What I Do When I'm Down

I've made a list of things that I do when I'm sad. You can use some of these ideas if you want, but you should try and make a list of things that make you happy, and whenever you are stressed, angry, sad, ect., just do it, and it will make you so much happier and willing.

• Dance
• Get up and do something good.
• Run/work out
• Be around people
• Read your scriptures
• Personal Progress
• Put hair up
• Take a hot shower
• Lay in the dark for a sec and listen to relaxing music
• Practice flute and piano
• Clean and listen to music
• Write letters to friends and family
• Write
• Do arts and crafts

Just always remember that God has a plan for you. Everything will work out in the end.

Grandma Jackson's 90th Birthday

Last week, our family went up to Idaho to celebrate my great Grandma Jackson's 90th Birthday! It was a blast!

Grandma Kristie (Grandma Jackson's daughter) set up a very nice musical program for her, since she has always loved music. First, this guy from their ward came up and sang a bunch of songs from musicals, but he didn't sing normally. He sang kinda opera-ish. It was awesome! Then, mom and Grandma Kristie played a variation of chopsticks, and then played "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" from the Children's Song Book. Then, me, Grace, Kate, Faith, and Abbey got to sing. We sang "The Miracle," which talks about Jesus dying for all of us, and how we (me, Grace, Kate, Faith, and Abbey specifically) are really grateful for it. Then we sang "As Sisters in Zion". I think she really enjoyed it. 

We then proceeded to the food, which was provided, and set out by one of Grandma Kristie's friends from the ward. There were chicken sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, chips, and salsa (there was also salad, but I didn't bother with it)! We saved the cake for later though, because Grandma Jackson wasn't feeling too well, and had to go home early. We packed up, and me and Grace walked home to Grandma's house that wasn't too far away. 

We had cake when we got there. It was great! Grandma got a couple presents. Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chad got Grandma a stuffed animal baby goat, that she absolutely LOVES! The reason they got her a goat is because when Grandma Kristie was little, she got a baby goat (I can't remember why), but it somehow found it's way in the house and started jumping on Grandma Jackson's bed! The stuffed goat meant a lot to Grandma. She kept calling it "Cute!" and she kept saying things to it like, "You are just adorable!" One time she looked into it's plastic eyes, and said to it, "Have you been mistreated?" We all tried very hard not to make her feel bad by muffling our giggles. Golly, I love that lady.

When the other relatives headed out, the Borens went ahead and showed Grandma some funny videos of babies eating lemons for the first time. The whole time she talked to the screen saying stuff like, "Oh! I am so sorry!" 

She is such an example to me of being kind, and strong. She is always kissing and hugging me whenever I greet her. She is just so amazing. She makes me want to be a better person, because she is always looking out to serve others even though she is 90 years old, can't even stand by herself, and can't even walk by herself. I love my Grandma.

It was sad when we had to leave, but I feel like this visit was much more meaningful to me than other visits before. I've grown a stronger connection with Grandma Jackson. Even though, she's losing her memory, and probably won't remember the time we spent together, I will always remember, and cherish the memories I've made with my great grandmother. 

 Grandma with her baby goat. :)

 Watching baby videos

Natural Curiosity Museum

We went to a field trip to the Natural Curiosity Museum for school. It was super fun! It was awesome to spend time with my friends.

Run Walk 'N' Chalk

So every year at my school, we do a running "Jog-a-thon" fundraiser for our school. Well the middle schoolers were getting a little sick of it, so SAC ( the peeps who plan this sort of thing), decided to make it more interesting for us middle schoolers. They decided that just the middle school would do a Run Walk 'N' Chalk. That means that we basically just get to chuck powdered chalk at each other and we all get covered in color. We raised about $3,000 so we got three colors. It was so much fun! I had a blast with my friends and it was a very colorful shower after school :).

My Gorgeous Puppy

I can't resist posting an adorable Dahlia picture!!😍

Silly Soccer

I was at soccer practice and we were taking a water break. I said to my team mates. " Hey! Let's take a group selfie!" But no one wanted to except Hailey and Maddie (Thanks guys!). The rest are party poopers. I got coach, but I snapped the picture before he got his jazz hands out. :(

Hailey (left) Maddie (middle) Me (right) and Coach Patrick (in between me and Maddie:) )

The Good Times and the Bad Times.

This week has been a mix of emotions for me.

On Wednesday, I was just sitting in my first period of the day, Word Processing with the best tech teacher eva, Mr. Cordero, when someone says to my friend Addie, "Addie! Madi is here!" We have about a million Madi/Maddie's at my school, so I didn't really process the words. But when I turned around, I saw one of my BFF's from 6th grade, Madi, standing in the doorway. Wearing a Lakeview uniform. Addie told me that Madi might be coming back to our school after she left in the summer before 7th grade, but I didn't really believe it. But now, she was standing right in front of me. Me and Addie ran to her and gave her a great big hug. Mr. Cordero got her new account all set up for her on the computer next to me and Addie, and we started catching up on stuff. It took me a while to really believe that Madi was back. I even asked Addie to pinch me, which I regret because she pinches hard. Turns out that Madi is in my Word Processing class, my Math class, my Art class, and my English class. It was hard to focus that day in class because I was still in shock, but now, I'm really happy and excited for Madi to be back.

Me and Madi at art class!!

The same day, at Young Women's, we had a... SPA NIGHT!! We rubbed this hand scrub, that looks like a lemonade slushie, all over our hands to make them smooth. At first, no one thought it would do much, because it felt like sandpaper ripping your skin off, but when you washed it off, it felt like heaven! Our hands were SO soft. Then we painted our nails. I still have mine on. Although it's coming off a bit. Then, once our nails dried, we put an icky oatmeal face mask on all over our faces. Again we doubted it would do anything, but once you left it on for 20 minutes, it also felt like heaven. Then we created this jello lip gloss that had to sit over night to harden before we could put it on.

 My blue hand

The pink hand that was supposed to be blue, but someone else was using it, and I'm not very patient.

It has started to get colder here in Utah. It was pretty warm about 2 weeks ago, but now Utah has changed it's opinion on what the weather should be, again. Typical Utah. So I had to play a game yesterday against Arsenal in the freezing cold. It was like 45 degrees out there! No joke! We had no subs, and they had 7. One of our players scored a goal on the wrong side whilst trying to get the ball out, and accidentally kicked it right passed our keeper. Our keeper got kicked in the leg, and was limping the rest of the game. Another player got hit in the back of the head towards the end of the game, and had to be taken out for the rest. They were pushing a lot, and only got fouled once for it only because I told the ref to watch the shoving. We started giving up hope at the second half. We lost 5-0. It was rough. But, what can you do except try harder next time? Besides, we play them another 3 times, and we'll be better prepared.

The General Conference Women's session was yesterday too. It was great. Here are my notes:

Sharon L. Eubank

• Integrity is more important than visibility.
• People who repent change history.
• Use your courage to tell people why you believe.
• Be strong in the gospel so that you can save people from being dragged into the riptide.
• Don't put yourself beyond the Savior's love.

Neill F. Marriott

• Look for those who need love.
• We can love through the atonement of Christ.
• Because of His atonement, we can feel our love from our Heavenly Father.
• Pray with all your might for some of His charity so that you can love as he loves.

Joy D. Jones

• You should feel special because YOU ARE A DAUGHTER OF GOD.
• Never doubt that you are special, because you are.
• Knowing you are a child of  God will help you through the trials of your life.
• Thinking bad about yourself doesn't help. It holds you back.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

• You can look at everything with sadness, anger, of you can look at everything with happiness.