It's the DeVries!!!!!!!!!! :) Extreme Makeover AL Area

The DeVries were chosen!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for them!!!!!!! I can't wait for them to get started on the house! It's so weird for this to all of a sudden happen. It must be so weird but super exhilarating at the same time to be the chosen family! I would probably be in a daze! I'm in one now and I am not even a part of it! Congratulations DeVries!!!! I'm so happy for you! And Derik we'll miss you at school but have tons of fun! :)

Extremem Makeover Home Edition Coming Soon!!!!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition is an ABC show that is super touching! I've watched so many episodes in tears. I love it though. The show helps so many deserving families. And guess what? It's coming to the Albert Lea, MN area! I know two of the families that are nominees and they are both very deserving. I would really like to go and volunteer to help build the house but I'm not old enough but I'll for sure go cheer everyone on. I've always thought that nothing like this would happen in the small town of Albert Lea but it is!!!! I have always hoped! Is everyone else as excited as I am?!? I think whoever gets the new house is very deserving and I'm sure they'll be very thankful. I hope everything goes well in building the new house! Good luck!

Tennis 2008

The 2008 tennis season just got done yesterday. I had a really fun time and I had a pretty good season. I can't wait for next year and I'm sure I'll be out playing this summer. I hope that I improve a lot over the rest of the year. Some of my friends think that tennis is really, really boring but that's only when you're watching. Although I think it's pretty fun to watch. It's super fun to play and it's a sport that you can play throughout your whole life. So, I would recommend tennis to anyone who's looking for something to do. And in the surrounding towns there is probably an indoor tennis courts center. So, you can even play in the winter. If you think tennis is boring I think that you should try it at least once to see. It's really fun and challenging!

The Pressure's On

The Pressure's On... what does that mean for us? The pressure to do our best, the pressure to do something that we know is wrong, the pressure to look good, the pressure to fit in, or the pressure to show everyone someone we're not. Pressure comes in a lot of shapes and forms throughout our days and it never stops coming. I'm a high school sophomore with things coming at me 24/7. I am in band, choir, show choir combo/band, tennis, dance, I am a Sunday School teacher, and I just recently got a job. All of these things involve pressure and stress at at least one point during my day. It's tough sometimes but I know that I have to keep at it to succeed. I really want to be a pediatric nurse when I grow up and I think what I do now in high school will bring me there. But I know that without hard work I go nowhere. So, I try to push the pressure out but I know one person who I'm close to that can't. My cousin has been battling depression for a year. She can't push those pressures out so she breaks down. All my life I've looked up to her and it's been scary seeing her fall apart. And you don't understand the disease until you see what it does to someone you love... I've learned that. It's hard watching. I can't imagine going through it myself. I just think that the pressure from her peers and teachers became too much. She was so involved. She loved everything she did but it just got to be too much. There's got to be a limit. I think that our schools could do something to help limit. My brother went to school when we still had the 4 period day. He only had 4 classes a day... so only 4 classes to worry about. 7 classes to 4 doesn't seem like much but I think it would make a huge difference.

Tigers Try

Homecoming was last week for my school. It was an awesome week and I think it ended well with our football game. We played a team that was at our level of play and I think we played really well. We were ahead for a long time in the game. The game ended in OT with the score being 34-35. :( We lost by one point! We tried so hard and I think the guys deserved to win. But... unfortunately that's not the way it turned out. Some people think our football team is really bad but I think they showed what they can do. So, even though the score didn't show it and some people don't believe it, I think we (The Tigers) were the real winners. No matter what anyone says our team played like winners. They should be proud. I am.

The Election - Can we all get along?

I'm sure you've all heard about Barack Obama and John McCain choosing their running mates. And we all know their names: Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. We also all know that these 2 parties/teams don't always get along... but it is a race for the U.S. presidency. Right? I live with 2 parents that belong to opposite parties. One republican and the other democrat. I've heard many good things about both parties and the people running. Sarah Palin has a 17 year old daughter that's pregnant. Does that make Sarah a bad person? I don't always know what to think but I for sure know what each party thinks and what each of my parents think. So, what I am supposed to believe? I don't really know. It doesn't really concern me at this point in my life because I can't even vote yet. But I'd really like to tell you how I feel about these elections. I feel that no matter who gets selected to be our next president and vice president will do a great job. I also feel that we should all stop fighting in a neverending war and I'm not talking about the Iraq War. I'm talking about the war here in the U.S. between two different teams. I think we just all need to start getting along. That's what I feel. Let's be nice to each other for awhile.

Grrr...

Grrr... blurp... "What's that noise?", a peer in my fifth hour biology class asks and quietly I answer, "That was my stomach, sorry." It's about 12:30. Biology is about to end and the mad dash to the lunch room will begin in 2 minutes. At my high school there are three different lunches: A lunch, B lunch, and C lunch. I have C lunch. It is a really late lunch, where A lunch is a really early lunch. A lunchers eat at about 10:30 - 11:00ish. I think that is super early to be eating lunch but that's how it's done at my school. By the time my lunch comes around I am starving! I wish that the somehow the times could be altered a little bit so the everyone eats at a decent time. The lunch times work really well in the schedule but it's just not the best for the students. Hopefully next year or the year after the lunch times will be changed. It may just seem so drastic to me now because school just started. I'll probably get used to it. :)