#GRADuation pictures

Okay, a little explanation. The Blue and Yellow cord is for Marketing and Business Academy at school.

The Light Blue and Gold cord is for Mu Alpha Theta, a Math Honors Society at school.

The White Stole is for National Honors Society.

The Blue and White Tassel is for National Honors Society as well.

Yes, I made my dress. It took me about 10 hours to complete and I started the Wednesday before Graduation. 

That picture with your Grandparents. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa for making the sacrifice and the flight out here to see us walk across a stage.

This was the best sibling photo. I do believe in the others I was looking at the other cameras. 

I love you Christian!

Dad wanted a photo from the Stage where we walked... so we got one! Everybody...

(Back, Left: Grandpa Graves, Mom, Julie, Rachel, Janelle, Dad, Grandma Graves.

Front, Left: Spencer, Russell, Christian, Hannah)

And then of just the family! I'm gonna miss you guys, but I am so excited at the same time for the new chapter of my life.

Rachel, Adrian, and Me. Adrian will always be a good friend. We meet Freshman year and have carried an super light and friendly relationship through Senior year. Thanks for the laughs Adrian and I wish you luck next year at Texas A&M!

Rachel and I got to walk across the stage at sort of the same time. Rachel's name was read first, and then mine, so we got to smile and wave together. :)

Rachel hugging Rachel... hehehe. Ms. Bast was the greatest guidance counselor a girl/boy could ask for. Seriously, the most fun and completely understanding of EVERYTHING. Mrs. Bolinger was awesome too. Super amazing at helping you find scholarships and always prepared. Mrs. Gray was amazing as well. She was firm handed but knew how to throw a PAR-TAY!

My church leaders decided to throw a dinner for all of the graduating Senior Girls one Wednesday night. While in the midst of dinner, one of the Junior Girls was on her way home from the activity at the church. She saw all of the cars lined up, and noted that she had some window paint in her car. So she drew '13 and "Happy Graduation" on all of our cars! It was so sweet of her and we kept it on for a few days before Dad made Rach and I wash it off. :(

I went to four graduations (one freshman year, one sophomore year, and then two others this year) before it was actually my turn to walk across the stage. This was Graduation #1 of this year for me. I was so jealous that they got to walk into Pomp and Circumstance played by a full orchestra.... beyond jealous actually. It was beautiful though.

This reminded me of a little boy that goes to my church. He has a hard time saying some sounds in front of words, so "exploded" "cleaning" and "smoking" often come out "sploded" "leaning" and "mokin."

Kelsey! She was my hangout buddy at the Band Banquet 2013, but congrats girlie on University of Tennessee-Knoxville. You will do great things!

NANA!!!! 

This is one of the best friends that I could ever have outside the church. I had some much fun with you throughout high school and I hope that life takes you far!

a little catch up

'Cuz we all could use one...

School is winding down... we've hit the midterm mark. (Hallelujah!) and now, all I have to worry about is keeping my grades up and rocking the AP Tests in May. O, and NOT freaking out about a HUGE English paper due in a few weeks. After the middle of April, then I can relax.. only a few more weeks. I can do this.

I started teaching piano lessons. This was soo new. I had only ever been on the receiving end of a piano lesson. But, then I got message on Facebook about teaching someone from my church lessons. And it spiraled from there. I now have six students who are the cutest things ever. I have a few kids that are between eight and fifteen, but most of them five to seven. I now make more in an hour than most people make in three hours at a minimum wage job. Mom and Dad had to swallow a pill and now the piano lessons are my job. :D score!

I made guard co-captain this past fall. My friend Angela was the best co-captain ever. I love her! The marching band did Tron for a show and it was so much fun!! We did some rock hard stuff and scored a beautiful 95 out of 100 at our last competition! We got some awesome new instructors who are hard core Guard Participants and it made such a difference. Thank you Joey and Katie for making senior year amazing.

I went to Governor's School this past summer. I am so glad that I went too. I ended up missing my one and only chance at being a YCL at a church camp, but that is okay. I wouldn't trade that experience of Gov School for anything. It was so much fun. 35 new classmates for the most part interested in the same things as you are, 4 great counselors (two of which were hiding a relationship from us the entire time!), 4 girls who got sent home for disobeying curfew. Four weeks of a mini college experience (bad food and all). Tried the last night to pull an all-nighter and reached about 5 am and couldn't do it any more. Woke up at like seven to be out of the dorm and ready for a presentation for our parents, and then a short ride back home (compared to others).  I haven't seen a lot of them in a long time, but I really want to see them all again soon!

Over Fall Break, Rachel and I went to Utah and saw three colleges and a lot of family. Thanksgiving with most of the cousins on one side; many, many late nights with cousins and friends; and of course lots of memories. Rachel and I both have decided to attend Utah State University next fall. I am so excited for this new chapter in my life!

Right before Rachel and I went to Utah over Fall Break, my youngest aunt got engaged so over Christmas Break we all went to Utah (we drove 40+ hours) and saw a bunch more family and saw her get married to my uncle. Adrienne and Dallin are so cute together and I wish them the best of luck in their marriage. 

a new member to the club

so yesterday joined a new club: the no wisdom teeth club. and it is the worst experience to date. as everyone who has gone through surgery knows, they ask that you not eat anything 8 hours before your surgery so they dont accidentally hit anything and cause other unwanted problems (gag reflex, spit glands, etc.)  so i didnt eat anything... but i wasnt about to miss band camp because i was getting my wisdom teeth out. so i woke up like super early (5:45 AM!) to have breakfast by my lonesome, and then went back to bed until i could get up again to go to band camp. (UGH......) then i trailed my sorry little dehydrated butt through 3 hours of basic marching before i was allowed to go home and lay on the couch for two hours until i could leave for my appointment. let me just interrupt and say that that is super hard to do: sit outside for 3 hours with no water and little eat that morning in 98 degree weather, with a 105 heat index i think it hit. not exactly ideal situations.

but then i was sitting in the chair waiting for the doctor, and the nurse gives you the low down, (no eating for an hour, take your meds, soft stuff, etc.) and then she took my blood pressure and gave me the laughing gas. so well i guess i should say that i had heard one too many stories about laughing gas, and so i was extremely nervous to be on it for the first time in my life. not exactly top ten things to do before i die, kind of nervous. so i just sat there in the chair trying to relax, and it made me sick! like the room would start to spin (and i DONT do roller coasters) and so i would jolt back up, and the stinkin' blood pressure thingy would start beeping and it was just irritating (oh, we also found out that laughing gas makes me cranky and highly irritable. :) ). so then the doctor walks in and gives me the iv, and gives the the novocaine or whatever it is to numb you and then to knock you out. one of those itches like crazy in the worst spot imaginable.... i will just let you imagine that one...... and then i dont remember anything.

i woke up like 45-60 minutes later three teeth-less and got to ride in my first wheelchair to the car. mom took me through the drive through at walgreens to get the meds to the pharmacy, and then i got to spend the rest of my friday and saturday on the couch... my friend brought me moose track ice cream (THANK YOU SOO MUCH! SOOO AMAZING!) and i couldnt speak because my lips and tongue were still numb and when i did try to eat something, it was difficult because i couldnt feel those muscles, so my dad had to help show me where the stinkin drool was lol ya great times. i got sick friday night but my mom thinks it was the steriod that the doctor gave me for pain (you can split it in half if it makes you sick, and i guess it makes me sick to have a whole one! :)) but i was able to eat a pancake saturday so that is promising. and no swelling yet! yipeeee!!

i walked into band this morning, and everyone had forgotten that i had gotten my teeth out, because honestly i didnt look that bad. hallelujah!


and guys, the iv was the first shot i had had in 11 years.... yaaa you do the math on that one and tell me what i need to get......

christmas and the new year

christmas was a success and a fairly small ordeal this year. my parents have been budgetting for the house so the gifts were small but homemade. the only really super big gifts given this year were the trampoline that my grandparents "bought" for us (they sent us a check and we bought it with the deposit) and my dad's router that santa got for him. the family got like 6 new movies (3 of them that we watched before lunch time!), two new games and then of course the trampoline. i got some new gloves, some waterproof playing cards (ive been asking for them for like ever!), the first three Percy Jackson books (rachel got the last two), a new wallet, a handy case for my Walkman, a rifle for colorguard (im soo excited!!!), and then an umbrella. but the umbrella has a story:

opened my gift from santa and was excited, my OWN umbrella, but then i was prompted to open the umbrella upside down. turned out that santa made it rain money! in between each individual prong, was a five dollar bill. so if you counted thats five prongs, so ten bills x five bucks = $50!! yep, i was allowed 50 dollars to go and spend on clothes that were badlly wanted and needed, mind you. monday i went and shopped the after christmas sales with rachel and i purchased a waist belt, a flowly sweater, and two new pairs of jeans (thank you old navy and jcpenney's!!) after our excursion, i then went to oldnavy.com and spent an addition 30 dollars on some fashionable scarves that were not in the store. they arrived thursday afternoon which is impressive seeing how i got the cheapest shipping (5-7 days). rachel was a little upset because she ordered a dress from downeastbasics.com on christmas that took until friday to show up. she was a little mad when i showed her my scarves to say the least. hahaha :)


the new year has been good to me so far. i spent the count down to the new year talking to my friend-boy that i would really like to be my boyfriend but there are age requirements on my side that prohibit that until my 16th birthday. haha cant wait for that! im only 6 months away from it! the old year was not exactly. the day before new years eve i was supposed to babysit this adorable little girl from the neighborhood while her parents went to a bowl game in nashville. unfortunately i got sick an hour before the job started and was forced to pass it to my sister. ugh i was soo not happy about doing that. but i didnt want to take the chance of getting her sick as well. luckily after a long, needed nap i felt better and was able to help in laying the hardwood in kitchen addition.

thats right! you heard me right!! the boxes that have been stacked in the living room for about a year, have finally been ripped open and the glue/sealant has been bought and both have been ripped into as we have started applying hardwood to the entire downstairs. as of the moment we have successfully floored the kitchen and family room and have crossed our way into the entry way and our small hall closet. we are down to the bottom of our fifth! (yes 5th!!) 5-gallon bucket of sealant/glue and are going to have to scrap to finish whats left of the hallway. needless to say, my father will be purchasing about three more buckets at lumber liquidators in the next couple of days. we still have about 15 boxes left of hardwood to use in the dining and living rooms that my dad thinks we wont need. we will just see how far they get us. it officially looks like we are moving if you are to look in through the downstairs windows, and taking everything with us. we have evacuated every piece of furniture, accessories, and more into the garage, fruit room, mud room, and shop as possible in order to make the rooms scarce and easy to empty when we shift rooms. needless to say, the house is an udder pig stye as me, my mom and dad, and rachel work our tails off to finish as much as possible before my dad goes back to work tomorrow. but unfortunately, that wont work seeing how we are down to the bottom of the glue. we will have to resume work tomorrow.

in the mean time, im getting ready for school! i cant believe im saying this, but im getting tired of the break! all the house work and the mindless hours of sitting down doing nothing are killing me and i cant wait to have something productive and educational to do. that is my life!! as you can imagine with all the house work, my social life has been paused in order to help, so i cant wait to see all my friends again. yipee!!


umm new years resolutions.. earn so mula! be more loving and helpful; make a list of things i will need for college and work on the little things (sheets, a quilt, a scrapbook of memories, my own clothes [none of the sharing business anymore], a cookbook, and things like that); get another honor bee (i had my interview yesterday and im getting it presented next week! im ecstatic! i finished the book of mormon on friday); and maybe build up a library of books for the college life. who knows its all news to me!

thursday begins the new semester for school and i will go into honors chemistry, lifetime wellness, accounting one, and concert band. wellness is like health and gym combined, so its pretty much a joke. and chemistry is going to be interesting, but seeing how i had algebra two last semester its supposed to be easier. (hopefully!!!)

marching contests and football season catch up

in the last couple of weeks, the band has gone to a couple of different band competitions. the first we went to was at sullivan north high school for the "music in the foothills" competition. we did really well all things considered, although the guard didn't even place. the band placed first in drum majors, second in percussion, third (last of 3) in guard/majorettes, first in the AAAA division, first in the AAA and AAAA combined section, and then first in the over all competition. after review of the scores, our guard just happened to be the guard that the judge didnt particularly like the most. the ride there and back on the bus was so much fun. we colored and talked and slept and talked some more, vedged on some food and did all the fun stuff that you do on band buses. (on a PG level, of course)

the second and last competition was the most fun. just kidding! it wasnt as far away as the first competition was so we didnt stop at any point in time in the ride. therefore we were allowed to enjoy a little more time together before we left. my dad took me over to the high school as soon as the band room opened so that i could hang out with my freshie, talk, polish a horn or two with a friend, and do some last minute practicing before we loaded up the truck and headed out. by this point in time, i had been adopted as the guard member on loading crew (for away events for the band) and therefore helped put tubas, drums, trombones, etc. on the truck before we left. as a joke the parent in charge of loading crew wanted dillion (the senior on loading) to pack so compactly so that we could fit the gator on the truck if we werent going to be renting a trailor. of course we rented a trailor, but if we hadnt we could have easily put the gator on the truck if we wanted to. the drive up to sequoyia high school wasnt awful and it went by rather quickly. when we got to sequoyia, we started to unload the truck, and when the bass drums came of the truck, one of the cases got put too far underneath the truck and a rim on one side of the drum got smashed. mr. clemons, the percussion instructor, wasnt at the competition, so mr. rogers was the first to hear about it. and of course he was super pissed about the whole thing. thank goodness that the home band was there so we just borrowed their smallest bass drum and problem solved. we ended up being the largest band at the "Band Jam" competition so we got all the first places in the AAAA division, we won the AAA and AAAA division and then won the HUGE trophy for overall. unfortunately the HUGE trophy is a traveling trophy which means that we have to send it back to Sequoia next year. ;(

the football team won against william blount and so we went into the playoffs. we traveled to sevier county and on the way there hit a four car collision. the resulting traffic jam resulted in a two hour hold up and we missed the first half of the game. we had to pull over to a gas station because one of the girls in the back had to use the bathroom so bad. we then got the school just in time to warm up, quickly watch sevier county's band who graciously went first, and then we went on. we did a really good run of the first three songs and then marched off because of the buzzer. the band didnt take the third quarter off because we missed the first half. Farragut won against Sevier County 41-21 and we will proceed in the play offs against maryville on friday. we would have played at home, but maryville won... guess there goes our chance at getting very far in the playoffs.......... ;(

the last home game aka senior night

the last home football game is alwasy hard. but this one was extra hard. our running back coach for the football team passed away thursday night of some diabetic related heart problems. he also had pancreatic cancer. yesterday during first block we had a moment of silence for Mr. Shoup and his family. a lot of the school felt the repercussions of his death, so the guidance counselors were in a classroom all day to offer counseling to any student or teacher that felt like they needed to. the football team was called down into the gym to talk to the head coach about what was going to happen about last nights game.

the cheerleaders made a sign with "do it 4 shoup" written on it, and the football team helped make "rs do it for shoup" bracelets for the entire student body, staff, and any attendee at the game. the senior class also made some flags that they flew that had the same slogan on it. on one they printed their hand, and then made some comments for shoup. i felt for one of my friends. she has been through a lot the past couple of weeks. her grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago and she was very close to Mr. Shoup to see him pass away, it be senior night, and having to listen to everyone screaming "do it for shoup!" was very hard for her. she was very emotional and almost made me cry many many times.

here is a link and story about Ryan Shoup and some other events of the football game.
http://www.wbir.com/news/article/139374/5/Update-Farragut-assistant-football-coach-remembered-by-brother


the band recgonized the seniors as well as the football team last night. sadly that meant a lot more crying for the guard. we will be loosing only four members this year, but the smaller the amount the harder it is to say good-bye quite frankly. we had to do our show after the game again, but this time we were actually allowed on the field to do what we wanted during half time. the lenior city band stayed to watch, of course.

farragut beat lenior city 16-7.

adorable bag #2

i made another bag like the black one i made a couple weeks ago, this time i made it for the girl on the colorguard that i am giving secret sister gifts to. the bag turned out so adorable and it was super easy this time because i actually knew what i was doing without having to really pour over the instructions. the only hard time i had was with the attachment of the lining to the outside. that was the trickest part.

this one turned out so cute i might go buy some of this fabric and make myself one! hahaha :)

bearden vs. farragut #2

the rivalry game is always the biggest game of the year. the stands are packed and the crowd is semi attentive to the game. the people there at the game usually are there to watch Farragut beat Bearden, or vice versa depending on where you go. the bands are not allowed to have the rivalry spirit in the hopes of being good sports and the on-lookers arent usually awful to us (us, being the band members). but apparently a couple years back they had some issues with band members so they dont want us to go past the bearden section without a buddy/group.

no big pranks this year, which was probably a very good thing. although we had a big injury. one of the starters was running a play and a bearden player ended up taking the dude down and messing with his ankle. BAD... all of the ligaments in his ankle, his ankle, and some open fracture leg material. needless to say he was screaming in pain, they had him on an IV and a stretcher before they even thought about getting him off the field. unfortunately that was the sad part. good part? FARRAGUT BEAT BEARDEN WITH LIKE 0 SECONDS ON THE CLOCK!!! for a little while we didnt think we were going to win, but we pulled ahead winning 32-26 with literally like 0.3 seconds on the clock.

farraguts band didnt end up getting to perform during half time because of the baseball team recognition and the can drive announcement (of course bearden won, we wont be getting into those details) and bearden's band did their entire show like THEY WERENT SUPPOSED TO! but we were responsible people and we got off the field BEFORE the team got penalized for "game delay". we did the show after the game and we had some stragglers stay and watch.

thanks guys! :)

the catch all posts of all catch all posts

i sincerely apologize for not keeping this updated! lol the last couple of weeks have been hectic beyond imagine, between school, band, church, and the naps i steal in between, i have had little free time. and thats partially bad time management on my part. but im working on it and i hope to keep up with the time and manage it better. lol

what has happened since the last post you ask?

well a lot of things lol

since then:
 i have been allowed to drive a good 12 times on the road. i was soo excited.

school started and i feel the consequences of having two honors plus an ap class in addition to band. friday     and wednesday nights are killer but by some miracle i make it all work.

the football season started and the team played three games: dobyns-bennett, oak ridge, and catholic. db was a blow out loss, oak ridge went into sudden death but we pulled it off and won, and catholic was a close game. with the catholic game we were up the first half, but going into the second we just lost it. a bunch of dropped passes and bad running. as you might have guessed we lost, leaving the team 1-2.

i started the Book of Mormon over again, and i am currently chugging along with 12 columns a day trying to read the BoM by the end of October. it is going to be close, but i think im going to make it.

my parents decided to take an anniversary trip (almost unheard of in my family) to dc. actually my dad was there for business, and he surprised her with an extra ticket to dc. she got the exciting courtesy of staying in an impressive 5 star hotel room, of course with a beautiful view of the potomac; or at least thats what ive heard lol

i went to Hoops for Hope and was allowed the privilege to help the team "managers" with the Down-Syndrome kids. such a neat experience. they are the sweetest things and i dont think ive been hugged so many times in one day. it was a really neat experience and i am soo excited for next year.

i went to a church activity with the entire stake plus one of the neighboring stakes. so i got to see my friend-boy that i really really like, and he likes me back. (: i know the hopeless romantic is coming out in me. but that night we added two more songs to our list of "our songs". we now cannot listen to hey soul sister, your love is my drug, and the only exception without thinking about each other. at least thats how i feel lol we cant really talk because he doesnt have unlimited texting (or i dont have the right phone service, either way) and i dont have a facebook. but im working on the facebook thing. mom and dad are contemplating it still.


that is really about it. my life has been sucked into the vortex of school, band, and the minuscule social life i  have. i barely have a life outside of that and any extra time i have is spend reading the Book of Mormon or sleeping. cuz i sure have not received the doctor-perscriped 9 hours of sleep in a LONG time. try more like 6-7 hours a night. it is really difficult to keep my eyes open during notes and videos and it really really stinks. but i guess thats high school. time to suck it up lol

city meet and the rest of band camp and the temple trip

band camp day four... ugh

thursday was actually very productive. the band learned most of our first song, eleanor rigby. the guard actually had some work to apply to the show, so we had to actually do the work and try to keep the chart correct. more difficult than you would ever know. that is, unless you've been through high school band and have had to use coordinate sheets instead of a visual of the move. that night we were going through a move and the guard was doing partner work. as i leaned out into a lunge and was leaning with my flag away from my partner. as i stepped through out of the lunge, i slipped and fell on my knee. because i was sweaty and disgusting from spending 80% of the day outside, the blood from scraping my knee open was flowing down my leg and making it a lot worse than it actually was. one of the first aid moms hooked me up with a couple of band aids and some alcohol wipes and sent me on my merry way. perfect! (: i ended up sitting the rest of practice on the side line watching the band practice moving into a couple of the more difficult charts. nerve racking right? not quite actually. when i got home, i had to wash out the wound (excruciatingly painful for someone who had slit open the skin on her knee four times, and then ripped more in little spots) and put a band aid on it. i ended up sleeping with an ace bandage AND a knee brace on it just to keep the band aid on.

the next morning was city meet. urgh.

i had to wake up around 545 just so we could leave the house and get to down town on time. i was a little nervous about swimming with my knee, but swimming wasnt as painful as i had anticipated. after my team finished warm ups i went and got a lifeguard to tape me up as to keep the "sweating" and bleeding down. walking around like i had a knee split on was fun but it really didnt hinder me much swimming wise. i ended up swimming all freestyle upon request. i did alright, placing lower than i would have like to. but, i did win my heat in the 100 free!! yipee!!!!

the next morning i woke up again and went downtown for the meet, this time to be a coach. i helped with some of the new and younger kids, and one of the little girls i helped, decided to swim at this huge meet. by the smile on her face when she got out of the pool, i could just tell that she absolutely loved every moment of it. she did her best and was grinning from ear to ear. when i wasnt screaming my guts out for her, i was following Ben, the head coach, around reminding him to get times for the other swimmers. he did pretty well at keeping on top of that.

band camp week two was just as brutal as week one, but the heat index was way worse because we had a storm front closing in. the football team was practicing a lot of the time while we were, and we all laughed as they wimped out when the heat reached 95. haha what whiners. we were able to add the second song and most of the third one. thursday night we had a huge dance for all band camp attendees. we sure had fun partying it up and dancing. friday was the last day of band camp. the blessed day had come!! hallelujah we reviewed the flow of the show, and then we practiced marching to anchors aweigh. o what fun lol jk!

that afternoon we drove to nashville to participate in a church trip. to the temple! yeah!! my favorite time of the year!! the family all caravaned down and we watched some of the littler kids so their parents could go to a session. saturday morning we all went to the temple to do a couple sessions and have a huge picnic lunch. i helped my mom print off the pictures that another sister took of the kids in front of the temple. some of the pictures were sooo adorable (:

band camp days 1-3

okay so the exhaustion and awfulness of band camp has begun. unfortunately. the first day was okay but really hot. we went over marching and marching with flags and marching while spinning and backwards marching and marching in a block and making them together and a bunch of other basic stuff. monday we decided that we were going to invite one of the middle school guard members to make our numbers an equal 15. lol believe me it does equal to an even number when you take out the three captains. promise.

yesterday was day two and that was awful. we did basics again because the middle school guard member had never done marching before so that was interesting. i felt really bad for her though because she made it all the way through the hardest practice (the morning practice) and as we were walking the school for our break, she lost the snack she had had at break. i felt really awful for her. but thats the only instance the guard has had so far.

today was awful too because it was muggy and humid. we actually got some drill put on for the show and it was nice to know that we were going somewhere with the show (: the only really bad part about it was the fact that we as the guard were put into the show by the band director, which is considerate, but not actually a good thing. because of the work that leslie had written for the opening part of the show involved a lot of tossing, the spots that the director had placed us in werent really going to work. unfortunately. so we had to work that out with the director and get the charts figured out. and then it rained during the morning practice (hallelujah), so we had to go in and clean the few 16's of work we actually had done. tonight's practice should be interesting in seeing how the charts and the work actually fit in with the music and the bands placement.

catch up post/ GIRLS CAMP!! =)/ YOUTH CONFERENCE!

i know that it has been a while since ive posted! sorry!! i just got back from youth conference and ive been running around town trying to get things ready.

highlights of the past three weeks...

the fourth of july parade and those practices

well umm that is pretty self explanatory. the first night was a little interesting, because i got to catch up with all my alumni friends and talk with them. the colorguard had to teach the lovely alumni and the freshman anchors aweigh which is always a joy. the work is really easy, but the frustrating part is the silks we use on the flag are wayyy longer than they should be so the weight distribution is off, like wayyy off. so it was a little harder for the new and returning girls to get the work flowing.

the parade went really well. i was standing on the edge of the block that we march in. this was a great responsibility because i was in charge of keeping the line straight and it was kind of scary because i had to watch my line up with the band and then the other two girls in my line and then worry about the work. i had a great time though. let me see if i can name the people i saw... sextons, the usual clan of family, and the pulvers. and then of course all my friends parents from the band.

GIRLS CAMP!! =)

o my goodness. this is my favorite time of the year and im soo thankful for the opportunity that i had to go this year to STAKE camp. a chronology and details about it lol

we had to wake up super early to get everything ready on tuesday and be at the church at 7:45 AM! as to pack up the trailer that was taking our stuff up to camp and leave the church by 8 am. we were at the Girl's Scout Camp by 9:30. the first day is always a blast because you get to catch up with friends from the previous years and get acquainted again. the YCL's did a skit about this year's theme: SUPERHERO'S! and of course, their leaders FAVORITE song: pants on the ground. it was quite epic. the girls in my age group were: Lisa, Alex, me, Rachel, Katherine, Kaitlyn, Kelsey, Amanda, Jessica, Ashlee, Allison, and Summer. we were all knew each other from last year, and so we were able to skip the awkward first day getting to know each other again. that day we played in the pool and played some games like ninja and tug of war, but the most prominent one is the camp favorite, LITTLE SALLY WALKER! i wasnt a party pooper, but i was really tired so i didnt really participate. that night we stayed up the latest because we were so excited to be there with each other even if we were exhausted from the heat and all the rigorous playing. HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: during certification, our YCLs, natalie, jessica, katie, and kristen, were showing my age group (consisting of 12 girls) how to start a fire without matches. one of the ways that Katie was showing us was using steel wool, pencil shavings and a 9 volt battery. u make a nest out of the steel wool, "insulate" the nest with pencil shavings, and then pulled out a battery. she wasnt sure if it was going to work or not, so she gently touched the battery on the steel wool and kaboom! instant fire. she kind of got scared and threw it and screamed, so the leaders freaked out, but she was stamping it out before anything ever happened and the leaders found anything out. it was great.

wednesday was the annual hike and it was a little bit of a disappointment because we kept having to stop for the elderly leaders to hurry up or take a break. we learned some pointless information about the animals that inhabit the area, but we had a lot of fun with snapshots. we got to go canoeing and paddle boating later that afternoon and we had a lot of fun playing around in the cove. wednesday was one of our leaders birthdays so her husband brought up a cake. a couple of the ycls decided that to do a cake eating contest and it was soo funny. it went a little AWOL and some of the girls ended up with cake in their hair. the leader's favorite game in Little Sally Walker, so we played it just for her. that night we also did skits and it was a lot of fun to see the creative juices of all us girls flow into a hilarious play. each year had the same lines, but everyone had a very different interpretation of what to do with those lines.

thursday was a lot of fun too we played around a little bit with some flour in a tissue and had a "flour war".  some of the girls applied first aid to our "injuried" bodies. lol it was a lot of fun to see the creative-ness as we had to become injured by a "tissue bomb". then we had an all out war and pretty much everybody ended up with flour in their hair and/or down their shirt. poor sara got it in her hair and she looked like a grandma. big smiles and everything. sooo adorable though. that night was the testimony meeting and the Spirit was so strong me and Hannah again spent the great part bawling. we ran over lights out, so we had to adjourn to our cabin. for the devotional, our leaders and ycls decided to do a testimony meeting for those girls who hadnt had the chance. the plan was to stay up all night, but everyone pretty much hit a brick wall around 3 or 4 AM... for me, it was around 230. i had a lot of fun playing cards and talking.

friday was the last day and we had the opportunity to give out awards and clean up after a great week at camp. i was awarded the momma bat award because i try to include everyone and get everyone excited, etc.

Swim Meet

my swim team had a swim meet against ccc this past week. i did the 200 METER im; the breast in the 200 METER medley with alyssa, lizzy, and kaitlyn; the 50 METER breast, and the 200 METER free relay with the same girls. we had a lot of fun, but unfortunately the fun didnt pay off. we didnt win, unfortunately we lost BIG time, 294-409.

 YOUTH CONFERENCE 2010 (yeah :) )

okay so a preface before i give you exciting details. my dad took me and my sister out for our birthday. while we were out, my sister got a call from an 801 number. i knew that immediately as a Utah number, so i was nervous for her. rachel answered, and come to find out, it was a member of the Young Men's General Board, Brother Egan. he wanted to ask her if she would participate in a short talk he would be giving sometime that weekend. so the lunch kind of turned into a congratulations lunch and a birthday lunch instead of just a birthday lunch.

this past weekend i was able to go to Youth Conference at close by college. thursday we had to check in and then we had a dance later that night. the dance was a lot of fun as most dances are. it was kind of awkward and hot seeing how there was a good 500 kids in a tiny gymnasium, but there was a lot of mingling, and a lot of laughter. a lot of the girls found their C.O.W.'s (crush of the weekend) and got up the courage to get numbers and a dance. i got to bed around 1230 AM and ended up sleeping in my dress i had worn because i was freezing.

friday was an early morning because a friend came and knocked on our door at 630 AM!! aah. not cool. i answered the door with a really retarded smile and then proceeded to crawl back into bed. breakfast that morning was a good biscuit, a crappy egg, and some crappy bacon. when they planned the camp they allowed us to have 2 hours for each meal, so we took our time getting there. that morning we did a service project of picking up some trash on our side of the campus, and writing our testimonies on cards to place in books of mormon. the group i was in was given the field next to the dorm i was staying in. unfortunately there wasnt a lot of trash, so the people in my group go the chance to talk. i met jordan, isaiah, and matt. you talk about some funny guys. matt has a nickname of chip bc he is apparently looked like a chipmunk when he was little. and isaiah looks like david archuleta, so matt and me started calling him david, which kind of got on his nerves i guess. i also had the chance to meet and talk to a set of guy twins that were visting their uncle here, thus resulting in them going to the conference, andrew and hamilton. they are really funny also and i could tell that a couple of my friends really did like the chance to talk to them. that night we had a formal dance and they gave us again about two hours to get ready. i can sadly say that i used all of those two and a half hours to get ready. in my defense, i helped five other girls in the process so it wasnt all spent on me. my friend emma and i gave two girls some styling and make up tips before we helped the other three finish their hair. i wore a white skirt with black accents with a green shirt and coincedentally, a friend wore the same outfit! aah soo cool. we meant to take a picture, but that never happened unfortunately. on our way over to the recreational center, we ran into President Elaine S. Dalton, the General Young Women's President. you talk about a real honor to talk to and introduce yourself to a General Authority. the dance that night was a lot more fun. i knew a lot more people, so it was easier to talk to and find guys to dance with. i had kind of developed a crush for this guy and i got the chance to dance with him a lot. hes a lot of fun to talk to. i danced with a lot of guys and had the oppurtunity to get to know A LOT more guys. lucky me i guess lol  President Dalton and Brother Egan gave our devotional that night about be strong and of a good courage which was the theme for the conference. after the dance, we all literally made it to the dorm rooms before we passed out and slept.

saturday was not so much an early morning because we were actually allowed to sleep in with out interruption. we had some workshops about different things and then had the oppurtunity to hear from President Dalton and Brother Egan again. this time about consequences for our actions. about picking up a stick and picking up the other end, like it or not. it was very cool and really interesting to interact with them. after the workshops we had lunch and had some time to pack up and chill out. then we had a very interesting testimony meeting. President Dalton, Brother Egan and Elder Cornish all bore their testimonies and then turned the time over to the youth to bare their testimonies. a lot of the testimonies were sweet and short, which is always good. i didnt end up bawling like i usually do until i bore my testimony, and thank goodness for that. i didnt want to look like a fool next people i barely knew. hahahaha

then the sad day came and we had to say goodbye. i got some more phone numbers to keep in touch with people and said the sad things of see you soon and thanks so much for the fun.

summer is here!

i am so excited! summer is now here and i have an entire week to do absolutely nothing before swimming starts. but i will probably start going down to the pool every  morning and swim a couple of laps to start getting in shape. how exciting! not really...

but my final grades are:

honors biology (sooo glad that class is OVER)-96 (YES!!)
honors geometry (kind of sad that class is over...)-96 (WOO HOO!!)
computer applications (not really regretting the over-ness)-97
band- 99

the last two classes werent really that big of an accomplishment, but my first two classes were definitely! i really worked for those two classes and i was soo excited that i got all A's my second semester =)

band banquet number uno

amazing. the only word that truly describes the atmosphere and events of last night. the band has an annual banquet at the end of the concert season and that is were the directors give out superlatives and awards and the parents of Micheal David Greene present a couple of seniors with a scholarship in his name. if you want to know more about the scholarship, click here. This year my mom made my dress cuz we figured that it would be cheaper to make the dress and get all the sewing necessities for it, than to go and try to find a dress that would be modest and appropriate for the occasion. ill try and get a picture of the dress and me in it, on the blog soon.

after the "ceremony" was over, the directors allowed us to have a dance. party!! i enjoyed rockin out with some of my senior friends for the first and last time in some cases. the dj we had was really cool, but he only let some of the songs play for a couple of seconds.. total bummer. he did let us play through a bunch of "line" dances. i use line very lightly because they werent the hoedown throwdown and the cowboy one; they were the cupid shuffle and of course soulja boy. of course lol

we had a lot of fun and i look forward to the next one. but not without all my senior friends... :(

dress news

thanks so much to those of you who commented on which dress you liked best. i decided to go with the black dress, but my fabric is a light aquamarine color, like the sky on a clear summers day. i am soo excited and my mom has all the parts sewn together, its just waiting the final assembly and stitching. the banquet is the first of may, so i have about two weeks, but thats all ive got. NERVES!! my really excited though. i miss the dance that the band had at the end of band camp and i cant wait to have another with all my friends. but this time i know most of the people!! i dont feel like a complete stranger anymore. i can name most of the people by name from conversations with them, so i feel acheived.

band news

i am in the concert band this season. the concert band went to a festival on the 9th and we had to ride a bus to get there- naturally. i sat with a couple of my friends and the only problem that we had was boredom. so we decided to play truth or dare. at first i was a chicken and said truth more times than i did dare, but then i got over that fear and from the game became more of a dare or dare game, not truth or dare. we were limited to the four walls of the bus, so we got creative. the bus driver nor the chaperones on our bus were paying attention so we got out onto the row and put our feet on someone, i ended up sitting in the seat wrong side up for five dares, a couple of the dudes got slaps in between the shoulder blades and then we got REALLY bored, so we started getting into the kisses on the cheek and the licking of various body parts: feet, toes, belly buttons and even a face or two. i was dared to kiss one of my friends on the lips and as we went to kiss, i got really close and then he decided to stick his tongue out. thank goodness i didnt kiss it. AWKWARD things would have happened then that im glad didnt. lol JK!!

our next concert is next week and needless to say our director is nervous about our preparedness to play. i think we will do just fine if the brass can pull it together, but thats a long shot.

winning streak brought to abrupt halt

an abrupt halt it was, thats for sure. maryville brought thier game yesterday and won. 35-15 rebels was the final score. sad, sad day. after half time, idk if farragut got sloppy, or if the refs just started calling things to allow maryville to win, but there were several flags thrown over our plays. now i know how it feels to be cheering for a losing team... :( no fun. maryville's first touchdown of the fourth quarter was made through an interception, from none other than reese browning, on our 25, all the way to their in zone. the guy slipped through like four guys' tackles and got the touchdown. so they kicked the ball off, we missed it, we set it up on thier 20 yard line. we start the play and make it to our in zone, but one of the refs had thrown a flag and made the touchdown invalid. stinkin' refs. after that, at least four more flags were thrown on our plays. but none on ANY of maryville's. me and some friends counted at least four plays that should have been flagged, but b/c the refs were biased, they left maryville to themselves.

i did well as far as work and the show goes. we did another stand still performance, and i think we all did very well, band and guard and majorettes. during the first quarter, the drum majors handed us tickets to redeem a drink later on. i chose to get hot chocolate just b/c i was a little cold. the hot chocolate definitely held to its name. my tongue is now burnt in several places and it hurts to play clarinet, eat, or even to swipe across my teeth. it going to be a long healing process...

football as of late

so i havent had the time to blog a whole lot lately. school, band, and all that jazz we have to call life.

the overview of the season has gone as so:
maryville: took pep band b/c of costs score: 35-32 maryville
lenior city: theres a story with this one:

the visitor stands at lenior city are weird. they go up several more rows on one side and then the other only has like 5 rows or so. because of this odd arrangement, some of the lower brass and woodwinds ended up closer to the guard then to the band. i was in the back corner, so i had turned around to talk to some of the band members and socialize. during a song, i always turned forward and participated in the school spirit. so later on in the game, after half time, i was turned around talking to the band members and when i turned back around, i got yelled at for being outside my section. needless to say i was not happy with this because these less than uplifting words were not coming from a captain's, band director's, or instructor's mouth; they were coming from a sophomore that is very much a control freak. me and her are not the best of friends and often find faults in each others lives. other than that little miss-fit i did very well and didn't forget any work or drop to my memory. the football team dominated and one of my friends actually score the final extra point to make the grand score 42-7 admirals

william-blount was the next opponent. we dominated and ended up winning 45-0.

oh then the play offs started!! woo hoo!

ooltewah was the first rounds opponent. when we arrived we were "welcomed" with a sign below the score board that read "HEY ADMIRALS, THE COWBOYS WANT THEIR UNIFORMS BACK!" (we actually didn't steal the star from them, we have the rights to use it unlike another school in this county *cough*carter*cough*). then the football team decided to run through a banner with the scores from last years games. both of which ooltewah had won. but heres the catch, ooltewah lost their star running back because of injuries i do believe, and we had beat them in the scrimmage WITH him. so i was pretty confident in our winning ability. the band was not performing at all, and so the guard was allowed to wear whatever! woo hoo!!! of course it was cold so we all layered like three times over. we of course whooped their butts: 24-7 admirals.

then of course the bearden game.
and the maryville game is yet to come.

bearden vs. farragut= huge rivalry...

so the football team has quite the rivalry going with bearden. two days before the big game, three idiots decided to vandalize the bearden football field and facilities. those three nincompoops got their fat butts landed in jail. two of them were eighteen so guess where they got to go: real grown up boy jail. the third was put in juvenile b/c of his age. one of the guys, i dont remember who, had to spend a couple of days in jail/juvenile because his parents were in europe and refused to pay his bail. they pretty much said, "you got yourself in this mess, you can suffer the consequences". haha sucker! then all three had to be escorted into bearden and had to publically apologize to the entire student body! woo hoo, you talk about punishment!! then much to my horror, our sga president had to get up and speak as well. poor kid. it wasn't even his doing and he got pulled into it.

do you want to know how the three guys were found out:
a) they left a spray can there
b)they left a receipt in the bag in a trash can
c)one of them was stupid enough to write his number somewhere
d) they were reckless and stupid in their acts and BOASTED about it!!
(the complete idiots, i dont know what happened to them, but im pretty sure it wasn't pretty...)

the band went to the game on friday, but because of rainy weather they postponed it until saturday. unfortunately that was the day we had our first competition in greenville. so we didnt go to see the end of the football game.

and of course we dominated the field and pulled away in the lead! 48-17 was the final score. DOMINATION!! GO FARRAGUT!


well then this past week we played them again. we beat them by one touchdown: 10-3. we played very well i thought and now we go on to play maryville in the next round this friday!!! WOO HOO! GO FARRAGUT!!

Farragut and UT Football

first things first: the ut/gator game was a pitiful excuse for a game. come on: 18-8. for all the times we were near the end zone, we should have made a touchdown. and if we had done that, we would have beat the gators. boo gator boo!

next thing: farragut football!! farragut vs. west at west. we beat west by ten points 26-6. because of a thunderstorm that was rolling in, they delayed the game at least an hour. they started the game, but after a couple of plays, lightning was spotted, so they had to pause the game. the band ended up in the auditorium (nice auditorium, not so hot bathrooms). but i have to tell you a story about our uniforms:

when we left the high school shortly before six, it was sprinkling, so mr. rogers said that we would be going in summer band uniforms (t-shirt and khakis) and we would bring our normal uniforms just in case. guard decided that we would keep our leotards on and wear the uniform over top the leotard. so when we GOT to west, we were informed by our captains that we were going to have to take our leotards OFF! and just wear the band uniform. but here's the catch: we weren't allowed to leave the bus. we were to change, with guys on the bus, into just the summer uniform. needless to say, there weren't to many girls happy about that fact, so we ended up wearing the leotard and the summer uniform.

again, we failed to do our entire show, but we didn't even march the show because half time was so short. we stood in concert set and performed our first and last song. pretty much none of our work with the last song was together because not everyone knew the correct counts. needless to say, it looked pretty terrible. the third song at least.