Happy {early} Birthday to me!!!

The other day I gathered up the kids to take some pictures for our Christmas cards. We already had black shirts from our professional portraits, so now to get some smiles. If you have ever tried to take a picture of my siblings, you understand. Anyway, we braved the cold, and I was really pleased with the results! I only wish I had a better camera...oh well. I don't want to post any other poses so I don't ruin the surprise for Christmas.

By the way, have you noticed Christmas is in 35 days!?!? I can't believe the year has gone by this fast, its crazy. Tomorrow is my 18th birthday, and next Thursday is Thanksgiving! I don't know what I'm going to do for my birthday. I'll probably end up going shopping, but hey, I'm fine with that! Thursday we are headed up to my Dad's family to celebrate Thanksgiving. It will be exciting to see all my relatives as well as my new cousin Elliot I have yet to see!

This week I have been babysitting a TON. I believe I'm up to 18 hours so far, and I'm babysitting again tonight. I guess it is less than a part time job, but when you spend that much time with little kids, it can get draining. I love it, but it is exhausting!

I think I am going to try out for a choir solo(duet) tomorrow. We were supposed to try out last week but we had a guest performer come and that cut our class time short. It is intimidating as our Christmas concerts start in 2 weeks. Hopefully we can pull it together!

Lol, I feel like this has been a really rambling, senseless post but thanks for bearing with me.

Kara

Choir Ideas

This is just a brief post, I wanted to share these beautiful choral pieces I am in love with. Musica Dei I heard at our local high school choir concert. And I found the Be Thou My Vision when I was browsing for arrangements of the hymn. Listen to them and let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Kara

Help us find him a home!

As you probably know, a stray dog showed up at our house last week. Since he is not going away, and he is so cute and pitiful, we are trying to find him a home. If you, or someone you know, would like to take him home, let us know!

I have no idea what breed he is other than mutt. But he is very sweet and has obviously been around people. We are guessing he is under a year old, yet he is fairly large. Look at that darling face... and I don't even like dogs! :D Please help!

Kara

P.S. We have temporarily named him Darcy, after the great literary hero. :D (you'll never guess who came up with that name....)

Indianapolis Trip

Hey guys, I'm back! I got back late last night after a long bus ride. Here are some of the highlights of my week.

Tuesday

We left Springfield at 9:00am and drove until 7:00pm ET. We then checked into our Hilton and ate pizza with the rest of the group. Savannah, Kelsey, our roommate Rebecca, Ladybug, and I went to view the downtown area. It is BEAUTIFUL! I never thought of Indianapolis as a good scenic/tourist location, but I was pleasantly surprised. Some pics are below.

Monument Circle

LtoR: Kelsey, Savannah, Rebecca, Me
Capital from the Monument

Wednesday

We went to walk around the downtown with the big group, and then went to the Historical Society, very cool. I researched my paternal Grandpas name and it came up with a man who in 1920 was 58. While it wasn't my grandpa, he lived in Garden City MO! :O My moms parents live in GC so it was pretty cool to find an unknown connection.
We then headed to the Convention center to register for the Leadership Institute. I was put in 7 classes, with 2 on Wednesday. The topics this day were Deskercize and Spa Day, Everyday. lol they were interesting. Nothing I didn't know anyway. Hey but I did get a massage, it was wonderful!

We ate dinner with the girls at the Institute, and headed to a KeKe Palmer concert. (If you don't know who she is, she is a Disney actress/singer, I didn't know either) It wasn't my style of music, and our seats were not good, and it was cold. But I did get her autograph, lol it goes into my scrapbook.

After the concert they had a girls party with food, music, more spa stuff, and lots of freebies. I was exhausted so we didn't stay very late. Rebecca, Mary, Savannah, Me

Thursday

We went back to the Institute and had 5 more workshops. I had 1 on Domestic Violence Awareness, Safe Dating(whoo hoo...), Stress Address, Obesity Awareness, and one called Hello Beautiful. When we first crowded into the room, the black lady had a red-dreadlocked-mohawk, red eyebrows, a sock on one arm, and one of those large buttons on her ear. I was getting a little concerned...then she started chanting "Girls with no makeup, boys with no clothes!" I got really worried, I was thinking,"How can I get out of this room!?!?" It turned out to be a fairly good workshop on being aware of other girls fears/concerns and how to reach out to find and give help. It was also an eye opener for me, the amount of abuse and fears and enormous burdens girls are carrying is awful.

After we listened to a couple other speakers, the Institute ended. We then headed into the huge exhibit hall, there were tons of booths giving away a bunch of free stuff! I brought home several bags of things, great fun!

We then headed into the opening ceremony of the National Convention. Lots of little girls singing a really annoying song. The session did not end until after 9:00pm, so we didn't get dinner until 10:00. Lol really late, but you can't imagine how packed Steak & Shake was at that time on a Thursday! It took forever, but we ended up getting 1/2 our meals for free because of the wait.

Friday

Because we had been out so late the previous night, we were granted the privilege of sleeping in and we did...til 10. :D Afterwards we went shopping at TJ Max where I got an awesome purse and a pair of boots. We then walked down to a mexican restaurant, got food-to-go, and went to sit of the stairs of Monument Circle. It was beautiful and sunny, very nice!

We yet again returned to the Convention center and spent the rest of the afternoon in the sessions and the Exhibit Hall.

Since it was Halloween, although I do not celebrate it-which by the way was very entertaining to explain to the girls:D-some of the girls were going to go to Haunted Houses. whoo hoo... We ate dinner at the Hard Rock, creepy, and the remaining girls took a carriage ride around the downtown area. We then returned to our hotel room to watch "Mamma Mia". I was not impressed with the movie, no real plot and kinda sad morally. It was well after midnight before we went to bed.

Savannah, Kara, Kelsey

We went up into the observation tower of the monument, cool view!

Saturday

This day we spent more time at the Convention center. Around 3:00 we headed to the mall for more shopping, we then went to the Indiana State Museum, and then to a mexican restaurant that can't even began to compete with El Rodeo.

Rebecca trying to climb up on the Elephant(we didn't see the "Do not Climb" sign until afterwards...) The beautiful Canal and Indianapolis Skyline

Our model Mary, she's so cute!

Sunday

During the closing ceremony I got to hear Geena Davis speak, that was pretty cool. Lol it was defiantly a girl ceremony, I feel sorry for the 10 guys that were there. :D Ok there were more than that, still. Yet more girls singing and it was over. We left the city and headed to a Cracker Barrel where we waited for 30 minutes to get seated. We finally left at 2:45ish. Lol it was funny, I checked the time before we finished a movie. After we had finished the 1st and was halfway through the next, it said the time was 3:00. I was like what?!? 15 minutes!?!? Then I remembered the time zone change. I arrived home at 11:00.

Sorry this is kinda crazy and rambling, it is hard to organize all of the events in my head. I will post some pictures on here, enjoy!

Kara

Luke's Birthday

Last Friday the 17th, was Luke's 6th birthday. Since Fridays are Orchestra days, and we had a work bonfire that night, we celebrated his big day on Saturday.

Saturday morning, bright 'n early, we had family pictures. This was our first professional family picture since 1995. lol...:D It was FREEZING!!! The photographers assistant was trying to get us to not think about the cold, ha ha ha she had a coat on! :D Yet we got through it, haven't seen the pics yet, but hopefully soon!

After pictures, we dropped Abby off to help with a friends horsesale, and went to Toys 'R Us. (when I was little I called it Toys R.S.) Luke was given money to buy his birthday gift and happily set off the find the perfect thing that he "needed". After a couple hours, he finally decided on a Storm Trooper costume complete with the mask and gun. He looks pretty cute!

We then took the Birthday Boy to Incredible Pizza for lunch. And being the good siblings that we are, *angelic halos*, we gave Luke all of our tickets.

I babysat this morning, came home, ate lunch, worked on school, went back in town, almost got killed in the Parking lot, and got 2 shots. Lol, sounds like a perfect day huh! Oh to top it off, it was raining, and then I went to babysit again. I had to update my immunazations today, I had not had any since Kindergarten. One of them hurt pretty bad, instant muscle cramps, then I bled on my shirt...not good. Anyhow, I still want to be a nurse, because then I'm the one sticking people! Oh dear...

Next week is my trip!!! Whoo hoo!!! I leave on Tuesday, so I had better start getting my things put together.

I got prints of my senior pictures last week. I just couldn't bring myself to be illegal, so if you would like to see them, I will try to remember them Friday.

Tomorrow I am going for a meeting with some Professors/Admittance advisers for SBU. Should be interesting...:D Have a blessed night!


Kara

Luke in his birthday outfit

Chef Luke

Last night Madalyn, Luke and I were home while the other kids were at music lessons. We decided to make some chocolate chip cookies (Angie's recipe of course, they are the best!) and dinner at the same time. :D Yeah we are a little ambitious. Luke was a great help, he pealed the carrots, helped mix the cookie dough and as shown in the pictures, slaved over the hot stove. Mom came home and was startled by Luke cooking chicken on the stove. :D Lol he looks pretty cute!

This week has been really crazy with a lot of babysitting. I believe I have babysat a total of 14 hours this week, not counting my personal family. Last week I also had my Senior pictures done. It was a lot of fun and the pictures turned out nice, despite me not being very photogenic. :P Maybe I will be illegal later and post a couple....shhhh. :D We are also having family pictures done on the 18th, taking advantage of the beautiful season. I LOVE fall!!! We are all wearing black tops and jeans, really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow morning I am going to serve Pancakes at a local clubs...um..thing. They gave me $200 towards my trip so I'm a little indebted. But good news is, my balance for my GS trip is completely paid off!!! Yeah!! I'm gone from the 28th through the 2nd, really looking forward to it. I guess that's it for now, TTYL!



Kara



P.S. I REALLY love Advanced Biology! :D

Nobody died...yet :D

A conversation with my family...

Tonight we went out to eat in celebration of my Dad's birthday. During the course of the meal, another group came in and the following occurred...

A boy about age 7 asks a teenage girl, "What's your name?"

To which the girl replied, "Oh I don't have a name!"

Luke, after listening in, comments, "Huh that is weird, that girl doesn't have a name!"

Mom and I burst out laughing. As tears are coming to our eyes, Madalyn furthers the hilarity.

"What?!?! He's rolling in lemonade?!?!?" *normal clueless Madalyn look*

The moral of this story: Kids will believe anything they hear.....and don't talk to Madalyn.

By the way, this is a very normal conversation for our family to have. If you have been around Madalyn and I when we are tired or had caffeine...well you understand.

Anyway needless to say we/I am a little loopy tonight. "Friday Syndrome", it actually is a medical diagnosis...:D Its getting late and I am going to leave before I say something even more goofy.

Kara