More Music Stuff

Well I guess it's a good thing this year is almost over. I'm having a hard time coming up with blog topics every week. I think that the area I have grown in the most this year is music. I've gotten better at piano, I've learned more about how to be a better singer, and I even started learning to play guitar. Playing guitar is my new favorite thing to do. It makes it so much easier to practice singing. When I sing with a guitar, I don't need a minus track because I'm making the background music myself. Also it's harder to get off key when you can hear exactly what key you should be singing in.

Another fun part about playing guitar is that I've started writing my own music. I used to try to do that with the piano, but I wasn't really good enough to write my own accompaniment. With guitar I just find a chord sequence I like, play it for a little while, and then start coming up with a tune that goes along with it. Once I have that, I start writing the words and changing things up so it all works together.

Playing guitar is one of the things I've always wanted to learn how to do, so I feel pretty good knowing that I'm accomplishing one of my goals. Guitar is fun, helps me get better musically, and I think it's making my fingers stronger too. My fingertips are all calloused now. For my term project in choir I played guitar and sang, and it was pretty cool being able to get a whole song done. My one problem is that I have extra small fingers, so for certain kinds of chords I have a hard time getting my fingers to reach them. Overall though, I think I'm learning a lot and I feel like I'm getting it pretty good.

I think that I've also grown a lot in singing this year. There are a lot of different parts to singing, i.e. the pitch, tone quality, breath support, dynamics, vibrato, etc. I feel like this year during my singing lessons and in choir I've learned a lot more about how to use all these different parts to become a better singer. Before this year, I just sang because I liked to, and all I cared about was that I was hitting the right notes. Now, I realize that singing is more than that. You have to use all the different elements to express whatever message you're trying to get across in your song. To emphasize certain parts you could make it louder or softer, or sing it with a different tone. I never realized how much you could express through music before this year.

I think that music is definitely the area I've grown in the most this year. I've learned more about it, and (hopefully) gotten better. I know I've definitely had a lot more experience and opportunities to get better this year. I'm planning on keeping it all going next year in high school in Lace (choir) and the musical. I'm really excited that I'll have more chances to do what I love.

The end is near....

9 MORE DAYS!!!!! Since the end of school is pretty much all I can think about right now, I'll talk about that!

But even though I'm really ready to be done and ready for summer, I'm also a little sad about it. At our school everyone splits after junior high and goes to one of two high schools. So basically I'll still be at high school with some of my friends (luckily my bestest friends), but a lot of my other friends are going somewhere else. With things like this everyone says things like, "We'll still hang out!" and "We'll talk to each other all the time!" but then it doesn't really happen. Everyone moves on, meets new people, and doesn't really keep up with the people they used to know. So I am a little sad that after this year I won't be with some people anymore.

On the other hand, I am so sick of school I can't stand it. Teachers all seem to think, "Oh no, I only have two weeks left! Did I teach them enough?? I must not have! I should give them more to do!" Or, in the case of my science teacher, "Wow, these kids are getting way too excited. I'd better give them 10 more worksheets to do." The last month or so of school is also pretty crazy because all the sudden the students realize, "Oh no, the year's almost over and my grade hasn't raised yet." "I didn't do that?" "What the heck was that assignment?" "Wait that humongous term project is do next week??" And stuff like that. So really, I'm ready to be done with all of that for three months and enjoy summer. :)

What do I like about summer?

• It is sunny and hot. I am a warm kind of person and I hate being cold. (That's really hard when you live in Utah) I can finally wear my shorts, and I can walk out the door without a coat.
  
• My birthday!!! I'm one year older, I can finally start driving, and I get presents!
• Swimming! My favorite thing to do when it's sunny!
• FREE TIME! I saw something you could like about this on facebook today: "Oh hey life! I didn't see you there behind all that school!" This couldn't be more true. When you're spending all your time on school stuff you don't have much time to do things you actually want to do. Like spending time with your friends, going to movies, umm... learn to skydive? Stuff you would never have time to do during the year.
• Vacations!!! Going fun places you would never go during the school year because you just don't have time! And my parents almost never take us places during school because they don't like us to miss anything unless it's a funeral or something.
  

Pretty much, I just want to try to make this summer one of my best ever! I'm going to do tons of stuff with friends, get some sun while it lasts, and HAVE FUN!

The Renaissance Fair

So this weekend my friend and I went to the Renaissance Fair in Clinton together. Even though it sounds like it would be really lame and kind of boring, it was actually really fun. We both dressed up so we could get in a little cheaper. We each wore an old ballet costume and wings so we looked like fairies. :) The fair was in a farming kind of area so everything looked really natural, like I guess how it would have looked in the Renaissance. All the people there had these tent things up, and mostly the people there were just selling things. But the stuff was pretty cool, so it was worth buying. There was this guy who looked Indian or something selling some really cool earrings (my friend got some with dream catchers on them) and necklaces. I got this really cool ring from this lady for only $2. There was this little Celtic shop that had a bunch of Irish stuff, so my friend got a heart-shaped ring with this Celtic symbol in the middle. She has another non-heart shaped one just like it that she got last year. There was also another guy (who was kind of annoying and a little creepy) selling some really cute bags that he said were from like India and other places like that. There were also places selling Renaissance costumes, and chain mail, and swords and knives and stuff like that. We met up with a couple of our other friends there who were both dressed like knights with chain mail and stuff. This little girl told her dad that they were "knights in shining armor". There was a jousting area where there were some guys dressed like knights jousting on horses. We came back later and there was this dance team dancing on top of the horses. I thought that was pretty cool because I don't know if I would have enough balance for that. They were doing tricks and stuff standing on the horses. There were also like belly dancers there. They were kind of weird though. Something I thought was really cool was this lady who was doing fire tricks. She could put it in her mouth, put it on her arms, and she never burned herself. It was pretty cool looking. There was also a guy there dressed like Jack Sparrow. We thought he was cool because he looked, sounded, and acted just like Johnny Depp. We got our picture taken with him for fun. For the food, they were selling these humongous turkey legs you could get, and things like pitas, meat pies, and things like that. It was really fun, but some of the people there were kind of creepy. So if you ever go, just kind of look around for the people you want to stay away from. We had a lot of fun, even if my arms and face got kind of sun burnt, it was actually kind of nice to be burning instead of freezing for once. :P

Meg Johnson

So at my church we had this special devotional thing on Wednesday. A lot of speakers came and talked to us, and the theme was about remodeling our spirits. My favorite speaker's name was Meg Johnson. She has been in a wheel chair since 2004 because she is paralyzed from the waist down, and both of her hands are paralyzed too. She told us that the reason she is paralyzed is because she was hiking in St. George and she was jumping on rocks when she fell off of a cliff. I think that if that happened to me, I wouldn't have a very good attitude about it. The reason she was so inspirational was because she had an amazing attitude. She always smiled, even when you could tell she felt sad about something she was still smiling. She told us about how she hates when people ask her, "How can you still smile?" when the unspoken question is, "How can you still smile when your life obviously couldn't hold any joy?" She was just so positive about everything. She talks about how when she woke up in a hospital room with tubes all over her, she started looking around and praying that she could feel love for everything in that room. Instead of focusing on all the things in her life she could be unhappy about, she thinks about the things in her life that are good and that she enjoys. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, since her accident Meg has entered in the Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant, and she started and directs the Ms. Wheelchair Utah pageant. She even played wheelchair rugby on the Utah Scorpions team. I just love how she moves on with her life and does as much as she possibly can to make the most of her life. I also thought it was cool that her husband was there with her recording her talking. I think they're both still in their twenties. She told us that he likes to tease her because one of her hands is always in a fist, and the other looks kind of like a fish. So she has a fist hand and a fish hand. Even with her hands like that, she has still learned how to draw, eat, put on makeup, brush her teeth, and do her hair. I like how she didn't let her turn into someone that couldn't do anything for herself. I think mostly she inspired all of us because of how happy she was. Even though she goes through some really hard things she can still enjoy and appreciate life. Her favorite message to share is G.A.P.S. (What you need to fill in the gaps in your life so you don't fall off of a cliff) It stands for Gratitude, Attitude, Prayer, and Service. I think she was a perfect example to share how all of those can help you in your life, and I feel like life has been a little better for me since I heard her talk. If any of you have time you should go to www.megjohnsonspeaks.com and look at some of her videos and some of the information about her. She was amazing! Here is one of her drawings that she did a couple years after her accident:

Algebra II

Algebra II is pretty much the hardest class I have ever had the misfortune to take in my life. And I love my teacher as a person, but as a teacher I just don't understand anything she tries to teach me. What my friends and I have decided is that she doesn't speak kid, she speaks textbook. The teacher that I had in seventh and eighth grade was great at speaking kid, so I learned all year without feeling like I was learning at all. When we got to end of level tests, I was pretty proud of myself for only missing one question. He was just really laid back, so I actually kind of liked math. A lot of what helped was that most of the time was spent teaching, asking questions, and doing examples on the board, and then we had a small assignment that took about fifteen minutes. This year she just goes over what's in our study notes and then passes out a two-three page assignment that takes you a couple hours. And each assignment is only worth five points, but if you don't turn an assignment in then you stop getting curves on tests. Curves are really good, because when they're really high it's because everyone did bad, which happens a lot. I really wouldn't want to miss out on twenty extra points on a test I completely failed. So that's pretty much what motivates me to get my assignment in somehow. I'm not a very good test taker, especially not on timed tests (which hers all are). The hardest part about her class is that if you're sick for a day, you've just missed eighty minutes of stuff that takes forever to make up. This year math has just been really bad on my self esteem. When you can't seem to get a good score on any tests, you don't understand a word of what she's saying, and you're spending hours on assignments that you totally don't understand, it's kind of hard to feel good about yourself. So hopefully I won't fail this term and have to retake it again... Surprisingly I've actually managed to get all two A's and one A minus in her class so far this year. Mostly because if you are good during her class then she raises your grade up one level at the end of the term. (So like from an A minus to an A, or a B plus to an A minus) Hopefully I can do that again this term, but I have a feeling that I totally failed the test I took last week (I ran out of time). I got maybe two or three full pages done out of five, so I'm really just hoping that everyone else did bad so we have a higher curve. If nothing else, this class has made me challenge myself more and hopefully I'm getting better at math, even though it feels like I'm just getting worse. But I guess I'll just have to keep trying and doing the best I can and hope it works out.

"I've got a frog in my throat!" "iTengo una rana en la garganta!"

Well this week has just been delightful. While practicing for all my upcoming auditions, I noticed that my throat (that has been giving me problems for a few months) was cooperating less and less. Plus my nose was constantly stuffed up. Then I woke up Friday morning and all this was really bugging me, and my eyes were filled with a bunch of "gunk". I told my mom about all of this, so instead of going to school we went to see the doctor. After checking some things and taking a couple tests, he said that I had strep, pink eye, and a sinus infection. Since my choir audition was in three days (it's tomorrow at 8:10 PM) I was freaking out just a little bit. Luckily, the doctor had 4 different things to prescribe to me that he said worked really well. A pill called Amoxicillin for my strep that I have to take morning and night for 10 days, these tiny little red pills called Pseudoephedrine that help de-congest my nose and ears, eye drops for my pink eye that I take 3 times a day, and a nasal spray called Affrin that's really strong that helps extra-de-congest my nose. I made a chart so every morning, afternoon, and night I can remember what I'm supposed to be taking. So all weekend I've mostly just been resting with some tissues and Ricola cough drops nearby. The medicine works really well, because I've only been taking it for 3 days and I feel better than I have since before Christmas. I guess when they say, "If symptoms persist after a week, see your doctor," they mean it...

Anyways, Thursday, the day before I found out I was all sick and stuff, I went to the Foreign Language Fair at BYU. It was really fun, both Spanish classes came. The bus ride was about an hour long. Once we got there and sat through the boring opening ceremonies that no one was really listening to, we all had to do some kind of thing that we got a score on. I said a Spanish poem. I don't really get what it's about. But it's something about growing a white rose and giving it to your good friend and stuff like that. I got an Excellent! on it, so I was pretty proud of myself. Then we went upstairs to "Espańolandia", where we had to talk to all these fake Spanish store people, and we could only talk in Spanish. If we got caught speaking in English then they put us in jail. Honestly I spoke in English most of the time, just not when "la policía" were around. Once I had my "estampilla" in my "pasaporte" from all the people, it was lunch time. Since my sister goes to BYU, I talked to her during the day, and then she came over and had lunch with me. It was really fun since I don't get to see her that often. After she left, me and my friend went to the BYU Creamery there and got some "helado" (ice cream) that was "muy rico" (very delicious). After we went to the closing ceremonies, we got back on the bus. I slept most of the way home.

Partying With The Dinos

So for my term project for my Biology class, we have to go on two field trips. One to places like Farmington Bay, Dinosaur Park, etc, and the other one to somewhere like the zoo, Clark Planetarium, and places like that. So basically you have to go to one really boring place and one sort of fun place. So since you have to have one of them done by tomorrow, my friend and I both went to Dinosaur Park yesterday. Surprisingly, it was actually really fun. First we went through the museum part. My favorite part was the moving dinosaurs that made noises. There were games around that I think were mostly for little kids, but we played them anyways. They had like these touch screen word searches about different dinosaurs and stuff like that. After taking some pictures and getting some of the information we went to the outside part. They have this path thing that you walk on where they try to make you feel like you're in dinosaur time. Considering the fact that the park is meant for little kids, I thought some of it was kind of detailed. Like we walked by this nest with a bunch of little baby dinosaurs, and then about 5 feet away there's a velociraptor or something waiting to eat them! And then there were humongous creepy bugs and rats and stuff sitting around on rocks. I was kind of scared, but maybe little kids are a little braver than me. And I know that we don't really know what color dinosaurs are, but it was still kind of funny when we walked past a bright pink one. There were a ton of different kinds of dinosaurs and there were little things next to them that told you about them. I'd be lying if I said we read them all. But we had a lot of fun and took tons of pictures. At the end of the path thing there's a park for the kids to play in. It's a park, but it still kind of shows them some more types of dinosaurs, and there were even some pretty weird prehistoric frogs that you could climb on. What was really weird is that we think we saw a couple getting their wedding pictures done there. They were posing on the dinosaurs and stuff and they had a professional photographer following them around and taking the pictures. I mean they looked cute, but it was kind of.... well, a weird place to get pictures taken for your wedding. We just assumed that maybe that's where they met, or where they went on their first date or something. Me and my friend took some pictures too and had my little sister be the photographer. So even though going to Dinosaur Park sounded really lame, it turned out to be fun, pretty much because we made it fun. So if you have some spare time, six bucks, and nothing to do, try Dinosaur Park! The dinos really know how to party!

A.I.M.

So every spring, my piano teacher has all her students do something called A.I.M., or Achievement In Music. It isn't exactly a competition because no one wins, but you do play for judges and they give you a score. You memorize two full songs that you play, and they should both be different kinds of songs. Like one could be fast, and the other slow. Or one happy, one sad. That's kind of how mine are. One of them is L'Orage (The Storm), and the other one is Allegro Burlesco. The first one is all serious, and there are a lot of crashes and other things that make it sound like a big storm. The other one kind of reminds of clowns, because it's more upbeat and everything. The judge scores you on things like memorization and accuracy, interpretation (how you play the song), dynamics (h0w loud or soft it is), and other musical conventions (crescendos, decrescendos, accents, etc). After you play your songs, you go to a different judge. You play a technique piece, which doesn't have to be memorized, but shows that you can read the music and do what it tells you to. Then they ask you to play different scales that you need to know and see how well you can play them. You have to have good technique, remember all the sharps and flats, and not trip over your fingers. You also have to do chords, chord inversions, arpeggios, and cadences. It's kind of the same thing as the scales. You have to use the right fingerings, sharps and flats, and play them like you know them. Before you go to any of the judges, you do a written test. It asks you about musical vocabulary, musical history, and a lot of other musical stuff. You need to know how to find key signatures, the order of sharps and flats, how to form different kinds of chords, etc. Then you do an ear-training test with your teacher. You have to tell the difference between major, minor, and phrygian scales, and major, minor, dimished, and augmented chords just by listening to them. You also need to recognize intervals. (2nds, 3rds, minor 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, and octaves). A.I.M. takes a long time and a lot of work to prepare for, but in the end you're better at what you do, you know more, and if you work hard, then it's easy and you're prepared. I've been playing piano since I was in second grade. When you start learning to play piano you're mostly just learning how to read music and what different notes and symbols mean. As you play longer, reading the notes is just second nature and your fingers know exactly what to do. Each time you finish a book she tells you to buy a new one that's another level up. You also get to learn some fun songs that you've heard before, either on the radio or from a movie, play, etc. My favorite part about playing the piano is that I can learn songs that I can play and sing along to. That's kind of what makes all your hard work worth it, is something that makes it fun for you. I'm really glad that I play piano because I think it makes me a better, more hard-working person, and I think it's really fun.

The Wedding Singer

This week I went to see "The Wedding Singer" at Layton High. It was so cute, and it was all about weddings! It's set in 1985. At the beginning, while Robbie Hart is singing at a wedding he announces that the next day he's going to marry his girlfriend, Linda. Later, he meets a waitress named Julia. She makes him promise that when she gets married, he will sing at her wedding. The next morning at Robbie's wedding, Linda is a no-show. She leaves him a letter that says that she decided that she was really in love with Robbie seven years ago, but not Robbie now. She signs it, "Your Pal, Linda (The i is dotted with a heart)" Robbie is absolutely crushed and never wants to go to another wedding again. When his band convinces him to come sing again, he gets upset and insults just about everyone at the wedding. In the end they get angry and throw him in the dumpster. Julia comes and convinces him to come out, and that he doesn't belong in the dumpster. She then tells him that she is getting married to her super rich boyfriend, Glen Ghoulia.

As the play goes on and Robbie and Julia spend more time together, they both start realizing that they actually love each other. In an attempt to impress Julia, Robbie goes to her boyfriend, Glen, who gets him started on Wall Street. However, Robbie realizes that Glen is really a jerk. He doesn't really care about Julia and he cheats on her all the time. He goes to talk to Julia at her house, but in the end chickens out and goes to a bar where he gets drunk. When he gets home, Linda is waiting for him. She tells him that it wasn't working out without him, and that she wants to "come home" to him. Robbie passes out because he's drunk, and while he's passed out Julia comes to tell him how she feels about him. Linda tells her that she and Robbie are back together again. Julia is so upset, that she decides to just hop on a plane to Vegas with Glen and get married. When Robbie hears about this, he hurries to go there and find them. Just as he gives up, a man comes to him and tells him that the organ player for a wedding didn't show up, and they want him to play guitar. They say that the man is super rich and would probably pay him a lot. Robbie goes and finds Julia and Glen. He sings Julia a song about how we wants to grow old with her and that he loves her. Julia finds out the truth about Glen, and marries Robbie. The end of the play shows their wedding, and they all live happily ever after.

This show was so good. The acting and the singing were both amazing. It was cool to me that I got to go see it because I'm trying out for next year's musical, "The Drowsy Chaperone", in a month. So it motivated me to do the best I can on my audition so that I can be part of that next year. Everyone in the play really made you feel like you were part of the story and it was really happening. It was one of the best productions I have ever seen, and I'm so glad that I get to go there next year!

Great Expectations Literary Analysis

Great Expectations is a book about a boy named Pip. Although Pip started out common, he got lucky when he got involved with a mysterious benefactor. He is suddenly learning how to be an upper class gentleman. Throughout the whole book, Pip is infatuated with a girl named Estella. Estella is hard and says that she cannot love because she never learned how. The first time she met him, she called him “coarse” and “common”, and that made a big impression on Pip. All he could think about was how to improve himself for him and for Estella. This proved to be important in the book. It showed that one person can make a huge impression on someone else’s life. This passage from Great Expectations shows exactly how much Estella meant to Pip, and how she changed him forever.
“You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since—on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!” (Charles Dickens, Great Expectations P. 386)
I think that this passage is kind of the climax of everything Pip felt for Estella. He always tried to do whatever he could to impress her. He became a gentleman so she couldn’t see him as common. He hoped more than anything that she would choose him and return his feelings. She was always on his mind, and she marked everything that he did. In this passage he explained to her that he couldn’t forget her in just one day. She was a part of him.
Pip also admits that there is more evil than good in him. But when he’s letting her go, he can only associate her with the good. By making him want to improve himself, she made him a better person overall. She made it so he could learn by trial and error. After he realized the consequences of his wrong decisions, he learned which ones he shouldn’t make again. And it was all because of Estella. She was the one who motivated him to change. That one person made a huge difference in Pip’s life.
The imagery in this passage is amazing. Really the only word you can use to describe it is beautiful. He describes everything, but it isn’t a paragraph full of adjectives. Phrases like, “the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with”, and “Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character” really demonstrate Pip’s conviction of his feelings for Estella.
This passage had a huge impact on me. The way Pip says everything, you just have to believe him. No one could say words with that much meaning if it wasn’t true. Before Estella throws herself away for someone like Drummle, he has to at least tell her exactly how he feels about her. And when Estella suggested that he would forget her the next day, he came right out and told her exactly how wrong she was. He tells her how she has been a part of everything since he met her.
The conviction in Pip’s “voice” really supports the theme. It shows that he means what he says. It shows that she really has made a huge difference in his life. And the way he phrases everything gets right to the point about what she’s done for him. After this passage, even heartless Estella can’t help but be moved. She can’t believe that someone honestly cared about her so much, and that she made such a big difference for him.
Overall, this passage shows how Pip’s character has developed throughout the book. From all of Estella’s criticism, and warnings not to fall for her, Pip became a better person. Even if she couldn’t love him back, she made a difference in his life. And she at least cared for him enough that she wouldn’t play around with him like the others. Out of anything that anyone else ever said to Pip, what Estella said was what made a difference and an impact.
Great Expectations was actually a really good book. It was definitely better than I expected. You could really feel everyone’s characters developing as the book went on. And Dickens really made all the characters seem like real people. People with real lives, real experiences, and real feelings. It was well-written and definitely worth reading.

Grandparent Story

For an assignment in my English class, we were each supposed to interview some 65+ about their life. Then we were supposed to make it into a story. I interviewed my grandma. She is 69 years old, and right now she's serving an LDS mission in Mongolia with my grandpa. It was a really fun experience since I don’t get to talk to my grandparents very often. So getting to talk to my grandma for a while was really cool. It’s also way cool to hear about what your grandma did when she was your age or younger. Like, I wouldn’t have ever guessed that my grandma liked to listen to Elvis when she was younger. It really helped me feel closer to her. My story is a little long, but I'll post part of it:

Joan Ellen

“Okay, we have some things here that Grandma and Grandpa sent from Mongolia!” My mom calls out to the people in our crowded family room. Soon everyone is admiring their new purses, ties, dolls, cards, and other Mongolian goods. As I take my purse, I love it already. It’s dark blue, and it has a long strap so I can hang it on my shoulder. The intricate stitching on the front is blue and white. It makes Christmas Eve even more special getting something from the grandparents I haven’t seen in months. I can tell that Grandma really thought about what everyone would like. She’s always been that way.

Before they left for Mongolia, my grandparents lived in Ukiah, California. It’s always been hard finding the time to drive down there to see them, but my cousin and I have flown down there a couple times during the summer. I love getting to see my grandma. She has short brown hair, glasses, and a kind face. You can tell she cares about you by watching her face when you talk to her. When we were at her house my grandma always worried that we weren’t having a good enough time and that we might get bored. So when we were there she always made sure to spend lots of time with us. She played games with us, took us places, and just talked to us about our lives. It was so easy to see that she really loved us.

She especially liked to find fun things to cook with us. I love my grandma’s cooking. Her food is some of the best that I’ve ever had. She also took us to the swimming pool nearby on extra hot days so my cousin and I could swim together. It’s a lot of fun there, and an ice cream truck comes by every hour. It was something we always got excited about. Another thing that we grandchildren love about her house is their ice cream. I’ve lost count of how many Schwann’s ice cream bars I’ve had over the years. She and grandpa always have some stocked up in their freezer.

For someone who grew up without having to do very many chores, my grandma keeps her house very clean. It’s one of the neatest places I’ve ever been in. What she learned as a child was other skills, like how to play the piano. I love playing the piano in her house. It’s a grand piano right by the window. My grandma is the reason why all her children learned the piano, and she also encourages us grandchildren to keep learning it too.

Another thing my grandma was supposed to be as a child was a good student. Her parents always expected her to learn and do well in school. And she did. All the time I’ve known her, my grandma has been a math teacher at a junior high in Ukiah. Whenever I have math questions, I can just ask her and she can explain it to me. She also just finished her Master’s Degree a year ago. You can really tell that education and learning matters to her.

Sometimes it’s hard imagining my grandma when she wasn’t already a grandma. But Grandma grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She told me that she lived in a “richy” kind of neighborhood where people had money. Her house had two stories and three bedrooms; one for her, her parents, and her younger brother Scott. She says that she loved her bedroom because it had a little porch with a railing on it. At night she liked to sit on the railing and read by the moonlight. In high school she went to a school with 1500 people in it. She was their in the Elvis Presley years. She and her friends liked to go listen to his music during lunch.

After high school she went to Brigham Young University. During her trips to the library she met Wesley Stevens, who was working there. They got married, and she says that marrying him was one of the best decisions of her life. They had seven children: Bonnie, Marjorie, John, William, Wendy, Suzanne, and Cheryl. Grandma loves spending time with her kids—and her twenty-two grandchildren. I love having a big family because there are always cousins around when the family gets together. Family is one of the most important things in the world to my grandma.

Something I’ve always admired about my grandma is that she makes a plan and sticks to it. Right now she’s in Mongolia serving an LDS mission with my grandpa. She said it was kind of hard learning the language, but she is really glad they went. She likes that she knows more about the Asian world. They went on a trip to Hong Kong a few weeks ago, and she says that she really liked the people there. I’m proud of my grandma for showing that she cares enough about her religion to spend eighteen months in Mongolia.

***

My grandma is one of the biggest role models in my life. She's always set a great example for me because she's such a great person. She always seem to make the right choice, and she really cares about her family. I really can't wait until the end of this year when we'll finally get to see her and my grandpa again. I care about them a lot, and I really miss them. But I really admire them for being so dedicated to everything that they value.

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief

So this last week I went to see the Lightning Thief movie. I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It's always really hard when I go to see a movie about a book I really like. It's hard because books have so much information in them that it's really hard to put it all into about two hours. So they have to cut out a lot of parts from the book, even if they were kind of important. So it's really hard when you've read the book about 50 times and then they all of the sudden change it so it has a completely different plot. But even though they changed a lot of it, it was still good and they kept the parts of it that made the story really good. Something that I really like about the Lightning Thief is that it has all the original Ancient Greek stories, but it's all combined with the modern world so they all go together. They brought that out in the movie even more. In one part where Percy is fighting Medusa, he takes out his iPhone and uses it to look at her reflection. I thought it was cool how they brought out the attributes of all the gods in their children. Poseidon's children can breathe underwater, and water makes them stronger. Hermes's children are thieves, but know about roads and traveling. Athena's kids are smart and good fighters, and Aphrodites's children are beautiful flirts. They also brought out a lot of the myths from Greek mythology. They were trapped for what felt like a few hours, but was really a few days, in the lair of the Lotus Eaters. They had to cut off Medusa's head like Perseus did because her stare turned people into statues. And then it has things like satyrs, and centaurs, and it really helps people learn about mythology in an easy way. A hard part about the movie was that they changed some of the really important parts, and they even took out some majorly important characters; so I'm not sure if there's going to be any more movies after this one. But I think that overall it was worth going to see. They brought out the parts of the book that really made it unique, so in a way it made the movie unique too. And most of the actors were good too. The actor who did Percy was pretty good because he really let you see Percy's character. Pierce Brosnan (James Bond) was Chiron, the centaur mentor guy so he was really good. And all the actors who played the gods seemed to really be able to feel their character and they were believable gods. I also liked the way that Percy's mom (Sally Jackson) really seemed like a mom, and not some actor pretending to be one. Overall, I would really recommend that people should go see this movie. Even if you haven't read the books you'll like it, but you should read them too. They're one of my all-time favorite series and a lot of different kinds of people like them. I really liked the movie, and it was a really fun way to spend President's Day.

Solo Ensemble

Well this week our school is having the Solo Ensemble Festival. They have it for choir, orchestra, and band. In choir I'm doing a solo and an ensemble. An ensemble is a group instead of just one person. The song I'm doing for my ensemble is called, "900 Miles". It is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. There are four girls in my group: two sopranos and two altos. I'm a soprano. Another cool part about our song is that in some parts the sopranos and altos all split so that there are four different parts, and it makes it sound kind of like a train. The song is about someone who is 900 miles away from home, and they're trying to get back on a train. The song says how they think that the train whistle sounds lonesome because they're so far away from home. The four of us have been working on this song for a really long time because we were in a special district choir called Select Choir. I think we're going to do really good, and the song is going to sound amazing!

For my solo I'm singing a song called, "Danny Boy". It's an old Irish folk song, and it's a song that I've liked for a really long time. It's about someone telling someone named Danny Boy that he has to leave them. But they tell him that someday he's going to come back, even if they've already died. Then he can come see there grave, and they'll be happy just knowing that he's there above their grave because they love him so much. I love everything about this song. It has a beautiful melody, and there's just something different about it because it's not like the music that comes on the radio. I know this song pretty well because I did a group singing workshop with my voice teacher in January. Pretty much the point of the workshop was to prepare people to audition for choirs and to get ready for Solo Ensemble. Everyone has a private lesson where they choose a song, and she helps them with it and gives them some tips. Then there are 3 group lessons where you work on a bunch of different things, including your song. At the end there's a recital where everyone sings their song. So I'm pretty confident about my song and hopefully I'll do well.

Solo Ensemble isn't technically a competition, but it sort of is. First you're competing for who gets to go to District, and then at District you're trying to be better than the other schools. At the festival there are two judges. They watch you sing and grade you on different things. They also write comments about what was good and what could be better. Then they give you an overall score. A 1+ is the best score you can get. Then 1, 1-, 2+, etc. Last year I did a solo and I got a 1-. I almost got to go to District, but a 9th grader in Rhapsody got a few more points than I did. From what the judges said last year, my main problem was that I forgot to smile. Sometimes I'll be singing and I don't realize that I'm not smiling at all. So this year I've really been working on having better facial expressions for whatever I'm singing. I'm really excited, and I hope I do good! It's on Wednesday, and I can't wait!

Details

So in my English class we've been learning about how to use detail in your writing. Instead of using a generalization like, "it tasted good", you can use details about the way it tasted. You can say if it was salty or sweet, what it tasted like, etc. Then my teacher asked us to each write our own paragraphs that start with a generalization, but then they expand with detail. My generalization was "the room was messy." Not that it was based off my room or anything... well maybe parts of it... or most of it... Anyway, here it is:

Journal #15
The room was messy. There were clothes lying all over the floor and the bed. The desk was covered with paper and candy wrappers. The garbage was knocked over, spilling onto the ground. The closet was wide open, and everything was falling out. The clothes inside were all piled on the floor. The blankets on the bed were all over the place. The pillows had fallen off the bed to the ground. Last night's homework was scattered around on the blankets. The clothes hamper was so full it looked like it was about to tip over. The dresser drawers were open and filled with junk. Make-up was scattered all around the mirror. The basement air smelled like a jumble of old perfume, lotion, and nail polish. A big pile of earrings and necklaces were spilled out onto the dresser, and they were all tangled together. Bobby pins were all over the carpet, which really needed vacuuming. An old glass of water was wobbling a little on top of a pile of books. The shelves were filled with clutter that needed to be thrown away. Underneath the bed there were matchless socks, papers, junk, and lost jewelry. There were cobwebs inside of the light fixtures and in the corners. Towels were hung on the back of the chair. And right in the middle of it all, tangled in the mess of bed covers, someone was breathing slowly, asleep.

You'll be really happy to know that I just cleaned my room yesterday. It's a lot better. I threw away most of the stuff on my desk, made my bed, and picked up all my dirty clothes. I did exaggerate a little, though. I don't leave water in my room because there might be earwigs. The cobwebs are there, which is freaking me out, and I need to remember to get my dad to dust them out. I don't stuff anything under my bed, because if I ever need to get it out of there then there might be a spider on it. But the rest of it was pretty real.... Anyway, it was a fun assignment because I really just like writing. And I hate when people make generalizations. I like to know all the details. I want to know who, what, when, where, and why. It's all really important to me both when I'm reading and writing. That's why I liked this assignment a little more than some of my others. Because when it comes to some things, readers don't really want to leave it to their imaginations. Detail is important.

Guitar

Well I've just started learning how to play guitar. I'm just learning chords, but it's really fun! It's just another thing I can use when I sing. There are a lot of different chords. There's all the major and minor a-z and all the seventh chords. I'm just using my dad's acoustic guitar, but I'm saving up to get my own. So far my favorite song to play is "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne. I saw the song on Glee and kind of fell in love with it. My fingers are really sore from holding on to the strings. I've also been working on this song that a couple of girls sang/played on the guitar at the Especially For Youth talent show last summer. It's called "Heavily Broken" by The Veronicas.

The guitar has six strings: E A D G B E. A memory trick is "Eat A Darn Good Breakfast: Eggs." It's kind of weird, but it helps you remember. To make a chord you put your fingers in between the frets. For example to make a C Major chord you put your ring finger on the 5th string (A) and the 3rd fret, your middle finger on the 4th string (D) and 2nd fret, and your index finger on the 2nd string (B) and the first fret. Then you just strum from all the strings. On other chords you only strum from the 5th or 4th string down. The hardest part is switching chords quickly and making sure you land on the right notes. So what I've been doing is practicing switching back and forth between different chords so I can get used to how to move my fingers. I'm working on getting to the point where I have the chords all memorized.

I already have the Avril Lavigne song memorized. It mostly does G, D, E, C over and over except during the bridge when it also uses A minor. The guitar I'm saving up for is a Yamaha acoustic electric, and it costs around $250. I'm not sure if I'm going to get black or blue. An acoustic electric can do the same thing as an acoustic, but you can plug it into an amplifier and it will sound more electric. I'm pretty excited, so I'm going to be working for my mom's business a lot to earn enough money. And I already have an amp because my brother plays bass guitar.

The reason I've started learning how to play is so I can use it when I sing. Right now I'm just going to different guitar sites that have tabs. It just tells you the name of the chords and where to play them in the song. So far I'm having a lot of fun, and my dad's going to help me while I'm learning. Then after I've worked really hard on it I'll be able to get my own nicer guitar and make it sound cool. Even though my wrists and fingers really hurt, it is way fun! And isn't my future guitar beautiful?

A New Start

I am so excited for this new semester! New classes, teachers, and a fresh start. Last term didn't go as well as I'd hoped. My grades weren't bad. They were actually pretty good. It's just that everything was A or A- except for one B+. Which I've never had before. But this term it's my goal to get straight As. Even if at the end of high school I still have that B+, I'll be fine with it as long as I tried my hardest every term after that and got the best grades I possibly could. That's what will really make me happy in the end.

I am pretty sad that I'm not in Theatre anymore. That class was really hard, but really fun and a great experience. On the last day of school we all had a bonding activity. We sat in a big circle and she asked a question that everyone had to answer. It started with things like, "What's your favorite food?" and "What's the grossest thing you've ever had to eat?" but then it was things like, "Who has made the most progress during this class?" or "Who in this class is the most like you?" It was really cool listening to everyone's answers because you could tell that a lot of people had made new and close friends with people they might not have even talked to otherwise. I know I did.

I was really surprised when one boy started crying. I mean, there are some boys that it wouldn't surprise me if they cried. But then there are some boys that you really never expect to see cry ever. That's why everyone was so surprised when he started crying. It kind of made me sad that someone had to stop taking a class that meant so much to them. But it was also really cool to see how some people were able to make such close friends in that class. It was also cool to see some people that are always really quiet come out of their shells and act in front of the whole class. One super quiet boy even got up and belted out this song from Scarlet Pimpernel. It just made me happy to watch it. I'm glad that I got to have such a great experience from Theatre this year. It pushed me really hard, and I made a lot of friends.

Even though I can't do Theatre anymore with all those people, I'm still excited to have classes with different people I didn't get to see a lot this year. I'm going to have a different class of 8th graders as an AL for Mrs. Nelson, so that will be like 30 new people I didn't know before. I'm also going to be able to stay with all the friends I made in Rhapsody this semester. I am so happy that choir is a full year class. I'm also getting a new Seminary teacher this year, so I'll have gotten to know both teachers. Brother Wood was really awesome, and I heard that Brother Lether is too. So even though I'm sad about some things, I'm really excited about others, and I kind of can't wait for this semester to start!

Technology

When I think of a lot of problems that come with new technology and things like that, I think about people who can't stay away from it. I've noticed that a lot of teenagers go insane if their phone isn't in their pocket. At Girls Camp and Youth Conference last summer, some people kept their cell phones in their pockets even though they knew there wouldn't be any reception. They just needed the weight there. A girl who sat next to me in Spanish last term didn't even pay attention at all. She just sat there and texted the whole time. When she wasn't texting she just sat there. It was really weird because I figured that if she texted so much she must have a lot to say, but she barely said anything during that class. What was crazy was that when I checked my texts about a month ago, I had almost one thousand. That was a little scary. Since then, I've tried to text less, and call more. If I want to hang out with someone, I try to call more often than I text to ask them. I don't want my cell phone to become my best friend.

My uncle likes to call Facebook "MyFace". That's another thing that's easy to get addicted to. There are games, quizzes, groups, other people's statuses to look at, chat, etc. There's always more to do. When I see how much time some people spend on Facebook, that really weirds me out. It's just another thing that makes people it harder for people to actually talk face to face. It isn't always safe, either. I've seen like 3 different kinds of links on Facebook that can give your computer viruses. Some people on Facebook add other people just to have more virtual friends, even if they're complete strangers. I think people just really have to make sure that they don't spend all their time at the computer.

My brother really likes music. He's kind of obsessed with it. Whether he's in the car, at the computer, or just sitting there, he is almost always listening to music. When he does that he usually uses headphones. He turns it up really loud so that you could be standing there yelling at him and he probably wouldn't notice. So when you try to get his attention he can't hear you. Then, if you try taking out his headphones, he gets mad at you for stopping his music. My mom's favorite phrase about this is, "unplug!" I think that really fits, because if you're always plugged into something, it makes it a lot harder to actually interact with people and know what's going on. I think that's why my brother is usually the last person in the house to know what's going on. To try to stay away from that problem, I asked for an iHome for Christmas. That way I can listen to my music, but through speakers. Then if someone is trying to talk to me, my music doesn't get in the way.

Basically, I think technology is a great thing. It helps us do homework, get information when we need it, listen to music, talk to friends, etc. I think that a lot of people don't realize that they're letting it become their life. They're letting it turn into the only thing they care about. I think that it helps if you try to make sure that you stay involved, and don't give yourself too much free time. Fill your time with good things, and you don't have to worry about technology taking your time over.

School and Goals

You know if you think about it the idea of school is actually a good thing. We go there so we can learn about a lot of important stuff, get into college, and eventually get a job that will hopefully get us a lot of money. It sounds like a great, important thing that we should all appreciate. But we don't. We all complain about it more than anything else, we put off the homework, and count the days to all the breaks. It feels really weird thinking that I have to go back tomorrow. I am definitely not looking forward to waking up early again. But I also want to try doing better now that it's a new year. Looking back on the first part of second term, I'm not exactly happy about it. I think I've kind of let my dislike of homework get me to start putting off/not doing some assignments. I've also been staying up too late so it's harder to get up in the mornings. So for an extra credit Spanish assignment, I made some new goals for the rest of this term and next semester:

Long Term- Raise my grade in all the classes that aren't A's

Short Term:

1. Turn in all missing assignments
2. Study ahead for tests
3. Don't put off assignments till the last second (Don't procrastinate)
4. I didn't use this on the assignment, but put homework before friend time

Long Term- Don't be late to Homeroom or 1st/5th period

Short Term:

1. Go to bed a lot earlier (before 10:30)
2. Wake up by 6:30 every morning
3. Leave home by 7:45 so I have time to walk

(I also added a note to number one to get homework done earlier so I can go to bed)

I like putting my goals in a couple places. My Seminary teacher likes to tell us that "A goal not written down is just a wish." I think that this is definitely true. If we just kind of think that we'd like to do something, it probably won't happen. If we write it down, make a plan, and commit to it then we're more likely to actually accomplish it. You also have to make sure it's realistic. If it's going to take a while, than you have to make it a long-term goal. You can't forget about it though. To accomplish long-term goals you need to make short-term goals help you get there. I want to go to BYU someday, so I know that I need to a) Get good grades and b) Work on the spiritual parts of life (Go to Seminary, church, etc.)

All my long and short term goals for this term and the rest of this year are to help get me to that big long-term goal. I need to fix my grades and keep them that way to go to college, and things won't work out so well if I go to college and can't wake myself up. My mom likes to remind us that she won't be there someday, and we'll have to do it without her.

I think that the biggest part of goals is that they keep you pointed in the right direction. If you always have a direction and a place you want to go, you're more likely to make better decisions. If you have too much free time and not enough important things to fill it up with, you might do things that aren't important and won't help you later in life. I don't want to regret how I spent my time as a teenager twenty years from now, so that's why I make goals.