Schedule 2009-2010 School Year

1A Busniness Management - S. Wynder
2A Financial Plan CC - J. Riches
3A Pre Calc/Trig Honors - P. Cannon
4A Concert Choir - E. Pike

1B English Honors - L. Helotes
2B US History AP - C. Watson
3B Physics B AP - E. Duncan
4B Athletic Trainer - B. Pavlish


Notes: 1A and 2A are my Academy of Finance classes. 3A and 3B is the block class and the AP Physics isn't as scary as it sounds...yet. 4B will be changed into my Chinese Language class before school starts.

I'm getting super excited to start school because I'm a true nerd and I like being busy and feeling productive.

Under Control

It's August.
The month that school begins again.
And I'm wondering.
If I am being too confident with my schedule.
I have Early Morning Seminary.
Academy of Finance.
AP History.
The dreaded Block Class.
Which includes AP Physics.
Yikes!
Chinese, English, and the rest.

I'm freaking out a little bit.
Can I handle it?
I don't know,
but I'm sure going to try.
I'm excited despite how scary it is.
I'm ready to be doing something during the day again.
Instead of sitting in front of the TV.
And rotting my brains.

Summer Officially Begins

Most of you don't know this, but summer didn't start for me until today. That's right...I've lost about a month of my summer to a Drivers Ed course that I had to take because I didn't have enough room in my schedule during the school year. Boo. They said that it would be class from 9-11 A.M. from Monday through Friday, but they lied. Right away we had to get up an hour earlier to drive out on the range before class, and then we had to sign up (during times when we didn't have class) to drive out on the road with an instructor in two hour increments. So really we could be there anywhere from two hours (minimum) to six hours a day, depending on when you signed up to drive. I repeat...boo!
However, classes ended yesterday and I am proud to report that I passed the driving test! Woot woot! If I hadn't been such a dingle-berry and waited until I was already 16 to get my PERMIT (not my license) than I could have my license as soon as the class ended, but no, I waited until the day classes started to get my permit. What effect does that have you ask? Well, now I have to wait until December 8th to get my license. That serves a problem seeing as I have early morning seminary next year (that's the only place it could work if I wanted to take that class because, yet again, I have a jam packed schedule next year what with Academy of Finance and all) and I need a way to get there in the morning. My parents can't drive me because they both go to work about the same time I leave for school, and as of now I know no one down here on the west side that is taking early morning. Dang.

Despite all of that though, I am officially excited because NOW, on July 2nd, summer begins! I don't have to wake up at six in the morning anymore, and I have no obligations to attend to (except for my chores and instrumental practicing every day). I am free to be as lazy as I want. YES! And to kick it all off, I get to go to the cabin tomorrow for the fourth of July reunion. Life is good.

Rainy Days

This weekend my family and I went to the Johnson Cabin for some good old Johnson family fun. Problem was - it wouldn't stop raining. What was there to do but just sit in the cabin and enjoy the sound and smell of the rain? David, Caleb, my cousin, and I went on a couple walks while Suzy bounded beside us and almost killed a turkey that we didn't even see until it ran out of the trees, leaving its turklets behind, and scaring the crap out of me because we had been talking about cougars all day long.

The rain brought mud, which was a little difficult on our little Avalon when we tried to drive the dirt, now mud, road. Very fun. David and I had some fun times, jumping into waist deep water with our pants on just for the fun of it (and because we promised to, on family). It was also fun when he pushed me off of a log and I fell off backwards. Ask Karla or Wayne what happened there.

My two favorite parts, however, involved Karla and my mom. The first one happened when we went to Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. After the movie everyone was trying to get out of the place because in Vernal's small theater, the next movie starts RIGHT after one finishes. While the credits were rolling however, Karla was completely unaware that people were trying to get out of the aisle, so she was dancing along with the music playing during the credits. About eight people were behind her just standing there while Karla just continued to dance, for about two minutes while everyone just stood there, waiting. It doesn't sound like much, but David, Caleb and I were laughing so hard, I almost started crying...almost.

Number two, my mom. Everyone knows that mice get into our cabin. Well we were all just sitting around the cabin, talking at night when my mom thought she saw a mouse and she suddenly stopped and said, and this a direct quote here, "I saw something...and then I saw something!" Everyone laughed for about an hour before we calmed down. It was so funny.

Hopefully you guys reading this are laughing and its not just one of those things where you had to be there. I hate it when that happens. Boo.

fin.

The AP test is over, as of Thursday. It took about four hours for the entire thing. The multiple choice went all right, but I just hope I'm on thebetter side of the national curve and some genious Asian kid in...Kentucky didn't ruin the whole thing by getting a 100%. That would be really bad. On to the three essays after a ten minute break. My DBQ (Document Based Question) was a little sloppy, as was my second essay (Change Over Time - thank goodness I knew most of the information that it was on otherswise I would be absolutely SCREWED! It was on the Silk Road, for those of you who were curious) because I didn't have a lot of time to work. My last essay (Compare and Contrast) I totally rocked! That's my best essay. It was on social ideaology in North America and Latin America from the 1500s to 1830. I rocked it!!! Until...I was walking home and I realized that I wrote it on social structure instead of the social ideaology. NO! If I had realized that in time I still could have done well because I knew about the social ideaology! I was so disappointed. Hopefully the people grading will be kind.
I feel like, now that it's over, all of the pent up stress and frustration that I've been carrying for the year have now melted away. I have a chance to get my life back now! I am so excited to start doing other things again besides constantly studying for that stupid test. Phew. It's over...it's done.

Rant #1

I'm waiting for my dad to get home so he can take me out to eat because it's Parent Teacher Conferences for my mom so my dad and I go out to eat because we can't make food for ourselves when my mom isn't here so...Fiesta Ole it is. :D
I'm really hungry because I've put myself on a diet. Since I stopped drinking soda I've substituted my soda craving with food instead, hence the weight gain. Besides, if I'm joining a soccer team in the spring (if the coaches I emailed about a possible position on their team will ever email me back) than I should get in shape. Kenz and I are doing some sort of exercise video on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and when the weather heats up again I'll start running to get my endurance up for soccer. Okay - the diet consists of not eating after I've had dinner, and when I come home from school and have a snack, that snack can only consist of a fruit, a vegetable, or both, but nothing else. After my after school snack I can't eat anything until dinner.
Anyways...I better go do my homework. I have a Primary Document due tomorrow in AP History, and my bridge for Physics is due tomorrow as well, on Friday the 13th. I swear, I'm going to be walking into class, trip, and fall straight on my bridge. Dang Mr. Cannon!
Oh! And for those of you who don't know, Saturday is Pie Day. It's 3/14...get it? He he. I think I might try to take a pie to my math class tomorrow for Mr. Cannon, Stavn, and the guy that's coming to destroy my bridge that I worked so hard on (with my lovely father's help of course).
Ah! I think my dad is home, and I'm starving! FOOD!

Midnight Disaster

You're lying in bed, all warm and cozy, having a nice dream and getting your beauty sleep. All of a sudden, you rise from your perfectly good sleep. Is it time to get up yet? Did you even hear an alarm clock go off? So you reach over to look at your clock and you realize, it's not time to get up. It's around 2 or 3 in the morning, and you still have plenty of time to fall back asleep to the dream filled, warm, and loving sleep that you adore so much.

That's what usually happens when you wake up before your time. Oh no...not the annoying wake about an hour before you have to get up (because you know you'll never fully fall asleep because you'll just be waiting for the alarm to go off). No, the beautiful waking when you realize that you still have time to sleep before the morning pushes at your buttons.

Well...yesterday night I had to put some clothes in the washer, but I didn't want to stay up and wait until they were done because it was already too late and I'm sick, and staying up later would not help me in that. So, instead of waiting, I decided to set my alarm for 3 in the morning figuring that it would be just like the fake-out wake up, and it will be delicious. All goes as planned, the alarm goes off, I wake up at 3 in the morning and go put the clothes in the dryer and then go back to bed. But then, the plan goes terribly wrong. Instead of feeling like I had fallen back asleep again and gotten some good rest, I felt like I had just closed my eyes when my alarm went off! It was SO unfair. That wasn't supposed to happen!

Stupid plan went awry.

The Classics

If you don't know Claire de Lune (Debussy), or Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven), then you've never lived. I understand that they're classic piano pieces, and sometimes those can be a little boring or "old fashioned", but they are my favorite piano pieces of all time. I can play Moonlight Sonata (in fact I'm doing it for Federation), but I have yet to learn the masterpiece of Claire de Lune.

They are gorgeous piano pieces and I am begging you to go listen to them if you don't already know what they are. Every time I hear them I need to stop and listen, and I gain a new respect for life and love after the last chords are played. PLEASE go listen to them right now.

While we're on the subject of music, I pose a question for you to answer. What is your favorite song or artists, and why? Music can tell a lot about a person, and I'm just curious about what I will learn about the style of music you listen to.


NOTES: Federation is a competition in which you play two piano pieces for three judges and they judge you one yourself, not against others. One is a classical piece (Moonlight Sonata), and the other is your choice of a list that they have (Jazz Suite Nmb. 2).

Procrastination Destination

Right now I am doing the dreaded Cornell notes for history, but I keep trying to find a way out of it. Before I sat down at the computer I promised myself that I would get close to all my history homework done so I could have tomorrow to do my physics and study for my math test on Monday which I am determined to get above 90% on. The last couple math tests haven't gone so well, mostly because I know the stuff, I just forget it by the time he issues a test on it. Thinking it's an easy piece of cake, I don't study and then don't do as well as I would want. This time is going to be different though, I'm getting a 90 or above, mind you!

Yes, this is my life - studying and doing homework on a lovely Friday night instead of hanging out with my friends and laughing until we start to cry (which is my favorite emotion by the way). I should be having a girls night out, or a movie night, or a Friends marathon with my besties, but oh no - Cornell notes! Yay...not. Hopefully I can at least convince my parents to go to a dollar movie tonight or something, granted I get my history homework done first. Boo.

Workaholic?

It's the end of term, and semester so - stress much? Not as much as usual, but there's still plenty to go around. Mostly it's about all the work that I have to do, and how little time I have to do it this week. Today it was physics, and I wanted to go shopping for my mouse trap car that I have to make (for physics, and I was going to write my extra credit essay for English today to make my barely A, just an A.

Tomorrow I have an extra credit movie for history, algebra, computer class, and stake temple night. Also tomorrow I have to start building my mouse trap car out of scratch...yay. On Wednesday I have physics after the end of my first semester A days and my computer class (real yay!).

Wednesday is physics, and English reading and a worksheet. That doesn't seem like much, but physics is hard and I have a test coming up in that class so I'm really trying to understand what I'm doing, but it's just difficult!

Thursday (and over the weekend) I have the mouse trap car that I need to do, algebra, study for the physics test that will be on Tuesday, do a set of Cornell Notes for history, go to a CPR seminar thing at the church on Saturday along with a possible movie with my friends (I want to see Bride Wars, it looks hilarious to me), wake up and go to church on Sunday (now at nine in the morning, psh!), and on Monday go having KFC with the familia and go to a movie afterwords with my cousin Benji, who is really like my big brother. I don't know what movie he wants to see though...I'm thinking a comedy or an action-y type film? Any suggestions?

Testing

My physics teacher says that a test isn't a test at all, instead it's an opportunity to show him how much we've learned. Well this is an opportunity all right. What is it? Going three months without soda. Easy for some to do, but not for Rachel Anna Johnson. I just had my last glass of Dr. Pepper about an hour ago, but my dad still has a whole 2-liter outside, all cold and refreshing. It's gonna be so hard to remember not to pour myself a glass when my dad has it in the fridge.

However, I'm doing this for the greater cause. Diane and I are going to get through this together, not matter how grumpy, mean, or caffeine deprived that we get. Diane; I know that we can do this, now let's show everyone else that we can!


NOTES:
Why I'm doing this: Personal Progress Value Project consisting of giving up soda (in mine and Diane's case), getting your full 64 oz. of water EVERY day, eating AT LEAST one fruit and vegetable each day, learning to cook healthy foods, and developing a regular exercise program. Snap!
Diane is: My Young Woman's leader who is as obsessed with soda as I am, that's why we have to quit it together. We can do this!

Two Week Resolution

Only a two week resolution, not one of these new years things...I stole the idea from my friend Adriana.

LEARN TO JUGGLE

How awesome is that? Seriously!