Paybacks!!!!

Hey! Check out this awesome link! This is a video of my boss, Rob Hamann, and his kids Christina & Anthony. You have GOT to see this!!!

Comments are greatly appreciated!






~Mandy

www.elfyourself.com/view/ND7shjeFJls

Last Weekend!

I haven't updated my blog in a long time, so I had some extra time today and thought I'd do it. I tried uploading some of these pictures on Facebook awhile back and it never worked, so I thought I'd post some pictures here. I'm also waiting on pictures from Tera so when I get those I'll have to post them too.

Last weekend was the St. Louis screening for the movie Illegal Hope! We had a few friends come from out of town to be here for it. That made it extra special. Sage and Tera Dahlby came all the way from Oklahoma for just a weekend, Hans and Helena Bluedorn came from Illinois, David Ingrassano came from California, and Mr. Morris, Bethany, and Anna came from Oklahoma for just 1 day! I sure would say we have some really nice friends.
The screening was nice, but not as many people showed up as I was hoping, but that's alright. I'm over it now. :-)

I'll post some pictures that I took. There isn't many.

Anna, Bethany, and Danielle waiting around.

Tera and Me after she did my hair.



Hans and Helena waiting for us all to get ready.

Mr. Morris, relaxing!

Helena, Emily, Sage, David, Mandy, Edie, and Tera at Culvers after the screening.



Bethany, Mr. Morris, Anna, Hans, Ryan, and part of Helena at Culvers.

Bob and Angela


Helena, as cute as usual.


"Y"
Tera and Hans making a dreadful noise... I mean joyful.
(I'm totally joking! it sounded really good!)

Friends For a Lifetime!

Today was a day that we were able to spend with our good friend Mandy Culwell. She homeschooled with us for a few years and she has been friends with us for awhile. Today, we went to the mall and met her there and we all went shopping and just hung out catching up since we hadn't seen each other in awhile. We had a blast and took a lot of silly pictures that I thought I'd post for fun.

We were shopping at Claire's and saw these eyemasks and decided to take a picture!



We bought some goofy earrings and decided to take some pictures in them. :-D Don't we look like PC? :-D


I saw a picture like this at Applebee's last night and wanted to try it with us three... So we did!

There's another!

Okay, it's getting old now!


So, as you can see, we had a great day just hanging out!!!

2007 Homeschool Christmas Ball

2007 Homeschool Christmas Ball

Well, Just two days ago, I found out about this Christmas ball and how you learn to dance and just have a good time! It sounded like a lot of fun! Danielle was in Mexico so I would have had to go alone, unless I found someone to ride with. The Mckinnons were nice enough to let me ride with them. Having all of this set up, I still wasn't sure if I was going to go. I didn't have a dress. So, yesterday, the day of the ball, I went to several resale shops and finally found a dress that I liked! I had to wait most of the day to decide if I was going to the ball because the weather was really bad. So, after realizing that the weather was safe enough to drive, I went shopping for my dress and realized I didn't have Danielle there to do my hair like she normally would. So, I got on the phone, called the Ascher's and asked them if I could come over with hair accessories and have one of them do my hair. It all ended up working out perfectly with about an hour to sit and relax. It was so fun getting ready and having all the help that I got.

Audra, Cheryl, Kayla, Me, and Bethany
(The only people (and their families) at the ball that I knew)

Then, at the ball, things got delayed since some of the demonstrators were late. So, we ate dinner there and just hung around and talked. Finally, the dancing started. I was in the bathroom with Cheryl so we came out late and we had to be partners since we were the only ones left. I was the guy! :-D "I look much more like a man."
We had to keep partners for the first few dances so Cheryl and I made a great couple. After that, I had a few guys ask me to dance for the rest of the evening, including Johnny Thrower. ;-) It was fun. I had never done any ECD before so I was lost for most of the dances.

One of my partners, Josh, was really good so that was nice to actually look like I knew what I was doing since he knew.

Me, dancing with Josh.

I had another partner, Steve, who had no idea how to do the dances so we made a great pair. We were both able to laugh it off when we messed up.

Steve is in the bright blue shirt.

I had a really great night! It was my first time and I am looking forward to going again next year. Everyone was homeschooled and almost everyone seemed to be "like minded". It was so much fun!


A short clip of some of the dancing can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/littlemisstape/GeorgeWashingtonSpectacularChristmasBall/photo?authkey=xXav7GQR9oM#5139298388070927394

That was from when I was with the good dancer! :-D lol

Dancing With Angels Movie Premiere!

Well, It finally happened!!! "Dancing With Angels" is now completely finished and we held our movie premiere on October 7th, 2007 at the Realm! We had about 138 people show up to see the movie. I was very pleased with the turnout and was so thankful to see that my mom's great desire had been accomplished. (only through Christ though)When people first started showing up, I was feeling stressed, excited, nervous, and everything else! Then, I was talking to my grandpa, and as I was talking, I started thinking about my mom and how this was a big day for us, and she wasn't there. I found Mrs. Ascher (like a mom to me) and just started crying on her shoulder, and of course she knew what was wrong. It was just so hard to do all of this without my mom. The same thing happened with graduation. Mrs. Ascher told me that night, "I guess you'll have to elope"... since that would be the easy way out!
After crying it out, I was good to go for the rest of the night!
While we played the movie, I sat next to Sage and John and we talked through the whole movie. It seemed strange to watch ourselves and our project so we tried to distract ourselves! Now that I remember, that was the first time that we had watched the movie together. We had seen it separately on our own, but never together. It was just a very special night.


After the movie was over, we had the reception with cookies and punch. The Hunt girls and Kayla Mckinnon were such a big hep with that! Then, we started having tons of people come up to us asking us to autograph their Dvds. That was hilarious to me!
Some people bought the movie and had us autograph it so that they could put it in the Christian library not too far away.


I know that I'm really going to miss this project. I already do miss it. Everyone was so much fun and a real blessing. I remember back at how it all happened and am just so blown away that God pulled it together. If I had never gotten on HSA, then I would never met John Naylor, then I would have never had help with the movie, therefore it would have never happened. God is truly amazing!

So, now I'm just praying about future film ideas and I'm waiting on God!

Trip to Branson!

Well, we made it home from Branson! On the day of the get-together, we planned to meet everyone at noon. Since Danielle and I were staying at an empty house, Rob invited us to come early and help him shop for groceries for lunch. We did that, and we also saw the place he works and the gym he teaches at. It was fun. Since it rained a whole bunch that day, we had to come up with a new plan for our day. We couldn't go camping/swimming anymore. So, Rob, Philip, and I all talked on our phones (3-way calling) and we figured something out. We went to the Landing and started out in Bass Pro Shop, somewhere indoors! :)

Here's a picture of everyone on the 4 wheelers! It was kind of funny!
After walking more at the Landing we just stood around and talked a lot. I guess that that's what us homeschoolers like to do. At every get-together, we do more taking then anything.

James, Rob, Isaac
Christa, Danielle, me, Philip
Rowena, Chloe, Courtney, Linnae, Chanelle


Here, I was trying to stay dry from the rain, which wasn't working by the way, and Linnae decided to take a picture... :-P

Rob, Philip, and me waiting for the light show at the fountain the come on. After all that waiting in the rain, it never ended up coming on. I did give everyone a big scare with the fountain. I wanted to throw a penny in so I got one out and turned around. As soon as I tossed it over my head, my phone started vibrating and ringing... so as I threw the penny I yelled, "My phone." (It scared me, by the vibrating) Everyone looked in the water. They thought I threw my phone. :-) LOL I didn't do it on purpose, but it was funny!

All of us, trying to rock the dock! :) In the rain that is... Everything we did was in the rain, which made me feel gross all day long!

Philip and Rob. (and my water bottle) Linnae took this while we were all in the parking lot. We would just wait to leave, and we ended up talking for about an hour or so before actually leaving.

Linnae, I just couldn't pass up taking this shot! She was just being herself!

Danielle and me. In the rain, drenched.

We ate at Chili's for dinner. The waiter kept having to come and fill up Isaac's water, so he finally brought him out a pitcher with a straw! It gave us all a good laugh!

This was one of the several attempts that I took to get a picture of my end of the table.
Philip, James, Linnae, and me (Danielle didn't make this one)

Philip or Danielle didn't make ths one! :)
Philip took this one and just about got all of us! :)

After we ate, we talked in the parking lot for about an hour, and then Rob and Alyson decided to do some gymnastics. They did hand stands, walkovers, and all kinds of stuff. It was rather funny. They both are talented though.

After about 2 1/2 hours of talking and gymnastics, we finally got together for a group picture!
Rob, Isaac, James, Philip
Danielle, Alyson, Rowena, me, Linnae

After we left the restaurant, we went back to Rob's place and all got online for a short time. We said hi to friends and then we had to head out.
That night, we went to the Neighbor's house to sleep. Isaac drove Danielle and me there since Danielle was too tired to make it that far for how late it was. We slept really well! Then, we went to church with the Neighbor's at James River Assembly church. That was a giant church, but the message was great! On HSA I had talked to "Justin2media" a little bit but never though I'd ever meet him, but he ended up being the guy who films the church service so I met him and he asked if we all wanted to go out to lunch so we went to Braum's.

That was a lot of fun! We ate and talked and it was a nice way to end our trip!
Justin, Philip, Isaac, Brian
Me, Danielle, Linnae

Then, we drove home! It was a fun trip! Very unplanned and spontaneous, but that's good to do every once in a while.