Childrens!

This is a random picture post! -of pictures I take when I am babysitting or just that I take of kids. I love babysitting! Kids in my ward and cousins included.

Cheaters...

Well...if I ever let you know about a competition this year between all the classes, remind to not to try to win. I have learned the hard way that , at least at Cottonwood, the Seniors cheat at every single thing just to win. The amount of money I personaly put into Penny Wars, the seniors had no chance of winning. Not to mention all the other money from everyone else. Not only did they cheat, but they won't admit that they cheated. I even took a picture of their bucket earlier in the competition, and the last day, the day when we counted money, all of their negative dollars that I put in their were mysteriously gone and my bucket mysteriously had more. Wish I didn't think I had a chance, cause then I wouldn't have scrounged around everywhere for coins.
I have been like Mr. Crabs in spongebob, when I hear a coin drop at the store or in the parking lot, it's like my ear zooms in on it and I have to go find it. Not to mention I couldn't sleep because I was thinking of ways to win. Well...Oh Well!!!! All the money goes to charity anyway, so it really doesn't matter. Must be my competitivness. My SBO adviser said "If there was ever a doubt that Annie was a Cowden, it came out in Penny Wars."

Ensign Article from 2002

"This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.
Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most. 2 " Howard W. Hunter, Ensign 2002

Forgotten Carols

I don't know if any of you have ever seen Forgotten Carols, but you need to! I had to be there a few nights this week to get donations for Eagle Eyes. We just sit out in the lobby and have a table set up and information about our charity. We get most of our donations after the show, because we have the main guy announce it and then people donate. Well I stepped in the back of the auditorium for the last 5 minutes. It was insane. He had everyone singing this little tune while he was on the piano-the whole audience was linking arms. It was so cool. The last show is Monday the 12th. If you can't go, you must see it next year!!

Penny Wars.

I think I briefly described Penny Wars earlier. It is a competition between soph. jun. sen. to get the most pennies.
1 penny = 1 point
1nickel=-5 points
1dime=-10 points
1quarter=-25 points
1 dollar=-100 points

So, my original plan of attack, was to try to get people to put all their "bad money" into the senior's bucket. But as I got to thinking, I know they are going to cheat somehow. I don't know how, but I can't help them win. They could cheat by taking the quarters ,etc. out of their bucket and going to get it exchanged for pennies.

So I am walking around at lunch with a big brown envelope, asking people if they would like to get rid of their change and donate it to charity. This is not technically part of the competition...but it's definitely not against the rules! So some of the juniors and seniors are like, "is this for penny wars?" And I said....It's for the charity. :) But I am going to take all the money I get and go to the bank and get pennies in return.

It's not like the seniors aren't going to cheat in some way. I even emailed Jake and asked him how I should win Penny Wars. While on his mission he told me to take bad money out of my own bucket and turn it in for pennies at the bank. Guess he hasn't changed that much if he's telling me to cheat! Cause that is like the main rule...you can't take money out of the buckets once they are in.

So if you have floating change in your house/purse/wallet/car, you can give it to me and help me win Penny Wars! A few coins add up quick in this. Plus you will be helping a good cause.

Another Eagle Eyes video!

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=18288431

Eagle Eyes

This year, the charity my school is sponosoring is called Eagle Eyes. My student government class actually got to go to a school and see it being used. Watch the video for more information.



This was crazy to watch. It's incredible that their eyes control the cursor.

We are raising money sevral ways. Every 2nd period on B days we go around class to class asking if anyone has donations. We also have something called Penny Wars.

Penny Wars: There are 3 buckets. A sophomore, junior, and senior bucket. Pennies are worth positive points. Everything else (nickels, dimes, quarters, dollar coins, and all dollar bills) are worth negative points. So basically, I want to put all my pennies in the sophomore bucket, and everything else in the senior bucket. Nobody really has to worry about the juniors, they are always in the middle. So as you may know, I am a pretty competitive person in most cases. I guess all my brothers are as well.

Everybody kept telling me how last year during penny wars, Jake cheated (surprise) by taking the bucket with him to the bank, and got $100 dollars worth of pennies for his bucket. There are more rules this year like, (the bucket can't leave school grounds). But I still super badly want to win, but not by cheating. I think Penny Wars is a good idea, cause I definitley will be donating more this way, than by just donating. I will put as many dollars in the seniors bucket as I have to so they don't win.

If you would like to keep some change aside to donate to this charity, and also help my sophomore class win that would be just swell. Even if you give me 5 pennies, it will help.

Woohoo!

I made the broadway review at my school! This year they are combining Lion King, Tarzan, and The Little Mermaid! I am very excited. It's going to be really fun.

I am SO EXCITED for Thanksgiving. And only 2 days of school this week!!!!!

YAHOO!

and also, I found a a fabulous website.

www.fabulousliving.com

Christmas Variety Show

Well I made into the Christmas Variety show! I will be singing either "The Christmas Song" or "Silent Night"- I don't know yet! The preformances are on December 5th and 12th. Exciting!

Breaking Dawn tonight. I am going PRE-premier. 9:00 showing! Somebody's dad had connections and rented out the theatre. So a whole bunch of people from my school are all going to see it tonight.

Preforming!

It's been way too long since I have been in a show of anytime. I miss going to auditions. I miss dress rehearsals and I miss preforming!! Luckily December is a time of year when I have sevral preformances. And I am also auditioning for a Christmas Variety show in Orem. It is just like a Christmas talent show thing, so I am going to sing with Jesse on the guitar. I have no idea what they are looking for, but I never get that dissapointed when I don't make it. The audition itself is a great experience itself. I have dance preformances at Festival of Trees, Rose Wagner, and some other place. And if I make this Variety Show I am trying out for I will have 2 shows of those! Ahhh I love December!!

Recipes Galore!

These are some of my favorite food blogs. :) With Thanksgiving around the corner and you want to make something new, I bet you can find something delicious on one of these sites!! Or if you ever just need a good recipe, these are great sources. Please check them out. I reccommend you put these on your favorites/bookmark.

www.mybakingaddiction.com
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/
http://bakedbree.com/
http://www.howsweeteats.com/
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/

Snow?

Well....I do like snow, but at the right time. I am fine with snow starting on December 1. :) And I don't like it when it doesn't snow on Christmas. But I just wish it wouldn't snow now! Because it doesn't look pretty with snow on trees with leaves. It is pretty when snow is on bare trees. But the leaves at my house haven't even fallen yet so it really bugs me with snow over the red leaves on the tree!

Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween everybody! I sure do love this holiday, and this month went by very speedy. Oct-Dec always go by too quick! The last few years Halloween has been on a weekend, so it was kind of annoying having it on a Monday. Jesse and I didn't go to school today, because Matt and Jake were calling us from the air port. They did give us kind of large time blocks, but not big enough that we didn't have to go to school. We could have gone to school part of the day and not missed their call, but we talked my mom into letting us stay home. :) Jake's phone call was really bad connection, I couldn't hear him very well. We talked for about 10 ish minutes though, and this is how our conversation ended.
Jake. : "Well, I'm calling from a pay phone and it's gonna cut out soon so if I don't---"
...it cut out! Haha but it was good. And Matt called earlier in the day, it was fun!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sing Off - Vocal Point - Never Say Never

Does anybody watch The Sing Off?? I LOVE this show. It is an a capella singing competition. And BYU's boys a capella group Vocal Point made it on the show! Here is them sining a little J.B.

La Clase de Espanol......

Okay. First of all, my teacher thinks that we read, write, and understand fluent spanish. Ummm. I don't. She showed a video in Spanish. Then gave us a 10 page packet with questions...in Spanish. That we have to answer in Spanish. And it's due tomorrow. First of all, even if I could understand the questions, I wouldn't know the right answers because I couldn't understand the video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And tomorrow is the last day of the term so this is just going to ruin my grade. So even though I am online translating the questions, I don't know the answers. Very frusterating. And the video is not on youtube, I checked. Frusterating!!!!

Aroma

You may think about it alot, and it may only cross your mind every once in a while. But one of the big things that sets the mood in your home in the smell! Whether it be cookies, a candle, sentsy, or pumpkin pie! Smell can also trigger back memories in your brain, and remind you of a time when you perhaps smelled that smell, or ate that food that you are smelling! Keep your home smelling nice with sentsy. Or if you want your kids to be in a good mood when they get home from school, have brownies in the oven baking!

A little clip of a great Motivational Movie.

Crate & Barrel

Salt Lake City is home to a brand new Crate and Barrel!!! Great store. So here is a little post on the store.
*Right now until Oct. 16 they are having a 15% sale on upholstery.
* They are having 30% off select knife sets and other cutlery offers.

Personally I am a fan of their patio furniture. I like that they have a good mix of furniture styles. Traditional to Contemporary and everything in between.

Fun Facts.
They have over 100 stores in every major North American Market.
They are in Dubai.
They got their name when one man started this store. After investing in products, and no money left for display, crates were stacked up for things to be displayed on them. And barrels were filled with fun merchandise.

UVU

Today all of the class officers and SBOs went up to UVU for a leadership conference. It was all day and it was really good. It was a lot of fun! There were SO many kids there from practically every school. Not just student government kids, there were FBLA, FCCLA, Madrigals, -Everyone who had some type of leadership position. I learned some great information.

On a side note, I have been waking up at 4 this week to go to stupid drivers ed. Most boring thing in my life. Me and Jesse go from 5-7 and switch off every 30 minutes about. This morning it was raining and for some reason there were alot of cars on the road even though it was so early. The teacher listens to boring talk show radio. We just assume we go straight unless he says. I can not think of anything more boring. I'm pretty sure he fell asleep today when Jesse was driving. Tomorrow is my last day and the final test. It's also freeway driving but I have never done the freeway before. I'm so excited for it to be over with!

Iron Chef Challenge...IS BACK!

That's right!! The Iron Chef Challenge is back. You have until the end of September to complete this challenge. This ingredient is very near and dear to my heart. I don't know what your reaction will be, if you will automatically think of lots of recipes, or think there are no recipes with this. Nevertheless, there are TONS of yummy recipes using this challenge's ingredient. Now if you win the challenge, you don't just get a special kitchen item, you also could be entered in a drawing to win a free evening of babysitting, by yours truly!
(There really is no drawing, I just have always wanted to say that. If you win the challenge- you win the babysitting.)

So, I hope I get many participants. I am going to hopefully keep Iron Chef up and running again, so don't fret if you don't win for September.

THE SECRET INGREDIENT FOR IRON CHEF SEPTEMBER 2011 IS...........

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GRAHM CRACKERS! -in any form.

Good luck!

Update.

On....ME.
Well I am sick again. It seems like this time of year I am ALWAYS sick, just some weeks are worse than others. I was unusually tired all day, too tired to sleep. My nose is stuffy and I have a sore throat. It's not horrible though, I can still go to school. I hate it when you're not sick enough that you can still be at school. Then you are just miserable all day and still have to try to learn things. Luckily I only have 2 harder classes today.

On....Jake and Matt.
Well Jake has been sending letters every day. As far as I know Matt has sent a few. They don't have good handwriting. They both say spanish is hard. Jake really likes his district. Matt says his companion talks about BYU allllll the time.
Next time I update them I will have their letters by me because I can't remember anything else.

So........... I am sophomore class Pres!
That's all thats new really. Does anybody have any good slogans for class of 2014??
We have to design our class t shirts but nobody can think of anything for 2014. For 2012 they did "this is where it ends." since the world is supposed to end. And 2013 put "We're the lucky ones". So let me know!

JULIAN SMITH - Hot Kool Aid

I know some of you have seen this before, but watch it again. :) If you haven't seen it, it's hilarious. This guy Julian Smith makes these hilarious youtube videos. It's possible you won't think this is funny...everyone in my relative age group thinks its hilarious. Regardles...you will need to see this to understand my next post.

Sick!

Well...last night I started getting sick. Thought it would go away in the morning but don't feel any better. Don't know why it has to be this week! Really bad timing.

Cottonwood

So far so good. Things that are differnt that I'm still getting used to...

-MUCH longer class periods
-A and B days
-I never see has many people I know as I did in Jr. High since it's so big.
-I have less classes with less friends, but still have some.
-Late start Monday. :)
-No short day Friday

I LOVE my World Civilization teacher. Her name is Mrs. Gardner and she is the best. She said she barely survived Jake so she understands what I've been through hahaha. I don't like my English teacher very much, she's alright though. Choir is good, Computer tech is good, physics and algebra are good but boring. Spanish is hard, and my last two years of spanish were easy so we'll see how this goes. Luckily I know so many people who speak Spanish who can help me. I got really lost on the first two days. Even now when I walk out of a class room, I am not sure which way I came from. It is sooo big and really confusing.

uggggggggggh.

WHAT IN THE HECK IS SOMEBODY THINKING WHEN THEY TELL YOU TO GO RUNNING FOR 70 MINUTES AT 97 DEGREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH I HATE RUNNING. I literally didn't even run with my team cause they were like sprinting even though we had to go for seventy minutes. So then I was by myself in the freaking burning heat I had no idea what time it was and wasn't even sure where I was. I am infuriated. I went into another school that I passed to get a drink. And then I see my team. Still going hard. I couldn't catch up to them though, I had no idea where they went. I hate HATE it when people say they're going to do something and then just drop out. But I really don't want to do cross country. I probably will end up finishing the season but boy I am mad. And it doesn't bother me that I am the slowest. OH and that wasn't even the whole practice. After the 70 minute run in the glazing sun, we had to do a billion sprints....in the hot sun. I literally was baking like a toasted cheeser. *(name that movie) So this is what I did. After I finally figured out where I was I went to my house and turned on the hose and got myself nice and wet. And listen folks, I am not opposed to some good excercise. On the other hand I am opposed to dying and of heat stroke. Suggestions????
The thing is, I don't like running. So I obviously am not going to be super committed to it and therefore won't try my hardest. Unlike dance where I love it so I do my best more often. On the other hand why should I stay after school and kill myself????

Read Post below (school) FIRST then come back

Well you hopefully know I am tired by that dumb post I just wrote. So I just thought I should let you all know that when i tried to get in my bed I fell off. Not even kidding. I kind of got half on the bed and then slid off. Soooo.. yeah.

School... :(

Well school starts on Monday. I am honestly not excited. Normally by now I am excited for school, but for some reason I really don't think school should be starting yet. I am not ready for it to start-in every way that you can be ready I am not ready. I think I have like a notebook and a folder thing...thats it. I still (and it's Saturday night) don't know what I am using for a backpack. I have gotten a few new clothes but most of them are actually for Fall because they will be too hot. I just haven't been able to go get school things. I got my schedule. I will tell it to you if you are still reading this by now.
A day
Physics
Computer Tech
Spanish 3
English

B day
Algebra 2
choir
seminary
World Civ.

I am also on the cross country team. Which I honestly don't quite know why I am doing it. Oh yeah, because then I can get a P.E. credit if I do it for 2 years on varsity. And I am on varsity not because I am good because There is like 4 girls on the team. Trust me I am not good I am literally the slowest person on the team. But oooooooh well! I obviously don't care too much. hahahaha :) Wowwww. This was the most boring post I have ever written. What am I doing. Hmmmm.. maybe I should go to sleep. Kudos to you if you read this whole thing. Ok this is lame now. ummmm

Peace.

Happy Homemaker Speaking

This is a message from the Happy Homemaker.

I found a really fantastic website if you don't know what type of glue to use! I was having a predicament and I came to a great source. It is called This to That.
You say what you are gluing to what and it will come up with glue options for you!

www.thistothat.com

Please check it out!

PICTURES again.

If you didn't know I like the Sandlot....well that's sad. Just kidding, but anyway. If you are a Sandlot fan like myself, you will recognize where I am. Otherwise I will tell you!

....look at my shoes.

That's right. I went to Vincent Drug Store. A common scene

in the movie,they go there sevral times to buy a baseball and stuff.

It is in Midvale Utah, and Mary Olsen showed me and my mom where

it was.

Aspen Grove! (why do you always have to face the sun for pictures?) Clearly, its much harder for me to keep my eyes open when the sun is facing you.


EFY!

My company.

Just the girls

I had the greatest group.

The Clarks!!!!

CUTE!

Waiting for the surfers.

Steve and Corrine stopped by my house when I was having my neighborhood play. It was sooo great to see them!

Here Comes a Whole lot of Random Pictures

Literally, these are in the MOST RANDOM order. It doesn't make any sense but oh well! Everything from events to trips.