SkiDubai

We went to SkiDubai as a family on Saturday... daddy had the day off.
It was a belated Christmas present from a Church in Florida.


Me in the eskimo ice sculpture thing...


And Nate... I love that face.


Nate and Candace coming down from one of the innertube rides... the luge one was better, in the innertube one they were going for speed and not drop, and we like drop better than speed. It was fun, though. I guess we got kinda spoiled with the great hills at Hemlock and Ford Field.


Candace climbing up the ice wall.


The ice sculpture dragon... the best part of the whole thing... that area - the dragon, tunnels, a mirror maze (kinda), and giant penguins in glass cases. With fitting music playing.


Me with the dragon. The lights changed colors.


After looking at all the pictures daddy took... I figured that I look really weird without my hair showing anywhere...

Family picture in front of the igloo!
Well, minus dad, who took it.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee
Frozen-oscar-x-ray

Last Night

Well, I know I usually don't make posts 2 days in a row... buuuut I feel like I should today.

Last night, after Cait and I visited Miss Elaine, daddy drove us to someone's house... a local family, with a girl Cait's age and a bunch of cousins.
Wow.
They were absolutely crazy. But I'm praying that visits will happen again and we can be friends with them and eventually maybe lead them to Christ. It would be AWESOME to have a bunch of secret believers... and even better, it would be great if they could one day come out into the open and still have religious freedom - here, to be a local means to be Muslim.

Anywaaay... I was just thinking... I mean, they're so lively and happy... but do they ever feel caged? I mean, they can't go out of the house without an abaya and sheyla. And so many other things. It just makes me want to pray for them even more.

So that's the prayer for today... just pray that these girls, but all locals, will have a chance to be free and hear the word and not have to be secret believers.


Today was Cait's birthday partaaay... Daniel came as well, cuz Rachel was coming, and so I actually ended up playing Settlers of Catan, Mau, and Dreidel with Daniel and Nate. I did talk with the girls some, and at the table.
Oh, and we played Candyland.
Daniel had never played before, so we decided he had to play.
And we did. :p I know, we're so evil...

Anyways.
Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

A Day To Remember

Okay, well, as some of you know, most of the ice cream here is nasty.

Or it's really expensive.

Weeeeell... today at Choithrams mommy saw some Breyer's Vanilla Ice Cream on sale... for 5dhs, equivilent to about a dollar 60-ish. Since I don't eat much ice cream here, I immediately popped over there and looked at it. Next to it... also on sale... was Caramel tracks ice cream for the same price.

So after lunch today we all enjoyed some nice Caramel Tracks ice cream.

Yum.


Now, something I've decided to do is add some sort of prayer thing at the end of every post... so today I thought we could pray for Zimbabwe. We have some neighbors from Zimbabwe, and it sounds like there's a lot of stuff there that needs praying for... not sure exactly what, but things are getting pretty rough there.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Mint and Pickle Making

Yesterday we went over to Edge of the Woods, cuz Mrs. D had invited us to come over and make mints, the little cream cheese and sugar ones. The best part was that while we were putting the mints into the molds, we were allowed to eat some of the dough stuff. As we were finishing, Cait and Deborah had started chopping up onions and cucumbers for the pickles... so my eyes were really hurting from all the onions. When we finished with the mints, Nate, Candace and I went swimming in the pool, and in a little while a family who was staying there with kids our age came out and were in there with us. On our way home, we called the R's and they came over and Rachel, Cait, and I watched MirrorMask after dinner. Daniel wanted to, but played games with Nate instead and is going to watch it again later, after we get back from Yemen and they get back from Oman.

In the morning yesterday, Luz and I went to the clubhouse and practiced for fencing... we were so out of shape, just part of our warm-up tired us out, but we kept going, and didn't do any fencing, but kept doing the exercises one of the instructors always has us do. Tonight Mr. Seraj said it might work out for us to go have a lesson, but I don't know if we'll make it.

The family at Edge of the Woods lives in Afghanistan... in a mud hut, with no electricity most of the time, they don't have running water, they wash and change their clothes and bathe once a week. It makes you wonder... how do some people get by with so little, while others have so much that we "need"? It makes me think twice before complaining.

And then I was reading the biography of Margaret Wilson and Margaret McLachlan, two covenanters in Scotland during the "killing years." And man, their faith was amazing. Margaret Wilson and her younger two siblings were covenanters while their parents were still in the English Church, and they had such strong faith. If you can find a biography of the two Margarets, I suggest you read it, it's a great story.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

"In the world you will have trouble; take courage, I have conquered the world." ~ John 16:33

Picture Post!

Some pictures from the past few days...

Cait and I had a bit of confusion putting the ranch dressing in the fridge... it ended up dropping, and a piece of glass bounced off my foot... thankfully it didn't go in, but it was gushing blood for a few minutes, the blood was all over my toe.

And I got a nice Bob the Tomato band-aid. Go Veggietales!


That same day, the R's came over, and Rachel and I made most of her cloak... the pictures are from the first part you have to sew by hand, just to gather up 9 feet into about 2 feet. Then we had to sew the hood on by hand, and Rachel finished that at home. Now Daniel wants a cloak, so we're going to make him one sometime.



We've been working on our cabinet, yesterday we sanded it, then we started staining the wood.


And then... pictures of my room:
Before the bed:

After the bed:


*drumroll*
This is what I'm drawing on my wall. It's a map of Ladylan, "my" land, and I've been adding a few other drawings around it. Still needs a bit more on the map and touching up, but yeah.


Tuesday when the R's were over we went to the beach after dinner and played in the waves for a while. 'Twas fun.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Beds, Movies, and Mothers.

Hi you!

Yesterday daddy picked up stuff from Ikea – 2 bookshelves, a cabinet, and a loft bed with a desk for me. Just as he was about to leave, the R’s stopped by to return some boxes the had borrowed a while ago. On Nate’s request, Daniel stayed, and so did Rachel. Rachel and I finished clearing out my bed and desk from our room, and then we swept in there. While we waited for daddy to get back, we ate lunch, and worked on Nate’s puzzle (it’s one of the Detroit Tiger’s Stadium). Daddy got home, and they unloaded the car, then we opened up boxes and started hauling bed pieces upstairs.
First Rachel and I were building, with Daniel helping.
Then we started arguing over how something was done, Rachel left to help Cait.
Daniel and I figured out how to do what we needed to do, and built for a while.
We called in Rachel when we needed help.
Then Nate helped, while Dan and I built.
Then it was daddy and Nate building while Daniel and I played with my 20Q game.

We selected the category “vegetable” and did a hamster… just for the fun of it. We found out… that it’s possible for hamsters…
To be eaten by a rabbit
Sliced and Carved
Peeled.
And end up corn on the cob or orange juice.

Haha.

We also wanted to know if 20Q categorized wood as a mineral, so we did that. It’s not, but the floor is.

After we finished with my bed, we made a movie Evil Dentistry… http://youtube.com/watch?v=d8grp9hKsLg right before and right after dinner. I got to do my villain again, though this time without my *sniff* rainbow striped suspenders. Even Eeyore was in the movie.

Today I’ve mostly been working on my story… fixing up some things, at the moment time is everything in it, I need to get the timing to work out so everyone’s in the right place at the right time… but everything is starting to come together.

For any Fictionpress people reading this, you’ll have to private message me to get anything past Part 3.

By the way, the story is now 48 pages typed, size 12 Times New Roman. I’d like to make it to 75, at least, but I’m not going to extend it just to reach that goal.

Last night in bed, I was thinking… Mary the mother of Jesus was probably only a little older than me when she had Jesus. Most mothers would have been back then. I can’t imagine being ready to be married now. I mean, I’ve still got years to go before I can cook decently. And what would be REALLY weird would be that you’d still probably be growing after you got married, even after you had your first kid. Weird.

Anyways. I don’t know how I’d EVER be able to make a good mother, there’s so much to it… I guess I’ve still got a while. But anyways.

Thanks mom!

Over'n'Out

Kilo-Yankee-Lima-Echo-India-Golf-Hotel

Rebelution.

I don't think I've directly talked about what the Rebelution is. I know I've mentioned it, but never detailed.
The weblink is just www.therebelution.com
If you go deep enough in, and read articles and things, you'll find that it's mostly about doing hard things. Teens in today's world tend to give up too easily, and just do things that come easily. But who am I to be talking about this? Just today I was giving up... and then I was reminded of the motto of the Rebelution. I call myself a Rebelutionary, yet today I was meeting all my low expectations and being who I don't want to be seen as. I was reminded as I got online this evening, that we're supposed to do hard things. After all, we can do all things through Christ, right? So what's the big deal? Why do we give up so easily? All we need to do is ask God for help, then try again. Don't let people look down on you because you're young. Set an example for everyone. We as youth can encourage people with our faith, both people younger than us and older.

This afternoon, I pulled out my guitar and practiced. I struggled with a song, did it again, it got a bit easier. Then I realized that over the past year, nothing in my playing had changed. I hadn't gotten any better, if anything, I was worse. Why? Because I didn't want to do hard things and keep going through the books myself. So now I'm going to have to start it at the beginning. Well, Grade 2 anyway.

Then I played the piano. I gave up on a song that had been annoying me to no end for almost a week now. Then this evening I sat down, determined to play it, and played it through.

It's funny, how when we're so determined to do something, we often end up doing it. It's all a matter of really trying.

I tried to draw a person today. And yesterday. A person with their arms somehwere but down. I guess I just need more practice. So tomorrow (or next time I sit down and draw), I'm going to just practice arms. Prayer and practice make perfect.

Then I gave up on my writing. I didn't hit writer's block, just a little rut. I'm out of it now, I just had to shut off my music (which usually helps me write), and think a little harder. I've thought much harder before. Sometimes we think that pushing ourselves will make us explode. Haha. Aren't we funny.

A couple things I want to pull out from a Rebelution article:
“If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always had.”
Right? If I keep up with just playing the guitar stuff I have now, I'll keep getting disappointment. I'm not going to get where I wanna go unless I start going there.
You reap what you sow.

Okay, well, I gotta go.
But remember, don't give up so easily. Do hard things, we can do ANYTHING through Christ. Now go out there... and and... and build a spaceship!


Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Home and Leavenworth

I have so many pictures.... but I'll only put a few of 'em up.


We rented the ping-pong room and raquetball court the second evening...


Sophie on the hike to Hidden Lake.


Hannah and I were bored in the car on the way over, can't you tell?


We had a long wait the first night, when we went to eat at Gustavs. We'd already gotten there, gone shopping, swimming, and then we went to dinner. In the evening, Hannah, Cait, and I stayed at the hotel while everyone else went to the putting course. We had fun, playing mau and eating some candy bars from the vending machine.



Sophie... her hat was on backwards when we got to the lake. She had me get up on a rock with her, and we had been sitting on one of the logs with our feet in the water. When we left she didn't want to hug me... I miss 'er.


Eating lunch at the park on the way to Leavenworth.


Mmmm!


Sophie in the backpack.


The younger boys in the raquetball court. Hannah and I had fun in there, running around, shouting, hitting the ball as hard as we could.


Hanner (Hannah's nickname), and I at Hidden Lake.


Petrified wood at Hidden Lake


Swinging at the park. I have about 6 pictures of her in the swing.


The alphorn player. The first day Sophie got up and was dancing when he played inside.


At Andreas Keller... the accordian player played Edlweiss for us and we sang along. After we did the chicken dance. It's a tradition.
Yes, that's really what I look like when I sing (even I didn't know that...).

Well, yesterday was... interesting. The first flight was fine, the second we waited around to see if there was room, we were taking an earlier flight. We made it, though, and now we're settling back in. It's good to be home.

Ky