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