And so, in the game Cadie started out in the living room. Deirdre was her “GPS”, you could say, and um well Cadie wanted to go outside. And Cadie went outside, and found herself on the lawn! Great! Now what! And so I told her–ahem, the GPS told her–that she could go to Old Man’s Cave, or into to the forest, or-or-I forget where. Anyway, Cadie said she wanted to just start walking and see where she’d end up. And so Cadie walked to the creek. And she crossed the creek. (You can imagine how hard this was for her GPS Etch-a-Sketch to draw!) Then she came to a woods. And she got some acorns and some other nuts, and she also tamed a little duck from breadcrumbs in her pocket.

And Cadie decided to keep going and the GPS drew out another landscape on the GPS’s Etch-a-Sketch, and… where was I? Cadie came out of the clearing in the woods, and she saw big mountains! So she climbed the moutains, because there was nothing better to do. Huff, huff, huff,  huff-huff-huff–poor ducky, who was flying all that way. And so then she came to a cave. And she went inside of the cave and she saw a mother wolf and her baby wolves! And Cadie wasn’t sure if she wanted to tame them or what, and so she kind of wanted to leave, but her GPS kind of “hint-hint-hinted” that there was some bones on the other side, and she should kind of maybe take the bones and tame the wolves with them, so Cadie was forced to do that–because GPS’s know everything! And so Cadie couldn’t tame them right away, so the GPS made Cadie tie one of the bones to the back of her shirt, so the wolves would keep following her as they were tamed. Cadie wasn’t quite comfortable with that; she thought it would be egging the wolves on to eat her.

Cadie kept climbing up the mountain, because there was nothing better to do! And she climbed and she climbed and came to the top of the mountain, which was kind of flat (mountains always just look so pointed from a distance, really they’re not all that pointed. Not that I’ve ever climbed a mountain myself, before, of course! I’m just guessing. Actually, the GPS is just guessing.) Cadie said she would put down a flag upon the top of the moutain, but actually she probably couldn’t do that because she didn’t have a flag, but the GPS said “Nonsense! You can do whatever you want in this game!”, so Cadie put down a flag on the top of the mountain.

Cadie saw a flock of birds flying by, and she still had some bread crumbs leftover, but the GPS also hinted that you can tame animals with animals, so Cadie tried to tame the flock of birds with all her animals, but the wolves couldn’t so just the duck did. So Cadie got a whole flock of birds, but she didn’t want a whole flock of birds, so she said “Can I just take a couple out of the flock of birds?” And the whole flock shook their heads and said “Mm-mm!” And then she asked the whole flock of birds to take her somewhere new, where she’d never been before. So the wolves clambered up on top of Cadie, and the whole flock of birds took Cadie by the string that was attached to the bone, and they flew her off to the mushroom hut!

And so Cadie went inside the mushroom hut with all her pets. So Cadie went inside, and there was an old lady there by the table. And she spoke in a creaky, cackly voice and had a cackly laugh. She said “Won’t you have tea over a nice, long discussion?” after giving Cadie some pet medicine and human medicine. Cadie heard a huge “Foosh!” and crackling noise and whistling. Because the little old lady made a big burst of fire, and it was so hot it made the tea kettle whistle right away. She asked Cadie how she got there and Cadie said, “I asked my birds to bring me somewhere new.” The little old lady leaned over and petted the bird under the chin, and said, “Well, YOU must be strong, huh!” and the bird chirped, and she said “Oh, it was the whole flock of you, huh?”

And so after a while of the GPS trying to think up what the old lady would say, Cadie decided she would leave. But when she left, the old lady called out, “Wait! Want me to cast a spell over you?” and Cadie said, “Umm… no thanks.” And then the witch said, “It can be a healing spell! Do you want to learn how to make a healing spell?” And then Cadie  still said no thanks. And then the old witch offered Cadie some healing potions, and Cadie accepted and asked what they were for, humans or animals, and the old witch said “Both! Everything. Even plants!”

Then Cadie left and as she was the leaving, the old witch was shrieking, “Wait! Wait! There’s more! Don’t you want to do something!” The poor old witch wanted Cadie to stay, but she didn’t want to.

Cadie kept going and wondering where she was (the GPS knew where she was, but… she didn’t think of asking the GPS!) and so she came to a hut with a straw roof, and she knocked on the door and asked if they knew where she was. The guy responded, “I don’t know. We’re the Lost Brothers. This is the Lost Brother’s home!” and he started arguing with another brother about where they were, or if they were in the land of the lost people , and etc. and etc. But Cadie wasn’t really paying attention to the narrator anymore, so she kind of just said “Ah” and kept staring off into the distance.

But anyway then she asked the birds to take her closer to home, or maybe the birds didn’t know where she lived so closer to the mountain. And the birds dropped her right on top of the windvane on top of her house! And she cried out “Ow!” because there was some pokey things sticking up. And Cadie wasn’t really paying attention anymore, so the narrator made her slide off the roof of her porch.  And so Cadie climbed off the roof of her porch and onto her actual porch, and there was some sort of hanging flower things and maybe some lamps, but Deirdre was getting kind of tired, so that was basically the last drawing she did, except for drawings some pies (square pies) later on.

So Cadie went into her kitchen, and there was the smell of bacon. All of her wolves started yapping and yowling, and they wanted some bacon too (by this time they were already tame, of course, I forgot to mention that earlier on.) And so Cadie ate the bacon, and saved some for the wolves too, because they were disappointed. Cadie saw the birds pecking at the starch container, so she filled up bird feeders with bird seed, and as soon as she filled it up, all the bird seed was gone because the birds were hungry! Then Cadie wanted to go exploring more, so she went outside to Old Man’s Cave, because Deirdre was insisting.

So the wolves bounded ahead of Cadie, and Cadie heard “Help! Help! Wolf attack!” And Cadie came inside and saw him standing up on a really tall chair on one leg, waving his hands about. And Cadie said, “Don’t worry, they’re tame!” and the old man fell off onto a wolf. And Cadie said, “See, they even let you ride them!” The wolves were kind of disagreeing, but they let the old man ride them, and the old man rode around the cave shouting “Whoopee!” and after a while he said, “Wouldn’t you like an apple  pie?” to Cadie, and she said sure, and he threw an apple pie onto her off the counter. But the birds caught it just in time and put it down onto the table. And then he threw a chocolate cream pie at her, and that hit her right in the face. And Cadie said “Aww,” but the wolves cleaned it off. Then he gave Cadie another one just to get the guilty conscience off him. And then he led Cadie into the playroom by the arm, and then there was a big big food fight, and Cadie won. And the GPS told Cadie jokingly that the old man must’ve been dropped on his head when he was a baby.

And (this is where the picture of the two pies comes in), in real life Cadie kind of stopped playing the game, and she finished sending a recipe to the Gaige’s. Then she went over and helped Caleb with something, and then she wrote on the Etch-a-Sketch, “Deirdre, I have to do dishes. WAAAA” And that was so heart-rending that Deirdre was persuaded to dry some of the dishes for her. And that’s THE END!

And by that time his little brother had entered the dream and jumped on top of it (the building). And then he sort of woke up from this daze and his mother was saying “Would you please get out of that daze, or whatever you’re in, to eat supper!” because he was acting really strange. Then all of a sudden he heard a beeping noise, but he ignored it and fell back asleep.

And he woke up in a snowy place! (There was a sandy place lots of times, and there was a snowy place lots of times, so I can never be sure when I’m remembering the dream which it was.) And then he tried to jump on top of the building with his stick again with his little brother, but he couldn’t! For some reason there was a force stopping him.

And he ran and ran and ran and wrote with the stick, Stop, and grabbed his little brother and stomped on the “Stop”. But nothing happened. And probably why this was, was because the bad guys had figured it out from his last dream, and made it so that he couldn’t go up there and write Stop, because they didn’t want him to just do that again and again.

I don’t really remember what happened next, but I think he woke up from his daze again, and his mother was saying, “Really! This morning I checked your room and your books were all over the place, it was quite a mess! And some things were even broken!” And then there was this beeping sound yet again, which he ignored yet again and fell back asleep yet again.

So he woke up another time in a snowy place. And I think around now it changes into me, sort of fading from him and onto me. So it was still him, when they saw the bad guys running after them, and it was still him when he flopped onto the sled (his little brother seemed to be gone) and then when he flopped onto the sled and started sledding he turned into me. And there were some people from my family sledding down; I remember seeing Justin, and other people I can’t recognize or name but I know they were people from my family, and I know there was also some weird guy that wasn’t in my family.

And then we sledded down, down, down and suddenly there was this big mountain-like hill in front of us, so we sledded up the hill, and then we sailed through the air and landed on some snow. Well, I don’t really remember what happened—I don’t remember if it was last time that he was around the apple tree, or this time, or the next time. (The dream seemed to change back from me into the third person again.)

And is why I know that is because the dream seemed to stop, then I saw the apple tree, then back to normal.

(It seemed to be there were two brains thinking up that dream, and one was thinking simply the events, the made-up stuff, and the other one was thinking up the stuff that I did and that happened to me in real life, or what was said to me in real life.)

Then he basically just went back to bed, that’s all I remember, and I heard this beeping sound again. (He hears this beeping sound every time). And he ignored it yet again and fell back asleep. And woke up in a snowy place yet again.

So then they saw the bad guys after them, so they ran and they ran and then they seemed to flop onto their stomachs and were sliding down and down and then I seem to stop from the dream (oh wait, it had turned back into me again) and I saw a flash of a lump where Evan grows squash or pumpkins, and so I knew we were around there.

But then I think he woke up from the daze again, went back to bed again, beeping noise again, and his ignoring it again. And then he woke up in another snowy place.

Then we all seemed to be running, we all seemed to be sliding down on our stomachs, then suddenly we were at sleds again and we were sitting on them (before we were lying down), and then Justin inching ahead of me on his sled, and then I seem to remember that the pond had water in it from earlier in the spring, so I seemed to bra-a-a-ke, but there was no water in the pond.

The daze faded, and the same thing happened all over again of the beeping sound ignoring it and falling asleep and waking up.

And I woke up in the pond, and then I just thought my brain wasn’t really registering that the bad guys might catch me, so I just sort of went “hum-de-dum” walking down, thinking I might create a distraction so that the people in the pond would be safe. But then I walked into the house, and out of the window I saw Nate running up the hill to someone. And so I was like, “Oh, he’s probably going to tell them about me” and then the dream got a bit more serious.

So I walked out onto the porch, and then I saw the pool. Pool? We don’t have a pool. And then somehow my ears seemed to stretch so that I could hear what Nate was saying from a long ways off, and I heard him saying “Do you think you can blow this up? For some reason I can’t.”

And I thought, “Nate needing someone to blow up one of those floaty things? Wow, he always did it for us, and now he needs someone to do it for HIM?”

By the way, at some points it turned back into sort of like now, spring, and now it was spring too. So I sort of walked off the porch, and then one of the bad guys spotted me, so I RAN trying to go around the bamboo, but then I saw someone running around the other way to cut me off (by now it was serious again), so I RAN around the house, and UP into the secret garden, and then someone caught me (it looked like a card, like one of the card-soldiers in Alice in Wonderland).

And then we were walking along in the Secret Garden, me feeling kind of sad that I had been caught but knowing that I wouldn’t stay caught, I’d manage to escape for a bit.

And then Nate came up and said, “Here, I’ll take her to this campsite, I’m going to go across that bridge.” (There were always some bridges and water places in the Secret Garden that there aren’t in real life, in my dreams) and so then I broke loose from the card soldier as he started to give me to Nate, and I ran and ran to my secret hiding place, at the stone wall pond.

And so then he sort of woke up from his daze again and I thought “Rrrrr! I better just wake up to that beeping sound”, and so the NEXT time I heard the beeping sound, I struggled to get awake, and I woke up in real life and the beeping sound faded!

And then I started in bed thinking for 5 or 10 minutes, thinking “Am I awake or am I asleep?” And then after that I realized “Ohhh…yeah… I must be awake. Yeah….” I thought. And then for the next five minutes I was like “Hooray, hooray, I’m awake. But what if I’m really asleep and just thinking this in the dream? Well, I better get dressed and go down and see those two people and the dog.”

And so I went downstairs, and I saw Cadie and Caleb drying and washing dishes, and I was like, “Oh, then I must be awake.”

This is a part that I forgot to tell you: There was that weird guy who was in the story (who knows, maybe by now he was that writer—I mean, draw-er—guy), and so he saw Snoopy in the fields looking for them and he was like “Uh-oh, I better go tell Snoopy that we’re trapped in a dream to make sure he doesn’t get trapped in it too”. Then somehow it turned into being like a Capture-the-Flag game scene, with bad graphics—little pixels.

And so then they each came so close to each other, but they never found each other, and sometimes they went into all one person and then out again, and FINALLY they saw each other, and Snoopy said “Where’s everybody?” and then the weird guy said “We’re all trapped in a dream. You can come too if you want, but I don’t think it would be good for you.” But Snoopy didn’t come into the dream very much, only once or twice, just like the drawer’s little brother. But this is a part that I had forgotten where it went in the dream, so I just put it at the end.

One night while Caleb and Owen were  sleeping, some goblins sneaked into the dark dungeon ‘s cave and grabbed Deirdre and sneaked away. When Caleb and Owen woke up, they forgot about Dierdre because they heard noises outside the cave. They poked there heads out of the cave and saw two orcs talking to each other. So they both picked up a rock each, and knocked the orcs out with them, and stabbed them dead with there own weapons. Then they set off to look for Deidre. As They went along, They saw a house that had a sign near it that said ‘Eat free candy Here and sometimes gain powers.’ So they went up to the candy shop and knocked on the door. A little rabbit poked his head out the window and asked them what kind of candy they wanted. (Caleb and Owen were very young, so a talking rabbit didn’t seem strange to them.)Owen said, “We don’t want any candy, little rabbit. (witch was not quite true) “We just want to find our sister Dierdre.” The little rabbit, seeming to know a lot, replied, “You won’t find Deirdre, she will just turn up sometime. One thing you should know, my boy, is that not all goblins are bad.”

“So  what?  We’re going home!” said Owen and he started to walk away. “You don’t have a home!” the little rabbit yelled after them. “So what, we’ll build one!” Owen yelled back. And the next day they set out in search for something to cut trees down with. While the were walking along, they came to the town the orcs chased them out of. The only building that was left standing was a tavern, witch the orcs didn’t want to destroy because it had lots of food in it. So Owen and Caleb Walked right in and made themselves at home.

Maybe even a year later, Owen and Caleb decided to go out and fight the orcs. They had found some weapons lying around the tavern, and they set off in the direction of spider mountain. While they were walking along, Some goblins jumped out of the trees and started whacking Owen and Caleb on the feet with there hammers (The Goblins that we made are very small.)

1. What is my favorite Animal?

A. Baby chick

B. Rabbit

C. Kangaroo

D. Tiger

2. What is my favorite color?

A. Red

B. Blue

C. Yellow

D. Orange

3. What is my favorite Dessert?

A.  Apple pie

B.  Chocolate Cream Pie

C.  Chocolate  Cheesecake

D.  Black forest cake

4. Who is probably my favorite character in me and Calebs made-up-game, “the little kids adventure”?

A.  Me!

B.  Spacebee

C.  Lardy-Buck

D.  The Rabbity Sand dune-a-tist

5. If I could get ant present I wanted for my birthday what would it be?

A.  A play metal sword  that was made out of pipe so that you couldn’t hurt people as easy.

B.  A Longshot-CS6 Nerf Dart gun (if that was what it was called.)

C.  A smart One of those Big white dogs.

D.  My own Bee-Bee gun

Answers

1.  C . Kangaroo

2. D. Orange

3. C. Chocolate Cheesecake

4.  B. SpaceBee (Gleeglen warrior. If you don’t what that is, ask me.(or don’t))

5. A. A play metal sword  that was made out of pipe

1. What are my two favorite colors?

(a)  Orange and yellow
(b)  Brown and white
(c)  Green and red
(d)  Blue and green
(e)  Purple and black

2.  If I could choose a super-power, what would it be?

(a)  Reading minds
(b)  Flying
(c)  Being able to walk through walls
(d)  Being invisible
(e)  Super speed

3.  What two things do I wish I knew how to do that I don’t:

(a)  Raising one eyebrow and swimming
(b)  Playing the piano and wiggling my ears
(c)  Winking one eye and riding a bike
(d)  Whistling and building things such as tree forts
(e)  Snapping my fingers and climbing trees

4. Which one of my siblings do I play with most?

(a) Evan
(b) Deirdre
(c) Justin
(d) Owen
(e) Cadie

5. Which one of these things HAVE I done?

(a)  Gone to a movie theater
(b)  Gone to an ocean beach
(c)  Been ice skating
(d)  Seen a hot air balloon in the sky
(e)  Been to a flea-circus show

6. Which of these HAVEN’T I done?

(a)  Been to an amusement park
(b)  Rode in a canoe
(c)  Been to another state
(d)  Seen a waterfall
(e)  Gone to a zoo

7. What is my favorite dessert?

(a)  Mocha Chocolate Trifle
(b)  Mocha Chocolate Cheese Cake
(c)  Chocolate Cream Pie
(d)  Blackberry Pie
(e)  Cherry Pie

8. What is my favorite singer/music artist?

(a) Rebbecca Saint James
(b) Rich Mullins
(c) Fernando Ortega
(d) Michael Card
(e) Phil Keaggy

9. What year was I born in?

(a) 1999
(b) 2000
(c) 2001
(d) 1991
(e) 1998

10. The Nickname I’m called most is…

(a) Hamfast
(b) Hamster
(c) Porky-Pig
(d) Hammie
(e) Fatman

11. My mouth is usually…

(a) Smiling
(b) Hanging slightly open
(c) Frowning
(d) Shut tight
(e) Full of air

12. My eyes are…

(a) Green
(b) Brown
(c) Hazel
(d) Blue

13. My middle name is…

(a) Jonathan
(b) Hale
(c) Caelum
(d) Cerphus
(e) Roy

— ANSWERS —

1. (c) green and red

2. (b) flying

3. (a) raising one eyebrow and swimming

4. (d) Owen

5. (e) Been to a flea-circus show (it was at the library)

6. (b) rode in a canoe

7.  (c) Chocolate cream pie!!

8. (d) Michael Card

9. (a) 1999 (in November)

10. (d) Hammie

11. (b) hanging slightly open

12. (d) Blue

13. (c) Caelum

Pick what answers you think are right, and at the bottom of the quiz the right answers, and explanations why, are given.

1. Which of these is one of my chores right now?

(a) Cleaning the steps
(b) Cleaning the kitchen
(c) Washing breakfast dishes
(d) Drying breakfast dishes
(e) Drying lunch dishes

2. What is my favorite chore? (note: some of these aren’t actually my chores)

(a) Drying breakfast dishes
(b) Drying lunch dishes
(c) Washing lunch dishes
(d) Washing breakfast dishes
(e) Cleaning the upstairs hallway

3. What are my favorite animals besides chickens?

(a) cats and ducks
(b) dogs and cats
(c) hamsters and mice
(d) horses and ponies
(e) birds (not chickens) and goats

4. What’s my favorite game to play with my brothers Owen and Caleb?

(a) Little Kids Adventure
(b) Legos
(c) Paper games
(d) Animal Game
(e) Playing a wolf-guy game

5. Who’s my favorite brother?

(a) Owen
(b) Caleb
(c) Arlie
(d) Lachlan
(e) Collin

6.Which of these things would I most want to do?

(a) Go to the moon
(b) Fly in an airplane
(c) Going up to the hill across the road
(d) Go to mars
(e) Learn how to ride a bike

7. Which one of these would I turn into if I could:

(a) A mouse
(b) A rabbit
(c) A chicken
(d) A horse
(e) A cat

8. What are my favorite colors?

(a) Red and orange
(b) Yellow and green
(c) Pink and purple
(d) Blue and green
(e) Yellow and orange

9. What is my favorite thing to do each day?

(a) Read comics
(b) Practice learning how to juggle
(c) Reading books
(d) Play games inside
(e) Play games outside

10. What kind of tree do I know the name and look of that Cadie taught me?

(a) Oak tree
(b) Pine tree
(c) Fir tree
(d) Elm tree
(e) All of the above

11. What is my favorite book series?

(a) Horrible Harry
(b) The Zack Files
(c) Jigsaw Jones
(d) The Magic Treehouse
(e) The Boxcar Children

12. What are my favorite of the books that Mom read me?

(a) Little House series – The Laura Years
(b) Little House series – The Caroline Years
(c) Little House series – The Charlotte Years
(d) Little House series – The Martha Years
(e) Little House series – The Rose Years

13. What is my middle name?

(a) Leigh
(b) Anne
(c) Joy
(d) Jane
(e) Jael

14. What are my two favorite foods?

(a) Hamburgers and hot dogs
(b) Sloppy Joes and hot dogs
(c) Pizza and hamburgers
(d) Macaroni and cheese and macaroni and chick-peas
(e) Ziti and lasagna

15. What do I most want to learn to do?

(a) Learn to cook
(b) Be able to dig well
(c) Ride my bike
(d) Brush out my hair on my own
(e) Learn to sew

16. If I could go to any planet, which planet would I go to?

(a) The moon
(b) Mars
(c) Venus
(d) Saturn
(e) Jupiter

—-ANSWERS:—–

1. (c) Washing breakfast dishes is the one that’s my chore.

2. (e) It’s my favorite chore because it’s the easiest and least boring.

3. (a) They’re my favorite because they’re not big, mean and scary. I like ducks only if they’re friendly, because I don’t remember any of our ducks that were friendly, and I think I’d like them. I like cats because they’re different than dogs–dogs seem scary and mean, and big. However cats seem small, and nice and friendly.

4. (d) I like Animal Game because sometimes there’s Animal Tournaments and Owen usually controls them and makes them funny. Animal Tournaments is where different stuffed animals fight–mine, Owen, and Caleb’s stuffed animals. We only play it sometimes, but it’s really fun when we do.

5. (c) Arlie’s my favorite brother probably because he’s never home usually, and he doesn’t bug me very much, and so I like him better than everybody else, because everybody else bugs me.

6. (c) Because it’s nice up there, and I’d like to go up and see what it’s like. And because there’s this mysterious thing that we think is a tent that I’d like to see close up.

7. (b) I’d like to be a rabbit because rabbits can talk animal language, go underground, hop along the fields and because they always look so nice.

8. (d) It’s hard to explain, ‘cuz I don’t know how to explain why blue and green are my favorite colors, but they just are.

9. (e) Because we have lots of good toys for playing certain games that I want to play outside, and because I like going outside.

10. (d) I forget quite how it happened, why Cadie was telling me how elm trees look, but one time–I don’t know where we were–she was telling me that elm trees have this stuff that looks sort of like green stuff growing along it, and they usually widen out at the top. And then one time when we were coming home from something, we were having a contest who could see the most elm trees. I can’t remember who won.

11. (a) Well here’s a comment on them: They’re not horrible books, they’re funny books! I like them because Horrible Harry does lots of funny things. The guy in the book who’s Harry’s friend is not horrible, is just nice. And there’s a person in the book called Song Lee, and Harry’s in love with her ever since in kindergarten Song Lee gave him something horrible, and that made him happy because he loves horrible things.

12. (d) There’s one thing that I hate about the Martha years! The author didn’t make the series long enough!! I don’t really know why I like it better than the other ones, I just liked it. Martha Morse was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s great-grandmother, and she was Rose’s great-great-grandmother.

13. (e) Anne and Leigh are Titi and Cadie’s middle names. And I was thinking of saying James as one of the choices but that was a boy’s middle name, Cadie said, but that’s one of my brother’s middle names.

14. (b) I just really like sloppy joes and hot dogs, I don’t know why! (Not together, they’re just two meals that I like.)

15. (c) Because my brothers are always riding their bikes and I can only ride a tricycle. Just why I can’t ride a bike is because I can’t balance–it’s no fair! I’d like to ride a bike because it looks really fun.

16. (a) I think I’d just like to explore the moon. I wouldn’t like to go to the moon, but it was one thing that came up with me to think of, so I thought that the moon I’d probably like to more than the others.

I can’t remember if I already posted it, so if I did, this is a repeat. I think, though, that I was going to post it but never actually did.

(Note: It’s not very clear to the reader, but at the beginning of this story, the grandpa and grandma are not married. They are both widow/widower.)

The Story of a Grandpa and Grandma
By Deirdre

Once upon a time there was an old man with some grandchildren who lived on a farm. And there was no one there but him. (He had grandchildren, but they were at a different house.) There was a grandma that lived 2 miles away from the grandfather.

The grandpa had a wagon and two horses. One was white with black spots and another was brown with a white streak going down on its forehead. The grandmother had an old-fashioned car. (Not the car nowadays, it was the car like when cars were first coming out.)

The grandpa was a cheerful old man. But the grandma was a grim old grandma! She didn’t care about children, she just cared about how many chores she got at her house and she fussed about how much work she got.

ONE day…. The grandpa decided to visit the grandmother. The grandmother was so surprised that she threw her arms him and decided not to be grim anymore. She decided it was too much work to be grim, and she couldn’t ever do it. So she decided to make a doll for one of the grandchildren girls of the grandpa and of hers. And she started to invent something that was so amazing, she had to work on it for VERY many days. And she decided to call it, a computer.

The grandpa had now driven his horses and pulled up to the grandma’s barn, which was expecting him. Then after she had threwen her arms around him, he said he had to comb his horse’s manes. But then he saw a PONY in the barn. The pony trotted cheerfully up to him, and he saw the grandma standing behind him. She said, “That pony is for you.”

Meanwhile…back at the farm…….There was this old black-dressed guy. It was night at the grandpa’s farm but it was just beginning to be dark at the grandma’s house. So the guy dressed in black sneaked to the barn. Then he saw another fine horse, that was the horse that guarded the barn.

Then the horse turned around with red eyes!! The horse started trotting to him! She almost had stepped on his head when he ran out, got caught in a coyote trap, and all the coyotes led him to the police. The police threw him in jail.

THEN…..The grandpa started to drive his horses home, but before he could get onto his wagon, the grandmother gave him two torches by the horses and said “That will help the horses see in the dark. Take off those black things [Deirdre told me to add in, “that to Deirdre look like they’re covering the horses eyes.”] That would make the horses be able to see better in the dark.”

When he got back to the farm, he saw that his coyotes and his dogs were holding up the trap and almost had him, but pulled back because they saw it was just him. Then he saw his sheep—it was sheep-shearing day tomorrow.

So he snuck up to bed, made some presents for his sheep (if they be’d good when he sheared his sheep, then they would get the presents). Then he wrapped up the presents, and he put on his pajamas, and slipped into his covers.

Chapter Two
The Sheep-Shearing

It was sheep-shearing day. He invited all the oldest grandchildren over to help. Then he called their father to drive them over there, help with the shearing, and then drive them home. [I’m going to skip about the sheep-shearing because you might not want to hear about it.]

Chapter Three
At the airport

Then the grandpa decided to go the airport. He was going to visit one of his old cousins. The airport peoples gave him a pair of binoculars, so that he could see the plane. He was going to be watching the planes till they could find a plane that he could ride in. He called the grandma and told her to come over.

Then the plane took off! The plane went soaring. Boats were holding a net in the water over the ocean near each dock, a net so that if the plane fell in, it would not go into the water. Just then, the airplane went sailing down, down. It landed in the net, but the net broke! The grandpa was watching with wide eyes. He was hoping he wouldn’t be the driver of HIS plane.

Then all the boats went so fast that they managed to catch the airplane’s wings. Then they got lifesavers for the peoples. Then the other peoples got a new net and gave it to the life-savering people and the life-savering people climbed up just in time, netted up the airplane—this time it was a better net, so it held the airplane, and dragged it to the shore. Victory!

Chapter Four
Bad luck

At the airport the grandma said she had found her plane and was getting in it. Bad luck for the grandpa! He had to drive HIS plane! [You might not want to hear this story at the airport all over again, but the same thing that happened to the other plane that he was watching happened to him, and he went home to the farm.]

Chapter Five
Burglar Cowboy

[I’m hoping to make this chapter longer than the last chapter.]
“Here I am,” said the grandfather. “At my home. What is there to do but take a nap, and eat lunch. Sigh…I know! I’ll go and see the alpacas!” (The grandpa also had alpacas.) So then he went out to see his alpacas. He found a cowboy waiting for him. “Come, come,” said the cowboy. “Take your alpaca, and then give me a ticket to see the alpacas.”

“I don’t have any ticket for alpacas!” he said.

“Well then,” the cowboy said, “Just go look at all the other animals, and enjoy your day.”

Later…It was night. The old man was in bed. He had a headache that day, from being out in the sun so long. The cowboy was really that burger, and he had known that the old man didn’t have tickets before he asked.

So he crept up, hoping that the coyotes and dogs weren’t there, and just almost got to steal the alpacas, when….BANG! He heard a loud shot which made him run. As soon as he ran to the road, he saw the old man standing there and the police. Bad luck for the burglar! He was in jail for good.

Chapter Six
The Cousins

Meanwhile, at the grandfather’s cousin’s house, they were thinking of coming over to the grandpa’s house, because he didn’t come. [I didn’t tell you this, but he had called his cousins at the airport saying that he was going to come over.]

So the cousins thought up a plan to come over to his house, to see if he had died and gotten buried, or if he was still there and alive. Or if he was still there and dead. They couldn’t call him because he had taken his phone out. He took it out because he didn’t want another burglar stealing his phone.

But the grandpa decided to go over to the grandmother’s house. By the time the grandfather had reached the grandmother’s house, the grandfather’s cousins had reached the grandfather’s house! So they thought he was dead and buried. But that was not true.

But they knew the grandmother, so they decided to ask if she was the one who buried him. Just as they arrived at the grandmother’s house, the grandmother and grandfather were getting out some tea and lemonade to drink.

“You’re just in time for lunch!” said the grandmother. The cousins were surprised out of their wits and said, “Oh good!! You’re alive!!”

“Well duhh,” said the grandfather. So the cousins had the tea, the lunch, and the lemonade, then they went home to the grandfather. They said good-bye to him, and then left to their houses.

Chapter Seven
Married
[The grandfather’s wife died, in case you’re wondering why I’m writing some of this. And the grandmother’s husband died.]

One day, the grandfather got lonely. So, he decided to call his cousins. And they said, no, they couldn’t visit, they had some work to do right now. So, he decided to take a walk. He went through the woods, he found some flowers, he made a house (a hut to keep anyone who found it warm) in the woods, and he found a vase and washed it off in the stream. He filled it up with water and put the flowers in it.

Then he went home. Then he got bored, again. So he got out a book, and read a book. Then he wrote a book. He decided to go to his barn. He fed his animals. Then he decided to go visit the grandchildren. So he visited the grandchildren, and gave them some cookies, and then went home because there was nothing to do there.

And then he decided to visit the grandmother’s house. So, the grandmother, got out some lemonade, and gave him a glass of it. Then they talked for a while, they read some books, they played and played and played. Thennn….they went on a walk. And then the grandfather left.

“Okay,” said the grandfather. “I left. Now what is there to do? Well, I’ve done everything I could. Except for taking a nap. So that’s what I’ll do.”

Then, after the nap, he made a loaf of bread, he made a pie, and decided to take hammer, nails, an axe, and a saw. And he made the hut into an actual house. Then when the house was done, he made some furniture in it, and then caught some fish from a lake, and then put the fish onto a frying pan on the stove. Then he left.

Thennn….[I’m kind of shy to tell you what I’m about to tell you.] He went over to the grandmother’s house and he asked if he could marry her. She said yes.

Chapter Eight
Frank

[You know they’re too old to have children. He just got too lonely so he needed someone.]

“Hmmm…” said the old man. [Not the grandfather, a different person.] “I need something to do.” So he decided to go to the grandfather’s house. This old man’s name was Frank. Frank was a nice old man. And the grandfather knew Frank.

So Frank went. Then the grandfather was happy to see Frank. Frank said he was bored. “Let’s play a board game then!” said the grandfather. “Board games make you bored, ha ha!”

“Ha ha!” said Frank. “That’s a good joke! Really, board games DO make you less bored!”

So they played and played and played until it was time to catch fireflies. Grandfather and Frank went out to catch fireflies while the grandmother made the supper. So then, when it was suppertime, they went in to eat supper.

Then they went back out after they were done eating supper to watch out for bats, and fireflies and owls. So then they heard an owl. They put out an owl trap. In their owl trap, the owl was in there! Then they let the owl into their bird cage and brung it inside for the night. For it was almost winter!

When winter came, they moved the cage from the window down onto a stool. And all the other creatures they had captured down there, too! They had captured owls, bats, fireflies, rabbits, field mice, goldfish in a fishbowl and a deer (a fawn).

Then winter was over and spring had come. When they had captured them they were babies but now they were all grown up and they let them go. They dumped goldfish into water in the lake and let the others go free.

Then Frank said it was time to go home. It was time that Frank had to do sheep-shearing and so did the grandfather, tomorrow morning—both.

Chapter Nine
Actually Sheep-shearing

[ I’m actually going to talk a little bit about sheep-shearing now, at this chapter.]

So the grandfather called the oldest cousins and the father for the sheep-shearing, just like last time. The sheep were used to getting pinned down, and they knew they were going to get a present if they behaved. So they got pinned down, got a bucket of soapy water dumped all over them, got scrubbed off, and got their wool cut off.

Then they tied the wool up in a basket, and carried it into the house. And then, the grandmother started making some coats and stuff with the wool. And made some of the wool into yarn. [Now I’m done talking about sheep-shearing, and I’m going to talk about something else at this chapter.]

The grandfather went to see his alpacas! Now this time, no cowboy, nobody was there. So he felt his alpacas, and said it was about the time that one was about to have a baby. So he would have to feed it more than the others this year. Even if it didn’t eat all that he gave it.

So then, the grandmother was all ready for him, when he came stomping back in. He went upstairs, to the bathroom, went the potty, took a shower, then went down to the grandmother, ate his lunch, and went to work in his garden. The only thing that was lighting up the house was candles. So when it got dark, he got some torches, and kept on working in the garden. He worked until it was supper. Then he talked to the grandmother.

Chapter Ten
A cheerful day

[Remember the one about Frank? Well, you notice how I didn’t say that Frank fed his animals, while he was gone all winter, so the animals must have fed themselves! Haha.]

One day, it was a Saturday and the grandfather slept in. But the grandmother got up extra early. Because she baked and baked and baked on Saturday. Some of the baking was for Sunday, but the other bakings were for that day.

And since the grandfather was still asleep, she went out to do his chores for him. She even milked the cow! And when the grandfather woke up, he smelled pie! The grandfather loved pie. So before he even got dressed, he ran downstairs, and licked his chops, and went on a treasure hunt for the pie!

But the grandmother stopped him. And said, “Now, now, don’t be greedy. So close your eyes…” and he closed his eyes. And she hid them in the cupboard. And she said “You can open them now!” (That cupboard was a secret cupboard, but they have a cupboard that isn’t secret too.)

Now she said, “Go up and get dressed. We’re having pie for breakfast.”

“Goody goody gumdrops!!” said the grandpa.

“But only after you’re done eating breakfast,” the grandma said.

So he got dressed. For breakfast they had chocolate graham crackers, eggs and toast. Then they had the PIE!!! There were raspberry pie, blackberry pie, and chocolate cream pie. The grandpa loved chocolate so of course his favorite pie was chocolate cream pie. And the grandma’s favorite was blackberry pie, because she really liked blackberries. (You might expect the grandma and the grandpa got fat, but they didn’t.)

After breakfast the grandma worked in the garden, while the grandpa made his house more welcoming and cozy for any traveler that was lost, which a blizzard might come, and he’d get lost in, and he’d come and get all cozy until the blizzard stopped. (He’s just doing it for next winter.)

After he was done making the house more comfortable and cozy, he asked the grandmother if she would like to ride with him on the wagon tied to the best horse, which was the black one with white spots. His name was Firefly. And the brown horse with the white stripe on her nose was called Buttercup.

The grandmother said, “Yes, yes, yes!” because besides working on new things, she also liked animals. So, the horse didn’t need any help pulling the wagon, and so the grandpa shouted “Hurry up and move!” So the horse started to trot, and the grandpa said “Run!” (This was a special kind of horse so it understood human language.)

So the horse started to run, and they were off. And the grandfather said to the horse, “To the grandchildren’s house!” And so the horse started to the grandchildren’s house. And, when they got there, the grandmother got to work to make the invention she called the “computer” for the grandchildren, and showed them everything about it.

And then, she just barely managed to make a machine that made something that she called a CD. And on one CD she made lots of different games, so the children could play all of the games!

And then they went off to make a compost so the children didn’t have to make a large pile of compost in their house, they could make it outside in the compost bin that they made.

So then they went home, and had a fun ride from the woods down to the house inside of the wagon, and then went to take a nap. It was 12:00 noon when they woke up. And they ate up lunch and then wolfed up the rest of the pie!

Then the grandmother reminded the grandfather what he had said last night. He had said that today was the day when a cousin was coming over. His name was James. James was as nice as Frank, but he didn’t come over to visit as long.

Meanwhile, back at James house. . .

“Hmm. . .” said James. Then the phone rang. He ran to pick up the phone. It was the grandfather! The grandfather was reminding him to come over, and James said, “Oh, yes, I should do that right now!”

And before the grandfather could say bye, James had hung up and was running to get on his horse. Because it had been a long time since he had visited. (James was actually the brother of the grandmother, but he didn’t know that the grandmother and the grandfather had married, so it was going to be a surprise.)

So when he had reached the grandmother and grandfather, they were already waiting for him in the barn to take his horse in. And he was still riding the horse when he came in. And then the horse was surprised, too! The horse was as smart as the grandfather and the grandmother’s one called Firefly.

So the horse screeched on his heels he was so surprised, but luckfully managed to land on all fours. But that didn’t matter anyway, because James was so surprised, he still nearly fell off the horse even if the horse didn’t do that. [I haven’t told you the grandfather’s name, so now I’m going to tell you. But I’m still going to call him the grandfather in the story. His name was John.] Of course he was surprised at the grandfather being married to the grandma. And the grandfather said, “You’re just in time to help me paint my barn, James!”

“That’s good!” said James. “I was thinking that I was just in the mood for painting the barn! But my barn hasn’t been painted either, so it needed to be done.” So while they worked on painting the barn, the grandfather said to paint it red, so they were painting it red. While the grandmother was making a nice big supper for the hungry workers.

It wasn’t suppertime quite yet and they weren’t quite enough hungry to get starved yet. So they went over to James house, to paint his barn. When they came home, they were starving. But it was suppertime, so they got to wolf down supper.

For supper they had hot dogs, French fries, chocolate milk for drink, and then they had a chocolate dessert. And as the grandmother brought in the chocolate dessert, she sang, “Dessert, dessert, dessert all the day!” And then they all clapped because they were pretending it was a birthday, they just didn’t say the right words.

But before the grandfather and James could eat any chocolate cake, they were laughing so hard that their belly ached with laughter. And then as soon as the grandmother was laughing, laughing at them for laughing so hard their belly ached, she had to run to put the cake down so that it wouldn’t get ruined from getting spilled, and then sat down and she laughed until her belly ached.

And then it took such a long time to stop laughing, that they were all empty inside, and ate up all of the cake, and half of the second cake. And then remembering about how hard they had laughed, they just fell asleep right there in their chairs. (THE END)