Sooo...these are some random old pictures ;)

Turns out we have some really cute and funny old pictures on our old computer ;) So here are some ones that I thought were funny, show you what we used to look like, etc;)

This is in our old house in Shelbyville. Me and Clara brushing teeth. Lots of fun.

OK, as you can see these aren't in chronological order...2005, me before my first Happy Birthday Jesus. Can I get an Awwwww? ;)

Yes...well...maybe you should skip this one.

OK, this is Clara and Ellie and I in a clown skit (yes a clown skit) at our old school. I think I'm about 10 (which would make Clara 8 and Ellie 5) This is the reason for Tristan calling Ellie "sugar tongs" for all of our co-op years. Don't ask.

Burton at age 4 at Whitefish Dunes in Wisconsin. Someone had dug this three foot deep, five feet across pit in the sand. Burt was having a race with someone (might have been me, actually) and somehow ended up running and jumping face-first into this sand pit. He surfaced with sand everywhere. EVERYWHERE. ;)

Clara at 6. Isn't she adorable? ;) She was always one to do poses she thought were really cool. Like this one.

Me and mom taking selfies (with an old fashioned digital camera:) in 2006.

My ninth birthday. Someone's a little jealous, perhaps? ;)

My eighth birthday party. My largest, as you can see ;) The names, clockwise from the little girl with the hair bow in the foreground, who is Katie: Emily, Rachel, Audrey, Clara, Sierra, Chelsea, Holly, Calla (Calla's mom on chair), Elizabeth, Katie W.,Lauren, Cheyenne, Morgan, Me. A lot of these people now go to CEC, by the by.

I had to put this one in there. You should know the real Heidi. I have no memory of why I was dressed like this, where we are going, or what we were doing. Or why were in the truck-- we really rarely drive it with the family.

February 2009- Park Bench at the Little Colonel Playhouse. I was playing a superdiva.

You didn't think I'd leave  this one out, did you? :)

Now this was funny. The OC Historical society used to have a place where you should try on civil war outfits. Four year old Mary would have been absolutely adorable in the specially made Shirley Temple costume. Except she was having none of it. She made that face the entire time it was on her. ;)

My first ever headshot. Yeah, I know. Mom and I later read the rules for a headshot and this broke all of them. Not outside, no busy backgrounds, no messy hair, etc etc

And-- my Betty costume from Annie at MTL in 2010. I used the above headshot to audition for the play, and applied and was accepted into the intensive camp where you got to be in orphan chorus for a few performances.

So...my life in the past years ;) Hoped you enjoyed.

Hmmm...

You know you're kindof into musical theatre when you ask your two year old brother what Tony Awards video you're watching and he knows it's Seize the Day from "New-dies" ;)

Happy!

Be Happy.

Oh I'm as happy as a big sunflower
I laugh and dance and play
and as I frolic about the town
I laugh the day away.

Oh I'm as happy as a daffodil
I smile at the sun
and when I realize I've wasted a day
I say, twas a happy one.

Oh I'm as happy as a round red rose
I  blush from head to toe
and when I get to the end of the day
still happiness I show.

Oh I'm as happy as a daisy white
and though I'm not so smart
I know that if you want "content"
Be happy! it's a start.

Oh I feel fine though some say I
should not feel so carefree
Well I'll stay merry until you show
a reason not to be!



                                           And that's what I think about it!

                                                        By Clara.

What I Think

Here's WHAT I THINK about some things.
      -That Algebra is wholly unnecessary unless you want to be an engineer (which I DON'T)
      - Cantaloupe is also unnecessary
      - Portabella (portubella) (Portubela) mushrooms taste like roast beef
      - Kenzi is not doing the full College Package
      - Echo is not the best pony ever
      - Echo issa nut
      - Seven kids is not too much to have another
      - If I leave my birds are going back to their last owner because my siblings would kill them
      - Lake water is more fun to swim in than pool water
      - Dogs have too many fleas
      - It is not Marcus's fault he has founder
      - Pancakes taste better if you use several different kinds of flour
      - Cooking is not hard if you know about it
      - Barnes and Noble is the best store
      - If the best store is not Half Price Books
      - Sleeping late is not worth it
      - Writing is fun if you can write what you want
      - Flowers are good
      - I cannot garden
      - Baseball is fun
      - Climbing trees is good
      - Ticks ARE NOT
      - Mounted Games is the best sport
      - It is too much trouble to have an E-mail address
      - My four year old brother is too young to drive a tractor
      - I don't want to watch the Man In The Moon
      - I can't write everything here
      - The best way to take medicine is to take it in one gulp
      - Viva La Vida is a great song
      - I have to stop
      - This post is too long.

                                             Au Revoir,

                                                   Miss Me Myself

What if?

What if I sang like Brooklyn Shuck?
What if I'd taken dance in elementary school?

Would my life be different?

What if I'd never stepped into the barn at Windhover?
What if I'd never jumped a horse?
What if Miss Sara wasn't my (amazing) teacher?
What if I were still scared?

What would I look like?

What if I'd never had Ms. Avera in fourth grade?
What if I never wrote a poem?
What if I were still a freshman?

How different would I be?

What if I were never in youth choir?
What if I didn't meet Calla at AWANA?
What if Clara were someone else's sister?

Who would I talk to now?

What if I'd refused to go to that first audition?
What if I never went to that play?
What if I never met Graham Pilotte?

Where would I be?

What if I memorized verses with as much zest as I memorize Shakespeare?
What if I really got up early to read my Bible for more than twenty minutes?
What if I wondered what Jesus would do every second of my life?

Would my life be different?

I can't answer every question, but I know that I am about to find out about those.

Much love,

Heidi

Stretching my mind and my heart

I sit down at the piano.
My fingers begin to wander over the keys, pressing, releasing,
testing the waters,
apprehensive, but eager.
My mind fritters over the pages, wondering, scared.
Can I even begin?
I take a deep breath, and begin to play.
I am captured.
The music has overwhelmed me, drowned me, carried me away,
and I am prisoner,
though I would have it no other way.
As the music continues my mind wanders,
but never strays,
held by the music
lost in its spell.
My mind stretches and smiles
my heart laughs along with the melody,
enthralled by the magic.
And it's like dancing
and singing
and love
and war
all
rolled into
one.

Kentucky, I love/hate you.

I really do love this place. I've always thought it has the perfect blend of rural towns where men in battered ball caps stop into the corner store to buy a TruMoo, a lugnut, and a razor blade,

manicured and perfectly painted pasture fences around gorgeous polished Thoroughbreds,

and thrilling urban areas filled with culture, art, theatre, and good places to take pictures.


But...I have to say your weather leaves something to be desired.  It's so hot that during the day all I want to do is read Nicholas Nickleby somewhere cold. So then at seven something when it cools down all of a sudden i go running. I come home hot and wanting a shower, but by the time I have gotten a drink I've cooled off and think I'm OK for another hour. But then I decide to practice gymnastics for a while. Then I'm hot again. Then I cool off again. Then finally at nine forty or something I get around to dancing, and find myself so sweaty that I take a shower at ten fifteen at night and wake up with crazy hair since I went to bed with it wet.

I must say, those sixty degree days last week were quite satisfactory.

So...yes, you're amazing, KY, but it's hard to get used to literally dripping all day, all summer. And we haven't even discussed wearing riding pants all day.