Author: Kelly Page 5 of 8

Things have been just lovely here in Monterrey. On Thursday, my uncle Lynn took us sightseeing around Monterrey. Some of the places that we went to:
Lynnsito’s kindergarten:
We said hi and ate some veggies, because it was nutrition day.
A stone-sculpture shop:
We took pictures in front of a bunch of silly statues. That was the most memorable part of the day.
The best taco restaurant I’ve ever been to
By far. They gave you tortillas with white cheese and a ton of meat and a coke in a glass bottle, then you went to the salsa bar, which was a thing unto itself.
A fancy shopping center with a bunch of designer stores
We looked around, and gaped at the price tags.
Another fancy shopping center
We took pictures in front of Ferraris and tried out some Nokia products at this awesome lounge that they had.
A swimming pool, where we took lessons with Lynnsito and Marlito:
The Mexican swim team there was way better than our YMCA swimteam. It’s like comparing peanut brittle to gummy worms. Even the swim lessons that we took were tough.
Then Dad arrived…

Saturday evening we went to the wedding. Before the ceremony, the workers had a Gospel meeting, which I thought was really cool. If I ever get married, I think that would be a nice thing to request.

I met lots of relatives and friends that I already knew, but forgot about. I re-acquainted myself with my cousins. I met some completely new people. I signed Betty Blonde’s name in the wedding book for her. In all, I had a very nice time.

Lazy days here in Monterrey…
 
Today we went to the local mall.  It’s two minutes away from the house, literally.  We had fun there… it’s actually a surprisingly familiar place!!!  It’s interesting to see how much I remember from previous visits.

Anyway, nothing too special happened there.  It’s identical to most small American malls except they have more taco places at the food court and everything’s in pesos. 

Observations at home:

It’s dangerous to poke your fingers into a parrot cage.
Eating 6 tamarind candies at once is not good for your stomach.
When it rains, it pours.
Never, ever let grandpa start talking about watches, music of any kind, or famous opera singers.
Chicken a la king MUST have some Tabasco, or else it’s too ‘desabrido’
Starving pit bulls do roam free along the streets
Calamine lotion, bug spray, Vick’s vapor rub (say veek-vahpoh-roob very quickly) and hand sanitizer do nothing to prevent mosquito bites.

There’s more, but I must be off to meeting.
Sorry this is so short!!! 🙁

I’m sorry Dad, for not posting and stuff.

Monterrey is wonderful!  They say October is the loveliest month weather-wise, and I think that’s true.

Today we went to the H.E.B (the local supermarket) for some ingredients to make chicken a la king.  We learned several things there:
1. You’re not allowed to take pictures of yourself in front of the produce
2. In Mexico, the yogurts have flavors like Papaya or Fig.
3. The bakery section of the Mexican grocery store OWNS the bakery section of the American grocery store.

We also learned some more things while on the road:
1. You can’t survive on Mexican highways without honking or at learning to whistle extremely loudly.
2. Seatbelts are optional
3. You can fit 2 seniors, 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 small children into a 5 person car.

Yesterday we went to Allende after Sunday morning meeting (which was lovely.  It was great to see the Monterrey friends again.  Many of them were at the Spanish Georgetown convention, so we still have lots of people left to visit) to visit Great Grandpa Jose.  It was great to see him and our step-great-grandma Herlinda.  The day before yesterday our cousin/worker Marquitos took us to the park where Grandpa Lauro works.  It’s a gigantic, beautiful place right smack-dab in the center of metropolitan Monterrey.  There’s a winding river running through it with fountains, sculptures and murals all over the place.  Boats take people back and forth through the park. There’s a place for musicians and plays, lots of play structures for kids, and a nice little area with restaraunts and ‘waterfront’ tables.  While we were there, Mom got us a chocolate churro: Deep fried sweet bread rolled in sugar and filled with chocolate syrup.  Good old health food, no?

Anyway, since everyone is at work or school, we have a pretty lazy week ahead of us. That is until Dad arrives. 😉

We miss you!!!

Love,
Kelly
P.S. I have pics up on my facebook account.  I’m not sure how to get them up on the blog.  I’ll try to figure it out ASAP.

Who knew Mickey D’s was so amazing??? 

A long time ago, when play places were still accessible (to me) and Happy Meals came in little boxes, McDonald’s was the place to go. Who knows what happened. I think it was shortly after I discovered Wendy’s that I left the yellow slides and the rainbow ball pits.  Anyway, McDonald’s lunches have sort of held this bad reputation for longer than a while. 

Most Saturday mornings, the Chapmans head down to the Golden Arches for a high-cal breakfast and a chat with Lupita, the reliable Mexican cashier. McDonald’s breakfasts are pretty good. I usually order a country ham biscuit (eaten separately: top biscuit first, then ham, then bottom biscuit.  It’s a tradition), some apple dippers and a small orange juice. The breakfasts are enjoyable, if not a bit greasy.  But lunches?

😛

By a cruel twist of fate, we went to McDonald’s for lunch Saturday afternoon.  So I ordered a Mighty Kids chicken McNuggets meal.  Fitting, no?  I opened my faded paper bag and pulled out:

A LITTLE POLLY POCKET DOLL!

How AMAZING is that?!!?? I LOVE McDonalds now!!!

Oh, and I have a question.  What exactly are chicken McNuggets made out of? Definitely not chicken.

In a little more than a week, Mom, Christian and I will be going to Mexico for a wedding of one of my mom’s cousins!  I can hardly wait!!!  I haven’t been to Monterrey in years, so I’m excited to see how all my cousins are and to go to all the new places that I’ve only heard about.  My uncle is building a new house, my grandma got a gigantic new refrigerator, my other uncle got a piano, and grandma tells me that there are a bunch of professing girls around my age in the area (not including my many cousins) so I’m also looking forward to meeting them.

Oh!  I also have several cousins who I haven’t even met yet, or who I only got to see when they were little babies. That’s kind of sad, but fortunately I’ll be seeing them soon.

And then there’s the food.  Carne asadas (basically Mexican barbecues.) and mango and strawberry cakes and tamales and TAMARIND FLAVORED CANDY!  I don’t even know why mom is bringing her ‘American recipes’ with her to Mexico when there’s already so much good food there, but I guess she wants to give Grandma a taste of her foreign culinary talent. 😛

Sorry this is so short… will write more later!

Demorest was absolutely wonderful! I made a million new friends, I heard some really nice things, the macaroni and cheese was spectacular (that’s the most important part you know, the quality of the convention food), and I was thankfully sitting next to some strong Georgia singers during the hymn sings so my harmonizing skills just got 100 times better. Here are just a few of the pictures that I took while I was there:

Kelly, Andi, Danielle

Picture of most of the young people at Demorest

All of the kids after the hymn sing

A picture of the younger young people

Andi, Danielle, Rachel

Wooden flower... all the guys were whittling these between meetings

A couple of weeks ago I read the classic book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Unfortunately, I already knew how it was going to end due to an Alvin and the Chipmunks Halloween special I saw when I was 7. Other than that, I enjoyed the story immensely. Just my type of tale. It had terrific suspense and I felt genuinely horrified and rather sick when I read the macabre ending. The good part was that the whole double-personality story could be explained away “scientifically”. If mysteries can’t be explained away, then I don’t sleep at night. Not because I’m trying to figure the mysteries out, but because I’m scared silly that a psychopath is going to crawl out from under the bed and murder me. I still don’t know why I read mysteries.

This year, my literature is fantastic. I have several fantasy books, a few mysteries, quite a few classics, and some modern books that I’ve never even heard of before. During my first week of school I got to read a collection of Father Brown short stories, some of which I had never tried before. That was a major highlight. Right now, Dad and Christian and I are reading aloud a good old silly fantasy story called “The Gammage Cup”, and I have been reading a collection of George McDonald’s fairy tales to myself. Of course there’s deeper reading than that. I have a couple of Dickens books and two Shakespeares in my 9th grade library. But even though I always end up liking the classics, I only start reading them because I HAVE too. It sort of takes me a while to get used to the author of a book and his or her style of writing. For example, when I tried a Father Brown mystery after months and months of reading nothing but Agatha Christie, I could hardly bring myself to finish the book. It was too complicated and ‘boring’. Same with the transition from Nancy Drew to Hercule Poirot. Or even from Poirot to Miss Marple.

I think I’m done now. I’ll try to come up with a different subject than books or reading next time. 🙂

You’ll notice in the post below this one that there is a picture of me holding my ipod (with it’s new pink cover, thank you very much Yuting!) in front of a very pink wall. That pink wall happens to be located in my bedroom where there are located many other pink accessories and oddities as my father has already explained.

Why so much pink?

One would think that the modern 14 year old girl would turn against this radiant color because of it’s symbolic association with traditional and oppressing femininity . But I embrace the girliness. For me, pink is not just a color. Pink is a lifestyle.

Way back when I was 7 or 8 I liked the color blue very much. Pink was for little girls. I was not a little girl. I was in the third grade! Unfortunately my grandmother liked to think that I still was a tiny baby, so for Christmas she got me all sorts of nice things like hello kitty sweatshirts and plastic horses. Why I did not appreciate them I do not know. Anyway, one Christmas she gave me something pink (I believe it was underpants or socks) “because I liked pink so much”. Little did she know. I smiled graciously and said thank you like the mature child I was, and then I did some thinking.

I didn’t like pink… did I? Of course not. Pink was a juvenile sort of color. Or was it? Maybe I did like pink. A little bit. Not much but. . .

I decided right then and there that PINK was to be my favorite color to the end of my days. I don’t know what got into me, but I’ve stayed true to my promise, and my obsession with that fabulous color has grown over the years. My real friends have learned not to laugh or groan at my color preference. And I think that the ones who do laugh are simply ignorant. 🙂

I love going to the library. I always have. I love the process of picking out books, the comfy chairs where I can sit and read comics and magazines. Saturday mornings at the library are one of the highlights of my week.

But lately, my love for the library has waned a little. The library I go to has a “children’s” section and a “young adult (read: teenager)” section. Having presumably outgrown the children’s section, I have moved on to the cozy little corner of the library that contains books about dragons, vampires, predictable teenage romances and. . . nothing else. I don’t mind the occasional romance, and I’m certainly not against fantasy, but when the entire library is filled with books that have titles like these:

• Mates, Dates and Sleepover Secrets
• Gossip Girl
• The Clique: Best Friends for Never
• Here, there be Dragons
• Operation Red Jericho

It’s tiresome. Oh there are certainly a few gems among the rubble, but every week it gets increasingly harder to find them. I can tell if they’re worth a try if their covers aren’t pink and don’t have a mystical creature on the cover.

I have ventured into the adult section of the library before, but too many of the books that I have found there are adulterated by salty language and things that would make my Mexican grandmother blush (and that’s a tricky feat) I sometimes wonder why some people enjoy those books, but there it is! I have asked my wise and well-read father for book suggestions countless times, but his idea of light reading is stories that involve lawyers, cowboys, or uncureable diseases. I’ve read every Agatha Christie that they have. I’ve ready every Arthur Conan Doyle that they have. I’ve read the Lord of the Rings at least five times. I need help! Please?

I drew a comic strip about Betty Blonde and blueberry muffins a few days ago. That comic strip was not drawn on some random whim. Oh no, no, no. That comic strip was based on my recent experiences with making the most scrumptious blueberry muffin ever.

About two weeks ago, I discovered this “Blueberry Cream Muffin” recipe on Taste of Home magazine’s marvelous website. I measured, mixed, and added several large spoonfuls of sour cream and sugar to the batter. Needless to say, the muffins came out moist, rich, and delightfully dangerous to Dad’s diet.

I thought they could use a little improvement though, so I chose a different recipe. This one was entitled “Nutmeg Blueberry Muffins”. Now there’s nothing wrong with a bit of nutmeg in a muffin, right? Right. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow the recipe correctly and added a half teaspoon of powdered nutmeg directly to the batter when I should have sprinkled a little on top of each muffin while it was baking. A whole half teaspoon of powdered nutmeg does not do wonders to baked goods.

I want a blueberry muffin akin to Panera’s Wild Blueberry muffin. Sweet and chock full of berries inside, and crunchy on top. I suppose my muffins are not destined to be a culinary masterpiece, but there is still a ray of hope! Third time’s the charm they say! Right?

Right.

Today I must write a post about an article that I have read in the past week.

Tuesday before last, my beloved piano teacher gave me an inspirational article to read. She tends to be a bit feel-good, mushy at times, so I just put it in the inside of my piano notebook and forgot about it. Yesterday I remembered it just in time, and sped-read it on the way to my lesson. Mrs. B likes to quiz her students on such things, and I had to be prepared.

It was about Billy Mills, the Native American man who famously won the 10,000 Meter Run in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It was really quite a nice article. Mr. Mills told about a time when his father took him fishing soon after the death of his mother. Mills was angry inside, and his dad knew it, so he told Mills that he needed to have a dream, or set a goal instead of keeping all that anger inside. He also told Mills that his creator gave him his life as a gift and the way that he lived his life was a gift back to his creator. Shortly thereafter, Mills’ father died, and he took to running. At first Mills wasn’t fast, but he really enjoyed the sport so he kept at it and got faster and faster. At one point in his life, he was considering suicide, but he remembered what his father had told him, and pushed on to achieve his goal. In 1964 he qualified for the U.S. Track and Field team and the rest is history.

Mrs. B asked me what I took away from the article. I told her I really liked what Mr. Mills’ dad said to him about dreams and our life being a gift back to our creator. In the end, I didn’t think that it was mushy at all. I thought it was truly inspirational.

This is the first of the tri-weekly essays that I am going to write on the family blog throughout the school year.

Last week, Dad informed me that I was a deprived child. Why? I had never before written the imperative essay on what I did during my summer vacation. Every well-educated child must at one point in his or her life compose this all important article. So here goes!

What I did During my Summer Vacation
By Kelly J. Chapman

A few weeks before school let out for the summer, mom signed Christian and I up for swim-team. We, alas, were not looking forward to being thrown into a frigid pool with twenty sarcastic kids and a swim coach bearing a strong inward resemblance to Hitler. Our doubtful mindset was not unjust. We had tried swim-team before in Oregon. Lets just say it was less than thrilling.

Two and a half months later I have proof of a wonderful swim-team experience: 20 new e-mails in my address book, a worn out green and black swimsuit, and a half dozen pink 6th place ribbons hanging in my room. We had a blast!

I could go on and on about what we did at the swim meets and all the friends that we made, but that would probably not be very interesting, so I’ll tell y’all about the small part of my summer that didn’t involve swimming.

If you look at the blue sidebar on the left of your screen, you will see the proof of my summer art project. Since mid-July I have been drawing Betty Blonde comic strips. Sometimes it’s really hard to think of new jokes or story-lines, but I always have Christian to help me. He is currently drawing his own Betty Blonde graphic novel as a matter of fact! We have so much fun thinking of new characters and stories together. A lot of our summer was spent studying comic books and books about comic books and brainstorming Betty Blonde.

The other things I did aren’t very interesting but anyway:
I ate fudgesicles.
I e-mailed my friends.
I watched Micheal Phelps swim.
I sang really loud all the time.
I listened to Delilah on the radio at night.
I learned how to play the Pink Panther theme on the piano. (Score!!!! I’ve been wanting to learn that forever!)
I struggled with my chlorine-soaked hair.
I listened to Dad read aloud the big worldviews book and the green logic book.
I slept in a lot.

And that’s about it! I had a fantastic, lazy summer. Now I’m completely ready for the new school year and conventions!

ThelLast post was one of my posts from before.

We are basically on the home stretch with home school. Christian and I spoke with the Larsons today and it seems that they are finishing up too. They are planning on finishing their reports today and called to ask if they could borrow one of Christian’s claymation movies for Daniel’s report on clay animation. Anyway, here is a poem that I wrote yesterday for school:

The Man in the Purple Cowboy Hat

by Kelly Chapman

There was a man, he had a shop
he sold old chairs and bottles of pop
he sold blonde wigs, he sold pig fat
and he wore a purple cowboy hat

he sold big pots, he sold small pans
he sold rubber gloves to cover your hands
he sold a thesaurus in the shape of a cat
and he wore a purple cowboy hat

he sold roof shingles, he sold bottlecaps
he sold beach bags and beat up maps
he sold a bird cage and a welcome mat
and he wore a purple cowboy hat

he sold escargot (it was alive)
he sold spam and an old bee hive
there was a big box, where he sat
and fiddled with the ribbon on his cowboy hat

he talked to me, most every day
whenever I went out to play
he looked up, smiled, gave me a pat
and tipped up his purple cowboy hat

“Howdy Joe!” he says to me
and he looks right happy, as pleased as can be
“Would you like an old chair or a welcome mat?”
he asked ‘neath his purple cowboy hat

“How ’bout a beach bag, for when it gets hot?”
“or a nice and cool bottle of pop?”
“or maybe a book in the shape of a cat?”
said the man with the purple cowboy hat.

“No thanks Mr. Maloney.” I reply
“I just dropped in to say hi”
“Maybe next time, now how about that?”
and he smiles and nods ‘neath his cowboy hat.

Check out the latest and greatest Kaktus Kids ‘zine! Read it and chuckle in your superior way if you are adults or send it to the kids who matter in your life! Don’t forget to send in a picture or poem or a piece of pumpkin pie! In this issue we have a cool poem by one of our dear Texas friends, a cool Chinese rice bowl recipe, how to draw Kaktus Komix characters, funny photos, a story preview, and much much more! Be sure to check it out!

Click here to read
This is a 6MByte PDF

In other news (actually the same news)…

if you read this blog (which your probably do) y’all know that we are moving! Perhaps you have done some extensive research on some aspect of our move and, if in fact you DO read this blog, you know that we will be traveling for at least 10 hours a day in a minivan cram packed with cats, energy bars, books on tape AAAAAND, probably, the laptop, then you will almost certainly come to the conclusion that the editor and reporter (ahem, Kelly and Christian) will have tons of time to work on the way cool summer issue of Kaktus Kids! Be expecting a biiiiig issue everyone! Just in case we run out of material though, it wouldn’t hurt to send us a little poem or a story or a picture or two… 🙂

We had a birthday dinner for our favorite cousin, Tim Mecum on Sunday between meetings here are a couple of pictures from that fine event.

Tim and Dad with the new zebra print throw, Laurel bought for him on his birthday.

Lorena and our dear friend Laurel talking in the Kitchen after dinner.

So yesterday evening after Bible Study, Mr. Ramsdell gave us a riddle. It stumped me (but not Christian or Dad) and I wanted to post it up here. Mr. Ramsdell will give us the answer next Wednesday. Meanwhile Dad, could you post up your answer in the comments?

Here is the riddle:

You have six bricks that are all the same size.
One of those bricks is a little bit heavier than the rest.
You also have a balance scale.
You must find out which brick is the heavy one.
But here’s the catch: You may only use the scale TWICE.

So how do you figure it out? Beats me. If you can help, or if you just wanna be cool and post a comment, go ahead, cuz I don’t remember the answer that Dad got. 🙂

And it is a beautiful one…