blog #9 My ideal vacation...

Well some of you might think that my idea vacation would be to go on a great big out landish hunting trip to somewhere.  Which indeed my above all hunting trip I would like to experience is to hunt moose and carabou in Alaska, but to me hunting is something that is an passion and obsession.  I constantly am striving to do better, learn more, and go bigger with hunting.  SO my ideal vacation would not be a hunting trip because I would constantly be busy it wouldn't really be a hunting trip but more of goal.  So my acutal ideal vacation where I'd go on it and just totally relax and not have a care in the world would to go to one of those sandals all inclusive resorts : ) At the present time I do not have a significant other BUT a while back my Xbf and I were planning on going to a sandals resort and we kinda broke up before it happened, oh well what can you do. But when I do find someone special again I would like to plan one of these trips again. There are sandals resorts in the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and Antigua. These resorts include Exotic locations and perfect beaches, Ultra-luxurious and spacious accommodations, Plush king-size beds in all rooms and suites. Gourmet dining with candlelit tables for two, Intimate ambiance at all resorts,Vast choice of sports on land and sea, Sparkling entertainment under the sun and stars, Super-attentive and friendly staff, Plenty of secluded spots for romance and the best part is you don't have to worry about any money or bills.  You pay one full price in advance and all you have to worry about it going and having as much fun as possible!

When you come to these islands for get aways its like another world! Your basically treated like royalty with a butler service at your room.  Amazing spas to treat your self. With as many as 12 unforgettable restaurants per resort, your dining choices are as varied as your moods, and the food choices look amazing.

An open bar area in the swimming pool area, so all you have to do is swim up and have a seat in the water.  The rooms are out of this world, they really go out of their way to make you feel like your in your own wonderful romatic paradise. Imagine swimming to your room or being surrounded by magic in a seaside cottage in the round. Imagine retreating to a cliff-top sanctuary with your own private pool or experiencing the height of luxury with a two-story loft suite set within a coconut grove. These are only some of the unique ways to make your most romantic dreams a reality with the most extravagant collection of suites in paradise.

Each and every Sandals Resort has been designed to fulfill and exceed every need and wish that two people in love could ever possibly have. At Sandals some of the most gorgeous and exotic islands in the world will cradle you in their languid embrace, providing the ultimate setting for love. Infact a lot of people take advantage of this and get married right on the islands.

 Which there are many different wedding packages you can choice from to make your wedding a paradise event. 

Once I find my Mr. Wonderful I'm heading to sandals to have an romatic ideal pardise vacation!

For more Information check out the website..Sandals Resort

Blog # 8 Memoir black eyes and smiles

 I wrote my memoir about the memories i've had with my brother growing up.  There has only been one person in my life that’s ever given me a black eye; in fact he’s given me two black eyes! Then again on the flip side I’m probably the only person that’s ever taken out one of his front teeth with a steel toed boot.  Yes, this person is no other than my one and only, nearest and dearest, family, kin and blood… my younger brother Jon.  I think a lot of our spite for each other while growing up came from our parents.  Our roles toward our parents were a little reversed.  I was more of a daddy’s girl; I liked hanging out with dad on the farm, riding in the tractors and fixing things.  My brother on the other hand was more of a momma’s boy; he spent a lot more time with mom inside the house, and helping her. Further more Jon was the baby in the family and mom treated him as such showing favoritism, or at least I defiantly felt she did.  It would make me so mad, no matter what happened between us, I was always the one in the wrong.

Mom and dad got divorced in 1998, I was 12 and Jon was 9 years old. I took it a lot harder than Jon did, my dad had a very bad anger problem and in all reality the whole divorce was mostly his fault. Mom, Jon and I moved into a different house, as much as I loved my dad I felt betrayed, abandoned, and angry at him for how much of a jerk he acted to cause us all to have to separate. Even though I was with my mom and brother, favoritism factor constantly made it feel like a two against one deal. This I think was our turning point in Jon’s and my relationship where it became an all out world war III against each other. I look back and I have no idea how my mom dealt with us, hitting, biting, kicking, scratching, pinching, you name it! My mom use to always tell us, “you only have one brother and one sister you two should love and care about each other,” The only thing we cared about was what next despicable action we could do to each other.

As Jon continued into his high school years and I graduated our fighting started to decrease. I had grown more of a bond with my mom and a protective older sister attitude towards my brother, even though he wasn’t having it. My brother was 19 during the fall time of 2007 when he decided to sign up for the Marine Corps, without telling anyone.  When he came home and decided to disclose his kept secret information to my mom and I she burst into uncontrollable tears, all I could think to myself was, “what a selfish, ungrateful little prick to do this to mom”. My mom had made my brother and I her life after the divorce and now he just takes off.

That January at age19 and green behind the ears, Jon took off for Camp Pendleton in San Diego California for boot camp. At the end of his 7 week boot camp mom and I flew down to California to watch graduation, and another time to visit him down in North Carolina when stationed at Camp Jejune. Each time I noticed not only physical changes in Jon but also mental.  North Carolina was the last time I seen Jon for almost two years.  I ended up moving out to Wyoming and Jon got stationed in Iraq for almost a year. The next time I saw my brother wasn’t until October 2009 when I came home for a visit.  Where a once 19 year old adolescent stood, an intelligent, strong, respectable man had replaced him. I think my moms words of advice, “you only have one brother and one sister you two should love and care about each other.” Finally hit both of us and really took effect during our time of separation.

A lot has changed between Jon and I since our younger years. Instead of being my nemeses he’s now my best friend. When he’s home we do just about everything together, hunting, hang out, and have the same friends together; I look out for him and he looks out for me. In fact just recently I was with him and his girlfriend and she had mentioned how she wished her and brother had as good as a relationship as we do. Jon and I just looked at each other and smiled.

An Apple a Day is Not Enough - A Poem by Taylor Mali

Blog # 7- Research findings...

I did my research paper on the importance of health education in our school systems.  Many school have had to cut programs of health education such as PE.  Doing this has caused a problem for our youth, its quite evident from how many health problems our society is experiencing. Providing young people with the knowledge and skills they need to become successful learners and healthy and productive adults should be part of the schools health education curriculum.

Such problems as alcohol and drug use, emotional and mental health, HIV prevention, teen pregnancy, obesity, physical activity and fitness, Nutrition and dietary behaviors, injury prevention and safety, STD prevention, heart health, violence prevention, food borne illness prevention, tobacco use, and suicide prevention;  the list can go on and on.

Recent studies show that 1 in 5 high school students are current smokers, approximately 80 % of students do not eat the recommended 5 servings of vegetables and fruit per day.

More than 830,000 youth become pregnant each year, with such TV shows as 16 and pregnant gives teenagers the idea that having kids at such a young age is glamorous. Approximately 15 million school days are missed because of illness.  Overweight and obesity is a crisis among children.  The number of overweight children age 6- 11 has tripled over the past three decades, which should be no big surprise with more emphasis on TV. computers, and video games instead of actual physical activity.

If you look at the adults of today only 18% of American adults follow all three of the most important cardiovascular disease prevention measures; not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and exercising regularly. Approximately two thirds of the U. S adults population is now estimated to be overweight or obese.  The estimated annual direct medical spending from overweight and obesity is approximately $92 billion.

Obesity also is a major contributor to heart disease, arthritis, and some types of cancer.  Annual deaths associated with obesity are estimated to be between 100,000 and 300,000 in the U.S. By investing in our youth its like investing money back into the bank.  Its easier and less costly to keep children healthy and implement them with tools to be health adults then  to fix preventable health problems later in life.

The potential for school health education to improve health and save lives is significant.  If we as a nation want to keep children and adolescents healthy it is important to find better ways to provide quality school health education.

Blog #6- Black friday!! Ahhhhhh

One of my most hated days Black Friday!!! Why you ask?? Its not that I don't like shopping, or the holidays its because of the crazy people out shopping.  If you didn't happen to view the video and see how serious these crazed shoppers take black Friday, you should really check it out! Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the U.S traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Especially popular in the United States, the event is spreading to other nations such as Canada. On this day, many retailers open very early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Some people even camp out in front of stores in order to get the, 'first come first serve' deals. Black Friday is not actually a holiday, but many employers give their employees the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black.

Personally I'd rather just have the day off of work to stay home and stay away from the ridiculous people out on black Friday.  Who knows what one of those desperate, black Friday shoppers will do to get a PS3 or some lap top.... I think I'll just take my chances and go shopping AFTER black Friday!

Blog #5-Alaska home bound

I love to travel always have, when I was younger I always told my mom that I wanted to move down South I love hot weather.  First it was Florida, then it was Texas for a long time.  In a turn of events I ended up going the totally opposite way and moved out west to Wyoming.  After spending three years there I came back home to finish off my degree in Michigan, but I know once thats done i'll be once again back on the road looking for my next destionation to move to.  I've now turned my sights to the wonderous lands of Alaska, lot of people think Alaskas beautiful and a great place to visit for the hunting or to sight seeing but wouldn't really want to live there.  Me on the other hand, I love the thrill of adventure, and the since of doing something that most people don't want to. 

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area over twice the size of Texas the next largest state.  It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Artic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Straits. Approximately half of Alaska's 698,473 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. As of 2009, Alaska remains the least densely populated state of the U.S. Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U.S. states combined.  approximately 65% of Alaska is owned and managed by the U.S federal government  as public lands, including a multitude of nation forests, national parks, and nation wildlife refuges. Of these, the Bureau of Land Management  manages 87 million acres (350,000 km²), or 23.8% of the state.

The Artic National Wildlife Refuge  is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife. It is the world's largest wildlife refuge, comprising 16 million acres   The climate of the interior of Alaska is subarctic. Some of the highest and lowest temperatures in Alaska occur around the area near Fairbanks.

The summers may have temperatures reaching into the 90s°F while in the winter, the temperature can fall below −60 °F, The lowest official Alaska temperature is −80 °. Snow is sparse in the Interior of Alaska, often less than 10 inches but what snow falls in the winter tends to stay the entire winter.

 

I find Alaskas history very intreguing begining in 1867 with the United States Secretary of State negotiated the Alaska Purchase with Russian.  It wasn't until 1890 that Alaska shined during the gold rush it brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted official territorial status in 1912. At this time the capital was moved to Juneau. The 1968 discovery of oil led to an oil boom and in 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

In addition, American Indians and Alaskan Natives or Esquimos are the largest minority group.  This makes for a great vibrant Native culture that is promoted and upheld by the locals.  The oil and gas industry dominates the Alaskan economy, with more than 80% of the state's revenues derived from petroleum extraction. Alaska's main export product besides oil and natural gas is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, Pollock and crab

 

My favorite part of Alaska is the unique hunting and fishing opportunities its provides.  Alaska offers some of the most spectacular fly-fishing, saltwater fishing, freshwater fishing and even ice fishing in the world.  Varity of grizzly bear and black bear, moose, caribou, sheep, wolf, deer, and elk brings in a good part of revenue for Alaska for hunting.  As for me going into the health field I think it would be amazing to work there because with such extreme conditions, and the vast amount of wildlife the types of problems you would come across in a hospital setting would be nothing similar to what would occur anywhere else.  It would make my job unique and it would never get old because it would have that "today is never going to be the same as tomorrow" feeling.     

 If you have more questions about Alaska or just want to see some great pictures and what it has to offer visit the states web site

Travel Alaska

First Look: Sarah Palin's Alaska*