J1- My Hero

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary the word hero is defined as a person who is the object of extreme or uncritical devotion. Even though that might be true, to me a hero is a person who will do everything and anything for someone or something they care about. I understand that this might be said a lot but my hero is my mother. Ever since I was little my mother taught me how to be respectful, open minded and how to make a good impression. It only took one moment to realize who my hero was. When I was in fifth grade I had a terrible accident due to my clumsiness. I was in Canada for an overnight cheerleading competition. As my family and I were on our way back from dinner I gave little Phoebe Bichler a piggy back ride. When I was only a few feet from the entrance of the hotel I fell. Instantly breaking my two front teeth and my glasses, luckily Phoebe only had a few little scares on her hands. After the three hour visit to the emergency room, my mom and I had a long talk about whether I would want to cheer the next day or not.  When I asked her what she thought I should do, because I was so conflicted. When she answered she said it wasn’t her decision to make and no matter what I wanted to do she would support me every step of the way. After an answer like that I realized my hero was my mother. She would do anything for her family and no matter if she disagreed with it or not she still showed support.

But sometimes as we get older we forget about those moments and lose track of why they were our hero in the first place. Just last weekend I was reminded of why she is and always will be my hero. I was away for the weekend and was at the 60^th annual Diocesan Youth Convention held at the Adam’s Mark hotel. When I returned home she gave me a small box and in it was a necklace. On the necklace are the words “daughters are like flowers, they fill the world with beauty.” I was so touched that she was thinking about me while I was away and thought of me when she saw it.

We all have different heroes but it is up to us to realize it and appreciate what we have because it might not last forever.

L1- The Super Bowl!

Who doesn’t love the super bowl? I don’t even watch football and I still look forward to it. For me it holds a lot of family memories. My dad’s birthday always takes place during the super bowl weekend. For many years we held a family party and would watch the game together.  My dad would always make a cake that had an exact replica of the field and team logos. While my mom and I were preparing the appetizers and the taco bar for dinner.  Overall it was just nice to be surrounded by family, food and a great game to watch. But the game of football doesn’t interest me, the halftime show and commercials are what I’m interested in.  Last year had some of the best commercials. My favorite was the volts wagon with the little kid obsessed with Darth Vador and was trying to use the “force”.  Another one that I enjoyed were the Doritos commercials. I thought it was a very clever idea to have an average office man and a little dog obsessed with the chip. I also thought it was smart to have a few short commercials showing the product instead of one long commercial.

The half time shows are one of the most talked about things about the super bowl. This past year the queen of pop preformed, Madonna. I thought her entrance was over the top, just like her. Even though it was clear she was lip sinking it was still a remarkable performance. For having one rehearsal and no sound check before she went live, it was truly inspiring.  I thought it was great the way she mixed between old and new music, and added some other musicians from other genres.  She and CeeLo Green were incredible when they sang Like a Prayer together as the last song.

Over all I think the super bowl is getting bigger and more impressive every year and I can’t wait to see what they do next year.

K2- My Life

When he is sleeping I could watch him all night. The past year has been rough on us. I’ve never thought there was a chance I would have to be a single mother for a little while. But Alex was determined to go back into the reserves. I miss Alex so much, I can’t believe he is still in Iraq, I remember saying goodbye to him like it was yesterday.

We laid in bed for the whole night, neither one of us slept nor talked. We just enjoyed each other’s company. When the alarm when I off I wish time had stopped and I could freeze this moment in time with Alex’s arms around me. When he held me I felt safe and nothing was going to happen with him being by my side. But time didn’t stop no matter how much I wish and prayed it did. That was it our last night together for a year or possibly forever, over. I didn’t want to, couldn’t move. I was paralyzed I didn’t want to let go. Alex pulled me close and kissed me on the head. We laid like that for a minutes but it felt like seconds. When he got up and started to dress in his camouflage, the fear and tears started to roll in.

The rest of the morning went by like a blur. When we arrived at the airport Alex was holding Aden close trying to savor the moment. Aden was only four and didn’t fully comprehend where daddy was going, and I knew has he got older I would have to answer his questions.

But was I prepared to? I would have to be.

Then the announcement I was dreading, it was Alex’s platoon’s turn to deploy. I hugged him as tight as I could; trying to memorize everything and hoping my memory would last and wouldn’t fail. As he pulled away there was no stopping the tears streaming down my face. He turned around before he boarded the plane and smiled his crocked smile, that smile that made me fall in love with me.

Now as I look at him peacefully sleeping, I now know that I am strong enough to protect him, just like Alex protects me. 

                Epilog: I woke up to Aden’s singing in my ear and when I open my eyes Alex is there smiling, he puts him had on my belly. We can’t wait for the new addiction to our family to arrive.  

K1) The Smith's

“That’s it!” said Tom as he was eating dinner, with his wife of two years Katie. The Smiths appeared as a well off suburban family, they were always seen at church and throwing the legendary annual Christmas party. What others saw were just lies. What happened behind closed doors? Why has Katie been away at her sisters for two months? What happened to the happy Smiths that everyone knew and loved? To tell that story we have to reveal the lies.

Tom and Katie were an older couple, who found a second chance at love. Tom’s first wife left him after ten years of bliss. While Katie’s first husband died in a car accident. When the two first met it was like they were finally happy and all the bad things that happened in their life led them to this moment. After a year of dating, they became inseparable of each other and finally got married. For the first year it was marriage bliss, they were truly happy, but then Tom started to get aggressive. He became easily agitated and snapped without warning. As understanding and sweet Katie was she thought he was just stressed from work.
She should’ve ran when she had the chance.

One stormy night when Tom came home from work, Katie knew something wasn’t right, as she tried to comfort her husband. He started to beat her, taking no mercy. After Tom realized what he had done, he felt instant regret and promised his wife it wouldn’t happen again. She believed him and decided to let it go and move forward. She didn’t get that chance. The abuse continued and Katie kept taking it.

Six months went by and the beatings became almost like a routine. When Tom came home from work, he seemed, more agitated than usual, but Katie didn’t pick up on it. As they were eating dinner Tom threw everything off the table and it crashed on floor. Katie became paralyzed in her chair and thought it would be over soon, but once again she was wrong. When Katie looked into her husband’s eyes, she didn’t see the man she fell in love with, she saw a monster. She thought it was finally over, but once she opened her eyes he was standing over her holding a chair. That’s when Katie realized that her husband’s first wife didn’t leave him, he killed her.

Three years later Jamie had a new wonderful husband who would be there for her until death do us part. Her new husband was Tom.

I-1 Me and B-realz Adventures.

Over my Christmas brake there were many ups and downs. On the up side I was able to re do my entire room, with the help of the lovely Brianna Harris. With her help I was able to repaint my room, and use her excellent organization techniques. But just to clear things up, B-realz (aka Brianna Harris) did not just leave my house with the pride of helping her friends. In fact if you have notice Brianna’s new cloths, you might have realized you saw it before. That right everyone she took my cloths! Haha. Now I’m not saying that she is a stealer. Even though as I am writing this she is next to me wearing my sweatshirt that I didn’t know she had. (By the way Bri at some point in time I do want that sweatshirt back.) When I was organizing everything, I decide to give some of my cloths away to good will. When I was literally throwing cloths out of my closest, I noticed a pill off to the side. She made her own pill of cloths, out of the ones I was getting rid of. Now I’m not mad at all, I just think it is a little funny because when I was finished there was a little pill left to go to good will.

But that was only one story, out of many. B-realz and I decided to go out and do come returns before returning to school. As we were approaching Panera’s for lunch, I realized I forgot my credit card. Luckily Bri was nice enough to spot me my lunch until we got home. As we were eating, we both realized that I needed my credit card to do returns. So because I am such a blonde we had to drive back to my house and back out to Transit, for a movie in only three hours. When we got back on to Transit, an hour had gone by, and we didn’t even make out first stop yet. But because of my impeccable driving skills and B-realz speedy shopping we were able to cross everything off the list and still make it back in time for the movie. Now before I leave anywhere I always make sure that I have my credit card on me.

In conclusion B-realz, I hope you are not offended by this little humorous blog.

Remembering the True Christmas Sprit.

As the Christmas season is approaching, it is certain that everyone will be rushing to find the perfect gift. But has Christmas lost its true meaning? It seems that everyone becomes greedy during Christmas, instead of being thankful for what we have and the time we get to spend with our families. When I was little Christmas wasn’t so much about gifts, as it was family time. As I look back I realize I miss those days because it was less stressful and was used as a time to reflect. Christmas should be about giving to those who are less fortunate. Families who are deserve and are unable to provide for the simple things, such as food and shelter, let alone gifts for one another. Some families who choose to have a lot of children, and don’t have the means to support them, use Christmas as a free-be. Those families play the victim card and are lazy. I personality I believe that those families are selfish and undeserving of donations, because they aren’t trying to fix their fanatical issues. While there are families out there, who try everything in their power to make things the best they can. Those families are the ones that I was give everything I had to help. But one problem is how can we tell who is deserving and who isn’t? This Christmas my family and I are adopting a family to help make someone’s Christmas memorable. The one place I have not found one greedy family was in church. Now I’m not saying to go to church, or push my religious views on anyone. All I’m saying is most churches will ensure that your gifts will be given to the right families. In conclusion I think that we all need to be reminded of the true Christmas spirit.

It's Family Time!

It’s hard to pick just one holiday to say that my favorites, if I had to pick I was say Easter. I love Easter because it means spring is on its way and my family and I have so many traditions. My great grandma Kozma is from Poland, she taught us how to make perogies and all the other polish traditions. I and my family always go to the Broadway Market, to get a butter lamb and polish sausage. Ever since I was little she has been teaching me to speak polish. As I have gotten older I started to teach my little sister everything I learned from her. And once she is old enough to cook I will pass the perogies recipe to her. Every year my grandma Kozma, grandma Nancy, my mom, Allie and I get together to make over a hundred and fifty perogies, it is always too much fun to listen to music and talk about family stories. The best part is to eat the rejects. Once we finish it is amazing to look at all of the food we made, and to fell a sense of accomplishment.

Some other polish traditions we have is to eat cold food on Christmas Eve. The reason it has to be cold is because in the morning when we go to church, it is tradition to get our food blessed. Because it’s not the most appetizing meal, my dad and I started our own tradition. Every year before Christmas Eve dinner we stop at McDonald or Burger King, to get something to eat. It is one tradition that I intend on keeping and passing it down to my children. I can’t wait until I’m older and I get to start my own traditions. ( I need six words, thanks)