Going On A Date ;)

Saturday night The Gentleman From Virginia took Sarah and I out to see "Tangled" (the new Rapunzel movie) at Cinema Cafe. Waiting till it came there is worth it, because it's only $3.75 to see it! :)
I really enjoyed the movie, and especially the music in it, even though we missed the first five or ten minutes. :) It's always fun to go on a "date" with him! :)
Afterward, since the movie theater was in the mall, we went into Macy's and tried on all the huge Sunday hats! :) Sarah looks great in the cute little caps and cloches and things like that, while I looked better in the wide, floppy brimmed hats :) It was a lot of fun and Daniel took pictures of us with his cell phone. It's funny to hear what people think of a guy taking girls out! :) We were at the gas station and I had a funny conversation with the guy in line behind me:

Me: at the register paying for candy
Man in line behind me: "If he's takin' you out, he's supposed to pay for everything!"
Me: "Oh, well he pays for a lot of stuff a lot of the time so I'm buying my own candy."
Man: smiles pityingly ;) "If he's takin' you out, he's supposed to pay for everything. Everything."

:D If he only knew the many debts I owe to my most obliging Gentleman From Virginia, he'd soon rest quietly on that subject of treating us to a movie! :D Anyway, that was our fun evening!
~Rachel

The Latest Escapade With Daniel

I am my father's daughter, so naturally, he has instilled in me an inherent sense of a good and bad price for something. As you heard, my sewing machine broke down in the depths of an important (to me) project, so I was quite intrigued by a call from Mrs. T. that she was at an estate sale, and had seen a machine. Somewhat assured that it was in good condition, Mama persuaded Daniel to take me down to the sale, and inspect it. Before we left, her parting admonition was: "Offer 30 dollars!" (they asked for 50 originally)
Those of you who know me, will realize that I am quite shy around strangers. We first stopped at a house with a "garage sale" sign in the yard. After knocking on the front and side doors, we determined that it was, indeed, the wrong house! *blush* This unnerved me a bit. We drove further down the road, and found the estate sale. After getting out of the van, we were met at the door by a meek, pale, elderly man with a small moustache. He held the door open, and his wife met us indoors. Daniel, thankfully, did the talking for me: "My sister was looking for a sewing machine?" The woman ushered us into a cluttered room, where a vintage sewing machine sat upon a table amongst a motley array of other items. She was not a seamstress herself, but I sat down, and tried the machine. It sewed in a strange fashion, so I checked, and discovered it to be threaded entirely incorrectly. That being remedied, we soon determined it was a suitable machine for my needs. The only thing now was to offer the thirty dollars. My bashfulness was heightened by the sensibility of this being the pale, meek, elderly man's late mother's sewing machine. I did not want to haggle with them! A desperate plan entered my head. "Daniel!" I hissed, beckoning to him. He returned to my side. "You pay for this! Offer thirty dollars! I'll be out in the car!" and with that, I prepared to flee. But Sarah hemmed me in while my good brother, who will not allow me to slip out of things said, "You must pay."
"But how?!? Please Daniel!" (Obviously my face was neither endearing nor pitiful enough to sway him) "No Rachel, you must just ask them if they are firm on the price!"
I gathered my courage. On the way over, I had played the whole scene out in my head, being a shrewd enough haggler: I would offer 30 dollars, but expect to pay 40, and haggle up to that.
The woman came back into the room. "Well?" she said with a tiny hint of impatience.
"Are...are you all firm on the price?" I asked, sounding to my ears dreadfully cold. She glanced at the machine. "I could maybe give it to you for 40."
Rejoicing, I snapped up the price without haggling. There is where I left behind Dad's teaching. I followed the woman out of the room, trying not to squirm as she whispered the diminished price to the meek, pale, elderly gentleman with the very small moustache. I felt, somewhere behind me, the rolling over of the dearly departed in her grave. ;) I blushingly paid the price, and fled to the car with a polite, "Thank you!"
When I got home, I announced the price to Dad, and told him the story. He merely smiled. "If they offered to decrease it to 40 right off the bat, you surely could have gotten it for 25 dollars!" and he shook his head sagely. But all's well that ends well! I still have much to learn from Dad, but I've now got a working machine! :D -Rachel

He's Gone :(

Let us now observe a moment of silence in honor of Daniel who has gone the way of.. *breaks down* (whispering) iGovern camp.

*SILENCE*

Yes, Daniel is gone. He left around 8:30 this morning, and is now on his way up to Patrick Henry College as a counselor for iGovern. It is a camp basically where Generation Joshua members go and learn to be congressmen (and women) for the week. They hold elections, vote on things, have challenges to do, etc. Very cool. I've never been, but it sounds great! We'll miss having Daniel around! No more escapades this week. No late-night trips to the Royal Intersection for Dairy Queen.....no going over on the spur of the moment to the T.'s house for volleyball......no taking walks in the dark and being saved by him from the evil dogs that come to attack us....*drops a big tear*. By the way. The Royal Intersection (that's what it is called by the "locals" ;) is an intersection in town, (the main one) which has a Dairy Queen, a Burger King, and North Prince Blvd. :) And what are we going to do in church on Sunday? Our singing will sound awful! Daniel always leads worship with his guitar and keeps us on track! Well, I guess Uncle David will have to do it! We really will miss Daniel! I mean, he has been so busy the past couple of weeks with working with Dad and everything else that I have barely seen him! Well, we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, I'll have to assume the position of oldest child, and not just oldest daughter, and we'll have to go from there! :'( Have fun Daniel! (There really is no good way to spell what we always call him: "Danj" or something like that. :)

The Gentleman From Virginia's Own Utterly "Desolated",
Rachel

In Which I am Employed As an Unconventional Model :)

Last night I was employed in a way I never expected to be: modeling! ;) Well, sort of. You see, our good friends the Tates, are making a documentary for the Parental Rights Amendment, (Daniel will be doing a full post on the project later) and Mr. George Escobar of Advent Film Group (Come What May) has generously lended the Tates some of his film-making equipment for a month or so! Exciting! So Daniel took Sarah and I over to the Tate's house, to figure out all the equipment with Grace, and Daniel (Who da' Gaffer? :) Tate. The lighting was the thing that took the longest. They set up key lighting, fill lighting, backlighting, and every other kind of lighting you could think of. I was employed as a model. My job was to sit in a rocking chair in the corner and look nice and pretty while they adjusted the lighting, took pictures of me, scruntinized the light upon my face, (all of them in a row staring at me!) and inspected me through the camera. It was interesting! Especially all the stressful handling of this expensive and borrowed equipment!!!! :) For instance, you can't handle the lightbulbs without gloves because they might explode from the oil on your hands, you must weight down the tripods so they don't tip over...etc. It was really neat, and alot of fun! And easy for me. Like I said, I had the life of it over there in my corner, simply turning my face different directions while they tilted the lamps to get rid of shadows....ahhhh... :D You know, I felt quite famous! Daniel T. was the sound man, and the gaffer, and held a boom mic toward me while my Daniel manned the camera, Sarah was employed as the clack-board lady. (I got to hold up the whitecard! :) and I was instructed to talk toward Grace. It is harder than you would imagine not to look at the camera while being interviewed! We were laughing at how many real names for jobs they have on set, and were trying to figure out what my job was! I think we decided on "lighting model", so as not to have to pay the actors to sit under such bright lights for so long! We wrapped it up around 10:30, and left. As we jumped into the car, Grace apologetically informed us that she just discovered a dimmer for the fill-light. We had it on full-blast as high as it could go right into my face! Oh well! It had a sunlight bulb in it, so maybe I'll just end up with a nice tan! ;) But really, seeing all that real movie-making stuff and knowing that it was what the "real people" use, was really really cool!!! :) I'm sure Daniel was in hog-heaven, since he is an aficianado of fim-making! :) -Rachel

Who Can Spell Mud? :)

Alright. Matthew has been bugging me to write this story on here so I will! ;) Saturday, Daniel, Matthew, Sarah, and I went to Lone Star Park to go hiking. Usually we go on the little trails back in the woods when we host church there sometimes. But that day the usual spot was closed. Having seen a sign for horse trails, we departed in that direction on foot. We first tried to get across into our favorite woods at the boat dock by hopping across some rubbery ground that was all cracked like towers. But Daniel, Matthew, and Sarah began sinking into the black goo so we gave that up. We continued on the gravel road. At each new little road we'd travel down it. One was only about 5 feet wide and went out as a dam in between two lakes. From what I could tell it was made of a bed of gravel and some wooden pallets. Very adventurous. But his led to nowhere unless we desired to tiptoe across a super thin metal wall. Uh-uh. Not a chance of that for us girls! :) There were still no more signs for the horse trails. We trudged on. Daniel tried to convince us girls and Matthew to go down a 15-20 foot perpendicular wall of dirt to the beach on the lake below. That didn't go over. "Matthew," I reasoned with him as he almost agreed to the wild prospect. "We all must die at some point, I know, but please live through this walk!" he just laughed and they abandoned the idea. Still we walked on. It seemed miles. "Where are the horse trails?" we wondered. We finally came to a lovely overlook and gazed into the cool blue water below longingly. We girls sat on a bench to rest. Daniel continued down the road without us. Seeing that there were no horse trails in the near vicinity, we called Daniel on his cell-phone and asked him to come back our way. "Come on back to us." I teased, "We'll be sitting here eating honeysuckle!" (The only form of liquid accesible to our parched tongues! ;) Sarah and I consumed a branch of honeysuckle each, and then Daniel joined us. On the way back down the road we met up with a park ranger. Daniel stopped him, and politely asked where the horse trails were. "Did you see a chain across the path?" he asked, eyeing us gruffly. I had the vague feeling that I personally had reputation as a renegade or an arsonist. I am sure I looked guilty, though perfectly innocent in reality. Turns out even if we had found the horse trails, they were "strictly for horses." Ho-hum. Way to ruin a long hot tramp! ;) But, determined to make some lemonade out of the lemons, we decided to go into some woods by ourselves, seeing a dock in the lake to one side of the path. Daniel charged through the underbrush, we girls in his wake, escorted by Matthew. As he helped us down a slippery hillside we heard a strange noise, seemingly coming from a den-like hole in the hill. Matthew and Sarah convinced themselves it was a bear. I was inclined to think it a bullfrog, but we never found out. We swung ourselves across a ditch, and tiptoed over the mud. It was one of those spots that feels like thin ice. Balance your weight the wrong way, and you'll plunge through. After being scared by numerous Spring Peepers catapulting into the water, we reached the dock. It was so rotten as to be quite dangerous for walking on. It was unanimously decided to return to the main road. Daniel made himself rather a "Legolas" and light-footed over the treacherous mud to the safe terrain on the opposite side. I followed. My leg promptly plunged through the crust up to my knee. I screamed, (almost gleefully. It felt good!) and Daniel yanked me out with a sturdy stick. It was Sarah's turn now. "But where do I walk?!?!" she wailed. Daniel grinned. "Just step where I did!" Well. I suppose Daniel must have weakened the ground, for no sooner did she take a step or two then both her legs plunged in. I helped drag her out, and mine up the shoe that was still stuck. Matthew made it over with a very narrow escape from the mire. There was still the poison ivy on the hill to brave. It felt rather like stepping over laser-beams to avoid triggering an alarm or something. We did a queer little dancing-thing through all the poison ivy (which I am not allergic to) and arrived at the road breathless and bedraggled. "Yuck!" Sarah cried, half in satisfaction an half in dismay, surveying her feet which were now uniformly covered in a layer of black, skunky-smelling mud. "Well, at least both my shoes match now." Daniel fumed about the poison ivy, but still admitted it had been fun. Matthew and I just laughed. "This will be something to blog about!" we both agreed. And so it was! We washed up in the lake and returned home without further incident. Voila. Our little muddy-saga. :)
-Rachel

This is Just Weird

Hey guys! First of all, let me tell those of you who didn't see on the post below.... that I have begun another blog, (operating as a link from this) for my writing-things! (i.e. poetry, stories, thoughts on writing, etc.) I figured that I'd make those topics their own little resting place and that way only those of you who wanted to read my scribblings could go over there and follow it, or use my link on the sidebar here. Anyway, it is called The Inkpen Authoress. (Click on the name if you please! :) So we both will still be posting here, but my writing things are at the new blog.
New topic.
What do we kids do to amuse ourselves while riding to and from jobs? Well, today Sarah, (for some reason) started a game where you sing only the first word of a song, and everyone else guesses what song it is. That was random, fun, and even Dad played it. I was singing the word "I" and trying to get them to guess the right song, and all Sarah would do is sing, "have a mule and her name is Sal!" and then we'd crack up laughing, and I warble my little "I" over again. This time Sarah replied, "Love my mule and her name is Sal?" "Raised my mule and her name is Sal?" and generally made herself and us crack up.
We experienced the first of the summer's landscaping trials this afternoon: Some of you may better like to call it "The `go-green' sandwich melt". (Which in plainer language is when you make a meat sandwich at home, bring it in the car, and by lunchtime, the cheese is in an insipid state where it is neither melted nor unmelted, and the meat is neither thoroughly hot nor cold, and your lettuce is steamed, and the mustard sort of sticks to everything else. :( Not tasty)
Sarah and I sat there cracking jokes about our sandwiches and trying to choke them down. Sarah did a "Vitameatavegamin girl" shiver at her first bite. I made a resolute face and mined toward the middle. She pretended she was a termite. I wailed, "Fire in the hole!" and took a big bite which I regretted. We looked at eachother and I tipped my sandwich in a friendly manner saying, "Sarah..stuff, stuff, stodge, stodge!" and we both tried to continue. Finally I gave up. Sarah won hands down by pretending to be Templeton from Charlotte's Web, singing the "Smorgasbord" song the whole time. I just laughed and comforted myself by the recollection that any homeless people rummaging through trashcans would find a nice, melty, neither-here-nor-there sandwich to make up their dinner. *Copies Sarah's shiver!*
Oh! And on the way home we were in the midst of a raving, tearing thunderstorm and so Daniel turned on Lord of The Rings music to match the weather, and we scared ourselves silly! ;)
-Rachel

Crawdads and Excuses

"You get a line,

I'll get a pole honey!

You get line,

I'll get a pole babe!

You get a line, I'll get a pole

And we'll go fishing in the crawdad hole

Honey, baby mine!"

This morning, ignoring the fact that it is raining, Anna, Leah, and Benjamin crept out of the house, careful not to be followed by everyone and their brother, and went crawdad fishing. Basically, the old gentleman at the feed store, a Mr. Udell Butler told Mama that those tall stacks of mud along the side of ditches are crawdad towers. They dig down in the earth and stop once they find water. I had always assumed that you would catch a crawdad in a creek. But Mr. Butler told us that you take a string, tie a piece of raw meat onto the end, and drop it down the hole. When you feel a tug, you yank the string back up, and in theory, you should have a crawdad. Unfortunately, those wee beasties simply eat the meat and drop off halfway like some natural claw-machine. (those ones that you pay out the nose to use at the grocery store and then it drops the ugly teddy bear right when it gets close to the hole! ;) Nontheless, after unlucky fishing yesterday, the kids went out again this morning and still didn't catch a thing. But Daniel is as excited as any Tom Sawyer to go out and try his luck. He says he is determined to catch one. And when Daniel is determined to do something, it generally works. Too bad he can't debate the crawdad out of his hole, or something equally logic-minded, for then he'd be sure to win! :)

The other day when Matthew was on a walk with me, and we had the two little girls, I was picking a glorious bouquet of swamp honeysuckle and ferns. I LOVE flowers! I fill my hands with them at any chance I get! I cannot thrive very well away from them. And I don't like the hothouse ones. I like the wild ones. Anyway, these ones smelled particularly good. Shame on me. A bit later, Matthew quite politely informed me that I had pollen all over my nose. Blast! I spend half my life with pollen on my nose, because where there are flowers, I must be, and where there are scented flowers, there's my nose, and where there is my nose, there ends up being pollen. Ho-hum. So I wrote this poem as an excuse.

"My Excuse"

By me!

"I have pollen on my nose

From the smelling of a rose

And the sniffing of the honeysuckle bloom.

And a yellow sort of dust

That is transferred on there just

`Cause I stopped to smell the rich perfume.

I was happy as a bee

Buzzing round the apple tree,

And I paused to take a sniff from every bud,

And I really couldn't care

That the branches pulled my hair--

That my toes were sinking quickly in the mud.

Yes, I'm brushed with powdered gold

In a fashion quaintly bold

From the smelling of the flowers in the lane.

And I know I am the type

That forgets her nose to wipe

So my dear, you must remind me o'er again!"

What do you think? -Rachel

The Shoreline is Vanishing In the Mist and My Suitcase Ain't on the Boat ;)

Goodbye! Au Revoir! Aufwiedersehn! Ta-ta! Toodle-loo! Fare-thee-well, God-speed, Bon Voyage! If I don't see you in the future I'll see you in the pasture! :) Gotta' Skitter! See you later! Bye-bye! Cheerio! Aloha! Bon-hommie, and any other sort of way to say "so long"

"So long, farewell, aufwiedersehn, goodnight!
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight!
So long, farewell, aufwiedersehn adieu,
Adieu, Adieu, to you and you and you!"



Well, just a few, more hours, actually, one hour and 25 minutes till we leave! See you later! We'll post in NY hopefully! Enjoy the Olympics and the snow we might miss on Tues. and Wed. Thanks for being our followers and readers and we'll see you later!
-Rachel and Sarah

My First Rendezvous With 460 :}

Greeting Fair Followers. ( And you not-so following people who merely read this :) I feel quite glad to be alive tonight. We are packing for our trip, (day after tomorrow) we had a family over and made valentines, and I survived driving down 460 in the dark, and did not kill myself or anyone else. Up till now I had only driven on small country roads and at the fairgrounds in the day. Dad, tonight, had me drive on the biggest road out here, with eighteen-wheelers and all other manner of things, and in the dark. First time on a public road, first time in the dark, and I actually made it home in one piece! Dad said I almost got pulled over by a Sheriff at the fairgrounds. We must have looked suspicious doing figure eights and all in the parking lots! Dad said he was watching us for awhile. Glad I wasn't speeding! :) According to my driving instructor who has raised me since birth (Dad of course) I am doing well driving. I feel a terrible animosity toward our 15 passenger van. And with high winds tonight, all the stories of how easily those things tip flooded my mind. But I am thankful that Dad and I prayed before I started, because I had no real fear. Just ready "Blast this wind!" at the tip of my tongue! :)
Yes, time is dwindling for us leaving for NY!!! We are going to try to do a post up there! Yay! We are all hoping desperately that there will be snow on the ground. Uncle Lon and Aunt Heather say it is barren. What is the North without snow? Shocking! This is entirely off subject, but Anna's goat is most likely pregnant and will kid in about a week or two. I guess, (and this is so strange) but you can't tell truly if they are pregnant or not until a week or so till the baby is born, and then their udder fills up. It seems strangely inefficient, but I am not goat expert, and we have heard this from a reliabe source. Okay. Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments last post! This is a really weird question, but does anyone know how you make one of those quiz things? You know, where you answer questions, and then it tells you which character you are? I thought it would be fun to do one about my book. (And by the way, you who I asked to be test families will be getting your copy around the end of February. I will get right on it after my trip!) Well, this was sort of a post of no-account, but it caught you guys up on our life, and so, all that is left to say is Bon-Voyage! Or, shall I be that charming villain Willoughby, and say with an elaborate bow,
"Let us not say fare-well, but as the French say: `Au Revoir!'"

(I find that man so despicable. How could Marianne be fooled by his outright flattery? Yuck!)

Okay! While on the subject of goodbyes, who can tell me why some famous guy or another said, "Parting is such sweet sorrow!"? It makes no sense to me. Partings are rather bothersome. You are bound to cry yourself, or at least get teary when someone else does, and everyone scrubs at their eyes and makes feeble jokes which everyone else laughs far too heartily at, just because it relieves tension and.... I am beginning to rant so I'd best sign off here! -Rachel

Oh! Don't forget to read the Valentine greetings on the sidebar!

...And The Entreprenureal Spirit Lives On

Yesterday, instead of spending the entire day playing in the snow, Daniel and Sarah found a way to use it for their benefit. During the afternoon they went out to a neighborhood around here with shovels on their shoulders, and cleared people's driveways and walkways for money. It was hard work, but they were each rewarded with a nice chunk of money. Today Daniel and I are going back out, and we'll do more clean up. My only problem is that it froze super hard last night and everything is really crusty and icy! Dad has set a good example of a provider with this storm. As you would expect, winter is a pretty tough time for landscapers. Nothing grows, so no one needs our help! So Dad saw this storm as a good way to make extra money and leverage our income with his Kubota (sp?) tractor. He got 4 of 5 jobs to clear parking lots. (Blockbuster's, a vet place, two churches, etc.) He was pretty excited, but you can pray for several things: first, that the tractor will work correctly, second that Dad will be safe driving on these roads with a huge trailer and tractor behind, and third, that he will stay plenty warm! We are going to make the Wilson's chicken pie for him for dinner! Well, hope you all are staying warm and enjoying the snow! -Rachel
p.s. although I didn't get chance to go out with Daniel last night, I did wake up at 6 this morning and saw the most beautiful full moon shining on the snow. It was SO bright out there! I was half tempted to go right then in the dark and take a walk, but then I realized that 1) nobody knew where I was, 2) I could get hypothermia or something ;) maybe tonight!!!

I Spy Something White and Fluffy and 12 Inches Deep! (I hope)

Hey guys! You already know the thought first and foremost on our family's mind today! (SNOW!!!!) Yes, finally, us poor Southeastern Virginians will get snow! They are saying the most we've had since 1989! Whoopie-doodle! I will echo Daniel and Abigail's sentiments that I am looking forward to being childish and undignified! I will play with the rest of them and sled with the best of them, and generally act much younger than my 17 years. Snow! Snow! Glorious, fluffy, white, snow! I am quite giddy as you can see! There is really nothing quite as white as snow! Aren't you glad that Jesus makes us as white as the whitest sort of snowfall you've ever seen? I certainly am! "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"
When it comes to rare snow, I am not at all a Robert Frost who wants to quietly watch his neighbor's woods fill up with snow with his little pony who thinks he's strange. So, what sort of things do I look forward to in the snow? Let me tell you: Iceskating crazily with the girls on puddles, plunging through and getting muddy, seeing a spot that is totally innocent of footprints, and after thinking about how awful it is to mess it up, purposly plunge my feet into it and make a snow angel, playing fox and geese with a freshly tramped wagon-wheel shape, making a snowman that is round for pity's sake, getting at least one snowball in my face, and having a grand snowball fight with Daniel who always wins, stripping off my wet outdoor accoutrements and tossing them in the drier to dry while I thaw by the woodstove and drink hot cocoa, making ginger cookies that warm you from the inside out with their spicy goodness, cuddling up with a thick old volume of the next three Scarlet Pimpernel books, (pure bliss!) writing a letter in reply to someone elses (if I receive any letters today) guessing what animals make tracks in the snow and where they lead, everyone having extra-rosy cheeks, thinking about how I wish I could be sledding on our old hill, but having lots of fun just the same, watching a movie as a family, and last of all, winkling Daniel into taking a moonlight-snowy walk with me, and enjoying a world transformed by both! (pretty please dearie Daniel? :)
Well, gotta go make lunch, and believe me, I will be on a rampage tomorrow and the weathermen shall know the chill, cruel wrath of Rachel on their little bald heads if they are wrong and the ground is just frozen and bleak tomorrow! I am getting worked up already! I might have to temporarily label them "Provoking toads" if they are wrong! (just kidding! I wouldn't say that to any person.... I might think it for a split second though!) -Rachel

p.s. the picture above is NOT our house:) Just some clip art. -Sarah

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas Eve-Eve! :)

Hello to everyone this day: Christmas Eve Eve! (As Eloise would say) Wow! We have had such a busy December! Daniel and I, after working, stayed out Christmas shopping until 10:30! He did all the buying, including dinner (well, Dad payed for dinner) All my shopping is done. Actually, I made almost everything. The point is, even if it wasn't all done I haven't a dime to my name. I am in debt to Daniel for his birthday present! Isn't that awful!?! So I enjoyed just tagging along and giving advice, counseling Daniel as he went about with a 'craft store" headache, (he automatically gets one if we go into any crowded store full of smells.) and generally making myself useful. But I must confess- I felt terribly naughty. Pra'aps Santa might mark me off his list;) because when we were in Best Buy, I took advantage of their model computers with the super fast internet, and looked at the blogs and all the videos on them that our computer lately won't show. If I had really been looking for a computer to buy it I wouldn't have felt so bad. But anyhow, when a store lady was glancing my way, I hurried to finish posting a comment on Abigail's blog, and that is why it is all misspelled! :)
I was rather a mess last night. I almost stepped on a man who was crouched on the floor behind me looking at something on a low shelf. I really would have squashed him if he hadn't said, "Watch out! I crept up on you hon!" (I really can't stand it when people who have no clue who I am called me "hon". It creeps me out!)
But we got home and stayed up too late talking with Mama and Sarah. (Dad was still out shopping.) I have two random things now. The first is a question I posed to Daniel while in the car yesterday. Because I am already 17, would I say I am in my eighteenth year of life? And the next is, all the ladies I know but one who have been pregnant this year have delivered at least 3 weeks early! -Rachel