The End Means for a New Beginning.

So. Today is the last day. Tomorrow will be the first. An end calls for a new beginning.

It's December 31, the last day. What have I learned in these 365 days?

Anna designs wonderful blogs.

Meat pie can burst into flames after 20 minutes of overheating in the oven. (Personal experience, just thought I'd let you know).

I finally know completely how to turn decimals into degrees. :P

A year speeds past. A year is not long.

I still feel like I'm in kinder - okay fine, Grade One.

Getting a Pinterest account is better than you think.

China is not as polluted as you think in some places. (I went to China this summer :))

No matter how much you dislike a family member, you will always love them.

Drama can happen, but if friends hold hands to fight against it, they will always win.

It doesn't matter what people think about you, it's what you think about yourself that matters.

Tomorrow will be January 1st, the first day. A new beginning. A fresh start. What will happen? 

My goals.

1. Do not concentrate on blogging so much. (Yes, fellow readers, I did just say that. But since blogging has somehow affected my grades last semester - not that much, no worries - I've decided that I need to move my priorities. God first, school second, blogging third. 

2. Learn how to balance out school and blogging.

3.  Study the Word of God more often.

4. Finish all my homework in time  NO PROCRASTINATING. 

5. I will try my best  NOT gossip whatsoever. 

6.Will be more organized. Locker, desk, agendas, binders.

7. Learn/do something new that I'll be very proud of.

8. Try to get along better with my family.

9. Go on Pinterest more often so I can get inspired to write.
10. Finish a Novel with 20 chapters.

11. Really. Try. And. Accomplish. Every. Single. Thing. On. This. List.

Inspiration for a NEW. STORY. :)

OH. My. GOOSHNESS. (Goodness/gosh) 

I just got inspired.

Like seriously.

I'm talking a LOT.

So much, that it's enough for a short novel.

All with this photo:

Her name is Emellie. 

She WAS a normal girl.

Her life is going to change. So much.

Let's get this started. 

I'll have first chapter posted by January second! 

Boxing Day Haul!

So. I spent some money on Boxing Day! :) Yay! These are some things I got.

Okay, so I don't know about you, but I'm a stationary freak. Notepads, pens, pencils, agendas, notebooks. WHATEVER. If it's stationary, I fall in love.

I gotttt..... "Yummy Yummy Scented Glitter Gel Pens." The name is sort of weird, but they're incredible! :)

Next. I got more pens. Yes, really. The "Tutti Frutti scented gel pens." They're multicolored! :P

Then I got a new agenda for the new year, that seems so inspirational. Can't wait to use it!! :)

And it wouldn't be boxing day without the clothing, would it. I got a cream white and black striped sweater shirt from Garage. :) Yay!

I couldn't find the real one that I have, but it's basically the same as this but with thick black stripes across. :P

Wonders of The World #3

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hey Guys!

I. Am. Soooo. Hyper.

Because it's Christmas, and the Christmas spirit is really getting on to me.

I just tore open my presents, and I'm really giddy. Haha. LOVE that word. Giddy. Like, I think I can't stop moving. Uh-oh. Wee! Presents!

Please follow and comment! And also, anyone interested in the Part 4 of the IQS Dancing My Heart Out? See Part 3 here, Part 2 here, and this is Part 1.

I just want to wish everyone a HAPPY, SAFE, PEACEFUL, JOYFUL, BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS: Be sure to check out my new page, Who Am I on the side! :)

Christmas Plans! Beware. A Loong Post.

HO HO HO! Meeeery Christmas! HO HO HO!

Alright. Who am I kidding? I'm no Santa. I'm just a Laurel that is in a verrryyy in-depth Christmas mood, because TONIGHT IS CHRISTMAS EVE! :) *Jumps out of chair, does a quick happy dance, comes back and plops down* Yay!

Anyhoo, today I'm going to tell you all about my Christmas Plans. :)

Christmas Eve Plans:

Later today we're going to have my mom's best friend come and eat dinner with us. Yay! The meal includes:

*** heehee, Asian foods. Yum! Can't help it, I'm Asian. :)

So, mom's best friend is going to come after lunch, gossip with my mom or whatsoever, have dinner and then... We're going to church! To meet up with my best friends, Amanda and Yixuan. Want a photo? 

Amanda on the left,

Bad hair day for me. --> Yixuan on the right,

So, as I was saying typing, we're going to Church for a Choir/kids performance. We (the choir) will be singing a Christmas song in Chinese while the kids act it out in front of us onstage. We had a dress rehearsal on Sunday, and I took some pictures! 

She is sooo adorable! A sweet little angel :)

One of the cutest sheep ever! :)

Ah, yes. The Christmas tree. Not Christmas without that!

The three wise men. 

A very photogenic Mary with a Joseph with glasses.

Ah, Emma is just soo excited to be Mary.

Our little angels. :)

A very blurry motion picture with the choir in the back and the kids up front acting it all out. "..."

I hope this performance goes well. Pray for me! A lot of unbelievers will be there, and our mission is to make them know the Lord Jesus, and Christmas's true meaning. 

The choir has to meet at church at 6:30 for last minute rehearsals, so right after dinner my mom, mommy's bestie and I will rush there. I think Moma's bestie will just sit and watch. LOL. It officially starts at 7:30PM, and will probably end around 9:00PM. Including the other performances. :) 

Christmas Day Plans:

Waking up and tearing apart my presents. And then blogging about them. WARNING: A VERY energetic post will reach you tomorrow, from laurelsmemories.blogspot.com. Be on your guard, for you might be surprised at how much energy I have. And then we're going to Mom's BFF's house for dinner. My theory is, they just couldn't stop gossipping so they wanted to talk more, and that's how they decided it. :P

Boxing Day Plans: 

Shopping, Shopping, SHOPPING! Will raid the Carlingwood Mall with my Christmas money. Very likely doing a haul on THIS blog. YAHOO!

Dancing My Heart Out ~ An IQS ~ Part Three

The next morning, I had a thought that I immediately rejected. But then reconsidered.

The little voice in the back of my head and in the depths of my heart whispered to me. "Why are you trying so hard? Sometimes you just need to move on. And maybe that means that you have to move on from Mrs. King."

I shook my head hardly as if I could shake the thought away. No, I thought furiously. Mrs. King has been my ballet teacher for more than half of my life! I can't just let her go.

I stared at my ceiling that was sky blue with fluffy white clouds painted on it. Was the depths of my heart right? Was it time to let go? My heart ached at the thought. I couldn't bear to leave Mrs. King. She was my mother. My other mother, who understood the dancer part of me.

I sighed. After a few more minutes debating which part of me was right, I decided I needed to talk to Mrs. King. A true heart to heart when I told her everything I was thinking of would help. If she wanted me to stay with her, she would have to say so. If she encouraged me to move on, I... Would have to move on. As painful as it was bearing the thought that the second option might happen, I was still going to see Mrs. King.

I grabbed the house phone that was stood on my nightstand and punched in a few nightstands. I waited a few rings. When the person at the other end finally picked up, I took a deep breath.

"Mrs. King? I'd like to talk to you as soon as possible. Could we meet at The Coffee Shop right across from the studio?"

~ ~ ~

I think that they'll be probably, around, maybe 5 parts to this IQS. So. Enjoy! 

Dancing My Heart Out ~ An IQS Continued

As I looked at the empty ballet studio that I'd known for eight years, I thought about how my ballet journey had started. When I'd first watched a video of the ballet Nutcracker at the age of six, I'd gotten hooked. I'd immediately asked my mom to sign me up for ballet lessons. For two years, I'd switched in between ballet teachers, all saying that I was too talented and needed a more serious teacher. My last teacher, Mrs. Liu, a graceful Asian-American had recommended Mrs. King.

That's how Mrs. King and I's journey began. The first time I danced for her, I was nervous but did well overall. It wasn't my best. She saw through my nervousness and saw the real dancer inside me. The strong, potential ballet dancer who had a dream. She helped my inner dancer come out. Slowly in the next eight years, she dealt with my weaknesses, strengthened my strengths, and put me in competitions. I can't say I'd been all that agreeable, but now that I look back, I am so glad she put me there. SHE was the one who knew me the best, better than I knew myself. Now she was gone.

My eyes started to well up. No, I thought furiously to myself. This is not a time to cry. You must stay strong, Camilla. You need to find a way to make this studio stay.
~ ~ ~
That night, I barely at any dinner. I didn't even think about eating dinner because my mind was set on finding an idea of how to keep the studio. Which actually was pretty hard and stressful, given on the fact that the government wanted to take it apart to build a railroad. Which was pretty important. I let out a frustrated groan.

"Camilla, what's wrong?" My mom, Leslie Parker asked me in a very concerned tone. "You've hardly eaten any dinner, and haven't talked for the whole day ever since you got back from that dancing competition."
"Ignore her," My little sister, Paige said. "She's just being that boring Camilla she is."

I sighed. I wasn't being the greatest big sister, I know. Paige, at age 8, was still in that mood where she needed someone to play with her at all times. Sadly, I have no time. In fact, I harshly rejected her this afternoon, which is why she was - is - being icy towards me.

Just great, I thought. This whole thing was making everyone upset. NOT a good start.
~ ~ ~

Yay! It's being  continued, since I have lots planned for this IQS. :) Stay tuned!! AAH! So excited!

New Blog Look ;)

So. As you can see, this used-to-be  private blog of mine is officially changed into a public one, complete with a design from Anna and everything. By the way, don't you love it?! Thanks so much, Anna! Especially doing it for free. :)

So. I've been quite quiet in the blog world, but that's going to change, somehow. So, to all the people reading this, if you have your own blog and think mine's intresting, would you mind giving me a shoutout? I'd really like to be known to everyone, and my new blog could use some pageviews. Thanks so much!

Now. Jessica Spurlock. This part of the blog is officially dedicated to you. Yes, I said so. Thank you SOOOO much for following the day the blog went public!! And commenting, for that matter also! Never had a first follower that quickly before. I post the IQS Dancing My Heart Out, go to watch a movie, come back, and BAM! First follower and first two comments, already there and waiting for me. Thank you SO much! :)

Anyhow, I look forward to this journey of blogging, and I can't wait until all of my memories are stored up in one place and with a click of my mouse, they're all there.

Dancing My Heart Out ~ An IQS

I couldn't have felt any better when I lept across the stage, gracefully accomplishing a grande jété. I chaîned my way to center stage and landed perfectly in fourth position. The music ended, and the audience started clapping. I ended my solo with a beautiful and smooth curtsy and walked backstage again.

   

I went to my teacher, who once was the most famous ballet dancer Victoria King. She teaches just me, and is determined to make me a star. Which I'm technically fine with, considering ballet is my love and dream. She's now retired, but her personality is still as firey as ever, and quite hard to please at times. Like today. She had no smile on her face, instead a great frown. I sighed, looking at the floor. Maybe I wasn't as good as I thought. I made my way slowly to her.

"Mrs. King," I said. "I'm sorry if that wasn't the best performance, I'll try harder next time. I'm sorry for letting you down."

She looked at me slowly from the head to the feet. "Camilla, that was a wonderful performance."

I looked up from the floor. "It was?"

She smiled. "Indeed. I am only upset because the government is thinking of taking down our studio to build a new railway for the trains. I am fairly sorry, but it seems to me that you cannot take lessons from me anymore." She sighed, a deep sigh that came from her heart. I could feel her heart breaking. "Go on, now. You have other things to do. You have a very bright future in the world of ballet. Start looking for another teacher, and continue your journey." And with that, not even time to let me think about it, she turned and left, her back slouching in disappointment.

I was stunned. And shocked. And devastated. How did I manage to go from so happy to so miserable in a record of 5 minutes? Never had I heard such bad news before. Mrs. King may be hard to please, but she has a heart of gold inside. We have a connection. We are both people who don't talk much so we don't communicate by speaking often, but I can feel her moods and what she's thinking. It's the same with her. She's trained me to be the best ballet dancer for eight years now. She's always been with me, and led me across the country winning dozens of trophies for dancing. Without her, I never could've made it this far. 

What was I going to do?

~  ~ ~

So. Explanation time! IQS stands for Inspired Quick Stories. I have sudden inspirations to write, and I write, but never on my blogs. So. Starting from today, my IQS will be recorded on my blogs! Yay! :)

Wonders of the World #2

Devoted to December...

December is here! December is one of my favorite months because it's the last, and usually the best because of all the holidays. So, I decided to make a blog post devoted to December.

Christmas Trees! Everyone likes decorating things, and making them glow and light up, right? Especially the star at the very top, it makes me think of Jesus, my savior.

Presents. I mean, it's not good to be greedy, but everyone likes the once in a while gift, right?



HOT CHOCOLATE. My absolute favorite beverage. And they're best for winter.

  
I love making things out of packing snow, especially snowmen. Childhood memories!



I love the look of the snow on top of everything. It reminds me of how God cleansed the whole entire world and put an entire sheet of pureness on top of the whole world.


I love the accessories and winter fashion!

Does the Older Laurel like the same things about December?