A TIME TO REMEMBER

I think the the most memorable experience from this semester is completing math 108; in fact completing all my class this semester is a big accomplishment for me. I plan to continue after this semester with the EMT class. I think this whole time that I am in school is great because. I never thought I could make it this far. Being in college has taught me how to be responsible and committed. I know if I stay on track, I will become what ever my mind is set on. I still have a long way to go in school; nevertheless, I won't give up.
My experience at "Butte College" will be exciting for me; moreover, I can tell my children about what I have done. As I grow my children will see how much I accomplished, and I can be a good role model for them as well.

The smell of Winter

My favorite season is winter; in fact every December I can smell Christmas approaching. The day before Christmas I can smell turkey, ham, and stuffing cooking. As I wait for Christmas I can smell the pine needles from our tree. Outside the wind is chilled and snow has covered the ground. Icicles hand from the gutters and the smell of hot fire places fuel the air. Although, it is dark I can see since, the lights from each house has lit the entire street up. As I return from outside I can hear "Deck the Hall" coming from in the house. Everyone is gathered around the fireplace singing Christmas carols and drinking eggnog. All that surrounds me is family singing, music and laughter. December is my favorite season because, It is a time when people give and receive.

Summer Plans

This summer we have so many plans. On June 7Th we are going to go to my daughters 6Th grade graduation. We have been waiting so long for this day. The biggest part of summer vacation is our 4Th of July camping trip. Every summer we get all the relatives together and plan the best camping trip ever at lake almoner, we do so much there we bike ride, swim, jet ski, and go out on the boat. The best part of the trip starts on the 4Th of July. The night of the 4Th of July everyone gets in the boat and we take a ride out to the middle of the lake. We wait for them to let off a wonderful display of fireworks. It's so beautiful it looks like the fireworks are going to land right on you. After the display we go to our campground and roast marshmallow's and tell scary stories by the bomb fire. This camping trip last 2 weeks then everyone packs up and leaves.
After I return home I plan to work at Enlo Hospital for work experience. I will be working right beside EMT and learning more about the job that I plan to enter. I will continue to work for the rest of the summer vacation, then when school starts in fall I will start the EMT courses I may need to start my career.

" The war within"

I believe I was fighting "a war within" for 3 long years. It all started when my daughter was taken from me. Every day got harder and harder. It took everything I had not to give up. Every court date brought "false hope." Coming home with out her made me feel incomplete. I worked so hard doing everything they told me just to get her back. The best news I have ever received was when they told me I got full custody of her once again. It was the longest court hearing ever. I was sitting there like usual just listening, taking it all in when the judge said, " Jolene you have proved that you really can change, so I am giving you full custody of your daughter," it took my breath away I couldn't believe the day had come. I was so full of joy and happiness that I couldn't even talk. All I remember saying was," Thank you so much." I believe I was given a second chance; therefore, I don't take my life for granted anymore.

My worst fear

The thing I am most afraid of is losing my children. I know that it won't happen unless I do something really bad, but at times I get scared just thinking about it. I will never want to put my family through any of that again. After being clean for 3 yrs, I have realized how wonderful life can be without drugs. I've learned how to live my life on gods will; therefore, I will take it one day at a time. Since I had the chance to face the only real fear that I ever had, it makes it easier to not follow that same path again. I can't imagine not waking up every morning without my children beside me. My children are my life now and they mean the world to me. I Will never take them for granted again, I realized how blessed I am for being able to have children now. Although it isn't always fun being a mother, I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Alone at last

If I got to pick 3 things before being stranded on a deserted island I would take matches, because I know I would have a really hard time trying to start a fire. I can't see myself trying to rub two sticks together. The second thing I would bring would be a knife. A knife would come in handy in so much different ways, first I can cut up any bamboo are wood I may need to make some kind of house. I will also need a knife to protect myself from all kinds of wild animals that are roaming around out there. I think bringing a knife and some matches I could cut up and cook my food and eat a great meal. The 3rd thing I would bring with me would be a some kind of medical kit in case I get stung, bit, or scratched by something. I know there would be so much things that can cause infection out there. With a medical kit I would last longer knowing that If anything were to bite me I can clean it up as soon as possible. So even though I would be really lonely out there I know I will be alright with the things I brought.

A Time I had to choose.

I have had to make plenty of difficult decisions in my life. The most recent one was deciding to live my life free of drugs. I am in recovery, and I have over three years clean. In 2002, I lost everything I have ever worked hard for. Including my daughter, my house, and my job all do to my drug use. I had to make a decision to either quit or go to jail. At that time it was the hardest choice I ever had to make. The day I decided that I wanted to get my daughter back, was the beginning of a long rough road to recovery. In 2004 I had a son who made things a lot more worth fighting for. My goal was to get my daughter back and have my son as well. In order to do that, I had to make all the right choices from from that point on; in fact, I made the decision to go to rehab and have my son. when I got back, I worked on getting my daughter.
Making the choice to live my life clean was much harder then I thought, but I have, and I love it. Since then, I have been clean and accomplished so much. I got full custody of my daughter and I had my son drug free. I made the choice to go to college, and most of all, I completed every program that was thrown at me. I know there will be a lot more challenges ahead in my life; nevertheless, there won't be any choice harder then the one I just had to face, which was getting my life back.

I FELL IN LOVE.

Finding romance today is quite different then before. Today you don't really have to do all the foot work, like go on dates or even meet somone when your out.
Today there is dating on line, you actually go on line and put all your all your intrest down and someone on the other side of the computer will match you up. I myself don't agree with dating on line, because you never know who is on the other side of that computer. You don't even know what kind of person he is really, he might say one thing and act another. I do know friends that have used on line dating services and there relationship is still going. But as for myself I don't agee with it. I guess I am old fashion and belive in meeting someone and geting to know them for a while before I date them.

Where would you go on your dream vacation.

My dream vacation would last 3 weeks. I would go on a bunch of trips. I would take my whole family along with my brother's and my mom and dad. We would first go to Marine world, we would stay there for at least a week. I think my kids would love that they have'nt been there yet. My son would love all the animals and my daughter would love all the rides. Second we would go to Disney Land I have never been there before and niether has my family. I think my kids would love all the rides along with all the disney characters. We would stay there for about a week. After that we would go on a 7 day cruz I'm not sure just where we would go, maybe to Hawaii or just cruz along the coast. It wouldn't matter because the ship would be wounderful anyway. There would be a casino and awhole bunch of other things we could do on the ship. Me and my kids have never been on a huge ship it would be a great experience for all of us including my parents and brothers. I can't wait untill we take our dream vacation.

The perfect weather

The perfect weather for me is wakeing up and the sun is shining outside, it feels about 70 degrees out and there isn't much wind blowing. I am getting ready to put some shorts and a tee-shirt on my son, and my daughter is wearing some skorts and a tank top. I will put on some capries and tee-shirt. Its not to hot and it's not to cold it's just the right weather to stay outside all day. So I think we will go to the park and have a picnic and play on the swings, then if it's hot enough we will go the swimming hole and take a dip in the water. After the park and swimming we will go to play miniture golf at the skating ring. We will play a couple of rounds of golf and then rap it up and catch a good movie.

What will life be like twenty years from now?

Twenty years from now, I will be 51. My daughter will be my age, and my son will be 23. I can see myself in a nice house somewhere in the city; I can see my daughter driving a really expensive sports car, working at a high paying job and hopefully singing because that was her dream. I can see my son going to college to become some kind of animal doctor; indeed, he loves animal so much. As for the world, it has become more crazy with all the crime. There are more homeless people because they couldn't find any good paying jobs. I think twenty years from now people will be more lazy because there will be some kind of robot that does all the house work . I think prices will be higher because of all the people that have good jobs can afford to pay higher. That will make it harder for the poor people. Twenty years from now, I can see myself waiting at home for my grandchildren to come over, so we can go to the park. I see my daughter has a wonderful husband and beautiful family. As for my son he would be working on a great career to becoming a doctor. I would have traveled all around the world and back by now. I'm pretty sure I will be retired from the medical field; furthermore, twenty years from now I see myself being very, very happy because I got to see my children grow up and live the dreams that they have always wanted.

How has the world changed since you were a child.

I believe the world has changed dramaticaly since I was growing up. First of all I don't remember school being so hard. My daughter is in 6th grade and her homework is as hard as mine in college. The kids these days learn so much more then I did when I went to school. I also don't recall haveing anything like a" MP3" player or a "Ipod" those things didn't exist. I was lucky to have a radio. Instead of a "playstation" I had a "Mario brothers" to play with.
Growing up in the 80's had there good times and there bad times. I remember being able to go to the park and play without my mom, and being able to go to the store without my brother or mom. Now today I really don't like my daughter going to far without me. I don't let her go to the mall alone or to the park alone because of all the crazy people out there these days. I remember being 16 and being able to go anywere without my mom careing what I did. I am very different with my daughter I need to know were she is at all times. when I was younger I didn't have the privlage of haveing a cell phone at such a young age. Today these kid have cell phones in elementary school, I thought it was a good idea to get my daughter a cell phone, so in case I need to get awhole of her I can just call. Although she has to earn the minnutes for the phone with doing chores around the house, I can see it is teaching her how to be responsible. When I was growing up I don't remember the pure pressure of drugs as much as I see today. I didn't have to worry about someone asking me to get high or even feeling presurred in to anything. Now its pretty bad the kids have to watch out for drugs all around the schools and any other places that they may go. Today is a lot more stressful for teens I think. I guess growing up back in the day was ok at some point, but I am glad I am here today.

Favorite Childhood Memory

My favorite memory from my childhood is catching fire flies in Oaklahoma. I lived in Oklahoma for 7 years. I lived there for most of my childhood. At the age of seven I remember on nice warm nights my brother and I would love to catch fire flies. We would see how many each of us could catch. Catching fire flies was really fun. Sometimes we would accidentally squish them and there blood was florecent yellow so it glowed, we would put it on our faces and act like indians. It was a blast.

I remember the parades they used to throw out candy, and I remember playing out in the yard with my bouton, and skating on my roller skates at the high school across the street. I can say honestly that living in Oklahoma holds the best childhood memories for me.

Reading Reaction "One Man's Kids"

Daniel Meirers enjoyed his job, because he loved to see his children write thier names for the first time. He loved finding someone a new friend, or sharing in the hilarity of Winnie the pooh getting so stuck in a hole that only his head and rear show.
Daniel also loves working with his childrens emotional developement. Even though he doesn't have any drinking buddies after work, or power lunches, he loves the fact that he can sit down with his students and have a peanut butter sandwich and a good glass of milk. I believe that he has proven, that being a first grade teacher is what he enjoys doing with his life.

What is worth fighting for?

My freedom is worth fighting for to me, because without freedom our lives would be controled by someone. Not being able to do what you want could get really frustrating at times. I love the fact that I can go anywere in the world. My freedom to me means alot. The other thing that is definitly worth fighting for is my children, I would do what ever it may take to fight for them. My kids are such a big partof me, without them I would not be the person I am today. Other things I would fight for is Hunger and peace. I wish there was no hunger problems in the world, I wish everyone had food, and I wish there was'nt any war so are people would stop killing eachother.

What is your definition of love?

My definition of love is unconditional. It is someone who loves you for you, someone you can trust and will respect you. A person that will stand beside you nomatter what should happen. Love is something beautiful that two people share between eachother.

Describe someone close to you. What do you admire about this person.

My friend fawn is the closest person to me. Ever since i moved into the esplanade house appartments my bond with her became stronger. I became to trust her more and more. I can tell her how i feel and she won't judge me for anything. I've known fawn for almost 3 years, I admire her the most for her friendship because she is really trustworthy and honest. Fawn has always been there for me when i need her the most, and for me to have a friendship like that means the world to me.

What makes you happy? What can you do to bring more happiness to your life.

what makes me happy is spending time with my children and going places. Doing things like taking long bike rides or a long vacation. If I stay focused and accomplish all goals in my life I will always be happy. Spending time with all my friends makes me smile to. When I am a EMT and all my goals are met I will be the happiest person alive.

What are your goals and or expectations for this semester.

My goals for this semester is to pass all the classes I sighed up for, and to keep a 3.0 grad point average. My expectations is to become a EMT someday.