I was born April 14, 1986. It was a beautiful fall day. This is because I was born in Wellington, New Zealand. New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed from America. New Zealand is made up of two small islands and is about 1000 miles off the northeast coast of Australia. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Wellington is on the southern tip of the North Island. Wellington borders on a harbor. It is a city built on steep hills and in the distance you can see the mountains. The city is often called Windy Wellington because the wind blows so hard and so much.

Although I have an American family they were living in Wellington. So I was born in the Wellington Women's Hospital at approximately 2:00 in the morning. I was a big baby. I was 10 pounds, 8 ounces and "too long."

After I was born my dad went home and waited for my brothers to wake up and told them they had a sister. After my dad got my brothers off to school he came and picked up "The Whopper" (The nurses gave me a nickname). My mom and dad tried to fit me into average size newborn clothes and guess what! I didn't fit so I went home wrapped in my baby quilt which hangs in my bedroom wall.

My father's name is James Frank Moore. he is about six foot two. He has brownish-blond hair with a little bit of gray. He has a beard. It tickles when he kisses me. My first memory of him is when I was three. His car had broken down. We had to walk to my grandmother's house. We had to cross the street and my dad let me push the button to make it so we could cross the street. I remember his hand reaching down to get mine. I thought the world of him and still do.

Dad was born in Vienna, Illinois. He was born in his house because the river was flooding the road and the doctor couldn't get through. He lived on a farm and had nine brothers and sisters.

My father likes to go fly fishing in the Snake River but doesn't like it when he gets his fly caught in the back of his sweater. He likes bands like The Pogues, and he has taught me that music is a wonderful thing. He likes to watch golf on the TV and fall asleep. He also likes cooking food for his family. He cooks a variety of things from shrimp in tomato sauce to tacos. He likes, and I like, his teaching me to cook. So far he has taught me to cook baked beans, sloppy joes, onion rings and fish. He is going to teach me all the recipes that he knows.

He doesn't like it when people act like complete idiots. He doesn't like not being able to find his power tools.

My father teases me by saying that my mother beats him, and he likes singing while he is cooking. He dances with me quite often, usually in the middle of cooking dinner. He makes dinner almost every night except for when he is sick or on a business trip.

He is a Systems Analyst for The Woodlands Operating Company, LP. At the time of my birth my dad was a systems analyst for The Bank of New Zealand. His career goal was to survive my birth. His future wish was to have a strong, healthy baby. Before my birth everything was nice, sweet and quiet and after my birth everything was noisy and disruptive.

My mother's name is Aletta Shaw Moore. She is 5 feet tall with brown hair with a little bit of gray in it. She has brown eyes and wears maroon glasses. She likes Mother's Day, gardening, and me giving her roses from her own rose bushes. She likes spending time with her daughter, and quilting. In fact, she and my dad made my baby quilt. She doesn't like it when she pays people to come and fix computers and they don't fix them. She doesn't like mosquitoes.

My Mom makes me crazy by asking me if I want to feed the dogs, but she makes it so I have to. Instead of cooking my Mother cleans house, and makes coffee because my Dad threatens to get a divorce if she doesn't.

My mother is a librarian at the Otorhinolaryngology Department at Baylor College of Medicine. She makes slides, and shelves books. At the time of my birth she did not have a job. She did not have a work permit so she could not work. My mother has no career. She says she just has a good job. She says that the big change when I was born was that she had not had a baby in the house for nine years, and suddenly there was a baby.

My youngest brother's name is James Stapleton Moore. He was named after his great-great grandfather. James was born on May 25, 1977. He was a funny baby. He talked early, but he walked late. He used to boss his brother Charles, the middle brother, around. During the day, my brothers stayed with my grandfather. They used to go down to Sunny's, a gas station down the road. One day my grandfather propped the door open and James whizzed out in his little walker. He plopped down over the curb. When he got to the other side, he lifted up his walker and stepped onto the curb. All this time, my grandfather had been watching and when my mother came home, my grandfather said: "He can walk."

James is now 20 years old. He goes to Southwest Texas State University, a college in San Marcos, a town near Austin. He has not decided what he is going to be when he "grows up." He has a buzz cut, but he slicks his hair forward with gel that makes his hair look wet. His tongue is pierced. James wears super baggy jeans with holes in the knees. He looks punk-like but he studies hard and gets good grades. He comes home in the summer and lives with us and goes to work with my Mom.

The brother whose age is in the middle, Charles, walked early and talked late. His name is Charles Hollbrook Moore, and he was named after his great grandfather. Since he talked late and his first word was car, everything was a car. When he wanted something, he would point to it and say "car" and everyone would laugh at him. To this day he still loves cars.

He drives a 1976 Buick that we have nicknamed "Polly" - but I call a heap of junk. Charles is 22 years old. He wears not-so-baggy jeans. He has the same hairstyle as James, but his tongue is not pierced. He is growing a red goatee. His fiancée's name is Shannon, and they both go to college at Southwest Texas. In fact, my brothers are roommates.

Benjamin Stephen Moore is my oldest brother. He is 24 years old. He thought he was dog until he was nine, and he loves animals now, and they are his best friends. He lives in an apartment on Richmond Avenue. His blond hair is in a gentle pompadour. He is six foot three. He drives a 1996 Saturn. It is black. He has his own web site.

Mimi is my grandmother from my mother's side. She is 89 years old, and she is deaf without her "ears" - which are really hearing aids. When she talks on the phone, she never says good-bye. She does not understand technology and is baffled by stereos, TVs, and answering machines. She has a lot of neat stuff including a porcelain chicken that is kept full of candy. Her favorite candy is Payday. She is very kind to me and my brothers.

My aunt Ottley is my mother's only sister. She lives in a house bordering the bayou with her husband and two daughters and one son, and three dogs, one of which is nearly dead of old age. One is a feisty rottweiler, and one has cancer.

Grandpa, my dad's father, is also almost deaf but he refuses to wear his hearing aid. Grandpa grows sweet potatoes in his basement in Illinois. He also grows corn, beans, and carrots in his garden. He used to raise livestock. On one hand he has two complete fingers, two mangled fingers, and a thumb. He would be tall if he didn't have scoliosis and wasn't hunched over to the right. He used to tell me stories about the catfish that lives in his pond. He liked to pet and pamper to the best of his ability the late dog Shep. Shep died Thanksgiving night of 1995. His wife, my grandmother Ella Jane for whom I was named, died in 1983. I never got to meet her.

My dad's brothers are: David, Steve, Fred and Gifford. His sisters are: Joyce, Sue, Helen, Mary and Martha. My favorite of all of these is Uncle Steve. I like him because my Dad likes him and he is very kind and friendly to me.

We have researched my genealogy and here is my family chart:

My first home was in Wellington, New Zealand. It was at 17 Orchard Street. There was no actual street that ran in front of the house because it was on a steep, steep hill where they could not build a road. There was a zig-zag path that lead down to the houses.

The house was white brick with blue shutters. It also had a blue door. It was a two story house. It had four bedrooms, one kitchen, one dining room, one living room, and one bathroom. It had no central heating, but we had a fireplace. We kept the wood out in back of the house. It had a laundry room, where two hedgehogs lived. Occasionally my Mom would sweep them out to clean up, but they would come back. We knew they were back because they left little surprises.

The Town Belt, which is a area of wilderness was in our backyard. Mom was always worried I would fall off the stone patio and tumble down the hill. I used to bury all my dead animals there.

The trees that were around the house were weeping willows in the front, and pahutakawas in the back. We grew herbs in the back of that house just like we do now.

I used to go to the public library two or three times a week with my Mother. I hiked the seat of my stroller up on by back and ran away. But since the stroller slowed me down considerably, my Mom always caught me. There was a dairy up the road that I used to go to with my brothers lots of times. There was also a fish and chips store called George's that had the best fish and chips in town.

We came to America when I was two years old and lived in Houston. At first, we lived at my Grandma's house and placed our beds in the study. The thing I remember most is the matching ABC Sesame Streets bed set and window shade. I used to be afraid of getting locked in the guest room bathroom.

  The house has ten rooms (including the garage). On the outside it is a yellow and at night there is a buzzing security light. It is made of brick and wood. Mimi gardens a lot and has won "Yard of the Month" several times. She has a big oak tree with three trunks that I would like to climb. In the back yard there are some pots hanging up that looks like she uses to do voodoo.

  I now live at 5311 Willowbend. It is a white brick house with three windows in the front. The middle one has red shutters. On the right side of the house there is ivy climbing up and under the left and right windows there are hedges. There is a gum tree in the front, and two magnolias and one unidentified tree in the back. On the right side of the house I am growing a small garden. In it there is wisteria, honeysuckle, Mexican heather and petunias. The wisteria, Mexican heather and petunias are growing very well. The only problem with my honeysuckle is that it has no honey. In the back of the house there is a pool across from a very spiky fern. Across from the fern is a rock garden with lots of potted plants. Behind the pool is a rose garden where there is oregano, basil, sage, green peppers, queen of the Nile, mimosa, and nandina. Across the left end of the pool is a garden with peppers and tomatoes.

In the house there are five bedrooms, two dining rooms, three bathrooms, a laundry room, several halls and two living rooms. My room is white. On the right wall my baby quilt is hanging and there is a chest of drawers with my doll house on top of it. On the left wall there is another chest of drawers, my desk and a wagon where I keep all of my stuffed animals. On the left wall there is a pastel done by my dad's friend who is an artist, Larry. At the back of the room there is a window and to the left of the window there is a poster with one of Monet's Japanese bridges. I have that on my wall because I am a big fan of Monet. At the front of the wall I have the puzzle of a Monet painting given to me by my dentist, Dr. George Sayre. On my bed I have one fairly new, good condition quilt, and folded at the end of my bed is a fairly old, rotting quilt.

The thing I like best about this house is that everyone gets their own room. There is nothing I really dislike about this house.

My first school was Fun'N'Care. I only have a few memories from there. I remember on my birthday, during naptime, seeing a Mrs. Saavadra (not the one who works at our school) walking through the window and hearing "Sh-h-h-, Mrs. Saavadra is coming." Then I remember looking down and seeing our supervisor putting up a Happy Birthday banner and putting the candles in my Cabbage Patch Kids cake. I remember that there was small blue elephant slide in the play area. I also remember going to a class that was called Tiny Tots Ballerinas and Gymnasts. I still have the certificate that we got at our recital. I remember my lavender four inch sticking out tutu, and I remember the leotard I rehearsed in. It was pink and at the top it had three rhinestones in a semi-circle with a pink bow in the middle.

My next school was Southampton Montessori School. I remember on the day of my great uncle's funeral I stepped in an ant bed and was bitten all over. I remember stripping down and being dabbed all over with this pink stuff. At mealtime we had to say our prayers in French. I loved that place.

Next School - River Oaks Elementary

My first teacher at River Oaks Elementary was Ms. Immel. I liked her because she was really nice. I remember that we used to write stories with Ms. Immel and then we got to put on a play for the class. That was definitely very fun.

My first grade teacher was Ms. Bustamante. Once a day we would have math stations and I also liked the building block stations because we got to make 3-D models out of toothpicks and modeling clay.

In the second grade I had Ms. Hollis. I liked our paperback math books that we got to write in because all these years teachers have been saying "Don't write in your math book."

In third grade I got Mr. Mansur and Ms. Smith. In Ms. Smith's class I liked writing poetry and doing our journals. In Mr. Mansur's class I liked doing the multicultural reports.

For fourth grade I have Mr. Harry and Ms. Williamson. In Mr. Harry's I liked reading and doing projects on "Time for Kids." In Ms. Williamson's class I liked the "Patterns and Functions" unit.

I like Ms. Tart's class because we can learn a lot about computers and still have a hands-on experience. I enjoy Ms. Hick's class because we get to watch a lot of musicals. Ms. Warmen's class is fun because we get to do neat experiments. I like the fun games that we learn in PE. And I also like learning parts of another culture from Ms. Henry.

Over the years my favorite subjects have been English, Math, Science, and geography. I like doing projects on ancient civilizations.

 I now attend Lanier Middle School. 

 Vacations

During one vacation to the Henry's Fork of the Snake River in Idaho, Dad was flyfishing. My mom and I were sitting on a log watching him. We saw him making a graceful motion of casting. Then suddenly he started jerking his rod like he had caught a fish. He came over to the log holding his pole behind him. Nothing had happened except for him catching his sweater. That was all he caught. I was the only one who caught fish. I caught fish with a rod that belonged to the owner of the cabin we stayed in. The cabin is very close to the river, and we see moose and elk and otters. It is very peaceful. There are some horses close by and I often go and feed them sugar cubes.

Last year we went to my grandpa's farm around Christmas. It was very cold and the pond was iced over. One day when it was snowing I went outside and stood by the ice. After a while I heard a 'CRACK!' that sounded like thunder, so I went inside. That night a lot of wind came up. That morning I went outside. My footprints were in the ice. Sometimes when we go to Grandpa's we go fishing in his pond, and sometimes my Dad and I go on Grandpa's tractor.

My hobby is stamp collecting. My mother was a stamp collector too so I have several old stamps. All the people at my Mom's work know that I collect stamps and they get a lot of letters from foreign places and they give me their stamps. I put them in my stamp album. I have learned that art is not just on a canvas.

My other hobby is reading. I like reading because I can go to far away places without moving. I can even go to non-existent places. My favorite authors are Roald Dahl, Shakespeare, Madeline l'Engel and C.S. Lewis. My all-time favorite book is The BFG. My favorite place to read is my bed. I lie on my side and I lay one side of the book flat against the bed and the other open so I can read. I like to have a blanket over me when I read. My two cats and my two dogs sometimes come into my room while I am reading.

I like making bead bugs and going on the Internet. I like rock and roll music and oldies.

I like oil painting and have painted some pictures for my parents.

I like doing activities with my Girl Scout troop because we usually do fun things. Camping has been the most fun.

  My Pets

 

My youngest cat, Flash, is immensely fat. Her mother, our former cat Beth, was very young. We think Flash has a tumor. She is very sweet and wants to be a mother. Every night she gets up on my bed and grooms my bangs. She spend most of her time outside.

My other cat, Sophocles is not fat but looks it because he is part Persian. He sleeps with me every night, so I pamper him. He spends about an equal amount of time indoors as out doors. He is incredibly annoying when he is hungry.

  Jake is my dog. He has a thyroid condition, so his back is greasy and he has dandruff. He is really energetic and grunts a lot. But other than that he's a good dog.

Zack is a Golden Retriever. He loves retrieving. Sometimes we have to deprive him of things like dead mice and birds. He is a wonderful dog.

I have been doing Odyssey of the Mind since I was in first grade. I like doing OM because you get a new creative problem that you have to solve and it's fun to solve it. But this year will be my last year, because I would like to move on to other things and I have thought of a really neat experiment for Science Fair.

I joined the Name That Book Team in the forth grade. I was second under the Captain and for the first year ever in River Oaks history we made it to finals. I read eighty books.

I am also an amateur astronomer.

I would like to either be a poet, a vet or a teacher. A teacher would be good because you could teach people something new that they did not know before. I would like to be a vet because I like animals and I do not like to see them suffer. The poet is because I like to write poetry.

I would like to have a husband and two kids. The girl would be named Cataluna, the boy would be named James. I would like to discover a new ring system on Saturn. I would like to live in Yorkshire because I'd have so much freedom and because it be a good place to be a vet. I'd like to have six dogs - two Border Collies, two Golden Retrievers, and two mutts. I want to help homeless people. I'd like to write poems about French people stuffing carnations down their underpants. I want to quilt. I want to visit Monet's garden with no tourists around and have a picnic. I would like to go to an Italian opera in a ballgown with elbow-length white glove, and mother of pearl opera glasses. I would like my cat Sophocles to stop meowing, Jake the dog to stop itching, and unlimited hot water for the showers. I'd like free education for college.