Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. One of the most fun days of the year, where you get to dress up, act like a little kid again, and just have fun. I have been trick-or-treating ever since I was a little kid. Even though I am 18 years old, I still have fun going out on Halloween and getting candy. My best excuse for being able to do this is my 9 year old sister. If I didn't have her, I probably wouldn't be going out tomorrow night.
Every year since my sister was born I have been trick-or-treating with her. I have had some very interesting costumes. I have been a gypsy, a spider witch, a pink leopard witch, a hobo, a little old lady, and clown. The most fun costume is either the hobo or the little old lady. When I dressed as a hobo, I got to have coffee grounds on my face, and I rubbed dirt all over my clothes-to make it look realistic. Last year I went as a little old lady, and I looked like an old lady. I saw one of my friends, so I took my sister's hand and ran up to her. She thought I was a little old lady, and running was something she did not expect me to do. It was really funny to fool her.
This year I am dressing up 80's style, and my sister is going as a scarecrow. I think that it will be very fun. I always love going trick-or-treating, so I will make it be a good time. And, I will get a lot of candy-except most of it will probably get thrown out due to sitting around after I've had my fill. I can't wait, and hope you're all safe this Halloween.

Changes

As I drove home from school today, I noticed many different things. One of the first things I noticed, was that it looked cold outside. Not to mention that it really was cold outside. Even though it feels like autumn just arrived, it feels like it's leaving just as quickly. It seems like we will be hearing more and more of that dreaded s word, yes, snow.

Another thing I noticed was that most of the crops are being harvested, but some are not. As I drove, I saw that one farmer picked his corn, but the next did not. In my head I was wondering why aren't all the fields being cultivated? There must be a reason, but I don't know what it is. My parents say that the corn has to be dry before being picked. But why aren't all the fields in one area cultivated. This was just a thought that came across my mind.

The third thing I noticed on my way home, was that it is no fun driving to and from anyplace alone. Since the first day of school I have been driving to TC from Sparta everyday. At first it was kind of fun because I've never driven anywhere that far away, by myself. Now it just gets really boring. Most days I don't recall very many facts about my way to or from school. There was an exception this morning though. Not even half a mile down the road this morning I thought I saw a cat crossing the road. As I stopped and waited for it to cross the road I saw that it was not in fact a cat, but it was an opossum. I have only seen an opossom one other time, so it was really cool. As I waited, this little creature meandered across the road not even seeming to notice me. It really made my day, and maybe I'll start looking for things like this on my daily drive to TC.

Lost

Corn mazes are a very fun way to pass time, and a lot of time passes while in them. A few weeks ago I was able to accompany my little sister, Brianna, and her friend, Alyssa, around the maze. When we first went in the two 9 year old girls decided to go into the difficult part of the maze. Our task was to find "checkpoints," and punch our cards to show that we found them. As we were making our way through the maze, the girls would each go one way when we came to a split in the trail. Several times I had to go and find one and then go find the other.
The first checkpoint we came to was at the very "top" of the maze, up near the bat (in the picture). Then trying to find more checkpoints we came upon the entrance. The girls decided they wanted to try the easy side now, because they were getting discouraged about not finding any checkpoints.
As we entered the easy side, I made sure to note the direction, and keep tabs on where we were. The next checkpoint we found was at the bottom right hand side of the maze. We looked at the little map at the checkpoint, and headed off to the next checkpoint. Unfortunately, we found the same checkpoint again. Finally, we headed off toward the exit, and after several more attempts, and wrong turns we made it out.
As we came out of the maze, both of the girls decided that they didn't want to go in another maze for a long time. An employee greeted us as we came out and said, that for having two little girls we did very well. We found 5 checkpoints, and were only in the maze for two hours. By the time we got out, all of us were tired and ready to go home. But we had a great time and a lot of fun. I can't wait for next year's corn maze.

Favorites

It is that time of year again, when the leaves start changing color and the breezes blow colder. Yes, it is fall again and the beautiful scenery of reds, oranges, and yellows are coming out again. Autumn is a beautiful time of year, and one of my favorites. All of the beautiful trees mixed with the trees whose leaves have not yet begun to change. The crunching of fallen leaves underfoot make the season seem more real.

I like autumn because you can watch mother nature put on its winter clothing and gear up for all of the snow. Fall has been one of my favorite times of year ever since I was little. As a little girl my family lived in a house with four huge silver maple trees in the front yard. Every fall we would attempt to rake up all of the leaves and put them into bags to dispose of them. And, every year we would give up half-way through because there were so many leaves. We would end up jumping into them and making a bigger mess, and wait until they just blew away.

The past few years my family and I have lived in a house with no trees around whatsoever. I found that I really missed having to rake the leaves. I missed seeing the leaves in the yard, and the beauty of the leaves on the trees before they fell. Now, we live in a house where there are several trees, but not too many leaves to rake. That is a perfect combination for a perfect Autumn.

Thank You

Last weekend we had our huge rummage sale. We had a good turnout and made quite a bit of money. As I sat there selling our old stuff, I started to observe things about the people coming to our sale. Everybody that came to our sale was so different. Some were there looking for a specific item, some didn't even plan on coming, and some came just to look around.

The people that came also had some very different personalities. One man, a World War II Veteran, came looking for war memorabilia. When we said we had none of that, he proceeded to tell us that he was going on a trip to Washington D.C. with a whole bunch of other Veterans. Then he told us about his grand children and what their interests were, and then he thanked us and left. Another lady started talking about her 8 kids and her hard life raising them. She also said she was only looking for things that her grandkids could use. She kept talking until another costomer came, which was about 15 minutes later. I'm sure that these two elderly people have very few people to talk to, so we were glad to listen to them, and agree with them. I'm thinking that they were happier when they left and I'm very glad for that.

Some other people who came were very rude I thought. Some of them didn't even stop. I'm not saying that this is bad, but we live at the end of a dead end road, out in the country. You would think that if someone drove all the way out there, that they would at least stop and look around. Others didn't even say hi when I greeted them or thanked them for coming to our sale. Many times I was glad to say, "Thank you," and let them be on their way.

All in all we had a fun time. Now that it's over I can't wait until next spring to do it all over again. I'm sure we will see many of the same people, but will also see new people too.

Your total is...

Earlier this year my family and I moved into a new house. Now, we are swimming in things that no longer hold any interest for us. Our solution to our object pool is a rummage sale. Rummage sales take a lot of time. A lot. For us, what takes the most time is unpacking and going through things that we haven't even seen in a while. As we went through our boxes we have found so many things, that we were looking for but could not find. Now we realize that we don't want them anymore. Our garage is full of tables with items waiting for their price tags. Tonight all items will be priced. We price our items to sell, not to make a ton of money like some people. We have so much stuff to sell, we may not have enough table space.
My favorite part of the rummage sale is selling things. I get to sit at our table with the money box and haggle with people about prices. Last time we had a sale we sold almost everything on our tables. This time we have so much more stuff to price and more opportunities for making some money. Tomorrow I'll wake up early, go and sit in my sweatpants in the cold garage. Then I'll sit and wait, most of the time customers show up way early, but I hope they wait 'till opening time. At the end of the day I will be so glad to be closing up, but then I'll wake up early the next morning and do it all over again. Then at the end of the sale on Saturday, we pack up what's left (hopefully not much) and take it to Goodwill. I hope that a lot of people think of the old cliché, one mans trash is another mans treasure!!

Broad tailed

Do you know what the worlds smallest birds are? Hummingbirds. There are many different types of hummingbirds, with the smallest being the bee hummingbirds. All hummers are beautiful and all are very fast. Over the past few days I have learned a lot more about hummingbirds.
As I was leaving for school on Monday my mother found a small, and injured hummingbird laying on our front porch. It was in no condition to fly, let alone take care of itself. We found ourselves being caregivers to this tiny little beauty. It was female and fairly young, and all we knew to do was to give her some sugar water. She could not feed herself, so we had to hold her up to the feeder. That night we made a makeshift cage so that she would feel better.
The next morning we were relieved to see that our new little friend made it through the night. She could even flutter around in her temporary home. By the end of the day she had tried to escape three times, but she could not land. Her feet seemed to be paralyzed or broken, so we could not let her go.
By this time we were constantly saying, "She...,and Her...", our bird needed a name. We did not know what kind of name to give her. Being that she is a Broad tailed Hummingbird, we wanted to give her a name that started with B. Brenda, Billi Jo, Brianna, Brynn...Brynn it was. Now she had a name and was getting a lot better.
Today, Brynn seemed as if she wanted to go home. I would too, if I had been with strange creatures for four days. She was even using her feet some. As I left for school today I knew that she would be let go soon. When I returned at the end of the day I went to look at Brynn, but the cage was empty, and Brynn was home free. I was sad to see that she had gone, but was glad that she had gone to her own home.