These are my running shoes. I got them for my birthday last year, and as you can see, the white part is still awfully white. The only reason and excuse I have for this whiteness is that they are never used enough. This might be because they suck. I have a scar on the arch of my foot from a blister. Who was the culprit? These gray, pink, and still showing white things. But it also might be because I don't go running. Ever. I'm going with the latter. The past four days I've been enjoying the Utah Shakespeare Festival. (to be said in a highly dramatized voice of one of the members of the Greenshow cast. You don't know what that is or how that sounds? Maybe it's time for you to take a trip the the Shakespeare festival. . . ) This is where I ate food that practically had one ingredient: fat. And honestly, I feel like the most unhealthy person ever. So, last night, I was laying in my bed planning out my running route; getting super, duper excited. Then I fell asleep. Sleep always ruins running excitement.
~See, a little insight on how I work. My mind loves to run. . . once it's running. But my body never has and never will~
So, I woke up. Every ounce of excitement gone out of my head into who knows where. And I tried and tried to get my mind focused and ready for the run. And then, when I was somewhat excited, my stomach got an achy, churning feeling in it, my legs glued themselves to where I was standing, and the ability to go running evaporated. Lovely, right? NO!
So, I didn't go running this morning. My conscience will most definitely me eating away at me all day long. I guess this is why they invented P90X, but that's a whole different motivational story.
This past week was the American Fork Hillcrest Stake girl's camp up at Heber Valley Camp. I'm going to reiterate what my bishop, Bishop Pulley, told my ward, the 23rd ward: "Miracles have taken place this week." Truly the five days of not so camping were so amazing, it's almost impossible to describe to you everything that happened. I guess it doesn't really help that I didn't take ANY pictures, nor did any of my family members who were also there. You'll just have to put on your reading glasses for this one, sorry.
Well, to start, our theme was Oh! The Places You Will Go, and the sub theme was Write Your Own Story. These two themes were so appropriate for our ward, I think. We have five girls leaving us for good because they are graduating. (And it hurts our numbers horribly). They're off to college, though, and so the fact that we spent all of camp centered around how to write our own story and seeing the potential we have. . . the theme was definitely inspired.
This year, we had new camp directors and so they planned and planned and planned! Seriously, we only had about a half an hour of free time, at most, a day. If that, too! It was okay, though, the activities that were planned were so fun and good. I hardly remember being tired, all I know is I was having fun. On the first night, we had a devotional given by Sister Hewitt. She talked to us about the paths we are wanting to take and the decisions we make depending on those paths. She also talked to us about Christ-like attributes we had. At the end of the lesson, she handed out letters our mothers-or fathers-had written to us. My mom wrote mine, and you know, never once have I heard such powerful words come off paper before. I knew this girl's camp was going to be amazing just by that. I also knew it was going to be an emotional one. Seeing as I was already crying on the first night. . . I was done for.
A little side note: Brociouses don't cry; we shake. It's weird, but true. For testimony meetings or spiritual things, we always start to shake instead of cry. So, when you hear about me crying, it's a secret! My shaking reputation cannot, I repeat, cannot be ruined! Thank you. :)
The second day, was a slow starting one. I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. But, I got up, ate breakfast, and off I went with the ward to the challenge course. Usually, my ward stays together for this, because we are so little, but the 3rd ward was there with us. So we had to split up, because of their large numbers. This turned out to be O.K., though. I was put into a group with Lindsey Durfey, who is one of my close friends. I was also in that group with a girl named Jordann Alldrege. Her and I knew each other before, but we really got to know each other and became closer through the challenge course. The coolest thing that happened there, though, was Sister Mooney, from the 3rd ward, did the big challenge. (You went up a tree trunk, slid over a wire, and got to the eagle's nest where you were hooked onto a zip line) Sister Mooney had something happen to her brain resulting in half of her body not working. So people would think it was impossible for her to do it. It was; alone. But one of the expert helpers was with her the entire way. And she did it! she made it all they way up, over, and down the zip line. It was a testimony to everyone there that YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Whatever the struggle is, whether it's physical, mental, or spiritual, there is always someone there to go up the tree trunk, across the wire, and onto the eagle's nest with you, to help you and lift you up when your own strength cannot.
That night was skit night and I was able to sit next to Tiffany Fraughton and Jordann Alldrege. I don't think we watched even one skit. We were busy talking about a girl's favorite subject. Boys. A boy in particular whom I will not share the name of. Most people who are reading, though, can probably guess. Anyway, we laughed the entire time. I mean the entire time. It was fun.
Wednesday night was our fireside night. Sister Brown, Sister Bird, and President Welch came and spoke to us. This is where I can't describe it very well. The spirit was most definitely there that night as we heard about Sister Browns childhood going from home to home, and finally being converted to the gospel, which she soaked up like a sponge. I think we all need to do that. Soak it up. Never think you can get enough, because there's always more things to learn, more things to gain, and more spirit to feel. We heard about Sister Bird's 6 year journey in getting into the Tabernacle Choir. If I took at least one thing from her, which I took a lot more, it's this: Press Forward.
When President Welch got up and spoke, he had his wife Michelle stand up and bear her testimony. Sister Welch has the most amazing spirit about her, and when she was done and President Welch was done, and we were all standing up to do our singing tree, Sister Welch looked at me and smiled. Immediately, this warm, loved feeling came over me and tears sprung up in my eyes. As we sang "Happily Ever After," the teasing tears already in my eyes started coming faster and faster and faster and that warm, loved feeling grew more and more and more. All I could think of was my friends. What a blessing each of them are in my life. Tiff and Jordann the most. The night before, Tiff told me, "Sid, you're, like, one of my best friends." And as I sang this song, I thought of those nights that I would sit on the side of my bed pleading with my Father in Heaven to make all the friend problems go away. When Tiffany told me that the night before, I don't think she realized it, but she truly was the answer to my prayers. The power of prayer is real. I knew with a surety that it was in those short five minutes of singing.
And to end the entire week, Thursday night, at our night devotional, Sister Jones, along with President Welch and the Manuela family presented an award in memory of Jolynn to one of the beautiful girls of the 27th ward. When I went to give Sister Manuela a hug, I thanked her for her amazing spirit. She just looked at me and said, "It's not me, it's just Heavenly Father showing his love through us." Isn't that amazing how He can do that?
After the night devotional, our separate wards had testimony meetings. And this is where the miracles truly happened in our ward. All of us girls were given a candle at the beginning and were told that our testimonies are just us spreading light which is the word of God. As I looked around at the beginning, I saw that none, except a few of the leaders, were lit and everything looked so dark. I just had a thought go through my head saying, "you don't want to be like that; dark. Get up, light your candle, share your light." And I think Sister Hewitt heard my thoughts because she leaned over to me and told me, "Sid, start us off." But right as she told me that, Tiffany got up. That's okay, though. I got up after. And as I think about it, the want and desire to get up and share my testimony first is a testimony in of itself, which is newly developed. It's kind of amazing how much we grow in just a year.
What truly were miracles, though, were three girls in particular. Over this week, we had two girls, who were not active at all, listen to the lessons and feel something. And on Thursday night, those two girls got up and bore their amazing newly found testimonies. The other girl struggles with everything. ADHD, depression, bipolar, dyslexia, etc. She has struggled a lot with friends and with family. Her father abused her while she grew up and just last summer, he left their family. Her depression reigns out the most and because of that, she doesn't handle a lot of her problems in a healthy way. This night, though, when she got up and bore her testimony, she talked about everything. She let the hurt show through, and she dealt with it. Her testimony returned to her and that is amazing.
Camp was needed for the 23rd ward this year, and every need was met. This gospel is amazing; the spirit is amazing. It really is the true church and I know that because I feel it in my chest with a burning that is completely undeniable. No other church is as happy and loving as this one is. I don't know where I would be without prayer, without my family, without my friends. For five days I was shown my potential, and I am ready to write MY amazing story!
On Tuesday, the A.F. 23rd young women journeyed to Brigham Young Memorial Park. We layed out our blankets, opened our cookies, and listened to the Celtic music Salt Lake had to offer us. It was divine. The little girl, in the pictures above, thought so too, and so she danced to her heart's content. It was really, really, quite cute! She inspired us, because then we also got up and danced to our heart's content.
And then. . . . It rained!
People didn't anticipate the rain, so nobody really had umbrellas. A lot of people left, and a lot of people stayed. The people who stayed, got really creative as to how to keep the rain out.
This lady was the best, and most creative, one there! When I saw her, I laughed. Hard! And I just had to take a picture and share it.
Anyway, the night was lovely. The music was amazing, and it made me want to move to Ireland just that much more. One day I'll get there. And when I do, it will rain and the lush green landscape of Ireland will look greener than ever. Oh, and the rainbow? The rainbow will be full, and I'll bet you anything there will be a leprechaun with a pot of gold at the end of it.
MSN is our home web page for our oh, so old -ancient and breaking- computer. They always have those top story headlines, and it's always some gossip story about some celebrity. Pointless. But, today, they had one titled "The Worst Dressed Places in America" Yes, it still sounds pointless. It is. I was curious, though, so I read or at least tried to read it. Here's just the few bones I have to pick:
1) Since when do people actually care what other people wear? Yeah, yeah, you have those TV shows like What Not to Wear and articles like this that show you how badly people dress, but who really goes out and points out people who are dressed ridiculously? Most of the time our heads are down and we're lost in our own thoughts, which are usually worrying about what people think about what we ourselves are wearing or when we're going to get time for a nap. The tone of whoever is writing these reviews is completely rude and overly sarcastic. A little bit of sarcasm is okay, I guess. But when an entire 10 sentence, usually more, paragraph is done completely in biting sarcasm, that's when it's too far and just plain annoying.
2) When the cities got up to number 38, I knew that basically, you're not going to find a city without bad dressers. It's a fact. Everybody has bad dressing days just like everybody has bad hair days. Anyway, who really has no life that they can just go scan around an entire city and find all the bad dressers, declaring the city overall "One of the Worst Dressed Cities?" No one! It's all stereotypical.
3) When two of those cities turned out to be in Utah (Provo and Salt Lake) and when the weirdo writing the reviews wrote some witty remark about us being "overly modest," that's when it just turned out to be dumb. Of course we can always laugh and joke about the whole socks and sandals or even the 5 layer shirts, but it's better that kind of dressing than to have some disgusting stomach hanging out of a too small shirt or stripper heels and mini skirts. Modest is hottest in my book, so technically, we shouldn't be on that list; my book wins.
So, note to self: don't read gossip articles. They're negative and give a bad vibe.
Note to you: Who cares what you wear! If you like it, that's all that matters.
Another note to you: If what you like includes cleavage flaunting, belly exposing, or any part of the body we don't want to see unveiling, wear it at your own discretion. Remember: MODEST IS HOTTEST!
Below, I talked about seeing the new movie that almost everybody (in the Wizard World at least) is talking about.
I also mentioned that the movie started at 12:05.
I might have mentioned I got close to zero sleep the night before.
If I hadn't, now I did.
And I am just putting it out there that I got home at 2:30 in the morning, prayed for some energy that I so graciously received, and read in Alma until 3 A.M.
11 is when I woke up. and 3:30 P.M. is when I fell asleep again on the couch.
I don't think 4 hours of napping is a nap anymore.
So, basically, I slept my day away.
This is the reason it is 12:48 and I am still awake; ready to party- hardy.
Or, watch a movie, because there's not much partying going on at this time.
But, I remember faintly saying this summer is going to be filled with movies at midnight including me, myself, and I,
(great alliteration, if I do say so myself.)
so welcome to the inside scoop.
First on the list: Disney Princess.
Not Anastasia.
You know that they made her story into something happy when in actuality, she's murdered? quite tragic, and not happy at all!
I have zero interest in seeing it.
Ever.
Not Snow White, her voice is way too high for normality.
I'm thinking. . . . Pocahontas.
Colors of the Wind will always be the one song that I will try and fail to sing.
It sounds a lot better in my head.
P.S. I watched The Princess and the Frog yesterday. I'm liking the whole black princess thing. And the songs. Disney has a way with music, I think. Maybe it's just me and my ignorance in the subject. In any case, not bad at all. When and if I get money (seeing as I'm 15 and unemployed, it may be awhile) it will be purchased; along with Tangled!
12:05, this movie started and I was sitting right smack in the middle.
My mother and Aunt Lisa sent Dylan (our cousin) to get us a place in line; at 1:30 in the afternoon.
Boy did that pay off!
We were one of the first people in line, hence the great seats!
This movie is completely indescribable. So, I'm not going to try. Just go see it already!
I'm sad that it's all over, though.
No more midnight showings of the movie, no more crazy people who dress up and go through the lines of hundreds of people waiting with a "Hogwarts Express Trolley" reenactment
(we had a couple of girls doing that)
No more.
It's okay, though:
You better believe I'm having a Harry Potter marathon every year!
I may even dress up like all the other psychos, who knows.
