Johanna Speaks

I went hunting with my brother-in-law, Cameron, and Ezra. That day, (Sept 20th) was the first day of hunting season. We went to the Shasta Lake area. 
 

Cameron had his grandpa's boat, so we took that out on the lake and went to a separate island. Once we arrived on the island, we stopped under a shaded area and had our breakfast sandwich, as it was almost 8:00 AM by then. It was so quiet and peaceful. You could hear every little sound of the birds and other animals. It would've been a perfect place to take a nap. 

When we finished our breakfast, we started hiking up a big hill. After a while of looking for a good place to set up the gun, we found a good, shaded spot that would allow us to spot any deer from far away. We were there for about two hours waiting and watching. There was a lot of noise down in a canyon, but we couldn't see if it was a buck since there were big trees in the way, and we didn't want to make a lot of noise by moving. 

Cameron fell asleep for a bit. 😂 So Ezra and I watched for him. 

A fox came super close to us, and when it finally noticed we were there, it screamed in surprise and ran down the hill. The fox probably didn't smell us since the wind was in our favor. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get anything. Didn't even see a single buck. We hiked back down the hill, and all of us were sweating like crazy! It was so hot. It was about 12:30 PM. I was really glad I didn't wear long sleeves. 

We got back in the boat and left. I know next time, we will get a buck! 

Here are the pics I got:

While I was in France, my grandma took Sophie and me to a marketplace. There were all kinds of stuff—clothes, food, jewelry, etc. It was a really cool and fun experience to be there. I was really hoping to find a dress, since that was one of the things I wanted to get while in France. 

As we walked past various items, I saw a long dress that looked very beautiful on a mannequin. So we all stopped and went to see if there was a dress in my size. My grandma asked the guy who was selling them if they did ( since he only spoke French), and he brought one to us. The smallest size he had was a medium/small. So we got it. 

 Once we got back to my grandma's house, I tried it on. It was a little big around the waist. But I thought I could probably do some sewing on it once I get back to my own house. 

When we were back in California, I took out my sewing machine and started sewing, trying to see how I could make it tighter around the waist. But I couldn't get it right. So eventually I thought maybe I could make it into a skirt. I cut the top off. I wanted the skirt part to be very long, so I made it a high-waist skirt. Then I folded the part where I had cut it and sewed that so it wouldn't fray. It was a little loose around the waist, so I folded it a bit from the inside out and then sewed it to just where I liked it. 

It worked! I even wore it to church on Sunday with a black shirt on top. I also had a black belt, so I put that on too. Here is a picture that my mom got while I was about to walk out the door to church: 

Nicholas proposed to his girlfriend, Noemi, about a month or two ago, and of course, she said yes! The wedding date is October 4th. They will be having the wedding in Lake California at the Lake Club, out on the grass. 

Noemi will move to California sometime at the end of September (since she lives in New Jersey). 

I'm excited to have another sister-in-law!😁 It's going to be awesome! She's super sweet and awesome to be around. She also has a beautiful singing voice and hopefully will sing for our church. And she cooks amazing Mexican food. She's perfect for Nicholas because he has more of a quiet personality, and so does she. But she can also be extroverted when she needs to be and can socialize really well with people. And she's a Christian, of course. She's perfect for him. I'm so glad my brother picked such a wonderful person to marry. 😊 I'm already imagining the little, cute children they're going to have. 😂 Imagine a Nick Jr. So cute! 

Okay, so for Noelle and Cameron's wedding, I wrote a poem for them and recited it out loud on the mic. And for Nick and Noemi's wedding, I wanted to write a poem for them too. I haven't started writing it, so I'd better do that. But it would be cool if I made it a tradition for the rest of the boys when they get married. Just write a poem for each wedding. 

Here are the engagement photos:

My family and I just got back from our trip to France. We spent two weeks with our grandparents. Sophie, Dad, Mom, and I all went. Ezra stayed back to take care of the business and my dog, Ria. 

My mom joined us the second week in France because she had her mom's birthday party to go to in Florida. 

We took three plane rides to get there. Sacermento to Colorado. Colorado to Germany. And Germany to France. All of which took about seventeen hours. Yeah, it was long. 

We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and had a delicious dinner with my grandparents. My grandma made such good food while we were there. 😊 After dinner, we rested and hung out. We eventually went to bed, and I woke up and realized what the time was. We had slept until 12 PM. I guess that's what you call jet lag. 

In France, they are nine hours ahead of us in California. So whenever I text Ezra or something, I have to consider what time it is for him. Because if it's 1 PM for us in France, it would be 4 AM for Ezra. 

In France, everybody has shutters for their windows. It's to keep the houses cool. Our grandparents have them, and one time, I thought they had the AC on, but they don't have AC in the house. It's just naturally cool. And it got to almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it was nice and cool inside. 

They also have a super nice pool! My grandpa makes sure it's always nice and clean and ready to be swam in. It's seriously crystal clear. Sophie swam in the pool almost every day while we were there. Here's a vid and a pic of it:

I noticed there are lots of stone walls in France. I never saw any wooden fences. Just stone and sometimes gates. And also, of course, lots of small cars. Barely saw any pickup trucks. Did see lots of Teslas, though, which was surprising. I would be so surprised if they have the Cybertrucks soon. 

Our church friends have a son who got married last Sunday. They asked if my friend Abbygail Mintz and I wanted to play violin for it. Of course, we both said yes! We only had less than a week to practice. 

We did three songs, one as the bride walked down, two songs the congregation sang, and one more as the bride and groom walked out. Abbygail did melody, and I did harmony. We only got together and practiced a couple of times. So we were a bit nervous. But everything turned out great! 

Here is the link to the wedding: 

Here is a pic of Abbygail and I playing violin:

I had a great time! We ate delicious food and also danced. We watched the bride and groom dance together, which made me cry a bit. I was trying not to, but it was hard. After they danced, a lot of people got up and danced, too. It was mainly swing dancing, with some slow dancing. We also did the chicken dance. That was fun! :)

Then we all said goodbye to the bride and groom as they left in their car.

Our friends, the Mintzs, and I wanted to go back to dancing, but to Lala Land music, which is my favorite type of music by far. It was so much fun. Ezra and I stayed until almost 11:00 PM. Ezra was the tech guy, and he was in charge of the music, so we stayed pretty long. 

I got to take back a big bouquet of roses!! I love roses so much. It's my favorite type of flower. That made me so happy! :)

Everything was a blast!