Sleepover at Grandmas, Back in Dublin

Last Tuesday, Me and Levi went over to Grandma Nancy's house to spend the night. My Papa brought Levi and I up to Grandma's house, and we went to go eat at Applebees. We met my cousins Nayda and Jalen at Applebees along with their parents, and Grandma. We all ate at Applebees. I got a Mac and Cheese dish that had some spicy Chicken Tenders on top of it. The Mac and Cheese was half covered in a sweet cheese sauce, and the other was in a sweet sauce, almost like syrup tasting but not as thick as syrup. It was very good! After we ate at Applebees, Levi, Grandma, Papa and I all drove back to Grandmas. My Dad left and then we spent the night at Grandmas house Tuesday night. 

Wednesday morning, Levi and I had some Cheerios for breakfast. After that we went to go walk along the beach. It was pretty cold because the wind was blowing at us. We found some driftwood and walked up and down the beach for a while. After that we were going to go to a Movie Theater to see Boss Baby. Grandma wanted to see it and so did I. We got some popcorn and went into the theater. There was nobody else in that movie theater. Probably because it was the middle of a Wednesday. 

Boss Baby was really good, it was better than I thought it would be. It was really funny also. After the movie, we went back to Grandmas house to hangout. My Dad came over for dinner Wednesday night, and we cooked some steak that Grandma had a new way of preparing. She covered the steak in sea salt for about 3 hours then cooked it and it made it more tender and full of flavor. It was very delicious! After Dinner, Papa, Levi and I drove home and got home around 9:30 PM.

Before I left to come back to Ireland, I had worked on the pool. It needed a lot of work done on the plants around the pool. There were these white grass plants that always overgrow and need to be trimmed down to about 2 inches from the ground. I trimmed all of them around the pool. Here is what the plants looked like before I trimmed them. 

After I trimmed the grasses, I also put out all of the pool furniture and furniture by the Garage. Here is what it looked like right before I went back to Dublin. 

It looks really nice now and I cant wait until the Pool gets cleaned and set up to swim in because then it will look very nice. The pool is very dirty, and we did not cover it with anything last winter, so it is all green and gross. 

Thursday, I woke up around 10:30 AM. I did a lot of cleaning Thursday since I went back to Dublin soon. Thursday, I cleaned all of the bathrooms in the house, including the bathtubs in the 3 main bathrooms on the 2nd floor. They looked very clean once I cleaned them. I also took out the trash and recycling so that it would be done once I get back to Grand Rapids May 22nd. 

Friday, Ben and Caleb came over to hangout. Ben got dropped off at my house around 4:00 PM, and we played some Call of Duty upstairs, and we went out to eat with Levi and my Dad also. My Dad took Ben, Levi and I out to Moe's. Moe's is a Tex Mex Grill where you can make your own burritos and salads. It is really delicious. It is like a Subway for Mexican food. I got a Homewrecker Jr. and put steak in it along with sour cream, rice, beans, lettuce, and guacamole. It was very good. 

Ben, Levi, Papa and I eating at Moe's. 

Ben had to go home later on Friday night, but Caleb came over also while Ben was still here. We hung out upstairs on the 3rd floor. When Ben left, Caleb stayed because he could stay the night. We played a lot of Clash Royale which is a battle game where you battle other people in different clans. It is very fun to play. We went to sleep around 2:00 AM. I set my alarm for 8:00 AM Saturday morning because my flight was at 12:15 PM and I had to pack a little bit more. I got up at 8:00 AM and I had to pack my clothes, and my snacks I had ready to take to Dublin. The past week I have bought snacks and saved up a pile of snacks to take back to Dublin to last me about a Month. I also want to let the Irish kids at St. Andrews try things like Takis, Hot Cheetos and Cheez-Its. They dont have things like that over here. This is the pile of snacks that I brought over to Dublin. 

I was going to try to fit it all in the Orange carry on bag that I usually use to carry on-board the airplane. I wanted to carry it on the airplane and not check it because if I checked the bag all of the snacks would get crushed because the people just throw around the checked baggage basically. I made sure all of the bags did not pop inside the Orange Luggage. I fit it all in barely. 

I went back to bed around 8:50 AM for another 30 minutes. Caleb was still sleeping. I got up at 9:20 AM and took a quick shower, then went down stairs to say hi to Aunt Pennie, Oma and Aunt Ruth Ann because they were all there in the morning to say hi for a bit. I talked to them and had some toast with jam for breakfast. Caleb said hi to everybody also. Caleb left around 10:20 AM and I brought my bags down to put in my Dads car. I had one bag to Check, and 2 carry on bags, one backpack and the Orange bag with the snacks inside of it.

Levi ready to go to the Airport.  

Papa drove Me and Levi to the Airport and we met Oma there. We got all of our 3 bags checked so that we did not have to carry them around anymore. We went up to the tables and chairs where we could sit and wait a bit. We said goodbye to Papa and went to our gate. Our first flight was only 90 minutes long, but once we got to Atlanta, we had a 5 hour layover. We went to Chick-Fil-A to get some Lunch around 3:00 PM. Our flight was at 7:55 PM. 

I got a spicy chicken sandwich and it was really good, and I also got some fries and lemonade. Their lemonade is really good. We went to find somewhere to sit to eat our food, and after that, we went to our gate to sit and wait to get on our plane. We went from Terminal C to Terminal E to get to our gate E14. We finally got on our plane later around 7:20 PM. 

We got a meal on that Plane, and I chose the Chicken meal like always. 

It was pretty good. I watched Deepwater Horizon which is a Movie about the Oil Spill in 2010 from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig that spilled 210,000,000 Gallons of oil into the Coast of Mexico. It was a really good movie. I tried to sleep on the Airplane but I cant sleep while I am sitting up so I did not sleep a lot. We got to Dublin and it was about 9:00 AM, and we took a taxi home after we got our luggage. Once I got to the house, I took about a 3 hour nap until 1:00 PM Dublin time, then I was fine. 

We had Dinner reservations Sunday night at 5:30 PM at a place called Fade Street Social. It is a restaurant that has Tapas, and a whole other side just for real meals. We ate at the Restaurant side of it, and here is what the inside looked like. 

It was really cool inside, and we got to sit at a half booth half table part, and I love sitting on a booth chair, they are very comfortable. The menu was very interesting, and they had a lot of food that had Truffle flavoring in it. I decided to get a pizza that had Pumpkin, Pork, Mushrooms and Chestnuts on it. It was very delicious. Oma and Levi split another flatbread pizza, and we got little sides like Cauliflower with cheese and sauce and french fries. 

This is the Flatbread that Me and my Mom shared. 

 

I was very full after eating the meal at Fade Street Social. We got dessert also, and I got this Ice-Cream in a chocolate ball and to get the Ice-Cream, they poured hot chocolate sauce on top of the ball of chocolate. 

-April 23, 2017 

Wilcox Park, lots of Snacks

     Friday, Caleb and Ben skipped school so that they could hang out with me. Since it was near Earth Day, they had a field trip to some place 30 minutes away where they were going to pick up trash, but their parents let them come to my house instead. Ben and Caleb got to my house around 8:00 AM, and came into my room and woke me up. I got dressed and we were going to go hangout at Wilcox Park. We took bikes and Ben rode his Long-Board there. Before we got there, we went to Family Fare to get some drinks. We also got some 1$ plastic cups and a big bag of ice for 2$.

      We went to this place that had a bench and some small trees and hung out there for a while. Then we went down by the river and crossed it on fallen down trees and any wooden logs we could jump to. It was fun. Then we took our bikes across the river to this place that had jumps made out of dirt that you could ride your bike around in. We went back to my house later since Caleb and Ben would sleepover, along with Max. 

    Friday night, I had a sleepover with Max, Caleb, and Ben. Max got back for the weekend at about 11:00 PM but he still was able to spend the night. Me and Max worked on some beats on Ableton Live. We woke up Saturday and had some breakfast. Max, Ben and Caleb left and we were all going to meet up at Wilcox Park again around 4:00 PM. We all met up there after getting some drinks at a store. Max went also. It was Max, Me, Ben, Caleb, Ava, Mira, Kelsey, Ethan, Asa, and some of Asa's friends from 8th grade. There were a ton of people there also. We just hung around, tried to play soccer, and we went by the river again. 

Saturday night, Ben and Caleb spent the night again, and Tony and Asa came to spend the night also. It was very fun. We played some basketball, and some Xbox also. Sunday morning people had to go home early because they had school Monday. I did some yard work, and mostly finished the work to do by the pool. It looks much better and more clean now. Here is Grey Wing.

Monday, Papa had to go to work so Me and Levi stayed home and hung out. I woke up at around Noon Monday, and then Me and Levi went to get some snacks at the Dollar Store to take back to Ireland. 

We went to Taco Bell Monday night and it was really good. I got a Beefy 5 Layer burrito, a large drink, another burrito, and a Fiery Doritos Locos Taco. Also, there is a little machine you can do at Taco Bell where you put in a nickel or dime and try to get it on the bottom slot by twisting the machine to get the coin to fall. Levi got a free bag of Cinnamon Twists with a Nickel that I gave to him. When the guy came to give the Cinnamon Twists to Levi, he also gave a bag to me which was very nice. 

Tomorrow we are going to Grandma Nancy's to spend the night and we are going to cook hamburgers!

-April 18, 2017

      

     

BACK IN GRAND RAPIDS!! (Meeting up with the Cousins)

      Last Friday was my last day of school in Ireland before I was going to come home for 2 weeks to Grand Rapids. Last Friday, April 7, I went to school and it was a half day. We got to wear whatever we wanted to if we brought in 2 Euro for a charity. I asked my Mom if I could skip school Friday since it was a half day and all day we would just be watching movies, but she said no.

      I went to school and gave my 2 Euro, and went to all of my classes. First I went to History, and Ms. Galvin did not show up so after 20 minutes of waiting, we went to supervised study. Supervised study is just sitting and doing nothing. It is where people go if their teacher does not show up or they have no teacher for that class. After that, I went to Spanish, and we just sat around, then I went to English. In English, we played Kahoot for 40 minutes. Next, in Math, we watched Crazy Russian Hacker on YouTube which was fun. Then I had my break, and I ate some food, then I had Career Guidance where we just watched Ted Talks. Then the school day was done, and I went home!

     I had to pack more to go to Grand Rapids. I finished packing, which included all of my clothes, which I put in my carry on bag. I had put my clothes in a carry on luggage, than put that luggage inside of another bigger luggage, so that when I got to Grand Rapids, I could have 2 luggage's to use to take things back to Dublin. I also packed the orange carry on bag with the Xbox 360, and games for it also. I was planning to leave it in Grand Rapids for the rest of the summer. Last, I packed my backpack with my Alienware Laptop, and my electronic things. 

        Saturday, I woke up at 8:00 AM so I could take a shower before we left. We had to leave at 9:30 AM so that we could get on our flight at 11:25 AM. I took a shower and got new clothes on, then Me, Levi and Oma said goodbye to Mama. We got a cab to the Airport. We went through customs at the Dublin airport which was really nice, so we did not have to do it once we landed in New York. We went to our gate, which was delayed only 30 minutes. I grabbed some food from a nearby store and we got on the plane. 

This was the longest flight we had in our trip back to Grand Rapids. We were flying from Dublin to New York, but it only took 6 Hours and 30 Minutes. I thought it would take 8 hours, but I think the wind helps a lot depending if we are going with or against the wind. The plane had TVs so I watched 3 Movies. I watched Suicide Squad, Jack Reacher Never Go Back, and The Girl on the Train. They were all pretty good movies, but Jack Reacher was the best movie. It was the 2nd Jack Reacher movie, and I like it better than the first one personally. Once we landed in New York, we did not have that long of a layover, and our gate was only about 10 away from the gate that we arrived in, so it did not take long to get to our next gate. We had about a 2 hour layover. Me and Levi went to get some snacks, and we were on the plane to Detroit soon after that. 

We arrived in Detroit at about 7:30 PM their time. We got to walk under ground with the cool tunnel that has colors and has pretty music also. 

Once we got to our gate that was our flight to Grand Rapids, it said that our flight was delayed until 10:30 PM. It was suppose to be at 8:30 PM. Soon after that, it was pushed back again to 1:10 AM, so we had to wait about 5 hours to get our plane back to Grand Rapids. It seemed like a long amount of time, but it passed by quicker than I thought it would. Oma and Levi were tired and slept while we were waiting and on the plane to Grand Rapids also. I just got out my Laptop and used Ableton Live. We finally got on the plane, and it was a really nice plane. It was new I could tell, and the engines were really quiet. A ton of people decided to drive to Grand Rapids when they heard the flight would be delayed again to 1:10 AM, so the plane to Grand Rapids that we were on was very empty.

Here is me and all of the empty seats on the plane to Grand Rapids. 

The flight was only about 30 Minutes, and I slept about 10 on the plane, and we got to Grand Rapids. It was about 2:00 AM, and we got off and ran to meet Papa. He was waiting for us and we gave him hugs, and went to get our luggage. The baggage carousel that carries all of the luggage around so people can take them, got overflowed with luggage since everybody decided to drive to Grand Rapids earlier, so we had to all take random luggage's off of the luggage carousel. We got our 3 checked bags then got in Papas car and drove home. Oma and Levi went straight to bed. I did some unpacking, and then eventually went to bed around 3:30 AM. It was nice to be back in the house. 

It was Sunday morning when I woke up. Oma went back home right in the morning. Her friend Dawn drove her home. I took a shower in the morning. Me, Levi and Papa went to Taco Bell for lunch on Sunday. 

Papa and Levi at Taco Bell. 

I got a Beefy 5 Layer Burrito Meal Deal and a Taco. It was delicious. We spent the rest of the day at Papas house, and I brought my laptop over to his house. We did not have Wi-Fi at my Moms house so we spent the night at Papas house. We ended up staying at Papas house until we would get Wi-Fi Thursday morning. 

Monday, I woke up and I felt pretty sick, and my throat hurt and I had a stuffy nose. I took some stuff to make me feel better. We spent basically all day at Papas house Monday. I played a lot of H1Z1 which is the online game that I played in Dublin with friends online. It is very fun, and I used a cool headset that my dad had at his house. 

Monday night, Gabe came over to hang out with Levi at my Moms house. Papa made Pizza for Me, Gabe and Levi. It was very good! Levi, Papa and Gabe watched "The Secret Life of Pets" at my Moms house. Gabe then went home and Papa and Levi came back over to Papas house where I was. There was a storm Monday night, and here is what the Radar looked like.

 

Tuesday, I woke up and felt the same amount of sick also. We had an appointment with Nancy that morning, and she gave me some stuff to help my stuffy nose and my immune system and stuff. We went back to Papas house to hang out, but at 3:30 PM, we went to see "Ghost in the Shell" which starred Scarlett Johansson. It was really good! We went to Dinner at a Mexican place Tuesday night called "Lindo Mexico". It was located on 28th street. I got a Chimichanga, which is a deep fried burrito, and it was delicious! I could not eat the whole thing, so I took a little bit of it home. 

Papa and Levi at Lindo Mexico

My Chimichanga. 

After that we spent the night at Papas house again. Tuesday night I started to feel a slight bit better. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I felt much better. I felt that my fever was gone, and only my throat hurt a little bit, which was good. I had to go over to my Moms house to wait for somebody who was going to come to tune our piano. He was suppose to be there at 8:30 AM, but ended up coming around 10:00 AM. Papa had a doctors appointment at 8:20 AM so he came over to the house after that. Him and Levi played cribbage and I worked on my Laptop on Ableton Live. Once he got here, he tuned our piano while I worked outside on the bushes my Mom was going to pay me for. There were these plants by the pool that were way overgrown and I used the trimmer to trim them and put the trimmings in bags. They were crazy overgrown. Here are some Pictures.

These are the plants I need to trim and clean up by the Pool. 

 

I did 1 hour of that so I could get an hourly pay. We got to see the Piano being taken apart, partly.

Apparently you can take this whole part out of the Piano, and just put it back in, along with the side parts and the cover. I did not know that you could do that. It allows you to see how when you hit a key, how the hammer works to hit the string. It is pretty cool! We payed the Piano tuner, than we went back to Papas House. We were going over to Grandmas house and going out to dinner with Aunt Jen, Uncle Norm, Jalen, Nayda, Grandma, Aunt LeAnn, and Adam. We drove to Grandmas, and I played some songs for her, and we went to a Mexican place at 5:30 PM called "Mi Cocina" which was in Grand Haven. We met my 3 cousins there Jalen, Nayda and Adam. I talked to Adam and Jalen a lot about awesome funny things. I ordered 2 tacos but got 3. The people at the restaurant said they were small so decided to give me another one which was nice.

Here is a picture of My Meal. 

Here is a picture of Jalens Meal. 

I barely finished my Meal, but I ate all 3 of my tacos and they were delicious. We got some amazing pictures also.

Me, Jalen, Nayda, Adam and Levi.

Here is a picture of Adam looking at his phone. 

The "Tres Amigos" as Jalen said. 

Jalen and I

We said goodbye to our cousins at Mi Cochina since they had to go since they had school the next day. Grandma, Levi, Papa and I all went back to Grandmas for a while. Here is a funny video of Papa dancing at Grandmas house.

We left around 8:10 PM to go back home. We went back to Papas house to spend the night. We had to be at my Moms house tomorrow Morning from 8:00-10:00 AM so that AT&T could give us Internet back. 

-Jackson Glasser

April 12, 2017

The Blarney Blogger

"Career in Detail" Project Grade / Projects / Going home soon!!

      This is the last week before I travel home to Grand Rapids with Oma and Levi. It is the week of April 3rd, which is a Monday. That Monday I had a Math Test since I was gone last Friday to visit Google and Facebook. I went in knowing a lot about the test and feeling pretty well prepared. I had studied all last week since I thought that I was going to take it on Friday, but then I remembered I would miss school that day. I took the test Monday in room 8.04, and I was done before a lot of the other kids. I was very confident and thought I got at least a 90 %. I understood all of the questions.

      We found out that our Spanish teacher Ms. Ryan was leaving us, and so we of-course had to throw a party. She is a really awesome Spanish teacher, and funny also. She told us that her last day was Wednesday, so we decided to throw the party Wednesday. Everybody thought about what they were going to bring. Tuesday, I got my "Career in Detail" project back FINALLY! I got my results back and I got a 95 out of 100 so 95 %!

Wednesday came, and we had the party for Ms. Ryan. My Mom helped me and made Puppy Chow for Ms. Ryan because she really loves that. We also gave her the recipe for it. I also got my Spanish project back that I turned in a week ago. I got an A on that also!!

176/200 Points!

Wednesday also I got my Math test back that I did Monday. I got a 90 % which was really awesome. I did not get anything wrong, but I forgot to do a question that was on the last page of the test. It was not a question in words, it was just 2 lines and letters and apparently it was a question that I missed. 

We are currently trying to figure out how to get internet for when Me, Levi and Oma go back April 8. We are also deciding what we are going to bring back to Grand Rapids, the Xbox One or the Xbox 360.