The Simple Truth

I'm a senior................

I'm a senior now and I have no idea what I want to do with my life.

This summer has gone by so fast, I feel like school just ended and yet, it's right around the corner.

My senior pictures are in a week... uh oh... then comes school and ACT and AP tests. Then, oh what do you know! Here walks in.. college applications and scholarships... I'm totally freaking out!!

Where to go, what to do??

The choices are limitless and yet, I have absolutely no clue!

I'm glad high school will be over, not that it's bad or anything, it's just... school. But after high school comes university... more school... jobs, careers, being on my own, being responsible..

After HS my life really begins

but what do I want to do with my life??

After HS nothing is the same...

well, that's how I see it anyway. Before and during high school kids are completely dependent on parents and such, but after? Not so much..

I think my issue is change.

I know change is good, and can lead to wonderful things, but

I. Don't. Like. Change.

Change means different

Change means not what you're used to

Change means a lot of things, 

but usually 

Change puts you out of your comfort zone.

I like my zone.

I don't like when my zone pushes me out of my comfort.

I think that's the biggest reason as to why I'm so freaked out.

After high school there's gonna be a lot of change...

Now that I think of it, that's probably why I'm kinda nervous about EFY.

I know, right? Nervous about EFY??

Well, I've never been to an EFY.

I've never had to fly on a plane by myself.. well, the Baileys will be there, but they don't count. I'm the oldest, so that makes me the responsible one..

I've never had to worry about travel arrangements...

For the love! I've never had a roommate (AHH!!) besides Bailey.

Okay, so I get it, change is usually good and for my benefit...

but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Stateside Once Again :)

Things I miss about Canada...
➜ Taeta
➜ Kawas and Shipley cousins
➜ Perfectly ripe raspberries
➜ Late mornings and lazy days
➜ Breakfasts and dinners Taeta made :)
➜ Poutine
➜ Canadian chocolate... it's the best I've ever tasted
➜ Shoe Lace Licorice, the strawberry kind
➜ The street signs, they're centered around the Cardston Temple and are simple... 1st St, 2nd St, etc...
➜ The tiny little downtown with all its awesome little shops
➜ Goofing off with my cousins
➜ Lunies and Tunies

My beef with Canada... eh!
➜ No Diet Coke with Lime... in the bottles. They only sold DCwL cans in the bigger stores..
➜ Too many mosquitoes
➜ They use kilometers, not miles
➜ It's WAY too cold, especially for summer
➜ Everything is too expensive
➜ Everything ends with eh! or hey!
➜ Even though the language is the same I feel like I'm speaking with an accent. My O's are weird now... I don't like it.

I wish I'd...
➜ Hung out with Hayden more... we used to be inseparable, now... it's kinda the opposite. I don't know why.
➜ Jumped off the bridge
➜ Been able to stay longer

Good and Funny

Walking toward the raspberry bushes for my after dinner snack, I jumped on the tramp and heard a bird.. under the tramp. It was hopping around, unable to fly out. I wanted to help it, so 

First, I tried to pull off a spring ... but I couldn't.

Next, I tried to get close enough to grab it through the springs... talk about a fail.

Lastly, I went into the house and asked Hayden for help... why? Because not only is he strong, but he's smart too :)

Hayden tried to pull a spring off... he couldn't.

Then, he said Taeta has a fancy spring hook thing, so we went looking for it in the shed. We didn't find it, but that's where his smarts came in... he made a little contraption to help get the springs off.

So. With this fancy do-hicky and his muscles, Hayden removed 2 springs. Both of us then slipped under the tramp, cornered the bird, grabbed him and let it go on the grass :D

I did have an idea of taking it to the house, grabbing my camera and documenting my good deed for the day.... but I figured Taeta wouldn't appreciate that, not to mention the starved, sun-deprived bird :)

Haha, it was quite fun,

especially just talking to Hayden.

Oh, so funny story.

My mom and I were shopping downtown, just spending time together.

We walked out of the dollar store and passed a mom and 2 of her kids. The little girls were so cute in home made, old fashioned dresses and bonnets... they were Hutterites, the Canadian version of amish.

Now, on to the funny part.

Mom was telling me about them. They grow all their food, and don't have anything electronic... you know, the classic amish type.. I think, I'm not exactly sure, so don't use me as a reference :D

Well, apparently they believe the world is flat.. I'm not kidding!! They teach it in their schools, and I'm going to take a guess and say they don't travel for fear of falling off the edge of the world :)

I wonder how big the world is? I mean, are all the continents still here or is it just Canada?? What about Magellan and all the other people who sailed around the world?? Hmmm...

I admit, I would be more hesitant to write this but... I doubt the Hutterites will mind :D

Canadian Adventures

I bailed on the all-nighter around 3 a.m. 

It was either sleep or have Bailey and Hannah do my hair...

I chose sleep :)

My first adventure was shopping in Lethbridge at the mall.

I bought a shirt... then later I lost it. So I bought another one since it was on sale..

Not good, but an adventure nonetheless.

Then we saw some family, that was fun :D

My other adventure was climbing the maple tree.

I haven't climbed that thing for years and I wanted to see if it'd be easier now that I'm older and taller... it wasn't.

If anything I had a harder time, but I'm going to blame the swing.. well, the swing that isn't there anymore. We used to have a swing tied to the lowest branch and we'd use that to get into the tree. It's gone, and even though I'm taller, I'm still short. In the end I had to get a chair... but besides that, it was hard because all the leaves are giant and they cover the branches, so it's hard to see where the next limb to climb onto is.. but besides that, I'm kinda scared of heights, well, not scared exactly, just more cautious... and that tree is huge!! 

See the tree to the right of the house?? Oh yeah, this is Taeta's backyard :D

The tree was big in the last picture right? Well, it just grew another 10 feet... I accidently cut off the top in the last pic :D

 

So you see the yellow rope running from the trunk of the tree to the right of the pic ↑? Where it connects with the tree is where the first branch is at... even if it's only a foot and a half long.

Ah, proof I was actually IN the tree :D
Where I cut the tree off before, I was just above that... as high as I could go.

Even that high up, I was swamped in giant leaves and dead twigs. Haha, Taeta actually saw me breaking branches off from the window :) Not to mention I was swaying in the breeze..

From that high up I could see the whole town!! The best pictures were the ones of the temple though :)

My adventures for the day.
Sure glad I have a camera so I can share the moment with you :D

Roommates... Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Megan, Hannah, Bailey and I are trying to pull an all-nighter...

We just finished a show called the Roommate

You heard of it?? It's quite new.

Yeah, it's creepy!

All I'm going to say is that I am now a bit freaked to go to college and get a roommate

and

that I will from now on be doing a full background check on ALL future roommates to make sure they aren't psycho...

just so ya know :D

My Precious, you stole my precious!!!

I'm not meaning to be disrespectful or anything... I swear!

In sacrament meeting today the speakers went on and on and on... and the talks were so boring!!
It was a husband and a wife and the talks were on pioneer heritage. The wife went first. She began with her family history starting in 1000 AD... no joke! She went on from there, for almost twenty minutes...
Again, no disrespect.

It was kinda funny, because this was the first time Grandma and Grandpa didn't fall asleep during the talks :) Bailey and I, however, were on the brink of sleep..

The one thing that did wake me up though, Bailey leaned over  toward the end to tell me that she hadn't been listening to the people the entire time... she was watching the kids 2 rows in front of us and... wait for it, wait for it... the middle girl reminded her of Smeegul!! I turned my attention to the kid and had to hold back my laughter.. This girl had been all over her older sister or cousin for the entire meeting, and one of her faces was an exact replica of Smeegul.. For the next half hour it was all I could do to not laugh out loud :D
Thanks a lot Bailey

After church we went over to visit our Smith side grandparents. That was fun, we had dinner, went through photo albums of our dad and his siblings growing up :) Later, Uncle Brad came over with Cami, and Uncle Rock came with his wife and 2 of his kids. It was good to see them all, especially since we haven't seen them for 4 years.

Lots of cowboy talk: Haying, calfing, breaking horses, roping... also lots of stories about my daddy-o :D
Hahaha, I had a good time.

Memories...

We started a bonfire in the backyard, that was great. 

Then, I showed my cousin River how to climb on the shed. It was the first time he'd ever been on there...

The reason this blows my mind is because I used to live on that thing.

Me, Bailey, and our cousins Megan, Hayden and Hannah climbed up the gate, then later pounded blocks of wood into the sides like a ladder and added a rope, nailed in at the top.

We were always doing something out there. I'm sure the neighbors hated us, what with our hammering and fighting and laughing going on during all daylight hours.

We would split up and see who could build the best thing. We made chairs, elevator basket things where we'd drop it over the edge then pull stuff up, like hammers, wood, nails, a cat once :) we also made a couple zip lines...

Oh yeah, we made a few legit zip lines. From the pole at the top of the shed going down to a fence. It wasn't very far so it was a really steep drop, and therefore, a fast ride. We actually did this twice. The first time we had bike handlebars.  

I don't know who volunteered to go first, I know it wasn't me :) I mean, we built it, a bunch of kids all under 11 years old. It was probably Bailey or Hayden. Well, whoever it was.. non of us expected them to go that fast. They hit the fence, hard and maybe hurt themselves.. After that we tied a green mattress to the fence. But then, the handlebars came off some how and someone got hurt, whoever was on it at the time.

The next time, we found a seat and secured it to the rope... On the first day after we'd been doing it awhile the fence gave or the rope broke or, well, something went wrong and Hayden, who was still at the beginning and pretty high, fell flat on his back.

After that we weren't allowed to make any more zip lines... That, and now there's no fence to make on with :D

As River was playing on the shed today it just brought back all these memories. And the more I thought about it, we did some really stupid, dangerous stuff. Zip line exhibit #1, even though nobody got seriously injured, we made them ourselves. One of our mom's would take us to get the rope and pulleys and stuff, but we made it. And as I mentioned before, we were all very young. I'm really surprised now that our parents and Taeta were okay with this :) 

Only today Taeta was telling River to be careful and not get too close to the edge... he's 9. The youngest of us, when it was us older kids, was Hannah, she was 4 maybe 5..

Another time, oh, but you have to understand this. The Kawas cousins, Megan, Hayden and Hannah lived in Saudi Arabia back then, but every summer they'd come out to Canada, so we only saw them once a year... during the summer. Because of this, the Kawas kids all wanted their own time with us - plus they could never agree on a movie to watch- so Me and Bailey would get 3 movie nights :) 

When it was Hayden's turn.. umm, I'm trying to think, we couldn't have been that old, maybe 8, 9 and 10?? I dunno, it's just a guess, anyway, we watched our movie, then, when we were sure Taeta was asleep (my mom wasn't there and the Kawas' family was staying at their other grandparent's house) we snuck out to the shed (wooden shed filled with tools and flammable things) and had our bug spray, matches and blocks of wood... You see where this story is going??... Yeah, we were kinda pyro- whatever-it-is, well, me and Hayden more than Bailey. We laid the pieces of wood out on the rocky ground, sprayed them with bug spray and lit them... We were being completely and utterly safe :) After awhile we got tired, but we did have a lot of fun :D

Until we got busted... the NEXT YEAR!!!! Yep, come next year Taeta found out and we got in so much trouble:) For good reason I guess, but still, it was the past and nobody got hurt...

Okay, last one :)

I remember Hayden telling me that spray paint is flammable... we may have also used that in the shed... so one day when no one was home I went in the shed and found a can of green spray paint. We had it because Taeta had given us permission to paint her shed and Kawas/Smith-ify it. I must have been bored, but I went back to the house and sprayed a green dot right in front of the back door.. then I put a match to it :) That circle was on fire for a good couple of minutes. Now, I must have thought that the fire would burn away the paint... it didn't. It's still there, and nobody knows how it got there, well, now they do :D Every time I walk in or out the door I see it and I laugh to myself...

Memories, where would we be without them???

Names

A lot of names are... original. Well, in my family there's a lot of those :) 

Tell (baby brother)

Rusten (dad)

Najwa (aunt)

Raven (cousin)

River (cousin)

Ford (cousin)

Harmony (cousin)

Rock (uncle)

Amal (grandma)

Kawas (mom's maiden name)

These are just a few... I can't remember all my family :D

Every Story is Different

Today, to spend time with our cousins, we decided to go swimming. Yeeaahhh, slight problem... it was raining.

We still went swimming, but in the Ramanda Hotel in Lethbridge. Well, it was the Ramanda, but Holiday Inn bought it after a kid drowned in the water park...

I don't know why Holiday Inn would buy a hotel with a bad history...

Sad though, I know.

Well, after we were all done swimming Taeta left with most of the cousins. Me and Raven stayed behind to wait for my mom who had taken Bailey and Hannah to the mall. We bought ourselves some ice cream and sat outside the hotel on a bench. We people watched and made up stories for the people we saw... who they were, why they were here, how they met their husband/wife... Our stories were quite sad :D 

We also said, next guy we see is your husband... My dude wasn't too shabby, hers.. now that's another story :D 

While we were stranded and watching the people come and go I started wondering...

I live my life and it's normal enough, but when I look at other people it's hard to think that they're living their own lives the same way I am. I don't know if this makes any sense or not, but when I see other people, I see the people. It's weird to think that they have their own errands to run, family to report to...

I don't know, maybe I'm just shallow... but seriously!

How often do we think about the lives of others? Other people's issues, problems, trials... What about their situation, point of view or feelings??

Just something that I've been thinking about lately :)

Canada!!

 

So, the drive was pretty uneventful...

It was long, 12 hours, but went by quick

If that makes any sense :)

Now, I'm... well, I'm kinda tired but not really, I drank a big thing of Coke...

Diet Coke :D

Yeah, it's the best. We stopped somewhere on the way to get food and they gave me a normal Coca-cola. It was gross. 

When we finally got to Taeta's house I was kinda insane... just kinda :)

Dare to Dream

So I'm packing right? 

Oh yeah, well, I'm going to Canada for the week with my family...

anyways though. I'm packing, and eating dove chocolates... mmmm... and also texting my friend.

Yes, it's past midnight :)

So you know how the dove chocolates have those little messages on them? Here's mine.

Dare to dream

and I got 2 that were

Feel good about today...

Well, considering that since it's past midnight, today is... today :) Today is the day we drive 12 long hours. I guess that means we'll have a safe trip??

Hopefully..

Now, dare to dream... I guess I could dream of the guy I will someday meet... or I could dream of the car my mom's going to buy for me when I finish high school (ahhh!! 10 months til I'm graduated and responsible!! Scary!) with  VL ... virgin lips :) 

That's right, my mom made me and Bailey this deal that when we graduate if we haven't kissed or been kissed then we can either 1- get a car of our choosing or 2- go anywhere in the world...

I'm pretty sure I'll have an easy time of getting through this upcoming year, my senior year! without being kissed.. I'm good with that though, no worries :)

I've decided on getting a car, it'll last longer

Bailey... well, let's just say she's out of the running :D

Oh, so a couple quotes that I just randomly and on impulse decided to share:

"I could be getting attention from a brick and they'd still be jealous"

and

"I love this necklace, it makes me feel like a dog"

--someone who'd eat me if I gave their name :D

Me: "My friends say I'm immature."

Mom: "Haha, well that's a good kind of immature, you want to have fun. Never lose that."

I just wanted that last one on record... :D

As I said before, we have a 12 hour drive ahead of us, in like, 8 hours. 

I'm going to bed...

4 orders of revenge coming right up!!

So, I had the fullest intention of writing about a phrase I heard on the radio.

Holding on to who I am.

Driving home from church on Sunday this random song was on and, even though I wasn't paying any attention to the words, these ones jumped out at me. 

To this, I only had one thought.

Why hold on to who you are? If you do that you can never excel, never progress from who you are now.

In my list of quotes I have a few that apply.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

and

It's not what you have, but what you do with what you have.

I had the best of intentions of expounding on this thought, I did. But as I was getting settled on my bed with my laptop there was a sudden banging on my window.

Please keep in mind it's after 10 at night, so I'll say again, some creeper was banging on my window!!! I froze then ran upstairs once they did it again. I was honestly scared, not the scaredest I've ever been, but pretty close :)

I ran up to my mom to see if she had any idea of who it was. 

She didn't.

We checked out the front window... and guess what I saw :)

Kinsey's car...

Oh, don't worry. She's gonna get it, but it gets better :D

Since Kinsey was here that meant Bre had to be too, along with some of my other so called friends :) I was fairly confident (99% sure) that I knew who was out there, so I ran out the front door... quietly. I was going to jump the small part of my fence, but just as I was about to I heard them coming.. It was pretty easy actually, what with all their laughing and loud running :D

Kinsey opened the gate and I jumped out... they all screamed and ran into the light from the culdesac's lamppost. It was then that I identified the culprits... namely

Tori

Kylee

Bre and

Kinsey

I was so right :)

Now that they've made it completely impossible for me to fall asleep tonight, which stinks because I work at 9 in the morning, I will be thinking of all the many ways to get them back. It shouldn't be too hard, especially since I already have 3 of them pegged as far as fears go :D

Yes, you 4 should be VERY worried..

Hahaha... isn't revenge just marvelous :D

What is the world coming to??

Sunday night I watched a new movie on abcfamily called Cyberbu//y..

All I have to say is wow.

I'll be honest though, at first it was cheesy, then it got... well, let's just say I was about ready to turn it off... But I didn't, because I realized that this kind of stuff really does happen. Maybe not always to that extent, but still.

It got me thinking. 

My generation has been raised with technology. As we've grown, so has the stuff... well, the tech has shrunk, but its capabilities have grown tremendously... if these things are happening now, and I know they are, what will life be like for this upcoming generation??

I grew up with a Gameboy, the color version :) a Nintendo 64, and a monster of a desktop computer. Now kids are being raised with wiis, smart phones and ipads. 

Internet, TV, technology in general... they're part of our lives and there's no escaping them.. Because we've grown up with these things, they're the norm. Insignificant everyday stuff. 

That's not true.

Technology is both a power and a handicap.

Power: we have all kinds of info at our fingertips, we can talk to people who live countries and continents away. There is more but... obviously I can't get into it all.

Handicap: with all that knowledge only a click away, books are... wait, what's a book? Powerpoints and slideshows are taking the places of papers. Book reports? Now it's a presentation.

We have to remember to use the technology we have wisely and responsibly.

Have you ever looked closely at a Budweiser commercial??

Always, in itsy bitsy tiny writing they have a note at the bottom saying

Please Drink Responsibly

Always cracks me up :D

My Long-Lost Sister is Back!

Yep.. Bailey's back :)

Goodbye silence... hello random noises, talking, music and fighting... the nice kind, of course :D

Goodbye unlimited tv time... hello remote fights.

Goodbye poptarts... meet Bailey :(

Haha :D

From what I heard though, she had a great time.

Working

Playing

Teaching Tell to say Ba

Am I jealous?? No way...

(That was a total and complete lie by the way...)

I'm really glad you're back :) It's been.. weird.

Missed you, hands up I did! Haha, love you :)

No Man is an Island

Confused?? I was too :)

In YW today Sis. Wilson wrote that up on the board. No man is an island. What the heck, right?!!

well, apparently it's a famous quote/song... yeeaahh... I've never heard it before in my life.

Basically it means you aren't alone and you depend on other people.

Still a bit confused? Me too..

My first thought while discussing this quote was

'We all see, we all hear, but pride gets in the WAY!!!'

Yeah, to most of you this is probably the weirdest, most random thing ever, which makes sense... it's an inside joke :D

 Joke or not though, it does apply.

While we were having our lesson I was thinking... 

I know, right? Me, thinking?? Haha :D

You need to lose the pride and get out of your comfort zone.

If you don't get out of your shell, extend yourself, meet new people or try new things, you won't be able to enjoy the opportunities or friendships that would have come your way.

Look at your life, look at what you could be missing out on!!!

And all you need is the desire. The desire to talk to the new kid, or sit by the person eating alone. The desire to pay a compliment or stick up for what you believe...

Once you have that desire, you need to act on it. Do something about that feeling, you don't know how it will change your life, or another person's.

Here's another quote.

"Don't box yourself in, and others out. Open your heart and share your 'treasures' with others." 

We all have something to share, whether we know it or not, it's there.

Growing up Disney

I grew up watching Disney movies and I absolutely love them!

But today on my way to work a song popped into my head (that never happens by the way. I'm weird like that).

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go.

I can't even remember the last time I watched that movie!

Totally random I know.

But seriously...

classic Disney vs. modern Disney

There is a huge difference!!

Personally, I haven't liked any of the newer movies.

They aren't... the real thing.

They're all just different, newer, more modern.

I don't like it.

Let me tell you, when I have kids they'll be raised on the classics, no question

Except for Tangled, now that's a good one!

Lion King

Aladdin

Tarzan

Cinderella

Snow White

Jungle Book

Little Mermaid

Give me a classic any day.

But this got me thinking...

The things we're raised on, they really do have an influence on who we are now...

'Jasmine was in a relationship with a dirty homeless boy named Aladdin. Snow White lived alone with 7 men. Pinocchio was a liar. Robin Hood was a thief. Tarzan walked around without clothes on. A stranger kissed sleeping beauty and she married him. Cinderella lied and snuck out at night to attend a party. You can't blame us. We were taught to rebel since a young age.'

--http://65750id3.shareit1.com/like/65750/

Haha :D

Common and Just Plain Odd

What's up with the name Jack??

We have Jack Bauer from 24

Jack Sparrow (sorry... Captain Jack Sparrow)  

Jack and the beanstalk... sorry no pic.

Jack our turtle... we (Bailey) had a pet turtle for many years named Jack

And even though I'm sure there's more Jacks, these are the ones I just thought of...

So my question.. Why is Jack such a popular name???

Another thing that's on my mind.

Why do some people, when they call someone, say

                                                                  "It's me"

That just doesn't make any sense...

I mean, 'it's me' could be anybody.

Everybody is a me, so saying it's me

is like saying 

yeah, I'm somebody...

Just thought I'd share since I can't sleep

and there isn't a whole lot to do...

since I can't sleep.

Yo ho, Yo ho, a ... shooter's??... life for me!!

Last night I saw Pirates 4
It was pretty good, but my
favorites were definitely the one liners :D

Jack Sparrow: You've fallen for your own con, love.

Angelica: No, the lies I told you were not lies.

Jack Sparrow: You lied to me by telling me the truth?

Angelica: Yes.  

Jack Sparrow: That's very good. May I used that?

Angelica: I'm sure you will anyway.

Jack Sparrow: Mmm, of course I will.

Angelica: Admit it, Jack. You still love me.

Jack Sparrow: If you had a sister and a dog, I'd choose the dog.

So, these were my highlights of the movie...

now on to the shooter part.

Today for some mother daughter bonding we went to a shooting range.

Fun, huh :D

Technically I wasn't allowed to do any of the shooting...

See, you're supposed to be 21 or older, but once we told the guy I had some gun experience from shooting on the ranch, and the fact that we were the only people there... he let me in :) 

Since it was our first time (and because I'm underage) we rented one .22 automatic pistol to share, and we got 100 bullets to go with it, which we split 50/50. Then we picked paper targets.

Once we were all set up he left us alone and we began shooting and switching off.

It was the funnest thing I've done for awhile :)

Granted, it's not the ranch and there are a bunch of rules, but still.

I definitely want to do it again.

Flibbertigibbet

Flibbertigibbet: n, a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person

a synonym for gossip

No joke :D

So in Young Women's today our lesson was about being depenable... that one's for you Sis Smith :D

Haha okay, for serious now. 

Being dependable

reliable

steadfast and

never taking your eye off the ball.

Sis Smith did a great job teaching this lesson and it made me wonder...

Am I dependable???

Can people count on me??

I sure hope so, I mean, I try my best to be reliable.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say they'll do something

then they're a no show or they call a couple minutes before to flake out..

I really hate that!!

It's one of the things that really frustrates me.

So, I've made it my goal to never be like that..

I think I'm doing a pretty good job...

Now, on to the funny part of my day.

Today was Keilanie's 8th birthday, she's my mom's best friend's daughter.

Our families are tight.

Well, she happens to LOVE our dogs, Kobe and Kooper.

So, we took them with us to her party.

bad idea, let me tell you.

Kooper was whining and whimpering and barking the entire drive.

Kobe on the other hand was very good, just looking out the window.

Yeah, I don't know what Kooper's problem is...

Oh wait, yes I do.

Mom: "This is not normal... then again, he was an only puppy. Maybe he should have been aborted."

Hahaha, maybe you had to be there, but boy it was hilarious!!!!!!

Later that night, as we were walking out the door

Keilanie picked up Kobe for a goodbye hug. Then almost fell over.

Keilanie: "He's like a miniature cow!!!!"

Probably another had to be there moment :)

Today was just an all around great day.

Results...

Back when it was the season of school I took some AP classes.

Namely, US History and Calculus AB

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking....

I hate history and math is... well, it's math.

Well, I got my scores in the mail today...

I may have freaked out a bit... just a little :)

First off you should know:

1- no recommendation

2-possibly qualified   

3- qualified

4- well qualified

5- extremely well qualified

So, I opened up the letter....

... not scared or shaking at all...

and I saw a 2... and a 5 :D

History - 2

which means...

Calculus - 5  :D

Yeah, I'm pretty psyched

I knew I wasn't going to do well in History, so a 2 was good.

I never in a million years thought I'd get a 5 in math though. THAT made me happy :)

I'm ready to celebrate :D

Playback

Highlights of my last trip to my dad's:

*Getting yelled at by a hobo

Uh huh, that's right. We (Bre, me and Bailey) rolled down our window to toss some food to this dude sitting by the freeway exit by Wendover holding a sign that said HUNGRY.

We offered chips and pretzels...

He yelled at us

"I HAVE NO TEETH!!!!"

We offered pudding

"I HAVE NO TEETH!!!!"

He did however take a wad of cash from the car behind us...

On our way back to the freeway Bailey threw pudding to the guy. 

It landed by him, sounded like a gunshot, and made him jump.

Yeah, we were laughing the rest of the trip!!!!!

*Being chased by camel spiders

Need I say more???!!?!

*4-wheeling around the ranch

Dad, Brock, me and Bre went 4-wheeling just for fun.

Then it started to rain...

but it was still fun.

*Swimming in the crick at 8 mile

Moss, bugs, horseflies and all..

It was quite fun :D

and yes, I did say crick.

You see...

Me: "Crick is what country folks say, it's easier. You live in the city so you say creek."

Bre: "I don't live in the city, I live in a suburban area. So what do city people say?"

Me: "Umm... canal"

Haha!!! I love my quick thinking mind :D

*Picnic up Lamoille Canyon

Well, it started out as a nice family outing...

But ended up in a huge waterfight. It was pretty awesome.

Everybody was throwing water at everybody.

Then it escalated..

Muddy water was being thrown

then Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew..

As I said before, pretty awesome.

And I started it :)

*Getting the Johnson's number

Now, THAT was funny!!

So, Bre was driving through the salt flats and she starts to pass this white truck. From behind we could tell that there were some guys in the back seat. Bre asks if any of them are cute, so I look over. As I'm looking, one of the guys waves!! We passed them and get in front just laughing. Then, a couple of minutes later they move over and start to pass us. Bre goes, "Oh no! They're passing us!" I look over as they get right next to us... 

and there's a paper held against the window... 

with a phone number!!!!!!

Not only was it cause of some interesting conversation, but it made me feel pretty good about myself. I mean, I never thought anything like that would happen to me... guess I was wrong :D

Thanks Johnson boys, you kinda made my day :)

Sleep talking Dog??

So last night my dog Kobe was sleeping with me.

Well,  he was licking himself when I fell asleep.

Anyway...

I woke up to him whimpering and whining in his sleep.

At first I thought something was wrong, 

but when I sat up to check on him

he was still out of it

My best guess is that

he was having a dream.

Do dogs dream???

Well, I'm pretty sure I can answer that with a 'yes'.

My guess is he was dreaming about Koda,

the huge Akita that lives across the street and sometimes tries to eat Kobe for dinner..

I'm betting Kobe was dreaming about being able to take him on.

See, Kobe's not even a foot tall, Koda is a horse...

I've sometimes wondered how much dogs understand.

I know my dogs understand the words

treat

mommy's home

go to bed

and...

well, Kobe knows close the door

...

Anyways

I think that it would be totally awesome to get a look into my dogs' heads.

My other dog Kooper, he's devious, and smart.

Kobe is too, but he's a pushover.

Unless he's in protective mode...

Mindless chatter for the morning... ✔  :D

1 minute

It's funny how 1 minute can make such a difference.

Today I took a minute out of my time to catch a bird that had been flying around my garage all day and let it go. 

I took a minute to tell my mom I would take care of the yard paraphernalia that's all over our garage.

I took a minute to tell my friend I missed her...

It's funny how all the minutes of our day add up

and how one minute of service

or

simply going out of your way to do or say something nice or positive

can totally change the outlook of your day

and someone else's.

Today I felt really good.

I felt like my day wasn't just about me.

I felt like maybe I made a difference in somebody's life.

Caving, Rafting and other Fun

Flaming Gorge camp out with my friends?

I think yes!! :D

Caving with Bre was a party.

We went exploring in a crevice where a red ?↓ was spray painted onto the wall.

Smart, I know

but it was extremely fun

not to mention wet, muddy and filled with wet sticks.

It was really cool though, at the bottom was a tiny river, maybe a foot across and was solid ice. When I got closer I saw that it widened and entered a small room, then another farther in. Again, solid ice from wall to wall at the bottom. And this is maybe 20 feet down from where people are walking. I was tempted to crawl across the ice and see where the tunnel led, but changed my mind cuz the ice was smooth and I wasn't sure if it would hold... if it broke on me I'd've been in trouble. Anyway, it was a bunch of fun.

Next, you should know there was no extra water at camp...

So I couldn't start any water fights

and had to improvise.

Nutella fight with Bre. she may have started it, but I won :D
Cobbler fight with Tori. I started it and I ended it.
When Annika was asleep in a camp chair after caving I 'accidentally tripped' and the open water bottle in my hand that wasn't mine spilled on her face and woke her up...
and sometimes me and Bre give each other dead arms and bruised ankles...

Oh, so we went river rafting. I drove down with Annika, Bre and Sis. Bellows.
Problem was we got there late and had to wait 2 hours for the rafts to be brought back.
We decided to check out the Flaming Gorge Dam (that thing is HUGE!!) and took the tour,
well, half of it :D
We started the tour, met a crazy biker chick who was insane, then realized there was no way we could stay for the whole thing and make it back in time.
Bellows explained all this to our tour guide who reluctantly let us go back warning us that we'd have to get back through the door we came in. Did I mention it was manned by a cop and metal detector??
So we kinda run past the cop then Bellows tells the people at the front door that she was getting a little woozy from being up so high... following our exit she jumped a concrete freeway barrier that was in the parking lot.. Hahaha :)

All I'm going to say about this next part, after getting to the raft ramp but before everyone got there, is that Annika has GUTS!! No joke... She is amazing and will do things I won't even consider, no matter how much there is to gain (in this case it was $30), but don't worry I was rolling on the ground with laughter, as was Bellows. Bre was with Annika, was was also laughing. I don't remember the last time I laughed like that. It was great and hopefully there will be a repeat soon :D

So once we finally got onto the river it was pretty fun. There was one girl that complained the entire way, and Annika and Bellows stole the bail bucket so I couldn't soak them, oh and the stake leader wouldn't let any of us get in the water... but besides that it was a blast. The rapids were not as big as the Grand Canyon, but being there with my best friends made it so much fun. Toward the end I stood up on the front of the boat holding the rope to keep my balance... I stayed up pretty good, til I lost my balance, then I went crashing onto Bre and this other girl... but it was all good.

Favorite Quote:
Thanks for being considerate of the well being of my sanitized hands ~Bre


So these are most of my highlights of girl's camp.
It was a ton of fun and I felt that I made the most out of it...