Only in America...

• do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

• do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

• do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

• do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

•  do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

•  do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

 ~Caroline

So you think you know everything?

Here are some things that you probably didn't know.

Stewardesses  is the longest word 
typed with only the left hand. 

(That is, of course, if you don't type with your hands going all over the keyboard, like I do. I never quite learned to type the right way. :/ )

Our eyes  are always the same size from birth, 

BUT 

our nose and ears 

never stop growing. 

There are TWO words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: abstemious and facetious.

(I have no idea what those words mean, by the way.)

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

(Ok, we all knew that.) 

A JIFFY is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. 

AND
A snail  can sleep for three years.  

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

If the population of China walked past you, eight abreast,
the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. 

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

(Hallelujah for that!!)

Winston Churchill
was born in a ladies' room during a dance. 

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Now you know everything!!!! :)

~Caroline

  

Typos......

I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I make soooo many typos. Soooooooo many. Maybe you've noticed. Some are quite humorous, while others can turn out a little inappropriate. Other times it just confuses everyone, including me especially me. My dad pointed out that I spelled it "payed" instead of "paid." Maybe I was just tired. I just wrote "...your hand in mouth?..." and completely left out the "my." That would qualify as one of the confusing ones, because I did about four double-takes on that one. Technically, that would be a quadruple-take. Or maybe a octuple-take. I don't know, I took me awhile to figure out. And then there's always the inappropriate ones. The worst is when I leave the "r" out of my last name. I won't even type it. I usually do that when I'm actually writing with a pen. That doesn't make much sense, because you can't really make a typo with a pen. Well, you can't, but I most certainly can. And of course, when you're using a pen, there's no backspace. Anyway, sorry for being so sloppy. It is my blog, after all.

~Caroline

Sincerely, Me

Ok, I totally stole this from my cousin. Sorry, Late......I'll start preparing to be attacked by your flying monkeys. :)

Dear Dentist,

Ok, do you not understand that your hand is in my mouth? I don't know if you've ever tried talking with someone's hand in your mouth, but it's not easy. My cheeks also aren't designed to be stretched into the next room, thank you very much. I may have a big mouth, but come on, dude, it's not that big. I didn't come to your office to talk to you, k?

Sincerely,
~Me

Dear Hotmail,
I despise you. I'm also quite sure that the feeling is mutual. You should complain to whoever made you. I mean, seriously, the pictures are for facebook, not my email account. (Ok, I don't have a facebook, but that's beside the point) You really should destroy yourself. Sure, I can send emails through you (that sounds a little strange...send emails through you???? Hmmm.....) but apart from that, you're really not good for anything.

Sincerely,
~Me

Dear Post-it notes,
Do you realize how you've changed my life?!?!?!?!? I LOVE YOU!!!! You're just so awesome! I mean, you're sticky, but you don't rip the paper. And you come in all kinds of colors, too!!! (Including purple!) I've even seen post-its with little flowers on them. How cool!!!! Again, I must say: I LOVE YOU!!!!

Sincerely,
~Me

Ok, that's enough for now. I'm off to enter a drawing for a laptop... :)

~Caroline

Impwethion

I'm finally home. Yesterday was a long day. We had to get to the airport at 10:30 to catch our flight. Well, there was only one seat, so I didn't get on. I got on the next flight at 12:45, but didn't land until about nine, even though the flight was only four hours. Do the math. Anyway, I'm back.

My cousin Tyler and I are a month apart. (He's older) He just had his birthday last week. On Sunday, he had a party at a bowling alley. Sarah and Aubrey (my eleven year old cousin) and I went back to Grampy's (my grandfather's) house. We hung out there for a while and then watched TV. At six or so, my Aunt Diane brought us In 'n' Out burgers. It's quite sad that we don't have those in GA. We went there 5 times while we were in CA. Tyler had gone back to his house and Aunt Diane brought the food to Grampy's. (Quick note: Grampy's house is within walking distance of my cousins') Anyway, I come into the kitchen, and everyone is talking about Tyler's new tongue ring that he got for his birthday. I totally didn't believe it for a while. We had finished dinner, and he was still at his house. He finally comes walking into the house.
All of the little kids: Oo, oo, lemme see it!! Open your mouth! What does it look like? Did you really get a tongue ring? Come on, let's see!
He opened his mouth to reveal a gold ball sitting on his tongue. He wouldn't stick his tongue all the way out because "It hurt to do that." I wasn't thoroughly convinced yet. We went back in the family room, and he showed us the stuff he got for his birthday. It included $210. He also told us all about the tongue ring. He couldn't say his 'S's with it in. He also wasn't allowed to wear it during the week. If he took it out for a week, that baby wasn't going back in. Hmmmm...... While we were in the family room, he was texting, and I aked him what kind of phone he has. It came out something like the title of my post. It took me a good while to figure out what exactly he was trying to say. Anyway, to make a long story short, the next morning we found out that it was a Mardi-Gras bead. I must admit, he did have me fooled for a while!

~Caroline

P.S. If you're like me, you haven't figured out what "Impwethion" translates to. He has an Impression.

Summer Vacation, Part 1, Day 5

We woke up at 8 or 9 and went downstairs to have breakfast with Katy. It was a good hotel breakfast with muffins and coffee and eggs and coffee and oatmeal and coffee and cereal and I think you get the picture. Oh, hold on, did I say coffee yet? :) We went back to the room and got Ivy to go to sleep in G and G's room. (We had a suite) The mirror in the bathroom had a TV in the middle of it. Grandpa babysat while Katy, Grandma, and I went back to the little store across the street. After finishing there, we walked down to Dean and Deluca and spent a little time there. I found Cheerwine in a glass bottle!!!!!!! Woooo!!! I drank the whole thing in less than ten minutes. We probably left Charlotte at about 10. Around three, we got back to G and G's. After unloading the car, I laid myself down on the couch downstairs and watched TV for about an hour. We left at either 5 or 6, I don't remember which, and went up to Hayesville to hear Grandpa sing with the barbershop singing group that he's in. After they finished singing, we went to Subway! (Yay for Subway!!!!!!!) By the time we finished at Subway, it was late, so we headed back home for a good night's rest.

<3
~Caroline

Summer Vacation, Part 1, Day 4

Thursday morning, we woke up to donuts delivered by Aunt Stacie. Krispy Kreme, might I add. About nine o'clock, we said our goodbyes. Then Grandma, Grandpa, and I headed to Charlotte. We got there in between 4 and 5 in the afternoon, I think. Grandma and I went across the street from the super fancy hotel and looked around for a while in a cute little shop with all kinds of stuff. After that, we walked back to the hotel to leave for Katy and Fred's house. We got there at about six and hung out with Katy and Ivy for a little bit. Katy had just gone through her jewelry and I ended up with 15 pairs of earrings from her. Just what I needed!! :) We ate dinner (pizza) after it arrived with Fred at 6:30. We stayed at their house for a while, and then drove back to the hotel. Oh, wait, first we went to Barnes and Noble. G and G got a few books, and they bought me the third Percy Jackson book. After Barnes and Noble, we stopped at Dean and Deluca, a big gourmet grocery store with an amazing bakery. I'm talking, like, anchovy garlic cream kind of gourmet. (I think that's what it was, I know it had anchovies and something else.) Well, needless to say, we decided on stuff from the bakery over the anchovy garlic cream. We took our goods back to the hotel, ate them, and went to bed. (They were quite delicious)

~Caroline

Ahhhh!!!!! My poor nose!!

I'm vacationing in CA, and in case you didn't know this, the humidity difference between where I'm staying and where I live is, like, 50%. (GA being higher on the scale) Right about when we got here was when my chapstick tube thing stopped working. It won't twist to make more chapstick come out anymore. So my lips are so stiff, they're about to fall off. My nose hurts so bad. And it itches, too. I'll rub it, and that just makes things worse. The only thing that makes it feel any better is breathing with a wet washrag over my nose. I only do that when no one's around. Apart from that, I'm having a great time! I painted my nails this morning with a really bright yellow. It turned out kind of gold, though. We went to Walmart yesterday and stocked up on gum and nail polish. Sarah got two nail pens, pink and red. I had an interesting experience with a nail pen a few weeks ago.... I got the bright yellow, silver glitter, and purple with purple and blue glitter. We've been having lots of fun so far. You might end up with some more detailed accounts of more things that have happened or that are going to happen on this trip.

~Caroline

Shout-out to poiticians

(if you're not a politician, you don't need to read this)

Okay, all you politicians who think it's a good idea to campaign over the phone, we need to have a talk. Obviously, ya'll don't have phones, because if you did, you would know how annoying it is to get no phone calls except the ones from politicians like ya'll!

1) I'm thirteen (almost 14) and I answer the phone a lot. As do my 11 year old sister and 6 year old brother. I don't think this needs to be spelled out, but we. don't. vote. So why do we care if you want us to vote for you? Even if we wanted to (which we don't), we can't vote for you.
2)We only need one call from you. I must have answered at least thirty phone calls from politicians this summer. I started just not answering the phone until it went to the answering machine, and it was someone I know, and not a recording.
I could go on for a while, but I'll stop boring you readers, since none of you are politicians.

~Caroline

Again!

I had another wonderful surprise a few days ago after the others took their walk. In walked all four of them with smiles on their faces. Uh-oh. This can't be good. 
Momma: Hey, Caroline, I think it's about time for you to get out of bed.
Caroline: K.
Sarah: Guess what we found on our walk today?
Caroline: I don't want to know. Go away.
*enter big leaf from behind Sarah's back*
Caroline: I don't know what that is, but it needs to get out of my room.
Sarah set the leaf down on my bed about two inches from my face. There was a little half-inch long thing lying there motionless. I could've sworn it was a slug.
Caroline: OUT! GET THAT OFF MY BED AND GET OUT!!!!!!
Momma: Can you even tell what it is? (I wasn't wearing my glasses)
Caroline: I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS, GET IT OUT OF MY ROOM!!!!!!
William: It's a snake head.
Caroline: Get. It. OUT!!!!!!!! OUT!!!!!!!!!!
On the leaf was a tiny snake head with the mouth open. And it was on my bed!!!! Yichk! They finally took it out.

~Caroline

Assistance Please

If you know how to make your playlist start playing as soon as the blog loads, please let me know. Right now, you have to scroll all the way down and click "play." I f you know how to help, please comment.

~Caroline

The process of preparing for a showing

As you probably know, my family is selling our house, so there are people constantly coming to look at it. This obviously means that the house must be spotless. We can't do what we would do if people were coming over for lunch. (Throw everything in my parents' room, because no one looks in there.) We can't do that because the people are going to look in my parents' room. And every other room in the house. So we'll get calls about an hour before the people are supposed to get here, and we have to scour the house and get out before they show up. Last weekend, we had some missionary friends from Hungary over for the weekend. My mom left early Saturday morning for a high school reunion, and my dad and the other adults left to go see our new house. So here we were, seven kids ranging from 14 to just over 1 year old. With no adult supervision. Yeah. Thankfully, everyone was content watching a movie most of the time. We started fixing lunch around noon. We ate lunch and then went and sat in the living room while our lunch settled. At approximately 1:20, the phone rang for about the tenth time that morning. No exaggeration. I think the phone probably rang more times on Saturday than it did for the rest of the week. Anyway, the phone rang, so I picked it up.
Caroline: Hello?
Momma: Hi, is this Caroline again?
Caroline: Yup, what's up?
Momma: I have a big surprise for you!
Caroline: Oh! What?
Momma: There's a showing at three.
Caroline: Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. OH NO!
All of the kids in the living room: What? What? What's wrong? What happened?
Momma: Get everyone to help you clean up.
Caroline: Okay, bye.
Momma: Bye.
I hung up the phone.
Caroline: Okay! All of the Welsh's stuff needs to go in the entry so that we can load it into the van as soon as ya'll's parents get back. Everything needs to be put away and the floors need to be vacuumed and swept. If no one knows where something goes, it goes in either the washing machine, the dishwasher, the oven, or the - who's at the door?
Someone was knocking on the door. A kid (please don't ask who, I couldn't say if you paid me) opened the door before I could say anything else. It was Mr. and Mrs. Welsh. We commenced to a very hectic and chaotic cleaning job. It went something like this:
Tait (oldest Welsh): Mom, Daddy, there's a showing, and we have to have the whole house clean.
Caroline: William, go clean your room.
Mr. Welsh: Okay, we need to eat lunch.
Connor (middle Welsh): We just ate, there's stuff in the kitchen.
Caroline: Sarah, go striaghten up the bathroom.
Sarah: K.
Mrs. Welsh: Connor and Hamilton (youngest Welsh), you two take turns vacuuming.
Tait: I'll go take the baby in his room and clean it up while I take care of him.
Everyone began to pack things into bags, put things on the floor away, and hide things in the washing machine. (Okay, we didn't really hide things in the washing machine. Or the dishwasher. Or the oven.) I began on the kitchen. Everything went in the dishwasher. Everything. Dishes, I mean. I don't think I've ever seen it as full as it was then.
We finished cleaning around 2:30. The Welshes left and the four of us were left to wait for our realtor to show up. She had to take care of us during the showing because neither of my parents were there. That little adventure is a different story. Maybe I'll tell it some other time. :)

~Caroline

Summer Vacation, Part 1, Day 3

On Wednesday morning, we woke up and ate breakfast from a basket that my Uncle Nathan put together at work. It had fruit, crackers, granola bars, and cookies. Late and I put on our bathing suits and headed to the pool. We swam for a while, and then went out and walked on the beach for a few minutes. We came back and put on clothes over our suits and headed to lunch with my Aunt Stacie. We went to a restaurant and got hot dogs. Aunt Stacie took Leighton and me to the huge beach store called Wings. Then we went to a cute little boutique and looked around. After that, we went back to where Grandma and Grandpa were siting and we got frozen custard. Good stuff!! We went back to the hotel and swam a little more. Later in the afternoon, Uncle Nathan came and picked us up. He took us to get dinner at a little convenience store. We took our dinner and ate it at a little park. Then we drove to the docks and borrowed one of his friends' boats. He took us out on the inland waterway. We stayed out for about and hour. That was lots of fun. Late and I got to sit up on the bow. That night, Uncle Nathan walked with Late and me on the beach. We walked really far. Then we came back and went to bed. A good day of relaxing at the beach. I wish I could do it more often!

~Caroline

I think I'll stick to my regular alarm clock

I had a lovely surprise this morning. Wait, rewind to last night. Last night, my dad and I found a tiny little caterpillar crawling through our living room. My dad said that he was our new pet named Mortimer. We squished him and put him in the garbage. Actually, my dad squished him and put him in the garbage. I watched. So this morning, My mom, sister, and brothers took a walk. I was still asleep when they got back. (Oh, the joys of being homeschooled!!) I would have slept longer, but they decided that I should meet our new pet, now that Mortimer is no longer with us. I woke up to the door of my room being opened. In walked William, with his hand behind his back. Then Sarah, carrying the baby, then Momma. All four had big smiles on their faces.

Momma: Caroline, do you want to see what we found on our walk?
Caroline: Probably not.
*enter foot-long worm-snake-thing from behind William's back*
Sarah: His name is Red Bull. He's Mortimer's new friend.
Caroline: THAT'S GROSS! GET IT OUT OF MY ROOM!!!!!!!
(i was trying to yell, but that's kind of hard when you just woke up.)
Caroline: I think that since he and Mortimer are such close friends, we should let dear little Red Bull join him in bug heaven.

I'm not really a fan of bugs. Or worm-snake-things.

~Caroline

Too Cool!!!!!!!

Okay, remember the guy that I told you about, Ray Price? Well, little did I know until yesterday that my great uncle Van Vandevender (his real name's Howard) sang harmony with him. Here's a video of one of the songs that he did at the show I went to. The guy who comes up after a few seconds is my great uncle, about 50 years ago. Pretty cool, huh?

~Caroline

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson lives a normal life. For a demigod, that is. He lives with his mother and stepfather in New York. Strange things happen to him quite often. He doesn't find out until his 7th grade year, though, the reason for these strange occurrences. Zeus's master bolt, the strongest weapon in the world, was stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Percy is shipped off to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns that his birth father is Poseidon. Because of his lineage, Percy has unusual powers and can control the water's actions. (FYI: Poseidon is the god of the sea) Percy and his friends, Annabeth and Grover, go on a quest to retrieve the lightning bolt. Annabeth's mom is Athena, and Grover is a satyr (half man-half goat). They end up going on this big adventure across the entire US and going to the Underworld towards the end. The movie and the book end kind of differently.

Movie: Luke (son of Hermes) is the lighting thief. Percy defeats him right before he returns the bolt to Olympus.

Book: Percy returns the bolt to Olympus. Only after that, when he's back at camp, does he discover that Luke is the real thief. Luke escapes before Percy can report him.

My opinion:  I love the book, and the sequels are great, too. The movie is great, but it really didn't follow the book. Also, the actress who plays Annabeth is not the right actress. 1) She's supposed to be blonde. 2) She gorgeous, but she looks just like him. Both have dark hair and BLUE eyes. They could be twins, for crying out loud!!!!!!! That's just wrong. People aren't supposed to start looking like each other until after they're married! Great movie, though, and an amazing book! I suggest reading and watching. (there's not really anything that's very questionable in the movie)

Until next time!
~Caroline

Summer Vacation, Part 1, Day 2

Tuesday morning arrived. We woke up pretty early and hit the road. I think we left at 8:50ish. Late (Leighton) and I figured out that my sister Sarah's portable DVD player doesn't only play DVDs, but CDs, too! So we listened to music on our way out of the valley where my grandparents live. It would have been too much to watch a movie while driving through the mountains. :/ The drive was quite uneventful. we stopped at a gas station in SC (I think) and got gum, Sour Patch Kids, mini Charleston Chews, coffee for grandma, and sunflower seeds for me. Then we were back on the road. We stopped for lunch at CFA. yum yum!!!! We didn't get to the beach until around 5:00. We stayed at a super nice hotel called the blockade runner. It was right on the beach. There was a big pool outside and a hot tub inside. Late and I enjoyed the gift shop, too. Everything was priced quite inexpensively. (Except the Chapsick, that is) We went to a really nice restaurant called the Oceanic. I got pasta with shrimp and crab in it. It was quite delicious. We went back to the hotel and took a walk on the beach. It was a long car ride, but definitely worth it!

~Caroline

Summer Vacation, Part 1, Day 1

This past week, I went to hang out with my grandparents for the week. I got there on Sunday night. Monday morning, we (my grandparents and my cousin, Leighton) went to the fair. We only left about three hours after we had scheduled. We got there and went to a show at the music hall on the fairgrounds. The pros of the show were as follows:

1) The music hall had air conditioning.
2) It had seats.
3) I got an incredibly salty soft pretzel. yum!!
4) I got Coke.
5) I have now heard the infamous Ray Price sing. Evidently he was quite famous about 50 years ago.

Here goeth the con:
1) This was not even close the music I enjoy. Keep in mind that this is an 80-somethin-year-old dude singing jazz-country-love songs.

Apart from that small problem, it was a great show! :) After the show, we walked through a few of the exhibits on our way to the midway. We got to the midway and bought two wristbands for my cousin and me. We went on the ride closest to the front. It was quite lame after the first go-round. Next, I was convinced (with much prodding), to go on the 'paratrooper.' it had seats hanging from big thick plastic umbrellas. All of them were in a circle that tilted quite a bit. i got on one with my cousin, then got close to making whipped cream out of whatever was in my stomach. Thankfully, whatever was there did stay in my stomach. After that, I went on one more ride and that was it. While my grandma and cousin were riding other rides, I got an awesome airbrushed t-shirt. It has a big purple heart on the back that's shaded in yellow, and then my name written in it. After the fair, we went to Ingles to get dinner for me and Late. We picked out a BBQ chicken pizza. We each ate half of the pizza when we got home, and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!! That was a fun day. :)

Adios, dear friends!
~Caroline

P.S. Here's a list of all the food a remember eating at the fair:

1) Killer beef jerky
2) Half of a fried apple pie
3) Part of a soft pretzel
4) Some coke
5) A baked potato complete with sour cream, butter, chili, and cheese.
6) Frozen lemonade
7) Another fried apple pie

I think that's it. :)

Call it Courage

Mafatu was a cowardly boy who lived on an island in the Caribbean. Everyone made fun of him because he was such a coward, so Mafatu ran away to a different island to prove himself. On the island, he killed a wild boar, made a canoe, and survived being chased by the “eaters-of-men” (aka cannibals). When he came back home, everyone was so proud of him and didn’t think that he was a coward anymore.

My opinion: Easy, super fast read. Insanely boring, though. Kind of a pointless book. Not a bad story, but to be good, the book should be more than twice as long as it is.

Jacob Have I Loved

Claire Louise (Wheeze) was the older and more neglected of the twins in her family. (I can’t remember the last name, so let’s just call them the Smiths) The Smiths lived on an island off the coast of New England. Wheeze’s younger sister, Caroline had always been sickly and weak. The title is a comparison of the story of Caroline and Wheeze and the story of Jacob and Esau. Caroline and Jacob were the favored twins, and Wheeze and Esau the neglected ones.

My opinion: Sad story, I feel sorry for Wheeze because her family is so mean, and because she has such an awful name. Well written, though. Not hard to read, and not very boring. The story is pretty realistic. Wheeze's grandma should go in an insane asylum. She's totally wacko!

The Old Man and the Sea

Here goes with the book reviews:

The “Old Man” (henceforth referred to as Joe, considering that he wasn’t named in the book) was a fisherman. Joe went out fishing one day and he caught a marlin. The marlin, however, wasn’t interested in being caught and eaten, so the marlin dragged our friend Joe out into the middle of nowhere with no food and barely any water. Joe stayed out for about three days before he finally killed the fish. By the time Joe got back to shore, the sharks had eaten the marlin, so Joe didn’t even get anything out of his little adventure.

My opinion: Terribly depressing, but good understandable descriptions. Apparently Ernest Hemingway wrote some very depressing stories. My parents say that this is the least depressing of all of his books. If you’re required to read an old classic for some reason, this is a good one. It counts as a classic, but it’s understandable and it takes no time to read. (compared to other classics, that is)

~Caroline

Lame

I can't even follow my own blog because I don't have a gmail account. Is that lame or WHAT???? I'm having fun formatting all of this stuff! Don't be surprised when i change the background and formatting eight times a week.  Oh, the joys of battling technology! If I could figure it all out, it would be beyond awesome. Only one problem: I'm hopeless at figuring it all out!


~Caroline

Hi there!

Hey y'all.  My name's Caroline and I thought it would be cool to start my own blog.  A few things before I get rolling:

1. The title: i sorta put myself on the spot when i was creating my blog. I honestly didn't have any ideas. Purple Butterflies and Silver Sparkles are two very random things, but i love them both. 
2. My mom suggested that i start a blog cuz she has been making me read "good" books over the summer. (notice that i put 'good' in quotation marks) i.e. Pride and Predjudice, Shakespeare, and lots of other stuf that's torture to read.  She wants me to put my little "reviews" on the blog. 
3. If you don't like what i write, your course of action is not to complain to me, cuz it's not my problem. It's your problem , so stop reading, and voila! problem solved!

I hope you enjoy my blog and that #3 isn't a problem for you. there will be lots more to come!


~Caroline