Maddie's Last Night Over

If any of you don't know, my bestest friend Maddie is moving to Flagstaff. Flagstaff is in Arizona. Arizona is in the United States. The United States is in North America. North America is on Earth. (Feeling small yet?) Planet Earth is in the Milky Way galaxy. (Now are you feeling small? Maddie is. She is looking over my shoulder as I am writing this.) Hi Maddie!

Maddie thinks she shrunk (Is that a word? I hope it is!) an inch because now she feels small. Anyway...

Maddie thinks that we are making this blog too sad, so I will include a funny moment that we just had. We were talking about winking, and for some reason we got to one of the many subject we both like: the Hallmark series "Love Comes Softly". We both love these movies, as they are romances, and any teenage girl in her right mind loves a romance movie.

We were talking about how the extremely handsome, heroic, and wonderful Willie dies in one of the movies. I now hate the series. They aren't supposed to kill off their people that the audience falls in love with. But, anyway...

Willie dies, and Maddie, my mom and I were all talking about it. Then, out of the blue, my mom says,

"Its so sad! I need to hold a chicken!"

Maddie and I both started to laugh at the very interesting comment. The End... (Well, not really. We are continuing this blog, but that is the end of that thought. And the thought of Maddie moving. That makes me sad.)


Maddie also showed me a poem that a friend of ours wrote about her moving away.

This is an adapted poem, originally Since Hannah Moved Away by Judith Viorst, but is now Since Maddie Moved Away by Evan Schneider

The tires on my bike are flat.

The sky is grouchy gray.

At least it feels like that

Since Maddie moved away.

Chocolate ice cream tastes like prunes.

December's come to stay.

They've taken back the Mays and Junes

Since Maddie moved away.

Flowers smell like halibut.

Velvet smells like hay.

Every handsome dog's a mutt

Since Maddie moved away

Nothing's fun to laugh about.

Nothing's fun to play.

They call me, but I won't come out

Since Maddie moved away.

Now, as a close, since we can't get the video on to this computer, Maddie has a few final words on this blog.

Maddie:Thanks K! When you say "Final words" it sounds all sad. :( Anyway...:)

First off, Evan thank you for the wonderful poem, I love it, it is so sweet. K, my bestest buddy, thank you for writing about me. I love you like a sister!

K's mom, thank you for the laughs. And I recommend everyone ( not boys. They typically do not enjoy this sort of stuff.) to watch the Love Comes Softly Series. They are wonderful...even though the wonderful Willie dies. Visit me in Flagstaff! They have a Cracker Barrel! I love that place. It is sad that they don't have Trader Joe's, though. Okay, sorry for the rabbit trail.

K: Hiya.

Maddie: That so my greeting! You stole my greeting!!! No, you may use it. Any thing else to say? What should I write about now?

K: Welcome to my blog! I will have pictures of my book on the next blog post. And of my horse. I promised pictures, but never got around to it. But I will. Someday. We stayed up until past four last night (it is now almost eleven), and I'm tired. Though not as tired as I was at a camp I just went to. More about that later. Maddie is now going to talk about her opinion of pink gorillas.

Maddie: That, my friend, is so 8th grade. Umm... I don't really want to, so I will talk about K!

K is a wonderful friend. She is so encouraging, patient, sweet, loving, considerate, and giving!

K, the pink gorilla thing died. K will now talk about Martin Luther. ( I also strongly recommend watching that movie. (Luther) ( The newer one.) It is PG-13 for martyr scenes, but is a great movie and it makes you very thankful for the religious freedom we have today. I hope I could be so bold in faith if I was being persecuted. Anyway, very great movie. K, I'm going to change your subject to... I don't know, but don't talk about me moving. It's depressing. Not, really actually. It will be sad to leave, though.

K: It will be sad when you leave. Martin Luther founded the Lutheran religion. The end. Now I will talk about Maddie. Maddie is an amazing friend. I say this truly. I have not kept a friend for this long. Ever. Maddie is kind, thoughtful, caring, loving. She is also the only person I know who exhibits the Fruits of the Spirit so well. And she has a good sense of humor. A very great sense of humor. She is very funny. I am sure that when she moves away, the poem will absolutely come true, for Evan. And all the people who know any of her family. Good people. You should get to know them.

As for the pink gorilla thing, it is a story I learned while in Catalina a year and a half ago. I will tell the story later, as apparently Maddie doesn't want to hear it now. I like that story.

Now Maddie will talk about people's eyes. Maddie likes eyes, for any of you who don't know.

Maddie: Thanks K. Yes, I do love eyes. I like all eyes, but brown is my favorite. The End. Dark brown. K will now talk.

K: Yes, Maddie loves eyes. I like eyes too. I don't have a favorite color of eyes, though. I think for me, it depends on the person. I have seen gorgeous eyes of all the different colors of the rainbow, and I can't decide which is my favorite. Though if you were to ask me right now I would say brown. Now, Maddie will talk about Flagstaff.

Maddie: I love eyes too. But brown beats all for me at the moment. But I have to say, Karah's eyes are wonderful too. It is not like I dislike other colored eyes. But, oh my dad is here to pick me up. I am not going to talk about Flagstaff. Bye! Love you all!!!!

I like other color eyes too. Thank you for being patient, but we will look back, and laugh until we cry. I like that song. It is a country song. I am random, accroding to Maddie. Maddie is somewhat random too, more on that later.

ttfn,

K

A New Old Book

One of the things that brightens my day is going to the library, only to find that it is closed. Now, you may be thinking, "This makes you happy?" Why, yes. It does make me happy, especially when there is a book sale instead.



If any of you know me, really, really know me, you will know that I love old books. I absolutely love them. So, when my mom said that I could get a few books, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There were so many old books there. But the one I found, love, and am going to talk about today is a book by the name of Gulliver's Travels by a Mr. Jonathan Swift.



I had heard nothing of the book before, besides it being mentioned by one of my teachers a few years ago. I paid a whole two dollars for the book, not because I loved the story inside, but because of the cover. I know that the saying goes to 'never judge a book by its cover', but how can I not? I am in love with this book, and I have only just started reading! The cover is a dark brick red with gold print and decorations on the outside. Isn't it GORGEOUS???? I am so sorry I can not have pictures, the camera doesn't have a USB cord. But continuing on with the rest of it...



I opened the book, and found a treasure. A name. On the inside of the book. I think I started to quake with excitement. A name! It means that someone else read and loved this book. Someone else who I could research!



I started to read the book. If any of you have not read Gulliver's Travels, I highly recommend it, so far. The story, so far, is based on Gulliver. If you have not read it, I am not going to spoil it for you, but I will tell you this: You have to have an imagination. And, if you do, it is a very good book (so far, I am only on page nineteen.) So far, it is a really good book. (I am using a severe repetition of the words so far because if the book turns out to be a horrible book, do not blame me for recommending it to you.)



I, while reading, found yet another treasure. I love to flip to the back of the book when I am reading. Sometimes it spoils the book, but not this time. Apparently Margaret took a Literary Analysis class (like me), and annotated in the back of the book (not like me. I don't like to write in books, despite my Literary Analysis class teaching me to.) I then flipped through the book, and saw that she did the entire book! All of her annotations throughout the book are scattered, and don't quite make sense if you aren't reading the book along with them. However, I will rewrite an excerpt out of her review at the back of the book. Here it is:

"Difference between satire + irony-

latter is usually less bitter.

Irony is a speech or situa-

tion in which outcome is

different from your expec-

tations. Dramatic irony- a

speech has a significance

for audience, not actors.

Satire is ridicule of customs,

manners, people etc."

Is it just me, or is this person a literature expert?! I looked her up, via. Google. (What would life be without Google?) There seem to be a lot of Margaret Caircrosses ;(. The one that makes the most sense is a girl who was the daughter of George Cairncross and Margaret Mutter. She was born, supposedly, in 1898. I have reason to believe this because of the simplicity of the bibliography of the book. The book was copyrighted in 1920, and by the way she sounded in her writings, she was not a little girl when she wrote those words. Had she gotten the book when it first was printed, she would have been twenty two.

Please give me your input on this. What I wouldn't give to have the common sense of Sherlock Holmes in this mystery!

There are too many Margaret Cairncrosses to figure it out on my own. Help! I think she is a descendant of John Aitken, and lived in Scotland. Isn't that cool? Just because she annotated this book that I bought for two dollars, we all have access into her world. The only question that remains is, who is she?

Pictures to follow. Hopefully!

Christmas and Horses

Merry day after Christmas, everyone!!! Nothing like sleeping in on the 26 after getting up at 5:30 the morning before.



Well, I finally got the one thing that has occupied the top of all my Christmas list prior to this year. Through lots of hard work, and many long nights working at the local Little League snack shack, I earned enough money to satisfy an amazing deal with my parents. At the beginning of last year, I gathered my courage enough to propose a deal with my Dad, a deal regarding the obtaining of a horse. The deal was that if I raised enough money to feed a horse for a year, my parents would seriously consider buying me a horse. And when I say seriously, I mean it.



This was in early spring. Once I got an affirmative, there was no guarantee that I would be any further along on the process before I was able to get a job, or even that I would get a job. I mean really, what are the chances, a fourteen year old girl who has never had a consistant allowance, and maybe a few bucks, a few there for hard work, raising enough money to feed a horse. When I calculatied, it seemed that horses must have bottomless stomachs, an ever-gaping hole in anyone's pocket. How was I ever to satisfy that? Well, this was where I was blessed. This proposition was given by my dad, and with it, well, let's just cut down to the chase, shall we?

I was able to raise enough money, and a few horse stories later (one's of horses not working, guaranteed to tear anyone's heart to pieces) we finally have the perfect match. A wonderful APHA (American Paint Horse Association) bay mare who's name is Lacey. She has had to grow on me, because I didn't like her at first, but she has won herself a place deep in my heart. And, now, I need to go. I have a horse to ride.

Trying to beat my Mom to the top( and GOOD news too!!!)

I'm trying to beat my Mom to the top of her Mom's favorite blogs page. She was very disappointed that her new post didn't make it to the top of her page. And now, for the GOOD news that I told you I was going to tell you about.

I am getting another goat!!! A milking doe, too!! Her name is Destiny and I love her( especially her udder!) Now I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. A dairy goat is judged for it's udder, and so, the perfectly uddered doe is a really good thing to get. I really wanted to wait to tell you until I had pictures, but with my mom showing sudden interest in her blog, I couldn't wait. Her bolg is http://www.varnerpartyoffive.blogspot.com. I will have pictures on my next post, I promise.

A Visit From Our Cuzzies

The summer is short, the winter long, or so my saying goes( Hey, I can do poetry pretty well!). I have learned that you really should enjoy the time you have during the summer, cuz it's all you're going to get for the year. One of the things that makes the few days of summer go by slower are visitors. And we have had the priviledge of having a few visitors this summer. This visit was about a month and a half ago, when our cussies came over. We had some fun times swimming and bar-b-quing, that I totally forgot about my camera. The next day I remembered and felt really bad, until they came over the next day to pick some things up. Then I got some pictures. Here are a few.



Five cousins all posed for a picture. I'm on the far right with A in front of me and Little E (not so little anymore) to the left. Then there is M on the left and C being the star of the show. J isn't in the picture, having gone earlier to a friend's house.

Here is my mom on the right and my and her Aunt S on the left.


Now if that isn't a cute picture of cousins, I don't know what is. My mom on the right (again) and my Aunt M on the left. I'm taking the picture.

So far as I know, there isn't a better way to end a visit than with a big group hug.

On the Move

Today, as my mom decided, was the day to move the chicks from their home in an appliance box, to their Taj Mahal coop. My goodness they are chicken. They scatter every time we try to pick them up. I don't think they quite get the hang of human speech. We were trying to be very calm and reassuring toward them while telling them to hurry up and get in the cat carrier so we could get out of our 100 degree garage. My goodness, they sure are rowdy and chicken.

This is the majority of the 22, scattering

at the sight of me and my camera.

This is my younger brother, JD.

He is very happy to have caught his chick, Nadia.

Here are a few of our girls checking out their new home.

Here I am, letting a few chicks out of the cat carrier.

Here is C, calling for the chicks attention.

Here is Joey, checking out the newest members of the barn.

All the chicks in their new home.

Life out here is, well... simply country

Chicks

Our life here is starting to get so busy that I sometimes forget just how many animals we have. Let's see... twenty-two chickens, two goats, a cat who won't stop talking, a dog that is totally spoiled, and a guinea pig. I mainly am in charge of the goats, a show/dairy goat named Covergirl and her friend, Joey. Most of the time I don't even think about our chickens. But when I do go see them, that makes it all the more suprising. And my goodness are they growing!!!!

This is a chick named Nadia because when she was younger, she looked like a little Russian girl with a fur hat, scarf and coat. Now I think she looks, well, just odd.

This is one of my chicks on the cardboard perch. She's a big bully.And for some reason, she keeps on being a bully no matter how many times I tell her to stop.

This chick is named Hawk, but I am thinking that might be changed to Cock(rooster). He, I mean she, is much larger than the other chicks of his, her, type. Plus, they gave us a free chick. I'm going to check.

Hopefully it is going to be a henand not a rooster. We'll see.

Life here is simply country.