Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Alive and Well

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive and breathing. Thankfully, William killed the dragon that attacked me, and Caleb killed the evil wizard, so I am not harmed. Though my two little brothers are a little roughed up. But they're doing well. And so am I, for that matter.
What I mean to say is I'm sorry that this has taken so long, but Summer, as some of you might know, is a very busy time for us and I don't get to the computer as much.

ANYWAY, last night Dad, Tiff, Melissa, Caleb, Abby, Grace and I made our way to a retirment home with a few families from our church- The Price, Evans, Candler, Sanford, Peiffer, and Creath families. We sang a bunch of hymns and psalms and had a few special music presentations-

The Sanfords sang an upbeat version of "Amazing Grace"
The Evans's recited scripture
Some of us girls from church sang an arrangment of "Holy, Holy, Holy"
Tiff, Anna Price and I did a Piano/Viola/Violin ensemble of "Psalm 22c" and "Praise to the Lord the Almighty"
Sierra and Anna Pittenger sang a duet of "Lamb of God" by Twila Paris
John and Whitney Creath did a Violin/Harp duet of "And Can It Be"

Everyone did wonderful and everything went smoothly. I pray we were able to show God's love to the people at Pekin Retirement home!
Afterwards, the Price's treated everyone to Ice Cream cones at McDonalds...which was fun and gave us a little bit more time, to laugh, fellowship and plan for next time! :)

As you probably know, we returned safely back from our trip to Canada. We were able to visit Dundurn castle and Battle Museum (the war of 1812... one of my favorite eras!) while we were there which was spectacular!! Tiff got some photos so I'll post those soon.

We've been gardening and landscaping the past few days, which has been fun. The yard is really improving and we're very pleased with the outcome. Though, the little gnat-type bugs are really getting on my nerves, so we all stink of bug repellant...if you cared to know. :D btw, it doesn't work, either. So we put on that disgusting repellent for nothing. go figure. :) So, here I am now. Now I'll go attach all those photos.

jessica nicole




William Alexander (taken by Myself)


Us girls singing "Holy, Holy,Holy" (the following photos were taken by Dad.)

The Evans's reciting scripture.

John and Whitney playing "And Can It Be"

The Sanfords singing "Amazing Grace"

Caleb dressed up at the Battle Museum in Canada.
Doesn't he look so awesome? (taken by Tiff)
Doesn't Caleb's hat look like Hornblower's (below)? We kind of wished the museum had blue coats...but....


he ended up looking like him (below) instead.oh well. he's kind of cool too. :)
(and you wonder what my favorite movie is!)


Emma with her speaker ribbon in Canada. :D (take by Tiff)


Emma and William got a bit exhausted walking from the hotel to the convention center. So they rode. :) (taken by Tiff.)

William admiring his John Deere. :) (photo by me, again.:D)




Inside Dundurn Castle...the parlor (or sitting room.)(the dundurn castle photos were all taken by Tiff.)

If you've seen Anne of Avonlea (#2) then you might recognize this room as Captain Harris' study when Anne comes to ask if his daughter can be in the Mary Queen of Scots play. We were excited to find out that that part of the movie was in the above room...at Dundurn castle!


The beautiful entryway!

Our new dining room table...lol...we wish. Isn't the dining room lovely?

The front of Dundurn Castle.



15 comments:

The Pookie said...

What beautiful pics! How fun! I'm glad you're still among the living.. I was beginning to wonder. ;)

I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say, that I don't think I've seen the movie that is apparently your favorite! (Shocking!) What's it called?

Brooke Anna

Jessica McDonald said...

Brooke,

Thank you! :D I'm glad I'm alive too. :D

It's Horatio Hornblower...I LOVE it! The costumes are awesome as well, I might mention! :D I think you'd enjoy it too! there are two small parts though that need fast forwarding (it's an 8 dvd series) if you want a complete review I can email you.

luv, jess

Anna Joy said...

Jessica....Great pictures...I love
castles and all that stuff. ;)

Great to see you are still alive!

Anna Joy ;)

Anonymous said...

Jessica, I like HH too but there is a lot of bad language also if I am not mistaken?? I don't know if that makes a difference Brooke, but I know it does to some people in our church. Looks like you had a lot of fun in Canada Jessica! Thank you for finally posting! :D luv you, Darby

Joe McLean said...

I know how spring brings on busyness. We've been crazily busy too. I've been working on tilling up the soil for our garden this year. It'll be huge. =D

Funny thing, my sisters and some friends went to a few retirement homes today and sang as well.

We countrified Amazing Grace and a few other old hymns and I'm sure they are more up beat. =P

I've given up on bug repellent years ago for two reasons: It stinks and it feels gross.

I like the photos. Especially the first one and the one with the kids riding on the luggage!

--Joe
www.joe.ajwstudios.com

Elissa said...

I want to See Horatio Hornblower so bad, I've hear ALOT of great things about it. I'm glad the Dragon and wizard didn't get you, and I hope your valiant brothers recover quickly :P

Jessica McDonald said...

Darby, yeah, it does. But it's not worse then "Master and Commander", I think.
lol. Yeah. I did have a little fun in Canada. Europe would've been way cooler though! :D

Joe, i'm about ready to give repellent up too. Absolulty not worth it! :D

Elissa, I LOVE the Hornblower movies! I've been dying to see them for ages and finally some good friends of our lent us their whole series. they're excellent!
LOL. Yeah, they're recovering pretty good! lol.

jessica

Joe McLean said...

Who was the one that you quoted saying "Laughter is the best medicine"?

Jessica McDonald said...

Joe, actually. I came up with that myself. I'm sure someone else must have said it too, but not that I know of. :)

jessica

Joe McLean said...

I've seen it around (just Google it) but I haven't seen an author of it.

I like the quote. It's so true!

Anonymous said...

Jessica,
I wouldn't mind living there LOL
See you Sunday!
Love Lenna

Anonymous said...

Jessica,
Great to hear from you again. Great Pictures! Have a great time in my state this week! Say hip hip to the Queen! :)
I have a movie meme that you might enjoy on my blog. The only problem being that my movies may be very easy for you to guess! Give it a go and try it out for yourself!
Blessings,
Mrs. Dumais

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I forgot. Wish you mama a very Happy Mother's Day! Looking forward to seeing some pics of you all from Jamestown!
Mrs. Dumais

Alice said...

Wow! That's really neat that you got to see where that scene from Anne of Green Gables 2 was shot! Not to mention the rest of the beautiful castle...

How have you been? I should get your e-mail address from someplace!

I like your new heading! Beautiful!

Jessica McDonald said...

My junk email address is fairysisters8890@hotmail.com if you email me there I can send you my normal email address! yeah, we do need to catch up. how long has it been anyway??? ;D

jessica