Desert island meme

Here goes!

Rules:
1. List the 10 books/collected works/series that you would bring on a desert island.
2. (Optional) Say why you would bring them.
3. Link to the person who linked to you.
4. Tag 6 people to also do the meme.
5. Leave a comment to let those people know.

Katie tagged me for this!

1. Narnia books. Can't live without 'em!

2. Anne of Green Gables. Same, haha.

3. Some Edgar Allen Poe

4. The Bible

5. The Belgariad

6. The Malloreon

7. Some Shakespeare, of course!

8. Abram's Daughters

9. The Catholic Girl's Guide

10. A notebook! (as in a laptop... haha! I'm a genius!)

Now, I don't have six blogging people reading my blog, so I'm gonna have to have some of you tell your relatives or whoever. I'll still leave a comment on their blog, but it's safer to have backup such as your excellent selves. OK, I TAG: Rae Anne, Miss Carol, Rory... anybody else? I think that's it. 3 will have to do!

It's officially fall!

I know, fall "began" a month ago. But that was just for the rest of the world. In my book, fall started today!
It was cold out this morning. It has been cold in the mornings for a while now, but today it stayed cold! More or less. It was in the 50s this morning and is probably in the mid-late 60s now. So now it's somewhere between cool and chilly, but this morning it was FREEZING! Seriously! I'm talking 55-58 degrees out! Oh joy! I much prefer the cold to the heat. As fun as summer is, I like the brisk fall air and all the things that come with it. Hot chocolate, apple cider, the holidays never far away.... this is my favorite time of year. Anyway, we spent the whole morning goofing off outside. How were we actually supposed to stay inside and get schoolwork done when it was so beautiful out? We started in the front yard and eventually all migrated to the back, where we played on the swingset. I don't go on that thing very often anymore. Not that I've outgrown it. The only thing I'm too big for is the monkey bars. Who can outgrow the fun of a swing? I love it... especially when I lay back while going up (used to scare Freddy half to death haha). I love that feeling of flying. When I was little I had a little dream of flying like Peter Pan. I had that wishing rhyme working overtime. I still think it would be pretty cool. Who doesn't?
After we were tired of enjoying the lovely weather, we had hot chocolate. Thus adding to my reasons why today is the start of fall. We haven't had any hot chocolate until today, to my knowledge anyway.
Yesterday the K girls, Grandma, Ben and Mr. T went to Fantastic Sam's. Only two things that happened there are really blog-worthy. It was Lucy's first time getting a haircut at a salon by a stranger, instead of in the bathtub by Mommy.
She. Was. Terrified. She got in the seat, and had no idea what was going on. The chair went up, the poncho-coverup-thingy went on, and she looked absolutely petrified. Poor thing was staring into space with an expression that would make you want to cry... and laugh. She was very good about it though, none of the screaming and kicking that a lot of other kids her age do when that horrible lady with the scissors tries to give them a trim. Afterwards she was all excited about it. "Katie, Katie, I got a cut! They cut my hair! I got a cut!" And she looks like very cute, of course. While we were all getting our hair cut, Ben was sitting on a chair by Grandma in the waiting area. He started crying and looking very sad indeed and everybody started asking him what was the matter, did he want a haircut too? Of course he did. If all his sisters and Mommy were getting their hair cut, well by golly he should certainly get his cut too! So the girl who did Lucy's hair trimmed him up a little, and it looks almost exactly the same, haha. There wasn't much to cut off unless he wanted a buzz, and they only did it for him because he was sad about it anyway. So everybody is happy with their hair.

On Monday everybody carved pumpkins. Jack and Ian did traditional jack-o-lanterns, Grace did a spider and Emma a smiley face. Jack carved a smaller, extra pumpkin and managed to pull off a startlingly good likeness of Charlie Brown from the Peanuts gang. I'd post a photo, but nobody took a picture of it. Anyway, I wanted to do something a little different and tried carving a penguin on mine. It would have been so cute if my artistic abilities were a little sharper. As it was, my penguin was a complete and total failure. I messed the whole thing up in the fist place, so that as penguins go it was beyond recognition, then somebody kicked it's head in (poor, innocent little penguin...), thus creating a large hole. So today I carved a little pumpkin and it didn't turn out too badly. I did a moon with some stars. The stars were a little lopsided, but hey, it's better than nothing.

Grandma and Mom are going on a mysterious errand today. When I asked where, I was informed it was a secret and, "'Tis the season when you're not supposed to ask questions." Guess I'll have to reconcile myself to not learning anything about it until December 25th.

I am reading Macbeth and loving it! I am quickly becoming a Shakespeare nerd. It's all the Freddys' fault! They're rubbing off on me, not to mention dragging me to all those rehearsals in June. jk! I liked going to the rehearsals. Besides, I learned R&J and Dream almost by heart just by watching you guys do them so many times! haha.

So yes, that's a summary of my day and life in general... not much more to say... I wish I could think of something clever to close this post with. I can't so I'll just say: have a good one!

O Canadia!

That's no typo. Jack was telling me about something today and he mentioned Canada, only he said, "Canadia". I just looked at him, trying not to ruin the moment by bursting into hysterical laughter.
Me: "Canadia??"
Jack: "Yeah, Canadia............. wait a second..... huh? Oh....... CANADA!"
Cue hysterical laughter.


He's so hometeached. XD

PSAT

I took the PSAT this morning at La Vernia High. Dad and I walked to the guidance office for directions (because obviously we had no idea where I was supposed to go). Dad got the attention of the lady at the desk. She looked up, smiled graciously, and said, "Is this the little homeschooler?"
So you see I was very nicely welcomed.
Other than that, the whole thing went fairly well. She was very nice, took me to the classroom where the tenth-graders were taking it, made sure I knew the way back to the guidance office (through a door and down a hallway) and left me in a classroom at the mercy of a test booklet. We filled out the personal information and began the test. My score for the mathematics sections won't be too hot, because I skipped a lot of them, having only just started geometry and never having finished algebra. Luckily, for omitted answers to multiple-choice questions you don't lose points. What questions I did do though, I'm pretty sure I got right. The critical reading and the writing skills stuff was a cinch so the scores for all that I hope will be good. None of it really matters anyway, I'm only doing it this year for experience. I have a whole year to study the math so next year shouldn't be very hard. After the test I went outside to wait for someone to pick me up, not bothering to go to the guidance office and call Dad using the phone which condescending-office-lady had so kindly offered for my use. Mom didn't show up for a while though, so I sat on a bench outside the school with nothing to entertain except a calculator, an index card and a couple of pencils. I played with the calculator for a while before realizing that an index card with the calculator as a hard surface made quite a nice little drawing pad. Aren't you proud of my creative thinking? I knew you would be.
I was doodling when Mom drove up. She said I looked quite like the average highschooler, sitting there. If it was a cell phone or an iPod instead of a makeshift drawing pad the picture would have been complete.

So that was my little "real school" experience. I have but one thing left to say...


Little homeschooler indeed!

Random Observation of the Day:

Rainbows are awesome. There was a beautiful one outside today. A real dream rainbow, full arc, bright colors, clear cut against the sky. Really great. I don't know about you guys, but I hate thinking about everything the scientific way. You know, like how rainbows are made. Light, prisms, blah blah blah. Why the sky is blue, etc. It ruins it! When my kids ask me why the sky is blue I'll just tell them that "God made it that way" and they can learn it in school when they get older.

On a completely different note, somebody just won a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune. Isn't that fascinating? I know you're absolutely thrilled to be receiving this knowledge, but it is sort of a milestone. Wheel is such a classic show, for me anyway. When I was little I called it "The Letter Show". It's sort of weird to see it changing like that. (I can't believe I'm being sentimental about a game show...). When I first saw the commercials for the new million dollar round on Wheel I instantly pictured Pat saying:

"Wheel.... or no Wheel?"

Moving on to more interesting things:
Tristan cut his first tooth! I have mixed feelings about that. Part of me says, "Yay T!" and the other part says "What the?!?!? Not fair! He's supposed to stay toothless forever! They're cuter that way!"

Mom got a laptop and an iPod for her birthday! The iPod is so awesome. It's bright pink and is sooooo much cooler than my 2nd Generation Nano, which seems primitive in comparison. The games have their own MENUS. Seriously. Different users. High scores. The works. And one of the games (MAZE *dun dun dun*) actually responds to your tilting the iPod. You know those games where you have to tilt the little wooden (or plastic) thingy to get the ball through the maze and into the hole? It's like that. PRETTY DARN AWESOME, RIGHT? I thought so!

And no I'm not jealous!

Our cousin Gabriel is coming for Thanksgiving.

I'm reading Macbeth!

Grandma is coming on Friday which means my room (aka the guest room) must be scrupulously neat.

I'm taking the PSAT tomorrow.

Geometry so far is very easy, for which I'm thankful.

Let's see.... any other interesting news?

oh, DUH! Dad's leaving for France tomorrow! He's going to Paris on business! And the business part doesn't even start for a couple of days. He's going to check out Mont Saint Michel (forgive spelling errors... I've never seen it written so I'm not entirely sure how to spell it). Then of course while he's in Paris he'll check out most of the cool stuff there.
I want to go to Europe so badly! Germany, France, Prague, Poland (Gdansk, of course!;-), England, Ireland, Scotland... it's all so wonderful and full of history! And Church history! Did I mention Italy? There's Rome, of course, one the most full-of-awesome-history places in the world, not to mention the HQ of the Catholic Church. And so many of my favorite saints were from Italy... Sts. Catherine, Gemma, Benedict, Francis.... it goes on! Rome used to be center of THE Roman Empire... which, in a way, is a little sad. It's pretty much just a tourist attraction now. Although personally I prefer the Greeks. They were the creative thinkers, the artists. The Romans were the organizers, the conquerers. In my opinion, Greece was cooler.
MY DREAM EUROPEAN VACATION:
(not necessarily in any kind of order)
See the sights of London, and visit Stratford-On-Avon where Shakespeare lived
Enjoy the beautiful green hills of Ireland
Check out some old castles in Scotland
Go to Gdansk, Poland, and check out the amber museum :-)
Party in Prague (well maybe not party... but I liked the alliteration) and see the original Infant of Prague statue
See Konigschloss Newschwanstein (that I'm pretty sure I did spell right... we have a magnet) in Germany and hang out in Fussen, maybe check out the cathedral in Cologne and see their treasury
Go to Paris, see basically everything there
Visit Lourdes and find that convent in France where St. Bernadette's body is kept (still incorrupt!)
Head to Portugal and pray in the basilica at Fatima
Is that pretty much everything? Oops I think I skipped Rome! Well that's fairly obvious. St. Peters, Coliseum, Mouth of Truth (just for the sake of reenacting the scene from Roman Holiday :-) the norm. Maybe hit some other saints' burial places if I can find them.
If ya'll think of anyplace else I should add to my list, let me know. I'll keep this list and bring it with me to check off after I retire, haha.
Toodles!
-Katie the Koolest

Fun In The Sun

This week we went to Port Aransas for a fantastic vacation! We left on Tuesday, drove to Corpus Christi and, after lunch at the two-story Whataburger (on the second story patio, of course) checked out the USS Lexington. It was loads of fun. First we went to see the Fighter Pilot movie in the MEGA-THEATER *echo effect* which was so great that we bought the DVD. Everybody but Mom and the littlest ones (she had the stroller and there were no elevators in the darn thing, just steep and dangerous stairs) went on top to see the planes. My favorites were the Trojan, a cool helicopter, and the Phantom II (wonder why?). I was wearing my POTO shirt that day (which wasn't very prudent, considering how hot it was) and told Dad he should take my picture with the Phantom II. Alas, Mom had the camera. We then proceeded into the super structure to see the controls, and down below to see the living quarters (including barber's shop, dentist, sick bay, chapel, etc.) and engine room. While down there we went past the galley (the kitchen, for you ignorant landlubbers) and Jack wanted to know what the food had been like. Luckily we bumped into a nice veteran who had been stationed on this ship. Dad asked him how the food was, and he said, "Not too bad."
Mom missed out on all of this, sadly. And she had the camera the whole time. Meaning, no pictures. :( Before we left, Grace and Emma, Jack and Ian, Benny and I all piled into the simulator. At first we weren't sure if Ben was tall enough, so we had him stand in front of the "You must be this tall" sign. He was just barely tall enough! A round of applause. While Dad was buying the tickets he was giving out instructions.
"Grace, don't sit next to Jack. Or Ian. That's guaranteed trouble right there. Everybody be quiet." Repeat. Repeat again. Ticket-seller-simulator-operator-guy was laughing the whole time. I don't know what was so funny. Do you?
Anyway, the simulator was loads of fun. We were on a "desert mission". You really felt like you were in a plane, banking this way and that, speeding through a landscape reminiscent of Indiana Jones movies after the enemy. Ben was next to me and clearly very into it. He was making explosion and gun noises the whole time.
Then the K family marched into the gift shop! Mom and I cast our greedy eyes on Rosie the Riveter "We Can Do It!" shirts.
Me: "OOOOH it comes in my size!"
Mom: "HINT HINT"
But we didn't get them. *sigh* We had to settle for a magnet. Mom did, however, surprise me with another (more affordable) shirt, which I like even more, as cool as Rosie the Riveter is. Ben got an adorable soldier helmet, Emma got a plastic helicopter thingy, I got a couple of postcards (one to send and one to keep) and Jack got a really cool pencil sharpener. I'd tell you what it looks like but I'm not really sure exactly what it is. It's some kind of huge gun. So everybody was happy and we all got back in the car and proceeded towards our destination, Port Aransas! We got there and began searching for the condo apartment we had reserved. As we were driving along the beach looking for it, we became inevitably stuck in a patch of softer sand. Dad tried everything until at last the boys and Mom got out and pushed. It was slow going, but- yayeth!- we were out, and continued to a harder part of the beach road. While stuck we hd realized that we had passed the apartments. We got back onto the real road, and continued along the real road (no more beach driving for the van!) till we came to a group of condo/resort buildings. Our apartment immediately received general approval. There was a TV in every room. Need I say more? All the boys (except Tristan) shared a room, and all of us girls shared a room. In our room we had a coffee maker, fridge and microwave. Which of course was very exciting, even though they were never used. The whole thing was a two-minute walk to the beach. After settling in, we of course headed straight for the water. We spent the whole afternoon and all the next day at the ocean, yeeha! We had planned to go home on Thursday, but plans changed and we stayed an extra day. Our apartment was already reserved by someone else for Thursday, so we spent the morning packing and waiting for the call to head over to our new apartment. We did, and it was nicer than the first one. We spent the rest of that day mostly at the pool. Jack, Ian Dad and I went to the beach for a while, but eventually the boys got bored and went back. I wasn't staying there all by myself, so I went too. Dad stayed behind and enjoyed some peace and quiet.
On Friday we left the condo and went back to Corpus and went to the aquarium before heading home. It was pretty fun. At the parts where the nice employee was explaining what makes a reptile or what kinds of rays there are, Grace and Emma answered most of the questions. At the stingray exhibit I think Emma talked more than the guide, and not even about stingrays. It was a fun day.
So everybody enjoyed vacation. Ben said his favorite part was swimming in the pool and going to Chili's for dinner. It is nice to be home though, in my house, in my room that I don't have to share with anybody especially hyper two-year-olds, and my books.
I can't think of a nice closing statement, so I'll just say, ta-ta for now!