Reader's Response 3.25.12

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

I'm back on to We Bought a Zoo! The story is really starting to unfold. Ben and his kids had passed up the opportunity for the zoo. But Ben explains about how he sees it, buying the zoo, as a once in a life time opportunity. So the family goes back and takes a tour of the zoo. The way Mee uses sensory words to describe each and every step he took at the zoo, it makes you feel like you were on the tour with him.

The book is starting to connect a lot more with the movie now that they family is becoming intertwined with the zoo. I'm still really excited that the Mee's bought the zoo!! But I also get really anxious whenever I read this book because Mee always speaks about how he has to keep with drawing money to keep up with the zoo. I'm really loving this book so far though!

~Reading Times:
3.19.12-40 minutes
3.20.12-40 minutes
3.21.12-10 minutes
3.22.12-40 minutes

Free Post 3.24.12

The Sound of Music

  For the spring musical this year our drama director and choir director chose 'The Sound of Music'. I was in soccer during auditions for principle characters so I didn't go to the auditions. Which I now regret but I was also a little chicken about auditioning. But I knew I was going to be in the play for choir but I never knew what the choir was going to be cast as. I have always loved the story of 'The Sound of Music' so I knew I'd be happy with whatever part we were cast as.

  About two weeks ago in choir we were told that only the girls were going to be nuns for two scenes of the play. In these two scenes we would sing 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" and "Climb Every Mountain". We got sheet music for "Climb Every Mountain" but about one three girls knew the lyrics to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" We practiced "Climb Every Mountain" for days until we mastered it. This previous Monday we started going to play rehearsals up until opening night. Opening night went amazing!!

  I think that the best night was the second night , Thursday, because I had so much fun on and off stage. I made a new friend, Mae Mae M, by being in this play! Mae Mae and I are really weird when we're together so on the second night we thought everything and anything was the funniest thing in the world. On stage Mae Mae and I could not keep it together because we were laughing to hard. The second I stepped out on stage I saw all of my friends and their families in the audience and Mae Mae did too because we starting laughing so hard, we tried to cover it and keep singing but it just did not work out. We were only laughing during our first scene so we had to get ourselves together for the second one but that did not work out so well either. 

  The third night was a great ending to a great play! But not as fun as the second night. I love everyone I got to work with for this show and I loved being in the presence of such talent at my school! I hope everyone got to see it and if you didn't.. you missed out big time. 

Free Post 3.17.12

TAYLOR'S GOLD BIRTHDAY SURPRISE!

  So this year one of my close friend's, Taylor, was having her golden birthday this year on March fifteenth! For those of you who don't know what a golden birthday is...your golden birthday is when your birthday date is the same number of the age you're turning. It's also something that only happens once in your entire life! My golden birthday is when I turn twenty five because my birthday is on November twenty fifth. Taylor's mom sent out invitations for the party about two weeks ago and it said in huge type, "SHH...IT'S A SURPRISE!" I got so excited because I knew it was going to be a great party but on top of it all it was a surprise party! For two weeks whenever anyone was around Taylor had to keep this huge secret. Trust me it was so hard to keep this a secret but I think we were pretty successful! A lot of us accidentally dropped hints on the day of the party at school but Taylor didn't really think anything of it.
  My friend Peyton invited eleven of us{the eleven being Sissy, Erin, Charlotte, Julia, Trinity, Caroline, Sara Alice, LeLe, Katie, Melissa, and myself}over to her house to hang out, get ready, and go to Taylor's party. After school on Friday Erin came home with me so that we could ride together to Peyton's house. Erin & I got to Peyton's around 4:30 and Melissa was already there because she and Peyton live in the same neighborhood. Not soon after us, our LeLe arrived, then Trinity, and the girls just kept on coming! We all hung out for an hour or so but we knew it would take us awhile to get ready so we decided to get ready around 6. We plugged in Trinity's iPhone into Peyton's iHome and blared our music while we did our hair, makeup, and showed each other our outfits for the night. We had to make a rule to not put on pictures on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else Taylor could see that we were all together and not ruin the surprise! 

  We all split up into two cars and headed over to CCL's clubhouse. Our whole grade was invited to the party along with some CHS boys & UHS girls & boys. We got to the party and there were already people there and ready to party! Everyone was handed a virgin pina colada in a neon pink cup that said, 'Taylor's GOLDEN birthday' with a crown behind the text. They were so yummy! The dance floor was decorated with beautiful huge pink and blue lanterns and cool red & green lights. At around 8:20 the DJ's got a message saying that Taylor was in the parking lot so we all had to crouch down on the dance floor and wait for her. Some people were late so they had to distract Taylor, sneak them in, get them on the dance floor, and then bring Taylor in.     We all heard Taylor come in and we wanted to laugh but we couldn't ruin the surprise we had worked so hard to keep! Taylor walked into the room and everyone popped up and screamed, "SURPRISE!!" Taylor was in shock and the surprise party was a success!!
  Everyone hung out with people they didn't know and old friends. There were so many pictures being taken that night with flash I could hardly see. I had so much fun dancing with all my friends and helping Taylor celebrate her birthday. It was a great night with great friends, great food, a great party, and a great golden birthday! Love you Tay and I hope you had fun at your party!!   

Reader's Response 3.17.12

It's Not Summer Without You  by Jenny Han

  Since I wrote my last reader's response blog I had just started It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. I just finished the book and I an even more impressed with the second book than the first! Jenny Han really knows how to write so that you want to just read more and more and more. I really sad that this series is only a trilogy but I'm sure Han has written more books. Yaal can bet that I will be reading those! 

 
  If you haven't read my past reading responses on Han's books, I highly recommend these to girls. Her books are filled with drama, love, and fun. I am about to start back into We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I really excited to read this book and let yaal know about it!

~Reading Times~
3.12.12- 30 minutes
3.13.12-25 minutes
3.14.12-35 minutes
3.15.12-30 minutes
3.16.12-10 minutes
3.17.12-28 minutes

Reader's Response 3.11.12

The Final Three Chapters of Nervous Conditions by Tsisi Dangaramba
~this blog was written last week but I am publishing it today for points~

So the past three weeks we read the final chapters of our in-class novel, Nervous Conditions. When I first started the book I was excited but unfortunately my excitement ran a muck and was soon lost. I do hate to say this but over all this book was not enjoyable for me. The only thing I liked is that the book quickly turned into a hunt to find all of the themes, motifs, sentence structures, important paragraphs, and literary elements. But what I really loved was our class discussions and getting to comment on blogs with my interpretation of the questions.
I have such mixed emotions about the last three chapters we read! Chapter eight I really enjoyed but chapters nine and ten I had mixed feelings about. I felt from the beginning of the book that Dangaramba was going to start the book of sad and end it sad as well. But I was truly disappointed with the way Dangaramba ended it. But I loved the themes that Dangaramba really conveys in the last three chapters but the throughout the novel as  well. Over-all what did yaal think over NC?
Reading Time:
3.2.12-155 minutes

Free Post 3.10.12

My 'Four' Day Weekend

  This week was really eventful but mostly because we got a four day weekend! I kept telling my mom that we didn't have school on Friday and she never believed me! So on Thursday afternoon I got out at 2:15 to go to Denham Springs tennis courts to play Live Oak high school. I was partnered with Sara Alice W. and this was her first match ever! She was really nervous so I tried to keep her chill throughout the match. Sara Alice caught on to what to do well into the first set but we lost it 6-2, not bad. During our break between sets we got to talk to our parents, coach(es), & one-on-ones with our partners. In our break I told Sara Alice, "We still have a chance to bring this back and win it so let's just focus and get our heads in the game!" We headed into the second set but it was not looking good thirty minutes in and it was 4-1. I told Sara Alice what my mom tells her partners when they're losing in a match, "We may not win this, but don't make it easy for them to win it. Make 'em work for it!" That's exactly what we did! Sara Alice and I were making our partners run around the court but we never caught up to them. We lost the second set 6-1 but Sara Alice did great for her first match and I hope we can play again together.
  After the match I went home took a shower, packed my Ralph Lauren duffle-bag, & I was off to Sara Alice's house. I was excited to go over to her house because her dad just moved there & I'd never been before! I got to Sara Alice's and we hung out for about an hour and a half until Jasmyn C. ,a senior at EHS. Jasymn drove us to Wal-Mart but on our way to the store we stopped in front of Kathleen L.'s house and sent her pictures of ourselves & texted them to her! At the store we bought a game called Just Dance for Sara Alice's XBOX Kinect, the best chips ever, flavor blasted goldfish, three boxes of cake mix, three cans of icing, sprinkles,paper cupcake holders, & two red box movies. On our way back from the store we stoped at Kathleen's house so she could follow us back to Sara Alice's house to hang out. When we got home Mr. Robert, Sara Alice's dad, had made his notorious 'Dobby pizza'. So delicious! We played Just Dance and Jasymn won every single time we had dance battles. Then we watched 'SCREAM4' until 11:45 when Kathleen had to go home. After Kathleen left I felt like I was going to pass out so I set up a place to sleep on the floor and crashed! I woke up at two am and Jasmyn was gone while Sara Alice was passed out on the couch. Sara and I both got woken up at 6 am because we forgot to turn our school alarms off on our phones! We fell back asleep until 10 am when we got up Jasmyn had been up for almost two hours and so she took us out to get breakfast but everywhere was closed! So we went to YogurtLand for breakfast & then went to Aero to get Sara some rainboots! Jasymn drove us home and then my mom came & picked me up.

  I went home with my mom and started on some homework but remembered that I promised Erin we'd hang out on our Friday off! Erin & I picked the movie 'The Lorax'  for 6:30 in 3D at Perkin's Rowe. Erin & I were the only people above the age of ten that weren't there for their children to see the movie. I was really excited to see this movie because The Lorax by Dr. Seuss was & still is my favorite children's book. Erin only really wanted to see the movie because Taylor Swift was in it & Erin is beyond in love with her!! Erin specifically was craving Red Mango frozen yogurt like crazy so we went after the movie! My dad picked me up and we walked around Barnes & Noble for about 15 minutes. I ran into one of my friends from SJA & some random guy that worked at Barnes & Noble popped up out of no where & said, "I know what you did..." It was so funny it made my night! I left Perkin's Rowe, went home, & passed out again.
  This morning I was woken up at 8:30am but of course I fell back asleep but only until 9am! I got up and hung around while my parents were out at Sam's Club. They came home with tons and tons of food! It was amazing since we haven't had that much food in the house in awhile. I hung around all day today watched some Netflix, some pintrest goodies, washed my carpet,went to Albertson's with my mom, & YogurtLand with my friend Megan E so she could have a study break! Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll start all my homework which I am not looking forward too. Hope everyone had a great four day weekend like I have! 

Reader's Response 3.10.12

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

My last reader's response blog was about The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han and  completely LOVED IT! Now I am on to the sequel It's Not Summer Without You and I am of course loving it! I can't really give yaal a summery of this one because it would totally defeat the point of reading TSITP. But this novel is about Belly Cocklin and her amazing adventures with the Fisher boys, and growing up. I'm not finished with the book yet but I have only two or three chapters left.

Since I am unable to give you a summary I'll give you a feel for Han's writting. Jenny Han makes me feel like I'm Belly Cocklin. Whenever describing something Jenny uses amazing sensory details to make me feel like I'm swimming in the pool or crying under my quilt at home. She also does something amazing in INSWY she gives chapters from other people's point of view besides Belly! I LOVE that about this book so far! She's been giving the point of view from Jeremiah not only with situations from the past book and new situation flashbacks that Han has been bringing in. I really hope yaal read this trilogy!

3.10.12- 60 minutes
3.11.12- 85 minutes

Free Post 3.4.12

Tennis

  Now that I look back on my life from the time I was little to now the game of tennis has always consistently been apart of it. My mom, MJ, played tennis in high school and then went to college, got a job, and just had no time for it. After I was born MJ decided to join a night team at our pool club of the time and take lesson with a tennis pro as well. She always tells me when I lose a high school match or lose a match I play against her that whenever she first started back up again after my birth that she was losing straight sets. She couldn't even win one point! But now fifteen years later she's on three teams and has practice three times a week and once on the weekend. She really has inspired me to do well in this sport because it's always been something she's want me to get into, but I never really had until just recently.

  When I was in fourth grade I was playing competitive soccer which was practice three times a week, games every Saturday morning at eight, and almost every other weekend was a tournament in a random city in North Louisiana. I truly had a love hate relationship with soccer and seriously considered quitting so my mom asked me if I'd like to try tennis, so I gave it a shot. I could not do it with soccer going on at the same time, it was physically impossible. I was so exhausted I couldn't do my homework and I'd either be late to soccer or late to tennis and either way my coaches would punish me. I decided I had to pick one and picked soccer. I don't regret picking soccer but in a way I do because I was really good and on the best team in the state ,which it still is today, but I couldn't give up soccer for something I wasn't so completely ready to dive head into. I regret giving it up because two and a half years later I quit soccer which I will always regret. I moved on to cheerleading then ballet then soccer again at school for the next two years. 

  But in between my mixture of activities where I kept trying to choose my mom and I had decided at the end of 2011 school year that I would play tennis for EHS. I spent my whole summer out on tennis courts twice a week, every week at nine am with the St.Michael's tennis team. I was awful compared all of the St.Michael's kids that have been playing since they could hold a racket! I would cry in the car because I was so hard on myself for not being as good as them. Which now that I look back on it was a waste of tears because for just getting back into a sport I never really got that into I was giving myself no credit. By the end of the summer camp I was keeping up with the St.Michael kids. I was better, not good enough but better. After the summer I didn't really play that much tennis besides a few lessons with my pro Johnny here and there until off-season came at school. Off-season really helped me get some more experience with playing people that were on my level of tennis technique unlike at the St.Michael's camp where I was easily going to get beat without a doubt in anyone's mind.

Summer time tennis <3 can't wait

  Tennis has slowly but surely crept it's way back into my life and I am loving it. I really wouldn't mind going to college for tennis even though I would have to work so hard to get there, if I tried hard enough I know I could. I've always done sports that my parents have supported but but my mom has never wanted anything more than to see me play and successfully play tennis.  I now play doubles on the EHS Gold team with Victoria H. I'm actually pretty good and my mom and Johnny are so proud of me. My goal for next year is to successfully play singles for gold or blue team! I hope to be as good as my really close friend and tennis sister, Megan E. I used to dread going to soccer, dance, cheer, and even tennis (during the summer) but now I can't wait to get out on the courts any chance I get. I think about tennis when I wake up and when I got to sleep, I look up pictures of tennis players, I think about tennis matches during classes (except for Dr.D's of course!), I think about what kind of points I can make during practice that afternoon and who'll be my partner for Queen of the Court, and I watch ancient matches on YouTube just to see amazing rallies and points by the textbook greats. I haven't felt like this about a sport in a while and I'm loving it.