Thursday, October 2, 1997

I was too sick to do this for some days. Then mommy got sick too... so we are better now and are back again. I went to school yesterday and felt better but not real good yet. Today I feel real good though. Mommy is feeling better too. She had to go to the dentist and get a tooth filled but she said it feels okay.
Yesterday mommy went to the other doctor, Mark Rhodes, who is going to cut her feet open and fix the bones inside. He said because we had this flu, he is going to so the surgery next month instead of the day after my birthday.
I will be 8 years old on the 13th! School is even going to be closed on that day so we will do something special but mommy isn't telling me WHAT!
I have too many things to say and it is past my bedtime so I will have to tell you all of them tomorrow. We just got back from Pizza-Hut and we have to hurry now. I was waiting such a very long time now to taste that stuffed-crust pizza and we finally did tonight. I saw it on T.V. last month. It was yummy like they said! Mommy is saying that we have to hurry - but I just want to say that one of our internet friends sent me a cute card on the computer here - his name is Don Robinson and we are friends with him. He came to visit us last year. We have pictures of him and his wife Margie and some of their kids too. Here is the place where you can see my card too! http://www.bluemountain.com/cards/box2569/bran3887rtg6538.html
Thank you Mr. Don! I like Teddy bears.

Oh I DO have to go... but I don't have asthma trouble like we though it was, it was the flu! But the flu made me have some asthma trouble too because of it.

~~~~~~Bye~~~~~~~

Friday, October 3, 1997
Today we went back to the card from Mr Don, and mommy saved the teddy bear from it for me - we are putting it here for you all to see too! At first it had white behind it - so mommy had to take that away and now we are going to put it here - if it works....Now isn't he cute? He came from Blue Mountain cards. We send them to people too here on the internet. We sell their real cards and books at our store. I think they have really nice ones.   I like Fridays because we stay up late and play and sometimes wewatch something on television or the VCR machine. We snuggle together then. Lots of the time, my mommy falls asleep before I do! (but we stay snuggled anyway!)     Today at lunch something very strange or funny happened. Amber told me that she lives near by our store in town!- She is my friend, who had two cats, one of them ran away and the other one died, (I don't know if it was just old or got ran over or what.... Amber didn't tell me that.)
We have some pizza left over and I am having it for my dinner tonight. My pizza is almost finished now and we are going to get our shower now. I have been eating and telling mommy what to write. That's how we do this journal. Sometimes when she reads what she wrote that I said - I have to tell her about mistakes in some of the words - but she fixes them. It's okay though - cause we all make mistakes sometimes.
Mommy says that on Monday I will have my own E-mail mailbox.She says that one day some of you might write to me too. I would like that.

Good-bye for tonight....

Saturday, October 4, 1997
It was a really pretty day today and first I was trying to ride my bike which we got at at that yard sale the other week. The tires will not hold air and Peachs' friend told her last week, that those tires were no good and I had to have new ones. I already don't know how to ride a two wheeler, and I have to learn to do it in the yard with no sidewalk or anything.... so when the tires kept being flat - I just couldn't do it. At lunch time, I fixed myself a lettuce and Miracle Whip sandwich (which I LOVE) and while I was eating it, Peach took my bike over to Grandpappys' house (he lives in an apartment though, not a house) - and she bought tires for him to put on the bike and told him she would like to have it on my birthday. But then she told him I would miss too much nice weather to learn to ride it in - and so he fixed it today.
But when I finished eating my lunch - I went outside to try to ride some more and my bike was gone! That made me feel bad! Mommy said Peach wanted to surprise me and it really was a surprise but not a nice one because she should have told me before she took it so I wouldn't think it was still here! But then it was a nice one again when she went back tonight and brought it home.
Since my bike was gone - mommy asked Peach to go up into our attic (I love attics, don't you?) and get Uncle Erics' scooter for me to use! Gosh - you never see those anywhere anymore. It is very pretty. It is yellow and has streamers coming out of the two handles. She said that it would help me to balance myself and be more ready to ride my bike. She was right too - because it got easier and easier the more I tried it! I just didn't ever want to stop it! I didn't come inside until after seven o'clock and then I was all sweaty too! I got cuts and scratches (there was blood on some of them too! they mostly happened from when I was going down the big hill out back) but I didn't even know it until I came inside and we took our shower and washed my hair!
My Pappy must have worked real hard because while we were in the shower - she went back to pick my bike up. He said it didn't even NEED tires at all - it only needed tubes! So he went out to the store and bought tubes for the tires and put them in. He fixed it up nice and tomorrow I am going to keep trying until I CAN... because he also put TRAINING wheels on it for me. I can balance on the scooter anyway - I learned how to do that with both feet on it going down the hill. The scooter was a good idea! I think I will still exercise with the scooter every day too! I think I will - I have no idea if I will! Mommy even let me ride it on our deck - (but she said that the noise was so loud and rumbly that it was like an earthquake inside the house!)
I never had stuffed peppers before - we had them tonight and they were so good. But I was tired and fell asleep right after eating mine in mommys' room. (Sometimes she lets me eat in there if I am careful)

Mommy wrote a special prayer today for anybody who doesn't know about Jesus and wants their name written in the Lambs' book of life!
You can read it (I hope that everybody will too) here at this address http://www.user.shentel.net/nbaker/Redeem.htm
If you click the music note - I would like to sing you a song about Jesus. We want everybody to know about Jesus because when they decide if they want to be with Him or not - He is coming back to get us to go and be with Him forever. We will see my Uncle Eric again then.

Sunday, October 5, 1997
Today we took my bike in to the parking lot at my school. I rode it there. I thought it would be much easier - but it was still hard. I wanted to ride it at home tonight too - but my hands had blisters and the skin was peeling and mommy wouldn't let me do it anymore for a while. Maybe there will be time when I get home from school tomorrow. It was fun - but I fell too.
Cathy (my mother) came to visit us for a while and I got to stay up late. She works at McDonalds' and she brings me toys from the kids' meals sometimes. Sometimes she brings chicken nuggets too - I like them. I think that my mommy and my mother might have my birthday party at McDonalds' this year. :-) That way we will have fun in the playground too! Since school is going to be out - we can do it early in the day. I heard them talking about it tonight and I got excited.

Monday, October 6, 1997
I had homework and didn't get to ride my bike tonight but mommy wanted my hands to heal up anyway so that was kind of good.
We are not finished with the book "THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE" yet, so she read to me for two hours! It is a fun story. I like when she makes different voices for the different people in stories when she reads them. She makes me laugh! When she has her surgery next month - we will be reading a lot of stories because she will not be able to walk for a while then and will have casts on both of her legs. We won't be able to take Jacuzzis then either - but I do like it when she reads a lot of stories. I think it will be fun to watch videos and read stories a lot.
We took some pictures of me on my bike and of the dogs - but she has to put them into the computer and I hope it will be soon so you can see Tippi and Chicho! Time is too short on school nights and I have trouble getting to bed on time at 8 o'clock. Sometimes it is almost NINE o'clock.

Tuesday, October 7, 1997
Today I tried to ride my bike on the grass but I couldn't - mommy said I was probably tired after working all day at school! I think I was too. I do work pretty hard in school and get tired sometimes. My arms and my hands felt tired. And my legs too. At gym when school started, the teacher asked if anyone was 8 years old and none of us was. But Brian had a birthday a few days ago and he turned 8 years old before me - but I am going to turn eight years old before most of the other kids in my class! Mommy decided that the special thing she will do for my birthday is to invite my whole class to Pizza Hut for my party in the afternoon. She wrote a letter for me to send home with them tomorrow and told the parents that there it family night and maybe they would want to come after the party and have the pizza buffet too! I love that! I hope that all of them decide to stay! Won't that be so much fun?

Friday, October 10, 1997
I have been waiting for the kids in my class to call and let us know if they are coming - but since my birthday is a holiday for school this year, they might be too busy. So far though, there will be over twenty of us there I think - and that is a lot. Mommy always lets me give things to my friends on my birthdays. This year we bought little stuffed animals in little gift bags for my mother (who is Cathy, remember?) and my Greatgrandma and Great Clyde ( I called my great grandfather that when I was little so I still do it.) I bought Jason a book all about Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and bought Jessica a set of different fun books with games and stuff and coloring and neat things to do. We got this special ~popper~ which makes a loud snap and little tiny rolled up streamers pop out and open up all over the place. Mommy and me did two of them tonight! We are going to do that at the party! The kids will REALLY like that I think. I do! It will surprise them and I bet they will gasp and say OHhhh and AHhhhh and "Surprise!" (I will say those things too!) and stuff like that and they might try to catch some of them when they fall down around them! I am very excited!
We also give everybody their own helium balloon too! She used to bring them to my class at school - she always brought the cake and balloons and presents to give my friends and little party bags of candy and bubblegum and tiny toys and prizes and stuff. I started school when I was three years old and all of my birthdays were on school days except for last year and this year! Last year mommy had her hands operated on and we couldn't do that anyway. But all those other years the kids remember who were there and they liked my birthdays! But when I started to Kindergarten I didn't have those same kids with me like the first years when we stayed together.

My mommy has been really sick and she can't write much. When she gets this stuff on her laptop she will be able to write from that one easier. So we haven't been able to write for a few days. She is mostly almost better now though. She will be having surgery next month and then we will use her laptop all the time because she is going to have both of her feet in casts and won't be walking for a while. Then we will play a lot of games like CLUE and CINDERELLA and CHUTES AND LADDERS and CANDYLAND and CARDS too! We are making plans for the special things we will do then.

We had extra time outside today because we did so good in Computer Lab. My mommy teaches me all about computers since I was little. We have fun on ours. I have my own and my mommy has three of them now!
My teacher is Ms Hutton and she is funny sometimes. I always get good teachers. She was the one who let us have extra time outside and she stays outside with us. I am trying every time to get up to catch this high bar near the top of the climbing thing outside in the playground. I don't know what the name of that thing is - I will have to ask my teacher - I keep forgetting to find that out. When mommy says "What thing is that?" and I mean to ask so I can tell her what it's called - but I forget. I forget a lot sometimes. I do not like that.

That's it for tonight.

Saturday, October 11, 1997
When I got home I tried to ride my bike but I could not do it again. I don't know why it is so hard in the grass to do it.
My Pappy asked Mommy to cut his hair for him today and she did it like he used to look, which is much better than the way he has been looking for a while!
I have been getting some of my presents early. It is fun to get them not all at once. Mommy bought me different things - I liked the books the best. There are eight of them or nine... I don't remember but I will count them tomorrow and tell you. She got me a fishing game too and we had fun with it fishing together. I got the most fish too.

Sunday, October 12, 1997
I woke up early and asked Peach if she would take me to church and Sunday school. Mommy has not been able to go for a while now - and Cathy has been working every Sunday or we would ride with her. But I wanted to go - I have missed it too much. We prayed for my mommy too. I asked them to do that when they asked about names to pray for.
I was happy that mommy asked Peach to take us to the school track again - and she rode with us too. I tried to ride, but my bike was not acting right even there. A father was there with his two kids and he had a truck with a tool box on the back. He told my mommy he was a carpenter. He tried to fix my bike so it would go better - but there is something wrong with those training wheels. That's what mommy was telling Peach when she bought them - but now the man told her too. My Aunt Jeanne is going to get me new training wheels that will help me and not let me fall over like these do. Maybe that is what she will be giving me tomorrow? ~ The man said he might come to my birthday too - with his kids that were with him. He lives near our house anyway. He was real nice man and I was glad mommy invited him to come too! When we were done - we got Frozen Custard Ice Cream I like to get the squirrel kind. Mommy laughs when I call it that. She tells me to saw swirl, but I forget and say squirrel... It is too hard for me to say the other word and when I do it still sounds like I am saying squirrel... but it is the kind with chocolate and vanilla together in circles around and around.
My mother, Cathy came to visit tonight when we were wrapping presents for everybody for tomorrow and filling up all the party bags! You should see all the kinds of candy and stickers and whistles and stuff like that in the bags! I think we have the best parties of all! We have a bag of stuff for Bingo Playing. It is Sesame Street. We will play until everybody gets to win - but the ones who win first will get to pick the best prizes and the one who wins last will have to get what is left. They are all good prizes though! The last kid COULD get the best prize if that is what is left though - you know that? And it might be what he is the only one who wanted even!

Monday, October 13, 1997 *My birthday day!*

I am so excited that I could not sleep long this morning. I had a new activity book and a new coloring book and some crayons and I wanted to go and color in mommys' room. She woke up and fixed us some yummy biscuits and I am eating mine right now with Jelly and some milk.
Last night I forgot to tell you that we had RootBeer Floats again! I love to eat and drink it but it makes me so cold and then I had to get warm again under the covers on mommys' bed. We decided to have a pillow-fight. That warmed us both up because we giggle when we do that! I love when we do it!
We have stuff all over in the dining room for the party. I am really excited about it. I will probably write to you more tonight unless it gets too late with the people who will be here. My mother, Cathy will not get home from work until 7 or 7:30
and so we are having another cake,
I will love those little doggies.... (101 Dalmations) and if I take good care of them and save them - then I can use them again if I have a child too.... I will put them on a birthday cake for my child. We like traditions (things we do again and again) in our family. Mommy likes that song too - it is from the movie called "Fiddler On The Roof" and I like it too.
We have to put pants on my dog, Pinki. We don't know why she leaks accidentally - she doesn't mean to - but when she is happy it just happens. So we bought her some special dog-pants. We have three pair of them, black, red and green. She even lets me put them on her now too. We call them ~Pinki-pants~ (I think that sounds cute) and she knows that when she is wearing them she doesn't
have those accidents - so I think she even likes them... she acts like she does, anyway! She used to walk so funny when we put them on her, but now she is used to them. I have never seen any other people putting pants on their dog - but there were pictures of all different kinds of dogs wearing the pants in the catalog we got!
Gee - I can't talk/write any more - the phone keeps ringing and people are calling me because it's my birthday morning! So we will stop now.

Thursday, October 16, 1997
There is not much time after school now that the days are getting dark earlier! I hardly get to play before bedtime! I like going to school but I think it starts too early for kids.
Mommy got a headache from a medicine and it went away Sunday but it came back Monday night and that is why we could not write in my journal. She is better tonight - it went away again. She has never had a headache like that, and she hopes that it will never come again - I do hope that too.
The party was a lot of fun. Even my MaMaw and PaPaw Ross came to it! They don't go anywhere very much, because my MaMaw is blind. My Dad is almost blind - he can only see a little tiny bit right in the middle and nothing on the sides of the middle. He has something called retinitis pigmentosa where the retina of the eye stops being able to reflect the pictures that come inside of it and what you see gets less and less until it is kind of like looking through a straw and seeing only that tiny little picture. I know that it might happen to me too - because it has happened to most of the people in my MaMaws' family. That scares me some - but I don't think about it much because mommy says there will be time to think about it if it begins to happen to me. It doesn't usually happen until you are grown up anyway. Even our dog, Buffy, who died this year... she was blind, but not from the same reason. She was blind for 4 years. Mommy said it made her more special and that if I get blind - I will be extra special too.
The best part of the party was that everybody had such a good time with us! We even had another little party when my mother came later at night. It is so nice to have fun and laugh together! One of my friends gave me a set of these tubes of stuff that you can make a kind of bubble like a balloon with - by putting a glob of the stuff on the end of a little straw and blowing through it. I did not like the smell of it. I remember that awful smell when they used to do EEGs' on me at the hospital sometimes. I hate that smell a lot. But it was fun doing them! Each tube had different colors. All of us did them until it was all gone. We made lots of funny shapes and things like that.
I have to go now - it is time for school and I don't want to be late. We are finishing last nights' journal anyway. I will probably write more tonight. I have my own mailbox now! I hope that some kids will write to me!
Amy is coming to spend the day with me tomorrow. She's the one who almost fell in the river with me on that slippery rock, remember? We live kind of close to each other..... We get a paper at the end of the week if we do good work all week - this week it was a different picture on it. I only missed getting the award one week so far - and that was because I was absent half of the week, I think. This is Friday and we are going to go and watch a movie together
because I can stay up late tonight. Sometimes I sleep all night in mommies' bed if she falls asleep before I do. That is fun. ChiCho sleeps on her bed too - and even Pinki does now that she has panties to wear! Our dog-doctor is going to try and see why poor Pinki leaks like she does sometimes. It is only when she is excited and happy! He says she has spasms and maybe will grow out of it when she is another 6 months older....
We are going to make some popcorn for the movie - I LOVE fresh popcorn and the butter we put on it and all. I am going to go get ready for my shower and mommy has to come too - as soon as she puts this page into the publisher. She had some trouble with pictures in it and had to take them all off at the ~server-place and is going to send all of them there again while we take our shower. She says that soon I will be able to draw a picture to send here to my own pages. I love to draw pictures!
I have to go now. You can see the new mailbox if you put your cursor over the e-mail place - it has my own name on it now. That is neat, I think! I think my mommy is neat for doing all these things here. When I grow up, I want to be just like her and then my kids will think I am neat too!

Saturday, October 18, 1997
Today was the most fun EVER! Amy came to my house to spend the day and when she came - her brother, Brad, came with their mother to bring Amy and he was having so much fun while our mommies talked that he asked if he could stay too! My mommy said okay and so we all played all day! It was so much fun. We played games and did stuff on my computer and outside we ran and jumped and did lots of fun things. Brad didn't even want to go home but we took him anyway. Downstairs we played haunted house and goosebumps kind of stuff we made up to play. We fixed up the living room real scary and and stuff like that. We rode the scooter taking turns. One time I was going down the hill on my bike and it went fast and I crashed into my desk under the Cedar tree! I almost flew right over the handlebars and mommy got scared because when she saw me she saw that I had forgotten to wear my helmet! That was bad of me!
Their dad went hunting and so Peach took them home when it started to get dark outside. Then we went and got some Chinese food so mommy didn't have to cook and Peach didn't have to do dishes! I ate so much because I was very hungry and because I really LOVE MeiFun!!!! That is my favorite. I like the Sesame Chicken too! We all like that and we like LoMein (but we didn't have any of that tonight... just the Sesame Chicken, fried Rice and the MeiFun. Now we are going to go and watch the other volcano movie - we recorded two of them to watch this week - One is called Volcano and the one we are going to watch right now is called Dantes' Peak. I am too full for popcorn tonight though! Tomorrow we are going to go and ride through our mountains because the trees have got really beautiful colors in their leaves now! We want to go see them before they blow off! Pappy is taking us in his new car!
At night, tomorrow, we are having our communion and foot-washing at out church which is a Brethren church. This is only my second time doing that foot-washing. My mother is coming too. Even my pappy is coming with us! He was not there last time which was my first time.
Nobody has sent any mail to my mailbox yet. We will keep it though and maybe some day there will be e-mail for me too! Do any of you have any kids like me?

Sunday, October 19, 1997

We thought that the trees would be changing their colors - but they weren't yet. We didn't go for a ride very long - we didn't even go any place special like to the store at Perry, West Virginia where they have a really big sort-of-a zoo in the land behind it. I was hoping that we would be going there. I like to feed the animals those little bags of peanuts we buy from them when we go there. The bears have real nice cages and there is a long pipe that goes from the fence we have to stand behind - and then into their cage... so when we put the peanut into the tube from our side - it drops down into their cage inside of it and doesn't fall on the ground where they can't reach to get them. They are so cute! You should see them! They will even pick up the tube and shake it if the peanut gets caught or is too slow! They are really smart bears! They look like Teddy bears. But there are other kinds of animals to feed too! Each of them eats in a different way. Some eat grass and leaves too - so I pull them up some and stick it through the fence. They feel funny when their lips touch my hand! But anyway... that was where I was hoping we would go to, in Wardensville, and we did not go there today. Mommy had said we would be eating out - but Pappy brought us right home soon. I don't think he wanted to go anyplace today. He didn't even talk to me. I felt sad when we came right back home - but then - mommy said she would use the money which she took with her for our dinner and buy us PIZZA. We had been seeing the AD for Dominos' pesto-crust pizza and we wondered what their pizzas were like because we never had one of them. So mommy ordered it on phone. I am glad that I rode with Peach to go pick it up because it was so funny what happened! She didn't hear mommy say it was Dominos' - and she went in to Pizza Hut to pick the pizza up and they said that they didn't have the order but that they could fix it extra-quick for her - so we were waiting for it to cook. Then Peach called to tell mommy why we would be longer to get home and that was when she first found out that the pizza was at Dominos' ! So we got TWO pizzas! We went to go get the new kind and we also took the one they cooked quickly for us at Pizza-Hut. We almost always eat our pizza at Pizza-Hut. I loooooovvvve PIZZA! I think my whole family loves pizza! When Cathy came, she took most of one of them home with her. She doesn't have any propane right now and so she can't cook much except stuff in the microwave - so we let her have it because it is easy to put into the microwave (and because she likes it so much too!) and it won't make dirty dishes for her because she doesn't have any hot water either.
Only Cathy and mommy and I went to the communion at church. I liked this one even better than the first one I went to last time. Pappy did not go with us like he said he would. But it was okay - because mommy still did not have to drive - Cathy drove us.

Tuesday, October 21, 1997
Yesterday I had homework and today too. The teacher didn't give it to me though - Mommy did. When she saw my papers - she said that I needed to do them over again because I have to practice my letters and numbers being the same size and staying on the lines.

There is not much time to write tonight

Wednesday, October 22, 1997
Today at gym, while we were playing tag, something happened that I don't understand. It made me feel bad too. The way it happened was... the ~taggers'~ ball fell and I thought I was being a help and just picked it up and handed it to him - but he didn't say anything like "thank you" or even take it from my hands - he knocked it out of my hands and it rolled on the floor away from us. Then he went and got it and walked right away. After he did that, I felt left out and so sad. I did not understand why he did that. I did not even play any more. I just went and thought about why he did that. I don't understand why. I would like to know why he did that, but he's not in my class and I don't know when I will see him again - but next time I see him. I will ask the gym teacher if I can ask him why he did that.

Friday, October 24, 1997
Today was my aunt Jeannes' birthday and I wanted to tell her "Happy Birthday" but she was in bed when I called her and she never called me back when I left the message.We were off of school yesterday afternoon and all day today. We can't tell this to any of you today though - because our server is broken and we can't get connected to anything - but we will send it tomorrow if it is fixed.

Saturday, October 25, 1997
We have been so busy today. Lots of things we had to do. We are getting things ready for mommys' surgery time when she will not be able to walk for a while. She will have both of her feet in casts.It is too late to write much tonight - but I will tell you all about it tomorrow . We had to finish all our Christmas shopping and stuff like that... It was fun - but now we have to go and get a shower and mommy will wash my hair.Our mail was broken for two days - and when we got it again,my grandpappy had sent me this card! I thought you might like to see it too! This is not all of it - but just the part that mommy said we could put here.

This is to certify that Brandi has been a really great kid!
In honor of how helpful and thoughtful you've been,
you are hereby presented with the Angel Award.

Sunday, October 26, 1997
It was a nice day today. Rob came and helped mommy with her new laptop computer and then he had dinner with us. He played games with me too - we played Operation and Kids' Clue and Crocodile Dentist. I liked the dinner we had... I have been missing mommys' cooking like she used to. She says she will be able to do it again after her feet heal up when the doctor is done fixing them.

I do not like it getting dark so early! It feels like it is later. I was going to say a lot of things but I forgot them. Mommy says that happens to her too. *smile*
If you don't know what it means when we put those little stars * beside the words - they mean that the word is happening right then. Like - I am smiling, or giggling or stuff like that. Mommy taught me all this because she talks to people a lot on the computer and I always ask questions. My mother came by and visited with us a little too, tonight.

Monday, October 27, 1997
I was going to write something here tonight - but Amy called me and then it got too late. I have to go to bed now.

Tuesday, October 28, 1997
Today a terrible, terrible thing happened! I was sitting at my desk writing when suddenly a bee came from somewhere and landed on my finger and then it stung me! I didn't do anything to it at all. It just did that! I don't know why! I jumped up and started screaming and crying. Mrs Hutton was in the orange chair by the reading chart. The other kids jumped up too and a lot of them came running over to look and see what happened to me. I was just crying
and crying. It hurt SOOOoooooo bad! I was already stung by a wasp at school this year - but this big bee was a lot worse! Everybody was kind of shocked and nobody knew what had happened to me except Andrew, my friend (the one who drew a nice dinosaur for me before ) he saw it happen. He saw the bee before I did. He said he tried to warn me but it happened too fast before he could! Ms Hutton had seen that bee earlier before it stung me didn't she didn't know where it went.She came over to see what was happening - then she wrote a note tothe nurse for me to go to the infirmary. I went there myself. I was crying real hard the whole time - all the way there. The nurse put ice on itand looked to see if the stinger was still in there. My finger began to swell up and it kept getting bigger and bigger. She put ice on it... but it kept growing bigger still anyway. She called
my mommy too... but I wanted to stay there if I could and not miss school so I talked to mommy and she said I should be sure to tell somebody if I started to feel funny or my breathing got bad (because sometimes I have asthma) - or if it would not stop swelling. She said if any of those things happened she wanted to take me to see my Doctor.
Andrew, my friend, went to the library, and when he did - he stopped by the infirmary (I don't know if anybody said he could do that or not) to see if I was okay. He was worried about me. The nurse and my mommy thought that was sweet of him. I think it was too. When he came - he told me that he saw the bee real good and that it was a big black and yellow one.After a while - I went back to the class and the nurse gave me ice to take with me and keep on it.When I got back, some of the kids and my teacher asked me if I was okay. I made it through the day after that. Tonight the swellingis mostly gone. I am glad.

Wednesday, October 29, 1997

I am so tired tonight! I don't think I'm getting sick. I am just tired from fighting on the playground. There is this mean boy, his name is Cody-Lee. He is real, real mean! I don't know why boys like to fight. I do not like to. But this boy is mean. He even hit Andrew and hurt him! He hurt me too. I like to play on the gym-bar and he kept taking it away from me. That is being a bully.

Thursday, October 30, 1997

Today is Mr. Bees' birthday. Aunt Jeanne is fixing Chili and cornbread and little smoked sausages and stuff to snack on... and then we will have the cake and ice cream. I love birthday parties. You should see all of the stuff we are taking! There is a great big bag and it has a big road with two hills in it and you can run cars and trucks over it and they can't fall off onto the floor. He is going to like that so much, I think. We got him some other toys too... and some little stuff - and two little presents each for Jessica and Jason. For Jessica we have the first two colllectors' Barbies from MacDonalds' which they are just starting right now. They are beautiful! For Jason we got two other things.... I got the Barbies too. Even mommy has them for herself. She collects Kids' meals toys which she keeps in the package. We have LOTS of them!
Today Cody-Lee was mean again and he got into real trouble this time. He is going to have to just stand when we go outside again. He deserves it too. This time he didn't hurt me, but he would not listen to the teacher or come when she blew the whistle. Now he won't be bothering me or Andrew when we play next time on the gym-bar thing.
Since mommy can't drive anymore right now - we have covered her car with a car cover. The box that it came in says that it can breathe... which I thought was funny - but it just means that air can get in so the car won't get moldy or rusty from being closed up.
When I get home from school and get off of the schoolbus in front of the house -all three dogs love to come and meet me and they jump up and kiss me and it is nice to have dogs.

Friday, October 31, 1997
This is a terrible holiday - it is Pagan and evil - I wish I did not even have to go to school and see the stuff that they do. I do not know how they can think it is fun. I know that the parties and getting candy and all of that is fun. And laughing and playing games is fun. But why do they have to do all that Pagan stuff? They don't let us pray to God in school - but they let evil stuff be there! I went to another class when my class did Halloween programs and stuff like that. I do not like any of it. God does not like it either, I don't think. We get pencils and tracs to give out at our house - but none of the kids come here. Maybe they don't like pencils about God or the little comics we have for them to read?.....
Mommy says though - that we just live too far out in the country and on a dirt road and that people don't come out like they used to do now that there are so many new housing and apartment developments around.
We are going to watch movies on our VCR.

*  Saturday, November 1, 1997  *

We had a wonderful time today with my Grandpappy! He took us to Harrisonburg and I got to see the new Mennonite Farmers' market there. Mommy has been there three times, but it was when I was in school and she had to go to her Dentist up there in Bridgewater. So I was wanting to go and see it there.... She buys this homemade butter up there which we LOVE! It is called "Amish Roll Butter". We all like it best of all. I used to eat butter - it was okay and all - but now I really like it a lot! We had to buy a lot of it today because it will be so long before mommy goes back again. She has friends though who will get more for us if we run out before she can walk again.
We also went to my favorite toy store. Well - it isn't really a real TOY store - it has lots of neat stuff and things to do. We bought some GERTIE BALLS today! Boy - are they fun. You can throw them in the house, even! Like NERF balls... you know what they are probably. But these are even better. Sort of like our KOOSH-BALLS - which are also balls you can play with in the house.
We usually like to blow up balloons and play games keeping them in the air as long as we can. It is like when you pillow-fight and stuff like that - you have a lot of fun and laugh and those are my favorite times. So we got four of these Gertie balls - a football-one for Peach (cause she loves football!) and a purple one and a yellow one for me - and another one for mommy - which is a glow-in-the-dark Gertie Ball - (like the stars that my Uncle Eric bought for me and I have them all over my ceiling and when we turn the light out after we say our prayers together - I love to see them glow and it makes me think of heaven and my Uncle Eric and God ..... I even put some of them on the wall around my bed now that I have a bunk bed and sleep up on the top... it is like I am in the sky! Mommy calls her new ball - our Moonball! ChiCho looked so funny watching us on the bed (he was up there with us) throwing that ball in the dark! It WAS kind-of spooky! *hehehehe* And he is so little that the ball is bigger than he is! I wonder what he was thinking!
Mommy buys me stuff from this place every year once or twice. She likes all the stuff too and we spend a lot of time in there looking around and deciding what we will buy each year. Our big new thing is an ant-farm. It is very different form any I have seen anywhere else! It has a big round section - and two square sections where you can see them working and building tunnels in there - and there is tubing which connects the three different places and they are all connected together like in a circle or triangle. One ant can even pass another ant in the tube (like what we use in the aquarium for air...) We saw them doing it there at the store. We are going to study the book and all before we go get some ants from our yard.
Well besides that - there was this REALLY nice man who was walking around and playing the guitar and singing songs. We ate there in that place too - and he even came over to our table with us for a while and was singing to us and talking about me and my braided hair and my smile and stuff like that and I got a little bit embarrassed or shy because people were looking at us ......- but I was much more happy than embarrassed or shy. I hope he will be there the next time we go again! The food was real delicious, like my mommys'. He was a Christian too, like we are. Some of the songs made pappy cry - but he liked them. Mommy cried once too when he sang "Beyond The Sunset" for her (she asked him to do that) - and she was thinking about Uncle Eric waiting there for us to come. There was another one that made her feel that sadness too - but I don't remember the name of it right now.

Sunday, November 2, 1997
We are cleaning up our house extra good because mommys' surgery is just a week away ! I am glad we are doing that - because my big desk was a mess and I found a lot of things I don't even remember having! Now I have plenty of room and I know where everything is. I think I will keep it neat like this! She even cleaned out our pantry so that we can find things when she can't walk. She filled it all up with foods I like too. And now I have learned to use the microwave! I know the rules. I will be careful not to put things in there too full - and to check to see if the bowl gets hot before I try to pick it up. She is teaching me lots of things.... I am going to be a big help! We are almost ready. Sunday we are going to pick up the wheelchair and walker. When I get out of school that day - (it will be next Tuesday) I will go to the hospital to be with her because the doctor says she can't come home that same night like she thought she would. If it wasn't a school day - I could be with her all day there. I wish that it was not a school day. I wish they would let me spend the night there with her too.Mommy thinks that is enough about her hospital time. She says that we should talk about today.
I went to Amys' house for a while and played with her and some of her friends that I did not know. It was really fun. It was my first time there. She has been here but I have not been there until today. It is a school night so I have to go now.

Monday, November 3, 1997
I am eating pizza while we write this tonight. I was really starved when I got home from school today! We try to do my journal early because we like to watch the Waltons together. Tonight is a real sad one coming on. On Mondays, they show somebodys' favorite show. This one is John-boys' favorite, I think
Today in Art class, three or four of the kids drew really pretty pictures. I was not one of them. Mine was not so good. I am still learning.... I drew a campfire and water and a big duck in it. The duck was the hardest part to draw.
Here is a funny joke...
A little boy comes in and says to his mother,
"Is it true that we come from dust and return to dust?"
"That's what the Bible says," she answered.
"Well, somebody is either coming or going under my bed," he said

Tuesday, November 4, 1997

Today we found out that Chicken Pox are ~going around~ at our school! I sure hope that I don't get them! I used to miss so much school when my Asthma was real bad - but this year I have been VERY healthy! It would not be good to carry it home to my mommy when she is going to be having this surgery - so I am using Zinc lozenges and Lysine to keep the virus away.
Amber S. brought a Salamander-lizard in. She asked me if I wanted to smell it and it was disgusting. ... but that was because it was dead when she found it. I hope that they do not smell like that when they are alive! Maybe it was just because it was dead. I do not know, but if I see a living one I will smell it and see.
It is getting VERY cold now. I guess Winter really is here again.

Saturday, November 8, 1997

Now that I am learning to use the microwave, I can almost fix my own cocoa now! I love cocoa. I have a really special mug with a lid on it . When we were at the flea market one day, I was looking at it and the man wouldn't even let my mommy buy it because he said he wanted to give it to me! It has Teddy-Bears on it and is so cute. It keeps the cocoa hot longer too.
Yesterday they let school out early because there was flooding from all the
rain around here and some of the kids live where they would not be able to get across the little bridges to their houses if they waited longer to go home.
We went to Winchester and now we are all ready for Tuesday.
I like to be the one who the teacher has pass out all the papers to kids in the class. I got to do that today, the teacher picked me.
We got that new Jurassic-Park video and it was more scary than the first one!

Tuesday, November 25, 1997
Mommy had her feet operated on two weeks ago today, and now we stay in her room all the time. (except that I go to school during the day)Then I got sick too and had to stay home from school. Last week I had the flu or a virus or something. I was very very sick and had a fever and I hurt very much. We have been reading and watching movies and playing games. When I was sick, I slept though.
Today was not fun at school when we went outside to play. I finally got to play kick-ball for the first time. I never did get the ball.... but when Andrew got it - sometimes he gave it to me.
We are going to have our Thanksgiving Dinner in mommys' room too - because she can't be out of bed yet - her feet have to stay up real high on big pillows. My aunt Jeanne is going to bake us some pie and a cheesecake pie too - and some hot rolls. Mommy is going to put her stuffing together right in her room... and when it is time to make the gravy and mashed potatoes she is going to try to do that part. Peach will cook the turkey and cut it up. My mother is supposed to come too and she will make an apple pie. We will play games and have fun together. It will be the first Thanksgiving that ChiCho and Tippy ever lived. Pinky was with us last year - that was her first one. We like This day best of all the days in the year!

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1997 ~ SEPTEMBER * OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER
1998 ~ JANUARY/ FEBRUARY/MARCH/AUGUST 

Written material © by Nina Roberta Baker 1997

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