The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love this time of year!! Not because it's winter and gets cold (my least favorite thing), but because it's such a joyful time. This season has been especially wonderful. I've spent more time with friends than I have pretty much any year previous, I spent time with family (like every year), and it's just been amazing!

I was very pleased with myself for actually getting presents for my friends this year. I've never really done it before, but this year, it just felt right. Most of my best friends (I have 3) are leaving (most = 2/3) for anywhere from a few to several months. I understand why and I'm happy for them, but it still leaves me a bit melancholy, to be honest. One friend is going to work at Disneyland (YAY ALI!!!), and my other friend is going up to BYU for school. My third best friend (Yes, that's you, Kara! ;D ) is student teaching, so I probably won't see much of her, either. :( (We need to watch Pushing Daisies sometimes. ;) Especially since I got season 2 now. hehehehe)

Christmas was amazing this year! I'll just go through from Wednesday to today, because most of the time I work. Wednesday I got to go see Princess and the Frog again with Ali and James. It was amazing! You know a movie is good when I don't talk at all during it. XD And I didn't talk at all. Usually I make comments left and right throughout the movie. So that was fun. :) I then went to work for a while and then came home, and prepped (kind of) for Kara to come over, so we could watch PD, Season 1. (We watched episodes 6 & 7.)

Thursday, I went to work in the morning, until about noon, and was counting pills for most of that. XD Not so fun, but whatever. That afternoon, I picked up a copy of my book from Americopy, where I had had it bound for James, since he wanted to read it. I then proceeded to head over to his house for a gift exchange, and a look at some mission stuff. 2 1/2 hours of chatting, laughing, and looking at pics and things, it was amazing. I had soooo much fun! He's a neat guy!

Thursday night was our traditional family Christmas Eve gathering, where we eat dinner and have a program. It's really neat to have a musical family. Four of the six of my family performed a song called Baby in a Manger by Sally DeFord. Here you can listen to it. It's a wonderful song. One of the joys is our Christmas Carol time, where my Uncle Brent (Brent Jorgensen, LDS music composer and arranger extraordinaire) plays the tunes to different songs and we all sing along. :) This year, he wrote his own song, and it's AMAZING. I wish I could have recorded it or something, it was absolutely beautiful. After our program is over, we head back home and read the Christmas story from the scriptures, and then open our 1 present, or in this case 2, because my mom made us all pajamas, so we got to open that one and then another. It was awesome. :)

Christmas morning was amazing. It started out like any normal Christmas, with the gift opening and whatnot. At about 9am, we were told to go outside, and in the driveway was our next Christmas present. Mary Martin and her sister, Marilyn Crosby, had ridden down, on our very own horses. It was AMAZING!!! I was shocked!! Their names are Mack and Seinfeld, and a thoroughbred and purebred Arabian, respectively. They are so awesome! It's exciting! Kristen and I spent a lot of the day with them (she more than I), and Saturday we spent most of the day riding. It's awesome. There are still some things we need to get, but it's just awesome. :)


Anyways, that was my week. It's been intense and crazy and fun, but I love it! :D I can't wait to see what happens next in my life!!! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Alright....

So I got begged to do another post. ;) hehe

Sorry it's been so long. =/ Just been taking things one day at a time and trying to survive the semester. And.... now the semester is over, and I'm that much closer to finishing my college degree!!!

The past few weeks have been amazing, challenging, wonderful, hard, fun, and stressful. All those emotions mashed up together, varying on the different days and such. I finished the semester, and I didn't have any finals during final week, which was AMAZING!!!! Our institute choir performed 5 times in one week, and we rocked!!! ;> James even went to see a couple of them, which made me happy, and by now he's pretty much met all my friends that I've made since he's been gone. At least, all my close friends. :)

On Wednesday, I had a Muppet Christmas Carol watching party, and there was me, Josh Arbizu, Kara Morris, and James. Alana and Derek showed up not too far into the movie, so they joined us for a little bit, and definitely joined in when we started playing Curses. XD Awesome game! We got some pretty funny things going. lol I put some videos up on Facebook that I got on my phone. It was pretty awesome!

James and I have hung out a few times randomly. He got to come with me and my sisters to an American Idol Christmas show at the MAC, which was awesome, even if we were a little bit too close. XD We were in the orchestra pit seating. It was awesome, though! James a pretty cool guy. :) I'm kinda bummed that he's leaving to go to BYU this next semester, but like I said, I'm just taking things one day at a time. It's better that way. :)


Christmas is coming up!!!! :D I'm done Christmas shopping, so now I just get to sit back and wait. ;) Not long after Christmas is New Years, and then my BIRTHDAY!!!! I cannot believe I'm almost 21! It's crazy! :D But it'll be interesting.

We had some drill performances this weekend which rocked, even if it was really pretty stressful. =/ Anyways, hope everything goes smoothly the next few weeks as the holidays really start happening. ;)

BEST WISHES!!!!!!

Chatting, parties, and a date

Alright, so I know so much has happened in the past like 2 weeks. It's crazy! Not only do I have less than 2 weeks of school left, things are just going crazy.

Alana and Derek Funkhouser are officially dating now. They are a couple. Together. Boyfriend/Girlfriend.... lol Still a little weird to think about, but w/e. hehe

Anyways, onto the stories that everyone wants to hear. XD

James has been home for like 3 weeks now. In those three weeks, we've talked on the phone, probably 3 or 4 times. (2 or 3 of them were me calling. XD) I don't call people. At all, so me calling him is pretty big. We mostly would chat about how are days had been, a little bit of mission stuff and whatnot. Just fun friendly stuff. :)

The next step was getting together. So, Alana and I threw a party. We had about 30 people show up. It was pretty fun. ^_^ James and I talked and played the wii and did DDR and talked and ate M&Ms and things. hehe Overall, super fun night! Best part of the night was him asking me on a date. Not the fancy, extravagant way that high schoolers like to ask. It was to the point and to my face. With a somewhat minor interruption by the Soward brothers. XD And of course, I said yes.

Soooooo........... Where is all this leading you may ask? Well, our date was Saturday night. (Last night, technically. ;>) Now, you may be wondering what happened. So I'm gonna tell you. We started off by going to In-N-Out, which I have never eaten at before. It was pretty fun. We ordered, talked some, got our food, talked some more about almost everything: his mission, Hungarian money, the roads in Hungary, life in general, random discussion on fruits vs veggies (which led to me telling him about "flying saucer" squashes), which then led to drawing on some paper I have, and it was super fun. :D After a 2 hour dinner at a fast food restaurant, we went to the temple grounds, to look at the lights. I said that it looked so sparkly because of the lights, and he said "just like you". Which made me giggle. So we walked around, saw Rex and Paige and talked to them, talked to an elder that was serving in my ward at one point, and after we had been all around, we went into the visitor center, because it had been a while since he had gone in it. (About two years. XD) And as we walked around, we saw Daniel Button, so we stopped and talked to him for a while. Then we went to look around some more before the visitor center closed, so we quickly looked at the nativity scenes, which were a mix of cute, cultural, and colorful. I LOVED IT! hehe After that, we headed back to the car and we were thinking about what to do next. "This was as far as I had planned" was what he said. I gave some options that had been suggested by a friend. I suggested going and getting hot chocolate, or going back to my house and getting some. He chose to come back to my house, so that's what we did. We had hot chocolate, watched some Brian Regan videos, and chatted some more (we were always chatting and laughing). We talked with my parents for a bit, and he was leaving just as Alana and Derek were getting back from their date thing. So he left, after we hugged. :) It was honestly one of the best, most simple, least expensive dates ever! :D I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!

And hopefully he'll come to the institute choir fireside thing tonight. :D I'm so looking forward to singing! :D I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!


Anyways, that's the update for anyone that cares. ;) I'll hopefully update pretty regularly, but we'll see.

I know I know....

I know I need to blog again. It's been FAR too long. And so much happening. But I haven't felt like it's the right time yet. I'm having my little adventures in life. And as soon as I have something more substantial to talk about, I will.



Trust me. ;) Until then.... patience is a virtue. ;D

Fears

I have problems. Big problems for this day and age in time.

I have some of the most stupid fears that I have no idea how I got them or how to help them.

My less important fear is bugs. They leave me alone, I'm fine. They come in my territory, I will take them out (with minimal screaming). They come anywhere near me or startle me in any way, I will have a full blown freak out. (The joys of being a girl. lol)

The next fear is death. I hate thinking about dying. I don't mind the idea of moving on per se, I just don't like the ways of moving on. Death, no big deal. Dying, Scary as all get out. But I'm sure everyone doesn't like that whole thing.

My biggest fear, and the most irrational is calling. I am terrified of calling and terrified of answering calls. More the calling than answering. I'm fine answering as long as the number comes up with a name from my contact list. I will not call. Like, at all. I do what I absolutely have to now, but I still have panic attacks sometimes when I have to call. I don't know why. I do know I want to fix it, but I don't have an idea how to.


Anyways, it bugs me that I can't call. The only thing I can think is that I don't get the visual cues so I have to ask people to repeat it, and I do that several times, so I feel bad and like an idiot.

One of the most amazing weeks EVER!!!

Alright, so I halfway trudged through this past week. (Well, alternating between bouncing off the walls hyper and being super depressed.)

Monday, I helped the LDS institute put up their Christmas decorations, and I had a BLAST!!! :D I was running around being happy and hyper. Then I got to my Monday night class and all heck broke loose. I went from the high on a roller coaster, to the lowest of lows. It honestly stunk. Badly. So I spent the night crying and doing homework.

Tuesday was better. I cried in the morning, but I didn't stay upset for too long, and it all worked out okay.

Wednesday was pretty much AMAZING!!! I had class, and then I had taken off interning so that I could listen to Elder Chesley's talk. I love him and his wife. They are seriously like my own family without being blood related. He's been through a lot, but it's all turned out for good. So Wednesday I was privileged to do that.

Thursday was CRAZY. I got to interning, and there was no teacher, no sub, nothing but me. It was weird. So I got to keep the kids in some semblance of order while I waited to see what was going on. We finally got a sub into the classroom, but in hindsight, I think I would have been better off on my own. She was nice, but I wasn't a big fan, tbh. So, I got to teach a little bit, and I hoped they understood what I tried to teach them. I learned that night that the principal of the school was just going to have me teach the class on my own. (And I would have been happy with that.)

Friday started out okay. I had my class, and then I had work, and was kept pretty busy. I told myself that I would call James after work when I got home. And of course, because of my fear, I kept putting it off. I went to Melodie Stapley's wedding reception, and then went home and Ali convinced me to call. Well, convinced my head to call. XD My finger wouldn't hit the "call" button, though. Until I hit it accidently. So we got the hello's over with, and the next thing he said was "I was just getting ready to call you." My thought was "AWWWWWWW". hehe Anyways, we chatted for a while.... which doesn't happen very often on the phone for me. (For those that want to know, we talked for over an hour. XD) So that was Friday. :)

Saturday, I went to drill team in the morning, because we have our parade thing on Wednesday. :D I'm sooooo super excited! :D We did pretty well. After that, I wanted to sleep, but I ended up not sleeping. XD I got on Facebook and Ali seemed sad, so I asked what I could do, and we ended up setting up a plan to go to lunch so we could get out of our houses. I went to the ward service project for a bit, and then met up with Ali for lunch at Logan's Roadhouse, where I had some of the best rolls and best salad ever. (What could be missing from a salad that has steak in it? I mean, seriously, I doubt there is nothing better. XD) And we chatted and had fun, and then we split up, after a delicious lunch. I went to our ward potluck dinner thing, and then our family went to William Joseph's concert at the MAC. He is an AMAZING pianist. Very talented.

Today, was amazing as well. I got to go to James' homecoming talk thing, and Ali was there along with a few other people I knew. James gave a wonderful talk, and then we spent all of Sunday School chatting out in the foyer. XD It was awesome. And we got hugs! hehe I'd forgotten how awesome he is to be around. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with everything. I then went to my own ward, and now I'm at home, wanting to take a nap, but can't cuz we have choir at the very odd hour of 3pm.... BAD TIME. It's in the middle of my nap time. I've signed up for my classes, so hopefully that'll all work out.

And that's been the past week. Looking back, it really was mostly just an up and awesome week, even though I had that one day of depression. Hurray for happy things! :D

Anyways, that's the week. Hope you enjoyed the novel. XD

Dedication

Soooo... I said I would write this yesterday, but I didn't, so here it is today. :)

Our stake center, the one that burned down. It was almost 2 years ago that an arsonist entered the building and lit it on fire. In those two years, we have had wards in different buildings in different stakes, meetings at the Red Mountain Institute building, and so many tender mercies of the Lord.

A little over a year ago, in September, we had the ground breaking ceremony for our new stake center, and in that year, there have been continued miracles, and building.

And it has all culminated in this. I was a part of the choir that sang at the dedication. We sang a special number, and then Pres. Ahlstrom, our stake president, talked. He talked about when the call came, he talked about the miracles that happened, and told a couple of stories of objects from the original building that had been checked out from the library, other hymn books sent to be rebound, the building being as clean as it could be, and a page from Preach my Gospel that hadn't been completely destroyed in the fire. It was an amazing talk. Sadly, it was accentuated by a boy being carried out by his dad, who then puked, all over the brand new carpet.

Following Pres. Ahlstrom, the speaker, and general authority to dedicate the building, was Elder. David Lesuer. He did a wonderful job, and it was a sweet experience. The closing song was Hymn #2, The Spirit of God. Usually the Hosanna chorus is reserved for temple dedications, but our choir was privileged to sing it, and we sounded awesome.

It was a wonderful experience. I only wish that James could have been there to attend it. But he will be home soon enough. :) (9 days today)

Oh how the Lord blesses us, and I believe that with all my heart.

A musing of a marvelous (somewhat lazy) me

I have homework to do, so naturally I'm putting it off to post and facebook and do all sorts of things that probably aren't that important.

Life is pretty crazy. The semester is half over, I have sooooo much to do that I've put off.... so much. And yet... I feel mostly at peace right now. I don't know if it's from going to the dedication of our brand new stake center, or I'm just feeling close to the Lord, but I like this.

I finally had a revelation about my BLE class. Not necessarily spiritual, but it was a revelation for me, because it brings things into perspective about the class, and my schooling in general.


For those of you that don't know, my BLE class is my torture class. I don't pay much attention, and only do what I have to. Here is the concluding paragraph of my BLE midterm paper that I had to write.

As I think about what I have learned, I can't say specifically that I learned this in this class and that in that class. It all blends together creating my own knowledge of what is truth and what I am able to, or what I desperately want to use in my own class in the future. That's really what learning is all about. We learn all sorts of different things, but connect it to everything we have learned, everything we are learning, and at some point, everything we will learn. That's what makes teachers "good". They understand that learning isn't just something linear, we make connections to everything. What's in math doesn't stay in math, and what's literature and reading doesn't stay there. It branches out and connects to as many things that we know as we let it. So while I can't say I learned anything specifically from the readings, or from the class, what I have learned, whether how little or how much, has become so entwined with the knowledge I have, that I'm just storing it until I can use it when I need to.

That just made me so happy. Something for that just kinda clicked in my head. It's not about being the best, it's just about doing the best you can, because that's really all anyone can do, and that doesn't just apply to school or learning. It can be applied to anything, and I think that's what's so amazing.

(Tomorrow I will blog about our Stake center dedication. :) It was pretty cool.)

2 WEEKS!!!!!

So um.... I really have nothing to say.... The title says it all. XD James gets home 2 weeks from today! :D

Another Goodbye

Alright, I know I don't usually, or ever post twice in the same day, but today requires it.

Not many, or Idk if any of you knew that we had a cat. (He was an outdoor only cat, and one of the sweetest things ever.)

Well, this sweet cat passed away today. :( I don't know what happened, but Alana and I figure he got hit by a car or something, because he was laying on the side of the road. So that's two of my childhood pets now, and the only two we've had since I was actually a kid, that have passed away. Shiloh (14yrs) they put to sleep a little more than 7 ish years ago, which was the dog they had from before I was born. And now Wicket, who was at the ripe old age of 17, but still kind and sweet.

I know that he's in a better place, but he will still be missed.

The worst part is most of the family is on a cruise for the next week, and they won't know until they get back. And since we couldn't wait that long for them to see him, we buried him in the garden, next to Shiloh. :(

He was a great cat, and he will be sorely missed.


EDIT: I emailed my dad, hoping he would get it before the week was over, and he did. So the family knows now.

Week 7.... I think....

This has been another crazy crazy week. It all started out just fine.

Monday: Boring, as usual. I decided my Monday night teacher is one of the worst teachers ever, and should go spend more time with her 9 week old baby. "Don't use power points for everything." *we look up at the projector screen: on it, a white slide with black words* We say, "Uh-huh.... right...." But I survived it, barely, made it home, and pretty much bawled my eyes out.

Tuesday: I had class. We thought it would be the regular 4 hours, but we were done by 11:30, thankfully. (Hurray for the teacher having meetings clear in Phoenix!!) The worst part was I sitting next to someone who was sick, and she kept COUGHING ON ME!!! >:-( I was not happy. But I got to go home and eat lunch with my mom before going to institute, and then to work. Then later, we had our Relief Society book club meeting, where we talked about Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture". (If you haven't read it yet, READ IT!!!!!)

Wednesday: I had class in the morning, and then headed to interning. :) I love interning. My class is flipping awesome! I followed interning with working, which was work, so I survived. :) (It's really not too bad.)

Thursday: I started the day off with interning. I felt fine, I loved spending time with the kids, but I noticed a slight discomfort of a tickle in my throat, making me cough. I ignored it. It wasn't a big deal. I left interning and went to institute, where I enjoyed a wonderful lesson, finishing up 2nd Nephi. I was a little tired, but that's normal for Thursdays, since I wake up so much earlier. So I went to class, where we learned about assessment and stuff. :D It was interesting, and fun as always. Then I got into my costume, or what I have so far, and got ready to help with the Carnival, and more particular, "Freaky Frostville", the 6th grade haunted house. it was awesome! :D I was kinda getting a headache, but I hadn't eaten much, and that's what happens. I finished the carnival and headed home, looking forward to being home after more than 12 hours being away. I got home, and I was chilly (like always), and put my robe on. I kept getting more and more tired, and then I alternated between hot and cold, and that was when I knew I was sick. NO BUENO. I went to bed.

Friday: I woke up, and knew there was no way I was going to make it to work. I called out sick. And then I pretty much slept all day. So you must be thinking... "Oh, so you got to spend the weekend recovering? What a nice time to get sick." YEAH, RIGHT. I wish. No, I had a Saturday class. 6 HOURS. Anyways, I rested pretty much all Friday (My highest temp was like 100.3 F.)

Saturday: I woke up at 6am, cuz my family was leaving on their cruise. :( I didn't get to hug them goodbye, cuz I was sick and didn't want to get them sick. So, I went back to bed for a while, to get some more rest. I woke up, ate breakfast, and then took another half hour nap, before getting up and leaving for class. I started out fine. I was awake, for the most part, and only mentally out of it. I sat and sat and coughed and sat and coughed and coughed and played games and coughed and sat...... etc. You get the point. I survived the 6 hours and came home, got a 3 hour nap, and then was awake for a while, cuz I didn't want to miss SNL. XD I loved the Gilly skit. XD It rocked.



Anyways, that was pretty much my week. I'm still kinda sick, but I'm feeling much better (Thankfully). I hope everyone's weekend was better than mine. :)

(18 days!!!)

Another post coming Thursday. ;)

What a Week!

This week has been crazy! Between school, work, starting my costume, drill team performance, Conference, and everything else, it's been SOOOOO super busy.

Monday was class day..... all day, super boring, like always. :S Well, not the middle of the day, really, but most of it was pretty dull.

Tuesday was class, where I butchered my first lesson plan for practicum, but I guess it's alright, since it's practice. Then I went and enjoyed a lovely Institute lesson, followed by heading to work for a few hours. Then, we had drill practice, which was our dress rehearsal. We did pretty well. :) All those weeks of practice were paying off!

Wednesday, I was supposed to have class, but my teacher emailed out sick. :S Sooo... I spent the morning preparing for interning, and went and interned, followed by work, where I got to see Mary's puppy Kai, which I helped feed while he was still a very little puppy. (He's not so little anymore. XD He's 9 weeks old and 14 ish pounds. Definitely German Shepherd in him.) After work, I went home and did homework.... woohoo! *rolls eyes*

Thursday was interning morning. I got to my class a little earlier than I have gotten there so far. We spent the first hour in the morning doing math and something else, and then we got down to business with presentations. So we watched those until lunch, and then watched them a little more after lunch, until I had to leave. I went to institute, where we had another wonderful lesson. After that, I headed back to the school for my Thursday class, which was fun! In then went home and started working on my Halloween costume, because I wanted to wear it this Thursday (the 8th) at their Carnival. I cut out all the pieces from the material.

Friday, I was supposed to have class, but my teacher was still sick, did not send out an email, so we were sitting in class when someone came and told us it was canceled. So, I went to work, where I was there for several hours doing random stuff, until I decided to leave, cuz I ran out of things to do. I got home and found out that I didn't have to give the horse I was riding a bath until the next day, so I spent the night working on sewing the pieces together. And I got it almost all done! For the blue part, at least. The white part will be done by Halloween, but most likely not by Thursday. It's looking pretty awesome! ^_^

Saturday was BUSY!! I got up at 5:30, got dressed, headed over to Sam's house, where we were picked up by Brett Biggs and Krista Schwan to take us down to Horseshoe park in Queen Creek for our drill performance. We got there at 7:10, and started getting ready for our practice run. After which, we practiced for another little bit, before getting ready to perform. We were to perform at 2:10, so we had a ways to go. We talked and got the horses ready, and about an hour before, we started to really get ready. The horses were stenciled with glitter, their hooves were glittered, and we were saddling them up. Then we got our shirts on and we were ready to go, after taking pictures of each individual girl, and then group photos. :) We looked pretty snazzy! (Pics will come as soon as I get them.) We did WONDERFUL! Mary rated us at a 9, and Marilyn gave us an 8, but whoever the judges were, gave us a 9.5 (out of 10, we're assuming) for technical, execution, and presentation. So, when asked whether we won or not, Marilyn replied with a "Hands down". ^_^ It was sooo much fun seeing all the horses (like an 18 hand (72 ish inches, or 6') Gypsy Vanner and the maybe 5 hand (20" tall) miniature horses). I ended up getting sunburned. XD Darn sun. And I woke up this beautiful Sunday of General Conference morning, and had a crazy sore back and arms and legs.... so I'm pretty much sore all over. XD But it really was fun. And the stares we got as we were walking to and from the performance arena was awesome! We looked SNAZZY!

Anyways, I enjoyed conference, and got to play with my Grandpa and Bethsy's new puppy, which is STINKING CUTE! It's at least mostly chihuahua. Super cute, though! It's been a good day, and a pretty good week. I can't wait to finish my costume, and be able to wear it!

Good times!


(25 days)

30 DAYS!!!!!!!!! ( OFFICIALLY )

Alright.... guess what time it is!


Oh... you saw the title.... riiiiiight.........

Anyways, I just want everyone to know that today is the official 30 days left. His coming home is a wonderful birthday present for Ali, who will be in California and Disneyland. :P Don't worry, though, Ali. The moment I know he's home, you will be getting a text, most likely. ;) (Along with a few others.)

Anyways.... pretty much everything I wanted to say was said in my unofficial, guestimated end date 30 day blog post. XD So if you want to read up on it, go here:

http://phantomlover4ever.blogspot.com/2009/09/30-days-ish.html

I'm so excited! :D Anyways, I hope everyone's week is going well. I know mine is so far. :D My drill team actually looks pretty good so far. :D We perform Saturday. Hope we do alright!

Week 4.... officially..... I think. :S

I think I might have mixed up the weeks, but I can't be sure. :S I'm getting so bad about numbers, unless it comes to a certain countdown. XD Anyways..... This is the week of September.... 20th - 26th.

Monday: Had the regular torturous classes for what felt like ALLLLLLL day. And we only got out like 8 minutes early. *cry* It was horrible. I HATE my 3 hour class. :S The teacher is pretty cool, but it's horrible sitting there doing nothing useful.

Tuesday: I had class and we spent 4 hours doing tons of stuff. (Not all of it fun. :S) Then I had institute, which was amazing, as always. And then I worked for a couple of hours before heading home. And... immediately left again for drill team. :S Not very fun of a day, but only because it's so long. For drill team, we were, and are, acutually getting better. (YAY) Since our performance is this Saturday, the 3rd.

Wednesday: Started off with a review in my Ed Psych class, which wasn't too bad, and then left straight for interning. It was pretty fun. :) The kids really are awesome, and they're so excited and happy. Although, I did get to witness some disciplining, which I liked how the teacher handled it. After that, I went to work and worked for a few more hours, before heading home to work on homework.... Yay! (not). I did get everything done for the class the next day, though. :D (After being up until after midnight. ¬.¬)

Thursday: I started out with interning. It was alright. My teacher was sick, though, and was leaving to go home and get rested. So the last hour of my time interning was with a sub. It was alright. The students weren't too bad while I was there. (Thankfully.) After that, I went to institute, enjoyed my Book of Mormon class, and then went back to school for class, after grabbing a Jamba Juice with immunity boost. XD Gotta be safe rather than sorry. Class was pretty fun. But of course, it always is. ;) My teacher is the principal and he's awesome. Oh the story he has to tell us. XD

Friday: I had class, then went to work, where I worked for quite a few hours, got most, if not all, of my regular projects done, and then went home. Instead of working on cleaning, or on homework, both of which I should have done... XD .... I started working on my costume. I have cut out all the pieces I will need for my costume. ^_^ At least for the dress part. XD I'm so excited! Of course pictures will follow as I get more and more done.

Saturday: WHAT A DAY!! I felt like I didn't do anything, and yet I did so much! We had drill team practice from 7 until about 9:30am (Well, 8:45 to 9:30 was more putting the horses away and cooling them off and what not. At 9:30, most of us headed back to work on our uniforms... which look pretty dang awesome! ^_^ But yeah, from 9:30am to like 4pm, we were sewing shirts. I sewed 3 3/4 shirts by myself in that time period. It was intense. The material was nasty to sew and gunked up the needles with the glue from the sparkly stuff. (Vegetable oil was amazing!) But we got all 14 shirts done for all 14 of us girls. ;) It was pretty fun. I posted one pic on Facebook of my sister after she was tied up. XD That's where we were at like 3:15. We had lost it by that point. XD It was fun and we finished it. Then Alana got to paint my nails.... or was going to, but I couldn't decide. XD So... she finished them on Sunday/today. They're cute. ^_^ Little fishies on my nails. hehe


Anyways.... that's my week, not that anyone cares. XD

Oh, also Saturday was the General Relief Society Broadcast..... but I mentioned that yesterday. ;) Along with my new knowledge that brought on mixed feelings. :) Hope everyone's week was pretty enjoyable. ^_^

It's official!

I now have the official date of the return of a friend from a certain little country in eastern Europe, which once contained the territory of Transylvania. (For those of you that don't know, that country is Hungary. XD)

ANYWAYS....... After our lovely Relief Society General Broadcast, my mom went up and talked to Sis. Vaterlaus, because I'm A) too cowardly and B) ...... something that I can't think of. XD Again, anyways, my mom asked how long James had left, and here it is! The official date of James' return!!



October 29th, 2009.

I was very happy to have a final and official date, from a very reliable source, but I was sad to learn that it was 14 days AFTER my initial guestimation. :'( I guess since I've made it pretty much 2 years without seeing him, I can last 1.1 months longer. This does throw my count of my blogs off, though. With the new date, his 30 days left count has pretty much not happened. XD Sooooo..... guess what you get to read in 3 days? XD Yep. You guessed it. Another 30 day blog. ;)

So the official count stands at 33 days from today, James WILL be home. :) Now to correct all the people that want to know........


(Let the count down begin!)

So much to do.....

And to finish the title, " and so little time".

This week so far has been absolutely wonderful and crazy all at the same time, and it seems like I have SOOOOO much to do, and no time to do it. I'm doing really good at getting "ahead" in one of my classes, but the other ones, I'm either right on, or a little behind.

I know school is good. And I really enjoy learning, especially when it comes to the hands-on practice in my interning. But I was just thinking, and I realized, I would be perfectly happy taking institute classes all day. (One semester, maybe I'll try it. XD) But I just feel so much more at peace and content when I'm at the 'tute. I have friends there that share the same standards, I have made friends with the institute service missionaries (or at least some of them). I miss the Chesleys. They were great. We always had things to talk about, and they had such great advice. The couples there now have good advice, but I don't feel a connection with them like I did with the Chesleys.

Anyways..... kinda got off topic there. There are just so many things going on right now. I've got school 5 days a week (plus homework everyday but Sunday), work 3 days a week (mostly just for a couple of hours), drill team rehearsals (our performance is Oct. 3rd, so after that, maybe my load will be lightened for a little bit), plus I need to start making my costume. It's hard, but with the Lord's help, maybe I'll get it all done. No... I know I'll get it all done.


(22d/3.14w)

Week 3... part 2

Alright, here is part two of the wonderful week!

So.... Thursday was pretty awesome. I started out interning, which was a lot of fun. I gave my first "lesson".... kinda. lol My assignment for my Thursday class was to give a "brainless" lesson, which could be reading aloud, or anything that simple, really. When I told my teacher that I needed to do that, she decided to have me give a spelling pre-test. I did alright, I think. I was super nervous, though. XD It all ended up alright. :) Now I still just have to reflect about it. XD After interning, I went to my institute class, which was awesome. :) And after that, I usually have class, but my teacher cancelled for that day, so we got the day off! :D YAY! So.... I went to Walmart to get stuff for class, and I also went to JoAnn's to see if they had cloth that I liked for my costume.... yeah.... nothing. So, I spent the rest of the night doing homework, etc.

Friday, I worked pretty much all day. It wasn't too bad. I got to hold a puppy and pet some dogs, and look at all the interesting stuff going on. Then, I got to go home a little early. I got to say goodbye to my siblings, who were going camping for our ward's annual Daddy-Daughter campout, while I stayed home with my mom.... And this is where the fun begins. ;)
First, we went to Sally's, because I still needed cloth, and I knew my mom would be able to help me find some. (It's that time of year again, to get ready for Halloween!) So we found some, after spending like 2 hours at Sally's cloth store, looking at, feeling, and thinking about what we wanted to get. XD It was fun. Then, we went to Walmart (Greenfield and McKellips), and looked for some stuff. My mom suggested getting a set of bed sheets and stuff to use for the chemise part of my costume, so we went to look at what there was. We found some white sets, and were looking at the sizes..... we went to take a set out, and like 3 rows of sets of bed stuff started falling off the shelf. XD My mom and I were holding it up and she said that we had two choices. We could find someone, or just run as it's falling down, again. LOL We opted for the finding someone, so I stood nonchalantly leaning against the row of falling sheet sets to keep them from going anywhere, and my mom found someone that fixed it. (Yay!) Then after that, we chose and quickly hurried away. lol It was fun. :) Then we spent like another hour or two looking at more fabric and patterns, and ended up getting more than we might ever use. XD But it was fun. :)

Saturday, we got up and again went out shopping for a couple more things, and ended up getting a lot more. XD Darn those awesome looking things we didn't need but got anyways. lol I got some paper to trace a pattern onto, and we got some other things, then came home and worked on some stuff, and before long, everyone came home, and before much longer, I was the only one awake. XD Then we had drill team, and we actually did alright. I just need to be a bit more aggressive when I ride, to keep the horse going the right speed. But we actually looked more like a drill team than we have the last several weeks. And the best part after that, was getting to spend time with my friends, chatting, writing missionary letters because we're slackers, playing Pictionary man, and painting nails. It was so much fun! I can't wait to get together with them again... hopefully in the near future. :)


This was an amazing week, and I've just been on such an emotional high, that it makes everything so much better. :) I've kept on top of homework for the most part, so far, and everything is going well. :) I love when things go well! Now I'm ready to see what this week has in store......



BRING IT ON!!!!!!! (because every day brings a very happy event closer. XD)

Week 3... part 1

Alright, I'll do another update of the week. This will be week 3, and a week two mention. XD Cuz I forgot to do a number 2. lol

Week 2: Went well. :D I got to meet my intern teacher, I really started getting ahead in at least one class, and it was just a good week, culminating in the joy of a received postcard! (Now I just need to write back.

Alright, now onto this week. It's only Wednesday, but I'm in the mood to write, whether anyone reads this or not is not my problem. Sunday was a regular Sunday, then there was Monday, which dragged on FOREVER, although we did get out of my three hour class like 30 minutes early.... woohoo?

Tuesday, I had a class, which was boring, all besides our practicum, where we spend 45 minutes working with the kids on reading. THAT was fun. :) We played getting to know each other games, and had a blast! The two kids me and my partner are working with are SLD/ELL students. So they're about the bottom of the class, but it'll really give me a different perspective on reading, and knowing people that don't like to read. Then I had institute, which was awesome! (It's always awesome. Bro. Calton rocks!) Then I had work, and I worked for a little bit before going to drill team practice. Yeah...... we sucked. Eventually we threw in the towel because we kept getting worse and worse. :S But overall, not a bad day.

Today, I had a class (It was short. YAY!) Then I went straight to interning. I could so far seriously see myself sticking with 5th/6th grade. I don't know their names yet, but they're all so awesome. I loved my 2nd graders, but I think I like older better. :) I didn't really do much, but it was fun. :) I gave a little about me poster, and the kids had TONS of questions. The teacher finally had to say that they need to remember their questions and ask me later when they had a minute, because they had to work on other stuff. So I had fun, and I get to go back tomorrow morning. :) How exciting! Then I again went to work. (It seems like I'm always going going going. Why is that?) Work was alright. I did my job... mostly. :S I'm going to get more of my stuff done on Friday, when it's cooler in the morning. Then I came home from work, and got to work getting ahead on homework. :) Eventually, I hope to be very ahead on homework, only having to do major projects instead of the little weekly things. So so far, it's going pretty well. :D

I don't know why, but I feel more relaxed, a little more confident, and a lot happier this semester. Granted, it's only the 4th week, but it's a good start, right? I'm learning my kids' names, and I LOVE working with my interning teacher. If I ever wanted to emulate a teacher in my future, she would definitely be one of the top ones on my list. She's amazing, enthusiastic, and the kids seem to really love her. :) She's awesome.

Anyways, I will end this post for tonight. Hopefully I will get part 2 up on Saturday or Sunday, and I hope everyone has a truly wonderful week! <3

30 DAYS!!!!!!!! (ish)

Alright, I alluded to this blog in my last post, and here it is! The post I have been waiting for! This will be an in-depth analysis of what the past 30 days have been like, what's happened, and what enthusiasm I have for the future. (Or I'll just ramble on until I get it out of my system. XD)

The past 30 days have absolutely flown by like nothing I remember. Well, all the time is flying by now, but w/e. lol

Over the past.... Idk how long, I've had dreams. Everyone has dreams, but in the course of the past 2 years, I have had at least 20 dreams (out of like 50-70 that I have remembered and written down) that have involved getting together after James' mission. Idk if that's a sign or wishful thinking, but it is what it is.

Anyways..... I got a postcard on Saturday! ^_^ Now, I know you may think "Dude, that sucks. You just got a postcard? I got this this this and this from this person." Well.... James is not the best writer. :P At all. In the two years he's been gone, I've gotten perhaps 7 letters and 2 postcards. That averages out to about 1/3 of a letter/postcard every month. So.... a postcard is a big thing. :P Especially when, in his last letter, he said he wouldn't write again, because he wanted to focus on finishing his mission with 110% effort. (Typical James. XD But I like him all the better for it.)

And now, there are 30 (ish) days left. I say ish, because I still don't know exactly when he's gonna get home. I'm assuming it'll be the 15th of October, but I can't be sure. He's a great guy, and I'm so glad that I got to know him. :) Even if things don't work out for a relationship between us, he's made me a better person, and I thank him for that. :)

I am so happy for him, and I can't wait to see what will happen, or what won't. I just know the Lord will only do what's best for me, and hopefully I'll be open to listening. :)

GAH!!!

Okay, that title can be taken in so many ways, but there's one way that the author (yours truly) meant it.

I have had the most awesome post on here ready for about a week, now, but I set a specific deadline for things like what I want to talk about, and that deadline is in a couple of days.

I am going to have an awesome post done in a couple of days, and it's bugging me that I can't write it yet! lol I'm going crazy almost!

But never fear! When the time comes, you'll get to read all about it. ;)


So, as they say on Wipeout, which has the season finale this week, I think.... "Good night, and Big Balls". (The big red kind that people fall off of on wipeout, for those of you who haven't seen the show. XD It's awesome. You should look it up on youtube.)

Book Review

I recently read a book that I believe EVERY teacher should read. It's pretty much amazing. It's funny, and after listening to my teacher talk (he is principal at an elementary school), I can well believe all the stuff is true. So.... what is the book? you may ask. Here it is:






This book is hilarious. Here's the synopsis on Barnes and Noble's website:

Phillip Done fixes staplers that won't staple, zippers that won't zip, and pokes pins in the caps of glue bottles that will not pour. He has sung "Happy Birthday" 657 times.

A witness to the joys of discovery, Done inspires readers with the everyday adventures and milestones of his 32 third graders in this irresistible collection of bite-sized essays. From the nervous first day of school to the hectic Halloween parade to the disastrous spring musical, Done connects what happens in his classroom to the universal truths that touch us all. He reminds us of the delight of learning something for the first time and of the value of making a difference.

32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny is for anyone who has ever taught children -- or been to third grade. It is a testament to the kids who uplift us -- and the teachers we will never forget. With just the right mix of humor and wisdom, Done reveals the enduring promise of elementary school as a powerful antidote to the cynicism of our times.

This book had me rolling at parts. It reminds me why I want to be a teacher, and prepares me for how hard teaching is going to be.

I will say that there are a few parts that are only as dirty as you let them become, because it is a third grade classroom, and children will be children and speak their minds.

Overall, it's a book I would recommend to ANYONE. Phillip Done does an awesome job writing about his classroom. :)

Awesome Day Update!

Alright, so I'm on a roll, and I am blogging again, so soon after my last one. LOL

Today, was awesome. That's it in short... Now, I'm going to assume you want the long version. The play-by-play run-down of my day. The awesomely weird musings... of a somewhat marvelous me. ^_^ LOL jk. But you ARE going to get a blog on what went wonderfully today. lol

It started out fine. I got up, ate breakfast and got ready, drove to school, endured a class on Ed Psych, or rather, the brain and memory and stuff. So it was all good and fine. I read the book for our book club throughout the morning after class and before choir. It was nice being able to read. :) I miss it. :( After choir, Kelsey Miskin and I went on a lovely expedition to get some lunch. (Jamba Juice and Taco Bell FTW!!!) lol Then I sat reading some more, trying to finish the book. I was reading, almost done, when I found out the Hales were leaving, so I decided to walk with them a little ways, just to get out of my chair for a little bit.

So we were walking and talking and when I passed by the office at the institute building, I heard my name. So, naturally, I turned to see who it was, and it ended up being Bro. Gordon, who was my seminary teacher from Junior year of high school! I was in the one class he had at Westwood for a single year. He was an awesome teacher and it was great to see him again. We chatted for a bit, and then I headed off to my class (not so fun). I cannot begin to say how awesome it was to see him again. :)

And, to top the day off, we got a monsoon storm. BOO YAH BABY!!!!!! Gotta love the rain. ^_^ lol The thing that would have made the day perfect, would have been a letter from James, but it's good enough, I guess, that I can say that (according to if he gets home the 15th of October) he gets home in a month and a half. EXCITING! 45 days. That's it. :D

(If this posts on the 1st of September, make it one day less. ;) )

I just wanted to share my good day. ^_^ Hope everyone else's day was good, too.

First Week

First week of school
Status: Completed
Damage: Minimal
Knowledge: Greatly increased
Stress: Just beginning

This week has been so full of ups and downs, but to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my classes, I love what I'm learning (mostly), and I love the people I get to spend my time with. The only thing I'm not happy about is driving, parking, and assignments.

Monday was alright. I got to spend time with people I knew, meet people I knew about/had seen, and relax with my total of 5 - 6 hours of breaks. The classes seem doable, for the most part. Well, choir I KNOW is doable. XD I love it.

Tuesday, I had my first class at the elementary school. Frost elementary is so different than what I'm used to. Our class is in pretty much the basement. It was pretty interesting.

Wednesday was pretty mundane. I had work in the afternoon.

Thursday, I was stressed about getting to my classes, so I was worried about that, and I still don't know what I'm going to do for my BoM class. It'll be interesting trying to work out. My Thursday class is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! We have fun, we learn, and it's just amazing. For interning, I chose to either intern at Frost or Emerson. I will probably find out on this Thursday what class/school I will intern at.

Friday, was nice. I had one class and then work. The puppies I puppy sat are getting sooooo big! Then, Friday night I went to the opening social. It was A BLAST!!! Kara rocks. ^_^ We had an awesomely fun time, even though we did split up at the beginning, due to my lack of willingness to play "Big Booty". But it was still fun. :) I got to talk to people I met this week, and those I've known for a while. It's going to be a pretty good year, I think.


(And for anyone that cares, 47 is the magic number of the day. lol)

T-60 days and counting

Alright, since I did the whole "90 day" post, here's the next one in the countdown series. ;) As of today, James Paul Vaterlaus has (approximately) 60 days left in his mission. For those of you that don't know, that's 2 months or 8.5 days or 60 days. I could probably figure out hours, minutes, and seconds, but I'd have to have a lot more info than I have currently.

For the past 2 years, I've been waiting for what happens in 60 days. My best friend I've had, and the friend I've had for the longest consecutive time, gets back from Hungary in middle to late October. (I have it set at Oct. 15, since that's when Hilaree Wade's brother gets home, and the left on the same day.)

You may wonder how it's been 2 years of waiting already.... Well, let's see, I didn't see him like at all that summer, between wisdom teeth extractions, family vacations between the two of us, and the fact he was preparing for a mission. Plus I'd known it was coming, so technically, I've been waiting for this time since he got his call in June/July of '07. :P

He's a great guy, and I can't wait to see what he's become. I'm very proud of him serving a mission, and I know he's doing what the Lord wants him to do. :)

Thanks for reading!

Puppysitting

So, I spent Thursday night puppysitting. It was fun, but definitely hard work. The 2 puppies were just a week old. They're eyes were closed, and they were teeny. They're growing, but they're super cute. No idea what they are, but we'll find out what mix when they're a little older, if they haven't gone to homes by then.

Finished

Alright, so I know I promised a story about Saturday night, but that'll have to wait. I'm exhausted currently.

Soooooo instead you get a short post about how I finished my class. I am SOOOOOO glad it's done. I now have 2 weeks of just work again before school.



And on another plus, I get to puppysit 2 puppies tomorrow night, and I'm super excited!

And for now, that's it. Hasta luego.

Countdown

Alright, I've done a lot of countdown things, it seems this year. :S Probably too many, but here's just another one.

So, as many of you (or all maybe 4 of you that read this) know, I've been taking a summer class. Yes, I've griped about it all the time, but it seems like it's been torture, and yet here it is, I'm in the home stretch. There IS light at the end of this tunnel. It's been a heck of a long 5 weeks, doing assignments all the time, it seems.

This past weekend included me writing a reflection on a panel of teachers, administrators, etc. Yeah, as Brian Regan once said (He's a great man, by the way. XD) "I would rather have shards of glass in my eye." Alright, to be honest, I would really rather NOT have shards of glass in my eye, but w/e. It was merely to demonstrate the torturous assignment.

Anyways, I've got until next Sunday, 11:59 pm to finish my final, and then I will be forever done with that class. (As long as I didn't fail. XD)





Oh, and on a side note, Get Smart, is the BEST movie I've seen in a while. XD It's absolutely hilarious. Especially the special features. XD Well, I'll have to tell the story of Saturday night tomorrow. For now, I bid you all adieu. Or au revoir, or cheers, or whatever you want to say. ;) As for me, I'll end with..... Buenos Nachos. (Alright, it's buenas noches, but w/e. XD)

Answers come in mysterious ways

So, I went to the temple for the first time since the end of November... Wow. I'm really bad. :S

Anyways, I walked around for a bit, then this guy with two walking cane things came up and started talking to me, asking me what I was doing. "Thinking." He asked about what, and I said life in general. Then asked specifically, and I said whether I should continue what I'm doing. The end result was that I got my answer. I'm pretty much going to stick with it, no matter how tough it is. I can stick it through, since I've only got 1 1/2 years left. I can make it.

Somehow he got out of me my guy dilemma. And I've decided on that, although I need to talk with the person involved in that little dilemma.

So pretty much, my answer came from the last post, in a way I didn't even imagine. God works in mysterious ways.

Teaching?

Alright, you know I'm bored, and/or should be doing other things when I blog consistently. lol

Anyways, I've just been thinking a lot lately, about a lot of things. Right now, I'm wondering if I really want to be teaching. I think there would be more teachers and more qualified teachers, if we didn't have to take these stupid classes that aren't even going to be applied when we're teachers. I hate the classes we have to take. The only time I've enjoyed school in the past 2 years, is when I'm in a class that is mostly not education related, or when I'm actually in the classroom, but I'm more of an aid than a teacher candidate.

To be honest, I only chose this career because acting was out, due to lack of job security (favoritism), and it's really only supposed to be my backup plan. I want to be a stay-at-home mom. I don't want to work.

I have less than 2 years left, but still, I'm wondering if it isn't for me. If I don't do that, I could always study up to be a CVT (Certified Vet Technician) and work at my dad's clinic, or else change my major to business, so I know a bit about running businesses.

I'm just so lost and confused right now. It's hard to want to do anything, and I'm so confused about things when I do get out of the house. *sigh* I just don't know what to do anymore.

Facebook Flair

Facebook Flair is some of my FAVORITE stuff! I love the super-flair, the regular flair, and the bumper stickers. (There is definitely some eye averting for some of the pics, though.)

Here's some awesome stuff that I've found.

Who doesn't want a flippin huge chocolate bar?

The irony of it all. *sigh*

That is soooo me. LOL

This is sooooo my life right now.

Anyways, just a few laughs and giggles. :)

Life comes at you fast

Life sure likes to throw curve balls at you when you're least prepared. Trust me, I should know this. lol And I do know it. Going from staying home every day and whenever I wasn't at work/school, "not waiting" for a missionary, to dating someone, school and work (STILL), it's just amazing how much can happen in just a few weeks.

There is one thing that I miss... besides my best friend being in Hungary.... and that's time spent with the girl friends I have. I dearly miss all of them. I wish we could spend more time together. Not a day went by in high school where we didn't see each other at some point, and now we're so busy we only see each other like once or twice a year.... well, everyone else seems to get together more than me... But I miss spending time with everyone. The friends I've made at college are gone or going, too. (Miss Kara Morris currently being in NC.)


I'm changing. Idk into what yet. I'm hoping it's something good, and I'm sure it is, because I've spent the last little while cleaning up things in my life that I haven't liked. Things that I wasn't proud of. And here I am, less than 3 months away from seeing my best friend, on the verge of getting a book published, and halfway done with my summer school course. Plus I've got to spend a little bit of time with my newest little cousin, Avery Himle. One of the cutest babies ever! (When he's not crying, that is.) And I've also gotten a whole bunch of random writing things I've been working on.

Time flies. And to think it's only a blip on the eternal scale of time. It seems like this is all I've ever known, and it makes me nervous to think about what's going to happen next in that eternal timeline. As long as I get to keep on knowing all the acquaintances and friends I've made in this life, I think I'll be perfectly happy alongside my eternal companion. And that's exactly where I want to be at the end of this crazy mixed up world.

And just in closing, I just want to mention how much I LOVE monsoon season with the storms and the wind and the rain. ^_^

<3

3 months and counting.....

Alright, as of today, Elder Vaterlaus has 3 months left, which is approximately 12.85 weeks, which is about 90 days, which is 1/4 of a year..... Of course I haven't been counting for the past.... since January *shifty eyes*

Anyways, I'm very glad he chose to go on a mission. He's a great guy, and I can't wait to see what he's changed into from these past 2 years of serving in Hungary.

Just thought I'd do a little update, for those of you that care to know. ^_^ Time flies.

(Oh, and Ali is taking bets on how long it takes him to ask me a certain question, according to what I heard at our girls' night on Wednesday. XD)

It's happening!

It's happening! Something I thought never would!

Alright, you're probably thinking "OMG She's getting married." Umm..... no.... That'd be incorrect. Partly because it's something that I definitely think will happen....

"Oh, well then it must be cuz it's raining right now." Sorry, but still incorrect. Again, that's something that will definitely happen, although storms may be few and far between.

"Soo..... What is it?" you may ask. Well....


I'm publishing my story! After some polling and consideration, I'm going through with publishing my story Garnet. The one that I mentioned forever. I still have to send in the paperwork, but it's officially going to go forward now, and I'm soooooo happy!



Anyways, just a little pre-Independence Day post.....


Oh, and a big shoutout to my mom! Today's her Birthday! ^_^ I have the best mom in the world. Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!!!!!!!!! <3


Thanks for reading!

Publishing Opportunity

So, I recently sent in my story "Garnet" to 2 different publishers. Dorrance and Strategic Publishing.

Dorrance is a self-publishing institution, which means I would have to pay for the bulk of it and not get much back in the form of royalties. (The cost was 10 + k.) It was a little expensive for what I wanted. So I put my search on hold for a little while. I just went on with my life, going to work and doing what I normally do.

Even more recently (like 2 weeks ago tops), I sent a request to Strategic Publishing, asking them to consider my book. (I don't even know how I found out about them.) Well, the asked me to send a copy, and then I got the response a day or 2 ago. They are offering to publish "Garnet" through a Joint Venture. From what I understand, that means they pay for some stuff, i pay for some stuff. The cost: 895 dollars. That's a heck of a lot less than for Dorrance. The royalty I get back they say would be 50%.

So right now, I'm wondering if I should go through with it. I mean, i really want to see my story in print, and maybe even make a little bit of money. But I'm just not sure right now. I'm hoping I figure it out in the next day or so, since I need to decide pretty quickly.

Anyways, wish me luck!

Update

So far, I have written more posts than in April and May combined! :O I haven't done more than 5 in a month since January. lol

Anyways..... updates....... let's see....... I went on a date on Saturday. We went to Caswell's indoor shooting range, then grabbed ice cream and talked for an hour and a half while we waited for it to be closer to starting time for the movie, Up. All-in-all, it was awesome! I never thought I would ever shoot again, let alone be good at it! :O I was very surprised.

Sadly, my ipod nano died on Monday, may it RIP. It was a very good ipod, and I hope it enjoys ipod heaven. (Wherever the heck that is. XD) Sooooo..... because I can't be in storage without something to do/listen to..... I bought a new one. This was my first single major purchase by myself. (Major being over 250 dollars. I did spend over 200 the weekend I went to the Ren Fest, but that was in multiple purchases.)

Anyways................ I got an ipod touch. 300 bucks for a 16gb ipod touch, which is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! So far, I love it. It does need wifi to do most of the stuff, but now that I've got games on it, I'm super happy. ^_^ In the course of an hour (before I got on the wii), I went from 4 applications (3 technology ones and 1 game) to 19 apps (4 non games, the rest games. XD).

And of course, I spent the afternoon on the wii, going between wii fit, wii sports, and wii mario kart! Gosh, it's a blast. I love it!


Anyways, just a quick update, when I should be going to bed. lol Still writing away at my story, although I seem to be most productive with it when I should be doing other things. :S Ooops. lol Oh well. Anyways, more updates to come..... eventually. lol

New Stories

Alright, so since I finished Garnet, I'm going to write about different stories I'm working on.

I will start out with a quick Garnet update, though. I sent a copy (via email) to Dorrance Publishing, which is a self-publishing thing, but it would have cost me 10k to get it done, so that idea went out the window. So, I'm currently waiting on a response from another publishing place. They compare themselves to a "boutique", so I don't know what to expect. They said they were interested in reading my story and perhaps publishing it, but I don't know yet. It would be super exciting if they did! But I just have to wait and see.

Anyways, I've got two stories I'm working on. One which I started back in 8th grade, and one that I started like a month ago. The older one I've called "Sorceress of Sentien". I've got an outline and small scenes here and there, but I haven't been able to mesh it together, so it's kind of stalled.

The more recent story I have started I'm calling "Confessions of a Draculaholic". It's about a girl that lives in today's time, and after a car accident, gets sent back into the story of Dracula. I won't say anything else because A) I haven't written it yet, and B) I don't want to spoil anything.

So anyways, there's my story update for now. As I write more, I'll update. I'm super excited for my writing. ^_^

Since my friends are doing it..... Part 3

Alright, Here is the third (and hopefully finally part.) Did I really say it was boring? Cuz I was sooooooo wrong. XD Or I just have too much fun writing. XD

Anyways..... Graduation. WAIT. I forgot to write about something in my previous post. XD Alright, quickly: So, it was AP testing. We were doing, I think the English or Government AP test, and we finished, so a group of us went to my house where we hung out during lunch. (We had more than an hour, so it was doable for once. lol) So, there was James, me, Kayde, Andrew and a few others (sorry I don't remember who) and we had eaten lunch and were just sitting in the living room, relaxing after the test. Somehow we found these bunny and velcro catchers from Easter in the room, so we started chucking them at each other, and it was way fun. ^_^

Alright..... back to Graduation.

So, we did the whole graduation thing (if I had had a phone, you better believe I would have been texting the entire time. It was SOOOOOOO boring.) Anyways, we all got our diplomas and threw our hats in the air and were happy to be done. So, I go to find people I knew while I waited for my family to get on the field. James was the first person I found, and we tried to find other people that we knew. He ran into his family, and while he talked with them for a minute, I got up on one of the chairs to look for my family. He came and stood next to me, and I believe his mom got a picture of me, for once, being taller than him. lol I don't have the picture, but hopefully when he gets back I can get a copy of some of the pics his family took at graduation. lol Then we found Kayde and Noelle and chatted until we found my family. My mom wanted to get pics of us, so we did. We did a "Charlie's Angels" pose. XD It was great.

James has a super funny face in that pic. XD So then Kayde and Noelle went to mingle, and James was getting ready to go, so we hugged. And my mom saw it. I know she did, because she was like, "Wait!" after we had already finished the hug. She said she wanted "evidence". XD My mom is silly. lol Anyways, it wasn't as good of a hug for the picture. But here it is:
That picture looks so awkward. lol W/e.

So, I went home and finished the day. The next day was my Graduation party. Woohoo! Friends and family! I got a lot of presents. This laptop that I'm writing on is one of them. ^_^ Although, I'm kinda bummed about my stupid laptop. ¬.¬ I will write about that later, though.

Anyways, so everyone starts showing up. James, Andrew, and Kayde were the friends that showed up. We had Panda Express. It's kind of embarrassing, but James comes in, and my mom asks him to get something from a high shelf in the cupboard. Anyways, we get to opening presents, and I'm just being silly. Anyways, we totally finish the activities, and then my extended family starts to leave, until it's just me and my friends and immediate family. We took lots of pics. XD Just silly ones figuring out the whole "mac" thing. James and I definitely flirted. (Ask Kayde. lol) I don't remember particulars, but I was just being silly like always. XD Finally my friends started leaving. James was the last to go. And that was the end of the party.

The next day was Andrew's and Kayde's parties. I went to both. ^_^ Andrew's was first. I got there, and it was me, Andrew, and his family. James was the next to show up. I texted Kayde telling her it was just the three of us and Andrew's family. This was Kayde's reply. “Well start flirting be there soon.” So that was fun. Kayde and I left early because we had her party, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

So James and I spent the summer emailing. When he got his call in June, he called me. ^_^ I remember it was a Thursday. I wasn't expecting a call, so I was shocked, but super happy. I went to his farewell talk. He did a wonderful job. It was kind of awkward after the sacrament meeting was over, though, because I didn't know if I was allowed to hug him or not. So, I had to settle for a handshake.

It's been tough since he left. I'm not going to lie. He's one of the best friends I have, and it's lasted far longer than any other friendship. I miss him, but I know he's doing the Lord's work, and the Lord is pleased with him. Letters are as good of communication as I've gotten with him. And the fact that he wasn't a big writer means that when I did get letters, I'm so much more excited for them.

I'm so proud of him for choosing to serve the Lord and sacrifice his time to serve. He's a great person and a good friend. I'm grateful that I have him as a friend.

Thanks for reading my 3 part story. lol Time flies, and missionaries come home before you know it. :) Just hang in there. If you do what the Lord wants, no matter how hard it is, or how it goes against what you want, everything will work out for the best. And I just try to keep that in mind. It really helps.

Love ya all!

Since my friends are doing it..... Part 2

Alright, here's part two. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far. And heck ya I'm silly. :P

Anyways..... where did I leave off?..... *looks back at previous novel* Oh, right. I finished with Homecoming. I did have fun, but only when we weren't at the dance. So that was Fall of 2006. Let's see..... Winter Formal, I thought about asking him again, but someone else beat me to it. I was pretty bummed. So, I asked Andrew instead. (This was before Andrew and Ali.) We had fun, and it was pretty nice. He's a great guy. (Ali, "I give you leave to like him." <--- name that quote ;D)

I noticed as the year went on, that I went more and more out of my way to see James, and when I didn't see him between classes, I was really bummed. Senior year was interesting. The first semester, I had an A-hour class, but second semester I didn't, so i sat in the hallways before classes started. Anyways.... I had a few days that I just couldn't help crying. (Depression, it's a horrible thing, I swear. There's no control.) But really, there was nothing that I could do to stop crying some days. And I always felt bad when I knew I would see James between a class. He was awesome, though. Just looking at him, I really did feel happier, and it only made it better when he actually tried to make me smile. I smiled so much easier around him.

So, then there was Winter/Christmas Break, and my family spent those 2 weeks in New Zealand. (Stupid flight made us come back a day later than I wanted to be. :S We all missed the first day of school. :( ) Anyways, the second and final semester began.

I don't really remember much, besides a few little things I did. Two that pop into my head from early in the semester are opposites. One made me super happy, and the other was.... let's just say the total opposite. I'll start with the bad, because I like ending on a happy note. It was just one of those days that everything seemed to go wrong. I don't think I saw James at all that day, but what really hurt was that Kayde told me to leave her alone, which I did, and I spent lunch alone that day. (Usually we talked about lunch, etc., before hand, but she avoided me all day.) So, I got to 4th hour Pruitt's class and Kayde decided to be friendly again, which I wouldn't have minded had it been a regular day, but I hadn't eaten lunch, I felt abandoned, and I was kinda ticked. (I didn't know I was ticked until what happened next..... And yes, this IS a tangent. :P I write things down as I remember them.) So, when Kayde said hey and tried to stop me before I got to Pruitt's class (Rm 417. XD), I totally blew up. Now we laugh about it and say that it's the only time anyone's ever seen me really ticked off. I don't even remember what I said, only that I cried throughout class after yelling at her. :S

Okay..... happy thing now. ^_^ Super Happy! lol So, it was Valentines' Day, and they put peoples' names up in the hallway, so I went looking for mine, and happened to see James', so I was surprised when it just "happened" to find a way into my hand with a few other hearts with different sayings on them. lol I didn't tell him about it until after his Calc class, right before my lunch, one day afterwards, and he was like "Oh, that's where it went." I'm sure I blushed. But then what he told me made me so happy. He told me he kept the flower from our Winter Formal in sophomore year. ^_^ *blushes with happiness* So, that was happy.

Also, Senior year, I was involved in Drama. LOVED IT!!!! Best time of my life, really. So, I was in a few plays. I remember my first (and really only play) that I played a major role in. DRACULA!!!!!! Anyways, I loved it, besides the fact I went from playing someone with the same personality as me, to someone that was like total opposite. So that was hard. But I had fun wearing my.... subsitute costume all day on opening night. I got to lay down in Pruitt's class because it was a corset-type dress and I couldn't breathe. So, anyways, it's opening night, and the show goes alright. (I still get embarrassed when I think about my screaming and acting.... seductive.) I didn't realize until the curtain call that James was sitting in the third row. :O (I get super embarrassed when I remember that he saw me perform.) But I thought it very sweet that he had come. ^_^ It made me happy. I was still in my "wedding dress" costume, and he and I sat outside the drama room just talking for between half an hour and 45 minutes. Then he had to leave to prepare for a fathers and sons outing.

Okay, that weekend was seriously my FAVORITE weekend ever! ^_^ Well, the entire week was good, actually. Wednesday night for mutual (before Dracula) we had a laurel/priest activity and he and I hung out and talked some more. The week culminated in Prom.... And guess what, it was with James! Best day ever when I found out he asked me. ^_^ Alright, second best day. Best day was prom. He asked my by leaving a can of pears asking if I would ap"pear" at prom with him. I replied with a jar of peaches saying it'd be "peachy" to go with him. I thought I wasn't going to get asked, but I was so happy when I did get asked. ^_^ Our day activity was rock climbing. After the dance, where we spent most of the dance in line for pictures, we rode in the limo back to where the boys left their cars. I spent a little bit with my head on his shoulder. After the limo ride, we all got pictures as dates next to the limo.
I had put my arm behind his waist and he had put his arm on my shoulder, as pictured above. But what he did surprised me, and I've told very few people about it. (We didn't start out as close as the picture shows.) He pulled me closer right before they snapped the picture. And our door scene was so much better than Winter Formal. He hugged me. Twice. And one of the times, he hugged me and then picked me up like that, still hugging me. *blush* Best night of my life.

Graduation was another really fun night. ^_^ And my party! Gah! If I keep talking, I'm going to have another novel. So...... what I'm going to do, is I'm going to leave off here, and you all can wait for part three, coming tomorrow. :P

I've decided, that's what I'm going to do. ^_^ Stay tuned for part three.

Since my friends are doing it..... Part 1

Alright, recently Ali and Kaye did blogs on their missionaries coming up on/reaching the year mark. I'm a little late for that. XD So I'm doing a "120 ish days left" post. XD (If he gets back the 15th of October, it's exactly 120 days from today. XD) Anyways, here's my story of how I met a certain someone. (Not super exciting, but w/e. lol)

My schooling was different from most. In other words, most people go to Mountain View after going to Stapley. I went to Westwood instead, because I was in their boundary, and I was raised a WW fan. (Andrew, Ali's missionary, did the same thing, so I knew like 2 or 3 people when I got to Westwood.) Anyways, I took Spanish 2 in room 417. I knew one person in the class, who also went to Stapley. So I went through most of the first semester just getting to know other people. My Spanish class really got to having fun, because the teacher, Mr. Barrett (I believe), would just disappear randomly, trusting us to behave. I don't remember exactly how James and I started talking, but we did. I do remember him making a funny looking mouth thing out of a newsletter thing, and then giving it to me. (*blush* I still have it in a box somewhere.)

It was getting to be December of 2004 and I was coming up on turning 16. Because it was high school, there were high school dances, and I was turning 16 the day before Winter Formal sophomore year, and it was perfect. I asked my carpool if I should go to Winter Formal, and I got a yes, so I thought about who to ask. I only come up with one name of someone I knew that was 16, but I asked Natalie in my carpool who I should ask, just for some advice/help because it was my first year, it would be my first date, and my first dance. Her suggestion, matched my own thoughts about who I wanted to take. That was James Vaterlaus, the tall, super nice, funny LDS boy in my Spanish class.

My sophomore year was hard. I got my patriarchal blessing that convinced me to stop being friends with the nonmembers I knew from junior high, so I was on my own. Since it was open campus then, James invited me to go to lunch with them once. It was kinda fun, but I still felt left out. (The walk to and from the house they went to was probably the best part, because I'm sure I was being silly.) I'm sure now that I had (and occasionally still have) depression. I hung out at the seminary building most of the time, playing piano in Bro. Gurr's classroom or reading. Anyways..... tangent.... sorry. *embarrassed* lol

So I asked him to Winter Formal. (I remember how as I'm typing this. XD) So I was cheap, and it was my first time doing anything, so it was pitiful. For Christmas, me and my sisters had gotten little metal bucket things with lids (dunno for what *shrug*, so I put some candy in it and said something like "I'd be a bucket full of joy if you would go to Winter Formal with me." Cheesy, yes, but w/e. lol Natalie put it on his desk in one of his classes, and then I had the wait. (That horrible waiting part. lol) I didn't have to worry about him saying no, though. He said yes, but by giving me an emptied out green bean can with an "I" on the outside and candy inside. ("I can" in case you didn't get it. :P)

Anyways, after a very interesting.... and somewhat embarrassing day activity, I went to get dolled up and then my mom chauffered me to pick him up and then to my aunt's house for the dinner. That was fun, because my aunt loves photography, so she enjoyed taking pictures of us. Ours turned out interesting, because I can't help but laugh most of the time.


At the dance, even when we were just talking we were having fun. (I was soooooo random. XD) The center pieces were rose petals and candles, so I stuck a rose petal between the outside of the glass and the decorative ribbon, "wondering" if it would spontaneously combust. Then he, my cousin's date and I started attempting to actually light the rosese on fire IN the flame. Alright, now skip to the door scene, I got a handshake. Lovely, right? Well, it was our first date and we were each others' first date. What do you expect?

Fast forward through Junior year and Tolman's class, which at least one semester he and I were in the same class. We both were in the Multi-Stake Dance Festival thing in 2005. (Don't remember what it was called. lol) So we saw each other pretty regularly in school and at Stake-wide church functions.

Now is where I get honest. See, before Senior year, he was one friend that I'd had since sophomore year, and before Senior year I wasn't really at all interested in guys. (Okay, technically me liking guys started on or just before our Stake Trek the summer (2006) before Senior year, but w/e. That whole thing gets complicated.) Andrew, being in my company, was like my brother on the trek. No, we weren't in the same family, but he was my only real friend. I wasn't lying earlier when I said I'm pretty sure I had depression. Being on the trek wasn't much different, but it was guy trouble that started the depression for at least one of the three days. I was starting to like someone that was not the best or right person for me. So Andrew was a shoulder to cry on when I felt bad on the trek because of the way I was being treated by what seemed like everyone. (I'm sure my "family" didn't like that I didn't help because I always fell behind the entire company when I did. I felt useless. Instead, Andrew and I were the front of our company, trying to keep ahead of everyone.) Anyways, James was in a different company, so I hardly got to see him...... *embarrassed again* Sorry another tangent. I swear I'm getting to the point, though. :P

Alright, so Senior year arrived. My classes were under way, I had friends (and some that weren't boys! Yay! lol Kudos to Ali, Kayde, and Noelle and everyone else for putting up with my weirdness.) Homecoming came around. That's when I noticed for really the first time that I really actually LIKED James, and I wanted him to ask me to homecoming. As in, really really liked him. For the past two years, he had shown that he was a true friend to me when I felt down, so I counted him as real friend, and I guess it progressed. I got asked to homecoming, but by someone else. That dance was agony. I felt terrible for my date, because my heart and mind were totally elsewhere. That's when I admitted to myself that I liked him, and definitely more than a friend.......



Alright, that's all I'm going to write for tonight. :P You guys have a novel to read. I don't know why I'm writing all of this, but I am, so be happy. lol I'll finish up high school and up to the point where he left on his mission either tomorrow or Friday. (Perhaps I'll even go to where I am now. XD Probably because for once, I feel like I have something to really write about.)

Theme Song

Alright, I've been doing "well" at keeping updated lately. Dunno why I blog, since it seems like no one reads it. But w/e. It's a good outlet for me to just think about things, whether people read it or not.
Hopefully I can have a quick blog about our family vacation written in the next day or two.

My topic for the day is about Carrie Underwood's song "So Small". It's an amazing song, and looking back in hindsight, it's pretty appropriate for what I went through this past week, what with the emotions and everything. So, here's the lyrics:



What you got if you ain't got love
the kind that you just want to give away
its okay to open up
go ahead and let the light shine through
I know it's hard on a rainy day
you want to shut the world out and just be left alone
but don't run out on your faith

'cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing
is just a grain of sand
and what you've been up there searching for forever
is in your hands
when you figure out love is all that matters after all
it sure makes everything else seem so small

it's so easy to get lost inside
a problem that seems so big at the time
it's like a river thats so wide
it swallows you whole
while you siting 'round thinking 'bout what you can't change
and worrying about all the wrong things
time's flying by
moving so fast
you better make it count 'cause you cant get it back

sometimes that mountain you've been climbing
is just a grain of sand
and what you've been up there searching for forever
is in your hands
oh when you figure out love is all that matters after all
it sure makes everything else seem so small

sometimes that mountain you've been climbing
is just a grain of sand
and what you've been up there searching for forever
is in your hands
oh when you figure out love is all that matters after all
it sure makes everything else...
oh it sure makes everything else seem so small.

----------------
Now playing: Carrie Underwood - So Small
via FoxyTunes

Friend?

I'm deciding to write a short spiel on what a friend is to me. I feel I need something a little happier after that last post.

But before I start my little "friend" rant, I need to clarify something that I wrote in the spur of the moment, and it makes a big difference to the meaning of my last post. When I said I felt like I had no friends, I forgot to add the stipulation "my age." It seems like I have no friends my age. They're either older than me, or younger than me.

Anyways, here begins the spiel:

Friend, according to dictionary.com is:
–noun

1.	a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

2.	a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony.

3.	a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

4.	a member of the same nation, party, etc.

5.	(initial capital letter) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.

Alright, that's the dictionary definition. My definition of friend is linked to the first one, but so much deeper. So, I'm going to use the words "friend" and "real friend" to clarify the two different uses I have for the word "friends".

A friend can be someone that's in my group of "friends" on facebook. In reality, most of them are acquaintances. That is more like the 3rd definition.

When I say friend, usually it's just someone that I like and am friendly with. For years, I refused to call people friends unless I knew they were a real friend. With facebook, I've become more lax, with the constant use of the word friend. So, I do have friends under that definition. I have lots and lots of friends. I have work friends, school friends, even church friends under that definition.

For the past few days, I haven't really felt the lack of friends, especially not at work. (Kudos to you ladies! You rock!) What I've felt is a lack of real friends. Real friends, to me, are the ones you do everything with. They can tell when you're down and they want to do anything they can to help. They're the ones you can do whatever and have a blast with, even just talking. And I've never had any that followed this, but I (at least used to) think that they had to be my age. I've never really had any friends like that. I've had some really good friends, but only one or two really good real friends.

I suppose this post isn't much happier than the last one, but I feel a bit happier. And I feel better having explained what I meant in my last post. I try to live one day at a time. Some days it's hard, but sometimes all anyone can do is survive and wait for the sun to come out again.

D & C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." All I can do is trust on the Lord and know he'll help me through it.


EDIT: I was just thinking, and I do have lots of real friends. No, I don't feel like I have any real ones my age, still, but I have so many other real friends. Debbie, Mary, Patience, and so many others at work listen to me, and talk to me about tips and things for life. They're like my family away from home. And today, they said I'd become part of the family. And at church, there are a few people that I can call real friends, even though there's an age difference. Marie and Sis. Lundahl, whom I'm allowed to call Ali, but will always be Sis. Lundahl to me. XD And Theresa from my block one classes from school. Whenever I was stressed about class, she'd always give me uplifting thoughts and help me feel like I can accomplish the task at hand. And also the Chesley's, another set of grandparents I gained, treat me like I'm their own family.


I guess I just have my perspective wrong. Friends don't have to be the same age to mean just as much, if not more. What a blessing the people around us are. To any of you that read this, just think about all the people that mean something to you. You'd be surprised how many you can name that are your friends. REAL friends.