Quick Post

Quick post for now. Drama camp is going great. Our showcase will be featuring songs from Wicked. I had to learn how to do a backwards somersault over my shoulder for one of the dances. Today we learned about singing auditioning. The guy (I forgot his name) had everyone sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in groups of threes to begin. When my group went to sing it, we squeaked. I said that it was too high for me. It turns out that all three of us were altos! Um... I am saying whatever comes to my head. We have been playing lots of really, really fun improv games at camp. This evening we did a Praise and Worship singing thingamajig at St. James' Immaculate Conception church. They sang songs from the Steubensville (spelling?) retreat. Only four or five people came, but it was FUN! (Word did not get around) Fr. Dave plays the guitar really well. What else to say... Obama came to Rolla today. Yesterday we saw people lining up to get tickets to see him. Ellen told us that the PRC was going to have a pro-life march in front of the Democratic headquarters. I couldn't do it because I was at camp. This post turns out to be not so quick. It's bedtime now!!!

Drama Camp!

Hi! I'm sorry but I won't be able to post much this week. I have drama camp (YAY! I am loving it!) and several things in the evenings. Um... what to say right now... I made blackberry cobbler this evening but it didn't turn out so well. Well! That is all I have to say for now! (In case you can't tell, I am a "wee bit" goofy this evening!)

Paintings, and other stuff

Dad had me re-paint the prints hanging on the wall in our living room that got all faded. It took me about a month to do it, because I am so lazy and only paint once or twice a week. I will be doing the next one soon, and I should not be so lazy with that one!!! (These were done in acrylic, the only paint I have a clue what to do with!)

The finished product.

On the wall. It's so weird to see it hanging there... And next to it is the other unpainted on. It was great painting this, because the picture was already there (so I didn't have to worry about "does this look right?") and the main areas of shading were there. I got to concentrate the most on shading.

I like to take pictures at odd angles.

It looks alot different from upside-down, doesn't it?

I copied Ben and decorated my VBS bag on Wednesday. (P.S. Sharpies don't stay so well on fabric if you get it wet.)

Our neighbors put up their fence. At least it is really nice-looking.

William's 10th Birthday

Will's present. He also has a booklight now, and has been sleeping on his beanbag in his reading cubby underneath his desk. Mom and Dad made a coupon book for him- things like a family bowling night, a book he is wanting when it is released, and "a family game of Monopoly at Mom and Dad's convenience".

The birthday boy had to show off his favorite pocketknife. At least, I think it is his pocketknife. Maybe it is Ben's.

Marcus is clapping for his big brother. He was so cute! This is one of the rare in-focus pictures of Marcus- he is usually moving too fast!

An interesting view

The sweet ice cream scooper girl

William conducted the singing of "Happy Birthday"

Posing for an out of focus picture.

Lighting candles in pajamas- he was ready for the movie!

The Stamping Up bag doubles as spur-of-the-moment wrapping paper

Drinking his Mountain Dew icy while staring at his all-chocolate cake

Blowing out the candles

A small example of Will's estaticness (spelling? I just sounded it out)

Ben's VBS Bag

This picture was supposed to go in with my other post, but I forgot it. Ben was a VBS crew leader for the first time this year. He got a leader bag to keep all the "leader stuff" in. He decorated it with Sharpies. It was pretty cool. Not the best picture, though.

This Weeks' Doings

Today is Will's birthday; however, I will wait to post about that until his birthday is over and I have all the stuff put together.
So, this is what we have been doing:
Ben was at Arrowhead (a Boy Scout camp) for a week. He had tons of fun. We went there on Friday for family night. The weather turned out to be pretty nasty- thunderstorms. The family campsite was kind of lame- in full view of both the lodge and the parking lot... but the rest of the camp was great. I was (and am) so jealous. Archery, BB guns, swimming, canoeing, stuff like basketry and first aid...
So we got back on Saturday. Dad said we made record time in packing up camp. We reached Rolla (from Arrowhead which is right next to Springfield) by ten o'clock in the morning.
That same day we went blackberry picking at the Strongs'. Well, we only berry picked for twenty minutes because Ben's allergies were bothering him, Dad was having some sort of reaction, and Marcus was a bit crabby. We got half a bucketful of berry and I am going to make blackberry crumble pie sometime this week.
We played in the Strongs' creek for quite a while, and I got tons of pictures. I wish we lived by a creek (well, we do live near the one next to the second-busiest street around... but I don't think that counts). It is so calm and peaceful...

Rocks

Nick trying to get onto a hammock

So peaceful and uplifting...

Wading

Searching for crawdads

Another nature scene. I bet this creek gets really bad flash flooding, though.

Going back

Um... this picture is of the fence that our new neighbors are setting up. One thing good about it that I can see- the boys won't be climbing up those pine trees again. Our next door neighbors planted a little garden with three or four saplings right up against the side of the hill and the guys who are building the fence just plowed right through their garden. You can't really see it properly from this picture.

Will set up some dominoes the other day. Watch the movie to see them fall |
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Ohh... I just watched that. Sorry that you only get to see half of it fall. My camera has a bit of a delay.
Yesterday Erin Hamacher had her piano concert. Wow. She really knows how to play! She will be majoring in music in collage, and no wonder. She is great. It was neat to see so many of our friends from the play there.
Today was Vacation Bible School. I was crew leader. It was good. We are learning about the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary this year, and today was about the first one, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordon. Will didn't go to VBS today. He said he didn't want to on his birthday.

Contests

Check out these:
Art (1st):
http://www.catholickingdom.com/Castle/Hall%20of%20Fame/2nd_08/art_08/art_12.html
It looks like the background has a pale, large angel on it. It doesn't. That picture was taken after it was in the frame (I did that picture for the parish auction) and that was a reflection of me, the photographer. Just ask my mom- I am most certainly not an angel most days. Someday I will post my other picture I made for the auction.
Writing (2nd):
http://www.catholickingdom.com/Castle/Hall%20of%20Fame/2nd_08/write_08/write_winners_08.html
They do not have the writing entries on yet. I think the 1st place wrote a story. There were more entrants last year. Last year they had separate sections for poetry and stories with several entries per section/age group, but this year they had to combine it all in one and there were only three or so in my age group. So... this is a wonderful, wonderful site, be sure and view it. They update every two weeks with some wonderful stuff. They don't have that many people who look at it (or at least do their activities) so I really want to have you all look at it because they are doing an awesome job and I want them to keep it up.
Here is the link to the main page of the website:
http://www.catholickingdom.com/

Pizza!

Tonight, while Mom and Dad were at Nick's game, Will and I made stuffed-crust, Rackers-specialty pizza with Mom's specialty dough. Since I could not find the roller, I decided to toss the dough. Hint: never toss the dough after putting the cornmeal on. So, I wound up with a messy kitchen, an oblong oval of dough, and a search for the roller. Will and I forgot the peppers. :( But we did remember tomatoes, even though we were out of them. We discovered that since people can never make up their minds as to whether a tomato is a fruit or not, they compromise. They call it a vegetable and put it in the fruit bowl.

I present the super onion chopper WILLiam RACKers!

He also cuts up his nemesis: the mushroom.

Some of the spices decided to give us some trouble and stick to the top.

And someone always has to have way too much fun.

Cheese-alicous art.

And... the FINISHED RESULT (minus the peppers)

Mom's Pizza Dough

1 package of yeast
1c warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive (or vegetable) oil
2 1/2m - 3 1/2 c flour
Dissolve yeast in bowl, add salt and oil and 2 1/2 c flour. mix speed: 2 for 1 minute. Add flour 1/2 c at a time, mix until dough clings to hook? cleans sides (about 2 min) knead on 2 for 2 more minutes. Placed in greased bowl let rise 1 hr. Roll out, top, take at 450 for 15-20 minutes. (8 minutes, switch racks, another 8 min.)

I hope you can understand it. Mom write her recipes in such a way that it is hard for any but herself to understand easily.

We have a family name for pizza: zzzzzzzip. I will work it from the beginning: When I was little, Mom and Dad would spell out the word to each other so that I would not go screaming around the house because we were getting pizza. When I learned to read, that no longer worked. For some time they would spell it backwards. A few years later, we suddenly began to say p-i-z-z-a rather than pizza. Then we turned it around: a-z-z-i-p (if you ask me to spell pizza, this will always be the first spelling to come into my mind. We used it for years.) William, I think, was the first to realise that this said "a zipper". Which got shortened to "a zip". Which gets blurred to "zzzzzip". And that is why we call pizza a zipper.

And here I found a video on my camera of the Fourth's fireworks. You can easily see the streetlight in the way. :)

Unicycle Help!!!

Sorry that I have not had any pictures lately. We have not had anything to take pictures of!
Today Will and I went swimming at the Center. I did 12 laps! (To the end and back being a lap). That beats my old record by 1. It has been a long time since I have swam laps- about a year or more.
We re-re-re-pumped Will's unicycle that I ride yet again (and I only ride it 10 or less minutes per day- it has a hole. Normally I have to pump it every time I ride it, only I couldn't find the pump recently), and it is a whole lot easier to ride when it is pumped. It is now very easy to ride it across the driveway.
Now then: I am calling any and all unicyclists (and I have no clue if any of you besides Jacob ride a unicycle)- because I need to learn how to turn and I have no clue how to do it. I always seem to turn the opposite direction of what I was trying.

Update

Here are a couple of the things we have and will be doing
On Wednesday (I think), we went up to the Lake of the Ozarks. There was a beautiful sunset and some brilliant vistas, but I did not bring my camera. Go figure. Of course, Mom went shopping at the outlet mall. While she shopped, Dad took everyone but her and Mark to go see the new movie Wall-E. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, but I will say this- it was a very good movie with a very strong message. Pixar's last film, Ratatooie (at least, that is how it is pronounced) was a good movie, but not quite up to being, well, Pixar. Wall-E is back to being fully Pixar-ish. It is a real genius of a movie. The two main characters (robots) speak a total of 11 different words (yes, we counted), yet they portray alot of emotion. Later, after the movie's been out awhile, I might write something longer. Oh, the short funny clip at the beginning was hilarious. Anyway, Wall-E is a must-see, I recommend it.
Last night, we went to go see an outdoor movie at Lions' Club Park. They set up a gigantic blow-up screen with a projector, and had tons of free popcorn. The "feature presentation"- the Bee Movie. It was the perfect night. There was a nice light breeze, and a beautiful sunset right before the movie began. We saw a few people we knew there, like the Woelks. If you ever get a chance to see one of the outdoor movies, it would be a good idea to go. It's very enjoyable and makes good memories. And it's free and you get tons of buttery, very unhealthy popcorn. Just go for the popcorn!!! :)
When Mom was shopping at the Lake, she found pomegranate scented handsoap. Pomegranate is becoming very popular. It's in candy, teas, soaps, etc. The real pomegranate the best, of course, but watch out for the seeds. They are everywhere. White pomegranate blueberry tea is the best tea ever- it is my new favorite. I also like the pomegranate lemonade mints we tried. Very strong flavors. And the soap smells great. Pomegranate is everywhere. If you never noticed that before now, you will go to the store and see it in every unexpected nook and cranny. It is the same as learning a new word- it seems to chase after you and find you, and you see it every place that you go.
This past week has been full of spur-of-the-moment fun. At lunch (we ate it late- 1:00), I asked Mom if we would go see the play at OAT (Ozark Actor's Theatre). She took us to the 2:00 show (Dad stayed home with Marcos). It was the Music Man. It was lots of fun. We had seen the movie before, and I thought it was very boring. It was much more fun seeing it as a play. Frankly though, I don't care much for the storyline. However, it was awesome to see some of my friends up on stage. (Just in case you want to know- they were incredibly wonderful. I even got some of their autographs. By mistake.) I am a little jealous. As anyone can tell you, I am a "drama queen" and love to act (and be goofy). But I have never gotten into an OAT play!!! WAHH! Well, I only ever tried out for one. And they only had a couple parts for children in it.
After the play we ate Arby's at the park and played Bocce ball. It is a fun game.
Tomorrow, Ben leaves for his Boy Scout camp. I am so jealous. I so want to be a boy because of Boy Scouts. Camping, caneoing, B.B. guns, archery, whittling... why, oh, why can't Girl Scouts be like that? It was all "girl power" and stuff. Ben will be there for a whole week.
The next week is Will's birthday on Monday (he will be double digits), and VBS that entire week. Ben and I will be crew leaders. It will be Ben's first time as one.
And the week after that... Oh, I can't wait. Drama camp! I hope it's good.

Other than that, what have we been doing? I have been painting, writing, reading, cutting out patterns, and attempting to put away some of Adelynn's laundry. I bought a DS game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village. So I have been playing DS, too, alot more than I did before. I have played Layton and the Curious Village for a whole three hours (not in a row, of course, but since we have gotten it.) The boys got a computer game at the same time, and they have been playing it tons.

Goofy

Hi. Mom says I am either really hyper or really crabby. Obviously, yesterday I was crabby. Today I am hyper and goofy. That is why I am putting up this post for no real good reason.

The Fourth of July

Whew. I just got back from mowing the lawn, and boy am I tired. We used to have a lawn mower that our neighbor gave us, but it broke down. It was one of those that has self-propel, when the wheels spin on their own. Well, today I had to use our old Lawn Boy, which takes much more man (or in this case, girl) power. I did it at ten-thirty in the morning. With hardly a cloud in the sky. And, of course, I had several of those common but extremely annoying problems: I accidentally wore my nice tennis shoes part of the time, instead of my already green old ones. The lawn mower refused to start every time I had to turn it off. I got a bug in my nose (yes, that is very gross) and ran face-first into a spiderweb that some dumb spider decided to build on the swing set. I myself developed green polka-dots from all the grass clippings that stuck onto me. I have got a sinus headache now. And it was so hot that I was only able to do 3/4 of our hilly yard. Anyway, it feels good to be inside where it is air-conditioned, all washed off.
These are some pictures of the Fourth of July. We watched fireworks in the hotel's parking lot. Lots of the younger cousins were singing patriotic songs at the top of their lungs. I got a recording of them singing, but Blogger does not support audio files. So I thought I would try putting their songs and some pictures in a Movie Maker movie, and uploading that because Blogger does allow videos. But no, that did not work for some unknown reason. I had also taken some really short video clips with my camera that I thought I would put onto my blog- videos of fireworks. But Mom's laptop does not recognize the format that my camera takes pictures in. And now all my pictures got uploaded in random order (just like yesterday). So...

The boys said that if I put pictures of them on the blog, I have to put on pictures of me. That can be difficult because I am the only one who takes pictures. But... Here is one that Nick (the up-and-coming photographer) took.

Various ways of singing "The Star Spangled Banner" on the top of your lungs.

Waiting for the fireworks to start. We discovered that a bright streetlight was right in our line of sight, but that was OK.

The hotel's "waterfall" as seen from the fifth floor.

The East Coast Rackers came to our house yesterday. I gave Rachel and Hope "drawing lessons". This is the only one that I got a picture of. Rachel drew it. She is really good at art- she just finished the second grade!

William and Gracie conducting some really loud singing.

Jackie looked a little cold...

And Hope was just plain cute.

Fourth of July- At the Capital

The whole Rackers family (and Gieslers, and Davis-es, but they are still the Rackers family) got together. All except for Ashlea, Ted, Jacob, and Hunter. And except for the collage kids... And Andi had to leave early for a tournament... Anyway, some of us decided to take a tour of the capitol. It is very beautiful. We were 3/4 of that tour and had alot of fun. And now we have new jokes to joke about. Like this one: The tour guide was talking about Sacagewaya (spelling?) and how she saved journals out of the river with a papoose on her back. Then she pointed to Dad, who had on the baby backpack. "Like that guy", she said.
I am having a bit more trouble with my pictures. This time they got on in a random order. So please be patient.
Oh, and one more thing. Could you please leave comments? There is a thing you click on the bottom right hand corner to leave comments. It could help me figure out who has read my blog and who hasn't. I think I have several people's old emails.

This is where they vote. They being the Missouri Congress or something. There are like a hundred laptops on the tables...

Some of the boys always seem to hop out of the picture the moment I take it. And some of the girls have to be in every one. :)

We decided to make a circle around the railing. We did it, and we did the wave, too. Yes, we are a geeky family. We got quite a few stares. :)

Looking out at the river

This was done using three-point perspective. If you look at it from the right hand side, at an angle, the bride looks way different. It changes direction. Unfortunatly I do not have a picture of it from that angle.

These paintings are painted by Thomas Hart Benton (spelling?) They were wowers.

Looking up from the first story

You can see part of the dome

From the second story

Some of the people on the tour (mostly us)

Missouri State Capitol

Walking in

Sitting on the railings

The Capital