The News on Everything In Life

I Know, I know it's been a long time like months and months, and I haven't blogged at all since we've moved, which really is a shame cause so much has happened. So, I guess it's probably about time I gave everyone a little bit of an update on life..

So, anyhow in June we moved! Yay! We now live in Brewster, Washington in Bro. Greg and Sis. JaLea's house on the hill, which probably most of you all already know. We've gotten a lot of work done on the house, which is MUCH smaller than the one we moved from, but I think we're starting to get used to it, a little. We suffered the hot summer with 2 window air conditioners and now winter is on it's way and we've got to get the wood stove hooked up so we can have the house just as hot as it was on those hot days when we used the air conditioners. Hahaha!! Last week we finally had to get the dryer hooked up cause it rained like all week so the clothes were not getting dried on the clothes line at all. Now the towels are all soft and fluffy, which makes me happy. :) At first it seemed hard to drive up the hill and our driveway, but now that I've drove up and down it like 190293848 times (okay maybe not THAT many times, but it sure feels like it..) it seems so easy. And really most days I love living here because there are people and we can do things with other young kids, the only problem with that is the days when there are 12 young kids at church and I am the only one who can drive and then we can't do anything because we can't all fit in our van.

I'm sure you've all heard that on July 12th my brother Tyrel gave his had to be baptized and then on August 3rd MacKenzie was baptized! Tyrel gave his hand to Bro. Marty Evans and MacKenzie gave her hand to Bro. Lionel Wilson. These were both very happy times for our family.

At the end of July I started working at McDonald's. It's I guess a good job, but there are always those days when I just wish it wasn't MY job, normally because you can get a lot of angry customers at a place like McDonald's, but it pays and it's not like that's what I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life. Yeah, that's the good news that I get to have the best job ever of being a mother and wife :) I think that pays a lot better than any job in the world, but I also think that working at McDonald's has taught me a lot about how to deal with people.

In August when we went down to Brownsville we got me a car! It's a dark blue Outback . I really like it a lot, but since it only has 5 seat belts and I have to drive all the kids to school I don't get to drive it as much anymore.

After my grandma Linda's family reunion in August my grandma, Shay, Amber and Ashley came up for a week and us girls worked very hard and got Zakk's scrapbook finished and gave it to JaLea and the boys before they left. It turned out very wonderfully and they loved it. I wish I would have had a hundred more pictures for it, but as it is the book is way thick so I guess it's fine. We had a lot of fun making it. The funny thing was how we put it all together and everything and took it up to their house and then realized that we had forgot one of the pages.

Amazingly, even with how busy we were trying to get the scrapbook done we still we able to run around and do a lot of things with the young kids while the girls were up here. On Monday we did some running around town for mom and then went out to Conn and Nancy's to get our dog and cats. When we were almost home we realized that I didn't have my phone and so I ended up not having it until Wednesday when we went back to Conn and Nancy's to find it, but it wasn't too much of a problem because the people I talk to we're with me and if my mom needed to talk to me she could just call any one of the girls. So, then we got home and worked the rest of the day and night on the book. Tuesday I had to work, but I left them with lists of things we needed done, like things we needed copies of because they were going to the print shop to get the stories all printed out and get copies of some pictures and things that Chantae had gave us for the book. And I guess they ended up having a lot of problems first finding a place to get it all printed and then getting it printed, but they did get it all done and so that's good. When I got home they had a lot done and we worked on it a little bit more before we all had to head out to the church to have pizza with the young kids and then go to the Grand Coulee Dam to see the light show. The light show was way cool and everyone should go see it (you'll have to wait til summer though). On Wednesday we did some other running around getting some other things copied at the library, dropping our registration paper work off at the school and then going out to Conn and Nancy's to find my phone. By the time we got home it was almost time for dinner, we started organizing the scrapbook pages while we ate our dinner and then we went to church. After church we went with the young kids to McDonald's and hung out, well ate, then hung out in the parking lot until we all decided to get in our cars and go home. I had to work on Thursday so before we went to sleep on Wednesday night I had to make lots of lists for the girls so that they could finish the book cause we were taking the book up to JaLea and the boys when I got off work. I ended up getting off work early, which was a good thing because we still had a lot of things to get done before we could leave to take the book to them. I've already told you about giving them the book so I'll kinda skip over that a little bit, after the boys and JaLea had looked at the book together a few times we went out to Zakk's room to hang out and look at his drums and just give JaLea some time alone. Then Scotty made us haystacks for dinner and we all went to the church cause the young kids were getting together to play some games and hang out. JaLea let us take the book so that the young kids and parents could look at it. We didn't really play a lot of games, but we had fun.

Okay everyone, There's an update on my summer and hopefully I'll get a more resent update for you all soon, but it may take awhile cause it's now been like a month since I started typing this post.. So we'll just see when I have the time.

Quilting

So, in this year i have been teaching myself how to quilt. It's really been a lot of fun. Also a lot of work and hurting fingers. Now I have made and quilted a baby blanket for a girl at my school and a very large quilt for my cousin Shay.

Baby gift for Bailey, from my school
I also gave her a little dress and burp rag.

She had her little girl 2 weeks ago, which was actually a little early.

Name tags I put on the blanket saying that I made it.

And here are 2 pictures of the wildly colored quilt I made for Shay.

Grandma

Grandma and her six sisters taught me about life.

They spent years showing me what love is and how to live the faith.

Brought God into their children's lives, like their parents had done for them, so that me and the other grandchildren could also have Him in our lives.

Always being an example to all of us on how to live our lives with the Lord.

They told us stories of their parents and stories of the faith they learned as little girls and stories of their own families.

Teaching me to care for others.

Her and her sister spent time teaching me to sew, as this was something that all the sisters loved to do.

She gave me songs to sing,

Stories to tell,

And a faith I can teach to my own children and grandchildren, that they might also have the same understanding and want the Lord in their lives.

She was a best friend to talk to when troubles came,

Kind words spoken as she held me in her arms, willing all pain away.

Now she is gone and so is her sister and we know that soon we may also be losing some of the other five sisters.

All sisters, who loved us from the beginning and taught us to love all the people around us.

Life Moving Forward

May 28, 2009(This post was started on May 11, 2009, as the date above reads, but it took me a few weeks to finish because I was busy.)

I'm sure that by now you all know that we are moving, but if not, for those of you who have not heard, we are moving to Brewster when school gets out.

Last spring when my parents had first started talking about moving I didn't want anything to do with it; this is where I have lived for the past 13 years of my life. Then they were talking about moving to Oklahoma and I was really against that; there was no way they were going to move me that far away from the Northwest, where I don't know people and where I would never get to see my friends anymore, I would just move in with my grandma.

But after summer was over and I had to go back to school and everyone was back at home, which meant I didn't see anyone, then I wanted badly to move so badly that I almost wouldn't have minded moving to Oklahoma (except for those gross bugs that I've never seen). My 2 top choices of where I would want to move was Brownsville and Brewster, either one would have been fine with me.

Then they stopped talking about moving to Oklahoma and started telling people that we were going to move to Brownsville, which of course I jumped right on that idea. I love it in Brownsville, I even want to get married in the park there (it's written right there in our plans). I was so happy that I would finally get to go to school with Brandon and Shay and we were going to graduate together. Shay and I were going to do Blue Notes together, which is an advanced jazz choir. It was going to be so cool.

But then on the way over the mountain for Easter dad asked us kids what we thought of Brewster and by the next day he was telling people that we were thinking about moving up there. Not something I had been expecting, but still it was better than Oklahoma, it just wasn't Brownsville.

So, yeah, in less than a month I will be living in Brewster, Washington. Yes, it's still not Brownsville, but I have become very excited about the move, which anyone who has talked to me would know. I won't be graduating with Brandon and Shay, but instead I will graduate with Abe and Emily. I will be able to get to know everyone up there better. Everything will be new to me, which before would have scared me, but now I am so very excited and ready for all of the new changes that await me in Washington.

Track

So, yes I've been in track for the past about 2 months. It's been a lot of fun really except for all of the running. I run long distance, and have ran the 15 hundred and the 8 hundred at all of our meets, which I got last in every time except for the one time when I got second to last, but I don't really care if I get last. In someways it's nice that track is almost over because it has made life so busy and now I will have time for ALL the other things that need to be done, like scrap booking, and packing. Tomorrow we are going to the district meet over in the valley and since I will get last , most likely, and even if I don't I won't be qualifying for the state meet next weekend, which means that track is about to be over for me and today was my last practice. It's really been nice to have something to do because I was so tired of always being bored and not having anything to do.

Another Talent Show

So, yesterday I was in another talent show, but this time it was a high school talent show, in front of the whole high school and it was just me and the piano instead of me and my little sisters. I had planned on playing 'Only Hope' by Mandy Moore, but I only had two weeks to learn it and I was really busy with other things too, so on Monday I had to decided that I just wasn't ready enough to play that song. I ended up deciding that I would play 'When the Saints Go Marching In'. There were about 8 people in the talent show and most of them all sang, some also played guitar. I didn't think that I was too nervous or anything, but then when I got up there to play I was shaking terribly. I hadn't played for a crowd in about 3 or more years and even then usually the only people in the crowd that I even knew was my family, so playing for a crowd that was my whole high school, all people who I know, was a new experience for me. I know that I messed up a few times, but I remembered what my piano teacher used to tell us before recitals and just kept playing because nobody else knows that I messed up, unless I happen to stop because of it. I didn't win, but I didn't care that I didn't win either because I was mostly just doing it for fun and I really think that everyone in the talent show did very good.

Zakk

It seems so hard to believe that such a good friend is now gone; at only 17. Our hearts feel empty knowing that he is not here any more. We all know that he is now up in heaven with the Lord, which is where he belongs, but at the same time that makes us wish we could go too so that we don't have to wait so long to see him again. This is going to make our lives so different and our summers. Summer is when we got to see him the most; at cam pouts and other get togethers. We all have so many memories of Zakk that will never be forgotten and we will keep him forever in our hearts until the day we see him again, up there in the clouds.

Zakk was a great friend and earned his place in the hearts of all those who knew him and spent any amount of time with him. His love for music, constant drumming on everything or air drumming where ever he happened to be, singing whenever he got the chance, all the times he made us laugh, that smile of his that was always there, the beautiful eyes that we all know he hated, the way he was always joking, but yet serious at the same time, playing football, baseball or volleyball at cam pouts, how he never let his size get in the way of his dreams, taking his own trails when we were at silver creek falls, how he had to climb up that opening in the side of the falls and get stuck, always talking about music, the time he showed us the right way to make and eat a marshmallow, when he wasn't afraid of his shoe stinking when we past it around the circle, the big heart he had, how he helped Josh sing that song he started when they were the only ones even singing, looking up in the rafters of the campfire thing and seeing him up there singing with us, teaching us new games, how he helped make everyone be quiet and listen when it was time to decide what game we all wanted to play, what a help he was with all of those 13 year olds who had to be inisated, how he always said "hi" and gave wonderful hugs, a partner in mattress surfing if you were a guy, the one to make a quiet moment loud, always there to help out or just laugh with, all of the crazy times we all got to spend with him; these are just a few of the things that made Zakk so great, special, and different from any other friend we had and exactly why we loved him so much. He was a part of our group and he will be greatly missed in so many ways.

I want to be like Zakk when I grow up. He was the best and greatest and most amazing of all of us. His faith and confidence in the Lord has given us all a new inspiration to have no fear. We should all live such an amazing life and go just like Zakk has gone. We keep wondering why he had to go but now we understand how Zakk was too good for us and truly too good to be down here on earth any longer. He was small, but his heart was so much bigger. We never knew that he would leave us so soon, but now we want to go up there to heaven where we can be with Zakk and our Lord and so many others like Zakk who have left us. He is our hero, an inspiration and example to all of us of how we need to live our lives. He's up there now, I can just see him playing for the Lord, with his crazy purple hair, singing in that choir of angels and making everyone up there laugh, just like how he always made all of us laugh while he was still down here with us. Life won't be the same without him, but we'll live it to the fullest just like Zakk has taught us to and meet him again one day in glory land.

Because the slide show that they had at his memorial didn't have any pictures of Zakk at cam pouts or other get togethers, which was because his family didn't have any, we decided to make a scrapbook for his family with pictures of him with the brethren. We would like to get copies of any pictures anyone might have of Zakk and we are also going to let anyone who wants to write down as many memories and stories that they want to about Zakk, which will also be in the scrapbook for his family to read over and over again. We are going to kind of try to keep this a secret from his parents for as long as we can. We have opened an account at Walmart.com for people to upload any pictures of Zakk. The email address/login ID is crazyandconfused92@hotmail.com and the password is RIPZakk. Thank you to anyone who uploads pictures for this.

The Weekend and Other Updates On Life

So, as some of you may already know, we had a party here this past weekend for Tyrel and Zach's birthdays. We had a pretty good turn out, considering that we didn't send anything out, but did it by word of mouth, which was okay because we were afraid a lot of people would come and we wouldn't have beds for everyone. But it all worked out good. We were going to have a fire outside and have a wienie roast, but people called in and complained, so we didn't end up getting to roast anything. So, we hot dogs and chips and other good food. We did a lot of singing from time to time, which was nice. The young kids played some games. Then we ate cake and the boys opened the cards that some people had brought and few presents from family. Then we played a few more games until everyone started going to the houses where they were staying. Us girls stayed at Kansada's. We ate popcorn, watched The Notebook and then went to bed. Not everyone went straight to sleep, but Shay and I did. Church on Sunday was really wonderful, we heard a lot of great things (though at the moment I can't really think of exactly what). We did I knkow hear about how we need to be living the faith without even thinking about it really; if you know what I'm trying to say. We had dinner after church, sang some more, talked some and then slowly people started leaving to head on home.

So, the update is that I have started doing Track. It's really fun other than all of the running. LOL. No, I actually enjoy the running too, for the most part. Today I had to go in and get a physical, which I was a little nervous about because, you know I have NEVER been to a doctor in my life (which the world doesn't really understand), but I passed and they said that I was healthy. So, my life seems a little bit crazy and busy and at first I was way sore, but I've gotten used to it and don't get quite as sore as before. Sometimes the running feels like death, but I just have to think about what good shape I will be in by the end of the season. And, hey at least I'm not sitting at home bord everyday anymore...

Digital Media

Well I really wanted to post the pictures and colleges that I've been working on in the Digital Media class that I'm in this semester, but because we don't have the photo shop program on our computer it wouldn't let me put them on the computer. Which meant that I couldn't post them, which also really irritates me because I really wanted to share them with everyone because they are really cool and I had a lot of fun making them. In the class we get to choose a program to work with for a few weeks and do a project on it. I chose to do photo shop, which is used to edit pictures and use photo effects and make different photo creations. It was a really fun program to use and someday when I have money and maybe even my own camera I would like to buy the program for myself because I liked it so much.

2 Poems

I decided that since I hadn't been having any big kind of inspiration for a post I would just pick one of my poems to post. Well, I looked through the different ones and decided on these 2. They were wroten about a year ago and don't really have anything to do with the way that I feel now, but they are just what I picked. I had to post them both because they kind of go together.

Broken

When you've been hurt, Nothing feels right.

Everything inside of you torn apart.

Life seeming to go all wrong.

You cry yourself to sleep, And don't care a bit what people say.

The world seems to keep going without you.

Everything spinning in the same way as before, But you just can't get back on.

You feel broken, Pieces everywhere.

Everything dark, Sunshine gone away.

Nothing goes the way you thought it would.

Love blown away, Never to come back again.

Mind rolling on, Always remembering.

Losing it all.

Broken into a million pieces, Can't be fixed.

Dieing inside, Where no one can see.

Hating the feeling, Wishing it all away.

Running with the wind, Trying to get away.

When you're broken and hurt, It never goes away.

Moving On

I felt something stronger, That couldn't be reached.

You ended, But I couldn't.

The hurt went on forever, Never to stop.

Now I'm moving on, Trying not to remember.

Living better then I have in a while.

Seeing things in a new way.

I've found the love of life I had lost.

Moving to a new time, Where none of that matters any more.

If you didn't want my love, Then I'll take it all back.

Trading thinking, To get by the time.

Keep on moving, On and on.

Saying it all, Letting it out, Not keeping any in.

Dreaming has stopped, Back to reality.

Looking forward, Into the future.

No more crying, No more hurt.

Getting better, Day by day.

Into the new, Forget the old.

Seeing you, As you really are.

I maybe angry, But I'm not sad.

Cause I'm moving on, Goin all the way.

-The odd thing I think is that the dates on these poems say that the second one was only wrote the day after the first one.

Weekend in Portland

So, we went over to Portland or Hillsboro for the weekend. We stayed with Bro. Rusty and Sis. Mary, which was nice and we all got some really good visiting in. On Saturday we helped move the Easters into their new house, it was a lot of work, but we managed to get them completely move over there. Both nights the adults and I stayed up until about 11:30 visiting, which as I said before was really nice. Meeting was really good on Sunday, we heard a lot about loving your neighbor and how we need to treat one another. Uncle Matt and Aunt Tisha had everyone over for dinner after church and then at about 5 we headed home.

Life Goes On

You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you're sad, love what you've got and remember what you had... Always forgive but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret, people change, things go wrong, just remember life goes on.

There comes a time in your life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.

Live today, because yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.

This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days. Smiles when sadness intrudes. Rainbows to follow the clouds. Sunsets to warm your heart. Laughter to kiss your lips. Friendship to brighten your being. Beauty for your eyes to see. Faith so that you can believe. Confidence for when you doubt. Patience to accept the truth. Courage to know yourself. Love to complete your life.

Done-Over-New-and Happy

The first semester is over and done with now. I did pretty good on both of the English tests I had, but not so well on the Biology and Chemistry. The good news is that I ended up doing good in my classes, getting work turned in and my grades up; my GPA for the semester was 3.29, 3 A's, 3 B's and 1 C. Which means that I will be able to have cheaper insurance. Today was the first day of the second semester and I only had 2 classes that were the same from the last semester. I feel like this is going to be a good semester for me and although some of the classes may challenge me at times, they're going to be fun. I feel happy about the new semester because I am starting it out right by not letting myself fall behind in the beginning.

His/Their Love

He loved me more than any other, held me in his arms as a babe.

As I grow older his love grows more and more, he cares and wants to keep me in the safety of his arms.

I'll stumble and fall, he'll be there to catch me and teach me the way.

He's there for me even when I don't want him, hears my cries and sees my smiles.

(It says 'His/Their because I originally wrote it about my parents, but then realized that the titles 'he' 'they' could be switched and the poem would apply for the Lord also. I started writing it in my head when I was thinking about how much my parents care about me, how they are now able to show me their love and care in a new way by every time I go to drive somewhere they make sure to tell/remind me to drive safe. I feel very special to be able to hear this from them even if other people say the same thing to their driving teens. I realize how different my life would be with out either one of my parents or with out God and that they all care and love me more that I will ever know.)

The End is Getting Closer

The first semester of the year will be ending next week. I know of 4 tests I will be having next week and on top of that we have papers and whatnot due all the time, something else everyday, they're keeping us overloaded (I really shouldn't even be on here). I have grades to finish getting up and classes to get changed for the next semester. Of course I am wanting to kick myself again for the way my transcript looks like because of the why my grades turned out the year that I home schooled, I know that if I would have done better that year I wouldn't be worrying and stressing so much on how I am ever going to get all of my credits in to graduate next year. If I can get them to let me change my classes the way that I want to then I shouldn't have to worry too much cause I should work out. I better get to all of that work now cause it is just piling up in there.

Blessed

Last week in my English class we watched a video on the life of Stalin to get ready to read A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich'. The way he treated his people really got to me and the worst was when they showed the destroying of churches and temples and the killing of priests. The part when he brought back the churches and such because he wanted help winning the war really bugged me because I know that that is not how it works. All books teach you something about life or at least they should and this one is teaching me how lucky I have to not have lived in that time of in any country with rulers such as Stalin.

It really made me see how blessed we really are to live in a country where were have the freedom to serve God. In some ways with all of the laws we have some may not feel so free, but when the thing that matters to me the most is serving God and the country that I live in gives me that freedom I know that I am blessed.

Then I realize that I am also blessed to have even been chosen to serve the Lord and be a child of God because I know that it didn't have to be me, he could have chosen anyone else.

(P.S. I had planned on posting this last week, but never got around to it.)

Snow Party

So, I had thought that we weren't gonna be going to the snow party because mom isn't up to traveling and we don't have a lot of money for traveling. I had known that they were having a snow party in Alturas and that Shay and Brandon were probably going, but I didn't really care too much about not being able to go because I hadn't ever expected that I would be going with mom being pregnant. Then at about 11:00 on Friday morning Bro. Bill called to see if Tyrel, Mackenzie and I wanted to ride with him and Ryan down to the snow party. Mom called and talked to dad, I called Amber to find out more about what was going on for the snow party (the same things as every year), mom called dad to tell him what Amber said, dad called Bro. Bill and then some more back and forth. They decided that we could meet him and go, which meant that we had to hurry and get packed and everything that we were already planning on doing that day in about 3 hours. We had had a whole list of things that we needed to get done, but had decided to go in around 1 so that on our way home we could go to Sonic during happy hour, so like none of us were even ready to go to town yet. Tyrel had went to work with dad and after work they were planning on going to get him a hair cut, so they were trying to find a place in Redmond to get it done, but decided everywhere in Redmond was too pricey and went to the place they had planned on going to in Bend. Mom and all of us at home hurried and got our things packed and were heading to town by about 12. We stopped at the D.M.V. as planned for me to take the safety test again and guess what, I PASSED AND GOT MY LICENSE!!! Then we went to Bend to meet dad, moved our things into his car, got lunch and headed for La Pine to meet Bro. Bill.

On the way down we sang and played a spelling game. Bro. Bill's turn was before me on the spelling game and he kept on making me have to spell 'Y' word, which got hard after a while.

We got down there at about 6:30 or 7:00. Said hello, hugged lots of people and told people that I got my license. At 8:00 we had a surprise birthday party for Alissa Young, who had recently turned 13 and then we ate dinner. Then we played Pictanary, Wink'em and Who's Holding My Hands. Most of the older boys, who are like around my age and some a little older wouldn't play the games, which made me a little mad at them, but I tried to wrestle them into sitting down and playing, their just bigger than me.

At ten us girls all went over to Amber's to hang out and then 'got to bed'.

Saturday morning we got around and went over to the church to have breakfast. At about 10:00 we got ready and left for the snow. We were out sledding until about 1:30. It was a lot of fun; they also had a fire up there and hot chocolate and muffins. It was between 1:30 and 2:00 when they realized how late it was getting and started heading back, so it was like 3:00 by the time we had lunch.

After we were done having lunch we played States; we tried to teach them how to play were you have the name of the person to your left at the beginning of the game instead of states, but I guess that was too confusing for them. Then we all got little kids for partners and helped them do a scavenger hunt, it was really fun. After that we played Wink'em, I hurt my had playing because I went to hit Brandon and hit the bench instead, which didn't feel too good.

When Rachel called to tell us that she was ready, the young kids all went over to the school to have our scavenger hunt. It was with bible verses and we had to look up the verse, find the key word and go to somewhere there to find the next clue. It was cold outside, so Shay and I decided that we had enough bibles (the prise is a bible for the first boy and first girl) and quit with Katie and Ketura. Tyrel won the boy bible and Amber won the girl bible and gave it to Victoria (the girl who was in a wheelchair when we were down there last time).

At about 6:30 we had a singing and then ate dinner after that because we had ate lunch so late. After we ate we started thinking of initiation games to do, Rachel helped us and we came up with a list that was about a page long, but only did about 5 of them. We got crayons and rolled out their roll of paper on one of the tables for the little kids. It was like after 9:00 by the time we were ready to start playing the games. We played Measure Your Coffin First, then Who Do You Love? Who Do You Love was really funny when we did it on Tyrel because first he said God, then Elise and then George (a boy who was there). Then we played Blow the Penny Out of the Cup; Shay and I hadn't played that one before, so we had to have it done to us too, but we made sure to be the first ones. Then Mr. and Miss. Salt Lake City and after that we did the Train, which I found out that Josh and I were the only ones who had played and he couldn't remember how it went, so I let C.J. Pittman and Kelsey, Amber's cousin, help me because they hadn't wanted to do it and were still in there. After that we played Questions and Answers, the girls had Answers and the one I got was 'Purple rainbows are my favorite', when we were done with that we played Wink'em until 12:00 when it was time for the girls to go to the house and everyone to 'go to bed'.

-While we were getting ready to play the games, Tyrel had some hot chocolate and Josh, not knowing about him having hot chocolate, came up behind him to hug him or something, which then made the hot chocolate spill all over the front of Tyrel. Tyrel threw off his new WHITE sweatshirt (it has some brown on it, but mostly white; not a good color) and the boys ran him in to the bathroom to clean up and cool his neck and chest off, so that hopefully he wouldn't be burned. Well I grabbed his WHITE sweatshirt that had hot chocolate down the front, found Amber to see what we should do with it, we soaked it in cold water and put shout on it when we got to her house and the sweatshirt didn't stain *magic*.

Daphene, Amber and I were smart and took showers that night so that we wouldn't have to wait in line for one the next morning. I was the last in line for that night and I was out by 1:15, but then Amber, Shay, Victoria and I stayed up for a lot longer talking before we went to bed and then to sleep.

Sunday morning we got up and went over to the church for breakfast and then came back to get ready for church.

The church meeting was really wonderful.

Bro. Brad Bell preached mostly about the difference and separation between wise and foolish. He also talked some about how the faith is something that we each have to do ourselves and we can't do it for any one else and the same for them not being able to do it for us. He read in a few different places too. Bro. Cory Bell then got up and read in a few different places. He mostly talked about how the faith is more that just going to church on Sunday and Wednesday, not cutting your hair and not going to the hospital. Bro. Marven Wilkinson then talked about how there is room for everyone to serve the Lord and not to let Satan convince you other ways. Bro. Josh Fitzjerrel talked about forgiveness and read in the 18th chapter of Matthew. Bro. Bill Hays and Bro. Mark Mcmanus both got up, but I don't remember exactly what they said. There was also a different brother, who I didn't know who got up but I don't remember what he said either and there were 2 sisters who testified. Sis. Andra (she used to be a Bell, I don't know what her last name is now though) prayed for her little brother, Patrick; I think that it was probably one of the most beautiful prayers I ever heard.

After we ate and said bye to everyone we left for home.

It was an amazing weekend that I was not even expecting to have. I guess leaving the plans to the Lord is already working work in a wonderful way.

Happy New Year

Well, it's year 2009 now. The years seem to just fly by faster and faster. I will be 17 in just 6 months; that's probably the scariest thing ever, but not as scary as the fact that next year I will be 18. I used to be a little girl, only dreaming about being out of school, getting married and just being an adult and now those days and years are creeping up on me so quickly. I still feel like I should be a little girl and I am one inside, but sooner than I know I will have my own little girls growing up.

I started the past year not really expecting anything and I guess that could be a very good thing because I never would have excepted any of the things that did happen.

New Years Resolutions:

1. Keep my blog updated. I know there are some people who read my blog regularly and I'm sure that if I posted a few times a week it would keep Sabrina off my back about posting.

2. Eat healthier. Sure neither my weight or health are in any kind of danger, but I'm also sure that the way I eat is not good.

3. Get more exercise. I get a lot of exercise in P.E. right now, but here in about 3 weeks I will now longer be in P.E. and so I want to try to get at least a few hours of exercise a week.

4. Get and keep grades up. My grades aren't the greatest right now, but I very much plan on getting them up before the end of the semester and then keeping them up during second semester.

5. Be a better help. I want to be a better help to my parents, brothers and sisters, brethren and a better example of Gods light unto the ones that are around me.

6. Get a job. I am hoping to get a job as soon as the right opportunity comes my way so that I will be able to start paying insurance and saving to get a car; I like babysitting, but just having a little babysitting to do every month or so is not enough to start doing these things.

7. Hear and listen. There are many time that I am only hearing and not listening; if I would listen I would not fail so much to do the things that are asked of me by the Lord, my parents and anyone else.

8. Don't grow up too fast. There aren't a lot of people my age here, so sometimes it may seem easier to just be grown up, but I know that if I grow up too soon than I will miss out on being a kid.

9. Don't worry so much. Go with the flow and bring all my worries and cares to the Lord, for only he knows what the best for my life would be.

10. Seek. I will be seeking the Lord before every step of the way, that I could do the things that would be his will and not stray away from the path he has given me.

I will also just make the best of whatever the Lord brings my way.

Lessons of 2008:

I feel that I learned a lot about myself and the faith in the last year. I've came to know to just leave all of the planning to the Lord because He will take care of them all in His own time and way. I also learned that boys might try to break your heart and the people you love will pass away, but the world is gonna keep moving, with or without you. You can either stay where you are or move on; the best thing to do is move on and the best way to do so is with the Lords guidance.

I plan on taking this year the same as I did the last year, without having any expectations and that is the only real plan I have for the new year.