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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Skiing is for the Insane

Hello my Fluffy Unicorns!! 

Since I never do my New Years Resolution, I decided to do something simple. So my 

resolution is to try new things and then blog about them. Well. Here is the first adventure:


I am not a sports person. In fact one of my teachers classified me as “sports challenged.” Therefore, it makes perfect sense that I have never been skiing. I've always been both terrified and intrigued by it. Since I couldn't come up with anything more fun then gliding through snow on pieces of long plastic, I thought “why not?” Now that I have gone cross country and downhill skiing, I have decided that I will never do it again.
The snow was like white puffy powdered feathers. It resembled a beautiful pillow, so if I fell I wouldn't get hurt at all because it would be there to catch me. Snow fell from the clouded sky covering my eyelashes and my knitted hat. The crisp cold air filled my lungs like helium fills a balloon. The wind whipped up from the North, bringing the calming air quicker to my impatient lungs. I was ready to begin my descent down my driveway.  Since I have never skied before in my life, I thought it safest for everyone (not just myself) that I test it out on my driveway and my bunny hill.
Skiing is skiing whether it’s on Mount Brighton or in my front yard. As long as I have a pair of skis, boots, ski poles and a hill I’m good to go!  This is partly why I chose to go skiing in my front yard. The deciding factor was the fact that I couldn't get out of my driveway because of all the snow we got over the weekend. Back to my delightful endeavor.
I pushed off, sending myself down my driveway. I felt like I was flying. There I was gliding across the packed down snow. I went about five feet before I toppled over into a snow bank. At the sight of this, my mother doubled over in laughter as if this were the funniest thing she had seen in a long time. I was not amused to say the least. Her cackles echoed through the wind so I’m sure people heard her twenty miles away! I promptly sent her inside, and with much assistance from you younger brother, who is fabulous at skiing, I was back on my feet ready to try again. My brother, Peter, likes to cross country ski, so he took me out into our little field where there are little hills and curves for me to ski on. The first obstacle, however, we had to get out to the field.
The snow crushed under my skis as I shuffled through the snow. Peter went first to plow a path for me. Thank goodness, because Lord knows that I wouldn't have made it any farther then the edge of my driveway before I keeled over in complete frustration. The snow continued to fall peacefully, giving the afternoon a comfortable country feel. I gazed up at the trees hanging over me loaded with heavy snow. The pine trees looked like little tee pees covered with snow. It was almost magical. Then I remembered I was on skis. My brother was able to turn with his skis without batting an eye. He glided quickly through the snow like a swan landing on a pond. I was about as graceful as a chicken. I clomped through the snow and had trouble with every turn I encountered. There I was, stomping way through the marshmallow world, utterly confused why people do this for fun. I mean really, I had snow stuffed into every crevice of my boots, my fingers were frozen, and my nose felt like it was going to fall off. True, for one second it was pure bliss.
But that was one second.
I fell a total of five times, and each time my hate of skiing increased. Snow lined the back of my coat, but by that point, I had given up on staying warm.
“So, how do you like cross country skiing?” Peter asked me when we had tramped all around the field.
“I despise it with every bone in my aching body,” I responded through clenched teeth.
Since, I hated cross country skiing so much, my brother thought it would be best if I went downhill skiing.
“Because, you know, that’s so different from cross country skiing,” I thought to myself.
So I climbed all the way up to the top of my driveway again. Thankfully, it wasn't that difficult because when I walk, I walk on my heels, which makes it easier going up the hill in skis. I guess it helped with the traction or something. Anyway, I made it to the top. I was drenched from the melting snow in my coat and from sweat. My glasses were covered in snow making it very difficult to see. My hands and arms were tired from pulling myself along with the ski poles. But I launched myself down the hill with an open mind that maybe, just maybe, downhill skiing would be better than cross country skiing.
Expectation:
Heavens was I wrong! 
Reality:

The only good part about this run was the fact that I made it to the bottom without toppling over and that fall took me ten minutes to get up from (I had to take one of skis off and everything). Needless to say, I was done, utterly and completely done. I stomped back into the house, threw my hat on the heater to dry, dove under the covers of my bed to warm up, and read a comforting book.

This is the complete story of why I do not recommend skiing to any sane person. If your thing is tramping through the snow in skis with every bone aching from falling over, then be my guest. Clearly, I am not cut out to be an Olympic skier, which is fine with me.  Skiing is the worst winter sport in my humble opinion because, you have no control of whether or not you slide around and there are no brakes. Plus, you can die from falling in a twisted position, from getting trapped in the snow, and from flying into a tree. Okay, maybe its not that bad. And even though I think this was an adventure, it is an adventure that I will not be trying again.
God Bless,
~Nina

Thursday, December 26, 2013

House of Hades (A Rant)

Merry Christmas my Fluffy Unicorns!

I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine, and I hope that you got everything you wanted. 

But before we go any farther, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So, if you haven't read House of Hades (By Rick Riordan) please leave this post and come back once you've read the book. Unless of course you don't mind me spoiling the ending. :) 

This book was awesome. It made me laugh, cry, and of course, scream. When I reached the end of the book, which ends much calmer then the last book, I gave a great shout and threw my book at my unsuspecting mother. 

No joke. 

Percy and Annabeth are FINALLY out of Tartarus, Hazel has past her test, Frank isn't the Pillsbury Doughboy anymore (hehehe) Leo hasn't changed a bit (he's still my little goofball), and Jason and Piper are just as awesome as ever. So I'm happy about all that. 

BUT. SWEET HEAVEN ABOVE. BUT. The way it ends! OH GOSH, how it ends. Mr. Riordan, who said that you could write such an action packed adventure, to end with "The Argo II sailed into the night" (583). WHAT KIND OF AN ENDING IS THAT?! I mean seriously, think about it. Riordan ended the last book with a wicked ending, left us hanging by spider webs until October 6, 2013. THEN he gives us this epic creation, that give you chills just reading the name. Let's not even talk about the sassy sarcastic sentences that fly in this book. Oh no, let's not mention the beautiful love stories flowing through this book like rivers on a map (and, by the way, if you take them out there is still an amazing story, unlike Twilight). 

I'm literally in such a heavy book hangover, I have to remind myself to breathe. Haven't eaten for two hours, and I haven't blinked for two hours. I ran around my house screaming and crying until my brother told me to shut up. Then I sat in the corner silently sobbing.

I can't even continue this rant. I LOVE AND HATE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. GAHHHHH!!

God Bless,
~Nina

Sunday, December 15, 2013

A History Lesson

Hello My Fluffy Unicorns!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

And Happy (late) Thanksgiving! I have been so busy lately, I haven't written anything. I'M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON. I'M SO SORRY.  But this coming year I plan to do a blog post every Saturday. Better? 

For my English class I have been doing research on my family tree, and I have discovered quiet a bit! And I thought I'd share it with all of you since I haven't posted in a long time. 

First, during the Revolutionary War, my ancestors were loyalists.  Now before you go off an a tangent about that, let me just say that she (I don't know her name, my research could only go so far) was related to the British crown. And as far as I can tell, that's why they were loyalists. Anyway, as a result we were entitled "the despicable Parsells". 

Laugh all you like. Ha, ha ha. 

I guess we used to be rather rich, in that we had a bunch of land. All that went away during the war. The patriots took our land, and sold it. Literally, I found a newspaper clipping, dated in 1783, where a farm that was on our property was for sale. Isn't that crazy? 

Finally, sometime between 1844 and 1864 Franklin Parsell moved to Michigan. And that is why I live here and not New York. 

Isn't that an interesting story?  Let me know what you think! :) 

~Nina

Sunday, August 25, 2013

No Mores: My Cake Pop Adventure

Hello my Fluffy Unicorns!

As some of you may know, my sister is having a baby! Yesterday was her shower, which I co-planned with my wonderful sister-in-law, Cindy. The theme was "She's about to pop". So everything had to "pop". We had "Pop"corn, Cake "Pop"s, "Pop-able" meatballs, Capri "Pop"s, and Grape "Pop"s to eat. And Cindy made the most beautiful decorations. 

To get to the point, I had three jobs: 1. Show up 2. Buy diapers for our Conversational Diapers game 3. Make the Cake Pops. 

Simple right? 

Wrong. 

I borrowed a Cake Pop maker from my dear friend, and asked another friend (who hadn't made Cake Pops before, like me) to come and help me make them. We started making them at 9:30 in the morning. We made the cake batter from scratch, and made all the balls to begin with. Then, following the directions to the letter, we put them in the freezer.  While they were in the freezer, the directions said to make the chocolate coating. I have made chocolate candy from the day I was born, I know how to melt chocolate. But, according to the recipe it said to add butter. I have never added butter to the mix. Ever. However, since i have never made Cake Pops before, I felt that I should follow the directions. 

I ruined three bags of chocolate. 

When I finally got the chocolate to work, I was almost out of chocolate and had to break up some of my emergency chocolate bars to save the day. 

In the end, it took my friend and I eleven hours to make 95 cake pops. 

Expectations: 


Reality:


So in the end, we called them No Mores because we are never making them again. If anyone wants some Cake Pops they can ask someone else, my kitchen's closed.

On the flipside, they did taste very good. I got several compliments on them, so they were worth it. But I still won't make them anymore. 

God Bless,
~Nina

Friday, August 16, 2013

The Opening Of A Chapter

Hello my Fluffy Unicorns!!

So my summer has been going good. Extremely busy, hence the few posts. SORRY! 

I am writing this blog post to kind of vent some of my feelings. My mother's only sister, my Aunt Ann, has been diagnosed with Breast, Lymph, and Bone cancer. It's stage four, which is the highest, I believe. But I hope I'm wrong. 

I am not ready to loose my Aunt. Not even close. True, she lives in Vermont. Which is quite a few hundred miles from here. So I rarely see her as it is. She doesn't call, or even contact anyone in the family unless she's coming up for a holiday (which is rare). However, when she does come, or contact someone, she's always the center of attention. 

My Aunt Ann got married a few years ago. And the weird thing is, no one was invited to the wedding. Weird right? I was very put out by the whole thing. I went to her house once, and I didn't see any wedding photo's. What, did she go to Vegas or somewhere? I've also wondered quite a few times what her wedding dress looked like. For all I know she could have worn a quilted turquoise and gold marshmallow ball gown, complete with a hot pink feathered poof hat! Obviously she didn't wear that, but I would just like to know.  

Aunt Ann quilts a lot. Her quilts have won first place in dozens of contests. This year she made everyone in the family a quilted tree skirt for the Christmas Tree. They're gorgeous! She made my sister's matching quilts for their beds, and from the day that they arrived in the mail, I have wanted one of her quilts. Two years ago she came over to my house and told me that she had something for me. Now I had never voiced to anyone that I wanted one of her quilts, ever. She had made me the prettiest, most me quilt I have ever found. It's purple, green, and gold. She designed it herself, and it one first place in a quilt show. I am so blessed that I could get it!! My dream literally came true! And now, if she leaves us forever, I have something that I can remember her by forever. 

I don't want her to die, I want her to live. She's always lived her life to the fullest. Whenever I've seen her, she's been laughing. It's a loud, bright, cherry, exploding kind of laugh. She always has a fun sarcastic comment about everything. All in all, she's just a fun lady and I can't even imagine life without her, even though she isn't a part of my life very much. 

If you all could please pray for my Aunt Ann. She isn't the strongest in her faith, and she could use all the prayers she can get at this point. She's got a long hard road, and even though we can't be there with her all the time, she can at least know that she has a support base here in Michigan. 

God Bless,
~Nina

Monday, June 3, 2013

Happy Birthday!

Hello my Fluffy Unicorns!

Two posts in one day! Yay! I wanted to write this post, and dedicate it to my unborn (miscarried) brother George. I got this huge feeling today that it's his birthday. There's no way of knowing if it really is or not, but I'm going to honor him anyway. 

I often wonder what George would have been like. Would he have had brown eyes like me? Would he have been tall or short? Would he have glasses like me? Blond hair, or brown hair? What if he was a ginger? Ha! What an idea. Would he be a serious person, or a funny person? I seriously don't know, but I wish I did. I sometimes wonder if he and me would have been close. I'm not really "close" close with any of my siblings. Sometimes I wonder if I lost my best friend, my therapist (if you will), my partner-in-crime, my security. I guess I'll never really know if that's true, but I can't help feeling that way. 

Even though he was never here physically, he has played a huge roll in shaping my life. The time I was swinging really high and the chain broke. I did a complete back flip and 360. I should have broken my arm at least, but I was perfectly fine. Another time my swing broke, and I landed flat on my back. Again, I should have had some kind of injury. And again, I was perfectly fine. I'm not saying God didn't have something to do with these, but I feel in my heart that George had something to do with all of them. 

It's not just my life that he's been a part of, he's played a part in all of our lives. The time my sister rolled her car and hit a tree? She literally should be dead. AND SHE'S FINE. A little weird now, but otherwise she's fine. 

This isn't really a random post, and it's not at all very funny, but I just wanted to tell George in a special way, Happy Birthday! He'd be either 28 or 27 today. Happy Birthday big brother! Thank you for watching out for me, and praying for me. Thank you for being there for me, to catch me when I fall, to point the way when I'm lost, to be the bright light through the fog of life. Thank you for loving me anyway, knowing the terrible sinner that I am. Thank you for protecting me from all those broken bones, from heartache, and (probably) death. I love you and I can't wait until we can finally hug for real. The best part of all this, is the fact that you will never leave me. That's my favorite part. :')




Also my fluffy unicorns, thanks for being there for me and reading this. :) 

God bless,
Nina

I just died laughing

Hello my fluffy unicorns!

Just so you all know, I'm better now. I "crushed" my duet with my friend. :) 

I decided today to go threw my Funnies board on Pinterest. Thankfully, I'm home alone and the windows are shut, or the neighbors might call the funny farm. No joke. 

So, please, join me won't you? In the land of endless mirth. Put on some epic music (I suggest "Breathe" or "Wind Queen" or "Enigmatic Soul" all by Two Steps From Hell) and enjoy:








Seriously, What board isn't complete without the minons??? Those little pill-like balls of yellow adorableness!!! 




Sometimes I think Kim IS the Capital...



WOMAN GLUED TO TOILET. HOLY MOSES!

Okay, You get my message. Come back next week for more funnies! :) hehehehehe!

God bless,
Nina