Why Roanoke Failed

FYI: This week in American History I am studying about the Roanoke & Jamestown colonies. Here's an essay on Roanoke I wrote that I thought you might enjoy. :)

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Why did England’s first colony in the New World fail? There are several, crucial reasons why the colonies on Roanoke Island did not make it.

The first colony on Roanoke was started in 1585, led by Richard Grenville. While settling on an island seemed a very good idea to start with (hey, England’s on an island!) it was a very poor choice. Roanoke had very poor soil, so that meant not much if any farming was done. And Grenville had not planned very well on the subject of supplies. Thus, the 100 colonists had little food.

Lucky for Roanoke, someone happens along their way. Someone by the name of Francis Drake, fresh from the Caribbean, checks on the colony. Drake figures he’s going to make some repairs there, and drop off some supplies. And what happens when he’s there?

Alarming Alarms

You might know that I'm an assistant janitor at our church. While some people may find the job not to their liking, I really enjoy it. I love helping behind the scenes at our church. So every week I'll go and clean windows, vacuum rugs, empty trash cans, etc. I feel happy inside to know that I have helped our church.

I like to joke that a "normal" week at the church is always un-normal. Something always ends up happening, an event to make more mess, a week with nothing going on (few and far between, but much appreciated!) and sometimes my jobs being switched around.

Last month there was a week in which my jobs were switched around, so I was to help clean the gym on Friday instead of Thursday. My boss and I entered the gym, and she typed in her code to stop the alarm. It worked just fine. Until a few seconds later another alarm started going off! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!......

Lauren's home!!!!!!!

Lauren's home!!!!! :D :D :D I know I haven't posted on my blog about my service dog's emergency weekend, so let me tell you all about it...

First a bit of background: My service dog Lauren is getting old...and showing it. She's almost 13, and so recently she's been having more health problems.

So. It all started last Thursday afternoon. Some guy rang the doorbell asking for money. As quickly and politely as she could, Mom said "no". Which was only about 10 minutes. And in that time period Lauren had a bowl movement on the floor....ugh! Mom called me up to clean it up and I didn't think anymore of it.

Until that night.

On Trial: Christopher Columbus

FYI: This week in American History
I studied about Christopher Columbus.
Naturally, I had to write an essay about him.
Below is the essay,
enjoy! ;)

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In many respects, Christopher Columbus could be considered a failure. In other ways, he could be considered a success. While he did not discover a new way to Cathay, he did discover a New World full of riches untold.

Columbus was born in Geneva, Italy in 1451. As he grew up, young Columbus’ eyes were always on the ships that sailed to and fro the Geneva docks. Columbus wanted to sail.

And that’s what he did, sailing to places such as Iceland and England. On one trip he was sailing around the coast of Portugal when his ship burst into flames and sunk. Columbus took hold of some of the wreckage, and amazingly swam the six miles to the Portugal shore.

Part 4: Flying Can't Be Normal, Right?!?

Welcome to my fourth post on our California trip! In this last post I'll cover the last day of vacation, when we flew from Northern California alllllllllllllllllll the way back to Tennessee.


The day we flew out to California everything had gone according to schedule. Everything worked, the planes, and all our connections were made on time. Maybe since I don't fly a lot in the real world, I was lulled into not realizing how, um, EXCITING flying can become....

Taking the "Re" out of "Reunion"

Recently our family flew out to my grandparent's house for an awesome family reunion, with relatives coming far distances....even from Spain! The trip was lots of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know my relatives more, since we don't see them that often. For some strange reason all the grandkids seem to have grown in the past few years since I saw them....;D

Differences of the Indians

FYI: This is an essay I wrote this week in American History on different types of Indians. It turned out so well I thought that you might enjoy reading it.

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When the Indians crossed the Land Bridge from Asia into the Americas they dispersed into many different types of tribes. Two large groups of Indians were the Eastern Woodland Indians living in America’s northeast, and the Southwest Indians living around Arizona. Just like these people groups lived at long distances from each other, so were their customs.

The Indians living in New England were called the Algonquin. There were many tribes in the Algonquin, including the Seneca. The Seneca had a democratic government, with the chief at the head and councilors and elders to advise him. Everyone voted, and the Indian women got to elect some of the council.

Everything went through the female line. So when you were married, you would take the female’s last name, not the males. And divorce? All the female had to do was to place his belongings outside of the wigwam and the marriage was over.

Come On, Get Hot!

Yesterday our family went to Lake Winnepesaukah, a family amusement park in Chattanooga. It was a lot of fun, or shall I say, quite the experience! :P It was very very hot, but we still had a lot of fun.

Some of our favorite rides we went on was some antique cars, a 1916 merry-go-round, some flying elephants, as well as a train. Alison enjoyed the kiddie rides, and a kid-sized roller coaster kind of ride called, "Wacky Worm".

Later we when we were eating a thunderstorm came! Everything cooled down, thankfully. Of course we didn't want to get wet, but as we went back to the van we realized, "Before the storm we were drenched in sweat, now we're drenched in rain!"

Part 3: After 12 Years...

So after 12 years, our whole family was able to be together again! The family reunion was really really awesome, a definite highlight in our vacation. It was REALLY fun seeing everyone again....including relatives from California and Spain!

The adults talked a lot, and the kids played on the Slip-N-Slide, as well as the trikes, bikes and scooters. I kind of migrated between the two groups, listening and taking photos. In the evening Grandpa treated us all out to a very nice restaurant. The restaurant even made a teenager full! ;D Haha.

Really flying

If you know anything about me, you know that I like my Flight Simulator game a lot. I like to tease that it is the cheapest way to become a world traveler; all you need is the joystick and game, which together cost about $50. And I just enjoy flying around in all sorts of aircraft in all sorts of places. On Flight Simulator you can fly just about every plane you can imagine; the Wright Brother's 1903 "Flyer", Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" and other older aircraft to more modern jets such as the Boeing 737 & 747, not to mention smaller planes like the Baron 58 or the Piper J-3 Cub.

Part 2: Being Lazy is So Much Fun!

Okay, okay, please stop those laughs! I know it is not good to be lazy ALL the time, but occasionally I find it quite fun! (Yes, Mom, I know you will say I am lazy more than just sometimes! :P)

ANYWAY. When we were in California I definitely enjoyed more of a relaxed schedule

Part 1: From Sea to Shining Sea (Well, Almost!)

August 2-11 our family had a grand vacation to California, to visit my grandparents and have a wonderful family reunion. It was absolutely awesome, so awesome that I will have to break the vacation into about 3 or 4 posts! ;) Anyway, this post, #1, is about our experience flying out to California. I hadn't flown for over a year, so it was really a fun and new experience for me. I loved it! And thankfully, all our flights, etc. was on time....not the way it would be on the way back!

Up in the Air

Here's another spiritual lesson I picked up from camp! :)

My counselor had several balls he would juggle when we had some downtime in the cabin. Very soon one of my cabin mates, Kevin, picked the sport up. Just about any time we were in the cabin not doing anything in particular, Kevin would be juggling. It was actually quite fun to watch.

The spiritual application? God is like my cabin mate keeping all of the balls in the air. We may feel that our life is like a ball being juggled, going through numerous ups and downs. But through it all, God is there. He is watching over us, and he always catches us. He sustains us.

Psalms 54:4, NIV:

"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."

Trust God with your life. Whatever you may be going through right now, He is there to catch you. He will never let you down!