My Favorite Place

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Walk into the big white house

Hands full with boxes

Hear the “Hey they’re here!”

And the bear hugs from Grandma

Lay everything underneath the decorated beast

As the foods’ smell cascades out of the oven

As everyone arrives

We all stand in the kitchen

Anxious for the exciting night

We all stand in a circle and pray

For anything

Everything

And the booming voice of parents’ “Amen!”

I always like being first

Along with my cousin

To walk through the buffet

Of wonderful smells and sights

I always go for the well done

Pieces of meat

As my mom and I are the only ones

Who don’t like theirs red

It’s not set and stone

But it seems as if we almost have

A seating chart

I always sit my girl cousin

Her brother’s sit together

My parents by me

And then my uncle claims he doesn’t care

Where he sits

Grandma is always the last one sitting

Insisting that she must let everyone

Get their food before her

We always save a spot

Just for her

After the feast

My cousin and I race to the tree

To sort everything

If they aren’t sitting down

We choose where they sit

 Most of the time not happy

With where we put them

Everyone moves to a new spot

I always sit right upfront of the fire

My by back burning up

In delight

After everything calms down

We play an epic game of

Uno

Everyone somehow ends up in teams

Ganging up on the leader

Cheating is never a problem

Yet we still ask

“Prove it!”

We tally up the points

Always with someone

Over 100 and someone under 20

Next we move to the popular game

Of bluffing and betting with chips

Poker

I was always too young to understand

How to play

But this year I have been training

I used to just watch

And all that watching has paid off

We play till late into the night

No one wanting to leave

Laughing and giggling

Smiling and grinning

Then the tragic moment comes

Christmas Eve has just ended

Class Blog

It's October 29 and they school is buzzing with students waiting for Halloween on Wednesday!  In English class today we've been working on our Patriot's Pen essay, which is an essay that has to be something we would like to tell the founding fathers.  It has to be between 300 and 400 words, which is a lot harder to keep it under 400 words that you think.  We got paired with a partner who peer reviewed our essay and gave us feedback.  Also, today is the first day at basketball practice that we get to split into A team and B team.  A team gets to practice at the elementary school this week, as the B team gets to practice at the 38 building.

Truthful

Mirror, mirror on the wall; what’s your secret you can’t stall.  Tell me I’m pretty; tell me I’m fine.   Don’t tell me tubby; please don’t let that be the sign.  That can’t be the answer; please, please don’t let it be.  Is that fur, an antler?  Oh, tell me that’s not acne!  What am I turning into? Mirror, I don’t want you being my author!  This is starting to becoming an issue!  I know now that on the inside, I’ve become a monster.

Memoir: The melting

“Allison!” I heard Emily and Chandra yell at the same time. 

         “How stupid can you be?”  Claire shouted as I started running through the hallway.  I started smelling something smoking.  As I turned the corner I saw everyone crowded in panic.  Then everyone started staring at me.  Why does everyone always have to blame me for everything?

         On the day of parent/teacher conferences, Mrs. Morrow had Emily, Claire, and their friends come over to their house for a healthy eating challenge.  We had to find a recipe for a healthy meal, get the supplies, and make it on time for supper that night.  So once we got there, we all looked through cookbooks and online websites to find the recipes we wanted to make.  We chose strawberries with dark chocolate, a fruit rainbow, and meat and vegetable kabobs.  We made our list and headed for the grocery store, all of us on bikes.  After a flat tire and almost loosing the checkbook, we made our way back to the Morrow house. 

         We all had our jobs for different things: the older girls cut the vegetables and fruits in pieces, and the younger girls were in charge of putting the things we cut in the fridge.  We all made most of the entrees together, except the older girls got to make the kabobs on the grill.  Everyone started acting chaotic and out of control. 

         “Can you bring us a plate?” Emily and I hollered at Chandra from the porch.  She brought us this Christmas plate that was big enough to hold all of the kabobs.  Rushed, I put the plate in the oven to keep them warmed because we had a little more time than we thought.

         With the free time I had, I decided to work on our speech in the office.  I had the headphones on, and I was talking into the microphone.  As I was listening to the recording of myself, Emily, Chandra, and Claire started hollering at me.  I sped through the hallway into the kitchen, finding everyone crowded in a circle around the oven. 

         “Why did you put a plastic plate in the oven?” questioned Claire.  I completely forgot that Chandra had given me the plastic Christmas plate.  In panic, Emily grabbed oven rack with dripping plate all over it.  As she was putting it in the sink, a piece of the plastic got stuck to her finger, so she yelped in pain.  After she finally got the plastic off her, we looked in the oven and realized for some odd reason that there was tinfoil in the bottom of it.  If the tinfoil hadn’t been there, it would have taken us hours to peel all of the plastic from the oven.

         After that chaotic mess, we tried to have a nonchalant supper, as we waited for Emily’s parents to come home.  We tried to make Claire eat grapes, because she doesn’t like fruit.  In that process Emily ended up throwing a grape at Claire’s face.  Almost in slow motion, the grape hit Claire in her eye, making her eye start watering from the impact of the grape.

         “Claire! Are you crying?” Emily asked confused.

         “No, this eye got hit by a grape, and this eye’s just mad at you!” Claire exclaimed while laughing.  After we ate and cleaned up our mess, we waited for Emily’s parents to come home for their supper.

         Even though we had a few problems that day, we ended up having a great time.  We learned that every problem, no matter how crazy it is, always has some kind of solution. 

CBL Project

For my CBL project I decided to write about Body Image.  With Body Image, we want to make other teens realize that they don’t have to look like models or celebrities.  With some of the research we’ve done, we’ve found out that many magazines actually edit the people they put in them.  If more people realize this, maybe they won’t have such a high expectation for themselves.  They may also realize that they are perfect just the way they are.

My CBL project is important to me because I know that a lot of girls will always be like, "I wish I looked like that."  What a lot of people don’t know is that almost every picture in magazines is edited.  So I, myself, have seen a small impact on other girls' lives because of photo editing.  I don’t think that girls should have to compare themselves to others.  I believe that if you love the way you are, no one else’s opinions should matter as long as you, yourself, are happy.

            There are many things that I hope to accomplish during this project.  One of the things I hope to accomplish is to make people realize that it’s okay to not look like supermodels.  I also would like to accomplish to somehow make magazines edit photos less or put a few unedited photos in every issue.  I am excited to find out how much of a change, if any, this project will have on other people’s lives.  I think that if we really try, we could make a huge impact on someone’s, or even a lot of people’s lives.

Daily Blog

            On Tuesday and Wednesday September 18/19, the junior high students had late starts due to MAPS testing.  On Tuesday we took the reading and math tests; on Wednesday we took the science and language arts tests.  I think most students took the advantage of having a late start to sleep in and get rested up to test well.

55 Word Story

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The Taker

Rose starts sprinting towards the bushes.  Someone grabs her, puts their hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming, and drags her towards the house.

       “Don’t say a word, you’ll blow our cover” demanded the voice, still not letting her go.

       They hear the crunch of leaves, “Over the can on Damon and Rose!”