2012...? Bring It!

Wow... 2011 is over. What a thought. I honestly can't believe that it's done! I've finished it! 2012 is tomorrow! I've completed the last year in which I will be in High School the entire year. And Jeffrey's "black year" is over. This is the last year in which I will be a child the entire time... I'm turning 18 next year! And graduating High School! And I'll get to see one of my greatest friends again!

It seems like I have been looking forward to this year for forever, and now that it's here... I'm DANG excited! I'm sorry 2011, but I won't sugar coat it. We had good times. Some sweet memories were made, and I learned so much. I went through trials and tribulations that really changed me and made me a better, stronger person. But... honestly? It was a chore getting through you, man!!! You were a hard case! :) A real doozy, man! I mean, I applaud your hard work, you obviously put in the extra mile to teach me some serious lessons, but I won't miss being in you. Not one bit. :) And I am probably a bit too excited to begin 2012.

But anyway... some memorable, wonderful, crazy things that happened in 2011 are as follows.

I made Regionals again! :D

I decided to join Choir... dudes. Best. Decision. Ever! :) It allowed me to meet so many wonderful people that I needed to meet at Basha, and it finally got me modivated enough to join Choir at Desert Ridge! And we all know how fun that is. :)

I made All State! :D Seriously one of the most surreal moments of my life, "Jadyn... you made All State". Honestly! What an honor! To be recognized as the 13th most talented High School Clarinet player in the State! Seriously, I'm still so humbled by the experience and I hope that I'll be able to make it again this year (because really... how awful would it be to have gotten worse since last year? :) ).

By some divine miracle my friend Nathan asked me to Mormon Prom! We had a grand ol' time!

Again... what an honor! I was so blessed enough to be able to a part of the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization's Full Chamber Orchestra! I filled in for their second Clarinet and it was the most surreal experience... I know I said that about All State, but it was 1,000 times more amazing than All State! By far! Holy moly, I just hope that I'll be able to be a part of that again sometime soon.

I lost my dear childhood friend Rachel Elizabeth Ewer. She recently celebrated her 18th birthday in heaven. I miss her dearly, but her death not only strengthened my testimony, but has odly allowed me to strengthen the tesimony of others who have been going through the same trial. Love you Rach!!!!

I was awesome and showed everybody in my AP US History class what was what and won our Final Test Competition with my out of the box Propaganda presentation... boy I blew it out of the water. :) I won movie passes and an A+.

Speaking of which, I survived Basha!

I was able to experience a "day at the lake".

I went out with a bang and tried to be the kick buttiest YCL there was at Girls Camp for my very last year... *sniff sniff*

I earned my license three days before my seventeenth birthday! :D

Oh! I turned seventeen! :D And was able to see Les Miserables at Gammage! It was amazing guys... purely amazing.

I had my Senior pictures taken for... wait for it... FREE! My Young Womens President at the time was a Photographer and offered to do a session for free if I let her do whatever she wanted to me. DUDE! I was SO game! :D She did a "Glamour/Old Hollywood" shot...

...a just regular "Senior Shot"...

...and some artsy fartsy crazy ones. :) I think this one looks like I could be in a horror film, I love it! :)

Oh! And I made a dress! :D All thanks to my wonderful Princess Sister Alexa Dyan!

I revisisted my days as a Death Eater for the Second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows... for the remiere of The Hobbit in 2012... *shakes head* nevermind!

I went on the Pioneer Trek. Guys. Serious Jadyn time. This was hands down the most influencial weekend of my life. It seriously changed me for the better. If you ever... EVER have the opportunity to go, it will be one of the most emotionally and physically taxing thing you will do up to that point, but it will be one of the most rewarding! :)

Again... by some divine miracle, a boy actually wanted to ask me to a dance! Ha ha, yes I went to Homecoming with my hilarious, awesome friend Jake.

I shaved Nathan's head... just... yeah. :)

I was a lead in the One Acts! A lead! This was my first time actually being in the spotlight and having to do any deep characterization for a character and it was a truly different experience than any of my other acting experiences. I really am excited to get into AYT again the next chance I have!

Oh! And I went short! :D I know that it was one of my goals to grow my hair out long, but it honestly wasn't realizstic. And guys, I love my new hair. I may never go long again! :D

2011, we had a good run. We had some good times. 2012, boy I have been waiting for you and you are finally here and I am BEYOND excited! :D I have some great expectations for you, and I can not wait for you to meet them!

Inspired

I am currently sitting on my bed, in my room, in my yoga clothes.

DEFINITION: Yoga Clothes noun

Anything that is sinfully comfy, usually consisting of sweat pants, jammie shorts, a Girls Camp Tee Shirt, and a Sports Bra (oooh the Sports Bra... bliss! <3)

Occurances of This Morning

I woke up undisturbed at around 7:14 this morning.

I could hear birds chirping, the sun was barely peeking over the San Tan Mountains, and my borthers had not yet turned on the TV in the loft.

Or turned on their Video Games.

Or started their "band practice".

Again. Bliss.

I changed into my yoga clothes, ready for some yoga-y action!

But before I yoga'd it up, I needed some breakfast.

And after breakfast I needed to give my stomach a chance to get it all digested up.

And here I am now just chillin' with Lappy.

And while the peace of just an hour or so ago has long since gone, I want to blog about someone.

Just moments ago I was on Facebook.

You know.

And one of my dearest friends, Elder Moss, shared a video that I decided to watch.

I watched, and watched, and watched.

I promptly started following her blog and watched every single one of her YouTube videos.

He name is Al Fox, and he may just be one of the sweetest Sisters I've ever seen.

Her videos inspired me to share her message with all of you.

And to declare that I, Jadyn Maree, am so very sure of this Gospel.

I am positive that it is the true Church of Jesus Christ.

It is real.

And he is real. :)

And he loves us oh so much.

I have a burning testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and this sweet girl's message helped re-light a spark within me.

It is a spark that helps me not only to know that is gospel is true...

...but to be excited about it too! :)

I have posted below all of her YouTube videos.

Please take some time and watch all of them.

And feel free to visit her church blog.

She may have tattoos all over, and she may talk with a slight lisp, and she may not have been born in the Church.

But she really gets it. :)

Smile. :)

Day 29: A Picture That Can Always Make You Smile

...oh boy.

Just one?

I'm sorry.

That's just not going to work for me.

ALL of these pictures (and more) make me smile.

It's not the pictures themselves but the meories attached. :)

Consider yourself...

...picture bombed!

Enjoy.

I'm Not Going to Blog About Christmas

It was just a regular old Christmas. And by regular old, I mean freaking fantastic! The nice thing was that there wasn't really anything special that made it so, besides it being on the Sabbath. I remember the last time Christmas was on a Sunday and I remember it being super special, but man! This one was honestly such a great Christmas!

For the first time since I was old enough to grasp the concept of going to bed with no presents in the living room and waking up with piles of them I actually slept in on Christmas morning! Normally I'm the first one up, even in my late teen years! I mean, I'm turning eighteen in six months, you'd think I'd grow up a little bit, but nope. I'm always the first one up and harassing my parents (boy I betchya my kids'll be a doozy for payback). However... this year was different. My little brother Grant woke ME up! It was a shock, yes, and it took me a minute or two to really wake up, but as soon as we knew it, we were up and going down the stairs with our parents to go find our Santa Treasures.

The rule was that we were allowed to explore our Santa gifts and then after Church we'd change back into our jammies and open our gifts to each other. Another new thing this year was what we got from Santa! This year we each got one big gift and then a lot of other little ones (normally they're all pretty little :), but fun nevertheless!). This year I got my very own.. wait for it... laptop! I know! It's beautiful, and I never even guessed it! The embarassing part was that when I came downstairs the laptop was sitting on the couch with a giant pack of 5 Gum sitting on top of it... I was so overjoyed at recieving the package of gum that I didn't even notice the beautiful little computer sitting under it... *facepalm*... I guess it just goes to show you that it doesn't take much to please a Jadyn.

My little brothers got a Drumset (Grant's pretty good you know, he used to have a little puny Toy Store one, but he's a regular rockstar on his full set! Our house is like a rock concert every day, I have my own background beat when I pour my cereal in the morning!), a Fooseball Table (dude... duuude, ever since Treey even knew what Fooseball WAS he's been begging for one! I think this would have been his third year in a row asking for a Fooseball table and not getting it. So far he's creamed all of us at it!), and an X-Box 360 (now I don't know what the difference is between all the different game consels, but all I know is that that boy's joy on Christmas morning was darn worth the Black Fiday madness that my Sister and I had to go through as Santa's little helpers! *shhhhh*). And let me just say... that Santa got quite the STEAL on all of the gifts.

Church had such a neat program when we went, I loved it. The whole thing was just a giant suprise testimony meeting/firesidal (I say suprise because people were called up, it wasn't a volunteer basis... made for quite an interesting meeting)! For every musical number there would be about three testimonies and it was just such a neat and SUPER spiritual meeting. I love when we have musical numbers in church, there really is something about music that can touch you in a way that words can't... maybe it's just me, but I love it. :) Anyhow, are there any singers out there? Do your voices go through this vicious cycle of sounding REALLY GOOD and then sounding really... blah? It seems that from the end of Spring to begining of Fall my voice is rockin'! But everytim other than that it's just... poopy. Yeah I said it. Poopy. Well, right now my voice is in said state, and I got to sing during our Christmas Program with my friend Lindsay who has the voice of an angel! And angel I tell you! Needless to say, I was no match for her stellar voice, and I probably shouldn't have been up there due to my lack of mad skills in the voice area, but the Christmas angels must have been there to bear me up because it actually didn't suck! :D Seriously, all joking aside, we sange Mary's Lullaby and it was a beautiful song, I loved having Church on Christmas. :)

It was also fun because we got to have my sister Sydnee and my broter in law Tony over for the ENTIRE DAY! Normally they only stay for an afternoon or such, but they got to stay for all of Christmas this year. It really is all about family, I don't know what I would do without those crazy guys! All of them! :) I just hope that when I meet some special someone (you know... in like fifty years) and they have to meet my family they won't be scared off... we really are quite the bunch. :)

So yep... Merry Christmas Everybody!

Oh and for Day 28? Something that scares me? I'm just going to go ahead and redirect you to a time that I did a Top Ten on the subject, aight? :) So if you really care to know, click right here! Everything you'd like to know about what scare my pants off is right yonder.

Oh! And just one more thing... any of you know who Steven Sharp Nelson is? Remember when I met the guy? And he was even more amazing than I could have hoped? Well, just when I thought he couldn't get any cooler...

Ha ha, have a lovely day you guys! :)

Killing Three Birds With One Stone

So I was looking through some pictures that I could quite possibly use for Day 25 of the Photo Challenge and I noticed something grand!

I can knock out days 25-27 all in one post! :D You ready for this?

Chek it.

Day 25: A Picture of Your Day

Ok, technically this is a picture of my day TWO days ago, but who gives a chiz?

What is chiz anyway?

Not matter, on Christmas Eve my family started a tradition (I mean, once you do something twice that automatically makes it a tradition) last year by going to I-Hop and then seeing a matinee showing of Tangled. It's cute to think back to when Tangled was still in theatres isn't it? :) Anyway, we went to I-Hop again two days ago for Christmas Eve and had a grand ol' time. After that we went and saw The Muppet Movie in Theatres and man oh man... I was doubtful of how great it could possibly be and lovelies... please do yourself a favor, drive over to the dollar theatre, resist the urge to view some other lame movie, and go see The Muppet Movie. It was fantastic.

Oh! And the awkward picture? I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat right around the time my mom was having a picture taking palooza at the booth we were sitting at. She aimed the camera at me... said, "Look like you can't deicde what to order"... and this was the result. Bask in its awkwardness. :)

Day 26: A Picture of Something That Matters Most to You

This is cliche, but I really do love my awesome family! They mean so much to me and are so fun to be around! Yes they can drive me crazy, and yes I can drive them crazy, but I think that comes with every family, right? :) I am oh so blessed with the most amazing parents on the planet!!! I have come to the conclusion that the reason I have a head on my shoulders is all thanks to my parents... they sure did raise me right. Seeing some of my friends' parents I have come to realize just how lucky I am to be belssed with my mom and dad, they really love me for me and encourage me and they don't put too much pressure on me to be anything that I don't want to be, they realize that I am not perfet and they accept me for who I am. :)

Day 27: A Picture of You and a Family Member

Me and my mombee. :) I love this crazy lady with all of my heart! ...and so do all of my best friends... why was I blessed/cursed with a mom cooler than I am?!?! *shakes fist*

And just for good measure, here's another one... we'll throw Grant in the picture as well. :)

Pickin' It Back Up

So I was reading back to about this time last year on my blog just for remeniscing purposes and I stumbled upon the 31 Day Photo Challenge that I took on and never finished.

We all knew I'd never finish that bad boy, BUT I'm determined to see this through!

I stopped at what... day 25?

~

Day 25 - A picture of your day
Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you
Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member
Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of
Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile
Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss
Day 31 - A picture of yourself

~

I'm up for the challenge, I am going to fulfill the last seven days of this dang challenge.

Y'all ready for this? Du-nu-nuh!

Tis the Season...

Can you really believe that it's already Christmas time? And by Christmas time, I mean like two days away from the actual holiday itself?!?!? It seems like the older I get, the faster the years go by. I remember when Summer Vacation used to last forever and now look at it! We are that much closer to 2012, the year I have been waiting for since I first started High School! The year I get to... wait for it... GrAdUaTe FrOm HiGh ScHoOl! :D I seriously can't believe how fast it's going by, and while part of me wants it to stay, a bigger part of me is excited to move on. :) Anyway, that isn't the reason I wanted to blog. I wanted to update on the things I have been up to this Christmas season.

-Christmas Parties

This is the first year that i have actually bee invited to some legitemate Christmas Parties, and let me tell you, I have felt like the Bomb Diggity getting to write down, "Kailey's Christmas Bonfire" or "Taytum's Holiday Gift Exchange" or "Jodi's Sweet Things Partay!" in my calendar. Who knows how long this life of being cool enough to be invited to things will last, but I'm living it up man! :)

Let me introduce you fellows to my new pride and joy. At Taytum's party we had a White Elephant gift exchange and there was something there that I just had to steal! I strategically stole it on its second turn so that nobody else could have it... and oh, the heartless strategy paid off. I mean look at this beautiful thing! Best white elephant gift... EVER! I can't wait to hang it up in my room. :D

-Closing up My First Semester

Oh the nastalgia. This semester I was really blessed to have my best friend Mimi in my second hour class, because honestly... without moments like this I would have never made it through stupid Mr. Caryl's class with all of my sanity. Honestly, that man... we won't even go there. Just laugh at the stupidity of the portraits we so kindly dre for one another.

Doesn't Mimi's look just like her? :)

Speaking of Mimi, I kind of love her dearly! She posted something on my Facebook wall the other day and I seriously couldn't have described it better myself! "...I think that when God was making all of everyones' brains, he made yours and mine from the same batch. Because fo' reeals. How else could our brilliant minds be SO alike??..." Seriously! I couldn't have asked for a girl who was MORE like me! We are just about the same in every way and I love it because I can vent to her just about anything... and she'll totally get what I mean. We have been walking the track after school for the past couple of days (I wish we could do it every day but she has EVIT) and it has been so fun being able to just chat with that little lady about crap. I can't wait to go to CGCC with her and dudes... do you see this picture below? Not even planned guys, not even planned. If this doesn't mean we were meant to be best friends, I don't know what does!

Random thought... sometimes my crazy little dog Jazee is the most annoying thing on the planet. Like when she refuses to leave you alone and let you watch the Dick Van Dyke show in peace, so you pet her and she just keeps getting closer... and closer... and closer... until...

...she's right up in your stinkin' lap! I really do love this little doggie. :) Sometimes I like to think that she appreciates living here more because of where she came from. And then other times I think she's just retarded. But she's a cutie all the same. :)

Last thought! Guess what the heck I got to wear today?!?! Mhm, I am now the proud owner of a legitemate Mormon Helping Hands T-Shirt! My ward got together some people to help out at the Salvation Army today. It was a little bit scary, not going to lie. It was intimidating being a first-time Helping Hands-er amongst all of these ladies who knew exactly what to do, and despite messing up my first oder, and starting my period during the middle of it (TMI), and having to flee to the bathroom but not being strong enough to be able to open the stupid door... it was still a super fun experience and I was grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord's children in need suring this Christmas season. (P.S. Even though I totally look like it, I am NOT pregnant in the picture below. I promise you!)

Merry Christmas everybody! And a Happy New Year!