School

I uploaded Mandy playing Pachelbel's Canon in D at the talent show; you can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzvF-uRhxnM

Life still remains pretty busy over here. Seth and Dad are bracing for another quarter end, but things seemed to have slowed down a bit, but it will still have been a good quarter nonetheless. Mandy continues her homeschooling and still hates math (she and Mom spend probably close to two hours a day doing it); she was ecstatic last week to get her braces off, and she's adjusting to wearing her retainer. Mom continues her teaching Mandy and her college work in biology and algebra; ironically, she's not too fond of her science class this semester but, despite a huge load of work in the class, seems to be enjoying her math. Midterms for me and her are coming up soon, and it's so hard to believe that the semester is almost halfway through.

For myself, school is going ok, though I think this has to be my least favorite college semester. My anthropology is an easy class, largely filled with a bunch of slacker freshmen. My health class is also easy, but the teacher delights in sending us on extended guilt trips about the need to exercise and stop smoking (he should be grateful that I walk all over campus twice a week and take the stairs the other three days). American literature so far might be my favorite class, given that I seem to be doing good in it and that I like the smaller atmosphere of about ten students (most of the others have dropped out or don't show up), even if the teacher sometimes says things that irk me. History is probably my least favorite, given that the teacher spent way too much time discussing Islam and not history, mocking Christianity, and then only adding to the whole immature air of the class that sometimes feels like my adult classmates are freshmen, not juniors and seniors; and it doesn't help that his reading assignments are more than all my other classes combined and he isn't exactly helpful or precise on writing assignments. British literature is ok, but some of the time I feel like a fool in class discussions. Still, a good thing about this semester is that Mondays and Wednesdays I spend all day on campus but the other three are only one morning class, which means more time for homework (if I can stop procrastinating on Thursday and Fridays).

And... it finally looks like fall is coming at last. Ever since a rainy Sunday and Monday, it has been cooler, but we'll only know for certain if the temperature doesn't hit the 90's again in the next few weeks. This summer has been pretty hot, and we're all looking forward to pleasant fall weather. Maybe we can get some more snow this winter.

Talent Show

Well, the talent show went very well on Saturday night. Mandy did well in both Pachelbel and her skit (even though she's now embarrassed of both). I recorded bits of the show and have put them into a video that is sort of like a trailer; I apologize for the video quality, but this should give you a taste of what we experienced that evening. Mandy and Seth are both on "Faith of Our Fathers" and then Mandy is on "Pachelbel" and "Mrs. Murphy Isn't Home". And our cousin Noah makes a few appearances throughout in some of the singing and in "Pachelbel".



I will try to upload Pachelbel later, as blogger is not letting me do it.

Graduation and Myrtle Beach

The past two weeks have been busy, and they're only going to continue to get busier. Before I forget and leave you all in the dark, I will now tell of Seth's graduation and of our vacation to Myrtle Beach.

Seth's graduation was on the last Saturday in August. Mom did an excellent job preparing food for a hundred people, and the other ladies who helped with the food and with decorating the church did a wonderful job as well. The big day came, and everything was ready. The event went smoothly; we didn't run out of food, but, rather, we had just the right amount (except for the tea and lemonade, which we had in large quantities afterwards) because we had few leftovers. After the meal, we played the slideshow devoted to Seth's first 18 years of life; it was a big hit, and several people (myself included) got teary-eyed when they saw it. After that, then Dad gave the charge, and he and Mom gave Seth his diploma. It is truly amazing that Seth has graduated high school, remembering his earlier years when he had trouble talking and had to have therapy for it; but God was very good to him in providing him many mentors who taught him and helped bring him through high school. It was a wonderful moment, seeing Seth with his diploma. After the charge, Mom served dessert: chocolate kahlua cheesecake (an enormous hit), lemon curd cheesecake, and then a graduation cake from Costco (they make good cakes, not the sugary kind that makes you nauseous after one bite). We then cleaned up and went home. Seth and Mandy hung out with a few friends until later that afternoon when Mom and Dad went downtown for a Radiant party; then we had a bunch of Seth and Mandy's friends over for a get-together, which involved our new Wii (we've fallen in love with it), Mandy and Megan dancing to Mike Posner, and three ugly sombreros. It was a fun evening and a good day all together.

On Tuesday the 30th, after Seth got home from work and Mom and myself finished our morning classes at school, we packed up the van and began the long drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We left later than we wanted, and traffic and the stupid toll road didn't help. We ate dinner at Chick-fil-A, at which point something interesting happened; as we walked in to order and pick up our food, one of the ladies who worked there kept smiling at us, and we wondered why; after we left, Dad suggested that perhaps she was a homeschool mom and recognized us as homeschoolers because of how we kids interact with our parents. It was soon dark outside, and the directions we got on-line proved to be pretty much worthless. We got lost twice, and being tired didn't help very much. But, finally, after 11 PM, we arrived at the resort. The first day, after breakfast, we went to the beach. We only stayed an hour because the waves (probably due to Hurricane Earl) were huge and the lifeguards called everyone in; poor Seth battled the worst of it when the waves flipped him over twice and made him all dizzy, not to mention the fact that water got stuck in his ear and refused to come out, no matter the amount of hydrogen perioxide. We found solace instead in the resort pool, particularly the lazy river, which became a big hit with everyone. It was nice just to sit back and not have to go anywhere, which is something we all needed badly. On Thursday, it was cloudy (also probably from Earl), but it never rained; that day I taught Grandma Gail how to use facebook and told her what twitter and youtube were. On Friday, we girls went to Boardwalk on Broadway, which was a ton of fun. Basically, it was like an outlet center/ carnival, and there were virtually no crowds, which made it all the better. We walked to various stores, took pictures, and bought souvenirs. Mandy got two Ugly Dolls (one for her, one for Bethany), I got a Reeses' Pieces squishy (I love those things, and they are so hard to find nowadays), and Mom and Grandma picked up various things like candy and souvenir spoons. We went back to the resort to get the guys, and we returned to Boardwalk for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. The place was more crowded that evening, and the restaurant was particularly fond of its disco ball, loud music, and dancing servers. After dinner and some group pictures, we returned to the resort to pack up. After breakfast and hugs and good-byes on Saturday, we had an uneventful drive back to Georgia. We first tackled the house and the various disasters the cats had made, as well as taking care of other business like cleaning out e-mail inboxs and cleaning the church, and then we finally relaxed for the evening. All in all, it was a good week.

I don't have the pictures uploaded yet, but I will try to get them on facebook soon. Hopefully I will post them before the talent show on Saturday (more room to record Mandy playing Pachelbel :) )

Update

Sorry for no updates, but life has been hectic around here. Here is a list of what has happened over the past few weeks.

1) Mom taking her science students and the rest of us to Mammoth Caves for a few days. It was very hot and humid there, but we had fun.

2) I had my last day of work at Radiant early in the month. Seth is still working over there, and he says that now they have moved Peripherals elsewhere in manufacturing and that it has a lot more space.

3) Modular at church last week. We had a week-long modular on Christian ethics, which kept all of us on our toes for five days, but we all enjoyed it.

4) Dad celebrated his birthday this week. We went out to Taco Mac for dinner on Monday, and on Tuesday we went and saw "Inception" in theaters (amazing movie, by the way; you can find a review for it on the ramblings blog).

5) College started. I began my third semester at GGC this week (I decided to go back instead of GSU for various reasons, but I did not announce this here because I was keeping it a surprise for a certain friend of mine :) ). I'm taking anthropology, American literature, British literature, health, and Middle Eastern/ Indian history (the first and last one being electives to fill the full-time ballot and health being a stupid requirement). I don't know yet what class I like the most, but I could probably give you an answer in a few weeks. All I can say is, it's going to be extremely busy with lots and lots of writing and projects. Mom also started back this week with her microbiology class and an algebra class.

6) Seth's graduation. This is taking place on Saturday, but preparations have been happening since Monday.

7) This hasn't happened yet either, but next week we're going to Myrtle Beach with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom, and preparations for it will start after Seth's graduation party.

So, yeah, life has been hectic, and it's showing no signs of slowing down. Well, I think I should get some homework done now and prepare myself for vacation next week.

Cat, Couch, and Conversation

A funny thing happened the other day that gave a few of us a good laugh.

Mom, Mandy, and myself were sitting in the living room watching a movie when one of Mandy's friends called, so we had to put it on pause. While the conversation was going on, our fattest cat Claws jumped up on the couch next to Mom. Now, this cat has the weird tendency to, whenever you pet or touch her near the base of her tail, to start licking or gnawing on the thing nearest to her, whether it be herself, you, or a piece of furniture; and she has no power to fight it, only adding to its bizarre nature. Mom began making Claws doing such action, except the cat began gnawing on the couch. Mandy had to stifle a laugh, as she was still on the phone, which made the rest of his laugh and Claws start biting the cough again. After a few minutes, Mandy, not able to contain her laughter any longer, had to leave the room. It was a funny moment.

Blue Ridge Camping

Well, we just got back from camping at Lake Blue Ridge in north Georgia. Three days of happy chaos, and we all greatly enjoyed it.

On Tuesday evening after work, Dad went up to the lake first to make sure we got two campsites (you can't reserve sites next to the lake). Seth and I went to work on Wednesday, then Mom picked us up from there. We had quite a merry crew with us, Michael and Hannah H., Erin S., and Bethany G. It was about a two- hour drive from Alpharetta to rural north Georgia, and we arrived at the lake around 5 PM. We unpacked the car and got a few things set up, then we kids went for a swim in the lake. For whatever reason, the TVA decided to drain the lake, so we lost about three, four feet every night, and, plus we had fifty extra feet of a rocky and very muddy beach. Sill, we enjoyed the swim. Seth, Hannah, Michael, and myself did the daring task of swimming across the bay while the other three chickened out about halfway; we four made it and walked around (with some swimming involved too) back to the campsite. I must say, it felt good not to feel like a wimp, even though we were all a little tired afterwards. We had hamburgers for dinner, and then the girls went down to the beach for some silly pictures. We enjoyed the evening with a large lightning storm (Seth was totally fascinated by it), but thankfully it stayed fairly far away and only gave us a few sprinkles of rain. We did see a lovely full moon rise, but getting good pictures was hard because of the dark.

Thursday dawned fairly cloudy but otherwise not bad. Some people went swimming, and later the Abrahams joined us for their first camping trip. Nothing else big happened that day except for casual swimming and goofing off. That night we saw a lovely blood-red moon rise, though it rose much later than expected.

Friday was the big day, as a couple of families came up to go tubing down the Toccoa River with us. We had quite a merry party of about twenty-one people (including the A. kids). However, because the lake was being drained, the river levels were much higher and it moved much faster than usual; what would have normally been about an hour and a half trip became roughly thirty minutes. It was terribly short, but it was very entertaining nonetheless. Brittny and I tied our tubes together, and we made quite the awkward pair of trying not to hid the trees and brush on the river banks. I had a humorous beginning of trying to get into a better position on my tube, but the bulky life jacket that they forced us to wear (regulations have gotten worse since last time) did not help; I did finally manage to get in, but I was pretty much unable to move otherwise. The tubing guys told us to turn right when we saw the orange buoy, which got various reactions from everyone. Some, like Brittny and myself, got to shore without incident (though I made a very ungraceful exit from my tube), but Mom and some others had trouble, requiring them to be pulled in instead. After that, we drove back to the campsite for a large cookout. It didn't last long, as several had to leave shortly after dinner, but we still enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and then packed up our campsites. It didn't take us that long, and then we split up. The A's went home first while Dad and Seth took a detour to Radiant Systems to pick up the car and Mom took everyone else home and dropped off the H.'s van. Then we came home. We're all a bit tired, but we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. I've yet to upload pictures, but I'm thinking of doing a slideshow for it instead... if I can think of some good bluegrass music to use, that is.

The next few weeks will be busy with other vacations as well. My last day of work at Radiant is August 6th, and the week after that Mom is taking some of her younger science students to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Then, the last week of August/ first week of September we'll be in Myrtle Beach with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom. I'm looking forward to both vacations, as I only had one last year and plus it's good to blow off a bit of steam from work.

4th of July

Today I'm going to try and make my rounds, updating all three blogs that I manage (well, at least two of them: this one and the ramblings, as I have a few ideas in mind for that one).

Life still remains hectic. Quarter end came and passed at work, but it hasn't slowed down in the least; in fact, yesterday felt like quarter end even though it's just the beginning. I'm really looking forward to college next month and working towards my bachelor's so I can get a job that I like and actually have some talent in.

4th of July this year was quite busy as well. On Friday the 2nd, we went to the annual gathering at the Howlands for dinner and fireworks; we had a blast, even though our fireworks seemed to be the lame ones of the bunch. On the 3rd, we went to Uncle Jason's house for dinner, where we also had a good time with family and some friends. On the 5th, we went to Lake Nantahala in the mountains of North Carolina with two other families from church. The place was absolutely gorgeous, and I have pictures aplenty to prove it (now to find the time to upload them). It was a good day, with swimming, good food, fellowship, nearly flooding the boat (a funny moment, actually), jumping off a thirty-foot cliff into the water (Dad was the only one of our family to do it), avoiding snakes in more shallow areas of the water, and more. We would have liked to stay later, but because of the two-hour drive back home and work the next day, we had to leave fairly early. We were all red as beets when we came home, though now we're all looking nice and brown.

Well, I'm sure I could post more, but I can't think of anything else to say and Mandy and myself need to get going to help clean the church.