Bethjoy.com

Today I thought I would get some practice in keeping notes all day for the cruise. We went to the Scottish Games that were held near hear(about an hours drive away). It was very interesting. There were a lot of clans everywhere! There was even Clan MacMedic whose plaid was a red cross on a white background, flower was poison ivy, animal was yellow jacket, song was “Help”, and whose Motto was “We fix”. This was all listed on the door outside the Medical tent.

When we(Mom and I) arrived we walked through a Huge parking lot full of cars. Then we entered the main entrance gate where I used my cell phone(I’ll miss that in Europe) to call John(who had arrived earlier.). He said he would meet us at the front gate and soon he, Daniel, and Della, a girl from our churches collage and career group, joined us.

We then walked through shops to the Scottish dancing tent. On the way I saw many, many people in costumes and that was very exciting since I like costumes very much. Upon entering the scottish dancing tent we found seats and waited for the dancing to begin. I then decided to keep notes so as we were seated I scribbled away in a very hard to read manner. I wrote down notes on a lot of the dresses I had already seen. Then dancing began and was very bouncy. I for one think that it must be very exhausting because as you are bouncing up and down you have to move your feet in a particular manner and change your arm positions. I think that dancing of that sort would be too aerobic for my tastes.

We walked then to a costume tent where I saw a beautiful dress. It was gorgeous! Of course the price tag of $340.00 was not nice at all but fortunately I can sew and make something very similar for a lot less money. Next year if we go I’ll probably make a Scottish Noblewoman’s outfit and wear one of my swords, I would look very in place. Also since it is hot and there is a lot of sun I hear-by wish to remind myself to wear a hat, straw ones with wide brims do not look out of place.

Next we saw the main field where at least two hundred bagpipers and drummers were marching around. They were fascinating to watch! I know they do it in the army but to get that many people to play and march at the same time is very impressive.

Then it was lunch time. I was very happy to be able to get a corndog(I am very fond of corndogs) and a water. All of the picnic tables were full so we all went to a nearby tent were some musicians where playing and sat down and ate lunch there. It was very good.

Then the two parties split up with me and Mom going off to shop and look at the tents and Daniel, John and Della going somewhere else. We were starting to look at the tents when we suddenly ran into a friend of ours. I know her and her face well but I can’t remember her name but she belongs to our dog club. There was a sheltie herding demonstration later and that was why she was there. She recently turned fifty and got a red hat with huge purple feathers. Personally when turn fifty I doubt I’ll wear red and purple since I don’t think they match. Besides that if you don’t look fifty there is no use making it obvious that you are.

We walked with her to see the dogs and there were many children actually in the dog pen(with permission of course) petting the dogs. She said that next year she could have a fundraiser and charge for the privilege of petting her dogs.

After leaving the dogs we walked around the shops some more. Everything was just a bit out of my price range and I was very good and didn’t spend any money or buy anything. Considering the amount of swords and lovely jewelry there that was amazing.

We joined the others and watched several men wearing kilts throw telephone poles. And I am not kidding about throwing telephone poles! It was impressive just how strong they were. Also the Polebearers were interesting, the picked up the pole after it had been thrown.

We found seats on the bleachers and I started actively writing notes again. I wrote four pages full of notes in total, not very large pages but it was more writing than I had done recently. The border collie event started soon and the sheep were brought out. Then the sheep got out. There was no proper fence around the main field, just a single rope, and the sheep ran right out. The border collie didn’t get there right away and my brave and active brother John ran after the sheep and started herding them!!! It was impressive, one moment he was on the bleachers next to us, the next moment he was running past the sheep and starting them to run back. Then the border collie arrived and John was able to stop acting like a border collie. He did a good job of it though.

That was the most exciting part of the sheep demonstration. However more than just sheep were being herded. Duck herding was next. Yes DUCKS!!! Of all the ridiculous creatures! There was a lot of flapping wings and waddling as the border collie calmly herded the ducks around the place. They didn’t get out.

After the border collie event the announcer announced what I heard was the “Sheep Toss” where you stick a pitchfork into a sheep and try to see how high you can toss it over a pole. Fortunately I had heard incorrectly and it was actually a “Sheaf Toss” which is quite different for a “Sheep Toss”.

We were beginning to get tired since we had been there for several hours and started to walk back to the car. We left the grounds, and as the bagpipe music faded into the background I thought how fun it had been and much I was looking forward to going to Walmart, our next stop.

I greatly enjoy Walmart and this trip was a lot more fun than usual. I discovered two things of great interest, one was a blouse that was on sale. The other was something far more important and crucial. Remnants. Remnants are pieces of material that might be left on the end of a bolt of material or that have been cut and the person who cut them changed there mind about them or… Anyway the nice thing about them is this, if it cost $1.00 before it costs only $0.60 as a remnant. That is somewhat significant and very nice. I bought several and was quite pleased at the money I saved. Also I got some new patterns I had been wanting.

Then we came home and Mom and I were so tired we both decided to take a nap. It was about five thirty when we got home(We had left around ten) and when I woke up around eight I asked Mom if supper was ready. It wasn’t since she had just woken up and we had a late supper while watching pictures that were taken today. So then I cam upstairs and took a shower and then started writing this post which took about a half an hour to write.

So this is the end of the test post which shows what I might be writing on cruise days. Oh and I forgot to mention I was wearing a blue embroidered top and blue jeans.

I have dabbled slightly in drawing as many children have but after only drawing strange and unusual shapes that looked ugly I gave it up. I can’t draw people… However I do like to design costumes and sometimes it is nice to put them down on paper so I want to be able to draw dresses. In the past I have tried to draw a person with the dresses but this evening I had a wonderful idea!!!

I hadn’t drawn anything since I was doing school with scrap paper on my own(about the only time in the past when I have drawn. During Algebra my scrap paper had quite a few strange and unusual drawings on it to match the problems.). This evening I suddenly decided to draw(or attempt to draw) a lovely dress. Well, at first I tried to draw a person and failed miserably. But then great creativity arrived and I decided that since all I cared about was the dress, to just draw the dress. Then an even greater idea came to me. Since I had trouble making both sides similar on my drawing and most of the dresses I plan on designing would be the same on both sides I just drew a line where halfway on the dress would be and I just drew one half of the dress. It works wonderful!!! I actually was able to draw four rather nice looking dresses that I had been planning in my brain. And the really fun part was digging out my colored pencils and seeing how they looked in color. That was exciting! So when I go to Walmart tomorrow I will probably get some new colored pencils since my old ones are not as nice as they could be.

I am very excited. If I had access to a scanner I would scan in the picture and post it but I don’t. So instead I shall wait until after I have my new computer and then buy a combination printer, scanner, copier. That will be fun!

Oh and it is just 16 days until the cruise! I am so excited! I will try very hard to keep a careful account about what I did each day and what I saw, wore, ate, and did. Tomorrow I might do a practice day and try to make notes and write down the principle events. Since I am going to Walmart it will be an interesting day…

Today was interesting too. Mom and I went to Barns and Nobles(A book store, I never would have thought of that name for a book store) and got a new Dilbert book. I enjoy reading those comics, it makes me even more happy and contented with my lot and my job. I am glad I have my Dad for a boss and not the Evil Pointy Haired Boss.

And now to end before this posts runs on to infinity. I still haven’t finished reading the Dilbert and I need to finish it so everybody else can read it.

Once upon a time, a long time ago A lived in Castle One of Land One. A was young man who was currently trying very hard to become a knight. He had been in training for many years and was a great friend of A so one day A and He decided to set off together to find Adventure. Now Adventure lived at the top of Whatsitsname Mountain and was rather hard to find, if you wanted to find him that is. If you didn’t Adventure was very easy to find.

As A and He were climbing up Whatsitsname Mountain they came accros A River. A was very pleased and flatered to find that a river was named after himself and after wading accros it they reached the other side with out meeting Danger, of course they didn’t want to meet Danger anyway sicne he was a nasty old fellow. A and He finally reached Adventure and Adventure told them that they would both be knighted if they could rescue two princeses currently being held in the dungeons of Castle Two of Land Two. There upon A and He went to rescue the princess. The journeyed far and when they reached Land Two the endeavored to find Castle Two but that was not as easy as it sounded. But at last they found A. Sign Post who was able to give them good directions to where Castle Two was.

Upon reaching Castle Two, Evil Knight, who was the Lord of Castle Two came out and battled A and He. A and He won and entered the gates of Castle Two in triumph and rescued the princesses, whose names where Princess One and Princess Two. A and He brought back Princess One and Princess Two back to Land One unto their father’s palace of Castle Three. The princesses’ Father was very pleased to see them again and reward A and He by making them knights and since he really hadn’t missed his daughters expensive spending habits very much in their absence he bestowed their hands in marriage upon A and He.

Hopefully They lived happily ever after but since They doesn’t come into this tale at all I don’t know why I should bother with her.

The End!

I just finished watching a movie based on the book “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, and since I finished the book last night I feel in a Scarlet Pimpernel frame of mind, as well as a rather romantic one(Love stories usually affect me). I almost wish I was a “Lady” and had a title but titles don’t seem to come with as much wealth as they used to and it would be bothersome to be a “Lady” with a good deal of debt and botherment. Of course I know very well that money is not the key to happiness, but money does seem to contribute to it and besides that, a fifteen year old girl can dream about what ever she wants to, almost. I think it would be very nice to marry somebody Christian, moral, very much in love with me, strong, handsome, rich enough to take me on cruises and buy me nice jewelry, and preferably the sort of man who would make a very good father. Of course I probably won’t get all that but I might. The first three are definites and I wouldn’t marry anybody who wasn’t those things. Of course my Mom said I can get married when I’m 43 so I know that she is in no hurry whatsoever. Personally I think somewhere between twenty and thirty would be better but I’m not in a hurry either. This is the only time in my life I’m likely to be able to be a lazy teenager and I want to make the most of it. After all it is not every girl who probably can continue to be a lazy teenager past the age of twenty! Maybe then I will change into an active, energetic person who can work an eight hour day but I sincerely doubt it. I hope that if I am going to be an active energetic person I’ll turn into one before I’m twenty.

I know this is a very personal post, but someday my future husband might read this and might be interested in knowing that even at the young age of fifteen I was all ready thinking ahead. In fact I even have the house I want planned and I’ve even given thought to my wedding dress! I all ready own two weeding dresses(purchased at that delightful thrift store for fifteen and twenty five dollars each) but they aren’t near fancy enough for my wedding dress(But they are very nice costumes). I think it would be fun to have a medieval/fantasy theme wedding and though I would have the gentlemen wear tuxedos the ladies would have gorgeous dresses with long flowing sleeves and full skirts and my dress would be the loveliest one there(I hope)! I am pretty sure it will have beading or embroidery on it and maybe both.

The house I would like would be a castle! Or close to a castle. More like a building like this
0-0
l l
0-0
The 0 would be towers and then there would be a courtyard in the center. There would be balconies looking over it and there would also be balconies on the outside of the house too. It would be two stories though the towers would go up higher than the rest of the house. The tower rooms would probably have domed(not doomed) ceilings. The castle would probably have at least sixteen rooms and many large closets and storage areas because if my children inherit my tendency to collect and keep many things we’ll need them.

I already plan to homeschool my children too. I don’t know if I have mentioned my favorite subject in school yet, it is my “Multimedia study of interpersonal relationships” and I think everybody ought to have such a subject. Basically it means that whenever I read a book or watch a movie I try to find useful extracts(Like Mary in “Pride and Prejudice”). I currently have learned quite a bit about what to do and what not to do and so forth. These bits of great knowledge I have learned “If you don’t lead a horse to water he can’t drink”, “You cannot choose the lesser of two evils if you don’t have any evils to chose from”, and “If you don’t get yourself into bad situations you don’t have to worry about getting out of them.” Basically a pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure. That may sound strange but if by doing enough prevention one is able to escape the disease it is worth it. For though the cure may not be very much you will still have the unpleasantness of the disease. Also NEVER (if you can possibly avoid it) get into debt. If it takes spending less, then spend less or earn more, but DO NOT spend more money than you have. Or at least it is a very good idea not to. Being in debt is very unpleasant. Also always be truthful and never lie.

Now for a change of subject. Today I took a refresher course in Hobbit Lore. Do you know what a “Mathom” is? It is very doubtful but I would not be surprised if you had one in your house or knew somebody who had one. Now for the definition of the word “Mathom”. A “Mathom” as a thing or things of which the use of has been forgotten or has ceased to be needed. Antique shops are probably more full of “Mathoms” than some Hobbit Holes. Also for many years in the Shire the post office was kept ten times busier than the police. And the police mainly just kept wild animals from straying and farm animals on their own land and etc. There was very little crime in the Shire and I think that the Shire must have been a very pleasant place to live in, most of the time.

And now since I have written a long enough post I think I shall stop.

The piece of poetry at the end of the last post continued…

Sometimes
by Elizabeth Von Fange

So before I risk not ending this
I shall now make sure I do not
For though I could write much more
I would rather stop!

Which just goes to show that when you feel in a writing mood you should get up and so something else for fear that you will write something as ridiculous as that.

I brought it down to supper and I got a comment that though parts of it were very funny it was too “Diluted”. Therefore I suppose I should put in more humor with less Randomness, or perhaps not force my posts upon my brothers at suppertime when they want to watch a Dick Van Dyke show.

I still feel like more randomness right now, sometimes sticking existing things together and making something else is very interesting. Perhaps I should make a story instead of a saying though. Since I have been listening to a radio drama of “The Chronicles of Narnia” perhaps I should use those as a base.

Once upon a time there were four children named Daniel, John, Andrew, and Elizabeth. One day Elizabeth did not walk into a wardrobe and did not find fur coats and a wood, instead she walked into her closet and found dresses, tops, skirts, blue jeans, costumes, three hoop skirts, miscellaneous boxes, and many, many other things so that you could not even see the floor or even close the closet door. But she didn’t find a single fur coat since her brand new rabbit jacket was hanging on her cabinet door knob where she could see it better.
But as she was looking into the far depths of her closet(and here is where I leave all truth behind because so far I have had a very correct description of my closet(which I need to organize(One of these days…))) she saw a pool of water. Naturally she was very alarmed because if a pool of water suddenly gets into ones closet it may ruin all of ones things that one keeps on the floor, but she suddenly found that she wasn’t in her closet any more. Instead she was standing near a pool that had a circle of trees around it.
Some people may find something like that exciting but I wouldn’t. For one thing there were insects buzzing around she didn’t have three insect killers around her, or so she thought for at that moment three spiders showed up. Of course when she had been wanting three insect killers she had had her brothers in mind and she was not pleased to find three spiders instead. But the spiders spoke and said,
“Please, fair maiden(That part I would like), We are three unfortunates under an enchantment. Would you please help us break it?”
“That depends upon what it is.” said she.
“When somebody relates backwards, though as if it were happening normally, the most important events that happened on a twenty-fifth of March that began a new year, then we shall regain our proper forms..”
“Now that, I can do. And though I do not mean to brag, I think I can do better than some people.

She then looked to see if anything was happen to the spiders and she saw them change from tiny black spiders into ugly brown toads.
“Oh thank you! Thank you! We look nice again now!(she didn’t agree with that statement) and we shall be eternally grateful. If you look on that stone beside the pool you will find a green ring. Put the green ring on and jump into the pool and you will go back to your own world.”
She did so and instead of getting wet she found herself back in her closet where she found that she had been touching a Yellow ring without realizing it, which just goes to show you that you never can tell what you’ll find in the bottom of your closet until you look!

There, now I have something even more potentially boring than the last post. Though I do think that my knowledge of the true “The Lord of the Rings” was shown in the retelling. I did have to reference the book a little but not as much as some people might have had to. Some time I want to write “The Lady of the Rings” only I’ll probably change the plot a great deal. Considering the amount of rings I have I might star myself, only since mine don’t do anything I might not. Well until the next post this is Elizabeth Von Fange signing off and remember

Sometimes things are funny
Sometimes things are not
Sometimes I can write poetry
But usually not

Sometimes I write hilariously
Sometimes I try but cannot
Sometimes I clean up my room
But usually not

Actually I think that is a very good piece of poetry and though I probably won’t force this whole post down my brothers throats I might print off the poem.

With that extremely interesting and coherent title I shall begin upon my subject. One of the great arts of posting is being able to take existing material and give it a personalized twist. For example, suppose some one said “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.”. Somebody else could say, “In the country of Spain the precipitation primarily falls upon the flat grasslands.” or “In the plains of Spain more rain falls upon them than in the rest of Spain.” or “As I think there are more plains in Spain than any other type of geographical element, it is thereby more probably that rain will fall upon the plain just like it rains more on a hundred acre plot of land than on an adjacent square foot plot of land.” or “Rain, Spain, Plain! Plain Spain Rain! Spain Rain Plain! Plain Rain Spain!” or “kewl, rain 1n span 4lls on 2 pl8nz(as my knowledge of that strange language is very small I can’t do any better, or worse.)” or “Ethay Ainray Inpay Ainspay…” But I think you get the point that there are many different ways that the same thing, or something similar, could be said.

Now, to get to the idea that started this post. There are many, many old sayings that have been around for a very long time like “A stitch in time saves nine” and “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” “Early to bed, Early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”and “Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.” So I thought it would be fun to somewhat randomly mix up parts of old sayings and see what could show up. So perhaps I should begin with “A stitch in sheep’s clothing that keeps the doctor away makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Now that doesn’t make much sense since I had too many of the sayings mixed in so I shall next try with less “Beware of doctors in sheep’s clothing!” but since some doctors whom one needn’t beware of wear wool that isn’t a very correct saying so I shall try “An apple in a wolves stomach is better than being in it yourself.” Now that makes perfect sense! Now for “Early to bed, Late to rise, is the way to a sleepy demise.” That rhymes but doesn’t exactly make sense so, “An apple a day will have you poor in no time if you choose the Mac kind.” That makes sense but doesn’t rhyme.

I think it is time to add a few more old sayings so “Red in the morning, sailors warning. Red in the night, sailors delight”, “A penny saved is a penny earned”, “Meet the bear in his den before you judge of his condition.” “‘Easily in but not easily out’ as the lobster said in the lobster pot”, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, and “Eat more Chicken”. I know very well that “Eat more Chicken” isn’t exactly an old saying but… Now let’s see what I can do with those. “A penny saved is a penny not spent.”, which leads to “Saving is what happens when you don’t Spend” “Easily in, sailors warning, Easily out, sailors delight.”, “Meat the bear in his own den before you eat him.”, “A penny saved is worth two in the bush.” “‘Eat more Chicken’ as the lobster said in the lobster pot.”

That is probably long enough for a post and I hope that it will be at least mildly amusing. I think I shall print it off for supper and see if my brothers find it funny when I have them read it. Sometime maybe I can get a one to five star rating system on my posts so I know what is liked and what isn’t. Of course since I would go through and vote all my posts five stars it might not be very accurate…

It has been said that nothing in life was certain except Death and Taxes, and many have wished that they came in that order.

I usually think that one should not write or talk much about something that one knows nothing, or very little about however there are sometimes exceptions to this. Firstly, when you wish to impress people with your ignorance. Secondly, when you are with other people and you wish to have your share in the conversation and are willing to be made ridiculous in exchange for the pleasures of conversation. Thirdly and finally, when you wish to make a post about something and though you don’t fully understand what you are talking about, you enough to know that you are being charged $400.00 plus in taxes and though you do not fully understand why, how, etc you still are going to lose some money.

It is amazing that with all of the taxes the country is still plunging into debt. Of course since quite a few other people are also plunging into debt ( the amount of credit cards may be partially responsible) one can not expect the nation to not jump on the bandwagon with the people, or visa versa.

However I for one shall attempt to not get into debt and though I may fail miserably(I currently owe Mom $20.00 but when I get my paycheck tomorrow I’ll have it.) I shall still attempt to not exceed my income, unlike Lydia Whickam(refer Pride and Prejudice).

It was also interesting to see, along with my tax amount, just how much I earned last year! Considering the fact that I just have $500.00 dollars approximately it was remarkable to see just how much I’ve spent. Walmart, Thrift store, Small out of the way and pricy shops, the mall, etc. have been my undoing… Well, at least I can see where all of that money has gone more or less. I have started buying my own clothes and I do wish they were tax deductible. This year I think that instead of letting my clothes that I don’t like clog up Mom’s closet I’ll itemize them and send them to the Thrift Store and tax deduct them. I wonder if it would be a federal offense to sew up inexpensive things with my sewing machine and send them to the Thrift Store and tax deduct them. Then since I would be getting something back I could tax deduct the materials and the sewing machine as a business expense!

I could have deducted the fifteen dollars I spent on web address fees to keep this website up if I had gotten any money back from it. Maybe I should have a “Tip” spot where when read a post you really liked you could donate a few dollars so I would feel much more inclined to write more and interesting posts… I think Paypal would be very easy to do that with…

Any way, I probably should just go out and work in the shop to make money. After all, brawn is mightier than brain! Or is it? Any way, even with taxes and everything I still can make quite a bit money out there which will fund me going to Walmart and get my new computer. But I do need to either cut spending or increase earnings and I vote for increased earnings!

To summarize: I am very proud to be an American and if the taxes had been fifty percent of all income with no deductibles, nearly everybody would be very pleased with the present state of things. After all, many things depend upon your point of view and the glass is usually less than halfway empty or more than halfway full than exactly halfway full or empty.

The great War for Independence was fought quite a long time ago but since it was extremely important names such as Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, John and Sam Adams, and of course George Washington are still known. Many famous sayings came from that time period and though I am afraid I can’t quite do justice to them, I can try.

Before I continue I would like to say that I think very highly of the Godly men who were the founding fathers of our country. But since I thought one morning of something rather funny that Paul Revere probably didn’t say but seemed to fit, everything else sort of followed for this is a post I have been thinking about since early this morning and have actually done some research on. The events and sayings in it will not happen in the order that they happened or would have happened in the Revolutionary War but I will type them in the order that I feel like.

Paul Revere might have thought before his midnight ride: “A horse. My kingdom for a horse!”

And as Thomas Jefferson began writing the Declaration of Independence: “Bother, I have writers block.”

My humble apologies if those were not so funny or numerous as they might have been but I have had a busy day today and my brain is tired. But I do hope that you enjoyed it anyway.

Today I finally made it to the Thrift Store. I greatly enjoy going there, there is almost always something of great interest. Today there was lovely real rabbit jacket there that I bought. Mom and I usually agree on clothes but sometimes we don’t. I say this because she thought that the rabbit jacket was too small and I thought it wasn’t. I think I would have bought it even if I couldn’t have squeezed into it the fur is so pretty and the price tag of $9.99 was so attractive. I also bought $40.00 more stuff. A few dresses, some shirts/blouses, two skirts and a belt. I am so tired right now I can’t even think about writing something funny. Hopefully I’ll wake up and get into an amusing frame of mind because at the beginning of the day I got an idea for a rather funny post about the American Revolution and I want to write it.

Also, it is amazing that even though I ought to be saving money for the cruise etc. I’ve been spending a lot more money than I usually do and buying a lot more clothes. I think I need to stop buying clothes because my closet is currently overflowing!!! I think that I ought to just get creative with where I hang things.