Mrs. Oxton

Mrs. Oxton was the director of the Cantabile girls Choir when I first met her. I was in Choristers, a younger kids’ version of Cantabile, and the choir had come to my school. I was excited because my friend’s sister was in Cantabile. Then when they started singing, it got really quiet, and we actually listened.

Mrs. Oxton started Cantabile fourteen years ago. She directed the choir for thirteen years before retiring last year. In 2008, Mrs. Oxton was asked to bring Cantabile to Europe for the world premiere of To be Certain of the Dawn, a holocaust oratorio.

Mrs. Oxton is an extremely hard working woman, and as I said before, she started and ran the choir for thirteen years. She is wise, thinking of new ways to teach people, about singing, culture, and history. She is also very kind, I never remember her yelling or raising her voice at anyone, and she loved bringing her grandchild to practices to show off her hula-hooping skills.

I am so glad that I met Mrs. Oxton, and I ‘m sorry that she doesn’t direct Cantabile anymore. She inspired me to be hardworking, caring, and to want to try to start something that would impact other people as much as she and cantabile impacted me.

Spelling Bee :D

Spelling Bee
North Junior High held its annual spelling bee on Tuesday, January 12 th . Eighteen seventh and eighth grade participants competed for the top five positions. These five finalists will compete at the district spelling bee at South Junior High on Monday, Feb. 1, 2010 at 5:00. Participants included Marie Julstrom, Nora Haltrom, Tessa Erickson-Thoemke, Cory Jarred, Megan Brannan, Jacob Hanson, Ryan Mercurio, Colin Jaede, Fardowsa Mohamed, Haley Rangel, Jacob Sop, Nate Pierskalla, Anthony Wells, Nick Williams, Jim Hasselbrink, Katie Schleper, Kaity O'Hara, Leah Neff and Julia Schlough. Clinching first place was eighth grader Jacob Sop. Second place was Leah Neff. Katie Schleper came in third. And fourth and fifth place was given to Julia Schlough and Nick Williams respectively. Good Luck at South! The Junior High District Spelling Bee was held at South on Monday Feburary 1st. North's Julia Schlough took 1st place that day. Great job Julia and the rest of North's contestants!

The House on the Gulf II

After Brit meets Mrs. Stuldy, the Marquis’ neighbor, she thinks that it’s weird that Bran lugged stuff outside. Mrs. Stuldy had said that the heat and humidity would rot it through by the end of the summer. Moreover, Bran had lied about going to work the previous Saturday. He had been lugging boxes out to the storage shed.

Brit starts wondering why Bran hid the boxes a week ago. Why didn’t he tell their mom what he was doing? Was Mrs. Stuldy suspicious, despite being so kind? What if she decided to call the police after all? Moreover, why was Bran so defensive about the boxes in the shed?

Bran moves the boxes into his room, and Brit plans to look at them, but Bran put in a new doorknob that locks. Brit noticed that Bran had been hiding the mail, so when she gets the mail one day, it’s addressed to John Marcus, not Marquis. Brit confronts her mom, who says she’s being paranoid. Brit ignores her and goes to do the wash, where she finds Bran’s keys.

When she finally looks in the boxes, she discovers not valuables, but sentimental. She finds old Afghans and monopoly boars, but remembers the new sorry games on the shelves and stiff new sheets she slept on. She also found a photo album reading Marcus Family Memories, Not Marquis like the name Bran had carefully spelled out, but Marcus.

After finding all of this, Brit has her confirmation that Bran lied. She discovers that Bran thinks that the Marcuses are her mother’s parents, the ones that disowned her. The Marcuses don’t know that bran is staying at their house, and their mother finally realizes that when Mr. Marcus, not their grandpa, bursts through the door.

I think that Bran should’ve checked to make sure that the Marcuses were the ones he thought they were. I also think that even if the Marcuses had been Brit and Bran’s grandparents, he shouldn’t have done what he did. Bran probably thought that he was just getting fair for his mom’s pain, but he didn’t do it legally or morally.

Book Report One

I read The House on the Gulf by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It’s about this boy, Brandon (a.k.a. Bran), who lives on Florida. He lives with his mom and sister, Brittany (a.k.a. Brit). They live in an awful part of town where no one leaves their doors unlocked. Brian gets a job mowing lawns for the Marquises. When the (elderly) couple decides to go north for the summer, they offer Bran a job house-sitting. Brian and his family get to move into the couple’s house for the summer, and Brian gets paid for mowing and keeping the house from getting robbed.
When Brit meets Mr. Marquis she realizes that Brian is acting weird. He makes Brit go wait in the front yard while he talks to Mr. Marquis about the details for the summer. Bran’s mom is thrilled that Bran got this opportunity, because then she can finally get the credits she needs to be a doctor. She had been trying to get her degree for over thirteen years, but only had enough credits to be a sophomore.
After they move into the Marquises’, Bran immediately starts taking any “breakables” including pictures, porcelain cats, PLASTIC dishes, quilts, and silverware. Bran also refuses to let them touch the thermostat. Brit thinks that something’s wrong, but she doesn’t know what. Whenever she complains, her mom shushes her and tells her to be grateful for the opportunity that Bran provided.