My Adventures in Middle-Earth

I have now read and watched all the Lord of the Rings books and movies!!

WARNING! Some spoilers ahead!


Starting at the beginning. On April third of this year, I received a report that would change my life. Mom and Dad were going out, but before they left they said I could read the Lord of the Rings books, by J.R. Tolkien!
Promptly at 7:00 that night I began read 'The Hobbit' with great enthusiasm. Note: I do not recommend reading 'The Annotated Hobbit' for first time reading. There are some spoilers in the annotations.

April 7, 9:45 p.m. Finished reading 'The Hobbit', and had a great dislike of spiders for some time! I have been looking forward to the Hobbit movie coming out in December ever since!

Mara and I were painting outside a little while after, so I painted a hobbit! Mara guessed that that was what I was drawing, when I just had the hair done! It must be very recognizable as a hobbit, because everyone said it was one before I told them. (Or maybe they just knew that was what I had been reading?)

The Fellowship of the Ring. April 8, 2:30 p.m. - April 12, 4:30 p.m.
Mara was out with Dad when I finished it, so I had to wait a couple hours for her to get back and find the next books. It was horrible to have to wait when the action was really starting to get going! My suggestion, know where all the books are in advance, so you don't have to stop between books, and almost go crazy!

The Two Towers. April 12, 6:45p.m. - April 13, 11:45 p.m.

The Return of the King. April 14, 9:00 a.m. - April 16, 9:12 p.m.
I finished all of the Lord of the Rings books!!! I also read all the appendices, which made me take longer to finish. I didn't know what to read for a little bit, but I decided to reread 'The Hobbit' since I now knew the significance of the events in it.

We watched the first movie on July 3rd. Helena and I hadn't seen them before, so it was fun watching them just the four of us, as since Benedick hasn't read the books yet he and Mom would go out.

This is me shortly before watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I know I look like an evil genius, but I am really in great danger of bursting with excitement, having waited all day, so do try to understand.

As opposed to what some might tell you, I did not watch the whole movie like this, only bits of the more scary battles. This was the second PG-13 movie I had ever seen, and according to what Mara told me before, it sounded like it would be very scary and keep me from sleeping for a week, but none of them were very scary at all.

This is me after finishing the movie, with the realization of the entire awesomeness of it still sinking in!

Then, on the 6th, we watched The Two Towers!

Finally, on the ninth of July, we watched The Return of the King! Dad got pizza from Costco for our dinner, and Helena made us all balance the box on our heads.

Mara showing off!

After proving that we are all indeed capable of continuing that age-old tradition of balancing objects on heads, we continued watching the third and final movie.

I know, you see me cowering yet again, and you think that despite my brave words I was really scared out of my wits. But in my defense, when you consider that this is the Shelob scene, and you observe that Helena, despite being four years my senior is also hiding behind a pillow, I trust that you will understand that I did not wish to completely lose my nights sleep by watching open-eyed the scariest part of all the movies.

We watched all the credits to all the movies, including the names of the people in the Lord of the Rings fan club (some very interesting names came up).

If you are still here at the end of all things, congratulations! Now that we have finished with all of these movies, I have started counting down to the Hobbit movie in December. I can't wait!! I also like reading good Lord of the Rings fan fiction!

P.S. I know I have said this before, but I am going to post more in the future. At least you know one reason it has been taking me so long.

Golden Retriever Puppy

I drew this puppy last night, with a Prismacolor Scholar 2B pencil. I think it turned out very well, and Mara said that she thought mine was better than the one in the book, 'cause mine had character. I had a little bit of trouble drawing the tail, because I was a little too close to the edge of the page, but I just had to make it go a little more up instead of out. I think that it looks like a little fat puppy, starting to lift its paw.

Labrador Puppy

Mara and I were drawing last night, and I drew this puppy. I haven't ever really gotten interested in drawing, (especially after an art class we took when I was younger, and I really didn't like how the instructor drew,) but Mara has been drawing a lot during the past few days, so when mom found a book about how to draw puppies and kittens I drew this. I think it turned out pretty good, especially considering that I haven't drawn anything in years. I am going to keep drawing with Mara, and will probably post most of what I draw here. I am going to work through the puppies and kittens book, then draw horses, and then I hope to draw a centaur. I am also going to start learning calligraphy, so the amount of art that I do will be going up a whole lot.

(P.S. I have been going around the house all day, remarking on how I drew a cute puppy, but mom said she hasn't gotten tired of that yet, so there ought to be no problems in that regard.)

Look Who Dropped In!

Some one decided to climb over the fence and take a lengthy nap in our yard.

The neighbor's cat had come apparently come over to our yard to take his nap under our overgrown rose bush, where it was shady. We had seen him when he was all curled up, sleeping. When we went outside he was still there, staying partly hidden, but when Benedick started swinging the hula hoop about, the cat approached us rather slowly.

Rather startled by Mom walking around,
hence pausing cautiously under the chaise lounge.

Coming closer again.

For some reason, he seemed to be attracted to our hula hoop.
When Benedick stopped playing with it, the cat started investigating it.

Moving on from the hoop, enjoying Benedick's shadow.

Looking rather disgruntled when Benedick moved,
and he was no longer in the shade.

Reclaiming his hoop. 

"I dare you to take it from me!"

Apparently deciding that some
fresh salad would be more to his liking.

Maybe our grass tastes better than our neighbors. 

Resting in the shade some more.

You can see his yellow eyes better in this picture.

Getting up to leave our yard and hospitality,
(in the form of not chasing him out at first sight,
but letting him stay and enjoy our shade). 

Shortly after this he climbed back over the fence, and returned to his own yard. I hope he liked his short stay in the yard of the strange people who point interesting objects at him, and swing curious hoops about.

Wordle Fun

I made a Wordle for one of my fanfiction stories! A Wordle takes the words from a text, and makes them bigger or smaller according to the frequency that they appear. If you want to make your own Wordle, go here.

I've got an idea for a game! If anyone would be so very kind as to go to my fanfiction home page, and take an extremely wild guess as to which one of my stories I made into this Wordle, I shall personally take it upon myself to write a 100-word drabble for this wonderful personage from any prompt that they choose, as long as it is a fandom I am familiar with. Just post your guess in your comment.

They're kind of an annual thing...

Now I'm going to tell you something. Today's my blog's birthday! Ta da! (Just so you know.)

I'm really sorry for not posting in a while, but I definitely plan to post more frequently now. Over the next week or so, I'm going to attempt to do a few special things for her birthday. Such as a movie quote thing and an "At Agincourt" review. How does that sound?

P.S. Did you notice the "Tangled" quotes? 

A Bit of History Trivia

For those of you who don't know, today is the 236th aniversary of Paul Revere's ride.

Lovely Clouds

Yesterday Mom looked out the window during dinner and said, "Look at those pretty clouds!" I glanced out and they were so gorgeous!

This one is out towards the east.

This is the sunset. I went out in front of our house just in time. Five minutes later it wasn't near as nice.

Birthday Photos

I am now officially 14, as of 8:55 pm on January 14.

Whenever one of the kids has a birthday, Mom always tries to take a picture at the minute they were born.

Here are the pictures from my birthday on Saturday.

I had a cake with horse models on top of it a couple years ago, and I had saved the horse models. I had wanted another cake like that one, but Helena hadn't wanted to make it. So we decided to just have cupcakes with the horse models on top. We used blue Sour Belts for the streams, red apples for apples, and jelly beans and chocolate rocks for rocks.

Helena making the cupcakes.

The finished cupcakes from one side...

...from the other side...

...and from the top.

What do you think?

Also presents.

A sweater and a model horse from Mara.

Along with a Klutz twirled paper book.

A big box from Benedick with...

...a puppy inside that wags its tail
when you rub its back.

A cute rubber stamp with a bird on it,
and hair things from Helena.

FRESH CHERRIES!! From Grammy.

And a balloon puzzle, also from Grammy.

The 4th season of the Richard Greene
Robin Hood TV show, from Mom and Dad.

And THE 101 G.A. HENTY NOVELS ON CD!!!!
Also from Mom and Dad.
I have always loved the G.A. Henty books, and
when we came across this I immediately put
it on my wishlist! I am so happy I got it!!! 

I loved watching the 1935 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for my birthday! It was everything I was expecting, and more!! I had just read it, but I didn't know that the movie was going to be so funny! I especially liked the Pyramus and Thisbe performance at the end! I thought it was hilarious!! The whole movie was great. I guess when you take a book that has some pretty funny parts, and make it into a movie with actors who add little tiny things, and just add their whole manner of acting, it will end up pretty funny. I must have watched it 3 or 4 times since my birthday!

P.S. If you are wondering why it's been so long since I posted, blame it on my Henty CD. I've been reading it as much as possible.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 14th birthday!!
Dad always puts up signs whenever there's a birthday for one of the children. He tries to make the things on the sign have the person's age in them, and make them about things that the child really likes.

Here are some of my birthday signs.

I really love horses, so for my dessert tomorrow -when we celebrate- for dessert we are going to have cupcakes with little horse models on top (not edible).

Tomorrow we are also going to watch the 1935 "A Midsummer Night's Dream!

A couple days ago I got my third follower. Just in time for my birthday! How nice!

When we go out shopping, I always look for dropped money on the ground.

We are going to have spaghetti for dinner tonight, and then have the real celebration tomorrow, when Mara will be home.

We went out shopping yesterday and Mom bought me two helium balloons.

I named them. The purple one is Benedick, and the pink one is Beatrice, from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

My balloon weight. Mom said the lady filling them with helium
picked out the nicest one.