Crafty-ness
Well, I know it’s been a while. I’ve been pretty preoccupied, though I do admit to procrastinating…. 
Recently I’ve been feeling non-conventional. If that’s a mood. But I’ve found myself wishing for things like red heels and white fedoras recently! And as a result, I’ve been in a rather crafty mood. It does follow logically, if you think about it. I rearranged my room somewhat, began project plans for the summer, and ordered pictures for scrapbooking, among other things. I also sketched Wall E and decoupaged my NCFCA apologetics box! I’ve been having fun!
I got this sticker out of one of those vending machines (that I almost never use). And since I love sketching like this, from pictures, I had to draw Wall E. It’s my favorite Pixar movie, too! Yes, I do have free time on my hands. 
These lenses took some thought before I actually drew them… they’re almost all black, but in order to get expression, you have to vary the shades of black!
His treads were the hardest part. Another issue of varying shades of black!
A few days after I completed Wall E, I showed my little sister and cousin how to decoupage. While they decoupaged small boxes, I decoupaged my apologetics box. I love pink and black!
Gloves are kind of my ‘thing’ in NCFCA. At the last tournament, I wore these white lace ones…
So, that’s what I’ve been up to! Last night I also sewed a black strip along the hem of a black and white dress that I bought… it’s so cute. Beth, you’d like it.
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
I am enamored…
…of NCFCA! 
Haha. But yes, basically, this Regional tournament was amazingly wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it… well, except perhaps the few times on the last day when I felt close to fainting out of exhaustion. :-0
Random points:
1. ARC (my speech/debate club) kids are SO awesome. I got these adorable notes in my encouragement box, and it was one of the sweetest highlights of the tourney. You dear girls wouldn’t mind if I posted one, would you?
“The Debater Story:
Once upon a time there was a beautiful debater named Grace. She wore a creamy white suit and lacy gloves. She was sweet to everyone and made cute little dresses out of paper. We love her.
Love, Kate”
2. I went 9:58 in my last speech round. *sigh of contentment*
3. I didn’t get dinner on Thursday, because I was too busy timing…Ok, and talking. But someone could’ve warned me! Yes, that was definitely a low point. *wink*
4. I don’t really like timing Team Policy Debate. In fact, I wrote a poem about it. I’ll post it eventually.
5. We sang!
6. We danced! (And I learned to polka!)
7. The piano was off-limits. Sadness.
8. I got tons of new quotes for my quote-book. Some of them are in the video blog below. Some are not: “I don’t care WHAT it is! I want it!” -Katy
9. I love my adopted siblings.*HUGS* I wish they didn’t all live miles away from me. That’s the defect of adopting your siblings. I miss them!
10. I love my club. 1-2-3-ARC! Y’all are seriously amazing.
11. (eleven points seems to be my trend.) I took 3 hours of video, and 143 pictures. And I’m so glad I did. You can see some of the video below, and more of it if you go to my YouTube channel. All my pictures are on Picasa, so email me if you want them. Slideshow coming soon. As soon as I upload it to YouTube.
~Grace/Susan
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
NCFCA Alamo Qualifier
I think the biggest thing that I learned during this tournament was to trust God. I mean, I knew to trust Him before, but I was brought to a deeper realization of His trustworthiness and ultimate authority. It’s easy to rely on yourself at competitions when so much seems to depend on your own talents and abilities. For the most part, at this Alamo Qualifier, the Lord granted me a wonderful peace that flowed into everything I did. Not just in competing, but in conversing, and just… living. I was very thankful for that.
The State tournament was amazing, in the full sense of that descriptive word!
Ten things I am mentioning about the tournament, because I feel like it:
1.) The schedule was really weird. Until I got used to it, I kept forgetting the day and the time.
2.) LD rocks over TP. No offense, just personal preference here! *hides from angry TPers*
3.) I suffer from an appalling lack of music at tournaments. I soaked up as much of it as I could get, whenever I found an opportunity! I should get an ipod.
4.) I had cards on all my apologetics topics!!
5.) 5 hours of sleep per night is NOT enough.
6.) I now have 3 Narnian ’siblings’. Peter, Edmond (spelled the French-Canadian way), and Lucy.
7.) I was late for almost every meal. I got the LAST Taco Cabana bag.
8.) The next generation of NCFCA is going to blow our minds!
9.) I’ve seen Fleming/Hardy’s duo 10 times now.
10.) It’s pretty fun to write random notes and draw random pictures on your flowsheets. And words, like gracious and revenge and incompatibility and ardent, as they come to mind! Sometimes I was bored enough, even when timing! The back of the timer sheet is also a good place to write music.
11.) I know, it wasn’t in the thesis statement, but I just had to say, ARCers are awesome!
I had a splendid time, overall! I especially enjoyed having a camera, and I took lots of pictures, most of which are in the slideshow below. That’s why it’s so long!
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
So there was this tournament…
And it was really awesome. Tada!
Just kidding.
Presenting… the NCFCA 2009 January Warm-Up Tournament recap! Sponsored by Sing Me To Heaven, www.ncfca.org, and www.arcblogs.com! *insert drumroll*
Disclaimer: This is a very long post, as you see. You probably will not have time to, or even want to read the whole thing! I wrote it mainly for my own benefit, because I don’t want to forget this! I would have written it in my journal, but it’s ever so much faster to type than write by hand. If you want to see pictures, scroll down and watch the slideshow I made!
Now, to acquire the proper perspective, we must go back, way back into history! Well, not as far as we probably should go, that is, to tell you how I first became involved with NCFCA, and etc. We’ll go back to the beginning of last week- Monday night. Monday night was peculiarly significant because I came down with a cold. Yep, and I was in bed all day Tuesday. Very disagreeable, because I was not able to practice my speech. Wednesday morning was spent packing (ick), and Wednesday afternoon saw me and my dad leaving for my grandparents’ house! I was still sick, btw. On the way, we stopped at a UPS outlet or something of that sort to copy about 40 pages from the book that I took my speech from. I wish we had one of those amazing printers that scans once and prints your copy in like 10 seconds.
But anyways… fast forward to Thursday morning- the first day of the tournament! I was dragged out of my warm bed at 5:30 that morning by the worst sound in the world- an alarm clock. We were on the road to Houston by 6:15, I believe. It was dark and cold. *shivers* But soon the horizon began to blush, and we got to see the most spectacularly splendid sunrise! Ah, it was beautiful. And also, that morning I discovered that I was over my cold! For the most part anyway. And I was too busy to notice throughout the day, but I had no problems at all! I’m very thankful for that little blessing- small in normal life, but when you’re about to compete in something…. it’s SO nice to be well!
At 8:30 we arrived at the church where the tournament was held- a massive place with three floors, a huge cafeteria area, a labyrinth of hallways. And we only had access to half the church! It was big. You may now picture me, with my bag of… stuff on one arm, my purse on the other and holding my script and submission form tightly in my hands, entering the door to the cafeteria. The number of students milling around was mind-boggling. I have since decided that there were only about two-hundred and fifty competitors, but when I first came in and was trying to find the registration line, it seemed like a lot more. And it made me seem very small. I walked up to a couple of people to ask if they were in line, and if this was the place we were supposed to be, but most of them answered that they weren’t so sure, and the line was here a minute ago, but now it seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Needless to say, this was not very helpful. Except that everyone was very friendly! I finally found the line, and registered…. And I made friends with several people.
Them: Hi- I’m _____!
Me: I’m Grace. Nice to meet you! *hand-shake* So what events are you doing?
Them: Oh, I’m going light this year. My schedule has been pretty busy. I’m only doing Apologetics, Original Oratory, Humorous Interp., and Team Policy Debate. What about you?
Me: Oh, I’m doing a Dramatic Interp. (To be henceforth referred to as DI)
Them: Oh! Well that’s cool! What’s it about?
Me: (This was my stock answer throughout the tournament) It’s about a Romanian girl who tried to escape the communist country, but was captured and put in prison.
Them: Sounds really neat!
Me: It’s very dramatic! *grin* I like it.
Them: Well, I hope you break (advance)!
Me: Thanks! You too!
(And etcetera and so on……. everybody is so friendly. But I didn’t meet anyone else who was only doing one event. 
After submitting my script (and hoping they didn’t notice the few pages of the book that I left out by accident), I made my way over to the ARC table and said hello to the few of them that I knew previously. And I met the rest- yay! Some of us had met before through homeschoolblogger, but not in person. Go say hi to Beth, Anna, Toni, Alex, and Katy– who I had an amazing time with all weekend! As well as my dear friend of two years, Christina, and her brother Paul. This is not including my other wonderful companions who don’t have blogs, or whose link escapes my memory. I love you guys!!
You must realize, dear readers, that I have no connection with ARC, and the members still accepted me by faith, and immediately! I cannot tell you how much that meant to me- to become one of them in such a short time. They are truly amazing!
Before the tournament could begin, Mr. Larimer had to come up and welcome everyone, thank some people who helped out, and remind us to ‘respect the facilities’. And then we began with a Lincoln-Douglas debate round! I timed one of the rooms, despite my conscience telling me that I really should go practice my speech, unless I wanted to forget half of it. But they needed timers! That’s my lousy excuse. I love LD. I love Team-Policy too, and I timed quite a few of those rounds!
So, fast-forward to postings for my speech round. I ‘excused myself’ through a gob of people hovering around the wall, and managed to get a glimpse of the room I’d be performing in. #360. I was somewhere in the middle… maybe 4th- I can’t remember. I hurried up there, lest I be late! But I discovered that the judges weren’t even there yet, so my fears were unjustified. The entire tournament was always running behind. I spent my spare time wandering around the third floor, reading my speech over and over. But it’s hard to concentrate when you’re nervous. So I soon ended up standing outside the door listening to Paul and another guy talk. I don’t remember what they were talking about. Except I think McCain came up in there somewhere. I finally decided to go in the room, although it wasn’t my turn yet. I watched this boy- who looked about 12- do his speech on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And then it was my turn. Ack!
I took my ring off so I wouldn’t twist it. And then I threw my nerves to the winds and asked if the judges were ready. They were, alas. So I bent my head… and began my speech. I’d post the script except I don’t know what the rules are on that. The most exciting thing about this round was that I cried! I’ve never, ever cried on cue before! My happiness knew no bounds. The worst things were that 1- I forgot one of my accents, and 2- the time was 10:58. Ouch. Each speech is supposed to be 10 minutes long.
When I’d finished, Paul, who had been ‘judging’ me too, explained to me the high and low points and gave me some notes on how to improve…. Beyond that I don’t really remember what happened until the next speech round.
In the next speech round, (there are two because there are so many events. Half are in one round, and half in the other.), I went to watch… duos, I think. Duos are the best kind of speech ever. I first saw one about women’s fear of lightning. 
Then I saw Fleming/Hardy’s rendition of Peter Pan. Talk about amazing! I don’t know how long Ian and Tim have been doing this, but they’re basically pros at it. The duo was amazing, even though they completely forgot their lines in one place, and left out like half of the speech! They well deserved to get first at the tournament, which they did.
After Fleming/Hardy, I went downstairs to see if Jessie and Reid were about to go on yet. But their judges were still absent (without leave). I meandered aimlessly around in the hallways for a while, until they were ready to perform. They did so well! It was brilliantly blocked, and brilliantly executed! All of you who attended the tournament with me know that I think they should have gotten second! As it is, they got 8th, but that’s absolutely amazing too!
The rest of the day was, on my part, spent timing, watching, and doing my speech one more time. I think the second round was my best. Even though the time was 11:24! *gasp* But my ballots are highest from the second round.
11:30pm saw the Hastings vehicle pulling out of the church parking lot. I stayed with the Hastings all weekend! Christina and I talked all the way home, much to Paul’s chagrin. Once at the house, we decided who would take showers when, and collapsed in bed as soon as possible.
Only to be awakened at 6-something to get ready for the day! Christina and I curled our hair with her excellent rollers, and told each other that “You look gorgeous!” (the WallE quote)
The second day was as awesome as the first. Shall I narrate it for you? I guess not.
But Friday night, breaks were announced. I don’t know what thoughts went through my head when my name was called… I wasn’t that surprised, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if I hadn’t broken, either. I had blocked all expectations out of my mind. The most fun part of the evening was hearing all my friends’ names called! The people’s choice awards, or ‘purple choice’, were pretty hilarious too. So was Tim’s song. And the team impromptus, except some of those were over-the-top goofy.
11:30pm once more saw us leaving the facility.
But this time, we had to be back earlier, because Mr. Hastings had work to do in Bastrop. So we got to the church at 7am or so. And nobody was there. It was creepy. It didn’t last long, though.
The Semi-Final Round was held Saturday morning. The best part about my speech in this round was that I cut it down to 9:54!! That completely made up for my not advancing to finals! And during finals, since I wasn’t competing, I got to watch all the duos except one, and I also saw Christina’s OI through the door. They have thick doors in that church, because I really had to strain to hear her. Except when she was yelling. She was amazing! And she got 5th place. *applause* Her OI is heart-rendingly sad. *cries*
Jessie/Reid rocked in the finals round! And so did Fleming/Hardy. These were my two favorite duos of the tournament. Can you tell? Fleming/Hardy said ever so many more lines than the first time I saw them! And the hands-down best part of the duo was Ian’s wink at the end. He was Peter Pan, and it was perfect, I tell you.
After the speech round– came debate semi-finals! I went to watch Ian and Tim debate each other. Best friends debating.. it doesn’t get much better! It was the best (and most amusing) LD round I’ve ever seen! But I haven’t seen very many….. The best part was the cross-ex-ing.
Ian: Hello Tim, how are you?
Tim: I’m doing great!
Ian: I like your tie.
Tim: Thanks! I like yours too! (they both were wearing the same tie, but in different colors. )
Ian: Where’d you get it?
Tim: Um.. I think the same place you got yours.
Ian: Yeah, I think I bought it for you. But anyways….
Lol. It was hysterical.
Before the final-final debate round, I walked around linking arms with Anna. She was taking pictures of me with the people I met at the tournament. I also taught her to swing-dance! That was fun.
The final-final LD round was held in the cafeteria, and everyone attended. I sat next to Beth, and we giggled through the entire thing, we were so tired! People do strange things when they’re very tired, and so was the case with Bethy and I. I don’t even remember what we talked about! Haha! Except that Beth noticed that the Affirmative guy kept saying ‘thus’…..
We skipped the Team Policy round! A bunch of ARCers went upstairs to play games and goof off. But we tried not to make too much noise, seeing as we were in the room directly above the cafeteria! We played the Great Dalmuti… (or however you spell that), and I was Lower Peasant most of the time… *sigh* I am horrible at all card games.
*gasps for air* So, everyone, you should come to an NCFCA tournament near you, if possible! They’re absolutely fabulous! There’s no way I can relate to you all the wonderful little memories that sold me on this one. How could I re-create every conversation, every event, every laugh? You’ll just have to come see for yourself.
The End. And yes, I am well aware of the defect in one of my subtitles. Windows Movie Maker published it wrong! It’s typed in correctly.
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival
January 9th and 10th. Ok, so that’s when the Festival was. I had to go look it up on the calendar, since all I knew was that it was on some weekend in January. You may now get on my case for neglecting to post about it. *grin*
Vision Forum did an amazing job with this event, as usual. I’m not sure how many films were showcased, but I saw a lot, and I didn’t see the majority by any means. All the films were hand-picked by a panel of judges. And there were… tons, yeah, tons of intitial submissions.
Here are a few pictures that I borrowed from Doug Phillips’ blog, and Paul Hastings’ blog. There’s no way I can tell you in full about all the great movies I saw, and all the awesome people I hung out with. But if you’re seething with curiousity, Paul did an elephantine post on the Festival, so here you go.
The heart of the Festival was here, in the Lila Cockrell Theatre. The closing ceremonies on the last night was a sold-out event. The feature-length films were all shown in this theatre. Amazing. It brought back lots of memories, too, because when I was in the Texas All-State Women’s Choir, we sang on this very stage. I know how to get backstage! I amused myself throughout the Festival thinking that, if I wanted, I could just pop up on stage at any time! Not that I would’ve had the gumption, but still….
Friday night was really fun, except for us being tired to death! And our blisters… Emily and I were really dumb Friday, and we each wore cute shoes. Now everyone knows that if shoes are cute, they hurt your feet. It’s inevitable. What with all our walking all over the convention center, we soon developed blisters. Ouch. The next day, I wore my most comfortable shoes. With socks. Anyways… Friday night.
Everyone, and I mean everyone… like all the homeschoolers within a thousand mile radius. And more besides! We all gathered in the Lila Cockrell theatre for whatever Vision Forum had planned. And they had a lot planned. (I think the whole deal took three hours.) One was an interview with Dean Jones, who many of you may know from such movies as The Love Bug, and Flubber. Most recently, he played Abraham in a film called Abraham and Isaac that was shown at the Film Festival. He has a really wonderful testimony, and I enjoyed hearing him speak.
The Von Trapp Children were featured! It was so amazing to hear them sing live. We have two of their CDs, but they sound even better now! Their blend is fabulous. The songs they sang were such classics as, The Lonely Goatherd (above), Amazing Grace, My Favorite Things, and a couple others from The Sound of Music. Their traditional Austrian costumes were so neat! The girls were wearing dresses that Maria Von Trapp had worn.
The Sound of Music is one of my favorite movies that I watch over and over again. Of course, it’s a romantisized version. The real story of the Von Trapps is just as intriguing, or more so. And it was so cool to see these, the children of 3 faithful generations, singing for all of us. The legacy of the Von Trapp family goes farther than The Sound of Music shows.
Fireproof was also one of the movies featured at the Festival. I saw it for the first time, and it was so awesome! Sure, I know all of y’all have probably seen it already. But wow, what a powerful movie! Mr. Phillips interviewed Stephen Kenderick, the director, and Kirk Cameron, the actor who played Caleb Holt. They talked about the making of Fireproof, telling stories, touching and funny, and giving us an all-around behind the scenes view. When the DVD comes out, one of the special features is going to be ‘Fireproof in 60 seconds’. It is what it is. Fireproof the movie retold in 60 seconds. Guys, go here: http://fireproofthemovie.com/ and watch it. It’s histarical! I won’t give anything away… but Christina H. and Emily and I were nearly rolling on the floor laughing. Literally.
~~~
To briefly mention the movies I liked… my favorites were (not in order) Fireproof, Pendragon (a period film about Britain and the Saxons. Made by one family, and, for their budget and resources, an amazing movie.), For Honor (A couple of my friends made this movie! They did a great job!), Dialtone (a kind of wierd movie about witnessing. I liked it though! It was a real eye-opener.), The Widow’s Might (This movie won the Audience choice award, and the Jubilee award, the highest honors of the Festival. And it was a musical! That’s enough get me in the theatre. , Abraham and Isaac, and The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (This is coming to theatres in the fall! Don’t miss it! It also won the award for best film score at the Festival.). I encourage you to go to the links and read about each of them! I think you’ll enjoy it. You can also download a lot of them easily from http://behemoth.com/.
~~~
The Christian Film Movement is well under-way! Be watching, because we’re going to see some great things from these amateur film makers very soon!
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
Something New
There was a new arrival at our home not long ago. Must’ve been almost three weeks ago now. Sorry I’ve neglected to post. Anyway, this new… edition is something I (and Emily too) have been hoping for for a while, and it was greeted happily once it was found, though it did take me a little while to become genuinely enthusiastic about its charms. It’s really a very satisfactory specimen of its kind. Because of its winning personality, and an eagerness to please, not to mention a lovely mahogany skin-tone and rich timbre, I’ve grown attached to my new cello.
Here it is, in all its comeliness, though not in all its glory, since that comes only when you hear it sing. It is shaped and curved very beautifully, though.
I love the ‘F holes’, as they are called. Unfortunately, since I’m only renting it, it’s not brand new, and bears the marks of some rather careless person who was over-enthusiastic in their down-bowing. (Drawing the bow to the right) There are a lot of nicks on the right side. But, other than that, it’s perfectly fine! I hope I’ll soon be able to play it better. It is willing to please, but it helps for the cellist to keep her fingers un-tangled. My left hand, the one that controls the fingerings, needs limbering up, too. My hands are pretty small, and I’ve discovered that there are some muscles that are needed for cello that you don’t often use elsewhere. You should see me practice! I have to wring out both my hands (holding the bow is taxing too) every once in a while, because they get so stiff. However, I am happy to say that I can coax some wonderfully rich sounds out of it at times, and I’m expert at Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star! (Haha, give me a break; I’ve only had two lessons!)
I like it very much. But it’s interesting how similar ‘cello’ sounds to ‘jello’.
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
A Lady
“Flowers spring to blossom where she walks
The careful ways of duty;
Our hard, stiff lines of life with her
Are flowing curves of beauty.”
–Whittier
I love this little excerpt from ‘Among the Hills’! You notice I was NOT looking at the actual poem, though, when I was typing the text into the image. :-/
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
A Belated Birthday Post
Written October 18th 2008…
14 years ago today…
I was no longer an only child.
Happy Birthday to my dear sister Emily! This year you really have grown into such a young lady and I’m proud to be your sister. I love you so much, sweetie!
A year ago yesterday…
The pattern of girls born into our family was broken.
Happy Birthday to my baby brother Alan! We are daily praying that this little boy will become a wonderful man of Christ-like valor. Keep growing big and strong, ACE!
Hugs and kisses to both of you,
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
Vacation Recap
Hello again!
Yes, I’m finally back! Thank you, everyone who commented on my last post even thought I was gone. It made me feel loved when I came back and read all of your notes. Since you all enjoyed the scenic pictures, I’ll add to them with some action photos taken during the trip. I hope you can see what fun we had!
The L. Family from our church was with us for the first 5 days, before our cousins came.
Fishing in the pond. I believe everyone caught at least one fish.
Silly children splashing me relentlessly. I plead innocent! Oh, what have I done to deserve such unjust treatment, I ask you? (The fact that I splashed them first is beside the point.)
Aww, look at the cute baby! We went upstream to where there’s a lot of clay underwater (we’ve called it slippery soap since I was 5). And after slipping and sliding around on it, we gathered up some pieces and proceeded to paint our faces grey and yellow. So that’s the yellow stuff on Alan’s face.
After the L’s left, our cousins came. We go together for a family trip every year. This is my adorable and hilarious cousin, Kate.
And here’s Kyle trying to stay dry. Biscuit’s a pretty strong dog!
Rope Swings are great fun, but I wouldn’t reccomend doing them with dry clothing unless you are an expert.
Kyle’s a goner! We tried to save him, but the rope swing mutinied against us. Or maybe it was gravity. At any rate, both Kyle and Kate were soaked. Hehe, it was pretty funny.
I was taking the pictures that morning (the previous 5 pictures and the following two are all from the same day.)
This might take some explaining. In the gift shop, there were these very… interesting Hannah Montana wigs. We had a camera and a few willing models at hand, soooo, we made the most of the circumstance.
Goofs. This is me, Kate and Anna. Kyle completely refused to pose with a pirate sword and sunglasses. But I do have a priceless picture of Emily with 4 wigs, et cetera. She would kill me if I posted it.
Here are some of the 19 catfish we caught and ate. 19 is a lot, but with 12 people, it’s no more than enough.
So I think you can gather what a good time we had, and how tired we were when we returned, at midnight last Friday!
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
A Circle of Heaven
This summer has been one of the best ever for me. I’ve made awesome new friends and renewed other friendships…. I’ve developed a sudden and irrational affection for old-fashioned water pumps…. I’ve cried in front of people on purpose…. I’ve been part of a world that consisted of several fold-up chairs, with masking tape boundaries…. I’ve left myself behind and become someone else, for periods of time….
In other words, I’ve been a part of an amazing production this summer. Maybe not the most professional; maybe not up to the level of Broadway, or with the most talented actors and actresses. But I’m sure of this: no one who had a part in this will forget it any time soon. I’ve been part of so many other productions, but I think I’m safe in saying I enjoyed this one the most. We all had such a great time learning, laughing, and acting together. The cast was the best part of this production, hands down. I had an awesome time with this group! I love you guys!!!
Together, we produced a play to be proud of (at least, I was!) Our director and his family put so much into this production to help us live the story he’d written. And we did. When that world which was marked out with masking tape transformed into a true stage with a backdrop of Texas cornfields, we were ready to unveil A Circle of Heaven to our audience. Every moment of those three performances was jam-packed with suspense, supressed giggles from backstage, team spirit, and a sense of accomplishment. You don’t get this feeling just anywhere. I’ve only experienced it in theatre,and I love it. Now of course I’m disappointed that it’s over, (I always am, it’s called PPD: Post Production Depression!) but I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of this, and I hope I’ll be doing it again next year!
Now, for your amusement: PICTURES!!! (Courtesy of Jessie S.)
Our very strict (haha) director, Alex.
Lovely townsladies rehearsing scene 3.
Zebediah Andrews fixing his suspenders!
Yours truly dressed up like an 11 year old! Yep, that was my part- Missy Faulkner, the youngest of the Faulkner sisters who is both mischevous and spunky. I had so much fun with this part, I got to do everything from yelling at people, to screaming in fright from off stage, to crying on cue!
Mike- alias Jeff Faulkner- putting on make-up with that infamous funky headband in his hair! The guys actually made less fuss about wearing make-up on stage than I’d expected! Lol.
Our beautiful Mia putting up with the camera! Her hair looked exquisite when it was done!
Isaac with his new friend. I actually took this picture!!! *gasp*
So, there you have it, everyone. Now I suggest you go find an acting group near you!
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
Photo-shoot
Photo-shoots are endless sources of amusement. Here are some products of last Sunday’s picture-taking session. (No, Emily and I do not do this very often. Very rarely, in fact. And it depends largely on what we’re wearing.)
Victorian lady: that’s my hat from a show I was in last summer.
Cowgirl! (That’s also my hat!
ZzzzZzzzzzz…..
From hat to tiara. How I got up into that tree with my full skirt is beyond me.
hehe
So, yes, we enjoyed ourselves!
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
Mexico: A Mission Trip Adventure
I’m back! From the depths of a foreign country, from Morelia, Mexico, I have returned! Oh, it was SO amazing!!! What a true adventure! I had never been out of the States before, and found it to be wonderfully exciting, absolutely exhausting, and a bit suspenseful at times! In some ways it was just as I had expected. In other ways it was nothing like the picture I had imagined! I have to admit I had not expected it to be so exquisitely beautiful! And I had underestimated the amount of work we’d be doing! My legs were so sore every night when I got in bed at 1am! Too much volleyball, I guess! Just kidding, we really were very busy. We were in Morelia for 5 days, and were in town for our puppet/drama presentation 4 of those days. We also passed out a lot of bi-lingual tracts around Morelia and the surrounding cities. It was great! Every aspect of the trip was so fun and educational. I learned a lot of Spanish, believe me.
Now, rather than give you a boring long outline of the entire trip, I’ll just list 10 of my favorite highlights:
(1.) The Norris family. These are the missionaries we went to support. It was so wonderful to meet them! They are so fun and flexible and easy to talk to. And all of them, from the parents to their 6 year old daughter, have such a heart for missions and reaching out to the lost. They’re an amazing family. Here’s a picture of them, with me in the middle!
(2.) The language barrier. It was totally confusing, but so fascinating! I loved to listen to Spanish conversations, just to see how much I could recognize. I tried to converse sometimes, but eventually I’d have to call in someone to translate!
(3.) Passing out tracts. In Mexico, people will actually read what you give them, rather than just throw it out. Mr. Norris said that the fact that the tracts are in English and Spanish causes people to be more interested, since they all want to learn English. So it was fun to walk through one area handing them out, and then pass back through later to see people still reading! Here’s Josh L. doing his favorite thing! He loved passing out tracts more than anyone, I think!
(4.) Games with friends. What can I say? It was just a lot of fun. On the nights when we got back before midnight, we’d play volleyball until then. I am no good at the game, but it’s fun to play with friends. There was also a reeeally long zipline at the camp. Here I am, trusting my health and well-being to the strength of the wooden seat, the thickness of the rope, and the people at the end who grab you before you slam into the cement pole.
(5.) Inside jokes and nicknames. And there were a lot. I’m sure you all know what it’s like when you stick a bunch of good friends together for 9 days!
(6.) Eating an avocado popsicle. It was real avocado! And it was really good!
(7.) Cheering when the 15 passenger vans made it safely out of the tiny parking garages.
(8.) The trees in the cities which are painted white on the bottom. Supposedly for bugs. It looks really funny!
(9.) The authentic Mexican food! One night we all had dinner at a native couple’s house, and they made us tacos. Real tacos. Mmmm… Here are some of us enjoying them. On the stairs, that’s my sister Emily, Andrew L., and John Mark Norris (who kept dripping Coke on my head!) And in the chairs, from the left, that’s Michael L., me, and Sam L. Sorry about the strange face I’m making. I was probably talking.
(10.) This amazing view from right outside our cabin! This is me, Sarah T., and Christi V. It was like 60 degrees in the morning, so we had jackets on. Wonderful, especially compared to the sweltering air here in Texas!
Well, those are just a few specific things, but I have more pictures to show you! These stairs were so cool! We did a presentation outside of this home one night, and the stairs are made out of concrete, with no support beams or anything! As you can tell, I was very fascinated by them. At the top, that’s Andrew L. and Emily. And Noah L. is near the bottom.
Here are a couple puppet show snapshots. This one is from the practice round! Before the curtains were put up!
And this is a crazy picture. I just thought you might enjoy it! That’s Daniel Norris, Brittany N., and me goofing off.
Pull-up contest! Or maybe it was a contest to see which could hold on the longest. That’s Joseph N. and Josiah Norris.
This is my dad with Emily and I. We were in a sort of tropical forest.
Group picture! Actually, this is only about half of us. The moms stayed home that day. Oh, well. I think we have a real group picture somewhere.
So the moral of the story is, we had a fabulous time. Reaching out to the people there, strengthening our own hearts, enjoying each others’ company as we lived, laughed, played, cried, and loved together. We made memories to last a lifetime, and most importantly we planted the seed of the gospel in many hearts. I pray that those influenced would accept the truth and begin their own journey with Christ. Life is truly an adventure when He is the Leader. I can’t wait for the trip next year! Gracias for all your prayers and well-wishes!
Hasta Luego!
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
Another multi-tasking post
Well, first of all I have to break to you that the next chapter is not finished. *sigh* I hope you don’t forget what happened first… I am writing, really I am, but I must get it edited before I post it, because I don’t want you to have to read something thrown together. I’m terribly sorry!
Aaaaaand, WE are going to MEXICO this week! I’m so excited, since I’ve never been out of the country before. Plus, we get to go with our church friends! We’ll be there 9 days, doing outreach for the most part. I’d appreciate your prayers for safety, and open hearts for the people who hear our message. Anyhoo, I’ll have no computer access for that time, but I’ll be sure to tell you all about it when I get back! Hopefully with pictures!
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I’ve been awarded the Blog Friend Forever Award by Renee and Hriste! Thank you!
I’ll award it to…..
Rosethorn and CherrytheXIV!
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Aaaaaaand I’m entering a contest hosted by The HSB Backyard. It’s to win one of these neat T-shirts from The Homeschool Boutique!
Pretty fun, huh?
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In order to give this post a bit more flair, I shall show you some pictures from this past week. My choir had a concert at the capitol on Friday, here we are in our full black-and-white glory! Actually, not quite so full, as we were missing several people.
Oh, here’s my adorable baby brother! Isn’t he precious?
After the concert, a picnic on the lawn was in order! It was actually a farewell party for our dear friends who are moving to Washington State! *cries* I’m going to miss y’all! This is dear Sarah, with Josie in the background, wearing the blue polo:
And Mellie, framed in foliage:
And these are my friends Kristin, Josie (again , and myself performing an ensemble. We sang Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews sisters. It was an absolute hit! Boy, did we ever have an awesome time! You can see the Andrews sisters doing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiVkdVPGoY
So that’s some of what’s been going on with my busy choir life! Not a dull moment! I hope I can figure out how to post recordings of myself… then you can hear my latest solo!
Signing out- or singing out-
~Grace
Copyright © 2008 by GraceElizabeth
