My Life Motto

The life motto I chose was Success. I think it's important to create goals for yourself and try to achieve it. As a child school was not important to me. I didn't care about the grades I got, how smart I was, or if I passed a class or not. When I got to middle school I told myself that I needed to change. I set a goal for myself to do better in school and to really try my best. I learned that with hard work, everything pays off. I got through middle school in a breeze. Math was my favorite subject. I could solve anything and my teacher would often call on me because I always had the answer. I also started writing and reading and I started to get an interest in history. Writing and reading though were still my favorite things. In gradeschool I was never good at writing. I would sit there and think of something to write about while every one else was writing away. So I set a goal for myself to become a better writer and to do well in school. So on weekends I practiced writing. With alot of hard work and integrity I pulled it off. I started writing historical fiction which was interesting to me because I could involve my love for history with my love for writing. Shortly after, I created a story that won a prize/award for young writers. The story I worte in seventh grade about Pandas got published in a magazine. Success is easy if you try hard and have a clear open mind to your goal. You have to be optimistic. My life motto is success is not just handed to you, it is placed in front of you and you have to grab it.

Feelings I Feel

1.      family and painting                            brings me great joy.
2. Seeing           war                     frustrates me to no end.
3.             death                        creates in me deep sadness. 
4. I am grateful for                      everything (too many things to name)                      .
5. Knowing                   there is peace                         grants me peace.
6.                 spiders                  scare me beyond belief.
7. I find acceptance from        my family and friends                                     .
8.            society                    surprises me.
9. I am utterly disgusted by          greedy and sellfish people                               .
10. Anxiety is created in my life by           work overload                        .
11. I am most offended when people       get into other peoples/my business with bad intentions.                            .
12. I have never felt more grief than when       my grandfather died                      .
13. More than anything I hope for      happiness, peace, and love                                .
14. I worry too much about       school                                .
15. Sometimes, I envy      no one...envying people will get you no where and theres no point                               .
16.      doing good in sports                                makes me very proud.
17.  I feel most              loved                       when I             am around my family and loved ones                             .

TU TUESDAY- MONSTER

A man tried to drown his infant son in a motel bathtub. My question is the man got six months in jail and ten years probation, what is the most time you can serve in jail for child abuse? "Authorities say the 11-month-old boy was left in the tub unsupervised Aug. 5 because he had soiled his diaper and the couple had run out of clean ones." The baby was saved by CPR and was taken to a child protective service along with the three other children. My other question is if you abuse one of your children can you get all of your children taken away from you and where do they go if taken? Also, can you get them back?
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Man-gets-jail-probation-in-Tempe-child-abuse-case-2683531.php
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_years_do_you_get_for_child_abuse
http://markdaniel.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Get-My-Kids-Back-From-Child-Protective-Services
My article was about how a man and his wife tried to drown their infant son in a motel bathtub. The man was,"sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years' probation." I was curious to if you abuse your child how many years of jail time can you get? I was wondering this because the man who nearly drowned his son barely got anything. I searched google and found multiple answers. I learned that your sentence is based on how harsh the abuse was and how many times you did it. I saw that in one case a man abused his son 18 times and recieved 43 years in prison. The average or normal amount of years though is around 14 to 15. At the end of the last link I leaner that if you get your child taken its usually from Child Protective Services and the children are sometimes put into foster care. The woman from the website said that she has been cooperating with the CPS to get her son back. So I assume that you can get them back after you have showed a judge that you have "cleaned up your act" or are suitable to take care of your children. The woman was an alcoholic and she has been in rehab and is taking baby steps to getting her son back.

Deep within my soul I am shallow

Deep within my soul I am shallow

But I know deep down my heart is hallow

Ive gone threw the toughest and hardest time

Now its my turn to rise and shine

My soul is shallow and I do not feel alive

My body motionless, as if I cannot survive

I reach inside and pull out my soul

And my body finally gains control

The monster inside taking over me

Is now thrown in a pile of debris

I dig my soul deeper and deeper

As if im going down stairs deeper, and deeper

I reach the end of my soul opening it up as wide as I can

I finally realize that I am more than

A shallow, lifeless lie

But a bird full of life ready to grow wings and fly

Nursery Rhymes ARE Relevant to Life

Go to bed, Tom

---

Go to bed, Tom.
Go to bed, Tom!
Tired or not, Tom,
Go to bed, Tom.
I chose this nursery rhyme because my mom tells me this all the time. Im the type of person who can stay up all night and rather sleep during the day. I'm a kid so I have alot of energy. I usually stay up because I can't sleep so my mom tells me to go to sleep whether I'm tired or not.

On top of spaghetti

---

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table
And onto the floor,
And then my poor meatball
Rolled right out the door.

I had to put this next one because it was my favorite song when I was little. I thought it was funny, especially because I hated spaghetti. I would hate to have to eat my spaghetti and meatbgalls so I would just feed them to my grandmas dog. I think this nursery rhyme relates to me/ is relavent because I still hate spaghetti and when I go to my grandmas to eat it I still give it to her dog.

Looks Can Be Deceiving Poetry Prompt

It's as if my entire yard had been flipped upside down

As if a leaf blower so powerful blew my house to pieces

My house is scattered like a puzzle

I sit on the grass, my only place and I stare

I stared at the nothingness

I feel like I live on the magical Land of Oz

And I dont have any magical red shoes to wake up from this nightmare

The sanctuary I once lived in is now gone

It's as if god took a giant hammer and smashed everything I have

If only there was a magical seed

A seed you could plant in the ground that created new houses

There would be one less problem in the world

There would be no homeless people on the streets

Begging for more, and more, and more...

But sometimes we have to face reality

And realize that what's gone is gone

And whats lost is lost

And my sanctuary of a house

Is now gone

And I am lost

Lost in the fact that everything is gone

I realize that god did not destroy my house

Niether did a giant leaf blower

Or a hammer

But a Disastrous and Destructive Tornado

Comic Connection

I chose this comic because I think it shows my family really well. Teens can be a handful especially when their growing. Lets face it, teens are constantly eating! My brother is really tall, over 6 foot and he's always hungry! So I picked this comic that expresses how a mom waits for her son to put his headphones in to ask if anyone needs anything from the grocery store. I think it's quite funny actually and I should tell my mom to try it next time she goes to the grocery store. My brother eats a lot. He can eat eight pieces of toast for breakfast and still be hungry! He reminds me of the hungry catepillar who never stops eating until they have a stomach ach or theres no more food left. Groceries are expensive these days and buying alot of food every week can add up to a big bill.  I think the comic I chose has humor more for mothers who have teens with big apetites than for kids with the apeptites but thats just an opinion. Mother or not I understand though and I find this comic a huge connection to my life.

O=Eight People to Emulate

1.Obama- for trying to do the best he can to help us in our time of need
2.Oliver- My uncle who is very giving and is always there for me
3.Oprah- shes an inspirational woman who has helped many
4.Conan O'Brien- hes a comedian who makes me laugh whenever I see himon T.V
5.Olsen twins- I grew up watching them on television and they were my role models when I was little. I dressed like them and enjoyed them on Full House
6.Oliver Phelps- hes an actor in Harry Potter which is one of my favorite movies!
7.Orlando Bloom- Another one of my favorite actors from another fantastic movie! He played in The Pirates of the Caribean
8.OneRepublic- a band that I enjoy alot. I think their lyrics speak out to many and they sound great!!

"Hi-five yourself"

I chose the pep talk, "Hi-five yourself" because it was a little funny to me. I was curious on how you high five yourself...But I chose it because I think it relates to my life and maybe many others. We are often hard on ourslves and we put pressure on ourselves to get things done everyday. But sometimes we should/need to take the time to tell ourselves tht we did a good job, or "hi-five ourselves." We as humans have low self esteem and low confidence and when we do good deeds we often feel like we had to do them. I think it's important to let yourself know when you did something good or even something bad. I think the cough drop company put this line on their cough drop wrappers  because when we get sick with a cold and sore throat we push our bodies to go to work, school, and do evryday tasks and by saying "hi-five yourself" it makes you feel "better." Not better in the way that your not sick anymore but even just happy. I think they should add a saying, " A smile a day can keep the cold away."

TU TUESDAY- CULTURE

Article Link: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/150-children-lose-parents-in-South-Sudan-violence-2438113.php
Poem Link:http ://http://www.thehypertexts.com/Adrie%20Kusserow%20Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio%20Sudan%20Darfur.htm
Skull Trees, South SudanAdrie Kusserow

Arok, hiding from the Arabs in the branches of a tree,
two weeks surviving on leaves,
legs numb, mouth dry.
When the mosquitoes swarmed
and the bodies settled limp as petals under the trees,
he shinnied down, scooping out a mud pit with his hands
sliding into it like a snake,
his whole body covered except his mouth.
Perhaps others were near him,
lying in gloves of mud, sucking bits of air through the swamp holes,
mosquitoes biting their lips,
but he dared not look.

What did he know of the rest of South Sudan, pockmarked with bombs,
skull trees with their necklaces of bones,
packs of bony Lost Boys
roving like hyenas towards Ethiopia,
tongues, big as toads, swelling in their mouths,

the sky pouring its relentless bombs of fire. Of course they were
tempted to lie down for a moment,

under the lone tree, with its barely shade,
to rest just a little while before moving on,

the days passing slyly, hallucinations
floating like kites above them
until the blanched bones lay scattered in a ring around the tree,
tiny ribs, skulls, hip bones—a tea set overturned,
as the hot winds whistled through them
as they would anything, really,

and the sky, finally exhausted,
moving on.

"Red Cross volunteers are trying to reconnect 150 young children with their missing parents after tens of thousands of residents of South Sudan ran into the bush while fleeing a massive wave of tribe-on-tribe violence, an official said Tuesday." There was a tribal war and many people were killed and abducted, forcing the police to search for the missing people. They believe that many of the missing parents are dead. The people of Sudan are scared and the children that are as young as 6 months have no where to go. "Children in the area already live in continual fear of violence and are often abducted in raids. If fighting continues thousands more could be killed, maimed, abducted or recruited to fight." The fighting in Sudan is not just a recent thing. "South Sudan fought a decades-long civil war with northern neighbor Sudan, a war that culminated in a 2005 peace deal that saw the partitioning of Sudan and the birth of South Sudan last July." This article relates to the poem

Skull Trees, South Sudan by Adrie Kusserow because the poem explains how there was violence and people were left scared and had to survive. It talks about how Southern Sudan has had many problems with war. "What did he know of the rest of South Sudan, pockmarked with bombs,skull trees with their necklaces of bones."The poem talks about the people left and the people that died like the article. "tiny ribs, skulls, hip bones—a tea set overturned, as the hot winds whistled through them as they would anything, really." The last line is very powerful. It reads, "and the sky, finally exhausted,moving on." I think it means that Sudans people have had enough and that the moving on line means its finally over. My favorite line though is, "packs of bony Lost Boys." This connects to the article because Sudan has many missing boys and girls and this line is a huge connection.