George Washington's Socks #5

Chapter Nine:

The boys think that it is really neat that they have Adam Hibbs for their guardian. They come ashore and all the while, Matt is thinking that this guy has a LOT of courage. They come ashore and Adam is supposed to take care of them. Katie stirs a little and throws off one of the folds of the cape. Looking down, Matt thinks, "George Washington's cape!" Matt asks Adam Hibbs if he shouldn't make sure George Washington has his cape. Adam Hibbs says yes, Matt should go, but to hurry along and not to tarry.

Then Matt is mistaken for one of the soldiers. He tries to make it known that he's not, but it doesn't work. He receives a musket and is told to Go!

Cat of Bubastes #4

Chapter Four, Part B

They have taken the tour of the animals, so now they go to the garden. Amuba and Jethro are dumbstruck at all those plants. But then, the Cat of Bubastes author does a little bit of explaining about Ameres. They say that he is very, very wise, but he thinks that all the gods of Egypt are only images of a great God, who is so great that his name is great, it is unknown (kind of like Jehovah). Ameres was one of only a few men and one woman who were permitted into the secret knowledge of Egypt.

Some of the other priests hate him, because he is so wise and knowing. He is very good at the actual rituals of the gods, but he doesn't pay much attention to or have much reverence for the gods of Egypt. Those other priests were pretty religious in the ways they knew, and very sure that Egypt was the greatest nation of all because of their gods.

George Washington's Socks #4

Chapter Seven:

They saw Katie and she was standing on an ice floe. Katie cried out to them and they answered her but then Q's flashlight batteries died out. Then they saw a rowboat and in it, they saw a man. That man was George Washington! George Washington challenges them, but gets Katie into his boat and wraps Katie with his cloak. It was a very big man's cloak, so it was warm.

Washington asks them where their home is, and Matt answers him, "Rumson, Nebraska." Washington says, "What is this place, 'Nebraska?'" The boys' realize, "Oh boy, if he doesn't know what Nebraska is, then we really must be in the Revolutionary War!"

Chapter Eight:

One of the officers realizes that they are just children, not real grown-ups. The General says, "God forgive the cold Tory heart that would send children out on a night like this."

The kids are put into Washington's boat. Hooter is so scared, he has to grab onto something to help him be brave, so he grabs hold of Tony. Then Tony yells, "Hooter, you're holding onto me so tight, I can't breathe!" It was kind of like Hooter was snuggling his teddy bear (he actually still slept with his teddy bear, but that was a secret from his friends). Hooter apologized, but still held onto Tony without loosening his grip.

Once they were all in the boat, Katie was handed over the Matt. It was really, really chilly and Matt realized what a big courage this man, George Washington has to bring his people out on a night like this.

As Matt's thinking that, an officer tells one of the soldiers to be their guardian. It was a soldier that the officer trusted, Adam Hibbs. "Adam Hibbs!" the boys all think, "He's our new guardian! We know him from our history report!"

Cat of Bubastes #3

Chapter Four, Part A

There was a son of Ameres and his name is Chebron. Chebron said that he and Mysa, Ameres' daughter, marveled greatly at the captives blue eyes and light skin. Ameres told Chebron to apologize to Amuba because politeness was the rule in Egypt and Chebron has talked about the slaves in front of them without realized that Amuba could now speak and understand his language.

And then they went into the house and Amuba and Jethro met Mysa and Ameres' wife. His wife scolded him for letting their children become "so spoiled" and "I think that there are no children as spoiled as ours in the whole land of Egypt." And then, Chebron and Mysa took Amuba and Jethro into the garden where all their animals were. And boy, they had a TON of animals. I mean, there were 2 gazelles, and 3 kittens and an ichnuemon (see picture below), and there were a ton (A TON) of waterfowl. And when the four walked int

o the garden, all the animals went wild, screaming for food.

Mysa and Chebron told Jethro how to take care of their pets and where their food was. They also gave Jethro tips on how to best take care of the animals, since he was going to be responsible for them.

More on the ichneumon. More pictures of them.

The Saturday Valentine's Party

The party was wonderful. There was a lot of people!!! Me and Elizabeth spent SO much time building a fort with Grandpa's "B-Pipes." (We've decided to call them B-Pipes because they are Building Pipes). After we finished the fort, we had dinner which was delicious.

Then we went outside to play Ghost in the Graveyard, but after a couple of games of Ghost in the Graveyard, then we went up and down the driveway with lots of scooters and things. Then Daddy was teaching all the boys moves with their lightsabers. That was really fun. Then we had a real battle with lightsabers! It was really, really, really fun. At a couple of points, a few people got hurt, a few people of got whacked, but no one was really injured.

Dessert was delicious! After that, everyone was leaving and I gave a couple of presents to my friends. I made a couple of necklaces with talismen (with little metal pictures and words) and ribbons. The party was wonderful, and I hope that sometime we might be able to introduce my friends to you.

George Washington's Socks #3

Chapter Six:

So all of a sudden, the Adventure Club find themselves in the boat and they thinking, "How did we get here? What happened? How did we get in the boat?" And they had to cling to the sides and hold onto the sides of the boat. But the only lady in the boat had other ideas, and the others watched in horror as she tried to stand up IN the boat! Katie falls overboard. The boys are all crying out, "Where are you, Katie? Katie, answer us!!!"

As Q shines his flashlight overboard to find Katie, he glimpses an inscription in the boat which says "Emit Levart". Everyone looks at each, looks back at the inscription, looks at each other, then back at the inscription. "Levart Lake," whispers Tony, "The mystery is somehow wrapped up in the name 'Emit Levart."

Cat of Bubastes #2

Chapter Three:

The people of Rebu think it is impossible for the Egyptians to get into the city and are not thinking too much about the little shelters at the bottom of the wall. The Egyptians hammered and hammered, and by very carefully working, they got in through the wall and surprised everybody. The Queen had drunk poison to join her husband rather than endure the surrender of the city.

So, Amuba and Jethro become slaves to the Egyptians and their only hope that they ever ventured to imagine was that they would work side-by-side. It was SO long a journey - really long! But Amuba and Jethro tell all the Rebu to be of courage and to not seem to be afraid, to show that if they are men of the field, they are also men of courage. Jethro also shows great wisdom in telling the Rebu men to learn the tongue of Egyptians.

They finally reach Thebes and to their happiness and surprise, Amuba and Jethro are put in the same squad to be chosen. Amuba is chosen and then he begs his new master, a priest, to let Jethro to come with him and be also chosen by the priest (whose name is Ameres.) The chapter ends with Amuba thinking (and Jethro too) that they will find happiness in their new home.

Ameres appears to be a very wise man, although in the temple as a High Priest, he is yet looked on with dislike. He has different views about things, I think.

The Nursing Home Visit

Yesterday, we went to a nursing home with our church. We did signs with songs. One was He has the Whole World in His Hands. The other was Jesus Loves Me. It was really funny, because at the end of Jesus Loves Me, Anna (one of the Parr family), said, "Ho Ho" at the end of the song, and she told us her daddy had made that up.

Then we passed out cards and pieces of cake (and got a piece of cake ourselves!) I hope someday you can come with us to the nursing home that we went to.

I love you!

P.S. I've decided I want to play piano. My friend, Elizabeth, already has taught me Middle C and where you can find it.

George Washington's Socks #2

Chapter Five:

The kids were almost to the lake and Q walked into a spider web. Katie helped him get untangled with her plastic sword, but in the process, she dropped her marshmallows. Katie all of sudden remembered she dropped her marshmallows and she wanted to go back and find them, but I think she went on kind of because a little tiny something was beckoning to her and she wanted to go see what it was. Nobody realized that she's gone off, but then ten minutes later they all look around and say, "Where's Katie? Where's Katie?" They are looking for Katie, and they go forward and forward looking for Katie when they realized that it's a 3/4 moon and they see the rowboat and Katie trying to get into it.

Matt runs ahead to try to stop Katie, and his friends are running behind him, but as he is the first to reach the rowboat, he is the first to fall under the spell. He smiles and scrambles into the boat; then Q and Tony follow and finally Hooter gives the boat a shove and climbs in after them.

So then Matt and Q reach for an oar and they start rowing out to the middle of the lake. Then the 3/4 moon goes behind a cloud and when it comes out again, there's no trace of the rowboat and her smiling crew!

Cat of Bubastes - a REALLY long book

This is the new book I'm reading about Ancient Egypt:

Cat of Bubastes by G.A. Henty

Chapter One:

Amuba: The King's son and the main character of the book. Blue eyes, light hair, fair and slender, kind.

Jethro: Beard, blue eyes.

Place: In the city of Rebu, near Egypt.

Time Period: In ancient times, when there was a Pharoah in Egypt. Probably Middle Kingdom.

Amuba and Jethro are going out to battle. And they have chosen a swampy place. After a ton of fighting and a lot advice from his father, they lose the battle and go back to the city. The king dies.

Chapter Two:

They are in the city of Rebu, and there is a ton of work going on. As Amuba's mother has put aside her great sorrow, for the king had died in battle, and now has a ton of work going on and on and the men are up their watching the Egyptians approach. The Egyptians at last get there and build little shelters at the foot of the city wall. Now, this was not easy to do because there was a huge rock in the way and the only ways into the city (ramparts) had been pulled up by the people of Rebu.

George Washington's Sock #1

I've started reading a new book about the Revolutionary War. It is called "George Washington's Socks" by Elvira Woodruff.

Chapter One:

Main characters:

Matt, President of the Adventure Club.

Tony, who is small and his grandpapa witnessed a couple of disappearances

Hooter, he's a really big strong guy with a soft heart. He once found a injured owl, took it home, put it in a box to help it heal and 'hooted' to it all day.

Q, the brain of the Club, he is really smart.

Katie, Matt's little sister, who they are babysitting just for this night.

They are camping in Tony's backyard. Every ten minutes, Tony's parents come to check on them before they go to bed.

Chapter Two:

They get different jobs in the Club. Hooter is strength of the club, Q is the brain, Tony is the scout, Matt is the President, and Katie is will tag along. Katie did take a water gun and squirted Hooter right in the nose!

Chapter Three:

Once Tony's parents go to bed, the 5 kids go for a hike. They start going down to the lake; it's really, really, really dark down there. Hooter is sure the place is crawling with snakes. Q isn't as afraid of snakes as he is of spiders. He keeps getting afraid that he'll walk into a spider web. Katie says at the end of the chapter, "It sure is dark in here." (in the woods).

Chapter Four:

Tony keeps telling them really odd things about that lake. There was an enchanted row boat right there - his grandfather has seen people vanish from that boat. Tony's grandpa's friend got kind of sucked under the trance of the boat, rowed far out into the lake and then just... vanished. Some of the people did come back, but they were never the same. They were kind of crazy - they had fantastic stories to tell and would sit by the lake for hours just staring as if they were crazy or something. And there was also something odd about the moon every time the rowboat appeared. It was always in the 3/4 moon.