the craziness of my life

For Sis. Sabriena

2010-07-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

I've been away from home for over a month. Do you think I have time for blogging?? Okay, maybe I do since I have been on the computer a lot.. But you NEVER blog anymore and neither does anyone else.

Anyhow, the trip has been really great. But sadly we will be leaving Oklahoma tomorrow.. We have been in Oklahoma for 3 weeks. We got to go to the Parkland 4th meetings, and then to the Vici hayride this past weekend; all of which were great and very uplifting. On Sunday after the Vici hayride there were 23 baptized which was very wonderful; it was also different to us because out here the use baptimals (sp?), so we were all sitting in the church watching all these people get baptized. Actually at least 4 of the kids went home and were baptized that night.

I have meet so many great brethern.

The funniest thing to me is how quickly the Lord has changed my outlook on Oklahoma and opened my mind. Before I didn't ever want to live in Oklahoma, didn't want a boyfriend from Oklahoma and really the whole thought of how many people there are just scared me. But in about 2 weeks that has all changed, no I don't think I'm supposed to move here and no I didn't get a boyfriend, but my mind has just been opened up.

Sorry no pictures because I am too lazy to load them all on to my aunts computer.

The Days Keep Going

2010-03-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! I can't believe it is March already!! It's so crazy, like it was just March of 2009 last week and now here we are again in 2010 and already March!!!! And 2010?!?!?! I'm gonna be graduating in a short 3 months!! Where did all the time go???

Too much has been going on to even try to catch all of you reading up on what has been going on in my life over the last 6 months... So yeah, I'm not gonna try, I know I'm lazy....

But I'm also so busy, with school, track, work, homework, senior project and everything else in life.

The News on Everything In Life

2009-10-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T14:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T21:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Poem

2008-12-31T15:23:00.000-08:00

When I feel discouraged
and life becomes a task
I think of sweet young Mary
riding on a donkeys back

How deep was her anguish
Oh, how great was her pain
Sheltered in a stable on the
night the Christ Child came

It took faith to see the glory
on that cold night, I suppose
When she wrapped her new born baby
lovingly in swaddling clothes

In my mind, I see our Savior
in the manger at rest
Thank you Lord, hope raings eternal
and I know I've been blessed

Sis. Betha

(Some of you may have gotten this poem in my Aunt Vels christmas card, but today would have been grandma's birthday and I don't really have any of her poems or songs, and I wanted to post something for her, so I decided to just post this poem.)

Christmas and The Weekend

2008-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night we had a really good meeting, even with the small amount of people who were there. Then we went home and opened one gift each and 'went to bed'.

Christmas morning we all got up and then we opened the rest of our presents. Then we cleaned up and started preparing the food for our Christmas dinner. Bro. Derek and Sis. Sheila came over and had Christmas dinner with us and stayed for a few hours to visit.

On Friday Bro. Jerry and Sis. Audrey came down and so we went over to Derek and Sheila's to visit them. Saturday we went over there for lunch and dinner and visited. The young kids played a few games and then all the little kids joined us playing rhythm (and so did Sis. Deana). It was a lot of fun. The boys came over to spend the night on Saturday.

Sunday we had meeting at our house because the pipes at the church were still having problems. It was a really good meeting. What we heard about was kind of how God has a plan for us and if we do his will the consciouses won't be bad. Then we went over to Bro. Derek and Sis. Sheila's for dinner. We had some really good visits and played some card games. The guys all went to watch a football game and then after they got back we went home and the girls all came over to spend the night.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family,

This past year seemed to be a full one for me. Although we didn’t realize at the time, my family went on quite a few trips, mostly to California and Washington.

During my spring break I went down and visited Amber for about a week. We went to the movies and hung out in the small town they live in. while I was there Shay came, which was great being with two of my best friends. When we weren’t watching movies or waling all over town, we spent our time scrap booking. Not having Easter with my family was really different. When I left Alturas, Amber and I rode up to Brownsville with Aunt Kim and the girls.

Like every year, or most years I guess, my family went to the Brewster camp out over Memorial weekend. Every camp out seems to be better than the last. The church meeting we had was pretty encouraging and wonderful as was the singing. Just being around the brethren was great and made leaving hard.

Dad worked up in Brewster in the beginning of the summer. We spent a week up there in July, which was fun. We visited with the brethren there and I got to hang out with Chantea and ride horses with her. At the end of the month we went down to Tulare, California for Chris and Cayla’s wedding. I thought that the wedding was really quite beautiful. That was the first time we had been down there and the brethren were real nice and hospitable. That’s one reason I love the brethren so much, they don’t even have to know you and they show you their love and compassion and invite you into their homes with hospitality.

School is going pretty good so far this year. My grades aren’t that good right now, but I plan on getting them up as soon as I can.

I’m hoping to get my license in two weeks and I have applied for a job at a few places, but haven’t gotten any calls yet. I did baby sit in the summer and have some since too.

My family is staying home for Christmas this year. We’re excited about staying home because we’ve been gone on Christmas in the past few years. We have a tree for the first time in 4 years and we’ve had the tree up for and decorated since the beginning of the month. Christmas should be nice with just the family.

We’ve had some hard times and loses through the year, but the Lord has seen us through them. Mom is expecting a new baby in January, which we are all excited about. I hope this new year is a bright one for us and all of you.

Love,
Sis. Elise Gray

Bad Day

2008-12-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

So, we got some snow over the weekend. Personally I think that snow is pretty great, it's the getting wet and cold that I don't like and the days like yesterday when it only got up to 8 degrees and was 2 degrees when we got up this morning. But what is even worse than being cold is being sick. I woke up this morning with a terrible sore throat and couldn't hardly talk. A sore throat is bad enough, but on top of that we have a Christmas concert tonight. So, my day hasn't went too well and it's not over yet.

Rules?

2008-12-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

I see how many younger people, like those younger young kids that I mentioned before, do not like the rules that their parents have for them and are very rebellious about it. I myself have came to think that all rules are a good thing to have. Without rules nothing would ever get done, if parents didn't have rules for their children then they would grow up thinking that they can just do whatever they want without any consequences, which is definitely not a good thing at all. I think that it is good for our parents to have rules for us because it prepares us for serving the Lord. Gods commandments are just like rules and we need to follow them just as we need to follow the rules of our parents. The rules our parents have for us are good for us and will keep us out of trouble. We need to not be braking rules because then we will get into the habit of it and think that it's okay to brake the rules of God. The rules of both the Lord and our parents are good and bring no harm to our lives (they actually prevent any harm from coming) and there is no reason for us not to follow them. Rules are a very good thing.

Thanksgiving Week

2008-12-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

So, we went over to Brownsville on Saturday (like on the 22). I got to drive over the mountain, which made mom think that she was gonna die; I'm not sure why, it's not like I was driving bad or anything. We got there at like 4:30, Bro. Bill and his boys came over to visit and we had dinner. Then later that night Uncle Mark and Aunt Kim came to pick up Teah and I went home with them. Shay was babysitting a friend of her dads kids and when they came to pick the kids up they ended up staying for like an hour and a half cause Uncle Mark got out some photo albums and so they were all looking a pictures.

On Sunday we went to church, and I remember that meeting was pretty good I just don't really remember what we heard. After church the young kids all went to Bro. Travis and Sis. Wenona's for dinner. Then that night they had church at Bro. Loyd's, which was really good and nice.

Monday we mostly just laid around and were lazy. We did make sugar cookies that evening. Tuesday Aunt Connie was home from California, so she came over for a while at like 10:00 and then we went to her house for her to print something. Then at lunch she took Mackenzie, Tyrel and I out to the school to have lunch with the kids. And we hung out at Uncle Marshal and Aunt Connie's until it was time for grandma to come home. We cleaned up grandmas house and the made dinner when she got home. Right when we were finishing up making the dinner Uncle Mark and Aunt Kim showed up so they all ate too. Then after they left a few of us went back over to Uncle Marshal and Aunt Connie's to hang out with the kids some more.

I had to get up earlier on Wednesday cause I went with grandma to her school. I had a lot of fun with the little kids. We went to church that night, although I don't remember what we heard again I do know it was a good meeting, but then we don't hardly go to 'bad meetings'.

We got up in the morning and started cooking lots of food (duh). I made a baked chocolate swirl cheese cake, long name but it was good. Then we went to the Rec Center, where all the brethren had Thanksgiving dinner. We ate and hung out there playing ball and stuff for a few hours. When it was time to leave we went back to grandmas, but the food away and rested for like an hour or so. Then we went to Uncle Marshal and Aunt Connie's, everyone was there until about 9:00. Shay, Kara, Tyrel, Mackenzie and I all stayed the night there, so we could go shopping with Aunt Connie in the morning.

We got up at 4:00 in the morning to go shopping. Went to the mall and a bunch of different stores. We had a lot of fun other than the whole being dead tired by the time we got back. We got back to grandmas at about 10:30, ate and tried to sleep some. Then at like 2 or 3 we left to come home.

Leaving To Brownsville

2008-11-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

We're leaving later today to go to Brownsville for the week. Thanksgiving; eat lots of food and be with family. I may or may not get on while I'm over there, so if I don't I just update about how Thanksgiving goes when we get back.

Different Veiws and Just Plain Being Older

2008-11-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is about me, maybe I or even all the girls my age matured faster that girls who are younger than us. I watch the way that the girls who are even just a year younger than me (so 15) and I'm like "Okay that is how I was when I was like 13, what is the problem here?!?!". For me since I've been like done with all of that for like 3 years I don't get why the are acting that way, I don't get why they don't just grow up and get over it. I include the other girls my age in this because for the most part they seem to be the same as me in this and feel the same (Amber says that there is just something about the girls born in 1992).

When some of the biggest differences show up is when they are all complaining about their parents. Now I'm not saying that I've never been mad at my parents or complained about them because really what kid does not go through that 'I hate my parents, they don't care about me, they don't let me do anything' stage? I did go through that, but it was when I was like 11, 12, and 13. I hear them complain about all sorts of things that their parents don't allow them to do, watch certain movies, wear make-up, have boyfriends, or go to friends from schools homes. To me none of these things matter. If my parents don't want me to watch a movie or show they have a perfectly good reason for it, which actually means for me that I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch it in the first place. I don't care to wear make-up at all, basically you get what you see, nasty make-up covered girl that you have to wash to find, and besides it just is work to get done. You don't even want to get in to the subject of boyfriends with me and I my whole life have kept myself at a distance from the world so really that has never been a problem for me, I would much rather go to the brothern's home anyhow. When we are married with families none of these things are gonna matter, but then again these girls are not thinking about that.

I think that instead of getting mad at our parents we should be thinking of all the things that they do for us and all the things that they let us do. Our parents do some much to make our lives easier and they care so much about us. When we stop thinking about ourselves and what everyone should be doing for us, we can then start thinking about others and what we can do for them.

Things like church, living the faith and serving the Lord are my life and all that I want. So, I don't understand people who don't feel the same as me and I really don't understand it when people who have been raised in this way just simply don't care.

When I am with these younger girls I find myself having to hold my tongue because if I don't I'll end up saying something that they won't like. Oh, they won't actually listen to any of the things that I have to say, because we heard from Bro. Roger Bell when we were in Altruas that you are only hearing and not listening until you actually start thinking about the things that are said and applying them to your life. I do my best to try and speak some word of help to these girls, but when they don't want to listen it really gets me feeling down and like there is just no hope at all for them.

I really just don't see eye to eye with these girls.

Pictures from Altruas

2008-11-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

getting the food ready
waiting for the food

where is that food??

Brandon and Tiffany

Shelby and Ashley

Brandon and Tiffany

Garrette, Cassidy and Teah

Brandon and Levi (boys are weird)

Levi, Tiffany and Ashley Gully

Shelby, Ashley and Breona

Lunch

2008-11-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

Two Wednesdays in ever month we have half days, so almost every other week. It's not really much of a half day because we are only getting out at 1:00, which means only an hour and a half off, last year was better because we got out at 12:30. I don't know why they decided to change it this year. So, they have our schedule all messed up with this not so half day, last year it all worked out, we had our first 6 classes before lunch and had our lunch at the regular time, but this year because of how it's set up we go to lunch 15 minutes early. This don't work out so well, we share our cafeteria with the Elementary and Middle school and the little kids eat before us. So, when we come 15 minutes early the little kids are still eating and the lunch ladies aren't ready for us. Which means that even though we are getting out 15 minutes early we have to wait outside of the lunch room until the regular time. (The people who decided on this schedule were not very bright if you as me, cause really we are getting a shorter lunch.) Somehow I am always able to squeeze and push my way up to the front of the people waiting outside the doors (what can I say, I'm just small I guess). Well everyone is just pushing and shoving because they want food. A few times they manage to get the doors open, mostly when they were sending people who got in back out. I was ended up stuck in the middle of this mob of about 20 or more guys, who were all pushing and shoving at the closed doors. This was a very dangerous place to be, really scary, I thought for sure I was going to be smashed. There were at least two times when I ended up inside by force of the shoving when the doors got opened, which they would then send us all back outside, which was difficult when everyone else had move forward to the doors when we got in. I was proud of myself though, when they counted the first 20 to go in and I was #9.

Summer is Coming Soon

2008-11-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, what a funny title with it being fall and summer just barely getting over.

The last two months seemed to just drag on and on, and to tell the truth I was just really wishing that it was still summer. But then after we went to Alturas I realized that since the next few months, or rather all the month have something somewhat big the time should pass rather quickly.

November (which is now here)-Thanksgiving, which is about a month from when we were in Alturas, so not too long to wait. We have the whole week off and are planning on going to Brownsville. For anyone who would like to come we are going to be having a little party for Mackenzie in Brownsville on the weekend before Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, all the food is just so great.

December-Christmas, I love Christmas,it's just such a happy time, all of the food, family, friends and the fun Christmas songs. We've been singing Christmas songs in choir for a while now because we only have choir every other day. Everyday when I'm in choir I'm like all excited for Christmas and then I remember that it's still like almost two months away. We're going to have our own Christmas at home with just our family, which will be nice since we haven't in a long time.

January-BABY!!!!!! Yes, finally the baby will be here after all of this waiting. Also in January is Gideon and Brani's wedding, which mom said that if anyone from here goes I could probably go.

February-Don't really know what will be going on, but it's a short month so it should pass pretty fast and I'll have a new baby to hold and make the time pass faster.

March-Spring break, don't know what we'll be doing, but it should be fun.

April-We only have one day off of school, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

May-Brewster camp out.

June-Schools out, I turn 17, which all means that it is then summer again. Summer is just around the corner.

Kate's Party - Amber's Play - and Church in Altruas

2008-10-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend we went down to Altruas for Kate's party and Amber's play. A lot of people ended up showing up and it was a really wonderful weekend.

We left after school and work on Friday (we took Kansada, Katie and Jesse and left Myla and Melissa with people). On our way down we meet up with Uncle Marshall and Aunt Connie and traded kids then and at the next stop. When we got there we all just hung out at the Young's house until the Gully's got there. Like everyone was in the girls room, which was a lot of people and I kept on having to leave the room because I felt too crowded.

On Saturday morning I got up early with Kate, Tiffany and Ashley M. to pick up some things for Sis. Jenny for breakfast, pick up Victoria and get the donuts. Victoria has been staying with Sis. Misty and going to church with her, she was in an accident awhile back and has to use a wheel chair or crutches, she is a really nice girl. We came back and ate some donuts and hung out a little bit. Then we decided to go get Shay because her parents had just got up and she was already ready to come down, but they wouldn't be for awhile longer, so Tiffany, Levi M., Amber and I got in Kate's car and went out to Shay's grandpa's to get her (Kate was driving of course). So, we got Shay and went back to the house and hung out some more. Then Tiffany, Levi, Brandon, Shay and I went with Kate to run some other errands and take Victoria to where she need to to go to get ready for the scavenger hunt. We went to Kate's bank (which is also where she works now) and then Brandon and I went to get money from the ATM because we didn't have any, I had never used my ATM card before and had my pin number backwards so I wasn't able to get any money out of the bank lol. Then we went to Holiday and got flowers for Amber and had the store keep them til later, so that she wouldn't see them.

We went back to the house and got ready to go to the park for the scavenger hunt. Rachel had set up the scavenger hunt for the young kids; we were split up into 2 teams and one team we drove down to the Chevron on to start and the other started at the park, they are on opposite ends of Main street. The clues were in or outside of the shops and they lead you to the next place, until you got to the other end and at the last place you got a word and you called the number that you were given and say the word and find out if your team won. My team finished in like have an hour, which was way faster than Rachel had expected us to finish and when we go to our last place we were there looking for the clue for like 15 minutes and she hadn't even came to hide it yet. Our last clue said "Fill 'er up" so we went to Chevron because we figured since the other team started there that's where we ended, we all looked everywhere there some people went across the street to the other gas station and Travis went on his long board down to a gas station that isn't even on Main and then Rachel showed up with our clue lol. We won because the other team was just getting to the park, but Robbie was still on his way to take their clue, so I think that they just called it a tie. Then we had to go to Rite-Aide because Kate had forgot to get a prize for the winning team lol.

Then everyone went to the Young's to have sandwiches since the B.B.Q. wasn't until 3:00. Then we walked to the church and hung out cause people were starting to go there to get ready for the B.B.Q. We played Upset the Fruit Basket before it was time to eat and after we ate we played States. We had cake and Kate and Jared opened their cards and presents. Then Shay and I went with Kate to go drop Amber off to get ready for the play. When we got back they were playing Wink'em. After we were done playing that we played a few initsation games until it was time to go. We did hug the pot holder, what are my feet for and pinchy wenchy (which Shay and I had to do because we hadn't yet). Then it was time for everyone who was going to the play to leave. Amber had made a list of all the people who were coming and going to be getting the discount, which has about like 50 people on it. At the intermission we all yelled, cheered and clapped for Amber. When they bowed at the end Brandon ran up there with one of our flowers and gave it to her and then when he came back Shay and I took her the rest of them.

Then we went back to the Young's and the boys went across the street to Amber's Uncle's where they were staying. Us girls were all really hyper from all the candy we had ate and so we were all sitting and standing around the table giggling and talking about nothing. We stood peoples cell phones up on the table, had them on vibrate, called them so that we could watch them dance around the table, it was actually pretty entertaining. Kate's friend Danielle came and spent the night and went to church the next day with us, she is worldly and so she was confused about what we were talking about most of the time and we tried to explain it to her the best we could. After a while we all went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up, ate, got ready hung around, blah blah blah the usual Sunday morning things. Then at about 10:00 some of us went to get ice, some went to the Bottle Shop to get drinks and others stayed to finish getting ready. When we got back we all started heading over to the church. I had remembered just then that I had my stickers, so until it was time to sit down for church I went around giving them to all of the young kids and some of the younger kids too.

Church was really wonderful. Bro. Brad Bell got up and talked some about Lazarus and how we have to believe to make it to heaven. Uncle Marshall and Uncle Mark got up and talked some more about that. Bro. Don Young talked about how there are no cabins in glory land and how we have to do our work and my dad also talked about this. Bro. Roger Bell got up and talked about how we need to listen and not just hear the ministry. There were some testimonies and prayers and there was a prosify to the young kids talking about how soon we are going to be the ones with little families and how we need to make the right choices.

Then we ate dinner and left. We traveled with Marshall and Connie until it was time for them to turn off, but this time we all rode in our own vehicles.

Just a Few Words

2008-10-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Moments, Praise God

Difficult Moments, Seek God

Quiet Moments, Worship God

Painful Moments, Trust God

Every Moment, Thank God

When life knocks you down to your knees,

Just remember that you are in the perfect position to pray.

God doesn't give you people you want.

He gives you people you need,

To help you, to hurt you,

To leave you, to love you

And to make you into the

Person you were ment to be.

Powderpuff Football

2008-10-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is Homecoming week at our school, so we've been having all kinds of dress up days and things going on all week. On Wednesday the guys had He Man volleyball and then last night us girls played powder puff football, which I'm not sure why they call it that, it's probably because we're girls, but it you saw the way we were playing you would wonder too. We played Seniors and Juniors against Sophomores and Freshman because we didn't have enough people show up. (There are girls who find football fun and girls who don't; most people at school probably would think that I don't like football or don't like playing it, but they don't know me very well, at camp outs I always will play football with the boys, I like playing football and I like watching football too.) We were supposed to be just playing flag football and not tackle, but that's not how it ended up working and we were all tackling the whole game; we would tackle them and then pull their flags. We won. It was a lot of fun, today my back does hurt some from the few times that I succeeded in tackling people, but I guess that's not that bad cause some of the girls have big bruises and stuff.

#1 Friend??

2008-09-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have thousands of friends. Probably because almost any person that I meet I consider a friend; I have gotten pretty close to most of the young kids here in the Northwest in the past few years. Sure, I would have to say that Amber, Jilleeanna and Shay are my closest friends, which anyone who knows me knows, but at the same time their are still so many great friends in my life.

So, when my grandma gave me a pack of 150 stickers that all said "#1 friend", I was thinking, "What am I going to do with these?". I can't compare one friend to another. But before we went to California I got this idea to take them with me there and to the camp out and give them to everyone. Unfortunately I forgot to take them to both things. Last night I found them again while I was scrapbooking (those stickers seem to disappear a lot) and then I put them I my purse so now I will always have them with me (unless I forget my purse lol). So, you should probably remind me about my stickers when you see me.

Maria Sue Chapman

2008-09-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today we didn't have choir, so we were in the library hanging out. I got a magazine to look at and while I was flipping though I came across a really sad story. The story was about how Maria Sue Chapman (who was Steven Curtis Chapman's adopted daughter) ran to the car when her brother pulled into the driveway, but she was not seen and got hit. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20221775,00.html You can go to this website to read more (it is the artical that I read).

This reminded me of how easily and quickly one of our loved ones can be taken from us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay1vgulzR8I
(This is a song that he had wrote for her before her death, with pictures. I couldn't figure out how to get blogger to just let me post it.)

P.E. and Biking

2008-09-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

So, our P.E. teacher has decided to have the class bring their bikes for the next couple of weeks to ride. Of the 16 kids in the class only 4 of us have brought bikes so far (me being one of them), but this is only the second day. Us that had bikes rode and the others went and hung out in the library all period. We rode and rode and rode and it hurt. The last time I had even rode a bike was in June when I rode with Dale down to the canyon, so as you can imagine I was not physically prepared for riding bikes like that today. I did okay at first, but after a little while I got way behind the other 3 boys and the teacher. By the time we good back to the school my legs felt like they were ready to fall off. Hopefully I get better with this bike riding thing.

Changes

2008-09-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Colors changing as the time goes by.

Flashing past us all.

Our friends change.

Then we change without noticing.

The music changes as we go into new phases of life.

All around things are changing.

We watch the clouds change before our eyes.

Feeling change as we figure life out.

New people coming into your life and others leaving.

Changes will be good.

Even when they look bad.

Another change is on it's way.

As the world turns round.

Everything is changing.

The Brownsville Camp Out

2008-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, the camp out was so wonderful. The brethren are so great and wonderful in the way that we love and care for each other and share with one another and help each other.

I rode up from Brownsville with Aunt Connie on Thursday. Shay and Katie were there for a little bit cause they came to put up their tent and then they went back home. After they left I hung out with Brandon and Josh, listened to the play Brandon's guitars and pretended to know what they were talking about when they talked about music and drank the Arizona Tea Josh gave me. We also stole or took a lot of Jake and Dustin's food because they went to the store and got a bunch of good junk. Melissa found out that they had Jerky and so she decided that Dustin was her friend because he gave her some and she kept on chasing him all weekend, it was really funny. Because we couldn't stay in the dorms that night I ended up sleeping in a room with Ashley, Alyssa, and Shelby, where I slept on the floor because 3 girls in that bad was enough, they thought that they were gonna stay up all night, but with me in the room they thought wrong, I turned of the light at one and told them to be quiet of go to sleep (they ended up going to sleep).

We mess around doing nothing on Friday morning until people started getting there. Then Bro. Marty and Sis. Kim and Bro. Conn and Sis. Nancy got there. After a bit I ended up back in the room with the boys (Brandon, Josh and Zakk) listening to them play, pretending to understand their music talk, drinking Arizona Tea and eating all of Brandon's penny candies. Then we had to move our things up to the dorms so that people could put their stuff in the rooms. Then Brandon, Josh, Zakk, Colton, Chantea and I walked around town (because the camp out is like in town), at first we were going to the playground, but then we went past it and ended up at the store, so we all got drinks and went back to camp. Then we played volleyball and Amber got there and then Shay got there too. I hung out with Katie a bunch that day. Sis. Christina asked us to make the rice cispies, but something was like wrong with the marshmallows and they wouldn't melt, so we went with her when she went to Wal-Mart and got some different marshmallows. Later I played football with the boys, Chantae and I were the only girls playing, but it was still a lot of fun (even if the boys never gave us the ball). Then I went and got Kate, so we could make the rice crispys. The new marshmallows worked, we had that stick marshmallow rice crispy mess all over us. Then I hung out with some of the young kids outside until Uncle Marshal came and told us that it was time to go inside (at 10:00 we have to be either in the building or upstairs in bed). Then I started trying to get all of the young kids to play games, you see Chris used to be our boss, but he got married, so now we don't really have a boss anymore, some how I ended up the boss though (because I wanted to play games and was trying to get all of the young kids to play), after on weekend now the young kids (or the ones who play) ask me what we are gonna play and I'm like 'I don't know, what do YOU WANT to play?'. None of the older young kids who are like 18 and older would play with us, which I thought was stupid. First we played States and I got a bruise on my leg from Zakk. Then we played Wink'em and then I got to teach some people how to play the killer game with the hands that we played at the Masquerade and then it was time to go to bed.

I had grandma get me up at 6:30 when she got up because I'm SIXTEEN now which means that I'm actually allowed in the kitcen, so I got to help with breakfast. I don't remember what I did until it was time to get ready for church, I was probably hanging out with the boys again (I hang out with them boys a lot) because Amber and Shay don't get up early. Then I was time for church, the meeting was really wonderful and lasted until like 2. Then we had dinner and then we were waiting to see when we were going to Silver Creek Falls. Well at first we were waiting, but when I didn't seem like anyone was going and no one was getting it going I got right on organizing that hike because I really really really really really wanted to go. So, I was running this way and that way finding people who wanted to go, cars for people to ride in, adults to go, then finding people again when they didn't go where I told them to go (I didn't know how exhausting it was to be the boss, when I finally got in a car to go I felt like I had just ran a mile). We ended up having 5 cars go, which isn't nearly as much as most years, I was still running finding things out when they were all in the cars and out at the road ( I almost got left, which would have been really sad after I had spent all that time running and organizing it), when I got to the cars were full, so I had to squish in with River. The hike was a lot of fun, we didn't have too many people, so no one got lost. Bro. Bill was our Chaperon and every one was really good for him and minded (we also had 2 other adults who went), which made he happy because I would have felt bad if they had given him problems. On the way back we stopped at the park again like last year. I hung out with Kate and Tiffany for a while cause I didn't know where Shay and Amber were. Then I saw Brandon and Zakk and I went and hung out with them, we went to the Swezeys camp and hung out, they talked about music and I pretended to know about it (I'm getting pretty good at pretending to know what their talking about, but I'm also learning a lot about music too). Then when it was time we went and played young kid games. We played States, wink'em, killer with the hands and killer wink'em and then it was time to go to bed.

I had grandma get me up early again, so I could help with breakfast. (I'm skipping to church now.) So, church was really wonderful and great, lots of testimonies again and there were like 6 prosifys. It lasted about as long as Saturdays meeting. Then Rebecka Shockley gave her hand. Then we ate dinner, hung out, played volleyball in the rain and played bingo and hung out some more. Then it was time to get ready for the ordinance supper. It lasted 4 hours and was the most wonderful, beautiful ordinance supper I've been a part of. My mom wasn't doing well on the weekend and a lot of sisters came and prayed for her. And it was just really beautiful and really wonderful the whole thing. Then like all of us young kids who are 16 and some others made the cookies and donuts, we had a LOT OF FUN doing that. Then I started singing and Shay told me to get my books, so I got my books and we were all singing very loud and high too. It was also a lot of fun (but I almost lost my voice). Then we started playing young kids games after we were done cooking. Aunt Connie said that we could play cheat the judge as long as there was no pulling on clothes and it didn't get too violent. So we played that for a while, until it got a little wild and she came and told us to pick a new game. It was kind of my fault, but I'll blame Zakk for letting me win like that. Then we played initsation games on the younger ones until us older ones (like me) got tired of it. Then we at pizza. Then we played questions and answers. Then we played some other games, but not really because we were all just so tired to play. Aunt Connie asked us to clean everything up, so we did. Then people kind of went to bed for a while. Then got up to start cleaning things up and get around for leaving. Then people started leaving and we said goodbye and gave lots of hugs, even thought it's so hard to leave after such a wonderful weekend.

P.S. Brandon fell asleep on the way home and totaled his car, but he's all right.

More Summer Goings

2008-08-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

As if I haven't had enough traveling this summer you're thinking, I'm now in Brownsville until the camp out. Really this has been one of my mellower, calmer summers, most years I have been away from home much more.

On Friday we went to Bro. Josh's funeral. Saturday we hung out around Brownsville, showed Amber the place at the park for my wedding. Then Sunday we went to church in Eugene, where we had a really good meeting.

Meetings and Singing

2008-08-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night no one got up and it was a pretty slow meeting, but Bro. Sean was here and gave out meeting for the next night and then for Friday night. During Thursday, Friday and Sundays meetings we heard about the spirit, talking to the Lord, pleasing the Lord and some about miracles. They were some really wonderful meetings; all very uplifting. On Friday night Bro. Sean gave out a singing for Saturday night. At the singing we all sat in a circle and he said that we would go around and everyone could either pick a song, testify about something they were thankful for or both. So, everyone got a chance to pick a song; even Dale, when we got over to where he was he opened moms book and said that he wanted that song (he didn't know what the song was and I don't think that he even sang it with us, but he wanted to make sure to get a turn). It was a very good weekend or week actually.

Summer and Pictures

2008-08-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

WOW!! This summer has pasted so quickly (I guess every summer is like that though),I can't believe that the camp out is less than 3 weeks away and then we have to go back to school. I was going to post many different times in the past few weeks,but like when Amber was here I just never had the time to sit and write a full post. On the second week that Amber was here we planned my wedding and she didn't let us leave one little thing out,which people think is odd since I don't even have a boyfriend,but at least now we will be prepared.
Josh, Amber, me and Shay (in picture)

Bailey

Ashley and Shay, I love them.

This would be me, Ashley and Shay

Trip to Brewster

2008-07-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are back from are trip, part of me is happy to be home (cause I do like my bed and other things about home) and part of me wishes that we could have stayed longer.

We got to Bro. Jerry and Sis. Audry's at like 10:30 on Friday night, so we had to go to bed. On Saturday our family went down to Chelan, to Wal-Mart and to the lake/river (they call it a like, but when you go over the bridge there the sign calls it a river so I was kind of confused). When we got back I had a headache and slept until, well almost after dinner, so I don't know what everyone else did.

On Sunday we went to church (of course), which the meeting was really good, a lot about Bro. John and the others that had recently passed away. After church we went out to Bro. Con and Sis. Nancey's for dinner. Abe and Tomas also came and we had a lot of fun. We jumped on the trampoline first until dinner was ready. Then after dinner Josh came for a little while, we visited with the adults for a bit and then went outside and played volleyball. Josh left and we played for a little bit longer before we went out to see the pigs. We had to Chase the pigs into one corner and trap them there because they had to give them some kind of shots or something. After we got cleaned up from being in with the pigs we played cards. When Colton got home we finished our game and went outside. We played a game that was kind of like dodge ball on the trampoline, one person was on the trampoline and the rest of us were in a circle around it playing volleyball around the person and trying to hit them. It was actually a lot funner than it sounds (like most things) and I also learned how to spike a volleyball. We left their house at about 9:30, the kids all had a lot of fun with Sierra, riding the horses (they had 4 kids on one horse), playing with the puppies and all of the other animals. When we got back to the house I called and talked to Shay and Amber before it was time to go to bed.

Monday we mostly just hung out at their house. The kids played a lot of different games. In the evening my mom and I walked around town with Sis. Audry and Sis. Petra, but we only walk one round with them, I probably could have walked two, but mom was tired and I figured that I would just go back with her and let them walk a round alone.

On Tuesday after dinner we went out to visit Bro. Greg and Sis. Philis. It was nice and even though they don't have kids our kids seemed to have a pretty good time, although Dale did throw a bit of a fit and wouldn't come in at first because he had wanted to go back out to Sierras.

Wends day, we mostly sat around again. Went to church and meeting was pretty good, there weren't many there cause a lot of people were out of town. After church we went to McDonald's with the few young kids that were there (Abe, Zakk and Rylan and that place was the slowest ever).

On Thursday we went back down to Chelan to swim again after lunch and then dad meet us when he got off work. After dad got to swim for a little while we went out for Pizza and then we went back to Bro. Jerry and Sis. Audrys. That night Audry and Petra walked again and mom and I walk the one round with them again.

Friday we went to sis. Sandra Todds funeral. It was a nice funeral as far as funerals go. Myla and I rode with Bro. Con and Sis. Nancy out to the cemetery because mom decided to stay and help get the dinner ready. Bro. A.J. was able to be at the funeral, which was good because he has been really sick and hadn't been able to be at church for a few weeks, I was glad to be able to see him will we were up there. When everyone left from the dinner we went out to Bro. Con and Sis. Nancey's and so did a bunch of other little girls and Tomas. We rode the four wheeler out to get the horses that we were gonna ride, I had to drive the the four wheeler back with Dale and get some feed so that Chantae could use it to catch the horses (it was a little bit scary since I had never drove a four wheeler by myself before). Then we saddled the horses and Chantae, Tomas, Tyrel and I went on about an hour long horse ride. There were only 3 horses that we could ride and 4 of us, so Tyrel and I had to double on Fritz, we took turns riding on the back, which for the next 2 days after that I was very sore. I had my hair up in a bun with a pencil because I had forgot to bring a rubber band and as soon as we started trotting my bun came lose, so my hair was just going everywhere. At on point Tyrel got on with Tomas and Chantae and I ran our horses though a field and we were all gonna take turns doing it, but Fritz wouldn't stay on the path and we didn't want him to decided to run off. So, we decided to start going back to the house, Tyrel was still on with Tomas and when we started trotting Peanut started bucking (we had forgot that Peanut don't like trotting while going double) and Tyerl got bucked off, I was right behind them and Fritz got scared and bucked me off too. So Tyrel and I got back on Fritz and we went the rest of the way home. When we got back we ate and sat around a bit. Tyrel and I got to drive the four wheeler again, but when Tyrel wouldn't stop going fast and went through some mud puddles I got off very mad. We stayed at their house until about 9.

On Saturday we went out for breakfast and then since they were having their Apple Pie Jamboree, we went and looked at all of the little booths until the parade. Rylan and Riannan got to play in the parade with the school band. After the parade we looked around a little more, went back to the house for lunch and then came home.

Going

2008-07-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

We're going to Brewster for the week and I don't know if I be able to get on a computer, so I'll just tell you about the trip when we get back.

BABY!!!

2008-07-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

So, yes our families wonderful news of having a new baby is out and my little brothers and sisters can't seem to shut up about it either (which I think makes my parents mad lol). Of course us girls are all sure that we're gonna be getting a baby sister, how could we not want a baby sister to dress up cute and love on now that we're all old enough to help out. Dad and the boys all seem to be in vote for a boy (us girls we don't really want another brother, but then the baby would be young enough that he probably wouldn't be picking on us girls) and mom I don't really think she cares what it is, but she is happy to be having a baby. I always thought that my parents should have waited to have a few of the kids til I was old enough to help out and when I found out that Amber's mom was having a baby I gave them another round of the guilt trip about how all of my friends have little babies, come to find out we already were having a baby on the way at that time too lol. So, me and Amber's moms are gonna be having babies in January. YAY!!!

No Title

2008-06-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

Don't give up, Keep on running your race, Pray without ceasing. Let the tears pour out when you have to. Fine comfort in the things you love the most. Don't ever allow yourself to fail, It's hard to forgive, But harder to forgive yourself. Give all that you have and more. The Lord will show you the way, If you will only ask. Stop for a moment to take everything in, These are some of the greatest years of your life and you won't get them back. Have faith through all things and keep putting it all in the Fathers hands. This isn't the end, Only a short time before many new beginnings.

My Birthday (a little late)

2008-06-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I never posted about the little birthday party we had for me on Friday. I had planned on posting it on Monday, but then Shay was baptized and that seem much more bigger than a birthday lol.

My grandma Linda, Kara, Uncle Matt and Aunt Tisha and Alyssa were the only ones who came (besides the people who live here).

So, at about 11 in the morning all of the guys and us kids went to Smith Rock and the women and little kids went yard selling. It was a nice day and not too hot for hiking. We split up and met back at the bridge at 1:15 (which by the time we got there meant we only had an hour). I hiked with uncle Matt, Christan, Dale and Mackenzie. The little boys were really funny on the way down, they kept on slipping and thought it was the funniest thing ever. All of us except Kansada and Alyssa were at the bridge before 1:15 and so we were all thinking that maybe they got lost or something, but really we were just early and they were on time.

Then we went home to get things ready for the B.B.Q. at 3. We ate when everyone got there and visited. Then we, well Sis. Jewel and I opened presents (Sis. Jewels birthday is also on June 7). After that we ate cake and visited more.

From my family I got 2 Tinker Bell shirts one is white the other pink, 2 under shirts also pink and white, 2 headbands white and silver (not pink), a brettaet, and 5 things of hair sticks (last week when I broke one of my last ones, which meant I only had one I told my mom that I wanted her to go buy me some for my birthday lol) and chocolate. Grandma Linda got me a blue shirt, and a bunch of other little things. I had told my mom that I also would like some new p.J.s cause I was wearing the same ones I had been wearing for the last 3 years and they were getting stained up. Dale, Chantal and Andy got me some blue P.J.s and Andy made a card. Kansada got ma a green shirt that has pok-a-dots. Brad and Jewel got me a vanilla candle, some really cute purple candle holders and a picture frame. U. Matt and A.Tisha got me some P.J. bottoms, a beach tollew and fudge mix. Kara gave me a scrunchie that she made and Alyssa got me a singing card and a gift card. Grandma Linda also gave me 2 pairs of P.J. bottoms, so now I have so many P.J.s I don't know what to wear to bed lol. And I got lots of cool bags ( that the gifts were in).

Kansada and Alyssa

Me holding Maria (grandma got me a happy birthday ribbon to wear)

The cake stuck to the pan and fell apart when we tried to get it out, so we put it in a bowl with frosting.

MacKenzie blowing up balloons

Sis. Jewel opening her presents.

Rejoicing

2008-06-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Shay was baptized yesterday. I was so happy and even more happier when dad said that if we could get someone to watch the other kids then mom, dad, Dale and me could go over for the ordinance supper. Before church had started she had came to my mind and so I silently prayed for her in my head. Then when ever grandmas phone rang in church it was like I just knew that she was getting baptized (and I hadn't even known that she had been crying in church on Wednesday night and talking to her parents). So, after we were done eating at the church we had grandma take us home so we could get to little car. Dad had to change the oil first so me and Dale asked to ride with grandma. On the way over Kara, grandma and I sang out of my song books. The ordinance supper was wonderful and I was so glad that I was able to go because I hadn't been able to go to an ordinance supper since I was baptized and I was so glad to see Shay on such a grand day.

Shays friend Catie from school was also there. It sounded like she's been going to church with them. In the last few months I had been praying for her (when I remembered that is). I have to thank God for how far I've come because a year ago I really didn't like Catie or Shay being friends with her, but now I've been praying for her and I've even came to like her a lot now.

It was a wonderful and beautiful day.

Two Poems

2008-06-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Dreams

While we sleep in our beds at night,

Our minds wonder, dreaming the unthinkable.

All crazy, confusing or even frightening,

A jumbled up, mixed up mess of scenes.

We pray our Father in Heaven will give us understanding,

Put all the worries that come, into his hands.

Someday we'll understand and it'll all work you in the way he has planned.

Now and Forever

Now and forever

Our love

Now and forever

How long we will be together

Now and forever

Our friendship

Now and forever

The road we walk

Now and forever

Through the good and bad times

Now and forever

Way that he loves us

Now and forever

A Days Worth of Thinking, Thanking, Praying and Growing

2008-06-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Growing Feeling

Mom was sick today, which if you know my mom you know that she don't get sick very often, so it's pretty big if she's sick. We relay on mom for so much that it's kinda hard. I hadn't known that she was sick, so I thought it was rather odd that the lights were all off and the kicten was still a mess from the night before, until I heard Tyrel talking to mom I thought that she must not have been home, but it seemed strange that she would leave the house looking like that. I do mine and MacKenzies' laundry on Mondays (my friends always find it funny when I complain about my mom taking my clothes and washing them or MacKenzie giving them to her because I just want to have that bit of independents and growing), so I had been planning on doing that and I was already planning on cooking dinner since I had asked mom yesterday about it (but I had thought that she would be helping me). So, when I got home I cleaned up the kicten, helped the kids get their snacks, had them clean up, got my laundry and what mom had in the dirty clothes started and got my chicken thawed to boil for my casserole (we don't realize how much our mothers have to do until we have to do it for them). Work, work, work, work, work. The whole time while I was making dinner I kept on thinking that I wasn't gonna have enough, the pile of chicken didn't look very big and I was a bit worried about the fact that the recipe only called for 1 cup of rice (uncooked) (I haven't cooked a whole lot of rice so I wasn't real sure that would be enough), but I found that after it was all mixed together there was more than enough. The kids didn't all seem too fond of my casserole, but dad said it was pretty good. I did pretty okay I guess for I being the first meal I have ever cooked for our family without any help from mom and It's a good thing that I had been looking through the cook books on Saturday or we probably would have had leftovers. Seems I am growing up a bit more than I thought, like just this morning I was thinking about how crazy it is that I'll be 16 on Saturday.

Thanking

Back at spring break I had gotten this wort looking thing on one of my fingers. I had showed it to everyone while we were at my grandma's and she had said that it was from kissing wild boys (my mom don't recall this, but I very much do), which I really didn't like especially when they were all teasing me about it (I hand NOT been KISSING ANY WILD BOYS). But then I had gone away. Then about a month ago I noticed (in English class) that it had come back, then I started looking at my hands and I thought that I could see more coming up on some of my other fingers (yes I was a bit freaking out), now I was getting scared about having these things all over my hands. So, when I got home I anointed my hands and prayed about it and then didn't worry about it any more. I had noticed in the past few weeks that it was getting smaller and there were no signs of anymore. Well, today when I looked it was all the way gone again. Then I remembered something that happened about a year ago, we were putting the new shower in the main bathroom and this piece of metal that we needed got lost. Well if you know my dad very well you know that he gets really upset when we lose things and starts yelling and screaming. So, I was praying for the Lord to help us find it as we searched. We couldn't find it and we couldn't find it, then I was laying on the girls floor talking to Dale to see if he could remember having anything like it (when things go missing in our house usually it's because dad misplaced it or Dale had it), I turned over and there it was laying on the floor.

Humbling

It seems I'm always praying for help to be more humble. Today while I walked home I was thinking about how Kansada had said that I was perfect and never do anything wrong, well I sure don't agree with this at all, in no way do I think that I'm perfect and I see were I have done things wrong all the time. So, I guess that in a way I have become a bit humble because I know that I'm not perfect. Lets just not let this bit of knowledge get to my head or I my lose that humbleness. I can see how people might think that I or anyone else may be perfect, because we all have different trials to bare and we don't always see the things that others may be struggling with.

Brewster Campout Pictures

2008-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Shay, she's a bit goofy
My Amber and Shay
Amber
Andy and Isaiah pointing.
Josh and Brandon, a bit odd.
Me playing volleyball.
The boys getting their shirts ready for the game.
Shay and Amber; they are weird.
Shay, me and Amber.
Some of the younger kids.

Volleyball.
Playing volleyball.
Shay and me playing volleyball; we look a bit silly.
More volleyball.
Chris.

Billy blowing up a balloon.

Thanking God

2008-05-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Life and Death

This week has been pretty hard at school, because on Friday Matt Zachary, who was a Senior died, I won't go into the details because I didn't really know him so it don't seem right. But I did see him around school a lot and from what I know of he was a really nice guy. It just seems so weird and sad to think that just last week he was walking though the halls and now he's gone. It reminds me a lot of when Sage died, I had babysat her just 3 days before she died and she was just fine. I held her all day and I remember imagining her being big enough to wear real clothes (she was so little that clothes were too big for her). Then she was gone. It really gets you thinking about how we're not promised tomorrow. And the whole time at school when I'm around everyone who is so sad about Matt, I can't stop thinking about how easily God could have taken Josh from us on Sunday night. I just keep thanking him over and over again for sparing his life. At the same time I'm so thankful that the Lord has helped me to be able to forgive Josh in the last month because I know that if he would have died and I hadn't forgiven him it would have killed me.

Changes

I was thinking today about how just 2 years ago at the Brewster camp out there were very, very few of the young kids who were in the faith and this year I looked around and probably other half of the young kids who were there were in the faith. I remember how wonderful it was at the Brownsville camp out 2 years ago when there were about 25 of us young kids and not one of us was baptized and how by that Wednesday 10 of us had came in the faith (I was one of them). And it seems like since then there have been so, so many of the young kids here in the northwest who have given their hand. It's such a wonderful feeling when you hear of one of your friends giving their hand and even better when you are able to be there to witness it. Along with this there seems to have been many changes in the way that we act, I remember how we used to always just go around playing our games and doing our own things that weren't of God, but now we're always singing together, we see so many of us get up and serve the Lord in church, I've seen the guys get up and make talks in church, I even sat and listened to some of the guys visit on the word on Friday and it was so helpful to be able to listen to people your own age talk about those things. We seem so much more closer now and much more like a family than ever before. I'm always praying that the Lord will help us young kids who are in the faith to be able to do what would be his will and help the ones who aren't that they would have that desire and be able to be baptized. I'm so thankful for all of my friends who have came into the faith and I can see how the Lord is working in many of the others life's.

The Brewster Campout

2008-05-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, well even though I would like to I'm not gonna tell you about every single minute of the camp out because that would just take way too long, but I will tell you about some of the highlights of my weekend and some of the not so highlights also.

(Trying to decide where to start.lol)

For the first like hour or two we just kinda hung out and since my family was like one of the first ones there there wasn't a whole lot to do yet or people to hang out with. While we were setting up out camp, Tyrel was supposed to be getting some boys to help him move a table. Well he must not have been doing what he was told, because a few minutes later he came walking out of the mountains with Ruben and Ryan. My dad started yelling at him about why not helping (he didn't hardly help at all setting up camp and kept running off), then he was like, "Open your eyes", because his eyes were closed like he was rolling his eyes at dad or something, then they got closer and we realized that his eye was bleeding. My dad then went running over there yelling
"What did you do to yourself?!?!". Apparently they were throwing sticks and one got him in the eye.

The guys played football and they even let the girls who wanted to play play (like me) and I even got to run the ball once. It was a lot of fun.

Later all the young kids were around the camp fire and some adults and were all sang. We had a lot of singings around the camp fire, it seemed like anytime there were people at the fire someone was singing. I really liked this because even the young kids who don't usually sing like in church really seem to get into it and we get really loud and everything. What was really surprising to me was how these too guys, who came up with Colton and Zakk got so into the singings, I was like, "WOW!!!" lol.

The only problem with singing around the fire is that the smoke goes in your mouth and makes it hard to sing. So, that night when my throat started hurting I had noticed that Josh was sitting at one of the tables reading his bible, so I went and got mine to join. Well I came back he was gone, so Amber, Shay and I went to find him. It didn't take very long, he was in at a table in the kicten. So, we set down our things and went to get a quick drink, then when we came to set down some of the boys had came and then he left with them. I was thinking, "Well so much for that", but he left his bible so we knew that he would be back. Finally we got tired of waiting so we went to find him. He was at the Swezeys big tent making hot dogs (heard 'food' and went running lol). So, we ate some hot dogs too. Then after a minute we looked around and he was gone again, but he came back sooner this time. We were like, "Are you trying to avoid us or something?". He said that he wasn't and to just follow him next time, so we did and pretty soon we were back at the table in the kicten. Then Chris, Billy and Bro. Bill came. At sometime Amber and Shay left, I don't know when or where they went and I didn't go looking for them because I knew that if I wanted to be involved in those kind of spiritual moments, I had to put myself in them. So, I sat and listened to the guys talk and followed them in my bible and although I never really said anything I did get a lot out of it. It was really nice and even when Cayla came and said that they were playing capture the flag none of us left. We did leave before they were done playing capture the flag and then Josh and I were walking around and Laura came and tagged us and took us to the jail. She kept on telling us how we couldn't leave and never would believe that we hadn't been playing.

I don't really remember a lot of what we did during the day on Saturday, we mostly just hung out. I do remember that sometime between lunch and dinner I had just started playing catch with Kansada and Jesse and my mom yelled my name like I had just done something wrong. I went running (thinking that I was in trouble) and it turned out that she just wanted me to get my brothers and sisters so we could find out what size of shirts we wanted. Then I went back and played catch with Kansada and Shy shy. after a while Shy shy left and it was just Kansada and me ( just to let everyone know it was a football that we were playing catch with), and we played til I had to stop and take some food over to the kicten for my mom.

The guys formed a volleyball team and played against the older men and then the girls. They used the camp out shirts and called themselves the Cupcakes (last year they were the Pansies). So, we watched them play and rooted for them. During their first game Mackenzie came and said that mom was done making the tacos and that any of my friends who wanted could come and eat too. So, I got Jilleeanna, Malea and Tiffany (and maybe more), Amber and Shay said that they would come when that game was over. So when they finished playing the men I went with Amber and Shay to get their tacos and my mom asked me if Josh had ate. I knew that he hadn't (and that tacos are his favorite), so I went and asked him if he wanted me to make one and save it for him. He said, yes please and only wanted meat and cheese on it. When I got back in the kicten the were only the small taco shells and the very big ones left and the hamburger was gone. So, he got a very big taco with lots of chicken and cheese (which is good cause he said that it was the first thing he had ate all day, stupid boy). I had to hold it for him til they were done (that taco wasn't very warm when he finally got to eat it). It was kinda weird, I told Chantea that I felt like I was taking care of him more now that I did when we were dating. When he was eating it I said, "I'm sorry it's not spaghetti", because apparently he had been talking in his sleep the night before and had said, "Elise make me some spaghetti".

Later on a bunch of us were hanging out at the fire and Josh (who is the other Josh, one of Colton and Zakks friends) started looking for the hot dogs (cause there usually are some around the fire). When we didn't find any I saw my mom and I asked her if we had anymore. She was like "We just ate", and I said "But Josh is hungry". Seemed like the word that someone was hungry spread pretty fast cause me and my mom ran and got our hot dogs, buns and chips and Tammy got their sausage. I was thinking that this was a pretty weird day cause I kept on feeding boys (or Joshes anyhow lol).

Church was really really good on Sunday. There were lots of testimony's and it lasted about 5 hours. Even though the boys who were sitting by me (Zakk, Josh, Josh, Derek, and Brandon, man that's a lot of boys) weren't always paying attention I was pretty impressed with them (I've seen Zakk sleep in church before). They all put an effort to sing, when there was a song being sang, which wasn't often.

Later that afternoon we played freeze kick ball (it was called freeze because it was freezing cause it was raining pretty hard). Yes it rained off and on all weekend up there, so my pants were all fairly muddy. Then after that we played some card games.

That evening a bunch of us young kids were singing around the fire. We were having a lot of fun, the guys were all grouped together singing the guy part even and we were singing really loudly trying to get more people to come join us. Then in the middle of one of the songs Josh started coughing and choking and it was really scary. Chris was trying to stop his choking and then he prayed for him, I thought and felt like we should have all prayed for him, but I didn't say anything and then everyone went on singing and Josh went to go lay down. I had seen Amber when I happened, but then I looked around and I didn't see her anywhere, so I went to find her and Shay. I finally found Shay, it turned out that she had never left the fire and then we found Amber. We went in the cabin and were talking, well not really Amber was crying and Shay and I were trying to figure out what to do. Then Amber said something about how she couldn't bare to lose anyone else right now ( her uncle died in a car wreck last month and Josh is her cousin). Suddenly I lost it, it took everything I had inside of me not to start crying then. I don't let the thought that someone my age could die like that even enter my mind, so I hadn't thought of the fact that he could have died. I know that I couldn't bare to lose Josh, he means so much to me. Shay and me went to go pray for him, but he was in the church where they had had the elders and where having confessing of faults, so we didn't get to pray for him, but I was praying and praying for him the whole rest of the night. We all hugged a lot after that. Josh was doing a lot better, but I'm sure that I wasn't the only one who got scared every time he would cough. The funny thing was how after that he acted like he had never been better.

So, the camp out was pretty great, made saying good-bye so much harder and sadder.

I'll post the pictures when we get them loaded on to the computer.

I Need You Lord

2008-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

1. This day I see,

Such terrible things.

The worlds gone wrong,

So I need you.

Chorus:

I come to you,

Each day in prayer.

Sing praise and love,

I need you so.

2. Time moves on

And I feel lost.

I search the word,

I need you now.

3. I've found you now,

As night fall comes.

Filled with thy spirit,

Still need you Lord.

This is a song that I wrote a few months ago, I hope you liked it.

A Good Talk

2008-05-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, well this isn't really something that I would usually be sharing with everyone, but since my last post seemed like I was whining so much about the young kids, I thought I would go ahead.

So, last night Kansada spent the night and crazy enough we ended up staying up til like 4 a.m. (and didn't get up til 10:30). This may seem bad of me and I really don't like admitting this, but a lot of the time really talk to a whole lot her since we such different feelings on things. But strangely enough we talked most of the night about many of the things that I have been thinking on and that have been bothering me. I really hope that and pray that I was able to help her to understand things better. I know that she helped me to see how the rest of them seem to feel about thing.

It also helped me to understand kind of why it is that I have such different feelings about all of the things I have been talking about. I guess it could be because I have never really been all that wrapped up in the things of the world like some; I've never been involved in sports, I don't really try to make real friends with people from school (even when I was younger) and so I don't really seem to have the same kinds of distractions or temptations and there for I don't have the same opinions as other people. Some times I think that maybe other people feel like I think that I'm better than them, but that's not it at all and I would never think anything like that.

Us Young Kids

2008-05-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

CHURCH

It's really been bothering me how every week I sit in church trying so hard to pay attention and praying that God will use me in meeting, when I have the girls on the right side of me talking, giggling and (worst of all) texting and then on the other side of me I have the boys with their heads bowed down really low (so not to be seen) whispering to each other. This all really bugs me. Like a lot. To me I don't see why they are even coming really if there not even going to be paying attention to the work of God going on (don't get me wrong I'm really glad that they come to church, but I just don't get it), half the time the girls aren't even singing (kinda odd that the boys sing more than the girls). I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I feel that the reason we sit away from our parents is because we are old enough to behave ourselves without having to be told, which it seems that the young kids everywhere have proven this to be wrong because a lot of the young kids act worse than they did when they were younger and sat with there parents, because their parents aren't sitting there getting on to them about it anymore. I think that now that we are old enough to sit away from our parents then we are also old enough to pay attention and be seeking the Lord. Church is not a place to play, visit or be TEXTING (sometimes I really wish there wasn't a such thing as cell phones). I debate one whether or not I should sit somewhere else so that I'm not so distracted, I have done this before, back in the fall I sat on the bench in front of them for about a month.

MUSIC

On church dinner day, the boys were in the church listen in to music on Tyrels mp3 player. I said that I didn't really think that they should be listening to it in there (since their music isn't the greatest). They said well there's not anyone in here. I just pointed up as to said that God is. Then I got to thinking about it, I remembered that God is everywhere and hears everything too. A lot of the teenagers these days seem to be listening to music that isn't really the greatest to be listening to. So, I decided that while I can't make them all change there ways, but I can change mine, I'm gonna stop listening to music that may have the wrong kind of meaning to it (which won't be too hard since I usually don't listen to very much of it anyhow because I just don't like it).

VISITING
It seems to me that when the young kids are together they never really talk on the word or spiritual thing. I think that it would be good if we did talk with the people our age about these things because it could help us to have a better understanding of the word and it would be good for us spiritually. I have never had a conversation on the word with anyone my age and it seem that it would be helpful. So, I have been praying that the young kids cold have more spiritual visits.

(It would seem that I'm a very opinionated person.)

Chris and Cayla

2008-05-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

My cousin Chris Mcmanus is gonna be getting married on July 26 (which we have known since last July) to Cayla James. They have been dating off and on for the last 3 or 4 years. Chris has became like my big brother (I have even told him before that he is my big brother) and Cayla is real nice.

Mom told me yesterday that they're going to fly to Portland and then ride up to the Brewster camp out with uncle Marchall and aunt Connie. Which makes me very happy. I had been kinda sad cause I thought that Chris wouldn't be able to come and it just wouldn't be a camp out without Chris.

This is the stamp that was on the envelope that their invitation was in. I thought it was pretty awesome and had to take a picture of it.

Ballet in P.E.

2008-05-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today our regular P.E. teacher was gone, so Mrs. Cox (the Spanish teaches) came and subed for him since that was her prep period. She had seemed pretty excited about getting a good work out with us by teaching us some ballet (sounded pretty fun to me). Yeah, the guys pretty much laughed at her and went on playing basketball, which seemed to upset her that no one was even gonna take her serious in the gym (I haven't had her as a teacher yet, but she seemed pretty nice). So, first she made us run (which she did with us) and then she let the boys play basketball for a bit longer. She was pretty disappointed and so she finally cracked down and made us all do some ballet stretches and some other ballet thing (I don't remember what they were called cause they were french words). She told us that she used to teach that stuff to the football players when she was in high school.

So, yeah now my legs kinda hurt, but it was fun and I think that I may start doing it on my own because it is nice to get a good work out.

Talent Show Tryouts

2008-05-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

After school today me and the girls had our tryouts for the talent show. And besides when Myla messed up on her verse and had to start over I think we did pretty well. I was kinda worried about how we would do the other day when Melissa was crying and wouldn't sing cause she was scared about singing in front of people. I have to admit that I did get pretty nervous, which seemed kind of silly to me because for 1 I have been in a lot of concerts and never that I can remember have I got nervous before, and 2 it was only the ELEMENTARY talent show for crying out loud, but I think that it may have been because the song we sang means a lot to me, and it wasn't like I was singing with the whole choir (only me and my sisters) and I had thought that it was just gonna be elementary teachers and kids and then I saw a middle school teacher who I know pretty well (which I was very glad when he left after his son went, which happened to be before us)(total run on sentence). But it was an ELEMENTARY talent show and so after seeing some of the other kids who tried out I think we might have a pretty good chance. On Monday we will find out how we did and the top 10 will preform in the Elementary spring concert on Tuesday night (I hope I don't get too nervous).

Rude Awakenings

2008-05-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night I had a pretty hard time getting to sleep. Twice I was almost asleep and then I would hear my dad laugh (like really loud, cause he must have been watching something on the computer). And then I think I was finally falling back to sleep after those, and I was kinda close to Mackenzie to be warm (cause we don't have heat in our room) and (in her sleep) she elbowed me in the eye.

My Weekend

2008-05-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

So, on Friday night we had Dale and Chantel over for dinner. Then when they were getting ready to leave Andy and Tyrel we're asking if Tyrel could go spend the night at Andy's. Then Chantel asked Myla if she wanted to go and before long she had all of the little girls getting their clothes to spend the night (she said I could go too, but I didn't really feel like it). She then realized that they couldn't take all of those kids with them in their 5 passenger car, so they decided that they would take our van and then in the morning when mom went to town she would drop off their car and get the van. So after they left it was pretty quiet, with me and Dale being the only kids home (and Dale already in bed).

Then the next morning (Saturday) at about 8 mom came in to tell me that her and Dale were going to town and what all I needed to get done. So, I went back to sleep until about 8:45 and then got up. I then got on the computer and checked my e-mail and whatnot until about 9. Then I went and changed the sheets on my bed (because Edwin and Liz were coming) and cleaned my room (it really needed it). Then I took a shower. After I got out of the shower mom called and told me to switch her laundry.

A little after 11 mom and Liz came. But I only saw Liz pull in, so I was all thinking "Oh, she got here before mom" (which wouldn't have been a problem since things like that have happened before and the house was clean). Then I saw that she seemed to be talking to someone, now I'm like,"I wonder who she could be talking to." So, I looked and there was mom getting groceries out of the van.

So, after we got everything in and put away we gave Liz the tour of our house (the best part of remodeling, besides having an awesome house). Then we ate some sandwiches for lunch (yummy) and then at 1 when Chantel and the girls came home they ate.

The guys were having a work day at the church and a little bit after Chantel got here (I don't really know what time it was) dad came to get some stuff. He had a bad head ache, so he laid down for a while and when he got up he asked me if I would drive him over to the church and back (I wasn't really sure about it, cause I didn't want to be over there all day). So, we got in the truck and Dale was hiding in the backseat cause he wanted to go. When we got to the church dad said that he was gonna show someone how to do something and then we would go. So, at 3 we were still at the church because he did it himself and did many other things (remember me saying that I didn't want to stay ALL DAY!!!!!!).

Well a little bit after 3 we did end up finally going home. I got to drive, Dale and Tucker sat in the back seat, Tyrel and Andy sat in the back of the truck (which made me very nervous), and dad decided that he would let Edwin sit in the front and he would sit in the back with the little boys (not a good thing for me at all) since he had never sat back there. Well dad kept on crying and nagging about my driving the whole way home like he thought he was gonna die or something (which can REALLY make a 15 year old girl nervous about driving), which I was driving just fine thank you very much dad.

Danny had invited Edwin and Liz over for dinner, so we didn't really have dinner (or at least not that I remember). I read the bible in my room for a while and then at about a quarter til 9 I got the girls so that we could practice our song for the talent show. We are singing 'As I Go Down In The River To Pray' in the talent show on Thursday. Because the song has so many verses I decided that the only one we will sing together is the 'Sisters' one and we all picked which other one we would be singing alone.

When Edwin and Liz got back mom made pop-bisect (I know that's not how you spell it but the speel check won't give me the right word) donuts.

On Sunday morning we ate breakfast, got ready for church and made food for church dinner.

Church was pretty good. We then had church dinner and almost everyone stayed until about 6 ish (which never happens). Then when we were all getting ready to go we decided to all go over to Dale and Chantel's and have Homemade Ice Cream (which it had been ages since we last had). I guess I was so excited about the ice cream that I got to much and then couldn't finish it cause I was too full (I really felt like I was gonna be sick and I didn't even get to try some brownies :(). And at 9:30 we left to go home (since it was 9:30 and us kids have to get on the bus at 6:30 in the morning).

McKenzie Music Festival

2008-05-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

On Thursday our choir and band went to a music festival at McKenzie High School (I'm in the choir). It's a music festival for small schools (like ours).

My mom drove our van with kids in it because with all of the ball games and the 6th graders being at out door school the only bus we could take was the little pup bus (which wouldn't fit us all in it), so we took the pup bus, and my mom and another mom drove their vans. So we had to leave our house at like 5 cause we had to be at the school by 6:15. We picked up the kids who live on the ranch and drove them. I really don't know why we had to be there at 6 cause we didn't even leave the school until almost 7.

We then drove to Redmond and stopped at Rays for people to get stuff to eat for breakfast and lunch (also to go to the bathroom). Then after we got through Sisters we lost the other car, so after we drove for a while we stopped and waited for them for probably about 10 minutes (we found out that one of the girls had gotten car sick).

So we ended up getting to the festival a little bit late, but it was okay cause some of the other schools hadn't got there yet either. The kids who were in our car and had been there before said that the school pops out of the trees and I had thought that they were just saying that, but it really does, it's like you're driving over the mountain and there's this little road that you turn on and then there's the school behind some trees.

After we got there we went to this other room to warm up and practice our song (cause it was already our turn to sing). Then we sang our song for a judge/ director guy (by the way the song we sang was Love In Any Language). And after we sang the director guy sang with us and told us things that we could do better. My mom thought that he just told us about how bad we are, but really he told us that we were amazing compared to the lady at the Western Festival who pretty but told us that we were a bunch of screw offs (we call her the evil witch lady, no one likes her). So, yeah, in my opinion he was pretty nice and I thought that the judging part went pretty good.

We then listened to a few other choirs. The choir from Triangle Lake only had girls in it, so one of the girls actually did tenor and they were pretty good. (We have 5 boys in our choir, but only 2 of them were able to go.) After all of the choirs had sang we went over to the other gym and listened to the last band.

Then we had lunch, but not until after 1, which at our school we usually eat at 11:30, so we were all pretty hungry.

After lunch we went back in the gym to work on our 4 mass songs. We practiced until about 5 (that means we were singing for 3 hour!!). It was really a lot of fun. The songs we sang were Sakura (which is a Japanese song), Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel (my favorite), Gloria in Excelsis, and Johnson Boys. The Johnson Boys song has this stomp, pat, clap thing in the middle of it (that was really confusing, the girl next to me and I kept messing up).

At 5 we got to go eat dinner and hang out/get ready for the concert for an hour. Then we rehearsed for the concert til 7. And then we started the concert. The band also had 4 songs that they played in it. The concert went really well and then when the director was shaking my had he commented on how I always smile when I'm singing (it's true I really do love to smile and to sing).

We then left to head home (after we had to jump the other car). And got home at about 10:30.

And now I really wish that we could still have choir next year (their cutting choir and band in the high school next year).

Blogging

2008-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone who may be reading this,

I was never before planning on creating my own blog, sometimes I would get on my moms and read, to you know see what's going on in every ones life's. But Sabrina sent me an invite to her Blog and I was trying to just make a Google account, but the stupid thing wouldn't let me so (after trying like what seemed like a million times) I decided that I would just create my own blog (cause I was getting really rather frustrated).

So here I am!!!!!!!(and we'll jsut have to see how often I actually post lol)