Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan.... D&C 10:5

"Show your school spirit-vote for your choir on lite1041.com!"
You ask JSHS to show school spirit, by golly, we'll show school spirit! And we'll get graded for it, too! Go, Ms. Green!

For the record, Indianola totally did it first.

"I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill.  "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off
You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem.  "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them."

"We're going to the dome!" The words on everyone's minds on their extra-long weekend. That's right, 4-day weekend to go to a football game! Do we miss school to watch Matt play in All-State? Miss school for cc state meet? No. We miss school for football. Just another reminder that there IS a national religion- the church of football.
Idol worshipers aren't only the Buddhists. If you stay in the garage all day making your fancy car shine instead of spending time with your family or going to church, your idol is your car. Idols can be money, careers, fashion, sports, cars or bikes, video games. The things you devote all extra time and thought to. Instead of furthering our mind, our spirit, and our relations with other children of God, the world is furthering the way they're portrayed in their neighbor's mind. An insecure person needs constant self-esteem boosters from those around them, instead of resting easy in the knowledge that they are daughters and sons of a God, a Heavenly Father and our king. We are princesses and princes, but we won't get an inheritance simply by being born. We must work toward it-the only approval I need is my Father in Heaven's.

Stuff Happens.

Well, I suppose I better update, although not much of anything has happened. School started. It's redundant - my whole life's getting redundant. I could tell you what I'll be doing at any given time this week, be it eating, chatting, practicing, sleeping, whatever. Redundancy makes me grumpy. And redundant. Do you think I've said I've said the word word redundant enough?


Me too.

It's almost over.

The small amount of time allotted to us to do as we will is almost up, but I think I spent it well. My testimony has grown through efy, Youth Conference, and girl's camp. I learned the meaning of hard work on vacation and while pollinating corn, which had the added bonus of hanging out with church friends who I don't get to see very often.

I'm starting high school, where people that I'm more mature and brighter than will boss me around. They'll find out soon enough - I don't take orders from imbeciles.

Holy crow! I haven't posted since, like, last month. Woah.
I just got back from vacation; we visited family in Colorado Springs. The first few days we spent camping but we took a break from the pine trees to go to Water World. Nathan, Ben and I waged war against a whole bunch of other kids and basically annihalated(?) them. Then we went down some slides. We were either deathly cold or drastically hot, depending on where we were and how long it'd been since water had been dumped on our heads. I got burnt terribly, and Nathan teased me. My cousin Nathan and my brother Ben, by the way.
In church on Sunday I got stuck in a Sunday school full of nitwits. They didn't like the teacher, and so they talked about the stupidest stuff instead of paying attention until I wanted to scream, "YES, YOU IMBECILE, YOU SPELLED MUTANT WRONG. GET OVER IT" but that wouldn't have been a very good example, so instead I sweetly leaned forward and asked the teacher to repeat the 1kings reference we were all supposed to be looking up. Then I preceeded to glare at the continuing defenders in the back. They were boys, and cute boys at that, so they we very shocked to see a girl glaring instead of fawning. Or whatever those nitwit girls usually do.
 
We hiked up to Barr Camp on Pike's Peak Monday. Along with Dad, Ben, Beth, and me, Dad also invited Nathan and Amaya along. Nathan 1)lives in Colorado and so is used to the air 2) is a runner. Amaya 1)asks too many questions 2)follows your answer with what? and then asks another question. Mountains are very large. But, there was a BOOKSHELF at Barr Camp! Hallelujah! I got mostly through Shade's Children by Garth Nix. Good book, if not a little creepy.  Tuesday we continued on to the top, followed by more questions and jibes from the loveable Miller bunch.
     When we reached the summit we all dropped and did 20 pushups ( I did 6. So shoot me.) and then got our picture taken in front of the summit sign. Then Dad raced us (with our bags still on) over to the lookout, where a monument is dedicated to America the Beautiful. I guess the author was inspired by the view. After catching our breath we sang the first verse in 3-part harmony (no tenor. Nathan still sqeaks~giggle~) and then went inside to order some food while the dimwits who had driven up the mountain stared after us. We stayed up there for a while, and every once in a while the train shows up, drops off 50 people, and then goes back down. These people go to the bathroom, buy a souvenir, buy some hot chocolate, and then get back on the train. They don't even look off the side of the mountain! AHH! What is wrong with these people?

          I'm really sorry you have to sit through all of this, but there really is funny stuff left. So hang on.

       Tuesday night I stayed the night at my cousin Jade's house; her cousin(other side) Brooke was there from Texas. Nice accent, might I add. Erik, Jade's 18 year-old friend, was also over there, but he went to work at 1. In our boredom we decided to play Raptor Tag, which is hide-and-seek on the entire street. Erik and I were on one team, and Jade and Brooke can neither hide nor tag, so we one all but once. Brooke knocked Erik over and he ate cement. It simply wasn't fair. Erik and I were tired and sore, but Brooke and Jade refused to stop playing, so we hid in Jade's kitchen and chatted for an hour before Jade finally texted Erik a "where r u?" He couldn't answer because of low battery or something, but we went outside to give it up anyway.
          We slept outside on the trampoline, but at 6 in the morning the neighborhood dogs all startedto howl. At the same time. I just groaned and turned over, but Brooke stood up and let out a string of 'colorful metaphors', as Spock would call them.
       Wednesday we had planned to take Jade's sister Emily swimming, but that plan sank. Aunt Jen had left some money behind, so we walked the mile to Walgreens and got ourselves some junk food. On the way back Jen called to remind Jade to not spend her money anywhere except the pool. Oops.
       Luckily, or so we thought, Austin lives a few doors down. We hadn't spent the bulk of it, we only needed 5 more bucks than Brooke and I could cough up. Austin's dad was at work and Austin had gone camping, leaving his room locked. But does that stop the fearless Jade? Surely not! Even though it was raining (thunder and lightning, very very frightening oh! Galileo....I'm done.) we got the ladder off the shed by Jade climbing on the motorcycle and pushing it off. I raised it and Jade went up and in after popping the screen out. While she dug for money (and some of her 'borrowed' cd's) Brooke and I had to put the ladder back up. We ended up accepting the neighbor's help. I wish I was  3 inches taller.
          The triumphant team walked home in the rain with 3 dollars and 8 quarters. It works.

We left today with a promise from Jade to yell at Erik for not seeing me off. It was probably better- Dad didn't approve of the eye makeup and large pants. Things are not always what they seem, no, not always what they seem......

We swam against Guthrie Center tonight, and we lost, but I did pretty well and the other team had some really hot guys! Ha, Amber. See, she's what I like to (lovingly) call pathetically obvious sometimes, so she took a picture of them and they noticed, and then there was lots of looking back and forth throughout the meet. At the end this little kid ran up and gave Amber their numbers. They were too pansy to do it themselves, I guess. I just thought it was funny.

Ryan's choir is going to Europe for 20 days! It's sad because I probably won't see him till school starts, but he's in Europe! And he didn't take me along! Gosh. I guess I couldn't come without joining his choir, but I can totally sing. Except recently, since I lost my voice.....  It's all right. Dad's taking Ben and me to Spain once I pass Spanish 2. He's totally fluent, so that should be good enough for me to not get totally lost.

I went to Youth Conference this week.The Mormon church was kicked out of everywhere from New York to Missouri, until they finally settled in a swampy, gross area in southern Illinois. They drained and irrigated the area and set up a beautiful, happy city called Nauvoo. I'm totally serious. They eventually got kicked out of their own city, and in desperation they packed everything they had left from the burnings onto handcarts and started walking west. Why handcarts? They're faster, but they're also cheaper. The Mormon handcart pioneers had to scrimp just to buy the handcart, let alone the supplies. They left for a disgusting lake in the middle of nowhere, because there simply wasn't anywhere else to go.
              Why did the converts after that go to Utah, though? They easily could have followed the Gospel from England, but they felt the Spirit and knew the Gospel was true so strongly that there was nothing for it, they had to go and be with the prophet of God.

                 That was 150 years ago. They walked barefoot, hungry, and cold all the way to Utah because of what they believed in. They received the blessing for their sacrifices, and we remember them today. That's why all the LDS youth from Ames, Fort Dodge, Carroll, Boone, Perry, Ankeny, Marshalltown, and everywhere in between met near Newton on Wednesday. The girls wore long dresses with long sleeves, aprons, and straw hats. The guys wore pants and linen shirts and straw hats. All had their walking shoes, their tents, and their optimism. Wednesday we played games, made a family coat of arms, decorated our 'baby' with duct tape (it was a bag of sugar named Sidney), and had a dance.
                 Thursday morning we got back into the same dress, packed up our tents and our 5 gallon buckets (that's what we brought to hold our stuff. They're bigger than they look) and stuck 'em on a handcart. We pulled 8 miles; it got so boring that Naomi and I borke into Primary songs for the last 2 miles. That killed what was left of my poor voice, which is now toast. We stopped at  Rock Creek, where we pulled out our soggy tents (we packed 'em wet) and soaked our feet in the lake. Followed by testimony meeting and sweet, sweet sleep.
                  Friday was the same story, except there was a lot more hills and the porta-potties that were being pulled by the truck in the back were getting a little raw smelling. We pulled 11 miles and ended at the church in Newton, where we watched a slideshow of the first two days. It was hilarious! I looked at a girl on the screen and said, "Her dress looks a lot like mine....oh! That's me!" JJ just laughed. Mean.
                 I was saying bye to Zach and Jackie when baby Margaret broke open. There was nothing to do but to eat her guts, Sugar high! Finally Zach found some duct tape and taped poor Margaret up, she had lost a LOT of weight. I wish I could drop 1/5 of my weight like that. Not really, but still. A lot of people do.