Meeting Maisie

We've never really had family pets in Utah. Though I did have a fish named Fluffy, but he soon died and was flushed down the toilet. I never had a pet ever again. Well, until now.

Ever since Laika's death, my sister has wanted another dog. My parents vowed to never have on outside dog again, but Dad didn't want an inside dog. This was a problem.  We researched for a while before finding the perfect one for our family. Small, doesn't shed, cute as anything. A West Highland Terrier.

One day Mom said she'd found one, but much to our disappointment, it was sold before we had the chance to investigate. But we continued to search online for available dogs. Yesterday we finally found one.

Today I met her for the first time.

She was completely perfect. She nuzzled up against me, already loving a complete stranger. She likes to cuddle and be held, and is just the sweetest puppy I've ever met. I didn't want to let go. I wanted to just take her home with me right then, but we did have to leave her until she's a week older and when we have all of the necessary supplies. You have no idea how excited we are to have her in our family.

After researching Scottish names, we've decided to name her Maisie. I'm already completely in love with her. :)

July Adventures

June was probably the lamest summer month ever. I didn't do anything. Ally and I just sat around on her leather couches all day proposing adventurous ideas such as sitting on the teeter-totter in her backyard.

But July was different. The first week of July I got phone calls from five different friends in one day. Here's some other things I've done.

Got bored one day. Tied Braden up with yarn. Why not?

Had a late-night after Celebrity with some crazy girls.

Went to the mall with Ally and hugged a cardboard Justin Bieber.

Went to the mall with my cute neighbor-friends and tried on some hot lip gloss.

Harry Potter. 'Nough said.

Started drawing more.

Watched Andrea swing.

 Pushed Andrea in the swing.

 Hung out with my (AMAZING) sister and took pictures of Andrea in the swing.

Got a phone!!!!!!!!! :D

(For any of you who desire my number, you might already have it. We no longer have a house phone. The home phone number is now mine.)

I'm sure August holds futures adventures, and I certainly look forward to it!

Nightmares

Here I was, finally in my bed. Snuggled under my covers I had no way of knowing sleep would bring the first showing of my now-reoccurring nightmare.
..............................
I sat at the edge of a V-shaped cliff with my childhood best friend, Laura. We sat and ate on a picnic blanket until a few of her friends showed up. We, of course, made room for them and they sat down and began to eat with us. Soon more and more people came to the picnic. They were all talking among themselves. It was like I didn't exist. It wasn't long until there were so many people I was squeezed out of the circle and fell over the edge of the cliff, my old best friend becoming a spec in the distant sky.
I hit the water, attempting to keep myself above the surface with little success. Finally I washed up on shore. I glanced back at the mountain, my heart broken.

I picked myself up and began to walk. There was only one place I could go; Ally's house. I walked miles and miles all the way to her house. Exhausted, I turned the corner to find her house looking a lot different. Giant pillars of the white building towered over the entire cul-de-sac. It looked just like Maeser Academy. She sat on the porch with several teenagers I didn't recognize. They laughed and as I approached they didn't even look at me. Before I could have time to cry I ran away from her "house" as fast as I could.

I found myself at the home of my other best friend, Sam. I knocked on the door of her apartment to find a large hairy man on the other side, slowing chewing on a disgusting looking burger. I asked him where Sam's family was, and he told me they had moved to California. My world stopped spinning. I didn't say anything more to the hairy man, just walked slowly home, unbelieving that I had just lost all of my best friends.
.............................

I awoke feeling very upset. It was 5:00 in the morning, but I knew there was no going back to sleep.

Trek Moments: For the Beauty of the Earth

I know, I know. I still haven't posted anything about trek. But the post I've been working on is just WAY too long, so I decided to do it in pieces.

On the last day of trek, we climbed giant hills for probably two hours. It was one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. I felt drops land on my arms and think it was raining before realizing it was my own sweat. I didn't know a person could sweat so much. I swear I was sweating out of every pour on my body. It was disgusting. Every muscle in my body ached and screamed, my throat parched.

But we finally got to the top of the mountain to flat ground. We sat on the ground and ate our lunches while resting, took pictures as families, and had a brief testimony meeting. After all business was done, we had a bit of free time to roam around and socialize.

Ally and I walked across the cracked dirt and stared blankly into the valley. But off to the side something caught my eye. The clearing was surrounded by scruffy bushes, like everything else was. But through a crack between two bushes, I saw specs of bright purple and blue, shining in the sun. I dragged Ally out of the clearing and through the two bushes to find this:

It was the beautiful place I've ever been. I was ecstatic, running around the field of flowers, taking a ridiculous amount of pictures. Ally wasn't nearly as amused as I was and left. But I stayed in the field, wanting to never leave. To just sit down on a rock and stay with the flowers forever. I can't describe the feeling I had there. Right before Ally left I said to her, "Heaven's going to be full of flowers."

 It truly was a sanctuary. I eventually left, a single wildflower tucked into the knot in my bonnet, reminding me of the pure beauty of life, even in the roughest of times.

Failing on Stage

"...Tessa Hatchett singing Make You Feel My Love..."
The moment came too quickly. I wasn't ready. But I was soon pushed toward the door leading out onto the stage. I walked shyly across the set, looking out at the audience. Friends, family, neighbors. They were all here for me.

I stepped up to the microphone. The music started. My heart was beating a million miles an hour, my breaths suddenly shallow. And there was my cue. I swallowed what seemed like an endless amount of spit and began. "When the rain is blowing in your face, and the whole world is on your case, I could offer you a warm embrace, to make you feel my love..." My voice shook along with the rest of my body. My hands, knees, and my heart all shook uncontrollably.
"...When the evening shadows and the stars appear, and there is no one there to dry your tears, I could hold you for a million years, to make you feel my love. I know you haven't made your mind up yet, but I would never do you wrong. I've known it from the moment that we met, no doubt in my mind where you belong..." My parents beamed in the audience, my friends all waving at me. You can do this, I said to myself in my head.

I opened my mouth. No words. The band kept playing in the background. I knew the words from hours of practice, but nothing came out of my mouth. The moment lasted an eternity. I looked back at the guitarist and down at the ground, suddenly fiddling with my hair. I almost expected to get kicked off the stage or booed or for my song to just stop. But the music kept playing, and the people in front of me kept staring in anticipation. I picked up on the next line I could think of, "...No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do, to make you feel my love..."

It was the instrumental break when the humiliation set in. I'm a failure, I said to myself, I try and try but there will never be something I can just do right. I stared around, choking back tears. And there was my cue again. "The storms are raging on the rolling sea, and on the highway of regret. The winds of change are blowing wild and free. You ain't seen nothing like me yet..." It took a tremendous effort to keep singing when I knew I had already failed everyone. My family, my friends, my neighbors, my supporters, and me.

I sang the last words of the song, and hole still burning in my delicate heart. "I could make you happy, make your dreams come true. There's nothing that I wouldn't do. Go to the ends of the earth for you, to make you feel my love..." The music finally slowed. "To make you feel my love." With the applause I headed back as quickly as I could. I walked through the halls backstage and around the back of the building and sat down among loved ones in the audience. "You did amazing," they all said. All I could say was, "I forgot my lyrics."

That night I watched my recorded performance on my camera. My voice shook terribly and when I forgot the words, the pain was clear on my face. I've never seen a person so panicked on stage.

I wrote in my journal.
"July 13, 2011  11:32 p.m.
I can't sleep.
Today was my first solo performance. F-.
I sand "Make You Feel My Love" by Adele. I shook like I was in an earthquake, messed with my hair, and forgot an entire verse of the song.
I wish I could forget tonight. Everyone says I did good and that they're proud of me, but after watching it on my camera, I know it's all lies.
I think I'll cry all through the night."

Leaving for Trek

It was 5:00 in the morning. I forgot to pack pajamas... how am I going to squish those in with everything else? I really hope _____ isn't in my family. She harasses me enough already. It's so lame they won't let us be with friends. 8 miles? That seems like a lot of walking for the first day. Didn't the pioneers have covered wagons? My thoughts were swarmed with questions and worries. I couldn't imagine what the pioneer trek was going to be like, no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't sleep.

Soon I gave up on counting sheep and slithered out of bed. Decked out in a pioneer dress and apron, I found Braden upstairs in his costume, too. He looked more like a gardener. We wandered around the house a while before our parents finally woke up and we ate breakfast. Everything was packed tightly into my bucket (a 6 lb. bucket instead of a backpack so I can sit on it at mealtime).

"No wonder a bunch of the pioneers died," I said to my family, "I don't know how any of them survived without iPods." They all laughed at me and my dad proceeded to tease my wimpiness throughout the morning.

Later my mom came in the office when I was checking my email. "What's up?" she asked.
"I'm just enjoying my last moments," I said.
"You're going to trek, not to your own funeral," Mom reminded me with an eye roll.
It's pretty much the same thing.

I'm off to the canyons to hike with gardeners, buckets, and handcarts. At least we'll have flowers to put on my grave.

A Holiday Weekend.

The weekend started pretty normally. My brother drove me crazy, I ran around with the neighborhood kids in the backyard, listened to music, and hung around the house. 

On Friday, while I was lazing around, my 9-year-old neighbor-friend showed up on my doorstep with a pair of white shoes. "Color on these," she said. Oooh, a project, I thought. I smiled and got out the Sharpie markers.

 I was proud of my creation.

On Saturday my grandma took us up to Salt Lake City for Braden's birthday. We saw Cars 2 at the Megaplex and looked around in the planetarium. 

I hear the moon is a good place to think.

Lemon Julius from Orange Julius="Fluffy lemonade"=My favorite drink in the world.<3

On Monday, the Fourth of July, my grandma wanted to go to the Great Salt Lake. We drove for two hours to get there, I saw a lot of this.

When we finally got to the lake, we had to cross a seven-mile bride thing to get to the island in the middle of the lake. The view was the same the whole way. Dead-looking grass, a few fluffy bushes, water, and distant mountains.

When we got there, the instant we stepped out of the car we were swarmed with gazillions of stupid biting gnats. We swatted our arms and faces all the way up to the museum. We looked around a bit and jumped into the car, closing the doors as fast as we could. Those gnats were ninja, though, and about 50 of them managed to get in the car and bite up my arms, Braden's nose, and everyone else's scalp.

It was charming.

We were going to get out and touch the lake, but after the gnats we decided we weren't opening the car until we were off the island. We turned the AC on high, and because gnats like warm places, they all stayed on the ceiling of our car. I was frozen into a popsicle.

The people in the museum said if we drove around we'd find some buffalo. Yeah, right. We drove the entire expanse of the island and all we saw was this:

More dead-looking grass and a few fluffy bushes.

We soon head home back over the bridge and concocted a plan to get rid of our buggish friends. We opened the back doors and wiped at the ceiling, all of the gnats flying out the door.

After lunch and more hours of driving, we made it home alive. That night we did fireworks and a barbecue with some of the neighbors. It was definitely a very different holiday weekend.

Celebrity

At the beginning of eighth grade I promised my friend I'd do Falcon Idol, the singing competition at our school. But of course I chickened out and she made me swear on my life I'd do it in ninth grade.

During the summer the Scera Shell Theatre does a singing competition called "Celebrity" and my friend suggested I compete in it to prepare myself for Falcon Idol. After my short solo in the choir concert, I figured I have a bit of an idea what it feels like and decided to give it a try. I turned my papers in and waited. On the form I was required to list two songs I was willing to sing and the band was to send me an email of which song I was singing of the two.

For weeks I was freaking out that by the time I got the email, I would have hardly any time to practice because I have a pioneer trek the weekend before the week of the competition.

Today I received the email. "Tessa," it began, "Thanks for signing up to compete in Celebrity! We see that you are registered to compete on July 13th. The song we will be able to play for you will be Make You Feel My Love by Adele. . ." The message gave further details but I didn't pay as much attention because two milliseconds later I was printing out the lyrics for some hard-core studying.


11 days... I thought. I was getting more nervous by the second as the reality set in, Oh boy. There are no practices with the band beforehand, so I'll just have to use YouTube for my practice sessions.


If you'd like to come, it's July 13, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. at the Scera Shell Outdoor Theatre, 699 South State, Orem, Utah. Admission is $4 for Adults, $3 for Child (age 3-11), Students (with ID) and Seniors (65+).


This is going to be intense.

I Caught the Fever

Bieber Fever, to be exact. I guess I can trace it back to the Karate Kid. My aunt took us when it was in theaters and at the end of the movie (before or after the credits) was Jaden Smith and Justin Bieber's Never Say Never.

I had seen the pictures taped to pictures binders of the Biebs and heard people hating on him, and at first I didn't pay much attention. After the Karate Kid I moved up to the I-don't-really-care-about-him-but-I-don't-see-any-reason-to-hate-him stage. Then I heard Somebody to Love. It all went downhill from there. Yeah. Somebody to Love=exactly 190 plays on my iTunes.

Anyway I started off with only three songs on my iPod. It was harmless enough. In February 2011 his movie came out in theaters. So naturally I dragged Ally to the theater to see it with me. We both walked out of that movie completely changed. Not to be dramatic or anything, but it's true. Anyone who didn't care about him who saw the movie ended up liking him.

It wasn't long until I went to Target and bought his album, My World 2.0. And when his movie came out, I bought that too. I follow his Facebook and YouTube. I now have 17 of his songs on my iPod. Total plays of Justin Bieber on my iPod=686.

I figured it's time to come clean. I'm a Belieber. But for the record, I don't have any posters.