Hi everyone. It's been awhile. A lot of things have happened recently and I have been extremely busy. But I have a particular pressing matter to share with you all. Just a couple weeks ago, my little buddy, and first dog, Scratch, died. Many of you have seen pictures of him throughout the years. I've shared lots of funny stories about him. It was really sudden and it was extremely hard to take in... Every morning now, I wake up and he's not in his bed right next to mine. I now notice how many crumbs actually drop on the kitchen floor. The tissues in the bathroom waste basket aren't all over the floor all the time. I remember when I first picked him out when I was in kindergarten. We went out to the pet store in Grossmont Mall. He was the first dog I saw and he was the one that I picked. He got his name when he scratched my lip while we were all taking a photo and my Grandma was holding him. It didn't take long; that's for sure! Here are some pictures of him over the years.

 The Day I first got him

 Scratch's bone stocking

 His Favorite Toy

His place will never be filled... Even if we get a new dog in the future, Scratch will always be the best dog that I could ever have.

Promotion day

Yesterday was the last day of school. It was also Promotion. I was being promoted to 6th grade. I made a slide show of pictures of promotion. When I got home from school there was a treasure hunt and at the end there was a big surprise. Wait till you see it.

Now, I'm a Middle Schooler.

I got braces

I told you that when I became a completed nerd that I would let you know, so, that is what I'm doing. I just got braces last Tuesday. At first they hurt but a week later, you barely notice them. Here is a picture of me as a nerd.

I'm a real nerd now, bye

My Horrible Tenth Birthday

Yesterday was a horrible day even though it was my birthday when I turned 10—double digits. We left Fattoria Viticcio and went to Lake Garda but I haven’t even seen the lake yet. It was horrible because I had an ear ache and we didn’t know what was wrong with it. We just knew my ear was hurting and then later when we went to dinner, by ear hurt so bad that I was crying. Our really nice waitress offered to take us to a farmicia that was open because the one that was near where we are staying was closed. I couldn’t eat my ear was so bad.

After dinner I had to go to the hospital’s emergency room which in Italian is called “pronto soccorso.” There was really nice doctor who looked in my ear and said that I had an infection from swimming too much. He said we needed to go to a farmicia in Lonato that was open 24 hours a day. If we didn’t have a GPS it would have taken forever to get the hospital and to the farmicia. Lonato was several kilometers away—about 10. We had to get ear drops and pain pills; they start working right away.

But the good part of the day was I got a card from my Uncle Jeff with €13 inside and I got a phone call from my Uncle Dan and Aunt Glennis wishing me a happy birthday. They called all the way from Auburn, California.

When we got home from the hospital and the farmicia, my grandma put my ear drops in and then I went to sleep. By the time I got to sleep, it was after eleven o’clock.

Gotta go, bye……P.S. Fred says ‘hi.”

Yesterday Was Good and Bad

Right here, right now, I'm going to do the bad part first.

The bad part was that when I was in the shower, I dropped the washrag onto the drain. The rag kept the water from getting in the drain. And after it started rising and rising, I was trying to make it like a bath but the water was going out the door and I did not know it.

Then I heard my grandma say "Casey, what happened?" Then I got out of the shower and asked "what?" Then I saw the river going down stairs. It was just like a real river that was just going down the waterfall. The upstairs and downstairs were flooded. And we drowned. Right now, I'm in heaven. Seriously, my grandparents weren't very happy.

Here's a picture of the shower.



Now--there's two good parts.

First
When I was at school the teachers were saying to me, that they didn't want me to go back home to San Diego. "We're not going to let him go," they said to the custodians. Two kids heard and said, "yea, we want him to stay." And they said, "Non vai via, Non vai via,Non vai via." That means "don't go away, don't go away, don't go away." This made me feel really happy. I want to stay here, too. Grab my dog and come here because I miss him.

The other good part was that yesterday Camilla felt better. She had been sick for 4 days so we couldn't play together. But today she was better and she came to school. For me, she's like a sister.

This is Camilla with me.