Merry Christmas, everybody. Sorry I'm late.

Because I said I would

Thelly, Scaffy and Me when I wore glasses.

Who had a good Thanksgiving??

I did!!

I've gone on Blogger like every day for the past week, but I never post anything. That's kinda sad. So I'm posting.

Thanksgiving was So. Much. Fun! The day before, in seminary, instead of having a real lesson we all named some things we are thankful for (regular things like curling irons and pizza, not gospel things- those are a given) until we filled the whole whiteboard. Then we had to take turn erasing one thing we thought we could live without from the board. It was meant to show how blessed we are and how much we could live without if we had to.

The problem is, person 1 erased something person 2 really liked, so to get even person 2 erased whatever person 1 wrote down. It was pretty funny but kinda stupid at the same time. At one point we had erased 'rain', but gum and hair accessories were still on the board.

Apparently when you live in the desert for long enough without rain, you get to thinking its not really necessary.

And then on Thanksgiving, I slept waaay in, played with my cousins and watched the parade, and then ALL the family came over and we feasted.

I forgot to save room for the pie. I always do. It's not a big deal though, because we have PIE NIGHT every year anyways. what is PIE NIGHT, you ask? Welllll..... you know how every year, I forget to save room for the pie? You get so full from all the food, you can only have that one little slice of pumpkin? Well, my friends, that is a waste of perfectly good pie. So in my family, we eat the night the night before, on Wednesday and have the leftovers on Thursday.

This year we couldn't have it on Wednesday, unfortunately, but its ok because we had it on Friday night instead. YAY FOR PIE NIGHT!!!!

Oh, and by the way, Elf is one of the bestest movies ever. Just so you know.

I carved a Mockingjay Pumpkin for Halloween

It was epic.

Then we had my aunt's (you remember- the one who throws amazing parties?) annual Halloween party on the 1st- I went as a Jedi again. Yeah, it turns out I've gotten a lot wider since last year... I barely fit into the costume. I'm gonna need a new belt soon... I HATE getting bigger! I know I have an excuse because I'm still getting taller but it makes me feel so gross when I weigh more than all my friends.

sigh. It felt good to get that out. Thanks.

So all my cousins wrapped me up in toilet paper like a mummy at the Halloween party, it was SOO much fun! I should try to find the picture... Here it is! Cute, huh?

So what else do I have to say....?

GUESS WHAT!!!! I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON PANDORA AND IT JUST TOLD ME THAT COLD STONE HAS- WAIT FOR IT- ICE CREAM PIES!!!!
Only in America I guess... but MAN, that sounds good!

Ok, so who want to hear about my Geometry 'adventure'?
So on Monday we took this big start of quarter test- the first grade that goes in for this quarter. So its kind of a big deal. And when I went into class the next time the grades were posted on the door: I got a 62%

Now let me just say for the record that I am a straight- A student and I've never failed a test in my life. So after class I went to talk to the teacher to see how I could've gotten such a bad grade. So we went over the test- and yeah, I missed some questions, but not SIXTY-TWO percent of them! So we went over it in more detail and found a couple questions that got marked of that shouldn't have been. So my teacher recalculated my original score to she could add the points that shouldn't have been marked off- and guess what my original score was! 82%!!!! and when she added the other points it was 83%! I don't know how she confused 82 with 62, but I'm SOOOOOO glad I talked to my teacher instead of letting such a bad- and inaccurate- score stand in for such an important test.

And that's all.

I'm not dead.... I just have no life.

I think that's a very clever title, by the way :)

So..... basically I go to a college-style High school where I get to spend three hours a day making music. I love it.

Additionally, it's the end of the quarter, so that means performances, peer reviews, and final grades stress. UGH!! I really REALLY like my school, though. I'm so not going back to normal school.

It's almost Halloween already. I find that bizarre. Kira and Jessica and Loren and I are doing matching costumes this year: Plain black T-shirts, long jeans, and MASKS!! They're super pretty- masquerade ball- style masks, I love them to death.

I had my first concert at LVA on Wednesday. It was really cool. Since I'm a freshman, I'm in the beginning choir, but its still really good. The other choirs, of course, are simply amazing!!! Even if I wasn't preforming, I would want to come to hear them sing.
I have my second concert at LVA this Wednesday. This one is for Orchestra. Since I'm a freshman, I'm in the beginning orchestra. We suck. Well, no we don't really SUCK, but I think the advanced Orchestra at my old middle school was better. The other Orchestras are also not that amazing- except for the most advanced one. They are AHHHHMAZING!!

I'm tired. I frequently am. Good night.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland- Safety for the Soul.

Amen.

It's the last day of the month

And I like to post on the last day, to bring my count for that month up. So here we go:

*My ward Young men/Young Women went on our Annual Lake Mead Trip last Saturday. It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! We spent the whole day out on the lake, and went wake boarding and water-skiing and tubing (I only went tubing but it was still fun!) and stuff like that. And when we finished doing all that, we sat around and made mud pies for hours. I think its funny that a whole bunch of teenagers spent more time playing with mud then wake boarding.

*We buried one of the boys in mud. Oh my gosh, SO FUNNY!! We gave him a pillow made out of mud and then picked up a million handfuls of the stuff and covered him in mud. We made him a mermaid, complete with a seashell bra.

He was really good about it :)


*We also, on this fabulous Lake Trip, got reeeeeeeeeely sunburned. The next day at church you could immediately tell who had been on the trip and who hadn't by the redness (or lack of redness) on their skin.
Now, I have a... bad habit, if you will, of forgetting to put sunblock on and getting reeeeeely sunburned. So my parents kinda get mad at me when I come home all burned. this time, however, I DID, in fact, remember to put sunblock on, not just once but TWICE!! And then one OTHER time, when I put it on in the car because my face hurt so bad from my sunburn and I thought it would help. So CLEARLY, it's not my fault that I came home the color of a bright red bouncy ball. WHY, THEN, did I get so sunburned??!!? I'll tell you why...

*The boat ran out of gas. So we sat out on the lake for a loooong time. I didn't actually mid, though, because I got to spent the whole time listen to my Young Women's leader deciding who the were going to eat first. It was pretty funny.

*I've changed my mind. My Music App teacher who is now my handbell teacher) is nothing less than the greatest teacher on the face of this earth. The end.

*GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING!!!! YAY!!!

*And now, I need to go make dinner. I've been doing this all week, and I'll do it all next week too. My mom thinks I'm an angel.

Bye, guys. :)

What's Been Happening At School Lately

To....much....school..... I love LVA, I love my classes and the school and some of my teachers, but I HATE being gone from 6 to 5 every. single. day. It sucks.

Sooo anyways......

I got my schedule changed at school this week. I'm in completely different classes then I was in the first two weeks of school. So that kinda sucks. But it was a good change. Apparently, I didn't have to have my P.E. credits finished in order to change classes, so there was actually no point in my original schedule, but whatever. I dropped P.E. and Music Appreciation- UGH! Music App!! The teacher is about 82 years old (he looks like he's about to fall over dead in the middle of class (like my Grandma almost did!) ) and he has this super-quiet old person voice. And he stands up at the front of the room and tells up that when we start this class he assumes that we know absolutely nothing about music.
Let me remind you that this school is dedicated to the MUSICAL ARTS- ok, and theater and visual arts. But WHY would you take a music appreciation class in you were a tech theater major? YOU WOULDN'T! THERE'S NO REASON WHATSOEVER!!!
So we spent the whole class bored to death while this ancient teacher stand at the front of the room and tell us the difference between a whole step and a half step. Ugh.

So I dropped that class and took handbells instead, which I love. I also took on orchestra instead of P.E. (Yay!) and I got different Biology and Geometry teachers who are waay better (or at least nicer) than my old ones.

So that's What's Been Happening At School Lately. :) :) :)

Wait..... A blog? I have a blog? What's that?

WOW..... real school makes me really busy. I have some very important new to share with you all:

I HAVE A FREAKING CELL PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No lie!!!!! I have one!!! I'm SOOOOOOO HAPPIE!!!!

(I do have to pay for the service, which kinda sucks but its SO worth it to me right now) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Also:

*I read and finished Mockingjay the same day it came out and it was incredible. Of course. But I'm not gonna say anything that could be a spoiler cuz Mom's still reading it (she's so slow!)

*I went to High School. Yah. It was actually not super terrifying, I only got lost a few times, and I LOVE that they let you chew gum in school!!! SRSLY!!! Its a good school.

*I missed both Thelly's and Monkeys B-day posts while I was on vacation and preparing for school to start. :( I'm gonna havta go back a put their posts up, but I still want to tell them both HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!!

*They combined their parties and had a huge Birthday/End of Summer family party and our whole neighborhood came and it was lost of fun. we srsly bought this big badminton set with a net and everything and set it up (actually I set it up all by myself, and it was hard, too) and it was too windy to use that day but its been a lot of fun since then.

*I left the party early because the Super Awesome Choir had a performance for a benefit concert, but I couldn't find my shirt so I had to wear Thelly's shirt that's pretty close and so I kinda looked like a dork at that thing. it was sorta kinda fun, but most of the other groups they got to sing were awful!

*Ummm.... oh yeah! Last Wednesday for mutual we had a modesty fashion show, but it was waaaay more fun that a typical modesty fashion show because we actually went to target and picked out the cutest outfits we could find and modeled them! I need to go back and buy mine... or at least those boots.

So that's whats been going on lately. I'm a lot more busy than I've pretty much ever been in my life before, but I'll try to keep posting on weekends at least. Bye!

What variation of 'I have returned to the place of my dwelling' have I not written yet?

So I have returned to the place of my dwelling. Vacation was fun. Really fun. Hangng out with my family, and also my extended family, was fun. But I don't wanna write about it for some reason.... I have better thins to write about.

Like this: I GOT MY HAIR CUT!!!!! I like it, but it's waaay shorter then I meant to go... like, 2 or 3 inches shorter. Behold:
So yeah, I like it, even though it's short. But BTW, my hair isn't really that dark! It's still (a little) bond(ish)....
And also, pay no attention to the little brothers in the background, please.

Ok, guess what I'm doing tonight? I'M GETTING MOCKINGJAY!!!!!! I ended up never pre-ordering it, so I'm going to get it with Jessica tonight!! TONIGHT!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!

Well, I'm leaving today

Goin on vacation (for real this time. :) It's gonna be sooooooo much fun! But I kinda wanna write a good post before I leave, so.....

*Swim team is over. I liked it, but only half as much as I did last year. Out of the three competitions, I only went to one. I just think that's silly, somehow...

*All (well, ok, 3/4) my dad's family came down a while ago for my cousins baptism. I have exactly one cousin on either side of the family who is my age and gender, so when she comes over I'm really HAPPY! about it. So we went to Savers (hey, don't judge! savers has good stuff sometimes!) and tried on all the ridiculously fancy dresses and then the grandma earrings and then we just wandered around and looked at all the cool books and figurine-thingies and Dad got this really cool ice cream maker THAT ACTUALLY MAKES ICE CREAM INSTEAD OF MILKSHAKES!!!!

It's AWESOMELY AWESOME!!! And the ice cream ins gooood, too. :) :) :) Me and Kira (who has a blog now!!! Lookit!) tried to make some last night, but we didn't really know what we were doing so we just came up with a big pile of melted ice cream..... yeah. It still tasted good, though.

* I dunno if I said this already, but I'm learning how to draw. I found some tutorials online and some drawing books and some artists work to look at and BANG! I'm drawing!! I'm not really good or anything, but it's lotsa fun and I can look at my stuff without wanting to rip it up so I'm happy :)

*MATH IS DOOOOOOONE!!!! I have completed my algebra home school course and now I can go on the computer WHENEVER I WANT!!!!!

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

"Thelly, is this your spoon or my spoon?"

"Dad, that's a fork."

The last day of Girl's Camp

Journal entry 5- 7/24/10

Wow, I can't believe camp is actually over... it was a wonderful week. I never got the chance to write yesterday, so I'll do it today instead.We got ready to leave the cabin as soon as we got up on Friday morning. I left early with the Bishop, Katy, Jessica and Taylar to set up for REPELLING! I actually like that now! :) The first repel was really small, like 20 feet. I was one of the first people down, and after Jessica and Kira came down we talked about Hunger Games stuff for, like, an hour (yes, I am totally obsessed with those books).

We didn't have enough harnesses and other gear for everyone, s we had to keep switching off stuff, which was kinda annoying. And it took FOREVER, like, at least a whole hour to get everybody down the 20-ft repel... Then we walked a little ways down to the second repel, which was MUCH bigger, 80-something feet, and thus, pretty scary. It was actually really easy and kinda fun. it took another hour to get down that one, cuz we still had to pass our gear back up, and then one of the girls (I'm not even going to give her a fake name) had this massive panic attack. She got on the rope and had this huuuuge melt down, sobbing and crying and refusing to go down. The leaders tried for a hour to coax her down, but eventually gave up and someone took her back out to the cars.

After that there weren't any more big repels, just little boulder hops that I LOVED. There were a couple of tense moments, though, like when it started raining and we worried about a flash flood (hey, we were at the bottom of this big canyon!) and when we passed some other hikers who were really creepy and- oh yeah! when I nearly broke my skull open!

It was after the first repel, when me and Jessica and Kira were sitting around waiting and we were about to go down to the second repel, and so i stood up to get of the big rock I had been sitting on, and went to step back onto this smaller rock, but i missed the rock and fell backwards and flew back and banged my head- hard- on the canyon wall. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet (which I had just put back on a minute before) I would've blacked out, and maybe worse... Yeah, it was scary, and I was freaked out, but after that I was kinda the center of attention, and everybody kept telling me how lucky I was and that was kinda fun :)

Anyways, the rest of the repelling trip was easy, although it took, like four hours, and climbing back out of the canyon was hard. And then when we made it back to where we parked the cars and got ready to leave, one of the leaders cars got stuck on this BIIIIIIG rock, and it took them another hour to unstick it, so what should've been a four hour repelling trip took us 8 hours! So we didn't get to go to the Pizza Factory like we planned, cuz it was too late, but we did stop at Wendy's and that was fun.

We didn't end up getting home till midnight, and when i finally rolled into bed, I couldn't sleep, because my bed felt funny cuz I'd been sleeping on the floor all week. So I rolled of onto the floor and was asleep, like, instantly.

And so ended my second year of Girl's Camp.

Day Four of Girl's Camp

Journal entry 4- 7/22/10

Sooooo..... Today we had lots of free time after breakfast, so I made lotsa more ribbon flowers (I never got around to that pic, did I?) :) and then we had our 'service project'. To thank the people who let us use their cabin all week we took all this split wood and brought it up to the upper floor, where the fire place is. We did it in this bucket brigade like system :And we passed about a million pieces of wood up those stairs. We talked and laughed and sang hymns and campfire songs and 'The Sound of Music' and generally had a good time.

After that were our skits. See, they split us all into groups and assigned us a song, and we had to make up a skit to preform to that song. My group had 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' and if you've every listened to that song all the way through, you know that's it really REALLY long and doesn't say a whole lot. So consequentially, our skit was really long and boring, and we didn't do a whole lot. Whatever, other groups were lotsa fun to watch...

And then we had Solo Time and I read Doctrine and Covenants Section 129 (if you're not Mormon and have no idea what I'm talking about, go here) where I learned that apparently you can shake hands with an angel. Cool, right?

We had MORE free time after that, :) and SO Jessica and Kira and a first year named Taylar who's really nice went out into the woods and we saw this really cool herd or deer and when they ran away we just sat around a talked. And then after dinner the Stake Presidency came and we had testimony meeting and I cried my eyes out (and so did every one else-EXCEPT KIRA! She didn't cry last year either- I guess she has no soul or something...). And the testimonies were beautiful, and I could feel the Holy Ghost so strongly, and for the second time this week, I was safe from Satan's influence while we sat there...

And then the stake president (we have the BEST stake president!) got out his guitar and we sang more hymns and campfire songs and 'The Sound of Music songs... it was a really good night.

Girls Camp Day Three!

Journal Entry 3- 7/21/10


Today was SO happy-making! I can't believe camp's already half way over, but at the same time I feel like I've been here for weeks. We backed up bag lunches after breakfast today and went FISHING! Nobody caught anything (wellll.... one of the leaders 'caught' a dead fish lying in the shallows), but it was a lot of fun anyways, and I got really good at casting. We had devotional after that- on Esther- and I could really feel the Spirit there, in this peaceful little clearing a few steps from the lakefront...

After we got back to the cabin we did rotations. they split us into 3 groups and we took turns going around to several craft stations. One was pedicures (complete with foot massage!), one was Mormon Scones (YUM!) and the best on was making ribbon- flowers. See, you take a bit of ribbon and cut it into 4 circles of descending size. Then you light a tea candle on fire and hold the ribbon over the flame. It kinda melts the edges of the ribbon and makes it look really pretty. Then you hot-glue all the ribbons together and add a fake jewel if you want and then you have your self a REALLY pretty hair tie decoration, or earring, or necklace decoration or whatever. I'll get a picture.

Then we had dinner, and after dinner was our 'Virtue Walk'.

That walk might just be my single most favorite part of Girl's Camp. Some ladies from our ward and some relatives of theirs dressed up as the women from our theme for the week (How Can I BEE Like... Eve, Mary, Esther, an Ammonite Mother, and a Pioneer Woman.) They told us the stories of the woman they represented... and they were SO compelling! Especially Esther.

See, normally, when someone is giving a spiritual kind of talk, my mind -gets bored, I guess- and shoots off in a million directions at once, which almost always prevents me from feeling the Spirit. But I don't think i had one random thought during Esther's talk. I was wholly and completely focused on her message, and I could really feel the Holy Ghost in that room, confirming the story. While she spoke, I was safe from and distractions or temptations Satan could try to throw at me. I was safe.

Eventually, of course, the spell broke. the meeting ended, and I got all hyper again having a spoon/lightsaber fight with Jessica. It was hilarious!

Then we had Solo Time and after that we Played GC games like 'Don't Smile!' 'Big Booty' 'What if...' ect. It was awesome!

Girl's Camp- Day 2- Extra Pictures

Minute to Win It on Tuesday night. It was SO funny!

Pull all the Tissues Out of the Box...
Paper Dragon...
Elephant Panty-hose nose...

And Candy Elevator!

Girl's Camp- Day 2

Journal Entry 2- 7/20/10


O-M-GEEE!!! Today was SO much fun! I fell like I've been at Girl's Camp for a whole week already :)

So after breakfast this morning we all geared up for this BIIIIIIIG hike- 5 miles (it felt like a lot more, though) of grueling heat up and down switchbacks through Red Canyon. The scenery, though, was absolutely beautiful.








See? I really enjoyed it. And when we got back to the cabin we had 'solo time' for, like , TWO hours! And it was awesome, even though most of it wasn't really solo. Me and my friends went out in the woods and talked and laughed and generally had a really good time :)

And then after we (FINALLY!) had dinner we all played Minute to Win It- Girl's Camp Edition :) It was SOOOOOO much fun! (Note: I'm gonna put in those pictures as a different post because I HATE trying to drag pictures down the whole long line of 'em)

AND THEN......

We took the 1st years SNIPE HINTING!!!!!! YESSS!!

We walked up this hill behind the cabin until we reached this big ol' stump -that was the meeting point. That was where Aubrey (she's a first year,actually, but she guessed about the snipes already so we let her in on it -more real that way, see?) was 'pulled' down the hill by this HUUUUGE angry snipe (7 feet tall, according to Aubrey) and then it 'grabbed' Katy too and so Aubrey managed to 'escape' and ran back up to us shouting stuff like 'Run! Before it gets you too!' and then Kira (the mastermind of this whole thing) said calmly and perfectly reasonably "Don't worry, we'll be fine as long as it's eyes don't start flashing green." So then Katy, who was hidden down in the bushes pushed the button on one of Jessica's big star-shaped flashing earrings. And guess what color they flashed?

Yup :)

The 1st years fell for it hook, line, and sinker! They screamed (actually everybody screamed, except for the few girls who doubled over laughing) and wee all ran down the hill so fast we left Jessica's earring behind (we went back for it later, though)! It was PERFECT! and then we had devotional and we to bed.

Tuesday was AWESOME!

Fist day of Girl's Camp

Journal Entry 1- 7/19/10

So today was the first day of my second year of Girl's Camp. It's been....ok, so far. The drive up was fun. Jessica and Kira and I sang Taylor Swift and Wicked and laughed and talked about... stuff that would be really embarrassing to write down. After we got to the cabin where we'll stay all week, we pretty much sat around and waited for the leaders to finish unpacking. Then we ate dinner, and then they dragged us up for the 'Busy Bee Ball'. They go on and on about any and all things 'bee', but it's not as annoying as I thought it would be. I mean, 'BEE' :)
Anyways, the had this dance party. And they didn't play any songs that I knew-not one. And everybody was dancing and laughing and I wasn't -just wasn't in the mood, ok?- and so everybody kept trying to make me dance and whoop etc. and so after a while I figured out if I smiled and moved around a little they would leave me alone- thank gosh. I escaped as soon as I could, and then-when it was over- we had s'mores and devotional and then stayed up till 1 in the morning making fools of ourselves, as per tradition. :)

Ok, it was a good day.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jog

So I'm home from Girl's Camp.

:'(

SRSLY, though! It was SOOOOOOOO much fun. And I nearly cracked my skull open, too!

I should tell you about that sometime. :evil cackle:





Haha, just kidding. I'm planning to put up the daily journal entries I wrote, (complete with pictures) but I'm gonna edit out the more personal parts, of course. I haven't decided yet if I'll write down the testimony I shared at testimony meeting. It was a really sacred thing for me.... I dunno, probably not. Unless you really wanna hear it. Do you?

Anyways, my camera died on Tuesday so I don't really have that many pictures but once all my
friends put theirs up on Facebook I'll start posting. G'night all!

Joseph Smith's First Prayer

I love this song.

Also, This is the 4th day in a row that I've blogged. I'm pretty proud of myself for that :)

Girl's Camp

Hey, guess what? Girl's camp is on Monday and I'm not even stressed. In fact, I'm REALLY really looking forward to it! :) Last year was so much fun, and guess what? This year, we're having (drumroll please)......

REAL TOILETS!!!!!!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

See, last year our whole stake went up to Camp Stimpson (it's a big camp up in the mountains, no decent bathroom facilities to be seen), but then they split our stake, and now there are more stakes in the valley that there are weeks available for Girl's Camp. So this year, our stake is splitting it up into individual ward Girl's Camps. Our ward is going up to the Deer Creek Area in Utah, because a family in our ward owns a cabin up there and they're letting us use it. :) :) :) It's gonna be SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Now all I have to do is buy the stuff I need......

Mom

My little brother Thelly (age 10) has some mental....issues. He has no official diagnosis, but many symptoms of ADD, OCD, TS, and probably several other combinations of random letters. All Autism-related stuff. He's a really sweet kid but... he has, for want of a better term, 'problems'.

He needs everything being right. The right order, the right wording, doing everything right, every one around him doing every thing right, everything written right, keeping up the right schedule in the right order everyday, etc. When something happens wrongly enough, he can't wrap his brain around it and freaks out and has a tantrum. He screams and bellows and sobs and hits/breaks things, etc.

And Mom has to be there to try to calm him down. I guess Thelly has no problem taking out his anger on her, or else he doesn't realize that's what he's doing. It's really hard on her, I can tell.

Here's an example:

Quote

Scaffy wanted to do his writing (they have to practice writing every day in the summer so they don't forget) in the car and Thelly didn't think he should. And I was not as patient and attentive as I should have been at explaining the concept of agency. So he had a total melt down because he could not understand why I let Scaffy make choices that Thelly doesn't like. I don't know where the blood was coming from. I think it was his mouth and not his arm which he had been biting......

I ended up on the phone with Dad (My Dad, her husband) crying because "no one knows and no one understands and I just go on everyday and pretend like everything is fine because I don't know what else to do and I think it's easier to ignore it than get upset."......

Close quote

Look Mom, I know you're gonna make me take this down and I'm ok with that, but I just want to let you know how much I love you and appreciate all the hard work you do with Thelly and our whole family and I'm sorry I get mad at you sometimes and I know Thelly loves you too and I'm sorry I didn't blog about your birthday and.... and I love you so much and I'm so glad you're my Mom.

I just wanted you to know that I see how much your struggle through for Thelly and for all the rest of us to and I wanted you to get some recognition for it. Thank you, thank you for everything. I love you, Mom. I'm praying for you.

Comments off.

I went repelling yesterday

It scared the freaking crap out of me.

I wouldn't be sad if I never EVER did that again.

The End.

(it was kinda fun though....)

Recent happenings

The tyranny of math homework marches on... it totally sucks. But I'm at lesson 109 out of 120, so I'm almost done :)

Swim team and aerobics class go on too... swimming counts for aerobics, though, so that makes things much easier.

I'm trying to improve my artistry skillz (I love to draw but I'm not very good) by tracing and cross-referencing stuff from online. It's not going so great... but it's going.

We got the Lego Harry Potter Wii game on the day it came out, and it's been so much fun! All the Lego video games are lotsa fun (and we have most of them- Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones 1 and 2...) and that it's Harry Potter just makes it that much awesomer.

I ordered both Hunger games books (well actually, I think Mom did) and srsly I cant wait for them to get here! Jessica's never read them and I told her about it awhile about her so she's been dying to read it.

I'm going to re-read them first though. ;)

Hmmm.....

I cleaned my room on Saturday. I should do that more often, you know, I really like it when my room is clean and I can walk around without hurting my foot AND find my stuff. It's not particularly hard (except when it's really messy) but I just..... don't. I dunno why.


Actually, we cleaned the whole house (scoured it within an inch of it's life!) on Saturday. The boys wanted to go see 'Despicable Me' (which I thought looked pretty stupid but the boys really liked, of course) REEEEEEELY bad, and so Mom said they could if they cleaned the house for her. They picked up and wiped off and dusted and vacuumed for FOUR HOURS!!! Well, Thelly probably only cleaned for two and spent the other two tell in everyone 5000 times: 'I just don't really feel like cleaning up right now, and the reason why is because.... I just don't, so that is the reason why I don't really feel like cleaning right now, Mom, that is the reason why I don't feel like cleaning up right now, because I just don't, so that is why I don't feel like cleaning up, Mom.'

He ran that whole spiel for an hour, and then he screamed it for another one. Good times....

You know, I love summer, but this one is not as good as last one (with the sole exception that I absolutely LOVE hanging out with Jessica and Kira and Loren).

What about your summer?

All Creatures of Our God and King

Hey.

Hey look.... It's July.

Yep.

I don't have much to report. Well, that's not true. We went to Blanding for a family reunion this weekend (otherwise I would posted on the 30th, just to bring my post count up) and it was fun. But it was so FAR!!!!! Nine-count 'em- 9 hours each way!!!! And we all did it without any portable T.V. player. AND without any throats being ripped out!

But it was a close thing.

The actual visit was fun though. We went to the family reunion (100-odd people, 5 containers of marshmallow salad, and 10 pounds of cheese and potatoes) and that was ok. That was on Friday, and on Saturday we got up and watched the parade (I love small-town parades) and went and swam in the San Juan River and came back and saw a fun (but totally stupid) melodrama, and then went to the park and lit off some little fireworks (Showers of Sparks!) and then watched the big ones in the sky. :)

And the next day we went home.

And then today was the church 5th of July Breakfast, which was AWESOME because they had this HUUUUUUGE water balloon fight after everybody ate, and me and Jessica and this one (cute) guy that always shows up for activities like that (and I keep telling myself I don't like him but then he's always at activities and he's nice and funny and.... yeah. You get it.) had our own personal war-inside-a-war and we all got totally DRENCHED and it was just a lot of fun. :)

And then tonight my Aunt and Uncle and cousins came for more Independence Day celebrating and we mostly just swam in our pool and ate and lit up sparklers, but we also watched half of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (I love that movie) and that was really nice. And now they're gone and I'm going to bed.

Happy 3rd/4th/5th of July!

Come, Come Ye Saints.

Holy Freaking CRAP!!!

I haven't posted in soooooooooooooooo long... it's not even funny.

Now.... what to say?

This summer isn't nearly as good as last one, on account of all the homework I've been doing. There's all the algebra, of course, plus Aerobics three times a week and swimming. I'm supposed to be swimming 1/2 an hour FIVE freaking days a week- like that's gonna happen.

Despite this, I've actually had a social life (well, ok, not really, but I have friends, and I talk with them (frequently, even!) so that's a social life, right?) so I've had, like, no time. And the time I do have I've spent devouring these books:

They're pretty good, actually. The typical fantasy stuff that I just can't get enough of, you know, but good (actually I've only read the 1st one, but I've got the other two and I'll start the 2nd tomorrow. :) :)

I'm also hoping to get into audiobooks this summer. Keeps you free to use your hands, ya know? Except.... what do you do with your hands? I could clean my room or something lame like that, but I'm 13, you might as well ask me to fly to Mars instead of clean my room.

Maybe I'll go back to Knifty Knitting. That's fun. But I don't really have enough yarn.... hmm.


HEY GUESS WHAT!!!! I got a new bedspread. Up until Saturday night, I had the pink and white Princess thing I got when I was 4. Except, I'm THIRTEEN, so I couldn't use that, so I grabbed this hospital green quilt out of the linen closet and slept under that all winter. Now it's summer, so I don't really need a bedspread of comforter or quilt of any kind, but the fact remains that I still had the pink and white Princess thing I got when I was, like, FOUR!!! So I nagged and nagged and nagged Mom about it, and eventually she took me to get this:
Shut up, it's cute and I like it. :)

BTW, who's read the Maze Runner by James Dashner?

God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Summer stuff.

So it's been exactly a year since I started this blog. I think that's kinda cool. I should probably do a giveaway or something, but I have better things to spend my money on, ya know? Besides, I don't have anything to give away.

It's summer again (HUZZAH!) but I still have to do my math homework, so that really SUCKS!!! but it's still good not to go to school. Jessica had this big bonfire/swim party and she invited, like, EVERYBODY, and we burned all our home work. I couldn't think of a good excuse to 'accidentally' bring my math book and 'accidentally' drop it in the fire, so I still have it. The food was good (I've decided I like turkey hot dogs) and the music was good (She was this big speaker and karaoke system) and I swam for about 3 1/2 hours, so it was a lot of fun!

Counting the swim party, I've swam about 5 times in the past week. I'm gonna have the worst swimmers ear by the end of the summer... but it's so worth it. I love swimming. Las Vegas is excellent for swimming in the summer, but it's SOOOO hot! And of course, Jessica and Kira and Loren (have I told you about Loren? She's awesome) are already all tan and everything... I swear, I'm not gonna be the whitest one at this year's young women's swim parties, even if it kills me. Of course, I have no chance of beating Kira or Loren, but Jessica I can beat (no offence to her).

The problem is, I can't tan. I can burn, no problem, but then I just go white again. Sheesh.

So Alison Wonderland and her daughter Goldilocks are here this week! That's really fun. We've been doing lots of reading and TV watching and perler-beading and all that fun stuff.... :)

And so now I'm totally out of thing to write, but Mom is standing there just waiting for me to finish so she can drag me off to do more math (Sheesh! Can't a girl catch a break?) so what else can I say?

We had a marathon clean of the counter-tops in the butler's pantry today. UGH! But it's really nice to be able to see the counters not pile 6 inches deep in papers and pens and scriptures and crap. And it was satisfying to get it all done. And now mom's gone, and I'm gonna go swim.
BYE BYE!!

More Chicago Pics :)

Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo... :)

Lions!

Tigers!

Bears! (Oh my...)

This random metal couch the had over by the Navy Pier.... It was hard!

One last Sears Tower picture... My feet and Mom's feet and two random people's feet standing in this glass box that hangs about 1000 feet over a busy Chicago street. YIKES!

See? I really am a human being! (And I love those happy face earrings!)


One of the alpaca had a mohawk. SRSLY, it looked so funny!

A wildabeast scratching his butt. He looke like he's getting ready to charge an innocent bystander or something, but really he was just scratching his butt.

Me and my bestest Chicago buddy :)

That's all for now! See ya.....

Just a cool picture I edited.

Ok, for the record, I DID NOT MAKE THIS!!!!! I only found it on adonihs.deviantart.com. I changed the color of the background and her eyes. I just thought it was a cool picture. THen I edited it and made this:
Cool, huh? :)

For Memorial Day

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD

Press Forward, Saints.

On Friday after school Jessica (she changed her name again) and I went to the Floyd Lamb state park. It's this big park covered in bike paths and a buncha small lakes, it's soooo much fun. And the bathrooms aren't horrible, either. We went rollerblading for hours and I only fell one, but Jessica got her knees all messed up... and I told the the 74th Annual Hunger Games, which apparently I know by heart. I got right up to the middle of the feast before we had to go home, so now Jessica's dying to hear the rest.

I don't think I'm going to tell her, I'll think I'll make her read it for her self.

(Mwah-ha-ah-ha.)

The Stake Youth Choir which Jessica and I are part of sang for seminary graduation today. It was really boring, but the brownies after ward were good!

Yesterday Mom and I went on our annual (actually it's probably closer to bi-annual, but don't tell Dad that) super-mega shopping spree at (Dun Dun Dunh!) Savers.

The thrift store.

I know.

But we came home with 4 1/2 HUGE bags full of clothes and shoes (TONS of shoes!) and swimsuits and earrings and cute hats and flip flops and cute shirts and capri pants... total $259.72- with a 20% discount! But now we have all the clothes we need for the next year... it was a lot of fun.

:contented sigh:

And tomorrow we (Jessica and I, obviously) are riding my parent's tandem bike in the stake fun run/bike/walk/scooter/stroller/whatever, and that's gonna be lots of fun, and then the day after that is the last day of school!

What's new with you guys? :)

Ok. Finally.

So I have waaaaaaay too many pictures from Chicago to add an explanation to each one, and blogger is really bad with pictures, so I'm just gonna put these up randomly. In several installments. Enjoy.
The Sears Tower (I don't care what they call it, it's still the sears tower!)
Chicago from the 103 floor of the Sears Tower.

A lego model of the Sears Tower (Thelly would be soooo jealous if he knew!).
ALL the flags of the WHOLE WORLD!

Look! A sandwich shop disguised as a construction site! We went and ate there, and they had goooood ice cream, but the sandwiches were nothing to write home about.
A Double-Decker Bus (it's a shame I didn't get a picture of the one with fur on the sides...)
The surprisingly clean Chicago river.
A really cool building. It's funny how many buildings there look like cathedrals, with gargoyles and stone lions and whatnot.
I bet this place has mandatory valet parking.

A cool building. At a cool angle (Mom had to literally lie down on the street to get in all in the frame...).

My post count for this month is pathetic, but I've been doing a lot of math homework and been more or less grouded from the computer all month, so I'm gonna cut myself some slack.

Bye.

P.S. Monkey lost another tooth!