March Madness

Dear Diary...

It seemed like a completely normal thursday night when Brandon came over to hang out with Noah and I... and as the time got closer to midnight noah decided to take me home... I went into my house and I got ready for bed and fell sound asleep...

Meanwile... Noah was putting on a suit and buying flowers...

...and Im still sleeping...

Noah is waiting at Brandons house... working up the courage to ask me a very big question...

...and Im still sleeping...

Noah and Brandon sneak over to my house... Brandon hides in the car with a camra... Noah stands by my front porch...

...and Im still sleeping...

Noah calls my cell phone for the first time... and I hang up on him thinking that his call is my alarm going off...

 Noah calls for the second time... and I hang up on him thinking that his second call is my second alarm...

 Noah calls for the third time... and I look at my clock on the other side of the room and realize that its two in the morning and that the noise that my cell phone is making is not my alarm... its a call... so I finally answer...

Noah tells me that he's upset and he needs someone to talk to and that he wants me to come outside and talk...

So I pull my robe over my pajamas and step into my fuzzy reindeer slippers and walk outside...

and there is Noah... in a suit... with a bouquet of flowers in his hand...

he gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him... and I say yes!

The next Monday just happened to be my birthday...
and Noah surprised me again with my most awesome birthday present...

'Tis The Season

Dear Diary...

I love Christmas! The Christmas season has a way of lifting peoples spirits and making everyone super friendly and smiley and helpful! Saying "Merry Christmas!" can brighten someones day more than you even know! This season reminds us that we're all people and we're all here to live! And maybe we're not going to all live the same way, but we're all here together. We all live and laugh and love.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

It's All About the Reindeer

Dear Diary...

My family has an unspoken christmas tradition where you decorate your house with their favorite sort of christmas character/item...

For some that would be Snowmen.... For others Santas... or Stockings... Candy Canes... Christmas Trees... Snowflakes... Nativities... Brightly Colored Ornaments...

For me... Its Reindeer...

I Love Reindeer! My mother was particularly annoyed with me last year when I brought home a collection of sparkly sliver reindeer and placed them on the mantle next to all of her snowman decorations. Even more so when she saw I brought home a new collection of 6 reindeer this year and arranged them on the mantle next to the others.

Funny thing about Reindeer is that they're are of the species Rangifer tarandus. Which is the exact same as... Caribou. So essencially there is no difference between reindeer and caribou. In fact there are many similarities between all the variations of each species. There are three types of reindeer and three matching types of caribou. Marine reindeer are just like Peary caribou, and live near the Arctic coast. Tundra reindeer are just like Barrenground caribou, living on snowey planes. Forest reindeer are just like Woodland caribou, that live in northern forest areas.But of course we've forgotten about yet another subspecies of reindeer that have no similar caribou counterparts... Flying reindeer! ;D We first hear about this particular subspecies in Clement Clarke Moore's " 'Twas the night before Christmas." also called "A Visit from St. Nicholas."

" The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!" "

to read the full poem by Clement Clark Moore Click Here.

These famous Reindeer that pulled Santa in his sleigh full of toys for children all over the world. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen.

 Now some of you may be thinking that I've misspelled the name of one of these reindeer, but I have not. You see, when this story was first published in the New York "Troy Sentinal"  in 1823, there was a typo and Donder's name was misspelled "Dunder". Then in 1844 " 'Twas the Night before Christmas" was published in a collection of Moore's poems where this reindeer's name was "Donder" as it should have been. And I know this because in Moore's own introduction to this collection, and the written longhand version of this poem, the name was again spelled "Donder". The reason that people now call Donder "Donner" is because Blitzen, the name of the reindeer Donder is paired with in the poem, means "lightning" in German. And the German word for thunder is "donner". But Donder's name does mean "thunder"... in Dutch. Anyway the reason Im telling you this is because I hope that someday the world will see Donner for the fraud that he is and Donder will regain his former glory of being one of Santa's reindeer. ;D

And then of course there's Rudolph. Santas ninth reindeer who is the newest addition to the team. Im sure the first thing that comes to your mind is the song or movie about this very special reindeer. However, Im sorry to say that neither of those are Rudolph's true story. His true story was written in Chicago in 1939 by Robert May. You find out that Rudolph grew up in a small village, full of ordinary reindeer, with his reindeer family. Rudolph's parents weren't ashamed of Rudolph's bright red nose. Rudolph really was teased by other reindeer, but Rudolph was happy and optimistic despite what others said. One Christmas when Santa was delivering presents to Rudolph's family, he noticed Rudolph's glowing red nose. Outside a thick fog was growing making it hard Santa's reindeer to see. But the Christmas gifts needed to be delivered to all the waiting children. So Santa had the idea to let Rudolph guide the other reindeer and the sleigh with his luminous nose.

So Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen and Rudolph are kinda my reindeer heros. :D

'Twas the Night before Christmas

'Twas the Night before Christmas

by Clement Clark Moore

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Under The Waterfall

Dear Diary...

Not so long ago I got to visit my favorite waterfall with my Mum and my Nana...

It was a beautiful day! we hiked down a nice little path...

that lead us all the way to a look out point, where we snapped some quick photos...

and looking up at Bridal Veil Falls reminded me of a poem that I heard once... I remember it because after I heard it... I realized how much I liked it... because places that you find yourself in your life become a part of you... and even for the silliest or smallest reasons you can end up loving a place just because you're with someone who is special to you...

                     Under The Waterfall by Thomas Hardy

                                      'Whenever I plunge my arm, like this,
                                          In a basin of water, I never miss
                                   The sweet sharp sense of a fugitive day
                             Fetched back from its thickening shroud of gray.

Hence the only prime
And real love-rhyme
That I know by heart,
And that leaves no smart,
Is the purl of a little valley fall
About three spans wide and two spans tall
Over a table of solid rock,
And into a scoop of the self-same block;
The purl of a runlet that never ceases
In stir of kingdoms, in wars, in peaces;
With a hollow boiling voice it speaks
And has spoken since hills were turf less peaks.'

'And why gives this the only prime
Idea to you of a real love-rhyme?
And why does plunging your arm in a bowl
Full of spring water, bring throbs to your soul?'

'Well, under the fall, in a crease of the stone,
Though precisely where none ever has known,
Jammed darkly, nothing to show how prized,
And by now with its smoothness opalized,
Is a drinking glass:

For, down that pass
My lover and I
Walked under a sky
Of blue with a leaf-wove awning of green,
In the burn of August, to paint the scene,
And we placed our basket of fruit and wine
By the runlet's rim, where we sat to dine;

And when we had drunk from the glass together,
Arched by the oak-copse from the weather,
I held the vessel to rinse in the fall,
Where it slipped, and it sank, and was past recall,
Though we stooped and plumbed the little abyss
With long bared arms. There the glass still is.
And, as said, if I thrust my arm below
Cold water in a basin or bowl, a throe
From the past awakens a sense of that time,
And the glass we used, and the cascade's rhyme.

The basin seems the pool, and its edge
The hard smooth face of the brook-side ledge,
And the leafy pattern of china-ware
The hanging plants that were bathing there.

'By night, by day, when it shines or lours,
There lies intact that chalice of ours,
And its presence adds to the rhyme of love
Persistently sung by the fall above.
No lip has touched it since his and mine
In turns therefrom sipped lovers' wine.'

My Day at the Portland Zoo

Dear Diary...

I recently went to the zoo with my Mum and my best friend Dayna. And while we were there I took some awesome pictures...

Fuzzy Mountain Goat

Cute Black Bears

A Pair of Bobcats

The Autumn Leaves

Daynie and I on a bridge...

a rescued Bald Eagle

Dayni and I in the Eagles nest...

Beautiful colors all around

Touching a waterfall with bronze salmon jumping up ;D

A big hollowed out log... ha ha...

Mum :)

Turtles!

An Otter that would spin and flip by the glass :D

Polecats in an old stove!

Pretty Owl!

The Daddy Cougar

Driving a tractor

Wolves!

Polar Bears relaxing :)

Tree Tunnel

Long Arms!

Monkeys!

Playful Elephants!

Daynie on the drums! :D

Majestic Lions!

Safari Drive

What we look like to a snake...

In a Bubble...

Hippos!

Giraffe and Gazel

Leopard Sleeping :D

Tigers Sleeping!

Bear attacking Daynie and Mum... ha ha...

I had a really great time at the zoo! and I got to see a whole bunch of amazing animals! while we were there they were setting up lights all around the zoo because every year they have the lights on at night to create a fun and beautiful night time atmosphere! from November to new years! I wish i could have stayed to see it!