New Year!!

This is the very last update of 2009! After this, you have to look at my other blog, Melisa's Blogs 2010, at http://melisa-eblog.blogspot.com , to find out what's new. After all, in about 15 minutes, it WILL be 2010. I was at Bahn Thai restaurant, celebrating with karaoke, food, drinks, and games! I MIGHT post pictures later, after my dad goes through them and delete the blurry ones. Hope your new year gets off to a great start!

Christmas!

How was everybody's Christmas? Mine went great. I got gifts that I wanted, but didn't even know that I wanted. I got a MySims Agents Nintendo DS game for my DS, a bunch of tiny toblerone chocolate bars, a "mind bending" puzzle, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and from one of my mom's friend, two bars of regular sized toblerone chocolate! I had to go to Ocala afterwards, but I was occupied because of my new game! I just got back from Ocala today.

Chiles Mini Mu

It may sound boring, but you know what? At the Chiles Math Mini Mu on Saturday, we made history! There was the largest number of kids who gave up their Saturday to compete than any other Mini Mu in US history!!! 617 kids! The largest ever! My friend, Arya Okten, who is very good at math, also participated with me. She loves math and she thinks it's fun. She's done the Mini Mu a bunch of times, and she knows her way well inside Chiles High School. This is the second time I have been to Chiles. I participated in the Mini Mu in 4th grade, when the theme was "Batman." It changes every year. This year, it was books by Roald Dahl. There were two sessions. I was in prealgebra, but it was pretty hard. This first session was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I skipped a bunch of questions. That's better than guessing, because for each correct answer, you get 5 points, each blank answer, 1, and each incorrect answer, 0. The second session was "Matilda." I skipped a LOT of questions, and got a lower score than the first session. Arya got a really high score, and sure enough, just like she KNEW was going to happen, she got called up to get a medal after lunch when we were all in the auditorium (it looked more like a movie theater though. It had pull out seats and dim lights). Actually, she got TWO medals for both sessions! If you are reading this, Arya, CONGRATULATIONS (again)!!!! Arya has her own blog too. Here's the link, if you guys want to check it out: http://aeryal.blogspot.com/

I Have Another Blog

I also have another blog:

http://melisa-eblog.blogspot.com/

Check it out! I will start posting in 2010!

What's New?

There's going to be a Winter Concert in Deerlake Middle School's Auditorium at 7:00-8:00 PM on December 10th. I am going to be playing in it on my violin.Over the weekend, I made it into the Hall of Fame for the highest high score on Cowabunga Candace yet! It's on Disneychannel.com. I am number 1 on the Hall of Fame high scores!!!!

Thanksgiving!

Do you feel thankful for anything? I am thankful for my family, my friends, and the food. What are you thankful for? Leave your comments on what you appreciate this year!

Hello!

Hi everybody! Sorry I haven't updated my blog since May. Now that it's Veteran's Day, I hoped you showed your gratitude to the veterans who fought in the wars. Armistice Day is celebrated on the 11th day of the 11th month on the 11th hour of November. So, at 11:00, veterans were probably celebrating. Yesterday in school, we learned and watched a powerpoint presentation in World Cultures class. It showed a quote at the end, "We take for granted the very things that need gratitude," or something like that. Me? At 11:00, I think I was lying on the bed, playing games. ...Which, only proves that quote's point. Sorry. Hmmmm, people do take things for granted, especially important things that need gratitude. I think you have something to think about over Thanksgiving on the 26th now. I know I do!

5th Grade Auction!

Today was the day for the 5th grade auction! It is like a bidding. Pretend we were bidding for a picture frame:

Person in Charge of Bid (PCB): "Who would like to say the opening bid for this picture frame?"
Bidder: "$50!"
Competing Bidder: "$75!"
Another Bidder: "$150!!"
PCB: Anyone? Going once...Going twice...Sold!

And then, the person who said $150 gets to keep it. Here's what I spent, and what I have spent ON (of course, school paper money, not real money):

$3000 on 2 charm necklaces
$2300 on 3 bath bead test tubes and confetti eye mask
$3000 on vanilla swirl body lotion
$3000 on a $10 Walmart gift card
$700 on Wild Cherry Lifesavers, Hard
$0 on free sample of one Fireball
$0 on free sample of one package of Skittles
$5000 on A TELEVISION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe the last one?! You can earn money and bonuses by behaving, and turning in work on time. I did that for the whole school year, and you see what it got me?! I still can't believe it... I WON A TV!

5th Grade Graduation!!!!

I cannot believe that I just got my DIPLOMA, and GRADUATED just YESTERDAY!! I would have posted this post up yesterday, but I had trouble logging in.

The graduation was great! All the 5th graders got our diplomas, and after the GRADUATION, it is CONGRATULATION, and CELEBRATION!!! There was food, drinks, snacks, dance, and games! Even someone to DJ the dance!!! He controlled the music that most people were dancing to. The games there include:
-A bowling game with huge soda bottles filled with one cup of sand, and decorated to look like Hawaiian hula dancers, with leis and grass skirts! They were lined up in a triangle, point toward us, and we can knock them down with coconuts! Bowling! It was hard, because the bottles were filled with sand, making it difficult to knock them down.
-A jump rope contest! Who ever can jump longest without messing up wins!
-A game where you stand on one foot, balancing on an upside down bucket, and holding two containers filled with water spread out at around a fifty degree angle, and each one weighing around 4 pounds each. See who can stay balanced the longest.
-A LIMBO STICK! I participated in the limbo, spending most of my time there. HANDS CANNOT TOUCH THE GROUND! Or elbows. Or knees. Or back. Or anything else that is NOT feet. ONLY your feet can touch the ground. You can get a second chance if you accidently touched the stick. There's even hula hoops.


The party was so much fun.

But a 5th grade graduation is a once-in-a-lifetime chance...

It was really fun, and enjoyable. All the classrooms had different colored T shirts. We even saw our teacher wear a hot pink T shirt! That is the first time he has wore pink! All the T shirts say the same thing. On the front:
"Our future is so bright..."

And, on the back:
"...we have to wear shades!"

We actually wore shades! We received the sunglasses and secretly hid them until it was time to stand up, put the shades on, and turn around to our parents!! EVERYONE was wearing them!! Parents were flashing their cameras proudly. We got to keep the shades!

It seems worth it to finally get your diploma, and CELEBRATE about it!

Sea World Trip!

Yesterday, on May 1st, we went to Sea World, Orlando! I woke up at 4 AM, got ready, and arrived at school at around 4:50. At 5:15, we left for the buses. My group and our chaprones are on the #4 white Astro bus. It took about 4 hours to get to Sea World. It was around 10:00 when we got to the parking lot in Sea World, Orlando. We checked in at the turnstiles, and went inside to EXPLORE...

Everyone except for one chaprone and I went on the KRAKEN, the rollercoaster. We had waited ONE HOUR in line for this 2 minute and 2 second long ride.

We (meaning everyone, including me!!) then went on the Journey to Atlantis ride sometime later. It was scary, and wet, but fun. We boarded the boat on the ride after 45 minutes of waiting. At first, the ride was smooth, and mermaids showed us the way to Atlantis. But, then, the mermaids let out an evil laugh, red eyes peeked from the sides in the dark, the color was draining from the tunnel. The boat was moving toward a VERY STEEP hill, emarald eyes flashed, and then, we DROPPED down and made a huge splash at the bottom. Then, the boat moved toward the back, and went up another steep hill. I thought it was over. WRONG! The boat climbed up the steep hill, then made ANOTHER DROP down!! NOW, it's over. I felt like I was going to fly right out of the boat during the drops. Everyone was pressed down against the backseat during those very fast and steep drops. After the ride, we were soaking wet because of the splashing water at the bottom, and because the people in the sidelines squirted us! If you insert in quarters into the geyser machine, and press the red button, you get to geyser the people who just finished their drop down.

We also went to "Shark Encounter". We walked through a glass dome that was about this thick:------------. The sharks were swimming beside and overhead of the glass tunnel. It was amazing; live sharks swimming around and over us. We also went to Penguin Encounter. I saw LIVE PENGUINS!! I loved it! It was snowing inside the glass! They were waddling and swimming all around the mimic habitat.

We went to Stingray Lagoon. The stingrays there are about the size of huge dinner plates. They also let you feed them too! I didn't feed the rays because they were selling the stingray food, and I have to save my money for MY food.


The trip was exciting and fun!! I loved yesterday, walking around Sea World for 8 hours (except for that part). It was tiring, but when we got back to the bus at 6, we relaxed and watched movies until we got back to school at 10:30 PM, our parents waiting at the school to pick us up. That trip was so much FUN!

Field Day!!

Ok... I know I haven't updated my blog since January...
But, Field Day was today! It was SOOOOOO much fun!!! Killearn Lakes hosted a Pirate Day, Field Day event! There were games like, Fire the cannon, Octopus Tag, Pirate Hockey, and Survival Island. In
Fire the cannon: you just send the volleyballs over the net to the other side. The side with the least volleyballs win.
Octopus Tag: You avoid being tagged by the "It" (octopus). Four "It"s will have a stuffed octopus in their hand. All the others are fish. The fish will run toward the other side, to the white line. Don't get tagged by the running octopi or you will become a tentacle, you then have to help the octipi by waving your arms around trying to tag the other fish running nearby. A tentacle cannot move from its spot, only the octopi and the fish can run.
Pirate Hockey: Choose if you want to be a Pirate, or a Matey. A Matey will get their own nugget of treasure gold (a yellow ball). They will then try to protect and keep their own treasures to themselves by guarding the treasure with their swords (hockey sticks). Pirates will start off with no treasure, but they can steal from a Matey using their own swords.
Survival Island: This one was really fun! It was on our favorite playground! Their were extra step boxes on the mulch. You have to jump from box to box and get on every equipment on the playground without touching the shark infested water (mulch). But, a lot of people dropped out, and went on the spinny thing (a piece of equipment where you push yourself off and spin really fast!) instead. :) Even Mr. Mazur, our teacher, went on the spinny thing! He was spinning REALLY fast!

There is also a game where you get paired up with a partner and both of you get straps tied to your hand, opposite colors and connected by velcro. The playing field is FILLED with small foam balls. The object of this game is for you and your partner to work together and slap (no kicking, no throwing) the balls toward others. If a ball touches you, unconnect yourselves from your partner, exit out between the two cones with the sign EXIT, find a new partner with opposite color strap, and get back in the game between the two cones with a sign ENTRANCE. You don't HAVE to be hit by a ball to get out. Another way to get out is if you and your partner went in opposite directions, and the velcro unconnected on its own, you are out and are to find a new partner.
Oh, wait... Did I mention there were two moonwalks (bounce house)?
Field Day was REALLY fun!! After all that, we just went back to the classroom, and Mr. Mazur's class and watched a movie, but some played chess silently.

Inauguration Day!

Today is Inauguration Day, the day the new president, Barack Obama, gives his speech at 12:00 PM. We ate lunch in our classroom to watch it on our screen. Today, Barack Obama begins work in the office. See what changes he will make!

Hello! An Update On a Big Event!

Hi! I know that I have not been updating this blog for a while now, so, here is a BIG, HUGE event that JUST happened yesterday night, January 13th, 2009, at 7:00 PM at Leon High School! I will start at the beginning: A few months ago, my teacher gave out a tiny, little spelling quiz. It was a written quiz. A few people passed the quiz, or should I say, TEST! This is actually a quiz to see who is going to compete in the school spelling bee! I was one of a lot of people who passed. The test consisted words like, "tutu," or "clothes." So, that means, since I passed, along with a few other people, we will be competing in Round 2 of the spelling bee. They gave out booklets for us to study (the booklets are the size of an average piece of paper, and in black-and-white), and they gave us a limit of five lauguages to study. The words in those five languages are the ones who will be in the spelling bee. Then the day of the spelling bee came. It was also a written quiz. After the bee, I felt relieved. Then, I felt excited because I passed! That means that I, and some other people, will be going to Round 3 of the big spelling bee! But, this time, we got smaller booklets with color, AND we have to study ALL of the lauguages!!!! The big bee came. It was the school spelling bee. I felt really nervous, for the whole fifth grade was there, in the cafeteria. The vice principal was there. We started the bee. It was REALLY tense. I was REALLY nervous. But, I made it to the top 3 spellers! My champion word (the champion word is the word that if you get right, you, well, become champion!) was, "worrisome." It may not be THAT hard, but it CAN get pretty challenging if you were up on stage, with the whole entire fifth grade staring at you, your vice principal there, and you knowing that if you mess this up, you will have less chance of becoming champion, and you won't be able to move on to county. How hard do you think that word is now? I spelled "worr," then paused. Then, I kept going "isome." I got it right! The next thing I know, I was the school champion! I got a blue medal with the words "Spelling Bee" on it. BUT, that means that if I win, I am going to the COUNTY! Ok, so, we are back to January 14, which is today. I am going to tell you what happened last night. I was at the Leon High School, we checked in, and I got a certificate for being the school champion, they give that to every body in the county spelling, because, if you did not win the school bee, you would not even be there. So, we went to the auditorium, and the bee took place. They only give out trophies for 2nd and 1st place. So, if you took 3rd place, you are not getting a trophy. I did pretty good. I got in the top 2 spellers. This girl from Fairview, 8th grader, won. I took second place in the bee. My word was "kasha" and it was pretty hard, because I don't recall having seen it before. Her word was easy, which was what made it so unfair "thesaurus." And that's what happened. I did not win, but I took second place out of 40 people and many of them were 8th graders. I got a trophy. My teacher and the principal were very proud and so my mom and dad.

My Birthday and Experience Asia

These pictures were taken on my birthday, and on the day of the Experience Asia festival:

People with skill can carve fruits out of fruits and vegetables

This is a fruit carving (a peacock) from a watermelon, squash, and some carrots.

This is our Experience Asia booth.

A closeup of a watermelon and a fruit carving arrangment.

There are edible fruit kababs inside the watermelon.

A closeup of the fruit kababs

A line of people at our booth.

More fruits. The person standing behind is the one who is carving them.

A closeup of a carved watermelon.

The inside of the carved watermelon.

Me, behind the LUCKY EASTER EGGS booth.

It's my birthday! Here are some pictures.

That's Mega, we went to her house on my birthday to help her family move.

That's me, Mega, and that's my dad.

That's Mega's mom, in the black.

Halloween and the KLES Family Fun Day

October 31st Friday was Halloween. I had lots of fun. My dad took these pictures while we were trick or treating:

Mega (2 years old) is is the chicken costume, I'm right beside her. The girl in front of me is Faith, 7 years old. The adult beside Mega is Jasmine's (a friend of mine) mother.

This is Pa Petch in her Cleopatra costume is the kitchen of Na Tai's (Faith's mom) house. We all stayed in Na Tai's house until it is time to start trick or treating. She won $100 from costume contest for adults at Silver Slipper.

Jasmine, Hope, and me at the doorstep of someone's house (Southwood).

There's Pa Petch outside an archway to the "cemetery."

This is a group picture of the trick or treaters(Left to right). I'm at the VERY left of this picture (50's costume, poodle skirt), Faith next to me(also 50's costume), then Pa Petch (Cleopatra), Mega (Chicken), Jasmine (violinist) in the back next to Pa Petch, Hope (Faith's sister, the princess), and in the white costume at the right is Crystal (Jasmine's sister, also a princess).

This is my full costume in the kitchen of Na Tai's house.

We're all eating after going out to trick or treat

This is the end of Halloween! November 1st on Saturday, Killearn Lakes Elementary School had a Family Fun Day. And of course, it WAS fun. Here are some pictures:

This is the Dunk Tank. You get to dunk TEACHERS! I really should have waited and spend my 8 tickets on MY teacher, Mr. Mazur from fifth grade...

This is the big bounce house. Bouncy! Although, I didn't have time to really bounce on it.

I dressed in my 50's costume again because it is the school theme that day (I wore it for Halloween too). I got my VERY first face painting in my whole ENTIRE life.

This is a picture of my dad and me out in open parts of the school fun zones.

They're having a costume contest in the Clover Court. I was one of the contestants. I'm the second one from left, in the pink satin skirt.

That's me, I took second place in the contest.

That's me (after my face was painted) with my close friend, Arya, from Ms. Buckingham's fifth grade class. That's the certificate I recieved from the contest.

My mom volunteered to help out in the "Treasure Booth." After I spent ALL of my tickets, I went and helped out at the booth, like tear the tickets in half (you can only use a ticket ONCE, then, it will be torn into two after you spend it), or hand out shovels to the kids who want to dig and try to find the "treasure."

This is me again, but this time, I'm standing in my own home, in the living room after Family Fun Day is over at around 2:00 PM.

Family Fun Day has ended at 2:00 PM. Below, there are pictures of me unwrapping a VERY large package sent by ship (it took 3 months for it to arrive from Thailand, Asia) and, me, at my school on the Science Fair Project Day.

This is a very honored Thai musical instrument called the Ranad Ek. It is very fragile, just look at all the cardboard and paper!

The sender, uncle Tu, has even built a wooden skeleton to help support the
Ranad from damage.

This is me standing beside my science fair project in the cafeteria at KLES (Killearn Lakes Elementary School).

This is my mom and me, at the Science Fair.

We got up early and picked the sweet persimmons in this orchard along with Na Gap, very left, Na Kae, in the blue shirt, Mega, the 2 year old, my mom, in the brown shirt holding Mega, Na Kun, between my mom and Pa Petch, in the turqouise shirt, me, in the tanish long-sleeve and white cap and right (from YOUR point of view) of Pa Petch, and Pba Aree, in the white shirt at the right.

Again, another group picture, my dad took both of these pictures, I think.

THERE's Na Kun, in the black sweater. There's my mom, in the brown sweater and red cap, Pba Petch, the one at the right and has a white bucket, and Na Kae, the very left one in the blue shirt that's bent over the bucket, probably peeling a persimmon. My dad came prepared, with a knife and and probably everything else that we might need. We were almost full by the time we paid for our REMAINING persimmons.

There's me, helping Mega pick a persimmon almost by herself. I had to bend down the braches because Mega couldn't reach the big and healthy persimmons by herself.

That's the end of our persimmon pictures! See what's next!

I volunteered for Fruit Friday once. The volunteers are supposed to bring fruit in on Fridays. I brought cantaloupe stars and flowers, and strawberry mice. Somebody might taken more than one mice, I have not even get a chance to get my own mice...

This is the whole platter, you can see everything from this picture!

Cantaloupe stars and flowers, and strawberry mice...

This is a picture of me in Ocala, helping to whiten the driveway. See the difference? Our grandparents are elderly, so we have to go there once in a while. Each drive takes 3 hours! That's 6 hours total for a whole visit! We're about to go next week too on the 22nd.

KLES School Spirit Week

It's school spirit week at KLES!

This is the week to show your colors!

Monday: Hat Day

Be creative!

Tuesday: Pajama Day

Spend the day in your pajamas!

Wednesday: Club/Team Spirit Day

Come to school wearing your club or team uniforms!

Thursday: Wacky Tacky Day

What does wacky mean to YOU? Mismatched, backwards, anything wacky!

Friday: KLES School Spirit Day

How much GREEN can you come up in ONE outfit?

Saturday: Family Fun Day

Bring your family to have fun! Dunk tank, dancing and cheerleading entertainment, pony rides, face painting, KLES salon to get a new hair-do, inflatable slide, an obstacle course, throw pro, and much more! Make sure to be there if you go to Killearn Lakes Elementary!

Candle Festival in Thailand

Every year in July, the people of Thailand throws a candle festival to celebrate. The festival's meaning is to give Buddist monks light to read. Sculptures made out of wax candles carved with AMAZING details are paraded along the streets. It's to let monks stay in the temple for three more months. Young boys from Buddist families can also go and enter monkhood for those three months. My cousin went to camp just to learn about monks. One thing you should know about monks, if you're a female, you can't go near them. Only men can. You can learn more at http://www.thailandgrandfestival.com/festival.asp?festID=331.

(Click to magnify)

This person is putting wax on molds and rolling a bottle across it so that it will make a pattern in the wax.

After he's taken the mold from the tray, he will start trimming off the edges.

This monk is trimming the candle into tiny bits. He did not JUST trim the edges, but the inside as well.

This is an example of one of the finished patterns that will be attached the the big candle. They make very many patterns of wax to be attached on the candles.

This is another example of a finished candle. It's attached with patterned wax bits carved with AMAZING details.

This is a finished float made ENTIRELY out of wax and candle!

This is a wax sculpture of a mythical creature in Thai fairytales.

This is another wax sculpture of an angel.