i have big plans.

My dad told me that in heaven, wild animals just eat grass. They won't eat meat anymore.

So you know what I'm going to do when I get to heaven? I'm going to play tag with a bear.

age of dinosaurs

this is a conversation between my mom and i today:

me: when were the dinosaurs alive?

mom: a long, long time ago.

me: what year?

mom: well, i'm not really sure.

me: probably the 60s.

she laughed.

My cells can talk.

so, here are a couple of pictures of my sister and me from the other day, when we both had fevers. it was the weekend, though, so we couldn't go to the doctor. the day after this, i got a rash on my face, and then my neck and back and stomach and everywhere else. you get the idea. mom thought it looked like the heat rash i used to get a lot when i was pretty little. i was feeling a lot better on monday, and my throat didn't even hurt that much anymore, but i still had that rash all over. so, mom decided we should go see the doctor.

on the way to the doctor, i told my mom that i didn't think i was very sick anymore, because "my cells are killing the germs." i said that i thought there are only 10/30 germs left. mom asked how i knew this, and i told her it's because my cells told me. "they can talk. they send messages to my brain."

she was pretty happy to hear this. we went to the doctor, and he lifted up my shirt and said, "yep, that's the scarlet fever rash, from strep."... and my tongue was all white, and my throat was all red. so he told me to take some antibiotics, and i'll be okay in a couple days. i do feel a lot better.

i didn't give my sister strep, but she did have a couple ear infections. those are not my fault.

today, i think i only have 2/30 germs left. those cells are doing a good job. the antibodies are helping too. antibodies are kind of shaped like worms, and they're orange, with black lines around them. i read it in a book.

an ice storm

a couple weeks ago, it ICED. when it ICES, the lights go out.

when the lights go out, you can not:

watch TV. this includes anything that requires a TV, like the gamecube or DVDs.

take baths (this is fine with me.)

play on the computer.

open the fridge.

go to school (also mostly fine with me.)

when the lights go out you can:

have a sleepover with daddy, where you huddle under the covers and drink mt. dew and eat oreos. we did not invite mom and betty to this sleepover until the next morning.

light a bunch of candles.

play lots of board games! board games are not BORing, but i look bored in this picture. or is it board?

drive down to grandma and papa's, because they have electricity.

i am a photographer

so! remember how i told you we went to disney world a long time ago? all the way back in january, and now it's already february. we kind of got a little bit busy and distracted, especially when it iced. we couldn't even watch tv, much less update our blogs. it was annoying.

i really love disney world. i am hoping my dad sells a book so we can go back soon. like, next month. maybe if he sells enough books, we can live in disney world.

here are some pictures that i took. my mom let me have my own camera to take pictures with! now i want to take pictures for a living when i grow up. i am already pretty good at it, and things are really interesting when you look at them through a camera. i was especially good at catching mom and dad at great angles. here are a few of my favorites. some are a little avant garde.

guess what?

elephant butt!









this is my favorite picture. it really made me laugh to see that it turned out so clear. it is hard to take pictures of animals, because they're moving, and when you're on a safari truck, you're moving too. so most of my animals are kind of blurry. not the elephant butt, though! the gazelle head isn't too shabby either.

Greetings!

i've been gone for a while. we went to Disney World, but we're back now! yesterday morning, i woke up at our motel in Georgia, and i thought we were still in Disney World. then i realized we weren't, and i was sad. then we drove for 87 more hours, and we made it home. i think that's why you have to drive a long time home from the really good places. so that you're so glad you finally got home, you forget that you're sad not to be where you came from.

this is a photo from my favorite ride, Spaceship Earth. we emailed it to ourselves at the end of the ride.

stocking stuffer fun times

for Christmas, we picked up nany and then went over to grandma and pappy's house for a few days.

my cousins came up on Christmas Eve, and we had dinner and opened presents. i discovered that i really really like ham and scooters.

on Christmas day, we opened stockings and presents from mom and dad and santa. i got this neat glowy sword, and my mom and i took a bunch of pictures with it, in a dark room. that was a pretty good time. it's hard to be completely still!

thank you to everyone for the awesome presents!

hey, it's been a while!

in case you were all wondering, my dad and i got back to arkansas safe and sound, like two weeks ago.

my pappy's operations went pretty well, and he is already doing a lot better.

i was a really good helper in texas. i missed my mom and my sister, but i only cried when i saw the road from our airplane, right after we took off, and i thought i was watching them drive away. that was pretty sad.

otherwise, it was really a great time, and i told my dad that lubbock was my favorite place ever in the history of time. i'm not sure we'll be moving there anytime soon, though.

when we flew back to the airport in oklahoma, my mom and my sister, and my aunt and uncle and all my cousins were there to meet us. my cousins all wore hats, because pappy was wearing a hat. i gave elisabeth a big hug and kiss, because i was really glad to see her.

leaving on a jet plane

tomorrow, my dad and i are flying down to texas together, for almost two weeks. i was telling Holly about it tonight. "we are going down because my dad's dad is having surgery. he has to get his brain taken out. " Holly just laughed. it wasn't supposed to be funny. maybe he isn't really getting his brain removed. dad says that pappy has to get electrodes put inside his brain. and dad and i are going there to help grandma and pappy. we will go get them food, and take them places, and help with whatever we need to help with.

anyway, since we are leaving tomorrow, we had to take Christmas card pictures tonight. it was an interesting photo shoot, but not entirely unsuccessful. we actually got a pretty good one, but i can't put it on here, because then your Christmas card would not be a surprise. these are some kind of funny ones.

tree!

today, it was time to get Christmas decorations out!

first, we painted some candy cane ornaments for this year. i asked if we had real candy canes to eat, but mom said we don't have any yet.

i climbed up in the ceiling with mom, and i was really brave and not that scared, unless i looked down. i helped get the boxes down, and then i helped put all the ornaments on the tree. there's a thing with ornaments and lights on it above my door to my room now, too!

i'm a good helper, since i'm 5 now. elisabeth didn't really help. she pretended to talk on a santa claus ornament phone. dad helped, when he wasn't busy making weird faces in the backgrounds of all the pictures.

here's an off-subject question for you: is God made of a bunch of eyeballs, since he can see everything? i asked that today, but mom didn't really answer. i thought maybe you would know.

happy thanksgiving!

so, thanksgiving gets all mixed up with my birthday and my sister's birthday around here. thanksgiving was her birthday, and the day before was my birthday. next year, my birthday will be thanksgiving, and hers will be the day after. see, it's kind of confusing.

we woke up on thanksgiving morning, and i played my new nintendo ds (hooray for birthdays!) while sort of watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade. i was mostly just humoring mom instead of watching it, but i did see a cool spongebob balloon, and garfield.

then i put on my indian vest and headdress that i made in my class. i did a rain dance and lots of poses, to celebrate my 1/64th of choctaw heritage. i refused to put my nintendo ds pen down while i was dancing.

then we went to my grandma and papa's house, where there was more cake and some cool balloons, and of course a lot of thanksgiving food. i helped grandma make the crescent rolls, like i do every year. the cake and pie and rolls were good, but i'm not a big fan of the casseroles and stuffing and all that. my mom made my cake with strawberries in it, and covered in whipped cream, just like i wanted!

Dear Sam,

(the following is a note from my mother)

when you wake up in the morning, you will be five years old.

that is really hard to believe. we remember when you were little bitty, like in these pictures.

Here are five memories from your life, in honor of your 5th birthday:

1. For halloween in past years, you've been a plague of frogs, pac-man, batman, and spiderman.

2. you woke me up one morning by writing on my forehead with a sharpie.

3. the first thing you really started deliberately drawing was pac-man. you were two, and you were obsessed. for about two years, you consistently drew pac man and ghost monsters. they evolved over time, beginning with teeny, tiny, barely discernable little circles, and then getting bolder later, sometimes with hats, sometimes with teeth covering their whole bodies, sometimes with legs like a spider. it's been fun to watch your motor skills develop with the evolution of pac man. Here are a few of the later ones.

4. you've had and named four pets so far. Nemo, Packter, Copster, and Amy.

5. your favorite songs over the years have included Tunak Tunak, Numa Numa, Around the World, TROGDOR, and Here Come the Geese. you're a super dancer and singer. you've got rhythm, kid!

we love you as much as ever.

love, mom, dad, and elisabeth