Journal #43

There is an interesting topic today that I get to write about and discuss.  The topic is standardized tests for sanity/insanity.  Told you it was interesting! I really do not think that you can conclude that someone is sane or insane by them filling out a standardized test.  I think that to judge their sanity, you would have to do it orally to see how they act.  With a standardized test, you have multiple choices to choose from, where some of the answers are obviously more insane than others.  The test takers would be able to alter their test score by choosing the least insane answer.  If someone did that, their test results would come out as sane.  This person could actually be insane and the outcome of the test is sane.  This right here is a problem.  Also, when a test is put in front of someone, a lot of pressure comes upon the person.  This pressure could also affect the outcome of the test.  As I stated before, an oral test would result in a more accurate outcome.  For an oral test, the mental specialist or psychologist would ask a series of questions that could result in a disturbing or normal answer.  The answers would have to be come up by the person getting questioned.  The answers would not be provided so choosing the least insane answer would be harder.  Another thing with oral tests, the specialist can observe the behavior of the person.  Some of the questions may trigger certain memories that would affect the person.  The behaviors could steer the outcome more towards sane or insane.  The thing with people is that they will do things that an insane person would do just because they want to.  Some people are not actually insane and they just make bad choices.  On the other hand, there are people who are actually insane.  They do the things they do because they find enjoyment in them.  All in all, I think that judging a person's sanity based on a standardized test would be very difficult and inaccurate. 

Journal #42

The last blog that I wrote was all about heroes.  I just realized that I did not include the definition of a hero.  Wow silly me! My definition of a hero is someone who puts themselves before others and makes sure that they are safe.  This is just my definition and other definitions may vary from this.  This blog is still on the topic of a hero but it is now supposed to be about a hero who does right but for the wrong reasons.  Most of the time a hero is someone who does not stop and think, they just react to whatever is happening.  However, there are people in this world who strive to be known as a hero.  In some situations, people will stage events so they will be able to swoop in and save the day.  For example, I just thought of an example of this.  I was watching a show on Disney channel awhile ago and in the episode, one girl was trying really hard to have her picture taken and be put on the front of the newspaper.  This girl happened to be popular and of course she wanted to increase her popularity so that more people would strive to be her.  I do not remember the girl's name, so I will call her Rachel.  Rachel started to come up with a plan so that someone would catch her being a hero and therefore, she would have her picture on the front page of the newspaper.  Every time she tried to create an event where she would seem like the hero, it failed.  For example, one day in the cafeteria she told her friend to act like she was choking.  Her friend, who was loyal and wanted to make Rachel happy, decided to play along.  This friend just so happened to be not very smart and instead of faking, she actually ended up choking.  Rachel came to her rescue and was able to dislodge whatever was stuck in her throat.  Although the initial intention was for the wrong reason, Rachel ended up being a true hero.

Journal #41

What is a hero? What characteristics make up a hero?  The theme of this blog is to describe a hero.  I know a lot of heroes in this world.  There are fictional heroes like Batman and Spiderman and there are real life heroes like parents and firefighters.  I will talk about all of these.  Movies, books, and comic strips were all created to depict heroes such as Spiderman and Batman.  Although neither of these characters are real, they are still considered heroes.  They are not heroes in our world, but in the world that they live in.  Both Batman and Spiderman have a rival that wants to destroy the happiness in the world.  Batman has the Joker and other villains and Spiderman has the one dude who lost his arm.  The guy who lost his arm injected himself with this chemical to regrow his arm back but it ended up turning him into this huge reptile thingy.  They are considered villains becasue they bring chaos into the world creating scenes where people get hurt and sometimes die.  The job of both Batman and Spiderman is to get rid of the evil villains so that way people can live in comfort again and not in constant fear.  On the other hand, there are real life heroes.  Some heroes are known as moms, dads, firefighters and police officers.  People consider their parents heroes because they went through the trouble of taking care of and raising them.  When a woman gives birth to a child, she has an option to take care of the baby or to not, as much as I hate to say that.  If you decide to have a child, it is your responsibility and in my opinion, you must take care of them.  Sadly, there are a lot of people in this world who feel that it is not their responsibility.  As I was saying, parents are heroes because they  put their children's lives before their own to make sure that they have a good life.  

Journal #40

This blog is supposed to be dedicated to whatever I want it to be.  That means I have to pick a topic and write the whole time about that specific topic.  What topic should I choose to write about? I have decided my topic and it is AP Chemistry.  Last year as a sophomore, I took Chemistry.  That year, my regular teacher got pregnant.  She had some problems with her pregnancy so she had to be put on bed rest earlier than normal.  The school found someone to cover for her while she was on maternity leave.  The person they found was really smart and knew what he was doing.  I was learning stuff with him.  One of the chemistry classes was rowdy and thought it would be fun to mess with the substitute.  The knocked off of his glasses and laughed at him.  The substitute thought that he had dealt with enough and decided to not cover for our teacher anymore.  I can't say that I don't blame him because those kids were really mean to him.  The school had to find yet another substitute.  Luckily they were able to find one.  This teacher was also pregnant! She had been a previous chemistry teacher in the past, but with a small class.  She knew what she was teaching but she did not have a good handle on controlling the class.  I passed the course with an A although I was not prepared for what AP Chemistry would have in store for me.  Over the summer, we had to complete four lectures and do the homework along with them.  At that time, i though they were the hardest things.  Now I look back and I miss the easy things.  The class I am in has twelve people.  We had thirteen but one person dropped out.  I am glad they dropped out because now we have an even number of people for doing labs.  It is sad that they could not stay in the class because it really is a good class.  My 325 words are up!

Journal #39

Today, we have to write about about our spring break and what occurred during our spring break vacation.  Growing up, every year for spring break my family and I would go to a place in Florida to vacation, called Palm Island. My aunt and uncle discovered this place many many years ago and recommended it to my parents.  My parents then started to go and vacation there when they had time.  To get to this island, you had to take a ferry from the mainland.  The ferry ride takes about ten minutes so its not like it is a very long ride or anything.  Ever since I got into high school though we have not been able to go anywhere for spring break.  This is because I take part in the school's softball program.  In middle school, softball was during the fall, so nothing was going on during spring break.  In high school, softball is during the spring, so we always have either games or practices during spring break.  Softball took up a big chunk of my spring break totaling with two games and four practices, one of which was three hours.  After the three hour practice, we had a cookout.  Our coach bought hamburgers and grilled them for us.  Each grade was assigned to bring a certain thing.  I brought spinach dip because the juniors were supposed to bring a side dish.  The rest of my spring break was made up of hanging out with my friends.  I hung out with my friends almost every night of spring break, which was WONDERFUL.  I love being with my friends because we all get along and do weird things.  One night we helped our friend ask his girlfriend to Prom.  Another night, we went to my friend's house for a birthday party.  There we played basketball, ate lots of food, jumped on the trampoline, and watched Taken.  Taken was such a good movie and I cannot wait to watch Taken 2.  

Journal #38

My job shadowing experience was horrible.  I will be blunt about it because that is the truth.  I hated it so much.  I will give you a run through of what I did.  First off, I job shadowed at Illinois State Police because forensics interests me.  We were told to arrive at 10:00 in the morning and enter through the South entrance.  There were five of us total that were job shadowing.  We were led into a conference room and we sat down.  Yes we were at a police station and we were in a conference room, which is where we would be for the next hour.  Sergeant Natasha was the woman giving us the presentation.  She gave us a presentation on how to become a state trooper. The presentation was boring and she didn't even make it.  She got it from their ISP website online.  Once the presentation was over, she asked if we had any questions.  Sergeant Natasha made us each ask a question because no one wanted to ask a question.  It is really sad that the young adults job shadowing a potential career did not want to ask questions because they were so bored.  I HATED IT SO MUCH.  I DISLIKED IT VERY MUCH. VERY VERY MUCH.  This career is an option for me but I still do not know anything about it at all because I DID NOT LEARN ANYTHING.  The only free thing I got from job shadowing was a business card and a packet on doing an internship with ISP.  The internship is only for people in their third year of college or older.  Very helpful thank you.  NO.  It is not helpful at all.  The only good thing that came out of my job shadowing experience was that on my way home, I stopped at Headwest and got my dad and I a sandwich.  I also got a Jones soda, which was delicious.  I wish that I could have gone somewhere else because so many other people had fun and actually did things.  

Journal #37

Right now I am listening to a song.  There is no singing and I find it quite soothing.  It is jazz and blues mixed together in one.  The song is called "Blue Monk" and it is by the Thelonious Monk Quartet.  Right away I think of a monk, which makes sense because it is in the title of the song.  The monk is bald and he is wearing a brown robe with sandals.  In his hands, he has a saxophone that is silver and gold with shiny buttons.  The strap on the saxophone was made out of rainbow strings braided together.  The strings were really tough because it had to be able to carry the weight of the saxophone.  The monk is not alone.  There is a whole group of them and they are playing jazz music together.  some of them are playing the drums, while others are playing the keyboard.  There is no singing though because where they are singing is not allowed.  Usually monks are not allowed to make any noise because they are there to find their inner peace and get away from the noisy and busy world.  But these monks that I am talking about are different.  They can play music in their free time when they are not learning or being peaceful.  One of the monks is wearing a pink bracelet.  It represents his love for pigs.  Yes I am really thinking that.  I do not know why but for some reason that popped into my mind.  I almost put pooped instead of popped.  That could have been bad.  Anyways, the monk really likes pigs and he wears it because back at home he has a farm.  His best friend is a pig named Chuck.  They gave each other friendship bracelets so they would not forget about each other while they were separated.  All of the monks were thoroughly enjoying their time together as they made music with their instruments!

Journal #36

When growing up, you are always told to be yourself and to not let anyone change who you are.  That is one of the most difficult things teenagers have to go through.  During high school it is especially bad.  All you want to do is be liked and to fit in but to do that you have to be somebody you are not.  The girls in high school have a specific image that people want you to have.  The girls like to be skinny and tan.  I am not saying that all girls strive to be like this but a lot of people do.  A lot of girls risk getting skin cancer just so they can look tan.   I do not understand that at all.  Why would you risk getting skin cancer just to be someone you are not.  You should always be yourself because that is who you are most comfortable with and you do not want to change yourself just so you can be "cool." I have given up on trying to fit in and try to be somebody else because all it does is backfire and never works out.  Being myself also makes me happier than if I was trying to act like someone else.  My freshman year all I wanted to do was be popular and to fit in.  After that year of striving to be someone I was not, I told myself that I was perfect just being myself and I found some awesome friends who deal with my weirdness and true self.  If you are yourself, more people will like you because you are not afraid to be yourself and to stay away from conforming to society.  You will find friends who will accept you for you and you might find out that they are a lot like you.  As you go through life, keep in mind that no one is more perfect than yourself, so you should always be that person.

Journal #35

In this journal blog, I have to compare my writing in a previous blog about the Declaration of Independence and how it exhibited propaganda and errors of faulty logic to my most recent Discussion Post over Walt Whitman's search for the Self.  The biggest change I saw between the two posts are the citations.  In my Declaration of Independence blog, I had citations but they were used incorrectly and I left out some where I summarized.  Since September, I have learned a lot more about citations and when it is the right time to use them.  I used to not put them when I summarized a literary criticism or a passage that we read.  I now know that it is necessary to include the citations when I do that.  going along with citations is the fact that I use more citations now than I did back in September.  I used to only use a one or two but now I have like six or seven.  In my Whitman Search for Self, I had around seven different citations to aid me in my writing.  Another thing that caught my eye were my transitions at the beginning of each of my paragraphs.  They are very similar to the ones I use know and the flowiness of the words into each paragraph.  Yes I know, I just made that word up but it was necessary just like citations are.  I am positive that I have grow in my writing.  I know this because I use synonyms and make sure I have support. I find myself putting all of my ideas down and being able to connect them all without making it choppy.  In past writings, I was a boring writer and I got bored coming up with ideas.  When I would put my ideas down in my blog, they were all mixed together and would leave things hanging.  I am glad that my writing has evolved and I hope it keeps on evolving. 

Journal #34

Today's blog is all about me.  I have to describe my Self, not myself. I know that sounds confusing but I have an explanation that goes along with it. In English, we are starting to read about Walt Whitman.  Throughout his life, he wanted to figure out who he was and what his purpose was in life.  This self-discovering and self-evaluation came out in his poetry.  The self can be broken down into three categories: soul (spiritual self), self (personality, self-perception), and real me (other's perception and reality).  My spiritual self consists of being Catholic.  I belong to a Catholic church but I attend a Christian church with my friends.  I go to both churches and it all depends on what my parents want me to do.  I believe in the Almighty God and He is the only God I believe in.  There is a diagram that can be made from one of Walt Whitman's poems.  It is a rectangle with Son, Father, Spirit and Satan on each of its side.  In the middle is Self.  This means that your Self is made up of all four of those things.  Each "character" affects you in some way.  Next up is my personality and self-perception.  I am an outgoing, caring, funny, loving, trustworthy person.  I love helping others and being able to lend a hand to someone in need. I enjoy meeting new people and one of my best friends is because I went up to her and we just clicked.  Lastly is other's perception of me.  I think that this is what really counts because people judge you on how you act because they cannot see what is inside of you.  People tell me that I am a very caring person because I am nice to everyone.  I am especially nice to those who do not have many friends.  I try to befriend the students who are made fun of sop that they know that I am there is they need help.  

Journal #33

Stress.  It is a six letter word that causes much pain in people's lives.  It makes the days drag on and puts people in bad moods.  Stress can be caused if you have too many things on your plate at once or on your list of to-dos that you have to get done.  It can also be a result of relationships, school, sports, family, jobs, etc.  The biggest factor of stress is LIFE.  Life is stressful, very stressful.  It is stressful because you do not know what is going to happen in the next five minutes, days, months, or years.  The future is not predictable, which I wish it was because I am a Type A person.  I like to have everything laid out and planned so I can check things off the list as I go.  Life would be so much easier if it was already laid out in front of you.  You would know every twist and turn that would happen to you in the future. Back to stress.  When you are under a lot of stress, it is always nice to have some things to do to help you to relax.   A couple of things that I like to do are: lay on the couch and watch T.V., read my book, snuggle with my cat, clean or bake something.  All of these things have something in common and that is that it takes my mind of the things that are stressing me out.  My favorite thing to do when I am under stress is to back.  I pick out a recipe and get everything out.  Then I blare some music and focus all of my energy into making my dish delightful.  The best part about baking is that once it is baked, you can eat it! When I bake, I like to make a lot of dessert items and chocolate and sweets always put me in a good mood.  Gosh I love food. 

Journal #32

At first when I read this journal topic, I did not understand. I was then old that I was supposed to write about what it is like to change the way people think and how they do things. This foreshadows how Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson revolutionized the way people thought and did things during that time period.  Their writings most likely still affect people, but probably not as much as it did at that time.  At that time, everyone was used to seeing poems with iambic pentameter and themes of patriotism, love, nature, religion, and death.  From what I know about Emily Dickinson, I know that she writes with full rhyme and slant rhyme but also writes about the meaning of life.  I got to a youth group at my church and my youth leader always has good lessons to teach us.  Some of the lessons he teaches makes the people who are listening step back and have to reevaluate their life and how they are living it. That happens a lot because he knows exactly how to capture our attention make us realize that they way we are living is not the best way to live.  Today I have poms and I do not want to go.  This Friday is the last home basketball, which means that it is senior night.  On the poms team, there are six seniors. Everyone but the seniors has to bring in items to put in goodie bags for the seniors.  The school provides flowers for the seniors, so we do not have to do that.  That will save a lot of money because flowers can be expensive.  My mom told me she got some items for the girls, but I never found out what they were.  I will have to find out tonight what the items are because I have to bring them in tomorrow and give them to my coach.  WE have to start learning the dance tonight and it is going to be interesting.  Wish me luck.

Journal #31

Gossip is a six letter word that can do some deadly damage.  It is done everywhere at all times.  It is sad that it is that way but it is just such a common thing that everyone does.  I do not think I know one person who does not gossip.  Okay I may know a few who do not but out of all the people I have met in my life, there is only a handful who refrain from taking part in the act.  Staying away from gossip is very hard and I tried to come up with something cool to compare it to, but I am not that talented enough.  Oh well, I am still good at other things.  Back to gossiping.  Gossiping is done so much that people do not even realize that they are doing it.  Today I started to gossip and I did not even realize it.  I eventually saw that I was and I turned to the person I was talking to and I was like, "We were just gossiping."  Right before that, someone at our table was talking about how we had to write a journal on gossip in English today.  I am just glad that I realized that I was gossiping so I could stop myself before I got any further.  Gossiping hurts so many people and that is he worst part about it.  Most people are not gossiping to hurt someone, but there others who do gossip to hurt or get back at someone.  Sometimes when I am talking to my friends, I start to tell them stories of what happened in class and what people said, but that does not always mean that I am gossiping.  Telling stories of what happened is not considered gossiping.  For example, yesterday someone sat down in their chair and it broke (the chairs were old and I thought I was going to break one).  After it happened, I told my friends and we were making fun of the person who broke the chair, we were laughing at what happened.  There is a big difference in laughing at the person and laughing at the event.  

Journal #30

A civil right is a privilege or right given to people.  Some examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, assembly, and press.  The Civil Rights was this huge movement that took place during the mid 1950's to the late 1960's.  During this time, discrimination against African-Americans was a ginormous problem.  African-Americans were segregated from everything like: schools, water fountains, bathrooms, stores, restaurants, etc. An important figure was Martin Luther King Jr. He was an African-American activist who wanted to change the world's view of colored people.  Just because the people had a different colored skin did not mean that they should be treated differently.  Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and presented a speech called "I Have a Dream."  This speech changed the world and impacted millions of people.  Another important figure during the Civil Rights movement was Rosa Parks.  She was an African-American who one day got onto a city bus and sat down in the front.  The front of the bus was meant for white people and the back of the bus was meant for the colored people.  Rosa Parks went against those separations and sat down in the while section of the bus.  The bus began to fill up and white people told her to give up her seat and move to the back.  She refused to give up her seat and because of her action, she was arrested.  What she did though sparked other people's actions to stop the movement.  Colored people began to boycott the city buses to make a point.  Today is February 4, 2013 and on this exact day if she was still alive, she would be one-hundred years old.  ONE-HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Isn't that crazy?! If she were still alive it would be awesome.  She would be admired each and every day. Today is also Momma H's birthday.  This is Helena's mommy.  She is also my second mommy because I love her very very much.  Helena does not know how old she is but she thinks she turned forty-nine. 

Journal #29

I am here to talk about a time when nature was in control.  Well today is a perfect example of just that.  All day it has been kind of nasty out with drizzling rain and gray skies.  After school got out, the storm front started to move in.  I was at poms practicing and we were in an area where we were able to view the outside.  At one point I turn around and the sky is BLACK.  It was just sprinkling but I knew it was going to pour in a couple of minutes.  And sure enough, it did start to pour.  The clouds just opened up and drenched the land underneath.  All the track people were outside running and they all come sprinting through the doors.  Every single one of them was soaked to the core.  They were all dripping with rain water mixed with sweat.  I do not think that anyone had a dry spot on them.  About ten minutes after they came back in, the power flicked off once everyone had just gotten back to working out and practicing.  As soon as the lights went out, screams could be heard all over the school.  There were girls in the locker room, where it does not have any windows, the basketball boys were practicing in the large gym, and the cheerleaders were in the small gym.  I am pretty sure that they were the loudest screamers of anyone in the school. We all figured that the power would come back on because it usually does but five minutes passed and it still had not come back on.  The coaches all decided to go ahead and end practices about an hour early.  The bad thing though was that everyone was allowed to leave in the middle of the storm.  When driving, you could barely see in front of you and the wind was blowing.  There were puddles on the side of the road, which made hydroplaning much easier.  

Journal #28

It is amazing how diverse the Unites States is. Being diverse allows for the country to be filled with tons of differing cultures and social statuses. A couple if years ago my family and I decided to drive to Florida for a family vacation. The place we wanted to go to was 14 hours away so we did not want to drive it all at once. Instead, we made plans to drive to Memphis, Tennessee and stay there for the night. That was the first time my siblings and I had ever been to Memphis. Right away I could tell it was nothing like Springfield because of the people, smells, and the layout. The first thing we did was check into our hotel and that was around five o clock, so we were starting to work up an appetite. Down in the hotel lobby, my dad asked the receptionist for recommendations on places to eat. The receptionist recommended this one barbecue rib place. Then we set off to find this restaurant. What was cool was that we could just walk to the place instead of driving. While we were in Memphis, we only walked to the places we wanted to go instead of driving. Everything was in close range of each other and packed close.  Once we got to the place where we were going to eat dinner, a waitress escorted up to our table. I took a look around at all the people around me and what I saw, I was not used to. I saw mangy, smelly, scruffy men dressed in ripped clothing. This sight is not usually seen in Springfield. The food we ate was DELICIOUS and was totally worth being in an unusual place. After dinner, we walked around and at one point, a homeless man walked up to us. He begged my dad for money and he even gave my sister and I a flower that he had picked off of a bush. It was a really nice gesture so my dad gave the homeless man a couple of dollars, which did not make my mom very happy. 

Journal #27

One thing that I could never even fathom is being away from my home in another country.  What would be even harder would be fighting in the military to defend our country.  I am a person who loves being with my family pretty much at all times.  I was raised to spend time with my family.  Our family is really close, which is something I am very thankful for.  Most parents go on vacations alone so that they can be away from their kids.  My parents would always bring us because they enjoy being together as a family.  The longest my parents have been away from us kids would be one night.  They take yearly trips up to IKEA up by Chicago.  This summer, I was the away for the longest I have ever been from my family.  In July, the poms team went to Tan-Tara Resort in Missouri.  I was gone for a total of four days and it was hard at first being away but then I forgot about that and just had fun.  Because I freaked out at Poms camp, I figure I wouldn't do very well in another country.  Not only would I be in another country, I would also be in the war, fighting.  Fighting could lead to death.  Death is scary.  Death is bad.  I don't want to die.  Right there I was thinking about myself and yes I was being selfish.  I should think about our country and everyone else in it.  I would like to be able to defend our country because I find enjoyment in helping out.  If I could, I would, but I can't so I shan't.  I have a cousin who is a Marine.  He just got married and he is going to be getting deployed again in March.  His new wife has a kid from  her past marriage.  I can't even imagine having to leave his new family for seven months.  That is another reason I would not be able to go overseas. 

Journal #26.25

There have been many things in my life that did not turn out how I thought they would.  Some of the things are positive, while the others are negative.  I bet you wanted to hear a positive thing that turned out unexpectedly,  but I can only think of one negative thing.  Every since i was little, I have been playing softball.  When I was in kindergarten, I was on a team in a tee-ball league.  I was on the Redbirds and our biggest rival were the Cubs.  As I got older, I was on teams in a coach-pitch league and then moved up to kid-pitch.  My first school softball team was at St. Agnes when I was in 6th grade.  I started over 8th graders and I was only in 6th grade! That season was full of memories that makes me miss it.  The summer of 7th grade, my family and I switched to Pleasant Plains.  I went to the tryouts for softball not knowing anyone there.  The first day, I made a bunch of new friends and I made the A team!  Our coach was really tough and I definitely got a workout that season! The girls on my team helped me to adjust to public school and made sure I did not get beat up.  Haha I am just kidding, I did not get beat up!  The following year, i was also on the A team.  Our team was not as good as the year before but we still had fun.  Then came high school softball.  My freshman year softball season was AWESOME.  I was on the JV team along with freshman and a couple of sophomores.  Our JV team grew so close and so many memories it was crazy.  Sadly, last year was horrible.  I had multiple times throughout the season where I wanted to quit because I was not having fun and some of the girls were mean.  I thought it was going to be a fun year but it turned out to be awful.

Journal #26

I am supposed to write about something particular in the region or area I live in.  The first thing that popped into my head was the horseshoe.  I learned not to long ago that horseshoes are not served all over the country instead, their origin is Springfield, Illinois.  It feels pretty fantastic knowing that an incredible dish originates from my hometown and where I live.  You would think I would know this but I guess everyone assumed that I knew.  I never knew that until one of my friends was talking to a foreign exchange student from Germany.  I have grown up on horseshoes so i just figured that it was a national common dish.  Who knew it wasn't? But if you fail to know what a horseshoe is, I will enlighten you.  There are two main meanings for a horseshoe.  The first meaning which makes sense is a metal piece that is attached to the hoof of a horse.  The horseshoe keeps debris and foreign items from entering into the hoof.  The other meaning is a food item.  The basic horseshoe is a slice of white bread, a hamburger patty, and then topped with cheese sauce and french fries.  Gosh just typing this makes me so hungry.  Now that I think about it, I have not had a horseshoe in FOREVER.  I will have to go to the nearest restaurant and get myself a delicious horseshoe.  Too bad horseshoes are not good for you.  Wouldn't that be nice? I mean it is white bread, cheese sauce AND french fries.  Carbohydrates and grease are a perfect match to a healthy meal...NOT. Anyway back to the horseshoe.  The meat on in the horseshoe can be traded for ham, pork tenderloin, fried or grilled chicken and even fish.  Some of those choices sound pretty nasty and I do not think I would try them.  There is also a breakfast horseshoe that is made with eggs and hash browns.  Now that sounds yummy!

Journal #25

I love the idea of giving.  Every since I was little, I enjoyed helping out whether it was cooking or scooping the cat's litter box.  My mom tells me stories about when my younger sister was born.  At that time, I was three years old.  I loved helping take care of my sister, and yes it included changing her rancid poop-filled diapers.  I liked the thought of helping someone out.  Another occurrence of giving when I was younger was in kindergarten.  Around Christmas my class and I made Christmas cards for the elderly.  There was a retirement home a couple blocks away from my school I was going to at the time.  As a class, we were actually able to walk to the retirement home and personally deliver the cards.  I can still remember that day because of all the shining faces and thank yous we got.  I love making people's days so that day was a dream for me because we made their days ten times better.  The older lady that I gave my beautifully made teared up when I handed it to her.  She pulled me into a great big hug and my heart just filled with joy.  While in the embrace, I was comfortable because it was like hugging my grandmother.  Luckily as I got older, I was able to take on more activities to help out more people.  Most recently, I volunteered for my church in a program called Hope for the Holidays.  This program was created to help families who could not provide meals during the holiday season.  My job during my shift was too bag around ten items in one bag.  In the shift I was in, we bagged over four hundred bags.  Can you imagine how many families were able to feel full more than one time in a day? Afterwards, the church displayed all of the wooden pallets that the food was on in the front of the church so that people were able to see what we did!