The New Year

   Sorry I haven't written in a while, the craziness of the last week of the year has finally hit us. We're trying to balance the new play rehearsals that are going on, the last minute babysitting jobs that pop up when people realize we don't do anything or go anywhere for Christmas and the constant visits to the car shop for all our cars during this lovely icy snowy month.  Vincents "Baby" has had to go in for a headlight replacement, because when you aim your car towards a tree and you don't stop the car, that tree will... and wont be very nice about it. Vincent came home bothered with the fact that in the first week of having something big, he usually has to replace it or fix it. Poor Bub. The same thing happened with his Droid Evo, where he cracked the screen, well actually more like smashed it.
 My sister Rachel and I have gotten a lot of babysitting jobs too, running here and there, at the last minute. I mean like 2 minutes notice. Well we live in the middle of everything and almost everybody, we're homeschooled, we have 3 little sisters and we LOVE kids. By the way, this is NOT an advertisement!
 And the Rehearsals... they are going... ahem, pretty well. For those of you who know my dad probably can read this without shock. You see, he's in a musical and he wont DANCE!! Wont is too soft of a word. He REFUSES to dance in a musical!! I tried to convince him that Dancing goes with music and musicals. He didn't want to believe me. I feel so sorry for the choreographer (Stacey if your reading this, I feel for you!!) who has to deal with my Dad! The other day he hurt his back during work and of course used it for an excuse out of dancing. Ahhh Dad the wonders of Musicals!!

Vincent's New Baby... ahem... I Mean, Car.

As your probably guess by the title, Vince has finally bought himself a car, and at long last I can have my bike back that he had to use all year to get to work since he crashed his. He simply adores his little car and you cant help feeling the excitement he shows when hes about to take it out for a spin. You wouldn't believe all the different reasons and excuses he tries on the parents to go somewhere. And the rules!! I mean right when I step in the car, he informs me that we don't move anywhere until we're buckled, no one is to touch the radio without permission and no leaning your head on the windows because of the greasy forehead marks. Oh! And no eating chocolate because it make the car smell, "like chocolate."  Yeah, he's having fun!

Toyota Camry '96

The Big Winter Storm

We were supposed to be getting up to 2 feet of snow yesterday, complete with black ice, blizzard and below freezing temperatures. We were all getting ready for it with shovels and sand.  Looking at the weather forecast we saw a huge storm cloud headed our way. But through the hours, nothing happened. It was boring. No snow. Well I kinda liked that part. But there was just wind. Our church was cancelled though. We stayed home and had family time. It was great.

Cuties

Drew Barrymore

Freddie Highmore

Dakota Fanning

Abigail Breslin

Mary Kate and Ashly Olsen

Lindsy Lohan

Haley Joel Osment

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kirk Camron   

hayley mills

Josh Hutcherson 

Elijah Wood

Macaulay Culkin

Robert Downey Jr.

     

    Trying to figure out which one of these kids are the cutest. What do you think?? Come on, I know you want to comment!!!

Macbeth and the "Curse"

While I was finishing up one of my interviews I thought of one more question that had had me wondering for a while. Without thinking about where I was I blurted out the question, “Why is every one so crazy about the word Macbeth?” Thru-out my short experience with the theatre I was told that Macbeth is the last thing you want to say in the playhouse. In fact my friends had gone so far as to make me run and knock on the nearest piece of real wood in the back stage. I thought that asking my interviewee who had been in theatre for a while would be a good idea to see what he thought about the crazy superstition. I couldn't tell if he agreed with it, but he seemed adamant. When I asked him his eyes lit up like he was up to something.  
  “Ahh.” He said “ Macbeth. Your not supposed to say that word in the theatre house unless your performing it.” When I asked why he shrugged. “Its just become a tradition. It is a suspicion that people have held onto.”
Right then my brother walked into the theatres auditorium that we were talking in. “Did I just hear someone say the "M" word?!.” He said his eyes wide in fained terror.
My friend and I looked at each other and laughed, automatically getting ready to blame it on the other person. “ Oh yeah," I said, "I was asking him about it.”
He jumped in and tried to help me out, “No, I was telling her about it.” We ended the conversation about Macbeth there, but I walked away with an unsatisfying answer . When I got home I decided to look it up and find out what people had to say about it. It turns out there’s a lot of things that went wrong in the first performance of Macbeth, but not only then, all of the performances after it. There were so many instances reported about people either getting hurt, committing suicide, falling of theatre balconies, stabbing each other with actual swords, getting into car crashes and many more that people liked to blame the curse. Some like to believe the play was cursed by three witches in Shakespeare's time who were not happy with the theatrical display of the three witches in the show. Less superstitious people try to explain that the play itself has a lot of sword play, fighting and murders all done at night (or dimmed lights), and thus the likelihood of getting hurt in some way  was greater then your regular show.
 In 1611 when Macbeth was supposedly first performed, the actor going to play Lady Macbeth got sick and died before he could go on stage, causing Shakespeare himself to go and play the part. Shakespeare was hoping to impress King James the 1 and so he included witches (something that the King found great interest in), a family member of the King and also made it a short play, knowing that the King did not like long ones. Unfortunately it was not a hit, and it would be another 50 years before it was done again. The ways that people go around the “curse” is by calling the play something different, The Scottish Play is the most used and popular. Other names include, The Scottish King, Mackers and the Scottish Lord. If and when you say it you are told to run and do one of the many things to counter act the curse. Just a taste of them are, knocking on real wood, running out side the theatre spinning three times and spitting, cursing or quoting some lines from Hamlet.
So now I’m satisfied because I found out what its all about. I don’t think there really is a curse on the play and I’m not going to run around outside after I’ve said it, but I am going to keep in mind that it is a dangerous play because of its stage combat. I think I’ll stay away from that one unless the director is going to use foam swords.
-Sara Furmato

Read more at:
http://home.flash.net/~manniac/macb.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=160421

Haircut

   Rachel my sister is good at many things, cooking, sewing, cleaning, math. But recently I got to benefit even more from her knowledge and know how. Rachel cuts hair. She practices a lot on the guys in the family, but this was the first time shes styled my hair. I wasn't too scared, I mean my hair is pretty forgiving, but I made sure I grabbed a mirror before I sat down. She kept saying that I was her Guinea pig and that didn't help with the stress.  I didn't need to worry though. Rachel is awesome!!! She gave me an Amy Adams haircut that I absolutely adore. I'm so happy with it but the best part was that it was totally and completely free. Heehee, I like free stuff. 

Snow Insulation and Tabitha's Indefatigability

  Every winter my mom sends us out to the back yard to pack snow up against the back of the house. It's supposed to keep the house a little warmer than it already is. So yesterday my sisters and I crammed ourselves into our snow-pants, shoved our heads in hats and headed out to the back to start our igloo building.  Now the snow was up to my knees so it was a good 1 1/2 feet, so I decided I would walk ahead of all the girls and make a path. Tabitha however thought that she could do it all by her self and ran ahead. Well actually more like waddled. The snow was above her waist and there she was pushing through the snow acting like it was the easiest thing in the world. She is such a good sport. I kept asking if she was cold but the answer was always, "No." After I was done pounding the snow into blocks all around the backside of the house I had to practically drag her in. All the way to the house I kept telling her to follow Rachel who was walking in the already made path, but either she was totally blind or she didn't think she needed the help. Of course.

Glasses of Water

 Ok, so I want you to try something. Its really very easy. Just place a glass of water on the window sill for each child, sibling or family member in your house. Now look at them, realizing that each of those glasses represent a human being, a life, a soul. Take in the fact that every one of those lives are different. That each one gives something and takes something from you. That each one breathes and thinks. Visualize life without one of those glasses of water. One less. Two less. Now thank God for every single one of those cups. For every single life that hes allowed you to grow with, live with, learn with and enjoy. 

"Working" on Another Play

My brother and Dad just got into another musical at our local civic theatre called "Working". I'm happy for them. I am gearing up for the next 3 months of sending them off to rehearsals while I sit and wish that somehow I could cram my self into the back of the trunk and go with them. I hate that I cant go. Its like some one holding a nice steaming chocolate cookie in front of your face and not giving it to you. I love being involved in shows, and this is the first one that I'm not directly in. I'm the one stuck with writing up reports and reviews of all the rehearsals. Well I guess something is better than nothing. I'll just hang tight until next summer when I force the Director to allow me to be the Stage Manager again. Ok, well maybe not force, but I will beg you can be sure of that. Its fun trying to control about 25 teens your age. Seriously. There is something that makes you feel really good when you finally get that someone to listen to you. You know the one that wont stop clicking the pen during notes or the one that keeps insisting that his parents did give him permission to run all the way down town in the middle a performance. Yeah, I cant wait for next summers Musical.

Favorite Quotes

"We can always try to do better. To be better. To right a wrong. Even when it feels irreversible. Of course, I'm sorry doesn't always cut it. Maybe because we use it so many different ways. As a weapon. As an excuse. But, when we are really sorry, when we use it right. When we mean it. When our actions say what words never can. When we get it right "I'm sorry" is perfect. When we get it right, "I'm sorry" is redemption." - Dr.Meredith Grey

"The human life is made up of choices. Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. And then there are the choices that matter. Love or hate. To be a hero or to be a coward. To fight or to give in. To live. Or die. Live or die. That's the important choice. And it's not always in our hands." - Dr. Derek Shepherd

"When doctors say 'I'm sorry' it either means 'You're dying and there's nothing I can do' or 'This is really going to hurt." - Meredith Grey

“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”-  Dr. Meredith Grey

Bad Roads

Wow! We are literally buried in snow! There is up to 4 feet now. Because we live next to the lake we get whats called Lake Effect snow that likes to blow over us and make us non-existent. Somehow we persevere though. With our strong snowploughs, quick road sanders and tiny but effective sidewalk ploughs, we people here in West Michigan I'm proud to say have figured these crazy winters out. You know you dont leave the house without a coat, boots, sand, salt, gloves, blankets and shovel. You know to drive no faster than 30 mph and how to control an unwelcome doughnut spin. We've also mastered the art of shoveling drives and reattaching the mail box to the pole every morning. Yes. I think we've been through this enough times to know that We are all in this together. Every one needs to do their job because if not, well We are all gonna have a snow day.

Clutz

We were all sitting around the table in the kitchen eating dinner when Dad told Rachel to run in the other room and put a sweater on because she looked so cold sitting there. So Rachel obediently got up and walked into the other room. We heard a thump and then silence but we didnt think anything of it assuming that she had walked into a door or wall like usual. She was only gone for a few seconds but when she got back she was slightly limping. When I asked her if she had bumped into something she shook her head. "No." She said. "I slipped on a  blanket and fell on the ground." She slipped back into her chair while the whole family started to laugh. Not long after that I dug my fork into my salad and yelped in pain as the balsamic vinegar in the homemade dressing shot up into my eyeball. Do you know how much that HURTS!! The vinegar was tangy and painful in your mouth let a lone in your eye. Every one was laughing even more now, but more than anyone, my Mom. Whenever you get hurt you can count on my mom laughing her head off. Really. She thinks its the funniest thing ever when some one gets hurt. And the more pained face you can pull off the harder she laughs. Its become a game in our family, trying to get my mom to laugh at our pain.  Its kinda funny actually.

Sunrise in December

 I woke up to this gorgeous sunrise yesterday. Sadly I couldn't get the best part of it because by the time I found the camera it was nearly all finished. I will try to keep the camera on hand next time.

Snow

Ok. I guess I should have been ready for it. I mean its December already! But I think I was hoping that maybe it just wouldn't come this year. Or the next, or the next... What exactly does snow do for us? Really. We have to wake up at 5 in the morning to shovel the drive, take a full half hour to get dressed warm enough not to freeze our ears off and run out to the car an hour before you have to actually go somewhere to start it up only to find that its just as cold as when you started. But I guess theres some good stuff about it. I mean, imagine the world without hot chocolate. Or the warmth of the fire when you come in from a long cold wintry walk. Maybe the Lord gave us the snow so that we would better appreciate the warmth of a fully insulated house or the fuzzy slippers that we slip on in the morning. Hmmm. Its a thought.

Oh yeah!!!

I have this totally awesome bestie who helped me make my blog greater than I ever could have!!! Yay! Enjoy the new look cause if not... well yeah, just enjoy it! LOL Im so happy I have such a great friend. She can like do EVERYTHING on the computer. She loves to call me the blond. Haha! memories!

Just a Tiny Uprising

  Every year, a man in our church reserves two sheets of ice at the local Ice Skating rink and invites every one in the church come and bring any friends for a night of pure bliss of skating on two thin blades of metal on a floor of frozen water. You get to swerve tiny children that are taking their time to walk (or more like slide on their butt) across the main path, try to avoid the deep gashes in the ice that the older hockey playing boys have so kindly left for you and try to wiggle out of the vise grip of your little sisters who are looking for an easy way around the rink. It is so fun. Really. No lie. Other than the fact that theres food offered there, (what?! Im Italian!!) and free skates, I actually like the idea of smashing my self into a rock hard floor and knocking the breath out me. Im usually the only girl out playing hockey with all the guys. Why I dont know, but it has earned me looks from the lady like girls who all cheer on the sidelines that say "What are you doing Sara?" Its soo fun!That is, while it lasts. After your done skating at break neck speeds for hours and you finally sit down for the first time that night, you find that you have been creating nightmare blisters underneath your really wet socks. Speaking about wet socks, you dont realize how wet they are until you take them off, and by that time you cant or really dont want to put them back on again. By that time you realize you didnt bring extra socks like your mom was telling you to do for the full five hours before you left for the rink, and there is no way that you are putting your feet back in your shoes with out socks. So you usually leave the rink limping, bruised (on your rear end of course, where else?)  and without shoes or socks on. And this is November in Michigan by the way. Lets just say its cold... very cold. I'm so excited for this years skating night, and Im not alone!! If the guy who puts this together every year was to forget a year, I think we would see a long line of protesters out side his house. Boy! I wonder if he knows what hes got himself into!

Why? I don't know.

My little sisters have this weired problem of pointing to and at everything with the middle finger. I have no idea why it started, I mean they've never done it before, but lately everything from reading a book to pointing at a passing dog has involved an older sibling or parent taking their hand and gently correcting the finger position. It caused quite a problem the other day when Tabitha and I were walking around outside and a nice little old lady decided to do the same. Tabitha looked at me and tugged on my jacket.
 "Look Sara!" She said and pointed, innocently yet offensively, at the Ladies pink shawl. The Lady's face turned from a healthy crisp pink to a deep red and she quickly walked away muttering, "Children nowadays..." 
Ohhhh Tabitha, the innocents of youth.

Pine trees

I wanted to clear my head yesterday,so I ran out into our woods... and found a pine tree. On sudden impulse I reached out to the lowest branch and pulled my self higher and higher as the farther I went the more branches I found to grab onto. Finally I found myself near the top, and then it hit me that I was acting like a 7 year old, running around, climbing trees and in general acting like a Tarzan from the Jungle. I  scurried down the trunk and then sheepishly looked around to see if anyone had seen me. I ran back to the house and started to continue with my school until I realized that the reason I couldn't open my fists to start typing was due to the fact that they were glued shut with sap. How lovely. So now I know that a 17 year old in their right mind should not go and climb pine trees in the middle of school, or for that matter, ever. 

Guess What

Yeah, so my sister had her Birthday party yesterday and we had yummy cake and delicious ice cream with a bunch of family and every thing went off without a hitch. Excepting the fact that we had the party at Grandmas, and I, of course, forgot the candles for the cake. I went crazy when I finally figured out that I had forgotten, and I ran around to every one who could drive trying to beg them to take a five min. trip to our house and allow me to get the much wanted objects. But no one would help and when asked, my dad said the obvious with no sarcasm whatsoever in his voice ,   " Just save them for Tabitha. She'll be 7 in like only 4 years." !!

Birthday

My sister Olivia is going to be 7 years old tomorrow and she is excited. About a year ago, Olivia was going to be six, but while I was walking through the Salvation Army I saw a candle pack for only 99 cents, and I just couldn't pass it up. The only problem was that the candles were for a 7 year old, not 6. So that meant keeping the candles, a: a surprise for a year (not happening by the way) b: away from those in the house that hate any thing that just sits around and isn't used for almost a year, and c: safe and clean and ready to use on Olivia's 7th Birthday cake... if I could only remember them. Obviously I have remembered them but imagine if I didnt, that would mean I would of had to take care of those totally useless objects for, ummm, lets see Tabitha is 3 so that would be... 4 years!!!

Thoughts

I was thinking lately about how short my life was. In about 13 days I will be 17, and once I'm there it will be only a year until I'm 18. Then another year and here comes 19... 20... 21. Time goes faster when you are older I think. I never thought about time when I was 10 or 11, just ask my parents, they will confirm that! I was always getting in trouble for not paying attention to the time. This year has gone so fast though. It makes me wonder what I'm going to do with the time I have. Hmm. Just a thought.

Gardening

My wonderful mother sent my sisters and I out into the garden yesterday to pull out all the dead plants. They are long squash plants that have stretched them selfs out farther than invited and when you pick them up (or roll them up) you get tiny white prickles in your hand that you cant get out unless you stand there for about an hour trying to carefully pull them out. Usually you end up jamming more in then getting them out. But we have successfully yanked out about 3 rows and are probably going to be sent out again this afternoon, by our Wonderful Mother.

Memories...*sigh*

Yes... we filled a whole counter. 

Our group of happy campers! 

We ate at a small little restaurant in the middle of no where on the way to Camp and had amazing ice cream. This was the group of people we were with while camping... I miss them all already. Well OK, most of them! Haha

Thats Me?

Take the Quiz here!

Camping

So I just got back from half a week of camping with family and friends down in Indiana. I am so sore from all the climbing we did. How come its when you're hurting the most that you decide to fall and hurt even more? I dont know and I dont care, im just going to sit on my couch and whine. Ok, maybe not... but seriously it always happens that way.
Anyway my friends are all great photographers that love to take pictures (no duh) and i had to get used to the consistent noise of the shutter. They were everywhere at once and you knew that if you turned around you would get either a flash in your face or a " You doofus, that was an ugly face, do that again but try to smile next time." I think I have a vague understanding of what a celebrity has to deal with everyday.
I am so happy to be home though. I will miss my friends down there, but I am a true Hollander. (excepting the fact that I will never allow my self to become even remotely Dutch.).

no way!!

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Geneology - Family web site

olivia all grown up

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Roots - Family website

Olivia dear

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Geneology

tabitha

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

haley bop

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family tree software - Lineage

My bub again

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Vincent my brother

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Geneology - Vintage pics

Jordan my friend

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family pictures - Trace family tree

Haley my little sister

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb

Rachel my sister

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb

ME!!

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

Lights Up!!

Do you realize how much we depend on electricity? I hadn't really thought about it until I didn't have it. We had a friend of ours taking a tree down in our front yard Monday morning, (yes, Labor Day), and a branch came down knocking the power cable off the house. Not Cool At All. All our lights went out, none of our appliances worked, and horror of horrors... my laptop didn't have any way to charge let alone connect to internet. It was a complete nightmare. And then we have about 4 freezers in the house crammed packed with frozen goodies that, by the end of the first day of our 'electricity-fast' were no longer definable as frozen. Oh, and I almost forgot, my little sister thought that that day would be the best time to make a really dirty mess in her pants. The only day we have no washer and dryer, and its pouring rain outside. I think I almost died that day because, other than the fact that I was stuck cleaning her up I think I found 5 completely new pieces of furniture with my shins on the way to my room that I don't remember being there when the sun went down, (our only source of light), singeing my hair in the tiny bathroom candle while brushing my teeth, and dropping a delicately balanced flashlight (that my sister assured me was up there to help light up the room a little) on my head. Yes, I will remember that day, and continue to thank God for the amazing invention of electricity, but you don't know how happy I was when I plugged my computer in this morning and saw the lights come on!

Uggg!

Cant believe that my summer is almost over already. It seems like yesterday I was getting out of school for break. My summer has been filled with life long lessons, most I like to affectionately call growing pains. I've learned that being the eldest girl means that you are the first to reach the, 'OH My goodness, no you may not go and see that movie with that group of friends!' or ' You want to go to a pool party with 26 other teenagers? What in the world is going through your thick head!' kind of stuff. Im learning, slowly but surely as my parents would say, and I am happy to inform you that I have made it through the summer without having to be grounded for too long or running away. Thats always a good thing isnt it?

Arte Bella

Beautiful Art. Im trying to think of a good name for my Magazine. Its going to be about the Preforming Arts. Im really excited about it because I love the theatre. Getting on stage and acting makes me happy and I enjoy it. Though I enjoy the back stage just as much, if not more. I love the chaos that ensues about 3 seconds before an actor is about to go on stage and cant find a prop, and if they dont find it, half the scene goes down the drain as they scramble around trying to patch it up. I love when im on headset and the lighting crew says a very quiet and unemotional, 'Uh oh'.  It makes me almost pass out at the time... but after the show, we always get a good laugh. Also there are the closing night heart attacks . You see, as a stage manager you like to have control of the entire show and actors. But you have to remember that closing night to actors is basically saying to them, " Oh yeah, You guys can do what ever you want... as long as you stay in the script." Big Mistake!!! Sitting in the stage manager station, i have a TV monitor that gives me a pretty clear picture of the stage, and all the actors whether having large or small parts, have their ways of giving me a heart attack. Be it in their all-new-and-improved hair style or costume, or in the major changes in blocking, they skilfully and quite successfully manage to kill me every time. Never the less, I wouldn't trade one of those stress filled nights for anything. So lets put it simply, if seeing these people every day for a whole summer had not made us into one big happy family, we would all be jumping at each others throats... out of love, of course. :)

School year

Im about to start on my third year in High school, and Im not sure if im ready for it. Being homeschooled is different then going to a public school, like for example my dad is having me do my own home based buisness for the year. Its going to be a newsletter/magazine. Ill have to do reserch and the like for all the articles i have to write. Right now im trying to figure out what type of magazine im going to do. Ive been thinking about one focused on teens and the arts. Like painting, drawing and even acting. Im still working on it though. hmm... I dont  know what Ill do.

Lemonade stand

So my little sisters did their own lemonade stand today, which resulted in burned foreheads, sweaty faces and dirty feet. Then I had to clean up, of course. The best part of the day was BLTs for dinner though . MMM... Yeah they were good. Fresh lettuce and tomatos picked from the garden... well enough slobbering. I have to start getting my little sisters to bed now, the cute little things. :)