My family has all types of hair. My dad and I both have thin hair. For me, though, I gel up my hair each morning. My sister's hair is all her own. She has curly hair which none of us do. Her hair is a mess in the morning when she gets up. My mom's hair is naturally straight. She wakes up in the morning and her hair is still straight.
I am the only one in my family who has changed their hair significantly in recent years. I used to grow my hair out. When I was about 9, I shaved my head extremely short and kept it like that for a few years. After that I went back to growing it out. This year was the first year I actually gelled my hair up. So far it has worked pretty well. The big downside is that It is a hassle in the mornings.
At first I was not sure if I should gel it up or not. Then i decided i needed to style my hair in some way. So I styled it up. I think it turned out pretty good. I will probably use this for a while.

Siblings love each other. Although at the same time they want to beat each other at everything. They are very competitive. Siblings fight all the time. I have yet to hear of brothers and sisters that do not fight. It is a part of being a family and it is always fun to have a sibling. You don't hear of anyone that would wish they didn't have a sibling. Siblings always stand up for each other also. But they still will snitch to get back at one another too. Especially when the other had done something wrong.
My sister and I are always fighting one another. We can't stand to lose to one another. Every time we play a game it ends in an argument on who exactly won the game. But we still love each other because we are family. I would never wish my sister wasn't here. We always have got each other's backs. If someone picked on my sister I would stand up for her. And when we are older and she ever gets in trouble I will be there for her. Family is forever. I love my sister.

My mother and father considered naming me many things. They considered naming me Jake and Micheal. But in the end they chose Matthew. Matthew is a Hebrew name. It means gift of the lord. It comes from the bible. Matthew was one of the 12 apostles. He wrote the first gospel. That told the first part of Jesus's life. I really enjoy my name.
At first I thought that my name sounded weird and I didn't like it. I felt it was too long. But as I got used to my name I liked it more and more. Most people call me Matt. But my close family still calls me Matthew. I like it either way. Although to me Matthew sounds more childish. Even if I could change my name I wouldn't. I like my name the way it is. Matthew sounds good to me.

Everyone in my family's laugh is different. My dad has a loud laugh. He doesn't laugh very much. He is a serious guy. He works a lot. Though be does joke with us a lot. He can make any of us laugh if he wants. My mom likes to laugh but doesn't do it much just like my dad. She works hard around the house. She is always tired but still loves to laugh when she can. My sister laughs a lot and she loves to have fun. But she does get serious when it comes to school work. She works really hard in school and always gets straight A's. I love to laugh and joke around. I am not as serious about stuff as the rest of my family. I joke around a lot and like to have fun. My grandfather jokes the most out of all of us. He is almost never serious. But when he is it can get hard to tell. He is a funny man.

I have many animals at my house. We own two dogs now. We used to own more but they were old. They were put to sleep about five years ago. We have an American water spaniel and a German wire hair. The American water spaniel is very lazy. She was the runt of the litter so she is especially small. Her favorite spot in the house is the couch and she would sit there all day if she could. She was meant to be a hunting dog but was too small. Now she is my mom’s dog. She is very spoiled. My other dog is a German wire hair. That one is crazy. She never calms down. We keep her outside so she can run a lot. We thought she would have calmed down when she got older. It has been three years and she is still as wild as ever. We got her from a special ranch for bird hunting dogs. We had to fill out a bunch of paper work that had to be sent back to Germany. She is a good hunting dog.

I have three neighbors. One of my neighbors is named Welsley. He has two kids and a trampoline in his front yard. He also has a big garden that his wife grows. In the back of his yard he has a large pile of junk. There are all kinds of trash and metal pieces back there. Behind that pile though are woods.
My other neighbors are my grandparents. They used to own a farm there before we moved on their land. It's convenient because when we were younger our parents could drop us off there if they had to work. We love going over there. It is very fun and we play games over there all the time. They always get us snacks when we go over there.
Also my cousins live next to us. We go over there a lot and watch sports on my uncles T.V. He invites other friends over. I know a lot of his friend’s sons. We play games. Corn hole is one of our favorites. It is a lot of fun.

The Vargas children remind me of some of my cousins. One of my cousins acts just like those children. His name is Braedan. He is always hurting himself. One time he ran into a bathroom door. He had to get a cast on his wrist. Another time he hit his head on a cabinet when he dove right into it. He is the kind of kid that would go jump off a roof. He can be annoying sometimes. But I love him. He is still young and doesn't realize if he is being stupid. Someday he will grow up and learn to not be so stupid.
When I was younger I also acted like the Vargas children. I always climbed trees and went places I wasn't supposed to go. The only difference is that I almost never got hurt when doing stupid things. I would do dumb stuff but never get myself hurt. I wouldn't do something if I thought it would actually hurt me bad. My sister on the other hand is not Very daring. She is the one who won't do anything. She is very careful with what she does.

I have lived in the same house for as long as I can remember. Our house is pretty big. I think it is a very nice house. We have a big yard that our dog can run in too. It also has a big garden. When I was a baby we lived in another house. I do not know where it was. Although I do know that it was still in the Fredericksburg area. It wasn’t nearly as big as this one. It had a smaller yard too. My aunt lives in that house now. I do not know why we move from that house. After that house my dad had another house built on my Grandparents property which is substantial. My Mom lived in a number of houses due to many things. Once she moved because a fire had burned down her house. My dad lived in the same place all his life as far as I know. His grandparents still live there. The house used to be a farm with cows and sheep. But then they stopped doing that when they got older and split the land between my dad and his sister. They still live on that land too.

I don't know much of my outside family. I don't see them much and when I do I can never remember who they are. I see them on Christmas a lot and sometimes Thanksgiving. It is usually a good time. My family lives all over the place so I almost never see them all at one time. Most of the family I see is on my mother's side. My mom's side of the family lives closer to us and seems to be around more. They are the ones I am most close with. The only ones I really ever see on my dad's side are my grandparents and two aunts. While on my mom's side I see many more. I see my aunts and uncles, their children, my grandparents on her side, my great grandparents, my great uncle and some cousins. I always have fun with my cousins at those get togethers. My cousins live all around. Some live in around us. Although some also live out of state. One lives in Georgia. We see him every once in awhile. Another one that I am in of close to lives in South Carolina. That cousin used to live near us but moved 2 years ago. I wish I got to see them more.

I am getting my first job this summer. I will be working at my dad's work. He is a partner at SDI, which stands for Sullivan, Donahoe, and Ingalls. They are a surveying company. I will be working with the field crew with clearing paths for the equipment. We will be out in the heat all day. Its going to be hard work but I think it will be worth it. It will be interesting to see how to all of that works. I need money and it is a good way to earn some.
I already get some money from cutting grass. I cut grass every weekend. When i cut the grass at my dad's office they pay me fifty dollars to do it all. It is a lot of grass to cut so I think the money is a fair amount. I also cut the grass for neighbors and my grandparents. I get some money form them. When we go down to our river house I usually cut the grass there. Although I am not paid for that grass. The same is true with my grass at my house. I don't complain about not getting paid though. I should do chores around the house anyway.

I know many people that have passed away. My Great grandmother passed away on Christmas Eve. She was very special to our whole family. I knew her well. She had just gotten through chemotherapy for her breast cancer and it was looking good. But soon she went into a coma. Her death was very emotional for the whole family. She was very much loved. I miss her a lot. I hope she is well up in heaven.
I've heard of many people dying that I don't know too. Such as how the girl did in the House on Mango Street. But I didn't have anything to do with their deaths like she did. One was my sisters friend, who I had never met but still felt like I somewhat knew her. I have gone to many funerals for people I had never met that were distant cousins and such. It is hard to feel the same when someone dies you didn't know then when someone does you did. It is always sad but just not the same. Always at those funerals people would ask if I was close to the deceased and I would say I had never met them. It is a weird feeling. But when someone dies It is always sad.

My sister is just like the girl in The House on Mango Street. She is a tomboy and acts nothing like a girl should according to the book. My sister is free willed and very upstanding of herself. I am proud that she is. She thinks what she wants. Her hair is wild like the other girl’s too. She is not interested in girly things. She plays all kinds of sports. She would much rather go play outside than do her nails or stuff like that. She claims that she will never get her ears pierced, although I do not believe that. I think that high school will change her a little bit. I hope it does not. I am afraid she will become more self-conscious about herself and that will change her. But hopefully she will remain just the way she is. I think she will eventually become a woman. My cousin on the other hand is a completely different person. She is very “girly”. She is into all the things you would imagine a “normal” girl would be into. It’s amazing how different they are but they are still best friends. But I love them both.

My grandmother lived in Belize for a long time. Belize is a country in Central America. Most people there speak Spanish. She went down there because she is a marine biologist. She specialized on Manatees. In that time she learned to speak Spanish very well. No one down there spoke English very well so she learned Spanish. She brought my mom and aunt down there and they had no idea what people were saying. But they said it was cool down there. It is very weird to see her speaking Spanish. She tries to teach me and my sister but I always have a hard time learning Spanish. My sister, though, is very interested in learning Spanish. She wishes to go to Belize but wants to learn Spanish before she does. My grandmother reminds me of that chapter due to her speaking Spanish where no one spoke English well. Whenever we go to a restaurant, such as Pancho Villa’s, she attempts to speak Spanish with the waiters. Most people do not actually speak Spanish at those restaurants. We all think it’s hilarious when she does. The waiter’s face during it is priceless. When she finds someone who actually speaks Spanish they keep conversation purely in Spanish. It is extremely confusing.

The garden that the author was talking about reminds me a lot about my grandfather’s garden. He started the garden around 3 years ago. At first it was small and he only had one. After about a year it had become very big and he had many things growing in it. He had sunflowers, beans, carrots, and much more. He also added another garden that was mainly for beans and sweet peas. It became very complex. Eventually rabbits, squirrels, and deer began to eat from his garden. He first tried to just spray stuff in his plants hooping that that would make the animals go away. That did not work. He then built a net wall around the garden. However this as not very sturdy and the rabbit and deer simply chewed it and knocked it down. We then put a much sturdier wall up and that seemed to do the trick. Although squirrels still get into it.
The passage also reminds me of the farm that dad and I hunt on. It is owned by a man named Snead. He has a very large amount of land and many fields. They are good for attracting deer and other animals. We always get our pumpkins from there. Also when the season is right we get out fresh fruit and vegetables form there.

We used to have huge tree in our back yard. It had to be cut down it was so big .It was so big that it was tearing itself apart. My parents were afraid it would come down and that it would destroy our house. It took a long time to get it down and it was a very loud process. The stump was left in the ground because my mom didn’t want a huge hole in our ground. It is still there. We are trying to rot it out but it won’t rot. There is a layer of dead grass on it. We put that here to help the decomposition process. It was cut down three years ago but he stump is still there. It has gotten pretty nasty because there is like a foot of grass on top of it.
The story in the book reminds of me and my friends tree climbing contests when we were little. We would find the biggest tree we could climb and see who would climb the highest. I almost never won because I don’t have a head for heights. It was really fun. We would get yelled at for it because my mom did not want us to get hurt. But we would still do it. We had a great time with it. Amazingly no one ever got hurt.

This story reminded me about me when I was younger. I loved to show off cool things. When I was little I loved to go shoe shopping. My sister and I both loved it. She would go after the pretty shoes and I would go after the adult shoes. I would try on all the shoes I liked. It was a great time for me. I rarely got any of the shoes. They were usually too expensive. Half the time they didn’t even fit me. I would be walking around the store, showing off, looking like I had humungous feet. Everyone would be laughing. But when you are little you don’t care abbot anything. I would walk around the store with the shoes pretending they were my own. Now I don’t care as much about shoes. I still appreciate good shoes but I’m not as obsessed about them. When I got to shoes stores now I usually already know what I want. My mom likes me because I don’t go for the expensive shoes. I get what’s comfortable. I’m not interested in shoes if they aren’t comfortable no matter how good they look.

My sister and I try to share things all the time. It never works out. Once we tried to share a guitar because it was expensive and we both liked it. Our mom said if we each put money in we could share it. So we each put money in to buy it. We shared for about two days before complications arose. We both loved the guitar. None of us could even play. Each of us would use it when we weren’t supposed to. We argued so much that our parents took it away from us. They said we could have it back when we worked things out. We still haven’t worked things out. I have no idea where it went but I haven’t seen it for years. Apparently we didn’t like the guitar enough for any of us to swallow our pride. I imagine my parents threw it out. But who knows it could be in our attic. I would love to find that guitar. If I did we would probably continue our older argument. We both can hold a grudge for a long time. That is just how we are.

Most grownups don’t know how to have a lot of fun. I understand why they don’t though. They have to work and support themselves and their family. I don’t know many grownups that are fun. My grandfather is one of the few I know. He is so fun because he is retired. He doesn’t have as many responsibilities as other grownups. He knows how to laugh and have a good time.
He can always make me laugh. I love to hang out with him because he plays games with me and my sister. He doesn’t take very much stuff to seriously.
Another fun relative is my uncle. He jokes a lot and is into sports a lot. He loves to watch football with his buds. He plays video games too. But he isn’t what you would expect an adult video gamer to look like. He is still active and hangs out with friends a lot.
When I grow up I want to be a fun adult. I hope I will be anyway. I know I will have to work hard and there is a good chance I will end up like most grownups.

When I grow up I want to live in house just like the one I live in now. My dream house is one with multiple floors. The house would be high on a hill too. It also needs a large yard for my dog. I have always been interested in one of those log cabins looking things. I would love to live by the beach. I want to own lots of property. Property I can hunt on. It would be expensive everyone says. I know it would be but I have to have a dream.
I will always miss my house though. I hate to be away from it. That is why vacationing is not my favorite thing to do.
When I move out it will be hard for me. I’m very attached to this house. But I’ll have to find my own. Hopefully it will be like this one. That would be awesome if I could eventually buy a house like mine. I would have to work hard. If I do I will hopefully be able to afford a nice house even if it’s not my dream house.

This story made me think of the older people that I look up to. There are many people I look up to. I look up to my dad a lot. He works hard for us and I appreciate that. When I am older I want to be like him. I want to work hard and be able to support who I need to. I also look up to my mom. She is always there for me and very caring. She also works hard for us. She is just like my dad. I love them both. When I was young I looked up to every adult, no matter who they were. Probably because they were bigger than me. Now I only look up to adults that I like. When I was younger I also always looked up to my older cousin. I would do everything that he did. Or I would at least try to. He was really cool. I haven’t seen him in a while, though. He moved to South Carolina.