A perfect Christmas?

I had a great Christmas. I received a lot of presents, saw a lot of family, and played a lot of games. And I did a lot of thinking. So many times we want our Christmases to be perfect. We spend hours searching for the perfect gift, decorating the house elegantly, stringing lights just so. Maybe we want to have the perfect outfit, or matching pjs on Christmas morning.

Do you think the first Christmas was perfect? No. I love this photo, but it wasn't all like this - cozy, warm, private.


Image credit http://www.cravingchocolateandlazydays.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/jesus.jpg

I'm sure it was cold and uncomfortable in the stable, and that Mary and Joseph didn't want a bunch of shepherds showing up when they were  trying to sleep.  Jesus is the only perfect part of Christmas. But somehow, they understood it was all part of God's plan.

We need to be more like that. Less worried about the perfect-ness of our holiday and more concerned about the people in it. Perhaps you could talk to someone in your family about the true meaning of Christmas, or offer to pray at the big family dinner. Find opportunities to put Christ back in Christmas, instead of focusing on material things.

Okay. Monolouge over.
My grandparents spoiled me with a Nancy Drew game ( i love it!!) a darling blue coat, a soft blanket, candy, and so much more.
My Aunt Lisa got me this and a music box with the Eiffel Tower on it:

isn't it adorable?

 Mom and Dad got me some really pretty clothes, and their good friend Santa brought me Sperrys, Bobs, a Nancy Drew game, pjs, and so many fun litttle surprises.



some of the loot

bobs sneakers and sperrys <3

All of the family got camo in some form (yay) and we had several modeling sessions in between wrapping paper and cookie tins.

picture won't turn for some reason :/

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting gifts for the boys. I got Christopher  a lot of books, and Andrew a game called Ticket to Ride. We've been playing it a lot. The boys got me a bop- it game and paterned craft tape.

diving into the spoils

 

HGTV Fixer Upper Store in Waco, TX.

Saturday we were already in Waco for our Ag Id Contest;

Ag Id -First place as a team, third individual for me, and first individual for C! YAY! So proud of my little brothers :)

so we decided to drive by the Magnolia Homes store. That's where Joanna Gaines from HGTV's Fixer Upper sells a lot of the decorating items she uses on the shows. You can find it at :
3801 Bosque Blvd.
Waco, TX 76710
Office: 254-235-6111
Shop: 254-235-0603

She has several Baylor students working there - I guess she's too busy with the show to work behind the counters! One really sweet thing is that there are a lot of Bible verses up in the store. :) The store has a lot of unique, rustic items. Everyone there is definitely, obviously a tourist, and it's quite entertaining to watch them. The place is small, and they're planning an expansion at the 'Silos' - some old silos they're renovating and expanding to include an antiques trade days and a food truck parking lot.  From the Waco Tribune:
"The Gaineses estimate they will spend $1.4 million on the renovation and finish it in early 2015. The result would be a Magnolia headquarters and retail center, plus an indoor “trade days market” open monthly or weekly, as well as a food truck court with regular hours."



The Magnolia Farms truck



MAGNOLIA! (and me on the porch!)



The silos!

 

Secret Adversary review

I had always wanted to read Agatha Christie, but simply never got around to it. I love a good mystery; Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Trixie Belden, etc. The first Agatha Christie I read,

Secret Adversary, got me hooked. It's free in the Kindle Store, too! And the BBC remake is on YouTube, free as well.

Here's your review:

In 1915, as the Lusitania sinks, a British spy gives a girl his secret papers, since she is a woman and will have a better chance of getting into a lifeboat. He tells her to get the papers to the American Embassy at all costs - even if it means her life. She agrees.

Flash forward to the end of World War 1, 1918. No one knows where that girl is, The papers were never delivered. Did she and the spy drown?

   Enter Tommy and Tuppence, a likable young 'couple' - they're mainly just friends, and there's not too much romance, which I liked- who decide to become mercenaries to earn a little money. Thinking the whole thing is a joke, they unwittingly stumble upon an enemy spy. He sees their innocent naivety and hires them to find the papers!

   Luckily, Tuppence realizes he's up to no good and she and Tommy decide to help one of the Queen's agents by alerting them to the enemy. He in turn recruits them, thinking they are experienced in the underworld. Hahaha-no. Tommy and Tuppence have no clue what they're getting into. They fall into a deadly game of espionage, torpedoes, amnesiacs, kidnapping, poisoning, and basically every exciting thing that could happen to a person. The book is very clean, and not graphic at all. It’s one of my favorite books, and there’s a great plot twist at the end!

life lately

These past few weeks have been a bit mundane compared to the whirlwind of activities I partook in throughout June and July... or so I thought. Looking back, we've done a ton of cool activities!

•  Andrew, my littlest brother, won first place in a reading contest.  He read 105 books in less than a month. Big, long books, too. I'm very proud! He earned a gift card for a free pizza, tickets to a water park, and more!

• We learned about copyright laws at Teen Court, taking turns playing different parts in a real case, the creators of the James Bond franchise vs. Honda.

 

• Christopher took over as President of our club and I became President of our county's 4-H. Our club learned how to make no-sew fleece blankets for Project Linus, and I learned how to use a rotary cutter to trim the strips for tying.

• I taught a first aid class to a group of friends. One was just a year younger than me and the others were all under 11. They were so much fun. We compared first aid stories, made mini first aid kits, discussed minor and major wounds, learned how to soft splint a forearm, and then ended the day with a impromptu pool party. :)

Touring AT&T Stadium aka Cowboys Stadium, Ambassadors Trip

Recently I was accepted into the 4-H Fuel Up To Play 60's Healthy Lifestyles Ambassador Program.

Since Fuel Up To Play 60 is sponsored by the NFL, all of us who were selected as Ambassadors where given VIP tickets for a special tour of  AT&T Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys play.

the golden ticket :)

Even though I don't know much about football, I still had a good time and found the tour really interesting. It was fun to tour it with my new Ambassador friends.

the view after you step off the escalators.

 -We got to see the players' and the cheerleaders' locker rooms, the place where the Cowboys all run out onto the field, the private underground parking for players, cheerleaders, and box owners, and the fancy boxes that people can rent.
-The stadium can hold over 100,000 people- they just filled every seat and box for the last George Strait concert ever, held there. (let's have a moment of silence here, folks. no more new George Strait songs. ever. :( whyyyyyy) Okay, moving on.

-You can actually see where the Texas Rangers play from the stadium. I've been there, too!

 -The stadium has the largest retractable endzone doors in the world, and when the dome's open, it can become an outdoor stadium. Cool, huh? It hosts concerts, (Beyonce,  1D, George Strait) basketball games, bull riding, boxing matches, monster truck, and motocross.

We were all freaking out and laughing. It was so much fun. :)

-To get to the locker rooms we took a freight elevator underground, which was scary but fun. It rattled.

-We also got to go to the press conference room, where reporters ask players questions about the game.

On the press conference stage.

Then we went out to eat at a place called The Mellow Mushroom. It was decorated 70's style and served different types of pizza. I had the baked potato mini pizza and it was really good! Then we went to the hotel and to bed so we could get up early for training the next morning. I'll do a post on training later.

Pinterest!

I finally got a Pinterest! Check it out, and maybe follow me?
 http://www.pinterest.com/LauraAshley998/boards/

Eating DNA

Today I made a replica of some good old deoxyribonucleic acid.

Mmm. More commonly known as DNA,  it is hidden in tiny, long structures called chromosomes. During cell division these chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing each cell its own complete set of chromosomes. It grows something like this: One cell makes two, two makes four, four makes eight, etc. 

 I first chose a sequence, and then placed adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine in that order. Those are just four types of nucleobases (aka, bases).These four nucleobases, along the backbone, encode biological information, like your eye color or your hair color. Marshmallows were my base pairs, and a Twizzler was the backbone. The backbone is made up of a residue of chemical sugars.

Yum! Cytosine!

Labelling my base pairs. 

                            Adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine with guanine.

Twisting it into a double helix.