Discombobulated

Just in case anyone was wondering, discombobulated really is a technical word, and not a made up one like "awesomeness" or "FLSBDFR," and here's the definition!

Discombobulated: out of order, cracked out, not working properly, contorting, blabbering nonsense, confused, dysfunctional, out of shape and out of mind.


This is my one hundredth blog post! This blog is an old.... Well... Suffice to say it's old! This post will be number one hundred of many other random, thoughtful, funny and sometimes just downright useless and unpredictable posts. Who here is excited?! I am! Just me? Oh... I have long put off the writing of this blog simply because it is my hundredth. I wanted it to be cool, special. But after much putting off, working up, forgetting etc I have finally decided, at midnight no less, oh what the heck? Why not just write the thing and get it over with? On Saturday I went to the first wedding I've been to in a VERY long time! We got dressed up and went, I rode there with my grandma Lorri because my grandma Barbara and mom went several hours prior as the cake makers to make the cake. It was a long windy trip and of course Lily got sick and threw up, causing us to stop by the side of the road and clean her off. This also meant we had to dress her in the parking area before walking up to the wedding! It was my cousin Kayla's wedding, and her new husband's name is Jaime. The pastor who married them, however was reading the name so he said "Do you, Kayla, take Jaime..." and pronounced the "J". But Kayla's husband's name was actually pronounced more like "Hi me," so when she repeated after the pastor she loudly said his name in the correct manner! At the end of the wedding they had a dunk tank and Jaime got in to be dunked, later joined by Kayla, his bride. On Sunday we were back home again and the O'Neills picked us up and took us to church. I'd never been to their church before, and it was honestly quite unlike any church I'd ever remembered going to before! Monday we picked up our friend Tanya from the airport. She'd flown down to visit us from Alaska! Mom picked her up and they came home loaded down with groceries. On Tuesday Brenten took me to see Mr. Popper's Penguins, it was a funny movie and we were cracking up laughing! Wednesday I ended up spur of the moment going to see the Pirates of the Carribean On Stranger Tides movie with the teens. Lexie and I ran in just before the movie started and made it just barely. We went to In N Out with Derek, Zach, and Emily and then home with Zach and Emily where we spent a lot of time just sitting on their front porch swing! Lexie and Em swam a lot and we walked to the 7Eleven for slurpees (Derek and Zach got Double Gulps, which they claimed was the better deal and Derek couldn't finish!). Lex and I, the unnexpected guests ended up tagging along to the O'Neills' bible study, which was very interesting, and I liked. We spent much of the next day with them too! On Saturday I helped the girls pick a present for their friend Aimee. We dropped them off and went to Walmart where we sat in the lawn furniture until a worker there started to look very annoyed at us so we got in line and bought only a single loaf of hot fresh bread which we tore and ate in the car! I babysat for the Dahms, and so got to play with Bryan, Simon and Beka! Bryan and I built a race track and ran cars along it, I videoed him on his scooter, we painted, made pipecleaner animals, played card games, baseball, basketball, and read books. We had a blast (Yes I had a blast with little Bryan!). I also managed to get the parents lost trying to direct them back to my own house and we had to turn around assisted by the GPS on a phone and find out way back! I fell into bed, exhausted and half asleep. Today was my mom's birthday. We went to my grandparents' house and hung out, I fell alseep on their lawn for the second time this week in the beautiful bright sun! (Why yes I am a bit sunburned, but not at all too bad...). I read, texted and wrote even. When I found a pen I realized my creative streak was back and I NEEDED to write! So I did. My character's name in my story is Sadie, the same as Zach and Emily's dog. I would say that I named my character that before they got their dog but that would be dishonest! Frankly I loved the name and so I stole it.... So I suppose they'll have to deal with that! What I would really love right now is a trip to the library. Well maybe not RIGHT now, in the early hours of the morning, but soon! I miss the library and I really think we should get in there soon, maybe I will... And I am so not adding anything to this post anymore, just rambling to make Zach impatient and try to prove my point that I am deadline incapable. Buuut it looks like I'll have to give in....

I See You

Today my family and I got ready to go and drove to the Fillmores'. They were really incredibly nice and allowed us to drive one of their cars and we filled two large cars with kids and moms from ours, the Fillmores', and the Laws' families. We drove to a ranch where we met up with Megan, Derek, Morgan and Heath for horse riding. They were already riding and we took turns riding the four or five horses there and eating a picnic on the grass. Brenten managed to get jelly on his shirt so that his white shirt, as we teased, was purple. I rode a horse for probably the first time, aside from simply sitting on one, on which occasion I had only been taking a picture with my aunt's Flat Stanley. Under threat of being carried over and forced onto the poor creature, I got on the horse. Afterwards I tiredly laid the blanket, employing the laps of the nearest people for my pillow. This consisted of Katlyn, Abigail and Bradley, who very tolerantly allowed me to lay with my head on their legs! We changed into bathing suits and after much trouble with sunscreen they tried to force me in. I wouldn't be forced in however of course! I pushed Lexie and Megan in a few times each and even Morgan and Kate, when the four of them and Brenten tried to get me in. Brenten wasn't so keen on force once I'd gotten the others all in and backed off roflol! Anyways the moment they stopped I allowed Kate to lead me up to the highest ledge and jumped off willingly. We played a lot of Marco Polo (or Marco "Polio" as Taylor kept saying!) and I mostly managed to keep on the opposite side of the pool and avoid being caught (Or maybe they just got sick of me wandering around the pool maddeningly with no sense of direction whenever I was it!). Although once when swimming across the pool with Kate on my back and making coughing drowning noises Brenten found me quite easily! I swam with little Lily, who absolutely loved it and was squealing, splashing and jumping excitedly, let me tell you she was much easier to swim across the pool with on my back!! I eventually got out and joined Taylor sitting at a metal table with metal chairs. Needless to say, thanks to the wonderfully bright and beautiful sun these metal chairs were HOT! Especially on my wet back! Brenten joined us too, bouncing up and down on the burning metal and Derek, still in dry clothes and having managed to stay out of the water, joined us as well. The time flew by, although it seemed like nothing! Soon we were gathering things up and getting back in the car. I got in shoeless, sockless, and with a quickly wettening backside! But it was a fun car ride back, although my right leg became soaked due to the fact that Brenten hadn't changed out of his swim shorts and wet the side of my leg! Andrew, on his other side, hadn't even been able to swim and yet faced the wetness of his jeans due to Brenten's wet shorts, creating the expression "I wet your pants". Taylor seemed safe enough from this, sitting in the middle row next to Lily, Bradley safely on the other side of the car seat. And I'm sure Lexie was safest of all in our car having sat in the front seat. Even so I wouldn't have given up my seat, it was a very fun, funny and lively ride! What a great day! And made all the better by the fact I got home and made hay stacks, I adore hay stacks, they rock!

Pity Smity

Sometimes I feel like I'm being excluded. That's not uncommon Halie! I can hear you saying it now. DUH! Who isn't at some point? Well what about when something is only done for you out of pity? You can see the giver of the motion simply felt bad and wanted to do something for your sake, sacrificing their own enjoyment for it. But who wants pity? Pity sucks. Why can't people reach out without it having to be about pity? Can't they see the people around them just waiting and silently begging for their lives to be touched? We get so wrapped up in our little cliches and groups of friends that we fail to notice or just don't have the time to go to the shy, less noticeable people who're desperately wishing the floor would swallow them up and save them from their humiliating lack of social status. Can't we break free and visit with other people? Why CAN'T the painfully shy girl in the corner be the most self assured, popular in the group? Because she hasn't been given the chance. She needs someone to reach out and realize, "Hey you're really amazing! You're a genius!" or "You have major skill!" Talent has to be recognized to grow. Confidence has to be discovered and encouraged to grow likewise. I love my friends. This group, "My friends" encompasses a massive range of beautiful amzing and talented people which is ever growing bigger! There are artsy types, fashion designers, architects, missionaries, cops, engineers, vets, doctors, nurses, lawyers, authors, teachers, beauticians, stay at home moms, mechanics, and inumerable others! Where will these people be without the right kind of support? They need us. And not only that! We need them! If you're reading this and you're my friend, or even if you're just an acquaintance, I want to talk to you! I want you to know that I never talk to people out of pity, I talk to people because I KNOW they and truly wonderful people and have potential as a child of God to be so much more than what they are now if they're hiding out in a corner berating themselves with low self esteem. I mean how can you not be great? You have natural talent, everyone does. You just have to find it. I'm told my natural talent is writin, which I love doing. But many people have several talents if they're willing to look and fine tune them, paying great care to the gifts bestowed upon them. Sometimes people don't talk to you for awhile and you think they're avoiding you. But are they? Is it your own assumption that's causing you pain? So many people are afraid to go to someone and adress something because they are afraid of disapproval or awkward moments or other things. But in the end would it not be worth it? I make it a habit of mine to regularly point out the obvious, whether bound to create awkwardness or not. I want to say things that no one else says, be someone no one else is, be a little weird. And I want to reach out and pull as many people down with me as I can! We can be fun and make complete fools of ourselves and not care. We can be free to practice whatever it is we want to, to do as we please and everything we hope for. But at the end of the day what are you going to remember? If you reached out and gained a new friend it would hopefully most definitely be that! What about winning every game, smiling like a champion and making every hilarious joke of the night? It's something to be proud of I must admit. But will you remember it in ten years? I can tell you you'll be much more thankful for the person standing by your side and defending you as a friend in the future than the memory of a few seconds of popularity earned by your corny joke. At least I would think so, if not then I suggest two simple remedies. ONE you could bang your head against a wall and yell "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!" or two, live a long lonely life... Ouch! Everyone has their benefits and good support, all they need is a return support and encouraging discovery. I just want all my friends and family to know now without a shadow of a doubt: I love you! Never be afraid to tell me anything, to come to me, or to ask for help. Because I love you pretty much unconditionally and for my teenage friends, I can take it. I certainly need you at times, and I know you're all there for me, which is why you are so pricelessly valuable to me. I love you