Halloween

I suppose I should post about Halloween.  I will try not to take too much time to do it, but my last post ended up being much longer than I had planned, so...

Halloween made it feel really official that I've been here for over a year.  That's a long time for what we did before that.  We'd move and start talking about moving again a few months later.  Last year I went trick-or-treating with the YW and YM in our ward.  It was so fun.  Who says teenagers are too old to trick-or-treat if we're willing to dress up?  So, we went again this year, but the YM didn't join us until we went to the biggest street for Halloween.  All the houses are decorated amazingly.  Some houses had over a hundred pumpkins in their yard.  They block it off from traffic and it is just packed with trick-or-treaters.  We didn't actually trick-or-treat on that street.  We didn't even look at the houses much.  We just walked down, lost a couple people, then went home because we were so tired and it was so crowded.  I dressed up as Laura from Little House, when she is older.  I had the outfit from trek and I thought that I'd want to be Laura sometime since I love her so much so I was Laura.  We put my hair up and I wore some really pretty, but natural looking make-up.  I actually really looked like her, though no one recognized me, of course.  I told the YW who I was and they started calling me 'Little House'.  It drove me crazy.  I was like, hey, there are so many names you could call me that would be correct, like Half-pint, Beth, Laura, Miss Wilder, even Brown Eyes (which is only used in one episode.  Anyone remember which one?).  But they just kept calling me 'Little House'. :) I came home with a boat load of candy.  Like, a 4th of a pillowcase full.  Two full snickers bars.  Yum.  Anna and Gracie didn't have very much, for some reason, so I shared mine, and Mom made us throw it away the next day...or the day after.  Don't remember.  Really sad.  She said she just can't have the temptation, which, being me, I don't understand.  I have amazing self control (I'm not being sarcastic, only exaggerating ;).

The Saturday before Halloween we had a trunk-or-treat and a dance right after.  So we just left from the trunk-or-treat together.  Sadly, we got there about an hour late and I'm not going into details why because I'm still not even sure why.  It was a dress up dance and instead of wearing my trek clothes, Mom thought I should wear one of her old prom dresses.  So, I wore the one with a black top and white bottom.  I loved it, but I was so excited to dress up in my collar and mid-calf length skirt Laura costume for Halloween.  Much more comfortable.  The dance had the normal songs and dances, but it also had some square dances, like on trek.  It was fun, but not as fun as trek.  I mean, what did I expect?  You really can't beat that trek dance.  It was amazing.  And it just didn't feel right doing those dances in a gym. 

Overall, Halloween was fun.  And I'm so glad that I got to spend it with everyone from church.  I love them. :)  So grateful for them.  So, now it's basically the Holiday season.  I'm not feeling it.  It never really felt like Christmas last year.  Seriously, it's a hard transition going from Idaho Christmas's to California Christmas's.  Especially since we'll be in Utah every other year, which makes it hard to get used to something new when you only do it every other year.  Oh well.

Crocheting Dilemma

First, of all, thank you for the cooking stories, except-two people?  Only two people commented and left stories.  Seriously, what happened to all of you?  I am certain that there are many more awesome/horrible cooking stories out there.

So, this past Thursday I went to a baby shower.  That baby shower caused me so much frustration and grief, and I'm sure that the person the baby shower was for would be very upset if she knew that.  I've mentioned her before.  She's Kip's wife and they have an adorable almost 3 year old girl that I babysit all the time. They live super close so all I have to do is walk on over there to babysit.  And she used to be a YW leader, but she got released because she's moving soon. :( Which I am really sad about.  So, because I've spent so much time with her and love her so much I really wanted to crochet her something special.  Oh, and she's having twin boys so that meant I had to make two of whatever it was I was going to make.  I started probably three weeks before the shower, by googling 'baby boy crochet projects' just to get some ideas.  I found an adorable picture of brown booties with a white stripe and a little football.  But it was on pintrest and since I don't do pintrest I couldn't look at the pattern.  So, then I decided to google 'baby boy booties' and finally found a website that just had links to a ton of different patterns online.  There were some really adorable ones, but my favorite ones were some little sneakers.  So, I printed off the pattern and started figuring it out.  It didn't take long before I realized something was wrong.  Some parts were way to big and it got to the point where I seriously did not know what to do.  I ended up undoing it and redoing it, I think, three times, trying to get it right, before I gave up.  I have a book that has patterns that have always worked out and it had a pattern for some high top booties.  They looked adorable, so even though I wanted something a little more creative I thought that at this point I couldn't really be picky.  So, I hurriedly made the first booty, assuming that it would work out because this book had been great so far.  Somehow, the ankle turned out a little smaller than my fist.  That was not going to work.  I'm pretty sure that this was the Sunday or Monday before the shower.  Mom told me that she got some burp rags with a crocheted edge as a baby shower gift and that she always loved them.  So, on Tuesday at WISH I talked to someone in my ward who crochets (she actually teaches a crocheting class) about how to crochet on fabric.  She researched it, sent me a link on how to do it, and gave me some fabric that she had on hand.  I spent my time alone while Mom was at dance with Anna and Gracie, looking it up, finding a pattern for burp rags and cutting the fabric.  To do it, you basically just poke a hole in the fabric with your hook.  It does work, but it is hard and gets more and more frustrating with each hole.  I couldn't actually start until the next afternoon after my sewing lesson because I needed to serge the edge and my sewing machine was at my sewing lesson.  So, I had to poke holes into the fabric for each individual stitch with a dull metal hook and my already barely big enough burp rags became kind of small.  The holes were uneven and the thick yarn I used for the edge just seemed bulky.  I hated them, the project of making them and the entire situation by the end of it, but Mom said the were cute and the woman a gave them to liked them and the color.  I finished them about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for the baby shower.  The whole thing was a nightmare and as it went on it just got worse because the shower was getting closer and I was getting so frustrated.  The woman from my ward who sent me the link helped me the best she could the whole way.  She didn't have a good booty pattern either and tried to find one for me and she was really very supportive the whole time.  She's going to help me crochet an afgahn for a Personal Progress project.  I'm excited. :)

After this whole thing I thought that I really needed a book full of patterns for things for babies.  Today I went to Micheal's and found an entire section dedicated to crocheting books and half of it was dedicated to crocheting for babies.  I was so excited and looked through almost all of them individually and a couple more than once.  I didn't look at them as long as I would have liked to, though because I was there with a friend that only came with me because we finished book club early (another subject).  There was one book that was awesome.  It had tons of stuff, except it was mostly sweaters and vests and only had three pairs of booties and three blankets, which is probably what I would crochet most.  There was another little book that had 9 pairs of booties that were all completely different and adorable.  I really want that and the other book, but both of them would be about $30 and you can't use coupons on books.  I'll have to figure that out.  But I want them so bad and am getting so excited that I can't think about anything else!  It's such a dilemma. 

A Few Things

Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to blog about.  I had a bunch of random things going through my mind a while back, but of course now I can't remember them.

I went to a mutual activity that was all about Personal Progress and I'm going to start a project as soon as I can.  I'm going to crochet a square quilt with the value colors for my bed.  Right now I'm focusing on making two pairs of baby booties for a baby shower for some twins.  I'm really frustrated with booties.  I can't seem to get a pattern that works.  I had to alter a pair I made recently to make them smaller.  I thought it was because the hook I used was too big, but the hook I'm using now is the right size and it still seems a little big.  I just need a book full of good patterns for babies.  I have already made so many things for baby showers that I could really use one.

I had an idea for story and wondered if I could ask you all for some help.  I can't say much about the story because I don't really have much of a plan, but I need some cooking stories.  Some great and funny stories about messing up or burning the food of yourself or serving food that was messed up and you didn't realize it.  And details about the circumstances and who you were serving the food to would be great, too.  If you could email me I would be so so happy about it!  I need to start writing more and so I'm jumping at this idea I got when I was sweeping the floor the other day. :)

Seminary and Flipped

Okay, it has been so long!  Seriously, I don't know how it happened and there is so much to catch up on.  But my last few posts don't have many comments even though my blog says it has views.  I did send out an email.  We'll see, guess.

First, seminary!  I really have been excited about seminary, but then the time went from 6 to 5:45.  5:45!  I could not believe it, that is just so early!  We have some kids in our seminary class that have a 0 period at 6:45.  They are amazing, I don't know how they do it.  When they lean their heads on their desks I do not blame them.  I really don't.  Anyway, it started at 5:45 and then Mom set up for us to bring someone to seminary every morning so that means I have to get up and out of the house even earlier!  Buuuut, despite all that, I love it.  I absolutely love it.  We have a great teacher who really loves seminary.  He's been teaching it for three years so I hope he doesn't get released soon, but because of that he knows all and loves all the kids really well and loves being with us every morning.  He helps us with scripture mastery first thing every morning and is always changing the method so it's not just the same old thing.  I am so surprised at how many I have already passed off!  I'm great with memorizing songs, with all the repition, the music and singing along, but memorizing scriptures has always been hard for me.  Of course, there are still kids in the class ahead of me.  I guess some just like to memorize them on their own to get it done faster.  I really want to actually remember them, though so I'm not doing that.  We only have about 15 kids and that's two whole wards combined.  And there's only 4 or 5 young men.  It's really sad.  But we don't mind.  Once, we were talking about missionary work and our teacher asked, "So, would you like more YW and YM in your classes on Sunday?"  We all said, yes.  "And more kids in seminary?"  Silence.  No one said yes, some even said no.  We just like it the way it is.  So, overall, I love seminary.  Hopefully, my excitement doesn't wear off.  My dad says he loved seminary all 4 years.

Anna's already blogged about Flipped.  I don't know all she said, though.  It's pretty bad.  We were so obsessed.  It's starting to wear off.  It started when I borrowed the book from a friend of mine in the ward.  I read it in 2 or 3 days and would not rest until we got the movie.  It had the movie website on the back of the book and I got on it and watched the trailer at least 5 times over the course of a few days before we got the movie.  When we did we watched it while Mom was gone.  After it was over, I think Anna, said she wanted to watch it again.  Gracie agreed.  So, we watched it again. And again.  And again.  And again.  Only twice in a row, but we watched it about once a day for a week.  We still have it actually.  Mom and Steve were gone basically all day Saturday at a Dave Ramsey thing and we watched a lot of Avonlea.  When Anna left for an activity days swim party Gracie and I thought that the best thing to watch would be Flipped because she had definetly already seen it.  She walked in about one minute before it ended and demanded we watch it again, so we did.  I went up to my loft and did  something else, but it played again, at least.  Then, a few days ago Gracie asked me to read it aloud to them.  So, now I read it aloud everyday and everyone loves it.  It motivates Anna and Gracie to do chores better than anything else.  Mom loves it too.  She laughs her head off during the boy's chapters and almost cries during the girl's.  They alternate perspectives.

Well, I don't know what else I should blog about, but I need to go, anyway.  Please comment!  I'll email you!

A Bit More of Little House

I'm probably just going to ramble on.  We're still watching Little House.  We finished it and then picked out random episodes we wanted to watch.  Today we watched some interviews and that was interesting.  We're watching it now, too.

I feel like there's so much I should be doing.  I have seminary, which kind of kills my brain for the rest of the day because I'm still not used to it.  I'll get it down eventually.  I have school and all my online BYU classes that I'm still trying to figure out.  This is the first year my mom has ever homeschooled a high schooler, especially with a charter school and she's trying to figure it all out, too.  She's apologized several times, "I'm so sorry you have to be the guinea pig."  We'll get that down eventually, too.  I've been trying to decorate my room since we moved in.  I've just now bought the paint for the frames, so hopefully I'll get it done soon.  I haven't read my book in days.  It's not the best book anyway.  It's Eragon, the one written by a teenager.  It's a good book I guess and there are a lot of questions that I want answered, but the characters really just aren't anything special and that is always what keeps me going in a book.  So without good characters it's not much of a book.  

Well, I don't really know what to say more.  We're still watching Little House and I'm very distracted so, till next time.   

Little House, mostly

As usual it has been a while since I've blogged and I don't know what to write first.  We went to Disneyland for the last time for a while, but I can't remember much of it now.  I'll remember and post about it later, but this week my life has been seminary and Little House.  I started seminary this year and have reported to church every morning at 5:45 a.m. this week.  It has been quite an adjustment that is still in progress, we're not quite adjusted yet. :) Mom and I have gotten into more fights this week than we have in a long time.  We thought we could just go to bed earlier, but we're thinking we might need to start taking naps.  Before seminary I could never take naps during the day, but now I could basically fall asleep anytime, anywhere.  Everyday I force myself up for seminary, come home, do school and anything I have to do in order for Mom to let me watch Little House, then I watch it as long as I can.  Like I've said before we have been watching it all in order and now we're almost done.  We've finished the last season just this past week and the last three movies.  There's actually a lot of the last season that I haven't seen.  Pretty much all I remember is Jeb saving Jenny (I ought to, he saves her two different times :) and Laura's baby boy dying.  It's actually a pretty good season.  So, we finished Little House yesterday and I have been kind of depressed since.  I was crying all day yesterday and sobbing during the movies.  It made me sad that we don't get to say good bye to James and Cassandra (or Carrie and Grace, but who cares about them?) and Albert dies and (I know, total bad grammar with all of these ands) they blow up the town and Jeb grows up and his and Jenny's romance completely disappear in the last three movies.  In the one where Albert gets cancer all the kids are hiking up a hill and I said, "Don't you think it would be fitting if Jenny twisted her ankle or something and Jeb had to carry her?"  I think it would be a nice way to rekindle the romance a bit.  I was just sobbing in the one about Albert and the last one when they blow up the town.  I was soo sad.  We even watched the one about Albert twice because Mom left and then wanted to watch it again when she came back and I sobbed both times.  I get very enthralled in the movies I watch.  I've cried during Bonanza, Harry Potter and a lot more.  But Little House really made me sad.  It all happened so fast.  We said good bye to Charles, Caroline, Albert and James and welcomed Jenny, Jeb and Jason and then we said good bye to them too after only a week!  I felt so lonely last night.  I was soo sad.  It was bad.  I can't even describe it.  I walked around the house not knowing what to do with myself and cried whenever anyone from Little House was mentioned.  I even put on my Gryffindor scarf to give me some comfort.  I'm wearing it now, too.  So, Little House is over and we probably won't be watching it as much.  Now I'll focus on seminary and school.

By the way, you need to post people!  And comment!  Where did everyone go?  It's like you all disappeared!  Anyway, love you all!      

More of My Crazy Summer

It's been so long since I've blogged, I can't believe it!  It's been basically a whole month!  I have so much to catch up on and don't know if I'm going to be able to do it all.  I've been on the computer a while catching up on other people's blogs (Lizzie, you need to blog!  I miss you guys!) and I would like to take a break, but then I'll never get back on.  So, first I'll blog about the big events before just summer with seven kids.  I flew on a plane by myself so I could go to Girls Camp in California.  It was a terrifying experience.  The actual flying wasn't a big deal, but everything before that was awful.  Dad wasn't sure if they would let him walk me up to the gate or not so I was thinking I would have to go through security and find the gate and listen for the call to board all by myself.  That really scared me.  Luckily, they let him walk me up there, so he was there until I had to get on the plane.  So, I just found my seat and that was it.  I actually had the same seat both times, by the window.  I was so glad.  Flying was amazing.  It was so cool to see the farms look like a patchwork quilt and see all the tiny houses.  It looked like a bunch of little doll houses.  My favorite was when I could see a football field or a baseball diamond because I knew how big it really was and it looked a couple inches wide, and I could still see the track around the field.  The clouds were also gorgeous from where we could see them.  They were right there!  Right nexy to us.  They didn't even look real.  It was amazing.  On the way back from California I sat by a girl close to my age and we talked pretty much the whole time so that was really fun.  She was flying in for the EFY at BYU.  She brought a Disney coloring book and we colored together.  It was really fun.  Overall it wasn't that bad, I guess.  I could do it again.  But I don't really want to do it with Anna and Gracie.  That sounds really overwhelming to have to be in charge of them and keep them busy during the flight.  We'll see if I have to do that.

Girls Camp was great.  I'm so glad that I got to go with them.  Our Stake divides the girls up by year, so all the 1st years sleep in a cabin, all the 2nd year sleep in a cabin and so on.  Last year there were probably twice as many as this year.  There were seven of us this year and two of those girls got there the second day.  So the first day there were only five of us and two of the girls didn't like to participate very much.  But oh well.  Girls Camp is so fun.  I love the songs and the activities and the devotionals and the meals.  I love it all.  My relationship with everybody is kind of interesting.  They're nice to me and we're all friends, but it doesn't take much for me to get pushed to the last priority.  That's kind of how I am everywhere.  I'm just not loud and pushy enough.  I got along pretty well with the girls in my cabin though, so that was good.  Whenever I come home from a church activity like this I talk when I get home.  This was how I was at Girls Camp last year and the trek.  I got home and talked and talked and talked.  I was alone with Mom this year because Anna and Gracie were still at Dad's and Steve was at work and I was talking to Mom about an activity we did.  It was the iron rod activity.  They had a plastic rod for us to hold on to and we had to hold on to it and walk while we were blindfolded.  All along the way the YCLs would be the tempters and told us to stop or let go or that there was a hole that we had to go around.  It was the scariest thing I've ever done.  Some of my best friends in my ward were YCLs this year and when they told me to let go it was awful not to listen to them because I would always trust them.  At this point in the story all of the nights of getting 5 hours of sleep and the sun and everything hit me and I started to sob.  I was sobbing.  I could not stop and I didn't even know why I was crying.  The story wasn't that dramatic.  It's amazing what camp does to us.  Yesterday, we were at Diane's mom's house with a bunch of the boys' cousins and one of them (he went to EFY too) had gotten back from Scout Camp that day and he fell asleep on the couch.  It was really funny and totally reminded me of Girls Camp.  Anyway, Girls Camp was fun.

Now for EFY.  I don't know what to say first!  Well, first of all I didn't go to the I kind of have mixed feelings about it.  I was kind of lonely the whole time.  The way I would describe the first day of EFY is going to Disneyland and trying to remember everyone's names.  The first day was very overwhelming.  All week it was a battle of feeling alone and wanting to go home, feeling the spirit and thinking it doesn't matter if I'm popular and actually feeling included, because I was sometimes.  All week I was battling with myself about whether or not I liked EFY and wanting it to be over so I could sleep in, but I didn't want the last day to end and when it did end I really missed it.  The day after it ended Nathan and I sat around all day and did not know what to do with ourselves.  At one point we both sat down on the couch and I said, "I don't know what to do.  I'm so bored."  And Nathan's like, "Amen, sister."  We still talk about EFY all the time.  In the middle of a conversation I would say, "You know what that reminds me of?" and Nathan would be like, "EFY!  I can't believe it's over!"  It was really fun doing it with him and two of his cousins.  One of them was in my group (the one who fell asleep on the couch), but Nathan and his cousin were in different groups, so we didn't see eachother too much, but we drove half an hour there and back everyday and even though it was three boys and me, I was able to keep the conversation going most of the time.  So, that was fun.  So, overall I liked EFY and I am definetly going again next year.  Even though it won't be the same.  You know the people over it all?  I think it's called the directing couple.  Ours said that they 'adopted' us for the week.  But our 'mom' got sick half way through the week and had to stay home.  But our 'dad', Brother Little, was the best.  He was so hilarious and serious about the gospel at the same time.  He had the best stories about his kids at home.  He had this one about him and his 8 year old son (give or take a few years).  They turned on the TV and watched the last hour of Free Willy.  After it was over and they were watching the whales during the credits his son asked, "Dad, what's that TV made out of?" and Brother Little said, "Well, the screen's a piece of glass." And his son's like, "A piece of glass.  How long did we watch that?"  "About an hour."  "Wow, that's a long time to stare at a piece of glass."  There was more to the story, but I don't remember it.  I just loved listening to the stories about his kids.  He had a lot more stories and fun images and stuff, but I can't write about all of them.  So, it won't be the same next year without him, but I'm sure it'll still be fun.  Especially since I know what to expect so I won't be so scared about everything.

So, back in Utah with seven kids.  It's crazy.  We went to the eye doctor yesterday.  All of us.  It was a long appointment.  We were there all afternoon and we took up the entire office.  It's crazy, but I love it.  I love it when we're all together.  I might not if it was any other family of all boys.  I went to a friends' house the other day and they had a lot of boys.  It scared me.  I was only there for a couple hours and when I came home and saw how calm the boys were it was so amazing.  Today everyone went to Trifalga (it's a theme park?), except me.  I was in bed when they all went.  They all came back right around the time Diane's visiting teachers came.  We were all starving and ready for our late lunch so while Nathan made us pancakes we all sat and watched him.  I'm sure it would have been a sight to see; seven kids crowded around a small counter watching the oldest brother make them pancakes in a very echoy kitchen with women visiting teaching in the next room.  It was kinda funny.  So, I love our full house.  It's fun.  But, I am looking forward to going home.  I miss my small youth and my little loft and my walks that I went on daily to prepare for trek.  I think I'll keep doing those, though it might not be everyday.  We go to Idaho one last time this summer next week and then we go home.