PROM!

This last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to Prom! Not just any Prom, though-- Junior Prom. My class did Promenade, and that may have been my favorite part of the entire day (no offense to anyone).

I'll be honest though- and for anyone who has yet to go on a Prom date- do NOT go with someone who is a) your complete opposite, or b) someone you know spending an entire day with them will get old.  I'm familiar with the term "Opposites attract", but really you're going to want to have something in common! My date and I, though we are close friends, have absolutely nothing in common. I didn't even notice until we were on the date and I had absolutely nothing to say. We don't listen to the same music (I don't even think he listens to music), our senses of humor are different, he likes to climb stuff, I'm fine staying on the ground, and I'm so independent that he didn't even try to keep up with me on our hike! I love the guy, but really by the end of the day I was ready to be done.

Not to mention that the guy I had really, really wanted to ask me but hadn't was having a grand time with his date. I was happy for him (and her), but I couldn't help but wonder what my day would've been like had he asked me. I'm horrible, I know and I should be grateful I had a date! Don't worry- I am. I really am, but I think I'd spent a lot of energy dreaming up the perfect date with my choice of guy and it just didn't go how I planned.

Despite all the imperfections, I'm satisfied with very fond memories and of course I enjoyed feeling like a princess for a night!

There's Always Good

Sometimes I just randomly get overwhelmed with the "evil" in the world. It's hard to stand up for your beliefs, especially when you're in the minority. But then I remember that's just it: we're the minority, not alone. Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my friends, and I am so blessed with the friends I have!! We gathered together to watch God's Not Dead. I get spiritual thought texts from multiple friends all the time, and we support each other in matters of the gospel. If one friend wasn't notified about a get-together, we load up a car and go get them! There are good people in the world, and I think it's on of the Lord's tender mercies that I am friends with so many of them. I know I'm never alone, because my friends are so stinkin' awesome and love the gospel! More importantly, the Lord is always with me. So I just want to testify that being in the minority is not being alone. There will always be good, we just have to be the good and group together!

On another tangent of being overwhelmed, sometimes I just feel like we'll always be facing evil and we will always be mocked for living the way we do. But we won't! That is one of the biggest thing that brings hope to me. Someday, there will be peace, and happiness, and NO evil! All of our trials will be worth it. I love the gospel!

Time flies!

Haha.... So I didn't think keeping a blog updated would be so hard. I am such a fickle person, to the point that basically if I have to set aside everything to do a certain task, that task will be on the back burner for a looooong time. Anyways, I figured I should give a quick catch up, even though I'm leaving out the bulk of things so this blog post doesn't turn into a novel.

I'm leaving for the annual Utah Theatre Association, AKA Theatre Conference, tomorrow. I've been able to go every year in high school (so far) and I love it so much! I owe it most of the credit for shoving me out of my awkward bubble. This year is special though. My wonderful drama instructor approached me and said she wants me to perform my "Gimme Gimme" piece from the fall musical. AH! That's a good two thousand people. I'm really excited, yet really, really, reeeeeaaaalllly nervous. But what an amazing opportunity! Not only that, but it's being hosted at BYU!!

Something else that is coming up is Junior Prom! This is MY year, and so that comes with the additional promenade that we've already started practicing. It took a few times to get the steps, but now I think I have it down for the most part (just the beginning steps) and I love it so much! My poor partner stepped on my too-long pants and totally ripped the hem with his foot, he felt so bad, but I laughed so hard at his mortified face and the fact that the pants were already ripped.
You may be wondering, "Don't you need a date for Prom?" You are correct! A good friend of mine filled the front half of my car with newspapers (so much that decluttering it in time for school was an impossible task) and taped "PROM?" to the windshield. Yay yay yay! I'm so excited. I stuck little notes that read "Yes!" all over his locker to answer.
Of course with Prom comes a Prom dress. I have had success with that department too! It's a gorgeous gown, with ruffles and sparkles (every girl's dream, right?).. It is strapless, but it was also too long so we're hemming the bottom and taking that fabric to make sleeves, thanks to my amazing aunt.

I'll add as I think of more, but really those are the two things most on my mind right now. Happy times! Good things are coming my way!

Communication is Key

This past week has been a load of drama, mostly revolving around me and my insecurities.  And stupidities. I was sure that a certain friend "hated" me, mainly meaning that something was seriously amiss. None of my other friends believed me, and told me otherwise. Usually I can let this sort of thing go, but I value that friendship very much and I could not move on until I knew what was wrong. Of course, the normal and smartest thing to do would be confront them and demand an explanation. I'm sure you can guess I did just the opposite. I didn't even try to bring it up. I slowly sunk into a self-pity depression, letting this person ignore me for what seemed like forever.

This silent war was getting to a point where even my friends sounded doubtful when they tried to fight my accusations. I really can't recall another time when I was sure that someone was angry with me, and I had no idea why! I had just about reached the point where I felt I would explode if they continued to ignore me. I missed talking to them. I missed them even acknowledging my existence. I missed them. I got home from school, and sat there, thinking of what to do. I finally settled on a prayer, with a pleading request that they would at least text me. I went downstairs, flopped on my bed, and lay there, pondering. *cue dramatic music*

I typed up a text message, but it didn't feel right. I shut my phone and set it aside. Not a minute later, my phone buzzed. Could it be? YES! It was a glorious text message from this person who'd been ignoring me! The message immediately sent my heart hammering. They wanted me to call them. I was seriously expecting a scolding for telling everyone that I thought they hated me and blah blah blah. Hesitantly, I dialed their number and literally held my breath. They picked up and started explaining... Turns out, they WERE ignoring me! It had all been a miscommunication problem, and I admit some of it was my fault.. But we made up and I haven't felt more at ease in what feels like a long time (turns out it was only like, three days).

The morale of this story is, if we had just talked about our rift we could've solved this problem a long time ago, but instead this dragged on way longer than it should've. Communication is key!

This also relates to Heavenly Father. How in the world are we supposed to get through this life, happily, if we don't tell Him what's going on? Christ suffered for our sins! Give your burdens to Him, and enjoy the most wonderful feeling in the world- peace.

Light Parade, Friends, and Service

The Christmas season just rocks. There's so much happiness, and peace, and nostalgia, and let's be honest, what other time of year can you wave to complete strangers with a real smile on your face? Just imagine, like, "Happy summer!" And the stranger smiles equally as merry as you wave in mutual happiness. No. It's just Christmas!

I got to take part in the Light Parade last night, and I had the best time ever! There's something about friends that just warms my heart. Especially when they're willing to be idiots along side me or just laugh at my jokes (even though sometimes they're just legitimately stupid). I love making people laugh. It is one of the most rewarding feelings for me.
Anyways, we sang Christmas hymns and some people gave us this look that just said, "Yes". I'm so happy that the true meaning of Christmas still reigns, even though it's not the "popular vote".

I'm just gonna take a paragraph and shout out to my awesome, hilarious, "better-than-yours" friends. My group of friends is a testimony to me that God does plan everything perfectly. I cannot imagine having a better group of people to spend my time with. We all strive to do what's right, none of us are afraid to do something that might look "stupid", and we all respect each other. I love my friends!! They are HUGE examples to me, and they probably don't even know it.

After the Light Parade, I had the opportunity to babysit. Earlier, I was really reluctant. I definitely wasn't in the mood to babysit right after that until midnight. Especially since my friends wanted to hang out. Amidst my selfish reasoning, a thought popped into my head, "Be the answer to someone else's prayer." I pondered on that thought, and finally decided to do it.
I'm so grateful that I was prompted to do that! Turns out, none of my friends could've hung out anyway, but aside from that, I'm certain I babysat one of the cutest children on Earth. For real, she is soo adorable. The mom told me she had been so stressed she was "going to kill someone" if she didn't get some release. I put the little girl to bed, and then had 3 hours to kill before she came home from her midnight hike.
After looking around, I decided that I would try to lessen her stress a little more (hopefully). If you know me, this is pretty miraculous. I rolled up my sleeves and did the dishes. The miracle in this is: I HATE doing dishes! Yet somehow I did it with a smile in my heart. I felt so peaceful and accomplished after I finished that. I hoped that it would help, if only a teeny bit. After that I did some minor cleaning (i.e. wiping the counter, picking up toys). By that time it was roughly 11 pm, so I stuck in my headphones and waited. I suppose I dozed because I woke up with the mom prodding my shoulder. I checked the clock: 12:20 am. She smiled and thanked me and I ran out the door before she could even think to pay me.
She hadn't needed to, anyways. My reward was service.
Mosiah 2:17 "...When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Let the Season Begin...

After Thanksgiving dinner, (which was fantastic), my family and I all retreated back home. We used to have this tradition where we would put up all our Christmas decorations the same night. Apparently my family has died in spirit or gotten old or something because everyone started getting ready for bed. I don't think so! There's no way I was letting this night pass without getting that Chrismas tree up. Yes, I'm that kind of person.

I located all the decorations, which are in total 3x as much as all the other decorations put together. Of course they were out back in the shed, so I found a flashlight and marched outside to drag everything in. Well, to be honest some of those boxes are not exactly "light" in weight so there was a lot of heaving and weezing. Luckily, I'm so headstrong this task was achievable. Shout out to my wonderful family who let me do it all alone.

I tried to recruit everyone to help me with this, but only the ladies answered my plea for help. We turned on some Christmas jams and eventually got the job done! It took some persuading and there were a lot of "Lindsay this idea was stupid." comments, but hey! I got what I wanted. Christmas has begun!!!!!!!! 

Friends & Fall!

School really drags when you're waiting for that final bell to ring. I survived Math, and History for that matter. I had piano lessons after school, but that was actually pretty fun. Those lessons switch on and off. Some days, I'm thinking, "Wow this is great!". Other days, it's more along the lines of "Quitting piano doesn't sound so bad...". Of course I wouldn't, but hopefully you get the point. I don't think my teacher thought I could be challenged, but I wanted to prove I could, so I learned a harder song than she assigned to me. I played it for her and she was shocked! She said she was so happy that I am so committed. Hopefully now she'll challenge me.

I went to a game night at a friend's house. I love my friends! Everything we do is uplifting or just flat out fun! We started with a little war with the GIANT bean bag. It was people on either side trying to bury the opponent with it. Then someone came up with Murder in the Dark, and let me tell you, don't play that game with a full bladder. We were all screaming and laughing and even the boys were running around squealing. Eventually some us left and I slept over at a friends house!

I am so excited for Fall! I whipped out my boots and jackets a few days ago. It feels so good with the crisp air and being bundled up. We even went out for hot chocolate on a date. I love this feeling of nostalgia!! The leaves, Thanksgiving, cold weather, red & orange.... YAY!!!