Bad luck with cars...

Well about a month ago I was on my way down to Lake Gaston to go spend the day at my boyfriend’s mom and step dad’s camp site at Outdoor World. It’s a place where you can buy a spot for your camper and make it all nice and stuff. I left my house around 7 in the morning so I could get down there early and have the whole day to hang out. I was driving down 95 south about to get in Emporia just driving along with the flow of traffic but of course I was at the end of the pack and there was a police officer and he pulled me over for going 80 in a 70. I was a little angry because everyone else was going the same speed, probably faster than me but of course I get a ticket for it. Then about 2 weeks ago I was driving home of school and just got off 95 in Colonial Heights and I was sitting at a light where you have to yield to the oncoming traffic at temple in order to go and I thought the car in front of me already went so I was turned making sure no other cars were coming and when I went the guy in front of my ended up slamming on his breaks (he said there was another car coming but there wasn’t because I was clear to go) so I slammed into the back of him. Thankfully the officer was super nice and didn’t give me a ticket but I messed up the front of my car and the back of the guys truck so I had to pay $500 for my deductible for the insurance to cover the rest of the cost. Thank god I did have insurance because it cost $5,790 to get it fixed so only having to pay $500 was good. I have court on Wednesday for my speeding ticket so hopefully the judge will drop the ticket and give me driving school so my insurance doesn’t go up even more! This all would happen around Christmas time so now I have no money for gifts… :/

Thanksgiving break!

Thanksgiving break was great this year. I got my braces off on Wednesday after a long 2 and a half years so it feels really good having straight teeth now! I started off thanksgiving by doing the turkey trot my city put on; I walked a 5k with my sister and two of my best friends! It was good to get some exercise before the big meal. After the walk I went home and helped my mom with some of the food and then we headed to my aunt’s house to have lunch with the family. My uncle owns a tent company so they sent up a tent with walls around it and heat so we could have enough room for the whole family. There are about 30 of us so that’s really the only way we could fit everyone at the table. My favorite thanksgiving food it ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. After dinner we watch the Cowboys vs. Redskin games and just hung out. Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays just because I get to spend time with my family. With everyone’s busy schedules it’s hard to see everyone as much as you would like too so times when we come together is definitely cherished. I definitely had a lot to be thankful for this year. I've never been so happy with my life and that’s because of my wonderful family, friends, boyfriend, and kitty.

Papers!

For the first paper I decided to write about athlete’s salaries and whether or not they got paid too much. What I found out is that many people do thing they get paid too much but they also say that the athlete’s are not willing to play for any less so there’s really nothing they can do about it. Something I found really interesting when I was writing this paper is that it is said to be our faults that they get paid so much. We are the ones who are willing to pay big bucks to go see our favorite teams play live and pay for all the accessories and jerseys so why would they not get paid a lot. For the second paper I wrote about torturing terrorist for information about future attacks. Many people are for torture because it saves the lives of innocent people and keeps our world safe. And for the third and final paper I wrote about parents divorces affect their children. Even though it affects every kid differently, there were many statistics saying that it does affect some kids. It could cause them to have trust issues, anger issues, even self-esteem issues. I enjoyed writing these papers and learning the three different topics.

Rivals!

When I was in high school I cheered competition cheerleading all four years. I loved it so much. A lot of people say that it is not a sport, sideline cheering isn’t, but competition definitely is. My team got 1^st place my sophomore year and then my senior year. Every year our biggest rivalry was Thomas Dale, it would always go back and forth between us and them on who would win. Last night was the central distract competition at Prince George. I went to support my girls and to watch everyone compete. CHHS is moving districts next year so this was the last year they would be going against Thomas Dale. Dale competed 7^th and Colonial Heights competed 8^th so it was very nerve racking sitting there waiting for them to go on. Dale’s routine didn’t really wow me; I honestly thought it was boring. Ch did awesome! They pretty much hit a perfect routine except for one stunt fall and one tumble fall. But unfortunately the judges thought otherwise. Our girls ended up getting 2^nd and Dale got 1^st. After the competition I had people coming up and telling me that Colonial Heights should have won so hopefully they can come back at Regionals next Monday. It was definitely weird sitting up in the stands and not competing :(

Fall Break!

Fall Break was awesome. I always love having a couple days off from school just to relax and not have to stress over school. After I got out of school Wednesday I went and got my nails done. I decided to treat myself for doing great in school up to this point and making it through my art history midterm. Wednesday night I went to Randy Forbes cocktail party at Petersburg Country Club. It was a really cool experience because I got to meet a lot of important people, including congressmen Forbes. On Thursday I just relaxed all day. I caught up on my TV shows that I recorded throughout the week and watched some movies. I really just love lazy days! On Friday I woke up bright and early and went to Mitt Romney’s rally he had off of Midlothian Turnpike. It was really cool. Unfortunately Mitt did not walk down our side so I did not get to talk to him. However I did get to talk to the governor, Bob McDonnell, for a couple seconds and shake his hand. On Saturday I went to my old high school and helped the competition cheerleading team get ready for districts. I cheered competition cheering all four years of high school so I love going back and helping. After I finished there I had to go coach my little junior team cheer girls at their game in Prince George. They won 20-0 which makes them still undefeated. Once that was over I came home for a little bit then went and babysit my daddy friend’s two little boys! They’re the cutest things ever. And today (Sunday), I have work at Swaders in a little bit then I’m going to come home, relax, and get my homework done. I’m going to Washington DC tomorrow so that should be fun (:

Reunited!

Some of you might not know this but I have a twin sister. Her names Kellie and she goes to Radford University. This is our first time ever being away from each other for a long period of time. Ever since we were little we've shared a room and pretty much done everything together so it’s definitely weird not having her around. This weekend was homecoming at our old high school and one of our friends asked her to go with him to the dance, and we wanted to go to the football game together, so she came home for the weekend. This is the first time she’s been home since she left for school. We had a lot of funny together! When she got home we headed straight to Mi Rodeo. I’m sure a lot of you know what it is but for those of you who don’t it’s this really good Mexican restaurant on the boulevard in Colonial Heights! Before she left we would literally go eat there every week and since she lives so far away, she hasn't had it in forever. She was super excited to be eating there. After we finished we went to the football game. A lot of our friends were home from school too and were at the game so it was really good seeing everyone. Unfortunately the Colonials lost but it was awesome catching up with friends. After the game, we went to my friend’s house together. It felt weird being out with her again since she’s been away but we definitely had a blast. I didn't really get to see her a lot on Saturday because I had work and she had homecoming to get ready for. On Sunday we had a little sister bonding and went to get pedicures then she left around one. I’m so glad she came home, we had a really fun weekend!

Scariest moment of my life...

I just got a kitty about 7 weeks ago. His name is Martin and I love him so much. He’s the first animal that’s really mine because my dad makes me pay for his vet bills and everything else he needs. So needless to say, he’s my little baby. Well on Friday night I was downstairs by myself because the rest of my family was already asleep. I watching the movie called “Man on a ledge.” Of course Martin was with me running around my den playing. I start hearing his weird noise of someone coughing, sounding like they were choking. I look around the room and did not see anything. But then I hear it again so I look down at the floor and see my poor baby wrapped up in my little sisters backpack strap. I literally go into panic mode. I jump off the sofa and try to unravel it but it was so tight and twisted that I just could not get it untangled. So I run upstairs and get the scissors from the kitchen counter and sprint back downstairs and cut the strap. It was so tight around his neck that it left an imprint on his fur. My heart was beating so fast. I thought he was going to die right in front of me, I was so scared. I just laid on the sofa for about 5 minutes just cuddling him because I could tell he was scared too. I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to him. When I told my mom what happened she completely understood that I had to cut the backpack but of course my little sister and dad were mad that I cut the backpack so I had to give my little sister my  backpack and go buy myself a new one. It’s okay though because I would choose Martin over a backpack any day. Good thing they say cats have nine lives.

Friends with Kids!

I got a text message while I was a work today from RedBox saying I had one free rental so after I got off I went 7-11 and got the movie “Friends with Kids”, a slurpee, and some twizzlers. The movie ended up being really good and super funny. The very first scene started off in a very fancy restaurant in New York City with two couples, then a girl and a guy, who were all best friends. One of the couples was already sitting at the table when the two other friends got there, and the other couple was in the “bathroom”. Once the other couple finally got back to the table the other couple announced that they were having baby. They insisted that nothing was going to chance with their friendship then the scene ended. The next scene started with all the friends going to the couple’s house who just had a baby for the guy who wasn’t married birthday. The kids were screaming and the couple was screaming at each other, the whole dinner just did not go well. After the dinner the two friends who were not married came up with this idea that they were going to have a baby without all the string attached. They ended up having a baby and everything was fine and dandy at the beginning. But then the guy started dating and the girl ended up getting jealous, she started to fall in love with the guy and he had no idea. She kind of got over the idea of him and her when him and the other girl got pretty serious. She started dating around and found this guy who she really liked. The whole group of friends decided to go on a camping trip for New Year’s Eve. The two married couples went and then the girl and her boyfriend and the guy and his girlfriend, the trip didn’t go very well. After the trip one of the couple’s got a divorce, and the girl’s feelings for the guy came back. It was her birthday and she only invited the guy. She decided to tell him she was completely in love with him and he totally turned her down. She was devastated. She moved out of their place together and moved to her own place in Brooklyn.  Long story short, the guy realized he loved the girl and he ended up going to her apartment and confessing his love for her. I’m leaving out a lot of details about the movie but that was the main point of the movie. I would definitely recommend this movie! It was really cute (:

Felt Sense

I actually enjoyed reading the Felt Sense: Writing with the Body on Monday night. This story did not put me to asleep unlike the other two we had to read last week. I never really knew that what happens during the felt sense guidelines was an actual thing. I just thought it was a feeling within you but now knowing it is something that is supposed to happen makes it make a lot more sense. I cannot tell you how many times when I am writing a paper I can never write what I am actually thinking and need to say and it’s frustrates me so much. Now knowing that there is something you can do to get the words out and onto the sheet of paper will help me out a lot for the three papers we have to write for this class. I think it is really cool that they got a group of adults together to go around to different schools and ages of kids to figure out what worked and what did not. I know that research made it a lot better to relate to what they wanted to figure out. When it comes to researching and writing papers, the ability of the students varies a lot so with these new guidelines it should help out a lot. I definitely think every English class should be read them before they start writing their paper so they can get a better idea for their paper. I know when we did it in class on Tuesday I got a lot of ideas for our first paper.

Get to know me!

Hey everyone! My name is Haley Slaybaugh and I’m from Colonial Heights, Virginia. I just turned 18 on September 3rd. I just graduated from Colonial Heights High School so this is my first year here at Richard Bland. In high school I cheered competition and sideline cheerleading, I loved it. I live with my mom, dad, and little sister Casie. I also have a twin sister named Kellie but she goes to Radford University. This is the first time we’ve really ever been away from each other so it’s definitely weird. My family, friends, and boyfriend mean the world to me. My meemaw was my best friend but unfortunately colon cancer got the best of her and she passed away two years ago. My boyfriend’s name is Rob and we’ve been dating for a year and three months now. I have two pets that are mine, a baby kitty named Martin, and a puppy named Ellie. I've been working at Swaders Sports Park for the past two and a half years. I am mainly a hostess for the birthday parties there. After Richard Bland I plan on attending Virginia Commonwealth University and majoring in accounting. My favorite color is pink, my favorite tv show is criminal minds, my favorite place is New York City, my favorite food is hamburger helper, and my favorite movie is Armageddon. Well I’m looking forward to this semester with all you guys and I hoped you learned a little bit more about me (: