~ Felicity
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Lily
In less than an hour, it will be officially be fall! I am already getting excited for my birthday. It's coming up in less than a month!
Julie was bumming about summer being almost over in an earlier post. Felicity was with her 100%, and even Bethany seems a bit sad to see the sassafras leaves starting to change in the backyard. I don't know what they're thinking. I love fall! The colorful, crunching leaves, apple cider, brisk air, and the special events like Art Prize, my birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving make it fun. As Bethany has said before, I think we are lucky to live in a place where we get to experience 4 dramatic seasons to keep things interesting.
Mom's hopefully going to go downtown today to check out some of the art at this year's ArtPrize (an art festival). I sure wish she'd take me, but I guess a young woman carrying an American Girl doll around in downtown GR (where there is not even an AG place) would get some odd looks. Not to mention it's predicted to rain on and off today: dolls and rain don't mix well. I will be content as long as she shows me photos of the best pieces. She says she will let me help her do her online voting, and I'll definitely be taking her up on that.
Since today is so dreary, I don't think we'll be taking a ride outside today. Mom's little sister had a sleepover last night with a friend from school. They're still asleep in the big room in the basement, so my sisters and I have been tiptoeing around ever since we woke up. (I am typing this from my laptop in my bed.) I think I'll get going on my homework now and then do some drawing.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Bethany
My sisters and I had our pictures taken on our ride on Wednesday. We dressed up in our show clothes for the occasion. I love my new riding outfit - it looks cute and it's comfortable! The only trouble is getting the boots on. Those definitely could've been designed better. You should've seen it all the determination, readjusting, and wiggling it took to get them on!
Once the boots were finally on, I tacked up Dune and headed into the backyard with my sisters and their horses. It was probably the last 80+ day of the year, so you can guess how much we appreciated our jackets. Lily was rubbing it in a little bit that she was in short sleeves, since she's the only one who doesn't have a riding jacket yet. (Mom's looking into buying her a jacket, but they never seem to be sold separately from the rest of the outfit on eBay.) Then this huge daddy long legs crawled from Sunlight onto Lily, and Lily freaked out. She hates spiders. Mom blew it off her and calmed her down, but after that she wasn't so smug, lol.
Here are some of the best photos. It's too bad Mom didn't get any of Lily and her 8-legged friend. =)
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Felicity
Okay, don't tell Mom, but I snuck onto Carl (her laptop) last night. (All 4 of us dolls were sleeping upstairs. Mom left us up there after taking some photos of us, and the living room couch is comfortable.) She had two documents minimized: Gems Story and It's Elemental, my Dear Watson. Lily saw what I was doing and didn't approve, but then curiosity got the better of even her when Beth and Julie came over and started to read.
So here's the low down. Gems Story is not about a GEMS church group, or about stolen gems, or anything like that. It's about these 9 "Gemnines": dogs who've been genetically "enhanced" with DNA of various gemstones. The main character is a dog named Emerald. She and the other dogs have to escape from some evil scientists after their master mysteriously disappears. There's a big gap in the story right now about just how it happens, but the dogs somehow make it to a forest. Only problem is that the forest is home to a hostile wolf pack. Then Emerald gets bitten by a wolf, and before they know it, the whole pack has turned Gemnine too. What happens from there? We don't know because it hasn't been written yet. Apparently she was distracted by her newest story, It's Elemental.
It's Elemental, my Dear Watson is totally inspired by us! The 4 decent characters who've been introduced so far are a small brunette, a stubborn red head, a peacemaking dark brunette, and a blond who doesn't like breaking rules. So us! 2 of the girls have found this box of 4 toy horses in this ramshackle long-abandoned stable in the woods. The horses totally represent Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Those 2 girls are definitely not "normal," and who knows what secrets the other 2 are keeping. I so wanted there to be more to read, but then it just ended. Mom'd better get writing! I'm dying to know what she's got planned, but it's not like I can ask her. She won't voluntarily show her stories to anyone.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Lily
I don't have anything in particular to talk about, but it seems like I should make a post because all of my sisters have. I heard Julie talking last night about wanting to write a story about the four of us turning into dogs. That got me thinking about what breeds of dogs represent us best. Here's what I came up with, thanks to Google:
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| Bethany: liver Flat Coated Retriever Personality: outgoing, friendly, optimistic |
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| Felicity: black-masked red Belgian Malinois Personality: active, stubborn, confident |
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| Julie: brown and white English Cocker Spaniel Personality: friendly, quiet, faithful |
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| Lily (me): gold and white English Shepherd Personality: kind, devoted, bossy |
Julie
Summer is winding its way down. Knowing it won't be here that much longer makes me more appreciative of the sweltering temperatures predicted for this weekend. There's nothing like knowing the end of something is in sight to make me all nostalgic for it. I guess temporariness is part of what makes things like vacations, desserts, puppies, birthdays, and seasons so special. But for me, the temporariness also makes me a little apprehensive deep down. It makes me crave permanence. Permanence is part of what makes God and heaven seem so amazing to me: someone and something infinitely good lasting infinitely long.
Sorry to get all deep on you there, but I was just reflecting on a blurb I watched on the news last night. It was about an atheistic children's camp somewhere in Washington state, and how atheism is growing like crazy in the U.S. At the camp, God's name is symbolically covered up with ridiculous phrases like "spaghetti monster superhero." Kids happily paddle kayaks, play games, and casually discuss atheistic philosophy. I heard a 9 year old girl tell the reporter that she thinks God is like a plan B for believers when they can't handle things themselves. When asked what her plan B was, she said she didn't know. The whole thing was disturbing to me. I felt like I was cringing through the entire segment. Something about it being kids, I guess. And thinking how hopeless and pointless life would seem to me if I'd been brought up like that.
I am so thankful for freedom of religion in the United States, and I respect people with different religious beliefs from my own. I just wasn't expecting to see atheism promoted in such a light, whimsical way on the news.
Boy, this post is a downer so far. How about I end with this comic that has nothing to do with anything?
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Felicity's Thoughts on the London 2012 Summer Olympics
Okay, so I only saw like 5 minutes of Olympic equestrian event coverage on NBC this year. Why do they give so much coverage to some boring sports, like tennis, basketball, water polo, and every qualifying heat for swimming/running/rowing/canoeing/kayaking under the sun, but give basically no equestrian coverage? Sure, the dressage may not be super thrilling, but show jumping and cross country? Come on! Those are so cool to watch! NBC's lame-o excuse for any and all gaps in their coverage? "You can watch live streaming of many events online!" Um, no. Tried it. If your computer isn't set up to communicate with your satellite tv service or whatever, forget it. So I saw a total of 4 horses and riders ride a show jumping course in the rain. That's it. I'm bummed.
Now that I'm done ranting, I will say that it's pretty sweet that the U.S. took home the most medals overall (104!). And I did enjoy the extensively-covered swimming, diving, and gymnastics events. It was also cool that I was able to catch some rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming during the day, even if it was incomplete coverage. I asked mom and my sisters what the highlight of the games was for each of them. Here's what they said:
Mom: The Fab 5 winning gold for the U.S. in the women's team all-around gymnastics event.
Bethany: Kelci Bryant and Abigail Johnston winning the silver in the Women's Synchronised 3m Springboard diving event.
Lily: Gabby Douglas winning gold in the women's individual all-around gymnastics event.
Julie: The U.S. winning gold in the Women's 4x100m Medley Relay.
Me: Michael Phelps winning gold medal #16 and beating Ryan Lochte, who got the silver, in the 200-meter individual medley.
What can I say? While we were awed by many Olympic athletes (the Chinese divers, the Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Jamaican runners, and South Africa's sprinter Oscar Pistorius, for example), we loved watching our country's Olympians win medals most of all.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Bethany
Julie and I have gotten the short end of the stick this year: Mom's been gone on vacation without us on our birthdays. For Julie it was White Lotus. For me it was camping. Talk about unfortunate timing! On the bright side of things, it looked like it was going to rain overnight last Wednesday, so Mom came home for the last hour of my birthday. It was awesome to have a sleepover with her on her enormo bed on my actual birthday.
So what did I do during the rest of my birthday? Well, it sorta starts the night before. We were wishing we were camping like Mom, so we set up the pup tent in the backyard. According to my sisters, it is much easier to do with 4 dolls than 3. It still isn't easy, let me tell you. We craved s'mores after supper, but Mom doesn't like us messing with fire, plus I think campfires are illegal in our suburb. So we had to use the microwave to make our mini marshmallows puff, but it worked. Then we went out to the tent with the dogs and had a fabulous evening of pretending to be hikers hopelessly lost in a vast wilderness. Lily and Julie apparently hardly slept all night long, but I slept like a rock.
It was so fun to wake up to birds chirping and dogs nosing us on my birthday morning.
After breakfast, we took down the tent and went horseback riding in the backyard. We pretended to be the USA's Olympic eventing team and held our own team eventing competition. We beat the pants off Germany, GB, and New Zealand. =) Later on, my sisters and I had a little Olympics-watching party in Mom's room since she was gone. During commercial breaks and the more boring bits, I started reading The Host, a book that I found on Mom's nightstand. Felicity had to help me wedge it out from under a few other books in the stack - we almost tipped them over.
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