no news :(

Yes, sad to say, there is no news of baby Maurer. Allie is actually saying that she feels even less than nothing. Humph. I wanted him to come today! On his due date! Arg! I'm sooooo impatient. But, now that Allie has stopped working, she's not in as much of a rush to have him, so she's a happy camper. I'm not. I JUST CAN'T WAIT!!! oh boy. I have to go read more philosophy stuff for my class tomorrow. Farewell.

Happy Birthday, Little Brother! (or should I say 'bother' ;)

Today is my brother Keith's 11th birthday. It has been such a joy watching him grow up into a godly man. I know what some of you may be thinking, "Man??? He's not a man yet! He's just now turning 11! He's still a little boy." But the truth is that Keith really is maturing at a very fast pace. Of course he still loves Legos (he spends his afternoons building little tanks and machine guns, or something like that), junk food (I guess most adults love that, too), silly movies, goofing off, teasing his sisters, etc. but he also loves Jesus and the cross. He is, in many ways, more mature than many of my boy peers! (no offense ;) I recognize that God has made him special. Keith has a unique tenderness to people that you don't often see in kids his age. When one of us is sick or sad, he often comforts us in a way that only he can. I love it!

Ever since Keith learned how to read, he has picked up any book lying around that sparks his interest and reads it from cover to cover. And he NEVER FORGETS ANYTHING! I'm telling you, he's going to breeze through his high school science classes. Science has always interested him, starting with dinosaurs and paleontology at age 3. Yep. He knew (and might still know) the name of every single dinosaur. He knew their unique characteristics, the ways they communicated, everything. I can't even pronounce (much less spell) most of the things he was talking about. "Oh yes. Diplodicus was a medium sized dino with claws the size of butter knives on its toes. They communicated with high-pitched noises that they blew through their noses." (I totally just made that up.) This is the kind of thing we would hear every day. He also had/has a huge interest in all animal life. We used to get these "Really WILD Animals" videos from the library over, and over, and over, and over. I think, if you helped him a little, he could probably go through the entire "Bugs" episode. "Hi, I'm your host, Spin..." Oh yes. That spinning British globe that told you all about bats, worms, lions, hyenas, spiders, etc. I remember him well. Thank goodness Keith has now moved on to different kinds of nature shows :p.

As all little brothers do, Keith annoys me sometimes, but most of the time he makes me laugh. He makes my whole family laugh. He makes his friends laugh. He's just plain funny, corny, nutty, and witty. That's another thing I love about him. We share that special bond of goofiness. He knows just what to say at just the right time to strike me as funny. You will often find him and me giggling in the middle of the rest of my family having a regular conversation. Sure, sometimes what strikes him funny are burps and farts, but I just have to accept that as his not-so-mature side. After all, what boy (whatever age) doesn't have a fascination with seeing how many sounds they can make with their body? It makes me sick, but again, I've (almost) learned to accept it.

So there you have it. The confessions of a sister who really loves her mature yet silly, smart, tender, kind, funny brother. Happy Birthday, Keith! I love you!

7 days till the 31st, Fireproof and dissections

Only one week left until Allie's due date! SO. EXTREMELY. EXCITED. I guess you can tell.
I had Biology class this morning. We "dissected" 4 different flowers and 9 different kinds of fruit. I don't really think it qualifies for the title of a "dissection" because they aren't animals, and it isn't gross. I'm relieved that we've left kingdom Animalia for at least a little while. I was getting sick of dissecting a new poor animal every week. But, I must say, the ones we've done so far haven't been as bad as I thought they would be. I actually touched our dogfish shark with my bare hands. I know, I know, I live on the wild side.
Has anyone seen Fireproof? I know you have, Grace, because I watched it for the first time with you. Anyone else? I LOVE it! My favorite part is when he *spoiler* bashes the computer up and replaces it with those beautiful roses and that sweet note that says "I love you more!" I think I started crying. I know I started crying when he's *spoiler* apologizing to Catherine at the end. He is an amazing cryer! (okay, that's not even a word.) Mrs. Maurer and I agree that we've never seen anyone in a movie cry like that. I guess Sam in LOTR is pretty close, but not quite. Then again, I've only seen a very select handful of movies. ;) So, if you've seen this wonderful movie, let me know what you think! If you haven't, go to your local McDonald's or Cub and get it from redbox for a buck. It's by far worth every single penny. Plus, EVERYONE in the movie is from Sherwood Baptist Church except Kirk Cameron, who is a Christian professional actor.
Okay, this post was very odd and random, but hey. That's me. I have to read twenty pages of Plato in the next 30 min before my class. Better hurry. Bye!

Baby!

No, Allie hasn't had her baby yet. :( But tomorrow her church is giving her a baby shower, and we get to go! I can't describe how excited I am for him to come. I don't know if I've ever been this excited for something to happen before. I guess Allie and Ben's wedding and Scott and Emily's wedding come close, but babies are my favorite thing! And there's going to be a sweet, soft, cuddly, cute baby boy here in this very house! I just can't wait. He's due on the 31st, but Allie thinks that he will go late. Her prediction is that he will come on the 3rd or 4th of April. Oooohhhh! I am SOOO excited! Well, I have to go. Bye.
~soon to be auntie

Wii Fit

We finally have all of our stuff! Yesterday, the movers brought back everything from our living room and dining room. (It all had to live in storage while the workers put our house back together after the "flood".) Anyway, now that our stuff is back, we have our T.V.! And now that we have our T.V., we can set up Wii Fit. I'm so excited. We all pooled our Christmas money in order to get it. It looks so fun! None of us have actually ever played it, but we have watched commercials for it and it looks like a blast. We don't have it set up yet, but when we do, I'll post some more about it. And maybe, just maybe, some pictures. =D

p.s. I just did spellcheck, and it didn't recognize the word "Wii". How old is the spellcheck on blogger? It needs to get with the times, man! kidding.

Erin Airs What's Happening

My sister Erin just became part of the blogger world yesterday when my dad helped her set up her very own blog, Erin Airs What's Happening. It's very cute, and I'm sure she'd be thrilled if you leave a comment, or become a follower. In fact, it wouldn't hurt if more of you became followers of MY blog. ;) So go ahead and click the link. It won't take but a couple minutes of your time, and it will make the day of a certain 12-year-old girl that much brighter.

lemon meringue pies

I love lemon desserts. They're so fresh and tart and yummy. Two weeks ago, my mom and I were on a kick for lemon meringue pie. We had frozen store-bought crusts in the freezer, so the hard part was taken care of. All I needed to do was to make the lemon curd-like filling and the merengue. We got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen (it's free to sign up...the only drawback is the multitudinous emails you receive...I still highly recommend membership! All of the recipes that they have aired on television are free!) and it turned out great. It took me all day to make, however. Okay, maybe "all day" is an overstatement. A full 2 1/2-3 hours, though. But boy, was it worth it! Here's some proof:

I made a double batch in order to have two pies. =D

I meant to take more pictures after we sliced the pie, but that didn't end up happening. Oh well. It was yummy! You'll just have to take my word for it, or drop by and let me know ahead of time. I'd love to make one and share it with you!