the easter bunny isn't real!?

I think of easter as a fun holiday to spend with my family. Good food, visiting with relatives, easter egg hunting, and lots of chocolate and money in the eggs is my idea of a good time. :)

I remember a long time ago, I don't remember what age I was, I saw my mom in the kitchen filling easter eggs with candy. I was shocked; I remember saying, "Mom, doesn't the easter bunny do that?" And she told me SHE was the easter bunny. I remember saying, "What! Really!?" It's funny because I would always nag my mom that there was no easter bunny and then when the secret was finally out that there really wasnt, I was mad that she told me. I wish she would have never told me, even though I wanted to know so bad, because it's fun to believe and have an imagination! And then I stood there with my mouth wide open and said, "So that means there's no Santa? Tooth Fairy? (etc.)" I was happy she finally told me the truth, but to this day, I still wish I was a kid again and believed in fairy tale creatures.

Every easter, My family and I drive to my grandparents on my dad's side of the family. I get to see all my cousins and we eat a big meal, then we look for eggs around my grandparents farm. It's fun because all the eggs are really spread out (and hard to find) since they have a huge yard and tons of things to look behind for the eggs. The eggs are usually filled with dimes, pennies, and nickels.. and each of us usually end up with about 5 dollars each. We also get big easter baskets of candy and marshmallow peeps. Oh, I forgot to mention we also get all dressed up and go to church that morning. Last year I had pink-eye on easter so I wasn't able to do anything! It was bad, I was upset. Hopefully this year's easter turns out good and we have nice, sunny, easter-y weather. :)

photoshop: the secret to looking gorgeous

My birthday is coming up.. and today I was looking at adobe photoshop cs3, which is six-hundred some dollars; something I really really want for my birthday, but i know it's just a dream because I doubt my parents would ever buy me something that much. I want to be a graphic designer when I grow up and I love working with computers/ads/art, so photoshop is right up my alley. I came across this picture of Faith Hill in Redbook magazine. I've always wondered, so celebs really look like this? And I guess I found my answer, no. The picture is totally different; Faith's eyes have more make-up, her face is flawless, her hair is lighter, her arms are slender, she's much more skinnier, and she doesnt have any "flab around her dress." I think her 'before' picture looks prettier, actually, but that's just me. When I get older, I would love to do this kind-of work. I love touching up pictures and lightening them and messing with every effect. It would be amazing if I got photoshop for my birthday or any day, I would be the happiest girl in the world. But for now, I'll just continue to dream to do this kind of work when I'm older.

happy 1st day of spring!

Since today is the 1st day of spring, It got me thinking... I love this season. J The weather is perfect, not too hot and not too cold. Also, my birthday is during spring, something I always look forward to. And so is spring break, which I love because of the week break from school. Spring is also a perfect time to run because the sun is not beating down on your nor are you getting frost bite. Today was one of the 1st days I went running outside since like September. It felt so good to just get outside and breathe instead of being stuck inside all day. Being outside and being able to be active makes me happier because I am free to move around and exercising makes me feel better about myself. This spring my goal is to run every day and get outside more and enjoy the weather. I’m so glad the snow is all gone, except I probably just jinxed myself by saying that because we’re supposed to get 1-3 inches tonight. It’s so weird seeing the green grass for once and not white snow all the time. I just wish this warm weather would stay this way.

continuing research information

Tanning is something almost everyone knows about, so it's pretty easy to find imformation for my research paper. I found a lot of websites that have to deal with both sides of tanning, whether you should or shouldn't do it. The research I found was pretty authorative, one source I found was from the Skin Cancer Foundation. The people who write on this website are medical doctors and dermatologists. They are highly educated so I think they know what they're saying. The authors purpose it to explain the downsides of tanning and kind-of persuading that tanning salons should be banned. This source is pretty general. It doesn't get into the nitty gritty details. It summarizes what is bad about tanning and gives us the true facts. From reading this source, I learned the name of the "cancerous/bad cells." Tanning is a 2 billion dollar industry in the United States and there are 25,000 salons in America. Tanning bed use is increasing and people who visit salons 10 times or more a year are 7 times more likely to get melanoma. Medical experts are thinking about banning salons, which I never thought they could do. Students in my class gave me comments on my topic and they asked me to research why people tan even though they know the risks. One person said they know someone who tans but skin cancer runs in their family! Another commenter said I should talk about both outdoor tanning and indoor because the risk is just about the same.
Some good questions that my peers have came up with are...
-what is the youngest age you're allowed to go tanning? oldest?
-does tanning inspire the growth of any other cancer?
-what are other methods for getting a tan? do they work just as well?
-do most people pay for it themselves? Or do their parents pay/support their tanning?
-why do people ignore the risks of tanning?
-are their benefits to tanning?
-do tanning salons do anything to warn customers of risk?

you're gonna miss this

Today I was listening to a country song on the radio called, "You're gonna miss this" by Trace Adkins and it got me thinking about the past 16 years of my life. It's funny how we, as kids, always say how we can't wait to turn 14 so we can get jobs, 16 so we can drive, 18 so we can be "adults," and 21 so we can legally drink and gamble. We always want to be older, so we can have more freedom, and we like to plan our future out and think about the fun times ahead. But the truth is, in a couple years from now, we really do look back and say, "I wish I would've enjoyed my life more.. I wish I would've spent more time doing ____ or spending time with ____." It's time to take a good look around at our lives and enjoy them for as they are now, and live life without any regrets, because you truly are going to miss this. Once you get older, you wish you were a little kid again. An example I can think of is kindergarten, when I hated nap-time.. I could never fall asleep and I thought it was stupid, I wanted to play! Not sleep, jeesh! But now, as a teen, I hardly ever get any sleep and it seems like every kid in high school would love to have a nap-time. I wish I was a child again so I wouldn't have to focus all my time on school work and get outside and run around and just have fun for once. I wish those days wouldn't have gone by so fast. After hearing this song, I've decided to look at my life in a more positive way because I know that I will regret getting older and miss those times when I was young.

the famous rubix cube

My younger brother owns a rubix cube, and he has a huge fascination with it. He is always messing (twisting and turning) with it and he can solve it pretty fast after he bought a stupid book on how to solve it. They say people who can solve it are super smart, which I believe because I can't seem to figure it out and my brother has a 4.2 gpa and he can solve it so I think there's a correlation there. My brother said it's just pure memorization of formulas and patterns that you look for. He can solve the cube in about a minute, I've seen him do it and the world record is about 20 seconds. My brother said that there are robots that can solve the rubix cube, which is pretty neat. The man who invented the rubix cube, Erno Rubic, says, "the Cube is an imitation of life itself --or even an improvement on life. The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life, our whole life is solving puzzles. If you are hungry, you have to find something to eat. But everyday problems are very mixed--they're not clear. The Cube's problem depends just on you. You can solve it independently. But to find happiness in life, you're not independent. That's the only big difference." I like this quote because he relates the cube to real life and it's true that our whole world is about solving problems. I have not solved the rubix cube, I think fairly few people in the world have; but I look forward to (hopefully) learning one day. Maybe I'll ask my brother to teach me sometime soon.

the big deal about saint patty's day

Yesterday I went to Carlos O Kelly's with my friends and we ate dinner together. It was fun, especially when we met this leprechaun. Today is St. Patrick's day and I don't know much about the holiday so I decided to look up the history behind the big day and learn about leprechaun's, since they're such weird creatures.

I learned that the Leprechaun is an Irish fairy. He looks like a small, old man, dressed like a shoemaker, with a cocked hat and a leather apron. Legend says that leprechauns arevery unfriendly, they live alone, and pass the time by making shoes. They also have a hidden pot of gold. Tresure hunters are said to often track down a leprechaun by the sound of his shoemaker's hammer. If caught, he can be forced (by violence) to reveal his treasure, but the you must keep their eyes on the leprechaun every second. The leprechaun is tricky, he often tricks people into looking away and then he vanishes, and all hopes of finding the leprechaun's treasure is lost.

I also researched the holiday... I learned that St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and one of Christianity's most widely known figures. Even though he has his own holiday, his life remains a mystery; it's not uncommon that many people don't know that much about St. Patrick's day. Many of the stories associated with St. Patrick are just exaggerated storytelling. Another interesting thing I learned was that the Chicago river is dyed green every year for St. Patrick's day, I never knew that. My family and I dont have any special traditions for this holiday, just to wear green. I didn't wear green today though :-X I dont have that much green clothing. I'll just have to buy something for next year's March 17th.

my spring break

This year, for spring break, My family and I are going to Wisconsin Dells on that sunday through tuesday the last week of March. It should be really fun, I haven't been to Wisconsin Dells since like 7th grade, so 4 years ago. I bet there are a lot of new water slides and new stuff to do. Once my family and I get back from the Dells, we are going to visit colleges in Iowa for me to look around and experience what campus life is going to be like. We plan on visiting Iowa State (my preferred college choice,) University of Iowa, and UNI. I'm really excited. My cousin, Megan, is going o UNI right now so I might stay the night with her in her dorm. I want to go to Iowa State, even though it's really far away because they have a good art school and they have my major, Graphic Design. After all the college visiting over break, I will hopefully have a better idea of what campus life is like. My birthday is also over spring break, it's April 5th. I've never had my birthday over spring break before, which is kind-of exciting since I'm use to always having to go to school on my "big day." I will probably celebrate my birthday with my friends by going out to eat or something. It should be a good break :)

no last minute rush

I never procrastinate, okay "never" is a big word, but for the most part I really dont. I don't know how all my peers can pull it off at the last minute. I like to work ahead; get things done ahead of time so I don't have to deal with that nagging stress. I don't enjoy feeling rushed-- I always work ahead on projects and assignments just so I can get them done and over with. My brother, Nathan, who is a freshman has a 4.0 gpa and he always does his homework sunday night, at the last minute. It's not fair that he does his assignments at the last minute, rushed and still manages to get a better grade than me at everything. Almost all of my friends are like my brother, and manage to pull off projects at the last minute. In the morning, before school starts, I always find my friends at our locker sitting down doing their homework and they actually get it done! For writing notebook entries, or blog entries as we now have, I would always do my 5 entries on the weekends and then I wouldnt have to worry about them during the week, so I would always be 5 entries ahead. I hope I never lose my "working ahead ability" because I enjoy getting things done early so I dont have to worry about them!