Snow Days

Not that I can really remember the very first time I saw snow. But one of the first times that I do remember was about second grade. The winter of second grade was the starting point of sledding with friends. I woke up one morning to get ready for school when my mother told me that it was canceled. Being the person that I am I wasn’t too bummed. Later on in life I would have went back to bed and slept all day. But I was young so I had energy. I called up all my friends and we rounded up sleds and headed to our near by hill. This hill was special because all the other kids did not know about it; so it was never to busy. Being only a couple blocks from the house our parents would let us go by ourselves. Every snow day that we would have from now on we knew what we were going to do and where we were going to be.
The hill consisted of this big valley that ended up running through the woods. Before it go to the woods though you could sled down either side of the valley. This soon became a hot spot as we grew up. There were a lot of memories that we had at the hills. It was where I had my first kiss which was really EXCITING. Also became the first place my friends and I got drunk. About 200 yards back from the sledding area was sugar creek; which would become our swimming hole during the summer time. This place will always be in our memories. The good and bad memories that is.
As my friends and I grew older and started skateboarding; once it snowed we would have to turn to snow boarding. No where else better to try to snow board then our hill. Since skateboarding wasn’t too hard, snow boarding was not either. We were not professionals but we tried our hardest to be. We would build ramps that got bigger in size as we gained more experience. I was lucky enough to have never broken anything but two of my friends did. Once we were better we started snow boarding down the wooded side of the valley. Which we considered the advanced part of the hill; just because of all the trees you had to dodge. Forget the snowmen I think that every child’s past time is sledding.

My new Jeep-Blog 1

I knew it was time for a change when my tires began to just spin in the snow and ice this winter. I was fed up and wondered why on earth I had gotten a car. Finally the warm weather began to sink in and I knew it was time for a change. One night I headed on over to Kahlo Jeep in Noblesville to pick myself out a new ride. I knew right then exactly what I had wanted; a black Jeep Liberty with all of the extras. But when I arrived I had realize I had wasted about a half a tank of gas. Bummed and ready to give up I slowly head back towards Crawfordsville. I was going through Lebanon when I noticed a small car lot and right there shining beautifully was a brand new Jeep Cherokee Laredo. I slam on my brakes and pull into the lot. I had never thought about buying one of these, but something in my heart tugged at it. It was a shimmering black with leather seats and "oh my goodness" a sunroof. I thought to myself that this thing was perfect. I just was really worried about the price...could I afford something like this. I walk slowly up to the door hoping to talk to one of the usually annoying salesperson, but I could not find one when I wanted one. I looked on the door and noticed that I had arrived fifteen minutes too late. Bummed, I drove back to Crawfordsville. I knew that I could try again in the morning. That night I tossed and turned just thinking about driving that black beauty. I jumped out of bed as fast as I could at 8 o'clock in the morning and drove to Lebanon with great speed. As soon as I pulled in, but what do I see? A friendly salesperson just waiting there for me, it seemed as if he knew what I was after. He was extremely nice and worked within my budget. We crunched numbers for what seemed to be hours. Within' the day I must have signed away my life 100 different times until a hand shake ended the deal. And lying in the palm of my hand was a set of keys with a yellow tag that said..."2005, Grand Cherokee Laredo, Black." Now the only thing missing is my Dave Matthews Firedancer sticker sitting on the windshield; trust me I am stilling waiting for that to come in the mail. Then the Jeep will begin to feel like ALL mine!

Goofy Golfing! Blog 2

So the other day Megan and I had the great idea to go to a driving range and hit golf ball. We both do not have any experience with golfing and we knew this would be a laughing good time. As soon as I was leaving my last class in Lafayette, I called Megan up to tell her to head over. I knew we were going to have a blast. We then decided that my mom should go with us. Since she is so much fun , she is like a teenager ,and always makes any situation a blast. We soon all piled into my Jeep and headed to the driving range near New Richmond. We head out and saw such a funny sight...someone driving a machine that picks up the golf balls. It reminded us all of Happy Gilmore and we began making bets to hit that machine. I grabbed my bucket of golf balls and they followed close behind all the way to our spots. First thing I do is grab my camera and began taking pictures of my mom and Megan hitting golf balls. Let's just say this was such a funny sight to see three goofy girls trying our best to hit golf balls. We all missed the balls and did a funny spin. Right after I missed I turned around and a golf ball came flying at me. Somehow Megan had hit me with the golf ball. This made us drop to the ground and just die laughing. I can't remember the last time I had cried from laughing. I was extremely excited to hit the ball clear to the yellow flag which to everyone else was only 160 yards. Lying out in front of Megan was a huge pile of white....let's just say she did not hit her golf balls very far. My mom had the best golf swing I have ever seen. Her little body put out so much effort and will all that strength behind her swing, the golf balls seemed to only travel with a slow pace. I had such a great time that day. We all knew the next day we would be sore, because it must have taken us two hours to get through our huge bucket of balls. I can not wait until the day that we can go golfing on a real course, since we have become instant pros overnight!

Advertising blog 9

We talked about advertising in class, and if the messages they send do or do not affect how we think. A lot of people got upset at the thought that advertising effects how they think, but if you think about it; it does affect us greatly. If you look back to even the early 1900’s advertising had an effect on what was bought, what was thought, and what was worn. The propaganda that was used did influence people’s thinking. During WWII they had posters about car pooling, about how evil Japan and Germany were, and to buy war bonds. People believed these advertisements and propaganda so strongly that even today you can see the effects of them. After WWII, there was the McCarthyism that struck the country. McCarthy was a senator that tried anyone who was different and said that they were communists. There was propaganda up about that and people freaked out. This continued until McCarthy attacked the U.S. Army; causing him to be discredited. I know that people want to think that they are totally independent, but they’re not.
Even now we have advertisements that shape our way of thinking. Just think about the concept of beauty. In Marylyn Monroe’s time, a beautiful woman was considered to have big hips and big breasts. Later on it became a skinny woman with no hips or breasts. Now it is a skinny woman with large breasts but no hips. You want to know how you can tell the tastes have changed? Just look at who the famous models are now. They have gotten that way from advertising. All of the latest styles come from Italy usually, right; those styles come here and presto, instant attractiveness change. It is amazing. How do you think you want to wear Abercrombie and finch? You see sexy people in those clothes and it goes to your mind that, “Hey, if I dress like that then I will be coo and sexy too.” Why else would you pay almost 100 dollars for ONE pair of jeans that are going to fall apart soon anyways?

'Tona blog 8

Do you remember your first car? You know, the car that you paid for with your own money. I remember mine. It was a 1988 red Dodge Daytona; it was and is my dream car. I loved it even though it was old and starting to fall apart. It wasn’t a beautiful thing to look at, but that didn’t matter. The driver’s side door would not unlock with a key if you unlocked; the passenger side door didn’t open from the outside; and if you accidentally locked all the doors, you had to crawl in from the trunk to open the doors. It was great. How I got it is an interesting story. My mother actually bought it for her window-washing business. When I saw it then, I was instantly in love with it. It was that cheap car that was actually in fairly good condition; well eventually she got to the point where she wanted a truck because it would be easier to tote everything around in. So the vehicle went to my brother and me so that we could drive to school. We paid, mostly me, the gas while mom and dad paid the insurance.
It was also at this time that we were working at the RCA Dome concession stands to raise money for the band and the winter guard. Since my brother had a job, and was working all the time; I got “volunteered” to ALWAYS work at the dome. At first it was fun but after the 30th time you work there, you start to dread it. So as a way to make it up to me, mom and dad decided to give me the car. They said that since I was always working at the dome; I had earned the five hundred dollars they had spent on it.
Now you know this story doesn’t have a happy ending because this is all in past tense. Well it was the morning of my graduation open house; I was on my way to pick up my boyfriend. He was going to help us set up the chairs, balloons, pictures, etc. I was driving along to go get him; when at the intersection next to Pizza Hut and 47, in Crawfordsville, this girl ran the red light. You have no idea how hard a hit is at 30 miles per hour unless you have experienced it. Well she T-boned me on the passenger side, bent up the wheel well, and officially totaled my car. I was so upset that I cried, but I also felt a queer sort of pride because the SUV that had hit me was completely totaled, more totaled than my ‘tona. That was the end of her but I someday I will own another ‘tona. A red ’88 Dodge Daytona, my dream car.

My Parents: Blog 1

My mom is the person in my life that means the most to me. She is the person that I can go to if I need anything at all. She will do anything for me to make my life easier. I admirer her for every thing she has been through and for the compassion she shows my sisters and me. She will sacrifice her happiness to make us girls happy. She became a mom at the very young age of seventeen. Although her and my dad had me at a very young age they stepped up to the plate and did what they had to do to raise their children. My mom had all three of us girls by the time she reached age twenty three. She was a great mom even though she was still a kid her self.
I have no idea how she did what she did. I could not imagine being a mother at my age, let alone having two kids by the age of twenty. Although you still see young mothers quite a bit today, a lot of them seem to push the job of raising the baby on someone else. That was not my mom’s case at all. Her and my dad did it all on their own, with out the help of anyone else or even money from the state like a lot of people do these days. They had jobs and sacrificed things in their lives to be able to take care of our family by them selves. They both have great paying jobs and with out their hard work I wouldn’t have the things I have today.
I wouldn’t be able to go to college and have a nice house, or clothes on my back with out good parents. They are relatively strict parents, and it used to drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t be the girl I am today if they would have let me do what ever I wanted. I wouldn’t be a goal oriented person that wants to succeed in life if it wasn’t for my mom and dad. They push me to do the best that I can and to do good in school so that I can one day fulfill my life goal of becoming a nurse. If my parents had not of taught me to work for what I want and that for every action there is a consequence, then who knows what type of person I would be today.
I want to succeed in life so that I can make my parents proud. To show them that every thing that they have done for me paid off in the long run. I know that I will make them happy they day I become a nurse. Me succeeding will make them feel as if they did a good job at raising me. And ill be the first person to tell them that they have.

My Pets

At my house we have three dogs, two cats, and ten horses. That is a lot of animals! I personally don’t consider the horses pets, because I never mess with them. My parents on the other hand absolutely love the horses. I am more of a dog or cat person. I don’t know why I don’t like horses a lot, but I think the main reason is that they aren’t very loving animals. Horses usually don’t even learn their names, and they never seem happy to see you unless you have food for them. Dogs and cats on the other hand are always at the door ready to greet you when you walk in.
My cat Charlie is the pet that I’ve had the longest. I've had him around eight years or so. Charlie is orange and white with the biggest belly you have ever seen on a cat. I bet that cat weighs at least 20-25 pounds. He is huge. Charlie is the typical lazy cat. He loves to sleep, eat, and be rubbed on. Sometimes I wish that I could be Charlie for a day. He definitely has a nice and easy life. Mama cat on the other hand is a barn ct we have. She ended up living in our horse barn one winter and has never left since. She is a black and white cat. You can really tell she is an outside cat. She used to be scared to death of people until we started feeding her. She lets us pet her now, but she isn’t as loving as Charlie. Neither one other cats like the dogs.
We have three dogs that stay inside. Daisy is a golden retriever, Springer is a boxer, and Maddie, the newest addition to the family, is a rat terrier. Daisy is a laid back dog that loves the water and playing fetch. She also likes to chew up all of my socks. She loves water so much sometimes she swims in the horses' water trough. That really pisses my mom off because she gets hair in the water. We used to breed golden retrievers and Daisy was our main female. Springer was a what I call a hand-me-down. She was given to us by a former cop. Springer is our guard dog. No person would ever walk foot in our house by themselves because Springer would tear them up. She may sound like a mean, viscous dog, bit actually she is probably the most loving dog I have ever had. She acts like a person. She sits on the couch like a person, and even sleeps under the blankets on a pillow. Springer is also one over fed beast. We had to put her on a diet because her joint were beginning to go out on her from being so over weight. Maddie is the little rat terrier I bought myself for Christmas. I fell in love with her when I saw her at the pet store. She was the smallest dog that I’ve seen. She could fit in my sweat shirt pocket. Now that she is older she is still fairly small. Maddie weighs around 5 pounds. It’s funny to see her next to Charlie. She is by far the most hyper dog of the bunch