Isn’t it interesting. . .
J+M+J
What I find on my camera, even when I have not given anyone permission to use it. Hmm. . . how mysterious.
A+M+D+G
My Room
J+M+J
Last night I finally got our beds moved back into their places, so I was able to take pictures.
A lamp in my room. This picture shows the yellow more than the other pictures.
My bed.
Close up on the cockatoo pillow.
A+M+D+G
Where Have I Been?
J+M+J
I’ve been busy. I have had an explosion in babysitting, mostly because I was hired by a woman with a newborn to help babysit her three year old while she prepared for a three week trip to Europe. I have been going over to her house twice a week for two weeks. However, they left today so I won’t be doing that job any more.
On March 13, I turned fourteen. That day also marked the return of the robins. I saw six in our yard! Instead of cake, we went out to a Mexican restaurant and ate fried ice cream, YUM! The next day we started painting my room, which was one of my birthday presents. It is bright blue and yellow, colors that were in the blanket on my bed. My blanket is very tropical, with parrots and hibiscus on it.
More posts later!
A+M+D+G
Adventures in Cooking: Crock Pot Yogurt
J+M+J
When I heard recently that you could make yogurt in a crock pot, I just had to do it. It was simple, just cook a half gallon milk on low for 2 1/2 to get it hot and kill any bad bacteria that would interfere with the growth of good bacteria (otherwise known as enzymes,) then turn the pot off and let it cool for three hours so good bacteria can grow. When the three hours are up, spoon out cup of the warm milk and add a half cup of plain, live active yogurt as your starter culture and mix it up. Next, add the yogurt-milk to the crock pot, wrap it in thick, heavy towels for insulation and leave it alone over night. In the morning, it will be yogurt! It won’t be as thick as yogurt from the store, and I am going to try out different ways to make it thicker,for example, adding gelatin, dry milk, etc. etc., and I will let you know if I am successful.
I like to add a little honey to my yogurt to sweeten it. Dad likes it with vanilla extract and sugar. I am going to try out different ways to make it thicker, i.e., adding gelatin, dry milk, etc. etc., and I will let you know if I am successful.
My Yogurt
A+M+D+G
Silly Joseph
Joseph has a little neck massager under his shirt. He put it there, and then started walking around the house saying, “I’m going to have a baby.”
Sit on My Yap
Mom and Alexander were working on Alex’s reading lesson and Joseph and John Paul were listening. Then Joseph invited John to “Sit on my yap.” (All l’s are y’s in the Josephian dialect.) It was to funny not to take a picture.
Hands On
J+M+J
- When baby starts bouncing, children come running!
A+M+D+G
P.S: Landon says he wasn’t ready when this picture was taken.
Hide-and-Seek, or: How to Amuse Little Brothers Without Leaving a Comfortable Seat on the Couch
J+M+J
I was laying on the couch, exhausted by a day of babysitting my siblings, when Alex said to me, “Look, I’m hiding in my sleeping bag. Let’s play hide and seek.”
Joseph chimed, “Me pway to. you count.”
“Okay,” I thought, “I can count and not leave this cozy couch.” So I called, “You go hide, and I’ll count to twenty.” I closed my eyes, and counted, “One, two, three, four, five . . .” I could hear Alex dive farther into his sleeping bag. “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten . . .” Joseph was wildly running around, looking for a spot to hide.
When I had almost reached twenty, he frantically screamed, “Not yet, not yet, I need to hide!” So I added on ten more seconds. At twenty-five, I heard him say, “O.K., I’m ready!” I continued counting.
“Twenty-nine, thirty! Ready or not, here I come!” I called. I spent a few minutes pretending to be looking around, and then I said, “Alexander, I see you in the sleeping bag.” Alexander emerged screaming with laughter. I turned my head around and saw Joseph laying in the stuffed animal box, on top of the stuffed animals that filled it nearly to the top. “I see you to Joseph.” I laughed.
Joseph giggled and jumped up out of the box and cried, “Wet’s pway again! You count again!”
“Okay.” I watched with amusement as Alexander jumped back into the sleeping bag, and then I began to count, but was interrupted by Joseph protesting, “No, wait. No, wait for me to get into ‘amal’ box.”
I nearly burst out laughing. It seems that neither Alexander or Joseph now the object of Hide and Seek.
A+M+D+G
Dull, Drab Winter
J+M+J
Nothing has happened in the last few weeks that was important enough to devote a whole post about it, so I am going to collect the small events of the past week into one post.
Friday the thirteenth:
I went to the physical therapist and got a bunch of new exercises. I originally went to the physical therapist for a pain in my arch when I walked a little over a year ago. We found a muscle that was very weak and strengthened it, and the foot pain quit except when I have walked long distances or stood a long time. (It is getting better all the time because I am still doing harder exercises.) Now I am going to her for the beginning of tendonitis in my shins, which is caused by the same muscle being weaker than the others and not doing its job when I jump or run. The physical therapist, whose daughter is training to be a professional ballerina in Pennsylvania/New York City, also likes to help me strengthen muscles to improve my ballet skills with exercises, so I got a bunch of exercises for my gluteus maximus to help lift my leg higher in the back. Ooh, my rear end is sore right now.
Friday the 13th-Sunday the 15th:
I counted birds for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I counted: 23 pigeons, 1 red tailed hawk, about 30 geese, a mallard duck, and a great horned owl, which has been around our house for a while. Well, actually Dad saw the owl. I heard it a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t seen it.
Today, Monday the 20th:
I went shopping with Mom and Maria at the mall. I needed long sleeved shirts since I only had a couple of shirts that were long enough for me to move my arms around freely. We went into three stores and found absolutely nothing that fit me, because all the stores were stocking spring clothes. Phew! I can’t believe how long it takes to find nothing. Finally, we found something, but not long sleeved shirts. We found my Easter dress, which is really amazing, because it is extremely hard to find nice dresses for my age that aren’t to little girly. Then it was back to the tiresome chore of finding shirts. Just when we had about given up, we went into a store and found five shirts, just like that!
Then we went to Claire’s, a girly store in the mall, and Maria picked out earrings for herself. (She just got them pierced six weeks ago.) I will have pictures of her with them on later.
Well, those are the only things really worth mentioning. I am getting really tired of winter, it’s so uneventful. If it was summer or spring and I didn’t know what to write about, I could go outside and take pictures of my garden. Sigh. Oh, well, at least the first day of spring is only 29 days away.
A+M+D+G
“I’m Dead”
J+M+J
Recently I was walking through the house, when I saw Joseph laying on the ground. His eyes were closed and he looked so cute. I knelt down and began to tickle him. He started screaming, “Don’t, Don’t tickle meee! I’m dead!”
A+M+D+G
Taking a Bath (by Penelope)
J+M+J
Can't . . . Quite . . . Fit!
I really need a bigger water dish.Honestly! There is no privacy around here anymore. A bird can't even take a bath around her without someone coming around with a camera.
I really need a bigger water dish.
All clean!
A+M+D+G
I Felt the Baby!
J+M+J
Tonight, my hand happened to be laying on Mom’s stomach at the right time. I was trying to see if the baby would kick me, when it decided to jump around. The THUMP! that hit my hand repeatedly was very strong and distinct. He/she played around for at least five minutes before becoming tired out. I was thrilled.
A+M+D+G
A Charmed Day
J+M+J
It all started yesterday when I invited my friend Rebecca over for the afternoon. Right from the start, everything worked out just the way I wanted it to. Rebecca wasn’t doing anything that afternoon and her dad (her mom was gone for the weekend) consented to letting her come over to my house. When Mom and I went to pick Rebecca up, her dad said, “Stay as long as you want.”
A few hours later, Rebecca and I were tracing outfits with Maria’s fashion design kit. I commented, “Hey, when your dad told you to stay as long as you liked, you should have grabbed your pajamas.”
“Yeah, that would be a good idea. You should ask your mom if that would be okay,” Rebecca responded.
“It would be unlikely that she would say yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”
Maria was in the room while we were discussing our far-fetched idea, and she liked what she heard. When Mom came down to tell me that I would be babysitting because she was going to take Landon to swimming, Maria piped up, “Mom, Rebecca wanted me to ask you if she could have a sleepover.”
“MARIA!” Rebecca and I exclaimed simultaneously, laughing.
Mom said, “I have to go now, but we’ll talk about it later.”
“Well, that was more encouraging than a no,” I said, “but we shouldn’t get our hopes up.” I calmed an excitement that was growing inside me.
When Mom came back, however, I pressed for details. “So, what about the sleep-over thing?”
“Well, I actually talked to Rebecca’s dad already.”
“-And?” three voices in the room prodded for more information.
“He wants Rebecca to call him.”
So Rebecca was on the phone, and Maria and I listened anxiously. For a while it seemed the conversation was going to turn out for the worse, and Maria was making sad faces and thumbs down at me. But when Rebecca hung up the phone, she said, “It’s a yes!”
So, Maria ran up to tell Mom, who got on the computer to chat and ask my dad if it was okay. He said yes also, and we jumped up and down around the room with glee. Then we jumped into the car and Mom drove to go get Rebecca’s necessities. John Paul shouted after us, “Don’t forget clean underwear!”
When we reached Rebecca’s house, we ran inside and collected her pajamas, a book, clothes, and toothpaste and a toothbrush, and of course, clean underwear. “Is there anything we are missing?” She asked me.
“Movies!” I responded.
We collected the movies and ran back to the car. As we were pulling out of the drive way, Landon asked, “Did you remember your sleeping bag?
“Oh, that and a pillow would be good,” Rebecca exclaimed as she jumped out of the car and hurried back inside her house and momentarily returned carrying a sleeping bag, a blanket, and her pillow. Then we drove home.
Since everything was going so well for us, we decided to try to get our friend Grace, who lives three blocks from my house, over with us. We called, she asked, and we got a surprising yes from her side as well.
That evening, after the kids had gone to bed, we decided to goof around taking pictures. First Grace was the photographer.
- This is what happened when Rebecca and I tried to take a sleeping pose picture. GIGGLES!
- This one is much better. We finally got our faces to stay straight.
- Grace and I hear the popcorn Landon is making for our movie, Prince Caspian.
- Grace and Rebecca.
- Splits!
- Three friends. In the left corner of the background you can see naughty Alex peeking out of bed
Devouring popcorn! YUMMY!!!!
WARNING: never leave three teenage girls unattended for an extended period of time. They may end up like these poor demented girls, who have now been moved to an asylum. :~)
ZZZZ... sleeping beauties
- It’s morning! That was fun!
A+M+D+G