Craftiness!

So I went all out on MR's birthday card. I felt very accomplished because it took about 3 hours to make. But I got all my ideas from Pinterest. 

This is the front.

And this is the inside. (Plus I inserted a page of actual words and such)

My Bestest Friend: Mary Rosalyn Taylor

My very best amigo, Mary Rosalyn, is turning 15! And in tradition, when someone I love has a birthday, here's a list of all the things I like about Mary Rosalyn:

• She plays the piano beautifully and with elegance
• She has a great relationship with her family members
• She has a very good taste in fashion
• She loves the outdoors, and all of God's beautiful creations
• She has figured out a lot of things that most people have never figured out in their entire lifetime
• She is much more deep than the average 15 year old
• She is a great Christian
• She can whoop some tail in basketball, being an awesome "big girl"
• She is a devoted Gator fan, no matter what happens to them
• She has collegiate level aspirations in softball
• She was one of the very few girls who knew what they were doing and showed it during the powder puff game
• She has a super cool fort/tree house/wooden wonderland
• She is a very ambitious person
• She is incredibly intelligent
• She loves the 80's
• She has a good taste in music
• She is an excellent trumpeteer
• She is a great athlete
• She willingly runs with me
• She is different than most
• She wants people around her to make the right choices
• She is very determined in academics
• She has great morals
• She is not a hoochie
• She is beautiful
• She likes to tell me about her life
• She is one of the only people left who has remained "a good kid"
• She does not use profanity
• She hits up Goodwill on Mondays! 
• She works very hard at practice
• She does what is asked of her and more
• She lets me know when I'm about to make a stupid decision
• She has no urge to have a cell phone
• She has excellent self control
• She is one of the few people who understand me
• She has never done anything immoral
• She goes about doing good things for others
• She has one of those great minds who think about ideas, rather than events or people (Eleanor Roosevelt quote)
• She and I have a great respect for Coach Wilson, the grooviest old man around
• She is hilarious
• She can spell like a beast
• She is insane
• She cares about her health
• She doesn't eat crap food
• She sees through the "superficial poo"
• She is a wonderful friend

I hope you have an amazing 15th birthday! Love you, MRT!

Good Ole Nat Geo!

National Geographic is amazing. This month's is super cool, and rather interesting. Me and a friend plan to ditch our careers, forget everyone (only kidding), and carve out a cave in the cliffs below to live in forever. Full article here.

I have a hard time believing this is a real place and this picture is not some wonderful painting, but either way, I'm gonna live there forever once I get married. Yes, family should visit. Often. 

I also enjoyed this article. Reindeer really do fly, I'm sure of it.

Updation

I know I have really neglected my blog, and my love for blogging. But it happens that I have a super busy life and the limited time I get at home (about 30-60 min not spent sleeping) is reserved for eating, showering, and talking to my family. This is because band is soul-sucking. Anyhoo, I need to catch up either way. So school is pretty great, I'm not learning much though thanks to several terrible teachers hired this year. But I still enjoy my time, I still get to write a lot in English (wrote all about zorbing the other day) and I absolutely love Engineering. For the past week or so we've been drawing and sketching (like isometric and perspective sketching) and I always look forward to that class. Unfortunately, I'm still in dadgum Chorus, but it's getting better, well more like it can be worse. We worked on the song below a little this week, which is strictly acapella . 

I've been having an absolutely fantastic time at basketball workouts, we've been playing Ultimate Frisbee, Flag Football, Capture the Flag, Soccer and all kinds of fun stuff for conditioning since we can't really start real practice yet. Ultimate Frisbee is easily the funnest game ever, I would advise everyone to learn how to and go try to play it sometime. It's awesome! 

Soon, I will post a video or two of the halftime show, but for now, it's got to get a lot better. We preformed the entire show for the first time last night and it was alright. I really enjoy being on the drum line, and not to be braggy or anything but I play the hardest/loudest and have been told that I have "girl power" with my bass drum. I have also been told that all the other guys on the drum line are weenies. But you didn't hear that from me, this is what I am told. :)

More updates to come soon, Florida State (ranked #5) is playing Oklahoma (#1) today and it's a mega huge game!

The Yearling

I finally finished The Yearling the other day, for my summer reading. It was a really great book, and very interesting if you love the outdoors. One of my plans over the summer was to become more attached to nature, and this definitely helped. It was an amazing book that was based on the beautiful scenery of central Florida and a little boy's views on all parts of life and his journey towards manhood. One of my favorite parts was when Jody and his dad Penny were hunting and happened to be at the perfect time and place to watch the whooping cranes dance right as the sun was going down. It tells about how they caught the beautiful birds doing what's natural to them, and they felt very honored to witness such things. Here's some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Women ran in breeds, like dogs. Two women could say the same words and the meaning would not be the same, as the bark of two dogs, one menacing and the other friendly." (When Jody was around a very nice lady, very different from his mother.)

"Women were alright when the cooked good things to eat. The rest of the time they did nothing but make trouble." (I totally agree with this, but I wish I could tell Jody that he will quickly get over it, and the girls his age would quickly change to very nice people.)

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Recently, I've been spending a good deal of time at Nanny's house. Never a boring place, always plenty to eat, you never have to be invited, I just show up whenever I want. But anyhoo, today [Tasty Tuesday] we ate the most delicious okra and tomatoes, honey cornbread, shelled peas, and red velvet cake. It's the best cooking I ever have, at Nanny's. Afterward, Randi and Rhett and I played hide and go seek [on Rhett's request] which is also a great deal of fun. But, one of the even bigger highlights of today: I found the following albums while plundering through Daddy's desk in his old room. 

[The Rollings Stones album was Stinky Fingers, but there's no need to post the album art here.]

To say the least, I was overjoyed by these findings. I respect Dad a little bit more, knowing that he listened to great music. And I have more perspective when listening to this music, I can think how this is what he jammed to in his car with his friends or on the tailgate in a crowd of "cool guy" kind of people. And it's great to see him nod and say "that was my junior year, right there" whenever I listen to Bad Moon Rising. 

Wausau, FL

Today was Wausau's world-famous Possum Festival. Pretty epic and rather interesting, if I must say so. Kacey and I ran the 5K this morning. It was smoldering hot and the road was very hilly, but I finished first place in my age group and got a tiny trophy! Woo! 5Ks are just great and really fun, everyone should try them out! Also, along with the race, I've been seeing this ad in a lot of places, and it's a very big motivator for me. Man, working out is so great...


Here's a good jam for ya! [And you'll be fine if you don't watch the video, it's pretty odd...]

My Lovely Randi Jolene

Yesterday was my wonderful niece, Randi's 5th birthday. She happens to be my favorite 5-year-old niece. It being her birthday, I'd like to make another list on why I love her [like I did with Kacey and Alyssa]. I have absolutely no idea why I can't find a decent picture of her, seeing that all of our pictures consist of kids.

I love Randi Jo because:

• Randi is VERY silly
• Randi helps out with her mom around the house
• Randi loves to cook with me
• Randi loves her family so much, and lets them know she does on a regular basis
• Randi is very smart
• Randi is a grateful person
• Randi doesn't judge, she accepts you for who you are
• Randi and I have so much fun together, no matter what we're doing
• Randi has very creative names to call people [for example: poo poo dunder head]
• Randi loves discovering
• Randi wants to know more and more, and asks as much questions as she can
• Randi draws pictures for me
• Randi is very kind to everyone
• Randi thinks her and I are twin sisters and wants it to be like that for forever
• Randi likes to read
• Randi enjoys nature
• Randi will play in the rain
• Randi has good taste in music [at an early age, she likes Coldplay and the Beatles]
• Randi plays the piano
• Randi is a pretty good dancer
• Randi isn't prissy
• Randi loves all animals
• Randi will pick up gross things, such as bugs and lizards
• Randi always makes me feel great
• Randi appreciates the smallest and simplest things
• Randi always wants to tell me about her life
• Randi has given my betta fish the coolest name in the world: Poopchuck
• Randi wants to help with everything
• Randi loves to entertain
• Randi loves having her entire family together
• Randi is the coolest little girl I know, and I wont ever be able to list every sigle thing I like about her, she's just the greatest

Heeeeey Bungalow Bill!!!

While exploring on Threadless.com, I found a really awesome shirt, I think it's pretty amazing. Definitely getting it. Here's what it had on it:

Also, if you didn't already know, The Seminoles are BEASTLY this season! We're thinking reaaaaal big with the great starters and excellent coaches this year. We got sackmaster Brandon Jenkins on the defensive line, a very promising QB EJ Manuel, the top kicking recruit in the country in '09 and one of the greatest Dustin Hopkins [remember that 55 yard field goal in the last 3 seconds of the Clemson game? Yeah, that was the longest game-winning kick in ACC history]. If you didn't see the spring game, it was pretty awesome and set very high hopes. Just watch and see how they dominate this season. Just wait. And since Florida's looking pretty sorry this year [work on recruiting!], we're kicking your patooty right there in the Swamp.

Ever wondered why so many popular songs sound the same? Ever wonder why the heck people like them if they're not even original? Here's something funny made by people who are wandering the same thing. Please disregard the f bomb at the beginning and close to the end [so you can turn it waaaay down].

Las Flores son Bonitas

Recently, I picked a bunch of flowers around in my yard, and an orchid from my plant in my room, and pressed all the flowers under a bunch of books for a few days. Not many of them worked out, but I love the vintage look when they're paper-thin. Orchids are especially beautiful when they're pressed, but I cut off the very last bloom so I'll have to wait for a long time until it blooms again. When a white orchid is pressed, it becomes like transparent. Very cool indeed.

This is all of them.

I picked the few good ones and put them in a frame I had, on top of the letter I got from the maker of TOMS, that I thought would look cool behind the flowers. It's very easy and takes no time at all.

Being An Aunt

Ever since my sisters have had kids, my life has been the cooliest ever. It's a very exciting life and you're not ever bored around these crazy kids. It's great to have Randi and Rhett very close by, to be part of their childhood. Eden is simply the cutest baby ever, and I'm quite depressed that I can't see her all the time. But I'm excited about seeing them in several days! Woo! Here's some recent photos of Randi and Rhett playing around with me during the beautiful Florida summer.

This is what I get when I ask desperately for a real smile.

I put them up in my favorite climbing tree and they acted like monkeys [complete with the sounds and all].

Such an insightful little boy...

Taken from the very tip top on my favorite tree.

I think is the best ever. Her vicious smile, plus she's in the process of getting everything situated. I feel very accomplished as a rookie photographer.

Rhett the gator. Oh yeah, this is in our new cheapo pool while it was filling up.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mirror of Herself

Well I have this super awesome friend named Alyssa. And while talking with her a few nights ago, I heard her say "well I don't really see why anyone would like me" or something along those lines. After hearing this, I was so frustrated with her and how low a statement that was, so I decided to write this post strictly about every wonderful thing about Alyssa. This is what I like about her:

• Alyssa is the most intellectual person I know Alyssa is a really good soccer player 
• Alyssa wants to help me get out of bad situations 
• Alyssa appreciates nature as much as I do 
• Alyssa stayed up and looked at the moon with me 
• Alyssa wants to go on a mission 
• Alyssa shares incredibly deep thoughts with me aaaaall the time 
• Alyssa loves her grandpa and has always learned from him 
• Alyssa writes better and more beautifully than any author
• Alyssa has never ever hurt me emotionally 
• Alyssa reads to me parts of her beautiful masterpiece of a journal [p.s. It makes me cry every time] 
• Alyssa's best friend is her grandma 
• Alyssa can really cook good 
• Alyssa takes every tribulation and grows so much from it 
• Alyssa wants to help people 
• Alyssa is the funnest person I know, you can NEVER get bored with her 
• Alyssa has great morals 
• Alyssa knows how to rise from the ashes 
• Alyssa tells me when I'm doing something wrong, stupid, gross, or degrading 
• Alyssa is passionate about mustaches 
• Alyssa has an amazing blog 
• Alyssa is the best painter/artist I know; her paintings are GORGEOUS 
• Alyssa loves the gospel with all of her heart 
• Alyssa knows not to have bad influences Alyssa knows the scriptures well, and loves them 
• Alyssa gets clothes and pretty much everything at really good deals; a skill that I covet 
• Alyssa knows how to handle pretty much every situation 
• Alyssa has an awesome fashion sense 
• Alyssa does very cool stuff for me [awesome handmade hair piece, beautiful ostrich shirt, cool bracelets, among many other things] 
• Alyssa wrote me a note every morning of Youth Conference 
• Alyssa is beautiful 
• Alyssa taught me how to booty dance like a black girl, a skill both of us never use 
• Alyssa listens to great music 
• Alyssa and I share a love for a lot of the same bands, and has introduced some of my favorites to me [Biffy Clyro, Paper Route, City & Colour, among many others] 
• Alyssa is not normal 
• Alyssa shares her words of wisdom with me on a daily basis
• Alyssa tells me everything and says I'm one of the only who she does that to 
• Alyssa has taught me a lot, things that my parents can't or wont teach me 
• Alyssa knows where I've been and has felt the same things 
• Alyssa accepts me for who I am [and pretty much everyone else for that matter] 
• Alyssa sits up at one in the morning and talks to me about stuff 
• Alyssa has made my brother an overall better, cooler person 
• Alyssa appreciates simple, lovely things 
• Alyssa introduced me to Demetri Martin, the coolest guy I've ever heard of 
• Alyssa is going to be the best mother 
• Alyssa puts up with a lot of crap I put her through and a lot if uncomfortable situations I put her in 
• Alyssa is a great person and there are so many other things I can list, but I don't have the time or energy

Beefcake Pantyhose

I have a brother named Kacey

 He is pretty cool

Today is his birthday. Here's some things I like about him:

• Kacey is a worthy priesthood holder
• Kacey is a really good photographer
• Kacey can play the guitar very well
• Kacey can play the ukulele very well
• Kacey can play the harmonica very well
• Kacey can play the dulcimer very well
• Kacey can play the piano very well
• Kacey can play the bongos very well
• Kacey can play the trombone very well
• Kacey can compose techno songs and amazes me very easily
• Kacey can sing pretty good
• Kacey is very smart
• Kacey is nice to me
• Kacey listens to great music, and saved me several years ago when I was turning down the horrible path of mainstream music
• Kacey has never done anything immoral
• Kacey respects women
• Kacey likes kids
• Kacey doesn't want to steady date before his mission
• Kacey is going to serve the Lord for 2 years when he reaches the right age
• Kacey played me my very favorite song on my birthday ("Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros)
• Kacey intensely dances to techno songs with me in his room
• Kacey tells me when I'm about to do something stupid
• Kacey dresses coolly
• Kacey makes his hair look super awesome
• Kacey is one of the best cooks I know, and lets me eat his food every now and then
• Kacey can run fast
• Kacey doesn't get mad when I play my drums
• Kacey is not one of those really really weird hardcore bandies
• Kacey lets me borrow his iPod aaaaaaaall the time
• Kacey teaches me how to be better at soccer
• Kacey will not be one of those people who goes out and buys as much tobacco as they can on their 18th birthday
• Kacey sings with me in the car
• Kacey tells me about things that my parents wont tell me about
• Kacey is a peacemaker
• Kacey puts up with me walking around without pants sometimes
• Kacey comes to me for input on his outfit
• Kacey is very handsome
• Kacey shops at Urban Outfitters
• Kacey realized his friends weren't the best to be around, and found new, more Christian-like friends
• Kacey does not cuss
• Kacey is not a pervert
• Kacey understands everything about women
• Kacey is not normal
• Kacey makes me laugh on a daily basis
• Kacey and I have so much fun together at dances
• Kacey will hug me when I'm crying in church
• Kacey introduces me to really good music
• Kacey lets me use his awesome telescope
• Kacey takes me swimming with friends
• Kacey was with me at one of the greatest moments of my life, when we both performed "Daylight" by Matt & Kim
• Kacey has an awesome lady friend, Alyssa
• Kacey has a man purse
• Kacey dances with girls standing against the wall at dances
• Kacey prevented my father from getting me a crappy longboard, and instead convinced him to get me a really nice one
• Kacey bought me my beloved stuffed panda bear at the National Zoo
• Kacey is my friend when I can't find anyone else
• Kacey reads his scriptures and prays everyday
• Kacey's wardrobe isn't strictly Under Armour
• Kacey tells me many pointless things that I enjoy
• Kacey likes flowers
• Kacey is like the cooooooooooliest brother ever, and I will never be able to list every single thing I like about him

Happy 18th Birthday Kacey!

Also, everyone needs to check out Alyssa's blog. It has the most beautifully written words of wisdom, and I'm honored just to even be friends with her. 

Youth Conference was a great experience. Once again, it's just wonderful to be around so many Mormon kids and to feel the spirit everywhere you go is just lovely. We had many good speakers, and I learned a lot. 

Not to bore anyone with my passion for music, but I discovered a whole bunch of new music I just love so much. Beck has become really cool to me; and thanks to a cute guy at EFY, I was introduced to Radiohead, "Kid A" is just amazing; and Biffy Clyro is the best punk out there. This is such an odd video, but a GREAT song by Beck. [Hint: this is where the title of my post cam from].

In the daylight, we can hitch-hike to Maine....

Also, Kacey and I preformed "Daylight" by Matt & Kim in the Variety Show at EFY. It was one of the most amazing feelings to be up there playing a glockenspiel, yell-singing, and dancing to one of your favorite songs in front of 450 teenagers. We had such a good time.
And I got a bunch of guys wanting to dance with me because of it...haha. I don't have the video yet, but I'm working on it.

Especially For Youth 2011

This is the beautiful "Day & Night". I spent the best week of my life with these people. My testimony grew dramatically with these people. I laughed and cried with these people. I feasted upon the scriptures with these people. I talked about Wyatt's butt with these people. But most importantly, I always felt the spirit with these people. And my heart and soul with always stay with the all-mighty Day & Night.

I recently got back from the most amazing spiritual experience one can have as a youth in the church. My testimony grew so much in such a small amount of time. So many incredible devotionals and classes that moved everyone. One thing my testimony grew on was the Atonement, and how much our Savior really does love us. I know that my Redeemer lives and wants us to live with Him again, and I look forward to that day when we will see Him.

One of my favorite parts was gospel study every morning. We would spread out on the campus lawns and study the scriptures a half hour. This is where I got a lot of personal revelation from the Holy Ghost. I always wrote a page in my notebook during this time, just revelation and my thoughts on what I was reading. 

And I learned so much from the classes and the great speakers/teachers. Like: there is no salvation without prayer, it is essential; we need to live our religion everyday, and obey with exactness; successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, and work; it takes no effort to cut someone down, but it takes a genius to bring them up; fences that keep you in may have been built to keep things out; Satan and the rest of the world spends all of its time and energy trying to pollute everything sacred [like procreation]; Satan tries to focus all our attention on a few things that are forbidden rather than all the things we can have; don't sacrifice what you want most for what you want in the moment. I think the last 3 are cool. There was just a very small portion of notes I took.

Gettin Back in My Drum Groove

Today I was rocking out on my drum set for like 2 hours strait. It was amazing, I hadn't played in a loooong while and I realized how much I missed banging on my good ole set of drums. Now trust me, I'm not cool enough to make up my own stuff, I go by a book. It's not a boring beginner's book either, it's pretty hardcore. I quit drum lessons over 3 years ago, but have done better without a teacher. Of course I'm not motivated at all, but I amaze myself by teaching myself. Today I learned so much and played these head-banging, rythmic beats with "soul". And the best thing ever happened that beats out everything in all of my drumming career: I broke my drumstick. It's a very intense feeling, to see the tip and a piece of the shoulder of your very own drumstick fly across the room. It made my entire day. Sort of.


Here's a good lookin professional prove what the meaning of "playing the drums" mean. I'm in love with his gorgeous red tresses and not to mention his jaw-dropping drumming skills. If this doesn't blow your mind, there is seriously something wrong with you. If nothing else amazes you, his drum fills at the ends MUST. Also, this is one of my favorite songs.

Oh, Iceland!

I still go by my belief that the best pictures are taken at night. And maybe in Iceland. I definitely want to go here one day. I don't know a whole lot about Iceland, but I do know it's very pretty. I think during the summer it would be amazing. There's also the "Blue Lagoon" [like in Spongebob, haha].  http://www.bluelagoon.com/ It's like a mineral spa pool sort of thing. It just sounds like an eccentric experience.

Also, if you've never heard Icelandic music, you've been missing out. This is my favorite kind of indie music. Here's some of the best, and it is in English:

Incredibly Useless Day

Well to start off today, I had more freaky dreams. They've been so vivid and real lately, and it's actually not all that great. But I'll get over it. I discovered [or rather, it was brought to my attention] a beautiful temple today that I had not seen before. The Logan Utah temple is one of the most beautiful temples I've ever seen [pictures of, that is]. This may be the one that I would like to be married in. It's soooo gorgeous. And it's also one of the very first temples built. I think.



Also, "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" is pretty awesome. By far, my favorite Hendrix song would be "All Along the Watchtower" which was originally a Bob Dylan song, but both are super awesome. This one just has some extreme guitar pickin, which is what I like about Jimi Hendrix. Plus, he's a lefty. And I am not promoting the usage of tobacco by showing this video, just promoting the greatest guitarist of all time in my opinion, and in Rolling Stone's opinion too. Just sayin

The Beatles Anthology Highlights

iTunes just released The Beatles: "Anthology Highlights" and I'm super duper excited! It features real, legit, live sessions from the studio in the good ole 60's. You get to hear the greatest band of all-time in the process of developing this title, and all the original sounds from some of their greatest songs. It's just really groovy, I believe. Too bad I am broke and have no job. I would love to be able to buy things....