Three Things

Three things: my musical life, my healthy treat life and a funny experience with Mom yesterday.

My musical life.  Anna and Gracie hate all of the songs that I play on the piano because I play them so much.  Of course, Anna is not one to talk.  She has this one song that she has played so many times.  I asked Mom the other day how long she has known it and she said, "I think a year."  So imagine how often she has to play it in order to keep it memorized for a year.  They also hate it when I sing.  I can get really carried away when I start singing.  I can't even sing when I do the dishes because I can't concentrate enough to get them done.  So, whenever I sit down at the piano or start singing both Anna and Gracie exclaim, "No!  Aliese, seriously, you've been singing all day!  I haven't even gotten on the piano.  Just stop!"  I never do, though. :)

My healthy treat life.  Mom, Lizzie, Danielle and a little bit of Amy are really into this healthy treat thing.  Mom and Lizzie will talk and exchange new recipes.  Mom does not make treats with sugar anymore.  She replaces it with coconut sugar, maple sugar, date sugar or honey.  She is always making new changes.  She also loves different grains.  She has been experimenting with spelt and she even made rice pancakes this morning (they had kind of a gooey texture).  And when a recipe is really great, like a brownie recipe with half spelt, half whole wheat and all coconut sugar, she has to change it again and add a bit of honey because it is cheaper than coconut sugar.  I have gotten into it, too, actually.  In fact, Mom had this idea to open a booth at a farmers' market where we would sell healthy treats.  We got really excited about it.  We talked about how we would have information about the grains and the replacements for sugar.  We really thought we would do it until we went to a farmers' market and talked to the people in charge about getting a booth.  You have to have a commercial kitchen and several different licenses.  Plus we would have to wait to get in.  They said it might take years.  So, oh well.

Okay, so now I've talked about how much Mom is into healthy treats, she was making some Texas sheet cake for a friend that she was going to go visit teach.  This friend is not into healthy treats so Mom made it not healthy for her.  So, she put in two whole cups of white sugar and two whole cups of white flour in.  It was so hilarious watching her measure it out.  It looked like she was cleaning up vomit or something, there was such an awful grimace on her face as she put the sugar and white flour in.  She just kept saying, "I feel like I'm poisoning them.  I'm supposed to be helping them."  It was really funny.

So there's the three things.  We have a busy week.  Lindsey is coming this week (Steve's daughter) and we will be going to the beach twice and Disneyland once so I'm sure there will be lots to post about!

Catching Up!

Oh my goodness!  It's been so long since I've posted and there's so much to post about!  I'm always thinking about things that I should post and then I sit down and I can't remember them!  So, I'll probably forget something important and not write about a lot of stuff.  But I'll do my best.

School's out!  For Anna and Gracie, anyway.  I have to do math and geography during the summer.  :(  But, I'll survive.  We went to Disneyland to celebrate yesterday, which was really fun.  We brought a friend from WISH and it got kind of crazy towards the end.  She really liked to fall asleep when we were walking (not really, but she wasn't paying attention) and she'd walk into things and people and we'd laugh even though I didn't think it was funny.  And when we were waiting for World of Color we met Jonathon, who you can read about in Mom's last post.  I wanted to buy a cheshire cat stuffed animal, but all of the stores got closed off early because of some special party that night.  But we're going next week with Lindsey, Steve's daughter, so I'll just buy it then.  

I want to crochet a Harry Potter scarf so bad!  I just need to buy the yarn.  I don't know why it is so hard for me to buy things and get things done.  I have been meaning to buy gold paint to paint some frames for my room ever since we moved here and for one reason or another I still haven't bought it.  So, I need to get on that and post a picture when I'm done!

My scripture study has been so much better lately.  This book I've been reading it amazing.  I actually enjoy scripture study.  Because sadly I didn't really enjoy it before.  For a while I just got this really depressed feeling when I thought about scripture study.  And now that I'm reading this book I've realized that it's because I didn't know how to do it.  I mean, there's no right or wrong and everyone does it differently.  But you need some guidance and advice, at least.  The book I'm reading has taught me so many things.  How to use the scriptures for missionary work, how to use the aids (like topical guide ect.), what to look for, about one-liners, about principles and so much more is ahead.  I'm not even half-way through it.  There are some amazing stories about scripture study, too.  It's just amazing how different my scripture study is.  I'm so much more comfortable with them and I really love my scriptures now.  I am so so so grateful for this book.  It has changed my life.  I don't know if it's just because this is the only book about scripture I've read and it's the first one to open the doors or if it really is a really good book.  But it's been really good for me and I love it.

Oh!  I am learning how to play Greyson Chance's Paparazzi on the piano!  Do you remember I posted about him a while ago?  I'm a big fan. :) It's so cool to play it, though.  I was just curious and looked up tutorial videos and found myself trying it out on the piano.  Watching a video is not the best way to learn something to play on the piano; it involves a lot of walking back and forth between the piano and the computer, but it might be better for pop songs.  Because when you use music you get caught up in the teds and jellies and pop just doesn't work very well with it.  But anyway, I'm loving it.  I think I'm going to try to learn how to play another one of his songs, Waiting Outside the Lines, when I'm done with Paparazzi.  Anna and Gracie hate Paparrazzi, now.  I think they liked it before, but now that I've played it so much they really don't like it.  :( Which is kind of sad.

But anyway, I had some pictures to put up, but I can't find my camera!  So, I guess I'll find later and put them up then.  I hope this post was satisfying!  It's kind of random and I'm sure I've forgotten something important, but I posted! :)

This Weekend

Grandma Arnold gave me and Mom tickets to Time Out for Women this weekend and it was amazing!  On Friday night Mom and I went to an evening session where we sat together and listened to the same speakers.  Laurel Christensen gave a talk on waiting.  She has written several books for Youth and is really awesome.  She talked about getting through the waiting when you are waiting for something in your life to happen.  The examples she used were like waiting to get married or get pregnant or something, but it could relate to anything.  She said there are four Waiting Principles.  The first is to feel your feet.  She said that once she decided to be a runner one day and she got some advice from a more experienced runner who said to feel your feet.  When you walk or run just focus on each step.  Feel each step.  Feel your feet.  So when you're waiting for something you need to just stay in the present.  Focus on one day at a time.  It reminded me of something Pres. Monson said at the YW broadcast last month.  He said, "A yard is hard, but and inch is a cinch."  The next principle is to trust God's math.  He is bound by law to to reward us if we do what He says.  So as long as we follow the commandments we will get what we need.  The next one is to live as if.  She talked about the story of Nephi and when he and his brothers were getting the brass plates.  Lehi and Sariah thought they were dead and Sariah was angry with Lehi.  And Lehi said that "he had obtained a land of promise." He was promised a land of promise and he knew he was going to get it.  He was not worried.  He acted as if the promise had already been fulfilled.  The last on is God waits, too.  He might just be waiting for us to be ready.  That was a really cool talk.

I can't talk about all of the talks in the detail or I'll be typing all day, but I'll name some pointers.  Brad Wilcox also talked that night.  He talked about all of the different names of Jesus and what they mean.  It was really cool to hear about it and talk about it in that detail.  One thing that he said that was really cool was when he was talking about improving.  He said he has a friend who thinks he doesn't need to change because God loves him just the way he is.  And Brad Wilcox said that he has two adorable little granddaughters and that he loves them just the way they are.  But that doesn't mean he doesn't want them to learn to walk. Or read or talk.  We've all heard about how He loves us the way we are, but we're always told to improve and that was just a really good example to show what it means.

The next day Mom and I went to separate rooms and listened to different people.  I went to Time Out for Girls and it was so awesome.  It was really catered to Youth.  There were several songs where we were encouraged to stand up and clap and during one of them girls even got up on stage and danced.  I was not one of those girls, but I did stand up and clap.  But anyway, we listened to Laurel Christensen and Brad Wilcox again.  And a woman named Carmen Rasmusen Herbert who was on American Idol 10 years ago.  But she was  just Carmen Rasmusen then and she got to the last 6.  She sang and talked.  She had a beautiful voice.  She has some songs on itunes that I'm going to check out.  She was on American Idol and after that she was totally out there.  She was walking red carpets and going on tours.  Then she got married and had kids and everything stopped.  Now she has two little boys.  It was cool to hear about  motherhood from someone who had lived both lives.  Out there and just as a mom and she said being a mom is so worth it.  I also heard from Sandra Turley, who was on Broadway and also has an album on itunes.  She sang most of the songs on it and I definitely want to buy it.  She also has a gorgeous voice.  Another singer I heard from was Hilary Weeks.  She talked about our thoughts.  Once she did an experiment where she had one of those clicker things that keeps track of the number of times you click and she kept track of all of her negative thoughts.  She had read in a book that we think an average of 300 negative thoughts a day and she wanted to see if it was true for her.  She did it for a week and at the end of the week she felt really depressed.  Just really depressed.  So, she decided to switch it around and keep track of her positive thoughts.  She found herself thinking positive thoughts just so she could click and one day she got over 1000 positive thoughts.  She had some clickers for sale and Mom and I each got one.  An author we heard from gave a cool talk.  His name is John Hilton III.  Can't forget 'the third'.  I bought one of his books.  It's on scripture study and so far it's amazing.  He's very entertaining and has some really good points.  At the end of each chapter he has two assignments to help you learn the topic of that chapter better.  So far it's not actual reading assignments, but different ways to study.  Like praying before and after and stuff like that.  It's called Please Pass the Scriptures From Reading to Feasting.  I would totally recommend it.

I'm pretty sure that's all of the people.  Overall it was just such an amazing experience.  So amazing that I somehow got myself up to talk about it in testimony meeting yesterday.  I actually did.  Even as I was walking up to the pulpit I was telling myself, "No, you're not going to do it.  You're not going to do it."  And when I sat back down I could not remember what I said.  But it really was amazing.  I felt the spirit all day.  It was so inspiring.  If I could go through that everyday I would be the most righteous person on earth.  Thank you so much, Grandma!

Well, yesterday was a million people's birthday.  Mom's, my step brother Nathan, one of the four YM in our ward named Toby (he turned exactly the same age as Nathan), a few people in Diane's family, a boy named Dwight who was our neighbor in Ammon (Anna remembered that) and someone else that I don't remember.  But I only texted Nathan and celebrated Mom's.  Anna and I made breakfast and dinner and bought her a silhouette of us from Disneyland.  She asked for it and knew we got it for her.  But even if we all knew that she knew we still pretended it was a secret.  I made a delicious (if I do say so myself) healthy, sugar free cake.  It was two layers of brownies in cake pans with chocolate mousse in the middle and ganache on top.  It was rich.  I honestly almost felt like I was eating the chocolate cheesecake.  And there was no sugar or white flour at all.  Amy, you should totally try it.  We can give you the recipe if you want.

I think that's it.  I'm reading a Little House book right now with Laura's journal entries and stuff.  I'm almost done.  When I'm done I'm going to read a book I bought at Disneyland called Fairest of All.  It's about the queen in Snow White.  Oh, I don't have time now, but I need to do a post about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn sometime.  Gotta go! :)     

New Beginnings and Lately

New Beginnings is the YW activity at the beginning of the year when we welcome all of the new YW into the ward.  There is usually a program or something that is really great.  Last year I was in Redlands and the leaders did a skit for us.  This year we had a real live broadway singer come and sing to us!  Her name is Heather Pond.  She was in Les Miserables and the Jersey Boys and has a Tony and Grammy award.  She gave a wonderful talk about her journey in Broadway and sang us two songs.  The whole thing was absolutely amazing.  The spirit was so strong.  She was a wonderful missionary on Broadway.  She said that some people hated her in the beginning just because she was a Mormon and when she left some of them were her best friends.  There were some amazing stories.  One that was really funny, but not really about missionary work, but anyway.  She was really good friends with Nick Jonas!  He was the little kid (probably about my age or a little younger) in Les Miserables.  She was good friends with him and Nick's parents really appreciated her because she was such a good girl and example for their son.  I guess they were really dedicated Christians.  So, that was kind of funny.

But there were some really cool missionary stories.  She said that someone, I don't remember who-it wasn't another singer-it was like a producer or something, anyway, this person would ask Heather every Sunday what she learned in church that day.  And Heather would tell her, like really tell her.  Not just briefly.  When she told her about the atonement her friend was like, "Wow, that sounds kind of depressing." and Heather said, "Actually, it's really amazing and makes me really happy."  She asked Heather what she learned in church every Sunday and now, when she is married and living in Sierra Madre, Heather still gets texts every once in a while saying, "So what did you learn in church today?"  Isn't that amazing?

In Broadway, since they have to perform on holidays, they always celebrate them together.  It was a really big deal.  So, once they were used to her they asked Heather if there were any Mormon holidays they could celebrate.  She's like, "We're Christian.  We celebrate the same holidays that you do.  Just Easter and Christmas."  "But there must be something."  "Well... there's Pioneer Day."  So they celebrated Pioneer Day.  Heather wrote up flyers about the pioneers with pictures of Brigham Young and put them up all over.  There was a potluck and everyone wore bonnets and she even wrote a song for it.  It's on youtube.  We watched it.  It's hilarious.  She's playing the ukelele and everything.  And when you watch it you can just tell that she is really comfortable about who she is and about talking and representing the church.  But don't get the wrong idea about her voice if you watch it.  She has a beautiful voice.  But that song was just silly.  They celebrated Pioneer Day every year after that.  

The whole time she was there she was so real and genuine.  Mom said that you can pick out a singer in the crowd just because they have a certain full of themselves way about them, but Heather didn't.  I loved her.  It was kind of funny.  The girls that are coming in this year asked her, "So, are you like... famous?" And one of them asked her to just touch her necklace for her.  She signed three autographs.  No, I did not ask for one.  :)  The whole night was just a blast.  We had breakfast food for dinner and I even got recognized as a new YW because I just moved in.  We all said that it was weird calling me up because it felt like I had been there for a long time, but they gave me a torch necklace and one of those mini For the Strength of Youth pamphlets.  We're supposed to get those when you go into YWs but I never did, so it made me feel really good.

We had our last day of WISH today.  We actually had our last day of classes last week and there's a picnic next week, but today was our last week at the building.  All day we watched the different drama classes and a Flashmob and Glee club perform.  I was worried we would be bored watching play after play, but it was not boring at all!  It was amazing.  All of them except one were comedies and all of them except one were fairytales.  There were ones that made fun of fairytales and changed them and it was just hilarious.  Anna and Gracie were in different fairytale ones and were awesome.  The last play was done by my age group (I wasn't in it) and was about an hour long.  It was a Murder Mystery Comedy.  It was hilarious.  The star was a girl named Sophia who played the Investigator with a french accent.  So, she introduced herself as "Ze Investuhgatol!" Do you get it?   She had a totally goofy character and she did an awesome, thick, french accent.  I loved it.  I loved them all.  It was laughing all day.  It was great.

So, I've been frustrated with my acne lately.  My cheeks are fine.  My forehead is as bad as it had always been, but I've been getting it on my upper lip lately.  I hate it!  It's so weird.  We bought Crunchy Betty's (we got the Oil Cleansing Method from her blog) e-book all about oily and acne prone skin and I'm reading through it.  I have only been doing the OCM at night and just rinsing it in the morning.  So after reading part of her book I think I'm going to do a honey wash in the morning.  I guess it's supposed to make your skin just glow.  We'll see.  The OCM was supposed to work wonders and nothing has changed for me.  We'll see.

Well, that's it.  As much as I love WISH I am glad it's done.  No more homework and I can crochet!  I haven't been able to for so long because I've had to work on my embroidery, which I have to take a picture of.  I will work on that. :)

Where we live.

We live in the amazing California.  We lived in Idaho for years, which doesn't really have anything special about it.  Never would have guessed that we would live here.  I remember visiting Lizzie and wondering how she does it.  I mean, Palm Springs is way hotter than Pasadena so I still wonder that when we visit there, but I understand it more now.  It's amazing how we adapt.  In Idaho it could be in the 40s in May and that felt warm.  In the 50s we would go out in t-shirts.  Now, we are such babies.  But I think I already blogged about this so moving on.  

Steve went to a show last weekend, I think, and asked us which celebrities to keep an eye out for.  He has seriously seen celebrities around there.  Not any that we would know, though.  

Speaking of celebrities, we know one.  You have all seen Napoleon Dynamite, right?  Well, Kip is in our ward.  He's Brother Ruell.  It's so crazy because Nathan (oldest step brother) quotes that movie all the time and loves Kip, but I haven't even seen it.  After Mom found out, we had to watch the movie so we finally watched it.  It's pretty funny.  Sister Ruell, his wife who is in the movie for about one minute, is one of my YW leaders.  They live within walking distance and have a daughter named Merine (not sure how to spell it.  I call her Mimi).  I babysit her all the time.  If it's during the day I walk.  If it's dark it's not far to drive.  It's really nice.  It's just funny because Nathan has always been a fan of Kip and the movie and I, who have never seen the movie beforehand, am the one who gets to go to their house and see them all the time.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, it's just funny. :) 

Oh!  And this has really been bugging me.  So, I'll just say it and forget about it.  I didn't think I would like all of Greyson Chance's songs so I just listened to them and bought the ones I liked.  Which turned out to be all of them (every single one) so instead of buying the albums I spent (not wasted) about $5 more than I needed to.  That just really bugs me because I am so careful with my money!  But he's worth it, I won't do it next time and now that I've put it out there I can move on.  :)

What a family...

For Gracie's birthday she asked for two (specifically two) chocolate pies.  When we had it for her birthday with the candles and everything we only finished half of one of them.  Steve was like, "I don't know how we are going to finish these.  Why did Gracie ask for two?"  "We're Arnold's," I said, "We may all be really skinny and all, but when it comes to chocolate there are no limits with us."  Both pies were gone within 24 hours.

Yesterday it was raining and Mom thought it would be fitting to make brownies.  So, I made one cake pan (the 8x8 pan was being used) of brownies.  They were really good brownies.  They weren't too rich for me, who likes cakey brownies and they were chocolatey enough for Mom who prefers the rich ones.  We didn't have Steve, but we had Cami, a homeschool friend, over.  So we ate the brownies.  We all got a decent piece.  I wanted more, but tried to go onto something else.  It didn't take long before I couldn't take it anymore.  So, I made another batch of brownies.  I could have made a double batch and used all the same utensils. But instead I decided to take twice as long and dirty up a bowl and measuring cups, put them in the sink, then dirty up more the second time because I didn't want to wash the first ones.  Oh boy.  What I will do for more chocolate.

Now, this one isn't about chocolate.  Last night I walked up to Steve and Mom, who were sitting on the couch, to say goodnight.  I picked up a Snow White Polly and Steve asked, "What is that?"  

"It's a Polly," Mom answered.

"But it's a princess. How can it be a Polly Pocket?"

"It's not the Polly Pocket brand.  Disney made it, but it's still a Polly.  It's just like with Barbies.  They have princess Barbies, but they don't call them Barbies."

"I don't know how they can get away with that."

"Steve, they aren't Barbies.  They don't call them Barbies, but they're still the same doll so we call them Barbies."

"So, they're not Barbies?"

"Yes, they are.  They are the same doll.  You play with them the same."

"If it's a princess doll it's not a Barbie.  You don't call Snow White Barbie."

"They don't call them Barbie.  They call them different names.  Barbie was the name of a doll like 60 years ago!  Now it's just the kind of doll."

This went on for a while and Mom eventually got up to get a princess Barbie and a normal Barbie.  She's really worked up now.  Maybe even yelling.

"Do you see?"  Mom asks holding up the two Barbies.  "They're the same!"

"No, this is Barbie.  This is Snow White."

"But they're the same, Steve!"

"When you went looking for this you asked the girls where Snow White was.  You didn't ask for Barbie."

"They don't call them Barbie, but they're still both Barbies!"

This doesn't do the conversation justice.  It was the most ridiculous conversation ever.  And it went on much longer than this.  But can anyone picture this?  I have some things mixed up, like what they are saying, but you get the idea.  The conversation just went around in a circle.  Steve was calm and really didn't care how things ended.  Mom was worked up and upset about it.  Steve does this all the time.  I've had conversations with him like this.  I honestly feel like I'm in court or something and I am trying to convince him of something, but he always has something smart to say.  He'll even change his story half way through, but he never gets upset.  It's so annoying.  Mom got so mad.

What a family.

Life

When did I post last?  I don't remember.  I don't think it was that long ago, but I don't know what to blog that has happened since my last post.  Anna's latest obsession has been Jane Austin.  We already watched Sense and Sensibility and she is now watching Pride and Prejudice.  I just did something to make everything on the screen so small that I can hardly read what I am typing.  Mom isn't back yet so I'll ask her to fix it when she is back.  I've thought about so many things to blog about, but now that the time has come I can't think of any of those things.  I'll do my best.  

There are so many things that I want to finish.  I have been telling myself everyday that I need to work on decorating my bedroom.  It really would not be that hard.  All I have to do is buy paint and magnet board, paint frames and eventually Steve will hang them up.  Buying the paint is probably part of my problem.  I also need to decide if I really do want to do vinyl lettering in this one spot or do something else.  I just need to figure it out.  It's always hanging out in the back of my head. Then, I try to embroider and crochet, which is surprisingly hard to do.  I have one project for WISH that has to be done by next week so then I'll be finished with that.  I have sewing classes on Wednesdays.  I have WISH on Tuesdays which give me English homework.  Right now I'm working on a paper for Great Expectations.  Finished it, by the way!  I really liked it.  Don't think I'm going to read it again anytime soon, though. :)  Then, I try to do Personal Progress and scripture study for while everyday.  Plus, I like to read and try to write a bit too.  It doesn't seem like a lot and it's probably not, but all of that and dishes, school, just extra things we need to do during the day make it harder.  I am doing good though.  I finished The Princess Bride the other day.  I loved it (minus the one chapter of Buttercup's Baby that some books have) but it was one of the more frustrating books I've read.  For those of you who have read it know what I mean when I talk about him abridging it and everything.  The author pretends that he is abridging and old and long classic.  He has the story and then stuff in italics where he is talking.  He'll say he cut out a 60 page part about Florinese trees or something and then talk about it for a page and all I want to do is get back to the story!  At the very beginning of the book there is a large section of just him talking about how he ended up abridging the book.  Anyway, loved it and want to own it, but it gets a bit frustrating at times.  Soon WISH will be over so that will take out the homework and embroidery.  I'm looking forward to that.  Next year, being in high school (yikes!) I will have more school work so I'm not going to take any academic classes at WISH.  

So, that's what's happening now, for what happened Easter was great.  The Easter Bunny hid our entire baskets instead of just our eggs so we had to look for them before church.  I had no idea where mine was.  Gracie and Anna had already found there's and I didn't have time so I did not get a single piece of chocolate until after church.  The highlight of Easter for me (the candy part, I do think about the Savior) is Cadbury Mini Eggs.  Some people like their creme eggs of M&Ms.  Our teacher at church says he loves jelly beans, but my favorite is the Cadbury Mini Eggs.  Always has been.  It's my favorite candy of all the candies.  They're amazing.  So, I traded half of my jelly beans with Anna and Gracie for more of those.  Plus I got a solid chocolate bunny.  So, I think I got enough chocolate.

Yesterday I had sewing and I finished my skirt for my trek!  I had already finished my bonnet at a stake thing so Mom and I were all excited about only needing to make bloomers and then be done.  We're just going to buy bloomers at the thrift store.  But we looked at the list again and it said I need two skirts and an apron.  We really thought about it and thought it did make sense to have two aprons.  Do you think brown is too dark?  We already have some brown fabric, but I'm worried it might be too hot.  Anyway, it's only April so we have time.  Thank goodness for Isabel, my sewing teacher, we would really be in trouble without her.  The skirt seemed a bit too long so we just did a little tuck that made it look a bit prettier.  Hopefully it's still not too long.  I'll take a picture of me in the whole outfit when I've finished everything.

Sorry the picture isn't turned.  I'm not in the mood to do that right now.

  These are the hand warmers I made!  I didn't exactly follow the directions so they're a little big, but they work really well.

I'm still doing the Oil Cleansing Method thing with my face.  From reading all of the comments I think I've been expecting too much.  I don't know if it's been two weeks yet, I don't think so, but I don't see any difference.  My face is still oily.  I've actually given up cover up makeup because it doesn't convince much and it probably doesn't help the acne anyway.  I feel bad for my future children.  Both my mom and dad had acne, now I do and they probably will too.  I'm saying sorry in advance.

Piano has been going good.  I'm doing really good on I am a Child of God.  The only problem is I'm really bad at playing in front of audiences.  If people are just in the room I can play, but when they're sitting still and listening it's hard for me.  I've messed up on pieces for family night that I haven't messed up on in days.  Just thinking about playing hymns in YWs makes me mess up on I am a Child of God.  I'm serious.  I don't know what I am going to do.

Anyway, on that note, I think that's it.  Love you all!