I feel accomplished today.  Who wouldn't after officially driving their third time ever circling a parking lot, driving through three neighborhoods, and crossing two busy intersections?  Amazing.

  Today is Saturday.  You know what that means- no school.  As you can imagine, I used that much to my advantage.  After staying up and watching another old movie last night with Rachel, I was able to sleep in till eight and catch up on some needed rest.  Once I got up, my whole family tore the whole house apart organizing, which was definitely no negative thing considering the clutter that manages to pile up everywhere.  I also got to practice more of the six-page piano song Agitation, which is very pretty but required a lot of work, work my online class, and get a free physical for cheer {Happy to say that I am healthy, but I was not charmed by some of the questions they had to ask me, a fifteen-year-old.  But what can I say.  All I could do was outright declare that I would wait till marriage.} 
  Anyway...  For the real fun me, Mom, Dad, and Rachel went out to eat at Fuddruckers and then saw The Woman in Black.  I'll take the blame for a bad idea, but it's too late to change things now.  It was so scary!  We all LOVE scary movies for a nice adrenaline rush, but this was too dark and graphic.  Literally the whole movie I wanted to punch the main character for continuing to follow all these creepy sounds and people that weren't really there.  And I know that's typical for main characters, and maybe I was just tired, but Rachel can be my witness that I jumped way more than I do in other scary movies.  Too many dead kids for my liking. 
  So guess what we did when we got home!  Popped some popcorn {which I've learned is pretty good for you as long as it's not sopping with butter}, hopped onto Netflix, and found the stupidest funny movie we could find.  Unfortunately we had to turn it off for dirty content, but it eased us up and then Rachel and I looked at some hilarious Hunger Games pictures/quotes.  Now I'm sitting here typing away, and I realize that I'm really in the mood for writing some more of my book.

  Guess who's driving now?   Me!   Although I failed the test the first times due to studying unfortunately false information online, today I passed.  Except I still don't think I'm quite ready to hit the road.

  Today was a fabulous contrast to yesterday's frustrations.  Yes, it's a Thursday, but through storytelling in class, a beautiful rare thing called a "thunderstorm," finding out that I wasn't the only one who found difficulties with last night's math homework, singing, and shopping, it was pretty great.  And I'm also laughing cause it's official: Adam, who is for years younger than me, is now taller than me.  Hee hee.  Now it's certain that I must be a flyer for cheer.

   I am tired.  Of everything.  I mean, what happened to "enough"?  There's only so much a person can do.  And then of course all the effort put into something is burnt to a stubble when the Trojan horse of stupid mistakes sneaks in {cough, cough, I'm talking about math and those tests that I won't bother to discuss further}.
  But today Olivia celebrated her birthday {yes, her birthday was in December... and your point is....?} and then for mutual all the youth in the stake 14+ got together to learn square dancing for trek..  That was definitely fun!  Keeps me sane.

  Alright.  I'll admit it.  I'm boy crazy.  And I'm not math crazy, but this is a simple equation:

  Today Rachel and I performed at the Gilbert Global Festival with Actors Youth Theater.  There were around a dozen of us, and we did the songs Master of the House, Heart Full of Love, Friend Like Me, Anything Goes, America, When You're a Jet, and Somewhere.  Rachel and I sung solos in Anything Goes.    Anyway, we've been having rehearsals for several weeks now, so it's quite nice to have that over with.  And I love every opportunity to take the stage!
  At five-thirty I had to go to the Haymore's house to babysit.  They have been friends to the family for almost nine or ten years now, so either me or Rachel typically get asked to watch the three kids.  This time was my turn to say yes.  And it was so much fun!  Usually I cannot get them away from the TV, but for that same reason their mom unplugged it and gave us the chance to think of something more creative.  So, we played the wrestling game and became scientists.  With their electric microscope, we carefully examined hair, skin cells, grains of salt, banana peel, leaves, grasshopper abdomens,  and Max's saliva.  We also created an aquarium for brine shrimp in a little bowl.  Despite being among thousands of other teeny eggs that can last up to five years in the sealed bag they came in, apparently the twenty-someodd eggs we sprinkled into our saltwater/yeast mixture will start to hatch tomorrow.
   Even if I didn't get to finish my bazillion homework assignments, I think it was a very simply but satisfying day.

    One moment of anxiety.  Another moment of smiles and laughter.  The next, sobs of grief.
  Cheer.  Rehearsals.  Cheer.  Research project.  I was on the verge of bursting with the load, my nights sleepless with worry.  Today we waited for hours as we all tried out and then the judges tallied the scores and arranged the teams.  I was scared.  Though my cheers and jumps were tight, I was animated on the dance even during slight errors, and I standing-tumbled without a problem, I panicked and had to do the running tumbling four times before I through anything, even with a spot, due to a little mishap with my tumbling on Monday.  But in the end, I was thrilled to make JV with a bunch of my friends.
  Laughter, relief, thinking of which movie we could watch after the kids went to bed.
  And then we get that call.  Rachel and I walked in to find Dad grim-faced and Adam and Mom's faces streaked with tears.  Even before they started to explain what happened, I just knew that someone's life had slipped away.  Images of all my loved ones raced through my head.  It was Liberty, our dog.
  Liberty is an English golden retriever. I remember that day when I went to the airport with Mom to pick her up, holding her on the way home as a sweet pup.  As she started to grow, she began to be very wild.  Lively.  Animated.  She drove us crazy like no other living creature I have ever met!  But she was filled with love.  About a year or so ago we sent her to live with a family in our ward who has more property.  There she, with some other dogs, lived a life of adventure.  Unfortunately, I never had the chance to get to know her very well.  Yet I was completely stricken with the news of her passing.  The family who cared for her don't know what happened; today she was completely full of energy, and then suddenly they found her, lifeless, without a mark.  She was going to be two years old in just a few weeks.  That is the prime age, right when she is fully matured and happy and healthy!  The other dogs licked her sadly, her caring friends, also taken aback by the sudden death. 
  Life.  It is only so long, and we only have so many opportunities.  We don't know when our time will come to pass over to the better place, but now is the time to prepare.  I just made cheer.  Thus, I need to use that to learn, to make friends, to have fun.  On Saturday I need to take the stage and shine.  And just in general, I need to try my hardest to demonstrate to others how important the Gospel of Christ is to me.

  Nerd?  What's a "nerd"?  At Highland High, smart=cool.  Athletes, singers, student council members... Sorry to those stereotypical authors/movie-makers who associate smart with Pokemon cards and total physical incapability.  But you are WRONG!
  In all seriousness, I was very happy to find out that there were at least hundreds of students this year to have straight A's (or just one B, and the system is fortunately also weighted for Honors students).  And I know, respect, and totally adore a lot of these people.  I have a few friends who barely didn't make it, but they are still amazingly smart people in my opinion.  It can be really hard to keep up with the fast paces and high standards of the teachers, so as long as you put in your all...  Anyway, I'm not in any way trying to say that I'm "all that," but I do hope that I can in years to come continue getting good grades so that I can go off to the dream school BYU.

  This school week is literally all about prep.  Prep for cheer with clinic and tryouts, prep for the Gilbert Global Village with rehearsals, and prep for Girls Camp with an auction.  Oh, and of course we're all getting mentally prepped for summer!  Right now, though, I think I'm anxious for the prep to get over with and for the real things to just hurry themselves over.  Cause I am ready!  And quite tired!

  One hundred years.  Time has been born, time has perished.  Memories fade with each new phenomenon of age, consumed by raw chronology.
  A century.  Yet the glittering crests still whisper its memories, tainted by the horrors of sheer mistake.  The Titanic, the floating palace that lost her grip on the living world that fateful night.   1,514 souls forever silent below.  And we remember.

  Hmmm... How do I put this?  You are a fantabulous friend.  You have probably figured out by now that I'm a crazy OCD person, so I'm glad that you put up with me.  And the science project?  Oooh, yeah, I'd be dead if it weren't for your being both smart and on top of it as a project partner.  Anywho...  It's really fun to discuss things with you- from the stupidity of our current government to the hotness of basically all the guys in The Avengers.  The nice thing about you is that you listen to me when I talk and try to include me in your conversations, which I can actually relate with.  Also, you are an amazing musician.  Seriously, I don't know anyone else who can just compose a song on the piano on the spot like that!  And your hair is so long and thick!  Yep... Okay, it's like really late and after watching The Hunger Games again I feel like I need to go write some bestseller.  Adios amiga.  :)

  Hey!  It's Friday the 13th.  Fortunately, I've been lucky.  The math test went way better than I thought, I have no homework but to continue working on the science project, due later, and Bryan won his soccer game for us girls cuddled up on the sidelines in the grass, laughing about stupid posters on Haley's iPod.  There's only like twenty minutes left of this day, so do you think anything spooky will happen as I go to bed? Luck seemed to be against my funny friend who said a couple weeks ago he wanted a concussion just to see what it was like, and realized yesterday just how horribly, painfully awful of a wish that turned out to be.

•   With a three day weekend, we've had a lot of time to do stuff, even if it doesn't feel like it.  On Friday morning we got up and left on two hour drive to the Out of Africa Park.  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  Yes, there were many fascinating animals, from the big cats to the zebras to the cockatoos.  Being the animal-loving family that we are, it was a really cool experience.  These animals seemed to be really well taken care of despite the park not being government funded or anything and they were really friendly.  Though don't ask me why Adam held the carrot in his mouth for the giraffes to eat. 

•     As soon as we got home, I got ready and went to Tesah's birthday party.  Her birthday was actually a month ago, but we just love her too much to not celebrate, even late.  We watched Tangled and ate ice cream.  Happy late birthday girly!

•   Saturday I was woken up early once again to find out that we had to drive to Mesa to help put together thousands of flyers for Actors Youth Theater.  Yikes!  Rachel and I were assigned assorting them in piles pf thirty, though we figured out that judging by size is much more efficient than counting out every single paper.  Still, I was glad to be entertained by other people's arguments and annotations of The Hunger Games.  After a few hours, Rachel and I had to slip away to rehearsal for AYT's performance for the Gilbert Global Festival.  More information will be coming about this later...

•   Once I got home from that, I got a bunch of texts asking me if we were going to see the Easter Pageant.  So I spent another few hours trying to organize everything so we could go, figuring out along the way just how much of a pain texting can be.  I ended up calling a lot of people, though I still think the old fashion method of meeting everyone up in person beforehand would have been the best.  At one point, I accidentally hung up on Paige right as she started to say something else.  As I expected, my phone started to ring immediately after. ~"Oh, hey, sorry!" ~"Hello, this is Doctor McOmber."  Whoops.  This wasn't Paige... it was Bryan's dad.  I had tried to call Bryan a few minutes earlier, but he hadn't picked up.  Is this Doctor Lundgreen?" ~ "Wait... Did you say "Doctor" Lundgreen?"  "Yeah!"  And then he started talking fast and using all these technical terms so I couldn't understand him.  Meanwhile, I seriously could have sworn that I heard Bryan laughing in the background, so I thought this was some sort of prank.  "Okay, I am REALLY confused!" I exclaimed.  "Is Bryan there?"  His dad laughed again, said something else, and hung up.  What the heck?!  But as it turns out, it was not a prank.  His dad actually works with a doctor with my same last name!  Which means I must be related to that person, because even the Lundgreens in Denmark are related to my family.  Anyway, it ended up being me, Bryan, Lindsey, Paige, Karisa, and Haley, and we met up and went to the temple armed with laughter and animal crackers.  It didn't start for a while, so we just chatted.  We found out that when he lies on his back and someone slaps his abs, he sounds hollow.  Like a drum.  So now he's become our one-man band. Once it did start, I brought out my dad's binoculars and got a great view considering how far back we were sitting.  It was amazing.  With beautiful music, touching script, and outstanding sets and costumes, it really brought out the spirit of Easter. My eyes were definitely burning.
• And then you've got Easter.  Easter baskets, Easter eggs, Easter dresses....  I think pictures tell all.  Though I swear never again to where that dress; though it fit my height and waist, it left a centimeter wide and deep indentation in my shoulders and crushed all the air out of my lungs, if you know what I mean.  Yikes.  I guess I got compliments?  Still not worth it.  Anywho... For dinner, our cousins came over.  We ate the tradition fancy ham dinner and basically hung out.  Yup.  We played the random name game where you try to guess who wrote down what together, and Mom and I were both pretty good.  Kendall wondered how on earth I knew she wrote Fat Albert, while Mom was annoyed that I guessed her Sherlock Holmes so quickly.  I dunno.  I just knew.  

  Six more months, and I will be dating, driving, and have a pretty, metal-free smile.  I am so excited!  Today I have been trying to study the drivers' manuel so I can take the test for my permit, and I'm really mad at all my friends for being so young.
  But I feel bad.  Right now I am fifteen.  Come on, girl!  Live in the moment!  I don't want to wish my life away.

  Since I have cheer tryouts next week, I decided to practice my tumbling and went to USA Gym.  This gym was really nice and had these great spring floors and trampolines that made me almost go flying after getting used to hard wood, tile, and mats that basically absorb your energy.  I'm so glad I went.  Despite being fearful of my own tricks for the past several months or even years, the exertion of energy through, well, flipping, felt amazing.  And even the seventy-five toe-touches, fifty pikes and fifty v-ups felt good, even though I couldn't walk up the stairs without collapsing when I got home.  

  I apologize; it's been a crazy week and I have a lot to write down!  I'll just get to it tomorrow, but for now let me just say that I am so grateful for all my friends and family.  You guys are just spectacular!  Without you, my life would never be as fun and exciting.  I would never have learned so much.  I would never have had the opportunity to risk my life with the possibility of dying from laughter.

  Happy spring!  We had a day off of school today, and I think the sun is almost as psyched for summer as I am.  It definitely had fun zapping the energy right out of me, so I'm gonna go sleep.

  Words.  Trampling each other as they battle to reach the focus of my thoughts, the dance of my tongue, the grace of my fingers.  Ideas that spring forth like flowers after sprinkling of summer rains.   The struggle to conceive beauty, intelligence, and adventure as one.
  Colors splash forth, illuminated by brilliant rays of light.  Music ricochets from every soft tendril of wind, every sapphire wave caressing the shore.  
  No detail disregarded.  One breath, and the whole world is absorbed into my soul.  Eyes flutter shut, and darkness is nudged aside by remembrance.  Recollection of everything magnificent.  I gather, I ponder.
  Erupt, Creativity.

  On the window seal there is are two little cups holding an inch of dirt, three inches of mucky water, and some rocks, some crumbling leaves, and a bitty seed.  The child whose hands carefully prepared this mixture is yet to learn that the flower will never grow, no matter how much the sun shines and how many times she hold the cups under the kitchen faucet.
  Adorable.  
  No, the "s-word" is not "poop."  Then it would be called "the p-word," and the consequence would be much stronger than a quick hushing and scrunched brows.  But... well... your getting closer.
  Wild.
  If only I could grant those wishes.  Growing up to be a beautiful pink mermaid princess would be quite wonderful.
  Innocent.
  Oh, baby.  Keep that attitude, that smile, that naiveté.  Darling, fly!  

the world would be black as the cold dark night
if not for the colors spectacular
which transform all to sunshine summer bright
to unique and gladly irregular.

they tumble down the hills like waterfalls
and splash into the great valleys below.
painting the forests where the blue bird calls
and sprinkle the gently streams where they flow.
my heart longs to glimpse a rainbow like fauve
shimmering colors dance across the sky
marvelous rose, yellow, emerald, mauve
after the tears of earth last die.

the world would be black as the cold dark night
if not for the colors shining sun bright.