The picture is on the left, not in the middle.

These last few days have been pretty uneventful for me. Aural Perception and World Music were canceled for the day, so I only went in for an hour and a half this morning for ASL. The only thing that I can even think of that happened this last week, worthy of note, is that I went to a swing dance last Friday (which was a blast), and I unofficially learned how to parachute (just don't push me out of a plane quite yet).

This afternoon I went to grab a plum, and found them pruning (is that a word?), going the way of all ageing plums. Mom said to give them to our chickens, but I wanted to find a better use for them than momentarily pleasing our feathered friends. I googled "recipe plums" and after a little searching found a recipe for upside down plum cake, and guess what? It took four plums, which happens to be the exact number of those wrinkled things we had.

I was quite happily going along, curdling the milk (weird), grating a clementine (Hey, we didn't have any oranges, and it called for only half an orange anyway), caramelizing the butter and brown sugar, when I hit a kink in the hose of life. I cut my finger on, you'll never guess what, the can of baking powder. I think I was way more shocked than in actual pain, because when I cut myself and my mom walked by, I stated that, well, I had cut myself. My mom commented something about it being little when I exclaimed that it was pretty deep, I still don't understand why, but for some strange reason, my mom cracked up laughing. Anyhow, back to the plum cake.

After it cooled, I has so happy on how easily it inverted. I just love saying that "I inverted the cake" "the cake successfully inverted" "After inversion, the cake was thoroughly enjoyed". Sorry, but seriously try saying it and you will be addicted. Dad and I really liked it, it had kind off a tangy sweetness to it, mom thought it was OK, and Luke refused to try it. So if you are ever around my house in the next day or so, stop by because there is half a delicious (in my opinion) inverted plum cake in our fridge that I don't really want to finish.

The life and death of sanity, not the duck

Yesterday Luke had his first day of Connections classes so mom and I had some time to kill, and murder I did.

We went over to Maureces in the mall, and I don't think I have ever bought that much at one time in my life. I'm more of the "do I need it? no, do I want it? yes, do I buy it? no" type, than the why not throw it in. Although I'm still in a little shock, I love everything I got. Most of it was on sale, except for this vest. As soon as I saw it I had to try it on, and you probably know how it went from there.

I also got a really nice pair of shoes. I needed a new pair of fall shoes and I like how cute, yet practical these are. I also got two new tops, and a pair of jeans that were half off.

After that, with my huge bag in tote, we went over to Herburgers, where we ran into Hannah and Tina.

Around 2ish, we picked up my brother, Nora, and Matthew and again had some time to spare before Luke had his fiddle lesson. So, we went over to Woodland Park.

It is really pretty in the gardens right now, It would be such a fun place to have a costume party, or a small wedding.

I couldn't help myself so I had Nora climb trees with me. I think she liked it.

Matthew caught a goose. Is that legal? I don't know, but it was really cute and soft. Some poor girl kept insisting that they were going to kill it, but I think the bird will probably live through this traumatic experience just fine. Sorry for the really poor picture quality, but I took them on my cell phone.

Seven ways to identify that you are a craft addict

1. Even when you know you should be doing homework you decide to craft instead.

2. A new craft idea ways on your mind so hard you want to explode.

3. You stay up well after midnight because your "all most done".

4. You bring your laptop to your craft room so you don't have to keep running between rooms for instructions.
5. You can't see your desk anymore because it's covered with who knows what.
6. You find that your gift card to Joanns didn't have quite as much as you thought left on it, and you find yourself breaking a twenty.
7. You know your sanity will deteriorate if you don't find something new to make quick.

So I'll start and you can join in if you need to;

Hi, my name is Megan and I'm craftoholic. I've been at it for about my whole life and can't stop. The last time I did a craft was yesterday, and before that it was a few long days. I go on stints of doing nothing, but then I just get the urge, and before I know it I'm cutting up, or sewing something together.

There I admitted it! But now the fun part, do you what to see what I made?

Your probably thinking "what crazy thing did Megan make now?" or possibly "that's so cool I want one too!" either way I like it. This isn't actually the craft I made yesterday, but last Sunday after church. I found the how too on etsy and asked dad if he could help me make it even before I had finished watching the video. He said he would but that it would be harder than it looked, but they made it look so easy on the show, how could it be that hard? I promptly went off into the woods and found a branch. Unfortunately it was attached to a fallen tree, so I got the hack saw and started sawing a chunk off. After about 7 minutes of sawing, two cuts on my hands from the blade, and a sliver on my toe, I finally had my branch. I proudly marched it back to dad who said that It had a crack going down the middle and wouldn't work. *sigh*. So off I went again, this time with dad, and found a new branch. We took it to his shop in the garage and he showed me how to cut it using the power saw. I ended up letting him do the cutting, while I sanded each cut with the electric sander (scary). We found a board, and I brought it inside to begin placing the slices in a pleasing arrangement. I eventually glued them down, and the next time we went to town I got some spray wood gloss to finish it.

So, was it worth it? I think so. I have it hanging in my room, not really matching anything, but there having collected memories, now collecting dust.

Why me?

Yesterday was the day that I got my top two wisdom teeth removed. Some of you have already experienced this lovely ordeal, some of you aren't quite there, and still others maybe will never have to. So, I will start my experience at the beginning.

My appointment was at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, September 9th. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink that morning, but it wasn't so bad because I have a cold and really wasn't that hungry anyway. We got there on time and had a short wait. I really wasn't nervous at all, if anything a little excited. After sitting in the ominous green chair and talking to the nurse awhile the anesthesiologist came in. I'm weird with little pain. I can do big pain, like tearing the ligament in my ankle almost no problem, but needles.... not so much. I have to say that was the worst part, at least up till then. They injected the anesthesia into my arm and the nurse stuck a big plastic thing in my mouth. I remember thinking it was taking a long time to work, and then I started giggling. I don't know why, I just was finding it funny. Then my lips started to tingle and I think I giggled even more. I could just imagine the anesthesia seeping up my arm and into my head because suddenly the world started to collapse on me, and I think I remember saying "Ohhh".

When I "woke up" I was quite loopy. Mom said I was crying and when she asked me I didn't know why. My head felt so heavy like it was filled with sand, and I think I kept saying something about a waterfall. Mom also said that I kept doing the alphabet in sign language over and over again. I was seeing double, and my mouth felt like plastic, which I think I kept insisting upon. The nurse and my mom helped me out to the car. I still couldn't help sobbing and when mom would say that I was crying I would insist that I wasn't, and I even said I was so fine that I would drive us home if she wanted me to. It felt like it took forever to get home, and I was feeling very seasick. Mom had to help me to the couch when I almost fell over. I was just standing there I felt like my legs just turned to jello. I took a short nap, and when I got up besides felling tired I was OK. I really wanted to help mom make dinner so I started stirring the milk and butter to make a sauce to go over the mac and cheese. The Vestals came over to pick up Christian and I was talking to Hannah when I had a sudden notion that I really needed to puke. I ran to the bathroom, the gagging feeling was in my throat, when the world started to fuzz and then went black.

I woke up and it was the strangest feeling ever. I had no clue were I was, or even who I was. I just heard some people talking and saw what looked like carpet. I really was completely disoriented and drenched in sweat. I kind of sat up, or what I thought was up, I wasn't even in tune with my body it seemed. I remembered something about blue pelicans, and then it came back to me. I called for mom and when she came (I think I was crying again) I said that I thought I had passed out. She brought me over to her bad and I lied down. I felt nauseous for the rest of the day, and kept feeling the urge to upchuck. My mom called the doctor and the doctor said, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed". No, actually he just said that I was probably dehydrated and needed to lay down.
When I woke up today besides being incredibly puffy, and tired I'm doing much better. I went to town today and mom got me some stuff for me to eat. I was so pitiful looking though that people kept giving me these sad looks, and the lady at Costco called me sweetie. I still have a lot of homework to do so I should be off. The sad part about this whole ordeal is that I have to repeat it in a year or so.

the last rose (sunflower) of summer

Although it still looks green outside, you can feel Autumn sneaking up. When I go out now I have to ask myself "do I need a jacket?". Along with Fall comes good and bad. The good; sweaters, knee highs, hot drinks, pretty colors, and hats. The bad; winter is on its way, colds *cough*, no more swimming, no more flip flops, no more gardening (besides tearing it up), for my brother school, and it really doesn't matter what color I paint my toenails because no one sees them anyway.

Mom and I were in the garden tonight picking some of the last beans for dinner, and I asked if she minded if I picked a sunflower. I hadn't this year and they are all either facing the wrong direction, bug laden, or dying. Just being out there for the few minutes, the cool breeze reminded me of the upcoming season. I don't know about any of you, but I think of different things for times, or places. Like right now I feel like the Swan River Walk, Choir, chocolate chip cookies, and Little House on the Prairie. I have a feeling next year it will be homework. I'm not overwhelmed yet, but I've never really had to do homework before and I'm going to have to readjust my schedule, because going to bed around one, isn't going to work in the long run. I started piano lessons again today, and I'm almost done with all the dresses for the wedding. So on with the new, off with the old, on with the year.

Day 30: How to poison a chicken

Today is my last day of the challenge. Although I haven't been completely consistent, It gave me a something to blog about daily even if it was boring or pointless.

Have any of you noticed the new Stats button on your blog? It is so cool and funny. So, I was looking over my traffic sources, (oh, thanks Carstensens for sending me over 148) and I noticed that my number one searched key words for my blog was for "how to poison a chicken" from my opera I put on years ago. I don't know about you but I found it funny that 18 people googled how to get rid of there feathered friends. Why would you even bother poisoning a chicken anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to just go Henry Vlll on them? Anyways, if you have time you should go check out why people are visiting your blog, you might find it enlightening.

I'm supposed to leave you all with some parting motto or philosophy. So here is one of my favorites from the ultimate philosopher.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

I hope you all enjoyed my challenge as much as I did, and I determine to keep my posting up, even with all my homework. So you might not see me quite as often, but don't worry, I'm still here.

The End

Day 29: Luke's pain, my pain, and my lack of pain.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, things have been busy for me lately. When I finally remembered the challenge it was after midnight, so It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Yesterday I had Aurel Perception for the first time. I think it will be though, but really fun. We had to sing solfege, and write out rhythms that he was playing on the piano (I failed miserably). Did you know that in solfege it's si and not ti? Anyhow, it was a good day, I met a nice girl, walked over to Starbucks with some friends (I'd never actually been there before), we just barely made our next class (Hannah, I can now sympathise about walking long distances in Privos, ouch!), and my back didn't hurt from sitting so long like it did the fist day.

Before all that in the morning I had a panoramic of my mouth, and will be getting my top two wisdom teeth out next Thursday. Also my brother Luke finally got his braces. he is in pain, but I think he will get used to them quickly. Actually, I pray he will get used to them quickly or I will go crazy with all the funny sucking, and popping noises he is making with his mouth.

As to hopes, dreams, and plans I have for the next 365 days, I really don't have that many. I guess I hope I will have enough money to get my own braces, I plan on taking an EMT class, and as for dreams, I'll be happy as long as a giant tomato plant doesn't try to brake my arm again. Seriously, I just want to grow into a better person for Christ, maturing in the scriptures, and walking the straight and narrow.