DISNEY!

Hey Jessica!

I got my Concert Choir sweatshirt! It's so cool. I feel all official and selective and I swear I sing better in it too. You know I'm the fourth Leete to get a sweatshirt, and the third girl to be an alto. We should take a picture with all of us in our sweatshirts. However I do see how that can be a problem since you have more than one.

NATS Musical Theater was a couple Saturdays ago, and it was a ton of fun. I went early to see Cami perform and then Keturah (my accompanist) and I hung out and worked on college essays until it was my turn. I think I did well and I had lots of fun.

Keturah and I took her little brothers and friends trick-or-treating for Halloween. It was fun. I guess. We all dressed up as characters from Great Expectations. Keturah was Miss Havisham, I was Estella and one of her brothers was Pip. We looked good.

Here's a picture of me:

For Thanksgiving we went down to California to visit family. We even went down to Disneyland for a day, for free too (well we bought one ticket, but it was discounted.) Ya, we've got connections. I had a ton of fun. Rachel and I closed the park out, even when our cousins went to go sleep in the car. I got blisters for it but it was worth it. 

Disneyland made me act like a child. I got all giddy and energetic and I just wanted to ride everything and go everywhere. It was exciting. 

Thanksgiving dinner was nice to have with family. We went on a walk on Avila Beach afterwards. It was beautiful weather.

I hope you are having fun at college!

Melissa

Crazyness!

Hey Melissa!

So these past two weeks have been CRAZY!! Classes are really loading up on the work and I actually seem to have a social life this year, so that's also been taking up a lot of time. Here's some highlights:

I went and saw Il Trovatore  by Giuseppe Verdi done by the Utah Opera. So good! I've only been to one opera before and I don't think I really appreciated it as much as I could have (I was younger). This one though was wonderful. The story line was great, but mostly it was the music that made me love it. It's just beautiful! And it reminded me just how much I love classical music. So now, when I really need to work, I crank up the classical and drown out all the distractions.

Next up.. Rubik's Cubes! Mom sent me mine (I love her) and it is the best thing to let my mind relax and focus on something simple and easily solved. It's also probably one of the reasons my homework always seems to get pushed to the last minute :)

I'm taking beginning social dance this semester and it is definitely my favorite class (sorry calculus). We're working on cha-cha right now, and it is a ton of fun. In a few weeks there's a competition thingy for the different classes and I'm competing. I'm a bit nervous, but I think it will be really fun.

In the past four days, I have taken big 3 tests.They went well, but now it's just time to catch up on everything I put off in order to study. I really don't have the best study habits, I'm working on that :) Also, I have to get more done before the weekend because I'm going up to Rexburg to see Jennifer. So excited. Let's hope I'm not too stressed on Monday.

-Jessica

Homecoming!

Hey Jessica,

It's been a long time and a lot has happened so I'll just try to highlight some of the more important things for you. (If I can even remember what has happened.)

Mom made me a dress. Not just any dress, but a homecoming dress. She did it in two weeks too. She's amazing! So basically everyday after school I checked in on her to see how the dress was coming. I got to try it on a lot too. I think it's the best dress she's ever made me!

Then I went to Homecoming! Not with a date, but with three of my friends, Cami, Keturah, and Hayley.  We went to Cami's house before to eat dinner, a formal sit down but we were not dressed up yet. Then we got ready. You know, make up, hair, girl chat, and so forth. I wanted to curl my hair, but for some reason the curling iron wasn't working. Or maybe I wasn't . . . But anyway I had to wait for Cami to finish curling Keturah's hair so that I, well really Hayley, could use that curling iron to curl my hair. The end result (besides me looking fabulous!) was we ended up taking the pictures really late so it was too dark outside, we took some inside but I don't think most of the turned out. So in the following pictures the background will be all black, that's just because I was being vain.

Me

Keturah, Me, Cami, Hayley

Funny pose!

The only decent picture where you can see my whole dress

 When we got there we had ticket issues. Keturah's brother bought her ticket because he has an asb sticker (another mix up) and we thought that they had to show up together because the ticket would be under his name. But she at first left it at home, then her mom forgot it when she came to take pictures, then she couldn't find it, then we found out Keturah's brother had them, but then he lost them, either in the car, at home, or at the restaurant he went to. But anyway, in the midst of all this an administrator heard out our problems and let us in. It was all good. The dance however wasn't that fun. Well for me. I think I'm just worn out from too many dances. They had a cool chandelier made by a student hanging from the ceiling. Personally I didn't really like most of the music they played the hour and a half we were there. They played YMCA though. That's a good song. After an hour and a half we went to Keturah's house and watched "How To Loose a Guy in Ten Days". It's a good, funny movie.

Besides that school has been, well school. I have homework, that when I schedule well, isn't all that bad. But I tend to leave my chapter study guide for AP Psych until the last minute, which isn't fun. I think I get half of calc. That is until I have to take a quiz or a test and suddenly I don't remember anything. I'm sure it'll get better though, right? Ya, homecoming is the most exciting thing that has happened recently and that Rachel is sixteen. It makes me feel old. I even registered to vote! Not like I can this year, but I'll be all registered for later.

See you later!
Melissa

End of Summer

Hey Melissa!

Well, I'm now in Utah for school. It's been a great summer though! Here's one of the highlights:

My good friend Linnea had them and they just needed to be made into cookies.
So here's us making them:

And our 3 little frosting helpers: Rachel, Melissa, and Melissa's friend Amanda

Now for some finished projects!

 I love the look of the mint chocolate chips for eyes :)

 This one is getting kicked in the head by the purple one.

Didn't they turn out great! We made a lot though, we were frosting for hours and definitely were not hungry for dinner afterwards.

So I got here Wednesday night and so far I'm the only roommate moved in and living here. One has been in and out, dropping off stuff but spending the day with her family and no one else has shown up yet. So I've been unpacking and reading. More reading than unpacking, I really don't like unpacking. I read  one of my favorites from when I was younger, Poison by Chris Wooding. Now I'm about halfway through with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's a lot of fun to relax and read something easy.

- Jessica

Turtles and Japan and Potterness!

Hey Jessica!

So it's been a little while so I'll have a lot to say.

On June 26th my turtles turned two! I know! They're so old! So for your watching pleasure I took a little thirty second video of them. Of course at that moment they decided not to be spazzes so they're just swimming around. I swear, they were totally being crazy two seconds before I took the video!

They are the best pets ever! I love them so much! And of course they complete my turtle collection:)

I was gone for a whole five days for girls' camp. The theme was the scripture, so Arise and Shine or Get up and Glow. Every cabin was a different nation. I was a counselor with my friend Kirsten. Our cabin was Japan. Everyday we dressed up. We wore kimonos, were Mario and Luigi, ninjas, and I was pikachu and she was my trainer. It was a ton of fun. In our cabin we even had a short table and cushions so we could sit cross-legged on the floor. It was so cool! The crafts were amazing. There was a photo booth one day. This is the picture we took: 

I made a frame for it too. I also made two rings, a lantern and a book made from a paper bag. And we can't forget how spiritual it was! We had a lantern walk where we went to multiple stations and they each had a thing they had to read. We weren't allowed to talk either so all you could hear was nature and the clink of electric candles in the lanterns. It was amazing to look and to just see a bunch of yellow/orange lights moving in one direction. Then there was the musical program that had music and narrations. There was also the candle circle that was really cool as well. And the testimony meeting to close off the week was really sincere and touching.

I've joined Pottermore. And I've been nerding out ever since I did. I was sorted into Gryffindor and I have a fir wand with a unicorn core that's 10 3/4 inches long. It's almost too much for me to handle. I definitely dreamed about it last night. All the new information you find out on it is great! McGonagall was always a favorite but now even more so! I can't wait until I can go through the second book too!

Besides those things I've been playing Pokemon and sitting around, fairly bored. I really need things to do. Or maybe I just need to at least sit outside for a bit. I have been indexing though! The youth are having a competition against the bishopric to see who can index more this month. So far I've done 241 names! I'm getting better too.

Anyway, that's all for now!

Melissa  

Sewing, sewing, sewing.....

Hey Melissa!

I've got lots to tell you about today. First of all, I had my first job interview a few weeks ago! It was at a movie theater and I was soooo nervous. It went well, but it was a group interview and everyone else had much better answers than me. I didn't get the job, but it's ok, because I found a job as a nanny for the summer! It's for two kids, a 10 year old boy and a 8 year old girl. Its turning out to be lots of fun. The kids love me and we do lots of fun stuff together. I taught the girl how to make friendship bracelets, and we've made cookies together as well. Today we played an hour or so of hide and seek. Lots of fun!

However, I had a few weeks before my job started, so I had a ton of free time and very few friends back from college to spend it with. So I've been crafting it up! I sewed an apron and a dress and am almost done with a skirt. The patterns for the apron and dress I found online (I love blogs!) Both were a lot of work, and I learned some new skills - lining with bias tape, installing an invisible zipper- but I think it was totally worth it! They both turned out super cute and I love them! Here's some pics:

The skirt somehow turned out way too small for me, I have no idea how! But it should fit our sister, Rachel. I just need to get her to try it on so I can hem it!

I've also been cooking a bit. We made some chicken pot pie cupcakes! They were delicious as you know. Sorry, I didn't take pictures, but they looked pretty much like the ones on the website I got it from, I just kinda overfilled them, so they spilled out a bit.

So that's everything really! I'll try to post more often, but I'm not promising anything :)

-Jessica