Flaming Video

I got the video of our flaming cheese adventures on YouTube, so I can embed it onto here. Sorry - it's sideways. Oh well, you can still see the fire (and that's the most important part)!
More food adventures up ahead: Sushi and Ribs. (Not at the same time. hehe)

I Did It!

Now, it is 11:30 p.m. I had some chocolate. Jinny gave me a mocha frappucinno. My parents promised me a chocolate bar if I completed it tonight. I listened to Josh Groban and Irish music. And I finished my first draft. Oh, what a relief. I don't have to look to doing it tomorrow. My brother told me; Jinny told me -- that when you finish it, you feel good. Oh, yay! I don't have to do it tomorrow!!! I don't have to do it tomorrow!!!! No writing paper tomorrow!!!!!!! Thank you, Jesus! I can do all things through Him who strengthens me!!!!

Oh, Joy!

I Should Be Doing Something Else...

Namely, I should be working on my research paper. Need to write it by Monday. Just lost half an hour doing the dishes and looking at blogs. I think I shall listen to Josh Groban as I write...

Um, here is a HAPPY, HAPPY picture:

He is so cute, I could just cuddle him all day!!! Yay for Judah!!!

While I'm at it, why don't I post some more happy pictures? "Well," you mighty say, "maybe because you need to be doing your research paper." But hah, I will still post pictures. Although, all of a sudden I am feeling guilty of passivity or something. Maybe one picture:

Hi Rachel~Hi Noemi! I miss you! You're at college. College is too far away from me....

Flaming Cheese

Today, I had this feeling. I had to do something fun with my friends or else I would shut down or something. So, we made flaming cheese! We had been meaning to ever since we went to the Parthenon downtown and had flaming cheese (saganaki). We have made it before, but never with Jinny, so we did it today!
We already had the alcohol from the last time we made it, but we had to go buy cheese.

Making Saganaki
1.Cut the cheese

2.Soak the piece of cheese in egg then cover in flour.

3.Fry cheese

4.Pour alcohol...

5.Light it6."Opa!!!"

(you put out the flame with lemon. yummy)

Here is our alcohol saved from last time:

Can you read the note taped to the Dasani water bottle? "Alcohol for flaming cheese. Don't pour out!"

So, of course, this whole time I am taking pictures in order to put them on my blog. Oh yes, I think about my blog. :) And, sorry, but the really good pic of fire is on a video, which I don't know how to put on the blog. Any ideas? I guess I can post it on YouTube. I'll try.

And, of course, you need some group pics at the end:

Flooding

Today was quite interesting. We had lots of rain and some small hail, I think. (part of that same storm that caused the tornadoes in Alabama and the blizzard in Iowa...I think :) In the middle of first period, the boys were summoned to help move furniture. Then, later, the girls were summoned to help the Pre-school teacher set up her make shift classroom in a new room upstairs. Her room downstairs had flooded. The boys carried up her tables and chairs (which looks incredibly heavy -- good job, boys). We had to clean the chairs and get the room ready, then join all the other high schoolers who were down in the basement in a long assembly line emptying the storage room that was getting lots of water in it. It was cool: A few people were in the room, would slide a desk or hand a box to the next person, who would slide it into the next little hallway to someone who would slide it to the person at the bottom of the small staircase, who would carry it up the staircase and hand it off to someone at the top of the staircase, who would slide it to the person just through the next door, who would slide it into the lunchroom.
And what do you think was in that storage room?
Well...
Desks,

Computers,

Shelves,

Some flags,

(one of which, by the way, someone tried to throw out! I remembered back to the old 8th grade Constitution test days...Oh boy. You can't throw away an American flag!!! If you have to destroy it, you must honorably burn it. There. My point is made. I am an American.)

Some fake trees,

(minus the oranges)

Some books,

More books,

And some more books,

And all of these books were in cardboard boxes, many of which looked much like this one:

So we had to check all the books, to see if they had water damage. That was a lot of books. And, of course, the largest boxes of books, got the wettest, so, en route up the stairs, the box would completely break on the side, and the numerous books would just tumble out on the floor, right there where we had to make numerous trips to carry them up the stairs, across the gym, and to the table.

This whole time, it is still raining outside. So, we got to get in the rain whenever we took books out to be throw into the dumpster. I like going in the rain. I like throwing things into the dumpster. It brings a strange, fulfilling sense of...cleaning, perhaps?...cleansing, maybe?... how 'bout GETTING RID OF TONS OF STUFF THAT ISN'T NEEDED? that's more like it.

It was quite a fun day. Our dear, dear teachers bought us all pizza for lunch for helping. Then the girls finished the movie we've been watching in Girls' Bible (One Night with the King about Esther), and later I taught my choir class.

The day was kind of trying, quite fun, and titanically tiring (good one, huh? "titanically tiring" hehe.)

I didn't want to leave school; Mr. Pan suggested things for me to do at home: knit something and bake a cheesecake in my springform pan that my mom got me for Valentine's Day. (I think he just wanted cheesecake). Well, I did crochet, and I tried to make cheesecake, but, I couldn't get cream cheese. Sorry, Mr. Pan. Oh, and, when I got home I made my bed very nicely, with the sheets and the blanket tucked very well, and the comforters taken off and put back on so that they were evenly placed, and then, the pillows. Ahhh, yes.

Shoop

My English teacher told me today that the singular of sheep is...shoop. He said, "It makes sense: Geese, goose; sheep, shoop."

Slurpee

Chicago is covered in slurpee. Or, at least, it was when I went to the mailbox this morning. I was thinking how I could write on my blog how the snow is half ice/half snow, but then I realized - it's a slurpee! It was seriously that consistancy.

This morning, I spent a very long time reading Great Expectations. I'm exactly half way through (page 245 of 490 pages). I read probably for about 2 hours all put together, and Merchant Band played even longer in my stereo. I always put music on when I'm in my room, and I turn it on when I wake up. So, Merchant Band was in and they kept playing until about one o'clock.

My sister was recently telling me about how she read Dickens first in junior high, and it was so dismal that she didn't read it again for about 18 years. He does kind of write about the icky parts of the human soul without Jesus, and, it's not very pretty. Oh well, I hope I don't get completely turned off. The book is interesting, but it's not as funny as it was at first. A little dismal. And sad.

I spent time creating my pages of notes for my Literature paper (the one about life in England during World War II). My teacher lent me this interesting book about the Home Guard. I think one of their main purposes was to defend the land in case of a German land invasion. Look at these lists (I'll pick a few interesting ones) that were given to the Home Guard soldiers as instructions:

"If the Invader Comes..."

2. Do not believe rumours and do not spread them.

4. Do not give the German anything.

Do not tell him anything

Hide your food and your bicycles.

Hide your maps.

See that the enemy gets no petrol.

5. Think before you act. BUT THINK ALWAYS OF YOUR COUNTRY BEFORE YOU THINK OF YOURSELF.

I like the "hide your food and your bicycles." It was practical and necessary then; now, it sounds kind of funny. The capital letters are in the book.

"What I must do"

a. Become proficient in, and make a companion of, my firearm

c. Regard all strangers with suspicion.

e.Check subversive or defeatist talk and discourage all rumours.

So, showing my Dad this interesting book led to an interesting happening. My dad. in the hallway. with his air gun. practicing his German soldier commands. "Halt! Wer da?" He says if he were in that time, he would learn the German commands. I said "Oh boy" or something to that effect.

What else to write about? I decided that I want to look at the Oscars dresses tonight. I was impressed by this one of Cate Blanchett a few years ago.

I'm not interested at all really in any of the movies this year, but the clothes are fun to see. Sometimes. Often not, actually. But sometimes.

Alright. Adios!

Back at School

Today, I was back at school. I coughed some very deep coughs that lasted for a quite a while,but at the end of the day, I had a lot of energy. But now, I have been to the library too, and, I'm tired, and it's late, and my head hurts, and I shouldn't be complaining. I would love to sleep right now. But I need to make an outline. And report on six Civil War battles. And start gathering information about life in England during World War II. If you know anything about Life in England During World War II, please, let me know. Or if you know where I can find out more about it.

Oh, and, Amy, I'm reading Great Expecations! (Not that that piece of info is only for Amy, she just had read it and told the story to me). It sounded like a very complicated story, but it was interesting, so, even though I hadn't personally read the book, I told the story (what I could remember and keep straight. I think it was kind of one of those I'll-remember-as-I-go-along situations) to Mr. Pan and Amy (the other one - did you know that my best friend and my sister both have the name Amy Peterson?? Ooh) Great Expecations is quite enjoyable so far. I have never read a Charles Dickens book before, but I feel like I should read more classics, so I am very glad to be reading it. It is funny! Ha!

I'm tired, and I feel like I have tons to do, but I wanted to say that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I shall finish my work!

Cutest Bugs in Rugs

Oh my goodness -- soooooo cute.

Can you believe the smile??????

These are the newest of my nieces -- the top one is Arden and the bottom one is Glorie. They are sooo cute! They're almost the same age -- around 2.5 and 3 months.

Oh, boy!

Around but Significant

And...I'm still sitting around trying to get rid of this sickness. I thought maybe I should name it something that expressed its position of enemy or something, but, nothing very creative came to mind. Maybe...um...I don't know. Can I take suggestions? One of those, I-can't-believe-anyone-would-name-their-kid-that names. The danger with those is that someone might actually know someone who had that name, or their great-grandpa had that name, because lots of the names we can't believe now were popular a few generations ago. Like Jemimah. My mom almost named my sister Jemimah I think, but now...I can't believe that name.

So I've been watching the show of the people who did good at the US Ice Skating Nationals, and, it made me wish that I had something that I did really well. Something where I could get the top. Win the gold medal or win the competition, get into Harvard, something. But the truth is, that I don't have to do any of those things to be significant. None of that is what's necessary. There's this lie that I think attacks tons of people, saying that significance comes with something you do. That Importance comes when you do something that society says is "important." But that's not what Jesus says! So why do we believe it? I do want to rest and know that Jesus is my worth, my significance. He loves me as much now as He would if I ice-skated to the gold medal, practiced for 20 hours a day and won the piano competition, if I went to Harvard, if I was perfect. He couldn't love me more than He does now. I want to do something to make someone proud of me. Well, Jesus has already given me that. Every word He speaks to me affirms that His love for me is not performance-based. I fall down sometimes. I fall down and have a hard time believing that I don't have to do anything to be loved. But He can help me believe it. He can help me believe Him.

By the way, happy Chinese New Year!

Vicky and Me

Or is it Vicky and I?

Food?

Can you call it food? All I've eaten today is Ramen noodles. And sherbet. (Alright, and a little chocolate cake) But mainly Ramen noodles. The hot broth makes the pain in my throat completely go away for a few minutes.