A quote (by Kendal)

Although I am not one to go around quoting books and such, I do appriciate good quotes. Here is one that I really like:

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien

I think it's fun to say, and quite clever. If anyone has a favorite (or a few favorite) quotes that they would like to share, please comment!

Laminin (by Kendal)

I saw this video a few years ago, and I still can't get over how neat laminin is. If you hven't heard of laminin, here is the video. It gets off to a rather slow start, but hang in there, because this is really cool!

 

Wow! So, now that you know...
Earlier today I was in the CFA break room, just talking to one of the guys I work with about biology and science in general. (It turns out that this guy has a biology degree from William and Mary.) So, then this other guy comes in and jokingly tells the first guy that he should analyze the molecular structure of chicken. Then the second guy's face lights up, and he says, "Oh, last night in church, I learned the coolest thing! There's this cell called laminin, and you know that verse about how Jesus holds all things together?" Needless to say, the biology guy thought that was amazing. :)
Well, I hope all of you are having a great week!
-Kendal

"I See the Light"... 2

Here is the video that we posted yesterday and had to remove. The inappropriate thumbnails that followed the previous version have been delt with. My appologies to anyone who saw the 1st version. As a first time youtube user, I had no idea how important it is to tag, describe and categorize your videos! 
For those of you that didn't see the other post, this is a video of a friend and I (Kendal) playing "I See the Light" from Tangled. Rees Ward is playing the violin, Christian Ward is turning the page for me (at one point I mistakenly nod my head and he almost turns it- too funny. :) ), Kelsey is videotaping and I'm playing the piano. Enjoy!

A Guest Post...

Hello, everyone! This is Kendal. I want to share a story with y'all that I read recently, but since I haven't blogged in a (long) while, I'll give a quick update on what I've been doing first.
In order to get my high school schoolwork wrapped up more quickly, during the months of June and July I only worked on Saturdays at The Chicken (that would be Chick-fil-A). I was able to accomplish a lot, and I will be finished with nearly all of my subjects this month, and I should finish everything in September. Hopefully I will be able to have a party sometime between September and the spring. :) I know most everyone wants to know what I'll do when I finish... I'll probably go into this in more detail in a later post, but the short version is that I'm hoping to do CLEP testing and such, and likely some online courses, although I haven't looked very deeply into anything yet. Mom and Dad have made one thing clear though- I'll be paying for whatever I end up doing. :) I went back to three days a week at work last week, so I'm fairly busy between that and school. We've also been frequenting the YMCA all summer.
So, onto the story. I read this in WORLD magazine not long ago, and I thought it was great. (It doesn't hurt that it has to do with music.) The story is most likely true, although no one really knows. Just to make sure that I get the credits in order, it was part of an article by Joel Belz. I'll quote directly from the article:

"In a major German city- maybe Berlin?- and very likely in the early 1930's, a prominent Jewish violinist was to perform at the local concert hall. But in anticipation of his performance, a music critic for the city's Nazi-dominated newspaper reminded everyone that this violinist wasn't as deserving of his reputation as some had suggested. 'When he finishes his performance,' the critic suggested, 'our applause will be less for his skill than for the Stradivarius instrument on which he plays. It's the excellence of the violin we'll be cheering, not the man playing it.' 

And so it was as the performance came to it's end. The applause was thunderous, but everyone- including the violinist- knew how ambiguous its meaning had become.

That's when the violinist walked over to a nearby chair, violently smashed the violin against the chair's back, and held up it's splintered remains for all to see.

Then he walked quietly to the edge of the stage, opened a case that no one had noticed, and took out the Stradivarius everyone thought, until then, he had been playing. The encore he played for his undeserving audience would never be forgotten."

Definitely one of my favorite stories. Speaking of stories, I'm still planning on doing "The Chronicles of the Chicken", I just haven't gotten around to it. [And I liked the story that I just shared better than my CFA tales :) ] Well, I've got to go; I hope all of you enjoy the rest of the week!

                                                                                                                            -Kendal

Farewell! (by Kendal)

Y'all are likely wondering about the blog title. As most of you probably guessed, I am handing the blog over to Kelsey. (Who, BTW, happens to be rather better than me at expressing thoughts with the written word.) However, my main reason for quitting the blog is just a matter of priorities. The blog, as y'all may have guessed, due to my lack of posting, never was very high on my priorities list. It has mostly been merely a fun way to communicate with friends, especially those that I rarely see. I have often thought that I should be more "serious" about my blogging, but then when I did blog I never had time for truly thoughtful posts. [Coming up with the proper way to express exactly what I'm thinking through the blog takes me FOREVER. Maybe that explains the {long} time it takes for me to write a good paper.:) ]
Well, anyway, I wasn't making time for worthwhile posts.
Since school, next to work at The Chicken, is what is taking the most of my time, I'm thinking that after I graduate I might find myself with some extra time on my hands, and so I may start a new blog then. We'll see!
In the meantime, I hope that y'all will enjoy Kelsey's blog! I might write a "guest post" once in awhile, but don't count on it. :) I'll still read and comment on y'all's blogs, of course.

Well, au revoir!
~Kendal Marie Butler

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all, from Kendal and the other Butlers.

It's Me! (Kendal)

I thought I would do a post on what I have been doing lately and such...

We've been somewhat steadily working through the school books... this school year has been a busy one for Mom- for the first time she has six students, and only two are at the same grade level. (Daniel and Anna) That doesn't make for a very easy job! Fortunately, Kelsey and I do nearly all of ours independently, and we can help the younger children. Despite it being my senior year, I don't have a ton of time-consuming subjects, which is nice, especially since I'm working during the day. This year I'm taking Advanced Biology (human anatomy), vocabulary (very quick and easy, even fun, too a degree) Writing and Grammar, (This happens to be my least favorite subject, next to anatomy, but I would like to improve my writing skills.) Accounting, (it's not difficult, just boring), and History from the Civil War to Vietnam (definitely my favorite subject). I'm grateful for the great education that I've received over the past twelve years, but at the same time I am really looking forward to finishing high school!

I'm still enjoying work at Chick-fil-A, [sometimes known as "The Store", "The Chicken", or CFA :) ] although the "new experience" part has worn off. It started to feel like work after about six months, but it became a job in my mind at about the nine month mark, when I had to start getting up at 5:00 in the morning three days a week, in order to be at CFA by 6:00. It's early, but I get off around 2:00, which is great during the week because I'm getting in hours at work, and still have time for school and stuff at home. It's not the greatest on Saturday, but I could stand the discipline of getting up when it's still dark and cold. :)

Oh, now that I'm on the subject of CFA, some stranger commented on this blog and said that I should post about funny things that happen at work. I think I'll try to do a short post once in awhile about that kind of thing. I'll call the stories "Chronicles of The Chicken" :)

I've been trying to start on making some fall/winter dresses; I have a pattern that I will probably use, and I also designed a dress, but I don't know how it will turn out yet, we'll see. It's always fun to draw a dress and have the real thing turn out like the picture, but I'm not really good enough at designing clothes to do it quickly- it's pretty time consuming. Hopefully I'll become more efficient with practice, I think it's a good skill to have with such a shortage of modest clothing.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Kendal

By Kendal (imagine that!)

Well, I'm back to blogging! I need to head off to bed, but I wanted to let y'all know that I haven't given up blogging, I just haven't made time for it. I've sometimes found myself wishing that we had more hours in a day!
Well, I'd better go! I'll try to catch up on y'all's blogs tomorrow, and maybe do a real post, but we'll see!

Kendal


P.S. By the way, Kelsey, I thought your posts were great!
I know, it's sad when you haven't even read your own blog! :)