Happy Holidays to One & All!

Hello once again and Happy Holidays to you all! I am now back from Colorado/Thanksgiving and doing the regular school work and such. And guess the last time I truly wrote, or began writing was about the 10th or so. And here it is the 30th; I think this is the farthest behind I've gotten. Actually, I take that back, I know… I've scribbled down a few notes a couple minutes ago, trying to refresh my memory of the past events. And just to warn you all about how much I've updated this... There is over 5 pages (not quite 6) of new updates, so you may want to put off reading it until you have time, because somethings are interesting (to me anyway). So just as a warning be prepared to put your reading glasses on and be here a while! I guess I could just say, that I did the normal routine, school, chores, and the like, but I think I can go a little more in depth. Not much, but a bit. On the 9th, my mom ordered the MP3 player that I decided on and had been wanting. Which is the SanDisk Sansa m250, 2GB, black. And then on the 13th, it was delivered on. But there was a mix up when we ordered it... You see we have a PO Box for our mail, and don't get mail here at our house/physical address. The only way we can get mail here is via: UPS, DHL, Fed Ex, and the like. So when we ordered it we put our regular mailing address right... well it said it couldn't take PO boxes so we put our physical address, assuming that it would be sent UPS or a carrier of that sort. Well the next day it shipped and my mom got an e-mail saying that it was shipping to our physical address via USPS. So my mom contacted Amazon and they couldn't do anything about it, because it had already been shipped, then my mom called the PO and was told to come in on Monday to talk to our mail carrier. On Monday, my mom went in, and signed us up for a physical address here at the corner of our street, a little over a mile away. But we wouldn't get our mail box key until Wednesday. So Wednesday when we checked our PO Box, we went up front and got our new key. On our way home I checked the cluster box and there was a notice to go to the PO and pick up a package. So we turned around, and picked it up. It just so happened to be my MP3 player (it could have also been my mom's book that she had ordered with my gift). Right there in the PO I started to open it up. I knew right away that it was mine, because the box was so light. Then we went to the grocery store. I stayed in the car, trying to open up the packaging around the actual electronic, but didn't get very far, only managing to cut myself in the process. Oh well. When I got home, I talked to a good friend of mine, while opening and setting it up. Thank you very much again Nana, for my early CHRISTmas present! On Friday, the 17th, I began to pack to go to Colorado Springs. You see, we have a family tradition that we've done for the past 4 years... As much of my mom's family that is able to make it, heads up there to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Thanksgiving! It's always so much fun and a blast! Especially seeing all the relatives that you only get to see once a year if that. Anyway... I started packing for our trip. Besides packing, school work filled in all my time, e-mail, chores, cleaning, and whatever else I could do to fill my time (except somehow my site was not in that list). On Saturday, the 18th, we went to church, had potluck afterward, and in the evening had a music/"jam" session over at a friend of ours house, played games, and fun stuff like that. Sunday, the 19th, my sister and I went to my dad's work for a few hours with him. After my dad finished what he needed to do there, we went and ate lunch at Twisters. Then got a few food items at Wild Oats, exchanged a wrench at Sears, got stuff at Costco, and a dog rope for Risa at Petsmart. We got home a little bit later than planned, but had some fun. The 20th & 21st we just did school. But wait, I take that back, on Tuesday we went to town. We worked really hard to get all our school work finished on time, so we could leave the house within a reasonable time. We didn't have all that much school work to do, since the following day was a holiday, so it wasn't too hard. In town, we picked up some books from the library, went shopping for a few items at Wal-Mart, ate lunch at Twisters, went to Title Wave Books to kill time, and then met my friend at Taco Bell to pick her up from school. Then we went to the chiropractor and Wild Oats to get some glucosamine for our dog, dropped my friend off at her house, and came home. Wednesday, the 22nd, we did a wee-bit of school work, did some final packing, loaded the van up, cleaned the house, put the dog in the van, and eventually headed out. In town we stopped by Costco to fill up with gas, ate lunch at Taco Bell, got lunch for my dad at Subway, and picked my dad up from his work. Then we washed the outside of our vehicle and hit the road. It is only a 6 hour drive, but seems longer when you're anxious to see your family and cousins. We got there around 7:30 -8:00 p.m., said hello to everyone, and had salad and spaghetti for dinner. Which BTW I soaked my salad (like in a pool) in dressing! Ooops, it wasn't a shaker top! Late that evening my uncle and aunt from Virginia flew in. We all thought prior to Thanksgiving that they weren’t going to be able to make it, because the airfare rates had sky rocketed with it being the holiday season. But about a week before Thanksgiving my dad found some really cheap flights that they could get and lo and behold, they made it for the celebration! Thursday, Thanksgiving! It was also my uncle from Colorado's birthday! We just had fun all day long, playing foosball in the basement with 4 of us, chasing my little cousins around the house and just having so much fun with my little cousins and older younger cousins. That morning my uncle went and got my other aunt and uncle from Arizona from the airport. For the 2nd time (out of the 4 years) my mom's entire family was there, oh except Papa. It was really nice! I loved my time there and thoroughly enjoyed my stay! Before we had Thanksgiving dinner (in this case it's was like a Linner, lunch and dinner) my uncle and aunt from Virginia made an announcement... They're going to have a baby in July of next year! That was really exciting! So now there will be 8 cousins! (Me being the 2nd oldest...). I can't wait! Anyway... We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner of turkey (I didn't have any, BTW), stuffing (nope), mashed potatoes (yum!), cranberry sauce (never even tasted that stuff), bread rolls, salad, asparagus and noodles, and whatever else was on the table that I don't remember. Oh, but I can't forget the Sparking Apple Cider. I will forget the wine though, since I didn't have any... Later on that evening, after all the other mess from the cooking, we had Turtle Cheesecake, which my aunt (from CO) made from scratch and oh, it was so good, rich, and ahhh! We had that because it is my uncle's favorite and it was his birthday. Surprisingly we didn't have any pumpkin pie! That evening, we all went down to the basement, where they have a really nice surround sound theatre and watched "Cars," which I had never seen before. It is really good, but it's not one of my favorites, because I really don't care for cartoon(ish) videos. Friday, it didn't get about 30F outside and was totally freezing. That's the day that we normally go out and do something fun, but in this case, we just hung around inside all day long, watching family reunion videos from this year, our vacation video from when we went to Florida, looking a pictures from Florida and boring stuff like that. We were supposed to go to Garden of the Gods and places like that, to go hiking and also so I could take photos and such. Bummer, it was cancelled. That evening all of us, except my uncle and the two little ones played a game called “Apples to Apples.” If you all have never played it, it’s an absolute must! We were all laughing so hard it was tough to stop and hurt so bad. We played for a couple hours and finally went to bed. My back was hurting so bad, I was miserable. I think it was mostly from laughing so hard. Anyway, it was such a blast and I loved it, even though I kind of paid for it later… Also that morning my aunt and uncle from Virginia went back home. Sabbath, we didn't go to church (we never really do on Thanksgiving when we're up there). But we did get out of the house around noon and went to Old Colorado City and walked the main street, mostly window shopping. Oh my uncle and Nana, as well as my aunt and uncle from Arizona, because they had taken them to the airport to go back to AZ. It was already 3 o'clock and we were all starting to get really hungry. Especially me, and I was also beginning to feel sick (almost nauseous) because of some stinky chap stick that I had put on earlier, which gave me a major headache and such. So we quickly found a place to eat; a pizza shop called Charlie's Pizza/Old Town Pizza. We decided to eat there and they made so really good pizza, but not as good as Second Avenue Pizza that I had in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Anyway, after lunch we continued walking Main Street After a few minutes of walking we came across the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! Oh their chocolates are so good, but I didn’t get any. No sweets for me! Normally I wouldn’t anyway, but this time for sure I said no. You see, the previous day we hadn’t gone out of the house, mainly because it was so cold, and everyone was too lazy, so we ran out of food/groceries, that is unless you wanted to eat the leftover turkey. So with nothing to eat, I settled on 3 slices of Apple Pecan Streusel and a HUGE, HUGE slice of pumpkin pie with whipping cream on top. Oh yeah, I did have a bowl of cereal in the morning. I didn’t really feel all that bad on Friday after only eating junk, but the day after I was really feeling it, so that’s what made me say no to the sweets.

After admiring all the chocolates we walked on to Santa’s House at the North Pole. It was a long walk but we eventually got there! Anyway, we went there and let the little ones see Santa, tell him what they want, and get a candy cane. Then we walked back to an ice cream shop that we had passed by before and got some ice cream. Again I didn’t get anything. My uncle and Nana met us back there from dropping my aunt and uncle off at the airport.

Then we started walking back towards the vehicles, but it took us a while, because we got lured into some shops, by too much window shopping. We first stopped in a souvenir/gift shop place, where they mostly sold glass wall hangings (which I’d been there before the prior summer and bought a couple things), beanie babies, shirts, jewelry, candles, and little miscellaneous items. The second and last shop that we stopped at was a soap shop. They sold all handmade/natural soaps there, perfumes, lotions, and neat stuff like that. Oh it smelled so good in there and so many selections! I never did decide which smell I like the best, but the rosewater lotion they had smelled really good!

We finally got out of the old town and back to our cars, as it was beginning to get dark. Back at the house we just hung loose and I ate a slice of apple pie.

Sunday! Bummer! Time to go home! We got up in the morning and packed all our stuff up, clearing the basement of our clutter. Oh my uncle also had a really nice guitar that he had, and gave it to my sister. It’s really nice and she loves it! It’s got red-mahogany and really pretty! Reluctantly I helped my dad load up the van. Then we were ready to go, we said our last goodbyes and hit the road. But before we made our final stretch for home, we stopped at the “Pita Pit” to eat lunch! It was really good! Then right lunch a good friend of mine called and we talked for quite a while, mostly until we ran out of things to talk about.

On the 5 ½ hour drive home I just sat there and occasionally listened to my MP3 player! The seat I was sitting in was most uncomfortable. We had taken the middle seats out of the van and replaced them with the back seats, which do not recline and aren’t all that comfy. But it was better than the ride up there, where we were so loaded that I only had six inches of seat, so that I am grateful for. Then as we were nearing Santa Fe for our turn towards home and final descent my good friend called again and we talked some more.

Finally we reached our destination, home sweet home, around 8:00 p.m. or so.

Monday, double bummer, back to school! But we had a motivation. My dad had promised us that if we got all our school done in a timely manner on Monday that we could decorate for the holidays! So with that in our minds, we finished quite quickly and around noon headed out to the shed to get out our decorations! Then the rest of the afternoon we decorated the house, putting up lights in the windows, around the front door, and around the poles in and out of our home. As well as putting up the bells in-between the living and dinning rooms and all the other miscellaneous décor around our living quarters.

Tuesday we just did plain old school, but also talked to some great friends that evening!

Oh and that evening we heard on the radio that the Sandia Mountains were going to be getting quite some heavy snow that night, and high possibilities for Albuquerque, so that means snow for us too!

Yesterday morning I woke up suddenly and remembered that it was supposed to snow, looking out my window, I realized it was true! There was about 2 inches of snow outside and it was still falling! All day it continued to fall off and on. A little before noon my sister and decided (well it was more my idea and decision) to go outside and take our CHRISTmas photos in the snow. Bad idea! After spending a little under an hour out there, we gave up and came inside. We were trying to capture the snowy scenery in the background with us sitting on a snowy log, but without dressing like it was cold. Well we paid for it, the pictures are all pretty good, but we were quite cold and our faces, noses, and ears are bright red because it was 15F outside.

After wasting our time doing that, I realized that I hadn’t done any school yet, but first I had to eat lunch and warm up. Eventually around 3 p.m. I started on my school work, finishing sometime near 6 p.m.

This morning we woke up quite startling. The door bell rings! Who could it be… it’s not that early in the morning, but we were sleeping in… I sleepily come out of my room and peak out the porch window. Great! It’s the neighbors! My sister had just woke up from them too, so we neither of us wanted to open the door. My mom who was already slightly awake got up and answered the door. You see we had left the gate open all night long, so it wouldn’t be snowed shut in the morning. Well their dog, Bub-bino, had gotten out and was in our yard and they wanted to let us know and ask if they could get her. We haven’t seen the neighbors in quite a while, for some unusual reason (like 2 months almost) and seeing that they were home from school (since it was closed due to the 9-12 inches of snow outside) and actually at our house I took that as an opportunity to go, see them and say hi. So I dressed quickly, as well as my sister and went outside to play. They neighbors finally caught their dog and had to go eat breakfast before they could play. So we came inside and ate as well. Then after eating, I went to the shed and got out our 2 sleds and a saucer.

Bummer, though, the snow wasn’t the right type to sled on. It’s the light and fluffy kind that it’s all that great for a heavy sled to glide across. But we decided to pack it anyway and we sledding down the street. We live at the end of a deserted cul-de-sac so we can play in the street all the time. Then we went a little farther down the street to where it slants more downwards. I hadn’t taken the time to put on my warmer gloves so my hands were totally freezing and almost frozen. So I went back up to the house, got some warmer gloves, and a mug of hot water. After playing a little bit more at the end of the road, I suggested that we got behind our house and play at the REALLY steep hill that is awesome for sledding on, good or bad snow! So we did that and had an awesome time! Finally getting the hang of just how to steer the sled for that type of snow and rocky area.

Eventually we all got quite cold, so we all trudged back to our homes and came inside to warm up. We’ll got back out in a little while. So now I’m just on my computer writing and finishing this up, and later this afternoon I’ll get online and post this “letter.” My mom is in town right now for a doctor’s appointment, and my sister is the in the other room watching a movie while eating something. I should probably go for now, because the “post” is already over 5 pages long and shouldn’t keep you all any longer. Hope you all are enjoying the cold weather that has swept across the nation. I sure am! It got down to 5F last night, our record low. I’ll tell you all if it gets that cold or colder again! Off to do my school work for the day! God Bless you all in these upcoming holidays! Happy Holidays and Have a Merry CHRISTmas!

God Bless, ~Butterfly~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everybody! I apologize that I haven't been updating this and started to the other day and never finished. But I really have been busy, you just have to understand. Right now we're heading out the door to Colorado Springs, so I need to go. Just wanted to say a quick "Hello" and wish you all a very wonderful "Happy Thanksgiving!" God Bless you all in the coming holidays, ~Butterfly~

Here Comes Thanksgiving!

Hello! Ok, now I'm going to try and remember what I've been up to... But first I'm going to go and eat breakfast and then be back... Yum! Home- canned peaches and Raisin Bran! Oh before, I begin... I apologize that my messages on this blog aren't sorted into paragraphs. I actually do write them in paragraphs, but for some reason when it shows up on the blog, it isn't anymore, but still when I edit it it is. So anyway, I apologize for that. Let's see... the last time that I really wrote was last Thursday/over a week ago. Since then... Well, some not so pleasant news... One of our really good friends 5th cousin died, he was a great kid (18), (FYI: like 600-700 people at the funeral...), but anyway, let's get to the better stuff.

Hey Guys!

Bonjour Everybody! Hope you are all doing great and have enjoyed your week so far... I certainly have! School has been fairly easy going. I got my MP3 player in last night and absolutely love it! It's perfect; Thank you Nana! I really don't have time or energy to sit here and think about my past week to tell you all. So sometime in the near future, hopefully I'll be able to sit down and share my week with everyone! Just keep checking back here to see if I've updated it, because I'm planning on doing it soon. You all have an awesome evening and God Bless, ~Butterfly~

The Dream Machine Foundation!

Hi all, again! OK, now to complete get you all up to date... This last Sabbath we decided to go to a different church, other than our own. We chose to go to the Heights Church in Albuquerque, where we used to go before we moved out here. We mainly chose to go there, because they had a guest speaker that we wanted to hear. So instead of having to get up early and go help set up for our church here, we slept in, skipped Sabbath School, and went to the church service at Heights. The speaker that was giving the sermon was Stephen Arrington. I'll tell you a little bit about his story/testimony. As a boy he had dreamed of being a diver; his hero was Jacque Cousteau. He was in the Navy as a frogmen and went to Vietnam 4 times. Then he got into dealing/transporting illegal drugs (marijuana and cocaine) from Central American countries, doing this with/for a "friend" of his. He shattered his dream with the choice and went to jail. After a couple-few years there, he was released. Sometime after that his dreams were fulfilled; he became the chief diver of the Cousteau Society. He then became a Seventh-day Adventist and now has a children's ministry (Drugs Bite) where he teaches kids that drugs aren't good and stuff like that. He also works with a ministry called Dream Machine Foundation. Through that ministry he funds/helps 3 schools in Fiji. Each year missionaries go there to help out. Some of the footage he showed of diving in the reefs is unbelievable in the colors and sea life down there. Anyway... We went and listened to his sermon for church as well as the presentation that he gave in the evening about Fiji and his expeditions with the Cousteau's, and stuff like that. It was really good and Fiji sounds wonderful, especially helping others there by building them new schools, hospitals, and churches. (I can't not mention the beautiful scenery there, that would be totally awesome to photograph!) Anyway, that's about the rest of what I didn't get around to mentioning yesterday evening. You all have an awesome day in Jesus! God Bless, ~Butterfly~

Sunsets, Clean Teeth, iPods, and Fiji!

Hey everybody! No, I haven't forgotten about you all. Things just get busy. I've thought about writing, but then there seems to be nothing of interest to write about, so why bother. But after receiving a comment (which I have no clue it's from...) hinting that they're waiting for an "update," I figured it's time to do it, whether or not there is anything you'd enjoy reading about. So anyway... Let's see, it's been quite a while since I've been on here and I don't remember when that was, so I'm going to have to look it up, so I don't repeat anything (especially if it's boring)... Wow! Way back in October, it's already like a week and a half into November. Now I see why people started hinting... But can my memory recall any interesting things among the jumble of boring stuff since then? OK... Time to put the brain to work, but I don't want to, I've already used it enough doing school earlier today. Oh OK, I hear you all out there, wanting to know what I've been up to... Alright, alright, I'll give it a go. Since I don't know where to start off, I'll begin with what the above photo is of, when, and where. I took that picture 2 nights ago. I was just sitting at my computer listening to music (ah. Something that reminds me of something to write about...) when I happened to look out of the office window and see some pink clouds. Getting up off of my chair (which was most likely a big exercise ball) I saw that it was the gorgeous sunset. So running quickly into my room I grabbed my camera out of my dresser, and no, it wasn't all that dusty. I ran out the back door and got out my camera. And this is one of the shots that I took. And actually this is the last pic that I took. Funny, the first pics that I took weren't as colorful as the last ones. I guess it just got prettier as it aged. Oh, and also, if you notice in the photo, the stickish weeds that are in it are almost as tall as the telephone wires. Just thought I'd point that out. Those are between our fence and the neighbors (a 18 inch gag), not big enough to mow in there. So the weeds just grow taller and taller. So, the topic of music reminds me of a "project" that I've been doing. For some reason I decided that I was interested in iPods (generically MP3 players) and wanted to know more about them. So I started reading reviews on different brands and such. Specifically comparing the iPod Shuffle and the Sandisk Sansa m250. After putting hours of research into this, I think I've finally come to the conclusion. For the same price as the Shuffle, which is 1 GB, I can get the Sansa m250, which is 2GB, has a FM tuner, built in mic, display screen, and stop watch. So you tell me which one I'm going to choose. So now that I've decided on that, I just have to figure out which place I'm going to buy it from. Anyway... that's one thing that has kept me busy. And I also downloaded iTunes one evening, which I had to leave my computer on all night long to get it done, because I wasn't going to stay up til midnight waiting for it to finish on our slow connection speed. And I really like it a whole lot better than Windows Media Player, no matter if they have a cool skin/mini player or not. Nothing else of interest that I can remember. My dad went to Denver last week for four days and he's back now. Yesterday we went to town. We had a dentist appointment that was in the early afternoon so we had to leave an hour early to be on time, which left me with very little time to do my school work. So as a result of that, I only got in a little more than an hour. At the dentist we all had general checkups and cleanings and all 3 of us (that went) had no cavities and teeth are doing great. My teeth are doing perfect, except for the fact that I have receding gums (genetically from my mom) and have to be really careful about that when brushing. We also went to the chiropractor yesterday, as well as Title Wave Books, Costco, Wal-Mart, and the Library (like 5 minutes before they closed). At the library we got the older video (1943) "My Friend, "Flicka" based on the book by Mary O'Hara. We watched that last night and it was really good! A very good movie (old fashioned) and family friendly (unlike most movies nowadays). Anyway, now that I realize it, I could go on and on, but my mom is asking me to get off so she can use the phone to call my dad. As you can see in the title there is one topic that I didn't get to, so that'll leave you with something to look forward to and come back waiting. If I get the chance I'll get back on this evening and finish about this last weekend. But for now I'd like to say "From New Mexico, everybody, Byebye!"