Merry Christmas!

"And you will find him in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger, and a very bright and sunny Christmas!" Awwww....... no snow? Sorry to those of you who wanted to have a white Christmas. Maybe next year.

New Book

   This is a new book that I have written. Some of you out there have heard about it. I will put up a new chapter as often as I can. Things are alright at school. Mom is going to get me some more slacks to wear at school on days that are really cold. I’m wondering if I could wear my knee high basic black socks to school. Gonna run that by Mrs. Carey on Monday.

Agnes and the Tornado

Chapter One

The Right Ingredients

A young girl about the age of ten was walking with her German Shepherd Willow. Her name was Agnes. She looked up at the sky.

“We might get some storms Willow,” she said, “it’s been pretty hot humid all day.” When she reached home, she looked back up at the sky. There were more clouds off to the West than before. And they were getting bigger. She went inside. Willow followed. Agnes walked into Dad’s study. Dad was a storm chaser Dad was sorting out pictures from their last storm chase. One picture showed how big the hail had been. Baseball sized hail. Another picture showed a bolt of lightning. The last one showed a tornado. That was the first tornado she had ever seen. It was amazing. She remembered Willow barking in fear. Next she remembered her Dad shouting, “ Look! A tornado!” The wind was rising and screaming.

“Agnes,” said Dad. Agnes turned her attention to Dad. “What’s up,” she said. “Look,” he pointed to the laptop. On the computer, a radar was on the screen. “Storms are forming off to the west,” he said, “Do you want to go on this one?”

Agnes nodded. “Can Willow come, too? Oh, please, let her come! She loved it so much.” Agnes gave her father a pleading look.

“Why not? She might like to get out, “said Dad with a smile. “We are leaving in fifteen minutes.” Agnes ran to her room and grabbed her storm chaser’s bag. She checked her bag to make sure she had everything in it. A pair of binoculars, a digital camera with a memory card, and some batteries, some trail mix, and raisins, a coil of rope, a first aid kit, and a flashlight. “Good,” thought Agnes, “Everything I need.”

“Agnes! Time to go!” yelled her dad from outside. Agnes threw on her backpack, said good-bye to her mom, grabbed the leash, called Willow, put the leash on Willow, and the two of them ran for Dad’s truck. Willow was put into the back and they were off! “Supercell, here we come!” said Dad.

Weather for Today

This is just a guess. Cloudy, with no showers. Very windy and a bit cool. I finished up a book called: Warnings, The true story of how science tamed the Weather. It was by Mike Smith. Check it out! Very amazing. I'm not going to spoil too much, but the last chapter is really sad. Really sad.

Can’t Think of Anything to Write

You heard that. I CANNOT THINK OF ANYTHING TO WRITE ABOUT! Nothing. Zilch. Nata.What about tornadoes? I’ll go with that. I’m trying to figure out why they form. Has to be something that deals with Low
Pressure. Like a pocket of Low Pressure in the storm. Something like that. Or what about  a Tornado in a tube? The water, in which the twister forms in, is different from what is outside the bottle, the air. Still don’t get it. I’ll probably figure it out someday. It’s just one of those weather mysteries. I’m still thinking about it though. I can’t help it. Tornadoes are so mysterious. They pop out of a thunderstorm all of a sudden. They are both beautiful, and deadly at the same time. Could possibly have something to do with the wall cloud. Not all storms with wall clouds produce tornadoes. Could be with how strong the wall cloud is? I’m sitting upside down, thinking all of this up. Ohhhh….. cities produce more heat. Maybe when most storms enter a city, they start to weaken, making it nearly impossible for a tornado. Of course everyone knows that. There has to be something else. Wonder what it is.  Oh well, if you have any ideas, even if they sound stupid to you, please leave a comment.

Ouch! That hurt!

  At P.E. today, we played Cross Fire. For those of you that don’t know what that is, I’ll tell you. Some kids stand behind a designed boundary, with a straight path going through the middle. Kids stand on either side of the boundary. The rest of the kids run through the middle; while trying to dodge the balls that are being thrown at them. When our group was going through, we decided to stay in a group. I landed in the middle. Enrique, while trying to dodge a ball, collided into me, causing me to slip and land hard on my kneecap. The next thing that I can remember that happened, was me trying to get up. That hurt too much. I fell back down. Miss Adams, seeing that I couldn’t get up, came over. She let me relax for a few minutes. Then, she helped me get up. I limped over to a chair. Miss Adams got Travis to run over, and grab an ice pack for me from the nurse’s office. I sat for a few minutes, resting. Now there is a major bruise on my knee cap. I’m still limping. ten minutes after this happened, Baylee got hurt. She was running, and then her arms and legs went flying all over the place. She landed on her head. Then, she started crying.. I limped over, and handed my ice pack over to her. It was then time to go change. Afterwards, Miss Adams had me run over, and get another ice pack. That wasn’t a small job for me in my condition. Baylee was so dizzy, that it she couldn’t walk. Autumn and Stephanie had to carry her into the locker room. Then, they had to take Baylee over to the nurse’s office. Baylee later came into Literature, just fine. So it looks like Baylee and me are both alright.

The Latest

At school in Computer, we are making stories on PowerPoint 2010 on slides. My story is about a race horse, it is basically a picture book , that runs a race. We will make three different endings, and the reader chooses which ending they want. So far so good. At Eric Fisher Academy yesterday, I got a pixie cut. I serving during Mass yesterday, so Mom dropped me off at St. Anne’s, and went to get the other kids. When Lucia came in, I think I had my back to her, she thought that it wasn’t me, she thought it was someone else. That is it for right now.

What a Summer!

100+ degree weather this summer? I'm not joking. A whole lot of people are glad that the heat is over and done with for this year. There is a major drought moving across Kansas. That would explain for the Arkansas River drying up a lot. Also, for the fact that we hardly see any rain. It has been so long, that I have almost forgotten the sound of rain outside. I'm working on a Science Fair Project for school. I 'm doing one on if I can predict the weather better than a meteorologist. Hopefully, yes. Forcast for tomorrow: Clear, sunny. Chilly in the morning. Warming up as the day goes on. You will not need a jacket after 9:00 a.m. , but it would not be a bad idea to bring one. Have fun!

Hurricane and two Tropical Storms

Hurricane Dora has gotten to a category 4 hurricane, and is affecting the coast of Mexico in the Pacific. Tropical Storms Bret and Cindy are in the Atlantic and moving NE. Cindy is moving fast at a speed of 24 mph, and Bret is taking his time by moving at 8 mph. Bret is weakening and Cindy and Dora are strengthening. Bret and Cindy are not expected to hit the USA. Dora, I don't know.

Totus Tuus Camp!

After working at my Great Grandpa for a long time, I'm able to go to Totus Tuus Camp this upcoming week! It will be a week long camp. The 5th and 6th graders only stay there for 3 days. 7th grade and up get to stay for ONE WHOLE WEEK! I'm so excited! For the past few years that I have been going, there has always been a storm that hits us, or a storm that passes near us. They have a storm shelter there. No worries!

Extra! Pictures from 6/9/2011! Enjoy!

Now what in the world happened? Don't worry folks. I wasn't the crazy person out there taking pictures of these. My dad is the one that took these pictures. I'm so jealous. I wish I had more batteries for my camera so that way I could have taken some AWESOME pictures. Dad got off a 7:00 in the evening and he didn't know if he could make it home in time. He decided that the best thing to do was to go storm chasing. Without me. That way, if a tornado touched the ground, he could warn us and others. But this is what he found.

Wall clouds mean the possibility of a tornado. That is when the meteorologists start to freak

out. The sirens go blaring and you freak out. I was on the computer the whole evening, listening to the radio for the locations of the wall clouds. Then I typed the location into the map o the computer and found out where these troublemakers were. One was at MacAuther and West St. That is pretty darn close to where we live. You can bet I freaked out. I did. Next time Dad, you better be sure I'm in the car with you, because if I'm not, I'm going to turn into a tornado myself when you get home.

Whew!

We made through. We had dinner at like 9:15 pm. Dad went out storm spotting and he saw not one, but two wall clouds and a funnel cloud. I was soooo jealous. I am still jealous though. My herb garden looks O.K. though. My woolly lambs ear looked like a hailstone tore a hole in one of the leaves though. The soil in the morning was still pretty wet so I will not need to water it today and maybe tomorrow. Let's hope that this was it. I seriously doubt it though. We started off with an early summer so we may get some more of that nasty stuff that happened yesterday. Any damage done otherwise? If so, please let me know. Trying to make a 2011 weather folder. THANKS!!!!

Tornado Warning

WHAT? Yes, a tornado warning is in effect for the Wichita area. A wall cloud was spotted around 8 p.m to 8:15 p.m around the area of MacAuther and West St. This is not very far away from Southwest Wichita. There has been reports of hail, wind, and flooding along with some wall clouds around us. Take cover in a basement now! If you do not have a basement, go to the lowest floor of your home. Go to a bathroom or hallway with no windows. Crouch down onto the floor and cover your head. Be safe and lets hope we are alright in the end of this long evening. To tell you the truth, our family has been down in our basement for TWO WHOLE HOURS! No dinner not to mention.

Date: 6/9/11

Time: 8:55 p.m.

Thinking. Hmmmmmm.......

Thinking about what I should do for the others to congratulate them on finishing up the school year. For Clara, I made her a Number Book. It has numbers 1 - 12. On the back, I wrote an award that goes like this: This book is presented as an award to Clara Sauer, for completing: Sticker Math book. Early Math series: Number Sense, Shapes, and Readiness.

I'm so proud of Clara for doing so much on Math. She has really done a lot and knows sooo much.

( well, for a preschooler anyway) I tested her out for a kindergarten phonics book for next year and she did quite well so, I think that she will be ready for that. I just wish I had it earlier and then I could have done it this year with her. Mom says that since she was born in November, she is to still be in preschool next year. For Addie next year, there is a book called Let's Color I would like to do with her. It says that it is for ages 2 and up so it might be alright for her. Clara is doing that book right now and it is excellent! And I mean EXCELLENT! I highly recommend it for all preschoolers.

For Anna, I think that I will make a little book with the names and dates of famous people she learned about in History. For Lucia, I think that I'll make her a book with the ten commandments in them for Religion. I hope this works.

Excited!

We are almost done with the school year at our house. One more week after this and we are done and it's (for me) time to start preparing to get ready for going to school at St. Anne's. Not looking forward to it at all. Anyone have any tips for how to act normal?

Oh yeah, I went horse back riding last Sunday.My horse was an Arabian named King. When we jumped over logs, I put one hand in the air and held onto the reins and hoped that nothing bad would happen. It was pretty cool though. The worst that happened to me was that when I bumped my kneecap against a tree, I got a bruise and a cut that is sore. Oh well. At least I didn't break a bone.

Camping trip and a surprise!

We went on a camping trip up in North Platte Nebraska and we stayed in a cabin with some friends of ours. It was fun except for the fishing part. NO FISH! There was another guy not far from us and he caught a huge catfish. He said he was estimating that the fish was abut 18 lbs. That is huge! And, it was a little bigger than my younger sister Adelaide! Oh well. Maybe next time we will catch something. Okay, let's go to the surprise.

We were at Nature Study Club this morning and Lucia found a monarch caterpillar! It is tinier than Katelyn, the previous caterpillar we raised. We had gotten Katelyn a week before she turned into a chrysilles. This one is going to be with us for several weeks. I'll keep you posted. This past Tuesday was my twelfth birthday and there was some pretty nasty weather going on that day. I had my severe weather log in my hand during everything that passed through. My Severe Weather Log holds notes I make about thunderstorms, how much lightning there was, If there was any hail how big that was and how much rain there was. Also, if there was a lot of wind, I put that in too. I also use that log for winter weather. How much snow there was, How cold was it, what was the wind-chill, and how much wind and snow there was. The caterpillar I'm estimating is about 1/8 of an in.

Thunder and Rumble and Tornado season is here!

Tornado season is starting for us. This does not mean that this time of year is the only time of the year when tornadoes happen. They will also happen in the summer. I have been riding my bike a whole lot and I think that I got a sunburn. Ouch! It's not too bad though.

Still Cold?

Yep. Here in Kansas it is still cold. But looking at the forecast for Thurs. to the weekend, it looks like it is going to warm up. Go to weather.gov and click right where we are in Ks. We are on the bottom center of Ks. This cloudy weather can put some of us into bad moods. Weather has an effect on our additudes. On sunny days you may feel cheerful and sunny. On cloudy, rainy, and stormy days, we feel all grumpy and moody. Keep a record of your moods and the weather. After a few weeks, look at your records and see the pattern that goes with the weather. Kids and adults, this is an awesome project to do. Wait till the summer those of you who are new in Kansas. The heat here will make you want to go swimming every day in the summer!

Revising my book

Actually, they come down here to Wichita, then they get hit by another twister. Little bit of revising.Almost done with it.

Tornado Season is just ahead

Tornado season for the area we live in is from April to May. Although please remember: Tornadoes will or can happen at any time, anywhere, or even when it is not twister season. This is very important to remember. Look at my post about Tornado safety please. And get the Tornado Emergency Box ready and have it in your basement, tornado shelter, or talk to a neighbor who has a basement about setting up a box and having it in their basement or shelter. Should be an exciting summer this year. Good Luck!

Lock-in along with snow. Crazy week.

Saturday I went to the middle school lock in at St. Annes. I managed to stay up all night. Sunday I was exhausted and slept alot. Now, there is winter weather heading our way again. Great. 9-12 inches expected tomorrow and Wed. Lots of snow shoveling.

Winter weather

Winter has finally made it to Wichita and the surronding area. However, some precations have to be taken. See the national weather service website for more details. You will notice a big big big area is covered with winter weather watches, advisories and warnings. Please look at the post with winter storm weather safety. Snow will be 3-5 inches deep by tomorrow. Be careful while driving to and from work.