Happy birthday to mee!

All riight!! I'm thirteen, I am I am! And I have pictures, too!

Okay, I need to tell a little story before I can show you the pictures. There was this huuge, beaauuutiful red pine right beside our driveway. My uncle and the builders of the house all wanted to chop it down, because they thought it was "annoying", and it would be easy to drive into. My mom fought to keep it in place... it really was gorgeous. After a bit of negotiating, and plain facts such as "it's my house, it's staying," the guys gave up, and we kept the tree.

So, we go on trips, we stay home, we walk in the park, we live our lives. Slowly, we're seeing all of these... these holes in the tree. A stupid woodpecker is trying to eat away our beloved tree!! So, our lovely tree began dying away at the beak of the woodpecker. Eventually, it's looking done-with, and pretty dead. We decide to saw it down...

After it was down and my dad sawed it into several different pieces (actually, I was recently informed that it wasn't my dad, but The-Picture-Shirt-Giver's (Karin's) husband, John!), we all decided they would be great to have as stools, and to paint! I have a bunch of pictures of us painting them. Yesterday was when I was painting, and I put the finishing on today.

My dad's:

Kyra's:

I don't have a direct picture of mine or my mom's yet, but we will soon. Alec kindly declined the offer of making one himself, but he said he's fine with us making one for him. I think we're going to do that tomorrow.

Okay, more birthday pictures!!

The fairy drawing Kyra made for me!

A bit closer

And of course, I didn't forget The Picture Shirt!!

I also got to watch Blades of Glory tonight, with everyone. And after that, the Star Wars Family Guy episode!! I hope everyone else had as good a day as mee.

Thirteen, Flirteen', and Thriveen'!

(To all those who haven't seen it/can't remember, that quote above is a joke on 13 Going on 30's "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving"... and specifically to anyone who hasn't seen it, go watch it!)


Happy birthday to me (Cha-cha-cha) happy birthday to me, (Cha-cha-cha)

Happy birthday dear Abbiiii...

Happy birthday to me!

That's right, I'm officially a teen now! Who knows how old that makes my mind, now?? Maybe if we count in dog years, or cat years, or... parakeet years? (Let's not go with the parakeet thing... I don't think that would improve my own self-image by a whole lot...)

Well, anyway. I'll probably be making another birthday post today or tomorrow, with pictures!! Well, love you all! See ya!

La Picture Shirt

I have found that in all of my pictures, in all of the posts, that are visible on the first page right now, I am wearing the same shirt. All of them. Even the profile picture! And, coincidentally, I am also wearing it right now.

As it happens, this spectacular shirt was given to me by Karen Buxcel! Thanks to her, I can now strut around in my newly dubbed Picture Shirt. When I wear it, people just can't not take pictures of me. Ain't that just dandy? Thanks, Karen!!



And there it is! (You can even see the Blogger page where I'm typing this post out in the background!)

I could say I have no friends. I could say everyone shuns me and talks about me behind my back. But it would be a lie. It's an illusion! And it's Minnesota's fault. But it's truth, I'm lost here. Where we live, I have no friends. Where I am now, no one understands Unschooling.

I have friends, and I love them all. But they're somewhere else. "Small world," everyone always says. It isn't when you're all the way up here. Maybe if I was more willing to drive six to forty hours every time I have the urge to see a friend, then it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe if everyone lived a little closer, the world would seem smaller. Maybe if we didn't feel so rooted to Minnesota, to this house, everything would be better.

Maybe it's time for that change. I'm sick and tired of no one understanding. Of clique-y school girls not returning my sister's phone calls. Of School mothers who don't let their children spend more than 49 minutes at that weird home-schooler's place.

I think this is all we need. One decision. One final reason to put our foot down. We'll pick our stuff up and move. Buy an RV. Do something! Something other than hanging out here, in the smack-dab middle of No Where.

The Future As We Made It

This poem is mainly about the creation of the planet, and how we're slowing killing off what we were given.

The Future As We Made It

There's purple, there's green
There's faint, there's sheen
There's darkness, there's light
But in the end, it's all just black and white

The earth was created
The public all paraded
The ego was pronounced
The disagreements were announced

The evil was invented
True nature was prevented
So much for a peaceful park
The light became the dark

They can't just get along
In a place they all belong
They trash the world they love
It's a painful thread they wove

The trees died away
People started to pray
It was time for them to pay
When it stops, no one could say

Pity for them, this is how it came,
Pity for them, it's all going to shame
Pity for us, this is what they made
Pity for us, in one blatant shade

There's purple, there's green
There's faint, there's sheen
There's darkness, there's light
But in the end,
There has to be more than just black and white