Woman facing mayhem charge for biting off husband's tongue

A 57 year old woman is accused of biting off her husband’s tongue.  She has been charged with mayhem. 

They say she was outside her home singing Christmas carols when someone had called the police.  She

then blew a party horn in an officer’s ear and threw a coffee cup at another.  The police went inside the

house to find her 79-year-old husband with gauze on his mouth.  He kissed her while she was in the

bathroom and she grabbed him and bit off his tongue.  The husband said she went into a “manic state”,

well I would say so.  That seems just crazy to me why you would do something like that.  Hopefully she

gets charged and then gets put somewhere that she can be watched and controlled.   

December 11

This weekend my family is going up to the cities to my aunts house to celebrate my cousin Isabelle's 6th birthday party! We are taking the kids to an indoor water park which they are very excited about !  It is always fun for me to be with my family especially with my younger brothers and to take them and do fun things with them.  We usually get together up in the cities for their birthday's because we don't get up there much.  Another thing is my aunt just moved so we will be staying at her new place for the first time. I'm excited for the weekend but hoping that weather doesn't interfere with any of our plans.

Works Cited

Works Cited

Erritouni, Ali. “Apartheid Inequality and Postapartheid Utopia in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People.”  Research in African Literatures 37.4 (2006): 68-84.  Academic Search Premier.  EBSCO. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.

“Gordimer, Nadine (1923).”  The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women.  London:  Penguin, 1998.  Credo Reference.  1 Jan. 2002.  Web. 15 Nov. 2010.

“Nadine Gordimer-Biography.”  Nobelprize.org. 15 Nov 2010.

“Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience.”  Nobelprize.org. 16 Nov 2010.

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, being the first South African, and seventh woman to be awarded.  Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, Transvaal, which is in South Africa, she was born to Isidore and Nan Gordimer.  The Laureate continues to live in South Africa as she has all her life.  She began writing when she was nine and published her first story when she was 15 years old.  She attended Witwatersrand University for one year but didn’t get any sort of degree.  Nadine refused to move abroad even when she married Reinhold Cassirer, who is a refugee of Nazi, Germany.  Her daughter lives in France and her son in New York; even though her children are away she still resides in South Africa. 

            In all of her works there have been thirty different language translations. Nadine has been awarded fifteen honorary doctorates and has received major literary prizes.  As of April 2001, according to Per Wastberg, author of, Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience, “over half a century, Gordimer has written thirteen novels, over 200 short stories, and several volumes of essays” (par. 2).  Her work primarily focuses on the destructive effects of former system of apartheid in South Africa. 

Gordimer was very involved in the anti-apartheid struggle.  When she was young her parents didn’t really pay much attention to the segregation.  If it wasn’t for a local library she may have never started writing, it was then that she saw it, blacks were not allowed to use the local library.  “For fifty years, Gordimer has been the Geiger counter of apartheid and of the movements of people across the crust of South Africa.” (Watsberg 2) Most of Gordimer’s first novels were about racism and white liberals’ inadequate responses to it. In these novels it was the blacks that would be “in charge”, whites would have to redefine themselves, because they would be together more often.  Nadine Gordimer created a “free zone” where it was possible for people to see what it was like outside of apartheid.  Gordimer also joined the African National Congress (ANC), when she was young before it was even legal. (Watsberg 2)  

In her works she portrayed what it was like in South Africa, in her book July’s People, the characters she uses are similar to people of that time outside the novel.  In that work she drew a picture of South Africa to expose the social and economic consequences of apartheid, and also to open up utopian opportunities beyond it.   An example of how she wrote about these things that were happening in South Africa at the time, “Many of the things which seemed like science fiction then, have begun to happen…” (Erritouni 2)  Nadine also shows that the whites have to rethink how they will live in this novel; characters went from living in a seven bedroom house with servants, to living how the black people were living.  Gordimer didn’t expect the white’s would readily share the power or property, but some had no choice.  Nadine was very quiet, she stayed home and wrote, she very seldom had friends over, and she didn’t go out and do much. 

She then wrote during the post-apartheid, “Nadine’s post-apartheid works focus on the lives of white liberals in the transitional time between the release of Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s first multiracial elections.”  (Gordimer 3)  The two novels on that are None to Accompany me (1994) and The House Gun (1997). These works were about blacks and whites doing things together that they maybe didn’t do during the apartheid times.  Gordimer wrote about things that were happening in real life and put them into books so people could have an understanding of what was happening.  This may be why some things changed also.

Nadine Gordimer worked very hard on her writing and on trying to change things in South Africa.  She wrote many novels on times during the apartheid and post-apartheid; which seemed to change many things also.  Learning and writing about Nadine Gordimer was beneficial to me because it taught me what it was like during the time when segregation was intact and also how it changed in the post-apartheid.

Hostages of school gunman tried to keep him at ease

           Samuel Hengel, a 15-year-old student at Marinette High School, held his teacher and two dozen classmates’ hostage for more than six hours on Monday, Nov. 29.  He reported to his class looking normal and had nothing with him, later he asked his teacher if he could use the restroom and came back into the classroom with a backpack.  The backpack contained two semiautomatic handguns, ammunition and a knife he also had bullets in his pockets.  The teacher was showing a movie in her class and Hengel asked his classmates how they were doing, and then he snapped.  He first shot a hole in the wall and fired two more rounds at the film projector.  One student questioned why nobody else in the school seemed to hear the shots. After shooting those rounds he shot the last one at himself.  Hengel then sat on the teachers stool in front of the class; he pulled out another gun and laid it on the podium along with more ammunition.  This is when students began to get scared, although he never said anything to anyone.  His cell phone rang and he snapped it in half then telling everyone in the room to put their phones in the middle of the room. 

            While this was happening his friend started talking to him about things he enjoyed doing, like hunting and fishing.  Samuel talked with them and they seemed to keep him somewhat calm.  They talked about fun things they remembered, and even had him laughing at one point.  After talking and being in there for a while it was 3:30 p.m. when a call came over the intercom for a parent looking for his daughter who hadn’t answered his call.  He let her go and pointed a gun at the principle and told him to get out, the principle called 911.  Police called the classroom phone to try and talk to Samuel but he refused and the teacher did the talking.  At about 7:40 p.m. some students had to use the bathroom and he let three of them go, another later had asked but was forced to go in the garbage can in the classroom.  Once the teacher put the phone down he fired three rounds at the phone and computer.  SWAT officers broke down the door at rushed at him, he picked up another gun and pointed it at his head.  One officer grabbed his arm but wasn’t in time before the trigger was squeezed and it was to late to save him. 

            Nobody knows why or what caused him to make this decision, his family said there were not any signs, or that he wasn’t bullied.  So many people are left to wonder why he did this, which will be the biggest question.   I give the students who were in the room a lot of credit for keeping him calm and not making things worse, that would be a very hard situation to try and stay calm and not freak out.

Suspect in Iowa store slayings to face 2 trials

A Minnesota teen is accused of killing two clerks at different stores in northern Iowa, and will face two separate trials.  17 year old, Michael Swanson, of St. Louis Park, MN has been charged with first degree murder and robbery in two different counties.  He walked into one gas station just after 9 p.m. and shot a woman, 47, who later died at a local hospital.  He then drove about 30 miles to another town and killed a 61 year old woman.  Swanson has been in trouble with the law a lot according to court and police records.  He was guilty of stealing a neighbor’s car and then later crashing it, lying about his name and birthday and vomited in the back of the squad car because of vodka in his system.    This just seems crazy to me how a kid can be so disobedient and just continue to do wrong things with the law.  Hopefully this will put him in jail for a while so maybe he gets his mind straight and learns his lesson.  What was the point of killing 2 innocent woman who did nothing wrong, just because he was breaking the law and robbing a gas station. 

            It also states in the article that he disobeys his household rules, which is probably why he has no fear breaking the law.  To me it is partly the parents fault for not putting their foot down and doing something to stop him from disobeying their rules at home.  I’m not saying that it is their fault that he shot 2 women but it has to have something to do with it.  Police have been called to his house 10 times since 2006, on reports of numerous things, threat, assaults, weapons violence and theft.  You would think the parents would be sick of it and not put up with it anymore and maybe do something about it like send him away and maybe learn a lesson or two.  He came home from a juvenile center and already had a warrant for his arrest because he took his mothers credit card and her vehicle, and then broke into the family’s cabin and took weapons.  I am glad that they found him right away after these two shootings and hopefully he will be locked up for a long time and maybe if he gets out he will learn his lesson. 

http://www.startribune.com/local/108652399.html?page=2&c=y

FDA to require graphic warnings on cigarette packages, ads

Warning labels will now be covering half of a package’s front and back and also the top 20 percent of all ads.  They will show either photos or drawings illustrating graphically the danger associated with smoking and will also state that smoking is addictive and kills. Regulators are hoping that by putting these on packs and ads of cigarettes that it will keep young people from beginning to smoke and to strengthen the will of those who are attempting to quit.  A quote in the article says, “we want to make sure every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,”(par. 2) Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a news conference.  To me I think it is a good thing in a way that they are making an effort to try and stop young people to start smoking and to get people to quit.  But in all reality I don’t think that it is going to help that much, because people should already know the risks that go along with smoking so they shouldn’t start anyway, they shouldn’t have to be buying a pack and then say o yeah this could kill me.  If a person is already smoking, I don’t think seeing a drawing or picture is going to make them stop I think it will take a little bit more than just that.  I hope that it will give them a hint to maybe do something else to stop smoking because smoking kills an estimated 450,000 Americans every year and nearly 8 million suffer from chronic diseases.  It is sad to see that so many people do smoke because it can cause deadly diseases and to me it is a waste of money that could be spent on something much more beneficial to a person. 

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=49&a=477903

2010, Los Angeles Times.

State Championship-Final copy

Last game of my career, last free throw I would ever shoot , the other team had a chance now, the clock was running down, we blocked the shot and now got the ball back, the last thing I remember was throwing the ball as high as I could and going to hug my teammates.  I have been playing sports ever since I can remember, whether it would be playing with my cousins or going to camps.  I played three sports all through high school and which kept me pretty busy.  While playing sports, my dream had always been to win a state championship.  The girls basketball team, my senior year, had a good chance at doing that.  Even though people from other towns doubted our team, we would still work hard.

 It seemed that every year nobody believed that Caledonia was ever the better team in games; well we would prove people wrong each game.  People would always say “well they don’t have very tall players or they aren’t the better team.”  We had been to state 2 years in a row before my senior year, and we lost the first game each year.  We used this as motivation, our coach asked us 5 seniors at the beginning of the year “what is your goal for this season?”  We all agreed that our goal was to make it to state and to focus on winning the first game.  After that, we wanted to win the state championship.  It just so happens that we had the chance to succeed our goal, we had won the section championship, and we also won our first game at state.  After our first game we decided to make the trip from Minneapolis back to Caledonia to go to school and have a regular practice the next day because we had a day to wait before the semi-final game, which was against Jordan the team we had lost to the year before.

The day of our semi-final game we rode the bus up for our 6:00 p.m. game against Jordan.  Again, everyone thought they were the better team since they had the “dynamic duo”.  Well it turns out that we proved everyone wrong because we were the team who was moving onto the final game.  Our team worked hard and showed everyone that we could win, and would win even though they were supposedly the better team.  We were going to be playing at 2:00 p.m. the next day for the championship.  After the game, the team went back to the hotel while the coaches stayed to watch the game after ours which was the team we would be playing in the finals.

Today was the day that we would be able to make our dream come true.  Walking into the Target Center that day was one of the most exciting feelings.  We were so ready to prove ourselves that we could win and that all the hours and hard work we put in during the season, and pre-season were going to pay off.  We wanted to win for ourselves, the coaches, and also for our supportive community.  Running out onto the court was something that I will never forget, it was an amazing feeling to run out to a crowd that was so loud, but everything felt silent and in slow motion.  Warming up felt like it took forever because we just wanted to get the game started and for our nerves to be gone.  When the game finally started we started off with a pretty good lead going into halftime.  After halftime the other team started cutting our lead down, and after a while we started getting flustered and frustrated.  During one of our TV timeouts coach said, “forget about everything that’s happened so far, and go out and show them we are the better team.”  Well, we did that to an extent but we ended up letting them get within 2 points.  Right there is when we started to get nervous and we got in a huddle and said, “we are going to win this for the team and for the community, whatever it takes, leave it all on the floor.”  It came down to free throws at the end of the game for us to win, we made them and had a 54-50 lead.  That would end up being the final score, we had just won the schools first state championship for the girls basketball program, and also finished the season perfect with a 31-0 record!  We went crazy and so did the crowd, it was a great feeling to have them behind us and cheering for us the whole game, having that many people cheering for you just makes it that much more memorable.  As soon as the buzzer sounded all of us just ran to each other and gave hugs, there were tears, sweat, smiles, screams all kinds of emotions going through.  One of the comments my mom said to me after the game was “why did you have to make it so close?”  I just kind of laughed when she said that and said, “sorry, it’s not like we tried.”  Cutting down the net was also one of the best feelings I have had and experienced. We all stood in a line and took turns, when it was my turn I just felt numb, walking up the ladder seeing the flashes of cameras going off, it was truly a great feeling to be cutting down the net at the Target Center.  After we got done with all of that and with pictures we went back to the locker room.  While I was taking my shoes off I just thought to myself, working hard towards something really does pay off in the end.  One of my teammates and I were the last two out of the locker room because we had been interviewed, so it took us longer.  Walking through the doors to where all our family and teammates were was awesome! Everyone just started screaming and we started crying because we were so happy we accomplished our goal that no one else thought we could.  The final part of all the celebrating that day was when we got escorted into town with fire trucks, ambulances, and cop cars.  They took us around town, and finally to the high school where all the fans were waiting for us, once we got there everyone was cheering again!

Having a goal and working very hard towards it to come true is something that a person should never forget.  I know that when I see my classmates and teammates, winning the championship game always seems to come to mind.  We put in many hours of hard work over the summer, and season, and also spent many hours in the weight room and getting up early to practice.  When our town had a ceremony for us the next day in the gym, it then sank in that we would never get to play on that floor together again.   It is a very good feeling to accomplish such a big goal, and I believe that if you work hard enough towards something that anything is possible.

Minnesota man pleads guilty to killing his wife.

A man who lives in Minneapolis is guilty of stabbing his wife in an argument over money; they had been married for 24 years.  To me I think that is just crazy to handle an argument that way, I understand that it may have been frustrating, or that we may not know all the background details but it is still crazy to me.  It seems that they had had some problems earlier, since 10 days before a judge had given them a no-contact order.  To me if you are having problems such as money, maybe seek some help, have someone help you work it out.  Instead he “took care of it” on his own by stabbing his wife over 70 times!  It was wrong that they were still living together since they had been given an order from a judge not to be, and who knows if they would have listened if this would have happened or not.  I really hope the husband gets a good punishment, and has to spend time locked up because that is just wrong to kill your wife over an argument.  How can you be married to someone for over 20 years and one day stab your spouse to death, I just don’t understand.   

(Draft) State Championship

Last game of my career, last free throw I would ever shoot , the other team had a chance now, the clock was running down, we blocked the shot and now got the ball back, the last thing I remember was throwing the ball as high as I could and going to hug my teammates.  I have been playing sports ever since I can remember, whether it would be playing with my cousins or going to camps.  I played three sports all through high school and which kept me pretty busy.  While playing sports, my dream had always been to win a state championship.  The girls basketball team, my senior year, had a good chance at doing that.  Even though people from other towns doubted our team, we would still work hard.

 It seemed that every year nobody believed that Caledonia was ever the better team in games; well we would prove people wrong each game.  People would always say “well they don’t have very tall players or they aren’t the better team.”  We had been to state 2 years in a row before my senior year, and we lost the first game each year.  We used this as motivation, our coach asked us 5 seniors at the beginning of the year “what is your goal for this season?”  We all agreed that our goal was to make it to state and to focus on winning the first game.  After that, we wanted to win the state championship.  It just so happens that we had the chance to succeed our goal, we had won the section championship, and we also won our first game at state.  After our first game we decided to make the trip from Minneapolis back to Caledonia to go to school and have a regular practice the next day because we had a day to wait before the semi-final game, which was against Jordan the team we had lost to the year before.

The day of our semi-final game we rode the bus up for our 6:00 p.m. game against Jordan.  Again, everyone thought they were the better team since they had the “dynamic duo”.  Well it turns out that we proved everyone wrong because we were the team who was moving onto the final game.  Our team worked hard and showed everyone that we could win, and would win even though they were supposedly the better team.  We were going to be playing at 2:00 p.m. the next day for the championship.  After the game, the team went back to the hotel while the coaches stayed to watch the game after ours which was the team we would be playing in the finals.

Today was the day that we would be able to make our dream come true.  Walking into the Target Center that day was one of the most exciting feelings.  We were so ready to prove ourselves that we could win and that all the hours and hard work we put in during the season, and pre-season were going to pay off.  We wanted to win for ourselves, the coaches, and also for our supportive community.  Running out onto the court was something that I will never forget, it was an amazing feeling to run out to a crowd that was so loud, but everything felt silent and in slow motion.  Warming up felt like it took forever because we just wanted to get the game started and for our nerves to be gone.  When the game finally started we started off with a pretty good lead going into halftime.  After halftime the other team started cutting our lead down, and after a while we started getting flustered and frustrated.  During one of our TV timeouts coach said, “forget about everything that’s happened so far, and go out and show them we are the better team.”  Well, we did that to an extent but we ended up letting them get within 2 points.  Right there is when we started to get nervous and we got in a huddle and said, “we are going to win this for the team and for the community, whatever it takes, leave it all on the floor.”  It came down to free throws at the end of the game for us to win, we made them and had a 54-50 lead.  That would end up being the final score, we had just won the schools first state championship for the girls basketball program, and also finished the season perfect with a 31-0 record!  We went crazy and so did the crowd, it was a great feeling to have them behind us and cheering for us the whole game, having that many people cheering for you just makes it that much more memorable.  As soon as the buzzer sounded all of us just ran to each other and gave hugs, there were tears, sweat, smiles, screams all kinds of emotions going through.  One of the comments my mom said to me after the game was “why did you have to make it so close?”  I just kind of laughed when she said that and said, “sorry, it’s not like we tried.”  Cutting down the net was also one of the best feelings I have had and experienced. We all stood in a line and took turns, when it was my turn I just felt numb, walking up the ladder seeing the flashes of cameras going off, it was truly a great feeling to be cutting down the net at the Target Center.  After we got done with all of that and with pictures we went back to the locker room.  While I was taking my shoes off I just thought to myself, working hard towards something really does pay off in the end.  One of my teammates and I were the last two out of the locker room because we had been interviewed, so it took us longer.  Walking through the doors to where all our family and teammates were was awesome! Everyone just started screaming and we started crying because we were so happy we accomplished our goal that no one else thought we could.  The final part of all the celebrating that day was when we got escorted into town with fire trucks, ambulances, and cop cars.  They took us around town, and finally to the high school where all the fans were waiting for us, once we got there everyone was cheering again!

Having a goal and working very hard towards it to come true is something that a person should never forget.  I know that when I see my classmates and teammates, winning the championship game always seems to come to mind.  We put in many hours of hard work over the summer, and season, and also spent many hours in the weight room and getting up early to practice.  When our town had a ceremony for us the next day in the gym, it then sank in that we would never get to play on that floor together again.   It is a very good feeling to accomplish such a big goal, and I believe that if you work hard enough towards something that anything is possible.

Lindsay Lohan

         I am really sick of hearing all the hype about Lindsay Lohan, if it were me I would put her in rehab and make her stay there or put her in jail, Instead of all of this in and out stuff.  She was put in jail without a bail from one judge because she failed a drug test, 14 hours later another judge let her post bail.  She was released from jail on a $300,000 bail.   Just because she is a celebrity doesn’t mean she should just get to do whatever she wants.  I know that if that was just a regular person with no fame, they would be sitting in jail.  She has been caught for driving under the influence, doing drugs, and drinking alcohol when she isn’t supposed to be.  I don’t think it’s right that she has a lawyer that can just get her out of jail, I know that is there job and all but she is breaking the law time and time again and she just gets a little slap on the hand for it.  Lohan keeps asking for one more chance; well I think you should only be granted one more chance not like 5, because she obviously isn’t getting any better about her alcohol or substance abuse.   Lohan’s father said in a court hearing that other people ruined his daughter’s life; personally I think she is the one doing it to herself.  You can’t blame other people for what she is doing, yes maybe someone wanted to do some bad things with her but she could have said no.  I don’t agree with him in saying it isn’t anyone’s fault but her own.  Again I just think it is wrong that they are giving her so many chances and not just enforcing, she needs to be in jail or in rehab and there for a while until she comes clean.  Because like I said earlier we know that if it was just some regular person they would be in jail and not able to be bailed out. 

Rutgers University Student Commits suicide.

For the most part suicides are a shock to family and friends because they may have never seen it coming or may have never known why or what caused a person to commit suicide.  On the other hand there are some that family and friends may know something is going on but still not expect it.  I am thinking that when Tyler Clementi committed suicide his family was not expecting it at all and was very hurt by the loss, friends may have known that he was very upset.

                When Tyler was filmed making out with another man in his dorm room he was very upset at his roommate, he went on a blog and wrote “don’t wanna report him and then up with nothing happening except him getting pissed at me.”  He wrote that just before he told his residential advisor and about an hour later he had jumped off the George Washington Bridge.  I think that it was very wrong on the roommate’s part to put a hidden camera up in the dorm room.  I know that sometimes guys joke around and do crazy things to each other, but I also think that there is a line that should be drawn and that this roommate definitely crossed it.  He may have thought it was funny to do that to his roommate, but to post it to the entire world is just ridiculous.  Now I may not be all for same sex relationships, but I feel that if a person is going to do that, that they should be left alone about it.  They shouldn’t be treated the way Tyler was treated,  even though his roommate maybe just thought it would be funny.  He had no right to treat someone that way just because he maybe thought it wasn’t right.  I feel that if someone is in a relationship or maybe just has feelings for the same sex that they should be the person to tell not someone to do it for them.       

                Look at what his family has to go through now, because someone made fun of him and went behind his back.  He was very upset about it and felt that if he would tell someone what his roommate did that he would just look dumb because he thought nothing would be done about it, so the only way in his mind to take care of it was to commit suicide.  I think it is just awful how someone could treat a person like that. 

-Quote from ABC News, video. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/fallout-rutgers-suicide-tyler-clementi-death-roomate-stream-sex-encounter-gay-homosexual-homophobia-cyberbully-11770748

Learning Techniques

I thought the video was very good.  It showed how much kids enjoy and learn from doing things hands on and with dangerous objects.  I think one of the important parts of the video and Tulley’s teaching was letting kids have the chance to work with dangerous objects, such as drills and hammers and things like that.  The children seemed to love working with them, and also learn a lot.  In the video the statement I remember most is when he said “success is in the doing, failures are celebrated and analyzed.”  I think that is a very good way to teach, especially young kids, to teach them to just keep trying and if you fail o well you can make changes and learn from the mistakes.  Many people can learn just from playing with things or fooling around, they end up creating something very unique. 

One change that may interest kids or help them learn, would be to make more things hands on.  Children seem to remember things much easier if they do it themselves and teach themselves, I would say that is the easiest way for me to learn as well.  One of the most important things when being a child is teaching yourself how to do things, just figuring it out a way that fits you best, someone may do something totally different then you because they taught themselves in a different way. 

I would say that I am a very visual type of learner, so for me being able to do things hands on or visually I would learn it a lot easier.   It is much easier for me to take a test and do well on it when it was something I learned hands on or visually, rather than just on notes that I wrote down during a lecture.  

   http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

Labor Day Weekend

Over the Labor Day weekend I spent most of my time with family.  Spending time with my family is one of the most important things to me.  I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for them.  I would say that I am very lucky to have such a close family, sometimes people take for granted having a family or being able to see them often, because some kids don't even know who their parents are.  My family does a lot of things together, such as going camping or just getting together to hang out.  Over Labor Day weekend, some of my family went to an Iowa hawkeye football game.  It was very fun to go to the game with them and just hang out before and after.  I enjoy doing fun things with my family like that, and hope that I am able to continue doing that.

My Introduction

My name is Megan King, I am in the Medical Assistant program but I won’t start those classes until next fall. I am excited to start taking those classes next year, I will graduate next spring and hopefully start working in that field. I live in Caledonia, MN and have my whole life; Caledonia is a small town about 25 miles away from La Crosse. I enjoy playing volleyball and have ever since I was young.  I also like to play basketball, I enjoy watching sports too, I grew up watching many of my aunts and uncles play sports.  I now enjoy to watch my younger cousins play sports. I also love to be outside doing things like four-wheeling or watching my little brothers play baseball. I have five younger brothers and one sister, it is very fun watching them grow up and see how much they change! I also enjoy scrapbooking with my aunts and just being with my family in general, I have a very close family and love spending time with them.