When the family's away, Emma will play (or sing)

Tonight, as soon as my family was safely down the driveway, I plugged my iPod into the speakers and began blasting the Guys and Dolls Jr soundtrack. 

This is something I tend to do a lot, play my various showtunes when nobody's home and sing as loud as I can (then no one can tell me to shut up)

So I proceeded to play through the entire soundtrack starting with Fugue for Tinhorns (the opening song that has three different parts) Of course, I sang the entire thing, attempting and failing to sing the three parts simultaneously. 

(Did I mention I failed really badly?)

So I sang through the whole thing, even Adelaide's songs.* 

(Shhhhhhhhhh…)

When it came to my first number, the cat was walking by, so of course I had to use him as Sky.** 

He ran away pretty quickly. 

And  when Luck be a Lady came around, I just had to sing as Sky. 

Even though my voice isn't deep enough to sing it well enough. Oh well, it's still fun. 

Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat was fun, too. 

Again, though, my voice isn't quite deep enough…at least the cats were the only ones around. 

So just as I finished the dishes, the music stopped and I heard my mom come in from the grocery store. As she came up the stairs, she said, "I heard you blasting your music." 

"What music?" I said, as innocently as I could muster. 

She just gave me a look that said she saw right through me. 

Oh well. I guess I still have some acting skills to work on. ☀

*Adelaide isn't a bad character or anything, she just has a really obnoxious New York accent and her songs are rather…aggravating. 

**Sky is pretty much the main character in Guys and Dolls. He's the romantic opposite of my character, Sarah(a missionary.)

January 2015

Okay, so first off I want to apologize for the fact I haven't written a post in a month. 

Second, I have decided that this year, I'm trying something new. I'll do a post each month summing up what I've done and as many in between as I can. 

So here goes…

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January 2015

-started practicing for Guys and Dolls Jr, in which I play a main role(!!!!)

-more school

-finally bought the Master's screwdriver from Doctor Who 

-got a Sindarin-English/English-Sindarin dictionary with which I will try to translate The Hobbit into Elvish

-started the Kingdom Keepers series again (I highly recommend those books. They are awesome!)

-watched more Downton Abbey

-stacked a lot of wood

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Goals for next month:

-get my splits(something I've been working at for a few months)

-get my voice stronger so I can hit those high notes with my chest voice!

-finish the Kingdom Keepers series

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That pretty much sums up my month. How about yours? Hope the beginning of your year was as good as mine!! ☀

(If you're wondering why the picture, it's just because I like it. I know it has nothing to do with the post.)

2015

Well, it's New Years. 

And gosh, I can't believe it. 

Wasn't it just last month that we were celebrating the beginning of 2014? That we performed in Xanadu and Pride and Prejudice? 

Uh, no. That would be about 12, 10, and 8 months ago. 

I can't believe how much I've changed in the last year. I went from from a really shy girl who started sobbing if you told her she had to go onstage, to a girl that loves the stage and performing. 

And I'm sorry this is such a short post, but I really am excited about this year. I hope to grow closer to God and excel in his plans for me. (And get my splits. And my double pirouette.)

Like Hagrid said, "What's coming will come, and we'll meet it when it does."

So bring it on, 2015. With God, I can handle anything you throw at me. ☀

Quotes

Lately, I haven't found much inspiration for a post. Then yesterday I found a quote that made me smile, so I decided to share it, along with others of my favorite quotes:)

•  I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay... small acts of kindness and love.

                    ~Gandalf, Unexpected Journey

This was the one that inspired me to write this post. I love this quote so much, because it seems to say to me that one little good deed, or act of kindness, could impact someone's life. make the world a better place for awhile. I just love it.

• I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that wont work.

                    ~Thomas Edison

• Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.  

                   ~Dumbledore, Prisoner of Azkaban

• “I don’t like anything here at all.” said Frodo, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”
  
  “Yes, that’s so,” said Sam, “And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and
  looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on, and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same; like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”
  
  “I wonder,” said Frodo, “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”  

                            ~Sam and Frodo (J.R.R. Tolkien), Lord of the Rings

• Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. Its about learning to dance in the rain.

                           ~Vivian Greene

• "900 years of time and space and I've never met anyone that wasn't important." 

                           ~The Doctor

So yeah. These are some of my favorite quotes that inspire me every day and make me feel all warm and fuzzy:) I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!

Blessings Abounding

This year, our Thanksgiving was very different.

The roads were bad in Massachusetts, so we didn't end up going like we usually do.

But all in all, it was pretty fun.

I watched almost all of the production blogs for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we went to go see a movie in theaters, then went over to my sister Maggie's house and visited.

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But it doesn't matter how we spend Thanksgiving.

As long as we take the day to be thankful. Truly thankful.

Sometimes, I don't realize how much I have. I have an awesome family. I always know when my next meal's going to be. I get to do school. I have more books than I can count, and can read (almost) whenever I want. I have cats to cuddle with. I have a piano. I have friends that put up with my weirdness.

But most of all, I have the assurance that God loves me.

I'm not always thankful for these things. I take them for granted.

But they won't always be there.

People die. Food runs out. Books can be lost. Animals aren't around forever.

But God never dies.

The Pilgrims chose to celebrate the first Thanksgiving because they were thankful to God. Thankful for the Indians, for the fact that yes, they had lost people. But they were still there.

It's gotten lost, though.

Thanksgiving is often no longer a time to give thanks to God. People tend to look at it as just an excuse to have a day off school or work. To start Christmas shopping.

And there are probably plenty of people in this world who don't look at Thanksgiving that way, but that's how it looks to me.

I know this is late. It's several days after Thanksgiving by now. But take some time to thank God for the little things in life, as well as the big things:)


I'm thankful for...
books
family
cats
glitter
chocolate
friends
bananas
dance
my Bible
sharpies
Owl City
musicals
Christmas trees
Netflix
sheet music

Random Post

So today has been an interesting day. 

First it snows. A lot. And I love it. Snow makes everything so…peaceful. And silent. And gorgeous. But snow the day before Thanksgiving? Seriously? 

Oh, and my grandmother and I made rum cakes. 10, to be exact. (I have decided that I would make a really bad pirate. Rum smells horrible) 

Then my mom brought Frozen back from the library, so we decided to watch it because my dad hadn't seen it. And then, as we're watching Love is an Open Door, Anna goes 'Say goodbye…' and the power goes out. "Say goodbye," my mom sings, "to the pow-er" 

But the power's back on now. Back to Frozen.❄

Guess what? 21 days until Battle of Five Armies comes out!

And the song that's going to be at the end is out! It's so amazing!

(Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. We're busy, and my Grandmom's here. Then I'm getting into Nutcracker rehearsals, so yeah. I don't have that much time. But I love everything that we're doing. I'll try to do a post sometime tomorrow. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!) 

(Oh, and sorry, this is just a completely unrelated post to anything)

Babysitting…

So I had another babysitting adventure today. She decided that she wanted desperately to make a cake. And put candles on it, of course. And all this without telling her mom (who was upstairs, not feeling well) 

So she proceeded to take out every candle they have, one by one. With chopsticks. While counting them in Spanish. 

I convinced her to ask her mom before she started anything. So she ran up and asked. The next minute I was getting a box mix out of the cabinet. 

I opened the powdered mix and let her pour it in. When I saw the mess she had managed to make just from doing that, I started to second guess everything. What did I get myself into?

But it actually went pretty well. I measured out the liquid ingredients and she poured them in. I let her mix it, but her arm got tired after about one minute. So I finished the mixing. And I scooped it into the tins. 

She was pretty impatient to get those muffins out and frost them. (With whipped cream, of course. What else?) And when they were finally cool, they were actually pretty good. 

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I find it amazing how creative she is. She also wanted to make a 'soap pie' which I guess is water and soap in the sink. Stirred with a play ladle from her kitchen set. Gosh, she's adorable. And then she started ladling soapy water over the faucet, saying something about putting water on it to make it strong like white chocolate. ??

And then there's her names for me. I get about 5 new nicknames every time I go. Usually something like 'Emmy' or 'Emmers.' Sometimes it's something crazy like 'Miss Doodlepie' (which hasn't happened yet but many things similar to it have)

I never know what to expect with her. I only know that every other Friday is sure to be an adventure.☀