Engraved rabbit and skiing photos

First things first. Here are the skiing photos I promised you. Most are of Lydia, Johnny, Ben and Sophie because Danella and I were up the top of the mountain skiing. Abbie isn't in any because she was taking the photos, but at least with these you can kinda see what it was like. 

It was Lydia's first time skiing. The green armbands were so our group could recognize each other.

Ben's going to show us how to put on your skis.

Make sure your boot fasteners are fastened securely...

Pop your feet into the skis.... and....

You are off! (This is Sophie though)

Dad in the background in yellow, Johnny and cousin Josiah skiing.

Johnny (left, foreground) and Josiah (right).

View from on top of the mountain. There was snow on the paddocks all around from the big snowfall over last weekend!

Second things second. ;-) I got this awesome engraving set for my birthday. It is this picture with faint grey lines marked on it, and you have to use a sharp tool to scratch away the top covering of the picture so it looks like this fancy rabbit picture engraved in silver! The pictures do not do it justice. Seriously, I think it looks stunning!

Sorry, this picture has a breakfast plate in the background. Oops!  The flash on the camera makes everything look weird.

You can't see the plate but you can't see the rabbit very well either! Oh well. Maybe next time I'll take better photos.

The rabbit looks waaay better in real life than it does on a photo. And a very poor quality photo at that!

Sorry. Please forgive me. :-(

Yesterday we won our netball game by ONE point. It was extremely close! :-) At least we won. :-) How has your weekend/week been?

What is the best thing to do in winter???

Question: Why did I not post yesterday?
Answer: I had something much better to do with my time!!!

There is one thing about winter that is super amazing. We get to go skiing!
Skiing is something you cannot fully understand until you have done it. Once you, too, experience the joys of skiing there is no turning back!

We (meaning, Abbie, Danella and I) went skiing for the first time about 4-5 years ago. For the next few years Sophie, Ben and Johnny joined us and we went maybe 2-3 times each season, and gradually and steadily advanced. We went to Mt Hutt Skifield.
Last year we only did one ski trip and it was to Porters for a change! I like Porters, but it doesn't compare to Mt Hutt. Mt Hutt has more Intermediate slopes and caters for a wider range of abilities.

This year we got to go to Mt Hutt again, and Lydia got to go for the first time, which was amazing. Abbie couldn't really ski some of the harder slopes (right off the summit) though, because of her knee surgery which was still only three months ago! So it was just Danella and I who were going up the Summit Six chairlift and skiing down. If you are familiar with the Mt Hutt slopes we went along Morning Glory, Lower Fascination then came down the Quad- Lex's Way, Broadway and sometimes Half Pipe.

The conditions were amazing. Apparently over the weekend Mt Hutt got the most snow it has had since 1992- 2.8 metres or something! The good thing about that is it makes for ideal conditions on the mountain- soft, powdery snow that you can S---L---I---D---E through. Yay! It was awesome.

There is nothing that compares with skiing. Yes- I am a bit of a speed maniac on skis! I go way faster than I possibly should. :P But when you are whizzing along in the snow... there is nothing that compares with it.

Oh dear. Writing about it is not good. I am desperate to get back on the mountain and ski again! Hopefully we will have more ski trips this year. :-) If you are interested in going with our group talk to me. :-)

Abbie took photos of members of our family skiing. I can't find which folder on the computer she put them in... so at the moment we'll have to resort to good old Google Images. I will try and post the actual photos later in the week.

When you are first starting, you think you will be doing this straight away:

Or maybe you think you will be doing this:

This is what you actually end up doing: 

(just kidding)

Overall... SKIING IS AWESOME!

Have a great weekend. God bless you! ~Bonnie

Interview a blogger

Rhoda from Serving With Joy posted this Interview a Blogger Challenge. I think it's quite cool, so I'm doing it too. :-)

This challenge is about interviewing yourself, surprise surprise!

Here goes!




What is your favorite hymn?




Oh help!!! Where do I start? I love Stuart Townend's 'modern hymns' like In Christ Alone, How Deep the Father's Love and See What a Morning. I also love Fanny Crosby's hymns like Blessed Assurance and Saved by Grace. I love all the hymns.

Some of my other favourites include Bringing in the Sheaves, Abide With Me, And Can it Be, Eternal Father Strong To Save, Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah, I Love To Tell the Story, Rock of Ages, Swing Low;Sweet Chariot, The Old Rugged Cross, Be Thou My Vision, To God Be the Glory, Amazing Grace, Trust and Obey, When I survey the Wondrous Cross and many, many more!




What do you consider to be the most difficult book of the Bible? Why?



I'm not sure. Maybe Deuteronomy, Numbers or Leviticus because they are filled with long genealogies and Do's and Dont's regarding how the people of Israel should behave. But I believe all Scripture is God-inspired and is good for rebuke, doctrine and instructing the man of God in every good work (or however that verse goes) so I'm not saying any of it is 'difficult', maybe just not as easy to read and understand.




A character trait you most admire in people?




Probably faithfulness. If I say I'm going to do something, I really try my hardest to do it. I don't appreciate it when others let me down... so I admire it in them. I also really admire those people who just knuckle right down to it and get the job done. And servants hearts.

What do you like most about your family?

Our size!!! Our laughter. Our help-each-other-out spirit. The loving atmosphere. Everything. :-)




What do you wish you could do more of?




Hmmm..... Most of the stuff I do! I wish I could write more. I wish I had more time to spend just enjoying myself with a good book. :-) I wish I spent more time reading and really studying the Bible. I wish I could eat more chocolate. (jk) I wish I could do more singing... practising instruments... writing poems and setting them to music (I've written several songs none of which were any good apart from one which is kinda 50/50) and climbing trees. That is one of the greatest joys in life.




Favorite author and book?




Don't ask such HARD questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Frank Peretti's books. And I still love Enid Blyton. She is incredible.




Do you prefer active/outdoor activities or creative/indoor activities?




Bit of both I suppose. I like doing active outdoor things if I'm good at them... like, don't ask me to play soccer. I don't even know the rules. But mention the word Netball and I'm with you 100%! I love doing indoor activities though. I guess it also depends on what they are.




Do you keep a journal/diary?




Yup. I have since October 2010. :-) Coming up 3 years. I really enjoy writing down my private thoughts.

What is your favorite healthy food or recipe (ex: blueberries)?

Blueberries. Yes, probably!! Or grapes. Especially when frozen. They make great little summer snacks.




Do you think music is neutral or does it have an influence on those who listen?




Oh, it definitely has an influence on those who listen. There was a study done once on some mice. There were two groups of them, placed in different rooms with the same food, cage size etc. One cage had played to them heavy metal rock music continually, day and night. Most of them went mad after a few days and some died. The other cage had no music at all. They all lived and were perfectly normal.

I believe that the right kind of music is great to listen to. Classical music, Christian hymns, songwriters that are quite 'mild' compared to some of what you can get out there.

Which historical person (besides Biblical characters) do you most admire?


I admire the missionaries who were martyred for their faith, like John and Betty Stam. I also really admire Corrie Ten Boom.




What do you like best about blogging?



Hmm.. Everything!







A big thank you to Rhoda for the challenge. Now it’s your turn. Be warned, if no-one says they’ll take it within two days, I’ll be asking specifically!

Another guest post...

This must be the week for guest posts!!!

As well as the guest post for Jewels of Jesus which is coming out hopefully tomorrow, there's another one!

Sayna from Shining Arrows invited me to do a guest post on her blog some time ago. I sent it to her... and she published it today!

I'm quite thrilled about that post. It's a subject dear to my heart... It's seven of my favourite pranks, gags and tricks!!!

Better check it out. It was so much fun writing it. :-)

Guest Post

I'm doing a Guest Post!!!

Yes, when you read this title you probably thought that someone else was doing a Guest Post on MY blog. Nope, I'm doing one on someone else's!

The lovely Esther from Joyful Maiden has offered to let me do a guest post on a blog she contributes to, Jewels of Jesus. You are so sweet, Esther!

She says it is scheduled to be posted on Wednesday, so keep an eye out if you like that sort of thing!!!

Lost Prince of Samavia

This book is one of my all time favourite reads!

Have you ever read The Little Princess or Little Lord Fauntleroy? From the bestselling author Frances Hodgson Burnett who wrote the two books mentioned above comes another gripping story.... The Lost Prince of Samavia.

For five hundred years the royal line of Samavia has been in hiding, bound by the oath of the Forgers of the Sword.

A father and son take up their dying country's cause and the dream of seeing its secret king enthroned. Their dream becomes a game. The game becomes a mission.

Then the plan calls father and son to go on different journeys. Samavia waits and hopes that in the end it will bring them both back again to the same place.

Marco Loristan, and twelve year old refugee, and his friend, a hunchback orphan nicknamed The Rat, embark on a dangerous journey across Europe to bring freedom to Marco's beleagured homeland of Samavia.

Frances Hodgson Burnett is a masterful storyteller. This fictional tale of spies, traitors and patriots is so well written the reader is riveted, compelling reading right up to the end! A gripping story, this book will both captivate and delight you as you read it.

We own the abridged edition of the full story, The Lost Prince. I would recommend the abridged version (published by BJU press) for readers 10-12 + as some of the language is advanced. I have not read the full version as we do not own it, but I hope to someday. This book is EXCELLENT!

Upholding good virtues like self-control, discipline, hard work and patriotism, this book would also make for an excellent read-aloud for the whole family. I can assure you that you will not regret getting this book!

Should you be influenced by my review, I do recommend you buy the book. Check it out here.
You will not be disappointed!

Toast toasting toast...

Here's a random thought for today:

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Right?
So...

Does that mean that toasters don't toast toast, toast toasts toast?

:D Just a thought!!!

It messes with my mind... I'd love to know what you think of it..

No snow yet!!! SO sad!

No snow yet!!! SOOO sad!! :-(

We've had only rain. Zero snow. Zilch. Absolutely nothing.

Happiness

I have heard through the grapevine that it is meant to snow. SNOW??? YAY!!!!!!!!!! (all photos courtesy Google Images)

Snow is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last year when it snowed we made snowmen...and a really cool hut down at the domain. It was kind of like an igloo/snow cave thing. But it was built completely out of snow! You can't imagine how long it took to make that thing. Hours. We made it with some of our neighbours, it was really fun. But it took literally HOURS.

Looks like fun eh!

THIS PAGE is awesome by the way!!!

Names... any suggestions?

Lately we have been talking about what to name our new baby. (Look here if you don't know what I'm talking about!)

This is not recently, but over the years Mum and Dad have been offered some funny ideas from younger persons in the family... they have really bright ideas as to what the baby should be named! Some of the more unusual include "Fishing Person" and "Honey Pie" and "Mince".

I personally like the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. It's in the Bible, look it up if you don't believe me! Isaiah 8:1, I believe. Abbie suggested we could call him Bazzie for short. I think the name looks better without the spaces (written like this):
Mahershalalhashbaz

It looks kinda intimidating, doesn't it? At least, spellchecker doesn't like it!

We are open to suggestions if you want to comment any. We like Biblical names for our boys since all of our boys are already Biblically named and if the new baby is a boy he might feel left out if he wasn't named to the trend! But I think girls names can be pretty much anything really! :-)

In case you've forgotten, our current names are Abigail, Bonnie, Danella, Sophie, Benjamin, Jonathan, Lydia, Caleb and Jacob. We like names that aren't TOO unusual (but I think that Maher-shalal-hash-baz is just right!!!) Oh well. We welcome any suggestions.

The final name is, of course, up to Mum and Dad, but I will pass on any that get suggested. *nods sagely and winks* If you have a great idea, we'd love to hear it!

GIVEAWAY!!!

Yay!! The very special Sayna from Shining Arrows is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 250th post!

This post has all the information you need to know. :-)

I'm entering! You should too!

DYN?

Did you know...

-Rubber bands last longer when you refrigerate them?
-Peanuts are one of the ingredients that make up dynamite?
-That there are 293 ways to make change for one dollar?
-On average your left hand does 53% of the typing? (If you use a normal keyboard, that is)
-Sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes?
-On a Canadian two dollar bill the flag flying over the parliament building is an american flag?
-'Dreamt' is the only word in the English language that ends in the letters mt?
-Almonds are a member of the peach family?
-Tigers have stripey skin not just stripey fur?
-In most advertisements the time displayed on a watch or clock is 10:10?

Today we did the SSU (Sunday School Union) Scripture Exam. We do it annually, memorise verses (this year I memorised eight) and read certain set passages from Scripture. During the exam we are required to write out our memory verses and short and long answers on the passages.

I usually manage to finish first every year of the people who are doing my grade, some of the ones below and the ones above. :-) The thing is, I don't know if that is a good thing or not! Some people only doing several grades higher than me were still going after, like, 2+ hours. I was done after about 40 minutes. But *brightly* it doesn't seem to have made that much of an impact on my marks. I usually get in the 90th percentile. Once (I've never done this before or since) I managed to get 99% and first in NZ! But I don't see that happening again this year. :-( Sadly. I didn't spend as much time as I should have studying the material! Ah well. Maybe next year.

Disclaimer:
In my 'did you know' lists like the one above, I have in the past been told off for unknowingly giving the wrong information and actually not giving true facts. I'm sorry if I do that again! I get my facts off other websites so please don't tick me off if they are slightly wrong.

Time to laugh (or cry)

The following were taken/stolen/reblogged (whatever you want to call it) from this blog. Thanks for allowing me to use them! The fact is, I thought they were pretty awesome. :-)

(Look carefully at that one!)

There. Weren't they simply hilarious? I specifically like that last one. Classic. :-)

How has your day/week/month/year been so far?

PS. What do you think about this font?

Danella's Delectable Caramel Slice (and other interesting things)

This post will probably seem incredibly flat considering the exciting news I posted last! Ah well. That's how it goes.

I was wondering how you like this font. Mum thinks it is hard to read. I think it is cute. Danella thinks it is hard to read. What do you think? Do you think I should just have a boring font like this? Or this? Or this? Or maybe even this?
Or do you think I should leave it like it is? Ideas, anyone???

Danella just came in and offered me a piece of her delectable slice she made on Sunday. She couldn't remember the name of it when I asked her. :-( So I'll just christen it 'Danella's Delectable Caramel Slice'. There. How does that sound? It looks a little like this:

Although admittedly it's not quite as thick. And not the same colouring exactly. But it's the best Google images could do, so you'll have to be content with that.

We were going to announce the news of the baby at our public speaking group but we got a vomiting bug so we didn't go. Someone asked me on Facebook how I was going to announce it. I thought I would post it my planned method, because I thought it would have been quite an amusing way to announce it!

I was down to Chair the Impromptu session. Basically, you have to think of topics, then assign them to the speakers and they talk on that topic for 1 minute. Well, my Impromptu session was going to be on Announcements. Each speaker would be given an announcement (for example: The aliens are invading earth or There's no more flour in the cupboards) and they would have to ANNOUNCE than announcement to the rest of Tecorians. Because you could easily state the sentence then sit down, the challenge was to make it interesting. State where, when, why, how, who etc. Make it last for a whole minute.

And that's not all! You also had to do it in a certain style. For example, Bob might be asked to announce that the walls of Jericho have just come tumbling down in the manner of a racing car commentator! Or in a melancholy manner. Or acting very happy. Or American. You get the picture.

So... I was going to get Dad to announce that his wife was having her tenth baby in a very fatherly style. Sounds okay, doesn't it? But I thought that people might just assume it was just for the Impromptu session, not true and that I made it up! Well, afterwards I was going to say, "Well, all of those announcements were false. I made them all up, and I don't think any of them were true! Apart from one. One of those announcements was true, and we're all very excited about it. Does anyone want to guess which announcement was actually true?"

So there you go. That was my plan. Sadly we didn't go to Tecorians (public speaking group) as I said above we got a vomiting bug. So that kinda ruined my plan. :-(

Yup, I reckon that's about it from me for today. It seems kind of rambly... sorry!