Christmas Gifts!!

Guess what? I was blessed with a lot of Christmas gifts!

 

 Every Christmas Eve we go downstairs to a party with my grandparents and they give us gifts. I got some winter crocs (I can wear crocs all year long!!!!) and the boots were on Christmas day.

 Lately these years we've been going to our cousins' house (This year my other grandparents' house) on the 29th of December. There we have a Yankee Swap and another gift opening! I got the T-shirt from there, while the sweater was on Christmas Eve.

 You couldn't see what the T-shirt says so here it is. Funny, huh?

 I got some thinking putty from an early gift opening. It changes color depending to the heat.

 Sophie gave me this wallet early, while my grandparents gave the glasses fixing kit a couple days after Christmas.

 I got some Adventures in Odyssey albums. The first two (The Lost Episodes and Daring Deeds, Sinister Schemes) were on Christmas Eve, while I got the third one (Darkness Before Dawn) with a gift card for Morning Star I got on Christmas day.

 And I got this cool Sonic the Hedgehog Roller Racer in my stocking on Christmas day.

 I got an Angry Birds toy (game which includes cards) on the early gift opening, and at my grandparents' house, I got a Star Wars ReColoritz coloring book. (I really hate to say this, but I gave it to my sister, Sophie because I had no interest in it. :P) And on Christmas day, Sophie gave me a Mad Libs book she made.

 At my grandparents' house, I got a random LEGO minifigure. Although I don't know what it is, it's cool.

 On Christmas Eve, I got a $25 ITunes gift card, and at the Yankee Swap, I traded for another gift card that was $15!!! With both gift cards combined, that's a lot of money to buy songs!!!

 And best of all these gifts... A NINTENDO 3DS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had wanted this for years and I even started a savings account (which ended up as a game for the 3DS) to save up for it because I thought my parents couldn't afford it! This is an awesome machine! It is backwards compatible with regular DS games and it even has a camera!!! (which is the camera I have been using for this post!)

 The front (in a mirror)

 And the back (in... you know)

 A couple of days after Christmas, my Grammie gave me this case to go with it

 ...which is where I keep all my DS games! (From left: Mario Kart DS, Sonic Classics Collection, and...)

New Super Mario Bros.! This I got on Christmas day along with the 3DS! 

 

 

 

The things you don't see here are lots of candy (Mom had to put it away sometimes) gum, a Slim Jim, and beef jerky. It is no doubt that God has blessed me with tons of gifts! But we shouldn't forget what Christmas is all about. The greatest Christmas Gift of all is Jesus (the Son of God) who was born in a manger. John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Amen! I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!



Our Dreamcast!

Check this dinosaur out! We had one a long time ago, but it broke. This is our "new" one that my brother Charles gave us. Someone gave it to him with a random game, but he didn't give him the controllers or cords. Luckily we had those, and we found them and plugged the Dreamcast in, but all we needed was our controllers! We couldn't find them for months! But just yesterday, Mom renovated the downstairs room and moved the shelf. There was a cabinet behind it with old junky computers and joysticks, and I FOUND THE CONTROLLERS!!!!!! I plugged them in and tested all the games we had, but they were all junk. The only game that works is Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, the game that came with this Dreamcast. Luckily, we can download some games and burn them on a disc, so I don't have to buy any games. I was thinking maybe Sonic Shuffle. We have a memory card that was Charles', and some weird thingy (I don't know what it is. A Rumble Pak, maybe?)

 

If you don't know what this dinosaur is, I will tell you about it. In 1998, Sega made this video game consle as the first of the era of the Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2. (128-Bit) It was a new breakthrough, rebuilding the reputation of Sega, which was damaged by the Sega Saturn, the dumb 32X and the CD. It is the platform of awesome games, like Sonic Adventure, and Chu-Chu Rocket. It has memory cards that go in the controller (which HAS IT'S OWN SCREEN!!) and a bunch of other things. Unfortunately, it was dumb compared to the Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2, so it didn't sell much after a while. They discontinued the Dreamcast in America in 2003, while they had it in Japan until 2006. This was the last consle by Sega.

 



The whole thing

The Dreamcast

Controller 1 (official)

 Controller 2 (Performance (that's a company))

 Our Memory Card

Our... Whatever this is (Rumble Pak?)

 Our only game that works

Sorry, but I'm taking a blogging break.

You may have seen that I haven't posted in a while. This is because of my procrastination. I meant to post a lot of things, but I put it off for a while. I'm taking a big break for a while and I'm removing that schedule on the sidebar. So, I'll post when I'm done the break! Try checking this blog in a month or so. ;)

My New Shoes!

Check out these new shoes! I got them a few days ago with my grandparents at WalMart. I'm lucky to get these, because I'm not in the tying shoes category. These have velcrows! So, what do you think of them?

Weekly Wrap-Up 10/26/13

WEEKLY WRAP-UP

Check out the Weekly Wrap-Up on my Mom's blog!

READING LOG:
Point of No Return by Paul McCusker
Childhood of Famous Americans: George Washington by Augusta Stevenson
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Mom's Read-Alouds:
TOPS: Magnetism

WRITING:
A chapter of my new book
Editing AIOWiki
My Journal

VIDEO GAMES PLAYED:
Super Mario 64 (Project 64 emulator)
Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo DS)
Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

MOVIES WATCHED:
Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian

TV SHOWS WATCHED:
America's Funniest Home Videos
The Biggest Loser: Second Chances
Adventures in Odyssey

The American Gothic - Juvenile Version!

Have you ever heard of this picture?

That's the American Gothic. I made my own parody of it with Sophie!

And I posted it on Facebook!

Old videos I found on our computer!

A long while ago, I remember that my brother Andrew downloaded some videos. A lot of them we kept on the computer that we have. So we had them for a long time! Here are four of them. Note that these are not mine. I FOUND them. Enjoy!

Danse de Cable

Defective

Gumman trailer

Funny Cats (Possibly from America's Funniest Home Videos)

Andrew's Birthday Party!

We just had some real fun at Andrew's party celebrating 22 years! We played Catch Phrase, and we had a chocolate-chip cake, and I wanna say again that we had a lot of fun!

 Having dinner

 Eating cake

Playing Catch Phrase 

My Newest Adventures in Odyssey Album!

This post was meant for yesterday, but I kept procrastinating.

I saved up $5 for this new album, and it just came in the mail yesterday! Well, it's not exactly new. It's from 1994, and I found it on Amazon for $1.00 (plus $3.99 shipping) and it was used, and in "very good" condition. The seller was right! It barely had any scratches, except when you listen to the opening theme, it skips a little, unless you put it in the computer! Enough of the technical talk! Let's talk about the details! This album, Joy to the World, is a special collector's item for your AIO collection because the episode included is what you won't find in any other album! It's called Christmas Around the World, Parts 1 and 2! Possibly the reason why it was unreleased is because it's mostly a lot of Christmas songs. The only drawback is that it's all in one track, making it hard to skip to the part you're on. I decided I would put it away until Christmastime. This is a pretty good album!

Weekly Wrap-Up 10/19/13

Today, I am starting a Weekly Wrap-Up thing for every Saturday. You probably notice that there is unnecessary things in this, but remember. This is just for fun! 

WEEKLY WRAP UP!

Reading Log:

Adventures in Odyssey: The Official Guide by Nathan Hoobler

Adventures in Odyssey: Point of No Return by Paul Mckusker

Mom's Read-Alouds:

The Other Side of the Mountain by Craighead George

TOPS: Magnitism by Ron Marson

Writing:

Chapters 1-3 of my new book I'm writing, editing AIOWiki, this blog

Video Games played:

Super Mario 64 (PJ64)

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

TV Shows watched:

Must Love Cats

Adventures in Odyssey

America's Funniest Home Videos

The Biggest Loser: Second Chances

A Blog Schedule!

Starting today (although attempted earlier this week) I am going to make a blog post routine! Sounds boring, but on Tuesday, you never know what type of post you will get. I will not post on Sunday unless it's the first Sunday of the month. I will put this schedule on the sidebar. If I get bored of the schedule, I will stop it and it will be different. Here's the schedule!

• First Sunday of the month: A journal entry
• Monday: New things around the house (Pets, video games, etc.)
• Tuesday: You never know!
• Wednesday: A field trip (Bowling, the beach, taking a walk, etc.)
• Thursday: Non-Personal Stuff (AIO, Star Wars, etc)
• Friday: Blog/online update (This post, my own Youtube video, etc.)
• Saturday: Weekly Wrap Up

Odyssey Adventure Club!

Guess what? There is a new Adventures in Odyssey thing called Odyssey Adventure Club! For $15 a month, you can get a free subscription to Clubhouse Magazine, The ENTIRE Adventures in Odyssey audio library (That's 738 episodes!), a brand new episode every month, and more! When did they get so generous?!?!?! I think it's a Hulu for Odyssey! It's gonna be in January 2014, and I am gonna save up for it! I listen to the commercials every day, and I even got it memorized! (quoting the commercial "Come along for our greatest adventure yet! It's the Odyssey Adventure Club! Grow in your faith and imagination with the entire Adventures in Odyssey audio library! That's 700 episodes! 24-7 on your iPhone, tablet, or laptop! Plus, monthly activities, and more! Family time just became mobile with the Odyssey Adventure Club! Preview it now at Whitsend.org/oac!") 

Lots of field trips this week!

We had a lot of field trips this week! Here's the first one.

Bowling

My turn in bowling

Scoring in bowling!

Playing Nascar Pinball

Playing Puzzle Bobble with Sophie

Earlier this week, we went bowling. Me, mom, and Sophie went to Lefty's Lanes. We put up bumpers (but we won't next time; I want it to be more challenging), and we had lots of fun. Mom won with 70 points! Sophie was close. Afterwards, me and Sophie went to the arcade there where I spent 50 cents on a Nascar Pinball machine, and spent 50 cents on Puzzle Bobble, where Sophie joined in. That was fun, but my grandparents and my cousins will bring us to the bowling alley again sometime!

Homeschool Group

On Tuesday, we went to the library for this homeschool group thing.  We went outside and played Man Hunt, which is Hide and Seek-Tag. We had lots of fun! We talked about things, and stuff. We go to this every Tuesday!

The Playground

Next to a tree

Sliding the big blue tube slide!

In a tree

On the spinning thingy

Yesterday we went to the Keyes Field playground. My favorite part is a big blue tube slide I loved since I was five years old. There's also a spinning thing that goes really fast, and makes you dizzy after a while. I thought it was a good place to play Spindaze, but Sophie didn't think so. We had lots of fun, and I climbed a tree! That was a fun day.

Spindaze---A game me and Sophie made up!

Sorry for not posting yesterday.

Guess what? A couple of days ago, Sophie made up this cool game! I made up the name and some of the rules.

Place: Best played in a big field
Players: 2 or more
Props: Blindfold

First, player 1 puts on the blindfold and spins and spins, while player 2 (or all the other players, if there is more than 2) runs and goes to a spot where player 1 can walk up and get you. After spinning, player 1 stops and looks for the other player(s). Other player(s) do not run away from your spot while player 1 closes in. (running while blindfolded is a bad idea) If played with 3 or more players the last player to be caught is the winner!

Isaiah's Pet Budgie, Ozzy!

Recently, Isaiah bought a budgie bird he named Ozzy. He's really cute! Budgies can talk, but this one doesn't. Maybe he will later. Sometimes, he chirps multiple times. I want to teach him the word "budgie". The only thing that I don't like is that you have to be quiet in my (and Isaiah's) room.

Journal Entry 10/12/13: The Birthday Party

Today, I tried waking up at 6:00, but my glasses were on my DS, so I woke up at 8:23. I got up and listened to today’s Adventure in Odyssey (Life Expectancy, Part 3) and Sophie listened to it afterwards. I came up and ate a ramen soup.

 I turned on the computer with Mom’s permission to start this journal. Mom said it was Isaiah’s fiancée’s sister’s birthday party today! And Andrew’s birthday is tomorrow! It was cloudy, leaves were falling... and I wasn’t really sure about going to the birthday party. It’s a girl’s party... but I don’t want to turn down an invitation. I might have fun, I was at another girl’s party and I had fun...So I am gonna go. I showed Mom my journal so far, and we talked about humor. Then, I used the Dell computer and played Mario 64 on an emulator.

Then I wrote a blog post (My School Journal!) and afterwards I ate hot dogs and watched an Adventures in Odyssey video (Star Quest) on TV.

 Then, I used the Dell computer for a while. I unloaded the dishwasher 

and then took a shower. Then I used the computer for another while. Dad made some juice. We were going to leave in 20 minutes. Sophie cleaned up, I changed my clothes, and we left. We had fun, I ate a lot of Goldfish crakers, and we ate some cake and ice cream, and there was lots of other things.

 We came home, I ate some sloppy joes for dinner, and used the computer for a while. Then, we all watched The Princess Bride, then I went to bed.     

My School Journal!

Right now, I am working on a school project. I started on the first day of school, and I am planning to finish it after my evaluations. It's kinda like a project of what I did during the summer, just backwards. I will post one of them that I am working on today, tomorrow. (even though it's a Sunday) And once in a while, I might do this. Thanks for reading!

Blog: TRANSFORMED!!

Wow! A new color scheme, a new profile picture, a new blog picture, a new title, and more! Do you see how much this blog has changed? I've had the red color scheme for years, and I decided it's time to change. I removed some unnecessary things, like those pictures on the sidebar, "crazy google logos", and other things. My last change is, I will try to post every day except Sunday. If you want to see how my blog used to look, click here. Hope you like my changes!

The Animal Shelter

 Me holding Sly

Me petting Autumn

Me petting Sly

Today, I went to this animal shelter with lots of cats and dogs. Sophie looked at all the dogs, while I looked at all the cats. The cats were very cute, there was one named Autumn, who I had on my lap for a while, There was one named Sly, who liked to be in my arms, and there was Brook, who was shy. The animal shelter was one of the field trips I loved.