Happy Thanksgiving

Whoo this month has gone in a flash. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we were able to stay home. While we had the traditional thanksgiving dinner, there was an element of simplicity of this years annual feast. Today we went to the care center where my gradfather stays. He has Alzheimers and cannot remember who we are and cannot feed himself so either my dad, uncle and grandma go to feed him lunch. After we fed him my brother and I played an intense game of scrud, a sort of pool variation where the goal is to keep the eight ball moving and use the other ball to hit it. It is a lot like tornado or horse in basketball where whenever you let the ball stop or it goes into a pocket, you get a letter. Once you spell out scrud you lose...duh duh dunnnn! So obivouly my brother beat me in almost all rounds...emphasis on almost...but then we went to a local Navajo diner, and we had navajo tacos etc. After that we went to my grandma's house and watched 17 Miracles....if you have not seen it go see it, where I, of course, balled my eyes out. We returned home and now we are here and I am typing this for entertaiment...YAY!!!

My Dramatic Enterance to the Deaf Ward

     So today, my mom and I went to the deaf ward that is in our neighborhood, and we watched the primary children do their primary program. I learned a lot of new signs that is used in the ward/church language. After the Sacrament Meeting, we talked to a brother in the ward and asked where you can learn sign easily. He recomended that we go to the comunity college in our city. While we were talking to the man, I reached down to grab my scripture when...(dramatic music cue now...) I lost my balance and fell. Apparently everyone around us saw me fall and jumped, and my mom looked over to see only my empty shoes where I was standing only moments before. As we were walking out another brother in the ward asked if I was okay, and when I confirmed that I was fine, he replied with kind of a cheesy grin that he knows CPR. Need I remind you that this converstation was in pigeon signed english? Of course I could understand some of the signs, but most of the time they were too quick to catch...except the CPR bit. On the way home my mom and I laughed the whole way home about my clumsiness, and how much I tend to drop things and fall over.( sometimes I even fall on somebody else, and my friends never let it go...sigh...Yesterday I went to a local university and when I fell again, I ended up in a guy in my class's lap... and now my friends are convinced that "I fell for him"...I swear that it wasn't on purpose....but he was kinda cute...:0) ) All I need to say in my introduction to other is three facts:
1. I don't understand a lot of ASL
2. I am clumsy...
3. Did I mention that because of my clumsiness I am a great source of entertainmant for others?
Well we will have to see what else will happen today and in the very near future...

Wow it been quite a long time...

     So today I went to a science fair at a local universtiy for those who were interested in science...which I am. I loved today...it was so much fun to hang out with all of my AP Chemistry class, and when I mean all of my class, I mean all of my Class. We seriously have like only 5 people in my class. I was pleasently suprised when all of us were in the same semiars. The different seminars that I went to were the Computer Aided Drug Design, Genomics, and other possible pathways with science. There were about 850 people there today, and we all went for a campus tour. Overall this day was so much fun, and I would like to do it again next year.

My Fun Trip Around Town...Taking Pictures...

     So today my dad and I went over to the trax station and took pictures of the train coming. I also took pictures of cars and later went to the dog park to take even more pictures. I am taking a photography class and my assignment this weekend was of motion and action. So the train was an example of motion action, the cars were an example of pan action and the dogs at the park was another example of stop action. Below are some of my aboslute favorite pictures that I took today...Hope you enjoy.



For some reason red just seems to show
up better...



TRAINS!!!!!





This was at the dog park...and my personal
favorite



Just another random picture of yours
truly



This little girl was soooooo cute!!!!!





Not much going on...just lots of homework

I don't know about you but this last couple of weeks have flown by! I wanted to apologize for not posting for quite some time...I still have tons of homework, and I still am liking school. Well there is not a lot more I can say for now, hopefully I can come back later and update...

Well Hasn't It Been a Long TIme?

     Today was one of my friend's birthday. So a bunch of my friends and I went over to her house to watch Tron and eat ice cream. I has been a good day that I can remember. I have such a great group of friends. Such a strength there is when you are around friends who lift you up when you're down, and who help you be the best you can be. I love having a small group of friends around me. Granted I do have a lot of friends or what you would call aquatainces and people who you smile at when you see them, but I think that having a small group of friends is more beneficial than have a lot of friends that you don't confide in,. It is great to have confidantes to trust in that you can definatly count on to be there for you.

I am ready for this day to roll onward....I am Ready

      So I am ready to get going on the day. I have already taken a test and am finally fully awake. Hopefully I can get some sleep...So next week we have a Date Night for laurels and we were supposed to ask someone to the activity. So, does anyone have any ideas that I could use to ask a certain someone? (probably my brother or something) I kind of want it to be casual, but I want him to think a little bit to find what I am really asking. So anyone, anyone...now would be a good time to respond to me...

I Have A Cold...Ya Know What I Mean?

     So over the week, I have been suffering through a beginning-of-the-school-year-cold, and I am miserable. I had a runny nose all day, and have a sore throat. Overall there is a time of year that always get you when you start school again. I am tired, have a sinus headache that won't go away. Again there is a lot going on.hopefully I can get over this cold soon because I am getting really annoyed.

Zuccini Bread Anyone?

     I was just wondering if anyone has a really good zuccini bread recipe for me. A family in our ward gave us two huge zuccinis and cucumbers each. I have been taking cucumbers for lunch with me, but I don't know what to do with those darn zuccinis sitting on the counter by the window. So here is the question...Does anyone have any recipies for zuccini like zuccini bread or stir fry etc.? Thank you!!!!

Well, I am At School... Doing Nothing...Waiting for the Morning Bell to Ring

     So here I am, at school, waiting for the bell to ring. Of course there is other things that I could be doing, so I decided to answer the call for more blog posts. Well here it is...I love school, but I am swamped with everything that I have to do, so I will make this brief. My favorite classes is Seminary, of course, who doesn't like it? I also like AP Chemistry, but I have the most homework from that class. I have other AP classes, and I am nervous/scared-to-death for the test. I hope to be able to post more soon, maybe later on today, but I will need to get back to my English homework right now...

Sunday Afternoon, Well Whatdaya Know?

      So I am going out to the middle of nowhere tomarrow with my lovely family and buffalo...stuffed buffalo that is...for our family outing for the Labor Day holiday. Hopefully I can get all of my homework done in time for the test on the History chapter I was supposed to read this last week...and well we'll see how that goes. I learned how to do a couple of signs from my ASL class. I like it so far, but it has been a busy week at school, and my mind is going blank so I will just continue on with another subject...SWIMMING! In case you didn't know I am a swimmer...competatively that is...and  I have been on my High School's Swim Team. To answer the question of will I swim  next year the answer is, sorta. I know that is not direct, but with my busy schedual I probably will not be able to do it this year. I will, however, not neglect my swimming skillz yes with a "z", and swim on my own. Well that's all folks! Hope you have a good Sunday!

It's the Weekend, and I Plan to Enjoy It

      Yay! It's the weekend and I am so excited to sleep in. Yay! Good news there is only 174 day of school left over...okay that's a lot, but again like I said there is a lot of good things going on this week. I look forward to my bed...which reminds me that I need to get to bed at a good time tonight....goodnight!

Math Notes...Sounds Fun Right???

     So I have been extremely busy these last couple of days, so I probably won't be able to post everyday(ahem) not that I do anyway...Anyway, what up these last couple of days? Well let me tell you....overthelastcoupleofdaysIwassuprisedtoseethatIactuallyhadhomeworkonthefirstcoupleofdaysandIhave
beendoingthehomework.ThebestthingaboutyesterdayandtodaywasthatIfinallygottogotoallofmyclasseswithouthavingto
refertomyschedualalotofthetime. So as you can see yesterday and today were all in a rush...I have gotten a lot of homework from my AP Chemistry and AP US History classes. Well naturally there are going to be substantially more homework than last year, and funnily enough my English teacher reminds me of my grandpa with a huge sense of humor. Yes, humor. We're reading the Scarlet Letter in English and we were acting it out. Unfortunately no girls in the class volunteered to be Hester Prynne. If you don't know what I am talking about I suggest that you read the Scarlet Letter...just skip the 35 page long introduction. Anyway, it was haiarious because he was telling the boy that was "Hester" to," Glide, James, glide...no no no you're doing it wrong...can we get a girl to do this?...No? Well, I guess that I will do it myself...(audible sigh)" I love this teacher but he scares me to death. We'll have to see how this year will turn out. For now, over and out. Ooh I found out how to take math notes finally today in class. Amazing yes?

School Is On the Horizon...Okay, Maybe Closer Than I Expected...

     Tomarrow is the first day of school. I am honestly terrified, and excited. In this next year I will be taking a lot of different classes. Some of them are advanced and some of them are general classes such as computer technology and financial litereracy. I am still estatic to do these classes. I am excited for this school year.

The Rush to a Decision

     Yesterday, about 5:00 P.M. I got a phone call from a school that is and Early College High School. I had applied for this school last spring, but was put on their waiting list as number 21. I, since then, have given up hope to go there, and, instead, planned to go to my local High School. Unbeknownst to me three people had dropped out of the school, and I was offered a position at this new High School. I had a hard time deciding which school to go to and I ended up deciding, after a lot of praying and pondering, that I would be going to my local High School. I felt that there were more con's to the accelerated High School than there was for the other High School. There it is folks...my adventures for the day...yesterday. Now I am just excited for school to begin.

Complete and Utter Success!!!!!

     I don't know about you, but I am seriously happy that summer is almost over and that I have finished all of my summer homework! Completely! Anyway, I have over the last couple of days been fretting about taking a quiz online for a chapter in my History book. Unfortunately I have not been able to access the quiz and the error page said," This page has reached it's usage limit. Please contact the person who gave this quiz out." I was freaking out about this. I didn't know what to do, so I emailed my teacher. The next day he replied, "Don't worry about the quiz. We'll talk about this when school starts. I have religiously taken notes and I remember that John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a cash crop, and that Lord Baltimore I's name was actually George Calvert. Yes, I am a complete weirdo to write down those evil things that no one has been able to do successfully in their classes. I have a new goal...do you want to hear it...Of course you do! I want to write down those evil things called notes in my AP US History and AP Chemistry and Honors English and my Pr-Calculus classes. I want to be able to remember the lessons for the day. I am so excited for this school year. I want to do as well as I did this last year. Anyway I have been able to finish all of my homework and now I need to go decorate my binders for the core classes...

Yaaawn! I am Finally Home!

     Yes I am finally home from my trip. This trip with my family was so much fun, I couldn't believe it.
Let me give you, in a nutshell, what we did!

• Friday- Packed like crazy and loaded all of it into the small Ford F-150 with a shell.
• Saturday- Bought ice and loaded the final things, like the small laptop computer and then we went to McDonald's for breakfast...I know totally fast food...BUT we were out of the house by 9:30 in the morning! Drove for a long time through Idaho and into Montana to get to West Yellowstone, where we stayed overnight at a KOA for three days...and set up camp.
• Sunday- we went into the park and visited all of the northern attractions such as Mammoth Hot Springs and went to the bubbling mud pots and other fun sites. We returned to West Yellowstone about 7:00 where we went to Buckaroo Bills BBQ House...I was really good. When we got back to camp we showered and sat around the campfire until bedtime
• Monday- We did the lower loop of Yellowstone and went and saw the Artists Paint Pots and several sulfur geysers, and not to mention Old Faithful. Later on we went to the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake where Bryan tried to fish and I stuck my feet in the water. We went back to West Yellowstone about 5:00 and went to a cute little cafe called the Geyser Grill. My brother and I went swimming in the icy cold swimming pool that the KOA had until we decided to get into the hot tub, then realized that we needed to be back at the campsite in 10 minutes so I left to go shower and Bryan went back to the campsite. Then we had s'mores and went to bed.
• Tuesday- The last day of Yellowstone. We went to the upper and lower falls and the observation points, and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and then went out the east exit of Yellowstone. Our destination Powell. A small town where we had the best food and Chicken Noodle Soup that I ever had. (Go to Hansel and Gretles if you're interested...) and stayed in a small old and well kept hotel. There we stayed for one night, and then went to Sheridan where we would have stayed at a KOA but we decided to go sleep in some real beds and went to Days Inn Hotel instead. I do have to say that it was totally worth it. On the way we went to see the Indian Medicine wheel. It was really interesting to see that the Native Americans still treat it as a sacred place and use prayer offerings of tobacco and prayer cloths. It was really cool.
• Wednesday-This day was a museums day. We went to a lot of museums and then went back to Day's Inn, and went to sleep.
• Thursday-We went to Custer's Last Stand Hill and memorial and went on a little tour of the national park. It was really interesting, although I am not a big fan of Custer. 
• Friday- We traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota, and saw some more museums there. We stayed at a Super 8 Motel and nearly died of heat...
• Saturday- We toured the famous monuments of Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. The difference between the two? Mt. Rushmore was completed a while back and a government funded project. Crazy Horse is a working progress and funded by only donations of the visitors of the park. Construction is still led by the Zilokowski sons when the artist, Korczak Zilokowski died. Construction began in 1948 and only the face of Crazy Horse is completed. When completed, Crazy Horse will be the largest stone carving in the world. We toured the museums and then..Gift shops. We all got a T - Shirt and Bryan got a really cool necklace.After that we traveled to Cheyenne where we spent the night again at a Super 8 which was...strangely....a carbon copy of the Super 8 in Rapid City. The only difference was the AC was newer. Train tracks were next to the hotel and it is a wonder that we never heard a thing during the night. Maybe we were too tired...
• Sunday- We woke up, packed and left to go see one last thing...Big Boy. The largest locomotive in the US. There were only 25 made, and...don't ask how I remember this...the serial number was 4004. After seeing that we headed straight west from Cheyenne to out little domestic house, somewhere 450 ish miles away from Cheyenne. It took us 8 hours to get home and we can defiantly say that it was a sleeping and movie day. Thankfully I had other things to keep me busy like..ahem..summer homework.
• Monday- We slept in and did house cleaning chores all day...
• Tuesday- Woke up at 8:30 and decided to do this blog post before I forgot it all....

Thank you for being patient for the last 9 days and I hope that you were able to...sort of.... go on this trip together. I am planning to post my pictures to Facebook later on...maybe...just kidding!

In Sheridan, Wyoming....In a Hotel...Being Bored...

     I am sleeping at Sheridan Day's Inn. I am typing this blog post at 11:02 PM and am about to fall asleep, so I will be brief. The last three days my family and I have been in West Yellowstone, Montana, and let me tell you that it was a tourist trap. The gas prices were considerably higher, at one point they were forty cents higher than the prices at home. I am now in Sheridan, Wyoming, and am enjoying the AC. You see the first three days we camped at a KOA a Kampground Of America. Yes, that is how they spell campgrounds...obviously they can't spell. The next day we stayed in Powell, Wyoming where we stayed at a little, quaint hotel called the Lamplighter's Motel. It was old, but was well kept. I am glad to have gone there. The owner was very sweet and loved to chat to the customers and...I know it's so surprising...they did not have a computer and did all of the paper-work by hand. Today we traveled to Sheridan and got here by 8:00 PM where we went to dinner and here I am...typing this post. Tomorrow, we will go to Custards Last Stand Museum and to go sight seeing. I will try to keep posting, but will not guarantee anything. I have been taking a lot of pictures...almost 200! Anyway, I will wish you a good night.

Were Goin' On a Trip! (...Are We There Yet Mom?)

     So for the next nine day's I will be off to Yellowstone National Park, and Mount Rushmore. Unfortunately I will not have a lot of access to computers if any. The first three days we'll be exploring Yellowstone and camping out of the park in a KOA campsite. I am really excited for camping. The next day or two we will be traveling and stay at hotels then for the last couple of days we will be in another KOA campsite, then on Saturday or Sunday next week we will make a beeline home. It will be a long nine days and I am excited even though I am not really enthusiastic about the road trip part of the trip because I don't really stomach the bumpy roads and I get so bored so easily and almost always too quickly. I am happy that I get to spend time with my family, but I will miss the homey environment that can only be felt when your home and in your own bed. I will be taking a lot of pictures so I will be sure to upload them as soon as possible. Just so you know, we have been up late packing so this is why I am posting this really early in the morning of Saturday. In approximately 10 hours we will be leaving.

The Third Battle of the Wallpaper...Me vs. The Wallpaper

     Over the last couple of days I have been undertaking the horrid job of removing wallpaper from my room. I have been busy and sweaty and gross for the last couple of hours until...I FINALLY finished just now so now I have the time to blogging. I am really happy that I can be able to sleep soundly knowing that there are still holes in my wall from that darn wallpaper scraper. So after a long day of bending over and kneeling I am finally sitting down to write this. I am a very tired but exhilarated that I can now begin to paint my room. I just have to pick a color. Any suggestions? I want to keep it light so that it isn't neon colors. I am thinking a very light blue or green. So anyway, I am contemplating what to do next.

Well I ....ACHOO!!!....am suffering from...sniffle...hayfever in....(wipe eyes)...August!

     Does anyone else have this problem? I would totally understand it if this situation occurred in April or May, but in August? I recently got some blood work done so that my doctor would be sure that there wasn't an underlying cause to my anxiety so they checked my thyroxine levels and iron levels plus other things like estrogen levels. I went back to my doctor to find that everything was Hunky Dorey but I had some allergens in my blood. So even then, I was suffering from allergies about a month ago. Seriously I love the rain,  but if it continues to create pollen or something, then I really don't want any more thank-you-very-much. Right now I just need some benedryl and maybe a nap to go along with it.

Well the Last Few Days Have Gone in a Flash!

     I am sorry to those who weren't able to read my latest posts...(ahem...Aunt Tina :) ), but I finally got the time to do it. On Saturday we had a family reunion for my dad's side, and cousins that we only get to see once a year came down to join us. I had fun at the reunion, especially ice blocking. There are pictures on my facebook if you want to see it. However, I did not get home from my grandma's house until late last night so I couldn't really blog. There are another hundred excuses, of which I will not go into. If your a observer that doesn't know my facebook name, I will post a few of the choice pictures from the reunion here. Thanks for being patient with me. Well I will try to make my next posts more interesting for you...meanwhile, I will be munching on my maple sugar and fruit OATMEAL!!!!! Yay! (Bananapicklepeanutbutterpudding....YAY!) Told you I was crazy....

This is the hiking trail behind the pavilion where the reunion was held.

Even amidst all of the rocks, life is still there

Ummm...How many ice blocks was he using?

Always gotta fix the hair...(This is Barbies Little Sister, just so you know.)

" See, she's taking a picture of me taking a picture of you and her taking a picture of me. Does that make any sense?"

"I spy with my little eye...tree, and Jenni in it!"

My Expeiramenting

     Have you ever tried something new for the upcoming year at high school? Maybe it's a new hairstyle or a new way to shower....I don't know. In the last couple of days, I have been trying new things on my hair. I have a couple of new strategies when it comes to doing your hair at night, and just perfecting it in the morning. By perfecting it in the morning, I mean doing something(like braiding your hair) at night after you shower. In the morning you would perfect the look by unraveling the braid. I have tried twists, and braids at night and taking them out in the morning to find a great surprise waiting. (more or less an afro) Let me tell you what I did. If you're not interested, please feel free to read some of the other posts. I am sure you will find plenty to look at in the side bar on the right.

      I used:

•     Curlformers, a special type of curlers that are some sort of mesh that you use on your hair when wet and sleep with them in. I found the greatest results by having a fan in your room, or sleep next to a vent, so your hair will dry compleatly. In the morning I have hairspray, and a whole bunch of bobby pins on hand. When I take out the curlers, a bouncy curl results. I stick my finger in the middle of the curl and I push it up to my scalp, where I spray it with hairspray and pin it in place for about five minutes while I do the rest of my head. I find that if you use this method, which is kind of like pin curling, that the curl stays in for the entire day.

•      French Braids: French braids are pretty just by themselves, but if you're looking for some loose waves, french braiding at night while your hair is still wet and sleeping with them in will give you nice waves without heat. When I braid, I usually like to wait about ten minutes after the shower to let my hair dry a little. I also add a little bit of hair oil in my hair just to help prevent frizz and to make my hair shiny. I also find that coconut oil works well IF you use a teeny tiny ammount, I like to do this to my hair a lot. If you don't know how to french braid your own hair, ask someone to do it, or split the hair vertically into two sections and split it again to make four sections and braid each individual section. This is how I did this method until I learned how to french braid on myself.

•      Twisting Method One: If you're running late at night and just want to get to bed as soon as possible, I would recommend this method. It took me about ten minutes to do, and I got tons of volume and tons of waves in my hair. I would warn you that if you don't have a hair serum or a hair oil, to not do this the way I do it. Experiment on yourself as your hair is different than mine. I used two drops of hair oil in my hair at night, and another drop in the morning to help prevent frizziness. Here's how to do it: First split the hair in half like you would to braid the hair. Tie one side up, and split the loose hair in two again horizontally. Clip the top section up, and twist the section tightly. The hair will loosen up at night as it dries. Pull the twisted section up to the top of the head and pin it down with four or five bobby pins. Untie the hair on the same side, and flip your head over and twist the section, when finished with that section, pull the hair back and pin it next to the first twist. On the front of the head there will be a bump so it will be all right I promise you will NOT have a bump when you take it out. Do the same to the other side and go to sleep. When you wake up, unpin the hair, but DO NOT UNRAVEL THE HAIR UNTIL THE LAST TWIST IS UNPINNED FROM THE HEAD. YOU WILL LATER. What I like to do is to shake my head to get the twists out, but do whatever works best for you.

•       Twist Method Two: This one is slightly more complicated and will therefore take more time to do. (About thirty minutes or so) This is a complicated method so I will refer you to this site to see what I mean.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crQtB285riU This video will show you what I do and what the results are. I must warn you that the hair at the top of the head that you start to twist will maintain the twisted shape when you do it. I like this method, and it looks more messy than the first twist method. I didn't use any product in my hair except hair oil, so if you really want to, you shouldn't need very much product.

     I hope this gave you some ideas about what to do for school and what you can do at night. I like these. All of these are done at night and prove to work on me. However, as much as I testify that this will work, you will need to try them so you can decide if you want to use them. Summer is a perfect time to do this because you can just take a shower and not worry about it the whole day. Everyone's hair is different, just as every snowflake is unique in it's own way. Well I need to do chores and then....sleep!!!!!


P.S. I will post picture of each method on myself before I go to bed and after in a couple of days. Oh and the pictures above are not of me.

These pictures are of the First Method of twisting...Before and after.

In the morning after

This is what it looks like after taking out the twists...POOFBALL

This is what the twists make...these cute waves

This is what It looks like after fiddling with it for a couple of minutes and adding a flower to one side.