A Two-day, All-day Project

My bedroom. Ugh. I wish I had "Before" pictures to show how much of a hassell cleaning it was, but I don't but here's how it looks!

I made it look much more feminine and much less cluttery. It was my brother's room a couple years ago, and I hadn't really altered it other than moving my stuff in. He had 50 SOBE bottles stacked on the top of his headboard. In the place of those I now have this lovely arrangement of trinkets. (I did it myself. :D) And where a giant K-Nex Ferris Wheel had been are now my porcelain dolls. (Sidenote: I originally misspelled porcelain, and I right-clicked to see the possible correct spellings and under the list was "pointless." It made me laugh. Especially since porcelain dolls ARE pointless dolls.)

I also hung some pictures and my jewelry hanger I got for Christmas. It actually IS helpful. Hanging my jewelry on the wall got rid of my jewelry box and earring holder that had been taking up space. So I also uncluttered the top of my desk, so now it looks more

organized. I'm so glad I found time to do this. The room actually feel like it's MINE now, not Matt's. Which is great. It makes me feel more like I belong here. :) I will be spending much more time in here now. I can tell.

~~~

My next project... the dreaded closet.

A Rather Forgettable Christmas

It may have been the fact that my presents weren't as great as expected.

It may have been the fact that it didn't feel like Christmas at all.

It may have been the fact that we didn't start unwrapping presents until noon.

...or it may have been the fact that Matt and Rachel weren't here.

Yup, I think that's it. Definitely it.

It's mostly Matt. I miss my brother so much. Yeah, he called. But it's not even close to the same. At least with Rachel we were able to Skype. I know that they are doing what is right, and there is no place else I'd rather they be, but I still miss them. So much.

I did get presents. (Duh. It's Christmas.) I got some things I love, others not as much. I got this beautiful plaque that has roses in the Young Women value colors and says "Elizabeth, Standing as a Witness." Except it doesn't say that. It says "Elisabeth, Standing as a Witness." So yeah. Horrible. Bleh. I got a jewelry rack that I neither asked for nor need. And my mom could tell I wasn't pleased, and offered to return it, but I always feel bad, so I said I'll use it. But in order to use it I'll be getting rid of my jewelry box and my earring holder. I got an awesome video camera that I asked for, and a gorgeous painting that I asked for. I also got Just Dance 3 (YES!!!), and a zebra print/turquoise alligator skin purse with a matching wallet (LOVE IT). I got a scarf and some tights and some other stuff. I'm so blessed, I have no

reason to complain about anything.

But there was just that one thing about this Christmas that didn't make it nearly as special or memorable. Without all of your family, Christmas just isn't the same.

^Christmas^Presents^

Pretty presents I have wrapped. :)

Yay for Christmas Eve! :D Although it still doesn't feel like Christmas. :/ No snow. In fact, it has been bright and sunny for the past week! Poo.

My family sure has been in a Christmasy mood!

That was OOZING with sarcasm, by the way. Just look at this present's tag! Ahaha, Danny is so funny. And what the heck is a "coolhead" anyway? It makes me laugh. :)

Well, I finished all my shopping yesterday... the same day I started. Haha. :) And I've been a mad wrapping machine. The first present I wrapped was for Becca. And wrapping it was a process, but I sure am excited for when she will open it. :) I have ten pictures of each step I went through while wrapping the present. :D And here they are.

<-- The gift. It's a Perry the Platypus shirt. On the front is Perry, and on the back is the back of Perry. Clever, huh? I like it. :)

WRAPPED! ^^^

<-- Then I put the wrapped shirt into the bag the shirt originally came in in the mail.

And wrapped it!! -->

<-- Put it in a Cocoa Puffs box...

Then wrapped that! ->

<- Put it in a milk box (with no lid)

Wrapped it. It says "Punch this too!" --->

Put it in a cookie box. (Also without a lid.)

Final Product! It says "Fragile. 2 Becca.

From Elizabeth. Punch here to open."

'Tis the Season

Oh, Christmas time. :D I love it! But sadly, this year I'm not as excited as I usually am... :/ Maybe it is due to the lack of snow. There is NO snow... :( I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit by listening to Christmas music. This is my Christmas music collection. :)

Eeep!

Okay, so, people in Germany and Russia who enjoy viewing my blog on a regular basis... please feel free to openly "Follow" my blog! My blog says I only have one follower, and I would really enjoying seeing that number go up! :D (This message does not only apply to the Russian and German blog-viewers, however; I would like everyone to publicly follow my blog!) :D

..::Jiving Adventures::..

Jive! It started out a little disappointing, and it still is, slightly. There is so much drama, and there are cliques. It's kind of obnoxious. But I've learned to become friends with everyone (except for a few ((or maybe just one)) unmentionable souls). Yesterday, we had our Christmas party and exchanged White Elephant gifts. It was so fun! Except for the fact that I ended up with a "Malibu Jake Doll" (aka a Ken Barbie doll that has "Malibu Jake Doll" written on it in reference to a guy in Jive (*cough*cough* unmentionable soul *cough*cough*) named Jake who the Barbie doll looked like. The most ironic thing was... there were two Jake dolls, and Jake himself got one of them. Wow. I've tried to become friends with Jake, because I really don't like hating him, but it's difficult when he's such a jerk. So yeah. Oh well!

Today we sang at Old Navy. We utterly failed at a few of our dancing numbers. This is mostly because we tried to flash-mob-ify our choreography, and we had never practiced it that way. But the costumers seemed to enjoy it even though we failed. And we did really well on our just singing numbers.

After singing at Old Navy, a few of us went over to Best Buy (right next door) and pretended that we worked there. SO FUN! :) Below is a picture of some Jive members in their Jive shirts, and when we perform we wear the shirts with khaki pants, so we pretty much look EXACTLY like Best Buy employees. The employees there mostly just glared at us, but there were a few who just kept laughing. :D After going to Best Buy, we went to the mall and walked around. (There were still five of us.) We looked so stupid (in a hilarious way) walking around the mall looking like matching weirdos. Needless to say, I enjoyed it. :)

Here is one of our Jive Christmas numbers. :)

Oh! And one last Jivey thing. On Thursday while dancing during Jive I jumped and then landed on my foot awkwardly. It hurt. And it popped. And since then my foot has been hurtful to walk on and swollen. Ouch. But it's been feeling better. (But it only looks worse.) It is still swollen, AND it's turning purple. Yummy. :/ I even walked on a crutch for half the day yesterday because it hurt to walk, but I gave up because I looked like an idiot because I don't know how to use crutches. :P So I just dealt with the pain.

I Can Do Better

As you may have noticed, a few days ago, I changed my blog. I kinda wanted a little change. :) I even changed the name. It is now "The Best Me." Ever since I changed it, however, I have realized that I'm not even being the best me! I can do so much better! I have so much to be thankful for; I have no reason to complain.

-----> I need to try harder.

Try harder to be nicer.

Try harder to be prompter.

Try harder to be a better listener.

Try harder to be more responsible.

Try harder to be healthier.

Try harder to be better.

Because I deserve it.

And so do YOU. ♥

An Icky Day With a Pinch of Joy

As said up there^ ... today was on icky day. Almost nothing went right. At all. It started out alright, I was able to sleep in! Hallelujah! I didn't wake up until 7:35, outta bed at 7:50. On Wednesdays, we have late start; school doesn't start until 8:25. ...I never get that, though, because I have voice lessons at 7:30 AM on Wednesdays. Today, however, I had my lesson at 11:30 because I no longer have a fourth period class. Thank goodness that Calculus is OVER! So, I had happy sleep this morning. :) Ever since then, the day had gone down hill. English was bleh, as usual. I forgot my cello at my house, so I was late to seminary because I needed to run home and grab that. Then I remembered I needed food for Chamber Singers (Christmas party), so I stopped by at Walmart. (Where I saw my ex-biology teacher. He was on his prep. It was kinda strange.) Then I had a test in History. It was an open-book/take-home test, so better than most tests, but a test nonetheless. Then I quickly bought a bagel for lunch, then quickly drove over to my voice lesson. After that, I went over to Twin for my second half of the day. I went to the bathroom and discovered that it is that unpleasant time of the month. Then in Chemistry I realized we have a test tomorrow on something that I barely even know anything about because I was gone on Monday (taking my Calc final). Then in Chamber Singers for our Christmas party people voted to watch the Grinch. For one, I don't even like that movie very much. For two, I will be watching that movie next week in Chemistry. Bah humbug. While watching the Grinch, I started to feel like crap. Stupid periods. Ughh, cramps, headaches, etcetera. (Plus, the guy I sorta have a little crush on called me Rachel, grr. I wish people would just call me Elizabeth, and not mix up my name, EVER!) By Jive I felt like I was gonna die. My insides were exploding. I took some ibuprofen, but that didn't help right away. Plus, I was exhausted. We worked on choreography, and I looked like an idiot because I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. Apparently, I also looked like I was going to pass out. Swell. I just wanted to go home and sleep. But after school I had a cello lesson, and by the time my lesson was over, the ibuprofen had kicked in. Which is good, yeah, but then I felt like sleeping wasn't a priority. So I didn't go to sleep when I got home. Then Kendall called me and asked if he could borrow my history notes. I said I'd drop them off on the way to mutual and pick them up on the way back. I was running late for mutual because we were going caroling and my mom made me change clothes to something 'warmer.' (What I was wearing at first was warmer than what I changed in to. I got to Kendall's house and called him to tell him to come get my notes, but he wasn't even at his house. I was frustrated and in a hurry, and I couldn't understand what he was saying, so I just threw my notes in his driveway and drove off. Caroling for mutual was freezing and boring. After mutual I went back to Kendall's house to pick up my notes, and (here comes the "Pinch of Joy") he gave me a plate of cookies. :) That totally made my day. :D But then I went home, and my mom yelled at me. A lot. So yeah, icky day with a pinch of joy. But I know that I have many reasons to be happy and thankful, and there are many people who would look at my crummy day as an incredible blessing of a day. I think I'm just really hormonal and stuff. :/ Sorry everyone, I'll try to be more pleasant.