Biggest Post Ever

Sorry I haven't done a post in a long time but my mind has just been somewhere else. I will start at the end of August. I went to a place called the Caddy Shack. It was amazing it had three go cart tracks, a paintball range, a driving range, an arcade, and a mini golf course that was incredible. It was a really big course with all kind of things in the golf holes. I had waterfalls and hills and dips and swerves and all kinds of things. After that though I went to the eye doctors and they told me I had to take it easy and not do cross country because my lenses were unstable right now. So when I told the coach she offered to let me be the manager for the team. So now I go to them to the meets and keep track of times and places and stuff like that. At the beginning of the next month I went to a Pirate game which they lost of course. I didn't go for the game though I went for fireworks night at the end of the game. The fireworks were great. Then my family had a Labor Day cookout which was fun. We just invited people over and grilled and swam. It was our last cookout of the season kind of thing. Then I started school which I hated to go back to but it's not that bad once I started it. All my teachers are nice and will help me if I need it. I also started Latin. I didn't want to learn any of the other normal languages that they offered. So I chose Latin. Also my history teacher is a big Irish fan so he is teaching me how to speak Gaelic because I have always wanted to learn it I just didn't know any one who spoke it. After school started I used some Kennywood tickets over one of the weekends. It probably would have been more fun if I would have been allowed to go on some of the rides. The doctor told me that I couldn't because it would shake my head around to much and it could mess up my lenses and make them detach and roll to the back of my eye. So other than that it was fun. Also the Steelers started playing. So far my family has had a party for every game except for one because it was a 8:00 game so it would have gone to late. They have all had themes so far and they have all been really fun. In boy scouts I earned three more badges and I am working towards an award the no one in my group has gotten yet. There are eight certain badges you have to have. You also have to have First class rank and you have to do four major service projects. To give you an Idea of how big I will give you an example of one I am trying to get approved by the council. It would involve me handing out two thousand bag to the neighborhoods and collects school supplies then I would have to write letters to 50 schools and ask them for their old out of date textbooks that they don't use any more. I would have to go around and collect the bags and collects the hundreds of textbooks then send them over to Burkina Faso which is in Africa. Once they were over there I would have to get people to distribute them to the schools across the country. Burkina Faso has a literacy rate of 12.8% which is the lowest in the world that is why I would choose them but that is an example of the magnitude that these projects have to be. I have to do four of them. So I am working really hard right now to get all the badges done and all these projects going. It is very difficult. I also got to be an eighth grade helper to the creek connections thing I did last year so that will be starting soon. Then on top of that the eye doctors told us that the only way to correct the lenses was to preform surgery and not laser eye surgery. This surgery will involve them cutting open my eye and sucking out the old lens then putting in a fake one through sewing it in. The procedure will take three hours and they have to wait six to eight weeks before doing the next eye because they only do one at a time. The first eye will be done on Tuesday the 13th which is in one day. As soon as I can see good enough I will write a post about it. I also got my room done. It is exactly like I wanted it and I love it. Now the three adult dogs sleep with my mom the two puppies sleep with me and my aunt's dog sleeps with her. I ahve a water bed in it and a tv a computer and a giant bean bag. The pictures are below.

Weekend Camping Trip

I went on a camping trip over the weekend. It was very fun because they had off road jeep rides and a giant flame thrower. It was awesome. The flame on the fire that was lit was 50 feet high. They also put four gallons of gasoline on the pile of logs. It burned for 12 hours straight. I also started to trade patches with people. Like each council has a patch so I started trading the different councils.

Wedding

My sister's wedding was on the 8th and it was beautiful. They had the ceremony at Heinz Chapel and the reception at the Priory. They are both really old a beautiful buildings. Then they had the guest stay at the Rennaissance Hotel which also very nice. Plus they had old fashioned trolleys as shuttles from the reception to the hotel. Everything went very good. The food was great too. Also the reception was five hours long and by the end people still didn't leave. Also a lot of people stayed at our house before the wedding. At one point we had 15 people and 8 dogs running around until 3 in the morning. It was fun though because my family is kind of wild. I got to do all kinds of crazy things.

Summer Camp and More

I went to summer camp during the end of July. I took four merit badge classes and and finished four of them. I got a partial on the fourth one. Summer camp was fun for the most part other than the fact that it thunder stormed every day and some of the people I had class with weren't the best. It was still fun. After that I started working on the merit badges that I needed for an award. I have to do six and I have three done. Also I went to the movies and saw the newest Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good. Then yesterday me and my aunt went to a huge fifty house yard sale. It was fun and I only spent $15. We saw so many things. I bought a black light bulb, a really nice pen, a basil plant, and I spent $12 on beanie babies that I thought were worth some money and it turns out that they were. Then I had to go out and buy three pairs of shoes because I needed rehearsal dinner, school, and cross country shoes. I also had to get a rehearsal dinner outfit plus regular clothes. I am also going to start redoing my room and bathroom. I already picked everything out and put the money aside. I am going to start after the wedding. Also the wedding is getting closer and and the final touches are making everyone crazier. My sister is getting really stressed out about it. I have been starting herbs and vegetables because I am going to do an indoor garden for winter so I can still have fresh vegetables and herbs all through the winter. Also I have been getting really interested in electric cars. I have been reading all about different ones and checking out new ones and been getting packets of information on them and reading them like a book.

Birthday and More

My Aunt came up and is now living with us. We have been doing all kinds of things like taking hikes on the railroad tracks and stuff like that. My birthday was July 9th. I had a small pool party. Well it was supposed to be but it rained so we moved inside. It was still fun though. Me and my aunt have also been going berry picking because there is a really big patch of blackberry and black raspberry bushes by my house in a park. I have also been getting into growing and taking care of tropical and wild flowers. I have tons right now. The area over the side of our deck is a big open area so we are going to try and make it into a place to plant and take care of them.

Bettas

I went to a demolition derby a while ago. It was really fun. Also I got an ETrade account so now I can invest in stocks. I invested in this one company and they are doing super good. They sometimes go up 15 cents a share a day. I am excited a bout that and I am going to keep them for a while. I have been really interested in bettas lately I don't really know why but I found this really cool betta site and I found out I have a veiltail betta and a grizzle betta. I am interested in getting a double tail betta. There is a picture of it below. Also I have one of those make your own opoly kits. It is monopoly but you get to make the theme whatever you want. I made it coin opoly. I tried it out and it works and it is really fun. My aunt from Florida is moving in with us. She is supposed to come tomorrow. I am excited because she likes to go out to the creek and places like that. My mom hates to so it is nice to have some one that will take me.

Little Bit of Everything

I have been really busy lately so this post is like a combination of two or three posts. The first thing is that my family had a memorial day cook out. It did rain for a while but it stopped and then it stopped and we went swimming. The next thing is that me and my aunt went on a hike along some old rail road tracks by my house. We thought they were abandoned because they are in such bad shape but a train came while we were hiking along them. The picture is of a map of the tracks. It was also fun because there was a creek that fallowed it.



















The third thing is the frogs that lived in my back yard laid eggs and had tadpoles. I have some inside and I am raising them. The next thing I did was I went on a trip to Lake Erie with my school's Creek Connections group. This was the trip that I did the fundraiser for. It was really fun. First we went to a conservation place and looked at all the displays. Then we went to the beach and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted for a few hours. After we went on a hike and we went fishing for a little while. Last we ate dinner a went home. It was a really fun day. Also I got in the honors roll this year and the ceremony was on June 2nd. I had got all As and one B for the first two nine weeks then straight As the third nine weeks. Also I have been staying after every Wednesday to help in the outdoor garden in my school. We are doing good and we are almost done. The pictures below are of my Erie trip.

Pie

My aunt came up from Florida and brought her dog. It is a miniature Pomeranian. Her name is Prissy. Tomorrow my other aunt is coming up from Georgia. They have some foods you can only get here and some of them they really like so that is a highlight of their trips. For my aunt from Florida it is Boston Creme Pie from a specific diner that makes it really good. I started selling my summer scents. I have got a lot of orders so far.

The Pie

Lizards

Today I have family coming up from Florida. I am very excited, but I have to get everything ready. Also I found a really cool video. It is lizards called Flat Lizards. They leap into the air to catch black flies. Black flies are their main food. Here is the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDC69_hg7Xk

Toads and Cooking

The top two pictures are from me at the cooking demonstration I did on the 5th. I thought it was fun and I would do it again. The third one down is of two toads that decided to live in our back yard. They are most active at night but they are still there during the day. We think it is a mother and a baby because the one came on the other one's back. Also because one is smaller.At the very bottom of the post there is a video of the toads. I had to take it at night because they are most active then.

Cooking

On the 4th I delivered the candles to school and got a lot of compliments. With the new supplies I am using everything is much nicer and smells much stronger. I had all of them done a week early actually. Also on the 5th I helped a restaurant called the Esta Esta with a cooking demonstration. I was the second hand person. In return they promoted my candles. I made some money and handed out a lot of business cards.

Backpacking Trip

Over the weekend I went on a backpacking trip. It was really hot but it was still fun. The way we had to get our water was to purify it from creeks that we come across on our hike. Although we did take a wrong turn and did two extra miles, it was fun. It was a twelve mile hike in all. We camped by a really deep creek that you could hop from rock to rock to catch stuff in it. It had trout and we brought one rod so you could take turns fishing if you wanted to. We ate dehydrated food as our main meals. It looked gross but it didn't taste that bad.

Creeks and Rivers

On Thursday I went to River Quest which is a program that takes kids out on a boat and they go and test the water they are on. You do chemical tests, take mud and look for living things in it, and take some of the water and look for plankton under the microscope. I liked that a lot. Then on Friday I am in Creek Connections so we went down to the creek and you would normally do chemical tests first and then go and play in the creek, but it was like 80 degrees or something so they decided to just let us play in the creek and look for stuff. Only if we could identify it after we were done. Everyone got soaked and we all came back to school and had to go to 9th period. So everyone who was in Creek Connections went to 9th period wet I think some one was even dripping still. It was fun. This weekend I am going on a ten mile backpacking trip. I leave in about half and hour so I will write about it when I get back.

Happy Earth Day 2009

Plant a tree, hug a squirrel, or kiss a duck! It's Earth Day and this year I am planting two trees and gave one away. In school I joined the tree committee which helps pass out two year old trees to students and teachers to take home and plant. Two of them are White Spruces and one is a Silky Dogwood. Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays. I think the environment and all the animals that live in it are very cool.

Science Symposium

Today I went to the Creek Connections Science Symposium. Creek Connections is a program that takes kids to different creeks to do water testing like pH. You also go to lakes and my group is going up Lake Erie. Today I went to the symposium. I made a tri-fold board with a group about the eight chemical tests that we do at the creeks and ponds. It was pretty fun and I got to miss school for it. Also yesterday I got to miss school because I was chosen with about 30 other kids to go to a baseball game. The game part was boring but we all could go around the park and buy food and play games. My Easter was really good too. I got a new scale to weigh wax for candles with. I also got a lot of candy. Also i got straight As on my third nine weeks report card.

Buddy

My neighbor had a really nice dog that lived for 11 years but yesterday they had to put him down. They thought he had cancer and he was really weak. He was one of the nicest dogs that I had ever met and everyone was very sad when he left. This in memory of Buddy the black lab.

It's Spring!!!

On Friday I went to the court house to be in a U.S. Naturalization Ceremony. I wasn't a big part of it but I got to miss school for it. Then after my group went out for ice cream and I looked at the time and figured out what I would have been doing in school. I figured out that while I was eating ice cream I would have been taking a math test in school. It is Spring now so I am very happy it is starting to get warmer and the first flowers of Spring came up in my front garden.

Track 2008

I started track and I think I am going to like it. I am not sure what event I am doing yet but I should know soon. The team was going to try and do pole vaulting as an event and they might still I am not sure. They thought that I would be good at it because I am small and light but my eye docter said I am not allowed to because of my eye condition. I was disappointed, but i think I will still like it. I also went up to New York for the weekend. There was supposed to be snow but there was only patches. The lake was still frozen enough to walk on though.

Candles

For the fundraiser I am doing I am going to have to make a lot of candles depending on how many everyone sells. I am getting all the scents, colors, and wax in now so that I have it to get started right away. I am very excited about doing the fundraiser. I think it will be fun and I bought a new program that will keep track of all of it and pretty much tell me what I need to do and when. It is one of those small business software things. I really like it. It helps me a lot with the web site and all the other orders. I had to make a candle that was ridiculously strong scented. It smelled like Pina Coladas and I think it sank into my clothes because it made the entire house smell like it. So I am going to school smelling like Pina Coladas.

(#_#)

I got my new iPod and it is really cool. Since my house has wireless internet there are so many apps that you can get for it. I think I have forty something. I have some favorites but I play them all. I also got one that is an Irish learning one so I can take my lessons with me where ever I go. Today I have to make candles because I got some orders and I have to make samples for the school to look at to help them decide about the fundraiser. Also Today I get to go to the coin store because I got a gift card for it for Valentine's Day. I am working on my Liberty Head Nickle collection. They are more expensive and I can only get one or two at a time but I am going to just keep working on it.

iPod

Sorry I haven't been writing a lot lately things have just been really busy. I am getting a new iPod Touch on Tuesday. I ordered it and I got my name and web site inscribed into the back. I already started buying apps with the gift cards I have leftover from Christmas. They have so many cool ones and a lot of them are free. Since I am learning the new language and the program is only on my computer at home I got an app that is a learning program for that language. I got a really good report card. I got all As and one B in math. Also at school I am in this science enrichment program. It is called Creek Connections. We go down to a creek and test for chemical levels and stuff like that. Throughout the rest of the year we are going to go to a creek again and test again to see if anything has changed. Then later when it gets warmer here we will go to a pond to go catch and release fishing. Then most likely we will get a charter bus and go to Lake Erie. We will be allowed to bring anything we want for the bus trip. Then when we get there we will do boat tours and all kinds of stuff. Since that is going to be expensive because there are about 30 kids in the program, they have to do a fundraiser. Since the school doesn't have to pay for anything they will most likely say yes to the trip. The really cool thing is what they want to fundraise. They want to fundraise my candles. I am really excited.

Steelers Won!!!

STEELERS WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!

GO STEELERS!!!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

:)

Steelers Won! Ha Baltimore! Pittsburgh's Goin' to the Super Bowl!

In the Negatives

Where I live it has been really cold compared to what we normally are here. Usually it is in the 20s and 30s but now it is going into the negatives and staying there. My school had a two hour delay yesterday and my school was closed today. The air temperature is -2 and with the wind chill it goes down to -21. The weird thing is though about the winter for me is that in the summer I always like being outside because it is hot out and I never got to hot, but in the winter I want to go outside because I am always to hot. I actually think it feels good outside. Everyone thinks I am crazy but I like being outside. When I could find a pair of shoes because we had to put them away for the carpet I just went barefoot outside to take out the recycling. I was only out for like 20 second but I liked it.

New Carpet

My family got new carpet for the house. From how my mom described it I was imagining it to be like a vanilla cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. It has the flex in it so I though tit was going to look like that from the way she described it. It actually looks nice it is kind of shaggy and really soft on your feet.Also I cleaned out all my toys to donate. I donated four cabinets, a toy wagon full of toys, and six bins full. I figured that I have collected them over the years and some other kid is going to have more fun with them than I will because I grew out of them. Below are some pictures

Donated Toys

Before Carpet

After Carpet

Half & Half Carpet

:D

Steelers Won!!! Ha San Diego

Just Every Day

For school I had a PowerPoint that I had to do on a country. I was assigned Kuwait. While I was giving my PowerPoint presentation my cross country coach came in with a bright red microphone singing jingle bells and then everyone started laughing at her. I was in the front of the class and started laughing then looked over and then she saw that I was giving a presentation and yelled sorry then ran out the door. I was still laughing. I still got a good grade though. I think I have to do my track physical soon. In sewing class I started to sew my chair back. Then I am going to make a neck warmer. I am using Steeler fabric of course. The first day back from break was really easy. This was how my day was.

P. 1 - watch PowerPoints

P. 2 - do the climbing wall in gym

P. 3 - color by letter (not kidding)

P. 4 - sit there and listen to a book while we did popcorn reading

P. 5 - lunch

P. 6 - study hall

P. 7 - complete a study guide

P. 8 - iron my fabric

P. 9 - watch a movie

Happy New Year's 2009!!!

Happy New Year's to everyone even though it was yesterday but who cares. My new year's was great! I went out to Sho Gun. It is a Japanese hibachi restaurant. It is really good and my family likes it a lot. Then after that I went to the movies with one of my friends and his parents. My mom didn't want to go so she went home after dinner. The three movies I want to see are Yes Man which is about a guy that can't say no and has to say yes to everything so he gets into crazy things. The second is Seven Pounds which is about a guy that made a lot of money and then he vanishes. Later he comes back but nobody can find him and he chooses seven people to change their lives by giving them money and telling them to do certain things. The last is Valkyrie it is about the Hitler assignation. It is the people that do it and it is about the trouble that they went through and then they act out the actual thing. At the movies I saw Bedtime Stories with my friend and his family because none of them wanted to see any of the ones that I did. Then I came home and I played monopoly with my mom and just relaxed until the ball dropped then we went to bed. The was one weird thing though because I didn't actually see the ball drop and everyone I talked to didn't either so I don't think that they actually dropped it. Also they said that they were not putting it back in the vault. Isn't that a bad idea since I is a $5 million GLASS ball. I think it will get damaged, but whatever it is not my place to say. My New Year's was great! and I am going to the movies again today and I think I am going to see Seven Pounds.