Dear Orlando.

Dear Orlando,

I appreciate you for catching the mouse, and I am proud of you for bringing it in the house. I know this was your first catch, and it is very exciting for you. I also know it catching the mouse was probably extra hard because it is raining right now. I am glad you caught the mouse, that's what cats are supposed to do. But Orlando, Orlando, Orlando. Did you have to lose it? In the house????? Bringing it into the house is one thing, but loosing it in the house is another. The Bathroom was a good place to bring it, burring it in a towel was a good thing to do, but dear, dear, Orlando, you need to KILL IT DEAD before you do that. Because now its gone. And even when we were looking together, Tikka, Molly, and I couldn't find it. I know Molly never hunts anything and make life harder for Tikka whenever Tikka goes hunting, and Tikka was too Closter phobic in that small bathroom to do anything helpful. But where is the mouse? It would be appreciative if you would get out of the toy basket and find it.

Love, your mother Larkin, who loves you and wants you to find that mouse before it dies in wall.

Hopefully you don't mind reading my letter to my cat, I thought you might find it funny. And giving Orlando some advice on how to catch that mouse might be helpfull for him. :)

Quotes~

On my side bar, I have a bunch of quotes, but it is really crowded, so I will post all of my old quotes and start putting some new ones up :)

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."— Eleanor Roosevelt



"I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday" — Eleanor Roosevelt



"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. " —Eleanor Roosevelt



"It is not our abilities that show who we truly are, but our choices."-- Professor Dumbledore- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets



Smart people learn from there mistakes, but the real sharp people learn from the mistakes of others. --

Fablehaven



Not everything is a good experience, but that doesn't mean it's bad.



"Of course it is all hapening in your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"--

Professor Dumbledore- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."— Albert Einstein



"Some people say, 'I can't afford to pay tithing.' Those who place their faith in the Lord's promises say, 'I can't afford not to pay tithing.' "

-Dallin H. Oaks




“We’ll never survive”-Buttercup



“Nonsense, your only saying that because no one ever has”-Wesley

-The Princess Bride



The world is like a puzzle and all the people are puzzles pieces. Each one is different, but all have a place in the world

-Libby Cabrera



A sword is only as good as the person who holds it.



Sometimes as people, we become so obsessed with filling an image that other people have made for us, that we forget the most important thing, be yourself. I’m not saying, that if you make a mistake you shouldn’t try and be “Okay” with it… I’m saying strive to be all you can be. You are a great person, who has awesome skills at smiling and making others feel special, don’t put up an act because that is being a “second rate version of someone else”. Only you are good at being you.

-Sofi Cabrera



FRIENDS: Will bail you out of jail. BEST FRIENDS: Will be in the cell next to you saying, “That was awesome! Let’s do it again!”



The future is as bright as your faith."

Thomas S. Monson


~Larkin

No more Ella the Cat...

The title of this post sounds very depressing. It is because, while we no longer have Ella the cat, we have Orlando the cat. Yes, my cat is a boy, and we thought it was a girl... Funny how that goes sometimes.... :) The poor kitty's first name came from Cinderella, since "she" was all black like cinders, and I liked the name Ella. Orlando comes from a Shakespeare play I was in, called As You Like It. The first time I read the play, it was for class, and I really liked the name Orlando right off. After reading the play, you also can see that the character Orlando is a really good (and extremely funny) person. After I was in the play, I decided that someday I would own a black cat and name him Orlando. Well, I got my wish! I think the name fits my cat well, maybe someday he will respond to it, he never come when I called him Ella!

Books Read in 2010

Looking back on 2010, I guess I read a lot more then I though I did! I read a lot of books I liked, and some I did not really like, and a few I hated. But mostly, I liked almost every book I read! I read 41 books in 2010, and for all but 6 of them, it was my first time ever reading them.

For School:

Across Five Aprils

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Amazing Grace of Freedom

Uncle Toms Cabin (I listened to it, not read it though)

Romeo and Juliet

As You Like It

Macbeth

A book on Abraham Lincoln

Tartuffe

Oedipus Rex

King Lear

A Man For All Seasons

The Phantom Tollbooth

String, Straightedge, and Shadow

Carry On Mister Bowditch


For Book Clubs:

The Chosen

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

The Swiss Family Robinson


Series of Books:

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Artemis Fowl Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows1

The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse

Percy Jackson and the Battle in the Labyrinth

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay


Other Books I read for Fun:

Fablehaven 5

Peter and the Starcatchers

Under the Lilacs

D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths

The Horse and his Boy


Here is my favorite book that I read this year for each category:

Sci-fi: Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Fantasy: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Adventure: The Swiss Family Robinson

Fiction: The Chosen

Non-fiction: I didn't read any that I liked...

For School: Macbeth

Re-read: The Horse and His Boy

Yay for books! :)

Utah Snow

Lots and lots of snow!!!



Me shovling snow. It was actually suprisingly hard, snow is heavy!

One of our favorite days was when we went to BYU and visited the Bean Museum. We took lots and lots of crazy and fun pictures!





We had a lot of fun aligning our head with antlers and horns of animals in the museum. The pictures turned out pretty cool!!!





Since we were in Utah for New Years Eve, my cousin Franklin and I went to a New Years Eve dance! It was super fun, and it was neat because I went to my first ever church youth dance (which was also a new years eve dance) with her.

Some home-school family friends were in the same area of Utah as my family, so my friend Kraig went with Franklin and I to the dance. That made it extra fun. :) Here we are, we all look like we are the same hight.


Haha, nope! Kraig and Franklin are waaaaay taller then me, but I don't mind tooooo much. ;)

My family and my Great-Grandpa Rogers. He will be turning 99 in June! We visit him pretty much every year, and I think we all enjoy each visit. He has many childern, grand childern and great-grand childern, and we all love him very much.

Cat tree

I have a good friend named Kraig, and for Christmas, he supprised me by making a really cool present. He made me a tree for my cat Ella! It is a really awesome stand, and it is almost as tall as I am. Ella really really loves it, and climbs on it all the time.

Here is Ella (I'm holding her), the new cat tree, Kraig, and I.

Ella looks really funny in this picture!

Here's Ella telling Molly to go away! When Ella is at the top of her tree, she thinks she is Queen of the world, and nobody is allowed to get near her. Its super funny! Thanks Kraig! :)

Anne of Green Gables

Today I promised my awesome friend Marianne I would blog, so I am! Last month, I was in a play called Anne of Green Gables. It was the second play I have had a part in with more then a few speaking lines (I had abt. 30 lines for this play) and it was the FIRST play I have ever been in that I had a real solo. In Oliver Twist and Pirates of Penzance I had small singing solos, but in this play I had to sing two pages of song all by my self! I was soooooooo nervous before hand, but I think I did a pretty good job! This year for the play, we did performances a little differently for two reasons. 1, we had three shows, a Thursday and Friday night show, and a Saturday morning show. We also had understudy parts that we could play on Saturday if we wanted to. My main part was Mrs. Allan the preachers wife, and my understudy part was Aunt Josephine Berry, who is Diana's aunt. My sister got a pretty big part as the little girl Josie Pie, and her understudy part was the main role Anne, but she decided she didn't want to play that part. The play turned out really really awesome, and I was really happy to participate in it this year. My brothers were stage crew and they also did a great job at that. Way to go everyone!!!

Cast picture

Thursday Night show as Mrs. Allan

On stage as Aunt Josephine

Aunt Josephine wearing a crazy dress!

Mrs. Rachel Lynde and Aunt Josephine