Austin Cottingham 6 - Taking Drivers Ed.

With school schedules you have very little wiggle room for other classes that you may need or enjoy, this could be for example drivers ed, agriculture systems, or a music class, for us band nerds. I have a very messed up schedule this year so I could not take drivers ed. This was a bit of a worry of mine seeing as how my family needs the cut on the monumental insurance total that you get when you are a teenager, because companies do not think that younger people cannot drive and that is mostly true because a lot of crashes are caused by teens or distracted driving by teens. We had to turn towards another school over the summer or get bashed by the insurance, so we chose the drivers ed program at Green County Tech. Being honest I was a tad nervous going into a new school and meeting new people for at least two weeks. Me and my dad went to Green County Tech before the drivers ed started and talked to the office about the hours of the drivers ed course. The hours for the drivers ed course was from eight in the morning to noon. The course started and I had to drive from Brookland to Paragould every day ,(except for weekends). This was very tough at first because of the crazy traffic on the way to Paragould and in Paragould. I had to turn around once in the MacDonald's parking lot because a guy sped up and wouldn't let me over into the other lane to turn. The drivers ed classes were actually really easy and the people in the class were younger than me except for one kid in the back right, the teacher was also really nice. The actual driving part of the class was really easy even compared to the other even easier class that we had to take a week before the actual driving portion. Anyways the driving portion was almost over before I knew it. We only drove for thirty minutes and there was only three of us driving so in total you only had to drive around ten minutes. This was my time at Green County Tech and it wasn't half bad. If anyone needs a drivers ed course over the summer this is one of the easiest.

Bryce Despain - 6 - Horrible Week

Heads up, if you don’t like reading sad things, then don’t read this. 

So, hello everyone who is reading this. I hope that everyone of you guys have had a very good week so far and continue to have one. Personally, I haven’t had a good week at all and I’m not gonna hide it from anyone, nor am I gonna hide my emotions . I’m not gonna go into detail about what all happened, but I will say that in the late afternoon on Sunday, June 23rd, I lost a friend to suicide. So I’ve kinda been depressed all week long and lost, because I just wanna know why. The friend that I lost, I worked with, and now I won’t get to work alongside him anymore sadly, which is just crazy to think about.

Monday morning, I didn’t go into work, and none of the other workers did either. They said we didn’t go in because it was a “rain day,” but I just think it was because all of us there were so lost and upset, that none of us really needed to be there because I don’t think we would get anything done at all. If we were there, I honestly think all of us would be questioning about why he did it.

When Tuesday came around, we went to work, but it was a really slow day, and I mean slow. You could tell that every single one of the workers were depressed, including me, and some were even crying because they still couldn’t believe that it had actually happened. Honestly none of us expected it and never would have expected it to happen in a million years. It’s still crazy to even think about it because last week he was completely fine and nothing seemed to be wrong with him. He was acting like he usually does, and now he is just unexpectedly gone, forever. 

As of writing this, today is currently Thursday. We went into work, but at about 9, it started to rain so we had to go home because we can’t work in the rain. I was kinda glad that the rain came though, because honestly I didn’t wanna be there, it just isn’t the same without him there. I hope everyone of you have had a much better week then me. Goodbye. 

Anna mason #3 - I don’t do anything

Hello everyone who actually cares enough to read this. My summer actually hasn’t been that good so far. This is kinda sad but my grandpa actually got diagnosed with stage four liver and pancreas cancer and the doctors have only gave him a couple weeks left and so basically my entire summer so far has been spent with him. So when you folks got the time how your heads and send up a prayer. Also I’m the one that has been having to help with his cows and I don’t know one thing about a dang cow. I almost ran one over the other day with the mule because it was laying in the grass. But now I look at it it’s pretty fun. I have about one more week before I get to go to World Series. And World Series is the best part of my summer. I get to spend a whole week with my girls on my team. And we bond so much and it is so great. Then I’ll be back for a week and gone for another two weeks.  I’m barely going to be home. So I’m trying my best to get this dang assignment done. And is anyone would like to tell me what a heading is in the book you would be my best friend. I am so lost about it but I think I got this blog thing down. And my car this summer has gotten so much fatter. For the ones that have seen jellybean before he was alreadly big but now he’s like a balloon. And I’m running out of things to talk about because yeah I don’t do much but play softball and eat. Oh, my phone is still shattered and doesn’t work and my parents won’t get me a new one because they said it still works but my fingers have gotten cut so much typing this blog. So I think I should get bonus points for taking it like a champ. I have also been wanting to go see the movie MA but it is rated R and I still look like I’m 12 years old. I have ate so many snowcones  this year and I am not even sorry about it. My lips are still chapped really bad and I don’t think it’s normal because like I don’t even know. So I hope everyone else is having a good summer. And I am also really tan now I could pass for a Mexican. And I hope everyone else will have a bomb summer and eat many snowcones and get super tan.

Ella Servadio — Blog 4

So I’m really bored right now. I haven’t done anything but go to the pool and tan for the past week and a half. I’ve gotten really tan though, so that is a plus. But it got old quick, so today I’m at my grandmother’s catching up on The Bachelorette because I haven’t been able to watch in awhile. I don’t know if any of y’all watch it, but you should. My favorite guys on the show right now are Jed and Peter. I really can not stand Luke P, and I don’t know why Hannah keeps him around. I really hope she sends him home soon because he’s making me not want to watch anymore. I’ve also been watching Grey’s Anatomy (for the third time). That show will never get old. So if you haven’t watched that either you need to. This past weekend I went to the races again. I go every weekend because my boyfriend races. His dad, brother, cousin, and grandfather race as well. Right now, he is on a win streak. He’s won three races in a row. Last season, he won eleven in a row. After the races were over, I was walking around with his niece, and I tripped over the ramp of the car hauler. There was some metal pieces that had fallen off of the car laying right where I tripped, and I cut my leg up on it. The whole back side of my calf is cut up. It really hurts, but I’ll be okay haha! Oh, and my little cousin’s birthday party went great! She loves her present from me and McKenzie! We let her ride it around inside the shop because it was raining. We set up barrels for her to go around, and she ran into one. I jumped up because I thought she was about to start crying, but she started laughing like crazy and said “Oh my goodness I crashed!” She sat there and laughed about it for at least ten minutes. It was so cute. I’m glad it went great though. I’m just really excited because I get to to go the beach in one week. The nine hour drive to Panama City is going to suck, but it will be worth it!

Austin Cottingham 5 Memphis fun pt 2

After the delight of being guided around the Amro store we left and started to head towards our guitar store, or our second music store of the trip. The music store that we visited was Guitar Center, we pulled into the parking lot and this place is looking rather bland. Although when you venture inside the store it has tons of room and things to look at, in just the doorway. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by a nice guy called Grant who works over the bass and guitar section. The guitar section was giant with a multitude of guitars for about eighty feet and stacked four guitars high. Then you got the bass guitar section with around the same stack, just about forty feet long. Then one bass stood out to me that I had been researching for quite some time. This was the Epiphone four Thunder Bird, it had a darker wood grain with an white outcrop on the horn of the bass. Then on the white horn of the bass there is a Apache looking eagle design. I ended up getting someone to get the bass of the wall for me because it was the fourth one up, on the ceiling. I studied the bass and played it for about thirty minutes then made my decision, and I decided that I was going to get a new bass. After we bagged it up we continued to walk around the store and look at the various instruments and sections housing the instruments. The store had an acoustic section as well as a piano section and a drum section. Then another big part of the store was sound equipment as well as light bars and recording studio equipment. After we got done looking at the giant store packed to the brim with sound equipment and instruments, we put my bass in the back of the Jeep and headed to my dads grill and spice store. After looking for spices for around ten minutes he made his selection and once we left there we went into a bike store adjacent to the spice store. The bikes were pretty much the same as Gear head in Jonesboro. After all of this shopping we decided to go home and try out our new stuff.

Tristan #1

Hey guys, so far my summer has been kinda boring. The week after school let out we went to Oklahoma for a few rodeos. Then went to the East coast for a few more. Come home for a couple weeks and haven’t been anywhere in two weeks because apparently my luck runs low. Someone pulled out in front of us while pulling the trailer and long story short, totaled the truck. Of course on top of that the vet bill, because my horse is gonna get hurt any chance she can. The last week we have been getting her back in shape and we can start going places again. I thought I better start this assignment since I have nothing better to do. So far I have completed the first chapter of the book. One of the perks of being in a truck for 10+ hours. (Jk)  Anyway, my dog and I hope y’all have all had a good summer. We are currently sitting watching tv since sleep is not needed. This week has been pretty entertaining. It started off as we found a small water leak in the front yard. They come out and did their thing. As it wasn’t an emergency they said they would just come back. Well Friday comes around and we look out front as my grandpa was leaving for work and see about a 12 foot spout of water shooting out of the ground. Seeing his face was pretty entertaining. So as of today we have a big pile of dirt in our front yard. Remmy and Gunner are in heaven. The bathtub however is not very happy nor clean right now. But my grandpa and I have been working on a flower garden for my grandma since Saturday. We revealed the freshly prepared ground to her today. As we sat down to eat she decided she really didn’t want it. Her reasoning being we aren’t home really long enough to take care of it. Well normally aren’t until it comes to stupid things. After two days of sweating and hearing my grandpas not so friendly words, it come to sad end of not going to be used. Hopefully we will be able to go places again by next weekend. Anyway Remmy and I have reached the word count and are going to finish the movie. We hope everyone has had a good summer so far!

Bryce Despain - 5 - Don’t Read Please

So, my week has been pretty good so far. I’ve actually been busy almost every single day, which I mean is good because I’m not bored like I usually am. Monday morning I woke up at like 4:30, then I went to work at 6 and didn’t get home to around 5, so that was a fun day for me. After I got home I was so tired that I took a shower and didn’t want to do anything else. I didn’t work Tuesday because I went to watch the new Godzilla movie, it was an alright movie, but if I’m being honest I was asleep for over half of it so I don’t really know what all happened in it. I could spoil it for all of you, but I’m not gonna do that. Just kidding, Godzilla kills the three headed dragon in it and becomes the king of the monsters, hints the movie title, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I wish that I wouldn’t have fallen asleep for half of it because that was a movie that I actually wanted to watch and was looking forward too. But the reason I fell asleep during it was because the beginning of the movie is actually super boring so I just fell asleep. I’m gonna stop talking about this now because I know most of you people reading this really don’t care, but it’s okay for me because as I’m typing this sentence not only am I getting closer and closer to 350 words, but I’m also wasting your time, basically it’s a win win situation for me, so you’re very welcome for that. I was gonna work Wednesday, but I woke up and it was 9 in the morning, so I called my dad and asked why he didn’t wake me up and he said that they didn’t need me that day, so I was like sweet and just sat in my bed all day. Honestly I could tell you all about the rest of my week because I’m sure most of you would want to hear that *sarcasm* but honestly it doesn’t really matter, because I have over 350 words now. So see you guys in my next blog. 

Beth 03 - I'm Back

Here's to hoping that this is the final time I post off schedule.
To update those of you who care, Florida was pretty fun. I was able to perform an observational study while I was there which was super cool (I'm literally so lame). We went out and ate at a bunch of different restaurants and visited the beach multiple times a day. My favorite part about Florida was going out to eat because I love food. Sure, the beach is gorgeous and fun at times, but I'm not a huge fan of sand and seaweed sticking to me. When the time came for us to come home, I was so ready. The ride home wasn't nearly as bad as the ride there.
Forwarding to now, I want to quickly thank and curse Mrs. Larkin for teaching me all of those vocab words. Thank you for expanding my vocabulary and making me sound sophisticated when I talk and write. Curse you for making me hyperaware of said vocab words. I can't hear the word omnipotent without thinking, "Adjective. All-powerful, having unlimited power."
Anyway, today I had my meeting with the orthopedist. As many of you might recall, I screwed my knee up and wore that stupid brace that was too big for my leg. Turns out, I didn't tear my ACL (Yay!). Instead, I dislocated my kneecap for the second time (Boo!). I should be going in for an MRI this week or next week to find out how weak the tendon that holds the patella -- kneecap, for those of you who didn't have Mrs. Debbie in the fourth grade -- in place is. You may see me rocking a new brace when I participate in activities.
As for the coming week, I'll be staying at ASU for choir camp. I know that a few of you guys are going so I'll see y'all there. It's going to be a blast.
I guess that's all I have for right now. I'll keep you guys updated on my knee troubles and my other summer activities. Comment on my stuff, you bums! Adios.

More stuff -Anna mason #2

so this weekend we went and played softball at Oxford which was the biggest showcase around.  We did pretty good I actually got two scouts to come and talk to me. And my dad got thrown out of the first game of the tournament which was super funny. Now we have to play at Jacksonville this weekend and I’m just ready for World Series cause we get to spend the whole week at the beach. Yesterday I was forced to go to my cousins and do fathers days with all the days it was fun but lasted a little too long. And now I’m just sitting at home procrastinating this assignment because if we are going to be honest I don’t really understand how to do the book part but I think I got this blog thing down. But it is kinda hard to do these when I really don’t do anything. But I have went to starbucks a lot this summer for some odd reason and got pink drinks and ice Carmel macchiatos and I’m really wanting to go shopping. I don’t really feel like going out there because I usually never find anything. I’ve also been watching a lot of David Dobrik because I absolutely love him and would marry him if I could. And now I really need to clean my car but I also can’t get myself to go outside and so anything. I also told myself this summer I would try and get in shape a little bit. Then I was like forget that I look fine how I am. I just hope that we play really good this weekend because I am honestly getting kind of tired of playing every single weekend. I have only got to go to the lake like twice and I am really upset about it. But I’m another note church camp is coming up really soon and I am so pumped and I really can’t wait. It is the most awesome week of the summer. And so yeah I’ll keep everyone updated on how my team actually does this weekend.

Bryce Despain - 4 - More Nonsense

Hello everyone who is reading this blog, I’m back at it again with my nonsense! I’m gonna be completely honest with all of you, this week has been really boring for me because I haven’t really done much at all. I mean yeah, I’ve got to work and make some money this week, but even that was boring for me because we really didn’t do much at all and we really didn’t get anything done. I worked Monday, half of Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, so I would say that I’m gonna have a pretty nice paycheck, which is good because I like having money just in case. 

When I woke up Monday morning for work, I didn’t wake up at 6, instead I woke up at 5 because my stomach was hurting really bad. Honestly it sucked that I woke up even an hour earlier because the whole day at work, not only was I tired, but my stomach was still hurting because I forgot to take medicine before I left that morning. I only worked half a day Tuesday because my parents had to take our dogs to the vets for their yearly checkup so I had to watch my little brother, which was also boring because all he ever does is watch YouTube or play video games. I didn’t work Wednesday, but all I did Wednesday was I went to church, which was fun. However, when Thursday came around for me to go to work, I actually felt like going to work. Throughout the entire day of working, I had to constantly walk all over the rough terrain at the new hotel that we are building and it didn’t feel too good. When I got home, I took off my work boots and looked at my feet, I have blisters on my heels and also the bottoms of my feet because I had to walk so awkwardly all over the rough terrain, and I hate doing that because I hurt my ankle walking across it. I don’t know why they can’t flatten out the ground because that would make everyone’s life easier. Friday was just a normal day of work, except Brendan wasn’t with us because Thursday night he left for Florida to go see his girlfriend, so I guess that’s fun. I hope whoever read this enjoyed reading this nonsense, and have a good day! 

Austin Cottingham 4 Memphis fun pt 1

Any good trip to Memphis starts out as a hunch or idea that cannot be accomplished around your current area, such as Jonesboro or  Lake City. Usually it's some item or thing that you cannot buy in your local stores. A trip to Memphis could also be a leisure day, looking around and getting ideas for projects or new hobbies. One of these trips for us usually means that we have some sort of goal lined up and researched before we go all the way to Memphis. This time it was a trip to two music stores, a hardware store, and a killer chicken place. Driving to Memphis is probably the most boring part of the trip. Anyone would agree an hour and a half drive could put you in a land that time is eight times slower than regular time. Either way we made it to Memphis and first went to our favorite chicken place called Hattie B's. This place serves some of the best chicken Memphis has to offer and if you think it doesn't just get out. This place has very different types of chicken such as tenders, sandwiches, wings, and some super good grilled chicken. Although me and my dad don't go for the grilled chicken we go for the spicy hot tenders, that have so much heat that a dude was sweating like a sponge when we got there. That's when we thought that the strips were going to be good, like usual. The strips were good and they have actually got better. We finished our chicken and got out of the crazy place, every time that we go there it is packed to the brim with people from all over. We headed to one of the better music stores in Memphis called Amro, which we are taking my trombone for the cleaning treatment that they gave me when I bought it. They are very professional in this store, they answered any questions we had without difficulty and led us to the cleaning part of the store. Which again i'm gonna have to break this up into parts because it would help me hit my quota for this fall. Peace ladies and gents.

Ella Servadio — Blog 3

Last week I talked about my job. I’m still liking it, but I’m only getting to work a day and a half this week. It really sucks honestly because my paycheck is only going to be like $75, and I have to sit at home all week and be bored. I had fun yesterday though. I went over to my friend’s house because she wanted me to dye her hair for her. I didn’t know that she wanted purple ends though. So she picked me up from work and we went to Sally’s to buy the hair dye. We bought three bottles because her hair is really thick, so we figured it would take a lot of dye to cover all of her hair. So once we got back to her house we started dying. We ended up having to bleach the ends of her hair before we put the purple in, and it looked awful with just the bleach. I started freaking out because I thought I had ruined my friend’s hair. She was freaking out too, but once we got the purple in there it looked really good. So now I’m considering going into cosmetology haha, just kidding. But I’m really proud of myself for how good it turned out. This past weekend I finally got to go to the lake. I had a lot of fun. I got talked into riding the inner tube with my boyfriend and one of his friends, and I will NEVER do that again. They were so rowdy. Like they didn’t just sit there and try not to fall they were jumping around and being stupid. I promise I got hit/kicked in the face at least twelve times in the 5-10 minutes we were on it. I have bruises everywhere, and I didn’t even get thrown off of the tube. I literally got bruises from them being rowdy. It was all fun though. Now this weekend I get to go to my little cousins 4th birthday party! We finally finished planning it all Monday night. It’s going to be so cute. McKenzie and I are getting her a little barbie car, and she’s going to love it! I hope anyway!

Tyler #3 - Birthdays, Pontoons, and the American Revolution Part 1

Last Saturday, I went to Greers Ferry Lake. It was my stepsister, Ashlyn's, eighteenth birthday celebration. There was my family, a friend of mine, and some of Ashlyn's friends at the celebration. We went to jump off some rocks, and that's fairly scary for a kid like me, who can barely swim. I made sure my life-jacket was especially tight. It is not really that bad once you jump. We were going to tube, but we forgot the tube at home. We normally leave the tube on the pontoon, but last time we took it home because my stepbrother, Dillon, thought there was a leak in the tube. We have a floating rectangle called a "Floating Oasis". I would be satisfied, but it only floats, it has never Oasised!

Alright, so I could talk about every single little insignificant thing I've done over the last week, but let's be real here, I don't care, and nor do you. So, in some of my blogs I want to start writing about some things in history that interest me. Overview some wars. random facts, just whatever I feel like writing. It might actually have a tiny bit of use to anyone reading this.

I want to write a little about the American Revolution, one of the most important revolutions in modern history. I'll start it in this blog and continue it in another.

It all started with the Seven Years War, which arguably lasted nine years. The part that applies to this context is Britain and the French fighting for territory in North America. The British won, but it cost them a LOT of money. They were in tremendous debt. So since they fought the war to protect the colonies, they decided to tax the colonies.

The colonists were not happy with this decision. These taxes would lead to rebellions across the colonies, such as Bacon’s Rebellion and the Boston Tea Party. The taxes and rebellions would sour the relationship between Britain and its own colonies.

The rebels threw snowballs, sticks, then stones. The army men, feeling threatened, shot at the rebels. “The Boston Massacre” was a riot in Boston that led to the death of five colonists due to the British army. Three years later, the Boston Tea Party dumped out incoming tea shipments into the ocean, costing Britain a lot of money.

The British sent some army men to the colonies to maintain control, and made the colonists pay for them. They were not happy, so the colonists formed their own army of minutemen to intimidate the British army. They met in Lexington. No one actually thought they would truly fight.

“The shot heard around the world” started the American Revolutionary War.

I hope you are all having a great summer so far!

Austin Cottingham 3 Camping with the boys pt 2

In the last part of the story I mentioned that we were staying near a dam south of Norfork. This river coming off of the lake was the drain channel for the lake, so that means there are plenty of people around the campsite and surrounding areas. We pulled up to our specific camping lot and started getting settled in, which means folding out our roof top tent and getting all of the supplies out of the camper, letting us sleep in there when night comes. With everyone helping this only took about half and hour. Once we got settled in we wandered around the area looking for good fishing spots. There was a hatchery up the river from where we were camping so that was the first place we wanted to look, being that we all fish. We got to the hatchery and it appeared that people only fifteen and under could fish, nonetheless we continued our trek deeper upstream almost falling on rocks and seeing a few otters along the way. We got done looking at the fish in the hatchery, which were around thirty six inches. After gazing at the fish we got back to our campsite, we started to get lunch going because we all didn't have breakfast. Our lunch was a bit particular because we didn't have hot dog buns but we had hot dogs. This resulted in us eating hot dogs in tortilla wraps, but they were not half bad to be completely honest. Our group pretty much did whatever until night came and we had to start a fire. Once everyone was tuckered out they retreated to the tent on top of the camper, which I got the luxury of staying in the camper with my father, which was pretty comfy. In the morning we all went down to the main area of the river and looked out on the river searching for good fishing spots, as well as some fun we might have. Our whole group split into fishing areas with each of us catching something, for some people all they caught were logs and rocks. The other part of the group caught a few fish leading to bragging rights and some poking at other members for not being able to catch a fish. After all of the poking at each other we went back to the camper loaded up and came back home with little traffic problems or dilemmas. This trip was fun because we all got to hangout together as a group of guys and just do what we do best.

Bryce Despain - 3 - Nonsense

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful and productive week so far like me. I am currently writing this on Saturday and I should have enough to write about because I have had a very busy week, and I mean busy. If I don’t have enough to write about though, then oh well. Honestly I could just continue to talk about how I won’t have enough to write about and repeat myself in order to get more words like I am doing right now at this very moment in time, but let’s not do that, shall we? — by the way, that was 98 words of completely nonsense that I could have left out, but I wrote that just for y’all, and totally not for my advantage to getting 350 words, now I’m currently over 130 words. I will be sure to update all of y’all when I get 350 words. 

So, I guess I should actually start off by telling you guys about what all I’ve done this week. I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Let me just tell you guys, Monday and Tuesday were completely fine days to work because it wasn’t that hot out, but it sprinkled and rained all day long on Thursday where I was in Jonesboro, and it honestly really sucked. I get off of work around 4, but I get home around 5 everyday, which I mean is kinda stupid if you ask me because on days I work I can’t really do the things I want. I get that it’s the whole meaning of work and all, but I would much rather spend my days doing what I wanted to do like being productive and getting things done. I’m not gonna complain that much though, because I do get paid like a pretty good amount of money, which is nice I guess because I can buy whatever I want. Next time most of you guys see me, I’ll be really really tan, but eventually it will fade, because sadly my tans always fade. Unless I’m really really tan then it won’t. — guess what, that was exactly 350 words, get on my level of nonsense. 

Ella Servadio - Blog 2

On my last blog, I talked about how I was looking for a job. I found one! I’m working at Indianola Pecan House. It’s a gift shop type place, but you can also pick up pecans and bring them to the warehouse and we’ll pay you for them. Then the warehouse will crack them and send them to the store, and the people in the kitchen will use them to make different kinds of pecans and other things like pecan pies, fudge, pecan turtle, and many other things. It’s pretty cool. I like the job so far. Right now all I’m really doing is stocking and cleaning. I help customers find things they need also. I haven’t learned how to work the register yet, but I’m ready to learn because I’m tired of only cleaning and stocking. Sitting at the store from 8-5 is kind of boring because we aren’t always busy. So most of the time the manager and I are just sitting here on our phones and talking. Today we had an old man bring us donuts. He was so sweet. He asked me about what my college plans were and when he was walking out he said “You have a blessed day and a blessed life young lady. God will take care of you.” Him saying that made my day, really. It’s people like him who make me love working with the public because there are some people who come in and are just very rude. I also went to lunch with my grandmother so that was fun. The rest of the day went by slow and very boring. I’m loving working, but I miss being with my mom every day. We talk all day and I’ve face-timed her about seven times since I’ve been back in Mississippi. I really do not know how I will be able to go to college and be away from her! She’s coming here this weekend though so that’s good. We get to plan a birthday party for my four year old cousin. She told us she wants a “shimmer and shine” birthday party. I thought she just meant she wanted a lot of glitter, but Shimmer and Shine is a new cartoon apparently. So everything will be genie themed. I think it will be cute honestly. The hard part will be everyone agreeing on what will go where and what the cake will look like. It will be fun though!

Tyler #2 - Random Thoughts

You know what sucks? Being fifteen in Jonesboro when almost everyone you actually want to talk to is in different towns. I still have friends come over and we go hang out, but it leaves many days studying my ceiling and getting bored of a basketball goal. I have a car and everything, but I can't drive away due to my age. My YouTube watch hours are soaring, though I use it as background noise quite a bit, outside or inside. I used to not have a favorite celebrity, but lately I have been watching a lot of Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, and Hell's Kitchen, all starred by Gordon Ramsay. It's pretty funny seeing Gordon call bad chefs "Donkeys" and other more colorful wording that I won't say here. A bit random, but it's crazy seeing how many numbers people remember of Pi. I don't mean to flex, but I know the first three numbers of  Pi 😎. Did you all know that 59% of people in Russia, in 2017, say the fall of the USSR was a bad thing? Filthy commies. It's pretty funny that the USSR lost the Cold War, since people often joke and say the cold is their greatest ally. They should of just wore jackets smh. It's pretty cool how lax these blogs are. We don't have to say on any topic, we can just type whatever comes to our mediocre minds. I got a letter from University of Arkansas the other day. It was just one of those "consider us" letters but still felt pretty cool. Though I imagine most people get those. I'm just surprised it wasn't Arkansas State University to send the first letter, they just want anybody at this point. I've been playing some new games lately. I still enjoy playing games, but not as much as I used to. Though I know whatever is revealed at E3 will pull me right back into it. To finish this off, I hope all of you are having a great summer so far. As for me, my sunny season has endured tremendous goodwill for my current experience.

Austin Cottingham 2 camping trip with the boys pt 1

Camping trips are a great way to get out of the house and have a little fun once in a while. The trip that me, my dad, my brother, and Aidan and Dawson decided on having was a fishing trip, that would help us maybe go somewhere new and have some downtime to lounge around a river. We started packing the camper, which is as fun as it sounds, then we had to get together all of the fishing poles and rations that we would be eating along the way, and while we were camping. Most of the things that we packed we used pretty much, except for the tools, but those were back up in case something went wrong with the camper or the rooftop tent that we took with us. On the way to the campsite near Norfork we were all in the jeep pretty much chilling out until we got to the Walmart almost thirty miles from the dam that was where we were staying, and went in looking for camping supplies that we could take with us. With the air conditioning in our hair we looked around the store for what we needed, we ended up at the fishing section getting our licenses plus the trout add on that we would need for that specific river. Then after we got the licenses we had to go to the food isles and get hot dogs, smore items, then a pack of water. Once we got to the cash register we payed and left with some swiftness seeing as it was packed and only getting worse just like every Walmart ever. We hopped back inside the camper and made our way back on the road slowly getting closer and closer to our destination. The roads on the way to our campsite were long narrow and some lady pulled out in front of us almost causing us to crash into her or stop. Then finally we get to the campsite right next to the humongous dam that almost didn't seem real. This was only half of the adventure though because I have to space these stories out or I wont have enough things to write about. Peace.

Beth 02 - Plans, Plans, and More Plans

I love how I sat down and made myself a whole posting schedule and I've already gotten behind🙂
My plans for the next few weeks are a little crazy. This entire week I'll be babysitting from 7:30AM to 4:00PM. The kids I'm watching are really well-behaved -- they don't get into trouble and they clean up after themselves. My little brothers could learn a thing or two from them... The only downside to babysitting is having to split the money with my sister, Brittany. To bypass this, I've already made it very clear that if she doesn't wake up and help then she won't get as much. Right now, all of us are in the living room watching Spider-Man: Homecoming (I would like to take a moment to chastise Ava for watching Infinity War before watching other Marvel movies). 
While I'm on the subject of movies: tomorrow, after the kids get picked up, I'll be heading to the theater to watch Godzilla: King of Monsters. Chandler and I typically go to watch movies on Tuesdays, and at least one of us is late every single time. Last Tuesday, we saw that Detective Pikachu movie and I was the late one. The movie was okay even though I didn't really understand some of the concepts or what the little monsters were. Chandler and I will watch anything... seriously. Our first date was us going to see the Lego Movie 2.
By this time next week I'll be in Florida🌞 I really hope those of you who are reading this on your phones or whatever can see these little emojis I'm adding because they add a lot of character to my post. Anyway, I'll be in Destin staying just a few blocks away from the beach. Hopefully, I'll be able to find some more swimsuits while I'm there because I only have two at the moment. Worst case scenario I'll just have to make the two work for the whole week. I'm honestly not looking forward to the trip there or back because there's going to be eight people in the vehicle with me. Usually we only take seven people which enables me to lay down and sleep a good portion of the way there, but with our extra passenger this year, that'll be challenging. 
I guess that's all I have for this week's post. See y'all. 

Bryce Despain - 2 - Working

So, as I stated last time, I said that I would start working soon, like very soon. This week was my first week of the summer to start working and it honestly wasn’t that bad, I mean I still got sunburnt, not that bad though, but it was still enough to where I could feel the heat off of it. Previously I said that I would be outside for up to 8 hours a day, for at least three days a week, and why all of this is completely true, it still kinda sucks because it gets pretty dang hot and humid outside, who am I kidding, it is really gonna suck later on in the summer when it gets up into the high 90 degrees. The job I have is cool and all, but recently I have been thinking about getting a different job after this summer is over where I don’t have to be outside all day long and one that pays me even more then I already make, because that would be really nice. 

I’ve also noticed that last time I didn’t really explain what job I do during the summer. Well if anyone wanted to know, during the summer I work with my dad Chris and my brother Brendan in construction. It is my second summer doing so. Basically, when I’m working with them, I’m what is known as a laborer. This means I have to get other people what they need when they need it, so I run around constantly all day long and my little legs hurt after the day is over. My dad is the head foreman/brick layer at the job sites which means not only does he lay brick with the other brick layers, but since he is the head foreman, he is also in charge of going over all of the building blueprints to make sure that everything is correct with the building, like all of the math and measurements. Honestly I couldn’t do what my dad does because it involves a lot of math and figuring, and I just couldn’t do it because I don’t hate math or anything, but after awhile, it honestly gets really repetitive. Right now we are currently working by the ASU football stadium building the new hotel, so if anyone wants to come say hi when I’m working, feel free to do so!:) I also forgot to mention that most of the time I’m close to a hundred feet in the air for most of the day on a thing called the hydro mobile, it basically is like scaffolding, but it is mobile which means it can move, but only up and down and not side to side.