Goodbye, Boise

Friday was my last day at my beloved elementary school. Although I clearly didn't want to leave, it had to be done sooner or later. And, like most people who leave such long-time friends, I cried.

Cried like there was no one around me. Cried like my whole family had died. Cried like there was no tomorrow.

I sobbed into my comforting friends' arms. They supported me through the whole emotional day. Friends truly are like another family to me. Now I just can't believe I can't walk to the one building where memories are made and see everyone I've known since kindergarten. I have to go to an extremely old building where I don't know anyone, where things are completely different from good old White Pine.

And most importantly, the environment.

The atmosphere will feel so different, hanging around kids who are probably nothing like my friends back at White Pine. Who knows if they'll treat me like I have for six years? I have so many questions roaming through my head, it would take weeks just to get through them all. Hopefully Spring Break will calm me down.

For all my friends who read this, I want you all to know that I love you, and I will miss you to the high heavens. I couldn't have earned such a great life without you. I'm so lucky to have people like you in my life.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The Beauty of Math

Although I don't necessarily enjoy math, I've been interested in a certain math program called Apangea Learning [A-pan-jee-uhh]. It's a website that teaches the curriculum of math. You can choose a background, a little avatar to help you when you're stumped on a question, and a lesson that informs you on what you're about to learn before the section, or "thread," even begins. I try my best to go on every night.

To create an account, it takes a teacher or a staff member at school. The username and password is chosen for you. Like mine, the usernames usually include a lot of numbers after the letters, so it could take some memorization to finally get it glued to your head.

Apangea is easy to use. The three zones in a thread are the Practice Zone, the Quiz Zone, and the Story Problem Zone. The Practice Zone is the simplest of the three. It asks you a question that is related to the thread's focus, it gives you four choices, and if you get the wrong one, you are able to guess again until you receive the right answer. The sooner you guess the right answer, though, the more points you earn. These points can be used to buy things, like an iTunes Gift Card, a CD, and you can even donate your points that then turn into real money, and the money is donated to the charity of your choice.

The Quiz Zone is the most difficult of the three zones. It is a quiz that shows whether you worked hard on the thread or not. Your first guess is your final answer, so if you get it wrong, you receive no points. If you get the correct answer, though, you receive ten points.

The Story Problem Zone contains a certain number of steps. You have to read the problem, find the value, unit, and label for each step, make a chart, build the problem, and at the end, write a short summary about the final answer. This is the longest zone of the three. It usually takes a while to finally get the correct value, unit, and label. It can get a little frustrating for me... :)

Apangea is popular at my elementary school. All the classes in the USA compete to see who can be the #1 class in all of Apangea Math. This March, a 6th grade class at my school won. They earned the most points. The rewards were $80 in prizes, a backpack, a t-shirt, and a huge trophy. The person who was most committed and earned the most points got a Nintendo Wii, and our winner was Arthur from the same class that won the whole thing. The First Lady of Idaho was at the celebration assembly, the superintendent of the schools in all of Idaho as well. The speeches were very well-written, and I never knew I'd have to clap so much. I enjoyed the hour-long assembly.

Even though I'll be at a different school next year, (tomorrow is my last day at my awesome elementary school, sadly) I hope my grade -- 5th grade -- can win it for the 6th grade all over again. GO TIMBERWOLVES! :)

♥ Abigail ♥

Green Thumb

To me, life just isn't the same without green. Green is the color that shows plants are blooming. Green is the color that can really make a home feel like home. Green can cheer you up. Green can even be a sign of good luck. But most importantly, green is the sign of St. Patty's Day.

Legend says that in the early years of the earth, a man named Patrick was a saint. They say he threw out all the snakes that slithered around Ireland. They also say that he was Christian, and since many of the people of Ireland had no religious belief, Saint Patrick taught Christianity to them.

I cannot live without green because - maybe you don't exactly notice it, but - I'm an environmentally friendly person. I recycle the things that should be recycled, I help my mother with the garden, (we're going to have to start all over with this new house) I care about the animals in the wild, and I also don't pollute and just throw things on the ground. Many of you who know me probably don't see it in me, but it's true.

So, Happy St. Patrick's Day to you. :)

Happiest Girl Alive

Me hangin' in my very green and pink room

My beautiful room!

Well, the pictures above are more of my new house. They don't have anything to do with what I'm going to talk about.

Life here in Eagle has been pretty good. The neighborhood is brand new, the houses are far apart from each other, and there are a lot of good trails for runners and dog walkers. I'm going to be registering for an Arts School here in Eagle pretty soon, and then register for middle school! At first we were aiming for a school that my house has a view of, but they have a waiting list for 5th graders and all that adult stuff, so I'm not going there. Though I'll have to take a bus and the building is REALLY old, I think I'll enjoy it at the Arts School.

Back at my elementary school in Boise, life is amazing there. My friends are amazing, but I'm wondering one thing: Why three weeks before I'm leaving? It's just sad, but I'm going to enjoy the pleasure while I can. :)


So that's just an update for now. Have an awesome new week!

♥ Abigail ♥

Those Premature Babies

As Mrs. Cook's 3rd grade class sat in library waiting for further instructions, the librarian, Mrs. Habben, strolled over to where the class was sitting and showed us a baby's diaper. "This is the size an average baby would wear," she stated. She then pulled out a diaper which was a little smaller. "This is for a baby who was a few weeks early when born."

The class "oohed" and "ahhed" at the diaper with Sesame Street characters on it. But then Mrs. Habben pulled out a diaper that particularly caught my eye. It was the tiniest diaper I'd ever seen. You could barely make out what was on it.

"This diaper is for a baby who was born at least six months early," informed Mrs. Habben. She held the diaper up high for everyone to see. It broke my heart to know that babies could be that small when they were first born. This is when our humble librarian explained that the parents who gave birth to such a tiny baby usually didn't have much money to pay for all the medical care. Mrs. Habben then told us about a program known as the March of Dimes. Every March, all the schools in the district help raise money to donate to the parents of the little babies. In my 3rd grade year we raised over $1,000. It has started to raise since then.

What inspired us to bring all this money was the bears. Mrs. Habben put the little plush babies on display, and every day we would come to admire the soft stuffed animals. We were told that if we brought in $5.00 or more we would be awarded a bear. So, we raised, raised, raised, and soon we got our beloved bears and lots of money was made.

We can help those premature babies if we just try.

Buzz

So lately my friends and I have been fiddling with this new system on Gmail, called Buzz. It's a lot like Twitter, where you can write a post with pictures, videos, and links and show it to your friends. I think the contemplation whether to make a Facebook account or not is decided. (:

All of my friends are still getting used to it. It can get confusing, but it's also convenient. It's like Gmail's version of Facebook. We love to update it whenever we can. There are at least ten new posts every day, all of which have several comments. Yeah, we're little talkers. No wonder the 5th grade teachers think of us as the most social grade they've ever had.

I guess this is a recommendation post. I really like this Buzz, but hopefully it won't take over the old-fashioned things we used to do, like chat in a box. I think that's here to stay, though. Thank you, Gmail, for adding Buzz!

If you'd like to join Gmail, just go to http://www.gmail.com/ and the rest should be there.

Peace out homie dawgs,

♥ Abigail ♥

P.S. Went to Hidden Springs today. I fell in love, as always.

The Sensation of Pudding

Chocolate pudding has always been a favorite of mine. It has a taste that cannot be described, or at least in my opinion. My mother never buys it for our own good. Yes, that's the diettitian in her.

Today I got to experience pudding all over my HANDS. Mrs. Kaufman is filled with ideas, and we all agree this was one of her best yet. As aluminum foil was laid out on top of every desk, chocolate pudding was poured onto the foil, allowing us to finger paint to our heart's content.

The chocolate felt so gooey, but I knew this was a once in a lifetime thing, so I went with it. We drew anything we wanted: hearts, scribbles, polka dots, phrases, symbols, everything. By the end of the time, we licked our hands clean, (which tasted oh so good, by the way) and licked all the aluminum foil. Some of us put mustaches on our faces just for the fun of it all.

And that's another strange day for you in Mrs. Kaufman's classroom.

The New Place

Me watching American Idol and being lazy

The kitchen! Our place is still messy, so don't be freaked out.

Cooper's enjoying the new house. He has to smell everything.

More of The King of Cutie Pies

There are still a ton of boxes to be unpacked.

The house itself!!! Beautiful. :)

Like any family moving, settling in completely takes a least a month. With our progress so far, we're sure it'll take us that long, too. We love the new place, though. It already feels like home, even if there are new sounds and new smells. Tanner and I are still trying to get used to the fact that there are no stairs. I guess it'll take a little while to sink in.

I took Cooper on a walk yesterday to explore the neighborhood. There are a lot of ponds. Too many, in fact. Ducks and geese are walking around everywhere, which makes it difficult to keep Cooper by my side. There are two schools across the street from each other. One is called Galileo Math and Science, while the other school is called North Star Charter. Driving to school every morning is a pain with the School Zone lights slowing us down.

We live across the street from a fire station. Mom's glad that we have a place to go if there's an emergency, but it could get noisy at night. We haven't heard anything yet, though.

Tanner and I still go to school in Boise. At the 4th quarter, Tanner will go to the high school, but I'll keep going to my elementary school because I love my friends! Everyone in my family has been trying to convince me to go to an elementary school here in Eagle, but I can't say good-bye to my friends just yet.

Going to the new ward was very strange, but also relieving when my Sunday School teacher found me and took me to the class. The classes separated by age, and the one I went to was an 11-12 year old class. They're all really nice, but they're are in 6th grade so I won't exactly see them when I enter middle school. All the 5th graders are ten, so I guess I'm going to have to wait awhile. The primary is huge though. There have to be at least 50 kids.

Life here in Eagle is going to be okay, I can assure that.