The Planets

Last week, after all the Thanksgiving craziness was over, my dad bought tickets to another orchestra performance.   It was called The Planets.  I learned that the musicians would play different types of music for a different planet.  So,  Mars was loud and vibrant while Venus was soft and beautiful and so on.  Also I learned that there would be a big screen showing different planets as the music went by.  Anyway that week I caught a cold.  My dad even started talking about not going if I had such a bad cough.  Luckily the day we were supposed to go my cough was barely noticeable.  I picked out a nice pink dress for the concert.  The only problem was that I kept shivering most of the time.  We walked into the room about fifteen minutes early until suddenly the lights began to dim.  Mars was the first planet to be shown.  It was loud and scary but I kind of liked it.  Then Venus came on and my eyes began to shut.  The music was a perfect lullaby.    *cough*, *cough*, *cough*!  I woke up with a start.  "Darn it" I thought, and of course the music was at its very quietest and i'm coughing profusely!  Some heads turn back to glance at me.  My cheeks burn red.  I try to hide my face into my thin jacket while I cough.  Then the last note started to come beautifully out of the instruments until someones loud cellphone went off.  ring, ring RING!!  The room was quiet until a loud applause broke out.  People were standing up and smiling.  When we got out my dad took me by the shoulder and said "You did so well except for the last part!".  He said smiling.  "I know" I said.  At least I wasn't the only one who was embarrassed that day thinking back to the cellphone.

My Skates!!

Last Sunday I had my solo ice skating competition.  I was competing with 8 people in total (me as one of them.) Well, I took 4th place.  Mostly because I was not going very fast I guess.  Anyway usually I leave my skates at the ice rink that I go to.  But after the competition we thought might as well just bring them home for now and not make another trip to our ice rink.  Apparently that wasn't a very smart idea.  Yesterday morning at 6:00 A.M. my mom woke  me up and said its time to go to the rink.  This wasn't unusual because we occasionally did this on two days of the week.  So we got in the car.  My mom kept telling me all of the stuff I needed to work on that morning.  I nodded in agreement as we finally pulled into the rink.  As we got inside we went into the room were I always leave my skates.  "Oh my gosh were are my skates??"  My mom looked at me wide eyed.  We both new what happened at the same time.  "No, no, no, no!" she said.  "How could you leave your skates?"  I frowned clumsily and shrugged.  "How was I supposed to remember?"  "Because its your responsibility" she said seriously.    I sighed and said "Yeah your right".  While she went out to teach one of her students I had to stretch the whole time she was teaching.  My mom wanted me to do the splits, run around the rink 20 times and do  jumping jacks.  By the time she got off with her student I was panting after doing so many jumping jacks.  I smiled at her and I said "I'm never doing that again."  She happily smiled back.

Thanks
Alyssa

Guava Juice!

We were getting tired.  Tired of having the same old apple juice, water, grape juice and cranberry juice.  So  my brilliant dad decided to order canned guava juice straight from Hawaii.  Everyone sighed happily in relief when he told us that.  It was going to be a couple days before we could get it though.  Then on one special evening the doorbell rang.  We all walked over to the door quickly.  We opened the door and their were three boxes.  We all didn't want to get our hopes up just in case it was a new book ordered by my dad or something.  We wanted to wait till my dad got home from work so we could open whatever it was with him.  But we just couldn't wait.  So we got the scissors out and tore open the boxes and sure enough there was........GUAVA JUICE.  To my surprise their was also passion fruit and orange. Then at the very bottom of the box their was a little note that said thank you for purchasing and ma-halo which means thank you in Hawaiian   Finally when my dad got home his eyes were wide and saw that we had laid out the juices in a decorative manner.  He smiled and gave us all a hug.  When dinner was ready we popped the lid of the cans and took a nice long gulp of such wonderful tasting juice.  "Now remember, you kids cant have more than one a day OK?" My dad asked.  We all nodded except for Ryan who gave a mischievous smile.  Ryan hasn't taken any more than one juice per day......yet

Thanks
Alyssa

Jumping off the high dive!

A couple of months ago my friends invited me to go with them to a swimming park.  There were a lot of cool things there like a big trampoline a huge slide and the scariest of all a 50 foot tall high dive.  It took me a couple of minutes to jump into the water.  When I was ready to, I plunged myself in, going under the clear water.  First, since I had never been there before my friends took me over to the big trampoline. We busied ourselves by jumping and falling on it a hundred times.  After that you can see how we got a little bored.  Next, my friends and I jumped off into the water and swam over to the big slide.  I was a little cautious at first but I went down anyway.  Then my friends pulled me by the arms and took me over to the high dive.  "Alright guys have fun jumping off!"  I said laughing.  "If we go you have to go too" they told me.  I frowned but I knew that sometime I had to get over my fear of jumping off of that thing.  I watched older and bigger kids than me jump off the board screaming and putting their hands in the air.  I sighed but shrugged it off.  Soon there was one more person and then it was my turn.  Butterflies attacked my stomach.  I started praying there would be some sort of distraction.  Apparently my sister who didn't really want to get in the water told me that my little brother Ryan was just about to get in and I had to help him. I happily agreed.  I quietly tried to escape from my friends they seemed not to notice...for a little at least.  Soon one of my friends came over to me and made a really sad face and begged me to go.  "All right" I said.  I called over Jessica and told her I was going off of the high dive so she had to take Ryan back for a little.  I slowly swam over and climbed up the latter again to go up to the high dive.  I climbed up and looked over the edge.  "Don't look down." I told myself over and over.  Finally I gathered up my courage and jumped!  I was going down so fast I couldn't even comprehend why I did it.  I hit the water and went under.  I got up and yelled "Wohoo!"  My friends were clapping and smiling.  It was fun I admit, but after all of that I was about done with swimming by then.  I dried myself off and told my friends bye.  I got into to the car and thought I'm glad I did something that I thought I would never do.

Thanks
Alyssa

The Orchestra

Last week my dad had the great idea of taking us on a trip to the orchestra.  We found out that the people who are playing in it are ages 12-18.  We drove a little while and had to park in a freezing cold parking lot.  I walked out of the car shivering in my red dress.  The automatic doors welcomed us inside with warmth.  As soon as I decided to sit down for a minute, my dad had the tickets already in his hands and said "Come on guys, lets go!"  I stood up and followed my dad to our seats.  Apparently he had gotten us a box seat. I could see the whole orchestra.  There were really small kids and  really tall kids setting up their instruments.  The conductor stepped out from behind some doors and the room was filled with applause.  The lights soon dimmed and everyone was silent.  The music started with a blast.  Violinists glided their bows gently over their violins, trumpeters blew their horns loudly but gracefully.  The room was filled with many different sounds including percussion, (one of my favorite parts to hear.)  It ended with a bang.  Everyone was standing up and clapping.  The orchestra bowed deeply, smiles spreading across all of their faces.  At one point I had almost fallen asleep because it was so pretty.  We all got up skipping to the door humming the last song.

Thanks,
Alyssa

ACT Test

My parents have very high expectations for my education.  Starting last week Jessica and I had to start practicing for the ACT test.  I am doing the ACT four years before I need to, it may sound crazy but its good for me because, most people who are taking the test have never studied it and just take the the real test without ever practicing it.  The first test my sister and I had to take was a vocabulary test.  I admit I did a bad job I got a 31 out of 75.  YIKES!!!  We reviewed our tests a couple days later.  The next time I took the test I improved by 8 points!  I was so excited that I had gotten a 21.  Today we had to take a math test.  60 problems in 60 minutes. I ended up getting a 15.  I looked at my paper disgusted almost every other problem looked like it had a huge red x through it.  I'll take it again next week and hopefully I'll do better!  From now on every single week Jessica and I will take practice tests for the ACT.  Isn't the coolest way to spend your weekend, but is definitely one of the smartest ways.

Thanks,
Alyssa

Art Museum

Last weekend, my whole family was brainstorming something fun we could do for the weekend.  It took us a while before my mom suggested we go to the art museum.  Mom asked for a vote to see if anyone else wanted to go.  We all shot up our hands like rockets.  "OK" She said a huge smile lighting up her face.  We all raced into the car and drove towards our destination.  Jessica, Ryan and I had all fallen asleep on the long drive over to the the museum.  When we parked mom and dad shook us awake saying "c'mon get up!"a couple times.  My eyes were still partly closed until I saw it.  The art museum loomed over us casting a huge shadow around it.  "Woah" I said in whispering awe.  My mom already had started walking to the entrance like she was so familiar with this place.  We walk into the building get our tickets and head over to the new exhibit called "Treasures From Heaven".  That sounds interesting I think to myself.  There was a desk with two women sitting there.  "Tickets please".  My dad hands over the tickets.  "Would you guys like the audio tour?"  She held up five small devices that looked like a phone and explained to us how to use them.   "you push the numbers on the device and push the play button and then you'll hear a person explain about whatever object you are looking at."  "Sure" my dad says.  She hands us all one.  Ryan gladly yanks one out of my dad's hand examining it very closely.  We check for a number beside the object and listen to it.  Even Ryan is gladly listening  and learning from it.  Every time the audio ended he would tell us a fact he learned.  We finally came to one object that had a piece of cloth with a face on it (clearly it was Jesus Christ's face) , laid into this gold sculpture.  I listened to the audio and it said, "  A very long time ago someone wanted a painter to paint Jesus's face.  The painter accepted and traveled a long distance to come to Jesus.  Jesus wiped his face on this cloth supposedly when the painter was there and you can still faintly see his face on the cloth".  So instead of painting him he used the cloth and laid it on the sculpture.  It was very fascinating to see that.  Then we checked out some of the Egyptian art, beautiful paintings and a lot of different sculptures.  After a couple hours we were so tired we were dragging our feet across the floor.  "Lets go" Ryan said sleepily.  "OK" Dad said yawning.  We all drove away tired but very happy to do something very special for the whole family.

Halloween

"Halloween would be really special this year" I thought for some reason.  Before, I didn't know if I would trick or treat this year, but I hadn't had candy for what felt like a lifetime so I had to go.  I didn't feel like being creative so I just dressed up as an ice skater (which is good because we already had all of the stuff to dress up for being one.)  My friend called me and asked if I wanted to go trick or treating with her.  I gladly accepted .  Our neighborhood has a little forest in the middle where people can walk through.  This Halloween there was something in the woods that was supposed to be really scary.  I really didn't want to go but my friend did.  I told her if we trick or treated for a while then maybe we could check it out.  She agreed.  So we started collecting candy putting it in our bags (pillow cases).  After a while of trick or treating my friend asked if we could go in the forest now.  I looked into the woods, it was dark and gloomy and really spooky.  My friend looked at me pleading me with her eyes to go in.  "OK".  I said in a unsure shaky voice.  We walked through the woods the wind blowing through the trees making it sound like a dramatic horror movie.  There were a couple candles on the ground leading the way to the end.  At the end their was a woman dressed up as a witch with a bucket of candy.  "Are you kidding me?" I think to myself.  I was so scared in there and this is all it turned out to be?!!  "Thank you" we told the lady and walked off.  "I thought it was supposed to be a little more scary then that" I told my friend.  "Me too" she said.  We kept on filling our bags with candy until I realized it was starting to get really heavy.  In one of the driveway's I stepped on something.  It started squeaking really loudly and my friend and I jumped back screaming and laughing.  It must have been a small field mouse or something because we saw it scamper away.  We were getting so tired we thought that maybe we should turn back now.  As soon as we got back to my friends house, we dumped out all of our candy on the floor.  Our eyes were wide and our and smile was huge.

My Skating Test

October 30th was the day I had to take my preliminary skating test.  I wake up in the morning with butterflies in my stomach.  I quickly get up and slip on my dress and run downstairs.  My mom is hurrying around the house making sure we have everything we need to go.  We hop into the car and drive to the rink.  As soon as we get there we burst out of the car.  "Every thing is such a rush" I think to myself.  I take my skates out of the bag and quickly tie them on.  I stretch for a couple of minutes so my legs aren't completely stiff.  I push through the big doors scared and nervous.  A cold icy blast freezes my face as I skate onto the ice to warm up.  I go through my test a couple times wishing no one else would be watching me.  The three judges arrive and sit down in the hockey benches.  They motion me over to them.  They ask me what my name is and tell me good luck.  I lock eyes with my mom for a couple of seconds and remember to smile.  I start, I settle down and tell myself no one is watching me as I glide across the ice.  I pretend I'm the only one in the rink right now.  Now I'm not even scared, I feel really happy.  I end my last move with a small curtsy. I thank the judges and skate off.  My mom gives me a high five and gives me a big hug.  I can see the judges on the other side discussing if I should pass or fail.  I see one of the judges smiling.  Well that seems like a good sign I think to myself.  When the three judges come over to me they smile and hand me the papers.  All three of them said a pass!  "Oh my gosh"!  I said over and over again too excited to stop.  I couldn't believe it, I was so happy.  And all it took was a calm spirit and some determination!

Thanks
Alyssa