Now what?

"I feel like an Indian!" That's how Kiah plays DDR.

Meet Nikiah Maria Riggs. Alright that's not her actual name, but say it out loud i dare you. You just did, didn't you? And you probably just said it again just because of how much fun it was. I did that the whole time i was at girls camp. Anyways, her name is Nikiah and she is my best friend.

Several months ago, i was walking to math class and i saw Nikiah crying. Well not actually crying, but her eyes were red and she was wiping under her eyes. Naturally, i asked her what was wrong. She wouldn't tell me at first, but i finally got it out of her about 10 minutes after the tardy bell. She told me that her Dad was offered 2 new and improved jobs; one in Manti (i think about 3-4 hours away), and one in Alaska (about 100 bajillion years away). When she first told me this, it was only a "i might be moving." Not too much later though, it became "i'm for sure moving to Manti."

So over the months, the shock has worn off. But still, i can't forgive myself for how much i've taken her for granted. Me, Ashley, and Nikiah (we're basically inseperable. and a little bit chemically imbalanced.) have been spending literally as much time as possible together. You'd think that we'd start to get on each others nerves after a bit, but that almost never happens. And when i say "almost", that's only when it's both mine and Ashley's time of the month. At that point, she is extra mean and slightly insensitive and plays lots of tricks (she knows this is true so i don't feel bad saying it) and i just get impatient and emotional and super irritable. BAD mix, and poor Kiah's always in the middle! Wow okay anyways the point is that the three of us somehow manage to love each other through all our faults.

Yesterday (or was it the day before...?), Nikiah called me while i was closing up at the coffee shop at around 2:30. She was just asking me if i could hang out, and i worked it out so i could. Little did she know that i've been trying to hang out with her, just the two of us, for a few days because of this:






This is what i always say to Nikiah, and she's always sure to say it back.

If you don't know what that is, it's called an Exploding Box. I saw the one mama made for Mommer for Mother's Day, and i new i just had to make one for Nikiah. But there were some complications. One being my own laziness, so even though i had the stuff to make it like 2 weeks before school even got out, i didn't even start working on it until like last weekend. Another one was that by the time i got to Nikiah's house (about an hour later because i had to take mama home), there was another girl there. Not that i had a problem with the girl, it was just frustrating because i didn't want to give Nikiah this really, really special present in front of someone who not only wouldn't understand how much it meant, but would ask us to explain every picture and every inside joke. (That was a long sentence.) So i had to wait until she went home, then i gave the box to my best friend. I recorded it on my camera, but i don't really know how to put videos on here. Oh wait... is it that film stip lookin thing up top there...? Well look at that, it is! I wonder if it will work...

Nope no luck. Anyways, i made her cry with this. Me, mama, and Ashley all predicted that once she took the lid off, she would keep doing it over and over because well, Nikiah is very easily entertained. But we were all wrong, because she took the lid off and... well, if this video would work you'd see what she did. At first, all she could say was "Aw...!" After a minute though, she started to cry. A lot. She told me she was really glad i'd waited til her other friend was gone, because that could have been embarassing.

Later that day, we went to my friend Kaylie's house so i could get my hair cut. Ashley met us there, and we went on a secret adventure. Oh you'd like to know where we went, wouldn't you? Oh well, too bad. =] lol

Well i guess the main point to this essay is to show off what i made for Nikiah (i admit, i seriously considered keeping it forever. it's my pride and joy.), to say how much i love her, and to explain why i asked for gas money to travel to Manti on my wishlist on our family blog. Ash and i are going to take as many road trips as possible to visit Nikiah, who promised to act as stupid as us while we're there. ;)

i wonder why all my posts are super duper long... ? I'm sure i get made fun of for it *cough* Chasen *cough* but i don't know who would do such a thing.

♥

I hate apricots.

so this morning at 6, i got up. don't forget, but it is saturday. so i got up at 6 so i could be ready to leave by 6:30. somehow, mama talked me into going to work in the cannery in st. george at 8 am. lucky, lucky me. okay for the record, i'm not really that grouchy about it. yeah, i wish it could have been a wee bit later, but still.

well in the cannery itself, mom and i got the easiest job there. basically all we did was keep the cans going on the belt and measure the apricots to make sure they werent too full or whatever. the only really bad part was the fact that it was loud, super steamy, and very very scary. oh, and the fact that it lasted 4 whole entire hours. that about killed me!

well i just thought i'd let you know that i actually did something worthwhile on a saturday in the summer! it's a first, believe me. =]

yours truly.

News Flash!

i just thought i'd announce that my family is now doing kind of a group-blog thing. we've still got a bunch of things to work/figure out. but still, it's fairly interesting and we're all pretty excited about it, and that has to count for something, right? well that's about all i have to say. ♥


Oh and just for Todd...
"Liberty Bell, you put one more bacon on that potato and i'll kick your little monkey butt!"--Juno

Braceface no more!

Before…

Alright alright you can breathe now… my braces FINALLY came off! At approximately 11:33, they started snappin’ the brackets. It hurt SO bad, though. See, my brackets were ceramic. So instead of neatly popping off like metal ones, they shattered all over the room and into the back of my throat. Yeah, that was pretty unpleasant. But it was all worth it in the end! My teeth felt so slimy and I have to admit, I’m still not completely entirely used to how small my lips feel.


After...

My retainers are so cute! I got kind of a deep purple with black and white polka dots on it. They suck, but at least they’re cute, right? That’s what I have to keep telling myself, anyways. So yeah, there’s an update and here’s a couple of pictures for your enjoyment! =]


After the after (retainers)...

well... i'm tired. so that's pretty much all i want to say. have a great day!


"That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle can't be undid, homeskillet."--Juno

i LOVE that movie and i had the sudden urge to quote it. =]

Tag... you're it!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? I was about to start first grade at Tanglewood Elementary. As a 6 year old, I’m pretty sure I can’t remember a whole lot of detail about it.

2. What was I doing 5 years ago? Hmm I was just about to start sixth grade at L. Gilbert Carroll Middle School, and trying to make the most of the time I had left in Lumberton. I was probably in New Mexico at this point, but I’m not positive.

3. What was I doing 5 months ago? Getting over the shock of the fact that that it was already second semester, frantically doing fundraisers to prepare for the Music Department’s trip to California, and just dealing with school in general.

4. 5 Things on my To-Do List:

1. Unpack from camp.
2. Sort the clean laundry.
3. Do SOMETHING on Nikiah’s exploding box!
4. Go shopping.
5. Something productive.

5. 5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Seasoned Oyster crackers.
2. S’mores PopTarts.
3. Jack Link’s Original Beef Jerky.
4. Rice Krispies
5. Frosted Flakes!!!!!

6. 5 things I would do if I became a Billionaire:

Right now?

1. Tithing (Can you see the guy’s face who opens the envelope and sees a check for at least $100 million? And yes, I did just have to use a calculator to figure that out.)
2. Pay off debt for my family. (Considering I have no debt. I mean come on, I’m a junior in high school.)
3. Put aside money for a GREAT college.
4. Get a house in Kanab
5. Travel all over the place with just a couple of my bestest friends.

7. 5 Bad Habits:

1. I stay up waaay too late at night. Kind of like right now.
2. After not being able to stay awake all day because of a sleepless night, I take very long naps. Which means I can’t sleep that night… it’s a vicious cycle.
3. Not calling people back.
4. Complaining.
5. Wasting time on the computer/internet.

8. 5 Places I have lived:

1. Auburndale, Florida
2. Lumberton, North Carolina
3. Lumberton, North Carolina (rental house)
4. Hurricane, UT
5. Kanab, UT/Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

9. 5 Jobs I've Had:

1. Clear Creek Family Ranch
2. Diddle Dumpling/Sarah Hillgrove
3. Zion Pharmacy
4. Linda Lea’s Coffee Shop
5. Umm I’m working on getting another job…

10. 5 People I Tag:

1. Kaylie
2. Justin
3. Kelsie
4. Chasen
5. …someone else?

I realize that probably none of these people will actually do it, but I have a limited number of people on this site. Sorry.

Like real, actual love...

Me, Savy, Erica, and Jamie getting ready to go hiking. The theme this year was B.O.O.T. Camp... "Building Our Own Testimonies" hence the camo.

well i'm back from girls camp, obviously. this year was Stake, so we had K3, K4, K5, O1, O2, Alton, and Glendale all there. it was up by Mammoth Lake, on some property that my bishop and his family owns. since his wife happened to be our ONLY official leader for my ward, we had permission to sleep in the heated sheep wagon. we didn't, but we could have. haha

another thing that was different this year than any other year was the fact that i was a Junior Leader... weird! i got special priveleges (as in... making the littler girls do whatever i didn't want to do. haha), i was allowed to give girls permission to do stuff (such as sleeping with another ward because she was all alone in hers and we're all about the buddy system.), but something else was different that i did NOT expect. when testimony came around, i was sitting next to Savy and there was this huuuuuge long awkward silence. i was wondering why this was happening, because it had never happened in any other previous years. but after a few minutes, it hit me and Savy at the same time... it's always the older girls that go first. we were so used to waiting for them to go first and follow their example, but it struck us that we were the "older girls." so first Jamie went, then Nikiah, then Savy, then me. suddenly, there were no more silences, because all the younger girls were following what we did. i don't know why that hit me so hard, but it did. and i'm still having a hard time getting over it.

another great, great thing about being a Junior leader was that i got to help conduct the Snipe Hunt! if you don't know what that is, i'll just tell you part of it. Snipe Hunting is where you take the younger girls (mostly first years and a couple second years) into the woods armed with pillowcases and flashlights. the idea is that we're looking for Snipes which are... well, i can't really describe them. just that they're fairly small, VERY fast, strictly nocturnal, they have incredible hearing (so you have to shut the heck up), and glowing red eyes. oh, and you have to keep your flashlights on the ground AT ALL TIMES because snipes live in trees mostly, and if you shine your light on them, they take off and you basically can't ever find them again. i won't go into the other part of Snipe Hunting, however. if you really want to know, you'll have to ask me in person. on the other hand, if you DO know what Snipe Hunting is... let me just say that i am incredible at it. really, i should get some kind of award! haha

so basically, this year was honestly the best year i've ever had at girls camp. the very first day was REALLY windy and the first night was a nightmare because it was absolutely freezing(i've never been so happy to wake up in my life. that includes Christmas and all birthdays.), and the dirt there was so fine it was like camping in gross powdered sugar. but other than that, i had so much fun hanging out with Nikiah and Erica and Jamie and Savy.


Savy, Nikiah, Erica, me, and Jamie in Mammoth Cave.

the skits are always interesting. this year, we got our props from Kanab 4th ward... and they are some sick, sick people. some of the things we got included a pinwheel, 5 or 6 crowns made out of pipe cleaners, a pair of old disgusting oversized longjohns, a pair of cow-print pants, a Daniel Boone hat, a Flintstone dress type thing, and several strange hats. i ended up wearing the longjohns (gross), the Superman cape, a hardhat with a crown ducttaped to the top, and i used the pinwheel as a flower. i was Garett the Good.


Me doing my "Garett the Good" pose that Lucy never could quite get enough of. Needless to say, our skit got more laughs than any other.

so that's pretty much all i have to say. except that i fully intend on going to girls camp next year and the year after that. as far as i'm concerned, eighteen is still a perfectly good age to go to girls camp. =]


Erica and me. Honeyface and Sweetie Pie. Sapphire and Pumpkin Butt. (Those last two are what we call each other when we're "fighting". the story behind Sapphire is a really good one, but i told it so much at camp that i'd feel pretty bad if i posted it on the internet. haha)


Nikiah and i. i think she might be why i had so much fun. this was her last year at camp with our stake, so maybe that's why i made the absolute best out of it. i love Nikiah. like, real actual love... =]


in other news, i get my braces off in one day and 11 hours. so i guess that makes 37 hours... or so. but who's counting? also, i've got my second date since i've turned 16! i have no idea when it is or what we'll do or who we'll double with or any other details, i just know who it will be with and that it will (hopefully) be sometime this summer. whoo! i'm super excited. that kid is like one of my best friends and i know we'll have a blast!

Today was an A+.

I've gotta say, today was pretty much successful in being completely spectacular! Well, it didn't seem like it at first, because i was woken up by the doorbell that my parents didn't hear. So i had to get out of bed and let my neighbor borrow a couple of eggs... how's that for a way to start your day? haha

Once i was up for good, i called Ashley to see what time she wanted me to come to her house. She said any time was good, so i did my hair real quick and headed on down to town. Once we got there, we went to her dad's work to borrow his computer so we could sort through some pictures. See, our friend Nikiah is moving, and we're both doing scrapbooking projects, and we don't really want to use the same pictures. You know? So we have to decide who gets what ones... it feels almost like a divorce settlement. Haha. Anyways, so we did that for a little while, then we went and met Kiah at Subway for lunch. After that, we went back to our secret missions of printing off a billion pictures!

Oh, and this whole entire time, pretty much from the second i got over the grumpiness of having to answer the front door, i was in a GREAT mood. Luckily, so was Ashley! So all day, we were just singing random songs and having a sweet time, and that really helped with the outcome of the whole day, i'm pretty sure. Well after the printing thing, and after some DDR and Guitar Hero sessions and about 15 minutes of "Finding Nemo," Ash & i started to get ready for the dance. Even though we had like 3 hours until it started, we didn't know what else to do. Once we were ready though, we just sat in her room talking for a really long time.

It wasn't until we left for the dance that our adventure began. So we were on our way there, when Ashley's friend Mark called her. After a minute of being on the phone, she hung up and said "Umm Jennifer, could you head toward La Estancia?" i asked her why, and she told me that Mark's truck had run out of gas so him, his friend Mike, and Mike's brother Helaman were pretty much stranded. So we went and picked them up and headed for the dance. A little while later though, Mark decided he should probably get gas in his truck. So we ("we" being me, Ash, Mark, Mike, Helaman, and Jamie decided to come with us) drove to Mike and Helaman's house to get a gas tank, then (after a lot of confusion... no one would give me a straight answer when i asked where we were going!) we went back to Mark's truck. Ashley, Jamie and I actually kidnapped Mark for a couple of minutes while Mike and Helaman put gas in the truck. That was fun. =] In the end though, we went back to the dance and watched Mark be silly! Then me and Mike remembered why we were so tight a few months ago.

Let me tell you about Mike. See, we were in seminary together for the first semester of school and we were the bestest friends! But then he just got too cool for me and had to rearrange his schedule in order to graduate. (Like you really need to do that... pshh!) So then unfortunatly, we didn't talk for a very, very long time. As in, we didn't really talk until like... today. Haha. But pretty much this whole night, we just started talking a lot more and i decided that i sure like Mike a lot! I just want to kind of add him to the entry i did earlier about all my friends that graduated. Because he's going to stupid college TOMORROW which is just ridiculous to me. Anyways, yeah i just wanted to say that Mike is my dear good buddy and i like him a lot! =]

P.S. No, he doesn't always wear just a random tank top! Haha He'd just been playing outside with Mark and Helaman.

The dance itself was as good as they usually are: not. I danced with Garett (he somehow is able to swing dance to ANY song. It never fails to amaze me), my husband Brandon, Matt, Josh Barton, and Mike. I saw a bunch of people that i'd missed a lot. I called my dear good buddy friend Craig to see if he was coming, but he sounded really tired because he'd been playing basketball for like 2 days straight and had a rolled ankle. So he ended up not coming. Well the dance started to suck, so i was driving down mainstreet and can you guess who i saw throwing a football across the street? It was Mark, Mike, and Helaman! So i pulled over to talk to them (Helaman gave me a hug, so then Mark did, but he started tickling me and saying "Oh no! She's having a seizure! Someone call 911!") and they invited me to play with them. So i parked in an actual parking lot instead of the side of the road and played. I actually only threw the ball like twice and the rest of the time, we just walked and talked. It was a lot of fun though, really. See? Today was spectacular. I'm really, really sad that Mike and Mark are out of high school, but i'm way excited to go to school with Helaman! (Did i mention that after Mike got out of my seminary class, Helaman came in? So then we became friends! So now we are all friends.)

Well i'm basically pooped. So i'm gonna peace on outta here. =]

P.S. i get my braces off in 9 days! Well... hopefully. Seems like whenever i get my hopes up for something, it ends up not happening. But i might have to freak out on someone's FACE if they try to extend it! Me and my best friend/cousin Ashton are getting our braces off on the same day. Even though she's had hers for 2 1/2 years and i've had mine for about 15 months, it's still ironic.

P.P.S. i think i am mentally incapable of rolling up the window of my car whenever i see TJ. yes, he did hi-jack my car AGAIN. this time though, he was considerate enough to put the car in park so i was able to actually start it this time. once he got my keys, he took off on his little Razor scooter and put the lanyard thing around his neck. But Cassidie got them back for me after not too long... thanks, dude! =]

Growing up!

i got a new job. so i'm now working at the local pharmacy and the little coffee shop right next to it. if i'm lucky, i'll be able to find another job soon and quit the pharmacy. see, right now, i work about 2-3 hour shifts there and with gas prices being what they are, i have to spend my first hour of work paying for gas. so it's just not worth the drive into town to work for 2 hours, you know? so i need to get another job to make up for that. i'm not really having the easiest time though, because i need to find someplace where i can go to work in the afternoon (the coffee place, Linda Lea's, closes at 2. so i can actually work both jobs in one day, which is what i "get" to do tomorrow. joy...), and where i can also work during the school year. i probably can't work at Linda Lea's after the summer, unless i worked from 6:30 aka opening time until 8 ish when i had to go to school. not sure how thrilled i would be about that, though. i dont know, we'll have to see how all this goes down. but my main goal right now is to quit at the pharmacy because it is killing my nerves. it's pretty high stress, and i'm really, REALLY, not loving that. oh well, i'll figure something out i guess...