Lifesong

"I'm leaving, on a jet plane.."

2010-06-13T02:26:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of post, we've been super busy the last few weeks.

Why?

Well, we're leaving. On a jet plane. To Europe. Tomorrow!

Mom started another blog that she'll try to keep updated on our two week adventure, right here:

http://schaefereuropeanadventure2010.blogspot.com/

Please pray for us, and we'll "see" you back home in two weeks!

"I wanna hold your hand.."

2010-05-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

"Hey Lena," Gregory asked, "Do you think you think I could hold your hand?"

"'Cause I need some help goin' up the hill."

(Title lyrics from I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles)

"Come on in boy, sit on down and tell 'bout yourself.."

2010-05-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately.. Our church hosted a retreat this weekend and we were busy preparing for it last week.

This little boy is such a talker.

He was talking to Grandma yesterday and told her all about his day on Saturday, and his day yesterday. He talked about how he went to a birthday party, and all about what was in his goody bag. He explained to her all about how it was not his birthday, but he still got a present, the goody bag.

He is so silly.

I was talking to him today, about, you know.. Everything!

I asked him if he was excited about going to Europe soon.. and he said not really.

"Because, in Europe I'll have to eat really, really grose things, like Frog legs and TOMATOES! Ewww!"

When actually this silly boy has told us that he was super excited about trying all the different foods.

"And Lena!

"Did you know, that in, umm.. Italy we can eat ice cream for dinner, lunch

and breakfast!"

Really? Who told you this?

"Oh, my dentist girl."

"And Lena, did you know, I have pwoblems saying my awws (Rs)?"

"I can't say my awws. I'm like Bawbawa Waltuws."

Yes, he really said this. He can say his R sound now, but a while ago he was embarrassed that he still couldn't say his Rs right, and we told him that he was only five and there are adults that can't say their names correctly, because they can't say their Rs. And he remembered. This silly, silly boy.

"Do you know what I'm going to be when I grow up?

"I'm gonna be a Astronot-Painter.

"I'll go to space, and I'll paint the moon, and planets and stars and the sun!

"An' I'll make these awesome dark sun glasses so that I can look at the sun, really close!"

Amazing!

Talk to you later you crazy little boy!

(Title lyrics from Cleaning This Gun by Rodney Atkins)

"It's a brother and a sister kinda thing.."

2010-05-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

Our family has always enjoyed playing games. It get's kinda crazy around here sometimes, as we're ~~extremely~~ slightly competitive. This could be why we like these games so much. One of our new favorites is:

Jordan gave it to us for Christmas knowing how amazing it is.

The goal is to use every single one of your letter pieces in a huge crossword puzzle, no names, abbreviations or slang terms are allowed (e.g. "Yo" or "Sup.")

You start with 15 pieces, and try to put them all together into words as fast as you can!

The first person to do so correctly shouts "Bananagrams!" and each player grabs five more pieces. You can now try to add it to the words you've already made, or sometimes you just can't. So you need to re-assemble your puzzle to fit the new pieces.

It gets rather insane occasionaly. Like, when you have two more pieces left and you can not fit them in ("Come on guys, how 'bout we all can put back just two pieces, okay?") or when you have a Q and you don't have one U, so that just isn't fair at all. At all. Or you just know that ''Vet'' is a word of it's own, it is so NOT an abbreviation for Vetranarian! Or when you could just swear that apple just came out with a new thing called an ifeet, these shoes which play music, so you can totally put that lonely I in front of feet. Yes, we come up with many different excuses. but it's still pretty awesome.

You could even say it's educational, 'cause you know, you spell things.

(Title lyrics from Me and My Gang by Racal Flatts

"See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns.."

2010-05-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

Isaac was invited to his (our!) friend MacKenzie's prom...

Thank you Jordan for the pictures!

(Title lyrics from Love Story by Taylor Swift)

"Bal bal atra, habesne lanam?"

2010-04-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

"She knows Latin? What a woman!" this quote from an episode from the BBC's show Robin Hood, which we've been watching, made us laugh. This year Jordan and I have taken online classes, Ancient Greek - Jordan - and Latin - me!

At the beginning of the school year, Mom told me about our friends teaching an online class for Latin. Knowing that the Latin would help me in many different ways, I began my adventure with Latin.

I picked up on the alphabet and the pronunciation pretty quickly, as it was very similar to English. As we went on, it became harder, but throughout the year I've learned so much.

Each week for homework, Mrs. V. has asked us to find English derivatives which were new to us from the Latin words of the current chapter. Knowing the Latin root has implanted it in my brain, and my vocabulary has increased so much this year!

In preparation for the Europe trip we're taking this June (I'm sure I'll talk about this sometime) I have also been learning French. French, like English, also has a Latin root, and knowing the Latin has helped me tremendously while learning French.

Are you interested in learning Latin or another beneficent ancient language? Here is our friend's website: http://clrchomeschool.com/

"She knows Latin? What a woman."

(Title lyrics from Bal Bal Atra, or Bah Bah Black Sheep in Latin)

"And it's still raining.."

2010-04-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

It was hailing..

Very hard.

We wanted to go outside.

But somebody decided to get sick, and Mama didn't want that somebody to be outside.

Especially during this crazy hail storm.

The thunder roared as we watched the ground filled with little pellets of hail.

And he decided he would very much like a piece of hail.

I told him not to, but he went anyways.. and when he came back, it had already melted.

The End.

(Title lyrics from I Will Praise You in this Storm by Casting Crows)

"Mama you taught me to do the right things.."

2010-04-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Mama! We love you so much, and we are so blessed to have a mother as wonderful as you!

"And remember Mama, you are my sunshine!"

(Title lyrics from Mama's Song by Carrie Underwood)

"I bless the rain.."

2010-04-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

I wonder how the grass can be so bright of a color. Doesn’t it look like God pulled the “saturation” bar to the top? Not just the grass, but the daffodils. And the trees.. It has been raining here for the past few days. Beautiful rain. It leaves the world colorful and completely refreshed.
Besides enhancing the spring colors, the rain is appreciated in other ways right now. Due to our lack of snow this winter, there is a well, lack of water in the bay. It has lost it’s dried up swampy look, but compared to where it has been this time of the year, the water is quite low.
May 2008: Thanks to the rain, the lake will be flowing with splendor in no time.

For now let’s enjoy the glorious weather.

..rain!

(Title lyrics from Africa by Toto)

“Blank Stares at Blank Pages..”

2010-04-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

There’s something about a blank piece of paper.. It gives me the urge to fill it with small pretty handwriting. All I need is a subject and a writing utensil for my imagination to run wild onto the paper. I’ve always loved to write. I remember once, when I was not much older than Gregory. It was the annual Creative Arts festival for our church, and the theme was about using your talents. I dictated to Mom a very long story: It was about a princess, and her violin (I’ve always adored violins -isn't the name just so beautifully poetic?). Every day the splendid princess would go out and play her violin to all the people of the kingdom, giving her wonderful gift of music to all. As I’ve grown older, I still enjoy writing tremendously. With our exciting household, I have no trouble coming up with a topic, the possibilities are endless! The difficulty, however in my writing is organization. I have been taught the writing process many times, but I find myself wanting to just write as I’m still finishing the outline. The result is a very interesting story that is not extremely easy to read. I have found that learning to use these organizational skills while writing even just for fun will lead to much better writing.

Why then, you ask, if I love to write so very much do I not write here? Well trust me, I write. Lots. On an every day basis, in journals, letters and just for fun, I have written pages and pages of nonsense, just this week, but few of them are well thought out, organized and easily read, therefore I have not published any of them on this blog. I have now decided I will try to write orderly posts here as much as time will permit me to, hopefully a few times a week. Hopefully. don’t take my word for it...

(Title lyrics from Love Song by Sarah Bareilles)

"Cause I'm a backwoods boy, grew up on a dirt road.."

2010-03-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

The fresh Spring air was calling to the boys, the weather was just perfect for mud! They threw on their sandles and headed out into the pleasently warm sun. The mud looked just perfect, not too cold, yet not to mushy, it was going to be great! They galloped down to the lake as fast as they could!

As the two boys tore off their shorts and sandles, Gregory began to wonder about this new sport.

The mud looked alfully icky, and how did it not “Just sink down and gobble us up?” Besides, getting all muddy did not sound very apitizing to this little boy. AJ sighed waiting for him to decide, and finally lost his patience as he ran off into the delicious mud.

“I, I just don’t even understand how he could even like this stuff?” Gregory exlaimed, discusted with his dirty hands and feet.

However, after much prompting from his sister, Mr. MacGregors decided he would not let his brother beat him in this competition of messy-ness.

He dug and stomped his feet in the soft mud. He ran around in circles, and felt pretty good about it! After just a few minutes of this, Gregory realized that this activity was quite enjoyable! The wet dirt almost felt good between his toes, and his imagination took the better of him as he made of silly games to play.

The champion pose for his pictures the remainder of his time, but the sudden shock of all his messy-ness stopped him. Again, he was rather discusted with his dirty hands and feet, so off he went to find a solution to this mess!

After searching for many different ways of trying to clean his dirty feet, he had almost given up! Finally, he came upon his brother, who had finished his hunt, and had found a brilliant way of cleaning himself up.

After all was said and done, Gregory agreed that being messy, really was worth it!

(Title lyrics from Backwoods Boy by Josh Turner)

"What's That Hiding, in the Tree Tops?"

2009-09-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

Living in North Idaho, we are blessed to see tons of beautiful wildlife, right by our house! We frequently see deer, and at certain times of the year elk, less then five miles from our house! Once, we even (almost) ran into a moose, on our own road! Though we see tons animals, almost every day, we rarely see such as Gregory saw the other day…

We were driving home Friday, and Gregory claims he saw a Doe! We all ask him where, can he show us? Unfortunately the car was going too fast, so we hadn’t gotten the privilege to see this doe… and buck, he tells us. A buck, a buck with big antlers! He also seems to have seen a moose. And a bear… And a giraffe... And a zebra… An elephant too!Is there a zoo in Kidd Island Bay? Possibly, as he had also seen a lion, two rattlesnakes, a baby kangaroo ‘’with his mommy’’, a tiger, and much more. How could we have missed all that? Maybe next time we might have as great eyesight as Gregory – or perhaps as great of an imagination?

(Title Lyrics from Jitterbug from The Wizard of Oz)

"The Best day, with you, today..."

2009-06-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm packing for the trip tomorrow... I'm not so excited about leaving now, because I was hoping to stay a day or two more - oh well! I am happy to be going home!

Today Grammy took me to Trinny's and I got a manicure and pedicure! We took my cousin Avalon too, and we had lots of fun! I love the color I chose for my toes, I think it looks great! For my fingernails I decided to get a fringe, and they look great too. Unfortunately I stubbed my toe in Avalon's pool afterwards, and chipped the paint on my toe, but thankfully Trinny gave us the color, and I can touch it up now.

At the moment I'm having a little trouble packing.. Grammy went shopping with me a few times, and so I have even more than what I came with. Plus I have presents from Big Bear, presents for the boys from Grammy, and a card and present for Jordan from the Crouses. I barely have enough room! Thankfully I can leave some things to make more room, and the boys will take it up when they come home in a week or so.

Okay, I better finish my packing, ptyl!

(Title Lyrics from Best Day by Taylor Swift)

"Say your Sorry..."

2009-06-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

I feel so bad about not writing on the blog for FOREVER! After my last post we were busy for a week or two, but than I guess I didn't want to write this long apology post. Anyways...
Summer has finally hit! Not only the awesome weather, but the business of it all too! (is that word?) We've been so many places in the last few months!

First of all need to tell you about the show. It went so well! Everybody that went loved it, and it was a big hit for everybody in Coeur d' Alene! AJ and I really enjoyed it! I made so many friends, and I'll always remember it. I think it was a great experience, especially since it was in such a huge theatre too! Miss Dena (the director) told us it would probably be the best stage we'll go on unless we become professionals!

During the play Mom, Joel, Jordan and Isaac were down at the parish life conference. Joel, Jordan and Isaac were their own Senior Bible Bowl team for our church, and after five tie breakers they won! Isaac was the only one in both groups to put down the right answer. Joel also won the Oratorical Contest, Isaac did very well too! They all will be going back down to Palm Springs in mid July for the finals - pray for them!

As for me, I'm actually in San Diego at the moment. I'm visiting Papa and Grammy here at the ranch. I'm having an awesome time! The boys and I drove down Tuesday, and ended up making it here at 1am. We than went to Big Bear with the boys from Thursday-Saturday, we had so much fun with the Mulder cousins! Yesterday morning the boys headed of to Project Mexico, and left me here :) I've been having so much fun though! Last night we went to the Crous's for an awesome dinner and we went swimming in the pool. I've also been riding, which has been awesome!

Okay I'll keep you guys updated now... Later!

Title Lyrics from White Horse by Taylor Swift

Each Day's a Gift and Not a Given Right...

2009-06-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

Title Lyrics from "If Today Was Your Last Day" by Nickelback

"Get together and let the good times roll..."

2009-04-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

We are looking into another busy weekend... As the "Bishop" or the head of the churches on the west side of the US is visiting at our church, as well as a church up in Bonners Ferry. Our friends from Vancouver are going to be up in Bonners, so we're looking forward to seeing them too!

Saturday is the ground breaking, for the new church. Then, we're going to spend the rest of the day with the Charles' (the friends from Vancouver). Saturday night we are sharing our other good friends the Schrom's old house, with the Charles'. AJ is stoked because he and Nick are going to be sleeping out in a tent.

Sunday we are going to the church for our usual Sunday liturgy. Then home! Jordan'll be home Saturday so she'll be able to go too. If you look at Jordan's twitter it's actually helpful, I mean I haven't talked to her on the phone once, but I know exactly what she's doing ever two hours or so.

I don't have much else to say. The sun's shining! That's actually good news... Right? Anyways I'll ptyl!

Title lyrics from Let the Good Times Road by Brad Paisley

"You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine..."

2009-04-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today is Mom's Birthday! Unfortunately Jordan's gone, to California, so she couldn't be here. She is baby-sitting for Ben, Addie and Jack, (see her mini blog/twitter) our younger cousins for a few days while Uncle Mark and Aunt Julia are on Vacation. Mom didn't really want to celebrate without her, so we did a small celebration with pancakes, sausage and eggs... And of course the presents!

Jordan, AJ and I gave her a certificate for 5 massage at The Highlands Day Spa. One of which is today! Dad, Joel and Isaac all got her another laptop, as her old one wasn't working too well. Gregory gave her a hanging basket! He was very proud of it... Mom also loved all our cards, we got those ones how you press the button and your message plays before the song... yeah! DoeDoe found this one for Gregory that had You are My Sunshine, Mom's and His song :) She was very happy to see that!

Altogether we had a happy day, even if DoeDoe wasn't here to celebrate! I apologize for the lack of pictures - We didn't take any today! I'll try to take more pictures for the blog though... If Jordan left her camera! Okay ptyl everybody!

Title Lyrics from You Are My Sunshine

"He's Alive! He's Alive and I"m forgiven, Heaven's gates are open wide..."

2009-04-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wow! I haven't written in so long! Probably because we've been so busy... between church, CYT, Dentist Emergencies (yeah!) and just life, it's been pretty crazy! Also.... Christ Is Risen Everybody!

First of all Easter (Pascha for orthodox friends :)... We had a beautiful midnight service - we actually did our procession through the cemetery, which was really cool! My candle didn't go out the entire procession! Oh yeah :) After the service we enjoyed the feast (well I had a fever and didn't eat much :( ) and then went home and slept until 11:00 :P than we drove up to Bonners (Well actually they rented a place in Hope Idaho for Easter, a beach house...) for the Agape Vespers service, and the Celebration for afterwards. After hearing the gospel of the Resurrection in 10 different languages, we had a gigantic feast - again. Than we had a huge egg hunt, around that big beach house! I found the biggest jack-pot of eggs (thank you, thank you very much...) and to AJ's horror, shared the majority of the eggs with everybody :) Over all, we had a very blessed Easter/Pascha.

Next, CYT. Although it's been so much fun, it also takes up lots of time! We have rehearsals usually every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The play is starting to look really good! Speaking of which, if you are interested in buying the tickets, leave a comment (friends and family :) and I'll give you the Information. Our Ozian dance is all finished choreographing, now we just need to not forget it (easier said than done...)! Classes on Tuesdays, I think are my favorite part, we get to play lots of Improv games, which I really enjoy!

Now for Dentist Emergency's! For a while my tooth been hurting, and so Thursday we went in to Dr. George, for him to take a look. Apparently the cavity was bigger than he thought, and I now have to have a root canal! Oh man! He did do something Thursday though (I don't really know what!) and it's been feeling better, though my jaw's pretty sore...

Okay I hope you enjoyed that little catch up on our life... In a nutshell :) I'll now try to keep posting constantly - every few days. Christ is Risen and - ptyl!

Title Lyrics from "He's Alive" by Don Francisco

"The Sun'll come out, tomorrow..."

2009-04-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

NO, no again! Here we are, April 2nd, and not only are the big giant chunks of ice still in places, but it snows yet another three inches! Why? ahhh man.... I was so excited a few days ago seeing a robin digging for worms outside. I was hoping for a green Easter! or not I guess?

So there isn't much new... As this week is Spring break there wasn't any CYT classes, or practises. Oh, and April Fools days was great :) All of us kids had been planning for ever to do a crazy awesome April Fools trick on mom and dad, unfortunately it didn't work out... We had been planning to wake up at six, and hide in the car, all of us, including Gregory. I was sitting in bed the night of the thirty-first, putting together the dates, today was the 31st, tomorrow would be the 1st, the 4th was.... OH WAIT! April fools day was tomorrow. I ran down and reminded Isaac, and he said it was too late, Joel and Jordan already asleep and everything :( well we did have a pretty fun April Fools day... AJ did the finger in Ketchup trick to Gregory (he was scared!) and I totally messed up the oatmeal, (I can't believe they didn't smell the garlic and Tabasco in it!)... among other tricks our April fools day was pretty fun :)

I'm also still folding napkins :) now we're at... 93 out of 140, a little better? I hope so... I'm just hoping we'll have enough time to make all 140 of them before the tea this saturday... oh well :)

Hoping the weather will change it's mind... So, tell next time.... I'll ptyl!

Title Lyrics from Tomorrow from Annie.

"Please Comfort her with the truth, that the angels hold me safe and sound, because I'm in your arms now..."

2009-03-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

Busy day.... After waking up and folding napkins (yes, folding napkins), I remembered it was the thirty-first. Earlier this week my mom asked me to look for Red paper. She told me about Red Envelope day. Red Envelope day was created by Brian Potter, this year. He wanted to see how many empty red envelopes out on March 31st. One empty red envelope equals one child who died because of abortion. We would send them all out to President Obama on the 31st, empty red envelopes.

Instead of buying a whole lot of red envelopes, my mom made post cards, and envelopes on the computer. We made tons ourselves, and also brought some to our church. It was really cool seeing all our red paper, turning into a helping effort :) So back to today... We sent out all of our Red Envelopes, as I put them in the mailing slot at the Post Office, I was thinking to myself I wonder how many red envelopes are down in there... did anybody else do this? It was funny to think.

lol, and back to 'folding napkins'. Jordan and I are folding a bunch of napkins up for the "Ladies Tea" coming up Saturday that Jordan is hosting at our church. So far we've made 66 out of 140! yikes! It was funny to tell my friend, I had to go (I was talking on the phone with her) fold napkins, literally! The title lyrics is from Kathy Troccoli's song, A baby's prayer. It is really touching.... I though it would go well for a post on Red Envelope day... ptyl!

Title Lyrics from A baby's prayer by Kathy Troccoli.

"In the merry old land of Oz...."

2009-03-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

So we made it! My friend Bridgett, called me at 4:30, telling us that they had posted the cast list a little early! I quickly ran and looked at the list. I was so scared, after looking at the list, not finding either of our names on there. AJ then started screaming, saying "Oh look, Ellena Schaefer, Ellena Schaefer". (He says that he doesn't know why he was so excited :) ) After looking over it a few times, we were assuming the worst for AJ, but then noticed that he was there too! After all the excitement of finding that we were in the play, we saw what we got as parts. AJ got to be an Polisher Ozian, and I am part of the Ozian Chorus, along with a friend of mine, Kelly. We can't wait until the next class, and practise!

Title Lyrics from Merry old Land of Oz from The Wizard of Oz

"But I got tired of waiting..."

2009-03-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Waiting... Waiting... I am so anxious to see the cast list! I want to know if I'll even be in the play! I've been counting down.... 2 hours and 10 minutes! I really hope we get it! I will tell you the knews asap when I get them!!!

Title Lyrics from Love Story by Taylor Swift

"Good Morning Baltimore..."

2009-03-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty crazy! Mom and Jordan have been working very hard with AJ and I on our CYT Auditions songs. It's been fun, but hard!
I mentioned CYT earlier. Again, it stands for Christian Youth Theatre. Our whole family has seen many CYT plays, but hasn't ever participated. AJ and I are both taking classes, and trying out for the Spring Musical, The Wizard of Oz.
For audition songs, AJ is singing I Just Can't wait to be King from The Lion King, and I am singing Good Morning Baltimore (hint the name :) ) from Hairspray. Jordan and Mom have been helping us figure out the Choreography, and its been... fun! I've got to admit, I probably will never like Good Morning Baltimore ever again! Pray for us on Friday! We're auditioning from 4:00-5:00, sometime any in there :) Lets hope we do well!
The first class was Tuesday, which was great! AJ and I both had so much fun! We are both taking Drama 101, AJ is in the younger group and I'm in the older. It was kind of fun not being together, getting to tell each other all about our classes :) In my class, we started by getting to know each other with 3 different name games! My favorite was a game that we each had our own Dance. It got more fun towards the end, because you'd have to remember everybodys dances to make it their turn! Afterwards we worked on our auditions, and those who wanted to sing their audition songs in front of class could (I did). It was sooo fun and I can't wait until next week!
I'm so excited for the next 10 weeks to come! Wish I luck tomorrow! We will keep you all updated on who we get, our upcoming classes... etc!

Title Lyrics from Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray

"I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes..."

2009-03-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

The weather finally changed its mind today! It was a little chilly this morning, but when the sun came out, AJ and I went out with our school-work to enjoy the sun. I actually put on shorts this morning... :) After school we went out to play catch when the Putren boys came out. So we enjoyed playing Football, Baseball and Basketball with them in that hour or so of warmish weather. I actually didn't wear my winter jacket while playing!

There are some beautiful swans that are migrating back to their home, who came to visit on the bay. They are very pretty, and there are over twenty in our bay! After a bit of research mom and I found out that they were Tundra Swans. Apparently they're attracting a few tourists up here too! This morning I went down and took a few pictures with Jordan's camera, They were out in the middle of the bay, so iwas pretty hard to see them, but you can see a whole lot of white blobs :)

Hope you like the pictures! I hope you can actually see the swans :) Now that Dodo (Jordan's nickname sorry) is home I can take pictures, so you don't need to deal with my clip art anymore (well as much...)! I'll also tell Jordan to make a post on her trip.... For now I'll ptyl!

Title Lyrics from It's a Great Day to be Alive by Darrel Scott

"She said if you work hard to get where you are, It feels good in the hot Spot light...."

2009-03-17T16:36:00.001-07:00

Another activity for this spring is CYT… CYT stands for Christian Youth Theater. It isn’t very new to us, as we have been going and seeing the plays for years and our good friends and neighbors have been participating in it. AJ and I are really looking forward to being in the play, which is going to be The Wizard of Oz, for Spring 09.

To explain more, CYT is a program that is all over the Country, which has a play every season (except summer) which all the cast and crew are kids ages 8-18. We have gone to see a few shows, including Annie, Oliver, Snow White, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and The Jungle Book. We can’t wait to be apart of the cast for The Wizard of Oz!

To be apart of a CYT play, you need to Audition, with a song. We’ve had a bit of trouble deciding our songs, but after I don’t know, five changes? We have finally decided to have AJ sing I Just can’t Wait to be King from The Lion King, and me to sing Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray.

Mom and Jordan have been a great help for Choreography, and it’s been really fun! A bit hard, (I am not a dancer) but after a bit AJ and I are getting the hang of it. We're still working ont he words, but we've been singing them all over the place, around the house, outside, in the shower :P

We can't wait to be apart of this all, and we'll keep you up to date On everything. Auditions are on the twenty-seventh, so we have a ways to go. When we audition we have to wait a week or so to see what we are going to be... This being our first play we're just going for the chorus. So I’ll ptyl (I like that!) and HAPPY ST. PATTY’S DAY!!!!

Title lyrics from "Big Star" by Kenny Chesney

"What if tomorrow, What if today? Faced with the question, Oh what would we say..."

2009-03-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

was bored again today, stuck inside from this cold, wet weather! Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we’ll have spring coming for a while, with this foot of snow still stuck here (The few inches that fall every once and a while aren’t helping!) So for now I’m getting through tons of books… Those of you, who know me, will know this is not unusual for me. In the last couple days I’ve gone through four books - including the one I’m in the middle of.

Speaking of which, a school project Mom, Isaac and I is studying World War two, and the Holocaust. It’s been very interesting; at the same time it’s been tragic too. I’m actually just beginning the Diary of Anne Frank. Last night we watched a movie on a book I just finished called The Hiding Place. It’s about a Dutch woman named Corrie (Cornelia) Ten Boom Who was caught hiding Jews in her house. After going to jail for months, she was taken to a Concentration Camp. It was frightening to think of what we would do if we had the choice to save a person's life, at the same time risking your own life... I’d better stop before I get going… Anyways it was a very good movie.

I’m hoping and praying that god will send us lots of Rain, and then sun…So I’m hoping that all this reading and school-work will get me through this cloudy weathered time :) For now, I'll ptyl - post to you later?

(Title lyrics from "This is your time" by Michael W. Smith)

"I am the vine, and you are the branches, and if you remain in me, fruit will abound...."

2009-03-14T21:19:00.001-07:00

So I decided to finally start writing on this blog… It’s been a while since Jordan last wrote, and a long time since I wrote a post :) I’m going to start writing more often, I hope :P So this week Jordan’s out of town until Wednesday in Seattle. She’s hanging out with a friend over spring break. That leaves us to a small family, having Joel sleeping for work most of the time, though quieter… Well I can’t necessarily say that with Gregory, AJ and Isaac all still here :)

We all just finished our Creative Arts and Writing projects for the contest. It’s through our church; we’re given prizes for our age group in the whole west side of the country. The theme this year was “Doing good works” and “Bearing Fruit” so through the weeks we’ve been talking about what it meant by “Bearing Fruit”. We talked about in John, where Jesus says “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”. Hearing that, I did my art showing a flower, around it, there were mini pictures of a seed being planted, then being watered, sunlight hitting it, and it being pruned. On each little picture I would write “Planting is like Baptism, Watering is like Communion… etc.” I Used watercolor pencils, and I think it looked great :P AJ drew a tree, and in the branches, showed the fruit of the spirit being done (for Love, he showed people with arms around each other, and for patience he showed a big brother playing with a younger sibling, things like that) in each branch. For writing, I wrote about our OYO (Orthodox Youth Outreach) trip, and helping the poor. Then I also did poetry, which I wrote a poem on what one of the homeless people said on the trip. We were passing out donuts, and after they were all gone, a lady came, and after hearing they were all gone she looked disappointed, but then smiled and said “Well, how about a hug?” That really touched me, and so I decided to make a poem out of it, which turned out nicely. (Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of them before we sent them out, so for now you'll have to put up with my clip art, nice huh?)

Okay like I said, I will try and be more consistent, and I hope I can write more often… So ttyl! (For now) :)

(Title Lyrics from "I am the Vine" by Steve Green)

"The thunder rolls and the lighting flashed..."

2008-06-24T11:18:00.001-07:00

I’m through security… finally! They made me check my carry-on, which I’m not happy about. And on top of everything else, there is a thunderstorm five miles away and flights are being delayed… let’s all pray I get to San Diego… soon! :)

(Title lyrics from “Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks)

"Now that it's all said and done..."

2008-06-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

History Day went extremely well. We made it past our preliminary round as one of the top two in our room. This qualified us for the final round (a compilation of the top two Senior group performances from every room); we were now one of fourteen. We didn’t place in the top three, we actually ended up in 9th, but God has truly blessed us in the experience. To our complete surprise, Joel, Isaac and I (and I should mention our wonderful teacher/mother, Barbara) were awarded with the Colonial Williamsburg Award, given to the best project that has to do with a Revolutionary or Colonial topic. This topic also included a $5,000 scholarship to be spilt amongst the three of us. This was truly a great honor and blessing.

(Title lyrics from "Over You" by Daughtry)

"This is the time, this is the time..."

2008-06-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well, to let you know a little bit about where I am and what I’m doing: I am sitting directly across from the restrooms at Providence, RI International Airport. You may have known this – I didn’t – but Southwest Airlines does not allow you to check your baggage over four hours from your departure time. I know. I know. Ridiculous. :)

So, Isaac and Mom took off at 8am (our time, so 5am for most of you) and my flight doesn’t leave until 5:40pm. That means until 1:40pm (East Coast) I have been and will continue to be stuck on this side of security.

Over the next hour or so, I’m going to try and whip out some posts about our trip (that is only half done for me). If I leave anything out, let me know. I’ll be here for another… 5 hours and 40 minutes. :)

(Title lyrics from "Time of My Life" by David Cook)

"You know the sun's still shining when you close your eyes..."

2008-04-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

We're back from Boise, and the long-lost-Jordan-who-was-supposed-to-post-weeks-ago, has returned. :P Sorry about the lack of posts. NHD has made life crazy, but apparently, for good reason. For those of you who don't know, the State competition was a success. Joel, Isaac and I placed first in our division (Senior Group Performance), which was wholly unexpected. Above and beyond that, we were utterly baffled to receive the Governor’s award, given to "the best of the best" in the State of Idaho, without dividing by age, category or number of participant. That was an immense blessing!

More to come over the next few days; the trip, the competition, the bull-roundup outside our hotel and more. :P Stay tuned!

For now, I leave you with a slide-show, AJ and I pulled together (picture taken in December). Enjoy!

More pictures from IHD avalible here.

(Title lyrics from "It's a Great Day to be Alive" by Travis Tritt)

"Studyin' about that good ol' way..."

2008-03-24T20:51:00.001-07:00

So, we’ve been busy this weekend and the week before preparing for it. Bishop Joseph, the current bishop presiding over the western diocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, came to visit our church and spend time with the other Orthodox churches in the area. It was a great blessing.

On Thursday, we picked up “Sayidna” (Arabic for “master”) from the airport around noon. The following day, he spoke to a number of different groups in the area combining the three churches (Christ the Savior, St. John’s and St. Nicholas). This time was for Sayidna to be asked questions, and he would also talk to the different groups about specific things. He talked to the woman first in a luncheon at Christ the Savior with tea and a brunch. I went to that, but unfortunately I didn’t get to hear him talk, because I was baby-sitting for all the little kids. Later that evening Sayidna spoke with the teens. They prayed over a soup dinner and got to hear him speak for awhile about subjects apropos to being an Orthodox young adult in the world. A couple questions were asked and answered and Sayidna moved on to the more important group… my group!

The younger kids (13 and under) got to spend an hour with Sayidna before Akathist. He didn’t talk much but there were lots of interesting questions. I asked him if it was okay to pray for animals, even if they aren’t human beings. He told me that we should pray for and respect all creation. Referring to the rug that the bishop stands on during the service, one boy asked, “What does the eagle mean on your rug?”. Designed onto the rug is an eagle flying over a city. Sayidna told the boy it meant that the bishop was like the eagle, higher than all other clergy or people in the church and responsible for protecting them.

Early Saturday morning the family (minus Jordan who was at work) went to Christ the Savior for liturgy. Afterwards Sayidna talked on how we should not care about where people come from and focus less on a person’s outward life, but more about their inside. When a flight attendant asked him what accent he had, he explained to us that if you get to know a person, talk to them for a while you would find out. But you should learn more about the inside, instead of focusing on their outside. That night there was Great Vespers at St. John’s. He talked about how we should not shush the babies while we are in church. They have excuses: they are tired, they are excited, “whatever”. Because of this, we should never be angry at them. They are young and this too shall pass.

Sunday was a very big day. We celebrated a hierarchical liturgy and it was beautiful! Afterwards, the ladies of St. John’s provided a stunning feast of ethnic Arabic food and we kids provided some entertainment. We sang three songs: John 3:16, Walking in the Light of God and the favorite, Down in the River. Also, we presented a gift to Sayidna, a collage of pictures taken of the kids at St. John’s, all in the shape of a cross. Sayidna enjoyed the singing so much that he thought that we should make a CD! The choir sang as well, song composed by our own Rdr. Michael. It was beautiful.

Last but not least, people from Christ the Savior and St. John’s joined the parish of St. Nicholas in a vespers service on Sunday night. Fr. Barnard (pastor of St. Nicholas) was elevated to Archpriest and it was wonderful to spend time with their congergation. We said good-bye to Sayidna but hope it won’t be too long before we see him again…

(Title lyrics from "Down in the River" an old gospel song)

"We can’t forget, these are the days…"

2008-03-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

We’re back… What a crazy week! Sorry to leave you alone for the week. Ellena is right now working on a post for tomorrow about our amazing weekend: it will be a two-part post over a couple days. For now, my to-do list for the night includes,

download all the pictures I took over the weekend w/ my new AMAZING camera
finally, get some sleep!

(Title lyrics from "These are the Days" by Sugarland)

"Look at this photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh..."

2008-03-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Clu-click, clu-click, clu-click… Some of you may not be familiar with this sound. This sound is from a rare and beautiful thing that has recently become part of our family life, and more particularly, my own. It belongs to a EOS 20D, Canon, Digital Camera. With 8.2 megapixels and a 4GB memory card, I am finally getting to pursue my dream of photography. Here’s the story:

For over a year I had begun to develop a love for photos. My younger siblings gave me ample opportunities for taking out the family’s small digital and getting some great shots. When in need of better quality, a wonderful man from our church and family friend who is very invested in his photography hobby would let us borrow his impressive Canon digitals. My mother and I fell in love with these astounding manmade creations! They were so fast and the quality of the images was spectacular.

So, I began my hunt for a camera of my own. It was only last week when I spoke to Mr. Townsend (the man from our church) about his resent upgrade to a newer version of the EOS. It was during this conversation that he offered to sell his retired, but still in great shape, camera (now the one sitting on my bookshelf). Mr. Townsend made us an amazing offer (less than half what the camera was selling for on eBay) and the end of last week, my parents and I co-bought the camera together. I told them that I wanted to buy it myself, but my mother wanted to guarantee her share of time using it, so we spilt the cost two ways (I paid 66.667% and my parents 33.333% :P).

The point of the matter is, you are all going to see the outcome of this amazing camera here on the blog. As I begin to expand my horizons in terms of photography (and upgrade to more hard drive space to fit it all on my computer), this blog will be decorated with lots of my numerous shots. Please let me know what you think!

So long for now!

(Title lyrics from “Photograph” by Nickelback)

"The good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb..."

2008-03-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

After two months of hard work and three weeks of utter chaos, scrabbling to get the project completed, Regional History Day was over after we performed at 11am. How did I reward us for all our hard work? I started a blog.

Our goal in this blog is to keep you updated on the ins and outs of the Schaefer life. With most of the literate members of the family as contributors, we hope to have fresh posts for you to read consistently. Be sure to comment and let us know what you think!

Back to History Day: For those you for who don’t know the story, after being told repeatedly since September that we would be doing a project, Joel, Isaac and myself (with our WONDERFUL mother and grandmother as leaders, helpers and counselors) finally started research on our topic in January. We had chosen as a topic, John Adams and his part in the Boston Massacre of 1770.

At the moment, as much as I’d like to, I can’t share with you about all the interesting facts we did learn about the situation and the events that lead up to, happened on and followed after March 5th 1770. What I can tell you is our Wiki page that we used during research, is being built up and should be available for browsing in the not-too-distant future. We’ll update you as soon as that is up and running.

March 15th, 2008 was our deadline and the date of Idaho History Day’s regional competition. From those in the audience and the judges, we are told that the performance was wonderful and of amazing quality. Each of the three judges gave us fantastic marks; simply gushing about the depth, superiority and measure of our research and then the quality of the performance and the actual acting.

For better or for worse, we were the only Senior Group Performance at Regional, which means we had no competition. But we were given a “well deserved” first-place and are heading to the State Competition in Caldwell, ID (Albertson College) on April 11th. Your prayers as we continue to develop our project and finalize our research would be greatly appreciated.

(Title lyrics from "Mountains" by Lonestar)