Yay for Thanksgiving

I had so much fun at Ella and Charles house. It was a very long drive, but I had so much fun!!! (I didn't even realize that I had repeated myself about having fun.) We knew them when they were in our English ward in Japan. I hadn't seen them since I was in 2nd grade. They came and stayed over at our house a couple of weeks ago to go to the temple. Ella and Charles were as shy as I had remembered them. But all of the sudden they opened up and were just as crazy as me and Tashi. Which made me like them even more - they're just like me when it comes to making friends. I'm really shy around people until I get to know them a little bit. Age didn't really matter. We both love Hollister.
Their kids have the coolest names!!! Eleanor (Ella), Charles, Lucinda (Lucy), Isabella (Ibby), and Phineas (Phin). Baby Phin is the darlingest thing ever. Even Gracie likes him.

Somebody brought a frogs-eye salad to the dinner. Luckily, because aunty gina told me there was pineapple in it a few days ago, I was able to stay as far away from that as I could.

We played so many games. We jumped on the trampoline. And had a potty parade (everyone has to go to the bathroom at the same time after Thanksgiving dinner). They live in a 1918 house. It's so cool. Their family has the most amazing hot chocolate ever. And we got to have Japanese food for dinner the night before Thanksgiving. I felt at home. There's nothing like laughing your guts out with people you don't know very well and having contests to see who can eat the most whipped cream.

Yay for $7 purchases at Hollister

You just want to hold him

Me and Ella have the exact same pair of jeans, we didn't buy them at the same time though

Our Hollister coats even looked alike. With our matching jeans. This picture makes me look short

We're folding napkins!!!

Noah and Ibby playing with Fisher Price pilgrims

Our moms bought Mia and Lucy matching shirts at Gap

The boys just played basketball like the whole time


Charles "goes when he goes" haha I couldn't fix the red eye in that one eye

I took this picture on my mom's camera. I like the lighting

Baby Phin and his mommy

My dad on the computer. Like always

The teenager table

Hope you had as fun of a Thanksgiving Day as I did. We go to the Rodenbergs on Saturday after they get back from Oklahoma yayyayayayayyayayayaya

Turkey Day

Yay for Thanksgiving. We are driving 2.5 hours to our friends house to stay over!!! I will read Brisingr on the way. It is the most amazing book ever. And I'll sleep. Oh glorious sleep. And eat until my guts hurt. And take lots of pictures.

I will get to relax. My 15 page paper is turned in, my rundraiser went better than I thought it would, (which is due the day I go back to school after Thanksgiving), I paid back my phonebill, I got lots of hours, so I'm not in the hole anymore. My final exams won't be as hard as I thought they were going to be (and I don't have a final exam in my college class - happy day!)

So all I need to focus on basically is the ACT (which ties my stomach up in knots just thinking about it) and my 15 minute presentation on my 15 page paper. Hopefully it will just be like giving a talk in church, Only, I have never given a talk that long. Oh well. I'm too relaxed to worry about those things. If I finish Brisingr, I can go on to New Moon and Eclipse. Reading relaxes me beyond belief.

Hooray Hooray Lexi is happy

Twilight Squees Your Pants Off

I saw Twilight on Friday!!! It exceeded my expectations. The only 2 things I would change are:
1. I wish they would have talked about Jasper's power
2. They could have done more with the hospital scene at the end

"Could you believe that, despite everything I’ve put you through, I love you, too?"
- Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 20, p.418

What if I’m not a superhero? What if I’m the bad guy?
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 5, p.92

Do I dazzle you?
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 8, p.168

Do you truly believe that you care more for me than I do for you?
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 10, p.208

I told you — you don’t see yourself clearly at all. You’re not like anyone I’ve ever known. You fascinate me.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 12, p.245

Yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 13, p.268

The blush on your cheeks is lovely.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 13, p.275

I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here as long as you need me.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Chapter 24, p.471

I’m sorry if there’s been some kind of miscommunication, but Bella is unavailable tonight. To be perfectly honest, she’ll be unavailable every night, as far as anyone besides myself is concerned. No offense. And I’m sorry about your evening.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Epilogue, p.483

He called you pretty. That’s practically an insult, the way you look right now. You’re much more than beautiful.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Epilogue, p.493

I’m not worth it.
Edward Cullen, Twilight, Epilogue, p.497

I am not obcessed, Nick. I have not read the series 8 times, and I didn't go to the midnight showing. I was just afraid the movie would be stupid and it wasn't!!! Yay!!!

Midnight Twilight

My 15 page paper is done Done DONE!!! It's printed off and everything. That's a big relief. And I am like the ONLY person not going to the midnight showing of twilight. And every girl will be talking about it at school tomorrow. Ugh. I won't see it until Friday or Saturday night.

But I'm really liking Kristen's dress. Him wearing the all black, not so much.


But I am really excited!!!

UTAH UTAH UTAH

I'm about to lose it.

1. My 15 page paper is due on the 24th, we don't have a printer
2. My cellphone bill was $98 (I'm having to rake leaves for my parents to pay it back)
3. So I have negative amounts of money (and don't know how I'm going to get the $5 to see Twilight this weekend)
4. I have a 12-15 minute formal presentation about this 15 page paper on Dec. 10
5. I have final exams Dec. 8-11
6. I'm getting no hours at work
7. I have a fund-raiser for our junior prom
8. I'm taking the ACT for the first time on Dec. 13

Seriously, 12-15 minute presentation? I'm a fast talker. And who makes teenagers sell fruit for their fund-raiser? At least the sophomores sold candy bars which were cheap and yummy, but since this fruit is expensive, we have to beg adults. My friends would really have to love me if they're willing to shell out $24. Fruit. Fruit. Fruit. Migoodness. I'm running out of time on my paper. I'm stressed that I'll do really bad on the ACT. I'm afraid I won't pass my college class (the paper and presentation are half my grade). I'm trying to grow out my hair for prom.

But if I get through all of this...

my reward is going to UTAH for Christmas!!! And I get to miss a couple of days of school for it!!!
That's one reason why I'm so stressed out about money...

So I'm isolated at home for the week, except for tomorrow. I'm working for the first time in almost 2 weeks. And we have a talent show for mutual. But I seriously need to buckle down on this paper.
*peaceful utah thoughts*

Twilight

I'm reading Twilight right now. Because I need to read it again before the movie comes out!!! I try to find time at school and on the bus to read it. I go into my own little world. Twilight's my favorite book out of the 4.

But the reason why I do like reading it, is because I do have somebody that dazzles my frequently. ahahahaha

Yay for Nov. 21

Veterans Day

We went to Springfield, Illinois as a family today. It was a long drive, and very gloomy and cold. We toured the Lincoln's home. We all got to touch the hand railing on the stairs that Abraham Lincoln touched every day. The museum was amazing. I got lost from my dad and Tashi on a walk though tour. So I was taking my time all alone. Seeing the wax figures of a black slave family being torn apart because they're all being sold to separate places...a darkened room with a casket lit up (representing Lincoln's body touring the country)...pictures of all the dead soldiers...it really hit me. I'm so glad to be an American. But I will never forget growing up in Japan. I always wonder how much simpler and how different my life would have been if I hadn't grown up there...
But if the founding fathers wouldn't have done what they did, if the soldiers in the revolutionary war hadn't sacrificed for what they thought was right, we wouldn't have had a free country. There wouldn't have been freedom of religion, and so our church wouldn't have started and my parents wouldn't have met Dr. Samejima (a member of our church) and we wouldn't have gotten Mia and Noah from Japan. 99% of my best friends in Japan are members of the church.
Just thinking about it that way really put it into perspective.
How much more good would have come if George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Joseph Smith hadn't died early deaths?
What would have happened to our country if they hadn't existed, or stood up for right?
They were all amazing men. And I am very grateful for them.

Here's the Gettysburg Address:



And Sullivan Ballou's last letter to his wife. I bawl like I baby every time I read, watch, or hear this. Oh goodness. This was a good man too.

Psychology

My college psychology teacher is psychotic. (very ironic)
I could tell a million different stories about her and how our whole class complained about her to the principal. She told on a girl in my class that was staring at her. This girl got in trouble. What?! She's in the front of the room talking. We're supposed to be listening to her and taking notes. Of course we're supposed to be looking at her. In fact she gets really angry at her if we flip through our textbooks etc. while she's talking. What else are we supposed to do? She keeps telling us we're going to wish we had her back when we go on to real college.
And she's making us write a 15 page paper, along with a 15 minute presentation on it. And then of course there's final exams. I'm so happy that I'll be done with that horrible class at Christmas. I am throwing myself a party when it's done and over with.
So I'm frantically trying to write this 15 page paper, due the 24th of November. ALA style, summarizing 5 medical journals and stating our opinion. My paper is on schizophrenia. Let me tell you, summarizing medical journals is not fun.
And this is ridiculous. I've talked to real college students and they've never had to do any sort of paper that long. The college speech class's longest speeches were 8 minutes long. *sigh of despair*
The paper and presentation are half my grade. Hopefully it goes over well.
I will be writing frantically until the 24th, trying not to write on my blog or get on facebook...

WCC Honor Choir

I went to WCC honor choir last Tuesday. We drove to Western Illinois University, and basically sung our guts out all day. We went over songs that we had only been over a couple of times and tore them apart. We were working an hour on each song. No talking to anyone around you, sitting straight up on the edge of your seat, sometimes standing for a long time. Yes, it was hard.

But it was so fun to have a choir big a loud and professional looking. He made us practice standing up and sitting down so many times. He also let us watch his chorus class sing some songs. They were crazy good. It made us feel like little kids.
And of course this was all on election day.

The concert that parents could come watch started at 7 pm. So I was itching wanting to know what was going on with the election. I wore my republican glasses.

Almost every song we sang, Dr. Stegall would say, I know this composer!

We sang:

Gate Gate (buddhist new age song)
The Last Words of David
The National Anthem
Christmas Time is Here (from Charlie Brown Christmas)
True Light (this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...)
etc

We started with the national anthem, and when we sang it, I had this really strong feeling that America's still going to be okay. And even though the election results weren't my favorite, just the fact that we have the freedom to support and vote anybody we choose.
It was kind interesting that from the very beginning of Last Words of David, it says "He that ruleth over men, must be just, ruling in the fear of God"

Here's 2 videos of Gate Gate and Last Words of David - not of our school, but just so you can get a feel for what these songs sounded like

Last Words of David


Gate Gate


And the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Last Words of David: (it's a really hard song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBnLIzZuNNM

Obama

I am am extremely disappointed with the results of Tuesday's elections.

I know that our country needed a change, and I do admire Obama for a lot of reasons, one of them being that he is an amazing public speaker. I also think that is it great that we all have just witnessed history. One day we are going to look in our daughter's history book and be like yeahhhh I remember that night! It showed that our country is moving forward. And I am not racist at all, I'm sick of hearing that from people who just have no clue whats going on.

I do not agree with a lot of Obama's views. The first one being his religious views. He claims to be such a Christian and everything, now but if that is true then why didn't he get sworn into congress on the Bible? Did you know that he went to a Muslim school for 2 years? And was raised as a Muslim by his Muslim step father. That is something that concerns me because religion is a very important part of my life and I dont want someone running our country who I do not believe is strong enough in his faith. But you can't judge him on only this issue right?

The 2nd thing is his views on abortion, he thinks that it is right to kill babies, living, breathing, babies, human lives. How is it okay not to value human lives? He also supports third term/partial-birth abortion. Which is leaving babies to die after they have been born. Do you know how many loving couples want to have babies so bad and Obama thinks that it is okay for them to just be killed. I'm sorry but that really bothers me. Deeply. Especially in our family.

I know our country needs a change but I don't think that they quite understand the extent of the change that our country is about to go through. It is actually a very scary thought. And it concerns me extremely. I really can't get past the fact that someone who isn't centered on Christ is going to run our country. He was also quoting as saying that he was going to change our country's flag to a symbol to "hope and love" and change our national anthem because the words "bombs bursting in air" suggest war. I'm sick of hearing all day that I'm a racist! Because, for me, this has nothing to do with his race, it has to do with his views and character. That is just my personal opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I could go on forever about this. I really hope I'm wrong and Obama turns out to be an awesome president and gets this country back on its feet but at the moment I'm scared.

I really wish I was voting this year. If I was just 11 months older...
I wasn't super into the politics until I just barely found out what Obama will support if he is voted president.

I didn't even know what "partial-birth abortion" was until I found out Obama was for it. When I heard what it was, my stomach lurched and I wanted to cry. But that's not the only thing.

I could write so much about this, but I found this on Kelly's husband's blog. And this is exactly how I feel. He just says it better. Click here to go to his blog and watch the videos. I love Kennedy's statements: "Obama eats babies" and "I won't live to be a teenager if Obama is voted president". Ooooh I'm nervous for Tuesday night. Don't you like what me and Kennedy went and bought at Rue 21?