This Writing Thing

Life is changing and life is good.

Here I sit over 3 months later, finally writing in my blog again. Writing is not my greatest joy, but making and creating journals is fast becoming one. I have a love/hate relationship with writing. I like later reading what I wrote when I was in the writing mood, I love teaching writing. But the getting started is always hard and even harder for me is sticking with it. So for now, I'm going to keep writing  until I'm comfortable with this blog thing. I guess, if I'm going to someday write a children's book I need to become more comfortable. But, this leisurely informal writing is what I am most comfortable with, so that's okay.  I'll keep practicing and who knows when I'm 90 it will be time to put that first pen to the pages and write a book for children.  But for now, I'll keep sewing for kids, making journals and using them for things I use for notebooks and maybe some day one of those journals will become the book I someday wanted to write.

Heading Around a Different Curve

Change: Some people embrace it and some fight it with every last breath in them. I am one who loves it! Change my hair, my nails, my purse, I even changed my address from Missouri to Florida when I retired from teaching  because my husband and I thought, why not. Granted our only son had just graduated from high school, we were keeping the house (in case it didn't work) and we knew we could always go back, but we forged ahead with no jobs, a rental house but my brother and family did live here. However, the change has been awesome even 11 years later. We have great jobs (I'm a school librarian, he's an insurance agent) and have met great people.

I love the idea of reinventing oneself, if the old doesn't work try something new, I say. Now that I'm in my late 50's I again want to try new things like blogging, maybe an Etsy store with things I've sewn, get better at Instagram and who knows what else.

 I got my sewing machine 33 years ago from my husband our first Christmas so I could mend. Hogs and cattle didn't care and insulated coveralls were the only fabric I'd really sewn on except for an unwearable dress I'd made in high school Home Ec. Enter a daughter-in -law moving into the log home we'd vacated who saw a sewing machine.  I moved that sewing machine and with her thoughts that I must be able to sew, I learned. When she was pregnant with Jaxon, our first grandchild, she  found things on Pinterest  and I decided I could make those things she wanted. Thanks to YouTube, Pinterest tutorials, and sewing friends, I knew, I was making more burp cloths and baby blankets than anyone needed. With a granddaughter 4 years later and many great nieces and nephews arriving, I continued to practice and sending on to them homemade gifts the better I became. Had it not been for welcoming change that 30+ sewing machine would still be in Missouri. She figured I could and I wasn't going to say I can't.

Now that menopause (the change) is a part of life and retirement looking me in the eye again I'm thinking there could be more changes. So I'm following bloggers who create pretty planners, who sew, who quilt, who paper craft and some who just write. I'm watching YouTube channels of these people and deciding I can do that too, why not? It's not too late to try something new, to improve a craft, to try to see what could be down the road. My mother-in -law once said, "ask questions, it lets someone else feel smarter and you learn something as well." I have found that to be so true.

So here's to change, to life long learning, to heading for that curve down the road and not knowing what will be around that bend. Bring it on!

If I Become President

Vote for me, yes you! I’ve decided to run for president. Yes I do realize there are many responsibilities as running for candidate. Perhaps maybe one day I do become president I would want to accomplish three major things in life. First, I would make sure everyone was treated equally. Secondly, I would stop people from littering. Lastly, I would always tell the truth.

First of all, I would make sure everyone was treated equally. Maybe you’re thinking dessert. Say one day you were having pie or ice cream and one of your siblings got more than you. You thought the piece you had wouldn’t satisfy you. Obviously because you know that everyone wants the bigger piece! But that’s not what I’m talking about. For example, during segregation, blacks and white were treated differently. This included separate schools, drinking out of different water fountains, and having separate sections on the bus. These rules were not enforced when white people broke them. However black people could be beaten and jailed if they broke these rules.

 In addition, I would stop littering. If you come to think of it people throw down trash everywhere, every day. In places such as lakes, rivers, and even in plain sight. This causes animals to lose their homes, to die, and it leaves our environment ugly. For example, the plastic rings around a six-pack of drinks can get caught around any animal’s neck, which causes them to choke and die. Also when pollution gets into water it harms the sea creatures. Fun fact: did you know that if there wasn’t so much pollution in the air, when you look up at the night sky you see galaxies.

 Last but certainly not least, I would always tell the truth. For example, I would say what I mean and mean what I say. I wouldn’t get someone else to say my message because u never know what they might say they could tell a lie or something terrible. I would make tough decisions daily to make everyone’s life better. I would never say something one day and the next day say the exact opposite.

     I hope I taught you everything you need to know so you can vote for me. I know I would make a great president because three major things in life would be accomplished. Treating people equally, stoping littering, and always telling the truth.

Courtney

Miss. Trussell's 5th grade

Life on the Farm

In this section of Tropicana I am featuring just some of the animals that reside on the farm. You can discover and learn what life is like on the farm for pigs, cows, chickens, and also horses.

These animals have many different jobs they do on a daily bases like chickens give us eggs cows give us milk pigs give us pork and the horses are used as working animals.

Farm animals are not just working animals they can also be good pets. Horses. Horses are good pet because horses can live a long life. The life span of a horse is 20 -30 years. Most breeding horses die at a young age like 15 or 16. The horses that do sports like jumping or barrel racing or even racing like the Kentucky derby can get seriously hurt and could be put to sleep.     

Now for chickens. Chickens are domestic farm birds. These animals would be good pets too. The life span of the chicken is 10 – 15 years. The hen or female chickens has the job of laying eggs but the male or rooster also takes care of the eggs too. They do this to because this is how chickens breed. The rooster also is called alarm clocks. They are called this because early in the morning they crow over and over again. They are also called this because before technology a rooster was the wakeup call for farm hands to get up and start the day by feeding all the animals.      

Next is cows .Cows are animals that give milk. Cows also give us food called beef. Cows that are in groups are called cattle. Cows or cattle are vegetarians that eat crass trees and other veggies. These animals also have four stomach chambers that help break down there food. So if you ever see a cow laying down in afield chewing that means that there other stomach chambers are breaking down the food.

Now for chickens. Chickens are domestic farm birds. These animals would be good pets too. The life span of the chicken is 10 – 15 years. The hen or female chickens has the job of laying eggs but the male or rooster also takes care of the eggs too. They do this to because this is how chickens breed. The rooster also is called alarm clocks. They are called this because early in the morning they crow over and over again. They are also called this because before technology a rooster was the wakeup call for farm hands to get up and start the day by feeding all the animals.      

Next is my final animal the pig. This animal have a weird way of bathing they dig holes and tip there water buckets over in the hole. Then they roll around in the mud to get the bugs and dead skin off. These animals also give us food called bacon, ham, pork, chops, and ribs.

In conclusion this is all the jobs these animals do in this section of Tropicana speeches so now you go find a topic and write about it.

Makala

Miss Trussell's 5th grade

 

 

My Grandparent's Journey Out of the Cambodian Killing Fields

My name is Kai and I am 50% Cambodian. My dad's parents are from a country call Cambodia. They came to America because of something that is known today as the Killing Fields. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over the Cambodian government. They wanted to turn the country into a communist, farming society. They accomplished this goal by lying to the Cambodian people and telling them that the United States was going to bomb them and so they all needed to evacuate to the countryside. Once they got all the people into the countryside they forced them to work in labor camps.


The Khmer Rouge killed all the doctors, teachers, artists, well-educated, or anyone else that they thought was against them. My grandfather had worked as a military policeman for the government that had been overthrown by the Khmer Rouge. He survived by telling them that he was a bicycle repairman. He and my grandmother were sent to a labor camp in Bantam Bong. They spent almost two years working there. While there they had a son. He got very sick because they did not have enough food for him and he died of starvation before his second birthday. It is estimated that between 1.7 and 2 million Cambodians died during the four-year reign of the Khmer Rouge.


In the spring of 1980 my grandfather heard about refugee camps on the Cambodian border. He and my grandmother, who was now pregnant with my father, hitched a ride on a van to the Cambodian border. It took them 3 days and 2 nights by car and another 2 days of walking to get to the refugee camp. The Khmer Rouge later attacked this camp and my grandparents were forced to flee through the jungle to the Thai border where the Red Cross was waiting. Two months later my dad was born in the Thai refugee camp. In December of 1980 they got word that they had been sponsored by a relative to come to the United States.


Cambodia is just one of many places around the world that has experienced genocide. The most well-known genocide perhaps was the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, US leaders said that we could never let something like this happen again. Unfortunately, there have been many genocides since then and there are still genocides happening today in places like Syria, Sudan and Burma. Albert Einstein once said, "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." We must not stand by and watch while evil continues to happen in the world, but must stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves so that genocide becomes something that is only found in history books.


Kai
Mrs. Paris's 5th grade
used for Tropicana Speech

Switching Schools

Have you ever thought about switching schools?

Well I didn't even get a chance to think about it. my mom and dad told me, I was transferring from Central to East Milton and it happened within a week. I was terrified! It was like the time I caught Whitney Shoemaker picking her boogers and wiping them on my school bus seat. Horrifying is the best word to describe that. What would happen to my old friends? Who would be my new friends? Would anybody understand that I wear boots but dance like I should wear Jordan's? Biggest question-would there be another Whitney Shoemaker?

No matter what the answers would be to these questions the week was up and it was time to switch schools. I had a lump in my throat as I walked across the street to my new school. By the way I said "walked" so no more Whitney Shoemaker or her nasty boogers. As I continued to walk inside the school, to my surprise everyone I saw said "hello" to me. I even had a big laugh because some boy was dancing to "JuJu On that Beat"-"JuJu On That Beat, JuJu On That Beat, now slide drop"-Wait...let me get back to my speech.

By the time I was done laughing, I had made it to my classroom. When I walked into my class, I met my new teacher, she was young, pretty, and cool. I also met my new best friend, we have a lot in common and we get along so well. Everyone I met made me feel welcome. so I have to say that switching schools was great after all. I love East Milton and everyone there likes me, my boots, and my dancing too!!

Lylie  Trussell's 5th grade

ARBOR DAY

It's our Arbor Day. So please don't cut down my tree. I grew that tree. So don't cut it down. How would you like it if I cut down your tree. I love Arbor day. Why don't you go home calmly and grow a tree for Arbor day?


Dayton, Mrs. Wallace 3rd