Meet Me Knives In Shining Armour.

Heh.
I have chosen to share a photo or two with y’all. Simply because I can. And also maybe because I’m a wee bit proud of my beautiful blades. I only have four at the present moment, but more on in the future.
So, here is first photo:

Are they not astounding? And yes, they of course have names, duh. I’ve been naming things – just about anything that I could – since I was little. One of the first cats I named was Polly Anna unfortunately. We called her Porky though…anyway! That, my friends, has nothing to do with my knives and their proper names.
The one in the middle (which I got only a couple months ago. August to be exact) is Abelia (Though, often called Dagger Me Truthful to match my other two’s names), then the one to the left, the Sgian Dubh, (which was my official first knife. I’m not including all the pocket knives I have and have had, for obvious reasons.) the sgian dubh’s name is respectfully Jarrow Smith. The one at the bottom, my Buck 119, is named Kill You and the last one, on the upper right, is Trust Me. Wonderful naming, no?

And here is one last photo of them all (some with their sheaths if they have one)

Baby Showers

Yesterday we ladies of the family, including Dallas, went to a friends baby shower. It wasn’t bad, but there were a lot of talkative females in one room that wasn’t all that large. If you know me, you are aware that that is not my cup-o-tea. Two gals that were there, that I would normally talk to (maybe ;) ) both had other friends there, and plus it was their sister’s baby shower, so they were helping a lot. Mum talked to another Mum, who is very nice, but has two daughters I don’t think I’d get along with. And we might have to stop by their house next time we go up north, because they live up near there. About half-way to Duluth, I think. Not quite maybe. Anyway. Though the lady apparently has a son or two (I think they’re like 10 and 12 maybe…) that would be very interested in my knife-carrying habit, so that may not be so bad…
But anyway. So yes, that was how we spent most of the day yesterday, was surrounded by woman. I ‘won’ a ‘prize’ though, so ya know, that was cool ;)

Today, at church, Mum and I are doing a small skit/drama for the church. Ugh. It’s called “Mrs. Clean” and it has the stupidest ending. If I had more time, I would’ve thought about re-writing it. Anyway, it’s just Martha and Mary. I’m Mary, and Mum’s Martha. It’s really short, so it won’t take us long, and I’ll probably make someone upset because of my ‘acting skills’ or to some, lack-there-of. (This isn’t broadway. At least I am ACTING! I’ve got emotion into this.) Yeah, issues? Just kidding! Naw, it’ll be perfectly fine. We both know our lines backwards and forwards, so it shall be grand.

Mine Hopeth Trunketh.

Jyep, I finally got my butt around to finding my battery charger, charging my dead batteries, and then putting the fully charged batteries into my camera that really isn’t great, then taking photos of my trunk that I got for my birthdayeth. So without further ado, here beith the photos.

B-u-T-full ain’t it?

And that is the inside with some lady ;)

It was cool, because when we got it, there was a whole bunch of old newspaper clippings that had just about disintegrated. The year on one of ’em was like 1902 or something. Really neat :) I kept the clippings.

So dah, that is mine hopeth trunketh. And no, it’s not empty.

Ready or not death will find you.

I had an interesting dream last night. It causes great thought for me.
It was like a battle was going on. Guns and everything. My Dad and I were fighting side by side. Dad was wounded. I was shot several times in the leg and arm. I said “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” and the guy who shot me before, said “Is that so?” and shot me in the head. Everything went dark, and I could feel myself fading. Fading away, thinking *This is what death is. I’m going to be in heaven in a few moments. NO! I’m not ready. I’m not ready, Lord. I’m not ready to leave this earth.” And somehow I recovered – it wasn’t somehow, it was a miracle.
This dream was so life-like, that I still can imagine what dying is like.
Last night before I fell asleep I asked that God would guard and ‘conduct’ my dreams. And lately I’ve been wondering what His will is for me. I used to be so sure I was so mission in India, but I haven’t felt so great a pull there anymore. And I am not sure if that’s Satan’s doing, or God’s. This dreams causes me to think I shall one day be dying for my faith, as every Christian might have to face. And are we ready? Just because God saved me in my dream, does that mean He will do the same in real-life situation? Will I be ready to leave this earth at that point? Right now, I know I’m not ready. Somedays I want to be with God more than anything, but in the big scheme of things, I don’t think I’ve fulfilled my purpose here, yet.
Though this dream hasn’t really reveled God’s complete will for me, it has caused me to think.
“Our parents battle is about to become our own.” – How To Train Your Dragon.
I’ve had a couple dreams in the past about battles. Real life battles, where people die. One that still rings clear is the one I had where someone said they were going off to war, and I said “But we’re only 15!” I was left, while the other teens went. No matter what the age we are, it’s not ‘only’. God can use us at any age, if He so desires. Prepare yourselves to be ready.

Why I would not live on Wiggle Road Part 3

Because it just sounds weird.

Wednesday We awoke from our sleep (actually, not all of us slept really great, but that’s normal for up there.) and we kind of just hung around for a wee bit. Soon, we got all packed up,

and loaded the car. We did a little cleaning up as always, and said our fare wells. It was about…elevenish I think by the time we left. Eleven Thirty maybe. We went into Duluth, stopped at the Dollar Store (Nanny had given Noah money, and what is a Duluth trip, without going to the dollar tree?). I got a couple things – some envelopes, pens, and a notepad.
Before we could go home, we had to stop at USA Foxx and Furs…Just kidding!! We certainly didn’t have to, we chose to :P Haha. We stopped there to visit Toby (nissesummit) because he works there. We went into the store part of it, and was greeted by a guy. He asked me to skin a bear, since I had a knife on me ‘I have one waiting right now!’ Haha, thanks, but I’m good. After asking me a few more questions (yeah, believe it or not, I was the one that talked and answered the questions. I think Mum was out of her comfort zone… ;) ) he had a gal named Donna lead us up to the top place where Toby does the work. Donna had a fantastic accent. I could seriously listen to that all the time. I want an accent. :) I found out it is Polish. Very cool. Once we got up there, Toby showed us around, and it was very interesting. Mum said it was like a homeschool trip ;)
We only stayed there for a little while – we had a time limit, which I hope we didn’t overstay ;)
And soon it was finally time to get home. I love home. But it took a while to get out of Duluth. Dad missed a turn or something. We did finally get out, and had the long drive home. And we arrived home around Five or so.
When I got the mail, I was caused to laugh, as I opened one. It was a birthday card from my other grandparents (Mum’s Dad and step-mum) and the card was…Mr. Thornton! Hahaha. Mum and I both had a good laugh over that one ^.^

Why I would not live on Wiggle Road Part 2

Because every time I saw it, wrote it, heard it, I would automatically think of a Wiggle’s Song, and that is not a good thing.

Tuesday Raechel has been 16 a full 24 hours now. Whoopee. After hanging around Nanny’s house, my family and I (not including the dog and cat) left, and went into Duluth. We went to Canal Park first. Oh was that wonderful. It was quiet when we got there, and I was able to stand in the water, with no one around. I only got my feet went though – I was wearing flip-flops. The water was cold, but not bitterly so. After Mum convinced me to leave that spot, we walked the..uh, blanking…the walk that leads to the lighthouse. Then went into the museum building, looked around there, watched the creepy people talk in their rooms (they’re not real.) and when I talked back to them, they wouldn’t answer. Huh. After that, we found out a ship was coming in soon, so we waited that out. Mum, Noah and I walked the board walk, and came back to Dad, and waited some more. The ship finally came in. I’ve seen a lot of them come in, but it was cool for Noah :)
Next we went and had lunch, and proceeded to go to my beloved Seven Bridges Road. That was wonderful, as expected. I would have photo’s except I LEFT MY CAMERA AT NANNY’S. Erg. I was all proud of myself for remembering to bring it up, and then I go and leave it at ‘home’. Whatever.
We actually didn’t stay at SBR for all that long. Dad was really tired, and sore, and we still had stuff to get done for Nanny and Grandpa John. While at SBR though, I did get wet. My feet of course, and then the bottom of my skirt got dampened as well. It sure is beautiful up there. Heh heh, and I had some lady walking by laugh at me…see, I was singing. Weirdly, and with my own words. We were walking up the ditch-y area, and Mum took the soft path, and I took the rocks, so I sang: “You take the soft ground, and I’ll take the hard one, and you’ll probably get thar afore me!” (to the tune of “Loch Lomond” Or however you spell that.) And so, a lady was walking right by us, but I didn’t know that, hence the reason I was singing… :P
After arriving back to Nanny’s, Dad took a nap and Mum, Noah and I…did something. I don’t know. Just hung around. When Dad got up, we put away their outdoor furniture, then Dad took care of their pontoon – getting it ready for winter. And I cleaned out the outside firepit. We had dinner, talked to my grandparents, who never fail to bring a smile to my face. And G. John is constantly dishing out compliments. I think I said “thank you” a billion times ^.^
Around bed-time, I went down to the bunkhouse (it’s right by the house, and has six beds in total, I think I counted. A sauna is connected to it.). This is where I slept:

Yep, it’s messy. And yes, that is a “Rugrats” pillowcase. One of Dallas and my favourite shows growing up =D
Some other random photo’s I took that evening:

Here you can see some of the bunkhouse – and me ;) I took the picture facing the window, as I’m sure you figured out.

This is the top of my journal entry the night before. Please excuse my handwriting. I was tired, it was late, etc. etc.
And that’s really about it for Tuesday!

Why I would not live on Wiggle Road Part 1

Because everytime I would write it, or hear it, or see it, I’d think of The Wiggles. (No, we didn’t drive by the house there, just saw it on internet)

I am home sweet home now, and a year older nontheless.

This is what 16 looks like…Ha! Naw, this is “Mr. Timn”. Birthday present. Explained further below.

Sixteen is a nice age, and I can be driving soon. My savings for it is growing slowly.
We had a lovely time in Duluth. And I shall be posting about it in parts, because that seems easiest.
Today, I shall post about Sunday/Monday:
Sunday evening we celebrated my birthday, which was the next day. Dad came home from Wisconsin around fivepm, and David and Dallas came out a bit earlier. We had dinner, then cake, and to Noah’s delight, opened my presents. I think Noah was more excited than me. Weird. Anywho. We didn’t have 16 candles, because that would be too much. Mum just put on maybe…6 or so. I tried to get out of having them sing to me, but that didn’t work =/ Oh well. I blew out the candles, and all went out accept for one, which just wouldn’t go out. And if you know anything about my family, they teased me to no end about that. “Uh oh! She’ll have one boyfriend!” David, of course, had to name someone. Ugh.
First I opened Noah’s two presents to me, because she wanted me to. One was a hat, that I very much like, and wore on Monday. There will be a picture of it, but I probably won’t post that till I write about Wednesday because that’s when I took it.
The other thing she got me was some German-made chocolate. I still haven’t eaten it, but let me tell ye, I am looking forward to that ;) Next gifts were A Julian Smith t-shirt, my hope trunk, a Voice of the Martyrs t-shirt, book on India, and rubber bracelets, and…bum.bum.bum… “North and South” movie and book! That was lovely. Dallas and David got me a beautiful necklace too :) I think that was it…*shrug*
Monday we (Dad, Mum, Noah, me, Truly, and Nina) left the house around nine-ish. We didn’t arrive in Duluth for some time, because we drove by some houses for sale up around there, and got out and looked at one house. That one was amazing, but it was in the process of being sold :(
On the way up we stopped at one point, just outside of Duluth I believe, that had a breath-taking view. I got a couple pictures, but they didn’t work very well…

It was … astounding in person, and the colours up there were vivid and beautiful.
When we finally got into Duluth, we decided to forego Seven bridges road, and just go straight to Nanny’s and Grandpa John’s. We were all tired. Nanny had a dinner for us, and cake. Again, I was sung to against my will. And again I blew out candles. Only 3 this time, and all went out.

“Hello, good morning, how you do?”

That song has been floating around in my head for a while now. Yes, I know what it is.
Now, I came here to say something specific so I shall be getting on with that now.
Tomorrow (Monday the 10th) is my 16th birthday, and for my sixteenth birthday, it was my desire to go to Seven Bridges Road in Duluth. That is exactly where we are going.
After SBR we will either go to the Point, or just go to Nanny and Grandpa John’s. In which case I would visit Lake Superior another time before we leave on Wednesday.
On the way home, we shall be looking at (driving by for the most part, really) some houses for sale, which, in my opinion, should be fun. I like looking at houses.
So, I may not be on the computer much at all during this time (monday through wednesday). They have a computer, but don’t know how much I’ll use it. I won’t be replying to any of my emails while up there (it doesn’t work well) but perhaps I shall still be on Twitter, and possibly even Buzz &here. Who knows.

Dad shall be back this evening, which is definitely a good thing..heh heh heh. I stay up too late when he’s not, and tend to get on the overly tired side, which means…it can get scary. (Not bad, and I don’t get cranky, just…Rae-ish)
David and Dallas will be coming out as well, and we’ll have dinner, a small cake, and open my presents (that I insisted I didn’t need, but Mum doesn’t listen…) so that we can just leave right away in the morn.

If I could have afforded my permit at 15, I could totally be driving legally soon. I’ve started saving for that though. I’ve got $10 so far ;) Haha, give me a break, I don’t earn much money at all. Plus $30 is saved for guinea pig food this winter. And I still have an extra $20 so I’m doing pretty good. Not that any of you care about my financial state ;)

Well, I guess that brings us to the rap-up then. I shall ‘see’ y’all when I get back, and I’ll be a year older :P Ta-ta for now. :)

Marked with a ‘T’

Yesterday, my family went with some friends (they’re an adult couple, more friends w/ parents, but Mrs. N is super nice, and everything…in order to explain them, it’d take too long.) anyway, we went with them up to Little Falls to winterize Mrs.N.’s late sister’s house. The whole situation of it is sticky, and very sad and messed up, but I’m also not going to get into that.
After we winterized the house, we had to go into Little Falls to do some things, and while Dad and Mr. N went somewhere to take care of something, Mrs. N, Mum, Noah and I were dropped off at a park next to a zoo which we would go through when Dad and Mr.N got back. The park was very nice, and quite beautiful. And there was this awesome merry-go-round thing. Two actually. One large one, and one 1-person one. The 1-person one was really great :D I got so dizzy on it I couldn’t want straight. Good times. And then the larger one, I did with some little boys who wanted to join Noah and I. They were pretty cute, typical boys ;)
After the guys came back, we went to the zoo, and were for some reason marked with a ‘T’ stamp. I still have no idea why. The zoo didn’t start with a ‘T’. My thought was maybe the ladies name begun with a ‘T’ who was stamping us. *Shrug* or else they could’ve just grabbed a random letter stamp. If that’s so, they really should’ve grabbed a ‘z’ or a ‘p’ or something that had to do with the zoo…
The zoo was little, but had grand animals and my ‘zoo animal want’ list just grew bigger. Mrs. N said “Whoah, I’ll let ya have a knife but a TIGER?” Yes, I fell in love that day. He was an adorable ‘little’ fellow. I just wanted to go and hug him. Seriously, he was the cutest thing ever, and my heart shall never beat the same. ;)
Mrs. N also said I couldn’t have a bobcat. Pfff. Ruin my day why don’t ya? XP
David (my brother in law) STILL hasn’t gotten me all the animals on my list. He said before he and Dallas were married, that he would fulfill my wish. Well, he hasn’t. Anyone willing to, I shall give them a big hug and a kiss ;) (no, I wouldn’t have given that to David. Just a hug. And perhaps some chocolate.)
After the zoo, and getting my heart broken, we got some water, and went back to the house to finish, then went to DQ. We were gone the whole day. And I got quite a bit of reading done, which was nice.
I am still marked with that ‘T’, it won’t come off, and my other hand has it too because I must’ve put that hand on-top of the other. Weird. I even took a shower last night, and it hardly faded. What kind of ink is this??

In which I do a post with mostly images.

Because I believe in this:

But

People ask:

And the only answer I need is what I believe:

This is what I look like sometimes:

And people say I’m crazy, but I say I am what I am.

Yesterday, my family and I watched

Which in other words is:

And recently we danced to:

Among other FamilyForce5 songs.

I own this:

and this:

Plus other sharp blades.

I often bleed in love:

And now it is my wish to say: