Tootie-Ta

Buddy Field Day

 Buddy Field Day is basically a bunch of different games and races that students get to participate in. Every student has a buddy and they go to the different stations with their buddy. As a middle school student, I no longer get to do Buddy Field Day. This year however, I got to help run Buddy Field Day at Bennett Elementary (my old school, and the one Tyson and Justin now attend.) I am a member of NJHS (National Junior Honor Society.) NJHS members got to go help out at Buddy Field Day for summer credit hours. Each NJHS member has to do fifteen hours of service every semester, but you can earn ten of those hours (five for each semester) during the summer. This was an opportunity to get those summer credit hours. In the morning, I worked the bubble station for the Kinder-Second graders. As you can imagine, this was not the most popular station, so there was plenty of free time. A girl from school named Annie Kane was working it with me, and I had Ryan and Abigail while my mom was helping out in Justin's class, so we had fun blowing bubbles and playing with Ryan and Abigail. We then had and okay lunch of pizza. After lunch, I went to Justin's class room and hung out there until the afternoon shift began. In the afternoon, I worked the Carpet Pull station. I worked it alone, but Annie was working a station right next to me, and I had Ryan with me. The carpet pull is where both buddies have a small rug that they sit on. They each hold on to a rope (attached to tether ball poles) and they then use the rope to pull themselves to the pole. The first one to touch their pole wins. This station was a lot more popular than the bubbles, so there wasn't as much free time, but while the classes were switching zones, Annie and I had time for a few races. I won every carpet pull race, but their was another race where you had to sit on towels with your feet and your hands flat on the towel and inch yourself toward the finish line that she beat me at. I had a fun time at Buddy Field Day, and I tackled six of my summer credit hours!

Busy Last Weeks of School

There are only two more weeks of school left! I am super excited. I can't wait for summer, not because I don't like school, but I am definitely ready for a break. Normally, the last two weeks of school are all fun and games, you don't really do anything that really makes you think. I get the joy and privilege of spending my last weeks of school taking end-of-year exams and doing a presentation in GT, fun huh? I have to take a math exam that helps determine what math class you get into next year (normal, pre-AP, or Algebra 1.) I get to turn in a report, cause and effect statement, interview,visual, and give an oral report on Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the general end of Segregation for GT. There are a few more exams I have to take, but I can't think of what classes they are in. I also need to finish a mosaic project in art that I have only done two rows of so far. My teachers are determined to keep me busy right up until May 27th. Well, I guess it will make summer vacation all the more welcome.

Ward Split!

Recently, we got a new stake president, President Shumway. He has this great vision for our ward (I won't bother going into details) but in order for it to happen, some major changes have to occur. The first step in that happening was for the wards to be split. We used to have four wards, we now have six! Today, for the first time, we went to our new wards. There were a lot of people that I knew, but quite a few that I didn't. I met a few new people, and got a new Young Women president whom I have never met before. I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Catching Up!

It's been a long time since I've posted because our computer got a virus and and was then gone for three weeks while someone tried to recover all of our pictures and such (we're still not quite sure if he was able to, because we haven't been able to find them yet.) Anyways, a lot has happened since then, so here are the highlights. I played in my first ever B division tournament (I'm normally in C) and wound up getting second place! I was really surprised and excited, but I got sunburned like nothing on Earth. I was a giant, stiff, sore lobster. It took weeks for it to go away completely. I also found out that I am going to be recognized nationally for my ACT scores because I was in the top 5%. That's pretty exciting too. My FPS (future problem solving) team got first in our group and are going to Austin on April 16-18 for the FPS State Bowl. I am not going to even attempt to explain FPS, so just know that it is a competition testing your creativity, knowledge, and flexibility of thought. Going to Austin will be really fun, and I am super excited!  Our choir competed in UIL on Thursday (a competition that consists of two parts: a performance, and sight reading.) We took sweepstakes (the best you can get!) I am really glad. We also went to Oklahoma over spring break to watch BYU play in March Madness. They won their first game against Florida, but lost their second one against Kansas state. We had a really good time. Justin and Tyson got on the news when they were showing interviews with fans. That was neat. Well, that's all for now!

ACT Scores

A few weeks ago, I got to take the ACT as a seventh grader. I was able to do this because of Duke University. Every year, Duke allows seventh graders who have made certain grades, to take the ACT. They then look at all of the scores, and depending on what score you make, you can be recognized at different levels. I'm not quite sure how it all works exactly, but it is a neat opportunity. We take the same test as the high schoolers, we take it at the same place (but in a different room than them,) and it gets scored the same way. I got my score on Friday, and I had a lot of fun comparing it to my parent's scores. I scored a 25. I am proud to say that I outscored my mom, and am only two points below my dad. The results also show the percent of kids who scored either the same score as you or below you (including high school kids.) 82% of Texas was the same as or below me, and 80% of the U.S. was the same as or below me. I did the worse in math, but my mom says that's because I haven't learned most of the stuff (which is true, I guessed some on that section.) I scored a 31 on reading though! I was pretty proud of my scores, but I do hope that I do better in high school!

Snowball Fight!

Yesterday, Tyson, Justin, Miller, Landon, and I had a giant snowball fight. The fight itself was pretty fun, but personally, I liked building the fort more than anything else. In our front yard, the snow was perfect for packing! Justin discovered that if you make a lot of snow balls, roll each of them around on the ground (like making balls for a snowman,) connect them, and then pack a lot of snow into the gaps, you can make a pretty amazing snow fort! The teams were Justin, Miller, and Tyson against Landon and I. Each team used the same method of building the snow forts, but they actually turned out pretty different. After the forts were made, we had a lot of fun pelting each other with snow balls. I'm not really sure how most people do snow ball fights, but here is how we did ours. Each team had a territory, and then some parts of the yard were free-for-all. If you got hit on the other teams territory, then you had to drop any snow balls that you were carrying, and go and touch your snow fort. None of us really knew what to do once we were on the other teams territory, so we settled for trying to steal snow balls and knock down the other teams fort (we weren't successful in doing either of these things.) We had fun while it lasted, but after a while, Miller got hurt and went inside, and then Tyson went inside because his feet were cold. 

 

 Mine and Landon's snow fort. We found out that ours was the strongest when Landon ran full force into it, tried to body slam it, and fell to the ground moaning. After the fight, Ryan and Abigail also enjoyed playing in it .

  

 Justin, Tyson, and Miller's snow fort (Tyson and Miller had both gone inside by the time we took the picture.) Part of it is missing in this picture. Tyson had been leaning on a fairly tall part, and it fell over taking Tyson with it.