Wake-boarding is Amazing, and Sunburn is NOT

On last Saturday morning my brother, sister, and I went to spend the week with friends while our parents were gone at a conference in Georgia. For Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we went up to Crooked Lake up by Fort Wayne, IN.

I thought that we would spent the three-day weekend tubing behind our friends' boat, and maybe swimming a little bit. Instead, they purchased three wake-boards over the course of the weekends, and kept two.

On Saturday, we started to try. We didn't have instructions or anything, so we had to figure out how to do it on our own.

We ended up going back to the cottage with only one person successfully getting on top of the water: me!

On my second try, I managed to get on top of the water, even though I squatted the whole time and never actually stood up. But hey, I got on top of the water, and for that I am proud!

The next day the teenage guys looked up instructions for how to wake-board the real way, with much better results than before.

We stayed out on the water for most of the day, coming back in to eat a late lunch at 3:00, then we went back for more wake-boarding. This is where the sunburn comes in.

We thought that we put sunscreen on, we thought that we put it on good, but we didn't. The result being: we got burnt. Badly.

That night when we came in, we kept our legs as stiff and straight as we could, since they looked like lobsters and felt like they were on fire. Getting to sleep that night was NOT fun!

And now, nearly a week later, my sunburn is STILL peeling from when it started two days ago. I'm totally used to my shoulders and back peeling off a few days after I get burnt, but not my ears. Yes, my ears peeled. Gross! At this point, my legs have still not peeled, and are red and itchy.

Now, with my sunburn going away, I can't wait to go back on the wake-board and try to do some tricks!

The Tractor and the Turtle

I just spent most of my day at my grandma's house with my dad, doing some of the work that comes with having a gorgeous pond in the spring, including wading into mud a foot deep, chopping off branches from trees, and pumping air into a hose underwater so that we could retrieve a sprinkler pole that was knocked down during an incident with my dad's kayak. All in all it was a good day, especially since I got to be in the water, which was surprisingly warm.

And then, to top it all off, Dad let me drive Grandma's little tractor-thing up to the barn. I love to drive. I love driving the riding mower, although last time I drove it I was this _______ close to hitting our car, I hit a post, I backed up into a bush, and I mowed half the lawn before I realized that the blade was off. I also really like driving my Grandma's little tractor. It goes faster than the mower, and it also stops faster, so there is no fear of backing up into a car with your foot jammed on the brake. Today was only the third time I had driven it, but I enjoyed it. I'm a little scared to drive a car, since I have mostly tried to steer from the passenger seat, and that normally results in me swerving all over the road, trying not to get too close to either edge. But like I said, I enjoy driving.

I was taking the little tractor up to the barn, glad that I had asked Dad about driving it for the third time, when I got up to the barn. Right next to the fake fire hydrant (that I had only just noticed today after going to Grandma's house for years) was a six inch round little painted turtle. I pushed in the brake, then turned the key. I lifted up my foot and the tractor lurched forward. Not a very dignified stop. Plus, I was six feet away from the barn. Dang.

I ran over to the turtle and picked it up. I ran to my dad and yelled, "Dad, look what I found!"
He looked at it and said," It's a little painted turtle! Where did you find it?"

As I opened my mouth to answer, I dropped the turtle. Poor turtle. I picked it up again.

And it peed all over my flip-flopped foot.

Poor me.

I set the turtle down, and went to rinse off my foot.

Never drop a turtle. Ever.

"A lot" or "alot" ?

If you ask for my opinion, I think that the word[s] "a lot" should be spelled without a space between the "a" and the "l".

Why the space? It doesn't do anything for the word[s], it doesn't make it look better, all it does is take up extra space. No pun intended.

So, I think that since the space is superfluous, everyone should just write it without a space. I don't know if anyone else does this, but I always write it without the space, then as my laptops underlines it in red, hitting the delete key four times, then rewriting it the "right" way.

The space seems unnecessary. At least to me.

Abigail's 4th tooth

My seven-year-old sister Abigail just lost her fourth tooth. The whole day, she's been trying to wiggle her tooth so that it would be looser. Finally, right before she went to bed, I pulled it for her. In the first picture she is looking down at the little case that the tooth is in. In the second picture, she is holding up the box and smiling big, showing off the space where her tooth used to be.

She was very excited.

SERVE 2009

Every summer our church hosts an event called SERVE. During this event, the church sends out around a hundred teens and elementary kids. They go out into the city and do service projects around the community. The teenagers spent the whole week at the church and sleep in classrooms. The younger kids do service projects during the day and then spend the night at their houses. SERVE impacts people all over Muncie. it is really cool to see how appreciative people are of what you've done.

SERVE isn't all work. You normally get placed on a team with someone you requested. On Wednesday night, we have a party for the teenagers in SERVE, better known as "The hog roast," complete with slip'n'slide, pond, bonfire, and roasted hog. The hog's head is left displayed on a table so teenage boys can get their picture biting, kissing, or licking it.

On Friday night we host a Party in the Parking Lot of our church for the whole city. We have blowup games, a rock-climbing wall, free Hawaiian Shaved Ice, free Lemon Shake-ups, free hot-dogs and hamburgers, free lemonade, ect.

SERVE is the best week of my summer. I really enjoy being with all my friends and having fun while I help people in my city.