Whats up?

Well..... babysitting twice a week, strawberries, making jam, going to the zoo, watching an awesome production of Les Miserables...twice...playing violin, doing a "school" course, reading, thinking, being outside a lot, finding awesome stuff at Goodwill (dress, heels, shirt, yellow shoes, shorts) warning I'm chopping my hair tomorrow (well, cutting it.) taking lots of pictures, holding our naughty rabbit (she's bit a few people), playing piano... hopefully going swimming soon...sewing...

And loving all of it! I am so blessed to have my family.

Lassie

I got an email from Khan Academy. (a site on which I've done a lot of algebra on. :) The title of the email was "What makes Beethoven's 5th Symphony so amazing?"
I began to think "Because he's Beethoven, and he wrote a ton of amazing stuff." :) I don't think that's quite what they were thinking of though!

I'm taking a music conducting class through Coursera.org (which is another great learning site!) I am loving it! The teacher is very funny, without trying to be. It's a course I love learning about! (music!)  I've never really thought about conducting ensembles before, but I've learned so much even just about how to follow the conductors lead. And how to start songs and pieces. Which I guess could be helpful, since this week I'm starting a duet with a friend. (I was hoping for a quartet, but turned into a duet. Haha!)

My Dad took us all to a Tigers game. That was a ton of fun, and pictures to come! I have so many pictures to go through, it's not funny. 300 is a charitable guess. Although some, I'm sure, will be deleted.

I showed my younger siblings the movie Lassie. The 2005 version. It is incredibly well done. Honestly, I wasn't expecting a movie about a dog to be great, but the producers and actors did a phenomenal job. And, the music was super! So good, I'll put some clips of two songs on here.

Baby!!!!

A sneak peek of the sweetest little baby in town, Miss Eiliana!

Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day! (to the fathers, I mean.) This is a bit late, because I thought I posted this, but just found I actually didn't. :)
I love my Dad so much, and am so thankful for him! My Dad is the best, hands down!
My favorite things to do with him are: hunt, fish, drive, (even if I do scare him... a lot. :) His nickname for me is Emy-Lou. (spelling?) And every morning he asks how I am, and hugs me. I love you so much Dad!!


This is my favorite "Father's" picture:

Enjoying today:

Over at this blog my friend wrote about some things she was enjoying lately, and asked what her readers were enjoying. I commented and wrote these things below, and than decided to make a post out of it! :)
I have been enjoying:
-Gardening. I have my own little plot in our family garden that I'm responsible for. I have onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and broccoli. Some of the stuff is just starting to come up, and it's fun to see the little plants! I love to be in the dirt as well.
-Violin. Someone gave me some music  and in that music are some really awesome songs and etudes. I've been working especially on shifting. It's not as easy as Joshua Bell makes it look. ;)
-Books. I got some from the library. Most of them were by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I found out she wrote a lot more books than just the Anne series! Kilmeny of the Orchard was good, after all, Kilmeny plays violin. The Road to Yesterday is kind of a collection of stories of the people associated with the Blythes.
-Softball season has started! I was quite sore after playing for two hours. It's so much fun though!
-Driving. I have my permit, and am starting the long trek to getting 50 hours of supervised driving. :) I like to drive!
-Babysitting. I babysat a 3 year old, he's so cute! We played in the dirt pile with cars and tractors for about 30 minutes! I would hide the cars, and he would try to find them. "Where go??? Where go??"

Ticks

I've decided to tell you about all the torturous ways our family kills ticks. It seems like we have a lot of them around our house.
1. Light 'em on fire until they pop.
2. Freeze them on an ice cube.
3. Put them in really hot water (My preferred way)
4. Eat them. (actually my dad did....once.)
5. Our neighbors microwave them for about 15 seconds, until they sizzle. (my brother tried this too..disgusting!)

Friends

I got to spend the evening last week with one of my dear friends! She is such a sweet girl, and we've been friends for a very long time. (I don't really think we've ever had any fights either... :)

I just tried to find a picture of us frog hunting in the swamp(psst, that happened years ago. I think we were like 8 and 10), but to no avail. That was fun though! 

This was the best picture we got. The others were really blurry, and the other her dad totally photo bombed. 

So that was literally the only one that turned out!
We had a great time!