Bethjoy.com

The Story of a Frog(and other things)
Written by Elizabeth Joy Von Fange

Once upon a time there was a frog on a lump on a log on a whale on the bottom of the sea. In certain parts of the sea the frog would have died from the tremendous pressure of the depths but fortunately the bottom of the sea on which rested the whale was very close to the top of the sea so that, in fact, the log was well above the water and the frog was able to sit quietly and contently and watch the waves wash away onto the shore.

But the frog wasn’t happy and content. The primary reason was that flies were not plentiful and also the frog had a dread fear of the whale rolling over and of himself being squashed while his dearly beloved log was turned into splinters. Whales weigh a lot you know.

There didn’t, however, seem to be anything that the frog could do about the situation. He couldn’t swim to shore, for it was much too far away. So day, after day, the frog sat on the lump on the log and waited, waited for he knew not what. And the odd thing is, that I don’t know what he’s waiting for either but I do have two ideas suggested by other stories perviously written and I think I’ll be going with one of them. The story idea I’m not going with is the idea that this whale is Monstro and that the frog is somehow going to meet up with Pinochio but that would be absurd.

One day it chanced that a beautiful princess was walking along the beach and off in the distance she saw the top of the whale with the log and the frog on it. Being a princess whose eyesight was not of the best she was unable to determine that what she saw was a frog on a lump on a log on a whale on the bottom of the sea but she thought it was an palace on an island and that it was a great distance away.

Being a princess that curiosity deeply stirred she promptly wondered why she had never seen this sight before until it at last occurred to her that she had never come down to that beach before and therefore she couldn’t have seen the island at any previous time. Looking about she wondered if there was a boat near at hand for she did not wish to get her lovely pink silk gown wet wading out to the island.

Near at hand there actually was a boat. It was not the best of boats and any one who knew a lot about boats could have seen at once that it would be prone to leaking and would move slowly in the water. The princess however, didn’t know much about boats and even if she had her eyesight was such that she couldn’t have seen any great detail about the boat so she promptly went to the boat and as no owner was around that she could ask permission of and as being a royal princess she felt sufficiently capable of borrowing items without their owners permission she calmly pushed the boat into the water, though not without a great deal of effort, and the jumped in it and took up the one oar in the boat and began attempting to make her way to the frog on the lump on the log on the whale on the bottom of the sea that she thought was a place on an island on the bottom of the sea.

The frog, turning around from looking out at the sea stretching away to the horizon, saw the princess coming towards him in the boat. The first thing he noticed was that someone was coming towards him in the boat and that made his heart leap for joy for perhaps now he was going to be able to get off the whale. The second thing he noticed was that that person was a charming young princess of great beauty. The third thing he noticed was that that princes knew very little about boats and due to her paddling skills it would probably take her all day to reach him. However, as he was enjoying the spectacle and the novelty of the situation he didn’t mind waiting so he sat on the lump on the log on the whale on the bottom of the sea and looked at the princess patiently struggling her way forward.

The princess was beginning to think that this was not so fun. Also the bottom of the boat had unaccountably become rather damp and a slight puddle of water was getting the hem of her skirt wet and she didn’t like that very much. And the exertion was beginning mess up her hair and the rest of her appearance, or so thought she, and she didn’t like that. However she was still very curious about the island and struggled on even though, as she gradually approached, the island she saw began looking remarkably like a whale. When she got right next to the whale and found out that it was a whale and that on the whale was a log on which which was a lump on which was a frog that jumped at her she was inclined to scream therefore the princess screamed. After all, a frog jumping at one is a rather frightening circumstance.

The frog wished to assure the princess that he meant her no harm and just wanted to return with his log back to the shore however as he incapable of human speech this was rather hard for him to do. The princess, after her first scream, decided to scream once more and seemed to like it so much that she kept on doing so until the whale, who had been peacefully napping, woke up. He opened his great eyes and turned one of them in the direction of the princess who promptly started screaming even louder.

The frog, afraid of the whale starting to move and the damage that would then be done, wanted to silence the princess and as the only way he knew for noises to stop coming forth from somewhere was to cover whatever it was that the noises were coming from he made a gallant jump in the direction of the princesses mouth hoping to get her stop screaming.

The results were far beyond his expectations for the instance their lips met he turned into a handsome prince and was able to very effectively keep the princess from screaming since she was so surprised that even had her mouth been free she would not have screamed.

However, due to the amount of weight that a tall, strong, handsome Prince weighs and due to the already soggy condition of the boat water began coming in even more rapidly into the boat. As soon as they were aware of other matters the prince and the princess observed that the boat was rapidly going down and as there was nothing else for it and the whale had gone back to sleep again they hastily abandoned ship and climbed on top of the whale and sat down on the log. And as they sat there they looked at each other and smiled and then, quite a while later, they looked towards the shore and noticed that it seemed further away and lower down than they remembered seeing it and the prince at first accounted for this by the fact that he was a prince now and not a frog and that naturally his point of view must have changed. However when the princess commented on the difference in the view he decided that this must not be the case and he looked down.

He was aware of a change. The lump on the log had changed into a comfortable bench on which he and the princess were sitting and the log had turned into a palace of great magnificence and the bench was on a balcony looking out towards the land. The whale had evidently turned into an island which was probably was resting on the bottom of the sea. The sea did not seemed to have changed. There was no sign of the boat.

“I think we may be stuck here” the prince said after not seeing any sign of boats of any sort.

“I wouldn’t mind if only there was a minister here.” The princess said calmly. Just as they were talking a door opened and turning they say a minister.

“Did you call?” he asked and the Prince looking at the princess who nodded with her eyes shining and said “Yes.” So the prince and the princess were promptly married and they lived happily ever after together on the palace on the island on the bottom of the sea. THE END

The Bride and Groom signing marriage license.

The Ring bearer and the Blowing of the Bubbles.

And the reception

It started raining shortly after the commencement of the reception but fortunately there was room for everybody inside. As usual my mother took these pictures.

I actually had these pictures on Monday but so far this week I’ve been engaged in intensive laziness, enhanced by a bicycle accident I had yesterday, and while I have very assiduously designed a dollhouse room to be cross stitched up in plastic canvas and weighed oh so carefully the merits of certain toys and spent a good deal of time intently working on increasing my Neopoints and Powerpoints, I really haven’t been doing much of what one might call “Useful Things” however I’m hoping to start back on those soon and this post is a sign of hopeful things to come. Still I really like being lazy and spending the days as i chose and soon I’ll be too old for that and will have responsibilities and so forth therefore I’m making sure that I enjoy being lazy and irresponsible while I can.

I went to the Library today and I got a Library Card!!! Isn’t that exciting? I also went shopping at Target. I also am very tired. Goodbye.

A kingdom where everyone, except one miller, is in debt to each other in a long line of borrowers. A little old man who seems crazy and probably is. A cowardly horse with a slightly more brave rider. An exciting quest for a treasure so small that no one else has considered it to be worth the bother of getting it an brining it back. These are the things which are amusing, but specifically the little old man right now. You see I just finished a writing session on a story which is currently entitled The Importance of Silver Azarns to the Economy as well as a tale about fighting wolves, dragons, finding true love and ultimately living happily ever after everyone has learned the importance of not getting into debt as written by Elizabeth Von Fange and the story is going well. The heroine of the tale is getting several items that, if they work, may help her greatly during the later part of the story but as they being given to her by the crazy little old man who is going around cackling and handing people plates of bread with no bread on them and dresses in clashing colors with the walls of his house painted bright green, it’s just possible that the things just may not work. However, whether they do or not the heroine will doubtless find the way to get the treasure she is after and reach the joyous happy ending of the book. Or at least she will so long as I go on writing the story.

I’ve been oding a lot of mathematical calculations lately. Yesterday I thought it would be interesting to learn the Neopoints-per-second earned by various games on Neopets(a pet website I play on) so I would kow which games were the most efficeint, and consequently, which games I ought to play. Armed with a stopwatch and an empty text box I’ve made some surprising discoveries and have briskly been learning that some games I thought were good were actually not so good and some games I thougth were bad were even worse than I thought and that soem games I thought were good were as good as I thought they were and other various matters of interest. I’ll probably go through and learn teh Neopoint-per-Second ration on all of the games of Neopia and play only those who give me three plus neopints per second of play. One to three neopoints per second is pretty common for the games and the several that don’t even get one neopoint per second of play I shall certainly shun.

In addition to all of this useful knowledge I’ve been working on my French. At some point in my life(many years ago probably) I decided I would learn to speak French. At this point in my life I know maybe fifty words and most of those are in phrases and I’ve learned that “le” is masculine and “la” is feminine and there is a masculine and feminine version for just about everything and “vou” is a formal you but “twa”(not sure on spelling) is an endearing or intimate or demeaning form of you and I’ve also learned that I really doon’t know much about French. So I’m planning on once again trying to complete the French course I’ve probably had for several years now but have never completed.

In addition to this I’m also going to try to improve my vision. I was thinking it would bre really nice to not have to wear my glasses when I walk down the aisle next spring so I think I shall try to improve my vision up to the point where I’ll be able to distinguish between my brother and a total stranger from ten feet away. After all, when one has twenty/four hundred vision it is hard to recognize people at a distance. Currently I can see in focus the amazing distance of about ten to eleven inches away from my face and all beyond that distance is a blur to me. Bad vision, oh yes. Fortunately I can do something about it so I’m going to try to do it(always been too lazy in the past to make my eyes work) but I’m now going to attempt the exercising of my eyes and if I succeed and regain twenty-twenty vision (or there about) I shall go get my eyes examined again by the usual eye doctor and see how surprised he is. I’m breaking it up into “Baby Steps” so I’m currently going to try to get my vision to the point where I can see in focus something an arms length away in focus by the time I’m eighteen. Hopefully that will be ample time for me to succeed in my object, I just have to work at it every day for a while but so long as I have plenty of interesting books that probably won’t be a problem. So we shall see what we shall see.

I’ve made quite a few goals for myself today and wrote them all nicely up in a little text box and now we shall see if I can stick to them or not if I ca achieve them if I do. If all goes well and according to plan I should be able to read at an arm’s distance, speak French with more than a little bit of fluency, finish knitting a blanket, and be a Neopian Trillionaire. Which I suppose would make me Trilingual as well since I already speak Pig Latin. It would indeed be rather fun when my brother says something in Pig Latin and someone says “What did he say?” for me to be able to give the translation in French and then have to translate the translation:) Anyway, I’d better go to bed. I have a lot to do tomorrow and a lot fo torment to put my eyes through and a lot of exciting adventures to put my main character through in my story and a lot of french to learn and a lot of neopoints to earn and a lot of just enjoying everything to do. After all, I don’t have to wake up early in the morning to get onto a school bus:) And i will soon graduate from the twelfth grade! It probably won’t have effect on me. For the last couple of years my application to schoolwork has been very nominal and I’ll probably be spending more time studying on my account in the near future than I typically spent on my actual schoolwork. And, I think it really is time for me to end this post. Goodnight. Or Bon (however the french word for night is spelled. I speak it, but I can’t write it. Pity.)

A Copenhagen blue Porsche 944! It is owned by my brother John. And here are pictures.

Stella is what I decided to name the doll mentioned in the previous post. She is going to be my graduation present! Which means that for the very first time I’m actually enthusiastic about doing Calculus being that that is all I have left to finish before I’m completely and utterly done. Acording to the UPS tracking website Stella could come today!

Some people ride motorcycles. Others scuba dive. Still others jump out of planes. Most people have some sort of dangerous excitement that entices them… I go shopping. It’s kind of weird where the chief dangers for me lie. Malls(with the exception of toy stores with massive sales) no longer seem to be danger zones. I can even pass up a ten dollar tiara now without a twinge and see a gorgeous two hundred dollar dress on a rack and merely smile, admire for a minute, and move on. But some places… And some times… My frugal plans get shot to pieces! For instance, today I was looking at Ebay. Ebay is indeed a danger zone because it has such good deals on it that one can find. My weak point is good deals. And lovely items or, as today’s weakness, lovely dolls.

While I was at the Doll Market I preordered a doll sight unseen who was supposed to arrive in May. Today I just learned that she may not arrive in may and has been delayed. This is moderately upsetting because I wanted a doll of that size, but it doesn’t have to be that particular doll. You see she had raven hair and blue eyes. The doll in the store that I fell in love with had brown hair and brown eyes. However she was $225.00 and that is way to expensive. BUT Ebay… An older doll of the same size is currently at auction (ending within the next twenty-four hours) and I might be able to get her for $125.00 or so. She has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and looks very much like one of my story heroines. Since I want her for movies… Well, I’m extremely tempted to get her. She looks gorgeous and the seller has possitive feed back…

So I think tomorrow morning I may mention to my mother that I’m about to graduate from the twelfth grade and wouldn’t a graduation present be appropriate? If that doesn’t work I may start eyeing my emergency one hundred in its insecure little envelope that is sooooo easy to open. But I really shouldn’t… At least I already have about fifty dollars in spending cash right now due to cashing my tax refund and not going shopping much last week.

Really, I ought to wait until I’ve saved up enough spending money to buy the doll before buying her but she is one out of 300 and already retired and very, very, very few of that sort of doll(only two that I know of) have BROWN eyes! Besides her typical retail price is around $275.00 so she is a good buy… I think I may let my mother aid me to make up my mind in the morning. Right now I’d better go to bed.

And I am planning on making a new movie for up here soon. Today I got sidetracked using my computer and I didn’t even progress much on the cleaning of my room which was what I meant to be doing today. I want to get my whole room cleaned up and that’s going to be quite a job… OH I just had an idea! Maybe if I can’t get the doll for a graduation present I’ll allow myself to pilfer my emergency fund only if I completely get my room cleaned up… Actually… Considering the state of my room that means I probably wouldn’t be getting that particular doll but… We’ll see what will happen.

Quite pretty isn’t she? I did very little sewing on that outfit, pretty much just one seam on the back of the dress. The rest was all using my budding draping skills and the TLAR method. It turned out very nicely.

Daniel and LauraBeth are thinking about getting married next spring. No definite date has been set. Read the previous post for additional details on this exciting engagement in the Von Fange family.

To some people keeping a secret is no accomplishment, they do it every day. I however have been notorious for several years as not being a good secret keeper. I acquired this reputation at an early age when, after a shopping trip with my father and brothers on which he purchased as a surprise gift for my mother a brand new serger, I went home, saw Mommy and said, “Mom, have you ever wanted a serger?” Quotes involving sergers have henpecked me ever since. But, I have kept a secret and as the time for concealment has ended I am going to make an announcement.

On Friday I went to a very wonderful jewelry store, Malak Jewelers to be precise, to look at engagement rings with a certain young gentleman. I know seventeen years old is a bit young to be looking at engagement rings but… They were very lovely. Especially a certain ring which was platinum and had a heart on it! The young gentleman certainly had good taste in young ladies and also in rings for the ring he picked out was gorgeous. A wonderful diamond and the setting had a heart on it which I think I’ve already mentioned. The ring fit me beautifully.

Anyway, I wasn’t supposed to mention this until after the proposal occured. And tonight he proposed! And she said yes! So I’m eagerly looking forward to congratulating my new sister-in-law. What? Did you think I was the one getting the ring? I sure tried to make it sound like that didn’t I? Well, it was my brother Daniel picking out the ring and I got to go along with him and my parents to the jewelry store and I enjoyed that thoroughly. I got to model the ring and aid Daniel in getting it. And I got a lovely little pendant shaped like a piano for my pains. So that was nice:)

And now for the young lady who said “yes” to my brother Daniel. Her name is LauraBeth but my brother Daniel told me not to use last names. Privacy thing I suppose. Anyway, LauraBeth is very, very, very, very, very nice. She looks a bit like Arwen in the movie of Lord of the Rings only she’s prettier and she doesn’t have elf ears. And she always seems to be smiling and having a good time. She’s very considerate of other peoples and tries to make sure they are included and have a good time. She’s also a Christian and she and Daniel met in our church’s college and career group. She’s currently going to college near here. Daniel proposed to her tonight as I’ve already mentioned. I didn’t ask how or where but I’m quite glad because I thought that it would be a longer period of time before he did propose due to his saying when he was getting the ring that he was getting the ring now and proposing later.

So I’ve been very good and haven’t mentioned the things I knew. But now I can! And as soon as possible I wish to establish that I will get to be a bridesmaid at their wedding. Though perhaps I shouldn’t ask… Anyway, I’ve already told Daniel at least twice before I want to be a bridesmaid so I think he knows already.

So I’m very pleased with the situation. I’m very glad that Daniel is engaged to LauraBeth and I think the rest of my family is too. I also think I’d better go to bed. Also, I think I want a gold engagement ring(despite platinum being stronger and wearing better though platinum would be nice too) with a heart cut pink sapphire stone set in it for my engagement ring. At least that is what I think would be nice now. I may change my mind later but the important thing is not the ring, it’s the one who offers the ring.

Oh, and a very interesting thing. Erin’s birthday is 8/8 or August eight and LauraBeth’s birthday is 9/9 or September ninth. Which, going in the pattern of married first would mean that a 10/10 or a 11/11 would be highly interesting to me or Andrew but if one goes in age order the Andrew would be a 7/7 and I would be a 6/6 or July sixth. The next engagement may show which direction the line is pointing in or whether or not the line will even hold up. It would be really interesting if it did.

Anyway, it really is time for me to be asleep and hopefully I haven’t said too much in this email but if I did then Mom will tell me to edit it out and I will do so promptly. Goodnight.