Hello all of you strangers! I haven't blogged on here in a long time, sorry to say. There's lots that has been happening lately, though things have slowed down quite a bit since we moved.
This past week was my 17th birthday (the 28th of August). I had requested to do two things: have a family get together and grill burgers, and go bowling. Well, we were able to do both (not on the same day), plus a lot of other really fun activities!
Let's see, we'll start on Sunday, August 26th. Mom and Dad had gone on a 'date weekend' starting on the 23rd, to Rockwall for three or four days. Some friends of ours graciously let Mom and Dad use their 'guest house', which is fully furnished, and has a swimming pool! We kids went over on Sunday, late morning and we had a time of singing, Bible reading, the Lord's Supper and worshiping the Lord.
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| Singing around the beautiful upright grand piano |
Then we had a delicious and delightful lunch, after which we had dessert: home-made vanilla/peach ice cream, pumpkin pie and pumpkin sweet rolls.
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| Lunch around the small dining table at the M.'s guest house. |
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| Home-made ice cream is so much fun to make! |
Johanna presented me with her gift for me, a
paracord bracelet, which turned out to be too small for my gigantic wrist! She and I had fun making another one that actually fit. ;) I really like it, and am wearing as I type. =)
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| I was trying on my new bracelet, with my tin-foil hat on. ;) |
After the rain, thunder and lightening quit, Abby, Jo, Jaden and Caleb went out and 'swam' in the pool. Since we're all in the learning stages of swimming, it wasn't much, but it was still fun!
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| The M.'s very nice pool. |
But, then we had to quickly get out of the pool, get dried off, and head off; Abby and Caleb towards Tyler, and Joel, Johanna, Jaden and I to Denton. Abby and Caleb were going out to Tyler to help our great aunts with a couple lawn projects. Joel, Jo, Jaden and I went to Denton to hang out with our cousins, enjoy a ice cream social, and then stay up past midnight visiting and having interesting discussions on many different topics.
Tuesday, August 28th, my actual date of birth, was quiet and uneventful for the most part. Half of the family was gone, so we just postponed any 'celebrations' until later in the week.
Thursday, August 30th - Joel, Johanna and I had a neat experience in touring the Ambassador hotel in downtown Dallas. We are looking into putting together another Biblical Apologetics/Worldview conference, and the Ambassador hotel was one place at which we were looking into have it.
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| The old Ambassador Hotel in downtown Dallas. |
As we found out, the building was built in 1905 (has been remodeled since then), and has hosted three presidents (Wilson, FDR and Truman, if I remember correctly), as well as many famous people. It is definitely old, but very nice, not too elegant, and the elevator is really old and neat, but it DOES work!! Anyway, we got to tour it, and see if the building is what we're needing for our conference.
Friday, August 31st - Our cousins came down in the mid-afternoon, and one of them, Rachel, went with Abby on an afternoon shopping excursion with another friend. It was actually Rachel's birthday that day. While they were gone, Johanna, Rowena (another cousin), Mom, Grandma and I worked on food preparations for dinner that evening: potato salad, chef's salad, hamburgers, hamburger toppings, guacamole, strawberry/lemon cheese-cake, fruit salad. Plus, lots and lots and lots of dishes!! So, by the time Abby and Rachel got back, Uncle D. and Aunt B. had arrived, and Caleb arrived, the food was basically ready.
There was enough food for about double the amount of people there; so no one went home hungry!
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| Burgers hot 'n ready |
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| And this wasn't even all of the food! |
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| My fantastically mouth-watering burger. |
After eating that huge meal, we 'kids' all went up to one of the local parks, and played some kickball. Thankfully, we waited long enough for our food to digest, but not too long where the lights were off at the field. Lots of fun, and lots of sweat on a muggy, hot Texas summer night.
Then, we headed back to the house, and ate some more, except this time it was dessert. Strawberry/lemon cheesecake, home-made ice cream (yes, more!),
Alden's blackberry ice cream (THE best!), fruit salad and chocolate cake. Needless to say, we were all stuffed by the end of that; but very content. :)
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| Not the best photo, but this is my strawberry-lemon cheese cake. Check out this recipe. |
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| Also not the best photo, but several of us made parfaits of sorts, with the cheesecake on the bottom, then home made vanilla ice cream, Alden's blackberry ice cream, and fruit salad to top it all off. Mmmmm... |
Sunday, September 2 - We went to home Bible study, and had a wonderful time of discussion on what the Church is supposed to be, and other important topics, along with delicious food. :) Then, after the discussions ended around 6:00pm, Abby, Jo, Jaden and I went to a birthday party for three young friends. It was for their 12th, 9th and 2nd birthdays. The party was at a park that is out of town quite a ways. The parks has a lot of bike trails in the woods, along with lots of picnic tables, a pavilion and a playground area. We ate grass-fed beef hotdogs off the grill, along with potato salad, coleslaw and other food items. Then, the fun part came, in the form of a wonderfully hard and adventurous scavenger hunt. Since Abby and I were the oldest 'kids' there, we were picked to be the team captains. My team happened to lose, mainly because of THREE wild goose chases we went on. But it was a lot of fun, along with a lot of running (probably 2-3 miles after all the wild goose chases), and a few cuts and scratches. Definitely a great idea for a birthday party activity!
To say the least, we were all worn out at the end of Sunday!
Monday evening, all of us, along with a brother-like friend, I. (a.k.a., Scottie) went bowling. ;) We had a blast, despite the fact that most of us only had strikes, ah, I mean strokes, of brilliance. Lots of gutter balls, several half knocked over turns, and a very few spares and strikes. But we all enjoyed it.
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| These are not the best of photos, but we were too engrossed in the games to take many... ;) |
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| Jaden had such a funny way of delivering his throw. |
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| My delivery |
Before the bowling, we got together with a big group of homeschoolers, and played a round of Ultimate [Frisbee] games until it was dark. Unfortunately, we didn't have a photographer at that event!
Anyway, as you can see, we have kept ourselves busy over the past few days. Now to focus on school and keeping up with all of the house-hold chores! Praying that all of you have had a blessed summer and will have a wonderful fall!
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now
may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your
whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
