4th of July

Our family celebrated the whole Fourth of July weekend. First, on Thursday night, Lake Arlington had a fireworks show. We pulled up to an out-of-business gas station at Green Oaks and 303 to watch the fireworks. The show was okay, but here's a funny story to tell y'all about that happend while our family was waiting to watch the fireworks. We had forgotten to get lawn chairs to take to sit on while watching the show. So, we turned the backseat over in our van which mommy and I sat on, but daddy decided to take out one of the captains chairs in the van and just perch it on the ground, it was funny. When he did that, it made us think that we were rednecks! Next, on Friday, our family woke up and went to the Arlington Parade, which is one of the best parades around! We had a nice spot, but we were a little late. I got to see my friend from church, who is one of the Drum Majors in her high school band. We also got to see other floats that came by our area. Later that day, our friends Doug and Annette, my grandmother came over for dinner and to go see the GOOD fireworks in Fort Worth. I invited our youth minister, Wes, because his wife and kids were back in Tennessee where they are from. He came over, too. After eating and talking we left westbound to Fort Worth with two freezers of homeade ice cream which daddy had made. He had made a strawberry sherbert and a vanilla ice cream. We have gone to the same spot in years past behind the Fort Worth Credit Union, to watch the fireworks from Concerts in the Park, which is where the Fort Worth Symphony plays. The fireworks are always great, with a grand finale at the end. More friends met us there, and we just talked and ate together. Finally, on Saturday night, mommy, daddy and I went to our shopping center called the "Arlington Highlands" to see a fireworks show. The show was probably the least best of the three shows that we saw. The shopping center had a jazz band that was there playing. All in all, our fourth was good, just like all the other ones.

Virus!

Our computer has been down for the last few weeks with a big, bad virus. We had to end up calling a geek to work it all out. We are glad to be back with a computer that is up and running now.

Arlington Work Camp

Last week, I was able to participate in Arlington Work Camp, which is where the youth of the Arlington, Grand Prairie and Mansfield Churches of Christ come together and paint a persons home who can't afford it, or are not capable of doing it and do other things around the house that keep it kept up. There was also a youth group from Richardson and a youth group from Denison participating this year. My group had a sweet 80 year old lady in East Arlington whose house was yellow, and we painted it chocolate brown and a light khaki color. Our first day, we asked her what she wanted us to sing to her, and she said Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" which we did not have ready the first or second days of the three day camp. On the last day, I had printed up the lyrics to "You Raise Me Up", and our group sang it for her. I love Work Camp, because you meet new people and it's fun, plus you get to be the hands and feet of Jesus by blessing others. It's a great summer kick-off. I think there were around 200 teens this years, and we all pay to be able to do this.

Schlitterbahn

This past Monday, I got to go with my youth group from church to Schlitterbahn. We got down to New Braunfels Sunday night, and came back Monday evening. It was my first experience at Schlitterbahn, and I liked it, except for the big, bad sunburn I got. I rode a few of the rides and did a wave pool/lazy river combination that was fun. I also floated in other lazy rivers and got in one hot tub, because one of the lazy rivers was cold. At the end of the day, I was tired, and we made it back home safely.

The DSO

A few weeks ago, our family had the pleasure of attending the Dallas Symphony in which we saw their Pops Concert "My Favorite Choruses" which included many different songs from Broadway to Classical to Patriotic. We took my grandmother with us, because my parents got tickets from the Arlington Master Chorale benefit. They bid on the tickets and we got four for only $50! The seats were by the cellos, and in the fourth row! It's always special when we get good tickets to something and save a lot of money. The original price of the four seats together was $260!

End of School Excitement

Tomorrow is the last day of school, but there have been some exciting things that have happend to me over the last few weeks. First, I got my TAKS test scores back and passed all of them with commended performance in science and history. On the history TAKS, I didn't miss a single question. I had to take English, Math, Science and History TAKS tests. Secondly, I was exempt from all my core class exams, which is the most that I can be exempt from in my Sophomore year. The only exams that I have to take are: P.E., French 2 and Orchestra. Next year, I will have the chance to be exempt from all classes (except orchestra doesn't exempt anyone). Finally, our head director in orchestra announced that all new symphony members will be able to play at graduation "Pomp and Circumstance" and a piece called "Proud Heritage". I told her today that I would do it. I will get to play at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie. I am ready to get out of school, but it has been an exciting few weeks.

Baseball Game

Last Saturday, our church youth group went to the Ranger game. There were several people from our church that were there. My dad was going to go, but he wasn't feeling good, so it was just mommy and me. We had pretty good seats under an aluminum roof in the outfield, and you could see the game pretty well. It was an exciting night, because the Rangers beat the Oakland A's 8 to 4. After the baseball game was over, we hiked up to one of the highest tiers of the stadium and watched a fireworks show. During the fireworks show, they played Beach Boys music throughout the whole thing. We had a somewhat obstructed view, but it was a good show.