graduation party.

so... like three days late, but this was my graduation party:

(my sister made me a smash sign in book! it was adorable!!)

 

 

yep... we had a real keg of rootbeer! hence the reason for me making that cute "stone-cold sober" poster (: the other "rise and shout" poster was a printable I had repinned on my byu/college board on pinterest! We had sooo many people show up! It was definitely awesome having that much support (: oh, and one of the presents I got included BYU colored toms... true story. (yes, that's my fourth pair of toms. no judging.)

Then Sunday night after graduation (from 8 pm to 2 am) there was a senior party! They put tons of effort into this party, and have TONS of cash and prizes to give away. I won 40 bucks! Plus another five in the money box thing (seriously, you go into a box and money flies all over and you try to grab it). It also included sumo wrestling, rock wall climbing, jousting, gambling, air relay races, food, and pictures!

Definitely one of the most fun nights of my life! Now I'll blog about my first official day of summer, seminary graduation, and an awesome graduation present from my parents called... a 15 inch macbook pro (: yes, it's been a good past few days!

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

last week of high school.

goodness, time has flown by! Monday and Tuesday were full of finals, ice cream, and studying. (seriously, those three and only things). Tuesday, as all the seniors were driving away from their last day of high school, the AP US history kids were gearing up for another APUSH study session. seriously. congrats to us.
Wednesday, when all the seniors were sleeping in, AP US History students were taking a 4 hour test at 7:30 in the morning... how'd it go? actually... I seriously think I may have possibly passed it!!! whooooo hooo!!! Then our teacher bought us pizza to bribe us into coming back to school and telling him how the test went, and it definitely worked. Then, I completed my MHS withdrawal form!!! seriously, officially outta that place.

then shopping with kelsey and the tennis banquet.


today was graduation practice. it was hot. really really hot. and it ended with the weirdest surprise EVER.

so, there we were, taking our senior class picture, and they start playing the Mission Impossible theme. I totally thought they just wanted some music (my school plays music a lot), then out of no where this helicopter was flying over us. I kinda thought "wow! what a coincidence! how funny is that?" then the helicopter flew back around....

and landed on the feild!

then the superintendent of school jumps out of the helicopter, hands a briefcase to this lady, then gets back in and flies away!

did your school have a helicopter at your graduation practice? I think not.

turns out that our theme for the senior party is spies and stuff like that... soooo, dang awesome. ok?

then Sam, Kelly, Kelsey, Kym, and I had our annual end-of-the-year chinese food lunch!

signing the AP history ceiling tile!!

Then, last night, the girls all had a sleepover. only this one was really special. we all bought notebooks that we filled with our favorite memories, pictures, inside jokes, anything! it was absolutely amazing. I couldn't have gotten through high school without these girls!

(that's root beer in case you were wondering...)

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

baccalaureate.

sorry, I'm falling behind in blogging... so here comes about 4 seperate posts for a couple very important things about the end of my high school experience! Last Sunday was baccalaureate... and yes, we look realllyyyyy awesome in our graduation robes... don't judge!

So that was the first real part of graduation. I then came home and studied until... and I kid you not... 3 a.m.

yay for finals!

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

hey there, 18.

weird right? today's my birthday, and I'm 18! not to mention I have 2 days of high school left! and let me tell you, this week has been beyond crazy.

First of all, as much as I enjoy photography, I wish I wouldn't have take advanced photography this semester... I've been so busy that I haven't learned anything in there. not at all because of the teacher (she's the best teacher ever) but because I have too much going on. My final project is due monday, and I didn't start working on it until thursday. and when I went in after school to work on it, my computer completely crashed. (yes I cried). but, after 45 minutes of transferring pictures, it turned out ok... but still. 

Thursday I also took the AP English test, and Friday was AP Stats... stats? not too bad, I think I may have possibly passed it. English? lets just say I completely forgot how to write an essay. no bueno.

What else? My AP History teacher is better than yours. We had a study session which included pizza, pepsi, and 2 hours of AP multiple choice questions. TWO HOURS AFTER SCHOOL ON A FRIDAY. but definitely worth it!

Maybe I'll explain something real fast... because this week was seriously the most stressful week of my life (for multiple reasons) and I was freaking out about most everything, I've sorta given up on my appearance. thus explaining the lack of pictures, right?!? I mean, friday I seriously wore yoga pants to school (and the ap test, and after school... including to the movies...)

then last night I went to The Great Gatsby with Katie, Kelly, Kym, Kelsey, and Sam to celebrate my birthday (and of course just watch the movie...)! After the movie, Katie and I had a nice little catch up chat until midnight! (we haven't really hung out since the day of prom!!) Indeed a great night(:

I loved it! absolutely loved it! I will be watching it many many many times. It followed the book so well (which also made it really heartbreaking to watch, and good-reason for being pg-13). One of the first movies I think truly works well with the book!

Well, sadly I have an ENORMOUS amount of homework that I have to do (happy birthday to me!) which will mean sitting and home and studying all day :/

Sincerely,

Erica Michelle

goodbye orchestra.

Valley Youth Orchestra. I started in about 2003. and today, about 10 years later, and about 14 semesters of actually being in the orchestra (I took quite a few breaks), I said goodbye to VYO for good. Most things I say are bittersweet, but this isn't one of them. It's just sad. And I didn't even realize how sad it was until today...

I told myself I was going to just move on, but then I remember the tons and tons of wonderful memories that orchestra has brought!

this is kelly, my best friend in the entire world. We've been best friends for years and years. aka, about 6th grade. However, we were friends before that. Why? Because we met in VYO. We started riding together to practice on Saturday, and eventually we became really really close, and then came middle school where we were just... weird little 12 year olds, then high school where I realized how blessed I am to have these friends (:

I can't even tell you how thankful I am for that. Kelly means the world to me, I can't imagine how I would have gotten through middle and high school without her. and it's all because we became friends through orchestra!

The Seniors!

I can't even explain how much fun I've had in orchestra the last several years (especially the past couple semesters). We were complete strangers at one point, and now we have sooo many fun memories, not to mention our thousands of inside jokes... I'll miss "stealing" (cough cough, nice adults sneaking us) bread sticks from the kitchens at dinner theater (;

There was a slideshow with pictures of us from when we first started violin to present (I cried... a lot).

And there you have it! An awesome, fantastic, wonderful orchestra experience. yep... I'll definitely miss it.

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

best friends.

you know that point when you realize that something is going to change, and you just really really really don't want it to?

i guess i finally realized that. my best friends.

 Sam, Kelly, Kelsey, Kym.

let me tell you about us. kym, kelly, kelsey and i have been BEST FRIENDS since 7th grade. sam moved in 8th grade and joined the group (yes, i wasn't very nice the first couple of months... but since then she's become an amazing friend). and we're all going our separate ways.

maybe i should tell you about us. first of all, WE HARDLY EVER FIGHT. and i swear to you, 100% of our fights end within hours, and with an explanatory letter. (especially kelly and i, we've really only had one fight and it ended in chocolate and super long hand written letters). when we fight, we don't go telling other people stuff about each other, we don't post it all over facebook, we don't start any drama, etc, like most teenage girls. we know everything about each other. in 8th grade we filled up 4 composition books with just our notes to each other. we made a quilt together. but most importantly we've had the best memories.

people say they have the best best friends...

they are wrong. i do.

we were told to make a funny face... and the girls in the back couldn't decide on one, while kelsey and i were... just being our weird selves...

they're amazing. beyond amazing. i love them more than any other non-related people in the entire universe. and, yes i know we're all going somewhere else in a few months, but i know we'll always be friends.

i think if i had to choose one thing that scares me most about college, it's this:

i will never have these kind of amazing friends again. they've set the bar too high.

i love these girls, and i will never have these kind of amazing friends again.




Katie.

Katie is my other best friend. We grew up together... literally.

i'm not sure which one of my birthdays this was, but there's katie at the far right, and me next to her(:

this girl is amazing. i love her sooo much. and we hang out A LOT. and we just get along so well... i don't even know. i just love this girl (:

and there you have it. i have been blessed to have the most wonderful friends anyone could possibly ask for. and i'm going to miss them when i leave for college. so much.

sincerely, 
erica michelle

Kelly.

I got to take pictures of my absolutely GORGEOUS best friend for our portraiture assignment in photography. she is absolutely gorgeous! i am soo so so jealous of her long, beautiful hair! she is the kindest person i know, seriously. she's also the one i do homework with every.single.day during lunch {sadly}. cuz, you know, she's also really, really smart...

Anyways, i love photography so very much right now! and i'm soo glad to have wonderful models(:

Sorta random post, but hey, it's something for me to do! (not that i don't have enough to do... i'm just procrastinating)

Sincerely,

Erica Michelle

homecoming week (part two).

wednesday (night).

powderpuff volleyball... strange, i tell you, very strange.

thursday. 

homecoming spirit week: tie die day (i don't have any pictures, sorry!)

soo... i went to school, and during first hour, sam and i decided that we wanted to make legit shirts for spirit day on friday and for the game... welllll, during fifth hour (it was a block day, so classes are an hour and a half), Sam, Kelsey, and I went to wal-mart and got 2 dollar craft shirts and cloth paint, and we made shirts, in the senior parking lot, dancin to our music. it was just dandyriffic(:

after school,
Kelly, Sam, and I had an appointment to get our eyebrows waxed. and let me tell you, i needed it. unfortunantly, my skin turned red and stayed that way all night. sam laughed at me and took a picture (you gotta love best friends, right??):

i went to a college fair. here's my little rant of this post.
DEAR WORLD (particularly all the colleges.. okay, all but one that was there) HUMANITIES AND HISTORY ARE VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. so, when i ask if you have a humanities major, DO NOT tell me that you have a history major instead. no.

after the college fair, Sam, Kelsey, and Kelly came over to my house to finish our legit shirts(:

friday.

homecoming spirit week: SPIRIT DAY!

in seminary we played an awesome game where we had to look up scriptures then shoot the nerf gun... it was fantastic(:

and we all wore our awesome shirts!

it was, well, fantastic(:

friday night was the homecmoing game! (not to spoil it, but we lost 19-20, it was a great game though!)

HOMECOMING ROYALTY...

so, let me introduce you, my dear blog, to AJ. AJ is my awesome friends/guitar teacher... he also is in choir with me, AND my dear blog, he was HOMECOMING KING!!!
and he soo deserved it!

oh, and he's in band too. and he has his own CD. and he basically rocks. the end.

saturday.

i woke up (quite late actually), cleaned my dad's office, my room, did a bit of homework... theeenn...

went to kelly house to get ready for the...


homecoming dance!

 once i got there, and realized we still had like 6 hours to the dance, i basically just sat on her bed and watched her curl cailtin's hair. sam, kelsey, sloan, kym, and shelby were all there getting ready too(:
let me say, this was the most fun i've ever had getting ready for a dance. ever. it was really calm, no one was stressed or tired, and it was amazing. not to mention, madeline (kelly's mom) and shannon made AMAZING snacks!!

this, my dear blog, is caitlins hair 2 hours of curling:

oh, how i wish i had that hair! then kelly put it up into this beautiful updo. i mean beautiful. seriously!

and kelly, well, she put all these adorable flowers in her hair:

and kelsey did my hair(: and it was AMAZING!! cuz kelsey's cool like that

sam and kym had to leave early (because they had dates) so it was just kelly, kelsey, and i left, and we ate this wonderful dinner that madeline had made. it was absolutely amazing!

and this is what we looked like when we went to the dance:

then we went to the dance!

so, overall, this was, hand down, the best school dance experience i've ever had. (i just don't think anything can be the FCCLA gala). why? because my best friends and i just got ready together and went to the dance and didn't care about anything. it was absolutely amazing. also, our dresses looked like our personalities (or wanna be personalities in my case... i'm too poor to always go vintage, and the lipstick drove me insane so i just don't think i could do that everyday) and, it was, amazing. i don't know how else to describe it. AND the dance was supppeerr fun too(:

after the dance we went to Denny's then spent the night at kelly's house. needless to say, i am sooo tired. i fell asleep on the floor while we were webchatting with my siblings. like, i'm going to bed in like 30 minutes.

sunday.

i had a lesson in young women's about dating. first, i should mention i'm the only laurel basically, so it was me and three leaders... but... there were cute handouts so it all turned out ok(:

yepp... that's been my wonderful, fantastic homecoming week(:

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

and i'm wayy too tired to go through and re-read this post, so please ignore any typos(: