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Nothing much has been going on. The snow has been coming down like there was no tomorrow, and still another foot is expected. I love the winter season. Everything is so cozy. I have not gotten an e-mail from Lt. Reeves in a long time, and I must admit, I am beginning to worry. What is worse, I don't know if he has gotten one from me either. :( For some reason, every time I try to send him an e-mail, it comes back to me saying there was a mailing failure, and please try again making sure the address I have typed is correct. Well, I know the address is correct, and I don't see why it didn't reach him. :( Our van is in the shop once again, and we have been walking to the store, and taking a taxi to places farther away. They are so expensive though, so we only get them when it is absolutely important. Needless to say we have not been getting out much, and I think it is about to drive me insane. I have attack my schoolwork with full force the past few days, and at first I was afraid I was trying to go to quickly. Twice in a row I got an 85% I was SO crushed. Yesterday I took two exams and the last one I was So happy to get a 100% on. Such a relief. I thought I would never see one again. I am still very dispersed that my average grade is 97 but I still have a lot of time to bring the score back up. I knew a 99 was to good to last. I am still searching for a digital camera that records audio and movies, takes good photo's, and still has a price tag that I can afford. It isn't easy. The last digital camera we got didn't have any audio recording. That was a disappointment. Not only that, but the man who sold it to us said it would take up to ten pictures, and we could buy a card for $20 that would give us TONS of storage space. Well... it only takes 3, and I can't afford a memory card right now. We were going to return it, but at the last moment mama decided she wanted it. LOL So at least we have a camera in the family. Even if we can't use it yet. You have to have windows 2000 or better before the software will work on your computer, and we only have windows 98. Mama's school scholarship is supposed to be buying her a laptop soon for her school work though. And it is supposed to have 2000 XP or Vista. Our Winter Issue of the Rancher Gazette is supposed to be finished next week. :( For some reason I don't feel like putting it together. LOL Actually.... I never feel like putting it together until I have started. Then I can't make myself stop. I love the cover this time, and the articles are looking great. I think I'll be posting a link to it when it is finished. I am surprised that I have never done that before.... or have I? Still no luck getting in touch with the volunteer service at the hospital. I don't think Anna and I were meant to volunteer. :( Nothing seems to work out. No matter how many times we call, they are never in. It is all this snow, and all the holidays! Grrr..... LOL We also got a letter from the property managers. They have offered to pay for paint if we wanted to paint the rooms in the house! HURRAYYY!!! Do we! Everything is white... white, white! I want a soft mint green bedroom, a pale yellow kitchen, cream colored living room and dinning room. They won't answer there phone either!!! Eeeeksss! They are off for the holidays and won't be back in till Wed. Unfortunately they are calling for a foot of snow tomorrow, so they may not even be in Wed.!! I don't care. I still like Snow! :P As inconvenient as it may be.
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 "Return To The Center Of The Earth" by Melanie Elizabeth
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Tomorrow is the last day before NaNoWriMo! I am feeling very nervous at the idea of writing a sequel to a Jules Vern novel. I have a simple easy back up plot just in case something goes wrong. 50,000 words in one month is no easy task, still, I don't see how it can be any harder then last year, and I finished in plenty of time. Last year our whole family shared one computer, it was my first attempt, the plot I chose required endless research and I only hand one main character. This time I will have a computer set up in my room special, I am going to be creating a whole new world, and a large cast of characters. It will take a lot of description. This year I watched my first World Series and found it just amazing! Josh Beckett is one great pitcher! I still can't forgive them for not bringing him in for the last inning. He deserved to get the last out all he did for the team. :( Such a pity. HAY! Today is the 30th! We are supposed to be able to get that free Taco Elsburry won us today at 2:00 at Taco Bell. I still can't get over the fact that they are giving a free taco to EVERYONE in America. It sure made the game more exciting though. :D I just got word that the Red Sox are arriving in Fenway Park. Got to go!
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I never seem to find time to post in my journal any more. :( Well here is another letter I sent to Lt. Reeves. It is telling about our lovely day yesterday. Dear Matt, It is already very late, but I haven't written in so long. Besides, I just had to tell you about my day. :D I am finally 19! Today was just wonderful. We drove down to the sea shore to spend the day. It is really only about an hour drive, but being our very first time, it took us about two hours. LOL We drove up and down the main street trying to find side roads that led down to the beach. Every now and again we would catch site of the ocean between houses or trees, but it was always either blocked by someone’s private property, or it was to steep a cliff to get down too. We have never been to a Maine beach before, and we were told it was VERY rocky. We were growing quite disappointed. It certainly WAS rocky! Some places looked just like a lake with grass hills and a shore line with out waves. At one stop, we found some post cards with beautiful pictures of a rocky beach, and below it read, "Accadien Park" We had seen that very park on our way into the town. So into the car we climbed, and began to back track. It wasn't long before we came to a sign that said "Acadien Park" Entering we found a huge bill board greeting us with directions to different sites in the park. One read.... "Sand Beach" The little ones began to get very excited, but we tried to calm them not wanting them to be disappointed. Some people had told us that you couldn't find sand beaches in Maine, so we had tried to explain to them that it wasn't like beaches they were used to. There was no sand, and the water was to cold to swim in. Well... we drove through shady winding lanes, through woods, and found such LOVELY views. The rocks and hills were AMAZING. Finally we came to a big parking lot surrounded by green ferns, trees, and brush. It didn't at all look like the setting for a sunny beach. Pilling from the cars, we made our way through a wooded path. At the end we found a loooong set of concrete steps that led down a steep winding path. Large trees made a canopy over head, and ferns grew on the opposite side of the rail, It was lovely. We were preparing to descend, when I stepped up to the rail and peered through the trees. There, framed in leafy branches, was a REAL honest to goodness beach. The sight really took my breath away. Such a huge blue ocean, the waves rolling up onto a sandy shore, the smell of salty air, and the sound of roaring waves. OH!! It was wonderful! And such a picture! The little ones crowded around me. One look and they began to squeal with delight. Mama and Anna came over to see, and they just gasped and stood there dumbfounded. It was so hard to imagine finding such a lovely beach in all those woods and greenery. Usually they are surrounded by cities and amusement parks. The little ones waisted no time getting down those long steps onto the shore. Within a minute they had there shoes off and made a strait cut to the water. Anna and I couldn’t resist it either and removing our shoes ran down to the waters edge. We weren’t dressed for swimming, but the little ones didn’t care. They began by letting the waves wash over their feet, and the next thing we knew, they were soaked through. Poor Joel. He has never seen an ocean before. When the wave went back out to sea, he ran after it. The next instant, a second wave came crashing onto the beach, and there was Joel right in the middle off it. Without thinking twice Anna and I plunged right into that cold wave and snatched him up. LOL We must have looked a sight. :D Our skirts never did dry completely. I really can’t get over how pretty that beach was. It wasn’t very huge, it was…. Cute! LOL It was enough so that you could take quite a looong walk up and down the shore line. But it wasn’t so vast and open either. On either end of the beach, huge boulders and rocks towered high against the sky. The waves crashing against them. We stayed till the sun was beginning to sink low, and it cast such a warm cozy light on them. Well I REALLY have to close! I’ll try to write more later. Melanie |
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Today has brought to nice surprises for Anna and I. Anna found out today that she willbegin tap dancing lessons, which she has been wanting for a LONG time, on Tuesday at 5:00pm. You should have seen her face when they told her. She is so excited! Also, Spruce Run asked me to sketch some wildlife pictures for some thank-you cards they are sending out to their donators. :) It really isn’t anything big, but it makes me feel very happy. Another hot day today. :( Yikes! I just realized I forgot to eat breakfast again! Got to run! |
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I actually got a reply from the Marine I wrote to! I was SO Excited! Anna (my sister) logged into my account to look for an e-mail address.... and she told me I had two e-mails. Just like her not to tell me one of them was from 1stLt Matt Reeves. :D Now I'm a bit confused though. LOL Any suggestions? Should I write another letter? Should I reply through e-mail... or should I just find someone else to write to? I don't know. I don't even know if I am allowed to write though e-mail????? Dear Melanie, Thanks so much for the letter. It's really nice to know that many people, like yourself, are thinking of the military service members as we serve here in Iraq. My unit is currently responsible for the security of a large base here in Iraq. Stationed in Camp Pendleton, CA our unit has been in country for only a month now. The Marines are excited at the prospect of getting to "be part of the action". Not war mongers or blood thirsty killers, the Marines of my unit want to feel like they are serving their country as we fight this global war on terror. I often equate going to Iraq as a Marine to being a football player finally getting to play in a game. Although Iraq is by no means a game, this is what we trained for and volunteered for...this is where we should be. Again, thank you for supporting us and giving the service members(especially my Marines) so much love and support as we fight this war to bring freedom and stability to this country. May God bless you and continue to bless The USA. 1stLt Matt Reeves |
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It's been two months since I last posted in my Journal. Believe me I have some pretty good excuses. One being that we have moved. I miss our farm so much, but things are finally begining to settle down. It would be almost impossible to bring things up to date. I don't think I will even try. Instead I am posting a letter I wrote for anysoldier.com. Just a quick simple letter: July 22nd Dear Marine, This is the 10th or 11th time I’ve started this letter, and I am determined NOT to do ANYMORE re-writing. Grrr….. it has crossed my mind to just throw all the beginnings, middles, and almost ends into a large envelope and send it to you, but I’m afraid the postage would be just terrible. Please forgive me, but I am writing this letter just as if I’ve known you all my life, because I can’t figure out how to do it any other way without making it sound so stiff and dry you would fall asleep. Oooopps! I knew I forgot something important. I’ve written this so many times I forgot you didn’t already know. My name is Melanie Elizabeth DeCastro and I am 18. 19 in September. I have 6 brothers and sisters ranging from 20 - 2. I’m second oldest. There is Daniel (20) Myself (18) Anna (17) Alicia (11) Jennifer (6) Tabbitha (4) and Joel (2) We moved up here to Maine about two years ago, and lived on some property that we hoped to turn into a family farm. Unfortunately things didn’t work out the way we planned, and here we are in the middle of Bangor. I don’t like the city very much, but I guess you can get used to it. We live right down the road from the Air National Guard, and we LOVE going down there to watch the huge plains take off and land. It is so very exciting. Today we had a cookout in the backyard. It is the first day in over a week that the sun has decided to come out and everyone enjoyed it. Tomorrow is supposed to be another sunny day. Later I had been sitting here racking my brain for something interesting to write. I could come up with nothing! Suddenly I became aware of a soft trickling sound. (Reminded me a bit like a stream or brook.) At first I ignored it. It has been raining here a lot the past week the sound was so familiar. Then the sound of the bathtub upstairs caught my attention. That was normal too. People do take baths. It wasn’t till a minute or so had passed that I realized the trickling, that now had turned into pattering of rain, was coming from inside. Now THAT wasn’t normal! I jumped up, and went running upstairs. The minute I reached the second floor I found the cause. Or rather it found me. I was standing in a large pool of water that was rapidly heading for the stairs. Peering around the corner into the bathroom, I found my little brother standing there beside a tub completely filled and overflowing as the water cascaded over the side and into the floor. You should have seen me. Most people would have panicked. Not me. I sprang into action. After one quick shriek, I splashed into that ankle deep water shut of the faucet, pulled the plug, and waded quickly into the hall where I snatched up an arm load of dirty clothes and began tossing them into the river. I must admit, I felt rather panicky when the clothes began drifting down stream (that is an exaggeration) but I kept cool. Even when my sister brought the startling news that the hall downstairs was poring rain, I kept sopping up the hall. The bathroom was really half an inch deep in water, and I could hear it draining through the floor. It was then that my mother came in and took over. I hurried down stairs and found my 10 year old sister standing in the middle of a little rain storm holding a little bowl under the drizzling light fixture while the ceiling rained around her. She had dragged in some other towels from the kitchen and we mopped up the floor and placed pots and buckets in different areas. The drizzle soon turned into a steady drumming, now it seems as if it is about to stop. Ah well. It was rather interesting having a water fall, stream, and rain storm in our house. But I guess things of that sort belong outdoors. Now what can I talk about? Grrr…. Not enough goes on here to make an interesting letter. July 23rd Today is a beautiful sunny day. I love sunny days, but then, who doesn’t?
Sending good wishes and thoughts your way, Ps…. I’m sorry this letter wasn’t handwritten. My friends tell me when I write in pencil it is too light to read, and pens make me nervous. |
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I have finished my latest website, and would like to invite you all to see it! It is new, so please forgive any mistakes etc. and let me know about them if you will. Here it is.... I call it ♥ Inspirations URL:http://www.freewebs.com/inspirations-/i |
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The weather is just TOOOO hot! I didn't complain when it was in the 70's nor in the 80's.... but 90's!!! That is too much. Especially for northern Maine. How do they expect you to acclimate when winter is freezing cold, and summer burning hot. It just seems quite unfair. The house is very messy. No one feels like doing ANYTHING. grrrr. I remember the time we would just flip on the air conditioner at the slightest sign of summer. LOL I am creating a new website. This is crazy! I have so many, yet I always want to design another. What would I do without HTML? I find it so interesting and exciting. I am on facebook and have been having an interesting time exploring all its nooks and crannies. 
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