Month: November 2013

November 22, 2013

NaNoWriMo – Hannah

Dear Jerry,

I know you have been dying to read my story, but its not done yet. So you’ll just have to be satisfied with just a little piece. Enjoy!

I awake and try to get my eyes to focus. Everything looks blurry. My head is filled with a blinding pain and I try to reach up to touch it but my arm doesn’t move. I look down and let out a gasp. My arms and legs are tied to my side completely restraining me. I couldn’t move anything. I felt something wet and sticky on my right arm, and realized my sleeve is soaked in red. Blood. I gasped again, starting to panic. My breathing becomes fast and sporadic. The woods disappear and I’m in a house. A man stands over me laughing. It was the cruelest sound I had ever heard. He had a black strap hanging from his hands. A child was crying somewhere. The black strap is lifted and comes down cracking on my shoulder. I shook my head screaming, then just like that, the dream was gone and I was back in the woods. Where was the man and that evil whip? I couldn’t think about that now. I had to get ahold of the situation. I didn’t want to close my eyes because that left me vulnerable to the woods, but otherwise I wouldn’t be able to calm down and concentrate. I had to take the chance. Struggling and losing my head would only be a disadvantage to me. There was nothing I could do about my arm right now, so I had to just forget about it. I breathed deeply and let my body and senses relax. And then I heard something. Someone was crunching the leaves in the woods. It wasn’t consistent like footsteps. More like rustling. It wasn’t right next to me but sounded a little ways away. I gave myself back the advantage of eyesight and looked around once more, this time with a clearer mind. I was laying four feet away from large fallen tree trunk. It was blocking my sight for my entire right side. I needed to see past it. I wiggled my body toward it and the pain was excruciating. My head pounded as I tried to breath through it. Gritting my teeth, I repeated the action. I had to rest after a few seconds but I eventually got close enough to the old trunk so that I could peek through a slit right at my eye level. I scanned the area left to right. Then I saw him.

– Hannah

November 19, 2013

NaNoWriMo!!!!

Dear Jerry,
This month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and all of us in the class are writing novels! All this week we are going to be sharing pieces of our novels with you, so here’s mine!
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When my hour is up I rise slowly and walk back to the door. When it opens, there my keeper is standing in his black glasses as usual. This man does not seem mean enough to kidnap two teenage girls and keep them here against their will. “What’s your name?” I ask curiously.

“Booth,” he answers coldly

“Booth? That’s it? Come on give me a little more than that,” I say trying to get more out of him

“That is all you need to know ma’am.”

Ma’am? Had he really just called me that? What is going on? Why is he being so kind? As these questions raced through my mind, I notice that we are taking different hallways now, and we are headed to somewhere I have not been yet.

“Where are we going?” I demand, trying not to sound suddenly scared, but he does not answer. Had this been his plan all along? Calm me down enough so I get comfortable to talk to him then lead me straight to my death? My heart starts to race and my whole body begins to shake. Here we go, this is the end for me, I hope my new friend Margaret makes it out of here ok. Maybe if she just makes a run for it outside she can get far enough and people will find her. After all, someone has to be looking for us.

We walk silently down hallway after hallway until we come to a steel door at the end. My keeper, that I now know as Booth, unlocks the door, turns to me and gestures for me to enter. I drag my feet knowing this could be the end and close my eyes tight as I enter, waiting for a death blow or something. But it does not come. I hear water dripping and I open my eyes.

-Maddy

November 19, 2013

NaNoWriMo!!!!

Dear Jerry,

I love writing, so when I was offered the opportunity to write a novel during National Novel Writing Month, I jumped at the chance. Now, I am nine days away from the finish and I am still going strong! I hope you enjoy this excerpt!!

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Madison woke up at five A.M. on Thursday morning and got ready for work. She enjoyed her job but always looked forward to the weekend. When she arrived at the hospital, she was whisked into action by a team of nurses who informed her that there was a child who had been in a rollover car accident and needed instant surgery. She immediately began working with the surgeons. Together, they put him under anesthesia, and they set to work removing the tiny shards of broken glass and sewing shut all of the cuts, both large and small. The child would survive but would be in the hospital for quite a long time. It would be a very large expense to his family.
Madison was surprised at this quick and somewhat gory start to her day, but she continued working on the battered and bruised body of the child. After the successful three hour surgery, Madison took a long break. While she was drinking her tea and eating a large sandwich, she heard the sound of loud screaming. This was highly unusual. The screaming in itself was not unusual. She had given several families bad news before, and had heard the anguished cries of the family of a deceased child many times. This screaming carried panic and fear.
She poked her head out of the break room to see what was going on. There were three men dressed in black, wearing ski masks and armed with black AR-15’s walking calmly down the hallway. They did not give anyone a second look and they walked very quickly. Everybody with synchronized steps. When they came upon the floor manager, one of the men grabbed him by his shirt and ordered him to put his hands in the air. He complied immediately. The leader of the three men spoke through his black ski mask in a deep electronic voice.
“Where is Maximus Benson?” He spoke softly, almost inaudibly. When Madison heard her brothers’ name she gasped, out-loud. One of the men heard her gasp and started walking towards her. Madison screamed, retreated back into the break room and bolted the door shut. She quickly drew her small .38 caliber CC weapon and aimed it at the door. Moments later, there was a cracking and a splintering as the man started pounding on the door. Madison grabbed her iPhone and dialed 911. Just then, three gunshots were fired that shattered the hinges and the door was kicked inward. One of the men in black stood in the doorway. Madison took aim and fired.

November 13, 2013

Ten week anniversary

Dear Jerry,

This is the the tenth week anniversary of the start of our blog. We have enjoyed writing letters to you. There is only one thing left to be desired. We would like to receive a letter back from you sometime. We think that these conversations are a little one sided!

Sincerely yours,

Zachary

November 12, 2013

Being A Homeschooler

Dear Jerry,

So there it is. I am a homeschooler. You might have known that because you sit on your throne on Maddy and Hannah’s table and I am sure you listen to all the awesome craziness that goes on in One Room. I have been a homeschooler ever since I started school. I have enjoyed every moment of it. My friends and I (yes! I have several friends!) have been homeschooling for our entire lives.
Homeschoolers are usually very well-rounded people. For example all of my friends play at least one instrument. Several play two or three. I play four. I and all of my friends play basketball and we all love sports. For me, one of my favorite parts about being a homeschooler is meeting new people. Almost every new person I meet, especially adults, will ask if I have any friends, or how I make friends if I am home all day. Inwardly, I always laugh. Why is it that people think that anybody that is homeschooled never leaves his house. People seem to think that all homeschoolers are introvert nerds. Actually, I did reach nerd status because I am taking chemistry. I can tell you all about valence electrons and whether an element is reactive or non-reactive depending on where it is located on the Periodic Table. I even know the details of the element families!! Sorry Jerry. That was my nerd side coming through.
While I am most definitely a nerd, I am most certainly NOT an introvert. My personality type is Choleric Sanguine. Everybody thinks of the quiet, awkward guy with the broken, taped glasses and the big eyes whenever the word “homeschooler” is mentioned. I hope we can change that image.

Sincerely yours,
Zachary

November 12, 2013

The Freedom of Driving

Dear Jerry,

When I turned 15 I started studying for my permit test, well as you might know, I get distracted easily, so I didn’t end up getting my permit until 5 months later. Some of that is because I didn’t want to drive either, it completely terrified me. So when I finally did get it, I didn’t expect to drive for a while, but my mom had other plans. I got home with my dad from getting it, and I had to go to basketball practice. My mom and I walked outside and she threw me the keys. Now you can imagine my complete fear, I had never been behind the wheel before and now she expected me to drive! Let’s just say that was a stressful ride for both of us.
Soon enough though, I was driving around (still pretty scared) with my mom. For a while I would only drive to the barn because it was a one lane, not busy at all road and I only had to go 35 miles an hour, but after a while I got used to it and started driving my mom everywhere.
Now, here in Florida you have to have your permit for a full year, no matter how much you drive. So when my year was up, my parents took me to go get my license. I passed it the first try and was extremely excited. I had already been saving money to buy a car, so I started looking right away. A couple weeks later I was a pound owner of a 2003 yellow Dodge Neon. Not only was I excited to be driving by myself, I now owned a car, and could drive myself to basketball practice, and work.
It has almost been a year now that I owned my car and I still love it, even though gas and insurance are a bit expensive. Unlike my siblings I keep my car clean and have an awesome smelling air freshener, and I think that might just be the best part of it, getting to pick out a cool looking air freshener from Bath and Body Works and putting a nice, autumn smelling sent in it. Now I can drive myself everywhere, school, work, basketball, the barn, etc.
So my advice to anyone getting their permit or license, is to not be scared and just get it as soon as possible, because my biggest regret was waiting for so long. Have fun with it, but be safe!
-Maddy

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November 5, 2013

My First Time Shooting A Gun

Dear Jerry,

Last weekend, my father and I went to a men’s retreat. On Friday and Saturday, there were several talks on being a man and learning to grow up. We basically learned how NOT to end up “playing video games in your parents basement”. Well, this men’s only retreat included shooting. Lots of shooting. In fact, someone even brought Tannerite explosive targets for the large center fire rifles that were being used. Like it should be, there was plenty of guys stuff. At the range we shot at, there were three stations. Handguns, shotguns and rifles. I tried all three and ended up liking shotguns the best. They were the most manageable out of all three types of guns that were present because the recoil was relatively gentle. I was able to hit more targets with a shotgun than I was with any other gun and I was more familiar with loading/unloading a shotgun then I was with any of the other guns.
I tried the handguns first. They were probably the hardest for me to shoot because their recoil was being channeled through such a small amount of space. I was quite surprised at the difficulty I had in controlling them. I took my first shot ever with a .45 caliber pistol and I was able to actually hit the target (though it will be a while till I am able to get a bullseye.) I tried the shotguns next. For me ,they were the most fun. I enjoyed the satisfaction of shattering a clay pigeon as it flew though the air. The shotguns were the guns I did best with too, so, that probably contributed to my preference for them. I spent almost all my time using them. They are fairly easy to shoot.
The last gun I tried, was the rifles. The rifle that I shot was a Red-Dot sight AR-15. I shot a total of twenty bullets and 15 of them hit the target. Five missed completely and two were close to the bullseye. These guns were actually painful to shoot. The recoil was hard and it hurt quite a bit after twenty shots. It was still very exciting though, to be shooting a gun that is such a legend. I was pretty wowed when I saw these amazing weapons. Some were equipped with scopes, ACOG sights, laser beam sights and 30 round magazines. They were bigger and heavier then I expected, but they were definitely fun. It was pretty cool to see the large explosions as a Tannerite explosive target exploded in a huge cloud of smoke with a thunderous boom. I personally was not able to get a chance at shooting one of these targets but even watching was very fun.
All in all, the men’s retreat was very fun. The lessons I learned were very valuable for my future and the shooting was a brand new activity that I will definitely be continuing in the near future!

November 3, 2013

How I Want To Change My World

Dear Jerry,
Today I am going to tell you how I want to change my world. How do I summarize this into 500 words or less? It is not a light or easy subject for me to answer. There are many things that I want to change about this marred world that we live in. Ever since sin entered it, the world has become increasingly more and more distorted from the way it was made to be. I am continually disheartened when I see the bad things pouring every day out of our TVs and newspapers. There have been many times when I have wished that I could change this world. Here are a few of the ways I want to change the world:

1) I want to do whatever I can to get the gospel to every nation, country, state, city and home. I want to live as a missionary to people who don’t know the truth of Jesus Christ. And I want to go. I want to be a great solider in the kingdom of God.

2) I would end abortion. If I could save one baby from being aborted, it would be worth it. I want to do this not only for the sake of the innocent babies who are being killed, but also for the people who are having and performing these abortions. They don’t realize the severity of the actions they are taking. One day everyone of them will stand before a just judge and every single abortion will be put to their name. I want to show them what they are doing is wrong. I want to not only make abortion illegal, but I want to change people’s mind about it too.

3) I want to change the orphan rate of the world. Around the world, there is estimated 150-200 million orphans. Studies have shown that 10% to 15% of these children commit suicide before they reach age eighteen. Every day 5,760 more children become orphans. I want to change that. I want there to be many modern day Amy Carmichaels.

These are only three of things I want to do to change my world. There are many more that I couldn’t mention. But what now? Is it enough for me to want these things? No. I need to be willing to work for them. Whether that means serving in a women’s shelter for a day, or going on a month-long missions trip to Uganda, I need to be willing to put action behind my words. If I want to change my world, I have to start now. I can’t expect anything to be willing to change if I’m not willing to help it. It starts with me.
– Hannah