Today I am going to write down some of my many blessings that God has granted me in this past year. Sometimes we forget all the ways that God has taken care of us, but we truly are blessed.

1. I am thankful for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. This past year August Ali and I had our public proffession of faith at church!
2. I am thankful for my family and how much they care for me. They are always there to give me a hand, especially when I was really busy during volleyball season. They always were making me food or giving me encouragement through this past volleyball season, and it really meant a lot to me.
3. The fact that my mother is an amazing cook. She is good at making food for my friends and me, even if, at times, i wish she wouldn’t tempt me with so many delicious desserts.
4. I am thankful that Christmas is approaching!!! Even though I do not like cold weather, I am excited to spend time with my friends and family and listen to lots of christmas music!!
5. I am thankful for my friends. They are amazing, and I don’t know what I would do without them. They bring so much joy to my life, and when I’m not in a good mood they always try to cheer me up.
6. I love my cats. Trixie, Angel, and Zarah are my favorite kitties ever. They want to cuddle with me (most of the time), and they are so fun to be around.
7. I love my nieces and nephews. Katie, Caleb, Emily, Leah,  Bryson, Drew, Ella, and Jackson bring so much joy to my life. It’s so good to watch little kids and realize just to enjoy every minute of life.
8. I am thankful my grandparents are still here for another Thanksgiving. This past weekend my Grandma was in the hospital, and her perkiness through every situation reminds me we can have fun and enjoy life no matter how old we are.
9. I am thankful that I have completed my volleyball career, and that I was able to be involved with it from 5th to 12th grade. It has taught me so many life lessons, and I know I will remember the experiences for the rest of my life.
10. I love my car. It’s not exactly a beauty, but it takes me where I need to go and never breaks down! (knock, knock)
11. I love music!! If music had never been created, I would be lost. It helps you in many situations and is extremely relaxing.
12. Organic yogurt was a great invention. I don’t know what i would be eating if it did not exist.
13. I love Haribo Strawberries and Cream Gummies. That’s all there is to it.
14. I also love peanut butter. Even with all the calories, I can still eat a jar in one week if allowed and probably even in one day.
15. Decisons: Making decisions is a lot of work–especially ones about college, but I am thankful that I have the opportunity to go to college and learn!!

That’s just a few, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

So yesterday I had the great fun of getting a brand new cell phone!! I have had the same type of cell phone since April of 2008. The reason i say the same type of cell phone is because i had a red krzr, but i have been using my brother’s blue krzr ever since my phone got wet in the rain at work. Getting a new cell phone is kind of stressful because i am starting to realize that i don’t deal with change very well. I feel so frustrated when i have absolutely no idea what i am doing or how to run this new piece of machinery. I am really excited to have a new phone though because my old one was very beat up! I sometimes text a lot at night so my new phone has a keyboard! Right now, i don’t like this keyboard and am probably slower when i use it compared to when i don’t. This is just a minor change, but it makes me think about the change coming ahead next year with college. I will make a bunch of new friends, and grow farther apart from the awesome friends that i have found in high school over the past 4 years. I will have to be an adult, and make my own decisions and buy my own stuff at walmart! I really can’t change the future, but my goal right now is to make the most of my senior year with my friends. I also would love to figure out this new phone.

A digital footprint is like your “Computer DNA” of what information can be found about you online. It can include your facebook, myspace, or twitter account; online blog; or the search results found by searching your name. You should always make sure that what is posted about you online is good information from the moment you start using the computer. When you need your avatar for business or college reasons it is time to put a nice picture of you in place of a picture of something you like. From the moment you start using the computer, your parents should make you aware of how to use the internet safely. In school the teachers should give you projects that encourage the healthy use of  the internet for learning purposes. Registering your email on internet websites gives you many more chances to receive plenty of junk email. You should never give away your social security number, telephone number, credit card information, or addresss unless you are shopping on a secure internet site. You should never give your social security number away unless absolutely necessary. I really don’t have much of a digital footprint. There are at least three Abby Hoekstra’s in the world so most of the information i googled involved one of them. If  I am on the internet it would be for my church directory, on the Western Christian website, or possibly for vollelyball. I have a facebook account, but I don’t think I allowed any information from facebook to be on the internet.

The following paragraph uses twenty-five commonly mistaken words in all of their forms. I tried my best to make a story out of them that made sense. Every word from our worksheet paper on commonly mistaken words was used.

So since sophomore year i have been talking among my friends. Heading to California is an everyday conversation. We decided already long ago we were going to California, and we put together a date to head to California. On July 15 we would wake up and be all ready to go on an adventure. Our parents thought the idea was illicit, our conscience told us no, but we accepted the risk and set out through the bridge into nebraska. Our parents threw us a going away party before we left, and they set out some basic principles we should follow throughout the trip. They had many desserts at the party like two cakes, peach pie, apple pie, ice cream desert, and apple crisp. I had a piece of crisp because it had fewer calories than cake. I couldn’t decide between eating blueberry or apple crisp, but when i breathed in and smelled cinnamin apples i made up my mind.  They also used this as a chance to elicit information from us about where we would stay, what roads we were taking, etc. Our high school principle was at our going away party and he said, “You’re very brave and intelligent young women, and please realize the effect of your actions on this trip will stay with you forever. Please affect eachother into making good choices.”  My parents told me to make sure my shoestrings weren’t loose. They joked about how funny it would be if i was running away from someone and tripped over my shoestrings. I told them i loved them, and i would see them soon.  As we got farther from Iowa, we started to see less cornfields and more deserts. As time we also passed through some mountains, it was very scary on the mountains. We had an argument to see whose turn it was to check the map. The map was the only thing leading us where to go. We had a Garmin, except we didn’t find it very trustworthy. Kristin said,”It’s your turn, Abby.” So we stopped in the mountains, it was so cold up there we could see our breath! I did a thorough check of the map to make sure we were on track, and then we began our descent down the mountain. During the car ride we talked about what we wanted to do every day for the rest of our lives. We’re all headed out in different directions and feel led to different places. We realize as our lives get busy we will all grow further and further apart. We don’t know where our lives will take us, but we know who’s in control, God. Then we all layed on top of eachother, and fell into a deep sleep. We slept for a decent amount of time before sitting up and watching the scenery outside. Finally we made it to California! We wented to a fancy resturaunt to celebrate. It had a peaceful atmosphere; there was a table set with silverware overlooking the ocean just for us. Its view of the ocean was spectacular, and we saw many people strolling along the beach with their dog. I wonder if they were conscious of the fact we were watching them, and wishing we could do stroll along the beaches every day too. “They’re tan all the time! I wish i wouldn’t lose my tan every winter,” said Kim. We had a lot of fun on our trip. I’m not gonna lie; i really wanted to go to Florida instead. In the end i’m glad we went to California because it was a new experience we all had the chance to share together.

It seems winter has come to Northwest Iowa a little early this year much to my dismay. On October 9, 2009 it snowed in Iowa! I am not exactly a fan of cold weather because it makes my skin itchy and red. Summer runs from May to August, and this summer wasn’t very warm at all. Winter runs from November (usually) through mid-April. Since winter is nearly twice as long as summer, i wish that the snow would wait to come until December. Sometimes i ponder going to college in a warmer climate such as Califiornia or Florida. I like Southeastern University and Pensacola Christian in Florida, but you are required to dress up everyday. Hopefully i will learn to love the winter months more often than just on holidays.

Today our assignment in College Comp. class was to read the article “Educators Blame the Internet for Rise in Student Cheating” found at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002152271_plagiarism16m.html. I thought this article was interesting because it stated that a high percentage of high school students plagiarize. I looked on WikiAnswers.com to see what is considered plagiarism. Wiki said that plagiarism is taking words or sentences from internet articles and using them in papers as your own words. If someone were to take an article and rewrite the article in their own words it would be ok, but they would need a works cited page at the end of their paper. Sometimes school can get overwhelming; suddenly you are swamped with assignments and extra-curricular activies. The internet makes cheating very easy, but i would never consider cheating because i would be afraid of getting caught. I do not understand how to copy an entire essay; using someone else’s entire essay seems like more work than just writing my own. When i am writing an article and use lots of facts, it can be confusing to remember that a work’s cited page is needed to give the original author of the information credit. When someone spends a lot of time working on an aritcle, it is sad that another person gets a better grade copying an article directly from the internet.

When I think of a favorite image, it’s definitely one from the beach. You could probably guess the ocean is my favorite place ever from looking at my blog. Seeing a picture of a beautfiul sunset puts me in the mood for a vacation. There’s nothing better than relaxing on the beach and in the water all day, and then watching the sun go down with no worries in the world. The beauty of God’s creation is most evident to me when i stare at the ocean that seems to go on for an eternity. There’s no other place that compares.

http://www.pooler-georgia-homepage.com/retire-in-pooler.html

I really like music. Whenever i’m doing my homework or driving someplace i always have music on. One of the reasons i like music is that it can be very inspirational. When i’m having a bad day, listening to music can lift my spirits just by hearing a good song. When i’m having a good day, listening to music can make me even more hyper!! It’s important to realize that the music you listen to will directly influence you. I find the need to be careful that the music i listen to doesn’t affect me negatively by the lyrics. One of my favorite places to watch music is www.youtube.com. I can look for new, upcoming songs or watch videos of songs i already like. My friend Kristin also likes music a lot. We like to go to stores such as Savers and look through records for classics. I now have Nat King Cole on record and Bing Crosby!!

Littering is something that i absolutely cannot stand. I’m the type of person who would walk around my yard and pick up trash that blew through. I can’t exactly remember why i don’t like littering, but i have always been one who likes things to be clean. My  room has always been picked up since i was born. When people litter they are taking away from the beauty of God’s creation. Who wants to walk by a lake only to see candy wrappers and beer cans everywhere? I work as a lifeguard in the town i live, and i always make sure our pool is picked up around the pool and outside the fence. It is very gross to pick up wrappers covered in ants, or melted candy. I lose respect for the kids that i see littering, and i always make them pick up extra wrappers for doing so. Littering shows disrespect for people’s property and the community. If everyone littered what would the world look like? I hope that our world doesn’t amount to a pile of garbage.

Part of blogging is commenting on other people’s blogs. I can’t say i have done much with commenting yet because i don’t have time. When people comment on my blog they can comment about whatever they want to as long as it’s not overly negative. I’m open to have comments on my blog that disagree with what i think because it’s good to see different people’s viewpoints. In order to comment on my blog you need to leave your name and email address. I have had someone comment on my blog who doesn’t have their own blog. I can choose whether or not to approve a comment so if it’s inappropriate i just will choose to not approve it. I’m open to comments criticizing my grammar because i thinkc onstructive criticism is important for improving and making yourself better.