My Shining Moment

Yes, it's been a LONG time. I haven't emailed/blogged/posted comments in a while.  I've just been so busy! I only have a minute so I just want to blog about one thing.

Last weekend I was at a national jr. theatre festival in Atlanta, Georgia.  My group performed 15 minutes from the show Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  I was Grandpa Joe.  I had been VERY, VERY unhappy with my part.  I was so upset when I'd gotten the part because I'd wanted to be a big part in the other show we're doing, The Wizard of Oz. I'd wanted to be the Wicked Witch of the West.  But I got stuck with playing the part of an old man.  Not only was it embarrassing and disappointing getting that part, it wasn't exactly easy either!  

Anyways, in Atlanta they were giving all the different awards out to different groups and individuals.  After the 5 or 6 awards for Best Male Performer, it was time for the awards for Best Female Performer.  Now, keep in mind that there were somewhere between 1300 and 1500 kids there, and most of them were girls.  The lady announcing the awards in the big room where we were all assembled got ready to announce the winners of the award, and I imagined myself getting it.  I wasn't expecting it at all, but I couldn't help dreaming about, "What if I got the award? What would it be like?"  Well, the lady brought up the microphone and I remember her saying, "The first award for Best Female Performer goes to...Emma Anderson from Youth Theatre Company!"  

It was like a dream!  All of the kids in my group started cheering and yelling and clapping, and I got up and jogged up the aisle in a daze. I went up the steps to stand on the stage and the other lady there put a medal around my neck. Then I stood between them and someone took a picture of us.  I could here my friends and the other performers in my group starting to yell, "Emma! Emma!"  I walked backed down the steps on the side of the stage and returned to my group, grinning like an idiot.  My friends hugged me and everyone was so happy for me!  It was probably one of the greatest moments of my life.  My first award as an actress!  I hadn't been expecting it at all!  It was amazing.  Every time I relive it I get the same warm, exuberant feeling.  Usually I just wish that I could've gotten an award or the part I wanted or been in a professional show or something.  But for once, there wasn't anything that I would change about that moment.  Getting that award meant a lot to me, and I'm so grateful to have gotten it.  And all of my friends in theatre with me, you deserve this award every bit as much as I do!!!!

Babysitting BLEH!!!!!

Okay it's Sunday and last Friday I went babysitting. NIGHTMARE!!!!! Well, it wasn't that bad I guess.  But see my parents and this other couple in my ward wanted to see this Christmas dance thingy, and I wanted to see it with them because we knew someone in it, but I couldn't because I had to "supervise" (technically it's not babysitting because my sister's older than me) my brother and sister and the other couple's three boys.  Wow it was a LONG night!!!!! Well, the oldest boy, who's twelve, he was fine, I didn't have any problems with him.  But the second oldest, who's about my brother's age, was really a pain and did things just to annoy me and didn't listen to me at ALL.  And then there was the youngest kid. He's three, I think, and we were supposed to put him to bed at 8:00.  Well, guess what.  He refused to go to bed!!!!!!!!!!! The oldest boy and I tried EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING and nothing worked!!!!! And so since we were trying to make him go to bed he started crying and screaming and crying some more and I felt so bad for not getting him to bed!!!!!!! I felt like a total failure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  His parents were okay with it because apparently only his mom can get him to bed usually but still!!!!!!! I felt really bad when they payed me.  It was a LONG three and a half hours. I hate babysitting!!!!

Well, I guess that's not true.  I like kids, really, I do. I just don't like dealing with getting them to bed.  But still, if it wasn't for the money I would never babysit willingly!!!!  Well, maybe I would, I don't know I'm just really bad at babysitting!!!!

I'm posting! Can you believe it?

Hi all!!!!!!!!!! Guess what!!!!!!!!!! I'm posting yay!!!!!

Yes, I know it's been a while. Like a LONG while. But I haven't had much time lately! So I'm sorry. I suggest checking my blog about once a month, because that's about how often I post.

So. This week has been awesome. I mean, a whole week off of school, my family's visiting, my brother came home from college, it was Thanksgiving this week, AND it was my birthday last Wednesday! Yes, it's true, I am OFFICIALLY 14 years old! Oh it's so exciting. Even though I couldn't have a real friends birthday party this year (my family does them every other year) my family birthday party was really fun. And having mutual afterward was fun because I could see one of my really good friends on my birthday! And then with hanging out with cousins and having fun and Thanksgiving and all...it's been a good week. Now I just wish it would last longer!

Shopping. Eww.

As you may know, I don't really like shopping. At all. But this evening my mom and I went to Sunvalley Mall and got me shoes fromVANS!!!! Now, this is actually quite exciting for me because I've never had Vans before. I'm not what you might call "into fashion", plus the fact that I don't like shopping is kinda the reason I've never had them before. And I'm also excited because I REALLY REALLY REALLY needed new shoes. I basically have one pair of shoes that I can wear to school for PE, and those are my very comfortable but quite ugly running shoes. I mean, if my math teacher found out how many shoes I own and actually wear, I think she'd die of shock. My math teacher, Mrs. Moser, told us that she has more than 70 pairs of shoes in all. She is just about CRAZY!! I mean who needs that many shoes?! I probably never had that many shoes in my life!!! But it's ironic because those of you who know Mrs. Moser have seen for yourself that she doesn't have *cough cough* the greatest taste in clothes and such. So it's funny how she is so into shopping and shoes and stuff. Oh, and my math teacher also has more than 20 pairs of glasses. Not THAT is undeniably one of the most insane things I've ever heard in my life. COME ON how many people really truly CARE if your eyeglasses match your outfits?!

Wow, I got WAY off track! Anyways another exciting thing happened while I was in the Vans store. I say a woman in there that had a plastic shopping bag that was green and said PAPAYA on it!!!! I seriously flipped out when I saw that!!! Well, not really, but inside I was really excited. See, my friends and I - well, me and a couple of my friends - give names to the boys we have crushes on. Usually the nicknames are fruits. The guy I currently like we named PAPAYA so I was ecstatic to see that shopping bag! So after we left the store I went over to the map thing to see if it was a restaurant or a clothes store or what. Because I don't go to the mall enough to know the stores in it! It turns out that it's a women's clothes store, so I was disappointed. I mean I didn't really wanna go clothes shopping (plus who would name a clothes store Papaya? And who would shop at a store called that? Of course, who would nickname the guy they like Papaya. That's the real mystery right there) but if it had been a restaurant or something we could've bought something random just for the bag. Then I would've submitted to actually bringing my PE clothes in a bag so that I could bring that bag to school so that all my friends that actually got the joke could laugh with me! But maybe I should start bringing my PE clothes in a bag anyway like everybody else. I've never done it before 1) because I'm too lazy to bring an extra bag to school along with my backpack,  2) because I don't have a locker to put it in ( I probably could've gotten one but I've never had one before because I thought I'd forget all of my stuff in it) and 3) because I'd probably leave it in one of my classes. Yeah, I don't think I'll start bringing my PE clothes in a bag unless one of my friends lets me use their locker.... Wow I how do I keep getting really side-tracked on my blog?

So ta ta for now!

It's been a LONG time!!!!

Hi everybody!!! Yes, it has been a VERY VERY long time and I apologize and I hope everyone besides Maddie is still checking it! (Thank you for your loyalty Maddie!) Well, so much has happened to me since I last blogged, so I won't even attempt to catch all of you up on that. I'll just talk about what's happened recently.

Well. Today the YW in my ward for church went with the YW from the other ward to this apple farm, and to this other apple and fudge farm. It was pretty fun, but I've had SO much junk food I'm gonna be feeling so sick tonight! I've had enough, what with the doughnut I had in the car on the way there and the apple pie and the white chocolate and the rock candy. Wow! I'm gonna be on such a sugar high!!! 

And lets see...last night I went to this meeting for the Jr. Theatre group that I'm doing. They talked about the trip to Atlanta that the group is doing, and I am S O excited for it!!! But the problem is, I need to raise part of the money for the trip, and it is REALLY expensive, so between now and January I've gotta make some money. I'm still working on how I'll actually do that, but for now I guess I won't worry about it. 

Is it too late for this discussion?

Okay, yesterday my school had this assembly. You know, for 9/11? Yeah, this motivational speaker came to my school. He was hilarious, like he did all these awesome voices, kinda like Robin Williams. And he's apparently very professional. Well, as funny as he was, he hit some very serious topics. Mostly, about bullying, and violence, and being disrespectful. He said things like just because we are in a nice area doesn't mean there isn't bad stuff going on. He told us true stories about kids who were so picked on and tortured by bullies at school they ended up doing awful things. It was all very sad. And usually after assemblies everyone is always like to their friends "Omigawsh, that assembly was SO boring and stupid" but this one actually hit home for people. How mean to each other we really are at school, and how its not OK. A lot of people were affected by it. Several were crying (call me heartless, but I'm glad I wasn't one of them). I hope the people at my school who actually do bad things LISTENED to that. But the sad thing is, the people who really need to here these things are the ones that don't listen to them. 

Yesterday and today, I was feeling kinda depressed about what he said. I'm glad he said it, and it was all true I know, but it really is the truth that hurts the most sometimes. So yeah, I was really sad about what he said, but it's also kind of a relief that he said it. Maybe all the other knuckleheads in middle school will realize how bad things are getting with respecting each other and all that. I'm glad he said it for all to here and understand.

So, hope you all can get something out of this. One last thing he said that is so true is this: "Sticks and stones break my bones, but words can break my heart." Remember people, watch what you say to one another. Words can hurt if we're not careful. 

Its been a while.

Hi people. Sorry, yeah, I know, its been a while. Sorry. Let's see what's new... oh, two Saturdays ago I went to the Scottish Games in Pleasanton with my family. It was so much fun! To all of you non-Andersons they might sound weird, but they are SERIOUSLY fun. I had so much junk food there... like that funnel cake I had...wow. And at our clan tent thingy (go Clan Rose!) there was this guy we are apparently very very distantly related to, and he was super funny! He was totally like one of those ultimate nerdy people who aren't afraid to me and it was HILARIOUS! So that was great.

Also the night before we went there me and my cousins and lil' brother made this "Anderson Idol" video for YouTube which my cuz Sahara might actually put on. I was the one singing. They told me I did great and all, but I'm really not sure if I want my singing to go on YouTube. I mean dude, that would be kinda...embarrassing? Weird? Yeah so I dunno what I think about all this. I'll tell you guys if it actually gets on YouTube.

Oh, last Wednesday I started a jazz class at Dance Connection. AMAZINGLY fun. It was just me and Maddiemoo and two other girls, but our teacher was really nice and I actually DID dance kinda good. Except (and this was SO frustrating) okay I could TOTALLY do a pirouette (a full turn) at the beginning of class, but by the end of class I TOTALLY couldn't!!!! It was so embarrassing. And I was gonna practice pirouetting this week (along with practicing voice and cello...haven't done any of that in a while though) but I didn't and the next class is tomorrow. Dude, I hope some magical power has come into me this week so I can actually do a pirouette without falling over. Hopefully.

OH OH OH auditions in orchestra at school are this week. I'm scared. I really hope the sixth grade cellos this year aren't that great cause I honestly (like I said earlier) haven't practiced my cello much. Even though my lessons have started up again. Yeah, in case you can't tell, I'm a TINY bit *cough cough* irresponsible when it comes to practicing...well...anything at home. So I hope the same magical power that will help me pirouette in jazz will come upon me when I audition. One can hope. 

OH OH OH OH and I had another voice lesson on Friday. It was AWESOME I think I am totally getting better!!!! It is so much fun singing in this new way. I don't sound good yet, but I'm STILL like so excited about my lessons! Oh that reminds me, I need to practice for my next lesson on Friday. Haven't done it yet. Beginning to see a pattern? I am. Like, really.

And then on Saturday (sorry this is a long blog) our church youth group thingy went on an AMAZING beach trip that was so awesome! We went to Sunset Beach, which is south of Santa Cruz, I think. I jumped in the waves a lot (and got knocked over by several of them) and we had a barbecue dinner and we watched a beautiful sunset and it was basically all that a beach trip should be. Although I was SUPER tired on the 2 hour drive on the way home. And I was kinda in a bad mood then, but the rest of the trip was super super fun. 

Today in PE we did volleyball. And I was on a team with a lot of.....well....interesting people. At first I was like "Oh great, this will be so fun (not)" but it was actually really entertaining watching all these obnoxious boys all get so worked up about volleyball! It was probly the most exciting class of the day. And for PE, that's big.

Okay, one final thing. I need to raise, like, a LOT of money for this Atlanta trip I'm going on, and I need ideas for raising money. So, any suggestions would be appreciated greatly! 

Alright, love ya all!!!!! <3