BethJoy.com

The next or Forth installment of "A Story That Might be Interesting" (You probably want to make sure you've read the previous installments)

10/31/05
And then the conversation was further interrupted by two gigantic bird like though also bat like creatures who swooped in the open window and one grabbed Princess Gwendolyn and the other grabbed Mildred. Then the two creatures promptly flew off.

A few minutes elapsed and Princess Gwendolyn was the first to get over her surprise and she said in a calm, quiet, and refined tone, "I wonder where they are taking us?"

"Wherever they are taking us," Mildred replied, "I hope we get back in time for that tournament." and from her tone of voice one could infer that she meant exactly what she said.

"I'm sure someone will notice that we're missing and come to find us." Princess Gwendolyn said. However at that moment the bird like bat like creatures changed their flight path and began flying across the sea.

"I wish we were going over land." Princess Gwendolyn said out loud for the billowing waves beneath her did not look inviting if she were dropped. Also she was aware of the rather uncomfortable fact that learning how to swim had not been part of her education as a princess.

"I know how to swim." Mildred said reassuringly, "But one of the scientist at our court was saying something about water being very hard when one falls on it from a great height. I don't remember why though but there was some scientific theory involved."

"It would be rather hard to look it up now." Princess Gwendolyn said, "And I do hope we shan't experience it." There was silence for some time after this for their captor's speed had increased and the wind or the rush of the air past them made talking difficult. After a while they could see a small speck in the middle of the ocean that looked like a small speck in the middle of the ocean. However as time passed it grew steadily larger and larger until they could see that it was an island of sorts.

"It's an island!" Mildred shouted out about two minutes after Princess Gwendolyn was certain that it was. Princess Gwendolyn did not reply for shouting was quite unprincesslike and it was required to shout in order to be heard.

The creatures began slowing down eventually and once they were directly over the island they began a spiral path downwards. Princess Gwendolyn was too dizzy to carefully take note of the geography of the place but Mildred noticed that there were no ships on the shores and no buildings save a large castle on the topmost hill of the island. It was an unpleasant looking place and was made of a very dark stone and all the pinnacles of the castle looked as though they were sharpened.

All around the island were lots and lots of trees that also were dark, the leaves almost looking black. There was nothing pleasantly colored on the island that could be seen from the air, and even the water around the island looked unpleasantly green.

By the time Mildred had finished making her observations they were almost to the castle and a moment later they were dropped on to the topmost turret. Princess Gwendolyn then got up as gracefully as a princess can who has been dropped ten feet onto stone by a monstrous bird and bat like creature and Mildred attempted to imitate her but with little success. And then they waited while I checked to see if I had written my quota yet. I had.

Another picture that was taken a very long time ago

In order of height and age, Daniel, John, Andrew, and a last but not least, me Elizabeth.

I enjoy dressing up. I'm not sure about my brothers though but they enjoyed any excuse to hold weaponry.

Episode Three of "A Story That Might Be Interesting"

28/10/05
As I have found so far in this story one merely has to keep typing and eventually inspiration will come. However it also means that there will be some pointless writings before the story really gets going which is why I would prefer to immediately start writing something brilliant but oh well.

Since writing yesterdays page I decided to post the days on Bethjoy.com as I go along. So that is probably where you are reading this and if you are starting here you might want to go back and read the previous post first. If you've already read that post then congratulations!!!

I suppose I'd better get back to the story. Princess Gwendolyn is eagerly anticipating her seventeenth birthday, or actually maybe it should be nineteenth? Although I would have no object to a seventeen year old beautiful princess having a romance my mother might. Or perhaps it's her tenth birthday but she was born on the last day of February on a leap year so she is, in fact, going to be forty years old though it will have only been her tenth birthday. However though forty is quite mature it seems a slight bit old for a beautiful fairy tale princess still to be single. Unless she was trapped very far away from eligible princes or knights it would be very unaccountable.

So perhaps it should be her twenty-first birthday and though that is pushing it age wise for a dazzlingly beautiful princess to still be single there might be a law against getting married before that age. So we shall assume that to be the case.

Therefore Princess Gwendolyn is eagerly expecting the arrival of her twenty-first birthday and her birthday party which is going to be of special magnificence and her birthday cake which is to be made with twenty-one layers and the arrival of her dear cousin Mildred who somehow managed to be plain looking though that is not the reason why Gwendolyn is looking forward to her arrival.

I don't know why but I think that the name Mildred suggests plainness in face and greatness in age although I'm sure why. I'm sure there have been many lovely Mildreds but I've never met any. We shall assume that Mildred has just arrived at the palace and is about to see her dear cousin and the following takes place.

"My dear cousin Mildred! How nice to see you! How are you?" Princess Gwendolyn said in the most genteel and pleasant manner imaginable.

"I'm doing well." Mildred said in a manner that implied that she was just saying it because it was the proper sort of of reply and that she really wasn't doing well at all though he health was in good order.

"How splendid!" Princess Gwendolyn said in a way that implied that she was glad her dear cousin was in good health but was rather sorry to hear that in other respects she was less than satisfied. "How was your voyage here?" she further inquired.

"We had a pleasant voyage." Mildred said in a way that implied that other than her being seriously seasick for the entire voyage it had gone well and they had had fair whether all of the way.

"And how are your parents? They are doing well I hope?" Princess Gwendolyn replied in a manner that implied that the sooner they were off the subject of seasickness the sooner it would be forgotten and on land such things were to be forgotten.

"My father is doing well but my mother is ill. My father deeply expressed his regrets that he could not attend your birthday party and my mother also sends her but her ill health keeps them both at home." Mildred said in a manner that implied that she was glad to forget being seasick for otherwise she would start feeling a little woozy but it was certainly nice to be on land again wasn't it? And fish dinners can get so tiresome.

"I'm sorry that they could not come but with your mothers poor state of health I certainly would not expect it. I hope that she shall be well again soon." Princess Gwendolyn said in a manner that implied that anything if eaten too much of can become very tiresome and fish always tastes so fishy that even in small quantities occasionally it is none the worse for a change but it's quite a different thing with chocolate.

"Yes, the doctors are hoping that she shall be up and about again before Christmas." Mildred said as though to say that she just loved chocolate and could go on eating for days and days and it was one of the few things that she could think about eating at the moment.

"What exactly ails your mother?" Princess Gwendolyn said as though to say that she also could eat large amounts of chocolate for longs periods of time but wouldn't do so as it would be detrimental on her figure and that she was quite sorry to hear that her dear cousin's appetite had not yet returned and might it be a good idea to sit down?

"She has pneumonia." Mildred said as she sat down and her words and actions implied that she did think it was nicer to sit down than stand up and weren't the feather chairs very comfortable.

"Pneumonia! How unfortunate." Princess Gwendolyn said as she too sat down and she implied by her words and motions that yes, the feather chairs were certainly quite comfortable but eventually they lost somewhat of their fullness and had to be re-stuffed with fresh feathers from the palace poultry.

"Oh yes, she has not been out of bed for a week." Mildred said and her tone of voice implied that the palace poultry must have a lot of feathers and that it probably would be quite interesting to see a chair stuffed.

"Fancy! Was she much ill before she took to her bed?" Princess Gwendolyn said implying that there was a lot of palace poultry and that she herself had never seen a chair stuffed with feathers but that it probably wasn't as interesting as watching a grand tournament.

"Yes, she was feeling ill for nearly a week before she decided to stay in bed." Mildred replied and her tone of voice indicated that she too enjoyed watching tournaments and she hoped that their might possibly be one while she was visiting the palace.

"Has Doctor Rolthmar attended her?" Princess Gwendolyn said and her tone implied that that there was going to be a grand tournament held in honor of her birthday the day after the event and the preliminary beginnings of the tournament were to happen on her birthday.

"Yes, he came last week when my mother first decided to remain in bed. and has often been back since." Mildred replied in a way which expressed her pleasure at the idea of the forthcoming tournament.

At this moment there conversation was interrupted by my realizing that I had written not one page but two pages worth today and that is quite enough for now.

Episodes One and Two of "A story that might be interesting" Rambled together by Elizabeth Joy Von Fange

Just a few words before the episodes. I started writing a new story the day before yesterday and it is supposed to be the story to write on when I don't feel like writing on anything else. It's main purpose and function is to give me something to write a page a day on. I was telling Daniel about it and he said that I ought to post the daily episodes on here as I write them so I think I will. Bear in mind that I may never complete this story and it may never get much more coherant than it is now but I hope it's at least a little bit amusing.

10/26/2005
A Story That Might Be Interesting
Rambled Together by Elizabeth Joy Von Fange

Chapter One

This story began with an entry on my daily to do list. It said "Write one page on story". However it didn't specify which story. For the first two days of this I merely wrote miscellaneous bits and peaces in various places but when Wednesday rolled around I decided that I really should be writing on just one story. So this is the story I decided on writing and what will happen and how it will and who the characters will be I currently have no clue. But it should end happily since I like happy endings very much.

Now in case you are wondering who is talking since most openings that start in a personal narrative sort of way usually have the main character doing the talking and I just lost the thread of this sentence so I'll go back to the beginning. I'm not the main character of this book. The last book I wrote I was the main character but that was bothersome because since I am too young for romance(according to my mother) I couldn't have any in the book and I think it would be really fun to do a book where the main character can fall in love and get married and live happily ever after as well as having a lot of other things happen to them and they might be able to do things that I probably wouldn't. After all, one doesn't really know how one would handle situations until one is faced by them. However their is no rule that says I can't base the main character off myself:)

You know, actually I don't think I mentioned what I was going to say at all so I'd better do it at once and not waste further time. My name is Elizabeth Joy Von Fange and I have a website called Bethjoy.com where I post most of my writings and write a lot of posts on and I ramble freely. If you like this story you may like my website and visa versa although I can't really guarantee it because at the moment I really have no clue about what this story is going to be like. But it might just be a fairy tale sort of story since I like fantasy and fairy tales and dragons and beautiful princesses and humor. Not that fairy tales and fantasy always have humor but when I write them they do, or they ought to.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph I'm supposed to be writing at least one full page on a story a day therefore at the moment I'm merely typing to fill my quota. This whole story will probably be typing to fill the quota so if you see some things that are obviously just in there to fill space you will know why. Conversations where each person only says about a sentence or so and that goes on for a while takes up a lot of space. Poetry does too.

I suppose I probably should turn my attention to the story itself now. I'll be telling the story of course so you already have met the most important character, me the narrater or story teller or whatever you wish and desire to call me providing it is complimentary. But there ought to be a main character in the story unless we(and I don't know who I mean by "we" but it sounds less self centered than using "I" and I don't really want to seem self center but I'm the youngest in my family and I have three older brothers and I am slightly spoiled therefore I kind of have to work at not being too self centered. I also should probably work at sticking with the point but so far there isn't one.)

Now where was I? One problem with writing is that it's really easy to forget what one just wrote and being that I have horrible vision I can't go back and read what I've already written without great difficulty since from the distance I'm typing I can't read my computer screen even though there is text on it. It's really important not to accidentally hit the caps lock button while typing this way or to accidently click off this screen or else one might type for a while and then when one looked at the screen either what would be there would be in all capitol letters, which is hard to undo, since you have to retype everything, or it simply wouldn't be there which is worse. I wonder if I've written a page yet? Let's see.

Wow! I have! I'm even a paragraph over! That's a delightful beginning. This story is being really fun to write. maybe I should just go on and on in this manner and never tell a story at all. Oh dear, I hope I didn't lose anybody by saying that. EMERGENCY HEADLINE ATTENTION GETTERS!!!

DRAGON'S ATTACK, PRINCESS IS KIDNAPPED, FIRE FAMINE AND FLOODS, POPE ELOPES, REALLY GREAT EPIC MOTION PICTURE RELEASED, ECONOMY SURGES, ECONOMY PLUMETS, ALIENS ARRIVE FROM MARS AND THEY AREN'T GREEN, PANIC ENSUES, ELIZABETH VON FANGE IS AT A LOSS FOR WORDS

I hope you'll continue reading now. There actually is a story behind one of those potential newspaper headlines. Apparently several years ago a wealthy newspaper owner was trying to decide which of his three sons to leave his vast publishing empire to and he called them together and told them that the one who would tell him the most sensational newspaper headline that would sell the most papers would get the family fortune. The sons came back and one had "President turns Communist" and the other had something similar but the third son, and the winning son, had simply two words for his father, "Pope Elopes". Since the Pope isn't supposed to get married that would be rather sensational. I'm a Christian and not Catholic just so you know. My oldest brother Daniel told the story I just told you at lunch today. So for those of you in doubt, yes brothers can be useful for something or than getting rooms messy. I'm very fond of my three brothers just so you know.
27/10/05

It is now a new day. In case you were wondering the date mentioned above shows that it is a new day and on that day I wrote this. The next time you see a date it will mean that what was written after that was on a different day and so forth. I find this rather interesting and it helps me keep track of where I am and whether or not I've actually written my daily page yet. I don't really plan on writing on the weekends though.

Perhaps I should return to the story which ought to be taking shape
eventually. As I've said before I really like fairy tales so I'll probably have a sort of fairy tale story. I'm currently considering having a princess for the main character. Now there is what is called the stereotypical princess which is a princess who is very proper and perfect and beautiful and principally just gets married to the handsome hero at the end of the book. However there aren't that many books that i've ever read that have that sort of a princess as a heroine. Nowadays there is the new stereotypical nonstereotypical princess who isn't very proper or dignified or golden haired and who goes on adventures and usually doesn't like being a princess.

Although I'm often not very original I do rather like to be but first and foremost I like to be funny and I like to enjoy what I'm writing because otherwise I won't write it and I'll get tired of it and whatever it was I started will merely lay dormant in a corner of my computers hard drive and have nothing happen to it for a very long time. Now what does this have to do with heroines? Well I don't want to go with the stereotypical nonstereotypical princess so I'm currently leaning towards the stereotypical princess and since I feel a bit too lazy to look at the hoards of other options that I could use I think I will just start with the stereotypical fairy tale princess.

Now to describe this story's heroine. She has long beautiful hair that resembles gold in color. She has stunning blue eyes like the the color of the sky. Her teeth are perfectly straight and white. Her lips are just the right shade of red and her face is flawless and stunning. Her figure is perfect too and she is altogether very stunningly beautiful as every fairy tale princess ought to be.

She is quite intelligent and knows all of the proper manners and customs and is always on her best behavior. She dances very gracefully and sings beautifully. And I think that her name shall be Gwendolyn only that's rather difficult to type so I think I'll name her Rose instead. Only there are a lot of characters named Rose so I think I'll go back to Gwendolyn and fortunately for me spell check recognizes that word so if I type it wrong spell check can fix it. I use spell check a lot.

Princess Gwendolyn naturally lives in a very large palace of white marble with golden roofs. The castle is located near the sea and pleasant breezes flow throughout the palace at any given time. It seldom rains during the day but always rains at night after midnight and before dawn when nobody is about so that in the morning everything is clean and fresh and nobody had to bother about having their picnics spoiled by the rain. On the opposite of the castle from the sea are many large and lovely meadows which are perfect for picnics and beyond those are some pleasant woods which aren't at all scary except during the winter months when wolves sometimes prowl through them and there is fine hunting for the knights of the realm to do.

Also near the castle are fertile fields and quaint little villages and the land is very seldom troubled by war or pestilence or problems greater than the magnitude of deciding which hair ribbon would best go with one's gown or whether or not one should take a long walk or curl up in the library with a good book or whether or not to eat ham or chicken for dinner and so forth. So the fairy tale kingdom is quite pleasant and very ideal if you like peace and tranquility and a lot of prosperity but it might be considered a little boring for a story therefore you might be expecting some exciting sort of thing to happen to bother the kingdom and make an epic quest necessary or perhaps a large war or something to like that to happen. But whether or not it will I haven't decided yet.

Princess Gwendolyn enjoys her life at the royal palace quite a lot as you may imagine and she enjoys seeing the realm that her father rules over and is quite happy to know that she has an older brother who will be king after his father someday and that she probably won't have to bother her head over the ruling of the kingdom and can instead pay more strict attention to the problems of her hair ribbons and attire. I suppose that makes Princess Gwendolyn sound rather empty headed but sometimes what to wear and whether or not it matches properly can be quite a challenge to figure out and I have yet to master fashion and to actually know what goes with what. But at least I know that you don't mix stripes, plaids, dots, prints, and brilliant colors with pastels all in one outfit.

My, I've already typed up my page! Isn't that delightful. But it's such fun writing this story I might just continue.

I suppose it might be a good idea to have a conversation happen between some characters to make this sound more like a book instead of a ramble but although I have the character of the lovely Princess Gwendolyn I really don't have any other characters to write about. So perhaps I'll just leave that for tomorrow. This book is getting quite episodic. So TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT EXCITING ADVENTURE!

(Note, I wrote the tune in tomorrow for the next episode yesterday so presumably the next episode will be on here today. Providing I write it:) That's what I'll probably be doing about now. Maybe)

A picture of me that was taken a long time ago

I really liked that dress. I still think it's very pretty. My Mother made the outfit for me. She is a lot better at sewing than I am. Yet.

I've been shopping a lot this week

Today I went to Toys R Us and Dollar Tree. At Toys R Us I did not buy anything but my mother got two dolls since there was a buy one get one free sale. At Dollar Tree I made a purchase and I got four items which I have been enjoying, a really large necklace of costume jewelry, a DVD, a set of doll accessories, and a coloring activity book in case I feel like coloring. It was princess themed so I got it.

And I really don't have anything else to say at the moment. I'm rather tired and my brain wants to think about making up stories and not about posting.

So far I'm doing well on my To Do List and I think this shall be a newsy post

Sometimes I forget about what I've already posted and this leads to interesting situations. Since I'm not sure and I usually don't want to look ridiculous by posting the exact same bit of news in two posts I sometimes go on the safe side and don't post anything at all. However in this post I think I'll mention some news I may have already mentioned but I might not have.

Probably the biggest piece of news is that I'm going to be an Aunt!!! Chances are high that it will be she so it looks as though I'll finally be getting the niece I've been wanting some point next year. Her name will probably be Emma Grace so if you see me reffering to Emma Grace I'm probably talking about my niece.

At some point in November there is a convention in Florida which my family will probably be attending as exhibitors. So that means that for a week in November I probably won't be posting unless they have free internet in the hotel room I'll be staying at.

More recent news is that yesterday I went shopping and had a very enjoyable time since Mom and I went to Walmart as well as several other stores.

Also happening yesterday we put up this years Christmas tree. It's nine feet tall and has lights built in to it and Mom, Andrew and I helped put it up. That was fun. Mom's beginning to think a lot like Christmas.

So am I! I made out a Christmas Present list and actually it was of presents to give to other people and not to get. I'll probably be writing the other kind at some point though:) Right now however the present I'd like the most is going to see The Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on the day it comes out(December 9th) or the day after.

I think I'll probably be making most of the presents I'll be giving this year. This is for several reasons: 1. A home made present is special 2. I don't have that much money right now and I do have lots of craft stuff 3. It's really really fun designing cross stitch designs 4. One can watch lots of movies in the time it takes to make most projects. 5. I think this is enough reasons.

And now I can go check off "Write Post" on my To Do List

Something I made yesterday

I made the dress that the doll is wearing. And now I can check off "Write Post". It is late and I'm trying to finish my Daily To Do List quickly!

I have a mandatory "Write One Page A Day" item on this Weeks To Do List. Here's What I wrote Today and I had no idea where the story was going when I started and it was about halfway through before I knew what was happening...

"What are we going to do?" Rose said, panic showing itself plainly in her face.

"Well, I don't think panicking would be a good idea." Violet said calmly.

"But now would be a good time for it." Aster said looking worried and excited.

"Well, I didn't say not to panic, I just said it wouldn't be a good idea." Violet mentioned. She obviously was not so bothered as Rose and Aster, her two friends were.

There was a buzzing noise and a large bumble bee flew by. Rose started, "Was that..."

"No, it wasn't." Violet said.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't." Aster said. "They'll make a lot more noise than that when they come."

"Of course." Rose said, then notice her reflection in a nearby mirror she hastily began fixing her hair. Aster noticed this and decided that her own hair would probably look nicer if it were primped a slight bit.

Violet however wasn't bothered with such things, her hair was always wind blown and tangled and yet it always looked nice for it was a pretty shade of brown and she had such an easy air about her that no matter how she looked she always appeared nice.

Rose was self conscious and therefore she required effort to be at ease with her appearance. Aster imitated whatever example she felt the most like imitating.

A loud buzzing noise put an end to the primping.

"That must be them." Rose said. Violet nodded. Aster looked down expectantly at a very dainty and tiny foot which was her own. "I hope it fits." she said very softly.

The others, with the possible exception of Violet were all hoping the same thing. There was a slight flutter going on for Rose, Aster, and Violet were flower fairies and had lovely little wings and were eagerly expecting something or someone or someones.

Whatever it was they were expecting in a few moments three other flower fairies showed up. One was obviously a prince, and another was obviously a bold and adventurous knight and the third was very obviously a young nobleman who had come along for the ride.

The prince smiled pleasantly and Rose, Aster, and Violet all curtsied very prettily, Rose took the longest time to accomplish this though she did it very charmingly with every curl of her golden hair behaving beautifully for once.

In the prince's hand was a dainty little slipper, which was rather odd for it was seldom that flower fairies wore shoes but Rose, Aster, and Violet weren't wondering about the slipper. They knew all about it and how some mysterious and beautiful young fairy had accidently left it behind her at the masquerade ball on the previous night and it was now being tried on the foot of every maiden in the kingdom until it fit somebody and when it did... Well, let's just say Rose was determined that it was going to fit her.

Since she and Aster had exactly the same size feet Rose quickly smiled her way forward and the handsome prince offered her the slipper and Rose put it on and it fit perfectly and Rose smiled very prettily as had twelve other flower fairies who had fit their foot into the slipper but then... the prince shook his head. "It was too big for her." he said regretfully. Rose stared at him in amazement, "And you really want a girl with such tiny feet!" she said almost in disbelief for her own foot was about as small as was considered proper.

Aster, who had the same size foot, felt that her fate was sealed, "Oh what a pity to have normal sized feet!" she said.

"I think they are very pretty" said the young nobleman who had accompanied the prince.

"You do?" and Aster smiled her most enchanting smile while she looked at him with her soft green eyes and tilted her head so that the sun fell just right on her red hair and illuminated it nicely.

"Yes, In fact I think the rest of you is quite pretty too." The young nobleman flower fairy said and then, courtship being very short in the flower fairy realm, he promptly proposed and Aster promptly said "Yes" and the two of them flew away to ask her parents for permission and to look at real estate. Things happen quickly to tiny things.

The prince however was taking his time for he liked Rose but he didn't think that the shoe fit right. He asked Rose if she could kick the slipper off and Rose, without much seeming effort, could do so and the prince decided that she, if she wasn't the girl he had met at the masquerade ball, was certainly as nice so he promptly proposed and they flew off to take care of business.

This left the adventurous knight and Violet behind. For a moment there was silence then Violet spoke, "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, I would." the adventurous knight said and while she made the tea and they drank it he told her about his daring adventures and she told him about her impressive cooking skills and as soon they had finished their tea he proposed and Violet said "Yes" very nicely and the bold and adventurous knight courageously kissed her and they two set about business.

So everybody got married and lived happily ever after!!!

Moral: This is a very unrealistic story and could only happen to flower fairies. But I suppose that's the point.

Yesterday was a very enjoyable day!

In the morning we, Mom, Dad and I, went to the eight thirty service so that we would be back home in time to prepare for some guests of Daniel's who were coming for lunch. Everything was ready when Daniel and his four friends (not all the friends he has of course but all that were coming for lunch) showed up with Andrew, who had driven to church for the ten thirty service arriving at about the same time.

It was an enjoyable afternoon. After lunch and desert and everybody had talked for a long time and I had shown off my Kitty dolls in outfits that I had made for them (actually I showed my Kittys almost first thing) and they had been duly admired, I brought out my computer.

The last time Daniel had had some of these friends over I had brought out my computer and showed some movies and one of the girls who was here this time had been there last time and remembered the movies. I now had quite a few more than I had then so we enjoyed watching those. They laughed in a very complimentarily way at the funny parts. I enjoyed that.

After they left it was time for a bit of a nap and then we went to the evening service at church. There I sat in the directors chair and was a director without anybody on camera so I just adjusted the light levels when the lighting changed, which it does about five or six times during a service, and put the words on the screen whenever their was a song with them and I put up the scripture when it was being referred to. I doubt whether any one was watching the whole thing but you never know...

However it was after the service that the two highlights of the day happened. The first one was that after the service I met somebody... Mom has been loaning some of our Henty books to a home-schooled family for some time. Usually the mother of the family will call my Mom and tell her which book is next in the list to read and usually the book will go into the car and then the next time we see them (the mother and father) at church and think about it the book will transfer to them. However, although I knew that their son was reading the books I hadn't actually met him until last night.

We met the mother (Or Mrs. Winger as I think the name is spelled) last night and since we had the next Henty book (The Dragon and the Raven) in the car we walked out to our car after the service and I noticed that somebody who I thought was their son was following along. We arrived at the car and I got out the Dragon and the Raven and handed it to Mrs. Winger who promptly handed it to her son and I half expected that they would now leave.

However, and very nicely however, my Dad was really thinking about the service, which was about the end times, and he hadn't quite agreed with the pastor and he began talking. When my Dad talks he has great powers of conversation so after waiting a few moments I turned, smiled, and said "Do you enjoy reading the Henty books?". That was the beginning of the first actual talking in person conversation with somebody born in the same year that I was that I had had in months and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We discussed G. A. Henty and reading in general and drawing (he takes art lessons) and slightly talked about Tolkien, and sewing, and writing, and the seldomness of meeting persons our own age (I brought that subject up by stating how nice it was to be talking to someone about my own age and by the way how old are you? (he was sixteen but turning seventeen in December which since I had just turned seventeen in September meant that we were born in the same year)) and we discussed speeches and talking and cold weather and lots more things until finally my Dad, my Mom, and his parents had finished talking about the end times and it was time to go.

When we got into the car and drove off I said I was very glad that they had talked for so long. Then, after perhaps a little more conversation, I asked Mom if she could remember what his name was and after a bit of thinking we agreed on Douglas. So I think, though I'm not absolutely positive, that I met Douglas last night.

And just when I thought the evening had reached the highest point Mom suggested (in our discussion of whether to eat out or not and if so what) that we were near Earth Fare which sells some very delicious healthy ice cream. We went to that store but they were closed so instead we went to Harris Teeter and got some sugar free ice cream bars there, and they were absolutely delicious!!! So I had a very enjoyable day indeed.

My Three Kitty Dolls in the outfits I made for them.

And I made the wings that the doll in the purple outfit is wearing. I made them yesterday and I was quite pleased with how they turned out though you can't quite see them in the picture. From left to right, my creation of Belle's outfit from Beauty and the Beast, Dorothy's Dress from Wizard of Oz, and a Miscellaneous fairy.

Shirley Holmes and Miss Watson and The Case of the Mr. Sylvester's Disapearance

It was not a dark and stormy night when Shirley Holmes and Miss Watson drove up to a large victorian mansion at four-thirty in the afternoon. Fifteen minutes prior to there arrival they had received an urgent telephone call from Mrs. Norton, the house keeper, informing them that Mr. Sylvester was missing.

Shirley Holmes was, as you probably have guessed, a private detective and Miss Watson was her assistant. The two of them walked up the steps of the house and Shirley Holmes courageously rang the front doorbell.

The door was slowly swung open a few moments later by an ostentatious butler who asked them, "Didn't you see the notice?"

"What notice?" Shirley Holmes said calmy while Miss Watson quickly looked around to make sure they hadn't missed any quarantine signs.

The butler looked to the right and then back inside the room and then coughed slightly and picked something off a table that was just the the left of the door and placed it onto the door bell. It said, "Bell out of order, please knock." Shirley Holmes knocked, despite the fact that the door was open and the butler said, "Won't you come in?"

Not bothering to reply they entered and were soon met by Mrs. Norton, the housekeeper. She was almost in hysterics but calmed down enough to inform them all she knew about the situation, which was primarily that Mr. Sylvester had gone into his study around three in the afternoon and at three thirty she had gone in to bring him some tea and he wasn't there.

"And, he's not anywhere!" the housekeeper said as she broke into tears again.

The butler coughed slightly in a I-know-more-about-this-than-you-know-but-I-don't-want-you-to-know-that-I-know-more-than-you-know-if-you-know-what-I-mean-and-I-hope-you-don't sort of way and Watson became suspicious.

"You say he was in the study when last seen." Shirley Holmes, who had noted everything but didn't betray the fact said, ""Perhaps we should go there.

The housekeeper led the way and the butler followed at a discreet distance. When Mrs. Norton opened the door a house cat ran out but Miss Watson, who wasn't paying as much attention to the matter as Shirley Holmes was didn't notice this and promptly stepped on the cat's tail. The cat promptly yowled and scratched Miss Watson very hard and Miss Watson promptly made a rather loud noise.

This didn't seem to disturb Shirley Holmes's concentration on the scene of the alleged disappearance and she had already noticed that the windows were easily operable and on the ground floor and that everything in the room was scrupulously clean which made the desk rather stand out, for it had a bit of clutter on it, clutter which required careful observation.

"Was Mr. Sylvester a neat man?" Shirley Holmes quickly asked.

"No, he was always untidy." the housekeeper said in a way as though to mean that if he wasn't her job would be a lot easier but that she didn't mind his being untidy because it gave her something to do, "I have to clean this room every day, he always takes things out but never puts them away."

"And when do you clean this room?" Shirley Holmes said, a clever hypothesis already formed in her unfathomable mind.

"Oh everyday at two-thirty!" the housekeeper promptly said.

"Have you found out something?" Miss Watson said eagerly.

"Yes, I believe I have encountered an important clue. If the housekeeper cleaned the room at two thirty then obviously whatever is on this table was put there since and therefore must be clues in the disappearance of Mr. Sylvester"

Everyone paused to take in the brilliance of this deduction and then Shirley Holmes proceeded, "What we see before us are only a few objects but their meaning is important. What do we see?" Shirley Holmes said, but Miss Watson knew by the way she said it that she didn't want an answer since she was going to answer the matter herself.

"Here is a spoon," Holmes said, pointing to the object and not touching or disturbing the scene of the crime, "and here is a bottle of olive oil, opened and partially empty, and here is a box of band aids that is opened and here is an empty band aid wrapper beside the box and here is a newspaper opened up on the advertisements page."

"What do you deduce from this?" Miss Watson said eagerly after a suitable period of time had passed for allowing the mastermind to come to a conclusion.

"Well, quite obviously Mr. Sylvester used a band aid, but why? And when? Before he poured out a teaspoon of olive oil or after?"

"He poured out a teaspoon of olive oil! How did you figure that out?" Miss Watson said, quite excited for this had escaped her notice.

"Elementary, my dear Miss Watson. As you can see there is a slight residue on the spoon and since there the bottle of olive oil is the only liquid substance on the table and since if there was another substance to be poured Mr. Sylvester probably wouldn't have put it away therefore we are left with the Olive Oil. And Miss Watson, your leg is bleeding."

Miss Watson, who had forgotten this fact looked down at her leg and say that it was indeed bleeding and the housekeeper, now being aware of the fact quickly took a band aid from the box and it was applied and fit perfectly over the scratch marks. Miss Watson explained about the cat and the housekeeper said, "Yes, Lulu Belle always does scratch when her tail is stepped on, poor thing, but sometimes it's so hard to see her."

"I have it!" Shirley Holmes said looking very pleased.

"You know where Mr. Sylvester is already?" Miss Watson said, looking enormously pleased.

"Not quite yet, but I do know what happened. On entering the room, or sometime after that event, Mr. Sylvester stepped on the tail of the aforementioned cat and was rather upset about it, especialy when he was scratched. He took out the box of band aids and put one on over the scratch he had gotten and sat down. Looking at today's newspaper he read on page three an article about how olive oil can increase the shine of a cat's coat and decided to try it since it would make the cat more visible. So after pouring out a teaspoon full of olive oil and giving it to the cat he then sat down again and..." at that moment Shirley Holmes, who had been going through the motions of what probably had happened, sat down and took up the newspaper and after studying it for a moment said, "And noticed this advertisement."

"How did you deduce that?" Miss Watson said.

"Because the article is circled in red ink and their is an ink pen with that sort of ink lying right here on the desk."

"And what is it an advertisement for?" was the question just about everybody either asked or wanted too when at that moment the question was answered by hearing the door open and footsteps in the hall. In a moment Mr. Sylvester himself showed up and said, "Look Mrs. Norton! I just bought snake-bite-proof army boots! The man I bought them from assured me that they'd work against cat scratches too!"

"Just as I thought." Shirley Holmes said.

"Congratulations Holmes!" Miss Watson said, "You've done it again!"

MORAL: It is usually a good idea to avoid stepping on the tail of a cat if you do not wish to be scratched. Also you might want to make sure that somebody is really missing before calling the police or private detectives. And sometimes, it actually is an advantage to be messy...

I'm feeling a lot better today

i think I may be getting better! I feel a lot more energetic today and also rather pleased because I'm looking forward to the next game of Lord of the Rings Trading Cards that I played with Daniel. I rebuilt my deck today and I think I have a much better one than I did before.

In order to understand the significance of this thing you must understand that in all of the games I have played against Daniel I have lost. In fact, in several of the games I have played against Polly my stuffed bear I have lost.

The reasons that I think this has happened is because I'm the one building the decks. Naturally I wish to give myself the best cards and as I see really good ones I put them into my deck. When it comes to building other decks I use the cards I haven't used and in order to make things more fun to put together I usually build a very compact deck with just cards that go well together and usually I do not exceed the minimum card limit by much. So I think the reasons I've lost is because I've had at least five good strategies going on at the same time but the chances of my getting cards that correspond well together are slim and if I keep on holding cards in my hand that will be really powerful when combined with another card the possibilities of my not drawing the correct cards is likely and therefore it is rather a waste.

So the deck I built today is very compact. I only used four cultures in total for it instead my usual six or seven or eight. And one culture only has one card from it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about by "cultures" don't bother your head about it because i don't think I'm going to explain. At anyrate I think I now have a fairly good compact deck but I'll probably play a game or two with it and see if I can't beat Polly with it. Polly will probably have Daniel's deck. And maybe the next time I play Daniel I will be able to win!!!

Muhahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Ah yes, I'm feeling a lot healthier than I was feeling last week. I'm still sick though but I'll probably be able to recommence work on The First Lengthy Epic Science Fiction Adventure of Elizabeth Joy Von Fange soon. And indeed, if that story goes on as it started it really should be an epic tale.

A bit of poetry came into my head this morning and I wrote it down. It's not very good but when has my poetry ever been that?

There once was a squirrel of great fame
He searched for Acorns in the rain
He hunted Acorns by the shore
And ate peanuts nevermore

I have continued to be ill this week...

And naturally I haven't been using a To Do List and therefore I have forgotten about writing posts... My apologies but hey, this is a free website! For you, though not for me. So it's probably alright if I miss a few days every so often though I notice that I get a few less hits after that. At any rate around now would probably be a good time to read The First Lengthy Rambling Fantasy Story of Elizabeth Joy Von Fange if you haven't already done so.

And for your further reading pleasure I'm going to attempt writing an interesting and perhaps even informative short story...

She stood at the window gazing out onto the faint gleams of the sunset which still hung in the western sky. "What have I gotten myself into." she softly muttered under her breath as she finally turned and once again looked at the task which must be done.

She sighed but sighing didn't get things done and things must be done. They would be here any moment and she was not utterly sure that she had stealthy feet moving in the corridor outside. Wind blew and whistled about the old castle as she walked across the room.

There, on the large ornate table, was a copper basin filled to the brim with water that was a bit too warm for her taste. With a shudder she lifted up the first of the dirty dishes and placed it into the basin fervently trying to think how on earth one washed dishes. She had never before done so but it was now necessary. Oh why did the maid have to pick this particular day to have off and why had she volunteered to help she wondered.

After a few minutes had passed she paused and listened intently, she was almost certain that she had heard footsteps in the hall but the sounds, if there had been any, had died away again. However since her task was not one that she minded being interrupted in she strode towards the door and opened it just enough to look out. A very large and very slobbery dog that was actively shedding looked back at her and yelped delightedly and quickly ran towards her, evidently expecting to be petted.

As the dog came in contact with the door it opened widely with such force that she was knocked over. She didn't like the slobbery face that was immediately in front of her but being that the dog's head was now higher than her own she immediately started saying, "Nice Doggie" and petting it and then as "Nice Doggie" started to get repitious she started saying "Handsome Doggie,", "Intelligent Doggie", and then "Noble Animal" and she began to get more and more complementary as the dog began to slober less and look less and less menancing.

She was up the point where she thought it might be safe to get up as the dog was begining to look very pleased when she had said, "Astute and Helpful Hound" when someone came into the room. It was the dog's owner and he was not slobbering and hairy but extremely handsome and smiles quickly came to greet his arrival.

"I hope my dog hasn't been bothering you." he said in a rich mellow voice as he aided her to rise.

"Oh no!" she quickly assured him, "He's been very nice."

"You really think so?" he said almost joyfully while gazing into her eyes.

"Yes, I do." she said, and was surprised to find that she really did like the dog, now that she knew who his owner was.

"Wonderful!" he said, "I always said I wouldn't marry any girl but a girl who would like Horatio."

Assuming that Horatio was the dogs the name she felt very happy as he gently kissed her. Horatio looked quite pleased as well and soon the three of them left the room and she and he got married and lived happily ever after since she never had to wash any dishes again which was just as well since she was terrible at it. Horatio the dog lived happily ever after as well and if you can tell what this story was about or who "They" were then I congratulate you. At any rate, I hope the story amused you. It certianly amused me and it's rather nice that the only name I had to stop and bother my brain with wondering what to call a character was in the case of Horatio.

MORAL: Never insult a large drooling doggie if you can possibly avoid it and the sun usually sets in the west just as it did in this story and that's about as "Informative" as the tale got:)

Mom sent me some pictures that she took today

These pictures are in no particular order but they show a bit of what we did today. In case you don't know what I look like, I'm the one wearing the green dress. Mom was very nice to get these pictures for me to put up on my website.

Today I went to the Renniassance Festival

Today was quite the day... I had a lot of fun and I'm currently really, really tired. When I got home I took a two hour nap which I just woke up from a few minutes ago.

This morning we pretty much just got up and began preparations to go to the Renaissance festival. I had already selected an outfit to wear and I wore it.

Um, I'm rather sorry but I don't feel like typing and making things interesting right now. I am still ill and I'm thoroughly tired since I walked all over the fair and I saw jousting and I bought a beautiful peacock feather fan and venetian mask for the grand total of $26 and at the moment I can't really type. I'm not sure my lunch of "Fyshe and Chyps" agreed with me... At anyrate I feel rather sick right now and very tired so I think I'll write later when I can write about the event properly. And also when I can post some pictures! I did enjoy seeing the brave and noble knights on horse back jousting although presumably there were two bad knights and one good knight. It was kind of odd to see a three knight joust. They would alternate between who was doing what so Sir Matthew would ride fast to challenge Sir William and the Sir William would turn around and face the Sir Mordrin(I think that was his name, not sure though) then Sir Mordrin would face Sir Matthew and then the pattern would repeat until a knight got unhorsed or something. Sir Mordrin cheated at every event. The joust was broken up into three events you see. I also saw a chicken man.

And I think I'll stop now.

I have been rather ill

Late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning I was pretty sick and since I don't want to bring up unpleasant pictures to the mind I probably shouldn't mention that I threw up but I will since that was how sick I was.

I was really not feeling well all Thursday and spent the day in bed, more or less. Today I'm feeling better but still not perfectly healthy.

Um... I'm sure there was something else I was going to mention... I can't remember it though. My head is in a muddle right now and it doesn't want to think.

I woke up this morning feeling ill

Today I have taken things very easy. I started reading "Won By the Sword" by G. A. Henty and the charming young lady has just been introduced to the hero of the tale. At the begining of the story he was merely the son of a deceased officer and at the moment he's a colonel and a baron and not more than five years older than I am. I enjoy reading Henty books. I do not however enjoy having sore throat.

I'm tired right now so this is all the post I'll post for the present.

A short humorous(I hope) "fairy tale" that I wrote last night

Once upon a time there was a young lady who wanted to eat pickled onions very much. So one day she decided to eat one since she had never done so before and in fact, she had never even seen a pickled onion before. So she decided to go on a quest for a pickled onion. She found lots of pickles and lots of onions but she had yet to find a pickled onion when she saw a huge castle.

Thinking that perhaps there might be a pickled onion there she decided to look inside and she stepped in. Everybody was still and motionless for without knowing it she had stumbled into the castle of Sleeping Beauty and as it was only thirty five years since Sleeping Beauty had touched the spindle everyone was still asleep.

Our heroine walked around the castle for a while but didn't see anything resembling a pickled onion so she left but not before she had picked a rose from the castle gardens. It was the first sleeping rose she had ever seen.

After leaving the castle she went on her way and saw a house made of cookies and cake and candy. However it didn't look like there would be a pickled onion there and it did look as though there would be a child eating witch there so she went on.

At this point I realized that I was threading in old fairy tales into this most epic of quests for pickled onions and I also felt as though you probably realized that quite some time ago. Anyway....

Soon she came across a barren plain where a huge battle was going on and beyond it she could see a large mountain which was overflowing with lava and somewhere in that direction Frodo the hobbit was about to throw in the ring of doom so apparently sleeping beauty woke up around the year sixty-ive of the Fourth Age of Middle Earth if you want to be precise but who does?

Having now thrown a more modern fairy tale into the story the heroine of this carefully avoided the enemy army but not until she had picked up a sword from a fallen warrior since she thought it might be good for slicing pickled onions and she went on until she saw a wise old man who told her, "Often times it chances in this world that when one wants something done one has to do it for oneself." He then went on his way and since he spoken this most useful bit of advice in a language our heroine did not speak she was unable to profit from the gibberish.

She went on until two seconds later a handsome prince said, "Would you like me to translate what he said?" and she said "Yes." and the handsome prince translated and she, since she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying but merely paying attention to him and the pleasant mellow tones of his voice said, "That was wonderful" once he had stopped speaking without any clear idea of what he had said.

But he knew what had been said and the very useful advice and two years later when they were approaching their two year wedding anniversary he repeated it and our heroine decided to make a pickled onion herself and she did and once she had eaten it she remarked, "Yuck!"

THE END

Some pictures from my birthday party on Sunday

Directly below this text should be a picture of the guests at my birthday party looking very nice in their... noses. They were a nice touch and surprised me exceedingly, the glasses and not neccessarily the guests...

Several of us smiling and looking normal.

A general shot of the table. Andrew is imitating the statue in the center.

In case you don't know who Andrew is here is his picture.

And last but certainly not least, this is what I enjoy eating!!! But if I eat even a little of such things I get sick but on special occasions one can afford to get sick.

And for those of you who were wondering, my birthday was on September 26th but it's not too late to get me a present(Hint, Hint, ANDREW!!!).

Oh, and this year I hinted a lot less than I did last year. I got more presents too so it must have worked...

This week has flown by...

It's Saturday already! My week of scheduled laziness is just about over. Next week I'll have to be busy and get school done and write and do all sorts of things.

Last night something very odd happened. It was around nine thirty or so that I thought I would start writing something so I wrote and several hours later at three in the morning I had written sixteen and a half pages of a story. So I was averaging less than three pages an hour... I think I need to learn how to type faster because that's a long time to write so little. I haven't reread what I wrote yet but I wasn't trying to be funny and I don't think I was very funny because the story was extremely serious. Still, it was kind of odd for me to almost solidly type for five and a half hours. Since tomorrow is Sunday and I'll need to be alert in the morning I'm not going to try typing more tonight.

Next week will probably be different from this week. And I think I'll end this post now.

I slept through most of today

I didn't feel very well today so I spent most of it in bed. I sewed a little and made an outfit for Kitty but I didn't do much otherwise. Next week I will probably be busier.

A very shortened version of the classic tale Sleeping Beauty

What you are about to watch is an unrehearsed rendition of a script I just wrote a few minutes ago which I had only read through one and half times... Not everything that happens was foreseen but it's more humorous this way... The Moral of the story is very applicable in real life and should be carefully pondered...

Part One
Part Two

And so that you can ponder the moral better I shall here write it out...
Moral: Obedience Can Enhance One's Longevity!

And in case you were wondering, the Disney Version of Sleeping Beauty is what I was primarily inspired by, other than the Muppet Show.

Yesterday I wrote thank you notes and today I sewed

Yesterday I went through the interesting task of writing about ten thank you notes. It took a while since I had written instead of typed anything at all recently and my handwriting is, for lack of a better word, interesting. I typed all of the thank you notes before writing them out and that helped. No they just have to be gotten to the persons they are going to.

The main reason so much of that task got done yesterday was because going to Walmart was the reward. I wanted to go to Walmart on Tuesday because Cinderella came out that day. I didn't go then but I did get to go yesterday night and I've greatly enjoyed what I got there. Why I wanted to get this particular DVD at Walmart was because there they had a special where you could get a CD of ten Disney songs with it for very little more cost that just getting the DVD itself. There were some rather nice songs on CD which is very nice.

Mom is sort of planning on going to the Renaissance Festival this year so today I sewed up an outfit peace that went with another peace I already had and I now have an outfit I can wear there. It should work. I might still sew a bit more though so I have plenty of options:)

Presumably at some point today it will be time to make a movie... So maybe there will be one here soon. It probably will be short though.

I've now finished all of the books in the series

Today I read the three supplementary Betsy-Tacy books written by the same authoress. It was quite interesting, especially reading about the Baby Hippo and Mr. Jed... If you want to know what a baby hippo was doing in a small mid-western town you might want to read "Carney's House Party". It's quite enjoyable.

Now that I've read the books it's time to move on to other things. One very notable thing about the Betsy-Tacy books is that the main character is very often trying to improve themselves. And most of them studied piano so that they could make their homes more pleasant with music. Hopefully reading the books will have a good effect on me and I'll continue in my attempts at self improvement. I have all the resources to learn french somewhat fluent, have a large repertoire of music to play on the piano, become quite knowledgeable with history, write and write well, in short, become rather "accomplished". I doubt I'll be able to become so accomplished as what Mr. Darcy aided by Miss Bingly defined "accomplished" but I might be able to get as good at some things as Betsy Ray. However flirting is not one of her "accomplishments" I'd pursue.

I really don't know why I want to speak french. In fact I don't even think I want to speak french but for some reason on my lists of improvements or To Do lists as I've lately been calling them speaking french has been on them. I suppose if I put "avoid confusing run-on sentances" it would probably be better for me but somehow I doubt that going on there.

Despite not using a To Do list this week I've managed to remember to write a post! I didn't go shopping today by the way. I hope to go tomorrow. Cinderella is coming out on DVD and this page does not contain a paid advertisement. I rewatched some of Sleeping Beauty today in order to get some ideas for they movie I hope to make soon. I have a lot of writing to do this week! I've fallen very much behind on my writing for The First Lengthy Epic Science Fiction Adventure of Elizabeth Joy Von Fange and I also have quite a few Thank You cards to write. I think I have eight aproximately though I got more presents than that but fortunately most of the people who gave me presents gave them in quantity! I really had a fun birthday! It was a really nice birthday. Just think, the next time I celebrate one I'll be eighteen!!! I fell old for some reason. Also I feel very much in the Betsy-Tacy world since I've read so much about it. And since small midwestern town life doesn't exactly fit into a space epic it's probably a good thing I haven't been writing on The First Lengthy Epic Science Fiction Adventure of Elizabeth Joy Von Fange since what I've been reading and thinking about lately often shows through into my writing. After seven pages of almost non stop action with space monsters and the mysterious they whose identity have not yet been revealed it would be a bit odd if everybody started sitting down and eating sugar cookies and discussing the next party and making jokes and singing around the piano although it might be a nice break and might almost be funny... Hmm, maybe I will write some on the story tonight but it is almost midnight right now so I may not. Tomorrow is another day and I've finished the books! I meant to finish them today and I did it so horray for me! I've set a goal for myself and I've met and I even did something useful while doing it! I worked on my eyes although I'm afraid I didn't work them hard enough because the muscles in my eyes are supposed to hurt after they've been exercised properly and the usually do but right now they don't particularly hurt me very much. I suppose I should be thankful about that and in a way I am. But really, it would be very nice to have twenty-twenty vision and not have to wear glasses. I'm used to them now but I still think they diminish from my overall charm:) At least, it would be really nice for me to be able to see in focus past ten inches away from my face and actually be able to recognize some ones face from the other side of a large room without my glasses on as things are now.

Next week it will be back to the to do list! Unless plans change which they might but may not. I'll need to do extra school next week to make up for not doing it so far this week. And, of course, it will be time to put some more entertaining posts on here! AND another movie. I don't really want to promise one because I may not end up making one but I hope to. And now it's probably time to stop typing and go to sleep since I currently can't read this screen in perfect focus and my eyes are telling me with subtle hurts that they want to go to sleep and stop being bothered. I read in a book that one's eyes are the laziest parts of ones body although in my case I give them a run for their money since I'm somewhat lazy. But I've been very pleased to find lately that when I really try hard to get something done I can usually do it. And just now I thought that I should have added "cooking" to that list of accomplishments to be sought. It would be a very useful skill to have I have no doubt.

I think I already said that I would stop so I don't think I'll reiterate it, I'll just stop writing.

Well, today I read the last of the official Betsy-Tacy books for the first time in my concious memory...

I've read the Betsy-Tacy books that we had before many times but I've never read the final four books of the series, primarily because we didn't have them. Mom was rereading the series a little bit ago and wanted to read the last four books so I promptly located them on the internet and even ordered them for Mom (using her credit card of course).

They arrived a while ago but I was kind of busy with my Seventeenth birthday and Mom was reading through them first but last night I was thinking about working on my eyes so I started reading "Betsy was a Junior" which is the first of the four books I hadn't read. For some strange reason I couldn't get to sleep last night for every time I put the book down I'd pick it up again after several minutes of attempting to go to sleep. I didn't get to sleep until I had finished "Betsy was Junior" and started on "Betsy and Joe". I was able to get to sleep before finishing "Betsy and Joe" but it wasn't until about three in the morning. Just to give you an idea, the books have page numbers that often come close to the three hundred mark.

Naturally this morning I finished "Betsy and Joe" and then promptly started on "Betsy and the Great World" and once that was done the only logical thing to do was start reading "Betsy's Wedding" which I did. And I just finished that book now at about 11:35 in the evening. But I'm not done yet! You see the writer who wrote the Betsy-Tacy books also wrote three other books set in Deep Valley and although I've read one of them before the other two remain works of great mystery... So that may be what I'm going to do tomorrow morning and tonight. Tomorrow afternoon at some point I hope to go shopping.

I didn't get much done today other than reading the two and a half books I read but I had fun. Last week I worked really hard on my checklist and by Friday I got sick and took the day off and I didn't get the reward I promised myself. This week I'm taking the bull by the horns and instead of getting sick by trying to readjust my sleeping schedual and still get tons of stuff done every a day in order to get a reward I decided not to print a to do list this week that way since I'll probably fail in getting the reward anyway I'm not going to wear myself out trying and next week I'll probably succeed! So hopefully I'll remember to do the important things on it and I'll probably be fairly rested for next week. However I don't plan on being idle this week. First I'm reading the Betsy-Tacy books I haven't read yet. Then I'm not sure what is going to happen next but at some point this week I plan on making two Fairy outfits for my Kittys since last Saturday I made a fairy outfit for one of them and then, probably Thursday, I plan on filming and editing a grand rendition of the classic story "Sleeping Beauty" with my three Kittys playing the roles of the Three Good Fairies and myself playing the lead as Sleeping Beauty though that last part hasn't been confirmed yet completely. I'm quite good at continuing to sleep once I'm asleep though I often have trouble attianing that state, especially if I'm the middle of an interesting book or movie:)

So now, it's time to do something! Probably going to sleep or writing on my story would be logical, reasonable or sensible things to do but I think I'll probably start reading another book now... After all, I want to be done with reading the books tomorrow so I can work on other things.

I suppose I should mention something. In "Betsy and the Great World" Betsy goes to Europe. There was something really interesting about this book because I also have been to Europe. In fact I went to the Azores Islands, I've been to Funchal, Madera and I rode in a similar contraption to the one Betsy rode in. I've been to Gibralter, and I've been to Paris! There were several places, of course, that Betsy went to that I didn't go to and several places that I went to and Betsy didn't of course. Another difference is that I've gone over twice and Betsy only went once and that while Betsy had romance in plenty, I had none at all. But also, like Betsy, I met an authoress during my travels too! And she gave me some useful advice that I really wish I could remember.

Their are a lot of things that are similar between me and Betsy but indeed, their are a lot of things that we aren't alike in. We both like to write, but my teeth aren't parted in the middle, and her name was shortened to Betsy while mine remains, Elizabeth. We both seem to make a lot of lists which is another similarity. But I'm very glad I'm not Betsy Ray. I'm very very happy to be me Elizabeth Von Fange and I'm glad I have a website I can write on and a computer to type on because I hate writing by hand... I think I probably should end this post now because I still have a lot more to say but considering the lateness of the hour and the fact that it is now Tuesday and it was Monday, I'd better stop writing right now. However I'll certianly start writing again tomorrow:) Or actually, later today:) Um, I'm stopping now.

I had a really really really fun shopping trip today!

I went to only two stores but those two stores were enough! First I and Laura Beth went to MaryJo's a huge fabric store. Laura Beth had given me a twenty dollar gift certificate there so I had a fun time figuring out how to spend it! I looked into every single remnant bin there and looked at everything that was on sale and picked up what I thought was interesting and sufficiently on sale and even looked at what wasn't on sale. They have some gorgeous fabrics there but some were(gasp) $20.00 a yard!!! I usually only pay about $1.00 a yard for fabric and $1.00 a yard is about as cheap as it gets.

When I went to the cash register I had a large basket full of fabric and trim and even four spools of thread. Swiftly everything was rung up and the total for everything was just $19.85. I handed in my twenty dollar gift certificate and I got fifteen cents change. Laura Beth was really impressed. I hadn't gotten anything that wasn't significantly on sale so I got a lot! Thank you Laura Beth!

Next it was Lunch time so we went to eat at McDonalds and I had a Happy meal as usual and as they are currently running a Madam Alexander Happy Meal Toy I was really pleased with my toy since it was very pretty.

Since we still had some time left before Laura Beth needed to be back we went to a Dollar Tree. The Dollar Tree near Mary-Jo's in Gastonia is HUGE!!! And they have a lot of stuff there. They had a costume section and they actually had helmets and sheilds as well as the usual swords and pistols. I got a helmet and a sheild and a sword and a pair of fairy wings and some other misc items. I had a lot of fun.

So here is a picture of what I ended up with spread over the couch. I got a lot for $27.00! Just think, some people that go shopping spend that much money and all they get is a blouse or something!