Hey everyone who reads my blog,
For a number of reasons, not the least of which being the HSB change of format, but also including my migration to avenues of interest besides (but still including) mime, I have now switched to a different blog. From here on out, I will be posting my thoughts at taaiwo.wordpress.com, so if you want to read, come on over! 
~ Jessica
So I’ve been fiddling around with WordPress for a couple of days, trying to figure out how it all works. It looks like it’s SIGNIFICANTLY less customizable than HomeschoolBlogger’s server was, which really stinks. (In case you haven’t noticed, HSB is now using WordPress’s format and who knows what else)
I started another blog on WordPress before I realized HSB was practically WordPress already. Please view at taaiwo.wordpress.com. I’m trying to decide which of these blogs to keep. Comments are encouraged. And for the record, I, the one who is averse to change, am still peeved at HSB for this sudden change. I shall, however, get over it.
So we had the grand cookout on Monday. It was quite the affair! Dad had said that if people needed to be late they could – hence, no one showed up until 3:15 (Ms. Donna) and then not for another half hour after that. All that to say that we didn’t really get started until 4:30, when we all headed down to the creek for the baptism. Of course we’re not allowed to park down there, so the guys had to drop all the women and children off, drive back down Blansit, park up at Lanes, and hike through the woods to Big Rock. This entire proceeding took quite a while, so that by the time we started the baptism it was 5:15 or so.
I almost cried when Emily got baptized. It was so cool. J And thankfully the snake waited until AFTER the baptisms to rear its head. It was down closer to the dam (or where the dam used to be) and it was a pretty hefty one. Big Rock cleared out pretty quick! Jorge, Mr. Potter and I, along with a few others, stood in the water to watch the snake traverse the swimming hole at its leisure while thirty-ish people stood gawking at it from the shore. Back and forth… then the kids started throwing rocks at it, so it came near the shore – I’d say it was a few inches from dry land. Yeah, snazzy, huh?
We ate. It was goooooooood. Especially the burgers, the sour cream and cheddar chips, and the cream cheese brownies from Mrs. Voth. Oh yeah. After that, Kyle and I mobilized the troops for a rousing game of kickball. I’d say we had 25-30 people playing! (it varied as people came and went) Of course, this meant that it was a lot harder to get on base, so we made it five outs. Ryan and Aaron were team captains. There were a zillion positions (three first basemen, a CATCHER [unheard of in Roberts kickball because we never have enough people] and occasionally a base coach!). Some of the funnier moments from kickball:
Jorge. He was acting terrified of catching balls – he dropped the first one that came to him, and then ducked at the next one, forcing Ryan to jump up behind him to grab it. He did redeem himself later in the game with two snazzy catches. In addition, his bull faces and actions when up to bat were at least moderately amusing.
Aaron. When he ran from base to base, he shrieked, laughed and yelled the whole way.
Abigail. Whenever she caught a pop-up (which was pretty often), she would be so exhilarated that she would just hold the ball and spin around in circles. Or jump up and down. Or both. The one thing she didn’t do was field the ball to get outs or anything, but oh well. She was having fun. J
Ryan. When he slipped in the wet grass and his feet came out from under him and he fell in grand style on top of his water bottle.
Hannah. She overran third base one time and it was a close play and she actually did the splits – all the way down – to keep her foot on the base. It was very impressive. But appeared very painful. Jorge pulled a similar play later and declared, after rolling around in the grass and fumbling for the base, “My body doesn’t bend like that!”
We gave most of the leftover food to the mission trip teams to use at training camp. Lilly said her favorite part of the entire shebang was the baptism, which made me smile. Mr. Voth and Captain Jody both told me what a great time they had at our house. Mr. Donna said we really knew how to put on a cookout. I think the whole thing came off very well, and, as duly noted on Mom’s blog, the total count was 57 persons on our property.
=)
I love it.
Excerpts from my journal:
May 22
Today Dad, Grandma, Andrew, Jo, Aunt Kristy and I went canoeing/kayaking from Round Mountain Road. It took four hours. AK tipped twice in grand fashion. So did Dad’s canoe. Jo and I didn’t tip (although we avoided the two places that made Dad tip).
May 26
It wasn’t AK tipping that was so amusing but how she looked after she tipped. She’d just bob along, water-sodden jeans not enough to hold down her bobbing knees, and try to kinda float to the shore.
Today Mom and I organized eight Children’s Church boxes. It took four hours and we both had oodles of other things to do but we got it done – AND entered into Excel. Finished the lesson for Friday Night Light with Mom and Jo’s help. So glad.
Wrote four more TUs. Talked with Ruth for half an hour about teaching workshops. Was really good to talk. Was going to call Jessica today but forgot.
May 27
So today I got up in the morning, walked, prayed, read, showered, and sat. And wondered what I ought to be doing. This not having anything regular to do is driving me absolutely nuts! So I was crying and feeling lousy and then Mom came encouraged me and said I should block out my time. And eventually I felt better (after 25 minutes of piano).
Had the Children’s Church training today. All Brown kids and older Voth girls were there, plus Jo and Andrew. [I thought it went well. We had a lot of fun with the puppets and I said a lot of stuff while they sorta looked at me. Ryan can do a good Mean Marvin – and not just the voice but also the action. Courtney and Mom were commenting on toilet paper in trees with their puppets. Jo was just saying a lot of random stuff.]
May 28
Andrew’s party was today. While he played with John and Kyle, I wasted time on the computer. Sigh. Then after lunch we all went swimming. Now that was fun. Ran off some good ol’ boys fishing (not purposefully), Kyle tried to teach John to swim, I fell off Big Rock, and Jo asked the guys with their beers to quite swearing. When we got home, treasure hunt, boys’ water fight (with buckets!), and cake.
Children’s Church went really well tonight. Lola, Nicky, Lilly, Audrey and Gabriel all knew their verses! (well, Gabriel said “The Spirit of God… Romans 8:14!” Which was pretty good for him, so he got candy. Baptized Peter the puppet. Met Ethan “the Dude” Ethiopian and Phyllis. Peter the Apostle visited to teach the MV. Songs went particularly well. Emily did great. Nicky and Lilly asked to be baptized! Emily and Courtney will too.
May 29
Today I blocked out my time like Mom suggested. It worked really well even though most of it didn’t get done. Worked on piano, missions, and Children’s Church.
Tubed from the low water bridge as a family. Kinda slow, but fun. Made up a new pool game and lost miserably. Played Bridge (otters: beavers) and lost that too. Oh well. Courtney’s coming tomorrow.
But the Homeschool blogger server was in the process of updating so I couldn’t post it. They’ve also apparently trashed my template, which is very frustrating to me. I’m really hoping they’ll get it back soon, but if not I’ll fix it. Some time.
So my free time, such as it is, has recently been engaged by one thing (OK, among many other things, but saying “one thing” sounds more dramatic): The Graduation.
Of course just today I spent a long time crying about it and trying to sort things out with Mom and Dad and what they wanted and what I wanted and realized I’d been being unbelievably selfish about the entire thing and that I hadn’t considered for a moment that the parents had worked really hard to bring us to this goal and so their wishes should be honored as well as mine and so I had to deal with that. “dealing with that” turned out to include going outside and walking back and forth and back and forth on the gravel road next to the highway (because it was a Saturday afternoon and there were people roaming all over the neighborhood) and yelling and crying and sobbing for a looooooooooooong time. It was kinda exhausting. And I don’t know that I’ve ever yelled at God like that before (not that I was mad at Him; I just needed someone to yell at). And there was some breaking involved – as I was sure there would be, which is why I was hesitant to even go, but I knew I had to – and lots of sobbing and wishing that I had some Kleenex and being really really mad at myself and lots of other emotions that I don’t really want to replicate here. So anyway finally came to the conclusion that I should be OK with what the parents want because I need to be thinking of their interests and not just my own – a verse that Dad brought up in our conversation and which I rather resented him for but it was of course good that he brought it up. So anyway, that’s that.
OK, so back to the fun stuff. Courtney and I have been meeting weekly or bi-weekly for the past several weeks to get ready for the graduation. Among the things we have discussed/done:
- Decided what we wanted to do and eat and who was going to bring the food and at what time we were going to do what event and how much of a procession did we need and whether or not Courtney and I were going to give speeches and things like that.
- Picked songs for, compiled, and practiced the AIM song medley we’re going to present there. It’s pretty wild. But of course very fun.
- Practiced the song we decided on a lark we were going to sing together.
- Briefly mentioned the things we need to settle, like who’s going to play the piano and we need to finish our slide shows and such like that.
- Discussed clothing options.
And various other things like that. Most of it falls under the first bullet point, in which we agonize over decisions in which Courtney has little or no opinion and I have an opinion but don’t want to force it on her. Yeah.
OK so It’s late and I need to go to bed but I wanted to write something down since I’m so horribly behind in blogging.
Jessica