Food Memory

 

I'm sure I'm expected to have some wonderful food memories from when I was a kid, but honestly the memory that sticks out the most is quite gross.

                When Shoneys was still open in Springfield, my family had a small obsession. Apparently they had the best spaghetti (I don’t know I hate spaghetti). I always refused to eat vegetables but I was a huge fan of fruit. I always got grapes and cantaloupe or honey melon. One time we went to Shoneys and I was really wanting some fruit. Of course they were out of everything I wanted. Before the tantrum got too extreme, I noticed they had some bananas covered in pinkish red goop. Being a little girl I saw the pink and got super excited. It also helped that I love bananas.

                It turns out, the pink stuff was some nasty strawberry stuff. Fun fact, I HATE STRAWBERRIES. I took a giant bite and immediately knew it was an awful idea. I couldn’t spit it out because obviously that’s disgusting. I ran to the bathroom and I was in there for literally ten minutes gagging and throwing up. I went back to the table and my family was cracking up. I chugged the rest of my soda and to this day, I will not eat anything strawberry and I still hate shoneys. 

Photo Hunt

Someone who makes me laugh/smile: Hannah Bond is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my entire life. She never fails to make my day and I'm always laughing or smiling when I'm around her. 

Something Handwritten A board in Mrs. R's English classroom. 

Something from nature: This plant never fails to get caught on my shirt or backpack when I'm heading up to Snyders room. 

Someone I'd like to be more like: Mrs. Peck was one of my favorite teachers at Kickapoo. She teaches what she needs to but she also makes everything so fun. I'm so comfortable around her and can talk to her about practically anything. I want to teach someday and I want to be like her. 

A Book: There was no way I could choose just one book to take a picture of so I just took a whole shelf. Books have always been such a huge part of my life and there's just never enough time to read everything I want to.

Something that Annoys me: NONE OF THE SINKS IN THIS SCHOOL WORK. OUR BATHROOM IS SO GROSS AND IT'S LITERALLY FALLING APART. I'd really appreciate being able to wash my hands with normal water pressure or better yet be able to LOCK MY DOOR WHEN I USE THE RESTROOM.

This is something that will always remind me of Kickapoo. My first day of highs school I had to walk up these stairs to get to my history class. I was terrified. Not of the mural just of the idea of high school. I remember walking up those stairs and the only thing I could think was, "dude i wonder how long that took"

Something round: The EMPTY vending machine slots. (Look at the lil baby spider  at the top)

Something Beautiful: Not only does the quote Mikala is taking a picture of mention beautiful, but Mikala is beautiful as well, inside and out.

Final Reflection

1.       1. Some things I’ve written this quarter were a lot of poems, or other personal posts. Especially during the 101 things about me. I enjoyed writing about music and family memories. The journal writing for me was more of a way to gather my thoughts in order to create an actual writing piece.

2.      2.  I used to love reading but this semester was crazy busy for me. I haven’t had much down time but when I have I read some pretty great things. A lot of the writing on this blog is phenomenal. I think reading what other people have to say about their childhood or their opinion on things is a really good way to get to know someone. I also read some good books from the library, including Where She Went and 13 Reasons Why.

3.       3. Setting up my blog was a bit of a struggle. I couldn’t decide what to name it, what background to have, how I wanted it to look. Eventually I came up with a name for it, Extraordinarily Ordinary. The reason I came up with that was because I feel like it describes me as well as my writing. I don’t really stand out, and I’m okay with that. My writing is just average at best, and I’m also okay with that because I thoroughly enjoy writing and that’s all that matters. I may continue to blog, I just don’t know if I will continue to use the school blog. I would probably just post about my day, good or bad. I may write about things I read, places I go, music I find.

4.     4.   I really enjoy journaling because I like having a place specifically for my writing and my thoughts. I write a lot about my day, memories I have, things I’m thinking about or things that are bothering me. I don’t really think I would want many people to read my journal. If they’re close enough to me, they already know what’s going on in my life. I definitely will continue to journal. It oddly releases a lot of stress that I have. I’ll continue writing the same way I have been. 

5.    5.    “Growing up means saying goodbye to life as we once knew it. It’s saying goodbye to old friendships, sometimes because of fights… and other times it’s because they’re gone forever, out of this world. Growing up means learning that some goodbyes are permanent, and you never know which will be your last. Growing up means saying goodbye to innocence. Goodbye to being naïve. Goodbye to happy meals and 12+under discounts. Goodbye to being happy with your appearance. Goodbye to being completely oblivious to bad things.

Growing up means saying hello to freedom and responsibility. Hello to all night study sessions. Hello to endless drama. Hello to facing challenges you haven’t been taught how to handle. Hello to stress so extreme there are nights you can’t help but cry yourself to sleep. Hello to relationships and break ups and broken hearts. Hello to friendships drifting apart. Hello to grades being a life or death matter. Hello to driving. Hello to jobs. Hello to so many new scary things. Hello to new exciting things as well. Hello to a new life.

”

6.     6.   “This feeling of guilt may never go away. I’ve tried so incredibly hard to forget about the accident. Forget that it’s all my fault. Maybe if I would just admit to what happened, some of this guilt would go away. Maybe I’d be able to eat and sleep again. Maybe I’d be able to close my eyes without seeing the scene of the accident. Maybe then I would be able to look at myself in the mirror and not hate what I see. But how can I admit to this? How can I admit that it’s my fault that four innocent people are dead? Who wants to be known as Courtney, the girl that accidentally murdered her best friends?”

7.     7.   I will probably always write, not as a profession or career or anything. I just enjoy getting my thoughts down on paper. I think creative writing releases so much stress because it helps organize my thoughts. I get so busy and stressed out and sometimes just getting everything down on paper is enough to help. I like that I’m able to write whatever I want, there’s no right or wrong. Unlike most English classes where there’s only one right way to write a paper.

8.   8.    This class was just a super fun environment. I loved that we all could share stories and memories and read each other’s writing with no judgment. Everyone was so encouraging and nice. It was nice to start my day off in a laid back class. It was extremely easy to open up and post whatever on the blog without being concerned about what anyone would think.

9.      9.  "The whole idea of growing up, moving out, finally gaining freedom makes me feel scared, excited, happy and oddly enough, angry. I’m so incredibly excited because of obvious reasons. I’m finally going to be free to do what I please. I can make my own mistakes, be my own person. I can do what I want, wear what I want, go where I want, date who I want. I’m also so scared at the same time. I have no idea how to be an adult. I don’t know how to live on my own and run a household by myself. The being angry part is probably a little hard to understand. But I’m angry because I’m not prepared at all. No one actually takes the time to prepare the teenagers for REAL life. I don’t know how to buy a house, pay bills, taxes, anything. I feel like maybe we should spend less time figuring out what A B and C equal and a little more time figuring out how to make it on our own. Growing up is scary anyway, but it would be nice to feel a little prepared. "

101 Things About Me

1. I was born March 24th, 1998.
2. I am the oldest child of three, although I’m rarely around my siblings enough to know that I even have them.
3. My parents named me Ansley after they saw some kid on some show that was named Ansley. This kid was a boy.
4. I have a small obsession with seafood sauce and by small obsession I mean I could drink it and have it with every meal.
5. Im slightly obsessed with Spider Man and Peter Pan.
6. I absolutely can NOT sleep with socks on, they always end up kicked off anyway.
7. I have a crazy irrational fear of birds and I don’t know when it started or why it started, I just know that I ran out of a pet store crying once because there was a parrot out of its cage.
8. I always want change but I also fear change. I need to be in charge of what is going on or it stresses me out.
9. One thing I constantly want to change is my hair. My hair color, length, style. I always want it different. I always want something crazy that my parents are never okay with.
10. I get along with my dad way better than I get along with my mom. (he admits that I am his favorite)
11. I love my mom but she gets on my nerves more than anyone because she can’t realize that I’m old enough to make my own mistakes, make my own friends, and that I deserve some freedom.
12. I have the coordination of a toddler.
13. I hate holding hands with people.
14. I want to learn how to play the nyckelharpa.
15. High school has made me realize how quickly I can lose people.
16. I’ve always lived in Springfield Missouri, and I cannot wait to get out.
17. Sometimes I start to talk really quickly and jumble all of my words together, leave words out, or say the wrong words.
18. I want to get a smiley piercing. I’ve always wanted one and each time someone tells me how ugly they are, it makes me want to get one even more.
19. I plan on having lots of tattoos.
20. I wish I were brave enough to dress how I really want to.
21. My favorite color is black.
22. I hate my bedroom but spend most of my time in there, either reading, doing homework or sleeping.
23. I have an entire wall in my room covered with notes and random tickets and pictures and just random things that hold memories and are important to me. If anyone else saw them it would just look like a random mess.
24. I get really attached to people and things, so it is extremely hard for me to move on and let things go.
25. My freshman year, my neighbor Abby, who was a few months younger than me, passed away after going into cardiac arrest. Two weeks earlier, she had asked me to hang out and I told her I couldn’t because I was hanging out with Hailee. A few days before, she had commented on my facebook status and I never saw her response until after. To this day I still feel so much regret and hope she knows that I wasn’t ignoring her and that she really did mean a ton to everyone.
26. It’s so unreal to me that high school students die. Car accidents, suicide, other freak accidents. It just is so hard for me to process that you never know if the last thing you say to someone, is actually the last.
27. On a happier note, Christmas lights are one of my favorite things in the entire world, even when it isn’t Christmas time.
28. I get jealous way too easily, even more so when it comes to friends.
29. I work at a cupcake shop and actually enjoy my job, I just wish I could paint my nails still.

30. My music taste varies a lot and I sometimes just act like I like music because that’s what everyone else likes but in reality I would listen to old music constantly if it weren’t frowned upon.
31. I have an unhealthy addiction to sweet tea.
32. The color red makes me uncomfortable.
33. I cry when people grab my wrists or arms below my elbow and theres absolutely no explanation to this fear, I just get extremely stressed out every time someone does it.
34. I really enjoy painting, even though I’m no good at it.
35. Spaghetti is my least favorite food in the entire world. Steak is a close second.
36. I say I hate Missouri but if you look hard enough, there are truly some beautiful places here, even in Springfield.
37. I get extremely sassy and sometimes come across a lot meaner than I intend to. I also am extremely sarcastic and don’t know how to act in serious situations.
38. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, but I have to be in a certain mood to do so.
39. I begged for a cat for three years and I finally got one. I quickly realized why my parents were so against the idea. My cat became an outdoor cat and now we have five because…KITTENS. Joy.
40. For a while, I refused to eat and I ended up in the hospital, struggling to understand why they were telling me it was all in my head.
41. I don’t like babies. Or kids.
42. I guess I don’t like the idea of having my own kids really, because if I’m only around kids for a short time, I enjoy them.
43. I never want to get married.
44. I’m obsessed with wedding dresses, wedding shows, and wedding decorations though. I just never want to be married.
45. I really want to travel the world, I don’t even care if theyre major places, I just want to see different things.
46. I saw the movie Contagion and it caused me to not leave my room/house for a solid week and a half because I was afraid of getting a disease and dying.
47. I used to be a total germ freak and now I don’t really care. Like if you’re drinking sweet tea or starbucks and I want some, I’ll drink after you.
48. I can’t sleep if I’m too hot, and I can’t sleep if I’m too cold.
49. I struggle to sleep anyway, honestly.
50. I have nightmares practically every night, and it’s more than one a night. So on average I get about 4 hours of sleep
51. I get in moods of either wanting to be super productive and I want to clean my entire house, rearrange my room, change the world…or I never want to get out of bed and face responsibilities.
52. I’ve never broken a bone or gotten stitches.
53. I have an extremely low pain tolerance. (Could be a problem when getting tattoos.)
54. I went two years without speaking to my grandmother.
55. This being said, I can easily hold a grudge.
56. My Aunt Debbie is one of my favorite people in the entire world and I tell her almost everything.
57. Megan Rosell is my best friend. We’ve only been friends since the beginning of sophomore year but she’s stuck by my side even when I’m ugly crying. She’s my partner in crime. Whenever we’re together we end up doing something stupid and I couldn’t ask for a better friend.
58. Hannah Juliet Bond has been one of the most influential people in my life. She is my best friend as well. She’s been here for me for a long time and I adore her. We can rant together and drive around just screaming country songs and be completely comfortable.
59. I’m really bad at trusting people.
60. I am also known for pushing people away.
61. Ed Sheeran is the love of my life.
62. I can go from overly happy to super annoyed to crying in a matter of seconds.
63. I love having the freedom of driving but honestly driving scares me so badly.
64. I have a woman crush on Emma Stone.
65. Once I got a perm after seeing Emma Stone in The Help.
66. I love fall because it’s the perfect weather and its so beautiful outside. I cannot stand winter because there’s the possibility of snow, which I hate. I’m also far too stubborn to wear a coat.
67. Sunsets are my favorite thing, especially when there’s a lot of pink and orange.
68. Sometimes I just randomly feel the need to cry.
69. Tristan and I don’t always get along but he’s honestly one of the most important people in my life. He’s the only person that knows absolutely everything about me, even things Han and Meg don’t know. He’s helped with so much more than he even knows.
70. Sometimes I focus far too much on the negative things in my life and forget to be grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life.
71. This school year I lost one of my bestfriends and with no explanation, reason, or fight. I can’t help but wonder what I did that was so wrong, but I’m slowly coming to the realization that I can’t do anything to fix it. Slowly coming to the realization that I don’t need or want to fix it either.
72. I always over think everything.
73. I’m in love with Colorado and have always wanted to go to school there. Always. Someday I will live there, even if I don’t go to college there.
74. I sound like a dying donkey when I laugh.
75. I feel like I don’t even know myself well enough to write this list.
76. I’m addicted to cracking my knuckles.
77. Nothing annoys me more than people replying with one word after I FREAKING POUR MY HEART OUT TO THEM.
78. I’m not afraid to confront people about things and that tends to cause problems.
79. I love the smell of coconut.
80. When I was little, my brother and I were fighting and refused to listen to my mom and stop. She was driving and she decided to pull over until we calmed down. The parking lot she pulled into was a travel agency and I saw the airplane and thought she was going to put me up for adoption and send me away in the airplane. I cried for a solid ten minutes. I’ve also never been on an airplane.
81. I never knew I was afraid of heights or open water until I went parasailing this summer and bawled the entire time.
82. I love going on little adventures.
83. I have a love hate relationship with scary things.
84. I’ve played the violin since I was in fifth grade and quitting orchestra was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
85. I had braces two years but you can’t even tell now.
86. Sometimes my knees and legs randomly start hurting so badly that I could cry from moving.
87. I have headaches every single day, whether they’re really bad or just small, I have one.
88. I always say I’m going to start working out and eating right, but I always put it off and end up going to sonic or eating oreos.
89. I’ve gotten really great at faking a smile and acting like I’m totally fine when in reality I’m falling apart. It takes a lot for me to let someone know that I’m upset, so if I do, they know I really trust them and really need them.
90. Most of my friends are either older than me or younger than me. My mom continues to freak out about me having older friends.
91. I tend to be a hypocrite without meaning to be.
92. Some days I feel super pretty without make up and other days I feel like I need to cake make up on just so I don’t look like a man. Other days I just don’t really care how I look or what people think.
93. I’m 16 years old and have already found six gray hairs and that makes me cry.
94. I’m extremely ticklish but I’m not someone that thinks tickling is funny. It makes me so angry and I just want to punch people.
95. I act really aggressive and angry, but when people yell at me or say mean things, I go home and cry about it.
96. When I’m actually crying, I don’t girly cry, I’m full on sobbing and can’t form sentences or breathe. It’s really cute.
97. Grape juice is my favorite juice.
98. I used to be super religious and now I’m really struggling to figure out what I believe and how I feel.
99. This school year has stressed me out more than any year before, harder classes, more work, and the pressure of colleges.
100. I wish I could go back to being a kid, but at the same time, I really just want to grow up and figure life out.
101. My biggest goal is to make some kind of difference in the world but one of my biggest fears is not being capable of doing this.

Inspired by Collins

Learning to read opened a door to a new world

A new life, a new universe.

A world full of new realities

New friends, new drama, new stories

I used to avoid everyone

Young or old, I had to get away.

Afraid of conversations

Afraid of saying the wrong thing

Afraid of saying too much, resulting in me never saying enough

Books were my safe place.

A vacation, and a place to run to when things got bad.

I dove right into a new life

A world where I had nothing to avoid

No conversations I had to contribute to.

Books were, and always will be, my portal from one reality to the next. 

Childrens Book

The childrens book I read was Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. Anything by Jan Brett is worth reading, not only for the story but for the amazing art. The story is about a little boy that makes gingerbread with his mother. The recipe has very specific instructions but the boy just cant seem to follow them. He loses patience and opened the oven too soon, releasing a baby gingerbread. This begins the wild chase for the gingerbread. The entire village ends up getting involved. The boy thinks of a clever way to catch the baby. He goes back to the cabin and bakes up a gingerbread house (following instructions this time), lures the baby into it, and catches him without anyone else knowing what happened.

Characters: Boy, Mother, Father, Gingerbread baby, tons of town animals including horses, pigs, and dogs, two young girls, and a milk and cheese man.

Setting: This story began in the cabin, then goes through a village, the woods, and all ends up back in the cabin.

There were no monsters used, or creatures really, unless you consider gingerbread a creature.

The lesson to this story could be that you should always follow the directions that youre told because they prevent complications. Also, always be patient because good things take time.

The art in this book was extraordinarily beautiful. It was so detailed. They were not actual pictures, more like paintings.

Animals were somewhat used as characters, they played a large part in the chase.

Both children and adults were used as characters in this story.

No rhyme was used during this.

“Catch me if you can” was a line repeated frequently throughout the story for obvious reasons. The baby was confident that he could not be caught.

Any age could read this because it’s a simple read but also can have a deeper meaning for those that are older and can find the lesson behind it. 

2000's Photo

This picture doesn't really seem that relevant or iconic I’m sure. I just think this is a good way to show that no matter how many bad things happen, there’s always a way to stay happy and positive. During his presidency he had to handle the 9/11 terrorist attack. Obviously being the president would be extremely stressful.     

This picture was taken in 2005. Four years after the horrendous attacks on the country that he was in charge of. He also was in charge of many taxes that were passed. During his presidency hurricane Katrina also occurred. After everything he had to deal with he still managed to find time to make silly faces like this. (This face was made after he continuously tried to open a locked door)

This picture can teach all of us a lot, honestly. We all have tend to have this mindset that everything is so bad all of the time. I get that a lot of people are positive a lot but there are also so many people that are upset constantly. Life can be so incredibly hard sometimes but there’s always going to be something good too. We all need to take the time to find that one good thing and try to be happy.

Another thing we can learn is to stop caring what other people think. Make dumb faces, make mistakes, have fun. In a few years none of this is going to matter. No one is going to care if you run into a locked door or try to open it. No one is going to care if your laugh is crazy loud or if you like to make weird faces. Be you. Have fun and live life to the fullest. Take time to make crazy memories that you'll never forget and never be “too cool” to have fun.