i guess i'm a sophomore. yeeeh.

well, I made it. I'm a sophomore. it's pretty crazy isn't it. I remember, my first day of school as a freshman. Everyone else had already been in school for 6 weeks. but because I was on top of Mt. Fuji the day that school started, I had to start 6 weeks later than everyone else. I was a bit confused at first, but soon I got into the swing of things. but I was kind of scared of the older kids. some of the sophomores I already knew from when I was in Junior High. I had a lot of classes with older kids, so I did make friends quickly. one of my best friends that year was a sophomore (and we still are best friends). but he just seemed so much.... older to me. much like the rest of them. they were all 16, most of which could drive, many which even had their own cars, and there was the whole dating thing. I tried to remind myself that most of these kids are just a year older than me. but it hit me. I was in high school. that would be me in a year. I'd still be a lower classman. but as a young freshman, I still couldn't believe it. and there were juniors too. and seniors. I would talk to a few juniors and even a few seniors. but they just......well....... were a lot older than me, it seemed. I was one of the shortest ones. I thought I had it hard. which, I did. a lot of my classes were hard. and older kids would tell me, "it only gets worse every year." thanks for making me excited about high school, people. but I had a pretty good year. much better than all of junior high combined.

Malia, Lynley, Madi, Abby, me, Gillian, Brooke, and Callie

yes. these are all my adorable sophomore friends. we are all the same age. even me. and yes, I really am that short. this isn't photoshopped. people were asking me if I was a freshman. but I love this picture. Abby is one of my really good friends from Orem, and she surprised us all by enrolling in Timpview this year! when I saw her in the halls, I thought of that line from Mean Girls: "She doesn't even go here!" but I was so happy that she decided to go here! and Lynley moved to Oregon over the summer, and she came back to visit all of us! It was so great to see her again.

I was excited for all the new freshmen. some older kids think freshmen are really annoying, but I love them. I am friends with a lot of them, actually! I know lots of them from tennis, and some from junior high as well. but I have missed them a lot. and I just love all of them to bits. and they are all much taller than me, so I could blend in with them and people would think that I'm one of them! but it feels good not to be the youngest anymore. 

on my second day of school last year, I went to a football game. I had no friends, but I found a senior named Ava from my seminary class, and we hung out for most of the game. we talked a lot and she was super nice to me and introduced me to all her friends. this year, I went to a football game on my second day of school again. and I was supposed to meet up with friends, but they didn't show up until later. so I just found Lauren, one of my best friends on the tennis team, who is a senior. this sounds pretty familiar. another really nice senior, introduces me to all her friends, and it was super nice! at around half time, my friends finally showed up. I went off with them for a bit, and at that point, pretty much everyone showed up. i was saying hi to everyone, and I kinda lost track of my friends. then I found my friends Lindsee and Jackson (who are both juniors) and sat with them for the rest of the game. and like last year, Timpview won again. 

Jackson and me at the game. oh and Lindsee didn't quite make the picture.

so it's been an interesting week and 2 days in school. I already have so much homework. all my classes are really hard, except for ceramics, digital photo, and seminary, which I hate to say will probably become my naptime. I have drivers ed every morning at 6:30, and tennis every afternoon. and then I have to practice piano and do homework. so I guess I will kiss my social life goodbye. 

some other interesting things have happened. on Monday, Jackson was driving me home and we had just pulled out of the parking lot, when some girls just hit his car, pulled in front of us, and drove off like nothing happened. thank goodness his sister Kate's friend was able to send her a picture of the license plate, because none of us were quick enough to get a picture! and everyone was ok, including the car. but it was very inconvenient for us, and bad drivers just really piss me off. maybe I shouldn't say that, because I'm not very good myself. but I haven't hit anyone yet, so that's good. but after having this experience, just don't be a bad driver. don't hit other peoples cars. and if you do, please be a really nice person, pull over, and help us and be nice to us. which reminds me. I turn 16 in 146 days. I have 26 days left of drivers ed to complete. I have had my permit since march. it's scary to think I'll be driving. but my parents of course won't let me get a car unless I pay for it myself. so occasionally I can steal my dad's, but I won't be driving myself to school. I guess that's a good thing, because whoever designed the parking lot at timpview is a big idiot. I seriously hate that parking lot. and there's a lot of scary drivers. I can't even pull into my own driveway without hitting the curb. and i'm terrified of hitting anything: children, dogs, other cars, everything. but I gotta learn somehow. even though waking up every morning at 5:45 is very inconvenient. 

after school, my life is pretty much just tennis, tennis, tennis. recently, I pulled a muscle in my right wrist from using it so much, and it has been affecting my ability to play. I did really well in a match last week, even though I lost. yesterday I got killed. I don't even want to say the score. but it was pretty bad. but so far, i've been having a lot of fun this season! even though practices seem to last forever, and it's always super hot, and my wrist is really hurting half of the time. but for the most part, I love it! I love all the girls on the team.

me and Gracie L, my favorite freshman in the world. you've already seen this. get over it.

me and Jen. we didn't even plan, we just wore matching tank tops. I played with her on city league all summer, and we had a great time doing that! I love her guts.

and we can't forget Lauren, my favorite senior. and Grace S. photobombing us in the background!

sorry. more random pictures. on Wednesday, I went on a little hike up in Squaw Peak. the view is beautiful. it was really nice to enjoy the end of summer and the beautiful weather. I am excited for fall, because it's my absolute favorite season. but I don't want the nice summer weather to leave us! I am enjoying seeing all my friends again at school, and some of my classes are really fun, but I already miss summer a lot. I have had a super fun summer. some of the highlights were:

• going to Moab
• going to Youth Conference in Manti
• tennis with mom
• city league tennis
• eating snowcones 
• In-N-Out after pretty much every tennis match
• warm weather
• bear lake with my cousins
• being able to sleep in
• timpview tennis practices
• tennis with Jackson and getting killed everytime. 
• my friend Kalela visiting from Illinois and us hanging out everyday she was here

but then again, I'm kinda excited to be a sophomore this year. I can't wait until I turn 16 and I can start driving. oh, and dating. that's gonna be fun too. and people still ask me everyday if I'm a new freshman. I find it rather amusing. but anyways, let's make it another great year at timpview!

tournaments, tryouts, & boys who beat me left handed

judging just from the title, can you guess what this post is about?

{if you said tennis, gold star for you!}

except for Sundays, and a few days we were on vacation, there hasn't been a day this entire summer where I have not played tennis. to start off my days, I would play for about an hour every morning with my mom. We would just do drills and hit together. this really helped me get ready for real practices with real people. (not that my mom isn't a real person.) it was also a really good time for us to talk to each other. this was one of my favorite parts of the day.

sometime in July, I had my last tournament with my city league. we did it at Mountain View High School in Orem, which is right by this fake stonehenge place. and of course my mom wanted to take my picture there. anyways, I played 5 different girls, all from Spanish Fork, and all close to my age. we just did a best of 3 games. first girl destroyed me, 3-0. second girl is one I have played before, and we were both doing really well. she won 1, I won 1, and the last game we were in deuce for a really long time. but I double faulted on match point. and I hardly ever double fault. Only when 1. it's windy, 2. I'm playing Jackson and he's teasing me, or 3. on the most important point of the game. so that was really frustrating. 3rd girl I beat 2-1, 4th I lost 1-2, and 5th I won 2-1. one of my strengths is because I'm short, people tend to underestimate me and think that I won't be able to get to their shots. but this is not true. I end up getting to the shots, returning them, and hitting them in the court. which can frustrate the other player. anyways, I think I did really well, even in the ones that I lost.

city league ended after that tournament, and I had a break for a while. so I just played with my mom. but at the beginning of August, Timpview tryouts began. everyone who tries out for girls makes it, but the tryouts help the coach know our strengths and what we are as players, and what spot to put us on the team. every morning, we had to be there at 7 to do 3 hours of conditioning: running, stretches, suicides, more killer stretches, some drills, more running, and trying not to die. the first day was really rough, but each day, it got easier. I was able to get 18 perfect serves in a row, which is my new record. every evening at 6, we would come back to Timpview and do 2 hours of matchplay. the first week, we did a round robin and I did really well. I won 7 games, and I only lost 4. I guess I kinda got a bit cocky and started thinking that I would get a really good spot on the team, and that I would win every game.

this did not go the way I expected. the next week, we started playing actual singles matches. the scores of these matches would be used to determine our placement on the team. so, because I was cocky and thought that I was going to win every game, I didn't really think too much about the way I was playing. this really came back to hurt me. the first match I had to play was someone who is a grade ahead of me, and I had beaten her once before and she had beaten me once, but I thought "well I beat her once, so I can do it again." I knew she was pretty good, but I still thought, for some reason, that I would be able to win. that's when karma comes in. as soon as I picked up my racket, I started freaking out in my head, and I had lost the first game of the match. I kept reminding myself that I could not lose. but as the match went on, I did worse and worse each game, hitting easy shots into the net, and just losing everything: my form, my serve, my topspin. It was like I had never played tennis in my life. I had forgotten everything. I kept trying to tell myself that I could win this point. I can take this shot. I know how to do this. I know this game. and then it hit me: I had just lost the match. 6-1. so of course I was a good sport and shook her hand and told her good game, told her how well she did because she was the one who actually played really well, while I played the worse I'd ever played. she talked to the coach while I got a drink. and when another player asked how it went, without warning, I just started to cry. I had felt so horrible about the way I had just played. when everyone was being nice and said things like, "oh, she's really good so don't worry" or "you did your best", that didn't help. I did not do my best. I did my worst. the whole time I was playing, I knew I could do better. I knew that I was messing up. I knew I was losing my form. and I tried, but I still missed shots. all because I got the whole picture in my head that I would win. that hit me hard. I have lost matches before, and from them I have learned what I can do better, and as a result, I usually do better in the next one. I know my strengths, and use them to my advantage. but if I get too ahead of myself, the result is devastating. and it was only my first game.

In my other games, I tried to improve and not have any more games like that. Some were really close and I did really well in, but I still ended up losing. after 3 days, I had only won 1 match. I guess, after that first match, I was too afraid to lose, and I would mess up. so my coach talked to me and gave me a break from playing all these singles matches, told me to focus on 1 point at a time and not the whole game, and not to think about things I've done in the past. but she said that if I continued not to do well, I would have to play JV Doubles instead of JV Singles. after hearing that, I tried my best in every drill, to show how bad I wanted to play singles.

to take my mind off of this hard week, I went up to my friend Jackson's and played a few games at his court. of course, being a 16 year old varsity boys player against a 15 year old JV girls player, he beat me 6-0. then he challenged to play me only using his left hand, while I could use my right hand. he still beat me, 6-0. but I actually scored some points. and we went into deuce a few times, which he of course won, even with just his left hand. finally, he challenged to play a 7 point game with his racket out in front of his chest the whole time. he could not swing, just block shots. and I could do what I wanted. that time, I beat him 7-1. this game is on the list of my proudest accomplishments. I beat Jackson in just 1 game. this is actually a pretty big deal. of course, he wanted to rematch and play 2 more games like that. and I did lose those, which is actually really pathetic. but both of us just really like winning, I guess. and he's the kind of person who would keep playing until he could beat me. even if it was something like a game where you couldn't even swing your racket. but this really helped take my mind off of things, and we both had lots of fun and I was able to calm down, and we were able to just talk about tennis and he gave me some advice on how to be a better player. since then, I have been getting back into the swing of things and made my comeback.

yesterday, I had my first match of the season! and I am on JV SINGLES! (I repeat, I am not on doubles.) except Wasatch High did not have any JV singles players at all, so all of us Timpview girls had to play doubles. Playing doubles is not one of my strengths. I have a really good serve that makes it in 90% of the time. I am not the best net player. and it's hard to communicate with a partner. me and my friend Raya partnered up and played 2 doubles matches. we lost the first, but it was my first time playing a real doubles match so I just considered that my "warm-up." we won the second one, which was the last match of the day, tying Timpview and Wasatch's JV teams, 5-5! our varsity team won, 4-1. it was a very good day for all of us, even the girls who lost.

 me and Gracie, one of my favorite freshmen in the world. and yes she's taller than me.

 and of course an awkward racket shot.

yes, I am on the timpview team. and our uniforms haven't come yet, and I was not on the team last year. so of course, I was the only one wearing purple and I stood out. but who cares.

anyways, now that I am on JV singles and had some experience playing doubles, I feel more confident in myself. I learned a really hard lesson last week, and now I know not to focus on beating your opponent in future matches, and just to focus on 1 point at a time. our coach says that we could go to state this year, and I believe it. GOOOOOO TIMPVIEW TENNIS! 

the lake of bears.

last week, we did our annual bear lake trip. it seems like we haven't gone in forever, since we missed last year. this year, there were more kids than ever. if Chris and Rochelle's family had been there, it would've been absolutely packed! but we know that they are probably having an amazing time living in England for the next 2 years! anyways, it was crazy. since our last trip to bear lake, the Mullenaux family has gained 1 little boy, and the Knights have gained a little girl. the last time (2 years ago), Uncle Ron broke his ankle and wasn't able to make it, so he, Aunt Sarah, 4 year old Andrew (then 2) and baby London stayed in Florida while Caleb and Ainsley (now 11 and 7) came up. so this was our first time ever meeting London, and boy is she darling. we didn't take a lot of pictures on our camera while we were there, and no one is sending me pictures, so these are mostly all from my iPhone. we wish we could've gotten more!

not only did the kids multiply, but the basement was recently finished with 3 new bedrooms and a bathroom. this is really nice because 3 bedrooms upstairs and a living room just can't hold 22 people (16 minus Chris and Rochelle's family, who are in England). and now that my brothers are older and "more mature", we don't have to do the "1 family to a bedroom" thing anymore. my brothers and Caleb got a bedroom to themselves, and for the first 2 nights, my mom and I shared a king-sized bed in our own bedroom. Dad had some work to finish up, so he had to come 2 days late and leave 1 day early. while he was there, I just slept upstairs. but the new basement was really nice and it was cooler at night and one of the highlights of the trip was napping on the king-sized bed!

on Thursday night, Grandma and Grandpa and the Mullenauxs came to our house, and left the next morning. during this short time, 3 year old Jackson grew pretty fond of me because I have an iPhone and he can play Whale Trail. we left one day later, and arrived at the lakehouse on Saturday. Jackson was happy to greet me.

on sunday, I was entertaining Jackson during sacrament meeting, and the power went out. church ended early, and the power was out in the whole area until like 4. during that time, I took a nap, drove around the neighborhood on the dirt roads, and went down to the beach to take pictures. the Knights arrived shortly after that.

monday was the first day on the lake. I got up on the wakeboard for the 2nd time in like 2 years. This year it was a lot easier and I really enjoyed doing it. Caleb, Wesley, and Justin all took it to another level and did competitions to see who did the best tricks. Jackson and Ainsley and Andrew enjoyed cheering for me. afterwards, we went to the beach.

i posted this picture of Ainsley and me on Instagram, and she kept on checking to see how many likes, or "hits" as she calls it, we had. we ended up getting like 128, and she was so excited. "we're gonna be famous!" 

the next day, my dad came up and the water was choppier. I was not able to get up on the wakeboard as easily as before. Wesley tried the slalom ski. but then we all rented a giant water trampoline for 2 hours. there was a thing where you could launch people; one person (preferably a kid) would jump on the target, and another person (preferably a big person like Uncle Ron) would jump on the other target and launch the kid into the air. Ainsley, Caleb, and Justin all went pretty high and did some crazy flips. I, being uncoordinated, missed the target. and the adults just all fell off. but it was really fun. that evening, we all went to LaBeau's for the famous Raspberry Shakes. I have never ordered a raspberry one in my life, and I feel like I should. but I got butterfinger instead, and it was probably as good, or even better than raspberry is.

 yes, I am related to this kid. he just always thinks it's winter and dresses like it. 

 and neither of us look good. it's ok.

Wednesday was pioneer day, and we rented a stand-up paddleboard. it was really fun, and it was the perfect weather. 

 Justin and Caleb, the inseparables.

 Wesley being Wesley

thursday, it was a very cloudy day. the water was very choppy and I was able to wakeboard, but it wasn't very pleasant and I got my arm caught in the rope of the boat, cutting off all circulation. as soon as I get out of the water and back in the boat, it's completely purple. I decided I was done with boating, went back to the beach, took pictures, and Uncle Ron rented a jetski. I love riding the jetski, and I love getting water sprayed in my face. I'm not kidding. but it took like an hour to start the thing, and the waves were rough. so we went back to the beach again, and took Jackson and some other kiddos to the pool.

while we were at the pool, Jackson was in line for the slide and met another little boy named Jackson. at first, he was upset and told me, "I don't like him. he cut in front of me in line and his name isn't Jackson. he's a stupid poopoo." then, I guess he got excited and said, "there's a little boy named Jackson! there's another Jackson! yay we can be friends and go down the slide and go off the diving board!" he is so cute. but it was confusing, when I was calling his name, at least 3 other little boys came running to me. I guess Jackson is a popular name. I know at least 10. One of my best friends is named Jackson, the one who beats me at tennis but is probably my favorite person, all the same. I have a friend who's a girl named Jackson. and I have my cousin, who says that I am his favorite cousin. every morning, he'd run up to me and hug me and give me kisses. then, he'd ask to play on my phone. he was really good and didn't break it. he and I would snuggle together and play together and he would always want me to do whatever he was doing. he is the cutest thing, and he has the most adorable laugh!

 

Andrew Knight also really liked me. the first thing he said to me was, "are you 5 feet? you're really short. guess what? I'm a growing boy. I'm already 11 feet! and I'm going to grow taller! and Caleb's 35 feet, and my mom's 108 feet, and my dad's 183 feet! isn't that crazy? my sisters are short. like you. but someday, I'm gonna be 100 feet!" one of my favorite things was that I would always find him singing "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. and we all know I love One Direction. so we would sing together. his sister Ainsley is convinced that she is going to marry Harry Styles. one day, I wore my One Direction shirt, and Andrew runs up and yells "IT'S HARRY!" and kisses Harry's picture. oh how I love those kids.

on Friday, we got out of cleaning duty because Wes had a scout campout and we needed to get him home. thank goodness. we had been home for like 5 hours before anyone got to our house! Caleb, Grandma and Grandpa, and the Mullenauxs stayed with us while the rest of the Knights stayed at their other grandparents. the next morning, all the grown ups went to the temple and I was in charge of attending to Jackson and his 1 year old brother, Tyson. it's hard, to watch both of them! tyson gets into everything, and Jackson is just crazy. but they're adorable. after lunch, we all went to the new Provo Rec Center to go swimming. Andrew and I went on each slide at least 10 times. he was having the time of his life! I nearly dropped him once and felt super bad, but he didn't care! just as I thought I was done, Ainsley wanted me to go with her, so of course, why not? we all had a great time, and even though it can be rough when the closest person your age is your own brother who's 3 years younger (actually, Alyssa Castle is 2 years younger, but again, she was in England), it's fun being with all the little kiddos. I can't wait until next year!