't I Skittles?) Owan guessed the whole song title/artist, so she gets 5, while Skittles found the title and recieves 2 1/2. The song was "The Motions" by Matthew West.

Now I must go prepare for Avalon and Catfreak's arrivals. Adieu!
~Kiwi da Fruit~
P.S. There is no song in here, 'cos I couldn't come up with an easily-hidden on. Sorry!

Free-For-All-Friday

I don't know what to post about...

Oh, yes, my quilt blocks! Here're a few pictures:

This is the first block,

And this is the second one that we had so much trouble with.

They both turned out fairly good!

I also have some sad news for y'all.

Everett "The Triceratops" Fruit

December 26th, 2008--March 6th, 2009

Everett "The Triceratops" Fruit left us late last week at about 2:30 pm. He was exactly 10 weeks of age.

Everett was lovingly sculpted by the Fruit and the Friend families late last year. Much adored by his creators, they lovingly nicknamed him "The Triceratops" and enjoyed climbing on him and admiring his massive size.

The first sign of the impending doom was noticed on December 27th, 2008 (one day after completion), when his head fell off due to the sudden rise in temperatures. After that disaster, Everett slowly but surely shrank. The recent heat is blamed for his demise.

"The Triceratops" was preceded in death by his cousin, "Baby Triceratops" earlier this winter.

No funeral shall be held, as his body cannot be recovered, but a memorial service may take place this Sunday.

He shall be missed.

A last picture with him....

I think that the reason Triceratopses (Triceratiopi?) died was not the ice age, infact, I'll bet the thrived during the iceage! It was when all the snow started to melt that the problems came.....;D

And lastly I shall do a tag from Julia.

1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

This was taken at the Gardens in My-opolis at the same time as THESE pictures. We were there for family pics so Mom could frame them and put them on the wall. Which has not happened as of now. She's going to wait and find a replaceable picture and put it up with the others, so my SENIOR PICTURE that'll be taken NEXT YEAR(!!!!!!) won't muss the arrangement.
Anyway, the Gardens are very pretty, even later in the season. We went here in mid September....
And that's the story behind the photo.
I tag: the first four to comment. If they want to do it.

Wednesday's Song of the Day was......(hold on, let me remember.....)...."Whatever You're Doing" by Sanctus Real! I'd forgotten, and was about to tell Owan that she was wrong. But then I remembered, and she's right! Here's five points.

And now I need to go hide a song title in here, and then go socialize with my family. Today's "Jordan"s birthday. He has entered into the "Seven-Year Insanity" common with thirteen-year-olds. Happy Birthday, Jordan!
(isn't this interesting? He's turning 13 on Friday the 13th. Oooo, spooooky!)

Goodbye!
~Kiwi da Non-Kiwiian Fruit

(Gar!! Why doesn't the 'Preview' button show what it'll look like on the actual blogpage?? What good is previewing it when I don't get to see what it'll actually look like?!?!? Stupid blogger!)

Happy Birthday, guitargirl!!

My friend, guitargirl, is having her birthday today! She's 18 now.
First for the cake. Do you want white cake....




or chocolate with Reeses Pieces on it....
or a chocolate cake with mandarin oranges on it (what's with the oranges??)?

Your choice, guitargirl!


Now for the present!!
I know you like Charles Dickens, so...... Here is a Link for you!! Over 600 Dickens quotes at your disposal.


Thoughtful note from Rapunzel on being 'grown-up':
You have two more years to be a teenager, so make the most of 'em. Partly because if you have to start acting grown up, there's no hope for me (being a year older than you)! 18 is an interesting year, a lot of new stuff, but it's pretty good. Have fun!


GUITARGIRL:
Great blogger,
Umm,
oI boyz lover,
Talented (with the guitar),
Article-one-moose giver,
Rabbit named raisin,
Guitar player, hence the name,
Interesting posts,
R...(what begins with 'r'? I can't think of any 'r'! Sorreh.),
Lovely house.
Here ends my lame little poem.

Happy Boithday :D
~Kiwi da Fruit~

Random Friday

Hello, welcome to Random Friday. This marks one week of sticking to my schedule! Yeehaw! *parties*


Today we played hooky and, while Mom and Da Boys were out shopping for stuff, Rapunzel, Short Stuff and I went to the mall. I almost bought a dress ($60 down to $7.50). I had it set aside for me to pick up on our way out, and then Rapunzel got a call from her co-worker asking her to cover the co-worker's shift.....in twenty minutes! So we had to rush out and home so Rapunzel could work and Drat it ALL, I had to leave the dress!!! RRRGH! Why didn't I just pay for it and run it out to the car??? *stupidstupidstupid* Hmph.

We tried on prom dresses at Penny's. I tried THIS one, which, with straps, I would wear. Over it I had a lacy-silvery shawl, which helped with the strapless-ness. How can anyone bear wearing a strapless dress for any length of time? I was getting annoyed with it after just a few minutes. It definitely needed straps.
Just about every little thing in the mall caught our attention. Even the ugly, huge belt-buckle kiosk that was being set up. We're planning on doing that about once a month or so, on rainy or just plain boring days when there's nothing else to do. We hadn't made it to the Boston Store or Kohls yet, so that'll keep us busy.
I have never just gone to the mall for fun before! We rarely go there, but now that there's one just a few minutes away with most of the major department stores.

For the benefit of Short Stuff, Jumbo Shrimp, and Kirsten, here is a link to a realy cool site I found: http://www.recollections.biz/ Check it out! There're plenty of really nice dresses in there...but few under $150!

Owan guessed correctly in the Song of The Day game, getting both the title and the artist, and Friends of Narnia guessed the title. The song was "Nothing Left to Lose" by Jimmy Needham, and was found here in the second paragraph:
"Sorry folks, I got nothing. And since I've got nothing left to lose, I'm asking you to tell me what one topic I should explain to you or discuss or whatever! I'll make up for this dismal little post on the weekend."
Owan gets the full five points and Narnia will receive 2 1/2. Congratulations, folks!

Let's see, what else?

Oh, I got to chat with Duncan Phillips a wee little bit! I got on to chat with Skittles on her blog, and she was talking with Duncan, and she let me say Hi. :D That was cool! Skittles said she'd try to give me a comment with my portion of the conversation, so then I'll be able to tell y'all what-all went on. I asked where 'Oinch' and 'Squiz' came from, but they must have taken a vow of secrecy because he gave the common answer of 'Oh, you know nicknames. They just pop up and get used and no one knows where they come from' (only not in those words). I wonder if that's true? There's gotta be some story behind them, some explanation for their use! I think that there's some super-secret, 'Boyz-only story that they're hiding. We'll probably never know for sure.
I found a new NB site with a quick history of them. http://www.geocities.com/finnov333/nb-history.html Even if (horror of horrors) you didn't like the NBs, this is a funny read! Wow, did Peter look different with hair, especially long hair! I'm sooo glad he cut it eventually. Look at him in the second picture (that's him on the right....I think.). *shiver* "Pete, never, ever, ever wear your hair long again!
And I didn't know that Sean Taylor was part of the band at one time, I just thought he came in to write songs for them. Huh. Learn something new every day!

I was looking through my calendar the other day. March is chalk-full of birthdays! Duncan's on the 3rd, 11, 12, and 21 are friends' birthdays, Jordan on the 13th and me on the 23. A cousin's on the 25th. Anybody else have a March birthday?

Well, that's about all for now, folks. I got nothing else to say, except "I like breaded shrimp."
G'day, mates!
~Kiwi da Fruit

P.S. My Short Stuff just called! She had a dress laid aside for her, too. She and her mom are out grocery shopping and just happened to stop by the mall for her dress, and so she's picking up mine, too! THANKEE, SHORT STUFF!!!
I'll have to post a picture of it and my quilt block on here.