2012 New Year Resolutions

Last year I don't really know if I even had many goals. I think I tried to send cards or presents to everyone in the family on birthdays and it didn't work out so well. I didn't do all the birthdays and Mom got tired of me asking to be taken to the post office to send packages and ask for stamps. It's a lovely thought, but I think I will stick to emails and phone calls this year. So, this year I really want to do better. I read Danielle's blog about how she had the work ATTITUDE for last year and the word HEALTHY for this year. I thought that was really cool and so I'm going to copy her and choose a theme for this year (next year technically). Have you all heard or read the Good, Better, Best talk? I don't know who gave it or if I have even read or heard it, but Mom has talked about it. He talked about how there's the good things like, oh, I don't know really...maybe decorating and painting your nails and there's the better things like schoolwork and practicing talents like writing or drawing and then there's the best things like reading your scriptures, doing Personal Progress and praying. I don't know if I have that right. Maybe schoolwork should be in the best catagory, but the point is to do the best things first, then the better, then good. Maybe you won't get to decorate as much, but doing the best first is the best. Do you get it? So, I think I want to make that my theme for this year. GOOD, BETTER, BEST.

This year I want to:
-Do better with sugar. I'm not watching my weight or anything, but whether you need to loose weight or not, sugar is bad for you and I don't want to put as much of it in my body. I'm not eliminating it, but I think I want to cut out candy. (I mean after I eat the store of it from Christmas. I know that's not the best attitude or the best way to start the year, but I have given the junky candy to Anna and Gracie and only saved the best for myself.) I think for as much sugar as candy has in it, it's not worth it. Now, when I say candy I mean nerds and whoppers. If I get good candy like a Hershey bar or fancy candy from a candy store I'll eat it. Otherwise I want to stick to home made treats that are worth the sugar. I know that's not a really specific goal and it's kind of all over the place, but that's what I want to do.
-Try to cook more. We've been watching Avonlea and watching Felicity cook is inspiring. And Mom could make a pie all by herself at my age, so I want to do better. To start I want to make dinner once a month and maybe help Mom make something every once in a while. Tonight I made biscuits for dinner. :)
-Do more Personal Progress. In almost two years I have finished one value. Which means I did 7 or 8 experiences and 1 project. I think that's pretty pathetic, even if I am proud that I finally finished it. So, I don't know exactly how much I want to finish this year, but I want to always be working on something.

Overall, I want to do Good, Better, and Best. I really want to try my best to meet these goals and not just decide to not do them. I really want to do this. Happy New Years, everybody!

Christmas This Year

I took some pictures of all us while we were making paper chains and planned to post about it and Christmas so far this year. Well.. we are at Lizzie's now, I forgot my camera so I can't post pictures or take any new ones. I just forgot to bring it. I'm sure that Lizzie will provide enough pictures, though. So, I guess I'll just write. It's been so weird to not have snow for Christmas. Last year we were at my dad's so we still had it, but this year in California we have obviously not gotten any snow. I know it sounds weird and you are totally thinking, "Snow shouldn't make a difference." But it seriously does. That's what we have always had (minus the few years in Oregon that I don't remember). So, suddenly to not have it is really strange. All month I've had to remind myself that it's Christmas. It just hasn't felt like it. It has also been kinda stressful for a few weeks because Mom was in charge of the ward Christmas party and when Mom's stressed out we all are (a bit) and that same week I was having a party with my friends from WISH and then the Sunday after the Friday of the ward party the choir was singing a bunch of songs and I was singing in a quartet that turned out to need an extra soprano because my voice isn't loud and strong enough to be heard over the other parts. It was me with four adults. I don't really think that my small voice made much of a difference, but it was fun. So, that was all last week. This week I have been concentrating on presents, writing a Christmas story that Mom assigned us to write for school and not to mention a lot of reading. There are a lot of books on my shelf that I have not read. Most of them are from Dad from Christmas last year and coincidently they are all except one rewritten fairytales. I liked them all but I especially loved two. One was called Palace of Mirrors and the other My Fair Godmother. Both of them were great stories and well written, but what I lioved more than anything was the characters. I need to connect with the characters in order to like a book. That is like the most important thing to me in a book. I've read books that are great, but I don't really like the characters so I don't really like the book. Do any of you feel that way? Am I weird? So, anyway, I've whizzed through five books this month all while waiting for a certain book to come to the library. Well now it came and I am sad to be done reading all of the fairytales. I liked it.

Well, I know it's not much, but I'm gonna go now. If I don't write before Christmas... Merry Christmas!!!!!

I am grateful that I am a Mormon

Okay, I've been waiting to post about this until I can post some pictures with other things, but I don't know if that's ever going to happen. So... the name of my blog is Little Miss LDS, but I have never talked about that much. Well, I invited a friend of mine from WISH to a ward breakfast a bit back so she invited me to a Christmas Tea that her church was having. She goes to the Eagle Rock Baptist church. I didn't hesitate to except and I don't regret going. In fact, it might have been good for me. Anyway, so, I went to this tea. The tables were all decorated goergously, the food was yummy. I even tried some caffine free tea. I've decided I'm not a big fan. Well, after we had eaten a while two women got up and sang 'Mary, did you know?' I love that song, but there was no music to accompany them. I thought that was really sad. Then another woman got up to 'say a few words.' Let me just let that sink in for a minute. I, a 13 year old Mormon who has never gone to any church but the LDS one, sat through a Baptist talk. So, she started with a prayer. It took a minute for me to realize she was praying because she said it so casually. In our church our prayers are reverent and grateful and inspiring for the most part. Her prayer was "I know who you are and you know who I am. When I talk make it so that it is not my words, but yours." Then she closed in the name of Jesus Christ. Then she turned to a perjecter behind her that had an artiicle selling houses. It said that Christmas is a wonderful time of year to buy a big house to entertain 2nd cousins. She just pounced on that. She said that of all the relatives that come over 2nd cousins aren't them. Then she said that she wouldn't want to pack up, move, unpack and then get decorated for Christmas. I don't know what that was about. She never talked about anything like that the rest of the talk. So, then she talked about the theme of the Tea. She said, "Last year it was 'The Recipe for Christmas.' This year it is 'Our family Christmas.' What is that about? Last year it made you think of pies and cookies cooking. And a warm kitchen. This year it's like... 'Our family Christmas.' What is that about?" So, she talked about how she didn't like the theme. After that I don't remember when she said what, but she talked about how we all have this perfect Christmas in our minds and how we're never going to have it. She told stories of awful Christmases her friends have had. She read a scripture in the Bible about how Jesus will take over the world or something like that and she said, "It didn't look like he was taking over the world to me. He was in a manger in this stinky barn with these stinky animals. God didn't even get him a nice place to sleep!" Then she talked about how God will adopt us as his children if we are righteous. She said it so beautifully. She said, "He wants me to be his girl. He wants me, this sinful human, to be his girl. He wants you to be his girl." But she ruined it when she said that he only wants that if we are righteous. She ended her talk by saying there is going to be a great party up in heaven and that she will be there and that she hopes that we all would be there with her. Then she prayed and ended. So, the way I would explain this talk is-you know how when someone tries to make a point and so they point out the negative and then they say "buuuuut"? Well, this entire talk was the negative part of that. The whole thing was getting to the but, but she never got there. It was awful. I was telling Mom all of this when I got home and she just laughed. I was still super shaken by it then and had no idea how she laugh. It was just so awful. I felt like Pollyanna. She was yelling with her arms spread wide and I half expected to look up to see a chandelier shaking. Part of the time I wanted to stand up and yell that all of that wasn't true. I wanted to tell everyone that Heavenly Father loves us no matter what and that there is always a way to return to him. That there is always hope, but most of the time I just wanted to get up and leave. It was just the craziest experience for me.

This was all awful and everything, but it reminded me of how lucky I am that I have the truth. That the whole time that woman was yelling at us, I knew that it wasn't true. I knew that Heavenly Father and Jesus loved me and wanted me to be his girl whether I was righteous or not. I knew that if you did wrong He will help me get back on the right track. And I am so grateful that I knew and know that.

Progress Dinner

I had a Progress dinner for mutual last Tuesday. It was super fun. We drove (Steve thought we should have rode bikes) to three different houses. In each house we sang one Christmas carol and Sister Boman read something from the New Era. At the last house we got to hear Dustin (something) who sings songs for EFY CDs sing a few of his songs. Then we all sang some Christmas carols with him. It was really awesome. When we left we each got a little glass dove with a peace of paper attached that said "Prince of Peace." The food was really good, too. We had lots of appetizers at the first house, rolls and tomato soup at the second house and hot chocolate and brownies at the last house. I always love mutual. I love being with all of my friends from church and just having fun.

Happy Windsday

Okay, I'm going to post about this on my newspaper blog with pictures later or tomorrow (yes, I still have that blog) but just for now... we had a windstorm and it was scary and crazy. Uprooted trees and everything and it's supposed to happen again tonight. Scary! I don't mean to put you on the edge of your seats like this, but I can't post on my other blog now and I wanted to post something about it. But we are all safe, in case you were wondering! :)