DI Service Project

So, just so we are clear, I love to sleep in. I don't like to wake up early and I am not good at it. Since the new year our church has been at 9:00 a.m. For school we have a scheduele so I have to wake up early on school days, too. That leaves only Saturday to sleep in. Well, guess what I did on Saturday. I had to wake up early and be at the church at 8:30 in the morning. They had breakfast for us there (donuts!) so I didn't have to worry about that, but I still didn't get to sleep in. We left to go to DI (we do have one :) to volunteer. It was really fun. I was put in the knick-knack section with a leader and another beehive. Each thing had a sticker with a number on it. If the sticker had the numbers 3, 4 or 5 on it it stayed. If it had the numbers 1, 2 or 50 than it got put in the cart and later thrown away. When the cart was full we took it to the ginormous garbage bin and threw them away. We had to throw them in so they broke. It was so sad to just throw away so many nice things. But that's how they do it. After that we went back and put all of the new stuff on the same shelves. Then we were called to help with lunch. I broke apart the lettuce. All though, I wasted a lot because a lot of it fell on the floor because the bowl was too small. When we did all we could with lunch we went back and hung clothes. Finally when lunch was ready we ate and went home. When I got home my whole family was still lazing around and waking up and it was 12:30! Oh, well, I guess I probably wouldn't have been up and around anyway if I didn't do that project. :)

I must again say...

I'm growin' up. I just went to Danielle's blog to look for a picture of me from my last birthday. I knew she posted some because she was there for my birthday and she took pictures of me. I was scrolling down through everything because since she doesn't have a blog archive I couldn't just click and be there. As I was scrolling down I saw a lot of old posts that I had already seen. When I looked at the dates I was like, "It was that long ago?" It feels like it wasn't very long ago. Everyone says that as you get older time goes by faster. I have never really realized the truth of that until now. When I finally got to what I was looking for my mouth fell open. I looked really little! My hair was short! I wasn't wearing makeup and unless Danielle edited my skin, my face wasn't covered in zyts like it is now! It is really crazy how much I've grown and how much you can see it!

I am sorry to say that that is it for now. I felt like I should post. (And in case anyone was wondering, I still have not decided exactly what to do for my birthday:)

I'm Growin' Up

At the reunion everyone kept saying, "Aliese, you are so old!" I am not OLD, but I am OLDER. I mean, I am turning 13 year old next week! I can't believe that it is really that soon. Never has my birthday crept up on me like that. Usually I like, count down, but this year I haven't done anything. I can't believe it.

So, the rule in our home for parties is that we can either have a party with friends or we can go out to dinner with the family and bring a friend. We can always have a family party. Last year I had a sledding party with friends and had Danielle and Clay over for dinner and cake. So, this year I thought I would take my good friend Chelsie out to dinner and have a family party with Lizzie (maybe). Then my Mom says, "Well, you could have a character breakfast at Disneyland for your birthday." Great, Mom. Another choice. I know I sound really selfish having such a hard time choosing what to do for my birthday, but this is once a year and I am going to be a teenager this year. I think I want a chocolate moose pie or the ice cream cake that Shad really likes. The one that Tanner had for his birthday.

This is like the first year that I really haven't asked for any toys or something silly. Last year my big "want" was for a dress in the style from the time of Anne of Green Gables. My Mom couldn't find one and had to make one. It didn't last very long. I tried to put it on the other day and it almost choked me to the death! Thanks Mom. I loved it while it lasted. This year I have asked for clothes, jewelry, books, cricut stuff (if you would use that much money on me) and whatever anyone can think of. I don't have a big "want" like I usually do for birthdays and Christmas. This Christmas I asked for the same things minus the cricut stuff. All though I did get a big thing that I didn't even think about asking for. Face it, I'm growin' up. For my Dad's wedding I got a pair of high heels to wear. My Dad said, "Aliese, I am going to have to tell you that you have to stop growing." I replied, "I'm sorry, Dad. I am going to have to break a commandment because I cannot obey that." I can't.

But really, I will always be a little girl. I remind myself of an old babysitter. She also played barbies into her teenage years. :)

"Thanks, Mom."

I can now say in all seriousness and truthfulness that I love Joanns. I went the other day because I had talked to Amy and she said that there were some paper sales. I went because I needed more colors of paper. I went prepared to buy black, skin color and brown. When I got there I wanted to stop and stare at the stuff that they had on every single isle. Not going to happen. We were in a hurry so we ran to the back corner to see all of the many many many papers they have. I am not kidding. I felt like I could stay there all day. Again, not going to happen. So, I went to where the Martin Luther King sale was. 6 pieces of paper for 96 cents. Yeah, sounds like a pretty good deal and it was. Then my mom called out, "Look. There are packs of 50 pieces of paper for $3.99 that are 40% off." I was like, that sounds really good, but I don't need all that paper. I came for black and brown and skin color. I figured I could get 2 pieces of each, use it to make my dad's birthday card and save the rest. I was tempted, but turned back to the other sale. "This is a better deal if you actually use the paper," My mom said. So, I turn back then turn around again. When I look at all of the millions of paper, kinda taking my time my mom says, "Look there are big packets of paper in primary colors. You don't have primary colors!" No, mom, I am looking at these. Eventually mom goes to a different isle and leaves me to the many temptations. I had a lot of money. It was all divided up into the different sections of my budget and I was staying in the limit. But they are sales. Sales don't stay 24/7. I looked at the paper that was 40% off. At $3.99 they go down to $2.30 something a packet for 50 sheets of cardstock. There is a packet of 30 sheets of black and white, primary colors, naturals, brights. Really cool. So, I decided to get the black and white, naturals and primary colors. I felt good and I had enough money.

Anna needed to go to Barnes and Noble and get a Harry Potter book mark for my dad for his birthday. We got in the car and my mom says, "You should probably get some files to keep those in like Amy has." Thanks. Are you trying to make me spend all of my money? "Amy did say that she saw some in the dollar section at Target." I said. "A few stores down from Barnes and Noble there's a Target." my mom said. Well... I guess. I do need something to keep my papers in. "What size?" I asked. "You should probably get a few different sizes." Really? So, she dropped me off at Target and they left. I went inside to the dollar section and saw the folders. There were small, medium and large sizes. I have little paper scraps at home that are loose. I just bought some 8" by 11". So, I looked at the different colors and sections and bought a medium and large.

I went to Joanns to buy 2 pieces each of black, brown and skin color paper and leave with primary colors, black and white, naturals paper and two files from to store them in. Thanks to you, mom. Thanks a lot. If it weren't for you I would only have spent like, a buck, but I wouldn't have so many colors or a place to put them. Thank you. Really.

"No Playing Ball in the House!"

Today we had our second volleyball lesson at the park. We practiced passing, setting, under hand serving and over hand serving. It is pretty fun, but pretty tiring and a little over whelming. Sometimes the coach will come over and throw it to me and tell me to bump it or set it back to him. When I miss or hit it wrong I have to go get it and he says, "Hustle, Hustle, I'm not wasting time here." I felt pressured. Plus setting is my hardest. But we were a little better than when we started. He told us all to do each thing 20 times. Ridiculous. So, mom told us to only do 10 each. He said Gracie and Grace (there is another 5 year old girl named Grace) should just practice throwing the ball back and forth and up and down. Not very long ago Gracie was throwing the ball up and down and she asked if I would throw it back and forth with her. I said I would. So, naughtily we played ball in the house. When I stopped Gracie through a big fit and she is now in a box and is saying, "I am being punished for my life." It may sound funny, but it wasn't when she was hitting everyone. Good luck to me.

My Holiday

Whew! We are back to California and we are done with all of that traveling for a while. I won't bother to bore you all with the schedule that we had over our break. I will just say the after I went to Grandma Leslie's house the first time we went back to Utah for Christmas and went back again. Then went back to Utah for three days, then came to California.

As far as Christmas Eve went, the exciting stuff started at 10 a.m. My instinct to that time is ,early, because I take a long time to get out of bed, eat and get ready. It's just me and everybody knows that. So, anyway, we went to the Orgill (Diane's family) family Christmas Eve party at an ice skating rank. We rented out the whole rank and a few party rooms close by. The rank was not that big. It was actually kinda small. At first the sister who set everything up wanted to have it there. Then it was closed, then it opened. So, when everyone said, "Yay! We're going there!" I said, "Oh no! We're going there!" I didn't want to skate! I was so scared. In the past I've skated once and it was a horrible experience all together because it was at a birthday party. So, I had no parents to help me and everyone knew how to skate except for me. But this time was totally different! I had a great time! Dad and Diane went around with me a couple times, barely moving. Then I went around by myself. At first I moved an inch at a time (not exaggerating). By the end I was moving pretty fast and I didn't want to leave! I had such a great time! The whole time all the cousins were joking around together and throwing ice shavings. One of the kids made a tiny snowman in the middle of the rank out of ice shavings. It was pretty funny. Also, the cousins all acted out the nativity. So, we had Samuel, angels (notice it's plural), people who attacked Samuel, wise men, shepherds and sheep! Plus Mary, Joseph and the baby doll who was Jesus. We rehearsed and put on our costumes. By the end all the little kids dropped out but two. So, there was one sheep and one little angel. I was an angel so I was able to hold her hand the whole time, luckily. Otherwise, I don't know if she would have stayed up. And guess why all the little kids dropped out? Because they wanted to go skating! I thought it was so funny cause they couldn't even really skate. By the end I was just smiling.

That night we made truffles that weren't really like truffles at all. They were oreo crumbs and cream cheese dipped in almond bark. When we were dipping them Caleb (the twelve year-old as of Dec. 23) and I got into a thing about what to call the almond bark. I kept calling it chocolate because it looked like white chocolate. Then he would say, "It's not chocolate, It's white... stuff." Then I would say, "You can't call anything you want to stuff." It was really funny. Later, when Caleb had left I almost said chocolate again and said white stuff instead. That made Diane bust out laughing. After that we opened one present each. The boys got slippers and we, of course, got pajamas. After that we had truffle or two and watched A Christmas Story. Then we all went and tried to go to sleep. It was a fun day.

On Christmas we opened presents (DUH). I got two necklaces, some fuzy socks, $82 total, a photo album, clothes, five new books, candy, a book light, a weekly calender, and a big Taylor Swift calender and CD that is mine, Anna's and Gracie's. I got a few more little things, but it would take too long to name them all. Thank you for the presents everybody!

New Years Eve we went to one of Diane's sisters house and played games and hung out till midnight when we turned on the TV and watched the big ball drop. After that we went to Diane's mom's house and stayed the night there because Diane's house was an hour away.

So, there is my holiday. I hope you all had a good one, too!