The Fight For Equalness

When we went to the city museum yesterday, we saw a section about people who were trying to fight for the chance to be equal a long time ago. We saw two bathroom doors (on display). One said "White Men's Bathroom" and the other said "Colored Men's Bathroom". Some white people didn't care about them, so back then they treated them with harm - not like now. I think that's crazy. But Martin Luther King Jr. did the bus boycott and won! He said that we don't have to fight with our fists, but with our mouths. So, now we can sit at lunch counters together, go to school and church together and have a president like Barack Obama. People back then would not even believe it. It doesn't matter if you are white or black to me, we're all just people.

(Photo: Seats removed from the lunchcounter at the Woolworth's in Raleigh, NC during the protests.)

Museum Day

I visited the Raleigh Museum of Natural Sciences. I went to all of the exhibits. I saw dinosaur bones and whale bones. There were live turtles there, too. They love me. I saw how when the animals are killed, they get stuffed (taxidermy) and put into the scenes of the museum. I saw stuffed real bears, raccoons, birds, beavers, skunks, deer and fish that were alive. I had fun. My dad told me I was a chicken, because I was scared in the bug and snake rooms.

St. Baldrick's

St. Baldrick's is a thing where you go and get your hair shaved all off and people donate money for cancer research. I would like you to donate to St. Baldrick's in Jennifer Thomas' name. She's my mom. She is going to do it and would like people to donate. It will happen on March 7th. You will see on the website that her goal is $1,500, but she needs your help to get there. Here is the website: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.php?ParticipantKey=2009-56941#

My mom is doing this because both of my grandmother's died of cancer and she couldn't stand it if I had cancer. It's so sad that all of those kids are trying so hard to stay alive. This money will help! Please donate some money or I'll shave your hair off!

Carolina Rollergirls

The Carolina Rollergirls is a roller derby team for ladies only. What they do is skate around and try to earn points. It works like this. They start in a pack. A pivot is out front for each team with the stripe on their helmet. The jammer has a star on their helmet and they start in the back. What they have to do is get through the pack of skaters who are called blockers and they are not the pivot or the jammer. Each team is trying to not let the jammer from the other team get up front. When a jammer does get in front, they have to go around the track and then go back in the pack and try to go around again. If they do, they get points. They (the Rollergirls) play at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Dorton Arena. The first part of their season for the Carolina Rollergirls is split up into three sub-teams called the Debutante Brawlers, The Trauma Queens and the Tai-Chi-Tahs. My favorite Rollergirl is Princess America from the Tai-Chi-Tahs. In the second part of their season, the whole team plays against other towns. When I grow up, I hope I will be one of them. I will be called Potato Masher. My name comes from also wanting to be a farmer when I grow up. For information about Roller Derby, see: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/roller-derby.htm/printable

(I am not sure whether she is correct on the way Roller Derby works, but she sure sounds like she knows what she's talking about. She is a big fan.)

My Magic House

In my imagination (amaganason), my house would be like this. My magic house would have a bedroom which had no floor, but from corner-to-corner and wall-to-wall was just bed. It would be full of blankets and pillows and stuffed animals. One room would have nothing but cats in it. Another room would have nothing but dogs. Then I would have a room that had a hole in the corner full of food that never went bad. One room would have nothing but toys there and then a room that was a playroom with a huge tv, a closet, a nice feather couch and a nice soft rug. And I would have a room full of water so you could swim and sail in a boat. It would have a tunnel full of water and at the end of the tunnel is a party room, which is gigantic. The outside of the house would look like the "Hotel Frances Duke" (reference to "Hotel For Dogs" movie). The house would have an indoor playground and outside there's a huge yard, where the dogs can go out. The yard is as big as 600 football fields. If I had this house, I would not have to go anywhere.

Anniversary Day

Today is my mom and dad's 11th anniversary. The have been married since 1998. Their story is that they stayed at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. The hotel screwed up their room, so they got to stay in a bigger room called a suite. Then they went to get their license. After three days, they got married at Graceland Wedding Chapel. After that, they went to Ceasar's (Sesor's) Palace to have a reception (resepson) and my dad dropped cake down my mom's dress. Ceasar's Palace is so big, it has a mall in it, my mom said! Then they went to Mexico and then to a rodeo, where they rode horses and did crafts. They also went on a hayride and to a fire party. Some other people who were there came on their horses and then spanked them and yelled "Ha!" The horses ran back to the stables. My mom and dad went back to Las Vegas and stayed at the Stardust and they got married again in a drive-in before they came back home. They are never going to get divorced (devorsed)! Viva Las Vegas!

(My wedding story suffers a little in the translation here. I'll make this quick. We were married in Las Vegas at the Graceland Wedding Chapel. We stayed at the Flamingo and had a small reception at a restaurant in Caesar's Palace. The day after we were married, we drove to Bisbee, Arizona and stayed at the Shady Dell Air Stream Trailer Court. We did drive across the border to see Mexico for all of 5 minutes. The next day we drove to our honeymoon, in Wickenburg, Arizona - a dude ranch owned by Merv Griffin. It was a very nice place. Then we headed back to Vegas to catch a plane out of town. We stayed the last night at the Stardust and were bored, so we found another chapel and renewed our vows. It just happened to be the drive-thru wedding chapel that was making all the news. The next day we headed home. - Mom)

Finger Calculator For The Nines

I learned in a school book how to multiply by nine the easy way. It's a trick! What you do is put up all ten fingers. Then give your fingers names - this is the fun part. Start with your thumb and call him "one". Name the others by their number order. Next, you go 9 x 9 = what? You have to tell the number nine finger to duck. Then, you count how many fingers are on the left side of number nine. There are 8. Well how many are on the right? There is 1. So, you got your answer: 81! It's so cool! Multiplication. Another example is this: 9 x 4. Set your hands up. Duck the number four finger. Count the numbers on the left side of your ducked finger. It's 3. Now, count the fingers on the other side of the ducked finger. That is 6. You've discovered that 36 is the answer! It's easy.

Cheez-It Attack!

One day, we went to a Wal-mart and we saw this great big, grown-up guy walking around with his mom. He had a really large box of Cheez-Its. What he did was tuck the Cheez-Its under his arm and then he started stomp-running towards me very fast. It was like he was playing football or something. He got in the main aisle and boom! He fell on the floor and started spinning around on his shoulder in front of us (like the The Three Stooges). My mom and I said - let's go to the other side of this store. The guy's mom went and picked him up and we ran off. That was freaky! There's always freaks in Wal-mart.

What advertising is to me.

My dad is a person who works in advertising. What advertising is to me is people making ads, which are posters or billboards that say taglines, sales, times, pictures, what's in a store or work place. And you also make commercials, which are moving ads. Well, my dad is making a book, so I guess they do that, too. They (ad agencies) are very helpful. My dad is the copywriter type. He's the one who fixes the mistakes and proofreads and then writes the ads out again. So, that is why he is the one who proofreads my reports for school. In advertising, they also make pictures or draw them or take them with a camera. They layout websites, so if anyone needs their ads, they can pick the ones the people want. My dad works at an ad agency in Raleigh. He is a good copywriter.

The Fiddlers Convention

I want to tell you about this event I went to last year called The Fiddlers Convention. I went with my Grandma Paulette in Galax, Virginia. I thought it was fun. We had fun. I got a t-shirt and some ice-cream, too. There was a very large lady blowing on a plastic milk jug and at the same time another lady, who was the same size, was playing the plastic spoons. I called them the "Picnic Band". We walked around and had fun meeting up with everybody. We watched the bands little by little. I liked it. I want to go again. What it is about is - guys and girls set up on the stage or in their tents and play the fiddle or some other instrument and play country or bluegrass music. You also hang out a lot and buy records from them and stuff. My aunt was there, too. We both were laughing, because there was this strange guy, in one of the bands, who made weird noises in the middle of the song they played. He sounded like a turkey trying to gargle. It was a crazy bunch of stuff that I've never seen before and I really want to go back again.

Sew Cool!

I went to some sewing classes. What I made was a purse, a cat pillow for my cat and a bookmark. I learned to sew! I picked out Pink Panther cloth and I used it for all three things in the pictures.

What you do is first, get out the sewing machine and thread it. Put it through the loops and holes. Put in the bobbin. Then cut the fabric and lift the presser foot and needle. Push the foot peddle to make it go. If it is your first project, I say for you to do a pillow. You have to do the pillow inside-out. When you get to a corner, stop and stuff. Before stuffing, iron seams and then make it right-side-out. Then you can go and stuff. Last thing is to get a sewing needle and sew the rest by hand by going in and out. Now you have the pillow! I like to sew. It is sew cool!

(Cat is fat, but not stuffed. These are the three projects that she made in her class.)

"The Dirtiest Man In The World"

I love this book called "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and I love a poem in it that is "The Dirtiest Man In The World". It is written by a man called Shel Silverstein. I really like poems.

Oh I'm Dirty Dan, the world's dirtiest man,

I never have taken a shower.

I can't see my shirt - it's so covered with dirt,

And my ears have enough to grow flowers.

But the water is either a little too hot,

Or else it's a little too cold.

I'm musty and dusty and patchy and scratchy

And mangy and covered with mold.

But the water is always a little too hot,

Or else it's a little too cold.

I live in a pen with five hogs and a hen

And three squizzly lizards who creep in

My bed, and they itch as I squirm, and I twitch

In the cruddy old sheets that I sleep in.

If you looked down my throat with a flashlight, you'd note

That my insides are coated with rust.

I creak when I walk and I squeak when I talk,

And each time I sneeze I blow dust.

The thought of a towel and some soap make me howl,

And when people have something to tell me

They don't come and tell it - they stand back and yell it.

I think they're afraid they might smell me.

The bedbugs that leap on me sing me to sleep,

And the garbage flies buzz me awake.

They're the best friends I've found and I fear they might drown

So I never go too near a lake.

Each evening at nine I sit down to dine

With the termites who live in my chair,

And I joke with the bats and have intimate chats

With the cooties who crawl through my hair.

.

I'd brighten my life if I just found a wife,

But I fear that that never will be

Until I can find a girl, gentle and kind,

With a beautiful face and a sensitive mind,

Who sparkles and twinkles and glistens and shines -

And who's almost as dirty as me.

- Shel Silverstein

Go to: http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html

(This poem and illustration were copied from Shel Silverstein's book of poems and drawings called "Where The Sidewalk Ends", pages 96 & 97.)

Abraham Lincoln

Here is some stuff I know about Abraham Lincoln. When he was seven (my age), his mom died of milk sickness (I like milk, too.) He married a lady named Mary Todd. He has been dead for about 100 years. He was shot and killed at a play. It was a good play and he liked it a lot. I bet he didn't know he was going to get shot.

Some more stuff is, he stopped slavery by going to war with the North against the South. He saved nearly all of their lives, the people of the North. Before he was the president, he was a store keeper, a millworker and a mail man. When people asked where the mail drop off was, he said "in Abe's hat". He was called Abe for short. On February 12th, we celebrate his birthday. He was one of the greatest presidents and people say that if he had not lived, then the United States would be in two parts. I wonder what the two names would have been.

(This was written using notes she gathered for an Abraham Lincoln book report for school. She decided to use them for her writing today, because it's President's Day.)

Scooby Doo

One of my favorite cartoons is Scooby Doo. I have many books of his mysteries and I even have his shows. My mom sewed me a Scooby Doo, too. I like Scooby Doo, a lot. I have not got all of his mysteries, but I am close. And best of all, I have Scooby Doo comics and vitamins! I even have a shirt and valentine's cards. Scooby Doo is the coolest.

Adam-12

Yesterday, I watched my favorite show, Adam-12 on RTN. It was about this guy who picked up a lady in his car and took her to a deep hole full of stickers and thorns. He got the lady's high-heel and hit her. He hit her with everything he could find. Then he threw her into the hole. It was up to Reid and Malloy to save her and arrest the guy. And they did.

P.S. She had a broken leg. And there was another lady who was hitchhiking and they (Reid and Malloy) stopped her so that she would not get killed.

Sweethearts

My mom asked me to come up with some new messages for the Sweethearts candy. These are the ones I made. Some of my messages are funny and some are sweet.

1. Message: Love
2. You'll Be My Valentine
3. Bad Hair Day
4. Peek-a-boo, I See You!
5. Dance With Me
6. Say Good Morning
7. Run For Your Life!
8. Your Back Is Hairy
9. Take Care Of Me
10. You're Under Arrest!
11. Pet Cat Heads
12. No Cigarettes!
13. You've Got Love In The Future
14. Valentine: Love
15. Never Better
16. Suckers In Your Hair
17. Love From Above
18. You're Not Sweet. You're Pathetic - Mr. T
19. Bring Me Flowers
20. Chapped Lips

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

My pet, Miss Clawdy, who is a nut

Our old black and white cat, Lil, died two years ago around when my grandma died. And to make me not be too sad, my parents got me a kitten. Elvis Presley sang a song called "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", so we named her Miss Clawdy. Miss Clawdy is a calico with orange, black, white, gray and brown colors and she's fat! Her eyes are green and one side of her nose is black and the other is pink.

I like to read to her. She likes it, too. I do my homework with her, too. If she sees pink cloth, she has to lay on it. She jumps up the bathroom door frame to see how high she can jump and sometimes just to scare you. She's a nut! She goes in the tub sometimes, where our other cat has a bowl of water there. She picks the edge of the bowl up with her teeth and watches the water go down the drain, like a nut. And sometimes, she just puts her feet in the bowl. She does not like the outside. She will claw you to death if you even show her the door. When she is being nosey, she will stand up like a meer cat on her hind legs. It's funny.

She runs around so much, it makes her sleep a lot. She gets on my bed and sleeps with my stuffed animals. She is so fat, because she eats whenever she can. She gets in my drawer and steals my headbands. It is funny to watch her pick them up in her mouth and carry them around. She puts them around her neck like a necklace, too. It's not very much fun searching for my headbands when I need them. Once in a while, she will go crazy and shred the toilet paper. She doesn't wear a collar because she will shred it to pieces, too. She sleeps in a lot of crazy places like on top of the tv, on a bookshelf, on a shelf in my closet, on the sofa, on the bathroom sink, in the bathtub or even on the toilet. When she was a kitten, she fell in the toilet. And one time, when my mom was in the tub taking a bath, she dived into the tub. Boy! She's a crazy nut!

X

X is one of my favorite bands. My dad likes them very much, too. Their names are John Doe, Billy Zoom, D.J. Bonebrake and Exene. My dad took me to see them at a concert last year with his friend James and James' friend Lauren. When we listened to the first song, Billy Zoom let me strum and touch his famous guitar. At the end of the show, Billy Zoom had to carry me around the building, which was the Cat's Cradle. Then I bought a tee-shirt that had the name of one of their songs called "White Girl". I had a good time there. It was so fun and I thought I was the "queen of X" that night or maybe just "princess".

When I wrote this, I was listening to an X cd that has two albums on it - "Los Angeles" and "Wild Gift". My favorite songs are "In This House That I Call Home" and "White Girl". Also, my dad tries to make his hair look like Billy Zoom's hair.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

My daddy took me to a dance called "The Daddy-Daughter Dance" on Saturday. Two of my friends were there, also. I had a very pretty, silver dress on. It had a black coat and a heart in the middle. My daddy was handsome in his suit. He bought us some pretty flowers to put on our coats. We did the twist at the dance. It was at the Marbles Kids Museum. I had good food there. My friends had fancy white dresses on. Their dresses were so poofy, they looked like marshmallows when they squatted down to the floor. I had a lot of fun. I love my daddy more than the dance though! I want to go again!

The Chirp Inn

One day my dad went to the grocery store or something. My mom and I got number stickers together and went out on our front porch while he was gone. On the roof edge of our porch roof, there is a bunch of brackets in a couple of places. The birds come, tuck there heads in and sleep there at night sometimes. We put the number stickers on the brackets to make it look like room numbers for a hotel. Then I made ads and a sign so more birds would come to stay. I also made a name for the hotel - The Chirp Inn. We did all of that during my dad's shopping trip.

We would check each night to see who was there and what room they were in. I named the birds who were regular visitors and usually come to stay. One is named Tennis because he was as big as a tennis ball. He usually stays in number four. And then there is Johnny Cash, who is usually in number eight. He was actually a girl and laid eggs in a nest.

Tell all the birds, we're the "cheepest" in town. Ha ha. (The pictures are the ads she created.)

My complaints

I do not like some stuff. First, I do not like Hannah Montana. I don't like to see her on everything from underwear to frozen waffles. I'm tired of seeing her. People think she is the queen of singing. She is not. Why can't the cool bands be on everything, instead of her? (Picture is the Hannah Montana Go Fish game.)

One word I hate is "fabulous". People say stuff like to someone else, "How are you?" The man or lady will say, "I am fabulous." Another word is "hot". People think they are hot, but they are not.

I hate when teenage boys or girls are on skateboards and go in the road and are acting crazy. It is stupid. I hate when they get together and go to stores and act stupid. One time I saw about five teenage boys in a Target, throwing a bouncing ball over racks in the medicine department. They are very stupid.

Those are my complaints of the day.

Basketball's cool!

I like basketball very much. I am in a basketball program. My parents like basketball, too. My mom likes Duke, but my dad likes N.C. State. I am good at defense and stealing, but not very good on shots. I play at an elementary school for the YMCA. My team is called the Pacers and I am the only girl on my team.

My last game, I stole the ball. You can see me play on Thursdays. My number is always number 10, because my favorite baseball player is Chipper Jones from the Atlanta Braves - he is number 10. I do not have a hoop at home to practice, so I have difficulty at shooting in the game, but no difficulty at defense. I am good at dribbling. I can dribble with my left hand, even though I am right-handed. I love baskets and balls.

Watkins Grill

My favorite place is Watkin's Grill. There I see booths and friends. What I feel is happiness within my soul. I hear pots and pans rattling and yelling from Rhonda and Judy. It is fun there and it is good to eat there, too. If you pass it, turn around and eat right down. And you will believe me so.

You will have the time of your life, I bet. Just walk in the door and the fun starts. Jim pulls quarters out of your ear. Rhonda yells with Judy and she keeps the bad guys out. The "T-days" are mac and cheese days. The best food there is mac and cheese, lasagna, chicken broccoli soup and black-eyed peas.

Watkins Grill is the best around! Oh, it is!

(Watkins Grill is located in Raleigh, NC. Rhonda and her husband own it. She and some of her other relatives run the place. It has good home-cooked food at a good price. We go at least once a week.)

Hotel For Dogs

On January 22nd, 2009, I went to the movie theater and watched "Hotel For Dogs". It was a very good movie. It was about two foster kids who could not have their dog that they had with their real parents. His name was Friday. He was a good dog. They got in a hotel that was abandoned and they found two other dogs named Lenny and Georgia. They made a dog hotel and they got in trouble because of it. But they got to keep running the hotel with all the dogs anyway.

I am in an SPCA club called Pet Pals. We all went to see this movie together. It was a barrel-full of bones of fun.

Last week, I went to the library and got the "Hotel For Dogs" book to read. I noticed (nodest) that it was older than the movie. The story wasn't like the movie. The kids were not foster kids. They had a hotel with nine dogs instead of a hundred and the hotel was an abandoned house. The dog, Friday, in the book was a girl who had puppies, but the one in the movie was a boy. They were the same kind of dog though. I enjoyed the movie and the book very much.

At McDonald's, they have the toys for the movie. Right now, I have three of them. Romeo, one of the dogs is stitched crummy.