A day to remember

 Have you ever had a day that you just will never forget and was the best day ever well I had one of those days and the time I had was incredible? This time was incredible because I got to swim with dolphins. Where I went was in jamaica. Also, the dolphin's name was Rosie. And the dolphin feels like rubber when the nose pushes on your feet it is a little pinch but not too bad. Another thing is that you get to dance with em. So swimming with dolphins was awesome if interested you should try it someday it is a really awesome experience that for sure I hope is a good experience and a day to remember for you as it did for me.😋😍😎

Julie's Journey #21 - Have a Great Summer!

Hey, y'all! As my last blog post this year because I doubt I will continue this next year, I would just like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe summer. Go outside, get some fresh air. Get off the electronics and do something productive. Try reading so you won't forget how to read. It actually happened to me so yeah. Those are some of my tips. I hope you guys have a happy, healthy, summer! And stay safe!

Julie's Journey #20 - Guinea Pigs 2.0: Tips and Tricks

I have learned a LOT since the first time I had guinea pigs. I learned some pretty helpful tips from the internet and some books as well (I lied, it was probably like one book...). Today, I will share some of those tips with you. Let's get started!

1. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure your guinea pig has a companion. Guinea pigs are very social animals and they will be depressed without someone with them. When I got my first guinea pig, he was very sad and unactive before my second guinea pig came along. Once the second piggie came, the other one was so happy!! They played and ran around happily. They were even "popcorning!"
Side Note: The term "popcorning" means that the piggies are so happy they are jumping up and down. It almost looks like popcorn popping hence the term "popcorning." (Check for the image below..)



2. Make sure that your piggie always has access to fresh hay, pellets, and fresh veggies/fruits. Every morning when I wake up, I get ready for the day, make my bed, and head on downstairs to start my homework. However, before I even start my homework, I always go to the fridge to get some veggies. Not for me though. I get my piggies the veggies. Sometimes, they will even wheek (pronounce like week) signaling that they are hungry. Then when they get their veggies, I get myself breakfast and start my homework.



3. Make sure you get a big cage. Guinea pigs are animals who need to run around for their exercise. They do not use a hamster wheel mainly because they are not hamsters! Many people think that guinea pigs and hamsters are the same thing. Um no. They are very different. For instance, hamsters have a tail when guinea pigs don't. Hamsters are not social animals when guinea pigs are. That being said, make sure your piggie's cage is big, full of hideouts, and lots of food and water! (You can also have chew toys as well.)


4. Food: If I didn't make it clear earlier, guinea pigs require a lot of food. They require:

• Fresh hay
• Pellets
• Pea flakes (sometimes)
• Water
• Veggies
• Fruits

Veggies/Fruits conclude:

• Celery
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Forage
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Apple
• Blueberry
• Banana
• Bell peppers
• Strawberries 

Make sure to avoid seeds and sometimes skin (Of the fruits and veggies).

I think that's all for now. Thanks for tuning in! Bye!

(Here is the channel I watch where I learn a lot about guinea pigs: Little Adventures)

❤ - Julie Z.

The haunted - still more much more to investigate about the haunted ghosts all around us so boooooo

Ok so have you guys ever heard of the creepy teachers in Fleetwood? Well if you haven't for one they are creepy and in some way haunted like hidden ghosts. So my friend has told me about a little story about them. So from my knowledge, they hide in closets. They also, as a matter of fact, snoop in the hallway, and even in the bath weirdos I know right to talk about the weirdo history and tell me how it goes aright. Also one of the teachers no lie they try and go to the child's dest and they make grew marks on them as well. So that's all I really know about that for right now but I am actually going to the Fleetwood school real soon to talk to a friend of my mom and while she is busy talking to her friend about something she needs to talk to her friend about so yeah. So anywho when I am there I am bringing pen and paper so I will tell you there also my yard is haunted as well I have to investigate that a little bit more as well I will get back to you with that story as soon as I can so yeah stay haunted and share the ghost powers love boohoo boohoo boooooo boooo

Julie's Journey #19- Helpful Tips During this Pandemic

1. Go outside for some fresh air. You'll need it. Trust me.

2. Get a mask!! Even if that means you have to make one.

3. Do your homework (all of it) before you relax. 

4. Make a schedule for your schoolwork. It helped me.

5. Do a bit of homework every day. Don't do it all at once. 

6. Always practice social distancing!!!

7. Try to be mindful of those around you. 

8. Wake up earlier than your normal time to start your homework.

9. Try to attend your google or zoom meets. 

10. Keep yourself busy. 

11. Wash your hands!

12. Just stay safe.

In addition to #10, I made a blog post about 50 things to do while you are bored. It would come in handy during this situation so here is the link if you need it: CLICK ME!!!

(Also ignore some of the ones that I put on the blog, they are stuff like 'go to an amusement park' but you can't right now so....just ignore those, thanks!)

That's all folks! Just remember, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe!

❤ - Julie

Julie's Journey #18 - The Ghost in Mrs. Maulick's Classroom

Believe it or not, legend has it that our school is haunted! Yes, the school you all go to! If you all remember Mrs. Overman, she was the 7th-grade language arts teacher that was obsessed with ghosts! She always read the scariest ghost stories to her class, leaving students horrified! Apparently, supernatural things occurred in her classroom. As she was retiring, Mr. Kuehner had to find someone else to teach 7th-grade language arts alongside Mr. Bender, another fellow teacher. Thankfully, Mrs. Maulick, the learning support teacher at that time, got the job. As Mrs. Maulick was in the classroom (which is now Mrs. Miller’s room), nothing, and I mean nothing supernatural occurred. However, when I would walk in the hallways, I would hear every now and then about a “so-called” ghost in Mrs. Maulick’s room. Then, I got really invested...so, I started investigating. The story goes like this. In the summer of 2019, Mrs. Maulick was moving into her new room. She was getting everything ready for the upcoming year. Ya know, hanging posters and organizing things. As she was at her filing cabinet pulling out random papers and files, someone walked into her classroom which at the corner of her eye happened to look like a human figure. I know what you’re probably thinking, “Why wouldn’t it be a person?” But as Mrs. Maulick turned to greet whoever was there, it disappeared! Like it was just...just gone! Keep in mind that she was the only one at the school and it just so happened to be late at night. Mrs. Maulick was terrified as she quickly gathered all her things and sprinted down the hallway as fast as she could. But it wasn’t over yet! Just as she was running down the hallway, the night bell started to go off! Also, keep in mind that someone had to have physically turned on the night bell, but as I said before, no one was there! As panicked as she was, she kept sprinting to her car and left to go home. A few days later, back in the classroom, Mrs. Maulick was cautious as she did her work. While working, the door connecting Mr. Bender’s room and her room suddenly opened...and Mr. Bender wasn’t even there! Nobody was! Even some custodians have seen and heard some pretty creepy things too, so it wasn’t just Mrs. Maulick. Back in the day, before SVMS was even built, that whole area or piece of land belonged to the Lenape Indian Tribe, also known as Lenni Lenape (which means “true people”). Lenape Indians were in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and of course, Pennsylvania. Could it just so happen to be that the Lenape Indians somehow haunted the area before we came? And now that our school we go to has been haunted, and we were so unaware?! I’ll keep investigating this and keep you updated, but promise me this; beware of the seventh-grade hallway, for no one will know what secrets it holds…

Thanks for reading.

❤ - Julie

Pomplaining is hard to do, especially during Quarantine.

Yes, I know. Quarantine. Not my favorite of topics.
I bet when you watch the news the only topic they really talk about is the virus.
"This amount of people died from the coronavirus today", or "so many people are waiting outside of testing stations to be tested!" or, "This person was tested positive for the coronavirus!"

It's really ridiculous! Now, honestly your probably thinking, "why are you talking about this? We all hear it every day!". WHAT IS POMPLAINING?! (you have to keep reading to find out!)

The reason is, that I want to make sure, I'm not slowly falling into sanity from being at home all day, listening to the news. See I'm ranting, but I want to be positive about it though.
Makes sense?
No?
Alright, let me break it down for you.

I really don't want to boast about Quarantine, because that's negative. Also, that really won't make this blog enjoyable for you people that are reading this, but if you boast about something, people will agree with what you have to say.
So what am I saying?
I want to complain and also be positive about it!
I don't think that's a thing.
pomplaining?
 (oh, there is the word again!)
I just made a new word! Pomplaining! I feel so cool right now.

(now you get it. still no? It's Positive and complaining mashed into one word.)
What does it mean?
It means Positively complaining about something- yea you get it.

 Anyway, yea I don't know how to positively complain/rant about something, but being positive can increase your mood on situations. (like about the virus) Also, you will feel better about yourself!
So, yea okay we might not have the rest of the school year ahead but being positive about it can maybe change how you feel on it! Also, follow the rules on washing your hand and staying 6ft away from other people.

5ft apart... the movie had me crying.

Anyway, be safe and follow the rules and you should be fine.
Also, people should be Pomplaining a lot more, don't you think?
 (no, it makes no sense what so ever.)

-Nya :)

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS #10 - Book Review: Notes From the Midnight Driver

I enjoyed doing the last book review so
much, and I think it went quite well, if I do say so myself. So, I decided to do another one. This book, Notes From the Midnight Driver, is another book by Jordan Sonnenblick, and might I say, it was no let-down from his other fantastic works.

When 16-year-old Alex Gregory drunkenly crashes his car into his neighbor's yard and pummels a very unlucky lawn gnome, the community service he is ordered to do seems to be more than he can handle.  At his local senior center, he is assigned to Soloman Lewis a "difficult" old man with a lot of gusto and quite a bit of a temper. On top of this, his parents are 

getting a divorce, and he has to deal with all the other typical 10th-grade drama (Hint-hint: A beautiful girl) that is thrown his way. Little does he know, these experiences are destined to change his life forever.

Goodreads rates this book a 4.1 out of 5, but this is another book I would rate at least a 4.5 out of 5. Sonnenblick has done it again, creating a book that is both hilarious and heartbreaking, tugging at your heartstrings the whole way through. 

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS # 9 - Book Review: Zen & the Art of Faking It

I have always loved reading. I would read anything             
and everything when I was little (Including my
history textbook), and I just thought it would be
offensive to the world of literature not to do a book
review at one point or another. This book, Zen and
the Art of Faking It, was written by Jordan
Sonnenblick, one of my all-time favorite authors,
and, just like all his other books, I thought he
did exceedingly well with it.

Meet San Lee, your average eighth-grader who moves 

to a new town against his will, where he (sort-of) invents

a new past for himself and gets the school to (sort-of) 

start to worship him, just because he (sort-of) gave the 

impression that he's a reincarnated mystic. As you 

can imagine, things started to go downhill very quickly
for him. Can he patch things up with his family, stop
being an outcast, and even get the girl after all?

I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. This, of course, is because of the heart-wrenching story, cleverly mixed with the light-hearted comedy that we have all come to love from Sonnenblick. The characters are realistic and relatable, and the tension in the book will have you just bouncing off the walls.

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS # 8 - The Best Poems Of All Time

There are a lot of different types of writing today. There are a lot of different genres of writing,
but there will always be one form that outshines all the rest (Well, only a little. All types of writing
are amazing!), and that is poetry. It is always so beautiful and emotional. And it only has to be a
few stanzas of complete and pure awesomeness, but, often times, are many stanzas of complete
and pure awesomeness. So, without further ado, here are the top 6 poems of all time.

6) Go and Catch a Falling Star by John Donne 

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the devil’s foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy’s stinging,

            And find

            What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be’st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me,

All strange wonders that befell thee,

            And swear,

            No where

Lives a woman true, and fair.

If thou find’st one, let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet;

Though she were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

            Yet she

            Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three.

5) The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves, no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

4) Cinderella by Anne Sexton

You always read about it:

the plumber with the twelve children who win the Irish Sweepstakes.

From toilets to riches.

That story.

Or the nursemaid,

some luscious sweet from Denmark

who captures the oldest son's heart.

from diapers to Dior.

That story.

Or a milkman who serves the wealthy,

eggs, cream, butter, yogurt, milk,

the white truck like an ambulance

who goes into real estate

and makes a pile.

From homogenized to martinis at lunch.

Or the charwoman

who is on the bus when it cracks up

and collects enough from the insurance.

From mops to Bonwit Teller.

That story.

Once

the wife of a rich man was on her deathbed

and she said to her daughter Cinderella:

Be devout. Be good. Then I will smile

down from heaven in the seam of a cloud.

The man took another wife who had

two daughters, pretty enough

but with hearts like blackjacks.

Cinderella was their maid.

She slept on the sooty hearth each night

and walked around looking like Al Jolson.

Her father brought presents home from town,

jewels and gowns for the other women

but the twig of a tree for Cinderella.

She planted that twig on her mother's grave

and it grew to a tree where a white dove sat.

Whenever she wished for anything the dove

would drop it like an egg upon the ground.

The bird is important, my dears, so heed him.

Next came the ball, as you all know.

It was a marriage market.

The prince was looking for a wife.

All but Cinderella were preparing

and gussying up for the event.

Cinderella begged to go too.

Her stepmother threw a dish of lentils

into the cinders and said: Pick them

up in an hour and you shall go.

The white dove brought all his friends;

all the warm wings of the fatherland came,

and picked up the lentils in a jiffy.

No, Cinderella, said the stepmother,

you have no clothes and cannot dance.

That's the way with stepmothers.

Cinderella went to the tree at the grave

and cried forth like a gospel singer:

Mama! Mama! My turtledove,

send me to the prince's ball!

The bird dropped down a golden dress

and delicate little slippers.

Rather a large package for a simple bird.

So she went. Which is no surprise.

Her stepmother and sisters didn't

recognize her without her cinder face

and the prince took her hand on the spot

and danced with no other the whole day.

As nightfall came she thought she'd better

get home. The prince walked her home

and she disappeared into the pigeon house

and although the prince took an axe and broke

it open she was gone. Back to her cinders.

These events repeated themselves for three days.

However on the third day the prince

covered the palace steps with cobbler's wax

and Cinderella's gold shoe stuck upon it.

Now he would find whom the shoe fit

and find his strange dancing girl for keeps.

He went to their house and the two sisters

were delighted because they had lovely feet.

The eldest went into a room to try the slipper on

but her big toe got in the way so she simply

sliced it off and put on the slipper.

The prince rode away with her until the white dove

told him to look at the blood pouring forth.

That is the way with amputations.

They just don't heal up like a wish.

The other sister cut off her heel

but the blood told as blood will.

The prince was getting tired.

He began to feel like a shoe salesman.

But he gave it one last try.

This time Cinderella fit into the shoe

like a love letter into its envelope.

At the wedding ceremony

the two sisters came to curry favor

and the white dove pecked their eyes out.

Two hollow spots were left

like soup spoons.

Cinderella and the prince

lived, they say, happily ever after,

like two dolls in a museum case

never bothered by diapers or dust,

never arguing over the timing of an egg,

never telling the same story twice,

never getting a middle-aged spread,

their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.

Regular Bobbsey Twins.

That story.

3) Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

2) O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

1) Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief.

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

It’s me!

Hello everyone! How’s life treating you? I apologize if this duplicates, Blogger doesn’t like phones. I love my new school, it’s very big. The entire sv seventh grade is just one section here at Nazareth. The teachers are nice, and everyone’s been very welcoming, though I miss you all. What’s new around the valley? Is Mr Bender still talking about James? What’s happening in math class? How’s Mrs. Furst? At my new school, we’re doing stuff I’ve already done, we’re graphing inequalities right now. We’re allowed to carry our phones here which is amazing, and having a lock on your locker is optional. You’re also allowed to wear slides! (April-November). I do miss you guys, whenever I see something that reminds me of you, I get a deep searing pain of regret that I left so abruptly. Anyways, bye for now y’all! Use big words for me ;)

-Kaleya, former panther
(PS- we don’t face them in football games, but I’ll be back to visit soon!)