Feel Goods

Well in the past week I have had to really wonderful feel good moments. The first came last Monday. We had a work party at LC Ranch. Dough was able to bring Sandra. It is so nice to see her going again! I guess I'll think anything is better than what I saw of her this past summer. I have to tell you about a funny moment I had there. So Doug was coming around to all of the tables asking everyone where there spouce was or where their partners were. So he gets to me and asks, "Where's your partner Mandy?" I looked up at Doug and said, "I'm not Mandy, but she doesn't have one either." You could see the wheels turning in his head. Then he asked me if I was Megan. I told him no again that I was not Meg. Then he asked me who I was. I smiled and told him I was the youngest. Perplexed he asked Sandra who I was. First she said Connie because that's who Dough pointed to. Doug told her no. Then he said Beth's youngest. Now I believe Sandra was saying my name. Everyone else thought she was saying "can't see." So Doug brought her over and she said my name. I looked up and Doug and said, "See, she remembers my name. What's your excuse?" It was pretty funny!
My other feel good moment came this morning. During choir practice Sally came in. She took a couple of minutes and talked to us. She told us how thankful she was that we went to go and sing to her dad, my neighbor Ralf. She started to cry and told us that was all he could talk about last night. He stayed up and talked to her. She said it definitely cheered him up! This made me feel great about myself.
Last but not least I would like to say I am very proud of my choir. We are so amazing. Tomorrow we have the opportunity to sing to Sandra and at the Capitol Theatre as a pre-show to The Nutcracker. I am so excited. I guess a better word would be ecstatic. I know that if we perform as well as we did yesterday, it will be simply amazing!

Birthday WIshes

Thank-you all for all the birthday wishes and presents. It's amazing to think that I'm 18 now. Guess that means no more illegal stuff.... ;)

For my birthday I got a ton of things. Charla gave me a watch. Family gave me a shirt and sweater, jewlery, and lots of books. Carol gave me a Sound of Music barbie, Sound of Music collectors plates, a Sound of Music pop-up book, a DVD/Blueray/Book of Sound of Music, and my Y.W. leader Amy gave me some icing and the book A Christmas Bell for Anya. So I got a lot of great things. I bought myself a present. I got Wait Until Dark on DVD. Gotta love the classics!

Anna, I hope you birthday was as great as mine!!

Happy Birthday to all birthdays in December!!

Everything

Wow, time is just flying by. Sound of Music is over, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now I have to fill out scholarships and apply for school. Amazing how fast things have come and gone.
School is going well. I was so proud of myself. In me Chemistry 1010 class I passed with a B. Then in my FCHD(another college class) I passed with an A. It made my day when I was looking.
Choir is great. On the 18th of December we get to sing at the Capitol Theatre for a pre-show to The Nutcracker. I am so excited.
I finally found a movie for Christmas. Sorry all, I would tell but some people actually read this blog who will be playing the game.
Thanksgiving was great! It was so small. There was only Aunt Ann, Uncle Lee, Avan, Anna, Nathan and Marcy with their kids, Aunt Mary and Uncle Boyd, and us. As most years the rolls were my favorite. Along with the desserts. Junction was fun. Found myself some things.
Sound of Music was fun! Those who missed it missed out, or so I'm told. I can't believe it's over. The last night I got a standing ovation. That made me feel good. I can honestly say I am very relieved it's over. If you would like to see some pics go on over to Carol's blog. She posts everything.
Hope all goes well for everyone in the next few weeks!!

The Sound Of Music

So I am quite terrible at writing on this blog. Especially when it comes to current things. Altamont High School is doing the play The Sound Of Music. I think you should all totally come and watch me. I have the part of Maria. It should be interesting. We put it on November 18-22.
Hope to see everyone there.

The Lion King

This past Wednesday I went and saw The Lion King at Capitol Theater in SLC. Oh my gosh it was the best and the most amazing show I have ever seen. The costumes were incredible. The scene changes were so fast. If I had all the money in the world I would totally go see it again. If you ever have the chance to go it is so worth all the money for the tickets!
I will have to say Zazo had some funny lines. They had closed the curtains and Zazo was on our side. This was right before the song I Just Can't Wait To Be King. Anyway he's all freaking out because he can't see or find Simba and Nala. He keeps saying their names like a hysterical lunatic. Then he says, "This wasn't in the cartoon." So funny. The other line that made me laugh hard was right after the curtain closed for the same song. Zazo is looking at the curtain and remarks, "This looks like a shower curtain from Target" (Ann the way he said it totally made me think of you).

Not much has happened since I last wrote. This past week I have been babysitting the Rust boys. They are very rambunctious. My cousin Kate once said that babysitting made great birth control. I believe her after this week.

The carpet people finally came to AES. It's about time. Hopefully they will get done soon so that the teachers can start putting their rooms back together.

Longhorn Days came and went. For most of it I wasn't even in town. I spent my time in Emery County painting my Grandparent's house. It looks a lot better. I also went to the Miss Cleavland Pageant to watch my cousin D'Lee. She won which was exciting. We also went to Aunt Mary and Uncle Boyd's house. Their daughter Kate and her kids were out. We went on a zip line while we were there. It was awesome. When Mandy got up there to ride she said, "Oh shit." It was so funny. Later my cousin Duncan asked his mom Kate what Mandy had said. She said that Mandy said, "Oh poop." Anyway we made it back to Altamont Friday night. On Saturday I ran in the 5k (which I did terrible in), went to the breakfast for the very first time (and it was yummy), watched the parade (Mator was my favorite), made some food, and went and partied with Ken and Sue and their family. It was fun.

I sure hope that August will not go as fast as the rest of the summer went! I hope that everyone has a wonderful rest of the summer.

Please Life Be Calm and Peaceful

Wow summer has gone by pretty darn fast. Guess what, most of it has not been relaxing. No the first week of summer my uncle died. Then we got new bedroom furniture and played musical bedrooms. The next week I went to girls camp at Heber Valley. That Thursday, Meg came and got me early to go to a 5K that was in memory of my uncle. The next week I went to Logan to EFY witch was a ball. Then I went to my dad's house for father's day in Ogden. Then I came home. During that week I attended another funeral for Scott Toland. The only time I cried was when Meg got up and talked during the open mike. Then this past Saturday I went to Mona, Utah for a family reunion. Then last night I went to Price, Utah to see my grandma who is in the hospital. All was looking well. They said she would probably be able to come home today. Last but not least I was just challenged by the missionaries to talk to a friend about the church. Oh and then their is all the stuff to do with Sandra Swasey. Will this madness ever end?

Darrell Gardner

This article is for my Uncle Darrell. He left this life on May 31, 2010, Memorial Day. He was doing what he loved. He was farming. When cutting down a tree, with his backhoe, it fell on top of him and he died instantly. He left behind his wife Natalie, and his 3 kids: Jake 19, D'Lee 17, and Jax 14. He was only 51 years old by 5 days. He was a great dad, uncle friend, husband, coach, and person. He will be greatly missed. Later on through this tribute I will tell some memories and stories I have.

This was the sign they kept in front of their house.

I believe it is self-explanatory.

He use to teach a dance class at CEU and at Emery High School

This isn't my photo. But I guess once while he was camping with his family they made the swing. When he was doing something else he was found playing on it.

These next few photos were during the torch run for the 2002 Olympics. Yes he actually got to run with the torch.

In this photo my uncle is on the bottom row to the far right. The one holding the torch is my cousin Laura

My uncle was a cross country couch at Emery. I think the above picture is when Altamont went to a meet.

These 2 pics were taken at a meet I went to in 2009. The thing I really remember about this meet was during the 4x4. I was the second runner. My cousin D'Lee was too. D'Lee was about around the corner by the time I got the baton. All of a sudden Uncle Darrell was cheering for me. I didn't even here my couches. He told me to catch up to D'Lee and that I could do it. He kept cheering for me until I was out of ear shot. At the end of the leg I'm not sure who he was cheering for because D'Lee and I were neck and neck.

These pics were taken at my cousin D'Lee's prom. Darrell got to promenade with his daughter. The background story to that is Uncle Darrell wasn't able to attend his own prom. He got to sick and his friend had to take his date. In pics I saw they said, "Darrell finally gets to dance at his Prom."

Darrell Gardner will be missed by many. We will always remember all the things he did for us. May we never forget what an awesome man he was. May we all live our lives right so that we may be able to see him again. This is a quote from Sherrell Ward's talk. I believe this is something my uncle would say, "Pain is temporary, life is eternal," he wrote. "Shut up and live!"

Well I know on the last post I said this one was going to be about Prom. Well my Internet isn't working right now. So I can't post any pics for a while. So I am typing this at school. So instead of talking about old stuff lets get caught up with what's going on right now.

Well I ran as SBO Secretary. I ran against a girl named Stephanie Thayne. As soon as I learned she was running I just had that feeling that I would not win. And I didn't. After that I felt like I couldn't do anything. School was giving me problems, Track was hard having mono. So I just kept saying, "To heck with it all!" Everything is going better now. The next week I was voted in as Senior Class Secretary. I didn't even try. No one ran, so Whitney nominated me, and I won. I am not so sure I wanted to though. Now I will have to help with all the after high school stuff.

My school is having a MORP Dance. I asked Lance for my date. I don't think is all that happy that I asked him. I say this because of Wednesday. I went to Lagoon for the Honor Society Trip. So did Lance and my friend Rachel. Well through most of the trip I was kind of ignored my the two of them. We went on rides together but I was always sitting by myself. It was fun but... I don't know. Then I think I overheard this conversation and I think other people asked Lance to but not really as a date. So I just feel sad but happy at the same time.

This past week we also had an Athletic Banquet. I lettered in both Cross Country and Track. So it was good but forever long. I thought Mrs. Seeley was never going to quit talking.

On a brighter note I only have 1 more week of school and I'm done with my college classes. I will never have to take Math 1050 again. Girls camp is the 7-11 of June and I go to EFY the week after.

LIfe

So life is good right now. It is finally starting to slow down, which I am grateful for! I just had prom this past weekend. It was really fun. I promise I will get pics soon. I just have to finish getting them on to my computer. I will also do some of Center Stage. I finally made it track practise after a month of not going. I also learned why I've had such a sick year. I learned that at some point I had mono. I am on the getting better side. In the next few posts you can see a little about how my life is going.

Region Drama

Region Drama was on the 30th. It went great. Well the morning part of it went great. We did our play Last Gasp At The Last Gulp. This was a fun play to do. I'm glad I did it. I watched some other plays to. They were good. Tabby's was hilarious. I also did Musical theatre. That's when things started to go bad. Our CD kept skipping. And of course it had to skip when we were performing for the judges. At times we paused a lot. Waiting for the CD to work again. After that I went and stat down with my mom. She had just talked to Lori Teem. We learned that sometime during the year I had mono. I am still recovering from it. But I'm not contagious. Later that night I couldn't find my state jacket from cross country. I went home without it. On the good news, I got my jacket back the next day and our play made it to state along with Tabby's. Duchesne doesn't get to go.

State FCCLA

I went to State FCCLA. It was good. We left on March 24. We were suppose to leave at 4:45 am. But that didn't happen because of me. I slept in. At about 5 my friend called me. So the bus came and picked me up at my house. Talk about embarrassing!! Anyway we rode with Duchesne, so the bus was crowded. I slept the whole way. That was great! We competed that day. The next day we found out how we did. I got a silver medal. I was hoping for gold, but oh well. At least I didn't do any worse than I did at region.

New Calling

Well on March 17 I had a surprise coming to me. A member of our bishopric came to my house. My fist thought was he was going to call me for something in Y.W. But no. It was far from Y.W. I was called to be the Ward Chorister.  Well I'm not going to lie, I'm not very excited. My first week of leading was last week. I've decided I need to learn the Easter songs in the hymn book. I didn't know any of them. Not knowing the songs makes it a bit difficult. Hopefully it will get better with time. 

New Beginnings 2010

On February 14, Altamont 1st ward had New Beginnings. A girl from my ward named NiCole Fisher was in charge of it. She decided it would be fun if we all dresses in formals. So we all had to round up some. I borrowed mine from Jazmyn. Our theme had to do with stars. I had a great time that night, and I though we had some pretty great dresses! 

Group Pictures

This is me and my Y.W. President Amy Richardson. She was the only leader to dress in a fromal

We all got cans of star-kist tuna

PARTY!

Cats & The Funny Things They Do

Sometimes the cats we have get into some pretty wild  spots. So when they do, I like to take pics. Here are some of the wild adventures they went on.

New Years

Well, I'm really slow about getting pics onto my computer. Hear are some pics from New Years Eve. The party was held at my aunt and uncles house in Greenriver. And all of ya who didn't come, you missed out on a great night!

Kate and her kids Lium and Duncan

Ethan

Grandma look great that night. This was her new outfit.

Mary and Anna

Laird reading on Mandy's Kindle

Our game of apples to apples

Avan and Anna

Aunt Mary and Avan

Laura and Uncle Boyd

Uncle Lee, our hose fell asleep

Aunt Ann, the hostess also fell asleep

Surprise, surprise my mother fell asleep. She said she needed a nap so she could be awake for the new year.

All of them, waiting....