A "Brief" Summmary of My Summer So Far

Between lurking parents, little sisters, and internet problems, I haven't had a chance to write a thing! Because of that, I have a lot to say in this post.

I wanted to talk about camping for a little bit. I haven't gone in so long, it was great to leave the house. we went to a new place this year, Bunganut (it's so silly sounding) Campground. Since we don't own a tent anymore and our camper collapsed, we rented a cabin, so it didn't really feel like camping. I still had a lot of fun though! Fishing there was great! Around seven thirty, alll the fish would do was bite. Sometimes the moment you dropped the line in you got a bite, or you could catch them without even baiting your hook! I caught 27 in two/three days, and I only spent a few hours each day. We kept a few of the fish (I'm not sure if were allowed to) and when my grandfather came to visit we cooked them over a fire and they were so good! De-scaling them was fun too. There were also two ponies and their names were Stevie and Sing. Another fun activity was the game room. Me and my little sister Hallie played "extreme" ping pong, which was really just us trying to play ping pong, but being so bad at it that it bounced all over the walls. Another acceivment of mine is playing a racer game on hard that took place on mars, and winning! Aren't I so talented! A few other relatives came too, and it was great to see them. Well, it was a great experience, and I loved the chance I had to hang out with my family without someone being on a laptop.

Here comes a rant fest. A few days ago, well, I was cranky because of a certain girl issue. So that in mind, the day progressed ok, untill I started feeling..... lets say rebelious. So my chore was to wash and dry the towels. Easy enough, I thought. I decided to also wash my clothes. While I SHOULD have been folding those towels though, I wanted to finish my game of monopoly. (Oh so rebelious.) I got yelled at by my Aunt, so when I went down stairs to finish folding, I thought that I would rather hide behind all the junk that our landlady left. Unfortunately, my hiding spot must not have been good because it wasn't long after my Aunt came down to check up on me that she found me. She asked me to talk to her and I didn't feel like it, so I stayed silent. then she went on about all the things she had to do today, but no. I was first priority, I'm the importance right now. So I needed to hurry up and say what was wrong, because she was ssoooo busy. This did not make me want to talk at all. So I didn't. She got angy and left. I got up and went to go get a snack and she told me no. I had just had lunch, but two bowls of soup and two peices of buttered bread weren't enough to fill me. So I went to my room in a huff. I don't normally act this way, but as I said, I had girl problems. My aunt has made this rule that if anything is left on the floor she throws it away, so while I was usptairs going through my clothes, desiding what to get rid of, I though, "Now why should I take these pants all the way down stairs to throw out, when if I leave them on the floor, SHE will throw them out. That is what she wanted, right? So I threw them on the ground. this I also got introuble for. "I'm not your maid. Now once I get back we are going to talk." So she left and I rushed downstairs to get some applesauce and finish folding the laundry and towels. Belle helped. Now Aunties boyfriend, Crow, was sitting on a chair, watching us fold. I kow it wasn't his intention, but it creeped me out, because I was dealing with my undergarments as well. then his daughter, Betsy, came down stairs and asked to help. I normally would have given her an outright yes, but her father was there, and I thought if I said that he would think I was trying to use her to shirk out of my responsibilities. So I said, "No, why would you want to do that? Folding is boring." But she insisted so I let her. We finished and I put everything away. Then Auntie came home. Here is where my rant begins. We had a "family" meeting, as Auntie and Crow called it. It was really a, gang up on me and my sisters about how aweful we are, and praise Crows children. This upset me a lot. So Brent, his six year old son who just moved in with us, Betsy, Belle, me and Allison sat at a table together. I didn't say a single word the whole meeting. Auntie had the job of telling us why we were aweful, and Crow had the job of telling us why his kids were great. So Auntie said things about how we couldn't afford us to eat the way we did, (targeting me mostly because she is a very tall, large, pregnant woman {not large from the pregnancy yet} and she talked about how I eat as much as her. It's true, but it still hurt.) Then she went on about how we are all rude and terrible kids. One of the worst things she said was that we were horrible to our mom. I usually try to respect all adults, but especially my own parents. I'm a pretty well behaved kid, this is the first time I have ever tried anything so rebelious, and you can see that it isn't anything monumental. then she said something that still rings in my mind. "You kids are so lucky, you have two houses." I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, and it's not what she meant, but all I could think was, "Yeah, we are so lucky that our mom had a different man for each child and it didn't work out so none of us can experience what it feels like to have a household with both parents together. I just love the fact that my parents are devorced." I mean, I guess their divorce is ok with me, because it's not like I remember them together, and it isn't terrible, and without it I wouldn't have two of my sisters, but that comment just struck me hard for some reason. then it was Crow's turn. Brent has been here for only a few days, and he is six, and he understands and follows all of the house rules so well. (I understand encouraging him, but there wasn't a single good word about us the whole meeting, so this pissed me off) This was even worse: It's such a great gift from god when you can do your chores with a smile, and Betsy is one of those people and when she wanted to help fold, she was brought down with such negativity. Finally, they went on to discribe THEIR good behavior and listed all sorts of actions and behaviors that I do almost every day there. But did they thank me? No. Well, this went one for a while, and when Belle wanted to interject some thoughts, she started out saying, "When Betsy first got here, she would take my stuff without asking-" And then my Auntie said rather harshly that we had already discussed that. When it finally ended, me and my sisters went upstairs to discuss this, and we all noticed that not one harsh word was said about them, only us. So we vented and discussed our feelings together, and guess what happened next? We discovered that Aunntie had been eavesdropping. Great. I have a lot of privacy don't I? When our mom came home we told her every detail, and she was rather upset. You can't call it a family meeting if she isn't there and even so, that wasn't a meeting that could even hope to improve the household. She said that they shouldn't have attacked it by beating down on us, but by encouraging good behavior and adressing only important wrongs.

(This all was written a few days, or could it be a week now, ago. But since I am determined to post something this summer, I shall not delete it, and continue to write on.)

Civil Air Patrol. I'm so glad I joined. It is a volunteer group that is similar to the Air Force, but put to a level that kids ages 8-18 can do. I have to go to three meeetings before I can oficialy join, but nothing they can throw at me now will shake my answer of yes. Not Even P.T. *Shudder* but that will come later. First I want to tell you about my first meeting. I was so nervous that the whole time I was on the verge of tears. First I had to walk into the room where everyone is sitting, they all stare at me. Unnerving, but I got past it. Then we had to line up out in the hall. Easy enough. We went out to where they keep the air planes. We heard a voice bellow, "Don't touch the airplanes!" So I avoided them. Then I learned how to do a left face and a right face (that isn't one of my strong points), how to stand at attention, and at ease. It actually started to get a little fun. Then we went back to the class room and I got to see three people get promoted, and move up in the ranks. Specifically I remember on girl who was getting promoted. When asked if she had anyone to bestow it upon her, (a.k.a. put a pin on her shirt) she said yes, that her father was here. He came from the back of the room and was wearing a police uniform. After he clicked the pin on, he hugged her and told her how proud he was of her. I almost cried. That will be me one day, with my father telling me how proud he is of me. Not that he doesn't now, but that just seemed so different. Then we had to make a circle with our chairs. It was not even close to a circle, and everyone kept saying what they thought it looked like, but I refrained from saying my usual comment about lumpy circles: That it looked like a tumer. In fact, unless an authority figure talked to me, I didn't say anything at all. So next we had a great discussion (I didn't verbally join it, but mentally I think I came up with some pretty strong points) about several things: Do you think America should have a draft? Do you think women shold be included in the draft? Do you think it fair that women have to do less then men on Physical Fitness Tests? There were several others. So that concludes my first day. It was enjoyable enough for me to go on the dread P.T. day. Physical Training. It was terrible. The meeting we on thursday, and my legs still hurt. So first we lined up in two columbs, and we marched out to the parking lot. I wish I was more comfortable with my peers then, because this part would have been so much more fun. We (those not testing for promotion) were told to run down a hill a scream. "Battle Cry" as they said. It's so childish, but extremely fun for me. We were however, about to run into a puddle, so we all had to make several side steps. Then we ran and yelled down the hill. We did some push ups (uhgg) and stretched our legs. then we went back up the hill, and got ready to run. First they told us to drink all the water we could. Me, having none, was offered some by a nice girl. Then the water bottles had to be thrown on the grass and we started. It was a nice pace, not my normal pace, but easy to keep up with. Then we got faster. And faster. We were running now. He (the instructer, or Sargent) told us over and over, that if we had to, we could drop to the back, there would be no shame in that. I, however tired I was, was much more determined to go as long as I possibly could. We were nearing the end of the course, which was also the beggining. My breathing was very labored then. My legs felt so heavy. But I focused on the legs of the girl infront of me, making sure I took a left step when she did, and so on. A kid from infront of me got too tired and had to move behind me. He was breathinng just as hard as me. I felt bad for him. Then he fell. Now I could have gone on and finished with everyone else, but I didn't know if he was hurt or not. So I stopped and walked back to him. I asked if he was alright and he said he was and we walked at a leisurly pace back. I didn't realize how tired I was, but I knew I could probably sprint to the end. Once his breathing and my own seemed close to normal, I suggested sprinting, and he agreed, since everyone else was waiting for us. So we did. We moved back to the parking lot, and did more push ups! Yay. I was told that if I wanted to I could do them on my knees. We did stretches (which were so easy for me) and other things which were not, especially since my legs were so tired. This was the worst for me. I wanted to stop, but I didn't want to because everyone else could do it. I tried my best, and usually stayed in place with every one, but a few times I couldn't keep up the pace. There was a girl next to me, and she told me her name, but I can't remember it. She was nice to me. I was, suprisingly enough, not exhausted once we were done, just very thirsty and my legs hurt. So we went back to the room with the planes, and they again told us not to touch them.  I heard the girl who gave me water laughing and saying that the planes were worth more than all of our souls put together. So we lined up and counted by four, giving us four groups. It was such a strange coincdence that I ended up in the same group as the kid who fell down running, and the girl who was so nice to me during the rest of P.T. There were other kids, since there was six in our group, but I have nothing  to say about them. We all had to stand on one blanket and move it to the end of the room. We were "Crossing the Delaware" like George Washington and his men. If we touched the ground, that limb was frozen. We also had the N.C.O.'s walkig around being iceburgs, and they would randomly tap somones arm or leg and say stuff like, "Doesn't frost bite suck?" or "Well that limb is dead now." or "Feeling a little cold?" and that limb coudn't be used. We pretty much had to scoot the blanket. My team got in second place! Well, we did, the one time we actually made it to the other side. Yay! Eventually the N.C.O's went against us. It was funny because you would think that they would do better then the kids, but that was so far from the truth. Either they couldn't make it to the finish line in time, or they all lost their limbs and became paraphalegic. (I have no idea if that is spelled right.) Once the activity was over, we discussed the teamwork skills we learned, like how for it to work, everyone needed to have a part in it. Carrying people across wasn't a good idea. It happened to me once, that nice girl gave me a piggyback ride. Everyone doing their own thing didn't work. So it was a good activity for me. During it I also found out that the nice girl is homeschooled and is going to join the army in a few years. Her parents were both paratroopers. So we walked inside and had impromptu speeches! (I hope I spelled that right.) Finally, my favorite part, we heard the story of our mascot, that was made up on the spot. Our mascot is a sheep with black wool. So we are the black sheep. We were told of an epic tale of the white hooved sheep vs. The Black hooved sheep locked in a combat that lasted many years, and lost many sheeps lives. But in an act of aweinspiring selflessness, a black hooved sheep rescued three white hooved sheep from a burning building, and he came out with scorched wool, giving him the appperance of a black sheep. That fateful event ended the mighty war. I love storys so much, even if they are about sheep. So now I have papers to fill out for joining if I want! I'm so excited!

I don't think I fought being a family with Crow and his children, but apparently, he saw it that way and told us (me and my sisters) so. I can only think of a few examples of where he might be getting this from, but he still has to be delusional to seriously think that we were fighting beining a family with them. Our mom works during the day, so sure, once she gets home, I want to spend it with her, but only like twice have we said we wanted to have some time with just her and us. Another time, we were watching  a movie that was innapropriate for Betsy, and he said she was going to bed anyway, but once we started the movie he let her stay up. But she still couldn't watch it. Me, Allisson, and Belle went to Jokers once with Belles father, but he doesn't know them, it wouldn't make sence for them to go. I haven't really seen him since he and my mom got devorced. They are making such a big deal over it and it is so immature. I had no idea that I was giving them the impression that I didn't want to be their family, and they should have told us that before going into the your family, my family phase. Now almost every time we want to do something with Betsy and her brother, they say no, or take them away in the middle of it. Why are adults so immature sometimes?! I hate it. The better approch would have been to inform us of how they felt and worked to bring us together, not severing the ties we do have.

I love having a pool. At my dad's house, the pool is great. I love jumping on floaties and bouncing around and going as deep as I can. It's so thrilling. I also love the goggles that protect your nose aswell, they are an amazing invention.

I'm hungry. I'm hungry! I wish people could understand my eating habits, and my needs when it comes to food. I don't even eat all that much, just during certain meals I like to eat a great deal of food, and I snack a little during the day. I wish people could understand this. My mom and dad are so support of my "healthy appetite" though the rest of the adult figures in my life aren't so supportive. I mean, if we couldn't afford it, or I was overweight I would understand, but neither of those hold true. I wish people would just let me eat. I'm tired of being hungry, waiting for my stepmom to go to sleep so I can eat more since I wasn't allowed enough to rid my hunger pains at dinner. I'm tired of having to sneak around when my aunt isn't near to get a snack when lunch couldn't fill me, but even more, I am tired of people telling me that I eat to much. It really hurts my feelings, and I can't help it.

I loved hanging out with my best friends in the whole world. Though it didn't go as plannned, (when does it ever?) I had so much fun. I miss you guys so much, and I never cease to be grateful that I have you guys there. I see my sisters have such troubles with friends, and I'm so proud to say that you guys are my friends, because you have never let me down when I needed you guys yet. You're friendship with me is steadfast and true. How could I have made it this far with out losing my mind if it weren't for you? I'm so thankful. I love you guys! You are like family that I got to choose.

Well, there is my summer so far! Wow, I talk, or rather, type, a lot.

I was planning on calling my friends imeadiately, but, I decided this was much easier, and the whole purpose of of owning a blog, was it not?

So Melanie is back and she brought a friend. It was nearly dinner time and after my pleading, I convinced my father to go get fondu for dinner. I was excited, we used to have fondu all the time, but we hadn't in the longest time. So after some prep work, dinner was served. We had a pot of cheese and a pot of oil. People started to load their skewers with food after a while instead of dipping one thing at a time. I had one piece of steak that was stubbornly refusing to go farther on my skewer, so I couldnt get anything else to fit. So I pushed more on, hoping it would give way. And it did, but more then I expected. I poked myself with the sharp skewer. I didn't think it had broken skin, but when I looked at, the blood told me that wasn't so. They were just two little scratches, nothing big. My dad told me to wash them off in the sink, and I did that I put a bandaid on. After that we discussed the best and safest way to put meat on those skewers. Just as my stepmom was chiding me about it she pushed a piece of chicken on hers.

She held it diagonally and it moved past her hand and struck her other hand. Blood shot out everywhere. Her palm was covered in her own blood, drops trailing down her arm wrapped around it before falling to make a splatter of blood on the floor. Hallie looked scared but otherwise it seemed like nothing happened. We all  followed  my stepmom to the sink where she started to wash it out, my dad beside her and the children (including me) picking up the trail of blood with paper towels. Then she said she felt light headed. Now I started to feel scared. My dad supported her weight while she slumped against the sink. Once she was situated in a way that she could hold her own weight while still washing it out my dad ran down stairs to get his army medical bag. Everyone else seemed to be doing something important, but I didn't know what to do, so I continued to wash the blood off the floor. I heard my step mom say that it didn't hurt at all, and then my dad said it was still bleeding a lot. All I could think was I'm so glad I'm taking first aid freshman year because if something like this happened when the parents weren't home I would probably have just screamed and freaked out and called 911. My dad wrapped her wound and she didn't want to walk to the bed or couch so she lay down on the kitchen floor while my dad reminded her to hold her hand above her heart. My dog, Monk, came over and started to sniff the blood on the floor. I don't know why, but I said "Monk if you lick that blood I'm going to kick you." I don't think he was interested in the blood anyway and instead went to sniff my stepmom. Maybe ten minutes passed.

Things quieted down after a while. Mikellas friend felt sick so she hid down stairs, but I was still hungry, so after asking if she was ok and giving her a hug, I went back to eating. I starred at the blood on her plate and wondered if it was from the raw steak, or from her accident. Melanie said probably both. Then my dad threw away the plate. Looking under the wrappings, we saw two tiny holes. I said "That was a lot of blood for just two small holes." then my stepmom gave me a dirty look. I didn't mean to offend her. Since that got the reaction it did, I knew to hold my tongue about saying how ironic it was that while she was telling me how to put it on and avoid cutting yourself she bled more than I did.

Some people say the best way to deal with moments like this is with jokes and that is just what we did. We joked about the skewers of death mostly, but the best one was when my dad was showing on of his guns to Melanie. She asked if it was loaded and he said no. She said that she wanted to make sure so she didn't accidentaly shoot someone. Then I said that that would be a bit suspicious, someone bleeding and someone else shot to death, they would think that someone was on a murderous rampage. That got a big laugh.

"Ow, it's starting to hurt. And it feels really stiff." My dad looked concerned now. "You could have hit a tendon. I'm taking you to the ER now." "Do we have to? Right now?" replied my stepmom. My dad pressed on the wound. "Yes, it's really stiff." So my stepmom had us put on her belt for her (because you can't go to the Emergency Room not looking your best) and we opened the doors for her and the parents left. So it's only the kids, well, three teenage girls and one kid, left in the house.

Hows that for an exciting dinner?

Hey I've been trying to write a story, but I'm not sure about a lot of things. If I explain my ideas, will you critique it and tell me whats good and what isn't? I have a few parts I haven't figured out yet, but you can help me with that. 

Ok, so it's fantasy, and in the story people can use magic, but there are lots of limits because the magic comes from yourself. Let me explain. See, your writing hand is your output hand and and the other is your input hand. So you can absorb energy from the outside, and focuse it to manifest in some form when you put it out. An example is if you wanted to heal someone, you would either take some of your own life/health and give it to them, or if something like a plant was around you could take the life from it and stream it through you to who ever you want to heal. So plot wise, there is a small town of about 500, and about 5 people have gone missing, so the leader of the town knows that he needs to do something about it. He hires a man who is a sort of adventurer, roaming around, getting hired to basically kill creatures that have been causing disturbances. So around the same time he comes to the town, a woman comes as well, I'm not sure why yet. I wrote the part already where she comes to the tavern. One day, as the man is "patrolling"  a deranged man comes out of the sewers (this town has those sewers that are large enough to walk around in) and he keeps saying a word over and over again. When questioned about what it is, his responce is, "It's a word... It comes from the sewers... and it makes people.... hurt themselves." This makes the adventurer think that perhaps what ever made those people disapear could be in the sewers. So he and a group of others (brave others whose loved ones went missing?) They enter the sewers and walk around for a while, and walk in on a cult. The cultist are in the middle of some disturbing and perhaps gory ritual. The cultists worship a demigod. When the cultists are aware of their "visiters" they say the same word that the deranged man said. Some how the adventurer man survives, but all the others, when they hear this word, it makes them think that something evil/bad is in/on them or their worst fear. For example, if someone had arachniphobia, they might imagine that spiders are crawling all over him, and tear at their own flesh to try to rid himself of them, unaware that he is killing himeself. I really want one guy to self imolate ( to set himself on fire). Well, anyway, somehow, the woman and the adventurour met up in the sewers and try to stop the demigod. They wander through the sewers and find a hallway lined with cages and in them are people of every demographic, just shoved in like animals. There is a neverending light so it';s hard for them to sleep, not like they would want to anyway, because the ones whe fell asleep were often brought somewhere else, and they were sure it wasn't a better place. The whole hallway reeked an odor most foul, because they could never leave their cages, so obviously, it was a pretty gross place. They let the people go. Here, my vision for the story gets murky. I know that somehow, the demigod is defeated, and before that we find out that he took these people to find out how he can have more power over people, so he prety much tests/tortures them. The cultists, I wanted to have their freewill stolen from them with some sort of artifact, but now I'm wondering if I should do that or not becasue I found it fascinating that some people follow authority, even if it goes to extreme measures. Like that test where people administered electric schocks to someone just because they were told to for the test and half of them went to a lethal amount. Also, the word is something that they found out from those torture sessions, and it helps because before, magic was wordless, but when you could use words, you needed a lot less magic to do even more damage. I also wanted the adventuror and the woman to fall in love. I want the woman to have a larger part than I have said, but I don't know what she would do. I also wanted the power of love to be important, but someone said that was too clique.

Any help? Is it any good? I could post the part I wrote about the woman, but it's only a little more than a page, and it's at school, so it would have to be after school monday. I also need names. I'm pretty sure what I;m going to name the woman, but I don't know about the man.