Journal #3-#10

Journal#10 (15-2)

My health habits are fair I would say. I eat healthy for the most part, but that is mainly because I enjoy healthy food more. I am a busy person, so I stay pretty active. I take vitamins every morning and I do not smoke, drink, or do drugs. I do not practice in unsafe sex. I enjoy bodily upkeep like occasinaly getting a body massage and adjument, or getting my toes painted. I go to the doctor regularly for check ups. I plan to keep these health habits to live longer and healthier. I think trying to always eat healthy is hard. It is much easier sometimes to eat fast food, espcially if you are busier. I have many poor healthy habits, other than I should exercise more. Some of my family has high blood pressure related problems, but I inherited the low blood pressure side of my families genes.

Journal #9 (11-2)
Body image was a huge part of high school life. It basically set the standard. I never had a huge issue with body image personally though. Although my best friend struggled dramatically with it. She was always a "big-boned" girl and she had a tendancy to gain weight. She tried to balance it by being extremely active in sports, but when she got injured as a teen she had to stop most activity. That is when she really started having problems. She never even went on a date because most of our school years she was either taller or bigger than most boys. I was small and skinny so you can imagine the tension sometimes when we would want to go shopping or go to the beach. And if I ever complained about not finding a small enough size I would surely be in the dog house. I never really had boobs though, that was one thing I was always a little self conscious about. Most boys liked girls with big boobs. I dressed pretty normal. I had an average body, other than I was petite. I was always on the shorter side, but that never bothered me extremely. Some girls I knew took body image too far by barely eating, I called it strictly starving yourself. For the most part I could eat anything and not gain weight. Some girls I knew also had a boob job in high school. They felt extremely inadequate I guess. I never took any of my insecurities to that sort of extreme though. I grew up unpopular and I had become accustom to not being "the norm". I think the way I felt as a teen was a blessing. I never hated myself so I did not ever mutilate my body. I did not think too highly of myself so I did not sleep with every guy within a hundred mile radius. I was at a pretty good medium with self image and self concept. That is one thing I treasure most about my childhood.


Journal #8 (10-2)

In elementary school my social life was normal. I think kids that age are more accepting. I was always brought up a little stricter, so I did not always identify with book reading and tv shows. But it was not as severe in elementary. I never realised how sheltered my life had been until I reached middle school. My first recollection of middle school was in sixth grade seeing the girl sitting in front of me's thong sticking out of her pants. I almost had a heart attack because as far as I knew thongs were for permiscuous girls. Not even my mom would wear them. I played with lower status children for two reasons. One, I was not allowed to watch popular shows, listen to popular music, or wear popular clothes. Two, because I had bad acne as a young child. Children become less accepting the older they get. An unpopular child, in my generation, would be Lance. He was unpopular because he liked "weird" tv shows. He still played with action figures and video games in advanced middle school. He had an odd sounding voice and he blinked alot when he spoke. He seems a bit off, as far as developing socially. A popular child in my generation would be Melissa. She had a beautiful voice, and she was beautiful. She sang at every school and county event. She had no acne and she was an only child so she could get whatever she wanted from her parents. She was easy to talk to and she had lots of charisma, so even the teachers liked her.



Journal #7 (9-1)

The characteristics of my family absolutely helped shape the way I developed. My family was and is middle class. We never lived in poverty, we never lived in a trailer, we always had an actual house to live in. My family identified a normal white ethnic group. We don't practice an cultural traditions other than Christmas. My family is and has been very active in the Christian religion. We celebrate Christmas, Easter, and communion. We dont cook any ethnic foods beside southern dishes, if you consider that ethnic. My nanny cooks porkchops, pork roast, and venison. The fact that my family identified with Christianity affected my childhood greatly. I was not allowed to watch certain tv shows or listen to most music. My mom also decided what I was allowed to wear to school also. The family on my dad's side mostly went to college so they wanted me go to college and become a doctor of some sort. My mom's side never made it through college so they wanted me to at least finish college. They supported me through my goal of wanting to be involved in singing. I always loved singing and they supported me 100%. My nanny even got me a karoke machine with a microphone. I never had any trouble with school or with poor grades. I loved school and I was a good student. I plan to raise my children in a similar manner as my family rasied me, but I will be a little less strict as far as religiously.

Journal #6 (7-5)
When I was a preschooler I lived in a tiny white house with my mom, stepdad, and baby sister. I shared a bedroom with no one because my baby sister slept in my parents bed. My going to bed routine would be eat dinner, take a bath, brush you teeth, read a book, lights out. My favorite toy was a stuffed dog that had a velcrow stomach with three stuffed puppies inside. My favorite game to play was Candyland. My birthday party was held at the skating rink with all my friends. All my schoolmates were invited. I got mainly toys like barbie dolls and baby dolls. My Christmas holiday would consist of dinner with my dad's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family I live with, which is still a tradition today. My mother was a stay at home mom. I went to preschool at South Elementary. I only stayed with my Nanny, never a babysitter. I first wrote my name in preschool. I have a copy of it in my preschool folder my mom kept. My grandfather died when I was six. It was the first funeral I ever encountered. I was young enough to not be affected by it too much. My closest friend was Melissa Ritter. We always played house with the kitchen set in class. I was an extremely healthy child, other than occasional ear infections. I liked foods of all kinds. I have always had a colorful eating palette.
I was described as being very observant and curious. I wanted to understand things, so I asked alot of questions, especially when it came to animals. The earliest memory I have of preschool is being kicked up by a boy in my preschool class who was wearing hiking boots. He got in big trouble because I bled alot.

Journal #5
My first words were of course mom and nanny. They were the two most present people in my life at that time. My earliest memory is being pushed around by my dad on a barbie fourwheeler at Christmas one year, I was three or four. I loved to play patty cake. My Nanny played with me all the time. I loved animal books. Like national geographic children edition books with big pictures of different kinds of animals. I wanted to be a Vet when I grew uo for the longest time. I liked looking through adult national geographic books as well. My grandparents stimulated my intellectual growth by always letting me watch Sesame Street and by always helping me with school work. And by always buying me activity books to work on during long car trips. My IQ was never tested, but I was always a very smart child. I was only taught English.

Journal #4

I slept in my mothers bed until I was three or four, according to my mother. I took two naps during the day when I was a baby, one in mid morning and one in the evening. I slept through the night relatively early, about six months old. I was bottle fed, because breastfeeding was extremely painful for my mom. I was introduced cereal at around 6-8 months and gradually started larger foods. I was not allergic to any foods, only food coloring in certain medicines. I was average weight through my baby/toddler years. My mom says I advanced very young compared to other babies. I walked at about 10 months for the first time. She always joked saying that I learned to talk faster than any baby, I have a motor mouth she says. My favorite doll was a stuff animal shaped like the old puppet "Lamb Chop." I also loved a Cabage Patch doll that cried when you squeezed his hand but stopped when you kissed his forehead. I loved playing with dolls and dressing up. My aunt Jenny dressed nice and I tried to imitate her mostly.







Journal #3 Interviewing my mother again:
I woke up on my due date and my water broke that morning. Almost exactly 24 hours later you were born with no medication.
The delivery was in Pahokee Florida, and your Nanny and Aunt Tiny were in the delivery room with me.
The birth was quicker than I had anticipated. When I saw you for the first time, I was relieved firstly because you were born and secondly because you were finally in my arms. I was holding you immediately after you came out. I named you Kaylee after a named I liked from working in daycare. My experience in the hospital after you were born was long. You were born two days before Christmas so I was anxious to take you home. I took you home Christmas day in a stocking. The first few weeks of motherhood were tense because of lack of sleep. Also because I had no help because I was a single mother at the time. I had to cope with lack of sleep and social life, I mean I was twenty when I had you. That was somewhat the prime of my social experience.
A typical day during the first few days of your life would be wake up at 5am, feed you, burp you, change you, and clean up while you slept. Then as soon as I dozed off you would wake up ready to repeat this process. This would happen every two to three hours around the clock.