Proud Americans

                New Lenox, Illinois the village of Proud Americans. Proud Americans of a population of 24,286 people. The area was settled in the late 1820’s but officially the town on October 4, 1946. I have lived in the area now for fourteen long years.  I never knew before New Lenox was known as VanHorne point.

 When I first moved here it was when I was seven years old. I did not move far. I came from the town over Mokena. Before this paper I did not know what new Lenox was known for.  Nor did I even think of looking it up. To be honest with you it kind of a bad thing that I don’t know what the village’s slogan is. I work for the Fire district I should know these things.

About two years ago one of our own firefighters had a statue of a fallen firefighter made up to show the town how proud we are of the ones who take their lives for us every day so that we are protected. The town is very fond of the district. Especially the elderly citizens in the town. We try to give back to the people as much as we can to show them how proud we are to serve them in their time of need.  The district shows the soldiers that we are grateful of them when they come home from serving over in Iraq. We pair up with the police to meet up with the car that they come in to town in. Usually, they meet at the Kmart here on the outer part of the area. From there the police and the fire district will give the men or women who have served an escort home.  Both groups will have their lights on for the honorable server. We are a proud village of the Americans who live in the village of New Lenox.

See What Happens

“You cant get me. You cant get me.” It was when I was about 10 years old on a
hot summer day with the sun shining. Playing with all my sisters at my grandma’s house
in Frankfort. The house was on a small little excluded covasack. Where in the 60’s it was
the location to live in because its near all the shopping stores.
I was not the best bike rider as it was but I wanted to ride the big purple two
wheeler. My sister Katie who is 3 years older then me was making trouble with my other
sister Stephanie calling her names and making fun of her when I was riding in circles
around the grassed turn around with a tall tree in the center of the covasack. Me being ten
I didn’t think much of the names she was calling my sisters that was also playing with
us. I just remember laughing my head off at what she was saying to her. She was yelling
something like “you’re a chicken butt”. Stephanie’s face got red with anger towards what
Katie was saying to her. Katie knew she was getting on Stephanie’s last nerve but she
kept on debating her.
Katie decided to pick up these huge misshaped rocks and through them at my
tires as I was riding pass her screaming “you cant get me”. She hit my tire at just the right
angle because I went down fast and hard. Scraping up my leg and the whole left side of
my body, While I was screaming bloody murder my sisters went into a panic and did not
know what to do. My sister Stephanie came to a state of clarity. As Steph shot off
running to get my grandmother from inside the house where she was making dinner.
Stephanie also saw this as a perfect opportunity to get Katie in trouble for making fun of
her. My left leg was pinned under the bike all cut up and my pant leg was torn open.
When my grandma saw me up the street on the rocky asphalt she started running as fast as
her little legs would let her. She pulled me off the ground and held me tightly because I could not stand on my own. My leg was gushing blood and the unbearable pain shot
through my body like a bolt of lighting. She led me back to her house and applied the
stinging medication on my leg that every child dreads. Although the medication was
suppose to help heal my scrapes and cuts, at the time it felt like it was just making the
whole situation that much worse. I was crying my little eyes out, it hurt so incredibly bad
and the pain would not subside.
Everyone knew I was my grandma’s little angel and we did everything together,
so we all knew that Katie was in for a major punishment. My Grandma put my sister in
time out and then made her call my mom and tell my mom what she did. Part of me felt
bad and then when I felt the pain shoot through my body I felt she got what she deserved.
Lets just say my mother was not that happy the next day when she saw my scraped up
body. I did learn one thing I will never provoke my older sisters ever again.

Bon Appetit

   Dyson! What the heck are you doing up there?
It was the night of Christmas eve about two years ago. My Family and I had walked in from the blistering cold. Usually both of our dogs come running at us like a hard of elephants. They bark at you at the top of their lungs until you take off your jackets. Then they expect you to pet them since they are stepping all over your feet like it’s the first time they seen you in like two years. This cold dark night in particular they did not for some crazy reason.
    All eight of us walked in from the garage to see no dogs in sight. We were yelling “Koby Dyson“. Nothing! Now Dyson is my youngest sister Lauren’s dog. She got him when she turned fourteen from Katie, my out going party-girl sister. Katie decided to take it upon herself to get the dog without my parent’s permission. So you know how well that went over. Now our eldest dog Kolby is fourteen. He has been with us since we moved into our home in New Lenox. He is considered to be the families dog. He is an extraordinary black lab. Just some of the things he does is crazy. Like the time when we went away on vacation and my “UNCLE” was suppose to be watching him but instead he was sleeping. So Kolby decided to roam the neighborhood and visit with our neighbors. Some dog watcher my uncle is.
    Now that Christmas Eve night when we came home Kolby was in the basement sleeping away like a baby. In all honesty he is not the best watch dog. Anyone could come in our home he will bark at you, but that’s about it. Dyson on the other hand is a loud mouth . That little beast is a loud-ass dog that never shuts up. Lauren went walking around the whole house looking for him. No where! At this time she is in a panic cause she cant find her baby. The last room she walks into was our dining room. Lo walks in to find Dyson on top of our table shaking his little tail off cause he is so scared. He went on the table to enter Desert heaven. He was on the table eating all the Christmas cookies and my mom’s candies from Fannie May . This dog is nuts! Its takes us weeks to eat that stuff and it took him an eight-hour span. Now I should point out that Dyson is a doxson so he weights only around forty-five pounds. We were shocked to find him laying up there like he was about to burst. He must of eaten more then half of the food that was sitting up on the table. My sister was amazed to find him not plopped over on his side. He was up on all fours looking so innocent to have some help him get down. He also knew he was in trouble now. Some how he got up but could not get back down. You would never think a dog was afraid of heights. Well meet Dyson! Since he ate most of the cookies and cupcakes. When our family came over on Christmas of coarse we didn’t mention to them they were eating Dyson’s left over’s that he left for them. Instead we all sat back and left the guest eat the deserts with smiles on our faces.

Destroyed

            Being always in my car on the go I seem to always have the chance to hear a lot  of talented  artist playing their great songs on the radio.  Flipping through channels looking for that one song to listen to.  I seem to come across this one song I cannot stand in particular. Every time I hear the song “The Time” by Black Eyed Peas I have to shut it off I cannot handle the way that they re-did the older version of it.

            Knowing what attracts older teens that are about eighteen. This would be the perfect video for them to see. It persuades you to go out. Go out and have that good time with your friends. Also, it shows you what is in store for the younger kids when they get to be the age to party and have late nights out with friends instead of a ten o’clock curfew. Like I am sure they have now. This video is not my favorite at all.  Really the video is to computer directed. They have so much activity going on in the song in how they switch their voices and just the way the video is laid out. I mean you got their heads turning into a scene and looks the reception is going out. The next minute you have abstract lines in the video that switches you over to cartoons. This way of the song gives me a whole different direction of the meaning then when I first had the chance to listen to it in the movie “Dirty Dancing”.  I just feel that the older version meant more then what they feel that it meant.

I have to say they should have never touched the original song that Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes had recorded. That version of the song was a hundred times better. To me it has more of a meaning then to party and show what you can do with a computer. Sorry, but Black Eyed Peas in my own opinion really butchered the heck out of the song that made “Dirty Dancing a hit. 

Define It...

Smile until every person you pass cannot help but to smile too. In the past people had a dull way of defining emotion. They saw emotion as a joyous reaction to different activities in life.  This is not what I feel happiness is anymore. Happiness is a lot more than just your regular statement. Happiness expresses who you are and what you feel.

Think of a time when your face was beaming bright like a car’s headlight with so much happiness. I can think of one in particular.  On a Friday night last year it was snowing pretty hard outside when we stepped out from our dinner. Hardly breathing anymore my sister slide on the blacktop. Landing on her butt she could not stop laughing.  Contributing to Melissa’s fall was her fast reaction to a snowball that was thrown at her by her boyfriend. When she got struck she turned her body to fast forcing her to slip on ice.

Happiness can be an emotion that you feel with someone. For an example your husband, wife, boyfriend, and or girlfriend. We all have a reason why we are with who we are.  My personal life I will share this. I have been with my boyfriend now for almost two years and I could not be happier. Happiness with another person to me is when they can make you smile cheek to cheek. They know what to say to make your sad mood turn into the best mood you could ever dream of having. At this point in my life my relationship is over a phone call instead of a face to face conversation. So when I do see Mike I try not to get aggravated with him or others with pointless things. When I do Mike is always there to be my back up man to get in my face and calm me down. He does this by telling me that I can’t keep a straight face. It’s true I can’t keep a straight face and I cannot stay mad with him very long and sadly he knows that. He makes my emotions change from mad to happy. He tries to act like a sergeant but really he is just a big goof ball.

Happiness is when you are proud of what you have accomplished. Stephanie who is my older sister for that last four years worked her butt off to get her Bachelor’s degree in Social work. This year she will have one of the happiest days of her life. Her day of Graduation. Stephanie is exhausted from all the papers, test, and packets but is so happy she did the work. She has told me its worth.  She has received two opportunities already to work with companies that specialize in her field. These recognitions from the different companies have made her so happy to know that her dream to help others will come true. Happiness will never go back to that dull definition again. Happiness is who individuals are.