Artsy Spartzy

So Megan got to write the letter last week and I (Caitlyn) so I am going to write this week’s. And considering the fact that I don’t have tons of homework (or a very interesting life) I’m going to try to make this most enjoyable and not like “an elephant dart to the public’s face”; yeah- hopefully more enjoyable then that. This morning when I got up I started worrying, what am I going to write about? My mom suggested- write a post/email in Spartz Network stuff. For those of you that don’t know, the Spartz Network is this awesome group of websites created by a group of college students that are hilarious. So they’ll almost have nothing to do with the week; who am I kidding these have absolutely nothing to do with the week. They are just funny.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Hope you like these funny pictures. The reason I did it this way isn’t because I don’t like writing (which I do) or that I’m not good at writing (which I am) but that I can’t remember what I did this week (sorry.) What I do remember is my week had it’s ups and downs but that’s life, and in life you need funny pictures so..Have a good week everyone! Love You!!!

 

Caitlyn

Megan's Homework

Mom is grumpy because it’s January and January SUCKS, so I (Megan) am writing the letter for her. Because I am an amazing, wonderful, kind, and considerate daughter. And since all that happens in my life now is homework, that’s what all you lucky people get to hear about. 

 

Monday, I spent most of my time writing an essay. On what, you may ask? Well, since you are obviously dying to know, it was on grammar. It was a pretty fantastic essay if I do say so myself – which I do. It was on how grammar is stupid. Specifically, how Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is stupid. And since my APLC teacher made me memorize all their rules last semester, I tend to agree with the basic claim of the essay.

 

Tuesday, I did a ton of math homework. I miss math when it actually had numbers in it. I actually asked my math teacher the other day whether what we are learning applies to real life, and she told that it didn’t. At least she was honest. On a side note, if I ever hit my head really hard and decide that I want to become a math major, do whatever possible to stop me. I‘ll forgive you. Eventually.

 

Wednesday I actually didn’t do anything because there was this book signing thing that mom dragged me and Caitlyn to (there was food, so we weren’t exactly kicking and screaming). Every time you asked a question, (I just got really giddy because I can use a second-person pronoun and not have my essay ripped into shreds! First time since, like, seventh grade!) they gave you a raffle ticket to win these bags of books. Not people to turn down free books, or free anything, we asked a lot of questions. I won one, Caitlyn didn’t. And there were cupcakes, so all was good.

 

Thursday, all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die. Instead I spent several hours reading this one book called Gutenberg Elegies, which made me feel like I crawled into a hole and died. Underneath all the fancy language, all the author is doing is saying: “*whining* I REALLY Like reeaaadddding.” And he’s doing it by telling us his life story. I have not reached a point in the book where the author has actually made a point; other than the fact that the author’s life was *whining* reeeeeeeaaallly hard, that is.

 

Friday, I read The World is Flat. It’s an interesting narrative about how the global community is developing. and it’s not as annoying as Gutenberg, so I’m good.

 

Yesterday, I wrote another essay about how I scored on a test last semester, so that I could “evaluate myself and figure areas of improvement” and I’m not even halfway done with that project. And because that essay made my brain cry a little, I then spent several hours watching Bollywood.

 

So what I have to look forward to, after this mandatory voluntary (they say you don’t have to come, but we all know that that is a lie) meeting on youth conference this evening, is homework. And then some more homework.

 

I probably sound like a total egotistical whining brat, but I’m reading this letter out loud as I write it, and mom thinks I ‘m funny. So there.

 

Megan

You Can Tell She's My Daughter

What Kristen did before school today.

Unsurprisingly

Caitlyn came home with this the other day:

It was a local thing, last minute, and she threw together an essay on A Jane Austen Education, which she had gotten about 1/3 of the way through. Even though we weren't surprised she got this, we're still very proud.

And it's always good to be recognized for something you're good at.

Cupcakes!

It's January. So, of course, we experiment with food (it being cold and yucky outside). This year: cupcakes!

Our first outing was Whipped Vanilla Cupcakes with Whipped Cream. I basically strong-armed Kristen into these, but she was okay with them because they had pink sprinkles. This was our version:

And they were light and fluffy and delicious. And bit of a mess to eat.

Our second outing wasn't cupcakes so much as lava cakes, but since they come in tiny ramekins, I figured I'd count them. Caitlyn found the recipe for us, so all we had to do was put it together (which she did):

And the result of these?

Yummy. If incredibly rich.

Stay tuned for our next bit of small goodness.

A Week in Books, TV, and Movies

We were SO happy our TV is back on. That’s probably pathetic, but it’s January. And while it was nice this week, and it rained which is wonderful, it wasn’t nice enough to go outside. So, when we weren’t at school, work, or lessons, we stayed in and watched and read stuff. 

 

TV

Downton Abbey is back! *happy dance* We didn’t get around to it until Tuesday, but as I remarked when the show started: oh, I’ve missed these people. And it’s just as delightfully soapy as I remembered. (Something about period soap operas make you feel smart, I guess.)

 

Castle is back, too! Which makes me happy and Mondays not so bad. Enough said. (Oh, and Nathan Fillion won the People’s Choice Award for TV Dramatic Actor. Yes, I did vote (lots) for him. Yes, I do have excellent taste.)

 

We actually got Russell to watch this week’s Big Bang Theory (instead of his usual, Prime Suspect 4; he’s working his way through all of those seasons while we girls watch Castle) because someone on Facebook said they enjoyed it. And it was one of their better ones; the women – who are decidedly not comic book geeks -- were all arguing about Thor’s hammer. Russell appreciated it.

 

And what did Alison and Kristen watch? The animated X-Men. Sure, they’ve seen it all before, but that’s never stopped them. Also: we watched a couple episodes of Avatar The Last Airbender while we worked on the puzzle Grandpa and Grandma sent, and they know the entire thing word for word. Amazing.

 

Books

As I mentioned last week, Alison has been working through The Order of the Phoenix. Much to Kristen’s dismay, Alison spends nearly every spare moment working through it. As a result, she’s almost done. I’m quite proud of this, even if it’s just so she can watch the movie. Also: she’s been pushing for an iPad (no idea where she got the idea that we’d buy her one!), so she, Kristen and I went to Best Buy yesterday, while everyone else was gone on a temple trip, to play with them. That made her happy.

 

Kristen and I read a bunch of Elephant and Piggie books on the couple nights when we were home together, because Russell was off to some meeting or another.

 

Megan picked up Hunger Games to reread, just as a mind break. Because it’s awesome, she said. She also read A Jane Austen Education (quite good, that) for a school project. Except, Caitlyn – who tries really hard to understand what Megan and I like – took it to school to read, and lost it in the crush in the hall. She was quite torn up about it. But since it was a gift and not a library book, all is okay. It’s just a book, after all.

 

Caitlyn was without a book to read, so I encouraged her to pick up Son, which is the next in the Giver series by Lois Lowry. She’s enjoying that immensely.

 

As for me? I spent the week reading a horror novel, Anna Dressed in Blood. I also managed to get a quote in the paper about local author Clare Vanderpool’s new book Navigating Early. It’s just because the reporter called the store while I was there, and I happen to be one of the few people who’ve read it already. It wasn’t anything special. But she did make me sound smart.

 

Russell didn’t read because he spent the week working on getting ready for classes, and writing a review that was overdue...

 

Movies

Actually, now that I think about it, we didn’t watch that many movies. We did curl up last night, though, to watch Bourne Legacy. It took a while to get started (mostly because it'd been years since we’ve seen the last Bourne, and neither Megan nor Caitlyn had seen any them), but once it got going it was really pretty good.

A Couple More Songs

You may have seen this already, but I found this last week when I was putting together singing time, and I really like the arrangement. The video is nice, too.




This one came from a friend of mine, who linked to this one day when I posted that Caitlyn was having a tough time at school because people were making fun of her for liking Broadway music and being a Nerd. I love the message (but the video's kind of meh).

There was a time, not too long ago, when afternoon church was the bane of my existence. It’s so hard to keep younger kids entertained Sunday morning without fighting, and then there’s the whole hunger and nap issue. But with older kids, Sundays with afternoon church suddenly take on a whole different feel. We get to sleep in (!), have big breakfasts (not this week, of course), get Projects Done, and basically have a lovely, lazy day. 

 

The week was also blissfully normal. I worked New Years Eve, making it in before the snow hit. Which means I got to experience the bliss that a quiet bookstore is in the middle of a snow storm. It wasn’t much of a snow, but it was enough for the girls to get out and play a bit in. Thankfully, it stopped and cleared up so none of the evening’s activities were cancelled: Megan had a dance, and Catilyn had a party. Both had good times (though Caitlyn fell asleep around 10, and they had to wake her up at midnight), while we let Alison and Kristen stayed up until 9:30 (Newfoundland New Year?) and then watched Mission Impossible 2 (make-fun-able) while we waited for the older two to come home.

 

New Year’s Day was our annual party (18 years since we started doing this, 10th consecutive). We actually had a big crowd this year, which meant for lots of good food, lots of loud conversation, lots of kids running around, lots of mess, and lots of fun. It wears me out (being tired and all from the night before), but I love doing it. (In the crazy prep for it, though, we forgot to watch the Rose Parade, a fact which made me sad afterward.)

 

Wednesday was a down day. Russell went into work, I went to zumba and the library for a bit, but mostly we all just lay around the house watching (too much) TV and reading. It was a nice down day before school started up again.

 

Which it did on Thursday. Everyone got off to school just fine, everyone got home just fine. One of the women I carpool with for picking up the high school students went and got a full-time job, so I had to change when I go into work, because I’m now responsible for taking the high schoolers in the morning. On the one hand, I’m going to miss the quiet of the store from 8 to 9, but on the other hand, it does make my mornings less hectic. And I can get to the gym. Which is also nice. The only class that changed for Megan is she’s taking Anthropology now, which makes her happy. And her AP Language and Composition teacher decided to make up for not giving them homework over the break by handing them a two-inch-thick packet full of assignments. Also: it seems that he’s going to beat procrastination out of them. That’s going to be interesting. 

 

Caitlyn decided to drop band; she and Mr. Goter (who I still really like) were just clashing on a daily basis, and she didn’t get along with anyone else in her section (stupid low brass boys) and – truth be told – she’s a singer, not an instrumentalist. Additionally, she’s been struggling with insomnia, and I think exercise will help, so we dropped band in favor of PE. She really likes the PE teacher, and she hasn’t had troubles the last couple of nights, so I think that may be the right decision. Now, to find a singing teacher...

 

Alison has spent the last week working on Order of the Phoenix. She’s decided that she needs to read it before we head to Florida in the spring. And, even though it’s a huge book – a fact which depresses her at times – and she has loads of questions about plot points and words she doesn’t understand, she’s getting through. Something which makes me happy, considering she is the child of mine least likely to curl up with a book.

 

Kristen is, well, Kristen. She got her hair chopped off (not terribly short, just to the chin) yesterday, and proclaims “I like short hair.” She wants cake for treat (we talked her into cupcakes), and she often snaps at the rest of us because we’re ignoring her. She doesn’t like being ignored. School is school – nothing much changed there – and she was bored yesterday because “there was nothing to do and everyone is just reading or listening to music.” Sometimes, it’s tough being the youngest.

 

Stay warm.

Happy New Year!

We had a full house, with kids running around, spilled drinks, loud conversation, lots of food, and games. And, as always, I'm glad Russell thought to take pictures of the insanity.

Here's to 2013!