What is wrong with the world?

Homicides. Suicides. Assault. Robbery. Drugs. Kidnapping. All these things have one thing in common, they are all happening more than ever in our generation. I mean, there used to be a time way back when if you promised something to someone that was all you lived for. Can you believe it? People used to keep their promises!! It's like an ancient fairytale or myth that you still have trouble believing. I'm still angry when the Iraqis beheaded an American on tape and sent it over here to be seen world wide on T.V. I can't believe that LDS missionaries are now being shot nowadays! They are the most harmless people besides monks and hermits. The suicide rate is higher than ever, which makes me wonder... If your going to commit suicide, why not have the time of your life before you overdose or grab a gun? Who cares, use a credit card buy all you want, you won't have to pay for it. I mean, what are they going to do, bring you back to life? Well, I heard they just dump all your debt on your family, so don't do anything too expensive. Oh, and I guess the whole depression thing can get in the way of someone having fun. When I die, I'm going out with a bang! You know, go sky diving without a parachute or something! I'm just joking, just in case you serious people out there are reading this.

They can do it all

If you've ever played basketball or football or baseball or monopoly with me, you already know I'm not the best player in the world. I guess I'm just not coordinated enough cause something just doesn't click when I play these games. But when it comes to board games like Risk and Chess and Sorry, I'm the master and you better watch out. But like everyone I meet up here seems to be an All Star at everything. What can you do, you know? I guess the only thing to do is to just keep working on it, and hope you friends aren't watching. Anyway, There is one certain type of people that just amaze me. There's the people who can take on an after school sport, a band instrument, the science olympiad or national academic league and honors english all at once without showing on ounce of stress of frustration. Whatever medication there taking I want to know where I can get some. This school thing can kill a person!!

The yearling essay

Even after being threatened, stolen from, and beaten Penny Baxter still managed to continue on with his life and forgive the Forresters of their crimes. Penny Baxter was a person of many great qualities, many of which he passed on to his son, Jody Baxter. Jody learned a lot from his father, and through his father he began to understand what it means to be a peacebuilder.
Jody learned to give up put downs early in his life. Penny taught him that if you were to hold a grudge and be offended with every insult you were given, you wouldn't get anywhere in life. The same goes if you insult others, nothing good will come of it. But if you do insult someone, you should always make it right.
You should always right wrongs. Sometimes accidents do happen, but if you do your best to right the wrong you did to others your on the right track. Penny Baxter recognized this, and during a two on one fight between Oliver and the Forresters, Penny tried to right this wrong by joining the fight and defending Oliver. Even though Penny wasn't the biggest guy in the town, he still managed to even the odds.
Penny Baxter taught Jody how to be forgiving. This is not a very easy trait to learn, but Jody got a crash course on how to forgive when his only neighbors stole their hogs, which they depended on to feed them during the winter. Jody was forgiving in this event, which not many people would.
Penny Baxter was a great person when it came to peacebuilder traits, and he taught all his family everything they would need to be great citizens and really great people to be with. If everyone were to be like Penny and was forgiving, gave up put downs, and righted wrongs, this world would almost be bearable to live in.

Snowboarding...Whoo Hoo!

This was it. My first time on the ski lift to the top of the hill where I'd be going down on a snowboard for the first time. I was ready. I mean, it can't be that hard, right? I got off the lift (without falling, I might add) and strapped my other foot in. Then I slowly got up... and fell down again. No problem, I thought. I got up again, and fell down. "That's it" I said while I was turning my board, aiming straight down the slopes. I gathered some courage and off I was, zooming down the hill. It was so easy, to just go straight and gain some speed. But after a short while I started nearing the bottom of the slope and the beginning of the ski lift at an alarming speed, and at that time I decided to start slowing down. At that exact moment, however, I hit a particularly large rift in the snow which stopped my downward progress immediately. I flew what fell like twenty feet (which in twenty feet going downhill, you can get pretty far off the ground) and hit face-first into the hard-packed snow. After a couple of minutes of laying there motionless, I thought that I might be able to live through this snowboarding day. That's when my little brother proved me wrong. My little brother was also learning to snowboard that day, and he's just about my size, so it hurt about the same as falling twenty feet when he hit me from behind and fell right on top of me. As soon as we were both conscious enough to move out of the way of other, more competent skiers and snowboarders, we decided that this whole snowboarding thing was not something you could just pick up and learn to do in one day. But with three more times down the slopes and many more times falling, I think I've got the hang of it. I'll be pro in no time.

Christmas day

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning on Christmas day, which surprised me because I'm usually up about 4:30 and just waiting for everyone else. Anyway, I got out of bed and slowly made my way to the family room where the Christmas tree was stationed. I forgot to write my wishlist this year so I was in for a big surprise. As I made my way to the tree, I saw a huge mound of presents surrounding it, and became extremely excited. The only people up at that time was myself and my mom, who just walked in looking extremely tired, so I took it upon myself to wake up my three younger brothers and introduce them to the pile of gifts that Santa left behind. Soon everybody was in the room, including my two parents, all four of my brothers and my one sister. and my aunt Jenny and my Aunt and Uncle with their two kids, Brock and Rylee. Brock and Rylee are my most favorite cousins in my whole extended family. Anyway, back to Christmas. This year I didn't recieve numerous gifts, but the ones I did get were really cool. My most favorite gift I got this Christmas was a Snowboard and season pass to Park City. I had never hinted I wanted a snowboard, or even thought that my parents would get me one! I've been skiing a couple times, but there is a big difference between skiing and snowboarding. I was extremely excited, but before I could go pro I would have to learn how to snowboard. Meanwhile my family just recieved the largest stash of board games than we've ever gotten, so if the whole snowboard thing doesn't work out I could still become board game champ.