First she did Michigan’s Junior Miss.

Now she’s preparing to do Miss Michigan USA. You may have heard of the current Miss Michigan. Her name is Rima Fakih, and she is also Miss USA.

Rima’s win at Miss USA has significantly raised the profile of the Miss Michigan competition. My daughter competes this weekend against 69 other young ladies. My daughter is Miss Kalamazoo.

We are so excited we can barely breathe.

“There they are!” whispered the agents. “Hush—they’ll hear you!” whispered another voice. The agents turned to see their instructor, called. H.S. The agents lowered their eyes and fell silent. H. S. said quietly, “Just go—you don’t want to be too late.” The agents nodded and slipped out into the open.

The three of them inched their way through a large crowd of people. Their targets were about 10 feet away now. A boy and a girl were standing in line to ride the Ferris wheel. the boy had on a lime green shirt and black shorts. The girl was wearing a white shirt and pink capris. The county fair wasn’t this crowded every year, but then again, it hasn’t been this hot every year, either, and the new water slide this year brought more guests. It was a good thing for the agents, because they stood out even in this crowd. They were wearing all black with white belts and golden bands on their heads that glittered brightly, even when a cloud went over the sun.

They managed to get in line behind the boy and girl, who were talking to each other. “so are you sure you’re not afraid?” the boy asked the girl. “Yes, I’m sure,” said the girl, although as she looked up at the giant wheel, she looked almost the opposite.

The agents quickly looked around and saw they were yet undiscovered. They kept their heads down as they boarded the Ferris wheel right behind the two targets.

The agents waited with baited breath. H.S. had told them to wait for a signal before they carried out the rest of their mission, but he hadn’t specified what the signal would be. This was not unusual for H.S.—he usually did this to test the agents’ loyalty to the King. He wouldn’t tell them what to do until the last second.

The minutes that passed seemed like hours. Suddenly, one of the agents stood up. Her face shone and she said, “Now is the time.” The other two stood beside her, also now glowing. They, as If in a trance, leapt out of the side of the Ferris Wheel, seeming to fall in slow motion. The girl agent turned and looked up at the girl and boy still on the Ferris Wheel, and she swiftly pulled out a contraption with two hooks on it. she pulled a trigger, and one hook shot out and grappled a tree. The other dug into the side o the Ferris Wheel. Her teammates, (two boy agents), back flipped and landed on their feet on the ground below her.

Eyes flashing, the agent grabbed the wire attached to the hook that she had shot out first, and climbed up to the Ferris Wheel where the two targets were staring, amazed.

She climbed inside their basket and said, “you both must come with me.” The girl grew even more pale than she had already been, and adjusted her glasses. “W. . . why?” she stuttered. “What’s going on?” The agent looked at her and the boy and said, “There is no time! We must go now!” The Ferris Wheel basket rocked, and suddenly the other two agents appeared, and came inside. The basket wasn’t very big, so all five of them didn’t fit inside well. All this time, the boy hadn’t said a word. His mouth stood open as he struggled to find something to say. Finally, he turned to the girl and said, “I think we should go with them. WE don’t have to be home until later. . . “ The girl looked with big eyes at the three agents and their glowing faces.

She adjusted her glasses again. “I. . . I’m afraid to!” She whispered. One of the agents reached over and touched her shoulder gently. “Trust us. Please. We need you to come with us now.” There was a sincerity in his soft words.

The girl looked down and said, “oh, Ok. . . “ As soon as she said this, the girl agent snapped her fingers, and two small hover crafts floated over. she jumped on one, and beckoned the girl to sit with her. The other two agents jumped on the other one, and the boy followed. The girl remained on the Ferris Wheel. The girl agent grabbed her hand and whispered, “you must hurry! There is no time!” The girl closed her eyes and jumped on the hover craft. The small discs zoomed off into the distance.

The boy said, “How can we believe you? We’ve never met you before!” One of the girl agents said, “Many are chosen, but few actually accept.” The boy looked confused, but the girl turned to him and said, “I can sense truth in what they’re saying.” The boy whispered to her, “Me too, but we don’t know where they’re trying to take us!” “We’ll make sure you’re comfortable, and if you come I guarantee you’ll be so GLAD you came!” said one of the boy agents. He pushed a button on his hover disc, and it expanded enough for another passenger. He looked at the boy and said, “Come with us. Please!”

The boy looked at the girl, sighed, and unstrapped his seat belt. “What are you doing?!?,” the girl exclaimed. “I’m going,” said the boy. “Wha? you. . . you can’t leave me here!” shouted the girl, and jumped up. They got on the hover discs and flew away.

To all the people below’s surprise, she did not fall! She was hovering in the air on the disk! By now, the targets had looked up to see what all the ruckus was about. The boy’s mouth fell open and the girl’s eyes widened in surprise. the Girl agent flew over to them and hovered close to their faces, while the 3 others hovered by her side.

The Agents were pretty embarrased to be found fooling around off-duty, but H.S affirmed them and said, “Just try not to mess around. You have a job to do.” The Agents nodded and turned to head towards their assigned targets.

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The county fair wasn’t usually this crowded every year, but the dry heat brought more people out to use the new waterslides. One of The Agents wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked longingly at the big waterslides and the people screaming in delight on them, but one of her fellow comrades took her by the arm and dragged her along.

The Agents slipped through the crowd, trying not to be noticed. They were quickly approaching their targets, a boy and a girl, who were contemplating whether or not they should get on the ferris wheel. They were in line, close to the front. The Agents managed to slip in behind them unoticed. They heard the tail-end of their conversation: “….c’mon! don’t be scared!”, said the boy. He looked about 15. The girl, who looked slightly younger, adjusted her glasses and frowned. “I…I don’t know…-”, she began, but before she could finish, the boy said, “Aww…I bet you’ll like it!!” and pulled her onto the ride. The Agents slipped into the basket behind them.

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~END OF CHAPTER ONE~

Crime and Punishment takes place in 19th century Russia and is about the crime, recklessness and poverty of the town of St. Petersburg.

The main character of the book, Raskolinikov is a troubled young man that wants to find the deeper meaning of life, seems to not remember who God really is, and grows more and more impatient with pettiness. His mother and his sister, Avidotia are worried about his disposition and his attitudes. His friend Razumikhin is getting tired of Raskolnikov’s flippancy and really wants to help. He also has a secret crush on Avidotia.

In the beginning, Raskolnikov is apparently planning something, but we don’t know what it is. Farther on, he commits a murder and becomes guilty and frenzied as he tries to cover up his crime and keep his worried mother and friends at bay. Then some people become suspicious of him and he tries to hide it. He meets a girl that falls in love with him, and he trusts her with his secret. She convinces him to turn himself in eventually, and he realizes he loved her all along.

Doskoyevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in Russian, so it’s translated. The translator decided to keep some of the Russian terms in it. For example, one person has a lot of different names. Raskolnikov’s real name is Rodion, but he is called Raskolikov, Rodion Ramnych, and Rodia, the name his mother calls him. They’re like nicknames, and they are usually used when a person is talking.

The most exciting point in the book for me was after Raskolnikov had committed the murder and people were beginning to get suspicious of him, and he tries his best to throw them off. Afterwards, he’s accused, and he tires to think it over on whether he should run away or turn himself in.

I read her memoirs, A Girl from Yamhill, and the sequel, On my own Two Feet. A Girl From Yamhill was about her life all the way up until she left to go to college. I really liked this one. It was a long book, but it was so interesting that I read it in 2 days! I thought it was more interesting than On My own Two Feet, only because it seemed more exciting things happened. It included the emotional struggles that she had with her mother, and described what it was like to live during the Depression. She was sick all the time, and she went through a lot of boyfriend issues.

In On My own Two Feet, Beverly struggles with love, her mother, and getting a job during the depression and WWII.

I also read one of her children’s books, Beezus and Ramona. I had purposely stayed away from ALL Ramona books when I was younger, and I don’t know why. I guesss I thought that Ramona was a really obnoxious child that everyone played up to be perfect, and I was wrong. Ramona is acutally a lot like my sister Imani, not annoying, just really strong-willed, and in Beezus and Ramona, Beezus, Ramona’s big sister is struggling with thinking that she doesn’t love Ramona, and how no one lies her as much as they like Ramona. I really liked that book, and reading A Girl from Yamhill, I also discovered that Ramona is modeled after the author, who was also strongwilled as a little girl, and as a woman.

The Lie: Evolution is a very eye-opening book. Ken Ham uses common problems and tells you how to solve them in detailed answers. Each chapter presents a new problem, but also a solution.

He also talks about how evolution is connected to many of today’s people and their beliefs. For example, some people like to interpret the Bible to change the meaning into whatever works best for them, and many of them do not realize that in doing that, they are following evolutionsis’ customs and tactics.

We as Christians are supposed to spread the news around about not only things that happened in the New Testament, but also in the Old Testament, especially the book of Genesis. Genesis is one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible, and the first verse causes explosions. Arguments pop up such as: ‘well, Genesis is a poetic book, and shouldn’t actually be taken seriously,’ and ‘God used evolutionary techniques to create the earth.’, and ‘We don’t have to take Genesis literally.’

But the Bible says: “The word of God is perfect, add ye not unto His words.” If God is perfect and so are His words, taking Genesis literally shouldn’t be a problem. Ken Ham deals with these issues at their roots, and ties everything together so it makes more sense.

I learned a lot of things from this book that helped me stabilize my faith in Genesis, and now I also have a lot of good arguements when I’m confrotned with these problems in my life.

Albert Einstein was a very controversial figure in history. At the age of 16, he decided that he would no longer be a citizen of Germany, or anywhere, but not long afterwards, he did become Swiss, and eventually German again. He also hated war and school, and dropped out for a time.

At the age of 26, he presented 3 outstanding articles to a small science magazine, The Yearbook of Physics. One was about the photoelectrical effect, which helped make television possible. The other 2 articles were: “The theory of relativity,” and the equation e=mc2, both of which would make him famous.

Though he was famous, he still loved simple things, like sailing ships, smoking his pipe, and playing the violin. He rarely dressed up, and never wore socks.

Einstein traveled all over the world, and was greeted in many different ways. His favor in his own country steadily decreased, and Nazis wanted him killed. He moved to America, and helped end WWII by helping American sceintists get their research started. When he died in 1954 at the age of 75, people all over the world mourned.

At first, I thought Albert Einstein was a really crazy man that liked math and solving hard equations. Reading this book completely changed my view. Albert Einstein had a lot of great blessings that he was willing to share with the whole world.

I got up from the leaves I was laying on in our house, and went outside. Birds were chirping, and bugs buzzed around. I was so hungry, I could have grabbed one of those flies and eaten it. In fact, that gave me an idea. I went out and found some flowers. I was going to gather some bees. I sat outside with my wilting flowers for an hour. One bee came and when I caught it, it stung me. I’m not allergic, but that hurt.

I decided to take Seymour out of his cage so he could look around. I ate some seaweed and felt ok. Seymour ate the dead bee that had stung me. We sat on the beach for another hour, and I occasionally went back in the house to put more logs on the fire. Seymour paced around, fell in the swampy water, and was altogether silly.

Seymour waddled into the hut. I heard a “SQUACK!” and billows of smoke came out of the opening of our house. I jumped up to see what had happened. Seymour streaked out, his back end smoking. Apparently, he had gotten too close to the fire and caught his whole rear end on fire!

After I had dunked Seymour’s bottom in the swamp and put him back in his cage, I heard a noise. It was the whirring of a helicopter! I looked up and saw it coming closer and closer!

I thought it was too good to be true. Finally someone had come for us! I stood up and started jumping and screaming. I ran into the house and lit a large stick on fire, brought it outside, and started waving it around.

The helicopter stopped right above the island. A man on a megaphone said, “Stand by! We’re here to help you! Are you Clay Veenstraw?” I was screaming at the TOP OF MY LUNGS. “YES I AM! YES!!”

A ladder came down out the door of the helipcopter and I ran to it, praising God all the way. “Is that your chicken?” asked the assistant pilot. I looked back and saw Seymour running out of the hut. I said, “Yes, but I think he’ll be better off staying here. He can make it on his own.” The assistant looked once more at the chicken and said, “Ok, we’re ready to clear out.” I looked back and saw my little house getting smaller and smaller, but I was ok. I only had one problem.

“Hey, do you guys have any food in here?”

THE END