¡Hola!  Mi nombre es Katie Lundgreen y yo vivo en Gilbert, Arizona con mi familia de ocho personas.  Yo tengo catorce años.  También, yo soy bajo y tengo pelo largo y café y ojos azules como el océano.  Mi familia tenemos seis perros, uno gato, y dos pajaros.  En mi escuela, yo estoy muy bien.  Cuando yo no estoy a la escuela, yo escribo cuentos, leo, canto, bailo, y más.  El fin, yo soy una Mormón.  Entonces, yo no se mucho español, pero la cosas están un poco de como yo vivo. 

  I have spent my whole break working on Personal Progress.  Literally.  And don't get me wrong- PP is amazing, but when you are trying to finish three ten-hour projects in just a few days, it's exhausting.  Last -November I made a goal to finish it before New Beginnings, and that is on April 6th.  But now everything is ALMOST done.   I just need to finish one oil pastel painting (I am so completely burnt out on art that I will just do that next week) and two or three of the easy two-week experiences.  Then I will write my testimony in the back and DONE!  All the hard work paid off.
  Now is finally the time to relax.  Tonight I am leaving on a plane to Boston.   Like I said before, I haven't been on a plane in YEARS!  It will be hard to sleep on, but still exciting.  And then I will see Christina, one of my best friends since I was like two.  I absolutely cannot wait!
  But in the mean time.... PACKING!

  I heard a woman say in my ward that her patriarchal blessing prophesied off times- which she'd she- when the world being struck by natural disasters would not be uncommon.  At the time it had seemed so unreal for her.  There would be years in between earthquakes and the like!
  Yet here we are.  We have seen the destruction at Haiti.  An earthquake in California shook the chandelier in my Arizona house.  And more.  But on Friday we witnessed the worst yet.  Japan was hit by an 8.9 earthquake which triggered a 23-foot tsunami. Whole buildings were swept away... and now I think two nuclear power plants have exploded.  10,000 have died.  The picture shows Japan before and after the disaster.
  How frightening it must be!  To, without warning, be suddenly terrorized by something no one can even try to stop?  The people aren't even asking for food- just coffins to bury all the thousands of bodies!  Yet here I am, typing away at the computer with nothing to worry about.  I want to do something- NOW!  Although I can't stop the wrath of nature, there is always money, food, clothes, etc. that can be donated.
  And chances are, the 2nd Coming is all the closer.      

School is out for spring break.  Oh, I am so happy to read, write, sing, do Personal Progress, stay up late/sleep in, run, and go to Boston.  School's cool, but then sometimes so is a relaxed life...  Hopefully it'll go by so slow that I will be begging for school to come back. 

  Today I had to leave school early for a dentist appointment.  Ummmm... yeah.  I found out that I HAVE to get braces.  FOR.  TWO.  STUPID.  TEETH.  They are in the very back, and they are diagonal, pressed extremely tight against the teeth beside them.  One is so tightly pressed that there might be decay, but they can't even tell.  One of the other things to be fixed is that my teeth are slightly pushed from when I sucked my thumb.   So yep.  I'm getting them on ASAP and they will be on for 11/2 - 2 years, plus a retainer for the rest of my life after that.  There's no getting around it.  I actually have people ask me if I have had braces before now because my teeth are so straight, but that's beside the point.   I was furious when I found out, but too bad so sad, apparently.
  When I got home, I had to do something (other than homework) to calm myself.  (Doesn't that sound so bad?  Normally I'm pretty positive, but two years of those suckers....)   So I went to the piano.  I love how music just takes the whole world away from your mind!  I immediately relaxed, and eventually I started straying from my lesson songs to do songs like "Clocks" or the Phantom of the Opera.  That way I could sing as I played.  If I know the song, that is basically my most favorite thing to do ever.  Then I dropped the piano and started testing my range.  I found out that I can sing from a low G to a high C (To be honest, I don't know which one is better-sounding- the G or the C.  I just know that I am definitely a soprano because, even though that is quite high, it's much easier that way.  My voice is a bit sore, but more from the low notes than the extremely high ones.)  Then Rachel started testing her range.  She is definitely an alto.
  But here is the best part.  Mom walked in- on the phone- when Rachel was in the middle of failing a high note!  We just hope that the person didn't hear... but...  Yes, we were definitely cracking up.  And my anger about the braces had definitely vanished.        

I have had several things this week that have just been fantastic.

• On Tuesday, we had a choir concert.  All the music was completely amazing.  The songs we did were O Lovely Peace, Sigh No More, and Come Pretty Love.  As I said before, I was part of a trio in the beginning of the last one.  Oh, man! did I feel like I climbed up the ladder to a whole new level!  I had no fear whatsoever, yet there was an audience of probably 500 people!
• On Wednesday, there were three things.  The first was that I found out that I won second place for the creative writing portion of the writing contest.  Originally I thought it was for the actual contest, but I found out it was just at the school level.  Apparently it actually has to be a winner at the school to go to the real contest, but still.  BTY... the real contest is the one I entered twice with poems in elementary school.  Also, my Honors English class won first place for the class book portion.  Since we were reading Night, we wrote poems about the Holocaust.  Now I just have to find out what the district thinks!  I don't know exactly what the prizes are, but I would love to win!  I have never won anything before, even though my cousins have more than once (Paige was just in Boston for winning an art contest, and was also shown on TV and got an autograph from a professional basketball player.  Lucky amazing girl!).
• Then as soon as I got home from school, Mom informed me that we will be leaving for Boston during the spring break.  We are getting a new Coton puppy which we will name Ziva.  While we are there, we will also visit the Menzies. Christina and I have known each other since we were two and share Sugar and Spice, our fictional writing blog.  We haven't seen each other in years!  Mom and I weren't sure when exactly we'd leave, but decided to go on a plane that leaves at 10 at night.  That way we can sleep for the whole seven hours there and not feel like we are wasting time.  I also haven't been on a plane since I went to Utah to see Grandma and Grandpa Lundgreen by myself when I was eight.  Oh, I am so thrilled!
• Right before I went to Mutual, I also found out that I was actually an alternate in Jekyll and Hyde.  There were two girls in the ensemble who quit, so I got to take one of their places.  Unfortunately I am only in three scenes, but it will still be super fun.  I have already been to two rehearsals and have quickly made up for the month that I missed.  I love that era and cannot wait to actually be on stage with my costume and such things.

Oh, what a fabulous couple of days it was!