Hello to y'all! It's me again with another hopefully fun story to share.
Today is my mother's birthday! (Happy birthday mom!) But she`s off at my little brother`s basketball game today. Actually, she first went to a parade my older brother was in. He does sword fighting with the SCA and thus was in the parade to show off his cool costume and sword. He only got back an hour or two ago. Then my mom went to Michael's basketball game.
Just before she left, my cousin An called. So she came over for most of the day. We talked for half an hour, then my aunt come over to leave a present for my mom. She asked us if we were baking mom a cake. An and I looked at each other and said "That's a great idea!" So we did.
Well, first we ate lunch. (Scrambled eggs with real bacon bits, dehydrated onion and powdered garlic and cheese) It was hard figuring what to have for lunch since An is allergic to corn. Now before you think I'm crazy, I'm tellin' ya; corn is in EVERYTHING! It just doesn't always go by the name 'corn'. Glucose is a corn product, believe it or not.
After lunch An called her mom for a chocolate cake recipie that is really good. Then we spent a lovely hour and a half mixing it up while listening to various Adventures In Odyessy episodes. (Like the one where Jack, Curt, Jimmy and Lucy are all grown up and come back for a visit and all the guys love (or at least have a crush on) Lucy. I love it.) Then we made hot chocolate and pudding (for layer filling) while waiting for the cake to bake and cool. We also listened to more Odyessy. Finally, the cakes were getting cooler, so we mixed up a chocolate glaze for it. It was ... a little too runny and kinda poured off the cake, onto the plate and then to the counter. We also had problems with the layers. We had cut each of the layers in half so we had four layers. But one layer broke due to a slightly undone center. We got it stacked at last and then poured the afore mentioned glaze on. When that had sort of set, we mixed up some plain vanilla frosting and began piping "Happy Birthday" onto it. 'Happy' went on fine. Then I began writing 'Birthday', starting with the 'th' because I'd be able to center it better. Well, when I got to the 'd', the pipe bag's seam broke and frosting blooped onto my 'd'. After we scraped off the offending mark and repaired it with some of the leftover glaze,we transfered the icing to another bad.
My mom has, er, had three bags. One just broke. Another's opening hole is too big and none of the things you put on fit properly and would just pop out if we squeezed. The last bag was made of a type of canvas. We used that one. It is a HUGE bag. It's over a foot long! And we didn't even have a cup of icing. But we used it. And I finished writing Birthday and also drew a flower. Then I removed my hand from the bag. My had was sticky and the bag appeared wet. Canvas is not waterproof and he moisture of icing oozes through. Despite the stickiness, I put a ring of icing around the bottom edge to finish. We had just enough.
Then began the grand ol' process of cleanup. The dishes were moved to the sink and the cake set in the fridge. The cooling racks were wiped and put away. An washed some of the bowls and things while I wiped the counter. Then I put some of the smaller items in the dishwasher while she finished the rest. And we also washed things that were left in the sink from before lunch. In the meantime our last Odyessy CD had run it's course and the stereo had begun playing the next CD. Christmas carols! In February! It was fun.
After that I found a DVD she wanted to borrow and we went back to my room for a few more minutes. We played with my block and marble set. Yeah, we're cool like that. I love toys of that kind that are more commonly thought of as 'little' kid toys'.
The it was nearly 5:00 and she had to go home. We said goodvye and I sat down to tell you about our fun advetures. I love making cakes.
Showing posts with label wonderful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wonderful. Show all posts
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Monday, 30 January 2012
What else would I talk about....
except for youth group? My otherwise non-existant social life?
But here is the updates on what I've been doing! Mainly youth group. (You seein' a pattern here?)
Well, my most recent awkward moment would have to be youth group. Have I mentioned before that I've been rather ditzy lately? I don't think so. But I have. Take my word for it.
We played Cat and Mouse at youth. Everyone grabbed a partner and linked one arm. Then the links formed a circle, with one pair standing out. One person of the excluded pair had to run from the other person. The person being chased could link arms with the free arm of a pair. Then the person of the original pair who didn't get someone linking onto them would have to let go and evade the cat. If they were tagged by the cat, they would have to tag the former cat, who was now a mouse, before the mouse linked with someone.
After a minute, I was the mouse. I scurried around, as much as a nearly six foot tall girl can scurry, and evaded the cat for a while, trying to get away long enough to link up. I was tagged and dashed after my quarry, who had stupidly, it seemed, turned and faced me. I tagged him on a shoulder, looked at him, then wondered why he didn't move. Then I realized he had linked and that the new mouse was wondering who was it. I merely pretended I had lost sight of who was mouse and tried not to look too stupid. That was slightly embarressing.
And we played Hug Fest, where Cory, our leader, stood off to the side and made us walk around with our eyes closed. When he called a number we would open our eyes and form hugging groups of the number he called. Can you just see the awkwardness oozing through this crowd of 12 highschoolers? And can you see the awkwardness even further when Cory called out 'two' and the only person within my range was a guy? (Theresa does not mix too well with guys) And can you imagine how I felt knowing that this guy has a girlfriend? (Theresa is also not a girl to go around hugging other girl's boyfriends) I found that game very awkward indeed.
We also played a rather violent game too. In this game you had to balence upon a single foot. The object of this game was to simply knock your opponant over or off balence them enough to make them stick a foot down.
We all paired up again. I was with a short(er) girl who I was pretty sure was named Nikki. The first pair went and the winner went to a little table in the corner of the room. Then the next two pairs did so. And at my turn I merely turned and pushed Nikki backwards and sideway at her shoulders to win my match. Then the others went, the guys doing elaborate moves that flipped the other guy over. Except for Cam. It was funny how neat and tidly he pushed his opponant over. He simply grabbed Talon's shoulders, pushed him back sharply to get him off balence, then jerked him forward. Talon just tipped over before he realized what had happened. Several people missed it because it happened so fast.
Once everyone had gone, Cory paired us winners up so we could battle again. I was with Adi this time. She's the twin of Cam. She was harder than Nikki, but I beat her, much to the teasing of her brother. I returned to the little table and waited for the rest of them to finish.
When they did, there were three winners left. Cory wondered how we had ended up with an uneven number. We all clammered to explain that twelve would never divide to and even number in the end. Cory shushed us and told us all to go at once. I was up against Adi's twin, Cam, and Bryce. They were both pretty big guys (over my height and Bryce is stocky) and both farm kids, so I stayed off to the side as they battled each other. With chairs, no less. Cam won, sending Bryce sprawling on his right side. Then Cam turned for me. I knew I had little chance of beating this guy, so I just charged.
You should know I'm competitive due to having two brothers. And you should also know I was the only girl who really tried to win.
So I charged him, hopping along on my right foot. He also charged me, though much less aggressivly than he did with the guys. I was very apperciative of that fact, and also the fact that he had sometime dropped the chair. Of course, he didn't need aggression or a chair with me. I last about thirty seconds, until he kinda whirled/threw me away from him and I almost kept my balence but needed to stick a foot down.
I also think I supprised him in our duel because I seemed to almost knock him over.
Now, that was two weeks ago. Last week was Clue night. And on Friday instead of Thursday. If my little brother hadn't been so tired from his baseball practice (they're doing conditioning, which involves about an hour of running and more time doing pushups and core strengthening exercises that leave him pretty tired and ravenous) he would have come. As it was, my cousin An was skiing, so I had to go alone.
For Clue night, we were playing a gaint game of Clue. There were six characters, six weapons, and six rooms. The hippie was in the sanctuary with the flower, the old man had a cane in the youth room, the clown had a rubber chicken in the downstairs kitchen, the angel had a sword in the upstairs kitchen, the scientist had poisen in the nursery, and the Mexican had maracas in the library.
To get rooms, characters, and weapons crossed off our lists, we had to answer riddles. Each character had six riddles. Only one person at a time was allowed to guess at the riddles. Every try we had at answering a riddle lasted two minutes, or more if the person forget to time it. After we had tried three times for one riddle we were given the answers, no matter if we had guessed it or not.
At the end, we all piled back into the sanctuary to see if anyone had the results. One girl and one guy both were close in their guess, then they both shouted out the answer at the same time. The girl really got it, but our leader just said they had tied to make it easier. There were also three prizes to be given out, and each of those two got one. Then there was one prize left. We were asked to put up a hand if we had narrowed at least one thing down to only one item. I put up a hand, the guy and the girl who had already won put up their hands, and one other guy put up a hand. Then we were asked if anyone had gotten more than one thig narrowed down to one thing left. Everyone stuck their hand down. Then the other guy and I were asked to count the riddles we had guessed without being given the answer. I counted fifteen, he counted ten. I won the prize.
But Cory, being Cory, had forgotten the prizes at home! He's going to hand them out this week. I bet the prizes are McDonald's gift cards. Prizes have been that before.
Well, so long and fare thee well! Enjoy your day and may God bless you in your work!
But here is the updates on what I've been doing! Mainly youth group. (You seein' a pattern here?)
Well, my most recent awkward moment would have to be youth group. Have I mentioned before that I've been rather ditzy lately? I don't think so. But I have. Take my word for it.
We played Cat and Mouse at youth. Everyone grabbed a partner and linked one arm. Then the links formed a circle, with one pair standing out. One person of the excluded pair had to run from the other person. The person being chased could link arms with the free arm of a pair. Then the person of the original pair who didn't get someone linking onto them would have to let go and evade the cat. If they were tagged by the cat, they would have to tag the former cat, who was now a mouse, before the mouse linked with someone.
After a minute, I was the mouse. I scurried around, as much as a nearly six foot tall girl can scurry, and evaded the cat for a while, trying to get away long enough to link up. I was tagged and dashed after my quarry, who had stupidly, it seemed, turned and faced me. I tagged him on a shoulder, looked at him, then wondered why he didn't move. Then I realized he had linked and that the new mouse was wondering who was it. I merely pretended I had lost sight of who was mouse and tried not to look too stupid. That was slightly embarressing.
And we played Hug Fest, where Cory, our leader, stood off to the side and made us walk around with our eyes closed. When he called a number we would open our eyes and form hugging groups of the number he called. Can you just see the awkwardness oozing through this crowd of 12 highschoolers? And can you see the awkwardness even further when Cory called out 'two' and the only person within my range was a guy? (Theresa does not mix too well with guys) And can you imagine how I felt knowing that this guy has a girlfriend? (Theresa is also not a girl to go around hugging other girl's boyfriends) I found that game very awkward indeed.
We also played a rather violent game too. In this game you had to balence upon a single foot. The object of this game was to simply knock your opponant over or off balence them enough to make them stick a foot down.
We all paired up again. I was with a short(er) girl who I was pretty sure was named Nikki. The first pair went and the winner went to a little table in the corner of the room. Then the next two pairs did so. And at my turn I merely turned and pushed Nikki backwards and sideway at her shoulders to win my match. Then the others went, the guys doing elaborate moves that flipped the other guy over. Except for Cam. It was funny how neat and tidly he pushed his opponant over. He simply grabbed Talon's shoulders, pushed him back sharply to get him off balence, then jerked him forward. Talon just tipped over before he realized what had happened. Several people missed it because it happened so fast.
Once everyone had gone, Cory paired us winners up so we could battle again. I was with Adi this time. She's the twin of Cam. She was harder than Nikki, but I beat her, much to the teasing of her brother. I returned to the little table and waited for the rest of them to finish.
When they did, there were three winners left. Cory wondered how we had ended up with an uneven number. We all clammered to explain that twelve would never divide to and even number in the end. Cory shushed us and told us all to go at once. I was up against Adi's twin, Cam, and Bryce. They were both pretty big guys (over my height and Bryce is stocky) and both farm kids, so I stayed off to the side as they battled each other. With chairs, no less. Cam won, sending Bryce sprawling on his right side. Then Cam turned for me. I knew I had little chance of beating this guy, so I just charged.
You should know I'm competitive due to having two brothers. And you should also know I was the only girl who really tried to win.
So I charged him, hopping along on my right foot. He also charged me, though much less aggressivly than he did with the guys. I was very apperciative of that fact, and also the fact that he had sometime dropped the chair. Of course, he didn't need aggression or a chair with me. I last about thirty seconds, until he kinda whirled/threw me away from him and I almost kept my balence but needed to stick a foot down.
I also think I supprised him in our duel because I seemed to almost knock him over.
Now, that was two weeks ago. Last week was Clue night. And on Friday instead of Thursday. If my little brother hadn't been so tired from his baseball practice (they're doing conditioning, which involves about an hour of running and more time doing pushups and core strengthening exercises that leave him pretty tired and ravenous) he would have come. As it was, my cousin An was skiing, so I had to go alone.
For Clue night, we were playing a gaint game of Clue. There were six characters, six weapons, and six rooms. The hippie was in the sanctuary with the flower, the old man had a cane in the youth room, the clown had a rubber chicken in the downstairs kitchen, the angel had a sword in the upstairs kitchen, the scientist had poisen in the nursery, and the Mexican had maracas in the library.
To get rooms, characters, and weapons crossed off our lists, we had to answer riddles. Each character had six riddles. Only one person at a time was allowed to guess at the riddles. Every try we had at answering a riddle lasted two minutes, or more if the person forget to time it. After we had tried three times for one riddle we were given the answers, no matter if we had guessed it or not.
At the end, we all piled back into the sanctuary to see if anyone had the results. One girl and one guy both were close in their guess, then they both shouted out the answer at the same time. The girl really got it, but our leader just said they had tied to make it easier. There were also three prizes to be given out, and each of those two got one. Then there was one prize left. We were asked to put up a hand if we had narrowed at least one thing down to only one item. I put up a hand, the guy and the girl who had already won put up their hands, and one other guy put up a hand. Then we were asked if anyone had gotten more than one thig narrowed down to one thing left. Everyone stuck their hand down. Then the other guy and I were asked to count the riddles we had guessed without being given the answer. I counted fifteen, he counted ten. I won the prize.
But Cory, being Cory, had forgotten the prizes at home! He's going to hand them out this week. I bet the prizes are McDonald's gift cards. Prizes have been that before.
Well, so long and fare thee well! Enjoy your day and may God bless you in your work!
Thursday, 19 January 2012
I Went Skating and Tubing
Yes, yes (insert sarcasm here). I have and extreamly original title for this.
Well, as my un-unique title says, I went skating and tubing.
It was with my youth group (as all out-of-the-house activities of mine usually are). We all headed over to the church at a mite before 10:00 in the morning. We registered ourselves with our youth leader and sat around in the gym-type-area to wait for departure. After all kids had arrived (it was bothe senior and junior youth) we all piled into a bus. Which was an experience for me. I hadn't ridden in a bus for ten years. I'm homeschooled, that's why. So we bounced and jounced around in the stale smelling vehicle for about 45 - 50 minutes, finaly ariving at our destination.
We all piled out of the bus in the snow covered parking lot and stood still (for the most part) while our bus driver parked. While we were standing around, my brother, Michael as I call him online, dicovered a unwelcome fact. He had forgotten his gloves. And we were going to be there all day.
We headed dwn to the lower parking lot (where busses don't fit) and stood in lines to get our passes for skating and tubing. I attached mine to a zipper on a pocket.
I depositied my lunch inside the lodge (like everyone else did) and headed off to the tube hill with my cousin, An, and a few other people. We had a few slides down, then most of us got cold and headed back inside (not me as I had gloves, a touque, a zippie, my winter jacket, jeans, a pair of athletic pants, and thermals on). Besides. It was lunch time. I took one more slide down then zipped into the lodge. My lunch didn't seem very appetizing (granola bars, cheese, and something else) so I got an over-priced item from the small restraunte thing inside. I ordered chicken strips and fires along with two hot chocolates (one for my half frozen little brother). Those fries were some of the best fries I have ever had! They were crispy-ish on the ouside and creamy on the inside. They didn't have as muh salt as McDonald's fries, but still enough. Delicious!
Afterwards I decided to rent skates and go skating, even though I hadn't skated for two or three years.
They didn't have my size of women's skates. I'm size eleven women's. Yeah, huge feet, right?
So I rented men's hockey skates. I tried a size nine first, but they were too small. Then the skate rental lady had me try another air of skates that I think were size nine and a half. And they fit perfectly for my ankles and my feet. They were too long so my toes had a ton of room, but that was easily dealt with. Besides, I like it when my toes aren't crammed into my shoes.
I was able to get out the rental shack and down the steps to the snow with no trouble. Then I had to cross about fiftenn feet of snow to the pond. That was much much harder. I slipped and wobbled as my skates sand unevenly into the snow, sending me lurchng forwards or reeling back.
Miraculosly, I made it to the ice without mishap. Mishap being defined as falling over.
The ice at the entry was extreamly roungh and I bumped and wobbled over it to get to the smoother area. The smooth area was a little better. I still wobbled, but from normal I-haven't-skated-in-several-years balence issues than the the-ice-needs-a-zambonie! type of balence issues.
My cousin and brother were also out there, along with a couple other of the people with whom we were tubing.
Naturally, Michael was already whizzing around. Though in my defense I hadn't skated in several years and he had skated more recently. I felt like a beginer skater as I carefully skated. My arms were held stiffly in front of me, elbows crooked slightly. I stepped more than I really skated, and my torso was really quite stiff.
Michael was skating circles around our little group. Being his slightly competitive sister, I tried to chase him, simply speeding up my skating. But of course, he had already re-discovered those powerful gliding strokes that send you flying accross the ice.
I gave up. Instead of chasing him I worked on turning. I turn to the left the best. There's just someting about it that works for me.
When I bored of turning, I chased my brother again. This time I noticed the sweeping gliding motions he used and tried to mimich them. Naturally, I couldn't do it.
Once again I gave up chasing him. But this time instead of practicing turning I concentrated on gliding. During this time I balenced on one foot then tried to gracefully switch feet, pushing myself powerfully along. I also kept ordering my arms to relax by my sides and I ordered the rest of my body to relax. Things don't normaly work as good when you're stiff.
By and by I managed to sweep nicely along. My new technique was much more effective than the previous step-skating I had been doing. I decided it was time for speed.
It's like my piano teacher says. Start slow and when you've got it down slow you can speed it up a little.
I was able to speed around. So then I practiced turns again, but this time at my 'high' speeds.
I can't turn sharply. Just trust me on that one. It will take a lot of practice before I am able to turn in a circle less than fifteen feet in diameter from a higher speed without falling. (ouch ouc ouch! My knees!) My knees stung for a few minutes after that.
Later I was able to nearly keep up with Michael at my highest speed. Which is pretty amazing considering he's this extreamly athletic guy who has been able to beat me in races and nearly all things athletic for about four years now. Athletics generally aren't my thing.
Of course I had to fall again. This time I was speeding around and the toe of my skate caught in a crack that needed zambonieing. Ker-thunk! I hit the ice again. And once again my knees hit first. Owchie. I knew I'd have a bruise later.
While the smarting stopped, I watched Michael preform controlled fall after controlled fall. Several people were kinda staring as this skater, who had looked so good before, hit the ground time and time again. I never tried falling on purpose. Not my thing. Falling on purpose would probably ingure me more that falling by accident.
A while later we returned the skated and tubed for a bit. Then we felt like skating again and wished we had waited the return the skates. That was when we made a welcome discovery. If you rented skates, returned them, then wanted to skate again you could do so without paying again! So I got another pair of skates. This pair pinched my ankles and the blades were off kilter, forcing my feet to turn out. So it wasnt as fun as before and I couldn't go nearly as fast. It was soon getting dark. We returned our skates for the last time and headed off for a bit more tubing before we left.
The powdery snow stung sharply on any exposed skin as we nearly flew donw the hill. Soon enough we were freezing and popped back into the lodge. Turns out five minute later we were heading back out to the parking lot where we were counted and packed onto the bus. We stopped at Tim Hortan's on the way home. An had texted her dad to pick her up there and didn't stay. Michael and I sat mutely at a table with our snak and waited for the time when we would get bak on the bus.
Half an hour later we stepped off the bus into the church parking lot. We thanked our leader for organizing this and saw our mom waiting for us in the truck. We climbed in and soon were home.
And that was my adventure with skating and tubing. Oh yes. I did get bruises. Horrific bruises the size of 2 - 2 1/2 inch diameter circles below my kneecaps. It's two weeks later on Sturday and I still have shadowy bruise marks on my knees. My bruises don't seem to heal quickly.
Anyways, till next time!
Well, as my un-unique title says, I went skating and tubing.
It was with my youth group (as all out-of-the-house activities of mine usually are). We all headed over to the church at a mite before 10:00 in the morning. We registered ourselves with our youth leader and sat around in the gym-type-area to wait for departure. After all kids had arrived (it was bothe senior and junior youth) we all piled into a bus. Which was an experience for me. I hadn't ridden in a bus for ten years. I'm homeschooled, that's why. So we bounced and jounced around in the stale smelling vehicle for about 45 - 50 minutes, finaly ariving at our destination.
We all piled out of the bus in the snow covered parking lot and stood still (for the most part) while our bus driver parked. While we were standing around, my brother, Michael as I call him online, dicovered a unwelcome fact. He had forgotten his gloves. And we were going to be there all day.
We headed dwn to the lower parking lot (where busses don't fit) and stood in lines to get our passes for skating and tubing. I attached mine to a zipper on a pocket.
I depositied my lunch inside the lodge (like everyone else did) and headed off to the tube hill with my cousin, An, and a few other people. We had a few slides down, then most of us got cold and headed back inside (not me as I had gloves, a touque, a zippie, my winter jacket, jeans, a pair of athletic pants, and thermals on). Besides. It was lunch time. I took one more slide down then zipped into the lodge. My lunch didn't seem very appetizing (granola bars, cheese, and something else) so I got an over-priced item from the small restraunte thing inside. I ordered chicken strips and fires along with two hot chocolates (one for my half frozen little brother). Those fries were some of the best fries I have ever had! They were crispy-ish on the ouside and creamy on the inside. They didn't have as muh salt as McDonald's fries, but still enough. Delicious!
Afterwards I decided to rent skates and go skating, even though I hadn't skated for two or three years.
They didn't have my size of women's skates. I'm size eleven women's. Yeah, huge feet, right?
So I rented men's hockey skates. I tried a size nine first, but they were too small. Then the skate rental lady had me try another air of skates that I think were size nine and a half. And they fit perfectly for my ankles and my feet. They were too long so my toes had a ton of room, but that was easily dealt with. Besides, I like it when my toes aren't crammed into my shoes.
I was able to get out the rental shack and down the steps to the snow with no trouble. Then I had to cross about fiftenn feet of snow to the pond. That was much much harder. I slipped and wobbled as my skates sand unevenly into the snow, sending me lurchng forwards or reeling back.
Miraculosly, I made it to the ice without mishap. Mishap being defined as falling over.
The ice at the entry was extreamly roungh and I bumped and wobbled over it to get to the smoother area. The smooth area was a little better. I still wobbled, but from normal I-haven't-skated-in-several-years balence issues than the the-ice-needs-a-zambonie! type of balence issues.
My cousin and brother were also out there, along with a couple other of the people with whom we were tubing.
Naturally, Michael was already whizzing around. Though in my defense I hadn't skated in several years and he had skated more recently. I felt like a beginer skater as I carefully skated. My arms were held stiffly in front of me, elbows crooked slightly. I stepped more than I really skated, and my torso was really quite stiff.
Michael was skating circles around our little group. Being his slightly competitive sister, I tried to chase him, simply speeding up my skating. But of course, he had already re-discovered those powerful gliding strokes that send you flying accross the ice.
I gave up. Instead of chasing him I worked on turning. I turn to the left the best. There's just someting about it that works for me.
When I bored of turning, I chased my brother again. This time I noticed the sweeping gliding motions he used and tried to mimich them. Naturally, I couldn't do it.
Once again I gave up chasing him. But this time instead of practicing turning I concentrated on gliding. During this time I balenced on one foot then tried to gracefully switch feet, pushing myself powerfully along. I also kept ordering my arms to relax by my sides and I ordered the rest of my body to relax. Things don't normaly work as good when you're stiff.
By and by I managed to sweep nicely along. My new technique was much more effective than the previous step-skating I had been doing. I decided it was time for speed.
It's like my piano teacher says. Start slow and when you've got it down slow you can speed it up a little.
I was able to speed around. So then I practiced turns again, but this time at my 'high' speeds.
I can't turn sharply. Just trust me on that one. It will take a lot of practice before I am able to turn in a circle less than fifteen feet in diameter from a higher speed without falling. (ouch ouc ouch! My knees!) My knees stung for a few minutes after that.
Later I was able to nearly keep up with Michael at my highest speed. Which is pretty amazing considering he's this extreamly athletic guy who has been able to beat me in races and nearly all things athletic for about four years now. Athletics generally aren't my thing.
Of course I had to fall again. This time I was speeding around and the toe of my skate caught in a crack that needed zambonieing. Ker-thunk! I hit the ice again. And once again my knees hit first. Owchie. I knew I'd have a bruise later.
While the smarting stopped, I watched Michael preform controlled fall after controlled fall. Several people were kinda staring as this skater, who had looked so good before, hit the ground time and time again. I never tried falling on purpose. Not my thing. Falling on purpose would probably ingure me more that falling by accident.
A while later we returned the skated and tubed for a bit. Then we felt like skating again and wished we had waited the return the skates. That was when we made a welcome discovery. If you rented skates, returned them, then wanted to skate again you could do so without paying again! So I got another pair of skates. This pair pinched my ankles and the blades were off kilter, forcing my feet to turn out. So it wasnt as fun as before and I couldn't go nearly as fast. It was soon getting dark. We returned our skates for the last time and headed off for a bit more tubing before we left.
The powdery snow stung sharply on any exposed skin as we nearly flew donw the hill. Soon enough we were freezing and popped back into the lodge. Turns out five minute later we were heading back out to the parking lot where we were counted and packed onto the bus. We stopped at Tim Hortan's on the way home. An had texted her dad to pick her up there and didn't stay. Michael and I sat mutely at a table with our snak and waited for the time when we would get bak on the bus.
Half an hour later we stepped off the bus into the church parking lot. We thanked our leader for organizing this and saw our mom waiting for us in the truck. We climbed in and soon were home.
And that was my adventure with skating and tubing. Oh yes. I did get bruises. Horrific bruises the size of 2 - 2 1/2 inch diameter circles below my kneecaps. It's two weeks later on Sturday and I still have shadowy bruise marks on my knees. My bruises don't seem to heal quickly.
Anyways, till next time!
Sunday, 15 January 2012
A Pleasent Suprise
Well I logged on today and noticed I have a new follower! Thank you Jenna for coming to my rather mundane little blog.
And Nina also followed a while ago, but I forgot to metion her in the busyness of school.
Would you believe I've done schoolwork every day for seven consecutive days? Yeesh! I don't like that, but it's my own fault, really. I should actually follow the schedule my mother writes out for me instead of procrastinating until I'm a week away from exams! Really, I should.
My news for the past while.
I have been teaching my horse manners! (Yay for manners!) She used to be a grump if you tried to pet her while she was eating. She'd pin her ears back and swings her head at you, looking as if she were going to bite. She'd also swish her tail sharply, possibly lashing you with the course hairs. She only ever threatened to kick the cows or dogs, though. Never threatened to kick me or another person.
But anyways, I've been correcting her manners in an extreamly simple way. Step one, stand beside her and touch her shoulder, and keep touching it until her ears unpin. If she gave me the "Ima gonna bite you" look, I'd just say "Ay" (Like 'hay', but without the 'h'. This also works on little cousins. It's all in the tome of voice) or I'd snap my fingers. It's so funny. She's almost afraid of me snapping my fingers. I discovered this little trick when I was at the gate to the pasture and she reached over to bite me (not something she does often. I think she was having a mare day). The first thing that came to mind was to snap my fingers to warn her off. So I did, moving my hand forward with a flourish. To my great suprise, her head jerked up and she took a step back. I've used that ever since.
The next step I did involved petting her shoulder more, then walking around her to pet her other side. Because of the setup of my feeder for her (a bathtub with a grate made of rebar and hinges of pipe. Yep. Homemade. Gotta love it. This contraption is set on bricks and any rain drains out the bathtub drains. Ingenious, no?) and its positioning at the barn wall, I began Rosie's manner training on her right side, then added the left later. It's a good exercise for her mind.
After that I brought my spare lead rope into the hay barn, pulling it out when Rosie came when I fed her. I would pet her with the rope. Hopefully she'll be ewasier to catch due to this.
Just recently I've added picking up her front hooves to the routine. Soon I'll add the back hooves.
I only do the hooves and rope in the morning because it's light out then and I can spot the icey areas. I do not want to slip and startle her! Though my little 11 year old cousin did so when I let her feed Rosie the one time. Fortunantly, Rosie only sidestepped as Naomi fell against her. Rosie also gave her an annoyed look, but seemed to understand that Naomi is young and can't quite keep her balence on the ice the same way I can.
And that is Rosie's manners training. She's so fuzzy for the winter right now.
The dogs are doing great as well. They are both very near to their final height, which is probably about two feet tall. I haven't really measured. Cub has retained his fluffy coat, though it is now about four or five inches long (due to the Border Collie hair) and really really thick (due to the Black Lab hair). It's also rather wavy, which could be a resuld of either breed, I think. He is built like a Lab, looks like a Lab, acts like a Lab, and thinks like a Lab. He enjoys tackle games the most. He is still black, except for his front paws, the very tipmost tip of his tail, and a white stripe on his chest.
Sage is a couple inches shorter than Cub, and is much more Border Collie. She is built like a BC, she looks like a BC, she acts like a BC with a tad of Lab, and she thinks like a BC. She's very cute, with a bald face (using horse term here) Her white face runs down her chest and neck. Her belly is white and her front legs are mostly white. The bottoms of her hinds legs are white as well. The last four inches of her tail is white. Her ears and the back of her head and neck are white. She is built for speed and is one fast little blighter. She chased a guy on a bike down our hill and kept up with him all the way.
Well, that's my news for now. Mre later!
Enjoy your day, my friends!
And Nina also followed a while ago, but I forgot to metion her in the busyness of school.
Would you believe I've done schoolwork every day for seven consecutive days? Yeesh! I don't like that, but it's my own fault, really. I should actually follow the schedule my mother writes out for me instead of procrastinating until I'm a week away from exams! Really, I should.
My news for the past while.
I have been teaching my horse manners! (Yay for manners!) She used to be a grump if you tried to pet her while she was eating. She'd pin her ears back and swings her head at you, looking as if she were going to bite. She'd also swish her tail sharply, possibly lashing you with the course hairs. She only ever threatened to kick the cows or dogs, though. Never threatened to kick me or another person.
But anyways, I've been correcting her manners in an extreamly simple way. Step one, stand beside her and touch her shoulder, and keep touching it until her ears unpin. If she gave me the "Ima gonna bite you" look, I'd just say "Ay" (Like 'hay', but without the 'h'. This also works on little cousins. It's all in the tome of voice) or I'd snap my fingers. It's so funny. She's almost afraid of me snapping my fingers. I discovered this little trick when I was at the gate to the pasture and she reached over to bite me (not something she does often. I think she was having a mare day). The first thing that came to mind was to snap my fingers to warn her off. So I did, moving my hand forward with a flourish. To my great suprise, her head jerked up and she took a step back. I've used that ever since.
The next step I did involved petting her shoulder more, then walking around her to pet her other side. Because of the setup of my feeder for her (a bathtub with a grate made of rebar and hinges of pipe. Yep. Homemade. Gotta love it. This contraption is set on bricks and any rain drains out the bathtub drains. Ingenious, no?) and its positioning at the barn wall, I began Rosie's manner training on her right side, then added the left later. It's a good exercise for her mind.
After that I brought my spare lead rope into the hay barn, pulling it out when Rosie came when I fed her. I would pet her with the rope. Hopefully she'll be ewasier to catch due to this.
Just recently I've added picking up her front hooves to the routine. Soon I'll add the back hooves.
I only do the hooves and rope in the morning because it's light out then and I can spot the icey areas. I do not want to slip and startle her! Though my little 11 year old cousin did so when I let her feed Rosie the one time. Fortunantly, Rosie only sidestepped as Naomi fell against her. Rosie also gave her an annoyed look, but seemed to understand that Naomi is young and can't quite keep her balence on the ice the same way I can.
And that is Rosie's manners training. She's so fuzzy for the winter right now.
The dogs are doing great as well. They are both very near to their final height, which is probably about two feet tall. I haven't really measured. Cub has retained his fluffy coat, though it is now about four or five inches long (due to the Border Collie hair) and really really thick (due to the Black Lab hair). It's also rather wavy, which could be a resuld of either breed, I think. He is built like a Lab, looks like a Lab, acts like a Lab, and thinks like a Lab. He enjoys tackle games the most. He is still black, except for his front paws, the very tipmost tip of his tail, and a white stripe on his chest.
Sage is a couple inches shorter than Cub, and is much more Border Collie. She is built like a BC, she looks like a BC, she acts like a BC with a tad of Lab, and she thinks like a BC. She's very cute, with a bald face (using horse term here) Her white face runs down her chest and neck. Her belly is white and her front legs are mostly white. The bottoms of her hinds legs are white as well. The last four inches of her tail is white. Her ears and the back of her head and neck are white. She is built for speed and is one fast little blighter. She chased a guy on a bike down our hill and kept up with him all the way.
Well, that's my news for now. Mre later!
Enjoy your day, my friends!
Thursday, 8 December 2011
I nearly broke a rule (and later my hand)...
... and nearly ran in the laser tag place.
So as you may have guessed from that sentance, I went laser tagging.
To begin my story, we shall start at noon, this past Friday. I was slogging through school, as usual, pushing to be done so I could freely enjoy the fun night my youth group was going to have. After a while, I finished it. I had decided that morning to wear contacts, as I didn't know if we would have to wear goggles or not when lasering. Glasses just get in the way.
My mother drove us to the church and my little brother, Michael, and I joined the others who were going. There were the Far twins (identical twins no less. At least they were different things), Ty, Ash, Bry, a guy I didn't know the name of, Jo, and the drivers. Several others would meet us there.
We walked outside into the chill and divied up into car groups. Naturally, since I don't really have any friends at the church, I ended up going with the extra drivers in their van. So I answered questions when asked, and zoned out the rest of the time.
Upon ariving, we first avoided the slew of little kids jumping out of the building, obviously raving about how cool it had been. Then we parked and walked inside. About three arcade games lined one wall, several vending machines on the other. One of the last sides was the desk, and the last either let you into the bathrooms, up the staris to the observation deck for mothers who needed a break from hyper kids, and the entrance to the 'airlock'. Neon colours on black decorated the airlock. Rods lined the walls, holding the vests off the floor in a neat line.
The others of our group caught up with us. Cam, Tal, Pau, and a couple others I didn't know were there to fight with us. Just so you know, Cam is my next door neighbour. That's an important detail for later.
We all signed our names and code names on a peice of paper specially designed for that purpose. I was Blank Parchment. All total, there were twenty of us playing.
The explanation dude, whom I shall call Ron for the sake of having a name attatched to him, gathered us 'round the entrance to the airlock. He then proceeded to tell us about the various ways to fire the 'faser'. Or is it spelt 'phaser'?
Anywho, to fire normal single shots, simply pinch the metal sensors at the end of the gun and squeeze the trigger and release it.
To fire machine gun style, have your fingers on the metal, and squeeze and hold the trigger. Release when you wish to stop firing.
To fire a bomb, release the sensors, pull the trigger and hold it, then aim in the direction of as many people as possible. After that, hold the sensers again. KaBoom! You've shot a bomb!
After that he stepped bak into the airlock and read off our code names and the vest we would wear. I was Green18. A lovely rhyme, but that's beside the point. The point is that Cam was also on my team. Yay for me! He plays Halo incase you were wondering, which you probably weren't, and that means he's really good at games like this. And Michael was on my team.
It was then I discovered that I had made the mistake of wearing a nice purple plaid-ish shirt that didn't seem very light coloured. At the time. I also didn't think my jeans were light coloured, but the black light proved me wrong. I glowed. It looked cool, when we played, but I glowed. In the dark. So I was an easy target.
We pulled on the sweat smelling vests and unclipped our fasers so we could hold them further than three inches away from us. The fasers were attatched to the vest via a cable thing that comunicated with the vest and recorded hits, both by you and on you.
After Ron explained the rules in a deadpan-funny-slightly-sarcastic way that I thought was funny (though I hid my giggles), he released us into the arena. First we had to shoot a target on the wall, whereupon our gun would growl 'Go' at us and start ticking. That meant we had about one minute to find a good spot to start.
Then the music began playing and the fog machines began pumping. And it rocked. I speed walked around, crouching behind obsticles and checking out the ramp/balcony things that lined the long sides of the room. I held my gun one handed in front of me and shot at all the reds I saw. But they always got me before I got them. Around ten minutes later, catching my breath in a hidey hole, I puzzled over the fact that everyone held their guns two handed. And then it dawned on me. Of course! Ron had shown us the sensers and told us how to fire! After calling myself stupid and forgetful, I leaped out and began shooting everyone... properly. And they got hit! So did I, but I didn't care! I had remembered how to shoot!
All too soon the game was over. We filed into the airlock, shooting the target thing again at Ron's prompting. Then we hung up our vests and milled out into the front room. We gathered around the TV that served as a scoreboard. I didn't do too badly. I was 16th out of twenty. Cam, of course, was first. No suprise there!
We each were given a small sheet of paper with our statistics on them. I had a 3.98 acuracy. 728 shots Oh boy. I laughed at that.
Ron let us compare for a minute, then asked if we wanted the same teams for the second game or not. We voted for mixing it up. Michael was on my team again, but Cam wasn't. Never mind that, though! This time I knew how to shoot! I was once again Green18. We entered, shot the target, and dash-walked off to a good place to start. The music started. I was in my element, so to speak. I whirled around stealthily, shooting the reds and a few of the greens by accident. Fortunantly, that didn't count against us, as Ron had explained. I got hit a lot. I didn't think I hit much though.
Now for the part that was more than a little awkward.
For a couple weeks now, I've suspected that Cam has a girlfriend. My older brother and I ran into them at the movie store. Cam brought her to laser tag.
So the part that was awkward was when I rounded a corner, having seen glimmers of their vests in the dark. Cam was red, she was green. On the other side of a slatted barrier, I shot at them, then ran off as I saw how close they were. It looked like in the dark of the room they had been about to kiss! Naurally, I didn't stay around to find out.
All too soon, the music ended and the fog cleared. We removed our vests, retreived our new score sheets and veiwed our results. I was now in twelth place, with an 8.30 acuracy, about 658 shots fired. Much improved, no?
Of course, one guy, not Cam, had decided to go for acuracy alone. He got a 24.00 acuracy! *gaw drop*
Out in the parking lot, we decides that we'd go to Timmies for some refreshment. I got a chocolate milk and a sourcream glazed donut.
And then we drove home. Or at least, back to the church. Co, the youth leader, drove Be and me home the rest of the way.
And that, my dear friends, was my night of laser tagging.
So as you may have guessed from that sentance, I went laser tagging.
To begin my story, we shall start at noon, this past Friday. I was slogging through school, as usual, pushing to be done so I could freely enjoy the fun night my youth group was going to have. After a while, I finished it. I had decided that morning to wear contacts, as I didn't know if we would have to wear goggles or not when lasering. Glasses just get in the way.
My mother drove us to the church and my little brother, Michael, and I joined the others who were going. There were the Far twins (identical twins no less. At least they were different things), Ty, Ash, Bry, a guy I didn't know the name of, Jo, and the drivers. Several others would meet us there.
We walked outside into the chill and divied up into car groups. Naturally, since I don't really have any friends at the church, I ended up going with the extra drivers in their van. So I answered questions when asked, and zoned out the rest of the time.
Upon ariving, we first avoided the slew of little kids jumping out of the building, obviously raving about how cool it had been. Then we parked and walked inside. About three arcade games lined one wall, several vending machines on the other. One of the last sides was the desk, and the last either let you into the bathrooms, up the staris to the observation deck for mothers who needed a break from hyper kids, and the entrance to the 'airlock'. Neon colours on black decorated the airlock. Rods lined the walls, holding the vests off the floor in a neat line.
The others of our group caught up with us. Cam, Tal, Pau, and a couple others I didn't know were there to fight with us. Just so you know, Cam is my next door neighbour. That's an important detail for later.
We all signed our names and code names on a peice of paper specially designed for that purpose. I was Blank Parchment. All total, there were twenty of us playing.
The explanation dude, whom I shall call Ron for the sake of having a name attatched to him, gathered us 'round the entrance to the airlock. He then proceeded to tell us about the various ways to fire the 'faser'. Or is it spelt 'phaser'?
Anywho, to fire normal single shots, simply pinch the metal sensors at the end of the gun and squeeze the trigger and release it.
To fire machine gun style, have your fingers on the metal, and squeeze and hold the trigger. Release when you wish to stop firing.
To fire a bomb, release the sensors, pull the trigger and hold it, then aim in the direction of as many people as possible. After that, hold the sensers again. KaBoom! You've shot a bomb!
After that he stepped bak into the airlock and read off our code names and the vest we would wear. I was Green18. A lovely rhyme, but that's beside the point. The point is that Cam was also on my team. Yay for me! He plays Halo incase you were wondering, which you probably weren't, and that means he's really good at games like this. And Michael was on my team.
It was then I discovered that I had made the mistake of wearing a nice purple plaid-ish shirt that didn't seem very light coloured. At the time. I also didn't think my jeans were light coloured, but the black light proved me wrong. I glowed. It looked cool, when we played, but I glowed. In the dark. So I was an easy target.
We pulled on the sweat smelling vests and unclipped our fasers so we could hold them further than three inches away from us. The fasers were attatched to the vest via a cable thing that comunicated with the vest and recorded hits, both by you and on you.
After Ron explained the rules in a deadpan-funny-slightly-sarcastic way that I thought was funny (though I hid my giggles), he released us into the arena. First we had to shoot a target on the wall, whereupon our gun would growl 'Go' at us and start ticking. That meant we had about one minute to find a good spot to start.
Then the music began playing and the fog machines began pumping. And it rocked. I speed walked around, crouching behind obsticles and checking out the ramp/balcony things that lined the long sides of the room. I held my gun one handed in front of me and shot at all the reds I saw. But they always got me before I got them. Around ten minutes later, catching my breath in a hidey hole, I puzzled over the fact that everyone held their guns two handed. And then it dawned on me. Of course! Ron had shown us the sensers and told us how to fire! After calling myself stupid and forgetful, I leaped out and began shooting everyone... properly. And they got hit! So did I, but I didn't care! I had remembered how to shoot!
All too soon the game was over. We filed into the airlock, shooting the target thing again at Ron's prompting. Then we hung up our vests and milled out into the front room. We gathered around the TV that served as a scoreboard. I didn't do too badly. I was 16th out of twenty. Cam, of course, was first. No suprise there!
We each were given a small sheet of paper with our statistics on them. I had a 3.98 acuracy. 728 shots Oh boy. I laughed at that.
Ron let us compare for a minute, then asked if we wanted the same teams for the second game or not. We voted for mixing it up. Michael was on my team again, but Cam wasn't. Never mind that, though! This time I knew how to shoot! I was once again Green18. We entered, shot the target, and dash-walked off to a good place to start. The music started. I was in my element, so to speak. I whirled around stealthily, shooting the reds and a few of the greens by accident. Fortunantly, that didn't count against us, as Ron had explained. I got hit a lot. I didn't think I hit much though.
Now for the part that was more than a little awkward.
For a couple weeks now, I've suspected that Cam has a girlfriend. My older brother and I ran into them at the movie store. Cam brought her to laser tag.
So the part that was awkward was when I rounded a corner, having seen glimmers of their vests in the dark. Cam was red, she was green. On the other side of a slatted barrier, I shot at them, then ran off as I saw how close they were. It looked like in the dark of the room they had been about to kiss! Naurally, I didn't stay around to find out.
All too soon, the music ended and the fog cleared. We removed our vests, retreived our new score sheets and veiwed our results. I was now in twelth place, with an 8.30 acuracy, about 658 shots fired. Much improved, no?
Of course, one guy, not Cam, had decided to go for acuracy alone. He got a 24.00 acuracy! *gaw drop*
Out in the parking lot, we decides that we'd go to Timmies for some refreshment. I got a chocolate milk and a sourcream glazed donut.
And then we drove home. Or at least, back to the church. Co, the youth leader, drove Be and me home the rest of the way.
And that, my dear friends, was my night of laser tagging.
And now for my tale of nearly breaking my hand.
Yes, my hand is/has been/did bruise. And it's another result of youth group.
Basically, we were playing a type of tag where there's a zombie (who can't bend his/her knees and must walk/run/shuffle around with a hand on their head at all times) and all the rest are humans. Each hunman has a sock. If a zombie is hit by a sock twice, they must o back to the regeneration room and stay for a couple seconds. Then they can come back and be fierce again. The zombies have to tag everyone. The humans try to eveade.
Now in the first game, It turns out that An was one of the zombies. I suspected as much because I had heard her get tagged when our youth leader was choosing zombies. So when she turned into a zombie after being out of the room for a minute (a rule I didn't really feel like explaining) She told me to just hit her with my sock twice. So I did, and she went back to the room and stayed there, as this really isn't her type of game. Then I went down a few stairs and was about to open a door when Cory, the leader, burst out roaring with a hand upon his head.
Naturally, I screamed as I did that odd jittery jumpy thing girls do when they get seriously suprised. Needless to say, I was too suprised to run and Cory tagged me. So I was a zombie for the rest of the game.
Then we played it again. I once again was tagged soon into the game. Towrads the end of the game, several (as in, about six) guys had baracaded themselves into a room. They were about to close the door so I ran at it, hopeing that I could at least stop it from closeing then push it open and tag someone.
Well, my plan may have sounded good, but it wasn't. I shoved my hand between the door and doorway without really considering that there were at least four guys putting all their weight into slamming the door shut to keep me out. Cory was the only one I could really see, but a Farmer (not sure which one... they're identical) and Bry and Jo and I think Bev were in there as well. Probably a couple others. And well, none of these guys are exactly small little fellows, except for the Farmer. He's shorter and skinny.
So my fingers on my right hand were crushed in the door. Almost as soon as the door had hit, Cory had yanked it open and was asking if I was all right. I'm pretty proud of my reponse. I didn't cry, though my hand hurt like blue blazes and I couldn't really bend my fingers. And I managed to make a cherant statement concerning my fingers and headed back to the room. I'd gotten hit by well over two socks and decided to use the room to recover my composure a little more.
There I looked upon my dear hand. The joint just below my fingernail on my middle finger had a few lovely scrapes that stung and hurt a lot. The joint below that had what apeared to be a combanation of a blister and a wart that most certainly hadn't been there before. My ring finger was quite red and swelling a little. My pointer finger was also red and swelling. My that middle finger, oh that middle finger! It was swelling nicely. Very nicely.
Well, by now I had recovered enough and bent my fingers, showing they weren't broken. But oh how my hand hurt! Even now, even two minutes after being slammed.
Then the rest of the group came trouping back into the room. Zombies had broken through the last defenses and the game was over.
Cory saw me and again asked how my hand was. I smiled, a rather painful smile, and held up my hand, bending the fingers for him. "Better, sorta," was my reply.
A girl in the group called Adi looked at me and asked what happened to it. Cory answered before I did. I just showed Adi my hand. She made the appropriate suck-in-your-breath and owch and ooo noises. Then a couple others looked.
After that Cory said we'd play one more game of it. He said they'd do better this time. He had a joking smile as he said this time they'd break fingers. I just rolled my eyes.
My hand still stung and ached, but I played anyway. In that game I ran dowstairs and hid behind a pillar disguised as a tree in a dark room. Of course, the zombied knew that this room is a favourite room amoung humans and two soon came. I circled the tree trunk as the zombies went around the other sider, heading for one of the Farmers. I made a break for the open door. Bry saw me and he ran at me, tagging me before I reached the door. Being tagged while running threw off my balence and I stumbled into the wall. Out of reflex I said, "Ow." Bry imeadiatly was sorry and apologized. Then I apologized to him for saying ow wehn I really wasn't hurt. I'm sure he must have thought me slightly ditzy then. Oh well. I ran out the door and helped other zombies break open Cory's hiding spot. The rest of the game passed without incodent and we returned to the room safe and sound.
Now, we almost always go to McDonald's after youth. An and I drove there. Bry, Bev, Jo, and a junior youth, Bri, were already there. (Bri is Bry and Bev's sister) Bev asked me how my hand was. I had a slightly spacey sounding relpy along the lines of, "Oh! It's fine! Much better." He nodded in a way that seemed to say 'Oh that's good.' Then Bri, who is a fun girl and decently mature for her age (which is a year younger than me little brother whom I shall now call Micheal and I'll call my older brother James for the sake of them having names. Not that they're part of this story) asked me what happened to my hand. "Oh, it got slammed in a door during a game," I said as I showed her my hand. She winced at the sight of my red appendage. I looked at it again. The swelling had increased, especially on my middle finger. The second joint was now one and a half times the normal size.
When I got home, I had fun entertaining Micheal and James with my tale. I also had fun soothing the pain with an ice pack from the freezer.
Now, several days later, my pointer finger has an interesting purpley blue look to it. Sort of an underlying glow, you know? The knuckles on most of my other fingers were also briused. The back of my thumb has the blue tinge tio it and is quite tender. I'm actually hoping that the visible bruises will stay 'till next youth group. I want to show Cory the bruises he and the others gave me. Maybe it'll encourage them to not slam so hard.
Basically, we were playing a type of tag where there's a zombie (who can't bend his/her knees and must walk/run/shuffle around with a hand on their head at all times) and all the rest are humans. Each hunman has a sock. If a zombie is hit by a sock twice, they must o back to the regeneration room and stay for a couple seconds. Then they can come back and be fierce again. The zombies have to tag everyone. The humans try to eveade.
Now in the first game, It turns out that An was one of the zombies. I suspected as much because I had heard her get tagged when our youth leader was choosing zombies. So when she turned into a zombie after being out of the room for a minute (a rule I didn't really feel like explaining) She told me to just hit her with my sock twice. So I did, and she went back to the room and stayed there, as this really isn't her type of game. Then I went down a few stairs and was about to open a door when Cory, the leader, burst out roaring with a hand upon his head.
Naturally, I screamed as I did that odd jittery jumpy thing girls do when they get seriously suprised. Needless to say, I was too suprised to run and Cory tagged me. So I was a zombie for the rest of the game.
Then we played it again. I once again was tagged soon into the game. Towrads the end of the game, several (as in, about six) guys had baracaded themselves into a room. They were about to close the door so I ran at it, hopeing that I could at least stop it from closeing then push it open and tag someone.
Well, my plan may have sounded good, but it wasn't. I shoved my hand between the door and doorway without really considering that there were at least four guys putting all their weight into slamming the door shut to keep me out. Cory was the only one I could really see, but a Farmer (not sure which one... they're identical) and Bry and Jo and I think Bev were in there as well. Probably a couple others. And well, none of these guys are exactly small little fellows, except for the Farmer. He's shorter and skinny.
So my fingers on my right hand were crushed in the door. Almost as soon as the door had hit, Cory had yanked it open and was asking if I was all right. I'm pretty proud of my reponse. I didn't cry, though my hand hurt like blue blazes and I couldn't really bend my fingers. And I managed to make a cherant statement concerning my fingers and headed back to the room. I'd gotten hit by well over two socks and decided to use the room to recover my composure a little more.
There I looked upon my dear hand. The joint just below my fingernail on my middle finger had a few lovely scrapes that stung and hurt a lot. The joint below that had what apeared to be a combanation of a blister and a wart that most certainly hadn't been there before. My ring finger was quite red and swelling a little. My pointer finger was also red and swelling. My that middle finger, oh that middle finger! It was swelling nicely. Very nicely.
Well, by now I had recovered enough and bent my fingers, showing they weren't broken. But oh how my hand hurt! Even now, even two minutes after being slammed.
Then the rest of the group came trouping back into the room. Zombies had broken through the last defenses and the game was over.
Cory saw me and again asked how my hand was. I smiled, a rather painful smile, and held up my hand, bending the fingers for him. "Better, sorta," was my reply.
A girl in the group called Adi looked at me and asked what happened to it. Cory answered before I did. I just showed Adi my hand. She made the appropriate suck-in-your-breath and owch and ooo noises. Then a couple others looked.
After that Cory said we'd play one more game of it. He said they'd do better this time. He had a joking smile as he said this time they'd break fingers. I just rolled my eyes.
My hand still stung and ached, but I played anyway. In that game I ran dowstairs and hid behind a pillar disguised as a tree in a dark room. Of course, the zombied knew that this room is a favourite room amoung humans and two soon came. I circled the tree trunk as the zombies went around the other sider, heading for one of the Farmers. I made a break for the open door. Bry saw me and he ran at me, tagging me before I reached the door. Being tagged while running threw off my balence and I stumbled into the wall. Out of reflex I said, "Ow." Bry imeadiatly was sorry and apologized. Then I apologized to him for saying ow wehn I really wasn't hurt. I'm sure he must have thought me slightly ditzy then. Oh well. I ran out the door and helped other zombies break open Cory's hiding spot. The rest of the game passed without incodent and we returned to the room safe and sound.
Now, we almost always go to McDonald's after youth. An and I drove there. Bry, Bev, Jo, and a junior youth, Bri, were already there. (Bri is Bry and Bev's sister) Bev asked me how my hand was. I had a slightly spacey sounding relpy along the lines of, "Oh! It's fine! Much better." He nodded in a way that seemed to say 'Oh that's good.' Then Bri, who is a fun girl and decently mature for her age (which is a year younger than me little brother whom I shall now call Micheal and I'll call my older brother James for the sake of them having names. Not that they're part of this story) asked me what happened to my hand. "Oh, it got slammed in a door during a game," I said as I showed her my hand. She winced at the sight of my red appendage. I looked at it again. The swelling had increased, especially on my middle finger. The second joint was now one and a half times the normal size.
When I got home, I had fun entertaining Micheal and James with my tale. I also had fun soothing the pain with an ice pack from the freezer.
Now, several days later, my pointer finger has an interesting purpley blue look to it. Sort of an underlying glow, you know? The knuckles on most of my other fingers were also briused. The back of my thumb has the blue tinge tio it and is quite tender. I'm actually hoping that the visible bruises will stay 'till next youth group. I want to show Cory the bruises he and the others gave me. Maybe it'll encourage them to not slam so hard.
Friday, 25 November 2011
A New Match
You would remember yesterday when I was feeling so down. Today is different. (Oh how I love female hormones! NOT!!)
Today I look out the window. It's a differnt window this time. Is see soft shadows cast on the garage roof. Tall, graceful trees reach high. Their leaves don't seem as brown today. They're more of a yellowy green. And today I see the evergreens as well. They too reach high. Higher even than the trees with leaves. The ky is not gray any longer. It's a glorious blue, though it is half covered by clouds. But these clouds aren't the single gray plane I veiwed yesterday. Today, the top of the clouds shine out white, the bottoms are gray with a touch of blue. They drif accross the sky from left to right, like when you read the pages of a book. The sunshine is golden and warm.
My mood may not exactlymatch what I see outside, but it sure is better than yesterday! I don't feel the same lifelessness as before. I can see the green in the leaves now. And my sky is a beautiful blue.
What a glorious change.
Tonight I'm going laser tagging with my new youth group. Oh that's right! I haven't updated you on my youth situation!
Let's start at the beggining (a very good place to start!).
This year I have gone to youth group at a church in town, instead of youth at my church. You see, my church has all of six kids who are of youth age (meaning kids from twelve to seventeen). And not all of us came to youth. So after a while, Mr. F (our over-sixty year old youth leader), decided that this year youth would be the exact opposite of last year. Instead of 'if you don't get a call otherwise, assume there's youth', it became 'if you don't get a call otherwise, assume there's no youth'. Yeah, that's really what happened!
So, my cousin An and I (yes, gramaticly correct would be 'me' in that sentance, but whatever) decided to try a youth group in town. Well, I convinced her of it. But the first time we went, we accidently ended up tagging along on the junior youth's night out. So that was... intersting. There were a couple of 'mature' juniors there, so we talked with them and the senior who had come along to help out. All in all, it wasn't a bad night.
Then the next time we went to the proper age group. There, I won half of the games we played and gained two Micky D gift cards as a prize. And I gained a small reputation as the girl who wins. So it was fun.
Then I went to California for a wedding, came home, and went to youth again. Then I was off to Saskatchewan for a fun event. I missed one time then. I came home sick and stayed sick long enough to miss another time. The day I was feeling better, my brother and I were in the movie rental store picking out something for family night. There we ran into our neighbour and a girl I can only assume was his girlfriend. She definantly wasn't his sister. Anyways, he asked what we had been doing lately (not much, was my brother's reply) and I said I'd been gone and then been sick. And then he nodded and said that that must be why I wasn't at youth. I was only able to nod. As far as I know, NO ONE has ever noticed I've been gone before! The next time I was able to go to youth, An told be thatshe wouldn't have to answer questions about me being gone this time. Naturally, me being the quiet girl I am, I was amazed that people had not only noticed I was gone, but asked where I was!
So that was interesting.
And now this week (today, tonight really), the senior youth is goin' out laser tagging. It's gonna be fun! (I hope)
Today I look out the window. It's a differnt window this time. Is see soft shadows cast on the garage roof. Tall, graceful trees reach high. Their leaves don't seem as brown today. They're more of a yellowy green. And today I see the evergreens as well. They too reach high. Higher even than the trees with leaves. The ky is not gray any longer. It's a glorious blue, though it is half covered by clouds. But these clouds aren't the single gray plane I veiwed yesterday. Today, the top of the clouds shine out white, the bottoms are gray with a touch of blue. They drif accross the sky from left to right, like when you read the pages of a book. The sunshine is golden and warm.
My mood may not exactlymatch what I see outside, but it sure is better than yesterday! I don't feel the same lifelessness as before. I can see the green in the leaves now. And my sky is a beautiful blue.
What a glorious change.
Tonight I'm going laser tagging with my new youth group. Oh that's right! I haven't updated you on my youth situation!
Let's start at the beggining (a very good place to start!).
This year I have gone to youth group at a church in town, instead of youth at my church. You see, my church has all of six kids who are of youth age (meaning kids from twelve to seventeen). And not all of us came to youth. So after a while, Mr. F (our over-sixty year old youth leader), decided that this year youth would be the exact opposite of last year. Instead of 'if you don't get a call otherwise, assume there's youth', it became 'if you don't get a call otherwise, assume there's no youth'. Yeah, that's really what happened!
So, my cousin An and I (yes, gramaticly correct would be 'me' in that sentance, but whatever) decided to try a youth group in town. Well, I convinced her of it. But the first time we went, we accidently ended up tagging along on the junior youth's night out. So that was... intersting. There were a couple of 'mature' juniors there, so we talked with them and the senior who had come along to help out. All in all, it wasn't a bad night.
Then the next time we went to the proper age group. There, I won half of the games we played and gained two Micky D gift cards as a prize. And I gained a small reputation as the girl who wins. So it was fun.
Then I went to California for a wedding, came home, and went to youth again. Then I was off to Saskatchewan for a fun event. I missed one time then. I came home sick and stayed sick long enough to miss another time. The day I was feeling better, my brother and I were in the movie rental store picking out something for family night. There we ran into our neighbour and a girl I can only assume was his girlfriend. She definantly wasn't his sister. Anyways, he asked what we had been doing lately (not much, was my brother's reply) and I said I'd been gone and then been sick. And then he nodded and said that that must be why I wasn't at youth. I was only able to nod. As far as I know, NO ONE has ever noticed I've been gone before! The next time I was able to go to youth, An told be thatshe wouldn't have to answer questions about me being gone this time. Naturally, me being the quiet girl I am, I was amazed that people had not only noticed I was gone, but asked where I was!
So that was interesting.
And now this week (today, tonight really), the senior youth is goin' out laser tagging. It's gonna be fun! (I hope)
Saturday, 29 October 2011
How to Create Good Characters
This is not a post about character as in a person's character. It's about charaters, as in books and movies. Keep reading if you want to find out how I create characters.
First off, create a sort of form/character sheet. I gernerally use this one.
Full name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Personality:
Crush:
GF/BF:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Talents:
Description:
Other:
History:
Now, that seems like a bunch of random things. Here's the same form, but with a breif explanation of each word.
Full name: The full name of your character. Such as Lucy Rae McFly
Nickname: Any nicknames your character might have. Include deragatory/harmful nicknames.
Gender: This is pretty obvious, right?
Age: Pretty obvious?
Personality: Use a series of words to describe your character. Such as 'helpful, mistrusting, angrey, loving, silly, bubbly, fun, annoying' and any other adjectives you might come up with.
Crush: Who your character has a crush on.
GF/BF: Your character's boyfriend or girlfriend, if they have one.
Likes: A list of likes. Could be anything from apples to swimming to hand grenades. Both things your character likes to do, eat, see, and what types of people they like.
Dislikes: The opposite of above.
Strengths: This is different from likes. While your character may like some things, they may not be good at them, or the thing may not be able to be a strength. (like apples... how could that be a strength??)
Weaknesses: Opposite of above. Also things your characer doesn't like doing (such as telling lies)
Talents: Choose a few strengths (or even weaknesses, since telling convincing lies is a talent, albeit one we don't really want) and list them here. This is what your character is really good at.
Description: Describe how your character looks. Don't just find a picture and say 'that's it', take time to describe how your character looks. Let's face it, this is great practice for describing things when you're writing as well.
Other: Anything else not covered by the other topics you wnat to include.
History: This is where you write a bit about your character's past. Try to have a decent sized paragraph on this. You don't have to go in depth, just try to have their life outlined in simple sentances.
Now I shall show you a character I've created with this form. In the story this character is in, he is stranded on an island with the rest of his school class.
Full name: Markus James McKethe
Nickname: Mark
Gender: M
Age: 18
Personality: Kind, honest, loyal, stubbon, a little loud, funny, has ocasional bouts of moodiness, can be serious when needed to be.
Crush: It will most likely end up Rebecca
GF/BF: None
Likes: Jokes, honey, coffee, climbing, soccer and football, frisbees.
Dislikes: Losing, not having coffee, people who can't take a joke.
Strengths: Climbing, finding honey and coffee plants, identifying plants, general althleticism, endurance.
Weaknesses: Sprinting for much more than 25-ish yards, making things that stand up to a stiff breeze, math, art of any kind (he's horrible at it).
Talents: Finding and identifying plants, finding honey, climbing, endurance.
Description: Markus is slightly above average height, at 6 feet tall. He is pretty muscular since he has been working out for four years. He has reddish brown hair and green eyes. He has huge feet that he constantly trips over.
Other: He is very clumsy, klutzy would be a beter discription.
History: Markus was born to a 17 year-old girl who made a huge mistake. She knew she wasn't ready for taking care of an infant, so she put him up for adoption. Almost right away he was adopted. Markus grew up in a loving family. He has seven siblings, two sisters who were born naturaly to his parents after they adopted him, one brother who was also 'natural' child, an adopted brother/sister set of twins, and two more adopted brothers, both older than him. He learned how to make himself heard by having that lot for a family. His older brothers are both married. The oldest has two kids already and the younger of them has one child. Markus had a best friend named Rob when he was 13. One day Rob dissapeared and was never found. Markus has always felt guilty about that. He feels as if he could have stopped it.
And there you have it! That is my way of creating a character. Of course, any character that's created has a great chance of growing into something you weren't planning one, so don't worry if that happens and ride the tides of your imagination!
ba-dee ba-dee ba-dee, That's all folks!
First off, create a sort of form/character sheet. I gernerally use this one.
Full name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Personality:
Crush:
GF/BF:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Talents:
Description:
Other:
History:
Now, that seems like a bunch of random things. Here's the same form, but with a breif explanation of each word.
Full name: The full name of your character. Such as Lucy Rae McFly
Nickname: Any nicknames your character might have. Include deragatory/harmful nicknames.
Gender: This is pretty obvious, right?
Age: Pretty obvious?
Personality: Use a series of words to describe your character. Such as 'helpful, mistrusting, angrey, loving, silly, bubbly, fun, annoying' and any other adjectives you might come up with.
Crush: Who your character has a crush on.
GF/BF: Your character's boyfriend or girlfriend, if they have one.
Likes: A list of likes. Could be anything from apples to swimming to hand grenades. Both things your character likes to do, eat, see, and what types of people they like.
Dislikes: The opposite of above.
Strengths: This is different from likes. While your character may like some things, they may not be good at them, or the thing may not be able to be a strength. (like apples... how could that be a strength??)
Weaknesses: Opposite of above. Also things your characer doesn't like doing (such as telling lies)
Talents: Choose a few strengths (or even weaknesses, since telling convincing lies is a talent, albeit one we don't really want) and list them here. This is what your character is really good at.
Description: Describe how your character looks. Don't just find a picture and say 'that's it', take time to describe how your character looks. Let's face it, this is great practice for describing things when you're writing as well.
Other: Anything else not covered by the other topics you wnat to include.
History: This is where you write a bit about your character's past. Try to have a decent sized paragraph on this. You don't have to go in depth, just try to have their life outlined in simple sentances.
Now I shall show you a character I've created with this form. In the story this character is in, he is stranded on an island with the rest of his school class.
Full name: Markus James McKethe
Nickname: Mark
Gender: M
Age: 18
Personality: Kind, honest, loyal, stubbon, a little loud, funny, has ocasional bouts of moodiness, can be serious when needed to be.
Crush: It will most likely end up Rebecca
GF/BF: None
Likes: Jokes, honey, coffee, climbing, soccer and football, frisbees.
Dislikes: Losing, not having coffee, people who can't take a joke.
Strengths: Climbing, finding honey and coffee plants, identifying plants, general althleticism, endurance.
Weaknesses: Sprinting for much more than 25-ish yards, making things that stand up to a stiff breeze, math, art of any kind (he's horrible at it).
Talents: Finding and identifying plants, finding honey, climbing, endurance.
Description: Markus is slightly above average height, at 6 feet tall. He is pretty muscular since he has been working out for four years. He has reddish brown hair and green eyes. He has huge feet that he constantly trips over.
Other: He is very clumsy, klutzy would be a beter discription.
History: Markus was born to a 17 year-old girl who made a huge mistake. She knew she wasn't ready for taking care of an infant, so she put him up for adoption. Almost right away he was adopted. Markus grew up in a loving family. He has seven siblings, two sisters who were born naturaly to his parents after they adopted him, one brother who was also 'natural' child, an adopted brother/sister set of twins, and two more adopted brothers, both older than him. He learned how to make himself heard by having that lot for a family. His older brothers are both married. The oldest has two kids already and the younger of them has one child. Markus had a best friend named Rob when he was 13. One day Rob dissapeared and was never found. Markus has always felt guilty about that. He feels as if he could have stopped it.
And there you have it! That is my way of creating a character. Of course, any character that's created has a great chance of growing into something you weren't planning one, so don't worry if that happens and ride the tides of your imagination!
ba-dee ba-dee ba-dee, That's all folks!
Friday, 27 May 2011
Tears and Fears and Maybe Something Else
It's amazing how quickly the things I cried over changed. Late at night, instead of crying about being the outsider, the girl no one really pays attention too, I've been crying for other reasons. I sometimes don't even know WHY I'm crying. I just cry. It's been really hard these last two months. Really hard. I hide my pain and only really cry at night, when no one will see me. But my hurt, my pain, it's all there. I feel it nearly every moment of the day. God has been there for me. He has helped me this far, and He will help me the rest of the way.
My fears have changed too. I no longer am as terrified of people as I was this time last year. I'm in my mid teens, and last year I was afraid to even buy things at a store without someone I know there. I hated being so scared. I wasn't really scared of someone hurting me, just afraid of people in general. They make me nervous. So nervous I can barely squeak out 'Hi' in reponse to them. That fear has increased in insane amounts. God has helped me so much with that. My drama group helped me come out of my shell as well. I don't know why I wasn;t scared stiff on the stage, but I wasn't. Not completly, anyway.
My fear of people has been around since I was really little. I nearly refused my first ride on a horse because I was scared of my cousins (They had the horses). But I did that and really liked it. But I still struggle with fear. It helps to remember that God did not make us to be creatures of fear, but He made us to be strong in Him.
Strong in God. Sounds perfect to me. I know I cannot carry on on my own. I need His help. I need Him. He is my Light, my Strength, my Life. One of my favorite verses is in Philipians. "I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me." Amazing. I can do anything! Because God gives me strength!
One time I was house and cat sitting for my neighbours while they were away for a while. They have a picture thing on the wall. It has a Bible verse on it from one of the 'H' books in the Old Testemant. I don't remember the exact words, but it said that God sings for us. God, our mighty Creator, singing, for US! It blew me away. I walked home in a daze because it was so overwelming. It was a 'wow' moment. I'm still awaed by the fact that my Creator sings for His lowley creation.
My fears have changed too. I no longer am as terrified of people as I was this time last year. I'm in my mid teens, and last year I was afraid to even buy things at a store without someone I know there. I hated being so scared. I wasn't really scared of someone hurting me, just afraid of people in general. They make me nervous. So nervous I can barely squeak out 'Hi' in reponse to them. That fear has increased in insane amounts. God has helped me so much with that. My drama group helped me come out of my shell as well. I don't know why I wasn;t scared stiff on the stage, but I wasn't. Not completly, anyway.
My fear of people has been around since I was really little. I nearly refused my first ride on a horse because I was scared of my cousins (They had the horses). But I did that and really liked it. But I still struggle with fear. It helps to remember that God did not make us to be creatures of fear, but He made us to be strong in Him.
Strong in God. Sounds perfect to me. I know I cannot carry on on my own. I need His help. I need Him. He is my Light, my Strength, my Life. One of my favorite verses is in Philipians. "I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me." Amazing. I can do anything! Because God gives me strength!
One time I was house and cat sitting for my neighbours while they were away for a while. They have a picture thing on the wall. It has a Bible verse on it from one of the 'H' books in the Old Testemant. I don't remember the exact words, but it said that God sings for us. God, our mighty Creator, singing, for US! It blew me away. I walked home in a daze because it was so overwelming. It was a 'wow' moment. I'm still awaed by the fact that my Creator sings for His lowley creation.
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