Neosho, Missouri / Population 12,054

I reached my AR goal at the end of the year and the 4th-grade class celebrates by going to Skate Land! We skate in circles for 2 hours to all of our favorite songs and at the end, they announce "Couples Skate." I leave the rink out of respect for the other 10-year-old girls good enough to have boyfriends. Most of the girls in the rink are wearing mascara. I vow to ask my older sister to show me how to use mascara when I get home. Then I will get to skate during couples skate next year.

I rode the bus home to a friend's house today for a slumber party! We play with the farm animals outside but her big dog scares me. After dinner, she tells me we should go to her room. She and I sit criss-cross on the floor listening to Kissin 92.5 to drown out the sound of her parents fighting in the living room. The dog doesn't seem as scary anymore.

I got a Scooby Do alarm clock for Christmas! Now every morning I can get myself up for school! My mom is planning to leave town for a few days so it's my job to make sure I don't miss the bus! That won't be a problem now because there's no way the Mystery Machine would ever let me down!

There are two options: take the bus to my grandmother's house every day after school, or sneak onto my friend's bus and go to her house. I obviously chose my friend's house and we walk to the soccer fields past the fish hatchery and I watch her practice.

We run one neighborhood over to sneak into the apartment's shared laundry building. Inside they have a soda machine. Armed with 50 cents I get a Dr. Pepper. My friend hesitates and then says she can't have a soda. Upon further questioning, she reveals that she just remembered that in church that week they said soda is an addiction and she can't have it. She goes home and I drink my Dr. Pepper alone.

My mom bought candy vitamins!!! Who knew vitamins would come in candy form?! I pop one in my mouth and I'm too excited and committed to admit that they are disgusting. The bottle goes untouched and stays in a kitchen cabinet until the next move when it gets thrown away.

The drive into town takes 30 minutes every day. We round the corner and are greeted by the same arrow-shaped neon sign that reads "Neosho". There are at least 6 different roads that lead into Neosho, why does this one deserve a sign?

My friend fell off the high dive at the pool today. At least she was brave enough to climb the ladder. But look where that landed her, a hurt back and forever to be known as the reason there is now a foam mat at the base of the diving board ladders. I don't think diving boards are for me. I'll stick to slowly easing in at the shallow end.

I'm so mad. I was eating my popsicle and playing on the edge of the woods. When I was done I threw my popsicle stick into the woods and my mom made me walk through all the sticks and tall grass to find it and throw it away. How is my popsicle stick any different from the sticks in the woods? If anything mine was better! It still has remnants of popsicle on it. The forest floor was lucky to have my popsicle stick.

We're eating at the fanciest restaurant in town, the Neosho Inn. My mom gets her usual, water with lemon. When she squeezes the lemon into her drink a drop of juice flies off and gets in my eye. Everyone is having such a good time and I don't want to ruin anything. So I keep my head down and cry only a little. It hurts so bad but I refuse to sour the mood.

My friends' dad agrees to take us on horseback riding lessons with the horses on their farm. He also brings some of her church friends. While we're there he tells us about how he studies agriculture and teaches us how we can count approximately how many blades of grass are in an entire field! I don't know why anyone would ever need to know that but it seemed like something only God should be able to know.

I'm playing softball this year. My bat is known as the lucky bat and all the other girls want to use it every game. I want to play 1st base but coach says I've missed too many games and makes me play in the outfield. They never mow the outfield and it's full of bugs. I'm bored and not doing anything. It's not my fault that I have to go visit my dad in Kansas every other weekend.