Writing this blog for my Writing 150 class in my first semester of college at BYU has been a positive experience. This is my first blog, and I was surprised at how simple it was to post stories and pictures. Participating in the creation of this blog has allowed me to see all the things I have accomplished and to record stories that might not have ever been recorded.
Creating a blog has allowed me to see my overall progress, both in my first few months at BYU and also throughout my whole life. When I first began, I wondered if I would have anything interesting to write about because I did not feel like I had done anything particularly special.. When Sister Steadman encouraged us to include pictures, I decided to plug my camera memory card into the computer to see if I could find anything. I found all sorts of fun memories to write about that I could not believe I had forgotten. I enjoyed looking through photos and writing about them because it reminded me of all the great things I have accomplished.
Publishing blog posts has also helped me to record stories that never otherwise would not have been written down. My personal narrative, rhetorical analysis, restaurant review, and even the final presentation have taught me numerous ways to record my family history. I learned how to make stories that did not seem interesting enough to write about very fun and entertaining for me and my family to read in the future.
Overall, participating in the creation of a blog was a positive experience because it has enabled me to discover all of the things I have accomplished and to record my personal experiences. I can also see this blog as a way to show my friends what I am doing here at BYU. I liked being able to customize my blog to my favorite colors, and I enjoyed following everyone else in the class and seeing all the creative ideas. I am excited to show my family what I have been working on these past few months.
Friday, December 5, 2014
19) New Beginnings
"She's going to be born on your mother's birthday." Grandma would confidently say throughout the summer. "No, I just know she's going to be born on my first day of school." I'd reply each time.
My oldest sister Marcee was going to have a baby girl any time now. Her official due date was September 3rd, but I knew the baby was going to come on the 2nd so I couldn't be there. I was going to start school at Brigham Young University on the 2nd, and it was just my luck that I'd be in class when the family went to see her at the hospital.
Well, August 29th, my mother's birthday, came and gone. Still no baby. My grandma finally agreed that the baby would be here on my first day at college. I moved my things to my dorm on the Sunday night before school started. September 2nd was a Tuesday, and we patiently waited for the telephone to ring. It wasn't until Monday night that I realized my classes were on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My first day of school was not really December 2nd after all. Now Marcee could have the baby and I could be there! But, of course it didn't happen that way.
December 2nd, my not-really-first day of school, came and went. Then the first call came. My dad called that night and said my sister was going to the hospital. Disappointed, I assumed that the baby would be born in the middle of the night and no one would be able to see it until the next night. I reluctantly went to bed and prepared for my first day of college. I didn't know whether to worry more about when the baby would come or about where to go for my classes.
Finally, my real first day of school came. I made it through a total of two classes before the official call came. My dad left a voice mail informing me that my sister had the baby at about 9:00am. I knew it! On my way up the stairs from the Richards Building to my next class, I called my Grandma and we laughed as I said, "I told you so! The baby really was born on my first day of school!" "You were right!" Grandma agreed. I anxiously finished my day of classes and sped home. My other sister Lisa was already there, waiting unpatiently for my parents to come home from work.
Once everyone was home, we all drove to the hospital together. We saw my brother-in-law's family in the waiting room and excitedly waited our turn to see the new arrival. Finally, we all took our turn holding the baby. September 3rd was an exciting day filled with new beginnings. It was my first day at college and my first day being an aunt.
My oldest sister Marcee was going to have a baby girl any time now. Her official due date was September 3rd, but I knew the baby was going to come on the 2nd so I couldn't be there. I was going to start school at Brigham Young University on the 2nd, and it was just my luck that I'd be in class when the family went to see her at the hospital.
Well, August 29th, my mother's birthday, came and gone. Still no baby. My grandma finally agreed that the baby would be here on my first day at college. I moved my things to my dorm on the Sunday night before school started. September 2nd was a Tuesday, and we patiently waited for the telephone to ring. It wasn't until Monday night that I realized my classes were on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My first day of school was not really December 2nd after all. Now Marcee could have the baby and I could be there! But, of course it didn't happen that way.
December 2nd, my not-really-first day of school, came and went. Then the first call came. My dad called that night and said my sister was going to the hospital. Disappointed, I assumed that the baby would be born in the middle of the night and no one would be able to see it until the next night. I reluctantly went to bed and prepared for my first day of college. I didn't know whether to worry more about when the baby would come or about where to go for my classes.
Finally, my real first day of school came. I made it through a total of two classes before the official call came. My dad left a voice mail informing me that my sister had the baby at about 9:00am. I knew it! On my way up the stairs from the Richards Building to my next class, I called my Grandma and we laughed as I said, "I told you so! The baby really was born on my first day of school!" "You were right!" Grandma agreed. I anxiously finished my day of classes and sped home. My other sister Lisa was already there, waiting unpatiently for my parents to come home from work.
Once everyone was home, we all drove to the hospital together. We saw my brother-in-law's family in the waiting room and excitedly waited our turn to see the new arrival. Finally, we all took our turn holding the baby. September 3rd was an exciting day filled with new beginnings. It was my first day at college and my first day being an aunt.
18) Christmas Decorating
There are 20 days til Christmas, and I have done a lot of decorating. When I was home for Thanksgiving Break, my mom and I went to Broadbent's in Lehi and they had the most beautiful tree decorated with cute little owls. My mom bought a bunch of the owl ornaments and I decorated Grandma's Christmas Tree. Grandpa said the new decorations made Grandma's tree look "a lot classier."
The Sunday before I came back to school, my mother and I worked on bringing all the boxes of Christmas ornaments upstairs. I helped set up the tree, string the beads on, and hung a few ornaments. We didn't get very far with the decorating before my oldest sister came to visit with my three-month-old niece. I got to hold her and show her the Christmas tree before coming back to Provo.
One of the funnest things I have done to prepare for Christmas is decorate my dorm window with Christmas Stickers my Grandma sent me. Before now, my roommate and I had not spent much time together and when we did spend time together, it was not especially exciting.
Then, one morning we both happened to be home, and I invited her to put up the stickers with me. Soon we were smiling and having a lot of fun.
The Sunday before I came back to school, my mother and I worked on bringing all the boxes of Christmas ornaments upstairs. I helped set up the tree, string the beads on, and hung a few ornaments. We didn't get very far with the decorating before my oldest sister came to visit with my three-month-old niece. I got to hold her and show her the Christmas tree before coming back to Provo.
One of the funnest things I have done to prepare for Christmas is decorate my dorm window with Christmas Stickers my Grandma sent me. Before now, my roommate and I had not spent much time together and when we did spend time together, it was not especially exciting.
Then, one morning we both happened to be home, and I invited her to put up the stickers with me. Soon we were smiling and having a lot of fun.
17) Thanksgiving Traditions
Traditions are what make the holidays special with our family. This year, my family pioneered some new traditions.
Normally, my grandma would reserve the gym in the 1st Ward church building, and my Uncle Bryan's family and my Uncle Mike's family would come and we would play basketball and have our traditional turkey dinner. However, both my Uncle Mike and Uncle Bryan's families have moved out of state. Despite my constant remindings that it was my grandma's responsibility as Grandma to prepare Thanksgiving dinner, my grandma was certain that this year we were going out to Chuck-A-Rama. It looked like our traditions were being flushed down the drain.
Then just a few days before Thanksgiving, my Uncle Mike called and said that their family would be driving to our house and spending Thanksgiving here. Boy am I glad they did because Aunt Crystal is an excellent cook. We had homemade pumpkin, pie, lemon lush, and the whole turkey dinner. My grandma worked as hard as ever with my mother to clean my house and prepare for their stay. After this Thanksgiving, I think my grandma will return to our old traditions so she doesn't have any more last minute surprises.
My dad's side of the family had a new tradition this year too. My dad is the youngest of five children, so there are a lot more people present at Thanksgiving dinner. We usually have a full dinner, but this year, Aunt Anna Joy decided to only have each family bring a dessert. We brought BYU ice cream because I work at the creamery outlet and know which flavors are the best.
My family was asked to bring my grandma's old BINGO set. We visited and played BINGO for a few hours and each winner was rewarded with a prize. I won one round and we got a game of Tidley Winks for our prize.
Another change to our traditions was the recent arrival to our family. My oldest sister had a baby girl this past September, so we all got to hold and fiddle with her. After the Thanksgiving desserts with my dad's family, my sister brought her baby for my Aunt Anna Joy and Uncle Donald to hold. We took their pictures and recorded this new family event.
Normally, my grandma would reserve the gym in the 1st Ward church building, and my Uncle Bryan's family and my Uncle Mike's family would come and we would play basketball and have our traditional turkey dinner. However, both my Uncle Mike and Uncle Bryan's families have moved out of state. Despite my constant remindings that it was my grandma's responsibility as Grandma to prepare Thanksgiving dinner, my grandma was certain that this year we were going out to Chuck-A-Rama. It looked like our traditions were being flushed down the drain.
Then just a few days before Thanksgiving, my Uncle Mike called and said that their family would be driving to our house and spending Thanksgiving here. Boy am I glad they did because Aunt Crystal is an excellent cook. We had homemade pumpkin, pie, lemon lush, and the whole turkey dinner. My grandma worked as hard as ever with my mother to clean my house and prepare for their stay. After this Thanksgiving, I think my grandma will return to our old traditions so she doesn't have any more last minute surprises.
My dad's side of the family had a new tradition this year too. My dad is the youngest of five children, so there are a lot more people present at Thanksgiving dinner. We usually have a full dinner, but this year, Aunt Anna Joy decided to only have each family bring a dessert. We brought BYU ice cream because I work at the creamery outlet and know which flavors are the best.
My family was asked to bring my grandma's old BINGO set. We visited and played BINGO for a few hours and each winner was rewarded with a prize. I won one round and we got a game of Tidley Winks for our prize.
Another change to our traditions was the recent arrival to our family. My oldest sister had a baby girl this past September, so we all got to hold and fiddle with her. After the Thanksgiving desserts with my dad's family, my sister brought her baby for my Aunt Anna Joy and Uncle Donald to hold. We took their pictures and recorded this new family event.
16) Skimming and Close Reading
This semester I am taking Writing 150. My professor is Sister Lori Steadman, and our class is made up of about 20 students. I have really enjoyed our class. For our final, my classmates and I have to each give a presentation on a subject we learned in Writing 150.
I chose to present on Skimming and Close Reading because I am one of those readers. I am the one that always reads a whole page in a wordy textbook and forgets what the chapter is about. I grumpily return to the beginning and read again and again until the idea sinks in. We examined The Family Proclamation in class using the concepts of skimming and close reading, and I could see how useful it could be in my other classes.
My Presentation went as follows:
I chose to present on Skimming and Close Reading because I am one of those readers. I am the one that always reads a whole page in a wordy textbook and forgets what the chapter is about. I grumpily return to the beginning and read again and again until the idea sinks in. We examined The Family Proclamation in class using the concepts of skimming and close reading, and I could see how useful it could be in my other classes.
My Presentation went as follows:
· I showed the class pieces of pictures that I cut up. The pictures were of a basketball, a volleyball, and a golf ball. I had them guess what the pieces of the pictures were of.
·
Introduce topic: Skimming and Close
Reading
·
Skimming and close reading are important
because they save time and help you find the main ideas.
· I taught the class my helpful acronym
F
ind the main idea (introduction and conclusion)
A
nnotate (circle things that stand out to you)
S
tay focused (try not to be distracted)
T
wo words to summarize each paragraph (looking primarily at the topic sentence
and conclusion of each paragraph)
·
I added the idea of relating the three
pictures (texts) to each other. Compare and contrast.
·
Conclude: Just as we can determine what
the picture is from just a few pieces, we can determine the ideas found in a
paper with just a few sentences. We do
not always need to read every word to see the whole picture.
In
conclusion, skimming and close reading are helpful to know when reading texts
for class or any papers we might be reading in the future because they are
processes that save us time and help us to find the main ideas. Sometimes certain points stand out to us more
when we skim and close read. If these points seem interesting or important, we
can always go back and read more. Skimming and close reading are adjustable
activities and can be flexible according to your preferences and the text. I
will continue to develop my skimming and close reading skills that I learned in
Writing 150 and use them in my future years in school.
15) Narrative Reflection
A narrative was different from the other genres we've written because we had to come up with a moral for our story. Although it was difficult to come up with one, I finally found a moral and discovered that the story I chose to tell has influenced my overall personality. It was fun to think back to the time when I was in first grade and remember an event that happened over 10 years ago.
As I wrote, I discovered that I had to create many aspects because I could not remember every detail. My narrative is derived from a true story, but the actual happenings of that day I had to make up.
Overall, I liked writing a narrative more than writing the research paper because it was up to me to record the facts, not a text book or an online encyclopedia. The narrative was also a shorter assignment. It is fun to write down my memories and describe in a story what the experience was like. And now a story is recorded that I probably never would have thought worth writing about.
As I wrote, I discovered that I had to create many aspects because I could not remember every detail. My narrative is derived from a true story, but the actual happenings of that day I had to make up.
Overall, I liked writing a narrative more than writing the research paper because it was up to me to record the facts, not a text book or an online encyclopedia. The narrative was also a shorter assignment. It is fun to write down my memories and describe in a story what the experience was like. And now a story is recorded that I probably never would have thought worth writing about.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
14) Sammy's Restaurant Review
For our restaurant review, my group went to Sammy's in Provo near Center Street. We each came separately and met at the restaurant. Our goal was to write a review for this restaurant based on the price, atmosphere, and the food.
The restaurant itself was very tiny and unique. The entire interior of the building was written on by previous customers. It seemed to be a fairly old restaurant because the chairs were worn out, the menus were sufficiently wrinkled, and the counters had the look of being well-used.
We took our food outside on a little patio table with an umbrella and had a great time. Courtney and Madelyn ordered hamburgers; Cassidy and Lara ordered chicken sandwiches, Jade ordered a Turkey Bacon Sandwich, and I ordered the chicken strips and a chocolate shake. They were delicious! The shake itself was worth coming back for. We noted that the shakes were why it was called 'Sammy's Shake Parlor' and not 'Sammy's Burgers.'
We all agreed that the prices were pretty high for the food. Just for my chicken strips and the shake it was $12. However, if you were looking to take a family with small children there, it might be more reasonable to order one meal and distribute it among children because the proportions were pretty big.
The atmosphere was very crowded because the building space was limited. We ate outside because we could not find six seats available together. They have a long table with bar stools lined up, so it would be pretty difficult to talk to each other in a big group.
Overall, going to Sammy's was a good experience. The food tasted good and we had a lot of fun eating, talking about our paper, giggling, and having a fun time. I am glad we had this assignment where we got to eat food, write a fun paper, and make new friends in the class.
The restaurant itself was very tiny and unique. The entire interior of the building was written on by previous customers. It seemed to be a fairly old restaurant because the chairs were worn out, the menus were sufficiently wrinkled, and the counters had the look of being well-used.
We took our food outside on a little patio table with an umbrella and had a great time. Courtney and Madelyn ordered hamburgers; Cassidy and Lara ordered chicken sandwiches, Jade ordered a Turkey Bacon Sandwich, and I ordered the chicken strips and a chocolate shake. They were delicious! The shake itself was worth coming back for. We noted that the shakes were why it was called 'Sammy's Shake Parlor' and not 'Sammy's Burgers.'
We all agreed that the prices were pretty high for the food. Just for my chicken strips and the shake it was $12. However, if you were looking to take a family with small children there, it might be more reasonable to order one meal and distribute it among children because the proportions were pretty big.
The atmosphere was very crowded because the building space was limited. We ate outside because we could not find six seats available together. They have a long table with bar stools lined up, so it would be pretty difficult to talk to each other in a big group.
Overall, going to Sammy's was a good experience. The food tasted good and we had a lot of fun eating, talking about our paper, giggling, and having a fun time. I am glad we had this assignment where we got to eat food, write a fun paper, and make new friends in the class.
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