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.

Buster

Today, when I got on the bus to go to school, I felt grumpy. Allie and Sophie weren't on the bus. I started to shove my backpack under the seat in front of me. Mreerer! I heard. I know that sound, I thought, it's an annoyed cat! I looked under the seat, and a tiny brown kitten was there. He is really cute! I pulled him out. "Gosh," I said. Madison looked over the back of my seat. "Ms. Smith! Ms. Smith! Joan found a kitten under a seat!" she shouted to our bus aide. "What?" Ms. Smith asked. "I did. I found him under the seat in front of me," I replied, holding him up. "Here," said Ms. Smith, passing back a lunch box from the lost-and-found box, "You can keep him in there until we get to the school."

At school, I took the kitten, who I had named Buster, into the principal's office. We settled on an agreement. I could keep the kitten in the janitor room as long as I would clean up after it and feed it. And if no one came to pick it up by friday, it would have to go to the shelter. Mom came and picked me up after school and brought some kitten chow. I took and old cardboard box and filled it with sand from the playground to make a litter box. A photographer for the newspaper was there to take pictures of the 1st grade outdoor clean up day, and she took a picture of Buster. I hope Buster won't have to go to the shelter.

The Food Processor Movie

Last night Mom and I watched the Cuisinart DVD for her food processor (she got it ages ago). At first they just told you how to use your food processor. Zen dis famoos chef wiz a outragous franch acsent showed you 'ow tu make differant foodz using your Cuisinart food processuer. 'E said zat everyzing smelled aand tasted magnificant. He didn't measure anything! He also didn't let the pizza dough rise. And he thought that pita bread, not tortilla chips, went with salsa. But most of the foods did look good.

News, news, news,

I am finally going to write about the talent show rehearsal that happened a week ago Friday. Most people have an idea of what they are going to do. For people who can't think of anything at all, the teacher will have a play for them.

We have a good system for how much time you get. You get two minutes if you're preforming alone, and if you aren't, you get and extra minute for every other person. So, in my gymnastics act, I just get two minutes. Allie and Madison get three minutes. Sophie, Amy, and I only get three minutes because I am already in another thing.

I don't know what music I should use, but I've got an idea of what the routine is. Amy and I are getting along well with the background tumbling for the Odyssey Rap.

Now, I have something very important to tell you. Yesterday after church I was in the basement doing gymnastics when Mom came down.

"You know those relatives up in Canada?" Mom said.

"Yeah, the ones we send a Christmas letter to every year and they send us one. So?" I said, getting ready for a handstand.

"We're having a family reunion with them this summer at Aunt Sue and Uncle George's farm." she said, as I kicked up for the handstand. Whumph! That had surprised me so much that I flipped over from the handstand and forgot to roll out.

"What?!?" I yelled. I had scared Goldilocks, so I went over to her hutch and cuddled her.

"From about the 23rd to the 26th of July," she replied.

I said to her "Fine, I believe you now," and put Goldilocks back in her hutch.