Summer and Fall of 2010

I haven't done a blog post in a long time, so this one will cover basically all of summer. I have been very busy with all the things I was and am doing, then once school started it almost became impossible. When it comes down to it a blog is not top priority. Today was my last day of the trimester for school and I am off for the whole month of December. This will give me more time to do posts and I can update during the holiday season.
The first thing I am going to cover is the Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia that I went to. At first I didn't want to go to this one because it was the national one and I wanted to go to the international one, which I will get into later. They only hold this event every four or five years. In the end I am glad I went. It was a very good experience. The event is about 45,000 scouts from all over the country that come and do a whole bunch of things in one place. You can do things like scuba diving, helicopter rides, or a ton of other interesting things like that. They send you out at 7:00am and don't expect to see you again until 6:00pm. They let you do whatever you want to and you don't have a schedule. The only down side was that it was blazing hot. The only shelter was tents so there was no escaping it and when it rained it was extreme thunderstorms. An average day could go to 115 degrees by 3pm. It only rained twice, but when it did they had to get everyone under shelter because the only kind of rain they get are extreme thunderstorms. The entire ten day trip was fun and I am glad I went.
In August I did several things. I did a fundraiser for the Light the Night walk that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The fundraiser donated several hundred dollars for the society and I had fun doing it. While people were selling for this I went to an arts festival and bought another vase to put in my room. I had just bought a couple new pieces of furniture for my room and I wanted something to put on the small table. It is a small red and orange glass vase that is made by folding a sheet of glass over itself. I looks really cool and I am very glad I bought it. Also during this month my family had an album party. I didn't even know that these existed, but people bring over old records and they play them as they eat snacks and talk. It wasn't that interesting to me so I just sort of went off and did my own thing.
On the last day of August I started school. It was my first day at City High because I had chosen to transfer. I had to ride the city bus down and back everyday to downtown. I liked it much better than my old school and am very glad I switched. The schedule and grading is a little different than a traditional school. Also the way it's run is different. Every student receives a free laptop because most assignments are done on the computer. The way they teach is also different. They done use traditional textbooks with notes. It is all interactive learning and there are no lectures or textbooks. In science you do an experiment almost every other day. Their grading system doesn't use points. You get a letter grade and then it all averages out at the end of the trimester. Doing this makes every assignment equally as important whether it was large or not. The school is located in an office building as well. This gets us used to working in a office environment so when we do start working we are used to the style. The last major thing that is different about this school is that we don't have the traditional three months in a row off. We go for three trimesters a year and at the end of each trimester, which is a grading period, you get about a month off. This month is the first month of of the ninth grade cycle so I get a nice break.
After school started my sister had her baby. Her new baby is a boy and they name him Aiden Larry Smith. He was born on 9-9-10. It was kind of a good date because they got married on 8-8-09 so the dates matched up. When he was born he was 20 inches long and weighed 7lbs 5ozs. He was born at 11:32 and I was in school so I only got an update on my phone. A picture of him is below.
My aunt who has been staying with us for a while bought a house. It is nice little house that is only about 10 or 15 minutes away so we still see her often. I really like it and it has a big yard so her dog can run around and she can garden. She is very happy with it, but I was kind of sad that she was leaving.
Since we are back into Steeler season my family started holding the weekly Steeler parties. Every Sunday we invite over people and have lunch and snacks while we watch the game. It is always a fun way to unwind at the end of the week.
My whole family including the new member (Aiden) went to the pumpkin patch at Shramm's like we always do each year. We always go to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins to carve and gourds and Indian corn to decorate with. Their farmers market always has fresh grapes and fruit that you can buy. This year we got a bag of jumbo world grapes and they were really good. I have never seen grapes that were that big before and they were so fresh. I will definitely buy that kind again next year.
After going to the pumpkin patch naturally the next big thing is Halloween. I went over to my friends house and we had some people over. We stayed the night and played poker and other random games. I had to leave early in the morning though because I had to get orders done. Whe you don't get home from school until 5:00 you don't really have time to make things on weekdays.
My cousin Leah came up from Florida for Thanksgiving to stay with my aunt for a while. She will be here until the 5th or 6th. I like having her around because she likes to do a lot of the things I like to do, that my mom doesn't. We might do something before she leaves because I am off now.
For Thanksgiving we had every one over and we had a nice meal. I had everything except for the turkey of course, but it was really good. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, blueberry muffins, corn, and homemade apple sauce. It was nice because after dinner we got to sit and talk with everyone there. Thanksgiving is my second favorite meal of the year, after Christmas because we have twice baked potatoes.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post I want to go to the World Jamboree. Each time they hold it, which is every four or five years, it is in a new country. Groups of kids and adults from all around the world and every country come to it and they do everything you can think of. Games and different things from every country. You can learn other people's cultures and even help each other learn some of the language you each speak. It is supposed to be very interesting. Going to the event is expensive though so I have signed up for many craft shows so I can make the money to pay for the trip. So far I have done three craft shows and covered about half of it. I am going to sign up for a few more in December so I can cover as much as I can before the Holiday rush ends. This one that I am saving for is in Sweden. It is next summer so I am excited. As new things come up I will update it on the blog.
Since it is getting to be holiday time I decorated my room. I always do a ridiculous amount of decorating in my room because the holidays are my favorite time of the year. I put before and after pictures of my room below. I am very happy with it. I put a new winter plate on my fountain and hooked up all my lights to a remote so I don't have to climb over to the outlet to plug them in. It is really cool because then even if I am going to be in my room for like 10 minutes I can still turn on the lights to enjoy them. It took me 13 hours straight of hard work to get it from where it was to where it is now.

Atlanta 2010

When I returned from summer camp my aunt took me to a go cart track. We had gone there before so we new we would have fun and we did. The track is really twisty so its challenging especially when there are a lot of people on the track with you. It was a perfect day because it was cloudy but still warm and didn't rain until we were leaving. Even if it had rained they don't close the track and it is more interesting when the track is wet because then you slide around more.
My family had a cook out on the 4th of July for two reasons. The first was for the 4th of July and the second was for my birthday. We combined the two so that it would be easier. The cook out was very fun and I swam a lot. I got very good presents and I am very happy with them. The biggest present I was given was a Nook. It is the Barnes and Noble version of a digital book reader. It is a really nice device. I have been using it a lot since I got it. It is helpful when I travel because you can buy new books wherever you are and it isn't just books it has games like chess too. I also got things like a new pocket knife, a phone skin, some Japanese candy, and money that I am putting into my savings for a car.
If you have been following me for a while you would know that I go to cooking camp that my aunt runs down in Georgia every year. I didn't go last year because of my sisters wedding, but I think that was the only year I missed. This year was very good and I loved all the recipes except one which was extremely bitter. I don't think anyone in the class liked that recipe, but we did make something that was very good and I didn't know existed. It's called hummingbird cake. It is basically carrot cake but instead of carrots you use things like pineapple or orange. The cake is very sweet but very good. I am hoping to make it again soon. Also while I was there we all went to the aquarium in their town. Their aquarium is huge. They have two whale sharks and the only manta rays in captivity in the world. I put some pictures from the aquarium below. Then after the week of camp me and my mom went to two malls. One was normal, but the other was very upscale. There were Bentleys and Ferraris on showcase and the only stores in it were places like Armani, Valentino, and Cole Haan. I did do some clothes shopping though since I have to where Polo type shirts to school. I managed to get all the shirts I need and they were all on sale. It was a very fun trip overall.

Blue Discus

Whale Shark

Beluga Whales playing with the seals

Beluga Whale

Orange Discus

Yawning penguin


Lionfish

Summer Camp 2010

I just got back from summer camp yesterday. I left for camp on Sunday and got back on Saturday. Before I went I signed up for three merit badges. I designed my schedule so that I do all my badges in the morning, so that I had the entire afternoon to just relax and do what I wanted. The three badge classes I took were oceanography, bird study, and forestry. I ended up passing all three and that means that I only need two more badges for the award that I am working towards.
If you are not in a class then there is many options for what you can do. There is fishing and a lake where you can sail, boat, or wind surf. There was also a store that you can go to and get snacks and other stuff. After all the classes were finished the different areas allowed everyone to come in and do what they want with whatever was in the area. For example eco-con would let you hold the animals and field sports would have an open shoot. I normally went to the eco-con place because I liked the animals and the counselors were funny. My favorite animal was a turtle named Oink.
What I did most of the week was after my classes were finished and I ate lunch I would play cards with who ever was at camp. Most people had a class after lunch, so the camp was more quiet than it normally was. After we were finished or got bored of cards I would then go to open area somewhere or take small hikes on back trails that nobody ever uses.
The meals there were pretty terrible. Each group had to send waiters for every meal to set the tables. If you were a waiter for breakfast you had to be ready and leaving the camp site by 6:45. Of course I was a breakfast waiter three times. Being a vegetarian it was hard enough to get a full meal, but the food itself was still pretty gross. It was the equivalent if not worse than school food.

Worst Camping Trip Ever

The toad that visited our pool last year has returned. It is the same species of toad and I think it might be the female from last year because it seems smaller than the male. It also could just be a whole new toad altogether. The species is an American toad. It does have poison on its skin so we had to be careful with the dogs. It wasn't all that difficult though because I can imitate its call good enough that it responds, so when it is time to take the dogs out back I just do the call and figure out where it is at.
I finished the pond for this year. I put in a whole bunch of flowering plants and they are taking very nicely. The water is becoming much clearer because we got a new filter for it. We also started putting in live bacteria that eats the algae growing in the water. There is one problem with the pond so far. A Blue Heron came along one day and ate three of my six fish. I had them for three years and they were getting big, but the bird just came right along and ate them up. I put a temporary net over the pond to protect the other ones. They are afraid to come to the surface now. They won't even come up to eat, they wait until the food falls to the bottom. I put a picture of the finished pond below.
Another new thing I got was a composter. It came from Sam's Club and it was only around $35. We put a small plastic container in the kitchen and I made a does and don't list. Everyone in the house listens and does it so I am glad about that. In about two months I will start having finished fertilizer that I can put on my gardens.
A whole bunch of new plants were put around the house recently. Most of them are fruits and vegetable plants. There are banana peppers, some kind of hot pepper, green beans, strawberries, pumpkins, lettuce, parsley, mint, chives, and broccoli. The strawberries, both peppers, green beans, chives, parsley, mint, pumpkins, and lettuce have either started making fruits or flowering.
I went on a weekend camping trip and it was the worst thing I have EVER done. I got there Friday afternoon and it was 80 degrees and sunny so we set everything up quickly and easily thinking it was going to be like that the entire weekend. I wake up at 2am with my tent flat on top of me and hurricane Katrina's child was upon us. There was 65 mph winds and it was pouring down rain. It was still warm though at this point. So I got out of my sleeping bag and put the tent back up. Then once I was done I ran to help the other people set up there tents and when I got back mine was down again. I repeated this process about three times, until I just decided to sleep under my flat tent. Then the next morning the wind hadn't died down at all and it went from about 80 degrees to about 40 degrees. It was terrible. So we cooked breakfast and set off on the meetings we had to go to. We came back and all the tents were down again. We set them back up and went out again. After the last meeting we returned and the dining flys that we cook/eat under were all tied together to help keep them from blowing down. All of a sudden they ripped out of the ground and flew into the air above the trees. The poles in them then started to fall out and everyone scattered so they didn't get hit (the cars couldn't move so they got banged up). Once the main canvas part hit the ground it started to roll and took out about two thirds of everyone else's tents. We then went into panic mode and guess what happens next. It snows. We went through four seasons in one weekend. It was the worst camping trip I have ever gone on. Also the gear we had (half of which was destroyed by the winds) was brand new because the building it was housed in collapsed over the winter because of the extreme snow. So we bought new stuff for the real trip, because this was the practice, then it was smashed over the winter. Then we replaced that and it was destroyed by the winds on this trip.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Winter Camping

Over the weekend I went on a winter camping trip. I had to sleep in tents but I did get to go to the Gateway game. I got a ride there and then back. It was really cold. It never stopped snowing. When I would wake up it would be 12 degrees. One of the good things was that we were able to build a fire. We cooked all of our food in dutch ovens. I had to eat the side dishes most of the time because the entrees were meat, but there was a lot of side dishes. When everyone got all the food then I was allowed to get more side dishes. I got to shoot guns at targets on an indoor shooting range. We shot 22s. Usually I am against guns but it was ok because they were only paper targets. Also it was inside so there was no way you could hurt an animal by accident. There was a hill that at the bottom there were thorn bushes, trees, wooden poles, giant rocks, and a ditch that would make you flip. So me and three of my friends went sledding on it. We had so much fun. We were having so much fun that when we hit a tree or went into thorn bush then we just laughed at each other and kept going. We enjoyed watching each crash and sometimes we enjoyed crashing ourselves. That was probably the most fun out of the whole weekend.

Reports

In school I have been getting a lot of reports or big assignments. In one day I got a 80 point English assignment and a 90 point cooking assignment. It was insane I was up until 11:45pm. Just to do half of the cooking assignment. Today and tomorrow I get out early because I have a cross country meet in a place an hour and forty five minutes away. I get out at half way through seventh period. I got new glasses. I like them a lot better than the old ones because they are multicolored but with natural colored blues and grays. In my reading class we always get a warm up. You know like a simple question, two or three sentences and then you share. I guess this one made my brain go nuts and I just kept writing. I wrote two and pages in a big notebook. I just kept writing through the entire class.

Sailing

I just got back from a weekend sailing trip. I did a merit badge for small boat sailing and I think I got it. It was a lot of fun we got to sail sunfish. By the end I was flying through the water with my friend. They are two person boats that are 14 feet long. They are a lot of fun. Then I camped out and at our site there was an apple tree. So I picked some they were really sweet and juicy. I thought the trip was a lot of fun and I would do it again. Below is a picture of a Sunfish sailboat. This is not a picture of me on the boat it is just an example picture.

Mexico

These pictures below are from my trip to Mexico. My family always takes a vacation in August. This year we stayed at a resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The resort was called the Grand Sunset Princess. We were reading some of the things that people had to say about it and they were bad but we got there and it was wonderful. There were fountains everywhere and it was very pretty at night. All the floors were made of marble no matter where you were unless you were on the paths to the beach and pool. It was five star and it had many things to do. It also had many restaurants. It was all inclusive so you didn't have to pay for some of the restaurants because it was included in your other price. The pictures you see that are of green grass and palm trees was inside the resort. The pictures of little buildings were some of the small Mexican towns that you sometimes drive through to get where you were going. The statues are the ones that lined the paths in the resort. There were also lizards everywhere. They were wild and also they had trained ones that you can hold. The trained one is the one I am holding in my picture that is on my profile. The old Volkswagons are like a modern cars down there. There are so many of them. The resort was right on a beach so you could just walk along the paths and be there in about ten minutes. We also went to the Mayan Ruins called Chichen Itza. It was amazing. The carvings and everything were fantastic. I always was interested in that kind of stuff and so I wanted to go for a long time and when I heard we could then I was very excited. I think I took about 50 pictures there alone. I also learned an interesting fact. The gum called Chicklets was actually invented by the Mayans thousands of years ago as a sacred food. The pool of water you see is a sink hole that was found and it started to fill. The water is 165 feet deep. You can jump from a platform into the water if you want. It was very cool.

Cross Country

Yesterday I got new shoes for Cross Country. I got new clothes and socks too. I am very excited because I leave for vacation to Mexico tomorrow morning. Really early, at 3:45AM I leave for the airport. I am not sure if I will be able to do my blog in Mexico. I am staying at a really nice place and my family is going to an open market. I also found out that for every one US dollar you get ten Mexican Pesos. If I don't do my blog for a week or so it is because I can't in Mexico.

Getting Ready

I am leaving for Mexico in four days! I am very excited. We are staying at an all inclusive resort. It has five stars and it have seven pools plus hot tubs and all kinds of things. I am starting to pack but it is hard because you don't know what you are going to have there and also the airlines are very strict now. They wont let you have anything any more. Another thing that I don't understand is that you are allowed to have a pack of matches but not a lighter. Yesterday I went to Marshalls with some of my family and I got a glass turtle. It was just what I needed for a spot in my room. This is a picture of it.

Also my sister did get a spot in Heinz Chapel for her wedding. My dog is doing better too. He looks a little bit better and it doesn't seem like his eye it hurts him as much.