My Poppa's Funeral

I went to a korean funeral. My poppa died. My poppa is my grandpa. It was kind of scary. It was a five day ceremony and on three days my mommy and my two aunts had to wear these black dresses and white bows in their hair. On the first day, there was a room with his picture in it and there was incense and we bowed and lit the incense. I bowed two and a half times. His picture was really nice. If you were far back it looked like he was smiling, but if you were close up it looked like he was frowning.

On the second day we did the same thing. On the third day I went with my mommy and my aunty Sumi and uncle Brian and uncle Ben and we saw Poppa's body being wrapped up. It was scary when we saw his body because it didn't look like him at all. They had shaved off his beard and it did not look like him at all. At first he was wearing these linen clothes and there were no knots at all. Not even at the end of a thread. There was no knots because if there are knots it might trap the spirit and might stop the spirit from getting out. Then they put a paper bag thing on his head and then they tied his arms up but they didn't use knots. They had to tie his arms up because he was especially big and wouldn't fit in the coffin. Then they put him in the coffin and fit it with paper rolls so that he wouldn't wobble around. And then they put the coffin lid on and covered it with a red clothe that had his name on it and then another red cloth then put it in a freezer.

On the fifth day, we went to another ceremony place and there we saw them put his coffin in an oven. We waited two hours and then we went back and saw them take out his ashes. There was a fake hip that didn't burn because it was metal. My mommy got that. Then there was a glass jar that we put his ashes in and my mommy put the fake hip in there. And then we took the jar and went to a place where there were glass boxes and we put Poppa's jar in a glass box. On the sixth day, we went back and unscrewed the box and put pictures of his family in the box so he wouldn't be lonely. And I thought it would a good idea to put one of his sailing medals in there too because he was a sailor till he got Alzheimer's.

And that was my Poppa's funeral.

And tobi turned 4

Oh, and I forgot something. Tobi turned 4. He's my little brother.

My Virginia Adventure

[A posting from our visit to Lily's grandmother and step-grandfather in Virginia.]

Today I had a real tiring adventuring day. Because we had a party, and the beginning of the party we went tubing and when you go tubing you use these big tire-y things and then you float there in the water and when I went tubing I found some friends and they were at the party too. I'm not saying their names but I'm going to just tell you about them.

I am in a big house that is my Grandma's and Grandpa's. There are two skeletons here who are Charlie and Toli and they are very nice.

When you go tubing and you get back, I was pulling the friend of mine I was talking to, the female, and I was pulling her. But there was a part that was currenty and then there was a part that was shallow and we had to walk. And then there was a deep part and she fell flat on her head in the water. And she was complaining because nobody else did, not even me.

Then I had cake and Oscar came and Aunty Emily and Uncle Chris and Adam. Then it was bed time and everyone was talking late and that leads me to this moment when I finished the story. So long from me, until the next daily news which I know won't be tomorrow because we'll be doing a lot of traveling. And I know I've already past the time when I should be stopping so I think I'll talk on for three more sentences. So my first sentence is I hope tomorrow goes on smoothly. And my other sentence is I hope tonight everyone sleeps well. And my last sentence is I hope Sadie is well. Okay, now here's the real goodbye -- So, bye and so long.

Our new dog Sadie

Our new dog's name is Sadie. Sadie is a fun-loving, very cute little doggy. She's a black lab, we got her at a place called Bide-a-wee. Bide-a-wee is a shelter, they save little dogs. Sadie is from Tennessee. We adopted her two days ago and this is my third day with her.

Last night she pooped in my room, but I didn't mind. Dogs poop and she's just a puppy and she's not even toilet trained. Sadie is four months old. Today she had a real adventure that scared us a bit, but it was okay, she came back all by herself. We think she went by the stream, that's what my mommy thinks. My mommy was so sad that she cried. She cried most of the time, half the time. Me and my daddy put posters all over town until the road back to New York. And then we drove right back and we missed a few mailboxes, so we filled those later. We put posters in mailboxes, daddy did it in a bar, daddy did it everywhere. After that we went home.

And then we waited a long time without any dinner, and then finally JY said, who's my little brother, I may have mentioned him before, JY said, "There's puppy! Puppy came back!" And there Sadie was, standing near the pond in front of the fence. We went rushing down to her and mommy lifted the fence and she came jumping up on us and was so excited to be home. And now I'm sitting here writing in my blog with Sadie sitting next to the stairs to the deck and we keep telling her: No More Adventures! Because she had plenty of adventures all day that we know nothing about. And I hope that soon I will find out what adventures did she have and what did she do.

My teachers

I have been having a good time at school with Mommy. Mommy is my new teacher and Daddy is my science teacher. Mommy has been a very good teacher but Daddy has been teaching me barely any science. So mommy has been becoming my science and regular teacher. That's mostly what's been going on the past few days. That's all I'm going to write about in my blog today. Maybe I'll write some more later today, or some other time. Bye, from me and the blog.

Daddy's Page

This is Little flower's daddy. I'm doing a guest spot on Little-flower's blog today. (She tells me I'm not supposed to use her real name). LF had a nice time playing with Wanda and Pru. She pet wanda's ears and neck while wanda slept on the couch and the floor. JY gave the men checkups with his tool-set. JY was a little nervous about Wanda but he got over it pretty quickly. LF spent a long time playing with her new Mio-pet so that its batteries ran down. We changed them today but LF is going to give Lulu more naps from now on. The End.

Doggies' sleep over

I had a visit from some of my mommy's and daddy's friends. I really like their doggies. One big one and one small one. The big one is Wanda and the little one is Prunella. Prunella is older. Prunella is 12 years old. Wanda is 3 years old and is going to be 4 years old in a little long while. I hope I can go to Wanda's birthday.
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I got a new pet. Its name is Lulu. It is a pup. this is what kind of dog it is. It is a Mio pup.

The End, for now.

Narration: The Last Quest of Gilgamesh

[This is a narration exercise, based on a book we just read. L is dictating back what she remembers of the story.]

TITLE: The Last Quest of Gilgamesh
AUTHOR: Ludmila Zeman

STORY: Gilgamesh's friend died. He went on a last adventure. He met a lion who almost fell off a cliff. He took the lion on his adventure with him. Shamhat told them she would tell them where to go and then they went through a long long tunnel. And then they went into a beautiful garden, it was the Sun God's garden. He told them to rest there but Gilgamesh wanted to go on. Then the lion cub got so tired he collapsed on the desert floor. Then Gilgamesh, he picked him up on to his head and they went to a very nice house that was owned by a very nice lady who said they could not cross the sea unless they had a boat. And they took a boat and they sailed to Noah. The sea was very deadly and full of bones, dead animal bones. He cut down 120 trees and he used them as oars. He needed them because the sea would devour whatever would go in there. Finally he reached Noah's ark (I don't remember his real name, there are lots of names for him so I call him Noah because that's the name I know him more) and then he tried to pass the test. The test was to stay awake six days and seven nights while Noah read his story. And then when Noah was finished, he was asleep. So he lost the test and he had to go to the bottom of the sea and get the plant. The plant, whenever you take a bite of it, it would never let you grow old. So he got the plant and took a nap on the island. But then Ishtar (she was the goddess of love) ate up the plant. She was a serpent goddess. She was mad at Gilgamesh because he refused her marriage to him. She ate up the plant. Enkidu's ba [the spirit form of the soul that looks like a bird--K] flew them to Uruk, where Gilgamesh saw the wall that he had builded and he was happy forever. The end.

REVIEW: I have read five versions of this book and I really like it. But I don't like that Enkidu died because he was a really nice friend to Gilgamesh.

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P.S. -- It's the end of the day but I still love my family. And my blog.

My first entry

I love my family. My name is Little Flower on this blog. I really like writing and it's kind of fun to have your very own journal in the computer. I will write about my family, starting where I was born. Let me see...when I was two I really liked the teachers there, they were very nice. Now I will tell you the names of them. Well the one I like the best is practically the only boy teacher in the whole school. His name is Willy. He still babysits me and my little brother. He's my little brother's teacher now. All the rest of the teachers were girls. I'll tell you all their names: okay, Eileen, Elaine, Blanca, Jennifer, Chika and those are mostly all the teachers I remember their names.

Well, now I'm homeschooling because all the schools my mom checked out she didn't like, except one, but there was too many kids. I liked it. I've been studying about Egypt. And after that I've been studying about Mohenjo-daro. In Egypt I liked the pyramids the best. And in Mohenjo-daro, well in that I don't quit know yet because I haven't read all the things yet.

The End.