Snowmobiling

Author's Note: I love to snowmobile it truly is my favorite outdoor activity. I have to need for speed! speeding down the grass, pushing about 40 mph. That is what I'm talking about. 

My favorite outdoor activity is snowmobiling in the winter, I always have the need for speed so this is when I get to go as fast as I want, I feel like I can fly. Especially when we I am racing my dad down the long stretch! We go up to Saint. Germaine, my grandparents have a cabin that we stay at, there are 2 snowmobiles and I sled that my use of our brothers. Since I passed snowmobile safety I can drive my own snowmobile, he has two at our house. There is the crotch rocket, and the old hag which is the older one. It is a pain in the butt to start, so I drive crotch rocket. I love snowmobiling and will never stop driving. It is hard to survive without snow!

Favorite Vacation

Author's Note: Vacations are a fun time to get away with family and friends, especially to a beautiful Island! How about JAMAICA! Like everyone else we need a vacation to a beautiful beach, being able to lounge around and get a tan at the same time, isn't that what every persons dream?

My favorite vacation was when went to Jamaica, we stayed there for a week and it was awesome. We went snorkeling, swimming, played on the beach and a lot more. We would stuff our faces with food in the morning and lunch time and dinner. At night time they would have performances, one of them was a Michele Jackson performance and it was a lot of fun. People could participate, but the guy that acted like Michele was my favorite character. His other “brothers and sisters” were cool too. It was all really cool, one afternoon we walked down the beach and met some men that said we were in the Office of Nature, which means people come and sell stuff they find to people that come and look. We bought a giant shell while we were there and we had someone go out and get us a starfish. It was a lot of fun and we are going again this coming February.

Christmas

Author's Note: Don't you love spending the Holiday's with your family, sitting around the tree all comfy and cozy?

Christmas full of excitement

Happy when you see the presents under the tree

Romantic

Interesting gifts

Silly jokes when sitting around the tree

Tonight we will be excited even more

Making gifts for my Aunt’s

Awesome gifts

Silly Family members

Every year for Christmas it’s a tradition to go to the Country Springs Holiday lights drive through. Every year when we go there is always something new that they added. But my favorite part is the ending, there are poles that create a little tunnel that have lights all over it. All the lights do the same thing, and it looks really cool. It is fun to go with my family and talk about the lights while listening to Christmas music!

Scary Story

Author's Note: Have you ever seen something that your not sure of? Or have you felt something touch you when exploring through the woods during the night. Here is a little story that might give you night mares so watch out!

I was walking up to my friends house but out of the blue came a

“Boo!!!”

“ Gees Amy you’ve got to stop that!”

“ Sorry, I had to it look like you were in your zoning out mode.”

“Well if we want to get to the party on time they let’s go!”

Me and my friend Amy were on our way to a Halloween Party when terror struck us.

“Hailey are you sure you know where we are going?”

“ Yeah we need to go this way-y….wait did you see that?”

“No, what was it?”

“I-I I don’t know.”

“Well, what did it look like?”

“It was black that’s for sure, it looked like a human figure but it had something big shinny and pointy in its hand.

“Well that’s weird.”

So far we are starting to get a little worried but then we start to panic and well I can’t spoil the rest.

“Okay let’s forget about it and take the short cut that Charlie showed my yesterday.”

“I will lead and you can follow, did you bring that flashlight that I told you to bring?”

“Oh that’s what I forgot; I knew I was forgetting something.”

“I guess then will have to go without it, if we don’t hurry we will be late and my mom will worry.”

“Hailey I feel like someone is watching us.”

“Yeah so do I.”

“Um well let’s try to forget it and sing a song, how about the monster mash from Choir.”

“I don’t know I might get more scared.”

“Okay then let’s just keep talking.”

I kept talking and Amy would just answer, I think that I was more scared than Amy was. As we continued walking things got creepier.

“Are we almost there?”

“I think so, if I had a flashlight I would be 100% sure.”

“AHAHAHAHAH!!!!”

“Amy? Amy? AMY?!!!!”

I started to panic, I was all alone and Amy was gone. I started to run and finally I could see lights appearing through the woods. I ran faster but it was too late I felt cold clammy hands run down my legs and pull me to the ground. I screamed and I felt a perching pain go through my chest and blood stick to my shirt, I looked around and saw Amy lying lifeless next to me.

Hunting Season

Author's Note: If you want to learn about our history and how the Indians and Pilgrims survived then you want to learn about hunting.

The time has come again, the time for hunting, around this time many men and women go and hunt especially deer hunting. The long and endless night’s packing and making sure that you have everything that will keep you warm and especially the main part the gun and bullets and making sure you have a case for it.

It takes my dad, my brother and me at least two weeks before we leave to have everything ready to go. That’s because we do the traditional hunting like in the olden days, we stay in tents. We have 8 people coming this year but usually we have 9 and sometimes even 10 people coming all together to hunt. We hunt up in Douglas County, at a campground called Shone Park. It is next to the St.Croix River, but we aren’t in a house or a shack or whatever you want to call it we camp in big canvass tents. We have one that is used for the kitchen, and the other is the sleep tent. We usually have around 5-10 people rarely 10 though, it’s a lot of fun and I have been going up for 3 years now with one of my brother.

But we ran into a problem, recently there was a wind storm that swept through the campsite and all over Douglas. There are tons of trees down and it is a huge mess. It is going to take the lumber men a couple of months to clean it all up, anyway that doesn’t faze us. We still continued to hunt, and it worked out in the end my dad’s friend Bruce shot a monster buck, it was an 8 pointer! Its rack was really thick, that’s because the deer that we hunt are real ruff necked deer. They are truly up north deer, their diet is grass, little buds, acorns, and a lot more random stuff for a food source. And my Uncle shot a little doe that we had to find in the morning, because he shot it right before the day was done.

I could have shot won witch I wish I did. It was a little forker (a 4 pointer) but I didn’t have a good shot at it. It would have been a neck shot but I could have shot at the chest. I was at least 80 yards away and I was shaking like a leave as my dad would say. My brother Owen was about 40 yards away and saw me do the whole thing. Take the safety of and on twice look down the barrel and get ready to shoot. It was a lot of fun and now we have a new campfire story to tell all new and old hunters that we meet.

I enjoy hunting and will be going for a long time. It’s interesting to learn new things, and improve my skills from last year. If you like to learn about our history then this should be your new winter or summer sport.

The Smell

Author's Note: The smell in the hallways would close around you and give you a headache. We should have left with the high school, but the school said were fine and so did the fire department.

The Smell………

The Smell, the Smell

What a horrible smell

I want to go home

But they won’t let us roam

I can’t stand the smell

But what the heck

I am starting to hack

Oh the smell, the smell

Horses

Author's Note: We should appreciate all the animals that god gave us and especially horses. Without them the fields would have never been plowed, or there would be no way to get from point a to point b and we still need them now. They can also be money makers if you want them too.

Horses, the feeling of the legs moving beneath you or the vibration when a horse is calling to another horse. I have experienced this before and it makes me feel like I'm a part of the horse. All of the memories come flooding back to me when I am reading the book "The Georges and the Jewels" by Jane Smiley. I feel like I can totally relate to this book. I have been riding horses since kindergarten and I appreciated them and what the do for others. Horses are beautiful creatures that god has given us, so take the time to acknowledge them.

Horses have been around since the earth was born, there are many types of horses that come from all around the world. They first became horses in the dinosaur age hyracotherim (hi-rack-oh-THEE-ree-um) the first horse known to man. Little herds of horses running would be running around or grazing on grass. Then came other horses from all around earth, there are over 300 breeds of horses in the world right now and there could still be more that are being born.

My favorite breed is the quarter horse, it is more of a laid back horse that you would use for trail rides. If you had the chance to ride this type of horse you would ride it in a style called Western. There are 2 main types of ways to ride a horse, western and English. English is a proper style of riding, you would ride English if you were rich and had very expensive horses for shows, or if you see a picture with men wearing red coats and are mounted on horses with dogs all around them, that’s English for you. But on the other hand Western is my kind of style, if you want to become a cowboy then this is what you want to listen too. Western is used for all the dirty work, if you would go on a cattle drive then you would likely see them riding with this saddle. You can also see girls and boys riding in this style for shows too, it’s fast passe and fun to ride in.

Horses are beautiful creatures that god gave us and we should be thankful for them and all that they have done for us. Without them there would be no crops or even food in that matter. It all started with them.

Patriot Pen Essay

Author's Note: Are you proud of your country? Read this and think about all that we have done to get this far.

Are you proud of all the homeless people and the criminals in jail? Or are you just proud of how we moved on with 9/11 and technology. I am very proud, we have worked so hard to get this far but we have had a few bumps on the road to get here.When other countries fight over how much we rule. Well because of that now we are in a war with countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Islamic people and more. Are you proud of that? What has our world come down too? Were fighting over land! Which sure is important but we would be fine if we were man for man and lived however we wanted. But were not, we are one united country and proud of it, otherwise the war.

Many men and women have died serving our country. So I would like to take a moment of silence and thank them for all that they have done. It is important that we have people like them that are devoted to our country. Because without them we would be in danger. I would also like to give thanks to all the great inventors in our later time like Elbert Einstein, DaVinci and more people.

What do you think our future will be like will the wars be done or will they be worse or even the same way that they are now. If we become more advanced with technology then surly we will be able to win the fight because we are more advanced than them and we have more money and people that are devoted to, our country. So we could win the battle, or make a peace treaty and stop the war. But I don’t think that that they would take the offer, unless they lost. But by then we would not offer it.

Or 13 colonies started the United States and without those men there would be no Untied States. So you should be very thankful and blessed that we are here today and we are all united as one.

BULLYING

Author's Note: Here is something that we all need to think about, it's very serious.

1 in 7 kids are bullied or teased at school because of something they believe in our do. Isn’t that terrible? Well lots of kids are bullied all over America for silly little things. Have you ever been bullied before? Bullying needs to be stopped. It’s causing kids to think badly of themselves. Once the thoughts happen they become nightmares and last suicide thoughts or even actions. This is the worst possible thought that you could ever imagine. Bullies are bad and we need to stop them from ruining kid’s lives.

Such as a girl named Ella, she is the most popular girl in the school. She always had boys at her feet asking her out to the school dances or just so they could brag that she was theirs. But there was one boy that tricked her trigger. His name was Dakota, he was a nice guy played football and all those boy sports. He was athletic, liked to hunt like she did and enjoyed hanging out with her. After a while he asked her out and she said yes. They have been dating for a couple months now and never lost interest.

But that one day could have ruined it all. It started on an A day Ella was on her way to science. Kids were scurrying through the hallways on their way to their next class. Of course Ella was surrounded by friends, always talking about what they have or are doing next. So you would think that she was secure. But when her friends died off she was mostly left. When she walked into the classroom she wasn’t paying attention and BAM! She hit the floor, the kids stopped and just stared luckily Dakota was in the class so he knew what to do. He ran over to her, checked her pulse. Still alive, shoved his hands under her and hoisted her up and pulled her close to his chest. Ella’s hair was dangling all over the place. Dakota started running to the nurse’s office nearly sprinting. Once he made it in he set her down. Kids ran right up to the door staring at me. By then I was coming back to earth a little bit and could see what was going on. There were kids staring at me in the door way. And Dakota and the nurse were outside talking. I started to get up I felt a shocking pain zing through my body. The nurse spotted me and walked over to me.

“W-what h-happened”, I said.

“You are having a severe concussion; we could have lost you thanks to your boyfriend here.”

“Where is he?”

“He is in the hallway I will go get him.”

He walked in and just looked at me.

”Hi.” He said

“Thank you so much, I could have died if you didn’t help me. I am so grateful that I have a boyfriend like you.”

I tried to stand up again but nothing happened except for another shooting pain flying all throughout my body.

“Take it easy.” He said quickly.

“Can I at least give you a hug?”

“Sure.”

He walked over to the bed and knelt down and gave me a hug. It felt so good to be next to him. His warmth on my chest, the smell of aftershave on this cheek, I could hug him forever. When the nurse started talking again he moved away. He was told to go back to class and I was going to go to the hospital for a check-up. After lunch Dakota came and checked on me. I was progressing the nurse said, but I was still due to go to the hospital. I made it to the hospital and back. I had suffered a severe concussion my head was cracked open and I had to get stitches. For the stitches they had to shave of some of my hair. When they were done with the surgery my headache had went down and I was able to get up for a little time. I walked over to the mirror to see what I looked like.

I was so shocked, I had dried blood on my forehead, and a huge bald spot on the back of my head. You could see the stitches. They were so visible they were scary.

As the week went by I was able to go back to school. My mom worried and always had me keep my phone on me.

So far you can see that Ella is not in the greatest shape. She is lost a bald spot, stitches, and kind of scared to see what is going to happen next on her first day of school. What if that was you how would you feel, scared, overwhelmed?

When the bus went by her house she felt confident and ready as always but as soon as she hopped on the bus people started to stare. Her friends looked at her in shock and disgust. She sat next to her best friend Bethany, she looked at Ella and her face expression went blank Ella started to talk but Bethany ignored her. When Ella started to notice no one was listening she felt bad. She stopped and then kept to herself until school. When she made it inside she caught up with Dakota. He was so happy to see her and to be alive. During the day she was tripped by people and laughed at and more and had new names like stitches head, bald girl. She was not the popular girl she was before the accident. Towards the end of the day on boy named Mike. He was laughing at her in class and even threatening her. Finally after being called another name she finally broke, she asked to be excused to the bathroom. She made it to the bathroom without being noticed other than someone outside by the water fountain. She hurried into the stall and started to cry. After a minute she pulled out her phone and called her mom. She told her to come and pick her up. Her mom could not make it she was in the middle of a conference at her other school. She started to cry all over again. But she heard a noise. It was a familiar voice. It was Dakota he came in opened the door and gave me a hug. I missed him so much and just wish I could be with him all the time. After a while he had to go and she needed to go back to class. I tried to cover the tear marks on my face but it didn’t work so well. When she walked in she saw Mike looking at her and then he shouted

“Oh were you crying little bald head girl.”

When I heard that I started to cry all over again. The bell had rang luckily and Dakota came and found me in the hall way. I was so happy it was time to go. The bad news was that Mike was on my bus. He was chucking things at my head or my bald spot which hurt. So I got off early and ran home. Mom was home and I was happy to see her. I told her I never wanted to go back but I had to big exams were coming up and I needed to be ready so I could get a job and become a vet.

The same thing continued for a month and on that one day I was fed up with it I was done. I was tired I could not sleep afraid that someone might try and hurt me. I got home and my mom was not there. Perfect I thought, I wrote a good-bye not and sent a text to Dakota and all my friends. I got responses but I never replied. Dakota was starting to get suspicious but I reassured him I was okay. But I was not, I was in danger it is a bad disses. I grabbed the strongest rope in my basement and tied it to our steps. I tied it around my neck and on the count of three I dropped.1….2….3… and I was gone.

See if you just read that story you would understand what I am talking about. Bullies are bad and can ruin a persons or many people’s life. I bet Ella’s mom is devastated. I mean what she would do without her only child she would be lonely, and probably miserable.

Bullies target weaker kids or more vulnerable kids. Like Ella and how she had the bald spot and stitches showing all the time. How would you feel if that happened to you and you had to live with it for a while until you got better. A bully is like a mosquito, the go for the barest people or in really live they go for the more vulnerable, which is not cool.

Okay let’s think for a little, close your eyes and just think for a little what would you be like if you were the bully? Who would you go for? If I was the bully I would go for the most weak or the kid that looked the most stupid. Cause isn’t that you’re instinct to pick on people like that. I found out that most kids are bullied once in a while which is a good thing but 8% of kids are bullied every day. At lest it is not that bad but it is still something.

Do you ever wonder what the kid that you’re bullying feels like? Do you ever think how the kid feels when they have to get off the bus and has to tell his parents what happened? You know that you will get in trouble eventually because the kid will talk and not keep it a secret unless he is that dumb.

How would you feel if you got a call from work or found your kid was dead? You would be miserable. Because you might have lost our own child to some kid that was making fun of him/her. Which is terrible, that’s why we need to stop them. For schools dealing with kids with bullying there needs to be a consequence. Like if it gets to bother the kid they should get valuable stuff of theirs taken away. Or if it gets even worse they should have a little trip to the police department just so they understand that this is a serious thing.

Now that I have talked with you don’t you think that we need to stop bullies for hurting innocent kids?