I Am a Rock Star.

Mark: How old are you?
Me: (Rolls eyes) I'm 23.
Mark: (Surprised) Oh!
Me: (a little irritated. because 23 shouldn't be surprising.) How old are YOU?
Mark: (taken aback) I'm 23.
Me: Well you know what they say about being 23.
Mark: Yeah, nobody likes you.
Me: (Realizing I just found my new best friend).

Waves

Waves

When all I long for

are deep, deep roots.

Passing me from shore

to Shore,

like a coin from

patron to vender,

again and again -

waves upon waves.

This sea is endless.

I'm sick of remembering

the precious things

of my past,

which now ride waves

of their own.

Do I LOOK Like a Doormat to You?

I never cease to be amazed and disheartened by the selfish people who populate this world.

Remember a few years back when Max Lucado wrote this amazingly sappy book about puppets who put stars and black spots on each other, and the book was called, "You Are Special?" I think he should write a sequel called, "You are NOT Special." Maybe if people read it, they'd realize that their colossal sense of entitlement is entirely mis-fostered, and people are NOT going to give them special treatment, because frankly, they have done nothing to deserve it!

Tears, Idle Tears

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,

Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"End, begin. It's all the same: big change!"

-Augra

...and so ends a summer.

"...But Don't Take MY Word for It!"

Books I've read this summer:

1. My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison

2. Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

3. Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

4. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare

5. Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett

6. Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis

7. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

8. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

9. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

10. Ophelia, by Lisa Klein

11. I, Coriander, by Sally Gardner

12. Lirael, by Garth Nix

13. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Expuery

14. Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones

...and books I would like to read before school starts in two weeks:

1. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2. Abhorsen by Garth Nix

3. Dune by Frank Herbert

4. Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Till We Have Faces was again amazing. It is my favorite book of the summer still, though Howl's Moving Castle is particularly excellent, and Lirael had odd connections to me personally. The Alchemist was good, except for the part where the entire thing was one, huge, self contradiction. The Witch of Blackbird Pond bothered me, and I've decided that it's because it's a historical fiction. I might be morally opposed to historical fictions- I'll let you know how that development goes. The Little Prince was surprisingly familiar, and The Hunger Games made me cry.

Books I'd like to read after school starts but not for school:

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

2. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray

3. The Trial by Franz Kafka

4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

5. Hunger Games #3!

Also, I firmly believe in libraries. Both the public and private kind.

Youth Conference 2010

Palmyra, NY

Margot and Anika

Penelope

Here we are walking in the Sacred Grove. We had a wonderful day, just enjoying the place, and each other. There's something really special about spending time with your family doing something out of the ordinary, making memories.

Someone told Toby to be quiet, because this was a sacred place. "WHY?" he asked(like always). "Because Heavenly Father and Jesus came here." So he started looking for Jesus. Jesus was not satisfactorily found inside the log.

Field in the Grove

Kimber

Makiah: "Where is Toby going?!"

Me: "To pray."

Margot and Toby

The Smith farmhouse

Makiah and Toby, walking up the hill(the mountain, as Margot insisted on calling it).

This is the monument at the top of Cumorah. It has been said that this is the spot where the plates were buried(which is really unimportant, but interesting nonetheless).

Makiah, Nephi, Anika, Margot, Toby

Toby hijacked my camera, and apparently is a bit of a photographer:

This one's Toby's, too:

There are more than 650 costumed volunteer cast members of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It is the world's largest outdoor pageant, featuring a 10-level stage, 12 tower lighting, amazing special effects, including Christ descending from Heaven in a most compelling way, and includes a live person falling off a legitimate cliff. The script was written by Orson Scott Card, an award-winning author, and performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, also award-winning, and called "America's Choir" by President Reagan.

The message of the pageant is "come unto Christ." The hill is a very special place. It is a place of peace.