Johanna Speaks

So I was Little Red Riding Hood, and Sophie was Goldilocks. 

My friend couldn't be the wolf this time because she promised her friend she would match with her. This was actually fine since Ria was going to be my backup as the wolf. But I wouldn't be able to bring her along with me since she would be scared of the people and get excited if she saw a deer or something. But I took a picture of her in my costume, and it looked great! 

When it was time to go trick or treating, I was surprised that there were hardly any trick-or-treaters anywhere. And there were only small groups of people going around. I also think it was because it was sprinkling outside. But only a little bit. 

Most of the houses were dark, but we still got lots of candy—not as much as last year, but still a good amount. 

I had a lot of fun, and the Ramirezes went with us, along with Abby's friend from school. I wanted to get more candy by going faster, so I tried running to every house, but then I would leave everybody behind. It's not as much fun just going by yourself. But sometimes, I would be jogging to some of the houses. 

After we were all done trick or treating, it was only 8:30 PM. 

I'm already almost done eating all my candy.....oops..hehe... it's too addicting, I'm sorry!

I'll be fourteen years old on November 7th, so that's in two more days! 

Simeon called me about a week ago, telling me that his birthday present to me will be taking me to the Lord of the Rings orchestra in Sacermento on a Saturday night. We get to be all dressed up! Then, in the morning, he will take me to a bakery, and then after that, we will go to his church and have a potluck there. I'm super excited for it!! 

The orchestra will also be playing music from Game of Thrones, which will be pretty cool! We will be doing all this on November 9th.

I will be having a birthday party on my birthday, and the Ramirezs, Nicholas, Cameron, Noelle, and Jonathan will all be coming to it. I'm not sure who else is yet. 

I already feel like I've been fourteen for a long time, and I'm actually turning fifteen. Because last year, when I was turning thirteen, I pretended I was turning fourteen. So now it's weird. 😂

But I'm excited to be having a birthday.😊

This was my birthday list:

1. Basketball shoes

2. dresses

3 .sweaters

4. cute small necklace

5. Dude Perfect pickleball set

6. boot cut pants

7. Christian hoodies and shirts

Our other uncle, Mark, has been staying with us for about four days but will leave this Friday to go home. He lives in Florida and apparently loves to play pickleball! So far, we've played pickleball with him two times, including last night! He's super good at it and a lot of fun to play with. He will always go for the corners of the court if we aren't there. So I always have to remind myself about that part. And that's actually how he usually wins. I already can't wait to play with him again. 

It's also his first time meeting Ria. I was really hoping she would like him and not be afraid of him like Ezra. At first, Ria was skittish, but after five minutes, my uncle was giving her belly rubs! 😂 I guess she likes everyone except Ezra, which is sad unless she's just acting scared of him to get treats.

Uncle Mark also has a really nice rental car! It has a new car smell and super clean white seats. I forgot what type of car it was, but I only know that it is super nice, clean, drives smoothly, feels, and looks new. And has super cool wheels. Last night, we got to ride in it on the way to pickleball. It was amazing!

My uncle looks like my brother Gideon so much! It's crazy. Like they have the exact same face! So whenever I look at him I'm reminded of Gideon. 

I'm having a lot of fun with Uncle Mark! I'm going to be so sad when he has to leave.

I made a jumping course for Ria in the backyard and pretended she was in a competition. I also like to pretend that she is a horse in a jumping competition, 😁 or even barrel racing. It's actually a lot of fun! Ria jumps over all the jumps. Except if the jumps are too high, she will try to go under them somehow. 😂 

I've been doing this a lot with my neighbor Claire since she also has a dog, a German Shorthair Pointer named Sidney, which is about Ria's age. Ria loves playing with Sidney a lot! But almost every day, we always do the jumps, making it even harder for the dogs to jump over. Claire and I always dream of Ria, Sideny, and a couple of the neighbor dogs all pulling a sled or carriage with us driving them. If that ever happened, that would be so much fun! 

So, one day, I just made my own course for Ria in my backyard. She's kind of getting it on her own without me pulling her around the barrels ( aka buckets ), which is great! I just want her to go around the barrels fast instead of slow. She is going around them, just not as fast as you would see in a real horse competition. 

Apparently, nobody really uses huskies in jumping competitions because they get so distracted, hard to train, and are stubborn!😂 But it's easier with border collies because they are so focused and, I think, learn pretty fast. Here's a video I saw on YouTube with a husky doing a competition:

Here is another video of Ria and I doing the course:

I have been playing a lot of pickleball with Ezra, Nicholas, and some friends! We usually meet on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings. At first, I could barely hit the ball and get it over the net—that's how bad I am at it! And my serves were terrible! I kept hitting the ball outside of the lines. Plus, I had no idea what the rules were. But now I know how to keep the ball inside the lines when serving, and I know the rules and whose turn it is to serve. 

My serves have been getting a lot better than before because I have been doing some tight serves, where the ball doesn't simply go over the net slowly but is a fast and kind of tight ball to hit for the receiving person. But I want to practice a lot more and try doing more complex hits or different serves. 

We played last night! Nicholas usually comes, but sadly, he was too busy with his work this time. So it was Ezra, French Jonathan, me, Caleb Mintz, and Zach Mintz. The Mintzes go to our church, and they are good friends with our family in general. And French Jonathan (aka French Frie) also usually comes, and he is a pro at pickleball! He will always spin the ball when he plays, so when it lands, it goes in a completely different way, so it throws you off a lot. And he's super good at doing fastballs, too. So basically, he's known for a lot of ball spins to everybody. And Caleb Mintz is known for always spiking the ball like crazy! He always spikes it on any chance he gets, and that's how he basically takes people out. 

Nicholas, Zach Mintz, Ezra, and I aren't exactly known for anything because we do a whole bunch of different things. But I'm known for missing the balls a lot.😂 But honestly, everybody else is incredibly good at pickleball. 

It's a lot of fun to play! I am always looking forward to playing every week. And sometimes, I will be practicing on our garage door.