Last week, hurricane Ike hit Nacogdoches. A couple of trees fell in our neighborhood, but only one actually hit a house. Thankfully, that one didn't do much damage either, as far as I could tell. However, none of us were here to enjoy the hurricane to it's fullest as all of us were in different places. Mom and Dad went to San Diego for some conference, Peter Annalee and I went to Mineola to the Cargill's house and Ross and Andrew went back to college. I'm sure we all had fun in our respective areas, other than college. But as I was only in Mineola, I couldn't tell you what other people did. So, you'll have to be happy with an account of what I did all week. And then some.

So, Tuesday we left for our respective places, Andrew and Ross to A@M, and Mom, Dad, Peter, Annalee and I to Mineola. I think I spent most of the two hours it took to get to Mineola either reading or staring out the window. Once we did get there, we all lugged our various amounts of luggage into the house and bid adieu to Mom and Dad. There were only four of the six, er, seven now Cargill's at home. The seventh being the oldest's, Kristin's, husband. Kimela, the second oldest, is in college, I think. Then Katie and Ryan are both at home with Dr. and Mrs. Cargill.

Now, to summarize the week: I don't really remember all that we did on Tuesday, but we did go swimming in their pool and played various games.

Wednesday: We started off by doing our school work, for me that was Math and Biology. After doing those things in a remarkably quick amount of time, everyone else was still busy doing their school work, so I sat down with a book I was supposed to read. Once everyone was done with their school, we once again played various games which included card games, something called the foot game, and eventaully, swimming. After dinner, we watched Jurassic Park 1, wich wasn't terrible, but wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen either.

Thursday: Once again, we all did school work. Once again I finished very quickly and read a book till everyone else was finished. And again, we all played various games until dinner. After dinner, Dr. Cargill announced that he was going to take us on an ecological tour of the Mineola Nature Reserve. He also gave us assignments to research. The idea was that we would tell each other what we had learned about our subjects. So, once we had our individual things to research, we were also told that they had visitors that night. Needless to say, that ment that all of us had to go back to Katie's and Ryan's rooms to research and then, to eventaully play.

Friday: School, read, play. Lunch, then depart for the Mineola Nature Preserve. It was a really neat trip, not only did we see raccoons and a beehive, but also various poisonous snakes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Once we got to the preserve, we all took a restroom break as there were none on the trail. I can't go into much detail, as I don't remember very much of it. On the trail, the paved part that is, there was a beehive. We also saw a bunch of tree frogs in a swampy part of the park. About three-ish, Katie, Mary and Mrs. Cargill had to leave for Katie's lessons. I don't recall what kind of lessons they were though.
After they left, we walked for a long while, until we came to a part of the path where there were posts from an old rail-way lining the path. In the dirt, someone had written "raccoons in post". Certain people were, of course curious. So someone had the bright idea of sticking a stick inside the post to see if there was anything there. Thankfully, that person didn't hit the mother raccoon, else we might have had some casualities. They did however, manage to wake the baby, which promptly started vocalizing it's discontent with the situation. After which everyone, including me, had to stick their heads in to investigate.
When that had ended, we continued walking until we got to the river, where we took a break on some benches. After resting for a small amount of time, we continued on our way. When Peter and Ryan had reached a bridge, Ryan let out a tremendously high pitched yell, and jumped four feet in the air. It so happens that just as he had reached the bridge and was about to walk across it, he saw a tremendously sized water moccosin snake and what appeared to be it's child. Again, we continued on our way, until we reached the home stretch. We were, again, confronted by a deadly poisonous snake, this time a rattlesnake. It curled up and rattled and we threw stones at it until it slithered away. After that, we had no more incidents of the kind again. We arrived home safely and with plenty of jellybeans having been dispatched. We ended the day by watching Jurassic Park 2.

Saturday: No school! Of course I did sleep late, but then, who doesn't sleep late on a Saturday? The day consisted of various games and swimming in the pool. We also almost officially closed the pool, but not quite. I mean that we did everything but put the pool cover on. After watching Jurassic Park 3, we all went to bed.

Sunday: We all got up earlier then usual so that we could get to Church on time. However, only Katie, Ryan, Annalee, Dr. Cargill and I went to morning worship. Mary was going to stay for the second worship, but got carsick and, well, got sick. I don't really remember much else that we did that day but watch a movie. Unfortunatley, I also don't remember which movie we watched.

Monday: The day we left. But we didn't leave until around 1:30. Until then, we did school, and played games again. The trip home was uneventfull. But, once we did get to Nacogdoches, I had to immediatly to a Venturing meeting that I was going to late to anyhow. The point of the meeting was to clean the cars at Tipton Ford. So, we finished up around 8:30-ish and everyone went home.

Tuesday: A mostly normal day, except that I didn't do all of my normal work, as Mom was still recovering from San Diego. That night, I again went to Tipton Ford, this time only a few minutes late.

That's all I'm posting, as for Wednesday through today, as far as you know, they didn't exist. So, hope your happy with that, 'cause that's all I'm going to write until tomorrow at earliest.

TTFN, tata for now!
Red Baron