It's a Ball!

The Jovial Beggars are hosting an Autumn Ball on October 30th! I'm really excited.=) It's in Salem in the City Hall(I hear the hall has a really nice wood floor and a balcony above the dance floor where you can watch) The ball starts at 6:30 p.m. and the cost is $7. There are also workshops beforehand that cover piano, other musical instruments, calling, and dancing(imagine that)! Some of the workshops cost a little as well, but I know the dance workshop is free. I know it's going to be super fun, and you all should definitely come if you can!=) It is a ball, so you should wear something a bit fancier, even period dress if you have it. I'll be wearing a dress I made last year from the French Revolution era(or whatever). ;) I can't wait to see all of you!=D

~Abby

Soccer

I think most of you know that Zeke plays soccer right? Anyways, Dad's the coach, Zeke's on the team, and I go to the practices and games when I can.=) The team is really good this year apparently, because we are undefeated!!=D Isn't that exciting? We have a lot of good players, but they actually work together most of the time. It's pretty awesome. I just wish I wasn't too old to be on the team.=(

Jorge

Becky has a fish. His name is Jorge (I was wrong, but I corrected it). He's supposedly hard to kill. Becky left him here this week. I guess we shall see if this theory holds true or not.;}

Testing

I'm testing something I just discovered about Word. Apparently you can blog directly from Word. I guess we'll know if it worked or not!=)

Sweet 16, Finally!

My birthday is Thursday!=) I'm really excited. Mainly because that means I can get my license Friday.=)

(This is for Mrs. Q)
I love driving. There's something about being in control of something so powerful and going so fast(comparatively) but still being under control. It's kind of like riding a horse, but you're never afraid of falling off, just going off the road maybe. If you think about it though, that's not as scary. There's just something about falling that seems to be scarier than almost anything else. Another thing I love about driving is the opportunity it provides to go much longer distances to visit friends and family. Friendships can become much stronger when you get to see your friend multiple times a week instead of maybe twice a month. Plus we can live farther apart, so if we wanted to, we wouldn't have to see each other very often. (Getting a bit off subject, sorry...) Anyways, driving is pretty much awesome for a bunch of different reasons.=)

Abby

Horse Stuff

Hello.

Romeo had this weird thing going with his mane, so I decided to look it up. Basically, there's this one spot on his mane that looks like really bad dandruff and has lost a little bit of hair. Fortunately, it's not a very big spot. Anyways, I looked it up and I think it's either dandruff or something else that I can't remember the name for. Either way, both happen because of lack of care! Well, at least lack of grooming and stuff. Apparently I need to brush/wash his mane more often...=\ Maybe it's not dandruff. Maybe it's some super rare disease that no one's ever heard of and I'll get to name it something super random and weird(I wouldn't name it after myself, that'd just be boring.)! Of course, I should probably just wash both of the horses manes and tails regularly and brush them whenever I ride and see if it goes away.....

Oh. We don't have Bourbon anymore. We decided not to buy him, and I think his actual owners may have found someone else to buy him. I'm not sure how I actually feel about this. We parted on good terms though. In some ways, it's really nice just to have 2 horses(and those 2 be the R team), but then of course only 2 people can ride at a time. And Bourbon was really smooth. But he was stubborn and old... oh well. Just thought you should know. Not sure why.....

Goodbye.

Painting Pictures

Before we painted it was all just white. So, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to picture, so I didn't take any pictures of that. I just took pictures before and after we moved the furniture. Let me know if you like it!=)

Painting!

So, with all this extra time that I have now I've decided to fill it as quickly as possible!=) I recently got a couple babysitting jobs and will start my other one soon. And since Isaac was going to be gone(he'll be home Friday) Mom suggested that now would be a good time to paint the kids' room(I&E share). So for the last 3 days(in between babysitting jobs) Mom and I(and Zeke and Andy too) have been painting away!=) I've been wanting to paint that room for awhile because I knew it'd be fun and it was very boring and white.

Mom let me decide what all the walls would look like(what colors and such) and I think that'll be pretty apparent when you see pictures.=) The wall with the door and closet we painted blue. the other 3 walls we painted white to be added to later. Then on the wall with the window, Andy painted a thick green stripe and thinner white and blue stripes at the top of the wall(like a border). The other 2 walls were adjoining, and on those(this took the longest, the other stuff we got done the first day) Mom and I painted diagonal stripes!=) The green stripes are the biggest, the blue stripes are a little smaller, and the white stripes are a little smaller than the blue. Every other stripe is white, and the other every other alternates between green and blue. It looks really cool(if I do say so myself). Oh yeah! We painted the door frame, closet door frame, and window frame green.=)

Isaac dosen't know about it and neither does Becky. Becky's coming home tonight, I'm excited!=) I have to go take the tape off now. I will get pictures of before and after we put the furniture back. TTFN!

So this is what life is like!

Well Annie is over now and it was a lot of fun.=) Of course, I couldn't really do much besides Annie for almost a month, but it was fun.=) It's so strange now, being able to do things. Like I get to ride my horses almost every day now.=) And all other sorts of other possibilities open up as well.

Have I mentioned that Zeke was playing baseball this summer? It's over now. They had a good last game though! Zeke pitched well(he's one of their main pitchers), and there were some really good plays. They played the 1st place team(they were 3rd or something) but were ahead most of the game. The last inning we kinda fell apart, but, on the whole, I'd say it was a good game. Plus, friends came to watch, which always makes everything more fun!=)

Annie

Annie performances are coming up! For those of you who didn't know, I'm in OAT's summer production of Annie. I'm lots of different people, mainly Cecille the maid. It's been fun for the most part, though it is harder to memorize all the songs and the choreography in such a short time space, but it's good for me.=) Anyways, you should totally come and see at least one of the performances! Performance dates and times are as follows:

Thursday, July 8 - 7:00 pm

Friday, July 9 - 2:00 pm matinee & 8:00 pm

Saturday, July 10 - 2:00 pm matinee & 8:00 pm

Sunday, July 11 - 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday, July 15 - 7:00 pm

Friday, July 16 - 2:00 pm matinee & 8:00 pm

Saturday, July 17 - 8:00 pm

Sunday, July 18 - 2:00 pm matinee

Hope you can make it!

Well all 3 horses are getting along fine for the most part. There is a tiny bit of competition between the guys for the girl(of course), but nothing really bad. Kels & I went bareback riding sometime around 2 this afternoon. She rode Romeo and I rode Rylee first then Bourbon. Rylee is not very comfortable. It's not bad when you're just walking, but trotting kinda hurts.=) Bourbon is much more comfortable, but much more likely to try something(like bucking or just running off, or something like that). Romeo was great according to Kelsey. He didn't freak out or anything when Rylee was left behind and Rylee was fine while we were riding but did freak out a little when we left her alone in the pasture. Nothing bad, just running around and calling after the boys. Bourbon freaked out a little less than Rylee when he was alone in the pasture, but he also was calling back when I was riding him. We all survived though and it was a lot of fun.=) I haven't ridden bareback very much though, so I didn't want to canter yet. Maybe next time...=)

This evening, Becky and I rode(with saddles) a bit then went back for Romeo so Dad could join us. Becky is happy ridding Bourbon, though after Dad joined us and we rode w/ me on Romeo, Dad on Rylee(he hadn't ridden her yet) and Becky on B. we switched it up and Becky rode Rylee, Dad rode Romeo, & I rode Bourbon. She(Becky) did fine on Ry, though I think she got pretty bounced around when we cantered.=) Bourbon is actually really smooth, trotting and cantering(when he gets going). I can't imagine what his gallop would be like...of course, I probably wouldn't be able to get him to gallop, he's kinda old-ish.Oh well...I would like to gallop on Romeo though, I bet that guy's got some speed. Anyways, I guess I've been rambling on quite enough.=) I should go now. Oh, I think Mom took a picture of Rylee right before Kels and I rode.....yup! Here it is.=)

Ok, here's a few pictures of the horses. I will try to take more sometime so you can see Rylee too.

This is Romeo. He's "Dad's horse."

He's really pretty in real life.

 Romeo and Bourbon(This is before the girl came).

 Pretending to be best friends.

Rylee

I was over at a friend's house for a couple nights last weekend and Dad decided to surprise me!I had previously been bugging Dad to call our friends that owned Rylee to tell them we were still interested. So, while I was gone, w/out telling me, he did call them! He said he wanted to have her here when I got home, but it ended up that they brought her on Tuesday. I was so excited!!! When I got home I asked him if he'd called them and he said "Yeah." "Well, what'd they say?" "They said they could bring her over on Tuesday." "!!!!!!!!!" Then I gave him the big hug he deserved.=) Sometimes I like being surprised, and sometimes, my Daddy's a pretty cool guy.=)

I'll end there. I will tell you more later though. Sometime.

~A very happy girl.

Andy

Well Andy's home for the summer. It's kinda funny how he got all excited about riding the horses.=) I always forget, but I think out of the 4 older kids he's the one that likes animals the most(after me of course). We went riding for 3 days in a row, so I decided since the horses aren't quite in shape, we should give them a day's rest.=) They're doing pretty well though. Bourbon enjoys being a brat about the bit though. I'm working on it, but it's pretty frustrating. Did you know that horses are really strong?

Romeo

For those of you who haven't heard, we actually bought a horse! His name is Romeo but he's a gelding. As Daddy puts it, "His 'Romeo' days are over." Anyways, he's super big(16hh for those of you who care) and really pretty. He's a bay(my favorite color-brown w/ a black mane & tail) and he's pretty easy-going. He's about 15 years old and is much more eager to go than say, Bourbon. Dad and I went on a ride yesterday I think and we came to the conclusion that both horses work a lot better when another horse is there. Oh, as of now we're still keeping Bourbon but haven't quite come to a final decision about him. He gets along fine w/ Romeo, so that's not really a problem, but we're not sure how B. will react if we bring a mare on the scene. I'm 85% sure Romeo wouldn't do a thing, but B. is another story. Oh, did I mention that we got Romeo mainly for Dad? So yeah, I still don't have a horse for me yet. Wow. That sounded really selfish. I guess I'm just kinda confused at why Dad still wants to keep Bourbon. He doesn't need 2 horses and while I don't mind riding B. once in awhile, he's definitely not going to be my horse. The horse that I would love to get is a mare and she's really sweet. Plus, we know the people who own her and they don't want to just sell her, they want to make sure the right person buys her. Sorry to ramble on. I'll try to keep y'all(I love typing that=]) a little more up-to-date than I have been. I've really been slacking for a few months.....sorry.=( Oh, and I'll try to get some pictures of Romeo sometime.

~Abby

Zeke's Blog

Hey guys! Just thought I'd mention that Zeke started a blog. It's called:

The Nameless Blog

He changed the name. I guess someone w/ authority thought it was too gross.

Goin' Good

Well, Pride and Prejudice has been going well so far- we've sold out 2 shows so far and expect to sell out at least a few more if not all the rest.=) All of our audiences(big and small) have been great and that always helps.=) I hope that all of you who weren't able to come this past weekend can come this coming weekend! But you'd better get your tickets quick.

Ecuador Part Something

Sorry, this is really old. This is from Ecuador.

Some of the kids decided to color. Andy just couldn't miss such an opportunity to show off his superior coloring skills.

Andy w/ the picture he colored all by himself!
Max.

Zach.

Jared.

Maddie.

Nate.

Isaac!

Zeke.

Mr. Rogers and a monkey in the zoo. He said if you get too close they sometimes take your glasses.

A taper in the zoo. No fences around it. It was just sittin' there...

The monument "at" the equator. It's not exactly right, but it's close enough!=)
Becky doing a cartwheel over the equator!
Andy.
Guinea pig, yum, yum!
A guy at the equator finger painting. Yes, he did all that w/ his fingers, nail,or palm!Ben.
Nick. He likes pink.

Part of Quito.
Looking down from the cable car in Quito.

Me and Ben in the bus.

A feather that I bought for my Aunt Feather who loves horses and likes to paint(especially birds)

The resort.

The awesome view on the way up the mountain while riding the Peruvian Pasos (horsies). This is one of the few times we were going slow enough to take pictures.

An Iguana in the tree outside my hotel room window in Guayaquil.

Flying out of Quito on the way home.

The "gross" pictures.
Angel and her momma.

Opening Night!

Tonight's the night! I can't wait, but I guess I'll have to.=/ For those of you who didn't know (though I'm sure most of you do), Mom and I are in Fine Linen's production of Pride & Prejudice. I am a lowly ensemble person at the ball & party (my stage name is Amber). It's been a lot of fun, even though I was very tired after some practices and I was sick during one. But I get to dance and giggle w/ my good friends Ashley, Jeni, Sarah, and Abby in the background. Fine Linen's productions are always amazing so you should really try to come and see it!=) Oh yeah, Mom plays Lady Lucas (one of the town busy bodies). She's rather funny to watch as she interacts w/ Mrs. Bennet (Amanda Engelke). Anyways, here's a link to the flier w/ info. about times/dates and such.

Fun(not) w/ Fire!

I suppose I should tell you what happened.... Monday I guess it was. Well, first of all, it was super nice (around 70) and I really wanted to work outside(weird huh?). So I asked Dad if there was anything he wanted me to do(he said no), then I asked Mom & she had me move some chairs from the shed to the deck. Then she said we might have a bonfire on Friday(if it doesn't rain) so would I clean out the fire pit? So I started "cleaning" it out and everything was going great. I decided to burn some of the grass around the pit so it wouldn't be so prickly (and so I wouldn't have to bring the mower all the way out). Then I cleared some grass & brushy stuff that was bugging me and when I was finished w/ that, I decided to burn that grass too. Well everything would have been perfectly fine had Elizabeth not run into the shed where Mom couldn't see her. I'd seen her(Lizzy) wandering toward the shed, but I assumed (of course) that Mom was watching her. So there I was, tending the fire around the pit, pouring a "water wall" so the fire wouldn't go too far(a.k.a. into the wood pile) when Mom calls out if I'd seen Liz. Mom said I needed to look for her and when I found her bring her back to the house. So (w/ some consternation) I left the tiny little fire outside the pit and went to go get Elizabeth. She was in the shed, so I took her inside and went to the bathroom then headed back outside. Well, I could see the fire from the house and it was rather tall so I told Mom I'd be outside then ran to the fire. (Wow this is getting really long, sorry, I'm really bad at summarizing.) Anyways, I got to the fire and started frantically pouring bucketfuls of pond water(thank you LORD for the pond!) on the fire, but soon realized that I should start pouring a water wall instead. Isaac saw the fire and came to help me and we managed to keep the fire from spreading to the long grass, which was my main concern. I guess the fire had jumped over the bricks that I was about to pour water on when Mom called me and spread to the brushy pile and along the bank.We finally got it completely put out(my capris were totally soaked by then ) and Isaac wanted to stay by the little fire (in the pit) for a bit! I told him I was done w/ fires for the day and that we needed to go inside.=) At least he had fun pretending to be a fireman. I was almost inside when I saw Dad pull in and head down the road towards the shed. I guess you could see the black from the road(bummer huh?) So I had to go out and explain everything to him , but he took it rather well. He wasn't really mad at me but very concerned about what could have happened. Then I went inside and told Mom. I knew she'd be fine. It was Dad I was worried about if you know what I mean.=) I wonder if the black will wash away by Friday?=\

Spring, I miss you!

I want spring to come!!!! I like winter and I love snow, and I don't mind it being cold, but we've had plenty this year already. I want it to be warm so I can wear shorts and a T-shirt and run around barefoot and squish my toes in the cool mud and for it to be warm enough that that feels good! But I suppose I will have to wait. I'm not very good at that. Another thing I don't like is not being able to ride! It's either too cold so I don't want to ride even though the ground would be ok, or it's nice and warmish and I want to ride but it's too muddy! Daddy likes to run so he doesn't really appreciate it when I ride B. on the trails when it's muddy; it kinda makes umm....gouges right where Daddy wants to run. It's great for twisting ankles though!

Igloo!

So, I think it was yesterday, Zeke & Isaac decided to build an igloo. They started from a fort wall they'd built before and it's gotten pretty big. As soon as I found out what they were doing of course, I helped too. I've mostly carved out the inside, envisioned & instructed, packed, and supervised(to make sure my instructions were carried out). I did haul a few wheelbarrows-full(?) of snow though. Zeke has mostly hauled and did the initial carving and a little after we enlarged. Isaac has umm.......oh! he helped clear out a lot of the snow is was getting from carving out the inside. Not sure what else he was doing; probably playing Star Wars. Anyways, I got some pictures for ya! I tried to get some of the inside and w/ Joy(dog) inside, but that just didn't work. Joy was just too busy trying to lick my face to pose for a picture.

Inside-ish