Yes, I like Yarn

If you haven't noticed, I like yarn, love yarn.

So when I found out that Knit Picks, one of my favorite places to get yarn, was having a big sale, I was excited. Except for the fact that I had no means to buy any.

After a while of hysteria and frustration I managed to gather enough means to buy a couple skeins. Success!

Ok, sorry, I was just really excited. Yes, I like Yarn.

Persuasive Essay on Parental Rights

During the past few weeks we have been writing persuasive essays for Writing Class. (Can you believe we are writing in writing class?) I typed up my final draft today and I thought it would be fun to put it on my blog. If you don't think so, just skip this post :)

                            Petition for Parental Rights
    Do you know that your rights as a parent are endangered? The United Nations are working on ratifying the CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) that will take the rights of parents away from them, giving them to the government and sometimes to the children themselves. Parents know what is best for their children in the areas of discipline, religion, and education, and their rights must be defended.
    Under the United Nations' CRC, parents would not be able to discipline their children as they see fit. For example, your child has come home after the curfew you have set. So you determine to ground him for a day. Regardless, the government could decide the punishment was excessive and erase it. Spankings, no matter how justifiable will be totally overruled. Your disciplinary rights as a parent will be greatly impeded if the CRC is passed.
    If the CRC is ratified, your children will be able to 'pick' their own religion and follow it, with only 'advice' from you. The CRC has not been passed yet but even so, in the state of Washington, a boy made a claim to a social worker that his parents made him go to church three times a week, and that it was more than he liked. The issue went to court, where the judge decided that three times was extreme (for a thirteen year old!); he only had to go once a week. Someday, when children grow up they will have to decide their own religion, but it is none of the government's business to prevent where one chooses to take their offspring, especially to a church.
    With the restrictions of the CRC, the federal administration will be entitled to teach your children what they desire and when they decide to. Even now, parents are struggling to opt their children out of classes undesirable to them, such as sex education and tolerance to homosexuals. In some states, these topics are being forced upon youth even as young as kindergarteners. Your child may also be able to choose when he wants to do schoolwork. Parents, whether they choose home, private, or public education will all be at a loss to exercise their parental rights.
    After observing these disturbing facts, it must be clear to you that your rights as a parent are under a mighty assault. You will have no choice for your own child's religion and education, and will not be able to exercise your parental restraint. It is time to get involved. Sign the petition for parental rights today at www.parentalrights.org.

Down by the River...

Katherine uploaded the pictures from Thursday today so I thought I'd put a few of the pictures up here.

L-R: Katherine, Me, Kylee, Khyrstyn, Sharyssa

Me, Khyrstyn, Sharyssa

Me-again

Khyrstyn, Sharyssa

Kylee

Katherine

Katherine-again

Another Busy Day

...what with a Memorial Day ceremony and then school and a cookout at Grandma's. Plus, I have pretty bad sunburn; I turn my neck and it hurts. :(

Katherine and I finished Mansfield Park yesterday night, and I am almost done with the blanket I've been working on since April. I'm very excited! The faster I finish it, the faster I can make other things, and the faster I can make other things and...

I Know It's Sunday

And, no, this is not one of those automatic posts.

I didn't write yesterday because I was busy, and by the time I thought of it I was feeling feverish. Consequently, I didn't go to church today. :(

So I thought I would write a post today to not be entirely behind schedule.

Did you see Josiah's recent post on his blog? So Exciting: Check it Out!

Yesterday

It was a busy day like I said yesterday.

I woke up at 6:40, and ate breakfast and did a good deal of school because I wouldn't have any other time to do it. Besides that I listened a little to Mansfield Park, while I was waiting to be picked up for piano lessons.

After piano lessons we (Sharyssa, Khyrstyn, Kylee, Kylee's mom, and I) picked up Katherine and dropped off Josiah. Then we drove to Kylee's house where we packed a picnic and walked down to the Illinois River and had a picnic on the beach. We took some pictures with Katherine's new camera, but they aren't on the computer yet.

Then we walked back to her house and swam in the pool for quite a while. We had what we call 'die-ing' contests where we fall into the water dramatically and vote on a scale of 1-10. We have above-water and under-water judges. We had some races, and played a little Marco Polo. Katherine, Sharyssa, and I spent the last while singing underwater and seeing if the others could guess what we were singing.

After we got out of the pool, we ate some fruit salad, and since it was windy some of my blueberries blew away. :(

Then we went to the trampoline and talked for a while, and jumped a little, but not much because we were all very tired.

After that we had hot dogs for supper, and left to go to prayer meeting. And that is the end of my busy day. Busy, but VERY fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Busy Day

I have been gone most of the day with piano lessons then going to a friend's house (more on that tomorrow hopefully) and prayer meeting.

I just got back home maybe half an hour ago after being gone since 8:40 this morning, and I am very tired especially since I woke up at 6:40 (whoa, no wonder I'm tired!).

Multitasking

It's cool to do my pattern testing online, because I come into contact with people from all over the world. One of my testers was in Norway, another in the United Kingdom, and one of my new testers is in South Africa!

I've been spending most of my afternoon (after school) listening to Mansfield Park on CD while I knit. A couple days ago I thought of this wonderful idea of listening to books I want to read so I can knit at the same time. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before. :)

Tuesday

We had a good school day today. Only a couple more weeks!

I am very happy because I got two new testers for my pattern today. I was beginning to give up, so I was very thankful!

We are going to dance, so I need to finish up.

Post for Anna

Anna once told me that she didn't think I put enough pictures on my blog. So this post will be mostly of pictures. And most of them are ones she took. Fancy that!

Mary Ann the Model

I made a deal with Mary Ann that I would give her a pair of handwarmers if she would model them for me for my pattern. She did great! She asked me if I would put some of the pictures on my blog:

She made a good variety of poses and expressions; some happy and some solemn and serious. I was really proud of her efforts!

Julia

She's still an architect. She came up to me today and said, "Take a picture!"

How could I resist?

See that face? Could you have resisted that?

Thursday

Josiah and I had piano lessons this morning like usual. We're having our recital on Sunday, so I'm a little freaked out. But my assignment this week wasn't that bad.

You may have noticed a new blog on my blog roll to the left of this post: BeKKnits' Designs. This is my fourth blog and I created it today. Now there is probably a better excuse reason for having this blog than any of my others (besides this one, perhaps :). And that is that this new blog is not connected to any of my other blogs, and allows people that I don't know who might be interested in my patterns to learn about my designs without being able to see all I post about on my regular blog and the pictures I post. But anyone who wishes may look at it-in fact, please do!

Julia the Architect

Fiddler on the Roof

We watched a theater production of this a couple months ago at a local high school. Now we are going to watch the movie, in a couple minutes. I really like the story, so I think it will be nice enjoyment.

We had school today. It was a pretty good time, I wasn't too brain dead.

I'm almost done with my school. We have choir tonight; I wonder if the bat will be back. :)

I've been working on the blanket and on a cabled scarf.

We've been singing Music Man songs over and over and over. So much, that I think we will soon be tired of them. :(

Music Man II

A few of us saw the Music Man again today, because we liked it so much the first time. :)

We kept it a secret from Sharyssa so it was great to see her reaction of surprise, when she found us walking toward her after the show. She did a great job, maybe even better than the first time, if that's possible. :)

Apparently, the people who stayed at our house watched one of the movie versions while we were gone, so everything in the Music Man is fresh on our brains. We're singing the songs, and quoting the quotes; generally having a good time.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday, dear blog
Happy Birthday to You!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the second year anniversary of my blog! I'm doing this now because I didn't have a good celebration the first anniversary because I had finals that day. But I didn't want to forget this time, so I set up this post to be scheduled today. Believe it or not, I wrote this on the fifth of May. (And drew the ice cream cone :)

A Short Post

"A busy day with lots of school and work. Ahhhh!"

A Year in Three Years

And you say...What?

This is my 365th post. It's taken me three years to write a year of posts. Of course, some of those posts have been on the same day, but that's a little to harder to calculate.

Right now, Joseph is sucking on my arm while I type. I better get him to bed.  :)

Projects

Yay! More comments. Thank you!

I know I have a blog just for my creations, but I thought I might as well post some on here.

A headband with beads. I modeled it on Julia, but it's actually for Katherine.

The blanket. This picture is a little outdated because I've joined a new color since I took the picture, but at least it shows some progress.

"Hey There!"

The culprit.

Batty

Have I not been posting anything interesting? There are no comments since a couple Fridays ago. :(

Of course, I'd have to admit that I don't think I've posted much anything interesting lately, except for the visit to the hospital which I didn't express very well in words.

We had choir last night. While we were singing, a bat flew out of nowhere and started circling around the sanctuary. It was very exciting and some people's responses were extremely hilarious. :)

Eleventy-First Post This Year!

Even though I didn't post anything yesterday, that's pretty good for January-May!

Today Josiah drove to Chicago and endured the city traffic until Dad had to take over to parallel park. We were going to a tour and opening celebration for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital that Aunt Lydia helped work on. It is a very beautiful, bright, and cheerful hospital with a lot of cool artwork. I really enjoyed going on the tour and I especially loved the bright aqua colored walls (though all the other colors were very pretty, too :).

Summer

It is summer right now. Hot, humid, sticky, and sweaty. But right now there is a nice breeze coming through the windows.

We went to see the Music Man today, and it was great! Sharyssa did a wonderful job, and I really enjoyed it!

Wednesday Digressions

I wish I could think of good titles. All the recent titles have been the days of the week, and most people can figure that out elsewhere. At least I added 'digressions', because not very many of these things are related. But I digress...

I had piano lessons today. I am still sick, though, but I've been trying to take my supplements and rest, and hopefully I will get better soon.

Tomorrow we are going to the Music Man, which my friend Sharyssa is in. I can't wait!

Julia was being so cute. She ran into the schoolroom with one of Johnathan's school binders yelling, "Johnathan here's your 'peech!" The binder was his speech binder, but Johnathan couldn't resist asking her if it was ripe. To which she replied, after thinking a bit, "Yep!"

Tuesday

It's a Tuesday, but we aren't really doing are regular classes because Sharyssa is sick and can't come over. :'(

But we've practiced our speeches in front of each other, talked a little, teensy bit about chemistry and ate lunch.

I've had to fix one of my patterns and I got a tester for the revision last night. Yay!