Wednesday 31 August 2016

August Highlights

Sorry, had to post that. It's so cute ;) 
You know, it's near impossible to NOT know when the end of the month has arrived. Of course, there's always your calendar. But if you're a blogger, the first thing you notice are 5 or 6 "Farewell August", "August is Over" "August Highlights" posts all in a row. One after the other. It's very hard to miss ;) 


So, of course, I'm going to go add to that list of end-of-the-month posts ;) (Bethany, you sure did start something pretty awesome with these monthly highlight posts =)) 

August was a pretty good month. Lots of things done, and a lot of memories made! 

// We went to the amusement park with some church friends and had a blast! 
Enjoying the carousel! Toblerone loved it, and went on 2-3 times in a row :P
Out of the four 'older' people (Dad, Mom, Tiger Lily, and I ;) I'm the only one
who can handle the more dizzier rides, so guess who got to ride with Toblerone? =D 

And guys. We ate funnel cake. FUNNEL CAKE!!!!! (okay, so maybe I'm being a little too dramatic, but really, it's. so. good. And soooooo very expensive, which means we rarely ever eat it. The last time we ate it was like...7-8 years ago?)

Snow White and our friend S. riding Klockwerks! Due to the thunderstorms earlier on in the day, the park was quite empty. So they took advantage of it and rode on this 4 or 5 times. Just in and out and in and out, no lines whatsoever!

// We organized our books into this library book organizer thing. Weirdly enough, the name of the site is Library Thing. There was some miscommunication at first when Mom told me to go onto the library thing xD But yeah.....we logged in a lot of books. Title, author, genre, grade level, etc. Had three computers working at once. But it felt very library-ish, which I LOVED cause it's books! :D 

// Toblerone celebrated his third birthday!! Ahh....my little boy is growing up so fast!! :O He asked for a Bum'bee (Bumblebee) transformer cake, so Tiger Lily and I went through the joys of researching and creating his cake. Toblerone had also started having a sudden interest in dinosaurs, so we made him some dino toast for breakfast :) 

Oh yes, and smily-face potatoes and (plain) chicken nuggets for dinner. 

Construction of the cake:
Finished carving of the cake. Do believe it was the first time Tiger Lily and I had ever
carved and shaped a cake; but it actually went better than expected! :D

Crumb coat and chill! (How to Cake It reference :P)
And Voila! Final product! :)
Okay, so that's actually the Autobot's symbol, not Bumblebee, but we made it yellow
and Toblerone was satisfied ;)
The Birthday Boy

// ADVENTURE CAMP
The Awesome Crew!!! 
Probably one of the best and most favourite thing that happened this month. Seriously, it. was. amazing! Thank you so, so much for your prayers! Everything went great :) Got to meet new people, spend time with friends, and help kids have a fun time at camp! Olivia and I collaborated together and are currently in the middle of telling stories from Adventure Camp, so if you haven't already read them, you should go do so! You can find them on my blog or Liv's blog HERE.

// I am now officially in Grade 11. Which means next year will be Grade 12. Which means I'll graduate soon! Eeks! Don't know whether to jump up and down for joy or hide in a corner. . .

This year, Mr. Landry was very nice and pushed the start of school back a week so instead of going back to school on the 15th, we started on the 22nd. (which meant I didn't have to miss school while at camp! :D)

Not at all sure why the US starts school in August?! (maybe some of you Americans can enlighten me. . . ;)) but it's nice to be able to end in May :)
And I don't know about you, but I was actually pretty excited for school to start! Essays, peoples! The best! ^_^
"Shopping" for school supplies . . . at home 

Toblerone showing off his backpack ;)
All my stuff - ready for school! :D

Tiger Lily and I are both doing Chemistry together and our first assignment was to memorize the names and symbols of 42 elements from the Periodic table. One day we were quizzing each other and then reached "B". There was an awkward silence as we tried to figure out what it was, then we both suddenly looked up and said simultaneously: "Boron! Rhymes with moron!" xD 

// Our church youth group went to a locked room event thingy. Basically, you were locked into a room and had to use clues to try and get out. During that time, we found out that we could be very smart at times, and very stupid at times. It was SO funny xD

There was a picture of pencils and they formed something, but we couldn't figure out what. I was staring at it with one of my friends and said: I wonder if the pencils form Braille letters?
Friend: Wait, those are pencils?
Me: *blinks*
Friend: *dies laughing*
Ok, this isn't exactly what the picture looked like, it was more
like dashes, not forming anything interpretable. But it's close ;P
Or another time, there was this geography quiz thing and I was trying to figure it out. It was on American geography and seriously, I'm SO bad at that :P There I was trying to figure out what MN - MT + MI, etc was and not knowing AT ALL which states they were. After a few minutes of me trying to recall an image of the US in my head, my other friend, E, said, "Hey, look. There's a map on the wall." 
Me: looks up and sees a big map with North America stretched across it. RIGHT. IN. FRONT. OF. ME *slams head on desk* 

Oh, and guess what? I learned that there's actually a state called Mississippi. I thought there was just a river named that :P

// I had a photo-shoot with my friend. We have our own Cinder-elly now! 💕
 



Writing/Reading
Sooo...one night I was trying to think of a story plot and guess who I had with me? Tiger Lily. 

Me: Got to find a unique story plot
Tiger Lily: *grins* A haunted teddy bear takes someone's phone and buries it six feet underground. 
Me: . . . . 
Tiger Lily: No, seven feet under. You know, to make it unique! 

Books Read

Okay, so I've been getting desperate trying to find books to read that I haven't already read yet. No longer AS desperate as before, but hey, if you have a book suggestion, please let me know! :) This month, my friend, Eric, introduced me to 'The Ranger's Apprentice' and I'm LOVING it! :D The only problem was he only had the first two books and the second book ended on kind of a cliffhanger and now I've got to wait sooooo long before I can read them from the library. *sigh* A way to learn patience. . . 
Also, has anyone read The Series of Unfortunate Events before? We found the first five books at our book thrift store for 50 cents each, and I had flipped through the first book and found it interesting, so we got 'em. But then I read the the next three books and found that the plot was basically the exact same in all of them :/ Children are sent to a new relative, Count Olaf finds them, something happens to the guardian (they either die or are found to be working with Olaf), children uncover Count Olaf's disguise, Count Olaf gets away with his cronie, and it starts all over again. And Mr. Poe is soooo annoying. Really, you'd think he learn! :P

Anyway, the books I read this month: 
Through the Tunnel - Rebekah Morris
The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket
The Miserable Mill - Lemony Snicket
Holes - Louis Sachar 
The Amish Nanny - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Bride - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Seamstress - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Groom - Mindy Starns Clark
The Ruins of Gorlan - John Flanagan 
The Burning Bridge - John Flanagan 
The Bully Boys - Eric Walters
The Fiddler - Beverly Lewis
The Valley of Adventure - Enid Blyton
Fitting In - Rebekah Morris
The Beautiful Pretender - Melanie Dickerson
The Merchant's Daughter (reread) - Melanie Dickerson 
Dracula (abridged, children's version)- Bram Stoker (still found it super creepy though) 

And right now, I'm reading: 
The Graham Quartet and the Mystery of the Day Maid - Rebekah Morris
An Old-Fashioned Girl (reread) - Louisa May Alcott


Random Things
In which I place all the random thingamabobs that are too small to have their own category ;)

This month, I was working a bit more on aperture. During the photo shoot with my friend, I managed to not use auto at all! So happy ^_^ Also played around with textures, specifically with flowers. 




Has anyone heard Britt Nicole's new song, Through Your Eyes? It's awesome!! :D 
 

Oh, and a rather fun thing that's coming up; Tiger Lily and I will take control of the house while Mom and Dad go on a short anniversary trip. Muahahahahaha (of course we're not gonna be like the Josties xD) 

Goals 

Goals for August
Write at least 5,000 words and blogging don't count - was barely able to reach my goal in time, but in the end was able to get 7% over! Yay!! =D

Reach 30 followers - almost, but not quite! Thank you to the two new followers that joined this month! Really appreciate it :) And to all you other followers - you're awesome :D

Complete the "By the Book" Tag - check!

Finish memorizing Romans 6 - done! Now to just review over the first 6 chapters and keep it from leaking out my ears ;D

Be prepared for school - yep! Almost two weeks into school already and things have been going great :)

Read at least 10 books - yes sirree!

New Goals for September

Guest post on a couple of blogs
Write reviews and post interview for Rebekah Morris' new short story Fitting In
Look into finding a job
and a big event that I'm very much looking forward to. . .  
Participating in the Five Fall Favourites party! You're all invited!!! :D 



And that about wraps up August!
What are highlights from your month? Are you glad school's started/is going to start or sad that summer's ended? Anyone looking forward to this awesome upcoming book blog party?

25 comments:

  1. That picture of the sea otter is so adorable!! :D
    Going to an amusement park sounds like a lot of fun. I went to a carnival in June with some of my siblings and some friends and it was a ton of fun!
    Happy birthday to Toblerone! Those smiley-face potatoes are super cute. Wow, you and Tiger Lily always make such cool cakes! :)
    I’m glad that you had fun at Adventure Camp! I haven’t gotten around to reading those posts yet, but I’ll have to soon. :)
    Do you play the violin? Just curious because I saw it in the picture with your school stuff. ;)
    Wow, you were able to read quite a few books! That’s great. :) Were those Amish books by Mindy Starns Clark good? I really enjoy Amish fiction. Have you ever read any books by Beverly Lewis? She write a lot of Amish fiction. :)
    Oh, have fun taking control over the house. ;) ;)
    I really enjoyed reading through all of you highlights from this past month, Blessing!! :D

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I asked if you’ve ever read any books by Beverly Lewis, and I just now noticed that you listed “The Fiddler”. ;) So I guess that answers my question. ;) Did you enjoy it?

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    2. Yes, aren't amusement parks so much fun?! :D
      Oh, thank you so very much, Rebekah! :)
      I just started learning the fiddle. Which, as you probably already know, is the same as a violin except that the genre of music is different :) Second week into learning already, and enjoying it immensely!!
      Yes, the Mindy Starns Clark books were actually quite good. I was thinking of you when I read 'em cause you said you really liked Amish fiction ;) The Fiddler was a great read! (Oh, and it's not your fault that you just noticed The Fiddler, I added that afterwards when I saw it on your bookshelf and remembered that I had read it but not listed it :P)
      Thank you for commenting, Rebekah, and glad you enjoyed the post =D

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    3. Amusement park rides are super fun! :)
      That’s so cool that you’re learning the fiddle. Yes, I do know the difference. ;) I used to not, but then I finally found out that the difference is really in the music. ;) I’m glad that you’re enjoying it so much! I play the violin and enjoy it. :)
      I’ll have to try those books sometime. I’m glad you liked “The Fiddler”! (Oh, okay! After you mentioned it on my blog I came back over here and was wondering how I missed that one. ;) But now I know. ;) )

      Delete
  2. Sounds like you had a really fun month, Blessing!! I really like the way you do goals for each month. I might have to steal some of your ideas for my end-of-month highlights! Haha ;P

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    1. We definitely had a great month! And haha, yes, please go ahead! To be honest, I 'stole' the idea from another blog who 'stole' it from another soooo.....yeah :P Continue the chain, by all means! ;D

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  3. These posts are so helpful for all those times when I just can't read all your posts. :)
    You put your books on LibraryThing? We have our on there too! Not all of mine are listed because there were so many duplicates and I never remember to add them. :)
    So, do you play the violin? I do.
    And Yes! I'm looking forward to the Five Fall Favorites party. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh wow! You have your books on Library Thing too? Coooolllll!!!! :D Yeah, all those duplicates can be hard to manage :P
      I just started learning the fiddle. It still sounds rather squeaky, but so far I've never made it screech. Tiger Lily has though xD
      24 more days to go until the FFF party! :D

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  4. *dies laughing* That story plot is hilarious!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, I told Tiger Lily what you said, and she said "Finally! Someone who appreciates my hard work!" xD

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  5. Awesome summary! ;) Aaaaaand...I noticed one of your books. ;) You're taking ASL with Mr. Dally?! Is it #1 or #2? Maybe you already told me about it, but I apparently forgot. =) Anyway, he's the best, and I know you'll love it! =) I'm taking ASL 2 this year! Yippee!

    Yes, in America we do start school in August...when do you start it? I love how you have to learn our 50 states! Lol. It's so easy for us...but I do struggle with the Canadian provinces. =P

    //Hosanna Emily

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Haha, thank you, Hosanna! And yes, I'm taking ASL with Mr. Dally :) #1 ;) And guess who I found there?! Faith P.!! :D

      In Canada, we usually start the first week of September, day after Labour Day. But we finish at the end of June. You struggle with our provinces?! There's only 10 of 'em, and you have FIFTY states!!! Haha ;P

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    2. Oh yes!!!! Faith was asking about ASL through Landry! I'm so glad she ended up taking it after all! =D Tell her "hello" for me! Are you enjoying the ASL classes?

      Hahahaha...true. There's only 10 provinces? It feels like so many more. I probably know...half of them? =P And the 50 states are so easy to learn. There's a catchy song that teaches you to sing through the states. ;) You can find it on YouTube. =)

      //Hosanna

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    3. Oh yes, Mr. Dally is a great teacher! And the course is a ton of fun too! :D

      Haha, ok. My younger siblings learned a song for the states during their Veritas Press course. I think it was VP anyway ;) They kept singing it over and over and over and over. . . xD

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  6. That amusement park looks like SOOO MUCH FUN!! :D Wait...funnel cakes are expensive? Really? They aren't here, but I've also never seen one with yummy berries and whipped cream. ^_^
    Oooo, yes, very libary-ish. ;)
    Haha, I love all the shaped food! And the cake -- too cute! Toberlone is so adorable. <3 :)
    I'm in 11th grade too....so scary. o.o Yeah, I don't know why the US starts in August either! We don't start until Monday, but everyone I know has already started. Some kids at church started August 8th!!
    Moron...so hysterical!!
    Aww, those photos are so pretty!!! Very Cinderella-y. :)
    Book recommendations? Um, just stalk my Goodreads page. XD No, seriously though, I would suggest the Blades of Acktar series by Tricia Mingerink if you haven't already read them. Love them! ALSO, the first book is free on kindle right now for the weekend! (https://www.amazon.com/Dare-Blades-Acktar-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00YO77MO2?aal=bfHOK-fb7PoEEVeYYxP-QBNh3v4LXWvcXgQJejtBDvdnIBrS#nav-subnav)
    You read NINETEEN BOOKS?!??! AUGH, I'm so jealous. XD I read...five. *hides*
    Pretty flowers!
    No, I haven't heard Britt Nicole's new song but I want to now!

    Good luck on all your goals and I'm looking forward to that blog party!!! :D

    ReplyDelete
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    1. They aren't?! Whaaaa......how is that possible?! ;P And no whipped cream? *dies* xD
      Another 11th grader! *virtual high five* Woohoo! :D Whoaaa...the 8th? That's early!
      Ohhhh.....thank you so much for the book recommendation! *gasp* Free book! *instantly clicks on link and buys it* THANK YOU SO MUCH =D
      Yes, go listen to Through Your Eyes. You'll be glad you did so! :)

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  7. That is such a cool birthday cake.
    Yes, I have heard Britt Nicole's Through Your Eyes and I have been listening to it like CRAZY! :D
    I love the flower pictures, they are so cute.

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    1. Thanks, Rebekah!
      Yes, isn't Through Your Eyes just AWESOME?! It's been on repeat for a loonnngg time ;) Actually I'm listening to it RIGHT now :D
      Oh, and thank you so very much :)

      Delete
  8. Me: Wait Rebekah isn't through your eyes the song you like?
    Rebekah: YEAH i already commented on it too!!!!
    Me: hmmm okay let me listen to it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, haha, that is hilarious!!!! xD Did you like the song?! (say you do!!! ;D)

      Delete
    2. Ummm kinda :) I really like the music for it a lot...like the way it sounds

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  9. YOU KNOW THE JOSTIES???

    *ahem* Yes, we've met them! Do you know them in person?? I love their "Jostie Flicks" ;)

    Isn't this funny how we have so much in common...weird things too. ;D

    Your August sounds really fun!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Whoa, you've actually met them?!! That's is SOOOO cool!! No, I don't know them in person, I've just seen their videos on Youtube.

      Haha, really now? :D

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    2. Yes, they're really nice and very funny! :) And their music is amazing as well!!

      Well, yes still. ;) Because I have yet to find another person who has heard of the Josties. ;D

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    3. Oh, haha, ok! Try Rebekah Eddy; her blog is where I first saw a Jostie Flick ;) And my friends Olivia and Victoria N. watch the Josties too :D

      Delete

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~ Philippians 4: 8