Icee's blog

Yesterday I went to Angel Rocks to go hiking with my class. From our school Angel Rocks is about one hour away. It took us about one hour an a half to walk all the way up an about thirty minutes to walk(or jog what i was doing for most of the time) down.

When I saw the first set of big rocks I said, "We are there; that didn't take long," but someone else just had to say " nope we are only like 1/4 of the way there."I was like, this is going to take a long time.

We4 took a break at the first set of rocks. We took pictures, talked, an got something to drink. We had gone a long way up. The break was only 15 minutes long, shorter for some people.

today I read a story about space junk. It was a interesting article. The article said that there are more than 2,800 pieces of junk in the earth's gravity. The space station would test their new weapons on the old satellites. China also does this.

I read another article online that say that there is 13,000 pieces of space junk in earth's gravity. That's a lot of junk. The oldest piece of space junk is the 1958 Vanguard 1 research satellite, which stopped all functions in 1964.

These two sites each didn't have the same information. Like one said 2,800 an the other says 13,000 pieces of space junk. so one is off like 10,200 pieces of space junk or they are both wrong an it's more or less. That is a lot.

The Harlem Globetrotters are in Fairbanks. One of the players came to our school. His nickname was Dizzy, because when he dribbles he makes the other players dizzy. Personally I think it is a weird name. He was showing us tricks and more tricks; it was pretty cool.

I went to the Harlem Globetrotters site, and I looked at the legends, and I think the best person is Wilt Chamberlain. He played in the NBA from 1959-1973 playing for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Before that he also was a Harlem Globetrotter. He died October 12, 1999; he was only 63.

This year when I first started reading I was not very good at reading, and I thought reading was boring. But now I like reading and I am very good at it. Books are fun to read, and if there is a movie, the book is always better. The books I like to read are action, mysteries, funny, amazing and sometimes even biographies.

The one book that I think helped my reading is probably The Evil Genius. The Evil Genius was a big book to read; there were also some math equations in it that I didn't understand, but I liked that book a lot. I am waiting to see if I can find the second book called The Genius Squad. I haven't seen it anywhere yet.

I have read about 12 books this year. That is a improvement from last year. I feel very strong about reading now. I also understand more that I read than I did before.

One day I was reading the news paper and I came across an article that said You can be turned into any Animal you can think of with the help of a Scientist. Well I called the number and the person on the other line said, "Thank you for calling; you were the 1st one to call. What animal or animals would you like to be turned into."

"I would like to be turned into a Monkey, Giraffe an maybe even a Squid ," I said very excitedly. The woman took a long time to answer, but after like 5 minutes she finally answered.

"k the package of supplies will be there in the next 24 hours," She answered with not a very excited tone.

"Does that come with a free scientist,"I asked thinking that she would say no way are you crazy that will add another 20 dollars to the bill.

"Yes it does and do you want the scientist to be weird, funny, nice, smart or dumb,." She answered with the same tone that was really getting annoying.

"Umm I think I want the Scientist to be nice an very smart, but not the kind of smart that is annoying,"I said very loudly just to make sure she heard the annoying part.

"k, my manager just told me to tell you that since you are the only person who has called us then we will make the delivery man get the packages there in 2 hours," she said with a high pitched tone now.

"k, bye bye,"I said happy to finally get off the phone.

So when I was waiting for the packages to arrive I was really bored. I ate 5 hot dogs, 2 packages of mac & cheese an almost 1 gallon of Orange Tang my favorite drink. When the delivery man finally came he want to talk about the side affects of the power stuff. I don't really remember because I wasn't listening. So when I first saw the Scientist I thought that this is going to be the best time of my life this person looks really smart and nice.

But when I got in the house the Scientist had to point out every little thing that was wrong with my house. It was horrible but after that she told me what to do an what to do with the power stuff.

Here are the directions that I had to follow:

*Open the powder of what ever kind of animal you want to be first.

*Then put it into a 5 pint holder bowl.

*Then add 4 pints of orange tang

*Then let it freeze for 2 1/2 hours

*Then heat it up at 600 degrees in the oven for 3 minutes
(CAUTION: will be extremely hot so let it sit for 12 minutes.)

* Drink about 1/3 of the potion an make sure to drink it outside.

So my scientist read out all the directions to me an I followed all of them. When we were waiting for the 2 1/2 hours we played with his dog that he brought with him an then we went to the park. Then we got back to the house it had been 2 3/4 hours so it was a little harder than it was suppose to be so we decided to put it in for 6 minutes instead of 3 and it worked.

Then we watched 12 minutes of the history channel. Then finally we went outside and drank the potion, and instead of turning into a monkey, I turned into a squid that was orange with spots.

So I was dying because I was a squid out of water. My scientist went to the grocery store to buy a 36 gallon pool to put me in. When he got back i had moved myself into the shade by the water hose. so he rolled me into the pool an blew it up an then filled it with water an I was so happy .

Then like 12 minutes later I turned back into a 12 year old girl. So instead of making the other potions separately I made then together and doubled the recipe. When it was done I drank it an turned into a monkey with an very very very long neck like a giraffe. I was very hungry so I ate the scientist, haha. He tasted like chicken an bacon with too much blood.

In class we are making Pitsco Rockets. They are ran by batteries, they are kinda small not the size of a real rocket, but that would be cool if we could build a real sized rocket with rocket scientist.

My rocket is orange with black spots, my fins are orange an have a giraffe on one side an on the other it says Giraffe Girl. It says Giraffe Girl because I love Giraffes they are awesome an orange (which is my favorite color it is so spatacular). My rocket is very out going it has it's own personality, and my rocket is the most exciting, awesome an spatacular rocket ever made.(shhhh don't tell anyone it's our little secret.)

Have you ever made a rocket in your life? It is really fun. Have you ever been to a place where they show model rockets? I have; it is really fun but kinda boring.

I like the part when we got to paint the rockets. I think that the hardest part was when we had to make the engine it was very hard to make. You have to measure out 1 inch an on the other side 1/8 inch. that was the hardest part of the project. That was a fun project.

April 15, 2010 people started calling 911 about spotting a light traveling west to east. There are other people that said there is a fireball that is coming out of the sky!! Scientists are hoping that the fireball survived. When the fireball landed on earth it released 20 tons of TNT. That is a lot of explosives. They had to evacuate the city or town it was nearby. This is a pretty cool story, if you want more information you can click this http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mobile/news/index.cfm?release=2010-130.
done

I am reading a book called Shakespeare's Secret. It is a very good book. It is about a girl named Hero which is the main character who is living in this house that use to be own by this guy named Mr.Murphy and his wife Eleanor. Eleanor has a necklace that had a big diamond on it but someone stole it... the police thinks that Murphy stole it to pay for Eleanor to get better. Eleanor had heart cancer, So she didn't have ever much time left.

Mrs.Roth is the neighbor to Hero an her family. Hero is trying to help Mrs. Roth find out if the diamond is still int he house or not. I think it is. Mrs. Roth and Hero have been researching on the necklace and it used to belong to Anna Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth the first. So when Anna got beheaded by her husband, she gave the necklace to Queen Elizabeth. Mrs. Roth thinks that Queen Elizabeth got pregnant and had birth to Edward De Vere Oxford. But in the history books it says that Queen Elizabeth never gave birth, but apparently she did.

So Queen Elizabeth tried to keep it a secret that she had a son. So she paid her son Edward Twelve thousand pounds a year to make plays and to make sure he doesn't tell anyone that she is his mom. So Mrs. Roth and Hero think that Edward is the secret Shakespeare because he loved to write and make plays and he was very intelligent. So they think that he was because Shakespeare was not qualified to write what Shakespeare wrote so they think it was a fake.

Then find the diamond in a light out side. Hero thought that that was just a light that keep the outside light but they could never find the light switch. So when Danny came to look with her for the diamond but the y couldn't find it inside in any of the lights so they just gave up.

When Danny is about to leave he says,"Hey, there's another light, maybe it is there."

But Hero thinks that it isn't in there because they can't even find the light switch. But Danny wants to check, so they check in there, and guess what is next? They unscrew the ball around it an then the Murphy diamond falls out. They look at each other and say "Wow!" They are both so happy.

But Danny takes it home and then without asking Hero he mails it to his mom that lives in L.A. When Hero finds out, she is very mad so they go and tell Mrs. Roth. Danny sent it to his mom because he didn't know that they had the necklace an because his mom wants to be an actress so she need to have a class an she is very very poor. So that is what happens so far it is a really good book.

One of my friends has read the book an she said that it was a really weird ending. But I thing it is going to be a really good ending myself.

A day in the life of a Strawberry Dart frog would be very tiring for sure, especially for the mother frog. The mother frog has a lot of hopping around to do when her eggs hatch.

Hello there I am a Strawberry Dart frog. Yesterday I laid my eggs in the dirt right around the lake. You know how most frogs lay there eggs in the water well that's not me at all. I lay my eggs on the dry ground or dirt. Then when my little tadpoles hatch I have to get them into a wet place so they will live. One by one they wriggle onto my back then I carry each one safety up into there own little spots in the trees. Then I go back down and get some more an do the same. I have a very "fantastic memory, because I can find each tadpoles and lay a special kind on egg in it's pool so it can have food." That's what I do in a day.

So a day in the life of that frog is very hard. She goes up on land a lot and she also has to be a good climber so that she can climb up those trees with up to 20 tadpoles on her back. Well now you know that she is very tired after a days work to because of all the things she does. This mother is one of the busiest of them all. "Oh yeah and a snake might find one or two of these hidden frogs but chances are they won't find all of them."

This morning I woke up and got ready for school. When I took 5 steps out of the door I stepped on something. CRACK. "What is this," I said.

Well it ended up being a magic wand; it was around the trash and it looked like my dad made it because it was all weird and not straight. When I found it I snapped it in half so I had to put tape around it to hold in together.

Well when I was walking to school, I forgot about my book report so I poofed out a character out of my book to do my report... I forgot that my book was about animals so that plan didn't work out very well. So I just poofed up a book report.

When I got to school I turned my teacher into a giraffe... I turned him into a giraffe because I love giraffes; they are so awesome. When I went outside I turn the winter snow into flowers and then I made the school into a giant tree, and after that I turn everyone into giraffes. It was awesome because yet again giraffes are awesome.

So instead of walking home I poofed a motorcycle to pick me up. It was exciting because the motorcycle drives itself. So when I got home I made my house into a sugar cookie house an started eating. MMMMMMM so good my favorite cookie.

Well at the end of the day the magic was running out so I wished for a new wand that wasn't so beat up looking. POOF. There it was the perfect magic wand but it was a little to pink so I wish that it looked like a giraffe with spots ...poof, there it was it looked awesome of course you guessed right because it looked like a giraffe. Well that night before I went to bed my dad got a hold of the wand and everything went bad from there on. (dramatic song affect) DUDUDUUUUU!!!!! That's what i would do with a magic wand.

P.S. Actually I would probably turn the whole world into a giraffe. Haha.

I was reading about Magic Johnson; he was a great basketball player. He won a lot of games. He was named to the All-NBA team nine times... Isn't that amazing? And he was voted Most Valued player three times. His story is really good; you should read about it. Just click on http://www.biography.com/articles/Magic-Johnson-9356150 and you can go read about him too.

If you are a basketball player or just a fan, then I am sure you will like this guy.

If I got a free ticket to anywhere I wanted to go, I would go to North Carolina. I would go to North Carolina because that's where my dad's side of the family lives. I would go to North Carolina for two weeks, then leave. I would leave in two weeks because my family would start getting attached, and then they wouldn't let me leave. But I would go to see them for sure.

North Carolina has lots of amusement parks, but I like King Dominion and Bush Gardens the most. Bush Gardens is better because it has better rides and they are way scarier.

I like to go to this go-karting place there, too; it is so cool. There are lots of go-karting tracks there. I forgot what it was called, but it is right by the beach.

When I went to the beach, there were giant waves that were like 6 feet tall. They were like monsters that were going to eat someone. On the shore there were lots of sounds... birds were chirping, the waves where crashing to the shore, and of course kids were screaming. I went to the beach a lot. I only went on the warm days, but yet again, ever day is warm there, or else there is rain.

That's where I would go, and what I would do if I got a free airline ticket.

I have been swimming for 6 years, so I am going to tell you about the strokes, kicks, dives, and all the other stuff that you do. In swimming there are a lot of things to do, like practice, because practice makes perfect. You practice all the strokes, kicks, I.M, and dives.

There are four strokes, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. There are three kicks. For butterfly, it is dolphin kick. For breaststroke, it is frog kick. And for backstroke and freestyle, it is flutter kick. But on backstroke it is on your back, and for freestyle, it is on your tummy.

When you dive into the pool, you make an arrow with your hands over your head, then push from your feet. And you have to remember to go in hands first or you will do a belly flop.

An I.M. is all the strokes in this order: butterfly, back, breast, free. That is one of my fastest races. But you have to do them in that order, or you will get disqualified from the race, even if you are in first place.

My coaches are very nice. They also put us to hard work, but practice makes perfect. They taught me everything I know. We have three coaches Heather, Tracy and Scott. They are all very nice.

So laps are very complicated at first, but I am sure anyone that tries can get it. A 25 is one length, a 50 is two lengths, a 75, 3 lengths, and so on an so forth. Just to tell you, a length is from where you start to the other side of the pool.

If you want to see our home page put 'Stingray swim team home page" in to google; then you will find us.

I just read a short story about Odysseus and his big adventure.
Odysseus is a Greek hero that went through a lot just in a battle. There was some myths in there and the pictures were very funny.

If you want to go check, click on this http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/

I think Odysseus is pretty cool because his story is very mythical and adventurous. I love adventure stories and I like mythical stories. I like to read about heroes and I now like to read about Greeks and Greece.

I am reading a new book called Taggerung. It is about talking animals on a quest. I have only read 12 pages. It has very small print but so far it is a really good book. It is a adventure and fighting book. The author is Brian Jacques. My librarian says that he is a really good author so that is pretty cool. This book is a New York Times Bestseller.

So this book is about ferrets, hedgehogs and rats so far. The ferrets are trying to find a Taggerung. I don't know what that is. I think it is a lord or mighty beast. I am not so sure. But that's what it is about so far.

Today I read a story about right whales.

In 1992 a right whale was hit and killed by a passing ship now the government has a law about if your in an area where right whales are you have to slow down.

Researchers have tagged a baby right whale and named it Calvin. They have tracked the right whale and seen where it goes and what it's adventures are. One time Calvin got stuck in a net and was lucky to get out... most right whales die from caring around a fishing net.

The funny thing about it is that they found out that Calvin was a girl but chose to keep the name because it fit the right whale.

To get more information on Calvin and other right whales just click on this http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/AnimalsNature/Slowdownforcalvin

Before we left North Carolina my whole family and I made new year resolution. Mine was too make it to the Junior Olympics again this year and at least get 4th place in one event. Then after we did that we had to read them out loud. Here are some of my aunt's.

My aunt Ruby said that she would stop letting her kids take money from her so much and start doing stuff for her more.

My Aunt Vivan said, lose 25 pounds and stop working so much and take a break.

It was fun to hear what everyone wanted to do this year. They also read the '08 resolutions and '09 resolutions. They were really funny. I had a great time.

Yesterday we went to the museum at the university. We rode a bus there and back. The museum is new and very big. I have been there one time before. We had four groups that we split up into. There was two men and two women that showed us around. The building is like a art piece itself because of the way it was built. The building is like abstract - it has all kinds of shapes and turns to it. That was pretty cool I thought.

The museum was fun, very cool and very very big. I did not like one of the paintings because it was weird and 3D and 2D. I thought that it looked really creepy. I thought that the out house was very cool because it had lots of stuff on the inside and outside. It had license plates, trophys, stickers, guns, instruments, cans, soda and lots of other cool stuff. I do not like abstract at all - it is weird and just shapes put together, I would rather see realistic paintings cause they are of nature or other stuff on the planet.

I interviewed one of my classmate, Andrew. I think that he liked the field trip from what I asked him. I will tell you one of them.

1. "What was the worst part of the field trip?" I asked.

This week I had two subs, one for regular room and one for math. The one for math was pretty fun but the one we had in the regular room is way funnier. He was nice, funny, cool and awesome. He made everything that we do funnier.

This week was probably the funniest. In math the sub was kind of weird but funny. This is one of her jokes: "One day I was putting stuff away with my friends and it was -40 degrees and all of a sudden all her friends were gone, so she looked in the walk-in freezer and there they were... (They where warming up in the freezer because the freezer was -18 degrees and it was -40 out in the cold) hahahahahahah.

Our other teacher was so funny with a down to earth personality.

So this week, like I have been saying, was the best week ever. I loved it. I had a lot of fun with the sub; he likes to talk. That was a fun sub and the best.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas. For Christmas this year I was in North Carolina. You know when some people get up and start opening presents? Well, in this family you have to wait for everyone to get to the house, then you have to eat, then you get to open presents, and by that time it is about 4 o’clock. That’s the part I didn’t really like about having Christmas here. But other than that I had the best time of my life.

The next day after Christmas we had a party for my Dad and Rasheedah. It was pretty cool but kind of boring. We had lots of different kind of food. There was cake and fruit punch and sparkling cider that was apple flavor which I hated. The whole Christmas party I didn't eat or drink anything.

There was a lot of people that I didn’t know, but most of the people there were my cousins. It was a awesome party at the end. That’s what I did for Christmas.

Today we had a little Christmas Eve party at my aunt's house. It was fun. I got to see some people that I wanted to see. My Aunt Ruby made some buffalo wings, hot wings, spaghetti, and salads; it was a really good dinner. We stayed there til 12:06 and then we had to drive back to my Aunt Vivian’s house. That took 30 minutes. It took so long I went to sleep in the car. We were having a good time. We watched District 9 and The Decent. It was so fun; the whole night we were talking and laughing. It was really fun.

Driving from New York was long and hard. It took 12 hours and it was snowing, and then it started raining. I was watching movies and sleeping most of the time. I don’t get how my dad can stay awake so long. It is so amazing how he can do it. We were listening to jazz, hip hop, and rock music. The people up here don’t drive very fast, so we pass like 30 of them. One time my dad passed someone and the person honked at us. That person was weird because all we did was pass them and then they honked at us. We stopped twice for food and gas/bathroom break. It was a long drive, but we did it. When we arrived it was 1:30, but 9:30 for your Fairbanks time.

Hello class, I hope you are going to have a good Christmas. I am in North Carolina. We are 4 hours ahead of you in Fairbanks. I spend most of my time with my baby cousin, Cassidy. She is so cute. She is 5 months old. She loves to blow bubbles. She is the most beautiful little girl. She is darker than me and she loves to take my glasses off of my face. She loves to look at me too. She’s not shy at all. The first time I looked at her she stuck out her arms and wanted me to hold her. Well, that’s all I got to say… Oh yeah... Merry Christmas.

Hello fellow students. As some of you know, I went to Washington DC, Virgina, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina. Well, yesterday we went to the city (New York). We went to the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building.

To get to the Statue of Liberty we had to ride a ferry. The ferry was full of people. It was fun to ride the ferry.

It was very windy at the Statue of Liberty. I felt like I was going to fly away.(Not really, but it was really strong.) The Statue of Liberty was very beautiful. It is made out of copper. It was just redone a little while ago.

The copper was oxidized, and that is why it is greenish blue color. Oxidized means to react with oxygen, so if you see something made out of copper and it is greenish blue that means it is oxidized.

We also went to the Empire State Building. we got tickets to go to the observatory and we went up 80 floors, and then stopped. Then we went up 6 more floors, and then we went outside and looked over the edge of the Empire State Building. It was a long way down. It was a beautiful sight. There are 102 floors on the Empire State Building.

Today we made something with one paper clip, a D battery, and a light bulb... What do you think we made with those supplies?

Well I guess I will tell you, but don't try this at home unless you are with a parent and don't try it with the cables from your house or with a car battery or anything bigger than a D battery.

We made the Light come on with a paper clip and D battery. This is dangerous when you don't do it right.

I went to Homer, Alaska on December 4-6. It was for a state swim meet. My team, the Stingray Swim Team, went but only 15 of them could make it. I had six events in two days. I only won one, and that was in the 100 IM. That has all the strokes in it. I won by one second.

I had to drive down with my friend and my dad. It took 13 hours to get there and 12 hours to get back. I had a fun time. There was a breakfast that was free and all-you-can-eat. I was in two relays which both times got second place. I didn't get D.Q.ed (which means disqualified.) This was a fun swim meet and I got to miss two days of school.

This was fun because I was with my friends the whole time... Sometimes my friends got really annoying but it was okay. There was 270 swimmers in a really small pool. An the parents were squished into really small bleachers. There was a lot of parents there. There was at least 400 parents or guardians. I felt bad for everyone and all the coaches and swimmers.

The most fun I did was go to this place and had a drink that had sprite with cherry juice and cherries and played some pool. I love the game pool. It is so fun. That's what I did in Homer.

One day Dianna wanted me to stay the night at her house on the weekend so we chose to do it that weekend. At about eight o'clock I went to her house and I had everything ready in my bags to go. When I got there they where watching T.V. So I dropped my stuff in her room and sat down with them.

Her little sisters started asking me questions and bothering me. So Dianna and I went in her bedroom. Then we started pushing notes out under the door to her little sisters.

That night we ate dinner and watched some more T.V. Her and her little sisters were fighting a lot and saying, "Dad they are bothering us," said Dianna.

"No we aren't,"said the girls. That would go on for 10 minutes.

That night we were in the living room watching scary movies and on the hide away bed. We went to sleep around 3 o'clock in the morning.

The next day we got up at 10 o'clock and had breakfast. After we ate we went to the gym. We hid from Dianna's sister the whole time; it was sooooo fun. We also went on the train. We got to blow the horn it was fun.

Avalanches are very dangerous. They kill a lot of people. Avalanches can happen at 25 degree angles or more, but no less. Avalanches can happen two ways. One is slab avalanches. Slabe avalanches are big blocks that roll down the hill or mountain. The other is a slide avalanche, which is just powdery snow rolling down the mountain or hill.

Dr. Adams is a person that studies avalanches. He has many ways to study avalanches. He can use computers to even go outside and do research. He also uses T.N.T or explosives. Dr. Adams used T.N.T when he was in a house so he could see how someone would get out of a house covered in snow. I thought he was crazy, but he is very inteligent.

Th most amazing thing i learned that was that a avalanche can happen at a 25 degeer angle. I didn't now that it could do that. I thought that it could only happen at a very high mountain. That was what I learned that i thought that was amazing.

Samuel Hiller was a boy that was born just before the holocaust. He was one of the 1.5 million children that lived in Cracow, Poland. His mother one day got word that the Germans where going to send all the Jews in the ghetto to the death camp. He and his mom managed to get out of the Ghetto, but not his dad. His mom set up a Christan woman to take care of her two year old son, Samuel. She sometimes would come out of hiding to come and see him; but one day a German noticed that she was a Jew and they killed her in the street. His dad was sent to a death camp and died in the death camp in 1944.

We just finished a book called Number the Stars. It was about the holocaust. But the people weren't real people from the past. I loved that book. It was very good and exciting. This book is about a family of four, and their best friends where Jews, so they helped the family to Sweden. I would say I think everyone should read this book. It is by Lois Lowery. She is a very good author. I would recommend this book to everyone over the age of ten.

When I went to North Carolina, my dad and my family went to Bush Gardens; that's a Roller Coaster place. I got over my fear of heights that day, and this is my story.

So last summer my dad and I went to North Carolina. My dad's family lives there. We had to take a plane from Alaska to New York; it was a 12 hour flight. I was asleep the whole time! When we landed in New York we had to get a renter car and drive all the way down to North Carolina; it took two days I was asleep the whole time in the car for the first day. We stopped and went to a hotel on the first night. I was wide awake, since I had slept the whole day. But I managed to go to sleep for six hours. Then it was time to go on the road.

We were off really early at, like, 5:30 in the morning. I was asleep for 5 hours, then woke up and was talking to my dad about how he can stay wake for so long. I was so excited when I woke up to see that we only had only 300 more miles to go. I ended up sleeping for 3 more hours. When I woke up we were only 1 mile away from my Aunt Lane's and Uncle Frank's house.