Mouse King's geared up for school!

I can't believe I have to be back at school in 2 weeks. Where has the summer gone??? Well I know one thing...Mouse King's ready for school. He's been sleeping for most of the summer trying to catch up on all the sleep he missed from last school year. He's ready now though. He's been wide awake for the past two days, running in his ball, running in his wheel, exploring the exciting world known as my kitchen counter. Here's a really cute picture I took of him this morning, climbing in to a ceramic candle holder. Isn't he the cutest little hamster in the world? What a good little Mouse King!

Out of Peaches??? How is that possible???

Have you ever been peach picking? A couple years ago, my family went to pick peaches at Carter Mountain and it was a lot of fun. My sister really wanted to do it again, especially because she's about to go back to Georgia on Wednesday. So we decided to go up yesterday and spend the afternoon picking peaches. We had big plans for those peaches, plans that involved a delicious peach cobbler (my sister's favorite dessert). I brought Chaos the good dog so he could experience firsthand the delight of picking peaches on a hot summer day! So we drove up Carter Mountain, the excitement building with every turn. Except when we got out, the Carter Mtn. people told us that there were no peaches. They never made it through the late frost we had back in April. So there went that plan. Chaos and I went for a walk through the orchard anyway. Here's a funny picture of him being hot and not amused at the absence of peaches. He was really looking forward to them peaches.

We won the championship!

In the midst of a very sad week, good things have happened too. On Thursday night, my team, the X Rays, played in the playoffs for the city league championship. We were in third place entering the playoffs. The first game - the semi-finals - was ironically against my sister's team, the second place team. This was the team that led me to join the X Rays back in the spring when I went to watch my sister's game and saw that the Rays needed another player. Although I betrayed my sister, I ended up staying with the Rays for the rest of the season. So it was weird that we played them in the semi-finals. We crushed them and almost won by slaughter rule. They gave a good attempt to come back though. It was 17-3 in the 4th inning when they went on a hitting spree. We finally won like 21-15 or something.

Then we played the first place team in the finals. We were definitely on our game and we won 10-6! I played second base for both games and hit 3 singles and walked once. Our team got a trophy at the end of the game. Well, it's really a plaque in the shape of home plate that says that we won. It's really cool! Go X Rays!

More Cody Coolness

Here are some more cool things about Cody:

9. He was the best fake horse ever. Kathryn used to make him run around and jump over broomsticks that she had set up to 3'6" and he could clear them every time.

10. He received his own mail at our house. What other dog gets their own mail? One day we got junk mail in our mailbox addressed to Cody Merk. From that day on, Cody received mail regularly.

11. Cody is a walking GPS system. In Maine, my stepmom Diane just loves Cody and Tucker. The feeling is quite mutual. Well one day Diane took the boys out walking in the woods along trails far away from the house and Cody ran off and never came back. Of course Diane was crushed and searched for him everywhere. He still hadn't been found by the next morning. Well Diane teaches high school and as she pulled up at her school, distraught and worried about Cody, she looked toward the front doors of the building and saw Cody! Somehow he had found his way to the school where she worked and was waiting for her there! We still have no idea how he found the school or how he knew the school was where she worked and would be the next morning.

Good ol Cody. I won my ball games tonight in honor of you, Cody Merk!

Goodbye Cody :'(

Today was a very sad day. Today my dog Cody, one of the greatest dogs ever, died. I've been dreading this day for years now. We got Cody about 13 years ago, back in 1994. I adopted him, but he was really attached to my dad right away. After my dad died, my stepmom Diane took Cody to live with her in Maine. Cody was so close to my dad that having him around was like having part of my dad around too. My dad died almost 8 years ago and from the moment he died, we could say, "At least we've got Cody," whenever the now-familiar crushing sadness overtook our hearts. And from the moment my dad died I've been fearing this day.

The day Cody would be gone just like my dad.

Here's what made Cody so great:

1. He was brilliant. He knew so many tricks and commands, like all the normal ones of course, but also he knew the difference between "speak" and "sing". He would get the newspaper for us and was always so proud to do it. In fact, after he learned how to get the newspaper, he thought he could make us extra proud of him if he got EVERYBODY's newspaper on the whole street. So we'd open the door and there would be a pile of papers on the front porch and Cody would be standing over them just wagging his tail, showing off his newfound skill.


2. He had great word recognition and he could even spell! He loved cookies and my grandmother used to bake cookies just for him. He, of course, learned the word "cookie" very quickly and would go nuts whenever someone said it. So we had to start spelling the word "cookie" just so he wouldn't know what we were talking about. That led him to realize that "c-o-o-k-i-e" meant the same thing. He also learned the word "hamster"!


3. He had very strange obsessions. For example he had an intense dislike for UPS trucks. Mail trucks, Fedex trucks, dump trucks, and any other kind of truck were just fine with him, but not UPS trucks. He could spot one from a mile away, I think he even could tell by the sound in fact, and would start barking and carrying on, growling and letting that UPS truck know how he felt about it. He was also very obsessed with the word "shark" for some unknown reason. Whenever we would say "shark" he would go crazy, barking, whining, jumping in circles. We never did figure out why.

4. Cody could play basketball like a pro. He was even better at soccer. When my dad and I would play basketball, Cody would come out and take us on.

5. He knew how to be a good friend. His best friend was his brother Tucker. He was very loyal, like most dogs, to the people he loved. I remember one day when I was 16, my dad, Cody, and I went outside at night to go to the mall. It was dark and on the way to the car, Cody froze, staring in to the darkness with his fur standing up, growling viciously. He was not ever known to do that, since he was a very friendly dog (except to UPS trucks), and we looked around but didn't see anything. Suddenly this creepy guy started walking up our driveway and asked to use our phone. Cody was having none of it. I'd never seen a dog do that before in real life and it was the first time I realized that Cody would have died to protect us.

6. He could jump high enough to clear an invisible fence. When he was a puppy, my sister wanted to train him to be in agility dog shows, so she started working with him on his jumping. He became a very high jumper, which he used to his advantage to escape the invisible fence in our yard. He figured out that if he started at the other end of the yard and sprinted toward the edge as fast as he could, he could leap over the fence and he would be too high for the shock to affect him. I told you he was brilliant.

7. He always had a bone to chew on. He was very protective of his bones.

7. He crossed his legs when he would lay down.

It feels dumb trying to explain the significance of Cody in a numbered list. It feels just like all the pain of losing my dad all over again. Stupid sin. Stupid earth. I hate this place where death has to tear us apart from the people and the animals that we love. I can't wait to be in heaven where I'll be able to see my dad and Cody again and they can never be taken away. At least Cody and my dad can be together again.

This morning, on Cody's last morning on Earth, guess what he did. He went to get the newspaper.
Goodbye, good Cody Bear. See you soon.

Perfect Day for a Shower

We went to my sister's baby shower this weekend too. It was in this beautiful park (that had an awesome skatepark that everyone neglected to tell me about!). My sister, Cameron, is having a baby boy in about 3 weeks! His name is either going to be Caden or Leland...they haven't decided yet. Cameron's boyfriend and the dad-to-be, Aaron, came of course and we were able to see their new apartment after the shower was over. Cameron is taking classes in the fall and wants to go in to criminal justice. Aaron does not have a job yet, but he's looking for one. Please pray for all three of them, for Cameron, Aaron, and the new perfect baby who is already part of our family!

We love you, Cameron, Aaron, and Caden/Leland!

All-Star Baseball

This weekend was a beautiful one for baseball. The Cove Creek All-Star team had a tournament so I went to watch it. They played hard, making it all the way to the semi-finals before losing. A bunch of kids who were on the 10 and under team are going in to fifth grade now, but they were in my class when they were in second grade. It was really cool watching them play, seeing how much they've grown in their playing ability.

Celebration Weekend

This weekend in Baltimore was full of celebrations! My aunt and uncle's 60th birthdays are this summer so my cousins held a surprise party for them on Saturday night! Here is me with my sister and my cousins, Amy, Laurie, and Mike. The top picture is of my new baby cousin, Pierce!

Lots of family members came from all over the country to celebrate the birthday party. I got to visit with some people who I haven't seen in a REALLY long time. This is me with one of our cousins, Gene Dewey. He was the assistant secretary of state for President Bush until he retired. Then he was called out of retirement to be an ambassador of Sri Lanka. He's really nice and told us lots of stories about Sri Lanka and other places he's been to!

On Sunday, baby Pierce was baptized at the same church that Amy and her husband Jay were married in. The pastor was hilarious and Pierce didn't even cry when the water was placed on his head!

Baby Pierce had to pose for LOTS of pictures after the service...and he didn't cry a single time! He was so patient and good and just allowed himself to be passed from person to person without so much as uttering a complaint. After that we went to Amy's house and had a celebration party for Pierce!

And here I am with the best grandpa in the world! I'm really sorry all of you who think you have the best grandpa. The one right here is the true top of the charts!

Proud to be an American

How amazing is this country? This country that recognizes the value of freedom and whose citizens are willing to sacrifice their lives to help others experience freedom. This country that is willing to die to be free. Kathryn and I went to Washington, D.C. on Saturday on the way up to Baltimore to see our cousins. We stopped to visit the monuments that I haven't seen since I was no older than 14. Hard to believe that was actually 14 years ago! It was a very reflective, emotional couple of hours as I really started to understand what those monuments stand for.


The Vietnam War Memorial was so touching. As we walked along the wall, staring at the 58,245 names, we noticed that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was absolutely silent. All the people who had been in conversations moments before, children poking their brothers and sisters, begging their parents for ice cream, all of them were silent as they moved along the wall. Although, of course, no one had told them to be silent. I thought of the single sentence carved in to the Korean War Memorial, "Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met." It moved me to tears to realize that all of these memorials were honoring family members who believed that freedom was more important than their lives. We found the name of one of our mom's cousins who died in the Vietnam War.



It was the first time I had seen the new World War II Memorial. That was the most amazing monument I've ever seen. It quickly moved to the top of my "Favorite Monuments Ever" list. It is so beautiful, surrounded by every state and covered in quotes that showed what this war meant. The very first one that you see surrounds a pedestal and says, "We came to liberate, and not to conquer, to restore freedom and to end tyranny." Again, it comes back to freedom. The reason we fight. The reason we help. The reason we die. And the reason that Christ died for us. It's always about freedom, and it always has been.


As we walked through the World War II Memorial, I had a strange feeling that I couldn't quite explain, other than I knew that every time I tried to talk to my sister about what we were seeing, I couldn't speak. Tears would come to my eyes every time I opened my mouth to talk. Kathryn finally said, "There's a weird feeling here...kind of like a tingling..." I was doing okay holding back the tears, until I saw this beautiful wall in the center of the memorial. It was covered with stars and said, "Here we mark the price of freedom." Freedom costs. From the Korean War Memorial, "Freedom is not free."

I am so proud to call myself an American and be a part of this country that honors freedom over life. To all the men and women who died so that I can be free, thank you.

adorably cute animals

Today, Will, Ben, Jake, and I went to the Metro Richmond Zoo. It's a really small zoo but it has lots of kinds of animals. The good thing about it being small is that you can get really close to all the animals! They give you a cup of food at the entrance and you can feed any animals except the birds. You can pet almost everything. And tons of animals had babies! Here are the best of the pictures that I took today. There are tons of more pictures that I will put up later, but these are the very best!

This ring-tailed lemur was so adorable. He was just a baby and he was so small he could crawl through the fence of his cage. He kept crawling through and coming up to the sidewalk to see us! Then he'd crawl back in his little fence and come back out whenever he wanted. He was really nice!




My favorite thing was the zebra butts. I think zebras' stripes are so beautiful but their butts really show the stripes' beauty the most.





This moon bear was trying to wash off his tongue or something. He kept pulling on his tongue with his paws, tugging harder and harder. I thought he was going to pull his whole tongue off.



We think this little guy is a gazelle. He was so nice too. He was really curious and wanted us to pet him.






And this cute guy is a farrow deer. They live in Asia. They were so gentle - Ben and Jake let them eat right out of their hands. They petted their little faces.

The Richmond Zoo was really cool...I just wish the animals had bigger habitats - but I always think that, no matter which zoo I go to and how much space the animals have. I'll show more pictures later this weekend!

woo hoo you caught a ball. event of the year.

Tonight's baseball game was truly a test of patience, control, and acting in a God-centered way by being a good sport. I had a great game, even though we lost, because I hit a double and 3 singles and in the field I played pretty well too. And I'm trying really hard to keep that in mind and not let the stupid girl that was playing third base for the other team ruin the good game. But let me tell you...it's hard. For one thing every time she came up to bat she wiggled her rear end back and forth obnoxiously I guess because she thought everyone wanted to see how great her rear end looked. Then in the field, every time she caught a ball, and I mean EVERY TIME as if it's some great event to catch a ball...like woo hoo you caught a ball, good for you...anyway EVERY TIME she caught a ball she had to do this little dance, run over and jump on the guy playing shortstop and start kissing him. I wanted to shout out, "SO YOU CAUGHT A FREAKIN BALL!!! GET OVER IT!!!" But I didn't.

One time she was on first base, trying to run to second. The guy that was up hit a ball to me and as I caught it, it took a bad hop and bounced off my arm. I saw the creepy third base girl running to second and I was like, "Oh I'm getting you out creepy girl!" So I dove on to the ground to get the ball and flipped it as fast as I could to our shortstop just in time to get her out. I felt a little better then.

At the end of the game, when we lined up to shake hands and say, "Good game!" to the other team, I almost didn't shake creepy girl's hand. I did though, not happily, but I did it. Our coach told us that we might have to play that team again in the playoffs in two weeks. I hope so. Cuz creepy girl's going down.

Skatepark Birthdays...that's the way to do it!

Okay so I just had like the best time EVER at the skatepark! I would possibly even go so far as to say that it was comparable to a day at Disney World, and anyone who knows how much I love Disney World knows that's saying a lot!


Last night I went to my favorite restaurant, Red Lobster, with my family and Peter! Then Kathryn, Peter, and I went to the pool and hot tub to relax! Kathryn came to my birthday party tonight at the skatepark too! I was so excited that she came because I didn't think she was going to.


The skatepark was packed! Dan, the guy who runs the skatepark, said it's the most people that's been to the skatepark since like last year or something. He said 45 people were there for the party! It was awesome because everybody brought scooters, bikes, skateboards, you get the idea! All the kids tried something new for the first time. Leah learned to drop in on a ramp for the first time! Ben learned to ride down straight ramps! Collin started riding way up high on the biggest ramps on his bike before coming back down! I hope everyone keeps coming to the skatepark! It's so much fun to hang out there with people you know!


Lots of kids were from my class and from church so it was awesome getting to see all the kids again! And of course you can't have a party without a moose cake! My friends Kim and Sara and Jonathan came (Jonathan was the official photographer and did an amazing job with the pictures, I might add!) Kim and Sara decorated the cake with mooses and lego trees that I brought from home! They should seriously go in to the cake decorating business or something! Don't those little mooses look cute? They are very happy in their new home! Too bad their home is about to be eaten!



Okay off to bed...wow what a great day! Thanks for coming everybody!!!!