I don’t think it should be possible to get spring fever in January – it’s too early.  You have all the snow to enjoy, and the fresh, clear cold, and the snow days; there’s hot chocolate to be had and hills to sled.  Still, there’s something in my way – just one thing barring me from enjoying everything listed.  It’s the lack of snow and the sixty-degree weather.  Usually, on January 16, there will be at least three inches of snow on the ground, if not more; and there will be forecasts to come of six more inches, and at least twelve have already melted into the grass.  Yet so far, the amount of snow that’s fallen on the January ground is about an inch.

But listen to me talking about the weather.  Four friends and I had a slumber party on Friday night and went shopping on Saturday – for the third year in a row.  Did we get a lot of clothes? You bet.  Did we have a lot of fun? Of course! Did we actually sleep? Well, that’s classified information.

Today, I got my hair cut. Wahoo, I know, except: I got to see our old hairstylist, who I haven’t seen since we moved (and since my hair was super long!); and I got a new look. So, here’s the photo:

Anyway, that’s pretty much all that’s been going on with me – everything is still pretty normal, except I have spring fever. Wish me luck – and have a great January!!

 

Merry Happy New Year Christmas & December!! (due to my recent abandonment of blog)

Here’s one of my resolutions: to write on here way more often than I have been writing.  And now, I shall tell you a story.

I went to a one week sleepaway camp in August.  My counselor had this idea: each of us would write letters to our future selves, saying what our goals were for the coming year, and just giving ourselves advice, and then at random times during the year – when we’d have totally forgotten about them – she would send them to us.  I got mine a couple weeks ago, and it was a real reminder to go for my goals.  I also got to see what goals I’d accomplished, even though I’d forgotten about them.  So, really, I made my new year’s resolutions in August.

I guess I’m going chronologically backwards, but my Christmas went really well! I got to see family and of course give & get gifts.  My favorite, I think, were my new Uggs.  My old ones, which I got for Christmas 2009, were size 4.  I am now size 7.  Definitely a welcome change!

As to what’s been going on with me, there’s a lot. We go back to school tomorrow; my camp friends and I are getting together next weekend for a slumber party & shopping (as we do every year since 2009); we got a new Kinect game and it’s really fun (except for the fact that they tell you how many calories you’ve burned after every sport, and honestly, it’s a little pathetic to see “Congratulations! You’ve burned seven calories!” on the screen after “skiing”); and the camp retreat is the weekend after that!!  So yes, I’m pretty excited.

Good luck to all in the new year…it’s a blank canvas…so let’s paint!

Latest News (since October, anyway)

It’s DECEMBER!! And I haven’t posted since October! Oh, I have so much to tell you!

I’ve finished two writing contests and am editing the entry for the third contest.  Our school newspaper (which I co-edit) just had its third issue printed. Lastly, (and I’m sure you figured this out), the reason I haven’t been posting is a combination of my laziness and my never-ending schoolwork.

I am on lesson 92 of Algebra 2, which means I will be finishing it very soon!! Then on to Advanced Mathematics…and then Calculus, I think. Yay? I do enjoy math, though – it’s one of my favorite subjects.

My school is, as always, doing a Lessons and Carols program this Christmas, and this year it will be a community lessons and carols, meaning it is open to the public.  We hope a lot of people come!  My principal asked me to design the flyers, so I’m working on that.

We had two house guests over for Thanksgiving week (Wednesday before Thanksgiving to the Tuesday after it).  One of them is a seventh grade girl, like me, and the other house guest was her brother, who is a freshman in high school.  We had a lot of fun.

Our county might be cutting the funding for all libraries in my county!! As soon as I heard of this (it was last night), I wrote the Board of Commissioners a letter saying why the library is important to me.  I hope it makes a difference, because I really need and like my library – how else am I supposed to get new books to read, besides the fact that I’m learning writing techniques from the books I check out!

Finally, tomorrow we are having a book discussion on six Sherlock Holmes stories…so let’s hope it goes well.  We’re going out for pizza before the discussion and then returning to school.

I hope you all have a wonderful December! Sorry for the late post.

October, Chocolate, and Octopuses

First things first- my apologies for not posting for over a month!  As a result of my lazy-bum-ness, this will be a really long post.

I am now twelve.  I had a birthday party with my friends, the “friends party” before that being for my eighth birthday and my next one to celebrate my 16th.  (Thus, the party I had two weeks ago is A REALLY BIG DEAL.)   Softball is in full swing, the school retreat was last week, and we’ve had both my dogs for a year.

Lena’s old teacher, who taught her in 1st and 2nd grade, kept a story I wrote in kindergarten, which three of my classmates decorated, only one of whom still attends my school.  Here you may behold Chocolate for Eight Legs, written by a kindergarten me (it’s signed Molly M. H.) and illustrated by other kindergarteners and first graders, with original spelling mistakes. (I’ll keep it on “Short Stories by Molly M. H. for future reference.)

“Once upon a time there was an octopus named Eight-Legs.  He loved to eat, but he was allegic to chocolate.  One day Eight-Legs went to a friends house for a play date.  His friends name was Rob.  Rob’s mom gave Eight-Legs and Rob chocolate for their snack.  Eight-Legs opened the chocolate and ate one.  He coughed so hard that his nose began to run.  Rob’s mom gave Eight-Legs a magic robe so he would feel better.  She asked him if he also wanted oatmeal, but he said ‘NO!’”

Note the sense and the creativity in this story. (Not.)

Septemberish Stuff

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything, hasn’t it?  But wait – before you demand an answer, I do have some pretty good excuses.

As soon as we get back to school we have three writing contests to go through.  There are weekly reports to be acted out, algebra lessons to be completed, significant digits to be understood, Latin reviews to wade through, and articles to be summarized.  I’m not complaining, I’m just a tired, tired seventh grader ready to go to sleep. Believe me, I am very happy to be able to go to my school.

As always, school is eventful.  I’ve got fencing workouts to do, a school newspaper to co-edit, a new school building to adjust to, sleepovers to plan, softball games to play, and (as if I expected anything different), homework to do.

More on the school paper.  During the summer, my friend Molly came up with the idea of publishing a school newspaper.  She came up with the name and asked if I wanted to be co-editor, which offer I accepted.  We are editing articles and putting together the paper at the moment (thank heaven for Microsoft Publisher).

Oh, and did I mention we have a new location?  My school moves around and rents churches and other buildings.  We’ve rented a church, near our last location.  It’s smaller and will take some getting used to, but it is nice, with the added heating and air conditioning benefits.  (Lately, the heating has come in handy more than the air conditioning.  It turned pretty cold here around noon on September 14 and has stayed that way ever since.)

My softball uniform is neon green.  It has my name and Halliday’s number (34) on the back of the jersey, and we get matching lime green socks.  I’ve played first base, second base, and right field in our last (and only) game, and also got on base every time I got up to bat.  We won 17-7 thanks to our great pitchers, batters, and fielders.

Tellus Museum & Back Home

While still in Georgia, we had to find a rainy-day activity for our last day there, so we went to the Tellus Museum, a science museum.  There were four sections: a hands-on section, an air&space section, a fossil section, and a minerals section.  While all the sections were interesting, I especially liked the mineral section.  They had an amazing collection of minerals and even a periodical table with shadowboxes full of things containing the appropriate element for almost every element.  There were hundreds of examples of minerals, some brightly colored, some crystal-clear.  There was a lot of quartz at the museum, and I learned that quartz is the Georgia state gem.

I was almost done looking at the mineral section when the tornado sirens went off!  Everyone in the museum stayed in the theater for 20 minutes until it was safe to go back to the exhibits. I finished up quickly.

At the gift shop I bought two pairs of earrings, one birthstone (pink tourmaline; opal, the other October birthstone and my personal favorite, is too soft to be set in a lot of jewelry) and one dangling pair of lapis lazuli.

I really liked the museum because it was geared toward all ages and it had a lot of information.  I would definitely go back there again if I had the chance.

As for our flight back, it went very well. It was really cold and rainy when we got back, but I was glad to be back home and see the dogs again even though I enjoyed my time in Georgia.

Stone Mountain

Two days ago, we went to Stone Mountain in the afternoon.  We took a gondola up to the top of the mountain (that’s what Mom says the cable car things are called even though we’re nowhere near Venice), went on the ropes course, and watched the laser show and fireworks.

Stone Mountain is, I believe, the largest deposit of granite in the world (there is a lot more of it underground).  It has the faces of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson carved into the face of the mountain.  The carving is 90 feet high and is bigger than the Mount Rushmore carvings.

We took the gondola up to the top.  The surface looked kind of like what I’d imagine the moon’s surface looks like, and we were able to walk on a fence to the edge (before it became a sheer drop) and look over Atlanta.  It was a misty day so we couldn’t see much, but it was still really cool.  It looks a lot higher from the top than it does from the ground.

After we walked around for a while we took the gondola back down and walked to the ropes course.  There are three levels.  The first one is 12 feet off the ground, the second is 24 feet high, and the third one is 36 feet high. We decided to start on the third level.  The people working there fastened our harnesses and let us go.  Lena, unfortunately, didn’t make it through the third level, so she and Dad went back down.  My dad’s friend, his daughter Sydney, and I stayed on the course and finished the level.  As I’ve stated before, it’s a lot higher from the top than it looks from the ground!

We finished Level 2 before it was time to get off the course, eat dinner, and wait for the fireworks and laser show.   We had a great picnic dinner in front of the mountain.  The whole field in front of the mountain was packed with people.  When we finished our dinner, Dad took us to the Dippin Dots stand.  (If we go somewhere with Dad, and there’s a Dippin Dots stand there, we will end up getting Dippin Dots before we leave.) Finally, just in time, we got back to the picnic blanket and watched as the laser show started.

The laser show was amazing. They showed all these different scenes and ended with a display of fireworks.  It was a neat way to end our trip to Stone Mountain.

Today is our last day in Georgia and we’re going to the Tellus Museum, which is a science museum.  Sadly, my camera battery died after our trip to World of Coca-Cola, so I won’t be able to take pictures there and I don’t have any of Stone Mountain.

Have a great Labor Day!

Always Bring Parents on Vacation; They Bring Computers

Oh, hooray for parents that bring computers on vacation!

Well, here I am, in Georgia, posting this for the second time since I accidentally deleted this post last time.  It has been great so far and the only thing that resembles a problem is the little issue we had with the car rental.  We got up to the counter and asked for a minivan; we were given the appropriate number relating to the parking spot and the information that the car was beige; and I really do wonder who else defines beige as burnt orange.  Other than that, it’s been great.

We have been seeing the sights, yesterday’s sights being the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola.  Dad saw an orange car just like ours and immediately parked right next to it, of course. Then we started walking to the aquarium.

The Georgia Aquarium is the biggest aquarium in the world, with six different sections.  We saw most of them; piranhas, garden eels, tropical fish, whale sharks, you name it.  We even petted stingrays.  Well, everyone but Susanna, who thought that they were too “slimy”.

By the time we got to the World of Coca-Cola everyone was tired, so we didn’t stay too long.  We saw the soda being bottled in the Bottle Works and got to taste Coke products from around the world at the end of the tour.  We went through the gift shop to exit (funny how almost all the exits in museums and such that I’ve been through are after the checkout in the gift shop) but I didn’t buy anything, because if everything in the store says “Coca-Cola” on it, even the jewelry, I’m probably not going to buy anything.  Especially if you get a free soda in a glass bottle anyway.

Today we’re going to Stone Mountain in the afternoon, and we’re staying for the laser show and the fireworks.

I’ll post pics when I get home, and I’ll probably post again later sometime this weekend, but for now, adios.

School and Georgia and I’m So Tired I Can’t Think of a Creative Title

On Thursday, we leave for Georgia to visit friends.  At almost 12 years old it is my first time on a plane (which I think is quite sad).  We are only allowed to bring one smallish bag, which is daunting, because we’re going to be away for six days, and with the travel bags I own, there is no middle road.  (We’re talking big duffel bag, teeny duffel bag, teeny tote bag.  I love them all, but “smallish” does not describe any one of them.)

That’s really all I have to say – I mean, sure, yeah, we’re going to visit some pretty cool places and all, but if I tell you about it now, what am I going to have to talk about when I get back? Nothing, that’s what!  Oh, wait…except for school.  I don’t think I mentioned that school starts September 7, the day after we get back, and maybe I’m a little excited.  Maybe.

That reminds me – gotta go try to do algebra again.

Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Airplanes, Oh My!

On Tuesday, I was sitting on one of our bar stools, brushing my soft pretzel dough with a beaten egg, and the counter shook.  At first I thought I was fainting (since it was “too nice of a day” for AC and it was HOT inside), but then the shaking stopped. Dad rushed into the kitchen.  “That was an earthquake!” he said, and then repeated it twice to make sure we understood.  Turns out that Susanna, Lucy, Mom, and Lena didn’t feel it, but Dad and I did.  Then my parents checked Facebook (wonder of wonders!) and they found that the earthquake had hit much of the East Coast, with a 5.8 epicenter in VA. But that’s old news.  I only mention it because, as you all know, yesterday through today, Hurricane Irene hit this region.  Of course, it’s not full force at all.  We’re still scheduled for a bunch of rain and wind, but it’s not going to be a hurricane when it hits us.  Right now we have pretty strong winds, but the rain’s moved on.

I think it was yesterday that Dad noted that my sisters and I had experienced our first earthquake and our first hurricane (close enough, anyway) in the same week!

Next week: our first plane ride.