July 22, 2012

July 22, 2012

Final Blog Entry-Reflection

     When I first read over this assignment I thought that there was no way I could think of that many different topics to write about. Twenty-five different topics, one a day, how can I do this? So I started off, and at first it was very difficult to get into a rhythm. I was always hitting the backspace key. It would take me twenty to twenty-five minutes to get out a 300 word blog. After I got four or five blogs under my belt, writing started getting easier. I could come up with a topic super fast and could get it on paper in fifteen to twenty minutes. I was getting better, more comfortable with blogging. I have to admit, just the thought of my writing being on a blog where lots of people could see it held me back some. I didn’t write everything that came to mind for that reason. Gradually I started letting myself go and write what came to mind. I felt like I was becoming a decent story teller. I started getting better at describing things and being able to tell about my surrounding in a story. Around the fourteenth and fifteenth blog I started struggling with a topic to write about. It took me longer to think of something than it did to get it on paper, because now I get 300 words out in fifteen minutes. As a result, I was starting to get frustrated. I felt like I was just going through the motions. At the end of this assignment maybe I was getting burned out. No, I know I was getting burned out. I started getting very negative towards this assignment, whereas before, when I was in the beginning of the assignment, I looked forward to the journaling. Between the blog and all the other assignments, writing was starting to get rather exhausting. I just kept telling myself, “This is a summer class, it’s to be expected,” but I was still struggling with staying positive with this challenge. This assignment has made me a better writer, although I know I gave my best effort in the middle of the assignment not at the end.

July 21, 2012

July 21, 2012

     Growing up in the country, my brother Kevin and I were always getting ourselves into mischief. I will never forget the first time my parents let me go out into the woods next to our house with my own bee bee gun. My brother and I are almost four years apart, I was around seven or eight at the time so that made him about eleven or twelve. Mom and Dad trusted us both, but him more than me. It was pretty chilly out that morning so we bundled up and put on our insulated moon boots (they were in style back then). We were going to hunt starling birds, since they were mean to the other song birds. I was flanking my brother as we were walking through some tall grass alongside an old pond, about that time I looked down at the safety button on the gun and couldn’t remember which way meant the safety was on. Did red mean it was on or black? Well, the only way I knew to find out was to try the trigger. I knew the gun had already been caulked. I never thought to look where I was pointing my gun, I just fired, “POP!” and the next thing I knew Kevin was jumping around on one foot screaming, “You shot me, you shot me!!” I guess that meant it wasn’t on safety. He started crying and ran inside. I had never seen my Mom so mad at me before. She pulled his boot off and it hadn’t penetrated the skin. My Dad thinks the insulation of the boots kept it from hurting him more. To this day, Kevin and I laugh hysterically at this story and I just can’t believe how stupid I was to just pull the trigger without any mind to where the bee bee was going.

July 20, 2012

July 20, 2012

     Does anyone watch Vampire Diaries? I feel like I am the only person in the world that watches this show on the CW, but that can’t be right or the show wouldn’t still be on television. It is about these two brothers Stephen and Damon who were turned into vampires by their shared love, Catherine. Damon is the bad brother and Stephen is the good brother. Well over a century later they are back in their home town Mystic Falls. First Stephen show up wanting to find out more about this girl Alena. He is intrigued by her because she looks just like Catherine. He ends up falling in love with her and later his bad brother Damon comes back to town and brings all kinds of vampire trouble with him. He enjoys making Stephen’s life miserable. He goes around creating mischief and Stephen is stuck with the job of having to clean up his messes. As the show goes on Damon starts to fall for Alena also, it is like a blast from the past.  As the show goes on you see small glimpses of Damon becoming more kind and humanlike. He starts to show his true feelings and how he isn’t the cold, heartless vampire everyone thinks he is. Stephen on the other hand has always been kind hearted but takes a turn for the worse and becomes the bad one for a while leaving Alena turning towards Damon. This is such a great show but I feel like I’m the all alone, enjoying it by myself. The only people I have are the fans on Facebook. Is that sad or what? I have recently bought Season one and two and I plan on talking some of my friends into watching them, hoping I get them hooked.

July 19, 2012

July 19, 2012

     How many super hero movies can there possibly be? I think if I watch one more Transformer, Batman, Spiderman, or Ironman movie I might so nuts! My husband has never really been into any of these kinds of movies until now. Not to long ago we watched the first Transformer movie and he has been hooked ever since. My oldest son is five years old and is getting into all these characters. If it is not his Halloween costume it is a new coloring book or a backpack or the latest toy with these characters on them. Kyle is now the proud owner of the first two Transformer movies, we haven’t bought the third movie yet… key word… yet. I have recently subscribed to Netflix and I am telling you, that’s all we watch on it. Last night after finishing my homework, I go into our bedroom to see what my husband and the boys are doing and you guessed it, they were watching a Transformer cartoon. I cannot escape. Right now as I type this the first Batman movie is on our television in the living room. What I wouldn’t give for a good chick flick or a drama or even a comedy. How about a good Julia Roberts movie or a Channing Tatum movie? Oh what I would give to watch the Notebook. I love that movie so much. I even love a good sports movie sometimes. All of Kevin Costner’s baseball movies are good and he has quite a few. I guess until the day actually comes where I get to watch any of these movies I will just keep watching with all the boys. It is tough being out numbered in your own home. Honestly though, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

July 18, 2012

July18, 2012

     I am wondering with all the writing that I am doing for my English Composition 101 class if I’ll ever be able to watch television again? I can barely work in the local news in the morning and in the evening. I hope that I can soon get a break. I always have something that I need to be doing. What little free time I had before I went back to school has vanished into thin air when I signed up for this class. Before this class, I had free time on the weekends to actually take a nap when my boys were napping, to go visit my parents, to bake some new recipe off of pinterest but now, oh no, I don’t have that time any longer. At least I don’t have the extra time right now. Let me tell you, when this class ends I am officially on vacation. I didn’t plan it that way on purpose but that’s how it worked out. I am taking off work because my babysitter is on vacation, but this will be the perfect ending to this class, kind of a reward if you will. I am very excited, to say the least. I am going to clean my house from top to bottom then after that it’s just me and my boys. Unfortunately my husband has to work most of the two weeks I’m off, but he is going to squeeze in a few days of vacation with us. We are going to the zoo, to the pool, to the park, whatever it is they want to do, maybe to Jump Around if they want. Then in three weeks it is back to school for me again. Hopefully since it is the fall semester it will be a little easier on me. It has to be, right?

July 17, 2012

July 17, 2012             

     I am so scared right now! Some of the assignments leading up to my final in this English Composition 101 class were just posted. I always get a little overwhelmed when I first read the week’s lesson plan, but this one has so many parts to it, so many steps, I just hope I can get all of this done. I can honestly say I feel nauseous. This is my first class that I’ve taken in a very long time so I don’t know what to expect. I am expecting to have to write a research paper, but I don’t quite understand how I could do that at a proctored final exam. The suspense is KILLING me!! I’ve only written one research paper in my entire life and that was my senior year in high school and I’m not even sure if that one was a good research paper. Who knows? Maybe I will do just fine. It is just this waiting, I can’t stand it. I just keep telling that I have less than two weeks left in this class.  There is so much reading to do before I can even begin these assignments. I wonder if I will be able to get all of it done. The thing is, I know I need to read all the information, but at the same time I worry about leaving myself with enough time to complete everything that I need to do. It looks like my family will be eating cold sandwiches the next few nights. I will say that they have been more than understanding about dinner nowadays. Tonight my husband has volunteered to make BLTs for dinner just so I can get through some of my reading. He’s also been good about keeping the boys entertained in the evenings. It is so nice to have a support system.

July16, 2012

July 16, 2012

     I am running out of ideas for my blog! It is so hard to keep my ideas fresh. I know the point of this long excruciating twenty-five day assignment is to gain fluency in writing, but it is wearing my OUT! I have exhausted myself coming up with ideas that I can actually get three hundred words out of. I wrote about my childhood, my adulthood, my past, my present. I am losing my mind here. It seems like, in the beginning I was going strong; I had plenty to say, but now every single day I struggle to come up with a topic, and idea, anything! I keep thinking “just another week, you can get through this”, but I don’t know if I can. I think to myself, “Maybe I’ll skip one journal entry, it’s only three points”, but that just isn’t me. I’m not the kind of person who doesn’t do their assignments. I may not make straight As, but I will at least try. I have struggled to get the extra credit assignments done, which really bugs me. I completed the twenty question game, but the others I’ve been too busy, I just can’t get to them. I didn’t realize how fast paced a summer class was. Jeez, I have had to work my tail off this summer. The sad thing is, is that this is my first class in ten years. Not a good way to break myself back in! I’m not sure why my friends who have their bachelor’s degree didn’t warn me how harsh summer classes were. I told my friends I was going back to school and they congratulated me, but never did they once tell me how hard summer classes were. It has been an enlightening experience to say the least.