Monday, October 24, 2016

My Very First Vlog Post (a.k.a. The VAVC)

I'm trying something new this month. *cue multiple gasps* Yes, I know, right? ;) But, as you may have seen in my September monthly overview, one of my goals for this month was to try vlogging. And when I saw Ivy Rose's Very Awesome Vlog Challenge, I thought "hey, this is perfect! I'll actually know what to SAY when I'm videoing myself!" (Because otherwise, the video would NEVER END...yes, I talk THAT MUCH.) So here I am. :) Sit back with your headphones in and enjoy a small taste of what I'm like when put in front of a camera. (I'll go ahead and apologize now...just in case.)

Look at me! I did it! (In less than fifteen minutes too! I was timing myself. ;) Why the big pause in the middle? Well, I wanted this to be a completely unedited version of myself in front of camera, and a sibling was walking by and looked at me funny. Thankfully they didn't say anything...so I stopped talking to myself until they continued on their business. :) But anyways, there's THAT explanation out of the way. 
Also, I apologize to you Canadians out there. It is true I don't celebrate Canada day...but I really do like you guys. Truly. Just wanted to make that clear after saying what I did in the video.
What did you think of my video? Was it how you pictured me acting in real life? Did my recorded voice sound as funky to you as it did to me? Do you want me to do this again? (Did you subscribe to my YouTube channel? ;P) 
Hope y'all have a great day! See you in the next post! :D

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

21 Answers to the Question "Why Aren't You in School?"

As the school year begins in earnest, I have had that question asked of me at least ten times. And each time it gets a little more annoying and irritating. So, for all you other homeschooled kids out there, I complied a list of answers that you are free to use at any time and should work in any situation. (You may NOT hold me responsible for any reactions that may be the result of these answers, however.) 

Sit back and enjoy these 21 answers to the question "Why aren't you in school?"

1: Immediately begin hacking and coughing with a few sneezes and sniffles for good measure before replying weakly, "Sick day."

2: "We're going on a field trip!! We're going on a field trip!!"

3: "School? What's school? Where am I? Why is your skin 
blue?"

4: Carefully avoid eye contact with person who asked the question and walk quickly in opposite direction.

5: "Why aren't YOU in school?"

6: "I graduated last year. From college."

7: "Uh... Oh, look! A SQUIRREL!"

8: "Been there, done that."

9: "I need milk for tomorrow's breakfast, not fourteen hours spent trying to solve somebody else's problems. Priorities people."

10: "Our school was accidentally maliciously destroyed."

11: "Oh, that reminds me..." *changes topic to weather/sports/politics*

12: "Wasn't really in a school MOOD today, ya know?"

13: "Have you ever tried to put out a burning building, save the world, AND go to school everyday? Me neither, but I bet it's not easy."

14: *death glare* "LOOK ME IN THE FACE AND SAY THAT AGAIN. IF YOU DARE."

15: Pretend your mom called and apologize for having to take the call.

16: "You know what? I've wondered that myself sometimes. Deep stuff, bro."

17: No matter which day of the week "Why would I be in school? It's Saturday."

18: "I actually just remembered something I need to do. Like right now. Nice chatting with you, but I gotta go. See you later!"

19: Stare at person until they break eye contact, then walk away shaking your head and muttering something about them being crazy.

20: Motion to ear, then to mouth while mouthing "Can't hear you, can't speak."

21: "I'm homeschooled." Then give half-hour explanation on what that means.


Any of those helpful? Do you have a personal favorite? Think these will come in handy? If you ever DO use one of these, let me know and tell me what the reaction was. ;P Now I'm curious. ;)

Saturday, October 15, 2016

All You Ever Needed to Know about Pegasi~Guest Post

Hello there. I found a willing donor for a guest post on here. Surprisingly, out of my own family. Who would have thought they would be willing to be associated with my random blog AND admit they were related to me?
He's been a guest on here twice before, so if you want to read more from him, here's those links:
GUEST POST
BLOGGER GUEST! :D

But now, let me introduce this post and its author:
I come from a somewhat large family as most of you know, and so far every one of us (once we reach a certain age) love reading, writing, music and history. Maxwell Benjamin (he's the 6'3" brother) is no exception. (Although he is also a fan of football and is actually pretty good at playing it. Not to boast or anything. ;)
This guy is my sixteen-year-old brother (his birthday was just last month) and I have yet to convince him to start a blog and help out the ratio of guy vs. girl bloggers. (Help me convince him, will you?) However, even with having to complete high school this year and working on getting a few college credits under his belt, he said he would write this for me. I now turn it over to him:

***************************
 
First off I am perfectly happy to admit the Rebekah is my sister. I don't think there is much else to say except that Edward William Greenpool is my pen name. My book:
The Virtually Unknown History of Britain
is not actually finished yet, but I am working on it. I hope you are amused by this snippet.

Image result for Pegasus
Of Pegasi :
         You may never have seen a Pegasus in real life, but you certainly have heard of them. They are good-natured animals who have had a pact with the Britons ever since before the days of King Arthur. The Pegasi’s chief staple is the unicorn, much to the chagrin of unicorn lovers around the world.
         Pegasi are the noblest of creatures. They look like horses with eagle’s wings and have a wingspan of over 35 feet. The first universally acknowledged sighting of the Pegasi by a true Briton was when Erthol sailed the Stormy Channel (alternately referred to as the English Channel). The Stormy Channel got its name because of the Pegasi who would occasionally decide to go swimming. Also they had a great distaste for foreigners and rarely befriended them, choosing rather to sink their ships.
         Erthol crossed the channel in search of adventure, and adventure he found. (I will have a whole chapter on his adventures later so right now we will only deal with his adventures regarding the Pegasi.) When Erthol landed a herd of Pegasi 300 strong met him. He was held prisoner for 15 day before he was finally granted permission to stay with them. (This was an extremely rare privilege, but if the Pegasi had not looked on him as a possible friend he would not have reached the shore.) Gradually he began to speak English (the language of the Pegasi) and made a deal with their herd that involved being friendly and hospitable to one another. Erthol stated in his autobiography (which was translated by a Roman Soldier about 200 years later): “I would not have survived with out them.”
         The pact grew stronger between Pegasi and man when the Romans attacked. In attempt to recall to the mind of men that there were allies in Britain yet, the Pegasi mustered their forces (the total count was 3785) and suddenly attacked the Roman ships at sea, cutting off their retreat. They then destroyed any enemy ships on their way to reinforce those troops who had already landed. Though the Romans remained in Britain for a while, the real war was over. Strangely enough, when the General of the Roman Navy heard what had happened, he commanded on pain of death, “By all means don’t tell anyone. Julius will think us all great cowards for fleeing before a heard of birds. Tell him only that the channel is prone to storms.” And thus the Pegasi, for no real apparent reason, escaped entering the history books.
         For many years the Pegasi fell out of favor with the race of man. Then one day, a boy named Arthur found a few in the forest around 500 AD. He made friends with them, but then he disappeared for several years and when he returned he was a king. However, the friendship between the Pegasi and men still grew stronger. This time was critical for their relationship not because of anything remarkable that happened (besides everything that happened during King Arthur’s time that you can read about in other books) but because nothing terribly remarkable happened. There was time for friendships to develop, and in later times the remembrance of their friendship with Arthur was all that convinced the Pegasi to come to the Brits’ rescue. In fact many of the Pegasi and people still believe that King Arthur will return one day, and I say the sooner the better.
         Many occasions throughout the history of man have seen the Pegasi protect Britain from one enemy or another. They all refuse to give any record of the Pegasi to appease the pact made so long ago by Erthol. For example, the Vikings ran from one end of the island to the other killing large amounts of Pegasi and humans, so in 985 AD the Pegasi mustered their forces and drove the Vikings out of Great Britain all the way back to Norway, and then clear out of France as well. But the Vikings couldn’t write so that event was left unrecorded.
 
         Another example: the Spanish Armada ran straight on into a fleet of 3,500 Pegasi who sank most of their ships, carried those that surrendered far off, and left only a few to go home and say that a great storm had destroyed most of their fleet.
 
         200 years later, one French sea Captain’s journal stated that: “our surprise strike was under way but a great mass of flying creatures destroyed all the other ships and my ship alone escaped to tell Napoleon.” Napoleon, naturally, didn’t want the world to think that his fleet had been sunk by a flock of birds and decided not to record the event at all.
 
         Adolf Hitler, during World War II, ordered his Luftwaffe across the Stormy Channel to destroy the United Kingdom once and for all. Wave after wave of German planes were shot down by those few worthy Britons who could handle an airplane. Soon however, as the Germans predicted, the Royal Air Force began to give out. As the Germans flew what they thought would be the victory lap across Britain to wipe out the few remaining fighter planes and ground bases, 5,400 Pegasi came out of nowhere and smashed the band of planes before they could do lasting damage. When the Germans realized what they were up against, they gave up trying to take England by air.
         Therefore Pegasi are probably the only reason that England is the only island that has never been, and will never be as far as we are concerned, conquered. Their loyalty and valor greatly exceeds that of any other man or beast.
 
         If any of you doubt this story you must simply go to England for they still live in large herds near the Scottish boarder. However, if you land in London and start asking people to take you to the Pegasi herds, they won’t tell you. Either they don’t know that they exist, or they have been sworn to secrecy about their whereabouts by the Pegasi themselves.
 
***************************
 
 
And, I'm back. Hope you enjoyed that little snippet of my brother's book. :) I know I did. We'll be enjoying more snippets sometime soon. The next one is "Of Unicorns" (my personal favorite so far) and then "Of The Loch Ness Monster" among a few others. Didn't know Pegasi (plural of Pegasus) played such a big part in English history? Well, now you know. ;)
He'd love some feedback (like the good author he is trying to become) and so please leave him a comment or two about what you thought!
If anyone else is interested in making a random blog post on here, shoot me an e-mail (points to the "My Contact" page) and I'll get back to you. Promise. ;)
Hope this post made you smile. :)


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Purposeful Pages: October

Greetings foreign beings from distant planets. I come in peace. 

Heeeey guys. My font was doing weird things, so I just felt like writing that. Ignore me. I'm going slightly insane with life craziness and working off of less then seven hours of sleep each night. Six is average. Why? Honestly, I have no idea. Usually I sleep really well at night. But not recently. 
However, on to the introduction! It is time for the monthly purposeful pages post! :) Another round of delightful questions from ma friends Amanda and Hannah! I'm having so much fun with this link-up, and I hate to see you miss out! It's free to join. And free stuff is always awesome. So. Go and join. *shoves you toward blogs*

But now the questions and answers for your enjoyment. *bows*:
1: What is something (or who is someone) that has encouraged you to grow in your faith?
Well, my parents. (Duh) But there are also quite a few godly couples at my church who have been both an example and an encouragement to me as I try to follow God with my life. 
2: Has blogging showed a side of you that you normally don’t see? 
Not really. Except that I'm waaaay more outgoing with brand new people on here then in real life. And posts are a LITTLE more rehearsed then on the spot conversation. But otherwise, I write on here how I talk to friends. (I don't talk internet lingo out loud though...I use words. REAL words.)
3: What inspires your “creative genius?”
First of all, I'd like to thank you for saying I have creative genius...that was really sweet. Secondly, I'd like to mention that you didn't need to use quotation marks. Thirdly, let me answer your question in one word: everything. Really, everything in life inspires me whether I'm writing, playing one of my musical instruments, or creating a work of art. (Yes, I do draw sometimes. But don't ask me to show you any of my "art" THAT does require quotation marks.) 
4: Why do you write?
Because I love too. (Yes, FINALLY a simple question that I could answer easily!) 
5: Your house is on fire, and you only have time to save one thing. Do you grab your hand-written manuscripts or your cat? 
Assuming all my family was safely outside already, I would grab my briefcase. (It holds my Bible, a notebook, my laptop, my iPad, and my Kindle. I know, that's ALMOST like cheating on this question.)
6: If you could ban any book, which one would it be, and why?
BAN any book? Oh heavens, I have no idea. "The Origin of Species"? There's a lot of terrible books out there. Only one wouldn't make that much of a difference.
7: What is your Myers-Briggs personality type (if you know it), and what unique aspect of your personality makes you who you are?
I'm an ESFP (extroverted, sensing, feeling, perceiver). My strongest function is extroverted sensing, which is how I collect information. Forgive me if I'm getting to technical with you, but basically, extroverted sensers collect information from things going on around them, through trial and error, and from other people's mistakes. 
Also, I'm an introverted feeler. I don't express my deeper feelings out loud (which is why I don't usually cry during movies or while reading...so if I ever say I cried during a sad part of something you've written, that is a HUGE compliment coming from me.) However, I do feel things strongly, I just might not show it. You'll mostly see my chipper, everything-will-work-out-for-the-best side on here, but I can express my feelings better by writing them down, so you might come across that side of me at some point. Take this as a warning. ;) 
I'm also an extroverted thinker...so even if my "T" wasn't strong enough to make it into my personality, it's still there because there's a little bit of each function in us. It's just the strongest four that make up our type. So, because my thinking function is extroverted, and my feeling introverted, to most people I might seem like the "T" is actually a stronger function because I'll tell you my opinions and I love discussing things with other people whether I agree with them or not. But I'm more of a people person then most ESTPs and if you need a comforting shoulder to cry on, I'd be the better choice. 
Good grief, I should just write a book about my personality type! Sorry guys, I got carried away. I'm a talker, could you tell? Hopefully something in that long winded rant was an answer to the question.
8: Did you have any kind of “breakthrough” point in your life, whether it had to do with writing, blogging, art, or anything else? If so, would you like to share about it?
This is going to sound a little ridiculous, but at fourteen, I had NO IDEA that were other teen authors out there. When I first began my blog at that age, I felt very alone and completely at a loss as to how on earth I would get my stories out and available to the public eye. When I found other young authors, I was ecstatic! A lot of them had blogs and I joined the teen author community on here and have grown as a blogger and author since then. You all have been not only a huge encouragement to me, but you have posted tips about writing troubles you've had to overcome and countless other helpful stuff! I'm so grateful to you all and thrilled to call you my friends. ^_^
9: Are there any hobbies that you have that don’t fit the stereotypical you?
Absolutely: writing. I'm terrible at focusing on one thing at a time, and ESFPs rarely choose to write as something fun to do. BUT I AM GOING TO CHANGE THE HISTORY OF ALL ESFPS AND PROVE THE STEREOTYPE WRONG! Heh, heh. Yeah, well I'm going to TRY. ;) 
10: Even if you haven’t written an official life purpose statement, can you tell us in a few sentences what you feel called to do with your life right now?
I'm currently in what I like to call "the waiting room" years. I've finished high school, I'm not starting college until at least January, I'm not in a relationship with anyone...really, I'm just hanging out at home, helping my mom with homeschooling, editing my book and books by friends, reading, blogging, and cool stuf...like sleeping. I have no idea what God wants me to do with my life, but I will be ready to do it when He gives me the green light. 
Hopefully that answers your question. :) 

Friday, October 7, 2016

Wedding Pictures

I know, you're all thinking FINALLY. How long does it take to make a post full of pictures? Not long. This took me about ten minutes to put together. However, it took the photographer three weeks to get our pictures to us. So. But now, since you probably skipped all this introduction anyways (which cost me blood, sweat, and tears...) I'll go straight into pictures. Each one that isn't self-explanatory, I'll give a caption. Otherwise, enjoy! ;)

Rehearsal Night:
Laughing with friends and family after rehearing the whole ceremony beginning to end

I think this was the point when Dad said
"Jesse, you may NOT yet kiss the bride,
and I do NOT yet pronounce you man and wife."

Practicing "The Prayer" a song one of my best friends
 and I preformed during the signing of the marriage
 license and lighting of the unity candle.
The Wedding Day (Before the Ceremony):





Us, Jesse's family, and Sarah's grandparents

Sisters forever <3


I love the look of Maxwell's face. XD

Love ma sis

THE WHOLE FAMILY!!


I love this picture. B-)
Even if it does make me look short.
My brothers, the groomsman and best man, 
are 6'3" and 6'4" respectively.

The siblings

I was applauding Sarah's cooperation
of having someone put makeup on
her and do her hair. ;P

Waiting for the ceremony to start...


There was a car coming. ;)

best friends, best sibs
The Wedding Day (During the Ceremony):
Jesse and his mom. :)


My cousins, Jubileena and Graham Olson:
Flower girl and ring bear (Graham insisted on us
calling him that instead of a boring ring bearer)
Getting ready to go down the isle. :')
Here comes the bride!!
This is my church
This is what happens when two PKs get married:
The guy's dad talks...
...and the girl's dad talks. ;P

One of my best friends and I preformed "The Prayer"
during the lighting of the Unity candle and the signing of the marriage license.



Unity candle lighting   

Signing the marriage license


This was my moment to shine during the wedding. ;)
WE'RE DONE!!!!

Oh, goodness. I look so smug in this picture!
What THAT what my face was doing??

The Wedding Day (After the Ceremony):

Saying my congratulations to my sister
after we watched their slideshow.
Jesse's face... XD
Now comes the best part...FOOD ;P
Doesn't it look so delicious? Peaches, brownies, and mints.
Simple, satisfactory, and (thank goodness) no cake. ;)

Me and my bestie. <3 this girl. ^_^


Cheers?
Just kidding. It's lemonade. Obviously.


Hanging out with the bride, groom, and wedding party.

I leave you with this...
And they lived happily ever after. ;)

Blog Tour for Project Canvas!! *cue intense celebration*

GUYS, I couldn't be more excited to share about this incredible book that is going to be available for you to get your hands on in just ...