My Latest Projects

     Since camp, I have been thinking about making ribbon flowers. I will show you pictures below. For my Grandfather's burial, I have been helping my mom with decorating the inside of the concrete vault. Read the last post for more detail concerning this matter. So I have been employed to make a flower for the top of the vault made out of ribbon. The one for the vault is the green one below, and the brown is just a flower for my hair. Let me know if you like them, so I can be inspired to make more. Here are the pictures: (If you want a closer look, click on the pictures and you can zoom in or out.)

Hair clip (Chocolate brown with peach and yellow beads in the middle. Flowers on the side are artificial)

Funeral flower (Sage green. The bead is black in the middle)

The Dilemma

     So here it is, the dilemma. For my Grandfather's burial this next week, we had planned to be able put his ashes into a wooden box that my mom has been carving and putting together, and to then put the box into a cement vault that will be buried. Yesterday, we figured out that the wooden box wouldn't fit in the vault at all. Unfortunately that leaves us with the dilemma of what do we do now? The box is a beautiful creation that my mom has spent hours on, but now that it can't fit, what do we do with the box? Granted I thought of giving the wooden box to my grandmother, but we decided that we better not for various reasons that I will not explain at this moment. I will, however, like to hear any suggestions that you have to help us in this troubling time. Maybe we'll just keep the box around the house or give it to another person. (audible sigh) Anyway, our house was still quiet until almost 11:00 o' clock this morning, which is surprising to say and hear because usually me or my dad would be up earlier than that. Maybe yesterday was such an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally that we just crashed on the bed and became a bump on the log.

My Biggest Summer Project

     So the last two days I have been cleaning my room like a maniac. I deepcleaned and organized everything in my room, and when I say organized everything, I mean everything. Origionally I did this much cleaning when relatives come over and when they plan on sleeping in my room. My room is no bigger than a dorm room in college, but I am a teenager so I have a LOT of stuff, so a lot of organization was needed. Here are some pictures of my room and the final product.

My Makeup Corner - Notice most of them are Covergirl

Ma Bed

Dresser, craft box, shoe rack and laundry hamper

My dresser

Dresser...again

Under my dresser

How many pictures of my dresser do I have?

The corner of the dresser...mmm Mike and Ikes!

Under my Bed

Again...under my bed

So there it is folks. My big organization project that took me two days. I should have posted before and after pictures while I am at it.....Oh well. I hope I can inspire some of you guys out there to clean your rooms too! Put on some music and do a little jig and your ready to go!

Taco Time!

     Today I had the privilege to go to my grandmother's house to help prepare for the arrival of my cousins from Virginia. I am so excited to meet them again and hang out again. Today we made taco meat and a three layered cake for the up coming event. It was so much fun to be able to be with my grandma and hear some of the family history. I was shocked to know that in section 32 of the Doctrine and Covenants the missionaries went to the Lamanites to preach the gospel, and give out the Book of Mormon. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather and Grandmother received the Book of Mormon from the Lamanites who in turn got it from the missionaries. This ancestor was named Ira Sterns Hatch. After their conversion Ira Sterns Hatch decided to go to Kirkland to donate money for the temple that was in the process of construction. After riding his horse for weeks to get there, he was directed to the forest to where the prophet was cutting down wood for the temple. As soon as he arrived to the sight where Joseph Smith was chopping wood, the prophet then addressed my ancestor and said,"Brother Hatch, your generous gift will be used to build the pulpit in the temple." At this moment, my eyes teared up and I felt the love that the prophets have for the people. I am so grateful to hear the story today, and to be able to learn from it. After we finished cleaning, and washing dishes, we went back to my home, and here is where you are caught up from the stories of today. Now I need a tissue....and some allergy pills.(I have a little bit of hay fever)

Flash Flood!

     Don't worry, we are not knee deep in water right now, but in some intersections it was ankle deep with water. The story began as me and my mother went to Costco to get my new glasses and other nessesities in the store including Ibeprofen and Tylenol and other various things. On the way back we get a phone call from my brother, wondering what type of vacuum bags we needed. Oh, by the way, we use totally outdated vacuum that needs bags, instead of those fancy ones that don't need bags, but use a bin to catch the debris in. Anyway, we found out that we needed to get more vacuum bags. So my brother and I went on the adventure of finding the vacuum bags. Just as we were leaving it began to rain heavily. As my brother and I were running in the store, and getting soaked, we discovered that the store we went to did not hold any vacuum bags. How can this happen? Is our family that far behind in the new technologies? I was a bit frustrated with the store, so we decided to go to our local Wal-Mart. Thankfully we did get those darn vacuum bags, and started our way home but decided to take a detour to go past the drainage pool to see how far it has risen, and to our surprise, the intersections and part of the roads were flooded, but not too much that we couldn't drive through, so we got home pretty safely. But as we ran in and out of Wal-Mart, we were soaked, and my balerina flats were squelching and squeaking against the dingy white tile floors of the store. As soon as I got home there was lots of weather warnings on the TV and radio warning us to not go outside and not stay under trees(who would in a thunderstorm?) and beware of the flooded intersections as you drive home. Thankfully I am now in dry clothes and finally starting to warm up, so here are the pictures that you wanted from the road trip yesterday!

I just wanted to thank you guys to reading my blog even though I am a complete nut! THANKS!!!!

Road Trip...My Worst Nightmare!

     I mean no offense to those of you who like road trips and traveling for hours on end in a stuffy car, however I must differ in that aspect. I am not a fan of road trips, and I don't like to be stuck in a car doing nothing but listen to my wonderful mom, who sacrifices so much for us to be entertained by whatever reading materiel that we decided to read, and suffer in silence. (Although I must admit that I do voice my complaints occasionally.) Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being in nature, but I don't want to wait for more than an hour or so to get to the nature...and those dratted mosquitoes! Today was a holiday, so my father had work off today, so we went for a 12 hour drive. I love driving, but I don't like being driven for numerous hours, doing nothing in the back seat except listen to music, and read, and occasionally look out the window. I am so tired and I keep feeling that I should be wearing a seat belt as I am writing this that I think that I need a cool shower to allow reality to show it's true colors to me that I am actually HOME!!! Who would know that home meant so much after 12 hours of endless driving and exploring. Certainly, when I did look up and out into the scenery it was beautiful. I will post pictures of my trip tomorrow and you can sympathize along with me or criticize me by saying, "Amy, how could you be so bored with the scenery like that?" and I will reply, "Well, when you live in a place with ton's of mountains and hills, it's natural to see more mountains and hills when you look up. Honestly the green hills don't impress me much anymore, but I go with the flow to help my family enjoy it, even though I don't." I again express how tired I am of sitting, and...what is that I hear? Oh...My shower is beckoning to me, and it so hard to resist.....

Ouch!

     If you have read my Sun or no sun, sun or no sun blog post then you will know that I have a pretty major sunburn, on my shoulders, arms and back. Unfortunately I have not been able to raise my arms without saying, "Ouch!" So for the last couple of days I have been slathering on  the Aloe Vera gel, and have been taking tons of Tylenol and Pain Relievers, and hoping that there was something I can do to be able to not feel the pain. I am so ready for this sunburn to disappear from my life! But until then I will be suffering in endless pain and I will be gnashing my teeth in protest. Oh well. I know that my savior atoned for my sins, and pains and struggles as well. I know that as long as I trust in Him I will be lifted from my burdens and will be able to be my advocate on the final judgement day. Until then I will be in my scriptures as it is Sunday. "God be with you till we meet again!"

Harry Potter and the Is It Really Over?

     I don't know about you but I am feeling the side effects of the is-Harry-Potter-really-over syndrome. Of course I was totally excited for the last movie, but it was bittersweet, because it was like losing a part of my childhood with the last movie. Overall the movie was great and it was nice to see the actors all grown up. I still can't believe that it has been so long since the first book came out. The movie sometimes strayed from the actual book. and I hoped for a little more from several scenes. For example in the trailer, Voldemort and Harry were in the school and Harry said, "Let's finish this as how it began...TOGETHER!", aanndd they jump off the cliff. NOT IN THE BOOK!!! I appreciate Warner Brother's efforts to make the last movie the best, but I don't agree with some of their motives in the movie. Again the movie was awesome, but I wished it had more and showed more as well. Oh well. Such are the dreams of a fanatical teenager who loves Harry Potter series.

Sun or No Sun, Sun or No Sun....

    Today I had the privilege to go over to my friend's house, and went swimming in their back yard with her brother as well. It was so much fun to hang out at their pool and play various pool games including pool tag, colors, capture the coin, and most fun of all, splash wars! Unfortunately I was sunburned on my chest, back, arms, and my face. I at least had fun with my friends, and my favorite activity, swimming. One of the bad parts of swimming is that you get those darn sunburns, that are very uncomfortable...oh well, I am going to slather up on my aloe gel!