So Long, Vivienne

Hello future readers,

This is gonna be a pretty short entry. I haven't felt much like writing, because the morning after Easter Sunday, Vivienne went back to West Virginia. I didn't even get a chance to ride with her to the airport, because I had to go to school. Her flight was at 9:30 a.m.

She told me she had a super terrific time, and she was sad that she had to say good-bye, but she really missed her mom and dad. I felt the same way when I had to leave West Virginia.

"Maybe we can see each other over summer vacation", I said to her.
"Yeah", she answered. "That would be groovy."

We gave each other a monster sized hug.

"Friends forever?", I said as I choked back tears..
"Forever and ever", Vivienne answered. She sounded like she was about to cry, too.

"I'll write soon", she promised and then she got in my mom's car. I stood there and waved to her until the car disappeared around the corner.

I really hated having to go to school when I felt so down. I knew this wouldn't be the last time I'd see Vivienne,  But we had so much fun, and it was just so hard to say good-bye. I'm sure lots of you have felt like that, too. I'm gonna write to Vivienne's folks and thank them for letting Vivienne come and visit me. I hope she'll be able to come back real soon.

Until next time, future readers,
Your (sad) friend,
Julie Newman

Our Far Out Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter, future readers!

We've had such a dynamite day, I hardly know where to start! (Vivienne just looked over my shoulder and said "From the beginning, silly!" Hahaha!)

It started out like any other day. I had a slobbery, furry alarm clock wake me up!

Yuck! Does he have to do this every day? Someone asked me once why I let him sleep in the room with me, if I hate the way he wakes me up. 'Cos if I don't, he scratches at my bedroom door and whines all night, so I guess I just have to live with it!

Then without any coaching from me, he went to wake up Vivienne again. He didn't lick her hand this time. He went in for a wet, sloppy, Boomer breath kiss! Blecch!

She sat up, wiping the doggy drool off her face, fussing at Boomer to knock it off. Hee-hee! And then we remembered...it's Easter Sunday!

We got up and looked in our Easter buckets. We got all sorts of goodies!

I got a Wonder Woman doll! Outta site!

Vivienne got a wind-up monkey that jumps rope!

She wound it up and set it on the floor. Boomer came over to check it out. When the monkey started to move, he got so scared, he jumped up on my toybox and nuzzled next to me! Crazy pooch!

We both got 2 chocolate bunnies each!

And plastic eggs filled with jelly beans!

Digging in out buckets was fun! It was like looking for buried treasure!

Hmmm...what else is in here?

Ooh! Eggs! The Easter Bunny found the ones we colored, and he brought us his own decorated ones!

Isn't it funny how the eggs we colored match our pajamas? We also got stampers. Mine was a peace sign, and Vivienne's was a tree.

Then all of a sudden, Vivienne jumped up and said, "Gee, I almost forgot!", and went running out of the room. What did she forget? I got up and was gonna check the hall to see where she went, but just as quickly as she left, she was back again. She was holding something, and said it was for me!

It looked like a Chinese food restaurant box, but it had a bunny on it! I wondered what was in it? So I sat down again and opened it.

Wow! There was a yo-yo, a small chocolate bunny and some Easter eggs decorated all sparkly!

I gave Vivienne a big thank you hug!

My mom stuck her head in the door, wished us a Happy Easter, and said it was time to get ready for church. We put on our pretty new Easter dresses, and my mom helped us with our hair. And of course she wanted us to pose for pictures. So here they are:

After all the excitement of opening our Easter goodies, I started to feel a little nervous. I was singing in the Kids Choir today and I had a solo. I've never done a solo before, but my mom said I was gonna be fine. I was singing "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord" and the boys were backing me up. Then we were all gonna sing "Oh Happy Day" with the girls and boys taking turns echoing each other. Well at least I wouldn't be up there all by myself! When we got to church, Vivienne made sure she had a seat right up front. When the boys and I walked out, she gave me a little wave and the OK sign. I felt a little better, and started to sing.

When the rest of the kids joined us for "Oh Happy Day", everyone was clapping their hands and full of joy and happiness. It was a really groovy feeling!

 My mom took solo snapshots of each member of the Kids Choir to give to their parents later:

 It's been a really fantastic Easter! I hope your was just as groovy!

Until next time, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman

A Super Saturday

Hello future readers!

On Saturday morning, I woke up early, (even earlier than my pesky pooch!). It was my favorite time of the week..time to watch Saturday morning cartoons!

Vivienne was still sleeping. I didn't wanna miss any of the good cartoons, so I leaned over and tried to wake her up.

She didn't budge. She's a really hard sleeper. Well, since Boomer didn't have to wake me up this morning, I thought maybe he could wake up Vivienne. I put him next to her and told him to wake her up.

He licked her hand, but it wasn't until he got frustrated and started barking that she woke up. Man it must be hard to get her up for school in the morning!

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and asked me what gives with my crazy dog! *giggle* I told her that was my fault, because I wanted her to get up and watch cartoons with me. So we got up and went to the kitchen for some Super Sugar Crisp, and took our bowls in the T.V. room. We were in luck! "Land Of The Lost" was just starting!

We also watched Scooby Doo, Superfriends, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and The Lost Saucer. And we sang along to Schoolhouse Rock's "I Got Six". Wow..Vivienne sure knows her 6 times tables better than I do!

After the cartoons were over, I asked Vivenne if she wanted to go to the playground. She thought that was a groovy idea so we got dressed and got ready to go.

I felt like riding my bike, but I didn't have a extra bike Vivienne could ride. She said she didn't mind riding on my handle bars. It was a little tough to see around her, but we did OK.

When we got to the playground, some of my friends were already there.  April and Wendy were on the see-saw, Lisa was on the slide, and Stephanie was swinging from the monkey bars.

We rode up to Stephanie and I introduced Vivienne to her. I explained to Vivienne that she already met Stephanie's cousin Melody and their dog Snowflake the other day at the park. Stephanie told us that Melody was at home talking on the phone long-distance to her folks, who are in the Peace Corps.

We had a lot of fun playing at the playground all afternoon. We played hopscotch with Lisa.

We played together on the slide.

We played tether ball with Stephanie and Wendy. Boy is Vivienne good! She beat Stephanie  and Wendy in 2  games straight!

We even took turns on the see-saw with April and Wendy.

I was starting to get hungry. We were so busy playing and having fun, we forgot to go home and have lunch! So we said good-bye to everybody and went back to my house. Vivienne told me she had a really super time at the playground. Where she lives, she has to take a school bus to school and her mom has to drive her to the park or the nearest playground. She thinks it's pretty neat to be able to go all over without any help from grown-ups. That's why I like living in a small town; everything is close by and us kids are always safe, because there's always someone we know looking out for us. Gotta go now, future readers. I'm gonna make some of my "not so famous" double-decker  ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch! Bye!

Until next time,
Your friend,
Julie Newman

*A note from Julie's doll mom, Sharry:*

Kids in the 70s didn't wear helmets while they rode their bikes, and sometimes rode on the handlebars of a friend's bike like Vivienne did on Julie's bike. This probably isn't the safest way to ride a bike, so please don't go copying what Julie and Vivienne did, and tell your folks you saw it here on Julie's Time Capsule!! Thank you.