The Cowboy State.

I've been to a lot of states in my lifetime, but I was lucky to add another to the list last weekend! My sweet roommate, Gabi, invited me and another one of our roomies, Regan, to visit her grandparents in Wyoming! I had never been to Wyoming and, to be honest, I had no idea what was there {which I now know isn't a whole lot haha} so I was way excited to go!

Road Trip!! Road Trip!!

The drive up was so fun! We stopped in a super tiny town to visit Gabi's great-grandparents and then kept trecking it to Pinedale. There were a few really tiny towns on our way up there. It was so cute! Once we got to Pinedale it was SO COLD and snowy!

I was probably the most excited person to visit Wyoming, ever.

On Saturday, we went snowmobiling! I'm not very adventurous and I'm definitely not a thrill seeker, so snowmobiling majorly took me out of my comfort zone. I didn't go very fast at first and I never got brave enough to leave the trail, but I had fun! I was proud of myself for trying something new and daring greatly - as my mother would put it!

Even though I didn't enjoy the snowmobiling a ton, it was worth it! The views were gorgeous! We came across a beautiful waterfall. We had to go down a HUGE hill to get there and I almost peed my pants I was so scared, but I'm so happy I got down there to see it. It was so pretty. The water was warm and steaming and the rocks were covered in pillows of snow and scary huge icicles. It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen.

Once we got to the end of the trail, we arrived at the Granite Hot Springs. We changed into our bathing suits {which was a freezing experience} and jumped into warm, slimy water. It was kind of gross, I'm not going to lie to you, but it was warm and relaxing, so I didn't even care. I never wanted to get out, but we had to eventually. We took a lovely picture in our swimsuits lying in a snow bank...again, a freezing experience, but college is for memories, right?!

That night we went to Divergent at the local movie theater, which only shows two movies at 9:00pm on Friday or Saturday - adorable! Divergent was amazing! I loved it and immediately bought the book when we got back to school. On Sunday we went to church with Gabi's grandparents. The ward was so small, but so sweet. The members were so welcoming and fun to talk to. The lessons and talks were amazing, I loved every second of the three hours. We even got to hear the full time missionaries from the area speak. They were so sweet and they made me that much more excited to go on my mission!

We left on Sunday afternoon, but before we left I caught this gorgeous view! Such a fun weekend!!

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.

I can remember the day I decided I wanted to go on a mission. It was a Sunday and I had just finished reading the special edition of the New Era magazine all about missionaries. I remember being so impressed and touched by the stories and experiences each missionary had. I remember the sweet spirit I felt as I read and the strong desire I had to keep that spirit with me always. In that moment, I knew I was going to go on a mission - there was no doubt in my 13 year-old mind that it was the right thing for me to do.

6 years later, I have a mission call. It wasn't smooth sailing the past 6 years and there were times when a mission wasn't even on my radar, but now, the time is here and I'm going! My call came late (with my luck, it's not a surprise this happened), but thanks to my sweet bishop and stake president my sister, Alicia, was able to walk into church headquarters and pick up the call herself. Seeing the call in person brought the craziest mix of emotions. I was excited to see it, relieved that it had arrived, nervous and anxious to open it, but calm all at the same time. The calmness wore off, which I'm sure my family will attest to, the second I decided to open it.

It was Wednesday, March 12, 2014 in the Salt Lake City Sheraton. I was surrounded by friends and family who love me and who were just as excited as I was for me to take this step in my life. My mom, both of my sisters, and the McNeil's, who had surprised me earlier that morning at brunch, were all there. We called my dad in and my best friend, Kim, and we opened it together.

"Dear Sister Janes, you have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You have been assigned to labor in the California, Arcadia mission. You should report to the Mexico Missionary Training Center on July 9, 2014. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

What an amazing day. What an amazing thing  the Gospel is and what an amazing opportunity  to share it with the people of Arcadia. I know some days will be hard, I know I may not find success in the way that some people believe I should, but I have never been more excited to do something in my entire life. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I cannot wait to share it and its glorious message with everyone I come across. What a blessing it is to serve the Lord, to teach others about His love and His glorious atonement. What a dream come true for me to finally be going on a mission! What a blessing!!

Em.

It's Hairspray.

I LOVE musicals. LOVE THEM. If I had to give you a top ten it would be:

1. Les Miserables
2. West Side Story
3. Phantom of the Opera
4. Hairspray
5. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
6. Legally Blonde
7. Rent
8. Chicago
9. Grease
10. Little Shop of Horrors

And those are just the ones that I have seen. I love listening to musicals too, even without knowing anything about the story. So this year, I was told that the top three choices for the Spring Musical were Legally Blonde, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods...so I wasn't very excited. BUT those were all turned down for various reasons and the number four choice was chosen. Drum roll please....HAIRSPRAY!

I saw another high school do Hairspray two years ago and fell in love with the character Penny. She's Tracey's super quirky, slightly stupid best friend. She is so funny, has a lot of stage time, sings a ton, and completely steals the show. So when I heard we were doing Hairspray, I immediately went into crazy preparation mode. I only listened to Penny's songs from the movie and Broadway soundtracks, practiced my audition song non-stop( Somewhere That's Green from Little Shop of Horrors), and watched multiple versions of the show.

Well apparently the preparation paid off. On Wednesday I had a great audition and got a callback for both Penny and Amber (the star of the Corny Collins show). The callback went well, but I was nervous about seeing the cast list, which came out yesterday.

Well, good news friends. I AM OFFICIALLY PENNY PINGLETON. I am so freaking excited. I cannot wait for this show. What an amazing way to finish out my high school musical theater career!!

Senior Night.

Last night was the last football game of the season, which means it was senior night! I have been looking forward to senior night since I escorted my friend Tui, who was on the football team, last year at his senior night. As a cheerleader, I get to participate in senior night! Each senior gets escorted across the football field and gets announced over the loud-speaker. I was escorted by my mom, my dad, and my best friend, Kim. It was really special to have my dad there because he came home from a business trip just for me!

Each senior receives an orange carnation (go big Orange and Black!!) and a poster made by someone on their team. The cheerleaders also get some pretty sweet garters (jokes: I hated wearing it). I have an amazing squad and each girl signed the poster, it was really sweet to read all of their messages.

Overall, the night was really fun....it was also FREEZING, hence the warm-up suits, which ironically do not keep you warm, at all. But, the good thing about the warm-up suits was that we didn't have to wear the awkward garters! I tried to come up with some alternative ways of wearing them, but oddly our coaches did not approve!

The seniors were all a little sentimental throughout the night, but we also had a lot of fun since it was our last game. We did all of our favorite cheers (multiple times) and moved around the standing formations so that we could stand near our friends. This picture is me, Adrienne, and Leslie. We were roommates at the Reach the Beach National Competition last year and we have been really close ever since.

Even though cheerleading hasn't always been fun (23 girls = A LOT of drama), I have learned a lot from it. It has been a really good experience, and I met a lot of amazing girls through it. I really can say that I love my squad. They are some amazing girls.

Surreal.

I sent in my first college application yesterday! It is insane to think that I will be in college so soon. I love making lists for different schools and slowly checking items off those lists. I remember watching my sisters do the same thing while applying to schools and thinking that it would never, and I mean NEVER, happen to me! But, here I am. It is so fun to see all my hard work finally pay off in helping take me to the next step in life to do great things. Robert Morris University, here I come {maybe}!

Homecoming.

Lucky me, I found out how to make my pictures clear as day on this thing! Well, homecoming was almost three weeks ago. Not gonna lie, it was kind of lame this year, but that's ok. I've never been that into Spirit Week or the Battle of the Classes, so it's not really that big of a surprise that I'm not the biggest fan of Homecoming. Spirit week started off on Monday with Disney Day, Tuesday was Tie-dye Day, Wednesday was Ram Day, and Thursday was Class Color day. We didn't have school on Friday, which was a beautiful thing for several reasons.

Disney Day brought out some lovely items of clothing to create a Mary Poppins costume! Much to my mother's chagrin, who hates Mary Poppins, I looked just like her. I resurrected some old choral uniform pieces, including a white button-down and nerdy red bow-tie, and the bridesmaid's skirt that I wore almost two years ago (crazy!) at Alicia's wedding. I wore a lovely Christmas apron and little black heels to complete the outfit. Sadly, I did not try to talk in a jaunty English accent the entire day, I wouldn't have been able to take myself seriously and I was still at school.

Tie-dye Day, Ram Day, and Color Day were just as exciting as they sound. I wore a tie-dye shirt, a school sweatshirt, and my senior shirt, that was black for our class color. Thrilling. The class shirts were super cute though. On the front were fabric letters in a super cute chevron pattern. I was a "U". Everyone with a shirt spelled out, "Seniors Keep Calm and Just Graduate 2013!!!!!!", and yes, there were six people with exclamation point shirts. On the back there was our nickname and our class phrase which is, "2+0+1=3 We're the Only Class that Adds Up!" and my nickname is the classic "Stormin' Mormon".

So after the Thursday pep-rally, cheer practice, and an awesome cheer sleepover (23 girls!) at my house, Friday came and brought with it the Homecoming Game. Unfortunately, our school is a whole lot better at academic competitions...sports, not so much. In fact, we are the Homecoming team; the team that every other school plays for Homecoming to ensure a winning game.  Sadly, this year, the Homecoming team didn't get to win their own Homecoming game, but that was kind of expected.

So now for the good stuff, the dance! I don't actually enjoy the dance part too much (I can't dance, remember??), but I do love getting dressed up!



My friend, Cassidy, and I were the wicked step-sisters in our school's production of Cinderella last year, so we had to channel our former characters for a few pictures! But we also took some normal ones, no worries.

The group was really fun, and really big. We went to the Macaroni Grill for dinner, and it wasn't stellar, but after dinner we got drinks at Starbucks for dessert. I got the salted caramel hot chocolate, and it was really good! Then we went to the dance and the rest is history! It's kind of sad that it was my last High School Homecoming, but it's exciting to look forward to all of the new experiences that college will bring! Kind of scary to look at the change between Homecoming '09 and Homecoming '12!

EJ.



New Beginnings.

As 2012 quickly comes to a close I have realized that I am terrible at keeping a journal, and by terrible, I mean I haven't kept one regularly since like the fourth grade. So, to get a head start on all that "New Year's Resolutions" awesomeness, I'm going to start now!

I'm a senior in high school with big dreams and I want to keep track of what I'm going through now so I can look back and remember what life was like for 17 year-old me. I do think it's important to keep records of who you are so you can look back and show your descendants what you were like back in the day...but I also think sleep is important. Therefore, sitting down to record something meaningful about my life every single day just isn't a realistic option at this point. But, lucky for me, I waste a ton of time on the Internet, so I figure I might as well do something useful and blog about my life in between pinning clothes I can't afford and looking at funny pictures of cats.

I guess to start, I should model this first post after those lovely "Getting to Know You" worksheets we've all filled out a thousand times and give you some fun facts about me. Here we go!

1) I love my family SO much! They are my rock and I have no clue what I would do without them.

2) I'm a Mormon! I value my faith a lot and it is a huge part of my life.

3) My favorite colors are yellow, grey, and purple.

4) I LOVE music. I play guitar and sing. I write my own stuff and learn covers of other songs. I listen to everything from Gustav Mahler to Mac Miller and love it all the same. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll post some videos...but I'll let this nasty cold pass first, for all our sakes.

5) I love everything and anything vintage. I swear I was born in the wrong time period. I should be like 70 right now, not 17.

6) I'm a terrible speller. Thank goodness this blogging thing has spell check, or we'd all be in for a rough time.

7) I love outerwear. If I could wear a coat all day, everyday, I would.

8) I love lipstick. Sometimes I look like a dweeb wearing it, but I love it.

9) Ice cream is my biggest weakness. I eat it way too much, but I don't even care anymore, because it makes me happy and it's delicious. So there.

10) I can't dance to save my life...except tap dancing, I'm a beast at tap dancing.

11) I am not a morning person. I hate the morning, enough said.

12) I love rings. They are no doubt my favorite type of jewelry.

13) I'm obsessed with bargain hunting...I recently bought a lovely Modcloth dress that was originally over $100 for $24.99 soooo I'm constantly checking all my favorite stores for new sales.

14) I love reading. Books are awesome. I'm currently reading The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. It is a beautiful book and I totally recommend it.

15) I love quotes. I quote things all the time, people, movies, songs, etc.

16) I think that social activism and social entrepreneurship (I originally spelled that word so wrong, spell check didn't even recognize it. Props to me.) is so important.

17) Technology and I are not friends. There is a reason there are no pictures in this post and that reason is that all the ones I've tried to put in are blurry as all get out...so yeah, that happened.

Well, there you go. 17 fun facts, for 17 years of living! Hopefully that gives a little insight into who I am and what I'm about. Until next time...

EJ.