The Music Man

Seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun

With a hundred and ten cornets right behind
There were more than a thousand reeds
Springing up like weeds
There were horns of ev'ry shape and kind.

Um, can I just start by saying I am like the laziest blogger ever?!
k, thanks.

Alrighty, my loves. I cannot believe I haven't spoken of this before, but the second weekend of Music Man performances are starting up tonight!!
I am excited. Oh yes, I am excited.

(And that was a total play off of one of Eulalie Mackney Shinn's lines. You really shouldn't try to make jokes out of obscure parts of the musicals that you're in, cause nobody gets them. Just a little advice.)

I have the pleasure of playing Zaneeta Shinn, the "Eeeee gads!" girl, and boy is it fun! I get to squeak and be all ditzy. Oh, and wear tall white lace up granny boots.

SO MUCH FUN TO DANCE IN. Get ya some. Yooou need them. They will make your life better.

See these folks? They're in the show too, and they are FABULOUS. Kate (middle left) and Will (far right) are River City Citizens, and Karis (middle right) is Amaryllis, the little girl who takes piano lessons from Marian.

Silly cast members. I heart 'em. (And that is NOT a real cigarette. Just btw.)

My mommy took some videos of our pick-up rehearsal last night, and I'm going to try to load them. SOON.

Much love, reader dears!! :)

spriiiiing-a-ling-a-ling

You know you wish you had a smirk as adorable as that one right there. I know I do!

So y'all. I have so-oh-oh much to catch up on!! And I actually have some TIME now.
Fancy that?!

I'm gonna go slowly and do my best to succinctly write 'bout my life for the past month-or-so in a series of posts. Ready? :)


I've been baking a lot lately. But is this a bad thing? Not at ALL. I'm kind of in love with whipping up desserts, so I'm delighted when I have an excuse to concote something sweet. Birthdays are good excuses, right?

Cookie dough cupcakes are pretty amazing, y'all. Smart idea, person-who-came-up-with-this-recipe.

Ah, I love Spring. And I adore May, with it's crazy, busy funness (my inward English instructor is cringing right now). Everything is having coming to a triumphant end.


It gives me a feeling kind of like the one I get during the month of December. It’s not quite as warm and fuzzy and wonderful as that Christmas feel, but it’s definitely got the same quality of eager anticipation.


Anticipating that quick curtsy after the piano recital is finished.

Anticipating that sigh of relief after finishing a big test.

Anticipating a summer filled with productivity and growth.

Anticipating the finality of placing those textbooks on the shelf for the last time.

Anticipating the final toot of my flute at the band concert.

Anticipating warm afternoons spent playing outside with the sibs or making bracelets or writing or reading or playing Tangled music. (Not that I ever do any of those things, *cooough*).

Anticipating the celebratory lunch after a stressful piano competition is over.

Speaaaaking of stressful piano competitions, I just had one, last week. Guys, I was so nervous. My piece was long, and I was having trouble memorizing it.

So, after having this lump on worry trailing around for a whole week, I brought it all to God on the night before the competition. I read the beautiful words of the Psalms:

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved."
Psalm 55:22

He is SO faithful and his abundant grace and care never ceases to overwhelm me. Not only did I remember my piece, but I received a 1+ rating. I walked out the room bursting with praise for my glorious heavenly Father.

"With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death."
Psalm 109:30-31

Go read you some Psalms. They can make the worst day better.

Ooooh, the lovely things about life

Scrumptious yellow shoes

"I See the Light" from Tangled
I've seriously watched that scene the last three nights before I've gone to sleep
SUCH A GOOD MOVIE
Ack
(You should go read polka dot's amazing review of this)

Stuff that makes me go "awww" from ruffled

Red velvet strawberry shortcake

(go here to see more pictures of its gloriousness)

Aprons and teacups from anthropologie

Driving my brothers to band, and stopping at McDonald's afterward for cokes and ice cream

(thanks, weheartit, for letting me use some of your pictures!)

you know those days that make you want to tear out your hair in frustration??

Yeah, I'm having one those days.

See, I was supposed to take the ACT today. I was all prepared. I brought my prep book to the beach (which, by the way, is where we took our spring break vacation this past week. It was great!!) and studied, studied, studied like a good little student.

So we got back yesterday. Yaay. Then, last night we had a BIG thunderstorm. You'll see how this fits into the picture in a minute.

I woke up early, got ready, ate my oatmeal, read my little smart article to get my brain going, and headed off to the high school with my daddy. When we got there, everybody was in their cars and on their cell phones. We saw a guy from the basketball team, and he said that the ACT was canceled cause they didn't have any power. His report was confirmed by a lady, who said it was going to be rescheduled in a few weeks.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I was so READY.

*cry*

And you know what makes it ten times worse? Two of my really close friends, Amy and Molly, that live about an hour and a half away happened to be in town yesterday and today. Talk about exciting!! Alyx and Sandra, two of my other really good friends, planned a sleepover for all of us church girls, to celebrate their visit!!
Buuut, since I had the ACT, I couldn't spend the night.

Ahaha. ACT, you taunt me. And it's not funny :(

Sorry to be so whiney, guys. I'll stop my little pity party. It's really not so bad.

Let me think. There ARE good things about today, I know it.

First...the three hours I got to spend at the party last night, were so joyful and fun and just great.

Second...I have a tan. In April. I'm pretty much thrilled, even though it'll fade way to fast.

I get to finish Tangled, which we started on our trip, but had to stop because the laptop ran out of battery. (The dvd player was having problems, too.) Talk about torture!!

I...have time to finish my AP homework!! ...sigh.

I get to finish the last chapter of the book I'm reading! Which, I couldn't last night, because I'd read like two pages and the power went out.

Um. Hmm. Oh, I can go to the library, which is always a great thing.

Wow, what an all about me day. I think I need to reprioritize.

Let's throw in some putting away laundry and cleaning rooms, as well as helping my little sister learn her audition song and creating a yummy lunch/dinner with mom. It's gonna be Mom+Kaley+Isaiah+Kate day, cause Levi has tournament, which Dad and the middle three are also going to do.

Wow, trusting God is really hard sometimes. I know that He's sovereign and faithful. He has the best plan, but when things don't go as I like, I tend to complain and grumble and wonder why God didn't take MY fabulous ideas. Hmm, maybe because, you know, He's all wise and all knowing, and I'm, well, not??

As times like this, I treasure verses like Psalm 138:8: "The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands."

Thank you, God, for your steadfast love.



My Mom and I on our vacation :)

Happiness, anyone?

Hip hip hooray! I'M LICENSED TO DRIVE. My ecstasy is ecstatic. Awwww boy.

I can driiiiiiiiiive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(oh, and my awesomest brother got a new banjo!!! IT IS AMAZING. He's the best banjo player ever. Dude.)

highlights!

Hello my dears!

We're back! Oooh we're back. And our trips was stupendous.

Take a peek, if you like, into some of my memories from the past few days...

I did not know how much I adored dogwood trees until we went to a campus that was bursting with them. Ooooooh my. They are brilliantly beautiful.

Ahhh! I want whoever made this poster to be MY teacher! :)

In the Journalism Lab! It was great. We got to participate in the assignment! EEEEK! :)

Cute coffee house!! On college campus!!
I'm sold ;)

Flamed-roasted apples = one scrumptious salad
(by the way, this was not at a cafeteria. just clearin' that up.)

Look at this amazing view.
Go ahead. Don't be shy.

I think I could stand looking at that every day for four years :)

We got to do lots of early driving, which meant lots of early hotel breakfasts and alarm clocks. (Why do hotels even BOTHER putting out scrambled eggs? It may be yellow, but that stuff is NOT egg.) But the good side was that we saw many beautiful sunrises.

My little stack of necessary items. Oh, and my cup of "tea". It was really, really terrible.
*BAD HOTEL TEA MAKER*

Dad workin' on his March Madness bracket in the hotel.

So so beautiful. (That's Lake Bob, by the way. Pretty amazing if you ask me!)

Can I express how wonderful the worship was? To have so many people packed into a fairly small space with the sole intent of glorifying God with their voices and testimonies is incredible.


Crocuses! Growing randomly in the grass beside the sidewalk! Whoever thought of that was s-m-a-r-t.

So guys. I had a glorious trip. Really, it was great. No decisions made (but hey, I'm only a Junior!), but I feel so much more knowledgeable about college and what's most important to me for my higher education. Plus, I got to meet a ton of great people, and spend a lot of quality time with my Daddy-o. And I got fat on good food!! And passed a lot of semi's. And drove at night, on the highway, in the rain. Freaaaky.

I'm excited, guys!!

So, three things are makin' me bust outta my bubble.

First of all, CANONREBELXSOHTHEBLISSANDJOYANDHAPPINESS!!!

Ehem. Sorry.

Our family ordered a new camera. That camera being a Canon Rebel XS. It's pretty snazzy.



See?!

Oh, joy!!

Exciting thing number duo:

See all the girly necklaces? And see that medal? (Proof that a nerdy girly girl can play basketball TOO! WE SHALL BREAK THESE CLIQUES SOMEDAY.)

We won 1st place at a tournament we went to last week. Pretty much very exciting, especially since we lost most of our games this season!! The guys, oddly enough, did really well in the season, but not so great in the tournament. And they played so hard!

(And I will interupt here to say that I'm really glad my dad encouraged me to play basketball! Not being a naturally sporty person, it's really nice to actually know how to play one sport pretty well. Not saying I'm that good, but at least I can play it! I don't think people should be forced to play sports if they don't want to, but it really is a life skill that is very valuable, especially if you're the type of person that doesn't want to be the party pooper who doesn't play any sporty games but also doesn't want to make a utter fool of themselves. End of sermon.)

And the third thing?

Well, on Sunday afternoon, my dad and I will be embarking on an epic spring break adventure. Namely, visiting-five-colleges-in-one-week-without-dying-of-exhaustion. Oh, and also getting-all-my-driving-hours-in.

Please keep us in your prayers! Not ONLY will I be driving a lot, but we're gonna be going non-stop, a college a day, and it's gonna be tiring. But great. We've been thinking of questions, planning outfits, booking hotels, getting books on tape, and all that good stuff. Hoooopefully we'll be ready by Sunday :)

Getting in bed tonight should be interesting...

Waking Rose; a review

This is the book I just finished reading, and I'm still in that kind of obsessive mode that I get in after I read a book that I really like.
It's one of those books that you [I] stay up late reading, even though you [I] know you're [I'm] going to have get up early and do school the next day...not that you [I] know anything about THAT. I felt like I HAD to write a review on this good book. So here's my review. I'll try not to gush too much, but I have a bad feeling that I will.

Waking Rose by Regina Doman is a modern twist on Sleeping Beauty that manages to follow the fairy tale without being cheesy or unrealistic. In fact, one of the best qualities of this book is its living, breathing, intriguing, vibrant, life-like characters. The plot is detailed, suspenseful, and exciting. The romance is well-done and super sweet; once again, it's believable. (Except for the last lines of the book, which WERE too cheesy even for me.)

The heroine is Rose Brier, who is simply delightful to read about. A beautiful, intelligent red-head who enjoys life to its fullest with a tendency to fantasize too much is bound to be fun to read about. I was rooting for her the whole time; she is just wholesome and fun and not perfect. She felt, yes, real.

The hero is Fish, or Benedict Dennison. He's definitely a major part of the reason I love the book so much. He's really well-developed - he's funny, and sarcastic, and gentlemanly, and hard-to-understand, and brave in a discreet way, and struggling, and real (not some overly sentimental, sweet, chivalrous, amazingly handsome male who you KNOW could never exist). I find him just as attractive and amusing and interesting on a paper as Rose find him in the story :)

The book has lots of really cool elements, including the fact that is told from BOTH Rose's and Fish's perspective. The author inserts s lovely sprinkling of song lyrics and quotes from famous poets. The main characters love literature and poetry, so there multiple references to Chesterton, Boethus and The Consolation of Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas, John Keats, and Dante. YES.

I've read Waking Rose three times, and I've noticed new things each time. That's what I love about reading books over again. I'm constantly learning new things, in school and just by growing older, and so when I read a book again, this time with MORE knowledge and understanding, I recognize cool words and pick up new references or just notice little things I wouldn't have before. (The book is actually the third in a series by Regina Doman, which is very good. This book is my favorite of the series.)

The writing isn't amazing. It's a little wordy at times, there is some wooden dialogue, and a little bit of a "beginning writer" feel, which sometimes distracts from the story. It's a little dark in some parts. But the joyful characters and the sweet romance make up for that. There are Catholic themes, because the author is Catholic. There are also great descriptions, and Mrs. Doman really writes body language well.

Overall, it is a very fun, engaging book, and I recommend it. I would advise it for 15 year-olds or older. I was probably 13 or 14 when I read it first, and there are a few dark things that were a little bit over my head. Again, it's not detailed, just dealing with real things that really go on, and the author does a nice job of handling it delicately.

Aaaaaahhhhh. I love good books.

"I love him more than poetry. I love him more than song." ~ first line of the book

"writing it out"

I have this thing for writing things out. If I'm thinking about something, writing it down helps me organize my thoughts. If I find a really fantastic quote in a book or poem, I don't feel complete until I write it down. More practically, it really helps me to remember vocabulary words or the content of a document I have to read for school if I write down the definitions or make notes in a notebook as I go.

I got a beaaautiful new journal when we went to Barnes and Noble last week, and I'm gonna give you a peak of what I've written in it so far.

Page 1 and 2 - Quotes from Emily of New Moon Series (if you haven't read these books, GORUNTOTHELIBRARYANDCHECKTHEMOUT. Now.)

"A wonderful month followed. A month of indescribable roses, exquisite hazes, silver perfection of moonlight, unforgettable amethystine dusks, march of rains, bugle call of winds, blossoms of purple and stardust, mystery, music, magic. A month of laughter and dance and joy, of enchantment infinite." ~ L.M. Montegomery

Page 3 - Quotes from My Utmost for His Highest (I highly, highly recommend this daily devotion book.)

"Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, not because it was useful, nor because there was anything beyond the fact that I love Him?"

"Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action."

Page 4 - List of Thoughts

• lists help me get things done
• I want to be a consumer of good things, but I also want to be a creator of good things.
• don't get bogged down by thinking about mistakes or shortcomings - get better at what you don't do well, work and discipline yourself so that you can improve!
• pray more.

Page 5 - Poem-diddy-poem quotes

"Though the sound overpowers
Sing again, with your clear voice revealing
A tone
Of some world far from ours
Where music and moonlight and feeling
Are one."
~ To Jane, Percy Bysshe Shelley

(by the way, Mr. Shelley, the place where music and moonlight and feeling are one? that's heaven.)

Page 6 - Names that are COOL

Rubye
Iluvia (Spanish word for "Rain"...technically not a name, but it would make a cool one!)
Sara Teasdale (poet. I am so stinkin' jealous of her last name)
Vera
Page (Like Paige, except without the i. could be an awesome middle name for an author's daughter. just saying.)
Gygory (This name reminds me of a Gargoyle.)

And don't worry, I'm not going name my kids anything weird. I just like interesting names! :)

Page 7 - English Assignment (a creative paragraph using a figure of speech)

The song sounded like a long, cool sip of lemonade. “Play it again,” the girl said. The boy bent his head and rubbed his calloused fingers across the strings. He strummed a rumbling brown chord that reminded the girl of an old glass jar filled with fireflies or a sticky bottle of root beer. The girl closed her eyes and tried to capture the tune like a photograph. As the last notes wafted through the air, the girl took in a long breath. “It sounded different this time,” she said. “Playing a song like that twice,” he said, “is like trying to iron a dream and tuck it neatly beside your socks in the dresser drawer.” The girl looked at the boy and smiled. “Play me another,” she said, and the boy did.


So do you guys ever get the urge to write anything out? Found any cool names or quotes? I'd lovelovelove it if you share 'em :)

in which i go to cupcake paradise [and come back again]

So, just in case you didn't know, I love cupcakes.

And, I mean, l.o.v.e. them. They definitely win the cutest dessert award, in my opinion. And the yummiest. Gack.

Anyways, we went to the Capitol today for a homeschool Future Statesmen program. It was...okay.
Yeah.

The best part came afterwards.

So I was riding along, la dee dah, going down a normal little street with nothing too terribly exciting on it. Yippee.

Then BAM.
We saw it.
The cutest little cupcake/coffee hangout you will ever see it.
It was so so so perfect.
The decor was vintagey and simple and colorful.
The menu was descriptive and super delicious looking.
The workers were wearing ADORABLE aprons. (Except for the guy. He was too cool for an apron.)
And the cupcakes.

well, they were divine.

Matched with an exceeeellent chai latte?
HAPPY KALEY.

They had the awesomest names. This was the Bangarang (chocolate with mocha icing).

Lemony Snicket (lemon with lemon buttercream)

Boom Boom Pow (vanilla bean with chocolate buttercream, sea salt, and caramel).

And sassafrass (red velvet with buttercream icing)

One of the many advantages to having a large family is when you go to a cupcake bakery, everybody gets a different one. And everybody shares.
Pretty good deal, right?

Cute, people, cute.

What a great buncha guys! <3

So there you have it. My brief venture into cupcake heaven. And boy, was it heavenly.

go here for the Cuppies and Joe website