What’s Inside?Skittles vs. M&Ms

A Military Life for Me

Choir Announcements

And Much More!

To be a great writer one needs a vivid imagination and a gift with words. Maddy Mikinski,a senior at BLHS, has these qualities.As Mikinski grew up the career seemed to click when she noticed that she had a goodamount of exposure to English.“My grandpa was an avid writer and my great grandma wrote a children’s book. Also mymom is an English teacher.”Someday Mikinski would like to be the author of the next Great American Classic but shedoesn’t want to

choose a specific genre, because that would limit her and genres can runtogether in books.“Once I got really into reading I realized that there were books that I wanted to read butthey weren’t out there.”Maddy’s favorite books include Wuthering Heights and The Other Boleyn Girl. Herfavorite author is Flannery O’Connor. These are major influences in her writing style.“I feel like my favorite books set a benchmark in a way. I try to reach the level they’re at,whether it’s

character development or writing quality. At the same time I want to create my ownstyle and my favorite books help me do that. Oftentimes the books I choose are somethingdifferent than the usual- from perspective or tone or otherwise.”She has not wanted to be a writer for all her years, though.“I have wanted to be so many things. When I was little I wanted to be the President andan astronaut. In middle school I wanted to be a teacher or go into

By: Shelli BrannanMad About Writing

culinary sciences.”Although Mikinski has not always wanted to be a writer, she says that it is somethingshe can see herself excelling in while enjoying it. She loves telling stories and making peoplelaugh.After high school Mikinski plans to go to college at The University of Alabama, her toppick and major in print journalism and minor in creative writing.In her spare time Maddy enjoys playing music on her piano and reading.“Barnes & Nobles is

my favorite bookstore because the name is awesome, it just soundslike a place where Sherlock Holmes go drinking. It also has a huge selection; books, movies andsheet music. The people are always friendly. I would like to work there while in college.”

Several choir members and the choir director were honored with awards for various achievements last week.Cheyenne Morris auditioned and was chosen to sing in the High School Women’s Honor Choir at the American Choral Director’s National convention in Dallas in March of 2013. Congratulations to Cheyenne! BLHS freshmen Jasper Dare and Jillian Brower auditioned and were selected to sing in statewide honor choirs that will perform at the Kansas Music Educator’s Convention in Wichita in February. And finally, the following press release was published by the district office recently:

Way to go, Mrs. Bogard!!! Mrs. Wendi Bogard, BLMS and BLHS choir director, has been selected as the Kansas Music Educator’s NE District Music Teacher of the Year! To be considered for this award, the nominee must have been a teacher for at least ten years and be a member of the KMEA. In addition, the instructor’s program must have shown improvement and/or consistency over the ten years. Since Mrs. Bogard has been in Basehor, her music

program has grown from two high school choirs involving 60 students to three choirs involving 100 and the middle school program has grown from one choir of 25 students to three choirs of 127 students. Mrs. Bogard and all her choirs consistently receive the highest ratings at festivals. Mrs. Bogard will be recognized and receive a plaque at the December mini-convention at Shawnee Mission Northeast High School. Please join us in congratulating Mrs. Bogard for a job well done!Press Release Courtesy of Ashley Razak

Choir Awards Announced

The Express StaffEditor in Chief: Maddy Mikinski

Layout Editor: Shelli Brannan

Reporters: Tori Powell, Olivia Simmons, Ali Patterson, Brittni Wilhelm, Liz Morris, Sarah Ford, Allison Crist, Abi Batesel, Susette Garcia, Lindsey Schubert, Rachael Bell, Alexis Nichols, Elissa Freemire

Adviser: Kristen Loney

Currently, Student Council is looking for groups of people to come dance at the Courtwarming pep assembly. If you’re interested, please come by and talk with Miss Harris soon to sign up and reserve your song.

Project Lead The Way contains five different classes, starting with Intro to Engineering. The rest are mostly engineering classes too. Within the class, they mostly use circuits, but now they’re working on robots. The students don’t construct them, they only program them (Alexis Nichols).

Exciting news came to the art department as Mr. Lohafer found out that the grant he requested was accepted! He requested a grant because he decided it would be better if we got a document camera so it would easier to capture pictures of projects with good quality to be displayed. We already have an astounding set of cameras here at Basehor, and now it’ll be even better. The document camera is not only used for taking pictures of art, but of ceramic projects and much more, too. The grant that will help buy the document camera will be able to do so much in so many areas. Make sure to stop by and check out the giant check that is hanging on Mr. Lohafer’s art room door (Rachael Bell).

This year for the first time at Basehor we will be having a switch out of classes at the midterm! Mrs. Loney and Mr. Oberndorfer will teach students in Interactive Media B, a new class where students will spend nine weeks with each teacher focusing on video production and graphic design. The two subjects are similar but difficult to learn at the same time, so the split classes should be beneficial for the students (Ali Patterson).

Mr. Claflin is the teacher of many subjects and has a lot going on in his classes right now. In Cabinetmaking II his students are working hard on making a layout and building their own piece of furniture. Carpentry I is in-between working on a 10 hour Occupational Health and Safety course (OSHA) online and the class was split into two groups, one working on a shed for the soccer field, the other building a playhouse. Hopefully we will see all their projects and hard work pay off in the future (Sarah Ford).

Finals Advice

expressblhs@gmail.com

@btownexpress

What’s Going On?

Be ready. Finals are coming.

Before you start panicking, let’s take a moment to go over a few ways to make finals a breeze.

1) GET PLENTY OF SLEEP. I know you’ve heard this one before but it’s important. Do not even think the words “Oh, I usually go to sleep at two a.m., I’ll be fine.” No. Go to sleep at a decent hour.

2) Don’t psyche yourself out. Saying “I’m going to fail this” as Ms. Roussel passes out your physics final statistically increases the probability that you will fail. Instead, tell your-self that you’ve tried your best or think about something else.

3) Take your time. I know that the break is calling you, it calls all of us. Just ignore it for a second and don’t get ahead of yourself. Consider every answer and skip any problems that you just can’t get to revisit later.

Happy Holidays!

What is that, anyway? By: Maddy Mikinski

When you hear the phrase “holiday season”, your mind automatically jumps to Christmas and Santa and cook-ies. What some people don’t know is that the time after Thanksgiving known as the “holiday season” doesn’t just cover Christmas and New Year’s, it covers many other holidays as well.

Hanukkah Hanukkah is an eight day Jewish celebration commemorating the rededication of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. This year, Hanukkah falls from sunset on December 8 to nightfall on December 16. Each night during the celebration, a new candle is lit on a Menorah. In many cases, family members will exchange small gifts every night a new candle is lit.

Kwanzaa Kwanzaa first began in the 1960s among African-Americans and African Canadians. This six day celebration, is meant to emphasize the traits of unity, self-deter-mination, responsibility and collective work, creativity, faith, and cooperative economics. During Kwanzaa, the house is deco-rated with colorful cloths and fresh fruit. On January 1, the cumulation of the holiday, a large feast is prepared.

Boxing Day Boxing Day is traditionally held on December 26th and celebrated by residents of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other common-wealths. This holiday started as a day when servants and people in trade received gifts from their employers (known as a Christmas box. Now it has simply become a bank holiday. In Ireland, December 26 is known as St. Stephen’s day. In northern Europe, it is known as the Second Christmas Day,

Best Holiday Books & Movies

Holiday Fun Facts!The first artificial Christmas tree was created in Germany and made out of

dyed goose feathers.

Brits wear paper crowns while eating Christmas dinner.

In Norway, it was believed that witches came out on Christmas Eve to look for their brooms. Men would go outside and fire a shotgun to scare any evil

spirits off.

There are 16 different ways to spell ‘Hanukkah’.

In the language Kiswahili, Kwanzaa means “first fruits of the harvest”.

Christmas break is the perfect time to kick back with a good book...or two...or five. It’s also a good time to watch some classic holiday movies.

This classic by Charles Dickens follows grump Ebenezer Scrooge as he en-counters three ghosts who try to change his grouchy ways.

The inspiration behind the movie Christmas With the Kranks, Skipping Christmas tells the tale of Luther and Nora Krank who just want to take a cruise instead of buying a Christmas tree.

Who doesn’t love watching Ralphie’s quest for a Red Rider BB Gun with a compass in the stock?

One of the most highly quotable Christmas movies ever, Elf, is a great movie to watch with family or just on your own.

With its close proximity to Fort Leavenworth, Basehor is rife with kids (and teachers) whose parents are or were in the military. A majority of these students are Army kids with the exception of Na-tional Guard and Air Force, and all of them weren’t born in Kansas. Out of the six students interviewed, four were born around the United States and two in Germany. Their lives between birth and Basehor are also varied. These students have lived in places such as Zimbabwe, France, Washington state, and Georgia. “I love getting to see dif-ferent places and cultures,” senior Shelli Brannan (born in Ft. Hood, TX) said, but she also admits that “moving is terrible. If I made a very good friend, I’d have to leave them.” Junior Brittni Wil-helm (Born in Fort Bragg, NC) shares this sentiment. Wilhelm agrees that making friends is hard because you are moving around all the time. “After a while you don’t get attached to a certain house and a certain place, but it’s fun to move around too!” Sophomore Megan Stephens (born in Wash-ington state) said. She said a positive of military life is

meeting so many people and going so many places. “[Hav-ing a dad in the military] taught me how to be outgo-ing and not so scared.” On his move from Tennes-see to Basehor, senior Zac Hevel (born in Germany) said, “Everything was differ-ent...completely different.” Don’t worry, Basehor-ites, Hevel went on to say, “Ev-eryone was a lot nicer.” Moving from state to state or country to country doesn’t only just mean a change in schools, it means a complete change in surroundings and new neighbors at forts or on base. “[You mainly] stick with the fort. Not quite but pretty much,” said senior RJ Dixon (born in Germany). Many students cited other military families as a posi-tive of having a parent in the military. “I like being close to other military families,” junior Al-lison Crist (born at Ft. Hood) said. “When their dad gets deployed, they know how I feel.” Crist’s dad is a mem-ber of the National Guard and is currently stationed in Germany. Crist isn’t the only one with a parent away from home. Wilhelm’s father is currently in Illinois and Brannan’s is currently serv-ing in the Congo. Stephens’s

dad is currently stationed in Leavenworth but will be moving to Fort Polk in Loui-siana this coming April. “[Living in a military fam-ily] is okay. I don’t like my dad being gone,” Crist said. She continued on to say that it’s difficult to stay close to him when he’s gone so long.Students aren’t the only ones with parents in the military. BLHS English teacher Tara Bowser’s (born in Honolulu, HI) parents were both in the Air Force. They retired while they were still stationed in Hawaii when Bowser was 4 years-old, but Bowser’s con-tact with the military didn’t end there. While teaching in Junction City, Kan., many of her stu-dents’ parents were stationed at nearby Fort Riley. Bowser estimated that at least 50 percent of her students came from military families. She was easily able to connect with those students because of her own background. Bowser also noticed a difference between those students with parents in the military and those without. “I felt like they were forced to mature faster than the other kids,” she said. She also observed that parents “motivated them in the right way”. Bowser mentioned that they were aware and respect-

ful of authority and were pushed to do more things for themselves. Hevel agrees with this and noted that his parents are strict and that he’s learned “no means no”. Dixon also said, “I learned how to be more disciplined. [Military kids have] more morals and values than oth-er people.” Of the students inter-viewed, most feel like the military isn’t a good person-al fit for them. “It’s not my interest to go to war,” Dixon said. Some have realized from their experiences because they’ve seen what its like to have a parent gone. Two students still want to be involved in the military. Hevel knows that he wants to go into the Air Force and Stephens wouldn’t mind marrying into a military family. Although it’s hard for those who don’t have par-ents in the military to grasp, those who do eventually adapt to the continual ab-sence of one of their par-ents. “We miss him [my dad] and stuff,” Stephens said, “but for his job he goes away so much we get used to it.”

Harare, Zimbabwe

A Military Life for MeBy: Maddy Mikinski

vsA single bag may contain up to 95 Skittles and as little as 23

The most common color of Skittle is Orange and the least common is Green

Skittles’ Facebook page has over 22 million likes

Red M & Ms were discontin-ued in the mid-70's because of concerns that red food coloring was connected to cancer.

There are 340 million M&M's produced daily

M&M’s most common color is Brown while their least common color is Yellow

Excuses. We all make them. Sometimes our home-work just miraculously undoes itself overnight. Sometimes, the bell rings just a little sooner than it ususlly does. Teachers are most often on the recieving end of these excuses. “It’s like an EMP bomb knocks out all printers and harddrives the night before a paper’s due,” observes English teacher Aaron Schwartz. Most excuses are of the “my dog ate my homework” variety but some are just so bad they’re good.

Where were you?

Where’s your homework?

I ate old bacon. –Miss Harris

I had to water my alpacas. –Mr. Hopkins

My family had to go furniture shopping. –Mrs. Loney

My dog peed on my computer. –Mrs. Vielhauer

My dad used it to light the �res. –Mr. Johnson

Do you ever feel like there’s a demon clawing to get out of your chest? Well, that’s why I couldn’t turn in my essay. –Mrs. Bowser

I left the car window open and the rain melted it. –Mrs. Roussel

By: Maddy Mikinski

On December 7th, the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Basehor VFW hosted a “Voice of History” presentation, where several veterans of the United States Armed Forces spoke to 9th and 10th grad-ers on their experience serving for our country.Students had the opportunity to thank and visit with the veterans after the presentation.

Living History

BLHS PhotosBest of...

Liz Morris

Amber Garver

Haley Waters

Brittni Wilhelm

Sydney Weible

Hope Brown

Haley Waters

Want to CONTRIBUTE PHOTOS to the BLHS yearbook and newspaper? Our publications are more interactive now than ever before! Go to www.replayit.com and register for an account with BLHS. The password is bobcats1. You can upload your photos directly on to this site.