It's Gonna Be A Biggin

Biggin: adjective/noun- a combination of the words "big" and "one", commonly used in expressions of warning or exclamation.

Phew, true story! This post is going to be a beast! I've got lots to post about: lots of stories, lots of pictures. It's going to be very exciting, but I'm already breaking a sweat just thinking about writing this studly post! However, as my wonderful sister has been kind enough to point out to me, my neglect of this blog has created much saddness and emptiness in the lives of my lovely stalkers...

...so I guess I give in to the demands of my agressors and write the dumb thing. :)

FIRST item of business: EVMCO

This was hands down one of the most amazing experiences of my life! For those of you who don't know, I was asked by my old Bishop's wife if I would stand in for her as the second clarinet in the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization, and after a small audition I was accepted! i was so excited because here I was a little 16 1/2 year old Junior in High School playing with a bunch of College students and Professional musicians! The program was huge (like... 15 songs) and rehearsals were somewhat exhausting. At first I was discouraged that my abilities weren't up to what was being demanded of me, but after much prayer and lots of practice I soon found myself playing just as well (if not better ) than most of the people around me and I started having so much fun!

The people were fun, and the music was absolutely gorgeous. I was in the orchestra, so we accompanied the choir... the choir was ANGELIC! Absolutely gorgeous! I've never been a part of such beautiful music in my life, and that's saying something! Even the All State Band is nothing in comparison to that! Plus you know what? Do you know who I got to meet during this concert? I'll give you a hint, his name rhymes with Bollin Traye, and he's a famous country singer, and he was featured in our concert, and Bethany (the first clarinet) and I ran into him in the church building by accident and we each got hugs, kisses, and pictures from him, and he's super nice, smells nice, told me I was adorable, to drive safe, and remembered me when I saw him again later that night... you guessed it! Colling Raye! And all of that stuff is true. He did in fact hug me, and kiss me on the head. I basically died and went to heaven!

The concerts were crazy exhausting (yes, concerts... there were TWO IN A ROW!) but so rewarding. We played in the Mesa Arts Center and the acoustics in that hall were heavenly! My mother said herself that listening to that concert gave her insight into the the hosts of heaven must sound like. It was beautiful, and I fely so enveloped in all the music. It was so surreal, I can't wait to audition again once I graduate! :)

SECOND item of business: The Last Days of School

I don't have a whole ton to say about this other than it was so bitter sweet. I didn't cry like I did at the choir concert, but the fact that I wouldn't se many of those people again in my life did make me sad. I made sure to take lots of pictures and give lots of hugs. I really did grow to love the Basha Bears... woa! Never thought you'd ever hear me say that did you? :) Do you remember how much I hated Basha when I first got there? Do you remember how much I complained on this poor blog about how much I hated it? These wonderful people changed my mind about change and for that I will be eternally grateful. I love them all SO SO SO SO MUCH and I am going to make it a priority to see them again. :)

Why it looks like I'm about to punch the lovely Maddie, I have no idea! :)

The best clarinet section ever!

Speaking of priority to see again, this girl inspires me beyond measure! This is Chi Dumalo, and everybody should know her. She got baptised the morning of my EVMCO concerts and there was no way I couldn't go! I played the piano for it and wanted to cry at her faithfulness. Her sweet boyfriend baptised her, and even though her parents objected, she was doing what she knew was right. She was baptised on her 18th birhtday (the VERY first day she could) and the spirit around this sweet girl was so strong. I love how genuinely excited about the gospel she is and I wish I could be more like her... I LOVE YOU CHI!!! :)

THIRD item of business: My AYT based Date

Oh goly... I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to write about this bad boy. Brace yourself... there is so much to say! I guess I'll start from the begining where my lovely Whitley texted me early Memorial Day morning asking me last minute if I could join them for a date that day. I thought, "Meh, why not?" Little did I know that I was getting myself into the most FUN DATE OF MY LIFE (besides my date with Jeffrey of course... that was epic)! What we did first was meet at Whitley's house. Her date was a lovely boy named Chris Long, my date was a turd face obnoxious hard case named Louis, and the other couple was Whitley's brother Nick and a sweet beautiful girl that I went to Junior High with named Emily. We started at the Smith home and drove on down to Chris' aunt's home. You see, the thing about this date was that nobody knew what we were going to do! Chris' mom and aunt were planning the whole thing!

So we were driving up through his aunt's neighborhood and I was thinking to myself, "Hmmm... this looks kind of familiar..." Then we parked in front of her house and I thought, "Woa! This looks just like Julie Clement's house!" Then we walked inside and I thought, "Dude, it's even decorated the same as Julie Clement's house!" And sure enough, when we walked inside there was Julie Clement, the main director and runner of Actor's Youth Theatre! I KNOW! It was crazy, it turns out that Chris is, in fact, her nephew and has been in multiple AYT productions! So the first thing we did was go into the backyard where there was a little table with sandwiches and other little lunch food items and chatted. After about an hour Julie came running into the backyard with an old looking scroll. She said that a messenger came to the door with it and died on the doorstep in mid deliverance! We read it and it was written in cute old english and said something along the lines of to being our quest we had to find the Persian rug and sing what Aladdin sang to his love (A Whole New World). We looked around the backyard and saw that while we were eating, they had layed a large blanket that looked like a Persian Rug on the grass, so we all scrambled onto it and sang "A Whole New World" at the very top of our lungs! It was successful, and we earned our next scroll.

This next scroll said that we had to go into the Cave of Wonders and each (as a couple) grab a single key out of the magic gene lamp... what the-? Where was the cave of wonders? We looked around and then came to the sickening realization that the cave was... you guessed it... in the pool! And the only way to get to the cave was through the water! Luckily it only came up to our thighs, but our jeans were very much soaked. It was a grand ol' time! So each couple took their keys, took some pictures, and then joked about pushing each other into the pool. Julie told us that we had about 10 minutes before we had to go and that if we wanted to get wet, that we could go swimming. Well Whitley and Nick were joking about pushing each other in when my dumb date decided to be funny and push them both in! Then we decided, "What the heck? Let's all just jump in?" So cell phones were removed, watches were taken off, and we all joined Nick and Whitley in the pool and it. Was. Heavenly!

So after swimming in our clothes we dried off and were given a sachal, a vial, and our next scroll telling us to find the Fountain of Youth. Once at the fountain we were to fill the vial with water, hold it above our heads, and yell "Huzzzah!" as loud as we could three times. So we drove to Dana Parks Shopping Center and followed our instructions and earned our next scroll and a dozen roses. Our job this time was to hand out these roses to twelve strangers, and then go into Ocean Blue and read the owner a riddle. And that is exactly what we did. So after handing out the roses and playing tag in the parking lot, we went into Ocean Blue and read the riddle. This man was a stone wall... didn't answer our riddle... and just handed us an envelope with the next scroll and some cash for yogurt. DELICIOUS!

So we ate our yogurt, hopped in the car, and read the next scroll which instructed us to go to the Val Vista Lakes and find the Gypsey. So we trecked on! On to Val Vista Lakes we went and after a tiny bit of confusion, crossing a busy street, and traveling through a dark tunnel, we came upon a totally legit Gypsey campsite where a lovely Gypsey and her handsome slave (aka, Corrinne Clement and MacGuyver Mann. Corrinne is Julie's daughter and MacGuyver would be her dreamy boyfriend) were waiting for us. The Gypsey told us to sit and gave us a little schpeal about how if we were to earn what we were seeking that we would have to offer her something if great worth. She then told us that she loved poetry. Well I knew I was in trouble when she said that! I can write essays till the world ends, but I can't write a decent poem to save my life! She had MacGuyver stand up and read us a love poem in his deep manly smooth as butter voice that makes me want to give him a smooch on the cheek (but don't tell him I said that :) ). We were to write her love poems. Paper and pencils were passed out and we were told to disperse and write masterpeices. Crap. Ha ha, everybody was out there giving it their all and I didn't know a rhyme from a... frog? Dude, I was hopeless, so I just scrawled some things that had to do with love and somewhat rhymed and definately made a fool of myself when it came time to recite them. After the poems were read, it was announced that the girls did the best and that we needed to follow the Gypsey. She led us behind a tree and told us that only the boys could retrieve what we were looking for, and before that they had to become knights. So we were each given little plastic princess crowns and magic wands and little paper Burger King crowns for the boys. so we knighted them, crowned them, and they followed MacGuyver behind a wall a got a sword and the next scroll. SUCCESS! This scroll told us that we were to go to the Gilbert Public Library and find the magical Wizard.

WOO HOO! We're more than halfway through now! Ha ha, so we drove on over to the Gilbert Public Library and wandered around a bit. After a few minutes we just figured that the Wizard would find us and so we just stood on the bridge and looked at the ducks. I talked to a little old Chinese man wearing a little Chinese hat and we were having a grand ol' time when all of a sudden we heard music. It was creepy, eerie sounding Violin music, and we turned around and saw a creepy Wizard dressed in full on Moon and Stars robes and a pointy wizard hat! No. Way. I was cracking up and he wanted us to follow him. So we did! I mean, there's really no arguing with a crazy-eyed, curly-haired warlock who's playing creepy violin music. So we marched all around the Public library over bridges, through playgrounds, past Mexican family barbeques, and up a hiking trail. Some people scoffed at us but most people clapped and laughed with us! After a while me and Whitley started marching and conducting the music with our little wands and oh was it fun! It wasn't too long before we reach a large Gazebo at the top of the hiking trail and there waiting for us was yet another Gypsey (Kendra Clement... another of Julie's daughters)! They seated us and told us tales of woe and our trecherous task ahead (you know how it goes) and then told us that we were to play the game sharades. We split into three teams: Whitley and Chris, Nick and Louis, and Me and Emily... Emily and I dominated! It was hardly a competition... it was fantastic! So as the winners, Emily and I were told to pick from two chalases. One was "poisined" and one was not. It was our job to decide which was which... you know, like in Princess Bride? So as we were discussing our task they Gypsey decided to change the rules! She decided to "bring chivalry back" and to have us choose one of the boys to drink for us. We chose Nick, and he passed the test with flying colors by "Choosing the Right". :) But we couldn't celebrate quite yet! Since we had some extra time to kill they decided to make Nick choose a dance partner and come up with a dance to the Wizard's violin playing... I think they were pretty great! Well apparently the Wizard and the second Gypsey thought so because we earned our next scroll which told us to go to a creepy old house were some evil hag was waiting for us, but FIRST we had to take some pictures! We were all given props to pose with and Whitley was given the chalase with the poison in it. The wizard told her not to drink or she would "surely die". She pondered his warning for a minute, shrugged, and started chugging the drink! We all started cracking up and the Wizard started freaking out yelling, "No! You will surely! You will surely!" Well all of our laughing and the Wizard's freaking out-ing made Whitley laugh so hard that she threw it all up! Not even joking! And as she was coughing and sputtering and barfing the grape drink back up all the wizard was yelling was, "Oh! She is surelying! She is surelying!" Basically we all died. :) And poor Whitley's hands and face were covered in grape puke. Luckily I came prepared with tussies and mints and just about everything else that she would need to clean up and we went on our way!

Sweet Emily is all concerned for poor Whitley and what am I doing? Laughing! Such a great friend. :)

We finally arrived at the place we needed to slay the beast. We drove up to the house and it was locked with a big gate. The old scary bad lady was standing at the gate and told us that we could only enter if we had the keys (from the Cave of Wonders... remember?) by golly! We had them in our nifty little sachel! We entered the yard and were met by a dirty, dusty, little old haggard who had tons of swords. We needed those swords to kill the beast and she said that if we had anything to trade then she would give us the swords. Well we just happened to have a vial of water from the Fountain of Youth and an un-poisoned chalase! It was a fair trade and she happily gave us the swords. Then two of Chris' sisters came screaming across the yard telling us to save them from the beast. We handed out swords and follwed them across the yard where we came to a very very very large Furby (remember those? :)) sitting on top of a treasure chest. It was darling! :) We slayed the best, and took the chest which was filled with ring pops and other candy treasures. It was wonderful! And we earned out very last scroll! It told us to go to Chris' house at 6:00 for dinner and to bring all of the props we had earned with us. So we dropped Emily off at her house (sadly she couldn't stay for dinner, she had to be back home) killed some time at Whitley's fun house, and drove on over to Chris' house for dinner.

There we were met with extreme kindness and an authentic Midevil atmosphere that was so cute and charming that I could barely stand it! Chris' little tiny siblings were dressed up as cute little servents and peasants and served us foods that could be eaten without silverware (it was all SUPER DELICIOUS by the way) and we watched a movie called Timeline which was about time travel back to midevil days. It was sad, and lots of people died but it was actually a really great movie and Gerard Butler was one of the main characters so... um, hello! That made it about 1,000 times better. :) So then we thanked Sister Long for the amazing date and told her to thank Julie for us and headed home.

It was definately the most amazing date I've ever been on, and it was worth getting sick over. Yes, I had started coming down with something on Sunday night and instead of resting on Monday like I should have I went running all around the East Valley on this heck of a quest, and by the end of it I had absolutely no voice and was running a tempurature, but like I said... it was OH SO WORTH IT! :) Which leads me to my last item of business....

FOURTH item of business: Partying at Sydnee's

Well Sydnee and I had been planning weeks and weeks before school ended to get together and kick off the summer sister style. Nature decided to take a different course however. As I mentioned previously, I had come down with something on Sunday and made it infinitely worse on Monday. When I woke up on Tuesday I felt like death, death I tell you! I wouldn't have gone to school if I didn't have finals to complete. I was so sick, had a ghastly cough, and literally couldn't speak above a whisper. Oh, and did I mention that I started my legit period that day? My period is pretty sketchy, we're not on good terms, so T.O.M. decides not to visit me very regularly and come randomly without warning. This was one of those times. So on top of having a slight fever, a bad cough, a sinus infection, and no voice, I was on my period and having bad cramps and migrains. Not a happy camper? Only on the inside. :) I didn't want to ruin my last two days of school. Aaaanywhosle, when I got home my dad was a dear and, after a well deserved nap, took me to his office to complete a make-up homework assignment for dumb AP English. After that I was dying and asked my dad to give me a blessing. Can I just take this moment to say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is so so true?! Ask anybody who saw me on those two days the difference. Even look at the pictures above! Tuesday was the day I wore the blue shirt, Wednesday was the day I wore the green/orangish shirt. It was like night and day! My voice was still trash, but I felt so much better. It was increadible!

So, though our plans were up in the air for a few days because of my health, Sydnee came over on Wednesday and picked me up after school. She, mom, and I went to Olive Garden for lunch and then came back home. We always have so much fun with Sydnee, and I'm so glad that we were able to hang out! Then came time for graduation. Since I was in band and choir I definately had a big role to play in graduation that night and there was no way that I could miss it. I told this to Syd and she said she'd wait! Well alright then! I got into some nicer clothes and drove over to the school! Now remember, my voice was toast. I was barely audible at times, and talking for long periods of time just wore me out. On the bus ride over to the Wells Fargo arena I totally killed whatever of my voice was left and after that point I was done. There was absolutely no way on earth that I would get my voice back enough to be able to sing. So I made it through graduation with an aching throat and no voice, and once we got back on the bus I changed into some comfier clothes (thankfully I was smart enough to wear basketball shorts under my skirt!) and crashed. I slept the entire bus ride home.

I gave hugs to those I needed to give hugs to, found my dad, gave Nathan a ride home, and drove home where I found Sydnee crashed on the couch. We woke her up and she helped me pack my bag super quick and in no time we were ready to go! We got to her house, crashed, and woke up the next morning ready for a party. :) She taught me all of life's important lessons: parking in diagonal parking spaces, how to use an ATM, how to order a drink at Starbucks without breaking the Word of Wisdom :), how to vaccinate dogs, how to cut up a watermelon, and how to organize a wallet! I seriously love this girl, and I'm so glad that she's my sister. She's so much fun to hang out with and it's never a dull moment with her around. I love how willing she is to teach me things and give me whatever I need (like she offered to let me use her car when I take my driving test... how nice is she?! She also took me to Target and helped me pick out a wallet when I was complaining about how crappy mine was) and what a great example she is to me. I hope I can be like her when I grow up (if I grow up.... :))!

Another thing I love about Sydnee? Her babies!

I love her dogs so much, words can't even describe. They crack me up, they're like little children. :) Have I ever told you that when I grow up and when my cute little Corgis go up to that big doghouse in the sky that I'm going to get a boxer?

Well I am. :)
So that's all folks! If you were tenacious to read through this entire post without passing out the give yourself a pat on the back! Come back soon lovelies!

Happy Summer!