Sundays and the End of the First Term

          Wow! Today my family and I got to go over to the Phillips home (my grandpa’s house) to eat out of the Phillips’ garden. Even though this is a time honored Sunday tradition, it was especially good today. There were brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes, two of my most favorite things in the world. After dinner, my family and I sometimes go to James’s house (my grandpa Oldham’s house) and play legos with my cousins. Then, later, I go home to relax with my cat. I have trained my cat to go through a cat door into the furnace room, what my family used to call the cats’ rooms. We used to have two cats, but then one died, so now we just call it the cat’s room.

This term has been great! I have made a lot of new friends, I learned a lot, and had a blast along the way. I've also had some pretty boring and hard things to do too. Whether I am staying up late doing homework, or playing with the SBOs during homeroom. First term has been a party.

            To start off, I want to talk about algebra 2 honors, a very easy class to compare to a monster, its massive mouth leering up at you from a huge worksheet. Algebra 2 is definitely the hardest class I’ve ever taken in my junior high career. In this particular class, I get about three assignments that are due the next time I come to class. Since I am really good at procrastinating, I usually wait until 8 o’clock the night before it’s due to start doing the 50+ questions that are the hardest problems I’ve ever attempted in my life. And if I thought the assignments were hard, I didn’t know that the tests would be much harder. These tests are timed, adding to the amount of stress already heaped upon you. During one of these tests, I found myself so nervous my leg would not stop shaking. But alas, due to hard work, a lot of stress, staying up late doing homework, and going to school early for help has earned me an A-, which I am kind of put out about, owing that it could have been an A very easily.

            As it turns out, I have enjoyed every single one of my classes. Even Honors English has been very fun to do. You can probably guess I’m having the time of my life writing this blog entry right now. Kidding aside, reading books like The Chosen has really been interesting. I’m looking forward to reading the books for the second term of Honors English.

This term I have met a lot of new people that are really nice. One of my goals for this year was to know every person’s name in the whole school because everyone likes to hear his own name.  I am realizing now it’s going to be really hard to do this.  But I figure if I meet 2 new people everyday, I should be able to be Mr. Memorization by the end of the year.

           

One thing that has been fun about being an SBO was the chance to visit other schools. I’m pretty sure all of the Davis County Jr. High schools’ SBOs think theirs is the best school. When the other SBOs and I visit their schools, they are kind of annoying sometimes. Apart from this, I love watching the boys basketball team play, they are really exiting to watch!

This term has been really fun, and I hope to continue with the fun in term number two!

My Reflections Entry 2010

Here's my reflections entry for 2010, the theme this year was "Together we can..." I hope you find it very illuminating and inspiring:

What if our founding fathers of this great country never decided to work together and unify a country? Good bye democracy, hello king George. Would Ernest  Shackleton’s crew ever have escaped from the bitter cold of the Antarctic if they suddenly yelled, “every man for himself”? No, our world would be very different if people did not work together.

An Orchestra performs, a soccer team scores a goal. All due to team work.

            Humans, in all our follies, flops, and flubs, need the help of others to support us in the race to the finish line. And not only does the struggling person accomplish more than they ever could without us, we benefit from it more than we could ever know.

As Henry Ford once said:

“Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress

Working together is success.”

            Let’s choose to work together, let’s choose to help one another. Because in a world like today, we could all use a helping hand.

A Musical Family

My family is very musical. Whether it's playing the piano or serenading with the violin, I have some pretty talented family members. All of my siblings play at least one instrument, as does most of my extended family.I want to talk about some of these talented people and about myself, another talented person.

My Grandma Oldham is and always was a very musically gifted person from a young age. Now after many years of hard work and practice, my grandma is a retired piano instructor and an amazing pianist. She can play any song you put before her, and she is the best piano teacher I've ever had. She is always so nice and cheerful, she often accompanies my siblings in concert, and plays music at the family gatherings. I am really lucky to have a great grandma who helped me on to the road to fame and glory.

 My mom is another great musician in my family. She plays the cello and the piano, and is always there to help with my sibling's music practicing. She can also sing very expertly. My mother has managed to keep all of her children in music classes throughout their childhood. She is the director of the family whenever we have to perform music for people. I am very grateful to my mom for all her hard  work and sacrifice she gave so that her children could be musical.


My older sister Sarah is a pretty amazing person. She can play the violin and the piano, both very well. She has been in a ton of musical competitions, and most of the time takes them by storm. She took piano from my grandma and many other skilled piano instructors. She has used her talents to win a lot of pageants also. Nowadays, she can play any song out there by just looking at it. She is also very good at making up her own songs. She is great at playing popular music of the day and singing the words along with the music. Not only does my sister play instruments, she even taught her own music lessons one summer to local children. She taught piano, violin, ukulele, and voice. She is a really nice person who has a lot of talents.




 My grandpa Phillips is another great musician who is a great person too. He taught himself to play the piano, and he really loves having music in his home. His favorite songs are the old-timers and sings along in a beautiful tenor voice. He bought me my first guitar from the Philippines , which kick-started my guitar career. He also is always there too offer advice on the song that you are performing. My grandpa is one of the coolest people I know, and he is a great person too.

Like I mentioned beforehand, my grandpa gave me my first guitar, and I am really lucky for that. I have now played the guitar for over 6 years, and I mainly play the classical guitar. I have recently been taking acoustical guitar lessons, which has been interesting. I have won 100 dollars one time playing my guitar, and I love it. I also got to perform in my school's talent show last year. I was even lucky enough to have been taught piano by my Grandma Oldham, and I can still play the instrument just a little. I play the hymns in priesthood meeting on Sunday, which is quite fun. I even play the hymns in seminary once in a while.

There are so many talented people in my family, it would be hard to fit them all on this post. So I'll leave that for another time.

Sports, the Next Best Thing after Pokemon and Chess

When asked about my favorite things to do, after letting them know that I am a hardcore pokemon master, and telling them I love to play chess, I usually answer that I like to play sports. Now just because I say that I like sports does not mean I am good at them in any way. I simply like to be able to run around and have some friendly competition.Some of my favorite sports include soccer, golf, water and snow skiing, hiking, and running.

I have played soccer all my life, and I really love the beautiful game. Soccer is such an easy game to learn and play, but the games can turn into masterpieces of kicks, tackles, and slides. Soccer is a great way for me to relax too, I love to absentmindedly kick soccer ball at a wall. I have played on both competitive and  recreational teams, and I have made some great friends.  Another thing that is great about soccer is how it connects the world, knowing that kids all around the world love soccer as much as or more than I do makes me feel like I am a part of something great.

Many will say that golf can be really boring to watch and play, but that game can give you some of the best on top of the world feelings, and the worst gut-wrenching feelings. Nothing beats going out on the green grass with some buddies to play a round of golf. Golf is very hard to describe, if you play the game, you know what I mean. Golf is one of the most addictive sports ever, you may leave the last green saying that you're never going to golf again, but you will always come back. One thing that is super fun to do is to putt in your basement with your friends. These competitions can get pretty intense.

Snow skiing is one of the most exiting sports ever. I love the feeling of rushing down the mountain at top speed, wind howling by your face. Another thing that's great about the sport is how you can make your own trail down the mountain. You can explore through the trees or go off a ledge. Skiing is one of my biggest natural highs.

As I have already written about on this blog about the bair gutsman mountain race, only a little explanation is due about my love of the hiking. I live very close to the mountains, and I love to hike and run up where the air is clear. One of  my favorite things to do is to go on a run with my ipod playing. I run track at my junior high, and I love to run with my friends.

All in all, I really enjoy sports. Just being able to run and play under the sun is a huge blessing. Sports provide a way for people to get to know one another and have a great time. And in the words of Nacho Libre, I say: "My life is good, really good."

Boating

Water skiing has always been a favorite activity for my Dad's side of my family. Since he was very young, my Dad could water ski. Water skiing was sort of like a rite of passage, if you were and Oldham, you needed to learn how to water ski. My grandpa had a blue ski boat with and outboard motor that we still use today. My Aunts and Uncles kept their skills from when they are young and can still ski just as well today! My grandpa and Grandma still ski too, and they are almost in their 70's! One of my grandpa's coolest tricks is to put his foot in the rope while skiing, this leaves him with his hands in the air, and only one foot on his ski!

Now, even though I'm not as good of a skier as my grandpa, I can still slalom ski with ease. During the summer, I am lucky enough to go to Willard Bay often to ski in the greenish-gray waters. My family and I have an awesome time. We eat a yummy picnic and then get in the boat to go water ski. Some of the best times I've had with my family is when we go water skiing.

But sometimes, everything doesn't go as planned. Sometimes our 30 year old boat doesn't want to start, delaying our fin time out on the lake. But luckily my family has some really smart people in it who know a lot about mechanics. And most of the time, after many unflattering sounds from the boat,  the motor finally roars into life, provoking many cheers from the waiting water skiers.


 I love water skiing, but something that's just as much fun is tubing. When my family goes tubing,  the only aim of the boat driver is to get the tube rider thrown of the tube. Many times, my uncle with go very fast over some really big waves, and the tube and its rider will go flying into the air. And if you hang on, you're sure to get some cheers from the spectators in the boat.

 Sometimes, my family also likes to wake board, I think that skiing and tubing are superior to wake boarding, but it can be fun all the same. Maybe  the reason I don't like to wake board is because I have a hard time doing my double back flips (just kidding). Actually, I am not really the best at staying on a wake board, I've had some pretty bad fails riding on a wake board.

 Part of the fun in boating is just sitting in the boat and watching the tuber or skier, perform some amazing stunts, or wipe out at high speeds. One time, my uncles were all trying to do a back flip on a wake board. It was very entertaining to watch them crash land headfirst into water going 35 miles per hour.

Boating is way awesome, I love spending time with my family, playing some really fun sports, and cooling of on a hot day. And nothing beats the feeling of skiing of into the sunset on water that is so calm it looks like glass.


Yes! Five hundred and thirty two words!! I can't believe I did that much in such a short time!!!

The Crater

First, look at this.

In south eastern Idaho my mom's side of the family has a cabin that is positioned in what we call a "crater". Now if you've seen the picture at the link that I posted above you can probably make the connection as to why we call it a crater. Its official name is Morgan Crater, and it was part of my great-grandpas land that he used to put his herds sheep into. When he died, my grandpa inherited the part of the land with the crater in it. When he had a family of his own, he and others built a cabin on one edge of the crater. And every year in the summer, the family would go up to the cabin for two weeks to work and play.
   
 Now, a generation later, all of my extended family gets together in the summer at the crater. It is one heck of a good time when all you do for a week is ride motor bikes, go on hikes, play games, ride horses, and pretty much do whatever you want. Songs have even been written about the crater. Some really good memories have been made up at crater camp.

When my cousins and I go for motor bike rides, we often go to what we call the "blow holes". These are big round holes in the earth, formed by cows that have continually rolled in the mud, making the bowl shaped depressions even bigger. When speeding through them on a motor bike, it's almost like riding a roller coaster. And some of the crazier people such as myself like to go off the jump-like lips of the blow holes. And in the words of Napoleon Dynamite say, "You got like three feet of air that time!"

Another fun thing to do at the crater is riding horses. My uncle and his family are big time rodeo cowboys, and they sometimes bring horses to the crater. It is really fun to saddle up a horse, ride him around into the sunset, and then put the horse back in the corral. Once I even tried to jump my horse over a log, and almost fell out of the saddle. I must sound pretty pathetic.

To top it all of, my family has some of the best cooks in the world, and while at the crater I am treated to some really good food. We even have a special term to describe a deluxe breakfast with pancakes, sausage, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and hot chocolate. We call it crater breakfast. When we eat dinner, we always get to have smores roasted over an open fire for dessert.

Every time we have crater camp, we always go to the local Kilgore Store, in Kilgore Idaho. All the cousins pile in the back of the pickup as we drive down to the store. This is where we made up the crater song. When we get to the store, we are treated to an ice cream cone, and then we all go outside and sit on the fence to slurp up our delicious treat. We all have an awesome time.

I love going up to the crater, and whenever I leave, I wish I could go back.