Disney/Life

Sorry it's taken me so long to post. After the hectic-ness of the Disney trip (and quite a few problems leading up to it), life didn't really slow down. I had appointments to go to once we got back and then was sick with a stomach bug for about three days and then had to run errands and do all those things that didn't get done while away and then it was house-cleaning time. But now I'm taking a half rest day due to waking up with cramps, so an hour cleaning = an hour of rest :)

Anyway, now to tell you about Disney! The trip down was interesting, due to some railwork we took two trains and two buses to get to the city we were staying in, only to find out that our rental car was not waiting for us and we had to wait an hour and a half for a person to come shuttle us to the rental car place. Then we get to the hotel and find out we can't check in until 4pm, so we go get lunch (eight people and ALL their luggage in a rental car that fits seven) and run a few errands and waste time until 4, get back to the hotel and find out they messed up our room reservations and have to sort all that out. By this time everyone is exhasted, tired and just wants a shower. I really just wanted a nap.
The next days went better, we visited the four main parks of Disney (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot) and Universal's Islands of Adventure. I didn't actually go to Animal Kingdom, I stayed home the morning/afternoon they went. I went everywhere else. Thankfully since Disney is family friendly there were still rides I could ride and shows I could watch, so I wasn't bored when they rode roller coasters. Universal is a different story, not only is it pretty much only roller coasters with very few side shows, they also have a severe lack of benches to sit on... which meant standing outside of a ride for an hour or so. But all in all it was fun. Here are some of the (very few) pictures I took.

The speedway track and what I think maybe the dumbo ride behind it (not sure, didn't walk over there and I don't remember from last time - they redid Fantasyland)

One of the cute little decorations/interactive thingies in the walkthrough the "graveyard" to the Haunted Mansion ride.

 

The pond and Frontierland, in the background the famous Disney World castle.

 

The Tangled tower in a section of Fantasyland they are still building. We didn't get to see any of this area up close. It's boarded up as an construction site, but the tower is tall so no hiding it from prying eyes!

 

Me in front of the gate to Haunted Mansion (it's in the background - see?). Ignore how tired and pale I look. It was kinda a rough week at times. It was also cold that day.

 

The baby Tigger that Chad and I bought the baby. Officially the first thing we bought him! I was super excited when I saw him, but it was late and we were headed out of the park (closing time) so we decided to come back and get him, only we didn't go back to that park so I spent the next day going in the shops on Main Street in Magic Kingdom looking for another. I just love Tigger and this baby Tigger is just too cute. I'm really glad it was the first thing we bought little bit.

 

 

 

That's about it for now!

Be A Princess

I always wanted to be a princess as a little girl - well along with being the first woman on mars, a ballerina, a scientist and a cartographer. I apparently wanted to be an accomplished princess!
Anyway back to the point. I wanted to be a princess. Not necessarily a disney princess per-say, more of a modern princess. Please don't let your mind jump to Princess Kate - it did, didn't it? Ugh. Ok no, not modern princess as in Kate - honestly, not a fan of her style. I'm thinking maybe more socialite style minus the tacky short be-glittered dress and huge jewelry. More Blair from Gossip Girl (minus the silly hats she wears on occasion which are more Princess Kate). My idea of a princess was more like this:

Light, airy and regal

 

Simple and sophisticated

 

Classy and stylish.

 

And of course, poufy!

 

And princesses were supposed to have stunning jewelry.

The all important tiara

 

Lovely bracelets

 

And of course the matching necklace.

 

I'm not sure why, but when I was little I got it into my head that princesses wore sapphires and diamonds and I wanted blue and silver jewelry so badly, convinced that once I had it I would be a princess.

 

But I no longer wish to be a princess. Yes, I'd still love to wear beautiful clothes and stunning jewelry. I still would like a house with a spiral staircase (the kind I swore all princesses had when I was little), it would be great fun to have all the money in the world, but being that kind of princess is no longer my wish.

 

I am a princess in many different ways. Instead of ballgowns and sapphires, I have boots and gold wedding bands. Instead of a castle, I have a warm comforting home. Instead of classic dresses, I have giant sweaters. Instead of a prince, I have the sweetest man in the world. Instead of maids, I have a baby on the way. You see I don't need expensive jewelry, fancy clothes, lots of money, a castle and servants to make me happy, I need my husband and my family. I am a princess because I've decided that riches don't make you royal, contentment does.

 

 

 

Your princess content wife,

It's me it's me!!!

Here are some of the pictures I took in the first few days.

This is at the Natural Science Museum. It's the rock and gemstones exhibit, well part of it anyway...

This is only Titanic related picture they allow you to take, besides letting you take a picture of the banner (which I did). They have a "photographer" standing just inside the exhibit that makes you stand infront of a green screen and snaps a picture. Later, at the end of the exhibit, they print the picture for you (should you ask for it) and the picture shows you standing infront of the Grand Staircase with the "ghost" of the Captian on it. I put quotes around photographer because he wasn't one. I walked up to him and asked him what kind of camera he had. He shrugged and said "I don't know, I'm not a photographer." He looked at my bag and said, "Are you? Is this a good camera, do you know?". I was slightly appalled that they didn't have a real photographer, but he said he just uploaded the pictures onto the software program and it did everything. I wasn't thrilled to hear that. They should have a real photographer. It wasn't that poor guy's fault that he wasn't a photographer, but I think they should have hired a real one. I ended up looking at the camera and it's a basic entry level Canon DSLR. I told him that it was a perfectly fine camera for what he was doing. Ugh, still not happy about that... I want to volunteer sooooo bad :)

This was taken at the Bog Gardens. Yes, it's supposed to be blurry!

This was taken at the Bog Gardens as well. The duck is a little too dark sadly...

This picture is in memory of my dear Great Grandma "Cake" who passed away two weeks ago. She loved violets, so Momma made this arrangement for the funeral. The funeral was sad and I barely kept myself from crying while we (Mom, my sisters and I) sang. There were yellow roses every where (another of her favorite flowers) and it was very bittersweet. We know she's with Jesus, but being human we didn't want to lose her.

We love you so very much Grandma!

Goodbyes are not forever.

Goodbyes are not the end.

They simply mean I'll miss you

Until we meet again!

-- Author Unknown

Riah Chelle

An interesting afternoon!

When we go to the library, we have a system. Mom goes and researches what books she needs using the library card catalogue, Kay helps Beenie find books and I help T. Lynn. Bree is pretty much on her own, but she'll come to Mom, Kay or me for help if she needs it. After I have helped T. Lynn find her books I do one of three things: Take her with me while I find my books, leave her with Beenie and/or Bree in the children's sections or leave her with Mom.
Yesterday we went to the library and I took T. to pick out her books, but she was in a bit of a mood and didn't want to pick a book - not even a Nancy Drew or Ramona book (shocked?). Well she was required to pick one non-fiction book, so after some hushed arguing (which mostly consisted of me telling her she had better pick a book and pick one right now) she finally picked a spider book and a Nancy Drew book. I then went to help Bree find a couple of books and then I had to answer questions from the Librarian if we were like the Duggers or not (which we're not) - I eventually sent the lady to find Momma, since I have no clue what religion the Duggers practice nor do I know why they believe what they believe.
After I had done all of this I was about to look for my books when T. Lynn called me over to look at something. She was flipping through a magazine and had just thrown it down in disgust when I walked up.
"Riah, look at this!" She exclaimed irritably.
"What's amatter?"
"This magazine showed a snake on the front but there is only two snakes in the whole thing - the front (cover) and one inside! See?" She picks up the magazine and it falls open to a page covered in snakes. "Ohhhh! Riah, sit down and look at this with me! I musta missed it..."
I sat down beside her and she flipped through every page that featured snakes. Then she asked me to find her some snake books to take home, so I found one and handed it to her. She ran and got her spider book and wanted me to sit there while she looked through it too. While she was studying the spiders I happened to glance back at the magazine rack T. had gotten her magazine from. It was filled with girly magazines about bedroom designs, boyfriend quizzes and make up tips. There was one Boy's Life magazine - yep the snake magazine T. Lynn had was the Boy's Life magazine. Rows and rows of girls magazines and my baby sister picks up the only boy magazine in the whole rack! Go figure. Kay eventually finished looking for her books and very sweetly offered to sit with T. while I looked for my books.

As it goes my afternoon kinda went bad-good-bad-good!
Bad: T. Lynn refuses to pick out books.
Good: I eventually get her to pick out two.
Bad: She is irritable.
Good: She finally gets interested in something and ends up going home with about 5 books.
Bad: Our library is changing it's system and not only is it taking awhile to figure out, it also isn't fully installed and we can't renew, request or put books on hold. We can just check in and check out. Such a bummer.
Good: Maybe this new system will be better.
Bad: The library didn't have any of the books I wanted (it's a small, SMALL library).
Good: I was forced to browse most of the library and found two books that look great:

Two books and a Lemon Tea Snapple make for a fun afternoon. I can't wait to start reading them... Right now I am reading a rather boring book and am almost just going to stop reading it

And here is just a random picture of my sunflowers!

So that was yesterday! Fun, no?

-Miah

Surface of the sun... and HI!

Hey Y'all!
I feel like I am completely out of the loop in blogger world! I miss you! Life has been quite interesting the last few weeks. I'm really excited about most of it. :)
To start... as you know I was doing a Photography internship for a couple of weeks at a Sunflower field - it was AMAZING! I don't think I have had that much fun in a long time (except at Ri's house of course :D). I learned so much from the photographer; more than I thought I could in such a short amount of time. She taught me about the camera settings, lighting, framing...ect. I even got to shoot along side of her some (look at previous posts to see some of the pictures). I know I still have so much to learn, but I am on the fast track to improvement!
At the end of the internship Julie (the photographer) told me that she has loved working with me and that I have been a great help. She then proceeded to tell me that the internship was really like one big job interview and that if I wanted the job she would love to hire me! So, I'm sure you know what i said! YES! I have been praying for a job in photography come the end of Summer and here I have one! God is so good! We still have to talk about all the details, but it's basically locked in. :) YAY!
If I can get enough hours/pay with her then I can leave my current job! I hope that is how it will work because I am so DONE working where I am. (I have some snotty co-workers) Ehem... moving on. lol

Life has really kept me on the move this summer - on top of interning there has been camp all day/ working at the bookstore at night. The only time I'm home is to sleep and then several hours on Saturday and Sunday. Ask Ri - I've not even had time to talk to her much. I don't wanna think about it though because I miss her something awful and I might cry if I keep on... **Sniff**

So today it was SO HOT outside - one of the campers actually got sick (as in sick sick) in the barn - she got too hot, didn't drink enough water and just threw up right there on the floor. I couldn't handle it - i turned around and walked into a stall so I didn't hafta see it. (I don't handle throw up very well...). No worries though, Jill (the owner) took care of it! YAY! And moving right along back to weather.... the heat index was about 105 degrees I believe. When I walked outside it felt like a was slapped by a warm, and damp towel - gross! Humidity in the south is super high - but hey, at least we don't get bad snow storms in the winter! To every negative there is a positive! lol.

I'm going to see Hillsong United in concert on the 9th and 19th of August! I'm so excited! Ri was gonna go with me to the one on the 19th but our plan didn't work. **sniff sniff** It makes me sad - but I'm so excited about going! I've waited for this for YEARS!

Moving on to yet another topic....
Riah mentioned to y'all about the friend of my family with cancer.... I don't know much about what's going on. This woman and her daughter used to live in my neighborhood and we went to the same church for years. Our family kept her little girl during the day time while she worked from the time Hailey (little girl) was 10 mos old to 4yrs old. Hailey was just like a little sister! Stuff happened and we stopped keeping her... long story...
We haven't seen them in about 3 or 4 years, maybe less. My sister was online looking at some blogs or something and saw that Lauren (Hailey's mom) posted about the cancer. It's a very big shock. My mom emailed Lauren's mom to find out more - now we can hope and pray for a response!

Well, I'm off to bed - I have a VERY early morning -
YAY for the last day of camp for the next to last week all together! lol
Love and many yawns!

My day...

Has not been fun. Our AC upstairs died yesterday (we have two AC units- one for upstairs and one for down). I woke up this morning completely sweaty. By 10am it was already 84 degrees upstairs. I went to take a shower, but Bree was in it, so I went downstairs and stole Kay's shower (Kay is the only one of us children with a room downstairs and we have three bathrooms; one upstairs and two downstairs). I then went and rescued my camera, ring, glasses and book from upstairs. I've barely been up there since. I started sewing later just to find out that my sewing machine hates Lyssa's teal fabric. It tunnels horribly and then it wouldn't grab the fabric and kept stitching in the same place over and over. Mom fixed it... So I also realized that I forgot to change the tension on the machine and had to stitch over what I had already done and I left the denim needle in and ended up having to change it to a universal needle half way through sewing the teal underskirt. So I finally finished stitching the side seems on the teal underskirt and had finished a little over half of the eyelet overskirt when I jammed a pin into my ring finger (right hand). It was in there good. I originally thought I had just pricked it, but when I looked down it was stuck. I tried to pull it with my left hand, but I couldn't get it out, so I took a deep breath to steady myself and gripped it between my teeth and pulled. It started to bleed instantly. It bled all over three of my fingers and onto my other hand and between those fingers (I was cupping my finger in my other hand to keep blood from getting on the while eyelet) by the time Bree grabbed a tissue from the bathroom down the hall and handed it too me. It couldn't have been more then 10 seconds. It's bruised now, but at least it doesn't hurt as bad anymore! After that I gave up sewing and haven't even picked up my hand stitching. I think I should stay away from pins and needles for the rest of the day!

-Ri

Try not to...

Be anywhere near your Mom when she decides to caulk the kitchen. If you are near your Mom when she decides to caulk the kitchen then you may end up like me; laying on a kitchen counter cleaning excess caulk off of the tile and counter. Turns out I am very good at cleaning up excess caulk. Don't laugh Lyssa... I can hear you laughing - Mom don't laugh with her. Oh never mind.

So onto more business... I need to cut out and sew Lyssa's skirt together by Sunday. Yes THIS Sunday... Yes I am aware that I have one day to do that in, y'all aren't really telling me anything I don't already know. I bet you I know more then you do... I can prove it. It's a blue skirt with a white over skirt - so its almost like making two skirts in one day. Ha! Told you I knew more.
I'm also working on another -topic secret - project. Y'all will hear about it eventually.
I have about a million more books to read before I reach my "read 100 books in one year". Wow, y'all are back talking today. Yes, I know a million is more then a hundred. I am currently reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, second book in the Hunger Games trilogy.

So now I am going to do something very Jocee-ish.  

I want to be here...

...wearing this!

Yep, I want to be walking around in Australia, near the Sydney Opera house at sunset in this beautiful vintage lace dress! Blame Jocee for this idea... but it totally works.

-Miah

A Character Interview

This looked like such fun that I just had to do it! I know I was supposed to post about my trip, but I haven't uploaded pictures yet, so that will just have to wait. I found this tag on Abigail's blog and she in turn found it on Marian's blog. I'm going to sorta follow Marian's format, but with my characters, who knows how it will go. I am going to use more than three characters though.

Catherine Jane Alexander - Originally named Jane Alexander, but that is now her mom's name, plus Catherine only had that name for about one page, then I changed it. She is from the first book I ever attempted to really write. The book is now in about it's 4th re-write and it has yet to ever be finished.

Grayson Lee - His named was originally spelled Greyson with an "e" rather than an "a", but it looks more sinister with an "e" so I changed it. He isn't supposed to be sinister, he is just a tad too stupid sometimes. He is from the same book that Catherine is from.

Dillon Clark - I bet you'll all be surprised, but his name was not only always Dillon Clark, but it was always spelled like that too! I bet you are about to pass out, right? He is from the same book too!

Echo Abbiss - a newer character and I reverted to my old bad habits. Her name was originally Cassia, but Echo sounded more mysterious and Cassia sounded bubbly. Hint: Echo is supposed to be mysterious :) She does not belong to the other book, she has her own. Lucky Echo!

Lander - I eventually chose this name for him. The options were Kalden, Lander and Taavi. I ended up chosing Lander because Kalden sounded like a tall, dark and handsome guy's name and Lander is not that and Taavi sounded like a little, quiet guy and Lander isn't that either. He is in Echo's book. Oh, he doesn't have a last name yet.

Alright, now to start the interview!

Interviewer: Hi everyone! Welcome to the In Your Author's Brain show. It's so nice to have you here. Please introduce yourself, starting with you on the left.

Lander - Hey, I'm Lander.
Catherine - Just Lander?
Lander - Yeah, what's it to ya?! Our author decided that my last name isn't important right now, take it up with her if you got a problem **crosses arms**
Echo - Lander, be nice. She was just asking a question, you need to quit being so easily frustrated.

Interviewer: Let's get back to the introductions...

Lander - Like I said, I'm Lander **cuts Catherine a look**
Echo - **glares at Lander** I'm Echo Abbiss
Lander - Oh, she get's a last name!
Echo - Oh, move on Lander! It's this guy's turn to talk **gestures to the guy beside her on the sofa**
Lander: **crosses arms and sighs**
Grayson - I'm Grayson Lee **smiles at the interviewer**
**Lander mumbling something that sound's suspiciously like a complaint in the background**
**Echo elbows Lander rather hard in his ribs**
Catherine - Hey everyone, I'm Catherine Alexander! **waves**
Dillon - **smiles a little at Catherine** I'm Dillon Clark
**another mumble from Lander's general direction followed by a grunt**

Interviewer: Now that we all know each other now **sharp look at Lander**, do you want a hug?

Grayson - Depends, who do I get to hug? **quick look at Catherine**
Catherine - **looks between both Dillon and Grayson and blushes** Um... not really
Echo - No!!
Lander - Absolutely not!
Dillion - I feel like this should be a no response question.

Interviewer: Do you have any children?

Echo - Certainly not. I just got my first assignment from **breaks off abruptly and clamps lips shut**
Lander - No, absolutely not.
Dillon - **looks and Catherine and chuckles** not yet.
Catherine - **blushes again** I will, eventually.
Lander - Ok, what is up with Miss Blushes and her two suitors?
Echo - isn't it obvious? They both like her and she likes them both.
Lander - Well, pick one and be done with it.
Catherine - **turns red from anger** I did - or will - but he picks his family over me.
Lander - Then quit sending eyes that guy's direction and stick with the other
Dillon - She does, but then I die!! She can't help that.
Grayson - How is this any of Mr. No-Last-Name's business?
Echo - It isn't. Just ignore him, he has serious problems.
Catherine - Wait, you die Dillon? **starts to tear up** How do you know?
Dillon - take my word for it and don't go backstage after the show. Our author has some ideas that are none to kind **sends Lander a smug look**
Echo - can we please move on?
Grayson - Wait one minute! Catherine gets married to him?! You have got to be kidding me!
Catherine - You didn't want to marry me, remember?
Grayson - That was my parent's idea!
Dillon - You had the chance to have her and gave her up, so you have no right to get mad.
Echo - Interviewer, do you have anymore questions? Please?!

Interviewer: Have you ever killed anyone?

Catherine - Absolutely not!
Grayson - Never!
Dillon - Certainly not!
Lander - I might eventually, our dear author doesn't know yet. She needs to make up her mind.
Echo - Same here **says casually**
**Catherine, Dillon and Grayson look at Lander and Echo in horror**
Lander - Don't look at us like that. You live in a fantasy world with an evil king and a missing leader and then cast judgement!
Echo - I'd have to agree with Lander this time.

Interviewer: **looks a little scared as she reads the question** Um, do you love anyone?

Catherine - I love several people. My mama, my poor dead father, my soon-to-be step-father, my little sister who will be born after Mama remarries, Dillon, our son that will be born and named after his father, Grayson, Victoria Lee -
Lander - Are you through? **huffs**
Echo - Lander that was rude.
Lander - Oh really, Miss Manners?
Echo - You don't have any manners, that is for sure and certain **angerly**
Lander - Aren't you supposed to know how to control your temper?
Echo - All the training in the world couldn't keep anyone from getting irritated with you!
Lander - Or maybe your training wasn't thorough enough!
Echo - How dare you? Mistress - **clamps mouth shut again**
Dillon - Does anybody get the idea that Miss Abbiss has a secret? **says smilingly**
Lander - Get used to it, she doesn't finish half of what she is saying.
Catherine - Should we get back to the question at hand?
Lander - Sure. Well all know you have quite a list, so shall we move onto who Echo is in love with?
Echo - I'm quite sure you know I am not in love with anyone
Dillon - Why not?
Echo - Oh, our dear author hasn't decided if I'll even be in love.
Lander - That is a lie.
Catherine - **looks around worriedly** Do you think you should be talking about our author that way? We're in her brain you know, she can probably hear us.
Echo - **ignores Catherine** That is not a lie.
Lander - Well even if that isn't a lie, you secretly want her to make you fall in love with Kalden.
Echo - That is not SO!

Interviewer: Ok, that is plenty of answers for that question! Let's move onto a safer topic. What is your job?

Lander - I am just a traveler. I do odd jobs when I need the money.
Echo - And now you lie. You work for a secret underground group. You are trying to find the missing leader so he can over-throw the King.
Lander - **slaps hand over Echo's mouth** Hush up, dont you know that they could be lurking anywhere in our author's brain and they could over hear you.
Echo - **Laughs** You really think our author would let them roam over her brain with free will? She isn't stupid.
Lander - She let Dillon backstage...
Echo - He snuck back there, I saw him.
Lander - And you think they can't sneak around?
Grayson - Are you two incapable of staying on topic? I work with my Dad with our family business which is import. We have our own ships and we import valuable goods to the states.
Lander - How boring **yawn**
Grayson - we don't all live in imaginary worlds!
Echo - It isn't imaginary!
Grayson - Oh yes it is!
Catherine - Stop! **coughs** my job is stay-at-home daughter then stay-at-home wife.
Dillon - Mine hasn't been decided yet. Our author is thinking either Military or Law.
Echo - I'm not supposed to mention mine.
Lander - You mentioned mine!
Echo - I am currently a student
**Lander snickers**

Interviewer: Favorite season?

Lander - Fall.
Catherine - Spring.
Echo - Spring.
Grayson - I really don't have a favorite. **shrugs**
Dillon - Neither do I. What is with girls and spring?
Echo - Springs in our world are absolutely beautiful. More colorful than yours.
Catherine - Not so! **offended** But everything is very lovely and coming back to life.
Grayson - Catherine has death issues since her Father died.
Echo - Doesn't everyone have issues with death?
Grayson - well, yeah I guess so.

Interviewer: **interrupts before the conversation can go further** Who is your best friend?

Lander - I don't have one currently. One day it will be Echo **smirks**
Echo - Shoot me now! **raises hands in surrender** Mine is **fake gags** going to be Lander. But my other best friend, currently, is Marlon. She attends the same school I do. We stay close friends.
Grayson - Catherine and Taylor Price. He does end up mad at me when I give up Catherine **glances at Catherine and coughs** but he always tells the truth.
Catherine - Lucy Tibet, Mercy Price and Victoria Lee, although eventually Victoria gives up our friendship for a time as she wants Grayson to marry a rich girl from England.
Dillon - Catherine and my cousin Sylvia.

Interviewer - **sighs in relief that it didn't break in another argument** Hobbies?

Dillon - Um, not sure.
Echo - Does archery, sword fighting and horseback riding count?
Catherine - Embroidery and reading
Lander - **chuckles** Wow, you two girls are way different. I don't know that I have a hobby. I like to hunt.
Grayson - Reading, riding, fishing.

Interviewer: **looking more and more relieved** What color are your eyes?

Lander - what a silly question. Cant you see them?
Echo - Not really, you don't have a color yet. **laughingly**
Lander - She, our author, is thinking green, but I'm pulling for brown.
Echo - Mine are deep, indigo blue.
Catherine - Emerald green.
Grayson - Gray.
Echo - Oh, so original. **dryly**
**Grayson laughs**
Dillon - Green!
Lander - Miss Author, if your listening, you have plenty of green eyed characters, mine should be brown!
Author - Your request is duly noted and is being processed **from somewhere above, behind, in front or below them**
Grayson - Whoa! Where'd that come from?
Catherine - I told you she was listening!
Lander  - Oh no.

Interviewer: **laughs** Are you good or bad?

Lander - Good in some people's eyes, bad in others.
Echo - And annoying in others! I'm good.
Catherine - I try to be good.
Grayson - Same.
Dillon - You failed at being good Gray. You are the "villain" of the story. **smiles smugly**
Grayson - I'm not the villain, am I?
Catherine - Well, you sorta are.
**Grayson hinds his face in his hands**
Lander - **laughs** You are a sad little villain Grayson. Our villain's kill and rule ruthlessly. You just break a girl's heart.
Catherine - Hey, that's me we're talking about here! **crosses arms**
Lander - Oh, I know. In fact, I bet he breaks Miss Rich's heart too, right? The girl his parent's want him to marry.
Grayson - It doesn't break her heart. She didn't care about me.
Lander - How do you know?
Echo - That is quite enough!

Interviewer: What is your greatest fear?

Lander - I don't know... That I'll be alone.
Echo - That I'll fail those who put their trust in me. **blinks eyes as if to blink away possible tears**
Catherine - That more of the people I love will die.
Grayson - That I'll lose Catherine completely.
Dillon - My-oh-my, we all got suddenly serious. **not quite jokingly**
Lander - Answer the question man.
Dillon - That I will hurt Catherine worse then Gray did when I die.
Catherine - Oh, Dillon **hugs Dillon** I know you wont die on purpose.
**Dillon's eyes get moist**
Echo - Miss Interviewer, lets move on if you please.

Interviewer: **eyes moist also** What do you think of your parents?

Catherine - They are the best, even my step-father! **smiles brightly**
Grayson - **sighs** They try to do their best, but they don't care much beyond their own wants.
Dillon - They are the most wonderful people I know.
Echo - I don't know who my parents are. **looks away embarrassed**
Lander - Mine were wonderful, or so I'm told. I don't remember them.
Catherine - I'm so sorry for you two.
Dillon - Is that a running theme in your world? **raises eyebrow**
Echo - Most of the people are missing family members, yes.
Catherine - Remind me not to visit.
Lander - We hope to put an end to it.
Grayson - Good!

Interviewer: Any siblings?

Echo - Not that I know of. I think of the girls I go to school with as sisters.
Lander - One brother, but he is MIA. **says almost calmly, but a slight tremble betrays him**
Catherine - Your world is sad. **with pity**
Lander - You're telling me!
Catherine - I have one sister, or I will. Her name is Lydia.
Grayson - I have one sister, Victoria.
Dillon - I don't have any siblings either, Miss Abbis **gives her a brotherly smile**, but I think of my cousin as a sister since we grew up together, like you and your school mates.
**Echo smiles back**
**Lander coughs awkwardly**

Interviewer: This is quite a sad interview. **Smiles** Maybe we should just go back to arguing? **teasing** Alright, Was it fun to answer all of these questions?

Lander - Not all of them!
Echo - Ditto!
Catherine - Some were fun. **optimistically**
Dillon - Others were uncomfortable.
Grayson - I'm not going to another interview.
Echo - I agree. I might sign other characters up next time!
Lander - I completely, completely, agree! **hands raised in agreement**

Interviewer: Do you have any weaknesses?

Catherine: too trusting!
Echo - Go figure. Mine is losing my temper with Lander.
Grayson - That could be anybodies!
**Lander glares at Grayson and Echo**
Grayson - Not standing up for myself against my parents.
Dillon - **snickers** No kidding!
Lander - Yeah, that could be a problem.
Grayson - Hey. You aren't perfect!
Lander - Nope, but I can stand up for myself.
Grayson - So what is your weakness? **crosses arms**
Lander - Thankfully, our author hasn't come up with one, so I get to skip out on the embarrassment.
Echo - Oh and arrogance can't be a weakness? **sarcastically** And let me guess, lack of manners isn't one either?
**Dillon and Grayson chuckles**
Lander - Knowing when your good is not arrogance **smiles arrogantly**
Echo - Oh, whatever!

Interviewer: Okay.... What is your favorite element?

Echo - Wind. **excitedly**
Catherine - Water.
Lander - Fire.
Grayson - Fire.
Dillon - Fire.
Echo - What is with men and fire?
Lander - It's cool!
Echo - nothing about fire is "cool". **crosses arms**
Grayson - It's useful. You can cook, scare away wild animals and heat yourself with fire.
Catherine - He does have a point.
Echo - True, but wind is wild and free. It goes where ever is pleases, when ever it pleases.
Dillon - You wish to be wild and free?
Echo - Doesn't everyone at some point?
Grayson - I believe so. **smiles sadly**

Interviewer: Do you care what others think of you?

Dillon - Not unless it's someone I care about myself.
Catherine - Only if I believe they are someone who has a valuable opinion.
Lander - **chuckles** Not really, mostly if I believe what I'm doing is right, it doesn't much matter what others feel are right.
Echo - I almost agree with Lander, although there are a few people whose opinion matters to me.
Lander - **gasps and places his hand over his heart** she agrees with me!
Grayson - My problem is caring what others think **sadly**

Interviewer: Do you have a theme song?

Dillon: Faddle Fiddle - song on the soundtrack from Leap Year.
Catherine - Realize by Colbie Caillat
Echo - Realize, really?
Catherine - SO? Why do you care?
Echo - It just seems like a sappy song. **shrugs**
Grayson - I don't have one.
Lander - Can I use the Physc theme song?
Echo - You want that song? **shocked**
Lander - Yes, it's funny!
Echo - Sure, have fun.
**Lander laughs**
Catherine - What's yours, Echo?
Echo - I don't know.
Dillon - Maybe it should be Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas **laughs**
Echo - **laughs** Sure, why not?

Interviewer: What is your species?

Lander - Human
Echo  -Go figure, annoying human man.
Dillon - Hey, I'm a human too!
Grayson - So am I!
Catherine - So am I!!!
Echo - *laughs harder** Well, Catherine you should fine, you are just a girl, not a man. I'm an Elf.
Lander - You must be the one with the problem... Not us humans.
Echo - Elf is better than human!

Interviewer: Before you go any father, I must announce that we have fill our time. Next time on the In Your Author's Brain show we are going to interview one surprise guest! Goodnight to all!

Y'all still reading?! Well brovo! Here is a piece of cake!

Isn't that the coolest cake?! But it doesn't look at that nummy, so I'm going to give you another piece.

There you go!

-Ri

note* underlining is in place of italics. I could italisize it because our font is italic.

We have a monster in our house

note: hopefully my next post will have the promised pictures. I just need to take the photos.

We have a monkey pj (pajama) monster in our house. This monster is little, very little in fact. This monster is blond and freckled. This monster is a little, blond, freckled girl who just happens to go by T. Lynn and is known as my littlest sister.

Now you may be wondering why I call her a monster, particularly a pj monster. Well it's simple. She LOVES pj's. Adores them in fact. You know that statistic that says that being in your pj's late into the day makes you sluggish and depressed? She is the opposite. If she isn't in her pj's late into the day she is depressed! She begs to stay in them and in the early evening she begs to get back in them.

I'm sure your next question is "what about the monkeys?" Your answer is her favorite pair of pj's are a green pair with little monkeys all over it. Her newest fascination is monkeys. If it isn't a monkey, frog or bug she probably isn't happy.

What made me post about our female, blond, freckled, monkey pj's monster, you ask? Well this little monster came in the room while Mom and I were looking at fabric for her flower girl dress. We would pull one up and we'd ask her if she liked it and she'd reply "does it have monkeys? no? then I don't like it". We had to tell her that she was not allowed to wear monkeys to the wedding. Guess what she did?! She blackmailed me! She said she wouldn't be my flower girl if she didn't get to wear monkeys. I came up with the idea to look for a monkey pin to wear on her flower girl dress, but Mom and I didn't really like the ones they had. We looked for charms, necklaces, bracelets and rings. We couldn't find anything we liked. So we started looking for a small stuffed animal she could hold in her basket. We ended up with this:

Yep, this is what T. Lynn is going to have in her flower girl basket along with whatever type of petal we have her scatter. It's sad that I had to bribe my sister to be my flower girl. She is against the wedding anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised :)

You know what? After we let her pick a monkey to carry she told us she did like one of the fabrics? She is such a little twerp!

Your tired (its 12:33am) and amused,

Riah Friah

It came back to haunt me...

So... When Riah, Becky and Bree took me home last Tuesday there was something very funny that happened. Riah got a serious case of hiccups. I couldn't stop laughing. I was laughing so hard I was crying.
It came back to haunt me.
I have hiccups. Right now.
They won't stop.
I told Ri...
She is laughing.
Help.

Hail!

Today we had a really bad storm.
This is some of the larger pieces of hail (this pic was taken with my phone):

The pieces were bigger than golf balls and came down for at least 15 minutes maybe longer. I was in the barn when the storm hit and when the hail hit the tin roof it sounded like gun shots firing over and over again. Most of the horses were freaking out and one of the cats was clinging to me for dear life. lol -
It was a freaky storm. We saw the clouds forming a twister but it moved away (I was relieved). I
headed home at 10:30pm and there was so much fog and a lot of places were out of power so it was sooo dark. It was freaky!!
My car had about 4 inches of water in the front on the passenger side. I have no idea where the leak is
coming from, but it took 3 towels to get it to where it wasn't soaking. Ugh.

On to other news...
I hurt my foot somehow a few weeks ago - it would hurt when I walked, but the last few days has been horrible! I couldn't walk day before yesterday for a couple of hours. Now its all swollen and sore. Mom is gonna take me to get it looked at on Monday.

Last Tuesday Ri, Becky and Kay came down to see the new Jane Eyre movie. They picked me up and off we went. It was the first movie Riah and I have ever seen together in a theater. We made sure Becky realized that we thought it was wrong to be so deprived for almost 19 years! haha.
So we got into this small theater which is filled with old, white headed women and the previews started. They were all in foreign languages! When the previews stopped there were a couple of different screens that came on and so we talked fairly quietly before the movie. The screen when blank and this old woman, who was in the row in front of us said (quite rudely, I might add): "Would you please be quiet!"
Ri and I were trying not to laugh. The movie hadn't even started and we were being "SShhh-ed" - How rude!
haha - several times through the movie, if something was funny, I leaned over to Ri and said "I'm afraid to move - I don't want my head bitten off!"
Over all we had a great time!
More stories later!

Bad news - Sad news

First round of bad/sad news: This morning as I was waking up my Grandpa called me. I was surprised to see him actually calling. Not that he doesn't call - it's just he normally calls my mom and then talks to the rest of us. So I answered: "Hey Grandpa!"
"Hey baby girl, is your mom home?"
"Not right now - she left for work about 20 minutes ago. Do you need something?"
"I've been trying to get in touch with her for a little while - I'm thinking I don't have the right number. Can you give me the right one?"
"Sure! Are you okay?"
"Not really, my oldest brother passed on last night around 10pm." I was really surprised. I asked him which brother (he is one are 13 - as of last night there are 5 of them left - its sad.) and he didn't hear me. He kept talking about trying to get in touch with my mom and how sad he is. I was worried that it was James or J.D. that had died - (I haven't met all of his siblings - those are the only two brothers I think I know - they are awesome). I asked him again and he told me that it was his 89yo brother that I hadn't met. We talked for a few more minutes and I told him I'd call my mom so she could call him that way her number would be in his phone. He agreed and before we hung up he said the thing that actually made me wanna cry: "You know, it's hard to see you brother take his last breath." :(  I wanted to cry - it was so sad. I hate it when my grandpa is sad. In fact - when any old(er) person is sad I am sad with them.
SO that's the first round of bad news I heard today.
AND NOW for the second round:
My dad was half thrown (he half jumped off for safety) from a horse (my favorite horse actually) today and his arm might be broken (he doesn't think it is -) plus his hip and leg hurt - he's very stiff from it. So it's been a weird day.
It's been raining out and people have been shopping even more that normal! You'd think that the rain would keep them at home, but no! I went to the mall to get my lunch (since it's right across the street from where I work) and the whole place was buzzing with people. You couldn't walk without side-stepping someone. It was crazy! And then I just had to go and watch the movie Selena with J.Lo in it - yes a teared up at the end. it's such a sad movie.
It's been a good day though - other than the weird/sad stuff. :)
More posts soon!

Childhood memories

"In childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking out.  In memories of childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking in."  ~Robert Brault

Let's clarify one thing first off, the majority of my memories are childhood ones because I'm only 18, which means I have only been a legal adult one year and anything before that legally counts as childhood. So, most of my life I have been a child (and in some people's eyes I still am one **cough** mom **cough**). Ok, now that I don't sound like some teen trying to act older then she really is, I'll move on ;)

A memory huh? Well I have a lot, not many that I can really stick an exact date on though. Most surround Mom being pregnant or having another baby. Trust me, Lys will tell you that when I talk about things that happened when I was younger, most of the start off "Well when Mom was pregnant with Beenie" or "Oh, that happened right after T. Lynn was born" or better yet "I remember us doing ... when Mom was nursing Bree, right before she weened because she was pregnant with Beenie". Yeah, weird huh?
Ok, so my memory is... uh. I'm stuck. Let's see... I remember my 2nd birthday. Mom made stuffed strawberries to serve as a little snack durring the party. I loved (and still love) stuffed strawberries! They were sitting on the table in the dinning room and I kept trying to sneak them. I'd reach up over the table and try to get one. I think I only suceeded once, maybe twice, before Mom caught me. I was terrified that she would tell me that because I was sneaking them I wouldn't be able to have any at the party. Can I tell you how relieved I was when she didn't? Yeah, very! I can't believe I still remember that. I was only two for goodness sake. I guess it stuck because I was afraid I wouldn't get strawberries... I suppose that tells you how much I like them 

Your strawberry lovin',
Ri

You were warned!

Before I say anything else, I'm going to say first; Lyssa warned you fair and square, so if you suffer from a heart attack I am not liable... There, now that I can't be held accountable for any heath problems you might develop after reading the next few lines I can go on.

not my picture

Actually, first off... Isn't this a cool picture?

Ok, yeah moving on... I know y'all are very curious, assuming you actually care.

I'M ENGAGED! Awesome, right?

Superman proposed Friday 18th, please don't shoot me for not telling y'all earlier.

It was so, so, SO sweet. And it was completely unexpected!

What do you think of my ring? I promise to get a picture of it on my hand soon.

Ok, so on to today's question... Something I do differently than everyone else... I am right handed, but I do things as if I were left handed, not sure why. I always have, but I think it was worsened when I seriously hurt my right wrist by getting it slammed between two 2 X 4's and had to learn how to use my left hand. I hurt it again before it fully healed by getting it slammed between two grocery carts, and then a year later fell at the skating rink, jarred it badly and spilt open the bottom of my palm (not horribly, I didn't need stitches or anything). I was pretty rough on my right wrist. So now I use my left hand a lot and my right gets tired.

There you go!

Love your engaged,

Riah Chelle

"Raindrops keep falling on my head."

I wont be doing todays exactly right. For safety reasons we don't put pictures of ourselves on the internet. So I just decided to post a picture that I had taken.

Lys and I used to take pictures by subject just for fun and practice (we want to start doing that again soon) and one of the subjects was water... We had LOADS of fun with this... of course by the end of the week Daddy was coming in the room I was in taking pictures in going, "Don't you have enough pictures yet? Our water bill is going to go through the roof". Or Mom started fussing that I didn't have to take pictures "everytime I washed dishes..." I couldn't help myself... it was addicting!

Riah

Time goes fast!

So, as you saw in Riah's "Thank You" post, we are very close friends. She mentioned that first phone call when we were 14 and now I'm going to go into a little more detail. :)

From my side of the story:
My family and I had been going to this church for 10 years. My parents felt like God was saying it was time to move on. So we did. The whole thing blew up in our faces. People creating rumors about Bee and me - accusations and finger pointing's. It was a mess. Needless to say that almost every single one of my friends from there walked away. Only one really tried to keep up communication (which was great). So, it had been a couple of weeks since we had left and I was feeling pretty blue. I had no one to call, or hang out with. Bee was busy doing school and I just wanted to talk to someone!
"Hey Mama?" I called.
"Yeah?"
"What is Ri's phone number?"
"I don't know off the top of my head. Why?"
"I want to call her. There's no one else to talk to" (I didn't mean it in a mean way - just was feeling down. Sad. Bummed.)
Mom gave me her address book and I flipped through the book until I found the number I was looking for. I dialed the number and listened to the slow ringing. Ri's mom answered.
"May I speak to Riah please?" I asked nicely.
"Who is calling?"
"Lys."
"Oh hi! I'll get her." There was some rustling sounds and then I heard Ri.
"Hello?" She sounded perplexed.
"Hi - How are you?"
And so the conversation went. It was awkward. We hadn't talked in so long. Yeah, there was the letter writing, and then the emails, but those were rare. After all, we did have the friends that were near by up until this point...
We had some moments where we didn't say a thing. It was just dead silence over the phone. I was wondering if Ri was thinking I was dumb for calling. when we got off the phone I thought that maybe we wouldn't talk again for a while, but she called me the next day. We talked more than we did before and opened up. She told me about how she left her church and was "shunned" just like I was. That was the bonding point. The same trouble and hurt was really what made us because BFF's again!
Now you see that we talk everyday. We actually had a rule put in place by Ri's mom at one point, that we could only talk between 3-4:30 in the afternoon everyday because we talked in every spare second of the day. Now we just talk when we can.
Riah is the best friend anyone can ask for, and when she and Superman are married I'm going to force him to bring her to visit me all the time. hehee.
Thank YOU, Riah for being there and letting me vent, and cry, and laugh with you no matter what time it is.
Much Love,

Thank you!

“A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.” ~ Grace Pulpit

I can’t think of a more appropriate quote for me and Lys. Our new-ish, closer relationship is based off of circumstances that mirror this quote exactly. All of our friends had deserted us and that’s when we became so much closer. It’s a long and involved story so I’m not going to bother telling you all about it right now, but you have to hear this part to understand what we are to each other.
We both grew apart due to circumstances, many (not all) beyond our control. We didn’t talk much at all, nor did we see each other often. In fact, I think sometimes we forgot the other existed. Sure, if you asked we could tell you we were friends, but we didn’t really know all that much about each other. We both had some church problems when we were 14 and we both left our churches in June/July of that year (or somewhere around that time). The problems were of such a nature that we were “shunned” from the friends we had and were not allowed to talk to them (not our parents decision, that was their parents).
One day I was feeling kind of lonely. I had tried to call a friend, but her mother wouldn’t let me talk to her and informed Mom that they could have nothing more to do with us. I went outside to read, but couldn’t focus (I can hear some of you gasping in utter disbelief now). Out of the blue, Mom poked her head out the back door and said I had a phone call. I bet you can imagine how thrilled I was. I thought that my friend’s mother had a change of heart. Guess how shocked I was to find out it was Lys? It was so weird. But I was just happy to have someone to talk to. We didn’t talk all that much during that call, but then she called back the next day and I called her the day after that. Eventually we ended up telling each other what had gone down at our churches, just to find that nearly the same thing had happened to both of us. We ended up crying together, comforting each other and laughing over how silly we were being; crying over people who had left us when things came to a head.

Needless to say, my thank you letter is to you Lys. Thanks for making that first call! Even though it meant that we talked so much it drove my parents crazy. Thanks for letting me call you at nearly midnight so I could tell you that Superman wanted to court me!
   (Lys looks better than this believe me!)






Thank you for letting me call you crying! For helping me when Grandpa died. Thank you for letting me vent when I’m angry! Thank you for yelling at computers with me…
  (we have the exact same kind of laptop)







Thank you for being the only person who’ll IM me, talk on the phone with me AND email me all at the same time.

And that’s a lot!








And thank you for being the bestest friend ever!



















(I get to be Tigger in this picture… oh quit giving me that sad face Lys… ok fine, you can be Tigger!)

Proud to be Lyssa’s best friend!
Riah Friah Me Oh Miah

“These are a few of my favorite things”

So day seven is five things we can’t live without. Now, I could go all scientific and say “heart, brain, liver, lungs and oxygen” but that wouldn’t be much fun, plus if wouldn’t give you any insight into what makes me tick (except my heart, of course). It would tell you nothing about me, beside the fact that I am obviously human, which I’m pretty sure you’ve discovered on your  own. So I’ll chose five things, which I probably could live without, but don’t really want to.

1. babies!

I firmly believe that babies are just the best things ever!




I would just dry up and wither away without babies! I know I would! I just know it!


                                                              
2. Chocolate!!! This is a major!

I love chocolate… Any chocolate. The best is Godiva though. It’s pretty expensive, but its sooo good. I think I’ll die and go to heaven now, just the thought of eating all that chocolatey goodness! Oh…. **shivers**

3. Books and coffee. This counts as one, you cannot have one without the other… its like salt and pepper, cookies and milk, and Romeo and Juliet. They just aren’t themselves without the other, so this most certainly counts as one.

I will only say that if you can’t have coffee with your book, you can have hot chocolate or hot tea instead, or in the summer a glass of ice tea or lemonade. These are your only alternatives. Do not mix with soda! That messes with the whole order of things and simply will not be tolerated. EVER!

If coffee and books didn’t go together, would they put Starbucks in book stores? Hum, can you argue that one? Didn’t think so!





4. Chapstick, I think my lips would fall off my face without it.
And it would kind of stink if my lips fall off my face, so I’ll continue to use it. I try to use it as much at possible. I seem to have one issue though. My lips build up an immunity to chapstick. Is that even scientifically possible? I wear it for awhile and it works, then suddenly I have cracked and bleeding lips again. Is that right? Even though I put it on religiously? I don’t think so. 

5. M.A. Lemonade!!!!! No, this isn’t a brand of lemonade. It stands for:


Me (not me as in “me” but as in, the first letter in my name is M)

And it stands for:

 


Alyssa!!! Lys came up with it when we were about 6 or 7. Her family had met us at a museum near where we lived and we spent the day at the museum and library. Before we left, Lys hugged me and said “Oh, by the way we’re “M.A. Lemonade”, if that’s ok with you".  Somehow it stuck, even though that was the last time we saw each other for a while (I think). See her family had moved “far away” and being very young children we didn’t think to write. We saw each other a sprinkling of times over the years and kinda fell out of contact with each other, except the occasional email. The whole story of how we came to being so very close again is for another post. We were 14 when we really started talking to each other and 15 (correct me if I’m wrong Lys) when we saw each other again for the first time in 3-4 years (again, correct me). We were thrilled to death and have about a million pictures of that trip! (Man, we looked so young Lys! and you’re hair was long!)
So that’s the last, but not the least, thing on my list. Hope you had fun crawling into my head for a bit. I think whoever came up with these questions must have been a curious and pushy person. Curious because they ask so many questions, pushy because they demand you pick favorites!

Love always,
The M     in M.A. Lemonade!