Hey! Today I just thought of a good charting system to help me achieve some goals. Every day when I do all of the daily goals I have in mind, I get a tally on the chart. As soon as I and my friend Miranda get 7 on our charts, we get to plan some get together. It's a fantastic system!
My goals for each day so far are:
Blog upkeep
Daily Meaningful Scripture Study
30 min minimum of exercise
Daily Rigorous Schoolwork
Service to Family
Work
Feeding the Goldfish ;)
Practice diligently for piano and guitar
Once I get these down, I'll put up some harder goals to do. :D I may even try getting off of unhealthy food! Or I may possibly create relationship-improvement goals. But for now, I'm starting off simple.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunshine Song
Sometimes the sun shines on other people's houses and not mine
and the clouds paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get mine
well there's a light in everybody so send out a ray of sunshine
i wanna walk the same roads as everybody else
through the trees and past the gates
i getting high on heavenly breezes
making new friends on the way
and i wont ask much of nobody
I'm just here to sing along
and make my mistakes look gracious
and learn some lessons from my wrongs
Sometimes the sun shines on other people's houses and not mine
and the shy can paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
and somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get by
there's a light in everybody so send your ray of sunshine
well you sure look as good as your outlook
would you mind if i took some time
to soak up your light, your beautiful light
you got some paradise inside
I get hungry for love and thirsty for life
but much to full on the pain
and if i turn to the sky to help me
it most often looks like rain
cause sometimes the sun shines on other people's houses and not mine
sometimes the clouds paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
while the sun keeps shining upon you while i'm kindly standing by
a little light never hurt nobody send out a ray of sunshine
oh if this little light of mine combined with yours today
how many villages could we save
how many watts could illuminate
well my umbrella's tired of the weather wearing me down
well look at me now
you're undeniably warm, cerulean
you're perfect in design
i hope you hang around
so the sun can shine on me
and the clouds can all roll away
and the sky can become our possibility
cause there's a light in everybody, send out your ray of sunshine
I love this song by Jason Mraz. So many of my friends and family seem to be going through such difficult times all of a sudden. It's been so hard. This song really speaks to be, to send out my ray of sunshine. To be a happy, uplifting friend to everyone. To do what I can, and to keep it positive. I guess I've needed this lesson, because I admit, life has been getting me down lately. No more, it's time to work up to being the proactive Keenan whom I know is somewhere in me! :)
and the clouds paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get mine
well there's a light in everybody so send out a ray of sunshine
i wanna walk the same roads as everybody else
through the trees and past the gates
i getting high on heavenly breezes
making new friends on the way
and i wont ask much of nobody
I'm just here to sing along
and make my mistakes look gracious
and learn some lessons from my wrongs
Sometimes the sun shines on other people's houses and not mine
and the shy can paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
and somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get by
there's a light in everybody so send your ray of sunshine
well you sure look as good as your outlook
would you mind if i took some time
to soak up your light, your beautiful light
you got some paradise inside
I get hungry for love and thirsty for life
but much to full on the pain
and if i turn to the sky to help me
it most often looks like rain
cause sometimes the sun shines on other people's houses and not mine
sometimes the clouds paint the sky in a way
that takes away my summer time
while the sun keeps shining upon you while i'm kindly standing by
a little light never hurt nobody send out a ray of sunshine
oh if this little light of mine combined with yours today
how many villages could we save
how many watts could illuminate
well my umbrella's tired of the weather wearing me down
well look at me now
you're undeniably warm, cerulean
you're perfect in design
i hope you hang around
so the sun can shine on me
and the clouds can all roll away
and the sky can become our possibility
cause there's a light in everybody, send out your ray of sunshine
I love this song by Jason Mraz. So many of my friends and family seem to be going through such difficult times all of a sudden. It's been so hard. This song really speaks to be, to send out my ray of sunshine. To be a happy, uplifting friend to everyone. To do what I can, and to keep it positive. I guess I've needed this lesson, because I admit, life has been getting me down lately. No more, it's time to work up to being the proactive Keenan whom I know is somewhere in me! :)
Christmas Party
Today I went to a Christmas party at Miranda's house with Devon, Matt (?), Missa, Mikaela, Sabrina, and Brianna. Someone had brought a drinking game to the party. It was a checker game in which the checkers were cups, and you had to fill them with a drink of your choice. We played using vinegar and clear soda, mixing it all up and not knowing which cups contained what. I personally didn't like this game that much when I played it with Brianna.
Later we played sardines, and Miranda hid under one of the springboards in her big playroom. It was hard finding her, considering she was switching hiding spots too.
I also got to go to a family party last Saturday. Katie Jarvis is home for the holidays, and she made muppets for all of her siblings to play with. We played some fun "BYU student" party games that she had learned. Some were really tricky and somewhat hard to explain.
I went to grandma's house Sunday evening too, and there I learned some amazing stuff about will power. I also borrowed a book from my g-ma about the Atonement, written by Brad Wilcox. It is so good already, and I've only read the first few pages. It's a book that goes into the mechanics of the Atonement. I found this amazing website too, go watch some of the videos here; they're funny and very educational as well! I love goal setting: changeanything.com
Later we played sardines, and Miranda hid under one of the springboards in her big playroom. It was hard finding her, considering she was switching hiding spots too.
I also got to go to a family party last Saturday. Katie Jarvis is home for the holidays, and she made muppets for all of her siblings to play with. We played some fun "BYU student" party games that she had learned. Some were really tricky and somewhat hard to explain.
I went to grandma's house Sunday evening too, and there I learned some amazing stuff about will power. I also borrowed a book from my g-ma about the Atonement, written by Brad Wilcox. It is so good already, and I've only read the first few pages. It's a book that goes into the mechanics of the Atonement. I found this amazing website too, go watch some of the videos here; they're funny and very educational as well! I love goal setting: changeanything.com
Sunday, December 18, 2011
My Strange Dream
I had a really strange dream last night. I'm glad I wrote it down as soon as I woke up, for I doubt I would have remembered it with such details as the dream contained. In the dream, I was alone in Matt Savard's kitchen. Miranda Swartz appeared, and I began to flirt as I have a tendency to do around girls I admire. After a bit of time had passed, I realized that Miranda was not liking my advances one bit. Being unusually blunt, I asked Miranda, "Miranda, why don't you like me?" She responded in my dream by saying, "I don't know". I asked, "What do you want me to be?" She didn't respond to the question.
At this moment in my dream I suddenly found myself in the Purple Pit (that one club from the Nutty Professor). Unworthy music was playing, and a number of familiar faces were there. I knew that it was time to go, and so I walked out of the building and into a large parking lot, like the one in front of North Valley High School. I went to my family's big golden van, which was idling in a parking space. I opened the passenger door and saw Devon Crawford sitting in the driver's seat. I hopped in, and we waited for a minute, saying nothing, the engine running in neutral. I turned to him and asked "Where are the girls? Don't they know it's time to go?" All Devon said was, "yeah".
I got out of the car and walked back into the club, knowing I had to find my sister Sabrina, Missa Good, and Miranda. The paint color of the interior of the Pit had changed from purple to black. It was no longer a pit either, but more like a big, rectangular room. Even the floor was painted black. Not long after walking in I saw Miranda sitting at a square table, talking to some people, one of which was a drunk old lady. I was about to talk to Miranda again, but I was interrupted by the drunk, who complimented me on my work in the Sound of Music. Then she asked me to pay for more of her drinks using my tab. I declined and turned away. Miranda knew I was there, but she remained at the table. I went to look for the other girls, but couldn't find them. As I eventually started to walk back to the door, I saw Miranda again, standing up, looking melancholic, dressed in the 50's costume she wore for Halloween this year. The color of the outfit had changed from neon pink to silky-black.
And then I woke up, feeling very sad.
At this moment in my dream I suddenly found myself in the Purple Pit (that one club from the Nutty Professor). Unworthy music was playing, and a number of familiar faces were there. I knew that it was time to go, and so I walked out of the building and into a large parking lot, like the one in front of North Valley High School. I went to my family's big golden van, which was idling in a parking space. I opened the passenger door and saw Devon Crawford sitting in the driver's seat. I hopped in, and we waited for a minute, saying nothing, the engine running in neutral. I turned to him and asked "Where are the girls? Don't they know it's time to go?" All Devon said was, "yeah".
I got out of the car and walked back into the club, knowing I had to find my sister Sabrina, Missa Good, and Miranda. The paint color of the interior of the Pit had changed from purple to black. It was no longer a pit either, but more like a big, rectangular room. Even the floor was painted black. Not long after walking in I saw Miranda sitting at a square table, talking to some people, one of which was a drunk old lady. I was about to talk to Miranda again, but I was interrupted by the drunk, who complimented me on my work in the Sound of Music. Then she asked me to pay for more of her drinks using my tab. I declined and turned away. Miranda knew I was there, but she remained at the table. I went to look for the other girls, but couldn't find them. As I eventually started to walk back to the door, I saw Miranda again, standing up, looking melancholic, dressed in the 50's costume she wore for Halloween this year. The color of the outfit had changed from neon pink to silky-black.
And then I woke up, feeling very sad.
(a quick summary of the past two months)
What a busy time in my life. I don't really know where to start. Hm... I guess I could just tell you about my adventures in school-hopping first.
At the beginning of this school year, I was enrolled in ORCA, but I was getting very weary of the system and longed to be in Grants Pass High where I could be around wonderful friends of mine while taking the sort of fun classes I wanted to take. So I petitioned for a district transfer, and the Three Rivers School district denied me. Twice. And so, I decided to give Hidden Valley a try; I still have some ties to that school through their Swing Choir which I participated in last year.
After a trimester of public school classes (a.k.a. worksheets, homework, worksheets, homework, etc.) I bailed out of that school and have been enrolled in Logos Academy since. Next year I'll try again to get into GPHS; the odds will be in my favor considering there's a new law passed which allows students in Oregon to go to any school they want.
As for my acting career, I was totally surprised and thrilled to have gotten the role of Captain Von Trapp back at the beginning of the summer. I've been working with the cast and crew over the past few months and have been loving every minute of it. There are so many funny, talented people here! It's been great expanding my social circles and getting some footing in the school I long to be in (GP). The performances went alright generally. There have been a ton of ridiculous things happening throughout the production, but I would have to say that the worst was our third performance on a Saturday night. The sound crew had forgotten (either that or some technical bug happened) to shut off my stage microphone after I walked offstage. Now everyone knows me as the guy who said, "My eyebrows look sad in that picture." and "Does this suit make me look fat?" Totally hilarious.
I auditioned for Cinderella a couple of weeks ago, but they haven't called me for any part in it. Oh well. I am certain I impressed their judges with my monologue (Sam's Monologue from the Two Towers) and song (On the Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady). Trouble is, I requested to not work on Sundays. I guess that turned them off. Well, it's better to obey God than it is to obey any mortal director, eh?
It's now Winter Break, and I'm going to get ahead in my classes this week. I also have a goal to study the Preach My Gospel book along with my scripture study. One of my friends from working in the Sound of Music, Jennifer Lynde, has found great interest in the church. Either that, or she has found great interest in me. Or both. Anywho, I hope we can get the missionaries to teach her the discussions over the break. The parties I've been to so far have been so fun; yesterday I went to Devon's house for a game night, the Schmidt house for music and cookies with Jennifer, one of the Harmon girl's wedding receptions, and Matt Savard's Christmas party. It was the bomb! Matt's Spanish teacher got out his Latin guitar and played us some AMAZING Christmas songs, which we all sang along to. Later all of the Sounds Unlimited kids and a couple of the other guys decided to play some theater games. We played Taxi and Park Bench, entertaining the adults who were at the party. Once they had all left, Matt, Christian, Gabe, and I played a bit of SSBB. Christian is one of the coolest guys! He plays guitar great, knows a bunch of songs I do, and both of us are generally religious. (Since when was being religious popular for a teenage guy? It's AWESOME!) I feel like I made some great friends.
At the beginning of this school year, I was enrolled in ORCA, but I was getting very weary of the system and longed to be in Grants Pass High where I could be around wonderful friends of mine while taking the sort of fun classes I wanted to take. So I petitioned for a district transfer, and the Three Rivers School district denied me. Twice. And so, I decided to give Hidden Valley a try; I still have some ties to that school through their Swing Choir which I participated in last year.
After a trimester of public school classes (a.k.a. worksheets, homework, worksheets, homework, etc.) I bailed out of that school and have been enrolled in Logos Academy since. Next year I'll try again to get into GPHS; the odds will be in my favor considering there's a new law passed which allows students in Oregon to go to any school they want.
As for my acting career, I was totally surprised and thrilled to have gotten the role of Captain Von Trapp back at the beginning of the summer. I've been working with the cast and crew over the past few months and have been loving every minute of it. There are so many funny, talented people here! It's been great expanding my social circles and getting some footing in the school I long to be in (GP). The performances went alright generally. There have been a ton of ridiculous things happening throughout the production, but I would have to say that the worst was our third performance on a Saturday night. The sound crew had forgotten (either that or some technical bug happened) to shut off my stage microphone after I walked offstage. Now everyone knows me as the guy who said, "My eyebrows look sad in that picture." and "Does this suit make me look fat?" Totally hilarious.
I auditioned for Cinderella a couple of weeks ago, but they haven't called me for any part in it. Oh well. I am certain I impressed their judges with my monologue (Sam's Monologue from the Two Towers) and song (On the Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady). Trouble is, I requested to not work on Sundays. I guess that turned them off. Well, it's better to obey God than it is to obey any mortal director, eh?
It's now Winter Break, and I'm going to get ahead in my classes this week. I also have a goal to study the Preach My Gospel book along with my scripture study. One of my friends from working in the Sound of Music, Jennifer Lynde, has found great interest in the church. Either that, or she has found great interest in me. Or both. Anywho, I hope we can get the missionaries to teach her the discussions over the break. The parties I've been to so far have been so fun; yesterday I went to Devon's house for a game night, the Schmidt house for music and cookies with Jennifer, one of the Harmon girl's wedding receptions, and Matt Savard's Christmas party. It was the bomb! Matt's Spanish teacher got out his Latin guitar and played us some AMAZING Christmas songs, which we all sang along to. Later all of the Sounds Unlimited kids and a couple of the other guys decided to play some theater games. We played Taxi and Park Bench, entertaining the adults who were at the party. Once they had all left, Matt, Christian, Gabe, and I played a bit of SSBB. Christian is one of the coolest guys! He plays guitar great, knows a bunch of songs I do, and both of us are generally religious. (Since when was being religious popular for a teenage guy? It's AWESOME!) I feel like I made some great friends.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Patriarchal Blessing Review
Today I found my copy of my Patriarchal Blessing on my shelf; and I had thought it had been lost when mom switched the rooms around over the summer. Tonight I decided to go through it again, though I already thought I remembered what it said. It has been months since I've read it.
Tonight as I looked over the talents, promises, and prophecies God has given to me personally, I couldn't help but feel a comfort I haven't felt in a very long time. I feel like I've forgotten who I really am. I feel like my life focus now is to totally change myself into a totally different person than I once was; to grow up, to man up, to get tough, to become independent, to get what I really want. But I feel like I've been trying to do so in a way that is unpleasing to the Lord. As I look over my blessing, I realize that I've been playing this whole game of life with a disorganized, weak, uncontrolled, unplanned strategy. I've been thrown new trials this year unlike anything I have ever faced before, and I allowed them to let my grip on the iron rod grow weaker.
My Patriarchal Blessing showed up at a perfect time; I just wish I had been reading it all along. It's my personal guide, my own instructions from my Father in heaven. Now, I recommit myself to centering my life on God and working on what he has instructed me to do; no more time wasting, arrogant, impatient, lazy, disrespectful, darkness in my life!
I'm beginning to find my purpose again.
Tonight as I looked over the talents, promises, and prophecies God has given to me personally, I couldn't help but feel a comfort I haven't felt in a very long time. I feel like I've forgotten who I really am. I feel like my life focus now is to totally change myself into a totally different person than I once was; to grow up, to man up, to get tough, to become independent, to get what I really want. But I feel like I've been trying to do so in a way that is unpleasing to the Lord. As I look over my blessing, I realize that I've been playing this whole game of life with a disorganized, weak, uncontrolled, unplanned strategy. I've been thrown new trials this year unlike anything I have ever faced before, and I allowed them to let my grip on the iron rod grow weaker.
My Patriarchal Blessing showed up at a perfect time; I just wish I had been reading it all along. It's my personal guide, my own instructions from my Father in heaven. Now, I recommit myself to centering my life on God and working on what he has instructed me to do; no more time wasting, arrogant, impatient, lazy, disrespectful, darkness in my life!
I'm beginning to find my purpose again.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
I'm Back!
Hello public journal!
I have returned to stay; I realize that life if better and more organized when I keep a blog, and so I'm going back into it once again.
This school year so far has been difficult. I've been trying to get a district transfer to Grants Pass High School, and they have denied me once. But that hasn't stopped me; I have resent my request and letters and today at the soonest I will find out if the Three Rivers School District lets me go. Oh how I hope it is so! But if not, I will just try again with extra support; maybe I can get my director to send a letter.
Which reminds me! I have been muchly enjoying practicing in GP's play The Sound of Music as Captain Von Trapp! I'm still trying to get everyone's names down, but I am loving practicing all of the songs for this play! The girl who is playing Elsa is an amazing singer, all of them are. Thomas (the first Von Trapp) is a great guy to be around too. Keeps himself busy with lots of stuff, and he also gave me some more info on the school on our first day. I'm so excited to get in!
As for fun things I've been doing, I've been organizing a lot of meets with the Music Partiers; it has almost become a weekly thing. When Emma came over to visit, we had a water fight at the park. A couple of weeks ago we performed on the streets at First Friday then watched Jurassic Park II. Last weekend we went to a dance in central point and I got to meet one of Miranda's old-time friends (well, I guess we're not old-timers yet, are we? Well, okay, in less catchy words, she's known this girl for awhile). I can perceive lots of fun we'll have in the future in our shared hobby: board games!
Last night I got to go to Cole and Arren's troop meeting. I love their troop already; I'm excited to get transferred. Fall Encampment is coming up and I'm looking forward to it muchly; I have never been to it before (which is kind of dumb because I've been a scout my entire life!). It's a weekend camp with service projects and competitions and such; should be worth going to. Oh, Cole and Arren are two great musicians I met while working at Camp Makualla; they go to GPHS and I am very excited to see them there too! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!
GAH!!!!!! SOO Excited!
I liked Makualla; I'm looking forward to next year. Anthony Jarvis might be coming along; he will sure make camp a great experience for everybody.
I'm trying to figure out how on earth I will be able to come up with all of the money I will need for Philmont next year; I intend to make it. I guess I can keep working for Brother Davis. Not sure yet; got to talk to my new scoutmaster Mike this afternoon if I have any chance of coming along. Got to get some money!
I have returned to stay; I realize that life if better and more organized when I keep a blog, and so I'm going back into it once again.
This school year so far has been difficult. I've been trying to get a district transfer to Grants Pass High School, and they have denied me once. But that hasn't stopped me; I have resent my request and letters and today at the soonest I will find out if the Three Rivers School District lets me go. Oh how I hope it is so! But if not, I will just try again with extra support; maybe I can get my director to send a letter.
Which reminds me! I have been muchly enjoying practicing in GP's play The Sound of Music as Captain Von Trapp! I'm still trying to get everyone's names down, but I am loving practicing all of the songs for this play! The girl who is playing Elsa is an amazing singer, all of them are. Thomas (the first Von Trapp) is a great guy to be around too. Keeps himself busy with lots of stuff, and he also gave me some more info on the school on our first day. I'm so excited to get in!
As for fun things I've been doing, I've been organizing a lot of meets with the Music Partiers; it has almost become a weekly thing. When Emma came over to visit, we had a water fight at the park. A couple of weeks ago we performed on the streets at First Friday then watched Jurassic Park II. Last weekend we went to a dance in central point and I got to meet one of Miranda's old-time friends (well, I guess we're not old-timers yet, are we? Well, okay, in less catchy words, she's known this girl for awhile). I can perceive lots of fun we'll have in the future in our shared hobby: board games!
Last night I got to go to Cole and Arren's troop meeting. I love their troop already; I'm excited to get transferred. Fall Encampment is coming up and I'm looking forward to it muchly; I have never been to it before (which is kind of dumb because I've been a scout my entire life!). It's a weekend camp with service projects and competitions and such; should be worth going to. Oh, Cole and Arren are two great musicians I met while working at Camp Makualla; they go to GPHS and I am very excited to see them there too! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!
GAH!!!!!! SOO Excited!
I liked Makualla; I'm looking forward to next year. Anthony Jarvis might be coming along; he will sure make camp a great experience for everybody.
I'm trying to figure out how on earth I will be able to come up with all of the money I will need for Philmont next year; I intend to make it. I guess I can keep working for Brother Davis. Not sure yet; got to talk to my new scoutmaster Mike this afternoon if I have any chance of coming along. Got to get some money!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Final Post
Readers,
I find it time to begin a new chapter of my life, for two reasons:
1. I have a desire to add variety to my life.
2. I have been using an email account different from my blog-email account for months.
I will continue my blogging adventure on a new site. On A Stripling Warrior my writing will not be a trivial ramble of my life experiences (my personal journal gets enough of that!). Instead, I will place a higher emphasis on being a more inspirational/motivational writer. I have been studying many blog posts written by a personal development expert named Steve Pavlina, and I would like to give his style of writing a try. Of course I will continue to write about my life, but it will not be the sole purpose. I want whoever reads my work to have gotten something spiritual and uplifting from spending the time required to look at the blog.
In turning over a new leaf, I bid this white, plain-looking blog farewell. Goodbye.
I find it time to begin a new chapter of my life, for two reasons:
1. I have a desire to add variety to my life.
2. I have been using an email account different from my blog-email account for months.
I will continue my blogging adventure on a new site. On A Stripling Warrior my writing will not be a trivial ramble of my life experiences (my personal journal gets enough of that!). Instead, I will place a higher emphasis on being a more inspirational/motivational writer. I have been studying many blog posts written by a personal development expert named Steve Pavlina, and I would like to give his style of writing a try. Of course I will continue to write about my life, but it will not be the sole purpose. I want whoever reads my work to have gotten something spiritual and uplifting from spending the time required to look at the blog.
In turning over a new leaf, I bid this white, plain-looking blog farewell. Goodbye.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
HAPPY!
Okay blog world, guess what? I'm not going to continue this life-sob-story style of writing anymore! It's all looking at life in the wrong way; there are so many more interesting things to focus on instead.
The past few days have been pretty sweetastic! I've been really cracking down on Biology; it has been so much fun! We got do do virtual frog and squid dissections; it was really great. I can't wait until college when I'll be able to dissect animals and body parts for real!
(this blog post is off of the top of my head, btw)
Okay, so, last Tuesday I went to another track meet. I had a really good time at it! Just did my best with what I had that day; next time I need to prepare much better! I notice I need to be drinking much larger doses of water more frequently throughout the day. Just that alone will give my organs the fluids they need to do their best. Javelin throwing has been coming along great! Coach Standley has been very encouraging and helpful in helping me get the basic techniques down. Next season I am confident that I will be able to actually throw it a good distance! I sometimes wonder about the Romans; in Latin we've been reading a lot about ancient Rome, particularly Caesar. We watched a movie about Cleopatra like, a month ago. The film seemed to be 4 hours long! Okay, so at one point in it, Octavian kills the Egyptian Embassador by throwing a javelin at him after the Roman gave a dramatic speech up on some raised plain. It made me think of this whole track experience that I've been having.
What if we actually used javelins in warfare today? Accuracy would be much more important. What about shot puts? I can imagine Jefferson Jarvis in Roman armor chucking one of those 12-pound balls covered in spikes or something off of the edge of a castle wall at barbarians below. It is just insightful for me to think that activities such as sprinting and distance running and hurdles and long jump and pole vault were also really useful in Roman warfare, but now they are all considered sport today. Well, I suppose the running activities are still important, but now we're so dependent on our technology as compared to the "strength of our own arm".
I noticed today that I am much better at sprinting than I am at distance running. I bet my endurance will improve once my water levels stay at a healthy level. My good buddy Josh has been making some fantastic PRs in his running lately. I've also enjoyed making a ton of other friends-
WAIT, OH YES! I need to tell you about Cabaret! Mwahahahahahaha!
Okay, so, last week on Thursday and Friday, I got to be a part of HVHS's Cabaret. For my performance on the first night I played "Hey There Delilah", and the crowd sang along on the final chorus! I think they enjoyed it. There were a ton of other awesome performances. One boy scout troop did a WW2 skit. "Oh John!" "Is that you, Hans?" *stands up and waves* "Ya!"
Nick did a crazy guitar solo of Wanted Dead or Alive. A number of beautiful young women sang as well.
I love life! I just had to say that just now.
One kid did some crazy beatboxing, and there were a couple of gay skits as well. But Mr. Lawson's act outdid them all. Not only is he the only music teacher in our district, but he is also in charge of the Student Government. Anywho, he and his band played a big pop medley using the B-F#-A#-E chord sequence. It was very funny! When Nick tried to pull of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, the song was put in a ridiculously high key, and you couldn't even comprehend the last line because he was screaming so hard in falsetto to hit the notes. "Da-da-da-da-, AHHHHHHH!"
After Nick's loud interruption, they began the chord sequence again, with Lawson starting "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday-", but as soon as he started to sing the rest of the band members groaned loudly and walked offstage. Then says Lawson as he ran after them, "you guys do this every time! Come on; it's my most favorite song!"
Then he appeared onstage once again with Nick's guitar and smashed it to pieces on the ground! IT WAS AWESOME! He did the same thing the second night too!
(I found out later that he wasn't really smashing poor Nick's guitar; he was using old ones that were obviously being saved up for this annual event in the band room!)
I melted Kaeli's heart while practicing a special tune before the second night's performance. Yessss.
All of this talk on public school makes me want to go there! I feel like I missed out so much at middle school. I'll live, but I am seriously considering ditching Connections and finding a transfer to GPHS, where they have vocal classes and band classes as well as cooking classes and other awesome stuff like that. I'll be looking into that more; see what happens.
Oh, I've got a new scout goal: go to Philmont summer 2012 (It's in New Mexico)! It's a big, gritty 10-day backpack camp through the elements, or at least that's what I've heard it can be. There are lots of things to do at that camp I hear. I'll be going with Troop 24 (a REAL scout troop in town), who will also help me out with fundraisers and etc. to get the funds and preparations for it. I'm so excited! I need to find some real employment soon. Oh, I'm so excited for scout camp this year! GAHHHHHH!!!
I really feel like letting off some steam right now. I want to hang out with a bunch of really hyper singing teens RIGHT NOW.
Oh boy...
There are days when I just want to go and hit something! I want to go back to karate! It was so much fun. I am so darn excited for the great fun in May that Sabrina and I will have at the Baxter's house. They're into taikwondo, and I overread that Sabrina and I will be able to come along with them when they go practice! YAY!
The past few days have been pretty sweetastic! I've been really cracking down on Biology; it has been so much fun! We got do do virtual frog and squid dissections; it was really great. I can't wait until college when I'll be able to dissect animals and body parts for real!
(this blog post is off of the top of my head, btw)
Okay, so, last Tuesday I went to another track meet. I had a really good time at it! Just did my best with what I had that day; next time I need to prepare much better! I notice I need to be drinking much larger doses of water more frequently throughout the day. Just that alone will give my organs the fluids they need to do their best. Javelin throwing has been coming along great! Coach Standley has been very encouraging and helpful in helping me get the basic techniques down. Next season I am confident that I will be able to actually throw it a good distance! I sometimes wonder about the Romans; in Latin we've been reading a lot about ancient Rome, particularly Caesar. We watched a movie about Cleopatra like, a month ago. The film seemed to be 4 hours long! Okay, so at one point in it, Octavian kills the Egyptian Embassador by throwing a javelin at him after the Roman gave a dramatic speech up on some raised plain. It made me think of this whole track experience that I've been having.
What if we actually used javelins in warfare today? Accuracy would be much more important. What about shot puts? I can imagine Jefferson Jarvis in Roman armor chucking one of those 12-pound balls covered in spikes or something off of the edge of a castle wall at barbarians below. It is just insightful for me to think that activities such as sprinting and distance running and hurdles and long jump and pole vault were also really useful in Roman warfare, but now they are all considered sport today. Well, I suppose the running activities are still important, but now we're so dependent on our technology as compared to the "strength of our own arm".
I noticed today that I am much better at sprinting than I am at distance running. I bet my endurance will improve once my water levels stay at a healthy level. My good buddy Josh has been making some fantastic PRs in his running lately. I've also enjoyed making a ton of other friends-
WAIT, OH YES! I need to tell you about Cabaret! Mwahahahahahaha!
Okay, so, last week on Thursday and Friday, I got to be a part of HVHS's Cabaret. For my performance on the first night I played "Hey There Delilah", and the crowd sang along on the final chorus! I think they enjoyed it. There were a ton of other awesome performances. One boy scout troop did a WW2 skit. "Oh John!" "Is that you, Hans?" *stands up and waves* "Ya!"
Nick did a crazy guitar solo of Wanted Dead or Alive. A number of beautiful young women sang as well.
I love life! I just had to say that just now.
One kid did some crazy beatboxing, and there were a couple of gay skits as well. But Mr. Lawson's act outdid them all. Not only is he the only music teacher in our district, but he is also in charge of the Student Government. Anywho, he and his band played a big pop medley using the B-F#-A#-E chord sequence. It was very funny! When Nick tried to pull of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, the song was put in a ridiculously high key, and you couldn't even comprehend the last line because he was screaming so hard in falsetto to hit the notes. "Da-da-da-da-, AHHHHHHH!"
After Nick's loud interruption, they began the chord sequence again, with Lawson starting "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday-", but as soon as he started to sing the rest of the band members groaned loudly and walked offstage. Then says Lawson as he ran after them, "you guys do this every time! Come on; it's my most favorite song!"
Then he appeared onstage once again with Nick's guitar and smashed it to pieces on the ground! IT WAS AWESOME! He did the same thing the second night too!
(I found out later that he wasn't really smashing poor Nick's guitar; he was using old ones that were obviously being saved up for this annual event in the band room!)
I melted Kaeli's heart while practicing a special tune before the second night's performance. Yessss.
All of this talk on public school makes me want to go there! I feel like I missed out so much at middle school. I'll live, but I am seriously considering ditching Connections and finding a transfer to GPHS, where they have vocal classes and band classes as well as cooking classes and other awesome stuff like that. I'll be looking into that more; see what happens.
Oh, I've got a new scout goal: go to Philmont summer 2012 (It's in New Mexico)! It's a big, gritty 10-day backpack camp through the elements, or at least that's what I've heard it can be. There are lots of things to do at that camp I hear. I'll be going with Troop 24 (a REAL scout troop in town), who will also help me out with fundraisers and etc. to get the funds and preparations for it. I'm so excited! I need to find some real employment soon. Oh, I'm so excited for scout camp this year! GAHHHHHH!!!
I really feel like letting off some steam right now. I want to hang out with a bunch of really hyper singing teens RIGHT NOW.
Oh boy...
There are days when I just want to go and hit something! I want to go back to karate! It was so much fun. I am so darn excited for the great fun in May that Sabrina and I will have at the Baxter's house. They're into taikwondo, and I overread that Sabrina and I will be able to come along with them when they go practice! YAY!
Monday, April 18, 2011
What a week
"And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done."
This whole week has been difficult for me. Has life gotten any worse? No, in fact, it's gotten a lot better. There are so many things to look forward to and so many productive things to do. Yet, my state of mind has been in the land of pessimism. Instead of being guided by the spirit, I have been dragged by Satan's angels to feel this way and that way about life; making molehills into mountains and falling apart over the smallest things. I have felt my life has become clouded, and my priorities have become hard to see.
Today's Easter Devotional helped take those clouds away. The beautiful music that was heard throughout it was just what I needed to feel uplifted from my miserable state. I fell into (another) breakdown when my dear friend Austin sang a solo of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". Throughout the week, I have been wondering where God was in my life, and why things had become so difficult, even simple daily work. I have distanced myself from my God, and my family, and it has led me to fall back into depression, Satan laughing at my folly all the way.
There was something about this song that took those clouds of darkness away. Just skim the lyrics:
This whole week has been difficult for me. Has life gotten any worse? No, in fact, it's gotten a lot better. There are so many things to look forward to and so many productive things to do. Yet, my state of mind has been in the land of pessimism. Instead of being guided by the spirit, I have been dragged by Satan's angels to feel this way and that way about life; making molehills into mountains and falling apart over the smallest things. I have felt my life has become clouded, and my priorities have become hard to see.
Today's Easter Devotional helped take those clouds away. The beautiful music that was heard throughout it was just what I needed to feel uplifted from my miserable state. I fell into (another) breakdown when my dear friend Austin sang a solo of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". Throughout the week, I have been wondering where God was in my life, and why things had become so difficult, even simple daily work. I have distanced myself from my God, and my family, and it has led me to fall back into depression, Satan laughing at my folly all the way.
There was something about this song that took those clouds of darkness away. Just skim the lyrics:
I know that my Redeemer lives!
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever living head!
He lives, my ever living head!
He lives to bless me with his love;
He lives to plead for me above;
He lives my hungry soul to feed;
He lives to help in time of need.
He lives to plead for me above;
He lives my hungry soul to feed;
He lives to help in time of need.
He lives to grant me rich supply;
He lives to guide me with his eye;
He lives to comfort me when faint;
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.
He lives to guide me with his eye;
He lives to comfort me when faint;
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly friend;
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King!
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King!
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, all glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same;
Oh sweet, what joy this sentence gives:
I know that my Redeemer lives!
He lives, my Savior, still the same;
Oh sweet, what joy this sentence gives:
I know that my Redeemer lives!
It helped me get the message: He lives! He is there "to help in time of need", "to hear my soul's complaint", "to wipe away my tears", "my mansion to prepare". The heavens have remained silent for me all week, though I've desired guidance from above, I guess I wasn't really listening for it; I was too busy worrying. The spirit fell upon me as I heard this hymn written for me like a tidal wave.
I know that my Redeemer lives. He is there, and will strengthen me throughout the rest of this school year. I can do it! I do not need to focus on my to-do list as much. I should read up Uchdorf's talk about "slowing down" again from last year. Focus instead on listening to the spirit and doing what I know is right. I don't need to be hard on myself for being imperfect, because bashing my head against the wall is not going to make it easier to think, so to speak. If I calm down, put away my weapons of rebellion (again), I know that my Redeemer can guide me to accomplish the goals HE has for me.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Another BIG Blog update
Thursday (3/31)
"I threw my planner in the air today, singing ay-o, gotta let go..." That's how my planning has been for the past few weeks; I think I'm in a stress rut. I've just got to endure to the end here; summer is so much closer, and its all of the fun things we've planned for it that's motivating me to push through. The actual today (4/10) was so uplifting, but first I'll get these journal entries in.
Yesterday grandpa spilled the beans about the Baxters coming over for Conference weekend, but I still didn't know any details about it (until I heard mom talking to Rory on the phone in the other room about seeing me at today's track meet). I was so happy to see them there!
Everyone did well at the meet; I personally saw Jefferson Jarvis make a new PR (and High School record). He let out a scream and hurled the discuss out into the stratosphere; it was mind-numbing to watch him throw 172.something ft today.
After the meet, the Baxters and I went to g-ma and g-pa Seable's house for a delicious dinner and a temple prep class that my grandparents were doing. Tonight's lesson was about the symbolism of the temple; it was very interesting stuff. I'm so excited to go to the temple to do all of the ordinances someday.
After the class I just kind of sat there on the couch staring at Ceana and Kaeli for the next hour or so, mentally tired from the day's events. I stole Jefferson's guitar and we wrote a little song to sing for Sabrina on her birthday. Ceana and I were considering waking up the next morning to make German pancakes during the "magic hour": 4 in the morn! I am fasting today (4/10) that I'll be able to change my habits so that I will be able to wake up that early; I have faith that I can once again become an early-to-bed-early-to-rise guy. I just need to choose the right and be more responsible with my time. Goal of the week!
Friday (4/1)
We woke at 6 instead for early morning seminary; brother Beckstead did a great lesson once again. The lesson was about polygamy, and the reason why our church once practiced it: because God said so. After class Ceana and I got to chat a bit more in the quietness of the church foyer. I gave mom a call after waiting for awhile, and she said to start walking home, and so we did. We were picked up from the road about 10 minutes after we began our walk.
After doing a bit of cleaning, all of the young women in the house had a wonderful day! Sabrina, Ceana, Kaeli, Rory, and my mom went out to lunch with a bunch of Sabrina's friends, and then had a surprise sleepover at Savannah D's house. I was considering an attack on the evening event, but mom didn't think it would be appropriate. The idea was simple; play a guitar under or next to one of Savannah's windows while wearing a monkey mask. Once found by someone, scream and run. I guess I'll have to save that idea for some other occasion.
Ceana was so polite and patient today (as usual); it really touched me. Rory and I convinced her to come to track practice with me. I had some strange fantasy idea that the coaches would allow her, unregistered and all, to practice with us. But it didn't work out as I had hoped, and she had to wait through the whole 2 hours or so of practice. But how did she respond when I came up to apologize? Irritation? No, just kind, calm, reassuring words. "It's okay."
I still have to do something special for her for showcasing her amazing selfless attitude and heart-of-gold on this occasion; what a good example to me!
Saturday (4/2)
General conference, yay! I got to go see the first session at Savannah's house with all the ladies there. It turns out that Cassidy and Allie were able to come to; it was so good to see them!
During the time between sessions, the Baxters, Cassidy, Allie, and my whole fam decided to go to the local pharmacy and get some 25 cent phosphates. Afterwards dad had this urge to quickly stop at our most favorite chocolate store in town and get Sabrina a bite to eat. He gave her money, she ran in, and brought back snickerdoodles to share with the whole bus-load; how thoughtful! They were gone in seconds.
We watched the second session of conference at home, then we went out to the backyard to play on the trampoline and the trees and everything. It was so fun, and Rory got some good pics. Visualizing coach Goodell in my mind, I had the urge to go do that 45 minute run that he told me to do, or else. So I tried to set up a walk for everyone to go on. Well, just to save the reader's brain a lot of trouble, it ended in me "getting lost" and getting late for the priesthood session. Another fantastic idea, Keenan. Planning things like this is a skill that you must develop over time, right? I hope so.
Anyways, when we arrived at the stake center for the priesthood session, whoever was in charge of getting the broadcast set up was having trouble getting the stream from Salt Lake. After 15 minutes after conference started they had it working. Anthony joked that once it would start working again we would see Thomas S. Monson saying, "-and that is everything you need to know to not get burned tomorrow. Over and out."
"FIND THAT TALK ON YOUTUBE!"
Anthony never ceases to crack me up.
It was a good meeting; it was actually a bit more informal than the other ones. Eyering's opening played cleverly on Uchdorf's talk, and President Monson's talk about marriage was just plain funny.
After the conference my father and I drove to grandma's house listening to Voicemail blare loudly from our car speakers and singing along like there's no tomorrow. "THE SPIRIT OF GOD, LIKE A FIRE IS BURNING..." It felt so great, just that time I had with dad in the car. We should sing together more often; it's a hobby I believe we both enjoy.
That night was full of some good board games, specifically Tribond and Heroscape. After playing these, we watched one of Anthony's most favorite movies: What's Up Doc? It was a very confusing film apparently designed to confuse the viewer. It was ridiculous.
Sunday (4/3)
Ah, today was a really good day. But it was also a sad day. Rory, Ceana, Kaeli, Sabrina, and myself got to watch the rest of conference at grandma's house. During the break time we watched this special program about retarded children and adopted children that made Rory and me cry. Grandma made some really yummy food while we were there, and the Baxters got to have a look at grandpa's workshop. On our way back to my house, the girls had a random notion to stop at a couple of signs that they found utterly hilarious to take some pictures: "Idle" and "Drury".
At the house we got to show the Baxters a few parts from the Liken video collection; some of our most favorite songs. Then Ceana and I played a few hymns on the piano together, just stalling to avoid having to leave. But they eventually had to go. We always have such good times every time we get together; I miss the Baxters. I hope I'll be able so see them again soon.
Monday (4/4)
Today was a really good day. Recharged spiritually and emotionally, I was able to do very well in my studies, track practice, and family life. I had better go through the general conference talks often; I could use everyday days like this more often. Excelsior!
Tuesday (4/5)
Today I went on a long bus ride to Klamath Falls for a track meet. Rule of life #3849201: Do NOT sit in the back of the bus.
Wednesday (4/6)
What happened today? I didn't record stuff very well here. Must have been too busy getting mounds of schoolwork done.
Thursday (4/7)
Similar to Wednesday, except today there was that one leadership seminar LL by Ms. Tuerk, which was really cool. Next time we do it the students that have been attending the seminar are going to be doing the whole meeting for a group of people. I love Ms. Tuerk; I would advance to say that she is the best ORCA teacher I've ever had. I am so excited to be in her AP Psychology class next year. GAH! Next year! I feel like singing "One Day More" from Les Mis. It just fills me with joy; next school year is going to be so fun. AP English Literature, Honors Algebra II, AP Biology, and AP Psych! I just want to scream; it's going to be fantastic! And karate; will be doing that too. And I'll find a consistent job, AND I'll be able to drive to it. Mwahahahaha!
I must keep on working, and remember the future is bright. "He gave me hope when hope was gone, He gave me strength to journey on..."
Friday (4/8)
More work, more track, more this and that. Tonight they did commando again, but I decided not to go; I was too tired. I heard that tonight's game of commando was police approved, but I learned otherwise the following morning.
Saturday (4/9)
I woke up this morning and went to a ward service project. We did some cleaning and leaf raking at a local cemetery, and I honestly had a pretty good time there. Haley, who went to commando last night, was prompted to text her aunt to get a ride home early in the night. It was a really good thing that she listened to the Spirit, because the whole thing turned out being pretty bad; she didn't even go into the details. Oh, by the way, Miranda's leg is still injured from the last time we played commando. But today she was feeling good enough to go without crutches.
As I walked past graves throughout the cemetery, I noticed one that caught my eye. It was a newer looking one, and had small statues of children playing around it. The name clearly etched in the marble was Austin Fryer, a name which tugged at my heartstrings and caused me to stop raking for a minute or two in respect. Austin was one of my childhood buddies, one of the best friends I can remember. He died of cancer at age 8, in 2003. I miss him so much, I cried there, looking at his grave.
After the service project, we had an exciting trip to the library. I have not been to the library in a very long time, and just loved being there! I'd like to just live at my local library, and I bet I could too, considering I just do online school. Maybe when I can drive... Anyways, I got a bunch of psychology books directed to teens. One of them, The 7 Best Things Smart Teens Do, has been simply fascinating; it has been really hard to put it down. I even referenced it in my Sunday School lesson today (4/10).
This evening was a ton of fun! Miranda had heard that there was a dance way out in Ashland, and her dad was willing to give rides! And so I was able to make it there thanks to Brother S' kindness. While driving there and back, Miranda and I had fun reading aloud from The 7 Best Things Smart Teens Do. She's a psych fan too; she's just wrapping up Sean Covey's The 6 Most Important Decisions You Will Ever Make. Her dad gave a ton of really interesting insight on what we were reading aloud; it was a really fun car ride for me.
The dance in Ashland was Neon themed, and there were a bunch of glow bracelets and necklaces there for people to just grab. It was a ton of fun! Haley was able to make it there too, and she had a great time. She reminds me so much of my cousin Jessie; it really makes me laugh. She seems a bit... emotional. How do I describe her? Well, we found the skeleton of a deer in the cemetery while cleaning earlier today, and she started crying. Tonight she wouldn't stop freaking out about some cute boy she danced with. Then she asked me if I would get some guy's number. I did, and she wouldn't stop thanking me even the next day in Sunday School. I believe that that young lady is a crazy-hyper ball of energy, poor lass. Love her anyways.
Sunday (4/10)
Today I woke up and realized, "oh no, I was supposed to prepare a lesson in priesthood today!" I had lesson 15: Enduring to the end. I scrambled to make an outline of what I would cover and stuff I would use throughout the morning and on the drive to church. At church, after taking the sacrament, I walked Faidra in the hall throughout testimony meeting. Yes, today is our ward's fast Sunday. In Sunday school we continued to learn about the parables in Matthew; we discussed chapter 14, the one about the wheat and the tares. It was a very insightful lesson for me; there are a lot of different ways you can look at parables. I got to see Fa and Carmen in Sunday school too; they've been up in Portland to celebrate Fa's 16th B-day. Her actual birthday is tomorrow; I had better start writing a song. It should be interesting, because I already just love to use Fa's nickname in scatting anyways.
When it was time for priesthood, after some announcements of more service projects (I love how so many service projects are popping up all over the place now!), it was time for me to give my lesson to two other quorum members: Parker and Bryce. I tried as hard as I could to not follow the lesson and make it a more organic learning experience. Since I spent a lot of time yesterday just studying psych for fun, I included a bit of explaining about emotions that humans feel and that we are different than other animals because we can choose how we act because of a stimulant instead of reacting like an animal. As I talked more about the trials of Joseph Smith and the Pioneers, the more I realized that this talk was really for me. I finished off the lesson bearing my testimony, feeling refreshed and strengthened once again by the message shared. I think the scripture with the most impact to me was D&C 12-
AHAHA!! I just found my old triple combination with all of the stickers and markings and everything; thank you mom!Oh, thank you Heavenly Father!
Anyways, the scripture that really recharged me for today was D&C 122:7-8; read this aloud to yourself: "And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for they good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"
I have been needing this verse for a long time; it was just what I needed for my emotional state. Give me any task and I'll do it, Lord!
Let's do it.
"I threw my planner in the air today, singing ay-o, gotta let go..." That's how my planning has been for the past few weeks; I think I'm in a stress rut. I've just got to endure to the end here; summer is so much closer, and its all of the fun things we've planned for it that's motivating me to push through. The actual today (4/10) was so uplifting, but first I'll get these journal entries in.
Yesterday grandpa spilled the beans about the Baxters coming over for Conference weekend, but I still didn't know any details about it (until I heard mom talking to Rory on the phone in the other room about seeing me at today's track meet). I was so happy to see them there!
Everyone did well at the meet; I personally saw Jefferson Jarvis make a new PR (and High School record). He let out a scream and hurled the discuss out into the stratosphere; it was mind-numbing to watch him throw 172.something ft today.
After the meet, the Baxters and I went to g-ma and g-pa Seable's house for a delicious dinner and a temple prep class that my grandparents were doing. Tonight's lesson was about the symbolism of the temple; it was very interesting stuff. I'm so excited to go to the temple to do all of the ordinances someday.
After the class I just kind of sat there on the couch staring at Ceana and Kaeli for the next hour or so, mentally tired from the day's events. I stole Jefferson's guitar and we wrote a little song to sing for Sabrina on her birthday. Ceana and I were considering waking up the next morning to make German pancakes during the "magic hour": 4 in the morn! I am fasting today (4/10) that I'll be able to change my habits so that I will be able to wake up that early; I have faith that I can once again become an early-to-bed-early-to-rise guy. I just need to choose the right and be more responsible with my time. Goal of the week!
Friday (4/1)
We woke at 6 instead for early morning seminary; brother Beckstead did a great lesson once again. The lesson was about polygamy, and the reason why our church once practiced it: because God said so. After class Ceana and I got to chat a bit more in the quietness of the church foyer. I gave mom a call after waiting for awhile, and she said to start walking home, and so we did. We were picked up from the road about 10 minutes after we began our walk.
After doing a bit of cleaning, all of the young women in the house had a wonderful day! Sabrina, Ceana, Kaeli, Rory, and my mom went out to lunch with a bunch of Sabrina's friends, and then had a surprise sleepover at Savannah D's house. I was considering an attack on the evening event, but mom didn't think it would be appropriate. The idea was simple; play a guitar under or next to one of Savannah's windows while wearing a monkey mask. Once found by someone, scream and run. I guess I'll have to save that idea for some other occasion.
Ceana was so polite and patient today (as usual); it really touched me. Rory and I convinced her to come to track practice with me. I had some strange fantasy idea that the coaches would allow her, unregistered and all, to practice with us. But it didn't work out as I had hoped, and she had to wait through the whole 2 hours or so of practice. But how did she respond when I came up to apologize? Irritation? No, just kind, calm, reassuring words. "It's okay."
I still have to do something special for her for showcasing her amazing selfless attitude and heart-of-gold on this occasion; what a good example to me!
Saturday (4/2)
General conference, yay! I got to go see the first session at Savannah's house with all the ladies there. It turns out that Cassidy and Allie were able to come to; it was so good to see them!
During the time between sessions, the Baxters, Cassidy, Allie, and my whole fam decided to go to the local pharmacy and get some 25 cent phosphates. Afterwards dad had this urge to quickly stop at our most favorite chocolate store in town and get Sabrina a bite to eat. He gave her money, she ran in, and brought back snickerdoodles to share with the whole bus-load; how thoughtful! They were gone in seconds.
We watched the second session of conference at home, then we went out to the backyard to play on the trampoline and the trees and everything. It was so fun, and Rory got some good pics. Visualizing coach Goodell in my mind, I had the urge to go do that 45 minute run that he told me to do, or else. So I tried to set up a walk for everyone to go on. Well, just to save the reader's brain a lot of trouble, it ended in me "getting lost" and getting late for the priesthood session. Another fantastic idea, Keenan. Planning things like this is a skill that you must develop over time, right? I hope so.
Anyways, when we arrived at the stake center for the priesthood session, whoever was in charge of getting the broadcast set up was having trouble getting the stream from Salt Lake. After 15 minutes after conference started they had it working. Anthony joked that once it would start working again we would see Thomas S. Monson saying, "-and that is everything you need to know to not get burned tomorrow. Over and out."
"FIND THAT TALK ON YOUTUBE!"
Anthony never ceases to crack me up.
It was a good meeting; it was actually a bit more informal than the other ones. Eyering's opening played cleverly on Uchdorf's talk, and President Monson's talk about marriage was just plain funny.
After the conference my father and I drove to grandma's house listening to Voicemail blare loudly from our car speakers and singing along like there's no tomorrow. "THE SPIRIT OF GOD, LIKE A FIRE IS BURNING..." It felt so great, just that time I had with dad in the car. We should sing together more often; it's a hobby I believe we both enjoy.
That night was full of some good board games, specifically Tribond and Heroscape. After playing these, we watched one of Anthony's most favorite movies: What's Up Doc? It was a very confusing film apparently designed to confuse the viewer. It was ridiculous.
Sunday (4/3)
Ah, today was a really good day. But it was also a sad day. Rory, Ceana, Kaeli, Sabrina, and myself got to watch the rest of conference at grandma's house. During the break time we watched this special program about retarded children and adopted children that made Rory and me cry. Grandma made some really yummy food while we were there, and the Baxters got to have a look at grandpa's workshop. On our way back to my house, the girls had a random notion to stop at a couple of signs that they found utterly hilarious to take some pictures: "Idle" and "Drury".
At the house we got to show the Baxters a few parts from the Liken video collection; some of our most favorite songs. Then Ceana and I played a few hymns on the piano together, just stalling to avoid having to leave. But they eventually had to go. We always have such good times every time we get together; I miss the Baxters. I hope I'll be able so see them again soon.
Monday (4/4)
Today was a really good day. Recharged spiritually and emotionally, I was able to do very well in my studies, track practice, and family life. I had better go through the general conference talks often; I could use everyday days like this more often. Excelsior!
Tuesday (4/5)
Today I went on a long bus ride to Klamath Falls for a track meet. Rule of life #3849201: Do NOT sit in the back of the bus.
Wednesday (4/6)
What happened today? I didn't record stuff very well here. Must have been too busy getting mounds of schoolwork done.
Thursday (4/7)
Similar to Wednesday, except today there was that one leadership seminar LL by Ms. Tuerk, which was really cool. Next time we do it the students that have been attending the seminar are going to be doing the whole meeting for a group of people. I love Ms. Tuerk; I would advance to say that she is the best ORCA teacher I've ever had. I am so excited to be in her AP Psychology class next year. GAH! Next year! I feel like singing "One Day More" from Les Mis. It just fills me with joy; next school year is going to be so fun. AP English Literature, Honors Algebra II, AP Biology, and AP Psych! I just want to scream; it's going to be fantastic! And karate; will be doing that too. And I'll find a consistent job, AND I'll be able to drive to it. Mwahahahaha!
I must keep on working, and remember the future is bright. "He gave me hope when hope was gone, He gave me strength to journey on..."
Friday (4/8)
More work, more track, more this and that. Tonight they did commando again, but I decided not to go; I was too tired. I heard that tonight's game of commando was police approved, but I learned otherwise the following morning.
Saturday (4/9)
I woke up this morning and went to a ward service project. We did some cleaning and leaf raking at a local cemetery, and I honestly had a pretty good time there. Haley, who went to commando last night, was prompted to text her aunt to get a ride home early in the night. It was a really good thing that she listened to the Spirit, because the whole thing turned out being pretty bad; she didn't even go into the details. Oh, by the way, Miranda's leg is still injured from the last time we played commando. But today she was feeling good enough to go without crutches.
As I walked past graves throughout the cemetery, I noticed one that caught my eye. It was a newer looking one, and had small statues of children playing around it. The name clearly etched in the marble was Austin Fryer, a name which tugged at my heartstrings and caused me to stop raking for a minute or two in respect. Austin was one of my childhood buddies, one of the best friends I can remember. He died of cancer at age 8, in 2003. I miss him so much, I cried there, looking at his grave.
After the service project, we had an exciting trip to the library. I have not been to the library in a very long time, and just loved being there! I'd like to just live at my local library, and I bet I could too, considering I just do online school. Maybe when I can drive... Anyways, I got a bunch of psychology books directed to teens. One of them, The 7 Best Things Smart Teens Do, has been simply fascinating; it has been really hard to put it down. I even referenced it in my Sunday School lesson today (4/10).
This evening was a ton of fun! Miranda had heard that there was a dance way out in Ashland, and her dad was willing to give rides! And so I was able to make it there thanks to Brother S' kindness. While driving there and back, Miranda and I had fun reading aloud from The 7 Best Things Smart Teens Do. She's a psych fan too; she's just wrapping up Sean Covey's The 6 Most Important Decisions You Will Ever Make. Her dad gave a ton of really interesting insight on what we were reading aloud; it was a really fun car ride for me.
The dance in Ashland was Neon themed, and there were a bunch of glow bracelets and necklaces there for people to just grab. It was a ton of fun! Haley was able to make it there too, and she had a great time. She reminds me so much of my cousin Jessie; it really makes me laugh. She seems a bit... emotional. How do I describe her? Well, we found the skeleton of a deer in the cemetery while cleaning earlier today, and she started crying. Tonight she wouldn't stop freaking out about some cute boy she danced with. Then she asked me if I would get some guy's number. I did, and she wouldn't stop thanking me even the next day in Sunday School. I believe that that young lady is a crazy-hyper ball of energy, poor lass. Love her anyways.
Sunday (4/10)
Today I woke up and realized, "oh no, I was supposed to prepare a lesson in priesthood today!" I had lesson 15: Enduring to the end. I scrambled to make an outline of what I would cover and stuff I would use throughout the morning and on the drive to church. At church, after taking the sacrament, I walked Faidra in the hall throughout testimony meeting. Yes, today is our ward's fast Sunday. In Sunday school we continued to learn about the parables in Matthew; we discussed chapter 14, the one about the wheat and the tares. It was a very insightful lesson for me; there are a lot of different ways you can look at parables. I got to see Fa and Carmen in Sunday school too; they've been up in Portland to celebrate Fa's 16th B-day. Her actual birthday is tomorrow; I had better start writing a song. It should be interesting, because I already just love to use Fa's nickname in scatting anyways.
When it was time for priesthood, after some announcements of more service projects (I love how so many service projects are popping up all over the place now!), it was time for me to give my lesson to two other quorum members: Parker and Bryce. I tried as hard as I could to not follow the lesson and make it a more organic learning experience. Since I spent a lot of time yesterday just studying psych for fun, I included a bit of explaining about emotions that humans feel and that we are different than other animals because we can choose how we act because of a stimulant instead of reacting like an animal. As I talked more about the trials of Joseph Smith and the Pioneers, the more I realized that this talk was really for me. I finished off the lesson bearing my testimony, feeling refreshed and strengthened once again by the message shared. I think the scripture with the most impact to me was D&C 12-
AHAHA!! I just found my old triple combination with all of the stickers and markings and everything; thank you mom!Oh, thank you Heavenly Father!
Anyways, the scripture that really recharged me for today was D&C 122:7-8; read this aloud to yourself: "And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for they good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"
I have been needing this verse for a long time; it was just what I needed for my emotional state. Give me any task and I'll do it, Lord!
Let's do it.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Epic Spring Break
This was a crazy spring break. It was supposed to be a super catch up week for school work, but I allowed other things to get in the way. Don't get me wrong; I got some work done. I just didn't get %100 all caught up. This next going to be so good; I'm so excited to have these lessons done. Anyways, let me tell you of my springtime adventures.
3/21 (Monday)
I woke up at grandpa Seable's house. Dad left me there while I was talking to Ceana via cell phone in g-ma's back room. I guess he heard me mention that I wanted to stay for the night in some of the conversation and just decided to go. This morning I spent some good quiet time doing schoolwork on g-ma's laptop. I love being able to take school everywhere. Then again, I suppose I can never escape, can I?
I also got to spend some time with my cousins, of course. The Jarvis family decided to go to a local museum today, and I decided to tag along. As it turned out, the museum was closed, and so we went to the local pharmacy for 25 cent phosphates instead. I got some wonderful humble-time walking around in public wearing grandpa's oversized sweats and itchy sweater; it was fun playing hobo for the day. All the same, it was nice when dad dropped off my track clothing for the afternoon.
That's right; an athlete never rests, not even for spring break. There was a skeletal number of the team there today; most of them were off traveling. But we had practice just like any other day.
This evening for family night we got to watch The Secret on Netflix. Whoever thought up this idea made it sound really epic and intense and whatnot. A lady puts together a group of authors, psychologists, and visionaries and they explain the "law of attraction". In other words, they put the concepts of faith and hope into a fancy-smanshy-science-y documentary. It was very very interesting. As it turns out, you attract everything and everyone around you via thoughts, whether you realize it or not. You can have anything you want if you just focus on it and eliminate all negative thoughts concerning it. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you..."
For example, if you hope that, "I don't want to be late", you are thinking negatively. You will most likely be late. Whereas is you think "I am on time" as you're waiting in that traffic line, your chances for being on time will dramatically increase only because you are thinking positively! It works, ask Einstein! Or Lincoln, or Beethoven, or Buddha, or Rockefeller... fun psych, indeed.
3/22 (Tuesday)
Today was meant to be another work day, only I got an employment opportunity by noon so I had to cut my quality school time short. The Harmons in our ward are killing, felling, and chopping up some trees on some property they just bought so they can have room on it for the new house they are building out in the woods. I got to come and help for ten bucks an hour. I think that their spot is nice, but it seems rather lonely. I guess no one will be bothering them out there, but I feel like when I'm looking for a place to live, I'm going to find a more social environment. I wonder if there is some way you can get a bomb permit that you could use to level ground and blow away trees on your property; that would save a lot of time for projects like this. I bet Brother Dauge has one or two we could use next time we eradicate trees.
3/23 (Wednesday)
I got a good bit of school done today + a special surprise. Tiernan H, a wonderful classmate of mine from Portland, happened to be down here for Ashland's Shakespeare Festival this week with her grandma. Allie, of course, had to plan a get together. So she called me up a couple of days before and badda bing= we got to spend the morning visiting, listening to music, and playing music at Allie's house. We even got to pester Jacob O on the phone, which led to some pretty interesting conversations. Tiernan is such a character.
This afternoon my father and I went to the cannery in Medford to get our family's food storage all re-stocked. I am so glad we did, but now my room is filled with boxes and cans. Where are we going to put all of this stuff?
3/24 (Thursday)
Today I finally finished the rough draft for the speech I have to do for next week for Government. Nothing else too exciting, other than track and piano lesson. Patience with self is a virtue.
3/25 (Friday) COMMANDO!
That's right, today I got to play commando. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
This afternoon I got to go to the park to spend some time with the music group again. As it turned out, only the faithful Miranda and the diligent Jessie came. So we didn't have enough people for a band once again, but we got to play music and chat all the same. We'll get the whole group together one of these days, just you wait! After playing at the park for a bit we went to Miranda's house to hang out. While over there we played some pretty intense rounds of chess. As I was challenging Miranda's mom to a game of chess, I explained Education Week to her as an alternative to the now $400+ priced EFY. Both she and Miranda sounded excited about it; I hope she'll be able to come along with us this year!
Later that afternoon, Sister S was informed about a Commando game going on in town tonight. She was told that a group of LDS people decided to put it together, and that Miranda, Jessie, and I were invited. I had never heard of Commando before, but this is what I was told: You start at one point on foot, and then you have to get to another point without getting caught by other players looking for you in cars.
So Jessie and I called our moms to ask for permission. Jessie's mom said no, but mine said yes. And so, at 9 that night, Miranda and I went out to join 40-50 teenagers in this exiting game, beginning at the Denny's on the other side of the town. The end of the commando course was the All Sports Park, right on the opposite side of town. It turned out that it was organized by an LDS kid, but he invited a majority of non-LDS kids. There was smoking and foul language galore. Even a couple of police men showed up, just to see what we were all up to waiting in the parking lot. They told us that Denny's was complaining about us being there, and so we all moved to a different parking lot: McDonalds. It took the leader of the group (I believe his name was Thomas) awhile to find enough kids who wanted to be the drivers and spotters for the drivers. The most memorable line I remember hearing him say was, "EVERYBODY SETTLE DOWN. You haven't done anything illegal. Yet." (You're not allowed to run through private property in the game, but I remember hearing Noah had other plans...)
Once we had everything ready someone shouted "go" and the pack dispersed in seconds. It was kind of fun just sprinting and sprinting through the cool night, running and jumping over walls, and actually using the stamina I've been accumulating in distance running for something new. I looked over my shoulder a bit after jumping off of a tall ledge onto parking lot, spotting Miranda. She looked like she had injured herself jumping off of the wall, so I just had to run back and see what was the matter. She rolled her ankle, and was not able to run for the rest of the night. And so we hobbled along for a few more minutes and were caught; I couldn't just leave her there. We were caught at an intersection still in the downtown area, on 5th street I believe. The driver that caught us (Jordan F) flashed his lights and honked the horn while his spotter Noah yelled at us out the window.We piled into the back, and zoom: their search continued. Jordan was driving way to fast in town that night, stopping and turning sharply and abruptly, looking for kids on the run in the night. We found a lot of hobos walking around in the dark. Miranda and I were considering dressing as hobos for this occasion to make avoiding spotters easier, but we ended up using dark clothing instead.
Jordan dropped us off at the All Sports Park, where we waited for the rest of the pack to get there or be captured and taken there. The leader and his small team of 3 made it there first without being caught, and the rest of them were either dragged in or ran into the center of the park victorious. While we were waiting for everyone to come along, we decided to scare people in the dark. We saw two silhouettes in the dark moving towards us from a long distance, so we hid behind a bush, waiting for them to come along. At the right moment, we yelled "RAR!!" and scared two young adult men riding bikes in the middle of the night. The first one freaked out, and then said the F word more than any other person I have ever heard in my life, then raised his hand, as if to strike, but turned out to be a high five. He complimented us for scaring them, then we tried to explain what we were doing out in the park in the middle of the night. Then the capped, foul mouthed man mentioned, just before he was about to leave again, that he would have punched me in the face if Miranda wasn't there. Someone must be watching out for me.
The second couple I scared (Miranda had to go sit down) was two of the commando players, Matt and Sarah. I yelled, he looked surprised, she screamed, ka-ching.
Sooner or later everyone showed up at around 10:15. Some of the drivers and runners were acting pretty rowdy and dangerous; I am so grateful that none of them got hurt riding on top of speeding cars in the park or throwing bananas (that's right, bananas.) at each other like knives.
They were going to have a second round past curfew, but Miranda and I decided to pass it up. She called her mom, she came, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. I am SO grateful that we got out of that safely; my mom's prayers worked. I don't believe I will be playing commando with that group again. BUT, I think I'll have to use it in a more legal setting for group dates in the future.
When I got home, the kids were excited to show me a surprise. They showed me to the little girl's pink room, and there I found my desk, my bed, Henry's bed, my drawer, my guitar...
I'm so happy; I have a pink room! It's cozier than our family's storage room, that's for sure. The little girls had their beds moved to the classroom. I think I'll be able to work in hear more comfortably; I'm so grateful for such a thoughtful mom.
3/26 (Saturday)
Today I slept in; I fell ill. I felt too tired to do any school, but I was able to help a bit with the cleanup work the family was doing today.
Haley had her 16th birthday party today; that was fun. They did a Twilight trivia, which I knew all about; I read Nightlight, so I knew all of the right answers to the questions. There was food and cake and Haley's most favorite music. Ah, and Savannah F was able to make it there; I haven't seen her in months! It was so good to see her again; it brings such joy to my heart. I miss my seminary friends from town. Candice ("The cowgirl dancer from that talent show a few years ago?" "Oh yeah, that one!") was also there.
3/27 (Sunday)
I am feeling really tired today. But I'm going to just ignore that fact and pretend I'm totally energized this week. In sacrament meeting today Sister Black gave a really good talk about putting Christ first. She mentioned using the Attributes of Christ in the Preach My Gospel book for self improvement, which I remember doing last year. I think I'm going to try that again. The Christ like attribute of the week is Charity, I will be working on this one and studying it all week long and then record how my behavior improves. This is going to be so helpful for me. I love Sister Black!
Parker gave a really good lesson about forgiveness in Priesthood today.
That's pretty much it for this week; now remember the Secret! "I will be able to accomplish my set tasks in all of my responsibilities this week easily!"
3/21 (Monday)
I woke up at grandpa Seable's house. Dad left me there while I was talking to Ceana via cell phone in g-ma's back room. I guess he heard me mention that I wanted to stay for the night in some of the conversation and just decided to go. This morning I spent some good quiet time doing schoolwork on g-ma's laptop. I love being able to take school everywhere. Then again, I suppose I can never escape, can I?
I also got to spend some time with my cousins, of course. The Jarvis family decided to go to a local museum today, and I decided to tag along. As it turned out, the museum was closed, and so we went to the local pharmacy for 25 cent phosphates instead. I got some wonderful humble-time walking around in public wearing grandpa's oversized sweats and itchy sweater; it was fun playing hobo for the day. All the same, it was nice when dad dropped off my track clothing for the afternoon.
That's right; an athlete never rests, not even for spring break. There was a skeletal number of the team there today; most of them were off traveling. But we had practice just like any other day.
This evening for family night we got to watch The Secret on Netflix. Whoever thought up this idea made it sound really epic and intense and whatnot. A lady puts together a group of authors, psychologists, and visionaries and they explain the "law of attraction". In other words, they put the concepts of faith and hope into a fancy-smanshy-science-y documentary. It was very very interesting. As it turns out, you attract everything and everyone around you via thoughts, whether you realize it or not. You can have anything you want if you just focus on it and eliminate all negative thoughts concerning it. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you..."
For example, if you hope that, "I don't want to be late", you are thinking negatively. You will most likely be late. Whereas is you think "I am on time" as you're waiting in that traffic line, your chances for being on time will dramatically increase only because you are thinking positively! It works, ask Einstein! Or Lincoln, or Beethoven, or Buddha, or Rockefeller... fun psych, indeed.
3/22 (Tuesday)
Today was meant to be another work day, only I got an employment opportunity by noon so I had to cut my quality school time short. The Harmons in our ward are killing, felling, and chopping up some trees on some property they just bought so they can have room on it for the new house they are building out in the woods. I got to come and help for ten bucks an hour. I think that their spot is nice, but it seems rather lonely. I guess no one will be bothering them out there, but I feel like when I'm looking for a place to live, I'm going to find a more social environment. I wonder if there is some way you can get a bomb permit that you could use to level ground and blow away trees on your property; that would save a lot of time for projects like this. I bet Brother Dauge has one or two we could use next time we eradicate trees.
3/23 (Wednesday)
I got a good bit of school done today + a special surprise. Tiernan H, a wonderful classmate of mine from Portland, happened to be down here for Ashland's Shakespeare Festival this week with her grandma. Allie, of course, had to plan a get together. So she called me up a couple of days before and badda bing= we got to spend the morning visiting, listening to music, and playing music at Allie's house. We even got to pester Jacob O on the phone, which led to some pretty interesting conversations. Tiernan is such a character.
This afternoon my father and I went to the cannery in Medford to get our family's food storage all re-stocked. I am so glad we did, but now my room is filled with boxes and cans. Where are we going to put all of this stuff?
3/24 (Thursday)
Today I finally finished the rough draft for the speech I have to do for next week for Government. Nothing else too exciting, other than track and piano lesson. Patience with self is a virtue.
3/25 (Friday) COMMANDO!
That's right, today I got to play commando. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
This afternoon I got to go to the park to spend some time with the music group again. As it turned out, only the faithful Miranda and the diligent Jessie came. So we didn't have enough people for a band once again, but we got to play music and chat all the same. We'll get the whole group together one of these days, just you wait! After playing at the park for a bit we went to Miranda's house to hang out. While over there we played some pretty intense rounds of chess. As I was challenging Miranda's mom to a game of chess, I explained Education Week to her as an alternative to the now $400+ priced EFY. Both she and Miranda sounded excited about it; I hope she'll be able to come along with us this year!
Later that afternoon, Sister S was informed about a Commando game going on in town tonight. She was told that a group of LDS people decided to put it together, and that Miranda, Jessie, and I were invited. I had never heard of Commando before, but this is what I was told: You start at one point on foot, and then you have to get to another point without getting caught by other players looking for you in cars.
So Jessie and I called our moms to ask for permission. Jessie's mom said no, but mine said yes. And so, at 9 that night, Miranda and I went out to join 40-50 teenagers in this exiting game, beginning at the Denny's on the other side of the town. The end of the commando course was the All Sports Park, right on the opposite side of town. It turned out that it was organized by an LDS kid, but he invited a majority of non-LDS kids. There was smoking and foul language galore. Even a couple of police men showed up, just to see what we were all up to waiting in the parking lot. They told us that Denny's was complaining about us being there, and so we all moved to a different parking lot: McDonalds. It took the leader of the group (I believe his name was Thomas) awhile to find enough kids who wanted to be the drivers and spotters for the drivers. The most memorable line I remember hearing him say was, "EVERYBODY SETTLE DOWN. You haven't done anything illegal. Yet." (You're not allowed to run through private property in the game, but I remember hearing Noah had other plans...)
Once we had everything ready someone shouted "go" and the pack dispersed in seconds. It was kind of fun just sprinting and sprinting through the cool night, running and jumping over walls, and actually using the stamina I've been accumulating in distance running for something new. I looked over my shoulder a bit after jumping off of a tall ledge onto parking lot, spotting Miranda. She looked like she had injured herself jumping off of the wall, so I just had to run back and see what was the matter. She rolled her ankle, and was not able to run for the rest of the night. And so we hobbled along for a few more minutes and were caught; I couldn't just leave her there. We were caught at an intersection still in the downtown area, on 5th street I believe. The driver that caught us (Jordan F) flashed his lights and honked the horn while his spotter Noah yelled at us out the window.We piled into the back, and zoom: their search continued. Jordan was driving way to fast in town that night, stopping and turning sharply and abruptly, looking for kids on the run in the night. We found a lot of hobos walking around in the dark. Miranda and I were considering dressing as hobos for this occasion to make avoiding spotters easier, but we ended up using dark clothing instead.
Jordan dropped us off at the All Sports Park, where we waited for the rest of the pack to get there or be captured and taken there. The leader and his small team of 3 made it there first without being caught, and the rest of them were either dragged in or ran into the center of the park victorious. While we were waiting for everyone to come along, we decided to scare people in the dark. We saw two silhouettes in the dark moving towards us from a long distance, so we hid behind a bush, waiting for them to come along. At the right moment, we yelled "RAR!!" and scared two young adult men riding bikes in the middle of the night. The first one freaked out, and then said the F word more than any other person I have ever heard in my life, then raised his hand, as if to strike, but turned out to be a high five. He complimented us for scaring them, then we tried to explain what we were doing out in the park in the middle of the night. Then the capped, foul mouthed man mentioned, just before he was about to leave again, that he would have punched me in the face if Miranda wasn't there. Someone must be watching out for me.
The second couple I scared (Miranda had to go sit down) was two of the commando players, Matt and Sarah. I yelled, he looked surprised, she screamed, ka-ching.
Sooner or later everyone showed up at around 10:15. Some of the drivers and runners were acting pretty rowdy and dangerous; I am so grateful that none of them got hurt riding on top of speeding cars in the park or throwing bananas (that's right, bananas.) at each other like knives.
They were going to have a second round past curfew, but Miranda and I decided to pass it up. She called her mom, she came, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. I am SO grateful that we got out of that safely; my mom's prayers worked. I don't believe I will be playing commando with that group again. BUT, I think I'll have to use it in a more legal setting for group dates in the future.
When I got home, the kids were excited to show me a surprise. They showed me to the little girl's pink room, and there I found my desk, my bed, Henry's bed, my drawer, my guitar...
I'm so happy; I have a pink room! It's cozier than our family's storage room, that's for sure. The little girls had their beds moved to the classroom. I think I'll be able to work in hear more comfortably; I'm so grateful for such a thoughtful mom.
3/26 (Saturday)
Today I slept in; I fell ill. I felt too tired to do any school, but I was able to help a bit with the cleanup work the family was doing today.
Haley had her 16th birthday party today; that was fun. They did a Twilight trivia, which I knew all about; I read Nightlight, so I knew all of the right answers to the questions. There was food and cake and Haley's most favorite music. Ah, and Savannah F was able to make it there; I haven't seen her in months! It was so good to see her again; it brings such joy to my heart. I miss my seminary friends from town. Candice ("The cowgirl dancer from that talent show a few years ago?" "Oh yeah, that one!") was also there.
3/27 (Sunday)
I am feeling really tired today. But I'm going to just ignore that fact and pretend I'm totally energized this week. In sacrament meeting today Sister Black gave a really good talk about putting Christ first. She mentioned using the Attributes of Christ in the Preach My Gospel book for self improvement, which I remember doing last year. I think I'm going to try that again. The Christ like attribute of the week is Charity, I will be working on this one and studying it all week long and then record how my behavior improves. This is going to be so helpful for me. I love Sister Black!
Parker gave a really good lesson about forgiveness in Priesthood today.
That's pretty much it for this week; now remember the Secret! "I will be able to accomplish my set tasks in all of my responsibilities this week easily!"
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Can't Stop Smiling
I feel really really happy right now. This coming Spring Break is going to be the BOMB: School catch up! It will feel so good to finally be back on track; I'm so excited! Alright, here's the summary for last week.
3/14 (Monday)
I've been using a lot of my schoolwork time lately for two main projects which I have mentioned before: the Mark Twain Writing Style essay and the pro-Virtual School Speech. Doing this plus all of the other things I have on the list (track, scripture study, household chores, breaktime/socializing, piano, guitar, Eagle Project, etc...) has left me very little time for all of my other school assignments. But that's what Spring Break is for for me; to make up for all of that.
Tonight I had the privilege of seeing Haley Peters perform at the Treble Festival at South Medford High School. It's an annual event that is more or less a bunch of teenage women choirs performing all evening long. I got a ride there from Haley's grandparents. SMHS is a VERY new school; it just opened up this year. It looks more like a college, including huge green fields, expensive and fancy looking architecture, and a seriously jacked up choir room. It was amazing.
While looking for the choir room in the huge building, I happened to run into one of my friends from youth conference from last year: Christie Hunt! It was great to see her friendly face once again. Apparently she's giving track a try this year too; she's starting up with javelin throwing. The knowledge I obtained that she would be at the Central Point dance this coming Saturday solidified my intentions: I MUST find a ride!
The choirs mostly did okay, yet quite a few of the members seemed rather sloppy. Haley's grandpa is quite a singer himself; he treated us to his super-western-flavored "You Are My Sunshine" solo on the ride home.
3/15 (Tuesday)
Today I did a lot of future-research. More stuff about colleges and resume building and things like that, partially for my SAT Prep class. I got to do a bit more research/drafting on the Twain project as well. Today is our piano lesson day; I've been slacking in my piano study lately, I admit. I can and will be a better pianist! Even though I accomplished most of the things on my list today, I still was feeling a bit down on myself because I didn't accomplish ALL of the things on my list, when I feel like I could have. Tonight's temple trip helped me get out of my perfectionism again (it's one of those addictions that I have to overcome by relying on the Savior and having faith that I will be delivered from it. I guess all addictive behavior/bad habits/compulsive behavior is like that.)
At the temple tonight, I made sure I brought my notebook. Never go to the temple without a notebook; there is so much personal revelation that you can receive there that you may forget about (especially if you have a mind like mine). The information that I felt prompted to write down is going to be of great use to me as I try and plan out these next few weeks. I testify to whoever is reading this that God DOES hear your prayers, and will answer them if you listen for His answers.
3/16 (Wednesday)
Today I tried a new planning method suggested by Anthony. He said that I should try not only making a well prioritized list, but also to try to set them into my day time (example: 9-10 is for Government, 10-11 is for Geometry, etc.) And that seemed to work pretty well for me this morning.
Today was my very first track meet. It wasn't anything official, it was just a "practice" one we were doing with Rouge River to see what levels of strength we are all at in our different events. I've been loving track so far; it's been such hard work! Something good ought to come from all of this running. Today I only did the 800m run, and I was able to keep up with Annie (Ms. Super Runner) the whole race, and finished it off pretty well for a first timer! I'm excited to see how well I can beat my last time in our next meet. but I hope to be able to do the relay race and javelin throwing at our next meet. I think it'd be fun to give pole vault a try. At least just once; that looks way too fun to pass up.
3/17 (Thursday)
Today was ORCA Cares Day! I got to meet a bunch of students from around here, and Cassidy's family showed up too. We did some path restoration on one of my most favorite parks in town. There were a bunch of little kids there, but each of them were very enthusiastic about helping. It was so cute to see their little arms lifting adult-sized shovels to try to put a bit of the bark into wheelbarrows. Very precious. Watching children work brings such joy to my heart.
After track today I took a long nap. My body is feeling a bit fatigued.
3/18 (Friday)
Another school day and track.
3/19 (Saturday)
Today we drove around begging for donations from various businesses. We were able to get estimates for the prices for everything in my project, and everything is coming along very nicely. The most urgent thing I need to do now is find a lot of volunteers for the day-long car wash fundraiser that we're doing next Saturday. I'm very excited to get this done so I can start really focusing on school again.
There was a dance in Central Point tonight, which I went to. Noah S, Jaden P, and Jared P carpooled with my father and me while also helping pay for gas. It was a wonderful dance. They played a lot of fun music, and I got to dance with a lot of beautiful women; what could be better? And guess what? The Jarvis brothers showed up this time! They did a basketball tournament today and were pretty beat, but I guess they decided to come anyway last minute. T'was good to see them there! And yes, Christie was there, but she was a bit late. There were some really crazy dancers at that dance, it was so fun!
3/20 (Sunday)
Good Sunday. Got to spend some time at the Wright's house for some quiet time and helping Carmen with a bit of songwriting. There was a family fireside tonight held by gma and gpa about geneology. I got to learn some great things about our heritage. There are so many inspiring things to learn from the past.
3/14 (Monday)
I've been using a lot of my schoolwork time lately for two main projects which I have mentioned before: the Mark Twain Writing Style essay and the pro-Virtual School Speech. Doing this plus all of the other things I have on the list (track, scripture study, household chores, breaktime/socializing, piano, guitar, Eagle Project, etc...) has left me very little time for all of my other school assignments. But that's what Spring Break is for for me; to make up for all of that.
Tonight I had the privilege of seeing Haley Peters perform at the Treble Festival at South Medford High School. It's an annual event that is more or less a bunch of teenage women choirs performing all evening long. I got a ride there from Haley's grandparents. SMHS is a VERY new school; it just opened up this year. It looks more like a college, including huge green fields, expensive and fancy looking architecture, and a seriously jacked up choir room. It was amazing.
While looking for the choir room in the huge building, I happened to run into one of my friends from youth conference from last year: Christie Hunt! It was great to see her friendly face once again. Apparently she's giving track a try this year too; she's starting up with javelin throwing. The knowledge I obtained that she would be at the Central Point dance this coming Saturday solidified my intentions: I MUST find a ride!
The choirs mostly did okay, yet quite a few of the members seemed rather sloppy. Haley's grandpa is quite a singer himself; he treated us to his super-western-flavored "You Are My Sunshine" solo on the ride home.
3/15 (Tuesday)
Today I did a lot of future-research. More stuff about colleges and resume building and things like that, partially for my SAT Prep class. I got to do a bit more research/drafting on the Twain project as well. Today is our piano lesson day; I've been slacking in my piano study lately, I admit. I can and will be a better pianist! Even though I accomplished most of the things on my list today, I still was feeling a bit down on myself because I didn't accomplish ALL of the things on my list, when I feel like I could have. Tonight's temple trip helped me get out of my perfectionism again (it's one of those addictions that I have to overcome by relying on the Savior and having faith that I will be delivered from it. I guess all addictive behavior/bad habits/compulsive behavior is like that.)
At the temple tonight, I made sure I brought my notebook. Never go to the temple without a notebook; there is so much personal revelation that you can receive there that you may forget about (especially if you have a mind like mine). The information that I felt prompted to write down is going to be of great use to me as I try and plan out these next few weeks. I testify to whoever is reading this that God DOES hear your prayers, and will answer them if you listen for His answers.
3/16 (Wednesday)
Today I tried a new planning method suggested by Anthony. He said that I should try not only making a well prioritized list, but also to try to set them into my day time (example: 9-10 is for Government, 10-11 is for Geometry, etc.) And that seemed to work pretty well for me this morning.
Today was my very first track meet. It wasn't anything official, it was just a "practice" one we were doing with Rouge River to see what levels of strength we are all at in our different events. I've been loving track so far; it's been such hard work! Something good ought to come from all of this running. Today I only did the 800m run, and I was able to keep up with Annie (Ms. Super Runner) the whole race, and finished it off pretty well for a first timer! I'm excited to see how well I can beat my last time in our next meet. but I hope to be able to do the relay race and javelin throwing at our next meet. I think it'd be fun to give pole vault a try. At least just once; that looks way too fun to pass up.
3/17 (Thursday)
Today was ORCA Cares Day! I got to meet a bunch of students from around here, and Cassidy's family showed up too. We did some path restoration on one of my most favorite parks in town. There were a bunch of little kids there, but each of them were very enthusiastic about helping. It was so cute to see their little arms lifting adult-sized shovels to try to put a bit of the bark into wheelbarrows. Very precious. Watching children work brings such joy to my heart.
After track today I took a long nap. My body is feeling a bit fatigued.
3/18 (Friday)
Another school day and track.
3/19 (Saturday)
Today we drove around begging for donations from various businesses. We were able to get estimates for the prices for everything in my project, and everything is coming along very nicely. The most urgent thing I need to do now is find a lot of volunteers for the day-long car wash fundraiser that we're doing next Saturday. I'm very excited to get this done so I can start really focusing on school again.
There was a dance in Central Point tonight, which I went to. Noah S, Jaden P, and Jared P carpooled with my father and me while also helping pay for gas. It was a wonderful dance. They played a lot of fun music, and I got to dance with a lot of beautiful women; what could be better? And guess what? The Jarvis brothers showed up this time! They did a basketball tournament today and were pretty beat, but I guess they decided to come anyway last minute. T'was good to see them there! And yes, Christie was there, but she was a bit late. There were some really crazy dancers at that dance, it was so fun!
3/20 (Sunday)
Good Sunday. Got to spend some time at the Wright's house for some quiet time and helping Carmen with a bit of songwriting. There was a family fireside tonight held by gma and gpa about geneology. I got to learn some great things about our heritage. There are so many inspiring things to learn from the past.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
BIG Blog update
Okay, here we go.
2/28/11 (Monday)
Today was another school day + some new stuff. Last night I went to a family dinner over at my step-uncle's house. The Guerras are a really great family. While there, I got to spend some time chatting with my buddy Keith Campbell. One of the things we talked about was the upcoming track season, something I had been considering. That night I made the decision that I wanted to give it a try. So today I went and got a physical done at Dr. William's office. It went fine, except for a heart murmur that he heard. My heart swishes blood round inside before pumping it out now and then. He said it shouldn't be much of a problem, but I should go get an ultrasound for it just in case.
Later this evening Mikaela Hauck came over so we could practice our song for the choir concert. We chose Hey There Delilah, and it was very easy to practice. got to meet her mom too; she's a cool lady.
3/1/11 (Tuesday)
Frantic LL/mom works day. Like I promised, I spent a chunk of my morning recording a song that I had been practicing for Eden Worden's birthday. I think she really enjoyed it.
This afternoon my mother and I got out to Hidden Valley. After sorting through some paperwork, I went out to the field to join the distance runners. I've already memorized all of their first names! Taylor, Annie, Dakota, Hunter, Josh, Rachel, Sierra, Carly, and Devon. Coach Goodell is a fantastic coach. He's an old guy with a moustache and grey hair who speaks in a reliable, motivating tone. I'm going to really like working with this group.
After running a ton (which felt GREAT), I followed my cousins Anthony and Jefferson Jarvis into the high school's weight room. Those guys are the best weightlifting parters ever! They're both very motivating and dedicated; Anthony keeps everything light and full of laughter with his typical Anthony-humor. Both of them are throwers in the field; Jefferson is state-known for his discuss-throw. They then dropped me off at New Hope Market ("No Hope Market. Good luck getting home, Keenan." -Anthony) where mom picked me up later.
3/2/11 (Wednesday)
Today was a good day! Sure, I didn't get a huge amount of school done, but it was a good day nevertheless. I got to go to track again; feels great so far. This evening I stayed at the school after working out and walked over to the choir room. There Mikaela and a couple of people were hanging out. After playing some music on guitar and piano while socializing with a couple of my good friends from choir (Clark, Allison, Sam, Jeremy), the choir recital began. Mr. Lawson didn't let me perform with the rest; oh well. I still got to do the duet, which turned out nicely. And for the encore, two handfuls of the choir + me decided to sing Nelly Bly from last year, which was a lot of fun indeed. "Nelly Bly has a heart warm as a cup of tea, and bigger than a sweet potato... down in Tennessee!"
3/3/11 (Thursday)
Today was the beginning of the breakdown period. Schoolwork was done. Scripture study got done. Brother Johnson came over to bring back the review of my eagle scout project from the board. They called for a lot of things: legality, vandalism protection, maintenance, more specific things, measured diagrams, specific list of volunteers and specific list of doners. Also, they needed me to calculate how much exactly everything involving the project would cost and how I would meet all of the expenses. I admit it; I felt like giving up on the project and starting over with a new one at that point. But I came to realize that I needed to learn to accept this sort of thing. Accept rejection, improve your proposal, and then sent it in again. I can do this! I think I can I think I can...
3/4/11 (Friday)
Haha, today was very different from usual. I went to school with one of my best buddies Carmen Vadillo! I went over to the Wright's house at 7 this morning, and then went to Grants Pass High School as a guest for the day! It was a ton of fun; going to school for a vacation from school, whoo!
Anyways, we started by going to Carmen's Poetry of Rock class (I know, "that's a CLASS?"). I played Don't Be Like Romeo and Waiting for one of her assignments there. Later she told me she got a lot of extra credit for having me come and perform, which I am very happy for. After that class we went along to her World History class. I don't remember too well what it was about, but they were discussing the war-life and peace-time life of a well known Indian conqueror. Just as a side note, it surprises me that World History is a required class in the public schools, but American History is an elective. It really should be the other way around, I believe. At least that's how it is at ORCA.
Anyways, the next class was Spanish, if I remember right. It was WAY too easy for Carmen (she's from Spain; it was her first language!) I just smiled and pretended I knew what was going on throughout the class. The teacher there was teaching all of the kids a song in Spanish, which was pretty fun indeed. The teacher's a guitarist.
Next off was Geometry, which I really enjoyed. I didn't even know what the SIN and COS buttons were for before!
And finally before lunch, we wrapped it up with Chemistry, which was a blast! The main point of the lesson was endothermic and exothermic reactions, and the teacher did a real example of both of the reactions! Chemistry is so fun! I'm so excited for next year; I think I'll try Chemistry next year. Or maybe I'll do Physics. There's so much to learn in the sciences!
Then we went to lunch and played more guitar in the big cafeteria. After playing a bit more music and talking with many of my other friends from that school, mom came and picked me up. I know, it may've not gotten any schoolwork done, but I think it was worth my time. If I was in the city district, I think I would like to go to public school. I get kind of lonely here at home now and then, and public school doesn't seem so bad. That was only one day of it though; I'd probably have a more accurate hypothesis if I had spent a week or a month in the public school system. I don't know. Maybe I'll just wait 'till BYU to get out into the world. I don't really think there is anywhere else I would want to spend undergraduate school than there. Less drugs and beer, and more modest women (my wife will probably be somewhere in that swarm of LDS girls; that's always a plus, right?). Plus, the Philosophy/Psychology classes will actually be teaching CORRECT principles because Mormons are teaching them. Why would I want to go anywhere else? I think they have an AFROTC there, so I may have to choose the Air Force over my original idea of the Marine Reserve. I don't know; I really want to be on a reserve system, and the Air Force doesn't have one. I'd have to serve full time for a time, but I suppose it would be like another mission, right? I'll have to research my options for service a bit more.
This evening I went to a music party at Miranda's house. Fa, Carmen, Truli, Brittany, Sabrina, and Jessie showed up, but none of the guys did. Not too many musicians were there too, so we didn't really get any recording done. But we had a good time anyways. We played chess and pictionary. I got to duel Miranda on a pole with sticks! She won; I am out of practice when it comes to body balance!
3/5/11 (Saturday)
Today Brother Buckman and I went to a service project. Sister Bishop had a lot of garbage on her property, and a good group of the men in our ward came and took out 4 truckloads of it. Brother Buckman is an awesome guy; he was another veteran I got to interview. He gave a good review of his experience in the Navy.
This afternoon I did some intense planning for my Eagle Scout Project. I spent almost 4 hours trying to write up new ideas and plans. To raise money, I'll be holding a car wash on the 26th. I've got to make more calls, interview more people, get more information, then write it all up in a spiffy eagle project encased in a binder which I need to find somewhere. This experience I had today really burned me out; I felt mentally exausted. So I just crashed and spent some good leisure time on facebook for the rest of the evening.
3/6/11 (Sunday)
As it turns out, I injured my knee by overworking it in this first week of track. It became difficult to even walk today. Mom suggested I stay off of my feet and not go to church, and so I did. I tried to take a really long nap that day, but had a hard time feeling comfortable (Henry took my mattress again. Long story). Later today I decided to give Ceana a call, and that cheered me up a bit, as usual. But other than that, today was just a day of more Psych/scripture study and not much more.
3/7/11 (Monday)
Holy smokes. I got a lot done today.
Today I finally cracked down and called the CERT coordinator for Josephine County.As it turns out, Ernie is planning on doing another training course for new team members soon, and just needs to get more people on board. He put my name and number down, and will give me a call when he has the date down! It will be so fun. I feel like this training will not only help me to be better at emergency prep and community service, but it will help me become a bit more sharp and aware. "Son of man a man in time you'll be..."
Got a great amount of schoolwork done today; the two most scary assignments I'm trying to do are the Mark Twain 5-page essay and the Political Speech 4-pages. I tried to do a rough draft for the assignment on the writing style of Mark Twain, but I only had enough information to fill up 2 1/2 pages. This is going to mean a lot more research. I've been researching about the debate of whether virtual school should be an option for Oregon students, but I haven't gotten anything on paper yet. I might be able to yammer on about it for 4 minutes on improv, but I also need to turn in the paper + all of the MLA citations.
Hahaha! I could just hear myself say, "Once the Mark Twain Essay, the Politics Speech, and the Eagle Scout Project are done, THEN I'll be happy." Oh brother; time to change my way of thinking, right?
"If I were any better RIGHT NOW, I'd be twins!" Man up!
Besides, I totally love all three of these projects. All of them are simply going to take a lot of hard work, that's all. The more I do this sort of thing, the better I'll be able to bear hard work. Mark Twain is a funny guy. It's a shame he didn't care for the Mormons when he gave Salt Lake City a visit. He really needed the gospel in his life. I'll just share a few of my personal favorite quotes by him:
Patriotism: "You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from Winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rages - that is loyalty to unreason; it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it."
Work management: "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the bigger one first."
Optimism: "There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist."
Love: "Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden."
3/8/11 (Tuesday)
More school... more errand running with mom... more track... knee still trying to heal... more psych study... another piano lesson...
3/9/11 (Wednesday)
Today was crazy. That's all I feel like saying; too much inecessary and exausting information.
3/10-11/11 (Thursday and Friday)
Today I went to the first official ORCA assembly. It was concerning the ORCA Cares Day on March 17. Students all over the state have organized service projects for everyone to go to. Down here in Southern Oregon, I've set up a park path restoration for my most favorite park in town. It's going to be great, and I'm excited to meet all of the students that will come!
I notice that my personal studies are really getting in the way of everything else in my life. I need to make that a smaller part of my day so I can spend more time on school and family. I really need to work on strengthening my family relationships particularly
Today I improvised a plan to save my parents money! The plan was that I would go to track, then go back to the Jarvis' house with the guys. While there, I'd plan with grandpa more stuff about the Eagle Project, while thinking up ideas for tomorrow. Then I would stay over at grandma's house, then go to seminary with Anthony and Jefferson in the morning. Then I'd come back, and we'd record our St. Patrick's Day video (that's right folks. We're making a music video for every holiday this year! Mwahahaha!). Then I'd go to track again with the guys and then go back and then mom would pick me up after taking Julie back from Henry's birthday party. That wasn't the original idea, but that was how it all turned out! Jefferson let me borrow a fingerpicking book for guitar; I'm so glad! Now I've got some guitar material that I did not just find for free online! The songs that are in this book that I want to master are Piano Man (Billy Joel), Leader of the Band (Dan Fogelburg) Love theme from Titanic (My Heart will Go On) (DON'T WATCH THAT MOVIE. I never did, but I know of it. I've heard the love theme by Celine Dion though, and it sounds nice.), Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the Lion King, and Let It Be by the Beatles. Jefferson is an amazing guitarist and pianist, but he won't admit it, the humble guy.
3/12/11 (Saturday)
I got to do another service project today! Brother Rudd picked me up, and we drove to a big house in the middle of nowhere to fill it with a new family's stuff. I feel so ashamed, I don't even remember their name! They have three young boys between the ages of 9 and 3. And there's a grandma too. I had a good time doing the work, which took quite awhile. Near the end of doing the second load of the big moving van, the work was getting a bit boring to me, which can only mean one thing: START SINGING AS LOUD AS YOU CAN! Then the work became fun again. I had a good laugh with Jessie Rudd who was also there about surprises. She found the long and dramatic story about "The Thanksgiving Surprise" from last year rather interesting. We've got a new inside joke about brother Buckman. One of the men working there was thinking of taking all of the shelves out of a dresser that we were moving before getting it in the house. All brother Buckman said was, "Well, we put it in here with all of the shelves. Just buck up and lift!" And then the guy grumbled, "You hear that from a guy with "buck" in his name." Ah, it's the sort of thing that sounds stupid in writing, but funny if you were actually there. Why do I find the smallest things hilarious that would seem insignificant to anyone else? I don't know, I don't care. TRUE TO MY VALUES! One of them is Laughter, and no one will stop me again from laughing when I find something funny and appropriate to laugh at.
Sorry, feeling a bit philosophical today.
After wrapping up that service project I went home and crashed. I felt really really hyper. I felt just a bit slap-happy after a really stressful week. It was the climax of "breakdown week". I played airsoft war with Henry and had a great bonding experience with him. I almost wrapped up the 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management. That book has been so so helpful to me; it really has been a message from God. It's almost like a handbook for the Franklin Planner. HA, I still remember Preston Baxter's joke about my new planner (I know, another sounds-stupid-on-paper thing), "Franklin is missing his planner!"
Tonight I got a ride from Sister Wright to a dance in Medford! Fa and Miranda got to come along as well to the 80's themed event. It was just what I needed to unwind, I'm so glad I went. I got to meet new people and also meet some familiar faces from youth conference. I even persuaded one of my newfound friends with crazy poofy 80's hair (her name was Emily) to start a great big conga line! Also that night, I got to meet two dance junkies while all of the real men were out of the cultural hall waiting for Baby by Justin Bieber to stop. Shane and Brent are two crazy dancers too, just like me! I love meeting people who share my beliefs on how a body should behave on the dance floor. I've seen these two zealots do their thing before, but I had never personally met them till then. Another thing that made the dance rather special was that there were a bunch of guys with JROTC uniforms all over the place. I think they were supposed to be doing security work, but I saw a couple of them busting a move now and then. It was great. And lastly, always my favorite, there were tons of beautiful young women there. Why do you think I go to these things in the first place?
3/13/11 (Sunday)
And now for today. Today we all forgot it was daylight saving time, so our family missed sacrament meeting! I decided to skip Priesthood so I could go to sacrament meeting in another ward; I'm not going to try to live for more than 2 weeks without the sacrament. I went to Brother Hancock's Sunday School class today, which was pretty good! It all was because of a change in my way of thinking. Last night I was talking to Fa about the class, and she said that she really liked it. That surprised me. So, I've decided to try something new: look for the good things in Brother Hancock's methods. Now his classes are great!
I love this way of thinking, I think I'm going to have to give it a try on a lot of things. Mwahahaha! Let's rule the world.
2/28/11 (Monday)
Today was another school day + some new stuff. Last night I went to a family dinner over at my step-uncle's house. The Guerras are a really great family. While there, I got to spend some time chatting with my buddy Keith Campbell. One of the things we talked about was the upcoming track season, something I had been considering. That night I made the decision that I wanted to give it a try. So today I went and got a physical done at Dr. William's office. It went fine, except for a heart murmur that he heard. My heart swishes blood round inside before pumping it out now and then. He said it shouldn't be much of a problem, but I should go get an ultrasound for it just in case.
Later this evening Mikaela Hauck came over so we could practice our song for the choir concert. We chose Hey There Delilah, and it was very easy to practice. got to meet her mom too; she's a cool lady.
3/1/11 (Tuesday)
Frantic LL/mom works day. Like I promised, I spent a chunk of my morning recording a song that I had been practicing for Eden Worden's birthday. I think she really enjoyed it.
This afternoon my mother and I got out to Hidden Valley. After sorting through some paperwork, I went out to the field to join the distance runners. I've already memorized all of their first names! Taylor, Annie, Dakota, Hunter, Josh, Rachel, Sierra, Carly, and Devon. Coach Goodell is a fantastic coach. He's an old guy with a moustache and grey hair who speaks in a reliable, motivating tone. I'm going to really like working with this group.
After running a ton (which felt GREAT), I followed my cousins Anthony and Jefferson Jarvis into the high school's weight room. Those guys are the best weightlifting parters ever! They're both very motivating and dedicated; Anthony keeps everything light and full of laughter with his typical Anthony-humor. Both of them are throwers in the field; Jefferson is state-known for his discuss-throw. They then dropped me off at New Hope Market ("No Hope Market. Good luck getting home, Keenan." -Anthony) where mom picked me up later.
3/2/11 (Wednesday)
Today was a good day! Sure, I didn't get a huge amount of school done, but it was a good day nevertheless. I got to go to track again; feels great so far. This evening I stayed at the school after working out and walked over to the choir room. There Mikaela and a couple of people were hanging out. After playing some music on guitar and piano while socializing with a couple of my good friends from choir (Clark, Allison, Sam, Jeremy), the choir recital began. Mr. Lawson didn't let me perform with the rest; oh well. I still got to do the duet, which turned out nicely. And for the encore, two handfuls of the choir + me decided to sing Nelly Bly from last year, which was a lot of fun indeed. "Nelly Bly has a heart warm as a cup of tea, and bigger than a sweet potato... down in Tennessee!"
3/3/11 (Thursday)
Today was the beginning of the breakdown period. Schoolwork was done. Scripture study got done. Brother Johnson came over to bring back the review of my eagle scout project from the board. They called for a lot of things: legality, vandalism protection, maintenance, more specific things, measured diagrams, specific list of volunteers and specific list of doners. Also, they needed me to calculate how much exactly everything involving the project would cost and how I would meet all of the expenses. I admit it; I felt like giving up on the project and starting over with a new one at that point. But I came to realize that I needed to learn to accept this sort of thing. Accept rejection, improve your proposal, and then sent it in again. I can do this! I think I can I think I can...
3/4/11 (Friday)
Haha, today was very different from usual. I went to school with one of my best buddies Carmen Vadillo! I went over to the Wright's house at 7 this morning, and then went to Grants Pass High School as a guest for the day! It was a ton of fun; going to school for a vacation from school, whoo!
Anyways, we started by going to Carmen's Poetry of Rock class (I know, "that's a CLASS?"). I played Don't Be Like Romeo and Waiting for one of her assignments there. Later she told me she got a lot of extra credit for having me come and perform, which I am very happy for. After that class we went along to her World History class. I don't remember too well what it was about, but they were discussing the war-life and peace-time life of a well known Indian conqueror. Just as a side note, it surprises me that World History is a required class in the public schools, but American History is an elective. It really should be the other way around, I believe. At least that's how it is at ORCA.
Anyways, the next class was Spanish, if I remember right. It was WAY too easy for Carmen (she's from Spain; it was her first language!) I just smiled and pretended I knew what was going on throughout the class. The teacher there was teaching all of the kids a song in Spanish, which was pretty fun indeed. The teacher's a guitarist.
Next off was Geometry, which I really enjoyed. I didn't even know what the SIN and COS buttons were for before!
And finally before lunch, we wrapped it up with Chemistry, which was a blast! The main point of the lesson was endothermic and exothermic reactions, and the teacher did a real example of both of the reactions! Chemistry is so fun! I'm so excited for next year; I think I'll try Chemistry next year. Or maybe I'll do Physics. There's so much to learn in the sciences!
Then we went to lunch and played more guitar in the big cafeteria. After playing a bit more music and talking with many of my other friends from that school, mom came and picked me up. I know, it may've not gotten any schoolwork done, but I think it was worth my time. If I was in the city district, I think I would like to go to public school. I get kind of lonely here at home now and then, and public school doesn't seem so bad. That was only one day of it though; I'd probably have a more accurate hypothesis if I had spent a week or a month in the public school system. I don't know. Maybe I'll just wait 'till BYU to get out into the world. I don't really think there is anywhere else I would want to spend undergraduate school than there. Less drugs and beer, and more modest women (my wife will probably be somewhere in that swarm of LDS girls; that's always a plus, right?). Plus, the Philosophy/Psychology classes will actually be teaching CORRECT principles because Mormons are teaching them. Why would I want to go anywhere else? I think they have an AFROTC there, so I may have to choose the Air Force over my original idea of the Marine Reserve. I don't know; I really want to be on a reserve system, and the Air Force doesn't have one. I'd have to serve full time for a time, but I suppose it would be like another mission, right? I'll have to research my options for service a bit more.
This evening I went to a music party at Miranda's house. Fa, Carmen, Truli, Brittany, Sabrina, and Jessie showed up, but none of the guys did. Not too many musicians were there too, so we didn't really get any recording done. But we had a good time anyways. We played chess and pictionary. I got to duel Miranda on a pole with sticks! She won; I am out of practice when it comes to body balance!
3/5/11 (Saturday)
Today Brother Buckman and I went to a service project. Sister Bishop had a lot of garbage on her property, and a good group of the men in our ward came and took out 4 truckloads of it. Brother Buckman is an awesome guy; he was another veteran I got to interview. He gave a good review of his experience in the Navy.
This afternoon I did some intense planning for my Eagle Scout Project. I spent almost 4 hours trying to write up new ideas and plans. To raise money, I'll be holding a car wash on the 26th. I've got to make more calls, interview more people, get more information, then write it all up in a spiffy eagle project encased in a binder which I need to find somewhere. This experience I had today really burned me out; I felt mentally exausted. So I just crashed and spent some good leisure time on facebook for the rest of the evening.
3/6/11 (Sunday)
As it turns out, I injured my knee by overworking it in this first week of track. It became difficult to even walk today. Mom suggested I stay off of my feet and not go to church, and so I did. I tried to take a really long nap that day, but had a hard time feeling comfortable (Henry took my mattress again. Long story). Later today I decided to give Ceana a call, and that cheered me up a bit, as usual. But other than that, today was just a day of more Psych/scripture study and not much more.
3/7/11 (Monday)
Holy smokes. I got a lot done today.
Today I finally cracked down and called the CERT coordinator for Josephine County.As it turns out, Ernie is planning on doing another training course for new team members soon, and just needs to get more people on board. He put my name and number down, and will give me a call when he has the date down! It will be so fun. I feel like this training will not only help me to be better at emergency prep and community service, but it will help me become a bit more sharp and aware. "Son of man a man in time you'll be..."
Got a great amount of schoolwork done today; the two most scary assignments I'm trying to do are the Mark Twain 5-page essay and the Political Speech 4-pages. I tried to do a rough draft for the assignment on the writing style of Mark Twain, but I only had enough information to fill up 2 1/2 pages. This is going to mean a lot more research. I've been researching about the debate of whether virtual school should be an option for Oregon students, but I haven't gotten anything on paper yet. I might be able to yammer on about it for 4 minutes on improv, but I also need to turn in the paper + all of the MLA citations.
Hahaha! I could just hear myself say, "Once the Mark Twain Essay, the Politics Speech, and the Eagle Scout Project are done, THEN I'll be happy." Oh brother; time to change my way of thinking, right?
"If I were any better RIGHT NOW, I'd be twins!" Man up!
Besides, I totally love all three of these projects. All of them are simply going to take a lot of hard work, that's all. The more I do this sort of thing, the better I'll be able to bear hard work. Mark Twain is a funny guy. It's a shame he didn't care for the Mormons when he gave Salt Lake City a visit. He really needed the gospel in his life. I'll just share a few of my personal favorite quotes by him:
Patriotism: "You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from Winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rages - that is loyalty to unreason; it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it."
Work management: "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the bigger one first."
Optimism: "There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist."
Love: "Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden."
3/8/11 (Tuesday)
More school... more errand running with mom... more track... knee still trying to heal... more psych study... another piano lesson...
3/9/11 (Wednesday)
Today was crazy. That's all I feel like saying; too much inecessary and exausting information.
3/10-11/11 (Thursday and Friday)
Today I went to the first official ORCA assembly. It was concerning the ORCA Cares Day on March 17. Students all over the state have organized service projects for everyone to go to. Down here in Southern Oregon, I've set up a park path restoration for my most favorite park in town. It's going to be great, and I'm excited to meet all of the students that will come!
I notice that my personal studies are really getting in the way of everything else in my life. I need to make that a smaller part of my day so I can spend more time on school and family. I really need to work on strengthening my family relationships particularly
Today I improvised a plan to save my parents money! The plan was that I would go to track, then go back to the Jarvis' house with the guys. While there, I'd plan with grandpa more stuff about the Eagle Project, while thinking up ideas for tomorrow. Then I would stay over at grandma's house, then go to seminary with Anthony and Jefferson in the morning. Then I'd come back, and we'd record our St. Patrick's Day video (that's right folks. We're making a music video for every holiday this year! Mwahahaha!). Then I'd go to track again with the guys and then go back and then mom would pick me up after taking Julie back from Henry's birthday party. That wasn't the original idea, but that was how it all turned out! Jefferson let me borrow a fingerpicking book for guitar; I'm so glad! Now I've got some guitar material that I did not just find for free online! The songs that are in this book that I want to master are Piano Man (Billy Joel), Leader of the Band (Dan Fogelburg) Love theme from Titanic (My Heart will Go On) (DON'T WATCH THAT MOVIE. I never did, but I know of it. I've heard the love theme by Celine Dion though, and it sounds nice.), Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the Lion King, and Let It Be by the Beatles. Jefferson is an amazing guitarist and pianist, but he won't admit it, the humble guy.
3/12/11 (Saturday)
I got to do another service project today! Brother Rudd picked me up, and we drove to a big house in the middle of nowhere to fill it with a new family's stuff. I feel so ashamed, I don't even remember their name! They have three young boys between the ages of 9 and 3. And there's a grandma too. I had a good time doing the work, which took quite awhile. Near the end of doing the second load of the big moving van, the work was getting a bit boring to me, which can only mean one thing: START SINGING AS LOUD AS YOU CAN! Then the work became fun again. I had a good laugh with Jessie Rudd who was also there about surprises. She found the long and dramatic story about "The Thanksgiving Surprise" from last year rather interesting. We've got a new inside joke about brother Buckman. One of the men working there was thinking of taking all of the shelves out of a dresser that we were moving before getting it in the house. All brother Buckman said was, "Well, we put it in here with all of the shelves. Just buck up and lift!" And then the guy grumbled, "You hear that from a guy with "buck" in his name." Ah, it's the sort of thing that sounds stupid in writing, but funny if you were actually there. Why do I find the smallest things hilarious that would seem insignificant to anyone else? I don't know, I don't care. TRUE TO MY VALUES! One of them is Laughter, and no one will stop me again from laughing when I find something funny and appropriate to laugh at.
Sorry, feeling a bit philosophical today.
After wrapping up that service project I went home and crashed. I felt really really hyper. I felt just a bit slap-happy after a really stressful week. It was the climax of "breakdown week". I played airsoft war with Henry and had a great bonding experience with him. I almost wrapped up the 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management. That book has been so so helpful to me; it really has been a message from God. It's almost like a handbook for the Franklin Planner. HA, I still remember Preston Baxter's joke about my new planner (I know, another sounds-stupid-on-paper thing), "Franklin is missing his planner!"
Tonight I got a ride from Sister Wright to a dance in Medford! Fa and Miranda got to come along as well to the 80's themed event. It was just what I needed to unwind, I'm so glad I went. I got to meet new people and also meet some familiar faces from youth conference. I even persuaded one of my newfound friends with crazy poofy 80's hair (her name was Emily) to start a great big conga line! Also that night, I got to meet two dance junkies while all of the real men were out of the cultural hall waiting for Baby by Justin Bieber to stop. Shane and Brent are two crazy dancers too, just like me! I love meeting people who share my beliefs on how a body should behave on the dance floor. I've seen these two zealots do their thing before, but I had never personally met them till then. Another thing that made the dance rather special was that there were a bunch of guys with JROTC uniforms all over the place. I think they were supposed to be doing security work, but I saw a couple of them busting a move now and then. It was great. And lastly, always my favorite, there were tons of beautiful young women there. Why do you think I go to these things in the first place?
3/13/11 (Sunday)
And now for today. Today we all forgot it was daylight saving time, so our family missed sacrament meeting! I decided to skip Priesthood so I could go to sacrament meeting in another ward; I'm not going to try to live for more than 2 weeks without the sacrament. I went to Brother Hancock's Sunday School class today, which was pretty good! It all was because of a change in my way of thinking. Last night I was talking to Fa about the class, and she said that she really liked it. That surprised me. So, I've decided to try something new: look for the good things in Brother Hancock's methods. Now his classes are great!
I love this way of thinking, I think I'm going to have to give it a try on a lot of things. Mwahahaha! Let's rule the world.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
I'm Free
(warning: this is an extremely deep and personal blog post)
I am free.
I've been studying the Book of Mormon with Sister Harrison's study guide "He Did Deliver Me From Bondage" all weekend long. That Saturday I was feeling very sad, and I'll explain why in a minute. I realize that I have been attempting to strive for perfectionism: a noble thing to try to aspire to, right?
Wrong.
Just like Javert from Les Miserables, I had been treating myself coldly and harshly, covering up sins from the past and telling myself to work work work, for that was the only way I would be able to survive or ever aspire to my dreams. I was expecting nothing but perfection and to-the-law-living from myself. I realize now, that you cannot hide the past. You cannot change the direction you are moving in by driving faster. I needed to back up, take in an inventory of my life to the present, and have it all 100% cleaned out with the help of my Savior, mother, and bishop. It is time to clean out the back of the shop; that no more darkness be in me.
And so I wrote down everything I could remember, from bullying my classmates in elementary school to my current obsessive-compulsive behaviors. I did not only record my sins; I recorded every negative experience that I could still remember of which I still felt resentment. Throughout my younger years at public school, I always felt an internal hatred to everyone else because no one would be my friend (with the exception of that one kind young lady, Jody Foster, who had pity on my false state of mind for who-knows-why). I felt resentment to all of them, teachers and parents included. Little did I realize that it was I who chose to be such an unpleasant little boy to be around. I didn't understand my world at all, and was in hell.
It has been said that people crave what they lack. That is definitely true in my famine of friendship. About a year ago, a new person came into my life, I'll call her Irene. Through her writing, I could see that she had been trained excellently in the art of friendship all of her life, and was willing to show kindness to me.
My mind grasped this truth, and has since been obsessive with it for the past year. Though I only received words and actions of kindness from this amazing young woman, I continued to stab myself with new daggers of fear. "What if she finds out you really are a despicable person and never talks to you again?" "What if someone else catches her interest and then she forgets about you?" "What if you have to lose her friendship someday? What will you do then?"
I knew in my heart that these questions were not of God, but I could not seem to find a way to stop thinking them. I was in a spiritual cage, forged by yours truly.
Now that I've allowed Christ to unlock the door to my heart and begin the healing process, I have found a higher way of thinking. My fear is gone because Irene is no longer the center of my life. Jesus Christ is now, and I am freed from my selfishness. I know now that Irene will be one of my best friends for time and all eternity, regardless of what the future has in store.
I know that I will never be perfect, so why put myself down and fill my mind with fear when I don't follow through? The fact is that I am not really very righteous at all, and have to partake of the Atonement just as much as the most foul, sick sinner must in order to be saved. I quote Harrison:
"To admit no need of repentance to one another, to thus promote a program of perfectionism to one another, instead of promoting Christ's gospel of repentance, is seriously near an anti-Christ position. We, of all people, should desire never to give this impression to each other." (p. 77)
Instead of pursuing worldly desires (such as appearing impressive to my new found friends), I now strive to do what God expects me to do for the right reason. Not to win other's hearts, not for approval, not to beat others, not for money, not for survival. All I do, I do for my Lord, and every mistake I make in striving to achieve His will is swallowed up in my Savior's Atonement. I have nothing to hide from Him; he can and will fix all of my sins.
I am free.
I am free.
I've been studying the Book of Mormon with Sister Harrison's study guide "He Did Deliver Me From Bondage" all weekend long. That Saturday I was feeling very sad, and I'll explain why in a minute. I realize that I have been attempting to strive for perfectionism: a noble thing to try to aspire to, right?
Wrong.
Just like Javert from Les Miserables, I had been treating myself coldly and harshly, covering up sins from the past and telling myself to work work work, for that was the only way I would be able to survive or ever aspire to my dreams. I was expecting nothing but perfection and to-the-law-living from myself. I realize now, that you cannot hide the past. You cannot change the direction you are moving in by driving faster. I needed to back up, take in an inventory of my life to the present, and have it all 100% cleaned out with the help of my Savior, mother, and bishop. It is time to clean out the back of the shop; that no more darkness be in me.
And so I wrote down everything I could remember, from bullying my classmates in elementary school to my current obsessive-compulsive behaviors. I did not only record my sins; I recorded every negative experience that I could still remember of which I still felt resentment. Throughout my younger years at public school, I always felt an internal hatred to everyone else because no one would be my friend (with the exception of that one kind young lady, Jody Foster, who had pity on my false state of mind for who-knows-why). I felt resentment to all of them, teachers and parents included. Little did I realize that it was I who chose to be such an unpleasant little boy to be around. I didn't understand my world at all, and was in hell.
It has been said that people crave what they lack. That is definitely true in my famine of friendship. About a year ago, a new person came into my life, I'll call her Irene. Through her writing, I could see that she had been trained excellently in the art of friendship all of her life, and was willing to show kindness to me.
My mind grasped this truth, and has since been obsessive with it for the past year. Though I only received words and actions of kindness from this amazing young woman, I continued to stab myself with new daggers of fear. "What if she finds out you really are a despicable person and never talks to you again?" "What if someone else catches her interest and then she forgets about you?" "What if you have to lose her friendship someday? What will you do then?"
I knew in my heart that these questions were not of God, but I could not seem to find a way to stop thinking them. I was in a spiritual cage, forged by yours truly.
Now that I've allowed Christ to unlock the door to my heart and begin the healing process, I have found a higher way of thinking. My fear is gone because Irene is no longer the center of my life. Jesus Christ is now, and I am freed from my selfishness. I know now that Irene will be one of my best friends for time and all eternity, regardless of what the future has in store.
I know that I will never be perfect, so why put myself down and fill my mind with fear when I don't follow through? The fact is that I am not really very righteous at all, and have to partake of the Atonement just as much as the most foul, sick sinner must in order to be saved. I quote Harrison:
"To admit no need of repentance to one another, to thus promote a program of perfectionism to one another, instead of promoting Christ's gospel of repentance, is seriously near an anti-Christ position. We, of all people, should desire never to give this impression to each other." (p. 77)
Instead of pursuing worldly desires (such as appearing impressive to my new found friends), I now strive to do what God expects me to do for the right reason. Not to win other's hearts, not for approval, not to beat others, not for money, not for survival. All I do, I do for my Lord, and every mistake I make in striving to achieve His will is swallowed up in my Savior's Atonement. I have nothing to hide from Him; he can and will fix all of my sins.
I am free.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Breakthrough Week
That crazy man inside of me is dancing in African fashon while laughing manically.
Anyways,
The most daunting thing that has been looming over me all week has been schoolwork. Not just keeping up with the curricculum, but also maintaining the grades that I want. I have not been taking care of Keenan very well emotionally about this, and I apologize, buddy.
Today was Government crackdown day. The mental image of that sentence just sprung up after typing that... wayyyy too much Les Miserables....
Did a lot of catch up work in the class, and got it all caught up to date! I'm using a new note-taking strategy: Outlining! It's not useful only for essay writing; I realize that the Roman Numberal, Uppercase Letter, Number, Lowercase letter system is useful for just about anything that takes some preparation and organization. And so my Government notes needed to be. I found this technique to be very useful when I did my Biology crackdown yesterday. My past strategy was, I admit, no strategy at all. I am so grateful that God sends me new ways of organizing my terribly chaotic brain now and then.
Another study tip I've learned from experience: you MUST keep the curricculum interesting. Otherwise it's boring. I sometimes try self-psych on myself when I feel mentally distracted. "Come on, Keenan. This is FASCINATING!" And it works, if ya do it right.
I must say, using this new system made the learning experience more fun as well as making it more enriching. The thing that really stumped me after studying all day was that I got an 80% on the test I had been studying for. But instead of stressing out, I felt very calm and peaceful inside. The feeling inside of me, if put into words, would be "Keenan, that's just a grade, be still. You learned more today than you usually do; it's okay, really." It was a very comforting feeling.
I have come upon a scripture that has become a very useful weapon against my chronic inadequacy disorder: "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not."-D&C 6:36
It's a simple metaphysical sheild that can be used to defend against anything, really. Evil thoughts, physical pain, emotional pain, anger, despair, and honestly any other trial I can think of.
This is my most favorite scripture.
With those most important things down, I will proceed with the journal entries:
Monday (2/14)
Ah yes; Valentine's Day! I sure had a fun time today! We exchanged some cards and ate chocolate in our immediate famliy, but other than that it was a pretty normal day. With the exception of the serenading surprise, that is.
The day before this Monday, mom came up with a wonderful plan. You see, Fa and Carmen don't celebrate Valentine's day in the countries they are from, so she wanted me to do something special for them. She wanted me to call up some guy friends, drive to their house on Valentine's day (they are both residing at the Wright's house), and sing them some classic barbershop tunes!
With the help of Anthony, Jefferson, and Calvin (good ol' Jarvies: can always call on them for just about ANYTHING), we executed mother's plan today. Sister Wright answered the door, and then went to find Carmen and Fa. Once they appeared we initiated our strain of "Falling in Love With You", to which both of them hid behind the door in response. They listened to our song, once in awhile subtly peeking from behind the door. It was like Christmas caroling, only better! I think I may have to make this a tradition... only to do it on a number of girl's houses!
Tuesday (2/15)
More school, stress, and frantically trying to contact William and the rest of the guys concerning Wednesday's activity. Nothing extremely unusual to report other than that. Oh, I really liked Ms. Board's thought for the day today: "If you could carry on for a month without finding fault in others or saying anything negative, could you do it?" I think I'll take on her challenge this coming March; give me a bit of time to practice...
This evening I came to visit the Brinkerhoffs concerning the Music Merit Badge and the Personal Management Merit Badge. We had a great time seeing each other again; I miss seeing Sister Brinkerhoff for morning seminary. I guess I forgot how amazingly sparky-happy-crazy-grandma-y she is. Oh, and Sister Adams! SISTER ADAMS......................... Musically excellent, quiet, short, white haired, blue eyed, bundle of spiritual strength... sometimes wore pink...
Where was I?
Oh yeah, the merit badges. Well, Sister Brinkerhoff signed off the music one, and Brother Brinkerhoff signed off the PM one after I showed him a few things. He's a cool guy, and so is his family! I don't know the rest of his children that well, but I know of his youngest one: Kameron. He is the most intelligent child prodigy I have ever personally known. He's just in his first year of BYU before his mission; has a vision of being a chemical engineer. Kameron's a great role model to me.
They had a Leahona and a Sword of Laban in their living room, which I got to weild! Just a for-fun side note there.
Wednesday (2/16)
This day was filled with more frantic school-stuff and phone calling. Once again, Heavenly Father made everything work out for tonight!
We started our activity by meeting in the hall with the guys. We all brought a little bit of money, and then went to the store. At Albertsons we bought pasta, chicken, cream of chicken, milk, and cheddar. Then we drove to Brother Ledesma's house and turned what we had into a delicious Chicken Tetrazzini. I feel like expressing how yummy it was in Italian, but I don't know any Italian phrases longer than one word off of the top of my head... yet. It was a simple grey-yellow sauce that was served on sphagetti.
As we made and ate the Tetrazzini, I had a great time getting to know the guys in our new Varsity troop better. William, the Assistant Varsity Leader, was the main instructor tonight, and taught all the basics of cooking. With Anthony around, laughter was naturally a big part of the conversation. The most hilarious joke that was the ongoing story of what Jefferson puts in his daily protein shake. "Some milk, protein powder, a handful of nails, a couple of baby birds- I mean eggs!" It got so rediculously extreme that he advanced to say, "he doesn't just get the milk; he blends in the whole cow! Also, he'll throw in a couple of North Valley Knights, AND their horses. AND their armor." (North Valley High School is HV's rival, and where my dad used to work before he was moved to teach at the new alternative center!)
The thing about Anthony's jokes is that he simply DOESN'T STOP. Even as we were driving home he would continue the list of things that were found in Jefferson's protein drink. "A baby kangaroo..."
Good old Calvin; he's a great guy too. Plans on being a Judge someday, and has big dreams of eventually becoming a Professor of Law at BYU. I wish him well, and I'll keep his name in mind when I get into the politics scene...
Thursday
The HV district had a 6-day weekend; Henry and Gretel stayed home today. It snowed this morning, which was a very fun thing to wake up to indeed. I slept in WAY too much; my body clock has been a wreck for these past few days. It's terrible to see what no-seminary does to ya, eh?
I've started a new guitar song called Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton.
Loughlin Garner (1993-2008) is a cousin of mine who I'm certain is currently working in the spiritual world. This song was sung by my father at his funeral, with a few lyric modifications by Loughlin's mom. Though I only saw him at family reunions, I look back now and realize what an amazing young man he is. I hope that I will have his song mastered by this coming September: his 18th birthday.
Friday (2/18)
Today I slept in again, and was awoken by my mother at 9, asking if I would like to go to the YMCA with her. She left the room, and I prayed whether it would be better for me to sleep more or to go to the YMCA. I was answered with the latter, and so I went.
I have been showing no mercy to my knees at all. Hard jog, hard jog, HARD jog. Today, I used a bike machine instead so I could read 7 Habits while exercising. I haven't been continuing this book for a long time now because of its structure. The first three Habits focus on Personal Victory, or internal conflict resolve. You MUST have your true values defined, goals set, and priorities scheduled in order to achieve optimal success in relationships and teams. When I read these beginning chapters, I could see in myself a lot of room for improvement. And so I put the book down for awhile and tried to work on these core parts of my character. Months later, I now feel like I've come to a slightly higher level of personal development. And so I feel a bit safer about reading on. It was a great workout.
Also on that day I had the chance to job-shadow Uncle Mark partially for my Engineering MB and partially for self-enrichment. He got to give me the grand tour of the small radio company he works for. The main chunk of information I got from the visit is this: radio tech is VERY complicated. But it looked like the sort of thing you could have a ton of fun with if you knew what you were doing. My most favorite part was meeting their graphic designer Dave who made the radio-designs on his computer. The software he was using looked very complicated, while looking like a ton of fun at the same time.
I'm thinking of job shadowing a bureaucrat in our ward next. Might as well get a taste in everything, right?
Saturday (1/19)
Like I said before, today was a Government crackdown day. Oh hang on, let me explain something...
On Wednesday I brought all of my snow-camping gear to Brother Johnson for the routine inspection. Today was Klondike, you see, but I did not go. Why? Well, maybe I didn't pester Johnson enough. He said that the Varsity guys were not paid for to participate in it, and I left it at that. Next time I'll keep on buggin' him about it! Oh, I have a new list, the "Next Time I'll..." List. It's in front of everything else on the planner, and is basically a list of regrets (in positive form) that is supposed to help me remember to never to make those mistakes again. Self-psych! Gotta love it.
Grandma and Grandpa Foster came over all the way from Nyssa Oregon (8 hour drive) today! They're here visiting family in this area, and stopped by for the afternoon. Grandpa Fred is my step-grandpa, and a really great guy! He keeps well informed about current events, and even served in the Navy as an aircraft radio tech guy! He told me a bit about life in the military; been trying to get different people's opinions about it lately. Lots of decisions to make: need to get as much wisdom my inexperienced, young brain can hold from seasoned people.
Sabrina invited Haley (red-haired-crazy-girl) to come over today as well. My mother and father just used their savings to buy a new fancy-smanshy camera! Sabrina has been taking good care of it, and is therefore allowed to use it. She and Haley took some pictures with it outside, then played some board games (Blockus and Dominon), then watched a movie.
This next week is missionary week!
Anyways,
The most daunting thing that has been looming over me all week has been schoolwork. Not just keeping up with the curricculum, but also maintaining the grades that I want. I have not been taking care of Keenan very well emotionally about this, and I apologize, buddy.
Today was Government crackdown day. The mental image of that sentence just sprung up after typing that... wayyyy too much Les Miserables....
Did a lot of catch up work in the class, and got it all caught up to date! I'm using a new note-taking strategy: Outlining! It's not useful only for essay writing; I realize that the Roman Numberal, Uppercase Letter, Number, Lowercase letter system is useful for just about anything that takes some preparation and organization. And so my Government notes needed to be. I found this technique to be very useful when I did my Biology crackdown yesterday. My past strategy was, I admit, no strategy at all. I am so grateful that God sends me new ways of organizing my terribly chaotic brain now and then.
Another study tip I've learned from experience: you MUST keep the curricculum interesting. Otherwise it's boring. I sometimes try self-psych on myself when I feel mentally distracted. "Come on, Keenan. This is FASCINATING!" And it works, if ya do it right.
I must say, using this new system made the learning experience more fun as well as making it more enriching. The thing that really stumped me after studying all day was that I got an 80% on the test I had been studying for. But instead of stressing out, I felt very calm and peaceful inside. The feeling inside of me, if put into words, would be "Keenan, that's just a grade, be still. You learned more today than you usually do; it's okay, really." It was a very comforting feeling.
I have come upon a scripture that has become a very useful weapon against my chronic inadequacy disorder: "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not."-D&C 6:36
It's a simple metaphysical sheild that can be used to defend against anything, really. Evil thoughts, physical pain, emotional pain, anger, despair, and honestly any other trial I can think of.
This is my most favorite scripture.
With those most important things down, I will proceed with the journal entries:
Monday (2/14)
Ah yes; Valentine's Day! I sure had a fun time today! We exchanged some cards and ate chocolate in our immediate famliy, but other than that it was a pretty normal day. With the exception of the serenading surprise, that is.
The day before this Monday, mom came up with a wonderful plan. You see, Fa and Carmen don't celebrate Valentine's day in the countries they are from, so she wanted me to do something special for them. She wanted me to call up some guy friends, drive to their house on Valentine's day (they are both residing at the Wright's house), and sing them some classic barbershop tunes!
With the help of Anthony, Jefferson, and Calvin (good ol' Jarvies: can always call on them for just about ANYTHING), we executed mother's plan today. Sister Wright answered the door, and then went to find Carmen and Fa. Once they appeared we initiated our strain of "Falling in Love With You", to which both of them hid behind the door in response. They listened to our song, once in awhile subtly peeking from behind the door. It was like Christmas caroling, only better! I think I may have to make this a tradition... only to do it on a number of girl's houses!
Tuesday (2/15)
More school, stress, and frantically trying to contact William and the rest of the guys concerning Wednesday's activity. Nothing extremely unusual to report other than that. Oh, I really liked Ms. Board's thought for the day today: "If you could carry on for a month without finding fault in others or saying anything negative, could you do it?" I think I'll take on her challenge this coming March; give me a bit of time to practice...
This evening I came to visit the Brinkerhoffs concerning the Music Merit Badge and the Personal Management Merit Badge. We had a great time seeing each other again; I miss seeing Sister Brinkerhoff for morning seminary. I guess I forgot how amazingly sparky-happy-crazy-grandma-y she is. Oh, and Sister Adams! SISTER ADAMS......................... Musically excellent, quiet, short, white haired, blue eyed, bundle of spiritual strength... sometimes wore pink...
Where was I?
Oh yeah, the merit badges. Well, Sister Brinkerhoff signed off the music one, and Brother Brinkerhoff signed off the PM one after I showed him a few things. He's a cool guy, and so is his family! I don't know the rest of his children that well, but I know of his youngest one: Kameron. He is the most intelligent child prodigy I have ever personally known. He's just in his first year of BYU before his mission; has a vision of being a chemical engineer. Kameron's a great role model to me.
They had a Leahona and a Sword of Laban in their living room, which I got to weild! Just a for-fun side note there.
Wednesday (2/16)
This day was filled with more frantic school-stuff and phone calling. Once again, Heavenly Father made everything work out for tonight!
We started our activity by meeting in the hall with the guys. We all brought a little bit of money, and then went to the store. At Albertsons we bought pasta, chicken, cream of chicken, milk, and cheddar. Then we drove to Brother Ledesma's house and turned what we had into a delicious Chicken Tetrazzini. I feel like expressing how yummy it was in Italian, but I don't know any Italian phrases longer than one word off of the top of my head... yet. It was a simple grey-yellow sauce that was served on sphagetti.
As we made and ate the Tetrazzini, I had a great time getting to know the guys in our new Varsity troop better. William, the Assistant Varsity Leader, was the main instructor tonight, and taught all the basics of cooking. With Anthony around, laughter was naturally a big part of the conversation. The most hilarious joke that was the ongoing story of what Jefferson puts in his daily protein shake. "Some milk, protein powder, a handful of nails, a couple of baby birds- I mean eggs!" It got so rediculously extreme that he advanced to say, "he doesn't just get the milk; he blends in the whole cow! Also, he'll throw in a couple of North Valley Knights, AND their horses. AND their armor." (North Valley High School is HV's rival, and where my dad used to work before he was moved to teach at the new alternative center!)
The thing about Anthony's jokes is that he simply DOESN'T STOP. Even as we were driving home he would continue the list of things that were found in Jefferson's protein drink. "A baby kangaroo..."
Good old Calvin; he's a great guy too. Plans on being a Judge someday, and has big dreams of eventually becoming a Professor of Law at BYU. I wish him well, and I'll keep his name in mind when I get into the politics scene...
Thursday
The HV district had a 6-day weekend; Henry and Gretel stayed home today. It snowed this morning, which was a very fun thing to wake up to indeed. I slept in WAY too much; my body clock has been a wreck for these past few days. It's terrible to see what no-seminary does to ya, eh?
I've started a new guitar song called Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton.
Loughlin Garner (1993-2008) is a cousin of mine who I'm certain is currently working in the spiritual world. This song was sung by my father at his funeral, with a few lyric modifications by Loughlin's mom. Though I only saw him at family reunions, I look back now and realize what an amazing young man he is. I hope that I will have his song mastered by this coming September: his 18th birthday.
Friday (2/18)
Today I slept in again, and was awoken by my mother at 9, asking if I would like to go to the YMCA with her. She left the room, and I prayed whether it would be better for me to sleep more or to go to the YMCA. I was answered with the latter, and so I went.
I have been showing no mercy to my knees at all. Hard jog, hard jog, HARD jog. Today, I used a bike machine instead so I could read 7 Habits while exercising. I haven't been continuing this book for a long time now because of its structure. The first three Habits focus on Personal Victory, or internal conflict resolve. You MUST have your true values defined, goals set, and priorities scheduled in order to achieve optimal success in relationships and teams. When I read these beginning chapters, I could see in myself a lot of room for improvement. And so I put the book down for awhile and tried to work on these core parts of my character. Months later, I now feel like I've come to a slightly higher level of personal development. And so I feel a bit safer about reading on. It was a great workout.
Also on that day I had the chance to job-shadow Uncle Mark partially for my Engineering MB and partially for self-enrichment. He got to give me the grand tour of the small radio company he works for. The main chunk of information I got from the visit is this: radio tech is VERY complicated. But it looked like the sort of thing you could have a ton of fun with if you knew what you were doing. My most favorite part was meeting their graphic designer Dave who made the radio-designs on his computer. The software he was using looked very complicated, while looking like a ton of fun at the same time.
I'm thinking of job shadowing a bureaucrat in our ward next. Might as well get a taste in everything, right?
Saturday (1/19)
Like I said before, today was a Government crackdown day. Oh hang on, let me explain something...
On Wednesday I brought all of my snow-camping gear to Brother Johnson for the routine inspection. Today was Klondike, you see, but I did not go. Why? Well, maybe I didn't pester Johnson enough. He said that the Varsity guys were not paid for to participate in it, and I left it at that. Next time I'll keep on buggin' him about it! Oh, I have a new list, the "Next Time I'll..." List. It's in front of everything else on the planner, and is basically a list of regrets (in positive form) that is supposed to help me remember to never to make those mistakes again. Self-psych! Gotta love it.
Grandma and Grandpa Foster came over all the way from Nyssa Oregon (8 hour drive) today! They're here visiting family in this area, and stopped by for the afternoon. Grandpa Fred is my step-grandpa, and a really great guy! He keeps well informed about current events, and even served in the Navy as an aircraft radio tech guy! He told me a bit about life in the military; been trying to get different people's opinions about it lately. Lots of decisions to make: need to get as much wisdom my inexperienced, young brain can hold from seasoned people.
Sabrina invited Haley (red-haired-crazy-girl) to come over today as well. My mother and father just used their savings to buy a new fancy-smanshy camera! Sabrina has been taking good care of it, and is therefore allowed to use it. She and Haley took some pictures with it outside, then played some board games (Blockus and Dominon), then watched a movie.
This next week is missionary week!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
If I were any better, I'd be twins!
Monday
I did not sleep the night before this night. I shamefully admit that I destroyed my sleep patterns by finding and experimentingng with new movie making/sound recording software, while organizing the files on my computer. At this current stage of maturity that I am in, the word CLEAN=destroy what's making the mess if you don't know/don't care where it goes. I dumped all of the old school files on my computer, only to find out later that I accidentally got rid of an important NHS document where all of my recorded service hours were! Heavenly Father had mercy on me, however: I had just sent the file to Brianna so she could tally the service time, so I was able to get it back from her. I could have easily learned this lesson the hard way; when am I ever going to GROW UP?
As soon as I can bear the growing pain, I assume.
Today I worked at Anna's house again. She's married now, and is therefore getting ready to move.
Tuesday
I took some good notes in seminary today. What I got from Superhero Beckstead's lesson today were fantastic bits of knowledge such as "Most trials are self inflicted." "But Christ can even strengthen you in those ones." "Just because something is simple doesn't mean it's easy." "American continent motto: Inasmuch as ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." and "Hardships form togetherness."
Today was another good school day, with a lot of LLs. Thanks to Ceana, I remembered the Latin LL! I had a very fun time in all of the LLs that I went to today, especially Mrs. Naylor's English lesson. I feel safe saying that that was the most entertaining livelesson I have ever attended; lots of creative phrases were made.
Mwahaha, our group of 9 from the Semester party is planning another music party with more people at Miranda's house on the 4th of March... I'm so excited!
Wednesday
I worked for the last time at Anna's house today. I have many responsibilities, and the work I'm now doing over there can easily be done by a crew. I need to learn to just chill and leave some responsibilities to others.
Other than that, same old school.
This evening, our Varsity team organized a theme for these next three months: Cooking! We thought up a lot of different activity ideas, ranging from live chicken butchering to getting food-handling licences. We put our best ideas on the calendar; I'm so glad that everything worked out so well! We made salsa that night just for a warm up after planning.
Thursday
Where on earth does all of my time go? This week has been the craziest of my life so far. Today I had a dentist appointment, and was told that I'm not cleaning my teeth well enough when I brush. Haha, another weakness to strengthen!
Had a good piano practice as well; I'm simply loving my lessons with Hildegard of Grants Pass (likes to go by her "title" now and then for kicks!). As much as I feel I'm improving, I need to really step up on my piano practice. And guitar practice. And schoolwork. And scripture study. And family relations. And friend relations. And missionary work. And book reading. And scouting. And cleaning. And the rest of the list...
I love life! There is so much to do. How can one ever be bored?
Friday
Today was a blast! Got a bit of school in, then went to see Jeff Nelson (Grants Pass park coordinator) at 11. We set up the activity in our area for ORCA Cares Day: March 17th. We're going to replenish the wood chunks that make the paths throughout my most favorite park in our city: the Reinhart Volunteer Park. Again, Heavenly Father has given me such mercy for having everything work out just fine! I need to spend a ton of time on my knees thanking Him.
After chatting with Jeff (who's a really cool guy, by the way. He's a fan of Covey too!) I went back home, then was picked up by grandpa Seable to go to his house. And then it began...
Anthony Jarvis has become a digital songwriter. He now puts simple poems to simple music that he finds on this really cool music site! Anyways, he wrote an extra-cheesy song called "My Valentine" that he wanted to turn into a music video. Today I helped him do just that; you can find it in my videos on facebook. It was such a ridiculous song, but that was what made it so fun! Here's just a taste of his lyrics:
"For you I would do most anything,
I'd die or count all of the people in Beijing..."
We've decided to make a video this year for each holiday. We already have ideas for St. Patrick's Day...
Saturday
Today I got into movie-mode and decided to make a couple of guitar videos for a couple of birthday girls on facebook, as well as a cover of Longer by Dan Fogelburg. Then after doing a bit of schoolwork (cough, not enough) I went to go tract with the missionaries in our ward. We first met at the stake center with a few of the other Priesthood holders. Our goal was to go out and find a bunch of people whom we had not seen or heard from in the ward. And I think we did pretty successfully. In the individual groop I was in, we were only able to contact one guy, who was embarassed to come to church because of how rude some of the members were around his wife and daughter who are not members. But from what I hear from some of the other groops, we found some people who wanted home teachers to start coming back to them. Therefore, we were successful.
Once I was driven home from that, I made a few phone calls to some MB counselors and set some appointments. I've almost gotten everything done Merit Badge-wise; just wrapping up some different stuff this next coming week.
WHAT DID I DO WITH MY TIME TODAY? My word, why doesn't stuff on my task list get DONE? I need to work on prioritizing more; even Soke pointed out that weakness of mine when I practiced karate. I believe that this weakness can be made strong. I can do this, but not by my own power.
Schoolwork buildup...
This evening we went to grandma's house (the gathering place for all special occasions) to celebrate Aunt Kirsten's 40th birthday! I got to learn a lot more about her in the party games we played; I need to get to know this lady more! People shared fun family stories about her, such as the "intruder of the house" and "the amnesia incident". Kirsten's been in a ton of childhood accidents; it's amazing how she survived getting a hole gouged into her head by a falling statue, being bit by a savage (oh, HA. Savage) dog, accidentially stabbing herself to the bone with a spoon, and more! I love Kirsten; I'm going to have to get to know her more. By the way, she's 11 weeks pregnant!
Sunday
Today's sacrament meeting was fantastic! Katie Wooley had just returned from her mission, and gave a talk about her mission experience. President and Sister Woodley (yup, that's not a typo) also gave talks in sacrament meeting today about the temple. The strong testimonies from these two people who worked in the temple so much strengthened my own testimony greatly. I want to go to the temple! I'll have to make it a monthly committment when I am an adult.
After sacrament meeting we went to Sunday school, in which Brother Hancock taught us the lesson in which Jesus talkes to Nicodemus about being born again. I remember that Sister Baxter had taught me this lesson a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting the Baxters. It was much easier to be taught by the Spirit in Rory's classroom than Brother Hancock's, I feel. Maybe it was the throwing of chocolate, the disruptive talking of everyone else, and the objective-less teaching strategy of Brother Hancock that made it difficult to feel inspired in class today. I don't know. Maybe I should just change my attitude about it and see what I can do to make Sunday school more spiritual instead of blaming others.
In priesthood, Brother Evans taught us discipline in the way he does whenever our system for the sacrament bread messes up (the Sunday I was gone the system fell apart, oops!): he "forced" the members of our quorum to copy scripture for the whole lesson time. I suggested D&C 88, and so we spent that whole last 40 minutes copying the first verses of that section on scraps of paper.
After church, Sabrina came up with a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise: tomorrow afternoon, I and some of my guy friends are going to go and serenade Fa and Carmen at their house! I heard both of them say that they did not like Valentine's Day. We plan on turning that around, mwahahaha~!
Today was plan-out-the-week-day and prepare the house for missionaries to come; Elder Hill and his companion (dang it... forgot his name! Very new missionary.) came to dinner. We made some delicious Thai food for our Sunday meal: curry, pork, rice, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and brocoli. Delicious! Their message to us was delivered very well: if you want to be a good missionary, or student, or husband, or anything else, you need to be willing to do two things: to keep the right attitude, and work hard! I hope I can take their challenge to try harder to do that this week.
I did not sleep the night before this night. I shamefully admit that I destroyed my sleep patterns by finding and experimentingng with new movie making/sound recording software, while organizing the files on my computer. At this current stage of maturity that I am in, the word CLEAN=destroy what's making the mess if you don't know/don't care where it goes. I dumped all of the old school files on my computer, only to find out later that I accidentally got rid of an important NHS document where all of my recorded service hours were! Heavenly Father had mercy on me, however: I had just sent the file to Brianna so she could tally the service time, so I was able to get it back from her. I could have easily learned this lesson the hard way; when am I ever going to GROW UP?
As soon as I can bear the growing pain, I assume.
Today I worked at Anna's house again. She's married now, and is therefore getting ready to move.
Tuesday
I took some good notes in seminary today. What I got from Superhero Beckstead's lesson today were fantastic bits of knowledge such as "Most trials are self inflicted." "But Christ can even strengthen you in those ones." "Just because something is simple doesn't mean it's easy." "American continent motto: Inasmuch as ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." and "Hardships form togetherness."
Today was another good school day, with a lot of LLs. Thanks to Ceana, I remembered the Latin LL! I had a very fun time in all of the LLs that I went to today, especially Mrs. Naylor's English lesson. I feel safe saying that that was the most entertaining livelesson I have ever attended; lots of creative phrases were made.
Mwahaha, our group of 9 from the Semester party is planning another music party with more people at Miranda's house on the 4th of March... I'm so excited!
Wednesday
I worked for the last time at Anna's house today. I have many responsibilities, and the work I'm now doing over there can easily be done by a crew. I need to learn to just chill and leave some responsibilities to others.
Other than that, same old school.
This evening, our Varsity team organized a theme for these next three months: Cooking! We thought up a lot of different activity ideas, ranging from live chicken butchering to getting food-handling licences. We put our best ideas on the calendar; I'm so glad that everything worked out so well! We made salsa that night just for a warm up after planning.
Thursday
Where on earth does all of my time go? This week has been the craziest of my life so far. Today I had a dentist appointment, and was told that I'm not cleaning my teeth well enough when I brush. Haha, another weakness to strengthen!
Had a good piano practice as well; I'm simply loving my lessons with Hildegard of Grants Pass (likes to go by her "title" now and then for kicks!). As much as I feel I'm improving, I need to really step up on my piano practice. And guitar practice. And schoolwork. And scripture study. And family relations. And friend relations. And missionary work. And book reading. And scouting. And cleaning. And the rest of the list...
I love life! There is so much to do. How can one ever be bored?
Friday
Today was a blast! Got a bit of school in, then went to see Jeff Nelson (Grants Pass park coordinator) at 11. We set up the activity in our area for ORCA Cares Day: March 17th. We're going to replenish the wood chunks that make the paths throughout my most favorite park in our city: the Reinhart Volunteer Park. Again, Heavenly Father has given me such mercy for having everything work out just fine! I need to spend a ton of time on my knees thanking Him.
After chatting with Jeff (who's a really cool guy, by the way. He's a fan of Covey too!) I went back home, then was picked up by grandpa Seable to go to his house. And then it began...
Anthony Jarvis has become a digital songwriter. He now puts simple poems to simple music that he finds on this really cool music site! Anyways, he wrote an extra-cheesy song called "My Valentine" that he wanted to turn into a music video. Today I helped him do just that; you can find it in my videos on facebook. It was such a ridiculous song, but that was what made it so fun! Here's just a taste of his lyrics:
"For you I would do most anything,
I'd die or count all of the people in Beijing..."
We've decided to make a video this year for each holiday. We already have ideas for St. Patrick's Day...
Saturday
Today I got into movie-mode and decided to make a couple of guitar videos for a couple of birthday girls on facebook, as well as a cover of Longer by Dan Fogelburg. Then after doing a bit of schoolwork (cough, not enough) I went to go tract with the missionaries in our ward. We first met at the stake center with a few of the other Priesthood holders. Our goal was to go out and find a bunch of people whom we had not seen or heard from in the ward. And I think we did pretty successfully. In the individual groop I was in, we were only able to contact one guy, who was embarassed to come to church because of how rude some of the members were around his wife and daughter who are not members. But from what I hear from some of the other groops, we found some people who wanted home teachers to start coming back to them. Therefore, we were successful.
Once I was driven home from that, I made a few phone calls to some MB counselors and set some appointments. I've almost gotten everything done Merit Badge-wise; just wrapping up some different stuff this next coming week.
WHAT DID I DO WITH MY TIME TODAY? My word, why doesn't stuff on my task list get DONE? I need to work on prioritizing more; even Soke pointed out that weakness of mine when I practiced karate. I believe that this weakness can be made strong. I can do this, but not by my own power.
Schoolwork buildup...
This evening we went to grandma's house (the gathering place for all special occasions) to celebrate Aunt Kirsten's 40th birthday! I got to learn a lot more about her in the party games we played; I need to get to know this lady more! People shared fun family stories about her, such as the "intruder of the house" and "the amnesia incident". Kirsten's been in a ton of childhood accidents; it's amazing how she survived getting a hole gouged into her head by a falling statue, being bit by a savage (oh, HA. Savage) dog, accidentially stabbing herself to the bone with a spoon, and more! I love Kirsten; I'm going to have to get to know her more. By the way, she's 11 weeks pregnant!
Sunday
Today's sacrament meeting was fantastic! Katie Wooley had just returned from her mission, and gave a talk about her mission experience. President and Sister Woodley (yup, that's not a typo) also gave talks in sacrament meeting today about the temple. The strong testimonies from these two people who worked in the temple so much strengthened my own testimony greatly. I want to go to the temple! I'll have to make it a monthly committment when I am an adult.
After sacrament meeting we went to Sunday school, in which Brother Hancock taught us the lesson in which Jesus talkes to Nicodemus about being born again. I remember that Sister Baxter had taught me this lesson a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting the Baxters. It was much easier to be taught by the Spirit in Rory's classroom than Brother Hancock's, I feel. Maybe it was the throwing of chocolate, the disruptive talking of everyone else, and the objective-less teaching strategy of Brother Hancock that made it difficult to feel inspired in class today. I don't know. Maybe I should just change my attitude about it and see what I can do to make Sunday school more spiritual instead of blaming others.
In priesthood, Brother Evans taught us discipline in the way he does whenever our system for the sacrament bread messes up (the Sunday I was gone the system fell apart, oops!): he "forced" the members of our quorum to copy scripture for the whole lesson time. I suggested D&C 88, and so we spent that whole last 40 minutes copying the first verses of that section on scraps of paper.
After church, Sabrina came up with a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise: tomorrow afternoon, I and some of my guy friends are going to go and serenade Fa and Carmen at their house! I heard both of them say that they did not like Valentine's Day. We plan on turning that around, mwahahaha~!
Today was plan-out-the-week-day and prepare the house for missionaries to come; Elder Hill and his companion (dang it... forgot his name! Very new missionary.) came to dinner. We made some delicious Thai food for our Sunday meal: curry, pork, rice, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and brocoli. Delicious! Their message to us was delivered very well: if you want to be a good missionary, or student, or husband, or anything else, you need to be willing to do two things: to keep the right attitude, and work hard! I hope I can take their challenge to try harder to do that this week.
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