Texas Ed

 Texas Ed, By Maya Kent

 I wanted to interview someone who is a true Texan, so that’s why I picked Ed, my new neighbor. Although he was not born there, Ed considers himself a Texan. Ed was born in Louisville, Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio river in 1937.  It was very different than now. Nobody traveled much outside of their town. His mom had many brothers and sisters and everybody lived within two miles of one another. Kids would play outside all day instead of being inside on electronics all of the time, like they are now. He would  also make up games and play in the mud a lot. Some of his hobbies were sports, riding bikes, building model airplanes and puzzles.

When he was young his nickname was Eddie Joe because his name is Edward Joseph. He has one brother who is four years younger than him who he liked to tease. They didn’t get along very well then,  but now they have a closer relationship.  He went to one school all the way up to eighth grade.  In high school he remembers going to lots of dances and parties.  He also played football, basketball and baseball.  In his opinion the 50's were the best time to live and grow up in.

Ed went to the University of  Louisville in Kentucky. Then when he was twenty-two he moved to Texas City, and then to Galveston, Texas. While living in Galveston he met his wife, Minda. It was when he was at a Halloween party.  At the stroke of midnight she walked in.  That was the first time he ever saw her. He went up to her and found out her name and phone number. The next week they had their first date, and the next year they were married. Minda was born in the Philippines. She was a nurse, and had come to the United States so she could get paid better. When they first met she had only been in the United States for three weeks.

Ed was an engineer. He had many different positions, and worked for Monsano, Van Leer and Exxon chemical. He then lived in Spring Branch, Texas before moving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He moved from there to Houston, Texas and has now lived there for thirty-three years. If you would like to know why he thinks Texas is such a great state he could tell you in one song, Oh beautiful Texas, which you can listen to right here. He is also a huge Notre Dame fan.  He grew up listening to all of their games on the radio, because they did not have a TV.

Ed and Minda have traveled all of other the world. The countries he has been to are Canada, Mexico, England, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Finland, Sweden, Croatia, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Serbia, Russia, Japan, China and  Columbia! He has also been to 49 out of the 50 states. The only one he has not been to is North Dakota. His favorite place he has ever traveled to is Hawaii, and he would love to visit New Zealand someday. They have three boys, and now have 11 grandchildren.  They have been married for almost 55 years. Ed says he is most proud of getting married and raising his family. He would describe himself as inquisitive, outgoing, extrovert and interested in new things.

He has interesting  advice for us on how to become true Texans, like if you see a cockroach you have to step on it and kill it with your bare feet! Ed is a very friendly person, which is great because when you move to a new place you never know what your neighbors are going to be like. So, when we moved to Houston, Texas, Ed was there to welcome us in and make us feel at home in our new neighborhood. That is why Ed is such a great neighbor.

A Very Special Grandma

She grew up in Newaygo MI in a country house on a farm with two sisters and two brothers. Her name is Connie Ann Johnson, my Grandma. She married my Grandpa almost 50 years ago. And she still lives in Newaygo in a small house by a big pond. Connie loves to serve in the church, go out and shop in town and hang out with her friends. 

When she was little she loved the “thrashing”.  It was a big get together for harvest time. Other farmers would come to her farm and they had lots of food. Her favorite food was and still is strawberries. When she was little she used to pick them fresh out of her Grandmas garden. She loves corn on the cob fresh out of her garden.

My grandma’s saddest memories were of losing two of her siblings. When she was 4 her brother died of pneumonia. It was a very sad time for her whole family. She doesn’t remember it a lot and didn’t understand it. When she was older and her baby sister was just 16 she got hit by a drunk driver and was killed. This was very hard for her.  She is close to her other brother and sister who are still alive.

She said her happiest memory was when her cousins came over on Sundays. They always played kick the can, tag or some other chase game. They would have dinner and picnics together. When she was a little girl she loved to play outside with her sister (maybe thats why I love to play outside). She would play tag and swing and (get ready this is going to get gross) they would step in cow poop! She said that she liked to put in between toes! When she was playing with her siblings she loved to jump from the high beams in their barn and land into the hay pile. One time she jumped and fell between the barn wall and the hay pile. She said that it was very scary.  Connie’s favorite game was kick the can.  She never had board games.  One time her dad made a board game that was very much like the game now called “Sorry”.

Connie’s favorite book series when she was a kid was the “Bobbsey Twins”. She read all of them. She didn’t have money of her own, just think about that. You wouldn’t be able to buy candy at the store or new toys or gum or a new drawing book. I know it would be hard to have no money of my own. When Connie and her sister were little they were in a store and found candy on the floor. They took it. But the clerk found out and he ran after them!  They were so scared that they never stole anything ever again. Also she didn’t have TV until she was sixteen. Can you imagine not having TV! No TV, no Food Network and no video games!

  They didn’t vacation much during her childhood. She does remember camping once. Her sister dumped eggs and bacon all over her. I don’t think she had much fun camping. She has always wanted to go to Hawaii to see all the beautiful flowers. She is still hoping to go someday.

As a teenager she wanted to play volleyball but never got the chance. She did have a chance to go to school dances. In 10th grade she went to prom. She wore a white dress with tiny red bows on it, red high heels and red jewelry. Her favorite song that night was called “Stardust”.

So many things happened in her life good, bad and ugly. But she is the best grandma and always laughs and makes me laugh. I look up to her for pushing through those hard times when all seems to be bad. She can still laugh and smile.

 By Natalie Hawkins

  A Very Special Grandma  

About Me, Olivia Lunsford

Hi, my name is Olivia Grace Lunsford.

I am 11 almost 12 years old. My birthday is December 30, 2003. I like books and video games. I am the oldest of four children. I have two sisters named Abigail (age 8), Dorothy(age 1), and I have one brother named Jeremy (age 5). Abby is my playmate when I get my way. She has long, straight, brown hair, and is almost as big as me! Jeremy REALLY likes to share and has brownish yellow hair, and Dorothy is the sweetest little angel you could get your hands on with slightly strawberry hair.

I have short, curly brown hair that is SOOOO easy to control. My favorite stuffed animal is a super old, ripped up, pile of junk shaped like a brown dog, and for some weird reason I named her Little Puppy. I have a dog named Callie who is 3 years old. You can know more about her in my story, "Big Bundle of Fur".

I live in Tallahassee, Florida. I share a room with Abby and have the bottom bunk. I am not considered a "Neat Freak" and I am forced to clean up my room.

I go to Freedom Church First Assembly of God. I am a part of a game called Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) and I'm very good at it. I have traveled to many places including Washington, D.C., the states from Florida to the center of Michigan, and maybe more that I can't think of right now.

My favorite book of the Bible is Revelation. My most favorite memory verse is,

John 3:16-17 "For God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save the world, through Him." (JBQ quotation!)

I am homeschooled and have more vacations than the average middle schooler. (yippie!)

Down below are some pictures of my family and me.

Thank you for reading a bit of things about me.
~Olivia Lunsford ;-)

Girl on a Mission's Personal Experience Narative

                     Hey guys! This is Girl on a Mission! So sorry about the delay on publishing this post. I had it partially done, but my grandparents were visiting from out of state. They left today, and I wanted to spend time with them yesterday. Thanks for understanding :-)

                   My Family's  Battle With Cancer 

 Valentines Day, 2013. It starts off as a normal day.  
  Dad goes to work like normal. 
  I do my school work.
  Then, I get a special treat! Mom and I get to go on a field trip to a candy, peanut, and popcorn factory! There was a boat load of tasty samples, a demonstration on how to make cotton candy, a lesson on popcorn varieties, and a behind the scenes tour. I was in my glory! When we were all finished and had gone to the car, my mom checked her phone ( it was noisy on the tour and she didn't hear it ring). She had a voice mail from her doctor.
  Let me back up a little. She had just hit the age mark where doctors recommend getting yearly mammograms. So, just out of precaution, she decided to get the mammogram done right away. A lot of people even wait a few years after the recommended age to start testing. Some people never even get them done! But my mom always errs on the side of caution. She had her mammogram done, and when the images came back, they said that there was something that they wanted to look at. The doctor told her that there was a good chance that the lump was just benign, but that they still were going to do a biopsy to make sure. It was scheduled for a few days later. The procedure consisted of the doctors taking another mammogram, but this time they made an incision and took a small tissue sample of the lump. Also, they inserted clips and wires marking the area of the lump in question. The tissue sample was sent to a lab, and my family spent an anxious week waiting for the results.
  Back to the voice mail. The nurse told mom that she should call her back as soon as she had the chance so they could give her the results. My mom knew as soon as she listened to the voice mail. Something was wrong. Why else wouldn't they have just told her the results through the message?
  We arrived at our house, and I went up stairs and played in the tent that I had recently built. It was huge, covering our entire bonus room. The sheet, chair, clothes-pin labyrinth had multiple chambers, with a rather intricate tunnel system in between. While I was enjoying what I thought at the time to be an architectural wonder, my mom was in her closet talking on the phone to the doctor.
  When she came upstairs, I knew that something was wrong. I asked her, and her reply was, "It's cancer." 
  When you hear news like that, you expect yourself to cry, to feel like your whole world has fallen apart. But it was strange. My mom and I just kind of looked at each other. We were both shocked, but really, that was it. Mom called my dad and he came home from work. We all just crawled in the tent that my dad and I had built and looked and each other. The three of us dug into the candy and popcorn that we had bought that day and then my mom said, "Well, at least we don't have to wait for the results any more!" We all giggled and decided that we would just have to get used to the word. If you were a fly on the wall, you probably would have thought that we were all insane: we were just saying it over and over "cancer" "I have cancer" "my mom has cancer." There was a weird peace that came over us. At the time, I don't think any of us really knew what it was or why we weren't all freaking out, but I believe that it was God's peace that brought us through those first few days of realizing what the road ahead looked like.
  My mom's doctor scheduled an appointment with an oncologist. He made a treatment plan, and told her that the next step was a lumpectomy. She was referred to a surgeon that specialized in breast cancer. They also lined up appointments with a radiologist that would begin after her first surgery.
  We couldn't have been blessed with better doctors. They would all get  together weekly and discus how the treatment plan was working and if any changes needed to be made.
  The lumpectomy was scheduled about a week later. The tumor was larger than they expected; it had grown all the way to the muscle wall of her chest. Luckily, however, it had not spread to her lymph nodes. She recovered as well as could be expected, and after her incision was healed, she began radiation. Mom went every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for a total of 37 treatments. I think that God has a definite sense of humor, because mom ( who was about as much of a morning lover as a troll ) had been praying that she would wake up earlier and be cheerful in the morning for a long time. What time was her appointment? 7:30 in the morning, fifteen minutes away from our house! We all had a laugh over that one!
   After radiation, she had a test to see if her margins (areas around where the lump was) were clear. They were!
   She was put on medication (Tamoxifen) to decrease the return rate, and went to the oncologist every three months.  Now she only has to go every six months, and will be on her medication for seven more years.
   Her response when asked if she would take back her cancer (if she could ) is, "I have grown so much from the experience, and I would never take it back. God granted us a peace that truly surpasses all understanding.  I used to worry about everything, but once you come so close to losing it all, you realize just how unimportant the little things are. We are never truly in control, God is. "
 I know that without the prayers of our family and friends and the mighty, loving God that answered them, our family would have never made it through.
   
     Until Next Time,
               Anna Palazzolo,
               Girl on a Mission
  

Our Next Assignment: The Interview

Do you like asking questions and digging deeply into the heart of a story? Then you're going to love our next assignment! (I'm trying to make my opening as great as some of your personal narrative openings, but I think you beat me...)

My name is Renee Lunsford, and I am Olivia Lunsford's mom. Here is your new writing assignment: The Interview!

1. Find an interesting person to interview. I suggest that you try to make it someone whose life is very different than yours, a person who is much older than you (like over 65), or someone who has done something interesting or unique.

2. Write out a list of questions you'd like to ask that person. See the links below if you'd like some help thinking of questions.

3. Contact the subject of your interview and request permission to ask some questions and write a paper about his or her life or experiences.

4. Meet with or call the person. Use good manners! It might be helpful to record the conversation, but if you can't do that, at least take good notes. If you can, write down a few direct quotes you can use in your paper. Make sure you thank the person you interviewed when you are done.

5. After the interview, write an essay using some of the information you gained from that person. Write it in narrative style; do not include the questions you asked. It could be a biography, a description of a certain meaningful event in that person's life, or it could focus on a certain part of his or her life, like early childhood, young adulthood, or even what it feels like to be an older person.

6. Post your essay to this blog and enjoy reading about all the fascinating people in everyone's lives!



Parents, I suggest we make "posting window" due date like we did last time during October 23-26. Let me know if you disagree. That will give the students over two weeks to fulfill all the steps in this assignment. It may take a little time to work with other people's schedules and get those interviews done.

I couldn't find middle-school-aged samples of the finished interview essays. I did a lot of searching and didn't find quite what I was looking for. However, the following links may be helpful:

Tips for turning an interview into an essay:
http://writingwithsharonwatson.com/interview-into-narrative-essay/

Fifty questions for family history interviews:
http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

More interview questions:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usgwkidz/query2.htm

Big Bundle of Fur

My name is Olivia Lunsford. I am 11 almost 12. I love books like Big Nate books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, Animorphs and mysteries. I like video games and movies. Legos are my passion. Here is my experience with dogs.

Big Bundle of Fur

Do you have a dog? Do you want a dog? I wanted a dog because I could imagine having a soft, fluffy companion to snuggle with. However, some of my experiences with dogs didn’t end well. For example, my neighbors had a dog named Cody. Cody was one of those dogs that jumped on everyone and everything like a hyper squirrel. He jumped on me like a crazy thing, and that made me a bit afraid of dogs.

On December 19, 2012, Daddy said we should get a dog.I was surprised because Daddy never really like dogs. But how thrilling! We raced to the car and drove to an animal shelter in Bainbridge, Georgia. I felt both anxious and afraid because, though I wanted a dog, I was worried that Daddy would buy a jumpy one that would knock me down.

When we got there, we jumped out of the car and asked to look at the dogs. We looked at many, but they were not right for us. Then the shelter employee carried in a female snow white lab. She would not stand up at all. She was more frightened of me than I of her! She was a medium sized dog with a sturdy body. She looked at us with deep brown eyes and barely flicked the light, cream colored tip of her tail. She was 10 months old, and her name was Calla. We all said she was the one for us, but we wanted to change her name. So we changed it to Callie. We bought her, carried her to the car, and drove her home. 

At first she was very scared. She wouldn’t come when I called her, but after a few months Callie got used to us. Now she is hyper and jumps on us a little, but I’m not afraid. When we go outside, there’s a big, happy bundle of fur waiting for us. Callie helped me overcome my fear of dogs, and I’m thankful for that.

China

I stepped out of the airplane doors and walked slowly down the long terminal with my sisters and my parents. We had just landed in Beijing, China. It had been a tiring 13 hour trip filled I had filled with movies and books. My family was pretty alert, considering it was 2 o’clock am. Because of the 12 hour time change, my body felt like it was only 2 o’clock in the afternoon, not late in the night. I just wanted to get some food and go to the hotel, but things didn’t quite go our way. For starters, our guide did not show up, and secondly, that meant we could not go to the hotel. We were stuck in the airport. We ended up spending the rest of the night trying to sleep on blue plastic chairs that were as hard as, well, rock. And that was the beginning of my trip to China.

Well, to be honest, the trip wasn’t really that bad. Besides the horrible Airborne drink my mom made my sister, Lily, and I take. It was like lemonade, yum! But, this lemonade was weak and had no sugar in it at all. It sounds a little less appetizing now, right? Anyway,the reason we were in China for a mission trip. We were going to have a party for kids in the orphanage my sister and I were adopted from, then volunteer at a camp for some kids from orphanages all over China.

So, after we finally made it to the hotel we had a great breakfast, and headed out. We walked around the city looking at all the colorful things up for display at various shops. I stopped to look at copper fish swimming around it a bowl on the ground and to see all the rows of colorful candy for sale. Later, we got in a taxi as bright as the sun and winded through the busy streets and down a road to the orphanage. We got out, stretched our legs, and walked up to the orphanage. We were given a tour of the orphanage by the director, who led us through the various rooms around the orphanage. Then, in one of the bigger rooms, we started setting up supplies so that the kids could draw some pictures. Next, we set up a table and brought a cake we had bought for a party for the kids. Then a little boy who looked about four came up to my mom and showed her his picture he had drawn. My mom picked him up and started talking to him, but the director told us he was deaf. The director said his name was Yu Le. She asked the director if  this little boy was listed for adoption and he said, "no". My mom told him that he should be on the list because someone in America would want him! Finally, we left to go to the camp where we were helping in Yunnan, China.

One week later:

After we got home from the long plane ride and the drive back to our house from the airport , we all collapsed on our beds and slept for the next week! Later that month, my mom remembered the little boy in the corner we had met at the orphanage. My parents got in contact with the director and started sending money to school him. One year later, we adopted again, and I had another sister, Shana! Then, just two weeks after Shana cam home, someone from China called my dad and told him they had found a file for adoption with our family's name attached! My dad asked him if the file was Yu Le's and the man said yes! My dad told my mom, but they decided that they had were too overwhelmed at the moment. Then, in 2014, my parents started considering adopting the little boy we had met. They found his file again and started praying.  Finally, this past July, my dad flew to China. Two weeks later, I had a new brother!

That trip to China really changed my life. We met my brother, Asher, who now is part of my family. Though it has been hard work, learning sign, getting his room ready, and getting used to having a deaf person in our house, I am very thankful that I have a new brother.

-Manna Robertson