When I first arrived on the first day of school in August, I expected seventh grade to be the hardest of my middle school years. And right off the bat, I was correct, this was going to be a long year. By mid October, my life had changed; I had extra homework and more responsibilities. From science warm ups– ugh, to Spanish worksheets– blah blah blah, and waking up early for athletic practices– omg just stop! It was especially hard when I had homework packed on top of my football game.

Eventually I figured out I should just stop worrying about all of the warm ups and worksheets and start to manage my time better with the boat loads of homework. Later on in the football season, heading into basketball, I decided to start some homework while I was watching the other teams beating up on the opposing ones.

In seventh grade, I learned how to conjugate verbs and place accents on words in Spanish, ways to use sentence variety in English, more complicated plays in football, how to mix chemicals in science, to sightread in choir, to simplify radicals in algebra, and how to identify rivers and landmarks inside Texas in Texas History.

As the year comes to an end, I can tell that I’m definitely ready for eighth grade!

Road trip!

This weekend I’m heading down to the ole’ Alamo city for very popular baseball tournament. I’ve never been to a tournament this far out of town before and looking forward to what it’s going to be like. I’m happy that we’re not playing all of the same teams, usually there’s that one team that’s in every single on of our tournaments, but not this time.

My team, Austin Boom Blue, is the top team in our organization and we are listed as Majors team, which is the highest you can be until you get older. Unlike this past fall, in the spring everyone on my team is someone that I’m very closed to. That’s one of the main reasons I’m still playing on the Boom team.

So, my family is heading to San Antonio today, Friday, and when we get there we are probably going to get settled into our hotel, then hopefully go swimming. 🙂 We are meeting up with the Klam’s and the Anderson’s at our hotel. On Saturday, I have games at 10:30 and 2 so I have a break in between games thankfully. If we were to leave on Saturday I would have to leave at 7 am!

This spring my team hasn’t won a tournament yet, but are still trying our hardest. Out of 4 tournaments we have been to the championship twice and the semifinals the other two times. Wish us luck this weekend!

Messy Room
By: Shel Silverstein

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater’s been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or–
Huh? You say it’s mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

This poem, Messy Room, was written by Shel Silverstein, who is one of my favorite poem writers and also wrote Where The Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree. I love this poem because, as a boy, I can relate to it. Of course my room is messy! Especially when my dog practically lives in it. I have a bad habit of whenever I change clothes, I throw the dirty ones wherever I want. On the basketball hoop, in the shower and under my bed. That’s how I get that messy room!

“dadadoodoododadoo-dadadoodoododado,” I remember, it was almost every day around 10am, that I would see, of course the newest and latest Thomas the Train episode. Now those… were the good times.

I would go to bed every night actually looking forward to something–waking up to that same show every morning, Thomas the Train. Every morning, wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and lounge on the couch. Not only was Thomas the Train a TV show, but there were toys made after Thomas the Train. Thomas the Train hooked me right when the toys came out.

Thomas the Train toys had so many uses because they were almost indestructible. One, the obvious one, is using it as a train. Two, for a little game I played as a baby where you line up to trains, face to face, cock them back and run them into each other and which ever one falls on its back loses a point. I know this sounds like a stupid and useless, but to me, this game was the best.

From ages 2 to probably around 6, Thomas the Train was the have-to-watch show on TV. If I look in a box from the past, I’m pretty sure it would be filled with royal blue, royal blue Thomas the Train action figures. My obsession was an addiction.

What if there were no apps, or even no electronics? I’m no genius, but I’m pretty sure our world will crumble as we know it. Well, at least all teenagers…. Ever since electronics have been invented, they’ve been the most needed item on planet earth. Now, there are some of my favorite apps in the App Store.

Sports Center… all of the scores, all of the updates and all of the reactions around the globe. Also, you never want to be stuck in on a car ride while your favorite team is fighting for a spot in the playoffs, do you? Well this app won’t let you miss it. Once you tap on the game of your choice, you can either watch highlights or watch the game live! Whether you like sports or not, this is the app to get.

Beats Music… Every song that has ever existed, right here, free! In this new Beats Music app you can search up your favorite song or album and add to your playlists: Workout, Relax or whatever! If you don’t feel like making all of these different playlists, then just add the songs to your unlimited library. This app is mixture of pandora and spotify, where on Spotify, you can search pretty much every song and on Pandora, where you can play radios of different genres of music. Everyone, all ages should test out this app.

Waze… Of course I won’t really need this until I’m 16, but still, I love it. Waze is a GPS app, but cooler. Waze tells where all of the traffic, all of the cops and all of the wrecks are located around Austin and Waze directs you around that. Usually, when I’m headed out to baseball tournaments in the middle of no where, my dad demands me to open up Waze and tell where I’m going. Now people, don’t use that GPS built into your phone, get Waze.

Instagram… This app allows you to catch up on whatever your friends are doing right there, right then. Right now I have about 620 followers and am following about 540. Most of the People I’m following are people I know, but the others are funny accounts and celebrities. So, in Instagram you can take pictures or take videos on whatever topic. Instagram probably isn’t as active as twitter, but it’s more of a kid friendly app, so all kids and adults should get this app.

Papa’s Freezeria… No doubt about it. Papa’s Freezeria is the best game ever. In this game, you can create a character, boy or girl, that works at a milkshake shop. As your work days increase, you earn ranks, rank names and new customers. Also, after every day there are these mini games, there you can earn new clothing and new items for your shop. During the day, there’s a order station, build station, mix station and topping station. After you give a satisfying milkshake to someone 5 times, you give them a star customer badge. If you’re ever bored during a road trip or plane ride, get this game. Trust me, you’ll be entertained.

These apps are the best of their genre. From sports and music to navigating and social networking, these are the apps to get!

Playing golf with friends or having a warm, moist, juicy burger with fries and a shake is fun and delicious, but playing golf with friends AND eating that juicy burger? Now that’s awesome! Playing golf at a country club is something, but playing at TopGolf is in a whole other world.

TopGolf makes hitting golf balls on the driving range more fun and competitive by putting out targets throughout the whole range to create kind of a bowling feel. For my 13th birthday, I went here to TopGolf with about 15 friends. We split up into 3 groups and started the fun. Just as 13 year olds usually are, we were just nonstop crazies. By the end of the party, I decided that this was the best party ever.

In addition to the main part, golfing, there’s the amazing food. The menu is endless. From burgers to wings to fish, no one can stop you once you get going. The setup of tables for the food is useful also. There’s about a 8 person table surrounded by TVs, one with the scores of the TopGolf game and the others filled with sports around the nation. The food there is some of the best ever.

Now that I think back, I’m almost positive that I’ll have some of my future birthdays at TopGolf.

iPads… Best technology on planet Earth. Why would iPads being a bad influence even be a question? iPads. Are. The best.

iPads are great for keeping things organized. Well… Maybe not the iPad itself, but the apps you can purchase on it. iPads can even hold folders for whatever: games, education, music, and so on. Now I almost never lose things when I need them.

iPads are also helpful for outer-school things. Not only the games, but music and easy way to check your mail. The only thing I hate about games is flappy bird, but I just can’t get rid of it. I know teachers completely object, but games are the biggest reason why iPads are fun.

Even though gaming is my life… I can still use iPads for educational purposes. Also, people are finding ways to make iPads even bigger and better than they were before.