Hey ya'll! Did VoaST FINALLY fill up? Wow, 2820 comments! Congrats on breaking the WT record!

Bye! Have a great time!

@Scarlett: Have fun! Texas is awesome! ;) :)
@All: Here is a short story I wrote for a school project. Let me know what y'all think! It is titled "The Battle of Hurricane Bridge, WV"
It was a cold, blustery March day in 1863. Lewis sat in his tent polishing up his gun. He was part of the 13th Volunteer Virginia Infantry, who were camped next to a creek, at Hurricane Bridge, and he had heard rumors of the Rebs closing in. At 19, he was one of the younger soldiers in the 13th Volunteers, but that was no matter to him. After you pretty much lived on top of each other for a week or so, everyone seemed like family. Lewis had a mop of brown hair that had become quite unruly after he had entered the army and his mother was not there to cut it. He had dark eyes that had a glint of something almost mysterious in them, and a charming smile. He was tall, and had thinned quite a bit after entering the Infantry. No worries though, he thought. It just makes a smaller target for the Rebels to hit. His clothes were usually rumpled, except for when he tried to straighten them out for dress parade and inspection.
Hearing the drum call for the noon rations, Lewis quickly put away his gun and hurried out to get his meal. Except, it wasn’t hardly enough to call a meal. Each man got a chunk of boiled beef, a small potato, and a piece of bread. There was coffee at breakfast, but then you only got water for the rest of the day. He found his friend, Henry, who had come with him from the same town, and they ate together. Henry and Lewis had known each other since boyhood.
“So do you think them Rebs are really coming close, or is it just more talk?” Henry asked around a mouth full of boiled beef.
“Not sure,” Lewis replied. “There have been so many false alarms.”
“Yeah.”
They were both silent for a little while, chewing thoughtfully on their hard bread.
“Well, we shouldn’t be afraid of any of those grey Rebs,” Lewis said confidently, although on the inside, he wasn’t so sure. Could only 150 men hold out against an army of Confederates?
That evening, a scout brought for sure news that a body of 500 Rebels, led by Brigadier-General Albert G. Jenkins, was headed their way, on foot. There was surely going to be a battle the next day. As he lay on his mat next to Henry that night, Lewis couldn’t go to sleep. A queer feeling kept coming over him. He had only been in a few light skirmishes before. What would a real battle be like? Would he be killed? It was very possible. Lighting a candle, he wrote a short letter to his family dated March 27 and tucked it inside his shirt pocket. It made him feel better that if he did die, his family would know about him, and where he had been. With the strange feeling almost gone, he blew out the candle and was able to sleep.
“Hey Lewis, come on and wake up! You plan to sleep through drum call?” Henry’s voice roused the sleepy Lewis, who pulled himself up out his bed. The cold morning air cut through his clothes, and he shivered. Quickly, he dressed and came out for breakfast and inspection. Their beloved Colonel W.R. Brown himself walked the lines, and the 13th Volunteers cheered him on.
All the men wandered around restlessly that morning. Everyone knew what was coming and was agonized by the waiting. The sooner the fight started, the sooner it would end. It was about 11:00 in the morning when the drummers began to rigorously beat out battle formation. The men ran to grab their guns and get into position. They saw a blanket of grey advancing toward their camp, and they saw a man come forward with a white flag. Colonel W.R Brown went out to meet them under a white flag as well, to see what they wanted. Lewis could only guess. They wanted them to surrender. A strong feeling swelled up inside him. They would never surrender! He knew the Colonel well enough to know that he would not surrender. The Colonel came riding back to their camp and told them that they had a fight on their hands.
In about ten minutes, Confederate artillery boomed from the hills surrounding the camp. Shells shrieked through the air around Lewis and exploded with terrific crashing noises all around the camp. A group of Rebs tried to rush the camp, but Lewis, Henry, and the others fired hotly at them. Lewis was reloading his gun as fast as he could. Some of his shots missed but most hit a grey target. Suddenly a shell burst behind him. Lewis ducked. Nothing hit him, and he went right on defending the camp, but it made him more nervous than ever. This was the hottest battle Lewis had been at yet. He was starting to feel sick at the sight of the fallen men, the smell of smoke and blood, and the sound of gunfire, explosion, and moans from wounded men. But then he heard a bullet whiz over his head, and another hit something on his left with a sickening thud. With a cry, Henry fell over backwards.
“Henry?” Lewis cried, bending over his friend. “Henry!” There was no answer. Blood was pouring out of an open wound in his chest and pooling on the ground around him. Lewis knew it was over for his friend. In an instant, Lewis forgot to feel sick. A boiling rage filled his body. Those Rebels had killed his best friend, and he was going to get revenge on them for it. For three more long hours, he continued his fire on the Confederates. Finally, Brigadier-General Jenkins retrated with his army. The small Union force of 150 men had defeated his army of 500. After being tensed up for the last 8 hours, Lewis almost collapsed. Out of their force, 4 men had been killed, Henry included, and 3 had been wounded. There were many wounded Confederates, and these were taken as prisoners. After supper, Lewis went to his tent - without Henry. It was only then that the realization of his being dead sunk in. A deep aching pit opened within him, and he fell into an exhausted sleep.

(This story is based on the Battle of Hurricane Bridge that took place on March 28, 1863, in West Virginia. Lewis and Henry are made up characters, but the General, Colonel, and statistics about the battle are real.)

no i didn't notice your name tag XD ! Ohh no LOL I probaly would of messed the square dance up too XD !!!!! I'll have to ask her about it Lol. XP

That was really good! I am really bad at short stories and you did so well at having so much in it (like a death), yet still being a short-story.

@Caro: Thanks!
@Bethy: Thank you! I felt like since it was a battle story I ought to include a death to make it more fitting and dramatic. It added something else in there. I couldn't find much info about the battle, so I had to add some things. And I thought since it said there were four Union soldiers killed, Lewis' friend Henry could be one.

I'm back. Wow, Texas is so huge!! I loved it. Mylee, thank you! It was a lot of fun going around and trying all the local foods.
Riley, your story is great!! Here are some notes and critiques. You don't have to use any of them if you don't want to, it's your story:
-About the part where he writes to his family, you could be more specific. How many kids does he have if any? Does his live with his parents?
-" It was about 11:00 in the morning when the drummers began to rigorously beat out battle formation." First of all, nice -ly adverb! "Rigorously" is a colorful word. Would you consider changing eleven in the morning to 11:00 AM? I think it flows more smoothly.
-Lastly, Riley, you were telling Bethy that you felt like you had to kill off a character to make it sincere. If you want to have Henry dead, then that's your choice. But you should know that a story can still be sincere without a death. There are many ways to make a touching story. But if you still think Henry should die, then I suggest showing their relationship more. Make the audience LOVE him. And then make them cry because they loved him so much. Another suggestion :).
Overall, I thought you did an excellent job!! Thanks for sharing the story with us!!

Smart to use historic fact to add a more dramatic effect. How is your New Hope story coming along?

@Bethy: Thanks! Um...... slow. :) We haven't worked on it for a while. It is my turn to write the chapter, and I have just been terribly busy, so yeah. Slow.
@Scarlett: Cool!!!!!! Isn't Fredericksburg that little German town? Oh and let me tell you something... the countryside isn't always pretty. :( Where is live, it is terribly dry, so everything is brown. We haven't had rain since I don't even know when. Back in August or September maybe? And it is also flat. I mean, we live in a canyon, but other than the canyon, it is flat. But we have BEAUTIFUL sunsets, due to the dirt in the air from all of the farm fields and feedlots! XD And hey, what are you saying about my "y'all"!? XD Just kidding! I didn't use to say it much but have kinda picked up on it and say it a lot now! XD LOL I started becoming self-conscious of my Texan accent when we were in California! XD

wow !! you haven't had rain in a long time ! I think it rained this week i believe it looked very wet this morning. But it rains quite a bit here. Y'all not ya'll is actually in the Diccionario !!!

whoops dictionary XD I have been practicing too much Espanol XD

@Bella: Hi good to see you! Hey you should have bought a puppy from us! We have five still that we can't get rid of. They are 11 weeks old and they are cute, but they are getting annoying too and really need to go. :) Yes, I was going to ask if you ever finished your Indian book!?
@Scarlett: I am glad you had a great time! Yes, we learn to drive things early on a farm! XD I drive our ATV's, ranger, vehicles, and during the summer or whenever it is needed I drive the big tractors to help with field work. We don't have a golf cart on our farm though, only on the main farm.
@Mylee: Yeah, so we figured out that we have not had over half an inch of rain since July. We had that large horrible hailstorm on the 4th of July, and then since then we haven't had more than half and inch of rain. :( Which we have irrigation for our fields, but we need rain for the grass to grow for our cattle.

It wasn't rainy in October?? Thats when we get the most rain.

Has anyone read Divergent?

Riley: um, I'd like to! I'll see if there's anything...
Caro: no, what is it?

Guys, I had the most amazing dream last night. Life's been kinda hard lately, and last night I asked God to let me have a dream that night, to let me get away for a night. I had one, and in it I had a sister who I loved more than I think I've ever loved anyone, and at the end it was about Jesus coming back. It was amazing. :) I just wanted to share that because it was really cool.

Neat!

Wow! That's so cool!

So I wrote this fairly recently, with a random idea that popped into my head...and also I was wondering if you all would like to do a continuation story, where we each build off of something the previous person wrote, a little bit like the Writing Plunges. Even if you don't want to do that, this is just a teensy-tiny tidbit that's hopefully interesting. :)
Now, south of the south wind, north of the north wind, east of the east wind (and, you guessed it!) west of the west wind, lay a little town called Pemberbrooke.
No one was quite sure why it was called that, or where exactly on the globe or maps the little town fit. But the people existing in the town where quite sure that it existed, for, after all, didn’t they? Those people knew it was real, even if no one else did – or rather, they would have said it didn’t exist had they been told it had in the first place.
It happened one moonless night, a dark and stormy night, this thing did. But that’s now all in the past, whether thousands or hundreds of years I could not say, but happen it most surely did.
(That's all I have. Basically the plot is that this town may or may not exist in the main world, and things lost in the main world go there and more important things from the town are disappearing along with their memory, [like sadness or weather or tables] and that's all I really have.)

Sounds like a lot of fun!! I'd be in for a continuation story!

Well, both, but I probably won't have time for the continuation story. But both sound interesting!

Merry Christmas Adam!

Merry Christmas! Let's remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas this year!

You guys too!! BTW, what do you guys do to remember the true meaning of Christmas?? I like to wake up early and thank God for everything he has done this past year and also for sending Jesus.
So! Did you guys get (or give) anything cool this year?

Oh, so I gave a Shutterfly photo book with all us kids in it, a pocketknife, and some erasable pens with few other things. I drew three people in my family. But I won't say who that is getting a little specific.