I have three words...

but what are they?

a) HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!
b) I love grits
c) Favorite... Day... Ever...
d) All of the above

of course it's d. 9 times out of 10, if "all of the above" is an option, that's probably the answer.

anyways, as you may or may not know, today was my 18th birthday. ("today" being the 21st... even though i am technically typing this at the wee hours of the 22nd) this day started out with happy signs on my bathroom mirror and a ridiculously tasty breakfast, courtesy of my cute mama.

i tried to get a picture of the signs... it ended up being a happy picture of myself. whoops.

Bacon, eggs, waffles, & grits... i love birthday breakfast.

following such things, i then drove MYSELF to the Wal Mart in St. George to wait for my best friend Nikiah to meet me there. the plan was for she and i to hang out for a bit, then my friends Rendon and Clay (and they brought their friend Hayden, who is awesome, for the record) would meet us in St. George once Rendon got out of wrestling practice. anyways, i ended up waiting by myself for quite a while at Wal Mart, but it was fine since i had lots of stuff to get for my birthday party (more on that later). once Nikiah got there though, we decided to go ahead and go have lunch at Olive Garden... because i LOVE that place!

We got some frozen [virgin] margaritas at Olive Garden. Mmmm...

she and i ended up kind of just kickin around St. George for a while waiting for the boys to get there, which was fine, since the main point of this excursion was so i could hang out with my far-away best friends on my birthday. unfortunately though, the guys didn't get to town until like 3:15 in the afternoon, and Nikiah had to leave around then to get back to Manti in time for her sister's dance review. So all 5 of us hung out for about 30 seconds, then Nikiah left. :( that then left 4 St. George-retarded people to find something fun to do before i left to go to Kanab for my party (which the boys were not able to go to, due to Rendon's daggum wrestling practice in the morning, so they wanted to get home at a semi-decent time).

Oh my stars... how i do love this girl. (:

after Nikiah left, the four of us tried to figure out something to do. while deciding on a course of action, Clay was like "Look! A D.I.! Oh, we're so going there to look for a Big Wheel." (don't ask.) so we go in this D.I., we're just pokin around you know, doin our thing. well at one point, Rendon and Clay are off doin somethin, and Hayden and i were just standing there when some random mysterious man walks up to us, hands me a plain white envelope, says "Merry Christmas", and walks away. the first thing i thought was that he'd found it in the store, decided he didn't want it anymore, and passed it on to me so he wouldn't have to put it back. i held the envelope for a minute, not really sure what to do with it. by then, all three of the boys were there by me. so i opened it, and Rendon said "Jennifer, there's money in there." i opened it some more, and i said "Rendon, there are 100 moneys in there." sure enough, there was a legitimate $100 bill along with a card inside this envelope. needless to say, i kind of freaked out a little bit. all i could say was "is this real? what just happened?" finally, a D.I. employee came over and was like "Yeah, you're like the 5th one today." "what?" "Yeah, these people just give out $100 bills to random people around Christmas time. they do it every year." "but why?!" "it's their way of spreading Christmas cheer."

what are the odds though, right?! i mean... first of all, it's my birthday. second, why me? not to sound like vain or full of myself or whatever, but i mean... it's my birthday, so i tried to look really cute today. meaning... do i look like i desperately need that money? why didn't he give it to like a homeless man on the street? granted, the DI is certainly a place to go to find people in need, but really? a group of teenagers trying to find something to do? i feel a little bit bad for getting it. maybe it should have gone to someone who like doesn't have electricity at their house right now. you know? it's just insane... i still can't hardly believe it happened to me. it's just so... coincidental. after that happened, i was really quiet for a long time. i've kind of been in deep thought ever since then.

after i came back into reality, Rendon, Clay, Hayden, and i realized that we couldn't just hang out at the DI all day long, so we decided to go bowling. HA. first of all, it probably took us close to like 45 minutes to even find the first bowling alley, and when we did, the guy was like "oooh sorry, but we have a league coming in soon. we won't have any open lanes until like 9:30." while Clay was close to enraged at this point, i was pretty much hysterical. i thought it was sooo funny. obviously, i was in a pretty great mood. so we went to find the other bowling alley, which took another 20 minutes or so... only to get the same exact answer. which made it all that much funnier to me. meanwhile, Rendon, Clay, and Hayden are just being themselves, which is about as funny as it gets. i was close to tears the whole time from laughing so hard. we finally ended up at the Laser Mania place in St. George, so we played a round of laser tag and glow in the dark mini golf. i took last place in laser tag (i've always been awful at that game), but Rendon and i tied for first in mini golf. whoo whoo!

This was a Spiderman thing in the minigolf place... right in the middle of my backswing, Rendon goes "WOAH it's Spiderman!" Totally threw me off. Oh well... haha

after a couple hours, i realized that i was going to be late for my own birthday party, so i figured i probably should split. the boys drove me back to Missy (who'd been at Wal Mart since like 10:00 this morning), we said our goodbyes, and i headed back for Kanab.

my Kanab party was way fun. i had it at the La Estancia (a housing complex in town) clubhouse and just invited some friends to come over and watch a movie, eat food, and/or sit in the hot tub. it was great! a lot more people showed up than i'd anticipated, which is always nice. i'd wanted to take pictures of that party, but my phone (aka, my digital camera) was dying, so it wouldn't let me take pictures. :/ oh well, i got some pretty decent ones, i'd say!

all in all though, this was probably literally my favorite day ever. yes, including that one from the Chuck Wagon in sophomore year. while that one was dang near perfect, today was beyond phenomenal. between becoming an adult, hanging out with all of my best friends in one day (with the exception of Ashton, but i forgive her), partying with my other way good friends, being the target of a Christmas miracle, and hearing from my family, i don't think this day could have gotten much better.

and thus, i thank my lucky stars.

Sub-4-Santa Part 3

alright soooo i mainly am just doing this post because i feel like i need to finish the series. basically, i want to just share some pictures i got from S4S shopping last week.

the trip was way fun. it was mostly Student Council members, with some other random kids thrown in just for funsies. anyways, we all went to St. George, got into teams of one boy and one girl, then we got a list of things to get for certain kids in certain families. there were needs (like clothes) and wants (like basketballs and bikes and such). i got teamed up with my good friend Dustin, and madness shortly ensued.

for some reason, i've got it in my head that Dustin's eyes look like those of a Muppet. anyone with me?

This is me with all of our loot. (:

Dang right! haha

We went to The Pizza Factory after we got done shopping... i just thought these breadsticks were neat.

This... has no explaination. Sorry.

Oh my stars!

i'm currently waiting on a song to download off iTunes. right now, i've been waiting for about an hour, and i've gotten 2.4 MB out of 9.8 MB downloaded. the time remaining has ranged from 12 minutes to 8 hours. i'm not putting up with this, no matter how desperately i want this song. (which, i won't lie, is pretty desperately.) maybe i can get ol' Dustin to find it for me on Limewire or something.

my legs hurt.

Sub-4-Santa Part 2/Sterling Scholar

this week, we had the Kiss It competition that started, the Christmas tree decorating, and the slave auction.

--for the first one, it goes like this: a boy and a girl from each grade get some kind of a bucket or something and they each go around basically begging everyone they see to try to get more money than the other person in their grade. at the end of Kiss It, whoever has the least amount of money has to kiss a mystery animal. so the idea is that you want to get the more money than your opponent so you won't have to kiss a fish or a ferret or a snake, etc.

--i'm pretty sure the Christmas tree one only started last year. anyways, every grade sets up a Christmas tree in the main hall and decorates to the best of their abilities. then a neutral panel of judges comes and decides who has the best tree. i think the winner gets like $100 in their class account. (actually, now that i think about it, i'm not sure this is really a part of S4S...) i do have kind of a problem with this one, though. see, last year when i was a junior, there were like 7 or 8 of us that got together at like 9 at night, we set up some Christmas music, and we just had a grand ol' time. our tree was sooo cute, all set up like Christmasy and Cowboyish. unfortunately, a mom from the senior class came in and did the seniors tree and it was like... amazing. gorgeous. however, we did not feel so awesome about having to split the prize money with them in the end, after we tied. and again this year, we had a little decorating party with the senior tree, but guess what happened? the juniors tree is SO cute--but i don't know any juniors that would go to that extent to do that much work on a tree. turns out, a mom did all the work again. it's an outrage. ugh.

this is our awesome awesome tree that actual seniors spent like 2 hours on last night. i love it. (:
we had some leftover stars that flash back and forth, so Kira (our Senior Class President) decided we should decorate Senior hall, as well as our tree!

--finally, the slave auction. this year, i was nominated to be one of the slaves. whoo. if you don't know what that is, i'll explain: a boy and a girl from each grade is "auctioned" off at an assembly, and whoever pays the most (you can have up to 5 people that get together and buy someone) gets to have that person as their personal servant from Monday-Thursday. like, they can make their servants dress up in whatever they want, make them breakfast, give them piggy-back rides to class, etc. well, i went for like $120 or something to a group of kids that i pretty much never talk to, which was a little weird for me. one of them is a girl i work with, and one was the guy i went to prom with, but still... at one point, i was up on the pedestal thing being auctioned off, and my friend Rhees, who'd already bought the freshman boy slave with 3 of his friends, hollered at the auctioneer "hey, can we trade Matt for Jennifer?" i was rootin for yes, but K.O. said no. shoot.

Monday was the auction, and Tuesday & Wednesday, i didn't really have to do anything, just bring some baked goods that Judah and Dalton asked for. but then on Thursday (my last day of enslavement), i was required to wear a Tweedle-Dee/Dum costume. a legitimate one, with a big ol' hoop around the tummy and everything. fortunately, i only had to wear it 1st and 2nd hour. then i had a practice Sterling Scholar interview, so i had to wear professional attire (that was called for by Mrs. Yates and Mrs. Quarnburg, not my owners). after my interview though, Alex (she's the one i work with) told me i had to wear like a Tinkerbell outfit--complete with wings--for the rest of the day. (by the way, i did NOT photodocument my costumes. i uh... "forgot.")

we had an assembly 6th hour for the slaves to present their cakes and poems that we were supposed to make for our owners. yes, i was still in my Tinkerbell dress. i'd made my owners a 2-layer devil's food cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting. this is how my poem to them went:

Last Monday came full of ice and snow.
that day would be rough, as you all probably know.
We had our assembly, i went next to last
To be sold to whoever threw out the most cash.

Christi it was that kept bidding higher.
(Rhees, Dason, Judd, & Craig tried to get me, but they'd already hired.)
Judah and Dalton were also a part,
So was Alexis to make slavery start.

Day One wasn't bad, i just wore a sign.
Day Two i brought brownies, & cookies the next time.
Day Three, i got a suit that made me want to cry.
"Wear it tomorrow," they said. i thought i would die.

And so i came today dressed as Tweedle-whatever...
I may have lost my self-respect and dignity forever.
Now here i am dressed as a fairy of some kind,
But soon i'll buy you back... and revenge will be mine.

that last line needs some explaination, i think. see, in order to keep owners from going crazy and making their slaves do anything TOO outrageous, there's a catch: no matter how much the slave was bought for, if the slave can come up with $25 on Thursday, they get to buy back ALL of their owners for Friday. so i did, and i had Judah bring me a cake, Christi had to wear the Tweedle-Dee/Dum costume, Alexis had to dress up like a "prep" (she absolutely hates anything name-brand), and... well, Grygla didn't have to do anything. i'd run out of ideas when i got to him.

the makings of the most chocolate-y cake i have ever, ever made.

moving on. Sterling Scholar has officially started. i did really well on my practice interview, and then we had like a presentation to tell us about what we should and should not do in future interviews. it was neat. i'm pretty jazzed about Sterling Scholar, to be honest. i'll regret saying that in a few months, but oh well. we all even got our pictures up in the hall finally! whoo!

they always hang senior pictures of the Sterling Scholars in each category in the main hall of the high school. this is a shot of Jamie Croteau (Dance), me (English), and Chelsea Vreeken (Family & Consumer Sciences). we even got new picture frames this year, so we're lookin pretty legit! (sorry about the glare, though. not much i could do about that.)

Sub-4-Santa Part 1

it's that time again. time for Sub-4-Santa.

for anyone that doesn't know what that is, i will tell you. to shorten Mrs. Kelly's tear-jerker story about how Sub-4-Santa came to be, i'll just say that basically, our school librarian (Mrs. Kelly) realized like 25 years ago that not everyone in Kanab always gets to have such an awesome Christmas. so she started this program, which involves the entire school donating money to raise enough to buy things for families in town that can't really afford nice things for Christmas. this is my first year being on Student Council, so this is actually kind of a new experience for me.

Sub-4-Santa usually lasts about 2 or 3 weeks, and this past week was our first. we did three fundraisers this week, one of which was new to KHS. we put the four milk jugs in the offce (one for each grade. whichever one gets the most money in it by the end of Sub-4-Santa gets like $200 in their class account), the early-out lunch (any 4th hour class that can raise $25 can get out 15 minutes early for lunch), and the all-new Sub-4-Santa Winter Formal Dance.

our Student Body President, Rhees Jackson, always has these great ideas, but then forgets to tell the rest of the student council. he'd had the idea a while ago for a winter dance, and maybe having it for Sub-4-Santa... but we never discussed it in a meeting until last Saturday. the idea was that we would use the leftover decorations from the Christmas Festival (more on that later) to have the dance, but that meant we'd only have a week to advertise this dance. this is where i came in.

i spent about 10 minutes on this poster. yet somehow, it looks almost identical to the one i spent an hour and a half on. ugh.

by Thursday, i'd only heard of one guy that had asked a girl to the dance, and that was my friends Dustin and LaRisa. that's it. but then right before 6th period, i was telling my other friend Carley about something embarassing that had happened in 5th hour. then she said "well it's okay... your day is going to get a lot better... bye!" and then she left. i just stood there and was baffled. i caught on eventually though, and ran out to my car to see what she was talking about. sure enough, there was a metal popcorn tin by my driver's door with a big silver bow on it and a note.

since i was already late for 6th hour, my teacher made me wait until after class to even find out who asked me to the dance! it was awful! anyways after class, i had some friends help me. i opened the popcorn tin, took out the cardboard divider that kept the buttered, caramel, and cheese popcorn, and proceeded to methodically pour the popcorn into some plastic bags to find the name... i wasn't in the mood to dig through all of it. in the middle of the whole thing was simply a Reese's Chocolate Christmas Tree. har har har... it was Rhees. clever.

to answer him, i chose to use an old inside joke between me and Rhees. one time in Sociology last year, we spent the whole class playing with those pink and white Circus Animal cookies, so that's always been kind of a joke. so i went and bought some of those cookies, and made a punny poster that said "It would take a pack of WILD (circus) ANIMALS to keep me from going to Winter Formal With You! ♥-Jennifer". i then used the Animal Cookies and, with the help of Rhees's sister Calli, left a trail of them leading from the garage door to his room. then i left the poster and whatever cookies were left on his bed, and my job was done.

part of my trail of cookies going down the stairs... ha.

so that was all Thursday. Friday night was the Christmas dinner that X-Press always sings at with the Symphony of the Canyons. this year though, they decided that if people are paying $35 a plate to come eat dinner and see the concert, they don't want to have to go through a buffet line. so what does that mean? KHS music students got to serve. :/ it wasn't too bad though, in retrospect. but i did get butter on my new formal dress. haha

the concert itself went alright, nothing to go down in history. but at the end, when X-Press sang the classic Christmas song "Breath of Heaven", i was in tears and i couldn't sing a part of it. when it was all over, i turned in shock to my friends Chelsea, Chanelle, Carley, and Tyrell and said "We're done." never again will i sing at the Christmas dinner... it's weird. even freshman year when i wasn't in X-Press, i was in band and back in that day, all of the music groups played/sang at the dinner. so basically, i've been doing this for the past 4 years, and now it's like... over.

Saturday was the Christmas Festival, which is always in the same place as the dinner the night before. it's got booths for all kinds of things, including a lady from Cedar City that was selling her jewelry and the Arizona Girl Scouts. i helped sell raffle tickets and baked goods with Chelsea, because all of the music students are required to help for at least 11 hours for this whole thing. yikes.

the festival ended at 4 p.m., then i stayed unti like 6 helping to clean up. fortunately, we were having the dance in that same place that night, so we didn't have to take down all of the decorations (we got to leave a bunch of the Christmas trees and all of the hanging decorations), just the tables and the tarps that covered the floor. so then i came home, took a shower, and started getting ready for the dance.

i ended up driving to town to meet Rhees at his house, since he doesn't really know where i live, and i just didn't feel like it was necessary to make him an hour late for the dance just to pick me up. so i got to his house, then we went to the dance... where there were like 10 other people. sound familiar? an awful lot like Sadie's? haha there was really not a huge turnout like we'd hoped for (we tried to advertise it as a winter-version of Homecoming), but we ended up making about $300 towards Sub-4-Santa, so that's good. also, Rhees's mom Julie was the photographer, and she donated her services. whoo! i'll try to put those pictures up when i get them, because they're actually pretty funny.

all in all, that dance ended up being more fun than i'd anticipated. after the dance, Rhees took me and Dason back to his house (i had to get my car, after all), we we all hung out for a little bit with Calli. finally, i deemed myself too sleep-deprived to have any further human contact. i was saying the stupidest things, then finding them hysterical. how i considered myself okay enough to drive half an hour home, i'm not sure. good times, though... good times. Rhees and Dason never fail to make me laugh until i am crying.

Me and President Jackson at the dance. I'm not sure what he's looking at, but what a guy. (:

next, i get to be auctioned off as a slave for a week to who-knows-what kind of people. we'll see how this goes.

Current Heroes.

Thought of the day:

last night, X-Press had a practice with the symphony for the Christmas festival this weekend. at one point, my friends Rhees and Dason were playing with my phone (because, in their words, my phone, an EnV Touch, is "dynamic," whereas Rhees's phone, an EnV 2, is "semi-dynamic," and Dason's phone, a 5-year-old generic one, is "anti-dynamic."), and they put a silly picture of the two of them as my internal screen. the picture itself made me laugh until i was crying, because it was just the two of them on a bus trip that Rhees had sent to my phone just for this reason. in it, they're both smiling, but they ended up looking certifiably insane. once i got past the picture, i saw that they'd changed the banner to say "Happiness Is A Choice." knowing those two, i know they just put that to kind of match the picture, but it really struck a chord with me, whether they meant it to or not.

after the several unpleasant posts recently, i realized that i've been in an extremely foul mood for like the past month. and i really don't like myself that way, you know? i mean, i know the real reason behind such a mood, but that doesn't help me any. so on my drive to seminary this morning, i decided that happiness really is a choice... i just haven't been making it. and it took a silly little joke from two friends to make me realize that.

Rhees and Dason don't actually know this, but that little banner really made a difference to me. plus, that picture makes me laugh every time i open my phone. so as of this moment, this one where i am choosing to let go of the little things and just be happy, this moment where i am choosing to come out of my constant state of self-pity and join the world... this moment, these two friends are my heroes.

This isn't the crazy picture on my phone. This was actually taken right before the whole phone scene, and i think it portrays their heroic-ness very well.

thanks, boys. i owe you.

B100D Donor!

if you can't tell, i stuck a little "100" in my "Blood", because this is my 100th post. (: anyways, i had the opportunity to donate blood today at the high school, and it was such a great experience. i was talking to the lady that was taking care of me the entire time, and while she was pricking my finger we were talking about in "Elf" when Buddy is like "my finger has a heartbeat." haha

favorite story of the day: after i was done actually getting my blood drawn, Dana (the nice lady) told me i was done, and she said "Four minutes, forty-six seconds. Not bad at all! Anything under 6 minutes is considered really fast." So i said, "Do i get some kind of medal for having really speedy blood?" just joking. Well, after she bandaged up my arm, she stuck a cute little pink gauze bow on there and said "Here's your badge of honor." it was awesome! however, i apparently made everyone at school very jealous, because there were little bows all over the place for the rest of the day. oh well, i was first. (: also, i am proud to announce that i did NOT pass out or vomit. i have a tiny bit of a bruise on the tip of my finger where she pricked me, but that's okay. i just want to say that i feel AWESOME about donating blood.

I tried to get a picture of my face, my sticker ("I MAKE A DIFFERENCE") and my bandage all at once.

I thought the "A." stood for Anderson, duh. But really, it meant "Appointment", as opposed to a "W" for "Walk-In." I learned this after i saw Dason Ott, Chanelle Johnson, and Carley Barber with stickers saying "Dason A.", "Chanelle A.", and "Carley A.". haha

My cute cute bow. (: I threw away the green bandage (of course), but i kept the pink bow.

on a side note, here's something interesting: me and my mom are the only people in my immediate family that have O negative blood type. meaning, our blood can literally go to anyone. the rest of my family is O positive. well, i was just talkin to mama about this, and we were all celebrating because we're universal donors, but then she said "but i'm sorry about all the shots you're going to have to get when you're pregnant." "...........what?" then she went on to explain that if my babies have positive blood types, my blood will try to attack them and then we both get very sick. so i guess i have to get like a buttload of extra shots when i have babies, just so my actual blood doesn't have a freak out. bah.

You don't have to read this.

i am losing patience. i don't like this feeling. but i just am really frustrated, and nothing is working out the way i want it to. i wish i could customize my entire life, every little detail. just go through and build a little Sims life for myself. i want to be passing all of my classes like i have been for the past 12 years, i want to not wreck my car on wildlife, i want my best friends to actually live near me, i want to be able to do wrestling cheer because i love it, i want to have enough money to pay for my cruise and to afford clothes that aren't falling apart, i want to go on the music department's trip to California for the final time, i want unlimited texting and service at my house so i can communicate with my far away best friends, i want to go back to Lumberton and see all of the kids i grew up with, i want to be certain of which college i want to go to, i want a normal-looking haircut, i want to stop being constantly exhausted all the time, and i want the only thing that can always make me smile for weeks on end without fail. materialistic as this may sound... i kind of don't care. because my toes are cold and i have no bedsheets and i have weird dreams. thus, i am exempt from your judgement.

And then some.

following yesterday's awesome awesome experiences, i hit a fawn this morning on the way to seminary. it is dead. fortunately though, Missy is not. i was pretty proud of myself though, i didn't even cry. (which is what i usually do if anything bad happens to my car. like... at all.) i've got some photos of the damage, but there's also some other stuff that you can't see. like, how something happened to the thing that holds my washer fluid, because that was full a week ago, and it's been leaking out all over the place all day, so i'm down to... well... none. i considered taking a picture of the deer for like .2 seconds, then i realized that that is sick and morbid and plus i didn't even want to look at it, let alone document it. you're welcome.

i'm actually not as mad about it as you'd think, because i can't really blame the deer (i guess i could, but what's the point? as i type this, it's being eaten by scavenger birds. i just can't bring myself to put the blame on dead Bambi, you know?), and i don't blame myself because it just blind-sided me. it's not like it was chillin in the middle of the road when i wasn't paying attention and i just mobbed over it or anything. it came barrelin at me from a blind slope on the right side of the road. i did try and avoid it by steering left, but that became my downfall, as i later found out when i realized that if i had just hit the brakes and kept going straight, i would've missed it entirely. oh well.

My fender is all crazied up. And there's deer hair stuck in weird places.

Just a different angle so you can see that HUGE dent under my headlight. Hmm... i wonder if i can get new headlights out of this...

When i was driving home from school today, i came up over the hill just before where i'd hit the deer, and i saw that i left some massive skid marks. So i turned around and took a picture.

also, Dad pointed out that my car isn't even supposed to leave skid marks. but as some of us may remember, Missy's ABS system is... well pretty much nonexistent. hence my 2 accidents involving sliding off the road in snow, due to locked-up brakes. poor poor Missy... she's blowin light bulbs all the time, her headlights have no distinction between high-beams and low-beams, she's got a banged up fender now, some of her paint is chipping (due to the deer. awesome.), her average MPG has been suffering lately, and she's pretty dirty. sad. :(

well folks, it's about 4:00 in the afternoon, but i'm going to go to bed. why? because (don't judge me) i am going to the midnight showing of "New Moon" tonight in Hurricane, but i still have school in the morning. so i'm going to attempt to get some sleep in before i have to head out for that. whoo!

P.S. i took those pictures on my new phone. pretty dang good ones, i'd say. (: haha

Jennifer's No Good Horrible Very Bad Day

WARNING:
The following content consists of a huge rant of a 17-year-old girl that has a tendancy to overdramatize things that, in all reality, are not that big of a deal. It also may contain the words "PMS", "menopausal", and other possibly traumatizing phrases to those who are not expecting it. Plus, this is kind of long. You're welcome for the warning.

today was one of those days that probably would have been normal, were it not for just a couple of things that went badly. and because of those things, you begin thinking about the rest of the day and all of the other things that went wrong, and then it strikes you that it was just a horrible, horrible day. and like i said... today was one of those days.

to be fair, there were only 2 things today that just made my mood drop fast, and everything else was just kind of fell into place to make this a bad day. some of the little things included:

--Waking up just late enough to think i had time to get ready, then realizing that i couldn't do my make up and still be on time to seminary. Plus my hair turned out looking funny.

--On my way into town, i saw a deer that was kind of in the left lane, and there was an oncoming vehicle. i tried to do a courtesy by beeping my horn to kind of push the deer the rest of the way off the road, but what does it do instead? Double back directly in front of me. Duh. (But my plan worked... the other car didn't have to worry about hitting it.)

--A kid in my seminary class (that gets on my nerves anyways) said something to me at the start of class, so i turned around to answer him. But before i could say anything, he got an honest-to-goodness look of shock on his face and he said "Wow, Jennifer. You look... uh... tired."

--Later, before i had a chance to actually put on my make up, one of my best friends (who is an extremely unobservant boy, bless his heart) said to me "Jennifer, where are your glasses today?" "What?" "Oh wait, you don't wear glasses, huh?" (He couldn't figure out why i looked so radically different.)

--i learned that our boys basketball team doesn't even play Millard at all until January 26th. That is really, really far away. Hopefully the girls play them sooner.

--Since today was a half day, i went to X-Press feeling like i should go to lunch afterwards... but i didn't get to.

--i was reminded (once again), this time by Mrs. Terry, that i am completely broke and that i need another job desperately.

--One of my best friends has been throwing a hissy fit for the past couple of days and absolutely refuses to talk to me for an unknown reason. Mainly, he (yes, "he") is just being a chick. Nothing is better than a overdramatic teenage girl... except for maybe an overdramatic teenage boy that is acting like a girl.

--I had no one to go eat lunch with when school got out, and i didn't want to go by myself, so i didn't eat lunch.

--I had like an hour and a half to kill between school and my first appointment of the day, and no one to kill it with, because all of my friends were either in dance practice, preparing for Sterling Scholar interviews, or in EdNets. Or being menopausal.

--I spilled my $.32 Coke on my shoes. :(

--When i went to the dentist, i got the World's Most Aggressive Dental Hygienist trying to shove that vibrate-y cleaning pokey thing BETWEEN my teeth, mostly in places that i can barely get floss through, let alone a shaking metal stick. Good one, guy.

--Well, i'm kind of PMSing.

now for the 2 big fat stupid things that ruined my Wednesday. first of all, i think most of you probably know of my recent Chemistry struggles. if not, i'll give you a quick rundown: i struggle in Chemistry. my first term final grade was a C+, right smack in the middle of otherwise straight A's. i attempted to drop that class--as in, i had the form signed, turned in, and was already moved on to performing a new class schedule--but then the principal stepped in and we had a nice little afternoon of him and the school councelor telling me i was a failure if i dropped Chemistry. sooooo i got back in after one day. back to the present. i got my midterm report for that class today, and i currently am running at a very, very low C-, because i got a 34/57 on an exam that i studied with the teacher for. obviously, something here isn't right. so after i got that, and after holding back my fury and disappointment for the rest of the class period, i stormed to the councelor's office and showed him the report. then i said "look what you made me do."
"did you study for the exam?"
"for hours."
"did you study with Mrs. Titus?"
"for as long as she could."
"well maybe you should go in every day after school."
i couldn't handle that nonsense, so i walked out with my ugly report, while he called out his door "You know Jennifer, i really do think you're a great student. You can do this." bad deal.

next extra bad thing: i usually tend to love getting haircuts. i get excited for them, because my hair will get to a point where i just think it looks gross and shapeless, so i like to go to the local salon and say "cut it short with lots of layers" and it turns out adorable. however, through a series of unfortunate miscommunication, i ended up getting a hair appointment with a local lady who works out of her house (not the salon that i like), from whom i have never, ever come away with a good feeling about my hair. i ended up having her cut my hair anyways, and... well... i kind of think i look like a cross between Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and my friend Austin from Freedom Academy. it was worse when i very first got it cut, but only because the lady not only didn't style it at all, but she parted my hair almost directly down the middle, so it just looked bad bad bad. but then i came home, straightened it, parted it in the right place, so it's... better. i think i'll get used to it.

however, since this is in the top ten pissiest posts i've ever done, i decided to give put some light to good things about this haircut:

This is how i'll probably wear it most often...


...unless i'm feeling particularly emo/urban that day...


...or maybe even like wearing a barrette that i can't wear with longer hair...


...and where is the rule that says you HAVE to part your hair?

but in all reality...

...maybe i should just wear a hat and solve my problems.

also on a slightly brighter note, i have 3 of the best friends i could ever ask for. unfortunately... those 3 best friends all happen to live very far away from me. to Ashton, Nikiah, and Rendon... thanks for helping me through my No Good Horrible Very Bad days, even though you're far away. (: keep it real.

The time has come.

i have to start deciding what college to go to. i'll explain to you my dilemma:

as you may or may not be aware, i am doing Sterling Scholar this year in the English category. no one is running against me, so i automatically become the English Sterling Scholar winner for Kanab High School. duh. well, Dixie State College in St. George has a deal with Sterling Scholar that they give a full tuition scholarship to the winners from high schools. meaning, i've already got tuition paid for at Dixie for my whole first year of college. unfortunately... i really don't want to go to Dixie. financially speaking, it's certainly my best option. it used to be that the whole Sterling Scholar scholarship covered tuition, housing, books, etc. but i learned yesterday that now it's just tuition. still, that's a huuuuge chunk of college pain taken care of. but like i said, Dixie appeals to me in no way, except that it's close to home, it's warm, and my friend Dustin is going there the first year, and he can hook me up with tons of concert tickets. haha

another one of my options is BYU. i've always been a big fan of BYU, and it's always been my dream to go there. i haven't sent in my application yet (i still need to get my ecclesiastical endorsement), but i started it at least. Mom and Dad even said that they really want me to go to BYU, because it's a "tradition", but i don't know... like i said, i've always wanted to go there, but i've been changing my mind a lot lately. i don't really think i could even get into BYU in the first place, seeing as how i only got a 26 on my ACT this last time, and the majority of the people attending BYU have like a 28. even if i did get accepted though, it is crazy expensive to go to school there and live there and everything. as for BYU-Idaho... it used to be my second choice, now it's probably like my 3rd. no offense to all of my siblings that went there, but it just doesn't really strike a chord with me. i can't seem to psych myself up to live in Rexburg at all.

on the other hand, we have Southern Utah University. i love this school. it's where i went to Girls State, so that's how i knew that i'd like the campus and everything. also, after talking to friends who go there and the ambassadors and everything from SUU, i get really excited when i think about going. they have an awesome, awesome psychology program (which is what i want to go into) and best of all? Nikiah is planning on going to SUU after she graduates from high school and Snow College, so we could be roommates and such.

yesterday (Friday the 13th... hmm...) was "Distinguished Scholars Day" at SUU, which Ashley, Nikiah and i (among several other Kanab people, plus my friend Clay from Millard) were all invited to. we had some workshops like On-Campus Housing, Getting Involved, Financial Aid and Scholarships, Study Abroad, etc. after that was some group activities with the students, then went on to tour the campus. Mom and Dad weren't able to come until later in the day, since Mom had to work in Kanab until 1:30, but i had ridden up with Ashley and her mom so i could be there at the start of the day. anyways, they split all the kids up by their intended majors (mine was "HSS-Psychology", HSS meaning Humanities and Social Sciences), then again so that there were 4-6 people per tour guide. i ended up tagging along with Nikiah and her parents, and we were the only ones in our tour group, which was led by a guy named Skyler. he was awesome. he showed us around campus, and we eventually got up with Mom and Dad right before we were shown to Cedar Hall... which happens to be where i want to live. Juniper Hall is where i stayed at Girls State, and i barely made it through a week. i can't imagine living there for months and months. Eccles is highly discouraged for use by freshmen, since it's kind of a secluded living space, and isn't exactly social, which is one thing they kind of want freshmen to focus on. Cedar Hall is right in the middle, where it's a lot nicer than Juniper, but also more social than Eccles.

so here is my actual dilemma: i've already landed a free year at Dixie, but i really want to go to SUU. i know i could get a ton of scholarships to SUU to make it cheaper, but it would still be more expensive than Dixie, but i would be happier. technically, i could go to Dixie first, then transfer to SUU. however, if i do that, any scholarships i earn at SUU will expire, and i will pay out the butt to go to the school i wanted to go to in the first place. so i just don't know what to do.

actually, this would be considered (as my mom would put it) counting my chickens before they hatch. see, i've applied to both Dixie and SUU, but i haven't really been accepted yet. however, cocky as this may sound, i pretty much know for a fact i'm going to get in both places. my ACT score and GPA are high enough to get me into both, so i'm not too worried about that. but still... i'm really kind of stressing about this. i really want to go to SUU, but what if i can't afford it? what if i have to go to Dixie on my scholarship and just work my tail-end off in St. George so i can afford to go to SUU in Cedar City my sophomore year? well heck, what if i don't get in anywhere? what if i fail life?

meanwhile, i'm attempting to pass Chemistry and high school, get another job so i can afford to go on the Bahamas cruise in June AND the music department California trip in April, and i might possibly do wrestling cheer this winter, all while trying not to lose my mind. i think i need a hug. :(

Fury and Rage!

so you may have noticed that on my sidebar thing, under favorite books and TV shows, i have like 5 Jodi Picoult books listed. this is due to the fact that she is an incredibly gifted writer with shockingly accurate metaphors and descriptions, and she has the most intense plots. however, i just want to do a little rant on the one thing i hate hate hate about Picoult books...

let's just say that yesterday, i was coming to the end of "Handle With Care", and i was thinkin "oh i know where this is going." and i did. so i was all "hurray for me, i guessed the ending and it's exactly how i wanted it to end." however, i read the great ending... but then the book wasn't over. there was a whole other chapter after that. it was after reading this chapter that i literally threw the book across the room and started to cry because i was soooo mad.

i swear, some of her books, you finish it and then you just have to ask, "what the *&%^&$ was even the point of that &$&#~* book?!?!" because you HAVE your happy ending, you HAVE what you wanted to happen, you HAVE the $8,000,000. but then the book continues after everything, and then it all goes to crap and the entire book feels like it was just a waste. i know this is silly because it's a book, and it didn't actually happen, and the actual point of a book is to occupy my time and expand my mind. but still, it makes me crazy. but do you want to know the one thing that still makes me even madder about Jodi Picoult's books?

when i went to school today, i turned in "Handle With Care"... and immediately began looking for any of her other books that i haven't read yet. i'm apparently a glutton for stupid endings.

Singin' In The Rain!

that was the theme of our concert that X-Press had earlier this week. since i really don't feel up to narrating very much, i'll do more picture-posting and captioning. (:

(that was our theme. obviously.)

X-Press!




the boys "reelin' with a feelin'" during "Splish Splash"... they got props. ha.

i got to introduce "Weep No More." this was me saying "Well... we're singing this song at a Singin' In The Rain concert because well, when it rains, we shouldn't weep anymore!"

Judah. Is so freaking cool. he doesn't even need music to accompany us.

that's me. i sing. (:
so, we sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with X-Pressions. this was what we did when we said the words "the lion"... little was i aware that Andrew gets really, really dramatic when he sings this part. this is pretty much the X-Press photo of the year. what a guy.

now, we're done with the fun songs. now, we work on Christmas music. now, we order formals to get ready for Christmas. now, we sing "Breath Of Heaven" so often we think we need an actual breath from heaven to rescucitate us after we pass out from singing it too much. now is when we start praying for competition season to hurry up and come. not that i'm not jazzed to the max for Christmas... i just don't love singing Christmas songs for 2 months straight. dig?

Let the countdown begin...

i'm going to be 18 in a month and a half.

i need to go beat up some little kids while i still can.

Movie list.

sometimes, i'll be talking to my friends about movies, and we'll either say "oh man, i haven't watched that in forever!" or "what is it called? what's it about? i don't think i've ever heard of it." so this here's a list of movies that i need to watch with my friends/family either for the first time, or just watch it again for funsies.

"The Pagemaster" with Carley, Chelsea, Chanelle, and Southwick;Rendon.
"The New Kid" with Todd.
"Madagascar" and "Madagascar 2" with Ashley and Nikiah.
"Groundhog Day" with Carter.
"Hot Rod" with Todd;Carter.
"The Muppet Movie" with Dad.
"Family Something Something Something Dark Side Guy" with Todd.
"The Tenth Circle" with Nikiah.
"El Dorado" with the cousins. (:
"White Chicks" with Rendon and Clay.

We may or may not see this list change

I just want to say...

i am just lovin' life these days. i just am lovin my days, and i'm havin just a good streak of good moods.

also, i'm going to be 18 in two months and 9 days.

HA!

DOUBLE POST!

I have two things to blog about. First of all, i got my ACT scores back from the September test. I'll give you my scores from this time and my scores from last time, so you can compare them.

Composite: 25-24
English: 27-28
Mathematics: 21-22
Reading: 33-24
Science: 20-19

So there's that. i'm pretty disappointed that i went down in English and Math, but i'm real proud of myself for Reading. Yeah that's right... i deserve bragging rights to a freaking 33. I can read!

Next subject: the best weekend ever.

I know i never did a post on Freedom Academy, and i'm real sorry about that... i'm kind of waiting for my slideshow DVD to come so i can just watch it and write about it as i go. Anyways, my point is that my friend Carley and i made some really great friends while i was there. The main ones we hung out with were Trenton, Rendon, and Clay. The last two happen to go to school at Millard High School, which is one of our main rivals. However, through a course of conversation between my Rendon friend and i like a month ago, we were talking about the football game between Kanab and Millard on September 25th. i was tellin him that i was pretty bummed that i wouldn't be able to hang out with him when i went up, because he would be playing in the game, of course. it was then that he said "Well, if you feel like you need a reason to stay in town longer so we could hang out, maybe i could take you to the Homecoming dance the night after the game." Then he told me that Clay was going to ask Carley, and it was going to be just a great ol' double date.

Over the past month, a lot of things made us have to change our plans, which i didn't love. This entire past week, i thought there was no way i'd be able to go. For instance: after Rendon asked me to go with him, his mom told him that since he was SBP, he had to take a senior girl that didn't have a date... which meant he couldn't take me. so for a while, he was trying to talk me into just going by myself so i could hang out with him and Clay and Carley. Also, we found out that there was a varsity volleyball tournament in Parowan the day of the dance, so Carley wasn't able to go. PLUS, my friend LaRisa told me that if i could get Rendon to get her a date, she could come and we could spend the night at her cousin's house in Fillmore... which didn't even end up happening, so for a while there, i had nowhere to stay.

It all worked out in the end, though. Well... for me and Rendon, at least. He ended up waiting long enough that all the senior girls got dates, so that clause was dropped by his mother. Carley ended up not being able to go, and Clay never did get a date. However, LaRisa didn't end up getting a date either (she had one, then he took the last senior girl that needed a date, which freed up Rendon... ironic.), so she couldn't come... plus, she ended up having to work the night of the dance anyways. But at the game on Friday night, i was talking to Renee (Clay's mom), and she insisted that if Clay couldn't have a date, then by golly Rendon should. So she offered me their spare bedroom for Saturday night, and our plans were back on.

So i drove up to Fillmore with LaRisa and Chanelle for the game, where i got to hang out with Clay while Rendon played. (we were playing them for their homecoming, by the way. and we lost 34-6.) After the game, Chanelle went to chill with her friend Kaylee for a bit, while Risa, Clay and i went to the school parking lot for the "after party"... it was actually all the football players and some fans that were just hangin out and talking and shooting off those little confetti popper things. i was real excited, because this was the first time i'd seen Rendon since Freedom Academy. i hung out with Clay at the Millard vs. Kanab volleyball game in Kanab, but Rendon had practice that day and couldn't come. By the way, i was still wearing Dustin's jersey for this whole party thing... i got lots of weird looks. After that, we got back up with Chanelle and Kaylee, and then the four of us drove home. On the way there, i called mama and told her Renee's idea. She said she'd sleep on it. I ended up getting home at like 1:30 and slept in until like 11.

The next morning, i got out of the shower and heard mom say "Do you want your Girls State pajama pants or your SUU sweats?" "What?" "Well i'm about to do laundry, and i figure if you go to Fillmore and spend the night, you'll need pajamas. I didn't want to wash the ones you'll want to take." So there was my answer. In a matter of an hour or two, i was packed and ready to go.

By the way, this was the longest and farthest i have ever driven by myself before... and it was AWESOME! The entire time, i was just singin my little heart out to some CDs. Good times. :) I got to Fillmore around 4, where i met up with Rendon, and his two friends Josh and Jeremy. We all went to Rendon's house, where i met his parents, his sisiter Kammi, and Kammi's husband Brock. I even saw his incredible treehouse! It's the only three-tier treehouse i have ever seen in my life. It was kind of sketchy, because i'm not a huge fan of instability (not that it wasn't stable, it was just... sketchy). Still, it was awesome.

After a couple hours of just hangin out with Rendon's family, he took me to Clay's house, where i brought in my stuff and i got ready for the dance. I was already pretty much ready, but i just needed some touch-ups. Rendon came to pick me up at 7:30, but i was still getting dressed, so he sat in the living room with Renee, who is pretty much his second mom. While i was finishing, i heard Renee giving Rendon the date talk. It was hilarious. It went something like "Do you understand that i am lending Jennifer to you in perfect condition, and i expect you to return her in the same condition, if not better?" and "Exactly what time do you intend on bringing her back here?" Renee kills me.

Once Renee entrusted me to Rendon's care, he and i went to a local Chinese restaurant to meet up with two other couples (Kegan and Rebecca, and Garrett and Kember). That in and of itself was an adventure. The owner lady was like out of her mind and would yell something at us that none of us could understand except for, somehow, Garrett. Also, anyone who ate the eggdrop soup (which was everyone but me, Rendon, and Rebecca) was like way loopy and just crackin up at everything. Sketchy.

The dance itself was alright. Rendon and i were the first to get to the dance, which was fine since the DJs were Kammi and Brock, and his parents were chaperones. More people came eventually, but not enough to fill the cafeteria, so it seemed kind of... empty. Especially when pictures were being taken. Rendon and i broke it down to just about every song, for the most part. Even when no one else was dancing, he and i would make up ridiculous dance-things and just had a splendid time with that. However, that got tiring after about 2 hours, and we decided to go watch a movie at Clay's house with a bunch of kids. That was nice, because then i got to change into my jammies while watching the movie. Plus Rendon got me home way before my "curfew" of midnight, i think it was. We ended up watching "White Chicks"... yeah, don't judge me. I'd never watched that movie all the way through, and now i understand why. haha

By the time the movie got over it was like 1:30 am, and it was just me, Rendon, and Clay that were still there. We all went upstairs, where Renee said "Rendon, your date isn't over until you walk Jennifer to her door." (referring to my bedroom door) Then she added "...but only to her door."

This morning, i got up, put on my church clothes, got re-ready, and had some biscuits and gravy with Renee, and eventually Clay. Rendon stopped by around 10 for a while so he could say goodbye before i left, which was pretty sad. Rendon's my good buddy, but i don't really get to see him too often. I ended up leaving a little before 11 so i could try and get to church by one. Somehow though, a 2 hour drive to Orderville resulted in me getting to church at 1:30...?? Whatever. Anyways, i went to church, then came home. Which was the end of my trip.

Me and Rendon at the dance... this picture kills me.
I know Fillmore is a really long drive and it was a little bit scary driving so far by myself, but that was possibly my favorite weekend of all time. Seriously, i don't even have words to describe how much fun it is to hang out with Rendon and Clay and all of their friends. It's kind of weird to be tight with the "enemy", but you know... it happens. (: Good times, is all i can say. Now i just get to look forward to October 13th, which is a Kanab vs. Millard volleyball game at Millard... hurray!

Also, i think that just being able to go to a homecoming dance with a really good friend made up for missing my own homecoming. seriously, i was thinking about it and i decided that i'm really not that crushed about missing the dance or whatever. i mean yeah, i'm sad that i'm missing the game, but from what i hear about Enterprise, it won't be that exciting. i still get to go to the pep rally on Wednesday night, and that's about my favorite part of Homecoming. so basically, thanks to Rendon (and Renee and my mama), i'm not nearly as sad as i was before about missing homecoming. in fact, i'm way way WAY excited to go to Winston Salem for the wedding! And finally...

GO COWBOYS!

09/09/09!

for anyone who follows my family's blog, this really is almost the same post that i put on there, just different pictures... sorry. anyways, i just thought i'd let everyone know that i finally got my senior pictures done (by my Todd Anderson brother), and i'm just gonna go ahead and post some of my very very favorites. the rest of what i have at the moment can be found with this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149230&id=724708078&l=57de519f99
those are only like 20 of the millions we took over Labor Day weekend, but when i get the rest of them from Todd, i might post some more. thank you for your time. (:

P.S. as i am typing this, my iPod is on the verge of a psychotic breakdown. it is refusing to hold a charge, yet it is insanely hot. also, it is beeping at me... something i have never, ever seen an iPod do. so if anyone out there in Blogland happens to have like a spare iPod lying around that they feel is just taking up WAY too much room in their life, just give me a jingle and i'd be glad to pay you and take it off your hands. (: