Backstage is Dangerous...

Being backstage is so dangerous. I'm the third person (as far as I know) that has had their toe jammed by the door. Yes, it hurt and yes, it's grody so don't look at the picture is you've got a weak stomach! Okay, it's not that gross. It's worse in person, haha. James, I promise I'm okay. No need to worry.

 

Pretty wicked right? Well, that's the risk I make for about 50 bajillion apologetic hugs from James, a rad wound and a McDonalds cheeseburger which I hate to admit as probably the healthiest thing I'm eaten all day... Pretty sad right?

Four More Nights of This...

One thing that I can definitely say that I absolutely NEVER get tired of in showbiz is the friendships that are made and/or strengthened. It's a great feeling and I'm glad that everybody's been warming up to each other. Some of the kids in Productions are still learning my name *cough* James and Amanda *cough* but I pretty much told them they could call me whatever they wanted (within limits). Either way it's a great feeling to know that you're actually starting to belong!

Tonight was our last dress rehearsal for Pippin! We open tomorrow night! It's so exciting!!! I seriously can't wait now that everything's finally pulling together. Obviously we're not perfect yet, but we're almost there. Really, the only downside to tonight was 2 things: 1) I was at school for 15 hours straight and 2) stage make-up... Seriously, I got home, looked in the mirror and thought I was dead or something. It looked good, but it was weird... REALLY weird. I kind of got used to it, but had to get the retarded flowers off of my face. Ugh... 4 more nights of this... Fantastic...

Oh, how it just keeps getting better... *do you hint the sarcasm?*

This morning as my alarm went off and I extended my arm to tap the snooze button again, something occurred to me... maybe I should stay home today... I haven't had a day off in a long time. Even though I knew that if I stayed home I would have to get something academic done, I knew it would be worth it and the 3-4 hours extra sleep. So I called Mom at work and told her that I was staying home and went back to bed. Soon did I realize that I probably should go to rehearsal but the only time that Grandpa could get me there was 12:30 because he had a lunch date with Grandma. That was during lunch, so I just had to go to 4th period. So when I woke up at 11:00, (yes you should be jealous), I started last weeks new episode of NCIS: LA and then started getting ready. So I packed up my stuff (my scriptures... lol) and went off to school. After school, Kallie told me that we didn't have rehearsal. Well, I was excited because I didn't have to be at school for another 3 hours, but that also meant that I had already wasted time on being able to catch the bus and so I had to wander around for a bit. It was quite useful though. I was able to make up the quiz that I had missed in PreCalc that morning and such, so it wasn't totally worthless and is gonna save me a lot of time in the long run. Then I went home and acted as though it had been a completely normal day and did ma homework.. a pain? Yeah... But life goes on *shrugs* Being sick just doesn't help the whole exhaustion problem, but it had to come sooner or later right? Now I just wish that I could be better already...

Chocolate from Mom always makes life easier...

Well, for being sick on Valentine's Day, it wasn't such a bad day. I didn't have to see any guys or feel bad about not getting anything pink, red or purple and let me tell you, it was a pretty good day. This weekend has been good. Not over done whatsoever, but not COMPLETELY boring (we can thank it for landing on a Sunday this year). I got very few gifts but what were given were simple and sentimental and pretty much some of the best blessings you can get, I can definitely tell you that.

1. A nice relaxing day.

2. Gratitude from Izak for the card I made him. 

3. A spiritual inspiration for Amber and her card that I also made.

4. Reeses Cups from Mom (chocolate from Mom always makes life that much easier)

5. A phone call from Alex.

Now all of these five things, let me tell you, aren't the most romantic things you'll ever hear on a V-day, but they were good enough for me and I feel blessed that I can see them and realize the many blessings I have in my life both mentally, physically and being able to be spiritually in tune. That's good enough for me for now :)

...Especially for V-day...

Today I have officially declared that I just might be suffering from chronic sleep deprivation and on top of that, well, stress... gotta love it... (not) Running on only about 4 hours of sleep, I still have homework to do and mutual in between that. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to fit in American Idol tonight. Well, let's see... how have I seen the Lord in my life today? Well, my friends make me happy and I always see His hand in mine through my friends and their gifts to make me happy. Contrary to this is anything that has to do with theater is NOT making me happy right now. Valentine's Day is growing on me this year, yet I'm still refusing to wear red and pink together. Okay, maybe I'm giving in tomorrow because I'm bored... and maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to get enough sleep tonight. Muchly appreciated is the one and only Brandon Bringhurst for the ride home from rehearsal today. He's one of the few people I can stand to be around in that group, none the less probably one of the few that have gotten to know me at all and can stand to be around me. Geez... life's a mess...

Scripture reading is going great and I've got PreCalc and Chemistry homework to do. It's a good feeling. Now I wish I could hang out with Alex, Izak, Kallie, Kaden etc. (those people which I hope you know who I'm referring to... I'm in deep agonizing pain to be with the ones that I love... especially for v-day... but it's not gonna happen) Well, I'm off to do something else that doesn't involve... well... I don't know... I'm just off to start on some homework.

Single Appreciation Day

Today has definitely been a good day. Trying to get in my "journal" entry before homework and then watching American Idol tonight! First week of Hollywood! Fantastic isn't it?

(sudden change) I have the lucky opportunity to have seminary 4th period every other day. I count this as a blessing in my life because it's something that I get to look forward to all the time! Not many people get that feeling of being excited for seminary. Brother Huff is an amazing teacher and the environment is always so fun and spiritual. We definitely have a good time in that class. Today we were talking about how the Lord blesses us in so many ways and how He always has his hands held out to those that need it, we just have to grasp on. All we have to do is believe and have faith that He will help us and He will!

In Alma 19:35-36 it says:  

35 And it came to pass that there were many that did ^abelieve in their words; and as many as did believe were baptized; and they became a righteous people, and they did establish a church among them.

  

36 And thus the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin to pour out his ^aSpirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to ^ball people who will repent and believe on his name. 

So it's pretty much self explanatory.

The best part about today's lesson is that I've realized that I can see His hand in my life every single day that I can remember. He does it through people, friends, family; what we usually don't realize is that it's Him all along and most people fail to see that. 

Since I'm a quote lover, I'm gonna start adding quotes to this thing every time I hear a good one! It's a good thing and this is my Valentine's quote for the year:

Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!  ~Thomas Hood

What I love about this quote and NOT about Valentine's Day is that every day we should be telling the people that we love, that we love them. It's something that we shouldn't wait for a specific time and place to tell somebody. It's one of those things that sometimes NEEDS to be heard whether you're in the mood or not because usually when you get the inspiration to say it, it needs to be said. Even just in friendships, you should always tell your friends how much you appreciate them and how they have blessed your life. I know I do. I wish I could do it a bit more often because I know it always makes me feel special when someone that I'm really close to, tells me that they appreciate and really do need me around. I'm very grateful for that gift that I have to express love for people close to me. AND to add to that, you're not just grateful for somebody's love on that one specific day with all the hearts and pink chocolates and red roses. You're thankful for the love and happiness all the time. (and if not...well,  you've got issues) It's something that we, as human beings, thrive on. We can't survive without knowing that we are loved and needed and wanted by others. So tell somebody that you love them all the time, not just when the pink and red hearts are being flown around by cupid (another stupid symbol: I mean, seriously? A baby with just a diaper on and wings, flying around shooting darts at people? Come on people...!)

Another thing that I have against Valentine's Day is that it shares with SAD (aka: Single's Awareness Day). People who don't have a boy/girlfriend (which I hate both of those words) go around moping that they don't have anybody to love and they're basically sapping around because they don't have somebody to hold hands with or cuddle (eww...). (I'm mainly talking about teenagers here. When you're in your, oh, say, mid-20s then I give you full credit to be sad because I would be too :( ) You have friends all around you to tell you that they love you and they care about you! Personally I would rather have a 20 people tell me how much they care about me, rather than one... Anyways, back on track: kids that are between the ages of 13-19 shouldn't be worried about a so-called "relationship". Now this may just be my religion kicking in here, but I don't know... I'm thankful to be single because I get to meet lots of new people (especially guys :) ) and not feel bad about making friends with somebody and then having somebody that I'm supposedly "with" feel bad because I'm a social person. It's like being trapped from the rest of the world except for one person. I mean, how boring is that? SO I have officially declared February 14th (starting this Sunday) as SAD: Single Appreciation Day. I am thankful to be single and free from that kind of bondage to a person. I mean, I've got really close guy friends, but I won't be tyin' any knots anytime soon so I don't see the purpose, ya know? Hmm... but why does it have to be "SAD". This also bothers me... Teenagers should be ECSTATIC to be single. Why is that so hard to believe? I wonder if we could make anything out of HAPPY or GLAD... Any ideas?

Definition of valentine:  a sweetheart chosen or greeted on this day.

Why have to choose one person to love? Why not have many??? If I had to choose one (and only one) person to love for the rest of my life... I wouldn't be able to decide. And love, as in you care about them and their well-being.

Boys, just a hint of advice, if you want to give me a flower, don't give it to me on a special day (e.g. Valentine's Day, my birthday, Christmas, etc.) I'll still be grateful, but if you really TRULY want brownie points you'll do it some other time when I'm having a bad day or you just want to appreciate me or something lovely like that. And if you do that, I'll also suspect some reading of my blog which is more additional brownie points. Man, this thing is like the key to my heart!

Well, anyways, Happy Single Appreciation Day to you all!

Mornings Like These...

This morning was the perfect and ideal morning of wishing that I went to Mountain View. I mean, I love Timp with all my heart, but when you live so far away from your school, it starts to cause complications when your alarm doesn't go off in the morning. It sucks (to put it so bluntly). Well, after I got to school, I had a better day and I FINALLY finished my actor's homework. (thank goodness) And then I've only got a bit of homework left to do before bed. Fabulous isn't it? Now just to finish memorizing my monologue... (blech)

This week I'm also staying away from reds, pinks and purples mixing... it'll be hard, but I can do it. Resist the temptations!

(insert team here)

Well, it's the start of a brand new week tomorrow and I still have yet to finish my actors' homework. It's terrible and it will have been almost two weeks late and it's hanging over my head. I hate it. I absolutely hate it... HATE is a strong word and it's one of the words at the top of my "Words I Hate" list (yes I noticed the irony in that too) but this is one of the few things that I will not manage, and that is having responsibilities that hang over my head. Normally it's just homework and projects, but sometimes something else comes along (church, extra curricular, and other various responsibilities)

(http://www.usd314.k12.ks.us/5and6/six/levi/Colts.jpg)
Sunday is supposed to be a day of relaxful peace and steadiness, but not in a high schooler's life. It consists of going to church, coming home and jamming homework in that is supposed to be due the following Monday. Also to add to things here, it's Super Bowl Sunday and everybody's bustling around trying to get all the snacks and food ready for kick-off at 4. Shawna just said herself that it's not about football, it's about hanging out with the family. LOL no, it's about the competitive fun and arguing over whether the (insert team here) or the (insert another team here) are gonna win. In this case it would be the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orlean Saints. I'll be cheering for the Colts just in case anybody's wondering and also, only because Maddi is rooting for them and I honestly didn't care until she got me excited for it. It's pretty great stuff. Is anybody else kind of upset with the new Facebook layout? I mean, they change it so often and it pisses me off. It's a pain to find everything and they've moved everything around. It's terrible. Gah! It frustrates me. And just for the record I chose the worst day possible to miss my ward's church block session thingy. It sucked. (Amber, I love you by the way. Hope everything's alright!) Also I missed the Young's baby blessing. Wasn't expecting anything because he was born last Monday! Never have I witnessed somebody blessing their baby the week after they're born! And just watch, Brayden probably went to church with Josh today too... I wouldn't be surprised...

I've also decided that I wasn't in love with "Dear John". I've decided that there were a few parts that gave me warm fuzzies but overall I wasn't too impressed. On a happy note, this week... Well, okay, no, nothing exciting happening this week. My life is dull at the current time. No rehearsals, no fun plans to hang out with friends or anything! Just an epic fail of a week...

Dear Amber...

Dear Amber,
I absolutely love you. Let's hang out more often yes? Go see more movies, talk about how stupid men are, and laugh when we realize that we wouldn't be able to survive without them; sound like a plan? Sounds good enough to me. Thanks for going to the movie with me today too. That's why the title of this blog is "Dear Amber" cause we went and saw "Dear John". Haha get it? Although I'm still unsure about how I felt about the movie itself I still loved going with you. It gave me warn fuzzies that you would even consider hanging out with a 15 year old like me :) Well, today was fun.

Tomorrow should be interesting...

**hint hint**

Man, I hate starting new blog posts. I just want them to be there, if you know what I mean. I don't mind reading them over once they're on there, but hey, there isn't any other way to get them on here unfortunately.

Yesterday was such a fun day. Drama is still as annoying as when somebody stands in front of the TV when you're trying to watch it and it's like a really intense part and they won't move, so you get mad and throw things at them and they laugh in your face... yeah... that's how bad it is.

I have been emotionally and physically draining myself to the core. I'm really and seriously about to die. Not only did I fall asleep (and sleep for the whole time) after I finished the last section of the UBSCT (thank GOODNESS it's OVER) but I haven't felt very good all day. My friends keep me happy though, but I wasn't with them until like... lunch, so, the first half of my day was crappy.

(Okay, so going back to yesterday)
After school we needed to somehow get to Alex's house to do some last minute touch-ups for our solos and  yeah, that was a good time. I've pretty much warmed the hearts of his little brothers by pretending to be interested in the things they were talking about and listening to what they have to say. They're quite entertaining actually. Little Aaron is my favorite though. He's such a stud. He's a good whistler too AND he plays the piano by ear, which I think is the greatest thing ever! He's awesome. I found out that Alex collected Pokémon cards when he was in the second grade (nerd...) and they were fun to look at. Adam went off about videogames while Aaron went off on his tangents. It was crazy stuff. Then we got to the practicing. Haha, anyways, we were laughing, singing and having a good time. I changed into my skirt and then we were off to the school. It was so awesome. I could seriously be with those guys 24/7 and I wouldn't have a problem with it. Hanging out at the school was fun and I could definitely see Alex coming to Timpanogos **hint hint**

Anyways, my solo went great and so did everybody elses and Alex did a great job, even though he messed up a few times.

Tonight we went and saw Kayla in April Ann at the Hale. It was SOOO cute! It was such a good play and I loved absolutely everything about it! Kaden and Kallie helped make it more fun and we had a great time! All the characters were amazing and lovable and it was just a fantastic time. Can't wait to see the next one!!! Luckily tomorrow we don't have school, so Amber and I (and I don't know who else) are going to go and see "Dear John". Wanted to read the book first but, psh, who has time to read anymore? I'll get to it eventually... LOL.

It's my chaos, which is why I choose to accept it!

This past week has been utter CHAOS! But it's my chaos, which is why I choose to accept it. I probably shouldn't be blogging right now because I have so much to do, but hey, what can I say? I'm officially addicted :)

Well, last week felt like it was never going to end. Monday I sent off my first letter to Cass up in Oregon. She said that she received it Friday and I canNOT wait to hear back from her! I love letters! The week was just so slow and boring. Well, finally, Saturday came and I had to work till three and then I went over to Shawna's for Britani to cut my hair. Yeah, I cut a lot off. If you look closely, you can see the difference. (It kind of blends in with my vest thingy)

After being at Shawna's for a bit too long, I went over to Alex's house to hang out with him, Izak, Michael, Kaden and Kallie! Man, I never get tired of hanging out with those guys! They are such a blast! I think the pictures explain enough as is. Heehee :)

Yes, these are four different feet, but they are also only from two people. Haha, Kal and I gave up long ago on trying to match socks.

 

 

Haha, allow me to explain. Alex was trying to get Izak and Kaden to lift sixty pounds while standing up against the wall... of course, he was the only one that could do it. Everybody also arm-wrestled everybody. No doubt about it, I was of course the weakest. Alex wouldn't even try because he said that he was waiting for me to try... and I was...

We also established the fact that I have really small hands. While my ring finger is a 4 1/2, Izak's is a 9, Alex and Kaden couldn't even fit my CTR ring (fit for my ring finger) on their pinkies.

Also, Alex and I attempted to get a picture of the two of us that we've been trying to get for months! Although we had many sad attempts and failed (already knowing we would have to do it a BAJILLION times to get it right) we've already got another scheduled time to try again, and I'll be prepared this time! (let's hope) Here is one of our few sad attempts. Haha! (The thing is, is that Alex looks great in like all of these, but I'm just kind of there. I mean, I'm pretty sure it was the lighting, and yes that does make a huge difference, so we're gonna try my backyard the next time we get together and try in a couple of weeks)

This next one is my favorite, just because it's totally not posed, it's just, "Oh! Let's take a picture really quick".

Haha, sad I know. We're also going to be a bit more eclectic ((my new favorite word, meaning diverse or different)) the next time we get together and try a few different things.

We also found Alex's real laugh. I've heard just about every single one of my friends' real laugh, but his. Trust me, I definitely got a kick out of it. It was absolutely hilarious. I almost died laughing.
Okay, and then these next two pictures are basically the reason why these guys are my favorite and why I hang out with them so much. We can cram on a couch ALL TOGETHER at ONCE! Haha, okay, it's really not that hard. There are only 6 of us, but the craziness and happiness that they bring me keeps me euphoric and the different things that we come up with to keep ourselves occupied also holds many treasured memories!

One with Michael... and then we pushed him off...

And then Little Aaron Blackham jumped on. Haha, I love that kid. The coolest 5 year old I've ever met!

Something else that has also started to help fill up my schedule even more is Pippin! It's going to be a blast, I can already tell! Even after just two rehearsals!

Me, Kallie and Craig

Brandon, Steven, Chase and Chance getting pumped up for rehearsal... a warm-up I guess you could call it.

Haha, and yes, I know this is creepy... but it's Chase and Craig... what else could you expect???

Well, nothing much of anything else is going on. I've got solo/ensemble tomorrow and hopefully I'll get lucky. I shouldn't do too horrible. I've got my song memorized and Alex is playing for me, so we'll have to see how it goes. Lovely, lovely... well, anyways, let's see... I had an orthodontist appointment yesterday... We've found out that my teeth are impacted and so I'm going to be needing my wisdom teeth out soon. (soon as in a couple of months soon) I'm scared and I'm worried but I'm not going to talk about it a lot so if you do end up reading this, I'd rather we not talk about it unless you REALLY want to know what's going to have to happen. And can I just say that I REALLY love the orthodontist? I mean, my teeth are getting to be so happy.. teehee :) but really, they're super nice and I love them all to death!!! It's fantastic.

And one last additional thing... I love seminary! Cute boys and a strong spiritual feeling throughout the whole room! It just does not get any better than that!