Yes, I know that it has been forever!!!! since I've blogged (according to some), but really, nothing that exciting had happened. Yes, some Nebraska cousins came up. Yes, they brought my grandparents their very first computer (which they call us for help for difficult tasks like turning it on). Yes, we got a new computer game that means that Dad, Sarah, and the boys are always playing so no one else can get a turn (if I could get on the regular computer instead of on Dads business computer, I could post some pictures). Yes, I finally broke the batting stick (yay me!). But as I said, nothing really interesting. Until this morning.
We got snow. Ok, maybe that doesn't sound interesting to some of you, but I WAS FINALLY STARTING TO SEE GREEN!!!!!!!!!! We should have had a 2 hour delay, but we are already going late at the end of school. I was going slow. Maybe about 30. I started fish tailing. I went in the other lane. I tried to get back in my lane. I went into the ditch. No this ditch wasn't a shallow city ditch. This was a deep steep ditch. When the car came to a stop, our nose was in the dirt. The person behind us stopped. My sister Sarah who was behind them stopped. I used a cell phone to call my dad to get the car out. The person behind us was related to us somehow and volunteered to take James and Michael to school. Sarah stayed with me until Dad got there (which was forever). It turned out that Dad decided that it would be a bad idea to try to pull it out so he drove it out. Looking at the car, I hadn't thought that that was possible. The car was ok.
But what really surprised me were the number of people who stopped to see if we were ok and if we needed help. Ok, so most of them were relatives, but not all. When I got to school, everyone knew. I walked into my 1st hour class (4 minutes late) and they had heard. It was weird.
But what really made my day was that in science class, my teacher lit a firecracker and through it into an adjourning room. It was hilarious.

Tour Two

So a couple weeks ago, it was really really nice out. I have decided that it is time for another digital tour.I blame Sarah. She has a photography class and wanted to go around and take pictures. The fist place we went was near Hawarden by the blinking yellow light (don't you love directions in the country?) Apparently there are old boots on fence posts there. My dad says that they were always there. So here is a nice picture of them. On the way back home, we came over a nice hill and I thought it was a nice view. I also realized that I didn't have many pictures of me (not that you would want that!) so I took a picture of myself.

After that, a on Saturday, Sarah took me to Dordt College. It is here job to look after the animals there while they are on Easter Break. On the way there, I took the picture of the Eagle feasting on the pig carcass. It looks like a random picture of landscape, but if you zoom in on it, you can see the bald eagle. We actually have a lot of bald eagles around here. Charity actually had one glide up by here car on the way to school. She actually had to slow down so she didn't hit it. But at Dordt, there was a black snake. I was actually very scared of it, but I touched it! There were also 7 grey mice there. Over the break Sarah will have to feed them to the snake. The mice are actually very cute! There were also around 3 frogs there too. They were very very gross but I got a cool picture. They liked to hide under the rocks so they looked like the witch in Oz (squished by the house). There were 2 tanks of fresh water fish and 2 tanks of salt water fish. There was another snake too but we didn't pick him up because apparently he's mean. In that room there were jars of really really gross things like octopus tentacles, spiders, crabs, and other gross things. Have you realized that things look 10X as gross when they are in jars? Well, I hope that satisfies your need for me to blog!

I haven't blogged in a while and I have heard about it. Umm... what's new in my life... Thursday we started pitcher/catcher open gym at school. I am still sore. I thought it was going to be informal, come when you want, leave when you want. I was wrong. I showed up in jeans to find that it was a very structured practice.

Coach VR: would you like to change?

Me: Ummm... no?

Brooke (my catcher): you can pitch in jeans?

Me: (I've been pitching in the barn all winter. You can pitch in shorts but you wont be pitching in shorts more than once) Ummm... yes?

Then, coming back, it was like a blizzard. Instead of going 55 mph, we were going 25. In some parts, you had to stop until you could see the road again.

In speech, we are done with our story telling unit. I read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Now we are doing a persuasion speech. This is a picture of a random guy that I drew. My birthday is on Tuesday!!!!!

One of the many mind-boggling things about a rual community...

So today was my fist day back in school. I got a lot of comments on it from class mates and teachers. There were a lot of comments to the effects of me "rejoining the living" and so on. But the point of this digression was that I learned, to late to do anything about it, that today was bring you tractor to school day. Driving to school, I noticed 3 tractors in the Hardees parking lot (for those who don't know what Hardees is, it's like a McDonald's). Strange. I didn't know at the time that it was take your tractor to school day. When coming home, I made a point to look in the back parking lot. There was about 10 tractors parked out there! If I had known sooner, I would have taken one of Dads (regardless to the fact I can't drive it by my self).
Since today is a day dedicated to tractors, I feel that I should rant a bit about my dads tractors. He has two. Their names are 21 and 22, since my uncles tractors are already named 1 and 2. My Dad's mechanics call them the new tractor and the old tractor. One is 1/2 year older. They are bright orange AGCO tractors. For those who have seen Cars, they look sort of like the tractors that Lightning goes and "cow tips" They are more sophisticated than our cars. They have a lot of expensive electronics in it so dad can go in a strait row (I'm sure there are other reasons that they have. I've just never learned them). The seat is heated. It has a CD player (none of our cars have one). They have other things too, but I should stop before you go into a coma from boredom.

ICH BIN KRANK!!!!!

For those of you poor individuals that didn't take German and are wondering what my title means (cough cough Mitchell)... I AM SICK! I just heard from mom that you are too Mitch.
Friday was a 1/2 day with monday off. First James got sick. His record high... 103.4 Then Sarah got sick, dad got a cough, Now I'm sick though my high is only 100.4 Mom says tomorrow I shouldn't go to school, though James might be better by then.
The people who aren't sick? Michael. Charity was comming down with it this morning but she went to school anyway, leaving the 2 sick children she was babysitting (Andrew and Casey) with my Aunt Brenda. The reason my sister is babysitting? There parents went down to Mexico!!! My Aunt Judy and Uncle Phil were going down too. They have 4 kids. We were supposed to get the second oldest but we didn't want to get him sick too, so he went over to Mitch's house along with their second youngest, Isaac.
I checked and our Easter Break is March 20-25. Any of those days match up?
Oh, since we're Juniors, I'm sure you're getting as much college mail as me. One that actually looked interesting was an American College in Rome.
Dad: Ooooh! Cool! We can come visit you!
Mom: We'll never get to see her again!
Me: ...
Dad:You could go for just a semester if you felt like it!
Mom: She'll meet an Italian Guy and we'll never see her again!
Me: ...

Fun w/ Translators

So, Chartiy showed me on youtube a movie where they did a skit, translated it to french, then to German, then back to french, then finally to english. It was hilarious. So I decided to do that with Psalm 23. Actually, it didn't turn out as hard to understand as the skit. They had to use subtitles. Anyways, here it is...

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not in need.
2 I am more in green pastures,
It leads me in the quiet neighbourhood close to the water,
3 He restores my soul.
I guide on the path of righteousness
Because of its name.
4 Although I
In the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I fear no evil,
For you are with me;
Your machine and your colleagues,
They comfort me.
5 You prepare me
In the presence of my enemies.
Anoint my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Sure 6 goodness and love will follow me
Every day of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Always.

Sorry in copying, it got a little weird so every line is a new paragraph

Kits Cats and Quartets

Well, its official, our cats are the cutest. Ash, one of the wild ones (grey) is now officially tame. It's so funny. Tiger (Orange) will follow you around, esp. Dad when he's working. I came home and he goes up on the hood. He then comes arouond and goes on the side mirror and rubs his head against the window saying 'pet me! pet me!'
On Saturday, I went to a NICYO (sp?) concert (Im in Jr NICYO). My Aunt Sarah, my cousins Heather and Holly and my violin/viola teacher was in it. It was awesome! They had a quartet that's like really famous that sang too. It was really fun. The Orchestra played the Superman theme and the conductor dressed up in a superman shirt and a red cape.
We had Youth Sunday yesterday. I was in a skit. I didn't like talking in front of everybody.
It's really weird. We didn't have a snow day when it was -40 w/ windchill (that was COLD) but it is 28 out right now and we are having a 2 hour delay! Well, I'm not complaining. Lucky you guys for having 2 snowdays in a row! Don't worry! I will talk to Cherry about Mitch the Midget.

GOOD LUCK AT ITALIAN DINNER!!!

I Obey Every Command O Jade Jewel Of Jersey!

Charity said that I needed to Blog more, or maybe it was Mitch. Oh well. So this is a quick blog before school. Janet, the reason I don't have you on my list to other blogs is very simple. I can't operate computers. Oh sure, the easy, non complicated things or the things I've done a lot I can do, but Sarah was the one who set up this blog for me. I don't know how to do it and I haven't gotten around to asking Sarah to do it for me. This weekend, this day, Sarah will come home from Grandma's. I ask her to put you on. YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN, JANET, THE JADE JEWEL NOT FROM JERSEY!

ES IST KALT!!!!

So the Radio Shack people were unable to fix our old computer but they transfered all our stuff onto a computer. So I can finally blog at length.

As you can tell by my title, it is really cold down here. Here are some signs of a Iowa winter...

1. Snow drifts across the road (actually its very pretty)
2. As soon as the gravel roads clear from the last snow, we get more snow
3. On cold days, we get -30 degree windchill (school was NOT cancled)
4. Icy roads (then it clears up and we get more snow/ice)
5. Ice coats every thing
6. Today is a nice day. It's 7 degrees (really, it's really really nice out. There's minimal wind and everything)
7. One car wouldn't start yesterday

But you get the picture.

This was our fist full week of Sem. 2. My classes include...

• Speech and Writing- actually I really like the teacher so it isn't bad
• Computer Application- will this class NEVER end?
• Home room- Yay 15 minute reading time!
• Study Hall- boring
• Chemistry- I hate this class
• General Buisness- Anther boring required class which I hate
• Drawing I- I like the class, dislike the people in it
• Phychology- No matter how the class sounds, it's really fun. I like the teacher and enjoy the class
• Geometry- (more like trig) a nice easy class at the end of the day

Like I said, it's about 7 degrees out right now, (the computer is very helpful and tells me these things) and my dad takes me out to the barn and has me pitch!!! It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Like I said, it's a nice day out and there's a heater in there.

GGGRRR!! ARRGH!

So, I finally went in to change my license. When you first get your license, you have to stay accident/ticket free for a year. I was supposed to get my full license in March. Well, I have to have the probationary period for ANOTHER YEAR!!! I am not happy. I have to stay accident free for 2 YEARS!
In other news, my aunt Natasha had her fist kid yesterday at about 3 am. His name is Lucas Ross.

Belated Merry Christmas!

Well, my first Christmas in Iowa. Of course, we did all our shopping last minute. The last present was bought Christmas Eve. On the 22nd, we had our Hooyer Party. BOWLING!!! FOOD!!! SKIT!!! BOGGLE!!! APPLES TO APPLES!!! RESISTING GOING MAD!!! It was fun. Actually, the guy there (supervising, helping, or going slowly mad) was the same as last year. I was very surprised. We actually had it at 8 in the morning instead of at night. Needless to say, we all came late. Here's me playing Apples to Apples with one of my favoritest Aunts. I like this picture of my cousins and my dad. (Dad, Jolee, and Kayloni) Jolee is wearing my dad's glasses. The next picture is of Jolee and Ethan. Very cute. The next pic is of our Christmas play we put on every year. Also a picture of the sheep.

After the the Party, we went to my Aunt Sarah's house. There I played Cranium and came in last! I hate humdingers!

On Christmas we opened presents. I got movies, music, and misc. I finally found the picture of the dog! If you can't tell, I had fun with pictures.

Well, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Chapter 2

Becka Butterfly
Or, A Hint of a Quest

Mitch walked despondently down the path. He had no home, no friends, no purpose. A lonesome call rang overhead, a piercing screech. Through the leafy foliage he could just make out a jay hawk circling overhead. As he watched, the lazy swoop turned into a sharp dive, murder glinting in its eyes.

He threw himself to the ground as the streak passed him and dive bombed into a bush behind him. His pounding heart slowed than quickened again when a frightened “EEP” reached his ears. Pivoting, his searching eyes found a defenseless hare fighting for her life. Without thinking, Mitch grabbed a short branch lying next to him and whapped the killer bird. Stunned, it reeled away into the sky.

Silence reigned in the forest once again, when suddenly a beautiful blue butterfly popped into existence in a flash of blue. Flitting, it landed on Mitch’s finger. He brought it up to his face, and was enchanted by her intelligent eyes. “Mitchel. You have acted selflessly in defense of Bunny Beth from the evil Count Jamie Jay Hawk. I have searched high and low for someone like you to come to my aid. You will rescue Sarah Princess from the evil dragon Charity Chomper! Continue down this road, and more answers will come to you.” With another flash, she was gone.

Story

Well, me and my sister are going to write an ongoing story. One chapter will be on her blog, the next on mine. (Charity's blog incase you want to read it). So if one day you see a chapter 2, do not be alarmed. You are not loosing your mind. Charity's blog describes it better so if your interested, read hers for a better explination.

This does not mean I will stop posting other blogs. This story will probably be ongoing between blogs.

Dogs

Well, I did take a pic of my braces and the dog, but I accidentally saved them somewhere and I don't know where. I'll find them eventually. Well, the dog is gone. (excuse me while I cackle). Yesterday, I get home from school and I found out that the dog had eaten one of the little grey kittens. He was also chasing cats. Spooks was limping. Charity was so mad that she was ready to shoot him. She would have too, but we don't actually have a real gun. We only have BB guns. So me and Dad took him to Rock Valley (15 minutes away) and let him loose in town, and took a round about way home so he couldn't follow us.
One of the other cats, Skunk, might die. We think its because he's so cold. I want to blog more, but I have to get ready for my concert.

Teeth and Dogs

Well, I have my braces and so far, I've been staying on Ibuprofen. I hate them already. They really didn't hurt (thanks to meds) but they're really annoying. But they are metallic purple and pink. Today is my Dads and brothers birthday. In art, we went around and decorated windows. It was a lot of fun, but I wish I had more time. I got to skip the hardest classes!
Yesterday, my red-headed neighbor/cousin found a stray dog. So, he brought it over here. I dislike it very very strongly. It it too much of a people person. It will jump all over you. It tripped Michael and it will jump on the cats w/o noticing while trying to jump on us. We are trying to give it away. Mitchell, I WILL get even with you!!! (pics of both teeth and dog hopefully soon).

Braces

Well, it's final. I'm getting braces. Yesterday, I got spacers. They didn't hurt to badly, so I didn't take any Tylenol. It hurt a little to chew, but it was ok. Today, it really really hurts. I can hardly chew. Today is Thanksgiving, so that was just bad timing.
Today we have a Sandbulte thing at an elementary school somewhere. Saturday we have a Hooyer thing.

Life as a traveling saleswoman

So for RCYF (reformed church youth something) we are doing a fundraiser so we can go to Rockie Mountain High. We are selling coupons for free large pizza's, chicken, or cactus bread from Pizza Ranch (which has the best chicken!!!). Everyone else got them on Sunday, but I got them yesterday. Normally, I don't do fundraisers because I don't know anyone and all my friends are doing the same fundraiser. But since I am related to about 1/2 the county here, I had to do it. (everyone on this list bought some)

• first stop: my uncle Al and Cal (twins). they bought some and then we sat around and watched bull riding, roping, etc. My brother decided that he wanted to be a bull rider. I said "I'll sign your cast"
• today: grandma & grandpa S. there we got a bag of milky ways and fake clown noses
• my great-aunt: we talked. phone rang. answered. we talked. phone rang. answered. we talked. phone rang. we left.
• my aunt and uncle (Brenda & Greg): they found a viola when cleaning (their 3 daughters are amazing musicians) and gave it to me so I could see if it was better than the one my Aunt Sarah (who was using it for decoration) gave me. (we stopped at my Aunt Sarah's but no one was home)
• my aunt Maria: we talked. She recommended my aunt Debbie and Uncle Mark
• my aunt Debbie and my uncle Mark: We talked about dogs, chickens, cows, and wanting their son to get married and have grandchildren. Also gave us food.

After that we went home. My aunt Judy would also want some but my mom might buy the rest because we wanted some. My uncle Gene said he would buy any that we have left, but I don't think he's going to get very much.

This blog was totally random but who else do you know that in selling things, would get candy, fake noses, and a viola? I'm not even sure I want to go on the trip!

Sorry

I know you all were planning on this and canceling things so you can come, but it wouldn't work out this week. My grandpa just died this morning. On Sunday, we're having a family thing so we wouldn't be able to take you back. Also, I don't think you'd have much fun right now. I would still love to see you sometime. Maybe a different time?

HAPPY MOLE DAY!!!!

In chemistry, there is a mesurement called the mole. It is Avogadro's number (6.02 x 1023). So it starts at 6 am on the 10th month, the 23rd day. We had cupcakes that looked like moles, chocolate, and pop. We did something for 5-10 min. and for the rest, we talked. Also, everyone else (I ran earlier) had to run the mile today. It was really cold b/c we are 1st hour :)
Friday, we have a pep rally so we get out at 11:30! (Go xcountry team)

Ok, so maybe Paula will be the first to get why this is such a big deal. Today we started throwing (is that correct sp? oh well you know what i mean) pots. I got it the first day, the first time. I'll explain for all y'all who weren't in my pottery class last year. It took me about 4 weeks in class and after school to throw 1 cup. It took everyone else about 1 week. My pot is actually really cool. I'm happy.
My sister had a dentist appointment today and she was supposed to pick me up after. She didn't. She is still gone. My uncle took me home. AM I INVISIBLE!!!!! GGGRRRRR!!!! Oh well.
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