Happy and Sad Times

Wee! Woo! Wee! Woo! As we were driving to my great grandma’s house we saw an ambulance zoom past us. We followed the ambulance ( at the legal speed limit of course), and we ended up at my great grandma’s house. It turned out that she had had a stroke ( a throb or pulsing of the heart ), and they had to rush her to the hospital. It was January 2006 on a Wednesday evening and all of the family was at the hospital including me. I was really hoping that she would live to at least celebrate her birthday, which was in two days. My grandma and my dad were the only ones allowed in the emergency room, and I was not old enough to go in and visit her, so my mom and I were in a somewhat big waiting room with the smell of corpses at Las Palmas Medical Center. ” Abel, why don’t you watch the TV until grandma comes back with the news?,” my mom suggested. I had been watching TV for about half an hour and then I heard whimpering. . . it was my grandma. I knew what that meant, my great grandma had passed away two days before her birthday. Everything else left my mind, tears rose up in my eyes and my face was turning as red as a tomato. I was remembering when I was at her old house in Los Angeles, California and she would always make me a delicious breakfast and take me places that I always enjoyed to visit. I couldn’t believe  that she was gone. As soon as we got home that night I went straight to my room and tried to go to sleep. I was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep with all of the thoughts about my great grandma inside my head. I said a prayer to make me feel a little more comfortable. ” Please, Lord Jesus Christ, may you please take care of my Great grandma up there, Amen.” I will never forget you grandma!!!!

It all started on a perfect Saturday afternoon in August, 2006. My little cousin Dillon decided that he was going to swim alone with floats on. He started off perfectly. For about thirty minutes he was in the pool, then he decided to go in the hot tub ( he was tall enough to stand in the hot tub, so he took his floats off ). That was when the perfectly fine day just took a twist. “Whheeeeeee!” he screamed as he jumped in the six-foot deep pool! “Abel, where is Dillon!” my mom panicked as she saw his floats on the pool deck! “Help! Help! I’m drowning!”  he pleaded. Everyone rushed to the pool and they took a sigh of relief, ” Thank God!”  we all said. I will never forget  that day, because that was the scariest day of my life, and his too.

It was a perfect cool day at our house when… Thump! Thump! Thump!

“What was that?” I asked my older cousin Adam.

“I don’t know,” he responded,” but I think it’s coming from the garage,”

“Let’s go check it out!” I shouted.

We went to the garage, and guess what we found… MICE!

“Cool, mice,” Adam said, “let’s get them!”

“Wait!” I shouted immediately, “we should probably ask Grandpa first.”

As fast as lightning Adam and I darted up the stairs.

“Grandpa! Grandpa! Can we capture the mice in the garage?” Adam and I both asked at the same time.

“Yes, you can. First you have to clean up your dog Max’s droppings,” he told us. (He didn’t worry because we’ve had mice before.)

As soon as we went outside… “AAhhhhh!” Adam screamed as he saw the half eaten mouse with its rib cage and its skull showing.

Max had eaten it! I guess that’s why they weren’t in the garage.

I wear a lot of makeup and think people like me. I think people admire me and think I look pretty. People are usually scared of me. I brag a lot and think people like me. Roald Dahl said that I am fat and ugly. I am mean to my daughter. Roald Dahl said I am impolite and rude. My daughter likes to read and is smarter than Mr. Wormwood and I.

Fourth grade was the best year of school that I have ever had in my whole life. I learned things that seemed hard to me when we first started them, but actually became more easy when we took them step-by -step and then finally I got them. Just like ordered pairs. I didn’t know how to connect the dots but, my best friend Stephen took the time to help me on it.

My favorite subject in fourth grade was science because we got to handle earthworms and it was very fun. We had to see if the worms liked the dark or the light better and also if they would move if we tried to touch them on the back or their head.

The subject that I really despise is math. I am really good at math and I don’t know why I don’t like it. This has been my most favorite grade level. I never want to leave fourth grade, but unfortunately.

This field trip was the best experience I have ever had with my class! Guess where we went as a class… Carlsbad caverns! What the cool thing was, was that I would be having a new experience, because I have never been to the caverns. Okay, enough small talk and let’s get to the story. “Wow, that looks scary,” I whispered to Frankie. “I know,” he responded to me. As soon as down the natural entrance we took a picture of the whole class down in the caves. There was millions maybe even more than that! In my group was: Frankie, Isaac, Josh, and I in ms. torres’ group. We were touring the big room and guess what… my camera died on me! and I was about to take a picture of the Witch’s Finger, but at least I got a picture of the Lion’s Tail. As soon as we got to the Bottomless Pit, that’s when I got scared! It seamed like the pit never ended and I have a great fear of heights. As we got to the end of the caverns we finally got to sit down. This was the best experience I’ve ever had with my friends and I recommend you go there!

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 ”Abel it’s time for basketball practice!” my mom and dad said as they woke me up from my power nap. 

“Yes!” I shouted, “I can’t wait until we get there.” 

As we arrived at Burges High School I was so excited about practicing and getting better that I couldn’t keep still. 

Beeeeep! went our coach’s whistle.  “Hi my name is coach Frank and this is your assistant coach, coach Paco,” he said as he introduced himself and his assistant.  “Now! Enough small talk.  Ten laps around the court!” coach Frank said. 

“What!” Joe, a new eleven year old teammate, complained. 

“Make that twenty laps Joe!” coach said. 

“Wow!” Frankie mouthed to me. 

When we finished our ten laps, coach introduced Frankie, Esteban and I to the team.  “This is Frankie, Esteban and Abel.  You will have to know their names by the end of the day or I will make you run!” 

For the first hour he made us do our lay-ups and if we missed one, guess what…we ran! 

“Finally it’s the last hour of the day!” Esteban said to me.  For the last hour they made us do foot fire, which is a what they call the popcorn exercises that we do at school, except we have to do it nonstop. 

Beeeeep! “It’s the end of practice, you may go home!”  coach Frank said. 

“Thank God!” all three of us said together. 

Then came Wednesday of the following week. “Abel, practice!” my mom said. 

“Uugghh!”  I groaned, “not again!”

Eleven hours on Friday and eleven hours on Sunday. Thats how much driving we would be doing to and from Denver, Colorado just to get to this game. It was the first NBA game that my mom, my dad and I had ever seen in person.

“Hello, my name is Peter and I will be your waiter for the day,” said a young man as he approached us at our seats in the Pepsi Center. I could not believe it, we did not even have to leave our seats to get hot dogs, drinks, popcorn and even candy. I could see some of the Lakers on the court taking practice shots and some of them were standing by a big crowd of fans taking pictures with them and giving them autographs.

About twenty minutes past and then he came out of the tunnel…Kobe Bryant!

“There he is, that is the greatest basketball player in the world,” my dad said to me. We were all so excited to be seeing all of these players in person.

The game started and the crowd was so loud. I felt like we were all alone because we were surrounded by Denver Nugget fans. I did not care though, by the second quarter the Lakers had taken over the game and they were ahead by 7 points at half time. The lead grew to 19 points by the end of the third quarter and that was enough for the fans to start leaving early. Not us, we stayed until the very end to enjoy this wonderful game and an even better victory.

I know that people are probably wondering what type of formations are in Carlsbad caverns so here is a close-up of the types of formations inside the caverns. The first thing you are probably wondering about are the things on the ground and ceiling. Those are called stalagmites and stalactites. They are made up of water and other matter. Please visit Carlsbad Caverns, thanks!

If you want to see Mexican free-tailed bats fly out of the caves of Carlsbad caverns, then all you need to do is follow ALL of these simple rules of the bat flight program. All you’ve got to do while you’re waiting for the bats to come out is whisper and be as quiet as a mouse, or as possible as can be. You don’t want the bats to go in the wrong direction, do you? If you don’t you can’t take any photographs or any videos especialy if they have a flash with them. The last, but not least rule is that you have to be very quiet while the bats are flying out of the caves or it will lead them in the wrong direction. These rules apply for everybody that visits, especialy the Edgemere fourth graders! Please go!