Operas and Finals and Dresses Oh My!!!

Recently in English, we've been studying this CreeperMcCreeperFace: Yes, Edgar Allen Poe, was a genius, but he also creeps the heck out of me!!!

Anywho, to end our unit we were assigned to do a Poe Parody.

We could write a story, make a movie or write a song.

Geiser said that if we sing we get extra credit.

So what did Jessica, Sammy, Sarah, Suz and I do?

We turned The Masque of the Red Death

into

The Masque of the Red Death: An Opera in Five Parts

If you've never read the story, basically its during the time of the plague and a selfish bratty prince named Prospero gathers all the courtiers and they all hide out in an abbey until the plague is gone. At least that's the plan. During their Masquerade however, a hooded figure enters and once revealed, it kills the Prince and everyone else present. You can run but you can't hide from the plague.

Well we wanted to spice this up so we turned it into an "opera."

We split it into five parts and wrote a song for each part and each person sang (or rapped) a song.

The first song was

Can You Feel the Death Tonight?

(Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Lion King)
And it was all about the pains and evils of the plague.

Then came

Prince Prospero's Rap.

(Thug Story-Taylor Swift)

Talking about the Prince's selfish plan to hide out.

Seven Rooms

(Seven Things by Miley Cyrus)
Prince Prospero's Suite had seven rooms, one of every color.

Then we took Viva La Vida by Coldplay and turned it into a song about the clock.

During the Masquerade, the people would stop their festivities every time the clock chimed a new hour. It had an ominous tone to it that tripped everyone out.

And for the climax, we rewrote What is This Feeling from Wicked.

Instead of Loathing, it was Deathly, talking about when the plague appears in the form of a person and kills everyone.

This was pretty much the most entertaining project I've ever done!!!

In other news:

*Our Evening of Excellence for YW's was last night and it went fabulously! The theme was Daughters of a King so it was all about princesses!!!! LOVED IT!!! Can you tell that I helped plan it? The best part was that my AMAZING yw's president MADE ME A BELLE DRESS!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS IT IS AMAZING!!!!!!

It looks JUST like Belle's!!

I'm. In. Love.

*This morning in seminary we had our Christmas conference which was AWESOME!! Students spoke and did musical numbers all centering around Christ and Christmas and the spirit was SO strong!!!

*My two hardest finals (trig and anatomy) are OVER!*

*TOMORROW'S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR 2009!!!!!!*

SING PRAISES!!!!!!

Honesty Shmonesty

The amazing Molly from Red Rawlin's was kind enough to bestow this fabulous award upon me!

I'm not going to lie, I pride myself on being an honest person, so this award made my day!!!

As part of the deal I now have to tell you

10 True Things About Myself That You May Not Know

Yes I'm going to be VERY honest...so be prepared.

1. For YEARS, I sat in school and thought:

"Wow I will NEVER be a teacher, I could NOT do that!!!!"

And yet, I'd always find myself taking the class I was in and imagining myself as the teacher of it and how things would go. It wasn't until my freshman year that it finally dawned on me...Teaching is your destiny Natskee!!!

2. I don't hate the dentist.

I LOATHE the dentist!!!

I come home every time crying my eyes out!!

3. If I weren't me, I don't think I'd be friends with me.

4. I really love this picture because of the adoring look on his face....

*sighs dreamily*

Even if he was told to do that.....

5. My hatred and disdain for cheerleaders stems from the bitterness I have for not making the cheer team my freshman year. I tried out, didn't make it and have been hatin' on those peppy, skirt wearin' skanks ever since!!!!

(Disclaimer: I dislike the role of cheerleaders, not the people themselves. Some of my favorite people in the entire world also happen to be cheerleaders.)

6. Sometimes I turn lights on and off with my tongue.

Who cares about germs???

7. I am a couple watcher.

I LOVE watching a guy and girl that are into each other!!!

(As long as they're not being nasty.)

But I don't really like watching strangers....that's gross.

But my friends...LOVE it!!!

Don't ask me why!!

8. I've always wanted to play the role of a villian in a show, and it looks like I just might get my wish!!! Westwood's musical for this year is Les Miserables, and I am going to audition for the rold of Madame Thenardier!!! She and her husband are terrible people! They steal and rip people off constantly! Madame is crude, obnoxious, and larger than life. I think she'd be SOOO fun to play!!!

9. I once slept with a package of Oreos under my pillow.

10. 90% of the time, I don't put covers on toilets. (See #6)

Well this was fun!

I'm not in the mood to pass it on, but if you want to do the tag, feel free!

Love you all!!

Alyssa Zazueta

Dancing in the Moonlight 09'

Well friends, Winter Formal has come and gone and it was

F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday night we went to the basketball game.

(Westwood won! Holler!)

Then to Haley's house for s'mores.

On Saturday we played Bigger or Better.

We split into two teams, and each team was given a paper clip. Then we went from house to house asking our neighbors if they had something bigger or better that they would like to trade us. The team with the Biggest or Best thing wins!

The other team won with a rockin horse and as punishment, we had to go back to the house they got it from and dance around the horse singing:

"Ride ride ride that pony.

Get up on that big fat pony.

Ride ride ride that pony,

This is how we do it."

While someone rode the horse.

That was...uh special.

Anywho, we dropped off the boys and went home and got ready.
Then we picked them up again and went to take pictures at the Wright House. My amazing sister Emily, obliged to being our photographer!
Once we finished smiling till our faces hurt we headed into dinner which was also at the Wright House.
(Thank you Skipper, for making it happen, you're the best!)
Everyone brought part of the meal and our main dish was Tortilini made my Kair's parents!
YUMMMMM!!!!
Story:
While we were waiting for our food, there was music playing and our tables didn't take up much space so there was quite a bit of dance floor. I knew there wouldn't be very many slow dances at the actual dance, so Ty and I had our own!
All alone on our own little dance floor...until they started taking pictures of us because we looked
"adorable."

After dinner, we went to the Christmas lights at the temple to kill time.
(We refuse to be on time for dances.)
Since it was so cold we spent the majority of the time inside the visitors center watching videos, talking to missionaries etc.
Finally, around nine, we headed over to the dance and partied like it was 1999.

Afterwards, we went to Mary's and ate snacks and played games.

Basically, it was the best night of my life!!!!

I L-O-V-E gazebos!!!!

All the girls!!!

Skipper, Mary, Jessica, Kairleigh, Haley, Yours Truly

K I promise that I did not put myself in the front of this picture!!

Emily told me to stand there!!!

Our handsome fellas!!!

Kenneth, Ty, Taylor, Sam, Painter, Spencer

While we were watching them get their pictures taken I turned to my friends and said

"You guys, we seriously have the cutest group of guys at Westwood!! Good work!!"

Kair and Taylor

Alyssa and Painter

Haley and Sam

(Yes that is a black eye, he got it from wrestling.)

Jessica and Spencer

Ken and Mary

Emily told us to look at each other and we started laughing.

Here is my ensemble that I was so excited about!!!!

Dress: Free from my sister's boss!!!

Shoes: Borrowed from Emily

Head band: Borrowed from Emily

Tights: $5 from Forever 21

Cardigan: $15 from Forever 21

Hair Flower: Gift from Sarah

Total: $20!!!!

This = My Favorite Picture Ever!!!!

This makes me laugh!!!

So yes, Winter Formal was a TOTAL success!!!!!

I've got two dates lined up for this week so stay tuned!!!

Alyssa Painter

The World is a Stage

Today we had our annual Curtain Time show. (School talent show.) I was scheduled to sing At Last by Etta James for both shows. (It was a double assembly.) But because we were extremely behind schedule, the last four acts on the program got cut. But everyone who didn't get to perform got moved to the beginning of the second show.

I was kind of worried because I was following a band that did "Don't Stop Believin" and their lead sing is amazing! But I put on a smile and walked out in my favorite dress of all time! The legendary red dress! I always feel hot in it, and between that and the amazing shoes, I was ready to conquer the world. When I walked out and the lights came on, it sounded like someone had turned up the level of the audience! The cheering was amazing! I was put at ease right away. People started clapping with the music and broke out their phones and started swaying them in the air. Every time I hit a hard note, more cheers came, and when the song ended, I heard some of the loudest applause of my life!!!!

Can you say R-U-S-H????

It'd been so long since I've been on the stage, I'd forgotten what an amazing feeling it is!! I used to be heard to say,

"I'm the happiest when I'm on the stage!"

Today, made me remember why!!!

Alyssa Palmer

Prayers Needed Again

Another dear friend of mine is sick in the hospital.
I'd really appreciate your prayers on her behalf!
Thanks!

High School Horrors: Part Four

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I reallywant to rename this segment:

"High School Whores"

and talk about all the obnoxious girls that I deal with on a daily basis.

That would however, cause lots of drama and speculation and make me seem really really mean and insensitive.

Which, I can be, but that's besides the point at the moment.

Right now, I'm just going to be as real and honest as I can without giving too much away and/or hurting anyones feelings.

I think it sufficeth to say that sometimes, teenage girls are complete and total BRATS!!!!

(And trust me, I'm not excluding myself from this generalization.)

They are selfish, gossipy, prideful, stuck up, nosey, immature, backstabbers and everything else horrible you can think of!!!!

Somedays, I just can't handle it anymore!

The estrogen is just too much!!!!!

It is for that very reason that this story goes as follows:

The other day I was asking Tyler and Jacob who they would take with them on a deserted island if they could only bring four people. After they answered, they asked me. My list was as follows:

1. Tyler

2. Rusty

3. Shirt Boy

4. Jacob

Now I'm not going to act like I'm one of those girls whose always gotten along better with boys than girks and has way more guy friends than girlfriends.

Cause I'm not.

I have a few close gentleman friends who are also some of my favorite people in the whole entire world.

I can talk to them about everything and they keep me sane when I just can't handle females anymore.

But I've got TONS of girls who are like my sisters!!!!!

And I always love em'

No Matter What.

Alyssa Merril

3 is a Magic Number

3 Weekends

3 Boys

3 Amazing Dates

Starting with last weekend:

My friend Kair won a raffle at a stake activity and the prize was a group date for you and four other couples to go watch a movie of your choice on this HUGE screen!!! Well Kair, being awesome invited me and I invited Shirt Boy and we watched Up!! Yes I cried twice!! It was soo cute!!

(The movie, not my crying.) Afterwards we all went to a park and everyone decided to play frisbee. But frisbee's not really my thing...so Shirt Boy and I played on the playground and eventually ended up in a tree. Yes, it was kind of like this: Except we weren't that close to each other!
We each had our own branch!
Anyways, date #1 was quite a sucess!
After the talk that Shirt Boy had,
I came home wanting to be better.
And if that's not a succesful worthwhile date,
then I don't know what is.

Date #2 was last night with my buddy Jacob!
First we had homeade pizza at Sammy's house, DELCIOUS!!
Then we got hot chocolate from QT and went to the Temple Lights and looked around and ate Krispy Kremes.

Afterwards we went back to Sammy's and played

Baby If You Love Me Smile.

Love that game!

Then, to really get us in the Christmas spirit, we watched Miracle on 34th Street.

Best. Christmas. Movie. Ever.

(Jessica if you say one more ill word against it, I will drop kick you from here to China.)

Classic Natalie and Jacob moment.

Date #3 is a week from today.

Winter Formal!!!

After hours and hours of searching, I have a dress and everything to go with it and I'm not going to lie,

the whole ensemble is

FABULOUS!!!!

So fabulous that you're going to have to wait to see it!!

Everyone have a smashing week!!!

Alyssa Mckay

A Conversation of Sorts

You: How are you?
Me: I'm Natastic!!

Me: How many kinds of awesome are you?
Carlos: Infinite
Lauryn: One
Mal: Zero

Me: Do you wanna go a date with me?
Him: I'd love to!
Me: Okay, I'll pick you up around six thirty.
Him: I look forward to that.
Me: Okay bye.
Me: (Cue dreamy smile and girlish giggle.)

Jacob Black: Stay with me!
Me: Okay! You don't have to tell me twice!

Me: Tyler, how do you feel about wearing basketball shorts to Winter Formal?
Tyler: I don't care, whatever you want.
Me: Bless you!

Alyssa LeSueur.

A Question, an Answer, and a...Cake to the Face????

Well, 62% of you were correct:

I asked Tyler to Winter Formal!

I needed a fun way to ask him so Abigail and Avery graciously agreed to help out their Aunt Nat!!!

They sang Jingle Bells and gave him a cake with

Winter Formal???

written on it.

Baked into the cake were the letters of my name.

My handy-cake decorating skills!

This is what happens when obnoxious boys are around!

What a good sport!!!
Thanks Mary for the pictures!!!
I was so sad I had to wait in the car!!!

Well, the story doesn't end there.
A week later, I'm at the church for mutual and a girl from my stake walks in saying
"Natalie, this is for you"
And hands me a container full of ice cream and a paper that says
"I'd love to be the ice cream with your cake, but first you need to thaw me out."
So I put it under hot water and dug through the ice cream till I found a ziploc bag with a paper inside that was blank except for "fire" in little letters.
So I took it home, burnt it and the letters
"Y-E-S"
showed up!!!
(He used lemon juice.)
Happy Day!!!

What else is happy???
I'm going to see New Moon in one hour!!!!
Have a great weekend!!!!

Talk About 180's

So I was half-way through a really bitter,angry, frustrated blog post when one of the people I was frustrated with started talking to me on facebook.

After a long chat with him, the message of this post has been changed.

Instead of being angry and lost, I feel peaceful and focused.

I'm thankful for:

*Girls nights*

Suz, Lyss and Ed all came over tonight for El Charro and a chick flick and it was FANTASTIC!

*True friends*

No matter what, they're always there for me.

Even when I feel like they're not, they are.

*My amazing family*

They love me unconditionally and are always finding ways to support me and help me out.

Whether it be donating at the blood drive I'm running, or giving me jobs to pay for my social life or taking me to get a treat after a hard day, I always feel the love!

*The power of prayer*

It can never be denied. I've seen it in my life way too many times. No matter what, Heavenly Father always answers my prayers.

*Education*

Yes I complain about school and what a pain it is...but truly I am so blessed!

Do me a favor:

Go tell someone you love them and give them a hug.

It just might make their day.

Just to Prove My Teenager-ness

I don't know if any of you read the comments left on my posts, but if you do, you'll notice a regular commenter named Brett and Emily.

Emily is my older sister and I love her more than anything in the world.

So I really value her opinion and sometimes I even do what she says!!

So if you've ever read her comments you'll notice that alot of them go something like this:

"You do know that you're sixteen right?"

or

"You're sixteen sweetie, don't forget that."

Yes I admit, sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I know is going to be a wonderful future, that I forget about my fantastic present!!!

So this post is to show you the girl I am today and just how much of a teenager I am.

I really am as immature of the sterotypes say!

Let me illustrate:

1. I try to throw my little sister in the ocean.

2. I can sleep ANYWHERE, through ANYTHING!

(Here I am sound asleep on a balcony while my little brother takes pictures of me.)

3. I still write "I love so and so"

in the sand and take pictures with it.

I have pictures identical to this one from back when I was in the sixth grade!

4. I'll do anything for my technology!

Here I am doing a dance to get service for my phone so I can finish texting my life away.

5. I like to sit in holes that were dug to get to China.

Which makes sense, since Chinese is the language I'm studying!

6. I make sand angels AND stick out my tongue!

That's a double whammy my friends!

7. I act like I'm driving fake cars since I haven't gotten a permit to drive a real one yet.

8. I wait in hour long lines so I can meet my idols:

Disney Princesses!!!!!

Yes I was the oldest non-parent in that line.

Yes I was the most excited individual.

No I did NOT fake ANY of the enthusiasm exhibited in these pictures.

9. I take pictures of myself making not cute faces.

10. When people try to take pictures of me,

I ruin them by being a goon.

So you see, I'm about as immature as one can get.

And you know what?

I love it!

P.S.

Just to clarify, I do not have a boyfriend.

Ups and Downs

I've got two hard tests tomorrow, so I'll keep this brief.

Today was a LONG day.

At school by 6:30 for seminary, worked all through lunch and after school then went straight to SIAC making my total hours at school 11.

Why????

Two words:

Blood. Drive.

It's on Thursday, and since we don't have school Wednesday, everything has to be done by tomorrow.

Pray for me.

(Btw, if anyone in Mesa wants to give blood, stop by Westwood on Thursday from 8:30-12:30! Or leave me a comment and I can schedule you an appointment.)

Now for the high point in my day:

I made Cantori!!!!

For years at Westwood, it was a tradition to have an extra choir of 16 called

Cantori de Madrigals.

It consisted of four people from each part. They sing mostly a cappela pieces and get to sing at the concerts and other performances in the community. They stopped the choir as a class several years ago but Mr. Harris decided to bring it back this year!!! Any members of honor choir interested just signed up and he chose four from each part. I was worried because almost ALL the altos signed up, but he posted the list today and my name was on it!!!

I'm super excited!!!

Brings a Whole New Meaning to the Phrase: Trick or Treat

Picture this: It's late Sunday, circa 11 pm. I need to go to bed so I'm walking past my kitchen to get to my room when I see this:

Mmmm cupcakes! "But the frosting looks a little funny," I think to myself.

"Oh who cares! Just eat!"

So I do, and look at what happened.

THEY WERE TRICK HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!
Special huh?

Homecoming Happiness

Homecoming is over!

It was absoloutely fabulous!!!

The assembly went well, our float looked great, the parade was awesome, the half-time show was peachy and the dance was SUPER fun!!!!! For me, the highlight of the entire weekend was having my bff Julie, come down from Texas for the weekend!!!!

(She flies for free.)
I hadn't seen her since August and I was a little worried that things might've changed...but of course they didn't!!
After 10 minutes of being together, it was like she'd never left!!!!
Julie and I have been dreaming about our first dance FOREVER so it was BEYOND FABULOUS to get to go together!!!!
Kim was our hair goddess and Emily did our makeup!!!

I love how awkard we look!

I love us!!

It was so cute, a couple hours before the dance I get a text from Alex that read:

"Glasses or contacts?"

I opted for the glasses, but he's adorable either way!!!

Since it was Halloween, we all got scared!

Then things got solemn.

Macho-Men, Star-Struck Girls!

Our handsome fellas!!

Steven, Alex, Tim and Jack

Cute story:

As Alex walked to my door to pick me up, my mom was in the front yard passing out candy.

He goes up to her and shows her the flower, "Is this okay?"

I LOVED the girls we had in our group!!!!

The boys were jealous of our corsage picture and wanted a flower pic of their own!

Dinner at Steven's Gma's house!!

They ordered in Olive Garden and it was DELISH!!!

Not pictured, is our da activity at Amazing Jakes!!!

Super fun!!!

All you can eat buffet, lazer tag, cosmic bowling, bumper cars, go karts and an arcade!!

But my absoloute favorite part was our three rides on the carousel!!!!!

After the dance we went to QT, Wendy's and Tim's house.

Julie and I got home around 1:15 but didn't go to sleep until 4:30!!!

I just had to take advantage of the time I had with her here!!!

So basically, I had the best first dance anyone could ask for!!!

Next Up??

Winter Formal in less than a month and this time it's Girls Choice!!!

Sammy, I'm a Slacker, Don't Slap Me!!!

Happy LATE Birthday to one of my most favorite people in the world!!!!

Sammy turned 17 like two weeks ago, so this has been a LONG time coming!!

Since this is so late, I knew I had to make it special.

And so, Sammy, you are not only going to be hearing from me, but from another very good friend!

Sammy!!!!
Hello my Favorite second cousin once removed!!!

Happy 17th birthday! I hope you had a great one. I miss you soooooo much you have no idea! I’d just like to take the time to tell you just how much I love you and why:

1. You are so motherly! I love it! I always know that I can count on you to tell me what to do and when to do it. And you know that I need that in my life!
2. You are ALWAYS there for me. And now that you have a phone, it makes it easier! Don’t you just love technology??
3. “We must be related!!!!!!!!!”
4. I love that I can always be myself around you and even though you think I’m a nut, you know you love it!
5. Lastly, can I just say that you are FLIPPEN AWESOME???? And I miss you to DEATH!

Love ya tons!
Happy Late Birthday!
Julie
(Your favorite second
cousin once removed.)

Okay, my turn!

I love how Sammy is so blunt and honest!

Sammy is so good at planning and organizing!

Her parties are the greatest and having a class with her is the best cause she keeps you on task and on top of things!!!

Sammy and I have always thought that we are clomplete opposites, and in some ways we are:

She's: Tall

I'm: Short

She's: Athletic

I'm: Uncoordinated to the max

She's: Calm, Keeps her cool

I'm: a Total Spazz

She: Likes to stay in the backgroud

I: Crave the spotlight

But the longer we're friends and the closer we get, the more I realize just how similar we are!!!

Sammy is the best listener!!!

I could go on for hours to her and she just listens and gives GREAT reactions!!!

Sammy is so supportive!!!

I tell her about my dreams and she gives me tons of encouragement!!

Sammy is an awesome story teller!!!

Her facial expressions and choice of words are BEYOND HILARIOUS!!!

I can't be around her without smiling!!!

I love how she's not afraid to be herself!!!

I sure do love ya girl!!!

Sorry it took so long!!!!

Happy Birthday Sammy!!!!

*Coming Soon*

Homecoming pictures!!!