Look-A-Like

 I love Twiggy. I think she was so cute, and unique.

I love her crazy, wacky makeup style. And so I tried to copy it!

 What do you think?

It's not as extreme as her's, maybe a look that I would actually wear on a daily basis.

 I love playing with makeup, and I still keep the whole special effects makeup idea open. Maybe in a few years, if I want to pursue it, I will. Either way, I love doing these look-a-likes. Maybe I'll make it a weekly thing.

Air Phase

 Fire Phase is finally over! It was a very trying phase, but we still managed to have some fun.

 We went on a school hike a couple of weeks ago, and it was absolutely beautiful. We all agreed to a "no complaining" rule before we started on the hike, and after the first few steps (literally, just a couple steps) we had girls complaining and slowing down.
After we all finally reached the point where no one would go any further, a couple of us hiked on for a couple more minutes, and found this gorgeous view. All those other girls sure missed out!

 Jenna, Sierra, and Holly and I cheered on Gared at one of his football games on Tuesday night. They lost, but it was still fun to watch and sit and talk with friends :)

So I am very excited for this new phase. We have a new teacher who has had a LOT of experience teaching at several different schools, and he's been in the industry for a long time. I am so relieved. Everything is looking good!

Hi, My Name is Kimberly.

I know that my birth certificate says that my name is Emma, and I was born in 1993, but that was all a big mistake; that was plan B. My theory is... God must have just forgotten about me, so I was born a few years later than originally planned.
Here's plan A: My name is Kimberly, and I was born in 1960. I imagine that I would have had long, straight hair with a middle part. I probably wore wedges and those ridiculous yet so cute bell-bottom jeans. I don't like to think that I'd be a pot head, but I do dig the hippie scene. Above all, I would have been in New York in June 1977 to see Led Zeppelin perform at Madison Square Gardens.

 Sometimes when I listen to their music, I genuinely feel an aching in my heart that I never got to go to one of their concerts and hear them live. I just want to be in the 70's so badly! I love the hair, I love the fashion, and I love the music! I would have been fine without the cell phones and computers, in fact, I probably would have used my brain more, and found other creative ways of having fun. I love asking my parents about what life was like for them growing up, and what they did for fun. I can honestly say that I am incredibly jealous of my parents.

Yesterday I was listening to the radio, and I flipped to some station that was playing the popular stuff today, and it took me about three seconds to recognize the tune of an oldie, that was being sung by some skanky, sleezy song artist who was absolutely trashing the song. I immediately changed the station, and spent the rest of the car ride disgusted that anyone would do such a thing!

Now that I think about it, that song has been covered by tons of other artists, and they haven't always done a bad job. In fact, singer/songwriter's have their music covered by other artists all the time. But the thing that bothers me the most is that the music that is popular today is absolute crap. It has empty, stupid lyrics, that are usually extremely dirty, and the music itself is not that intriguing. So people are using other musician's original work and adding their own dirty rap lyrics, and some new digital sounding crap to it, and making money off of it. People are actually buying their crap! How is this possible?!

Growing up, when I was driving around with my Dad and we would listen to oldies radio, Dad would ask how many instruments I could hear being played in the song. He could always pick out a couple more instruments than me. I was preoccupied with how the whole ensemble sounded, I wasn't too interested in picking out individual sounds. But now that I primarily listen to older music, I can appreciate all those different sounds. People were playing all those instruments, with their hands. Talented musicians were creating amazing music with them. Google what instruments are used in Hip Hop, and it's all digital. Trust me, I just Googled it myself.

Well... if I couldn't have lived during 70's, I am immensely grateful for parents who did, so at least I had some direction as to what music to fill my head with. Otherwise, I'd probably be like the rest of my friends, singing along to "So I told you once, now I've told you twice, we gon' light it up, like it's dynamite (repeat)" and saying that it's "totes the bomb.com". Heaven help us all...

Home Sweet Home

 Last week I was able to jump on a plane last minute and visit home for the first time in a year. I missed home so much, and it was nice to see Texas again. However, I think the visit might have done more bad than good. I didn't want to leave! And I still wish I was in Texas.

 Look at that sunset. Isn't it so pretty? Mountains are nice, but sometimes I feel claustrophobic.

  I was able to go to church on Sunday, and see a lot of old friends. All my little young women from my Laurel President days have grown up so much!  I also got to visit the jewelry shop where I had my first job. There have been a lot of changes there, too.

 I got to see a Texas thunderstorm :) Utah hardly ever has thunderstorms, and if it does, it's a short, puny little thing.

My last night home, we went to a Fort Worth Cats game, and sat front row right behind first base. It was awesome! There was a lot of trash talking from the audience, which was a little upsetting. I understand it when people get upset because of a bad play, but name calling is unacceptable in my opinion. Have a little southern hospitality! Even if it is a competition!

I was back in Utah in time for school on Friday! I jumped right back into the swing of things with a 10.5 hour shift on Saturday. Blegh! I start to lose it around hour 8, I don't think I'll be doing another one of those again.
I also had the funniest guest on Friday. I had a little girl around 7 or 8, who was having 5-6 inches taken off her hair, and she was NOT happy. She would not sit still, and she was yelling the entire time. "This is ugly! I'm gonna be bald! Is it over yet!? You're horrible!". And when my educator came over and told her he was going to check the hair cut, she said "She gets a C! This was terrible!". It was a little aggravating at the time, mostly because she was right. It was a terrible cut, but in my defense, it wouldn't have been so bad if she had just sat still. But I'm able to laugh about it now :)

We had a very sad thing happen in the ward this week. A few members went on a hiking activity to Stewart Falls on saturday, and a young man fell and died. It was very sudden, and very sad. I feel terrible for everyone that had to be there to witness it, and for his family. All of his family was there on Sunday, and they came to the pulpit thanked the ward for the support, and just shared stories about him. It was definitely a teary Sunday. I can already tell how much closer the ward had gotten, and that is a good thing.
I told Dad on saturday night that he and Mom didn't have to worry about me jumping off any arches in Moab anytime soon. I don't feel like participating in any extreme outdoor activities. What this young man was doing wasn't all that extreme. I've done things like that before. That could have been anyone, and I'm realizing more and more that I should be more careful about a lot of things. No hiking alone, no wandering off the path, no free climbing...

So it's been a roller coaster for the past two weeks. I LOVED being home, and I missed my parents so much. It's hard being back, but I love my friends, and I love what I do at school. "Just keep swimming", that's what I say :)