Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!!

This year, we hosted again. We had fourteen people in our house this time! That was including us . . . otherwise, it'd be pretty squishy. =)  
Mom had us making all kinds of projects the days before. We made a big sign with the words Euchcharisteo (meaning 'give thanks' in Greek), we painted many centers of golden chargers with black chalk paint and wrote our guests' names on them, and more! We had Thanksgiving week off, but were kept busy making the above. So, it didn't really feel like an off week. =)
 

In the process . . .

 . . . after the process.

These went on our dog crate/buffet table.

Hanging up our 'Eucharisteo' sign.

We also made homemade pies for the first time!!! We made with them with friends from my ballet class and had a ton of fun!! It was a bunch of work, though . . .

This was so helpful with the many, many apples we had to peel, slice, and core!!

There was still another bowl apart from these! There were a lot.

Making the pie crust . . .

Delicately decorating the edges of the crust . . .

Whoohoo!!! Our first pies EVER!!!

 Thankgiving day itself went really well! The food was amazing (as usual) and I'm pretty sure everyone had a fantastic time! (I did have a cold, though, so that wasn't very fun . . .)

I hope ya'll had just as good a Thanksgiving day as we did!! (But on second thought, maybe you wouldn't want the cold part . . . .)

It's Fall Time!!!!!!!

    It's fall again!!! My absolutely favorite season of all seasons!!! The time when it's cold (or supposed to be cold . . .) and rainy (or supposed to be rainy . . .)! The time for pumpkin pies, hot chocolate, cozy blankets, and fires dancing in the fireplace (scary!!). The time for red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves that drift through the frosty air and decorate the grass below. And the time for the carving of the pumpkin!!

     Mom bought a lovely pumpkin at the store this morning, and Annie and Jonathan had the honor of slicing it open and ripping out its intestines.

Jonathan digging eagerly into the helpless orange blob.

Annie pulling out what she calls the 'soapy hair' strands of pumpkin intestine.

The now separated seeds and pulp.

And here, is the poor humiliated un-intestinalized pumpkin.

 They had a lot of fun as they complained about the slimy texture of the pumpkin pulp. We now wait eagerly for the seeds to be sprinkled with salt and toasted in the oven. (It's a delicious snack that we all enjoy.) And I'm not sure what will happen to the pulp . . . poor pulp.

Happy fall to you all!! 

(Hey, I rhymed! I guess I'm a poet and just didn't know it!)

Sixteen Years and a Hot Challenge

    No, it's not me. I still have quite a few years before I turn sixteen. Sorry to burst your bubble! =)
    It was actually my big brother, David's, sixteenth birthday!! His real birthday was on Saturday, October fourth, but he had his party on Friday. He invited a few boys over for dinner and games on Friday and I'm sure they had a blast.
    On Saturday morning, we had delicious Winchell's donuts for breakfast!! (Yum!) Nothing happened during the middle of the day, since we had things to do and places to go. But that night, my grandma (mom's side) and my aunt (also mom's side) came over for dinner.We had beef stew, really amazing homemade garlic bread sticks, and a super sweet and syrupy fruit salad. It was scrumptious!!!
    After dinner, we all situated ourselves in the cozy living room to watch David open presents.I got him a really cool ultimate survival guide. =)
    Then, on Monday morning, to complete his advancement to age sixteen, David was given the challenge of eating a pepper. (Quick background story: On Emily's sixteenth birthday, my aunt [mom's side] brought a hot pepper to show us and challenged Emily to eat it. She did and got twenty dollars. So, obviously, David also wanted to do this!) The pepper my aunt got for David, was a habanero pepper: one of the hottest. David completed the task and almost drank all of our milk in the process (it was super hot!). He recieved his twenty dollars and is now an official sixteen-year-old Miles teenager!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID!!!!

A Puzzling Adventure

Something happened today that made for a very interesting, and painful, experience.
Annie, Jonathan, and I were having our botany class with Mom. We were working on germination (the process of a seed growing into a plant) flip books. I was sitting on the floor and I went to straighten my leg out. But I couldn't. It was as if something was there holding it back from unfolding.
Now, I've had this happen many times and I have always been able to force it back out and continue on with every day life. But this time, it hurt too badly that I couldn't pull it out. I alerted my mom and she tried to help me pull it out. It was still hurting too much, so we tried to put heat on it. The heat helped a little so that I could inch it out a little bit, but still couldn't straighten it out all the way. Then Dad said that we should put ice on it because there was nothing online about putting heat on something like this. We tried that, but it only seemed to worsen it. We then brought back the heat and Mom and Dad discussed what to do.
Finally, they called the doctor and made an appointment for about 45 minutes later. It was a little painful getting in the car as my knee hurt whenever I moved it, but God was good and got us there. Dad stayed home and Mom drove me to the doctor. We stopped by my Grandma's church to pick up a wheelchair really quick so it would be easier to get to the doctor's office then inching along the sidewalk a millimeter every five minutes. =)
The office was down in Costa Mesa so it was quite a few minutes before we arrived there. When we did arrive, Mom brought the wheelchair around to my side of the car. I scooted carefully out and went to sit in the chair when I found out that I could straighten my leg! Mom think the ride helped as I wasn't as tense (only on the turns =P) and relaxing a bit.
We went to the doctor anyway since we were already there, but they didn't know what caused it either. I have another appointment with the orthopedic tomorrow, so maybe they will be able to figure out what's going on.
God was so good today as he allowed it to straighten out and not let it be too painful. So I am very thankful that it wasn't any worse then it was!

Birthday Time!

Nope. It's not my birthday. It was actually my mom's birthday yesterday! And I'm not going to tell you how old she turned!
Annie, my dad, and I fixed pancakes and eggs for a special breakfast. It was very delicious. After breakfast, Mom opened her presents and cards. (I gave her a pretty cool watch.)

Around 10am, we loaded up the van and truck and drove down to Eldorado Park for bike ride. The leaves on the trees were starting to turn yellow and red and there was a nice breeze blowing. It was extremely lovely.

We rode for about an hour (until some of us got tired) and then packed the bikes back into the cars. We then drove to In-n-Out for a tasty lunch. By then it was around 12pm. After lunch, the boys went home and we girls went with Mom to do some birthday shopping (she had got some birthday money). She found some cute dressy clothes at Ross and then we also drove home. Annie and Emily stayed home, but Mom and I left once more to visit Walmart and do some other errands.
That night, Grandma came for dinner which was Cosco pizza and caesar salad. (yummy!!). We had dessert after dinner, a delicious cake, and then played a round of Pictionary.

Annie's drawing of a man eating corn on the cob. This was after we finished the game.

The day was very enjoyable, and I think Mom had a good time.
Here's to another year with our awesome mother!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!

First Week of School

    Well, we've just completed our first week of school, my senior year (in junior high, of course!). We took Monday to just go over the schedule, details, etc. Tuesday was our official first day of school on which we followed Monday's schedule. On Wednesday I have ballet, so Mom made a special schedule for that. Well, it was supposed to be Tuesday on Wednesday, but we had to do Wednesday's schedule on Wednesday. So Thursday was then Tuesdays schedule and Friday had to be Thursday's schedule. It was very crazy.
    My school is pretty light so far, so I am very grateful. I just hope it stays like that all year round.
    Jonathan, Annie, Mom, and I went swimming at my aunt's pool Friday afternoon. It was a perfect end to the last day of our first school week!
    I understand if you do not comprehend a single word of the above, so let me just say  this: It was a very good week and we look forward to the rest of the year!

Big Bear!!

    My mom and dad's anniversary is this Sunday (18 years!!!) and so we took a little trip up to Big Bear to celebrate.
    It took about two hours to get there, with a pause for bathroom breaks and McDonald's french fries along the way. (Nothing beats a good McDonald's french fry. Yum, yum!)
    It was about 12pm when we did arrive. We found a lovely spot by Big Bear lake to eat lunch and enjoyed being in the mountains and out of the car. It was a little windy by the lake, but that just made things fun. (Trying to keep your plate from flying away, having your hair blow in your eyes so you can't see anything, eating it when it got in your mouth, etc. It was pretty fun!)

   Once we were finished, Dad with his kiddos, walked down to the floating deck. Mom stayed and finished her lunch while enjoying watching the people zooming around on the lake.

    Jonathan didn't really like how the deck kept swaying and creaking as we walked on it, but I thought it was cool. So far, I don't think I get sea sick, but I haven't really been on a actual boat in a while. Mom soon came and joined us, but didn't stay long as she didn't like the swaying motion either.
     We then stood around skipping rocks into the lake for a few minutes. Well, Dad and David were skipping rocks, but the rest of us were pretty much failing. Though, I did get two skips once!

Searching for the perfect rocks.

Throwing those perfect rocks perfectly.

"How do you do this again?"

    After we were done trying and failing, we hopped back in the car and drove to the Alpine Slide! At first, I wasn't that sure about the whole thing, because you had to go on a chairlift (and I'd never been on one) and go down this long slide with lots of twists and turns (not that that was scary, of course!). But after I went on it once, I knew I wanted to go again!

Going up with my sis.

Here we go!!!!

Yeah, I know I don't look like I'm having an awesome time, 

but I was having so much fun I forgot to smile!         

There. See? I'm smiling!

 

 

    After going on the slide twice, we got back in the car (again!) and drove over to the Big Bear Village. We walked around there for a little bit, visiting all of the cute little shops and buying ice cream. (The rainbow sherbert is really good!)

Eventually, we had seen most everything, so we piled into the car. (I'm definitely seeing a pattern here . . .) This time, our destination was closer to home with the name of The Bass Pro Shop. We perused the huge building, having fun with a shooting game and trying out some cool bikes.

Some of us were getting hungry, so we crammed into the car. (Maybe this is the theme. Hmm . . .) We drove to Taco Bell and had a lovely road trip dinner.
We arrived back home around 8:30pm and enjoyed our beds after an awesome adventurous day. We had a ton of fun and some of us can't wait to go back and ride that Alpine slide again!
And that, folks, concludes this long post for today.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOM & DAD!!!!!

The Revised Version of the Three Little Pigs!

    Here is a short story my younger brother Jonathan created the other day. I thought it was hilarious!

The Revised Version of the Three Little Pigs:

Chapter One

    I am a wolverine named Max. I needed some pork chops for my aunt's birthday cake. Unfortunately, my neighbors were hogs.
    I went to my first neighbor, but noticed a sign on the door that said, "Out for work. Don't come in my house." Weird. Wonder who that was for? Probably his brother. Wait. Where were we . . . Ah, yes. I was going to my neighbor's work place. Did I mention that he's a construction worker? He thinks he's tough, but he's really wimpy. But that's besides the point.
    So, I went over to the build site (I knew exactly where to go). I saw him there on a forklift. I went over to him and asked if he had any pork chops (very awkward). He glared at me and told me to come over there. I did and he threw his shoe down at me. I got hit on the noggin. Ow! I leaned on the controls and accidently pushed a button. The greedy hog flew out. Unfortunately, it was the eject button. I ran over to him to see if he was okay. He was lying face down in the dirt. I figured he would be about half of what I needed, so I put him in my bag and went off to find the second little hog.

Chapter Two

    As I made my way back to the second hog's house, I bought some oregano for the cake. At his house, I found the same note that was on the first hog's house, so I made my way back to his work place. He is a police man. I've been arrested by him twice for crossing the street without shoes on, even though I never wear shoes anyway. But as I was saying, I made my way over to the police station, went up all twenty-four levels and found him working on some paperwork (even though he doesn't know how to write). I asked him if he had any pork chops and he threw his shoe at me. Yow! Right in the chest. He then leaned back in his chair and the chair fell over and crashed through all twenty-four levels and fell out a window. I ran down the stairs to see if he was alright. He was lying face down in the dirt. I figured I now had enough for the cake and put him in my sack and started my way back home.

Chapter Three

    On my way back, I ran into the third hog. He threw his shoe at me. He is a sumo wrestler, and he heard about what happened to his brothers. He is angry. He wants to flatten me. If you have an angry sumo wrestler that wants to flatten you there is only one solution. That is to run! As I sped away, I knew my only escape was to go to the trampoline mall. A soon as I got there I started jumping on the nearest trampoline. What do you get when you cross an angry sumo wrestler that wants to flatten you, and a trampoline. Laughter! It was so funny seeing him go all over the place until he crashed through one and into the sewer.         
    Now I don't know how he got there, but as I was walking home, I found him face down on my lawn. I hadn't had lunch and there was a snack right in front of me, so I did what any of you would have done and had lunch. It was very tasty too.

Epilogue

    Now I am in the hospital because lots of shoes were thrown at me. Tomorrow is my aunts birthday. I will make her a cake.

The End

Beach!!

Finally, after almost the whole summer has gone, we made it to the beach! It was just an after dinner spontaneous event with no buggy-boarding or drenched swimsuits, but it was still a ton of fun!
We left around 7pm, I think, and drove to Stater Bros. where we purchased Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Yum! Then we drove down to Sunset Beach at sunset. (What a coincidence!) It was a little chilly down by the water, so I was glad for my jacket. We devoured our ice cream and then ran to the waves.
None of us had any bathing suits on, so we just rolled up our pants (or leggings) and enjoyed the cool sand. We raced the waves up the beach (we usually won), dashed across the sand in competitions, and jumped to our heart's content (with goofy poses too!).
My mom also had fun taking pictures of us as we gallivanted around.

Ice cream . . . !
 (From left to right: Jonathan-9, David-15, Molly-13, Annie-11)

Walking . . .

Eating . . .

Eating and posing . . .

More dramatic posing . . .

Racing . . .

Jumping . . . !

Landing with sand (and hair)  flying . . .

Jonathan  . . .

David . . .

Me . . . !

Annie . . .

David and I . . . 

                                     (David said to do a ballet pose-don't know what happened there!)

Father and son . . . (aka Dad and Jonathan)

And finally . . . cleaning up after a night of all the above!

I love the beach. Especially at night time when the sky is glowing orange and pink. I really enjoyed this last Friday night and look forward to the next beach day where we can actually get in the water!