Playing the Piano While Driving at School in Choir with Primary Kids

I've got quite a bit to talk about, but I'll try to make it quick so you guys don't get bored. Hmmm where to start...okay I know I have a lot of things to talk about but now I can't think or remember when to start... Let's just start on Monday then, I think something cool happened that day. Oh yeah! I got my driving permit. I seriously just sat here thinking for a couple minutes before I remembered that minor detail.

So, I went to the driving place and took the test. I was nervous and was studying like crazy in the car. The test had fifty questions and some of them were kinda stupid and easy like "does marijuana affect your driving?" Nope. I got 84% so I got my permit which made me happy. On the way home, my mom pulled over and had me start driving which totally freaked me out. We circled the neighborhood twice and the whole time I was hyperventilating. At one point I barely got to the speed limit before freaking out and slowing down. It was weird because I would barely touch the gas and it would zoom forward. Mom and I both certainly enjoyed that experience.

Last Wednesday, I had my choir concert. Mom was trying to quickly hem my dress that day before the concert. While ironing it, the iron kinda burned and melted part of my dress so now I've got a nice cool mark on it. Mom wanted me to tell my choir teacher that she didn't like her. We got to the concert a half hour after I was supposed to be there (which was still a half hour before the show) and I was upset about being late. I was going to try to get a solo in scatting in a song called "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy". I really didn't care that I didn't get it. Because I missed the time that my choir was going to practice, I didn't get a chance to sing it. My friends wanted me to do so I was just kinda going with it but it wasn't that big of deal. I calmed down when I got there and my friends, Joye and Megan, came to see us sing so I had them sit with my choir while some of us were talking about how when I'm a famous singer, the burn mark on my dress will be my symbol. The sound system wasn't working so all of the mics didn't work so Ms. Swallow had to yell to be heard and the singers weren't as loud. The sevvies sang first and sounded good for sevvies. Boys choir went next and sounded dandy as well. The girls choir went next and I thought they sounded really good, I was impressed. They messed up on one part in their song though. Ms. Swallow started to bring them but then they got confused and stopped singing. Ms. Swallow didn't want them to feel bad so she just blamed it on herself and apologized to the audience and then had them keep going. The madrigals went next. When they got on, Ms. Swallow started rambling on about district and solo & ensemble stuff for about 7 minutes which was really annoying because we could barely hear her and everyone was getting bored. I felt bad for the madrigals who had to stand up there while she blabbered on and on. Finally she stopped and the madrigals sang. They were really quiet and I thought their songs were boring. I noticed this last year too; the madrigals always sound quiet and sing boring songs. I guess it's a good thing I'm in concert choir. Next we concert choirigans went up and joined the mads and sang our four songs with them: Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy, Hushabye Mountain (from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Saints Bound for Heaven, and Imagine. It all went really well. In Shoo Fly Pie, when the person says "yes, that's me, uh-huh", we had a guy do that in a really girly and high voice and dress up as a woman. It was funny and it was hard to keep a straight face during choir practice. Overall we did a good job.

When I got home I quickly did a persuasive essay on abortion for extra credit in geography but our printer wasn't working so I just emailed it to myself and I was going to print it off in the library the next day. Well, of course the next day the library was closed. I had it first period and I was mad because I was so close to an A- instead of a B+. During lunch, I snuck into the computer lab and quickly printed it out. There were some boys from another class in there so I just pretended to be part of the class. I was able to turn it in and I now have an A-. I took a test in Algebra 2. The first part I think I did really well in, but I think I bombed the second part. I had no idea what I was doing and I really hope I did well because I'm clinging on to a B- right now and I really don't want a C. In choir, we just sat around doing nothing while Ms. Swallow did stuff. Of course the boys had to act stupid so they found water balloons from somewhere and threw them up at the ceiling where they popped and sprayed everyone. I swear the boys in my 4th grade class were better behaved and less stupid, and that's saying something. Seminary was a joy as usual with my "wonderful" "great" boring seminary teacher. He's a good teacher and all, but he's really boring and he says wonderful and great too much. In art me and the other people at my table started singing songs from movies and making all the sevvies stare at us. Because the term ended that day, I don't have school today.

That night I had a piano recital. I played a song called "Concerning Hobbits" from Lord of the Rings which I really love playing. I was nervous, a ton more nervous than I was last time. I was third to last, and when I got up I couldn't stop shaking. My stupid leg wouldn't stop shaking and it was vibrating on the pedal. The whole time I was playing, I could hear the younger kids in the background whispering "look at her leg...look at her foot on the pedal". Yes thank you, I was fully aware of my stupid leg and I was pressing it down really hard on the pedal in the effort to make it stop shaking, but to no avail. I messed up in a couple places on my song and I thought it sounded terrible. I was so upset with myself and I was trying not to roll my eyes and scowl. When I was done, I quickly went to my seat without bowing. I didn't think I gave a good performance, therefore the audience didn't deserve a bow. Amanda went up last and played her song perfectly and smoothly and beautifully. Afterwards, I went to Marjorie's house and had pizza and watched the recordings of us playing the piano. Hannah was scowling at the piano the whole time like she wanted to kill it, Chelsie had a pleasant expression on her face and was smiling during part of it, and Amanda and I looked normal (at least I think I did, my hair was hiding my face). Hannah wore her Egyptian costume and Chelsie was dressed up as an old lady for it. After listening to myself play, I concluded that I didn't sound as bad as I thought and I bowed for Mom and Marjorie. Everyone sounded really good. I have a video down below of me playing the song, sorry the piano is out of tune. I also have the video of the guy who played it on youtube and whom I emailed to get the sheet music (did you notice that I said "whom" instead of "who"? I hope that's right, and I'm proud of myself for attempting good grammar). And yes, some of those pauses are on purpose. I just didn't make them long so that Emma wouldn't turn off the camera. It's not as good as the youtube video but I think it's pretty good still.

Today, I went with Mom to the primary Halloween activity up at the church for Emma. They got to dress up and they had the cutest costumes there. There was a fireman, Woody, Tinkerbell, and Emma was super girl. I was a teenager apparently. I was still in my pajamas, listening to my iPod, and wearing Ashley's flip flop slippers. I haven't worn flip flops out in public for a couple years now. During it, Mom and I left so I could drive around the neighborhood. We went in circles, having me practice right and left turns. She had me do figure eights around the neighborhood to get used to turning. I was getting pretty good and a couple of times accidentally went a little bit over the speed limit!! What would Grandma Carol say? She then had me drive back up to the church which scared me so I kinda floored it when I turned into the church parking lot and made Mom mad. Aw well, we got back in one piece.

Anyway, that's all I have. See ya!

15th Birfday

Hey everyone I'm in art class right now. We're learning about Pablo Picasso right now but I got a bit bored so I decided to read some blogs, go on facebook, look at pictures, and other things I desire. The teacher's just sitting at her computer, thinking that we're all following her. Which almost everyone is doing, since I'm in a class full of seventh graders who are afraid to do anything to upset the teachers. I love sevvies. If this was a ninth grade class, then I would have at least ten of my friends on facebook online right now.

Anyway, while waiting for the bell to ring which won't be for another twenty minutes, I guess I'll fill you guys in about my birthday. My birthday was last Sunday, the 18th of October. I decided to get the day before off of work so that I could spend the day having fun instead of annoying and ripping off people. So on the 17th, my mom and I went shopping. I woke up late and hugn around the house waiting for my mom to wake up. And sadly, by the time we were on our way, I was starting to feel really sick which was just annoying, because I refused to go home. My mom took me to a music store and got me some Jon Schmidt music, yay! We got a lot of pictures developed and then went to a scrapbooking store to get paper. I can now say that I understand why mom took twelve hours finding paper when we were little and why we therefore hate craft and scrapbooking stores. It took forever to find the right paper for each set of pictures. The worst was when the Stevens' family went to San Francisco to see Alcatraz and the Exploratory Museum back in 2006. That took a good hour right there. We got to the scrapbooking store when it was light, and then left when it was dark. The good thing is that I stopped feeling sick while there, which was a relief. We got some Panda Express food, where a Chinese woman was making fun of me while I was trying to practice Chinese for my test on Monday (which I ended up doing today instead and I got 29 out of 30 on). I guess it would sound funny if you were Chinese and heard someone saying "raise your hand, please don't speak, cafeteria, happy birthday to you, etc." in Chinese randomly. We also got some food for the next day. We went to Target next and bought me some awesome socks, and then got a shading stick and scrapbooking tape at Robert's.

We got home, ate some Panda Express, and then started to scrapbook while watching "Imagine That" (the one about the magic blanket with Eddie Murphey) and "The Proposal" which were really good. We started to watch "Ghost of Girlfriends' Past" but we really didn't like that one. I was starting to feel sick again and was having a hard time getting my Christmas page done, and soon I couldn't move without feeling like I was going to die. I lay down on the sofa around 2 AM, after vaguely realizing that I was now 15. The next thing I knew, it was 5 in the morning, the lights were still on, and Mom had gone to bed. I rushed down stairs and fell asleep quickly.

The next day I woke up around 1 PM, and it felt good. The only thing was that my headache was coming back, so I took some medicine. I went upstairs and felt weird because it was my birthday, yet I didn't feel any different. I didn't feel the thrill that I usually get, that day seemed like any other day except now my family has to be nice to me and I can now get my permit. I went and showered in my parent's bathroom, which annoyed Ashley because she was trying to do her hair. She said "fine, I guess it doesn't matter if I get ready" then she stomped out and then purposefully bumped me. She then probably remembered that she had to be nice to me so she quickly said sorry. I thought it was funny for some reason. Anyway, an hour later my family and I drove to the University Health Care center to visit Dad. We had cantaloupe, root beer, chicken salad sandwiches, and cheese cake for my birthday. Dad got me an iTunes card and Hannah bought me a bunch of awesome nail polish. We then ate candy and played apples to apples and talked to Dad and some people he met there. The other people there with Dad were really nice and funny.

Afterwards we went home where Mom and I started scrapbooking and watching movies. I don't remember what else we did, so we might've just scrapbooked the whole night and then I had leftover Chinese for dinner. It was a nice birthday.

I'm now 15 and can drive once I get my liscence, and I'm scared. My friend, Ryan Davis, turned 15 today and already got his permit so I need to get mine too before it snows.

Oh, by the way, I got 29 out of 30 on my Chinese test, and I convinced my seminary class not to sing to me and none of my other teachers at school found out it was my birthday so they didn't sing to me :] I hate being sung to, I feel awkward and I don't know how to act. I do wish that my locker would've been decorated, but I went to school and was greeted as usual with the nice big f word scratched on the front of my locker. Oh well.

Mormon Restaurants

Announced plan to open Mormon-themed restaurants!



There is an idea floating around Utah, Arizona, Idaho and California for a chain of non-pretentious Mormon-themed restaurants called “The Steak Center” (Where There's Never a Dry, Boring Meating!).

Each Steak Center will have one enormous dining area with basketball hoops at either end and folding metal chairs and long tables covered in plastic tablecloths.



The Steak Centers will not have hostesses, but greeters -- men in their seventies will meet you at the door and talk like they have known you all your life.

The main menu items for lunch and dinner will be:

Porterhouse Rockwell Steak

Primary Rib

Poor Wayfaring Pan of Beef

Parsley P. Pratt Funeral Potatoes

Eliza R. Snow crab (in season)

And It Came to Pasta

Kraft MacaMoroni and Cheese.

Breakfast items will include

Pearls of Great Rice

Frosted Minivans

Adam-ondi-Omelettes

Also available

In Our Lovely Desserts

Fast Sundaes

Gadianton Cobbler

Laman Meringue Pie (just sinful!)


The waiters will be 12- and 13-year-old boys wearing white shirts and their fathers' ties..

At the end of the night the customers will be asked to help fold up the chairs and tables and vacuum the floor.

Franchises are selling faster than Sunbeams on Skittles! Get yours while they last!

Lagoon Can Be Where Fun Is

This is another post about Lagoon, but it isn't one of the "well I went to work today and only made my game $300 so my supervisor yelled at me and then I got a good and went home then had some macaroni and cheese and went to bed...." ones that I'm sure you guys have had enough of. I actually went to Lagoon to have some fun! Yes, I had fun! at Lagoon! So I get these tickets every month to let eight "family" members in for only ten bucks each. The average price is $34. Therefore, I decided to bring my sister Hannah, and my best cousin Amanda and her little sister, Chelsie who happens to be Hannah's best cousin. How dandy. I also brought my good friend Sariah.

When we got to Lagoon, us older peoples and the younger peoples split up and went our separate ways. Amanda, Sariah, and I went on Lady Bug Bop! It's in kiddie land and it's a ride that's 40 feet tall. It's pretty much one where you sit in seats, it lifts you up, and then drops you when you least expect it. I know that it was a kiddie land ride, but it scared me and actually made me scream, and I don't usually scream on rides unless I make myself.

That was scarier than the Rocket which is the same thing but hundreds of feet up in the air. After that, we went on Dinosaur Drop right next to it which is basically the same thing. We decided, before we went on, that when we screamed, we would do it in low voices. So while on it, we screamed in really low voices and it was really funny because everyone was staring at us. We moved on to Tidal Wave which is one where you get in a boat and it swings back and forth really high and they have it at a lot of amusement parks. We next went on Turn of the Century and met three of our friends there and rode on it with them.

We split up with the promise of returning in half an hour to Dracula's Castle. Sariah, Amanda, and I then went on the Screamer and the Spider.

When we met up with my friends again, Sammy, Marissa, and Brynna, Sammy and I decided to commit suicide a.k.a go on the sky coaster *gulp*.

Us employees get a discount on the sky coaster so we can go on for only $5 where the original price is $15. So, Sammy and I went for it. Sammy got it for free because of some "fast cash" thing her rides department gave her. We ran to the bathroom first because we didn't want to be raining on anyone when it was our turn :] So we went and gave the people our tickets and they put us in weird suit things. I kept on jumping up and down because I was terrified and so was Sammy. I made Sammy pull the rip chord, which is an orange thing you pull when you're up there to make yourself fall. After we had our suits on and were waiting for a while, it was our turn to go. We gave everything in our pockets to our friends and then headed to our death. Now, the sky coaster is a ride that lifts you 153 feet up in the air and had you connected to a chord. When you pull the rip chord and you drop, you drop and swing at 40-80 mph. I'm quite a daredevil with rides, but I remember when I first came to Lagoon and I saw that ride, I thought to myself: "that's a ride I will NEVER go on" but, whaddya know? I went on it. So they put you in this blue box thing. You get in right when the people who just barely died got off. They set the people down then had us switch places. They connected Sammy and me to a chord, then had us stand on these white poles connected to the bottom of our sexy suits. They then tell us that the floor is going to drop from beneath us. When the floor dropped, we fell forward so that we were hanging about two feet off of the ground. That really scared us, we weren't expecting it to be like that. They then started lifting us up those 153 feet to the top of the V thing. At the top, it was so cool because it was night so the whole park was lit up and you could see everything. I then thought "don't pull the rip chord" and I guess I said it out loud to Sammy but I didn't remember. All I remembered was looking down and wanting to go home and be in my nice, warm, stable bed and sleep. I thought I was going to throw up. The speaker person then said "Fliers at the top, three, two, one, fly!" Sammy pulled the chord, and down we went. The first 50 feet is just free fall until the chord caught us and then we soared over the park with our arms outstretched. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world! I was screaming, but in enjoyment not fear. After swinging back and forth for a while, they lifted up a loop that we grabbed on to and it slowed us down until someone caught us in the blue box. The next victims came up, and we got let down and then we walked back to the main place where we got our suits, they undid us, and then we left. Sammy and I were shaking so bad from all the adrenaline, it was crazy. We went and got something to eat and I shook the whole time. Sammy and I, throughout the rest of the night, kept on saying how we couldn't believe what we just did. Every time we saw someone else going up, we'd say "did we really just do that?" Our friends and Hannah and Chelsie watched us while we did it, and Hannah thought I was the craziest person in the world. Soon, my shaking turned from the adrenaline to just being cold.

Amanda and Sariah went with Marissa and Brynna on other rides, Hannah and Chelsie disappeared, and Sammy and I went on some rides. We went on the Samurai first which is a really fun and awesome ride. We then went on the White Roller Coaster.

I had my cell phone in my pocket on the ride, and while we were going up, my cell phone slipped from my pocket. About 30 seconds before the ride ended, I realized that my phone wasn't in my pocket. I freaked out. Mom's words echoed in my head "if you lose or break your cell phone, then you're not getting another one." Oh dear, I was panicking like crazy. When the ride was over, I went to the ride attendants and told them I lost my cell phone, and they thankfully found it at the front of the ride. I really wanted to hug or kiss the guy who gave me my cell phone back, but employees can't show PDA. I just told him I love him and then Sammy and I went to a gift shop and I bought a cute little tiger which I hugged for a long time. I was disappointed that we couldn't go on Wicked

But after what happened to my cell phone, it was probably good that we didn't. We eventually met up with everyone one and went home.

It was a good day, until I had to give Charlie a bath. She had some litter box problems and it showed and smelled quite clearly on her backside. I usually use this foam stuff to clean her, but foam wouldn't work this time. While she was in the tub, she tried to grab on to me and ended up scratching my arms. Dad was getting mad at me because I was still shaking from cold while he was trying to fix my arms and it was scaring him. Hannah then gave Charlie a bath, and by the time that they were done, Charlie did not want to get out of the tub. Hannah is a cat whisperer, the only person who is able to bathe Syllvester and Charlie without getting malled. Anyway, I could talk about how the next day I made a lot of money and it was super cold and I spent almost ten dollars in the employee kitchen, but instead I'll just show you some videos I found on youtube of someone on the sky coaster. Just pretend it's Sammy and me instead of other peoples and you'll see how much fun we had.

Happy Day

Today I had to work at Lagoon. I was doing relief, so I got a sheet with a list of games on it that I had to go and work for a half hour each while the person at the game takes a break. I only did three games today: Hi Striker, Goblet Toss II, and Shoot 'Til You Win. I made fair amount of money at Hi Striker and Shoot 'Til You Win, but none at Goblet Toss the first time. When I went to Goblet Toss for the second time, the guy working there, Kevin, said that a supervisor and manager had come and told him that he better make money in the next fifteen minutes or they'd fire him because he hadn't made any money all day and it was 2 p.m. He ended up making two dollars so they let him off. I promised him that I'd make him money while he was on break. Well, I did make money. First, two girls came up and wanted to play. Goblet Toss is one of those nearly impossible games where you have to throw a ball and get it into one of the colored holes out of the 100 holes. I convinced them to pay $5 and I'd give them 20 balls, even though that meant that they only had $1 left. They started throwing the balls and, to my disbelief, one of the girls got it into the middle red hole, which is rare and meant that they won a jumbo prize. The other girl then got her ball into one of the six green holes, so she got a large prize. Wow. The majority of the people who win those games are kids though, because they don't over think it. After that, I had more people come up and play. I was being generous and giving them a lot of extra balls and being nice. I wasn't pushing people to do replays because I knew it would just annoy them. I kindly suggested it, and a lot of them decided to. I gave out six small prizes, which are tiny blue plush fish. I had one guy pay me $15, but he only got 3 small fish. I even gave him about 10 extra balls saying "Let this be your lucky one" "Come on, you're so close." "I'll give you two more balls, make them count!" I was being very generous. In that half hour, I made Kevin 40 bucks, while it took him four hours to make 2. He came back, and our supervisor, Tanner, came by while I was telling Kevin how much I made him. Tanner then told Kevin that if he didn't make 40 more dollars, then he would fire him, and that if I could do it then so could Kevin. I felt bad for Kevin after that. Since I was done doing relief, Tanner had me come back to the office with him. He told me to look upset and scared. We went into the games office and he yelled "Well, I brought Celeste!" while I gave them my puppy dog eyes. They were a bit confused and after staring at Tanner for ten seconds said "Um...hello Celeste." He then told them that I made Goblet Toss II $40 while doing relief for Kevin. Tanner then gave me a good and Krystal (one of my managers) asked if I could stay longer. They were really happy with me. I said sure, and then Krystal had me go to Top Gun for about 20 minutes while they had the guy working there go to the office. I'd never worked Top Gun before, and you have to reload guns and do fun stuff and it's one of those games where they give away guitars because people rarely win. You have to shoot a ball and knock over three bottle things to win, and usually people only knock over two or miss it all together and make the ball ricochet off the game. I made $28 in those 20 minutes, and then I went home. Krystal walked by and said "I like her, I'm keeping her." I checked out then called Mom and went home.

I'm so happy that I did that well and they were impressed, but I really don't know how I did it. I wasn't really selling like crazy. I think it's mainly because I wasn't annoying everyone and pestering them to play my game. I just said hi to some people and smiled at anyone who looked my way. When people played, I tried to be friendly to them and give them a lot of extra chances and smiled a lot. I wasn't being annoying. I've never done pitch or throwing before, but I actually like it. I hate doing race games, and maybe that's why I hate doing games at Lagoon so much. I'm trying to decide what to do next year, but I guess it's still a bit early. Still, I seem to do a really good job whenever I do pitch or throwing games, so maybe if I maybe did decide to maybe apply to maybe do games at Lagoon again and did pitch instead of race, then possibly maybe it wouldn't be so bad. A lot of people said that they didn't want to work games again, but then they did anyway and it wasn't as bad. Games is the best about making sure I don't work on Sundays yet I hate games. But if I did work games again.... Ugh I should stop it, I'd probably regret it if I did do games again, and yet maybe....just maybe....

Anyway, point of story: Celeste kicked butt at work!!


Oh, by the way, I found this on youtube and I think it's wicked. Let me know if this works for you.