Author: Mark

First lego leag

Robot!Tomorrow  I’m having a First Lego League  competition.  I asked Adrian if it would be fun.  He said,  “NO!”  I’m not so sure about that.   It will be at Memorial High School Fieldhouse from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  You are invite to come if you want.  We don’t have a very detailed schedule yet.

Here is the schedule we have;

9:00 I have to be there to check in and decorate our pit areaThomas and Mark practicing!

10:00 Judging our presentations and explaining our robot (I am going to be a news anchor for ECA News)

11:45 Coaches meetings

12:00 Welcome Ceremonies

12:30 Robot Performances Begins (There are different teams and we each do a few rounds)

Showing Andrea the old master program4:00 Top 3 Creative Research Presentation Perfomances

4:30 Recognition Ceremony

5:00 Clean up and go home!

Gettysburg Address

President Lincoln and his sonToday is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.   Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address to dedicate one of the places where the Confederate and Union armies fought.

They were fighting over slavery.   One side wanted to keep slaves and the other side did not.   It was the biggest battles of the Civil war. There were a LOT of casualties 🙁 .

I learned the Gettysburg Address.   Adrian learned part of it and so did the girls! I recorded lots of times, but only three of them worked.   Daddy edited it and here is the final result!

Here it is in an MP3 file so you can listen to it.

My Version of the Gettysburg Address

 

two fun posts

Today IS  UNCLE   JOSH’s  BIRTHDAY.

I have a Story I know  you will love yesterday Daddy  and I   were  daring   each other  to see  who   could eat the most Tabasco Sauce.  I won by two or three spoonfuls, because Daddy put some dressing on it that looked exactly like hot sauce, only not so runny.  My reaction when I found out what was on the spoon was “gimme the real stuff!”

Happy Birthday Uncle Josh!

Vote!

Tomorrow is Voting Day in the United States!  It is important because it decides who will be the President of the United States (and other important jobs).

John McCain and Barack Obama are  both running for President.  I don’t know too much about them, but I do like the one better than the other.

If you do not vote, you are letting everyone else decide for you.  If you do not vote, NO complaining!

If I could vote, I would look for a good Christian who believes that Jesus died on the cross and rose again.   Someone who would ask God for help on decisions.  He or she needs to be honest.  Someone who has had experience in being a good leader.  I want him or her to be kind to his family.

I would not mind if a girl is elected if she’s the does the things above, but if she doesn’t that is different.

Momma and Daddy are going to vote and I am going to go with them.  If you go vote, please tell me!

If you don’t live in the United States –or can’t vote like Uncle John– could you please tell me what kind of Government is in your country?

You are allowed to vote if you are a US citizen and 18 years old or older.  You need to be registered.   I can vote in 8 years if it is on my birthday or after!

P.S. The 4th of November has been canceled according to my parents.  You are allowed to vote and then sleep.  It has been canceled this year because it’s my birthday and I am turning double digits.   AAAAAAAAH (says my mom!)  But for my birthday being cancelled I say Argh!  (That’s why I am being a pirate today!)

P.S.S.  If you see Auntie Shirley (at the bookstore at Concord Mall) or Auntie Lefkia (from Swaziland 🙂 ) tell them Happy Birthday.  Momma calls them my birthday twins!

First QSL Card!

First QSL card

Iron Horse JOTAI  got my First QSL Card!   QSL Cards are cards that  ham operators  exchange (if both have  one) when they contact someone new.

My first “contact” (other than Grandpa and Daddy) was from New York.  I had some help, Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) made the contact and I just got to talk.

Thank you for buying popcorn if you did.  As of when I turned it in, I was at the top of my pack.  My leader said that I had camp paid for 🙂 !

Pumpkin Imitator

Pumpkin treeHow do you like our Pumpkin Imitator?  I noticed yesterday Pumpkin leafthat it started looking like a pumpkin in color.

Don’t you think it is neat that God made Maple trees so bright orange in the fall?  And then being able to tap some of them to make maple syrup?

Thank you God for Maple syrup and all the bright colors that fall brings!

Pumpkin

Audrey and Adrian’s pumpkinA couple days ago, Mom and the two younger ones went to Nature Nuts. This time it was pumpkins! They carved a pumpkin and got the seeds and all the gook in it.  Almost no body else wanted their seeds.  Miss Krista was going to dump them out to the animals, but she said that we could have them!

CleaningWe cleaned the seeds a couple of days ago.  We took the stringy stuff out of it for the compost pile.  The seeds we washed and put in the refrigerator. The good pumpkin stuff we cooked it. We did lots of stuff with it!Gooky job!

So today we made some pumpkin seed snacks!  We boiled the seeds for about 10 minutes.  Then we put some of them on a pan and made three different seasoning. Audrey and Andrea used 2 Tablespoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Audrey put lots of Mrs Dash lemon pepper on and some garlic powder and a tiny bit of salt.  Andrea used Lawry’s Seasoning Salt. I usedSeasoningAndrea cooking 2 Tablespoons butter with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. I did not measure mine, just added till it tasted good.

Then you put it in a 350 degree oven for about 1/2 hour.  They were brown and crunchy.  We stirred them occasionally.  Be careful that you don’t get burnt!  We had between six to eight cups of pumpkin seeds before we ate three cups! 🙂

The Sweet batchWe also made pumpkin custard and not too pumpkiny pumpkin bread.Some of the goodies we made.

Our house smells like pumpkin!  If you want your house to smell like pumpkin spice, I would recommend doing this!

Thank you Miss Krista, they were yummy!

Order Popcorn, help send me to camp

Remember yesterday I said that you could order popcorn on line?  And that I would post an order form?  Here is it.   Be careful not to make mistakes because once you  submit it, you can’t change it

If you would like to order popcorn on line, go to OrderPopcorn.com.  On the right side of the page there are two banners, one red and one blue.  Type in TEPG7JS on the red “enter order key”.   When you press go, you will see that it says “Thank you for supporting Mark M”.

You can order popcorn from OrderPopcorn.com and I get credit for it.  You will have to pay shipping though.  The popcorn will go straight to your house!

If you are local, you can order it directly from me and save money from shipping!  You can call me or add a comment below.

Please order some popcorn so that I can hopefully get to camp this year free!  Thank you!