Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving always gets a little overlooked, in my opinion. It's right in between Halloween and Christmas, and it has no distinctive music or decor (except maybe cornucopias). And, when most people do think about Thanksgiving, it's usually about turkey, pumpkin pie, or football, if you're a guy, when, in actuality, Thanksgiving is, as its name suggests, a time to give thanks.
Here are a few things I'm thankful for.

1. Salvation
2. A loving family
3. A house (not much of one right now, thanks to our renovations)
4. Good health
5. Strange but wonderful friends
6. Teachers who actually care about their students (or are very good at faking it) :)
7. God's sovereignty
8. Fuzzy socks
9. Books
10. Ice cream!

More Quotes

Here's another round of quotes.

Never tell me the odds.-Han Solo
Not all who wander are lost.-J.R.R Tolkien
There is no such thing as fun for the whole family.-Jerry Seinfeld
Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.-Mark Knopfler
Wherever you are, be all there.-Jim Elliot
Death is the surest solution to all problems-no man, no problem.-Joseph Stalin
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.-Calvin
Say something wise and philosophical and your name will be remembered forever.-Unknown
I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone.-Audrey Hepburn
Don't burden yourself with the secrets of scary people.-This guy in a Batman movie
It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.-Mignon McLaughlin

If you find any funny/profound quotes, send them to me.

Book Reports

Once again, I am being forced to write a book report for school. Two things wrong with that.
1. I not only have to find a book that's decent enough to do a book report on, but I also have to find one that I've never read before.
2. When I do manage to find a book, I will have to read it and then give an unbiased report on it.

Both of which will be difficult to achieve. First off, it's pretty much an extreme sport to actually FIND a decent piece of young adult literature, and then to get it approved should probably become a part of the Olympics.
The reading itself, while normally (for me) is simple, is usually complicated when, halfway through the book, I realize that I really, really, really hate the book. And it's not very easy to write a good book report encouraging fellow students to read the book to find out what happens next if you yourself did not actually care what happened next when you read it.
And slamming the book isn't really an option either, because teachers don't let you say what you actually thought about the book, unless you loved it. Which (in my experience) doesn't happen often.
So, if any of you have any good ideas for future book report books that won't put me to sleep but will be deemed appropriate, I'd like to hear them. Really.

The Frog Prince

Well, I've begun work on my sixth Princess Tale: The Frog Prince. Princess Arabella is an animal-loving, free-spirited girl whose parents suddenly arrange a marriage with Prince Alfonso, one of the sons of the ruler of a bordering country. Here's an excerpt from the story when she first meets Alfonso.

Beyond this door was the man who, whether I liked it or not, was going to be my husband. The man who was going to rule my country. The man whose face I would wake up to for the rest of my life. The man who was going to-gulp-father my children.
I took a deep breath, wishing that my maid hadn't tightened my corset so much, and turned the knob. Then I stepped through the doorway.
And that's when I first saw him. He was hideous. His hair was pale reddish-blonde, and he had luminescent green eyes that were so big that they made him look like a disturbed frog. His nose (also too large) was bright pink, and his gangly limbs looked too big for his body.
The fragile soap bubble of hope I'd had burst. There was no way in the whole world I would ever be able to marry him. Ever.

Back to School

Tomorrow is our first day of school. Here's a poem on "Back to School." Which is entirely true. (Not that I engage in any such behavior as described, of course.)

Back to School

Nobody's paying attention.
None of the homework's been done.
The teacher's exhausted and wondering
How she'll cope until recess at one.

We're napping on piles of our notebooks,
Paper airplanes and spitballs are flying.
No one remembers their grammar,
And the teacher groans like she's dying.

The boys are all running 'round rampant.
They're breaking every school rule.
Have we made it clear enough yet
That we don't want to come back to school?
-R.e. Mayes

Letter to Daddy

Letter to Daddy

Dear Daddy,
Daddy, I'm sorry.
You taught me to do right.
You told me, "Never drink and drive."
But I did just that last night.

Daddy, I'm really sorry.
I partied and got high.
I know, I know I should have refused
When my friends asked me to drive.

I'm so, so sorry, Daddy.
I thought it was all just a game.
And, playing it, I crashed the car,
And I'll take all the blame.

I'm really sorry, Daddy,
Please forgive my dumb mistake.
It's all my fault, I know that.
I caused all your heartbreak.

I've learned my lesson, Daddy:
Don't EVER drink and drive.
Maybe if I'd listened
I might still be alive.
--R.e. Mayes

Don't worry, this isn't autobiograpical.

P.s. Yes, you can cry.

August: A Blessing, or a Curse?

It's August. I've always liked August: my birthday's in August, it's when the weather is hottest (which means trips to the pool-always fun), and we're usually on vacation the first few weeks of August. (Also always fun.) But it's also bad, in a way, because school starts (not fun.) :p And, after vacation, there's not a whole lot to do. Here's a poem about summer.

The end of homework and of school.
The beginning of family trips to the pool.
No more boring old school days.
Instead, I sit around and laze.
But...
My friends are gone on different trips.
My melting ice cream drips and drips.
The only thing to do at home
Is sleep, or maybe write a poem.

--R.e. Mayes

P.S. Does anyone else out there have an August 22 birthday???

Pictures from vacation out west

The sunset on the way to CO

Pike's Peak, as viewed from the road

Somewhere over the rainbow...

(Come on, sing with me!)

Our family reunion

Pretty waterfall...

Me standing by the "America the Beautiful" monument at the summit of Pike's Peak

Me, my brothers, and the donuts

The Pike's Peak Weather Station

The view from the summit

The road for the people who like having REALLY high blood pressure

One of the Cog trains.

A tree on the side of Pike's Peak

Journey to the West

I recently returned from a trip out in Colorado. I do have pictures, which I will post as soon as I can figure out how to. Here is what we did.
5/30-Traveled to Colorado. As we were getting in to the state, it started to rain, and we saw a rainbow-the whole thing. Got to my great-aunt's condo at around 9:10 pm Mountain time.
5/31-Went to see my great grandma and great-great aunt.
6/1-Went to Heritage Square, an amusement park. It rained in the morning, but it was clear enough in the afternoon for us to go down the Alpine Slide, this huge slide that goes down a mountain, which was very fun. (My mom and great-aunt elected to stay at the bottom.)
6/2-Went to the Denver Mall, which is huge. And awesome. Very awesome.
6/3-Went to Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods. The Garden of the Gods is a park with these huge red sandstone formations. Unfortunately, it was foggy and rainy, so it was kind of hard to see some of the stuff. But what we were able to see was cool. Then, after lunch, we went to the Cog Railway so we could go up the peak. We rode the train up the mountain, and about halfway there, we broke through the clouds and saw the sun. At the top of the mountain, it was about 30 degrees and I was standing in knee-deep snow. We got doughnuts and, after eating about two of them (they were sooo good), I went outside to stand in the snow again and get pictures done. After going all the way back down the mountain, we went back to the place where we'd eaten lunch, and my great-aunt got me a turquoise ring as an early birthday present.
6/4-Did laundry and played Mexican Train Dominos, which is really fun. I even won a few times!
6/5-Went to the Denver Mint and the 16th Street Mall. The mint was interesting. Random Fact: The heads side of a penny is actually called the obverse side and the tails side is the reverse side. Who knew? Then, we had cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to a Barnes&Noble. Unfortunately, we did not stay as long as I would have liked to (the whole rest of the day).
6/6-A whole bunch of our relatives came and we had a huge party. We went to the pool for about three hours, and I got sunburned, prompting the nickname "Rudolph Jr." (My older brother was Rudolph.)
6/7-We went out for a Chinese lunch and said good-bye to my great uncle before he left for the airport. His flight, however, was delayed by hail and severe weather. We had to go down to the basement because there were tornados in the area. No complaints, though-there was a TV down in the basement. :)
6/8-We traveled back home to WI, stopping overnight in Iowa at a very nice hotel.
6/9-We got home at about 4 in the afternoon and started work on laundry. :p

The End of School

Today was the last day of school for us. Here are two poems, one older and one newer, on the end of school.

Doodles on my Desk

Today's the final day of school,
And I am glad to go.
My head's chock-full of learning,
And other things I'll have to know.

I'm scrubbing at my desk lid.
It's graffitied and tattooed.
My masterpiece is fading.
How could my teacher be so rude?

There are flowers, signatures,
The names of ex-boyfriends.
But all must blur and be erased
At the school year's end.

The smileys, hearts, and pictures
Are now left to history.
No one else will see them now.
Not my teachers, friends, or me.

I scrub the last of them away.
My perfect, perfect art.
And yet, my legacy lives on
Graffitied on my heart.

Cleaning Out My Desk

Once again, it's time
For us to clean out our desks.
I'll need a hacksaw, a torch, and a map.
(A desk's bowels are rather grotesque.)

I open the lid. It's dark inside.
I start work on my pencil tray.
I find lead, erasers, and notes,
And candy that's seen better days.

I dump the whole lot in my backpack.
Then I pull out textbooks and trash.
I find an overdue library book
And thirteen bucks-all in cash!

Drawings of much despised teachers,
Colored pencils, pens, and more books.
The pile grows taller than I am,
And my classmates crowd 'round for a look.

At the very, very bottom,
There's old homework, a magnet, a comb.
I'm done, but I have a new problem:
How do I get this stuff home?

--R.e. Mayes

Note: My desk is not a virtual bio hazard, and I do not draw on my desk top.