Sound of Music

My sisters and mom and I just got back from Sound of Music. Good music, but not the best acting.
Yesterday, our family celebrated Sam (my brother) and I's birthday. I got a onething sweater!!! And some cds and My Fair Lady and Oklahoma on DVD.
Bless the Lord, Oh my soul! Bless you guys!

We saw it

So, we saw it. Mixed reactions. Very good movie, movie-wise. But actually scary. Amazing special effects and you do get to feel for Kong, but it was tense. There was one part where I kind of starting crying just from the fear I would feel if I was in the girl's part. She was hanging onto this ladder that broke part-way off of the Empire State Building, and was hanging out over the city. I would be so scared. There were also some native people that were totally demon possessed, and they were weird. Some covering of mine eyes went on there and in a part where an oversized leech ate a man whole. Amy and OJ aided. Good realistic fight scenes between 3 T-Rexes and Kong, and he gains the girl's trust. Of course, my favorite part could easily be the love story between the girl and Jack (played by Adrian Brody). The girl was a good actress. Anyhoo, it's late. TTFN

King Kong

Yo, everyone. Well, my family just made plans to go see King Kong later. And tomorrow we're celebrating my brother's and my birthday together so that we can celebrate with everyone. My birthday is 2 1/2 weeks away!!!! Exciting. On Wednesday, we're going to see the Sound of Music on stage and some more really close friends are coming! Adios! Blessings: hope you're having an awesome break!!!

Merry Christmas

Hello! Are you having a blast during Christmas? I hope so. I am. My family's here. Little Ariel is toddling around switching between her silly face, being the lipless wonder (pulling her lips around her teeth and opening her mouth wide) and panting like a dog whenever she heard the word "doggy" We had a cool worship and sharing time before we opened presents and it was good to look at Jesus before opening our gifts. Her hair is so long! Lots of movies are being given this season (I got Star Wars III!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so we will be watching some of those. My brothers spend most of their time playing James Bond. Ariel is the cutest-I have to stop writing so that I can play with her!!!

P.S.

P.S. WE'RE ON CHRISTMAS BREAK! (and I'm watching Star Wars) :)

Hi!

Hey! My sister is here! I haven't seen her in a long time, so it's good to see her. The rest of my family will be here soon. I'm excited about Christmas, but we still need a tree! Maybe we can get one tonight. Blessings!
Annie

Braces

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time!~
Well, first of all, I'm getting braces. My first appointment is on Tuesday. I feel like my teeth are really crooked, so I'm glad.
And, last night I went to see Chronicles of Narnia! that's the 2nd movie I've seen on opening day (last one was Pride and Prejudice). It was very well made, and very good effects, and I loved that you get to know the kids. Aslan didn't grip me, sadly, but that might be because I'm a little older. I read the book last week, and he didn't grip me then either. I like his lines, though, that kind of explain Jesus' sacrifice. I hope that people can come to Jesus through it.
And, next week is my music school performance. Our choir is singing Carol of the Bells and the Hallelujah Chorus (plus other things)! I hope it goes well. This leads me to the fact that I've been having quite a few dreams lately, as have my friends. I'll have to talk to you each personally to explain some of them, but at least one of them is really cool, at least I think. :) Some people already know what I'm talking about. :)
This coming week is the last week before Christmas Break! Tht's pretty exciting, especially because my family's coming! And little Ariel will be walking all around! By the way, when are you guys coming???
Love to you!
Annie

Staying Home from School

Hey, everybody! Guess what? Mom has kept me home from school to help her with school work for a deadline. She kept me home yesterday, today, and she's going to tomorrow. I won't talk about how I feel about that. :) I actually am a little sick (if you guys could pray for me that'd be great). Gotta go! May Jesus' blessings shower abundantly on each of you!! He loves you, and I do too!
Annie

Wedding

Hey you guys! I'm actually watching Revenge of the Sith right now.
So we had Thanksgiving and I ate lots of food and extra lots of pumpkin pie, including the day after.
Then today we went to a wedding. It was these people we know. She used to go to our school (with my sister), and then she taught there. I got to see some people we don't get to see very often, and that was cool. Worship was really good, and the service was half in Spanish and half in English. A passage was also read in Hebrew - I was really excited about that.
Talk to you guys later!

Monarch of Pride and Prejudicy Thanksgiving

Hey, everybody!
It's been so long since I've posted. Thansgiving is just around the corner! We get Thursday and Friday off, and even the days we do have school is pretty low-key. Tuesday after lunch is all setting up the Harvest Party and then Wednesday is the Harvest Party.

So far, I've seen the new Pride and Prejudice twice. It is good. A lot of the characters are nicer: Jane isn't such an airhead, Darcy is gentler and you can see more of him sooner, Elizabeth's change in heart is well portrayed, Mr. Bennet is gentler, and Mary isn't as cold and you see more of Charlotte's reasoning in marrying Mr. Collins, and you feel kind of sorry for her (in the A&E/BBC one, she seems kind of cold-hearted and separated). It's more romantic, which I like, and don't fret if at the beginning of the movie, you're not sure about how Mr. Darcy looks, he'll grow on you (that's the way it was for my friend Stephanie. Much of this commentary was partly noticed by her.) They don't go into the Wickham situation quite as much, and Stephanie liked that. Wickham looks much like Orlando Bloom-just a warning. But Darcy is so sweet, and you do love him and you love watching him love Lizzie and love his sister.

And, I've really gotten into this show called Monarch of the Glen. Stephanie has a bunch of them recorded, and I have watched so much of it recently, it's crazy. It' skind of sad, though, because by the point I'm at watching it, the really important guy is gone (he was pretty cute, and the stuff his character did was interesting. He married the girl you wanted him to marry, and I really like watching him and his wife together. They're cute together). He's the laird of this estate in Scotland-everybody has accents, and, it's a fun show. And one of the actor's names is Hamish. and he always wears a kilt.

Anyhoo, here's a new post. Bless you guys! Love you!~

So much stuff!

Hello everyone. It feels like there's so much stuff to talk about. I don't know if I'll cover it all. Forgive me if I don't.

First of all, I'm in the middle of midterms. I have two more tests left, I think. Bible and History tomorrow. (Friday) If you have the chance, could you please pray for us(me and the rest of the school).

Okay, in the last post I told about how the White Sox were at the World Series! We swept it and won!! Yeah! We were excited. I was at my friend's house watching it. You missed some exciting stuff if you didn't watch it-can someone tell me whether or not the games were aired all around the country. Uribe facilitate two of the last three outs with some awesome playing. For one, he caught a foul ball by jumping into the stand. Next, for the last out needed for the World Series, he got a ball in motion on the ground and instantaneously threw it to first base with perfect aim. Amazing. Thanks you guyu for such awesome playing! Konerko, Podsednik, Uribe, Crede, Bobby Jenks!!!,Since we are who we are (or more I am who I am) I was also excited to find out that Podsednik is engaged! Coolio.

Last Saturday, I went to this forest preserve with my friends to celebrate my friend Rachel's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACHEL! It was quite exciting while we explored. We climbed down into the dried up river-bed and found a baseball and a stick that could be a bat. I tried to pitch like a White Sox pitcher. Dunno how well it worked. :) As we walked along, we came upon this pool of dark stuff on the leaves and rocks, and my friend Amy commented that it looked like orc blood. A couple seconds later, as we walked along, she screamed and I pulled her away from whatever she was looking towards as she exclaimed that it looked like a cheetah. As we took a second look, it was a dead deer carcass! It's legs were gone and it was picked clean to the bone. We took some pictures of it, and noticed that some of the skin was bunched up by its head. The head was totally intact. As we walked on, there were more pools of blood. My dad says that these are the most likely occurrences:
1) It got hit by a car, wandered off, died, and the coyotes ate it
2) A hunter illegally shot it, it wandered too far off, and the coyotes ate it.
3) A pack of dogs attacked it, ate some, and the coyotes ate the rest
4) 1 in 10,000 chance that a cougar got it, ate some, and the coyotes ate the rest
We stayed around for a while, and walked around and ate on the dried up waterfall in the dark. (salomi and cheese sandwiches-I was so excited!)

And then yesterday we had a birthday tea for her(we have tea every Wednesday) and I gave her Star Wars III for a present. It was so hard because we had to study and do homework so we couldn't , like, watch the whole movie. We just watched some parts (Padme parts) and all day we've been quoting to each other "You're breaking my heart!" and "You're going down a path I can't follow!" We want to watch it so bad, though, and so whenever I would quote the heart line, the other ones would get upset. Anyway, tomorrow we're having a sleepover to watch the whole movie, Lord-willing.

So, I'm very excited about Star Wars, birthday celebrations, World Series wins, and whatever else comes along.

Love and blessings to you all!
P.S. Email me!

World Series

The White Sox are going to the World Series!! Now, I'm a Cubs fan, but I'm still way happy because Chicago is Chicago. Congratulations!!! Now, I just wonder who we will play!!

Also, on the night that they won their second game, I was with my friends making flaming cheese. We had fun and the first time it didn't light up, so we had to go get more stuff to put on it(alcohol) and then it flared up really high just as the Sox were walking victoriously off the field. It was funny because the flame was so high that everyone got scared and forgot to say "Opa!" Then Mr. Pan remembered when he saw the White Sox won. My friends got to ride a motorcycle too and we stayed up late. I have a lot of fun with my friends!! :) :) :)

Promised Pictures (well, some of them)

This is my friend Kristen stomping on an apple.

This is my weird bite.

Well, actually, these are only two of them because the things stopped working,but I'll try to post more later.

I'm Back

Hey, everybody!
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. That was right when school started, right? Well, now I'm five weeks in and having a blast. I love the people around me. At the moment I just finished volleyball practice. This is the last month because then the season's over. My schedule is pretty full, actually. I have homework and then on Mondays and Thursdays I have volleyball, Tuesday I have worship practice, and Wednesday I go to my friends' house and we have tea. That is super fun, and I spend a lot of time with their family. I've kind of been grafted in, and it only adds that both our last names are Peterson! This past weekend, me, those two other Petersons, my friend Kristen who looks like me, and our friend (and math and science teacher) Mr. Pan went apple picking! We got to sit at Wendy's and eat frosties, and we bought a pumpkin, and we investigated why I bite weird.
You see, sometimes when I bite an apple, there's an extra little bit that was bitten above the big bite, but I only bit once. Is that confusing? I'll try to post a picture because we took a picture of the apple, and we took a video of me biting. Anyway, after we were investigating, I was biting under pressure and it didn't always happen. We had fun just hanging out.
I also would like to post the picture of the pine-apple my friends made. They took pine needles and stuck them in an apple and it was very prettiful.
Another thing about the apples: we had fun like taking one bite and finding out we didn't like it and just throwing it aside. The ones that are really good, at least right now, are either the Jonathans or the McIntosh (I'm not sure which one they are) Also, they were coated with pesticide, making them look white when really, by just rubbing the white stuff off, you could see that they were a shiny red. That's kind of gross-poison!
We thought that we would be able to pick the raspberries, too, but they weren't for picking yet. We just each picked one (except for Kristen) but it didn't taste very good, and we had just been discovering the pesticide, and now we knew that the raspberries were covered in it, too. The only thing is that trying the rub the pesticide off of a raspberry doesn't work very well.
Oh, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Hannah.
Also, friends, I would love it if you e-mailed me! I love hearing from you! I haven't heard from some of you in such a long time!! (Erin :)
Love to you guys and may Jesus bless you!

I'm a High Schooler

Hey, everybody!
Yep, I'm a high schooler and there's NO TURNING BACK. Never again will I be in elementary school!!!
Today was my first day of school!! (Not ever, of course...:) It was also my first day of high school!! It's really cool to be the one of the big kids. I felt like a big kid last year, but now I feel like I really am. I have a locker, decked out with pictures of my family and New Song. I get to look at Punkin' every time I open it!!!
Lunch was also a big thing. Last year, we weren't even supposed to get out of our seat to throw our garbage away without asking, and now we can go outside, and even walk down the street! Just walking around is such a novelty to me!! :)
Yet another novelty is the way we are to write. In elementary school and jr. high, we always had to use cursive, now, not only do we not have to use cursive, but our humanities teacher actually prefers that we don't!! (By the way, for those of you who know her, Becs, friend of Dorothy, is my History, English and Choir teacher, and Robyn Pickens is Gym and eventually, Lord-willing, volleyball coach to a real volleyball team!! Not just a club!!
Today was a great start, and I have already gotten to tell a little bit about my summer of freedom!!
Tomorrow is our first chapel of the year, and I am on the worship team singing!
God bless you all and I love you so very very very very much!! I miss you!

I want to go on a road trip!!!

Hey, everyone! Here are a couple pictures from my sister Elizabeth's wedding in May (well, one picture..they just take so long to upload! there is another I want to show you)! We had a lot of fun! Well, as my last post stated, my sister Amy is here, but tomorrow she and good friend Kim set out on their journey to Tacoma, Pac NW! Tomorrow night they'll be on a friend's family farm in South Dakota, and then the next days in Montana visiting Glacier National Park. They're gonna have a lot of fun!!! Today they were packing up the car, and it made me want to go with them!! But school starts next Tuesday! I'm excited to see Jesus' plans unfold during the year!

P.S. I will try to post a pic of orange room soon!!! :)

Amy's here!

My sister Amy just got here, to Chicago! She has been in Kansas City, MO for the last month. Soon she will be on her way to Tacoma-so you guys better get ready 'cause she's pretty awesome!!! :)
I just set up my new room today. I will try to post a picture of the new orange abode soon!!
Blessings!

Needed a picture...

So, I wanted to put a picture on this post, and I'm on my friend's computer and she had these!
I miss all of you in Tacoma! Know that I love you all so very much and you have such a SPECIAL place in my life!!!
I hope that I can come back and visit soon!
I haven't been back very long, but I have been pretty busy. I went to a Chicago Fire (the soccer team) game on Saturday night, and yesterday (Monday) I went shopping some for school with my mom. And then today I went swimming with my friend Laura (on whose computer I am on :) and am hanging out at her house, so I GOTTA GO! Love and blessings!

Zoo & Aquarium

Yesterday, we went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. It was fun and it had some great views of the Bay. It's really cool that they can have it right near the water. It's kind of on a hill above the water. Apparently, at the Seattle Aquarium, they actually keep some of the animals in Puget Sound, and you can see them, they're just netted into the area. There are some native sharks in the Sound, which is interesting.
The Zoo was nice. You can see some pictures of Ariel experiencing the sting ray tank and the seahorses.

The other thing is that the Tacoma aquarium has a tank of quite a few sharks and they're not wimpy ones like in Chicago. This is sad because Chicago has such a great aquarium, but you have to pay $8 extra to go to Wild Reef, and then the sharks are kind of disappointing. Here the sharks were cool. I went in to look at them with a little boy named Adam. We went to the zoo with him, his mom, and his brother. It was fun!
They have tigers, but we didn't see them, and they have elephants, and monkeys, and whales and a giant millipede that I couldn't find in the tank and some big grasshoppers from the SE United States. As well as the sting rays.

And at the end of it all...

Blueberry Pie

Ariel has experienced blueberries. This picture is from a couple of days ago, but today we bought a half-flat of blueberries and made 2 blueberry pies for our guests tonight. A lot of people turned out not being able to come, but hopefully a few will come and we'll have lots of fun playing games and eating pie!
More on the picture... The hairs at the side of the head are affectionately known as "old man hairs" OJ chose to style them. I think she looks like Bozo the clown. She had a bath soon after the time of this picture and was all back to normal afterwards-blueberry free.
More on the pies... Sadly, 3 of the 4 crusts didn't work very well as dough. They fell apart, therefore the top of one pie is just some random circles of dough placed on blueberries and the other pie, both top and bottom crust is just pushed together with fingers. They accidentally got put into the freezer instead of the fridge to cool before using them, and, when tasted, the dough tasted like the freezer smells-you know that kind of cold, dry, stale smell. But Suzy says that it tastes good baked, (they are now out of the oven).
Prayer request: Joy!!
God bless you all!!!!
Annie

Rainier

Today, we went to Ranier! It was such a blessing! The weather was perfect, Ariel was happy mostly, we ate a great picnic lunch and did some hiking around the base! We went about 1.6 miles each way. We stopped to put our feet in a creek. It was cold! The water's from the mountain, melted. It was a lot of fun!
Ranier had been the only extra thing besides the church, people, and the family in my mind that I wanted to do, coming here! Now we have done it!
Praise Jesus! He made it so beautiful!

"For you shall go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,

and all the treses of the field shall clap

their hands."

Isaiah 55:12

(there were a lot of trees :)

To be able to walk through there resting in the peace of the Lord, and then also to receive this gift of just plain having fun! He has made something beautiful and it is definitely another work to praise Him for! How much greater, though, is the work He has done in us and for us! He loves us!

Yes, He is the giver of joy and the Prince of Peace. Joy ,as well as peace, is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and if we are believers, we are promised the Holy Spirit!

God bless you all!

Psalm 90:2"Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

Just the Beginning

Hello, Friends!
How are you all? Filled with joy, I hope! Jesus is Good.
I have two more weeks in Tacoma! It can be really sad but also exciting at the prospect of being back in Chicago. It's sad because I love love love the people here and the church here! I've made so many new friends that I never want to lose contact with. The Lord has done so much and is going to do so much, I know! He has taken me through just trusting Him with the timing because He is ordering my steps and whatever plan He has for me is the best! I so look forward to being back with you all and telling you about what Jesus has done!!! I have to trust Him that He will have me equipped to His degree when He takes me back and that He will keep on working and the Holy Spirit will work inside me, too.
God bless all of you!!!
Taking back ground that will never be stolen again in Jesus' Name,
Annie