Summer 2010

Sheesh I am really bad about keeping up with this thing. Maybe I should set an alarm on my phone or something to help remind me to update it once a week instead of once every six months.

There are quite a few things that are new in my world. We have a new dog whose name is max. He is a chewnie which is a mix of a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. He has 4 times the amount of energy Buddy ever had and he loves people. His favorite thing to do is get up in people's laps and lean against them and lick their ears. And he LOVES to run! I think he would run all day if we would let him.

Another thing that is new is that I have a handle on my panic attacks and its not a daily fight to not have one. I don't think about them as often. I am still going to counseling to deal with some of the the issues that brought them on in the first place, but I am much more stable emotionally.

I should be graduating in December if all goes according to plan (you know how that goes). I am doing the Alpha Omega online Academy so someone other than family will be teaching me. I think that is probably a change for the good.

I have also made some awesome new friends this summer. I got really close to Sammie and Jessica at camp this summer. Sammie and I are a lot alike in that we both have panic attacks and we both are pretty withdrawn in new crowds. Jessica and Sammie are pretty much long lost sisters and it is hilarious to see them interact. I love hanging out with them. They always help left my spirits. We are having movie nights because there are soo many movies Sammie has not seen including the Princess Bride! I don't know how its possible for no one to have seen that movie. I think it is on of the best of all time!

Senior Year

So this year I am a senior in high school. How weird is that? Time seems to be moving faster the older I get. In 24 days I turn 18 and become an "adult." Some how I don't think I am going to be very a good adult for my first year. I'm pretty sure I'll still act like a teenager.
In a way I miss being a kid. I could just play around and do whatever popped into my head with my friends. I watched a video I, my brother and my cousins made a little while ago. I miss those days when Courtney and I would put our heads together and come up with crazy sketch ideas that we would video. It was so much fun. But now it feels as if those days have passed me by, even though that was only back in April. It seems much longer than that some how.

I know the future isn't going to be all bad. I know God has some pretty good things in store for me. And I am looking forward to those. I just am realizing that I'm never going to be a kid again. and I feel like i'm losing something in that. Some form of innocence, of curiosity, of wonder at the world around me. When you become an "adult" you are required to start thinking "logically." You have to face facts and deal with those facts. There is not much wonder and mystery in paying bills.

I just don't want to those that sense of wonder and mystery that I get from the world around me. It makes me think of that verse in the Bible where Jesus says we have to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven. I think he said that because we have to have faith in God to do things we can't see or understand. Children are good at believing and having faith without asking questions. I want that kind of faith.

If I could be invisible....

If I could become invisible whenever I wanted to, I think I would be invisible most of the time. It would be much easier to hide whenever you did not want people to find you. It would also come in handy if you were in the habit of being chased by people, like if you were a celebrity or a popular band. But since I am not either of those I think I would use it most of the time to sneak off and read books all day or to creep out my family by suddenly appearing in front of them. Although I would have to be careful not to give my mom a heart attack, otherwise that could be painful for both of us.


I also think it would be cool to use in basketball games. It would be funny to see the confused looks on the other team and referee's faces. The only problem with that is that my team would not know where I was, therefore defeating the purpose of confusing everyone else. Maybe I could just be the distraction.

It would be especially interesting if I became invisible based on my emotions. Suppose if I were really sad or really mad I turned invisible. Whenever I wanted to be invisvible I would have to make myself mad or sad. I would be an even more emotional person. I think it would be cooler if I could just turn invisible without having to feel a specific emotion. My life would be very interesting if I had that power.

If people never co-operated

If people never co-operated then nothing would ever get done. The whole world would be in constant chaos, there would be endless wars and there would not be much of a population. There would not be enough food to feed people because nobody would be able to agree on what to grow, how much of it to grow, how to grow it, how to harvest it or how much to give out. Eventually people would just spread out and live alone. There would be a lot of feuds. If nobody ever got along, even from the beginning of time, then we would not be as technologically advanced and there would not be as many people in the world. Things would be a lot more primitive and hostile, it would be pretty much like when the settlers came to America and the Indians did not like it, only way worse.It would be horrible.

I think it is important to co-operate because it gets things done. Co-operating helps both sides to get what they want done. If I agree to do things your way this time, then chances are you will be more likely to do things my way the next time. If we co-operate we show that we have respect for the other person. I think that is important

What I am pessimistic about...

Aunt Laura says I am pessimistic about guys. I am not pessimistic, just realistic, there is a difference. My viewpoint is that guys at this age are not worth my time trying to like. Most of them are immauture and idiots. Harsh, but true. Eventually they will grow into good young men. But by that time I will be too busy with whatever God wants me to do, that I will not care about guys. Therefore liking guys at all is pointless. Now I do not mean that I do not have guy friends, I have plenty of them. And as friends guys are not so bad. They can be interesting to talk to and fun to hang out with.
Not all guys are bad at this age but they do tend not to make the best decisions. Sometimes you just want to punch them, because they tend to say things that are dumb. Sometimes I think they say things just to make you mad. It is like they want to get punched or hit. Maybe it is for the attention. That would make sense, if guys made sense. :P All I know is that this point, I am not interested.



Is that what you would like me to say Aunt Laura? or should I be more critical? lol just kidding.

My Parents

My parents are what some people would call old fashioned or strict parents. Some people would call them run of the mill, ordinary parents. But I know quite a few people who would call them kind, caring, wonderful people.
My parents work as chaplains at our local meat packing plant. They also are life boat captains at our church (which is just another way to say they lead our small group on Wednesdays), and my dad also works at the youth center (A.K.A juvie). As you can tell they are pretty busy people. Both of them are also going back to college to get a degree in psychology so they can become licensed counselors. They work hard to earn the money that we need to support a family of five.

Their job as chaplains involves listening to people when they need to talk, helping people find community resources to help them with things like food, money, or clothes. They make hospital visits and go to weddings and funerals. Sometimes my dad writes columns to put on the bulletin boards for people to read. My mom also takes people to doctors appointments and things like that if they do not have transportation. It is a very versatile job.

My dad's job at the youth center is to just be there and watch the kids. I am not really sure what all he does because he only recently started it.

As small group leaders they study the Bible with a group of friends that come over once a week. Everyone eats and they talk. Really this isn't a job, it's more of just being a friend.

Whatever they do they work hard at. I appreciate them working for us and for making sure that we have the things we need.

What I Think Should Be Done About DWI

DWI stands for driving while intoxicated or impaired. It means that you are drunk while driving a car. On average in America someone is killed every 40 minutes by a drunk driver. Drunk driving is extremely dangerous for the health of the person driving and for the other people on the road. Accidents involving drunk drivers kill around 13,000 people a year. It is a very costly traffic offence, for the people in the accident and for taxpayers.
"Alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost the public an estimated $114.3 billion in 2000, including $51.1 billion in monetary costs and an estimated $63.2 billion in quality of life losses. People other than the drinking driver paid $71.6 billion of the alcohol-related crash bill, which is 63 percent of the total cost of these crashes."*

Most of the public think that drinking while driving is a serious concern. A lot of people are in support of requiring drivers who have been convicted of drunk driving to use preventive measures like an ignition interlock device, which makes you blow into a tube to see how much alcohol is in your breathe. If it is too high it will not let you start the car.147

I think another good thing to do would be if someone is drinking at a bar and the bartender knows that that customer has had too much to drink, that he (the bartender) is required to call a cab for the person. The person should not be allowed to drive. The bartender could take the person's keys and make sure that he did not drive away. Then when the cab gets there he could make sure that the person got in the cab and give him his keys back. If the bartender could not do that then maybe the bars should hire someone to do that. It would save a lot of people heartache and loss. The bar may complain about having to hire someone else but in the long run it would pay off for the city.

Another thing that I think should be done is stiffer sentences for people who have been arrested for drunk driving. They got off too easy sometimes. I think for your first offence you should have to spend at least a 9 months in prison and pay a $2,000 fine. And it should get steeper from there. I think that if you have been convicted for drunk driving 3 times then you need to be in jail for at least 6 years. It may seem kind of harsh but it only takes driving drunk one time to endanger the life of someone else.

*(All statics by found on http://www.madd.org/Drunk-Driving/Drunk-Driving/Statistics.aspx. The website of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.)

If All the Streets were Rivers

If all the streets were rivers, then there would be many more boats than cars. Cars would become obsolete. We would not have cars anymore. The car engineers would be boat engineers and they would design the boats like they do cars now. I imagine we would have luxury boats with every thing imaginable and we would also have old junker boats that parents got their kids. Instead of getting your drivers license you would get your boating license. You would hope for a new boat for your sixteenth birthday instead of a car. I think boats would be somewhat smaller than they are now because of the narrowness of the rivers. We would have compact boats and I guess we would have boats that are kind of like SUV's. We would still have the huge shipping boats because there would still be an ocean.

Parking lots would become docks and harbors. I am not sure if we would still have traffic lights or if we would have to invent something else. We would not be able to create as many new rivers because that would be a lot harder than just building a new street, but then again we would not have to spend so much time repairing rivers as we do streets. It would be very interesting if we had rivers instead of streets.

What I am Optimistic about

I am optimistic about the future, my life in years to come. I am looking forward to when I can graduate and go to college (although that is also a little scary). When I graduate college and start a job, is something I am also optimistic about. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for my life. I hope he uses me to touch people in a way that will lead them to him. I am still not exactly sure what he wants me to do. I could be a photographer, a book editor, a children's pastor, a youth pastor, a missionary to Mexico, a basketball coach, the possibilities are endless! Which is also kind of frustrating because I have no clue what I want to do or what I am supposed to do.

Something else I am optimistic about is going to Heaven. I think it will be great to see all my family members that have already gone, like my Grandma Haney,Great Grandma Scammon, Grandma Myrna, Grandpa, and my baby brother. I think it will be awesome to see Jesus, face to face.That will be the most awesome and amazing moment in my life.

I wish I had one car because...

then I could drive! If I had a car then I could go get my driver's license. We have not gotten it yet because things keep coming up. I would be able to get a job so I could pay for the insurance, gas, and other things I need in order to have a car, but I have to have a car to get a job. If I had a car I would probably have to chauffeur my little brother around too but that would not be so bad. He really only needs to go to basketball practice and I do not think I would mind taking him places every once in a while. If I had a car I could go to Aunt Laura's without having to wait on parents to leave for work and then I could leave when I needed to instead of having to wait for them to come pick me up. That would be nice and my parents would be able to get more hours in. If I needed to I could go and babysit when Aunt Laura needed me to. If I had a car I could go to the library a lot more often, instead of just once a month. So it would be nice if I had a car ( and a driver's license.).

What "the early bird gets the worm" means...

The expression "The early bird gets the worm" is one I have heard often. It seems to be a favorite saying for morning people. :) As to what it means, I think there are several meanings to it. I think that it means that if you get up early and work then you will get things sooner than people that are lazy and wait around. If you want to get the good things in life then you have to get up early and work for them. I think it could also mean that if you get to things on time then it will pay off. If you procrastinate and put it off then you might have to work twice as hard to get it done on time. And if you do not get something done on time that was important, then there could be severe consequences. That is definitely something my family needs to learn. We are always late to things. We are sort of getting better about that though. I personally am not an early bird. I am a night owl. So here is a saying I thought up. "The early bird gets the worm, but the night owl gets the mouse."

What I think of Rules

Well being a type D personality I like having rules. Rules keep things orderly and neat. They keep people from hurting themselves and others. Rules keep the universe in order. Rules are necessary. But in order for rules to work properly they have to be wise rules. Most of our rules or laws in America (the basic laws in the constitution anyway) are based off God's rules found in the Bible. God made those laws to keep us safe and to help us understand that we are not perfect. God's laws also remind us to not hurt others and be selfish.

Not all rules or laws are good though. There are some that people have come up with and enforced just to inflict suffering on their fellow man or to make things better for themselves with no regard for other people.

Most people do not like rules because rules make them feel restricted. They do not like feeling cooped up or restrained. They want to do want they want, when they want. Some people do not like rules because they do not like being told what to do. Some people do not follow the rules because they do not care about other people, they just want money. Those people normally end up in jail.

I like rules because they tell me what I need to and why. Rules make me feel safe, that is why I like them.

The Best Way to Treat Meddlesome People

The best way to treat meddlesome people is to stay away from them. Because if you are not around them, then they can not meddle with your life. But if you are unable to do this then you will have to do something else, especially if you live a person like that. I think what I would do is try not to tell them any of secrets. That might help some. I would also try to be diplomatic in any situation with them involved. Honestly I am not sure what I would do. I do not really know. Realistically I would probably go insane and holler at them a lot.110 If I lived with a meddlesome person I would probably fight with them all the time. Our house would always be in almost constant chaos. I think that in order to get along I would have to just avoid the person. Or just never say anything to them. That is probably not the best way to treat them, but I cannot think of anything else. I should probably look up what the Bible has to say about it. Right now though I cannot think of anything that it says about meddlesome people.

Revolve and B-day party

I am excited because next Friday I get to go to Revolve! It will definitely be fun. The bands that are going to be there are: Hawk Nelson, Krystal Meyers, Group 1 Crew, and Natalie Grant. The speakers are: Chad Eastham ( I have one of his books, it is really good), Jenna Lucado, and somebody that I can not remember their name. Our youth group is who we ( Courtney and I) are going with. I think that there are more ladies going than teenagers, I guess we need a lot of chaperons. Ha ha ha. I cannot wait!

Tomorrow is Nicole's surprise birthday party. Courtney and I are making a scrapbook type thing of our memories with her. It is probably the last creative project we will do together for a while. While we did not fight horribly, there were still some arguments. Lol. I hope she likes it. We put pictures from our girls day out a couple of Sundays ago. We also came up with nicknames for each other, I am anybody, Courtney is nobody, Melanie is somebody, and Nicole is everybody. We put in a poem type thing on the last page using our nicknames, I hope she laughs at it.

What Kind Of Trophy I Would Like To Win...

I am not really sure what auntie means by "what kind of trophy" but I will do my best to try and answer it. If I could choose what competition I would could win a trophy for I think it would be either drama or basketball. In basketball I think it would be really cool to win a first place trophy at Nationals. Especially if we beat a really hard team to win it, then it would mean a lot more to my team. It would be really cool if we one it in the 4th or 5th bracket, because that is where they put the tough teams. The highest bracket is 6 and I do no think we could compete in that bracket, we would get slaughtered. :)

In drama I think it would be if our church youth drama team was able to go a drama competition and compete. That would be really cool, especially if we were able to win a trophy. I think that it would be most fun for winning for a skit set to music, I am not sure what the technical term for that is though. That would be an amazing opportunity. Those are the kinds of trophy's I would like to win.

Violence on TV

I think there is probably too much violence on TV. With all the crimes shows people watch, researchers estimate the people will watch well over a hundred murders in their lifetimes, on TV. With TV shows like CSI:, CSI: Miami. CSI: New York, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, The Mentalist, Without a Trace, Flash point, etc, etc, it is not surprising that people are desensitized to violence, myself included. Now a days it is not weird to watch stuff like that, it is considered normal.

In our society it is perfectly acceptable to watch practically anything now. Pretty much the only shows on TV that are clean are kids shows, and even some of those are not kid friendly. I do not really know what to suggest to change the violence viewed on television, that would require cancelling almost half of the TV shows out there. And the other half of TV shows are not clean either. If the inappropriate TV shows were cancelled then we would be left with only a small handful of either incredibly dorky or incredibly stupid and sappy TV shows. So really the best solution is not to watch TV, but that is easier said than done.

If Cows Gave Root Beer Instead Of Milk...

If cows gave root beer instead of milk I think a whole lot more people would drink root beer. And really root beer would not have been called root beer if cows gave it. It would be milk to us. But if cows gave root beer instead of milk a lot more people would be constantly hyper, the calves would probably more rambunctious too. And instead of being lactose intolerant, people would be carbonation intolerant. There would not be chocolate or strawberry milk though. There could be cherry and vanilla milk because the would just add in the syrups like they do now. If cows gave root beer instead of milk, we would not have cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, ice cream, milkshakes, cheese, cream, buttermilk (which I do not think any one would miss), whipped cream, or eggnog. We would lose the whole food group of dairy, it would just be one item, not a group. Just imagine not being able to eat an ice cream sandwhich on a hot day. We would not be able to make cakes or do any baking because we would not have butter or milk. I wonder what a cake would taste like if it was made with root beer milk. That would be an interesting experiance. And if cows gave root beer instead of milk... would that mean that goats gave Dr.Pepper?

A dull evening

My idea of dull evening is that you have no were to go, nothing that you absolutely have to do, no books to read, and there is nothing good on TV. I normally have dull evenings in the summer when I do not have basketball or school. We just sort lie around the house all day, doing nothing. Or we work on the house some and then there is nothing to do in the evenings. Of course my dad normally does not like it when we are lazy and do nothing. But somehow we still manage to pull it off.
We have not had any dull evenings lately. We have been busy in the last couple of months with basketball, plays, school, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have barely had time to breathe lately. So now instead of calling evenings where we have nothing to do dull, we call them nice and relaxing. It is nice not to have to do anything every once in a while. Things have not been so crazy this month though. But in March things get hectic again with Nationals. So for right now I am just going to enjoy my dull evenings while I still have some.

Cisco

Yesterday my mom brought home a blue heeler that belonged to some people from the plant. We are dog sitting until they can take him back. He is just a puppy, so he is really energetic. He loves to play. We get down on the ground and he barks and puts his paws on us. Then we try to grab his paws and he playfully chews on our hands. He definitely has energy.
Unfortunately he is not house trained so we are always cleaning up after him and putting him outside. He loves to be around people and hates it when we put him outside. He whines and howls. Then when we bring him back in he is frantic to play. He goes around the house whining and barking and jumping on people begging them to play with him. He tries to play with the other animals too, but they will not have any of it. The cats just hiss at him and Buddy will stand there for a few minutes and then try to attack him. I say try because Buddy can not really hurt Cisco, he just gets his feelings hurt. But Cisco is either brave or stupid because he does not stop trying to play with them.
I do not know when we will have to give him back, but it will be hard when we do.

I Wish I Had A Million Dollars...

If I had a million dollars, I would be able to do a lot of things. I think first off I would give tithe. Then I would pay off all my mom and dad's bills, like credit cards, life insurance, things like that. I would also give them the money to buy our house, instead of just renting it. I think after I did that I would have to give some to a charity before I spent it all. It would probably go to Compassion international or some Christian organization that helps feed and take care of the poor. Probably after all that I would have about 300,000 dollars left. I would use 100,000 for college and put ten or twenty thousand in a savings account. I would give some money to my brother for college and put it in a savings account. Then I would use about a thousand for books, music, and clothes. Actually I would probably use closer to two thousand because I love books and music. I would definitely have to have somebody keep track of it all so I do not spend it all. I would ask my dad to do that. I hope I would use as God would want me to.