My Birthday! :D And a Song from Dumbo

Okay, wow, it's been FOREVER since I last updated. Sorry about that.
A lot of things have happened, but the most exciting (in my mind, at least) was my sixteenth birthday. I didn't have a big party or anything, just some family stuff and then I went to the Incredible Pizza Company with some of my good friends. I got some great presents -- some CDs I'd been asking for, a necklace from my grandparents, AWESOME shoes, you get the picture. But I have to say, one of the best presents I think I've ever gotten in my entire life has to be the boyfriend that my friends Lilly and McKaylla got for me. Yes, a boyfriend. You see, my friends are very much aware of my longtime crush on singer Josh Groban. And, being the wonderful friends that they are, they decided that they would get him for me. Wait, I'll post a picture...
Yep, that's him. :D You see, they got a Ken doll and just taped Josh's face on the box. He doesn't talk much (or sing, unfortunately), but it's the thought that counts, right?

On another, no less happy note, I have discovered that I LOVE the lullaby from Dumbo. I am going to post it so you all can share in the joy.


Love,
Me

The List

First off, I must acknowledge that I got the idea to do this post from my dear friend Kaylla. She posted basically the same thing just a couple days ago and since she always gives me shout-outs on her blog I figured it was time to return the favor. 

 So I don't know about you, but I know that ever since I was a little girl I have, both on my own and in countless Young Women's lessons, made list after list of qualities I want require my future husband to have. 

Sure, some things have changed as I've gotten older. I no longer demand that he be European royalty (No complaints, though) or be a young, LDS (but every bit just as Australian) clone of Hugh Jackman (and once again, no complaints if it does end up that way). Some things, though, have stayed pretty much the same since I was 6 years old -- 

1. He has to be a returned missionary 

2. and honor his Priesthood. 

3. He has to be worthy to take me to the temple, 

4. and he has to have all the same standards as me. 

5. He will treat me like the princess that both I and my Heavenly Father know I am. 

6. He will love liberty and fight to defend it. 

7. He'll be great with kids and want as many as I do -- at least 6.

8. He'll be smart and well-read.

9. He'll have a great sense of humor and always be able to make me laugh but also know when to be serious.

10. Oh, and he'll be a total HOTTIE. :P Maybe I will require Hugh Jackman II..... :D 

As always, thanks for reading. 

P.S. This is from what looks to be an AMAZING documentary about the oldest living Holocaust survivor. She is such a sweet lady and her laugh is contagious. I can't find an embeddable copy, so here's the link: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/11/alice-herz-sommer-worlds-oldest-holocaust-survivor/

Thankful for the Little Things

Today was a good day. I don't know if it was for any reason in particular, it was just good. I got enough sleep last night (for the first time in forever), I had some good laughs with my friends, I got all my math corrections done, and my favorite song came on the radio right when I got in the car this morning. It's days like this that make up for all the other bad, crazy, stressful, tear-your-hair-out days, ya know? Days when everything goes right and you remember all of those little things that make you happy. It's like that song in The Sound of Music -- 

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Oh, and another thing that makes me happy? Watching my two year-old brother breakdance in the kitchen. :D

And my best friend is Elizabeth Bennet?

The first term of school is almost over, life is crazy busy, two weeks ago I turned in my application to work in Washington and what do I have to talk to you about? A recent discovery about my friend's personality. Yeah, it's just that exciting.
So the particular friend that I am thinking of is headstrong, smart, kind, frank, independent, loves her family and friends, loves the outdoors, loves reading, isn't afraid to tell a guy what she thinks..... Sound like anyone from classic English literature? Anyone?
Bingo -- Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice (and if we're talking film adaptions, as I believe I've mentioned before, the 1995 version starring Colin Firth is the ONLY way to go).
And speaking of Colin Firth, Pride and Prejudice is most certainly not a single-character based story. I would have been content to just make snide remarks about my friend's general need for her very own Mr. Darcy, but it just so conveniently happens that there is a certain guy at school who is, oh I dunno, tall dark and handsome? Smart? A little bit of a jerk sometimes? Yeah, and it gets better: my certain friend and this certain guy didn't exactly hit it off from the beginning. They were completely content to barely tolerate each other for quite awhile. (Ringing any bells for you yet?) Oh, but now? My friend thinks maybe she doesn't hate him any more. I'm not saying she likes him (yet :P), she just doesn't dislike him...... :D
Anyways, teasing my friend totally makes my day. Love you lots, honey pie!


Oh, P.S. This friend may or may not by the time you read this have written a blog post about this same topic at sweetcheeks48.blogspot.com

Hmmm...Hmmm...What to post about?

Well, when in doubt post about your favorite music, right?

So I don't usually listen to pop music and I definitely am not into the teeny-bopper television shows that are on channels like Disney and Nick (because they are, for lack of a better word or any tact, STUPID) but flipping through channels the other day I discovered a band (technically I discovered a tv show, but it holds no interest for me besides the songs) that has some surprisingly good music. Yeah, it's mostly (okay, maybe all) sugary feel-good pop but they're pretty darn talented and the one good thing about a band that comes from a Nick tv show is that you know their music will at least be clean.

Anyways, it's a group of four guys (I have no idea how old they are, but probably no older than 19 or 20) called Big Time Rush. I'm not saying, "Go listen to them all day and buy their album and love them forever," I'm just going to post a couple of my favorite songs by them because at the moment I am lacking a better post topic. The first one is called "Stuck" and the second one is "Halfway There". My other favorite is called "Counting on You" (featuring Jordin Sparks), but I figured posting two is enough and then if you really like them for some reason you can go check out other songs on your own.

Thanks for reading! :D

I think this one has the lyrics, but I give no guarantee that they are correct.

Sorry, the only one I could find for this was the actual music video.


Okay, I thought I would just end the post there but I feel weird just posting pop music (it's very un-me) so I will now post a country song in order to get my mojo back. Here is one of my all-time favorites, Lady Antebellum's "Our Kind of Love".

My new favorite movie/musical

So this weekend, while staying with my aunt and uncle, I watched The Phantom of the Opera (the one with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum) for the first time. All I can say is that I love, love, LOVE it. I would definitely not recommend it for young audiences because it deals with some...suggestive topics but the story, the music, the cast *cough cough Gerard Butler cough cough* : it all makes for one AMAZING film (and I would give up a limb if I could go see it live on Broadway).
One of my favorite scenes is towards the end where Christine, traumatized because she's the object of the Phantom's creepy, obsessive love, goes to visit her father's grave. The song she sings in the cemetery ("Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again") is BEAUTIFUL and the "Angel of Music" reprise right after that she sings with the Phantom (thinking he's her father's spirit?) sends chills up and down my spine (or maybe that was just the sofa's built in spine-chilling mechanism...hmmm...)
I do wonder, though, what the next step in the Phantom's plan was, because if Christine's boyfriend hadn't shown up she would have gone into the crypt and realized he wasn't her dearly departed daddy. What would he say? "Ummm....SURPRISE! I'm not your dad, but how do you feel about coming to live under the opera house with me for fooorrreeeevvveeer? You, me, and that creepy lifelike doll/replica of  you that I keep right by my bed could be one big, happy family!" Hehe maybe he should stick to "Christine *wheeze wheeze* I am not your father *wheeze wheeze*." :D
The movie nearly made me bawl my eyes out, though, because the Phantom's story made me so sad! I can't imagine watching anyone treat a little boy like that, that one little scene in the movie made me feel physically sick :( And he was so sad... Christine made him really happy, he was just bonkers because of the abuse he suffered as a child and didn't know how to handle the happiness...
Okay, I'll stop now and just post a couple videos. Thanks for reading!

Here's that song I love:

And here is the ridiculously sad almost-final scene:

P.S. -- Mmm-hmm, yeah. And he's Scottish too.

All boys are weird, but some are weirder than others

I found this incredibly  profound
statement on Google Images.
My life now has meaning.

Once upon a time there was a girl who had some awesome friends--and some slightly less awesome possums, but that's another story. This girl, unfortunately, went to school with a lot of teenage boys. "What could be so unfortunate," you say, "about going to school with a lot of teenage boys? I thought you liked boys, ReallyShawn."
To this I answer, "Nay, I like MEN. And since there are no MEN at my school, only teenage boys, it is indeed unfortunate." And to this you say, "Why are you talking so strangely, ReallyShawn?" and for that I have no answer. 
Moving on...

Ooh, and here it is
with a picture!

So in order to make snide remarks about these unfortunate teenage boys, the girl (that's me...in case you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm the girl...) and her awesome friends made up a nickname for each boy. That is, only the boys who mattered... Some of these nicknames were really random, like "Bud", "Presley" or "Gem". Others, like "Ella" or "Handsome Devils numbers 1 and 2" had to do with inside jokes dating back to at least the beginning of 10th grade. And finally, there were the nicknames that had to do with the unfortunate ones themselves--names like "Old man shoes" or "Stinky" that related specifically to their odd senses of style or the amount of cologne they bathed in (yeah, someone really needs to teach them the 'mist and walk through' technique).


And then writing in this odd, past tense-ish style became too difficult for the girl, and she decided to just tell you the rest of the story in a slightly more normal fashion...


So we give nicknames to any guys that we need to talk about without them, or the eighth grade girls that worship them, knowing about it. It's not that we particularly care if they know that we don't think they're quite all that and a bag of chips, it's just that everything's more fun in code. It makes us feel dangerous. *cue Mission Impossible theme*


One of our favorite things to do is go stink-eye hunting. Do you know what a stink-eye is? If not, you have lived a very sad life until now. The stink-eye, not to be confused with the smoldering love-look, is the perfect blend of glare and eye-roll, and is best delivered pointedly and with a subtle snort of disgust. 

It is our strong belief that it is precisely because we don't worship the ground that certain boys walk on, unlike...others, that we are so good at getting stink-eyes. It's the most fun to pass someone when they are having a conversation with one of their friends and they (1) stop, (2) give you a fantastic stink-eye as you walk by, and then (3) go right back to their conversation like it was totally normal to optically send death wishes your way.


Well, I'm done rambling (for now). Thanks, as always, for reading and THANK YOU, my dear Kaylla, for the shout-out on your blog.  It made me feel special.


And no, I don't actually have any possums.

And we'll have our own show on USA...

  So the mom of some of my really good friends is going back to school to study forensics. Since I work with her most school days in the elementary library we get to talk about this stuff a lot. For a really long time I wanted to go into forensics, the top choice being a...detective-y person (I don't know what the official title is. You know, the ones that work with the cops to solve crimes involving dead people?). This fantasy kind of ended when I realized how much science would be involved, but hey, maybe this year I'll discover that I actually LOVE chemistry.
  You see, I've always had this (somewhat un-ladylike) fascination with death. No, not as in the gothic, creepy, "deeeeeaaaathh" fascination, but as in I wanted to be an archaeologist just so I could touch mummies and my favorite part of studying the Middle Ages was learning about the Black Death.
  Anyways, my library buddy and I decided that we would have our own forensic-detectives team.  We'll solve mysteries and fight crime and be JUST like those TV shows, right? :D

Well....

  So, the first week of school was actually pretty darn good. I LOVE my core teacher, my family science class is AMAZING so far, we are doing one of my all-time favorite plays in drama class (Fiddler on the Roof), and for one period a day I get to work in the little kids' library down in the elementary hallway ( so far it's just been organizational stuff, but soon I'm going to learn how to check books out to the kids). The only problems are pre-calculus and chemistry. It's only the first week (which means review from the past two years) and I already have at least an hour of math homework every night. And while I am actually excited about science fair (because I get to do it with one of my best buds again this year) it's the whole, you know, science thing that I don't love as much.

  You see, I'm pretty severely right brained. Random, subjective, intuitive (okay, so maybe not so intuitive), looking at wholes rather than parts: pretty much me in a nutshell. It takes quite a bit of effort for me to be analytical or logical (dang it! not Vulcan after all...) With some effort I can do math and science and those things, but they come a LOT less easily.
   Well, enough complaining. Happy Labor Day everybody!

Thanks for reading, you are incredibly wonderful. :D

a COUNTRY song :)

Here it is, as promised.
This is quite possibly one of my favorite love songs ever. It's by a group called Jaron and the Long Road to Love. ("Jaron" was also in a pop duo with his twin brother Evan a while ago. It was called --you guessed it!-- Evan and Jaron).
Anyways-- beautiful song, slightly random video.

BACK TO SCHOOL! (and another song from Mr. Groban :D)

YAY! The 2010-2011 school year (for my incredibly wonderful school, anyway) officially starts tomorrow and I, for one, am SO EXCITED! I doubt that it will last past the first assignment or two, but I'm enjoying the joy while it lasts.
I'm going into the 11th grade which is arguably the most stressful year of high school, what with college applications and ACTs and SATs and all that fun stuff...but for now I'm just not going to think about that. I am excited to see my friends and excited to be a Junior and excited about who my core teacher is and excited to turn sixteen...
I'll try and post an update (and maybe some pics) when I get home tomorrow.

 Oh, and one more thing. If you hadn't noticed, I really really love Josh Groban and I think that I will post my new favorite song by him. :D Yes, I do actually listen to other music too. I'll post some good country or something next time.

Thanks for reading! :)

Awesome Old Stuff

I had a doctor's appointment this morning (No, not the Doctor. I wish. though. That would be sooo much better than a trip to the endocrine specialist.) While I was in the waiting room I saw a copy of my absolute favorite magazine -- National Geographic. (In case you didn't know, I kind of want to work as a photojournalist for them someday) In this particular issue was an article about something that is AMAZING but that I had never heard about before: the Nazca (Nasca?) lines in Peru.

Basically they are these...drawings? I don't really know the right word.... Aha! They are geoglyphs (ancient geoglyphs) located in the Nazca desert in Peru. On the ground level they just look like lines of rock and dirt but from the air (like in a helicopter) they form pictures. like a monkey or a hummingbird or a tree. Apparently there are hundreds+ in shapes ranging from a simple spiral to more complex pictures of orcas or llamas -- all with one line, there aren't any breaks.

The really weird thing, though, is the fact (like I mentioned before) that they could only be seen from the air. When they were constructed there were no helicopters or airplanes or even (I'm pretty darn sure) hot air balloons. So why bother?
Some people think it was some kind of offering to their gods, other theories say that they were an attempt to contact aliens. (I also read a theory that they were roads, but seriously? Does taking 10 times as long to make a journey on foot, just so you can say "Oh yeah? Well I walked the monkey. Beat that." seem even remotely realistic? Didn't think so.)
Whatever reason it was, they are still AWESOME and seeing them in person (both from the air and on a ground level) is now officially on my bucket list.

As always, thanks for reading.

PS Here's the link to the online article. Not as descriptive, but still interesting. http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2009/08/visiting-perus-mysterious-nazc.html

Oceano

I bought a Josh Groban CD (Closer) at Walmart the other day and the first track is titled "Oceano"
As it's in Italian and not Spanish I don't even kind of know what the English translation is :P, but it's a really beautiful song (by one of my all-time favorite artists).
I figured I'd just tell you how much I love it and paste a link to it and that would count as "posting", so I can feel like I accomplished something. :D

"Oceano" -- Josh Groban

Dreams (yes, dreams): the sequel

So my last post about dreams didn't cover everything that I wanted to cover about dream meanings, plus I kind of said I would post one of my epic-dreams. Why not kill two birds with one stone? I'll summarize one of my dreams and then interpret it using a dream dictionary I found online. :P I mean, it's got to be correct. Everything on the internet is always true, right?
Just for fun I'll pick a dream from my childhood. We can see what inner turmoil I unknowingly had as a child that came through in my dreams.

Okay, so he has both eyes in this pic.
But the fangs are scary, right?

This is a dream that I had one night while I was at a sleepover with my cousin. I was probably about eight years old. The only reason I remember it so well nearly eight years later is probably that I've retold it and written it down so many times. There'e a monster in it that looked (I'm almost ashamed to admit) like a 50 foot tall Elmo, but with only one eye and fangs. (I was 8, okay?) I'm not saying this dream will make lots of sense, but it is one of my favorites because it was pretty darn realistic....you know, for a dream that features a muppet as the villain.

My family and I (at this point I just had two sisters and a baby brother, the other three were yet to be born) were staying at this resort place with an AWESOME waterpark (that somehow connected to the ocean but wasn't salty? I'm not sure...). While we were there I made friends with this boy who was about my age. We were best friends, despite the fact that his name was Ashley (actually, I think it is a boy name in Britain or something)  :D We would hang out at the waterpark every day and he would write in this yellow notebook (he wanted to be a writer someday) and I would play with these fish things that lived in a mini cave thing under the water slide and we would talk.

Then one day I was getting ready to go over to the waterpark when the ground started shaking. I ran outside to see what was going on and I saw the giant, terrifying, aformentioned monster. One of the screaming bystanders told me as she ran by that he had come for his annual meal. You see, the resort manager had a deal with the monster: as long as once a year he was fed one of the residents, he wouldn't crush the resort. (What I don't get is how he managed to stay in business once word of this got around)
My parents found me and the other kids and we all went and hid in a small white room until the roaring and screaming and ground-shaking stopped. When we finally went outside everything looked the same (meaning that Elmo got his snack), but I knew something was wrong. I looked around for Ashley, but I couldn't find him. I thought maybe he went to check on our fish, so I ran to the water park. The fish were all dead  (which really crushed me) and all I could find were ripped up pieces of his yellow notebook. Needless to say I was very upset and assumed the worst and cried all day. The next day, however, I had just finished giving my deceased pets a proper burial when I looked up and there was Ashley! He had indeed been kidnapped by the monster, but they had become best friends and he had been realeased and Elmo promised to find his meals elsewhere from then on. The end.

Now for the interpretation :D

The colors in my dream:
Red- is an indication of raw energy, force, vigor, intense passion, aggression, power, courage, impulsiveness and anger.
Yellow- has both positive and negative connotations. If the dream is a pleasant one, then the color yellow is symbolic of intellect, energy, agility, happiness, harmony, and wisdom. On the other hand, if the dream is an unpleasant one, then the color represents deceit, disgrace, betrayal, cowardice and sickness.
White- represents purity, perfection, peace, innocence, dignity, cleanliness, awareness, and new beginnings.

The people:
My family: To see your own family in your dream, represents security, warmth and love.
Ashley: dreaming of a friend indicates positive news
Elmo: To dream that you are chased or followed by a monster means that you may possess some fears or some repressed emotions.

The place:
(I couldn't find waterpark, so amusement park will have to do)
To see or be in an amusement park in your dream, indicates that you need to set some time for leisure and more enjoyment in your life.

Wow, I was one conflicted eight year old. Although some of this does make sense. This was right around the time when we moved from Florida to Missouri. So the anger, betrayal, repressed emotions, new beginnings, etc. actually kind of fit.

Anyways, now you know what I dreamed about as a child. My dreams these days do make a bit more sense, but are no less intense. (hehe, I rhymed)
Thanks for reading.

Girls Camp and Tamales

So here are two things I promised to post on a while ago and never got around to.
First, stake girl's camp:

I was super excited to go this year because last year I was unable to hike King's Peak because of my health. That is, I was excited right up until a day or two before it was time to go. Then, all of a sudden, sleeping in a tent and hiking everywhere (including the restrooms) and not being in my own bed for almost a whole week sounded a lot less fun. But I went anyways (I couldn't ditch, after all, it was my younger sister's first year going) and at first it was okay. I was in a tent with most of my good friends from the ward and hot dogs were nowhere on the weekly menu (yes, that's a good thing. Hot dogs are nasty.) I had a cot so I didn't have to sleep directly on the ground, and some of the more inactive girls in our ward were at camp with us this year which made me feel like a good Mia Maids president. Then came 3:30 am of the next day... it had been raining for most of the night and it was freezing and my cot was noisier than a large man with sinus problems. I was already awake when I heard someone gagging/coughing. At first I thougt Hailey was just bored and making gross noises, but then it sounded like puking. I found my flashlight and called to the girls. Tyller, one of the girls in the tent, had thrown up all over her sleeping bag. We all helped clean her up and got the leaders to take her home. I felt so bad, it was her first year and she was really excited to be there. :(

Okay, so maybe not this bad,
but it was pretty darn stormy.

Then it started raining again and our tent started to leak so we figured "what the heck, let's get soggy" and got our ponchos and danced in the rain. It was really fun until the thunder and lightning came. Then left. Then came back. ALL DAY. The worst was when my group was doing crafts (at a pavillion, thankfully) and it started pouring and hailing--seriously, the worst I've seen in a long time. It was a miserable day, but that night the stake presidency came. Our stake president promised that because of our faith and endurance that the storms would stop. Believe it or not, the rest of camp was perfect weather. How's that for the power of the Priesthood, eh?

Now to tamale making. This part's going to be just a couple of pictures. I got teamed up with Sam for tamale duty, and let's just say it didn't go as well as one might hope...

It started well...

but then he got that
mischeivous look in his eye...

and squashed our tamale-in-the-making!

The finished product... :D

Sorry, technical difficulties

Okay, anyone who's been reading my blog for a while will probably notice that my most recent post is actually a post from fairly early last month but for some reason my blog suddenly decided it needed to be at the front. I tried to fix it but apparently it doesn't want to be fixed. So just ignore the fact that you've already seen that post, I guess? Or you could read it again...I guess it's pictures, huh?
Now I'm just rambling, so I'll go.
I'll try to post more soon. We're making tamales today so hopefully I'll have some fun pictures of that to put up here. :D

Photos

So we went on a family outing last week to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. While you can imagine that an outing with a family as large as mine (9 people in immediate family only. Grandparents and cousins came on this trip) is definitely going to be a bit hectic, going to the Gardens always gives me the opportunity to get some great photos. It was a beautiful day and I think I managed to get a couple good ones. :) Enjoy.

The three chairs and the door are from the Secret Garden (my personal favorite), the arch with the roses was in the Rose Garden, and the picture of the daisies was just taken along the main walkway. I don't remember which garden the fountains were in. :)   

Dreams (yes, dreams)

If you know me very well at all (and hopefully you do if you are reading this blog) you also know that one of my favorite things to talk about (right after Doctor Who, delectable food, and Mr. Darcy) is dreaming.  It's a subject that really fascinates me, especially a) lucid dreaming and b) the meanings of dreams. Yes, yes I know that this is a such an incredibly nerdy thing to even think about let alone post about, but I just couldn't resist.

Part of my interest in dreams probably originates from my own. I dream very vividly and I can usually remember most of the dreams after I wake up. I never thought this was weird until my friends revealed to me that they hardly remember any dreams they have, but the in the ones they do remember they don't have all five senses--whereas I can not only see and hear but also feel (especially pain and heat), smell and taste.

I've also had more than my fair share of super intense feature-film length and detailed story dreams. Sure, they have some plot holes here and there (no, I don't really see why I had to pass through Canada and Mexico to get from Virginia to New York while running away from my crazy hippie parents and their van filled with strange vision-bestowing vegetable juice) but they are some of my favorites. If you don't know what I'm talking about you're really missing out. Maybe I'll post a synopsis of one later so you can see what I mean.

So, lucid dreaming... This is basically a fancy way of saying that you gain consciousness while remaining in the dream state--realizing that you're dreaming. If this happens and you know what you're doing you can (99.9% of the time) take control of your dream and make whatever you want happen. Really helpful when you suddenly need superpowers or if you start craving the world's biggest bean burrito. Now I don't know about you, but I've actually done this by accident before. It was mostly when I was younger and mostly during nightmares. I would be running or hiding from whatever bad guy, giant rat, zombie or wicked witch was chasing me when I would suddenly realize that it wasn't real and if I could just wake up I would be safe.

I've read a few different articles on smart/crazy people's theories on how do this on purpose, so you can gain lucidity at any point in your dream. Most of them were strange and complicated and sounded like whoever wrote them was on that vision-juice, but one actually made some sense. It basically said that if you ask yourself several times a day "Am I awake or am I dreaming?" (the answer at this point should be "Awake, duh") and keep at it for a week or two that your subconscious will start doing it automatically. Then, when you start dreaming, your mind will wonder if you're awake or dreaming, you'll realize that it is indeed the latter, and voila--you are now consciously dreaming. Yeah, it admittedly sounds like a half-sized load of hoo-ha, but I've been trying it and it actually works; I've done it at least 3 times.

I know I also mentioned dream meanings but this post is getting long and my scrumptious taco salad from Cafe Rio is getting cold, so I'll do a part two sometime later, okay? Maybe tonight maybe tomorrow, but I'll get to it soon (whether you want me to or not MWAHAHAHA).

You rock.

P.S. Colin Firth IS Mr. Darcy, nobody else even compares.

Speedy Updates

It's been a while, so here's the Reader's Digest version of my life right now:

1. Had girl's camp last week with my ward. Intense but fun, will post more about this particular event later.

2. I'm going to start volunteering at the hospital near my house! I'm so excited. Had my interview this morning (which went great) I just have to pass a drug test this afternoon. I certainly hope that goes well.

3. School starts in 18 days! I have enjoyed this summer (for the most part) but I am really excited to start my JUNIOR YEAR! To quote our beehives at camp "woot woot"

4. Yes, that is a picture of Speedy Gonzales. Speedy updates--Speedy Gonzales. Get it? Ha haha hahaha ha...I'm so witty :D

Thanks for reading.

Sunset

Hey guys, sorry for not writing in forever. (Oh, and I'm not going to write again for almost another week because I'll be at camp, but I promise to write oodles of posts when I get back. :P)

It's just been a little crazy the past few days, I was sick and all that fun stuff. But I'm back now, so hopefully I won't go weeks+ without posting again. :)

So yesterday afternoon I looked out the window and everything was pink. It sounds weird and it's hard to explain but it was like the lighting in an older movie or the way they sometimes show flashbacks where everything's tinted. I'd never seen anything like it before, it was actually kind of surreal.

It was the most amazing sunset EVER. I tried to get some pictures, but sunsets are always kind of hard to capture perfectly on photo so imagine these only 10x more vivid. :)

Oh, and there were lots of clouds because it had just rained.

And this last one isn't the same sunset but I was looking through my pics and I think this is a sunrise from back in February... I thought the clouds looked cool. :D

Thanks for reading!

Trying to post from a phone...

Attractive? Maybe...

What is it that initially attracts us to eachother?

Now I'm not talking the little details of eachother's lives and the personality and all that stuff, I mean what is it about that boy you and your friends see while at the store or the park or McDonald's that makes you think "Oh, he's cute." (And don't pretend you've never done it. I've done it, and I'm about as anti-flirting, un-boy-crazy, as it gets. I don't mean thinking you're soul mates because you shop at the same shoe store or order the same thing off the dollar menu. We don't want stalking, just thinking that he's maybe possibly kind of good-looking.)

I know that society obviously affects what we as humans perceive to be attractive. Stereotypes, both good and bad, have a surprisingly large impact on our (mostly subconscious) first impressions of eachother. (My friend and I did our science fair project on this last year.) So as society's standards for physical attractiveness vary, so will ours (to some degree).

But is that all? If so, then why do some girls have much different opinions on what makes a guy attractive than others? What makes so many girls swoon at the sight of Justin Bieber or Taylor Lautner or the Jonas Brothers, when others of us are maybe more inclined to think that David Tennant is just about the cutest guy ever? Is it maturity levels? Friends and family? Does your own appearance impact what you find attractive in another?

Anyways, sorry for the slightly weird topic today. I just had similar conversations with some of my friends recently and the topic intrigued me. Thanks for reading! :)

Mi canción favorita

Well, one of them. So most everyone out there has probably heard "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban. It's a beautiful, inspiring song by an incredibly talented man. But there is a Spanish version (by Il Divo) that I also really really love called "Por ti seré". It's only one verse and then a much repeated chorus, but the lyrics --while not an exact translation of the English version-- are amazing (in my possibly slightly biased opinion).


(Sorry, the only video I could get an embed code for was this one -- random pictures of members of Il Divo, the group that sings it :P)


I'll try to roughly translate the lyrics here for you because Google Translate doesn't like me very much right now. Sorry about my not-so-fantastic Spanish. :) It doesn't always make exact sense because it's a translation, but you'll get the picture

Cuando me vi desnudo y sin aliento
When you saw me naked and breathless
("naked" in this case implying vulnerability--not a nudist on the loose)
Arando un mar desierto y sin amor
Laboring through a desert sea without love
Cuando pensé que mi alma había muerto
When I thought that my soul had died
llegaste tú como la luz del sol
You came to me like the sunlight

Por ti seré más fuerte que el destino
For you I will be stronger than fate
Por ti seré tu héroe ante el dolor
For you I will be a hero against the pain
Yo sin ti estaba tan perdido
Without you I was so lost
Por tí seré mejor de lo que soy
For you I will be better than I am
 
And just for kicks, here is the beautiful English version by Josh Groban.

Being the uncool sister

   "Don't you even care?" "Couldn't you just try?" Oh, and my personal favorite: "Stop it! You're embarassing me!"

   These are some of my younger sister's absolute favorite things to say to me. The first one referring to my appearance on most days, the second-- her pleading with me to not be so weird, and the third is her harshly whispered command that I not speak to her or about her or near her whenever she is in public or with her friends. Or with my friends, for that matter...yeah, pretty much in general. (My answers are usually "Umm... nope" , "Probably not" and "Oh goody!")

   It's not like I try to be embarassing. At least, it doesn't start out that way... I'm just sitting there, mostly minding my own business, and someone will ask me an innocent enough question like"What music do you like to listen to?" or "Where did you get that shirt?" or even  "What movies do you like to watch?". If I answer  "country music, 80's rock and the Backstreet Boys" , "the thrift store" or "science fiction and disaster... pretty much anything where where aliens come and people die"  I get an immediate eyeroll from her general direction and she starts trying to explain away or apologize for my general uncoolness.

   It's a wonder how she does it, really. Deal with such an uncool sister, that is. She is only 12 but she (and her seventh grader friends) are already so much smarter, more fashionable, more mature, and generally more awesome than I am, ever have been, and can ever hope to be. Unless she wants something from me. In that case I'm generally promoted to "acceptable" which means I only have to stand 10 feet away from her in public.

   I love my sister dearly and we do have some fun times together, it's just when I'm, you know, embarassing, that she can't let people know she's related to me. :D

The Most Wonderful Subject in the ENTIRE WORLD!

Which is ME! Try to contain yourself, please. I know you're excited, but let's attempt to keep the gushing to a minimum.
Since I'm starting this new blog and all I figured it's a great opportunity to talk about myself, which reallly never gets old. Yeah, I know, you could just click the little "About Me" link in the corner and poof there's a not-so-complete list of my favorite books, movies and music. But where's the fun in that? No, instead I will tell you all of the random, unimportant facts about myself that you never really wanted to know. (Well, maybe not all. 10 random things sounds good.) Here goes nothing.

 

1. I am hopelessy geeky about all things science fiction. I was raised on Star Wars and the original Stargate movie, I am a sucker for anything Star Trek (I'm a Next Gen kinda gal myself), and, of course, my all-time favorite show that I've been addicted to for the past three and a half years...Doctor Who! (Ten FOREVER)

2.I used to be rather good at playing the piano. (Key phrase being "used to be"). Thing is, I haven't taken lessons in several years and teaching myself is harder than one might think, but I'm trying. Hey, I even have the first page of "Fearless" down pat.

3. My favorite color is blue. My least favorite color is pink. No, just kidding, my least favorite color is mauve. It's like a wannabe pink that's trying to be purple but ends up being mostly gray. Yup, definitely don't like mauve.

4. I really honestly dislike the Twilight series. Quite a lot. I'm sorry, but those books are just stupid. They're about a 17 year old girl who really makes some of the most unintelligent decisions possible, lies to her family and friends, and runs off with a 100+ year old vampire because he supposedly "loves" her. Yeah, right. I didn't even make it through the first book.

5.I cannot for the life of me do a figure8 in reverse. It's impossible, I'm not kidding. Any guesses as to who'll be failing driver's ed range tomorrow?

6. If I ever do decide to try my hand at a life of crime, it'll be with the shameless hope of meeting myself a Neal Caffrey. I'm sorry but it's true. Not sure what's up with his pants being rolled up in this picture, but don't let it fool you. As far as bank robbers, con men and art forgers go, he's not bad. Not bad at all. See, this is what I really don't get about Twilight. Why fall for a pale sparkly vampire who perpetually looks like he's wearing lipstick of some sort, when there's a charming white-collar-criminal-turned-FBI-consultant with the most amazing blue eyes out there? It just doesn't fit...

7. I am a hopeless romantic. I love a good love story, real-life or good fiction. Not the raunchy, immoral stuff that Hollywood seems intent on making these days, but the beautiful, true love kind of thing i.e. Letters to Juliet, Love Comes Softly and Love's Enduring Promise(the books or the movies, I'm not too picky), Elizabeth and Darcy, Margaret and Thornton. What can I say? For all my boys-have-cooties talk (and trust me, there's a lot of that), I love me some love. :)

8. Gerald Lund is the best author EVER. The Alliance, Fire of the Covenant, The Kingdom and the Crown series. He writes the most amazing gospel-related historical fiction, intense thrillers, the occasional science fiction, and some darn good romance side-plots to boot.

9. I love a good bubble bath. I don't know why you need to know this, but you do. A nice, warm, relaxing bubble bath makes even a figure8 in reverse seem feasible. Every girl needs to know the joy that can come from scented suds and a good book by candelight.

10. and ten...I'm horrible at blogging. I may go months without posting, and then do two a day for a few weeks. Just don't expect the updates to be regular.

 

Well, I'd better sign out. Time to go do something much less productive than this. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking it out through my ramblings. You rock. I'll try to cut down on the randomness next time.

To Start...

    I have a confession to make. Don't worry, it's nothing awful. I haven't killed anyone and I have yet to rob a bank. No, it's just that this summer I have...dare I say it?...SLACKED OFF! There, it's out. I, who never, ever, ever procrastinate ever, (if you can't sense the sarcasm in those words, I'm not sure if there's any hope for you) have oficially taken it to a new level. I am now, as my grandfather would lovingly say, a lazy bum.

And since I can't drive myself anywhere, I've read all the interesting books we own, and my back currently isn't agreeing with Dad's suggestion that I mow the lawn, I figured the next best things were either (a. finally get around to robbing that bank or (b. start a blog. Being the lazy bum that I now apparently am I decided that sitting at my laptop would take less exertion than all the work involved with bank robbing (I'm starting slow, okay?) Plus there's, you know, the whole prison aspect of things...

    Anyways, here's to me trying to do something semi-productive. Let's hope it lasts. :P