Pedernales Falls

Recently my family and I went to Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City, Tx.

Pedernales is the Spanish word for flint; there are many chunks of flint in the river bed.

The park has lots of hiking trails, camping sites and boulders to climb and explore, but the main attraction is the falls.  The falls are beautiful at low water, but can turn deadly in flash floods, as signs throughout the park state. The falls trickle off into little pools of water, you can walk out to them on strips of rock that jut into the river.

The area the park is situated in is really picturesque- it seems like a backdrop for an old Western, with rolling hills and brown mountains.

 

mom kept taking pictures. ;)

 

 This was a cave. I crawled pretty far in but wriggled back out when the tunnel narrowed. People had scratched names on the sides, and sunlight filtered in through a hole in the roof. I felt like Nancy Drew, exploring. :)

The park itself is 5,200 acres and was a private ranch until 1970. Can you imagine owning all the waterfalls?!

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Museum and Library

While in Austin for Agrilife 4-H Day at the Capitol

(Bleed Maroon! Bleed Green!) we stopped at the LBJ library and museum on the UT campus. Compared to the other two presidential libraries I've seen (there are 3 in Texas) this was a little dated, but it still had some really neat exhibits.

One of my favorite things was the telephone calls on any and everything, from Johnson's wife Lady Bird correcting his speech to him offering Jackie O advice.

 

 

 The museum focused a good bit on the decades in Johnson's life- a room filled with 50's, 60's or 70's mementos, etc.  It was very interesting to see what was popular at different times, and what news and wars impacted life.

Johnson's presidency was deeply overshadowed by the Vietnam War, and he hated the fact but knew he could do nothing to change it. More than anything, he wanted to use his Presidency help the underdog - poor, minorities, children - anyone who didn't have a voice or say at Congress. A few years teaching at an impoverished school on the Texas- Mexico border instilled this desire to help in him early on.

This table showed how events in Johnson's presidency affect our lives today.



You have to give it to him- it was a pretty good idea to get people to care about who their senators are. He had some pretty snazzy tactics- while running for President, he handed out toothbrushes and razors so people would remember him 'first thing in the morning and/or before they go to bed' as he felt those were important decision- making times.

Eating DNA

Today I made a replica of some good old deoxyribonucleic acid.

Mmm. More commonly known as DNA,  it is hidden in tiny, long structures called chromosomes. During cell division these chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing each cell its own complete set of chromosomes. It grows something like this: One cell makes two, two makes four, four makes eight, etc. 

 I first chose a sequence, and then placed adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine in that order. Those are just four types of nucleobases (aka, bases).These four nucleobases, along the backbone, encode biological information, like your eye color or your hair color. Marshmallows were my base pairs, and a Twizzler was the backbone. The backbone is made up of a residue of chemical sugars.

Yum! Cytosine!

Labelling my base pairs. 

                            Adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine with guanine.

Twisting it into a double helix.

Confessions of a Country Girl/Livestock Show

   Last week was the project show/livestock show. It's a really fun, busy week. I only made one project, but my little brothers showed their animals and I led barn tours, so we were there ALL. WEEK. LONG. :D

  I don't mind, though. I love the atmosphere: wearing boots, slugging through mounds of dust while George Strait wails through crackly old speakers, petting the rabbits waiting to be shown, cheering for friends as they show, balancing precariously on pipe fences surrounding the arena just for the fun of it, even waiting in an hour-long line in the hot sun to buy a snowcone.

Okay, my monologue has lasted long enough. Moving on,

The buckle is silver and turquoise! It's so heavy that it pulls my belt down.

I got this reserve grand champion belt buckle with my kitchen set project!!

I apologize for the galoshes/lack of Western attire; the barns are very, very muddy(I now live an hour from Old Navy, btw). But aren't they cute galoshes?

 Dad taught me how to use the tools and I learned a lot. I had a great time painting the kitchen set, decorating it, and building it. It started with an old desk I found for $40 at a thrift store, and we built shelving underneath. The faucet a nice employee at Lowe's gave to us for $5, as it was a display faucet they no longer needed.
The 'burners' are furniture grip pads glued to a board spray painted silver. The sink basin is a mixing bowl.

I had a ton of fun leading the barn tours this year as well. We had 585 kids come through. We walked them in groups of two classes from station to station, then through the barns to look at the cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, peacocks, turkeys, horses, etc. It was such a great experience, but also a very eye -opening experience. When we asked where they thought beef came from, they said the store., or  they thought people 'grew' it.  "A man grows it an' puts it in a truck an' takes it to the store," one boy explained confidently.

   I guess, in the five years I've lived in the country, I've become used to learning exactly where my food comes from. I know where the animals live, what they eat, and  where the plants grow. Not to say I'm an expert at country life; I can barely ride a horse. :)
Still, I've come to think of myself as a country girl, and I'm proud of that!

BLS Class

Tuesday I took a BLS, or Better Life Support class. I learned what to do in the event of a choking or cardiac arrest. I also learned how to use a manual defibrillator, and AED, a pocket mask, and a bag mask!!

This is a dummy with the AED pads attached. The AED tells you when to give a shock, stop compressions, and start compressions.

This is a bag mask. You would only use it in the event of a two-person rescue.

If it was just you, by yourself with an adult heart attack victim, you would:

1. Shake the victim. Call loudly, "Sir/Ma'am, can you hear me?"
2. Get a passerby to call for help. Alert another to find an AED.
3. If you get no response, feel by the trachea for a pulse. This should take no more than 10 seconds. Time is important.
4. If  you find no pulse, immediately start chest compressions. These take a lot of energy. Count out loud.
5. Once you've done thirty compressions, allowing chest recoil time, give two breaths. If you don't have a pocket mask, seal your lips around the victim's and breathe twice. Watch for the chest to rise and fall. 
6. Attach the AED pads under the left nipple and above the right.
7. The AED will instruct you to stand back, and it will shock the victim.
8. Wait for the AED to reanalyze.
9. Resume compressions, if the AED tells you to.
10. Repeat this cycle  until you see the victim breathing normally or until EMTS arrive.

So, as you can see, I had a lot of steps to remember! I also had to practice chocking rescue, and we practiced on adult, toddler, and infant dummies. Then we took a 25 question test. I was pretty nervous, as I was the only kid there, but I passed.

I am now a certified healthcare professional!!

4-H Food Extravaganza

    Every year I post about the District Food Extravaganza, but this year it's different. I'm a 4-H Senior, this wonderful age  limit between 14-18 that allows us to go to State!! WhooHoo! So, if you place first at county, and first at District, you have a chance at State. Sadly, I placed second. :(

However... I PLACED FIRST WITH MY FOOD CHALLENGE TEAM! WE'RE GOING TO STATE!!

My team

 It was so much fun and I can't wait for State! My team is super nice and I think we all work together well.
We couldn't believe it when they called our names. We were clapping, and then Katelynn said,"Wait-that's us! We won!"

All the people from our county who participated. We were up against a lot of competition.

Playing Games With Nursing Home Residents

So, my 4-H group and I recently volunteered to play games at a local  nursing home. I learned many new skills, the first being wheelchair bowling. You begin by setting up plastic pins in a triangular shape, and then roll a plastic ball into them. My job was to chase the plastic ball, bring it back to the bowlers, and keep score. The bowlers were so precious! One, obviously certain Ella, Elijah, Lainey, and  I were incompetent, would direct  us on everything from how to add the scores to how to set up pins - "one first, the two in the middle, three, and four in the back". One lady wanted to hold Ella and show her how to bowl. And one good-natured woman just laughed when she made a mistake and clapped when she got a strike.

 We set up pins, set up pins, and set up pins. And while that may seem redundant, those ladies NEVER got tired.

Meanwhile, Christopher, Andrew, and several other kids played checkers with some of the other residents. They played endless rounds of checkers and Wahoo, and, I must add, were excellent sports when one woman was caught cheating. (!) They simply grinned and kept playing.

I also re-learned how to play Spoons. My cousin Charles had taught me a long, long time ago, but I promptly forgot. So Abigaile and Colbie, these adorable little sisters in our group, took it upon themselves to teach me. (Thank y'all!) After playing with the nursing home patients for nearly 2 hours, it was time to go. We bade our new friends goodbye and went to Icrave, a delicious frozen yogurt place. It was awesome! I had key lime yogurt and  white chocolate mousse yogurt with white chocolate chips. Oh...It was so good.
Then we headed to Youth Church.

Goodbye for now!

I'm back!

It's been too long, dahlings! Here's what's been going on in my life lately:

 I participated in my 4-H's County Food Show. I made homemade Chicken Pot Pie, and I placed first in my category, so I'll be advancing to District,then hopefully State! At the same Food Show, I also participated in a Food Challenge(Think Iron Chef or Chopped). My team made the delicious meal below and gave a speech on it to a panel of judges.

My team!

I've also been gearing up for the Academic Rodeo Fashion Show. Instead of modelling a dress, you wear a specialty outfit. So I chose an outfit a female lawyer might wear. I prepared all the paperwork and now just have to model.

 I also wrote an essay on "Good Deeds" for the Academic Rodeo. If I win, I'm eligible for scholarships. Fingers crossed!

Caribbean Princess cruise Days 2

 Day 2 we were at sea. It  was Sunday, and there was a wonderful church service. The 'pastor' explained "I'm not a minister- just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody." How cool is that?! He was from a tiny town in Alabama, and filled his sermon with fascinating stories about his church there. All the passengers attending the service came from different denominations and different places, and it was really neat to see them together worshipping God. I imagine that's what heaven's like.
After church,we played games and ate lunch in the buffet. Our friends taught us a new game called "Joker". It's pretty fun! That night was formal night- oh my. We dressed up, ate a delicious meal, and met a lot of new people. All of the workers on board are from different countries- Philippines, France, Ukraine, England, you name it. So it was really interesting to meet them and talk to them about their countries. We became good friends with the head waiter, Mr. Hector Catalan. Not only was he super nice, he is an amazing singer!! He sang beautiful songs every night during dinner.
 

muy delicioso spicy Dr.Pepper pulled brisket//

This recipe for spicy pulled brisket is quite possibly the best food ever, paired with homemade tortillas and guacamole. Oh yeah. :)
-------------------

You will need:
1 brisket
1 small/ medium onion
2 cans of adobo peppers in chili sauce
2 cans of Dr. Pepper
1/2 cup brown sugar
--------------------

1. Place the brisket in a foil-lined 13 x 9 pan.

2.  Slice the onion and place all around the brisket.

3. Add the adobo peppers and the Dr. Pepper.

4. Sprinkle brown sugar on. Once everything's been evenly distributed, pop it in the oven @  300 degrees Fahrenheit.  

5. Cook for 6 hours. You can tell when it's done by the awesome smells and the way the meat falls apart. The same way you check brisket for doneness. 

Yummy. Seriously, try this recipe- you won't regret it.

Traitor in the Shipyard review

Andrew, my littlest brother, got me this book with his reading club form. (Can you say AWWW?) This is probably one of the best AG mysteries. It keeps you guessing until the very end.

• The American Girl: Caroline Abbot, from Sackets Harbor, New York.
• The plot: It's 1812, and Caroline's father's shipyard is frantically building ships to keep up with the British. When Papa's old friend arrives penniless, it's the least the the Abbots can do to give him a job. After all, he helped Papa escape from a British prison! Life is beginning to look up for Caroline. She even has time for sewing lessons at Miss Lucy's. But when things go missing around the shipyard, sails are slashed, and fires are started, Caroline soon realizes there's a British spy afoot- and it's someone who knows the shipyard well. Is it one of Abbott's trusted workers, whom she has known all her life, or could it be Papa's dear friend? It's up to Caroline to discover what's really going on.
• What I especially liked: Just when all the evidence pointed to a character you were SO sure was the spy, new clues and hidden pasts would come to light.  I loved that the plot wasn't easily guessable or boring. I also always enjoy the 'looking back' section, which told all about real-life spies in the War of 1812.

This was a very enjoyable and interesting  read, although I finished it quite quickly. It would be perfect for  ages 9-12, and was packed with facts about the war of 1812, which is an often overlooked part of our country's history.

VBS teen leader

This week, I was privileged to be able to help lead VBS at our church. I was the 4th grade teen leader. I had so much fun helping the kids with crafts, learning hand motions to silly songs, and encouraging them in their spiritual walk. Ms. L, who was in charge of VBS, explained to us teen leaders that it's important to set a spiritual foundation at a young age, so that when the kids are older and that foundation is shaken, it will not fall. I really agree with that. A lot of kids attend our church, but their parents don't often come. Each child that came to VBS was an opportunity to reach a whole family for God.
 This year's VBS theme was Colossal Coaster World, so we turned the church into a mini amusement park. There was a roller coaster made out of folding chairs and pool noodles in the sanctuary, posters advertising rides in the craft area (which was called the Scissors n' Stuff Emporium) and maps of the apostle Paul's journey in the Bible Study area. Paul's life was like a roller coaster, with its many ups and downs. All our memory verses came from 2 Timothy, and the kids learned what was happening in Paul's life as he wrote it. I had a great time getting to know all the kids. I have fond memories of my VBS teen leaders from when I was younger, so it's really neat to be in that position now. Well, that's my little spill. I have been helping Daddy and my little brothers with the fence all afternoon, and it was HOT. However, we have had more rain than usual for this part of Texas in July, so I'm very grateful for that. Hope you had a great day as well!

Volunteering @ The Air Show

   Thunder Over Cedar Creek Lake is an air show in our community. It consists of WW2 bombers that fly as low as 500 feet above your head to parachuters performing with the flag to the tune of 
"The Star Spangled Banner". The show ends with fireworks dropped from the bomb bay of a plane over the lake. It's an very inspiring show. A few days ago,I had an unique opportunity to help there. My 4-H group and I managed a booth at the show, selling t-shirts to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House.  The most amazing thing happened while we were selling the shirts. A young woman and her mother buying shirts started to cry when we explained what the money was for. They said they were staying at Fisher House, a place for wounded soldier's families to stay while the soldier is in the hospital. The young woman's dad was  wounded and in the hospital, and Fisher House had provided them free tickets to the air show. Wow. This really made it personal - here was someone we were selling the shirts for. My group and I were inspired to sell even more shirts. We raised $400+! I enjoyed getting to help our soldiers and see the air show, and I hope I can help again next year.

Math, Doing Hard Things, & Life; A Random Post

Math.Where shall I begin? Math and I go way back, but we are not exactly friends. We don't really understand each other. ;D Okay, so maybe Math isn't a real person. But I think if we could meet face-to-face, we might get along a little better.
However, I've had a bad attitude about math. Declaring "I don't understand this!" and bursting into to tears isn't going to help me.  : ) We've been reading the book Do Hard Things, by homeschooled Christian teens, Alex and Brett Harris,  and it is an amazing book. The book explains that if you quit something just because it is hard, you're not living up to your God-given potential. People often focus on things that are easy - "I'm good at _______( insert skill here), but I just don't understand  _____ ....." -That's the wrong mentality, and it's one I've had about math. The world tells you to focus on your strengths, and that's a great idea, but what happens to the things you aren't so good at? You'll gradually get worse, and slowly even forget some skills. The cover of the book explains the purpose is to encourage "a teenage rebellion against low expectations." How many time have you heard  "You're just a teen." OR  You're homeschooled, you wouldn't understand what I mean."OR "This generation is going nowhere" ? Even worse, have you noticed people expect very low things from teens?  Have you ever heard: "You're so much better that the rest of the kids here,"? The book says:  if being better than those kids means you don't do all the bad stuff they do, are you really doing anything to be better? Alex and Brett explain "Be known for what you DO, not what you DON'T do."   To go to their blog click here.

I strongly suggest you read  Do Hard Things . It's changed the way I look at math, compliments, other people, and the world in general. And, even better, the book is filled with diverse real-life examples of teens 

( including homeschoolers too, which is nice) that have done hard things. And the examples aren't always elaborate.  It might be that someone simply got out of their comfort zone by calling a stranger on the phone, or it might be that a boy campaigned against human trafficking and spoke at the White House. It teaches small steps to big change. Well, that's my spill. Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? Comment! :D

Good Night Everyone! Oh, and remember to:

Happy 8th Birthday Andrew!!

Today my littlest brother, Andrew, turned 8! He was born on June 17, 2005.

This is me (at almost 7) holding him for the first time!!

Aww... :D
 Looking at the pictures above, I can't believe they were taken eight years ago. I mean, I remember every detail of going to see him in the hospital right after he was born, buying him a little shirt in the hospital gift shop,when I held him, I remember my dad saying "Use BOTH hands!!".... Sheesh. I feel very old.  He's such a fun person. I love reading or playing games with him! For his birthday, I got him the newest Magic Treehouse book, and a package of sour gummi worms, which he will hopefully share with me. :D
Happy Birthday, Andrew!

 Check out his blog at http://adventuresofandrewc.blogspot.com/ !!

Candy Striping

Monday I had a really unique opportunity as a  hospital Jr. Volunteer. I got to volunteer in Day Surgery, instead of working the floor. ( working the floor just means I attend to patients in rooms-bring flowers, newspapers, coffee,etc to them, and wheel 'em  out when it's time to go home.) I worked in surgery and surgery waiting. I was able to do this thanks to a super nice lady at church, who is over surgery volunteers.The hospital I volunteer at uses volunteers as a go between with patients patients and the patient's families. Our job is to keep the family informed on what's happening in surgery, where the patient will be, and when they can see him. We also make the families as comfortable as we can, which means we make coffee, give directions to the cafeteria, and assist them in any way possible. It's especially interesting for me, because I want to be a pediatric ENT or orthopedic surgeon, and many of the patients are children with ENT related problems.

  Both floor and surgery volunteers deliver medical charts to Med. Surge 1 &2, ICU, and IMC. This is always fun, because you see what's going on in all the different departments. Our hospital is fairly small, but it's big enough to get lost in, and part of my job is showing people where ambulatory care and radiology are. The cutest part of the job is definitely getting to present new babies with little baby food spoons that have the hospital name engraved on them. We had five babies last Tuesday, and I got to give them the little spoons. :) It's funny, but wherever I go in my candy striper uniform, people are like"Oh, my goodness! A candy striper! I haven't seen one of those in years!" I love being able to tell them about my experiences. Do any of y'all volunteer at interesting or unusual places? Then you should comment and tell me all about it!

Vacation part 2

  We left Dauphin Island a little earlier than planned, because it was starting to rain really hard, and we were worried about the only road out flooding(That sounds so dramatic. But,it really was the only road out - after all, it is an island!) So, we headed to Mobile, as it was on the route home. Dauphin Island is about 40 minutes from Mobile, Alabama, and there are tons of fun indoor things you can do there. We went to the Gulf Coast Exploreum of Science, and it was amazing!! I loved the health area. There was a large computer screen where you went 'shopping'. It  calculated all your  'purchases' and told you how healthy or unhealthy they were. The whole health room was educational and fun! There was also an exhibit called The Debakey Virtual Surgery Center. It was in the My Bodyworks health gallery.You have  the opportunity to conduct your own virtual surgery - you choose open heart surgery or knee surgery. Then you get to use the scalpel to cut open the skin, the saw to cut bone and the retractor to access the heart. The patients' vital signs are displayed on the screen as you try  to complete the surgery successfully and quickly -and keep your patient alive and healthy. I was a little scared I'd mess up and "hurt" the patient, but I completed a successful surgery. It seemed so real! The knee surgery was my favorite. The surgery center also had many other medical things you could practice: seal blood vessels with laser beam accuracy, challenge your hand-eye coordination with exhibits that mimic endoscopic surgery techniques(you used a big stick to push little bits of equipment through a tube. Daddy and Andrew were really good at it.) and learn about careers in health and safety. I loved this because I want to either be a pediatric nurse or a dietician. Then we went and ate at a restaurant called Felix's Fish Camp. Their crab soup was AMAZING! Then it was time to head for home.

Our Vacation Part 1

Monday,we drove through Louisiana. We drove from our house in Texas through Shreveport, and then straight down, all the way to New Orleans. We stopped at Oak Alley Plantation, just outside of New Orleans, and had a tour of this amazing old plantation....

Oak Alley

The weird looking thing is a ceiling fan. A slave would pull the rope, and it would fan the guests.

The plantation owner's' wife slept here.

The very lavish master suite.

One of the slave cabins

 We crossed a lot of bridges over the Mississippi. You could see a lot of factories and oil companies.

Then we were in New Orleans. Parts of it were very pretty.

However, parts were scary. We decided to go for a walk through the streets, and we wanted to walk down Bourbon Street, because it's very famous. However  there were a lot of bars and clubs, and shops that sold stuff with, er, bad pictures on it and posters of ... people posing , shall we say, inappropriately... We quickly abandoned that idea.

Then we went to eat at Deanie's Seafood. It was really good.

It started raining, so I had to take a bunch of fast pictures from the car.

                                                 There were beautiful flowers everywhere.

Tuesday, we kept driving, through  a little piece of Mississippi and Alabama, then we got on a long bridge and drove to Dauphin Island, Alabama. We rented a beach house called "Sunny Pit." It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice kitchen and 360 views of the Gulf and the Mississippi Sound. It was so cute!

My room at the beach house.

             We went swimming every minute we could, even when it was windy and raining! On the days it stormed, we played board games and read books.

 We toured historic Fort Gaines, also on the island. It guarded Mobile Bay from Union soldiers during the Civil War It was used as an outpost during the Spanish-American conflict in 1898, and as an Army base in WW 2. The famous quote "D*** the torpedoes... Full Speed Ahead!" was given during the Battle of Mobile bay , which took place at the fort. All over the fort were little tunnels leading to rooms that would've stored ammo, men, or guns.
There were tons of winding steps leading to tiny  rooms, like secret passages. It was really fun to walk through it, imagining what it was like for the people there.

These stairs seemed to go on forever, but they led to a large store room for guns and supplies.

Mobile Bay.




Wow. This was very long. Part 2 won't be as long, I promise. Comment?
<3