The Not So Exciting Life Of Marz

Almost A Year

2010-02-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Yes! ha random pose
Me trying to be graceful.. Which I was until I put my other foot on the ground and wound up somehow flat on my back on the ice..
Cute couple holding hands :D
Pretty graceful trick.. We only fell once doing this one :D
Michael Jackson wannabe
See above caption.. Or is this a Marz who wants be a Michael Jackson wannabe? It's complicated..
Rock and Roll Baby!
The one and only picture we have of Eva smiling because I am awesome and got the picture :D
Sisters who are usually confused for twins holding actual twins. Adorable babies :D Minus Jackson's unhappy face haha
The whole Fam-Bam-Ily
Jackson Kelly and Adalie Jane
My cute dragon that I drew :D
Jokerface
Bailee and me showing off our stuff
Back tuck basket toss at the Condo in October with Brandon and Gary as my bases
I can do that too! the statues in the monument to life thing at the SL library downtown. Dad's name is listed on the wall of donors here..

And I have no idea how to get my pictures at the end so hopefully that didn't give too much away.. Here goes..

Well, it has been almost a full year since my last entry and my new goal is to try and write on this thing every week.. I will try and sum up my last year without boring anyone to death. I lived in Sacramento until August when I moved back to Sandy with my mom. I started school in the fall at the University of Utah and managed to survive the entire semester. I work at Target and I also teach dance still. I love it :D I met the love of my life on Thanksgiving weekend and will probably marry him before the year is out. His name is Wesley and he is my everything. We get along really well and have tons of stuff in common. His father was taken from his mortal estate last September due to complications from bone marrow cancer, so we definitely have lots to talk about. We are both helping each other through this hard time in our life and are working toward the future together.
I got to see my adorable new niece and nephew for two whole weeks just after Christmas and loved every minute holding those sweet babies. Nothing can replace the big smile and soft coo I got when I held Addy.
I am at the U again this semester and taking Bio-organic chemistry, anatomy, acting, and ballet. It's going to be a really tough semester but I am learning a lot and it is very interesting. Today I went to my second anatomy lab and got to hold a real human heart. After getting past the nauseating smell of formaldehyde and the fact that I had what was once a living, pumping, moving heart in my hand, it was really cool. The lower limb being separated from the body was a bit much for me later in the lab, but it was definitely interesting to learn. I am starting an EMT course in April to get some experience so that when I apply to the nursing program I can have some experience behind me. I am both terrified and excited for that class. That and anatomy are going to be my all telling classes of if I am cut out for being an nurse or not.
I teach at Bliss three nights a week teaching hip hop, cheer, jazz, contemporary, and tumbling. I have all new girls and all new dances and I love it! I am also taking a hip hop class and a break dancing class.
I bought a motorcycle in October and love riding it (for all like six times I've been on it). It is a 1993 Honda Shadow 600 cc. It's blue and sexy and I love it. Nothing can top the euphoria of riding with the wind blowing and nothing but the rumble of a bike underneath me. I love it :D
I am trying to update this thing every week, but depending on how the next little while goes that may change. I have been spending lots of time with Wesley just hanging out and talking or going to Olive Garden where he works and pestering him for an afternoon.
It has been almost a year since I lost my dad and we are just now getting down to the final stage of the trial. March 5 we go to court to sentence Kelly Walton with third degree vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of drugs. He better stay in jail the whole sentence or he could hurt someone else's family. No one deserves that.

Here are some random pictures to summarize the last year of my life.. Enjoy!

My Daddy, I love him for Eternity

2009-03-28T12:03:00.001-07:00

In the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, NY
My high school graduation
In Central Park, such a good picture
Seminary Graduation
The true side of my daddy, always goofing off and with such a great sense of humor

This last month has been stressful beyond belief. Things were finally picking up in school and things were meshing together until I talked to my mom last Tuesday about 2:00. She told me she was on the way to the hospital and that my dad had been hit as a pedestrian by a car. I immediately panicked. I imagined the worst that had happened and cried into Laura's shoulder for about twenty minutes. I got another call about an hour later from my mom. My dad was in bad shape. He had broken both the bones in his right shin, his right humorous, all the ribs on his left side and most the ribs on his right side, and had also broken the bone right below his temple on his head. The last injury was the one that gave him the most problems. He had severe damage to his brain stem which controls the drive to breathe and the drive to stay awake. My dad passed away on March 20 surrounded by his loving family.

This was a journal entry that I sent to my dad about two months ago, I made him cry. I want to write some special things about my dad. I have so many memories of going to work with my dad and how excited I was every chance that I got to work with him. He taught me the true meaning of working and a job well done. He would make sure that I was doing well and had tips to help me complete a job. He was always patient with me when I tried new things and wasn't always fast. I get along with my dad very well. Even when my mom and I fight, my dad can always come and talk to us and can talk to me in a way like no one else. He puts things into a perspective that I understand and brings me to a new light so that I can fully understand what he is saying. He has always been there for me, even through his ups and downs. My dad would come to my games in high school even though it would hurt him immensely to sit in the bleachers for so long. My dad is my comforter, ever since I was young I have gone to him when I was sad, hurt, sick, or just needed a hug and could curl up in his lap where he would rock in his big chair and rock me back and forth while patting me setting me in a rhythm that would usually end in me falling asleep curled up in his arms. Even though I am eighteen now and much bigger than I used to be, I can still curl up on his lap and lie on his chest while he rocks in his big chair and pats me to calm me down. His hugs always calm me down and have more comfort than anyone else. My dad has taught me the meaning of optimism. Even though he hurts a lot and has many health problems, I have never heard that man complain. He takes things in stride and has pulled through so many problems with a smile on his face. A good memory that links these two lessons together is when we found out that he had Poly cystic Kidney Disease. I remember him telling me nonchalantly and how panicked and scared I was. I went into my bedroom and laid on my bed and cried my eyes out. I was so scared that his kidneys would fail him one day and that would be the end. I cannot imagine my life without my dad, so that thought scared me to death. I finally got myself to stop crying enough and made my way upstairs to talk to him about it. I got to the top of the stairs and lost control again. I started to cry and he said, "oh that's no good, what's wrong honey?" I went over and he opened his arms and let me curl up in his lap, just like old times. I said that I was scared because I didn't want him hurting and I didn't know what to do or think about him having this problem. I was waiting for his kidneys to fail one day and I didn't like living in the fear that that created. He held me close and squeezed me tight and said, "You know what, sweetie, I'm scared too." He laughed and said that it came suddenly to him too. He told me that it was something that we just needed to accept and live with. There was nothing we could do about it, so we had to just live with it and not let it affect our lives. I was so awed that this man who had been told that his kidney days were numbered was telling ME that it was going to be okay. My dad has also taught me about the spiritual things in life. He has a subtle testimony and doesn't share it with the world like my mom does, so when it does come out it always catches me by surprise and fills my heart with warmth. When he taught the priesthood classes he would always review the lessons with me and tell me the stories he used and how he related the concepts with these stories just made sense to me. It was fascinating to me to listen to him. Another fond memory I have of my dad is his story telling. He would tell Shannon and I stories when we were little and I remember he would do voices and actions and would get so into the story. He told us Lord of the Rings and could do that Gollum voice, or the Smog the dragon cry so well that it would send shivers up my back and I could see my dad morph into the character just to tell the story. Even as I grew up, he would tell me new stories that he had in his head and what happened and how it all worked out and what it was about. Some of the stories I heard, I was amazed that my dad had come up with them. I would always bug him about writing and making sure that he was and he would tell me that he had a new story in mind and what it was about and all that jazz. My dad's imagination is one that extends out forever in all directions and I love it. My dad instilled in me the love to read and the ability to get lost in a book or in a story. He taught me what it was to read for enjoyment and to just absorb all there was when I read. This has helped me so much because when I had to read for school I had no problems with it. He is such an intelligent man and I can ask him any question and if he doesn't know the answer, he will find it. I could listen and talk to him for a lifetime. I remember countless times when I would be with him and we would get talking and I would learn so much just from talking to him, even if it was for a short period of time. I am so blessed to have the father that I do and have had the chance to learn so much from him. He is always there for me and I will never forget that. I could never thank him enough and I love him forever and for all eternity.

My dad was such an outstanding person who lived his life to the fullest and didn't hold anything back. He loved his family dearly and would do anything for us. My dad wrote an epic fantasy novel and loved what he did. He put his stories into something real.

He was my hero and my idol. My life will forever be changed without my daddy, but I know he is watching over me and that he loves me..

A Bright and Sunny Week, and a Cold and Cloudy Beach

2009-03-15T20:09:00.001-07:00

This past week was not particularly exciting, because my main focus was work and school. I've been playing catch up with school because I seriously needed some extra points, so that has kept me busy. Plus just keeping up with everything... Like sleep for example. I slept for six hours on Friday, I crashed about 2 and woke up around 8. I turned my alarm off twice and then just decided to sleep on. It was very refreshing though. I needed a day to get away from everything and have a good long time to just relax.

Hair Colors, Tests, Lawn Adventures, and Ladybugs

2009-03-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

I got creative and crawled into a bush for this shot. The clouds were awesome. We get some wicked ones around here.

Spring has arrived! This is the street going into my house and it is so beautiful.

This is step one of our backyard.. Up to my ankles just off the porch. It was crazy.

No, it's not a robot. It's our lawn mower. that's how deep our grass was. We almost lost the mower a few times haha

TA DA!!! It's so pretty now and you can actually see the fence.

From our back porch (compare to picture above of forest) is now mucho improved.

My hair started out blonde..

Then changed to a reddish brown colorAnd is now at a real brown color that I like a lot. It's gorgeous!

Well, I am a bit behind on keeping this thing up to date. Well, if you couldn't tell by the title, I have now gone another shade darker for my hair. I finally got it to the shade of brown that I like and I think I will keep it this way for a while. Laura did the dying for me, after I did hers of course. She has gone to a very dark brown, and then the bottom half is black. It is a subtle difference, but looks really good.
I have had lots of tests in school the last few weeks and am happy to say that I have done well on most of them. There is one I don't want to talk about, but I am very proud of myself and all my hard work. And if I did awful on a test (which I admit, I did on a few..), then I did as much extra credit as I could so that I could boost my grade. Hopefully it helped! Ok, now off my soap box..
Work is finally picking up and I'm getting more hours than before. I now have a set schedule which excites me because I am now guaranteed at least twenty hourse a week. Not much, but still more than i had before! Still the same, I am job hunting to see if I can use my extra time wisely. I am looking for a waitressing job, and have actually found a few places that are hiring.

I am very excited to announce that we got a puppy.. Well sorta. Her name is Dutchess and she is an eleven year old German Shepherd and she is actually really big, though we all just call her Puppy anyway. Well, it's Keith's mom's dog, but we are watching her for a few months and we decided taht we needed to unbury our backyard so that when she went outside we didn't lose her in the shrubbery. I borrowed a lawn mower from Colton's family and we all went to work. Me, Laura, and Shane all hit hyperfocus together and cleaned the entire yard. It's not that big, but when you have to mow it, it seems much bigger. We stayed out for an hour and a half with Shane mowing and Laura and I going around the perimeter where the mower couldn't reach and pulling out weeds, some of them almost as long as my leg. It was actually a lot of fun and the ground was damp from recent rain, so everything mostly came out well. We had to clean out the mower quite a few times because with the wet grass it made it very hard to get it to work right. We have about five bags of grass and about three of just weeds. It was a lot of work, but oh my it looks amazing! I have posted here pictures of before and after so that you can see the difference..

Laura gave me the nickname ladybug because I would point out every ladybug that I came across. In our little backyard, there were tons! I saw probably at least thirty and I kept running out of names. I was very intrigued though because I remember working in the yard at home and was always excited to find a ladybug. One bug that I actually enjoy finding..

That is about all that is exciting for the last few weeks. Enjoy pictures!

Birthdays and Motocross

2009-02-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

The trickers that were the 'half time' show.
So in light of reading the next picture's title first, this is one person that was not only on a small bike, but it was a teeny bike. He was hilarious to watch go around the track because he could barely sit on the bike without his feet hitting the ground..
To explain the picture above.. for one race they did a spoof where it was older people but on little tiny bikes, so this is the starting line and you can see how big they are and how small the bikes are.
My only clear picture of people jumping the very end, but if you look at the videos below you get lots of live action shots.

There were actually two highlights to this week! The first one is that my adorable niece is a year old! On February 19, Eva Bug celebrated her birthday and though I didn't get to talk to her because she was asleep by the time I called, her parents were both very happy that she had a good birthday and I got to see lots of cute pictures :)

The next exciting thing that happened, if you couldn't figure it out by the title, is that we got to go to a motocross event yesterday at Arco Arena (the Delta Center of Sacramento). Keith scored some free tickets from school and took quite a big crowd out there. It was me, Keith, Laura, Jacob, Jeffrey, Robert, Beau, and Beau's roommate. We all got to sit together up in the nosebleed section (which actually really wasn't that high because the arena is pretty small... So it actually had a perfect view). It was hilarious to visit and spend some time with my roommates and to make some new friends.. I have cousins that do racing for Almond Racing, but I didn't know much about the sport until last night when I was asking everyone around me questions so that I could learn more. I learned the hard way that the white flag means last lap and the checkered flag means that there has been a winner already. The winner usually does something cool over the last jump of the race and in all my trying to catch it, I kept trying when the checkered flag went up, but by then everyone had slowed down and the trick had passed me by. I got some good pictures and videos which are posted on here just to show you how awesome it was. There was a cool 'half time' show of trickers that set up a steep ramp and did tricks. I got a video of the final run where they all do their best trick and some good still photos too. We saw some wicked crashes and there was also one rider who had to be taken off the track on a stretcher because he crashed so hard. In that heat, they put up the red flag which meant that everyone had to get off the track, wait for the injured rider to be removed, and then continued racing in the order that they were when the race stopped. I was awed at how much cool stuff I learned and by the end of the night, I wanted to get out on the track and try it myself.

After the show we went to McDonald's after Laura made us all crave McFlurries. It was an exciting car ride that I had to battle to keep my shoe on my foot and not have it tied to anything.. I eventually lost because I am no match when Laura is holding me down and Jacob has my foot. My shoe was tied to the seat belt and my sock was stuck into the window.. Luckily both were rescued in time, so that I still have them. I enjoyed spending time with friends and seeing something new.

An On Time Post for Once!!

2009-02-15T19:24:00.001-08:00

This is adorable Eva Bug at Christmas, she is getting so big!
This is my ENTIRE family. We finally have a picture of all of us together, left to right: Brandon, Dad, Shannon, Me, Logan, Eva, and Rachel. Unfortunately.. Mom is taking the picture, but I have lots of pictures with her in them too!! This was at my Uncle's cabin with like three feet of wonderful snow to play in!

Well, this week hasn't been too thrilling but I will post anyway because I am trying to form some sort of habit.. School was extra crazy because I had a test in every class that can have a test.. I had a biology and statistics test on the same day, then a Psychology quiz the next day. I know I did well in Psych, and I am sure I got an A in Stats, and actually did well in biology too! It was very nice to have the weekend free of stress because I had Skyler and Daniel come into town on Thursday night. I don't have school tomorrow, so I didn't have to worry about homework or anything while they were here.
We hung out a lot and just caught up on times missed. Friday was spent piled on our couch just talking and filling each other in on what has happened the last few months. I went to Chili's with Sky and Daniel Friday night while Laura was at work and we had a fun time joking around and telling stories. Saturday we (Laura, me, Sky, Daniel, and Shane) all took an adventure out to the Roseville Mall which is HUGE! We took like four hours just to walk around the mall, only going in a few stores. It was great fun to see all the stores down here and window shop. Saturday night we spent calmly at home watching movies and lazing around. Sunday morning Daniel and Sky left very early because they had to brave the storm to get home on time. It took them four and a half hours to get through Donner's Pass, usually an hour and half to two hours at the most. I spent all morning on my computer updating them with weather and traffic and making sure they were safe. They blew a tire in the pass, but made it out ok.
Saturday morning I got to plan with Jacob, the guy Laura is dating, to plan a special surprise for Laura for Valentine's Day. He came over to our house before he went to work and put a dozen roses in her car for her to find. I came out and opened the car for him and talked to him a bit. It was so cool to see the surprise on Laura's face when she found the flowers in her car. It sure was tricky! I have been plotting behind her back for a few weeks now helping him out in deciding what to do and how to do it. It was a very cute idea and I was happy to help!
I have been trying to squeeze in hours at work this last week because not many were given to me to begin with, and with no school it will be nice to get in an extra day to work! This week is Eva's birthday and she is going to be one! I can't believe it has already been a year since she was born.. I remember the day like it was yesterday! Well, this next week is filled with school and work and I will hopefully stay on top of things and post next Sunday. Until then, Arrivederci!

I'm Very Behind, So I'm Not Even Going to try to Catch Up..

2009-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

It poured rain today and afterwards the clouds cleared and we had a gorgeous, perfect rainbow! It was so bright, you could see all the individual colors.

Well, to sum up the last four months in a few quick sentences.. I got a 4.0 for my first semester and survived my finals. I got a job at Aeropostale in Arden Mall and only worked there for a few months because I was seasonal, but I got some freaking cute clothes while I was there! Laura got a job there as well, but not the same location as me. I went home for Christmas and had a blast visiting friends and family alike. January was a flash of lots of spare time because I was between jobs and semesters. Now I am a full time student at American River college, I'm taking Stats, Biology, Core Conditioning, Personal Safety, and Psychology Human Development. I love it all! I'm so happy to be back in school and learning again. I missed it dearly. I got a new job at Target thanks to my roommate Keith who currently works there and got me the go in to call for an interview. I work as Instocks and I love it. I have enjoyed learning new things and working with new people. I also get to train on Plano and learn something different and new. I enjoy working at Target and have a good day every day of work.
Well, today I have been feeling very nostalgic so I am going to post some videos and pictures that I found that mean a lot to me. These are a look back over a lot of time this last year I believe.. I will now try to update this at least every two weeks. I update my facebook probably every day, you think I'd have a little more motivation for this one haha.
This last week has been filled with working and getting ready for my first two tests which were today. On Saturday I went up to Cisco Grove with the ward to go sledding and see that snow really does exist in California. We got up there and donned our gear and hit the slopes. We had a gigantic tube that fit three people and we had a blast cramming as many people as we could on it to go down the hills. Well, after practicing control on the little hills we headed over to the monster hill that was basically the side of the mountain. I went down it on the tube with Patrick and Colton, but I'm the only one who made it to the bottom of the hill and that's because I was injured and couldn't move to get off. I fell into the hole in the middle and slammed the snow when we went over a jump. I bruised my hip bone and have been on the mend with lots of ice and TLC since then.
Well, one of the videos on here is of Eva, my niece and just last week I found out that she is gong to be a big sister, and not only that but to TWINS! I am so excited that Rachel is having twins! But all growing up I wished I had a twin and that I could have twins, now she is living my dream, but that's ok :) Shannon and I decided we may as well be twins because we have so much of the same taste and are so alike. She just came a few years early.. My other twin is Laura and living with her has been very interesting. We get along most the time and I love having her here to talk to and go through life here in California with.
Oh, and on the light of new things that have happened in the last few months, we got a new roommate. His name is Keith and he is 23 and goes to UTI with Laura and Shane. Actually, Laura met him in class because they had a class together and she thought he would be a good person to live with, so she brought him over to show him the house and we all got to meet him. We couldn't find any downside to him moving in so we let him.. He moved in on December third and it has been very interesting getting used to having someone new in the house. We have our usual traditions with us three, so now we get to do everything with Keith too and one more person makes it lots of fun. It has been entertaining living with him and he has introduced rock band into our house which makes for some very fun nights with me, him and Shane. (Laura has sworn off guitar hero and rock band) He has been fun to get to know and it's been great having our house finally full instead of one ominous empty bedroom.
Over Christmas break I got to fly back to Utah and spend five days with my family at my uncle's cabin up in the Rocky Mountains by Strawberry Resorvoir. It was a blast and we had to snowmobile in the last four miles, that was quite an adventure! I got to stand on the sleigh on the back with Rachel and Eva in front of me. We had our share of snow with 1 foot Christmas Eve and 2 feet Christmas Day. It was very nice to spend time with my family because it had been so long since I had seen them. We had fun playing games and chatting. I was then home for another week where I got to spend time with my friends that I've missed and got to go to two missionary farewells of my friends that are leaving. James Lawrence went to Honolulu, Hawaii, and Carson Williams went to the Dominican Republic. It will be a long two years without these two! I went to a few parties for New Year's and this was my first year to get a New Year's Kiss! I rode the train home the next day and had a really good time on the sixteen hour ride through desert, salt plains and mountains alike. It was a beautiful ride and I made some friends along the way.
Well, along with living with three UTI students I sure get my share of work on our cars, particularly Laura's. She has a '98 Chevy S10 Blazer and over this last month I have helped her replace her ball joints, idler arm, wheel hub, bang out her back plate, change her oil, change my oil and some other random small jobs. I have gotten use to greasy hands and I love to get down and dirty and learn new things. It has been an educating experience with her learning so much just from asking her questions and her willingness to teach me.

I loved being home for the holidays so that I could spend some time with my siblings!
Chantel and I were living it up on the 'wedding stone' in front of the Salt Lake Temple. While in Salt Lake I went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was beautiful and so much fun to hang out with friends!
Next, it was Bryce's turn to take a picture with me in front of the temple.
This is probably the cutest picture of Eva ever, I was using the smile shutter on my camera which will only take pictures when it detects a smile, so I smiled the whole time and just waited for her to flash one so the camera could capture it!

Top: This is me getting my finger too close to Eva who immediately opened her mouth and bit me. So I tried to wiggle my finger out and this is what I got!

Second: This was a few weeks ago at a tumbling gym and I have been learning arials for a while now and I'm finally getting them figured out. I learned how to throw back tucks a bit different, so there is me trying it out and doing better than the cheer prep!

Third: This is an amazing stunt that we were going to do for the field opener last year and our group was the only one who did it right. Notice when Marlies comes down she is still holding the Arabesc, she doesn't need to touch the ground because we are amazing enough to be able to get her back up there. This is by far my favorite stunt and my favorite group! I miss my girls!

Bottom: This guy's name is Hawk and he's a famous tricker here in Sacramento. He was at the tumbling gym doing tricks and parkour and we were talking about corkscrews, which is the trick that he does, and I got him to do one for me. His are so high and so pretty! I want to learn one!

One of These Days I Will Catch Up With Myself.. Today Is Not That Day.

2008-11-10T17:18:00.001-08:00

The four guys from Forever Plaid. Left to right: Sparky, Jinx, Frankie and Smudge

Same guys but now you can actually see who they are:) Top to bottom (cuz it's a closer picture): Smudge, Jinx, Frankie and Sparky

Sunsets here are gorgeous. We don't have mountains for the sun to set behind, but when we have clouds the colors are extraordinary.

I miss my kitties:( I'm going through animal withdrawal. Laura and I are talking about kidnapping our neighbors cat haha

They did this song with toilet plungers and they would suction to the stage then pull them up for hte pop sound and it went with the song and all. It was so great! I think this was my favorite song.

Well, I have been on a few dates the past few weeks so I will tell about those first. The first one was a corn maze with my friend Colton. it was in Dixon which is about 20 minutes West of here. It was GIGANTIC!! It holds the record for the biggest corn maze in the Guiness Book of World Records at 40 acres, but that was last year. This year it was an amazing 43 acres of corn confuzing fun! Well, we went with some people from our ward and succeeded in getting terribly lost, of course. I liked just going whichever way looked appealing, but then they started cheating and used the map. I am impressed at their amazing skills cuz I was just following along. We finally managed to get out and it only took us an hour! It was very easy to get lost and a lot of fun. It was my first corn maze experience, besides the haunted corn maze when I was ten whcih I dont' want to talk about haha. then we played on the giant pyramid of hay bales which consisted of being the top of the hill and then once we got to the bottom a mad hay fight ensued. I am still pulling hay ouf of the pockets of my jacket..

The next most exciting bit of information is that I got a job, possibly two. I was in a time of despair so I got a priesthood blessing by my home teacher Derrick. I had positive outlooks the next day. I had a few callbacks and two interviews before I got to the interview that gave me the job.. I made some calls to theatres around here to see if they needed stage hands. One called me back and hired me on as a house manager. I get hired by chance and not only that but to a manager position! It's called the Cosmopolitan Cabaret and it's in downtown Sac. Benny (the manager) let me come to a show to see what it wasl ike and I took my friend Rachel. WE had such a blast! It was a show called Forever Plaid and I was laughing so hard the entire time that by the end my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. (If you want more info about it you can to got he site http://www.calmt.com/) My other job possibility is at the wonderful Target. I applied to one and found out that Laura goesto school with the overnight team lead. I got a great recommendation from the HR representative from Mom's target and landed an interview:) I would haev gotten the job but I'll be gone too long for Christmas, so I said that I was willing to change my vacation if it meant that I got the job. I will nkow by tomorow if I still get it. I sure hope I did!

For Halloween I went over to my friend's house with a group of people and we watched the Grudge(which was stupid..) and played Apples to Apples until all hours of the night. I gave out candy to our trick or treaters (all two of them..) But as soon as I left our house was shut down and darkened because Laura was hiding from them.. haha.

Well, fall has officially come to Sacramento for the rain has arrived. Last week it rained.. all week. It was so great though. I love rain, so I had a blast playing in it and getting wet everywhere I went. It rained so hard that just from running into a store from the parknig lot my hair was dripping byt he time I got in.. It hasnt' rained much since, but it's suposed to rain tomorrow. It's gonna be great!

Well, I'm going strong in school an doing great in all my classes. It's been a good first semester of school and I only have about a month left before finals week and I'm done wtih my first semester of many:)

Birthday Week and Shannon Visiting

2008-10-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

The beach we camped by drown in fog.. The dark line in the middle that extends to both sides of the picture is the jetty that had the stupid foghorn.. and lots of fun tidepools with crabs and starfish
The infamous Golden Gate Bridge..

This was Shannon's idea but I put it up here because it grosses out Bryce when I do something flexy:-)
This is my 'I'm trying to gracefully kick the water and don't ask what my arms are doing' kind of picture
We got fresh California strawberries from a stand down the road and I accidentally overcooked the chocolate, so I was just getting it with my fingers, eating a strawberry and licking my fingers. Shannon came over and tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around like this. I couldn't get away with siphoning all the chocolate for very long..
This is my entire group I went camping with (besides me, but ya know what I look like) from left to right: Patrick, Colton, Rachel, Peter (punk covered his face), Phil, Emily, and Shannon

Blue Angels' famous pyramid formation.. Yikes that's close
"You have good lines" ~Shannon
Who would that be?? None other than Lord of the Dance!! AKA Shannon
Yes, a true treehugger
And KICK!

A heart drawn in the sky by two planes flying side by side, then when they split let out the streamline and do a side flip to get the two sides of th heart, then the third plane (stil in the picture) that comes through for the arrow
Fighter jets that have pretty colored streamlines:)
HUGE FREAKING PLANE. I cannot even describe it.. I'm not close to the Golden Gate Bridge and this is how huge it is in my picture..
If you look really close you see the two planes about the center of the picture that are so close to each other as they cross paths!!
THE BLUE ANGELS!!! HERE AT LAST!!

Well, I haven't written in quite a while, so I'll just summarize the last week because that is realy the only exciting part of October. October 10 to October 19 Shannon came to visit me for my birthday. While she was here we did lots of shopping, visited San Francisco, went to the river, camped on the beach, swam, tanned, and she even came to school with me! I got some extra money for my birthday so I went shopping and got a Roxy jacket, 2 pairs of Hurley shorts and a new pair of shoes:) Shannon also picked up some things because it can't be a vacation without shopping.

Last Sunday we went to San Francisco and Laura and Shane came with us. We left about nine or so and the trip went smooth until just over the bay bridge, then we hit traffic. It was very slow and went across some of the bridge until the toll boothes. We could not figure out why there was so much traffic because usually Sunday is the off day, but not this one. After some thought we realized there wasa 49ers game (after seeing hoards of people driving with 49er memorabilia all over their car or on their person). Though not only that, but there was a parade and it was also the conclusion of fleet week so there was an airshow all afternon featuring the Blue Angels. After driving all over the stupid island because roads kept closing right in front of us, we paid a ridiculous $30 to park and headed to Fisherman's Warf. It was wicked watching the stunt planes out over the bay. I had Shannon's picture and the screen is broken, so I took a ton of pictures of sky because I would guess where the planes were. I need to work on my guessing skills quite a bit. The Blue Angels had an hour of the total show and did some amazing thigns. They made a heart with the smoke, flew straight up then would fall back, fly amazingly close to each otehr, and of course the infamous pyramid of all six planes. I got a few good pictures, but it was dang hard to get because they would be in and out of the shot before I could snap it.

I didn't know much about teh airshow, so I researched it when I got home and found out that the Blue Angels are F-18 Hornets and the whole thing started in 1943 to keep the civilians interested in the airplane programs of the military. over 500 million people have seen the shows and that number is constantly increasing. They have a practice area in Nebraska over lots of deserts so that the sound from the planes doesn't bother the neighborhoods. They got low quite a few times and it was like an earthquake, it was so loud! I was fascinated by it all, so I didn't shop much because I was out on the pier craning my neck skyward to see any sign of a plane. We were going to drive over teh Golden Gate Bridge, but by the time we were leaving we were very ready to go home. Too many people to want to stay in teh city any longer.

Little did I know but Sacramento is also known as the city of rivers. True, we only have two, but they sure are big and have a lot of parks to explore and visit. I am only a few miles from the junction where teh Sacramento and the American river connect. Shannon and I went to Discovery Park which is set on the river and has a couple boat docks, a beach, and a big open park with huge trees. We went picture happy and had lots of fun on the trees and wading in the water. The water was quite comfortable and it was nice to wade, so nice in fact that it was all we could to do resist jumping in fully clothed.

My ward planned on going camping in Bodega Bay on the 17th and 18th, but a few days before it the trip was canceled. We were really mad because that is what I had planned for two whole days! Plus, not camping on the beach really put a damper on our spirits. Luckily, there was a group still going and I knew about it! So we still went. We left Friday afternoon and crammed into Phil's car and Peter's truck. There were a total of eight people going: me, Shannon, Emily, Rachel, Phil, Peter, Patrick and Colton. Five of us were crammed into Phil's car and I got very sick from his driving. After driving all over creation to take teh round about way to the camping site, we finally spilled out of the car and set up camp. For there only being eight of us, there was a huge camp site so we had plenty of room. We started setting up camp and after getting all of the tents laid out Phil realized taht he didn't have the poles for his tent. So, we improvised and put his tent under a tree. He tied the middle of it to the tree and I went up to help him and noticed small gold hooks. So I grabbed the hooks and started hooking them up to the tree. Soon enough, Voila! a tent appeared. I figured out how to move the tree jsut right to not pull the tent too mcuh. We were a hop, skip and a jump away from teh beach so I went down to explore. I loved it. A smal cove, small waves, ripples in the sand, and quiet(except the stupid horn that went off every 8 seconds to warn boats that there was a jetty and to not run into it. the lights on the end must not have been enough..) One by one everyone else came down to join me. We watched teh sunset and played int he waves. I got a little excited and got in up to my knees and turned my back to the waves. I had one hit my knees and go all the way up to my waist.. so I was a bit wet. Peter surprised me when he came up behind me and picked me up around my waist, holding me precariously high over the waves and threatening to throw me in. Luckily he didn't, but teasing continued and the punk stole my phone and I had to chase him all over the beach to get my phone, hoodie and shoes back. I sure got my work out becasue he has long legs and catching up to him, no matter how fast I am, is quite dificult. Colton came late because he had to work, and once he got there we set up a fire and it blazed quite big. It was very warm though! We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. I probably had about ten marshmallows,but only two s'mores. They got addicting real quick. About eleven Patrick, Emily and Rachel all headed to bed, but the rest of us stayed around the fire to talk. After a battle over the closest chair, Peter ended up sitting on me, but to make things more comfortable I ended up sitting sideways over his lap as an agreement so that we could both sit in the chair. After about twenty minutes of sitting like that Phil caught on and forced himself into Shannon's chair. Poor girl.. It was everything she could do to get out of his lap and get out of his reach. He was really rude and really annoying the whole trip. By the end of Saturday everyone was against him. He really got on all of our nerves and we were al ready to leave him behind. That's all I'm going to say on the matter becasue i could write an entire entry about why we all hate him.. We finally went to bed about 1:30( after I had fallen asleep curled into one of the camp chairs already)

The next morning we all woke up to French toast, a warm fire, and hot chocolate. We just sat around the fire and chatted for a few hours to wake up and to get warm. A thick fog set in overnight, so in the morning everything was wet. It was interesting to step into shoes taht had puddles in them.. It made it really pretty, and finally started to lift right as we left. After much pushing from Phil we packedup camp and were going to head to a beach. We figured one clsoe, but when Phil told us he said it was an hour and half away. We're on the beach and we're traveling how far to go to the stupid beach???!!! Thankfully, Shannon and I got to drive in Peter's truck (Dodge Ram 1500) instead of cramming into Phil's Toyota Corolla and listening to him talk and talk and talk... So we headed south and at least we finally did get to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, but we had to pay the stupid toll.. Then we drove through the heart of San Francisco which took forever because there's always traffic there. We get almost to the end and get a call from Colton that his truck broke down and he's about two miles behind us. So Phil asks us to go back and get him while he makes his merry way down to the beach. Cursing all the way, we flip around and head back through the traffic, and over the median to get to our friends, and of course, right when we get there the truck starts working again. Gotta love irony.. We were ready to just go home, but I honestly wanted to go to teh beach, so we headed down to Pacifica. I had said we could go to one that I knew, Rockaway beach, that I had been to before, but it wasn't a swimming beach. Little did I know that Pacifica is the next beach jsut south of Rockaway, around a giant outcropping of rock. So we went down and got some food, donned our wetsuits, and went running full till into the water. Ha well sorta.. It was nice with a wet suit, so after being swept off my feet in knee deep water I ran in to join in Patrick and Colton who were swimming without wetsuits (yes, they're crazy.. I know). At first I was just swimming, then I tried boogie boarding. I didnt' catch any waves, but it was fun to ride. Colton didn't last long cuz the water was way cold, so it was just Patrick and I and we decided to head closer to the group because we had been pushed very far down the caost by a riptide.. So as we were getting out I got pummeled by a wave as tall as I was and when I peeled my wetsuit off I had showers of rocks come out. Forget having sand everywhere.. I had rocks. I changed quickly otu of my swimming suit and into the only dry clothes I had.. Shorts. We got back to the car and Colton gave me his pajama pants and they were so nice! Such a relief from freezing in my shorts.. It was a fun drive home with Peter. shannon was out cold after the Bay Bridge and so I talked to him the whole way home... Mostly about how mad we were at Phil.

We got home and showered, then met up again (but just Colton, Patrick, Peter, me and Shannon) and watched Surf's Up at Colton's house.. By the end of it though only Shannon adn Patrick were conscious. We hadn't slept much the night before, so we were all exhausted, I curled up on the floor and was out cold, luckily I made it through most of the movie. After the movie Colton pulled me down toward where he was and started tickling me! Then Peter joind in and hit just the right spot that I couldn't even move I was laughing so hard. Luckily I had Shannon there so she gangedup on Colton, but it was a lost cause for me because Peter isn't ticklish. We talked a bit more and then headed home to our nice warm beds. It was a very fun weekend and I was hit on by every guy I went camping with :) Made it very fun though, and now I have a lot more friends than I had before.. I'm happy to have had the chance to get to nkow more people.

Throughout the week we went to the pool by my house and laid out to tan. The first day we jumped in the water, I had stuck my foot int he water and I knew it was cold so I told Shannon not to. We got to the side and jumped in together. We were both hyperventilating by the time we reached the side and frantically climbed otu. The water was ice cold!!! With the last few days of wind we've had it made the water super cold.. We didn't get in again the whole week haha

Sunday Shannon took me shopping so that we could get something for me for my birthday. I got some very cute plaid Hurley shorts from Macy's on sale, and some cute heels from Payless. Taking Shannon to the airport was bittersweet, and I can't wati for Christmas when I get to go home and see all my family. I miss everyone so much!! Sunday night I frantically did homework because I was very behind.. I had a Psychology test on Monday (I think I did well), a Sociology test today (no comment) and a Nutrution test tomorow (Yikes). So now I am back in swing to get a job and to focus on school. There's tons of pictures, because I did a lot and haven't written for a long time. Enjoy!!

Boring Week, But A Thrilling Weekend

2008-09-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Really small because they are from my phone, but this is me in the hospital bed

This is the IV in my arm
How swollen my knee was
Another one of my knees
This was Laura playing with the teal rubber band they used as the tourniquet when giving me the IV. She wanted to keep it as a souvineer so they let us take it home:)

Well, this week hasn't been too horribly exciting. I had a lot of tests and I know that I did well on my Psychology one, but Sociology is another story. I also got some really good compliments from my English teacher on an essay that I wrote. I thought that I had a really good chance at getting a job at Barnes and Noble, but they haven't called me back yet, so I'm giving up on that plan. I have been here for a month and a half and still don't have a job. It's driving me crazy and I won't be able to do it much longer.

Friday night I went to the end of a dance with a guy from my ward named Phil. I was sick of being home and so I texted him and he said he could come get me after work and we'll head up. Well, he didn't get off work until about 11:20, so we missed most of the dance because it ended at midnight and he still had to come get me. After the dance we hung around the church for a while and I met a bunch of people from my ward. They were really cool and fun to talk to. I got the nicknames Roxy Girl (because I was wearing a Roxy shirt) and Miss Utah (because most the people I talked to knew I was from Utah). We found a group that was going over to Matt's house for rootbeer floats, so Phil and I headed that direction. After getting lost, we finally found the house. It was an older house that was rather small, but as you walk in the first thing you see is a grand piano in the kitchen. It was a gorgeous piano and after the invitation to 'go to town' I hit it up. The keys were harder to play, but I loved it. I have a keyboard, but it's nothing like a real piano, especially a grand piano. Phil has played the piano for twenty years, so he showed me up but he knew some really pretty songs. We had rootbeer floats, played the piano, played on a rope swing outside, and finally at about 2:30 am I decided I needed to go home because we were taking Shane to the airport at 4:20. I finally staggered into the house around 3:00 and crashed.

Saturday was Laura's birthday, so after taking Shane to the airport, we came home and went back to bed. I was going to be all sly and make her breakfast in bed but she was up before I was! So I offered to make her breakfast and she was very excited about that. I made her French Toast and then we got ready to go out and run some errands. Shane's birthday is tomorrow so we had to go and get his presents. Saturday night we went to dinner at Olive Garden and because of an enormous wait we just chilled on the front stairs and chatted for about an hour. Towards the end of our wait, we were suddenly surrounded by 20 guys in green polos. And guess who was on this soccer team! Our friend Jake Hustedt that we went to high school with. We were both really surprised to see him and he had the same reaction for us. It was really funny to talk to him. He was with the school Cal Poly from San Luis Obispo and they were up here to play Sac State on Sunday. Our waitress was really nice and funny, and I asked her if they were hiring and she said yes. She gave me some good tips to get the job and even gave me her name and her brother's name to put on my resume.

Well, Sunday was a very thrilling day. Saturday mornign when I woke up my left knee was really hurting me. Throughout the day it started getting really swollen and red. I was able to ignore it Saturday, but when I got up Sunday I could hardly walk. I couldn't put much weight on it and I couldn' bend it. I called the ask a nurse hotline to see waht I should do. She asked me if it was red, which I now noticed it had a circle around it about the size of a baseball or a softball. She then asked me if it was warm. Talk about a weird question, but to my surprise, it was. She said that it was probably an infection and that I should go to the ER to have it checked out. After calling my parents to tell them what was going on, I told Laura and she offered to come with me. I drove us there and we got in and checked in. I had a fever of 99.2 and could hardly walk. I couldn't bend my knee so I was walking really funny too. They took me into a room and I got into one of those fun hospital gowns and waited for the doctor. He came in and pushed every part on my knee that just screamed in pain and I almost wacked his hand out of the way because it hurt, but I managed to stop myself. He tested my lungs and heart to see if there were any other causes and then said that I would need and IV to get some antibiotice because I did, indeed have an infection in my knee. I was really nervous and happy that Laura was with me to hold my hand. They tried in my right arm and missed twice, so another nurse came in and tried in my left arm where after some prodding around he finally got it. It was very painful and I cried more than I expected to. It was interesting to have the IV because once the plastic tube was in my vein I couldn't really feel it. They drew some blood to do tests and then hooked me up to an antibiotic called Vicromiacin, or something close to that. It started making me itch, so I got some Benedryl straight into my bloodstream and was tired within minutes. Luckily I had Laura to drive me home. It took an hour for the entire 250 mL of the antibiotic to go in, but it was worth the wait and the blood test results were back by then. My white blood cell count was high, which usually means your body is fighting something off.

After being at the hospital for nearly six hours we finally headed home. We went to Target to get my prescription and then stayed home. I had so many painkillers and antibiotics in my blood stream taht I could not stay conscious. I was asleep by 8:30 and dont recall much of what happened besides my dad calling me about 9:30 and textign Bryce a bit. I slept on the couch because I couldn't wake up enough to get into my bed. I slept for thirteen hours and today my knee looks a lot better. A lot less redness and reduced swelling. I can bend it more now, but it still is very tender and very sore.

Not a Very Thrilling Week..

2008-09-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

I updated this mid-week so now it's weird to be doing it so soon, but I made a goal to update it every Sunday. Yes, I know I've said this before so hopefully this time I can stick with it.
Well, I found out that I got a 92% on my very first college test! It was nutrition and not hard because I studied like mad! But I was very happy to do well. This week has been a continuation of job searching and trying to find some place that will hire me. I have been here for over a month and I am still finding myself unemployed. Laura and Shane got a job today at Sears Auto Center. They are very excited and should start at the end of this week.
I am hoping that I get the job at Barnes and Noble because it just fits so well with who I am and the fact that I LOVE to read. I've applied to a lot of restaurants too and those would be ideal jobs as well because servers here in California get minimum wage of $8.00 per hour plus tips instead of like $2.13 per hour like they do in Utah.
Well, I have made lots of friends here. I am trying to make friends in every class and it's hardest in Nutrition because everyone is so quiet, but I've managed to at least get some that I can talk to in class. Psychology I have a few friends and the teacher is really awesome.. Plus there's this really cute boy but I haven't really talked to him much :) In Sociology I have three friends who I met the first day. Tehy are very funny and one of them is in my ward! Plus I talk to my teacher a lot. She signs with me because her daughter is Deaf, so she knows some ASL. In English I think I am friends with my entire class. The class being focused around argument we always talk and before class too. It's been a lot of fun and that is by far my favorite class.
Well, this week I'm hitting job searching straight on and hard. I need a job, I cannot wait around anymore and I'm going crazy just sitting around at home!
No pictures this week because nothing exciting happened, unless you want a picture of my test haha :)

New House

2008-09-17T12:32:00.001-07:00

This is my cute house:) We're in a weird T Court thing. So it's our house facing south, two facing east and one opposite ours facing north. Very strange, and we passed it trying to find it haha
Cool, random cabinets. the door on the left is where my room is, but I conveniently forgot to take a picture of my room :)

We have a really cool entry way, it's round! Ha, and the only tile in our house.
This is Laura standing in Shane's room.
Our magic never ending pantry!!!! It has the shelves you can see, then it extends down and around under the stairs. Awesome hide and seek place!!
Our awesome kitchen!
Opposite the kitchen is the living room where we now have a couch and a tv and such. Where most of our lives are spent.

Well, part of moving out is moving in. So after a bunch of trips down here we found the perfect house. It's four bedroom three full bath. About 1200 sq. feet and in a gorgeous neighborhood. We have access to three parks and an olympic size pool. It's just off the freeway and very close to a bunch of new shopping centers so it's awesome to be close to everything we need!

Well, September wasn't very exciting either. I at least have school to keep me busy and I am still trying to find some employment. Laura and Shane started school at the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) on Monday. It's fun to hear everything they are learning. Shane goes in the morning and Laura in the afternoon so we finally aren't all home at the same time.

August, Yes I know it's September, but this entry is just for August

2008-09-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is our entire group for backpacking. Except Bryce who was taking the picture. From left to right it's Mimi, Jackie, Chris, Zack and me.

Our first fish! This one we cut up and cooked for dinner. I'm not a fan of fish, but I figured I'd try this one and it wasn't too bad. It was a trout. Bryce is very proud of it :)

Yes, Marz using her amazing fishing skills. Ha whatever, I totally faked what I was doing!

This is Jackie and Mimi watching Bryce and I attempt to fish. They were fun to talk to. :)

Ha, this is Bryce, that is my sweater. We were fishing and he was cold and I was hot, so I took off my sweater but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Ha but it was so funny I just had to take a picture of it.

This is Bryce trying to throw me in the lake. You can see my leg lifted because I was getting out of is arms. Also notice how tight my hand is around his neck. This means that if he dares to throw me in, he is coming in there with me.

The hand you see in the picture belongs to Bryce, the wet spot on my butt is where Bryce was holding me because the punk picked me up and he was wet!

This is me and Mimi in the water. It felt so good after we got used to it!

Well, as I was getting out Bryce thought it'd be funny to jump over me. Unfortunately, he slipped on the rock as he ws jumping and nearly hit me in the head. I realized he was going over me and it's a good thing I just stayed where I was because he barely missed my head. But now we were both in the water, so I got back at him for pushing me in :)

Ha, this is me and Chris pushing Bryce in. It's hard to see, but I had grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him in. Though at the time I didn't nkow that Chris was pushing from behind.

See, after I was so used to the water I didn't want to get out. So I jsut sat down. Ha jk. AFter walkign back to camp my pants were all dirty and gross so I brought down a change of clothes and was washing off my pants. It just happened to be easiest if I just sat down. Ha little did I nkow Jackie was behind me with my camera.

Lucky me, I was shivering so much but Bryce had a blanket right there and ready for me:)

Well, in case you didn't know I am very behind. So I will do what I did last time I was behind and organize it by the month. The end of July was uneventful as far as I remember, besides of course Logan, Rachel, and little Eva coming to visit! Well, I officially moved to Sacramento California on August 14. So the two weeks before that spent a lot of time with the kids and with friends too. I went country dancing twice, once with Bryce, Jaymz, Shanda and Heather, then the second time it was just me and Jaymz and we did hip hop too which was so much fun! I learned a bunch of cool new tricks and also had someone there helping me with tumbling. Little did I know that he taught!

I also had the chance to go backpacking up Little Cottonwood Canyon with Bryce and a whole group of friends. That was probably the funnest overnight trip I have been on in a while. While hiking three miles and gaining approximately 3000 feet in elevation, we finally got to the gorgeous lake and camped out. I got to go fishing for the very first time and Bryce and I even caught two fish! But one little rascal decided to spite us and jumped off the line jsut out of our grasp. After three miles I had the biggest blisters on my feet I've ever had to endure. We were going to do a big hike the next day, but Bryce twisted his ankle pretty bad and my feet hurt so bad I didn't even want to wear my shoes.

So the second day was full of more fishing, napping and just all around relaxing time. About the hottest time of the day we all decided to jump in the lake. I really wanted to go swimming so I was ecstatic. Zack was the first one to get in and he just ran in but was out of there so fast he didn't even get his shoulders wet! It was shockingly cold :) Bryce was next but more brave, so he ran and jumped as far as he could off the edge of the rock. He came back about as fast as Zack did. Well, lucky me I was next in line but had to really talk myself into jumping into freezing water, so Bryce tried to persuade me by picking me up and trying to throw me in, but I got out of his grasp and told him to let me jump in myself. Well, he did put me down but thought I needed more persuasion so he so nicely shoved me in. Man it's a good think I like him. Mimi jumped in too, and we finally got Chris in. Well, Bryce had pushed me and Chris in and he was trying to push me in again, so I jsut sat down on the rock, well, Bryce leaned over to push me in and I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him over my head at the same time that Chris pushed from behind. It was great revenge:) Except that he almost hit a rock.. Mimi and I were in the longest because after I got used to it I didn't want to get out so i was just swimming and chilling and nsinking because I was in my jeans. Well we all got out and decided to change and pack up to head home. I was colder than I thought though so when I got out of the water I was shivering a lot. I had Bryce to keep me warm and after I changed out of my wet clothes it wasn't so bad. Well, we bandaged my ankles and headed down the mountain. It was a long, painful trip down but I have never been so happy to see my car.

Sunday me, Brandon, Skyler, and Laura all went for a motorcycle ride. We went up to Wasatch and over South Mountain. It was a very pretty ride and we all had a lot of fun. I saw Skyler a lot the next three days. He had nothing to do so he kept coming over to my house.

Bryce decided to give me a going away date and we went up to our spot on south mountain and looked over old journal entries and old texts that we had kept. We played a lot of songs that had sentimental value and it made for a very good memory of the last days before I moved so far away.

I drove my car down with my mom and Dee because we had to be tehre a day early to pick up our key for the house. Bryce came over to see me right before I left and my dad came down from teh cabin so he could see me. I didn't nkow he was going to, but I was so happy to see him. I can't imagine having left without getting a hug for so long. It was so hard to say goodbye, but I managed to hold back the tears. So we cleaned it and went shopping for furniture and got a bunch of stuff done. Saying goodbye to my mom when she left California was not as easy as it had been in Utah. This was my last lifeline that I had and it was leaving me too. We cried a lot, as did Laura and Dee. After lots of hugs our parents left and we were officially college studnts living on our own. The next two weeks was filled with lots of movies and not much excitement. We didn'th ave school or work so there realy wasn't anything we had to do. We have over 150 movies and I think we watched most of them.

School started on August 25 and I love it. I have Psychology, Sociology, Nutrition and English. it is very interesting and I have learned a lot!

Lots of Vacationing

2008-07-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

Our infamous tree. We have a picture in this tree when I was about... 8? And I'm in the same position as I was when I was younger. Only this time I climbed there myself instead of my dad just putting me up there..
Our whole family with the cute bride and groom.. Joe and Heidi
Bam! The one in the middle is me. This is our China dance.. We're contortionists so every move is some flexy thing. It was great fun.
Our four girl stunt group mid hand spring. Mckelle is the little one in green, our flyer. I'm the one in orange shorts. Dani is the one in pink. And Caleigh is the one in green in the back.

My strange family playing with all the balloons after the show. We got some fun pictures!

My oh so concentrated look as I did the word search on the back of the Nerds box and wouldn't let my mother help me. She thought she could be sneaky and get a picture of me being mean, but I just stuck my tongue out at her.
This is how we slept in the car.. Stacked

This is Shannon and I right after we caught the flowers

This is us after we tried to decide who got to keep the flowers..

Me on graduation day.. I have a collar for NHS, a cord for honor roll, a cord for NHS, and then everyone got a medallion because we are the 100th graduating class from Jordan High.

At least one of us looks cute.. But mom is always cute :)
My entire family on graduation day. But my poor sister Rachel couldn't make it because she lives in Ohio, but I know she wanted to be there and I feel so bad about leaving her out of this picture! I still love ya Rachel:) They all came to support me. Bryce did too.

Little did you know but that is me on the back of the motorcycle.. In so much gear that I don't look at all like myself. It's my dad and Brandon's gear. The helmet is the only thing that fits..

Well, since July 4th I have played with many explosives and spent WAY too many hours cooped up in a car or on a motorcycle. On July 10th my family all piled into one car and drove down to LA for Joe's wedding. He was married on July 12th in the LA temple. It was very fun to go down and see the temple and such. We stayed in the temple apartments and it was awesome to be so close to the temple. We tinkered around LA on Friday night and were going to go to the beach but there were so many people that we just drove by it and then headed back. Saturday was a good lazy day. We went to a beach in Ventura and the water was perfect! We played in the sand with all the little sand crabs.
Then we headed up to Buellton for the reception that was at the church that night. While getting ready I found out that I got a four on each of the AP tests I took. I took Calculus and English. The most exciting part of that was that Shannon and I caught the boquette. Then Brandon caught the Garder. We got back to the hotel late and all fell asleep immediately. We were all toasted.
The next morning we stopped in at Paula's Pancake House in Solvang and had breakfast. It was very good! Then came the long trip home. After taking an hour detour to get three tires for the car and a trip to the beach we finally headed home. It was the longest trip ever! We left about 9:00 California time after our long detour and we didn't get home until 1:20 a.m. Utah time. We had to change drivers a lot and stopped in Hurricane to drop dad off for a few days. I read a lot, watched movies, slept and we played a guessing game. We had some very random things to guess. Caution cones, telephone pole, anteater, tractor, stuffed animal, etc. It was very fun to come up with things to guess.
Tuesday morning Rachel and Logan came into Utah. I didn't see them much because I was working, but on Wednesday and Thursday we all took a trip up to Steve's cabin. It was gorgeous weather and I got to ride the motorcycle all the way up there with Brandon. It was a very fun filled two days. We went four wheeling, I read a lot, played games, played on the kid killer (long story but it's basically a telephone pole swing thing that is near the edge of a cliff..) and had a lot of fun visiting together.
Friday was my last day as a nanny. It was bittersweet. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and then headed up to their house so that I could help them pack because they left for Europe on Saturday. I didn't ever want to leave their house. It meant that things were really ending. I finally managed to leave. Only a few tears were shed. I will miss them so much. After 2 1/2 years with them I have developed a great love for those kids. I have learned a lot and now know a lot of tips of what to do and what not to do when I become a parent.
I went on a beautiful hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon with Bryce on Saturday. It was sweltering heat in the valley, but up in the mountains it was perfect. Lots of wild flowers.
This week I am going to California to find a house and going to the cabin again this weekend with Bryce and my parents. (Yes, we're all very surprised and ecstatic that his parents said yes..) I found out today that I have enough money for school and found some prospective jobs. The whole California idea is finally coming together.

Mini Short Stories

2008-07-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

While looking through all of my notes and assignments from the past school year, I came across two stories that I wrote in my AP English class. We were given the first line and our assignment was to come up with a story. The line in CAPS is the prompt.

HE HAD WARNED HER ABOUT THE BOOK. NOW IT WAS TOO LATE.

It had only been a few weeks since they had discussed the dreadful book. Titled simple The Book it seemed harmless. Just another boring book that Nikki had been forced to read for her English class.

We were talking of books we disliked and had varied off to the tangent of the reading she had been doing in school. She began to explain the bizarre things she had experienced that she was relating back to blame the novel of growing legs and appearing where she went. It would randomly appear on her nightstand or on her dashboard. Little did she know it did have a strange form of legs that would lift it to follow her wherever she went.

The Book was about a giant plant that hung off the edge of the world into the great unknown. One brave man, Ayden, decided he was going to venture down and make the land of the unknown known. What Ayden did not know was that the plant had a mind and a plan of its own. It would only let one person explore its mysteries and what it so carefully guarded. This person, yet to attempt the exploration, was Nikki.

Though she did not know it, The Book was trying to pull her in, but every time it would get close Nikki would wake up or glance over.

Finally The Book managed to end up right next to Nikki as she drifted off to sleep. Now was the perfect chance. Quickly the plant escaped the pages and engulfed Nikki, ever so quietly, into the pages.

When she awoke she thought she was stuck in the strangest dream in a world with two suns and a blazing red sky. Dazed, she glanced around trying to establish herself into her surroundings. Not three meters away she noticed a sudden end in her visibility. She stood and scooted closer to explore. Over the edge was a net of twisting vines laced in intricate patterns that moved and changed to allow passage as she stared, awed by what she was seeing. Glancing behind her and realizing only desert lie behind her, she climbed down the vine and descended into the vast nothingness below her.

As she descended she noticed many gleaming lights down below. Under the Rainbow Mist was a beautiful city full of flittering fairies and fire breathing dragons swooping low that took her breath away. Detailed buildings filled the landscape and the soft buzz of everything in motion seemed to pause as they all took her in. It was replaced by loud commotion, the sound of rejoicing. Riendland finally had a queen and a ruler.

And the second one... Titled "Harris Burdock and the Bump"

TWO WEEKS PASSED AND IT HAPPENED AGAIN.

Harris Burdock sat quietly contemplating his steaming coffee cup, when suddenly from behind he heard a muffled bump. Ignoring it at first he went back to his hot drink concentrating on not singeing his tongue.

BUMP!!

It was louder this time and made poor Harris jump nearly covering his front in steaming liquid. He glanced behind him trying to find the source of the awful noise.

BBBBUUUMMMPPP!!!

It rattled the entire house, or so he thought as his chair toppled over flinging coffee all over his rug. Harris sprang to his feet quickly turning in a circle trying to find the source of the ‘bump’.

The dresser beside him rocked two and fro as if it were on a rampant wave of the sea. There it was, rolling out and scurrying quickly across the floor. Harris grabbed his chair and held it high above his head at the ready for when the ‘bump’ came within hitting distance.

“I’m warning you!! I’ll crush you!” He yelled at the ‘bump’ in fear and frustration.

The ‘bump’ seemingly ignored his threats and continued burrowing under the rug in giant circles around the room.

“Harrisssss,” the bump hissed. “Harrisssss, I’ve come for you.”

“AH!” Harris screamed as he jumped up and fell off the bed with a resounding ‘whump’.

Hope ya liked them!

Dance, Dance, Dance!! And A Few Parties..

2008-07-04T11:07:00.001-07:00

This last week was dance camp for me. I got to teach a few classes to exchange for learning for a few classes. It was such a fun week but I don't think I have been this sore since my first week of cheer sophomore year. I did dance nine hours every day.
I had tumbling first, but I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Next, I could either teach little cheer or take a contemporary class. I taught cheer Monday and Thursday and did contemporary the other days. It was such a fun routine to learn for contemporary because it is so weird. It was great fun to catch on from what I missed the first day and to learn more. Thursday I got to teach cheer alone because the original teacher was at Stadium of Fire with the girls that are doing that. I choreographed a motion sequence and I was so proud of myself for making something up! It was fun to teach.
After that was ballet. It focused a lot on technique and balance. Balance is key in every form of dance, so it was so fun to be able to just stand on your toes for as long as you can, though it does make your legs very sore. I learned a lot about posture and what to do and not to do when trying to do all the ballet moves. Ha, and with ballet I learned a lot of French.
After that was hip hop and Jenny worked us hard. We did a dance to the song 'Shawty Get Loose' and it was so fast! It was a fun dance and really tested and tried my abilities. The end of it was super fast and took a bit longer to catch on and do correctly than the rest of the dance had been for me to master.
Next was a tumbling class of about ten girls between the ages of about 9 and 12. I taught with either Sarah or Jessica Peters and it was surely a challenge to get and maintain their attention. It surely tried my patience and helped me to get control of such a big class. The twins let me take charge of the class and just piped in when they had something to say, so it was mostly me in charge.
Then came my relief. An hour at the pool to eat lunch and just lie there and relax because by then I was very tired.. I now have a tan line and I am so excited for that.
Following lunch was jazz. The first day we learned three different combos, first being easiest, third being hardest. It was a combo that you would do across the floor that involved many leaps, turns, balance and other fundamentals of dance. After the second day of practicing them, Cassi put them into a dance. It was a very hard dance because I had issues moving like she does. I ended up filming the dance so that I could go home and practice it to try and figure out how to move right.. It didn't work so well. Luckily, she changed the dance. I got to work a lot on technique and my leaps have gotten so much better. They were amazingly high the very last day of camp. We learned tilt jumps, worked on fetes (a turn where you whip your leg around to keep yourself spinning.. which I finally figured out how to do), leaps of every direction: backward, regular, develope, brush, side, switch, scissor, etc. and so forth. We also worked on just regular pirouettes which we found none of us could do this week. Ha made class really entertaining though.
Next was one of my favorite classes even though I didn't learn much all week. Dayne Rockwood, one of my friends that went to Jordan for two years, taught a break dance class. He was new to teaching so the first few days he would just free style until we saw something we liked that looked relatively easy to learn and would ask him how to do it. The first day I learned how to jump on my hands in a hand stand and a combo of a bunch of motions that look totally awesome when done to hip hop music. I also learned stalls, a dance by Michael Jackson to Beat It, the beginning of the dance in Chris Brown's music video to Forever, a one handed back hand spring that I still have yet to get, and a front hand spring that you just whip out of no where. It was fun to just talk to Dayne and help him figure out how to teach the classes. The first day he was congratulating me for graduation, the second he thought I was fifteen. (I'm nearly 19) He wasn't sure how to break down moves to teach them, so it was fun to give him tips on teaching and to help him out a bit. He's amazing at free style and so much fun to watch.
Last was a class of three young girls for tumbling. One was about four, the other two were about six. Trying to keep them focused was a challenge in itself. Luckily, two of the days Cassi stayed with me and helped me teach and control them. We would cover the basics, and even the little four year old was trying hand springs, she was so adorable though.
Dance camp has pretty much engulfed my entire week. Monday I fell asleep about eight because I was so tired, Tuesday I went to Shannon's birthday party until late with Laura and a bunch of friends that I knew. Wednesday I got to go to the airport with Bryce's parents to pick him up after his 6-day adventure in the wild Florida for a bio-tech competition (top ten in the nation!! Yeah baby!) It was fun to talk to his parents and to finally see him after so long. They took us to Leatherby's and I loved it, though I was very full by the time we headed home. (They're an ice cream eating family, so of course, I was the last one finished by a long shot) . Thursday I finally got to see Bryce. I played a very tiring game of Frisbee with him and some friends from his stake. It was a blast, but I was dying of heat by the end. We went to a BBQ at Laura's house and chilled with some friends for a few hours. I was very happy to be included in the festivities and to be able to get along with everyone. I was excited to be accepted and be able to talk freely to everyone. We then headed to South Mountain to look out over the city and stargaze. It was a lot of fun to finally talk face to face instead of over the phone. I've missed him lots lately because he keeps leaving on vacation..
Today I get to be in a parade with dance and I'm very excited. I got to walk in a giant circle doing the same dance again and again and again and again and again.... Then to play with glowsticks, explosives, and many fun games. We're combining with Bryce's family, so it'll certainly be exciting. Well, that's my long blog of the week. Tune in next week after my easier dance week and hopefully lots of work!

A Bit Behind.. As Usual

2008-06-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, apparently June got busy. After graduation a spent a lot of time working and hanging out with Bryce. Then, he left me for EFY and so I have been working a lot. I also took a road trip to California to try and find a house so that when I move down in a month I won't have to live in a box behind a Target. It was so much fun to go down with my future roommates and spend some time with them and get to know them better. There was the usual drama, but it all turned out ok in the end. I got mad at Danny for not putting his seat belt and it turned into a long battle, with me winning out in the end. We found a house that we really liked, but only Shane and I agreed on it so we decided that we are going to go down again and find one just a few days before we decide to move down. I got to talk to Bryce nearly every night and it was fabulous to keep in touch. He was home about halfway through my vacation down there so I could finally talk to him instead of having to limit our texts. We spent a day in San Francisco and on a beach just south of that. I got back and was so excited to see Bryce at least for a brief moment. It was only for a half hour though.. The next day he left for Youth Conference where he was gone for three days and didn't even have his phone. It was a very boring three days.. I spent lots of time with Laura though. We went shopping together, played games at my house and just hung out to talk. It was nice to see her because we have both been putting our time toward other things and haven't really seen each other very much.

Bryce's birthday was Sunday and I was gone, so on Thursday after he got back I took him up to South Mountain and created a bunch of memories we had. I played Secondhand Serenade because we went to their concert, I locked myself out of my car (with a hide a key of course), going to a place we've looked out at before, watching sunset which we always talked of doing, we could see a pool that I had so intelligently gotten my car stuck in the snow and had to be rescued, and a lot of other memories from south mountain. It was so nice to see him after like two weeks and to just relax in his arms. I missed him more than I realized. The next morning he left me again for Florida for a biotech competition. I've been talking to him on the phone and via text. I almost couldn't because he dropped his phone in a fountain at the airport in Denver. Yeah, he's a smart cookie :) Luckily it decided to work again!

I got to go to my uncle's cabin with my parents and just chill over night. I finished a book with my mom (the thirteenth reality, which was a very good book), finished a sewing project I started when I was like 10, started and finished an entire book(the giver), learned how to paint flowers and leaves from my mom, started another book, and had lots of time to just relax and sleep. It was so much fun to go up and to reminisce of memories of when I was young. The only difference was that I didn't have all my siblings there too. We talked about going up there next month when Rachel comes to visit and taking friends up there for an overnight stay. I also got to go four wheeling on this huge freaking four wheeler. The biggest one I've ever driven, it was a 600 twin sportsman polaris. It was a blast though. And right up from Strawberry Reservoir so it was a pretty drive no matter which direction you went. Well I'm starting dance camp tomorrow and I'm so excited that I get to dance again! It'll be lots of fun! Hopefully I'll keep up to date on my blog now.. though I doubt it :)

Dance, Outdoors, Graduation, and PARTIES!

2008-06-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my computer is being retarded, but here are some pictures of my dance concert that I never wrote anything about cuz I spaced it. I was in seven dances, from a zombie, cheer, and then an entire circus routine. These pictures are in the costume of the contortionist dance. As you can see, I play that role well. It was a fun dance with no real technique, just lots of bendy stuff!

Well this last week has been insane. It started Sunday night with Seminary graduation. Never again am I taking a picture with the bishop, his son, and my dad.. I'm shorter by about two feet. They sang the Theme Song and it was so beautiful. I was signing it in my head because they wouldn't let me sign it for the crowd. Tough bishopric..

Monday was the most boring morning of my life.. Graduation practice. Hutch, the teacher in charge was not in a good mood which made it seem three times longer. Bryce and I headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to check out a place in Tanners Flat Campground for a bonfire that we are organizing for our friends. We did it last year too and burned all of our homework. It's a fabulous end to the schoolyear haha. The canyon was gorgeous and we wandered around looking at places. It was great fun. We found a good spot that had a little private pond thing. Bryce wanted to go swimming but I said that after swimming in a freezing lake up the canyon last weekend, i wasn't about to jump in this one. Especially not in a swim suit haha.

Tuesday was the big day. Graduation. It didn't really hit me until I got there... That's when I realized I'd forgotten my cap and my hearing aides. Laura got my cap and I had to have Shannon bring the hearing aides and talk Crapo in to bringing them to me. The walk from Jordan to the Expo Center was very long.. Especially in heels. Not one of the best decisions of the week. We got there and Laura and I parked ourselves and sat down to wait. We got to walk in together.. Now I had to tell Bryce that he's too late and I've already walked down the isle with Laura and I had linked arms with Eric Proctor. He laughed. There were some good speeches and some boring ones and finally our names were read. I was in the front row, so I got it over with quickly. After I got to go to Chili's with my family and Bryce tagged along too. It was great to see them all and to talk. I'm happy we didn't scare Bryce off.. Though he did give us all funny looks when we started to stack silverware and make statues (though this time nothing compares to our 28 piece one at a wedding dinner in Texas) The rest of the day was relaxed, then came night. I panicked because Laura's phone died so I had no idea which party she was at.. I finally went to the one for our school and found her there. I was only there for an hour and then we all went to Five Mile. I was nervous because they were talking about finding alcohol. It was WAY out of my comfort zone. Luckily, we never found any and ended up off roading a bit and making our own bonfire from dead trees we found and a flare we had in the car. It was great fun to talk to everyone and we were there until 4:15 AM. I got home and crashed. It was the first time in a long time that I had partied all through the night. It was great.

Thursday we did the bonfire with our friends. We had hot dogs and s'mores. It was awesome to see everyone and spend time with my friends. We had random people show up and had about 20 people by the end of the night.. More than the 10 we had started with. We sat around the fire and told funny stories and embarrassing moments. About midnight we kicked everyone out because a few of us were staying overnight and had to start setting that all out. We stayed up and talked a bit and Bryce and I had the best stargazing ever. We go gazing a lot because it fascinates us both. In the mountains with no light pollution we could see so many. Though the trees made it a bit more difficult. Then the next morning my parents left early to catch a plane to Texas for my cousin's wedding (she is my age and I grew up with her.. yeah it's strange). We stayed up a few more hours and slept in. It was great, though my toes were so cold I was sure they would fall off.

I'm getting in to work more and more and trying to make as much money as possible so that I can have enough money to move to Cali this summer. Well, I got my hearing aides and I love them. They do so much. I went to CON a last weekend and had such a blast. After nearly getting kissed by a guy I had just met, meeting some awesome authors and artists (James Dashner, Howard Taylor, Sarah Seiter, L.E. Modesitt, and Paul Genesse), and just having the chance to be an all around geek all weekend. I dressed up as an Elf that I invented on the spot. I chose the name Tavalynn and didn't realize that that is who I became.. So that's what everyone called me. I got to wear a formal and a pretty blue cloak that my mom made for me last year. I had ear tips and a design by my eyes to give it a more elven tone. I stayed up until four in the morning filking and singing weird songs about bridesmaids and dragons. I actually went to a lot of the panels this year instead of just goofing around. I made a hand flower out of chainmaille, learned how to create a story quickly, learned about art, writing, publishing and much more. It was fun to spend time with my family. We have the time to be weird together. I also got to join the end of the coffee clutch with my dad and the people named above. It was fun to talk and the conversation was so random. It was great. I got a free book, "The 13th Reality" by James Dashner, because apparently I make friends easily. It is my first autographed book! Now next year I will try to make up a costume so that I don't have to make one up the night before..

Bryce and I went hiking last weekend and went on the trailhead up Bell Canyon. It was supposed to be a short hike, but we discovered later that we started at the wrong place. So after three hours of hiking and everyone else saying we weren't even close.. We turned around and headed back. We stopped at a gorgeous lake that was on the way up and went down and stuck our toes in. We had planned on swimming in the waterfall, so we had our suits on. I look over to see Bryce taking his shirt off, and when I look again, I catch him in the air diving into the lake. He made me do it of course, and I was so cold! After standing on the rock about five minutes I finally jumped in. We wanted to see how far we could swim and we only made it about thirty feet into the water before Bryce said he was freezing and started frantically swimming back. It was a fun hike and great to spend time together. Plus it was a gorgeous day. Perfect hiking weather!

My mom has lots of pictures on her camera, so those will follow along shortly. Of CON, graduation, and parties too.

AP Tests and My Adorabe Niece

2008-05-21T07:24:00.001-07:00

These last two weeks have been crazy busy with studying and preparing for the AP tests and Rachel and Logan came to visit for a week. It has been so much fun to visit with them!
They got here the day before my AP Calculus test, so I visited for a little bit and then studied. The Calc test went really well and I left feeling confident. There was a good number of questions that I didn't answer, but I answered the majority of them. Rachel and Logan stayed for a week and I got to go to the park to play tennis with them, go shopping, and Rachel kidnapped me from school and took me to lunch. We had an hour to ourselves and I got lots of signing practice!
The day after Rachel left was my AP English test and I also felt really confident afterwards. The multiple choice was the easiest I've done and I think that I did really well on the essays as well. I had to do Deaf Day last week and it was very funny because with the earplugs in I really couldn't hear anything! My car, my footsteps, people in the hall, teachers. Yeah it turned into an interesting day.
We had Mother's Day (for both my mom and Rachel) Rachel's birthday, and dad's birthday. So on Sunday we did all of the presents for everyone. We got mom her piano tuned and my dad got a voice recognition thing so he can just voice what he wants to write for his story and the mic will record it and then type it. It's so awesome! The major present we got for my mom was getting her piano tuned. It has not been tuned for a very long time, and we learned that the swamp cooler made it go out of tune faster. It was gorgeous to play and everything finally sounds normal!
These last two weeks have been busy with dance too because I have a dance concert next week and I'm in seven dances! It'll be fun, but it's been lots of work.
Summer has almost officially begun and the first day the bubble was off of the pool, a big group of the dancers went tanning and swimming. Ha first lay out of the season.. I fried. I got to go up to Snowbird with Bryce and his family and we went swimming and hung out. It was a lot of fun. I was stunting with Bryce and stacking people. I managed to get on Mark's shoulders(Bryce's older brother) with Tyler on my shoulders (Bryce's younger brother). We didn't hold it very long, but I was impressed we got up at all haha.
Well, school is winding down, a few more final projects and state tests and then comes graduation. I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. The last quarter is a blur with how much I've been doing to study for AP tests. I'm so excited to graduate! I got my class schedule for college last week. Makes it much more permanent. I'm excited to move out and be independent. I just hope that I can afford it..

Medical Scares and Many Prayers

2008-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well, this week has been quite exciting. But it is the kind of excitement that I do not wish to repeat. My dad has been having some medical problems and they focus around back pain. He has been to probably every doctor in the valley in the last month to find out what is wrong. He has had MRI's, CT scans, CAT scans, been poked and prodded and everything in between. In the MRI the doctor noticed that his kidneys had cysts, which led to the conclusion that he had Polycystic Kidney Disease and that at any moment his kidneys could fail him which would lead to dialysis, or a kidney transplant. Not a fun path to take. So, in light of visiting doctors, he went to a Phrenologist, a kidney specialist. The phrenologist took some tests and such and concluded that, yes, dad does have cysts in his kidneys, but that they will not lead to such drastic problems as the other doctor diagnosed. So after three days of many tears, hugs, prayers, fasting, hoping, and wishing, our perilous journey had come to an end (thankfully). It sure did teach me a lot about what to do in drastic situations and how quickly life can change. I also now more fully understand the power of prayer and the power that friends can have when life gets tough. I am grateful for all the help that we had and all the prayers that were said.

We finally had our powder puff game (where the girls play football and the guys dance and cheer) because we finally had a field to do it on. The 40 days it would take to put in our turf field soon turned into 10 months when we finally got to have our game. Cheer was going to perform but it was 'too cold' so we didn't do it. We finally got to on Friday afternoon for the conclusion of spirit week. It went well and was great to perform on our turf. Lucky me, I only get to do that once because I'm graduating. Fabulous.

I had a dance competition yesterday at Lagoon and both of my teams took first place! I got to compete in the advanced jazz class and I did so awesome! I got all of the technique right and managed to not hurt myself in the process.. Now that the stress of dance is over, I move on to academic stress. I have the AP Calculus test this coming Wednesday and the AP English test next Wednesday. I will be so amazingly excited when these two tests are over and in the past.

Rachel, Logan, and my niece are coming this Tuesday for a week and I'm thrilled to finally see them. It's been since Christmas.. Way too long. It will be a fun-filled week with them here, so they can brighten my day when I have to face an ugly test. I'm very excited!

Prom Pictures

2008-04-27T14:42:00.001-07:00

Group picture. Not as hilarious as Sweethearts,
but can you tell we're all red? haha

We were running to the restaurant and we were running
down stairs and Bryce mentioned it would be like Cinderella.
So I slipped off my shoe and kept going. He caught up to me
and got down and said, 'the owner of this shoe is the one for
me.' It didn't slide on as well as in the movies, but it made
for a perfect pose! Especially with a castle background.

I got so excited posting pictures of me and Bryce that I spaced to post our Prom pictures. Ha oops..

Ah Finally to April!

2008-04-27T14:12:00.002-07:00

First picture. Destiny taking pictures of me with a random flower.
I love the soft light. I love this picture.

Such a cute picture. And my hair looks awesome (this is how
I had it done for Prom too) He's adorable.

Cute picture of both of us. So natural and perfectly posed.

This is what you get when you tell us to pull a face.
I was laughing so hard. It was great fun!

I am in love with the sepia pictures. This one is so relaxed
and looks so normal. Sigh, such a cute kid.

The first day of April my friend Destiny took pictures of me and Bryce. She did my hair all pretty and then took a bunch of pictures. She says she does it for her friends that are dating. It was such a blast to come up with poses and stuff to do for each picture. I posted a few of them, but there's about 100 and it would take a very long time to get them all on the blog!

April is the month of Prom and Bryce asked me. He said that he had been planning on it since we first met because I had never been asked to a dance before. I didn't know that so it took me by complete surprise! I'm lucky his parents like me because they don't want him to go to two dances with the same girl, but he got to go to Sweethearts and Prom with me! I totally trashed his room to answer him back and it was hilarious. I had Heather come help me, and his older sister chipped in too. I put shredded newspaper all over his room and chocolate too. He's still finding newspaper!

Thus far in the month the most exciting thing was Prom. I got to perform in the assembly and we did a hip hop dance that we learned last summer. It was so fun and it looked so awesome! I got to be in the front a lot and it was great to show off what I can do and to perform in front of my school. I will never get sick of performing for crowds! I got my nails done for Prom and I got acrylic nails. I've never had them before and they've been cool to experiment with. I like them.

Prom day started well because both Bryce and I went to the temple together. We went to the batting cages, just us two. I hit a fast pitch softball and hitting it made my arm ring. The vibration was killer! The second or third ball hit my hand, but I didn't want to be a pansy so I just ignored it and kept hitting. I looked at it after I was done and my ring was totally obliterated. It had a pink stone in it and the stone was gone and it was formed at a sideways oval around my finger. It hurt like no other and I was so sad that it was no longer because my dad had bought it for me last Christmas. It had a lot of memories. I had to go home and have dad cut it from my finger. It left two scratches and a blood blister. I have a scar now and the blood blister is still there. We went to a park and joined the rest of the group for games. We played ultimate frisbee and kickball. I had so much fun and was so excited to get out because it was such a pretty day. I played barefoot and was better than I expected to be at kickball. I had Destiny do my hair and then we all met up again for dinner. Little did we know, that our entire group had gotten sunburned from playing outside that day. It was funny to look around because most of the people were red. We went to the Garden on the top of the Joseph Smith Building downtown. The roof opened to let in the warm air and it was all windows. There was a gorgeous sunset. We went to the dance and partied our hearts out, then headed to a church afterwards to watch a movie. I changed into comfortable clothes and immediately fell asleep on Bryce. I was exhausted because I had been up since 5:30 that morning. I was so comfortable, and I was out cold. Bryce said that he had been talking to me for about a minute when he finally woke me up by getting out from under me. I was so dazed and confused and he was teasing me because I was so tired. It was funny though. I got to wear my dress to church the next day and my hair was still all pretty. I was, however, fighting sleep all through church.

After prom I got to thinking of my relationship with Bryce. We had been dating for about 4 months and I decided I was ready for a serious relationship. I took Bryce up to South Mountain where we had been locked out that overlooked Provo and talked to him about it. He was all for it and I was happy to get it off my chest. I had been thinking about it since Prom. It's been so strange to say that I finally have a boyfriend, but it feel so fabulous every time I get to claim him as mine. He's such an amazing person and brings out the best in me. He has helped me through hard times and has been there for me to lean on. He always has good advice and can always cheer me up. I have never had anyone like him and I realized that who I dated in the past were mistakes. No one has ever treated me with the respect that he has for me. I am so fortunate to have met him and I never would have thought of us being together. I am so lucky.

We had a date last week and we made cars with cardboard boxes, then watched a 'drive in movie' as a big group. It was great to be with friends and to have a good time.

April has been focusing on AP tests because the first two weeks of May are AP test weeks. I am taking the Calculus and English Language and Composition tests. We have been doing lots of practice tests and have been preparing as best as we can for the tests. I took another practice Calculus one yesterday and I am confident that I did well. I have one on the 7th and 14th of May. It's been lots of studying this month!

I am now caught up and will update this every Sunday afternoon. At least, that's the goal.

Ah and finally to

2008-04-27T14:12:00.001-07:00

March

2008-04-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Our amazing Scorpion stunt with Marlies. She is more flexible now. This was
the first stunt of our routine. It's awesome!

This is called a herky, and yes, I make funny faces when I jump!

This was our Silent Weekend group, clockwise from top, Jacki, Jess, Ian, Hilary,
Shanda, Crapo, Marz, and Heather. It was a fun group!

We had to do cheers for part of our presentation, and the theme was
pirates. Our cheer was us being caught in a storm and we'd progressively
lose people off the ends. I was the captain of the ship, so I'd steer, then keep
everyone on time for the cheer. It was great fun!

Shanda and I had had way too much apple juice (makes us both hyper)
so we had zipped our jackets together. It was hard to walk! We got
some pretty funny looks, but it was funny!

March was full of nationals, college, spring break, and of course, Bryce. March 1st was the deadline for a college application and I misread the date, and missed it. I was distraught and just happen to be on a date at Crapo's when I found that I had missed the date. I broke down and was so frustrated and felt so stupid. I now have to find another college to go to..

Mom and dad came home the day before I left for Anaheim, California for our nationals competition. It was wild. I had so much fun! I promised myself I would not sleep through Disneyland, as I had done last year and Dani and I hit it up for everything we could! It was great to go on all the rides and hang out with some of the cheerleaders. We competed in the wrong category, so of course we didn't place. But that did mean more time to play. I thought that our routine went well because every one of my stunts hit, and so did my tumbling. So, I was very confused to come off the floor and everyone was furious. But, oh did they practice? Hmm, that explained a lot. Our stunts were freaking amazing and it was a blast to perform at the Anaheim convention center. I had a hard time dealing with the end of nationals because I am a senior and so it's my last time going down there. Luckily, I had Disneyland to make up for it. I was rooming with Marlies, Dani, and Jess. It was fabulous to have a mellow room and it was great to be with them (this is my stunt group actually..)

I went on a few more dates with Matt, but he ended up giving up on me. Things weren't working out and I never made time for him. If I had a spare moment I would squeeze in time to see Bryce, but never Matt. I felt really bad, but it really hadn't worked between us. I organized a surprise party for Crapo for her birthday. We had her called out of class and had made a cake and everything. She was so surprised and it was so much fun. She was very appreciative because there was no one else to throw her a party because Shanda had a dance on her birthday.

Shannon and I went down to Provo for a cousin's party with the Almond side. It was at a tumbling gym and it was such a blast to go and play! I practiced tumbling and Shannon got down some pretty impressive cartwheels! I have now figured things out with Vocational Rehab and they are going to buy me hearing aides. A lot of March was scheduling things out to get them. I am hoping to get them soon.

For Spring Break, Laura, Shane, and I all went down to California to look for housing and to look at our respective college campuses. It was fun to drive down with them and to see the gorgeous state. We took I-80 over instead of taking I-15, so it was all new scenery to us. We had a navigator ,which saved our hides many times. We visited the whole coast. Sacramento first, then over to San Francisco, down to Ventura, and on to San Diego. I learned a lot about Shane and Laura and am going to have to find out how to deal with Shane. It will be a learning process, but I'm sure I can work through it.

I had my first migraine and it lasted nearly 2 weeks. It was awful and it surly messed up my schedule. However, I worked through it. The last weekend in March I was able to attend Silent Weekend with some other students in my ASL classes. We took a vow of silence and signed the entire day, night, and next day. It was such a blast and I learned so much! We were split into groups and I didn't know anyone in mine. I loved getting to know new people and interacting in another language. I was happy that there were very few things that I couldn't relate in sign, and I found ways to communicate them over. I had that migraine the whole time though, but other than that it was fabulous! There were so many jokes and funny things and it's strange to think back on it and think back on conversations and it's like they were spoken, even though none of them were. I can think of how they would say it and how they would have sounded. With emphasis too.

March wasn't as exciting as February, but it was still an awesome month!

February

2008-04-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is our single, too much dress, but it's cute anyway

And our awesome group picture! This one is more fun!

Well, I am very behind in my blog so I will do separate entries for each month so that it's easier to follow. February was filled with the end of basketball season and a whole lot of cheer practice. Cheer nationals were the first week in March, so we spent lots of time at practice. I am also doing a 4-girl stunt group, so we had that practice every Friday as well. It being the month of young love, I asked Bryce to the Sweetheart's Dance. He totally trashed my room to answer me, but it was really cute. We went country dancing the week before the dance and learned a bunch of really awesome moves. He's a football player, so he's buff, we did lots of lifts! At first he wouldn't lead and had loose arms, but soon learned that I wouldn't do anything if he didn't lead me into it first.

We had a lot of exciting dates, the first one being locked out of my car in 9 degree temperatures on South Mountain with only a small blanket. We laid on my trunk and looked out over Provo Valley. It was gorgeous, but it was FREEZING! I had to call Shannon to come rescue me, and we were out there for about 2 hours. I had to thaw my hands before I could start driving again. Another time, we had gone to a place lower on the mountain and succeeded in getting my car stuck in the snow. We got up the courage and went to ask some locals to help us. We found some very sweet people that helped push me free. Another time we had gone to a parking lot of a nearby school to set up a telescope and star gaze (one of our favorite activities for a date) and I got to see the rings on Saturn! Then, as we were leaving a cop showed up and said that someone had called in saying we were spying, it was a huge telescope and would not have done anything had we pointed it at a house..

I also went on a few 'dates' with a guy named Matt that Shannon set me up with. He is 20 and goes to SLCC for EMT and other such medical classes. He does parkour and tumbles. He's really quiet and the first few times it was awkward because he didn't say much. We went to the gym a few times and he taught me some of his tricks. It's so awesome. Parkour and free running are like running in a straight line and flipping or jumping over whatever is in your way. It's so cool to watch, and I learned a few tricks. The more we went, the less awkward it became, but I just don't act the same with him as I do when I'm with Bryce. Matt is cute, funny, and fun to talk to once you get him talking, but for some reason I just couldn't flirt really at all. It was very strange.

The weather also threw everyone for a loop because it was so inconsistent. It would snow two feet of snow over night. On Valentine's Day school was delayed two hours because a semi had jack knifed on the freeway and the snow was so awful. I got to school and found a rose and a valentine in my locker. It took be totally by surprise! Bryce was so adorable and wrote a cute poem in the card that was shaped like a heart that he had made himself. I totally made all the cheerleaders jealous because as soon as I got to school I already had a valentine. For Valentine's Day, I went on a double date with Bryce and my friend Laura and her boyfriend Spencer. We went to dinner and it was fun to be with another couple. Laura is Deaf, so we were signing at dinner because with her cochlear implant and hearing aide she couldn't hear us talking, it was funny to look around and see people staring at us. After dinner we went over to her house and watched the second Pirate's movie. I was exhausted and fell asleep with Bryce's arms around me. It was bliss and I was comfortable. This was the night of our first kiss and Bryce's heart was beating so hard that I could feel it when I hugged him. He was very red and very happy after that.

Sweethearts was on the 15th and I had a dance competition that day, so we were late to our day activity. Bryce came to my competition to watch and to make it easier because then we could just leave straight from there over to the activity. Our dances did well and it was a lot of fun to compete them for the first time! We played the newly date game at our activity and asked questions to see how well we knew our date. Bryce and I had talked a ton to get to know each other, so we knew a lot and we ended up tying with another couple for first place! We went home to get ready, then went to the Golden Corral for dinner. It was fun with a lot of people and we had lots of fun attaching flowers to each other. No worries, it only bled a little haha. At the dance we were doing some of our country dance moves in my big poofy dress. It was entertaining. After the dance all the cheerleaders went to Hunt's Gym to tumble and play. We practiced tumbling for nationals haha. Bryce and i were doing a bunch of tricks because I was in shorts and I was finally free to move. It was great to play in the pit and on the bouncy floors. Bryce had hurt his ankle that day, so he wasn't able to do much and I felt so bad for him.

February was my month of missionary farewells. I had three in a row. The first one was for my friend Dallin that used to come to the temple with us every weekend. He is going to Ventura, California. The second one was for my cousin Bryce that is my age and that I grew up with. He is going to Ventura, California too! My dad and I took a flash road trip to Hurricane for that. It was the day after Sweethearts and it was nice to go alone with dad and talk to him. We got to go horseback riding with Heidi and her horses. Dad hasn't rode in a long time, so he enjoyed it. The last one was for an acquaintance, it is Connor and Larissa's older brother. He is going to Russia.
We went to a party afterwards and dad got to see Blake's house. Mom was in Ohio with Rachel because she had her baby! That meant a lot of father daughter time, which i loved. It was nice to go to church with dad and to just talk to him. He is so amazing and it's fascinating. I learn something new every time we talk.

There was an aftershock of an earthquake that centered in Wells, Nevada and it was a big thing in school. I was lying on the floor so I could feel it. It was also the end of basketball season, finally! We did pre season too, so we started in December. The last week was packed with competition practice and trying to get everything together. Our stunt group is really good and we practice a lot, but I'm not so sure about the other girls. They talk a lot. I went to Parent Teacher Conferences alone because both of my parents were in Ohio. We did an exhibition and showed the parents our competition routine, but during warm up i was elbowed by Kristy and had a gash in my forehead. I had to take a trip to the emergency room and get glue on it. Shannon and Barlow came with me and comforted me. I had a minor concussion which made me very entertaining the rest of the night.

Well, that was a lot in one month! It's been crazy. Ah, and now on to March.

Wow, I Am Really Behind!

2008-01-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I have not updated this blog in about a month.. Must mean January was busy (ha, not really). New Year's Eve I went to an all day and all night party in Riverton. It was so much fun! I hung out with all my Riverton friends and played games and watched movies.
The first Saturday in January we had our real qualifier for nationals. After getting to the school one of the girls got really sick and had to be taken to the hospital. Well, we were now short one person and had to compete in about an hour. We finally decided to pull up one of the backspots from JV to help us and to just jump in. We did really well and everything hit, one stunt was late because Sarah ( Pulled up) forgot the stunt. But she learned the counts for a whole routene in about twenty minutes. We were all really impressed. We waited around for about an hour for awards and then danced our hearts out. We took first place against the other team! It was very exciting.
School is back to being crazy and hard again. Yesterday was the end of the quarter, so of course this whole past week has been nothing but finals. They were crazy hard, but I managed to do well on all of them and managed to get 6 As and 2 A-. But they are in my AP Physics and Calculus classes, so i figured it was ok.
I have gone on a date nearly every weekend with this boy named Bryce. We went night sledding, stargazing, ice skating and tonight we are going to watch a movie. I am really excited. He is such a sweet boy and comes to all the home basketball games. He is so sweet and I am expecting tonight to be a blast.
Last night we played our rival Alta, and we beat them by one point (51-50). It was the first time we have beat them at Alta in seven years! It was such an exciting game and Bryce came and so did Shannon and Dad. We had our crowd up on their feet the entire game!
Last Thursday night I hung out with someone that Shannon set me up with named Matt. He does parkour and free running. So we went to Gymcats gym with a bunch of his friends and he taught me some of his tricks. It was so fun! I have not been to a real tumbling gym in so long. I learned how to jump and flip over things. Unfortunately, it also made me incredibly sore!
Well, that is all I can think of to update. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it more updated now that I realize that I never do.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

This last week has taken my whole world and turned it upside down. I'm a bit behind on keeping up with my blog, so I will do a brief overview. We had our first cheer competition and we did so freakin' good! Everything hit and it went better than we had expected it to. We did the Make A Wish fundraiser for school, and we raised 29,000 dollars!
Last Friday my dad called me while I was over at my friend's house and told me that my grandma was in the hospital with Strep Throat, and Pneumonia. We were all very worried and Saturday morning my parents went down to St. George, as did all of her other kids. Saturday morning she was in critical condition and moved to the ICU. Sunday morning I was very shaky and I asked for a blessing from my friend's bishop. Instead, I got the entire bishopric! It was an amazing blessing and I am so grateful that I asked for it. It helped a lot. Me, Shannon and Brandon went down Sunday morning and went to visit. It was a very scary experience to spend so much time in the hospital waiting for better conditions. After much fasting and prayers, she has improved. They are considering taking off her breathing tube tomorrow so that she will be able to be awake and talk. Unfortunately, only my dad is down there from my family. We all had to come back because of work and other things. I'm happy she's doing well and I hope she pulls through. We had a very brief Christmas, and then continued with our ritual of heading to the hospital again. I think this is the longest I've spent in a hospital waiting room..
Last Saturday I went on two dates. I saw I Am Legend with one of my friends from school. It was awesome and he was a lot of fun to hang out with. Then I went on another big group date with Shanda, Laura, and Heather, plus our dates. It was a lot of fun, but my date kinda ignored me. I tried to still smile and have fun.
Well, that is about it in a nutshell..

Winter Really Isn't Kidding

2007-12-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Wow is all I have to say. Last weekend and this weekend we have had two huge snowstorms. Last week we got seven inches in the valley and it seemed that this week it was trying to impress us by dumping more. Well nothing too exciting is happening around here, my dance classes are getting ready for the dance concert happening next week and I've been getting prepared for that. I'm very excited for Rachel and Logan to come to Utah on Tuesday! They get to stay for a little over a week and I'm so excited to see them!
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to shadow a nurse for a few hours. It was so interesting! The first hour I sat at a desk and talked to some of the nurses working in the ICU. I learned how to read the heart monitors they attach to you and was able to ask them lots of questions on education, what they liked and didn't like and just generally got to see what it was like to work there.
Then, for the next three hours I had the chance to shadow a nurse named Valerie. She was taking care of three or four patients that she kept visiting to check on and make sure they were ok and every so often to check their vitals. I learned so much about the work and what is required and she even let me do some stuff on my own. I got to see all the new equipment and meet lots of fun people. I was free to ask any questions that I had and at first I was kinda quiet and didn't say much, I just watched. Then after a bit I got more comfortable and began to open up and talk to the patients and to Val. I was happy to see that the blood didn't bother me, because this was my main concern. I had not ever had to deal with much of it so I was not sure I had the stomach for it. Now I am almost certain that I would like to go into nursing and premed, but I am still going to pray about it and make sure it really is right.
My original plan for shadowing a nurse was to see if I liked it, but I also wanted to see how I could incorporate American Sign Language into my work field. The first nurse I was with, her name was Marissa too, said that the first person she was with on her first day was Deaf and it would have helped a lot to have known some Sign Language so that she could communicate. He had to write everything down and when you are scared about coming to the hospital it makes it that much more difficult to write everything down and think about what you are saying.
Friday night I got to hang out with one of the girls that I met on Silent Weekend. Her name is Laura and she is profoundly Deaf. She has a cochlear implant that she got last March and wears a hearing aid in her other ear. We had a lot of fun and she was a funny girl. We had to sign while we talked and it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I love signing and have improved my skills a lot in the last two weeks. I prepared for Silent Weekend by thinking in my head of how to sign certain things so that I could when the time arose. Then this last week I have been talking to my friend Heather and signing non stop in class and when we hang out. I am so excited because I can understand full stories when they are said to me and I can also tell an entire experience in sign.
Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Salt Lake Temple for the second time and it was an amazing experience. After battling the horrific snow storm to get there safely and almost not going at all, I was happy that I got to go. I went with my normal group, but I was the only one that had ever been before. I had only been once and I wasn't sure what all the protocol was so it was interesting to do things so differently from the normal Jordan River Temple. It was fascinating and I loved that experience.
Last night Shanda and I went to see Enchanted and we wore big poofy formals. It was so much fun and we got so many funny looks. The movie was hilarious and we were laughing a lot. As we were walking out for some reason all the workers were lined up along both sides of the path leading out the door. Since we had seen a late movie, we were the only ones leaving and all of the workers that had been talking just stopped and stared. I couldn't help it but I started to giggle about halfway down because it was so quiet and so funny. I got to the door and said, 'it's like walking down the red carpet.' Then turned around and looked down and said, "except this one is blue." It was the funniest part of the night.
Today I went to a missionary farewell for a good friend of mine Jon Thomas who is going to the Paraguay mission. There were lots of Riverton friends and it was so much fun to visit and see them all.

The Holiday Season Has Finally Arrived!

2007-12-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well this last week sure has been interesting. We had our first basketball game and for being the first one it didn't go too bad. Now, if it had been our last one it would have been considered a disaster.. We did lots of stunting and tumbling though, so at least that part went well.. Friday right after school I was supposed to leave on my way up to Aspen Grove for Silent Weekend.. we made it about five miles and a few thousand verticle feet below the site, but were stopped by a horrible snow storm. The director going up in his car slid back down and a bus would have made things messy. I am not one that likes buses and I got very ill on the way back down because it was a windy canyon and we were sliding so the way that I thought we were headed ended up changing slightly on me. I spent the whole way back down and all the way back down to Jordan with my head on my pillow in Crapo's lap staring out the front window. I was sad because I really wanted to meet other people and be social, but those ideas were quickly dashed :(. The director told us to go home and that no one was coming up or going down. It is a good thing we turned around because in that one snow storm (that didn't stop until about noon the next day) we got seven inches in the valley and up to twenty in the mountains! Had we gone up there we would have been stranded and not allowed to come back.
Because of how sick I was coming home from the bus ride I fell asleep and unfortunately slept right through the basketball game that I should have gone to because Silent Weekend fell through.
I went to the temple Saturday morning as usual and had a date with my friend Tyler last night. We went ice skating with the youth ages 18 - 30 in Shanda's stake. It was such a blast! Tyler is so much fun and we had a good time trying to stay up and not run over anyone. Shanda was there also with her friend Brennen so we had more company. I'm very sore today and I have a small bruise where I hit my shin with the blade of my skate as I fell (intentionally of course, with Tyler holding my hand and coming down with me..). After not falling the entire time we decided we had to fall just to say that we had to we basically jsut sat down and slid a few feet. Then proceeded to go forward about twenty feet wehre I was tripped by a friend and fell flat on my butt. Only to get up and about ten feet later fall again, this time with Shanda by my side.
Right on schedule on December 1 we got the first real snow fall. It's as if the world has decided to actually start winter and make sure that everyone knows. I dont' think anyone missed the memo.. Though it snowed so much it makes for some pretty pictures and for some amazing sunsets.
Last weekend I went to two parties with Shanda and at the first one I met a boy named Kai that looks so much like Rufio that it's scary haha. We've been talking the last week and he's a sweet kid. We're a lot alike and he's fun to talk to. Unfortunately, he is somewhat bitter right now because he thought that I was leading in for some major relationship, but I don't really want one right now and that kinda tore him down. Hopefully he'll get over it, but we'll see how things turn out. Saturday night was a blast and I watched Hairspray with a bunch of theatre friends from Riverton High School. We talked and laughed and had a fun time. I love spending time with them because I can truly be myself around them and enjoy their company.
Well that pretty much wraps up my last two weeks, now I'm off to make cookies for our neighbor that came over and helped us clear our driveway of the snow yesterday so that we did not have to shovel it..

Plays, Practice and Crazy Days

2007-11-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

I found out that I did not win the scholarship nomination, but I am ok with that because the girl that I was up against has been dancing since she was only 2! And I have only been dancing for two years, big difference. Last week I attended two musicals, our school's, Aida, and Riverton's, Anything Goes. They were so much fun to go to and support my friends that I knew at each performance. There was outstanding singing and I was floored at the talent that I didn't even know of at my school! I supported my friends, which I discovered that I knew a lot of the cast memebers and it was a blast to see everyone and tell them that they are amazing.
I've been practicing a lot for cheer because we have our first qualifier competition on December 15th. With Thanksgiving being, well today, the long preparation for the meal and for shopping tomorrow has been crazy. I'm taking Laura to the airport tomorrow so that she can go up to Washington and visit Shane, and I'm also going shopping with about three million other people.. It will be exciting haha. I'm going to go up to Park City with mom becuase I promised her that I would go up with her and look through all the art museums up there. It has been something that she has wanted to do for a long time, but can never find any company to go with. I love art and I love to help when I can. I'm actually excited..
I've decided to do a service project for someone in need. You may not know, but my friend is getting a divorce and it is very hard on her, so I have decided to help where I can and I'm going over with my dad to fix a hole that has decided to set itself into her roof. With the cold times just around the corner I decided it would be nice of me to fix it for her. So while she is out of town for Thanksgiving, we are going to go over and sneak onto her roof and make the leak no longer a problem. When it rains outside, it rains inside too..
I hope that everything is going well with everyone and that you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

First ever blog of my life..

2007-11-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda new at this so it could be very interesting to see how it works out.. Well, I guess I'll just go and see how it turns out. Last Saturday was Dogpatch for my school and it was the first dance that I had asked anyone to. I asked my friend Dave Featherstone and we had a blast! I joined into a group of some of the cheerleaders and we went to breakfast, then dinner and off to the dance. I took Dave country dancing last Tuesday so that we would know some moves at the dance and so that we could get to know each other because I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. Ha ha (I asked him on a whim..) We had a blast! He wasn't shy at all and this made dancing lots of fun becuase it didn't seem like I was dancing alone.. And he stayed with me the whole time! The other girl's dates left and were dancing with friends, so I was very excited to have him stay with me. After the dance we were going to go bowling, but couldn't get in becuase the wait was so long.. So we drove around trying to decide what to do. We decided to visit some of the scary places around the valley and basically just freak ourselves out. I wasn't too scared, but it was nice to have Dave's arm wrapped in mine for the extra comfort :) I was enthralled by the arcitecture of the buildings and loved seeing them. After that we went to one of the girl's houses and watched the first half hour or so of Pirates of the Carribean. Dave and I lasted all of about the first five minutes, and then were out cold.. It was a comfy couch, I was finally warm and he had a very comfortable shoulder;) I took him home and finally crawled into bed about 2:30 a.m. It was a long day!
A few weeks ago I auditioned for a scholarship at my school for dance and tomorrow I find out if I get it, I'm nervous, but at least I won't have to wait anymore.