Scripture Study

Honestly, it's a miracle if we can get through scripture study without all the boys and Karie switching clothes. Does any family actually have normal scripture study?

Love always,

     Aubrey Lou

A Busy Saturday

So this happened.

Misha trying to teach me how to frown

My favorite people: Marie and Joseph

Nicole, Misha and Alisa

Joseph wearing a shirt that's halfway frozen

We made our friends fabulous with shaving cream beards

Gosh I love my friends. New friends and old friends, I absolutely adore them all. They make me so happy all the time and I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful, adorable, beautiful, awkward, clever friends.

With love,

     Aubrey Lou

Society

Welcome to society,

We hope you enjoy your stay,

And please feel free to be yourself,

As long as it's in the right way,

Make sure you love your body,

Not too much or we'll tear you down,

We'll bully you for smiling,

And then wonder why you frown,

We'll tell you that you're worthless,

That you shouldn't make a sound,

And then cry with all the others,

As you're buried in the ground,

You can fall in love with anyone,

As long as it's who we choose,

And we'll let you have your opinions,

But please shape them to our views,

Welcome to society,

We promise that we won't deceive,

And one more rule now that you're here,

There's no way you can leave.

(by Erin Hanson)

Catching Up

Sorry for the absence! I have been VERY busy lately! And--if you don't mind--I'd like to share with you a few things that have happened or are happening in the near future.

I just got my learner's permit today. Meaning... I can drive... if I can see over the steering wheel, that is. My mother had me take her and Karie to the hair salon today. Goodness sake, I'm quite terrified. I'm very confident in my driving skills, I may have illegally done it before, but honestly? Utah drivers are insane. I'm not sure I'm ready to face that battle.

Also, I cut my hair today. I can't post a picture yet, sadly, but I'll get one on here eventually! It's up to my chin now!

Thank you all so much for everything you do. :) I love you so much!

With love,
     Aubrey Lou

Books

Books are one of the greatest blessings I have in my life. My library is extensive and is growing every day. I have books of poetry, history, fantasy, sci fi, biographies, pretty much every kind of book imaginable.

Books are, I suppose, my escape, as they are for most everyone who reads. It's a pleasant intermission from the stress and pain of reality at times. Don't get me wrong: books can be incredibly painful and stressful, but I think it's good to cry about something other than reality for a change.

This is why I want to be a writer. I want to change lives and I want to create those little intermissions for people who need a break from reality. Some day.

With love,

     Aubrey Lou

The Horrors of Registration

Let me explain to you a thing. I go to this wonderful school called Orem High.

Big, beautiful building. I love it to pieces. It has everything I want: lots of windows, an excellent choir program, tall (attractive) students.

The only problem is the registration.

Today I registered for classes for my junior year next year (that's still so weird for me to think about) and I had this perfect schedule planned out: seminary, A Capella, AP Calculus, psychology, physics, English 11 H, ancient world history, drama 4, creative writing, sociology. I was so pumped and ready to go!

But registration. What happens is they put all the classes up, and open them all for enrollment at exactly 3:30pm, and you better enroll fast before the class fills up. You have to put your classes by priority and sometimes you aren't fast enough and you can't get it. I swear it's like Hunger Games.

I logged on at 3 and started looking at all the classes I wanted, making sure none of the seniors had taken all the spots. I panicked when I saw AP Calculus had only one spot open, and creative writing had only four seats left. Do you have any idea how hard that was to decided what to go to first? AP Calculus is the obvious choice for most, but I'm so in love with writing that I almost enrolled in that first.

After practicing my mad typing skills in the search bar for 25 minutes, I switched to the math page, reloading the page over and over until... 3:30. It was a mad dash for the last seat in Calculus but sadly, I didn't get the class, and since all the other classes were filled, that means I don't have a math class yet for next year. After speeding through the enrollment processes for each class, and getting all the other classes I wanted to, I quickly typed out an email and sent it to be posted on the wait list.

Since I have to put a class A3, where AP Calculus should have gone, I enrolled in health and sociology. Honestly? Part of me hopes I don't get into the math class. I know math is important, but I only need one more year of it and I can easily do that senior year and then I'll be able to take sociology like I wanted. But, regardless of my wants, it would still be convenient to get into AP Calculus.

This is the chaos of registration. Some people think it would be fun (*cough* Joseph), let me tell you: It's absolutely terrifying.

With love,

     Aubrey Lou

Shopping Day

Yes, I know, second post today. But, to justify it, the last one was about last week... this one is about today.

I have adventures. Every day. Today's adventure started at school.

While most students will go down to the commons during lunch period, I retreat to the third floor, the one floor that is completely vacant of students and teachers, and I read or write or think or draw or just enjoy the view.

Like seriously. Look at that view. Mountains, snow, clouds. I love Utah so much.

After getting home from school, I decided it was a good idea to go shopping with my brother. He had been wanting to go to a few stores for a while, so off we went.

First, let me tell you something about Brad. Brad is 14 years old, 5'6" (officially taller than me), and a COMPLETE NERD. But that's okay. Because he's my brother and I suppose I have to love him. ;) He's really a great kid.

Our first stop was the Dollar Store.

As you can see, we had a little too much fun with the glasses. They made my already large eyes look HUGE! It was way too much fun!

The next stop was Barnes and Noble. Brad and I can't go shopping without going to Barnes and Noble at some point.

After getting home and completing our school work, we Skyped my dad, who's on a business trip in Washington DC.

I think my dad is one of the funniest people ever, and, lucky for me, he has my exact same sense of humor (meaning morbid jokes, puns, science, math and history jokes).

Tomorrow is the busiest day this week! Registration for junior year opens (I'm going to be a junior! That's INSANE!) and we have a choir festival right after that until 8pm. Wish me luck, guys!

Love always,

     Aubrey Lou

The Power of Prayer

Last Wednesday was pretty rough. I fell on my art case and bruised my hip really bad, and I was in a lot of pain. Of course, that's when my parents decided to leave for a few hours and leave me in charge of three of my younger siblings. Karie (my 5 year old little sister) was throwing a fit, crying and screaming at the top of her lungs, so I decided a bath would calm her down. I sent up Ethan (my 11 year old brother) to start the bath while I calmed her down and set out her pajamas to change into. A few minutes later, Ethan came rushing into the room with a panicked expression and said frantically, "Aubrey, I started the bath and it won't stop!"

I rushed upstairs to find the tub almost overflowing. The knob had broken and it was impossible to turn off the water. We finally figured out how to turn off the water to the entire house, but not in time to stop the bathroom from flooding.

I was so stressed out at this point, what with Owen and Karie screaming that we were all going to drown, and Ethan panicking and the pain in my leg, so I closed my eyes for a split second and said a little prayer in my mind. "Heavenly Father, please help everyone to stay calm while I fix this."

I corralled the kids in my room and started mopping up the mess of water in our bathroom.

That's when the power went out.

It was late, so everything was plunged into darkness. The kids started screaming again, and the floor was still soaked with water, and at this point I was in so much pain it was hard to hold back the tears. I quickly whipped out my iPod, using the glow of the screen to find all the flashlights in the house. I brought them into my room and shut my door behind me so all the light was trapped in my room with the kids. I took one light and again went to start mopping the floors. I closed my eyes again, saying another little prayer. "Heavenly Father, please let everything else be okay, I'm not sure I can take much more after this."

About an hour later, all the water was cleaned up, my parents came home and the power came back on, and it seemed like all was well.

Until the phone rang. A family friend had fallen, and he probably wasn't going to live much longer. That completely shut me down.

As I sat in my bed that night, crying over everything that happened, I simply got out of bed, knelt down and started to pray. Immediately, it felt like someone had wrapped their arms around me and was holding me. I heard a little voice whisper, "It's going to be okay." Over and over again. "It's going to be okay."

I want to testify that the power of prayer is real. Sometimes things don't always work out like we want to. Sometimes when we pray for something, it doesn't happen, but we can't let that diminish our faith that prayer really does work. Some days you'll get trial after trial after trial and you'll think you can't go any longer, you'll think that your prayers aren't being heard, but I promise that Heavenly Father is listening. My friend Nick tells me constantly that God gives the hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. D&C 121:7 says, "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment." I just want you all to know that everything is going to be okay, and everything will work out, no matter how messed up or stressful your life is.

With love,
     Aubrey Lou

Introductions

It's impossible to sum up a human being in a few words, but I suppose this will do.

Blogs have never really been my thing. I'm positively terrible at working with technology and I'm insanely inconsistent. I have had a few blogs, none of them actually worked out. I always do so well at the beginning, but time goes on, finals approach, and I slowly forget about my silly little blog. This time, I'm determined to make this work.

This is my life. Paint splatters and stars. That pretty much sums it up. My life is a big creative mess, all usually taking place during the night when the sky is dark and the stars shine through my windows, casting a ghostly glow on my work.

Let's start by getting to know me, shall we?

This is me.

Yes, I'm that kind of girl. The girl who always gets away with bright red lipstick, a denim jacket and skinny jeans. I'm the girl who always carries a notebook, who always sings in the halls, who always gives passerby's a tiny smirk with one eyebrow raised, just to see how they react. I'm the kind of girl who always has pencil lead and paint smudged on her hands and a little on her face, and no matter what the hairstyle, there are always those stubborn short curls that fly everywhere.

I am a lot of things, and not all of them are good, but that's alright. Even the best songs have a dissonant chord.

So that's me. Short, sassy little girl with curly graham cracker colored hair.

And this blog is the tale of my crazy, busy, fun, stressful, messed up life.

With love,

     Aubrey Lou