APUSH.

This AP U.S. History class is stressing me out. It's time to start crackin' down :(

APUSH > Jordan

Pray, pray, pray.

At youth tonight, my youth minister gave us this website that he wanted us to go to so I went to it when I got home and its really cool. It's called http://operationworld.org/today1. When you go to the website, you click on "prayer movement" then click "pray today" and each day there is a different country described on it. It lists for you the general information about the country, the religions within the country, what they're currently struggling with, and a lot more information. It's pretty cool, I'm going to try to keep up with it daily and pray for the country it gives me each day. Today's country is the Ukraine. In the Ukraine, communism is still deepy felt although it was dropped 2 decades ago. People are strugglin economically and rates of alcoholism and AIDS are rapidly increasing. I pray for righteousness, justice, and compassion to shine forth in these situations. I think everyone should try this website.

Out of boredom...

So the other day, I was just messing around on my laptop and I decided to log on to the network, go to my H drive, and read some of my old portfolio pieces. A lot of them were kinda silly and you could tell they were written in 7th grade, but one of the pieces stuck out to me. It was the poem I wrote about hockey season. Here it is-

It is hockey season.

I see players preparing for the first

games to kick-off the season,

The freshly cut ice

            with bright blue and red lines,

And the scoreboard showing

            when the puck drops.

            It is hockey season.

I smell Febreezed equipment as my

            brother reveals it from his bag before the game,

Freshly popped, buttery popcorn

            in the concession stand,

And the sweaty teammates as they walk

off the ice to the locker rooms.

It is hockey season.

I hear coaches discussing the

            upcoming game with their players,

Sharp skate blades

chopping at the ice,

The scoreboard’s buzzer

at the end of the period,

And the cash register’s cha-ching

            as parents buy new equipment.

            It is hockey season.

I taste the cherry chilly willy

            as it slides down my throat,

The rubber of my mouthpiece

            as I chew on it nervously,

And the freshness of the

cold air as I breathe slowly.

It is hockey season.

I feel cold chills run up my spine

            as I sit on the freezing bleachers,

Adrenaline rushing through my body

            as I wait anxiously for the game to begin,

And pride in my heart after my

team just won the championship.

It is hockey season!

Now I know this isn't the best poem ever written, but I really like it. It reminds me of when I first began to play hockey and of how far I've come in the sport. I'm really glad I decided to stick with it and not give up :)

Writing vs. Jordan

Writing is NOT one of my strong abilities. Whenever I'm trying to write an essay, writing totally kicks my butt and gives me a mental block. I'm about to start my timed essay for A Tale of Two Cities and I'm dreading it. But I have to do it whether I like it or not, so here I go...

Faceoffs, goals, & penalties-

Arctic Foxes hockey has finallllly started again! This past weekend was our first tournament of the season :) It was in Granite City, Illinois. The rink we played at was half outdoors (which was pretty sweet), but it was sooo cold! I can't even imagine what it feels like to play hockey there when it's snowing. I'm sure it's pretty awesome to watch it snow while playing a hockey game but I bet it's freezing! Anyways, I think we did pretty decent for our first tournament in 8 months. We had a pretty rough start, but I think it's because we went into the game thinking we were gonna have an undefeated season like we did last year... that was a rude awakening. We ended up winning 2 games and losing 2 games (I got a goal and a couple assists!), which is alright I guess for our first tournament. It really gave us an idea of the skill level of the teams we'll be playing all season. This season isn't going to be nearly as easy as last season, the division we're in this year is more balanced skill-wise than the one we were in last year. I'm sure some teams will be less of a challenge than others, but there's not any specific team that we can play with the mindset of "oh we got this, this game will be cake". But I guess that's a good thing, it'll give us more challenging games which will hopefully boost our skill level :)

I am thankful for...

I take a lot of things for granted in my life that I shouldn't. I don't pay attention to how important the little things in my life really are to me. Even though I don't always show it, I'm thankful for everything in my life. I'm thankful that I get to have my own room, bathroom, bed, and clothes. I'm thankful for not having a high insurance payment on my car and phone every month. I'm thankful for my amazing parents, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm thankful that I get to live in a wonderful house that doesn't have a leaky roof and has air conditioning and heat. I'm thankful that I can go to church without being persecuted. I'm thankful for my awesome friends and boyfriend that I can always count on to cheer me up and be there for me whenver I need them. Even though I complain about getting up too early, I'm thankful that I can go to school 5 days a week and get an education that not everyone in the world has the privelage to get. I'm thankful that my parents pay for me to play hockey every year. I'm thankful for my job and all the people I work with that I love so much. I'm thankful for having freedoms at home that other kids don't get to have.
God, thank you SO much for everything you've given and will continue to give me in my life.

Halloween weekend-

Halloween weekend was pretty fun! On Friday, I rode the pep bus to the state volleyball game in Louisville (which we won) and had a blast! The ride up there, the game, and the ride home were all so much fun. We got back to school at approximately 5:41, which was 11 minutes later than Chase and I were supposed to be back for our play. So we automatically got 11 points taken off our grade for the play that night, which was pretty dumb if you ask me but it's whatever, it was totally worth it. Our plays that night went alright I guess, I'm just really glad they're finally over. Saturday I had hockey practice and it went a lot better than I expected. We're finally getting prepared for our upcoming tournament next weekend! After practice I went to Tyler's, woke him up (haha), and went back home to take a shower. Then I went back over to Tyler's and we put our costumes on. We were Pebbles and BamBam :) We took pictures together in our costumes then I had to go to work, which was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. Since it was the Saturday before Halloween, everyone got to dress up. I had so much fun hostessing as Pebbles with Pocahontas and Jason's wife :P I didn't get off til 11 that night so I just went home after work. Sunday I went to church with my Nanny and Pappy then went to my aunt's house and hung out with my cousins for a while. When I got home that afternoon, I put my costume back on and went to Trunk-or-Treat at church. Emily (my bestfriend) decorated her car as the Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown and dressed up as an ostrich rider with an inflatable ostrich... which doesn't go along with her car at all, but it was still funny. After Trunk-or-Treat, Emily and I drove out to Ann's and got there before she got off work, so we decided to scare her. Me, Emily, and Chan all hid outside while her mom "casually" sit in the rocking chair "talking on her phone" so she could watch us scare her... but it didn't end up scaring her as much as we thought it would, boooo. We all just kinda hung out at her house for like 30 minutes and it was the funniest 30 minutes I've had in a long time. I love my bestfriends, and I had a great Halloween!

    

"The Lost Get Found"

"The Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole-

Hello my friend, I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain't worth stayin'
You wanna run but you're hesitatin', I'm talkin' to me

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe

Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance, are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin', love is callin' you

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe

Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

Why do we go with the flow
Or take an easier road?
Why are we playin' it safe?
Love came to show us the way
Love is a chance we should take
I'm movin' out of the way

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe
(Stand out)

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
(Stand out)
'Cause somewhere
Somebody needs a reason to believe

Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it


I love love loveee this song. Personally, I think it's extremely powerful. It relays the message that it's important to be yourself and stand out because if you take that one single step to stand out, it gives others the inspiration to be themselves which brings them one step closer in discovering themselves both emotionally and spiritually. This song reminds me that just one little thing can completely change your perspective on everything. It also reminds me that there are people in the world that are hurting and dying inside and that if I have faith and don't give up, it inspires them to do the same. Here's the song :)

Hypothetically speaking...

Okay. So let's say that, hypothetically speaking, our volleyball team makes it to state. That's a big deal, right? And, hypothetically, we can ride a pep bus to the game to support them. Well, hypothetically, one teacher says that their students aren't allowed to go to the game.... hypothetically, the teacher says they are gonna take points off the students' grade if they go to the hypothetical game and don't get back in time. Yet after hearing this, hypothetically, some of the students decide to go to the game regardless... Hypothetically, this hypothetical situation is not going to end well...

Scary movies?

When I was little, I absolutely hated scary movies. I refused to watch them until about 7th grade. But now, I love them. Scary movies are my favorite! The first scary movie I ever watched was When a Stranger Calls. I remember exactly where I was and my reaction to it and everything. Taylor Keller, Katie Killman, Haleigh Millay, Brianna Oelze, Kaylee Wilhite, and I went to Taylor's aunt's house in Evansville for Taylor's birthday party and stayed the night there. When a Stranger Calls was one of the movies we watched. I remember we were all sitting in the dark living room and I had to sit on the end of the couch. Beside me was a little table with a lamp and a cordless phone on it, remember that... About half way through the movie when it was starting to get pretty intense, Taylor and her uncle got up and went into the kitchen. I didn't think anything of it except for maybe they were going to get a snack or something. A couple minutes later Taylor comes back in the living room and whispers something to everyone but since I'm on the end of the couch, I was last in line to hear what she was saying. By the time she had told everyone I asked to know and they all shh'd me and said they couldn't hear the movie. So I just dropped it and forgot about it. About 10 minutes later in the movie, the phone rang and at the EXACT same time the cordless phone beside me started ringing and I jumped. I looked over and saw that the caller ID said "unknown number" and shortly after the lit up phone began "floating" towards me... I jumped up, screamed, and jumped on the other couch and buried my face into the back cushion. Everyone started laughing so I looked up to see Taylor by the lightswitch and her uncle laying on the floor beside the couch I was on before I jumped up, holding the cordless phone. It was probably one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me! But now its really funny :)

Eaglefest?

So this year's Eaglefest was NOT our best.... I didn't think as much thought was put into it as there has been in the past years. I mean, yeah, being awarded and recognized for your achievements is great, but for the people that didn't get awarded anything, it was probably pretty boring. There wasn't even any fun stuff this year like there was last year, like the teachers dancing in tutus or the seniors dancing in togas. Some people in my class even said they felt like they dressed up in all out blue and white for nothing. I think Eaglefest should've been planned better than it was, but that's just my honest opinion.

Not enough time!

My weeks are starting to become hectic! I'm always doing something, whether it be something for school, work, church, or hockey/tennis. By the time I get home every night I just end up going to bed straight after doing homework because I'm so worn out. Somedays all I wanna do is just stay at home and watch a movie!

AYL, minus the newbies.

We had our first actual AYL meeting for mentors and trainers last night. We talked about what we're doing for the parent meeting next week and at the retreat in November, which I'm super pumped for. Chase and I have to speak at the parent meeting about last year's retreat and about the book we study, The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make. I'm really excited to talk to the new first-years about how much fun the retreat is and what we learn with the book. I've actually used what we've learned with this book, it's not just useless information we study to pass the time and make our club seem influencing. It's honestly helped me realize how much these 6 decisions you can make in highschool (school, friends, parents, dating, drugs, & self-worth) can affect you for the rest of your life. I also volunteered to give a "teen talk" at the retreat, which I'm kinda nervous about. A teen talk is a speech you give to the members in AYL about why you joined it. Talking in front of people isn't hard for me, I'm just nervous that I'll mess up and won't do a good job in explaining it. But oh well, hopefully it all goes good!

AYL is seriously the funnest school activity I've ever been involved in. It provides you with a group of people to rely on that have the same values as you, as far as peer pressure goes. I'm really glad Langley chose me as one of the people to come back this year and be a mentor, I'm seriously so excited! :)

School spirit,

I'm not gonna lie, our student body's school spirit sucks. I've been to a couple games this year and there's been hardly any students there. My 8th grade year, there were always a ton of people at the football games, football games were the place to be Friday nights. We don't even have a student section or anything like that for the students to get more involved in, which is probably why a lot of people don't go to games anymore. For example, I went to the Sadie Hawkins game against Catholic and their student section was packed while hardly any students were there to support Apollo, the only reason people from Apollo were there was to show off their skanky outfits, not to cheer on their football team. And this week is spirit week and hardly anybody is dressing up. Spirit week used to be a huge thing! I mean, I don't go all out but I at least try to dress up a little bit, some people don't even try to. Apollo's school spirit has gone wayyyy down since my freshman year. It doesn't even seem like people are excited about dressing up and looking silly to show spirit anymore. It seems to me that students could care less about winning or losing, and we should care.

Stress.

Work. Hockey practice. Tennis practice. Praise band practice. Church. Filming for ENL. Stories for ENL. AYL meetings. Projects for NHS. Hours for Beta. Good points for Student Council. Studying. Traveling out of town for hockey tournaments. APUSH. Chemistry. Memorizing lines. Spanish 3. Homework. A different class schedule EVERY DAY. 

High school hasn't been stressful for me until this year.  I'm officially stressed out. I feel like I never have enough time to do anything and when I do have time, all I want to do is be with my friends, boyfriend, or just lay down and take a nap with my dog. I think I need to learn how to balance my time better. Ughhhh, stresssssssss.

Once again, another unsuccessful attempt at blogging. Maybe I'll have bettter luck next class.

On second thought, here's a funny picture. I loveeee this movie!

Birthday boy!

Today's my brother's 14th birthday...
Happy Birthday bubba! (:

Undecided...

So, I've been trying to figure out what to blog about for the past two or three class periods and nothing has come to mind. Nothing. It's not that my life's been boring (it's been the complete opposite, I've been sooo busy), I just haven't been able to think of anything to blog about. It's so frustrating because everyone else is staring intensly at their laptop screen just typing away and I'm just sitting over here in my own little world trying to think of something worth blogging about. Ugh!  

My Role Model

"Great kings have big hearts."

                                 -Ethiopian Proverb

The person I admire most is my youth minister's wife, Brittany Zik. She is the kind of person I want to grow up to be. She is the one person I can always count on if I need to talk about anything. No matter what it is, I know I can confide in her. Regardless of what hardships are going on in her life, she always has a smile on her face. For example, last year, her and her husband, Will (my youth minister), were going through the adoption process of adopting a baby girl. They had brought her home and already had her for a couple weeks when the mother of the baby changed her mind and took her child back. Even though this was a tragic experience for them, they didn't let it get them down and instead saw it as an experience to show love to the child's mother and are now in another adoption process. She also holds me accountable to read my bible every night (she always texts me to remind me), which really means a lot that she takes the time out of her day to check up on me . Brittany is my role model, I'm so glad to have her in my life as a great Christian influence and friend!

"Follow me please, your server will be right with you."

Since the end of March, I've been a hostess at Cheddar's and I love it. All my friends are always like "Ugh, I gotta work today, work sucks" and I'm usually excited to go to work. I mean yeah, there are some things I don't like about it but the good definitely outweigh the bad. There's only a handful of people there that put me in a bad mood or piss me off, but the rest of them can always cheer me up and make me laugh. One good thing about my job is I like all of the hostesses there, there's not one of them that I don't enjoy working with. Sure, I have my favorites but everyone does. Some of mine just left for college actually, so that sucks... Another thing I like about it is that it's pretty simple. All I have to do is take parties to their table with menus and silverware, take names when we go on a wait, refill soap/paper towels/toilet paper in the bathrooms, and clean windows/highchairs. I'm so lucky to be able to work with people I enjoy being around and to have a job that I actually enjoy doing!

Friends-

"Friendship doubles joy and halves the grief."
                                                     -Egyptian Proverb

This proverb is so true. To me, this proverb means that if something good happens to you, it makes it seem so much better when you're with your friends or if something bad happens, being with your friends doesn't make it seem so bad. A friend is someone you can call at 1 in the morning just to tell them something funny that happened to you today and they'll stay up all night laughing with you, or someone you can call at any time of the day crying and they'll be at your house as fast as they can to comfort you.  I love love love my friends. I have a lot of friends, and I love hanging out with all of them. But high school has made me realize that there's only a certain few that I know I can always count on no matter what. If I need to just get out and drive around and go wherever, I call Emily. If I need somewhere to just go and chill and someone to vent to, I go to Ann's. If I need someone to make me laugh, I go to Tyler. I honestly have no idea what I'd do without my friends. They have definitely all had a big part in making me who I am today.This summer was by far one of the best summer I've had because of my friends.

Me+Emily+Ann=BESTfriends (:

Like mother, like daughter

The person I am most like in my family is my mom. People usually say I look more like my dad, but I have a lot more in common with my mom. My mom and I are both very outgoing and friendly; we can make friends very easily. We're also both very talkative. When we're riding in the car together, we talk from the time we get in the car until the time we get out, no matter how long of a ride it is. We have the same tan (although hers is a little darker than mine) and the only part of our body that burns is our face.

Family-

"A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense,

when you are inside you see that every tree has its place."

                                             -Ghana, Akan Proverb

Family means everything to me. I am a daughter, sister, owner, niece, granddaughter, cousin, and friend. I live with my dad, my mom, two brothers, a dog, and a cat.

My dad is the General Manager at Cheddar's Casual Cafe and he loves it. Since I'm a hostess there now, we get to work together sometimes and it gives us time to just talk and joke around with eachother. He is also the president of the Owensboro Youth Hockey Association.

My mom is a kindergarten teacher at Burns Elementary and she also loves her job. She gets to work with some of her best friends and always has a funny story to tell me about them at the end of the day. I'm closer to my mom than anyone else in my family, we talk about pretty much anything. She's also the leader of Cubbies in the AWANA children's progam at church.

My brother Ben is 13 and is a freshman here now. Him being in high school has already brought us so much closer. We still fight, but not near as much as we used to and only when one of us is in a bad mood. We're both very involved in our church youth group. He plays hockey for a travel team and the JV Owensboro highschool team as a goalie. My other brother Zach is 6 and is in first grade at Burns. He always has to be doing something. He also plays hockey and is an awesome ice skater for his age.

Oh, and I also loveeee my siberian husky, Maya. She's like my baby.

Being with my family is my favorite thing about holidays. When it comes to Christmas, I mean yeah I like the presents and food, but hanging out with my family that I haven't seen in a couple months is what I look forward to the most. I also really like going on family vacations. We make so many memories together that I don't think I'll ever forget.

Still kinda confused about this blogger thing...

I think having this whole blog thing instead of a writer's notebook for English is pretty cool, but I'm still trying to figure out how to work it and make my blog look pretty... I haven't quite figured it out yet. I'll probably have to get Chase to help me, because his blog looks pretty cool. But anyways, I guess I should talk about my first 2 days of school, so here I go!

 Blue day #1: ENL, Spanish 3, English, Drama Production Basics
I'm pretty excited about being in/on ENL. I can't wait to see what kind of stories we film this year, I'm sure they'll be pretty funny. I'm kinda pumped about Spanish too, I'm really excited to have Hilgenhold again this year, I missed her class. As for English, I think it'll definitely be a change. I'll have to get used to all this blogger and livebinder and wiki stuff, but I think once I get used to it I'll like it. Then there's drama... I'm excited about drama because of the people in it, but I hope the plays we're doing first semester end up being a lot better then they sound. But oh well, I guess we'll see how it all plays out. 

White day #1: Anatomy, U.S. History, Chemistry, Pre-Calculus
I'm SO excited about my anatomy class. It's the only class I have with my best friend and even though it sounds like it's going to be tough, I think it'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait to disect cats! I'm kinda worried about my U.S. History class... it's an AP class so I know the end-of-the-year exam and the class itself will be challenging but I think Paff will make it exciting. I'm looking forward to chemistry this year, but I'm not so excited about all the work we'll supposedly have according to the students she had last year. At least I have it with a lot of my friends though, plus we get to blow stuff up. So that's something to look forward to. I have a feeling Pre-Cal's going to be stressful, I'm not very good at math. But Mrs. Austin seems pretty cool, so hopefully it'll go good!

So, I think my blue days are going to be a lot easier than my white days, but I might end up changing my mind.... doubt it though. I guess that's all I have to say for now. Hopefully I'll figure out how to make this thing prettier eventually!

-Jordan