Stop Motion Animation

Awhile ago Molly and I took a Stop Motion Animation class at the Center of Discovery.
Stop Motion Animation is when you take a bunch of pictures, add the pictures together to tell a story. In my video I used a computer program to make the pictures look like a video.
We learned different camera techniques to take different pictures for different occasions.
We also learned to use different computer programs to make our videos the best they could be. We all had to find a story line for our movies. Most every one found there ideas on the first day. The class was five days. It took me three days to find an idea, so I was real rushed for the rest of the class.
So, what do you think?

Bing Search

So today I found out that if anyone 'Bing!' image searched "Process of Embalming" my blog would show up as a possible link with a picture of my blog. Now, naturally, once I found this out I just HAD to try it, when I did, sure enough there was my blog post.

I was so exited to find that out, I told almost everyone! {O.K, so I told one or two people, but still.}



So, needless to say, I am now a fan of 'Bing!'

Free Dinners!

Ever since my Dad had his heart attack, we've been receiving quite a present from lots of friends. We've been getting LOTS of free food. Our first meal was Pizza from the Lewis's, then Lasagna from the Stafford's, then chicken, rolls, potato salad and coleslaw from the Youroses, Meatloaf, potatoes and pound cake from the Dewey's and now a huge salad with chicken from the Vanomens.

Wow, have we been blessed!

What I Did For Summer

For a school assighment I need to write what I did this summer. Some of this will be a recap from some of my blog posts. Well, here goes:


I went on Thursdays to Logan to go shooting with Mr. Lewis; I started to make a Star Wars movie with my siblings; flew in a light aircraft for FREE; I spent a week in Oklahoma at Camp Yeshua; hosted two girls from Columbia; and I acted in a Robin Hood play.


Well, that's just about my summer in a nut shell.

Rain

Lately it's been raining a lot here. It's been raining ever since Friday, only letting up a few hours a time. It rains in the night, it rains in the day, it rains while we do our chores, it rains while we milk. The rain turned our milking station into a ton of mud. I can't let my dog Dutch out without him getting dripping wet. However, there is an up side. Our lawn is real green now.

So, for lunch were having the perfect rainy day meal- home made Chicken Noodle Soup and home made bread!

Name Selling

So, as some of you know, I want to become a Pilot sometime, so I became a AOPA {Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association} member, and made a subscription to AOPA Flight Training magazine, and apparently AOPA sold my name to 'The History Channel Club' {HCC}, who gave me an offer to become a member. Now, I LOVE history, so naturally I joined. Then, the HCC apparently sold my name to the Smithsonian, who sold it to Nat. Geo. and on and on. Now, mostly I've excepted all their offers, but it really is getting kind of annoying.
Who knew my name could make so much money without me?

Hebrew Flash Cards

Andrei, Viktor and Abby have made Hebrew flash cards to help them learn there Hebrew for there up-coming Bar-and-Bat Mitzvah.

Mom bought them all blank flash cards when she did 'back to school shopping last week.

The kids spend hours last night filling the cards with the Hebrew Alef Bet, then spent last night and this morning testing each other, practicing there letters.

They all plan on bringing there cards on our road trip, to practice even more.

Andrei and Viktor's Bar Mitzvah is going to be in January, and Abby's is going to be in March.

Awhile ago I asked Viktor if he was feeling the pressure yet. "Oh, yea. Definitely."

History AP Test

So, as I hinted in 'Back to School', I had something different for history. I did "Cracking the AP U.S. HISTORY EXAM" {Don't ask}. Mom also took the practice test, just for fun. She did the test, then left to pick up Orli. While she was gone, I did it. She got back after I finished it.

She got 33%.

I got 44%.

Yea. I feel reeeeeel special.

Back to School

Today was a very solemn event, like a funeral, only worse. Today we went back to School. Good bye summer break, good bye freedom.

O.K, so it's not that bad, but you get the picture. Naturally, we were late starting school, as we had to drop Orli {Yes, with an I and not a Y, as Molly so patiently mentioned.} off at the vet, then pick up some breakfast. Most of my school was old, same stuff I did last year. Well, I did a new history thing, but I'll talk about that later.

I forgot how to do my math, but it slowly came back. The problems were really easy, too.

For science I had to color a DNA strand, which almost made me wonder what grade I was really in, 9th or 1st.

On my Hebrew on the Rosetta Stone program, I did pretty good for not having done it in awhile. {In other words I failed dramatically.}

Answers to Mollys Comment on "Orly"

Molly- Really? With an 'I'? Huh. That's interesting.
And, a couple of weeks could mean several months, it all depends on how you look at it.


{To the reader- Can't you tell I'm running out of things to blog about?}
.

Road Trip!

This September my family {minus dad, who has to work} is going on a several week road trip back east! We're going to a history festival in Omaha, a feast of tabernacles thing in Missouri, and lots of things in between like- The Little Big Horn battle field, Mount Rushmore, Wall SD, to visit Kylie, and visit lots of our extended family in Missouri and Tennessee. We're all really exited, getting the farm ready for the person that's going to 'farm-sit' for us, fixing the car, ect.
We're leaving {I think} on September 12th, the day before Molly's Birthday.

Orly

Today our cat Orlando, or Orly, is having a surgery to remove a really disgusting tumor/growth on his face. He's had it for a few weeks and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

We all had to wake up at seven to do our chores, then bring him in to the vet. The vet said we should be able to pick him up later in the afternoon. He would have a small hole where the tumor was, but she {the vet} said it shouldn't affect his eating. We're all glad he doesn't have to live with it any more.

Heart Attack

Thursday, while I was out shooting, my dad had a heart attack. Mom drove him to the hospital, and Molly called just about every one we know and asked them to pray, including Mr. Lewis, our family friend who I was out shooting with. He got a phone call from another friend, but he didn't answer because he didn't think it was important. Meanwhile, Molly gets the news that on a scale of 1 to 10 my dads' heart attack was a .1. I still didn't know he had one.

It was around 8:30 when I finally got the news. He had the heart attack at about 6:15.
As I said, it was a mild one, but he had to stay at the hospital over night because it was the policy. We picked him up the next morning, all smiles that he's all right. Praise GOD!

End of Shooting

Last Thursday was the last day of shooting. I missed quite a bit, while I was in Oklahoma, when we had Kelly and Ana here, ect. ect. But Thursday I was able to go. Mr. Lewis picked me up and we drove to Logan, where the gun range is. {My Dad couldn't make it, he was busy, as I'll talk about later.} We got there early to find a spot in the shade {It was almost 100 degrees out side!}. I used Mr. Lewis's AR-15 during the shooting, as I did the week before, instead of the M-1 Garand. After the shooting {and following events} I compared my first and last targets, and I could see a huge improvement. I was pretty shocked. Mr. Lewis said next shooting time he wanted to see all X's. {The X is the very middle of the target.} Fat chance.

Blog Competition update

O.K, so in my post Blog Competition! I said that the competition ended August first. It actually ends September 1st. So, its going on right now and that's why I'm blogging so much. I'm really wanting that pizza.

Right now I'm behind Molly by two posts. I can already taste the Pizza. {Did I say that already?}

MCT Robin Hood Play

This year me and my siblings were in a Robin Hood Play put on by the Missoula Children's Theater {MCT}. They held auditions on a Monday, Mom found out about Sunday night, we had to wake up early on Monday to do our chores and milk our cow, Tillie, then we all drove down to where the auditions where, and we still got there early! At first only the Four Little Kids{That's what we call the four youngest members of our family, Andrei, Viktor, Abby and Landon.} where auditioning, but Molly bribed me 5$ to do it to, so I did.{Don't worry, I payed her back.} Molly came in later to be an assistant director.
We all got parts in the play, Andrei and Landon were two guards, Abby and Viktor were Merry Men, and I was The Sheriff Of Nottingham. The play was on Saturday at the Sweat Pea Festival. We arrived their a little before eight, and it was starting to rain. We got in to our costumes and did our first dress rehearsal.{We spent the last week practicing our lines, but didn't get to see our costumes.} We then changed back into our regular clothes and had lunch. At One thirty we went back and got our make up and costumes on. At three we had our play, and it was over at about four thirty.
The play was lots of fun, and I hope we will be able to do more MCT shows in the future.

Kelly and Ana

This summer my family was an emergency host family for two little girls from Columbia. There names were Kelly and Ana. I was gone for the first week they were here, so I don't know what all went on, but I do know that Ana was afraid of me when I got back home. She never really lost that fear. Oh well. Maybe I'm just a scary guy.
The girls mostly stayed with Molly. They LOVED her. They only loved me when I made pop-corn or drove them on the ATV. The LOVED that ATV.
They were with us for about 2 1/2 weeks, then had to leave back for Columbia.

Camp Yeshua Part Two-Tribulation Game

In CP {Camp Yeshua} We played a camp wide game called the Tribulation Game, simulating the tribulation. It started while every one was dancing. The C.D started to skip, then a voice came on, there was gun fire in the back ground, along with screaming and Sirens. The Tribulation game had started.
You needed to form a team of some one from each camp. {All the tribes were split up in camps, red, blue, green and yellow.} Then you needed to find a councilor with an Israeli flag. After that you and your team would race around the camp ground visiting different stops with councilors that would help you. You needed to gather up several glow sticks from each position, they would also give you a clue you needed to know where to go to next. The clues would lead you to random letters, which you had to de scramble to form a bible verse. The first ten teams to find the verse won the game. The whole there were more people with highlighters that would 'mark' you with it. They roamed the whole camp grounds, in groups, pretending to be teams, as loners, striking in the shadows. If you were marked to many times, you would be dis-qualified. The markers added a realistic addition to the game.
Sadly, my team lost. The game finished well after midnight.

Camp Yeshua-Part One

So, on July 10th I took off all by my self to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for a week long Messianic camp for youths. {Youths. I hate that word. That's all the camp councelors called us. Youths. Yea, it got annoying.} I stayed with Monte Judah, and his wife. Monte Judah is the founder of Lion and Lamb ministries. Yea, I felt pretty special. Me and some one from Oregan stayed there over night and went to the camp site at around two. After getting situated { found what room I'm in, met my room mates, ect. ect.} Ephraim Judah {Son of Monte, director of camp} told the rules of the camp {After which one of his councelers would break it, like when he said "No cell phones, one of the leaders called him on his phone to complain about him being a cowboys fan.

The worship was led by a Messianic band, called Mason Clover.

All the youths {There's that word again. Man, I got to stop using that word!} were divided into the twelve tribes of Israel. I was in Judah.

Each day the 'tribes' would compete against each other in different out side games. Now keep in mind this is in Oklahoma. It didn't get under 100 degrees, and thats not counting humitity. Now I'm a Montana boy, used to 50- wheather, not Oklahoma weather. Oy gevalt, was it hot.

Excuses, excuses

O.K, so I have not blogged in forever. I would use the excuse "Ive been busy", which, don't get me wrong, I have been busy, but I just haven't wanted to. But, hopefully, I'll blog a lot more. {Can't you tell its almost September 1st? I can almost taste the pizza.}

Shooting M-1's

On Thursday our family friend and neighbour, Mr. Lewis took me to the Logan shooting range to participate in a shoot they were doing. We all used the M-1 garand, a very common rifle used by American GI's in World War Two, probably better know as the main weapon used in the television series Band Of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

There were a bunch of firing positions, but since it was my first time, I didn't have to do them all though I did do the last one.

In total I shot around 50 rounds-and the scars on my shoulder prove it!

Blog Competition!

As you, the reader, may have noticed, I have not blogged in quite awhile. Well, that's about to change, mostly because my Mom promised to buy the person who blogged the most {either me or Molly} a pizza. The competition ends the end of August, so, I'll be blogging quite a bit! {wouldn't you?}

Andrew

International Learn to Fly Day!

Shabbat was International Learn to Fly Day! At our local airport, everyone eighteen or younger got a free flight on a Cessna! My mom found out about this off of a friend post on 'FaceBook', and after milking, we piled into the van and drove over to the airport. After maybe a five minute wait, we all were in planes and ready to go. The flight was GREAT! My only regret was that you can only do it once.

Yom Yerushalayim!

Wednesday celebrated the unification of Jerusalem during the 1967 war. In English its translated as 'Jerusalem Day'. Besides the unification of Jerusalem, Israel also got the Golan heights, Gaza, the West Bank and the Sinai peninsula. But back to Jerusalem...

Jerusalem is arguably the most fought over piece of land. King David fought the Canaanites for it, the Babylonians fought for it, the Assyrians fought for it, the Persians fought for it, the Romans fought for it, the Ottoman Turks fought for it, the British army's fought for it, the newly formed Israeli army's fought for it in 1948, and again in 1967, and now the Palestinians are fighting for it.


Jerusalem is home to three major religions: Judaism, Christianity and islam.


The modern Israeli armies have always strived to unite Jerusalem. Under David Ben-Gurion, IDF units tried to take east Jerusalem, but failed. During the June '67 war, Israeli paratroopers broke through the Jordanian lines into E. Jerusalem. They fought their way to the Western Wall, the only remnant of the temple. The force had lost close to 90% of their men, but still they pushed on.

The only way to get to the Wall was through a locked gate. Before blasting through it, an old Arab man walked up and unlocked the door. The paratroopers all lined up at the Wall, and began to pray.


And now, with Israel winning and losing Jerusalem many times, the City of David is in danger again. This time from the P.A., or Palestinian Authority. Many people, including American president Barak Obama, are trying to separate Jerusalem again. Please pray these efforts will fail, and Jerusalem will remain the united capital of Israel.

Test your knowledge about the history of Jerusalem here.

Dinosaur Day!

Recently, we went to 'Family Dinosaur Day' at our local museum.

While there, we met the curator of the museum and very famous paleontologist Jack Horner. Molly and the kids got his autograph [I didn't have the patience to wait in line]. We also met some creepy guy in a dinosaur suit called 'Monty', we saw people actually working on live bones, and, finally, got painted like dinosaurs. [Correction: Mom and the kids got painted like dinosaurs, I didn't.]

Ducks and Chicks!

Here are our laying hens.

Here's our roasters.

And there are the ducks.

Wednesday the chicks arrived. They came right as we left for our {Mine and Molly's} Journalism class, so we couldn't really see them. They kids also bought ducks this year, so we have ducks again. {Last time our ducks got et.}

Today we got our roasters. Last time we got roasters we just about starved them and they turned out like Cornish hens, but we'll do better this year.

Israeli Independence Day

Today is Israeli independence day.

62 years ago today David-Ben Gurion proclaimed the Independence of Israel from the British empire.

Less than a day later the newly formed country was attacked by five large Arab neighbours, Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The Zahal, or Israeli army, although out manned, out gunned and had little previous experience defeated the Arab army's. The Arabs went back licking there wounds and still remember this day as Nakba day, Catastrophe Day. Israelis have been in war ever since.

In 1956, in response to Egyptian aggression, Israeli troops crossed through the Sinai and took the Suez canal with the British and French. In 1967 Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, and was attacked by Jordan and Syria. Israeli troops captured the Sinai peninsula, the Golan heights and east Jerusalem.

In 1976 Arab army's invaded Israel, nearly cutting her in half. Israeli troops struck back with weapons that were just air-lifted in by the United States, and chased the Arabs out. Then came the intifada, or uprisings. Palestinian cowards sent their children out and blew them up to kill Israelis.

Their goal?

To have peace. Peace!? What kind of a coward terrorist nation sends their children to be blown up? And we are just going to forget about that and give them Israeli lands? Lands Israeli's died protecting? A two state solution, as the plan for giving away Israeli lands is called, is no solution.

Just as the Arabs rejected giving the Jews a little parcel of land, the Palestinians won't settle until they've taken every last inch of Israeli lands and until ever Israeli is dead. Do we really want to give them land? A military? The ability to purchase weapons?

Terrorists controlling Gaza, known as hamas, would do any thing for WMD's (weapons of mass destruction), and they would readily use these against civilians. American President Obama is demanding Israel stops building in their own land. WHAT!?!? How many times has Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Americans stop building in American lands? Zero. Zero times. Huh.

Notice how Obama is president of the U.S., not Israel. Then what gives him the authority to demand they stop building in their own land? Nothing. Nothing at all. During a meeting with Netanyahu in Washington, D.C. Obama walked out. What!? We treat our enemy's with greater respect!

Please pray for Both governments, that they will go in the way the LORD wants them to.

Andrew

Yom HaShoah: Day of Rememberence

Yesterday was Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. The name itself gets you thinking.

Why? Why remember possibly the greatest tragedy of mankind?

Why!? So it will never happen again.

If we remember what happened, if we remember the 11 million people murdered by the nazi empire, we can help to avoid it.

How?

By stopping it before it starts. By standing up for the minorites, the bullied, the unpopular. By doing this, we give the 11 million a voice, a chance to keep their story from being forgotten and repeated.

Last night we heard a survivor talk about her experiences, and she told us that by telling her story she avenged her family by showing the nazi failed. They failed to destroy the Jews, to destroy the weak, the infirm. They failed just as every one else has failed.

The survivors may never forget. Every day they wake up is Yom Hashoah. They may never forget, and we must never forget.

We also should remember the non-Jewish heroes of this time, the "righteous gentiles,'' as there called. Men and women such as Raul Wallenburg, who risked his life by giving Jews on their way to the camps Swiss passports, declaring the owner as a Swiss citizen, and thus may not be harmed.

He saved tens of thousands of Jews this way, however, sadly, he was captured by the Soviet army after the war and was accused of being an American spy and was murdered.

We must remember men like Schindler, who offered Jews about to be killed a job in his factory, saving there lives.

We must also remember Simon Wiesenthal, who after the war dedicated his life to tracking down nazi war criminals and bringing them to justice and Ii 1947 founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Austria and began collecting what is now the world's largest archive of witness testimony and other evidence of Nazi war crimes.

We must never forget what happened, we must teach our children, their children and their children. We must never forget......

Bye bye, Mac and Leia

We recently sent our twin calves, Mac and Leia, to a pasture to fatten them up for butchering day.

Mac, the 'slow' calf that would have died if not for Molly tube feeding him until he got up to feed from his mama, was a real problem getting into the trailer. We had to have one person push him in while the other pulled.

Leia, seeing Mac eventually defeated, gave up her struggle soon and just walked in. We all really miss seeing them, but when were holding a big, juicy cheeseburger, we'll forget about it.

Pesach

Well, I haven't written in well, a really long time. Passover began on April 3rd and Unleavened Bread began onApril 4th and ended on April 10th.

We spent the previous week ridding our house of leaven: vacuuming, dusting, beating our rugs, cleaning our chair cushions {and believe me, they needed it. A family of three could have lived off the contents under the cushions and would have been quite happy}, ect.

We had a Seder with our church group on the first day of unleavened bread, and the rest of the week we tried not to eat any leavening, which, believe me, is not as easy as it sounds.

The day after the ending we had homemade pizza, which was greatly appreciated.

More Bummer Lambs!

Last Tuesday we dropped off our lambs to the butchers. It was especialy hard for Abby, who owned one of the lambs. She went most of the day crying, so we got some more lambs. Well, that's not the reason we got more, but it works.

Molly, Abby and I all got lambs on Saturday. Andrei and Viktor got their lambs the day after and Landon will get one soon.









Me feeding my lamb, Sneferu.

Canoeing in the back yard?

Recently, we have gotten a pond. How, you may ask? Some freak-flooding. Our creek flooded over, we had a large run off from the mountains and, well, who knows. Any way, we decided to get the most out of our 'pond.' Me and my dad pulled our canoe into the water and he let me paddle it. Soon the rest of the kids came and we had a great time. However, I walked in the water some, and since I didn't have the right shoes the water got in and almost froze my feet off, but hey. If your going to be stupid, you'd better be tough.

My Sister Kylie's Visit

A few days after my sister Kylie came for a visit from college, we went to the Museum of the Rockies to see it's new Jamestown maze. Each person was given a chart depicting one of the actual people who lived during that time, with markers for health, wealth, morale and food. Along the way were several challenges to lose or gain health, wealth, morale and food. If one of the markers reach the bottom of the chart, you die. I died. Twice. I know, pretty embarrassing.

Unfortunately, Kylie left Tuesday morning, real early to go back to college. We were all sad and can't wait for her to come back.

Hay

Last Thursday we moved hay. My Dad, one of our friends and I drove over to the spot where we get our hay, moved four tons of it onto our trailer then drove home. We tried to drive the trailer up to our barn, but it got stuck in the snow. So we had to move the hay from the trailer about thirty yards, put it in the barn, then stack it. Eventually, we got it done, and I ended up moving eight tons of hay. Oy Gevalt!

Super Sunday

Yesterday was Super Sunday, but since the super bowl was such a depressing event, I will refrain from stating the facts of the game.

Earlier in the day we had to clear our road so that my mom could see it to drive in and out. First we started out with shovels, but my dad and I got our ATV started up, and since it has a blade to push away the snow we started to use that. It worked very well. While my dad was pushing the snow, me and my brothers played snow ball fight.

As I mentioned above I will not talk about the depressing event that was our super bowl, however, I will say that we had chilly cheese fries, pop-corn, nachos and pizza.

After the super bowl my dad had to call a friend who had to call a friend to pull out my mom, who got stuck in the snow.

Super Bowl preperations

Super Bowl XLIV is coming up on Sunday, and well, I don't think I could be more exited. This will be my fifth super bowl, my first was the Stealers/Seahawks game. Stealers won. This super bowl my favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts, will battle my second favorite team, the New Orleans Saints. I'll be rooting for the Colts. They've been my favorite since they beat the Bears in the Super Bowl a couple years back. My dad is going to pick up a bunch of super bowl food.

GO COLTS!

The Process of Embalming

For history my sister Molly and I were supposed to show the process of Mummification, or Embalming and post it in our blogs. Now, we don't have everything perfect, we only have two organs and two canopic jars, and the whole process lasted 70 days, not half an hour. So here's my post. Hope you enjoy it!

1. Make a slit in the left side of the deceased

2. Take out the lungs, liver, intestines and stomach and place them into four canopic jars

3. Use a needle and stick it in the nose. Use it to stir the brains into a jelly like substance. tip the body up and let the brain drain out. Then use the needle to scoop the rest of brains from the nose to dispose of

4. Cover the body in salts to dry it out to preserve it

5. Wrap the body in linen strips and place good luck charms on it

6. A priest wearing a jackal mask will place a death mask on the deceased and finish the prayers.

7. The body is now ready to be buried

Spring floods {Or, What do you mean every thing is flooding already?!}

Every year, when the snow melts and our creek floods its banks, we have water every where. Only this year its especially bad. And really early for it, I mean, come on, it's the middle of January and were having our spring thaw already!

So the water, which is still partially frozen, started flooding across our road and causing problems, so my Dad and I went out there with a shovel and pinch bar and dug several canal like passages through the ice to drain the water away.

And so far it's working great, I mean, we diverted several hundred if not thousands of gallons to our creek on the other side of our driveway. The only down side is, while doing it, since I was wearing tennis shoes my feet got all wet. Oh well. A small price to pay.

Journalism Class

My Mom enrolled Molly and I into a journalism class at the 'Center of Discovery', a home school resource group here, that puts on different camps and classes on different subjects.



This is my second class at the Center, my first was a camp on Gettysburg, but it's Molly's first.



The classes are on Wednesdays from 8:00 to 11:30, which means a 6:30 wake-up to get there on time, which was bad news for me since I had to wake up at 6:00 on Monday. I had a bad headache and couldn't really concentrate.



We all wrote a news paper article on the wolf's death in the story of the Three Little Pigs. By the time the course ends in May, we will have created our own newspaper.