Quilting

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

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

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

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

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

Grandma

Grandma and her six sisters taught me about life.

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

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

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

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

Teaching me to care for others.

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

She gave me songs to sing,

Stories to tell,

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

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

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

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

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

Life Moving Forward

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Track

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

Another Talent Show

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

Zakk

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

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

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

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

The Weekend and Other Updates On Life

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

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