Thanksgiving Week

For only having school two days this week, Thanksgiving week has been very hectic with plans to do this and that. Monday and Tuesday weren't bad, beyond the usual school days and getting up. On Tuesday, I was happy that the history debate on John Brown was over and that I could turn in my Clannad paper. However, it was on Tuesday that I began planning to see what projects I should get done when because next week is going to be hectic with due assignments. I've already done some of the due assignments, though some will get done today and some I cannot finish without my science partner. It was weird on Tuesday to go home and relax with no thought of homework. On Wednesday, we had to do some last-minute shopping and Mom began cooking the food for Thanksgiving that evening. Some point early in the week, we watched the chick flick "Music and Lyrics" which was entertaining and really makes fun of 80's music and modern pop artists.

On Thursday, we hung out around the house and then around noon and drove up to Grandma Linda's house. The tables were set up in the garage and were decorated with pretty tablecloths and Thanksgiving decorations. There was plenty of food on the kitchen table, and we all greedily stared at it. After Uncle Josh and his family arrived, we prayed and then loaded our plates with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, the green jello dish, sweet potatoes, and lots of other excellent stuff. We took our plates to the garage and enjoyed the meal. After eating, we went around the table and Dad asked us what we were thankful for. After this, the kids took off to the backyard to play croquet, and I snapped several shots of the game. The game was entertaining, with people often clustered around one area and trying to push others backwards, and with the hills adding a little extra challenge. Closer to the end, Mandy and Gabe ended up getting very close, but Mandy won by a hair. Mandy gloated over her victory and said something about putting ice down Gabe's shirt, so Gabe went inside for some ice. He chased Mandy around and put it down her shirt... twice. Mandy chased him a little down the street for revenge, but she can't run right now because it could stir up her asthma. After this incident, we had dessert and gathered on the patio to talk before we returned to the garage, where it was warmer. Another hilarious moment was when Grandma Linda gave Rivers a hat covered with flowers. Rivers wore this hat most of the time, and she often put her hand on her hip, which made everyone laugh. Around seven PM, we began packing up and split up the remnants of the food among everyone. After we had say good-bye, we went over to Uncle Josh's house to watch "Sense and Sensibility" with them, as he had never seen it before. We enjoyed more family time there and stayed until about 11 PM or so. Then, we went home and went to bed at midnight. For pictures of Thanksgiving Day, follow the Facebook link and enjoy!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43747&l=6cecf&id=603748360

On Friday evening, we took Mandy over to the Greers' house, where she was to spend the night for two nights with her BFF Bethany. However, when I woke up this morning, Mandy was home. Apparently, Bethany got the stomach bug which seems to be going around our church, so Mandy came home. We were going to go up to the Howlands' farm today, but the event was rained out, so we are going to relax with books and computers today.

The weather down here has been cool and often gloomy. It was very cold earlier this week, but it has warmed up a little to the 50's during the day. The past two days have been cloudy and rainy, though we can't complain about the rain. The leaves have been falling, so the trees are looking barren. Mom's birds disappeared for a few weeks, but today they have come back in full force. One could say, fall is over and winter is coming soon. I'm still hoping to have some good snow this year.

Health-wise, most of the concern has been about Mandy. Earlier this week, Mandy was feeling very tired and yucky, and she went home early on Monday, where she slept for several hours. We weren't going to bring her to school on Tuesday, but she woke up feeling better so we took her. Dad's been making sure she takes her vitamins and her wellness pills, and she's also been taking her inhaler. So far, she's been doing good, so we hope her asthma doesn't kick up again.

Well, I must go. I have some homework and a little writing I'd like to get done... not to mention the fact that lunch is sounding pretty good right now. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! :)

Physics Lab

Today I had an interesting physical science lab. After we had turned in last week's lab, Dr. La stood up and asked if anyone had heart problems. One smart-alack decided to say "I have a pace maker," but of course he wasn't telling the truth. Then Dr. La asked if any of us had claustrophobia, were afraid of the dark, or if we could stand to be frightened. No one answered, though a few smart-alacks made comments about it. Then Dr. La pointed towards the storage closet and told us that he would take one group at a time (usually for lab the class is divided into four groups of four or five) into that room and that no matter what happened, even if someone screamed or banged on the door, that the others outside should not open the door. At this time I kept wondering what he was going to do, either a late Halloween joke or something else. My team wasn't the first to go in, so we did another small experiment. During the experiment, we heard screams from the closet, but they sounded a bit forced, which made me suspicious. Finally, my team went into the dark closet, and the teacher turned on a sodium lamp. We talked out about how light impacts color, and nothing creepy happened. We did scream, to scare the others outside, but we tried not to laugh afterwards. One of my teammates Kimberly kept stifling her laughter, so we could not leave the closet until we were good and looking scared. When the final team went in, a classmate named Megan decided to pull a joke on those inside, so she put duct tape on the door handle and on the door in the hopes of making it unable to be opened. Her plan backfired when one of the guys inside caught her, but we all laughed. When Dr. La came out, he looked at the duct tape and then just laughed his weird laugh.

Well, gotta dash. I've got pizza dip to make for sci-fi night tonight.

The Cat That Did Not Learn

Well, we had an incident with a cat on Sunday and Monday that we hope will be a lesson to her.

It all began on Sunday morning when Mom lamented that Claws had not slept with her like she does every night, and we realized Claws had been missing since Saturday afternoon since we never put the flea stuff on her. We did not have time to look for her on Sunday morning, but after church we went to the backyard to see if she was nearby, since Claws never roams far from the house. We thought we heard meowing somewhere, so we followed the sound to the neighbor's yard and, lo and behold, the fat cat was found... up in a tree branch thirty or forty feet above the ground. We don't know why she ran up there, but we think the neighbors' possessive, protective dog Rossi may have had something to do with it. We tried coaxing her down, but she wouldn't come. By nightfall, it was cold, and she was still up there. On Monday morning, I put on my coat and went to see the poor cat, who was still on the branch and was meowing pitifully. By now, we figured we'd have to borrow a ladder to fetch Claws down. However, when we arrived home on Monday afternoon, we saw Claws on our front porch, meowing to be let in. We let her in, and she ran inside to chomp down on food for the next five minutes. She hasn't been back outside since yesterday, and we hope that she'll figure out how to climb down from trees next time she gets stuck or just to avoid them altogether, as this is the second time in two months she has gotten herself stuck in a tree. Stupid cat. Maybe she'll finally learn her lesson.

Most likely, she won't.