I'm Back!!

Hi, everyone!  My name is Anna Lee Merced and I used to have a blog on LiveJournal, but I haven't posted in it for a long time because I didn't like the pop-up ads they put on there.  I've been wanting to make a new blog forever and now I finally did it!  I wanted to try and transfer all my old LiveJournal posts over here, but I decided it would be too long and hard, so I put a link to my old journal over on the right side of this blog if you want to read them.

For those that don't know me, I am a Gotz doll.  I am 18 inches tall, nine years old, and in the fourth grade.  I live in Michigan with my owner, Katie, and her husband, Matt.  I take violin and tap dancing lessons, and in school I love reading and science.  I also like Nancy Drew mysteries, anything to do with penguins, and playing pretend games.  Oh, and I have a pet guinea pig named Ginger Rogers.  She is awesome.  My best friend is named Hodel, and she lives far away in Ohio.

I think for my first post here I will tell a little bit about my rock collection.  Some people think rocks are boring, but I don't.  A lot of rocks are millions and billions of years old - imagine what they would say if they could tell us everything they've seen in all that time!  I have picked the top three rocks from my collection to show you - my Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal winning rocks!

Bronze Medal Rock:  My pink and tan rock from the Badlands National Park!

Here I am finding it in the park!  Most of the big rock formations in the Badlands included this pretty pink color, so I was excited to find a souvenir rock that would remind me of my trip later.

 
Silver Medal Rock:  My pink and yellow striped lucky rock!

Did you know that a rock with a stripe that goes all the way around it is lucky?   If you find one, you should hang onto it or give it to a friend to use as a lucky charm!  Katie found this rock when she was my age, and now it is my lucky charm.  I love the pretty pink and yellow colors.

Gold Medal Rock:  My geode!!!

I think geodes are the coolest rocks of all.  I found this one out in the yard one day - I was just walking along and kicked an ordinary-looking stone with my shoe, and saw a flash of sparkle in the sunshine when it flipped over.  I picked it up and saw it was far from an ordinary stone.  This is what it looks like if you look at the back side:

 
Pretty boring, huh?  But flip it over, and this is what you see:

Beautiful sparkling white and tan crystals hidden inside!  Scientists aren't exactly sure how all geodes are made, but a theory is that when a rock has a hollow space inside of it, over millions of years minerals and things from groundwater can seep into the cavity and form crystals inside it.  Isn't that neat?

I think geodes are extra special because they are a little like people, in a way.  Somebody might seem plain and ordinary on the outside, but take the time to look a little closer and inside they are surprising, beautiful, special...just like a geode.