A Camping We Will Go!

Just got back from my first, yes, FIRST camping trip! Sad that I'm nearly 17 and this was my first time to REALLY camp. I don't call sleeping out in a tent in a backyard real camping...

Anyways, our amazing friends the Archers invited me and Maddy to Lake Mineral Wells, and we jumped at the chance! All 11 of us crammed into their car and headed off. Once there, we swam nearly 2 miles (who can believe it) altogether by swimming to and from the other side of the lake. When Katie, Maddy and I were about to head off back to our camp site as we were on the opposite side of the lake, I saw a snake head sticking up out of the water. It was WAY too close for comfort. We yelled to the boys to defend themselves or follow us as we fled in terror. Later, we figured out that it was a water moccasin. Talk about FRIGHTENING!

When we got back, we were all exhausted, in an energetic sort of way, if that makes any sense at all. After supper we sat around the fire and enjoyed each other's company. We sang a few songs, listened to the guys play their guitars, and Katie and Maddy play their ukuleles. A friendly raccoon came up every now and then around the edges of the firelight. When I first saw it, I nearly freaked out, but calmed down when I saw it wasn't leaping at me to eat me. We all dubbed the raccoon Sir (yes, we knighted it) Maximilian Arthur Rupert III. As we girls attempted to star gaze, we were rudely interrupted by a "wild animal" thrashing about in the bushes. It SCARED the living daylights out of us but it turned out to be the younger guys trying to scare us. It worked.
Today we tried to wake up early to see the sunrise...yeah, that didn't work out like we planned. After a late breakfast and packing up camp, we headed off to a different part of the lake where they were renting canoes and kayaks. Between the 9 kids, we split 2 canoes and 1 kayak. We had so much fun! We rowed over to a darling little island in the lake, explored that, found a nest with a huge egg in it, a teeny-tiny turtle, and another snake. After four hours of canoeing, swimming and the like, we packed up and headed home.

 A most delightful first camping experience, wouldn't you think? 

    

Farewell to Drama....For Now

       This last Saturday was the ending performance of JOY Christian Academy's production of Music Man Jr. It was bittersweet. Excited about no more stress of having to sing solos in front of crowds (scary), but sad because I'm going to miss my friends terribly. The same group won't ever be together again because many of us are going separate ways. But we still all had a fabulous time together! Before each and every performance we prayed, sang the Doxology, and then talked until we had to head off to our places. It was such a wonderful time, like a youth group is supposed to be, except it was a drama group.

       One of the most memorable times would have to be the Elevator Episode. Rebecca Roberts, three other friends of mine, and I got into this terribly old elevator (note, this building was built in the late 1800's or the early 1900's so the elevator -and everything else- is pretty darn old!) I had always been too scared to go in it, but with the post-performance excitement and a gaggle of friends, I decided to ride in it. Right before shutting the door, we read a plaque on the elevator wall that said the limit was 500 pounds. There were 5 of us...and I'm pretty darn sure all of us were over 100 pounds, just sayin'. But we (stupidly) didn't heed that warning, and just as the last crack of the first floor door disappeared, I commented, wouldn't that be horrible if the elevator got stuck! And what do you know?? The elevator stuck, right where the bottom of the 2nd story door was level with our eyes. We reached up and banged on it, yelling, hoping someone would hear, and you can be sure that Rebecca and I screamed, thinking for sure we would die there. Our other friends just laughed at us, while tyring to figure out what to do. Rebecca and I were pretty useless, hanging on to each other, almost in tears. Pathetic now that I think back on it, but then death seemed enevatable to our imaginations, which already lean towards the romantic/traumatic experiences. Even though the whole episode lasted four minutes at tops, it felt like a lifetime! After we made it out alive, my voice was hoarse from screaming. Apparently it was so loud backstage with everyone congratulating each other from a great show, that no one heard us screaming...just a tad alarming but thrilling to be sure! :)

       So Saturday, after the last show, the whole cast and some wonderful friends who weren't even a part of drama pitched in to help "strike the set." Afterwards we headed off to Rebecca's house for a cast-party, where we tried to star gaze, but the lovely moon was so bright we could only see parts of constellations. So we mainly talked, some had their guitars and were singing, and after an hour or so,  we set up music and began to swing dance! We danced until one in the morning before heading off home. Such a wonderful time!        

Between tech week, the two weekends of performances, and trying to finish up the remainder of homework, I have been crazy busy! 

     Other things worth mentioning since last post:

Garden is still alive and flourishing! (who can believe it??)

Sister got a ukulele today and is already fabulous at playing it

Sliced my finger on a can of beans today...lovely

Just have to finish reading Communist Manifesto by Marx, The Law by Bastiat, and write a paper and I'm through with World View II!  

And summer is almost here! :D Huzzah for fun times!



The Handy Man and Driving

       Our Dad is very talented. He's a doctor most of the time, a handy man and carpenter the rest of the time. He can paint and is a wonderful photographer. He also is very patient and calm when instructing his daughters who tend to over-react while driving. ;)

       So today Maddy and I decided to go with our Dad to help him put a lock on one of the doors at his office. To make story short, we weren't much help, except for finding ways to bring in more light (the part of the building we were in didn't have lights yet), bringing some noise to the really quiet building, trying to stable the door while our dad drilled and we vaccuumed. Other than that, we were no more help to him than our little yorkie would have. lol. But we had fun hanging out with our dad in the meantime.

Driving

       Maddy has her permit now and Dad was very kind and let her drive there, and I was in the back seat of the truck praying REALLY hard that we'd actually make it to his office alive. Maddy has always been the reckless one, ever since we were tiny. She ran everywhere and always got herself hurt. Now she's the reckless driver. *gulp* I'm the cautious driver, just saying. I'm always terrified I'm too close to the other lane and so I normally wind up on the edge of the road. Maddy, on the other hand, practically drives in the wrong lane! To say the least, its terrifying. And I must say, I need to be more encouraging when she's driving since I normally say things like, "STOP DRIVING IN THE OPPOSITE LANE! I'M GOING TO BE HIT!" ahem.

Dream On

~According to legend, if you rub yourself with the herb marjoram (or anoint yourself with it) before going to sleep, you'll supposedly dream of your future spouse. ~

 

That tickled me when I read it, so OF COURSE I had to try it. Just for fun though, since I don't believe in superstitions. And last night was the perfect time to try it, because it's no fun doing this kind of thing by yourself! My dear friend Katie spent the night, and I had mentioned it when she first came over, but with all our talking, watching Downton Abbey, and talking some more0 until 1:30 in the morning, I nearly forgot it. I was almost asleep when I suddenly remembered and probably scared Katie half to death by jumping upright and yelling "MARJORAM!" After scrambling for a light, I burst into Maddy's room, because my sister had to participate too! So after grabbing the herb from the kitchen, I came back to my room, where all of us perched on my bed and then found out it was ground marjoram, instead of marjoram leaves. Although we didn't know what to do with it at first, we decided to rub it on our arms since it was a powder. I couldn't wait to drift off to sleep.

Next thing I know the alarm is going off and I groggily asked Katie if she had any dreams about a "future possibility." Nope, no dreams at all. Neither did Maddy. I had dreams, but they were all about some weird concert or speech and there were SO many people that I couldn't even began to sort out if there was one person who reoccurred in my dreams. haha. Serves us right. But ya never know. It's still a fun idea for a slumber party or something funny you can do with your sister(s).

A few more hilarious ideas are:

~Sleep with yarrow under your pillow to dream of your true love. To make marriage certain and soon, slip in some orange leaves with the yarrow.
~Tie 3 laurel leaves to the foot of you bed and your love will be blind to everyone but you. (Yeah right!)

~If you are a woman, offer your intended a spring of basil. If he accepts, you have won him. If that fails, bathe in warm water to which a cupful of rose petals and a teaspoon of dill seeds have been added.

The only problem is, that if you do dream of someone you have a fancy for, this might make some ladies a little desperate and make some silly mistakes. Don't really hand a guy a bunch of basil...its WAY too obvious. ;)