Sports have always played a huge role in my life. I was not your average little kid that watched Disney movies and played with toys and stuffed animals and what not. I grew up watching sports center ever since I was born pretty much. I have always had a huge passion in life for sports and to watch them. Ever since I was 4 years old I have played baseball, basketball, and golf. The sport that I succeeded in the most was baseball and basketball. Unfortunately, I had a bad injury to my ankle that cost me my basketball career, but I was able to keep my baseball career going and succeeded in that. My best memory of baseball was in high school when we got to play at Principal Park where the Iowa Cubs play. That was also one of my greatest games because I went 2-3 and had 3 RBI's. Golf has been my weakest but I am not terrible at it, I just love to play it for fun.

U.S. combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan last month dropped to the lowest combined level since the United States began fighting the the two wars more than five years ago. Only 11 American service members died in combat in the month of November, which is really awesome that it is that low. That is way better than the alternative which is a high death number like back in November of 2004 where the death number was 129. The numbers have been significantly lower since 2003. I think that is a great thing because we need to continue to have those record low number of deaths and then we need to get out of there. Hopefully something will be done about it because the violence in Afghanistan has picked up over the past year and have requested an additional 20,000 troops.

Gas prices are something else these days. They have been up and down drastically the past couple of years and right now the prices are really really cheap compared to what they were. I know that has really irritated me because I am 18 so I have been driving for a solid two years now and I can tell you that when I first started driving the prices were not terrible yet I think the price was around $2 a gallon. It has been as the years progressed because the prices have not been going down they have either stayed the same or they have gone way up and I have always had to pay for my own gas because my parents never paid it for me. Then this past summer prices just got way ridiculas jumping up to about $4 a gallon, and here I am still paying for my own gas and also trying to save some for college, but that did not really work out that well considering it cost about 50-60 bucks every time I would fill up. Then of course college rolls around I leave Des Moines and I do not bring a car to college and would you know that prices drop drastically and they have not been this cheap in forever it seems like. It is only fitting that happens.

We are coming into that wonderful time of year where there are several sports going on at once and it gets crazy. We have college football in the prime of the season right now, we have college basketball just starting up, we have pro football winding down with only four weeks to go, and we have pro basketball starting up as well. (but no one cares about pro basketball, because it is a joke anyways) We also have that lovely time of the year coming up called Christmas, and with that comes a nice long break from school. Christmas is a time of year of celebrating spending time with your family, and being thankful for everything that you have and counting your blessings. Christmas is also a time of giving, I know I love to give people gifts and whatnot and even sometimes go way overboard but I really enjoy giving and making a difference for people who are less fortunate and need it more than we do. I love the nice warm feeling that Christmas brings and the joy it brings as well.

Thanksgiving break is right around the corner, and I am really excited for it. We have tradition that every year we get together with a bunch of family and just relax and eat a lot and then sleep. Usually we go to Dubuque, Iowa which is a small town in northeastern Iowa where pretty much all of my relatives are from. We usually have it at my grandmas house, but ever since my grandpa passed away we really haven't had many thanksgivings there. We recently moved my grandma down to a nursing home in Des Moines, and that has been a great move because she doesn't have anyone that lives in Dubuque where she is from, and in Des Moines she has my dad and my aunt so it has been great. The thing I like most about Thanksgiving break is it's about spending time with your family and being thankful for what you have, and you get to see family that you have not seen in a long time so that is great.

New Intro

This past summer was the most amazing summer I have had in my entire life. I had the best job I could possibly ask for. It was the last summer hanging out with my "core" group of friends before we all went our seperate ways in college. It was mid summer and we all took a trip to one of our friends lakehouse in Michigan. It was probably one of the funnest trips I have taken in my life, I don't know if it was because we were all going seperate ways or what not but it was awesome. It by far was one of the best weeks of my life and I wouldnt trade that for anything in the world. In my eyes I was living the ultimate life of an 18 year old.

Old Intro

There was a point in my life in which everything seemed to be going right, and nothing was going wrong. That time was this past summer. This past summer everything was perfect and I mean everything. I had the best friends I could possibly ask for, the best job I could possibly ask for which included working with one of my really good friends. At our job we pretty much got to choose which hours we wanted to work and got paid well for it. I would hang out with my friends mostly every night and just do whatever we wanted to. I was pretty much living the ultimate life of an 18 year old.