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We got this kit for making the stations of the cross last year. Landon, Maria, John, and I never finished making them. Also, in the storing, the got a little broken. So a few days before Lent, I got them out, fixed them, and finished them. Now they are sitting on the mantle above the fireplace.
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Today marked the start of the chinese new year. To celebrate, Mom made Chinese food and we made Chinese Lanterns. Dad was supposed to bring home egg rolls, but he had choir practice and didn’t get to the restaurant before closing time. We said a prayer for the conversion of China, and then we ate by candlelight. Ooh, the food was soo good, but I had to eat small pieces carefully because I got my braces tightened this morning. The Chinese Lanterns we made were strung from one side of the kitchen to the other. Joseph really liked the lanterns.
Later Alexander fell down and scraped his knee. It was a very small little thing, but Alexander was about to cry. Joseph was very sympathetic. I told him to stick up his chin, grin, and bear it like a man. Then I started taking pictures. Alexander soon focused on the camera and completely forgot about the tiny wound.
I can’t believe Maria got Joseph to do this. He must have been tired, or he wouldn’t have sat still long enough for Landon to take the picture.
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Joseph took an unexpected bath tonight. He wanted to take a bath, so, he just invited himself in.
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We decided to name the babies that died in Mom’s miscarriage a few days ago and the miscarriage before Maria. Landon, Maria, John, and I got to name the babies. We called the first baby Augustine Michael and the second baby Angelica Therese.
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I was walking through the mall with the family. My heart was beating faster than normal. I had my Claires Botique gift card in my pocket. I wondered how bad it would hurt, because I was going to get my ears pierced.
We entered the store, and told the cashier what I needed, and then I was escorted by a proccession of family members and a ear piercing lady to a tall chair in the corner of the store. I was given pictures of many earings. The woman recomended that I get 14 Kt gold earings so I wouldn’t have an allergic reaction. If I did, I would have to take the earings out, and the holes would close up. Anyway, the gold ones were cheapest. I picked some white gold ones that were quite pretty.
Next came the hard part. I was going to have both ears done at the same time, and that took two people. The second person was checking out customers, and couldn’t get there at that moment.
When the woman arrived, they positioned the earings and told me they were counting to three and on count three I had to blow Maria’s hair off because she was standing in front of me. I didn’t quite do that, because I was concentrating on not flinching. That’s because the condition on which I was to get my ears pierced was that Dad got to watch my face while it was done. It didn’t hurt so bad, but my ears felt hot and were a little purple for about forty-five minutes later.
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Today I started my first job as a teacher. I am in charge of non-syllabus science projects for Maria and John Paul. My little pupils minded me quite well in our first session, though Maria made it clear when I told John something that she already knew that, and was bored (I am not even sure she did; Mom dosen’t think she did). She got caught up in our class as we went along.
First I had Maria and John take a composition book and I wrote that it was their science journal on the front. THen we began the ‘spearament’, as Johnny would say. We unbent paper clips and rubbed them on a strong magnet until they were magnetized, then I explained to them that the atoms inside the paperclip, which had been unorganized in random fashion before stroking, were now lined up in neat rows. (I used a whiteboard to draw a model). We then poked the magnet into a cork and floated it on water, and when it pointed north I told my pupils about the poles in the magnet. Then we wrote a paragraph about the experiment and both little artists drew a picture of the atoms in the paper clip before and after it was magnetized. They then glued them in their journals. John narrated the whole thing fairly well to dad, who called from work to listen to John tell about it.
John and Maria are looking forward to having class next week. I am planning on making lemon juice and baking sodamoving rockets and cars. I am keeping this a surprise.
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I used to sleep talk and sleepwalk a lot. I still do. Once I woke Mom up to tell her John was driving real tractors and trucks in the basement without a licence. Another time I came to tell Mom something very important, but as soon as she was up I forgot what it was, but I knew I had to tell her. I was very frustrated because when I sleepwalk I can’t say a complete sentence, and I knew it sounded like I was asleep but I thought I wasn’t. Another time I woke up to find Dad carrying me to bed, but I could not figure out how I had gotten upstairs in the first place.
Some examples of talking in my sleep are the time I was dreaming that I was on top of a pole, standing horizontily on it by my nose! A bad man was about to set fire to the pole and I was yelling “No! No! NO!” When Mom came downstairs to see what was the matter, she touched me. I turned over and was quiet, as if I suddenly realized how silly I was being. Just yesterday I woke up in the morning and woke up Maria and told that we needed to pray. When she was confused that the only reason I could give was that Mom had said we needed to pray at eight o’ clock, I turned over saying, “Never mind!” What I had really meant was that Mom had said we should wake up at eight o’ clock.
When I sleepwalk, I usually can’t remember what happened or I can remember only part of it. Mom and
Dad tell me about it. They say that if they wake me up, I will cry.
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Dad took us to the fair, not in Sioux Falls but in a town thirty minutes away, Parker. Some of our friends reccomended it to us It was ten times cleaner than the Sioux Falls fair, with much less immodesty and tattooes. We saw sheep, rabbits pigs, cow, camels, alpacas, turkeys, geese, and more! I got to bury my hand in the prize-winning wool, still on the body of the sheep!
I went on four rides. All of them, except the ferris wheel, were spinning rides. They were extrememly fun. One you twirled and went over little hills on the ground while going in cirlces. Maria and I went on that one. The other you went in a big circle in the air annd made yourself twirl with a little wheel. Landon and I went on that one. Then there was another that you spun while going in a slanted circle in the air, so at the top you were at an eighy-five degree angle to the ground, and you were laying on your back with you feet in the air. Maria, landon, and I all went on that one. in the beggining of the ride, after we were all on and buckled in, Maria decided she didn’t want to go on the ride. But there was nothing she could do about it. By the middle of the ride, however, she didn’t want it to stop! In the ferris wheel, the same thing happened with both her and John Paul. Landon and I had to reassure them, in the very start, and they loved it when we got going. There where mud races going on, and when we went to the top of the ferris wheel we could see them. They were boring.
Then we ate a delicous roast beef sandwich, then we watched the fireworks. They were big, and the grand finalle was beautiful, a golden fan streched out below little golden corkscrews, which were below the BIG fireworks.
And that wrapped up our trip to the fair.
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I have never been very good in water. I like to swim in it, but I never really have done anything such as diving from a standing position, except about three times in swimming lessons three years ago. I have been scared to go too deep, then not be able to get up to the surface in time. Yesterday, however, when we went to the pool, I gathered up all the courage I had and dived standing. It was not scary. It was fun! I had discovered diving. Again and again I dived.
Maria came over to me and said she wanted to learn how to dive. So I taught her. First I showed her the knee-dive, diving from a kneeling position. when she was ready to move on, I showed her how to dive from a standing position. She belly-flopped a lot, but kept on trying. She probably did about five real dives. The others were a mix between a dive and a belly-flop. Maria also found out she was four feet tall, high enough to go down the big, curvy slide.
I have never had so much fun at the pool as yesterday, because I discovered diving.
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Alexander is very amusing to watch today. If I say “Happy birthday Alex” he may say “Me? Happy?” or he might say “Happy day! Happy day!”as he is currently running around the house yelling. If you tell him that he is three today he replies “Me? Three? Oh!”
Alexander also realized that there will be cake later on, so since yesterday he has been asking everyone “Where cake? Cake now.”
Before I get to the party pictures, here are some pre-celebration pictures.
We had a fast paced day today, and when we are running around place to place things get a little bit crazy.
Again? That makes three rolls this week!
After play comes my medicine.
Here come the party pictures.
This what cake looks like after Alexander is done (if you can’t tell there is no frosting on the cake.)
It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Maria was teasing Landon with the phone. “I am going to dial 911, Landon. I am going to call the police.” Landon grabbed the phone from her, and someway or another the button to call was pushed, then the button to hang up.
Ring-a-ling-a-ling! My dad answered. “Hello… No it must have been one of the kids… That’s fine… OK, sorry about that… Bye.” Turning around to Landon and I he said, “That was the police! They’re coming over here to make sure we are all right.”
When the Police car finally pulled up, Maria was nowhere to be seen. The policeman who came to the doors name was Officer Bill. “So, who was on the phone?” he asked promptly. “I think she is hiding.” my Dad replied. “I will go down and try to dig her out.” Dad did not succeed in getting her out. So Of. Bill came downstairs to Maria, who was crying hysterically. Despite all persuasions, Maria would not come out from the covers of her bed. Eventually we returned upstairs, where Of. Bill gave John Paul, whom the officer had named “his buddy,” stickers for himself, Alex (who was at the docter,) and Maria.
Five minutes after Of. Bill departed, Landon and John Paul were patroling the basement with belts on, toy guns in their belts, and their junior officer stickers on their shirts, pretending to be policemen.
This is the true account of our 911 episode.
Snapdragons are Maria’s favorite flowers. She is seven and her birthday is August 27. She enjoys having friends over, board games, video games, computer games, dressing up, gardening, watching TV, and washing mirrors, and scrubbing floors. Her favorite animals are cats, although she likes horses.
Maria won first place for a kindergarten to third grade division of a science fair . Her presentation was on the water cycle. She had a very pretty board and in my opinion did a good job. Apparently the judges thought so also.