Happy Birthday, Anna Lee!

I won't be home tomorrow, but I wanted to wish one of my best friends a happy birthday!

My New Bedroom!

I can't believe all the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations are officially put away. The house is so bare now. Everything has a home in the closet now. It's kinda depressing, just like the rest of these winter months!

The plus of winter, though, is snow days! We had THREE in the past two weeks. To say the least, I tackled a large project that has been on my list for a very long time. So long in fact, it's been on my list since Anna Lee visited here for the first time, almost two years ago. I remodeled my bedroom.

Since I've moved into a smaller (though private) room, it's been hard to do anything with it. Though this is temporary (Alyosha's grandfather is working on a new space for me to call my bedroom currently) I thought I would warm up my room and make it more lively and livable.

(The headwall in my room. These are only a few of my Broadway posters. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the others. The things on my dresser are all from my travels. Can you recognize anything? I switch a few things in and out periodically, as there isn't much space.)

(This is a total view of my room. I'm not happy with the back wall, but I don't know what to do with it right now. This picture really shows you how cramped my room is right now though.)

(I'm doing what I can with this space. My clothes and costumes are all under my bed. It fits nicely.)

(All of my stuffies have homes now!)

(And I adore my headboard wall. All the pictures are from my trips over the summer!)

(A final view of my room...)

I'm very excited for my room though. It will be almost twice to size of my currently cramped space. I'll even be able to have friends over for sleep overs and even for extended stays! I'm very excited, and I'll keep you updated on that. In the meanwhile, and ideas for motifs or colors?

Peace and Love,
Hodel Enye Yanovic

Happy Holidays!

This post is somewhat delayed because of all the holiday activities around here. The week after Thanksgiving, I went to Disney World with Alyosha, while Rosalia went back home to Italy for a few weeks. I had never been to Disney World before. It was very exciting, and as soon as we got home, I was begging to go back!

(Tin soldiers in the Magic Kingdom)

(Nighttime in France)

While in Disney World, we celebrated Hanukkah. Each night I prayed, and played dreidel, and I was even lucky this year and got something each night! It was a good year. I liked spending Hanukkah in a non-familiar place.

Then... CHRISTMAS! Even though I'm Jewish, Rosalia and Alyosha are not. A part of me learning about other cultures is holidays too, so Alyosha lets me celebrate Christmas. I even sent Christmas cards to my some of my friends who sent me a card this year! I liked Christmas music too. It's kinda like Broadway music, but if you sing it in a store, no one looks at you funny!

(Rosalia and I making Christmas cards! We decorated the tree all by ourselves, too!)

Finally, we have the Epiphany. Although a religious holiday, it isn't really celebrated in the United States by too terribly many people, like Christmas. For Alyosha, it's more of an Italian tradition to celebrate the coming of the three kings to Bethlehem. For the Epiphany, a family usually would attend a mass, and in Italy, their gift bringer comes on this night. She is called La Bufana, which means "the gift-bringer" in Italian. She was asked to join the three kings on their journey, but she was afraid to go with three very strange men, so she didn't. Later, she thought she would and see the new king, but it was too late. The star was gone. So now, she visits every child and gives them a little gift, just in-case they are the Holy child. 

Different cultures celebrate differently though. 

!!!HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Till Death Do Us Part...

You'll never guess what I did tonight! Alyosha asked special permission for me to join the cast backstage before the show! I couldn't pass it over. 

I got to meet the leading actors and help Alyosha run lines and get ready. 

This is Alyosha's dressing station. She has a little tape spot that says her name as well as her paper plate award to let people know who's station it is. 

Alyosha's changing station is in the boy's dressing room, because she would rather not deal with girl drama. Everyone changes in the bathroom anyway, so it doesn't matter. All they really do in here is talk and play games before the show. We almost played Candyland! 

Alyosha's cue wasn't for a while so she had to use a radio so she would know when it was safe for her to roam the halls without being seen by anyone. The techies have very funny conversations! 

It was a VERY funny night filled with amazing acting, amazing new friends, and amazing fun!

Pretty Leaves, pretty leaves are falling down...

It's been a while since I updated, but there has been a lot going on! Our homeschool group has been working on our play. The show is in ONE week! Can you believe it? The week before the show is always my favorite though! I'll be very sad when it's over.

Last weekend was Halloween. Rosalia had never celebrated before, so I took her out for Tricks or Treats, to a party, and on Thursday, we watched Charlie Brown! She certainly liked it! We decided to be Kirsten and Samantha for Halloween. Singrid got sick, but she was going to be Felicity, so we could represent the retired, but not forgotten, American Girls. People loved our costumes and our homemade treat bags. 

 This was Rosalia's. Oner side had a Halloween scene with ghosts and ghouls. This side was inspired by Charlie Brown. You can't see it, but Linus is in the pumpkin patch!

This one was mine. One side was Charlie Brown inspired, with all the kids in their costumes. This side is of two friendly witches flying over the night sky. 

 The first week of November we took off school for our Fall Break. During this time, I was also introduced by Sigrid and Rosalia, to All Saint's Day and All Souls Day. They are celebrated on November 1st and 2nd.

Even Rosie wanted to dress up. I'm not sure which Saint she wanted to be, but I thought she looked really pretty in her dress from Michigan!

And guess what! Only three weeks until I go to Disney World! I'm very sad Rosalia can't come (She is going back to Italy to visit family), but I'm very excited. I've never been with Alyosha. Last time, I went with Angie, and it was so much fun! Maybe I'm tall enough to ride Space Mountain this time! I sure hope so!

In which we went camping...

I know this is a bit late, but I've been so busy this week. It was the first week of schooling. You would think that being homeschooled, you would have more time, but it's quite the opposite, I think. Anyway, a few days ago, Rosa and I went camping to celebrate the end of summer vacation.

We set up camp in Alder Creek, where we had the fire the previous night. I even let Rosa bring my Ugly Doll with her, so she could have something to cuddle with! We made everything very neat. It's actually cleaner than my bedroom right now!

We had no problem with the no shoes rule!

My favorite thing was playing dolls. Rosa's Ugly Doll was a princess from Spain, who was try to flee from the evil dragon-dinosaur-fairy-monkey who wanted the crown! Rosie helped hide her in a cave!

Alyosha told us we needed to go to bed early though because school started the next day. Oh poo! But it had been a long, fun day.

My Trip to Dayton and the Campfire

Yesterday was only 70* as a high! Isn't that crazy. At night it went down to 54*. Boy did it feel cold!

 We had to drive up to Dayton (it's about an hour away) to visit Alyosha's grandparents from up north, and Uncle Bill. I wasn't allowed to go inside with Alyosha and her famiy, but they gladly took me up for the car ride. It was fun long, but highly entertaining.

Everyone in the backseat (Alyosha, her brother, and me) watched Glee. Alyosha's brother refuses to watch it unless Jonathan Groff is in it. I don't know why, but it's stilly.

About half way we saw "Touchdown Jesus" for the first time since it burned down a few months ago. For those of you that don't know about this odd statue, here is a bit of background:

"King of Kings was a 62-foot (19 m)-tall statue of Jesus on the east side of Interstate 75 at the Solid Rock Church, a 4000+ member Christian megachurch near Monroe, Ohio, in the United States. It was destroyed by a lightning strike and subsequent fire on June 15, 2010.

Located on the Interstate-facing side of the church's outdoor amphitheater, the statue was set on an island at the head of the church's baptismal pool, flanked by fountains and lit by colored spotlights. It depicted Jesus from the chest up, with his arms and head raised to the sky. The statue had a 42-foot (13 m) span between its upraised hands and a 40-foot (12 m) Christian cross at its base. The completed statue weighed 16,000 pounds (7,000 kg).

Since its construction, the statue has been given many nicknames, both affectionate and derisive, by local residents and I-75 travelers. Among them are: Big Butter Jesus, Touchdown Jesus, Big J, Swamp Jesus, and Mega Jesus.

The statue is also credited with inspiring two musical works: Comedian Heywood Banks wrote and performed his novelty song "Big Butter Jesus" about the statue. Singer-songwriter Robbie Schaefer of the band Eddie from Ohio wrote the song "Monroe, OH" after driving past the statue.

On June 14, 2010 the statue was struck by lightning and suffered major damage in the resulting blaze. The statue was sculpted using a thin skin of fiberglass over a flammable styrofoam interior stabilized by a metal frame, and the fire left only its internal metal structure. Following the fire, the pastor of the church stated that they plan to have the statue rebuilt, but now using fireproof material. In the days after the destruction, the church's digital sign had the message "He'll be back" running. Although the statue cost about $250,000 to construct, it was insured for $500,000 because the artist, Brad Coriell, had donated his time to the creation. The damage to the statue and amphitheater was estimated at $700,000 with $300,000 being for the statue and $400,000 for the amphitheater. PETA has offered funding through an 'anonymous Christian donor' to help rebuild the statue if they are allowed to promote veganism at the church."

Along this same road we saw IKEA, three flea-markets, a REALLY COOL Mosque, Entertainment Junction, the Ohio outlet malls, and lots of red punch-buggies!

On the way how I played with Rosie and my new Ugly Doll (Thanks Virginia), Ninja Batty Shogun. They had an amazing adventure in Belize, rock climbing and jumping into waterfalls!

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Last NIGHT we had a campfire because it was so cold! It wasn't much, but we invited my neighbor and my new friend I'd like to introduce to come out and enjoy it too. My neighbor, Emma (I don't know her real name, she changes it all the time!) is from England. Her family moved here when she was little. She's lived there for a long time. She goes to a public school and I don't, so she has a lot of friends from school to play with, but sometimes she comes over and we play, and sometimes she brings a friend.

We stayed up and took turns telling scary stories. They were more funny than they were scary though. Maybe like fairy tales. Princesses, dragons, and an evil queen!

Now I'd like to introduce you to someone special. This is Rosa Maria Sanfilippo. She is staying with me until the end of next school year. Rosa is from Italy! Her English isn't very good, but neither was mine when I first came from Ukraine. She is very much into theatre too, and loves playing dolls! I'm very excited to have here here with me!

I just know Rosa and I are going to be best friends!