Boot Camp!!!

For the joy of all those who read consistently and get angry when I'm slow at writing new posts... here's a new one! ;)

Tonight I attended BOOT CAMP! The most killer thing of all killer things! (well at least I think so) Tonight I realized how weak my arms really are. While trying to do push ups and lifting one arm off the ground, my other arm was shaking so much I literally fell on myself. Of course that was after earlier stretches, but still I don't think I've ever been that shaky. Anywho! my arms kill, my thighs ache, my triceps are burning and I'm surprised I can move my hands enough to write this! Then again I better be able to move again soon... I still have homework to do. :( Well It was tricky and very difficult! But after the burning sensation leaves and your body is numb to the aches and pains, its not all that bad. ;) Hopefully tomorrow when I'm dancing, I won't kill over and fall on the other girls. :p

If anyone is considering boot camp as an extra-curricular activity that gets you in shape, I definitely recommend it! Try it out and see what you think!

Spring Break Babysitting Memories

So whenever my parents go out of town for the weekend, me being the oldest, I'm left to babysit the girls. I'm not complaining or anything, it can be lots of fun! Well This time was special! Me and Maddy usually try to find something obscure and random to do so that the little girls think we're cool older sisters! So this time we decided Water Works!

With the hose and a wall (and of course oursleves) we can make art! Check it out!

This is Emmy and Olivia's water mark

We also had some water fun!

Happily Never After

****SPOILER ALERT****

I'm revealing information about the movie Becoming Jane so if you haven't seen it, see it now! haha

Just a month ago I watched Becoming Jane. For as long as I can remember I've always loved Jane Austen books. They were some of my favorites, so watching the supposed movie of her life was pure joy to me. Well I always new Jane never married but as much as I like the truth I Love Happy endings. Her's is not the happiest. Happy endings do not always come to the Good-hearted.
The whole movie I knew something would go terribly wrong with the man she loved. But I figured he'd pass away which would be sad but I thought it would be tragically happy! Instead someone lead an influential uncle astray. "HOW DARE HE!" I must say that I hated, and yes I really hated, the character who ruined Jane and Tom's happiness. Everything would have been perfect and gone so well, even though they would be poor they would have been sincerely happy! But NO! some stupid guy had to get in the middle and just ruin everything. Although Jane and Tom did not blame the other for the problems that came between them they were seperated and didn't hear from or see each other for many many years. How sad to love someone so much just to torn from them due to someone else. Ok ok I know it wasn't only that guys fault. The way Tom and Jane thought also hindered things but honestly I could not forgive the injustifiable character who ruined that happily ever after. Happy endings do not always come to the good-hearted.
Well after a month of letting the character injure my thoughts I realized that there was no point to getting angry. Its all in the past, and because Jane was heartbroken she wrote the beautiful novels that I love so dearly! I suppose that through the hardest trials, those who endure become the most beautiful of all, on the inside and outside. :)

So i've decided... That I want to write a novel! Haha this will peobably take many years (and many editors to fix my mistakes) until I can publish. But just you wait! I will find a way to relay all my thoughts through stories! :D And I will make sure all my female heroines get everything they deserve and more!

Newest Book!

Haha to respond to Kristin's comment, Yes, the Goose Girl is one of Shannon Hale's books and Enna Burning is the next in the series. Well my 13 year old cousin wrote out a list of books that I should read this year! One of them being the Goose Girl! And yes I read it! :) Haha that makes the 3rd book in the past two weeks and thats amazing with all the schooling I have this semester! :) Yay! haha So I finished Goose Girl today. It is an amazing book! I think it is one of my favorites now! ;) Oh the woes of being a princess who talks to birds.... It is a fabulous book! And once I write a list of all my recommended reads this will be near the top! ;) I LOVE BOOKS! :)

BOOKS!

Wow its been way too long! Sorry all you dedicated fans! haha :p Well I've been keeping up on my reading as of late and I just finished 2 books this week and I'm starting another tonight! Can't you tell, I love books! :)

Alright the First book I read recently was titled Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. If no one has read any of her books please read Ella Enchanted first. The movie is completely different and the book truly is much better! THEN... you should read Fairest! Its really interesting! And every moment when you think the story will go one way, totally changes and it really keeps ones interest! :) [Side note: This book will probably be favored among girls, sorry guys, you can read it but I'm not so sure it would be a favorite of yours.] Its like a chick flick for a book with adventure and spells and evil mirrors and bad fairies, man eating ogres, goblins and more! :) but you boys wouldn't enjoy it ;)

The second book I recently finished is called Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I know I know you all are thinking gee Maureen you're reading little kid books now. I would say these are more early-teen books, thank you, and It is really a good book. Like Fairest it keeps you guessing the whole way through, and it slowly unravels. Its about a girl who thinks she's too weak to do anything. She lives up in the mountains and has to overcome many trials, from a horrible tutor to a gang of bandits who try to kill her, to fully understand her life and purpose!

OK I know you again are all thinking, well Maureen really likes these girl power stories... (Trevor) But whats wrong with that I ask you? For once the prince doesn't have to save a damsel in distress, she can do it on her own! Haha alright I'm done rambling now. I suggest these books to anyone who is bored, girls and guys. But I still figure girls would like them more than boys. ;) READ ON!

The Dull Life of the Average Teen Girl

So as far as it goes, and average teen girl is very conflicted in the jaws of Life. It is a complicated road, a narrow winding path that sometimes leads to a dead end so we just have to turn ourselves around, pull ourselves off the ground and look for something good!
We all face trials, and the average teen girl gets, well about the average fair share of hers. She has to be bullied a bit, go through all her awkward stages feeling completely alone and she has to face her worst nightmare...Boys. Yep the scariest things on the planet! Right next to crocadiles of course.
Boys are terrifying! They stop your heart at any given moment, make you rave like a lunatic on how cute they are, make you overthink EVERYTHING, Drive you insane, give you those puppy dog eyes which of course means only mischief, and much much more. They are one of the most deadly creatures on the face of the planet! Killing girls right and left, of course they're not Exactly dead, just mostly. Which is the worst kind. Each girl who has been "killed" by one of these characters endures remorse, grief, pain, an undeniable longing to shed many tears, and a sense of hopelessness, and this side effect lasts many moons, in fact usually months if not longer. It is a bitter sweet taste that hangs over each of these average girls. They were brought in to like something so wonderful and then thrown down a garbage shoot the next second.
*Sigh* whatever will be done? I suppose Boys just need to overcome this "scaryness" and I have just the Idea. Missions! But will they help? Stay tuned for the next episode of The Dull Life of the Average Teen Girl.

Continuing Where We Left off

Sally and Tristan stepped out onto land and looked around them. It was an eerie island, covered with dense fog. Sally had heard of thick fog and how sometimes it can create magic among the forest, or maybe she had just read a story about it... Well She decided she wanted to take a look around the island. Tristan looked worried as if they were about to die, and shook his head. "Come on" he said "We need to get back to the boat."
"NO! I want to have an adventure" She said. She glared at Tristan. He glared back. Then he started to look worried again. Sally thought What a baby! He can't leave his parents alone for another day? She sighed then walked further into the forest.
"SALLY!" Tristan moaned. But he scampered after her following closely behind.
After a while of walking in circles Tristan muttered under his breath "You're going to get us lost, we need to get back to the boat." Sally just sneered at him and kept walking.
Almost an hour went by and they hadn't seen anything besides the tall green trees, moss covered ground and absurdly dense fog. But Sally could not stop now, not until she saw something magical in the fog.
Another hour went by and now Tristan was mad. "Sally I'm not playing anymore games. We're going back to the boat. NOW!" Sally was always yelled at and was used to it. But there was a sense of urgency in his voice and so for once in her life she obeyed. "Alright. But if I notice anything on the way back we have to stop and look at it first."
They headed back to the boat and Sally smelled the smoke strongly now. She looked everywhere searching to see if she could find out what it was. Finally she saw something red in the distance. She started running toward it. Tristan noticed he couldn't hear her footsteps behind him anymore, and turned just in time to see her blue cape flash behind a tree. He ran after her hoping to not lose his way. When he found her she was standing a few feet away from a small pond staring up into the trees. He ran over to her side and looked up. 20 ft above his head were a pair of rather large red eyes, Dragon eyes.

*To Be Continued...Again!*

Saving the Best for Last

Can you imagine me ever not being able to come up with at least Some thing to say? Well I have nothing to say, nada, nunca, nothing at all! sad day. So i'm going to share with you a story.

Running Amuck

In a country, across the wide open water, lived a little elf named Sally. Sally was an incredibly frustrating elf! She would run all over the woods throwing toilet paper up in the branches while the trees were asleep. Then right before leaving the forest she'd shout out loud so that all the trees saw her running away with empty tp rolls. She would then go to the village to cause more havoc. Flowers lost their petals mysteriously, crops would be partially eaten then left for the crows, anything that wasn't firmly in the ground was tipped over... Sally just wasn't a good elf.
One day a clever boy came to town. He wasn't an elf but a human, he'd crossed the wide waters and come with gifts of the most peculiar kind. He had been sent by the King of the country across the wide water to try to convince some elves to come back to visit the king. The elves were all astonished. They didn't know what to think of the king. They had heard that the King was a mean man who treated any other species unfairly, and none of them wanted to go back with the boy. The boy begged for at least one to come back with him. Finally one of Sally's neighbors pushed her to the front of the crowd and the rest of the elves cheered! They were glad to finally get rid of Sally and her mean ways. So Sally agreed to go back with the boy. She wanted a new adventure away from all those annoying elves.
While on the trip over to the King's country, she learned a bit about the boy. His name was Tristan and he had worked in the kings palace almost all his life. His mother and Father were the Kings cooks, so he was the official errand boy. He had practiced sword fighting whenever he could, and was planning on going a great adventure some day to fight the mighty dragons. Sally listened because there was nothing else she could do in the boat. It took them a week and a half to get across the wide waters. For the first time in Sally's life she was bored. She had nothing to do but listen to this boy who talked about nothing but this far away kingdom and his family. She would roll her eyes for him to see whenever she could. 3 days went by and Sally was soooo bored. She slept and ate and ate and slept and listened to Tristan and rolled her eyes and made designs in the water with her finger.
On the fourth day of their voyage Sally smelled smoke. She wondered if they were close to any land. She looked around and saw a small stream of smoke rising to the north. She wanted to know what it was so she told Tristan to turn the boat that way. But Tristan didn't want to go north. He wanted to go west to his family. Sally stared him down for a minute or so then said, "so much for all your hopes and dreams. You aren't ever going to go fight Dragons. You may know how to fight, which I doubt, but you are to scared to leave your mom and dad. What adventure will you go on? One where your mom and dad follow every step you take? Some adventure! You're lame!"
Tristan stared her down for a minute, scowling, then slowly turned the boat northward. They headed toward the smoke for another day or so before actually reaching something that looked like land. It was a small dark island no bigger than the Kings castle, that had a constant fog surrounding it. It was rocky and had few trees, but something smelled delicious, so Tristan and Sally decided to take a look.

*To be continued...*

8 Pieces of Eight

Ok Aubrey Tagged me to do this, so here it goes...

Eight things I am passionate about:

~The Gospel

~Singing (really truly!)

~Reading

~Family!

~Friends

~Rain!

~Beautiful smells (memory smells)

~Love :)

Eight words or phrases I use the most lately:

~"Good Grief!" (Said Just like Charlie Brown)

~"Oi Vey!"

~"I'm soooo tired!"

~"Are you excited for Christmas?" (Mostly used at work)

~"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" (Again used at work)

~"What?"

~"Um...I don-know"

~"Go away-ay" (I stole that phrase from a moose)

Eight things I want to do before I die:

~Fall in Love! (I know, its the first on my list, and Sorry I stole it from Aubrey)

~Serve a mission! I'm SOOO Excited!

~Finish College and get a degree in some major :)

~Learn at least 3 Languages other than English

~Have a Family!

~Travel to Many other Countries!

~Touch someone else's life, inspire someone else

~Serve everyone anytime I can!

Eight things I need right now:

~A BIG hug! Like Jen's! :)

~Fudge! Yum!

~Clarity

~Happiness! (I asked for it for Christmas)

~A major...

~More time.

~More energy! Pretty Please?

~Peace of mind about Everything!

Eight places I want to visit:

~England

~Wales

~Ireland

~Italy

~Jerusalem

~The Amazon

~Niagra Falls

~My grandparents house! I love it!

Eight favorite restaurants:

~Outback

~Olive Garden

~Charlestons

~Macaroni Grill

~Oreganos

~Texas Roadhouse (actually never been there but Maddy likes it) :)

~Tia Rosa's

~Red Robin (haven't been there either, I haven't been anywhere I guess)

Eight TV Shows I watch:

~Chuck

~Bones

~NCIS

~Pushing Daisies

~Eli Stone

~Maybe an episode or two of House

~Arthur

~CyberChase (haha I love kids shows!)

Eighth picture in the eighth folder:

This is me and my Sadies group back in Sophomore year! ah Good times!

Eight people I tag to do this same post:

Heather, Kristin, Stacey, Chelsea Ellsworth, Sean Hill, Jennifer Freeman, Linndsy Curtis, Kathy!

Christmas!

Its that time of year again! Its cold and chilly, even in Arizona! Everyone's eating hot chocolate, and watching Christmas movies (or the Princess Bride) and everyone is coming in town to spend time with their families! (They're really only here for the friends. haha jk) Its a wonderful time of year! When we spend time with eachother and spread Christmas cheer, helping families out that need a little christmas of their own and caroling to strangers, That is a christmas that helps each one of us feel a little closer to Christ! Sometimes I wonder why it has to be only this one time of year when we feel uplited and joyful, not that it doesn't happen occasionally throughout the year, but It's nice when people of every different faith draw closer to the same goals of helping others and because of it, feel the spirit! Why can't that happen all the time? I love Christmas! So Now that I've told everyone that, I do believe my christmas is complete! :) I love you all! Have a very Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!