Determination

Sooooo...I failed at blogging this year. I understand that one. I DO have some plans on how to redeem myself this summer. A part of my goal this summer is to keep writing. I love to write, so it would be horrifically awful if I stopped during the summer. A small portion of my writing I put on a separate blog. ...
http://spinninggoldenthreads.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy my other blog as well :)

I've been VERY bad at blogging (part two)

So--I've finally gotten past October. :) (So now I'm just about 2 1/2 months behind). This will be my November update then I guess. :)

November: What a strange time of year. Not only did it signal the start of a beastly second term as a Junior, but my life seemed to change drastically at this point as well. I had to do a LOT of growing up duing this month, and though it put a lot of stress on me, I don't regret a minute of it.

6th: I went on a date with one of my best friends, Taylor. We got to triple with my other best friends: Jess (one of my best friends from Jr. High) and Hansen along with Mari and Branson. (hahaha--yes I am aware that Hansen's and Branson's names rhyme). ;) We went to dinner at Robentinos, went bowling, had ice cream, played in the park at 4th North, and played Twister at Branson's house. Honestly, I thought my stomach was going to burst I was laughing so hard that entire night. It was definitely a ton of fun!

7th: This was a multi-stake dance. My stake always seems to be left out of these multi-stake dances. Honestly, that didn't stop me at all though. The dance was down in West Bountiful and though I struggled a LOT getting to the building, I finally got there with plenty of time to dance around. This was definitely the best multi-stake dance I had ever been to! Everyone was so wild and hilarious. I absolutely loved it. :)

18th: Academic Olympiad!!!!!! This was honestly a flashback of NAL in junior high. We all woke up early early early in the morning and ran down to the school so that we could hop into the bus with all the other nerds from every other school. We didn't have enough people, so Trevor drove up most of the way so that he could catch us and join the team (that is why he was voted MVP). ;) We had 3 amazing team captains and we were the best-dressed school at the entire thing! We had a "Harry Potter" theme, and, honestly, it cracked me up the entire time. The testing itself was not necessarily pleasant...(except for when I realized that I already had the poem we had to analyze in the English section memorized). Nevertheless, I got to see my favorite hermana afterwards! We all had a lovely lunch afterwards (including my sister who was taken in as the "Co-advisor" for the day). Then we had a "Starwars" battle between the schools where Bountiful did an AMAZING job! We actually got pretty far. :) We then had Aggie Ice Cream on the way home. I crashed when I got home (it was an exhausting day). I don't feel like I was smart enough to be on the team (there are PLENTY of people smarter than me that they could have chosen). Nevertheless, I can't wait for next year!

(oh...the picture was with our "trophy" for Best-Dressed) ;)

26th: Thanksgiving! I was so excited for not only the break from school, but for just the holiday of thanks to come around. For the big day, my Grandma came up to my house. We had a large lovely lunch and then we watched "Lost in Austen" (another one of those movies I can't simply get enough of). I loved having my Grandma up to visit and I loved the relaxation. (The picture below is of my sister, my grandma, and me) :)

27th: This was one of the BEST days of November! Why you may ask, well--this was my first "Tea Party". :) A bunch of us got all dressed up and got together for Hot cocoa and small desserts. We talked for HOURS and really had a great time! There will DEFINITELY be more of those in the future. :)

I also got answered to for the Christmas dance on this night too. I had a lovely chunk of ice left on my front porch that took a bit of work to melt. (actually---There was a large chunk of ice on my back lawn for over a month). ;)

For some reason, I felt SUPER ambitious and wanted to make my own dress for the dance though. It was Thanksgiving break--I thought I had all the time in the world. I chose out some gorgeous dark green fabric. I can't honestly say that it was my FIRST choice though as I went to go pick out my fabric. I'm a little OCD about how all evil red heads wear dark green (look at the movies and tell me it's not true!), but I loved the color so much that I couldn't resist! My sister helped me set it up so that I could cut it out (what a PAIN....honestly--I hated it). Anyways, I had to give up a bit of my precious free time for the dress so that it could be ready in time for the dance. In the end though, I think it turned out quite nicely. I've learned my lesson though---if I want to make a dress, i'll do it in the summer. :)

This is me trying to see the back of my dress (hahaha...it's my favorite part, yet--I could never see it!) ....and I PROMISE I made a shrug to go with it. I would never have bare shoulders....I promise. :)

Painfully Long Since Last Updated....

Well---I have finally broke down and turned to my blogging once again. I've had the most difficult time keeping up with life lately. However, I am determined to catch up at least a bit today. October 11th....was that honestly the last time I blogged? Bah---what a shame. Life just started getting excited at that point. ;) This is going to be my feeble attempt to give an outline of my life. (and just an FYI, I will blog about all the dances in greater detail on a separate post...)

October:

17th: Ingrid Michaelson concert! Brianne (the best sister in the entire world!), Lauren Redd (My favorite sister's best friend), and I got to scramble our way through the scary part of Salt Lake, much to my father's apprehension, to go watch our idol--Ingrid Michaelson! Lauren had introduced Brianne to some of Ingrid's music, but it wasn't until she bought her CD "Everybody" that we both became extremely addicted to her. The concert was AMAZING!!!! I won't lie, my legs ached like none other from standing for such a long time, but it was definitely worth EVERY throb! If Ingrid ever decides to come back to our small little Salt Lake capital, you can be rest assured that I will be there to listen to her again!

19th: This was the first day of Davis Youth Symphony! Last year was the best orchestra experience I had ever had, so of course I tried out to be in it again! :) Last year's music was beastly; I absolutely LOVED it! This year, I was more than willing to go at it again! Mari and I were placed in the first violins. It wasn't long before we started to get a bit mischievous sitting in the back of the room. One week, we decided to get some "fire in our eyes" as Mr. Wayman instructed us to do in the Spartacus. We spent our audition time making "fire glasses" out of paper. It is easy to say that Davis Youth is the highlight of my Mondays. :) (the piece below is the Spartacus that we're playing)

24th: This was the day of the BHS' Halloween dance! I asked Kyle to go with me! (though the asking process struggled quite a bit, it turned out to be highly entertaining) ;) Our group decided to go as "Decades" so that everyone could kinda decide on their own costumes. Kyle and I decided to go as the "60s". I sewed up a large blue poodle skirt and Kyle had a classy leather jacket. The day activity was a blast! I got to take everyone on a hike up Ward Canyon (a canyon right by my house). It was quite the adventure and afterwards we went back to my house to have hot cocoa and play 'Apples to Apples'. The dance turned out to be SOOOO much fun! We had an awesome dinner at Jess' house and then we went to the school for the dance. The decorations were amazing, as always, and we all danced around for hours! Afterwards, we went to Megan's house and had ice cream. :) It was DEFINITELY a highlight of the month!

30th: BCYC (Bountiful City Youth Council) had their annual Pumpkin Patch! This event is one of the Youth Council's fundraising events that brings together families from all over our lovely little city. This year, being my first on the Youth Council, I was so excited to help out. Rach and I decided to be EXTRA ambitious and to take care of the food for the entire event. The only problem was, we had never been to this event and had NO clue whatsoever of how many people would show up. We'll just say that we happened to order WAY too much food. Nevertheless, it was definitely a learning experience (and we all know how badly I need those ;) ). Mental note for next year: don't expect a billion people to show up if the WARM Rec center is having an event the same night. ;) At least I still had a blast and can't wait for next year. :)

31st:This was none other than Halloween!!! Halloween is quite strange simply because it just happens to be the holiday that I like the least even though it is my FAVORITE time of year. (It doesn't quite make sense to me either). For Halloween, I got to go to my friend's house with a whole bunch of friends just to hang out and watch a movie afterwards. We did a little bit of trick-or-treating around the neighborhood (probably scaring a few old people while doing so), and then we watched "Arsenic and Old Lace"(fyi---I love that movie!). When I had to head home, I noticed that my keys were not to be found in my pocket, much to my horror. Liz ended up walking around the entire Temple block to help me see if I could find where they might have dropped. To our enjoyment, they were resting right under the temple fence. When I got back, everyone was trying to help search for my keys. I have the best friends ever! Sooo---I guess I kinda got my curfew extended for the night. ;)

Well---my computer does not seem to like my large and chunky post. I guess I'm going to have to do my make-up post in several posts. So---bear with me....I'll keep blogging. ;)

At the MTC....

I found this hilarious video and couldn't restrain myself. You'll have to watch it for yourself to see what I mean. :)



-Jassy

A Journey

On Thursday, Mari and I snuck out of our classes and sped away on the bus headed for the FCCLA conference in Ogden. With quite a bit of brilliance on our part, Mari and I disguised ourselves as common zealots to blend in with the masses of FCCLA officers in one-size-fits-all red blazers. In several brain-washing meetings (not exaggerating with that one), Mari and I became connoisseurs of coloring books as we defiantly vied to keep our sanity through the reassuring images of bright colors and Disney Princes. At night, when all the beasts seemed to crawl back to their dwelling-places, we tip-toed down to the nearest warm watering hole (aka Hot tub). Much to our surprise, we were met by the sight of glooby girls falling out of itsy bikinis as we entered the chlorinated room. We had to scratch that plan and we ran out of the room -- almost knocking into things(as you can well imagine, our hands were desperately attempting to cover our eyes which makes a hasty retreat relatively difficult). Oblivion and sleep were wonderful and Great Harvest breakfast was glorious as well. We spent the next morning looking curiously at pictures of important men with the sun glowing from behind their balding heads photoshopped into their pictures. In the end, we’ll just say that we are pleased as a pickle to be home.
It's thrilling to play on the luggage carts. :)

This is me coloring during one of the plentiful meetings.

Mari and our mascott bonded so well while they sat next to each other.

This is Kylee and Parker while we were eating dinner.

Me playing some more.

My dearest potential-model of a friend.

Best Buds!!!

Kylee on our walk to dinner.

One of our meetings.


These pictures are the ones Mari and I took on our way home!

My Favorite of Ingrid Michaelson

I know my last post had to deal with Ingrid Michaelson, but I can't help doing another post about her lovely music. I've had about four songs (including The Chain) stuck in my head. So I thought that I might as well just enlighten the public about where my mind's been off to lately. :)

Locked Up
This song is my second favorite (closely following "The Chain") of Ingrid Michaelson's new CD "Everybody".


Are We There Yet?
I was slightly surprised that I liked this song so much. I am a big fan of upbeat music that I can run to while at the gym; this doesn't fit into the category very well. I love the lyrics though. :)


Mountain and the Sea
Beware: this song has the ability to get VERY stuck in your head. I love how original these lyrics are!