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.

July 15, 2012

July 15, 2012

     This weekend my family and my brother’s family spent the weekend in Branson. They have two boys just like Nick and I. It happened to be their anniversary and when they asked us what we were doing on the 14^th of July, I thought they were going to ask me to watch their boys while they went out, but instead they wanted to have a fun, family weekend for their anniversary. So Haley, my sister-in-law, and I went to work planning early last week and here’s what we ended up doing. We got up early Saturday morning, got packed, and started out to Branson. We did some shopping at Tanger Outlet Malls. We actually found some good bargains. I think the back-to-school shopping gets earlier and earlier, just like Christmas shopping. From there, we went and checked into our hotel. We decided to stay at the Grand Country Inn. It has the hotel and waterpark combined in one price for a decent deal, plus I got a discount since I’m a Silver Dollar City season pass holder. After we unpacked the car, it was off to the Dixie Stampede and I must say it WAS the most place to eat in Branson, just like Dolly said. All four of the boys were glued to the show. They couldn’t take their eyes off the animals! Next, we went to ride go-carts. My parents met us there for that. We rode for a couple hours the boys were in their element. My family is a little competitive so it got a little wild out on the tracks, but the boys were having a blast. The next day we spent the majority of the day at the waterpark included in our stay at the hotel. Needless to say, they were exhausted from all the fun!

July 14, 2012

July 14, 2012

     I am not a morning person….at all! This morning I certainly wasn’t a morning person. On a normal weekday morning I wake up about 5:30 and before my alarm had gone off my black Labrador retriever had decided to start barking, at who knows what, right outside my bedroom window. It wasn’t a bark here, a bark there either. She barked for a good solid hour. Then I doze back off to sleep and my husband’s alarm goes off around 4:30. Well he never hears his alarm, so I had to wake him up so he could shut it off.  Let’s just say I didn’t wake him nice! I lay in bed and for another thirty minutes and just decide to get up. There’s no way I can get any sleep knowing I have to get up in another thirty minutes. I go brush my teeth, then head into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee all while shooting daggers at my husband. Like it’s his fault our dog barked all night. Then I find out he didn’t get any coffee made because even though he woke up at 4:30 he fell back asleep in the living room! So I basically woke up for no reason when his alarm went off. Now the poor guy didn’t have a chance, I slammed my empty coffee cup down on the counter and stomped back to the bathroom to get ready for work. He tried to talk to me, but all of my answers were one word replies. If my morning starts off bad it just spirals downward and my husband takes all of the blame. I guess it’s good I can recognize my behavior, but I don’t do anything to change it…for better or worse…

July 13, 2012

July 13, 2012       

     There are many scents that bring me back to childhood. The smell of my Grandma’s breakfasts, which were always a huge spread of food. She would have bacon and sausage, homemade biscuits with gravy, pancakes, and sometimes homemade fried bread. Then she would cook everyone eggs to their liking. She would also have some kind of fruit and homemade jam. Her little kitchen would be so full of food that be barely had any place to sit, but we would manage. My Grandpa I can still remember he would request his eggs over easy and once on his plate, would chop them up into a yolky, sloppy mess. Then he would scoop it up and smear it all over his toast.  Another scent that also brings back memories is the smell of vinegar. My Mom and Grandma both used vinegar to clean the coffee pots. So there were lots of mornings I would wake up to the smell of it. Also, they both canned during the summer. I actually loved the smell of them canning pickles. I would always get the job of tucking the dill into the jars before they poured the vinegar mixture over. I was never allowed to pour the vinegar since it was hot. My Grandma would can tomatoes too. I can still smell the sweet smell of them. She would always save me some of the tomatoes after they were done cooking and make me some macaroni and tomatoes. That was one of my favorite lunches growing up. The last scent that comes to mind is the smell of sunscreen. Anytime I smell sunscreen I think of all of those lazy days at our nearby creek or a day at the pool. That scent screams childhood!

July 12, 2012

July 12, 2012

     Thank you Ms. A. for recommending the article, “Writing a Paper? Try These 7 Research Tips.” I can use all the help I can get when it comes to writing a research paper. I didn’t even realize there are electronic resources. I haven’t written a research paper in a very long time so this article is going to be very beneficial to me. The electronic resources it lists and the tips that it gives while searching for resources is great. This article states, “The best place to start is not with Google, Bing, or Wikipedia but with E-reserves.” I honestly would have started with Google and Wikipedia. I thought these search engines were the go-to places to do research. Man, was I wrong! Also, I had never heard of WorldCat. It’s a free, public catalog. I am going to have to check that our soon. I also found “8 More Research Tips for College Students” helpful. Both of these article are from U.S. News’ website. I think it states an important tip: “Drive your sources (don’t let them drive you).” It’s easy to get caught up in all the facts and before you know it you are taking a side road because someone else made a good point about you topic. Stay focused! Both of these articles offer so many good tips. I didn’t realize there were website out there that were citation guides. This is something I really struggle with. Why is it necessary to do all of the mind boggling citation crap! It’s nice to know there is help out there. I am so going to use this for our research/what is a place paper.

July 11, 2012

July 11, 2012

     My first feeling of independence was probably the day I turned six years old. I got a brand new bike for my birthday. It was equipped with all of the bells and whistles a little girl could dream for. It was pink, purple, and white and had coordinating colored tassels coming out the ends of the handle bars; but that wasn’t all, it even had a woven basket on the front, once again the woven pieces were made of the same colors and it came with a purple water bottle! I thought, “Oh man, I NEED this!” This wasn’t the feeling of freedom, the true feeling of freedom was when my Dad took off my bikes brand new training wheels. They were so shiny and white; never had been used and never were used. Our front yard was very flat, you walked out of the front door, onto the front porch and it just kept going. So my Dad helped me upon my new bike and we took off through the yard. The first few times we took off from the front porch he had a hold of my seat, then we started out again and as I looked back grinning at him, he was way back at the front porch and I was half way across the yard! He yelled, “Keep going, you’ve got it!!” and I did. I never looked back. I rode that bike every chance I got. We lived in rural area off of a county dirt road and my grandparents lived just down from us. My Mom would let me ride my bike down to see them and I thought I was so big going that short distance, but being six years old it seemed so far away. I didn’t know it then, but my Mom would call my Grandma so she would know to be watching for me.

July 10, 2012

July 10, 2012

     As I’ve stated before, I am a Radiologic Technologist (aka x-ray tech). Now, I know I have not been taking x-rays as long as some people, but I have been taking them for around ten years. It amazes me how patients will come into my place of employment and question whether I am taking their x-rays correctly. Have they ever taken an x-ray before? I cannot imagine walking into Target and telling the cashier they aren’t running their register correctly or telling my surgeon he didn’t fix my hernia the right way. So WHY, WHY, WHY, do people tell me I’m taking their x-rays wrong? I mean these people do not beat around the bush or even politely ask, “Are you sure you’re getting the right views the doctor needs?” They are persistant and rude. I had an older gentleman this morning tell me “I wasn’t getting what the doctor needed to see where his problem was on his foot.” He was hurting on the inside of his big toe. I spolitely said, “Oh yes, I am getting your entire foot, so he’ll be able to see everything.” He said, “No he won’t because it hurts right here!” as he was pointing to his big toe. Again I said, “Sir, I x-rayed your big toes along with the entire foot”, but he insisted I was doing it wrong. I finally told him he was free to go back to the doctor and as he was walking out the door he was still arguing! Unbelievable!! I told him I had been an x-ray tech for ten years. It didn’t matter, he was right (not really) and I was wrong. I wonder if he spoke to his doctor that way too? How do patients expect us to be nice and respectful when they are not that way with us? We are professionals and are expected to act a certain way, but one should not have to take so much.

July 9, 2012

July 9, 2012

     Ever since I was a little girl I have enjoyed stormy nights. There is something to be said about the excitement that is felt knowing a big thunderstorm is brewing. Hearing the clapping in the distance, knowing it is getting near. I grew up in a home with a walk out basement, which my grandparents didn’t have. So when there was bad storms they would come up and stay until the storms passed. My Grandparents lived just down the county road from us in a rural area. It seemed like every time it rained I would start pestering my parents saying, “Should Grandma and Grandpa come up?”, “When are they coming?” I was so anxious for them to get to our house, but it was simply because I loved them at our house; it was so exciting between the storms and getting a spontaneous visit from my grandparents. I would get so wound up when I would see their headlights through the rain and then they would be trying to walk as fast as their old feet would let them to beat the rain. If it started to lightning, my Mom would unplug everything in the house except this old, black Emerson radio. It had seen better days, the antenna was broken off from my brother and I playing with it and the cassette player had to be finagled if you wanted it to work right, but our local radio station came in just fine. We would always listen to make sure there weren’t any tornado warnings. We would sit in the dark and listen to the rain, hail, and high winds combined with country music and the stations own storm warnings in the background. I always hated when the storms where over. It’s not like I had a death wish, I just hated when my grandparents decided to go home. My own party cut short. The storms were never long enough.

July 8, 2012

July 8, 2012

     Today I went to a visitation for my Grandma’s sister, she was eighty-two. As I was sitting towards the back of the funeral home with my husband and our two boys, I looked up at the front row holding all of my Grandma’s siblings and I couldn’t help but think how lucky they are to have each other. My Grandma had four brothers and four sisters. Today, sitting with her are just two sisters and two brothers. I couldn’t help but think that when someday my brother and I are in the same situation we won’t be there for each other because it is just the two of us. Seeing all of my great-aunts and great-uncles up there together makes me want a big family so our children have each other to lean on one day. You know my Grandma and her siblings are best friends. The sister that just passed away was my Grandma’s running buddy. I mean, as the years have gone by they have slowed down, but my Grandma had become more of a caretaker for her. Grandma started taking her to the doctor and to the grocery store since she could take herself anymore. I see the pain and grief in my Grandma’s old and tired eyes. She is eighty-four and I know by now she realizes death is a very real part of her life, but I know she still hurts so bad losing her sister and best friend. She talked to her sister every day, if not more than that. I can’t even begin to imagine being at her age and seeing her family age, but at the same time it’s a blessing to have all of those siblings there for each other. I want my children to have each other when we aren’t around for them anymore. I think that is the least we can do for them; ensure they will have siblings to lean on.

July 7, 2012

July 7, 2012

     When I was a teenager going to school wasn’t just about education as we all know, it was about popularity and acceptance. I wanted to be this girl who was in my class. She was the popular, pretty girl, and could make everybody hate you just by telling them to. Everyone feared her, but loved her at the same time. I fortunately was her best friend, so I never had a target on my back. She always had the older, cutest boyfriend. At the time, I thought all I wanted was to be her best friend. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but I think I just didn’t want her to turn the whole class against me. I had another good friend in school, she was always the smartest and most studious. I can remember times my best friend would tell my smart friend that if she didn’t miss some questions on a random test she would turn the whole class against her, and she did. It would make me sick and even though we are adults now, it still makes me nauseous to think I never did or said anything. I just let it happen. I would always be her friend on the bus ride home when no one was around. How pathetic is that? Now, I would never change who I am. I never want to be the mean popular girl. I am SO glad I wasn’t that girl in school. Who cares if I didn’t have the cutest boyfriend or have the most friends. None of that matters now. I’m not even friends with this popular girl anymore. I am actually best friends with the smart girl I was telling you about. It’s funny how things work out.  We are closer than ever now and I wouldn’t change that for the anything!

July 6, 2012

July 6, 2012

     I want to talk about my first memory of facing off with a spider. I was seven years old. It was the beginning of fall and I had decided to help my Dad cut some firewood for winter. I grew up with a wood stove heating my home and it was such a big deal when my parents were able to get a gas furnace; it meant no more cutting firewood! Anyway, I was in charge of piling the twigs and branches and I was working so hard until….I threw a limb onto an old pile of branches, I stumbled into the pile and before I knew it I was nose-to-nose with a Banana Spider!! You know the kind; big, black, yellow, nasty buggers! I screamed so loud and that was the end of my firewood helping days. For the longest time I could not pinpoint why I was so afraid of spiders until I was told by someone that there had to be some tragic event that caused me to be scared of them. That’s when I remembered this day cutting wood with my Dad. I just remember how the web looked, all zigzagged and creepy, and THEN the gigantic spider contained in the web. Why hadn’t I ever noticed these spiders before? Was it because I wasn’t afraid before this incident? Afterwards, I would see them everywhere: On round haybales in the barn, on my Grandparents front porch, in my Mom’s garden. It’s like I wasn’t safe anymore. I had to always be on alert for these disgusting creatures. I couldn’t ever relax. Even now, as an adult, I can’t seem to weed my flowers, or mow around my trees without the constant thought going through my head: “Is there any spiders lurking around here?”

July 5, 2012

July 5, 2012

     I will never forget my freshman year taking Algebra in high school when I experienced my first bad teacher. When I say, “bad teacher,” I don’t mean she didn’t know her math or was bad at teaching, I mean she took what little confidence I had and ripped all of it away. For some reason she felt it was necessary to belittle us students in front of each other. When I was a freshman, I had come from a little rural “feeder” school. A school that was only K-8^th grade and after graduating 8^th grade it was off to a new, strange, school. On top of that, I was extremely shy and reserved. I never raised my hand in class and hated being called upon, but in this class that feeling was multiplied by 100! Our teacher would grade our homework by going through questions one-by-one and asking random students what their answer was to that particular question. If you got the wrong answer, she would have you come to the front of the classroom to the chalkboard and do the math question in front of the entire class. I felt it was a form of humiliation. This class was full of bashful, quiet freshmen and a few sophomores that were just coming out of their shells. Anytime you ever asked a question, whether you raised your hand in class or went to her desk, she would yell from where she was and say, “Does anyone else have this issue?!” It would embarrass me to the point where I would never ask questions and I was struggling to keep a C average in her class, when normally I made As. Finally I went to my basketball coach, who was also a math teacher, and he helped me more than anyone ever had by saying these words: “Jennifer, you cannot think about the why’s and why not’s in Algebra, just accept the rules and move on.” After that, I brought my grade back up to an A and never looked back.

July 4, 2012

July 4, 2012

     Today I just started a new family tradition with my own little family: My husband, two sons, and I. For the first time today, I made homemade ice cream with my family. It is churning as I write this journal entry. I was bummed out when we made the decision not to set off fireworks this year due to the ongoing drought. Now we did get to see some fireworks, but it was at a big event in town. We live in a rural area where it would take the fire department a while to get to us if we caught something on fire with the fireworks. We never set off that many fireworks anyway. The boys have always liked to watch the big ones, but could really care less about the sparklers, or snakes. They never like to get that close to them, so it ends up being my husband setting them off. I kept trying to come up with different things for us to do with the boys so they would have an exciting, memorable holiday. Then it just came to me, make ice cream! I know it very common to do on the fourth, but I thought it would be nice to start my own family tradition making it. I got the recipe from a girl I work with, who is an excellent cook. So to the kitchen we went. The boys helped me beat the eggs; I did cracked them myself; I didn’t want crunchy ice cream. Then we added the sugar. Now the next step may seem odd, but we added instant vanilla pudding…we’ll see how it turns out. Last we added heavy cream, half and half, and some whole milk. Now does that sound rich or what? I can’t wait until the ice cream stops churning so we can try it out. The boys love ice cream and I thought this would only make their love for it grow.

July 3, 2012

July 3, 2012

     Ugh. It’s only July and the blistering sun has made the grass, flowers, and trees parched and lifeless. I keep thinking if we could skip the rest of summer and move on to October, my favorite month, maybe we would get some fall rains and nature would flourish again. I love the fall, it is mother nature’s way of doing everyone a favor and providing relief from the harsh summer.  Now I know that September is the official start to fall, but here in Missouri September is as hot August until the end of the month. There’s so many thing I love about October besides the cooler temperatures: I love the leaves changing colors, the fall festivals, and pumpkin patches for the kids. I love that it is the start of baking season and also basketball season. I am a sucker for basketball, but only college and high school. My family will take road trips in October to drive around and look at the beautiful foliage. We are lucky to live in the Ozarks and get to see all the lovely leaves.  So many times these road trips will lead us to the pumpkin patches and fall festivals that I was talking about. My kids will carve pumpkins, get their face painted, pet baby calves and goats, but their favorite is the hay ride. I even enjoy the hay ride. There is something about riding through a field as nightfall approaches, and the smell of hay is mixed with the scent of fall. After the hay ride, my family gets back in the car to make our journey home, this time, without the scenery that fall brings. It is dark all around except for the brilliantly bright moon up above. That’s okay though; the kids always tire themselves out and fall asleep on the way home.

July 2, 2012

July 2, 2012

     I just realized that most of what I’ve been writing this summer semester says nothing! I just read “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” and as I was reading Paul Roberts example of a “nothing” description of football all I could think about was that it sounded like something I would write. I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry! I thought I could take offense to this or I could try to learn from his article. I do think some of his advice will stick with me and hopefully help me with my writing. I’m going to try to not pick the obvious choices when discussing a certain topic. Also I found out when I write I tend to be timid and I need to just say what I want to say. Roberts says, “Call a fool a fool.” Stop using, “in my opinion” type phrases that turns writing into vague pieces of text.  Roberts speaks about using colorful words, which is something I struggle with. I use the thesaurus a lot to mix up my vocabulary. I am not sure if that’s a good resource, but if I didn’t use it I’d be saying the same thing constantly. I am a pro at colorless words though, which are words that add no description at all. I am now laughing, because I keep looking as the bottom of this page to check the word count and I’m now thinking about when Roberts says, "The student toiling away at this weekly English theme is too often tormented by a figure: five hundred words.” This is so spot-on! As much as I want my writing to be great, I am a student after all. I can’t help but want to finish this at three hundred words!

July 1, 2012

     Is anybody watching the Olympics? I have been watching some of the women’s gymnastics and it is so cool to watch. I totally admire these women for their strength and agility. They put so much hard work into preparing for this big event. I’m sure I can’t even imagine how much training they do. It seems like they get more and more strong as the years go by. It seems like the girls used to be more petite and dainty. Now they have the big, broad shoulder and six pack abs. So many of these girls are just plain ripped! Their coaches must have them on a weight training program of some sort. You can also tell how much their coaches truly care for these girls. I just watched this one girl fall twice from the balance beam and I’m not sure who was hurting most, the coach or the gymnast. But, oh man if these girls do good, the coaches just beam with pride. It’s like these girls are their own, and I guess in a way they are. These coaches teach and sculpt these girls to be the best they can be. I must say my favorite part of the gymnastics is the floor routines. It seems like the girls have so much fun doing their routines. It seems like you get to see more of their personalities during this part. They get to have music and add a little swagger into their routine that they normally don’t get to. I will say that I always get nervous for the girls when they back the heels into the corner, they get so close to the out of bounds line. I just cringe! I’m sure that they’ve done that so many times they think nothing of it. I just wish they wouldn’t get so close!

June 30, 2012

June 30, 2012

     I often wonder why we pay for television. I got home tonight and picked up the mail and started looking through the bills. Every month I get my bill for satellite t.v. and I say to myself, “I’ve got to cancel this. It’s such a waste.” Then I go ahead and pay it and then the next month rolls around, then the next. When is this wasteful cycle going to end? I am especially ready to cancel tonight since my bill just went up. I have gone through all the steps of calling and asking them to lower my bill, but I just don’t feel that existing customers should have to beg or threaten to leave to get their bill lowered. When new customers can waltz right in and get the same package for twenty to twenty-five dollars less than existing customers. Where’s the loyalty? There isn’t any. These companies know they’ve got you. I keep telling myself I don’t need all the sports channels, but then I think of how much I love college basketball and major league baseball. Then, I think that my boys don’t need nick jr., I can always buy their favorite cartoons on dvd or Blu-ray. Do I do it? Nope. I just keep on forking over my hard earned money to these big companies. When will we all learn? When will we as a society realize we don’t NEED satellite t.v. or cable? The line has become blurred with what we need and want. Just like the expensive cell phone bills. We all think we need a thirty dollar data plan. I must say, that is one bill I don’t pay. We actually have pay as you go phones, because I refused to pay the insane amounts just to use my phone. If I could only be this strong when it came to my t.v. bill…maybe someday.

Is It Ever Going TO Rain?

June 29, 2012

     Is it ever going to rain? It is really hot and dry. My goodness it is only June and the grass where we live is already burnt and not growing anymore. I live in the country and I see the pastures that normally look green and refreshed from the first hay cutting of the year, looking dead and brown and almost tired from the relentless heat. Hay season is always a big deal in our family and if the hay crop is plentiful than the mood is always happy and cheerful around the house, but this year it hasn’t been that way. My Dad’s hay fields only made a third of what they did last year. Now my husband is actually very fortunate this year. This spring her made the decision to sell his cows, because he simply didn’t have time for them. Now, it was definitely a good decision since he’d be having to worry about having enough hay to feed them. The farmers in our area know the crop isn’t enough and they dread having to look for hay elsewhere, knowing they’re going to have to pay a high price. My husband actually bales hay for other people and they either pay him or give him half the hay and then he sells the hay for profit. He has been getting so many farmers calling him asking if he had any extra to sell. Sad to say, but he doesn’t. My Dad is going to buy some from him, but there just any extra due to the lack of rainfall. Some of the fields that my husband normally would be cutting for hay right now, he is putting off hoping we get some rain and grass will grow. He’ll just cut it in the fall. He fears if he cuts it now the pasture will just die completely. I really hope it rains.

I Am a Blogger! What???

June 28, 2012

I Am a Blogger. What???

     Never, never, never in a bazillion years would I have considered myself a blogger! But look at me, here I am. Granted it was part of a writing assignment, but still I’m challenging myself to something new and modern. This is a challenge I find scary and exciting all at the same time: Scary because other bloggers will be reading my thoughts and exciting because I’m venturing out of my comfort zone, which for me is also scary. Remember from one of my other blog posts, my personality type is ISFJ. I think blogging is a very inventive way to get your ideas out there, to share your thoughts and concerns, or just to get something off your chest. I’ve always enjoyed reading other people’s blogs. I do have a Pinterest account and I think that is one of the best ways to get your ideas out there. I think Pinterest was a wonderful idea. To have a place for all kinds of people to share their ideas and be able to pin them onto your account so they’re never lost out in blogger land. I love blog posts about food the most, but I don’t limit myself to just that. I have made homemade laundry detergent, which has saved my family a lot of money. I have made safe household cleaners, they don’t have all the harsh chemicals in them. Exploring blogger’s posts have really opened up my world to other possibilities. Things I thought were to too hard or practically impossible can be easy by using the tips you find in the blogging world. Now, I am a blogger. Maybe someday, someone will read my posts and be influenced in some way. Some way or another I want to try to be on the giving end of the blogging world instead of the receiving end for awhile.

Know Your Audience Analysis Blog Post

     I found the “Know Your Audience” assignment surprising in a few different ways. First and foremost, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this assignment like Ms. Anthony had told us to. I thought that it might just be busy work, but as I made my way through the questions and read what everyone had answered and I found myself interested and involved to the point I didn’t want to stop reading. One question that stands out for me was Ron’s. “What drives you crazy, makes you mad, or frustrated you?”  I laughed my way through most of these responses, because the same things that drive my classmates nuts, does me too! Why DO drivers pull out in front of me, then proceed to drive slow? Why can’t McDonald’s count the number of drinks you have and give you an equal amount of straws to go with them? Just any straws at all would be nice!  I could go on and on about Mickey D’s, but I won’t,  I must move on. But if we ALL have the same issues with society then why don’t WE ALL try to change to make things better? 

     The second thing that stood out to me with this assignment was whether it was a question or an answer, the topic always went towards family. This is a very family oriented group. Whether it was, “What we would do with a million dollars?”, or “What would you do with a superpower?” some of us would always come back to our family, me included.  I feel like we all have a common bond now as a class for this reason.

     The last thing that surprised me was when I responded to the question, “What would you do if you had 24 hours left to live?” I didn’t expect it to stir emotions the way it did. I found myself with tissues having a good cry. I guess since I’m 28, I’ve never put much thought into it before and I knew as soon as I read the question what my answer would be to spend time with my family at home. I barely got through answering this question and probably cut the answer off short do to all the tears! I was never a crier before my children.

     In the end, I think knowing all of this new information about my classmates has helped me to realize just what they are interested in reading. I now know many of their personal interests and feelings about different topics. It’s good to know my audience.

Pre-writing and Exercises for Credo Essay

Pre-writing and Exercises for Credo Essay

Credo:

      I believe as a parent, I am my children’s first and most important teacher. As parents when we bring a child into the world, I feel that it is our responsibility to teach them everything we can and if there’s something we can’t teach them, provide them the resources that can teach them. We as parents determine our child’s success in life by what we offer them from the time they enter the world. We start off teaching our children love, trust, and nurturing and then build on that.

Exercise 2:

     After reading and evaluating the This I Believe Essays I thought these individual authors make it seem so easy to put their feeling and beliefs onto paper. When I read “Always Go to the Funeral” by Dierdre Sullivan I thought, how many times have I talked myself out of going to a funeral just because of pure selfishness? The times I didn’t go just because I was uncomfortable, never caring about how the family of the one who passed away would feel if I paid my respects. All of these women who wrote their own I Believe Essays a unique way of presenting something they believe in. I found it interesting how Phyllis Allen who wrote “Leaving Identity Issues to Other Folks” changed her beliefs throughout the decades with the changing country. She evolved throughout the years with society. One essay I really couldn’t relate to was “Be Cool To The Pizza Delivery Dude”. I grew up in a rural area and I never got a chance to experience the crazy driving pizza guy, but I do believe in being gracious and kind to people. I guess I had never put into that kind of perspective before. All in all, these were good reads and were helpful with my own I Believe essay.

I believe in sitting down at the table for dinner, with my family.

     I believe in sitting down at the table for dinner, with my family. I think we should so this as often as possible. My family did this every night that we were all home together. My Mom has always said that you can tell how your kids are doing by sitting down at the table for dinner. She would always watch our actions or listen to how we were talking about how our day went. There were many nights I didn’t feel like talking to my parents at the dinner table. If I had problems at school, and by problems I mean girl drama, my Mom would always know right away something was going on. She may not say anything at the table since my Dad and older brother was there, but later before bed she’s come into my bedroom and ask me what was wrong. I didn’t understand then how she could know I was having a bad day, but having kids of my own know, I understand. Although my boys aren’t old enough now to have social drama in their lives, I can still tell a lot by sitting down with them. While they are eating, I just sit back and observe. If they aren’t eating good then they may not be feeling well, like when I look across the table and notice that my oldest has dark circles under his eyes, I know that his allergies/ sinuses are bothering him. It’s just amazing what you can notice from 20 minutes at the table with your family.

259 words

"This I Believe" list

Typology Test

     Listen to this! I just took the Jung Typology Test, which is a personality assessment test. I always thought those things were bogus, but it turns out they are pretty accurate. I took the seventy-something question quiz, and was amazed at how my results were dead on with my own personality. There was one thing that I didn’t agree with but for the most part the results were right on.

     The type of personality I am is Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging (ISFJs). They are shy, quiet individuals that work hard and are so worried about perfection that they aren’t willing to delegate any of their responsibilities; they love routines and clear instructions. When it comes to writing they don’t like new writing techniques, and before they ever start writing they do their research and map out what they’re going to write. All of this is ME! I don’t like to get out of my comfort zone, and if I do I have to do my best to feel in control. I have to make a plan before I ever begin on what I’m going to write. I think this makes for a very uptight writer. After reading how routine and uptight of a person I am, I realize this directly reflects me as a writer. Another downfall to my personality is lack of confidence. Even though I work hard at everything, I worry that it’s not good enough, or it’s going to disappoint someone. When it comes to writing I never want anyone else to read what I’ve wrote (except for the teachers or course) because I don’t feel it’s good. As I writer I know I need to get more confident and be a little more relaxed. This personality test just confirmed it for me. I’ve learned that I need to more laid back and go with the flow; I need to write what feels good.

     Even though this personality test was eerily similar to my own personality, there were still one thing I didn’t feel described me. ISFJs tend to feel unappreciated and often are unappreciated by their family, friends, and co-workers. I don’t feel that way. Most of the people in my life appreciate the thing I do for them.  I’m also very aware when someone is trying to use me and I’ll speak up, where as ISFJs do not. This assessment kind of makes me sound like I’m a pushover, but I am far from it.