Table of Contents Dear Reader Introduction to Fun, Lost and Broken Fun, Lost and Broken Introduction to Denise’s House Denise’s House Introduction to I Was Nervous I Was Nervous Introduction to First Time Doing Something First Time Doing Something

Dear Reader

Hello, my name is Mandy Ensign and I have been married to my wonderful husband Gary for ten years now. We have no children, so we have a lot of time to play. We both have our own motorcycles and love to go on long rides together. We also have a dirt bike and a four wheeler and we love to go to Bel-Fair, an off road riding park. I have had my share of broken bones on my four wheeler, but I always get back on and ride. I’m also an animal lover. I have two Pomeranians, the male is Sunnie Boyz and the female is Pennie Lane. I also have one cat named Summer. I love to spoil them with toys and treats from the pet store. I also spend a lot of time with my dogs down at our private beach that our neighborhood has access to. They absolutely love the park, especially in the summertime because they like to swim with me. I also love having my family over a lot. My mother and step father live in Bonney Lake Washington and my sisters live in Bellingham Washington. My house is the halfway point between the two, so we have a lot of family get togethers at my house. I have a big 4th of July party every year. We all go to the Indian reservation and get fireworks to blow off at night. This activity has turned into an annual family gathering that means the world to me. They also come over for Thanksgiving every year so that is another family gathering that I enjoy. As you can see I’m very close with my family and believe that they give me a lot of happiness.

I have decided to go back to college and pursue my Medical Assistant degree. I was the Pre-Press Manager at a well known fishing and hunting magazine. A Pre-Press Manager is in charge of outputting of all metal printing plates for the printing press. It was my dream job, but the owner died and the company closed down. There are no jobs out there in my field of work, so I decided to get a medical degree. My twenty year high school reunion is coming up and I never thought I would be in college at that time. I’m enjoying being in college. I have learned a lot from my peers and teachers this quarter. I have learned that just because your pushing forty years old doesn’t mean you can’t go back to school and get a better education. I was really anxious when I first started classes, but when I finally started I realized that every one else is anxious and intimidated like I was.

When I started college, I took the asset test and had no idea how to fix an essay. But now that I’m taking English 97 I have learned a lot on how to be a better writer. I can now say that I can fix an essay because I can identify sentence fragments and comma errors. I never thought I was a good writer but taking this course gave me more confidence to write a paper now, and how to fix all my mistakes. It has made me into a more conscious writer as well. Out of all the papers that I wrote this quarter, I enjoyed the descriptive paper out of them all. I enjoyed trying to explained to the reader what they where seeing, with sensory details and coherent sentences. It makes me feel a lot better about myself knowing that I can write a paper now and not be intimidated.

I have chosen four pieces that I wrote throughout the quarter. "Fun, Lost and Broken" is a narrative that I did about dirt riding. "Denise’s House" is a descriptive essay about my eccentric neighbor and friend Denise. A journal that I wrote in the beginning of the quarter named "I Was Nervous," which I thought had good showing and descriptive sentences. The last piece I am sharing with you is "The First Time Doing Something." This piece describes how I went about getting my motorcycle endorsement. So I hope you enjoy these pieces that I have chosen for you to read. I thoroughly enjoyed writing them for you.

Introduction to Fun, Lost and Broken

The first paper I am going to share with you in my e-portfolio will be “Fun, Lost, and Broken.” This is my second MWA of the quarter, which is a narrative essay that I wrote during the third week of my English 97 class. In this essay I had to combine the skills I learned from our first essay “The Descriptive Paragraph,” with this essay I am sharing with you. I had to visually describe the environment with sensory details, and strong descriptive paragraphs. For example, I described how the environment was around dirt bikes, “As I was getting my gear on, there were other riders ripping up the track, which we were parked next to. They were sending clouds of dust every where, and they were coating the vehicles in the parking lot.” After I wrote this essay I realized that I could actually write a good and engaging story for my readers.

Fun, Lost and Broken

On September 14, 2004 I flipped my four wheeler, got lost and broke my wrist all in one fun-filled day. It started out like any other day of riding. My husband Gary and I were really excited when we arrived at Bel-Fair, an off road riding park in Bremerton. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was grateful it wasn’t raining. I hated riding in the rain. Rain makes the trails muddy and sloppy. As I was getting my gear on, there were other riders ripping up the track, which we were parked next to. They were sending clouds of dust every where and they were coating the vehicles parked in the parking lot. Their two stroke dirt bikes were so loud; I wished I had worn ear plugs. But the sound of them was making me even more excited.

When we finally hit the trails, nothing much happened, just Gary and I riding around the trails. Gary was on a dirt bike, so he decided to go of down another trail that my four wheeler couldn’t get down. So I decided to stay back and ride around this big mud puddle that was made by all the 4x4 trucks and Jeeps that shared the park with us. The mud puddle was so big and deep in the middle that no four wheelers could cross it. There were other riders who I didn’t know going through the shallow side of the mud puddle and I wanted to show off for them. So I decided to go through the side of the puddle and race up a steep hill next to the puddle. As I raced up the hill, a 4x4 Jeep started coming down the hill at me. I applied my front brake, but the four wheeler started to roll backwards. I tried not to panic and jumped off the four wheeler. After I jumped off, I tried using the back break, but the four wheeler was moving really fast. I lost control of the four wheeler, so I had to let it go. It proceeded to hit me in the thigh and left a huge bruise. Then it hit a tree stump and flipped over four times down the hill. There were three guys at the bottom of the hill watching this who ended up catching my four wheeler. I think subconsciously I was showing off for them and that is why I did something so stupid. I went down the hill to them and took a look at my four wheeler. I was sure I bent the handle bars or tweaked a rim, but the only thing wrong with it was a couple scrapes on the head light and fender. I looked around for Gary, but he was gone. When I got back to the truck, Gary was waiting for me there.

“Did you see what happened?” I asked.
“Yes I did,” Gary replied. “I was going to help you, but you looked alright.”
“Oh well, thanks a lot,” I said.
“Can you ride anymore, or are you done for the day?” Gary asked.
“No way,” I said. “I still want to ride.”

So for a couple more hours we rode the trails with no problems. Gary, whose bike is faster on the trails, got ahead of me and I lost him. I tried not to get upset at him for leaving me so far behind because he tends to daydream when he is riding. As I came around the corner trying to find Gary, there was a big root in the middle of the trail. I was so tired by then from the full day of riding I wasn’t being careful. So I hit the root really hard with my four wheeler and the handlebars snapped back, which sent excruciating pain up my wrist. I wondered then if I broke it, but I was so upset from losing Gary and being lost that I didn’t worry about it. I rode up and down the dirt path waiting for Gary to show up and I was getting more and more upset as time went by. I almost contemplated going on the main road to find my way back to the truck, but Gary finally showed back up a half hour later. He thought I was behind him the whole time until he finally realized I wasn’t. We decided that our day of riding was over, so we packed our bikes up and went home. The next day I couldn’t move my wrist and I knew I had broken it. Gary ended up taking me to the doctor’s office for x-rays. I was put in a cast for a month to see if it would heal without surgery, but it got worse. So the doctor went and got the surgeon to speak to me. That’s when I knew I was going to have to have surgery for the first time in my life. The surgeon came into the room and asked me how I broke it.

“Well doc, I broke it riding my four wheeler.” I said, “Who knew you could have fun, get lost and break your wrist, all in one day.”

I had surgery a month later and was back on my four wheeler four months later. Getting lost and breaking my wrist still didn’t stop me from having a fun-filled day riding my four wheeler.

Introduction to Denise's House

The second piece to my e-portfolio I am going to include is “Denise’s House.” This essay is actually my very first MWA assignment during my second week of class. In this essay we had to show not tell the reader the environment, so they could picture it in there mind. Example of show not tell in my piece would be “The floor in the living room once had a rug, but it was removed sometime ago. The staples from the old rug are still in the floor ready to tear your toenails off if you walk barefoot.” I picked this piece because it is one of my favorite pieces of the quarter. I enjoyed learning how to use sensory details and descriptive paragraphs. I believe it made my writing richer and more interesting for the reader. I hope my descriptive writing grabs at your senses, as it did mine.

Denise's House

My neighbor Denise is not a good housekeeper. Every time I go outside, she is on her back deck smoking a cigarette. Walking over to her front porch, you see a layer of cigarette butts lining her walkway. As you walk into her foyer, you are greeted with the terrible odor of garbage and dog urine. The carpet on the steps leading into the living room is stained with dried mud. Entering the living room is even scarier; you’re greeted with tons of clothes thrown haphazardly everywhere. On her stereo next to the couch are cd’s just scattered like gravel on a road. Next to her stereo are bags and bags of art supplies heaped on the couch. The floor in the living room once had a rug, but it had since been removed. The staples from the old rug are still in the floor, and ready to tear your toenails off if you walk barefoot. On her living room wall is some of her artwork that she had hung, but it is so dusty you could not tell what it is. Next to the wall is a dead dried up house plant that looked like it hasn’t seen a watering can in years. In the middle of the room there are flies flying around like little hungry pests waiting to eat her leftover food on her coffee table. To the right of the living room is the dining room, which is a complete disaster area. Boxes and boxes are piled up like a warehouse, with more art supplies, papers, and old make-up all dried up like a desert floor. On the sliding window beside the dining room table is a smear of dog saliva, dripping down the front from her dog Booshekie. Next to the dining room is the kitchen. There are dirty dishes piled in the sink with food caked on them still waiting to be washed. What once was a piece of pizza is still in the toaster oven long forgotten. Besides the toaster oven is her stove, which has spilled food on it that looks like hamburger. The refrigerator has dents and splashes of food and some sort of liquid down the front of it. Down the hallway to her bedroom are mismatched shoes with more dried mud on them. As I trip down the hall on her shoes, I come to her bedroom. When I look into her bedroom, I am shocked. You cannot enter the room as it is stacked from ceiling to floor with more black garbage bags full of clothes. That’s when I came to the realization that my friend and neighbor is not a good housekeeper.

Introduction to I Was Nervous

The third piece I am going to include in my e-portfolio is a journal entry that we did during the second week of class. In this journal we had to use our knowledge of a descriptive paragraph to show the reader how nervous we were without saying it. After I wrote this journal and re-read it, I realized that descriptive writing was my favorite writing. Here is one example of my strong descriptive skills, “By the time we got to the bank for the delivery, I was sweating like a professional basketball player.” I hope you will enjoy being nervous!