just a catch up

wow its been FOR-E-VER since my last blog. (please tell me u got my referance to the sandlot...)
anyway, life certainly has been eventful, despite school being out.
first off was a memorial day performance with my school's theatre troupe. we got by the city to perform patriotic songs as a pre-parade show. i sang Danny Boy, Battle Hymn with a few other girls, and sang and danced to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy with two other girls. it was really fun, but it was one of those wierd, unseasonably hot and humid days. after the performance we had some breakfast and watched the parade, then headed out. although this performance as well as its audience was small, it was a big deal to us because it shows that Street Theatre is finally getting recognized by the city as a public performance group, and not just a school organization!
next was TREK...that was the hardest, horrible-est, and most AMAZING trip i have ever been on. the first day we walked with our handcarts i think 18 miles, which doesnt seem like that much, but when u have had hardly any food and have been walking for over ten hours, and are feeling sick, that is when u truely want to throw in the towel and GO HOME. thankfully once we finally got to camp for that night, there was chicken soup and roles waiting for us. i felt much better...haha. the events that day were the ones that truely gave us the pioneer experiance, so even though they were extremely difficult, beyond anything you can ever imagine, i wouldnt trade that experiance for ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. we had walked for long periods of time, and on one of our breaks was the hardest part of the entire trip: the mormon batallion. my family's wagon was the third from the front, and when we rounded a corner we saw a man in time period military clothes standing in the middle of a field to our right, holding a flag, and another man beside him with a similar appearance. we all parked our carts and gathered around in the grass and listened as the man holding the flag read a letter from the president of the united states (Polk, i think it was at that time). the letter said that he had received the letter from us requesting supplies and other aid. the president's response to our letter of request was for us to send every able bodied man into battle in the war against mexico. in return for their service, they would recieve money that could be used for supplies that we needed. some trade off, right?! the men leave all of us women and our children to push the handcarts by ourselves to go risk their lives, and THEN we will get the help we requested. needless to say, the leader of our company accepted the call to duty and all of our men had to leave. the women however had to continue on the trail. what lie ahead of us was the most difficult hill we had to climb on the entire trip. we had a family prayer then we started on the task at hand. we got a running start and not a few feet later, stopped dead in our tracks and had to exert every ounce of our energy to even move a step further; our running start was only good for so long. we made it past the hardest part of the hill and the men had returned, but they were told to not help us push. i guess they were supposed to see what it was like to see us working so hard and not be able to help. so as the hill again got steeper and steeper, all our men were able to do was cheer us on and encourage us, until FINALLY our pa gave them the ok to jump in and take over. we were only without the men in our family for maybe fifteen minutes, and we had found it extremely difficult, almost impossible!! but the real pioneer women went years without their husbands, fathers and brothers. and some of them never made it back...
besides feeling sick that night, the rest of the trek was a breeze. i even got the curage to help prepare our chicken! one of my brothers from my family chopped the head off, others helped with plucking and skinning it, and i helped by pulling the gizzard out!! yummm...haha!! one of its intestines came stringing out with it and it was a LOVELY sight =] bare hands, bare hands...
the chicken tasted pretty darn good too!!
we did other fun activities like learn a "circle dance" (there was too many of us for it to be a square dance) and it was fun! we also had races, rescued a doll from lava, haha!, decorated leather bookmarks, shot black powder riffles, threw hatchets, made human knots, washed our hair, choreographed a dance to our own, Trek version, to "dont stop believin, and even had time that same day for some family free time! the free time was definatly my favirite activity for that day because my pa is HILLARIOUS (and was also my seminary teacher from sophmore year), and while we were just hanging out and talking, my seminary teacher from freshman year came and joined us, and made our little family time even more of a riot! i LOOOOOVE the family i was put in, there is no doubt in my mind that we were all supposed to be together. there was only one odd-ball in our group, but what is a family without an odd-ball, right? but we all loved him all the same.
the Pony Express paid us a visit, with letters from home. after we got our mail we were given quite a lot of personal time to go off and read our letters, read our scriptires, and just have personal contemplation time. out ther in the woods, i felt the most amazing peace i have ever known. i had a perfect view of the mountian and of beautiful wildflowers that were growing in the field below it. it was so peaceful and quiet there, and i realized how much i appreciate peaceful solitude. not just alone time (which is great too) but time that you can just be off on your own, truely enjoying God's creations and feeling the spirit.
my favorite part of the entire trek was the testimony meetings we had. we had one with all of the families combined, where one person from each individual family was chosen to bear their testimony. that was amazing for me because i was able to listen to the testimony of a friend who had recently converted and baptized about a month ago. in his testimony he had said that he had not bore his testimony since he had been baptised and that after the personal time we had earlier that day, he had hoped that he was the one chosed from his family to bear there's that night. obviously he was and that just shows that Heavenly Father really knows what we need in our lives and he listens when we ask him for it.
so the trek was awesome and i had such and amazing experiance!
what else i have done so far this summer is plan for my play. this year i am directing Disney's Alice in Wonderland Jr. it is going to be AWESOME!!!! i have had a couple meetings with the my children's director/assistant director, and also with my set designer, and i am SOOO excited about the show! the set is the cooooolest EVER!! and we are going to use kids in it of all ages, so this is sure to be a box office HIT!
i have also been hanging out with my friends a lot. most recently was fourth of july when some of us met up at the surprise stadium and joked around a lot and tossed a football around. the fireworks were pretty cool, me and my friend Ray were making comments on how we sounded like all the little kids around who shouted in awe at each exlposion, haha. we also tried to barter our friend brandon off for some cotton candy, which failed...darn it! but i guess keeping brandon is a good thing =] then after inching my way out of the parking lot and back out on to bell, i met kari and mandy at culvers and had me sum fries!!! woot woot!!
next on my agenda is girls camp which is actually tomorrow! after camp i have snowflake to look forward to with tristan, my crazy friend who has been going with me for the past two years. we loooovve going to snowflake mainly for one reasone: small town hot guys. too bad over half of them are my relatives...haha!! i guess they are far enough from my bloodline that it is ok. plus i just like the small town atmosphere. you can walk everywhere, go get some icecream at the local parlor, walk to church, go to the city pool, etc, i just love it all!!!
and i am supposed to go paint my sister's new house sometime this summer with some of my friends...better get on that one, lol.
after that is when i get to help run a theatre camp for my school's troupe, and FINALLY get to audition my show!!!
well if u have been able to stay awake through this extremely long account of my extremely eventful summer, then you know how happy i am that i am not stuck at home all day like in previous years! i guess the fact that i have my licene now helps a bit haha.
ill try to keep my blog updated but that is most likely not going to happen, so if u are REALLY all that interested in my everyday adventures, just check my facebook =]

"almost paradise"

this title comes with two meanings behind it. the first meaning comes from the absolutely fantastic musical FOOTLOOSE, which my high school is putting on this year! this is my first time playing a lead character in a musical. my character is Vi Moore, the reverand's wife and ariel's mother. if you have seen the movie, she has a pretty small role, but in the play, Vi has two songs, one trio with Ethel and Ariel-learning to be silent, and one solo-can you find it in your heart. in addition to these songs, our director Mrs Swinney, decided to give me and the girl who plays Ethel an extra song. one of the girls that auditioned got cast as the lead singer in "cowboy bob's band" but she dropped out as soon as she saw the cast list because she didn't get the part of Rusty...ANYWAY, we needed someone to fill in her spot, so mrs swinney decided that she was going to dress mandy and i up in ridiculous disguises and throw us on stage as the two lead singers! AWESOME! so i difinately think that anyone who reads this should come and see the play! its April 2nd, 3rd and 4th at willow canyon high school. show times are 7:00 all three nights with a matinee on saturday at probably 2:00. tickets are $15 adults, and $10 students with ID/kids. i know it's a lot of money, but all of our plays are very professional and trust me, it will be worth it!!
the 2nd referance that the title held was to our future home. today, my dad and i went out looking at appartments and i fell in love with a complex right across the street from the surprise stadium, where the spring training games are held. yes the floorplan and price is exactly what we were looking for, but what really won me over was the residents. the lady that showed us around told us that some of the major league baseball players that are playing at the stadium actually LIVE at those appartments!! as soon as she said that, i told dad to sign the lease now! they are only there seasonally for training, but i would be in HEAVEN if i could lounge around at the pool, surrounded by professional baseball players cooling off from their big game. WOO HOO!!! "almost paradise!"

christmas tree

WE HAVE A FAKE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! ugh...

thank you aunt april and uncle jordan for giving it to us, but its FAKE!!!!!!

i should be greatful for it, and i am, its just now that our christmas tree is plastic, the holiday season seems a bit more commercial now. ya ya its ALWAYS been commercial because of all the shopping and greed that take over people, but at least the tree was always genuine.

but i guess i have to look at the bright side: no excessive vacuuming and no depressing dead tree to look forward to after new years

a very fun thanksgiving!

this thanksgiving is definately my favorite out of all that ive experianced so far! for actual thanksgiving dinner, i went over to my aunt's house and had the BEST turkey everrrr!!!! it was juicy and DELICIOUS!!! but before we even got to eat it, i spent some time talking with my cousins chris and ryan. its been a while since ive talked to either of them, especially chris, so it was good to see him again. i guess you could say it was kind of akward at first, the three of us just sat on the couch waiting for the "dinner bell" to ring. but chris decided that he was a bit too hungry to wait, so he stole a piece of corn bread and split it with ryan (but u didnt hear it from me). actually it was kind of ridiculous how obvious it was that he stole the bread. he just stood up, walked over and picked up the piece, all without any of the adults noticing...it was prettymuch a thanksgiving day miracle. anyway, after we stuffed ourselves beyond belief, the three of us went upstairs and played some SUPER NINTENDO!!!! we played super mario and it was SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!
the next day, i drove me and my mom and my grandma to jennifer and reed's new house. we had a SECOND thanksgiving day dinner!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!!!! it was amaaaazzzzziiiiiinnnggg!!!!!!! after dinner, me and jayden and emma and elysse all went on a short little walk down the street, then we came back and indulged in some dessert!!! then, when i was upstairs typing this, i hear my mom start yelling from downstairs about how the kids plotted against her then jumped on her. (HHHHHAAAAAAA HHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!) i understand that it hurt her but it was SO FUNNY that they totally plotted against her before they even did it. hayden was whispering to emma, egging her on to jump on her, and once she finally did it, she got yelled at then started crying...sad, but it was REALLY FUNNY!!! (sorry mom...)
good times =]

I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL!

there is no other way to say it: i love high school! ever since i have started going to willow canyon, i have had so many wonderful opportunities! ive gone on 5 hour road trips with sports teams, ive played softball in the SNOW in flagstaff, ive gone to choir festivals in CALIFORNIA and received the highest rating of all the choirs there, ive gone to disneyland and to see WICKED in hollywood with the choir, ive been in 4 musicals and 7 regular shows, had many many laughs at lunch with my friends every day, am earning college credit already, gone to CRAZY FUN dances, learned how to be a good teacher and instructor, choreographed a WHOLE MUSICAL, been in 6 concerts, 3 of which were singing and dancing, became a photographer for my choir, made it into "street theatre" a singing and dancing group in theatre, and many many many other great things!!!!!!!

i feel bad when i find myself wishing that high school were over so that i can get on with my life, because this truely has been the HAPPIEST years of my life! everyone says that after high school, you wish that you could go back and re-live it all over again, and im pretty sure that i will be one of those people =]

a fun halloween!

this halloween turned our to be one of the funnest ive ever experianced, even though i couldnt go trick or treating. i guess im too old for that anyway...darn it. but i think that that is why i had so much fun: because it was different, much different, than what im used to for every halloween

about a week ago, the cast of the play that im in, all decided that we were going to see Brighton Beach together after rehearsals, then after that, go trick or treating. but we soon realized that since Brighton is a full length, two act play, it would be too late for us to go out trick or treating, so we were in need of plans. i was already planning on having about three friends over from the play so that we could rehearse our street theatre (my school's show choir) dance and just go to rehearsals the next morning together. so i offered my house and everyone took up on the offer! it was going to be a fun all girl sleep over (it is an all girl cast). but then i realized that it would be more fun if i invited more people, so i started inviting more and more of my friends, but then things kind of got out of hand. i ended up just telling everyone that was in earshot of the invitation to come, not just the person i was intending to invite. i feel bad when one person is invited and someone else finds out about it who wasnt invited cuz then they'll feel bad, so i prettymuch invited everyone from all three plays that are going on in the troupe right now...woops! ya, i gotta fix that sympathy problem...
so after rehearsals on halloween, me and three of my friends who were working at the show, all tried to get glammed up. i was pretty upset that we couldnt just wear a nice black or white shirt and black skirt or pants, cuz thats what we usually have to wear when we work the shows. but this time, our theatre club president decided that she wants us all to wear our theatre t-shirts and black bottems. IT WAS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!! i was already wearing a REALLY cute black and white layered top, and my friend found a cute black skirt on the costume rack. so i was set! but no, i had to try and make a baggy grey t-shirt and a black skirt look cute together! of course my other two friends looked adorable. they both had pulled black belts from the drawer and they looked all cute and accessorized. they insisted that i wore a belt too, so i did. i didnt look so cutely accessorized, i looked like i was TRYING to be cute and accessorized! but whatever, it looked OK, ill just never wear anything like it ever again!
ANYWAY, so they play went really good, but the whole time, i was wondering how the heck i was going to fit as many people as heard about the party, into my tiny house! there were already three car-fulls of people going to my house, just from the plays! i had NO IDEA how many people were coming that didnt leave with us from the school!
the moment of truth finally arived, and it turned out that only three other people came that didnt come with us! so there was probably about15 people there and it was really fun! we all ate pizza and other random junk, while watching The Others, which was a big hit! people slowly trickled out, and 8 girls stayed the night. after the last guy left, we put in Signs, but we all fell asleep soon after the beginning. it was a surprisingly easy night's sleep though, considering that 6 of us were crammed on the floor and the other two were curled up on either end of the couch!!! but we all had a LONG day, so i guess its not all that strange that we passed out.
so today when we all woke up, we had a breakfast of champions: poptarts, cold pizza, cressaunts, chewy bars, and leftover halloween candy!!! while we feasted, we wathced as much of Signs as we could, but we couldnt finish it. we all had to go to the school for either street theatre rehearsals, or for the work day.
so yes, i had a very eventful, fun, and TIRING halloween night. i think i should make this a tradition!!!

a scarry threat to our suburb

a few days ago in my choir class, our director told us some news that the school administration wanted to keep quiet: there was an incident on campus not too long ago that happened to her son, that deals with a new gang in surprise called "the juggalos". her son is on the football team and while waiting by the locker room, he noticed a kid standing by the gate wearing a white hockey mask. this kid started walking toward him until the head football coach noticed and threatened to kick the kid's u-know-what if he didnt leave the campus ASAP, so the kid turned the other way and left.
it sounds pretty stupid, i know: some kid tried to look all bad and scarry by putting on a hockey mask. but trust me, its much more than that. our director told us that the kid in the mask that approached her son was part of the juggalos, and that if he would have actually reached her son that it couldve gotten violent.
every gang has their signature way of killing, and this one is beyond belief. a member of the gang will walk up to you, completely silent, and just stand there in front of you, and tilt their head to the side, staring at you. they just stand there silent until you say something about it. as soon you say ANYTHING they pull a hatchet out from behind their back and start hacking at your neck! isnt that HORRIBLE!!!!!!?????? i cant believe that people would actually do that kind of thing!!! when i moved out here, there seemed to be no trouble with gangs at all, but every year it gets worse and worse.
the gang traveled here from california and is spread all over arizona now. some of my friends had a personal run in with three juggalos tonight in tempe. our theatre troupe was participating in a fundraiser and awareness project for leukemia and lymphoma called light the night. after collecting money for a few weeks for these diseases, you get to do a walk around tempe town lake along with all the other participants from around the state. they were all having a good time until the end. my friends shelbey and mandy were walking with their group from our theatre troupe when they saw christian and brandie book it past them. they look behind them and saw 3 people wearing ski masks pretty close behind them, so shelbey and mandy sped off to the other side of the street where brandie and christian went! they caught up with another of the groups from our school and they tried to calm them down. they all explained everything about the gang and another girl, laura, said that when she went into the bathroom, she saw a drawing of one of the masked people with a dagger on the wall! they all made it out of tempe just fine but it was still really scarry that they were almost approached by a whole group of them!!!
so im DEFINATELY glad that our choir director decided to not listen to the administration's orders to not tell any of the students. christian and brandie are both in choir as well as theatre, and if our director hadnt told us about the juggalos, then they, as well as the other kids in their group, couldve gotten hurt!!! i can understand why they would want to keep us sheltered, but when the situations out there in our small city concern our LIVES, then we should be informed of whats going on!