"A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest man." ~Willy Wonka

I love this picture. It's at Hoover Dam, and just the implication it presents is funny. I enjoy it.

I can't write very much, cause we have to pack, but today was a very nice day. All of the speakers in sacrament were very intelligent and I learned a lot. I really felt the spirit today. Sunday School was about getting married in the temple, which is one of my favorite topics. ; ) Well, I love the temple, and I can't imagine getting married anywhere else, so it was a very nice lesson. And in Young Women's we learned about agency from Amy, who I love dearly. She's really funny. But I felt the Spirit a lot and it was just very comfortable. And I got to walk home from church cause Isha and Melissa had BYC, and the weather was very nice. Warm, but with a pleasant breeze to keep things cool. It was just very enjoyable.

I really have to go pack/clean, but I just wanted to say farewell and godspeed to Steven. He's been such a great friend, and I don't know if I can claim likewise, but he's been so patient and kind and a wonderful example to me. I am so grateful that I was able to meet him and become such good friends with him. We've had so many great experiences together, spiritual or just fun, and it's really something I've been needing lately. When I don't have anyone to turn to, I get rather depressed, and I'm just so thankful that he's been there for me, to chastise me or advise me. So thanks, Steven, you're a really neat kid, and I'm so glad that we're friends. So have fun without me, and see you when I get back!

So since I'll be gone for two weeks, ciao to all my wonderful and spiffy friends here, I love you all, and I'll miss you! Have the time of your life before school starts, and I guess I'll see you when school starts! Love to everyone and everything! Shalom

Steven "Breakage Boy" Baxter

K, are sloths not the weirdest animals on the face of the planet? Their fur looks like coconut fur, and they have weird claws and weird faces and they move slow and they're just all-around weird. I guess it would be fun to have a sloth for a pet though. If it was small you could cuddle with it, and it's really flexible so you could hold it in unnatural positions and you wouldn't really have to worry about losing it, cause it couldn't exactly run away. It would be fun.

But for the reasoning behind the title of this blog, if you didn't know, Steven broke something again, only this time it was his toe. I told Liz about this and she said he needed a new name like "the boy of glass" or "the boy of breakage" and I liked my version of the second one. So now his list of nicknames is up to three I believe. "Breakage Boy," "The Human Couch Cushion," and my personal favorite, "Magnet for Mockery." I wish I had that many cool nicknames. That would be a cool super hero name, Breakage Boy. That's almost as good as Work-Experience Boy.

Speaking of which, that boy is more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel. I haven't talked to him in forever, and I'm really starting to miss the kid. Dang soccer.

I wrote Liz a novel disguised as an e-mail today, and she sent me one back! Plus she called about a letter that we got sent, so I got to talk to her and read a really long e-mail from her! It was very nice. Plus I get to see her in ONLY THREE DAYS! How stoked am I. I cannot wait to see her and talk to her and laugh with her and do all the things we used to do when we were together. I love being her sister. She has been such a blessing to me, especially in our younger years when it was just us and our mom. Those were good days. I remember everything we used to do at the old apartment, swimming in the pool, racing each other up the steps, ridings bikes and going to the park with Rayana. Those were good times. And I'm so grateful for all the memories we made and can now share. We had a lot of fun together, and I'm glad that we can still have a lot of fun together, even if it's a different kind of fun. And I don't remember us ever having a really serious argument. We probably argued about who got to be which Barbie or something like that, but we never had a really big fight. And I guess I never really realized how blessed I am for that, even when hearing about how a lot of my friends always fight with their siblings. I guess I took for granted a little how close Liz and I were, and still are. It's harder now that she's gone, but I love her to pieces, and I couldn't have asked for a better sister on this earth. She's a really awesome girl, and I'm thankful for everything that she's done for me, and everything that we're able to do together. Yay for families!

I haven't done anything of worth today. I read HP, took a shower, ate, ate some more, watched William and Kyle play Super Smash Bro., watched David play Civilization, and now I'm on the compy. How boring. Someone come save me! And I guess it wouldn't be too bad if anyone decided to stop by. Cause then you could meet my cousins! They're pretty awesome kids. And it's going to kind of be a lazy day, since we're going to be so busy tomorrow. Oh well.

Well, I guess I really don't have anything else to say, so I hope that everyone is happy, and is having a wonderful day! Love to all! Shalom

Hello? Hello? I can't find my head.

You know, I really don't think I had my head the night I suggested we prank the Baxter's. On Tuesday, I convinced Jill to join me, and I got Isha and Melissa into it, but it quickly turned into a very bad idea. And so, the moment you've all been waiting for....

The Caper of the Cons
"One dark summer's night, a young girl was sitting at her computer, making conversations with friends and letting her mind wander to the mysteries of the world. Suddenly, a brilliant idea began to form in her mind. There were large branches that had fallen from a near-by tree that were cluttering her yard, so why not give them to someone else? And not just anyone else. Oh no. It must be someone whose life was not blessed with the presence of trees in their yard, so that they would be filled with confusion and distraught at the sudden arrival of two very large branches in their yard. Ah ha, she thought, the perfect family would be the Baxter's. With no trees in their yard and a lenient attitude toward pranking, they would be the perfect family to dispose of her branches with. Quickly contacting her friend and fellow felon, Jillian Wheeler, they decided to meet at an appropriate time in the secret where-abouts of this young girl's (whose name we disclose at her own risk, Rebekah Whittaker) house.

Their plans were soon made, and they were joined by two other members of Ms. Whittaker's family, Annalicia and Melissa. Dressed all in black, with fierce markings painted on their faces, the girls developed a code name for themselves, based on the fact that they were all wearing Chuck Taylors. After some difficulty, the girls managed to attach the two large tree branches to the top of the White Knight, and set of slowly towards the hill where the Baxter's dwelled.

Making it safely to the top of the hill, they parked and waited for any signs of movement. There was a distant light at the house of the Baxter's, but that was not to worry the brave young girls. For at that moment, a shooting star streaked across the sky and they regarded it as a good luck omen. How little did they realize just how wrong they were.

They stood in the road, surveying the land around them. They noticed that a certain man in a nearby house was watching them through an open window. Not regarding this as particularly ominous, they continued as planned. As they crept towards the house to scope out for those lying awake, a car suddenly made its way up the hill. Terrified, they ran back to the White Knight and hid behind it in horror, for the car found its way into the Baxter's driveway and a young woman made her way into the house! Still cowering behind the van, the girls were horrified to hear yet another car, this time from the man's house! A immense truck pulled out of the nearby driveway and pulled it's hideous nose right up to the White Knight! Flashing his brights while speaking into a phone, the Cons trembled with fright as the man slowly, oh so slowly drove away. Too scared to contemplate capture, the girls quickly drove the faithful vehicle right into the driveway of the Baxter's! The truck was circling the area like a vulture, awaiting the death of careless prey. Then, scampering around to the back of the house, they discovered the same young woman they had seen earlier (a lovely young lady named Kylie) in the kitchen! Risking communication, they spoke with the maiden, who graciously agreed to allow them to rid themselves of the branches and also cavort on the trampoline. The Cons also spotted a certain young man (by the name of Steven) awake and perusing a tome, but he was the least of their worries now, so they fought the urge to terrorize him and left him in peace.

So branches disposed of, and trampoline pranced across, the girls trundled back to the van and started to head home. The were momentarily disturbed by a large jalopy following them, and their relief was complete when the vehicle turned away. So safely back in the protection of their own abodes, the Cons split and quickly retired.

Looking back, the girls realized that this was perhaps not such a good idea, and you can rest assured that they will think twice before planning another such escapade."

So there you have it. Our adventure in legend form. It's not some of my best writing, but I'm rather fond of it. Hope you all enjoyed it, and sorry for the lack of pictures. The blogger refused to upload them, which was disappointing, but they weren't that good anyway. But be warned! If you ever decide to prank the Baxter's, it might be a good idea to have a look-out for that creepy neighbor man that seems determined to catch young mischief-makers. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and you should stop by sometime and meet my wonderful cousins, who will be here late tonight through Sunday! Oh! And celebrate, for Fab and Drew Barrymore broke up! He is no longer wasting his time on silly actresses! Huzzah! Love to all! Shalom

I think you just need to get laid.

I thought I would include this picture as a tribute to one of my favorite animals. Don't ask me why I like camels so much. I don't know myself. I just do. I had a dream about a camel once. My mom got me one for Christmas, and I named it Rosie. Then I lost it in Food 4 Less! It was very sad. She was a very good camel.

And sorry for the inappropriateness of the title, I was actually out of good quotes, and then I found this one. I think it's from a TV show or something.

Woah. I can see the moon from the little window facing the compy. It's very nice to have the moon watching over you. I love everything that has to do with night. It's such an amazing time, where you have the most startling revelations, in dreams and in wakefulness. I just was remembering the dream that I had about the temple, and it was so amazing. I wish I could have another dream like it. Now every time anyone says anything about the temple and the work that goes on in that sacred place, I think of that dream, and how I can't wait to go to the temple again.

I was bored while waiting for Liz to come online, so I decided to write in my blog, but then I realized that I really don't have anything to say......you're all cool, and I love you a lot, and I'm grateful for all the advice and testimonies you guys have given me through your words and examples. I have the company of such great friends, and I'm really glad that they call me their friend, even though I know sometimes I don't deserve it.

I'm listening to Enya right now, Tempus Vernum. There are so many good memories attached to this song. Krista Morgan and I used it in the dance concert (which I still need a copy of, gosh durn it!) as our interlude, where I sat on her back with my legs up while she crawled across the stage. It was really hard, and took a lot of balance and ab work on my part. And poor Krista's knees. She had to wear knee pads so that they wouldn't hurt her. And I remember her pants kept falling off cause they would drag across the floor. That was fun. And then on the last night of the show, Chelsea and I, as a prank, opened the show with a techno version of the Pink Panther and did a crazy dance to it. There are so many memories! I remember the night that the violinists were late (we did an improv piece to live violinists) and we were so mad! I was especially mad because we had to wear my costumes for that dance, when it was supposed to be a surprise, because the costumes had so much significance. It was so hard to choreograph my dance and to get everyone to do it, and I got rather impatient a lot of the time, but I was really proud of the class, I think that they did a very good job. I really miss dance. I mean, I dance at home, but I need to learn more technique and become more flexible and stuff, and I can't afford dance lessons. Besides, I don't think anyone does modern here, which is what I really want to do. But BYU has a terrific modern dance program, so hopefully I can get into that when....if I go there. I want to, but who knows if I'll get in? Cross your fingers.

As I was just previewing my blog, I just realized how funny that quote looks right above that picture.

You know, I really don't have anything else to say, and I'm talking to Andrea right now, so too bad for everyone who wanted more to read. I do love you though, so have fun in all you do, and talk to you later! Shalom

Today I'm going to see if I can hang from the ceiling with suction cups!

It's amazing what you can find on the internet. This picture for example. What? But that's not the point.

Summer has been pretty fun so far, pretty busy, and now I have a little bit of down time before family vaca/visiting my mom. I come back on the Friday before school starts, so yippee. I'm not really really excited for school. I want to do choir and plays, but the actual schoolwork just doesn't do it for me. And I'm going to be tremendously busy. But I'll manage.

My parents are gone on their anniversary trip, and they decided not the let Melissa and I go to the fair last night. I wasn't totally stoked for it, but I was willing to go so that Melissa could have some fun. But the parents left us some money to go to the play if we wanted to, but Melissa didn't want to go. So we ended up buying a pizza and watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You know how amazingly great those movies are? I never get tired of them. The dialogue, and the characters, and the violence....oh wait. No, they're just really well-made movies. I enjoy them emmensely.

I haven't really done much today. I'm watering the lawns......oh my goodness, they've been in the same spot for quite some time now. I think I'll go switch them. Ok, I'm back. It's really quite warm out there. Well, the sidewalk is extremely hot on bare feet, that's all. I gave Abish a bath today, cause she smelled so bad. It was quite an experience, I'll tell you that. She really doesn't like it, and in the shower she's usually ok, but I was doing it outside to cool her off with the hose water, and she was not having fun. She kept shaking while I was trying to shampoo her up, and so I got soaked in the process. Oh well, at least she doesn't smell as bad now, and she's poofy. It's funny.

I have nothing profound or interesting to say, so I'll leave you now. Shalom

"That's right, it's a smoldering iron. The smoldering iron of justice."

Or the pogo stick of justice. Wouldn't be cool if there was a super hero called "PogoMan" or something and he got around on a pogo stick? That's why I included this amusing little picture, for this, in fact, is the now-retired PogoMan in his alter-ego attire. Looks like fun, doesn't it? I, for one, have never gotten the hang of pogo sticks, but I still find them entertaining.

There is one matter that I would like to address in this day's blog. I would like to say that I haven't been a very good friend lately, and I recognize that, and so I'm trying to fix that. Everyone that I'm associated with are amazing and wonderful and beautiful people, and I'm sorry that I haven't been treating you as such. I love and appreciate you all, and I really wouldn't be where I am today if it hadn't been for you. I've been so blessed in my life with wonderful friends to help keep me on the straight and narrow, and without that, I would have been long gone. So to all those, near and far, that have blessed my life with their friendship, thank you so much. I love you dearly and I mean to show you more abundantly, so that you know you're appreciated. Thank you for all that you've done for me. And if you ever find that I'm being a bit of a jerk, just go right ahead and shoot me in the foot to let me know. And don't worry about hurting me. I've already invested in a pair of special bullet-proof shoes for this very purpose.

You know how useful bullet-proof shoes would be, actually? I mean, in all the movies, you always see the good guy wrestling with the bad guy for a gun, and the bad guy always gets shot in the foot, where then he is distracted by the sudden loss of digits and is thwarted. So if you had on a pair of bullet-proof shoes, that wouldn't happen and you'd be able to fulfill the rest of your life with the proper number of toes. And if you were able to get them with one of those little knives that comes out of the toe of the shoe, that would be even cooler. Think how much more exciting action movies would be if the old "shoot the bad guy in the foot" trick didn't work. We should take this up with Hollywood.

And sorry to say, I'm still intrigued with this "Infidelity is No Laughing Matter" play of mine that somehow found it's way into my mind. I figured out a way to make it end happy so that no one is hurt, and that there's actually a moral to it. So I think I'll write it, or as much of it as I can, and see where it gets me. If I still lived in Medford, I might have even entered it into the play-writing section of Acting Comp. That would have been fun. I was going to do it anyway, with the help of Mama Tadema, but here in the wonderful town of La Grande, they don't do that sort of thing. Oh well. I'll make do.

I hope this makes you happy, Steven, since you complained about my last entry being so boring. I find it extremely and entertainingly (is that a word? If it isn't, too bad, I used it anyway) amusing that Steve now seems to have blogger admirers. I told him that 85% of the female population between the ages of 5-17 in La Grande have a crush on him, but he doesn't believe me. Now you can see that the fame and female fondness has spread beyond our borders. How very humorous, at least to me.

I recently re-read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it's absolutely incredible how accurate to the book that Mr. Tim Burton was in his film edition. There's even exact dialogue taken directly from the book. I'm glad.

K, I really can't think of anything else to say, but if I think of something else, I'll add it later. I have a little picnic/BBQ-sort of thing to go to with Dad at 4:30, and I suppose that I should shower before that. So I'll go now. Enjoy your lives, I love you all, and go have fun with a pogo stick if your heart implies! Shalom!

"We kissed and kissed for what seemed like ages. I was thinking, I cannot believe this. Jude Law is snogging me."

Oh my gosh, I pulled a Steven and haven't blogged in almost a month. But that's ok. Besides EFY, which the most amazing thing that ever happened to me, not that much has happened.

EFY was so incredible though. I was able to learn so much about the gospel, and I was able to come so much closer to the Savior. My testimony grew so much. And I'm really glad that I was able to talk about it on Sunday, cause then I didn't have to wait till fast Sunday to share my testimony. I mean, Sis Chadwick called me today to tell me how much she appreciated my talk. It was so nice of her. Except for the fact that I cry SO MUCH and I hate crying in front of people. The only time I didn't feel really stupid was when I spoke in front of the Young Women at EFY. I was already crying but it was all good. I pretty much made all the counselors cry, so yeah. It was cool. And I want to share the same message with our Young Women cause maybe some of them need it. So many girls came up to me afterward and told me how much they needed and appreciated what I said. It was so nice, and it felt so good to be able to help other people. So I hope I can share what I learned with them. It was just an amazing experience. And no, I did not have a C.O.W.! Isha thinks it's a crime not to have a C.O.W. at EFY, but I didn't, so there. It was a very personal experience for me, and it gave me time to think about the Savior more, instead of focusing on silly boys the whole time.

I thought of an idea for a really funny play this morning. I was lying in bed, awake, but not getting up yet, and thinking about plays and stuff, and I got this great idea. I don't think I'll do anything about it though, cause it's pretty much about infidelity, but it would be funny. I thought of so much dialogue and so many situations that would be hilarious! But as I said, I don't think I write any of it, unless the idea persists. I don't support infidelity, so you all know, so I don't want to advertise that it's a laughing matter. Oh well. Maybe I'll think of something else. I've been in the mood to write for a while now, but I haven't had any flashes of inspiration or rushes of creativity. But a lot of my ideas come from everyday life and everyday funny experiences, so maybe I'll find something soon. Who knows.

I have to go get ready to go to Melissa's soccer game now, so see you all later! And I hope that you're all happy that I FINALLY wrote something after waiting for so long. Shalom

"We kissed and kissed for what seemed like ages. I was thinking, I cannot believe this. Jude Law is snogging me."

Oh my gosh, I pulled a Steven and haven't blogged in almost a month. But that's ok. Besides EFY, which the most amazing thing that ever happened to me, not that much has happened.

EFY was so incredible though. I was able to learn so much about the gospel, and I was able to come so much closer to the Savior. My testimony grew so much. And I'm really glad that I was able to talk about it on Sunday, cause then I didn't have to wait till fast Sunday to share my testimony. I mean, Sis Chadwick called me today to tell me how much she appreciated my talk. It was so nice of her. Except for the fact that I cry SO MUCH and I hate crying in front of people. The only time I didn't feel really stupid was when I spoke in front of the Young Women at EFY. I was already crying but it was all good. I pretty much made all the counselors cry, so yeah. It was cool. And I want to share the same message with our Young Women cause maybe some of them need it. So many girls came up to me afterward and told me how much they needed and appreciated what I said. It was so nice, and it felt so good to be able to help other people. So I hope I can share what I learned with them. It was just an amazing experience. And no, I did not have a C.O.W.! Isha thinks it's a crime not to have a C.O.W. at EFY, but I didn't, so there. It was a very personal experience for me, and it gave me time to think about the Savior more, instead of focusing on silly boys the whole time.

I thought of an idea for a really funny play this morning. I was lying in bed, awake, but not getting up yet, and thinking about plays and stuff, and I got this great idea. I don't think I'll do anything about it though, cause it's pretty much about infidelity, but it would be funny. I thought of so much dialogue and so many situations that would be hilarious! But as I said, I don't think I write any of it, unless the idea persists. I don't support infidelity, so you all know, so I don't want to advertise that it's a laughing matter. Oh well. Maybe I'll think of something else. I've been in the mood to write for a while now, but I haven't had any flashes of inspiration or rushes of creativity. But a lot of my ideas come from everyday life and everyday funny experiences, so maybe I'll find something soon. Who knows.

I have to go get ready to go to Melissa's soccer game now, so see you all later! And I hope that you're all happy that I FINALLY wrote something after waiting for so long. Shalom