Sorry. Posted late.

I know. I've been neglecting my blog. But this November, I wrote a NOVEL. Five thousand words. One month.

I also have had to type up important documents on Mom's old typewriter for my club. We've been making hats and scarfs for sale out of fleece. We sell candy canes along with them. The club needs the money to keep the clubhouse fixed up. A recent winter addition is thick woven mats over the window to keep the cold out. We want to buy a better rug. Right now we have some old towels on the floor. We've woven, knitted, and crocheted enough mats to hang on the walls. There's a board across two wooden crates for a desk. Sophie warms up a few corn bags, and it's a cozy little room. We have a battery-powered lamp. We have a binder and a lock box. The list of things to buy:

- a better rug

- a bulletin board

- coat hooks to hang on the walls

- a wastebasket

Cost: $20 (we think- we can get some items from the dollar store).

We hope we'll have enough by the Saturday after this one. Those things will make the clubhouse look much nicer.

Et cetera

Mary's coming home friday! We took her to Aunt Sue and Uncle George's farm so that they could mate her and she would have a kid. We had to do it now in order to have her kid in spring. While she was gone, Mom had me clean out her shed. So now it's nice and clean for her.

Mom's been teaching other kids piano, so about two days a week I come home and Mom isn't home. I kind of enjoy it. I sometimes go over to Allie's house. Sometimes from there we go to the park. Whatever we do, it's fun.

In social studies at school, we've been learning about Hitler. What a jerk! Today we played "Hide from the gestapo" where a small group of kids have to hide from the other kids, who try to find us. In less than a minute, we had to remove our schoolbooks, put our chairs on top of our desks, and get in the closet and in our hiding places. We hide behind some boxes. I find it pretty fun.

My mom just got home. Bye!

What Happened

Ok. First things first. Kittens. Allie's family adopted Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. I kept Grizabella and Mistofelilees. Only Macavity had to go to the pound. And the pound called me a week after I dropped her off, saying that she'd been adopted and named Crookshanks.

The family reunion. A TON of relatives came down from Canada. It seemed like there was not one kid that spoke English. They all spoke French. To further confuse things, there was an old grandmotherly lady named Joanna, and our names kept on getting mixed up. Then there was the food. My family brought a frozen berry dessert. But every single one of the relatives was allergic to strawberries! The food they brought was totally weird. The grossest things were as such:

celery, cottage cheese, and peanut salad; cherry-stuffed onions; peanut butter on a stick (be sure to roll in garlic breadcrumbs!); and something called "pear salad", made by putting a canned pear half on a lettuce leaf, adding a blop of mayonnaise, and sprinkling on grated cheese. They also brought a drink made with maple syrup, apple cider, and cranberry juice.

On the bright side, I won't have to go to another family reunion anytime soon.

I've started school. I'm in advanced writing and am the editor for the Sixth Grade Page in the school newspaper. It isn't too bad.

By the way, I'm starting flute soon. I hope to post again sometime within this month.

Very Long-- Read at your own risk

Yes, I now have a pet parakeet. Her name is Sunny. She's blue and very sweet. She lives in a white cage on top of my bookshelf. Grizabella has an annoying habit of sitting on my bed, staring at Sunny, ready to pounce, tail twitching.

Oh. Grizabella's kittens have to go back to the pound. :'-( I don't know which ones to send back. Mom and Dad say I can only keep two cats. So, two kittens or Grizabella and a kitten. I think I'll keep Grizabella. Not many people want a grown cat. But all the kittens are so sweet!

Moving on. I've been making my room nicer with Mom. When I'm finished, most things will be light blue or green. I'm making a green circle-quilt coverlet and a blue and green patchwork bag for my stuffed animals. I have a blue curtain to cover the open part of my wardrobe (it doesn't have a door), one blue and one green curtain to cover my windows, and a nice green, blue, and white woven rug. Very nice. Nothing gauzy for a pet to shred.

The other day Sophie borrowed Mary to get rid of poison ivy. It's a good way to get rid of it. It doesn't harm goats at all.

Sophie, Allie, and I have started a club. Sophie has an old tree house that we've been fixing up. Yesterday we went up there and did a NGTV trifecta. NGTV stands for Night Gown TV. Sophie and Allie laugh their heads off when I do an "afterburner". It's fun.

I will now go to the basement to do gymnastics.

What's been happening

I know, I know. The talent show was almost a week ago. Who cares? This is how it went: it went as planned. The teacher got misty eyes. The play was not great, but reasonably good. The song for the finale was stupid. It was a lot of fun!

Today was the last day of school. At recess, Zoe went over to Sophie and said this: "My suspicions were wrong-- you did get promoted to sixth grade. But you'll obviously be taking LAME english and LOSER math." Sophie could have knocked her flat-- but she didn't. She instead slapped her hard. She said, "As a matter of fact, I'm not taking sixth grade math, but the level above that." Zoe went away. The rest of the day was fine.

More news. I completely caught up in math. Mom and Dad said that as a reward, they would get me something special. Guess what I said. A parakeet! Mom and Dad considered it for a while, then said yes. We're going to pick one out on Saturday.

All in all, everything is fine. I am happy and so is everyone else. Yay!

Dress Rehearsal

Today at school we had the dress rehearsal of our show, when we ran it end to end. It worked out fine. Tomorrow is the real show. We end school on thursday next week. We did it just like we will tomorrow. After lunch, we did math. Then, at one, we started to get ready. We were all a little scared. In the bathroom, where we changed, there was a mutual feeling of tension. I helped Allie put her hair into a bun. I'm second. The end of my act ends with me in a split. As soon as the curtain closes, Thump! that's me getting out of my split. I have to fold up my pad quick as a flash. I go back in the dressing room. I put my hair in a bun and slip on my tunic over my unitard. A bit later, Amy and I get ready for the Odyssey Rap. Even once that's done, I can't relax. I get out of my greek monkeysuit. In the end, the finale, we sing the stupid song. It goes somewhat like this:

We are the future of the world,

We will take care of the earth,

We will take care of our country,

We will give freedom a new birth.

Why am I telling you this today, not tomorrow? Tomorrow I'm going to tell what actually happened- not what it was supposed to be like.

News Update

I've been really busy with the kittens. Buster found his family before he had to go to the shelter. The other kittens, my kittens, are starting to play. They are so cute! I've been working really hard at school. I'm almost completely caught up in math. I'm already above the standard for reading and writing things. Everyone in the fifth grade knows what they are going to do for the end-of-the-year talent show. We have to sing a really stupid song for the finale. The music teacher has been working on it with us. Last Saturday Mom and I went all the way to the mall. At the Target there, I got my gymnastics outfit. It's a black tank top shorty unitard with rhinestones around the neckline. Of course I have some old ones that I could wear. But would you like to give a performance to very minor key music while wearing a ratty old unitard that's blue with huge purple starbusts on it? I wouldn't. Uh-oh, I can hear Blackie fighting with one of the kittens.