Preview of My Absolute Animal Blog

Koala Bear

Full grown Koala- AWWWW!

Please welcome our next foreign guest, coming from the world down under.... THE KOALA BEAR!  Koala bears are native to Australia, where they live a somewhat happy life stuffing down as many eucalyptus leaves as they can bare and lounging in eucalyptus trees. However, life is not all fun and games for this cheerful bear...

Many koala bears are getting killed and are becoming endangered due to trees getting chopped down for housing developments. With no trees, there is no place for the bears to sleep in and no leaves to eat. To add insult to injury, the bears that DO survive are attacked by the dogs that come with the people that move into the housing districts.

Koalas become fertile at 2-3 years old. A healthy female can produce about 1 young a year, for about 12 years. Twins are very rare. The first set of twin koalas were Euca and Lyptus, who were born at the University of Queensland in April of 1999. Mating season is from December to March, and gestation period is generally 35 days.

Baby Koala- EEEWWWW!

Baby koalas, or "joeys", are born bald, blind, and earless. They usually will stay in a small stomach pouch of it's mother's until it can survive a little on it's own. More developed koalas will catch rides on their mom's back.

Little Miss Muffet.... or Should I say Mom

OH MY GOD IT'S A BEETLE!!!!!!

See the shrieking cartoon woman above? Well, that was my mom today. I might as well tell the long and tedious beginning of the story.... You want to hear what happens NOW? FINE. Mom was in the laundry room folding some clothing and was just walking out to the hallway to pet Lucky when she screamed and came running into the office like a little girl. "WAYNE, WAYNE!" Mom screamed (Wayne is my Dad's name). I thought she had had a heart attack, she looked so scared.

But then, she said something about a beetle. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A BEETLE CAUSED HER TO FLIP OUT AND COME RUNNING AND SCREAMING!? But she had to back up her story, so she said she thought it was an infestation and that two had dropped from the ceiling. (Which is probably true. My mom has a pretty crazy imagination.) 

Well anyway, me and Dad walked to the laundry room, and there on the floor was a beetle barely worthy of it's title, it was so small. Dad picked it up in a napkin and promptly threw it in the trash. (See, the beetle wasn't even TOILET BOWL WORTHY. I have met ticks that have gotten formally flushed.)

Ah well, Moms will be Moms, and crying little babies will be crying little babies. And when they combine, they equal out into the worst nightmare possible... A CRYING MOM. Well anyway, that's about all the news I have for today. 

Later,

Maddie

More Poetry

BRAIN BLANK

Having a brain blank is never fun,

Because you can't think about anyone,

Or anything to be exact,

And you have to blog about the abstract,

But here are some ideas for you,

Read them all, and use them too!

 You can blog about an artist,

A singer or an ant,

You can blog about a vegetable,

or a tree or plant,

You can blog about one of the seven wonders of the world,

And if you do your research, history will unfurl,

But alas, I still have a brain blank,

My brain is soggy and has sank,

Down to the bottom of the creative pit,

And it will stay there for a bit,

Until something creative comes along.

Christmas Poetry

The Grand Christmas Poem

The decorations go up a week after Thanksgiving,

Now's the time for merry living,

Gifts under the Christmas tree,

Carols sang in harmony,

Fruit cakes being thrown away,

Should guarantee a happy day,

The meal is in the oven now,

Mom says it's sure to bring a wow,

Now it's on the table ready to eat,

The meal has vegetables and meat,

CHICKEN POT PIE! A classic favorite,

Flaky crusts with meat that's savory,

Makes my mouth water at the smell,

It will taste good, I can tell.

After dinner we go to bed,

and leave safe wishes for Santa,

and when we wake in early morn,

only cookie crumbs adorn,

the plate that had been piled with treats,

and for the reindeer a bowl of beets,

I can't believe what I see,

underneath the Christmas tree,

PILES OF PRESENTS! ALL FOR ME! 

And there's a stack for Ashleigh too,

So no one will be leaving blue.

I think we all can soundly say,

That Christmas is our favorite day.

Hurricane Sandy Leaves My Church Organ in Ruins.... PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Before I get into my normal blog, I just wanted to say sorry to all my readers that I have not blogged in a while. I was in NJ for Thanksgiving, and it's probably the only time I ever get a break from work. ( By the way, HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! )

Ok, what I am blogging about today is very serious. When Hurricane Sandy hit in NH, it ruined my church's organ! The organ was probably one of my favorite things about going to church. The organ's motor sucks in air from the outside, and when the hurricane hit, it sucked in too much water. The first week, the organ was fine, but the second week, it crashed and wouldn't play correctly. 

The church found out that most of it's parts had rotted (as the organ has been around since the 1930's) and needed to be replaced. This includes all 600 pipes. The church has started a fund so that people can donate money for the organ, but even so, it is likely we won't have enough money for the repairs for at least another year.

If you would like to support my church and donate to save the organ, I would be very thankful and I am sure that the other people who go to my church would be too. If you donate, thank you very much in advance! 

PRICES OF PIPES AND MAILING INFO:

1' Pipe- $5

2' Pipe- $10

4' Pipe- $20

8' Pipe- $50

16' Pipe- $100

Facade Pipe- $500    (FACADE PIPES ARE THE TALL GOLD PIPES THAT ARE VISIBLE.)

Rank of Pipes- $1000   (FULL SET OF PIPES.)

Please send your donations to:

St. Patrick Church

87 Main St.

Jaffrey, NH 03458

*Checks should be made payable to: St. Patrick Church

Maddie

My Usual Schoolwork For The Day

Today, I wanted to put up my normal day of schoolwork and what it teaches me. Everyday, I have to do this:

• 3 IXL partially done math problems
• 1 college history course
• My writing for Maddie's Think A Thought
• My geography (Around the World in 80 Days)
• Biology (Absolute Animal, OCCASIONALLY)

I might as well start off with math. Each day, I do a different topic in mathwork that will help me when I take the state test next year. I have been working on Fractions, Algebra, Percentages, and Decimals mostly this year. I am currently working in 6th Grade Math on IXL.com. Every year, I try to complete a grade level. Next year, I hope to start on 7th grade work. I have about 55% of the work from grade 6 done already, so I think I will start 7th next year.

Dad gets college lectures on tape from a company called The Great Courses. It teaches me mostly history. I have watched about 4 series of different history courses. I am currently working on Ancient and Medieval History. It is my favorite course out of all I have done. I like ANYTHING that talks about the Witch Trials. The witch trials are my favorite part of history because I like to hear what the supposed "witches" did.

For my writing lesson, I blog! So basically, what you are reading right now is my writing lesson. Blogging is my absolute, number one favorite thing to do. I love being able to write about almost anything! I only have to meet my minimum of 5 paragraphs of 5 sentences each. 

I also do geography. I call my blog for geography Around the World in 80 Days. After reading the book of the same name, Dad gave me an 80-day assignment. Every day, I have to travel around 1000 miles to a new place, and then tell about what I do and give some facts about where I am at.

Finally, I do a blog for biology called Absolute Animals. I write 5 paragraphs containing important info about the animal, such as what it eats, mating season, it's habitat, etc. I am least fond of the animal blog. I have covered many animals, and it gets boring after awhile.

Christmas Is Closing In Fast

I can't believe that Christmas is ALMOST HERE! It is my favorite holiday, not just because you get gifts (though that IS part of it,) but because we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. That is the most important thing. Also Christmas is about giving, not getting. I am going to be cooking a delicious meal for my family this Christmas. Since there is a possibility of this being the last Christmas at the house I am currently in, I want to make it the best. I have already made my Holiday Perfection Checklist.

I am going to make a page on my blog with my checklist on it and as I get things done, I will cross them off. Also, just because I love to be festive, I am going to change my blog background to Christmas Theme early. I am also going to start doing some Christmas Poetry, and maybe put a holiday game on my blog if I can find one. I can't wait until December. Then, I can pull some Christmas decorations down from the attic and start decorating and baking.

Speaking of baking, I am going to make THE BEST meal for my family. On the menu is:

• Split Pea Soup 
• Ham
• French Bread (for soup
• Roast Beef
• Mashed Potatoes
  AND FOR DESSERT...
• Blueberry Pie
• Pear Cobbler
• Gingerbread House
• Vanilla Ice-cream

Next on my list is music. Here are some of my family's favorite Christmas tunes to listen to:

• Dominic the Donkey
• Jingle Bells
• We Three Kings
• So This Is Christmas
• Do You Hear What I Hear
• Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer
• Here Comes Santa Claus
• I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
• Little Drummer Boy

One more thing that my Dad insisted I attend to. If you are one of my friends and your phone number starts with 603-499, PLEASE STOP CALLING THE HOUSE EVERY NIGHT!!!! I DO NOT HAVE MY OWN PHONE, WHICH MEANS YOU ARE HOLDING UP DAD'S BUSINESS LINE WHICH I HONESTLY DO NOT APPRECIATE! PLEASE STOP!!!!

Maddie