Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Another Giveaway!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Call to the Knights!
First Place—Signed copy of Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue, a Lady Carliss poster, and a Knights of the Prince Pendant.
Second Place—Lady Carliss poster, and a Knights of the Prince Pendant.
Third Place—A Knights of the Prince Pendant.
I'm going to re-read the Kingdom books (I was planning on it anyhow!) to make sure I am extra-familiar with them before I sit down with a pencil and some paper to see what I can come up with!
A Week of Thanksgiving ~ Day Two
Erica - Best friend for my whole life. My sister, companion, confidante, supporter, encourager, and (sometimes) my restraint. LOL =D I love you, George, and I am SO thankful for you!
Lydia - Where would I be without you, Lyds? You are my prayer warrior, my friend who is always there and ready to listen no matter what. Patient, loving, understanding. You have never condemned me even when I was a fool, but have patiently prayed for and talked to me. You are the one person who has blessed my walk with God the most, and I thank God for bringing you into my life every time I think of you!
Erin D - Thanks for being such a great pal! Knowing me as well as you do, I'm surprised you still like me. LOL Thanks for your encouragement and for all the times you've let me take advantage of how nice you are! =D
Bailey - It's almost scary how much alike we are in different ways. You're a kindred spirit - my bookworm friend, my writing buddy, and just a great person to talk to because you're so compassionate and understanding. You are SO good at cheering me up and talking to you always makes me happy. You have been such a blessing and encouragement to me in so many ways!
And to everyone else... at church, online, or wherever. Thanks for being the awesome bunch that you are!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Random Book and Movie Stuff
Second... Chuck Black's newest book, Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue, is releasing on March 16! If you haven't yet been introduced to The Kingdom Series and the Knights of Arrethtrae, I would highly recommend that you go and have a look! There is a touch of romance in these, but other than that they are wonderful!
Third, though everybody already knows this... and I already blogged about it, Sherwood Pictures has just announced their fourth film, Courageous, which is about four policemen who go through a tragedy and who learn lessons about fatherhood along the way. (That's what I'm getting out of the limited information, anyhow!) If you want to read an article about the movie, go here:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sherwood-pictures-announces-fourth-movie-courageous-70155297.html
A Week of Thanksgiving ~ Day One
Physical Comforts
This morning I woke up at about 6:30 and just lay in bed for a few minutes before getting up. My flannel sheets were **so** warm and cozy that I just didn't want to stick my bare foot out and put it on the cold carpet. (Sleeping with socks on is impossible for me for some reason) When I finally slipped out of bed and threw on my snuggly purple bathrobe, I went upstairs to find that it was snowing! The light, dusty little flakes didn't come down for long, so we only have a thin powdering over our porch, but it sure was pretty! It was also cold outside, so I was thankful to be inside. =D I got online and signed into google docs... and spent the next half hour typing as fast as I could think. I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo project. I'm a bit behind, but still plugging away! I am very thankful for these creature comforts. A cozy bed, a warm house, the internet, and... food! My mom made an awesome breakfast this morning. Fried eggs and bacon. Yum! I had been planning on making a smoothie, but I guess I'll save that for a snack later.
So that's just touching the surface of the physical comforts that I'm thankful for today. =D
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Giveaway!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Yumminess!!
My mom made these INCREDIBLE cookies last night. They are definitely a new family favorite! You can get the recipe on her blog: http://onthenarrowway.blogspot.com
A Couple of Quotes
"What do you charge me with, God? Tell me exactly what you want me to do, and I will do my best."
"As always, my child, I ask for you to do what you see right in front of you. That is all."
"Is there anything else?"
"Enjoy the journey."
"God always has a purpose. But sometimes His way of doing things is so far beyond anything we can comprehend, we praise Him without complete knowledge."
These quotes are edited a bit so that they aren't confusing to you... I imagine that you haven't read the book. =D Anyhow, isn't that last quote amazing??? God's ways are so beyond my own limited understanding, yet I can trust Him and praise Him even without full knowledge!
The Man From Snowy River
The Man From Snowy River by Banjo Patterson
There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses — he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stock-horse snuffs the battle with delight.
There was Harrison, who made his pile when Pardon won the cup,
The old man with his hair as white as snow;
But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up
He would go wherever horse and man could go.
And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand,
No better horseman ever held the reins;
For never horse could throw him while the saddle-girths would stand
He learnt to ride while droving on the plains.
And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast;
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony—three parts thoroughbred at least
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry—just the sort that won't say die
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.
But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, "That horse will never do
For a long and tiring gallop—lad, you'd better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you."
So he waited, sad and wistful—only Clancy stood his friend
"I think we ought to let him come," he said;
"I warrant he'll be with us when he's wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.
"He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko's side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough;
Where a horse's hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen."
So he went; they found the horses by the big mimosa clump,
They raced away towards the mountain's brow,
And the old man gave his orders, "Boys, go at them from the jump,
No use to try for fancy riding now.
And, Clancy, you must wheel them, try and wheel them to the right.
Ride boldly, lad, and never fear the spills,
For never yet was rider that could keep the mob in sight,
If once they gain the shelter of those hills."
So Clancy rode to wheel them—he was racing on the wing
Where the best and boldest riders take their place,
And he raced his stock-horse past them, and he made the ranges ring
With the stockwhip, as he met them face to face.
Then they halted for a moment, while he swung the dreaded lash,
But they saw their well-loved mountain full in view,
And they charged beneath the stockwhip with a sharp and sudden dash,
And off into the mountain scrub they flew.
Then fast the horsemen followed, where the gorges deep and black
Resounded to the thunder of their tread,
And the stockwhips woke the echoes, and they fiercely answered back
From cliffs and crags that beetled overhead.
And upward, ever upward, the wild horses held their way,
Where mountain ash and kurrajong grew wide;
And the old man muttered fiercely, "We may bid the mob good day,
no man can hold them down the other side."
When they reached the mountain's summit, even Clancy took a pull
It well might make the boldest hold their breath;
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full
Of wombat holes, and any slip was death.
But the man from Snowy River let the pony have his head,
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer,
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed,
While the others stood and watched in very fear.
He sent the flint-stones flying, but the pony kept his feet,
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride,
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.
Through the stringy barks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound,
At the bottom of that terrible descent.
He was right among the horses as they climbed the farther hill,
And the watchers on the mountain, standing mute,
Saw him ply the stockwhip fiercely; he was right among them still,
As he raced across the clearing in pursuit.
They lost him for a moment, where two mountain gullies met
In the ranges—but a final glimpse reveals
On a dim and distant hillside the wild horses racing yet,
With the man from Snowy River at their heels.
And he ran them single-handed till their sides were white with foam;
He followed like a bloodhound on their track,
Till they halted cowed and beaten; then he turned their heads for home,
And alone and unassisted brought them back.
But his hardy mountain pony he could scarcely raise a trot,
He was blood from hip to shoulder from the spur;
But his pluck was still undaunted, and his courage fiery hot,
For never yet was mountain horse a cur.
And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow the reed-beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide,
The Man from Snowy River is a household word today,
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A few random topics
Topic 1: My wordpress blog. I still have one! I don’t know how many of you even noticed, but yesterday I did not have a blog. It was deactivated due to a violation of the terms of service… leaving me somewhat panicky and rather angry and heartbroken. I reread the terms of service and didn’t see anything wrong, but when I read the message that came up when I tried logging in it was talking about advertising. The closest thing I could come up with is all of my cool little buttons on the side of my blog. BUT EVERYBODY HAS THOSE, I protested. I emailed wordpress within minutes of discovering my problem. Their reply wasn’t as quick as it could have been, but the problem was resolved. There’s a website which I shall not name (Due to the fact that even linking to them will shut me down again) who does wordpress themes but they have junk in their codes. I tried using one of their themes and got shut down in consequence. BUT I changed over to a wordpress theme that’s actually here on wordpress, and here I go again! SO happy!
Now for topic #2! I am getting into this habit of posting lyrics to songs that have music I don’t agree with, but I wanted to share this song from Fireproof. It’s written by John Waller. Again, I do not support the type of music that is used with this song, but I wanted to share the lyrics:
I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait
I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait
That’s just the first verse and chorus, but that’s the best part anyhow, so there you have it! I think that the lines that really mean the most to me are where it says, “I will move ahead…” and “I’ll be running in the race even while I wait” It’s so easy for me to just stop and wait for God to make the next move when I should be pressing on!
Now that I’ve mentioned Fireproof, I’ll move on to my third topic: Courageous. I’m sure you all know about this movie by now, but just in case you don’t, Courageous is the next film that Sherwood Pictures is going to do. I’m really excited to see how it goes. It’s about… I wanna say 4 cops, but I’m not positive about that. Anyhow, it’ll be a “police movie” as Seth would call it. 
Now this may make ya’ll think that I’m totally nuts, but I’m not really happy with the way that Sherwood has gone about advertising for their new movie. I realize that the more viewers they have, the better. I just feel like the way they’ve gone about it is SO in tune with the ways of the world. Why aren’t they just stepping aside and trusting God to bring in the necessary viewers and money? Do any of you have thoughts on this? Feel free to call me a jerk… It won’t change anything, but if it makes you feel better, go right ahead!
So there’s my three topics for the day. 
You know, I love blogging, but it’s even more fun when I get comments! So please be sure to let me know you dropped by!
Toodloo!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Button for Bay's Book Blog!!!
After toying around with several ideas for a button, I finally came up with something I liked for my friend Bailey. I mentioned her before in my post “The Blog Around the Corner.”
If you want the button, let me know and I’ll give you the code. Unfortunately, I lost my code for putting a code box in my post…
Friday, October 30, 2009
Fall Pics
Hey, ya’ll! I’m still blogging! Hurrah! =D We’ll see if I can keep up this good streak, huh? Thanks so much to those of you who have been leaving me comments. I appreciate it so much! I think that comments always make people happy. Here are a couple of questions for you to answer in the event that you don’t have a comment to leave after reading my post:
- What are your plans for this weekend, if any?
- What do you love about fall?
My answers to these questions are: For this weekend I’m hoping to be able to hang out with my good friend Erin. She lives about an hour away from me, but there’s a family who goes to our church that live out near her. So what I’m hoping will work out is this: There’s a youth activity tomorrow night and the M’s are planning on coming. So I’ll ride home with them, spend the weekend with Erin, then get a ride with the M’s back to church on Sunday morning. The only thing that might ruin my beautiful plan is the weather… We’ll see how it goes.
My favorite part of fall is pretty much everything, but especially the weather. And leaves crunching under my feet. I love the colors all around and the crisp air. I love drinking hot tea or apple cider on a fall morning. Fall is just my favorite season! I just now realized that I keep saying ‘fall’ in spite of the fact that I think the word autumn is much nicer… Anyhow, on Monday I posted and mentioned to ya’ll what a gorgeous autumn we’re having. I don’t recall whether or not I actually said this, but it wasinspiring weather. The type that makes me want to go outside and write poems or stories. As I hadn’t taken any pictures yet, I determined that I would post later in the week with pictures of our lovely fall. Here is a sample of what procrastination does to such a post:
I had wanted to get some pictures of the trees and snowdrifts in our back yard, but our back door was frozen closed… so I went around to go through the gate, but this is what I saw:
The ice didn’t show up too well in the picture, but the gate is pretty stuck, too.
Not the most flattering picture I’ve taken of myself, but here is yours truly, blogger (on occasion lol) and photographer. =D
What’s still visible of our raspberry bushes. I guess we won’t have fresh raspberries ’til next summer. =(
The next part of my morning was to warm up -
So… Happy Fall, everyone! =D
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Thing About History...
I have always been a readaholic, reading and rereading books until I’d memorized some passages. Although reading is a good thing, my Mom recognized that I was taking it to an unhealthy level. Mystery was my obsession, and I was caught reading the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew when I should be doing school. Secret of the Golden Cowrie was confiscated when I failed to set the table for supper. Mystery of the Missing Stamp had to be given up for a week because I was found with a flashlight under my blanket, reading into the wee hours of the morning. And the American Adventure series? I dove into those so whole-heartedly that my Mom put a restriction on me: I was only allowed to read for 1 hour every day. TORTURE! At another time, I had to take all of my books into my mom’s room so that she knew what I was reading and when I was reading it. I’d trek in early in the morning and ask for Twig the Collie, read a few chapters, and return it to her before breakfast. So went my early life.
When I turned 13, however, Mom came up with a new idea. I must say it was rather brilliant, though I did NOT think so at the time. She told me that for one whole longmonth, I could not read any fiction. Her goal in doing this (I think) was to have my “must-be-reading” nature turn me towards biographies and autobiographies of missionaries and other more worthy heroes. I imagine that she didn’t want me trying to turn into a Nancy Drew, getting kidnapped every few months and being incommunicado for days on end during a case. (LOL Like that would ever happen!) Anyhow… I didn’t see the sense of her idea, so I resolved that if I couldn’t read fiction, I wouldn’t read anything. I lasted for THREE DAYS, people. Yeah. It’s an obsession. The first thing I picked up was a biography about Jim Elliot. I don’t remember which one it was, but I do remember reading it and thinking, “You know, this is kinda cool.” And then someone suggested that I read about Anne Frank. I wish I knew who it was who gave me this suggestion, because they opened a new chapter in my life. You see, my library didn’t have any books about Anne Frank that weren’t checked out. But they DID have dozens of other World War Two and Holocaust books. Memoirs, autobiographies, timelines, histories. I checked out a few in desperation: I felt that I just had to be reading! As I read, I started wanting more. These were REAL people, things that REALLY happened! I read about concentration camps and battlefields, then one memoir mentioned a pilot… so I read about him, then I had to read about airplanes. Planes can take off from onboard ships, so then I read about ships. Then I checked out books on secret codes. And the process just went on and on. It was at this time that I discovered the classics, as well. In one of the many biographies I read, I found that a girl loved Jane Austen and George Eliot. So when my month was up, I read Jane Austen. And George Eliot. Charles Dickens. Elizabeth Gaskell. Arthur Conan Doyle. Lloyd Douglas. Alexander Dumas. etc etc etc. My fiction addiction leveled off a bit, but my obsession with the written word reached a feverish all-time high. I decided to break my mystery habit in my own writing and wrote my first historical fiction. I don’t know if I’ll ever love any of my writings as much as I love that book. The story takes place during the Holocaust, and it involves finding new life at the end of tragedy. I had found a new life for myself in the world of the past. The things thatreally happened are often just as (or more) exciting than what authors come up with.
So here’s the thing about history: It opens your eyes. I found links from the past that explain some of my world today. I discovered just how amazing things are – things that I just take for granted. What went into the radio? The light bulb? Airplanes and cars? The people who invented these things are honored in our society today, but in their own world, they were thought of as total jerks. I’ve just written about 750 words to say something that could be said in a mere five words: “Don’t be afraid to expand” Try something new! As unwilling as I was to enter the “real world” of non-fiction, I found it to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Don’t get stuck in your little corner, ’cause another thing about history is this: people who stay in their own cozy little corners don’t make a difference.
Monday, October 12, 2009
A little confusion with Spanish...
This year I'm learning Spanish. It went really well for the first 7 weeks, but now I have hit a tough spot. It's called "right vs. left" or, "derecha vs. izquierda" (I don't know if I spelled that right...)
I have always been directionally challenged. Even though I've reached the ripe old age of 17, I still use my hands to tell directions. How? Quite simple, actually. I have a mole or birthmark or something of that sort on my right hand. All I have to do is look at one of my palms and I know right from left. My right palm has this little mark on it, and my left palm is blank.
Wait, how does this apply to Spanish? Well, I'm to the part where I'm supposed to learn right from left. The problem is, I can't even do it in ENGLISH... so Spanish has been a bit of a problem. I'm using Rosetta Stone, and as many of you will probably know, they give you a phrase and show four pictures, leaving you to click on the picture that matches the phrase. Pretty easy stuff, really. I mean, if it says "elephant" I'm not going to click on a picture of a woman. But if it says, "The ball is in the woman's right hand..." AAAAAAAAAAAACK! Here is the problem:
1. I already have right vs. left problems
2. I'm new at this Spanish thing
3. MY right is the PICTURE'S left!!!
So if you're in my neighborhood and you hear a scream between 10:30 and 11:15, you may just shrug and say, "Ah, Emily is doing her Spanish." =D