Time

As 2011 comes to a close I have a lot to think about. What a year it has been! It consisted of half of my junior and half of my senior year. So many wonderful things have happened! But time is just flying by. It makes me sad and nervous. Mostly because I'm basically WISHING the time away. Like I say, time go faster so this class will be over. Time go faster so this day will be over. Time go faster so it will be Friday. Time go faster so it will be the end of the quarter and I can have a day off school. Time go faster so I can graduate. Time go faster so Scott will be home. Time go faster so I can be done with college and married. Time go faster so I can have kids of my own. Time go faster so I can...die? ...So often I find myself so anxious for the next thing coming that I forget to enjoy the experiences I'm having in the present. It's insane that 2nd quarter is almost over. I've got one more semester of high school left before I really have to be brave. Grow up. Go to college. It's freaking me out.

BUT. Everything is wonderful :) I'm having so much fun with life! My senior year has been incredible so far. This was one of the best marching band seasons Copper Hills has seen in a while. We actually got trophies that we deserved! We worked hard and played hard! (literally hahaha) I grew so close to so many people! Especially my section. I felt so blessed when we were at Red Rocks and I realized that my very best friends in my band WERE my section. Clarinets FTW :) I'm thankful for Anna and Katie. For always being there to laugh with and to have fun at sectionals when no one came. They let me just talk to them whenever I needed. They listened to I don't know HOW many dumb stories about boys. They let me be weird and enjoy long hours of rehearsals. They are the best section leaders ever :) Kaitlyn is so funny and so nice. She was always there to make sure we were being nice to and about people. Riley is our little brother :) He's so cute and he always made me smile. The fact that he is totally in love with Kaitlyn kept us all entertained. Bunnie was always driving people to...the moon :) but when she came she always worked hard. I love that girl a lot :) Everyone else was spectacular as well :) I never thought I'd have a family like the one from my sophomore year. But we did. We became ONE again. :)

This year has brought so many tears and so many smiles. My best friend in the whole wide world, Kolby, made  this year so wonderful :) He has ALWAYS been there for me. We've been through a lot this year. Things that I never knew would bring us closer together did. Even when we broke up for 2 months he was still right there for me. When Jaxen passed away I was having such a hard time and I was super freaked out by it all. Anyway he let me come over and talk to him right before I went to her viewing. He just made everything so much easier for me. He brings me comfort in such hard times. When my good friend Anjelica passed away he was there to let me cry to him. When I became band president he let me go on and on about how excited I was. When Scott left on his mission and all I wanted to do was cry, he was there to hang out with me and make me feel better. He's there to miss Scott with me. He lets me talk about the things  we write in our letters. hahaa When I am bored he lets me hang out with him and makes me laugh. :) I guess it's just good to have a friend like him :) He's so sweet. He cares so much about me and always makes me smile. :)
In May right before school ended I got a call from President Parker saying he wanted to meet with me. I was nervous...but that's because I knew exactly what he wanted to talk about. I went to the Stake Center with my parents that night and he extended the most wonderful calling to me. I was to serve on Seminary Council for the 2011-2012 school year. That was a huge and incredible blessing. My dear friend Kara was currently on it and I felt so grateful I had someone to look to for advice and comfort in hard times. Serving on SemCo has been such a blessing in my life. First of all, I have 11 of the best friends a girl could ever ask for. People I was once very close to I am able to talk to again. People I never knew before now are some of my greatest friends. Second, I get to SERVE people! It's amazing! And the best part about that is it's mostly silent service. It's behind the scenes stuff I get to do...Like glue sticks to an ark or think of ways to challenge the seminary students. I'm extremely shy and it's nice to be able to do things without having my face plastered all over the school. I love reading conference talks and trying to apply them to me. I love getting more out of class than I have before because I feel I need to be on my best behavior and be a good example to others. I was having a hard time at the beginning of the year because it's like EVERYONE is watching me. Everyone is judging my every move to see if I do something wrong. And when I do they love to remind me that a "perfect little seminary council kid" shouldn't do things like that. I was so frustrated and I hated the mocking. I spent so much time worrying about it and being angry at people who weren't perfect either. I talked to some friends and mostly my Heavenly Father and they helped me see that I need to just TRY harder to be a better example. Don't give people a reason to call me out on things. Plus, I can kindly remind them that everyone is here to learn and that I was trying my best to be good. That's all I can do, right? :)

My parents are the best, by the way :) They've taken me on so many cool vacations in my life- specifically this year. I got to go to Mt. Rushmore! My whole life I thought that would be so so boring but it wasn't! It was incredible and I learned so much about my country. I realized how important America is. I'm so thankful to have been born here in this free land. I know people say all the time how awful it is here...but I love it. I think every nation has its faults. But this is MY country. And I'm completely in love with it :)

I'm also glad that this year I got to spend so much time with my sisters. We have so much fun together! We love to shop and spend gift cards :) and laugh and watch food network together. It's the best :) THEY are the best!

My brother is so fun to live with. I like being in the basement with him. I don't get to see him all that much  because our schedules are so conflicting but when I do he's funny and he always does nice things for me. He saves my life when I need gas or a jump in my car battery. He's quite the handyman :) I love to watch tv with him. Teen Mom is our fav ;) haha he's just awesome.

I really have loved 2011 so much. My odd numbered years always seem to be the best ones :P I had a lot of favorite days. I'm so glad I have a family and friends that love me for who I am. They let me speak my mind and be my weird self. :)

As much as I hate to see 2011 end, I'm stoked for 2012! This is MY year! Class of 2012! :) I can't wait to see what happens and enjoy the adventure of graduating and moving on to college..... haha I'm scared but it's going to be awesome! :)

Accomplishments:
Got my license!
Passed Math 1050
Got a 4.0
Finished personal progress...again :)
Read my scriptures *almost* every day
Kissed that one boy ;)
Got a 1- at state with my clarinet choir!
Made new friends
Actually snail-mailed a letter...or a few ;)
Spent time with family :)
Made it to my one year anniversary with my babe :)
Survived Trek
Learned how to wait for things
Performed by BEST SHOW every competition
Actually memorized and remembered all of my sets during one week of band camp
Learned how to be a leader (still working on it but it's improved a lot :))
Take time to be thankful for things every day
Got accepted to the University of Utah
Texted lots ;)
Got a blog! :)
and more!

Here's to 2012 :)

Nerd Life Is Better Than Real Life

Last night was our annual Christmas Band Concert :) I love the Christmas concert! It's always my favorite! Our music isn't always perfect, but it's super fun to play! Plus I actually enjoy watching it :P Anyway since I am the president of the geeks...I spend the entire day running around like a madman getting everything ready, worrying that Mr. Simpson's heart will keep beating through all the stress, and making sure I solve everyone else's problems as well as my own. Oh and I must do all of this while pretending I have absolutely everything under control. THEN I get to hope I haven't been killed before I am able to perform. Fun, right? Oh yes. OHH yes.

The day began with me sitting in Music 1010 trying to stay awake and warm.

Fun fact: the choir room is ALWAYS freezing.  Because of this Ms. Richardson keeps a pile of folded blankets in the corner of her room for children to use in situations such as the of loss of feeling in their hands and feet. So basically I was wrapped up in a Star Wars/Little Mermaid blanket like a freaking burrito. Cute.

Back to what I was talking about- Ms. Richardson tried to mix things up and make the class more interesting by not turning on the projector and cutting up pieces she had printed out from the online textbook and having us read them. My only theory explaining the odd behavior is that the guy who actually teaches this class at SLCC was there observing her. Hmm. Teachers tend to do weird crap when they are being watched by someone who matters. hahaha.

After the conclusion of Music 1010 I went to my safe haven and second home- the band room. I love the band room so very very much. I basically live there. I have everything I'd ever need for survival in my locker :)

Exhibit A- My Locker :)

I guess most normal kids just keep their instrument in their lockers but I just have so much stuff that I have to keep it all in there. People often come read my quotes and comics that I have taped to the door. And I never, ever lock the thing. It's just a pain to open it every time I need some lotion or a snack. hahaha. Not many clarinet players can get away with having a big locker. "Being me has it's advantages." :)
NAME THAT MOVIE!

How do you spell distracted? k a r a space t r y i n g space t o space b l o g.

Back to what I was talking about...again...Mr. Simpson had scheduled a combined rehearsal with everyone performing in the the concert for 6th and 7th periods. My 6th is normally symphonic band so I didn't miss that but I got out of going to English for 7th! Yay!! :)
Concert and symphonic bands set up on the stage to practice our combined numbers. *Meanwhile Kristianna is dying in the instrument storage room. Poor girl ): We ran our two pieces and then I was worried and bored so I left the stage and went to check on Anna. She looked like she was going to die! I felt so bad for her! Then all of the sudden she got up and ran to the garbage can...so I got her the hair tie off my keys (out of my unlocked locker of wonder!) (now do you know why I don't lock it? :)) and let her put her hair up in case she threw up. Anyway long story short she felt terrible and decided to call her mom to check her out so she could go home and rest and try to feel better for the concert that night. After being the best friend in the whole wide world... ;)....I went back to the stage and continued playing until my fingers almost fell off.
Rehearsal ended and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. We were on a whacked out schedule because there was going to be an assembly at the end of the day so I had no idea what lunch was happening or if I'd have someone to sit with. But I was so hungry that I didn't care and I basically ran there like a 7th grader and got my yummy food. Mitch came and sat with me :) He's a little alto sax player who I became friends with last marching band season. OH- and he can lick his elbow ;)

Mich when he was young :)

When I was done eating I went back to the band room and watched Kara E and Cody practice for their special number :) I love those kids! They graduated last year and it was good to see them again! They spent most of the time trying to get me to go to college where they go. Hahaha it was great :)
The assembly was fantastic :) We ended up raising $24,213.04 for sub for Santa! I was so happy! We didn't reach our goal of 25K but that's pretty close and really exciting! :)
After school got out I went home and got ready for the concert! I decided to wear my under armour and basketball shorts with my concert black top so that when I was running around getting stuff ready I wouldn't be tripping over my stupid skirt :P When I got to the school Simpson told me he needed to go home and put his tux on and that I was supposed to get the programs and put them by the door. He never told me WHERE the programs were though...haha "This is a problem..." I thought to myself, "But never fear! The band president is here! And I can do anything!" noope. The dumb programs were nowhere to be found. I knew there were some in the choir room leftover from their concert the night before so I snuck in there and stole the box! Muahahahah!!! Then I stole the little table from the lunch line and set the box on it. I was nervous because it looked like crap and we definitely needed more programs....Luckily Simpson came back and told me where they were and I put them out. WHEW. :)
The next dilemma after that was trying to find outfits for everyone to wear. DUH. Like if you wake up the morning of a concert and you KNOW that you don't have a dress, wouldn't you try to fix that problem sooner than 43 minutes before you perform? Seriously. Well thanks again to the choir, girls were able to borrow dresses from their friends and everything was great! Cept I was extremely nervous and stressed... until... :)

^Contrabass
Clarinet :)

My Pretty Necklaces :)

This life-saving angel called the contrabass clarinet player came and talked to me. I was sitting on a chair in the middle of the band room just breathing and trying to stay alive when he came up to me and said, "I like your necklace." Now, I was wearing my medallion and NO boy in the universe younger than 37 has ever said those exact words to me. So it totally made me glow :) Plus he high-fived me and said I was amazing when I told him I had two of them... :) I like when boys know the importance of it. It's not just a necklace. It's an award I worked very hard to get and it made me happy to have a cute boy notice it. :) So then he just started to ask me questions about myself and we talked about random things and he smiled and made me feel so calm. Like, it was as if all the sick children in the world had been healed!
NAME THAT SHOW! :)
But seriously! It probably saved my life and the lives of a few others! hahaha
After that I don't remember anything bad happening! Everything went great! None of the songs crashed and burned, we had a big audience, we made quite a bit of money for sub for Santa, and it was just an all around great night! :) I love my band! I'm so glad they all worked hard and played their best! :) :)
I'm very thankful my whole family was there to see me! They are the best family in the whole dang world :) They've always been so supportive of me. Especially my parents. They go to all of my marching band competitions and are always there to cheer me on :)
I can't believe that my senior year is almost half over. The time is just flying by! But I'm loving every minute of it :)

Until next time!
Adieu.

This makes me laugh. :)




















P.S. Happy Birthday to my favorite Brother-in-Law Shane! :)

Paint Smocks & Fiery Serpents

Before I begin this post I would like to give you some background information! 1-This year in seminary we are studying the Old Testament. 2- Challenger is a private school where people pay lots and lots of money for their children, grades pre-preschool to 8, to go and get a quality education. My mother is headmaster (legit.) of the West Jordan campus and my sister is a preschool teacher (also legit.) at the Sandy campus. 3- A "paint smock" is something that students from the above school wear while painting so they don't ruin their clothes! And on that note, let us begin.
Today in seminary we were talking about the children of Israel. It just so happens that they needed to learn a lesson so God sent fiery serpents (poisonous snakes) down to their land. As you probably know, being bit by a poisonous snake is not exactly...awesome. So Moses's (grrr!) (*see previous post) people went to him and asked if he could do anything to help them live when they were bitten by the snakes. Moses went to God and asked him what he could do for his people. The Lord then instructed Moses to make a stick with the head of a snake on it. This stick would heal those people who had been bitten if they would just look at it. Seems simple, right? You get bitten by a snake, you look up at the stick, and you are healed. Well for whatever reason some of the people didn't believe it would work and refused to just LOOK at the stick. They probably thought it was too simple. Or that it wouldn't heal them. But indeed it did! Looking as they had been instructed was what would keep the infected people from dying.

For visual aide :)

Brother Johnson (my excellent teacher) talked to us about how we can relate to this story. The way to get rid of the "venom of the snakes" or the evils of the world is just to simply "look" to Christ.  Simple, correct? But IS it? I think often we read these stories from so long ago in the Bible and think, "Duh. Why would people be so dumb?" because everything that happened to them was literal. We don't think to relate it to us in a spiritual sort of way. When I read this story I kind of thought to myself, "what simple things am I refusing to do that are very simple and could perhaps save my life?" Today's lesson was quite thought-provoking. Anyway, I'm very thankful that I have such a wonderful place to learn the Gospel. Seminary is my favorite :)


I have a feeling that this is going to be a supppper long post. Awesome! Chantel needs something to do while she's off work and her poor little sisters are a school "learning".
):

After school got out I came home and my mom was here! She's usually not home when I get home because she works like, all the time. Anyway, every 4 months my mom and her secretaries have to clean all of the toys and wash the dress-up clothes and the paint smocks from all the classrooms. The person who washes the smocks gets paid like 70 dollars to do so...and that's usually me! :)
So my mom and I talked and decided today was the day to wash! I drove over to Challenger and picked up the smocks. Then I went to Smith's to get 2 rolls of quarters. Hahahaha. So I went over to the customer service desk and I felt so stupid. All I knew is that I had 20 dollars that needed to be turned into quarters :P I walked up to the lady and she kindly gave me what I needed and then I left. Little did I know that it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to turn left on to redwood road without a light. So I sat and waited and waited and waited until I became so impatient that I just zoomed over into the middle lane and waited until I could pull into traffic. That was extremely scary. I hate driving. And I'm certainly not good at it! haha! :) So thankfully I finally made it to the laundromat...in one piece :)
I pulled into the parking lot and helped my mom unload her car and we began washing. So then my mom decided she needed to go to the D.I. to drop off some donations. Since it's right across the street I thought, okay she'll be back soon, right? WRONG! I was left to die all by myself in the ghetto-est laundromat this side of Mississippi. I had to manage like 30598million loads of laundry all by myself and try to find enough dryers for all of them while trying to stay alive and not look like an idiot. Plus, I know absolutely NOTHING about laundromat etiquette. Is that even a real thing? I suppose so because some lady that had like 15 kids kept giving me dirty looks cause I guess I was just doing something that was completely NOT okay with manners of a laundromat. What. Ever.
Thankfully a nice lady was like, "here you can use this rolly cart to help you!" and I am eternally grateful for that woman for saving my laundry life! haha :)

Needless to say- It was NOTHING like this.

Anyway my mom never came back. And it was starting to get dark. And there was like a rotation of laundry people so I wasn't there with too many familiar faces. D: My last load was finally dry at about 5:45 so I was able to get the heck out of that dang place and go wash my hands!
But then I remembered... I had to drive home. BOO. So I again about killed myself turning left on to some unknown road and had a cop behind me for like 17 hours. I was just praying I wouldn't do anything wrong and get arrested and end up in jail just cause I was trying to make a few bucks washing some kid's painting outfit.

note: these children do NOT have the luxury of a paint smock

All I know is one of these students BETTER end up a famous artist or I'ma be REAL mad. hahaha just kidding. Kind of.
All in all it's been a pretty lamely exciting day.
Hannah is sooo much more stretchy than me. And she can actually focus while we do yoga in aerobics. I just look at my watch and try to make the class go by faster. :)
Tomorrow is my Christmas band concert. Pretty freaking excited!! We have rehearsal allll day which means no English for Kara!! *snaps from Eva
Adieu.



Kitty time. :)

A Dog, a Hamster, and a Swimming Pool

Yesterday I went to the ever famous Boswell Family Christmas Party! That's my mom's side of the family. :) We went up to my grandparents's's's's's (words that end in S are stupid) cabin and had a jolly good time. Now, since they wanted to have the party on Sunday, I had to miss church. I hate missing church. I feel like I missed out on something great every time I don't go. Hahah I'm a freak...Well I guess I took one for the team and went to the party despite my deep desires to go talk to Elise about her life :) Anyway- They had the cabin decorated so cute! The whole place looked like a winter wonderland :) We ate food and took naps and had a wonderful reenactment of the nativity. And when I say wonderful I mean Kara singlehandedly told then entire story in about 14 seconds while all of her cousins held their little ceramic people/animals and complained about how badly they didn't want to participate. Now doesn't that sound FUN?! :) Well it was! Then my grandma gave us our presents! She made all of the grand kids their very own quilt. Mine is pretty much adorable! I got to help make it earlier this year :) After that we ate more food and packed up our car and headed home.

My sister Chantel stayed at our house and watched the season finale of Next Iron Chef. This is pretty much the best show on television...ever. Who knew food could be so intense!? Anyway our favorite guy won, Geoffrey Zakarian! :) He may be old but I think he's a babe ;) ahaha :) He totally beat the lady on the right!!! I don't like her :P

Since Jordan School District is LAME I had school today. And since my teachers want to "make the most of our time at school while we should be at home eating ourselves into a coma" they are keeping me very busy. Music 1010 was just as exciting as ever! *note the sarcasm. We listened to some music written a long time ago by people who are now dead and it was extremely hard to stay awake. Don't get me wrong- I love music! But having a class at 8 a.m. where all you do is learn music history and listen to music, it is nearly impossible to stay awake. Plus there are 6 kids in the class so that really adds to the excitement!

In band Mr. Simpson was locked in his office until the period was half over so our dearest Layson led us in something I like to call "pull out whatever the heck you can find in your folder and we'll play it" while we waited for out teacher. On the bright side, Anna (my best friend and section leader) helped me with high fingerings and got mad at me for not asking about that months ago when we got our music. Luckily she forgave me and let me live another day ;)
English was filled with lots and lots of writing until my hand almost fell off. Seriously Mr. Olpin- we do absolutely NOTHING for an entire quarter and then today you tell us that we have to turn in a bunch of crap? Well since I'm such a fantastic student I had most of my work already done...I only had to read one chapter and write an essay. Being on task FTW! ha :)
And now it is time for music composition. Oh how I loathe music composition. You know, I took this class because I wanted to get my emphasis in Instrumental Music. Well turns out no one cares if you wear a purple cord at graduation or not so I could have saved myself the trouble and just taken ballroom or ceramics like everyone else. BOO. Anyway Ms. Richardson decided it would be fun to have us copy the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah books and transfer it into finale (a music writing computer program pronounced fin-AL-eee...aka I hate you Kara why do you even try to write music because you suck). Yeah. This assignment is stupid. With a capital stupid. So I'm blogging instead. Ha! I told myself if I got through 30 measures of it I could blog. TAKE THAT MR. GEORGE F. HANDEL! :) Oh dear. I'm ranting. Something I told myself I would never do on my blog. Well whatever this is for me right? :)
The bell. The beautiful bell just rang! I can go home and watch Chopped with my sister now. Yay!

Adieu.

Oh look- a puppy :)

World's Newest Blogger :)

So...I've been blog-stalking (yes, it's a real thing) a few of my friends for a while and they've inspired me to have my own blog! So today during 2nd period I went ahead and made myself one! :) I'm not quite sure if I'll ever have any followers but it'll be nice to have a place to write down thoughts or feelings I have. So here's to my new hobby- Blogging. :)