I really like Halloween. It’s the funnest time of the year to be scared because of all of the superstitions that surround it. What really kind of irks me though, is how people complain and don’t like it. “It’s a waste of money” “there’s too much candy and junk” blah blah. Look, people, it’s not like there’s a law that requires you to celebrate the holiday. Some people may say, “but the kids like it blah blah all their friends do it blah blah”. If you don’t want your child participating in the commercial way of Halloween, then teach them about the more traditional way it was done and about what Halloween is originally about. Halloween, originally called All Hallows Eve, is about celebrating those who have died in the past year and paying respect to them.
Of course, as most things do, one event lead to another and BAM! Here we are with another commercial holiday. If you think about it, it is really the only day of the year in which teenage girls and now even younger girls can dress like sluts and get away with it. I didn’t realize that until recently haha.
Last Halloween my friend and I dressed up and Galinda and Elphaba. Galinda is Galinda the good from the Wizard of Oz and Wicked. Elphaba is the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked. We got her green face paint and painted her face and hands and neck green. We also sprayed her hair black and her sister made her an awesome costume. I got a wand and a long blonde wig. Also her sister made me a nice pink dress to fit it all together. It was hilarious when we showed up at our friends Halloween party because we had told them that we were coming as lesbian lawyers.
This year was awesome too. We just dressed up as each other (which was funny, she looked way more pregnant that I do lol) then we went up to the Castle Theatre. The Castle Theatre is an amphitheatre up in Provo. There, we watched our stage crew/drama teacher and some old friends who had graduated last year, perform in the play Sweeney Todd. It was awesome cuz our teacher was playing the lead role as Sweeney. AAAh I love that play. Haha so does Russ.

Sena

Where I’ve Been

These past few months have been really CRAZY! I’ve been moving around a lot. Some things happened in my foster home and they thought it would be a good idea to remove all the kids from the home. So I was placed in South Jordan. It was supposed to be a temporary placement because I was in the process of getting adopted. Long story short, the family wasn’t approved by the committee so I stayed where I was. I really didn’t like the home so I kept asking my therapist and caseworker to let me move back to where I was before in Eagle Mountain. They finally listened to me and realized it would be beneficial for me. I also wanted to come back to Summit. I’m trying to graduate early so I can get my life started. I’m not in a program so I don’t ever get to go home with my family. I want to know where I’m going and what I’m doing so I don’t feel so alone in the world. I also went to Alta and Bingham High this year. If you ever have a choice between the two of them, Bingham is the way to go. So now I’m back.. That’s pretty much it.

Rachel

Well what I feel about President Elect Barrack Obama wining the election against Senator John McCain was good. But I don’t think he is ready to be our president because he hasn’t had enough experience, like John McCain has for almost twenty-seven years in the senate. And Obama thinks that giving health care to every one will be alright, but I don’t think that is a very good idea. because you’re giving it to drug addicts and homeless people and by doing that he is taking money from the people who have retirement funds and from the national government , (the U.S. treasurey) which I know will cause a big inflation on our economy and the taxes would be rasied up and making our U.S. dollar worthless to other countries. And he is taking the troops out of the Iraq war, which will cause a much bigger problem because the Taliban and al queda leaders will reignite the war in Pakistan and afhganistan or I should say the Middle East. The reason why I wanted senator john McCain to be president was that he had good ideas for our nation, (not saying that our country isn’t bad right now.) but the problems were having the financial crisis were having . And having a war with the middle east and its getting really bad for us right now and the house foreclosure’s in the nation and the three major car dealerships are in tough times right now. so our country is in the hands of president obama and his administration. And we have been in this place with the Reagan administration and those years were good and john McCain was in his Cabinet and he knows good techniques then Barack Obama, obama wants to bring the troops but that like “ A big white flag of surrender”. And senator McCain wants to make that place a stabilized country, and the plan to fix our economy, the health care plan issue really didn’t come up for him because he really hadn’t had a thought about that issue. And that is my opinion for john McCain for president


McCain & Palin ‘012

Lloyd

Two summers ago me and my best friend broke his wall out of his basement and dug forty by fifteen feet under his garage and then we made mixed some cement up and made walls. He ordered a hydraulic door which we made in to a wall; also I bought a keypad with a finger scanner. Next we put in grow lights in then built planter boxes and hocked up the water. Put in a couch in the back with a coffee table and my projector and screen with his Xbox 360. A week later the plants popped up and four months later I started to sell it and going to all sorts of parties I thought I had the life until I woke up and came to.

The consequences for this life style was and is damaging to the point that my mom wouldn’t give me five bucks for anything because she was so scared that I would buy drugs. To get back the trust of family members take a long time and it sucks. I wish kids these days could learn from others and not form getting caught doing it. Drugs are vary bad and they hurt your family, if not you. So that’s why I have decided to be a cop and try to get in the DEA and stop people from using drugs and from going down the road that I did.

Mark

I had gone to court yesterday for my review. I wasn’t completely sure how it was going to go on. I was doing what I was supposed to, and passing all of my drug tests. I was coming to school, and going to work… but my family was in court with me. That was what made me a little nervous.

I didn’t really know how to react to that, when I saw them. I knew something was going to happen. Judge Noonan called on me to see how I was doing and if everything was going good. Of course, I said everything was fine; I had money saved, good grades, actually going to school, and passing my drug tests. She was so impressed with that she was speechless. It was actually kind of cool. But then she asked about home visits and my family.

I had to tell her I haven’t been on a home visit since August. My family doesn’t call me, or my foster parents, caseworker, or anything. So I stopped trying to fix things with them. My Judge asked if it hurt my feeling when my parents canceled the visit I scheduled before court, and I just said, yeah a little bit. So then Judge Noonan turned to my parents and talked to them. My dad’s new wife just started crying and acting like she just wanted people to feel sorry for her. She kept going on and on about my past and what I’ve done to hurt her and my dad.

It just kind of makes me think about a lot about my past, when I’m trying to forget about it and move forward. It just bugs me when people bring up things that happened years ago… even months ago. So now my family and I have to start all over and figure out how we all are going to move forward before my next court date in February.

Kelsee

I am not sure what kind of life I will have outside of the group home. See I have been in-group homes so long I am afraid to talk young ladies especially if they are the slightest bit attractive, and even the ones that I don’t really find attractive. I guess the reason is because I have been around guys for the past several years of my life. So I guess I have turned shy in front of females my age. I mean don’t get me wrong I like some of the young ladies my age but I am afraid of saying/doing something dumb. I am very self-conscience and I don’t deal with rejection or embarrassment very well. I guess I have always been shy because I have never really had a girlfriend, and it was because I never really could act socially acceptable around girls. I would either say or do the wrong thing. I never really had friends who were girls either I just need to gain more guts.

James

Journal

The best thing I like about Christmas is all the happiness and joy. I really like to spend time with my family at that time. My dad and grandpa have a four-wheeler and pull me and my brother around on a tube. I have a lot of fun.

My grandpa has a big driveway. He has a bobcat and he lets me use it to plow the snow with it. I started using it last year and I’m already good at using it. He taught me how to use it and he just has me do all the work with it. I really like plowing the driveway with it because I just make a big huge pile and make forts out of it.

I had a really great Christmas last year. I spent it with my grandparents and on Christmas Eve I opened three presents. I got some games for my x box, some movies, and a great big k-nex rollercoaster and me and my grandpa built it in less than two hours. People say Christmas is the best time of the year and I would agree because that’s when you get to spend time with your family. I usually make my grandparents things for Christmas. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Tayler