May 31st

Oh my goodness!  It been three whole days since I've blogged last!  How could that have possibly happened?  :P  :)

I've been taking pictures and have now decided to post them.  Here they are!  All of the pictures of the flowers were taken in my neighbor's backyard during Mutual.  Ta-da!

 My friend Iris took this one...

Oh!  And this one!

 Iris also took this one.

 And this one.

 And this is Iris.

 Far...

 Near!  And I really like purple...

 Here is me with a pretty wild rose from their yard.  Bad lighting...

 I took this in bed.  It's made of clay and I stuck it on my wall.  My friend (she has no code name yet) made it for New Year right before it turned to 2009.

 Random picture.  Look at the middle section with the circle.

 Pretty!

 This is my friend without a code name.  He told me to take a picture.

 Here's The Puppy, who didn't know I was taking a picture and who REALLY needs a haircut...

 And here is no-name again.  He posed for the camera...

 Iris took this.  It's her friend without a code name that is now my friend, too, and she didn't want her picture taken but I thought it looked cool so I kept it.

 Ha!  Tricked you!!

This was our dinner.  I thought it looked pretty...  And it was really good.

Ta-da!  I hope you liked it!  Be sure to check out the All About Me thing to the right.

A. J. McKay

May 28th Happy Anniversary!

Hello, everyone!  Guess what!  Today is my family's 6th anniversary of being in Utah!  I'm so excited because my mom is making HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!  Oh, man, it's the best.  We're going to a friend's house to celebrate.  Yay!!  Today is also Memorial Day, as most of you should know, and we went to a friend's house to celebrate that, too.  Yippee!!

Also, a quick update.  My blog has had some changes made, just a couple of little ones, and I added a thingy called All About Me that is under the pages.  The changes are just a couple of little things at the bottom.  I added some more to the words below the pictures.  Check out the All About Me!  I spent a while on it and will probably be adding more favorites as I think of them.  If you have any ideas you can email me.  Thanks!

A. J. McKay

May 27th

Hello everyone!  I'm happy today!  I guess it's because I'm feeling a TON less stressful lately.  A few problems have left me alone and school is over.  I'm free!  I have, like, nothing on my schedule!  Happiness!!

I wanted to share a favorite quote today.

"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it.  You either have to laugh or cry.  I prefer to laugh.  Crying gives me a headache."

~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I love her!  And I agree completely!  The reason I really like that quote is because it reminds me so much of what I think of as my purpose in life, and that is to make others happy.  When I laugh, I smile, and when I smile, I make others smile.  If I'm always sad, I won't laugh, and if I don't laugh, I don't smile, and if I don't smile, I can't make others smile.  And that means I'm not making others happy.  So I have to laugh and be happy!!  That's why I love that quote.  And it makes me laugh every time.  :)

YW's was fun today.  The missionaries taught today.  It was fun!  I learned a lot!  That made me happy, that I could learn from the missionaries.

A. J. McKay

May 22nd

Today was our last performance of Love's Labour's Lost!  WAAAAHH!!!!!!!!!!  I'm so sad!  I can't wait for Shakespeare next year!  Then I can see all of my friends again!  :(  But that's a long time...  Oh, well...  I can see them during the summer sometime...

I can't wait to be able to see everyone else more often, though!  That's what summer's good for!

My last performance was fun.  We had a great audience.  In fact, they clapped so hard right before I went on (because the couples had just finished their dance), that they couldn't hear me when I said, "God save you, madam!" to the princess as I walked on stage.  I yelled as loud as I could!  I still don't think they heard me...  Oh, well, they heard the rest of it.

I got to look all around while I was there.  It's beautiful.  It's in the mountains.  And, oh, it is pretty...  I liked that place.  It's a girls' camp site!  It's great.  :)

Oh, I just can't wait for classes to start next year!  That is coming from a HOMESCHOOLER.  And I don't think I've ever said that before or heard that said.  It's kind of interesting...

AJ McKay

May 20th Happiness

How is everyone?  I'm doing well today.  I'm wearing my Shakespeare shirt (look in the post about my play.  I think I was wearing mine in my picture with Iris) and a skirt colored burgundy with a lot of flowers and leaves on it.  This is one of my favorite skirts.  I LOVE skirts.  This one is a very comfortable one and it's very easy to twirl in, something I love about skirts.  :)  They make me happy.  Today my family is coming to my house.  My family on my dad's side that is.  I'm happy.  Almost all of his siblings are coming to visit and I get to see my uncle (his animal is the giraffe so that's what I will call him).  My cousin also just turned twelve and I am so happy for her!  She can go to the temple now!  She is in YW's and we can do Personal Progress together!  I'm so happy for Liz and Walter, too!  They can come to the temple with our group now!  I want as many youth as I can get to come to the temple with us.  It's amazing to do that each week and I always have a good time.

Anyway. I'm just so happy today!  And to all of you who are reading this, I hope to see you sometime in the future.

A. J. McKay

May 18th Sorry this is late.

Hi, everyone!  Happy Mothers Day!  Guess what!  I got my first Mothers Day present.  My mom gave it to me.  She said since I was kind of like Bounder's mom, she wanted to help me remember him.  It made my mom cry when I opened it and read the letter.  I cried, too.  It's a tiny statue of an actual American Foxhound.  She told  me that it was really hard to find.  I guessed that.  It's easy to find Beagles, which look like American Foxhounds, but it's not very easy to find American Foxhounds.  She looked around a lot.  It was made in Taiwan and I said, "It wasn't made in China," with a smile on my face.  :)  It's very cute.  It is my first Mothers Day present.

A. J. McKay

May 18th *Shiver*

Yesterday I found out that I have a test.  Yes.  Me!  A homeschooler!  TESTING!!  That is so unfair.  Then I found out that the test is THREE HOURS LONG!!!  I have to sit at a desk with a paper and pencil for THREE HOURS!!  That sounds like absolute TORTURE!!  I can't believe I'm taking a three-hour TEST!  Ugh.  I've always hated that word.  The fact that your knowledge has to be put to a TEST just sounds stupid to me.  And now I have to do it!  I've always heard my friends complain about tests and I've always said, "You should homeschool!  We don't DO tests!"  Grr...  I'm doing my homeschool through a charter school this year and I did that last year but didn't know until now that I'd have to take a TEST.  *Shiver*  I HATE tests.  The good thing is that even if I fail, they'll still let me in next year because that way they can help me learn more.  "Hey, she completely failed her test this year, that must mean she needs us!"  Sigh...  Wish me luck on my *gag* TEST.

A. J. McKay

May 9th Bounder Tribute (for real this time)

I've made a better video with absolutely all of the pictures that I could possibly get that have been taken of my sweet dog.  Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwW2v9bfT8M&feature=youtube_gdata

Thanks to everyone who is helping me out.  I just need a ton of hugs.  I'll be fine.

A. J. McKay

May 6th Bounder Tribute

Hi, everyone.  Last night, while I was at my first stake dance, my dog, Bounder, died.  He was hit by a man driving on 114th near where I live.  Bounder had gotten off of his chain and was having a good time exploring and wandering.  The Animal Control came and they called my dad and he went.  He said Bounder looked really happy and that there wasn't a single mark on him.  He probably didn't even know what happened.  Now I think he's playing with my Grandma McKay and and my cat Ollie and my dad's dog Shep and my mom's cat Farley and my Grandma McKay's birds and all of the animals that belonged to my friends before they died.  He's probably chasing gophers like he did when he was here.  My dad got his collar and I'm wearing it and his older one on my arms.  I have all of his leashes on my belt loops like I used to do with him and his tags are on my necklace.  I've gathered all of his pictures that I could find of him and put them to music.  I am so sad that I didn't have more of them...  Here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvi93G6LKgU&feature=youtu.be

A. J. McKay

May 6th

Today I have a slideshow on Youtube that my teacher in Writing and Literature put together.  It's kind of funny.  There are some interesting pictures.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfVbGM4PDng

Ta-da!

A. J. McKay

May 4th Five months into the year? Wow, it's going by VERY fast.

Two things today.  First thing.  There is a video that I got onto Youtube that is hilarious.  It's a film of my dad and the Elders Quorum from our last ward doing a dance to a Christmas song (can't remember what it's called).  It's so funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqlI2hfOblI&feature=youtu.be

Ok, second thing.  I have this weird little thing that I do with my hands and a hair elastic that lots of people ask me about.  It works with a standard hair elastic, not too small or it won't fit, not too skinny or it will break, and not brand new or your fingers will be sore for a day or two.  Here's the instructions.  (By the way, my hand really isn't a yellow like that, I just couldn't figure out the lighting.  (Mumbling grumpily.))

First, position the elastic on your fingers like so.  If you're right-handed, so this on your right hand.  If you're left-handed, do it on your left hand.  If you have enough practice you can do it on either hand.

 Next, move your index finger down into the hole (not up or it won't work)...

 Like so.

 Then point your index finger straight up.

 Move your thumb towards your middle and ring finger.

 Move the string on your thumb over onto your middle finger.

 Let go.

 See that?  It should look like that at this point.

 Push your thumb into the hole that both your middle finger and your ring finger are holding.  Do this from the bottom again, not the top.

 Bring that loop (and not the one that just your middle finger is holding) over both fingers and let go.

Ta-da!

Now, my camera ran out of battery before I could take the finishing-touch pictures.  But listen.  You can push your thumb up into the hole that your index finger is in and let the hole that your middle finger is in slip off.  Spread your index finger and thumb apart and viola!  Magic!  It is now just a hair elastic!  Now (see if you can figure this out without a picture) tip your hand upside down carefully so that the elastic falls onto your middle and ring finger.  Then you can put your thumb into the hole and (once more) viola!  You're ready to do it again!  This is good if you have a hard time not biting your nails and you need something to do with your hands.  Seriously.  It helps a ton.

By the way.  Did you know that the tippy thing of your shoelace is called an aglet?

A. J. McKay

April 29th

Wow!  The play was awesome!  We did well!  There were two unexpected funny parts, too.  Sir Nathaniel, the old guy who shakes a lot and is kind of snappy, flipped around just before someone else's line and his glasses flew across the stage!  He covered it up by saying, "New prescription," and everyone thought it was part of the play!  Also, Anthony Dull's mustache came off.  He eventually put it in his mouth!  My mom was laughing so hard she was seriously crying and almost had to leave because she was totally losing it!  It was awesome.  I didn't mess up and that was good.  I don't think The Puppy messed up, either.  Here are some pictures!

Ok, if you can see him, that's my weirdo brother, The Puppy, who played Don Adriano De Armado in our play (he has curly hair, makeup, weird pants, and a MUSTACHE!).

There's me, on the right, in my costume.  I played Mercade, the servant to the princess.  I get to tell the princess that her dad died and that makes everyone sad.  Four lines.  In the whole play.  Oh, well, I like it.  The person to my left is my friend from church who was there.  (You're awesome!!  (I need a code name for you...))

This is the guy who played Anthony Dull and whose mustache fell off.  My mom got a picture after with his mustache only half on.

There's The Puppy with one of his best friends, Ironfist.  Ironfist rocks.  Just sayin'.  :)  Everyone in Shakespeare class does.  And all of my awesome friends.  :)

Here's The Puppy with his makeup and costume but no mustache.  :P  Whatever.  He still looks different.  :)

Ok, all the way on the left is Ironfist.  He played Longaville, one of the lords to the King of Nevarre (Ferdinand).  On his left is (hmm...  no code name...) well, he played Dumain, one of the lords to Ferdinand.  On Dumain's left is the king himself, Ferdinand, played by...  (he doesn't have a code name either).  Then to the king's left is Costard, the country guy who isn't very smart and gets himself into trouble.  Then on his left is Anthony Dull, the guy whose mustache came off.  And, of course, The Puppy, whose character is Don Adriano De Armado (but you already knew that).

I hope you all enjoyed this post!  And to those who saw the play, thanks for coming and I hope you liked it a lot!

A. J. McKay