New Years Eve.

New years eve.  It is a strange feeling.  To think that another year has come and gone, that I am one year closer to leaving the safety of my home and going out there and making it on my own.....*shiver* its a scary thought.  ANYWAYS...we aren't doing much today.  We are going to a New Years Eve party tonight, but beside that...I don't know what I am doing.  There is the New Years Eve dance that I want to go to....but my Dear Wonderful Mother said that I will most likely not attend. :( Oh well.  That's life. lol :D  So I wish the best to everyone, and hope that you are ready for the New Year! :D

McKenna:D

Christmas!

YAY for Christmas!!!!  As you can probably guess, I had a pretty fantastic Christmas.  I had family over and my Mom was home and safe. :D We did Christmas eve differently this year.  Instead of acting out the nativity story, my Dad just read it and the rest of the time the kids were exploiting their talents.  (well....ok.....more like singing and playing the piano as a Christmas gift to my Grandparents.) Christmas day was fun.  We opened presents and played with them and just chilled with family all day.  Well...I hope that all of you our there had a FANTASTIC Christmas!

McKenna

"...Rejoice, rejoice, [my Mom is home]!!!..." :D

Hey y'all!  My Mom got safely home this morning around 3Am.  Yesterday was kind of eventful.  Later in the day my dear Father decided to take a short trip to my Uncle and Aunt's home in Oregon City.  Emmalyn and I decided to stay home.  We thought we might watch a Christmas movie or chat with some friends on Gmail. But alas, our power went out not long after my father was gone.  So we decided o go play outside in the wonderful conglomeration (is that the right word for it??) of snow and ice.  After  a while, Emmalyn brought up the suggestion that we should go to the Gordon's house and sing to them.  Brother Gordon is the second counselor in the bishop brick, and Sister Gordon is in the stake Young Women presidency.  So....we left a note for Dad telling him where we were going, and then started out down the driveway.  They live about 5 minutes away.  So we went to their house and knocked on the door, but no one was home.  So we started to leave.  But as we were walking down their driveway, we see Brother Gordon walking towards us!  He asked what we were doing and we told him that we were going to carol at their house but nobody was home so we were just walking back.  He then said that the reason he was walking down his driveway as opposed to driving the car, was because a great big branch had fallen in the way, so he was going to get a saw.  He told us that Sister Gordon was up at the car so we could go sing our carol. :D  So we walked up and talked to Sister Gordon and helped Brother Gordon get the branch out of the way we sang our carol.  After we finished our carol we were invited back to the house for some hot soup and pie.  The soup was delicious and so was the pie.....we also had Henry's root beer.....yum! :D  After all the food was consumed we talked to them for awhile longer.  We talked about my trip to England and a little bit about how the money works and such. It was fun.  I had a good warm feeling while we were there.  One reason is because they said that they had not ANY carolers at their house ever!...and they have lived in the same house for about 30 years!.....they also haven't had any trick-or-treaters......how sad is that!  So anyways......I felt ver gut, that is very good in German, that we had gone with Emmalyn's prompting and visited the Gordon's.  After that we just chilled at our house until we went to bed.

Well, I hope all of you people's have a FANTASTICALLY, BRILLIANT Christmas!!!!!

LAUGH and SMILE ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D

"....[hopefully you'll] be home for Christmas...."

Well, the snow and the ice have not ceased.  I love the snow and all.....but I'm not liking it so much at the moment.  The reason for this is that my Mother, Grandmother, Uncles and Aunt are in Utah for a funeral, and the weather is not looking to good.  They don't know whether they will be able to make it home for Christmas or what.....so...maybe I'll have to sing it...."...I'll have a blue Christmas without you..."....well...that was exciting...I think I should just stop now. 

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D:D:D:D

P.S...I apologize for all the weirdness.... :D

Christmas party!!!!

12:02 AM

WELL!!....what can I say????  The party was AWESOME!!!  I had a blast!  Almost all of the people I invited came!!  We had a spaghetti dinner, played outside in the snow ( which was REALLY fun!!!..even though some people got kind of mean.) and had played some games!!!  *sigh*  It was fun.....the only thing that wasn't the funnest was.......for some reason I wasn't hitting a lot of people with snow balls!!  I usually have a pretty good aim......I think it was because I have used my SWEET Ninja skills to much today..... oh well, there will be other snow days! :D  OH!!!! I think I should write.....I guess I should say TYPE this down.  While we were singing some Christmas songs, MaKenzie came to the door and said that Annie was stuck with their car at the bottom of our driveway.  So three people, including I, decided to go down to the car and push.  At first we didn't think we would be able to do it.  But after we warmed up our "Sweet ninja skills", we managed to get the car SAFELY into our driveway.  Well.......I should probably go.  Its pretty late.  OH! ONE more thing.....GREGORY ABBOTT!! why didn't you come?! We first needed you to help push the car, and secondly! we needed a bass!!!!.......I was very disappointed in you young man!............but.........I have long since forgiven you.....:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!!:D

McKenna!:D

Friday the 19th!

10:32 AM

Today is my ( ans Emma's I guess....but since this is MY blog I think I'll just say MY...:D )  Christmas party!!!!!  So far it is still a go....but I don't know if the snow that fell last night made ice on the roads or not.... If it is safe for people to drive, my party will be tonight at 5:30.  It is going to be a blast!  I have invited some awesome friends.  We are going to have dinner, then we are going to sing to our hearts content.  After we are done singing, we are either going to play games, or watch a Christmas movie.  FUN,FUN,FUN!! :D:D:D:D:D 

I'll give you an update later..:D:D:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna!:D

This made me smile...and laugh!:D

Inside looking out....

Today has been a pretty good one so far. :D  We did our basic school work this morning, and the rest of it has been spent doing various educational things, communicating with friends...and other miscellaneous stuff...:D:D:D  I have been listening to ALOT of Jon Schmidt lately........I'm trying of learn "All of Me".....It is so beautiful!:) I have the first 3 pages out of 10.....I know, I know....SO impressive..... (Heavy sarcasm...:D...lol)  Well...I should probably start on our family Christmas letter.......YAY for me!!!!

Talk to y'all later!!:D

McKenna!:D:D:D

Tuesday December 16, 2008

So....I didn't do much today. I mostly did school work, sang and played the piano!! Pretty fun I must say. :D  Our party last night was really fun.  We had about 4 families over.  The missionaries also came. :D  We sang lots of great Christmas songs.  I preformed o few songs with people. :)

McKenna!:):):D:D:D

Monday December 15th, 2008

The weather is still pretty nasty.  Seminary is cancelled again for tomorrow.  We are still having our caroling party...but a bunch of people aren't coming because of the weather. :'(  Alot of peoples driveways and roads are really icy, so that is preventing them from coming.  :)  

McKenna:)

News flash...

Just a quick new flash...."The Forgotten Carols" is cancelled. :'(  Its sad...I know..  But be HAPPY anyways!!

McKenna:):):):):):)

P.S There is also NO seminary tomorrow.

Sunday December 14, 2008

Church was canceled today because it was snowing a little bit.  So I am going to just catch you up to date of what has happened this past..day...:)  Yesterday I didn't do much.  I mostly played the piano, sang and was happy.  Oh...I was also on the computer.:)  Tonight our stake is supposed to have a Christmas musical "The Forgotten Carols".  But I don't know if they are going to cancel it or not.  I hope not.  My Mom is singing in the choir, my Dad is playing Handel as an angel and Lindsey and Lauryn are doing something.  It should be good.   Tomorrow night we (my family) are hosting a caroling party and we have invited a bunch of friends over to come sing and have a  great time! :)  

Till next time!!:)

McKenna

P.S Here is a picture of us on Christmas day last year.  I know, I know...sweet Pj's right!?!!!?:):):):)

Friday December 12th, 2008

Today was yet another awesome day! :)  Pyramid Project was great!  Great job on your presentation Kayla!!:):):)  We did an hour long core book study.  I was NO WHERE near to being finished......but that is a OK, it was fantastic! :) We, the Pyramid Project students, are marvelous people!!  We get along great, everyone is supportive.....what more can I say??? :) They are phenomenal!!!  

French was gut...oops thats German for good....hehehehe...I should say BON!!  Thats good in French!!!!

Well its snowing right now.  It is supposed to get REALLY snowy....in fact there WAS talk about people possibly getting snowed in!!............well I'll keep you posted!!!

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:)

P.S  "It's a wonderful life" was pretty good!  I thought it was really cute.  A whole bunch of my friends are in it. :) 

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Today I went to the Temple after seminary with this group of "school homers".  It was really fun!!  I absolutly LOVE going to the temple!!  It makes me extremely happy!!!!!!  We did over 200 baptisms and confermations with about 18 people!!!:):):):):):):) 

Emmalyn and I were supposed to have voice lessons, but my teachers daughter was sick.  At 1:15 Emmalyn and I had an orthodontist apointment....My teeth hurt now....:( For YW's we are going to the high school play "It's a wonderful life".  I'm really excited!! :)  The movie with Jimmy Stewart is AMAZING!!!!!  Anyway......that is my agenda for today!!

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!

:):):):):)  McKenna!

The Court Jester

OK....so I haven't watched all of The Court Jester yet.....but it is SO good!!!!

Here is a link to a scene from it!! It is AWESOME!!:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6of3kMxV6z4

Hope you enjoy it!!:D:D:D:D:D:D

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna:D:D:D:D

Friday December 5th, 2008

Yesterday was a REALLY good day!!  Seminary was good. (Brother Couch taught the Freshmen seminary class because Sister Swertfeger was sick)  After seminary I did the usual routine.  Go home get ready for the day, eat breakfast and start on school.  Then at 9:45 am my Mom drove me to OYLI.  At 10:00 we had devotional.  Mariah had the devotional.  It was a really good one.  It is a subject that is really quite close to my heart.  She read the story "You are special" By Max Lucado.  It is a really powerful story...at least for me.  

 

It is about the Wemmicks , and how they go around putting stars and dots on people for either there special talents such as jumping high or could sing pretty songs.  The wemmicks would put dots on other wemmicks who couldn't sing pretty songs, jump high or would say silly things.  This was especially hard for one wemmick named Punchinello.  He had many dots.  He would try to jump high.  But when he did this, he would just fall and scratch his wood.  When he fell wemmicks  would gather around him and put dots all over him.  Then Punchinello would try to explain why.  Nut when he did he said funny things, so the wemmicks only put more dots on him.   Punchinello would tell himself that he wasn't a good wemmick because he didn't have any stars.  One day Punchinello met a wemmick named Lucia.  Punchinello had never seen a wemmick like Lucia before.  She had no dots OR stars anywhere on her body....she was just wood.  And its not that people didn't put dots on her, its that the stickers wouldn't stick.  They would fall off as soon as someone put it on.  Punchinello said to himself that he wanted to be like Lucia, with no dots or stars.   So he asked her how she didn't have any dots or stars on her."  "Its easy." She said.  "Every day, I go see Eli."   "Eli?" Said Punchinello.  "Yes Eli. The woodcarver.  I sit in the workshop with with him."  " Why?"  "Why don't you go find out yourself?  Go up the hill.  He's there." Lucia said.  Punchinello goes to see Eli.  When he gets to the workshop, he talks to Eli about the stickers that the wemmicks keep putting on others.  Eli tells Punchinello that the reason the stickers don't stick to Lucia is that she doesn't care what the others think of her.  All Lucia cares about is that Eli loves her.  Eli tells Punchinello that he is special because he made him and Eli tells Punchinello that he loves him very much.

.........I'm not the best at story synopsis's...:D Here is a link to the actual story..:D

       http://www.lollie.com/thinkagain.html

  After devotional we split for classes.  Pyramid Project class yesterday was one of my favorite so far. :D  The first thing we discussed was the devotional we just had.  We talked about how people put "Dots" on others.  Brother Waddell asked us WHY? do people do that to others?  We said that people could do it because hey are jealous or insecure with themselves. We then talked about how we sometimes put "Dots" on ourselves.  Brother Waddell wanted us to ponder these questions.  Do I put "Dots on myself?  If so, WHY?  Can I change it?  Do I want to be that way? Will I have the initiative to change it?  If I put "Dots on others will I stop?  

WE pondered this thought for a few minutes and then wrote down what our feelings were.  We also talked about how NO one is perfect.  We are somewhat like airplanes.  You may think airplanes are always on course, but the truth is they are 90% off course while flying to there destination.  So knowing this, we discussed that in our lives we are never completely on course, but like the airplane pilot, we are constantly looking for signals to help us from ending up somewhere we didn't want to be.  Like in the book by Stephen R. Covey,  7 Habits of Highly Effective people,  we must begin with the end in mind.  

Also in class we discussed that to learn and become better people, we must have Initiative and Submission.  Upon these two actions, we can develop: Vision, Mission, Abilities and Skills.  

After we discussed these serious subjects, Lillian gave her presentation.  It was on airplanes.  It was really informative. (..............NARF!!!!!........DOODLE!!!......sorry..... a sudden outburst of craziness....:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D)  After Lillian's presentation we discussed the book "The Phantom Tollbooth".  I highly recommend this book.  Especially to anyone who thinks that there life is boring and that they don't have any fun learning. :D  *sigh*  Pyramid Project is AMAZING!!!!  O mi palabra!!!!!!!!!  

...........I think I'm going to let you into my head for about 15 seconds.......... MY THOUGHT ON LIFE: My life is so AMAZING!!  I have AMAZING friends and FANTASTIC Adults whom I associate with.  They inspire me to do the best that I can do.  I feel SO blessed to live where I am with the family I'm with.  I am also so grateful  for the gospel.  Without it I feel like I would be a completely different person!!:D:D:D  Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!!!

Till I post again!!:D:D:D:D

McKenna!:D

Christmas Song

Here is a Christmas song from the New Era. :)

http://Broadcast.lds.org/Handheld/Magazines/2008/NE_2008Dec/NE_2008_12_00__LittleBaby__.mp3

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!

On the day of the turkey feast, I woke up at 8:15 and I got on my football gear (clothes that can get dirty) and drove to the high school with my Dad to play some football with our ward....plus a few friends from our stake. :)  We played for and hour and a half......or so, then my Dad said it was time to go.  When I got home I took a shower and got dressed in some nice clothes for the festivities.  The I went down stairs to help finish up cooking some of the food.  Family came and we a glorious time.  Eating food, playing games, going into food coma's, it was great fun. :)  That was about it.  Just hanging out with family and bonding.:)  Then the next day we woke up ready to do something....but we didn't know exactly what.....  We tried SEVERAL times to figure out what we wanted to do but.....we couldn't really ever decide.  So we sort of sat around and "bonded" until it was about time to go get some dinner.  Then it took 5 hours to decide where to go. (Exaggeration......sorry...:).....it took ONLY 30 minutes....or longer......) Then we decided to go to Mazatlan (or however you spell it...:)..), a Mexican restaurant.  I'm not a big Mexican food lover, so it wasn't my favorite choice.  Oh well....that's life. :)  After dinner we came home and...you guessed it.....TRIED to decide what to do.  No one could think of anything...and my Aunt Tracy was being taken to the hospital by my Grandpa Rumsey because she has been sick for about 2 weeks so we decided that she needed to see someone about it, so I suggested that we record a song.  My Uncle Andy had all...well almost all of his stuff so we did.  We recorded Angels we have heard on high (which sounds pretty dang good) and a little bit of Dona Nobis Pacem.  Then after that my Aunt Tracy and Grandpa came home....and we discovered that she had bronchitis....and then we played more games!!!:):):)  

Today we woke up and went to breakfast at Sheri's.  Then we went and picked a tree.......then a few hours later it was delivered.  The past few hours we have been setting it up.  When we are finished....which will probably be soon......we are going to record more songs...at least that is the plan. :):)  Well....talk to you later!!!

TWILIGHT!!!!:)

Monday night I went to Twilight with Emma, Mom and My Aunt Katie.  I REALLY liked it!!  So many people have said that it was lame and stupid but I REALLY liked it!!!!  It was really cute!  There are a bunch of places I've been to because they filmed most of it in Oregon.  :)  I think that I'm going to buy it!... What more can I say??!!??  I REALLY, REALLY liked IT!!!!   Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving!!!!!  Happy Thanksgiving!!! :):):)

OK.......I'm done with the pictures now....hehehe:):):):):):)

Voice recital

Well, tonight was my second voice recital!!!!!!!  It went reasonably well!!  I didn't do it perfectly..........but then no one did it perfectly...:)  I messed up a few times but NO one really noticed!!  I was really happy about that!!:):):):)   If I'm brave enough, I will post it!!...:):):):):)

Wednesday Nov. 19th 2008

Yesterday was a great day. Seminary was....well the same as always. : Then I went home and did my math and studied. Then I had voice lessons.........I don't know if I want to talk about it....it was pretty bad. I was completely tense and I got REALLY nervous because the accompaniment is WAY different than the CD, and......most of the first and second run through I was well.....flat. I HATE going flat!!! It is one of my pet peeves I guess. I get really embarrassed!! (FYI......Viewers this is like a journal.......except not as personal as a journal....which is only for my eyes......... but it will have some personal stuff in it...:)...)
I just don't want to screw my performance up!! I don't know what to do.......I think the reason I was flat was because I was nervous AND my shoulders and neck.....and lets face it.....my whole body was sore and tense!! Maybe the tenseness came from stress.......which was provoked by my presentation in Pyramid Project. Shoot me now........ any way......talk to y'all later....:)

P.S If you wouldn't mind, could you cross your fingers for everyone that is participating in the voice recital?? That would be great. :)

November 14, 2008

On Friday in Pyramid Project I had a presentation.  I was really nervous, but it was THE BEST presentation I have EVER had!!!!!!  It was so much fun!!!  It started out as Isaac Newton....but then it went to Astronomy......then to Sextants....then to Navigation.  It was just so fun!!!! :):):):):):)  Talk to ya later!!! :)

Fish and Chips Fest!!!

Thanks to Sister Jenny Nilson last night for the first time ever, we had a Fish and Chips Fest!! It was pretty fun.  The reason I say "Pretty" fun instead of "Really" fun, is because I was SO tired that I wasn't really in the mood for a lot of games.....I still had a lot of fun, just not as much fun as I would have had if I wasn't tired.  We had a lot of people at our house.  A whole bunch of my friends came.... and I would just like to say right now that I am REALLY sorry if I was rude,mean or crabby to any of my friends....I like I said I was very tired.  So I hope that you will forgive me.  :):):)  Other than that, I had a BLAST!!!  :):):):):):) Thanks for coming everyone!!!!!

Laugh and Smile ALWAYS!!

McKenna

My Friends at EFY

I didn't go to EFY this year, so I missed out on this sweet dance routine...:)  I hope that I will be able to go next year to get in on this.

Good job EVERYONE!!!!!!

Here is the link to the video! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D832hPf7ulI&feature=related

Some CRAZY pictures:)

I was looking through some old pictures and I found these.  

I did my own hair....I know..its VERY impressive..:):) 

I also did my own hair for this picture....I don't remember how I did it..:)

There were more pictures but........... I didn't feel like posting them........:):):):):):):):)

Stake Youth Trek

This post is from my older blog.

Stake Youth Trek.

This year I had the opportunity to go on a youth Trek. It was the most spiritual experience I have ever had. It was very challenging at times. Each day we would push our handcarts over hot sandy roads and big bushes that tor up your legs for about 7 miles. We went so fast that they asked us to SLOW down. HA!! We thought we were going slow!  We would reach where we were supposed to be for dinner and camp around lunch time. That meant we got to rest the rest of the day. Can anyone say SIGNS?????? We played signs and do you live your neighbor sssoooo much!! It was AWESOME!!!!! One very spiritual experience was the woman's pull. The woman's pull was where all the men got "called" to serve in the army, so they had to leave all the women behind with the hand carts. After the Men were gone every family got on their knees and prayed to Heavenly Father that we would be able to make it up the steep hill we had to go up to get to the men. After we prayed the handcarts got in a line and then we started up the hill. It was very difficult to push our heavy hand carts up that hill. I have a firm testimony that we were helped by angels. I know that we would not be able to make it up that hill without the help of God. 
After we went around the last bend in the road we saw the men behind a fence cheering us on. When we got close enough to see and hear them clearly, we saw tears running down their faces. They were also singing. My "brothers" told us that we could make it and to get out of the way while they pushed it the rest of the way. And sure enough, as soon as we crossed the fence line all my "brothers" pushed us ( gently ) out of the way. And with tears in their eyes they pushed our hand carts away. We quickly followed them so that other carts could get past the fence line.

There are so many more experiences that I had. I can't write them all down. But when we got to Zion it was a Heaven on earth. Ask me about helping the "families" that got left behind and were across the "river". It was amazing.

November 7, 2008

Yesterday was another excellent class day.  I have so much fun in Pyramid Project!!!  Yesterday Peter had his presentation on LIGHT BULBS.  It was cool.  We learned about different kinds of light bulbs and how they work.  We talked a little bit about energy. Good energy, bad energy.  It was pretty coolio. :) Then we talked about planning our schedule, and that if we don't plan, we are planning to fail....o mi paplabra.  We also discussed the book "Carry on, Mr. Bowditch". That is a really good book.  I counted how many times the phrase "Carry on, Mr. Bowditch" was said, and it was said by Captain Prince 5 times.  After that AWESOME class we went to the kitchen and people started on lunch.  I didn't because my teeth hurt from getting them tightened the day before....ouch!   While people ate lunch I played the piano.  Then Lilly came into the room and said that we should sing songs...Christmas songs.  I don't usually like to sing Christmas songs until December, but I LOVE Christmas songs, and I was asked to play some Christmas songs for seminary in December so I said yes and started playing.  (I LOVE CHRISTMAS SONGS!!!)  But when I started to play Christmas songs I wanted to sing along, but it is really hard to sing and play the piano at the same time.  So I have decided to tell Sister Swertfeger that I don't want to play the piano at Christmas time because I actually want to sing the songs. :):)  Any way....I just started playing the parts so that I could sing to.  It was fun.  At first it was just Lilly,kind of Mariah, and me singing.  Then Greg came in and wanted to sing to.  So we sang more songs.  YAAAAAYY!!!!!  I LOVED IT!!!!!!!  Singing with my friends.....who can carry a tune.  Its great fun. :):):):):):):)  Then I went to French and had French lessons and then afterward I was invited to stay and watch a a British TV series called " Two fat ladies".  It was really funny!!  It was a cooking show but they said the most hilarious things!! hahahahahahahahaa!! It made me laugh.:)  Then I went home and...ya. :):):):)  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE ANDY!!!!!!!!

Today is my Uncle Andy's 23rd birthday!!!!!  He is one of THE greatest Uncles ever!!!!!!  He is so funny and well...just an awesome Uncle!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!!!!!!!!!  Hope you have a great, wonderful, spectacular day!!!!!

Love your Niece,

McKenna :)

November 2, 2008

Last night I, well my Dad, drove a whole bunch of my friends to the Beaverton dance.  People met at the 76 gas station at 7:45 and then we went and picked up my friend Adam Boyce at his house around 8:20..ish.  The dance itself  was pretty fun, but they didn't play very many GOOD songs.  They played about 6 good songs during a 3 hour period.  Oh well.  At least they played one of my absolutely favorite songs,  "You raise me up".  I'm not quite sure who sang it.  It was either Josh Groban or Daniel Beck.  Allot of the songs they played were weird to dance to. They weren't slow songs but they weren't fast.... you wouldn't understand unless it has happened to you before.  I danced 7 slow songs.  One of the slow songs was a girls choice.  NOW I know what its like for a guy to ask a girl to dance.  After the dance we drove people back to the gas station.  We got there around 11:30.  Then Dad, Emmalyn(she drove with Dad...but she didn't go to the dance because she is only 13.) and I drove home and went to bed.  Then we woke up and went to church and then came home and.....well here I am writing down my experiences and thoughts.  Talk to you later. :) Oh that reminds me...........cul8r (pronounced : kuh-lay-ter)  *cough, Rebecca,cough* :):):):):):):):):):)

Halloween!

Yesterday was a busy day. First I had Seminary at 6:00. Then at 10:30 I had class....O mi palabra.......as usual. Pyramid Project is SO mind opening. I LOVE it. :) Then I had to skip French class so that I could go home and get ready for our Halloween Dance performance.  We had three performances. One at five, six and six forty five-ish.  RIGHT after our last performance we went to the Couch's fabulous Halloween party. On the way there Emmalyn and I had to get changed from our green faced witch/Zombie/ghoul costume and into our Dwarf costumes. It was really hard to get all the green face paint off. But we managed.  Once at the Couch's all we did was have fun. :) We played signs (for a little bit), Hugoo, Blind mans bluff, Dance party and Follow the dog.  It was very fun.  

Tonight a whole bunch of my friends and I are going to the Beaverton dance.  I'm excited. :) Dances are really fun.  Lots of music and friends to hang out with.  

Hope to keep you posted:)

McKenna 

October Friday 17, 2008

 I woke up around 6:20am to go to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was great because all of the people that went are good friends of mine. ( except the two people Greg Abbott brought. I didn't know them. They were friends of Greg's from EFY...or so I here.) I think we ended doing around 300 names. 

After we did baptisms we went to OYLI classes. Pyramid Project was, well as Annie Abbott would say " O mi palabra!!" 

Pyriamid Project is so AMAZING its not even funny!  We did a deeper study of Genesis 1:1-6. Brother Waddell has a really cool program that lets you click on a highlighted word and get the Hebrew word and meaning(s) for it. After Pyramid Project people had lunch. Then after lunch Kenzie dragged me up to Shakespeare class to "visit". It was fun. I wish I could do it. But I'm a little bit to busy right now. Mackenzie had her presentation on the roles of people during Elizabethan life....I think.  (By the way....Good job Kenzie!!!!!!!) Then I left with the Nilson's a little bit before Shakespeare was over to go to French, (Which Sister Nilson teaches at her house.) As soon as French was over my Dad came to pick up Me, Rebecca Black, Annie,Mackenzie and Greg Abbott, Peter,Lilly and Daisy Nilson and Colin and Annie Couch to go to my house for a Halloween Party. Everyone I just named plus Adam Boyce, Kayla Nielson, Maddie and Mariah Smith and Emliy Harlon...of course came early for dinner at 5:30...ish. After dinner we played Hugoo...a game I had NEVER played before, and apples to apples until other showed up around 7:oo.

 The Halloween party was hosted my myself and my friend Emily Harlon. I hope everyone had a GREAT time even though it got a little crazy at times.........and  if I offended anyone.....I am DEEPLY sorry. We played a bunch of different games like: Capture the flag....(by the way good job Bryce you almost had the flag!!!!  Sorry for the jail break!) , Follow the dog..which died rather quickly, Do you love your neighbor?,Signs(Thanks for helping with THE falling clock Greg! That would have been REALLY bad.) and MURDER in the dark. That was pretty fun....but the games were SOOO short! They should have been longer...in my humble opinion.   I think I learned from a few mistakes from that party.  I learned that I have friends that are SO different from some of my others friends that when they get together it gets a little.....lets say......testy for some people. You see, some of my friends like to actually play the games that I said we were going to play,( Thanks by the way.) and then other of my friends don't want to play. They rather sit and talk about jewelry or....other things.  I'm not saying that's bad or anything, but in the invitation I said we would be playing outside, so if they didn't want to play and participate in the party why come?  Is that a selfish thing to ask??? Any way I had a great time playing with my friends and learning some German from Kenzie and Greg. I learned- das its gut ( that is good), das its nicht gut ( that is not good), das ist meins(that is mine).  Greg TRIED to teach me to say "that's my pen", but I don't think I quite got it. Its something like - das ist mien schlieber....hhmmm I think that's wrong to...oh well Kenzie said she would try to teach me because I can't take the French and German class even though I REALLY want to.  

P.S You can post comments you know......

Song for Young Women standards Night.

Here is a Song that I am singing with other young women. My friend Lindsey and I are First Soprano's, Emmalyn and Hannah are second soprano's and Bryn, and most likely Zoe, are alto.

Title: Always abounding ( Be steadfast and immovable.)

http://joansowards.com/mp3/youth/AA/Always%20Abounding%20(SSA).mp3

Friday October 10 2008

Today in Pyramid Project we discussed Patterns and Truth.  It is mind boggling to think about everything having patterns and mathematical meaning.  Today we learned a more about patterns.  To do this we ( Kayla,Peter,Lillian and I) each got a plant of our choice and our job was to study our plant and find as many patterns as we could see at the moment. Then after our allotted time was up we discussed the patterns we found with each other. After this exercise we received a multiplication table and were asked if we could see any patterns.  After a while we started to see little things and then big things. After we found a bunch of little patterns Brother Waddell (Our Mentor) showed us a multiplication table that he had played with and he found that if he colored the ones the twos the threes and fours different colors and then colored each number that ended with a one, two, three or four the color he had chosen. He found that made a pattern. Then he asked us what else we could do to see what other patterns we could find in the multiplication tables.  I suggested that you could color in each individual number. For example if the number was 134 you would color the one yellow the three red and the four green. So that was really fun.

Then we talked about how to find truth and is it important.  Then for an activity we had scales and we measured different things and compared things then we did some thinking games. Boy did I feel stupid. One of the things was "How do you fit 'Ten Horses' in nine stalls?" I think I'm going to do that to my family. MWAAAHHAHHAHHH.........forgive my pathetic evil laugh.  After that class was done I went to the Nilsons house for my French class (which was about 2 and a half hours later.) French was really fun. The people taking French are Colin Couch, Maddie Smith, Rabecca Black and myself. OH! BY THE WAY.......I got braces yesterday and they hurt immensely. I look forward the getting them off and having beautiful teeth. Well that's it for now.