HomeschoolED

Friend: Wait, you’re homeschooled?
Me: Yeah?
Friend: Huh. You don’t seem to have any trouble in social situations.

This past year I’ve made a lot of new friends, and when school started I realized that most of them are public schooled, and don’t really know anything about homeschool except the stereotype of “socially awkward” and “they don’t do anything but play”.

Let’s just get this straight; not all people who are homeschooled are socially awkward! And typically, home schooled people are more advanced in school then the average public schooler, and we have more time to do things. And we’re just plain awesome.

For those friends, here is a wonderful video explaining the difference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQoSRfu5z_4

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Operation Flat Belly Skinny Legs

Check out my new project over at Dancing Day by Day

This week I didn’t work on anything steadily. I didn’t start swimming, and now my swimming buddy has left the state. I didn’t exercise or stretch. Can I have a redo? Can I restart? I didn’t even take a picture of my splits last week! Okay, well, here’s week two.

Dance-wise, I think the main thing this week was stamina. I haven’t been able to keep up with any of my dance practices in Eagle River. Every five minutes I need a break because I can’t breathe and by the end of practice a sharp pain is shooting through my right shoulder. I haven’t had trouble keeping up until about two weeks ago. Does anybody know why that is? Answers are mucho appreciated.

Life-wise, I just got some amazing new purple boots, new clothes from Helen, and I learned how to tie a tie (thanks to Mason). Go me!

Don’t judge too harshly, my splits really kind of suck, not to mention the fact that I didn’t stretch at all before taking these pictures.
Dance starts tomorrow; nervous? ME? Whatchutalkinbout? Heh…heh….
And you know...I somehow ended up losing my water bottle O.o

See ya'll next Sunday!

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Just Life

Life...oh how I love you, and loathe you too. It has been so busy lately, I've hardly had any time to write anything. Girl's Camp and Youth Conference was last week. I'm kind of glad that's over, although I enjoyed the review of things that I learned in the past, not to mention the new things I learned.

I learned how to "throw" people, and all sorts of defensive moves from a retired Alaska Trooper. It got me interested in Judo, something a couple of my friends have been doing for awhile. Come to think of it, I always thought "WHY do they do that?" I got my answer; because it's FUN. It makes you feel kind of powerful. Of course, Renaye was the only person I could successfully throw, and she's only 115 pounds and two inches shorter than me...maybe I'll get Caity to teach me some of it. Hmmm...

I re-learned fire building, giving me just enough to realize my older brother positively fails at making fires to cook hot dogs on. Also, I'm pretty good at fire building, if I do say so myself (which I do).

I learned how to be safe on the internet, and how to present the Book of Mormon. I learned more about how relationships work, and re-discovered how important education is. I touched dry ice and nearly choked on my sandwich. I did CPR on a dummy, and turned red from laughing so hard.

Yes, last week was fun, despite some of the virtual rain clouds.

I'm nannying for one of my dad's friends this summer, and she gave me emergency numbers for a couple of her friends who are certified at one of the local clinics. Made me seriously consider getting CPR certified...I need to look into that.

I also need to fill my prescription for my glasses, and start studying for my drivers permit. I *have* to get it this month in order to get my license in December.

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Samantha Koenig

Early February I heard that a young women was abducted in Anchorage. I didn't bother to find out her name or her story; it wasn't really important. I felt like I had too many things going on in my life already, and it was so far away that it just slipped my mind.
Today my Facebook feed was covered with statuses about a girl named Samantha Koenig; they said her body was found in the Matanuska Lake. I realized after looking up the story that the girl who'd been abducted was never found. The girl who I'd just dismissed because it wasn't my problem never got back to her family. I got to thinking...why do things like this happen? What could possibly drive somebody to do something so horrible? And finally...why does God let it happen?
You know, I've read lots of books where people are so angry at God for not preventing things like murders, and I always thought how stupid those people were, how silly and naive. But it's not stupid. It's not silly or naive. It's almost a rational reaction.
Who gave that man the right to decide whether Samantha would live or die? What gives him the right to take away someone's life?
God.
God gave us agency, the right to choose. But what happens when someone chooses to do something awful? What happens to the innocent people they hurt?

I decided to do something that my Sunday school teacher has been stressing all year; study, ponder, and pray. I went to lds.org and looked up my question "Why does God let bad things happen?" and came up with these answers from an article written by John Bytheway:

We Know That God Allows Evil to Exist in the World (Moses 7:26–33)


Sometimes our trials are a direct result of someone using their agency to do evil. Often when tragedy strikes, someone will say, “Well, it must have been God’s will.” What exactly is “God’s will”? It seems to me that God’s will is that we choose righteousness over wickedness! However, He also desires that we have a choice in the matter.
In the Pearl of Great Price, Enoch sees a frightening vision. “And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced” (Moses 7:26).
Chains often symbolize bondage in the scriptures, and Enoch sees Satan looking up and laughing at the world in chains. Enoch also sees the Lord, who looks down on the sinful world and weeps. Enoch asks:


“How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?” (Moses 7:29).
The Lord answers in what I think is one of the saddest passages of scripture:
“Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
“And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood” (Moses 7:32–33).
Clearly, what the Lord desires is that we love one another and choose to obey Him. But some do not. They are “without affection.” Everyone on earth has agency, and sometimes those who misuse it have an impact on many innocent people. This scripture provides evidence that the Lord notices the tragedies on the earth and that He is affected by them.
Many of the bad things that happen are contrary to God’s will. But remember that man’s will is temporary, and ultimately God’s will is what will be done.
There are other questions in all of this, too. How many acts of premeditated evil has God prevented? How many of these tragedies could have been much worse? There is no way we could know. Sometimes we see things on the news and ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” Could it be that one day we’ll discover that God prevented much more than He allowed?
How many times has someone prayed that “we might get home in safety,” and we actually did? How many traffic accidents has He helped you avoid? How many times has He inspired you to do something that saved someone from injury? We will never know in this life.
The plan of happiness allows for agency, and therefore it also allows for evil. There is no flaw in the plan.


...Why did this happen to me? (or, why did this happen to them?)
Everyone on earth has agency, and sometimes those who misuse it have an impact on many innocent people.
How could God allow evil to happen?
Don’t let tragedy define your life.
We may never have all the answers in this life.

The next step is to ponder and pray. I'll be praying for Samantha's family, that they will find peace and understanding. I'll be praying that I find the understanding I am looking for.

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Adventures in Public Transportation

I went into Anchorage with Renaye on Monday for her orthodontist appointment among other things. You wouldn’t believe how fun that was. We were going to meet Beka Miller, my amazing wife, later that day, but see, Renaye couldn’t stay in Anchorage, so she just dropped me off at Helen’s after her appointment (and after we ate at Taco Bell and decided that the peach ish pink color on the walls is called bludgeoned salmon). So, Helen and I act all crazy and hyper, and we have an amazing time at Barnes and Noble with Beka and then Allister and it was just an overall fun day, right?

Right.

After getting back to Helen’s house at around 11:00ish, we upload some pictures, and then we go to sleeeeeeeeeep…at around 11:30. We wake up. We eat amazing food. We joke around. We’re silly and amazing. Just roll with it.

I can’t stay all day, because we have to drop Helen off at dance around 2pm. Exeunt Helen. Mrs. Lindamood kindly drives me over to my cousins house. Enter Kalayna. We act like idiots, of course. And we have fun, and joke around, and yada yada. Then, we go to see the snow sculptures. First, we stop at Uncle John’s office, where we split into two cars. Layna is driving the little car. Kalayna gets lost, and we all laugh at *cough* I mean, WITH her. We found our way to the sculptures at last, and we look at them. They were perty. And we voted. I liked the one with the polar bear playing the piano.

Anyway, to my point. I have to take a bus home.

I have three bags with me; my camera bag with super expensive camera, my green bag, and my backpack. So, my cousins drive me up to the curb and I grab my stuff out of the back. They tell me to call them if I miss the bus. Don’t even mention that possibility please, it makes me queasy.

Here’s the thing; I’ve been on one of these public transportation buses ONCE. And that one time I had Kimber to worry about the details. If I followed her, I was okay. But on my own? *gulp* I was more than a little apprehensive.

So, my cousins drive away, and I turn around to take in my surroundings. It smells like cigarette smoke and cold air, my nose is turning red from the cold air and my toes are freezing through my converse. I hear swearing and honking and every other city sound. People mill around as bus after bus makes its way to the curb. I quickly ask the first bus driver where her bus is going. She tells me she’s going around back, and pulls away.

Thanks lady, real helpful.

Then, I hurry to the next bus that pulls up and ask her which bus would take me to Wasilla. She said I’d need to take the Valley Mover (I know this already, but where IS the Valley Mover?), and tells me that they pick up around the corner and across the street. I look over that direction. I see a pink and white bus. Wait…THAT’S MY BUS.

I start running as fast as I can with three bags bouncing up and down on my arms. Right as I get to the curb, the bus pulls away and drives off.

So, here I am alone downtown at the bus station. I was totally not freaking out. At all. Okay, yeah, guess who started praying? I called my cousins and told them I’d missed my bus. Fortunately, they were just two blocks down looking at the ice sculptures. I walked over there. My feet were frozen, I was traumatized, and I was ready to be home.

Unfortunately, my mom thought it was too dangerous (?) for me to stay and wait for the next bus, so I ended up spending the night at my cousins.

So there you have it. I don’t like public transportation buses.

~La vie est belle, Bri~

All the Right Moves

So, here’s the thing. I kind of got myself invited to this informal ballroom class last month (completely intentional, since I’ve been trying to find a youth ballroom class FOREVER) that meets on Saturdays. I decided that I’m going to drag my brother, my best friend Renaye, and her brother to it because I won’t go alone. I’m not good with strangers, okay? The first week end I ended up babysitting for someone in my ward, and we obviously ended up skipping, right? Right. Disappointed, I eagerly awaited the next week’s class.

Doop doop doop…okay, here we are at the next Saturday.

So, my brother drives us up to the building that they said the class was going to be in. HEY, there’re people wearing prom dresses in there…ummm…are we in the right place? Renaye and I sidle up to the doors and peer in, and several girls look back out at us.

There’s a sign for Prom on the door.

Quickly, we hurry back to the car and tell our brothers that we think its prom. In slow voices, they calmly explain that prom is in April, and tell us to go back and check again.

(Insert attempts at not being the one to go back in and check here.)
(Insert failure here.)

Yeah, so, Renaye tells me that I have to talk because I didn’t want to be the one to go check AGAIN, like a total creeper. And the whole walk up to the building she’s whispering in my ear that they’re probably going to kidnap us and kill us. Yeah, in their high heels and prom dresses. I am so scared. *cough, ashamed look*

But I digress.

We go up to the door and go in, where I calmly walk up to one of the girls in a dress and ask what’s going on, at which point she goes, “Oh, are you the ones from Wasilla?” COMPLETELY freaked out now, I respond that yes, we are…why? Apparently, this is a surprise party for Mason (oldest son of the teacher, in case you were wondering). *blinks, panicked look* Well, I knew his birthday was soon, but could you have at least given us a heads up? I wouldn’t have told him, I swear! We’re so under dressed…

Again, I digress.

My friends better plan me a party like that. Needless to say (and yes, I am saying it), Ren and I were dead (i.e., drained of energy) by the time we actually left, which may or may not have been half an hour to an hour after it ended.

Yes, our awkwardness didn’t prevent us from being social butterflies.

I don’t think any one of them knew what they were getting into by becoming friends with Renaye and me. *evil chuckle* Too late now. Well, although the party was fun, and Mason taught us some swing dance and waltz, we still hadn’t been to a class *headdesk*

It took some conniving, but Renaye and I ended up being able to attend the next Saturday’s class. Arriving twenty minutes late, we walked in on them doing the cha cha. Yeah…everybody looked up when we walked in. As much as I love attention, it wasn’t exactly my definition of “comfortable”. So, we learned to cha cha, with a bit of trial and error, then, we got to dance for fun. Heh…yeah, I cannot swing dance as well as people may think. Say what you want, but it’s hard to get used to being spun this way and that super fast ::)

So, after dancing some swing dance, Sister Bennett asks Renaye and I if we could fill in for this dance they’re doing on Wednesday (if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that this is a Saturday, so we’d have four days to learn the dance). Me being me, I said that I’d love to. It took some convincing to get Renaye to do it with me, but because she is the most amazing friend in the world, she agreed to do it with me. This is kind of what I’ve been leading up to, by the way; the performance at the basketball game last night.

So, we get there a couple minutes earlier than she said we should because we’re just that awesome. Turns out she’s always late (Tanner’s, Emily’s, and Zach’s words, not mine). So, Ren and I decide it would be fun to explore the school, since we’re homeschooled we find schools somewhat fascinating and fun. We were galloping around on our imaginary horses, peering into windows (checking out our reflections; yeah, we looked pretty good), and found a couple bombs set to explode in fifteen minutes (turns out they were duds, since they didn’t go off…).Then the most amazing thing happened.

A lady with a British accent asked us to go downstairs. A BRITISH ACCENT.

Our minds? Blown.

It took mucho restraint not to answer her in a British accent.

When Sister Bennett got there, we were all sitting on this big stair platform thing eating popcorn that Ren made. At home…she brought it. She didn’t make it at the school. Anyway.

SO, we find our way into a back room place where we can practice the dance. We practice. We laugh. We start singing Phantom of the Opera. We rocked that place. Then, we go into the gym to watch the game. Renaye and I keep up a running commentary and cheer for whoever we feel like at the moment.

Then…we’re going to dance.

Dun.

DUN.

DUUUUUN.

*giggles* I had fun. I really did, I love performances. I really like attention, and I am always in my element on stage. Don’t get me wrong, I get super nervous all the time, but really? I love, love, love performing. Drama queen? In a sense. Not in the overly dramatic about drama at school, but in theater and the arts? Completely.
Yes, if they asked me to perform with them again, I would be jumping for joy. That’s how much fun I had.

Total creeper? Indeed.

And then, when we left, Ren and I took pictures with the most amazing St. Bernard in the back of this truck…like creepers *cough*

So, yes. I’ll have pictures and a video as soon as I can get them out of Renaye. She’s refusing to send them to me…or she can’t send them to me…or something.

~La vie est belle, Bri~

SMILE, it's good for you

1. There are two sides to every divorce: Yours and Stupid's.

2. I live in my own little world but it's OK, everyone knows me here.

3. I don't do drugs 'cause I find I get the same effect just by
standing up really fast.

4. Money can't buy happiness but it sure makes misery easier to live
with.

5. If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the 'terminal'?

6. The most precious thing we have is life, yet it has absolutely no
trade-in value.

7. Shopping tip: You can get shoes for a buck at bowling alleys.

8. I am a nobody; nobody is perfect, and therefore I am perfect.

9. Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive
days I've stayed alive.

10. No one ever says, 'It's only a game!' when their team is winning.

11. How long a minute is, depends on what side of the bathroom door
you're on.

12. Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing
section in a swimming pool?

~La vie est belle, Bri~