January 24th

I've been having a hard time with my homework lately.  For some reason, I can't seem to get my stuff done on time anymore.  Sigh...  Oh, well.  Maybe I need to prioritize more.

Which leads to my next subject.  7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens was an awesome book!  I loved it!  It was so inspiring!  I have now started a calendar, written my mission statement, filled out The Great Discovery (read the book to find out what that is!), compiled a small book of daily tasks that I refer to every day, set a bunch of goals, and even found some favorite poems of mine that were in it.  And I'm feeling so good about myself!  You should read the book and try it!  It's seriously awesome.  It is now my favorite non-fiction book.

I'm having a good time with school.  I've been learning about all kinds of things in Biology, improving my typing skills for Writing and Lit., learning how to stage-fight in Shakespeare, and learning great artists and their styles in art class.  It's fun!  Although the homework is sometimes a little much, I love being in the classes.  That makes it worth it.

I've started on my Faith value project for Personal Progress.  I'm writing a story about faith for my project.  I'm liking it so far.  I think it will be published on it's own page.

Speaking of pages, the Poems page is now going to have only this year's poems on it.  The new page won't be up for a while, though, because I have no idea where my poems are so I'll have to get them onto my computer somehow.  But that might take a while.  So you'll all have to do without a poetry page for a while.  Sorry.  :/

In the meantime I've been working on my friend story, Orphanage Adventures.  If you're in it, look forward to another chapter coming soon.  Or even if you just like reading it.  :)  I've been setting a few goals and one of them is to write two pages of one story or thing I'm compiling each day.  I have a list.  I look at it each day to know what I need to write.  That's helping.  Also, I've been working on another story called I Hate Being a Super Star.  When I finish it, I'll put it on a page.  It's exciting!

That's all I have for today.  I hope you enjoyed reading!

AJ McKay

January 19th Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yay!!  Hi, guys!!  My dad's birthday was yesterday!  Happy birthday!!  :)

For his birthday present (my mom's idea), I made some heads with birthday hats on them.  They were of each person in our family.  Here's a picture of them.

Sorry about the horrible quality.  :P  Mason is all the way to the right.  Starting there and going in: Noah, me, my dad, my mom, Caden, and then Sariah.  They were fun to make and really cool!  My dad laughed.  It was funny.

I took a picture of myself in a cute/nice shirt with curly hair.  I thought it turned out pretty good.

Wow, my hair looks a lot shorter because of the curliness.

And anyway, I've had a great, busy past couple of weeks.  I hope you enjoyed my post! 

AJ McKay

January 9th

Hey, guys!!  I have now decided that instead of writing everything I did the whole week each time I blog, I'm going to post pictures that I took on my Webcam (which is the camera on my computer) and some funny thoughts that I've had.

This week I went on a drawing and hair-do spree (not both in one).  I took pictures of my hair-dos and I'm taking pictures now of my drawings that I did on Sunday.  By the way, sorry for the picture quality.  My Webcam is a Webcam and therefore is not the best camera there is.

So the other day, when my hair was still wet from my shower that morning, I decided to put my hair in twisted buns.  Picture:

 (Oh, and Caden and I were goofing off:)

(I was trying not to wear the glasses but Caden got a picture of me anyway.)

(Here's when I decided to add the Happy Birthday border.)

(This is one of Caden's favorite faces to make.  Sorry it's blury.)

(I really thought Caden's face was hilarious.)

(And, again, Caden goofing off.  He makes way better faces than I do.)

(I was trying to hide behind the little flower and Caden was still goofing around.)

(And here we get into the hair.  When I put my hair in a bun that morning I didn't know it would be amazingly curly and bouncy when I took it out after it dried.  I was truly amazed.  I NEVER had hair that curly or bouncy.  And it was really soft.)

(After getting jammies on I put my hair in a pony tail and took a few pictures.  Noah joined me.  He gave me bunny ears...)

(And moose antlers...)

(...And I made weird faces.)

(I took a picture when I woke up in the morning.  It wasn't as floofy but it was still curly.)

(...And without the pony tail.)

So there you have it, folks!  My hair of the week.

Now the pictures that I drew/am drawing:

(I used this picture for my drawing below.)

(This is for a book report for Literature class.)

(I used this picture for my drawing below.)

(This one is also for a book report for Literature class.)

(I'm using this picture for the drawing below that I've started.)

(And this is what I have so far on drawing the kitten.  It's taken me forever to get all of those lines how I want them.  Whew!  I'm getting close, though!  :))

(I drew this one in church after the picture on our program.  It wasn't exactly how I wanted it but it turned out ok.  I thought the letters were the best out of the whole thing.)

So, there's my drawings for the week.  I've found that I am NOT good at drawing without a guide so I print out pictures or use pictures in books for my guides.

I hope you've enjoyed my post!  Since I've changed the way I post, please let me know if there is some way I can make it better.  Thanks!  :)

A.J. McKay

January 2nd 2012!! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  This post isn't going to be very long because I don't want to go all the way through the last week.  ButI will say that tomorrow I start classes again!  Yay!!  I'm taking a new class!  Biology!  But this one is in the co-op and we're doing entirely different stuff than the one I've been taking.

This post is mostly for my watch, though.  It broke.

Right here:

So I fixed it with wire.  I wrapped most of the wire here:

That way it would stay on.  I criss-crossed it here:

That way it would hold together.

I am so happy that I fixed my watch!!  For a long time I just had it in my pocket because I couldn't fix it and I was definitely not getting rid of it.  It's the best watch ever.  So I've been saving for a new watch (which I will still do because the old one really needs to go to rest now).  Then I figured out how to fix it because I remembered the extra wire we had from the other day when we were making bracelets out of the kind of ribbon with wire.  I'm just so happy!  I've been showing everyone and saying, "I figured out how to fix it so now I can wear it!"  This watch is very special to me.

I have also included a very special story.  It is a Christmas story whose title is Why Christmas is Nice but our family just calls it the Bash Story.  We read it every year on Christmas Eve and we either act it out or have my dad do all of the right voices.  This year we acted it out, doing everything the characters were doing in the story.  Here it is!  Enjoy!  :)

(I was Gloog and Howk, Sariah was Lester, Noah was Murdleigh, and Caden was Marvin.)

 

Once upon a time and in the days before anything much was organized and when people were all pretty much alike and had not learned to be Doctors and Bookmakers and Husbands or Milkmen, there were never and holidays because everyone was too busy.

 

What they were busy doing was -- taking stuff.

 

They spent all of their time either taking stuff or trying to take stuff or planning to take stuff from each other or fixing the walls and fences and bobwire in their section of the jungle so no one could take stuff from them.

 

In those days it was considered most necessary to have a lot of stuff and taking it gave people a stimulating feeling.  When the took something especially good (i. e. big) the feeling started in the backs of their backs and spread down across their backs and made tingles in their left feet.  This feeling was the only feeling anyone ever had, except maybe being scared or being hungry.

 

Several techniques were used, first:  swiping.  This was the most difficult because, naturally, few people were foolish enough to leave any of their stuff unguarded.

 

The second and most popular method was to find someone smaller than you and give him an unexpected bash.  The you could grab his stuff and run.  This method, although dangerous, had the advantage of being healthful, as the bashing and running promoted deep breathing and kept the waistline down.

 

Now, in time, the smaller people learned to be very clever, hiding and swiping, and the larger developed a protective layer of bone across the backs of their skulls and some of the medium sized discovered that they could tell big lies about the amount of stuff that they had hidden and this was about the same as actually having the stuff.

 

Now Gloog, Howk, Murdleigh, and Lester had accumulated exactly the same amount of stuff.  They were all of about the same size and they had equally excellent walls and so it became difficult for them to increase their stuff.  One day Murleigh would bash Gloog and take his shirt and eggbeater but he next day Howk would bash Murleigh and take his shirt and fountain pen, and so on.  They were all getting bashed a great deal and in the long run there was no percentage in it.  So after a while they all concentrated on taking stuff from Marvin, which wasn't easy.  Marvin was the smallest, the most simple-minded, and the least devious of all the people.  He didn't even have a proper wall or fence and as a result he had no stuff.  In fact, Marvin never had anything.  He didn't even have a pair of pants (which slowed him down socially).  He lived on a diet of toadstools (these being the only thing he could depend on not being taken) and the only feeling he ever experienced was not getting hit, which he considered enjoyable.

 

So it wasn't long before Gloog and Howk and Murdleigh and Lester even gave up trying to take stuff from Marvin.  It wasn't worth the trouble it took to bash him because, alothough he bashed easily, Marvin was concussion prone and merely fell quietly face forward and didn't yell or holler or do anything fun.

 

And so in this part of the jungle, the status qoed more than suitable.  Actually the status became over-qoed and Gloog and Howk and Murdleigh and Lester sat behind their walls and got restless.

 

"It is not right to not take stuff," murleigh said, "One should get more stuff.  It is the way things are."  He would then go out and try to sneak up on Gloog or catch Howk or swipe something from Lester.  But he never could.

 

Then he would go back home and fret some more.  "I will lose my technique."  And one day he added, "I must keep in practice or my know-how will desert me."

 

So he rushed out and found Marvin Ouk and in his mind he pretended that Marvin was carrying a double armful of stuff.  He then gave Marvin an excellent bash and pretended to take the imaginary stuff away from him but it didn't work.  He didn't get any feeling or tingle at all.

 

He went back home and fretted some more.  "It was not playing the game to pretend," he told himself, and he began to think.  After a bit he had an idea.  "Umm," he said, "If I'm going to practice on Marvin, I must play the game.  He must have something to take, so I will go out and..."  He paused and made up a word to express the odd idea he had in mind.  "Give," he said, "I will give Marvin something first.  Then I can take it."

 

When Marvin saw him he sighed and looked for a soft spot to fall forward on.  He was, of course, surprised, even shocked, when Murdleigh stopped in front of him and made no bashing gestures.  "Ouk," said Murdleigh, making a peculiar and frightening grimace (which men later learned to call a "smile"), "Ouk, I have some stuff here I want to give you."  He pushed a spoon toward Marvin.  Marvin backed away.  "Murdleigh has sprung a gasket," he thought.  "I shall carefully go away as he may become dangerous."  But Murdleigh anticipated Marvin's escape and seized him by the arm.  "Here," he said, and placed the spoon in Marvin's hand.  "I want you to have this."

 

Then he stepped back and prepared to give Marvin a bash and take the stuff in the approved manner but, before he could move, he felt a strange new feeling!  A feeling ten times more powerful than the feeling he had when he took stuff.  It started in the back of his chest and spread, not only through his back and his left foot, but all over.  He began to tingle in both feet and both hands and on top of his head.  The new feeling was so pleasant and so powerful that Murdleigh caught his breath and sat down on the ground.

 

"Ha," he said and again made the terrible grimace in Marvin's direction.  Marvin turned and raced away.

 

"Who would have suspected?" said Murdleigh.  "Giving stuff is..."  He searched for a noise he could use, another new word.  "Ooser?" he said, and then, "Meepy?"  Then he tried, "Misser" and then "Nicer."  Nicer sounded exactly right.  "Giving stuff," Murdleigh said, "Is nicer than taking stuff."

 

Murdleigh soon found out that part of the new feeling was a desire to tell other people about it and he did; and so another great discovery was made.

 

The secret of the the new feeling has been passed down from century to century to now and, although sometimes we don't see too much evidence of it, people seem to remember it very clearly at Christmas time and, instead of taking and bashing, they give.  And it feels very nice.

Thanks for reading!

AJ McKay