SANTAAAAA

This year for Christmas Santa gave me many great presents! In my stocking I found some very funny things! First I pulled out a package of assorted adhesive mustaches! I was so very confused, but upon opening the Hulk Hogan mustache and placing a bandanna around my head, I instantly understood how much fun an assortment of adhesive mustaches could be! Also in my stocking was the Clapper! That’s right, Santa gave me a little plug in box that allowed me to clap things on, and clap things off. I have never expressed a need for the Clappe, but I will say my family and I had a great time hooking it up to the Christmas tree!

Some other things I found in my stocking were Pickle Band-Aids, which also included a pickle sticker! How great! I guess I can add this year’s funky Band-Aid to the others from past years! Including Lips Band-aids, and Bacon Strips. (Please remember I am a vegetarian) Also in my stocking, I found some Corn Dog Mints! (Again…I am a vegetarian) I just love Santa’s stockings!

Mysteriously enough, I saw my mom buying one of my Christmas presents this year. It was a beautiful pair of black button Uggs. However, upon opening my Santa gifts, I realized that he had also bought me a beautiful pair of black button Uggs! But I then realized that the Uggs my mom had bought me were not under the Christmas tree! I guess my mom found out Santa was getting them for me and decided to return them! Good old Santa!

The last Santa present I opened this year was an I -Pod Touch! Earlier this summer my I -Pod Nano died! It wouldn’t charge and it wouldn’t turn on, it was dead! I wished and wished for Santa to bring me an I –Pod Touch and he did! Thank goodness for that too because I am getting very tired of radio music and am very ready to get back to listening to my Glee songs in the car! I had a fantastic Christmas this year and I just can’t wait till next!

 (356 words)

An Unexpected Surprise

Why do so many girls not like the way they look? Why do they feel the need to cake on the make up every morning? Why does no one make the effort to tell every girl like this that they look beautiful just the way they are???

            Just last week I was in the girls’ bathroom and when I walked out of the stall to wash my hands there was a little blue post it note right above the sink. It said, “Don’t cake on the make-up. You are beautiful, just the way you are!” When I saw this little note I was taken aback! I didn’t understand why someone would put that over the sink in the girl’s bathroom. I then looked above the other sinks and saw that there was other notes above all of the other sinks also written on little blue Post it notes. After curiously reading through all of the notes I went back to class and was thinking about the little blue notes awhile longer. Finally I came to the conclusion that the post it notes were, in fact, a very good thing!

            There are so many girls out there who don’t think they are pretty. Even worse they make up for their “not prettiness” by putting pound after pound of make up on. They try to cover up the imperfections that make them who they are. Girls use bronzer to make them look tanner, and fake eye lashes with thick eyeliner, all in hopes of making themselves look prettier. When in fact, God has already made all of them beautiful. He makes no mistakes.

            Some of the other post it notes said things like “Embrace today, you are BEAUTIFUL enjoy it”, “Embrace your imperfections. You are beautiful.”, “Beauty is found in the heart, not the mirror!”, and lastly “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You ARE Beautiful”. These notes are great because you never know what girl is going to read them! They could have been having a really bad day and needed the pick me up that these notes supplied. Whoever was nice enough to write those notes could have made someone’s day ten times better.

            All it takes is telling someone you like their shirt, or shoes, or hair. You could be responsible for making that girl feel great about herself on the inside, and on the outside!

(399 words)

Family Presents!

After opening my amazing Santa presents, I got to open all the presents from my siblings and my parents! First I opened my gift from my oldest brother, Drew! A few years ago my friends and I found the Pretty Little Liars books! There are around eight of them and we all passed them around to read! I ended up getting bored right before I read the last book so unfortunately I never was able to find out who A was. The reason I’m telling you all this is because when the first show of Pretty Little Liars aired, my brother and me watched it together! We thought it was just so funny that Aria started making out with a guy in a bar, later to find out that he was her teacher! We watched a few other episodes but none of them lived up to the first for Drew! However we continually joke about how dumb the show is to each other! Then on Christmas I opened up my present from him and he had bought me the last Pretty Little Liars book! Now I can finally read it and find out who A is!

Next my brother Ethan passed his presents around! He had bought me the Phantom of the Opera CD. I love Phantom of the Opera, and I’m currently practicing one of the songs, All I Ask Of You. I may sing it at the opening of my sisters wedding this June. Also at the bottom of the box, I found an Orange Leaf gift card! For this I am so grateful! I went to the Orange Leaf for the first time, to spend my new gift card and it was DELICIOUS! I love frozen yogurt and all the fruity flavors with the little strawberry and orange balls were just fantastic! I can’t wait to go back and spend the rest of my gift card!

The last of my siblings to hand around their gifts was Elise! Because she is the only one of my siblings who lives on her own with a full time job, her presents are always great! I had really wanted a new curling iron for Christmas and she bought me a wand! I was so excited when I opened it! Now I just have to figure out how to use it! The first time I tried curling my hair with it, I looked like I had just been trampled by a herd of cows, so I guess I’m going to need a little practice!

Finally my parents handed around their gifts to us! Every year my parents give us a book! This year my book was 1000 Places to See Before You Die! Because I have already had the opportunity to visit France, Spain, and Korea, I was very excited to start highlighting all the places I have been in my book! Another usual gift from my parents is a “do- gooder” gift! Almost every year my parents buy pigs for a poor family in Nepal or a beehive for a family in Africa! These things may seem small but they really help a family make money so they can try to be more self-sustaining! This year they bought a bicycle for medical workers in Africa, in my name. Last but certainly not least, my parents gave me a Vera Bradley blanket! I LOVE Vera Bradley and I was so excited to have a new blanket! I got some great presents for Christmas, but I really just loved being able to spend all this great time with my family!

 (598 words)

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest

The reason I chose to read the book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest is because it is the third, and final book in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. I was very excited to read this book because the first two books in the series were very engaging. This book was challenging to read for many reasons. Throughout the book many story lines are taking place, there are many new characters not included in the first two books, and also unlike the first two books there is a lot of government lingo that I do not understand. However in spite of all the challenges that come with this book, I still heavily encourage everyone to read it.

The main reason why this book is challenging is because of the entire Government lingo! Plus the fact that the government in the book isn’t even American! This makes the book challenging to read because the book will suddenly switch into a government officials point of view and with all the big words and complex sentences I often find myself having to reread multiple pages at a time. Also along with the lingo I’m unfamiliar with, they bring up past trials and big incidents that happened in Sweden that I know nothing about! I then would find myself not understanding anything they were talking about and sometimes I would even have to Google some of the incidents mentioned so I could continue to follow the story line of the book.

Another big reason why this book was challenging is all of the new characters that have suddenly been introduced into the series. Throughout the past two books the characters have stayed basically the same, but once I started getting into The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest many new and confusing characters have entered the mix! Also because they all live in Sweden and have Swedish names I sometimes cannot seem to pronounce the names and then get confused with who is who. Another confusing detail is the fact that I feel as if all the new male characters have names that start with E. Such as Edklinth, Evert, and Ekstrom. When looking at them they may seem like very different names but when all of the new characters are being introduced around the same time it becomes very confusing. Yet one more confusing detail is that many of the new characters are good but some of them are also bad! It’s sometimes hard to distinguish what characters are on the good side and bad side leading yet again to reading many pages over at a time trying to understand what’s happening.

The final reason that this book is challenging is that throughout every chapter there are many different characters talking in their own point of view. There are the old characters and the new characters and the parts where all I see is a bunch of government talk that I don’t even know who is apart of. Also because it just switches in the middle of the chapters it’s hard to follow who is talking, especially if who they are talking to doesn’t say their name shortly after the conversation starts. Because of all of the characters and all of the story lines some of which go together, some of which don’t have anything to do with the other, this book can be very challenging to go along with.

Even with all of the challenges that come with this book, it is still very good. I actually like all of the challenges in this book because I feel as if all of the learned vocabulary and government lingo I will be able to better understand other books with confusing story lines such as this book. Like the other two books in the series, I still find myself not wanting to put it down, and if anyone is looking for a book to read I highly suggest that they start with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and read through The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest. The book is very intriguing and I just don’t want the series to end.

(698 words)