Johanna Speaks

I am going to start ballet again every Thursday! And guess what? It's Thursday today!! My ballet class begins at 4:45 and ends at 5:45 PM. And right now, for me, it's only 9:48 AM. So I haven't left yet, of course.

My ballet teacher's name is Miss Teal. I haven't met her yet, so I am very excited! I ordered ballet shoes, a leotard, tights, and a skirt for my whole ballet suit on amazon! And today, my ballet shoes and leotard is coming in the mail. The rest of the suit is coming in tomorrow. It's okay that I won't have all my stuff when I go to ballet class today. There might be other girls who haven't got all of their stuff too. But next Thursday, I should have all of my stuff by then.

We have to wear all black. So black leotard, tights, shoes, skirt. Everything! I hope it all fits!

The minimum is nine years old for my ballet class. I am doing ballet because I love it so much and haven't done it in a while. And some of my old classmates are there now and are older. It was so much fun! I loved talking to my friends there. I guess I just really enjoyed it very much! So I am not going to do choir this semester. Maybe next semester. I have been doing choir for a long time and want a break from it. So that's why I am doing ballet! I am just so excited and a little scared! So I hope today will go great!

I will make another blog post on how my ballet class went! Bye!

My mom and I helped somebody out yesterday! I can't say the names because of privacy, but I will say the first letter and last letters of the name. Mrs.M and Mr.M are the people we helped out. We watched Mrs.M while Mr.M went to a bible study. The reason why we watch her is that she has dementia. So she can't remember much of what she says and also says random stuff out of her head. Mr.M wanted to get out of the house for a break and attend a bible study. And every Tuesday, he goes to a bible study, and while he is gone, we watch her. Mr.M doesn't have dementia or any other sickness. My mom has been the one watching her last week, and this time I will go with her too and help out and see what it's like! I was nervous at first, but after a while, I was fine! And even had a great time!

What is dementia, you might ask? Well, dementia is when you lose your memory and start saying things out of your head randomly.  And you don't even really know what you are saying. Usually, it happens to elderly people. It can happen to young people, but it is more common for elderly people to have it. You know, when people keep getting older and older, they start to lose their hearing? Sometimes, it can get worse, and you could start losing your memory little by little. It is pretty common to have it. This lady we are watching does. So she will start saying things like, I can't eat my food. It's too much. But she eats it anyways and finishes it all. She will also say stuff like, I won't do this, but she does it. So just things like that are what she says. And she will try to go and take walks, but she can get lost easily. So Mr.M locks all the doors so she can't get out and get lost. But she goes to a place where people take her, and Mr.M gets a little break for three hours and then brings her back. He also takes her around, so she has stuff to do.

Mrs.M is in her 70s.

My mom and I go every Tuesday morning so Mr.M can go to a bible study. Their house is small but super clean and cozy! I would love a house like that! :)

Oh, and while we were watching her, we played the song" How great though art. " And we heard her saying over and over, how great though art. It was so sweet!! We played other songs, but she kept saying how great thought art. She was in her bed in a different room, and we heard her from there. They also have a tan cat named Simba. It's a really nice cat. It goes in and out of the house.

Here is a picture of her playing with banana grams with us. We weren't really playing banana grams the right way; we were just spelling words and seeing if she could read them. She did read a lot of different words we put out. And she even spelled words too! The words were just like, " cat " or " sea."

I can't wait to go next weekend!

Yesterday I went to the gym at 4:00 AM in the morning. I did this because later, we had to be at someone's house around 6:30 AM. I didn't have to go to the gym if I didn't want to, but I really wanted to go. So I did. I mean, when do you get to be at the gym working out when you are twelve years old? And this would be my first time going there! So I was pretty excited! I was already on the gym list. So I could go there any day, but I have to be in the same room with somebody older than me. I have to be fourteen to be by myself working out. But hey, there is a lot of stuff you can do in one room!

So my mom and I went to the gym at 4:00 AM. She showed me all the different stuff she does at the gym. There were weights and exercise bikes, but it had a screen with you riding a bike, and it had steering. So basically, you are biking with a group in the game. But it feels like you are biking in real life! You can make the gears harder, so you are burning calories galore! Oh, and the women's bathroom/dressing room is AMAZING!!! It's huge! And it has showers! And in the back, there's a steam room!! When my mom and I arrived, she showed me the steam room and said she always goes there to get warmed up on cold days before starting to work out. So we went in there to warm up. It felt really nice! Then we went to go work out! She showed me lots of stuff. I had a great time working out. But after we worked out, I felt like throwing up because I hadn't eaten anything that morning. But after about twenty minutes, the feeling went away. I was glad I didn't throw up or anything! :)

Here are two pictures from the gym. They are not really of me working out. But at least one of them is! ;)

I also did other stuff today! But I will put that in the next blog post! So you might want to see that too! It's going to be very interesting!!

Well, see you!

Noelle, Cameron, Sophie, and I went sledding yesterday!

So it all happened like this: Simeon was going to go ice skating with his friends, and then Cameron said that my mom, dad, Ezra, Sophie, Noelle, and I should all go ice skating too! So we packed that night to go ice skating the next day. But the next morning, my mom said that Simeon's friends would not go ice skating because there was too much snow to drive through. So Simeon also didn't want to go then. And my mom said we should probably stay home then. I was pretty disappointed. But I asked her if we could go to Noelle and Cameron's apartment after church because that day was Sunday and have lunch there still. We were already going to go to their apartment for lunch and ice skating, but since that got canceled, I asked if we could still have lunch there. And she said yes. Just then, Cameron called and asked her if he could take the kids to go ice skating still since his truck is pretty good for the snow. I got really excited when I heard him say that to my mom! Then she said that sounds good! Now I was bursting with lots of excitement! I was just so happy!!

After church, we went to Noelle and Cameron's apartment for lunch. We brought soup! And even Nicholas came too! Then Noelle told me that the ice skating place was closed because of all the snow. I said ah, man. But then she said that's why we are going sledding instead on Eskimo hill! Eskimo hill has a big hill with a lot of snow that people go sledding on!! Ezra said he didn't want to go, and Simeon was going to do something else with his friends, so it would be Cameron, Noelle, Sophie, and I sledding. I was super excited!! Noelle and Cameron didn't have any sleds, but they said they would buy some cheap ones at Walmart. Walmart was about two or three minutes away! Their apartment was really close to a lot of stores!

I asked Noelle how long the trip was, and she said she had no idea. So she searched Eskimo hill, and it said three hours away!! It was already 3:00 PM!! And it would be getting dark around 5:00 PM! So she called Cameron and said that Eskimo hill was three hours away. He said no, it wasn't. He said it's about an hour away. And that he has been over there a couple of times hunting. Then Noelle asked, then why did it say three hours away? He said he had no idea but was sure it was about an hour away. I was so happy it wasn't three hours away! And also, Cameron was gone to Walmart getting some sleds. So he returned with the sleds, and we went to Eskimo hill! It was a very pretty drive! Lots of snow everywhere!! First, it was raining like crazy; then it slowed down, and it began to snow!! There was a lot of snow on the trees! So beautiful!

Then we came to a stop, and we were there!! The snow was really soft!! Not rock hard like I am used to! We walked to the big hill, and Cameron set up chairs he brought, and then we started to sled down the hill!! We all went to the very top! Even Sophie! Sophie went on Noelle's lap. My bottom was hurting so much because there were lots of bumps on the hills, so the sled would go up in the air and down again with a little thud. But then I realized it was much easier laying down on your back and sledding. So I did that, and it was really fun!! Usually, there would be many people there, but only about ten people were there. It was great!!

It was getting dark, so we had to leave. We got in the car and left. On the way back, we had lots of snacks in the car and ate them. I had such a fun time; maybe we will do it again with friends! It costs nothing! I thought it would, but it is free to anybody! I would love to do it with my friends, the Garzas. :)

Here are three pictures and two videos of us in the snow. I don't think we got any of us sledding, sadly.

The log house hideout and the heating lamp is coming in today in the mail. So I am waiting for it! I needed to get Joy a heating lamp but never got around to it. I did have one before, but it shattered because one day, it fell on the floor. So I am very excited when the heating lamp comes in! 

Also, if you don't know who Joy is, it's my baby tortoise. She did have another name before, but I didn't know whether she was a female or a male because you can't tell after there about a year or two old. And I found out about four weeks ago she was a female! I named her Joy because she brings me, Joy! <3

The log house hideout is so that it can go hide in to go to sleep. I already have something for that, except it's made of cardboard. And it's coming apart. So the one that is coming in today looks pretty nice! So I am very excited about that too! Joy doesn't know about anything yet! So it will be a surprise! I can't wait till it all comes in!

Here is the picture of the log house thing and the heat lamp on Amazon.

I will take some pictures when it comes in and put them on this blog post!