More pics!

Preston, Travis and Brendan R painting the water on the waves. They got the fun jobs!
Sandi washing out a paint tray with the hose, Kirby's one obsession.
Me adding glitter to the waves. I got my hair cut *professionally*. Not that you can actually tell in this picture though.
The Talonz again. Ty, Travis, Brendan O, Brendan R, Preston.
Um...a firework late at night. Of course, it doesn't get this dark until at least 11 now.
YEAH! So that's about it for Canada day. Last Monday, Darby and I helped with Zack's (he turned 4) birthday party. It was Cars themed and was insane but um...it was fun... :)

Anyways! ALL FOR NOW!
-Kristen

LATELY!!!

Walking in the Canada Day Parade in Blind Bay! I'm the one in entirely red.

The Talonz playing at the huge celebration thing afterwards.

From left to right: Ty, Travis, Brendan O, Brendan R, Preston

The float in the Reutlingers' driveway, all finished and ready to go.
Our giant banner! I drew most of it out and Darby, Sandi and I painted it. This is the theme for Vaction Bible School this year.
BAHAHAHA! Yeah, so this is Travis during "Float Painting Day" with um...chalk in his mouth...
Okay...SO! My mom was elected as float designer, so she...designed the float. Last Wednesday, Travis, Preston, Darby, Brendan R and Sandi all came over to help paint the giant pieces of plywood we were using for waves on the side of the float and to create a giant banner for the back.

That evening the guys threw together plans for a movie and then Travis, Preston, Darby, me, Brendan and Carolynn (I'll tell you about her in a minute), all went to see the late show of Evan Almighty. We were out pretty late.

K, so Carolynn is a girl from Germany who came for the summer to be like a nanny for a family from our church. She's eighteen and she's really nice! So yeah, we've been hanging out with her a lot lately. And since it's Canada Day she got to see fireworks that would be banned in Germany, so it was cool! She's getting some new experiences and she's been staying out late with us for like, a week now! whoo hoo!

Anyways, the next day, Sandi and Darby came over to finish the giant banner and paint letters on the waves. Everything turned out great :)

Friday night, I'm laying in bed with my PJs on and I was talking to my mom when the phone rings. And it's like 10 o'clock. No one calls anyone after like, 9 around here. So we pick it up and it's Travis and he asks me if I wanted to go over to his little "class party" thing because only four people ended up being able to make it and "Darby want's to know if you could also spend the night". So I got dressed again and went over to Travis's little late night gettogether. Four of his friends from his class were there plus Darby and Preston, and then he invited Carolynn and Brendan and Ty (because you can't invite one and not the other). So then, we had a bonfire and had s'mores and such and then we had a little fireworks show (which intrigued Carolynn). Darby brought her new goat (Ringo) over and Ty was sooo happy. It was funny :P Then, Travis and Preston got the strobelight out and we were all like "moshing" in the rim of the trampoline! IT WAS SOOOO FUN! :P We were like running around and you'd be standing there and suddenly someone would be in your face...it was insane. And Brendan R and Ty were doing like giant jumps off the rim of the trampoline into the circle of people and it was awesome! And then at like, midnight, the four guests and Carolynn went home and the four guys slept in the basement and Darby and I slept in the Lair of the Darbbins. So that was fun! Then, the next morning, I got dropped off back home and spent the day doing nothing in particular.

So then, at 4 on the Saturday, my family went over the the Reutlingers' for Float Assembly Day. Which, in itself, wasn't all that fun because Darby couldn't make it since she sprained her ankle while moshing in the strobe light (odd way to injure yourself). SO! When the stuff I had to do was done, I went over and watched the Talonz practice for a bit (which is Travis, Preston, Brendan, Brendan and Ty) and then Brendan R got me a guitar and I got to play with them a bit, which was cool. :) I discovered that Ty can sing and play drums and bass (as well as guitar) and that Brendan R enjoys jumping around during practices but he won't actually do it on stage... So yeah! That was a fun day :)

SUNDAY! The day we've all been waiting for! So I went to the early church service and then I got dropped off at the float and then I walked behind the float with Darbbins and a bunch of children that COULD NOT ration the candy to throw to the kids. So we ended up running out of candy before the end of the parade so the kids at the end were left with nothing. :( Then, I worked a few shifts on one of the games and watched the Talonz play their first set (which they did great on). Then, Darby got me lunch and we ate at like 2 and we were STARVING! Ugh. Then I took a shift at facepainting and then Darby and I went back to the "green room" (when the games were closing up) where there was free pop for volunteers and where the bands hang out. So we hung out with The Talonz and drank 7Up and whatnot. Then we had to go to the lesser green room and hang out but Travis, Preston and Brendan R went off and did something else. So it was just me, Darby, Carolynn, Brendan O and Ty (plus four chairs and a big table). So THEN! we realized that one end of the table was slightly sunken into the ground! so Ty squished all four corners in and then he decided to sink a chair...a flimsy plastic chair. Which he jumped on. and it cracked. And then he sat on it anyways and we laughed for like ten minutes! :P And then Darby and I realized that the back of my legs were fairly sunburnt (little did I know that I would hardly be able to walk later!). Anyways, then a guy dressed like Elvis walked into the tent and we all tried incredibly hard not to laugh. So we all laughed like mad for ten minutes when he left.

Okay, so then the Talonz played their second set (which was awesome because they played Holiday by Green Day and Ty sang really well!) and then I went home...

So then at like, 9, like a LOT of people went over to the Reutlingers' and we all watched the HUGE fireworks show from their deck! YAY! And now, I'm recovering from a bit of sunstroke and the fact that it hurts to bend my legs. Yay.

Alright, so reading that probably kept you occupied for a while! I'll post more pictures in a moment so you can see some of the other stuff we did...

-Kristen

Eight Days A Week, we pracitce Down On The Corner

Everyone that performed...
Preston playing Let It Be.
At the end of Down On The Corner
Eight Days A Week...
Louder Than Words (less a drummer)

HI! So last night's performance went awesomely! Despite missing a few words and my guitar's volume being WAY down at the beginning, it went really well and was a breath of fresh air after some amature performances (that will get better with practice). Preston also playes Let It Be by The Beatles as a solo performance. Darren played drums really well for us (with his awesomly weird hat on) and we sounded great! I might be able to get some videos up on facebook...we'll see...anyways...

Bri has a baseball tournament this weekend so I probably won't be home for most of it.

Thank you to Gram for sending me lots of gummies (which have fueled me this week) and the two awesome tshirts :)


Anyways, I've got to go now, but I'll write more soon!

-Kristen

Howdy all

Hi...so I'm officially done school, which is FLIPPIN' SWEET! I did one grade 10 exam and that was it! :D Tomorrow is the Blue Water Music recital which should be AWESOME! Darby, Preston and I are playing Down On The Corner and Eight Days A Week. We're goin' for the classics this time. We sound pretty good on both songs (better with a drummer which we didn't have for most of our practices) and it should be really fun!
The new Lifehouse CD was released on Tuesday and I don't have it yet. That is really quite tragic. So sad. I need to get to CD Plus because Zellers decided not to have it. Gr.
Okay, so I'm gonna go play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 now. I guess I'll write more soon and stuff :)
-Kristen

Lake?

Kyle at the beach!
Me freezing cold...
My mom and Bri
The marina with its new docks...

Hi...okay so it's pretty flippin' hot here now. We've gone down to the lake a few times just to get cooler. Not that you can actually swim though. You might lose a leg or two from the bitter coldness.

Here are some pics of us at le beach "enjoying" the icy cold water.



Last night, my mom and I went to a play in Salmon Arm that Travis's school put on. It was REALLY good! They did a non-musical version of Les Miserables and it was awesome. Travis played the character called Marius and he was really good! And Brendan Osborne was in it too playing the main character, John Valjon (spelling?). It was really cool! The did sooo well and they had awesome costumes and everyone did really well! so that was cool :) woo hoo!



I also have one more link to add to my list of sites: http://www.garageband.com/artist/kristenmcneilly

Anyways, I'm gonna go now. I'll write more soon! School's almost done!

-Kristen

AVALANCHE!!!

Okay...so Avalanche was AWESOME! It was soooo cool! It was so incredible! There were like...at least 500 people there (probably more) and we were all having so much fun! Got to see some cool bands I'd never heard of: Jason Upton and EveryOther Band. We hung out in between concerts and speakers. It was sooo fun! We got to go to the mall (which is pretty darn big for out here) and we ate nothing but fast food for three days and we showered at the rec centre because we were billeting and we ran through random feilds and traded sweaters and stayed up til like...three in the morning for two nights. So yeah! It was awesome! I got to know more people from the youth group (which was awesome because they're all so cool) and we learned some British slang ( ;) hee hee!) and...we went to some cool workshops and skipped out on one of the concerts to go get iced capps and through leaves at each other and then we went to the late concert and drove back to the house (falling asleep on the way :P) and then we talked about nothing in particular until we couldn't hold our eyes open anymore! FUN! So yeah! Jessica and Amanda (my new friends) are insane and we were so crazy at the concerts! And then at the late concert we were like right at the front and when they started to play some good songs we were all jumping around like idiots with "the guys" (Brendan, Ty, Preston, Travis and Marshall) and the concert ended just as we were about to pass out from being soooo tired. We also ran around in fields and stumbled across an abandoned hobo-pad thing. It was weird. But hilarious and then we walked back and Brendan was wearing my Fender sweater so I stole his and then we were all throwing leafy things at each other and um...it was fun! So yeah! I'm gonna stop there for tonight because um...otherwise it'll take you a few hours to read! So yeah...all for now!

-Kristen

Pic#1: Random clown dude. Don't know why he was there but he liked his bubbles...

Pic#2: Amanda and Jessica and Mr. Bakery Man... ;)

Pic#3: There's a long story behind this one...but it's a picture of my camera bag strap and Brendan's knee...

Pic#4: Ty and Brendan in the trunk of the van with the awesome new shoes!

Pic#5: Um...Jade being weird.

Avalanche

Hi! So today I'm going to Avalanche (the HUGE youth conference in Kelowna) with our youth group (23 of us!!) and we're gonna be gone until Sunday evening. WOOT WOOT! It should be ultra-fun! So yeah! I'm bringing the "digi-cam" so that I can take so cool pics! You can see my friends :)
In other news...an unexpected scenario has brought itself up in our family recently and I have now been granted permission to tell of this event. My mother is pregnant... :) I was a bit bummed at first but, I'm getting used to the idea now and I'm kind of excited now. And it's a BOY!!! YAY! I was hoping for a boy! That makes rooming situations much easier. He can bunk with Kyle when he's older :) So...everything's changing out here. It's kind of crazy.
On the school front, I'm kind of behind in everything but I'm working like mad to try to finish by June 15th.
Facebook is soooooo addictive. I've found people on there that I haven't seen in over 3 years! And the groups thing...I'm in over 40 groups...because it's fun. I am, however, disappointed with some of the STUPID rules. Like, you get punished for having a fake name! What the $&#*%@!! That's soooo dumb. I'm forever going to be "Commander Kristen". Gr...And then you can only change your network twice and then you have to wait 60 days. So now I have to wait until the end of June to join the Kelowna network. Ugh...But it's cool. And I like that no onw can see your profile unless they're your friend. Um...yeah...so I'm gonna go now before I can't stop myself from talking about nothing. I'll be back in a few days!!!
-Kristen

Check it out

Search my name on Google :) It's cool...there's like a bunch of things that come up :D
So yeah...what's new? I'm officially done grade 9 math. And I'm at the beginning of science, socials and english. So I'm working really hard with that. I've got guitar lessons today. Should be fun. I also get to RETURN the math kit to the homeschool office.
So yeah! i'm pretty busy today so I gotta run. I'll post more soon!
-Kristen

New sites

Hey...so I've got 3 new sites on my...list of sites. Here they are:
http://www.isound.com/kristen_mcneilly
http://www.musicpostcentral.com/band.php?bandID=322
http://www.indie911.com/index.php?cID=85422
So yeah...woo hoo...check them out...random people keep adding me as a friend on isound...so yeah...
-Kristen

Stuff

1. Happy birthday, Sean.
2. I put a cool layout on my myspace so you should check it out.
3. My brithday is in 3 days!
4. My facebook is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=774555243

Yeah...so that's about it for now...I'll talk to you wall later!
-Kristen

The Last Spike

Pic #1: Me at the Last Spike Place...Yes, I hammered it in.

Pic #2: Part of the Three Valley Gap Hotel and the righthand waterfall on the mountain.

Pic #3: The aftermath of an avalanche across the road from the hotel. It was cleared away before we got there.

Pic #4: More of the hotel with the lefthand waterfall behind it.

Yeah...so today, we were tourists. We drove an hour and a half (and more) past Salmon Arm to Revelstoke and saw a million incredible mountains and waterfalls on the way. We stopped at the Last Spike place-thing on the way, where they put the last spike into the CP railway. It was really cool :) Then we kept going and went into Revelstoke for McDonalds! YAY! On our way back, we went to the Three Valley Gap Hotel, which was pretty darn cool! Not that we stayed...we can't afford that! But the building itself is HUGE and surrounded by mountains and cliffs and a lake and waterfalls that come from the top of the mountain and there was a fairly fresh avalanche on the other side of the road...and it was cool! So yeah!

It was also awesome because when you're driving, there's all these waterfalls that come off the mountains and come right to the side of the road!

So yeah! It was pretty cool! Tomorrow, we're having "May Birthdays" with Bri's parents :) Should be fun!

-Kristen

Post # 60

Hey everyone! I've got new glasses! We got them at a really good price and they look cool! I didn't even have to get the stupid drops in my eyes! :D

Okay, so my glasses are more round and you can see my whole eye and they're like the same colour as my old ones. The prescription is VERY different. I could hardly read the top line of the chart-screen-thing with my glasses on, so I have a lot of getting used to do with my new ones. The place we went to was great! I got my eyes checked at one place but they didn't have any frames I liked and they were really expensive, so we went to another place and they were at least 30 $ cheaper! So I found frames I likes pretty quickly (and they were all on sale for 99$) and we already knew the kind of lenses I needed so it was REALLY easy and they had them done in 25 minutes! I'm probably going to get new lenses in my old frames too because then I'll have a backup pair. I got an awesome case for them too :)

Anyway, all for now!

-Kristen

Sick

Hi. I'm sick. This is great. I've had swolen glands since Thursday and now I'm all stuffy and I
have a cough. My fever's gone though...so that's good. I had to perform in church on Sunday with an incredibly stuffy nose, which was really hard, but everyone said it was like, my best performance... We don't have any pictures though : ( I'll make sure we have pics of my next performance though.





So Thursday, Toni and Sean (Bri's parents) came and they're staying for ten days. On Friday, we had this big youth night thing, which was really fun. Darby got to go and we played games ands stuff. Saturday, we all went to the BC wildlife park with Toni and Sean and Darby. It was fun! The wolves were out and we got to see a few feeding times and stuff. :) That evening was Shanan's 40th birthday so we all went to that and had lots of fun fun fun. Sunday was church and my performance and then we went for coffee at Grandma and Grandpa's house. And yesterday was Gamma Girls "Graduation" because we finished the whole program thing. It was fun! Sandi left the pizzas in the oven (in the boxes) and they caught on fire and Alexa and Janelle found them when they were looking in the new part of the church and then we all went over and aired out the building and salvaged what we could of the pizza (which was about three of six or something)...so yeah. It was fairly eventful. Later on we made some cool cards and bracelets and got our certificates. I contributed "Steadfastness" to the group during our ten week program. So yeah! It was cool. Today, I go to the optomotrist. Yay. But I think I need new glasses so that part's good. I just hate the eyedrops that make your pupils huge. :S





So yeah! That's about it for me. What's new with you guys?


-Kristen
P.S.- Pic #1: Me in front of the random giant guitar neck at the wildlife park.
Pic #2: Some cougars.

My sites

Hey folks! If you don't have a CD and you'd like to listen to my music, go on one of my many webpages (preferably myspace or purevolume) and listen. Any of them is fine. I want to get my playcount up. Add me as your friend on myspace too, because I don't know if any of you have pages. :)
-Kristen
http://www.myspace.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.purevolume.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.mp3.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.unsigned.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.peoplefisher.com/music/bands/69

News

Sooo...lately, I've been working my butt off with homeschooling. Report cards start in May, so I need to start getting things done which is hard because I need to teach myself the lesson and then do the lesson...yeah. But it's worth it because I'm doing well. I'll be playing in church on April 22nd, hopefully with the Louder Than Words crew (my cousins) but we'll have to see how that works out. I'm not sure what song I'm playing either.
Another scrap of news: I've officially eaten all my chocolate from Easter...which is really quite the tragedy.
Anyways...I've got to go start some social studies lessons...
-Kristen
P.S. - my sites/webpages:
http://www.myspace.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.purevolume.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.mp3.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.peoplefisher.com/music/bands/69
http://www.unsigned.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.kristenmcneilly.com

EASTER!

Hey everyone! Happy Easter! Hope you had a great weekend and stuffed yourself silly with chocolate and other such goodies!
-Kristen

Pics

Pic #1: Me playing "Yourself"
Pic #2: "Louder Than Words" playing Hold My Hand
Pic #3: Me with my project
-Kristen

Hi

Hey everybody! So, yesterday was the Homeschool Expo and I played Yourself for everyone. Darby, Preston and I also played Hold My Hand (Hootie And The Blowfish) and everyone was very pleased... I didn't sell any CDs, only one that Ron bought. The girl that was there from Lakeshore News (the newspaper) was really nice and she was asking me a ton of questions and taking lots of pictures so I bet we'll be in the paper.
I'll post pics soon. They're on my computer now, so that's good.
I'm working on making a few webpages on other music sites. Here are a few links. I'm still working on all of them, though.
http://www.purevolume.com/kristenmcneilly
http://www.myspace.com/kristenmcneilly
I'm also trying to get an account at MP3.com
So yeah! As far as sending stuff to record labels goes, I'm thinking of sending one to Tooth And Nail Records and Maple Music Recordings. Both are smaller and have some great bands signed. They both sign a lot of Canadian artists (Hawk Nelson, FM Static, Thousand Foot Krutch, tegan And Sara, David Usher), and I checked their sites for info on their A&R departments, both of which claim to be "Open to new music" and to "love new artists, just send us a demo CD". So yeah...hopefully that will work out.
I've been pleasantly surprised with the success of this new album. I didn't expect it to turn out so great! One thing that's really shocking me is that a lot of people are complimenting me on my voice, which I always felt was one of my weaker talents. ONe kid at the expo was saying "she has a perfect voice! It's just so perfect" and a bunch of the girls at Youth were like "you sing so pretty" (?)...so yeah! One lady from church (Brendan R.'s grandma - she's really nice) paid me twenty dollars, which was really, really generous, for my CD. Yeah, so the response so far has been great and I can't wait to start getting my music more out in the open.
Anyways...all for now!
-Kristen McNeilly :P

Hi!

Yeah! So I'll be in Ontario tomorrow! Can't wait! It'll be fun!
I've got lots of plans so i'll be calling a lot of you to hang out or whatever! Everything I'm typing ends with an exclamation mark! Fun!
I don't have very much money for new stuff this time! That kind of sucks! Imagine my voice like a game show host and the !!!'s will make sense!
So YEAH! Be Seein' you!
"Larva, larva, larva, larva"...that's the best part of Flushed Away! It's so awesome! Got that movie last week!
Anyways...Got To Go!!!
-Kristen
P.S. - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Walrus said...

The Time Has Come The Walrus Said,

To Talk Of Many Things...

Yeah...so my trip to Ontario is nearing. I still have to make a lot of plans. But I'm looking forward to it.
I worked today, taking care of kids. Made 20 bucks which goes towards my "Ontario Fund" so that I can buy things in name-brand stores. Can't wait!
Anyways, all for now!
-Kristen

Valmumtimes

HAPPY VALMUMTIMES EVERYONE!

Hope you had a great day!

I had cake and chocolate!

THANKS TO GRAM FOR THE VALENTINE AND MONEY!!!!

All for now!

xoxo Kristen oxox

Report Cards

Helloooo...Got my report card yesterday. ALL A's. Art 9, Computers 10, English 10, Foods 9, French 9, Math 9, Music 9, Phys Ed 9, Science 9 and Socials 9. So yeah! That's really cool...I also started on my big huge home school expo project yesterday. I decided on an alubm name and I've been working on one of my four possible covers for hours now! I babysat a bunch of kids with Darby today. Got 20 bucks. SWEET!

Anyways...that's all for now. I'll be posting more soon!

-Kristen

La dee dah

Hey! Here are some pictures of my new earrings and a random picture of me....

Beleive it or not, the first one is of my ear...I know it looks strange. But that's just how ears are. :D

-Kristen

Piercings & Cheap Stuff

Hey! Okay...so my next trip to Ontario has been booked for March 8th - 21st! I'll be there for March Break! See you then!

So...Report Card #2 is on Monday. I'm officially DONE French and I'm doing quite well in all my other subjects...so yeah!

Today, we had a "Girls' Day Out" thing and went to Vernon! SHOPPING! REAL SHOPPING! They have a Claire's there and a Bay and a Purdy's and a Starbucks...Anyways, I got my second ear piercing done at Claire's!! One's pretty sore but it's not too bad! They're just plain silvery-diamondy studs. Nothing fancy. But! They had this AWESOME deal at Claire's where you could get a mystery bag of clearance stuff for a dollar...WHOO HOO! It was sooooo cool! Darby and I got about 10 or 11 bags between us and then picked out the things we wanted. I got all the earrings (16 pairs!) since her ears aren't pierced. Anyways...Got back home and added up the original prices of all the stuff I got...$443.57 WOW!!! That's the best deal EVER! I have a necklace for Catherine that I'll bring when I come.

Anyways...that's about all for now!
-Kristen

Pics

Hello! Here are some pictures of me at Margaret Falls.
Picture #1: Me standing on a waterfall eating an icicle.
Picture #2: Believe it or not, underneath all those trees and snow is a river that runs from the waterfall. It actually runs under all the ice and snow!
Picture #3: Me on the path. There's a lot of trees that you have to duck under to get to the waterfall.
Picture #4: One of the few crack in the ice where you can see the water! This isn't part of the main waterfall but it's like a mini-waterfall further down the river.
Picture #5: The waterfall frozen over with ice. It was sooo cool! We don't have any pictures of it but there's this hole in the ice where we climbed up to and you could actually touch the water (not that you would though because it was so freakishly cold).
So yeah! Thos are some pics! Hee hee....
-Kristen

Watoto

Hellooo...
So, Saturday was really cool...we went wit hthe Saddlers to Margaret Falls and it was really amazing! The entire waterfall was frozen (it looked like that scene in Narnia), and we could climb it! We climbed up a little ways and broke off icicles and ate them. They were surprisingly good! After that, we picked up Darby and went to their place for dinner. Then, Bri, Shanan, Darby and I went to play some pool. I know how to play pool now! Darby and I played against each other and I won but not by much. We're still not that great but yeah...it was fun!
Anyways...yesterday, Carol (youth leader) took a bunch of us to the Watoto Children's Choir that were performing in Vernon. It was really cool! I wasn't expecting it to be so great! It's this African choir of little kids under the age of 12 and right now they're touring across Canada. They're originally from Uganda and they were all in poverty once but then this organization called Watoto saved them and stuff and...anyways...it's a really cool program and now we and Carol...(WE being me, Jade, Darby, Shelby and Raquel)... are going to raise money for them. It was a really cool experience! YAY.....
Anyways...today I havee to get going on school again so I'd better go.
All for now!
-Kristen

Heyo

I just posted to www.kristenmcneilly.com/newsongs some partially finished mixes with the new drums and percussion tracks. The mixes are part of the way there. Comments are welcome as it is definitely a work in progress.

Happy Listening!
Dad

"I'm Just A Fried Piece Of Fishin' Pole!"

Howdy!
Catherine was on the news last night! It was cool. I saw it.
My story is currently 33 pages long! It's really cool! It's called Addy & The Apple Tree. I don't even know if I've told you about it already or now but yeah...it's really cool! I'm hoping to finish it within the next month because then I can hand it in for school and stuff. I've done a whole bunch of sketches of characters and stuff too. I've also deinged a cover. I want it to be really simple so it's just an 2D apple with a bit out of it and the title written inside.
Anyways...in other news, Bri's work is having this bridge building contest where you build a bridge using this computer program and the person with the lowest cost (yet still sturdy) bridge wins! Bri and I are both entering that. First prize is $250! YAY!
Anyways...all for now!
It's time for supperrrrrrr!
-Kristen

Random

5 MONTHS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

YAY WHOO HOO!

This is sooo random.

-Kristen

Hi Folks

Hey everyone! How are you doin'?
I've been having a great Christmas Vacation! I finally got my Switchfoot package of stuff on Tuesday! It's so cool! It's got a signed postcard, their new CD, an exclusive EP, a poster, three stickers, 5 buttons and a DVD. It's so cool!
The top of my guitar case is nearly full with stickers! YAY!
Darby was at my house for like...2 days straight. We were very busy. We made um...bizarre tapes on my mini tape recorder.
So yeah, my new story "Addy & The Apple Tree" is now 27 pages long and i'm not even halfway through yet! It's really good! I've also been doing sketches of the characters and stuff. I think that if I finish it soon, I'll hand it in for homeschooling and see what Mr. Sullivan says about it. :D
Anyways, I'll post toboganning pictures soon!
-Kristen

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yeah...so it's not the new year yet but before I go to the new years eve party, I figured I'd write you all and tell you:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Have a good new years eve, new years day and new year to come!

-Kristen

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishin' you all the best for Christmas! Hope you have great holidays and lots of fun! Hope that you get just what you wanted and enjoy your time with family.

-Kristen McNeilly <3

Report Card!

Okay...so last week I got my report card. Sorry I haven't had a chance to post anything about this yet but here are my marks:
English 10: B (81%)
Foods 9: A
French 9: A (89%)
Math 9: B (lots of 86%'s though)
Music 9: A
Phys Ed 9: A
Science 9: B (84%)
So yeah! I did pretty good!
Anyways...I'm super busy lately! Ugh. I have a lot of school work to do and I have my extra things to work on too. Moms & Tots Group finsished for the year this week. We ended it off with a big potluck and we were awarded with our regular pay plus a gift certificate for a manicure or pedicure. So Darby and I will have to arrange a time for that sometime soon. (I want the manicure :P ) So yeah. You know that book Eragon that's now a movie (that comes out tomorrow)? Yeah...well I bought the book on Tuesday, discovered how freakishly good it is and am now reading that between lessons.
Guitar lessons are going great. Ryan's teaching me Christmas songs now....
I'm playing a song in church on the 24th so that's cooool! I wrote a Christmas song and Auntie Sue needed another musical act for that day so I was signed up. Sweet!
I'm going to Christmas pageant-y-play-ish thing at King's Christan school soon. Travis is in it so I'm going with my cousins. Should be fun.
Um...so yeah! I guess I'll talk to you all again soon!
Peace,
Kristen

P.S.- Gram, THANK YOU FOR CHRISTMAS PACKAGE! I was wondering how I was going to survive without fudge and other Gram-treats! YAY! But I have saved the gift from Auntie Dee until Christmas :D ('cuz I'm such a good girl)!

Pictures

Here's my new bass and my Bronze Medallion stuff!
Picture#1: My Bronze Medallion certificate, badge and medal as well as my emergency first aid certificate from last summer.
Picture#2: My new bass!
Picture#3: Yes...It's a Dean. In fact, it's a Dean Edge.
Picture#4: My new base again...at a cool angle...sidways.
Picture#5:All houses are built sideways in BC...or I just forgot to rotate the picture before uploading it to the blog.
So yeah! That's my new bass...the first instrument I've ever bought myself. It's really awesome! Now all I need is an amp!
All for now!
-Kristen

Welcome To December

Happy December 1st!
24 days 'til Christmas!
YAY!!!

So yeah! There's like, six Switchfoot songs in my head off their new CD and it's driving me insane because I only know bits of them off their site. Their new CD isn't out until the 26th. Ugh.

"Oh, Gravity! Why can't we seem to keep it together?!" - Switchfoot.....

Yeah...all for today. I'll post pictures soon. Promise!
-Kristen

Today...

Helloooo...
So, today went well. Ron was really impressed and took like, all of our homsechool stuff to photocopy. I also played him a song ("Yourself") and he loved it. I lent him the CD of bed tracks from my new CD as well. He's going to give me a grade ten mark for music and english. I'm stepping down to Science 9 to make it easier for this year and I'm also getting some sort of mark for a computer course.
Overall...a very productive day.
Last night I transferred all my Word documents and old pictures to our new computer so...YAY...I can finally continue writing the billions of stories I've got started.
Well...yeah! That's about all I've got to say for today. I'll be posting some pictures soon of MY NEW BASS and my Bronze Medallion that came in the mail a few day ago.
Yeah! Talk to you all later!
-Kristen

P.S. - for those of you who don't know...I bought a bass on Sautrday! I'm very proud of myself. It's the first instrument I've paid for and it's really cool! It's orange with red strings (but I might change 'em to blue) and it's a Dean. It's so cool. Now all I need is a bass amp!

Today's News!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CATHERINE! Your card will come on a plane on November seventh! Hope you have a great day. Please eat lots of a cake (or chocolate). You ARE in the McNeilly family so...it's mandatory to eat lots and save lots for your step-daughter!

Have a great day!

-Kristen

Halloween

Well...yesterday, was a busy day. In the morning, I babysat twelve kids with Darby and got paid 20 bucks. SWEET! Then, it was the "Harvest Party" at church and I volunteered to run a booth. It kind of sucked that I got stuck on the lamest game of all though (pin the nose on the pumpkin). It was so lame. And no one came except on RUDE little girl who must've come about twelve times and took my coupons that were supposed to be for the kids who got it right on the nose. Erg. she was so rude.

Costumes: I was a hippy/flower child. Brendan and Preston were like...terrorists posing as business men or something like that and Travis was an Army Dude with a gas mask. Darby was a mouse.

Anyways...then, after the night-mare that is the party, there was a pretty sweet fireworks show that Brendan R., Preston and some guy shot off. So that was cool. Then, the youth group had an hour of crazy games! The first game was kind of lame. It was like rock paper scissors only ninja, gorilla and gun. Yeah...it was a bit boring...but then, we played this HORRIBLE game! We had to sit in a tight circle and it was like playing hot potato...only with babyfood. Everyone got their own spoon and you had to pass around three open jars of baby food and the three people that ended up with the jars had to take a spoonful. It was so gross! I got carrots and peas...TWICE! The taste isn't that bad but the texture is like...ew. it's just gross.

Anyways...then we played this game where we were given a card and it had a C, S or D on it. C=Christian, S=Saint and D=Devil. So, I got a C. Then, ALL the lights went out and you had to walk around and if someone tapped you on the shoulder (they were the devils) you had to fall over and yell "I have sinned!" and then, the lights would come back on and someone else had to guess who the devil was. But! the devil could get saved if they knew who one of the saints were (who could save the sinning people). Otherwise, they'd have to go to "the lake of fire" on the stage. But yeah...it was pretty fun. Ms. Sandy (the leader of the whole thing) made me a devil at one point and but I couldn't kill anyone because everyone was in a little group and I'd get caught if I tapped anyone. So, I was aiming for Brendan because he was the only one NOT in a group but he kept walking around really fast and if I chased him it'd be obvious...so yeah.

We also played a game where we had to stand in a line and no one knew at first but Ms. Sandy had put lipstick on a few of the kids' fingers. The, we had to turn the the person behind us and pinch their cheeks, their nose and then their chin. It was weird at first but then when we looked at some of the people, they had red on their cheeks and stuff! it was so funny! Alexa got some on her cheeks and Brendan's nose was completely covered. Jade's ENTIRE face was covered too! It was hilarious! Luckily, Darby and I were lipstick free.

We also watched some "volunteer games". The first one was hilarious! Ty, Travis, Alexa and...someone else went on stage and Ms. Sandy stuck the icing half of an oreo on their forhead and then they had to get it into their mouths without using their hands. It was hilarious! Ty and Travis made theirs fall onto the floor and then ate it. I wasn't watching the girls because they were all wimpy and afraid to get dirty. Anyways...the next game was even better! Ty and his friend Luke were one team and Janelle and another girl were on the other. Janelle and Ty got their heads seran wrapped and then covered with whipped cream! Then, the other teammates had to through popcorn at their heads and the team with the most popcorn on their head won! Ty and Luke were covering each other with whipped cream after! It was so funny! Then, there was one more game where one partner had to have a stocking over their head and the other person was blindfolded. It was like a criminal-ish thing where the blindfolded person had to help the stocking-headed person to eat as much jello as they could through the stocking. It didn't work all that well though because the blindfolded people had no idea what to do...but it was funny to watch!

Then, Brendan, Darby and I were having wars with wrappers and mouse ears (long story) and Brendan was shooting at us with his "terrorist gun". So yeah! that was pretty fun!

Anyways...it was a good halloween even though I didn't get to go trick-or-treating. But yeah! Go fun!

-Kristen

P.S.-I got my Bronze Medallion on Saturday! I PASSED! In your face swimming people from Brampton! I PASSED!

So we went to IKEA and ....

Bunk Beds!

Follow this link is where there are some funny pics of Arden and Catherine, but most importantly pictures of what was once Arden's room and now is Kristen and Arden's room. We have added a bunkbed, a new chest of drawers and some mirrors. We are not quite done yet, so this is version 1.

We are all getting very excited about Kristen's first visit back to Onatari-ari-ario! We are going to havea a one day Christmas/ New Years extravaganza. We are somehow going to record bed tracks for ten (!) songs, we are going to see a play, a couple of movies, celebrate Gram's birthday and a lot more.

Can't wait to see you, Kristen!!

Everything

So, I was sick all week. Super busy with tons of stuff now. I have to catch up on lots of work and try to get ahead before settin' out to Ontario. I'll have to do a few lessons of each subject each day! Ugh. That's a lot. Anyways...the weather's pretty nice out here! It's a bit cold but it's still fairly sunny! So, I was asked to babysit tonight and I'll probably do it but I don't know yet because my mom went to Salmon Arm to pick up Bri from work and Anna Marie called to ask while they were out. I was left here to schoolify. So, I did some scrapbooking stuff, 2 science experiments, a lesson and a quiz and some writing and now I'm doing a blog to put on my language page. So yeah. I have to go now! But I'll post more when more stuff happens!
-Kristen

New stuff

Hello there! I guess that I haven't written in about a week...but I've been really busy! Kyle turned 3 on Tuesday and we had this little party for him when Darby and I were babysitting for the Moms and Tots group from our church. It was really cool! But it's weird to think of Ky as 3 already!

Anyways...In this past week, I've done a ton of stuff! I've done 6 hours of swimming, 3 hours of babysitting multiple children, gone to church, gone to youth group, jammed with the youth band, met with our homeschool guy, done about five hours of shopping, done a ton of school work, submitted a poem to Chicken Soup For The Soul, had Darby over for about 6 hours, had guitar lessons, read two novels and had three birthday parties for Kyle. Bri's parents are also here from Ontario, visiting for a week. I'm tired! Ugh. Anyways...Travis went with a family from our church to Mexico for a missions trip today. A ton of other people went too. Hopefully they'll have a good time helping the orphans...I want to go next year. Travis also got a 30Gb iPod for his sixteenth birthday! YAY! I'm not the only person in BC with an iPod! Yay!
Okay...Time for math and french!
-Kristen

P.S.-Can't wait to come in November! I look forward to seeing everyone! And my Christmas list is in progress so I'll have it out very soon!

Stuff Lately

Well...Things are pretty crazy lately! I have things planned for every day of the week!
Sunday: Church/babysitting the kids under 3
Monday: Youth Group and Youth Band
Tuesday: Babysitting about twelve kids for Moms and Tots in the morning for two hours...but this, however, invloves twenty bucks!
Wednesday: Guitar lessons at 7pm
Thursday: SURVIVOR!
Friday: The day used for catching up on any missed school lessons.
Saturday: Swimming lessons from 9-1pm
Friday was Travis' 16th birthday! So that's cool! His parents are paying for him to get his liscense...so no car...yet. Saturday was my first swimming lesson! GAH! Complete madness! It's so tiring! Especially doing the 20 lengths in fifteen minutes...and it's an olympic sized pool! So my arms felt like rubber after that. But then, as soon as I got home at 1:30, I had to eat 8 chicken nuggets in about five minutes and then go to the church with my mom. We had to set up a bunch of stuff for my Auntie Sue's CD release party. Travis, Shanan, Auntie Sue and Jeff Cuell make up the band (which originally invloved a different drummer and bassist) and Brendan R. and Ty were doing the sound. So, we set up a bunch of stuff and then headed home for dinner. At 7, we arrived at the church to see the place fairly full and Jeff already talking about their songs. They played a great concert and stuck around for snacks afterward. It was pretty cool! I also got to sleep over at Darby's that night. Sunday was church in the morning. I watched the three kids that showed up for nursery with Raquel and then ate some really good bread that Darby saved for us from the Sunday School class. So that was pretty cool! After church, I went back with the Arens family to hang out there until four when Travis' Birthday Bash began. We launched these cool little rockets and stuff and it was so cool! Except for the fact that the rocket Darby and I used was a bit of a dud. It was plastic and too heavy so it didn't work all that well. We played some fun games after that and had dinner followed by CAKE (which Grandma gladly provided)! So, it was good! Monday night at 6:30, I went over to the Ministry Centre at the church for Youth Group. The band practices for a half hour and then we perform the three or four songs for the rest of the group. Then, everyone sits around the table and we do a little Bible study thing and then Carol talks to us for a little while. Then, we get a snack...this week was chocolate chip cookies. We ended up finishing a bit early this week and so we got to do a bit of jamming! It was fun! We were playing like, Sweet Home Alabama and Smells Like Teen Spirit and stuff. It was pretty cool! Then, this morning, my mom and Kyle were picked up by Anna Marie and I was picked up by Karen (Shanan's wife) and we all went to Moms and Tots. Darby was picked up by another lady. Darby and I and a grandma of a few of the kids went down and looked after about twelve kids. All of the kids are five and under. It was pretty fun! We got paid twenty bucks. Most of the kids are pretty well behaved. A couple of them needed some dicepline but for the most part, they were good! We gave them cookies and pretzels for snack and that kept them satisfied for a while. Next Tuesday is Kyle's birthday, so we're giving him a little party. My mom and I are going to make mini cupcakes and have a whole little party thing! It'll be cool! Oh! And on Monday, we met with the new homeschool guy! His name's Ron Sullivan and he's awesome! He's really nice and he used to be a principle. He's so encouraging and he's trying to help in any way that he can! He's going to help get me marks in pretty much everything I do and make up course outlines for a few subjects so that I know what I'm doing. He's also getting us a new grade 10 language course because I was so confused and dissatisfied with the other one. So that's great! Everything seems to be working out well!
Saturday also would have been Poppa's birthday so I'm kind of glad that I was really busy that day because it kept me from dwelling on thoughts of mourning. He would have been 66. But anyways...I have to go do some science. All for now!

-Kristen

hello

Hi! Okay, so I tried to put more pics up but apparently I'm not able to today. So, I'll tell you about my weekend. Okay, so Saturday night was Youth Group "Fun" night so, we met at the church at 6:30 or something. Then, we broke into groups. I was in a group with Darby (who got to stay even though she's not in Youth yet), Preston, Daile and Brendan Reutlinger but the guy driving us only had three seats so I was put with Sean (the tow-truck driver, our driver and the event-coordinator) and two girls that I've never met before. So, we were sent on a scavenger hunt across Sorrento. We had to get lots of strange things: an apple, a paint ball, a cup of sand (?), a business card, a menu from Frank's Pizza, a leaf that's not brown, a homemade cookie, a real estate paper, Pastor Reuban's signature, a dog treat from Petro-Canada...Other weird things. So, off we went. Sean, winding up and down the already windy roads. We got all our stuff so fast that we were sure we were going to win. It was a total race back to Sean's house between us and Travis' team (which included Carol, the youth group leader). But, of course, being the cheaters that we are and getting our dog treat at Sportsmans', we made it there first since we had one less stop. So, we got there before Carol and Travis' team...but the Darbins made it there before us! REVENGE WILL COME! Travis stole my cookies. They stopped at my house and he took my last four homemade cookies. Ggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! They get back to Sean's house and all four of them have a cookie. I made them. They were good. Arg.
Anyways...after hotdogs (which Darby and I didn't eat because we were so full of spaghetti), four people went out and hid in Sorrento Park in the dark. I believe Carol drove Travis, Ty Peters, Brianna and someone else to the park to hide. About ten minutes later, we went and were supposed to find them. Well, no one found Brianna, Travis or Carol....but Brendan found Ty...lying in the grass. (???) So, we left without them. :D Yes... and it was fun. We went to the church and waited. We made lots of noise when we left. And we piled nine people into the seven seater van. Although...nine was nothing compared to the twelve we crammed in later.
Anyways, we hung out in the church parking lot for a while, chucking apples at each other and fighting over dog bones and candy wrappers (DON'T ASK). Eventually, it started getting cold, so we piled in the van and listened to music...all twelve of us. There was Sean, Preston, Darby, Brendan, Ty, Me, Aaron, Alexa, Jade and three other girls. Brendan, Ty, Me and Darby were crammed into the TWO seats in the middle and Aaron was sitting on the floor beside the seat. We kind of just sat there for a while and drove around a bit to see if we could find Carol and the gang. But there was no sign of them for a while. When we did find them, they were wondering where we'd gone and we were wondering where they'd been! It was crazy. After a while, we finally ended up getting everything straight and my mom and Bri picked me and my cousins up, along with the van, which we were to return to Auntie Sue.
So, that was my Sautrday. Sunday night, we went to Shanan and Karen Saddler's for a bon fire and roast...WHICH WAS SO GOOD! We ended up eating wine grapes off their huge vine and then we had two kinds of really good pie for dessert. That was awesome! Last night, we had youth group. Which is basically a meeting and a little Bible study. We didn't get to do Youth Band this week though because we were missing Brendan Osborne (our singer and winner of the Shuswap Idol competition at the Fall Fair) and Travis...drummer boy. I could've sang but I don't know the songs yet. Last week I was trying to figure them out because I'd only heard one of the three. But it was fun nonetheless.
Well...that's about all I've got to say. Give me a call sometime folks! You all have my number, I emailed it out! :D So yeah...that's about all. See you all in November! Have a good Thursday! Survivor started last week! YAY!
Okay...really. this is the end!
Bye!
-Kristen <3

Pictures: 1

Hello! So, here are some of the pictures from the parade. We were playing hold my hand.
#1: As we leave! that's the back of our float.
#2: Ryan and Darby. That was during Ryan's solo.
#3: There's all of us except Travis is just out of view.
#4: ME! That was when my mom realized she was on the wrong side of the street and ran across in front of the float behind us.
#5: Us again, being pulled by the Blue Water Music truck. Now you can see travis.

More to come in a minute!

Bask In My Awesomeness!

Hello! I have so much to tell you! YAY! Okay, so, to make this easier for you to understand, I will put it in order of time.

Friday:

4:00pm: I get ready to go to Salmon Arm.

4:16pm: Bri arrives home from work with KFC

4:27pm: After eating a few fries, I get picked up by The Band and head to Salmon Arm

approx. 5:00pm: We arrive at Blue Water Music in Salmon Arm and head inside.

approx. 5:30pm: Ryan shows up with Molly The Jam Dog and a haircut, and heads into the Jam Room with the other band (Shadows Deception) while Preston, Darby and I wait in the store.

5:47pm: Auntie Sue and Uncle Des show up in the van with McDonalds for our dinner

6:00pm: We head into the Jam Room and practice each of our songs twice.

approx. 6:30pm: We head out of the store into the parkinglot and realize that our plans to see Zoom on opening night are toast, since the show starts at 6:40

6:43pm: I realize that Shadows Deception is made up of very nice people. Perhaps some that we will be jamming with in the future.

6:50pm: John (Blue Water Music Owner/Ryan's Dad) shows up with the "Blue Water Music Sound Guyz" truck and a run-down "Shuswap Lake Estates Golf Club" float.

6:55pm: We begin the float-decoration process.

7:00pm: We realize that McDonalds wasn't necessary since they ordered us two pizzas. We meet ODD-BALL Dean. Ugh.

7:30pm:Darby and I had been waiting around for half an hour while the "men" did all the stuff that we couldn't do because we are not six and a half feet tall or able to lift about 250lbs with one hand. Yeah, they had to set up two huge light fixtures and two ENORMOUS PA system speakers.

8:00pm: The expected time to finish....did not end up as planned.

8:30pm: We wait around for Ryan, John and Dean to get the sound hooked up and adjusted perfectly.

9:00pm: Dean recruits Darby and I to go over to the gas station and buy ten cans of pop for everyone. Mmmm...someone elses 20 bucks!

9:30pm: After two of the girls and Charlie from Shadows Deception are long gone, we end up doing the sound checking. We practiced all of our songs on the float and realized how hard it was to play on it. it's pretty darn wobbley! (Oh! And yes, we covered up the cheesy golf sign.

approx. 9:37pm: A young couple walking through the parking lot stops to hear us play "Hold My Hand"

10:00pm: After trying to get encored by Robyn (sp?), from Shadows Decpetion, we end up being forced off stage by Uncle Des because...well...we had to go!

10:33pm: We arrive at my house and I try to get some sleep!

Saturday!

7:00am: I am woken by Bri and a gloomy day. I head to the shower right away and wash my hair so that it's not all EW for the day.

approx. 7:23am: I eat breakfast and get ready for the day, being sure to pack a sweater.

8:00am: I pack up my guitar and iPod and throw some product in my damp hair.

8:23am (ON THE NOSE): We head out the door to get to Salmon Arm by nine.

approx. 8:57am: We arrive in Salmon Arm as one of the first float-people-es-s(?). Then, we wait around for about ten minutes for the float to show up.

approx. 9:09am: We find the float and get set up, hoping the tarp that rests on Preston's head while he plays doesn't collapse and dump water on us.

9:45am: We're all set up and ready to go. Too bad the parade doesn't actually start until 10:45.

Okay, so this is where I lost track of time and I'll just tell you what happenend now. Soooo, both bands ended up practicing all their songs...twice. Then, as we were the first ones to go on, we just jammed for about half an hour until nearly 11:00 when the parade actually started. So, when the float started moving, I almost fell over. We started playing when Charlie spotted people and watched all the people smile at us as we passed. OH! AND WE WON A THIRD PLACE RIBBON! I'm not really sure which category we were in..but who cares? Our crap-like float won a ribbon! (Yes. Our float was pretty lame looking, but what was on it was much better!) It was really cool because there were a bunch of little kids when we started and they all watched us so intently! Anyways, we did really well! I also got to play a guitar that belonged to a girl from the other band. It made it faster to swithc off. Anyways, Preston handed out Rockets to the little kids when we were done our three songs and then hopped back on when we were up again. So, our second time around was...different. We saw Jeff and Debbie Cuell (Jeff Auntie Sue's partner on their CD). Debbie was clapping madly! :D Then, we saw the Hippy Guy who gave us this crazy smile and a thumbs up from the driver's seat of his beat up pick-up truck. Then...ugh. There was a float with super-soaker things. So, Dean decides to be weird and go get a water blaster thing. In the middle of Hold My Hand when Ryan's doing his solo, Dean runs by and blasts him (while he's holding another girl's guitar). So, Ryan's drenched, my back got soaked and Darby (playing Robyn's base) also got completly drenched. Thanks, Dean........

Well...that was pretty much the highlight(s) of my last two days. Oh! But after the parade was over, we end up going back around to Blue Water Music...still singing! Shadows Decpetion was playing when we went around again. It was cool because the parade was LONG over but we were still blasting music at people...who loved it! Then, we took the float apart and headed to the fair...where we spent the rest of the day. So that was cool. I just got home about two hours ago. It was great! I'm so glad I got that experience. I'd totally do it again. LOUDER THAN WORDS! WHOO HOO! We got a couple pictures. I'll post them later. I gotta go folks! I still feel like I'm on a float! I'm all wobbley! It's such a cool feeling to feel like you pleased people! YAY! Okay! BYE!

-Kristen

NOVEMBER ARRIVAL!

Howdy! What's new everyone? Enjoying school? I like it! I'm having fun working ahead. I started guitar lesson yesterday which was cool. Now I can play even more! WHOO HOO! So, tomorrow, we go to Salmon Arm to decorate the float and then on Saturday, at 9, we have to be there again to get all set and then we go around the city and perform! IT'S GONNA BE SO COOL! I start swimming lessons next Saturday. Brendan Reutlinger (from church) invited me to play in the youth group band (which is all boys and my cousins failed to mention it to me). Anyways, I've been enjoying life out here. I miss people but I'll SEE YOU ALL IN NOVEMBER! Yes, I am coming from the 7th to the 21st. Andrea, I'll be there for your birthday. And I'll be there for Gram's brithday. And, we're having Christmas and New Year's a month early. :D So that will be interesting. So, the long weekend: we went up to Nesconlith Lake (which is about an hour away). We had to drive up the side of a mountain where the cattle run free! It was cool because there was this little baby brown and white cow and it's mother walking down the road. They walked right beside the van! It was so cute! Bri, Uncle Des and Travis and Preston all went out before us at like, 6:30 to try to catch some fish. Although no one caught anything. Well, we ate lunch when we arrived and then went swimming in the somewhat disgusting water. Travis, Darby and I went out in the canoe for a little bit so that was cool. But, no one caught any fish. So, the girls left earlier so that Kyle could have a nap and we left the guys behind because they wanted to keep fishing. When they arrived home about four hours later, Preston had two little tiny raindow trout. One had a smashed in eye....this is pretty gross...because Preston had to knock it out and the club was behind Uncle Des so he didn't know it was there, so instead, he hit it with a rock and apparently, its eye smashed into its head and ended up in its mouth...EW. So yeah, we had pizza for dinner. And two minnow-ee-things for dessert. mmm.
So, last week, we realized we hadn't seen Mario all day and he hadn't slept on anyone's bed for two nights. We came to the conclusion that he wasn't around anymore. He'd gone somewhere. so, we looked all over the house and all over the yard and called for him and stuff. My mom was scared that he'd gone off to die somewhere or had run away or something so we were all kind of freaking out. He's nine and pretty old. So, anyways, later that day, Bri and I went to Sportsmans' (a cool little store) and on our way, we spotted Mario lounging in a chair on the deck next door. He must have just got there because we hadn't seen him all day. I can't even explain to you how happy I was to see my Mario/Mivvy/Stripo/Pookie-Pants. YAY! So yeah, I have my Mivvens back and everyone's happy. YAY!

So yeah, that's about it. I'm doin' pretty well out here. I'll keep you posted! Post something friends and family!
All for now!
-Kristen