Christmas

Dear Diary,

I am Sitting on the floor at my Grandparents house listening to my aunts and uncles discussing politics.

Right now everyone is HERE! except for Dana and John (Dana & John if you are reading this...WE MISS YOU!!) I really enjoy our family get togethers, its always a good experience! There is a lot of spanish speaking in the background, and laughing, and slapping hands for picking at the turkey.

I will tell you a little more of whats going on around me so you can get into the moment like me!

Kara is Laying on the ground dead from the ice cream, Next to her Malia is playing trains with Zeek, Arturo is laughing about something and mumbling stuff in Spanish that I don't understand, Cheyenne is On the ground practicing drawing with Dr. Suess books that Zeek got for christmas, Dad is telling wacky stories about Alberta. Sierra is playing with her itouch along with Dallas sitting on the other side of the room playing games on his iPhone and next to him Spencer is doing the same. now zeek is Playing horse on Kara. My mom is... being mom... Auntie Kelly is discussing things with all the other adults, my grandma is opening the window, Zeek is now jumping on uncle Delzell. Grandpa is giving the dogs love, that they have been lacking since everyone is here, And uncle shawn just left home because its getting late.... Delzell just let it rip... now everyone is exiting the room while he blames Cheyenne...

I love Christmas!!

We had a pretty chaotic christmas this year! We woke up 7 this morning to open presents, then we went up island to Shawnigan to have breakfast at Auntie Kelly's house, then we raced back home to attend 2nd ward Christmas Sunday meeting at the church, but on our way there the van broke down on the highway so we ended up having to jump in the back of my grandparents car to make it only a couple minutes late!! afterwords we had some friends over to spend some christmas day with them, and now here I am sitting on the floor picking out a chocolate that Nana is offering me!

Merry Christmas!!

Tanisha C.

Home Alone

Dear Diary,
Things have been pretty easy going over here. Nothing new, same old school work to be done everyday, the animals are doing fine, and the house is still coming together.
"So what do I write on?" I ask my self, and the best thing I could come up with today is my adventures of being home alone. I am left home by my self a lot lately, since Cheyenne, and Shae are in School, and Malia is at work, and sierra? well.. she is always doing something (library, car ride with mom, friends house) my dad is at work and my mom is always running errands. So what do I do, since no one is watching? well pull out the chocolate chips, and blast the Disney music of course! And if I am really in a weird mood then I play with "Photo Booth."
Like every kid when they find out they don't have a parent breathing down there neck, they do things they know they are not allowed to do.

My Mum's house rules:
-Do not eat chocolate chips
-Do not eat Frozen orange juice
-Do not turn heat on above 10 during the day
-do not watch movies during the day

I could go on and on but these are the main ones that I break when no one is watching.
This is probably as rebellious as I get! but I enjoy having alone time to snuggle with my dog and sing along to Disney's "Tangled" music, and occasionally jump up and dance to Disney's "beauty and the Beast" music too.
Now that you know my secret... Don't tell my mum!
Have a good day!
-Teesh

Shae's Photoshoot

I did a Photo shoot with Shae and this was the result!

Taken place on my farm.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Have you ever wondered
What you would do
If the mother that’s your mother
Had never had you?

You might have been born
To a big Kangaroo
Down in Australia
Or out at the zoo
Or perhaps a hippo
Would’ve given birth to you
Way down in Africa
Really, what would you do?

And what if your mother
Had been a Klifter
The kind that stands skulking
On top of Mount Jister
And what if, while skulking,
(Which is what all Klifters do)
She didn’t care what you might do?

So she wouldn’t notice as you
Climbed the Gigantalim tree
The only plant on top of Jister
As far as you can see

But as you were up there
The big tree trunk could bend down
And as you were up there
Looking around
A giant feathered-Sift bird
Could land on your shoulder
Mistaking you for part of the arbor

And as everyone knows
The feather-Sift bird
Is a thousand times heavier
Than the average bird
So when you would move
Startled, away,
The silly Sift bird would fall off
In disarray

But the Gigantalim tree,
Bent down to the ground
Would fling you way up
And if you made a sound

You might call to mother Klifter
“Help me please!”
But that would only get carried off
In the high mountain breeze

And then you’d start falling
But Mount Jister’s so high
You’d fall upwards!
Up past the sky!

So you’d fall on upwards
Higher and higher
Till you passed the stars
And the tiny star-lighters

Then where would you be?
And what would you do?
What would you do
If your mother hadn’t had you?

So thank your lucky stars
You were lucky to be
So lucky to be born to
The mother you see
Sitting there smiling
(She’s lucky too.
She knows that she’s lucky to have
Had lucky you!)

So give her a kiss
And give her a hug
And tell her you love her
(You lucky bug!)

Because I know I wouldn’t be
Happy here today
If I didn’t have my mother
To set me on my way

Love you mom
For forever, and a day.

clap your hands!

Dear Diary,
I had a great night with all my friends, and family at a farewell party for Coralyn, but there was surprisingly sour air on our trip back home.Sierra got offended way to easily, Cheyenne would make mean remarks, Malia would get into each others business ,me, Shae, and occasionally Cheyenne would stick up for the few people in the van that were being criticized by the others, Mom would be getting frustrated at Dad's driving, and dad would casually take the criticism quietly. All that in one mini van just put us all in an awkward silence. but to all of our relief Shae came to the rescue and broke the silence saying "lets sing a song". that didn't exactly put any of us into a good mood but it made my mom chirp up and sing "if your happy and you know it clap your hands!"
Think about it! if your in a grumpy mood a old dumb primary song isn't going to brighten your heart, but for some reason one by one, me and my sisters would make a little giggle Shae started with a clap and sang along, then dad would sing along but not clap so to keep us safe from a car accident. and then me without meaning to, slipped out a little giggle that resulted in a clap too. After I started in singing Cheyenne started up and then Malia started, by the next verses we all started clapping, stomping, and making our "hooray!"'s, But strangely enough Sierra still had her hands cupped at her face in frustration until we noticed that her shoulders were moving in the way of laughter and then she started laughing and singing along as well. by the end of the fourth verse my mom asked if we were all happy yet. and we all yelled "yes!" except sierra who said "no" in a jokingly, sarcastic way.
I am extremely happy for the gift of music,family, and primary cause if it wasn't for those 3 things I would never have learned from that experience. How we should all be a peace maker at those times of contention and frustration all it takes is a silly little primary song.

-Tanisha

Old McDonald had a farm.... Ee Ii Ee Ii OO!!

Dear Diary,
Well just so you know... WE MOVED!! I am now living in Brentwood, on a little farm in a littler house. Since we moved in I have been having so much fun! like hauling wood, driving a lawn mower, herding goats, watching baby chicks hatch!! what a perfect time to move on a beautiful farm! SPRING! Since moving in I have gone through a faze like extremely enjoying the farm life! building chicken coops and all. I have been getting super great idea's! like building new fences and painting them white all cute like, buying myself a goose for a pet!, building a new duck hutch for the pond and the ducks of course. its pretty exciting! this place is really coming together!


Easter came and went in such a fashion that I was left jumping up and down in glee! the lessons in Church have been extraordinary, and the egg hunt on Monday was hilarious! (I ended up being thrown in the Duck pond) there was three teams and Cheyenne, Malia, and I all planned out the treasure hunts to find the basket full of chocolate and candies. We had the Andersons and Schafers come and join us on our Easter evening.

Well until next time!!
Tanisha

Stripes

Dear Diary,
GUESS WHAT!? our duck just had 10 adorable ducklings! they are so cute! remind me to put a picture up for you to see how cute they are! our first sign of spring!

Well during these last couple of weeks my days change with out me planning on them to do so. this morning I woke up with my Dad telling me to get my resume together and get ready to go because my Nana was going to take me and my sisters for job hunting. Job hunting is I have discovered way harder then any other hunting by the way. Like hunting deer would be easy cause there is deer all over the place! but here in Vic people are stubborn and make it harder to get a job. Anyway! so then I find myself in the car with my Nana and my cousin/sister Shae. and by the end of that 2 hours Shae did awesome! but by the time I was done... I had no such luck. I took my resume to a multiple of places but turns out they don't hire 14 year old's just 15 and up. after that I gave up and stopped going from store to store. I was pretty discouraged. so I will just have to see what happens! if nothing then I am not going to EFY this year.

on that sour note...
Another part of amazing news is that tomorrow (Tuesday) we, as in the all the Home schoolers are going to Utah for a TGED conference! (Thomas Jefferson Education) and after the conference there will be a family ball! and we will also be staying in a hotel! could this be a dream? hope not!

So yes that's my stripes! I have good things that happen all the time! but there is always something bad that follows after words. Luckily another good thing comes back up! And so on and so forth.

Tanisha

Uganda Africa service project.

Dear Diary,
HELLO! so I don't know if you know... but I am in a group of girls that have been raising money, clothes, and school supplies for the girls, boys and adults in Uganda Africa. pretty cool huh?
so the people in this group is me, Elsie Orrego, Emma Holmes, Savannah Holmes, Jenaya Thomson, Rachel Sacket, Ellen Watters, and Megan Watters.

So the last project that came up for us was just that- collect girls and boys clothes for the girls and boys in Uganda! The hard part for the boys was that I live in a family full of girls so I had to ask friends that had extra boy clothes to give away. and the problem with the girls clothes was that girls in Uganda are not allowed to wear pants so we had to only pack pants for them. but in the end I found just the things! and it was so great to know that I am sending the things to the right place.

service projects are always coming around for me! like reading to little kids in the library or packing clothes for Russia for a YW (Young Women's) activity, even making money for from candy bags on Valentines day for Africa's Widows and orphans. because service is what life is all about.

Tanisha

news, NeWs, NEWS!

Dear Diary,
well you wouldnt believe it! we are moving! AGAIN! we are moving to Sidney a nice little farm, and a smaller little house but we will be renivating! when i first heard this news i was so shocked i didnt speak. i guess the reason for that was because i was so unsure. i have moved from house to house, from place ot place all my life. i have never lived in the same house for more then a year. plus the last time we BOUGHT a house... the house was filled with black mold, which made living in it not so good of an idea. so we ended up homeless. after that experience i just started to block off all excitement from buying a house, because i guess i was just scared. Anyway, so when my mom called me while i was at the Pringles house that we bought a house, I was filled with doubt and filled with stress, and unsureness. but after i hung up the phone i got a blast of realization! this was an answer to my prayers! i have been fasting and praying for days that me and my family will find a home that we will comfortably live in and we wont have to move anymore and start real roots. and so i prayed right at that moment for thanks. and went on with my day. so we are officailly moving to sidney ward! no turning back now. - that was on Valentines day. i will have to send a picture of it to my picture album! so COMING SOON!

the other bit of news!:KGB
well so since everyone found out suddenly, we were invited by the schafers to go to there Mutual activity. which was KGB if you dont know what it is then let me tell you! ---> there is a beginning spot and a finnish line, everyone has to run from the beginning to the finnish line, but its in the dark, on the streets. anyway you have to get to the finnished line with out being caught by certain people driving in cars, if your caught your out of the game. and the first person or team wins! so thats what we played and it was super crazy! my team was elsie,shae, and Miki (our exchange student)
so when we played this game we ended up crossing through some rich guys field thinking its a short cut cause we got lost, but then since we did that we went off the map and had to do a major back track! over and over again we wold accidently find ourselves in dead ends, and had to keep back tracking! it was chaotic i just have to say! anyway we finnally got a couple of blocks away around when we were sick of droping to the muddy ground everytime a car drove by that we ended up getting caught by Landon Anderson and Bro. Greenwood. it was so fun! and i hope to do it again so i can do it properly the next time!

oh and the other news....hmmm I cant remember oops! but I remember it was important... OH NEVER MIND I REMEBER! the PROWS's are here!! its been so fun! And it snowed! and we have been playing in the snow!!
It was so weird when I first saw them because they came as a surprise, anyway Sam shot up so tall I didnt even recognize him! And when I did see becca I realized it was sam!! it was so awesome! anyway that was my super great news! I will write more! but until then... Live long and Prosper.

Tanisha

Esther and the King

Dear Diary,
remember TYC? Well I guess the leaders were pretty sad that they couldn't continue gathering the youth together and working through hard labor of dance steps and sing-song practices they decided that they would start another big youth production! Its called Esther and the King. you probably know this story from child hood bed time stories or veggie tales (my favorite), or even in church classes, well we are doing a musical production of it. so now we are meeting every Saturday night to sing, dance, and repeat. I am a villager (meaning the extra's that couldn't fit in with any of the major parts) But even though when ever people ask who I am in the musical, and I say "a villager" and they say "oh I am sorry about that" - putting pity into there voices or saying something insulting like "ha ha that stinks" well I am quite happy with my part. I don't have to sing solo! and the spot light isn't really on me! so that means I don't get stage fright! (I get really bad case of stage fright by the way) plus during the rehearsals I don't have to do much and they are not leading me into room after room to rehearse things I already rehearsed last Saturday. And they barely know I am missing for a water break. ha ha life is good. well I actually I love going to Saturday rehearsals. because as you know I am a home school-er and so this is one of my good ways to get some social life in my life at home.

Well last Saturday they introduced the choreography to us. It was hard stuff! but after a while I got the hang of it, (either then slapping someone in the face once in a while- unintentionally of course) but I discovered how difficult it is to put dancing the right steps and arm movements and singing the right words, and as loud as I can IN TUNE is EXTREMELY hard! well.. not that hard, but hard enough that I would find myself giggling in the middle of the song because I tripped over my own foot and crashed into the person next to me. well wish me luck! Cause here comes another Saturday this week!(even though its one of the best parts of the week)

Tanisha

Seminary Garbage pick-up

Dear Diary,
Today was FANTASTIC. I started off the day like I said earlier.. at seminary! and guess what I did right after seminary? picked up garbage! I guess over the night wind blew right threw a over packed dumpster at the chapel and got loads of garbage strewn all over the church parking lot. so after seminary, everyone pitched in and gathered it up in what ended up to be 2 or 3 full garbage bags full of garbage. it was a good start to my morning I have to say! The rest of the day was actually REALLY GREAT as well! I really love to home school right now, I just started my other class on Canadian History and its amazing! also I watched "the boy in the striped pajamas" for my Friday classes. I read the book on Monday and we watched the movie tonight. I suggest if your going to watch the move... just be prepared for tears. and i will say no more. its a tear jerk-er for sure.

Tanisha

my life now

DEAR DIARY!
hey wow! I seem to be very inconsistent lately! talk about a whole SEMESTER WORTH!well I don't really know where I left off last time but let me share to you how my days and life have been going.

well I am now onto the Second Semester of school, I am still home schooled if you were wondering! and it has been swell if you where asking. Anyway, This next semester I started off on a healthy start going on runs with Cheyenne! well.. they weren't entirely consistent really... around once a week or every 4-5 days, But I truly enjoyed going on runs in the outdoors with my sister having breathtaking talks (literally) and getting a good source of exercise, plus I found that it really helped me get through the days with flying colors!

Cheyenne sadly ditched me ,and this was her first day in public school. once she left on her first day it came to mind just how close I am to my sisters, and how hard it will be to loose them. Not really loose of course but not see as much of them as I would like. Malia is sending applications for College at BYU-Hawaii, and I am super excited for her! but that means not as much Malia will be around either. also Shae is planning on going back to school next year.... can you believe it? I will be the oldest in the family! and I am the 2nd youngest in a family of 5 girls. that is truly sad. I will miss them

Either then that news, everything is going quite dandy. I walk to the library everyday to do my school, and I truly love to be out side, so that is my chance. ALSO! I am doing volunteer work at the library reading to little kids and teaching them how to read! I am super excited!
I am going into soccer and tryouts are this month so that has me excited. And I am going to HSG (home school group) twice a week and I walk to some of my classes! (see once again with the walks! notice how much i enjoy them?) I am now getting to seminary once more because... well you see I was very good at the beginning but at around the end of the semester I had a hard time going. BUT NOW!! I started the whole "mind over mattress" rule my mornings. I feel happy and content about life at the moment. And I am hoping things get even better along the way. so yup! that's my life this semester! and I will certainly add more posts more often.

TEESH