Finally Fifteen!! :P

Rebekah, 2013, 15 years old

Yes! I made it! I am, at long last, 15 years old. Today is my birthday and Mom and Dad, (mostly mom :P) gave me make-up to show that I am officially a young lady and should act like one. :) I got to choose purple eye shadow and I wore it for my 15 year old pictures. I can't believe I'm so old! :P Thank you Mom and Dad and siblings for putting up with me for 15 years! I'll try to live up to your expectations. I love you all! :D

Bible Bee Nationals

Unfortunately, I do not get to go, :( but both my older sisters have placed! :D Sarah actually placed 10th in the entire nation!!
GOOD JOB SARAH AND MARGARET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will both be heading off to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in November.  I wish you both a fun time and lot's of experience as you endeavor to learn God's Word. Love you both!! :)

Bible Bee/ Janelle's Wedding

So, in short, today was very busy! At exactly 8:30 we registered for the local 2013 Bible Bee and, being a Senior I got to do my oral round first, which was nice because I got to have the nerve-wracking stuff over with first. Then came the written test, which was actually more difficult than the oral ! (surprisingly) I then ran from the written test (skipping the closing ceremony in which I evidently got 5th place), and went down to the bridesmaids' dressing room. I wriggled into my dress, had my hair done, (which turned out really nice I thought),

Don't you love the purple decorative?

threw my makeup on (almost literally) and waited for half an hour until the photographer was ready for the junior bridesmaids. 

the junior bridesmaids: Me, Kathryn Stephenson, Mallen Roberts, and Paige Hoffsommer

Looking nice, but nervous

My bouquet

The wedding was eventually pulled off, although there was a lot of standing around looking pretty. :P I had to be the first of the wedding party to go up and I felt rather ridiculous going up the isle to the Darth Vader theme! lol!! :P

See? I've got my "I can't believe I'm doing this" smile on my face

I think I was the only one to go up walking in time to the music, but I think I got the easiest part. The reception required more standing and sitting for me, and after the couple cut the cake, Janelle threw her bouquet,  and we gave them a grand send off, (which included a little too much bell ringing :), I said a quick good bye to my friends and went home and got my 15-year-old birthday pictures done.

 These are a few of my favorites...

I guess that's it! Better go... God Bless.

A Day at the Fair

Today my younger siblings and I were taken to the annual fair as a fun day gift from mom. It was fun seeing all sorts of odd animals,

an alpaca

a guinea pig

 regular animals,

a hog (btw, it felt coarse and brittle.)

a rabbit

amazing rides, strange people and...HORSES!!!! :)

(go figure, right?) We got to see someone from our church too

as well as learning safety things from real live police officers and firemen.

David and William in an armored car

William having some fun with free fair stuff

I just wanted to really quickly share our fun day with you all.

trying to get an entire cotton candy ball into my mouth.

Thanks Mom!!! Love you. :D
 

Search for the Lost Dinosaur Bone: A Book I'm Writing

I don't really have something exciting to post this week, and since my blog says I'd post random things, I thought I should probably live up to it, so this week I'm posting a chapter of a book that I've written. It's about five orphans that live behind a museum that their Uncle owns. The "I person", (the one narrating), is Seth Swanson, the oldest child. Let me know if I've messed up, and also let me know if you enjoy it! Here it goes:

 

Chapter One: The Start of our Mysterious Adventure

            Early in the morning, I awoke to Rachel violently shaking me by the shoulder.

            “Seth!” she whispered urgently, trying not to wake the other two boys next to me. “Wake up; I have something important to say.” Having had all the grogginess shaken from me, I sat bolt upright, nearly upsetting the cot which I shared with the other boys.

            “What is it?” I replied as Rachel gasped for breath. (I could tell she had been running.)     

            “Seth,” she finally gasped out, “our triceratops leg bone is GONE!” She gave especial emphasis on her last word, and made me jump. Kenneth and Adam stirred in their sleep, and Adam grunted before his breath evened out again.

            “Have you told Uncle?” I asked once I had sufficiently recovered my composure after the shock. Rachel shook her head.

            “No, I haven’t, He hasn’t come into the museum yet. Remember, today the museum doesn’t open, it’s Saturday.” I looked at her in disbelief.

            “I can’t believe it! Have you told the other kids?” Again Rachel shook her head. “Good, let’s keep it that way until breakfast. I’ll tell them all then. Wake up Amy and the boys, and let me have some quiet time to think. Thanks.” After Rachel woke the boys, (With much groaning, and lamentations from Adam), I sat and stewed in thought.

            Soon, a little too soon, Rachel came in to say that breakfast was ready, so I left my musings reluctantly, and went to the table rehearsing my speech in my mind, over and over.

            It took a while for the noise and chatter to die down some, but it did at last, and I stood from my chair. All eyes were riveted to me; I did not usually stand in the middle of a meal. I cleared my throat and began:

            “Brothers and sisters, I have just this morning heard the dreadful news that our prized triceratops leg bone has mysteriously disappeared. Thankfully it’s Saturday, because I will need all of your help to return it to our museum. I hope that we will be able to find it before our Uncle sees it missing. I’m afraid that would kill him. Are you willing to help me in the search?” All heads nodded, though Rachel looked a little unsure. I continued, “Wonderful! So here’s our next plan of action. Kenneth, you are going to come with me after breakfast, to help me look for clues. Rachel, you are to stay here with Adam and Amy. Are your orders understood?” All my siblings nodded again, although Adam looked a bit disappointed at being left out of the action. I sat down again, and breakfast continued. Kenneth sat with his eyes on his plate. A look of puzzlement was on his face. Smiling inside, for his expression was rather comical; I asked him what was bothering him. He looked up, startled, from his musings.

            “Oh, I’m just puzzled about this robbery. Why did they take something from our museum, I mean, there are so many others, why ours?” this question I could not answer.

            “That is what I want to find out next, let’s hurry up and go.” Kenneth gave me a quick nod, and gulping down his breakfast in a manner that was so unlike his usual that I was almost worried for his heath; pushed his chair back from the table, and pulled on his boots.

            In no time at all, we were hurrying across the back yard lawn, still wet with dew. Kenneth pushed open the double doors; the squeaky hinge seemed deafening in the still morning air. Almost stealthily, we tiptoed through the museum, the hollow thump, thump, thump, of our feet adding to the eeriness.

            Suddenly, Kenneth froze in his tracks. I followed his example and stopped.

            “What?” I whispered.

            “Someone’s in this museum and is coming our way.” was his reply.

            “I don’t hear anything. Perhaps you were mistaken.” I said, speaking with much more confidence than I felt. Kenneth shook his head.

            “No, I am positive I heard footsteps coming our way. Listen close, then you might hear it too.” Since he insisted, I tilted my head in a way to catch all possible sounds, and held my breath, listening. Yes, now I could hear it to, faintly.

            “It’s just our echo I think.” I said. Kenneth looked at me reproachfully.

            “If it was our echo, it would have stopped by now.” Embarrassed, I felt my ears turn red.

            “I-it might be Uncle Devon,” I stuttered, trying to think of another possibility. Again, Kenneth shook his head.

            “If it was Uncle Devon, the footfalls would be heavy. These footfalls are light; perhaps belonging to a girl.”

            “What! A girl!?” I replied in a loud whisper, “Impossible! The only girls that possess a key to the museum are Rachel and Amy, and they are at home exactly where I told them to be.” I paused. “You don’t think they’d disobey me would they?”  Kenneth assured me that they would not disobey me. “Then what on earth would a girl be doing here?” I declared triumphantly. Kenneth shrugged, motioning me to be a little bit quieter. I was louder with that statement then I had intended originally to be.

            “Let’s hide anyhow and see who it is, maybe this is the clue we’re looking for. Come on, let’s hide behind this.” I followed Kenneth, and we managed to wedge ourselves between the wall of the museum and a suit of armor before the person came.

Summer Singing Camp

This summer a few of my siblings and I did a summer singing camp. It was Monday through Thursday for two weeks. We learned four songs, and preformed them on August eighth, the last day of our camp. 

Singing "Benedicamus Domine", a Latin song in the Soprano Section

 

Getting my certificate from Mrs. Read.

 

MY CERTIFICATE!!!

It was not only a awesome experience, learning from an amazing teacher, but also a lot of fun! Our teacher, Mrs. Read, was truly outstanding. She was able to keep the attention of her class from the teenagers all the way down to the four-year-olds, and kept us laughing with outlandish examples of what not to do. We learned among many other things, how to breathe properly, how to articulate so that people can understand the words you say, how to stand and sit with good posture, and how to change keys in the middle of a song accurately. At the end of our camp, I was sorry to leave all my new friends, but also kind of glad to be able to sleep in past 6:30 again! :P Anyways, this post is just a quick one, because if I took time to tell you all that I learned in detail, it would take up a lot of space. So I'd better go before I get even more carried away. :) See Y'all Later!

Peniel Ranch: Part Two (July 18th-19th)

Day Four:
This morning did not start by raining, so that was nice. I was still able to complete my devotions for the day, and the morning went by pretty regularly, we had breakfast, did our Bible bee hour, had some free time, had Lunch, did swimming and kayaking. However, the afternoon was far from normal! The man in charge of the ranch, Mr. Delano, took all the families out to his wooden targets, and showed us how to throw knives and tomahawks!

Grayson hit the first tomahawk in, and John Miller (Jr.), not to be outdone by his friend,
hit the second one in as well. Good job guys!

Why Killian made a face while Larken took my picture, I have no idea. :)

It was neat watching everyone take a turn. I didn't, because I was taking pictures, but we even had a couple of the young guys in our church stick two in a row!! I can't wait to do the slide show, I'm going to have way to much fun doing it! :P

Following knife throwing, we had another hour or so of free time before dinner.

Watch out, MADI'S PLAYING PING-PONG!!!

Once dinner was finished, we had a talent show for our evening thing. I did three things: Play the piano, play the flute, and sing. Some of the talents were more talented, some less. :) It was still fun taking pictures of everyone doing it! :)


Playing the flute with Mallen

Playing a piano Solo

Singing with Mrs. Miller

The day again finished with volleyball and apples to apples, and I got to have Luke Miller on my side, it was so cute watching him decide what card to pick so solemnly. Our last evening was a fun one, and I'm so sad to go home. I always am. Better go.

Day Five:

Today we go home. :( Before breakfast I did Bible bee, and packed up to go home. It was sad to say goodbye to my friends, but I had the assurance that I was going to see them on Sunday, a mere two days from now anyways! :)

the food they served at the camp was beyond delicious, it was fabulous, just short of heavenly!

I don't know about you, but we're tired



This is more or less a picture of the entire group that went. IT WAS SO FUN!!!!

 My apologies, but today was another kind of boring day. But, hey, at least we didn't die by drowning in the river or by getting kicked by a donkey, right? :P We did eventually get home, unpack, and I started on the slide show. I hope it turns out, but I'll have Dad to help me, so it should get done by Sunday. See Y'all Then! :)


I don't want to sound to repetitive, but...
THAT WAS REALLY FUN!!!! HOPE YOU JOIN US NEXT YEAR!!!!!!! :D