Photos

Yes, I am actually posting pictures. For once. :) These are some I'm using for my photography portfolio. ;) Enjoy!!

Not using this one in the portfolio, but I still like it. xD

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings all nighter last night. Five kids (three girls and two boys, though one other girl came for the first movie. It was so EPIC!!!! It was the first time I'd ever seen the movies, and I really liked them. Of course, in the middle of the first one, I had to ask them to pause it and explain who was who, because I got so confused. But then I understood. My favorite character(s) were Pippin, Sam, Aragorn, and Legolas. Oh and the dwarf. I can't remember his name. One of my (many) favorite parts was when Legolas was "skateboarding" on a shield down the staircase, and shooting at the same time. I HATED Gollum. When he was nice I liked him, but then he was bad again, and he's just SO CREEPY!!! Violence, some parts were pretty gory, but all in all, I was OK with it.
Besides watching movies, we ate pizza, popcorn.....lots of Coke, and a bunch of other stuff I don't feel like typing out. We played a ton of Freeze between movies, a little bit of CatchPhrase, and over breakfast discussed Inheritance and Son of Neptune. We talked during the movies a LOT....*glares at the boys even though they'll never read this*It was so fun!!!

Now...good day, I must depart to read the latest chronicle of Eragon and his mighty dragon. Mwahahaha!!!!!

P.S. We were talking about Aragorn, all of us said Eragon at least once and they rest of us would "What are talking about??"

Fun times

One of my favorite parts about living in India ~ My friends and I can have a water balloon fight in November. And then eat cake. And then jump/get pushed into the pool with our clothes on. And then get cokes and just wander around. And then debone a chicken. And listen to Jesus Freak at the same time...and I think that's all we did. :) It was epicness!!! XD XD XD 

Taj Mahal journal. :)

Pic of Taj Mahal. It was really foggy/hazy.

So, these are some journal entries I made on our trip to the Taj Mahal. BTW, Gramma and Papa are with us.

11/6/11 at around 7 am

Hi ya'll! what's up with you? I'm currently on an airplane on my way to see the Taj Mahal. The flight hasn't been too bad-although they make you pay for you food,so all we got were drinks. It's 2 hours and 40 minutes. We had to get up at....wait for it....3 AM this morning.Yes, it was horrible, but I got a cream cheese chocolate chocolate cupcake, so that made it better. :P Anyway, we'll be landing soon.The seat belt light just came on. After we land, we have a three hour car ride, which really means 5 hours. *raises right hand* I solemnly promise to take pictures within one week.
We're landing now, get back with you soon!

11/6/11 at 8:30 pm
Right now I'm sitting in a chair in our hotel room. I soo wish we were staying longer, because this is the nicest hotel any of us have ever been to. Holly's tap dancing in front of me, Mom's putting the kids to bed, and Dad's sick. :( But I need to backtrack...
Since my last entry, we got in the giant car (or a mini bus, however you want to do it) and started driving. It was boring and long. I slept for maybe 15 minutes of the 6 hours we were in that car. I'm tired, to say the least. When we (finally) got to the hotel we got these awesome yellow flower lei type things. And rose iced tea which I liked. Then we dumped our stuff and went to eat. I got fish and chips which was really good. By the time we were done it was almost 5 o clock. We got back in the car and started driving to the Taj Mahal. We picked up a guide, and I must say, he's good. So we saw the back of the Taj Mahal. We're going tomorrow at 5:30 am!!! I'm not pleased.

11/7/11 at 8:11 AM
WARNING!!! Before you read this, please know I'm tired, hungry and grumpy. So I may be biased. *cough* I got up at 5 this morning, we went to the Taj. The adults found it fascinating, and I got some good pics.  It was big. Now I'm going to eat breakfast. (Yay!!)
Back. Now I'm in the breakfast restaurant. I ate pancakes and cereal and milk and pineapple and toast and a danish and water and juice and hash browns and an omelet and....I think that's it. I was hungry.

So yup....that was my journal. We also went to the Agra fort...it was un-exciting.

OMC....

Love this sign. It makes me laugh everytime.

In Italy

I’m in a little farmhouse. The closest town is 15 ish minutes away. The closest one with internet is like half an hour. We are loving it!! But I need to go back to Rome…

Well, we went to the Vatican on Monday. It was pretty cool, though *cough* a little boring. You guys know what the Sistine Chapel is, right? Its part of the Vatican, and it was a bit of a disappointment. I could barely see the ceiling, and it was tiny and sooo full of people. I might appreciate more if I wasn't tired, too. :P Other parts of the Vatican were sweet, though. There were ceilings that looked totally 3D, like they were carved, but they were just painted. It was crazy!! The last part of the tour thing was St. Peter’s Basilica. It was really big, and made of some kind of really expensive marble. (It was red, but I can’t remember the name. Our tour guide said if you took a piece and sold it, you could go into retirement.)  Right before we left I looked at Mom and said: “Isn't it interesting that people here will spend so much money on their churches, while in India we have church in the basement of a hotel?” (That was not word for word). It frustrates me sometimes when I feel like ai have so little and I want to do so much!! I guess I'll just have to buy St. Peter's Basilica. xD haha...yeah...

The next day (Tuesday) we went to the Coliseum. We had a tour, but we missed it. :( We got audio guides, but I didn't use mine. I listened to like one thing. I took a bunch of pictures though. That day we also saw some ruins, which Mom was fascinated by, and the rest of us were bored to death by.  And then that evening, we had another tour all over Rome. It was pretty cool. Did you know that it’s illegal to touch the water of the Trevi Fountain? Because over 1000 euros get thrown into it per day!! People used to take the money out, and because people had pretty much thrown their money away, they couldn’t really make it illegal to take the money.
Wednesday, we got on a train and traveled to Florence. We rented a car in Florence, and drove to our house. So that’s where we are!!! I’ll post pics, asap. :) 

Italy!!!!!

So, tonight (in like 1 and half hours) we are leaving for the airport, to fly to Italy!!This time I'll do my very best to keep ya'll updated. :) Arrivederci!! (I'm not sure if that's how ya spell it!) :)

Sorry...

Sorry ya'll for not updating you in forever (3 months. I am a terrible blogger.) So, I'll start with our Wichita/Tulsa trip.
So we left on May 30, leaving our house around 10 pm and the airport around 2 am May 31. When we got to Wichita it was around 6 pm the same day.  I had strep like the one day which was OK because it gave me an excuse to sit around and read Harry Potter. :) We spent two weekends in Tulsa and I had CYT camp. All really fun!
We got back July 8, with Lilli and Aunt Mimi. We went to Commercial Street twice and got tons of bangles. :)
Got to go, I'll try to be more consistent with my blogging. :)

Coming home!!!

See you all soon!!! We leave for the airport in 45 minutes-ish. Pretty bored right now waiting for 10:00 arrives, sitting in the living room watching "Bolt". Again. :) Everything is packed, cleaned, and organized. So nothing to do til we leave. Pray for a safe travel, please!!!

Pretty Much

Sums it up pretty well.....
Click below
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3632158/Family

Motorcycle!!!

Yay!! We got a motorcycle!! This thing is super fun!! Dad is teaching Mom how to drive it, and I'm going to make him teach me. :) Mac, however, will have to wait. :) 

Infuriating.

The lovely pink blob. :)

So, this week gave an excellent demonstration of the annoying part of India - nothing, and I mean nothing! Is on time. For example, a few weeks ago, (like two) I broke a chair. For the second time. I know, I have skills. :) So Dad called the store and they said they'd come and take it and fix it. A guy came Saturday....and wrapped the chair in pink bubble wrap and packing tape. That's all. He spoke almost no English, and then left. Dad called and asked when they would come get the chair. I didn't hear it, so this is assumed, based one experience.

Dad: When will you get the chair?
Dude on the phone: No problem, sir, no problem.
Dad: No, when will you get it?
Dude: Ummm....Sunday, Sunday sir.
The called back and said "Sir, Monday, Monday." It's Monday....and they didn't come. So we have a big, ugly pink blob in our living room. Lovely. I'm sure they'll come eventually. And this happens every time you want some thing delivered. Well, it's a lesson in patience, right?

OK, this story was slightly exaggerated in the conversation. :)

Street Veiw.

OK, this is totally normal! It freaked me out the first few times a cow came so close to the car you could touch it, but I'm used to it now. Sometimes you even see people milking them!! Also, there's often piles of trash lying around (that would explain the smell:) And rickshaws and dogs and people begging or trying to sell stuff. The thing that gets to me the most is people begging. If the car stops, they come and knock on the windows, asking for food or money. Mostly old men, moms or girls with babies or really little kids. It's sad, and I want to help, but Mom told me a lot of them are a part of groups, so if you help them you're encouraging the problem. I don't like that at all!

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter, everybody!! This is, obviously, a pretty different Easter for us. Usually, we would sleep in (we went to CCC Saturday nights) and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for FOOD!!! (traditional American way to celebrate:) And of course we have an Easter egg hunt in our Easter dresses made by Grandma! Also, our family always get out the Easter baskets, fill them with fake grass and eggs filled with candy and another little gift. (CDs, books, toy cars for Mac, etc.) In India, Easter just isn't a big deal. You can't find eggs, fake grass or Easter baskets (at least, we can't. It might be possible :).So this week, I've been feeling pretty bummed. Mom, however, is a genius. She got little candies - even chocolate eggs! - found some bowls, covered them with a basket cover and saved our Easter!! Plus, we ate at an Italian restaurant and went to church.

And don't think I forgot the real reason of Easter. I didn't. On Good Friday, Holly slept over at a friends house. On our way there,about 5 minutes before we arrived, our temporary driver, (our usual one is driving for another family right now) suddenly stops and says "That's where my brother lives!" So after we dropped Holly off, we visited our driver's brother and family. It was cool, because his brother is a pastor at a church that centers on poorer, working families. The services are in Tamil and Kannada. It was so cool to hear how Jesus is working in India!!

Commercial Street

This afternoon we stepped way outside our comfort zones. Well, that's what I thought we were gonna do. Actually, Commercial Street wasn't that bad. Let me explain. Commercial Street is a famous area in Bangalore. It's busy, dirty, usually pretty cheap (go to the side streets!) and has a lot of stuff! Mostly, shoes, bags, cheap jewelry, kurtas, saris (Indian girl clothes) and various little nicknacks. But it wasn't that bad. We found a little sewing machine shop, and I got a cute pink shell bracelet. So we got a cool Indian experience, and found somewhere to find cute clothes. :)