Sewing books

I recently found these in my Mom's stash, and intend to devour them, perhaps giving you my opinion.  

Sound good?

Click on pictures for links

Advice

Has anyone ever read "The last of the Mohicans" ?  I got it from the library, and am wondering wether it is a good book or not before I start it.  

Thanks!

~Joanna

We all knew it...

     ...But Rod Blagojevich just confirmed it.  WE OFFICIALLY HAVE THE MOST CORRUPT STATE GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES! (I live in Illinois for those of you who don't know)  Well, maybe not.  But we are definitely the runner up!  I mean, the nerve!  Trying to sell a Obama's vacant senate seat to the highest bidder?!!  But really, I'm surprised his other dealings weren't caught sooner.  Like, for example, withholding funds from hospitals and charities because the CEO, or someone high up hasn't donated to his campaign recently?  Talk about greed!  I heard this on the radio, so, if it is not exactly true, PLEASE forgive me.

Has anyone read Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte?  What did you think?  I am reading it for school and have to write a persuasive paper on how Catherine (which one?) brought her fate on herself by her selfishness.  *snore*  What were we talking about?  Oh, yeah, that really depressing book.  Anyway, don't I have anything better to say right now?  Anything I can put a smiley next to?  Yes!  My grandma is coming on Wednesday!  Which means more recipes, pictures, and crafts!

     Oh and one more thing.  Only ONE more week of school!!!!   :-)  [there is your smiley]  I will miss art class, but hopefully I will make better use of my sketchbook.  The above picture is what we have been doing lately, namely school.  Actually, I was supposed to be doing school like my brother is in the picture, but the only thing I wanted to focus was a camera.  Have you ever felt that way?  Ok, before I start writing stuff that has no significance what so ever, I had better sign off.

Ever striving to be a proverbs 31 young woman,

~Joanna

Precious Poem

     Okay, I may be the only one who thinks this way, but I really enjoyed this poem and thought that it describes me pretty well.  I found it while reading "Under the Lilacs" by Louisa May Alcott, one of my favorite authors.

A little kingdom I posses,

Where thoughts and feelings dwell;

And very hard I find the task

Of governing it well.

For passion tempts and troubles me,

A wayward will misleads,

And selfishness it shadow casts,

On all my words and deeds.

How can I learn to rule myself,

To be the child I should,-

Honest and brave,-nor ever tire

Of trying to be good?

How can I keep a sunny soul

To shine along life's way,

How can I tune my little heart

To sweetly sing all day?

Dear Father, help with thy love

That casteth out my fear,

Teach me to lean on thee, and feel

That thou art ever near;

That no temptation is unseen,

No childish grief to small,

Since thou, with patience infinite,

Doth soothe and comfort all.

I do not ask for any crown,

But that which all can win;

Nor seek to conquer any world,

Except the one within.

Be thou my guide until I find,

Led by a tender hand,

Thy happy kingdom in myself,

And dare to take command.

-Louisa May Alcott

     O.K. there are a couple doctrinal errors, but I still like it.  Sometimes I wonder if Miss Alcott was a Christian?...

My first ride in a Limousine...

Was very fun. I invited my two best friends, two of my brothers, and their best friend. On Monday morning my friends arrived. Tuesday morning we planned what to wear. My friends did not know about our adventure until they arrived, and so they didn't bring anything special. I had a nice blue gown for Irene, and I would wear my mom's black dress, but I didn't have anything that would fit Grace. So, we went down to the neighbors. Mrs. B is very nice, she also has a store on ebay where she sells vintage clothing. I thought she might have some things, and I was right. She had lots of dresses, but none of them fit, so she took us shopping. We stopped at the Mission Mart, Thrifty Boutique, and Good Will. We didn't find anything at the first two stores, (though there were a lot of nice dresses at Thrifty Boutique, I will probably go back) but Good Will, was on the way home, so, discouraged we went in. There was one periwinkle dress. Grace put it on and it fit perfectly, and, it was only $5.00! Now everyone had a dress. Next we took showers and did our hair. Finally it was time to leave. We grabbed shawls and hopped in the car with the family, off to the library we go! After a 15 minute wait in the car, the chaperone, named Heather, came out and we got into the Limousine. Tony was our driver. So off to Pizza Hut we went. And we had a lovely pizza dinner...not exactly! We arrived at Pizza Hut, but there were no tables! We would have to go somewhere else, we looked at the options, and decided on Chiles. En-route, I said something funny, and Irene, who was drinking pepsi in a champane glass, promptly spit it out all over her dress. I was sitting to her right, and she was so surprised at herself and still laughing so hard that she just said, "uh-oh!" and tipped her glass over on me! Thankfully there was paper towel there(probably for that reason) and we laughingly cleaned it up. The boys at the other end of the limo were laughing hysterically. Thankfully both of our dresses were very dark and now stain showed. It was a very nice dinner. Afterwards we went to get ice cream at DQ Grill and Chill. Later, after thanking the Limo driver and our Chaperone, we got back into our 15 passenger van, and headed for home. Then to a car passing by it would seem like everyone in the car had gone crazy. There would have been kids screaming and clapping their hands and jumping up and down in their seats. Mrs. M (Grace, Irene, and Taylor's Mom) told us that since our free movie didn't work out she had bought Enchanted at Walmart and we were going to watch it when we got home! We were SO happy. (and loud, it was after 10:30 and Emily had fallen asleep, we woke her up.) It was actually much more fun to watch in our PJ's anyway! We finally fell asleep at 1:30.

Irene drying her hair,

Irene with her curlers in,

Grace with my mom,

The three musketeers,

Grace, Irene, and I

Right before the Pepsi accident,

Clean up,

Pepsi, glasses, and the paper towel we used,

Tony the driver,

Mrs. Morell and the Organizing Mommy (Check out my mom's blog, she is going to interview Mrs. Morell on time management!)

Heather, the chaperone,

Hurray!

     Well, the improbable event has happened.  I won the drawing for the Rockford Public Library contest!  Now, on Tuesday I get a limo ride, pizza dinner, and a movie.  Too make that better, I get to bring 5 friends!  I can't wait!  I will take pictures and post them afterward.

Reading Programs

On August 8, the reading program ended.  In the past 2 months I have read over 7,000 pages.  If you read your ten books you get a free pass to Magic Waters Water Park.  So on Friday we went.  It was very fun.  We stayed until 9:00 and got to ride the Splash Blaster(a water roller-coaster) in the dark.  That was a highlight.  Also, this year my little sister Emily was big enough that she could go on the tube slides with us.  She was shivering, but really liked it.  Were all those pages worth it?  Yes.

False Coin, True Coin

     Another one of the books I have read this summer is False Coin, True Coin, By Lois Hoadley Dick.  False Coin, True Coin is a fictitious book about a girl named Cissy Nidd.  Mr. Nidd is a jail keeper, but on the side, he and his family make false coin to pass in London.  In the jail there is a Christian man named John Bunyan, he is there for going against the church of England.  Mr. Nidd is determined that Cissy will marry a certain man.  Cissy doesn't want to, she is already in love with a highwayman friend of her brothers, Gill.  Ordinarily she could just say no, but this man knows about their passing false coin, if she refuses, he will tell and the whole family will get in trouble.  Life gets really rough,  and just when Cissy is about to end it and jump in river, she hears John Bunyan singing in his cell and thinks over what he said about Jesus.  Instead of suicide she runs away to London.  While in London she lives through the plague and the great fire of London.  Eventually she accepts Jesus Christ as her savior, but with a warrant out for her arrest will that change things? 

   It is a really exciting book, I read the whole thing in one sitting on a car trip!

More Reading

   The last two books I read were by Christopher Paolini.  The first book is Eragon. it is the first book in the Inheritance Trilogy.  Christopher wrote it when he was only fifteen.  It is about a boy named Eragon who finds a dragon egg and becomes a dragon rider.  Being only a farm boy he has a lot to learn, but in the end he defeats a Shade, and in doing so helps the Varden win their battle with Galbatorix's Urgals.  

His second book Is called Eldest.  In this book Eragon goes to the Elves secret capital of Ellesmera in Du Weldenvarden to complete his dragon training.  While there he finds that his elf friend Arya is actually the princess and heir to the elvish throne.  Oromis, an old crippled rider who teaches Eragon teaches him a lot about magic.  But will it be enough to defeat the  old rebellious rider Galbatorix,  and free the empire of his nasty reign?

The third book in the Trilogy is called Brisngr.  I comes out on September 20, 2008.