All Hallows Eve

[Alyx in her witch's costume]

Halloween. An annual holiday celebrated on October 31st. Activities of the day include carving faces into pumpkins, donning creative and elaborate costumes, wandering from house to house in search of candy, hanging out with friends, pulling pranks, telling frightening stories, watching horror films, lighting huge bonfires….

Many Christians get the willies come the 31st. Maybe it’s because, even if it’s not known, the history of Halloween is, in fact, a horrifying story.

All Hallows Eve. An annual holiday signifying the end of the harvest, the start of winter, the season of death. It also came just before All Saints Day, the day when souls worthy of heaven would ascend... therefore All Hallows Eve was their last chance to reap revenge on those who harmed them during life. Ghoulish faces were originally carved into turnips or potatoes (us lazy Americans found pumpkins much easier to carve). Costumes were not for fun - they were to disguise yourself from the spirits haunting you. The 'trick-or-treat' tradition was, rather than children, the poor begging for bread in return for praying for the giver's dead relatives (spirits with more prayers found easier passage into heaven). 'Sacred' bonfires were lit and embers were carried in the carved vegetables to light sacred fires of their own, which, of course, scared the spirits away. 

Yeah, all that said, Halloween kinda scares me. But I still dressed up. But didn't get any pictures. I plan on wearing the costume again, though, so...

Ramblings

So, what's been happening? Thanks for asking. I haven't posted for a while because... *bumbadadum*...

I've been camping. With my youth group. Well, not for as long as I haven't been posting. But I was feeling lazy. Now I'm extremely sore and bored and am finally willing to get on my blog and participate. Anyway, it was supposed to rain the night before last - hence, many families stayed home - but the only rain came while most people were still sleeping and briefly sprinkled after breakfast. Which, for some, was rather a disappointment, as it was supposed to bring cooler weather. Or maybe it was cooler than normal and we couldn't tell because we ran around too much. Back to the context, I didn't get many pictures of people, but there was this particularly friendly peacock who posed for me. I believe he was relieved to get away from the flock of peahens chasing him around. Poor boy....

To change the subject, I would like to say that *ahem* I'm going to take a *cough* break from Riding Orion. The poor thing has been drowned in so many scattered ideas that it can hardly breathe. In fact, I'm wondering if it stopped breathing. And, though it sounds horrible, I don't think I'm even going to try to resuscitate it for a long while. Instead, again, I have dreamed up a new story.

I was considering entering NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month, for those of you who do not write), but remembered that lack of structure was the reason I failed to write RO in nearly a year, let alone the three months it was supposed to be done in. A story is only as good as its plot, just as a house is only as stable as its foundation. The LORD didn't create the space between the sky and the ocean before He decided what to put between it. Of course, to be fair, He is perfect, and He had all eternity beforehand to plan out His story.

Anyway, back to the point. I am determined *cough* to finish this story, and to have a pretty good idea of where it's going before I start the first sentence (more on that later).

Ellie, I will need plenty of support for this.

And Bethanie, if you're reading this... please don't be upset with me. The book I'm planning out *coughcoughcough* isn't Pages of Myondelf.

~Charli Rae

|Job 39:19-25|

The Puppies!

So, I was going to do a post about them, anyway, but as I returned from the days activities (church, picnic, running around with multiple soccer balls and proving that I am not in any way athletic), I was reminded how much pets are indeed apart of the family. I walked in, set my slurpee down on the table, and Thunder immediately reached as high up my leg as his little paws would go, as if to say, "ME FIRST!" then darted to the back of the couch in our "YOU'RE FINALLY HOME!" ritual. He sat there, quivering, until I made my way over to the couch and crouched down.

He's such a sweet heart. =)

But, first up is Grizzly. He's almost four(?) and thinks he's the king of the world - at least, our block. He's our evil chihuahua that everyone thinks is absolutely adorable until they actually get to know him. The only one who can keep a handle on his pure evilness is Mom, who happens to be his idol. Here's his questionare - he filled it out very begrudgingly.

Books:_ I don’t know. Definitely not anything involving dogs and tricks. The blonde female human gets all sorts of crazy ideas…

  

Movies:_ Ug. It's too much of a hassle to go all the way to the living room, unless, of course, Mom does.

Food:_ Hm… I would prefer anything brought to me on a silver platter, but since no one ever thinks of it… I guess human flesh.

Music:_ Music. Blech.

Hobbies:_ Sleeping, chewing on the younger male human, staring at Mom… the list goes on.

Animal:_ Hello? I am an animal. Favorite, right there.

Best Friend:_ Mom.

See what I mean? Evil... Thunder, on the other hand is the stupidest genius I have ever seen. I can't really prove the genius part... but he sure is adorable, in my opinion. He's grown a lot since the first picture way up there^ - he's nearly three now - but he's still cute. And very much a puppy.

Books:_ You mean those things that Charli’s obsessed with?

Movies:_ Hm… I dunno. I like the ones where Daddy laughs a lot.

Food:_ Anything that comes off the table!!!

Music:_ Britt Nicole! Alyx dances funny!

Hobbies:_ Playing outside – oh, oh! And chasing the little red light!

Animal:_ Humans!!!

Best Friend:_ Grizzly! (Grizzly says 'dream on, bud...')

And there they are! The pets of the family!

Alyxandra Lyn

She's kinda the star, the main attraction, the center of attention, in everything us Swansons do. She's the energy, drama, friction, glue, baby-of-the-family. In fact, she's already been mentioned several times on this thing. She's my baby sister. =P

 Books:_ Life of Faith: Millie Keith

Movies:_ Ever After, Chronicles of Narnia, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Food:_ Anything Chocolate!

Music:_ Country; Zac Brown, Rascal Flatts, and Lady Antebellum in particular

Quote:_ “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. Prepare to die.”

Hobbies:_ Acting, playing violin =)

Animal:_ All kinds of birds

Best Friend:_ Charli! =D (Aw, I feel so loved. =D)

Job/Future Job:_ Air force Pilot!

Alyx. Oh, my little Alybobwa. The one who babbled before she could talk, the one who wandered around the house calling, "Bun! Girl! Aaaare you?!" when she finally did talk. My partner in crime for many evil schemes. My roommate who absolutely refuses to take my blame for the mess. My artistic, expressive, often annoying, always amazing sister. =)

[I totally love this picture. =)]

Benjamin Lee

first, i have a few things to say. i'm not going to use caps at all in this post. you know, except for the part where ben comes and shares his life story. it's in his own words - right out of the email he sent me. second, i have some more things to say. diary of a wimpy kid scares me. now, that said...

bum-ba-da-dum!

i have the coolest brother in the world. be jealous. =)

[aww, he's so cute there! he's like, twelve or something.]

that said, here's some info that absolutely no one wants to know about him, yet i shall share them anyway.

Books:_ Chronicles of Narnia, Redwall Series, Percy Jackson Series

Movies:_ National Treasures, Captain America, Thor, Princess Bride, Lord Of The Rings, How To Train Your Dragon…

Food:_ Um… food?

Music:_ Christian, such as Phillips, Craig and Dean; Chris and Conrad; Fireflight; and Caedmon’s Call and in between.

Quote:_ “I love it when a plan comes together,” – Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith

[no, this is not ben. but one day, he will drive this car.]

Hobbies:_ Writing and Sword fighting

Animal:_ Wolves, other types of wild dogs, Killer Whales (really whales in general), birds of prey, and red pandas

Best Friend:_ Josh Yandell

Job/Future Job:_ Writer/restaurant worker or owner/Marine Biologist/something of the sorts/or whatever I find myself in.

now, my thoughts... 

1) we share very similar book interests - only he likes action, and i like interaction. go figure. 2) as obviously shown above, his movie interests are very versatile. 3) he was really supposed to state what kind of music he liked to listen to, not list on and on and on, but so far i think i'm going on a lot more than he is.... 4) *sigh* you've gotta love that quote. or maybe not. you don't have to. like it if you want to. 5) is killer whale supposed to be capitalized? beats me. doesn't really matter, i guess, since i'm lowercase-ing a whole lot of supposed-to-be-capitalized words - and if i can do that, he can capitalize words that aren't supposed to be. 6) maybe josh should get his own blog post... hehehe.... 7) ben really needs to decide on what to do. maybe i should do a poll....

[ben and alyx <3]

anyhoo, i'm bored now. love ya, ben!

(ooooh, you have no idea how much i wanted to use your despised childhood nickname...)

Meet my Family!

It's about time for a post, and since I couldn't think of anything else, I decided to get a jumpstart on the suggestion offered by Kendra over at Imagine; a post about my family.

Well, my family, with only seven members, is not one that people might assume 'too big' to fit into a post. But I think it is. I like short, to-the-point posts. So why am I going on and on about this? Beats me.

So, anyways - first is Dad. He's not very photogenic, so this is the only good picture I could find of him. =P

   Books:_ Mysteries, Suspense, almost anything really.

   Movies:_ Very little.  They don’t make good movies anymore...

   Food:_ Yes, please.

   Music:_ Country, Classic Rock

   Quote:_ “Honk if you hate noise pollution!”

   Hobbies:_ Reading, writing, eating

   Animal:_ Rhino (2 tons, run 35 miles an hour, can only see a few inches in front of them; they are a reminder to be humble and gracious)

   Best Friend:_ Your mother

   Job/Future Job:_ Writer

(Note - perhaps the 'only good picture' was a tad harsh. I've got a 
bajillion picture folders on my computer that I'm too lazy to go through right now. So I guess that says more about me than Dad, huh?)

\

Mom, on the other hand, I could find as the costar of several pictures. She doesn't particularly like them either, but hey, I had to get it from somewhere, right? ...in fact, we're all kind of wondering where Alyx got her love of the camera.... Anyway, rambling again! 

Books:_ Pride and Prejudice, Zion Chronicles

Movies:_ Pride and Prejudice, The Princess Bride, The Man From Snowy River

Food:_ Pizza 

Music:_ Man From Snowy River, Dances With Wolves, Rocketeer

Quote:_ God does not call the Qualified, He qualifies the called. (than you Judy Jones)

Hobbies:_ calligraphy, piano, hiking

Animal:_ panda

Best Friend:_ Rob Swanson

Job/Future Job:_ Nurse, Pediatric Intensive Care

(Note - Rob Swanson is my dad, just in case you were worried.)

So, yep! Those are my parents! Couldn't ask for better ones!

Oh, the joys of...

Exercise! But more importantly, sisters.

My sister decided a while back that she was going to join the air force. She's thirteen, so that presented a small problem... but she started looking around for some air cadet programs near our house. The one she found has their girls running a mile in under seven minutes. So she's determined to get into shape.

Here's what she looked like after the sit-ups. (Where was I in this? Holding down her feet and taking pictures. =D)

And she almost fell over after the jumping jacks. (What was I doing? Laughing my head off.)

And then we went running. (Notice; I actually said we there. I'm not completely lazy.)

But really I was just saying, "C'mon, soldier, pick up your feet!"

She was finally provoked to say, "Charli, I hate your guts, 'cause your guts aren't doing anything!"

And I laugh. 'Cause I know she loves me. ;)

~Charli Rae

{Im}perfection

im: a common prefix meaning 'not' or 'the opposite of'.

The thing about blogging... it brings out the liar in me. The pretender. The fraud. The one who likes to make everyone think I'm perfect. Well, here's a good dose of the truth.

I chew my nails.

Most days, I don't get around to brushing my hair until well after lunch.

It took me forever to find out where {brackets} were on my keyboard.

My room is so messy that you can't see the floor.

I write a sentence and erase it a bajillion times before I'm satisfied.

I get really stressed when people ask for my help.

I don't read my bible nearly as much as I want to.

Check out the button on my sidebar to visit Kendra's blog and join the rebellion against perfect blogging. =)