The Long-Past-Due Post!

I have no idea where to even start telling you all about the last [nearly] two months since I posted! I guess it's a horrible idea to wait that long between blogging, but life definitely got the better of me.

School started, which is good, but keeps me quite busy every day! I am taking:

- Music Theory 1

- Aural Training 1

- Piano Pedagogy

- Beginning Voice
- Orchestra

- Piano Lessons

- Music Literature

- Economics

- Intro to "Life of the Mind"

- Performance Class

and I'm signed up to accompany for grade. I also have Piano Studio class that comes with lessons. Fun times! =)

In the midst of this, my older sister Tammy and her kids (who live in Washington State) were able to visit us for 2 weeks at the beginning of September!

Ruth and me:

She's gotten so big!!

My brother Phillip with Ruth:

So adorable!

Our long-time friend Candy came with Tammy, and during their visit became engaged to my brother Richard, who was visiting from Illinois! We were all pretty excited about it! =)

Candy taught us how to make some REAL salsa =)

She also gave Amy and me pedicures! It was delightful. =) You can sort of see mine in this picture taken by my friend Sarah:

Pictured L-R: Reuben (brother), Yehoshua (5), Mariel (Reuben's wife), Tammy, Ruth (2 in January), Me, Eliyahu (3), and Candy:

Eliyahu never goes anywhere without his precious doggie!!

Awww =) Eliyahu is a cutie =)

The kids got to watch "The Tale of Despereaux" one day, during which they all loooked pretty tired and vegged-out. =)

So cute... Richard and Ruth:

We attempted to decorate a birthday cake for Candy... it didn't go so well, but made for some hilarious pictures... lol Amy's expression (left) is priceless. =) And look at those little boys getting in on the action!

Richard, Candy, and Amy went to Lake Erie one day, but I had work or school or something... (typical!) I thought this was a really fun picture of Richard and Candy:

And these are really pretty...

Candy took all sorts of interesting pictures of Amy and me... lol

I love Yehoshua!

Of course many things have happened in my life in the last two months, but I don't have time to get into them all now... hopefully I'll be able to update slightly more regularly in the future. =)

Canoeing with Monica's family

This morning Amy and I went canoeing with our friend Monica's family. It was fun. =) We three shared a canoe, so we took turns sitting in the middle not doing anything.

I'm thinking we should do this again sometime!

Monica's parents:

Amy, our faithful (or not so much so!) steerer:

We were not always behind, but this made for a nice picture:

Another part of the river: pretty, but too shallow to canoe in!

amusing angle of Amy and me... I like Amy's expression here =)Our group afterward

(Monica is on the left with Amy and then me)

Random Observations

I can’t believe it’s July 28 already!

Where has my summer gone? Or more accurately, where has half of this year gone??

Wait. I know. It’s called working, sleeping, and practicing. =D

I thought I’d share 10 recent observations I’ve had. It’s somewhat like the “25 Random Things About Me” that was oh-so-popular for a while, but much cooler. (Obviously.) The icons scattered throughout aren’t really relevant, but I thought they spiced up my post. Ha ha.

1. Saving up my change for years in my porcelain cow bank was an awesome decision… who knew I had $50 in there?

2. Sun-dried Tomato Turkey is the absolute best lunchmeat in the world. Stop by and see me in the Wal-Mart deli and I *will* give you a sample! (By the way, if you stop and see me in the deli on purpose you are my HERO! I’ll love you forever!)

3. If you go to Taco Bell, you should definitely try a cheesy double beef burrito + lettuce + lettuce + onion. I’m the only one who gets it like that (that I know of!), and it’s ridiculously delicious.

4. Don’t be ashamed about your views even if they aren’t politically correct.

5. “What do I know of Holy” by Addison Road is one of my new favorite songs. One of the good parts from it goes:

“I guess I thought that I had figured You out

I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about

How You were mighty to save

Those were only empty words on a page

Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be

The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees”

6. One of my current favorite phrases is: “Me without you is like a book without pages, a sentence without spaces, and a nerd without braces.” =D

7. When the “service engine soon” like came on in my car I had to look in the owner’s manual to know what the symbol meant. Should I really be trusted on the road? (Yes, I do know what a stop sign means, and am moderately sure what most other signs are referring to as well… ha ha.)

8. If you try to start your car when it’s already started it makes a *really* funky noise.

9. If you are returning books in the outside drop at the library, it’s a good idea to put your car in park if you have to practically stand up to reach the book drop. Neutral just might make your car go backwards inopportunely.

10. People get excited when you send them thank-you notes, even if it only took you a minute and a half to write.

Vote for Bethany!!!!

One of my favorite bloggers, Bethany, has entered a picture in Chick-Fil-A’s contest. (It’s awesome, by the way!) If you would like to help her out, please go here and vote for HER PICTURE, which is titled “My Three Chick-Fil-A Fans.”

Also, anyone who has an email address can vote. If you have more than one email address, please vote more than one time!

Bethany has also offered that if you blog about this, she will enter you in a contest to win a hand-drawn portrait of whoever you choose! (She is an amazing artist!) Go here to read about that.

Happy voting!

of Colllege/Life

A month from now I will be going to college full time and yet I don’t know what all classes I will be taking and when. It’s a little disconcerting! I think I will be very glad when my first year is over. =D It has also been an interesting experience telling people my major. Conversations usually go like this:

Them: What are you going to college for?
Me: Piano Performance.
Them: What?
Me: Piano Performance.
Them: Oh… that’s different.

I have been getting about 38-42 hours a week with both of my jobs combined, which is definitely good. It’s going to be so weird only working a little bit this fall! Speaking of work, that’s where I’m off to now! Have a good one. =D

Lake Erie

Yesterday Amy and I went with my older brother Reuben and his wife Mariel to Lake Erie. We live within an hour of the lake, and yet I hardly ever go there! We didn't go to swim this time, although I believe that is on the agenda for the near future. =)

We had a picnic and walked along the beach at East Harbor State Park...

You can see Kelly's Island out there...

Then we drove over to Marblehead and saw the lighthouse, and gazed at Cedar Point out across the water.

I had an awesome weekend!

My sisterAmy’s awesome friend Ashley flew up for Thursday through today! Sadly, I had to work every day, but I still got a lot of time to spend with them. We had some fun people over, talked a lot, and just had a grand ol' time!

I'm sure Amy will tell you more about it in a long, picture-filled post on her blog soon. (Speaking of her blog, if you haven't yet you must go vote on your favorite of her top 5 picks for her contest! Click here!!)

I don't want to spoil that for her, so I will just put up two of my favorite pictures now...

From left to right in that ^ picture: Me, Wendy, Matt (who are married and awesome friends!), Amy, Joe, Ashley, and Justin. (Joe and Justin are friends of ours from Heidelberg)

Phillip had a headache, and in typical Phillip fashion slept almost the whole evening. (Until he called his girlfriend, of course!!) We decided to pose with him and Matt and Wendy got a little silly. =)

I also got REALLY exciting news this past week!! Unknown to me multiple important people recommended me for another scholarship - that I hadn't even heard aobut! I got it!! I don't know if it is for more than one year or not, but for at least my freshman year I have $2,000 more in scholarships than I had originally planned! Yea for the Putman County Comminuty Foundation! Yea for debt-free college! Yea for working my tail off at Wal-Mart and Taco Bell! Yea life! =D

July 3rd and 4th

Friday was my first day off (from both jobs) in a month. Although I really like working every day to save money for college, it was very nice to have a small break. Amy and I spent the day with my brother Phillip and his girlfriend Denise. We went to an outdoor performance by the Lima Symphony. They did an awesome job (of course!) and it was fun to see a few people I know performing, although it was about a 2-hour drive from our house.

I took quite a few pictures throughout the day… had to have something to keep me occupied in the midst of two people affected by the love bug.

Yesterday, the fourth, I was supposed to work at Taco Bell from 4:30-9:30, but since there were hardly any customers at all they sent me home early. I got home in time to head out with Richard (back from Illinois for a visit this weekend!) and Amy to watch fireworks in a little hic town with one of Richard’s friends’ family. It was fun!

Living Life

Why is it that when I get busy actually living I forget to blog about my life?

Crazy, I know.

And I don't really have too much to say right now, except that I love taking random pictures of my sister in the dentist office with her cool shoes and her knitting.

I defy the odds! [Plus some pictures]

[Note: The pictures below have nothing to do with the story in this post.]

I worked at Wal-Mart yesterday. There was nothing abnormal about my shift although it was somewhat short… just 2 p.m. – 9 p.m. of cleaning slicers, helping customers, frying chicken, and scrubbing floors and dishes.

Before work I had decided that I would stop at Kroger (even though I work at Wal-Mart, naturally) because they had this cool sale where if you bought 10 participating “Daytona 500” items you got $3 off. I was going to pick up some yogurt and *gasp* cheap little brown-n-serve sausages and some 61-cent frozen dinners for my lunches at work. Stopping at Kroger passed uneventfully – except I didn’t take a cart or basket and thus carried ten packages to the check-out in my right arm… but that is trivial.

On my way home I got stopped for a train. You know, one of those long ones that is going so slow you feel that it might stop at any moment? Of course during this time I, ever gas-conscious, am thinking about how very much extra gas my car is using just sitting there idling. I think about how many times I have heard “when your car is idling it gets zero miles per gallon.” Finally I decided I would go around (and under) the train, several streets over. I went around the train but then decided I shouldn’t just cut back over too close to the tracks on the other side because often people don’t leave room for other people to come out of streets when they’re lined up waiting for a train.

So onward I drove, trying to figure out my next course of action. It was dark and rainy, and aware that I was already wasting time and gas I didn’t want to go through this nasty police-officer-filled-20mph-zone, so I turned on a street a ways before that. Then I turned right, then left, then left again, and left again… and why wasn’t I where I thought I’d be? Why did this road go in a loop of sorts? I came out about where I started. (WHAT?) I decided that I should just go home the way I was trying to avoid because I didn’t want to try over. Besides, at that point it was a lot shorter.

That is how I got lost on my way home from work. It seems impossible, but again I defy the odds.

On a lighter note, here are a couple pictures I took outside Wednesday:

My Recital

I have been waiting to get the video my brother took at my senior recital reduced in size because it was too big for me to upload anywhere...

well he came though!!

Sadly, when I tried to upload it places I had issues. Boo.

I do have five minutes (of 18...) up on photobucket... I'm not sure why it stopped.

Anyway, here is the first 5 minutes of me playing Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, with Dr. Pieter Grobler playing the orchestra part transposed for piano. Sadly, I don't come in for like 3 minutes and the after 2 more it's over. Boo boo booooo!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/BonnieJewell/?action=view&current=100_0567_x264smaller.flv

That was my final piece at the recital and definitely my favorite.

I'll work on getting the whole thing uploaded as soon as possible. =)

Recent Thoughts and Happenings

~ Why is it that when someone criticizes us, even if they aren’t someone who we think is credible or worth taking advice from, we let it upset us or make us feel like we need to change?

~ The best part about cashing a paycheck isn’t that my bank account grows… it’s the candy sucker I get from the bank.

~ Ever feel like your knitting isn’t up to par because it’s too tight? I’ve got a new way for you to save face: just tell people your knitting is bulletproof! (Note: this brilliant idea is adapted from an awesome book called Knitting Patterns for Dummies.)

~ When someone tells you to be really careful with a meat slicer, you should probably listen to them. They really can cut you even when they’re off and you’re cleaning them. (Note: my cut is very small and nothing to worry about, but I learned. ha ha Why do I always learn things the hard way??)

~ If you haven’t yet, make sure you go over the Amy’s blog to enter her contest… all you have to do is tell why you’re uniquely fabulous and you might win an amazing hand-knit scarf! Do it! Do it!!

~ I had another cavity-free dentist visit. That makes me happy! And of course I got a cool orange toothbrush into the bargain… life just got a little brighter!

Of Fearing Death

I have a fear of death.

No, not my own death. My laptop’s death.

It is a horrible fate that many laptops face – a premature death that their owner/operator never even suspected. It happens to everyone’s; when will it happen to mine?

It seems like everyone who got a laptop the same time I got mine (or shortly before) has already had to replace it. It makes me wonder, will my computer turn on tomorrow?

My brother Phillip says, “Laptops are pretty much disposable these days,” but for me they aren’t… I hope my laptop lives a long and glorious life and defies the laptop-life odds. =D

(Yet why am I filled with a sense of foreboding???)

PS: Amy said to randomly add to this post the quote “Give me liberty or give me death,” yet I can’t see how it’s related. Wait. It’s supposed to be random.

Amy's contest and Random

My cool sister Amy is having an awesome contest on her blog! So…

CLICK HERE AND JOIN THE FUN!

(That is, if you want to have the opportunity to win an awesome hand-knit scarf of your choice! And no, I’m not posting this because I’ll get extra points in the contest; it’s impossible. I’m doing it out of pure nicety – ha ha.)

On the other side of things, today feels like a good day for putting cool quotes and images and things on my blog. I’m not sure why; it just feels like that sort of day.

Here are a couple graphics I made a while back – featuring my best friend Abby:


And here are some “Deep thoughts” by Jack Handy…
Oh they make me laugh. =D

“If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.”

“Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself, "mankind". Basically it's made up of two separate words, "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.”

“If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy, and people will try to catch you, because hey, free dummy.”

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”

“The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.”

“Too bad there's not such a thing as a golden skunk, because you'd probably be proud to be sprayed by one.”

“I can't stand cheap people. It makes me real mad when someone says something like, "Hey, when are you going to pay me that $100 you owe me?", or, "Do you have that $50 you borrowed?" Man, quit being so cheap!”

“Probably the saddest thing you'll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Forget it, little friend.”

--

ok, I can get a little carried away with that.
Have a good day everyone! =D

If You Make a Foolproof Recipe...

… they’ll make a better fool.

Yep, that’s right. I made my favorite strawberry pie today. (Yea for fresh strawberries in the garden! Woo hoo!) This is a recipe I was a guest chef with on Tammy’s Recipes a couple years ago.

I always use my Foolproof Pie Crust recipe. It has always turned out before. But I found out today that it’s not actually foolproof. For some reason when I baked the crusts one sank and the other sank AND folded down on one side! (I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with the latter…)

See what I mean?
However, using the better of the crusts, I did turn out a pretty pie that I’m going to take to my brother’s house tonight in honor of my sister-in-law’s nineteenth birthday. Fun times!

My fun [in my opinion] necklace

I have a big green bead [that came in a package of various odd beads] that I’ve liked for a long time. However, the question has always been, “What do I do with it?” I didn’t have any good necklace chains that worked with it… so it sat in my closet for a long time.

Happily for me, I have a cool younger sister who remembered this awesome bead and suggested that I get it out and try to find a good place for it. (Of course she wanted me to give it to her, but hey… I can’t go that far! Ha ha) We still couldn’t find a good chain for it… until I remembered that we have this cool ribbon-ish yarn-stuff that was included in a package from our awesome friend Lin.

At first Amy thought it was a stupid idea to pair these two up.

BUT

We both decided that it’s pretty awesome.

What do you think? (And in typical Bonnie fashion I must warn you that if you don’t like it you aren’t supposed to comment and tell me that… no one wants you! Ha ha – just kidding.)

ah, good blogs

Sometimes I feel the urge to link to cool bloggers. Today is one of those days.

Go read this post on Bethany’s blog to see that there is a Bonnie out there who is way cooler than I’ll ever be.

We all know that facebook flair is about the coolest thing ever, right? *Makes mental note to save some of my facebook flairy awesomeness* BUT not everyone is as cool as this blogger – she posted her flair on her blog! Hee hee!

She also had a hilarious post a longer time ago that I still laugh about.

And finally…

Why is life so sad sometimes?

*edited to add*

This is a good Dilbert comic! Love love love it!! (June 2, 2009)

Fun day

Saturday was a fun day. I had fun people over. I loved it. =)

AND I have photographic proof.

(No, that's not a fun person... but it is an interesting thing I found and couldn't identify... except it came off a tree.)
And here's a snail:
It's Monica! Whoo hoo!!
It's Casey! We are just "unnatural" together... both of us laugh at everything, and loudly!!

Screen shots from some videos of us...

And here I am... Amy said I looked terrible (hey, I was tired!) so of course she took a picture of me.

That's all! =D

Pretty Parts of Life

Recent Excitements

Sometimes the littlest things excite me, like...

~ ~ my painted toenails

~ ~ the crunch a chicken's neck makes when I cut it with a scissors. (I'm in the deli now! Goodbye stocking groceries! Hello aforementioned deli!!)

~ ~ watching The Tale of Despereaux with friends

~ ~ getting a "Two Ball Screw Ball" from the ice cream truck

Blacklight

While cleaning my room, I was reminded that my younger sister has an awesome blacklight. Enough said. Here are some fun pictures I took:

Good Asparagus Recipe (Really!)

I made a new and fun recipe yesterday for supper…

It was Poppy Seed Chicken and Asparagus ~ from Tammy’s site. It turned out well; I was impressed! It might look a little strange in the end, but it was delicious. =]

(If you go to Tammy’s recipes, you will see that on the top there is optional crackers and butter. I put just a couple crushed crackers on and no butter… it was good!)

Of Benevolent Friends

Oh, I love generous people!

I was reminded of that again yesterday. Three large packages came UPS. They were mainly for my sister Amy, but since my name was on the packages as well I just about flipped! =D

They contained bliss in a tangible form – yarn and tea, mainly! And when I say “yarn” and “tea,” I mean “oh-so-awesome-totally-amazing-yarn” and “way-too-cool-crazy-wonderful-tea.” And TONS OF IT!!!!! I LOVE awesome tea, and a pile of amazing yarn is practically heaven on earth for a knitting-obsessed girl (my sister) or a girl-obsessed-with-her-sister’s-knitted treasures (me).

If only Lin, the kind lady who sent these packages, could have heard our shrieks and shrieks of delight! Oh, it was an awesome moment.

And I have photo proof!

Getting excited because... look!! :
Oooh, we screamed when we opened them and saw this sight: I made a little display so you could see:

Yea!

Oooh, I see scarves and other fun things in the future!

Don't you??

Ooooooh!

You can also go to my sister's post to read her perspective and see more pictures. =)

Of my brother moving

One of my brothers moved to Illinois this past Saturday. I "got" to go there and back Saturday helping, and although I didn't have many interesting things to photograph, I tried to make the most of scenery passing at 70 miles per hour.

We got to this town and I thought, "What is this town doing here? What does it want from us?!"

Gotcha!

Like - Albany, Georgia? No, it's Albany, Indiana.
Here we go!

It looked like this a lot.

At last!

That's where Rich will be working.His apartment

Coming back at last!

Cool rock!

Ah, driving and driving...

Productive?

I think we’ve all done it. It’s morning and we feel ambitious. In our minds we have a list of things we want to do, but we have to go to work. (Or school, or whatever you do during the day.) You think, “I’ll do it when I get home.”

What happens?

You get home, and you do not feel like doing anything you felt like that morning. You put it off, or avoid it completely. Oops!

Recently I decided to overcome this. It was one of those mornings where I felt like getting something done. I thought, “I’d really like to wash my car today!” Guess what. It was time to go to work. I thought, “I’ll wash it when I get home.”

I got to work a little early, so I sat in my car for a few minutes before going in. I decided to make a list of what I would do later. (I was feeling REALLY ambitious and later regretted this list, by the way!!) Right at the top I placed “wash car.” I went into work, and all was well.

When I arrived home, I did NOT want to wash my car. Suddenly I had 100 other things I would much rather be doing. But I stuck to my list, and it wasn’t so bad after all.

I think one of the biggest ways to get the most out of your day is to just do what you know you need to do. (Revolutionary idea, right??!) We like to say that “lists help me get things done” or “schedules just work for me” or even “I just can’t get anything done; I’m so unorganized.” I think it boils down to the fact that we have to discipline ourselves to do things we don’t want to.

I’m definitely still loser-ish in this area. I do not always stick to my morning plan – if I even have one! When I do though, I feel much more productive (and AM much more productive!) and happier with my life.

PS: I thought that picture might be good for a post about doing what you have to get done. =D (There was an intense game of Mario Kart going on there!)

Becuase of these, I Overeat

**Scroll down for kitchen tip**

Since I have been hungry for cinnamon rolls lately, I finally decided to make them. It seems like I never have time to anymore, but I just made time. =) They are so good - it was worth it!!

I took a few pictures of the process. I made cinnamon rolls and caramel pecan rolls (for which I was a guest chef on tammysrecipes.com three years ago) ... mmm mmm good!! =D
Rolling out the dough, and adding the butter/sugar/cinnamon...

****

The ONLY way to cut rolls! Slide the dental floss underneath, pull it around, and pull each end to pinch it off. It works amazingly!!

****

Looking good!

Now they've risen:

And they're done!

They're so delicious. =D