Sunday, December 8, 2013

Last Blog

I can't believe this is it, my last blog, for the most part. Well, I only have one more semester at Bland until I'm done. It's hard to think that I'm actually going to be out of here. I mean this year flew by like crazy! I can't imagine I'm this much closer to pursuing my dream in becoming an elementary school teacher. It's kind of scary. My parents have always told me, "Being afraid is okay, but if you don't work through that fear, you might miss out on some pretty great things. You can't live in fear. Life is about taking risks, not being afraid of going after what you want." I've come to the conclusion that is having things turn out the way you wanted them to is what makes a successful life, then you should go ahead and say I'm a failure. The important thing is not to be bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past. So don't be afraid to make mistakes, or stumble and fall, cause most of the time the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for, or get more than you ever could have imagined. Who know where life will take you. The road is long and in the end, the journey is the destination.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Life

You're planning for someday, then quietly, without even knowing, someday is today, then someday is yesterday. The choice is yours. The rest of your life is a long time and whether we know it or not, it's being shaped right now. You can choose to blame your circumstances on fate, bad luck, bad choices, or you can fight back. Things aren't always going to be fair in the real world, that's just the way it is. For the most part you get what you give. Ask yourself this question; What's worse, not getting everything you wished for or getting it all and finding out that it's not enough. The rest of your life is being shaped right now with the dreams you chase, choices you make, and the person you decide to be. You know in life, if you let it, you can always come up with reasons to give up, but if we just hang on, something will find a way and make it better, because all we need is a little help to remind us that it won't always be this way.

Pictures

"Ever look at a picture of yourself and see a stranger in the background? It makes you wonder, how many strangers have pictures of you? How many moments of other people's live have we been in? Were we apart of someone's life when their dream came true? Or were we there when their dreams died? Did we keep trying to get in or were we just destined to be there? Or did the shot take us by surprise? " I love this quote. I never thought about that until I read this quote. Think about it, you're walking on the beach and accidently get in their picture, did something just happen? They look back at that picture years later and say this was the day......and you're right there in the back ground. If you're at a sporting event, a baseball player just hits a grand slam and wins the game. Sports Illustrated takes a picture and you're there in the background. That magazine goes out to millions of people and they all see the picture of you. Just think, you could be a big part of someone's life, and not even know it.

Christmas Ornaments

Family traditions are one of my favorite things about the holidays. It’s so special to have meaningful things that we do as a family year after year. When I was younger, my mom would give me and my siblings an ornament each year and she would get them with our name on it. I remember the first year we got them. I was looking on the tree to find it. I saw one for Brandon, and Brittney, and Blake, and when I finally got to mine it was written in permanent marker. I was heartbroken. I felt so left out that their names were printed on theirs and mine was handwritten. My mom just told me that I was too special to have one that looked like everyone else's. Yeah I fell for that. We started making our own the older we got, which was one of my favorite things to do.  I would get so excited  to put the tree up, to dig thru our ornament box and reminisce about each one. When my sister got married and moved to her own place, she took all of “her” ornaments with her, so it made her new tree feel a little like home.

Outside Blog #2/Christmas Town

The park opens at 3 pm. A huge crowd was forming at the gate; the day was chilly but the sun was shining and we were ready to rock some rides.We had a couple of hours of daylight to ride some of the rides,we sipped hot cocoa, then starting to watch the seemingly-millions of lights begin to twinkle while my aunt and cousin headed off to Alpengiest. We got something to eat after that. We headed to one of their special Christmas shows, “Miracles.” Even though my cousins were a little antsy, the show with it’s ivory-clad dancers and amazing voices was pretty awesome and a nice treat to sit for a few moments after walking the park. We made sure to hit all the good points to impress the little ones. Carolers and bands, many clad in period-dress, serenaded us going by, and the lights were something I’ll try to share here, but you really have to experience for yourself. In fact, the kids had a ball just playing hide-and-seek in-between some of the hundreds of decorated trees.

 


Thanksgiving/Catching Fire! :)

I absolutely love Thanksgiving! I love being able too see every one my family, we have such a great time and the food is always amazing! For the past 5 years my family started having Thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner, at first I wasn't too happy about it because I don't like changing tradition, then it's not a tradition anymore. Well when we got back home from lunch there was nothing left to do but to sit at home, which is completely boring. My mom decided we should go to the movies. So every Thanksgiving we have a new tradition we go to my grandparents for Thanksgiving Lunch and then we leave and go to the movies. This year the movie was Catching Fire! I love The Hunger Games Series. I watched the first one then read all three books. I wasn't too sure if the movies were going to be exactly like the books, well they are. : / Which isn't a bad thing, but I also like happy endings!!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

UVA Game

Have you ever been to an athletic event and wanted to be in one of the contests they have and win a prize? I know I have and I got the opportunity when I went to Charlottesville. Every year my older brother gets season tickets to UVA football games. Every once in a while he'll have an extra ticket and he'll ask me to go with him. We got there a little earlier than we normally do. We walked around a few stores and got some lunch before heading to our seats. When we finally got to our seats I was looking at the game program and some guy walks up to me and says, "Excuse me, would you like to be in a contest?" Of course I said yes! I had to throw as many nerf footballs into a grocery cart from 10 yards away, Easy right? Well, I thought I would go down at half time when the teams are in the locker room and the fans are getting something to eat or doing whatever, but no I played at the end of the first quarter with both teams and 50,000 fans watching me. I ended up coming in 2nd and winning a $100 to kroger, but it was one of the greatest experiences in my life!


 Brandon and I before the game.

Outside Blog #1 Holocaust Museum

I went to the Holocaust Museum in Richmond the other week with a friend because she had to write a paper on it. She didn't want to go by herself so I figured it would be a good idea to write a blog about it. The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six million Jews and other groups because of their race by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Gypsies, the disabled, Slavics, Poles, and Russians were just a few of the other groups. In 1945, Germans killed nearly 2 out of 3 European Jews as part of the Final Solution which was, a policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Between 1948-51 almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most Europena Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely.
In the museum there are artifacts left from there such as glasses and shoes. Each little station tells a story about a certain situation that you would face if you were in Germany. There is even a part where you have to crawl as if you were in hiding.
                                            
                                           
a soldier stands over a victim                       a quote by President Truman

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Outback

I've worked at Outback for almost a year now. I love it! I love the people I work with, and I love all the different types of customers that come in, but sometimes things take a turn. (insert irriated emoji here). Every once in a while you get these dumb people who come in and when you go introduce yourself I can't even get my name out before they interrupt you with what they want to drink. But at least they know what they want. Some people come in and ask what types of drinks do you, I say coke products, they look at me confused and ask, so you don't have pepsi? UGH!! Just this past week a lady got stuck in a booth. We had to get three managers to get her out, she ended up falling out of the booth and rolling in the floor. Then sometimes the people I work with aren't that great either. One guy got so mad that he punched the computer. One ladies son got pulled over in the parking lot for having his music turned up too loud and what does  the police find in the car? Drugs. What's wrong with people. At least working in a restaurant is never boring.

Kenley Reese

One of the last blogs I wrote was about my sister being pregnant. Well, my sweet neice is here, but it wasn't the way I expected. April 25,2013 and my sister is a week over due. Thursday night she started having labor pains. She lives in Lynchburg so my mom was the only one that went down that night. I had to work Friday, so the earliest I could have gone was Saturday. Friday night when I was at work, my sister was texting me saying that the doctor had broke her water and she would text me when she was done. 2 hours later my phone goes off, and I was expecting to get a picture of a beautiful girl, well that's the last thing I got. When Kenley was delievered she wasn't breathing right. The nurses took her right into NICU. I was devastated. Thankfully today she is a 6 month old healthy baby. 
This was the first picture I got of my neice.



Monday, April 22, 2013

Last Blog

I can't believe that my freshman year of college is almost up! I have had so much fun my first two semesters meeting new people. Although I'm getting a little stressed out about exams, it'll all be worth it in the end! Summer is right around the corner and I haven't been more excited in my life!!! First, my brother graduates high school, his party, then I can't wait to go to Myrtle Beach with my family this summer. It's going to be a blast! I'm looking forward to spending time with my friends from high school when they come back from college as well! Staying out late, spending time on the boat at the lake, this is going to be the greatest summer I've ever had! SUMMER NIGHTS!!!

Becoming an Aunt

I read that there is something special about the relationship between aunts and nieces that is like no other. The aunt plays a unique role in a little girl's life, different than a mother's role or a grandmother's role. The aunt, on the other hand, is usually a peer to the mother, and equal in the family hierarchy, unlike the grandmother, who is one generation up. She is the Mom's equal. Unlike friends, who can come and go, aunts will always be aunts: a steady presence in a niece's life. Although this all might be true, my sister lives two hours away. So unlike how it is with my Aunt, how I see her all the time and we always go out to lunch together, I won't be able to see the sweet thing that often which breaks my heart. Even worse, my sister is due any day now and I won't be able to be up there when she's actually have little miss Kenley Reese!


                                                        Cute little announcement



Siblings!

I know for a fact that no one always gets along with their siblings, that's just how it is. Living together 24/7 they're bound to get under your skin.
Although I always argue with my siblings, I'll always love them! My older brother, who's 25, and I get along the best. He's very protective over me. My younger brother, who is 17 bothers me more than anyone, but since were so close in age we're the two who always do stuff together. It's hard not having my sister here, she's 24, married, pregnant and lives in Lynchburg. Even though we fought the most, I still wish she lived just a little closer to me, and I can't leave out my brother-in-law, Dave. He's a pretty awesome dude! He always wants to hang out with me when they come and visit! Although some people don't consider cousins to be siblings, I sure do. I actually consider my cousin Ashley to be my best friend! She is the one person that knows EVERY single thing about my life. She's someone I know I can go to without her ever judging me.
I don't know what I would do without my siblings. I do know that I wouldn't be the person I am today without them!

                                                      My siblings at my sister's wedding

                                                         My pregnant sister and me!
 
                                                        My younger/older brother at
                                                                  my graduation!
                                                             Brother-in-law Dave!
                                                      My bestfriend/Cousin!!!! <3

High School Memories

Now that the school year is coming to an end, it makes me remember my senior year of high school. I remember sitting in my math class signing a yearbook, I look beside me and a friend of mine is crying and that got me crying, before I knew it almost every girl was in tears. Just writing in a yearbook about growing up, being in Kindergarden together, the time my class started the food fight in 7th grade to graduating in just a couple of weeks. It didn't really hit me till then that I wouldn't see these people that I've been with the last 13 years of my life everyday in the hallways anymore. Those next weeks we would cherish, because we knew we didn't have long to spend with each other anymore. From prom to graduation practice, the senior picnic, and graduation night, were some of the greatest memories I'll remember forever; the good and the bad. We all knew that the day would come to see our friends go off to college. We knew we had our future and goals ahead of us and after the tears of telling them goodbye, we'll always share the memories we had growing up together.

April Showers

As you can already tell, the weather doesn't like to stay the same for long. One day will be warm, and sunny then the next will be cold and rainy. It rains when you least expect it. It rains when your weather channel predicts sun for three days straight. It rains when you’re wearing flats and your umbrella is carefully lodged somewhere in the back of your carseat. Our rain knows no bounds. Before I scare you off entirely, there is an upside to this gloomy weather. First, as that other famous adage goes, April showers really do bring May flowers. Our campus in the springtime is absolutely stunning. Around mid-April, everything seems to suddenly burst into life. School becomes beautful filled with flowers of every shape and color. Although the rain may get dreary and frustrating, it gives us one of the most beautiful sights to look at.

Who's to Blame

So many of you might just look at our economy, and go, "it's all Obama's fault!" Even though I did not vote for him myself, I do not blame him entirely for our bad economy. I would ask you to wait a moment before you blame your choice of group/person and consider a few points.
People who got loans when they should not have qualified for them. From there, they inevitably started foreclosing, and suddenly the media became involved. The media started reporting the horrible housing market, caused by these ridiculous loans(that part was of course left out), and suddenly consumer confidence dropped. When consumer confidence drops, spending drops and saving increases, which drops sales for everybody. When spending drops, companies are forced to do layoffs. This begins a crazy cycle of layoffs and further reduced spending. So what is the government's solution? Lets give money to the institutions who failed!
I just blame the government itself, because what do we do in a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who's at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

America, a Double Standard?

The America people has stopped thinking as Americans. We have become a two income family that are trying to keep up the world by over spending and failing to keep our own house in order. My generation doesn't know what it’s like to earn a living yet. You see this by the entitlement programs within this country. Now we have a society of takers who depends on the government. We have people who work for their money and then have to pay for people who are sitting in jail because they made stupid decisions or we give it to people who don't work at all. If we lie to the government it's a felony, but if they lie to us it's just politics. Why is it okay to kill an unborn a child, but it's not okay to kill a mass murderer? Or how about using a human fetus for research, but it's completely wrong to use an animal. Our society use to be self providers all the way back to the begining of time. There is a majority of us still around, but the minority is still depending on that majority. This won't last forever and that’s where we stand today. The big question is how long will this last. What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Something to think about isn’t it?

Boston Marathon Response

The world was hit hard, yet again when two bombs went off during The Boston Marathon on April 15 where 3 people lost their lives and over 150 people got injured. In my psychology class the day after the bombing, my professor asked how we felt about it. No one said anything about it. In fact no had any response at all. She was pretty disappointed that no one said it hadn't affected us, and that it killed her to see innocent people doing something they love either get hurt or have lost their life. I finally told her, it's not that we're not affected by it, it's more the thought that so much stuff has happened to us already it's like were used to tragedies, like were just expecting the next thing to happen to us and we shouldn't be. It is a sad thought that we can't go but only a few months without a school getting shot up or bombs going off. It makes you think when is the next thing going to happen. She said, "You are right and that it is sad that we live in a world that we can't even feel safe at a marathon event." I agree with her. It is unfortunate that some people don't feel safe going to school, or even the movies anymore. What has our world come to that has us so afraid now? But what makes this even worse is when people say the government is behind all this and is making it up. Just like the Sandy Hook shooting they're saying it's all a conspiracy theory.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Choosing Topics

Choosing the topics for a research paper is easy. Trying to choose a topic that 20 other people have to agree with is hard. That's what we had to do today in class. We had a list of 9 topics to choose from, they were: Education, Gender, Pop Culture, Race/Ethnicity, Religion, Environment, Family, Sexuality, and Crime and Punishment. It was easy at first, we narrowed it down to 5 categories, and then it got difficult. Everyone has their own point of views on different topics. It was very interesting hearing the views on what they wanted to write on and why they felt it was a good topic for all of us to agree with. Some arguements were pretty interesting to hear and others just didn't make any sense! We couldn't decide on three topics in a class period so we had to wait until the next day of class. Some students were determined that they were not giving up on the topic they wanted to do. There was a whole bunch of persuading going on, some arguements going on as well. Although it's hard to to agree on things because no one feels the same we finally got the three topics we wanted, Family, Crime and Punishment, and the hardest one to decide Pop Culture.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Blogging

"Is blogging even a word?" It is now. I don't write blogs, and I don't keep journals or diaries. When trying to make this blog it messed up and I ended up making two, on two different websites. I don't like the internet, it makes me nervous. They're too many creepers, stalkers, and psychos out there, that have nothing better to do.  I don't even understand why people want a blog to begin with. You just write down stuff. Probably, because no one is listening to what you have to say. Maybe?  I don't know, like  I said I don't see a point to this. At least now I don't. Maybe it's because I waited last minute to right this thing and I don't know if this even makes any sense. I'm just trying to get 200 words on this long, long, long, long blog. I'm half way there, I think. I'm sitting in the library with Jessika and T.J. writing this blog. T.J. says, "hi" by the way. I'm writing a blog about blogging. That is a word by the way, I looked it up. Is this 200 words yet? Does this even make sense? Am I going to get a good grade on this blog? Heck, I don't the answer to any of these questions. I'm just doing what I'm told to do. Enjoy this video!