Sister and Sisteh...and Me

What is the difference between a Sister and a Sisteh?

Sister: A sister. Duh.

Sisteh: A BFF who is a girl.

Good to have that cleared up.

Anyway...yesterday and today I got to hang out with my Sister (which happens like...EVERY DAY and lost a lot of its excitement about ten years ago) and my Sisteh (which happens hardly at all and is crazy exciting for both me and my Sister!!!).

How was it?

The words...

Epic

Awesome

Amazing

Crazy

Sugary

Musical

Giggly

Supercalifragilisticexpealidoshis

Bouya

and

OHMYSTINKINGGOSH (yes thats one word).

Pretty much.

Why was this so special, exactly?

Well.....

Nine years ago (roughly...) I met this crazy girl when we both tried to stop a girl younger than us from picking up dead mice with her bare hands.

(For those concerned, yes, we managed to stop her.)

The little girl walked away.

We started playing spies, drinking cocoa, and generally were insane little girls with big imaginations and big hearts.

That girl was my very first (and I am NOT KIDDING) friend.

Ever.

We've been friends for nine years (roughly...).

A little while after this, my younger Sister became friends with my Sisteh.

At first, being a petty young child who fought with her siblings more than she should, i was furious. How dare that pipsqueak of a little sister steal MY friend!?!?

Finally, over the years, i got over this, as i realized my Sister and i now had (and have) a common bond!

Cool.

Anyway.....

We had a BLAST.

We watched The Sorceror's Apprentice (as i say to all movies i like even remotely: BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!).

We toasted each others health, happiness, and tooth loss.

We took a million or so pictures, most of which we would have burned on the spot (also known as 'deleting') if it hadn't been for how happy we looked (stupid faces/poses/outfits/ideas aside).

We ate more sugar than any TWELVE people have any right to.

We put on makeup.

We did hair.

We drew on funky pink shirts with permanant markers.

We danced.

We sang.

We filmed ourselves dancing and singing.

We played an ANCIENT board game called Masterpiece.

We ate sandwhiches.

WE RAN OUTSIDE IN THE MUD WITH NO COATS OR SHOES ON IN DECEMBER!!!!!!

It was amazing.

So, to my Sister, and my Sisteh....

My Very Merry Christmas : )

1. Christmas Eve was BEAUTIFUL! It was softly snowing the whole day! It was magical! It was MARVELOUS!

2. Christmas Eve Mass. Oh my goodness....how awesome! The first ten minutes were held by candlelight, and it was just wonderful.

3. THE. FOOD. Oh my goodness............I can't even describe how wonderful Mom and Meggie made our Christmas feast : )

3. Christmas Day! I got a Walmart gift card, an Amazon gift card, some delicious lip gloss, and the most epic hat EVER.

4. MORE FOOD!!!!!! Haha....yes, it was heavenly!

5. Being with my family : ). Its been wonderful!

6. Everyone loved their presents lol.

7. And last but not least.........my first and best friend shall be here to celebrate my Christmas with me on Wednesday!!!! HARRAH!!!!!!

I hope your Christmas was as marvelous as mine, and may you be very VERY blessed the rest of the Christmas season : ).

The Excitement Builds!

For tomorrow is Christmas Eve!

Things I don't have done:

1. Joe's gift.

2. Mom's gift...unless I give her and Dad the SAME gift.....

3. Kat's gift and the duplicate I'll probably have to make for Hannah of that gift since they'd both just LOVE it.

4. Christmas Eve Mass outfit. Um....HELP??

Reasons none of that really matters and everything will be ok:

1. JESUS.





Be sure to celebrate His birthday like a nut and have a safe, peaceful, joyful, holy, and very very VERY Merry Christmas : )

HARRAH!!!

Lift your glasses (of eggnog) and let's have a toast!

It's officially Christmas now!
My older sister is home for Christmas, and I am in a celebratory mood!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! : )

Gingerbread Houses: The Drama!!!

So, today we made gingerbread houses. Not REAL ones, though....graham cracker ones. We're not THAT insane.

There was some serious drama goin' on at the kitchen table, let me tell you!

The Table! What a mess! What fun!

Hurricaine Anna. She named it that, I'm serious.

What became of Joe's.

Mom made this one for Ladybug, who wasn't present : ) 

Meggie's! So pretty!

Ella's...its a cute little candy hut!

Yeah. I was bored. But its true!

Anna's redemption! (Note the hurricaine sitting in the back there....)

Mine. I hate how the roof turned out. But the brickwork was fun :-/.

Happy Holidays!



Happy Birthday To Me!

My birthday on Tuesday was pretty sweet : ).

I got:

This for myself : ). Its SO cute!!!

New wallet from my big sissy!

A microphone from my best friend : )

$25 from my gramma

A black t-shirt from my sister

A book from my mom (hasn't come in the mail yet)

And we went to the mall!

My 5-yr old sister got her hair curled. It was SO CUTE.



Cake:

Tastes awesome cold, too. It was EXTRA awesome cake because it was baked on top of a magical bed of molten chocolate. *raises eyebrows* YEAH.

So. That was my birthday : ).

Today....

I am another year older.

*Sobs tears of joy*

Yes, yes, its bittersweet.

But I have had a most marvelous birthday : ).

I have no fun pictures yet, so I'll save the rest of the news for my next post ; ).

FINALLY!!!

IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Special thanks to Ladybug for posing with our fake tree.

Harrah!!!!

And all that jazz.

Merry Christmas!

Love What You Do

I am a procrastinator.

If that doesn't surprise you, i'm not at all offended. I've heard the symptons are easy to identify.

Anyway......this was more of a ignorance issue than a procrastinating issue.

Suddenly, i turn around, and its like..... OH GOSH TWO AND A HALF WEEKS TILL CHRISTMAS.

And.....i have no presents.

FOR ANYONE.

Fortunately for me, i am an artist. I can cheaply and rapidly (er...somewhat rapidly) produce gifts for people. I am a cheap and rapid sort of person, which is not all its cracked up to be. If at all possible, resist following me down this path of mediocroty.

Anyway......

I LOVE what i'm doing for presents.

(No, i shall NOT tell. Some people already know. Thats enough. Seriously.)

And i think that is INCREDIBLY important for EVERYONE.

To love what you do.

If you hate what you do (for instance....you loathe cheese with all your soul, yet can only keep a job making cheese), you can't enjoy it, and no one sees what you've done (tastes your cheese) and just KNOWS you loved every second of producing it.

Love makes things SPARKLE.

That might sound cheesy, but its true.

Like, the first drawing a little kid ever does.

That is the most hideous mass of squiggles ever known to mankind.

And yet, its completely beautiful, because it was made with love.

So i hope on Christmas morning, people open my gifts and get all excited and sentimental, even if they usually totally wouldn't care about this particular gift, because they can tell it was made with love.

Or at least say, "Huh. Nice." And than at least NOT throw it in the trash. Stuff it in a drawer somewhere, maybe.

I love pointless gifts, as long as they're given with love : ).

Tangled: Favorite song!

This song is NOT a spoiler, and its beautiful, so I'm sharing it with the blog world : ).

Featuring the voice of Mandy Moore, Rapunzel singing the Healing Incantation.

Enjoy!

My Epic Weekend, Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4

Part 1: Netters Aplenty!

The fun started on Thursday the 2nd, with.....

NETTERS!!!!

You just can't go wrong with Netters.

Keep in your prayers the EPIC Net team #7....all 11 of them who stayed at our already quite full house Thursday night and Friday morning.

Anyway.....it was pretty awesome. How often does one get to play Frogs and Flies, Animal Noises, and than have an epic praise and worship session complete with 3 guitars and a drum??

Seriously.

We were devastated to see them go on Friday morning (team member Drew was devestated to leave my baby brother....poor guy).



Part 2: The Blizzard Trip

This was Friday and Sunday.

And my mother, my sister, my brothers, and myself left for Minnesota.

Oh boy.

Things we forgot before leaving:

1. Toys for the babies.

2. Cups for the babies.

3. Water of any sort.

Things we lost while traveling:

1. The gas cap.

2. The diaper bag.

3. The cup we bought for the boys to stand in for the cups we forgot.

4. Mom's book.

Yep. Thats us. Organized. On top of it. *snort*

And than, of course, once we REACHED St. Paul........well, we'd been driving through a blizzard for a while, anyway. This traffic was stopped.

Yeah. And the boredom was so extreme:

I think we stopped at McDonalds like, 5 times on this trip. French fries are my weakness.

Part 3: LIFELINE!!!!!!!

Best part, of course.

1. My very best friend EVER : ).

2. Seeing a friend i totally did NOT expect to see! I hadn't seen her in forever and it was AWESOME.

3. Nate from Sonar is amazing, even when he's all by himself up there, jamming away.

4. Mass with a couple thousand screaming teenagers is A L W A Y S a win.

5. CANADIANS!!!! For some reason they decided to cross the border just to come to Lifeline. How awesome is THAT???

6. Tony Melendez!!! Yaaaay!!! Dudes without arms who play the guitar with their feet? E P I C   W I N!!!!

Part 4: St. Nicholas Day!

I got:

1. Earbuds, wraparounds, headphones, AND an adaptor so TWO earbuds can plug into the same device. Pretty sweet.

2. Mint M&Ms. Oh yeah.

3. An enormous Rudolph the Rednosed Reigndeer tin with THREE KINDS OF POPCORN IN IT OMGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST PRESENT EVER!!!!!! I have a horrible weakness for flavored popcorn..........and i was tempted to eat ALL of the cheesy stuff today. I resisted.

So. That was my epic weekend. Details WERE left out, alas, but hey, i only have so much time to blog, and you only have so much time and patience to read it.

<3

Tangled!

I had the immense privilage of getting to see this movie with some of my VERY best friends over the weekend!

IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I refuse to spoil the movie for anyone, so I shall merely say these things:

1. Best Disney Princess movie ever. Its a shame they don't want to do any more princesses....but really, they couldn't top this.

2. SEE IT. Preferably not at 9:05 pm and NOT in 3-D. You will be too tired from the lateness of the hour and too distracted by the butterflies that appear to be flying out of your head to FULLY absorb the epic plot, and be left DYING to see it again because you KNOW you missed something.

3. Why is it the best? Well, aside from the guy not being a prince, actually having a personality, and Rapunzel actually being likable (compared to some princesses), its the first princess movie i have ever seen where you can tell, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they truly, truly love each other.

4. Was is cliche? Yes. Did it end a tad on the fast side and make you wish you could tell Disney not to rush these things? Oh sure. But still epic. Not every movie still makes that cut.

5. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!

6. Epic. Songs. Nuff said.

So, go forth! See the movie, unless you already have! Laugh, bawl your eyes out, scream hysterically, and make your friend dub you the 'loudest person they have ever seen a movie with'.

Back row:  Rapunzel, Flynn

Front row: Hannah, Kat, Me

Rapunzel and I posing with our fryin' pans : ).

How best friend waste their time the day after the movie : ).

And.........

At 50,032 words...........











































I HAVE WON NANOWRIMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Proof:

Occasionally...

I write epically lame songs.

But for once, i think i found something a little bit magical, because it was EXACTLY what was on my heart, and still is. Its silly and strange, just like me.

Write It On The Sky

V1/ Life threw me lemons so I made lemonade
And there swirling round in my cup, were things I needed to say.

I tried to find my voice, but I found it wouldn't do
Than I looked around and found it didn't have to...

R/ So I'll climb up on my orange crate
That's been reinforced with duct tape
And do a dance and laugh and maybe cry
And I'm not gonna lie
I'm scared to death inside
But I will not wait another night
To write this on the sky.

V2/ WORK IN PROGRESS

Bridge/ My memory fails me....its written down somewhere.

(Final Refrain) I'm not gonna lie
I'm scared to death inside
But my heart has been waiting all my life
To write this on the sky.

Sometimes....

I love my math book.

Stick figure. W I N.

NaNoWriMo: DRAMA

Drama.

Drama.

And MORE drama.

Thats one of the reasons i hate writing literature set in the modern world.

I guess i find my own life so boring sometimes i need to make my characters depressed or crazy or just plain strange. Their lives are chaotic and strange. Their parents don't understand them, and sometimes don't love them. Which is a little ungrateful of me, because i love my parents!

But, anyway, i can proudly say i am at 30,100 words!!! Only 19,900 words to go!

In other news, since that was pretty much all i had to say about NaNoWriMo, i am very happy right now. Except for how cold it is. Today has been overall very nice.

And i still slightly glow from recent events : ).

Life is good.

Despite the DRAMA.

Another 7 Things...

I believe, as i have been SHAMEFULLY neglecting my blog, you deserve a rather lengthy post : ).

1. NaNoWriMo current word count, 22,009. Oh yeah. Meanwhile, my sisters and friends, who i THOUGHT would be loyal till the end, have quit NaNoWriMo and are rejoicing with a little too much gusto. Fine, i told them. I'll win and make you all sorry! Quitters!!!!
In my story, i was rather proud of myself for finding a reason Jared Cobbler was confined to a wheel chair yet could still drive. It was satisfying.

2. You know you have gone Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reigndeer on yourself when you go around the house thinking to yourself, "HE THINKS I'M CUTE!!!" (The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reigndeer moment ended when i failed to leap up and start flying).

3. New boots make life look better.

4. I love other people's birthday cakes! Happy birthday, Meggie!

5. Tomorrow i get to hand people flyers, shake hands (kissing the babies is optional), carry up The Gifts, and than eat donuts at my youth group's epic youth Mass!

6. Rope swings: dangerous AND fun! Yes, thats me wiping out.

7. What happens when you're bored on your drive home.

Happy Birthday M&M!!!!

To my little sister:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

I love you!!!!!

And to my blog readers...i'm still plugging away at NaNoWriMo...bear with me : )

AGGGGH!!!!

My life is crazy!!!
Current word count for NaNoWriMo: 13,131 (wooo!!!!)

Leaving for Minnesota: TOMORROW.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!!!!!!! So VERY excited and FREAKING OUT!!! *skips*

Just wanted you to know i'm not dead, i am still going on strong for NaNoWriMo, and i will post a REAL blog post....SOON.

Thank you!
Clare

NaNoWriMo Day One

Current word count: 2900.

Oh yeah.

This is DAY ONE.

2900??
Oh yes.

(Conquering music)

Plot?

Going great...except the dude in my book is morphing into someone he was NOT supposed to be, after 2 paragraphs. Ugh.

But i shall triumph!!!

This is soooo fun : )

Happy Halloween!

My cartoon characters would like to wish you a safe, fun, sugar-coma-free Halloween : ).

In order:
Izzy
Marie (me as a cartoon)
Bobby
Peter and Apple
Thomas
Jo
Cassie
Cosmos

Enjoy!

I Had A 'Beautiful' Moment...

And yeah. It was awesome. My younger sister found this dress at a town garage sale, bought it, and than forbade me to wear it for Halloween. However, she did let me put it on and have a photo shoot, and i felt really, really beautiful. I did fuss with my hair and think, "Man my smile is stupid," but it was so much fun i got over myself : ).

That's all.