Last Saturday was a Region Dance. Kimber just turned 14, and so this was her first dance. I got her a nice necklace for her birthday and gave it to her at the dance, and she really liked it. (She also liked how it tinkled when she jumped and moved. She's so funny.) Maya was also there with Jeremiah, and Rachel O. was there with Allie because they had spent the day together reviewing APHG stuff. (If you're uninformed, APHG = Advanced Placement Human Geography. Or AP Human Geography. Or APHG. Whatever floats your boat.)

Monday was my mom's birthday. I got her a canvas thing that said "When I count my blessings, I count you Twice." After school we went to see "How to Train your Dragon." I really liked it. It was cool. I'm thinking I can do some research on how much of the movie was based on research, and how much was just popular and fabricated ideas. But there's actually not much known about the vikings and stuff, as most of their mythological records were destroyed, so who knows.

Tuesday we had a field trip to the Zoo. It was pretty fun. For an assignment, we were observing the Gorilla, and this zookeeper comes out and says "I'm about to feed the animals. Anyone want to help me?" Naturally, our group jumps on that. She gave Cory a big burlap sack and says "Just chuck that in there over by the gorilla, sorta up the hill." So he does, the gorilla hears it plunk and grabs it. Then he drags it up to the top of the hill and dumps out a ton of vegetables, like lettuce and broccoli heads. She gave the same thing to Riley to throw to the Orangutan. She also gave them a bottle full of frozen water with carrots suspended in there. (I think they were carrots... They were orange, at least.) She told us that the gorilla would wait until it melted, drink the water and eat the carrots. The orangutan, on the other hand, would rip the bottle open and then break the ice, picking out the carrots and sucking on ice chunks. So I had fun going to the Zoo with all of my friends. :D

Tuesday night was the Honor Choir Concert. On the way over there, I get a call from Jason (Who had left in the middle of the school day) And he frantically says "Jarom! I totally forgot about the Concert! Can you give me a ride??"

How do you forget about a concert you're in?

So we went and got him, and of course ended up in traffic on the way there, arriving 15 minutes late. (West Jordan Construction Traffic... Geez.) But everything went really well.

Wednesday night we had mutual, but I had planned to leave early to get some stuff done. After all, we were just playing basketball. But I convinced myself to stay for one game, and promptly slammed into Carl as he was turning around and landed badly on my elbow, hip, and knee. So I limped home, and I still have a little bit of a limp (Not too much) and it hurts to put my elbow on the counter.

Good Going, Jarom.
Hey, you be quiet. I thought I'd get some exercise, you know. It wasn't like I was playing basketball when I should have been doing homework becasue I wanted to, I decided I should stay with my quorum for some exercise because I've been skipping out on them lately because of how much homework I have.

So yeah. That's my happenings of late.

You know how we're supposed to be writing in a journal? Hasn't the prophet told us to do that or something? Well, I was thinking, I suppose this is mine... I mean, I write in my paper one every once in a while, but it's almost easier for me to say things here. I hope, nay, plan for this thing to be around in 50 years. We'll see how that works out.

So, anyways... Saturday was a good day. I spent the first half of the day finishing up an essay so I could have fun the second half. But I got it done. So afternoon comes, and we all dress up all nice and we go pick up Raechel and Evan to go to the temple. But, turns out, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was closed for cleaning.

Blessing Number One- We all laugh and say "Oh well. Let's go to the Jordan River Temple!" Where else can you do that? I love living in this valley. If only it snowed less...

Blessing Number Two- The Lord definitely knows what he's doing. The timing, the Oquirrh being closed, everything had to happen exactly the way it did for what happened next to happen.

So we get to the Jordan River, and we go and get changed, and we sit down in the chapel. I'm talking with Raechel, and I look up as a girl comes out of the locker room. I sorta did a double take and then looked away, and thought "That girl looks awfully like Sam..." And so I kept quickly glancing at her, because I didn't want to stare in case it wasn't her, but it sure looked like her, and she seemed to be giving me the same glances. (I didn't realize until later that she normally where's glasses, and she wasn't...) But one of the ushers comes and moves our group along, and she was just sitting there by herself cause she didn't have a group, so he puts her in our group, and I end up sitting right next to her. Turns out, it was my friend Sam, who I barely ever get to see!

So I got to talk with Sam. She's usually a really hyper person, but she was actually really calm. She talked about how the temple helped her to calm down and focus, and how she loved the temple because that's where she could organize her thoughts. She helped me to feel the spirit while I was there. She also showed me her scriptures, which have markings all over them. She showed me her favorite scriptures and we talked about what they meant to us. I showed her a cool thing that Brother Michaelis showed me- If you look in 2 Nephi 12:2, which some people call the Utah Scripture because it says that the Lord's house will be established in the "Top of the Mountains" an Utah is a Ute Indian word for "Top of the Mountains". Anyways, if you look in that, you can look at the second line, at the U in the word mountain... directly beneath that is the T in established, and below that the A in mountains, and below that the H in hills. UTAH.


Pretty cool huh? Well, I showed her that, and topped it off by saying "The church is true!" She laughed, and marked it in her scriptures, then wrote at the top "Jarom: The Church is True!" So I was like "Now I can say that my name is in your scriptures." She laughed again, and then I thought, and was like "Wait... my name was already in your scriptures" "Yeah, you have your own book." The Book of Jarom. Ha. =D

So that was my awesome temple experiance. Later that night, I went to a Region Dance with Daniel, Evan, Jeremiah, Ryan, and Garrett. I got to meet Jeremiah's friends Cailey and Lia. Lia was really nice, and I hope I can hang out with her and Jeremiah sometime. We could have a party. =D

I've never had so much fun dancing YMCA... oh, wait, that was totally random. I danced that with Daniel and Evan, and it was pretty fun. Don't really know why.

Well, that's basically my Saturday.

It is my privilege to be a part of a Jeremiah Pena film, Assassin.

I thought I would use this place to share some fun secrets about the film.

1. You'll notice in the first scene in the basement, as the Assassin is trying to get up from the ground, the package from "Code Name Tiger" (The stuffed tiger) is sitting there against the desk.

2. Since it's not as obvious as we tried to make it, the Assassin's accent changes through the film.

3. In the first chase through the kitchen, their are only the two people. However, in the second on (With the backup assassin and the wanted man) there's another person, sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. It's Jeremiah's Dad!

4. Yes, the guns are made from blocks. The first time Ryan (the kid) threw the big ball at me, it hit the gun and shattered it. It was pretty epic.

5. The scene were he jumps out from behind the curtains screaming was actually not in the plan. In fact, we had no idea how he was going to get out of being surrounded. But during the first take, Me and Elizabeth ran into the room and he wasn't there. Jeremiah was confused, too. "Ryan's supposed to be on the scene!" Then he jumps screaming out of the curtains, we all jump, and we decided to put that in the movie. Of course, we re-did the scene because we were laughing too hard. (And because Elizabeth went all "Flying Ninja" on me at first.)

6. If you look really, really closely (Maybe more so then is possible) the order of blocks in my gun changes because it keeps braking.

7. The cell phone that Ryan uses is the same one that he uses in the film "Bounty Hunter"

That's all I can think of right now. It was awesome making this!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

The music created by Jeremiah Pena has now been put on my Amazing List!!!!

It's a bit differant then the others, because it didn't literally make my jaw drop. But I just couldn't let that get in the way of it, especially after his newest song, "Overtaken". I listened to this song, and it just filled me with emotion. Tragedy, Anguish, it was absolutely amazing. I ended up writing a peom to it, just thoughts that came as I listened to the song, and I think it's pretty good. You can find it on my poems page, under the name Overtaken.

The list so far:

1. McKayla Whitehead's dance.
2. Aerin Loizos's singing.
3. Rachel Kirkland's spelling. (It's wierd, but true)
4. Rachel Davis's drawing.
5. Jeremiah Pena's music.

ALWAYS BE AMAZING! That's one of my mottos. And Jeremiah definately has achieved it. Good work with everything, and continue to create your wonderful music!

I hope I don't get back into the habit of not posting. That would be bad. No bueno. Me gusta que yo puedo hablar espanol poco bien. Y yo nesicito hablar en espanol con mi padre antes manana...

Yeah. So. Anywho.

I can't believe I haven't been posting, especially this week when there were things to post!

So... Winter Break, IN REVIEW!

Monday, we went sledding with Tami and Scott and Connor. (My relatives from California, if you haven't been following this since July.) And then we went to Grandma's house.

Tuesday, after a day of homework, I went to Kat's house for a party with her, Quin, Sam, Justin, Nick, Max, and Sadee. It was fun. I need to hank out with some of them more often. :P

Wednesday, again with the homework. I was going to go to mutual, but instead we went to Grandparent's one more time.

Thursday, homework, and then NEW YEAR'S EVE DANCE! Woo! It was Jeremiah's first dance, and he had a lot of fun. He he... he didn't expect to dance with anyone. But 6 girls asked him! It was pretty awesome.

Friday... I think I only did homework on Friday... but I got a lot done.

Saturday, after finishing Dracula and my paper on it, I went Ice Skating with Elizabeth, Jeremiah, and Calvin. It was fun... even though I failed... And it didn't help that they were all really good. But then we went home and played Mario and Sonic... and had a 1 1/2 hour game of curling because Calvin decided we needed 4 end matches. :P

Sunday, first Sunday of the year. 9:00 church, the fast offerings, then going home, then band practice for wednesday, then going home, then Dead Prophet's Society, then going to bed.

This week, I had a Young Men's Recognition dinner on wednesday, where I had to play my guitar and... I kinda failed... Brother McEntyre is supposed to upload the video of it to YouTube, then I'll post it maybe.

So, yeah. That's my life. How's yours? Joyous, I hope.

I sent the tune of Sometimes I Wonder to Jeremiah, and he created this arrangement. For those of you who don't know, I wrote the basic tune (And lyrics, but you can hear those) And Jeremiah wrote the acompaniment and created this sound file. Isn't it beautiful? If that doesn't work... go here... http://www.archive.org/details/SometimesIWonder

Here's to Jeremiah!

This is my own picture from seventh grade...

And this is one he sent me... but it's a little too dark. Not the best picture. (No offence, of course.)

You are TOTAL AWESOMENESS. (Despite what Sam says about some girl in Morgan.) Thanks for being such an awesome friend! You're always great, funny, random, and someone I can trust. I hope you know you can trust me.

As you can see, my blog is now new and improved. Jeremiah thought that my old template was ugly. And I decided it needed to be changed anyways. So It is.

We'll see how this works. I'm in somewhat unfamiliar waters with this one, and it's all wierd. But I've worked the HTML a little to how I like it. Almost....

So for English class we have to find a picture and a song and write poems about them. I'm currently listening to some of Jeremiah's songs to write a poem about.

I am grateful for poetry, and for writing in general. I like writing, and people tell me I'm really good at it.

When I finish this, I might post it.

Here's a funny conversation I had with Jeremiah and Garrett the other day...

Jeremiah: So how is everyone doing?
Garrett: okey dokey, you?
Jeremiah: good
Garrett: that's good
Jeremiah: Yep.
Jarom?
me: Yes, my liege?
Jeremiah: liege?
me: Is that spelled wrong, my lord?
Jeremiah: lord?
Garrett: I do not believe so
Jeremiah: So now I'm some sort of awesome person?
Garrett: Your master requires your answer to how you art.
me: I am quite well. I am moved that you shouldest care.
Garrett: My master will not lower himself by talking to you, therefore, I will be his mouth
Jeremiah: who's he?
Garrett: You master welcomes you, and asks, are the people feeding you right
Jeremiah: wtm?
me: They are feeding me well enough, sir. It woud be appreciated if they would give me a slice of their pig or a drop of their grape juice once in a while.
Jeremiah: You guys are completely confusing me.
We are in the 21st century, not the 15th!
Garrett: Your master will send a serving man soon, and discuss this matter. Your master wishes to know what your position is in this keep
Jeremiah: AAAAH!
What is going on?
me: I am over the men who gaurd the easternmost wall.
Jeremiah: This is some sort of time warp occurence! With alternate universes!
Garrett: Then you should get more of the food stuff. This is a puzzling matter. Your master wishes to know if you need anything
me: I get little food because the commander of the keep often forgets there is an east wall.
He's actually a rather forgetful man, sir.
He forgets to pay me, but I darest not complain.
Jeremiah: What is going on?
Garrett: I believe a flogging is in order. yes yes, a flogging is in order, and we shall have you elevated to his position. You seem a man of intelligence, so you will do well there
Jeremiah: NO! NO! NO!! STOP! 2009! IT"S 2009! Not 1498!
me: Oh, Thank you, My Lord!You are the most gracious master a man could ask for!I am forever in your service!
Jeremiah: 2009!
Garrett: You master aknowledges your thanks, and ask, how sharp is your sword
Jeremiah: 2. 0. 0. 9. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me: My sword is sharp and strong, and it is ready to serve my liege at a moment's notice!
Garrett: Good, the spies have reported that the enemy is in motion, get your men ready, and torches brighter, and the men more alert
Jeremiah: hi
me: Oh, yes, your eminence! At once!
Jeremiah: Stop please
aah
Garrett: Good, and when your through with that, come back and guard his royal
me: I will gather together the bravest of the men, and we will form a gaurd that will be the envy of the land! Garrett: Good
me: May Health and fortune guide his majesty! I will return!
Jeremiah: bye
Garrett: We're done now
Jeremiah: ok
me: His Majesty Spoke to me!
Jeremiah: what was up with that?
me: So what's up?
WHAT'S UP WITH YOU??
Jeremiah: All I have to say. WHAT IN THE WORLD!
me: I dunno. What?