And Lyssa Was Her Name-O

So at night while I'm trying to fall asleep, I make up stories. Most of which are about my future life with Prince Charming. (Sue me, I'm a 17 year old girl!) So I'm going through this awesome story in my mind but I keep hitting a stumbling block...HE HAS NO NAME!!! So I'm trying to come up with a good name but trip and fall. Few names sound good with Natalie!!! Then I realized it needed to be 3 syllables. So I start brainstorming those...HELLO there are none!!!!

So it's the next day, I'm in Cantori A-Hour and voice my concern. Five hours later...we're in honor choir and Alyssa gives me a list of 3 syllable names and they were just too good to not post.

1. Timothy

2. Atticus

3. Jericho

4. Dakota

5. Jeffery

6. Don Carlos

7. Julian

8. P Diddy (or Puff Daddy)

9. Lucifer

10. Eminem

11. Ludacris

12. Moroni, Gideon, Helamen

13. Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Isaiah, Abraham

14. Nathaniel

15. Francisco

16. Fredrico

17. Placido

18. Montana

19. Gerardo

20. Jeremy

21. Christopher

22. Jonathon

23. Roberto

24. Kanye West

25. Flo Rida

26. Sean Kingston

27. Vanilla Ice

28. Benjamin

29. Joshua

30. Rafael

31. Orlando

32. Cameron

33. Sebastian

34. Samuel

35. Nicholas

36. Severus

37. Percival

38. Gilderoy

39. Mundungus

40. Voldemort

41. Marion

42. Donovon

43. William

44. Jacobo (pronounced Ha-ko-bo)

45. Jim Halpert

and of course

46. Cilantro

So tell me...what's your favorite??????

Cowboy Take Me Away

So this years girls camp theme was Cowgirl Up.

So each cabin needed to come up with a ranch name and a brand to represent them.

So the YCL2'S (Youth Camp Leaders-17 year olds) decided to be the

Ditsy Chicks-Cowboy Take Me Away

Pictured below is our main cabin decorations:

Just some cowboys from our hood. Here are 6 of the 8 YCL2's on our way into Lomia.

We are so blessed to have this beautiful camp to stay at every year.

I love everything about this place!

It's so gorgeous and you just feel good as you walk around it.

Definately one of my happy places!

So like I said, my camera broke on the first day of camp so I just have a few pics from that day.

Me and Jess were just a little excited!!!
I was so blessed to get to work with one of my BFF's for my camp calling this year.
Jess and I were responsible for planning all the firesides at camp!
(A fireside is a basically a meeting at night where we all gather and have a good time.)
It was a huge job, but Jess and I make a great team and things went really really well!

The first night there's generally an onstage game show. So since this year was all about courage we decided to do Couples Fear Factor. Each of the YCL2's picked a character and teamed up to do 3 stunts. We had:
Barbie and Jessie
John Wayne and Calamity Jane
Sammy and Niesha (The young women always win!)
And....
Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift
Me and Jess LOVED being those two!!!


The first stunt was one that we filmed in Mesa before we left. One partner jumped off the high dive holding a bucket and swam over to the other partner who then had to save 5 birds from the bottom the pool. Whoever did it the fastest won the stunt. And the slowest couple was eliminated.

The second stunt was the infamous food stunt.

The remaining contestants each had to eat a quail egg.

For the third stunt, one partner was suspended in the air (sitting in a hammock hanging from the rafters) and shooting a marshmallow gun into a bucket held by the other partner. The team that had the most mallows in in 45 seconds won.

Oh and also for the first night...a special treat for the estrogen charged girls....a boy video featuring all the hotties from our hood. Giving them advice, telling what they want in their dream cowgirls, and of course...dancing. I think I may have gone a little deaf as they watched it.

The second night was skit night. Every ward performs a 3-4 minute skit that has something to do with their ranch and the camp theme.

But we decided to spice up the night a bit so we did the CMT Awards.

(Camp's Magnificent Talents)

They were hosted by the Taylors, who in turn introduced lots of famous guest stars who presented each ward with a belt buckle for their skit.

Some presenters:

Brad Paisley

Garth Brooks

Carrie Underwood

Miranda Lambert

Lady Antebellum

Rascal Flatts

It was such fun night!

Then for our final night, it was Bishops night. All the Bishops come up to spend time with their girls. So we had a Bishops Rodeo. First we showed a video featuring all the bishops telling us about their secret strengths, why they were going to win. Then they competed in 4 events. Roping their wives, oily pig relay (vaseline watermelon), pin the flower on the pony, and a hokey pokey dance-off.

Then each word performed a song for their bishop written especially for him.

It was a great night!

But it's not just the fun stuff that makes camp so great! Every night after the fun part of the fireside we do something spiritual. The first night we went on a scavenger hunt to find a Cowgirls' Happily Ever After. It was based off of President Ucthdorf's talk from the YW conference and was so great!

Night two- we started the night by singing a song about standing as a witness of Christ.

"Like Esther in her courage, like Joseph in his faith, like Ruth in her devotion, like Nephi in his strength. I will stand for truth and righteousness reflecting heaven's light. And my life will be like a beacon in the night. For I will stand as a witness of Christ."

Then we walked out into the woods where we sat and each of the people from the song came and spoke to us. Telling their stories and admonishing us to stand as a witness of Christ. The last person to speak to us was Nephi who was being portrayed by our stake president, my dad. After he told his story he asked us to make a commitment to stand for truth and righteousness. Anyone who was willing to make the commitment was asked to sign two picture frames which I'm told are going to have a picture of Christ in them and will hang in our Young Womens room.

For the last night we were taken through the life of Christ through beautiful artwork. One at a time a member of the priesthood would come out with a picture of an event from Christ's life and talk about it. The spirit was so strong.

In addition to the firesides, during the day we go to classes and workshops. Their was one workshop that touched me especially. It was called When Life Gives You Lemons and it was all about trials and how to deal with them and why we have them etc. It was just what I needed. So so great.

Yes, my fiancee Taylor Lautner was our cabin's brand. We put a hat on him and took him to flag every morning.

In addition to firesides, I got to teach certification for the second year girls. One of the things they needed to learn to pass onto the next level was fires, so we made EDIBLE CAMPFIRES!!!

Very fun and very yummy!!!

All in all, camp this year was beyond amazing. I'm so blessed to be a Young Woman and have experiences like this!! I can't wait till next year, but sadly it'll be my last one!

Getting older is sometimes not fun!

11 DAYS TILL MY SENIOR YEAR!!!!!

High School Happiness

Believe it or not, there is such a thing!!

Thank goodness.

In fact, this year, the happiness has been equal to or MORE than the horrors, which is amazing! I think it's because even if you have less happy than horror, the happy means more, thus creating equilibrium.

Wow big word.

Okay moving on to the point.

Picture this with me. It's Tuesday, the last full day of the school year. Wednesday and Thursday are both final days which means half day. So Tuesday was the last day I would see EVERYONE. So how did I want to be remembered? Just look at the pictures. Bo Lao Shi-the most patient, longsuffering, and otherwise awesome Chinese teacher ever!
Brother Sell-greatest seminary teacher known to mankind.

The 3 Stooges

Now here comes the story:

It's Tuesday circa 6:45 am.

Last day of A-hour seminary.

But we weren't having a lesson, just chillin' signing yearbooks etc.

Me, Ed (Steph), and Hannah are sitting there wondering aloud where in the world Karla is because she PROMISED she'd come.

So I comandeer Hannah's phone so I can give Karla a piece of my mind.

And she claims to be landing her mother ship at seminary in approximately 15 minutes.

So I say, "let's jump on her when she gets here."

And Hannah, being BRILLIANT, says

"I still have those dress-ups in my car from the anti-prom party."

(Another post soon to come.)

"We should get dressed up and jump on her!"

So we got dressed and waited.

Ready to pounce.

And pounce we did!

I think we almost gave poor Karla a heart attack, but it sure was fun!

Anywho, we promptly got Karla into a stupid outfit.

Then we all made a pact to wear the clothes for the.entire.day.

YES!!!!

And we decided to keep our motives a secret.

If someone asked Stephanie why she was wearing her outfit, she said "Ask Karla"

If Karla was asked, she said "Ask Natalie"

If I was asked, I said, "Ask Hannah"

And if Hannah was asked, she said "Ask Stephanie"

It took everyone till about third hour to get that it was all a huge loop.

It was seriously one of the greatest days of the entire year.

Bless dress-ups forever and ever.

Amen.

Reason Number 336 Why I Love Steven!!!!!

So you remember Steven? Yup, that's him.

I love him.

Ready for the latest reason?????

Every year at WW the week before Valentines day is Love Week.

It's a tradition that every student in the school gets a heart with their name written on it hung up in the hallway. Well this morning I saw my heart and this is what it looked like:

Do you see the two little words?

Yeah someone wrote that.

A close up:

If you can't read the words it says;
"You're Ugly"

Yeah, sad huh.

I mean it's obviously not a huge deal, I mean I don't hang my happiness on how people view me!

But still.....

Well I told Steven about this and look at what he made me:

If you can't read the sparkles it says

"Is Hot"

So he made that specially for me and taped it to my back for teh rest of the day!

See why I love him?

It was seriously so sweet!

He's so good to me!!!!

Challenge for the day:

Go tell someone you love them.

It just might make their day.

**********************************

Susannah has a beautiful smile, happy is a very good look for her.

Epic In Every Sense of the Word

Well this past weekend was epic for two reasons.

We'll start with this:

I saw Titanic for the first time.

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!

Love. At. First. Sight.

There's something about watching an amazing chickflick in your pajamas with junk food and all your girlfriends!

(Plus Rusty.)

It just made it that much better!!!! Image from Here.

I will marry Jack Dawson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image from Here.

Can we just feast upon him for a moment?

Image from Here.

Now I'm torn!

Who do I love more...

Peeta Mellark or Jack Dawson????

What say you?

Now for the main event:

The Cocopah Half and Full Marathon

Yuma, Arizona

Saturday, January 23rd

After my grandpa's death in September, some of the family decided to participate in his memory for his birthday which would have been this month.

My sisters Emily and Bekah, and my Aunt Johnelle sprinting in from the Half.

Bekah's biggest fans!

I told Emily to show me what champions look like, this is what she came up with.

Em with her #1 cheerleader! Her hubby Brett!

Barely awake but ready to cheer on the fam!

Sister Sarah and Aunt Pam finishing the Half!

Bekah went back and ran the last mile with them.

Aunt Kathy and Sam ran the last couple yards as well.

Victory!

Can I just say that my dad is a stud????

The man is 53 years old and ran a FULL MARATHON IN 4 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!

My Super Sisters!!!!!!!

All the girls!

I love my family!

This was such a great event to witness!

Between the two races, we had 11 runners and ALOT of cheerleaders all wearing our red Team Reg shirts.

If you click on any of the pictures you can see the shirts better.

Under the Team Reg it says:

"Still Hangin' in There"

One of many Regisms that my grandpa was known for is this:

"I'm still working on my S.H.I.T. program."

Man I miss that guy!

Image from Here.

In other news, I missed EverybodyNose's Birthday!!!!

As of January 15th, this here blog has been alive for one year!!!

It's been a great one!

Here's to many more!!!!!

Crazy Kids and a Cowch

So the other day Jessica was driving down Brown and Horne and saw this awesome Cowch.

She told me about it and we KNEW we had to go take pictures.

And here's what we got: Yeah its blurry but at least they're in the air.

And daaang Rusty's got hops!

I'm laughing by the way...

His face made my day.

I thought of the wicked King Noah when I saw this.

B-ritt and Sammy playing patty-cake.

My friends are so cute!

Flexing their triceps brachii, heck yes I've been paying attention in anatomy!

Rusty was naughty.

No comment.

Can I just say that I have the best guy friends ever?

This one made me so happy!!!!

I love how Brittni's the only one making a normal face.

Have a happy MLK Day!!!!!!!