REFLECTION
In doing this assignment when we first started out doing it in class, I though that it would be a hard assignment to complete. But as I started working on it more at home and asked questions so I knew what I was doing it became real easy. The most diffucult thing about doing this is I can't find out how to put pictures and designs on it. I spent a while trying to figure out how to do it but it was hard, and I still dont know how.
I learned alot in doing this assignment that posting your pieces people really do enjoy them and it s not just a waste of time, and I think that it would not be bad to have this in the future. My thoughts on blogs in general is I think there a good way to display everything and you can be creative with it. Instead of so much writing a paper, or any other project i teacher has you do at the end of the year. Some of my dislikes on this assignment would be maybe you showing us how to make it colorful because I tryed to and I could not get it.
All in all i think that this assignment was a really good assignment and that it was something very creative for us to do. I believe that I enjoyed doing this, and I wish more of the teachers could give this to us as an assignment.

POETRY PACKET POEMS

Rhetorical Questions:
Snowflakes
I wonder if they like falling from the sky?
I guess they do
They wait for there season
And that's winter to
They never fall alone
They alway's travel in pairs
I wonder when they will fall next?

Tauka
Love
My heart strangles me
Heavy than light and sweet
my heart mainly holds
secret passoins of new love.
So sweet yet condescending.

My life
My life
dark spaces
untold
truth haunt me
forever.

LIST POEMS
Things you do before you go to school
Wake up to that annoying noise
make your bed
take a shower
brush your teeth
get dressed
make sure your hairs perfectly sttraight
run upstairs to say hi to your family
do whatever homework was not done the night before
grap your cell off the charger
stuggle to find your car keys
and you got ur done.

NONFICTION BEST WRITE
THE PHONE CALL
It was a bright morning when I had woke up. I thought that it was going to be a great day you know one of those days where nothing goes wrong. I remember it was a Tuesday in the month of August, so of course it was hot. When I realized that it was only the morning I knew that it was to good to be true, because the phone was ringing off the hook. I quickly dashed up the stairs like I was running for my life. As I reached the top of the stairs I paused to catch my breath. I remember my family standing in the kitchen clueless. Looking around, kind of like a lost puppy.
I asked my dad "Is there anything that is going on that I need to know about?" Still all I heard was silence I repeated myself once more asking the same question and he told me that I needed to sit down so we could talk. I sat down my palms were sweaty, questions running through my mind. My dad said in these exact words "Nichelle your grandma has passed away." I was in complete shock all I heard myself saying was no, no, no. I didn’t have time for questions. Its like I heard it but it was not reality. I ran down the stairs trying to concentrate on what I was doing, but all I could do is cry it was like I was putting every emotion into my tears. I had no control over myself, I could not think or any thing.
Finally when I got full control over myself I realized I needed more information, I got the confidence to go back upstairs. I was so mad and angry I didn’t want any one to look or be around me. My grandma died of a stroke that’s what I found out later. See my grandma Mo Honey was not just a grandma to me she was more like a mom she raised me ever since I was little, but when she got older my dad had to come into my life.
Some things that will always be with me are that it really hurt me that I was not able to attend the funeral. Its like someone that is so close to you and you really care about and you were not able to attend there funeral. I was hurt for many days and weeks, wishing that I would have been able to spend the last couple of her breaths and minutes with her. Since I was not able to attend her funeral I decided to take out my anger and write a poem, which they read at the funeral.
There are many days when I set back and think about all the times and memories that I shared with my grandma, the times we spent together, the laughs that we took with one another, and just being a very special lucky girl to have her in my life. I question to myself here and there why did they take her, and what for. But I can answer that question every time because it was her time to go. I love my grandma and Im sure every one does just remember all the memories you had together.

FICTION BEST WRITE

The Sketchbook
By: Nichelle Rickerson
"Ellie, WAIT!!!" My best friend, Sara, came running out of her house.
"What now? I’ve been here for like three hours!" I had been there for awhile and I wanted to go home and see Dad’s mural he was working on. Plus, I had done a sketch just for him.
"I think you might need this." She was holding my black leather sketchbook.
"Oh, thanks! I couldn’t have gone a whole night without it. Yeah, I’ve heard it a million times." Sara handed the sketchbook to me.
"Pink, I’ve finally figured out the color to describe you! Light Pink! It’s a very sweet and natural color." Sara turned a little pink herself.
"Bye!"
"Later." I ran home through the woods, which were filled with red, orange, and yellow leaves. I loved the colors of the leaves in autumn. They were so rich and exciting. I finally arrived in our front yard. I ran over to my dad’s studio. I could hear laughter from inside. I knew that he didn’t like being interrupted during his painting sessions, but I just had to show him my sketch.
"Dad, sorry, but you just have to…" I was in the studio. I was really there. It wasn’t a dream, I knew, because I pinched myself as hard as I could. My father had his arms around her waste and his lips on hers. My father looked up and his jaw dropped. Then I saw the woman for the first time. She was thin, had black hair, and laughing green eyes. But her eyes- they weren’t laughing. They were full of fear. I knew why.
"Ellie-honey-it’s… it’s not what it looks like." I ran. I ran like I never had before. I ran through the woods bumping into the tree branches and stumps until I fell down. I began sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t breathe. I hugged my knees close to my chest. Everything in the woods, including my favorite leaves, began to turn a navy blue. Navy blue is the saddest color I know.
I began thinking, "How could he do this to us! I hate him! I hate him and that woman he was with! He’s such a jerk!" Then I knew that I to get back at him. I knew I had to make him as sad as he had made me. So I got up and walked back home.
I found Dad in his studio, and he was pacing back and forth. I walked in.
"Ellie, I-" I showed him the matchbox in my hand.
"Honey, what doing are with that?" I threw my sketchbook on the floor. I lit the match.
"Ellie, NO!" But it was too late. I threw the match on the sketchbook. It began to catch fire. The now ugly orange and yellow flames licked at my most precious drawings and paintings. Dad ran over and grabbed his water. He tossed it onto the sketchbook. The fire was out, but the book was still smoldering.
"I don’t ever want to draw or paint again!" It hurt to say that, but I that’s what I felt. A deep red grew inside me of anger and passion.
"Ellie, listen…"
"I won’t listen to your lies. You lied to mom, and I. I’ll tell her. I’ll tell mom."
"Honey, please, just don’t tell your mom."
"Why shouldn’t I?"
"It would just break her heart to find out that… that I…"
"So….you just expect me to keep this a secret? Like it never happened? And that you never cheated on her?"
"Ellie, it’s not like that!"
"Well it sure sounds like that to me. It sounds like that you’re just going to tear this family to pieces."
"Ellie, honey, promise you won’t tell."
"I can’t." I ran into my house and into my room. I jumped on the bed and began sobbing on my pillow.
I woke up in the middle of the night. It was dead quiet. I couldn’t hear Dad’s snores or moms rustling the sheets. I got up to get a drink of water, and there was my mom sitting at the kitchen table.
"Where is he?" I looked at her with furious eyes. But I didn’t have to wait for her answer. I knew by the look of pain in her eyes that he had left.
"Ellie…He’s… Oh Ellie! He’s gone." I was furious.
"Why didn’t you stop him? You could have made it work! You could have!" But I knew the truth. It wasn’t my mother’s fault but I couldn’t stop myself from boiling over.
"Honey, please just calm down and go back to bed." I trudged back into my bedroom. Forgetting my drink of water I climbed into bed. But I didn’t go to sleep. I laid awake for hours. When I began to hear my mother crying I tuned her out.
A couple weeks went by. My life changed drastically. I had gone from being carefree about dinner and laundry to doing those things. My mother had to start working and I went home everyday but alone to an empty house. At this point in my life was when I needed drawing the most. But every time I lifted the pencil I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything. Finally a letter came in the mail. It was addressed to me. The return address was somewhere in California.
"Well, open it!" My mother looked at me. She knew whom it was from and so did I. I tore it open. It read:
Dear Ellie,
That’s right. I’m in California. Oh you should be here to see all of the trees and animals and sunsets to paint and draw. I’m living with a friend and he has been nice enough to give me free room and board as long as I cook for the both of us. And let me tell you, I’m not the greatest chef.
Well I know that you’re probably making some changes in your life to. And I want you to know this one thing. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for betraying your trust and your mother’s. I’m sorry for tearing us apart, but right now I’m saving up to have you fly over sometime next summer. It’ll be great.
I still love you and your mother,
Dad
P.S. If you look out in the barn there’s something there I think you might like.
I looked at mom. She was staring at the letter. Then she suddenly looked up at me.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go to the barn." She smiled at me and I tore out to the barn and opened the heavy creaking door. There was dust floating around the room. Light flowed in from the nooks and crannies in the walls. I looked around. And there… on his desk… was my sketchbook. It had some burns on some of the pages and the covers were replaced on it. There were a few new pages sewn in but on the very last page sat the last sketch I had made. The sketch that I had planned on showing him that day. I smiled. Written on the back of the page was:
Ellie: Don’t stop sketching. You have an amazing talent so don’t waste it. I love you very much.
I picked up a pencil on the desk and turned the page to the first one in the book. I lifted the pencil up and thought of all the colors rushing through my head. I then began to draw.

JOURNALS
November 2, 2005Time was running out and I was very disappointed. I felt like we were only together for an hour, but really all night. We had watched movies together laughed, joked and got into really deep conversations. He told me he was to leave the next day. At this point I was a little nervous if he would ever come back. Thinking to my self the boy I like even though it did not seem like it was leaving. I was always mean to him, cause I don’t like showing my feeling’s. We always make up. One thing before he left is I wish I would have told him the truth. Yes I do like you, and no I don’t want you to leave. As days go by and I talk to him every night I wish I would have told him the truth. He came and visited me last night and that’s how I knew the way I really felt about him. He was very lade back, and just wanted to talk and visit when he was with me, and I feel like I was with a whole different person because he did seem different to me. He promised me one thing before he left me that night that he would return and he would be with me. I look back on the night and remember that we were more than friends then but know we just are friends.

October 25, 2005My worst nightmare is me to see my mom. I mean what could be anything worse than that? We dont get along at all , and i am afraid that we never will. It's because of all the coices she made. And for the choices you make their are consequences. My mom is an adult so she should no that. If i were to see my mom it would be a nightmare. There would be so many things that I would say and do. I would hopefully knoch some common sense into her head. I would do this because I hurt, for my sisters that are adopted and to ypung to know. I would speak because iam the oldest, and she never heard it from anyone else so why not me. It's hard it trully is having a mom that does drugs, had four kids and does not have any of us. You know what though mom its cool i dont need you to become what i want to be, to reach my dreams. I will tell you one thing though I know I wont be like you. Because that's my worst nightmare.

October 28, 2005Where I lived when I was little is a not a normal place. It was a small town not known by alot of people. I lived in Palco, Kansas. Yeah thats write a town with a population of no more than one hundred people. The school I attended i had no more than six people in my class, and alot of them were boy's. Living in a small town sucks. We have to drive fifteen minutes to a grocery store and the nearest fast food reasturant is fifteen minutes away to, and thats dairy Queen. For places like McDonalds and things thats even farther thirty-five minutes away in Hays. Yeah I grew up were there were nothing but farms. Being in the city so much much better theys days. There's so much to do. Living in Minnesota i think that I have came to apperciate much more things. When I lived in Kansas I was the only Black person living there, and I am mixed. So it was really weird. Things have changes npw and i think for the best. But I still go back and visit every summer my home town Palco, Kansas.

POETRY BEST WRITE

It’s Like I always think

It’s like she never existed
Like she never cared
It was like she never knew
It’s like she never tired.
Like she never gave a damn

Its like she never put up a fight,
Like she was all confused.
It’s like she never knew what to do
It’s like I think more then her,
And I am younger too.

It’s like, mom, get a grip and pull yourself threw,
It’s like I want more for her then she does.
Like I wish for a lot of things she wouldn’t do,
It’s like I need to realize a lot of things.

It’s like mom, I’m all confused,
Like I don’t know what to do.
It’s like I am about to turn weak
Like she does all the time
I’m about to lose all hope I had,
Mom it’s like I wish you would care but
You don’t and you won’t.

Mom it’s like…


Someday
Someday I will kiss him
Someday we will be alone,
Someday we will be together
Someday we won’t.
Someday I’ll see him again,
Someday we will just be friends.
Someday we will do a lot of things
Someday we might just be
Someday I will love him
Someday I might hate him,
Someday we will go far away
Someday we may just be.
Someday…

I am thinking

I think of you so often
You keep floating in my mind,
You seem to be the one and only, the type that is hard to find.
But deep within my heart I realize its not to be, your life is so much better
Why would you want me?
I’m not a princess, model, actress, and quite far from a star,
Why can’t boys take girls for who they really are?
So I guess I’ll just wait my turn, keep watching, waiting, and see.
Maybe in the future that one special day, you’ll realize I am ME.