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Show Us a Smile 2 Brickfish

Winterfest!

This past weekend was alot of fun. My roommate from school spent the weekend with my family and me at my house. On Friday night, we all went to the Winterfest in my town. It is a big deal in Elsinore, they close down Main Street and there are venders, live enetertainment, food, real snow to play in, and much more. While we were there we walked around the stores and my little sister played in the snow. We also made these goofy hats out of paper bags. The next day we showed my friend around Lake Elsinore, since she had never been there before. It was fun, and I never realized how much stuff there is to actually do and see in Elsinore. Then that night my family, my roommate, my boyfriend, and me all went to go see Four Christmases. It was a good movie, really funny! On Sunday, we just hungout at the house and studied for our finals. I had a good weekend, I cant wait till Christams break.

Christmas Break

This week is finals, I am pretty stressed, but there is an upside to this stress. I have been studying, and hopefully I do good on my finals and get good grades, also at the end of the week it will be Christmas break. Christmas is my favorite time of year. Christmas is when I get to spend alot of time with my family. We really get into the Christmas spirit at my house. My mom already decorated the entire house inside and out with Christmas stuff, she started the day after Thanksgiving. Even though not that many people come to our house for Christmas, we normally go to other people's houses for the holidays, she still decorates, she says she does it for me and my little sister. I really appreciate all the time she puts into decorating, I always invite friends over during this holiday because my house looks so pretty. Like this past weekend, my roomie from school came home with me to meet my family and she was taking pictures of my house to show her family because she said it looked so nice, I thought it was kinda funny. My mom and I, also bake really good food during Christmas for people in my family, like cookies, pies, and breads. This break should be alot of fun also because I get to spend one week with just my parents alone, because I get out of school a week before my little sister. Some people might think that its weird that I like spending time with my parents, but I dont, they are really great and I love them both alot. My mom already has the week planned out with everything were going to do, like shopping and baking, Im really excited. Over break I am going to go snowboarding, I really want to take my little sister,she is really good and a few of my friends because this will be the first year I can drive myself up to the mountains to go snowboard. Not this weekend, but the next weekend coming up, my family and my grandparents are going to go the Festival of Lights in Riverside, it is supposed to be really fun, and there is ice skating there too, which I love. Over break I also get to see my little nephew, he is growing up so fast, this will be his first Christmas where he can actually open his presents on his own. I also am going to get to see all my friends that live back in Elsinore, we already have stuff planned out to do. Over break it will be not only Christmas, but New Years. I normally go to a family party on New Years during the evening then that night I go hangout with my friends, it should be fun. This year went by so fast and I have experienced so many new things, I cant wait to see what next year will bring. I cant wait for this break to be here, I really want to go back home and get out of this dorm room!

Anything is Possible(written in 2000)

So I found this old paper I wrote, for a contest, I recieved first place for it at my elementary school in the year 2000! I really lked it, so I thought I would put it on here:

Anything is Possible

We have mapped the globe,

We have mapped the stars,

We have built huge cities,

We have built cars, toys, and telephones,

We have radios and electricity,

We have satelite dishes and nintendo 64 games,

We have nice homes and computers,

We have swimming pools and air conditioning for cars and homes,

Some people even have solar powered cars,

We have a Statue of Liberty and an Empire State Building.

But some of us do not even have houses yet,

Some of us do not have toilets, running water, and electricity yet,

Children are still killed while walking in a cross walk to school,

Children are shot in class rooms,

Some of us today do not have enough food to eat,

There are still wars, overpopulation, racial discrimination, droughts, pollution, and violence.

Anything is Possible

I think maybe we should stop and think about some of these things before others and try to fix them.

By Tarah Murphy

Age 10

2000

Reflections Contest

Thanksgiving!

So this past Sunday I went to my Nana's house (my grandma). Pretty much all my family on my mom's side was there, to celebrate Thanksgiving and eat dinner. I had one set of great-grandparents there, two sets of grandparents, two sets of aunts and uncles, my brother and his girlfriend, my nephew, my sister, my cousins, and family friends there. It was nice to see my family and spend time with them. I took so many pictures, especially of my little nephew. He is the cutest baby ever, he is only 16 months old!! The food was the best part though, I ate so much, mainly turkey, it was so good! My Nana also bought me and my uncle chocolate pie for just us to eat, because we dont like any other pie. But my little cousins and sister decided they were going to eat it, too. By the time I went back for seconds it was already gone. I was kinda mad, but my mom promised she would make me, my own chocolate pie for Thanksgiving on Thursday! It was also fun watching football with my uncles, brother and grandpas. They all like different teams and its funny to watch them get excited and mad about their team. I had a great time with my family on Sunday. I cant wait till this Thursday, my mom is baking a turkey and plenty of other food and I will spend Thanksgiving day with my her, my little sister, and dad. That night I am going to go to my boyfriends and I will probably eat more turkey, but its alright because I really like food, haha!

My Community

All of this talk about communtiy in class has gotten me thinking about my communtiy, and what we do to come together as a whole. My city of Lake Elsinore is very community oriented. Every year around the holidays we have parades, the town closes off Main Street and part of Lakeshore (which are both major streets in our town) and they have parades. All of the schools in the district are invited to take part in the parade and normally its the dance or cheer teams that are used to represent their schools. I go to the parades every year, they are alot of fun, especially when you get to perform in them. As a community we also have art walks and car shows every first Sunday of the month, where they shut down Main Street. I like going to the car shows and seeing all the old classics. Around Christmas, Main Street is also shut down and they bring in snow from Big Bear and the kids get to play in it. They have alot of booths, that sell stuff too, and the local highschool choirs perform. Every year right before Thanksgiving there is the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix is a very big deal and its been around for about twenty or so years. The Grand Prix is where the Elsinore Motorsports Track hosts races through the town. They have races for all dirtbike classes, even little kids can race. For the older racers they go on a course that goes through Main Street and around the town. It is really big in our town because we have a lot of dirtbikers, mainly because of the track. Another big thing is during the summer, the jet ski races they have on the lake, those are alot of fun to watch, especially at the end when the racers do tricks and show off. On the Fourth of July the city allows boats to go on the lake at night, for the annual boat show. People decorate their boats with lights and there is a contest for the best lit boat. My family has never done it, but my dad promised me, we would do it next year, because we just got our new boat. Another big thing in our town is the local baseball stadium, we have a minor league baseball team that plays there and alot of people attend the games. All the graduations for the local high schools are also held there. There are alot of small centers that try to bring together the community like the local library, it always has actiivties for young kids to teenagers that gives incentives to reading. For example, the library has a reading program for every season of the year, kids have to read a certain amount of books and if they do they get awards and certificates to local food places or toys. My little sister takes part in it and I have worked the past three summers for the reading program signing kids up and giving them their awards, its really neat to see the kids get excited when they get a sticker or toy for reading and their so excited to go back home and read more. We also have a boys and girls club, which gives kids a place to go after school to keep them out of trouble, and to help with homework. The community has soccer, football, basketball, baseball, and softball leagues. I have been apart of the soccer and softball leagues and they are a great place to meet new kids and be apart of a team. This year I coached a little kids soccer team and it was so much fun. For most of the kids on my team it was their first time playing and it was so hard, but fun. I think my town has a great community and alot of the people who live there have lived there their whole life, like me.

Dorm Life

Living in a dorm at CSUSB is a lot of fun. Especially if you have a fun roommate and you know alot of people! I live in the dorms and my roommate is the best! I bet we are the only roommates that hangout all the time together and do pretty much everything together. I am the one who drives so we always go to the store together and do our shopping together! There is a gym here on campus, so me and my roommate try and go everyday, and were already seeing a big difference in ourselves. Its good to have her go with me, because we motivate eachother and help eachother Next quarter were going to take a self defense class there, because we want to be able to defend ourselves in case something ever happens and plus it will be really fun. I also have a friend that goes here that went to my high school. We played on the varsity soccer team together. So here at school we joined the intermural soccer team and we might do the indoor soccer. The soccer is alot of fun and we've met alot of people. At the beginning of the quarter the dorms' R.A.s' had activities for everyone to do. While I was there I saw someone that I hadn't seen since I was in elementary school. We hangout alot now and he has introduced me to alot of people in his dorm. I think if I hadnt lived in the dorms I wouldnt have that many freinds here, and I wouldnt have been able to do alot of the activities. For example, tonight is open mic night in S.M.S.U. and it is going to be alot of fun, there are alot of good singers at our school and some that aren't that great, but they do it just to have fun. I am so glad that I got the oppurtunity to live in the dorms and to have such a great roommate!