Best Weekend EVER

So on Friday I wen to Dad's house with Gracie, and that was a blast. We took pictures when we went hiking and they turned out great.

Saturday my Dad took Brandy (my dog, 15 yrs old) to the vet and it turns out she got salmon poisoning while she was away. So we are giving her meds right now and she should be good by next week. If we didn't take her in, she would have died in like ten days, so we are super lucky.

So I went to Ceana's party thing whatever you wanna call it, and it was lame.

NOPE!

Because seriously, it was SO fun. SO fun.

I met Keenan (feel like I've known him forever! pre-mortal existence, maybe?), Cassidy, Sabrina, and John. So pretty much I had an amazing time. We played minute to win it. Aaaaaand we ate food. Aaaaand the boys bombarded us with silly string and gorilla masks. Aaaaand we ate food. Aaaaaand we went to the dance.

Then on Sunday I saw them all again at class and choir. Super fun.

Then this morning I saw them all AGAIN at 6 AM because we decided to have breakfast together before they left to go back home to Grants Pass. *sniffle* I definitely want to see them all again. :)

What a GREAT weekend!

Finals, Snowball, and Absent Minded People

I remember last year everyone at the high school always talked about how glad they were when finals were over and how stressful they were. So this year I was expecting to get really stressed and swamped, but it just feels like normal school days to me - except a bunch of tests that I can use my notes on.

So what was so stressful about finals last year and what was so different? Someone told me it's because I'm freshman, but it was my freshman friends that felt to swamped last year. Am I just taking easier classes? I have no idea!

So, snowball was pretty fun. I hung out with Melissa, Anne, and JennieLinn all day to get our nails done and eat subway in our dresses. I can't believe I found a dress with sleeves that was so cute! I figured I'd never be able to find such a thing. It's just so rare. I guess I must have good luck.

...

HA! Nope. I'm just good at looking for things with my dad. lol

You know something that has seriously annoyed me lately? People who think they are the bomb diggity because they can make a lame joke about polygamy (or some other LDS topic) to me because they think for some weird reason that I will think it's funny. It's like they think that because I'm in the religion that they can make fun of it around me, but they feel bad if they make fun of it behind my back.

For example, on Tuesday I was trying to get into the Auditorium and some guy asked if I was Mormon. I almost said "No, but I can tell you about him" but I decided not to be funny so I just told him that I was. So he replied,

"So am I."

I replied, "No, you aren't." Okay, sure, maybe he's just been inactive his entire life. But that seems VERY unlikely. Trust me.

"Yes I am."

"No.. I'm pretty sure I'd know."

"Yes, I am. I'm already working on my eleventh wife."

Do you KNOW how much I wanted to punch him?

Fortunately for him, I believe in forgiveness and understanding, but HONESTLY. I don't make fun of whatever you believe in, so why are you so determined on making fun of me?

He'd already started talking to his friends before I could defend myself, but I really felt like marching over there and stopping his conversation and telling him what was what! Urgh!

Unfriend vs Real Friend

Okay, picture your most annoying friend. You know, the one that you really don't even like that much but hang around mostly because either a) you have known them for a long time or b) they think you are the best thing in the world and you don't want to make them feel bad. Come on, you know you all have that friend.

Have you ever thought about one of your close friends and wondered, 'am I one of those people to them?'

I have before. Very often, actually. There's always that really good friend of mine, possibly even best friend, that I wonder about. Wonder if they actually like me or if they dread every word I speak. It's not like they do anything that makes me think they feel that way about me. They aren't suspicious or anything. I just know myself to be a very.. obnoxious person, and I wonder if that gets to them.

Then there are those moments that make you stop, smile, and think, 'Never mind. I am just as cool to them as they are to me.'

Take my very close friend Kimberly for an example. We are almost always together. I think I might have been frustrated with her once or twice (not counting before 7th grade... we hated each other before then). But every once in a while I think, 'is she just tolerating me?' Not because she is rude or anything. I mean she laughs at my jokes and holds my bag for me when I need it. But, simply put, I can be annoying. I annoy myself sometimes.

Today during choir I had one of those 'never mind' moments. Kimberly and I are in different singing sections in choir, so she walked out of the classroom first to go to the auditorium. This prevented us from walking together. I wasn't thinking about it at all. But when I got to the door, I found Kimberly there waiting for me to come out so we could walk together.

Pretty sure I smiled the whole way to the auditorium after that.

So through that little act, some how, she renewed my belief that she actually does enjoy my company - and that she isn't just tolerating it. And now I feel happy because I personally know for sure that one of my close friends I look up to most actually takes delight in my presence.

Yeah. It was a pretty boss day.

Cartoonized (click on pictures to make them bigger)

I don't watch South Park and never have, but I found this thing where you can basically make your own character and it's really fun to base them off of people you know. For example, my friend Leif.

Or my sister Miranda.

Or my dear mother.

Or my younger sister Gracie.

Or my older brother William.

Journey

Have you ever had anybody tell you how cool Journey is and how cool it is?

When told this, I ask the person to tell me one of there songs. Immediately they start singing "just a small town girl living in a". They never get to tell me what the girl lives in, because I cut them off with a, "No, I mean a different song," to which I am replied with a "Uhhhh.....".

-_-

If you don't know any other songs by Journey other than Don't Stop or Anyway You Want it, you don't LOVE Journey. You like one or two of their songs.

When I explain this to my mother, she laughs and responds, "You are your father's daughter." And I take pride in that (naturally). I mean, come on, I don't think I could have been blessed with anything better than my sense of judgement.

Okay, just kidding. I have better blessing than that. But seriously - having an opinion, knowing my opinion, and being able to share is important, and I am tremendously that all of those things come naturally to me. I mean, I would hate to sit by quietly while inside I was blowing up with anger because someone was saying something stupid. No. I open my mouth and tell the person, "Hey, you're dumb." Okay, just kidding, I don't say it like that. But what I mean is that I let them know that they are making a stupid choice or saying something that is causing their IQ to decrease rapidly.

So, I think that's a good skill to have - being able to make your opinion known. Now, I don't mean you have to say "Ew, you look ugly today" or "you're stupid" to every person you feel that way about. That's just mean. But if you have something to say that you seriously want people to know, it helps to have practice.

Anyway, I'm going to fall asleep at the keyboard. Konbon Gozaimasu!

(that's good evening in japanese, I believe.... now I need to check my papers to make sure. PARANOIA)

Death by Homework

We have all been there. We have all been so swamped in homework that we feel like we are sinking in a big pit of quick sand. We have all been so busy that at the end of the day when we finally have time to relax, we remember that we have homework, therefore, dissolving any time we actually had in the first place.

This is where I give you tremendous advice about finishing your homework.

.

.

.

.

Not gonna happen. Sorry.

Lately, I have felt 'swamped'. I don't actually get that much work to do. But I get so busy during the day that I loose track of time and end up rushing to finish my homework an hour before I'm supposed to sleep, which prevents me from doing my absolute best. This is what my day often looks like:

• 5:00 School Day Preparation
• 6:00 Seminary
• 7:00 Finish Homework that I didn't have time to finish the day before
• 8:00 School
• 4:00 Play Practice
• 6:00 Probably watch my baby brother or whatever my mom needs me to do
• 7:00 Rush to finish homework, or continue doing what my mom neeeds
• 8:00 Get ready for bed
• 9:00 SLEEP (or somewhere after that)

Give or take a few play practices or babysitting times, I am usually always doing something. And half the time, the times that I do have time to do my own thing, I end up having to go to a youth group or hanging out with my mom or dad (I group that in with 'things to do' rather than a privilege).

So how do I get my work done?

I do not know.

What I do know is that I do get it done.

I think that the biggest reason that I find time, is because I use the times that I have bored to do homework. Although I'll admit to watching a movie sometimes instead of working because I might be feeling particularly lazy.

So I guess what I'm saying is to use those 'in between' times that nobody thinks about. You know what I'm talking about. Work on your math homework on the car ride home, or study for your science quiz while you're doing the laundry. Yeah, you might only get one problem done on the way home, but that's one less you have to do before bed. Besides, how many times are you in the car in a day?

Let's say you have fifteen problems to finish and you ride in the car 6 times a day. If you work on the problems in the car and you finish, let's say, two problems each car ride, then that's already 13/15 problems solved. You have three left. So at seven thirty when you think you have to rush to finish your math, you can take your time in those last three problems.

Small moments count for a lot. One or two problems done in a car ride doesn't seem like that much, but after a while, it adds up. Also think about the times you feel like you are doing something, but you really aren't. For example, play practice. Other people might be practicing a scene you aren't in. That means you have time in between scenes to do homework. It's simple when you think about it.

Okay, now I need to use my advice and get off the internet. I have homework to do! And I didn't follow this advice today!

High School Survival

It's hard for me to use this thing for a journal. There are too many things that happen that I definitely won't write where everyone can see them. That's like a vote collector blogging about who won the presidential election before it was announced to the public.

Okay, so maybe that's over dramatic. Whatever. But I have decided to begin writing in this again. Except this time through, it's going to be a High School Survival Guide. Ever heard of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide? That's sort of what I got the idea from.

Plus, this way if nothing super exciting happens that day, I don't feel like I have to write anyway.

So there.