A day of Bunnies and Jelly Beans

Fantastic Day at The Works

I had a wonderful time today volunteering at The Works. My little sister Isabel went for a homeschool class as well so it was fun spending some time with her. I got to help a bunch of little kids make this simple machine. Each of the gears actually turns when you pull a string. In my opinion this is one of the best ways to spend a rainy day!

Amazing Vegan Dinner

What an amazing night! So tonight for our vegan dinner, we had a lot of really yummy food. Isabel and I cooked fettuccine with salt, basil and peas and placed on top some asparagus with lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. It was pretty delicious. The next dish we made ended up being a kind of soup. (but we put it over the fettuccine too) It had potatoes, carrots, garlic, fake sausage, veggie broth, and some crushed red pepper. The best part, none of these items were cooked with oil! Except for a little olive oil in the fettuccine to keep it from sticking. After dinner, we had some vegan peanut butter cookies that Isabel made. They were so good! you could not tell they were vegan. I would say Day one has been a huge success. Can't wait to cook again tomorrow!

Piano Swap

We had to say goodbye to our beloved piano today. It was replaced with a little upright which fits better in our house. The new piano is lovely and has a new and very different sound.

Going Cold Tofu :D

Tonight we attended a seminar in Columbus about eating healthier. We heard a speaker talk about a three week vegan trial. Apparently, this magnificent trial will show you that veganism is the way to go. Weight loss, diabetes vanish, higher energy levels. Everything he said made sense! In Japan they use to eat a lot of rice, and they lived very long healthy lives. But when McDonald's moved in, the number of obese people grew from 2-3% to 11-12%. Also how now we go through one million chickens per hour! I had no idea! The amount of obese children has been drastically growing throughout the years. We decided it was definitely worth a three week trial. (if I cook most of the time of course) Not only for health reasons but to no longer support animal cruelty. So after we left we got this vegan cook book and headed to the store to pick up food for a lot of recipes. We got veggies galore, fake meat, even soy yogurt. We're all so excited for the change, and anxious to see how we feel at the end of three weeks!

"Music is the poetry of the air." ~ Richter

"Every Spring is the only Spring-a perpetual astonishment." ~ Ellis Peters

Many things come to mind when I hear the word "Spring" but of all the enchanting treasures it holds, the spectacular colors fill my mind up the most.

"If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it." ~Mark Twain

Isabel

Isabel. Silly, goergous, smart, and talented my little sister is the ultimate companion. For roughly eight years now she's been both my roomate and my best friend. We've been through everything together, hardships, laughter, pain, trouble and i wouldn't trade the memories we've made for anything in the world. All the time people are telling me how much i've grown up and changed, but when your watching someone your constantly with grow up it really shows. Almost twelve now, she's still the fun loving little girl that used to make fairy houses with me and play in the trees. She's the one I know I can always confide in, and sometimes I seem to take our sisterhood for granted. I realize how lucky I am to have her, and cherish the time I spend with her. How truly amazing it is to be able to have someone who will always be there no matter what for the rest of your life. I love you with all my heart and more. <3

"I don't know what you say about a day where you've seen four sunsets."

~John Glenn

Things I've learned about Dragons 1. Dragons, although large and scary are very beautiful creatures. 2. If you go chasing after a dragon, there is a 76% chance you will be eaten. 3. people can turn into dragons, all it takes is lots of spinach and some pixie dust. 4. At one point in your life, you will become a dragon. 5.You may or may not be awake to experience this drastic transformation. 6.Dinosaurs are NOT Dragons!!! 7. Dragons are reptiles, despite the constant rumor of them being mythical creatures. 8. To a Dragon, you taste like a piece of celery with ranch dressing. 9. If you ever go to the middle of the Pacific ocean, you will probably see a dragon. 10. If you ever find and successfully capture a dragon, call me! p.s this information did come from a reliable source.....maybe;)

Robert Frost has taught me a very valuable lesson, taking the road less travelled by does make all the difference. :)

"Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it a meaning."

~anonymous

After three years, no more braces for Amelia!

Spring in California

What an absolutely wonderful vacation to California! Hiking, meeting hippies, Berkley, Japan town, it was all around another wonderful experience. After we arrived, we drove for about an hour on the curviest road known to man. It very much resembled the Hana highway in Hawaii. It was terrible! I don't know how many times I had to get out and sit outside because of motion sickness. The worst part was, it was hard to enjoy the spectacular view when all we were thinking was, "When is this going to be over!" It was fantastic. :/ Finally we arrived a little town about thirty minutes out of San Fransisco called Bolinas. Bolinas was a very small town, less than one thousand inhabitants and apparently they don't like tourists. Luckily we blended in extremely well, we were very subtle about taking pictures. ;) Our cottage there was small, but like all the other places we have stayed it definitely grew on us. We had a large porch where a couple nights we had cook outs and a small path leading up to a beautiful patio. On the patio you could see the ocean and all of the surfers. We were about a five minute walk away from the town, so often we would walk to the beach, smoothie shop, or book store. The first day, we took two small hikes. The first was to the bird observatory where we had quite a muddy experience. Up until the mud river it was beautiful. We weren't so happy when our shoes were soaked through and pants completely filthy. Lets just say, we didn't see any birds... The next hike was much better, we walked on this zig zag path down to a bunch of tide pools and cliffs. We had a lot of fun looking in all the pools at starfish, sea urchins, and snails. (of course Gabe had to poke each and every one of them) Belle and I climbed on what looked like sand cliffs, but they were really pieces of rock. It as a lot of fun! The hike back up was just as spectacular as coming down, even though it was tiring the view made up for it. Went to bed early that very early that night. Our next hike was eight miles. We were pumped! It had been a long time since we had done a big hike together. It was on the coast and every step lead to yet another beautiful view. we went around curves and up hills and soon we came to a really steep cliff that lead to a waterfall. There was a path leading down and we were all attempting to climb down it and not fall in to the river. It was worth it when we got down. We right next to a big rushing river, which lead over the cliff into a miraculous waterfall that was streaming into the ocean. Then we found out there was a path down to the beach. If you went down to the beach you could go right up next to the waterfall. It wasn't so much a path as it was a giant cliff that you had to climb down. Dad and I decided we would go down. It was actually easier than I expected, we had to slide on our butts down because it was very slippery. When we got down we stood at the base of the waterfall and took massive amounts of pictures. The hike back, was lets just say really really really tiring!!! Again another night of eating and going straight to bed. The next day we just took it easy, belle and I went to the beach and relaxed and mom and dad stayed home. (mostly napping) Gabe, being Gabe went for another run. (he's crazy) One of my favorite days we spent in California was the day we went into San Fransisco. We all got to pick one thing we really wanted to see while we were there, we started with Gabe. Gabe decided he wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was amazing, you could see Alcatraz prison in the middle of the bay, as well as Angel island where immigrants from Asia passed through to get to the United States. (Like Ellis Island in New York) It was amazing, it was unbelievable that the gigantic bridge was being held up by wires. The next stop was Isabel's choice, Japan town. Japan town is located in the center of the city and it is a huge area where there are Japanese restaurants and stores. We had gigantic bowls of Ramen Noodles, which we ate with chopsticks. (We were professionals with chopsticks :) We also went into many shops that had a lot of anime and manga. We were also there when they were celebrating their cherry blossom festival. They had beautiful cherry blossom trees inside and out. I got to choose our last stop on our trip in the city, so we visited UC Berkley. We had a great time! We walked all over the gorgeous campus, and had frozen yogurt inside the town. We even went up to the Science center where we had a view of Berkley, we also tried getting into the space building but it was closed. :( Overall, that was a highlight for me. The last day we went on another eight mile hike. It was a pretty hike through the woods, it lead to a big rock arch that we sat on top of. Dad, Gabe, Isabel, and I went down to the river where the water was rushing into the arch. The last night there, we built a fire on the patio and roasted marshmallows. This was a spectacular trip, and I will definitely be returning to California!