Advent, watching movies, Christmas present-making and surprises.

Well it seems that a lot of these post lately have been random updates on things. Frankly, I haven't had very much time to post at all. It's just been so busy!

Sunday was our anniversary of becoming Catholic seven years ago, and though I had started a blog post as you have probably observed, it didn't get published.

CONGRATS TO US!!!
Advent has been great so far, and I am really enjoying our Advent study. One problem though, we really need to catch up on Jothams Journey and find out what happens, though I am of the firm belief that Nathan is the best in Bartholomew's Passage (beside that being my favourite).

It was really funny starting to read it because I was mouthing stuff to Saxon and Mum like 'Decha's he's uncle,' and "It's Decha!" And "Nathan is in the next chapter!" If you have never read any of the Arnold Yeetride books, three being Jothams Journey, Bartholomew Passage, and Tabithas Travels which are all advent books leading up to all of them meeting back in the manger where the newborn Jesus is sleeping.
I've been working on Christmas presents though I am not feeling overly rushed, I've only got a few things left but I wanted to share what I am making for my sister, Eden. Eden, if you are reading this do NOT scroll down.









Hopefully she's gone. Anyway here is what it is!

I am very, very proud of this. If you are wondering what it's connected to, it's a prequel/novella of Alan 'a' Dale before he met Robin Hood and after. It's really fun to write and is sort of a break from Outlaw. I even wrote a summary of it and I must say, though it's my first, I'm rather proud of it.

Summary: The son of a count. A nobleman. The right-hand man to one of history's most famous outlaws. Find out what happened to Alan 'a' Dale before he joined Robin Hood's gang, how he ran away from his father's castle in southern France, how he came to England as a minstrel, how he was one night rudely thrown out of a inn, and that very same night, while wandering through Sherwood, and feeling rather faint from lack of food, was saved by Robin Hood, himself. And now, journey with him as he tells the stories of the many adventures he, his chief, and friends and outlaws, embarked upon in their fight against injustice and tyranny.

I must echo my previous statement, I'm very happy with it. :)

I've been listening to quite a few things lately. Soundtracks, Christmas music, and one particular song 'What Makes You Different (Makes you Beautiful)' By Backstreet Boys. Which by the way I haven;t heard properly in years. :)

I've watched a few new movies, and watched a few Christmas ones as well.

We got the Prestige out the other week and I saw it for the first time, luckily I wasn't the only one who hadn't seen it, my sister Autumn also hadn't seen it either. We also got 'Now You See Me' out just the other night. As you can see we are a bit into magicians at the moment. :D The twist with 'Now You See Me' was like, you felt so stupid! The Prestige's twist on the other hand was like 'What? And then, once again, I FEEL SO STUPID!!!' All us younger kids have also been walking around quoting 'The Lorax' which I finally saw all the way through and I thought it was really good. :)



Autumn surprised me the other day by coming home with a 'Man of Steel' poster for me. Needless to say it is hanging up already and I am very happy with it. :)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug will be released here on Boxing Day and I am very excited! It is my number one Christmas present. Some people are saying it is good, and some saying that it is bad. Me? Well, I'll go with the positive rather then the negative. I also need to read or skim (probably skim) over the middle part of the book. (I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE SPIDERS!!!)But not be too pure-isty about it either.
And no matter what people say about Tauriel, anyone who can give Legolas a talking to is awesome! Plus, she's a girl elf, she got red hair, and looks awesome. :D

I've also been hearing really good reviews about 'Frozen' and I really want to see it in theaters, of course if it was a choice of it or DOS I'd choose DOS.

Hmm, what other things have I been doing? Well, we hosted a Homeschoolers Christmas Party at our house and it was great! Learning to get to know the older girls a bit better then before. And organising an all-nighter at our house on the 20th of January. I also lended some of my books to one of my friends as I'd told her about them, she was very interested in borrowing my Sherlock Files as I introduced her to the show, and she likes it. :)

Now, the biggest surprise of my life of the past week or so? Yep, wait for it, I'll tell you. It was just an ordinary day, and I walked outside to do my guinea pigs, I walked to the top of the stairs that descend a few short steps to the outside laundry, and totally freaked myself out. Can you guess why? A snake was swiftly crawling away into the garage, a BROWN SNAKE!

Very aggressive and very, very dangerous, so that ended any play outside as you can imagine, Dad got home later, checked the garage and found that the snake had gone. Thank goodness for that. Since then, the line everyone has been using when someone goes outside is 'Watch out for snakes!'

We've been Christmas cooking me and Myffwyn have been making Gingerbread.

And as a last note: Does anyone have any idea when Sherlock season 3 is released in Australia? I would assume that it would be the same as UK but not sure.
Anyway I'd better go.

God Bless
 

I went to a walk for True Marriage!

So last week I went to a Walk for True Marriage. And it was amazing! I felt so glad inside, so pleased that I was actually doing something other than talking about how marriage is between a man and a woman. Anyway, I should probably start from the beginning.
I had been rather worried that we wouldn't get to the walk because Mum and Dad have been away since Thursday afternoon through to late tonight. They went down to Kynan's Graduation (congrats bro!) and are now driving up to Sydney to pick up Autumn. Braedon and Anna-Lisa have been staying and looking after us, and so I wasn't sure that we would be going. I am so glad I was wrong. We got there in plenty of time and it was amazing like I said. There were so many people there! Some who I knew, some who I didn't. But that didn't matter, because we all had the same intent, to walk down main street, carrying signs and showing the world that, no matter what, marriage is between one man and one woman, and always will be. Boys had been asked to wear blue, and girls pink, so obviously I was wearing pink. :)

Before we left to Fr. Brad said a few things and reminded us that we are on a peaceful walk and that if anyone shouted at us or had a sign the opposite of ours, to return their abuse with a smile. :) We also had sung the words 'We are walking for True Marriage' to the tune of 'We have decided to follow Jesus.' A lot of us got given signs, I wanted one. :) And I got one. Mine said 'Children's Rights Come First'. And I carried it proudly.
Now, we started off at Bolton Park, walked up the street to past a man who was holding up a sign the opposite of ours. I can't really remember what it said but yeah, we kept on walking and kept on singing. We turned right and then started down main street, crossing the road and singing all the time. I'll tell you, by the time we got to the Victory Gardens, which were down the other end of Main Street, and our destination, my throat was extremely parched from continuous singing. We continued down main street, we passed both of the big malls. People looked at us. Some took photos and some were filming us. There was one woman who shouted something at us, but we ignored her. A lot of people noticed us especially at the malls, which were both on the same side, and only about a block from each other. The feeling of people watching us made me feel great. People were noticing! Perhaps they were reconsidering what they thought was marriage, perhaps they were getting a wake-up call. After all, that was partly why we were marching. There was another group of people who were dressed all in black and had another sign, they actually followed us all the way to the park and sat through one of the speeches.

We got to the park, had a barbecue lunch and sat to listen to some people who were going to do some talking on marriage. Did I mention that we were sitting out in the hot sun? Fun, fun.
Anyway, the speeches were very good, one of them was done by the Bishop. And I suppose I shall end this post, as I am getting rather tired of it, and say.

Marriage is between One Man and One Woman. Always and forever.



God Bless

Za past week or so..

Soooo, my week thus far or my week from Thursday, hmm, okay so let's recap from Thursday.
Mum and Dad left at about four o'clock to travel down to Melbourne (five hrs away) to go to Kynan's Graduation (CONGRATULATIONS KYNAN!) which left Eden, Rogan and I to look after the little kids until Braedon and Anna-Lisa arrived(they were staying while Dad and Mum were away) and brought Saxon home as well. That night was an early one. I took Trahaearn to bed, went down stairs and then went up and read my gorgeous Return of Sherlock Holmes. Friday was busy, looking after little kids, and then sitting down in the afternoon and watching an episode of William with Anna-Lisa and then watched Matilda which Anna-Lisa hardly remembered seeing. Her facial reactions were rather funny, especially with parts like the Trunchball throwing kids out of windows and Matilda's Mother and Father. :) Good times. We finished off The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 'we' being Anna-Lisa, Eden, Rogan and I. I just love that movie! :D Not long till the next part! Though we won't get it as soon as a lot of other people around the globe. :(
Saturday was an awesome day! And I mean awesome! We went to a march/rally for True Marriage, I am still working on a post, but I carried a sign and we all marched down Main Street, there were tons of people filming us and taking photos and it just filled me with such a great feeling that we were doing something more than saying how Homosexuality is wrong. There were about 200 people or more, so quite a nice group. :D
Once we got home me and Rogan untangled Christmas lights in preparation of the following day and we went to mass. After that I fell asleep in Trahearn's bed, but woke up at 3:00 am in the morning, when a very tired, Dad, Mum and Autumn rocked up. Yeah, forgot to mention that Mum and Dad after going down to Melbourne had to drive all the way up to Sydney to get Autumn. So a LOT of driving!
Yesterday was starting to stir up the puddings, putting up the Christmas tree, and getting excited. :) It was a very busy day nevertheless, Oh! and we made Wassal and had biscuits and Wassal while lighting the first Advent candle. Happy Advent Everyone!
And today, had been a very busy day as well. Full of tidying up for decorating the house (Done thank Goodness!) and doing our Advent studies.
On my to-do list is: Finish Christmas presents, Make Christmas Cards, Have very constructive and productive days revolving around Advent stuff and reading plenty of Advent books. While I'm here I might show you a few of my personal favourites.  :)

This is actually a picture only book. What happens when an old Gypsey Woman saves the money for the poor from a robber and re-sets up the creche is truly wonderful. I love this book so very, very much!

King of the stable is another of my favourites. It is beautifully illustrated and the story is also beautifully told. :)

Love, love, love this one! A classic! :D I am also going to enjoy reading

Jotham's Journey-and actually finishing it! (though I prefer Bartholomew Passage) and Destination Bethlehem.
































I saw this on Facebook. I've seen it many times but I just wanted to post it anyway.
And by the way, can I just say how jealous I am of all you Northern Hemisphere people? Having Christmas in Winter? Wouldn't that be lovely!
So, that's what I've been doing, what about you?

God Bless
 

What I hope to see in Season 3 of Sherlock.

Now, what you all may or may not know is that BBC's Sherlock is my absolute favourite T.V. series of all time! After that comes Hogan's Heroes and Little House on the Prairie.
Sherlock introduced me to the character and stories. True, I had watched The Great Mouse Detective years ago and I still do now and then but I never really registered that Basil was SUPPOSE to be Sherlock Holmes! I sort of got the reference but I knew next to nothing about Sherlock Holmes.
Early this year we got the first season of Sherlock out from the library and suffice to say that we were hooked!
I started reading the Sherlock Holmes books starting with 'A Study in Scarlet' then 'The Sign of the Four', 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' 'The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes' and I have almost finished 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'.
So if it wasn't obvious, I'd say that I am very dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and may take the title of Sherlockian. A rather nice one, too.

Exciting!

The other day I asked Jamie who blogs over at Throughtwoblueyes if she was going to be doing any new Sherlock Holmes posts and I suggested that she might do what she wants to see in Sherlock Season 3. Arda had asked me this a few weeks ago and that thought sprung to mind at that time. I also said that I'd probably do was as well, and so here I am.
Summary for Season 3:
Our multi-award-winning drama Sherlock‬ starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, returns for an eagerly awaited third series of three, 90-minute films this Christmas.
In episode one of this new series, two years after the devastating effects of The Reichenbach Fall, Dr John Watson has got on with his life. New horizons, romance and a comforting domestic future beckon. But, with London under threat of a huge terrorist attack, Sherlock Holmes is about to rise from the grave with all the theatricality that comes so naturally to him. It’s what his best friend wanted more than anything, but for John Watson it might well be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’!

So the first question that all Sherlock fans want to know is 'How on earth did Sherlock survive?!' I mean how do you survive a drop from a hospital building and later on you are just watching your best friend pouring out his heart at your grave and then it ends! And apparently Season 3 is going to have an even worse cliff-hanger. Note to self: Read His Last Bow before Season 3.
So, besides the obvious that we all want to see how he did it. What other things do I want to see?

Do you think John is ignoring Sherlock here?

1. What is  John's reaction to Sherlock 'coming back'? Apparently John of the T.V. show is not as forgiving as Watson of the stories. Could prove to be very interesting to see.
2. Okay. Now, something I really want to see is Donavan's and Anderson's reactions to Sherlock coming back. And Lestrade will probably be rubbing it in and saying like' Oh, yeah, I told you so!' It would be awesome if Sherlock just sort of walked into Scotland Yard and Lestrade knew already that he was not a kidnapper or anything like that and Donavan and Anderson are trying to arrest him and Lestrade walks in and says something along the lines of 'he didn't do any of that.'

Is it just me or does Mary look a little loopy?

3. John Watson getting married to Mary Morstan. Now, this should prove to be very interesting! John getting married, and with a moustache, too! I am going to assume that they get married in episode two, The Sign of Three. I don't know how they are going to meet maybe because Mary came to get Sherlock's help like she does in the book, or maybe Mary and John meet each other before Sherlock comes back and suddenly she needs both of their help? I have no idea but I hope that Sherlock is the best man.
4. Seeing some more of Molly. Molly is by far one of my favourite characters. And it looks quite obvious that she helped Sherlock fake his death. Sherlock and Molly are supposed to be doing some more stuff together (non-romantic however much all of us who ship Sherlock and Molly want otherwise) and also it has been said that she will tell Sherlock off. Goody! That will not be something to miss at all.
5. Picking up on all the references from the novels. After having read the first two novels/stories and the Adventures and Memoirs I picked up on a few of them, and also my Sherlock Files actually tells you where all the references are from.
6. Basically enjoying another season of Sherlock and being part of the waiting, from the start for the fourth season instead of discovering it about ten months before it is released, which is what happened to me last time.

Oh, and just wondering, but has anyone seen Sherlock's new scarf?

l-to-r. S 1. S2. S3. Arda suggested that it might be a very bright blue because he is getting a bit happier. That sound like a nice idea! :)

And the new trailer which I have not seen yet. Hopefully will today though. :)
So, there you have it! That is what I want to see in Sherlock Season 3 and I can't wait.
Now, all to do is find somewhere on the internet to watch it from, as we don't have T.V. connection and find out the release for Season 3 in Australia.

God Bless
 

My Birthday...

So my birthday was an amazing, wonderful day, which was everything that I had hoped it to be.
It started out a wee bit earlier than I had intended it to be. I went to be at 9 and put my light out at ten. Then I slept until 3:30 am when a gorgeous little brother of mine asked me if he could hop in my bed. I told him no and instead he hopped into Eden's. But he had woken me up and after going to the toilet and getting a drink, I still couldn't get back to sleep. Hence I spent the next hour trying to get to sleep, then decided I couldn't be bothered as I had planned to Skype one of my friends from the U.S. at 5:00 am. So I got up. I Skyped my friend which was really fun! She had seen Thor 2 on her birthday which is just a few days before mine. We talked about a lot of stuff. After that I watched Sir Gadabout with the little kids, went outside and then watched a bit more of Sir Gadabout. After that it was present opening time! I got all the books I wanted plus, the Sherlock DVD's. :) Saxon gave me a card with an announcement that he would be taking me to see Thor: The Dark World. Eden gave me a blow up mattress for going on the pool and twenty dollars (she loved giving presents and is very generous) and Autumn gave me earrings, which I was very happy about. :)
I had my breakfast and then we left for the cinemas. I wore my birthday crown all the time we were in town. :) After the movie finished we came home and I spent a while up in my room having a look at my books. Reading mostly 'The Sherlock Files' which is basically a visual guide to the series. :)
Braedon and Anna-Lisa came and brought Eden home from work as well. They also brought me two presents. Or two different lots of presents. One being a headband as Braedon had been fiddling with one of mine and had accidentally broken it, so they gave me another headband and two cute little guinea pigs. :) A boy and a girl. Anyone like some guinea pigs? Because I am going to have a LOT to give away! They're Abyssinian Guinea Pigs I think and their names are Olga da Polga and Percy. :)
Dinner was very nice. Beef Stroganoff with potatoes and my favourite vegetables. It was interesting not having to do any of the jobs and just being able to sit there and watch everyone while I read.
Then we had dinner and cleared away for my cake. Can you guess what it was? A violin for Sherlock Holmes. Can I just say that my Mum is so talented when it comes to making cakes? After that we had it, I took some of the little kids to bed, and then came down stairs to watch 'The Reichbach Falls' with Mum, Eden and Saxon. Then I went to bed. By the time I put out my light I had been awake for twenty hours, and I was pretty tired. And I was fifteen.
Some pictures:

My painted saint for this year: Saint Anthony.

My season's table

My birthday bag with my presents within

Watching Sir Gadabout with the kids. :)

Waiting for my presents! :)

All my beautiful gifts.

The Guineau Pigs in their box.

Olga da Polga and Percy. This was their home until Dad and Rogan made them a hutch. 

Dad and Rogan late on Sunday night/Monday morning. Great bonding time for both of them. :)

My completed Guine Pig hutch the next morning. Thank you Daddy and Rogan for making it! You did a stellar job!

My awesome cake. :)

Yummy dinner! Lots of beef! I do love my beef. :)

Waiting..

Another picture of my cake

Saxon sticking his head in because he can. 

More 'sticking heads' in. :)

'Happy Birthday to me!'

 A close up of my books and air matress for the pool down the bottom. 

Earrings up the top. Then Sherlock season 1&2,  Sherlock Holmes complete box set which are really nice books, harcover and the edges are gold. I don't know the term for that. They are pretty small books but I lvoe them all the same.
Under that Princess of the Silver Woods, the third and final instalment in the Twelve Dancing Princesses series by Jessica Day George . Under that, the Sherlock Files by Guy Adams, very good stuff. It also had, besides stick notes of Sherlock and John's opinions, says wher such lines as 'You see but do not observe' are from, as in which stories.
Under that Waking Rose, an awesome book
Tuesdays at the Castle another Jessica Day George
The Thief Lord which I have wanted for quite some time. It or Inkdeath are the best Corneila Funkle novels in my opinion. 

Thank you Mummy and Daddy for getting my presents, and Eden, Saxon, Autumn, Braedon and Anna-Lisa thank you all so much for my gifts as well.
So I had a very good day, and am now read for all the toils and triuphs that fifteen will hold. Bring it on!

God Bless