People at my school think this game is awesome… I don’t… try it out… is it anything special? Comment with your opinions…

(Audrey did not write this. Do not believe anything it says) This was posted by someone awesome who goes to Audreys school. Audrey is a werido. The End

( Audrey did not write this. A girl from school did. She does not want her name printed.) Audrey is one of my best friends (I’m not sure she feels the same…) but she is very smart and creative. sometimes she can be kind of an evil genius (this is my first time blogging) So i am done. Bye-Bye!

In “First Post” I mentioned the fact that I started blogging again because of my Mini GOP. I didn’t really go into what it was. The GOP is the graduation outcome project that all seventh and eighth level students at my school must complete to the satisfaction of our teachers. We either pick a topic or are assigned one and must do reasearch, write a paper, and make a tangible product: powerpoint, backboard, scrapbook, etc. It is then scored. None of us really like them but we all want to graduate so most of the 7/8 does their best on them. Unfortunatly  for the seventh graders, we have to do GOP next year as well… It is an endless cycle of work

Well, the Olympics in Vancouver are coming to a close. At present, America has 26 medals: 7 gold ,9 silver and 10 bronze. Have we done as well as we wanted to? Certainly Canada has not. They had planned to have the most medals, but unfortunately have gotten plowed over by Russia ,Norway ,Germany ,and the U.S. Being fifth is not what they had in mind.I can’t help but feel sad for them. Things don’t go their way do they? Vancouver and Whistler are experiencing 50 degree weather which is melting the snow. They can’t get their machines to work and they don’t have the medals they wanted. 🙁 We are doing all right compared to all their problems. Still, I think they have done pretty well for a city that is considerably less huge and rich then Beijing. London 2012!

I recently ran across an article on CNN.com about the zero tolerance policy going, in my opinion, slightly overboard. A twelve year old girl was arrested, slapped in handcuffs, and taken to jail for what the school called a “crime”. Alexa Gonzalez doodled on her desk in Spanish class in erasable green marker. Here’s the link:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?iref=allsearch  This happened in New York City. In another case, a five year old threw a violent tantrum and was handcuffed and taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.  in the case of the doodling at most a detention would suffice or just making her wash the desk. I understand that if a child is damaging others and themselves, they should be detained, not called insane! I don’t know. Opinions?

I am tired. Everyday I get up at 6:30 am and rush through breakfast. Then I rush off to school. The only time I get to relax during the day is after we get to school and I am in my mom’s office. Then I can rest and take a few deep breaths before 8:00 at which point I have to rush of to homeroom. Is it understandable that I am sleepy? Well, I can’t say work is better, but it does have it’s perks. At least you get coffee breaks. When I ask for coffee I get told that it will stunt my growth. Objection! I have drunken coffee since I was nine and I am growing fine! More tonight…

We have had this blog for years and yet we have only ever posted about four times. That shows you what dedicated bloggers we are.

Fortunately for this blog, my mini GOP (Graduation Outcome Project) is on blogging and journalism so I have a reason to update.

It is 2010, four years from the time of the last post. We are alive and well, and in the last four years we have added a new member of the family. My 15, almost 16, year old brother Vincent came to us the August of 2006. My other brother, Ned, is a freshman in high school at St.Ignatius right here in Ohio City. I am pushing my way through middle school. A year and a quarter and I will be free! Well, almost. Then I have to go off to high school myself. Ah well… Can’t have everything. My mother is working as a teacher’s aide at my school and is enjoying her work with the third and fourth graders as well as the honorary bulletin board assembler. My dad has managed to keep his job, despite the turmoil at present with the switching from National City to PNC. Our family is mostly healthy despite a series of colds that always goes around every year. We are busy and frazzled most of the time, what with homework and many activities. Over all we are doing well and I hope that you readers are the same. Happy 2010 everyone!

The other day, Ned asked if I could stop telling him what day it was, because it was starting to make him feel like the summer was disappearing too fast!

I know what he means. Almost five weeks of summer vacation have already passed; this weekend we reach the summit, and the rest of the summer is just the downhill slide toward the first day of school on August 24th.

Although we decided against a big family vacation this year, it has still been a busy, fun summer for the whole family. Here’s a slideshow of one of our more interesting projects, undertaken on the very first day of vacation. It got us off to a good start.