Writing

Lately I've been really bad at writing. I've been procrastinating, only jotting down a few words every few days, not putting effort into my life's work. So I've decided so start up again, to start the chain today. My goal is 500 words a day. I will get this story done!

Snow at Grandparents House

Snow fights.... a.k.a. the game in which you can't feel your fingers at the end.

Grammie built a bunch of tiny snowmen on the table, since the snow was too powdery to build an actual big one.

And in the end we all started helping.

Christmas

Christmas with this group is fantastic. It was so fun to see their faces as they opened up presents. It was even more fun to see the grateful hugs :) My favorite part about Christmas is the mornings. We aren't allowed downstairs until 7, and everyone meets in my room until then--the boys in various odd places (upside down on a chair, under the bed, in the closet, etc) and little Karie under the blankets with me. It's so much fun to see the glow of excitement on everyone's faces.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Personality

If I had to describe my personality in one word, I know exactly what that word would be.

I remember in first grade, sitting in class, absolutely bored of everything, and imagining in my mind's eye the teacher and all the students bursting into pink butterflies. Those fantasies continued all throughout my elementary years.

Sometimes I still imagine it.

I am definitely a nefelibata.

December 2

Luke 1:26-27

"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary."

December 1

Matthew 1:18

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."

The Start of a Christmas Season

Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love the cold, I love the snow, I love everything about winter and Christmas, especially an entire holiday centered around Christ. We put up our Christmas tree last night, and it officially felt like Christmas. So tonight we put on the lights and ornaments.

Dad "fixing" the lights, and Brad... is being Brad. (Ignore the mid-remodeling behind them)

Earlier we had ornaments hanging on the star. It looked awesome, but we had to take them off. Soon that star will be replaced by an angel.

My gorgeous mother was handing out ornaments to put on the tree.

I was actually having fun wearing the pearly garlands instead of putting them on the tree.

All of our Nativity sets. Goodness me.

Snow

It snowed today! Of course, it didn't actually stick to the ground. But it still got me in the mood for winter and Christmas songs! Winter is by far my favorite season, and I'm very excited!

Spontaneous Trip to Costco

So Karie and I went to Costco after school, and it was more of an adventure than it should have been. We found giant teddy bears,

Food,

Spoons,

Ice cream,

And in the end, a warm car. :)

I have way too much fun with my little sister.

Art

The act of making a mess.

Another Short Story

Have you ever wondered why shadows move so often? Or what causes nightmares? You may have a scientific explanation, but we all know science is just a bunch of people with meaningless words in a dead language trying to sound smart. Here’s the truth: they are the Cendarain. Literally shadows. Everyone has one. It takes more than one to devour a human, and they don’t eat your flesh--they feed on your soul. Slowly, slowly they feed, little by little. They inject fear and cold, creating nightmares. The times you’re cold for no reason or you get a random chill--part of your soul just vanished. When you hear your name get called and no one’s there--part of your soul is calling out for help. It’s kind of scary, really. And now that you know, there is no going back. This is it. They’re slowly going to go to you, one by one, until you have millions. At night they fuse together and take shape. You never wake up.

Women's Conference

I had a fantastic time at the Women's Session of conference!!! I'm so excited for general conference this weekend!

Updates

Alright, so it's been a while. I guess I should update you on how things are going over here in my corner of Orem. :)

As some of you know, I've dropped three of my classes at school to take online at home (those classes start on October 27). So now I get out of school at 10:26 on A days and 11:55 on B days. I really enjoy it. I still get to see all my friends, I still get to be around people, but it's a shortened day so I can actually stand it. I have a really hard time being around people, so my short days are a true blessing.

My writing is going great! It was going really slow for a while, crawling along at a snail's pace. I couldn't seem to force the words from my pens. Outlining wasn't working, simply jumping in and starting wasn't working. I spent months without writing. Then I tried a new approach to it--instead of structured outlining, I started writing the plot as if I were telling it to someone. That has been awesome and I'm writing at a rate of 1 gel pen per day.

Oh! I forgot! I'm 17! I turned 17 a while ago, but I didn't really do anything fun for it, so I just thought it wasn't worth posting about.

I've started browsing freelance writing jobs, so I might get started on that within a week or so.

And I've started drawing again! I gave up on it over the summer, thinking it wasn't worth it, but I missed my paints too much, so I started up again :)

Thank you for reading this post, I really appreciate it :) I love y'all!

With love,

Aubrey Lou

9/11

In my psychology class today, we talked about today. We talked about 9/11 and the devastating psychological effects it had on our nation. When it happened, I was barely two years old. I don't remember it but I can see in the faces and the eyes of my teachers today that they all remember it clearly. It stands out to them like a scar in their memories.

Most everyone in our school dressed in Sunday best to honor the day and remember it. What makes me sad is that as the generations continue to progress, the infamous tragedy of this day will be lost in history. Our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren won't remember this day with as much clarity and pain as we do, and most of us aren't even old enough to recall the events--we only see the aftermath in those older than us.

I know the pain of this day will fade as time goes on--time has a way of dulling things, even the things we think should not be dulled. I think back on Pearl Harbor, a day which is equally, if not more infamous than today, and to me it's just a date. It's just another event I have on a test every year. I know it was horrible, yes, but it doesn't matter as much to me.

It depresses me a little to know that 9/11 will one day be just another date in the history books.

These Are My Dorks

My Beloved Second Family, the 2015-16 Drama 4 Class.

First Day of School

And I already had 3 hours worth of homework. From four classes. I guess that's what I get for jumping into AP classes. I'm not going to make this long, because believe it or not, I still have another monologue to memorize for Shakespeare Festival. Due tomorrow. *sigh* I'm such a procrastinator. I've literally had all of summer to memorize this. Ah well. Better late than never.

The first day of school for me was a success. I didn't remember how many friends I had until I almost suffocated from hugs this morning. Turns out all my friends got taller still. I'm now either one of the shortest, or the shortest in A Capella choir. Apparently my 5'3" frame is not as tall as I thought. It got a little stressful in choir because there are 95 kids in there. Thanks to Carly taking an hour long walk with me during lunch, I survived!

Nathan Pacheco Concert

Last night I had the fantastic opportunity of attending the Nathan Pacheco concert at the Scera Shell. If y'all don't know who he is, I'll include some links to his videos at the bottom of the post. He's AMAZING.

Here's his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ya1XCVlKIol_bnTiE1a-g

And my personal favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUBC2kqheyY

Seriously. Check it out. He's fantastic!

Lagoon

Yesterday my family went on an adventure to Lagoon! It was incredibly fun, despite the fact that I didn't get the "tummy tickles" (apparently, according to Google, it isn't officially called "tummy tickles" as I've called it for most of my life) on any of the roller coasters. Everything was so much shorter and less exciting than I remember, but that's okay! It was still SO much fun to spend the day with my family!

I've realized that no one in my family is particularly good at obeying the "smile!" command.

Little Miss Karie being the fantastic human that she is and riding a giraffe. Darling girl :)

The boys are behind me. They're nearly inseparable and that means I have to usually be the single rider on every ride. So I had fun making up a parody to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and dancing to it all throughout the day, to the embarrassment of my brothers.

Brad, Ethan and I went on this innocent looking pink ride and ended up crying out in pain from being smashed into each other.

We decided to go on a rafting ride and, well, that was a big mistake. We all ended up completely SOAKED.

(Ethan and I look like we're judging someone's poor outfit choice)

It was a fantastic day. I'm very glad I went, even though I came back completely exhausted! Lagoon wears you out!!!

My Dearest Joseph

There's something wonderful about surprises, though it's hard to explain the exact emotion you feel when faced with one. The timing of this particular surprise could not have been better. My week hadn't been the best and I was feeling very stressed and then I got a message from my dearest Joseph. He told me he was literally in Chicago on his way to Utah and he would be with me the next afternoon. I honestly couldn't breathe. That night, sleep was not something I got along with.

The next morning came painfully slow and the day dragged on. My eyes wandered to the windows every few seconds, even though I knew he wasn't coming until afternoon. I went about my chores, trying to take my mind off the fantastic day waiting for me, and then a car pulled into the cul-de-sac.

I think I died and went to heaven. (Sorry for the picture through the screen door). That was literally the best day of my entire life up to this point.

I missed him so much.

Look at my adorable little friend. He looks better in my glasses than I do. I had such a fantastic time with him, and though it hurt me more than anything to see him leave again, I wouldn't trade that day for the world.

Heber Creeper

We left this morning at 9:30, travelling up to Heber to ride their gorgeous train called the Heber Creeper. (I love the name.) It was SO much fun! I had so much fun with my grandparents up there.

We saw the coolest airplane doing tricks. He was spinning around and doing loops and we were having so much fun watching him.

Brad and I playing in the little tiny caboose

Ethan, Brad and Grandpa

My gorgeous Mum and teeny Karie

The scenery was amazing. Utah's such a pretty place.

I got some good writing in during the ride. It was pretty fun.

Girls Camp

Girls camp was a crazy, fun, terrifying, hilarious, and spiritual experience. I had so much fun with these girls! This year was my 5th and last year at girls camp. For the past four years, I looked up to the older girls so much. They were my heroes and I admired them. This year, while packing for camp, it hit me that this year I was one of the older girls. I was sent into a spiral of panic, worrying my little heart out that I wouldn't be a good enough example to these precious daughters of God. Even in the first day I realized that I couldn't be half the example these girls are to me. They're luminous. I think sometimes I believe I'm wiser since I've been in the world longer, but I have to remind myself that they were in heaven longer. These girls are the sweetest girls I have ever known and I'm so grateful for the wonderful experience of camp with them, despite the difficulties.

The beautiful Christina and Sienna washing dishes

It's so pretty up there.

Christina and I found a bug and we had a lot of fun petting it. It stayed still for a few minutes, letting us pet it... or maybe it was just terrified.

Canoe races!

Sister Imes and Alexia stepped in the lake on accident XD

Sienna's footprints on my back after I let her use me as a step stool

Desi and I leading Brother Harris through an obstacle course (please note how I'm totally on my tiptoes to reach his hand)

The obstacle course consisted of the victim being blindfolded and led across a series of tall logs by two other people. I had fun, since my fear of heights completely disappears when I can't see how high up I am.

We held a question session with the bishopric, and we learned lots. We asked them questions such as "what's your worst fear" and "what's your worst date" and obviously "what's your most awkward moment". I had fun listening while I prepared dinner.

Me, being a YCL (Youth Camp Leader), called up the adorably shy Alexia to the front, and (thank goodness) she came up! And I think she had a lot of fun :)

I am so grateful for this gospel and all the wonderful experiences and the great happiness it has given me. I love the gospel with all my heart, might, mind and soul.