Already August??

July 29th

Whoah! So a month yesterday we were hiking Havasupai.. that's CRAZY. I still can't get it in my mind that time continues to move faster and faster the older I get.. It seems like such a long time ago, but not that far away at the same time. Then I get a headache. Haha, oh Havasupai... the memories!! The awkward, sweaty, and gross memories! Nah, it was the highlight of my summer for sure.
So me, Kami, and Maizey left the cabin this morning around 8:30 so we could get to church on time. It's just been us three girls at church most of the summer, they're probably gonna start thinking that our family went inactive.. :P
Church was really great today!! :D Cal gave a talk (the first one I've seen him give, but apparently he's given quite a few) and he did a great job! Kayla and Sister Schaeler did this super cool piano/organ musical number, and it sounded SO cool! Ahh, I need to start playing harder music. Since I stopped lessons in November, I haven't really advanced.. I've gotten a lot better at sightreading and memorizing where the notes and keys are... but I'm still playing the same level of music.
Anyways, Sunday School is still the same old Sunday School... it's gotten a lot better! He just gives lectures, and honestly, I like those kind of lessons a lot better! Not bashing on the scriptures or lesson books, but I think that when kids come up with questions and topics and there is a whole discussion, that teaches a lot more than reading about how Betty Lou shoplifted this cute shirt to wear to the sketchy teen sockhop.. haha ;) After that, since it was the 5th Sunday (my ward likes to do random stuff on Sundays, like one fast meeting, instead of testimonies, we had people come up to the stand and request hymns for us to sing) and everyone 12 and up men and women were combined. We watched some Mormon Messages for Youth because Bishop wanted to go over some of the standards that needed to be refreshed in everyone's minds, which I think is a GREAT idea, because our ward youth like to kid of bend and twist the words in there. Especially about modesty.. that's a huge one that needs to be worked on. :P
Anyways, that was a great meeting! Afterwards, Boyd came up to Kami and gave her a hug... WHAT?! Haha since when does Boyd like Kami?! Haha we got it out of him why. He said that Cal bribed him with 50 cents to pretend to like Kami for the day so she would give him embarrassing pictures of me in my youth... Only 50 cents! Haha, Boyd... go at least for 10 bucks or something good! ;)
All I know is that if he wants those pictures SO badly, he's gonna have to work for them and not just make deals with my sister behind my back and then bribe his brothers. I've got some pretty good ones of me.. definitely not worth 50 cents. ;)

July 30th

Well... It was a Monday so that's enough evidence for ya... I kinda forgot most of this day. I was back to my Honor's History people, so that felt more comfortable for me!! :) I am soooo grateful that they got me out of the regular's class.. I don't belong with those people! :O
My days STILL feel painfully longer than usual.. by the time first hour hits, I feel like it's fourth hour or something.. maybe because that's the hour I had history last year... who knows?? I don't like it! But I can't complain too much.
This morning I parked in the Seminary parking lot as I usually do, and I noticed that I was one among probably 5 cars.. that kind of scared me because there are at least 15 by the time I get there.. Woodbrey was walking around the parking lot talking to kids who had just parked, I walked right past him but he didn't even say anything to me... maybe because I'm his favorite?? ;) nah, he doesn't even know my name yet! haha but all throughout the day I kept seeing kids get passes from the office about seminary saying that they needed their parents to move their cars for them by 10 or they would tow them! I was freaking out!! Woodbrey NEVER said anything about parking to my class this entire week, and I haven't heard anything from any other kids... and he saw me park there but didn't say anything.. at the end of the day, my car was still there and I still had received no formal warning from any of the Seminary teachers... and then he said that our teachers should have told us... haha go figure. So I have to park in the school parking lot now which is kinda really dumb because I have seminary 6th hour and it's pointless for me to walk back to school and wait for an eternity to leave!! :(
I noticed that my art teacher paints her nails differently every day to match her outfit... crazy!! haha! We're starting to actually draw soon... no more coloring little kids coloring pages! Yay!
Nothing too exciting happened... :P Did chores, listened to music, yup.
OH YEAH. So I curled my hair this morning and it looked super pretty today! I dunno what I did different, but it looked pretty dang awesome... until I stepped outside and it was so HUMID. I wasn't even outside for two minutes by the time it took my curls to unravel and die. :( I was so sad! And I didn't have a hairtie OR bobbypin on me!! I had to literally beg Maizey to let me use hers. I had to get creative and manage to tame all of my crazy, frizzy, and nasty hair with one single hairtie.. I must be magical because it worked! Not what I was planning on, but at least it wasn't all that bad.

July 31st

So I parked in the school parking lot, and I got a lovely note from some student on my windshield saying "Don't ever park in MY spot again! Thanks" .... Well that's too bad because now I kind of have to park in your spot now! You snooze you loose! Sucker. ;) haha just kidding. But I'm seriously gonna park there tomorrow if I get there earlier again. People like that annoy me so much! It's not YOUR parking spot. And it was a prime one, too! Right by the exit against a planter with lots o' shade. Looks like we'll be fighting for this spot all year long. But just to be sure I'm gonna take note of their car model, color, year, and license plate number just in case anything bad happens to my car..
My day was good... it's good to be a senior. :)
I'm getting used to the Yearbook Avenue program they use to make their books... it turns out you CAN make lines, but the smallest width they go is .5 px... I was hoping for .25 px, but whatever. I'll deal with it. As soon as we figure out a theme, then I can find FONTS and start cranking out templates. They all came up to me and want me to have some type of GRAPH PAPER for the backgrounds... I'm not too hot on that idea, but I'll take it into consideration, I mean they didn't HAVE to make me the design editor, plus they were saying that they had no say in anything about the book last year, so I want to include them in its making. They're my friends, too so I can't totally exclude them. Still hesitant on some of their ideas, but QCHS is in a whole 'nother boat than DRHS. I just have to remember to keep an open mind.. but I think it's gonna look good this year. Just kidding. I KNOW it's gonna look great this year!! :)
My English class got split finally!! Half of them went to Holland.. I kinda want her because we did almost nothing last year and it was the easiest class I've ever taken in my life. But, I missed out on a whole year of literature, which, who knew, is important... but this year its essay writing, which I need the help on anyways.. and I feel that being in Eilertsen's class will be more beneficial to me in the long run.. I may say I hate it throughout the year, but I'd rather get ahead than fall behind again. Plus all of the new additions in the class mainly went to Holland's, so it's basically the same 15 kids again.
I think I'm getting sick... NOOOOO! I have to be healthy!! :(
Tomorrow is AUGUST. 28 days till I'm SEVENTEEN. Whoah. :O
Today my cousin Lauryn got married! We went to their reception, and it was nice! She's from Maryland, and he's from Florida, so there was only family at this one, but it was still cute! Her bridesmaids serenaded her with a ukulele song Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Oh, I just adore weddings. I want to get married so bad! Not right now, of course. Maybe in like 5 years?? :) The father-daughter dances always make me cry. I still don't know what I'm going to do for that... :( it's all the little things you miss when your dad is gone.. like when we were up at the cabin, Toby and Caleb were playing catch together in the front yard and Caleb was using my glove... it made me cry a little bit because that's what me and my dad would do when we went camping... :( and then for when I get married, I'm not sure if I'll even have a father daughter dance... I have lots of father like figures in my life, so maybe I'll just switch off between them during a song! I don't know.. we'll just have to wait and see.. I still want my dad to be there.. and he will be, I just won't be able to dance with him.... yeah, so weddings are typically kind of hard for me. Weddings make me cry, even if I don't know the couple! They're just so in love and all is beautiful and the way the groom looks at his bride, and all eyes are on them and they can't stop smiling and there is a room FULL of people who love and support them... is so loving and lovely!! :) Noah was teasing Jonah mercilessly tonight for some reason and I felt SO bad for Jonah! So, when the dance was going on, I grabbed Jo and started dancing with him, if I had to pick a favorite brother... it would definitely be Jo! (don't tell anyone!!) ;) He gets picked on so much, and yeah he's annoying, but he's 10? What do you expect from the youngest boy in the family? He made my night! I hope I made his! I've realized that I don't pay much attention to him, and he looks up to me, especially with his art. He ALWAYS shows it to me first to get my approval and opinion, and sometimes I brush him away.. he needs more love than that! I bet he'd be less annoying if people started loving him a bit more.. and that is my goal for the month! To learn to love Jo more! :)

August 1st

I'd like to be the first to wish you and your pets a Happy August AND a Happy Wednesday. It's been six months since February 1st. In case you forgot! February and August are my favorite months! Why? February is just chilly and rainy and overcast a good 70% of the month, and it's the last hay day before Spring. August is my favorite because it's close to September which is close to October, another one of my favorite months followed by November.. another one I love. Plus my birthday is in 27 days which is pretty dang cool. All I want for my birthday is a desk to put under my window so I can do homework and such. And so I can put stuff on my desk because I HATE stuff on my floor, and knick knacks are overflowing my dresser and bookshelves... so I can free up some space there. Plus, I use my sister's desk all the time to do my homework. It's more of a need.. And a want.. I found a really cute and cheap one at Wal-Mart! :D That's honestly all I want that is attainable.. there's the usual: world peace, naturally red hair, my own tub of nutella, for Michael Buble or Frank Sinatra to serenade me to sleep, a date... but as we all know, those things are outta my league. ;P
I've been looking forward to Mutual all week since I heard we were playing WATER FOOTBALL. But here's the thing: Sports SOUND like fun at first, but then you realize that you're playing with all these buff, athletic YM and those girls who are pretty athletic and beastly at vigorous activities such as water football... and that you will get hardly any playing time, if you're lucky. But that's totally fine with me! I got into the game, ran around a bit, tried to follow what was going on (I actually understand football very well for a girl, but running around trying to keep up is what throws me off..) so I kinda wandered around the field waiting for something exciting to happen. Did I mention that Bree totally pummeled me into the irrigated field to get me wet? It worked. But since I'm so nice, I didn't retaliate. I was covered in grass bits and dirt water, which I admit, was pretty fun! But I got bitten by mosquitoes!! I NEVER get bitten by mosquitoes! I am the one who bites mosquitoes! :P So my arms are all covered with them.. :(
I talked with Kayla and Ivy the whole time, conducted, said the prayer... I guess that's what happens when you are the only Laurel who shows up to activities AND you're the Laurel President.. but I don't mind! I actually would prefer to be running the whole show rather than be totally uninvolved. I hate feeling useless! I am SO awkward I can't stand it. I mean it's pretty awesome, just because I've come to terms with the fact that I am just an awkward soul, but when I get in front of people, you can literally pick out the awkwardness in the air. Oops. I'm working on it. Maybe. ;)
So after a while, I watched everyone play football and it was pretty entertaining I must say. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I LOVE MUTUAL. I don't care what ya say! I LOVE MUTUAL. I LOVE ALL THREE HOURS OF CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY. I LOVE SEMINARY. I LOOOOOOVE IT ALL.
"Hi, I'm Bentley and I'm a Spirit addict! I go to ALL of my church meetings and it really affects my whole week and it puts me on this awesome high feeling. I have been addicted for almost 17 years, and I don't even know why I'm in this group because, lezbehonest... I ain't gonna quit!" ;) Haha oh boy.. I just said that, didn't I? haha! DORK NUMERO UNO RIGH' HERE. Mmkay I'm stopping now. G'night.

August 2nd

Happy Thursday. I think. I WAS gonna wear my black rimmed hipster glasses with my black and cream striped and laced cardigan and messy high bun.. but I keep forgetting to fix the part that hangs off the side that goes on top of your ear rim thing.. the little screw popped off ages ago, and I've tried supergluing it back on multiple times, but it won't take! So I kinda forgot that you need all parts on a glasses for it to fully function properly, and when I was brushing my teeth, they fell off and I almost spit on them. BUT I DIDN'T. Victorious, I am. Yeah, so that didn't fly..
My days are getting a bit faster! Once first hour is over, it goes by fairly quickly. My math test got postponed till tomorrow! Yahoo! :D Yearbook is getting better bit by bit.. I got the color schemes all figured out.. and half of a template done... still no theme... :O
The rest of my classes are pretty good. I have great teachers this year, I'm not complaining about any of them!! For the first time, all of my teachers and classes have worked out! SUCCESS. You did good, front office, you did good. ;) Just kidding, I had some heavenly help in there as well. :)
The highlight of my day was DEFINITELY when I was walking past the Toy Box kiddos on my way to Seminary. They like to stick their hands out the chain linked fence for all of us cool Mormon kids give them high fives and such. Well today, some of them were playing with this lacrosse contraption and threw the ball over the fence into the field, and I being the super fly girl I am, went to catch it ONE HANDED. Oh yeah. This was an intense moment for me, I stretched out my right arm as far as it could go and caught it and in the same movement, gracefully tossed it back in one sweeping motion. BEAST, RIGHT HERE. ;) all the kids flipped out and the kids that were walking behind me cheered for me, too. I felt on top of the world right then and there. During that moment before I caught it, I thought I'd drop it or totally miss it, and that would have been so like me.. but I proved myself wrong. This is what champions are made of. My winning streak held true when I was the first one in my Seminary class to pass of Matthew 5:14-16. ;D What can I say??

August 3rd

Aight day! There was no "winner" moments, unfortunately.. however I finally understand my math objectives. On the day of the test. Which I had to finish at lunch. Oops. Just a TAD late there, Bentley... :P
My art project is so dumb. I am really good at sketching still lifes, so I was doing my thing, sketching a guitar and cowboy boots all detailed and whatnot, when my teacher hands us Sharpies and colored Crayola markers and tells us to draw lines in the objects and tells us to think "rainbows"... AHHH. Why can't pretty things be allowed to remain pretty?? It looks SO tacky now.. the paper is seeped through the other side with black Sharpie lines, and R.O.Y B. G.I.V. rainbow stripes. :(
So all day I was excited to get home and go to a friend's house.. but then they went out of town for the weekend... that was the sole purpose of me getting through the day, are you kidding me!? Haha, just my luck. ;) But I had to get other stuff done, so I guess I was okay.
Can I just say, I am a pretty heartless person up until the moment when one of my friend's gets hurt... Ahh. Nothing makes me feel worse than that!! I am pretty good at feeling people's emotions and being able to read and feel them. I'm more of a listener than a talker and I think that is the reason behind it. Anyways, some problems arose today, and I felt so bad!! And I wasn't even there for her in her time of need!! :( How terrible am I?! Since I know she will probably read this at some point, I just want to say that I love you!! You are such a great friend and you have made my time at school and such THAT much more bearable. I needed you a lot last year and you were always there for me! I admire you SO much and I am soo thankful that we're really great friends! Seriously, I don't think you know how much you mean to me. :) You always listen to what I have to say, you're always so cheerful and optimistic about life and I'm jealous of all of your musical abilities and such! You are such a wonderful girl and I am so blessed for the opportunity to be in your life! <3 Love you, Lauren!! :)
Anyways, I was going through some of my dad's old stuff with my momma today.. his mission photos, free write assignments from college, etc. We came across an oral presentation that he had to give that we both knew nothing about. It was about a great personal moment in their life, and he chose to write about ME! Well, becoming a father, but I had a big part in that as well. ;) It was so touching!! It made me cry. Even when he said that he was disappointed when he found out that I wasn't a boy.. but it was all better later when he said the moment I was born he forgot all about his little boy he wanted so badly. And then he had these projector sheets of photographs of my mom and her pregnancy test, him holding me when I was born, and the three of us in some outdoor amphitheater. It wasn't anything eloquent or fancy, but it was so tender to read my father's words he wrote down about me and his most important moment. :')
We went through his mission photos and postcards from Vancouver, Canada also. He was actually a great photographer! I was looking at some of them and I was totally admiring them! I even took some and am going to hand them up in my room. :) I know where I get it from. I am totally a daddy's girl. I don't care how old I am and even though he's not here, I still think of myself as one. And even for my friends daddy-daughter relationships, I kind of admire them from afar and just pretend that I have that, too. I guess that's how I cope with the pain.. to live it vicariously from watching other people... I realize I do that a lot. I have my dad's eyes and his nose. :) In a few of them, I look so similar to him it's crazy.
Anyways, I love reminiscing. It fills the little cracks in my heart. I like to live in the past, the good old days. I love the now, too. And I have a feeling that I'll love the future, too. :)

August 4th

Today I babysat. ALL. DAY. LONG.
It always happens like this: I give up a whole entire week/end for babysitting, multiple days in a row. Then I won't have any jobs for another month, and they always want me on the SAME DAY. Sometimes at the same time! Haha I can't complain too much because I love all of the kids I babysit, but seriously? Why can't they coordinate and split up and make a schedule of when they plan to hire me? Haha I babysat the Nielsons in the afternoon for about five hours, and then the Palmers called me while I was babysitting to watch their kids at 6. So I only had about an hour to myself. But that's okay! The Nielsons were good, I didn't interact with them much because Lexi had a friend over, Trey was gone at a friend's, and then Korver is three and was taking a nap the whole time.. so I didn't do much.
But at the Palmer's house we watched Hercules! It was my first time seeing that, and the girls reenacted some of the songs and dances and it was the cutest thing ever! And of course, a babysitting job at the Palmer's isn't complete without my painting 50 little fingernails, and sometimes 50 little toenails. I think I could open a Nail Salon and they alone would keep me in business. ;)
But I do love babysitting, just as long as I have some entertaining to do.