well, hello there

so it's been a while. life got pretty busy there.

i have gotten back from my best eighteen months in nicaragua.

to check up on how that went, go and check out

hermanagraves.blogspot.com

it really was an adventure of a lifetime, and i would love to spend all day

talking about how amazing it really was.

since moving back home, i have seen lots of friends,

spent a lot of fun time with female role models in my life

getting adjusted to the rm wardrobe,

worked, and most importantly, fallen in love with these guys again:

photo creds to darrin perryman photography

we took family pictures right before i left for my mission
and thanks to weekly emails, i somehow survived the
eighteen month sabbatical from daily life.
lots of pictures, and lots of spanish vocabulary words,
made the adventure interesting to retell.
but this time, i got to be there, and that was special.

i am now back to school, trying to get my lazy butt
excited to be at school again.
i have some good motivation hanging over my head,
so there isn't much time to waste.

rae got married to a cute guy named prince eric
and they are great. waay cute couple.
it's a plus that they live a few blocks away too.

bug went to the other blue school
and we have to learn to love the weird again.
#showmethescotsman

russman got big. watch out world.
a stud muffin is a cooking.
chris is as tenderhearted as ever,
and has become quite the little adventurous one.
still holds out for the football player dream,
but there may be some growing that has to happen first.
hannah is the little princess.
she's the only little girl left in the house
and i don't think she will let her brothers forget it, either.
spencer is into everything sports,
which really isn't new to me.
the kid can't think straight if it's not raining outside.
he loves playing outside...


i love my family and i can't believe that
we made it through eighteen months.
congratulations family.
we rock.

where does the time go?

seriously, i feel like the summer still has months left in it. instead, there are just three short weeks between me and the beginning of a semester that i won't be participating in. maybe that's why i'm so lost. summer blends straight into fall for me, so there is no clear deadline for fun in the near future. my summer break extends clear into the fall break for my siblings.

so, where has the time gone? we made a weekend out of a stay in Grace, Idaho {aka the perfect small farming community.} i personally had a blast! we drove down friday night after show a few weeks ago and slept all over Momma Brady's house and lawn. we woke up the next morning to Momma Brady's delicious breakfast burritos and the discussion about some mexican salsa/pico de gallo. most of us spent the day wandering around Logan. i had some errands to run, so i went and saw Grandma Allen while i was there {but mostly to go shopping at Casa de la Grandma.}

once most of us were back from Logan, we helped Momma Brady with some outside chores as payback. because 20 hands make much lighter work than the two she was working with. ;) after the ground was good enough that she could lay seed, we went and did the only fun things to do in Grace: flooming and jumping at 60. what is that, you may ask? flooming is dangerously riding down the canal water down a floom {picture a slide suspended 200 feet above the river, and you have enough of an idea to get it} and then skipping across rotting boards laid along the top of the floom. jumping from 60 is about what it sounds like: jumping from a rock that extends over a spot in the river that is 60 feet deep. it was high enough, i probably could have attempted to tuck and roll, but i didn't get up the nerve to. a perfect summer bar-b-que and a sketchy game of kick the can later, we played a Bourne movie outside. one of those picturesque summer days full of dumb things you will probably never forget.

update on the love life: still sucks. Great Cuddler's missionary came home and i've been trying with futility to try and play it off cool. one of the girl's that i work with and Great Cuddler had a little stint, but they both agreed that it wasn't going to work and he apologized for dating someone after promising me that he wasn't going to date anyone because of the aforementioned missionary. a few weeks later, i get another cowboy to cuddle with. let's call him Cuddle Slut. he admits to it, so i don't feel bad about calling him one. Cuddle Slut is fantastic at the cuddle game. so good that i fell asleep in his arms for a solid week straight. no judgement needed. it was fantastic and i loved it. but then he stopped and we haven't cuddle since. so, please no judgement.

i got to ride a horse! and best thing about it: i got to do it for free! the resident Buckskin and i went on our day off and it was great. besides the saddle soreness that i had for the next three days. the views were amazing and the horse i had was pretty good. he seemed to really like the vegetation, but what horse doesn't?! let me just say, A-OK Corrals is the place to call up for a horseback-ride in Jackson. #shamelessplug

o yeah, and then this thing called a birthday happened. it's crazy, you wait all summer for one day to come, and then when that day comes, you can hardly believe it. and then the rest of the summer feels like it's running through an hourglass. nineteen was officially the dumbest birthday ever. except for maybe the gifts: birthday breakfast at Bubba's with Great Cuddler's cousin and Track Star {she's pretty much the best runner at ISU and is fantastic}, two new western shirts, a Jackson Hole t-shirt, a random collection of awesomeness from my friends, the most amazing orange Tennessee pants ever!, a "Home" t-shirt that my Momma made me and then a new belt for my new buckle! Momma Heather {the house cook} made me the most delicious Angel Food Cake with a strawberry glaze on it. i literally thought i was going to die of the perfection of it.

this past weekend was the Graves Family Reunion! this year, not at Lake Powell, but at Bear Lake. Grandma and Grandpa are on a mission, so we decided to do the reunion a little closer to them so that they could at least come up for the weekend. originally i was going to ask for the whole reunion off, but i decided to just take friday and saturday. friday i ended up spending as our "teenage outing" and driving around Ogden with Berkeley and Madeline and their EFY friend. it was different, but we had a lot of fun. Olive Garden, crazy selfies as we drove down the highway, and then a little bit of wasting time at Grandma and Grandpa's. i missed the sunny day at the beach, but we had a lot of fun. saturday we went up to Minnetoka Cave and hiked a 888-round trip stair cave route. 40 degrees constantly and up and down through the earth. i was originally nervous about hiking through a cave, but they have rock and metal stairs through the whole thing. we did end up spending a little bit of time on the beach, but unfortunately for me, it was in the evening on an overcast day. we played the cheeto-shaving cream-shower cap game with all the cousins and it ended up in a shaving cream-shoving fight. only a few people ended up with shaving cream in their eyes, but it was worth the little bit of pain. best fun that i have ever started with all the cousins. ;)




  

something hard

The hardest thing of college so far? Missing all of the firsts. (wow, that sounded motherly.) But seriously, I miss seeing my brothers and sister off to their first day at their new schools. I missed the first day of seminary. And the hardest thing? Missing my parents' 19th wedding anniversary.

Nineteen years ago, on Tuesday, September 6, 1994, my parents were sealed for time and all eternity in this beautiful building:

And I couldn't be more glad that they were. I love them so much and I miss them so much. I know that my gift to them this year is miniscule, but I hope that they will like it. 

They say that a girl marries their favorite trait about their father. As I pondered what that actually is in my father, I thought about what I say when people ask me about my father. And I found my answer. He is so amazingly handy. He built my mother her dream kitchen. And he did it all himself. He added onto our house and only hired someone twice to do work, and it was only because he didn't have the time to do it himself: the boy next door to bring the shingles onto the roof, and someone to paint the exterior of the house. He is the resident mechanic. He landscapes and builds a garden each year. Plus, he can cook. 

Then I thought about my mother. My favorite trait about her. She is her own person and she is crafty. She decorates the house each season and has made a lot of the decorations for herself. She can create wonderful things from a little bit of fabric and thread. She is beautiful. She is amazing. She isn't afraid to get a little dirty and she can make the most wonderful food ever. 

And my favorite part of my parents: the fact that they aren't afraid to show me how much they love me. 

You remember this picture:

                                             
And this was my parents sometimes. But not always really. It was more along the lines of hugging her from behind and finding that ticklish spot and tickling her just to see her cringe and laugh. Along the lines of hello and good-bye kisses, no matter how much of a rush he is in to get to work. Along the lines of apologizing after the fight. Along the lines of being excited about sitting next to her at meals after almost fifteen years of sitting at opposite ends of the table because she can't stand hitting his outstretched feet under the table. It's really in all the little things.

And most of all, thank you Daddy for loving my mother like Sis. Dalton taught in this talk:

I love you guys and thank you for setting the perfect example of what an eternal couple should be like. I am so sorry that I can't be there this year, but I know that it's only the first of many anniversaries that I will miss. good luck Daddy with your new job. Good luck Mommy with all your crafts and work and every other thing you juggle. Happy anniversary.

moved out

so school starts in a month. crazy life. this summer has been almost been separated into two parts: Tennessee and Utah. it's been all sorts of crazy too. before i moved to Utah, it was all about catching up with people, making last minute plans, packing up my life, and patching up and saying good-bye to people I will probably never see again. [scary thoughts, no?] now that I have moved to Utah, my life has been all about finding a job, keeping up with the family plans and having some fun. don't get me wrong, Utah is amazing and I love being able to draw a circle two hours wide, and being able to hit five uncles and four aunts, two sets of grandparents, and countless other extended family members. it's great... but I miss home. I miss the baby and toddler sounds in church. YSA branches are quiet enough that even if you snicker, the guy across the chapel can hear you. i miss my family, and all of the crazy times that we had just sitting around the house. i miss being able to pick a movie from the DVD's or Blu-ray's and watch it a couple of times without the Internet being a problem, or it costing me a buck twenty to rent it. i miss all of my friends! i miss being able to go out and hang out with them. it would be amazing to have plans during the week besides "what does great grandma have for me to do today!?" (although that will change just a little bit due to my job!) i miss home. i miss all of my adult leaders/friends. I miss the missionaries, for crying out loud.

but life will get better once I get my feet on the ground. I found a job, at a local grocery store. I am currently a bagger, but will hopefully being learning the ropes of cashier here soon. I love it so far. It kind of stinks when your feet and knees and hips go numb from standing in pretty much the same position for eight hours, but I am hoping that a trip to the local Wal-Mart and a Dr. Scholl's will help that out.

church is interesting, because i am fresh meat in town and all of the men are off their missions, dating a girl, and/or are too old for me to fathom right now. I know that it won't be better once school starts, but hopefully there will be some more girls closer to my age when that happens. i want to get settled here, but right now the whole stake is combined into one meeting right now, so it's kind of hard to find new people. a lot of the people are just waiting for their housing contract to be up so that they can move into a new ward... rough life. it's kind of hard because I want to find people my age, but I know that's close to impossible because they are all serving the Lord. I hope that I don't go two years without going on a date. Ugh, that would be awful on all sorts of levels.

let me just say this. living with your great grandmother sounds like a great idea and a great opportunity to get to know her a little bit better. and let me tell you, it has been really cool to spend some time with her and talk to her about her earlier life. but sometimes it's just plain rough. at about nine o'clock every night, I am in my room watching a movie on Netflix or watching one I rented from Redbox. She doesn't have more than some granola, toast with peanut butter and honey, or a smoothie for breakfast and doesn't have the fixings for much else. She eats things WAAAYY past expired out of her food storage and eats vegetables like they are going out of style. Don't get me wrong, it's been interesting to see all of the different ways you can make a green salad, but the otherwise light main courses are a little rough to eat sometimes. I mean, she doesn't eat meat. Canned chicken, a little bacon, and some tuna is all I have seen her make/eat in the three weeks I have been here. Where's the BEEF!?

I love her, but seriously, the generation gap may be a little much on this one.

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. 

biltmore house

this house is amazing. if you ever get the chance to go, its kind of expensive, but worth it. I love going to historical houses, although it annoys the snot of me that you cant walk through and see ALL the rooms of the houses. I mean, why open the house up, if you cant go and walk through and see all the authenticity of the house. it kind of bugs me. a lot… because they do that with ALL the historical houses.

but this is the beautiful and majestic view of biltmore estate. it has like 255 rooms in it. it has a HUGE dining hall that could seat 65 members of a dinner party, but only ever feed 38. but it still… that’s amazing.

the stable house has unfortunately been converted to house tourist shops. which is really really sad.

but it was still very enjoyable to see the largest house in the entire united states.

and I got to drive the entire two and a half hours there. on the freeway. and I didn’t get into a crash. haha yipee!!

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!!!)

family pictures

family pictures are always stressful, but add a couple of kids, and then you have mayhem. thank goodness this time wasnt like the last couple of times we have been to Portrait Innovations.

the guy who took our photos was really good. he had some visions for us and then he was quick in executing them. it was very nice. and he learned all our names. it was awesome!! here are some of the pictures we took...



this was pose one. unfortunately this is the best exposure,
and it has the most people looking at the camera.



this is pose two for the family. this is on the christmas card.

 

this is also on the christmas card. it is pose three for the family.



this is pose four for the family. i like this pose,
but it also accentuates that we have a large family.

this is not how this pose is supposed to look like.
and my mom is totally oblivious to the tongue.



this is how its supposed to look. gorgeous. :)

this is rachels individual. i like it

i really really like this pose and this picture.
possible the best picture ive taken in a long time.

this is a twin shot. i think it turned out awesome too!

this is the picture julie choose she liked the best.

we did a full body, but it didnt look right...

this is russells awesome picture.

i think i like this one better than the full body.

i like this picture of him too.

but not as much as his other one.

christians best shot.

he doesnt know how to smile without looking pained.

hannahs gorgeous little picture.

little miss attitude.

spencers mountonous dimples.

how adorable!!

i like this pose too... its a tie for spencer.

twin shot #2

how cute!!

 

this is the kids best pose.

we had one where we are spaced out more, but its too spaced.

that concludes our photo shoot. the photographer got us in and out of the studio in an hour and a half which is impressive considering our size..

Merry Christmas to All!!

29 days until christmas

i know its bizarre to think that i am already counting down, but in my defense i wasnt the one who was counting down. it was my younger siblings. hahaha but i really am excited for christmas. because of one very special gift that cant be wrapped. family. if my grandfather can sell his spec house, he and grandma can come into town. i cant wait!!

thanksgiving weekend

this thanksgiving the school board decided to be nice and give the kids wednesday through friday off. thank goodness.

wednesday we didnt have any mutual so rachel snapped the opportunity to have a party. a just-for-the-heck-of-it party. we ended up having two dozen people show up to the house at one point and we had a lot of fun. we played catch phrase, capture the flag, mafia (upon popular request *cough*cough* **barrett** *cough*cough*), and then we settled down with The Princess Bride. yes possibly the greatest movie of all time... and ive only seen it three times. i know i know what a shame...

thanksgiving was a blast. the church girls got together to play powder puff football at the high school and it was a lot of fun. we were playing touch until becker showed up with flags which turned out to be soo much better. our team turned out to be significantly better at defense than offence. what a shame. ahaha but we still had fun. we had a family friend the raineys over for dinner and some horse play aka motorcycle riding for the little boys and some chatting for the female. hahaha sadly i must admit that the tom boy came out in me and i spent my time watching the rainey boys race around our yard on a couple of small motorcycles. soo adorable. hahahahahaha then we went for dessert to the giacalones and we were going to play games but that didnt work out hahaha too much chatting going on. plus too many people.


and lets see. whats left for this post? o yes! a list of thankful fors....

so i am thankful for...

this little goober that is a ball of laughter and fun one breath

and a raging tyrannt the next

but that is the fun part. always living on your toes

this little girlie who refuses to be called our little sister

and wants to be seen as my equal and nothing less

i just hope that she continues with her persistance

this little sweetheart who is the sweetest little girl ever.

she reminds me of rachel somedays so much i almost call her that.

shes adorable and the sweetest little mommy's helper ever.

this goofball i get to call my twin sister.

shes a freakball sometimes but my best friend too.

the coolest girl EVER

the oppurtinity to build onto our house.

i was trying to find a picture of the back of the house,

put that didnt work.

these amazing people. they are the greatest parents ever.

and the greaest role models. thanks so much mommy and daddy

the great moments in life like this. father and son bonding time...

even if the son doesnt enjoy it as much

nature.

the beautiful moments that can only be caught with a camera or your eyes

this goofball of a brother.

love the kid to death.

he should be a drama kid hes that funny

this little cutie.

he is a little boy who knows what he wants in the world.

even if hes about ten years too early :)

the gospel. for the standards it has set me with.

for the beautiful reading that it has filled my life with.

for good books that my mom has helped me choose.

as well as my grandmas.

a warm bed to sleep in.

even if i hardly ever make the thing.

make up and a toothbrush.

what would i do without hygiene.

for clothes! what a blessing

technology. if it is too slow for my liking sometimes.

shoes. boy o boy do i take them for granted.

and then friends. but i dont have a picture of that. hahaha there are too many friends to count and put into one picture. love you all

i think that is all. if i havent thought of it assume im thankful for it. unless its something like war... then its questionable. hahaha :)

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 (:

memorial day

Happy Late Memorial Day!
So we celebrated the holiday meant to commemorate the Veterans of the many, many wars that this glorious country has been apart of, by going to a Community Pancake Breakfast. We recognized those Veterans in attendance, and then one of the Aldermen spoke, as well as one of the Veterans. One of my friends' dad played Taps while the Scout Troop retired the Colors and my mom teared up. (Both of her Grandfathers served in World War II, one as a B28 belly bomber, the other as a part of the Navy serving the Pacific). Later on, we went to a friends, and had a BBQ and chatted.

Once it got dark, we decided that we would do a couple of fireworks. 3 bottle rockets, sparklers, 2-16 shot fireworks, and then 1-44 shot were the fireworks we shot. the first big firework we set off, tipped over and hit the backyard of two of the conjoining neighbors. the middle one, the most exciting on my part, was by far the most dangerous. what happened last year with the giacalone's and fourth of july, happened again this year. the box exploded out of the side, and exploded in front of one of the neighbors who was unloading the back of his car, and right in front of the tent we had set out earlier. we scared the little kids and they all started running inside, and then the neighbor's one blew up almost right next to him. needless to say, the neighbor was a little upset that we had almost hit him with a firework. after a little bit of discussion, the man allowed us to do one more firework, the largest yet. too bad that it was the largest disappointment. the shots were short and small, NOT FUN!! (i like the ones that explode in the sky and are completely gorgeous).

come to find out that the fireworks when they come out, are shot in rows, not random. so the problem becomes that the box becomes side heavy. and the side of the box gets hot and the fireworks shoot out of the side. therefore tipping it on its side and causing the firework to shoot out into people's faces, people's houses, and of course, people's yards. luckily no one was seriously injured, just a couple of scratches. haha over-all it was a lot of fun.

a landmark

in puppy news,

holly had her first night were she DIDN'T go potty in the bathroom (where we decided to keep her, its easier maintenance than the kennel) and she went both poop and pee outside! hoorah!!  i was soo excited and so was she when she figured out that she got a treat for doing the job outside without any accidents over night. the streak was kind of lost when she has had two accidents in the house since i have been home from school. the idea though is to get her potty-trained for the night, then ideally the during the day thing will fall into place. hopefully....

the newest addition to the family

almost a week ago, my dad brought home an adorable pure-bred beagle puppy. and she is the cutest thing in the world. brown floppy ears and black spots down her back are her main features. shes a little irritating at time because she isnt house trained yet so she has to be watched like a hawk, but other than that she is so much fun to play with.

anybody got any ideas to keep an 11-week old puppy from peeing in the kennel at night? we've tried the letting her outside before she goes to bed, but it doesn't seem to work. just post a comment if you do. thanks :)

creepers

creepers in the neighborhood...


how do you find them?

this crazy thing google and the right keywords.

and that is exactly what i did today during third block. my teacher talked to us about the stuff we put on the internet and how we need to be safe about that. then we watched a couple of videos about real life kids (girls, ironically, for the most part) who were not safe about the information they put on the internet and they were found by guys who were supposed friends. the scary thing is that both of them ended up in jail, but both will end up out of there before they die. you can finish that mind track...

so we ended the end of the day with searching ourselves and seeing how much personal information we can find out from looking through the google entries. scary stuff if you look through it. then we looked for all the registered sex offenders in a ten mile radius of our houses. i found that there are about ten in a ten mile range of my house... CREEPY!!! i looked up my parents (because i knew that my name wasnt going to show up in an online phonebook) and i was able to find the age range of my parents and the exact location of my home and DIRECTIONS to get to my house... and a detailed list of all my neighbors and all the adults living in the household. thank goodness they arent allowed to put a minors name on that list!! 0:)

i will be making sure my house is completely locked up next time i am babysitting.. that is how creeped out i am about this whole situation

what i see first

ok, so yesterday. me and my family were sitting there talking and my oldest younger brother goes up to his mother and asked her "what do you see first when you look at me?"
she replied, "your big brown eyes."
he kindly said, "yours too."

then he turned to me and said, "what i see first when i look at you is this big zit," touching a recovering hole from acne. the little smart alec.

i wish i had thought about it then and said to him, "what i see first when i look at you is that big spot of atheltes foot on your face!" (he has a spot on his cheek right next to his lip that he got from not washing his hands after using the bathroom and then touching his face in the same spot over and over again.)

but i was recovered when i tackled him and licked from one cheek to his forehead, to the other cheek. it felt soo good to finally get a respectible payback

christmas

the christmas loot this year was light but for good purposes. we did a "12 days of christmas"/secret santa to a family that is soo much more in need then we are. i ended up getting a sporting bag, a vest, a new purse, new shirt, candy and some gift money, a new book. the family got some new movies and a NEW LAPTOP! soo excited for it.

i am more grateful for the oppurtunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior and spend such great time to family and friends. some of our friends came over for dinner and we watched one of our new movies: "harry potter and the half-blood prince"!! :)

happy new years and a merry christmas!

Washington, D.C. Here We Come! :)

So for Thanksgiving we rode up to Alexandria, Virginia, a half hour Metro ride into The Mall of DC. Lots of things happened over Thanksgiving break:

I got signed out school early on Tuesday so we could spend all but two hours left in the day, on the interstate driving north to Alexandria. We got lunch at McDonald's, stopped at Wal-Mart for a bathroom break and a splitter for the cigarette lighter, and then hit the road. A half hour stop at Bristol for bathroom breaks and the installment of the movie player and a forty-five minute dinner break at Taco Bell were the only stops we made that entire trip! That was quite the accomplishment for all of us. We got on to the base around 10:30 pm and i felt like a stalker as i crept into the house. Because they have small kids, our cousins were fast asleep when we got there.

Next morning, i was woken up around five am by my brother saying "i hear them! I hear them!" in my ear. I tried to convince him to roll over and go back to sleep and i think he finally did. Everyone was up and running by seven am though. The Maloney's had a half day of school, so we went literally down the street to Mount Vernon:


The family in front of statues of the Washington family

The family in front of Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

We had a couple of kids fall asleep out of exhaustion and boredom.

The family in front of the Potomac River

Thanksgiving was spent with the cousins and Bob's father, Bob, Sr. we had lots of good food like turkey, stuffing, bean casserole, jello salad, yogurt salad, rolls, and yams (yuk!). We had lots of fun though and we grew a lot closer together through conversation.

Friday and Saturday we went to Washington D.C. and saw all the tourist traps.

Korean War Memorial

Russell sitting on the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

President Abraham Lincoln

The family outside of the Capital building

I can't believe I got dragged into this….

Robby Russell Christian

The engineer inside of him is definitely present and totally into this visit

The natural history museum

The freezing family in front of the Vietnam Wall

The military man and one of his exhausted sons

The family in front of the monument

Quick tourist fact: The line in the middle of the Washington Monument is present because that is where the construction was halted during the Civil War. When the War was over, they went back to the same mine to resume building and when they went back, the stone had cured more, hence making the darker color. And that is why there is a line about a third of the way up the Washington Monument.

The tourists are happy… ;)

I wonder if we can push it over…?

The family in front of the Declaration of Independence Memorial Pool and the Washington Monument

Holy toleetoe! That's really high!

These are pretty self explanatory

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Metro Rides were a lot of fun, and they were perfect opportunities for a short cat nap, that is if you were facing the way that the train was going.

Sunday was the day we drove home. Sad day… :( I look forward to seeing them again, but you never know with military families where they will be next year…