Random Thoughts...

It seems that I haven't done this in a very, very long time. So sorry. I shall try to improve. People always say they blog about what they've been thinking about lately. But the problem is, I'm such a scatterbrain that I don't know what I've been thinking about. Hm... I guess I'll try it anyway.

1. Why do people always ask you how you feel on your birthday? I feel exactly the same as I did yesterday, thank you very much.
2. I love my family. I really do. And I wish they didn't live so far away.
3. School started. Blah.
4. Teachers actually know what they're talking about a lot of the time. For example, I went to see Mr. Brower in a play. It was AMAZING.
5. Playing Would You Rather teaches you a lot about yourself. I learned that I would much rather have speech bubbles pop out of my head than thought bubbles. Sometimes I just shouldn't be thinking what I'm thinking.
6. Listening to a song 4 million times with a one-year-old is much more entertaining than just hearing it 4 million times by yourself. Thank you, Jane.
7. My massive whiteboard hasn't had a new thought added to it in a while. Perhaps I should clean my room so I can actually let people in to write on it. Hm...
8. I absolutely love being able to drive.
9. Chocolate is a wonderful thing.
10. I'm learning more and more that music is an art.

Most of the time, I love being around people. Sometimes I just don't. Sometimes it makes me anxious and irritable and I just want to curl up in my bed with my book. But much of the time when this happens, I can't just leave. Because those people are there for ME. Leaving them playing in my kitchen is not an option. And it's not that I don't love these people, because I do. A lot. I just need some Lyssa time sometimes. On a different note, Mockingjay. I'm on page 105 and I'm still not even hooked yet. I'm just reading it because I know Hunger Games was good. And because I can't stand the thought of starting a series and not finishing it. (Besides Magic Tree House, because there are like 800 of them. No way I can keep track.) *Sigh.* I guess I'll get back to reading that now. Maybe I can finish by the time my family gets back from church. I hate being sick.

L-GNO (Little Girls' Night Out)

I want to start doing this more often, because by the time the end of the week rolls around, I've forgotten half the stuff I've done throughout the week... Oops. I mean, even now I'm having issues remembering, and it's only been 4 days. Dang. Anyway... Sunday was pretty chill. Janelle was speaking in church, so I went to her Sacrament Meeting instead of my Young Women. She did a wonderful job, if I say so myself.:) After her talk, she dropped me off at my ward in time for Sunday School. We had an Old Testament trivia competition, which was pretty dang fun, and we all got four pieces of chocolate at the end, which is always a plus.:D I got home and put away the dishes, then set the table for dinner with Ami and Janelle at 5. We tried to call them, but neither was answering her phone, so we ended up going to Ami's to figure out what was going on. Turned out both of them had their phones on silent from church, and Jane was asleep so they couldn't come yet. We went home and ate, and at some point, Ami, Janelle, Devin, and Jane came over and ate with us. Jane is obsessed with the trampoline, so we went out and jumped together for a while, then played catch with the popcorn popping on the apricot tree. Wes (my cousins' cousin who lived with us once upon a time) called to talk, then Janelle read her Sacrament Meeting talk to us for FHE. We went over to Ami's with Devin and Laura, and slept over in her living room. Monday, I woke up around 7 and played Mario Kart on Ami's Wii for a couple hours before my dad came to pick me up to get ready for our Memorial Day outing. We drove up to the Camp Williams cemetery, visited my Grandpa's grave, then we all met at Harvest Elementary for a picnic. We ate, then were going to play baseball, but I accidentally broke Landon's bat--by swinging it. Oops. So instead, we played kickball, which I think ended up being the better choice anyway. It was extremely fun for all the kids and the adults.:D After kickball, we went to play on the playground, when we heard the ice cream truck. All the kids got popsicles, and Jane went around sharing hers with everyone. We went to Ami's and Michelle, Brock, Janelle, and Landon played Wii while Ami did my hair for the L-GNO (Little Girls' Night Out). My mom picked me up, we drove to pick Rachel up, and off we went to the faraway land of Springville. At Mary's house, we had your average sleepover--lots of dinner, junk food, chatting about boys till 3 AM, and--oh, yeah--we dressed up like little girls and played on the playground. It was insanely fun, and we got lots of pictures (credit for which goes to my dearest Sasha Fierce).:D Tuesday morning, I woke up freezing at 7:04. Dang. So I just read my book for a couple hours before everyone else got up. We ate breakfast, then Mary's mom took us home. I cleaned the bathroom--Yuck--then went to Shawn's house and played with him, his little sister Aspen, and Bethany's little sister Elisabeth. We jumped on the tramp, played Down By the Banks, ate some ice cream, then went back outside so the girls could play on the tramp while we sprayed them with a water bottle. It was great.:D Then it was time for Penelope at Rachel's. My dad came and picked me up, took me home to eat, then drove me to Rachel's, where we watched Penelope. It was really cute, but sort of weird, and the ending really caught me off guard... After the movie, we went for a walk, but I had to carry Mary half the time because she was wearing slippers and the ground was wet. Gotta love those piggy-back rides. When we got back, we played (drum roll, please) Polly Pockets! Okay, we didn't really play. We just dressed them up and set them up for pictures. Just as I got the last picture I wanted, my mom pulled up to take me home and crash in bed to catch up on the last two nights of zero sleep. Today I woke up around 9 and went to hang out at Ami's with Lauren. Wii, Ro*Tel chicken, chatting, the whole deal. Then I went to Peter's parents' house with La to play with Olivia while she tutored. I was sort of starving, so I had 3 toasts and several glasses of water... Oops. I hate eating other people's food. It was pretty fun to review Biology with them, though. Cell structure and function after a year of Physiology? Piece of cake.:) We went grocery shopping, ate dinner, and now I'm just chilling with my sister. What a wonderful day.:D

Firebon!

• Once upon a time, Lauren slept over at Ami's house last Saturday night. So then she came over on Sunday morning. I had mostly gotten ready, but I love it when she does my hair, so I asked her if she would. She said yes, of course, because she's nice like that, and made it up as she went along. It ended up looking pretty incredible, if I may say so myself. Then we headed to the Deaf ward. We had to pick up a couple friends on our way, but they didn't actually fit, so they sort of had to sit on each other's laps... We just braced ourselves to duck in case of a cop run-in, but that didn't happen, so we were okay.:)

• The Deaf ward was way fun-- it was really interesting to see the culture in everything they did. Plus, there was only one sign I didn't understand, and I was SO proud of myself.:) Also, Sunday School was taught by Sam, the guy that our ASL teacher convinced us for 2 months that she was going to marry. Devin had to go after Sunday School for a family dinner, so we went home.
• Aubrey was taking cookies to a couple friends, and I joined her, stopping off for a visit at Shawn's, of course, where I played catch with Shawn and Aspen (his little sister) for like 5 minutes before we had to go again. It was a very chill night at home until I went to Laura Gourley's house for a game night. We played Incan Gold and I lost by one gem.:(
• Monday, I hung out at Ami's all day, and we had a goodbye party for Peter, with a dinner of enchiladas, and then yummy treats and games. Shawn came over and was introduced to half the family playing Super Mario Brothers. We finally got a game of Cranium started, and it was a pretty dang close game--between Ami and Lauren, of course. Shawn and I trailed behind...:)
• Tuesday... I don't really remember. I think I read all day, then went to Costco with Ami and Peter and felt sick, so I went to the front and read some more. Jane was having lots of fun pushing the cart--it was great.:)
• Wednesday was... the last day of school!!! Basically I just slept, then got ready to go in time for the yearbook signing party. I was there for a couple hours, then I had an appointment with an allergist. Weirdest thing ever, let me tell you. They stabbed me in the back with 43 different things, then I laid on the table for 15 minutes to wait for a reaction. Apparently, I'm slightly allergic to corn and coconut, but nothing in bread or cereal. Guess we'll have to keep looking to figure out what's wrong with me. I went to the church to try to help set up for the bonfire (Don't worry, we got the bishop's permission.:)), but there was a preschool graduation going on, so we just played catch with a football and the cover to one of Coach Wong's simulator film reels. It actually made a pretty good frisbee.:) Also, I tried to climb a tree. No bueno. The fence I was using as a ladder decided it hated me and ripped a huge hole in my pants, and in my knee. Dang. I had to go to YW, which was a camp planning meeting, but then I went back to the bonfire. It was little at first, but quickly got insanely large. I had to keep moving backward away from it to avoid being eaten by flames. Here's a picture--compare the fire to Shawn's height:
• We drank lots of soda, told lots of random jokes, and burned school stuff. Each book thrown in was assigned a toast, like "This is for the attendance policy." We all got hungry for actual food after a while, so we drove to Wendy's for fries and a frosty (although some of you would argue that that's not actual food), then I got dropped off at home.
• Thursday, Landon graduated from Preschool. That was awesome--he even got to do a solo of Wee Willie Winkie. The sound is horrible, and it's sideways, but he's cute nonetheless.;) He's saying "Wee Willie Winkie ran through the town, upstairs, downstairs in his nightgown, rapping on the windows, yelling through the locks, 'Are the children in their beds? For now it's 8 o'clock."

• After Landon's graduation, Aubrey and I went driving. For a long, long time. Then we went to pick up Austin and Steve. Aubs and Steve did Austin's hair in a mohawk, while I provided the photography:
• They went to Sammy's (Apparently it's a burger place... I've never heard of it.), which I didn't want to do, so I got dropped off at Shawn's. Shawn, Andrew, and I played around with a softball for a while, then when I hit a grounder directly at Andrew's bare foot and gave him a giant red welt, we decided we were done. Chase drove to Bethany's, we picked her up, then he let me try driving his car. I got the hang of it after a while, and I only stalled once.:) We went to look at movie times, then went to Edgemont to play on the playground. I tried to do a backflip off the swing and ended up on my face, spun around the bars with a hoodie, then we found a jumprope and played with that for a while. They showed me their version of Rock, Paper, Scissors-- one where you just pick any random item you want and a judge decides which one wins. We got bored and tired after a while, so headed to the dollar store to get snacks for the movie. I went home for dinner while they went to the movie, then they all came back to my house for ice cream and jumping on the trampoline. We wanted to play Catch Phrase, but I realized I left it at Laura's house for game night last Saturday. Dang. They all had to be home by eleven, and I went down and read until I fell asleep.:)
• Friday was pretty uneventful. At least, I think so... I don't really remember. I think I slept till around noon, then cleaned off the piano (It's not a real piano; it's a keyboard the size of a piano.) to take it downstairs. Then Shawn came over to play. We messed around with the guitars and the piano for a while, we played on the tramp, I gave him a tour of the house, then it was time for dinner. We ate, then I taught him the cup game I learned from my sisters. I think they learned it at Phase. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here to see it in action. Watch to the end--It's really cool.:)) Then it was time for night games. We went to get gas at Maverick, and on the drive there I stalled 4 times. Oops. I kept telling Shawn that I'm usually not that bad. We went to night games at the Ripples church, and no one was there, so we went and played on the swings for half an hour. We went out front, and there was still no one there. We talked on the front lawn for 10 minutes, and a couple people showed up. Within 5 more minutes, there were 10 people there. They decided to go play Annie-I-Over. Shawn and I didn't really want to play that, and he needed to be home, so we walked to his house and watched Aladdin and the King of Thieves, then played Finish Lines until my mommy picked me up. (Unfortunately, I STILL can't drive. Ugh.)
• Yesterday, I woke up, showered, worked on the house a bit, then went over to Ami's with Shawn. (The driver's seat is finally fixed in her car, so I don't have to drive with my tiptoes anymore!!!) We all played Mario Party, and Shawn dominated, then Ami wanted to go to Michelle's. On our way there, we stopped for a car wash. I've never been in one that I can remember, and it was AWESOME. I was pretty much as mesmerized as Jane was. Never mind that I'm 15 years older than she is...:) Ami drove us to Shawn's, we ate some ramen, then went down and played Connect Four. That got old really fast, so I taught him Tiddlywinks. That also got old really fast. Then I remembered he has 4-wheelers. There were only 20 minutes left until my mom was supposed to pick me up, but we went out and rode anyway--around the block over and over and over. All the neighbors were staring at us like we were crazy. We probably were. I had a huge grin plastered on my face, and my ponytail was whipping around everywhere. We drove the 4-wheeler back to his house, then my mommy came to pick me up and take me to pick up JANELLE, who I missed so very dearly while she was on her adventure in California. We picked her up at the airport, then drove to Christy's to hang out there for around 20 minutes before heading back home. Of course, we stopped at Panda for Janelle to get a dinner of orange chicken on our way.:) Jane was exhausted, because it was 2 hours past her bedtime, but I discovered that my camera made her happy. She's sort of figured out how taking pictures works-- here's one she took:
• Okay, so she's not quite Ansel Adams, but she's getting there. At least she knows which button to push.:) We drove to Ami's house, where she showed me Super Mario Galaxy 2. It was awesome, but it started to make my head hurt, so we turned it off to chat. Plus, Janelle had gotten there, so we gave her some input for her talk today. After a while, none of us could really keep our eyes open for very long, so we went to bed.
• Wow, this was a really long post, and I'm proud of any of you who read to the end. You get bonus points.:)

Come on Out! The Weather's Fine!

• Yesterday began WAY too early for me. Up at 7:00 on a Saturday, for pete's sake?! (Sorry, Pete.) I just couldn't get back to sleep. But apparently, that was a good thing, as there was a CPR class from 8 to 12. I went out to start the Subaru to head out and discovered a piano in the back. Dang.
• Oh, well, we'll just take the Metro.
• Snap, someone left the windows down. The seats are drenched. But I have to go pick up Emma and David.... I'll just cover the seat with towels.
• The CPR class was way fun, and a lot easier than I expected--I already knew a bunch of it from my YCL retreat:
• This is George. He was nice to us.:) Anyway, so the class was fun, and I'm almost certified! Yay! After that, we went to Krispy Kreme and ate some donuts... an hour before I was supposed to go for a picnic. Oops. At least I only ate three, right...? We sort of went crazy with the camera and probably drove the people there crazy, but it was way fun.:D
• 
• Then I hurried home to get ready for my picnic with Shawn. You may know him as my Prom date:
• I took the extra donuts over to Shawn's, and after sharing one with his grandpa, we trekked up to his chosen picnic spot. We ate sandwiches (ones he made himself!;)), chips, and donuts, and I discovered that I like Gatorade. Or at least the Costco kind. We chatted for a while, he tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a bunny, then we headed back to my house.
• We had a rematch of Disney Trivial Pursuit, which Lauren joined in and cheated until she won.:P Aubrey came over and we took Shawn home, then drove around for a while.
• I went home and hung out for a couple hours, then went to Ami's house to play games. Aubs came over and we went to Shawn's and played pool for a bit, then she took me back to Ami's where we played Tri-Bond (my new favorite game;)), then I came home and crashed. The end.:)

Random Connections...

• Last night, Kristen, Ami, Peter, Jane and I went to the Rock Canyon Extravaganza. It was really fun, mostly just because watching Jane get excited about little plastic ducks is great.:D But also because there were tons of extra spots left on Jane's punch card... so Kristen and I went down the bounce slide, which Holly Belnap was running. Random connection #1. Apparently, we weren't the oldest ones to have done it. Woot.
• Then this morning, Kristen woke me up at 6:45 to go to the Truancy 5K. Yuck. We walked it, singing Disney songs all the way, then went to IHOP for breakfast. Yum.:)
• Also, I went to Andrew Gardner's Eagle, during which I discovered several things:

1. I thoroughly enjoy playing with... er... using power tools.
2. I am not all that great at using said power tools.
3. Ami's friend Shannel Robey from Timpview is Andrew's step sister. Random connection #2.

• Then I went with Peter, Ami, and Jane to the Provo library for the Children's Book Festival. Honestly, I only went because I knew Shannon Hale and Brandon Sanderson were going to be there... Does that make me a bad person? Anyway, I got my books signed, and Brandon recognized me! I was so pumped.:) Also, I saw my old YW leader there... Random connection #3.
• Also, the ward barbeque was fun. The only thing I discovered there is that I should never, ever again try a RipStick.
• That is all.

Ta Da!

• Here I am--I finally have a blog, after all my friends have been starting their own. So here I go.:) But I haven't actually blogged in a long LONG time (namely since August 2008...), so you'll have to bear with me while I try to figure it out again.
• I do have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=730491554&ref=profile), but as I'm doing this mostly for those of you who don't have Facebook or don't want to go searching through all the randomness to find something actually worth looking at, I'll try to put stuff up here as well.
• Happy reading!
• (Also, Blogger isn't letting me do normal paragraphs, so I'll have to live with these bullets until they can get that sorted out...)