Catching Up

Christmas was a blast, and we still have another week left until we return to school. I've been having a lot of fun but now it's time to get down to business because I have homework I need to catch up on. The semester ends shortly after we come back to school. As soon as I take care of that, I'll be sure to take a step outside and take some pictures of the snow.

Sleepy Christmas Eve

I may have been the only one alert at one point, because there were lots of napping bodies all over the house today. Tommy was napping on the couch, animals were collapsed all over the place. It was weird.

The tree has become a present fort.

We pushed a present out of the way, and now there's a doorway for Abby to climb into the fort. She now has a fort to formulate evil plans in... or just nap.

Tom lost his stocking this year, so the parents got him a new one. They thought it would be funny to replace mine, too. Oh, ha ha.

Then I got Clyde to pose for some Christmas pictures.

Santa Visits

It's that time of year when the family gets to spend time together. We had a family party today and Santa paid a surprise visit!

Grandma & Santa

Almost all the little ones told Santa what they wanted for Christmas this year. I say almost, because there was one little guy that squirmed away. Even the youngest great grandchild of the family got to sit on Santa's lap. Aww!

Randy's Guitar

Every night there is a tap tap tap to be heard about the house as Randy rocks out on his Guitar, tapping his foot. This afternoon the windows cast the perfect mix of shadows across his guitar and I couldn't help myself. I had to take a couple pictures.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Boy it's cold outside. So cold, in fact, that the pond at my grandparent's house is starting to freeze over. See?

The ducks can even walk across the ice. I wish I could have gotten closer to them today.

I had a wonderful time with my family today. Not everyone was there, but it was still a lot of fun.

The one jumping is my cousin Andy and the photographer is my cousin Paul. Andy was going to jump and my cousin Jeri (not pictured) wanted to get a picture of it on her camera. So Paul walked over with his, "Well, if we're going to do this..." Andy jumped off the ledge 3 times. I love my cousins. Good times. They all do things that I want to do, or have wanted to do when I grow up, so I look up to them a lot.

Busy, Busy...

It's been a while since I last picked up the camera. I guess I've just been so busy lately, I can't find time to do so. Follow my mobile photographic adventures at: http://twitpic.com/photos/j3sca . I mainly send photos from my phone, so I apologize in advance for the quality. At least you'll know I'm still alive and taking pictures in some form! Plus, I may upload photos that you won't see on my blog. So go check it out!

Here are some oldies:





PS- Duchess is doing fine. She didn't fuss with her stitches, like Abby did. She's back to her old self again. You can tell that she missed playing quite a bit.

Pobrecita

Duchess went in to the vet to get fixed today. Pobrecita. When she got home she kinda stumbled about and acted like a drunk. She's been wandering about looking for places to get warm, so she's been burying her nose into the comfort of our arms and laps. When I got home from work, I turned the space heater on in my room and left the computer chair next to it. Duchess was resting on my bed at that time, and when she noticed, she weakly crept toward the heater and onto the chair to get warm. Poor thing.

Beauty of Silence

Here I am again. It's been a while.
Guess what? I've been learning American Sign Language. Jealous?

Here's what I signed:
"Hello, My name is Jessica.
I'm a senior in High School.
I am learning Sign Language.
See Ya."

That's pretty much it! Nothing much, but what do you expect? We haven't been in school for very long.

Summer Ends

I forget if I've uploaded these pictures yet. They're from this summer. I know you haven't seen this guy on my blog in a while.





Clifford has this habit: He sits by Randy when he's playing. Therefore, he is Randy's #1 fan. He goes to Randy's concerts all the time. It's cute. I wish I could get a better picture of it though, because every time I come near with a camera, all he wants to do is lick me.

The Murderous Cat

Abby, the outdoor cat never stops surprising me. She has always been a hunter. She started hunting little bugs and spiders and moved on to mice, giant dragonflies, even a baby bunny. (Don't ask where the bunny came from, because I don't even know).

Rumors around the house tell me that this past week, she has become a mass-murderer. I've been told that she killed a squirrel. Not just any squirrel, but the mother of a small nest living in the roof of our shed. As a result of her death, the whole nest of babies died.

Or so they say.

It's only natural, I guess.

Here's an extra picture from the fair.

The Fair '09

We went to the fair on Friday. We went bright and early and stayed until midnight. Tom and I pretty much crashed in the car as it got dark because we were so tired. I had one friend come with me during the morning, then when she had to go, we ran into our cousins. So we hung out with the cousins for an hour until my other friend met us at the fair. Busy busy.

Tom on the Tilt-A-Whirl

The Carousel

Looking at the pigs. They were all sleeping.

We went to see the bunnies, birds, and chickens.

This bunny started glaring as soon as I brought the camera out...

This rooster tried his best... but he's not as tough as the other ones.

Cute little pygmy bunny!
Pigeon...
Pigeon?
We never did go on the Ferris Wheel, we didn't want to get stuck at the top again.

More pictures to come!

Funny Faces

Duchess gets really confused when Tom goes outside. She can't smell him, touch him, or hear him that well. She goes crazy.


Of course he goes a little crazy, too.

Glued

"How much is that kitty in the window?"

I can't stop myself from playing the piano. Not that it's bad to do so or anything...

This is a song I'm working on called "Bratja" or "Brothers" from Fullmetal Alchemist, a show I watch. It's a very sweet song, but also a very long one. This is just a snippet from the most repeated part of the song.

You know what? I've been working on this song for about 2 weeks now off and on and it's going quite smoothly, but I still need to iron out my mistakes before I record the whole thing. So if you're eager to see that, then hold your horses, it's going to be a while.

An old hobby resurfaced

Duchess está contenta.

Last December, my grandma asked me if I was still playing the piano. Regretfully, I said no. I honestly hadn't played seriously since the fifth grade. It took a while to sink in, but I finally took my grandma's advice and started to play the piano.

I'm not exactly Mozart, but here it is:

I sat the camera on the speaker so you could hear it better.
If you're wondering what the song is, it's the piano intro to "I Will Waste My Life" by Misty Edwards. Sheet music given to me by my step dad, because he plays it on the guitar.

And here is the original song, if you wanted to compare:

Obviously, I'm not that good... but I try.

Camp Activities 2009

Here are some more pictures from camp last week. Most are from the challenge course.

I don't know how to explain this challenge, but it involved teamwork and balance.

One of the missionaries taught the girls her dance.

Megan on the swing. You couldn't pay me to get on that thing...

Titanic. We had to swing from the "sinking ship" to several "floating debris." We had to get eight girls on the first platform before some could move on to the next platform. Pretty interesting to watch. "Send the small ones first!"

A girl that chased the deer around with me found a fuzzy caterpillar.