Amazing

this is really good. no lies.

Response to Betsy's blog

and katy's comment, to which i HAD to verify! this was one of my favorite books of all time!

for those confused outsiders....

if you've seen any of my siblings' blogs today and been completely confused, let me explain... when i was younger, i had quite the imagination. i mean, a really really active imagination. one of my many imaginative victims was st. patrick's day.

i have no idea how it started (keep in mind though, i was also a very gullible child), but my best friend and i believed that there truly was a real live leprechaun named, of course, Lucky. much to the dismay of her mom (unknown to us at the time) and the glee of my sisters, we would sometimes spend our time together, making "gifts" for our little friend. we'd hide them behind a rock, or place them in a small area, announce to Lucky that the coast was clear, and then walk away. after counting to about 100 "child seconds" (aprox. 30 to the rest of the world) we'd come back to the site where the treat was placed. sometimes, we'd find it replaced by a little note, or even a return gift, or sometimes, it was just the same treat we had left for him. this was a year-round tradition, not particualarly attatched to st. patrick's day, until the holiday came. otherwise, lucky was his own separate part of our imaginations. looking back, i think it was an excuse to find magic in the every day routine of life. and no worries, it worked.

so, on to the big day...ST. PATRICK'S DAY!! My mom was very much at fault for this part of Lucky's existance in my life. on St. Patrick's day, she always did scavenger hunts for us younger siblings around the house. These were supposed to be from Lucky and were just a fun tradtion to have, we all knew that they weren't really from him (at least as far as i can remember, i knew...) but it just added to the magic of the day for me. i remember in elementary school going out for recess on st. patrick's day (and sometimes other days too) and searching for Lucky's footprints in the sand of the playground, or looking for any other remnants of his being there.

the thought that a happy (and very clever) little green leprechaun could actually exist (much like Santa and the Easter Bunny for other kids) made things magical to me. and now, not only does it give me something to smile about, but st. patrick's day is an especially happy day for me, because i get to celebrate memories i have with emily. in almost every childhood memory i have tied to this holiday, emily was right there beside me. she is one of my hereos. st. patrick's day is and always will be for me one of my favorite days becuase i get to remember those happy memories, but more importantly the support that emily has given me for the past fourteen years.

the holiday still gets me all gittery and happy inside, i can't help but still feel the magic of it! this morning, as i was driving to seminary, without even thinking it, i thought i saw a small movement in the dark, and automatically thought: "it must be Lucky!"

so, i hope y'all are wearing your green today!!! Lucky will gettcha if you don't! watch out too, he's quick! and thanks to the fam, for making the memories come even moreso alive! i loved it!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

love,
laree...
and Lucky too

goodies

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. My choice. For you. (I know...a little scary, but maybe fun, huh?)
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations

1- I make no guarantees that you will like it .
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done by the end of March.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a loaf of homemade bread. It may be a bag, a card, an apron. It may be a book, a scarf, a poem. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did it will then win a Fabulous homemade something made by me! Ready, Set,....GO!!

no pressure. contrary to the rules--- i do accept ideas/suggestions!

provo

okay, okay, who am i kidding?
i'm going to provo next year of course. but for all you byu-i fans out there, be comforted in knowing that it was a tough decision...i just don't like being cold.

V.I.E.- Very Important E-mail

Well, after lots and lots of waiting...my e-mail has finally come!!! this one:

A decision has been reached on your application for BYU. Please go to the BYU Decision Notification page where you can view the decision and related information. Remember, if you have applied to other CES schools you will receive a separate notification when they have made their decision.

drum roll please
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I'm Admitted!!!!


lest you think i've already packed my bags for utah,
i still have some thinking to do...

but i thought you'd like to be updated! YAY!

Six More Weeks 'Til Spring!!!

And for now, you can enjoy this little glimpse into last spring...



this is one makes me laugh every time i look at it!

HAPPY GROUNDHOG'S DAY (+ 1 DAY)!!!!!!!!!

Toilet Paper Dodgeball

Apparently a favorite mutual activity in the Lynnfield Ward. We've only played it once. It's not for the recyclists out there, but it's fun!

No Sugar Diet

So a few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to learn to be a bit more disciplined. So, I planned a little test to "teach" myself to be so. I decided that for one week, I would give up something [not to be confused with Lent], each week increasing the difficulty of the sacrifice and the seriousness of the distraction/problem it was. The first week, would be to not eat any sugar(i was eating ridiculously unhealthy amounts of it), the next week would be music (it's a bad distraction), and the last was to give up the computer. well...the plan went through some adjustment.

not eating sugar has forced me to eat much more fruits and especially vegetables. it's been nice to feel healthy for once! so, instead of just doing this for one week, i've extended it indefinitely. i only eat sugar on the weekends. my first "free" weekend, i ate half a bag of jelly bellys and realized i really don't miss sugar all that much. i felt so sick afterward! as for the no music and no computer, i've also learned that being disciplined in one area of life helps with being disciplined in other areas as well. i definately still get distracted from doing what i should schoolwork wise, but i do feel like i have a better grasp of myself. it's been kind of fun. so in case you were wondering what i am up to, this should help satisfy you at least a little bit. no new news on college yet, you'll have to wait a while on that one. laters! i'm off to bed...seminary is cancelled tomorrow as it was today, school was too! if i'm lucky all that rain in the streets right now will freeze over, but i think i'm pushing my luck this time.
*small sidenote: i watched masterpiece's northanger abbey today and highly recommend it to any jane austen fan. it was so good!

taken right from my application...

School	Term	Application Status
BYU	Fall 2009	Complete - Click here to withdraw application
BYU-Idaho		Admitted - Click here for additional instructions

it's a good one

i definitely don't suggest watching it with the wee ones though. it's a bit more intense than the first one. but SO GOOD!!!

Happy New Year!!

2009 is going to be a good one!

things to look forward to:
1. Graduation
-a jump start to summer vacation
2. Summer
-Plum Island!!
-Warmth
-etc...
3. Betsy's Wedding
4. Turning 18
5. College!
6. Babies....?....
-aka nieces/nephews (fyi)
7. Change
and oh so much more, i'm sure!

things to not look forward to:
1. finishing college apps
2. finding a summer job
3. finding a job while at school
4. change
5. AP exams

College

No, no, I have recieved no acceptance letters yet, but... the application is in!!!!!!!!!!!! I finished it last week (as in all of the supplements are in) and it feels good! I love feeling like I'm done. I've only done my BYU provo and idaho ones though. I can't decide if I want to do more or not. Any opinions? Anyways, just thought I'd let y'all know it's in and that I am very happy about that!

ps-cami, what do you want for figuring out how to change my template? thanks for the help!

Oh the mysteries of keeping a blog!

Yes, I know, 2 blogs right after each other! What am I going to do! In fact, there may just be another one coming your way sometime later this week (note the "may"). I'm a little confused with this whole change the template of your blog thing. Clearly, I have changed my blog template, but I cannot get the previous template off of my blog and it is ANNOYING ME all too much. My new template is from a different website, you can be directed there from the link in the top right corner of my blog. My previous template was just one of the ones provided by blogger in the layout section. So, if you know the answer to my little predicament, being how on earth do I take that old template OFF my blog, I will love you forever. And, prize anyone (because my eternal love isn't enough??)? I'll offer anyone who can fix this problem of mine bragging rights for the rest of their lives!! So, any takers??

And now... a peak into the my next blog....

Two Summers Too Late

Alas, finally, after saying I would for the past year, I'm blogging about my photography class from last summer (2007). It was a really fun experience and probably the only time I felt like I moderately understood the MBTA system, traveling in (and out) with two friends was a lot of fun. Anyways, so on with the photography: my class was color photography, which was a first for me (I took black and white at the high school). This time, we couldn't develop our film ourselves, it had to be sent out and done by other people (the chemicals used for color are different and too dangerous to meddle with, so it wasn't allowed, with black and white I was able to develop the film...it smells nasty in case you were wondering). So rather than explaining the process through words, I figured I would explaing the color photography [printing] process through pictures AND words! And so it begins...

1.

(please forgive the flipped picture... sorry!) once the film is back from being developed, you make a test strip to find the [ideally] perfect exposure for your picture. we do this by placing the negative in the enlarger, setting the lens up, and then putting the photo paper at the bottom of the enlarger. basically, you set the enlarger to expose the paper for certain short time intervals, on this picture, I think I did 2 seconds. You only allow a small strip of the paper to be shown each time you expose. after each interval, you add on another "strip" to be exposed. the side with the darker strips on this picture is the side that the first exposure was made. you do this until you get to the end of the paper.

2. (no picture for this part)
Then, you have to place the paper in a special light proof box and transport it from the dark room where you did all of that to a different dark room that has a big 'ol machine that processes the print (at least that's how they did it at AIB). When you get the print back, you look at the print and decide where the perfect exposure is. On this picture, it was somewhere around the middle (the strip to the right of the strip with the middle handlebar in it, so I think that's 16 seconds, I think...)

3. Then, you do the real picture. On this picture, I set the enlarger to expose for 16 seconds all at once, and then, hopefully it's done. you have to transport it to the big 'ol developing machine again, but that's pretty much it, assuming that it's a perfectly balanced picture...

but when it isn't:
-you can color correct a photo, which is generally necessary. in the enlarger, you can change the colors that expose the photo (please don't ask for an explaination, you wouldn't get a very thorough answer anywho). so you would just do different prints, adjusting the color meter on the elarger until you got a picture you were happy with.
-you can do all kinds of things to the print while you're in the darkroom too, it's lots of fun!

end product [drumroll please....]

here are some other ones too...

these balloons were from a water balloon fight we did. we put them in one of those weeding buckets. so it actually looks really gross and dirty, i'm not sure how i feel about that.



on this picture, I burned the edges. basically, after your picture has been exposed you can put your hand over the lens and control where the light goes. so, I put it on the corners to make them look worn out/burned.

So, tada!! This was my summer of 2007, every Tuesday and Thursday of July! It was an awesome experience, and I had so much fun. I had so so many awesome experiences and was able to meet/befriend people who I would have never met before. I loved it!!

Back in the Saddle Again

Alas! It's here...the beginning of another school year. I've been away from blogging for far too long and after almost a month (my busiest of the summer) I have ALOT to blog! The summer started out dull in every sense of the word. I had decided that for the first one or two weeks of my summer I was going to relax: not worry about getting anything done, try to get a job with the minimum amount of effort put into the finding one part, sleep in, etc. etc. you get the idea. Anyways...this one or two week plan transfered to a five or six week plan! By the end of July I was still sleeping in, lazying around the house, feeling virtually useless and unproductive at all! *I say virtually because I actually had a few babysitting jobs thanks to a couple families in our ward...so I wasn't entirely a bored wreck. But nonetheless, you can feel my pain, can't you? We've all felt like this at least once in our lives. Well, August came and I only had one out of the four of my summer reading books read, none of my biology summer work done, none of my spanish summer work done, and my essay for an application for a program at school was not written either! Not to mention the fact that I would be away for pretty much 3 weeks due to our trip out to CO, UT, and ID and also girls' camp that following week!
Needless to say turning the calendar page over from July to August was a very rude awakening! I managed to get all of my bio work done before we left...all in 4 days (it was a rough 4 days), and as I said before I had finished one of my summer reading books earlier. So I brought Fast Food Nation along with us (that was my book for Human Geography) on our Western tour, finished one other book after girls' camp along with FFN and now I have just one more book to read, and essay to write, and 2 spanish articles to read coupled with an oral presentation(for the first day of school) to do all before this Thursday! I've come along way, but I still have lots to do! It's been fun...kind of. I just wish I hadn't listened to my teachers when they told me to wait to do all my work until the last month, I guess that advice isn't relevant for students who were gone for 3/4 of the month-a disclaimer that should come with the package next time.
Anyways, now to the more exciting things to talk about. Our trip! It was so so much fun and I loved seeing such adorable little babes while we were gone. It was nice to see family too. Just kidding...it was equally fun to see everyone! The kids are getting so old! I just wish I didn't get so overwhelmed by being around so much family, I feel like a wimp! It was an amazing trip though! Utah was fun and something I am used to seeing, it was Colorado and Idaho that were the shockers. Colorado was super pretty and Bryce and Lisa were lots of fun to be around, as well as their 2 very cute children, I wish I had pictures to show! (ours got deleted off of the camera) One night we went out to ice cream and there was a local band playing in front of the shop. Sophie really wanted to go dancing with Bryce by the music so they went down, and I followed to take pictures of course. (I did have some very cute ones!) It was so cute and fun! This place was almost like a westernized version of Harvard Square basically. The parks there were so beautiful too! Idaho was slightly more shocking...that place is desolate! I'm amazed we've met so many people from there because I have now idea where they hide them all! I wouldn't be surprised if maybe they put some people in underground cities or something, or maybe we've just met 70% of its population throughout our lives. It was a very different kind of beautiful, and I don't mean that sarcastically or meanly. It really was a very pretty place, I almost felt like lying down in a field somewhere and reading O! Pioneers. I'm not sure why though, I didn't even finish it when we read it in school. Idaho just painted that picture in my head so much better than Willa Cather ever did. Maybe now I'll understand what she wrote. It was so pretty, in fact, I'll see if I can post pictures up here. Utah was of course beautiful and interesting all in its own "special" way. While we were in Logan with the Andersons, Nicole et al took us on a hike that was amazing! It was such a beautiful hike, I could not stop taking pictures! Nicole gave me free reign of her camera so I literally just kept snapping, the place was GORGEOUS! Definitely a must see every summer visit I make (be warned Nicole). That was a small temptation to go to USU -unfortunately the tuition doesn't match that temptation I don't think. So the trip was a good one on my account!

I would be posting pictures of the trip here, but I can't find them yet, so I'll post those later. I promise! So just use your imagination for a while.

Girls' camp was equally amazing. If it is my last it will have been a good end. My councellors were amazing and I had so much fun with my friends, meeting new friends as well. Our testimony meeting at the end was so amazing as well. In fact, I think it was one of my most powerful testimony meeting experiences ever(right up there with it was our testimony meeting at youth conference this year)! I cried for the longest time during it, not only because it was a very spiritual experience but because I didn't want to leave. Who does that?!?!? I always thought you had fun at girls' camp but you were always glad to leave when it was over-too much estrogen in a condensed area+ not showering... But it was so hard to leave, I had met so many amazing people up there, I seriously could not get myself over the fact that I had to leave it all. Clearly, I've moved on, but it took a while. I was JC over some cute gals and had lots of fun with them all!
And of course there is just so much more I could talk about, but seeing as I've already written an essay on here, I might as well just show you the pictures and leave. I'd be surprised if a lot of you acutally made it to this point of the blog anyways. And to those of you who have, sorry for the length, but bare with me, it's almost over!
And now...the pictures!! of girls' camp anyways (mom let me take the digital with me):

This frog we found in the bathroom, it was HUGE!! It could climb on the walls and everything!
These are the girls I was technically over, they're first years. but really, we worked with all of the first years, especially since they all slept in the same cabin, we combined forces with the other JCs and their group.

All of us! Including First years, our CIT, and us JCs! Aren't we a cute bunch?!

The waterfront by the amphitheater where we had testimony meeting. It was so pretty!
Some of us JCs. There were actually kind of alot of us. The theme was Treasure Hunt: what's your treasure? So the JCs dressed up like pirates. aka treasure hunters! It was SO MUCH FUN!

Change of heart...or mind.

Okay, okay, okay...I was wrong. Turns out Keith Urban is from Australia. Got ya! Thanks Kristy, for setting me straight. (At least someone knows what they're talking about!) No, as it turns out, Keith is only having a concert in Fort Collins shortly. This was the 'lil bit of info I woke up to. Oh what a tired mind makes you think! So never mind on that one. Sorry for the mistake... my bad.

Random Bit of Good Ol' Info...

Did you know that Keith Urban (country singer) is from Fort Collins (current location of the Bryce and Lisa M LaPierres)??? This is the little known fact I woke up to from my alarm, and of course once I heard this I just had to get up, even though it was 5:30!

^This is the famed man himself.^

And this is the town to which we owe so much interest. (aka Fort Collins!)

Instead of doing a bulk e-mail...

I figured more people would actually read these or consider reading these if I posted them up here. They're just cute/funny little stories I got from a friend. She got it via e-mail, but had printed them out, when she finished with them, she gave them to me.
Stories begin now:
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Mom, that lady isn't wearing a seat belt!"
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, "The opinions expressed by this child are not those of his parents."
A woman was trying to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. "Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle."
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, "What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a little boy before?"
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was unterrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, "Are you a cop?" "Yes," I answered and continued writing the report. "My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?" "Yes, that's right," I told her. "Well, then," she said as she extended her foot toward me, "would you please tie my shoe?"
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring at me. "Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked. "It sure is," I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass..As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned as whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, "Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit." "And why not, darling?" "You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning."
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton bating, then dug a hole and make ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: "Glory be unto the Faaaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes." (dad couldn't stop laughing on this one!)
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just wasting my time," she said to her mother. "I can't read, I can't write, and they won't let me talk!"
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!!"

hope you enjoyed! I have lots of pictures to blog still, but I have to wait until I can get my film developed.

This is a picture I took of our loot when mom and I went strawberry picking earlier this month (july). When we got back, we washed them, cut out bad parts and then froze them. I have been eating these frozen strawberries like candy!!! They are sooo good! I just made a smoothie out of them yesterday, it was pretty good too! In fact, I just had a good idea of what to do with them: defrost them, puree them, put that in popsicle maker containers, freeze again, and voila! delish strawberry popsicles that are HEALTHY!!! I'll let you know how they go.

Mama Mia

This was SUCH a good movie!!!! It was definately a little weird, but the soundtrack was really good! ...AND the movie was just too colorful(as in they used a lot of colors in the film) to not like it...it was like eye candy! I don't know what my photography classes and all of my digital media/tv prodution, etc. classes have done with me, but they definitley help me to recognize good cinematography when I see it, and ladies and gents, this was really really really good cinematography! Every once in a while I'll see a movie like this that uses color and filming techniques that just really make the story so much better to watch! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! The story is a little weird, so be warned, but I liked it a lot!