Hometeachers

Today my hometeachers finally came to see me. They came around 7:10 pm, although I guess they had set out around 6:45 pm, but they couldn't find the house, and just as they were about to call, they finally found me. My hometeachers names are DeLon and Ryan; they are both white, in case anybody was wondering. DeLon did pretty much all the talking, I think all Ryan did was say the prayer, and then he stared at the ceiling for the rest of the time. The lesson they gave was on the temples and why they are important; it was a good lesson, well presented and everything. So yeah, that's pretty much it.

Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by: Holly Black (2nd in series)

When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Me

Here are some new pictures of me that I took a little while ago, I was bored and my camera finally started working again, so this is what I did.
This is a pic of me today, I took it before I left for school.

Spencer at the Ice Rink

This is what Spencer does before we go ice skating. He likes to goof around so I am a happy girl while ice skating.
It took him a little while before he was able to fit in that thing cuz it is made for little kids, but he got there! It was funny to watch him.

TIthe: A Modern Faerie Tale by: Holly Black (1st book in series)

This is a really good book, I read most of it at one of Spencer's games, that's how good it was, plus it is an easy read.

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms--a struggle that could very well mean her death.

Choir Performance

Today I had an Institute Choir Performance, we had an Institute Choir Fireside tonight, so I had to perform. We had it at the Tabernacle and so it was kind of crowded for the choir, but oh well, it was really cool. The choir sang the prelude, so we just "Oohed and Aahed" to the music until it was time to perform. Our opening song was the Latter-Day Voices choir singing (they're the special choir that you have to audition for). Then both choirs sang "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet", that song gave me chills, oh it was absolutely beautiful. It starts out with the choir singing it, then the conductor turns and the congregation sings along, then the choir sings a phrase or two more. The spirit was so strong tonight and I just got chills from the power of that song, it was amazing. Then my choir sang "Standing in the Need of Prayer" which is a gospel song that was lots of fun, then we sang "Homeward Bound" which is a beautiful song that the Tabernacle Choir sings, then we sang "Secret Prayer" which is also a pretty song. Then all the choirs sang a song called "One in Christ" which is, I guess, the theme song for this year, and that is an amazing song as well. The Latter-Day Voices sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and that song also gave me chills from the power of it; it is similar to "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet" where the congregation sings as well, and man did I have chills. It was really cool. Between each song, someone would bear their testimony and there were two girls who were doing this corny little thing throughout the program, but this is a Mormon Fireside, so corniness is allowed. Spencer agreed with me, he was there just to watch me perform, which was really sweet. So that is what I did today, other than church that is.

Conspiracy Game by: Christine Feehan

Jack Norton is a GhostWalker, a genetically enhanced sniper with a merciless sense of justice, a phantom welcomed by the anonymity of the night. But a mission to rescue his brother in the jungle has left him vulnerable to rebel forces. His only salvation is his power of telepathy. Then he meets Briony, an unusual beauty on a mission of her own. But they share more than the sweltering heat...

Briony shares the GhostWalker powers. Yet she's different. She doesn't know what she is, or what she's capable of. But her enemies do. And Jack and Briony's flight will take them into a frightening conspiracy of mind and body--across the globe and into the heart of darkness, where the shocking truth is something neither of them could have foreseen--or can escape.

Snow

Today it snowed pretty much for the first time. It was really cool but at the same time it was weird. While it was snowing, there was also thunder and lightning, it was strange, and it was very cold. Very, very cold.

Oh My Freaking Gosh!!!

Ok so this morning was not a good start for the day. I started my period (sorry for any guys reading this) and it was kind of bad, my back was really sore and it was affecting my legs and I just felt like crap. Well when I went to the bathroom today, I was in there and I saw something out of the bottom of my vision and I look down and there was a cockroach skittering between my legs going under the stall door. OMG I started to freak out, I was hurrying and finishing my business and the whole time the roach was skittering back and forth under my door. Oh it was sooooooo gross! I finally finish and as I am getting ready to go, the roach had finally left, so I go to grab my purse, and my bookmark moved and I freaked out, so I jump back, and I saw ANOTHER roach, it skittered over my backpack and over to the wall. I was so freaked out that I could barely grab my bag to leave. I finally grab my stuff and go over to the entrance and drop my stuff and started to cry, oh I was freaking out!!! I finally managed to calm down, but I won't be using that bathroom again for the next year most likely, it was soooo freaking nasty!!!

The Green Mile by: Stephen King

Spencer told me to read this book because it was really good. This is the first Stephen King book that I have ever read and I think that it is really good.

At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, along the lonely stretch of cells known as the Green Mile, killers as depraved as the psychopathic "Billy the Kid" Wharton and the possessed Eduard Delacroix await death strapped in "Old Sparky." Here guards as decent as Paul Edgecombe and as sadistic as Percy Wetmore watch over them. But good or evil, innocent or guilty, none have ever seen the brutal likes of the new prisoner, John Coffey, sentenced to death for raping and murdering two young girls. Is Coffey a devil in human form? Or is he a far, far different kind of being?

There are more wonders in heaven and hell than anyone at Cold Mountain can imagine--as the truth emerges in shock waves that only Stephen King could create and a blast of revelation that will truly blow your mind.

Dangerous Tides by: Christine Feehan

Dr. Libby Drake is sensible and practical. To her more adventurous sisters, she's always been the "good girl." Certainly not the kind to attract the attention of a genius like Ty Derrick--until a tragic accident leaves the handsome biochemist at her mercy.

Acting on her uncanny ability to heal, she stirs in the reawakened Ty his long-suppressed desires for the woman who saved his life. But he's not the only man with designs on Libby Drake. Her miraculous and selfless power has also captured the attention of a dangerously influential admirer. He's pursuing the elementally gifted beauty for his own wicked purpose. And he's willing to go to deadly lengths to make it happen.

General Conference

Today, I got to go to General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, obviously. It was really cool and a neat opportunity that I'm glad I got. The only problem was that it was morning conference, and I had to be over at Kendal's house at 7 am and I went to bed at like 11:45 pm and so I didn't get much sleep. So I ended up sleeping through the beginning part of Conference. What was really weird was that I would be awake when the speaker started, fall asleep through the talk, then wake up when they ended and then fall asleep once the next speaker started. So I just heard the beginning remarks of President Eyring and the beginning remarks of the new apostle, Elder Cook. I ended up waking up for good in the middle of the General Relief Society President's talk, which was good.

One thing that I really liked was at the beginning, everybody was talking and being a little noisy, but then everybody stood up and it was instantly quiet. President Hinckley had walked into the room, I could tell the instant I came in because I could just feel his presence from where I was, and I was on the top balcony in the far corner, oh it was absolutely amazing! My favorite talk, I think was Elder Bednar's talk, it was really good. One thing I liked was how he said, "You can have clean hands but not have a pure heart" and how he explained the way to have both clean hands and pure heart. It was really good, and I liked when President Hinckley got up to speak at the very end of the morning conference, it was really good; even though it was a repeat talk, but who can know when it was, it was one out of 200 something talks he's given. It was really funny how he started it, I was glad that I got to be there.

Kendal drove both of us to Salt Lake and we parked her car in front of an old missionary friend's house, I guess she met him at the end of his mission, his name was Jeff Christianson, I think, so his mom took us within walking distance of the Conference Center, and then we met up with one of her old companions, and her name was Melissa Dredge, or something like that, so I kind of felt like an outsider, as I was the youngest and had never been on a mission, but they were kind enough to include me in their conversations and explain things to me, so I had fun. After Conference, we split from Melissa, and Jeff's sister came and picked us up a little bit aways from the Conference Center, then Kendal and I drove home.

On the drive home, it was absolutely gorgeous!!! The trees were so beautiful with the changing seasons, I haven't seen such vivid colors on trees before, it was absolutely breathtaking!
This is a pic of the mountains with snow and the red trees.


Oh, and another thing I just remembered, Kendal and I had really good luck today. As we were driving this morning, we were in the horrible area where they are doing construction and there are barriers on both sides of the road. This stupid person had gotten a flat tire, and so instead of going a couple more feet to a place where he could pull off the interstate, he stopped in the middle of the interstate and changed his tire. Kendal was paying attention and so was able to turn around him, another truck wasn't so lucky, we were both commenting on the stupid person and we looked back and a truck had seen the people too late and had swerved to miss them and had crashed into the barrier in the fast lane, blocking all traffic, oh my gosh were we lucky, we had only cleared that by 10 seconds when it had happened. We made it to Salt Lake in like an hour and fifteen minutes, which isn't too bad, then we continued to have good luck throughout the rest of the day. When we went to the bathroom, there was no line, when we got out, like 1-2 minutes later, there was a huge line, it was crazy! Then we got home in about an hour and fifteen minutes again. It was crazy!

When Darkness Falls by: Shannon Drake

This is an extremely good book, it hooked me the instant I opened it!!! I couldn't put it down at all.

WHEN DARKNESS FALLS... In a windswept Scottish cemetery, Jade MacGregor's carefree vacation abroad is marred by a seemingly random tragedy. A year later, back home on a shadowy French Quarter street, she glimpses an oddly familiar face. Coincidence--or something more disturbing?

AND TERROR TAKES HOLD... Surrounded by her friends and engrossed in her work, Jade should feel secure. But somebody is dogging her every move. Somebody who will try to rescue her from the evil that is waiting to destroy her.

INNOCENCE DIES...

The Black Dahlia by: James Ellroy

This is a really good book, you just have to get past the first couple of chapters and then you are hooked. The beginning doesn't make sense at first, but you'll get it a little bit into the book. I really recommend it.

On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a Los Angeles vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia--and so begins the greatest manhunt in California history.

Caught up in the investigation are Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard: Warrants Squad cops, friends, and rivals in love with the same woman. But both are obsessed with the Dahlia--driven by dark needs to know everything about her past, to capture her killer, to possess the woman even in death. Their quest will take them on a hellish journey through the underbelly of postwar Hollywood, to the core of the dead girl's twisted life, past the extremes of their own psyches--into a region of total madness.

Scholarship Banquet & NVO

Last night I had to go to a scholarship banquet as a requirement for the Mary McAllister & Mark Bold Scholarship that was $9550.00. It was actually really interesting, we had a couple of really good guest speakers that knew how to keep you interested. At the table I was sitting at, I was the only freshman at the table, everybody else was either a sophomore, junior, or senior, we had a business ambassador sitting at my table, and we had the President and CEO of Westar Gas Company, I think that's what it was called, and we had a married couple that, I think, were scholarship donors and the husband was a professor of an M.B.A. college course.

After that, Spencer took me to NVO as a way to release some tension after a boring day at school, and he wanted to go dancing before he left for Colorado for his sister's wedding. He left this morning at like 4 am, which really sucks for him.

Spencer & Me

I finally got a pic of Spencer and me, so now everybody can leave me alone and quit naggin' me for one! Hehe!! This is pic of the night that Spencer asked me out, so it's kinda old, but I didn't have to take another of myself, so I'm happy with that!

Tests

Well, I decided today to post how I'm doing on my tests in my classes in school. In my History class, I got a 72/80 on my first Assessment (Test) which is a really good grade. In my Economics class, I got a 30/35 on my first mid-term in the class, and I have been getting 5/6's on all my quizzes that we have had so far. In my Sociology class, I got an 88/100 on my first exam in the class. In my Math class, I got an 83/100 when I first got the test back, but she let us correct it for 1/3 of our lost points back, so I'll see the corrected exam soon, and I have been getting good grades on the quizzes, don't ask me what they are out of because I have no idea. I have a quiz in Economics and Math today, I guess since it is so late, so I am not looking forward to that and I'll try to remember to post how I do on those later.