Blog #9

My ideal vacation just occurred this past September.  My parent's for their 40th Wedding Anniversary took my family and my sister's families to Walt Disney World!  The last time I was there was 1988, I was so excited, and this was my daughter's first time.  It was great to be with my sister's, brother-in-laws, parent's and of course my husband and daughter, it's not often that you have the opportunity anymore to go on a family vacation together.  The best part was my daughter turned 9 when we were there, so every where we went, the characters would wish her a Happy Birthday, it was so special.  We had awesome weather, and because it was September the water parks were still open, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach were fantastic, of course, I would be fine laying out by the pool at the resort as well.  We got to trick or treat at the Magic Kingdom -it was the most amazing light show I have ever seen, as you lined the street's for the parade, music comes on and then there before your eyes is the Headless Horseman on Horseback appearing out of nowhere and riding down main street!  It was incredible, my husband and I just looked at each other with our jaws dropped, we couldn't even speak we were so awestruck.  The crazy thing was just as quickly as he appeared he disappeared again.  I also finally got to go in Cinderella's Castle and have dinner with the princess's, I have always wanted to see the inside of the Castle and I got to share that with my daughter the night of her birthday!  It was worth everything, the service was incredible, and my daughter was so in awe at the beautiful princess's that came to talk to her and wish her Happy Birthday, I actually teared up at dinner and my husband looked at me across the table and said "You gave our baby a memory that she will never forget." What more can I say, nobody does it like Disney, from the fireworks, to the amazing parks, the friendliest staff it truly is the Greatest Place on Earth.

Blog #8

This semester has been full of papers, or small essays; when it started it was difficult for me to come up with ideas.  I was afraid I lost my creativity, I would just stare at the computer screen with a terrible sense of writer's block.  I then started to rely on writing things I knew, and before long thoughts were coming to me. Granted it wasn't make up things or being creative but it worked.  I realized that when you get to a certain age make believe is no more, because you have enough life experience to alter how you used to think.  You think what's possible more than what can be.  I think that's why it has been such a struggle, when I was younger, high school age, I was a terrrific writer and was not afraid to write papers that's why when no ideas would come I started to panic. This has been good for me, it has made me push myself and get my thoughts out.  This has been a great outlet, and I think will help as I continue on in college.  I am much more aware of comma's now, grammer has always been a strugle.  I really try to focus on flowing from one subject to the other and making sure the order of things makes sense to the reader.  The feedback that I,ve received from my peers so far has been good. I think if you want to grow, you have to continue to write, even if it's not for school.  I wish I would have done that when I graduated from high school, it would have really benefited me.

Blog #7

It was quite difficult to pick a research topic, it took weeks, then finally my husband said "pick a topic your interested in, the idea's will flow".  I hate to admit it but he was right, I like archery it's something I started because of my husband, and about a week before he gave me this idea, we were at my daughter's school talking to her gym teacher about starting an archery program.  He said he was working on it but getting alot of negativity from the school board, I then decided to do some research on it and if I found good things about it, we could present it to them. It wasn't difficult to find, many schools around the country are doing it and the testimonials we really encouraging.  It's a sport that as a society has been forgotten.  Most people think of robin hood when they hear bow and arrow, but it's really much more than that.  There's a concentration and a technique to it and like golf you compete with yourself.  If you don't follow through the same way every time you won't do well.  We also noticed that some of our prestige's colleges still had archery teams, and awarded scholarships.  I don't know anyone who doesn't want the help of a scholarship.  My next thing was to find out if kids would like it and be enthusiastic if it was offered, because that's the real reason for offering it in the first place.  Again the testimonials were out of this world!  The kids not only liked it they embraced it they were excited, also the best thing was you didn't have to be the typical "jock" to be good at it anyone could do it even children with handicaps.  It was an exciting topic to research, and I hope by the time I'm able to get my teaching degree it will be offered in our school.

Blog #6

The Christmas Holiday fly's by for my family.  As soon as Christmas Eve hits were off and running literally.  Christmas Eve morning were up at the crack of dawn, getting cleaned up, grabbing what's needed for the day (because we won't return until about 10pm that night) and heading to visit my in-laws.  We visit, play games, and cook and cook all morning, around 2pm we eat!  Usually we could feed any army with the amount of food that we make, so lunch the next day is all the left-overs.  By 4pm were out the door and heading to my dad's side of the family.  We have the party by taking turns,  every 8yrs it's my turn, 20 people in all. We eat and laugh. We then exchange presents, each person is to bring one gift wrapped with no name on it, we then draw numbers and pick from the pile by the number you were given. You can pick an un-wrapped present by the pile or take someone else's. The last person to pick has the best advantage because they can take any of the gifts.  The fun part is we usually fight over the most ridiculous gift, and it's a riot when
everyone opens them to see what they were fighting for. Then we head for home because Santa has to come sometime that night.  We have to wait for our daughter to go through her rituals of setting out cookies and milk, writing a letter to Santa, and going out to the front yard to put "special" reindeer food in the front lawn.
Christmas Day unfortunately is not any slower than the day before, we get up open our presents, by 10:30 my in-laws come over to exchange and have brunch(the left-overs) Then by 3pm we say good-bye and leave to go to my parents home for dinner and to exchange as well.  When it's all said and done we usually get back home around midnight. WHEW!

Blog Due November 17th

My Blog this week is on a concept I learned in psychology class.  It is called Reactive Attachment Disorder.
I feel this is an important subject because it is an issue that continues to happen, there are orphans from other countries who have very little contact or affection from orphanage workers.  This takes a toll on the child's biological, emotional, and social well being, if this goes untreated this can be a disorder they deal with through adulthood.  I have seen this issue at work, My employer participates in a program called Kid Save in which families from the United States take in orphan children from the Ukraine.  The primary goal of this program is to find families to adopt these children.  Usually the host family is very much interested in adopting these children or they know of someone who may be interested.  The children are lent to believe that this is a first vacation for them, they do not want the children to become attached to these families or pressured by potential families.  From my experience in meeting these children and providing free dental care for them, you can quickly see how unattached they are to the people around them, this is an adventure to them and nothing more.  It is so sad because some children do not make a connection with their host, because of this they are sent back without another chance to meet another family.  These children do not know what opportunity's they have while they are in America, nor do they understand what a truly great life they can lead with loving families.  Some of the younger children adopted have adapted well, it's taken time but they have adjusted.  One of the obstacles they've had to deal with are teaching the children to be cautious/fearful of unfamiliar surroundings or people.  With their past experiences they were transferred from orphanage to orphanage and were constantly around different care givers, they were never taught about the dangers of the outside world, it didn't pertain to them.  Many of these children if not adopted by age 14, will be out on their own with no knowledge of how to live a normal life, or how to survive without turning to predators for help.  There are so many children in orphanages, there's not enough people to work in them and there is not enough orphanages to house these children.  Unfortunately as well the care givers are uneducated and try to deter the children from making connections with hopeful families, this is a situation that I don't see changing in the near future.  I hope someone with influence can see this tragic epidemic and protect these innocent children.

Bibliography Blog due November 3, 2010

My Research paper is on education.  My question is How Archery added to elementary schools will help students?  I myself love the sport of Archery, and hunting.  It is a sport that requires concentration, structure, and good form.  It consist of repetition,  you must practice using the same form every time you shoot your bow.  My daughter has been shooting since age 4, and she is incredible!  I love to watch her concentrate, and her movements are so smooth and fluid it's a beautiful sight.  She knows that it is a very serious sport and there is no time for foolishness, she is aware of the respect that goes along with this sport. My husband and I have introduced this sport to some of our daughter's friends(of course with consent from their parents),they receive strict instruction on the safety and etiquette that goes with archery.  They response is the same every time, they love it!! Their confidence is amplified, they love shooting together at targets or balloons that we set up in the yard.  It truly is nice, it's a good family bond.  We enjoy going to shoots all over the state, and shooting at our Flint Bowman's Club, it's a family friendly environment.  Not only is there the fun aspect but also the academic one.  Many ivy league schools have Archery as one of their sports.  They offer scholarships through Archery Programs, and there is Olympic possibilities.  Just a year and half ago two young girls from the Flint Bowman's Club went to Kenya to shoot in the Olympics, they did very well and now have Ivy schools in their future.  I have expressed this interest with some teachers at my daughter's school who we know are bow hunter's as well, they have gone before the board asking for Archery to become apart of school and have met some resistance.  The Board is worried about insurance cost's but little do they realize, Archery is so much safer a sport than any other one they offer now.  There are facts to back this up and to show the improvements the children in schools have shown.  There are 25 states currently on line with these programs.  They have helped the wildlife programs in their states with this added revenue, and children's grades have gone up.  I hope my research paper will shed some light on this subject, and hopefully I will be able to gather more facts and figures to go to the board with.

Blog #4-due October 6th, 2010

To my fellow bow hunters, or to non-hunters I would like to give you a glimpse of what early season bow hunting is to me.  Most people welcome the cooler weather because they know football is coming, or maybe it's because of the comfort food that comes with the season, and to other's it may be the beauty of the great outdoors, this is the part that I like Best!  There really is nothing like October 1st,  you wake up at the crack of dawn and while your getting in your gear to go into the woods you can't help but take clear cool breaths of the morning air, it makes your lungs feel so cleansed.  You look at your hunting partner, and can't help but smile because you know you are about to share a glorious spiritual experience. I love when I finally get situated in my tree stand, the quiet blankets you, there's time to yourself to get lost in your thoughts or personal time to talk and pray to God, if only there were more hours in the day for this.  Then it happens, the sun's rays start to filter through the woods, they look like streams of golden color and appear like the band's of color you would see in a rainbow.  The sounds of the woods come alive at this time as well, the birds sing their songs and talk to each other and the squirrel's are busy gathering their winter bounty.  The color's of the tree's around you are so vibrant that you become mesmerized and you know how lucky you are to see this beautiful gift.  Then the time comes for the magnificent deer, this creature is so beautiful, and yet so cunning.  Their senses are always on full alert, they could spot you before you spot them.  Their eye's, their ears, their sense of smell is truly amazing, and it is extremely difficult to have a deer get close to you.  If you are able to take the animal it is such an intense feeling, you know that you have provided for your family.  You know that they are going to be fed with lean, organic, non-chemical food and it makes you feel so humble and honored.  We have brought up our daughter to respect nature and it's animal's and to take hunting very seriously, it sickens me that hunting has become a weekend excuse to go to a deer camp and drink yourself stupid, or that it's an excuse to go shopping for the family's at home.  Where did the bonding go, and the sense of family and tradition.  My family and I have not forgotten to take the time to appreciate nature and to thank God for yet another incredible gift.  I hope for the non-hunter's that read this Blog, you will see how beautiful  hunting can be and even if hunting is not for you, that you take the time this fall to get lost in nature and lost in yourself.

Melissa Gross

Movie Review for English Class

Forest Gump

This movie is an example of a Memoir/Dramatic Genre.  It is about the life of a loving man. When the movie ends you want to see what happens with the rest of his life.

If you want a movie that makes you feel every emotion, then this is the one for you!  It is an endearing film about one amazing man and his life's journey.  From the moment it starts, this movie will have you begging for more.  The actor Tom Hanks does an incredible job, it is by far his BEST performance ever.  He plays a person who lives and thinks in simple terms, but does the most incredible things in his life!  The things you will see him go through will have you awestruck.  Throughout the movie there are famous figures in history from the 1960's to present day.  The way that they entwined actual history and famous people of that time with this character is phenomenal!
The movie begins with a young Forest Gump and his best friend Jennie.  Of course because of his innocent behaviour and thought he is picked on unmercifully by other children at school, until Jennie she can see his kindness and they become life-long friends.  Of course as they age to their late teens/early twenties they go their separate ways.  Jennie goes off into the Hippie cult, while Forest enlists in the armed services and goes over seas to Vietnam.  The actual historical footage they show from Vietnam is spectacular, you feel as though you are there in that horrible war with Forest.  Of course Forest meets other men from the war and befriends them in the most unlikely way.  You laugh at their friendship and then minutes later you cry because of his loss of a friend and the injury of another, but of course Forest receives a medal of honor from no other but the president, and they actual show footage of President Johnson as if he's talking to Forest!  Then he sees Jennie again and just as quickly as they meet she's off to find herself, she leaves him and your heart breaks for him all over again. 
Life for Forest continues to amaze you even after the war, he becomes the captain/owner of a shrimp boat business, per his dying friends wish from the war.  He helps his friend who sustained injuries from the war live life again and all along he does it in the simplest of ways.  It's truly Amazing!  He continues on, he decides one day he's going to run and then he just starts running that simple! It just doesn't stop but there's too many endeavors  to list, You truly have to see this to believe it. The one thing that remained throughout this crazy adventure was his love for Jennie!
This movie is so inspiring, this man was able to achieve spectacular things.  He didn't even realize the significance of what he accomplished and the people he met.  He just lived life his way, and you as the viewer root for him every step of the way.  The simple lines that he said in this movie, people refer to and mimic all the time.  It has become a pop icon, and will go down in history as one the best movies of all time!  And just when you think it's over Jennie returns and gives Forest an amazing gift.  You'll have to see it to believe it.  So grab a comfortable chair and a snack and get ready for a wonderful adventure!

Post due 9/22 for Mrs Brooks english class/Facebook is the subject

My thoughts this week brought me to Facebook.  It's everywhere and anywhere, even on t.v. you see an ad and your told to check them out on their facebook page.  There's even a movie coming out about this phenomena, which lead me to the question when or how did facebook start?
The network was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, it started at Harvard and was a paper that was passed around the class so you could get to know your fellow students, that is until it was introduced to the internet! Zuckerberg got the idea from his high school Philips Exeter Academy which is the school that was first to pass the paper around the student body.
The interest in facebook caught on quickly and soon half the schools in Boston were using it.  Facebook was growing so fast and wide spread that Zuckerberg brought in Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes. Just four months after this merger they added thirty more colleges to the network.  They relocated to Palo Alto and that's when Zuckerberg ran into Sean Parker co founder of Napster, together they were able to get an investment from Peter Thiel co founder of PayPal.  This meeting paid off they were able to get their first investment for $500,000.  After this investment and merger they had many companies after them trying to buy them out but they turned everyone of them down. In 2005 they decided to open up facebook to high school students, they then received a $1,000,000 investment from Greylock Partners and this enabled them to open up globally to anyone who had an email address.  Facebook has now employed over 1,000 employees and growing.
Lately on the news there's widespread concern for members of Facebook that have become addicted.  I tried it out last winter, it was fun to talk to relatives out of state but I started to grow quite tired of the friends who were discussing such trivial things as what shampoo they were going to try out.  There were silly thinks like pass a drink?  It did feel like high school all over again, and I just have moved to far past that period to go back.  My personal time is so limited and so precious that I just don't make the time for useless conversation.  I would much rather see my friends and family in person, pass them a real drink and visit about everything and anything.  When you have to get a Cyber hug from someone, you realize that things have gone from personal to cold!  It makes me worry for my daughter and her generation, will they have lasting relationships? Will they make real connections? Or will they not have the time or energy to visit with someone so they would rather let them know their at home, tell them what their eating for dinner or watching on t.v! Yuck!