The "Thinking" Men

These are "thinking men" or, that's what my dad calls them. I mean, they do look like they are thinking, but why in the world did we have to buy so many of them? We must have at least ten, probably more than that. See, my dad is a packrat, (sorry Dad o:-) ) and that's probably where my sister gets it from, and he likes to shop more than any man I have ever seen. He says it makes up for my mom who does so little shopping. But anyway, you can find these things all over Senegal and he decided to buy them whenever he saw them, at least, that's what I think he did. So we have them all over the house, just sitting there, waiting for someone to say, "Gee, those are cool. Can I have one?" And then my dad will give them away. But I won't be surprised if they end up in somebody's attic, or at a garage sale. My dad thinks you should just put it in the bathroom so that you can just watch it. Har har. Either way, we will probably end up with most of them. Mark my words. These things will last practically forever. I think they are made of mahogany. But I am probably wrong.

Our Tons of Shoes

You know what I don't like? I don't like the fact that these are all the decent shoes that we own and only 4 pairs are mine. 4! I used to have more, but now my feet are too big. And I only wear 2 of them. The flip-flops. They might not be in this picture because they are probably by the back door. My siblings are lucky because they all have like 7 different pairs, and they have such a hard time deciding what to wear. Except my brother. He has 3. Half of these shoes we don't use. All of us, even my parents, usually wear the same shoes over and over again. Except maybe my mom. She has about 10 pairs because she goes shopping for them so much. And she doesn't wear half of them! I get so mad at that. When we went to parties, I would wear her shoes, now I can't because they don't fit me. The whole bottom shelf is for my dad's shoes. He may not have a whole lot, but they are really big. This shelf isn't as messy as our closet right next to it. Oh no. That closet is full to the brim of outgrown and torn up shoes. And my dad's jackets.

My Fat Cat

This is my fat cat. He wasn't always fat though. He used to be a cute little skinny kitten. We got him when I was in kindergarten, and he has been around since. We used to have 3 cats, but one got run over by my dad's car, (she was sleeping under it,) and the other one we sent to the Humane Society because he was just trouble with a capital T, hence his name Frisky. This one is called Sam, and he is much smarter than the other two were. I would say he is about 8 years old because he was a little baby when we got him. He is very gentle, unless you mess with him when he is sleeping, which I did, and now I have a scratch down the side of my hand. He hates it when company comes over, and hates it when you ignore him. And he likes being scratched under his chin. He purrs quite a bit. But I know if we were to get another cat, he would tear it up. He enjoys the attention for himself and he is very lazy, seen here. Oh, and his nickname is Garfield.

My State Quarter Collection Map

This is my state quarter collection map. I started collecting when I was really young, and my grandma helped me by bringing in quarters to put on. I think she was probably the one who got me started. As you can see here, I have half of the map, except for Minnesota. I am still missing 13 states, including the ones that haven't been released. The states are color-coded so that you can tell what year the quarter was or will be released. Over on the right is the graph. Starting with 1999 and ending with 2008. Almost 10 years. Once I get all the quarters, I am going to hang this up on the wall. I'm not worried about anyone stealing any. It won't be a lot of money once I am finished. Only $12.50.

My Favorite Stuffed Animals

Now, I am not one who is really into stuffed animals, but I like these ones because my grandma gave them to me. She died about 7 or 8 months ago, but she loved these things. She would go camping and at the store she would buy them. There were quite a bit. All sorts of animals, and they all had names. When we got back from Senegal, my mom came with a big box of them and told us to pick one. I picked the dalmation. I have had the red bear the longest, about 6 years. I don't remember when I got the dog, but I got the cat when she gave me some money to go into the store to buy something. My grandpa saw it and thought I should get it. I am never going to part with these. EVER.

Our Messed-Up Trampoline

It looks like vandals were here, doesn't it? Well, that was just my brothers and sisters, and any visitors that came. Okay, so maybe I did some of it too, but I don't get on as much as they do. We have had this thing for about 5 years, give or take, and it has always looked somewhat like this. Or the net has. It's always been falling off. Just recently we had to put on some bungee-type ropes to keep it up. But I knew it was getting bad once the top metal pole by the door came off. If you look really closely in the distance, you can see a metal pole with a curve at the top just sitting there with nothing connected to the top of it. I find it quite funny that the damage has gone that far. Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

Messy Room

See... this is what you get when you leave your dad alone in his house for 5 months. I can't even get in this place (which happens to be the toy area) to look for something. And it is full of junk that needs to be given to Goodwill. The suitcases are from our trip to Senegal, which ended about 2 months ago. And there are a couple drums, and the stuff over on that table is already unpacked. We just need to move it. Anything else is stuff we have collected over the years. There are books, toys, cars and tracks, blocks, and a whole lot more. If we could finish unpacking and take away all the things from our trip, it would be much easier to clean this place up. But at least this isn't our shed. That place is a pigsty!

Our DVDs

These are practically all the DVDs we own. Most of them we have watched almost 20 times each, probably more. Some of them don't belong to us, but we have still watched them a lot. My mom says we shouldn't watch so many movies, but we get really bored, so what else are we supposed to do? I mean, besides play outside. We brought most of these to Africa, and watched them all at least twice while we were there. There is nothing those kids like better than something from America. I, actually, find most of these boring, seeing as we have watched them a million times. But every now and then I will sit down and watch the whole thing if it is a good movie, which it usually isn't.

My Favorite Board Games

I absolutely LOVE these games! All of them are mine, and they are really fun to play. I got Scrabble for my 13th birthday, The Disney Edition of Monopoly when I was about 7, and The Game of Life for Eid two years ago. Only Monopoly is missing pieces, and that being the dice. These are the games I play when I am bored, and I have to force my brother to play them with me. Usually he doesn't want to.

My Favorite Books

Honestly, these are the best books in the world. The Harry Potter series. They have a little bit of everything in them. Fantasy, action, and a lot of different morals. You always learn lessons from reading them. And they aren't totally focused on magic, so anyone who believes that needs to actually read the books before they start telling others not to. And I remember exactly how I got started. I think I was about 7 years old and already reading above my grade level. My dad pulled down the first book and told me to read the first page of it. I didn't want to, but I did anyway. A day later I got it back down again and read the whole thing. Then the next book, then the next, and then the next. When I had finished, I waited for the 5th one to come out anxiously, and I got that at Sam's Club before my friend's birthday party. I got the 6th at a Wal-Mart near our campground, and the 7th at a JFK bookstore. So, as you can see, it's really thanks to my dad that I read these, and now he thinks I should lay off.

Our Library

Honestly, I cannot believe we have this many books. This isn't even the whole library and we also have books in 3 other rooms. It's kind of crazy and I don't even think we have read them all. This is the center of the shelves and at the bottom are the children's books, the middle contains religious and educational books, and the top has all the boring adult books that my parents are forcing me to read. Not shown are the cabinets to the side of this bookcase that consist of books for teens and magazines.

Our Fridge in Ramadan

Well, it's the time of year again. Ramadan. Time to fast. And this is what our fridge looks like at this time. Stuffed all the way to the top. Milk, eggs, chicken, sodas, sour cream, and any leftovers. I hate leftovers, but I guess I have to eat them. But trust me, by this time next month, all this will be gone and replaced. You should see our freezer right now!