The Digital Camera

As you may know from reading one of my posts on Christmas, I received a digital camera. Above is the exact model. Of course, it isn't my camera that's being shown, just the model. I love it! I've found out alot about how to work it. It's actually pretty simple. It sure takes alot better pictures than my VC (video camera) does. I've taken quite a few pictures already, practically all of them being of my family. Jaime and Will were getting kind of annoyed at my taking pictures of them, though. Of course I had to take pictures of something to test it out, right? Yeah, so I love it. Got to get some pictures of Will doing kickflips or something on his skateboard. Here are some of the pictures I took between Christmas and today.


Dad at the Computer

Mom Chewing a Tootsie Roll (lol she looks so funny)

Will (look at them dimples!)

Jaime Uncovering the Chocolate Pudding Pie (Christmas Dessert)

Annie, our Adorable 10 Year Old Puppy, Sleeping with her Bone

Here's Annie Squinting at the Bright Flash

One of my Puppets, Terrance (this was just a test pic)

Another Test Pic on Jaime's Puppet, Nate

One of my Lovebirds, Spanky, Peeking out from the Bed Mom made for him and Fruity

Fruity, Spanky's Girl (if you know what I mean)

Little One (Faithful), Fruity and Spanky's Daughter

And Last but not Least, the Unexpected Visitor I found on my Bedroom Floor on Christmas Night


There are alot more photos, but that's good for now.

-Courtney-

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner went well. We ate mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade herb bread, ham, and a roast duck!!! Everything besides the duck was the normal dinner foods. (It was the first time we ever had duck...at least, that we cooked!) I liked the green beans, herb bread, ham, and duck. But one thing I never did like was mashed potatoes! You probably think I'm crazy because I don't like mashed potatoes, but oh well. I like fried potatoes (if you cook them long enough). Back to the point. I especially liked the duck legs (just like I like chicken legs), but I was the only one who tried them. Everyone else ate the other parts of the duck. But on my second duck leg I was surprised by the taste of orange sauce!!! I made a funny face that made my dad laugh like crazy! I think I had pretty good reason to spit it out though...orange sauce...YUCK!!! After I had pealed off all of the duck skin that had orange sauce on it, I ate the rest.

After cleaning up all of the dishes together, we played a game of LIFE at my request...but it didn't go as well as I had wanted. It was a bit chaotic with everyone asking one another, "Who's turn is it?", or "What is your salary?", or "Give me 70,000 for my pay day." So, we decided to quit in the middle.

Dessert was Chocolate Pudding Pie with an oreo crust. The pudding was a little mushier than it was supposed to be but it tasted good. We also had those chocolate cookies that come in a little box at grocery stores and homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. I liked the Chocolate Chip Cookies more.

So that sums up our Christmas dinner and afterwards.

-Jaime Robinson-



Hey, Jaime, you forgot to mention the bony bacon we ate for breakfast! Yep, that's right. There was little pieces of bone in mine and Jaime's bacon! Lol. It was kind of weird. I've never had bacon that had little chunks of bone stuck in it. WEIRD!

-Courtney-

Christmas

Today is Christmas. We had eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast. Then we cleaned up the kitchen really quickly, so that we could all give out gifts. We kids were the first to hand out our gifts. Dad got some screw drivers, candy, and a toothbrush. Mom was given a kitchen towel, dry erase markers for school, a candle, and some candy.

I got lots of candy from my siblings, beef jerky, a red sweatsuit, socks, and an awesome digital camera! The skateboarder of the family, Will, got some Tech Decks (mini skateboards for your fingers to do tricks on) along with a ramp and rail for his mini skate park. He also got some camouflage skateboard shoes, candy, jerky - errr - some jeans, boxers, cologne, and I think that's it. Jaime was given a gigantic pillow (it's about as long as her bed), candy of course (she loves smarties), jerky, a lamp, skateboard shoes (they're Hawks), and....that's probably it. Annie got a bone to chew and some dog treats. She also got some bacon this morning!

Our grandparents, Mommom and Poppop, got us ten bucks, notebooks, folders, and a few other things while they were here. They gave me some impossible puzzles. Jaime got some cross stitch stuff. Will got some kneepads which he can use at the skate park. So, yeah, that's about it. It was a pretty nice little Christmas, quiet and peaceful. Well, I s'pose that's about it.

-Courtney-

Black Belt Testing (Alexa, Emily, and Erin)

NOTE: This first part, although just now posted, was actually written on the 19th of December.


There's a Taekwondo testing going on tomorrow. Emily and Erin (both girls), the twins, will be testing for their black belts. Alexa will also be testing for her black belt. Emily and Erin are somewhere around 15 and 16. Alexa, judging by her height, is probably around 13 or 14. I'm going to help out. I'll probably mostly be partnered with Alexa for grappling, free sparring, 3 steps, etc. Judging by how long it took for my black belt testing, I'd say it'll probably go from 1 o'clock to 3 or 4 o'clock. That'd be from 2-3 hours. That's the only thing I'm dreading. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.


Ok here's how it went. In the very beginning, Mr Simpson, the Taekwondo instructor, lined everybody up and introduced all of us black belts; besides me, there were about 10 other black belts. Most of whom had tested for their black belts around the same time I did, July. After that, the testing began. They went through a few warm up stuff first. After that they did paddles, which is where you do these certain memorized moves on the kicking paddles. I (and everyone else who was there), then watched all three girls do their forms for 30 minutes to possibly and hour. (A form is basically a series of kicks, punches, and blocks put together in a certain order. The girls each had about 11 of these to memorize for their testing.) Everyone did great on these.

After that they went into self defense and other things. There were about 20 different self defense moves the girls had to go through, but it didn't take half as long as those forms took. I got called in to do the boxing drill with Alexa for a few minutes. Pretty soon they went through 3 steps. I, again, went with Alexa. (3 steps are where 1 person acts as the attacker and throws some stuff at the other person who has to try to deflect the blows or step out of the way and throw some kicks, punches, etc back at them.)

Pretty soon they went through grappling. Alexa went with someone else for this part. Then there was also free sparring. I free sparred with Alexa here. I love free sparring! (Free sparring is similar to sparring, but you don't actually hurt each other.) The testing finally ended, and the girls were each rewarded for their efforts with a black belt, some punching gloves, grappling shorts, a sword, and a framed certificate. They were awesome! They were going to have a celebration afterward, but Mom, Mommom (my Grandmother), and I were so tired by this time that we were ready to leave. Before we left, however, I congratulated Emily, Erin, and Alexa. Finally, at 4 o'clock, we drove off, headed home. It had been a loooooooong day. Well, that's about it.

PS: Mommom kept dozing off in the middle of it, but she never missed a clap. LOL.

-Courtney-

Early Christmas Gifts

This weekend our Grandparents visited. We (without our Grandparents) made lots and lots of cookies. We made Chocolate Chip Cookies, Butterscotch Chip Cookies, and Ginger Cookies. Will was supposed to give Annie (our dog) a bath but Dad helped him and so did I. It was so funny when Dad was trying to get Annie into the bathroom. She hates water and is scared of thunderstorms. She was leaning as far back as she possibly could so that Dad couldn't get her into the bathroom. But Dad is stronger than she is so he got her in. She was trying to get out of the tub at first but after she felt the warm water she started cooperating more. We finished that and she got a treat for being a "good girl."

We used half of a large bag of chocolate chips for our Chocolate Chip Cookies and a whole small bag of butterscotch chips for our Butterscotch Chip Cookies. We usually double the recipe for our Ginger Cookies but since we had a bunch of other cookies we didn't this time. Even though we ate alot of cookies already there are still alot left. They were GOOD!! Mmmm...

We each got some presents from our Grandparents. Court got some "Brain Benders" (those wooden block puzzles that you have to somehow fit together), a folder, a couple of notebooks, ten dollars, a pencil that went with the notebooks, and a few books. Some Heroes Of The Faith books and stuff like that. Will got some knee pads and stuff for when he skateboards (not the really cheap stuff), a folder with a couple of notebooks and a pencil, ten dollars, and a few books. I (Jaime) got a cross stitch thing, a folder, a couple of notebooks with a cut snowman pencil, a couple books, and ten dollars as well. We are all very thankful to our Grandparents.

We don't have an extra bedroom so they had to take Courtney's room. (She has a couch-bed.) I slept with Dad and Mom slept in my room. (Mom didn't sleep with Dad 'cause she can't sleep through his snorin'. Since I snore too, I don't even notice it.) I slept okay but it was kinda hard to get to sleep when I wasn't used to it.

Well, that's all for our early Christmas present post.

PS: Court just told me that Will did one of the "Brain Bender" things. :)


-Jaime Robinson-

Grandparents

Our grandparents are coming to spend this weekend with us, so we've been cleaning the house. I had to really make sure I cleaned my room, since they're going to be sleeping in there. My room is the only room (besides Mom and Dad's bedroom) that has a big enough bed. I've got a couch bed which can pull out into a queensized bed, taking up practically the entire room. Well, I guess I'll tell you how it goes later. Not much of anything interesting to write of now, but.....


Christmas is going to be different this year. It always seems to change. I guess we're just going to get a few gifts. I'm pretty sure we won't be doing anything special. I don't really care though. I s'pose we'll just read the story of Christ's birth like we always do and just give gifts. I sure am glad my parents don't go into an uproar over Christmas. You know, like with buying all this stuff to give us. I mean it's really not that big a deal.

And don't you hate that Santa junk that some parents lay on their kids. I mean lying to the kids. I mean, how do you think the kids 'll feel when they find out you've been lying to 'em all their lives. Santa, humph, what a pack of lies. You know, Christmas is more of a pagan holiday than a holiday for Christ. At least, if you add in all that Santa junk it is. If you keep it simply about God, I suppose it's not.

The Santa junk is what gets me. And the Christmas tree. Did you know that if you move the letters in 'Santa' around a bit, you get 'Satan.' Coincidence? I don't think so. You know, Satanists like to scramble letters in words to create other words. And the Christmas trees, did you know Satanists used to hang the heads of those they sacrificed on evergreen trees. I don't mean to gross you out, but, well, it seems to me that the whole holiday is pagan (or at least has a pagan background).

Did you know that Satanists delight in Christmas. They love the Santa character and the Christmas trees and the decorations. They love the holiday. It seems to me that Christmas isn't so much about Christ as many like to believe, but is rather a holiday to glorify Satan and greed. Sorry, I think I'm getting off on a rant. I'd better stop now. God bless, ya'll!

-Courtney-

Our Nativity Set And The Snowflakes We Made

These are some photos of the nativity set that our friends (the Deatons) gave us and the snowflakes we made. I can't tell you who made each snowflake because I don't even know. Well, I hope you like them!

Here's the Nativity!!

The Nativity Set (I had to brighten this picture.)

I think this is what it was really like. Dark.

A picture of Mary and two of the wise men.

Joseph and the other wise man.

The only good picture I got of baby Jesus.


And Now For The Snowflakes

I do know that Mom made this one...
I remember admiring all those hearts!

And I know that I made this one. It's just
easier to remember which ones I made
'cause I can remember cutting and unfolding
them. See the leaf in the middle?

Mom made this one too...I like the way it
looks like a orange in the middle.

I have no idea who made this one...

And once again, Mom made this one.

Courtney made this one...

Mom made this one, I think...

I don't know who made this one either.

I made this one...

Creator unknown (lol)

Who knows who made this...

A picture of the snowflakes and the paper chain.

Another picture of the snowflakes.

And another...

I made this one.

I don't know who made this one.

And I made this one, too.

And Mom made this one.

Well, that's alot of them. I hope you liked them!!

-Jaime Robinson-

Some Recent Projects

Will, being all interested in skateboarding, asked Dad to help him make a "funbox". The word "funbox" is in skateboarders language. If you're not a skateboarder you probably won't know what it is. I just know because Will told me what it was. A "funbox" is something you grind on. Well, Will and dad made the funbox tonight. They used old wood peices that we had. Will even got to use the electric saw----well, actually he was nervous and Dad made him use it. I'ts not all fancy or anything but Will is proud of it. He can hardly wait to try it out. Me? Naa, I can't ollie that high. (An ollie is a jump on a skateboard.) Will keeps saying to practice more and I guess that's how you get really good at it. What he doesn't understand is I'm not that interested in skateboarding, though. Well, that was the boy's activity.

Us girls, (Mom, Court, and I) made paper snowflakes and taped them to the front window. They look really neat. I think Mom was the best at them....not that Court wasn't good at them.....but Mom just thought of really good ideas. Don't ask me how. We made a million (exaggeration) snowflakes but she always had a new idea. Me? I just did the same cuts over and over with an extra snip here and there. But they all turned out good. It was a fun project. Will made a few only.....probably 4 or 5. I'm not sure. I was bored so I also made a long paper chain out of colored paper. I used all of the staples and almost a whole roll of tape. Today (Wednesday) Mom hung it up over the window. We don't do decorations for Christmas so it was a nice change from the normal. That was our Tuesday through Wednesday project.

That about sums up our recent projects. Lots of fun!!! Mom just vacuumed up all of the paper scraps that we dropped when we were making snowflakes so if I make more snowflakes I have to do it in my room. But we had fun and I can hardly wait until Christmas even though we aren't getting much.


-Jaime Robinson-

Random Going Ons

Since Christmas is approaching, we're going to get next week off from school! Hurray! Not that I hate school or anything; it's just good to get a break once in a while.

Annie, our dog, has been sick. She threw up last night... =( I guess it's 'cause she's getting old. She's near 10 years old maybe. I'm not exactly sure.... Lol, we kind of babied her today, and let her sleep under the covers. (She doesn't usually get to sleep under the covers because she's so spoiled, she got to digging up the beds in order to get under.)

Jaime, Mom, Will, and I have been cutting out snowflakes for fun and hanging them in the window. Mom and Jaime made some really nice ones. Me? I'm not good with that. They all come out....well, not so nice as Mom's and Jaime's do. Jaime also made this little green, red, and yellow paper chain, which we hung up above the living room window.

We don't really do Christmas decorations, but we did take out this little nativity scene that Mrs. Deaton (and maybe the rest of her family too) made for us a few years ago. Not sure. Could have been a year........ I believe it was at least 2 years ago. It's a really nice one. It's got shingles made out of pine cone chips, and the bottom has moss for grass. There are 2 tied straw bales inside, and, of course, the baby Jesus in a manger, Mary, Joseph, and the wise men. An angel is on the front tied onto the roof. And besides all that, there are little Christmas lights weaved around the open edges, so that it lights up. I love it! All we need are some animals to place in there.

We won't be doing Christmas really big this year. We're just going to get a few gifts. I think I'll probably get a CD or 2 and then just ask for money to save up. I'm trying to save up for a laptop, you know like maybe a used one or something. So far I only have about $30 or $35 saved up.

-Courtney-

Interesting Lizards

The Jesus Christ Lizard



Freaky Lizard

-Courtney-

Some Cute Animal Pictures

This isn't really much of a post but I just couldn't resist putting on some pictures of Annie, our adorable pit bull mix...

The lighting isn't very good in this one
but it is one of the few pictures I found.

Alligator!!! No, this is just Annie yawning.

Annie smiling at us.

I have no idea what she is doing here.

Annie again...I think she is panting...

Annie once more.

Is it just me or does it look like she
is winking?

Annie sniffing the air.


Oh...surprise guest. This is Fruity, the mother
of Faithful, and some other birds...I think one of the
others was named Patience. (We don't have any
pictures of him that I know of.)

Here is Faithful. She is a little bit mean at times.
Once she bit me on the ear. And I'll tell you, that hurt!
She has been nicknamed "Little One" even though she
is no longer little. Well, same size as the others.

Faithful or "Little One" again. She is close up on this one.

Alright, back to Annie.

He was right there in our garden! Right in front of our
house! Luckily, it was only a black snake.

Aww! Isn't she cute?

Annie sleeping in Courtney's covers.

Well, I guess that is about all for now...just wait until I get some recent pics though. I have something pretty funny in the house.

-Jaime Robinson-