Another busy week! I think I'll keep up this keep-journal-then-write-it-up-in-blog-on-Sundays routine.
Monday
Today I went to grandpa Seable's house to work on a project with him. I didn't get much schoolwork done, but I'm glad I got to spend some time with the old man. While I was there, grandpa and I got to meet a man called Dr. Fong, a man who was still learning English, coming from China. Grandpa, having gone on a mission to China, was the man that somebody from the church sent him to. We talked a lot about Chinese culture and Western culture, family size, religion, and the physical differences of our countries. Grandpa gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon, which he accepted gratefully. He even fried some dumplings for us to sample! Dr. Fong was a very kind, smart man; it was a pleasure to meet him. Today was Calvin Jarvis's 14th birthday, so I dropped by their house to wish him a happy birthday and play a couple of party games before I left.
Tuesday
Today I was "on call" for my babysitting job. At 10 in the morning, Sis. Chapman gave me a call, telling me that Issac was sick and needed a babysitter at home while she worked. So after throwing my planner, notes, textbook, and piano music into a backpack, I was out the door. Organization defeated once again! Not very many things got done on my to-do list today, I shamefully admit.
Wednesday
Same old routine of regular schoolwork in the morning, tutoring job in the afternoon. But this evening was wonderful!
For as long as I can remember, the scout troop I have been apart of has been very small. This has been a big damper on our activities, making scouting not as delightful of an experience as it could and should be. Thankfully, the Stake realized this problem and came to a solution: combine the wards' scout troops! This will give us a much better "army", more hands on deck, and an overall better experience for everybody!
Tonight was the first meeting of the Tri-troop, in which we tried to organize the leadership and setup new plans. I was called to be the represenative for the Murphy Creek ward in the new troop's "presidency". Haha! Now I'll actually be able to PLAN FUN STUFF for us to do! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
We already have some great ideas for themes and ideas for the troop to focus on. We're going to discuss it more this coming week, but the idea is that we'll have a new theme every three months, as well as a rotation of the leadership. This will give every boy the opportunity to practice leadership skills. I'm SO happy about this, scouting is going to be fantastic!
Thursday
Today I went to grandpa's house again after seminary. We've been studying around section 88 of the D&C, which has been such a spiritual treat, by the way.
We finished our project there that day.
Anthony told me today that he is now doing dentistry apprenticeship with a guy in his ward! He's learning all about all of the procedures, and is getting paid for it too. I'm so happy for him; he's found his dream job! Why didn't I ever see it in him before? Anthony's personality is very much like one of a dentist. I'd feel comfortable letting some jolly, gentle giant like him work on my teeth.
This whole week has been such an amazing trial of patience with myself. I allowed other priorities to get in the way with my most urgent one: schoolwork. It was really terrible feeling, and I felt very out of control. But now I can see that it'll all turn out. I'll work to work it out. "Promise you kid..."
Friday
Mwahaha, today was school on steroids for me. I'm not used to studying very hard for really long periods of time, but that was what I did for the Biology Exam today. It was crazy; my brain felt like exploding. But it felt awesome, like the way your legs feel after working out and then walking down stairs, once it was all over. I found this really amazing channel on youtube that helped a TON in my review of this semester. Its called kahnacademy, a channel full of free lessons in many many subjects in high school and college levels. Biology, History, pre-Calculus, you name it. I have this new goal: to go through ALL of the lessons on his channel! It'll be fun, and will keep my brain in shape during the Summer months.
I did well on my Biology Exam, getting a straight A! I know that my Heavenly Father was really helping me in my review today; I remember feeling spiritual promptings to study a little bit longer, or to review one certain thing a bit more. I am so grateful for Him, and I give him all of the credit for doing well today, and for helping me find kahnacademy.
Saturday
Today I went to a pancake breakfast at Applebees for a school fundraiser that my cousin Anson Savage was involved in. Suprise suprise, the Jarvis boys were there too: Jefferson, Anthony, Calvin, and Alex! We sat at the table and talked about school and life in general some more, waiting for the young waitress to come and bring more pancakes. I must say, there are few things cuter than a smiley 10 year old waitress who carries to you a big plate of pancakes and says politely, "There ya go, sir!"
After the breakfast my father and I went to Bro. Sutherlund's house and then to Bro. Riordan's house. To these two men (one was the Varsity scoutmaster, the other another important scouting postition in the Stake) I presented my Eagle Scout project plan. Both of them gave advice as to how I should edit the project or add to it, but both of them thought it was a great idea and gave me the needed signatures that I came to them for. This week I hope to give the form some finishing touches and get it sent in so we can get started on the landscaping and have it done in March! (it takes awhile for the Eagle Board to approve of the project)
Sunday
Op! It's time to get to a fireside out of town; I'll tell you about today later.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week in Review
Whoo! This week has been busy and wonderful! Let's see if I can remember Monday... Oh wait, I don't even have to! *opens up planner*
Monday
On Monday I did a crazy crackdown on Latin. I had planned to do a lot of other things too, but some of those things (such as guitar practice and Engineering MB work) had to be moved to a later date. Sis. Sleagol taught us in seminary; she is the Stake substitute seminary teacher. She started us off by trying to get the class to sing a hymn before starting, a ritual that Bro. Beckstead does not do. I was the only one that sang. I love Sis. Sleagol; she has a very sweet spirit.
Today I got to talk to Ceana on the phone, yay!
Tuesday
On Tuesday I ALMOST got done with Latin. I slayed it for the semester on Thursday. Other than that, this day really flew by. I missed a Government LL, unfortunately. I missed a lot of things today. Where on earth was I?? Hm... Oh wait, I remember! Today I took down TWO Latin portfolio assignments.
Later this evening I got to talk with one of the coolest old guys in the ward about the Engineering Merit Badge: Bro. Fryer. He was our old scoutmaster, but now young-and-busy Dr. Johnson holds that position. Bro. Fryer has this really cool style of teaching; he's a middle school teacher by trade. Being very smart and clever, he was able to make the discussed realm of work simply fascinating. It was a lot of fun getting started on that MB with him.
Wednesday
Sis. Sleagol (she is still substituting) brought donuts to seminary!
Worked on Latin... continued to get behind in everything else today. Today I was privileged to go and start my tutoring career over at Ana Chapman's house. I "child-sat" (he doesn't like the other term) Issac for the afternoon, and we had a pretty good time! He's a very smart boy; he just needs to learn to focus just a bit better!
After doing that, I got to go to the Medford temple to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in my ward. I had a wonderful time; I always learn or am reminded of something there, even though I'm not doing initiatories or endowments. The spirit is so strong in the temple, and the veil is thin. I didn't see anything metaphysical, but I believe that I would if I needed to. It has happened to others many times before.
We walked over to the nearby Stake Center after doing the service for the departed to congratulate Josh Hancock for receiving his Eagle Scout award. I hope to be next; this coming July is the deadline for me!
Thursday
Today the dragon of Latin II A was decapitated by the sword of ridiculously working ahead! Phew, I'm glad to have it over with. Honors Government is next, mwahaha!
I called the Employment Missionaries earlier this week to ask when they held the LDS Employment Seminar. They said that it was coming up this week and would go on Thursday and Friday! The old couple doing the Seminar were Brother and Sister Ross; two amazing people I have come to dearly love. Today I got to go to the first half of the seminar. I enjoyed it, even though it was the very first time the Rosses were doing it! Only 4 other people were there: (ug, I don't remember their names, isn't that terrible? There's another goal of mine: to remember names.) A nice old lady that brought cake, had 9 children, and was into real estate and herb-selling, a middle aged man who had a good public speaking voice and a very smart, computer-savvy brain, a veteran who was there just to learn about the program so he could teach it, and a newlywed lady who had experience in childcare and veterinary help. It was great learning more about the job market with this group!
Brother Ross and Sister Ross are two enthusiastic, hyper old people who are madly in love. Bro. Ross was a cop and Sis. Ross was a business manager. Brother Ross is blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, but I didn't even know that until Sister Ross blurted it out. I learned something new about people with brown eyes: We go blind in old age if we try to read in the dark when we're young. "Oh no---, I'm going to be BLIND! Ah well; it'll probably be the Millennium by the time I'm as old as you!"
Afterwards the two kind missionaries helped me setup my account on ldsjobs.com: a site full of amazing information for employees, self-employed people, and business owners! I'm so excited to explore that site, once my plate has less stuff on it. I recommend going to the LDS Employment seminar to anyone interested in doing well in the future.
Friday
Today I got close to wrapping up Honors Government, but didn't make it. Just one Unit Test and the Exam left!
We finished the Seminar today. I learned a lot more wonderful information, but now there's a lot of "homework" to do for it. I loved the experience; it was definitely worth my time.
At 5, our scout troop got on our snow clothes, brought our big hiking backpacks, and drove to the snowy, heavenly hills sprinkled with black evergreen trees which resembled ants from a distance. The location was Esther Applegate, near Lake of the Woods. The spot was a girl's camp during the summer, and was covered in 6 ft deep snow during the winter. We even played around on the frozen lake while we were there!
What made the trip ten times better was that the Redwood ward's youth was coming along too! And what made it ten times more fantastic was the fact that the young women from the Redwood ward came! The other ward stayed in the cabins there, while my scout troop stayed in tents. AND I LIKED THE GRITTIN' EXPERIENCE TOO! (roll the "r"s for this sentence).
Saturday
The morning after our blissful slumber we had a fun time in the snow! After helping out the troop with the biscuits and gravy, and getting all packed up, I entered one of the cabins for a second breakfast and to spend some time with my Jarvis cousins! They had French toast and orange juice, yum. The rest of the day was filled with snowball fights and sled riding. I got to meet or see a lot of new people from the Redwood ward as well: Miranda, Richard, Samantha, William, Stephanie, Farren, Brittani, and Chloe, as well as a bunch of enthusiastic leaders.
We had a big snowball fight on the icy lake! Both Anthony and Jefferson (each weighing 250+ pounds) were reluctant to go out too far. At times when Miranda was pelting me to death with snowballs I would shout "Alliance!" to which she would reply in rhyme, "Defiance!" Calvin would get up on the lifeguard seat and throw snowballs from up there, while others returned the favor. It reminded me of Samuel the Lamanite, or King Benjamin.
When we all got home, I was very tired. After helping the family and practicing piano, I decided to take a facebook break, a decision I regret. I had other priorities to work on, but I decided to spend the end of the week with something trivial. I need to learn to focus on what matters most even when I feel weak, and also to be moderate in all things. Get some balance, Keenan!
Sunday
Today I went to church, did home teaching and had some good time studying Moroni 7 (my current most favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon), Think Independently, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, and The Bonds That Make us Free.
It was our ward conference today, and President Lathan gave a talk in sacrament meeting. His talk emphasized building our personal relationships with Christ. I loved his talk, and realize that doing what he pleaded us to do is more important than any of these things that I am doing to prepare for the future. I am so excited for my mission! In Sunday School our teacher never showed up, so the class members all caught up with each other instead. I read a bit of Carmen's journal, which was in Spanish, and I can honestly say that I understood it a bit. I feel like after studying Latin, the Romantic languages will be very easy to learn. The young men's presidency was there for Priesthood, and gave some wonderful talks to our ward's young men. The most memorable talk that was given was by the First counselor. It was called "Be True to What You Know". The steps we discussed were 1. Make Decisions in Advance, 2. Make A Commitment to do What is Right, 3. Stay as Far Away From Temptation as Possible, 4. Do what is Right and be Blessed.
This next week is going to be busy as well; go forward in faith!
Monday
On Monday I did a crazy crackdown on Latin. I had planned to do a lot of other things too, but some of those things (such as guitar practice and Engineering MB work) had to be moved to a later date. Sis. Sleagol taught us in seminary; she is the Stake substitute seminary teacher. She started us off by trying to get the class to sing a hymn before starting, a ritual that Bro. Beckstead does not do. I was the only one that sang. I love Sis. Sleagol; she has a very sweet spirit.
Today I got to talk to Ceana on the phone, yay!
Tuesday
On Tuesday I ALMOST got done with Latin. I slayed it for the semester on Thursday. Other than that, this day really flew by. I missed a Government LL, unfortunately. I missed a lot of things today. Where on earth was I?? Hm... Oh wait, I remember! Today I took down TWO Latin portfolio assignments.
Later this evening I got to talk with one of the coolest old guys in the ward about the Engineering Merit Badge: Bro. Fryer. He was our old scoutmaster, but now young-and-busy Dr. Johnson holds that position. Bro. Fryer has this really cool style of teaching; he's a middle school teacher by trade. Being very smart and clever, he was able to make the discussed realm of work simply fascinating. It was a lot of fun getting started on that MB with him.
Wednesday
Sis. Sleagol (she is still substituting) brought donuts to seminary!
Worked on Latin... continued to get behind in everything else today. Today I was privileged to go and start my tutoring career over at Ana Chapman's house. I "child-sat" (he doesn't like the other term) Issac for the afternoon, and we had a pretty good time! He's a very smart boy; he just needs to learn to focus just a bit better!
After doing that, I got to go to the Medford temple to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in my ward. I had a wonderful time; I always learn or am reminded of something there, even though I'm not doing initiatories or endowments. The spirit is so strong in the temple, and the veil is thin. I didn't see anything metaphysical, but I believe that I would if I needed to. It has happened to others many times before.
We walked over to the nearby Stake Center after doing the service for the departed to congratulate Josh Hancock for receiving his Eagle Scout award. I hope to be next; this coming July is the deadline for me!
Thursday
Today the dragon of Latin II A was decapitated by the sword of ridiculously working ahead! Phew, I'm glad to have it over with. Honors Government is next, mwahaha!
I called the Employment Missionaries earlier this week to ask when they held the LDS Employment Seminar. They said that it was coming up this week and would go on Thursday and Friday! The old couple doing the Seminar were Brother and Sister Ross; two amazing people I have come to dearly love. Today I got to go to the first half of the seminar. I enjoyed it, even though it was the very first time the Rosses were doing it! Only 4 other people were there: (ug, I don't remember their names, isn't that terrible? There's another goal of mine: to remember names.) A nice old lady that brought cake, had 9 children, and was into real estate and herb-selling, a middle aged man who had a good public speaking voice and a very smart, computer-savvy brain, a veteran who was there just to learn about the program so he could teach it, and a newlywed lady who had experience in childcare and veterinary help. It was great learning more about the job market with this group!
Brother Ross and Sister Ross are two enthusiastic, hyper old people who are madly in love. Bro. Ross was a cop and Sis. Ross was a business manager. Brother Ross is blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, but I didn't even know that until Sister Ross blurted it out. I learned something new about people with brown eyes: We go blind in old age if we try to read in the dark when we're young. "Oh no---, I'm going to be BLIND! Ah well; it'll probably be the Millennium by the time I'm as old as you!"
Afterwards the two kind missionaries helped me setup my account on ldsjobs.com: a site full of amazing information for employees, self-employed people, and business owners! I'm so excited to explore that site, once my plate has less stuff on it. I recommend going to the LDS Employment seminar to anyone interested in doing well in the future.
Friday
Today I got close to wrapping up Honors Government, but didn't make it. Just one Unit Test and the Exam left!
We finished the Seminar today. I learned a lot more wonderful information, but now there's a lot of "homework" to do for it. I loved the experience; it was definitely worth my time.
At 5, our scout troop got on our snow clothes, brought our big hiking backpacks, and drove to the snowy, heavenly hills sprinkled with black evergreen trees which resembled ants from a distance. The location was Esther Applegate, near Lake of the Woods. The spot was a girl's camp during the summer, and was covered in 6 ft deep snow during the winter. We even played around on the frozen lake while we were there!
What made the trip ten times better was that the Redwood ward's youth was coming along too! And what made it ten times more fantastic was the fact that the young women from the Redwood ward came! The other ward stayed in the cabins there, while my scout troop stayed in tents. AND I LIKED THE GRITTIN' EXPERIENCE TOO! (roll the "r"s for this sentence).
Saturday
The morning after our blissful slumber we had a fun time in the snow! After helping out the troop with the biscuits and gravy, and getting all packed up, I entered one of the cabins for a second breakfast and to spend some time with my Jarvis cousins! They had French toast and orange juice, yum. The rest of the day was filled with snowball fights and sled riding. I got to meet or see a lot of new people from the Redwood ward as well: Miranda, Richard, Samantha, William, Stephanie, Farren, Brittani, and Chloe, as well as a bunch of enthusiastic leaders.
We had a big snowball fight on the icy lake! Both Anthony and Jefferson (each weighing 250+ pounds) were reluctant to go out too far. At times when Miranda was pelting me to death with snowballs I would shout "Alliance!" to which she would reply in rhyme, "Defiance!" Calvin would get up on the lifeguard seat and throw snowballs from up there, while others returned the favor. It reminded me of Samuel the Lamanite, or King Benjamin.
When we all got home, I was very tired. After helping the family and practicing piano, I decided to take a facebook break, a decision I regret. I had other priorities to work on, but I decided to spend the end of the week with something trivial. I need to learn to focus on what matters most even when I feel weak, and also to be moderate in all things. Get some balance, Keenan!
Sunday
Today I went to church, did home teaching and had some good time studying Moroni 7 (my current most favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon), Think Independently, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, and The Bonds That Make us Free.
It was our ward conference today, and President Lathan gave a talk in sacrament meeting. His talk emphasized building our personal relationships with Christ. I loved his talk, and realize that doing what he pleaded us to do is more important than any of these things that I am doing to prepare for the future. I am so excited for my mission! In Sunday School our teacher never showed up, so the class members all caught up with each other instead. I read a bit of Carmen's journal, which was in Spanish, and I can honestly say that I understood it a bit. I feel like after studying Latin, the Romantic languages will be very easy to learn. The young men's presidency was there for Priesthood, and gave some wonderful talks to our ward's young men. The most memorable talk that was given was by the First counselor. It was called "Be True to What You Know". The steps we discussed were 1. Make Decisions in Advance, 2. Make A Commitment to do What is Right, 3. Stay as Far Away From Temptation as Possible, 4. Do what is Right and be Blessed.
This next week is going to be busy as well; go forward in faith!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Crunchtime for school
Don't expect too many blog posts this January; I've got a LOT of homework to work on! I'm going to quickly summarize my latest journal entries and then go to sleep so I can take care of all of this fascinating, yet pressing work.
1/3/11
Woke up from a bean bag and helped put away Christmas decorations. Later that day Diego and Shane came over, bringing guitars and amps. We jammed some more and had a crazy time! Some of the songs we played were Better Together (Diego brought an acoustic-electric ukelele!), Dead or Alive, Grace Kelly, Haven't Met You Yet, What Hurts The Most (which is now online), and Vanilla Twilight. Autumn played some of her other piano+voice solos, which were pretty awesome. They all have her Autumn-y style, hm, how to describe it? Free flow, changes in rhythm, emphasis on major chords, emotional alto-level melodies, and poetic lyrics. She has a ton, but the two that I remember that she played today was It Must Be Love and Do You Want to Know Me. I've said it once, and I'll say it again; I'm her #1 fan! Well, I still have to take care of all of those other "Autumn's #1 fans" out there...
For family night most of the family got to go to a Les Miserables rehearsal. It's early in their practice, so now they're only practicing songs. Autumn has the role of Fantine! I had fun singing along with the rest of the group as we rehearsed Act I. Their director (whose name happened to be Scott) was amazing in his leadership and vocals. He had a very powerful voice and an overwhelming voice range! I even made some new friends as I sang. Not only is the music wonderful, but the story is a very inspiring tale all about forgiveness and mercy in a cruel, unbalanced society. At the most filthy part of the play, I felt tears come to my eyes when Val Jean pledged to care for Fantine and Cosette, and to save Fantine from the horrible situation she was in. It made me think of how the Savior is willing to help all of us, no matter how low we've come. I wanted to be in the play very much by the time we were through. They are going to have a great time with that!
The Finale is AWESOME! I think I'll have to learn it on guitar (tch, as well as it can be played with just a guitar...)
1/4/11
Early in the morning, we went to Denny's to meet Diego and some guy named Zack to play Jenga and drink extremely overpriced hot chocolate. Good times, even though my internal value of Thrift was screaming. $2 dollars for a 10 cent cup of chocolate! But hey, we had a good time anyway. I finished Nightlight that morning, a parody of Twilight written by some college students. The ending wasn't very interesting, but the beginning was hilarious. I guess maybe the humor was stronger at the beginning but then grew old as the story neared to the end. That and I think the poor writers ran out of ideas.
Autumn had an eye doctor appointment today, and needed a ninja to follow her so creeps wouldn't get her. But she couldn't find a ninja, so she had to take me along instead. It was a lot of fun. We were dropped off early, and so we ran around in a nearby mall (btw, Windsor is VERY urbanized. A very well developed city. A lot of engineers must live there. Well duh, Autumn's dad is one of them! anyways...) and nothing was there. All of the shops were closed, but that was probably just because everyone else was at school or work. We ran to a gas station, bought a disposable camera, brought it back to the empty mall, and then took random pictures of us doing crazy things there! We had one of Autumn hunched up on some very tall display like a statue (one thing we wouldn't do if the mall was open), and another with my legs sticking from under the same display. So we went on and kept on taking those sort of pictures, until we got BUSTED. That's right. As Autumn sat in a fancy swivel chair holding up some cardboard sign-thing goofily to my camera, a mall cop walked towards us. I'm going to add a few juicy details just to make the encounter more interesting....
"Hey! What are you doing over there?" The man growled as he advanced.
"Oh, hi officer! We were just taking pictures. In an empty mall." Autumn said to the man from her swivel chair.
"(shouldn't you kids be in school?) Why are you here?" He inquired.
"Oh, I have an appointment over there and we were just..."
"Mhm. Well, I could send you both to prison, but I'll let you off. You can't take pictures in a mall, for one thing. Copyrighted stores, you know. And second of all, tt's against the law to be inside of a closed mall if you are not walking. You can't just sit there."
I looked over at this point, and noticed some elderly person who was quietly sitting on a bench in the distance, his back turned to us.
"Alright, I guess we'll just go then." I said as I started walking towards the closest exit.
"Wait! Officer, can Keenan take a picture of you and me real quick? Last one, I promise! Pleeeeeaase?" Autumn whimpered, using her well practiced airhead-innocent-believable-girl act.
"No, now get out of here."
And so we left, but just as the officer walked away, Autumn snuck a picture of him!
And that is my latest crime.
No, that didn't really happen. But we were joking about the incident afterwards and by the time we were done beefing up the story it came to be something like that. But those two reasons he came up to us were really the reasons why he had to tell us to leave. The bureaucracy is EVERYWHERE! They've got laws for everything.
We sat at the bus stop for awhile after Autumn's optometrist appointment, reading good stuff. If you ever want a really wonderful and clever read, read Proverbs all the way through. It's a very fun book to read. That day was the first day I have EVER used a public bus for transportation (not counting those ones the stake used to get our youth to Wyoming for the Trek last summer); it was awesome! It even had wifi!
Not much longer after we got back, grandma and grandpa finally drove up to take us home. They had went to Concord to go to an old friend's funeral, and they were just picking us up on their way back to Oregon. It was a smooth ride home.
These past two days back home have been full of cleaning, organizing, dreaming up visions for the future, and schoolwork. Ha, so much for being brief! Oh well. Don't expect too much blogging going on this month; everything's piling up! There are so many things needing attention.
1/3/11
Woke up from a bean bag and helped put away Christmas decorations. Later that day Diego and Shane came over, bringing guitars and amps. We jammed some more and had a crazy time! Some of the songs we played were Better Together (Diego brought an acoustic-electric ukelele!), Dead or Alive, Grace Kelly, Haven't Met You Yet, What Hurts The Most (which is now online), and Vanilla Twilight. Autumn played some of her other piano+voice solos, which were pretty awesome. They all have her Autumn-y style, hm, how to describe it? Free flow, changes in rhythm, emphasis on major chords, emotional alto-level melodies, and poetic lyrics. She has a ton, but the two that I remember that she played today was It Must Be Love and Do You Want to Know Me. I've said it once, and I'll say it again; I'm her #1 fan! Well, I still have to take care of all of those other "Autumn's #1 fans" out there...
For family night most of the family got to go to a Les Miserables rehearsal. It's early in their practice, so now they're only practicing songs. Autumn has the role of Fantine! I had fun singing along with the rest of the group as we rehearsed Act I. Their director (whose name happened to be Scott) was amazing in his leadership and vocals. He had a very powerful voice and an overwhelming voice range! I even made some new friends as I sang. Not only is the music wonderful, but the story is a very inspiring tale all about forgiveness and mercy in a cruel, unbalanced society. At the most filthy part of the play, I felt tears come to my eyes when Val Jean pledged to care for Fantine and Cosette, and to save Fantine from the horrible situation she was in. It made me think of how the Savior is willing to help all of us, no matter how low we've come. I wanted to be in the play very much by the time we were through. They are going to have a great time with that!
The Finale is AWESOME! I think I'll have to learn it on guitar (tch, as well as it can be played with just a guitar...)
1/4/11
Early in the morning, we went to Denny's to meet Diego and some guy named Zack to play Jenga and drink extremely overpriced hot chocolate. Good times, even though my internal value of Thrift was screaming. $2 dollars for a 10 cent cup of chocolate! But hey, we had a good time anyway. I finished Nightlight that morning, a parody of Twilight written by some college students. The ending wasn't very interesting, but the beginning was hilarious. I guess maybe the humor was stronger at the beginning but then grew old as the story neared to the end. That and I think the poor writers ran out of ideas.
Autumn had an eye doctor appointment today, and needed a ninja to follow her so creeps wouldn't get her. But she couldn't find a ninja, so she had to take me along instead. It was a lot of fun. We were dropped off early, and so we ran around in a nearby mall (btw, Windsor is VERY urbanized. A very well developed city. A lot of engineers must live there. Well duh, Autumn's dad is one of them! anyways...) and nothing was there. All of the shops were closed, but that was probably just because everyone else was at school or work. We ran to a gas station, bought a disposable camera, brought it back to the empty mall, and then took random pictures of us doing crazy things there! We had one of Autumn hunched up on some very tall display like a statue (one thing we wouldn't do if the mall was open), and another with my legs sticking from under the same display. So we went on and kept on taking those sort of pictures, until we got BUSTED. That's right. As Autumn sat in a fancy swivel chair holding up some cardboard sign-thing goofily to my camera, a mall cop walked towards us. I'm going to add a few juicy details just to make the encounter more interesting....
"Hey! What are you doing over there?" The man growled as he advanced.
"Oh, hi officer! We were just taking pictures. In an empty mall." Autumn said to the man from her swivel chair.
"(shouldn't you kids be in school?) Why are you here?" He inquired.
"Oh, I have an appointment over there and we were just..."
"Mhm. Well, I could send you both to prison, but I'll let you off. You can't take pictures in a mall, for one thing. Copyrighted stores, you know. And second of all, tt's against the law to be inside of a closed mall if you are not walking. You can't just sit there."
I looked over at this point, and noticed some elderly person who was quietly sitting on a bench in the distance, his back turned to us.
"Alright, I guess we'll just go then." I said as I started walking towards the closest exit.
"Wait! Officer, can Keenan take a picture of you and me real quick? Last one, I promise! Pleeeeeaase?" Autumn whimpered, using her well practiced airhead-innocent-believable-girl act.
"No, now get out of here."
And so we left, but just as the officer walked away, Autumn snuck a picture of him!
And that is my latest crime.
No, that didn't really happen. But we were joking about the incident afterwards and by the time we were done beefing up the story it came to be something like that. But those two reasons he came up to us were really the reasons why he had to tell us to leave. The bureaucracy is EVERYWHERE! They've got laws for everything.
We sat at the bus stop for awhile after Autumn's optometrist appointment, reading good stuff. If you ever want a really wonderful and clever read, read Proverbs all the way through. It's a very fun book to read. That day was the first day I have EVER used a public bus for transportation (not counting those ones the stake used to get our youth to Wyoming for the Trek last summer); it was awesome! It even had wifi!
Not much longer after we got back, grandma and grandpa finally drove up to take us home. They had went to Concord to go to an old friend's funeral, and they were just picking us up on their way back to Oregon. It was a smooth ride home.
These past two days back home have been full of cleaning, organizing, dreaming up visions for the future, and schoolwork. Ha, so much for being brief! Oh well. Don't expect too much blogging going on this month; everything's piling up! There are so many things needing attention.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
(rough) cover of What Hurts The Most
while hanging out at the Cullens, I got to play around with my cousins and some other musically oriented friends! This is one of the many songs we played: What Hurts the most by Rascal Flatts!
Lead singer and violinist: Autumn
Cellist: Spring
Guitarists: Diego, Shane, and Keenan
Bassist: Ben
(our version of) What Hurts The Most
Okay, one of the songs some of my musician buddies were messing around with was What Hurts The Most by Rascal Flatts.
Lead singer: Autumn
Cellist: Spring
Violinist: Autumn
Guitarists: Diego, Shane and Keenan
Bassist: Ben
"what hurts the most... is a piece of toast..." "That is so gro------ss!"
Lead singer: Autumn
Cellist: Spring
Violinist: Autumn
Guitarists: Diego, Shane and Keenan
Bassist: Ben
"what hurts the most... is a piece of toast..." "That is so gro------ss!"
Monday, January 3, 2011
First days of the best year YET!
Editor's note: I wrote this yesternight; my internet connection was not working.
Ah, I've been having such a wonderful time this weekend! The day before yesterday grandma and grandpa Seable picked Sabrina and me up from our house at 9:30. Then we drove all the way down to Martinez, CA in 6 hours. On the way there I was privileged to read some fantastic self-help books, mess around with my new Franklin Planner, and watch this neat series that my grandma and grandpa had all about the Messiah and His life. We watched the two about His pre-mortal life and His birth and childhood on the way down; they were amazingly insightful. I'm excited to listen to the rest of them on the trip up (I think grandpa will let me drive home!)
When we got to the town, we drove to great grandma Perona's house (my grandma's mom) first to drop off our suitcases and such. I love grandma Perona! There's something cool about kind, old people. They have gone through so much in this life, and have such a history. I don't even remember great grandpa Perona; he died when I was really little. He was a family hero, from what I've heard about him. I am very excited to meet him.
After dropping our stuff off at grandma's we went to the nearby stake center to get the cultural hall all set up for our family fling. It turned out that the "crazy Italians" were not able to make it, or the Cullens. Ah well; we still had a good time. Everyone else made it, and instead of going to a dance, my 13 year old cousin Josh Lipman and I shot it out with Nerf darts on the church lawn. We had a great time. Afterwards we went back to Josh's house, played some pool, chatted about life, and played a video game. It was good bonding time. My goodness, we had crazy plans for bombing the stake dance... Here was our first idea: 1. When aunt Sarah would go to pick up Jessika, Sabrina, and Rachel from the dance, we would come along... wearing nothing but swimming shorts and wild paint all over our bodies! We would go in and scream and dance and spray people with silly string and then run out. At first I thought it would be a good idea; nobody knows me there! But Josh didn't want to destroy his reputation, and so he decided to only help me get ready for it. Just before we were about to defile my temple with markers, I felt prompted to stop the idea and go with alternative two, which was this. 2. We would cover ourselves with glow-bracelets (even have them clipped onto our noses!), run into the dance, dance like crazy, spray people with silly string, and then run out.
We walked up to the large building slowly and calmly, keeping our silly string in our pockets, like terrorists ready to strike. We slipped by the chaperons with suaveness into the noisy room. We waded through the huge crowd of adolescents, into the middle of the dance floor. And then we began our wild dance. We got out the silly string, girls started to scream, we started to scream, and flail our arms AND legs. A circle gathered around us both, and at this point I could tell that Josh was having the time of his life. It was a very fun experience indeed.
The next morning, we all woke up, and just chilled around the Lipman house. I babysat while Sarah was, where was she? I don't know; t'was mom stuff. Read books, played guitar, just had a pretty laid back time. By 8 that night, the Cullens drove in! Hooray! I was so so happy to meet them. All night, we got all caught up with each other; it was so good to see them again! I am Autumn's #1 fan; she's an amazing songwriter! It is because of her that I felt inspired to write my own songs.Well, I guess I have to duke it out with Jessika to find out who is the REAL #1 fan...
Today we went to church, and I was amazed by the Martinez ward! It seems that their stake is paying almost all of the expenses for ALL of their youth to go to EFY in Idaho this summer! Each kid simply has to pay $100 dollars to come. The structure of the meetings was different in this ward; they had Sunday School, Priesthood (or YW or RS), then Sacrament meeting. It was wonderful; all of the teachers were so nice! When I walked into priesthood I was overwhelmed by the swarm of Deacons. My thoughts were, "Oh my word; look at them! They're everywhere!" It excited me to see so many young Priesthood holders all over the place; it was a thrill. I decided to hang out with the Deacons, my cousins Ben and Josh were with them anyways. Best group of Deacons I have ever seen. Their President actually had some leadership skills. It was inspiring, and their teachers were very strong, spiritually speaking. After the lesson, all of them KNELT for the closing prayer!
Testimony meeting in Sacrament meeting was a blast. Aunt Heather (my hero!) bore her testimony about missionary work today. It was very moving; I need to pray more for missionary experiences, and then take the opportunity!
Later that day, I left with the Cullens to Windsor; a town an hour and a half north (a.k.a., where they live). I'm going to hang out here 'till Wednesday until my grandparents bring me back home on their way back up. On the drive here, I talked to Aunt Heather more about missionary work. She said that you must emphasize community service; get out there and show them what we're about, know what I mean? You won't get missionary opportunities just staying at home. She suggested I do some service at a school within bike-riding distance. My grade school, Fruitdale Elementary, was just the school for it. When I was there as a wild little guy, I didn't show a very good example of the believers. Being a teacher's assistant there would definitely help me fix my scarred past, as well as get me some service hours and teaching me how to deal with swarms of children. The scenario is perfect; I'll contact the principal as soon as I get home.
When we got there, we got all of our stuff in, (they had just got back from a huge and wonderful vacation) we had a music night! It was AWESOME! So Spring (14) got out her cello, Ben (13) got out his bass guitar, Ephraim (8) got out his xylophone, Sabrina got out her camera, Autumn (16) got on the piano, and I got out my guitar. And we jammed! We were all learning and playing one of Autumn's songs. We were experimenting with when some instruments should come in and such; it was just great! The song we practiced as a group is called Stand, and the style of it was (as are most of Autumn's songs) Broadway-Pop flavored. Her songs vaguely remind me of Come What May from Moulin Rouge. (btw, Autumn just said to use Clearplay if anyone plans on watching that film...) Here are the lyrics to Stand:
I have been given this body
to obtain my highest worth
I have been given a mission
I was chosen before my birth
And I will do my part
To penetrate the dark
Helping those who will knock and ask
To turn their hearts
Chorus:
I will fight my fight
In the army of the Lord
I will do what's right
I will gain eternal reward
And I will raise my voice in song
The battle cry of the strong
I will return after so long
Back home where I belong
I will achieve my potential
A stripling warriors reward
World's without number
I will live the life of the Lord
When doubts and temptations surround
I set mine eyes on my Father's glory
I can high to Kolob
Added upon I will be!
Chorus
Guitar Solo... fade...
She has a ton of very cleverly written songs! I just adore her genius; and it's all so integrated with the gospel too!
We spent the rest of the night just messing around. Autumn got out her "Book of Fun Songs" and we played and sang around the piano for hours! A ton of popular music was played, such as You Raise Me Up, Far Away, Love Song, Fall For You, Poker Face (yes... that one. Oh wait, Autumn made a parody for that one called Choker Face: a song that helps you remember the steps for CPR!), Cristofori's Dream, Hallelujah, Another One Bites the Dust, and a ton more that I cannot remember the titles for. I even found Uncle Reg's old trumpet, which I used to accompany Autumn for a few of the songs. Well, okay, nevermind. That simply caused a lot of laughter and wailing (think maimed whale) in the dark of the night.
Tomorrow (well, I guess TODAY now), we will do a lot of book reading (we plan on reading a parody called Nightlight together, guess what book it mocks...) and music playing: my dream vacation!
I love my family!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
