New Year's Resolution

How many times do we make New Year’s resolutions only to break them within a short time? Countless. It sometimes seems almost impossible to keep a certain New Year’s resolution.
However, as I was contemplating this fact just a little while ago, I realized that we are making these resolutions with ourselves, and that is a very important fact to consider.
We try to keep ourselves accountable and we rely on our own strength to do what we have consented with ourselves to do.
Me, myself and I are not very good at keep promises and keeping accountable, and they are not good at giving anyone strength and energy to carry out tasks. We have all seen it happen time and again. Me, myself and I are irresponsible, selfish, unreliable persons. However, God is not. If we make our New Year’s resolution to God, He will keep us accountable and give us the strength to carry out our resolutions. And let’s just face it: Me, myself and I will probably work a little harder to keep accountable if they have a proper fear of God and know that He is watching them every moment of the day. It also helps to know that you made a promise to someone and not just yourself, and another fact we must face is that we keep promises to other people better than we do to ourselves, and making a promise with God is a much bigger thing:
“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.” Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
Obviously God does not like it when we make a promise to Him and then break it.
Does it send chills up and down your spine? It does mine!
However, we as humans cannot keep our promises: we have not the strength to do so. We may try our best, but we fail, that is not the best at all when we make the promise to God. Instead, we must learn to rely on His strength to help us keep our promises. His strength is the very best and will help us do the very best. His strength can see us all the way through it no matter what it is!
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth…and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:18b & 20b
Even though Jesus was talking about teaching the nations of the earth in Matthew, that power that he spoke of can dwell in us and strengthen us in all that we do. It can even help us keep the promises and New Year’s resolutions that we make.
So while you make your New Year’s resolution this coming year, why not resolve to rely on your Creator and His son to help you through all that you do, and why not make your resolutions to Him, instead of yourself, so that you can use His strength to help you along as He keeps you accountable? That is what I am definitely going to do!

God Bless you all this coming year!

The novel is finished...

Yes! I have finally finished my novel! I finally typed "the end" on it...but the story is still not over. NO SIR! I have a SECOND BOOK to do now! Mwhahahahaha!....after I et back from my internship in March....
I don't know if I will be able to work on it much while I am away, but I am certainly going to try while I am there.
There is only one little problem with that....I had almost a whole first chapter done of the second book and then... POW! My computer's hard drive dies unexpectantly....sigh...so what do I do?
Anyway. Now I have to edit all 426 pages which consists of 37 chapters in this finished book, send the query letters out to publishing companys, and I have to pack for my internship which I leave for in *looks at calander* OMGOSH! I leave for it in 2 WEEKS!!!!! GAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!....*passes out*
*wakes up*
Oh boy...things happen way too fast sometimes...
So anyway...yeah...It seems like I was gonna say something else, but I forgot.
Well anyway, Everybody have a great new year and I will have my mom put posts on here for me while I am gone.
I will be gone Jan. 8th- March 13th just so that you know. :D
Love you all!
Shieldmaiden

Change

Does it seem like it takes forever for change to come, but when it does it suddenly leaps upon you in a flash and in a stroke of reality you realize that it has come? This has happened to me on more than one occasion, but at the same time it has happened only a few times, not even a handful, and now I find that it has happened yet again: The years have flown by, things have changed, people have changed, my life has changed and I have changed. The funny thing is that I know things are changing. Things are changing all the time, just I hardly notice it until it is almost finished.
Take me and my life for instance: It had not really hit me that I am 18 until just recently. It seems like all my friends are leaving: going to collage, going to a distant country, are in courtship, or something of the sort, and yet, I have yet to realize that I too am leaving.
I have finally graduated: a day that I thought would never come and now I am preparing to leave everything and everyone I know and go to an internship for three months to a place that seems so far away.
It also as hit me that I am no longer a child.
Well now you’re probably thinking “Well gosh, I would have thought that should have hit you a long time ago.” The truth is that I have been childish for years, and in a way I will always be a child because I never want to grow out of that fun loving, simple and humble stage, but what has hit me is that I am considered an adult now and my maturity mentally, physically and spiritually has grown by leaps and bounds since I was 16 years old and I never realized it.
Now I am sitting here thinking “What happened to 17?!? Where did it go? I totally missed it!!!” But yet I have spent my complete 17th year in life learning to grow more into a godly woman.
I still have lots to grow! In fact we as humans never stop growing and learning, but now I have realized that I grew and learned a lot this year and I didn’t realize it.
Now I am a graduated woman who is going to be setting off into the freaky world to learn more for what God has in store for her and to prepare for what lies ahead of her.
I am now a soldier getting ready to plunge into battle.
Maybe this all seems to be overrated sentiment to you, but it is very real and even frightening to me. I guess the real point of this message to you is to explain what I am going to be doing now that I am graduated.
I will on an internship January 8th to March 13th teaching children in schools across the city about godly character and will be fighting to bring precious souls to Christ. I will also be learning so much during this time no doubt and I will probably be changing into more of that godly woman that God has planned as well as learning how to use my spiritual weapons so that I can use them effectively for God when I get home.
Maybe I am making too big a deal out of this, but the thing is that this is a big deal to me. This is a big step in my life and I know that when I come back from this, I will be different and everything around me will be different.
The world is also about to go through big changes this coming year and we all need to be ready for those big changes.
Pray for me as I finish up one saga of my life and prepare to enter into another and pray that I will be a useful tool for God’s glory.
I thank you for your prayers and support.
Love you all,
Shieldmaiden

Typical questions of the family

Just say that my family watched a dog put his nose on a hotwire fence and get zapped with a loud pop then run off with a yelp of pain. These are the questions that certain members of my family would ask.

MOM: What happened?
C.I.: I wonder what was in the electricity to make the dog ylep like that?
K.R.: Why did the puppy run away and yelp?
L.E.: Why did the dog yelp when he got zapped?
ME or SIS: Stupid dog! What did you do that for?

Then my (slightly) brilliant answer to the above questions:
To MOM: *crickets and silence*
To C.I.: "...electricity..."
To K.R.: "Well why don't you go up to the wire and find out?" (at that point she would be blond enough to go put her hand on the wire while at the same time telling me that it would zap her.)
To L.E.: "You just answered your own questions."
To ME or SIS: "Because...the dog IS stupid..."

And I am sure that this would probably be running through the dog's head: "Shazam! What was that? Why did I put my nose on it?? And what are those humans staring at???"

The blond moments of my family

K.R. is our true blond in this family. She has long thick blond hair that naturally has other colored streaks in it. She is the sort of blond that would open a submarine door if someone knocked on it.
The other day mom was ding school with C.I. and K.R. and she gave them a writing assignment. She told them "put your name and the date at the top of the page."
When she came back later to check on their work, C.I. has put his name and that days date at the top of his page, but K.R. had just put 'name' and 'date' at the top of hers...

Sis used to be a blond, but her hair darkened as she grew. However, that blond still catches up to her every now and then.
One time my mom asked sis to get a towel for the bathroom. Sis stopped short with this blank look on her face and said "Towel? What's a towel?"
Another time Sis and I were waiting in the vehicle for our parents. Sis suddenly took the cigarette lighter and pushed it into its hole for a while then pulled it out. I could smell the heat coming off of it, it was so hot.
"Hey! Put your finger on that!" She told me.
I, being the smart person that i am, said "No way!"
She replied "It won't hurt! Just do it like this..." and she laid her thumb down prettily on that hot cigarette lighter and I must say took it off quickly with a surprised exclamation.
Her thumb looked like a medium rare cooked pork chop for about a week, and she has never done it again...

My mother used to be blond when she was little and every now and then it shows.
The other day she was getting very flustered while waving papers in her hand. I asked her what the matter was. She replied: "I just had some papers in my hand and now I don't know where they are!"
We both paused a moment then she looked at her hand.
"Oh...there they are..."
It now frightens me to know that she will be driving me in the Big City soon. I mean, what if a blond moment like that happened while she was driving?!?
"Oh I can't find the road! It was just here a moment ago!" and she is driving on it...I think I will die!

What about my blond moments???
You don't wanna know... besides, I don't have any because I am burnet all the way through...
Okay, so yeah, my mom told me one time while I was driving that i needed to turn at the next block, so instead of stopping at the stop sign I had pulled up beside, I ran it... and right behind the police station too...that was just once though...
*crickets and stunned silence*
DON'T YOU JUDGE ME! YOU KNOW YOU'VE DONE IT TOO!!!!!

Shieldmaiden

A new summery of my book...Mwhahahaha!!!!

A young nomad man struggles with his identity, his past, his future, and his hate.
A beautiful princess struggles to accept who she is and what she is to become.
A creature is in hiding who follows and protects the nomad.
A world that has a growing shadow upon it.
A secret and massive power grows that threatens all that is good.
Ancient prophecy awaits to be fulfilled…

The young nomad, Keegan, is searching for something, but he does not know what. There is something strange about him that many cannot understand and he holds a secret deep and quiet.
He travels the lands about him searching for what he cannot seem to find until he meets the fair princess Erewhon.
It is then that strange things begin to happen to Keegan and the world around him.
Horrible creatures and men of darkness begin to terrorize villages while black beasts fly through the sky.
Dreams attack Keegan as an ancient and evil being begins to watch him from afar.
The secret that he holds comes closer to being found out and ancient prophecies start to become directed toward him showing him that he has a special purpose, which he denies.
The princess is suddenly captured and taken to uncharted lands causing Keegan to go on a quest to save her from death; a quest that will ultimately change his life.
Battle, pain and death visit him as he is on this quest and he is brought to the test of endurance and faith as he travels on to save the princess.
Along the way his secret is exposed, he comes to find that which he has been seeking for many years now, he learns that he cannot rely on his own strength or deny his future; he finds love and learns who he is truly meant to be:
The Dragon’s Son

A letter to Mr evolutionist and Mr Atheist

Yes! The riddle was solved! The answer was the letter 'M'! Yay!
I wrote this piece to show how I feel and what I think of these ridicules people's ridicules ideas...

Dear Sirs,

I have considered your application to work in my stables and after some thought, a lot of concern and a thorough background check after reading your application I would like to give you my conclusion and point out a few things wrong with some of the theories that you have mentioned about existence and life.
First off your idea about where you came from is a little on the odd side.
Indeed we all have started from a microscopic ‘life form’ Mr. Evolutionist, but not quite the kind you are referring too. Dust and pond slime do not quite cut the mustered.
Mr. Atheist, you have an identity crisis if you believe that you have come from ‘nothing’. If you came from nothing then you are nothing. But yet you are living and breathing. This logic of yours is not logical. I believe that the ‘nothing’ has taken over your head…
Next off, you both seem to believe that we humans have evolved and become ‘bigger and better’. If this ‘scientific logic’ propaganda of yours is ‘bigger and better’ then I am afraid that I do not want the human race to get ‘bigger and better’ anymore…that could be dangerous and I do not want to be the only sane person amid a bunch of nuts.
Next off is this: You say that you have no god, but yet I see that you do. You are worshiping either yourself, nothing, slime or dirt. And yet the slime, dirt and virtual nothing are all you because you supposedly evolved from all of this. So all this is self- worship. Plain and simple.
As a conclusion, I regret that I must reject your job application.
I am afraid that in your spare time of contemplating your strange existence you would possibly scare away or pervert my other happy, employs, customers and trainees and I just can’t afford a risk like that. It is far too big of ‘a leap of faith’ for me take…
Further more I am afraid that the ‘nothing’ that has shaped your existence could possibly be the only thing shaping your head, and seeing as I need reliable, trust worthy and sane employs, I do not think that you both, even together, would fit the bill. With your ‘super-intelligence’ you may find a way to make the horse apples in my stables explode or you would put them in a laboratory somewhere and turn them into something ‘bigger and better’ (like Godzilla), or turn my training horses heads into nothing…besides, horse apples can get dangerous around people like you and horses know a dummy when they see one, so I think I shall reject your application for your own health and mine as well.
I am sorry that this is the fifteenth job application that you have sent out, but I just can’t afford such intelligence. (By the way, the references on your application paper were a little less than enthusiastic when I asked them about your past jobs)
Thank you for considering taking up the tedious job of stable cleaners and grooms, but…I think I have a ‘primate cousin’ that will suite the job just fine. J
I hope that you have a good day,

Miss Lady

P.S.
Good luck job hunting. I have told all my nearest business owner friends about your credibility and your need for a job so they will be looking out…for you…
You might, however, be able to get a job in the White House. I here it is full of ‘apples’ and melons and nuts like you!

Long time Greetings...

Greetings everybody…I have a new riddle for you. I am sorry that it is so late…
What occurs once in a minuet,
Twice in a moment
And never in a thousand years?
Okay, yeah so this is an oldie riddle that has been around for a while, but hey! It sounded good to me.
I hope that somebody is able to guess it!

So what is up in my life?
…..If you knew half of what I am going through, your head would explode….
A sum up of what’s going on in my life?
Okay. Fast, miserable, ironic, funny and stupid. Odd combo? You should know the rest!

Okay, basically what is going on right now is school. I have to get all of my school done by Nov. 13th. I have 12 reports, 7 wisdom booklets, and 6 lessons of math to do (which is 24 pages of math). This does not include corrections and my book.
I also have to keep up with my chores and family while I am being a mad woman trying to get this all done.
Why must I finish it by Nov. 13th you ask? Because my mom wants me to have time in the holidays (so I can cook no doubt) and so I can prepare for my friend that is coming from Alaska to visit.
Oh yes! My very good friend that lives in Alaska, which I have not seen for five years, is coming to see me around my graduation. Isn’t that exciting news?!? I am very, very excited! She is also bringing her sister and I will be glad to see her too! Now I just need to find where I put their birthday and Christmas gifts at from last year…

Also, we had a recital and art show Oct. 18th and it went very well and was a lot of fun. I hope we can do something similar to it next year!
But alas…the fun lasted only till the next day…then the school bomb of reality hit.

Anyway, as a conclusion and another sum up I am going through a lot of stress right now. You can understand where I am getting some of it (cough, cough: school), but the other stuff you will just have to be in suspense over until further notice. So sorry.
One good thing I have found about stress though: for me, it is a great weight loss program.
Please pray for me and have fun with the riddle!
Shieldmaiden (who is battling dark forces)
P.S.
My face is doing much better from the big bird incident. I just have one scar on my chin and one on my arm…and I survived just fine without a tetanus shot!

The day I fought with an owl…

Note: This post was supposed to be on here a long time ago, so most of it is not in affect anymore.

A beautiful and brisk fall morning September 23, 2009 I wake up to find my mother gone to the funeral home because her granddad had passed away that morning, so I go out to do chores before the day gets too crazy and hectic.
I milk the goats, feed the chickens, ducks and Geese (which, by the way, we have two new geese which makes four all together) and then go to untie the dogs and let them stretch in their running pen.
I watch them closely to make sure that they do not dig out or something when I suddenly hear a high pitched squeak, like a rabbit in danger in the small forest to the west of me.
I quietly walk over and go over the barb wire fence toward the sound of the squeak.
Suddenly, WHAM! Feathers, claws, sharp beak, and screeches are in my face along with sharp pain.
I screech at my attacker (or as our secretary put it ‘scream like bloody murder’) and began to bat at it as I try to protect my face, head and eyes (Thank god for Martial Arts training!).
The devil bird pulls clumps of my hair out and beats the back of my neck and my arms. I start grabbing clumps of its feathers and punching it until I finally throw it to the ground.
“There!” I think “That will get him if not kill him.” But alas it was not to be!
The devil bird is at my face again with its terrible screeching and claws.
I screech again and we go through the same routine except I try to run from it this time, but it caught my hair and nearly sat on my head and I did not want it to follow me to the house and hurt a lil kid so I stopped and hit it to the ground again.
The third time we went through this, I back fisted the dumb bird, slamming it against a tree I think, and ran for my life leaving it alive and still screeching at me!
I ran down to the pasture gate, and instead of taking the time to open it for fear of my assailant, I covered my face with my hands, dropped to the ground, and rolled under the fence to the other side, then got up and shot for the house.
When I got to the fenced in yard around the house I came to a screeching halt.
OH SNAP! The UPS man is here!
I looked at my hands and arms: covered in dirt and blood and still bleeding.
I carefully creep up to the door and look in to see that the UPS man is in the other room leaving me a clear run for the bathroom…which I did silently and very quickly….
I washed and washed and washed until the dirt and feathers were gone, but a few places on my face and arms wouldn’t stop bleeding, so I dampened a washcloth and pressed it on the wounds on my face.
I finally heard the UPS man leave, so I went into the kitchen to ask my dad where Sis was so she could check on the dogs.
His horrified look said it all.
I briefed him on the terrifying story then asked him if my neck was bleeding. Thankfully it was not, and my dad got on his phone to call my mom (and the rest of the world) to let her know and came with me to the bathroom to put iodine on my cuts.
The iodine went on and I am proud to say I did not cry or scream when it did…I just took in deep breathes… breathe in, breathe out…and I can also say that I did not cry when the bird attacked me or anything…that happened too fast to cry…
But ya know what is really embarrassing about this whole thing? It was just a dumb bird that chopped me up. It wasn’t something big and terrible like a wild dragon or an Ork or something…just a bird….It is embarrassing that I was challenged by a bird and was unable to kill it!...tis a detriment to my fighting honor….sniff…
Okay not really, but it is just a little embarrassing…not to include horrifying. I just hope that no one else is scared to death.
My dad has everyone in the whole area bird hunting now…including the wild life ranger…
Anyway…my wounds have healed nicely and the funeral went well…though people kept staring at my face in a funny way…I don’t know why….hmmm…
So that is the story of the day: I fought with an owl…or hawk…or kite…whatever it was. I am not sure what it was (I was too busy at the moment to notice or to even care) and I am healing though it is painful and itchy….and the herbal stuff we are putting on stinks…and the iodine hurts like needles, but they are helping…Thank God.
Well, God bless all till next time and watch out for the birds!
Shieldmaiden

An elder sister observation

When the lil kids are doing school:
C.I. goes into a state of mental non-existence and if he is disturbed from this state of mind, he goes into another form of it which results in crying, whining and fussing.
K.R. suddenly grows exhausted at the thought of school or goes into grumpy mode.
L.E. goes into a state of panic and gets claustrophobic because he must be contained for school. L.D. colors on her color book, then a loose paper on the table, then a nearby math book, then a reading book, then mom’s planner, then the walls, etc. etc.
Sis… she disappears…. for a really long time….
ME?…. don’t ask….

Book update, Life update and general ramblings...

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get a post on here.
Okay, the answer to the riddle is nothing! Yay! Way to go!
And now…I suppose that you all would like a little book update? Okay!
Here is the count on my book:
441 pages
7913 paragraphs
&
168685 words
Impressive huh?
And let me tell you…you all are going to hate me when you read it and get to the end…because then you will want the second book which wont be out for a while. Mwhahahahahaha!!!! (Thankfully, yours truly, does have the second book already started.)
The book I am working on right now though is fixing to get really exciting!!!! The Princess was captured a little while back and the Hero and co. set out to retake her from the evil witch. Now they are preparing to enter into the dark forest known as the Dragon’s Forest and when they get through its vast territory they will come upon the witch’s realm which is full of evil creatures and traps. They will then have too…..oh…I can’t tell you that…But I will say that it is going to be on the edge of your seat action!!! I have already got most of it written down in notes and stuff. But they are on my old computer…which needs a monitor….and I have a monitor but I cant find the power cord and the cord that plugs it into the computer and therefore that means that I can’t get my notes and other things off there because I lost both cords and so….(breathe in, breathe out) so I don’t know what I am going to do….OTHER THAN JUST SCREAM!!!!!!! (slaps self) I can’t scream…I need to keep my whit about me and just find them…(yeah right)…
Anyway. I hope that I can get a new computer soon, because I am about to fry the poor little laptop and my old one is kind of already fried…I hope that it will turn on when I do finally find the cords to the monitor so I can get my notes…knowing my luck it wont…
So now. You wanna update on my life? Naw…its boring…okay I’ll tell you anyway.
Well, we have the most adorable little pigmy Billy goat now. His name is Snort and he is such a sweetheart! He doesn’t stink real bad and he loves attention and HATES chickens. They are not allowed to enter into his pen. He helped Sis kill a snake today…interesting.
And we sold one of the horses to a good home a while back…Rocky the grey one.
Oh yeah. A few friends, Sis and I have started a movie production club and we are gonna start making our own movies and stuff…Its kind of slow going right now, but we are making progress with our first ‘movie’. It’s so much fun and we are learning a lot from it.
What else is there???... Oh yeah. My close friend moved to China…for a whole year. Sigh. I is really sad about it…I helped her with bake sales and cleaning her house before she left at least. Please pray for her while she is over there.
And…let me see…we have new ponies now. Four of them at the moment: Angel, Scout, Dusty and Dreamer…Dreamer is probably going to leave though…we don’t like her. Scout is K.R.’s birthday present.
None of them are broke, but they are taming down very nicely and are really starting to fit in with the rest of our family and farm.
And my Birthday is coming up soon. And then…wait a minuet… My birthday is coming up soon?!?!?! (A dawning of reality) Gaaaah! Not just soon! It’s up in a few days!!!...Oh wow…Now I am emotionally confused about this….should I be happy, sad or scared? What about all three? Because that’s what I feel like right now….Slap me.
I’m sad cause I am going to be a lot older now and because my friend is not here with me when I take a new step into age, but I am happy cause I am older and I know God has great things planned for me at this time, and at the same time I am scared about this new step slightly and wanna curl up in a corner and die….that is SO not okay….that is not even like me!!!!
Oh gish…I am a messed up person right now…For those of you who are not eighteen yet and wanna be there, think twice…because its not as glamorous as it seems. It’s a confusing time in life, and it comes sooner than you think it does. It sneaks up on you.
So many things to do, so many choices to make, and so little time to do it; its messed up.
You have colleges calling you and sending you stuff all the time, a vehicle that needs fixed (or bought) opportunities that you want to take, opportunities that your parents want you to take, recital and graduation to plan, money you got to have for any and all of it and etc. etc. etc…. Can I hibernate?????
And then! You are at that age that people are going to be raising their eyebrows in suspicion every time you walk by a young, unmarried person of the opposite gender. Somebody please lock me in a closet till I’m eighty!!!!
Then you’re torn between school, work and family…hopefully you younger people out there will be very intelligent and have life easy and have lots of self discipline so you graduate before eighteen…
Oh sigh….what’s next? Please do me a mercy and shoot me before it happens….
Though I do have to admit I enjoy most of it, but a lot of it I don’t…its too complicated and messed up and, and, and!!!!
OH SNAP! Another realization just came to mind…SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER!!!! Okay…shoot me…
Sigh…this is not good…well now that I bored you to death with my ramblings I will say a few last words then go.
I want to wish a happy birthday to Olivia N. and I hope that it’s a blessed one!
Well, goodbye and farewell!
Shieldmaiden
P.S.
I was reprimanded by a certain Celtic Woman fan in my family for pronouncing Celtic as Seltic...So I thought I would put down the correct pronunciation: it is Kail-tic. Good luck with that...she still gets mad at me because I don't 'do it right'. (honestly,I don't think it really matters)

A New Riddle

Well, lets see if you guys can get this one! Take a guess- a guess won't hurt even if it is the answer!

I can be found where anything cannot;
Dead men eat me all the time,
But if a living man eats me he will die…what am I?

Ok! I gotta run!
Good luck all!
Me

The Celtic Woman Concert

Ok, before I actually get to the concert, I must express to you what the reactions of the people going were like: and before I get to that I must also explain who was going:
There was my mom, me, Sis, Diane, Jen, Heather, A.C. and K. R.
Ok, now I think the most excited people were Kris, Heather, and Jen. They were like scream and yell and jump-up-and-down excited. Mom was excited, but she doesn’t show excited well; neither does Diane. A.C. and K.R. are just wee folk and were excited in their own way. Me…it didn’t hit me that it was really happening and that it was not just a dream till half way through the concert. After all I had just got back from camp (another dream-come-true) when I heard about it and it was just like “Oh that’s nice.” And then half way through the concert I realized that I was excited and I was like “Oh well that stinks. Half way through and only get to feel excited for a moment.” Sigh. Such as it goes I suppose.
And now, the trip and concert: For one thing I must let you know that we found out that my mom was a drag racer at some point in her life because we all thought we were going to die on the freeway with her crazy and fast driving. We all started yelling “WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!” and she said “No! Don’t say that! Think positive!” And there was a moment of silence then Heather yelled “YAY! WE ARE ALL GOING TO HEAVEN!”… I think you can imagine the response to that…
Anyway, we got to the hotel room and got all dressed up (and sis wore a pretty pink dress and even let Heather put makeup on her...and she did not wear her boats with the dress!) then we went to eat at a Japanese Restaurant which was awesome. It was fun to watch him cook the food in front of us and do his different tricks and what not, but the greatest part about it was when the guy who was cooking at the table right across from us started flipping shrimp tails over his shoulder…Hahahahaha! It was great….He flipped one back and it almost hit Heather, then he flip another back and it went clear across and hit mom in the head!!!! It was hilarious!!! Heather was like “FOOD FIGHT!” and we all nearly died laughing and he just glanced back at us to see what we were laughing at! He had no idea what had just happened! That was great!
Anyway, we get to the concert and when the lights go out the drummers make their way up on stage first and this lady way clear in the back yells “I LOVE YOU RAY!” (who is the long haired drummer that has been with the group since the beginning) and he stands up and waves with a great big smile (you could tell that he enjoyed that). Then Mairead (who is lovingly called ‘the fiddle fairy’) starts playing and the first song they do is ‘The Sky, Dawn and Sun’ It was totally awesome! The rest that they did before the interlude were mostly pop songs then after the interlude they started doing the more traditional songs. It was freaking awesome!
The singers were: Chloe, Lisa, Alex and Lynn, who did not appear to be feeling well or something because she was just not up to snuff…she tripped on stage and her voice gave out a couple of times in a few songs…oh well, she tried and it was still good!
Mairead was ornery! The normal director, David Downs, was not there this time and I felt sorry for the poor fill in director, even though he seemed to be having fun (but not as much fun as the singers, drummers and fiddler!)
There was this one song where Mairead plays along with the piano and she starts adding in all these extra notes- doing her own thing and the poor director is trying to keep up with her on the piano. She watches him for a moment with this mischievous look on her face and he finally throws up his hands and crosses his arms because he couldn’t keep up with her and she just giggles and starts bouncing all over the stage with that fiddle!
You could tell that they were all very enthusiastic and sincere about what they were doing and they just loved playing for their audience. I think if there would have been steps going from the stage into the crowd, they would have gone right out into the crowd.
By the end of it, when they all take their bow, the audience is crazy cheering and clapping. The girls began walking off stage with Mairead being the last. She pauses a moment and looks back at the audience then at the director then back at the audience and she smiles and shakes her head and starts playing on her fiddle and bounces back on stage and begins another song. The drummers were thrilled and began drumming happily, the singers all turned around and came bounding back with huge smiles and soaring voices and the poor director sat down shaking his head like “we went through this already” and they played an extra 30 min. for us! It was awesome!
It would be well worth it to go again, get VIP tickets and back stage passes. It so totally would.
Now, here comes the truly ironic part: we did have an oprtunity to get an audograph and pictures…Ray the long haired drummer walked right by us, waved and said hi and would have stopped had we had some paper and pens for him to use…then we are half way back to our vehicle and Jen halts and almost literally screams “I HAD A CAMERA WITH ME! I COULD HAVE GOTTEN PICTURES!!!!!”
I know…we are terrible…no- horrible…we are just a bunch of country hicks who are no good at the groupie thing!...oh well. Next time will be different! Next time Sis says she is gonna take her rope and lasso the drummer and hold him for ransom so that we can go to every Celtic Woman concert for free…that’ll be the day.
Anyway, there is so much it seems that I left out, but that is the extent of it…it was awesome and well worth going too! We have one of their live concert DVD’s and it cannot compare! You HAVE to go to a concert to get the full effect of this group!
Well, now that I have made you all sick with jealousy and I have given you the important facts, I must away.
Hopefully I will post again soon!
Till then,
Shieldmaiden
P.S. You can become a fan of each woman in the group on facebook just to let you all know!
Name pronunciation:
Chloe (Cl-ō-ee), Mairead (Mar- Ade), Celtic (Sel-tic)

The Camp post..finally!

Hello one and all. Sorry that this has taken me a while, but we tore up carpet in our dining room which is where the computer is (therefore putting the computer off limits) and we had an aunt come and spend a week with us which we enjoyed immensely, but because of all these little interruptions, I could not find the time to sit down and post anything about my adventures at camp.
And just to let you know: we have been making cookies for the past few days, in spite of the heat, and I tell you, we are all now guilty of gluttony… Sigh… I feel guilty…and fat…
Now that I have confessed my sin and made you believe that others are guilty of the same (which they are, they just won’t admit it) we will now move on…
Well, now….about camp…It was awesome. That is about all I can say. It was awesome!
I think that my favorite thing about it was the God focus atmosphere without it being stuffy. It was a place where you could play and focus on God. I felt like a little kid while I was there just basking in God’s truth. It was awesome!!!!
My favorite time of day during camp was Devos or Devotions. That was the most awesome time of the day. It was so quiet during that time and so many things were made clear and impressed me harder than ever like: Jesus loved us so much that He died for us to have eternal life. We get to have God’s mercy, love and salvation. But, as if that wasn’t enough for the sinners that we are, God has given us the power that raised Jesus from the dead! Get it? We have that power in us! Seriously. I don’t know how I can express this, but we do have this power if only we believe and have faith, even if it is faith the size of a mustard seed. Now, I don’t know what you think about that, but I think that it is pretty freaking awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know how else to express it!
My next favorite time of day was swim time…but that was because I was usually sweating and ready for cold water by that time…
Next, I learned while I was there that I had the spiritual gift of Faith. Not many people have the gift of Faith, so the camp staff were surprised to find that a lot of the kids at camp had the gift of faith, which is really encouraging.
My seconds on gifts were teacher and evangelism.
Anyway, I learned that because I have the gift of Faith, I can literally change the world…that is only what my mother has been telling me for-um-years…but anyway, this just put it in a way that I could totally understand and it got me so excited. I had never thought that I could actually change the world! I am someone who wants to jump in and break down barriers and traditions. I am the one who wants people to get excited and get going for God and the great thing is: I am the one who can make it happen! That is so exciting!!!!
It was actually funny how we learned. See, they passed out these test papers for you to complete then they separated the different spiritual gift people into groups. Of course I was in the Faith group. When our teacher finished explaining to us our gift and what we were capable of, we felt like we had just been told that we had super powers. So we were rather silent a moment trying to figure out “Uh, ok- so what next? What am I supposed to do?” He then went on to explain different things that we could do and he began to encourage us in different ways and I could just feel the excitement build up in our group, even though we were still silent. By the end of it, when we had finished asking questions and discussing things, we were dismissed and I felt like jumping whooping and screaming for joy! I don’t know what it was, but I was so excited that I COULD make a change and do things for God.
Well…I don’t know if you think that is exciting, but it is to me! Why right now I feel like I could jump up and down and yell for excitement!!! I just wish that I could somehow explain this to you all better or somehow transfer my feelings through the computer to you! It is so exhilarating!!!
Besides that I had fun at the late night activities, and canteen (which is sugar up snack time after resting time) and I still have not decided if Four Square is a fun game or a losers game …and I liked worship…I didn’t like the OFF that everybody was spraying on themselves every evening. That set my asthma off…
…the OFF set my asthma off…hehe…never mind. Random thought.
Anyway, I had a very grand time at camp, but getting the feeling and what I learned into words is impossible. So sorry.
One thing is for sure: I am really looking forward to going next year!!!!
One other thing about it was this: When I first set out to go to it, I thought that it was going to be a “just fun and hang out camp” and I would probably learn nothing…Boy was I ever surprised! It was awesome. Completely and totally awesome and I feel so refreshed and renewed after coming back from it. It was great.
And well, guess what? I have run out of time. If you have got any questions or something I guess you know where to leave em.
I will hopefully post again soon and even perhaps give you an update on how my book is coming along!
Till then,
Shieldmaiden
God Bless you all!!!!
P.S.
We went to a Celtic Woman concert the other night!!! It was totally neato! But that is another post for another time…which I will hopefully post soon…
P.P.S.
And before camp something amazing happened...I finally past my driving test and I received a little plastic card with my mug shot on it that says I have the ability to drive now...Oh wow. But that was almost after I had a wreck with the examiner in the seat beside me and all that good stuff...
The end.

I'm back!

Hello everyone! I am back from camp and I must say that it was an amazing experience! I can hardly wait to tell you all about it, but I can't right now, because I am trying to hurry. I will put a post about my thoughts and notes on here soon though.
As to the riddle...No legs is a fish who sat on a one legged table and a two legged man sat near on a three legged stool and the four legged critter got the scraps...confused yet? Hehe. We had a really really close guess! That was great Granny!
As to what SIFI and LOTR stands for: Science Fiction is SIFI and LOTR is Lord of the Rings...
OK. now that we got that all straight (or at least we hope so) I must go.
I just wanted to drop you all a quick note to let you all know that I was doing great and had a great time and that I am planning to let you in on my adventures soon!
Sweetpea

A riddle, An update, a word, a bore...nothing more

Here I sit drinking my cold Raspberry apple zinger tea, listening to the children watching Spirit: stallion of the Cimarron, listening to my Celtic music and typing this out for you.
I realize that I am overdue for a riddle so I guess I should give you one whilst I am here.
Hmmmm…lets see…something a little harder than the ones that I have been giving you would be best…Hmmmm… Ok, here we go:

No- legs lay on one leg,
two- legs sat near on three- legs,
four- legs got some.

Now, you kind of have to stop and think about this one for a moment. Ok, just think about it for a moment and it should come to ya. Like always, I am most happy to give a hint, however, I will not give ye a hint lest ye try and solve the riddle!!! If you know the answer go ahead and put it on, just don’t say that it is the answer. Otherwise just try guessing. Guessing doesn’t hurt because you’ll think and think about it then sigh and put a guess on, then soon as you turn off the computer it will come to ya. Trust me. Well, maybe not for all of you…Oh anyway.
Now, what is going on in my life? Yard work, yard work, more yard work and- yup! You guessed it!- more yard work. The parents are working us all to the bone! We had a tree taken down, and therefore we have many branches to clean up besides the branches that needed to be cleaned up years ago. Also in the process, we have found that we need a new wheel burrow and wagons. The burrow is about to give up on us and the wagons need new tires, but they have a funny tire size that you can’t buy anywhere. (the stupid things that companies pull off on us unsuspecting folk to get more money I’ll tell ya…)
So anyway, it has been interesting around here.
We did get to go to the zoo the other day though! That was fun! I got some really great pictures of the animals. I shall have to post some of them on sometime. I also got some cool shots of some of our friends that went with us. They were posing for me so that I can crop them out and put them in a picture with a dragon which I have already done with quite a few. They look amazing! They would look even better if they had on medieval dresses, but that will have to do for another time. I don’t just put them with dragons though- I can put them in Narnia with Aslan or some beautiful location in Middle Earth.
I have far too much fun with computer art stuff.
Anyway, what is coming up though is really exciting- for me. I get to go to a sort of summer camp! It is so totally way too exciting! I am still in the process of packing, but I have got the major stuff pack. So that’s good. It will be a week long and it is not just fun. It sounds like I am going to be learning a lot of stuff while I am there…that is what I hope for as well. That is one reason that I really wanna go to this: to see if I do learn something. Anyway, I have been warned to be ready for a mini boot camp instead of fun camp. So that sounds promising. Also, this will be my first time ever getting to go to a ‘summer’ camp! That is the reason that I am so excited. Neat. Oh whatever. Anywhoo.
My only concern is that my parents are going to continue to crack the whip over me until I am worked into the dust and I shan’t be able to enjoy my wee little self at this ‘mini boot camp’, but only be exhausted…not likely, but ya never know. I have enough energy around here for everyone but my brothers…a tornado wouldn’t have enough energy for them…anyway. We are also going to get new neighbors too! It is not just an older couple either; they are younger and have exciting creatures closer to sis and my age…children. A girl and a boy the girl being the oldest. She happens to like horses (good girl!) and that is kind of how we got to know them. We let them borrow two of ours as a trial. They are considering buying one of them. How exciting. They also want some cats. Poor people; they have no idea what they are asking for…sigh…oh well.
Anyway, that is the sort of excitement going on around here.
So, I hope that you are able to solve the riddle and I will probably get back on here after camp which is in a week. Not likely before. So I’ll update you whenever I get back on here. Please pray that camp go smoothly and that all stay safe and that many learn to grow in the LORD and that many come to know the LORD. Thanks!
Till then ye brave folk!
Shieldmaiden
P.S.
Also, what is really exciting for me is this: My mom wanted a friend of hers to do the editing on my book and give me pointers for self editing because:
she is really good at her grammar and stuff like that.
She does not like SIFI or Fantasy.
So, I know what you are probably thinking: “But your book is fantasy…why have somebody that doesn’t like that sort of stuff check your book for you?”
The answer: so that she can give it a heart check and make sure that it stays on track with God.
Anyway, the thing is that she has never read this sort of stuff before. She hasn’t read Narnia or LOTR or anything- till now. Heheheheheh! She likes it…She likes it… SHE LIKES IT!!!! OH boy I could just scream! She doesn’t just like it- she really likes it! She says that it is really good! I did all sorts of jumps and cartwheels and flips when I heard that she REALLY liked it….well, maybe not all that (I can’t do flips) but I did do a vigorous dance of joy and began to practice drum measures on the tree stump with more vigor than before. It was great. Then I had to call my friend and tell her. She wasn’t as excited, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t expect her to be excited like I was. I just had to share the news with her before I would explode with the joy.
Oh anyway. I will go now. So- long, Fare thee well…till we next meet. (Hehehe! She liked it!)

Follow up on the trip/conference

Well, greetings all! I hope you all are doing well. I am ok. I am still a little tired from my trip to the conference and I just got over allergies, still got a cough, but otherwise I am peppy.
We (my mom & dad & I) decided, before I went to the big conference, that it would be best if I did not go to the second conference after it, so I am not all booked up as I was expecting…which is perfectly fine with me!
So I have been busy catching up with things around here and preparing to do some gardening and yard work…otherwise I feel useless…sort of…oh anyway.
I had a great time at the conference! I got to go to a Cabala’s store for the first time! That was tons of fun; though the kids in the family that I went with did not think as I did because they make the stop every year and they spend hours in it- which was great for me! I got a very good preview of the store, but still didn’t get all the way through it! They had lots of taxidermy animals in there that were totally awesome! Anything from elephants to bears and chipmunks to lions you name it! They even had an aquarium with the largest fish I have ever seen! One of the catfish were as big as me! Now granted, I aren’t real tall, but I aren’t short either (sorry for the lack of grammar there). It was totally awesome! They even had a shooting gallery that was huge! It was really fun! And their fudge! Oh their beautiful, wonderful, sugary, chocolatey, smooth fudge! Makes the world go round I tell ya! (not really, but ya get the point)
I got some awesome pictures of the animals. Some of them look like I was right up there with a real animal! I got one of a lion and it looks like he is charging me! They are awesome! I had to get in some pretty crazy positions to get pictures like that, but it was worth it! I shall have to post some on here sometime…just for you!
Well, we got to the conference area at 1:00 am…and we unloaded the trailer and everything and went to bed. I can’t remember what time we got up, but it was considered late. However, it was not a big deal because that day was a play/rest day for the travelers before the week long conference started, sooooo…we went scootering!!! Oh we went crazy! R.S. and I pulled off some pretty crazy stunts a couple of times on those scooters to the point of near death!!! Well, not that close, but we would have been in need of stitches if we had crashed a few of the times no doubt! It was great; though I don’t think I want to try flying off a bridge again for a while…that is a long story of which I would love to tell you, but time and space does not permit me too…nor dignity…
Well, the next day was busy as I had to go back and forth to classes and choir and what not and I found it a great priority on my mind to keep my eye out for cameras…mostly video cameras. I don’t want to be on video unless I am called to become a movie star… period. And this was what I spent almost all my time doing; walking to classes (I estimate that I was walking a minimum of 2 1/12 miles a day), helping the B. family whenever possible and watching for video cameras…
Choir was cool (as usual), but terrible! It seemed like there were thousands of giddy girls there at choir that a bullfrog could have out sang! A lot of them didn’t even try to sing! It was really starting to irritate me (and the choir master) and I could not guess why on earth they wanted to be in choir until I over heard some of them talking…they were hoping to be on TV! How stupid is that! You are supposed to sing for the LORD, not the camera man or the stupid TV! Ugg, it was disgusting. It also did not help matters when this one guy that was signed up as a camera man told me that he would be sure to pick me out in choir and close up on me with the camera…fortunately, he could not find me; lucky for him he didn’t…
Anyway, I learned a lot of wonderful stuff there and I am still in the process of regurgitating it all to my family and I lost five pounds in the process...whoohoo. Bleh. My mom lost five pounds just sitting around eating brownies…grrrr. Oh well! I also got to meet some old friends and get reacquainted with them again…one of them anyway.
The trip home from the conference was interesting as well (I rode home with a different family that time). It did not seem so long for some reason…hmm…anyway, the main thing that was super exciting on that trip was the- uhhh- slight little- ummm- well, little fender bender accident that we had…now don’t freak out like some people did when I told them…ok, I am still alive and well, and nobody got hurt. So don’t pass out in front of the computer, ok? Anyways, our vehicle went undamaged, but the other people had a big ding behind their back tire; that’s all. All the little kids in our vehicle kind a went crazy after it happened and some of them got pretty scared (talk about post panic! Whew!), but everyone was ok afterward.
Also on the trip home, we stopped at Cabalas again…which was fun, but we did not get to stay for very long, just long enough for me to take the kids around and show them most of the cool sights.
I had a wonderful time with the family. When it got dark and we were still driving we decided to sing songs, which was really fun.
My parents came and picked me up from that family’s house that night and I just rattled on and on the whole way home about the wonderful time that I had.
I was very glad to sleep in my own bed that night…I enjoyed sleeping in a tent and in the dorm, but there is just something about coming home and sleeping in your own bed.
Needless to say, I spent the most of the next day in bed with a sore, runny nose and stopped up throat from all the flowers that were blooming…
And you wanna know something weird? Well, I suppose that it is not real weird, but: I hardly missed my book at all…I was too busy to miss it. Ha- ha! That’s funny…well, you may not think that it is funny, but I think it is!
So anyway, I had a great time going down there and spending a lot of time with the family that took me, I had a great time while I was there, I had a great time coming back and spending time with the family that brought me back, and I have had a great time retelling my great times…and I am glad to be feeding the geese again and putting my book characters through more torture…mwhahahah!
I want to give a special thanks to the S. family for taking me down there and providing me food and a great time and like nearly adopting me into their family (even though I am an insane nut!) and I want to give a special thanks to the B. family for bringing me back home and providing food and a great adventure on the way back and treating me as one of their family too!
I also want to thank my mom and dad for allowing me to go on this wonderful trip and for trying to provide as many opportunities for me as possible! Love Ya!
Sweetpea/Shieldmaiden
P.S.
Here are some pictures! Enjoy!

An update and the riddle answer

Well, how are ya'll doing? Its been crazy around here. We took on two extra children Wednesday and we get to keep them until tomorrow (Friday). So it has been a buzz around here. To top it off, mom set me up with a Facebook page...hehe...I have been having fun with that one. It is very simple to use. I just type a little snip of what I have been doing and what I am thinking and what not and I can chat with friends and it is a very controlled place. The only people that can look at it are those that you accept as friends.So that is nice. You can change it where everyone can look at it if you want, but its nice to have control over your peers! Mwhahahah!
Also, I am going to be gone to a big conference with some friends for about three or four day, maybe more. I am going to help them with their lil ones and hopefully I can get to go to some classes as well...so that's gonna be fun. I am also going to go to a political conference in May...that is a three day thing as well. Soooooo...I am pretty booked up. I am looking forward to it all except for one thing...I can't take my book with me...that is a terrible thing to think about! My book is at a very elevated point in the crisis and me having to leave my characters in such a predicament is just terrible!...Not only for me, but for them as well! Oh well. I'll get over it cause I am coming right back home after each conference...I may be having severe withdrawals when I get back, but I'll live.
And as to the riddle...YES! The answer is a Credit Card! Yay! You guys did a great job!
Well, I gotta run now. I hope things have been going well for all you readers and I would be blessed if you would pray for me as i prepare to go on these trips. Thanks!
Shieldmaiden

A new riddle

Ok. This is not a Drivers License... just to let you know...
Anyway, leave your guesses or your answers; either one.

What is convenient, but dangerous, is plastic and can fit in your wallet?

Again, I'm not gonna give a hint until at least 2 people try a guess...I might not give an answer until 2 people guess...hehe...I'll be mean.
Anyway, have fun and good luck!

The battle for the little peice of plastic...

……………………I’m a failure…. I am a disgrace to my family….they continue to assure me that I am not, but so far, I’m not too sure…….I am sooooooo bummed…
I FLUNKED MY FOURTH DRIVERS TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Need I say any more????
(groan)
We actually wonder if the examiner flunked me unnecessarily. She does not have a very high opinion of home schoolers…there have been several other home schooling families that have complained about her flunking their kids for dumb reasons.
Now that I think about it, there was another girl (public schooled) that messed up on basically the same things that I did, but she still passed…
NOW I AM STARTING TO SEETH…
Well! If she flunked me on purpose then I am going to blow her whistle next time! I am gonna to look over every shoulder, watch every corner, and, and, and…well… ya know, the only reasons that I got flunked were these: I looked in my mirrors at one point instead of over my shoulder, I didn’t look over the correct shoulder, I didn’t exaggerate something enough…ummm…I can’t think of anymore…hmmm…the only thing that the other girl didn’t do was exaggerating something or other, she did something else… otherwise we basically got the same things missed…I’m thinking that I was flunked on purpose…huff! Fancy that! Phooey!

Well, maybe God doesn’t want me to have my drivers license…with the end of the world coming on (in my belief) and all of us Christians are gonna have to run for our lives, maybe He doesn’t want me to have a license…but I don’t know why???
I have a Social Security Number, so it couldn’t be to keep my identity safe…You got any ideas? Maybe you could figure it out. If you have an idea, go ahead and leave it in a comment, it might help…if not, leave a comment anyway for encouragement. I am really bummed over this. I never thought that I would get so bummed over something sooooo stupid like a little piece of plastic, but I am.
Well, I have got to go now. I’ll be taking my test in 30 days- again. Maybe. (Groan).
Till then, I am still on my quest for that dumb, worthless, illegal tax, piece of plastic…and the battle is draining me. (SIGH).
The bummed, war worn,
Shieldmaiden

A trip to the big city

My mom and I decided to go for a trip in the city just to have some away time together and to maybe find some nice clothes for me- better yet; find my style of clothes. We don’t have much opportunity to do that way out here in the boonies…
Anyhow, we took a friend along so she could have some away time too and help us with my clothes and whatnot.
Now before we get into the actual adventure I would like to point out something that I noticed: women go through great pains to look pretty on occasions like this.
I am totally serious.
(I am mostly referring to my mom)
They cake their face in their most special makeup, have to make sure that their clothes look flattering, fitting and nice- not one wrinkle, crease, bubble or bend- and they have to make themselves look thin and trim.
That is when the real pain comes in.
(The big intro)
FIRST it was stays and corsets, to trim a woman’s waste, THEN it was the girdle, NOW…SHAPERS!! The only difference? LYCRA!
Ok, back to the point; they put themselves through tremendous amounts of unnecessary pain and smothering, just to look like they used to when they were younger: they put on shapers.
“Oh as long as I go to the bathroom before hand and don’t eat very much, I’m alright.” Is the common excuse.
Ok, whatever you think. Not my body, but I think it’s kind of silly to go through that just to look good. My thought is: Who cares if you look good? If they don’t like it, then they can stop looking at you. If you don’t like your figure…step away from the mirror and you’ll feel better or throw the mirror away so you don’t have to see.
Ahem, anyway.
Now, onto the general purpose of this post: the actual adventure.
Well, the 4 hour trip over there is like- well- usual, except that I like looking out the window now better than I did when I was a kid. I like to observe the land for future reference (like drawing or details in my book and whatnot) and I like to read the stupid signs as we go through towns: might make a good joke later with my dad or I could see some new names for new companies and come up with weird names for book characters and stuff by taking them apart and putting them together like a quilt.
Anyway, when we got into the city and to the mall, we walk in and the first store we stop at is a baby store.
I enjoyed playing with the baby toys, while the two moms groaned over prices and cried over the cute baby outfits and cribs.
The next store we go to was the nightmare- an underwear store.
Yes, it was nothing but underwear and some makeup with pictures of strippers all over the walls wearing the company’s underwear.
Our friend was really excited because they had a new bra out that she wanted to try and was, undoubtedly, most likely comfortable.
We walk in and I think my stomach went into my throat and my eyes were wide and my body tense ready to run or kill.
This really sweet gingerbread girl (black woman if you would prefer it that way) came up and asked our names and told us hers and asked if there was anything in the store we wanted to try on.
“Oh yeah, anything you wanna try, you can.” She said real enthusiastic like with a big and pretty smile.
My mom then asked about some nighties (that are basically fit to be underwear as well) that she saw at the front of the store and she wanted to try on one or two of them.
The girl said that was great and she got on her little ear intercom/ walky talky thingy and started to give this girl on the other end a detailed description of what my mom wanted.
As I listened to the description, I believe my eyes grew three sizes larger and I lost all feeling of my stomach and held my breath.
I looked at my mom like she was insane (oh forgot- she kind of already is..hehe) and she said
“Oh you will understand when you get married.” And walked off with this other girl to go try these ‘nighties’.
I turned on my heel beside our friend and said
“Ok, I will be running up the down escalator when you guys are ready to come out.”
But sadly, before I could move one muscle to walk out of the place, our friend grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me back around and with excitement in her voice said
“Oh, no! You HAVE to try this new bra!” And I was suddenly in the clutches of that nice gingerbread girl’s hands.
She took my measurements and referred to me as a ‘busty girl’ then enthusiastically pulled out two draws full of bras for me to try and showed me herself how they should fit.
Well, I gulped down my- well whatever emotion was running through me at that moment- I think possibly a sort of fear and urge to scream and run- and stepped into the dressing room and tried things on, found out that I really only liked one and they didn’t have my proper size, then I stepped out to find that our friend was not quite done and my mom standing around with a bag googling over the ‘cute lacy underwear and poke-a-dots’.
She then walked out with me... trotted after me… and we went to look at the mini shops out in the open.
We found one that had all sorts of neat shiny objects and wigs and stuff, but the lady treated us like we were on warrant posters or had the word ‘thief’ written on us and she stayed within an inch of us, dusting off anything we touched and being rood and snappy.
We finally gave up on trying to be nice and started to walk back to the accursed underwear store to see if our friend was done yet.
I had relaxed by this time and was feeling much better and comfortable and I was just following my mom when I realized I was about half way into the underwear store.
I promptly turned on my heel, without a word to my mother and walked right back out and stood at the door until the two goofy women came out.
“Yeah I noticed that I lost her.” My mom teased as the two came out.
Our friend asked me why I didn’t like it…beats me! There is just something wrong with a store being only underwear and with pictures of strippers and really friendly girls and- don’t ask me, but that is not a store to have fun and play in.
Well, that was the only nightmare, except at the Cheesecake Factory, where we went for lunch, but that was a good nightmare (that is an oxymoron, I know). The nightmare in in the Cheesecake Factory was not being able to eat all of the cheesecake and the food, but what made it a good nightmare was the wonderful, lovable, useful gift of doggie bags!
Oh, wow! The Cheesecake Factory was just wonderful! You MUST try it sometime!
Anyway, we went to plenty of stores and found my clothing style.
I look good in swing- dress type dresses and wrapped tops all with a slight V- neck. They are very flattering and comfortable.
Unfortunately, most all of them were expensive too… $80 for one top- that is a little extreme.
But we did find one store that was having a sale and we got a whole bunch of things for me there: None of the wrapped tops or anything, but some tops that looked nice on me.
Anyway, I also finally got to try my first REAL Starbucks coffee and my verdict is…um, sorry to disappoint you Starbuck lovers, but…I can make better with just a can of Arabian coffee. It was good, but…honestly, I can make better coffee for cheaper, but it was nice to try it!
Well, that was the extent of the trip between lots of laughs and talking and looking and more talking and whatnot.
It was fun except for the underwear store…perhaps one day I will understand this strange liking of underwear, but not likely. You don’t buy underwear for everyone to see, sorry, and I think I’ll stick with sports bras.
All in all, it was fun and enjoyable and relaxing and mom and I did not come home too tired, which of course is always a GOOD thing!

Oh yeah! The answer to the riddle is---FIRE! Yay!!! Somebody got it right again! I figured it would be pretty easy. Keep it up!

A new riddle

I am so glad that someone guessed the last riddle! Here is the next one for you bonnie folk to try again:
I don’t have lungs or a chest, but I need air;
I am not alive, but I grow;
I don’t have a mouth and I am allergic to water.
What am I?
This is a fun one and just to give you a litle hint before hand: someone made a guess to another riddle that is the answer to this one...
Like before, just give it your bestest of best shot (not proper grammer, I know) and if you know the answer go ahead and put it on there as a guess! Have fun!
Sweetpea

Reply to the commenters on the Prince Caspian Post

To those who left the comments on my thoughts about Disney's Prince Caspian (The ones who think Prince Caspian the movie Needs to Die):

I did notice that Aslan was sort of a side character in the film; however, he was that way in the book too. He, and the girls, were all sort of side characters in the book, but him mostly. It was focusing on the boys learning.
Also, Aslan was still credited the true King of Narnia in the movie and was the only one who could make things properly right. He was the only one who restored Narnia and saved the day even though he did not ‘come roaring in like last time’ as Lucy quoted. ;)

Peter (in the movie) learned while he was in Narnia that he was stupid for being so stupid. That defiantly showed at the end of the film. He figured out that it was a stupid idea to not wait on Aslan and he and Caspian did quite bickering once Peter realized that Caspian was more in the right, and that he was the one making things worse. I saw regret, remorse and an effort to make things right, from Peter and I also saw that he did learn something.

He did make up with Caspian in his own way when he gave Caspian the sword- twice: when he allowed Caspian to decide the fate of Miraz and in the end before he left Narnia.

At the beginning of the movie, he was not fighting with the other school boys because he was being haughty; it was because he was tired of being treated like garbage by them. Not that that makes it right to fight, but he did not start it. (And knowing me, I would have fought too) Caspian also was not being haughty at all in the movie. Both young men were willing to sacrifice their lives in the movie in case you did not notice.
Also, Peter’s actions and repentance in the movie has more meaning today than it did when C.S. Lewis was alive. Hopefully it will help some kids see the right and wrong and go the right way like Peter did.

I would like to remind you also that Peter and Susan both did mess up in the book too when they would not listen to Lucy about Aslan and a few other places. They weren’t any more perfect in the book than they were in the movie.
Also, they brought up another point that I don’t think that they really meant too in the movie…Caspian, Susan, Peter, Edmond; they were all young people fighting to defend their country and those within it…how many young people in our country today feel like they could defend and lead those defending their homeland?...interesting to think about.
I do also have to point out that they could have made Susan a lot worse. They showed the proper way that a woman should fight (as long range as is possible and not arm to arm). This does not justify her being a 'warrior woman' unlike in the book, but it was another topic of discussion brought up when we watched the movie. I totally did not like the romance; that was stupid and unnecessary and didn’t even spice it up any; it was the battles that made it interesting.
I think that they put the romance in there because of the book between the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian: the Horse and His Boy.

The Horse and His Boy had Susan and a prince in love not to mention the two main characters though it did not work out for Susan and the crabby prince 'Rabidash the Ridicules'.
So, to sum it up; if you compare it to the book, yeah, it’s messed up, but if you look at it from another perspective, away from the book, they had some really good points. And if you think about it, they really did not stray from the real meaning in the book and added some other meaning into it as well for this generation.
And finally, just comparing it to a lot of other movies I have seen recently: It was very well put together.
It could have been a lot worse and you can at least say that they did not loose the meaning.
And just as a reminder: they messed up The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe too. I would suggest that you reread the book of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and watch the Disney movie and see what I mean. But again, they did not change the meaning. So I am not really seeing why Prince Caspian is such a big deal with you guys.
As a conclusion, I would like to point out that the old movie that was made years ago of Prince Caspian was a total bore and still is. That is our least favorite in the books and old movies though C.S. Lewis was an excelant writer and did very well on the book. But, that is just personal opinion…

By the way:... The answer to the riddle is--- Yes! Charcoal! (applause, cheering, and more applause) I am so glad that someone finally got the answer!!!! Hurray! And thanks to the ones who made very good guesses! Keep it up!

The next riddle

Well, are you guys ready for the next riddle??? I hope so, because I’m gonna give it to ya anyway and I hope that at least two of you try to guess it…
Here goes!

What is black when you find it,
red when dragons eat it
and grey when you throw it away?

Can you guess it? I hope that some of you at least try! If you know the answer, go ahead and put it on there, just don’t say that it is the right answer. Try to make it look like a guess!
Anyway, enjoy and good luck!

Animal frenzy

Well, It has been quite the animal craze around here!

Feb. 14th on Valentines day, we had a dog that had a litter of ten puppies! She has only lost three and appears to be a very good mama for a first timer.

Feb. 17th, one of our first time goats had her first kid. Sis had to pull the kid cause it was to big for the nanny, but she and the kid are just fine now.

Feb. 18th, the whether goat gored one of our nanny goats and punctured an artery...at night of all times. We were afraid that we were going to loose her, but flour as blood stop, and pressure on the wound and God's hand kept her alive and she is doing very good now.

Also that same night, because of the chaos going on, sis just put a pregnant nanny and the one who had just had her kid the day before in the same barn together without ropes or anything...bad idea.

Feb. 19th in the morning, the pregnant nanny, who had been beat up badly by the other goat, had twins. She was traumatised from being tortured all night long and having kids for the first time. She had a 6" lump on her belly where most of her wounds were and she was not making a sufficient amount of milk for the kids. We were certain that she was not going to make it.

Feb. 20th the traumatised nanny is showing a 50/50 chance of survival. She is bleating to her kids and walking around more and showing signs of alertness, where she wasn't before.

Today, Feb. 21, all seems honky dory with all the animals, until the Golden Retriever female decided to have her puppies...on the coldest day this month so far...ingenious. Two have already died and one we are keeping in the house, because the mama is still WAY to fat to be able to nurse it. I mean, this girl looks like she is going to have twelve puppies! Anyway, we are still pending on her. She is experienced and has done very good with her puppies in the past, but it is a very cold and windy day to day and she is getting on in years. We will see I guess.

So anyway, what will happen next? We are not expecting any more baby animals until June or July, but who knows what could happen between now and then? One of em could swallow a grenade or we could end up getting a pet lion and tiger...not likely, but ya never know... already had a horse that tried to cut his hoove off in January, and a bobcat that decided to be road kill, and an armadillo that wanted to be a pet, what could happen next? Oh that great unknown....

Why I do not date:

Why do you not date? Why do you not believe in dating?
These are the questions that I am most frequently asked by old and young alike.
The answer is simple: Dating is set up to bring fulfillment into someone’s life… I have Jesus to fill that space, I need no other.

Today’s average dating is: you hang out with someone, you break up… everyone that confronts me on this issue says at some point: ‘dating supposed to prepare you for marriage’, but it sounds like its preparing you for a wreck of a marriage to me.

I prefer courting.
Courting is where the young man comes to the father and asks if he may court his daughter for marriage. The mother and father are supposed to prepare you for marrage.
Dating is ‘Hey, you’re cute, you’re nice, and you’re popular. Let’s hang out’ whether the parents agree or not'…shucks they don’t even have to know!

I like to ask these questions when the issue of dating comes to mind:
1. Am I ready for marriage? Physically? Mentally? Spiritually? Do I know how to take care of a house? Balance a check book? Cook a homemade meal? Take care of children?
2. What kind of person would Jesus want me to hang out with, much less get married to?

Now, if a young man (or vise versa) asks you on a date ask them this and see what happens:
1. Why do you want to date me?
2. Are your priorities straight?
3. Are you ready to commit to marriage? If so, go talk to my dad.

You might be surprised at the answers.

Now, some pointers on me.
1. I am not going to date, or court, or whatever you wanna call it, until I am ready for marriage and God calls me to get married.
2. I am not ready for marriage, so why ‘date’?
3. God will provide a husband for me in His own good time, so why man hunt?
4. I only want God’s best for me. My best is not the best, but close to the worst.
5. I am completely trusting God to do the work for me. I don’t have to raise a finger to try to find a husband.

Well, how do you expect to get married if you don’t date?
I don’t have to. God will bring the perfect man into my life when the time (God’s time) is right. To say different would be saying ‘I don’t trust God, my Heavenly Father, enough to find me a husband’. That is just wrong. I have faith that God will take care of it. It’s silly even to worry about it!
When God decides to send the right man at the right time it will just happen. Don’t ask me how, it just will. Both sides will know that it is God’s will.
God works in mysterious ways, but I don’t think that He likes to work through a man hunt…

Answer to the riddle and other ramblings

The answer to the riddle is- ding, ding, ding, ding! Teeth!
Yay! Hurray!
Ok. Mom is doing very well. She is spending most of her time in the recliner or bed, and she is getting sick of it, but otherwise she is doing very well. She put an update on her blog on how she is feeling so I encourage you to look it up. (down bellow)
The kids are all doing great: the baby is into everything (as usual), the boys fighting over everything (as usual), K.R. is a tyrant queen (as usual), and sis is always out with the animals (as usual)… so nothing new.
Me? Oh, I am as well as can be expected…I rebroke my right wrist and jammed it up, got my hand sliced up with a shovel and a 1 inch splinter up a finger (all on the same hand), I am very tired, my head hurts, any time I lie down flat anywhere, it feels like a sledge hammer has smashed down on my hips, I cant write in my book hardly at all on account I have to be on call, I am fixing three meals a day, keeping up with the kids, keeping the house clean and dishes done up…yup, I am doing as well as can be expected; not pulling my hair out or screaming and jumping up and down…I’m too tired for that, but anyway. I have been sleeping down stairs on the couch since mom got home so that I can be on call day or night and it is complete tortcher not being able to write in my book hardly at all…eeek! Tortcher I tell you! I mean, telling an author that she has to stop writing for a while is like taking the cigarettes away from a heavy smoker! Like I wanted to sit down and bawl and I was having extreme withdrawals within a few moments time! I only write a few pages a day, but just the thought was excruciating! Aaaaahhhh!
Ok…I had my whiney bit.
Well, I finally have got to see Prince Caspian and I have to say that I really liked it! They didn’t change anything, or really take away a lot, but they did add in quit a bit. They were trying to fit in some of the other books into it like: The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle which they are not going to make movies out of. It was way more exciting than the book or the old movie. They are really boring. And just for a certain person’s information (name is withheld, but whose initials are Twitterjax/Heather…) they were not that far away from the book, they often had word for word in the movie. I went back to the book and checked. They made it far more interesting; where as the old movie and the book are kind of a slow.
Anyway, it is not evil like that certain someone thinks so… ahem.
Another movie that is really neat that I have recently just seen is Pilgrims Progress Journey to Heaven. It is really good. Some of the creatures in it are kind of disturbing for little kids and those who have week constitutions, but they stayed close to the book, even though it went fast. I personally liked the monsters in it, though I was rather disappointed with Appolyon, the creature that Christian fights. I was hoping for something a little more…uhhh- well fearsome, ugly, large, strong, with wings and great big teeth and deep growling and- ya know that sorta thing. However they did a good job with Appolyon and it nearly scared L.E. out of the house. I am just used to things being a little more- creepy and scary; like Predator. That’s a long story, but Pilgrims Progress was done well, even though he kept loosing his armor throughout the whole thing until he had none left…
Shieldmaiden
P.S. There was one creature that really impressed me in Pilgrims Progress! You only see a brief moment of it, but it was what I was hoping Appolyon would be more like… SCARY! oh anyway.

A new riddle...finally

OK, sorry that is has taken me so long to get around to posting another riddle, but as you may have guessed, I have been rather busy...
I hope that you can figure this out...some guesses would be great; even far fetched ones!
Here it is:

Thirty white horses on a red hill,
First they champ,
Then they stamp,
Then they stand still.

As usual, I can give you guys a guess...after at least one of you try to guess the meaning! (manipulation/persuasion) Mwhahahha!
Anyway, have fun!

Mom is doing better

Mother is doing much, much better today! She was just pathetic yesterday, but is getting around well today and looking much better! She is eating and talking and smiling and walking around without hobbling and, well, she is just doing a whole lot better!
C.I. had a grand birthday I think. It was a spy birthday sort of thing. He got all sorts of spy stuff! Spy gadgets, spy glasses, spy mustaches, spy movies- spy everything! The movies were ‘Spy Kids’ and ‘Spy Kids 2’. They were really funny and fun to watch and really clean. We watched the backstage stuff on the DVDs and the director said that he never wanted to make a movie that his children could not watch, so it was clean. I would suggest that you look it up on the Dove Foundation below just so you can make sure it is clean enough for you to watch, but I think that you will!
Anyway, the kids have been playing like spies all day and I have been drawing and talking to mom and what not and it has just been a lazy day around here, but it was nice to finally be able to communicate with mom without her throwing up or something…
Thanks so much for the prayers and continue to pray for us!
Shieldmaiden
P.S.
The cake that I made turned out really good…just a little crumbly! Maybe that box mix wasn’t so bad after all.

New mom update

Well, mom is doing as well as can be expected after having a hysterectomy…I guess. She is not feeling real good. She felt feverish last night and thought that she was going to throw up. She has been sleeping all day long…she slept all day yesterday. Anyway, one of our neighbors said that she felt the same way after her hysterectomy…but I am not so sure that the hormones are working properly…we shall find out soon I reckon.
Anyway, your prayers are still needed desperately for all of us. The lil ones do not know what is going on and as a result they make things worse by going bonkers and making me wanna pull my hair out and sis is no help because she stays outside away from it all. So PLEASE keep praying.

Today is C.I.’s birthday and so far it is going pretty smoothly…only because they have been plugged into the TV all day, but its smooth.
I made him a cake last night amidst the chaos and I decided that I never want to do a white cake box mix again. I was hoping that the box mix would be easier and save time for me, but I don’t think that it did either. So never again will I use box mix unless my life depends on it…and it almost came to that yesterday… anyway. I must go and fix lunch and maintain hold of the castle until I can write unto thee another epistle of my adventures and stress levels. Until then, fair ones, pray for us.

Me, Shieldmaiden

Another mommy update...

Greetings earthlings,
Well, mom is home. She has to keep the pain meds around or else she doesn’t move around so well, but otherwise she is alright and the food does not taste bad from the meds that she is taking, so that is good. She seems rather tired from the trip, so she has spent a lot of time sleeping, but she looks good.
Anyway, it appears that the only one who really missed mom from among the lil kids is K.R. The baby didn’t miss mom at all, though she did almost cry when mom showed everybody her ‘ow’ on her tummy.
Anywhoo, everything seems honky dory and mom seems to be recovering well. As long as I massage her shoulders a couple of times everyday and keep L.E. from running over her, we ought to be doing pretty good!
I’ll keep you posted as long as you keep praying for us!
Thanks,
Me, Myself and I

Mom update 2

Well, we are going to pick mom up today. She has been doing very well it sounds like, and was released today, so we are going with dad to pick her up.
We children have been doing very well.

I and my sister have kept the house clean and the sink empty of dirty dishes.
Before the lil ones lay down on the hide-a-bed to watch a movie for bedtime, sis and I have them clean up their toys and things, keeping the floors neat. We just swept and vacuumed this morning and cleared off the table. Now I need to go take care of the messy shoe shelf…anyway, that is how we have been and I will give you another update on mom and us later! Thank you for the prayers!
Sweetpea

P.S. I made the picture myself on the computer! Cool ain't it? I made a million others too...

Update on mom

Ok. Here is an update on what is going on.
Mom, dad and my grandpa J. left at 4:00am this morning for mom’s hysterectomy appointment.
The doctor was pleased with how everything turned out and looked after the surgery and it sounds like that everything is going to be honky dory and we will be bringing mom home Thursday I think.
We kids have stayed at home…alone…home alone- he-he. Well, not completely alone…we have people popping in to check on us and what not and we have the dogs and the goats and the other animals to keep us company. We also have Heidi to take care of us; our new dog! She is a large dog and is very protective of us children.
The little kids are about to fry their brains out watching TV…and there is a small layer of snow on the ground…small, but nice.
Sooooooooo….guess what??? We are going to party and have a beer bash while mom is gone and- oh wait a minuet… dad is home … bummer. No beer, no party strings, just sitting around watching Beverly Hillbillies and The Adventures of Robin Hood- *SIGH* Oh well! Guess we’ll get over it!
I’ll keep you updated!
Sincerely,
Me
P.S. Mom just called a little while ago and she sounded pretty chipper and we don’t really drink beer! (Just to let you know)Ha-ha! Oh, anyway. Please continue to pray for her...and us.