more pictures

These are from the last day of school and the drama banquet.

Number one: Lindsey and I being ourselves. I love her. X3 And I really like how this one came out. Lindsey's wearing my headband. XD

Number two: These are my friends and role models, Krystel and Tiffany. This picture came out crappy, and I tried to fix it, but it's still crappy. I love those two, though.

Number three: Bacon was Horton the Elephant in Seussical the Musical, and at the Drama Banquet, they gave him his egg with his eleplhant-bird in it. He was being Hamlet in this picture or something. And that's Liz Miller in the background being all amazed and stoofs. XD

Number four: This was supposed to be a picture focusing on my "tattoo" on my arm. It says "Fly Solo Babe!" and has a little bat next to it. It's a long inside joke. And kinda embarrassing. XD

Number five: The Gym Crew. XD These were some of my friends in gym.

Left to Right: Allison, Courtney, me, and Lindsey. X3

pictures from state

From beginning to end, here's the descriptions for the pictures.

Number one: This is one of the many mousse'd pictures. I got into Jessica's mousse and had a bit of fun. X3

Number two: This picture came out crappy, and I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Your guess is about as good as mine. People think I'm holding chopsticks, but I don't remember playing with chopsticks.

Number three: This is the harem! Jessica won a Jeep while we were at State (unbelievable, I know) and we became her personal tagalongs, so she called us her harem. I'm not in this picture, but I'm Harem #1, and I called her Chief Walrus.

Left to right: Sal eating ice cream, Jessica and her Jeep glasses, Lindsey, Colin, and Michael and Emma "sleeping".

Number four: Jessica wearing a funny hat in Old Navy. I thought it was hilarious.

Number five: Me, Lindsey, and Jessica doing the Banana Dance in a plaza at St. George. People were taking their kids away from us. XD

you should-a taste my lasagna

Mood: Grateful for my own house and my own bed.
Listening To: "Lasagna" by Weird Al Yankovic
Reading: Nothing. I need a good book. X___x

So, I'm back from my Stake's Youth Conference. It was a pioneer trek. Holy cow, it was hard. We had a pillowcase to fit our stuff in and a sleeping bag. The first day, we were put into a "family", then we began the hike. My family had four boys and five girls. My parents were Papa John and Mama Dee. It was the Johnson family. Ha. I didn't have to change my last name.

We pulled our handcart fifteen miles the first day. We started out at around 10:30 that morning and finished at around 10:30 that night. I couldn't believe it. Lunch was two pieces of bread, butter, jam, and a cheese stick. That's the least amount of food I've ever had for lunch, but it was the best I've ever had. It filled me up until dinner at 10:30. Dinner was a tin cup of chicken broth and rolls. I had five rolls. XD My excuse was that one roll couldn't soak up all the broth. There was plenty of rolls, obviously.

At around 8:00 the first day, we had something called the Women's Pull. The men left for the "Mormon Battalion", and a lot of the girls were crying. I didn't get it. I didn't really realize what was going on. The way I describe my thoughts is, "Hey, wait a minute. I know this is called the 'Women's Pull', but you're not gonna help us or nothing?"

My "sisters" and I got ready to pull the cart up the steepest hill on the whole trek, and then my Mama Dee came over and asked me if I would go to another family and help them out because they only had three girls. I said of course I would and went to their handcart. JoDee Johnson and Jennifer Hopkins were the girls in the front. They are both really tiny girls. And then it was me and this kinda chunky girl in the back. I assessed the situation with a sound mind and concluded that there was NO FRICKIN' WAY we were gonna get the cart up the hill.

We started up the hill, and we really struggled. I was pushing with all I had and the others were pulling and pushing with all they had, and even then we kept getting stuck. I began to yell out, "1, 2, 3, HAH!" and we'd push on "HAH!". Then a lady came up to me and said, "We'd like you to whisper, please." And I said, "Lady, I'm sorry, but I can't whisper. I can't expect them to hear me when I whisper. I'm gonna yell." And then she walked away and I called out "1, 2, 3, HAH!" again. We were almost to the top when I started to burn out. I felt like I could not do it anymore. And then we were at the top. Men and boys were lined up on either side, giving us an aisle to walk through. I was crying, and I looked up at one of my "brothers" and I saw that he was crying. All of them were crying. They had their hats over their hearts, and they were crying. It strengthened me, and I began to push with all I had again. As we left the top of the hill, boys and men from our families were peeling off and walking next to us. They weren't allowed to help, but just having them walk by us helped. We got down the hill and started up the second one, and a woman in white (symbolizing an angel) began to help us push up the hill. I began to sob, and I felt so relieved. Then halfway up the hill, the angel was replaced with a man. He was huge, and even with him the hill was hard.

I didn't understand. How could just four girls take a handcart up a huge hill by themselves, then start on a smaller hill with a strong guy and have it be harder? I know that we were helped by something other than ourselves. I know that God had a hand in it. Say what you want, but I know that my church is true.

When we were on the smaller hill, it started to rain pretty hard. We finally got to the top, and I was shaking and JoDee hugged me and cried and was thanking me for helping them. The thing I couldn't believe was that she's a cheerleader. She doesn't associate with people like me. And here she was, crying and thanking me.

When all of the groups got to the top and we gathered around and began to sing "Come, Come, Ye Saints", the rain stopped and a huge rainbow came out. It may sound corny, but it was beautiful.

That first night, we slept under the stars. I remember my head hitting my "pillow" (it was my coat) and then nothing else. The next morning we had scones for breakfast. They were so good. We pulled the cart only five miles, then came to our camp at lunchtime. We ate, then set up a shelter and bummed around for about an hour. Then we played family games like tug-o-war and stuff. It was fun. Finally, it was time for our chicken chase.

See, the thing was that we had to kill and prepare a chicken for our dinner. So, all of the families stood in a tight circle, shoulder to shoulder, and two representatives from each family were blindfolded and put in the middle of the circle. Of course, me being me, I was one of our reps. So we waited, and it was kinda scary because I'm afraid of the dark. And then I heard this "bawk" and I realized that the chickens were out. Someone yelled go, and I took three steps forward, and my foot hit something soft. I heard another little "bawk" and had a spaz. I reached down, put one hand underneath the chicken, and held him by the neck with the other.

These were retarded Miracle-Gro chickens. They are bred to grow fast, so in their mind, they're still chicks. XD

So, we prepared our chicken... I'll keep the gory details to myself, thanks. X3

It rained while we were cooking our chicken, so we huddled underneath our tarp and waited for the chicken to cook. When it was almost done, we blessed the food, and the rain stopped. We went and ate, and I've decided that it was some of the best I've ever had.

We had a hoedown later that night, and a caller came with speakers and stuff and set them up in a field. We learned how to square dance and polka, then we did the "Boot Scootin' Boogie". Awesome possum.

The next day was our Sabbath, so we could have the whole experience, you know, and I had to speak in Relief Society. I got up there and winged a two-minute talk. XD

Finally, on the last day, we hiked five miles and finally got on the bus. We got home and I took an hour-long shower and washed off my dirt tan. I have a mondo sunburn, and my nose is peeling. My mom called me a tomato. XD

So that's where I've been for the past four days, and I had a blast.

if charlie wants to tango now they'll have two to dodge

Mood: Bored and grumpy. Didn't sleep much last night.
Listening To: "Camouflage" - Stan Ridgeway
Reading: Nothing. I'm a bad little illiterate girl. =D

Bleh. The Masjestix meeting was pointless. Talking about fundraisers and stuff, and then Syra went off on this ramble about the band going to California. And I don't go to California with them, so I was getting impatient, so we left. XD

And I went swimming. Woohoo.

Yesterday, I went to seminary, which I zoned out at. I really didn't want to zone out, but we went late and we had to sit in the back. So Michael and I talked the whole time. X____x

And then I went to my little brother's baseball game, which only made me frustrated. He has like, the worst team in the league. And it's not because of him or anything, most of the kids like baseball and pay attention, but the coach stinks. So I was yelling at the kids to back up third and pay attention and give that ball a ride because the coach wasn't. And the umpire was seriously whispering his calls. This runner got to third on a foul ball, and the umpire didn't realize until everyone yelled at him. And he was calling pitches at the shins strikes.

I hate bad umps.

So I showed up late to Majestix this morning. An hour and a half late. They weren't in the gym when I walked in at 7:20, so I walked around the school, hoping they'd show up soon and that we weren't marching that morning. I didn't want to walk into the band room and be like, "Hey Mrs. Syra! I'm an hour and a half late for summer band, so why don't you punish me and make me do squats!"

I went back to the gym at 7:30, and there they were, learning a new routine. Dangit. I had to pull poor Casey away and have her teach me the routine. XD It wasn't hard, but I was tired and frustrated and hoping that Misty (my advisor) wouldn't get too mad at me for being late.

So here I am now, still in my gym shorts and bad hair, waiting until 12:30 'cause I have to babysit. Mur.

no le quiero no no no

Mood: Can't complain, but tired. And laughing at Lindsey's Spanish.
Listening to: Lindsey trying to sing in Spanish. (No no no no no no no.)
Reading: The Book of Mormon! 8D

So, Summer Band started on Monday, and I had to go because I'm a Majestix(color guard). It's from 6 to 9 in the morning. X____x But I really like it. It's fun and refreshing and I get to see a lot of people instead of sitting around my house all day.

I walked over to Lindsey's house at 9 on Monday with my friend Michael, and we threw pebbles at her window to wake her up. So she finally got up and let us in, so we invited her to McDonald's because I had no way of getting home. So we all went and ate at McDonald's then went to Blockbuster and rented Newsies. I called my parents like 50 kajillion times, but no one was home, so we started walking to my house, which is a good two and a half miles from the Blockbuster. But, we stopped at a corner and "lo and behold" we saw Sherena, our Destination Imagination coach from 8th grade. She was awesome enough to give us a ride home. Moohaha.

But I've gotta go because I have a Majestix meeting to go to. I'll update later tonight, probably.

it took me a year to believe it was over

Mood: Kinda hyper, kinda tired, pretty happy. You know, normal. XD
Listening To: Lindsey and her classical music in my right ear, "Enid" by BNL in my left. X3
Reading: The Dog Days of Arthur Cane by T. Ernesto Bethancourt

Well, Friday night we had another doubleheader (and now I'm feeling dead. XP) and we won the first game AWESOMELY but lost the second. I was not very happy. The two girls we needed for left and right center showed up but did almost NOTHING. Grawr.

So we had to play again this morning at 9:00 and lost again to Kenecott, the team we lost to on Thursday, so we're out of the tournament. But I don't mind. My team had a great and AWESOME season, so I'm pretty happy. Met some new people, had fun, you know, the whole softball bit. XD

And then we took family pictures. Yep. My weekend was boring, and now my butt hurts really bad. Never play five games in a row and hit four out of those five times and run to first base as fast as you can. You get sore legs and a REALLY sore butt. X_____x

But I've been good. X3

like an echo pedal you're repeating yourself

Mood: Bored out of my mind.
Listening to: "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani
Reading: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (for the eighth time...)

Well, I'm waiting for my mom to get off the phone so we can go walk the dogs... And I know I'm boring the crap out of you. I'll wait while you get new pants.

HAH! FEAR MY LAME JOKES!

Anyhoo... We had a doubleheader in softball last night. It was awesome. There was only eight of us, so one of my teammates and I had to play right and left field. We didn't have a center, so that was kinda hard. We lost the first game. Horribly. But we were all pumped for the second game. We beat them hard! XD And I hit a ball. And made a run. =3 Moohaha. And my coach bought us food at Wendy's. I love her. XD

And we have another game tonight at seven. I'm really excited, now that I know how to play double duty in the outfield. XD

I need less boring things to talk about...

Why did the scarecrow win the Nobel Prize?

Because he was outSTANDING in his FIELD.

I love that joke. X3

Murhur.

Yep.

I dunno. Since a lot of my friends aren't on deviantART, I've got myself a blog. I might not update it as much though... I don't know.

We'll just see what happens, eh?

Soooo...news, news...

I don't have much. School's out, and I'm as bored as a starfish. I don't know if starfish get bored, but they sit around all day like I do.

XD