Playing Pretend

Emmy came over and played with us (really Lauren) today. 

Her parents are gone on a cruise, and her grandparents are watching them. 

They told Emmy that she was only allowed to stay over until 3:30 and then she had to come home, and of course, that time came. 

When I went down to tell her it was time for her to go home, she was getting some books out to read with Lauren. 

Lauren turned to Emmy who was holding the books, and said, 

"Do you want to play library, and I'll check those books out to you?!" 

"Yes!" was Emmy's reply. 

So, Lauren got a piece of card stock, wrote "Emmy's Library Card" on it, had Emmy sign it, and then wrote down the books on a piece of paper. 

We "swiped" the card. (which was on the keyboard) and sent her on her way with Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House.

It was super cute! 

When she left, Lauren turned to me and said, "Do you remember when we would play pretend?"

And, boy, do I!

Lauren and I would get my mom's cook books and use them as our "potion books" for Harry Potter and talk in British accents all day. 

I would play barbies and set my house up using the entire stairs. I loved the yellow light over the stairs. It always felt like home to me. 

Lauren and I would play with our American Girl dolls. We'd start before church and then plan all through sacrament meeting how the rest of the game would go. 

I remember playing house in our old play room. We had gray linoleum floors with big white cupboards that held everything. I would have everything strewn around everywhere, and I would get so annoyed because I would have to clean it up afterwards, and it took forever!

During the summer, we would ride around on our bikes. The mailboxes were the bank; the upside down bikes in the driveways were the ice cream trucks; the leaves were money. 

I miss being young, and it was fun to relive it with Emmy today!

The world of playing pretend really is just happiness. :)

Lesson Learned

That there, friends, is what I call my permit. 

Seeing as I was doing Road this week, I needed it with me. 

In my pocket. 

Well, being me, I forgot to take it out of my pocket. 

I thought about it a couple of times throughout the week, but the thought drifted out. 

Naturally, my mom washed those jeans. 

Paper and water, as you already know, don't mix. 

It makes the paper wet, and in the end, dissolve. 

As shown above. 

Lovely right? 

Yeah, if police officers accepted those kinds of permits. 

I'll just tell you, they don't! 

My mom wasn't happy when I freaked out. 

I was assured, though, that it doesn't cost anything to replace the permit? 

Hopefully that's true.

In any case, to save you the difficulty, don't put your driving permit in your pocket, which eventually ends up looking like the above picture. 

:)

Hello Weekend; You Are Welcome.

Each week gets more and more and more stressful with less hours of sleep in between, I swear! Waking up at 4:45 three days in a row seriously isn't what I call a good time, but I survived, and the opportunity to sleep into 7 is within my reach. It just so happens I have reached out my hand and taken it. Let's just say 9:30 was a better match for my eyes. :)

The news of my week goes as follows:

I passed my Road test. That unloaded a lot of stress, thankfully! All I have left is my hours, which should be easy seeing as I can't get my license until December 16. . . I have it marked on my calender. :) At the bottom of my test paper, my instructor, Mr. Ingersoll (who is basically the easiest road teacher there is. I caught a very, very good brake this time), commented that I should "signal right when going right." I have absolutely no idea what he means. . . . I did signal. At least I think I did? I still passed nonetheless. :)

I got invited to a free trip to Washington D.C. that I so wanted to go on! My friend Chandler was going to come over last weekend to watch our favorite movie: Anne of Green Gables. But, unfortunately, our phones decided not to communicate for us, so neither of us could get a hold of each other. We had agreed to do it this weekend, and when I asked her on Thursday about it, she told me that she probably won't be able to because her mom wants to go to Washington D.C. Yeah, just like that. She could see the surprise on my face, so she explained. Apparently, her mom works for an airline company and so long story short, she can get free tickets. Cool, I know! And then Chandler turned to me and said, "I can bring friends. . . " And I of course replied the obvious, "Well, you should take me!"And surprisingly she said, "Oh, I'll talk to my mom!"The plan was that I was going to go with them, but then she told me that we would be missing a couple of days of school. You can guess what my mom told me. But then, I got a grand idea, if I took all my tests and quizzes (which were only two: chemistry and French) then I should probably be able to go. When I talked to Chandler in French about it, she said that we would probably be gone the entire week. Unfortunately I couldn't miss that much school, I didn't feel ready to take my chemistry test (which I HAVE to pass in order to get an A in the class by the end of the term), and I don't think my french teacher would have let me take the quiz. The good news to this kind of disappointing one is that one of these weekends Chandler are going to watch Anne of Green Gables finally, we will go to California just for fun, and during the summer, we're going to take a trip to D.C. Am I excited? You betcha! 

I'm currently ready The Scarlet Letter. The book really is painful to read. . . I can't get through one page without asking,"What?!!" But when I do understand it, it's beautiful, and I can't wait until I am done. Reading, understanding, and finishing hard books just might be the best feeling in the world. They also make the Book of Mormon really, really easy to read.

Thursday and Friday we have school off, thank goodness! The fam and I will be venturing off to St. George, our trusty vacation, for the weekend. We'll be seeing the play Noises Off!, the comedy from The Shakespeare Festival. It's hilarious and I can't wait to see it again.

I saw Mr. Mitchell in the halls a couple of times this week. . . I still haven't said a word to him in my life. I found out from his friend, who I am friends with, that he (as in Mitchell) thinks it's creepy I call him his nickname. . . I agreed. Full heartedly! I told Kolten that he needs to tell him (as in Mitchell again) that I am trying to change from my creepy 12 year old ways. I guess I'm just going to have to do that one myself, though, seeing as Kolten won't tell him, and I need to talk to him finally and break the ice. I think that's going in the goal book for the week.

My life surely isn't a high adventure. It's going well, though, and so that's an adventure in my book. :) Hope you had a great week, and will have an equally great weekend. Read a hard book, watch Anne of Green Gables, and sleep, it will definitely help your stress level go down. :)

P.S. Lauren showed me this poem:

I Hate Her And I Love Her
Catullus
"I hate her and I love her. Don't ask me why. It's the way I feel, that's all, and it hurts."

Isn't it fantastic?! So straight forward? So blunt? My favorite thing about it is that he's talking about how he's in pain, but you know what? It's okay; that's the way it is. "Don't ask why; it's just the way I feel." Everyone should have that type of attitude to life; acknowledge that they're going to have pain and sorrows, and then get over it, move on, learn to love life more than the pain. It lasts longer that's for sure. :)

Eagle Mountain Showers

My cousin Jerran is getting married next month. November 12th to be exact. So, this past weekend my Aunt Julie along with Stenna Andersen threw a bridal shower for Liz, his fiance.

"We love and miss you, Ash!" Love: Aunt Corrin and BreAnn

Seeing as my Aunt Julie just might be the best cook ever, the food was completely fantastic. It was really good to see the aunts again, and to meet Liz and her family, too. It's crazy how everybody is growing up; getting married. I remember when the baby above was born. She's so old now! I remember going on camping trips, playing card games, riding four wheelers, going as fast as I can as if there was no care in the world, because right then in that moment, there was no care. Sometimes I miss those times, really I do. I go to school and realize just how old I am. The fact that I'll be on my own in just two years, is scary! I try to resist by saying I'm too short for it! Really, I am, but then, I remember that in two years I'm actually just getting to start my life. I get to make new memories, and look back on them as I look back on my good memories now.

Life is good, family is family, and that's a fantastic thing. I wish Liz and Jerron the best of luck; they deserve it. :)

Cookie Dough and Carved Pumpkins

Last night, I had to leave to return my friend Sydney's camera to her. So, me and my mom hopped into the car; me driving of course. :) After we had successfully arrived and returned the object, my mom needed to run to Lowes to get a soap dispenser, and to Home Depot to return a soap dispenser. All in all, the adventure took 30 minutes max.

Well, moving forward, I was turning into our cul-de-sac. I looked at our house and saw an odd flashing light. I leaned forward and said, "What the heck is that?!" When I got close enough to not see blurred vision, I saw the following scene:

I literally jumped for joy inside!! So much so, I didn't turn enough and bumped the curb.
"Um. . . .What are you doing, Sidney?!" was what my mom said.
"Oh, right!" was my reply, and quickly I turned and parked.

I very, very quickly got out of the car, went inside (where Lauren and our friend Dani Falsev were working) and asked many questions. I almost slid on my butt I was moving so fast!
They told me that about 5 or 10 minutes after I had left, my package came. Bummer, I know. It really is just my luck that I was gone when he came. It's okay, though, I'm going to Preference in any case. :)

Forking out the Dough

 I asked someone to Preference on Wednesday. This certain someone is not just anybody, though. . . the story goes like this:

Wednesday after school, Tiffany Fraughton and I were sitting in the back of Dani's little tomato red car. She (Dani) was talking to Cherstin, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and Tiff and I were talking in the back. She had kindly included me into her Preference group, and so we were just discussing who I should ask. Tiff named off a few boys who would be eligible. But. . . I didn't want to ask them. One of the boys who was eligible was a boy by the name Mitchell. 

Let me tell you about the said Mitchell. He was one of my many crushes in 7th grade. Being a 12 year old girl, you can only imagine my obsession. I was super excited when I saw that he walked home the same way I did, and this is the origin of his nickname: Abie-baby. See, His real name is Abraham, but he goes by Mitchell. How I found out his real name is Abraham, I have no idea. Anyway, from 7th grade until now, I still call him Abie-baby. And, from 7th grade to now, I have never spoken a word to him in my life. 

This is why I didn't want to ask him to this dance. . . Worst of worst situations is if he actually knew that I called/call him this spunky little nickname, and that he knew I was a stupid obsessed girl.

Well, Tiffany kept telling me, "You should ask him, you should ask him!" So, finally I gave in and said fine. 

Moving forward about 10 minutes, me; Dani; and Tiffany were talking about when I should ask this boy. I thought I should do it sometimes in the next coming week. They disagreed. They thought I should do it that night. After saying no a couple of times and then thinking about it for a few seconds, I thought it was actually a pretty good idea. So, the event was set. 

This is how I asked him. At the bottom of the bowl is my name. Inside the bowl is cookie dough. And in the cookie dough is forks. 

Clever, huh?! I stole it from Lauren. . . . :)

In my defense, I thought I was being pretty clever in putting a lot of forks in the dough. . . This dance just might make me broke. 

Oh. . .. you don't get it? Okay. . .

Well, when I went to deliver it, I had about a gallon of adrenaline rushing through my veins. And as we were driving back around to see if he got our little package, the song Blow by Ke$hia came onto the radio. That's about what I felt like inside. . . :) 

And then, about an hour after all of this was done, I found out just a comical little fact. Tiffany had talked to Kolten, her brother who is very good friends with this Mitchell boy. You know what Kolten said? He said that Mitchell knew that I was obsessed with him once upon a time, and he knew that I called him and still do call him Abey-baby. Talk about worst nightmare!!! I about died with Tiff told me this. And I'm still about dying inside, because I have to go on a date with him (well, that is if he says yes, that's still iffy. . .I hope you can see why). I surely hope with all of my heart it won't be awkward. Knowing me, though, it will be awkward. I'm just an awkward person that way. 

Needless to say, I'm super excited for November 12. November 10, the anniversary of my existence, came at a great time this year. Let's hope I don't let the nickname I call him slip while I am actually with him. Let's also, hope that this just becomes a fun little high school memory. That would be a nice ending. :)

Serendipituous Encounters

I think it's ironic that in the song she talks about serendipity, because for the past day, I've been in complete awe. I love it. I repeat it and repeat it and repeat it, and I don't think I will ever get sick of it. You should go get it; it's free on iTunes! :)

In Driver's Ed today we watched a video provided by Jiffy Lube. They're offering a scholarship for up to 3500 dollars, and all you have to do is write a paper with at least 500 words on your hopes, dreams, and goals for the future. You bet I'm going to do it! :)

Have a good Tuesday!

"I Don't Want Any Sunbursts or Marble Halls; I Just Want You"

This weekend was spent down in the grandparents' house in St. George. My dad was running the marathon and it was conference, so we decided to make a party out of it. Basically, the weekend was filled with sleeping. And being spiritually uplifted! President Monson seemed so happy this conference, and it is just an example of how we need to be every single day of our lives. This gospel really is a happy one, and we need to exemplify that as President Monson did yesterday and today.

Oh, and Lauren and I watched Anne of Green Gables. I'm in love with this movie. All three of them actually. I wish I was Anne. I wish I had lived in the Victorian times, and I wish I could wear dresses with a collar that comes all the way up to my throat and a bun on top of my head. Or 1920s dresses that come just above the ankle with 1 inch heels and colored stockings. I guess I'll just have to change my wardrobe.

Someday, I'll find my Gill. In the meantime, I'll be expanding my vocabulary, and I'll be the first in my class. Time flies when you're trying to reach all of your goals and meet all of the kindred spirits of the world. :)