Marie-Madeline Giveaway

Pioneer Beauty is having a $100 Marie-Madeline giveaway. I love Marie-Madeline... their patterns are lovely (I actually finally finished a jumper out of their summer shade Jumper Pattern...I need to take pictures) and they are all so sweet.
I get more entries if I blog about this :-)

York Fair / The Gothard Sisters / Pennyslvania

Thursday around 12:30pm we left for Pennyslvania. The main reason for the trip was to see the Gothards again. We met them back in June in Youngstown when they had another show in PA (which we weren't able to go to because of a Maidens IV show the same day), but we've never seen them perform live. But a secondary reason for going was to meet up with Nanci from Brambleberry Cottage, whom Mom has gotten to know pretty well through the blogger/internet world. Nanci brought her daughter with her who is about my age. That was fun...we got there around 5:30 and didn't leave until almost 8:00...it's amazing four people who have never met in real life before can keep a conversation going for 2.5 hours. :)
We crashed at the hotel when we got there around 10:00pm, and after completing a bed-bug check, went to sleep. At least I went to sleep... :-)
Friday morning, we found our way to the fair and then went to Target because we were a little early. After Target, we figured out how to get into the fair, walked in, found the stage where the Gothards were peforming, and then walked around a little bit more. We then returned to the stage, said hi to everyone, and settled in for the first show at 1:30pm. all the benches and bleachers in the back were PACKED. Contacting the newspaper ahead of time for an interview really does bring 'em in. :-)
Afterward, we helped up take down the CD table and put the instruments back in their little cottage and walked around the fair...saw the tail end of Vocal Trash's concert, and then the Gothards said hi to Vocal Trash...they knew them from previous fairs they've done. We also saw the Pirates of the Carribean High Diving act. Then we walked around some more, got lunch, hung out, talked, etc. until their next show at 4:15. We got a front row seat for that and I filmed it, but I think it was a little bit too close because it tended to look like I was shooting up their noses occasionally. Then we hung out and talked some more and walked around until their last show at 7:30. After that, we helped them tear down and pack up and carried everything to their van. We then went to Olive Garden, and had a yummy meal there. We headed back to our seperate hotels around 10:30.
The next morning, we met again for brunch at Bob Evans. Both our GPS's said that the Bob Evans would be on Arsenal Road. The only Bob Evans on Arsenal Road was a very old, boarded-up one. So we headed back to Carlisle Road where we saw one earlier and finally managed to get there, albeit a bit later than originially planned. :-) We had a yummy breakfast, then took some pictures outside (it's becoming a tradition to take pictures outside of Bob Evans, haha) and then said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways...them back to the fair and us back to Ohio.
All-in-all it was a very nice visit, and we want to do it again if we can.

A little collage of some of the pictures I took at their shows:


Walking the fair:


Vocal Trash!


At Olive Garden (picture - courtsey the waiter)


At Bob Evans: (me and the Gothards and their mom)

Job 40:15-19

15 "Look at the behemoth, [a] which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.

16 What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly!

17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit.

18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron.

19 He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.

[a] Possibly an elephant.


Yup, definitely an elephant. I can totally see it. You know, the tail and everything?



I mean, it's so obvious.

My quilt

With all the serious posts I've been doing lately, I think we need something cheerful.
Like...a rainbow quilt!
I got the pattern a longgg time ago...probably a year and a half ago, maybe more, and then Mom bought the fabric. Mom decided to make it a school project to get done in the 3rd term of my freshman year.
3rd term came and went, and I had about ten squares out of the 60 or so I needed. Wellll.
so then Mom said I had to get it done over break OR I would suffer the consequences.
I had no clue what the consequences would be, but I wasn't about to find out.
Sooooo...I worked, slowly at first, but then I got a little more diligent at it. I finished the main part and went to start sewing the rest of the squares for the border, and realized I didn't have enough fabric. shoooot. so I used the owl fabric instead. I wasn't sure I would like it at first, but I do now. And it was from my stash, so no other fabric had to be purchasd! I'm going to use what fabric I do have left from the squares for decorating the back in some fashion.

Bible verse at the top

I've decided to do something new...you know underneath the Rose of Sharon where it did have Solomon 2:1? Well I've decided to, as often as I remember, change the verse(s). So today I put Lamentations 3:20-23 which is one of my favorite verse sets, and one that I put in the 9/11 post below. :-)

New Background

I like my cupcakes, but I think for the next week or so I'll leave this one up. It's important that we always remember. 9/11/01. I remember when I found out about it. I was 6. I had been naughty, so I got banned from the TV for a week.
Mom hurridely came and got me and told me I needed to watch something. I reminded her I had been banned from the TV, but she said that didn't matter. I needed to know this.
I went, and I watched. I didn't exactly understand it, but I knew something very bad had happened and I knew lots of people were going to die, and had died. Every night for about 2 weeks probably I prayed for the people who were still in the rubble, for the families of the people who had died, and...for the people who had done the bad thing.
Part of me wishes that I could've been older then and understood it better, and part of me is glad that I wasn't because I'm glad I could kind of observe it from a child's perspective.

Lamentations 3:20-23
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

The things I regret about Hawaii

I do not know why this picture is sideways. It does that every time I upload it to Blogger. It shows up fine on my computer.



In 2007, we (Dad, Mom, Granddad, Grandma, Uncle Mike, Aunt Amy, and myself) went to Hawaii. Looking back now, I can clearly see my 12-year-old self did not appreciate it. Is it wrong to be jealous of...yourself? Your past self, to be more specific. I really wish I had been able to understand and absorb it better when we went. Who knows if we go again.
Now, a list of the things I regret about when we went to Hawaii. Some of them are little silly things, like #3, but some of them are more important things.

1. That I had taken more pictures. Dad and Mom did most of the photography, and I really wish I had done more of it.
2. That I had taken my American Girl doll I brought out onto the beach and taken pictures of her. Beaches are the best places ever to take pictures of dolls because you can get their feet down into the sand so they don't fall over. But I was too nervous that someone would see me and laugh so I didn't. I really regret this.
3. That my hair had not had a big knot in it. I know that sounds silly, but I really would have enjoyed wearing my hair down if it hadn't been for the nice big rat's nest smack dab in the back.
4. That I had felt better. I didn't tell anyone, but I honestly did not feel very good half of the time. I think it was mainly brought on by jet lag. I slept a good deal of the time, which is very strange for me. When we go on vacation to "normal" places, I have so much adrenlaine from the excitement, I can run on that practically all day even with little sleep.
5. That I had sat out on the beach more. I did for a little bit here and there, but not for very long. The crabs kind of freaked me out. Now, it sounds very nice, sitting out there watching the waves and just absorbing it all.
6. That I had tried poi at the luau. Everyone says it's gross, but I would have liked to try it just to say I did.

Those are just a few. I have more. :-/