Summer (: and much-needed updates!

"Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." ~ Henry James

Ah. So, yeah, that quote there pretty much sums up everything. (:

Well then. I realized that I haven't updated this thing since April 5th. Understandably, a lot has happened since then! Shall we recap?

April 27: We began preforming Joseph
May 1: Closing night of Joseph.
May 28: My junior high experience officially ended and i became a sophomore
June 1 - 11: I read all 1200 pages of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. Let me just say it was worth it.
June 18: I realized how I've been completely neglecting this blog

So... yeah. (: Let's be a bit more thorough, alright?

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Let me just say the being in Joseph was one of the best experiences I had this year. I loved it. I became close to so many people that I would have never became friends with otherwise, and I can honestly say that I was sad when it was over. It was one of the best weeks of my life.

End of the School Year
Yep. It's true. I'm no longer a junior high student, but an official high school student. A sophomore. That's so insanely crazy that I can barely comprihend it. However, I'm really happy with the high school that I'm going to and I can only hope that i'll be a fantastic experiance. (:

Les Miserables
So... I recently got re-introduced to this amazing musical, and once again I've fallen absolutely in love. (: Even more so than the last time, I think. So, I decided, "Hey, how about I read the book?" So, I reserved it at my local library and picked it up on June 1st. I read all 1200 pages in eleven days. (: This book was REALLY good. While a bit tough to read, what with it being originally written in French in the late 1800's, I think I got through it pretty nicely. And I'd totally read it again in a heartbeat. (:

Still on the topic of Les Miserables, I have some exciting news (for me, anyway). You see, 2010 is the 25th anniversary of Les Mis. So, a special 25th anniversary tour is being done. And guess what. In summer 2011, they will be coming to Salt Lake City. Yeah. When I heard that, I pretty much died a little with excitement. And, with a lot of hard work, I persuded my mom to get me tickets to the show. June 5th, 2011 will be one of the greatest days of my life. (:

And now we're back to today. (: I realized that I haven't updated this lonely little blog since April, and decided that now would be a good time to pick it back up. So... here I am. (:

The Song of the Week has officially been changed. It's now "Permanent" by David Cook. Such a beautiful, emotional song. David wrote it for his older brother Adam in 2008. For over a decade, Adam Cook fought against brain cancer that eventually spread to his spine. In May of 2009, Adam lost his battle. Listening to this song and knowing the emotion behind it really makes me love it.

Anyway, this update is now over. (:
But before I go, I must say that I like the idea of putting a quote at the beginning of every post, so I think that I'll start doing that. (:

Hahaha. Well, that's all for now.

So sorry... :(

Yep. I'm done with blogging. I don't even do it anymore, so I'm going to delete my blog and move on with my life...

APRIL FOOLS. :)

Um... yeah. I'm fully aware how awfully lame that was. ;)
But I had to do something for this stupid little holiday, now didn't I?

It's true, though. I've been a bit neglectant of my blog. I need to work on it a bit more.
I promise I will, all of my invisible little blog readers!

Anyway... it's supposedly spring. Key word: supposedly. Is freezing temperatures and giant killer snow the accepted definition of spring? I don't think so!!!!!

Haha. Yeah. That's how it was yesterday. 30 degrees with snow. At the end of March. Not cool.

So... yeah.

Today, I had to register for all my high school classes. And, let me tell you, it was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. A lot of my classes were already full, so I had to compromise. I finally finished it, though, so the drama is over. :) It was pretty stressful in the moment, though, considering I had to do it in the library at school with my friends Kenzie and Daenen, since we had Joseph reherasals and couldn't leave (did I mention that I'm in the school's preduction of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?).

Speaking of, the Song of the Week is from Joseph. :) It's been stuck in my head for the past few hours. So... yeah. :) It's called "Close Every Door" and really is a beautiful song.

Well, I think that's all the updates I have for my boring life...
Hope you enjoyed (I guess...)! :)

Ah... spring. :)

Okay, okay. So it's not OFFICIALLY spring. But... March is the month were it officially starts (21st or 22nd, I think. Somewhere around there). I'm excited. It's already feeling oh so much warmer. And soon the snow will completely disappear, and then it'll slowly melt off of the mountains (except, the mountains aren't usually cleared of snow until like... May).

I can't wait for the warmness. :)

Anyway, let's see. Updates, updates...
I've been staying after for musical rehearsals at school. We're doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Awesome musical. ♥

And... I changed the layout. To something more springy. :)

Other than that, nothing much has really happened. So... I hearby end this blog post. ;)

Mary, Did You Know?

Haha. So. Post title. It's of another one of my favorite Christmas songs. Which is my new song of the week. It takes a few seconds before it starts, but don't worry, it will. Once again, enjoy. :)

The song gets you thinking though. Just listen to it, and you'll see what I mean.

Let's see... Christmas break has officially started! And Christmas is on Friday. I'm so excited, you can't even imagine. ;) It's seriously one of my favorite holidays. All the friends, family, spirituality... it's truly amazing.

Hm. What else? We went bowling today for PE. It was fun. :) I'm actually better than I thought I was! I didn't win, of course, but winning really isn't everything. ;)

So. Wow, I feel so bad, because I have nothing else to really talk about. :(
Um... so yeah. I guess I'll just stop there.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe holiday season! <3

Joy to the world!

Hahaha. 'Tis the Christmas season, and I'm very happy. ;)

Also, people should be joyful because I'm finally updating this thing after millions and millions of years (okay, I'm exaggerating a little there, but you get my point).

Some things that have happened in my blogging hiatus:
* I'm officially fifteen.
* My sister is officially having a baby girl, due March 2nd.
* The end of the semester is fast approaching.
* MY COMPUTER FINALLY LET ME CHANGE MY BLOG'S BACKGROUND!

Um... nothing else. Shows how incredibley boring my life is. :P

But yeah. I changed my blog background. It looks super pretty and Christmas-y now. ;) I will admit that the Santa looks a bit creepy but... whatever. :P

I also changed my playlist around a little. I'm now using mixpod.com, which I'm finding I like a lot better than the other site I got my last playlist from. It's the same songs as before (plus a few new ones). And this new playlist has videos to go along with the songs. :)

As you've probably noticed, I also changed my Song of the Week. I wanted something Christmas-y, and I really love this song so... yeah. Enjoy. :)

But anyway. I guess that's all. Sorry this is so short, my imaginary readers. But at least it's something!

BUH-BYE! <3

7 more days of summer...

Oops. So... I know it's kind of late (11:54 pm, to be exact), but I was randomly on the computer, checking Facebook, hoping my dad wouldn't suddenly come downstairs and get mad at me for being on so late, when this comercial came on the tv and the lady said, "I love blogging!" (Isn't it some candy comercial?). And then I was like, "Oops. When was the last time I updated my blog?" So... yeah. Here I am now. At... 11:56 pm.

Nothing all that new to report. Besides that there's just a week left in school. Sigh. But at least I'll be an amazing 9th grader. ;)

Um... today I went and had my hair cut and highlighted. I'm actually pretty proud of it. I also had my eyebrows waxed (long story. My friend was all like, "OMG, THAT'D BE HILLARIOUS." and my mom was like, "Haha, I'm going to make you do it..." It hurt really bad. :P But only for a second.

Now, if only I could gather up enough courage to get my ears pierced...

Anyway, I think that'll be all right now. I'm tired and a bit parinoid that my dad is going to hear me typing or something and come downstairs. So... goodbye. :)

What time is it? Summer time! :D

Oh jeez. Why am I quoting High School Musical 2? Help me... *sigh*

Anyway, I must apologize because I've been quite... neglectant of my blog. :P School has ended and we are already in our second week of summer.

First and foremost, if you'd please direct your eyes to the new Song of the Week. This week is "We Are" by Ana Johnsson. Very good song. Fun to sing and rock out to. I've had it stuck in my head ever since I put it on my iPod which was about... two weeks ago. :P

Okay. Moving on. Last day of school was great, I suppose. It was really boring, though. Very few of my friends showed up. I hadn't been planning on going to either until I was forced to by my non-understanding mother. :P But... I gave my bus driver some really cute magnetic flowers that I made for her bus. :D But the last day of school also meant that one of my really good guy friends would be moving away the next week. And I'd be gone at Girls Camp, so I wouldn't get to say good-bye. So, after I said bye to him for the last time and was walking home, I will admit I got a bit teary-eyed. :(

Girls was fun. :) We went up to Heber and had a blast, though my friend Misha lost her dad to cancer the second day we were there, so she had to leave early and the rest of us didn't sleep a wink that night because we were all to busy crying our eyes out. :(

I got back on Friday, and now... here I am on Wednesday! With absolutely nothing to do.

I thought that for Young Womens tonight we were going to have our "camp reunion party" and also go to Misha's house and plant a rosebush for her dad, but apparently it was either not tonight or it was earlier and I missed it. :( I really hope not, because I really wanted to help plant that rosebush. I think that I remember hearing that it would be next week, though, so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Other than that, nothing new to report.
See ya.

American Idol has NOT let me down. :)

Yes, it's true. I have forgiven American Idol.
Kris Allen won. :)

Now, even though he wasn't my favorite, I just REALLY didn't want Adam to win. And, now that he hasn't, I am on good terms with Idol again. ;)

I saw Danny. He performed a song. That made me happy.

And Kris performed with Keith Urban, too. I like Keith Urban, so that was fun to watch. They sounded a lot alike.

Aaannnddd... we only have eight more days until summer. That is... five more days of school. I'm so excited. :)

Jeez. There really isn't any more to write.
So, I guess I'll be done.
Poor little short post.

American Idol has let me down.

Yes, it's true. American Idol has officially let me down.

On Tuesday, the top three performed. For those of you who have been living under a rock, the top three is Danny Gokey (♥ ♥ ♥), Kris Allen, and Adam Lambert (Ick). Danny sang "Dance Little Sister" and "You Are So Beautiful." Kris sang "Apologize" and "Heartless" (which, let's be honest, has made me start to like him, too. He did amazing).

On Wednesday, Danny got voted off. It was very depressing. And disappointing. I wanted him to at least make it to the top two. Really, I was hoping it would be him and Kris, though of course I knew that was never going to happen.

But, whatever.

He's still my American Idol. ;)

But anyway, now Kris is my last hope. His last performance made me really like him, so if he wins, Idol will have maken it up to me. If Adam wins... well, Idol will have officially let me down. And there will be no way for them to make it up to me. Unless... the person I like next season wins. :)

Seriously, though. For the past two seasons, my favorite contestant has made it so close to winning, but ultimately lose. Last season: David Archuleta. This season: Danny Gokey. Next season: Who knows? Hopefully they'll win. :)

But yeah. Song of the week is "Dance Little Sister." Very fun song. Makes you feel like, um, dancing. :)

Okay. Moving on.

School gets out in... thireen or so days. That's... nine school days left.

Um. What else? I made it into Musical Theatre. :D I'm really excited. Seriously, you have no idea. ;)

But yeah. I guess that's all... so yeah.

Bye!!

Siblings, and nieces, and nephews. Oh my!

Lol. :P

So yeah. My Aunt Colby is working with my Great Aunt Ruth on a geneology project for my dad's side of the family, and they put me in charge of finding and gathering info on all of my older siblings and their many kids. :P So, yeah. It's been a busy past few days. But, today, I finally got all of the info on all twenty-four people (that's five older siblings and nineteen nieces and nephews, including the little girl coming in May or June!). Yay! :D

And... moving on. :) Musical Theatre auditions are Wednesday. Four of my friends and I all signed up together. So the order is Holly, Ashley, Marie, then me. I'm terrified to go right after Marie, because her voice is amazing. She just had the lead in our school's performance in Guys and Dolls. So, yeah. :P

Hopefully everything will be okay, though. At least, I hope it goes better than my Concert Singers audition did, because it won't only be in front of Mrs. McMurry, but also the drama teacher, and about forty or so other kids auditioning that day. So yeah. No pressure, right?

So yeah. That's what's going on in my life at the moment.
School ends in like 26 days!!!! I seriously couldn't be happier. :)

But yeah. I'm thinking that's all.
Oh, and I changed the Song of the Day a bit early, because... well, I felt like it. It's only two days before the actual date I've been supposed to be doing it, anyway. ;) In case you haven't already looked over there, this week is Bucky Covington's "I'll Walk." It really is an amazing song, even if Bucky kinda looks like a hippy. :P He still has great voice, and everytime I hear this song I like start crying. :P It's sad and cute and happy all at the same time.

So yeah. It's an awesome song, so listen to it on my playlist below, or else. >:)

Buh-bye!!!! :D :D

Handprints

So. Spring Break is over and done with. It was actually pretty amazing. I went out of town to stay with my friend, Megan, for four days (Wednesday-Saturday). We had an absolute blast. It was when I got home that things went a little downhill.

First of all, my dad's friend Muff died. He was only fifty-one. He died on Wednesday, after battling liver failure for a while. His kidneys finally shut down on Monday, and he went into a coma. My dad took it pretty hard.

And then, on Saturday after my parents got home from Muff's funeral, my mom handed me the newspaper and pointed to an article and said to me, "Did you know this girl?" Turns out a girl I knew from school, Amanda, died in an RV accident along with her older sister Alexis while they were coming home from their spring break. I couldn't believe it. I'd seen her the Friday before Spring Break, the last school day she would ever see, in our Peer Leaders class.

She made a poster with her friend Sarah for our school's tobacco-free campain. I just sat there on the floor with them and watched, having nothing better to do. Amanda was tracing her hands on the poster, adding some random creativity. Soon, it was covered with her handprints.

And now, she's gone. It's really weird, remembering so clearly the last time I saw her, and knowing that that will really be the last time. I never really knew her that well at all, since I was just starting to get to know her, but it's still sad. She was such a happy, nice person.

Then, today was our first day of Peer Leaders since spring break. It was really weird, Amanda not being there. But we dedicated the entire class period to making cards to give with her family. We're going to get a bunch of people to sign them at lunch next A-day.

And then, a few of us had an amazing idea. The poster Amanda had helped make on Friday was still hanging up in the hall. We could take it down, cut out all of her handprints, laminate them, and give them to her family. Those hand traces were so recent, it'd probably be really special for her family to have them. So that's what we did. We even saved her handwriting from the poster, and we're going to tape it onto a new posterboard and hang it back up in the halls.

Our class might plant a tree for Amanda, too. I think that'd be really cool, wouldn't it?

So, yeah. :)

Blizzard!

Woah! So, my mom and I had to run to the library not too long ago. When we left, there were just little tiny snowflakes fluttering to the ground. Nothing to be worried about, since 99% of them were melting before they even hit the ground. And the other 1% melted as they hit the ground.

It took about ten minutes tops to get to the library. Then we were in there for about twenty minutes. When we left the library, you couldn't see ten feet in front of you. How crazy is that? Now were have like a foot of snow outside.

And I was so excited that spring was starting to be here. But stupid winter had to come back and chase it away. :(

So, yeah. Now it's way cold outside and you can't see the house on the other side of the street. It's that bad.

Anyway, today I enjoyed a nice, school-free Monday (or at least, I was enjoying it until the snow showed up). But now I have to go back to school tomorrow. Ugh.

So, yeah. Nothing much else. Other than me changing the Song of the Week. I've decided to change it every Monday. :)

Oh. And, in case you haven't noticed, I've changed the layout to something a wee bit more St. Patrick's Day-ish. So, yeah, I'll keep it up for like, the rest of March. Or at least until March 20, which is the first day of spring. Then I'll change it to something a bit more spring-ish. :)

So, yeah. That's all. :)

Lots of stuff to catch up on...

Aw. I haven't posted in like... three weeks. :(
Let's see... what's happened?

I found out New Moon's release date: November 20, 2009.
The day before I turn fifteen. How cool is that? :)
I found out Eclipse's release date, too: June 30, 2010.
That's only... seven months after New Moon! Which makes me have a strong feeling that Eclipse will really suck. Because they'll only have about... four months to film, edit, and complete. :(

Hm. What else?
OH! The Oscars! ;)
Yeah. I watched the Oscars on Sunday.

Here's the winners of some of the really cool awards:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionair
Best Actor: Sean Penn; Milk
Best Actress: Kate Winslet; The Reader
Best Director: Danny Boyle; Slumdog Millionair
Best Animated Picture: WALL•E
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz; Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger; The Dark Knight

Really the only highlight of the Oscars was Heath Ledger winning. Because I never saw Slumdog, Milk, The Reader, or Vicky Cristina Barcelona. So I didn't really care about those. I just saw WALL•E and The Dark Knight out of the movies that won anything. Oh. Speaking of TDK, it also won Best Sound Editing. So... yeah.

Hm. There was something else...
Oh, now I remember. :)
The cast list for the school musical this year (Guys and Dolls) got posted today. I'm not in it, but all my friends are. :) And my friend Marie got one of the lead roles, Sarah Brown! I'm so happy for her. She wanted that part so bad, and she really deserves it. :)

But since all my friends are in the musical, I'll have to go to it alone. Joy. Unless I find another random friend to go with. Hopefully, I will.

Well... I have to go babysit in less than an hour. So... bye!

Secend Semester!

The second semester started yesterday. So much fun. :) I had only one new class, which was Peer Leaders.

Today I had TWO new classes!!!! Keyboarding (ick) and Foods (yay!). I have Keyboarding with Janessa, and Foods with AC, Devyn, Courtney... So yeah. Except AC isn't exactly in the class, he's just the TA.
AC the TA.
Haha. That's funny.
Um... so yeah. O.o

GUESS WHAT!!!! I HAVE AMAZING NEWS!!!!!!

My oldest sister Cassie (the one who got married in August) is pregnant. Of course, I already knew that. But we found out what the baby is! :)
Guess.
Nevermind. I'll tell you. Because I'm so excited. It's a girl!!

She already has two little boys, so a girl is just what she needs. :)

She's due May 31st. So it'll be a little May baby. :)

And, guess what. My best friend, Megan, who I've known FOREVER (seriously. i was like a week old when we met, and she was 2 days old), her sister Laeci is having a baby in May, too. But she's having a boy, and is due May 14th. :) The baby boy will most likely have red hair, because his dad Jared had the reddest hair ever. :P

Anyway. That's all for now, I guess.
Bye! ♥

Hola

Hello.

First of all, 9 more days until the best day if the year.

Okay. Right now I really want a turkey sandwhich. I saw someone eating one on TV, and now I really want one. So I'll go upstairs and make myself one once I'm done typing this post.

I'm also texting my friend Ashley right now. :)

Moving on. Thanksgiving and Christmas are getting closer. And my birthday. How cool is that? But now I'm going to have Christmas songs stuck in my head. x.x

Um. US History was kind of interesting, because we talked about the lost colony of Roanoke. English was kind of boring, because we're talking about nouns and adjectives and all that. I like what book we're reading though. The Giver.

We wrote articles for our school newspaper in Creative Writing today. Which was kind of fun. And Janessa made me realize that we have three classes together on Bdays. English, SSA, and Creative Writing. Woah.

Lol.

So, that's all. I'm not in a typing mood anymore. ;)

Happy is too small of a word.

Okay.

You know how when I got my Twilight soundtrack CD, and I was all like, "Happiness doesn't even beging to explain it"? Well, this is one of those times again.

But first, I'll tell you about my day (Ooh, the suspense!).

I got to skip PE and Algebra because we used our first two classes for Career Day! We had this list of careers we had to choose from (we had to choose four), and then we went to each career class that we chose. I chose Cosmetology, Photographer, Nurse, and Therapist. I wanted to do Cosmetology and Photographer, and then I just did the last two because I didn't know what to chose and that's what my friends Makenzie and Ashley were doing, along with the other two I'd chosen by myself. So we got to go to each one together!

And I still have NO CLUE what I want to do with my life.

Afterwords I had to go off to Health, which was boring. We talked about negotiating. Then I went to Science, and we talked about earthquakes, which was actually kind of cool.

Okay. Now to my happiness.

After I got home from school, there was a knock on the door (dun dun dun). My little brother answered it, and then was like, "Channy, I think your shirt came!" A week ago I ordered a Twilight shirt on line. It says "Vampire Baseball League" on it. So, immediately I came upstairs, and there it was. My shirt. Happy day! And I'm wearing it now. ;) I'm going to wear it on my birthday, too.

Yes, I do know I'm pathetic. To the extreme.

So, that's my news. :)

Woah. History.

Weee. Changed the layout. It probably won't stay this way for very long, this is just what I like for right now. I'll probably change it within the week, though.

Anyway.

Okay. I guess my PE teacher was right. We did witness history last night. Weird.

We now have President-Elect Obama (soon to be President Obama). Wow.
Now, living in one of the most republican states in America, all I heard today was, "Oh no! Obama won." And I was just thinking, "Well, he won't be that bad. It's not the end of the world." Personally, I liked both candidates just the same. They both have their pros and cons. Hopefully Obama can get us out of the mess our country's in.

Okay. Enough with the political talk.

I've been listening to my new CD a lot. Mostly on my iPod, though, since I put the CD on my iTunes, then put my favorite songs on my iPod. And my mom took the CD to work with her to listen to it. So I was like, "Okay... You do that." But now I have "Leave Out All the Rest" stuck in my head. Which is fine with me.

I've been in kind of a bad mood today. No clue why. To add to the bad-moodness, Mr. Brooks wouldn't really listen to anything I had to say during class. When he did, he didn't really give me the information I wanted. So I eventually gave up and wrote on the whiteboard with AC (friend in that class). I wrote, "November 21=Magical Day. (My birthday and Twilight movie)." And then AC came along and wrote, "Chantel loves Jasper Cullen." And so I wrote next to it, "Shut up, AC." And he just laughed at me. >:(

By the way, ONLY 15 MORE DAYS!

And my friends Holly and Marie were fighting. So I told Marie, "You better make up with her by November 21st, or else. That's your deadline. I'm serious." And so she went over to Holly and made up! Call me the peace maker. Okay, I usually cause the fights, but I can end them when I want to, too.

By the way, I'm listening to "I Caught Myself" by Paramore on the Twilight soundrack. Just so you know. ;) It's also a good song. The Linkin Park one's still my favorite, though. This one's my second favorite.