Okay! new post, and not even on Sunday night for once! So, hello there! How are you? Are you as excited for spring break as I am?! I guess it is good I am doing my post right now, because I am leaving tomorrow and I will NOT post over spring break... You wanna know why? I'm going on a cruise!!
On Friday I get to go to California, and get to go site seeing. Well, mostly site seeing on Saturday, but maybe some on friday. Then, on Sunday I get to go on a cruise ship! My whole extended family on by dad's side is going, and it is going to be SO FUN! I can't wait, because most of my cousins are around my age, and they are all pretty fun. The only thing I am not really excited for is Rae... Rae is my older sister, but she lives in Arizona. Don't think I am a bad person, because I mean who doesn't love their sister? Everyone fights with their siblings, that's natural, but it is not natural how Rae and I fight.

Rae and I don't get along, we never have. I think she is the only one who has made me angry enough to start swearing.. Like shouting swear words.. In the middle of the night... (But I was technecally quoting her, not actually making it up.) Anyways, that is what happened the last time I saw her, I also poured Sprite over her head, and was thanked or congratulated by many. (Not kidding, noone felt bad for her at all.) Rae and I can't spend more than ten or twenty minutes together without fighting, no exaggeration.

We ususally spend five minutes before we start fighting, which quickly turns into her smacking me across the head so hard I have to leave before anyone can tell how much it hurt. I think that she kind of hates me. I don't blame her, she runs away from her problems, and because of that she is kind of having a hard time, and everyone comparing us makes it harder to like me. See, I used to do everything she told me, but now I don't; this means that the only thing she ever gets about me is quotes like, "Skittles, thank you for being such a good role model for Migi, she needs someone to look up to, and Rae is not exactly who she should look up to." She wasn't there for that actual quote, but things like that happen a lot. Adults think they are complimenting me, but really they are just dissing Rae (although I think sometimes they might do that anyways). Poor Rae, I almost feel bad for her... No, I'm over it, she hates me and is super passive-agressive as well as violent to me. If you are reading this and thinking, "Actually Skittles, you are pretty violent yourself, you have no room to talk," then you are wrong, and right... I am more "violent" than most of you, but that is not to actually hurt someone, when Rae hits you, she expects to hear your skull crack, hear you cry, or see you bleed. Yes, sisterly love.
Anyways, I am way more excited for the cruise than I am dreading Rae, I can't wait! I will tell you all about it next week! (although it may be a little late.) AHHHHH!!! I can hardly contain myself!!

It's the last term already! I have nothing to write about this week, nothing really exciting happened. It's the beginning of term and I already have a ton of homework (and missing assignments, yay aren't I just on top of things?). It is finally spring, which it is awesome! I can't wait until it's warm enough outside to wear flip-flops every where. Everyone has been waiting for spring  I think, but spring I guess wants us to not take it for granted or something, because it is taking it's sweet time getting here.

This week, I was reading this story my friends are writing. The story is about swim team and all about all the people and drama there. It was funny to read their perspective, because it showed their personalities. My friends who are writing this story are Allie and Jacky. Allie is a really crazy hyper person, and Jacky is more calm, they are like yin and yang in a way, because they are very different. They started out the story with a short description of each of the characters. Each of the descriptions were a line or two long, except for the hot senior Allie likes, who got like a paragraph on how he is so cute, but stupid and vain, or something like that. Allie's description said something like, "Allie is a fun girl, who is very hyper and you may think she is on drugs." Jacky's description said something about how all of the guys love her, especially her hot asian boyfriend (who may or may not know her in real life). They had a couple more descriptions, and they included me in it. I think it was kind of a sad description, based on the fact that I am friendly and a little obvious at times. My description said something like "A flirt who flirts with all the guys," which I guess means that by not ignoring everyone I am a flirt. Reading through the other descriptions I found one of my kinda friends (who is a little bit creepy) who's description read "A super creepy perv who Allie and Jacky are creeped out by because he is a PERV,"or something along those lines.

After the descriptions of all the people, the actual story started. It talked about how hot Allie and Jacky are and how hot their make believe boyfriends are. It was very entertaining to read. I want to tell you more about it, but maybe I will post part of the actual story they are writing when Allie emails it to me.

Wow, I was writing this at like 6:30, but I am now just finishing. I actually stopped writing this at like 6:30, because I had to go somewhere. Someone I know was talking at something tonight, and I decided to go and see the whole fireside(If you're not mormon, a fireside is like church kind of, but they are usually pretty fun.. not that I would really know since I have gone to almost none). The fireside was interesting, and everyone there was really friendly even though they had no clue who I was. 

I sat down behind this family who looked pretty young, they had a son who looked about two or three. The little boy waved at me, so I waved back. He smiled and laughed, so I made a face at him. He pointed to the wall behind me, so I turned around and acted like there was something amazing there. This went on for a while, and it made me a lot less nervous about being surrounded by strangers. The person who I went to see was speaking, and was about halfway through their talk when I think they saw me. They were defiantly surprised to see me, but it was kind of cool to hear them speak. I went up to them after and I got to meet their family, who were all really nice. Going to a church building where I didn't know anyone was defiantly out of my comfort zone, but I am kind of glad I did, because it was interesting (and who doesn't think a giggly three year old playing peek-a-boo is adorable?). Sorry, that is random, but it was kind of cool and I can't really explain to you how or why it was so cool to me. I guess that is stepping out of your comfort zone.

Well, happy Sunday night, one week 'til spring break!

This is What Midterms Does

NOTE: I understand that this was written when I was mad, so it's not exactly fair to everyone (okay, not fair to anyone), so I thought I should tell you that I love my family and we get along very well... just not the best when everyone is sick. I may have exaggerated some of this in my head, so it is not fair and don't quote me on it. I should not blog when I am upset I guess.

Wow, I did the whole thing for the falcon forum today, but I didn't publish it because I thought I might want to make some kind of change later. I left the computer because my family was watching a movie. My parents are both sick, so I made dinner. I decided to make BLTs, which are a bacon lettuce tomato sandwiches. Eliza, my seven year old sister, wanted to help, but got mad when I told her she was going to burn herself with the bacon. I didn't tell her not to make the bacon, I handed her a fork to flip it, but she ran away crying and told on me. Then she stomped back over for one last manifestation of her anger. After that she left and evidently got on the computer, and I guess no matter how much I tell her how she can open a new window she doesn't care or understand or something, because she exited out of what I was on and got onto some kind of barbie website. Meanwhile I made dinner.
As soon as dinner was ready everyone came in the kitchen. Here is about how it went:

Mom: Who's ready for dinner?
Dad: I don't know if I want to eat it. Oh, poor boy, (to my dog) do you need to go outside? The fire alarm is probably going to go off.
Eliza: It's too smoky in here. (covers her mouth and nose)
Me: Sorry, it's a little smoky in here, cause I made bacon. It's not that bad.
Dad: Except it's killing the poor dog.
Mom: If the fire alarm was going to go off, it would have by now, it's okay.

Dad: Isn't there anymore bread than this?
Me: No.
Dad: Why don't you check?
Me: I did. There is no more bread.
Dad: I am pretty sure there is. Check in the freezer.
Me: Okay.
...
Me: There is none in the freezer.
Mom: Are you sure? I thought there was...
Dad: Well you can make half a sandwich
Me: No. I don't want a sandwich it's okay.
Eliza: I don't want to eat this (Well I am not sure where exactly in the conversation she said that actually)
Dad:  There is no more tomato than this?
Me: No.
Adrienne (my 10 year old sister): I'm hungry mom, what should I eat?
...
(My mom is able to get up and come to the table)
Mom: You really got the brunt of making dinner didn't you Skittles? I'm sorry about that. Thank you for making dinner.
Dad: What do you mean?
Mom: Well she had to make dinner, then no one says thank you and everyone is negative
Dad: I don't think that's true
Mom: I don't want to eat this, it's too smoky in here. I'm hungry, this is gross, where is the bread? Aren't there anymore tomatoes? She spent time to make this and no one has said thank you or said anything nice about it. Thank you for this dinner.
Dad: I think it's also just how phrase it that's negative.
Mom: Do you want to say thank you too?
Dad: yeah, in a second.
Adrienne: Thanks, I like it.
Dad: Thank you, this is good.
Me: No problem. (grudgingly)

I am done today. That is my thesis statement. I am so done and ready to not be super stressed. I am done with finding my assignments and important websites closed out of because of a barbie game. I am ready for  spring break, so bring it on. I am so ready to have my constant headache gone for a while. There is so much to do it seems like, and I am not ready to do it right now. I really want to just relax and hang out with my friends, but I am too done to even worry about that. I don't want yet another person yelling at me and Allie because of their problems with who we invited. I just want to tell them that if it is such a big problem for them, why don't they not come, or better yet, why don't they do something about it so that it seems better to them. Yes, this is my rant today. Tomorrow it will all be good, I will be telling you that today was great, but for right now, I am a little bit ticked off (just in case you haven't noticed). Also, I do actually get along with my family, tonight was a bad example of how our household works. And now, I will end with a quote I heard today, "Sometimes God calms the water, sometimes he calms the sailor....And sometimes you swim." Life isn't perfect and sometimes you just have to stick it out. This week was a just stick it out week.

Why Blogs Are Not Made Write Essays, and Heart Dissection.

I know, I didn't post before, so I am doing double this week. I even started a post, but didn't publish it! So, Mr. Thompson keeps saying that we need to post about our thoughts, not our lives, but I keep ignoring him. I don't like the whole "find something random to write about, ready, go!"idea. That might surprise you because I jump around and always like to talk or write about things that seem random to you, but they make sense to me. I don't like being told to make something up, so I stick to talking about my week. I think I will finally give in a little bit and not write just about my week, although admittedly that is mostly because I just don't want to tell you about it. Mr. Thompson said that it is more interesting to hear about our thoughts and that there is only so much of hearing our own personal diaries he can handle, but to be honest, I feel the opposite. I would rather hear about what people are doing and what's going on then hear an essay. I get that your thoughts are not always essays, but sometimes they are (sorry if you're offended, this doesn't pertain to everyone, but you know who you are). People don't seem to want to let people see everything about them, so sometimes they write things that tell absolutely nothing about them just for the sake of filling up the 500 words requirement (and yes, I know that I am very guilty of that myself). I would rather hear about what happened this week that was so unique and strange, than what your thoughts on global warming are. If nothing cool is happening then yeah it makes sense to talk about whatever, but by writing a persuasive essay every week you start to write the same thing, and honestly it does get boring sometimes. I am not saying everyone does this, but it is just a pattern I have noticed. I think that writing about what weird happened this week keeps it more fresh than writing about something that you are less than passionate about, but you can use 500 words to say it. I may be wrong, if you hate my blog than I get it, maybe you are the opposite of me and really do not care about hearing the random detail of peoples' lives and would rather hear their deep personal thoughts. I get that, it makes sense, I like the concept, but I feel like I get a better understanding of people and how they think by what they do rather than reading a story that has nothing to do with them.
I like the best when I can read about something that happened this week and I can recognize who is writing it and who they are writing about, it keeps it interesting and holds my attention. I want to hear about what you did this weekend and about what crazy thing your friend did (as long as you actually did do something this weekend that is interesting and your friend did do something insane, not just faking something to make yourself sound cooler or what ever). I have realized that with reading things like this blog here, there is nothing actually happening keeping it going and leaving you on edge, so I don't want to read it. I find myself starting to read blogs that sound like this, with no stories or people, but then start skimming and soon just leaving to read another post. I don't want to read about a book review, I can go to goodreads for that, I am on your  blog because I want to read about your life and thoughts, not about a book you were assigned to read. Don't get me wrong, I like hearing a little bit about what you think about the books you are reading, but that's not the same as just reading a review you wrote. A review tells me about the themes in the book and about what happens, but the main part is about the book, not you. Telling what you think about a book is the exact opposite, it tells mostly about you and your thoughts on the book, but it does mention what the book is about. I am great with hearing about this great book, but again, I can read reviews any where, I am here for your thoughts and life, not the book.
 I really don't mean to offend anyone, I am not writing this to any specific person, I am just writing it because Mr. Thompson has told us why he wants us to write about one thing, so I thought I should say what I think is interesting to hear. I love hearing your thoughts, I think it is great to not have a story or tell about your day every single time, but if you don't have anything you are dying passionate to tell everyone, it seems like a more interesting choice than copying one of your geography articles to count as your 500 words. This is a blog to help you discover what you like to write about and to express your thoughts, not just an assignment that is due every week. It is not bad to post about an essay you write (if you liked it and have strong feelings about it) sometimes, I am just saying that I prefer hearing about your life and friends over your essay on the black death.

Now, if you are not bored to death or offended, you get to hear about my science project. (I know you were just thinking, "Oh joy!" but I promise it is not one of those essays I was just ranting about, I am not that much of a hypocrite and I actually did enjoy it enough to want to write about it.)
For science term projects we had multiple choices, I decided on what seemed like it would take the least about of effort or time, so I decided to go to the Expanding Your Horizons workshop thing. My mom did not agree because it was too far, so I decided to do the medical workshop over reading a book. Something about me you should know is I HATE IVs, I don't even like shots anymore because I hate IVs so much. When I was little I used to look forward to getting shots, but now it actually makes me gag. Even seeing someone's veins makes me a little sick. There is a whole back story about why I hate IVs and all of my fun experiences with them, but I will save that for another week. Hearing we would get to give a pig stitches and dissect a heart was almost to much for me. I could only thing of IVs and seeing the vains in the heart and pig foot, so I almost just said no and was going to accept an F in science. I ended up going and as soon as I got in I saw Pink Lady. I was a little bit more relaxed because I knew I would have a friend, but I was still a little bit sick to my stomach thinking about veins bursting and how much it would hurt to have your veins cut (as you can see I would not be a good emo).
I sat down in one of the chairs and saw the pig foot in front of me. I tried to watch the guy demonstrating how to do stitches, but I didn't understand. I asked for help and he agreed, although somewhat reluctantly and annoyed. He told me how I was supposed to hold the needle, but it was different since I am left handed. "Are you SURE your a lefty?" he asked me a few times. After he was convinced that I was a lefty he tried to tell me how I was holding the needle wrong. After trying to explain it for about 30 seconds he took the needle and just did it for me, but since I was a lefty he did it wrong. When we finally got it all sorted out he left immediatly. The only problem was I didn't actually understand anything he had said, so I was at a loss. I tried watching other people and heard him get annoyed with the girl next to me for not knowing how, so I eventually got it. It started to be almost fun after the first few stitches. By the end I was in the zone and was making sure that there was a stitch in every possible space. I was sad to leave the pig feet, but we still had the heart dissection to go to.
I got to sit by Pink Lady for the heart dissection and it was interesting. I tried to not throw up with the veins I saw, and after a minute I adjusted. I was kind of interested in how the heart worked and it looked really cool. We had a medical student come and show us how it worked and cut it apart. The medical student let everyone touch it, but only the two people directly by it ended up touching it. I wanted to touch it and see how it worked, but I didn't want to interrupt her or make her stop talking so I just watched. After she (the medical student) left the heart for a minute to answer questions I gave in and decided that it would not be disruptive to touch it. I was amazed at how cool it was. After a minute I asked the girl next to me (who happened to be right in front of the heart) if I could use the scapel for a second. I started cutting something to get a better look and one of the four girls who had come from my school for the workshop came over to touch it too. When the girl from my school came over Pink Lady and the other girl came over too. It was a lot of fun to look at it and figure out about it from actually seeing the real thing instead of a diagram, but sadly I looked over and the medical student looked annoyed because as soon as she had gone everyone came over, oh well, that is kind of to be expected.
Pink Lady and the other two girls sat down after a minute, but I was just getting started. I personally had a blast looking at the heart and it seemed really cool. Maybe I am not as IV/veinphobic as I thought I was. Yesterday was pretty awesome, the workshop was way more fun than I thought it would be. To end this blog post here are some pictures of the heart and pig's feet. Sadly this is not my pig's foot, but mine looked mostly like it, just a little more Frankenstein. I would show you the pictures of me and more pictures of the heart, but I still don't know how to get pictures from my phone to the computer, so these are the pictures form one of the other girls at my school.

Religion

I have nothing to really tell you about this week. It was a good week, but nothing I am really dying to tell everyone. In geography we are learning about other religions. I personally really like learning about other religion, but I get that some people don't. What I don't get, and cannot stand though is people mocking other religions. Some boys in my geography class make fun of some of the religious things, and it kills me how little they understand. It bugs me also when people make fun of the LDS church because it is so common here. I think that people want to be different and see things in a unique way, but making fun of someone's beliefs is not the way to do that. People will say things about Mormons, and it isn't always true. 

At space camp, most of the boys made fun of the LDS church. They taunted us with endless jokes about how we were supposedly polygamous, or, a two years ago, about us being Amish. The Amish jokes were strange to me, I had heard a little bit about the common belief the Mormons practiced polygamy, but I hadn't heard that we were Amish. The boys would ask us if we could go to public schools and if we had cars or if we just used buggies. The polygamous jokes got old, but the Amish ones were interesting to me; is everyone really that uniformed? I realize that this all was kind of extreme because these boys had, for the most part, never really talked to someone of the LDS faith, but it shows that people don't know enough to make a good judgement often, but that doesn't stop them from judging.

I was in foods this week when this topic kind of hit home. Some of the people in my group started making fun of religion. This girl was mocking an LDS saying, "Your body is a temple." She was telling us about how she had gone to an LDS dance, and when she was kicked out for immodest clothing she had made fun of that statement in a kind of offensive way. Now, Shelby has issues with that statement too, but she doesn't make fun of it in the same way. Shelby's thing is that it bugs her when she has writing on her and people tell her that her body is a temple. She tells them, "Yes, and these are the flowers," referring to the writing. The girl in my foods class perverted the saying though, which seems a little different. I guess they are both ways of saying, "Yeah, I don't really care," but they have a different tone.

What made me so upset about the mocking was (a) she was at a Mormon dance, she should respect their beliefs and standards when she is there, (b) she had no respect at all for what people truly believe, and (c) she knows nothing about what she is talking about.

I take religious persecution or even just making jokes about religion, more seriously than most, I think. It is what people believe, so why do we laugh at it? Saying a joke is about a Jew never had, and never will make a joke funny to me. What has the whole Jewish community done to you? You are making fun of not just one person, and it is just rude, not funny. You can't judge a whole belief system on something you heard or common rumor. The holocaust happened because everyone was so ready to blame the Jews. I am not saying that that is the only factor that created this mass genocide, but it is a great factor.

If you don't agree, then you can comment or talk to me, but this is a big deal to me. I take it maybe a little more seriously than I should, but religion is not something you can just ridicule. Thanks for reading, sorry if you are offended.

Long Week End Awesomeness

This week there was a long weekend, it was not just a three day weekend either, it was a four day weekend! I have done almost no homework over this long weekend too, so it has been pretty great. I actually have quite a bit of homework piling up, but I have been too busy to do it.

The beginning of the week was good, I was really excited the whole week for the weekend. I turned in the poem for the poetry contest we had to enter the Friday before last (wow, that sounds like Yoda, it is probably horrible grammar), and I admit I was stressing a little about it this week. The poem I wrote was very... personal I guess you could say. It wasn't like some deep thought about humanity, but I don't want anyone to see it. Mr. Thompson laughed when I gave it to him, but that may have been because I looked like I didn't want him to see it.

The week ended on Thursday and me and Allie decided to go see a movie with some swim friends on Thursday night. We went and saw The Muppets at Kaysville Theatre then went to this little fast food place we always go to after we go to the Kaysville Theatre. The movie was good, but I was tired, so it was a little boring. I liked after the movie though, when we were at the fast food place, because we all got to talk and just hang out.

My mom took me home, and she gave my friend a ride home too, but on the way she decided to go to the grocery store. I guess that friend didn't really mind having to go to Smith's to pick out pink ice cream, so it was okay. After I got home I had to help my mom decorate for Eliza's birthday.

Eliza is now seven. Her birthday was on Friday, and we had a very pink party for her. Our whole house was pink and covered in heart, it still is actually. We decorated up until her friends arrived, and it was a lot of work, well not for me, but for my mom it was. Her party was cute and great, lots of pink ice cream, pink cake, pink sugar cookies, and a few other pink foods.

After her party we went to dinner. I was in a hurry though, because Maddi invited me to her house. I got to her house and hung out for a few hours. There were a lot of other girls there, but I was sad when Taylor never came. It was really fun, and it was kind of a break from my normal group of friends.

Saturday came and I realized I really need to do my homework, so I decided to do some art stuff. I had studio art last semester, and there was always a huge assignment that I needed done ASAP, so when I didn't want to do my other homework I would work on art. I do not have art this semester, so that doesn't really work now, but my parents were gone, so there was no one to tell me to use my time to get one of the mountains of homework I have done.

After stalling several hours, I got a little bit done, but still not a lot. I did, however, decide to go to the mall with Allie, Jacky, and Bre. I have told you a little about Allie, but I haven't told you about the other two, so here it is: Jacky is really good friends with Allie, and Bre is one of my friends from school who is on the swim team.

We went to the mall, and I actually had a lot of fun. Allie is really fun to shop with, because she always has something to say. After Jacky and Bre went home, Allie and I talked a lot and it was really interesting to hear what she had to say. She is one person who is truly entertaining to talk to.

Shopping was probably my favorite thing this weekend, but it's hard to say. I liked having a full social calendar, because I really don't usually get to see my friends that much. Besides swim I have homework, and my friends do too, so hanging out is hard, but this weekend was a lot of fun.

Goodnight, happy long weekend! (There is still one more day of it, Hallelujah!)

So Yeah...

This week has been pretty awesome. I told you about Monday already, so I won't go over that again. Tuesday was great. For Young Women's on Tuesday (Young Women's is like the girls at church who are 12-18, there is like an activity every week) we did this talent show thing. It took a bit of planning, but it was really cool in the end. I didn't do anything, but I helped set it up and I ate ice cream after, so it was fun.  I started missing swim a lot this week, I went to surfers (the younger team), but it wasn't the same. I miss all my friends from normal swim.

 Wednesday was not as good, I kinda made a mistake in biology and everyone laughed, but I was really embarrassed and wanted to hide the rest of class. I went to swim after school, but swim made it worse. I forgot how much I don't get along with some people. I ended up really mad, and I even got Coach K mad at me. Coach K is my favorite coach, he is really funny and mellow. He rarely gets really mad, and he is good with people who are sassy to him. He has only gotten really frustrated with me twice, which is pretty amazing because I am a total brat to him sometimes. I don't do what he tells me to a lot, or I bug him every time he gives a new set, by telling him it should be breast stroke. I get my way sometimes and he gives us a breast stroke set or modifies it or tells me some way to cheat at it.

One time he told me, "You have been swimming this long and NEVER figured that out?!" Another time he asked Shelby to text me in the mornings to make sure that I had matching socks on, because I was probably couldn't figure that out on my own, which has only happened a few times...  Coach K had a good humor about my messing up. He is also really honest, on Wednesday I kept asking for help on my flip turns, but he said no. I said I probably had the worst flip turns out of everyone in the pool probably, and when one of my friends told me it wasn't that bad probably, he told us all that my flip turns really did suck. He asked after "Oh, did you want me to sugar coat that?" No, I didn't, that is why I love Coach K.

Okay, back to my story. I went to swim, Coach K got angry with me for the second time ever because I got out of the pool half way through a set. I am not one of those people (you only know who I am talking about probably if you swim, but you know the type of person for anything) who gets out of the pool and just like sits random sets out. I started to get out of the pool, and Coach K got like really mad for some reason, but I explained to him that I really had to get out. I had to get out because I was wearing contacts, but I forgot to take them out before swim.

This kid kept splashing me and my friends, not in a friendly way, in a rude way, and hadn't listened when I kept telling him to stop because my contacts were getting messed up and really hurt. I went to the bathroom to try to get my contacts out, or at least see if they were in still. When I got back my eyes were really red, so it looked like I might have been crying. Coach K asked if I was okay and he was really concerned, but I said yeah and got back in. When I got in I started swimming in a very focused manner, even though the kid kept splashing and being annoying. I decided to just spend the last half our to forty-five minutes of practice on a continuous swim (which means not stopping). I HATE backstroke, but I spent half of the set on backstroke, and I was so focused and mad I decided to just not stop for anything, so a few people may have been kicked.

I need to stop now, but yeah, the rest of my week was good, which ended with a dance on Saturday night that was really fun. Maybe I will tell you about that all next week... or maybe I won't... We'll see! Bye, and Happy Valentines Day!