Joy to the World

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

                                   Merry Christmas!

Updates, and the AG store!

Hello! This is Jenna.
I hope that you all had a good Thanksgiving, and are having a good first part of December. Kit has finished the writing portion of her novel, but she says that it isn't ready to be read yet, so you'll have to wait. :/
I tried to convince her to post it as it is currently, but she was horrified. Apparently authors don't just post their first drafts around all over everywhere.
In other news, Mimi got to visit an AG store! Her good friends Rita and Bob took her there.
Mimi says that they had a great time there. It is a beautiful store, and all of the staff people are very nice. Apparently it can be rather overwhelming because of how much there is to see.
Kaya was the only one of us who got to go. Lucky. She told us all about it though, which is how I know anything about it. It sounds like a lot of fun there. Kaya liked meeting all of the different girls who live there. One of them even came home with Mimi and Kaya!! However, she has stubbornly refused to come out until Christmas. Strange, huh?

I don't really have anything else to say at the moment. I guess I had better just sign off before this gets too long.
Bye!
Jenna

My Attempt at Novel Writing!

 Hello! This is Kit.
As you may know, November is NaNoWriMo, that is, National Novel Writing Month.
Well, earlier today, Samantha and I were playing rather noisily, and Mimi asked us to kindly be a little quieter, because she was writing.
"Hey, is it NaNoWriMo again?" I asked eagerly. I had forgotten all about it. "Can I do it this year?? Please??"
"Kit," Mimi said. "First off, it's already November 15th; you've missed half of NaNoWriMo. Also, are you sure that you're up to writing a novel? Aside from blog posts, the last thing I saw you write was "A chicken named Henry", and that was months ago."
"Of course I can!" I said indignantly. "And Samantha will too."
Samantha wasn't really listening right then, but when I informed her that she would be participating, she didn't mind.
"Well, all right." Mimi finally consented. "What are you going to make your word count goal?"
I thought for a second. "How does 30 words sound?" I asked.
She said that sounded fine, although I think she was giggling. I don't see what was so funny, personally.
"So," I conceded. "Since I only have fifteen days left, I guess I'll have to write 2 words a day."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mimi asked. "I think you'll need a lot of dedication to write two words a day."
I think she was being sarcastic.
I picked up my notebook. I tore a page out for Samantha to write on, and after giving it to her, I started to write. Well, no, I didn't start immediately. First I had to sit there and think for a few minutes. It was worth it though, because I came up with the perfect beginning.
"It was a dark, and stormy night." I wrote.
I smiled. I'm already way ahead of the game. I don't have to write for two days, if I don't want to.
I peeked over at Samantha's paper. She already had her beginning, too. "Once upon a time," she had written. "There were two fluffy little bunnies."
She may have more words than I do, but I think I like my opening more. It's more dramatic, and also more original.
I ran over to the computer, and typed it into the NaNoWriMo website, so there would be no doubts as to whether or not I had my seven words.
Well, that's about all. I don't really have anything else to say, and I think that I should be writing on my novel.
Oh, and if you were wondering what happened to that post that Samantha was supposed to write a few weekends ago, you're not the only one. Apparently she forgot about it, or something. That's Samantha for you.

Kit

Pictures!

Hi! This is Jenna, as you can probably tell by the picture.
It has been stubbornly warm around here lately, so I find it rather hard to believe that it is already almost November! Where did October go?

Today it was surprisingly nice outside. (That is, compared to the previous couple of days that have been warm, muggy, or full of mosquitoes.)
So, Kirsten and I decided to take advantage of the situation; we went outside and took some pictures. Technically, Kirsten took the pictures, and I just tagged along.
She took a lot of them, but I'm only including ones that I'm in. :D
I hope you like them!
Oh, and sorry that this post is kind of short. Samantha has informed me that she plans to post sometime this weekend, if all goes well.

Until next time!
Jenna

Variety!

You know the expression, “Variety is the spice of life”, right? Well, sometimes I think that my life might have a little too much spice in it.

I mean, there is always something going on around here. (This is Kirsten writing, just so you know.)

We've had a lot going on even in the past week. At first, Josefina's Sombrita problem was the big issue, and then Eliza started boycotting the school lunches, not because she minded them very much, mostly because she wanted something to boycott...

Then, Josefina heard from somewhere that the American Girl people are going to make a Josefina movie. I don't think that Josefina has very reliable sources, personally.

True or not, Josefina got pretty excited about it. She was so excited by it, that she has started dressing like Josefina from the books, just in case there are any talent scouts around.

The most recent happening occured yesterday when Samantha and I were walking home from school. She had been mostly quiet, and then she had her big idea. 

"Kirsten! I have a great idea!" she bubbled. "Let's have a Halloween Fashion Show Contest!!"

I waited to reply for a minute, hoping that she was joking. "Um, Samantha..." I said slowly. "Halloween isn't for a month or so."

"I know!" she said.

"Don't you think it's a bit early for a, um, a—"

"A Halloween Fashion Show Contest." she informed me. "Come on, it will be fun!" 

So somehow, I ended up at Samantha's house this morning, helping her host and judge a Halloween Fashion Show Contest. 

Most of the costumes were pretty commonplace, like black cats, and witches, and princesses. The strangest ones came when some of our friends arrived. 

The first of our friends to arrive was Kit. "What are you, Kit?" Samantha asked. 

"I'm a fruit advertisement. What would you say if I told you that everyone should eat ten pounds of fruit each day?"

"Um, I don't know." I said.

"That's probably what I would say too." she said, before continuing along to where the "judged" sat.

You can probably guess who Josefina came dressed as. Haha.

We saw more normal costumes, until Jenna came in. 

"What are you, Jenna?" Samantha asked, as was her custom.

"I'm the Halloweenie! And this is my hollow-weenie!" she chirped, holding up a plastic hot dog. "I think I have the best costume here."

"Why is that?" Samantha asked. 

"Because! My costume is good for two holidays, unlike most of the ones here. It's good for halloween if I go by myself, and good for National No-Hot-Dog Day if I bring my hollow-weenie along to remind people."

"National No-Hot-Dog Day? I didn't know there was one." I told her. 

Jenna nodded.
"How do you know about it?" I asked, curious in spite of myself.
"Duh! I'm a vegan!" she said.
"Jenna! You're not a vegan. I saw you eating a McDonald's hamburger just yesterday."
"Those are real?" Samantha asked, highly confused. "I always thought that those were like, tofu or something."
"No, yes, maybe." I faltered. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Let's get back to the contest."
And that's what we did.

While I'm still writing about it, Jenna won the contest. Samantha couldn't argue with the fact that Jenna's contest would be highly useful for two holidays, and plus, who doesn't like Hollow-weenies?

This is kind of a strange place to stop, but I don't really have anything else to say, except for this.
If variety is the spice of life, then I guess I have one well-seasoned life.

Kirsten

P.S. Do you like the picture on the bottom of this post? Samantha actually took it for her scrapbook, but I thought that I would include it. As you can see, I was granted the honor of holding the hollow-weenie. :D

Back to school!

Hello! This is Kaya posting.

Well, as the title suggests, today was our first day back in school.

I had intended to get up nice and early this morning, so that I would be able to walk leisurely to school, enjoying the crisp air and the autumn colors. Technically all of the trees are still green, (and probably will remain that way, many of them being live oaks!) and the air isn't quite crisp, but it's at least sort of cool.
Unfortunately, things sometimes don't quite work out like we think they should.
When I woke up this morning, I was shocked to see that I had to leave in less than five minutes, if I wanted to only be a little bit late.
I flew out of bed, and rushed around to get ready. Josefina was still around, trying to get Sombrita to go in Coconut's kennel.
Apparently she had forgotten to wake me up because she was wondering about what to do with Sombrita.
Josefina and I ended up biking to school, because there was no way we could make it on foot. It was actually sort of pleasant, in a way. It would have been more pleasant, however, if it hadn't been for the looming fear of being really late on the first day.
Surprisingly, we got there right on time! Either that, or everyone else was late too.
School was really good. It was a lot of fun to see all of my friends in one place again. The last time that happened was at camp, and that didn't work out that well, if you remember.
I could go into great detail about what exactly we did today, but there isn't really that much to say except for that it was a lot of fun, although it doesn't seem like school should be.
When we got home, we discovered that Sombrita had somehow managed to get out of the kennel. I guess she was restless in there, despite the fact that Mom let her out a few times while she was still home.
I don't think that Sombrita had been out for too long, because she had only managed to chew on the rug, knock over the trash, and pull up all of the carpet in one corner. Right then, she was happily chewing on one of Josefina's socks. For Sombrita, that's pretty good behavior.
We shooed her outside, and started to work on reinstalling the carpet before Mom got home.
Well, I should probably get off of the computer now, because Josefina says she needs help with the carpet.

Bye!

Kaya

Edit by Josefina: This has nothing to do with the post, but I just noticed that we now have 30 followers!! Yay! Thank you all for following this blog, it means a lot to us.
We'll have to think of some way to celebrate. :D

Until next time!!

Oh dear.

Hi! This is Josefina.

Happy Labor Day! I've never actually heard anyone wish someone a happy Labor day, but, whatever.

Yesterday, my mom took her annual "Back to School Picture" of Kaya and me.
I included it in this post, just because I could. Sorry it looks so grainy, I don't know why all of the pictures that have been put on here lately look that way. They aren't actually all that grainy, but somehow they get messed up in the transition to blogger. I tried to fix this one in Picnik, but it made it worse.

Anyway, Mom wouldn't let us have all of our pets in the picture, because of how many we have.
Also, Coconut likes to chase my lizards, so it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.
Sombrita and Coconut were the only ones allowed to have their picture taken. They did pretty well together, except for when Sombrita tried to eat Coconut's ribbon.

Well, that evening, Mom was putting the picture on the refrigerator by the other ones, when she noticed something.
"Josefina," she asked. "What do you plan to do with Sombrita when school starts?"

I stopped sorting my pencils for a moment to think about that. It hadn't even crossed my mind before.

Sombrita isn't really the kind of pet that you can leave somewhere. All of the other pets I've ever owned haven't required much supervision. I mean, you don't have to worry much about fish, lizards, or turtles when you're at school. But Sombrita is a different story.

I had thought that she was getting better about not devouring everything in sight, but I guess I was wrong, because about a week ago she relapsed into her old habits.

I would like to think that she would be okay by herself at home... let me rephrase that. I would like to think that our home would be okay if she were left by herself.

I've been thinking about it all night, and I still don't know what to do about her. Mom is gone in the mornings, and so is Dad, so she really can't stay home.

Maybe I can take her to school with me??

Josefina

I'm home!!

Hiya! This is Kit, posting from her home computer!
Well, yesterday morning was the last little bit of time I had at my grandma's house. We had a nice breakfast, and by nine o'clock, I was headed to the local train station. It made me sad to say goodbye, especially since I knew that I probably wouldn't see my Grandma, or any of my new friends, until next summer. I guess it gives me something to look forward to.
As my train pulled out of the station, I waved back to them until I couldn't see them anymore. Then I settled down for the long ride ahead of me. It took a couple of hours, but by early afternoon I had arrived at my destination. My family was waiting there for me. After we got all of my stuff together, we went to one of my favorite restaurants for a late lunch.
All in all, I had a very pleasant day.

I'm glad to be home.

In other news, there is going to be an orientation thing at the school tomorrow. Sigh. I'm just glad that real school doesn't start till next week sometime.

Kit

Hello from the "new" library

Hello! This is Kit.
For about the past month, I've been visiting my grandmother, who lives way out in the country. I would have posted about it, but the only place that has a computer around here is the "new" library. (It's not really new, but it definitely seems that way when compared with the "old" library.)
I only heard that there was a computer here at all about yesterday, so that explains my absence. I don't know what the other girls have been up to; maybe they were all just to lazy to post.
I've had a very good time here, actually. I always do, but this time has been especially fun.
I met a nice girl here named Anna. She looks a lot like my friend Dakota, actually. Anyway, apparently Anna visits her grandmother here about every year too. I had always thought that she lived here, because I usually see her  around sometimes, like at Sunday school.
She thought that I lived here as well. Strange coincidence, huh?

We've been having a lot of fun together. There's not a whole lot to do here that would really be of any interest, but we've done a lot of playing outside. I've gotten a lot better at climbing trees this summer. :D

I have a lot more that I could say, but right now Grandma is motioning to me to finish up soon so I had better wrap this up.

I'm sad that summer is almost over. I have to be back home by next Monday, because school is going to start soon. Such is life, I suppose...

I wish that I had some pictures to put in this post, but, unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera here with me. Hopefully by the next time one of us posts, we'll have something more interesting to post about than why we were gone for nearly a month. :P

Kit

Jenna's Thoughts

Hello! This is Jenna.
I could spend a long time talking about camp, but you probably already know enough about it from Kit's letters, which sum up the experience very nicely.
Not a whole lot has happened since then, except for that I went to an amusement park with Dakota a few days ago. It was fun, but there wasn't much about it that would be interesting for me to write, or for you to read.
So, aside from those things, the only thing that has really happened to me is that I entered the fourth round of The Doll Wardrobe's photo contest. I'm #7, and Mimi's friend is #18. If you would vote for us, it would be greatly appreciated. :)
Here is a link to the page with the photos: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/08/activity-four-photos-voting-starts.html

Well, if you do vote for us, thank you! And if you don't, then that's okay too. :)
By now you're probably wondering why exactly I called this post "Jenna's thoughts" when there isn't a whole lot of actual thinking going on here. I'm kind of wondering that myself.

Bye!
Jenna

Rushing River 2011, Letter 5!

Dear Mimi!
It finally stopped raining, for good mostly! We have had several beautiful days that we have spent hiking, canoeing, bike-riding, and swimming. We've also had several camp fires, complete with marshmallow roasting. (I don't know where the camp people found wood that was dry enough, but it worked out somehow.)
The camp instructor people decided to forgo the educational stuff, and let us just enjoy ourselves for our last days of camp. We still learned some stuff, but it wasn't a major part of our day or anything like that.
In short, the end of our time at camp has been a lot better than the beginning. :P
Well, by the time you're reading this, we will probably be back home, or at least on our way back.
Bye!
Kit

. . . . . . . . . .

And sure enough, they were all back before I had even managed to finish typing this post up! They're all very tired, but maybe one of them will post something soon.

Rushing River 2011, Letter 4!

Dear Mimi,
Camp has been much the same for the past few days. It has actually stopped raining a couple of times. Unfortunately, with this heat wave going on, a lot of water evaporates, leaving the whole camp filled with dense fog. When it's not raining, it's so muggy, and so hard to see, that we stay inside anyway. It's getting pretty tiresome, living in such small quarters with like, everyone I know. As Samantha said about the cabin, "It's pretty 'squeezy'."
All I have to say about this is that I'm glad our cabin is pretty close to the mess hall. Otherwise, you could bet your bologna that I'd skip a few meals.

Kit

Rushing River 2011, Letter 3

Dear Mimi,

It has rained... and rained... and RAINED ever since the 13th. It has gone beyond the point of being funny.
We haven't actually been able to do any camping stuff ever since it started raining.
A couple groups of campers gave up and went home a couple of days ago, although the camp did promise to let us make up for all of the days of camp that we missed. I guess that they didn't feel that it was worth it.
Our group might have decided to come home too, if it wasn't for Mrs. Morgan, the lady that took us all here. She wanted to stick it out, so we have to too. Now we couldn't come home even if we wanted to, because the ground is soggy and it would be pretty dangerous to drive in. I can't even try to stand up on the outside ground without quickly sinking a couple of inches.
Thanks a lot, Mrs. Morgan.
I wonder why it always seems to rain when we come here. Oh well.

Kit
P.S. Everyone says hi, and they would have written to you too, but this is the only piece of paper we have in the cabin. (Yes, we are all now in the cabin. The tents were leaking.) All of the other paper is in the supply closet by the nurse's office.

Rushing River 2011, Letter 2!

I don't know why this didn't get here until today.... :P

Hello!                July 12, 2011
                                                              

Today we woke up to the crazed screeching of a bugle. This is just my opinion, but I don't think that they should let their bugle player drink coffee.
The sudden noise was quite a shock. In fact, it startled me so much that I fell out of bed. It was unpleasant, to say the least.
After I picked myself up from the floor, I looked out of our window into the blue, misty world beyond. Apparently the camp people had decided that we needed to wake up earlier than we had last year; it was only 6:15 in the morning.
The first thing we did was a nature hike. I have to admit, it was not especially fun. It was hot and muggy, and we hadn't had breakfast yet.
Breakfast was a bit of an ordeal. They served oatmeal, but they hadn't made enough of it, so a lot of people ended up eating at the concession stand.
The nature lecture was about chipmunks.
For the craft time, we made "track trackers", which are handy things that help you identify animal tracks.
Then we had recreation, where we played a few rounds of hide-and-seek.
For lunch we made sandwiches.
After lunch, it was the organized sport time, where they try to teach us how to do something. Today we learned about how to canoe. It was very basic stuff, but still valuable to know.
In free time we mostly ran around and goofed off, although we did try out the high ropes course. It was pretty laid back for the most part, except for when we met three strange girls. I was playing with Jenna and Libby, when the aforesaid three girls sauntered over. Another camper informed us that they were known as "Sneaky Pita", "Nervous Nellie", and "Average Jody".
They came over and challenged Libby to a race. Libby, being rather competitive, accepted the challenge, and they went ahead and raced. I'm not really sure who won, because in the final stretch of the race one of them tripped, and because they were running on a slight slope, they ended up rolling back to the finish line at about the same time.
I'm kind of hoping that we don't run into any of them again while we're here.
So, that's how today went. Not amazing, but not at all bad either.
I'm thinking that I might switch to only writing you every two days. Not that I don't like writing, but there are only a couple times a day when we have time to write letters, and they are few and far in between.
I'll send some more pictures next time I write a letter...
Bye!
Kit

Rushing River 2011, Day 1

Although they never mentioned it here on this blog, the dolls all decided to go to summer camp again this year. Like last year, Kit agreed to write me all about the interesting stuff they do at camp for my enjoyment, and for yours.
Just a few minutes ago, I received my first letter from her, which I have typed out below.

Hello!                                                                         July 11, 2011
Camp has been very fun so far!
The bus ride was much the same this year. I brought a book with me to read, but I didn't get to read much of it because a lot of people were singing songs to pass the time. After a while, I put my book away and sang with them. After all, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
After about three hours, all of us were pretty hoarse, but still enjoying ourselves, sort of. When we saw the entrance to Rushing Rivers, the singing was stopped, and a cheer filled the air. Then the bus driver, who was pretty tired of us, asked us (rather loudly) to please be quiet. We sat quietly after that.
After check-in and stuff, we had orientation. We were assigned cabins and teams at that point.
Unlike last year, I was put into an actual cabin, instead of a tent. It was a pleasant change.
I am in Cabin 1. Because it is the largest of all of the cabins, more people are put in there.
I was pleased to find out that Molly, Kirsten, Samantha, Kaya, and Rilla will all be staying in Cabin 1 as well.
Cabin 1 is quite spacious, which I was glad of. The tent I stayed in last year was a bit.... petite.
My only real complaint is that it is very hard to get into my bed, which is the top bunk on the right. It's low enough that it doesn't "need" a ladder. You can see from the pictures I sent that a ladder would be helpful.
I guess I still am luckier than Kaya, who is also on a top bunk. Her bed is a lot higher up and narrower than mine is!
For the rest of the afternoon, we mostly unpacked, and got ourselves acquainted with some of the other campers from our teams. We just finished an early dinner that was mostly made up of chili. I suppose that we will probably play some games later.
Well, I have to stop writing now, because one of the camp counselors is now picking up letters to be mailed.
Bye for now!
Kit

*Untitled post that secretly sort of has a title*

Hello! This is Jenna. (I couldn't think of an actual title for this post, because it's sort of here and there.)
First off, Happy 4th of July! I know it's a day late, but, I was busy yesterday!!
As you probably know, a couple of Saturdays ago, I had the photo shoot. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, look here.
Well, in short, it went very well! I had a lot of fun. I was very pleased with how the pictures turned out, so (after obtaining permission) I asked Mimi to enter a selection of my photos into a photo contest! That's what the picture on the side is. It's pretty much identical to what we entered, just sized differently and stuff.
Now to the point of this story. Would you mind voting for my picture? It's #37. While you're at it, if you could vote for #33 as well, that would be great. It is not our picture, but it is a picture by one of our close friends. To vote, all you have to do is send an email to nora.demington@gmail.com and specify which photo(s) you would like to vote for. You have to get your vote in before July 14th, I believe. 
Here is a link to the contest page: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/07/activity-three-entries-start-voting.html
Thank you!!


Jennifer

Hello, summer!!

Hello summer, I've missed you desperately! Well, no not really. Personally, I've missed things like lazy summer days, rainbows, barbecues, and swimming, but I could do without the heat! 

Hello, people reading this. This is Kit.
Sorry for the rather eccentric opening. Eliza is over at my house, and wanted to put her two-cents into this post, so she typed that little ditty up. Go figure. If you don't remember Eliza, look here.
You might be wondering what Eliza is doing at my house. I was kind of wondering the same thing. Now don't get me wrong, I like Eliza well enough, but she's not exactly the type of person you invite over to your house. Well, not unless you want somebody singing, and dancing, and doing things like jumping on your bed and rolling down your stairs. I don't really mind activities such as those, but my Mom isn't exactly ecstatic when company behaves like that. I don't know why though.
So anyway, I'm spending my first day of summer with Eliza. We're having a pretty good time, even though she is a bit of a piece of work. I wouldn't ordinarily take the time to write up a post while somebody is at my house, but right now Eliza is taking a break from civilized living to slide down the front banisters. I included a couple of pictures for your enjoyment. I love the second one (shown below), because it looks like Eliza is hanging on for dear life.

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed your first day of summer!

Kit

P.S. I don't want to remove Jenna's post from the spotlight too quickly, especially for such a strange post as this, so you might go check out the post before this one, if you haven't already. :)

Big News!

Hi! Jenna here.
The other day Dakota told me about a program that a local fashion company is running. Basically, the entrants had to make a handmade outfit, and send them a picture of it. If you won, you could model some of the pieces of their latest line, if your parents agreed.
Well, the results came in yesterday, and guess who won? ...Dakota!

Not really. Actually, I won!!! I was so excited. And just for the record, I wouldn't feel too bad for Dakota. I don't think she actually got around to entering.
Back to the main point. When I heard that I had won, I ran and told my family. My mom and dad took the news nicely. They told me that they didn't see any problem with it, if they could go with me to the photo-shoot. However, my sister Rachel didn't take it as nicely.
"What?" She squawked in shock. "Jenna gets to model clothing??"
I tried to lighten the blow. "I only get to once, it's not like it's a permanent position or anything."
That didn't help much. You see, Rachel has dreamt about being a model ever since she was about two. This is obviously an exaggeration, since I wasn't even around when Rachel was two, but you get the picture.
Long story short, Rachel is still a little steamed at me for winning. It's not my fault, all I did was enter. Older sisters are so weird.
Anyways, the photo-shoot is on this coming Saturday. I'm not sure if Rachel is coming, but Dakota is definitely coming with us, so we should have a lot of fun! Wish me luck!
Jennifer

A verbose excuse....

...for being nonexistent lately! Howdy, strangers! This is Kit.
I know, it has been FOREVER since I last posted. I don't really have a very good excuse either, just the usual "I was too busy".
Luckily, Dakota and Jenna apparently like posting, so you haven't had to wait around for me to post. And just in case you were wondering, you would have been waiting for a post since late February.
So, after all of the previous random information, you are probably starting to wonder what I have been doing exactly. Dakota mentioned a while ago that I was helping repaint our hallway, but that wasn't all of it. This year my mom got really into "Spring Cleaning". She decided to redo most of the house, so my brother and I have been working hard on that.
Since school ended, I've been able to spend a lot more time outdoors. I've done a lot of biking, swimming, and playing. It has been a pretty good summer so far.
Well, that's about all I have to say for myself, sorry again for being absent. :P
I'm off to meet Samantha and Kirsten at the pool, so goodbye for now!
Kit

Testing, testing, 123

Well, what do you know? The end of school is approaching once again. I don't know when normal schools let out for summer, but our school is letting out sometime this week. Yay!
Of course, the end of school does have its disadvantages, namely, a lot of tests. I've heard from some of the other students that Springfield Academy has always been a big fan of tests, and this year (so far, anyway) has been no exception!!
The testing started yesterday, and will continue until about Wednesday, when we will be finally let out of school!!!
So far the tests have been pretty brutal. I have a bad feeling that I didn't do so well on a couple of them.
On a happier note, I invited Jenna and Libby to stay over at my house tonight! It will be the second sleep-over that I've had at our "new" house, so I'm pretty excited! Hopefully it will go well, and we'll manage to sneak some studying in somehow!!

Bye!
Dakota

The Trip to the Woods!

Hello!
Yesterday morning I woke up at seven to get ready to go to the woods with Kirsten. I wasn't quite sure what I should wear, so I chose something that I felt was artistic. After all, photography is art, sort of.
I showed up on Kirsten's doorstep at eight o'clock sharp, just as she was coming out.
There was a bit of an awkward moment as we stared at each other. I had the weirdest feeling that I might have been just a little bit overdressed.
"Kirsten," I said to break the silence. "You kind of remind me of Kelly in that jacket."
She looked confused. "My sister Kelly?" she asked.
"No," I told her, now confused as well. "I mean Barbie's sister Kelly."
"Why do I—" she began, but stopped. "Never mind. I don't really want to know why this jacket reminds you of Kelly."
During the walk to the forest, Kirsten was peu communicatif, that is to say, she didn't talk. Or if you want to be literal, uncommunicative. I didn't start up any topics since my last one had been such an epic failure.
By the time we reached the forest, I was ready for the action to start. Then came the surprise.
Photography is not a very active activity. For the most part, once Kirsten found something she wanted to take a picture of, she stood very still, and took a lot of pictures, until one suited her fancy. I'll freely admit, the process bored me.
I mostly watched Kirsten take pictures. One reason was that I'm not all that crazy about forests. The other was that I've never used a camera before, so I didn't really know how to use the one my mom was lending me. I would have asked Kirsten about it, but she seemed happier when I was quieter. Also, I didn't want to seem like a complete newbie, even though that's exactly what I was.

Well, I have to get off of the computer now, so I don't really have time to write about today in very much detail. Click on the pictures below to see them bigger! Hopefully they will give an idea, no matter how vague, about how today was.

Until next time!

Jennifer Elaine

A new hobby?

Hello! This is Jenna.
I don't know if I really hit on this too much in my other post, but I have always been involved in a lot of sports, and really liked all of them. So when I heard that our school was having "career day", and that we were supposed to come dressed as what we would like to be when we are older, I already knew what I was going as.
I showed up to school in an old soccer uniform of mine, not so much because I want to play soccer, but because I hoped that it would convey that I liked sports.
It didn't occur to me that maybe I would run into a hobby that I liked more than sports.
You know Kirsten Larson, right? Well hopefully you do, and hopefully you also know about her love of photography.
Previously I haven't been very interested in taking pictures. It always seemed like it was something that some people do somewhere, but I've never had any experiences with photography at all.
But when I saw some of Kirsten's photography yesterday, I found a fascination that I've never had before for art related things. I discovered that maybe I would like to be a photographer.
After class I found Kirsten and talked to her. I asked her if sometime I could go with her when she was taking pictures.
She hesitated at first, apparently having some reservations. After a little thought though, she decided that I could come. "I'll be going out to the forest this Saturday, if you want to come. I'll be leaving at about eight; you can meet me in front of my house." She told me.
I was thrilled at the offer, and fervently told her that I would come.
Well, that's about all I had to post about. I will probably post about the trip itself on Sunday or Monday, so be watching for it!!!

Jennifer

A Day in the life of Dakota

Hello! This is Dakota.
This post is really more of a "how my day was today" kind of post, rather than a real, deep story post. And although it's a post about my day, it's not very comprehensive . For instance, I didn't include those little details, such as what I ate for breakfast.
Oh well.
I figured that I should update the blog, and I didn't have a lot of other material, so this is what I settled on.
School was kind of hard today, but thankfully, it was an early release day. I was home by about eleven o'clock.
No one was home when I got there. Mom and Dad were both at work, my brothers were all still at school, and I supposed that Grandma was taking Mr. Poo to be groomed.
I ran up a couple flights of stairs to get to my room.
When we came to live here, it was most convenient for Grandma to make my room in the attic.
When I first heard about where I would live, I was a little apprehensive. As it turned out though, the attic is, in my opinion, one of the nicest places in Grandma's house. It is pleasantly away from the rest of the house, so I can enjoy a lot of peace and quiet.
After I did my homework for a while, I decided to take a break. (See picture to the lower right.)
Right as I was in the middle of singing one of my favorite songs, my brother William, who is closest to my age, walked in. I stopped singing instantly, and stared at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the some of the stuff on my bed.
"Just, um, chilling. School was kind of hard today, and I need to relax." I said.
He snorted. "If you chilled any more, you would have a permanent cold."
Well isn't he clever.
Just so you know, that sort of thing is about the extent of our ordinary conversation.
"Well," he said. "I just came to tell you that Grandma called to say that she will be home soon."
He started to leave, but paused in the doorway. "You might want to put some of that stuff away before she gets back."
He was right. Grandma has never been happy about the idea of food in a bedroom, and I'm not sure how she would like to see cookies and leftover sushi balanced precariously on my mattress.
As soon as William left, I quickly cleaned my room up. The food was returned to the kitchen, and I was in the living room waiting for her with freshly brushed hair by the time she was back.
So, that's basically what I did today. I'm sure you were all dying to know.
Oh, and if you're wondering where Kit has been lately, she has been busy helping her mom and brother repaint their upstairs hallway. So, she really hasn't had time to post.
Well, until next time!
Dakota

Much ado about nothing

Hi, this is Dakota!
Maybe the title is a little misleading... it wasn't quite nothing. Still, there was "much ado" over it.
As you may know, I go to a very competitive school. And when I say very competitive, I mean very competitive. Like, the kind of school that will do whatever it can to 1-up another school. Yeah.
A while back (About a month ago, really.) there was a large contest that our school was entered in. Long story short, our school lost.
The headmistress of our school was not pleased at all. After a thorough examination of the school, she decided that it must be because the school was too lenient. She called a big meeting, and most of the teachers agreed with her.
So, she made a lot of new rules and regulations. One rule, is that there is now a school uniform. Basically everyone has to wear a pleated skirt, and a neat shirt, or get in trouble. The colors don't matter.
My grandma was thrilled. She had also been under the opinion that the school was somewhat.... lacking.
It was her idea, not mine, not my mom's, to have me dress in what you see me wearing in the picture.
At school today, the whole atmosphere was a lot different. It was more rigid, and to the point today than it has been in the past.
The classes seemed very long. I didn't really think that the uniforms made us any more efficient than we might have been; I was too busy fidgeting and squirming to notice.

The headmistress did say that the new rules would probably just be enforced until we didn't need them any more, i.e., until we start shaping up. I'm just hoping that she doesn't think we need them for very long!!!
Oh, and on another note, I can keep Sally! We spent a lot of time looking for her previous owners, and since none we're found, I officially have a cat! Grandma isn't thrilled, but I didn't really expect her to be.

Dakota

Sally

 Hi! This is Dakota.
I have always wanted a cat, and now it looks like I might just get one!
On the left is a picture of the cat. My brothers and I found her when we were outside last night.
Right now Mom and Dad are looking around to see if they can find her owner, and putting up "Found" signs. I hope that she doesn't already have an owner, because I would love to keep her.
Even though I didn't mean to name her, because I didn't want to get too attached, she somehow ended up with the name Sally.
Isn't she adorable? And she's so well behaved. I can tell that everyone in my family likes her, except for maybe my grandma. Dad says that if we do keep Sally, Grandma will probably like her, in time. And I figure that even if she doesn't like Sally, at least she probably won't hate her for too long.

Dakota

Rendezvous

A Spring Saunter

Sometimes a picture tells a story better than words can.
And, if a picture is worth a thousand words, you have a lot of reading to do. ;)

Goat-sitting

Hi! Josefina again.
Today is the second day of my school's spring break. Most of my friends are enjoying it. They've been doing things having sleep-overs and playing outside.
I, on the other hand, have been trying to train Sombrita. You would think that I could just do that in my spare time, right? Wrong.
After Sombrita had unashamedly eaten all sorts of things, including my mom's favorite shoes, Mom told me that if I can't get Sombrita to behave within a week then Sombrita will have to be sold to a petting zoo or something. Unfortunately, she told me that right before Spring Break. I suppose that in a way it is fortunate, because I get a better chance at keeping Sombrita. Still, it's hard work.
Mom has tried to convince me that we have enough pets.
"Between you and Kaya," she had said. "We have your iguana, your frogs, your fish, your turtle, Kaya's hamsters, and the dog."
"Mom, don't call Coconut "the dog". How would you like it if she called you "the mom"?"
Then Mom told me to stop changing the subject. A long conversation followed, that brought us no closer to settling the issue.

Sorry that this post doesn't have any pictures except for the collage of our pets. I only was able to post this because I got Kaya to watch Sombrita for a few minutes for me. Besides, there isn't much else to take a picture of. All that would really apply to this post is a picture of our chewed up rug, but that's not very interesting, in my own opinion.
Josefina, the Goat-sitter

Sombrita!

Hi! This is Josefina.
Last night, while Kaya and I were washing dishes, our doorbell rang.
When I answered the door, I was surprised to see my aunt, who lives three hours away.
"Hi Josy." She said. "Is your mother available?"
As an answer to her question, Mom came in right then.
"Oh good." my Aunt said. "Well, you know how I have a little farm?"
My mom nodded.
"Well, I'm moving." Aunt Rachel said. "And so I have a little present for you."
Just then, a small goat walked in.
My mom and I both stared.
"Well, bye!" And with that, Aunt Rachel was gone.
My mom couldn't say anything for about a minute. "We can't keep her." she said, still rather confused.
"Oh but Mom, she's so cute!" I cried as I hugged the goat.
There was a brief silence. I heard typing in the other room, so I supposed that Kaya was looking up how to take care of goats.
I also heard a small munching sound, and realized that the goat was chewing on my sleeve. I quickly stood up.
"Mom, can't Sombrita stay?" I begged.
"Sombrita?" She asked. "You've already named her??"
I nodded.
"Well, won't she be a nuisance?" My mom said, trying to convince me. "Goats like to get into things that their not supposed to."
"We probably still have some baby gates somewhere. Come on Sombrita." I said. "You can live in the garage."
My mom watched us go, before she went to tell Dad all about this whole goat issue.
I hope that Sombrita gets to stay!!

Supporting the team

Hola! This is Eliza.

Yesterday was somewhere around my half- birthday. As usual, I shared it with my twin sister Linzy. Instead of telling you everything that I got for my birthday, I'm going to cut this story short. Knowing how much I like the Jayhawks football team, my Grandma bought me some Jayhawks apparel! She bought a skirt, a scarf, and pajamas.
Today, I decided to wear my new clothes to school. Because I didn't have a suitable shirt, I decided to wear the pajama shirt.
I was proudly walking down the hall, when the headmistress of my school tapped me on the shoulder.
She looked disapprovingly down her nose at me, and cleared her throat loudly.
After wondering for a moment what the problem was, it hit me like a rock. "Oh I'm so sorry Ms. Headmistress ma'am! I forgot to tuck in my shirt."
I stuffed the edge of my shirt sloppily into my skirt.
She rolled her eyes and said in a tired voice, "Eliza Anna, you know our rules about apparel that advertises other schools and or sports teams."
"Oh I'm not advertising Ms. Matilda Headmistress ma'am," I babbled. "I'm just supporting the Jayhawks!"
She sighed loudly. "Please call me Ms. Matilda." she told me, before she continued on her way.
Ms. Matilda Headmistress sure can be picky sometimes.
It definitely is fun posting on here. I would more often, but I'm not sure how Kit would feel about that. She says I ramble, but I don't know what she's talking about. She told me that I could post on here as a half-birthday present, and I'm not quite sure if she meant "uno postio" (I bet you didn't know I spoke spanish!!!) or that I could post whenever I wanted too.
Hmm... I guess only time will tell!! :)

Rilla!!

Hi!!! This is Kit.

I had a very pleasant surprise this morning when I went to school. Aside from seeing the people I see every day, I saw someone whom I hadn't expected to see at all! 

My old friend Rilla was standing near the door, looking rather out of place. 

Now I'll give you an explanation, so you know what I am talking about. As you may know, I moved from Cincinnati in December of 2009. Rilla was my best friend there. 

The last time I spoke with her, she hadn't mentioned that she was moving here, so it was quite a surprise to see her!

I ran over to her. "Hi Rilla!" I bubbled.

She glanced over at me. Her eyes looked rather glazed over, so I could tell that she hadn't been paying any attention to anyone. Her face lit up when she saw me. "Oh hi Kit!"

We chatted until our classes started. 

I'm really glad she moved here. It will be nice having even more friends here!

She will probably post on this blog some. :)

I'm sorry about how this post kind of jumps around, I've been so excited that I have been talking like this too. :P

Kit

3 years of blogging!

Hello!
It's rather hard to believe that Mimiville has been up for three years. :O Then again, most of the posting has been done in the last two years....
The blog definitely has changed a lot. Here's a link to the first post, in case you're like me, and you don't want to have to press "older posts" until you get back there! :P
Well, I just have to say, thanks for reading my blog. I really appreciate it. :)

Mimi

Jennifer-here!

Hi, I'm Jennifer Elaine!
It is a great honor to be posting on this blog; I've been an avid reader for quite a while. After a while of reading it, I emailed Kit and we became friends. When she heard that I was moving here she told me that I could maybe start posting on the blog, since I'd really be a girl of Mimiville.
I was really excited, and even more excited to meet Kit, and all of her friends.
My older sister, Rachel, can't seem to understand why I'm so excited to meet some kids that I read about regularly. I didn't try to explain it to her, because I knew that she probably didn't care much anyway.
Our new house is very nice, and so is the neighborhood. It's a lot warmer than my old home in Minnesota. That's not saying a whole lot though, it's been below freezing in Minnesota lately.
Kit dropped by our house to say hello while we were unpacking. It was great to finally meet her in person. After we chatted for a while, she offered to take me for a tour of the neighborhood. I was only too happy to oblige.
She showed me around, and pointed out the houses of her friends. I met Kirsten, who was out photographing her collie who is called Mollie.
I was happy to see that the neighborhood had a tennis court. Tennis is one of my favorite sports. Gymnastics and golf are my other favorites.
We got back to my house, and Kit left soon after. She told me that she was going to see her friend Dakota, who I suppose must be the girl who posted before I did. I guess that I'll meet her tomorrow too.

Bye!
Jenna