Walking sticks, Memorial Day, and school.

I thought I'd show you what our Australian walking sticks look like. They're considered a pest in Australia and I''m not even sure where the person we got them from got them. They eat sticker bushes which is nice because we have a lot of them ;)I keep threatening to get a lizard or snake and feed them to it.

I had a really good Memorial Day weekend. I babysat on Saturday night from four to midnight. It was fun :P We played foursquare and had a connect four tournament. I brought Mario Party for the wii so we did that and watched some movies. They fell asleep during the second one so when their parents got home they could barely wake them up.

On sunday after I got back from church my family went and saw "Horton Hears a Who." I had no idea that it was still in theatres, but I guess it was! It was actually pretty funny.

Monday, I was happy because I didn't have to do school because my dad had the day off! We went over and went mini golfing and then went out to lunch. Anyway, that was my weekend.

I've been working on a paper for History about the Manhattan Project. I'm afraid it's going to end up being way too long, but since I'm just turning it in to mom I don't think she will mind. It's really a neat topic.

One thing I found interesting was that Bohr had discovered how to make heavy water. Since he knew that if it got into the wrong hands it could help in the creation of an atomic bomb, when the Nazi's invaded he dumped the heavy water in a normal beer bottle and put it next to the beer in his fridge. He was hoping that if the Nazi's raided his lab the fridge would be the last place they would look. When he fled to England he grabbed the wrong beer bottle and didn't realize it until he got there.

Oh yeah, and I also joined the YCF or "Young Christian Force." It's a group of people who's goal is to glorify God through their blogs. Pretty cool, Eh?

Randomness

We had some Mexican friends over tonight and they made us dinner! We had soup with hominy and chicken in it topped with lettuce and radish. It was so good! We had Tostadas too :) Nothing beats good Mexican food!

I'm not sure what to post about so I keep looking around the computer room for inspiration. We have a little strip of paper tacked up in the hall that say "Have you hugged your engineer Today?" and I think that's pretty funny. My family is awesome!

I went and saw Prince Caspian last weekend. It feels like so long ago now. I really want to see it again. I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't think it had the power of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I did enjoy it tohugh. Edmund and Lucy were amazing and then there was Reepicheep "He is so cute! Who said that?" He was exactly how he should be. Perfectly dignified. When the credits were rolling my little brother, who saw it opening night, leans over and goes "I told you it got stupid at the end." Edmund is one of the most incredible characters ever written.


Okay, and it bugs me...for some reason I've ALWAYS spelled grey with an e and I don't know if it's my British roots or what, but that's the way it should be at least in my opinion.

Sixteen Candles

Okay so as some of you know I was at our regional competition for Bible Quiz during my birthday weekend. We didn’t do amazing, but we did put forth a lot of effort and have a lot of fun.

My mom came along and she kept doing things like on Thursday before we left she gave the barista a present for me at Starbucks and told her to put it up on the bar and announce that it was my birthday. She also left a present for me at the front desk of the hotel and kept leaving stuff under my pillow. It was really fun! One of my quiz coaches gave me button/ribbon that said “Birthday Girl” on it and another one bought me sixteen roses of all different colors (I still have them and it’s making me sad that they’re drying out ). We had to quiz all day Friday and it was such a long day. Quiz is really exhausting. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t done it.

On Friday night we went to an Italian restaurant. When we got there they said it was going to be an hour and a half wait, but my quiz coach was like “Well, I have this girl and it’s her Birthday” so they said they’d make it only 20 minutes! The place was really neat and all the servers had to wear funny hats so one guy had a stuffed pink bunny on his head . They brought me a gigantic candle made from a wine bottle and hot brownies with ice cream on them. It was great and we all shared the brownies and ice cream.

My friend and I had a lot of fun playing ninjas in the halls of the hotel. She’s pretty much the brown haired version of me and so we get pretty crazy when we’re together. Anyway, sadly we didn’t make very good ninjas because people could always hear us coming and like one guy hid until we came around the corner and jumped out at us. I actually screamed and fell down <_<

Anyway on Friday night we played phase 10 in the common area at the top of the stairs and then someone came and told us to go back to our room. When we got there my mom and some of my friends had made a little party for me and put up a bunch of Hawaiian themed decorations (I still have a bunch of those little drink umbrellas). They also had music playing and had made cake. We had eaten so much food at the Italian place that no one was hungry so we got one of the other teams to come eat it with us :P

One of the coolest things was that before my birthday my mom had gotten letters and pictures from my friends and made a scrapbook out of it. It’s amazing. I almost started crying when I was looking at it. Everyone had put in something that was so unique to who they are.

Anyway, I had a great birthday. Sixteen still sounds really old. I suppose I’ll get used to it…or not.

Oh, When I got back one of my youth leaders/neighbors had put a bag of chocolate in our mailbox! Mint Truffle Hershey’s Kisses are amazing. Really, Try them.

EDIT: What look like bold faced I's were smiley faces, but they didn't transfer over when I put this in blogger from word. I like using word because otherwise blogger constantly saves it when I'm not done.

Lord of the Rings horse quiz

Okay,  I couldn't resist.  :)

What Lord of the Rings horse are you?

You are Arod!You are riden by the elf Legolas.You can be a little high strung at times, but you are very loyal to your friends and those you trust.
Take this quiz!

I'm curious to see what y'all get.  

Psalm 51

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
      ~Psalm 51:6-12 (NIV)


I've been living off the psalms a lot lately and that particular passage has become one of my favorites.  The heart of the psalmist is just amazing.  He knows that he has done wrong and only God can make him pure again.  

The thing I like about it is the whole thing of God restoring joy.    I've been unhappy a lot lately and this past year has probably been the hardest in a long time,  but recently I've realized how time and time again God has showed me his faithfulness and he never ceases to restore his joy in my life.  It's such a wonderful gift :D

Anyway,  I've got to wrap up this post because it's almost dinner time (we're have Burrito/Enchilada things - They're called Enchuritos :P) and I have studying to do.  One of my brothers is in Utah right now so it's been quiet around here ( except when my older brothers have a bunch of friends over then it gets insane).  

Gotta go! -Kale