Book Squirt

Outward Bound – Day Fourteen, Part Five

To read part four of day fourteen, click here.

Colter joined me and we hugged Mom and Dad, so thrilled to be back with them. Dad picked up the box at his feet and held it out to me.

“The soap you requested.” he said, smiling at me, opening the flap to reveal some different soaps and lip balms.

I thanked him and grabbed the box, looking around to see if the other kids who’d been picked up were still out there. They weren’t. I frowned and decided that I’d have to email them and get their addresses  so I could send them a bar of soap and a lip balm – I wanted them all to try it.

When Mom and Dad were done signing us out, we walked inside the building so I could give soap to the rest of my crewmates, the ones who were checking in. I let them each pick out a bar of soap and a lip balm, giving them suggestions as they looked through the box.

They all thanked me and put the soap in their bags, a couple of the girls trying out the lip balm as I walked away. Colter and I each picked out a couple of bars to send back with Maggie for our instructors.

Mom took a picture of me and Colter with Dad and posted it to the GMS Facebook Page. “They’re back!” she wrote.

I laugh when I see the picture now. My hair looks awful, my face is red because I had come really, really close to crying so many times, and the lighting is awful. But in the picture I was happy to be back with  my parents, so that’s all most people see.

Mom and I left Dad and Colter with our duffel bags and the box of soap, heading to the bathroom before our seven hour car trip. When we were done washing our hands Mom hugged me and asked if I was glad to be back.

I nodded and started crying as Tullia walked in. “Brett?” she asked.  “Are you okay??”

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

 


Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king’s priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. Sent to an academy to learn how to become a princess, Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and even bandits intent on kidnapping the future princess.

I found this book sitting on our bookcases several years ago, saw the word “Princess” in the title, and knew I had to read it. A lot of people don’t like “Princess books.” They think that they’re all fairy tales where the princess sits around and waits for her prince to show up.

But I love Princess books. And it seemed  like there was something different about this book – when I read the back it drew me in.

Let me just say, I’m so glad I read this book! And I’m not the only one in my family who loves it – my brother Colter enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to unpack it and give it to some of my other brothers.

Miri is the weakling in her village, and as such, isn’t allowed into the linder mines to help. She feels pretty useless, even though she takes good care of her Pa and sister, Marda.

When the news comes that the Priests have decided that Mount Eskel is the home of the future princess, the village girls are conflicted. If they’re a certain age, they’re ordered to the Princess Academy to learn how to be a princess. The academy is complete with a rat infested closet, mean school teacher, and bandits in the winter.

Will Miri be chosen to become the next Princess? Or will one of the other girls? And a better question – will they be safe when the bandits take over the school, or will the bandits take them as they’ve planned?

My Favorite Scene

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The Verdict: 5 of 5 Stars

Yeah, I know, I give all the books four or five stars. But look at it this way – I’m only reviewing the ones I love, not all of the three and two star ones! 😀

But seriously, this book is a five star book. 🙂

Sequel: Princess Academy: Palace of Stone

I’ve written about Shannon Hale on my blog before – during the A to Z Challenge, she was my H, in the blog post H is for Hale. 

My Week In Tweets

This week I:
-Was thrilled to get a temporary toilet in the basement!
-Had a jar of awesome pickles from Aunt Mary Jane for lunch.
-Went to the boy’s track meet, got tricked into running with a little kid on our team, and then forgot to stretch. LOL
-Went home to feed the cats and shower.
-Said goodbye to our dance class instructor and met our new one.
-Got stranded in the barn during a ridiculously strong rainstorm.
-Watched Shark Tank.
-Talked about musicals with a friend for almost a half an hour.
-Made cookies for the kids.                                                                                             -Got a stack of books from a friend of mine!
-Squealed like a little girl when I heard that NCOBS wanted to tell people about my Outward Bound recap!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outward Bound – Day Fourteen, Part Four

To read part three of day fourteen, click here.

As we pulled into the airport we’d left two weeks ago, I fought back tears, searching for the Hulk or Sprinter in the parking lot. I didn’t see it, and I wondered if Mom and Dad weren’t there yet. I had a feeling that they were – I didn’t think Mom was going to let them be late.

We all hopped out of the van and got our bags out of the trailer. Colter’s crew joined us and we were all told to get in a circle.

“If you’re being picked up, say goodbye now and go with _____. If you’re flying out, stay with me.”

Tears filled my eyes as I went around hugging my crew. I held them back somehow (I’m still not sure how I did that…) and hugged some of my crew a second time. I was going to miss them SO MUCH.

I circled around and hugged Bobby a third time. “You’ve already hugged me twice!” he exclaimed, hugging me back. “I know.” I said, wiping away a stray tear as I let go and picked up my bag.

“Okay, if you’re being picked up, come with me.” Bruce, Sarah Margaret, and Rebecca walked with me, everyone else staying to get their instructions. We walked through the parking lot and under the overhang, walking towards the doors we’d walked through two weeks ago.

About two minutes later, I saw Mom and Dad. I forced myself to stay behind the instructor taking us there, knowing that he wouldn’t like it if I ran past him to Mom and Dad. But the moment we were close enough that I thought it would be okay, I slipped past him and ran straight to Mom and Dad.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

 

Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1867. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit’s friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty.

Elizabeth George Speare’s Newbery Award–winning novel portrays a heroine whom readers will admire for her unwavering sense of truth as well as her infinite capacity to love.

When my Mom first handed me this book I was intrigued by the cover (which is very different from the cover above…) and the synopsis. So I started reading it and immediately connected with Kit.

Her struggles felt so real to me, and so did her small triumphs. The way she helped Prudence and befriended Hannah… it gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Her relationship with Nat doesn’t feel forced and it also gave me the warm, fuzzy feeling. (What can I say – I’m a romantic. :D)

My Favorite Scene

Okay, it’s really two parts to the same scene. 🙂

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And I would put the ending here (because it’s perfect!) but I don’t want to spoil the whole book. But trust me when I say you want to read this book, if only so you can read the awesome ending. 🙂

The Verdict: 5 of 5 Stars

This is a great historical fiction book that definitely deserved the Newbery Award!

My Week In Tweets

This week I:
-Listened to my siblings sing in the car.
-Started my load of laundry without my siblings fighting me to start theirs.
-Got shelves put up in my new room.
-Put our footprints in the concrete porch of the barn.
-Unpacked!
-Went with Jade to a friends house while everyone else was getting Zephyr from the hospital.
-Moved into the new house!
-Realized that moving into the house without plumbing means that I have to go to the barn to use the bathroom. *sigh*
-Got up fifteen minutes earlier than I had to so I could get some peace and quiet.

 

 
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Outward Bound – Day Fourteen, Part Three

To read part two of day fourteen, click here.

I couldn’t believe it. We were saying goodbye here, not at the airport? “But Katie, I wanted you and Jen to meet Mom and Dad!”

“I already met them, remember? At the airport the first time? Besides, Jen and I have stuff to do. The Instructors never go to the airport. Maggie will get you there just fine – you don’t need me.”

I teared up as I hugged her, then Jen. They moved on to hug the rest of my crew, so I got into the van and sat in my normal spot. One by one the rest of my crew got in, sitting down in the seats they usually sat in.

When I looked out the window I couldn’t see Jen and Katie, which was probably a good thing. I didn’t want to start sobbing in front of everyone, and if I’d seen them I probably would have.

As soon as the car started moving, everyone got really excited. When Maggie said “You can turn your cell phones on now!” they all went crazy, turning their cell phones on and groaning when they realized that there was no cell reception.

“Two weeks without it and when I finally turn it on there’s no reception?”

“What? No reception! Gah!”

“Not even one bar? What the heck?!?”

When they realized they were going to have to wait for reception, they moved on to the snacks. I pulled out my chocolate covered pretzels and ate a couple, offering Bruce (who sat next to me) the bag. We at them in silence, listening to everyone else talk.

Five minutes later he turned to me and said “You can have the last one if you want.”

I chuckled as I looked in the bag and saw the last one. “It was completely full five minutes ago – how many did you eat?” He looked guilty and didn’t say anything, looking at me with puppy dog eyes. I laughed and said “It’s okay.” before giving him the last one.

As we rode I accepted offers of snacks from everyone, trying several different things. We started talking about our first meals – I wanted Taco Bell, several others wanted McDonalds, and several others wanted pizza.
When we left the mountains and everyone got cell service, the car got quiet as everyone started answering their text messages and friending everyone on Facebook. Because I didn’t have a phone I sat there and started getting contact information from everyone, knowing that I wouldn’t have much of a chance later.

A couple of minutes later we started seeing signs for the airport and I knew that my time with my crew was coming to an end.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Selection by Kiera Cass

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

 

I heard about this book through an online friend of mine, and then it seemed like it was everywhere I looked. At least three other people I follow on Twitter were talking about it, and they all had great things to say about it. So I decided to see what it was all about.

From the beginning, the story had me hooked. I love princess stories, and it’s always funny when the “princess” is a girl who wasn’t raised to be a princess. I love when a girl is taken from her home and dropped into a palace or important school or something like that.

Though we didn’t get to really meet some of the characters, the ones that we did meet were really fleshed out. I hated some of them, loved some of them, and felt sad when some of them went home.

(And I hated Aspen. Soooo not happy he’s back.)

Overall, this was a great book that captured my attention from the very beginning. I didn’t want to put it down for my class at the YMCA, and that’s saying something! I’m so glad that my friends told me to read this book -I can’t wait to read the next one! It just came out so I’m waiting for my library to get it back. 🙂

The Verdict: 5 of 5 Stars

My Week In Tweets

This week I:
-Got an awesome book from the library and finished it that day.
-Watched my little siblings goof around with Styrofoam and took pictures.
-Had subs on the back porch of the new house.
-Found out that one of our rabbits was a male, not a female as we’d thought.
-Listened to my brothers make a really funny mad-lib.
-Mourned the Spring that never happened.
-Discovered a really yummy lunch.
-Cooked chicken on the griddle. Not the best way to do that. 😀
-Started moving things into the kitchen!
-Bought picnic tables for the back porch and had hamburgers there.
-Tried to block out the music in the car so I could write. John Denver is really hard to resist.
-Went to Chillers (an awesome Ice Cream place) and met our friends there (it was a surprise!)
-Cried when I heard about Oklahoma.

Yeah. It was a busy week. 😀

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Outward Bound – Day Fourteen, Part Two

To read part one of day fourteen, click here.

I groaned and helped him with his address label, handing my letter to Katie once I was done.

Once everyone had handed Katie their letters, we were brought back into the building where our duffel bags were. They unlocked the case they were in and everyone eagerly grabbed their bags.

We had to carry them to the trailer that would be taking them to the airport. When we got there we were told that we could take things out of them, but we couldn’t do anything with the things we took out.

“You guys have a forty-five minute trip to the airport, so I suggest you all go to the bathroom before you get in the car.”

We did, and then we gathered by the vans again. Colter’s crew showed up in a truck with all of their bags in it, and they all jumped down and pulled out their bags. We were jealous – they got to put their bags in a truck, and we had to carry them.

My crewmates were saying goodbye to Colter’s crewmates, and everyone was talking about what they were going to do as soon as they got in the car.

“OMG, I can’t WAIT to turn my phone on!”

“You guys, we’re totally sharing snacks. Did you see what Rebecca has?”

“Okay, you HAVE to show me pictures of your boyfriend as soon as we can turn the phones on.”

I didn’t join them – I was looking around, realizing that soon we’d be leaving.

“Maggie’s going to drive you guys to the airport” Katie said.

“Wait – I thought you and Jen were driving us.”

“Nope, this is where we say goodbye.”

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

Wednesdays In The Tower by Jessica Day George

Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

A castle that is constantly rearranging itself, and a young royal family sworn to protect it… Celie, Rolf, and their beloved Castle Glower are back in this exciting sequel. When her brother Rolf dares her to catch magical Castle Glower creating a new room, Princess Celie takes the challenge! No one knows the Castle better than she does. But as usual, the Castle has ideas of its own. Celie finds the new room first, and inside it is hidden a giant egg. It looks like The Castle wants Celie to care for the egg and whatever creature it hatches! Celie hadn’t bargained for a pet, and caring for this one will prove to be especially tricky, once Celie and her siblings realize what else the Castle is hiding….

I was super excited to win this book in a giveaway! I really enjoyed the first book, Tuesdays in the Castle, and hoped that this book would be a good as the first. And it was!

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It wasn’t a super gripping book – I had to put it down several times while I was reading it and I wasn’t rushing to get back to it. But it was still really enjoyable, and I’ll be looking forward to reading the next in the series, if there is one.

And let me just say, there better be!

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The Verdict: 4 of 5 Stars

My Week In Tweets

This week I:

-Started handwriting a book. For the first time ever. It’s interesting, but I LOVE it. 😀
-Went to a graduation party with a dunking booth, lots of food, and football games (that I got to referee).
-Started packing my room! It’s about half way packed now.
-Managed to get over 2k words in my new notebook.
-Found my little sisters sound asleep with their light on.
-Signed up to completely redo our church song book.
-Found out that Skye was sending me books!
-Changed my blog schedule to make it easier for me to handle. 🙂

 

 
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New Blog Schedule

I have blogged every single day since September 3rd. When I was going to be able to get on my computer I scheduled posts, working my butt off to get those posts ready in time.

But now I’m getting stressed about having a post up every day, and I don’t want that to happen. I want blogging to be something that’s fun for me. So, even though I wanted to go a full year of blogging every day, I’m not going to make it.

I’m going to try this new schedule: Posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with occasional posts in between if I can’t wait to post something. 🙂 We’ll see if that will work. This way my weekends are free and so are Tuesday and Thursday (which are two of my busier days.)

Hopefully this will make make my blog related stress go away so I can just have fun with it again. ‘Cause I really love doing this, and I don’t want stress about getting a post up on time to ruin that. 🙂

Outward Bound – Day Fourteen, Part One

To read part eighteen of day thirteen, click here.

When I woke up the next morning, everyone was still asleep. I slipped out of my sleeping bag, being careful to not step on anyone, and went to the bathroom. Then I crawled back into my sleeping bag.

A couple of minutes later, Bruce’s watch alarm went off, waking everybody else. We didn’t immediately rush to get up, we just sat around talking. We did a lot of talking the last two days. 😀

We eventually got up and got dressed, packing all of our stuff (ALL of it) into our Happy Sacks (our massive garbage bags that kept things from getting wet), because our backpacks had already been de-issued.

We started walking from our platform back to the De-Issue area. Along the way the bags started getting annoying – we were just carrying big garbage bags, but they had all of our personal gear, our sleeping bags, and our water bottles/eating gear, so they were really heavy.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I want my pack back.”

“Me too! This is awful!”

“Seriously. Who’d’ve thought that these things would be so bad?”

I didn’t say anything – I was focusing on not letting my pack fall. It was a lot harder than it seemed!

We (finally!) arrived at the De-Issue buildings and started washing our things. We were each given our Outward Bound t-shirts and told to pull out our journals.

“Take your letter to yourself and your bucket list that you wrote on Solo and put them in one of these envelopes. Address it to yourself and give it back to me. We’ll send it to you six months after your course.”

One of my crewmates sat down next to me and said “Um, Brett? Do you know how to format an address label?”

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

We’re so Lucky

One day, the kids weren’t allowed in the new house. They had put the carpet padding down the night before, and one of the kids had tracked mud all over it. The carpet guys weren’t very happy with that, so the kids weren’t allowed in the house that day.

Well, I went to find Hewitt (who was hanging out with the workers while they were eating lunch) and they asked me what I thought of the progress they’d made that day. I told them that I wasn’t allowed in the house because of the kids tracking mud in, so I hadn’t seen it.

I was really bummed that I wasn’t allowed in, because they had put the carpet down in some areas and they had gotten some of the lights up. But I knew that I’d be able to see it that night once the workers went home and Mom and Dad could come with us.

One by one, the workers finished lunch and went back to work. I was just about to go back to the soaproom when Rick, one of the electricians, (and a really nice guy) came out and said my name. “Could you come in and answer a question for me? I don’t want to get your Mom or Dad if I don’t have to.”

I figured that since I was answering a question (and I wasn’t going to track mud in) that wouldn’t be a problem. So I walked in behind Rick, looking around as we walked up the stairs.

“Does this hallway look better with lights and carpet?”

He laughed as I looked around, so excited to see it. I hadn’t really seen the carpet before (just the sample), so it was all brand new to me. I told him that yes, it definitely looked better with lights and carpet. 🙂

This is the same guy who stayed late one night to put the ceiling fans in ALL of the kids bedrooms so no one would feel left out. Yes, he’s awesome. 😀

There’s so many other things that Lucky and his guys have done for us. This is just the most recent one. We are SO incredibly lucky to have Lucky and his guys working for us.