So i joined the swim team...

I guess because I can. I mean, I know how to swim, but I don't know how to
swim, you know? Well, didn't, anyway. I've learned to much already and have only gone to two practices. I can successfully do the breast stroke, the butterfly, freestyle, and the backstroke (although probably not very well). I think the breast stroke is actually the hardest. Pull, breathe, kick, glide. Maybe because I basically taught myself how to do it from watching other people swim and then had to re-learn it, but the butterfly, which I had no clue how to do before, I find surprisingly easy. (Edit: not to say that the butterfly is easy. At all. It was just much easier that I thought it was going to be.)

And I really like coach Larry. He's hilarious.

And I really like it so far.

And I am really kinda proud of myself. I don't try new things that often.

And yeah. Yayyyyy!


(Coming up: beautiful wall collage [when {if} I finish it])

Lots of Stuff

It's the end of the summer. Already. Wha? I'm not so sure how that happened or how I feel about that.

I've been very kinda busy lately. I really do keep meaning to put stuff on here, promise. The first thing I have been meaning to put on here is our trip to Minnesota. It was really awesome. We stayed at my aunt and uncle's house. The weather couldn't have been perfecter. Boating and tubing on the Mississippi & St. Croix rivers was quite nice. The water was really clean and there wasn't much of a current. There was a nice little island with sand and cool rocks where we stopped for awhile. After leaving their house, we stopped at grandma Pat's in Wisconsin and stayed a few days there. The fun thing about that was that we went to Circus World, the awesomest circus I have ever been to. It's got a really great circus and also several museumy things, the coolest being the circus wagon one. It has like 70 old and really beautiful circus wagons from when there were like travelling circuses and stuff.
Something you may not know is that my family lived in Minnesota for like three years. It was very nice to see old friends and tour the neighborhood where we used to live.

The day after we got home we decided that it would be a good idea to move my bedroom on the second floor to the basement. This turned out to be a really good idea and it is quite awesome now. Like, really. Awesome. It was a lot of work though.

Okay, so the day that we moved my room my aunt and cousin came to our house and spent the night and the next day I went back with my aunt to have a very nice weekend with her.

AND THEN when I got back I did more work on my new room.

AND THEN this week there were some awesome things at school, although we still havent gotten back to school yet, that starts on monday. The first one was an open house thing where we got to meet our new teachers and that was very awesome and it got me very excited to go to school becaue the classroom is really awesome and I think I am really going to like my new teacher. My teachers this year are, well, here's the thing, it's very difficult to explain things somethimes when you're using pseudonyms becasue then if people reading actually know the person to whom you are referring things might become rather confusing and I'm kind of starting to really dislike using pseudonyms so here. Sometimes I'm going to use them, sometimes not, sometimes I'll use an initial. If you have a pseudonym on here you likely know who you are anyway to I will probably keep using that, for instance Bree, Fiona, Abeliene. Okay? Okay. Okay, now. Ms. Eileen and Ms. Amy are my teachers this year. I'm still not totally sure how all of this is going to work out because I think Mr. Rouse is doing social studies and yeah. I'm really excite for math, which Ms. Amy is teaching so I hope I don't miss Mr. Rouse too much because he used to be my math teacher and I really liked him.

So the next day after that there was a ribbon cutting ceremony thing at the awesome new building of our school since it's new and awesome. That was fun.

But yeah. This summer was filled with a lot of awesome and I'm sad to see it go so soon.

But yeah. I'm also glad school is staring monday because I think that if this summer was much longer I would get very bored very fast.

HOT

It is so hot here the birds don't even sing in the morning. Really, they don't sing that much at all lately. I don't blame them.
It is so hot here that neighbors don't sit outside in the evening and chat. We don't go to the park very often. I don't blame us.

It hasn't rained very much. The only reason I don't say "it hasn't rained" is because it did rain this morning. But it's just not enough. It's being classified as extreme drought and my uncle (a farmer) says it's the worst drought in our area since the weather people started keeping record like 90 years ago. Everything is brown and the leaves on some trees are literally turning brown and falling off. It looks like fall already. Only it doesn't feel like fall. It. Is. So. Hot. Bleh.

So we sit. And watch the Olympics and eat ice cream.

Definitons of Summer

sum-mer [suhm-er]
noun

1.

the season between spring and autumn, in the Northern Hemisphere from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, and in the Southern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox.

2.

the period comprising the months of June, July, and August in the U.S., and from the middle of May to the middle of August in Great Britain.

3.

a period of hot, usually sunny weather

Summer means that there are frequent trips to everywhere: grandma's, the pool, the store, the swingset, the freezer (for ice cream)...

Summer means the Virginia Barbecue, which it not really a barbecue, it's more of a fair. There are rides, vendors of "antiques," jewelry, you name it and they probably have it. There's typical carnival food: corn dogs (mmm), funnel cake, curly fries, and lemon shake-ups. I'm not really sure if the lemon shake-ups are specific to the VBBQ, but they are awesome ($$)!

Summer means there are also frequent sleepovers and friends come over often. And family, and cousins (which I happen to have a lot of). And there are weddings and graduations and sometimes funerals (although those aren't specific to summer).

Our family gets to go to church and worship God together.

And summer can be hot.

It's not that miserably hot here yet, thankfully. It has been nice enough to be outside in the evenings and run through sprinklers and the bugs aren't that bad either. We can still go on bike rides and not shrivel up. The walk from car to pool isn't miserable yet. And while I keep thinking how it is going to get so hot, I enjoy every moment of right now: summer.

Summer is when things happen. Best friends move away and everyone makes plans for next year: school. I'm blessed enough to not have to move, or to not have to switch schools again before high school.

Babies are born and, for the most part, everything is happy.

And that also means that I sometimes don't get a chance to post anything here. Sorry. I'm trying, and sometimes I even think of things that would be really good to put on here, but just don't have the time. It can be busy, and God is busy too;

God is good, and He is still at work in the summer.

Whewee

Wow, I can't believe that it is almost summer already!! Sorry I rally haven't been posting much, I guess you could say that I've been busy.

Busy going places and finishing up 6th grade. Last weekend we went to the farm for mother's day (btw happy mother's day) and it was a really good time. We got to have strawberries!!! They were SO GOOOOD!!! I forgot what a real strawberry tasted like.

On the way home from that, Cassie said something really funny. "Weeell, Jesus can not tell people things because he does not have an ipod, inbestead he does not have a phone either." It was really cute.

Now she's been saying that she wants a brother. Mom said no. Cassie asked " Welll, can I have a sister?"

"You already have two sisters."

"Yeah, well, a different one. Can we buy one?"

"No, you can't just buy  a sister or brother, the have to be born."

"Well, we could go to the park and take one!"

Last Day of School!

Today was [finally] our last day of school!

We [us; our school] had a big picnic in Valley Grove Park today!  [Sorry, I always make these pseudonyms and then I try to remember them and then I get all stressed out because it's probably not the same every time.  On the flip side, you all probably know what I'm talking about anyway.]  It was very fun.

Mr. Teacher allowed us to wear our T-Shirts that we made with Mrs. W!  That was nice that we didn't have to wear uniform on the last day. 

So we played around on the playground and with balls and whatnot, then had to play silly games. 

For lunch I had carrots, quesodilla, almonds, grapes, oreos, and the end-of-the-school-year-cookie-that-you-usually-receive-from-your-teacher. 

After some kids had been dismissed, their parents were just handing around and they decided to drench all of the teachers with freezing water.  It was so funny!  After Dorothy got Mr. Teacher, Mr. Teacher mumbles:  they are in so much trouble next year.

It's been a good day so far.  I am so tired though. 

Something that makes me want a Facebook account [so I could post this on the JOY FM Facebook page] just for this:

There is this christian radio station that I always listen to, and when I go up to my room I always turn it on.  I turn it on:

Ooo, I love the way you hold me
By your side I'll always be
Ya take each and every day
Make it special in some way
I love the way you hold me
In your arms I'll always be
Oh I love the way you hold me

It just reminded me that no matter how annoying sisters are or how long the day has been, He is always holding me and He's never letting go. 

I needed that.

P.S.  The radio station is 99.1 in St. Louis.