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!