Of the Rambly Sorts

Greetings fellow readers! I'm off to girls camp and decided that I should probably go out with a bang. Of the rambly sorts. This summer has been going by SOOOO quickly and I'm SUPER excited for the school year to start because there are just so many things going on and some of them are of the secret sort, so I can't really say much, but all I know is that it's going to be a life-changing experience. It'll be incredible. Anyways, I just wanted to start off by saying that last night was chaotic! Everything and packing and getting stuff ready for camp and frantically hurrying and hustling around to make sure that everything's in its proper place. Well, I got a call from Brother Webb (one of my seminary teachers last year) and I'll be perfectly honest, it was kind of weird, but he told me that they were having a meeting for "spectacular seminary students". And then this morning he told us that we were "the best of the best" kind of referring to Men in Black, or something, haha, I wasn't sure because I've never seen that movie. Anyways, pretty exciting that I was on the list right? Well, yeah, there are about 30 of us. Give or take a few, and I'm really excited to see who else is going to be able to have their hand in this. So apparently we're making a video for an "opening assembly" or whatever for seminary and they asked us to share experiences and I'm really excited for the story I told. Hopefully it's what they wanted. It was kind of weird to stare at the camera and talk at it because usually I'm staring at people who's brains are trying to keep up with my mouth. It was just weird. But yeah, anyways, it was really nice to be able to share my testimony about personal revelation and such, so that was really exciting. Also some of the other kids were talking on subjects like temple marriage or missionary work or Joseph Smith since we're studying D&C this year and they wanted me to share my testimony of the Savior and such, but I had to leave. But that's all I can share with you for now :) I'll see what I can do to get a copy of the video to put on here. That would be really cool! I would love to have the video and with the other kids and such. I would love to do more stuff for the video, but again, I had to go because grandpa was waiting for me outside, so yeah, anyways, I'm just really glad that I got to be a part of that. I'm also glad that we get to do this with a bigger group because that means I get to meet more people!!! I'm so stoked about that too. I love meeting and knowing all sorts of people. It makes me feel pretty good about myself and makes me feel all social and outgoing and such. Ha, not that I'm not loud and crazy enough, some of the kids got to experience a bit of that today. Hahaha, poor them.

Okay, well, I was planning on rambling more, BUT I'm afraid I've gotta go and grab my toothbrush and toothpaste and pack that up and head over to the Openshaw's house to catch my ride up to the stake center! AH! We leave in just a little bit! I'm so excited! Do lots of stuff while I'm gone so that you have several stories to tell me when I get back. Especially you boys. I'm gonna need you after being up at girls camp with a bunch of GIRLS (ironic isn't it?). I mean, the female species is entertaining, but only for so long.

Spending a Day at the Lake

For a really long time now, I've imagined (even before I could technically "date"), taking a friend over to grandpa's house and spending time with the family and just laughing and hanging out. Well, at noon yesterday, while I'm at work, Mom tells me that the family's planning on going down to the lake and playing on the jet skis and just hanging out and having fun in the sun and the water. 

To unpopular belief, I'm not a huge water fan. I don't mind going swimming every once in a while in a pool where I know where I can touch and where I can't and where there's lifeguards every ten feet of pool, but at the lake it's a bit different. Well, I wanted to bring Alex with me since we've been wanting to hang out with my family and he's wanted to meet a few of my cousins. So it's now 1 o'clock at work and I'm calling him up to see if he wants to go. He can't. Dang. So I call Kaden up. He's busy that afternoon... Lame. Izak would've been the next call but he's been in Disneyland and didn't get home till late last night. Even more lame. So I went out on a limb and did something I wouldn't normally do and I asked this kid, Tanner, if he wanted to come with. It was a bit of a bolder action than I would normally make, considering I don't know him very well, but you've gotta hang out in order to get to know each other right? Well, he didn't my text in time for us to leave, so I just pushed it aside and figured, "woo... family time... yeah..." Haha, who am I kidding? I was a bit bummed. Well, either way it was still really fun and we had a great time.

Anyways, I jumped off the dock once and felt the mushy mud as I attempted to push myself up to the surface. I couldn't reach. The water was about 6 feet deep where we were messing around and hanging out. Again. Not the best swimmer out there. SO I got out, hoping that I'd urge myself to jump off the dock again. Didn't happen. Two words. Ear ache. STUPID. And then the head ache came. Well, anyways, I ended up falling asleep on my stomach for who knows how long, out in the sun and getting a wicked burn on my back (doesn't happen often) and then woke up and took pictures of Maddi and Nikki jumping off the dock. I got some pretty cool ones too. I was pretty stoked about them. I still am! Haha, anyways, that was my day at the lake. Fun times :)

The Goodness That Boredom Has Brought Me

I can tell you this now, that I've been trying to find other ways to cure my boredom whenever I have free time. Usually I'll write in my book of stuff (journal.. ha) or read my scriptures (not too often, but it happens) or write in my thought book or post a blogpost. But I haven't had many things to post on the blog about, so I decided to hit two birds with one stone because you can't very well come up with many cool blogging ideas while curing your boredom on Facebook. Trust me... I've tried SO I would cure my boredom AND come up with a cool post afterwards. So this is what I have come up with. :)

Ever since I can remember, Dad has always taught us one way that never fails of how to cure boredom during sacrament meeting. When I was little, I remember him making boxes and stuff out of the program and no joke, we thought they were the coolest thing ever. When I turned eight, he learned some other stuff and then we haven't really learned anything since then. He's taught me all his tricks and I've learned how to make them either from him or from the book that he learned them from. Examples of these involve:

THE FROG-

The simplest piece of origami that I have yet to discover. I remember learning this one from a neighbor friend and making hundreds out of lots of different colors and keeping them as pets in an old box. Good stuff.

 THE CUBE-

This is one of the first origami tricks that I learned. For a long time, this was the only thing that Dad knew how to make. It was rather clever and especially when you're like 5, it's the coolest to have one big one and then lots of little ones. It's a special box family! Trust me... when it came to the sacrament program... well, it was all "boxed up" by the end of every meeting.

THE HEART-

I learned this one in sixth grade in social studies. I believe we were talking about factories and each of us had a different step to complete in making the heart. But of course, I still remember how to do all of it. This being one the most compact and simple ones, my scriptures have quite a few in them usually. If you ever need a paper heart, and I've got my scriptures on me, just let me know! 

THE CANDY BOX- 

This one has been my favorite for a long time. It being the most complex, yet fairly simple (only requiring one square sheet of paper) this is the most recent favorite of sacrament. Bre has even begun remembering how to make this one. Sometimes there are certain folds that are still tricky for her, but she manages. And they turn out really, really well. Although we may be 11 and 16, the name of "candy box" never gets shoved aside. We're always making them and hoping that Dad has candy in his suit pocket to fill it up!!!

Now what you're about to see is one that's a bit more complex. It hasn't been the most time consuming attempt at something complicated, but it has been the first time consuming successful one.

THE FIREWORK-
 This one, well, it was A LOT more complex than the simple ones that you see above. Not only does it contain more than one piece of paper... it takes TWELVE to put this baby together. I wish I had time to do a video of the awesomeness of it, but it flips out (like a firework) and these are all the stages that it has and it just repeats itself. I find it absolutely fascinating. LOL. I like it A LOT. Another difference in this one is that it's extremely time consuming. I mean, the ones above took me five minutes all together to make them all just to take pictures of them to put on here, but this firework took me the better part of 2 hours to learn and complete.

When I went up to show Dad he was just as amazed but his first words were "Well, the thing is is how do people come up with this stuff? Do they just fold paper in random ways until it works out for them???" Well, I might have to do some origami history research later, but for now, I don't have the time. I'm supposed to be starting laundry so that I can pack for girls camp because we have to take our stuff up to the church tonight. Ha, and I have to work between now and then. Well, I'm off! Hope you enjoyed the goodness that boredom has brought me!

What A Bit Of Boredom and Some Time Will Do For You

Hello my fellow viewers, (although there aren't many), what you're about to see is really the unthinkable. At the YCL Retreat that we had in April, the stake leaders decided that all the YCL's should have hats that are camoflauge. I thought, "exciting. I'll finish it tonight and be done with it". Not the case. Although I did do most of it there, I will admit that I have spent a bit more than an hour or so working on it at home to get it the length that I want. Let's be honest, you're either gonna love it, or you're gonna be like "why the crap did she do that for? that's laaaaaame." Well, guess what?!?!? It's not lame. You're just jealous because you don't have one! So ha! The people that I've showed it to so far thought it was awesome, so let's hope that it will suffice to everyone's needs and pleasures of pointlessness on my blog :) So here are some pictures to show you!


Oh and by the way, if any of you are wondering, it's approximately 4'2".

The loooooooooooooooongness of it :)

 Really, I think you should be jealous right now...

It could be a sock too. Heehee, or a pant leg for someone that has legs that are four feet and two inches long.... obviously not me... haha (you can ignore my face on this one. not needed... haha)

Outstretched! (obviously, i stretched it out a little bit because it looks cool that way!)

And me just being crazy. As usual :)

 Well, now that you've seen me at my best and craziest, I shall definitely have to let you know how it goes at camp :) Thanks for reading my fellow Facebook peeps!!!

Painting Footprints

There are many ways that feet can be useful. They can but aren't limited to:

• walking
• running
• dancing
• jumping
• balancing
• standing straight
• and never forget painting :)

Today the neighbors and I got together and painted pictures with our hand and foot prints. It was rather exciting, let me tell ya! It was a lot of fun and awesome to just sit out in the sun and have a good time. Thanks to Jamie, we got to use a LOT of different colors and that made it even more exciting! I would definitely recommend this and I think that this would make an AWESOME (and inexpensive, might I add), day date or just any date that could easily lead to a water fight. Sounds fun to me! :)

That last one is a section of my favorite one that I did today. Lots of colors and awesomeness! Gotta love it! And of course, the one with my foot and the paint peeling off just shows how many layers were on my foot. Extremely refreshing when I was able to rinse off with the hose water. <3

Wisdom in Dating

So as most of you know, I had my FIRST date on Saturday (July 10). Another majority of you also know that I got my WISDOM teeth out on Friday (July 9), yes, the day before the date, and had another oral surgery at the same time. Intense right? Yeah, it most definitely was.

This was our AWESOME group and we had a really good time. (From left to right: Brayden, me, Kallie, Alex, Austin and Jenni) We went and saw Toy Story 3. The only regret I had from the movie was sitting in the SECOND row. I was ready to shoot myself, but I made it through and even at the parts that scared me, (yes, that movie had me a bit worried, okay?) and the fact that Brayden was laughing at me the whole time, I still enjoyed it and it was a great time. They also laughed at my frozen water bottle that I used for my face to try and prevent swelling. (Still not too swollen, but you know, it helped....) Helped with the headache too, haha. Besides the stitches coming out of my mouth from laughing so hard, the nasty burnt hot dog and sitting in the second row at the movie theater, the date was pretty much awesome and completely memorable. Can't wait to hit that dating field some more with lots of great friends.

Now for those wisdom teeth. I've been lucky enough to be the healthy child in the family. Don't get me wrong, Bre is really healthy too, in fact she's usually more physically active than I am (which is always good) BUT, I've never been in the hospital as a patient, let alone had a surgery done for... well, anything! So going to the oral surgeons was a bit intimidating, let's be honest. I wasn't the least bit excited, just a little worried. Let me tell you though, the part I was most afraid of was being stabbed by the needle for the IV... haha, I don't even know what I was so worried about. Here's another confession: when they put the anesthetic in me, dude, that was the coolest feeling EVER. My chest got heavy and all I remember before I went out was when I was saying the most random things and I remember them laughing and telling the two people (the surgeon and his helper) that I was glad I could entertain them. Wasn't quite sure if it was my natural sense of humor or my new introduction to drugs that do funny things to you...


One last confession: I've taken more pills this weekend then I have in my ENTIRE life. Lortab is definitely my favorite (and my new best friend, sorry Carly and Izak... hahaha) and it probably always will be because I won't have much else to compare it to. It's helped me sleep and helped me with the pain and it's definitely helped me entertain lots of other people! When I woke up from the surgery, man, it was SOOO weird. My entire mouth was numb and it was fun to watch Dad flinch every time I bit him on accident when he was changing the gauze inside my mouth. HAHAHA, really, it was hilarious (and completely on accident, I swear!!!). And I was totally glad I was somewhat "with it" when I went on my date with Brayden 24 hours after the surgery. I also have a weird recurring fascination with the band-aid on my arm from the IV. Totally made sense when I said it, but totally doesn't anymore. It's quite a bummer...

Just a hint: If you don't want your picture taken or a video recorded of you doped up on anesthetics, hide the memory cards to all electronic devices that have that capability and if they have internal memory, HIDE THE BATTERIES. I did that, and it was fun. Everyone laughed at me when I told them what I did. It was fun for me too. There are a couple downsides to anesthetics and these other drugs too... you are definitely a LOT more emotional, you're a bit more moody and they make you really tired (that also has to do with the surgery and the fact that your body is using all it's energy to try and heal you)... well, anyways, there are my fun facts about my surgery. Most definitely an awesome weekend to make up for a not so fun, miserable, irritating and swollen Monday. 

Stadium of Fire 2010

After a long, hard day at work (haha, it was nothing, psh...) I went home and got ready to go to STADIUM OF FI-YA*! It was fun just to spend the night with the family, see an AMAZING concert and experience, yet again, some awesome fireworks. It was pretty great. I wore red, white and blue (not my favorite color combination... I try to avoid it...) and had a really good time jamming out to Carrie Underwood and listening to The 5 Browns jam out on their pianos to Star Wars. (Dad was pretty excited about that one, not to mention the ginormous Court of Honor.) Here are just some fun pictures and such of the event and funness. Lots of fireworks for sure. Some fireworks that came out in the middle of the field landed in the middle of some people and it was pretty cool to watch even though that was pretty dangerous... haha, I said, "Somebody's gonna get fired tonight..." Haha, probably just an accident and fortunately nobody got hurt, which is a big plus.