Update (Sort of)

My aunt was wondering if I had been grounded from the computer because I have not been posting much. I thought that I might as well fix that assumption and say, "I have not been posting because there is not anything to post". Life here has been its usual self- choatic and fun and all, but entirely boring to the rest of the world. Ben has been sick. He has an ear infection and sinus infection pretty bad. The rest of us have been doing school, chores, playing around, getting ready for Halloween, and getting ready for All Saints' Day. I will get pictures of Halloween and All Saints' Day up later.
The background that I've got up now is from http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ I heard about it from my aunt, who used it on her blog. There are all sorts of free, pretty backgrounds, and it takes alot less effort to use these backgrounds than it takes to mess with the HTML in order to get a picture up. In fact, it seems ridiculously easy!!!
The old computer broke down again. At least, it is going twice as slow and the sound is not working. SO... I have not been able to do Rosetta Stone for a long time. (It is installed on the old computer. We couldn't figure out how to move it onto the new one. Well, the new one is Dad's old work one...) For those of you who don't know, Rosetta Stone is a language learning software for the computer. It is REALLY, REALLY good. The only things you need is time and patience to sit behind the computer, and a working computer. Two things that I generally do not have much of.

Aha!

Aha! I got it to work! The background is not the one that I wanted, I think that the one I wanted had some glitches b/c it was not working for anything! But this should be good for now.
I can't decide whether I like this or my old one better. Oh, well, I can always switch back and forth, if I want to.

Attempts

I am attempting to change the background and look of the blog but am having difficulties. So please excuse me if it is all strange for a few days.

Poems

Yesterday (Saturday) my volleyball team had our tournament! We lost :( We had alot of fun, though! Not much else has been going on, so I have no new pictures for you. However, I have two poems- not by me! On the way down to Springfield for the tournament, Dad issued us a "poem challenge". We had to write a poem about the sand fairies. For this to make sense to you, I had better explain what the Sand Fairies are. Awhile back, we were all outside playing in the sand and building piles and such. Since we were using dry sand, the wind would knock little bits off the edges of our castles. Dad said that that was the Sand Fairies. These fairies are too fast to see, but you can see the bits of sand that their feet knock around as they run. Adelynn spent a long time making castles for them. She was so funny! Dad told her to try and catch a sand fairy. She asked how. Dad pointed to a small bucket and told her to try to capture one in that. Aghast, Adelynn stared and said knowingly, "You can't trap it! The Fairy Queen will put a spell on you!" Nick did not know what to think. He came up to me and said, "It's just the wind blowing the sand around," and then very quietly, "Isn't it?" William played right along and built a whole little world for the fairies. After a while he got bored and decided that he needed a battle. So he made the spiders be attacking the fairies! "Attack of the spiders!"
Anyway, I am getting side tracked. The point of this post is to show the awesome poem that William came up with. Ben wrote a neat poem that he did not finish, and I made a poem that was not very good. Maybe I'll post those later. He did not use stanzas, so I am just writing this the way it was on his paper.

When the Sand Fairies Came Out To Dance
By William Rackers
On the most common of days, with the gentlest breezes, the sand fairies came out to dance! Oh, how fair and fast they danced. They danced so fast even those with the "sight" could not get more than a glimpse of them. The sand all around was flying everywhere! going, "pow tow zow tow fow now"! And I could just hear the music so wild and fast: dum dee dee dam dum dee dee dam dum dum dum dee dee dam, over the sand hills we go dee dee dum. They flew over the little sand hills: dum dam dee dee dum dee dee dee dum dam dee dee de dum. How long they danced! How long! How long! They danced through the night! The the sand fairies' King stopped and said, "My people, we have danced through the big people's sleep time. Sadly it is time to stop" "What! We dance so fast the big people can't see us! Even those with the 'sight'!" cried the crowd of fairies. "Silence," yelled the king, "They can still see the sand flying under our feet! They will wonder! And we can not dance through the day too! So dance to your beds if you want! Just go!" The crowd subsided and went. But a few started dancing to bed.

It was interesting to see the differences in each of our poems. We each expressed our own ideas of the sand fairies in our own way. Anyway, later, while I was playing my games at the tournament, Ben wrote an awesome poem. He is really big into blacksmithing at the moment, and wants to make stuff for movies when he grows up. Here is Ben's poem:

By Ben Rackers
There he stood behind the fire
Doing the trade he learned from his sire
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
So there he raised his hammar up high
And let it fall to the height of his thigh
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
Drawing it long and making it stout
Drenching it in water and taking it out
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
Polishing it upon a great stone
And using the stone to make it hone
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him.

I have such a miserably hard time writing poems with rhythm and rhyme. Ben does it so beautifully. And William is so full of great creative ideas. If he would only write it down more, we would have books full of great poems and stories.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. -- G.K. Chesterton

Faces

Some of our friends recently had pictures of funny faces on their blog. I have taken the challenge!!! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Adelynn is quite the actor. I'd say, "Look sad", and she would get a scrunched up face. If I say, "Look excited," BOY does she look excited!!! These are only some of them. Adelynn loves getting her pictures taken- especially when she gets to be FUNNY!

And, of course, if I took pictues of her, she would HAVE to take some of me. She told me just how to do my hair, sit, and smile. VERY particular. And I HAD to put it on my blog.

You can see that I set up the play canopy- I hung it up from a hook on the overhead vent. It used to be on my bed

I take it he didn't want his picture taken?

WOW!

I was SO excited when this came!!! (Click on it to see it bigger)

I was lucky to get this shot! It was raining and VERY windy. I pricked my finger trying to hold the rose to keep it steady!

Ironworks

We went to Ironworks at Meramec Springs on Sunday. We were only there for about an hour or two, because we were selling Knights of Columbus' Tootsie Rolls at Walmart, but it was lots and lots of FUN! There were alot of people that we knew there, and it was fun to visit with everyone. Ben LOVED the blacksmith's . The pictures here are a little random. I had used the video camera for most of it, but I will need Dad's help for the video. I had a video of them making rope!!!A sheep

Wooden ducks

Aww! All the little baby shoes!

It was a nice day out.

Watching the weaver

William and Marlena sawing

Christina and I sawing

Nicholas and Johannes sawing

Dihydrogen Monoxide

Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO):

The dangers, uses and potential threats posed by this chemical, Dihydrogen Monoxide, are widespread, and some feel, terrifying. Here is just a small taste of what Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is:

• Some call Dihydrogen Monoxide the "Invisible Killer"
• Others think dihydrogen monoxide should be Banned
• Dihydrogen Monoxide is linked to gun violence
• Dihydrogen monoxide was found at every recent school shooting
• Athletes use DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE, or DHMO, to enhance performance
• Dihydrogen Monoxide has been found in our rivers, lakes, oceans and streams
• Dihydrogen Monoxide is a major component of acid rain
• Thousands die each year after inhaling dihydrogen monoxide
• Dihydrogen Monoxide can be deadly
• DHMO
  

From Wikipedia: Dihydrogen monoxide:

• is called "hydroxyl acid", the substance is the major component of acid rain.
• contributes to the "greenhouse effect".
• may cause severe burns.
• contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
• accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
• may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
• has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:

• as an industrial solvent and coolant.
• in nuclear power plants.
• in the production of styrofoam.
• as a fire retardant.
• in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
• as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.

Now, I want you to stop and think about this for a minute. First, I want to tell you that everything above is true. Next, I want you to think. Dihydrogen Monoxide.
Think about chemistry.
For those of you who are thinking, "say WHAT?" I congratulate you.
Most people do not realize what this is.
A 14-year old boy once used DHMO as a science project, asking people to sign a petition for a ban of dihydrgen monoxide. Most, about 43, signed. Six were undecided. Only 1 person saw DHMO for what it is. His project was labeled "How Gullible are We?"
So, what IS dihydrogen monoxide?
Here is a hint:


Di= Two
Mono= One

Two hydrogen and one oxygen

H is the symbol for Hydrogen
O is the symbol for Oxygen

So, Dihydrogen Monoxide becomes:

H₂0

Sound familiar? It's WATER!!!

This is simply HILARIOUS!

___________

Yes, I will be getting the pictures of Old Ironworks Day up, sometime soon. I have not gotten them onto the computer yet, though.

Chesterton Quote

Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. ~ G.K. Chesterton

FA-18F Superhornet (Fighter Jet)

Friday we went to see a fighter plan, a "FA-18F Superhornet". It was really neat. It was amazing how close they let you get to it!

The crowds

Scary to think how fast that jet is!

S&T students got to dress up

Mom teaching Adelynn how the plane can land on water (this was inside the hanger)

Quite big!

Danger! If that were on, we would all be sucked into it.

Save me!

Comin' right at yah

Confusing?

We went to Ironworks today, and I will put pictures of that up later!

Just a Thought

Just an 'interesting' thought:
Every now and then you get one of those forwarded messages with a picture of a star or galaxy or other NASA picture in them. Usually they come with a message- "Doesn't this make you feel small and unimportant?" They usually come with some sort of threat, too. "If you do not send this to x number of people in x minutes, you will have bad luck for the rest of the week." Now, I don't know about having bad luck, but I do know that those pictures make me feel tiny. I mean, we are small compared to a tree! Next to the Earth, we are absolutely miniature! To the solar system, we are less smaller than microscopic. And compared to the whole universe... !
Yes, we are tiny. Physically. Yet spiritually, we are important enough that God sent His only Son to save us. So now, even the tiniest baby inside of its mother is much more important than any ol' star. Stars aren't always so great. I mean, imagine if I were playing a trivia game against a star. even if I got every answer wrong, I would still win. People can think. Stars can't. And that's that. And in some gazillion years, when that star blows up and becomes a black hole until the end of time, I will be watching it (hopefully) from Heaven. That is the end of that great globe of fire, but not the end of me. God gave us all immortal souls. Much more than the stars.
So, the next time you don't do too well in a homework assignment, console yourself with the thought that you did better than a star could have. Even if it could think, the star couldn't write down it's answers. For one thing, it doesn't have hands. For another, it would burn up its paper with it's heat! God gave us an extraordinary gift by making us human.

Anyway, there is your "interesting" thought of the day. Enjoy. You can tell that I was cleaning up my room for a couple hours with nothing to do but think... :)

Volleyball Games

Tonight we had volleyball games. The Junior High played St. Pat's, and won the first two out of three. My team, the JV, played Maranatha's (sp?) team, which I think was Varsity. We lost two out of three (well, we only played two because we lost both). I think we played fairly well, though. We had some awesome moves! We had several played where we dug the ball out of the net. We also got to steal Elise from the Varsity! She came and joined the JV instead of doing practice.

Comments

Please leave comments! I like to know how people like my blog. Even if you do not have a Blogger account, you can still leave comments. You can leave them anonymously or leave a nickname with your comment (if you do not have a Blogger accounts). But please use your name or a nickname of sorts! Thanks!
-Shaylynn

Cinderella

Dad's Birthday

Today is Dad's birthday!

Chocolates!

Opening his present

Smile for the camera! Two cameras, actually. I let Ben take a video with my video camera.

The picture is all out of proportion, but the shading is OK

On my desk. I WAS going to show pictures of the work in progress, for Grandma, but the computer somehow overwrote it and I can't find the file anywhere. So...

The hands. I had to erase and re-do the hand on the right three times, but the hand on the left went great the first time, and only took me about 10-15 minutes total.

I had taken a photograph of Adelynn last year when it first started to snow, and this is what I drew of the photo. When Mom first saw the photo, she said, "Why wasn't she wearing a coat?" Moms. :-)

Oh, yeah, you can't forget Mr. Messy.

The photo. Originally, it was not black and white. Papa did that.

Finally- background picture

I finally figured out how to put a background picture on my blog, and how to change at least bits and pieces of the HTML, which can be quite a pain. For those of you who are curious:
On your original blog template, there is a code that runs like sort of like this (this is what mine was originally).

body {
background:#bca;
margin:0;
text-align:center;
line-height: 1.5em;
font: x-small Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Sans-serif;
color:#cceedd;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

All that we will deal with here is this little bit from the beginning:

body {
background:#bca;

All right. The #bca tells you the color hex code, basically it tells the computer what color to make your background. But we want it to have a picture instead. Change the code to look like this:

body {

background-image:url();

This tells the computer that you want to put an image there. Watch the differences carefully, a tiny misspelling could mean major disaster. All right. The next step is to find your picture. It must be somewhere on the Web. Once you find the picture you want, right-click. Select "view image" from the list that appears. That is the final URL of your picture. Copy the URL from the address bar and paste it between the two parenthesis. For example, at the moment, my code looks like this:

body {
background-image:url(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/2576252538_106ca43d2c.jpg?v=00);

I have yet to figure out how to make the picture not repeat, or to center itself, etc. But I am pleased to have gotten so far!

Bookworm

This is just a little sad. Yes, Nick is actually reading this book. It is very easy (at least, for me and Ben and Will) but incredibly long. It is hard to think that just a couple of years ago I was upset at Nick because he could not remember that a 'P' is not a 'D', and that an 'N' has only one hump while a 'M' has two. Last year he was just beginning to read "Boxcar Children" and was struggling with "Narnia". Right now, Nick is reading about three books. I last saw him reading a Magic Tree House book.

Sand

So I have FINALLY got pictures of the playhouse project, which is not quite finished but is turning out AWESOME!

Look at their masterpiece

Love the looks

Washing off

Taking washing off another step

Sopping

Ontop of the world

Marcus' First Words

Sorry about the lack of updates, everyone! For about two weeks, Marcus has been saying his first word: "Light". He is fascinated with lights, and light switches, and is forever craning his little neck upwards! He pointed at the sunset this evening and told me "La-la- laaaaah- light". His says the "t" really funnily. Marcus also says "out" for outside. He got tired of dragging us to the door to tell us that he wanted out. He also says "Adelynn"- her whole name, though he has yet to apply it. He will say it, though, which is more than other words! Adelynn is just too proud.
Will post later. Sorry that I haven't had many pictures. Last week was review week, which was busy and I only got in half of my studying. This week will be exam week. So...

Sore Mouths!

Boy, do we have them in this family! Yesterday, Nick got a filling. I also got my very first filling then, too. Uhg- you are really lucky if you never get cavities (Mom!). Every time I bite, I can feel it. Today William is getting two teeth pulled. In a couple of weeks he will be getting headgear that will pull his upper teeth forward and his jaw backwards. And sometime he will get braces. I do not envy him. Lets just hope that all this stuff works and he doesn't have to get the surgery...

On Sunday, one of my friends and her family got in a car wreck. Luckily, no one got really really badly hurt. The car was totally destroyed. E.'s leg and ankle got hurt, her mother might have broken her nose, and her dad had to get stitches. Her sister got a cut on her finger, though not very bad, and her brother was not hurt. Let's pray that they get better real quick!