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

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

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