Ramblings of a 13 year old

I am finally taking the time to post, lest you think this blog has been abandoned. I'm really sorry we haven't been blogging lately and I know that you've probably heard this before but, we are literally swamped! School takes up a fairly big chunk of my day, and afterwards there's always something to be done: laundry, cooking, cleaning and school corrections. Plus, our dad finished the master bedroom in our house, and then, much to the delight of my siblings and I, he started working on our 2 bedrooms upstairs. My dad decided to start on the boys bedroom first so they had to move into my bedroom, which included them taking all of their numerous belongings into my room (a.k.a. two hefty dressers, two boxes a piece of items that were too precious to throw out, two twin mattresses, and all of their extra paraphenalia.).
It was actually okay and very livable, but I can tell you it was a relief when they moved down into the living room for a while. Then dad thought he might as well do both of our bedrooms at the same time, so out we went into the living room, dressers, beds and all. Now the boys had to move down to the basement and we took over the living room, which is where we are at this moment. Dad has almost finished mudding the walls so we will soon be able to prime and then paint the walls which means that soon we will be able to move back upstairs! Hooray! - because the living room does all very well to sleep in, but it is rather crowded and when you have 3 little siblings who tend to be very destructive, and your "bedroom" is the first thing people see when they walk into your house, um, well, let's just say it makes for an interesting life!
Well, I think I'm going to head to bed now, seeing as there is school tomorrow. I am earnestly going to try to post a little more often, but I'm not going to make any promises! Until the next post (whenever that is!).

Curly Tops

Here is a picture I took of Viv, Soph, Rach, and Lil after a night spent with rollers in their hair. Rach spent the night with Soph and we had a lot of fun taking out their curlers and doing their hair. Aren't they cute?

Introducing... Helpful Hints!

Okay, so my mom and I were talking about things to blog and my mom had the idea to do a post every week on "helpful hints" - we'll include in each post a tip that we've found useful at our house. So, today I'm going to do the first one!

How many of you have dishwashers? Quite a few of us do! (We do mean the kind that run on electricity - not just two hands :) We have found that when you go to fill up the cups (both the pre-wash and the wash cycle cups) in the dishwasher with detergent, you don't have to fill them up all the way to have clean dishes. My great-grandpa once told my mom that he only used a tablespoon of dishwashing detergent in each cup and it was enough soap for the whole dishwasher. Well, we tried it and, to our surprise, it actually worked! Not only does this tip save going through dishwashing detergent so fast (especially for those of us who do copious amounts of dishes), but it also saves money! We've been using this tip for quite awhile now and none of our dishes come out dirty!

100 Dollars... Over

The other day I had to cash a check at the bank. I walked up to the lady teller that we've known for a long time. After asking her to cash the check for me, the lady proceeded to count out the money. I didn't hear her count the money out really well but it almost sounded to me like she was counting out more cash then what my check was for. Thinking either she was saying the wrong number or I am hard of hearing at the age of thirteen, I thanked her and went out of the bank. (It never crossed my mind that a bank teller could miscount money!) I walked outside to my bike and the thought came to me to check the amount of cash I was given. I quickly discovered that she really had given me the wrong amount of money - $100 dollars over the check amount in fact! Immediately I went back inside to give back the extra hundred. Our bank lady looked surprised to see me again but after I explained to her the situation, she took the money and re-counted it. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed. "I would have been looking all over for it later!" It made me feel really good to have done the right thing. Later my mom told me that sometimes God gives us situations like this to test us. She also said that when we do the right thing, it is a testimony to the people around us.

French or German?

German or French? French or German? This is the question I've been thinking about as the school year approaches. I'm entering high-school this year and so I'm obligated to learn a second language. Not that I mind as I've always wanted to learn another language! So far I have narrowed my list of languages down to two and, you guessed it, it's French or German!

Eiffel Tower in France.
On one hand, French is a beautiful sounding language, whereas German has a harder sound to it. Plus, if I ever went to Europe again, a lot of places speak French although a lot of people in Europe speak German as well. But, I could also speak French in some parts of Africa as well as in some parts in Spain. Then again, German is more widely known in Europe. What to do?

The Rhine River in Germany.
What say ye?

New Template

We decided to change our template and profile picture. I found it on pyzam and and my mom and I really liked it. Is it okay to read? Leave a comment telling us what you think about it! God bless!

Ring Around the Tub!

What do you get when you add to one two year old boy: sand, fried chicken, cantaloupe, baked beans, cake, juice, mud pies, water, and did I already mention sand?! By the end of a fun-filled day, we had a major ring around the tub at our house! By the way, have you ever taken a two year old boy wearing overalls and tipped him upside down after playing in sand for hours? You should try it - it's amazing how much sand comes pouring out!