Running Out of Time.

This is it. I only have two years left till I move out, weird right? I want to make sure that I'm soaking in all I can because I'm only going to be a teenager and go through high school once. I want to be the girl who makes the most of everything, the one who works her hardest, and the one who people are going to remember as their friend. A genuine friend who they've laughed with, played with, and maybe even cried with. I want to look back in twenty years and not regret the decisions I'm making today.
High school is so rough. This first week of school has had me swamped. Maybe I'm being a little too ambitious with the classes I'm taking, but I just want to get the most out of what my school offers. Besides school, I've been busy planning a Community Leadership Workshop (CLEW) for freshman in my area, and boy it is a lot harder than I thought in ways I didn't think it would be. I know within a few weeks, I'll have everything under control again, but some days I just look at my planner (yes I know, what kind of dork has a planner) and think wow. I've got to be out of my mind (which is also probable). Don't get me wrong, I love it. I love being with my friends and learning how everything in our world works together to make is go round... literally. I think my favorite class this year may end up being Journalism, but we will see, many look promising.
Knowing this would be my second to last summer home, I tried to milk the experience for all its worth by doing crazy, random things with my friends. Below is a list of a few of our grand adventures:

• Creating a play dough village in the middle of the night
• breakfast on the side walk after pulling my first all-nighter
• daily trips to the snow shack
• planning a CSI movie and getting a snow cone instead
• jumping/dancing in the gutter when it was pouring
• watching chick flicks that made us all a little teary-eyed
• posing like freaks down town on main street
• Walking into a ATV store just to explore and sit on everything
• Nearly running out of gas in the middle of now where
• breaking down on the median of a highway
• getting serenaded by cute Mormon boys with flowers
• frantically producing a newsletter
  
• LOTS and LOTS of nerts
  
• just whatever else happened to pop into our heads
  

Sorry it's been so long... Summer just gets crazy I guess. It is late and I am very tired, but I promise, more is on the way soon!

My girls...

Sorry this post has been postponed for a while.... Sometimes I get a tad distracted...

Girls camp was incredible. We had so much fun together. I truly have the best ward ever and I love my girls so much. They are so kind to each other and truly emulate the spirit of Christ. I love how much fun we have together and all the silly laughs we've shared. I won't go into detail today about camp, just know that I loved it, it was all I hoped it would be and more and, it was exactly what I needed.
I catch myself calling the Yw in my ward "my girls" quite frequently. When I refer to them as such, sometimes people kind of cock their heads with a look that says "what the heck do you mean by 'YOUR girls'?" Yes, I know I do not own them, but they are mine. My girls are mine because they are some of my very best friends. We laugh together, sing together, pray together, and cry together. They are one of the major highlights of my week and I feel blessed and privileged to know them. Because of all of this and more, they are mine and I love them.

EFY

To kick off my summer this year, I went to EFY up in Provo. Can we say amazing?? EFY was so much fun and I made so many good friendships. I absolutely loved how strong the spirit was up there and by the end of the week, I think we were all addicted to it. I learned so much about myself and all the things I can improve about my life. I really learned a lot about how we can be missionaries in our everyday lives and how important it is to be ready to share the gospel. I had the coolest councilors! Nellie (L, or L Diddy), Adam, and Pat really invited the spirit into all of our company activities and I really appreciated that. It was a week of laughs, spirit, and love. Up there, our company became a family. A very VERY Large family. It was such an incredible week and I'm so grateful to all those who really made this week a memorable one for me. I feel like this year, I can really apply what I've learned, and I love that.... Yup. That was pretty much my amazing week! I don't really what else to say about it, it was just a really great spiritual refresher and a great kick off to the summer!

Bitter Sweet

Day after day for months I longed for school to be over. Just done with. Thrown out the window. Yet here I sit, the day before graduation, dreading the time when it won't be there. Since getting my yearbook yesterday, its been kinda sad. I keep thinking about how life is moving so fast and how in only two years, high school will be over. Being the nerd that I am, I love school. I love learning and stretching myself, I love the teachers (it only takes a couple good ones to make it worth it) and mostly, I love my friends.
I didn't realize how hard it was going to be when it came time to sign yearbooks. Yeah, there are always the acquaintances' year books that you sign that consist of the basic appropriate lines to say, but when it came to signing the yearbooks of the four out of five best gal pals I have, it was so hard. I know we are going to see each other a ton over the summer, but what in the world are you supposed to write in their yearbooks? These four are the girls that make school worth going to for me. They are all so incredible and unique. I love being around them, they make me smile and inspire me to be better. They are the kind of friends that I'm proud to call mine! Anyways, people who saw us yesterday probably thought we were crazy as we wrote novels in each others books. Seriously, these guys are the bomb. Oh and don't get me wrong, I have the best guy friends also, but as most of you guys know, girl friends just hold a different and special kind of bond. Girlfriends just hold the kind of bond where you can give any one of them one look and they know exactly what is going on. Really, this post was not going to be about how wonderful they are, but somehow it ended up being that way.
This last school year has been so crazy. So much has happened that really affected me. I feel like, this year, I made a difference in someone's life and that whole idea is just so bizarre to me. So many times, I leaned on my friends, but what I didn't expect was that they would have to lean on me. What was even more unexpected, was that I was actually able to help! I think that is what friendship is about, not only sticking with each other, but standing up for each other and being someone that others can rely on also. Yes, it was a good year.
Anywho, back to bitter sweet. Wow, next year is going to be such an adventure. I keep running through my head all that will need to be done, and its scary. Scary, but oh so exciting. High school is tough, but I love it. If nothing else, it sure keeps me on my toes. Can't wait to see what the future has in store.

I think this quote wraps up what this last year was for me.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I need to be.

Anyways, here's a few pics of me and my buds.

Frustration. . .

How is it that some one who so thoroughly plans every aspect of her life STILL does not have her license. It seems like it was just yesterday (or possibly last JUNE) that I got my permit, and only yesterday (or like maybe the fall) that I received my certificate saying that I had passed drivers ed, and only yesterday that I turned 16 (try February.) Tell me then, how is it that I still am license-less? Well the answer I guess can be found in two simple words. 40 hours. Isn't 40 hours a little bit much. I feel like I just keep driving and driving and it's still not coming. For the longest time my parents refused to let me drive with others in the car (besides my dad), and so I thought I should just be patient and not push the issue, wrongo. It's been over three months since I turned 16, and I still find myself with a licensed adult over 21 who has insurance over me or the car in the passenger seat. I know within a few weeks I will have that beloved document that will give me so much more freedom, but I've been at this point of frustration for weeks. I'm tired of having to ask my mom to drive me to a friend's party, or to even Walmart for that matter. When I'm driving down the roads I've driven for almost a year now, I'd like not to be reminded to do stuff I'm already doing (exp, stop at the stop sign, blinker left, and yes I AM doing them). This probably sounds like a bunch of senseless rambling, and it probably is. Hopefully by the time next weekend rolls around I will have the freedom I desire. I guess my parents haven't been totally unreasonable, the give me the ride or let me drive with them somewhere, but I'm just at that point where I'm ready to come out from under their wing a little bit more. Yes, it's definitely time.

That Time of Year Again.

Probably something that most people don't know about me is that I love to garden. I love the green, I love the dirt, and the mud. I love picking cherry tomatoes right off the plant and eating them without washing them. I love being outside in the sun and shelling peas. Yup. Its pretty much amazing. I don't even mind weeding really. Well, for english a few months ago we were given the opportunity to write poetry. One of the poems I wrote was about my mild obsession. Here goes nothing:

And here's my baby garden just beginning to sprout :)

As a Garden Grows

Dig a hole nice and deep
Within it place a seed to sleep
Fill it in, and water well
Leave it be and watch green swell

Out of ground and towards the sky
A baby green plant grows nice and high
Leaves come first, deep down’s a root
Give it time, and see the fruit

Sun keeps it warm, and water feeds it full
I do the weeding and clouds keep it cool
Day by day the small fruit grows
It ripens red and begins to glow

Harvest arrives and as always
The beauty of the garden doesn’t cease to amaze
Rows of corn and lines of peas
And bushes of tomatoes strong as trees

Summer is over and the garden comes down
To be bottled and shared with neighbors in town
Soil starts to settle and the green disappears
But don’t worry my garden; I’ll be back next year.

~Me

Only a few more days to hang on and then....*sigh* Summer is near :)