Insanity

So I started this new workout video the is sopposedly amazing and it helped alot of people lose weight.  You mite be wondering wat the name of this video set is.  The name is Insanity.  Yea I know.  I just did the first "Official" video and let me tell you, the name Insanity is perfect for this workout set.  ITS INSANE!  By far the hardest workout video I have ever done!  I have been an athelete my whole life so I have had some reali intense workouts but this tops them all!  I am sore every where on my body!  But its good because its going to help me lose the extra 40 pounds that I need to!  IM SO EXCITED TO BE SKINNY FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE :)  So by the end of this 60 day program, crossing my fingers, I will be down 40 pounds :)  Im so stoked to see my end results!  Well gotta go, homework is killing me also.  Which will kill me first?  Insanity or college?
Ta-ta for now!
Amanda <3

hello college

I have been so busy that I have forgotten that I have a blog!  I need to start back up again!  So I started college a few weeks ago at Sierra College, the local junior college.  I like my classes and teachers but I cant wait to go to BYU-Idaho and get away from all the crap here.  To go to a campus that doesnt smell lik cigs everywhere I walk is going to be amazing!  At sierra I am taking Concepts to Mathmatics (how to children learn math), U.S. History, English, Child Development and Intro To Education!  I like most of my classes, but child development is boring... oh well!  Tomoro I actually get to work with kids at Rocklin Elementery School for my Intro to Education class!  I am so excited!  I love working with kids!  Yea so I gots ta go!  Ill hopefully blog tomoro! Byeeee :)

17 Miracles



Let us never forget that we have a marvelous heritage received from great and courageous people who endured unimaginable suffering and demonstrated unbelievable courage for the cause they loved. You and I know what we should do. God help us to do it when it needs to be done.” -Gordon B. Hinkley

Recently a movie called 17 Miracles came out to select theaters.  17 Miracles is about the Willie Handcart Company who started their trek to Zion (the Salt Lake Valley) two weeks later than they planned.  It showed the pioneers hardships and trials as they go through rain and snow, losing loved ones everywhere they went.  I learned alot from the movie.  How I should be more greatful for the things that I have in this world.  For example, this morning I had 2 pancakes which was a common meal for the pioneers, but they had half of what i had.  The movie really made me think and wonder if I had gone through that trial if I would have gotten to Zion or if I would have given up early in the trek.  I admire all of the pioneers that went through what they did not only to get to zion but to get peace from the mobs that hated the mormons, which I dont understand at all.  How could someone hate another so much that they tarred and feathered members, executed members and ruined their lifes.  Us mormons have a horrible past, full of abuse by fellow citizins and the government.  But we have also had our ups.  Little everyday miracles. 

“What I have said I know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, and if necessary, will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us"-Levi Savage

Because of this movie I have found a new hero, Levi Savage.  Levi Savage was called on a 3 year mission and had to leave his son in the care of his sister because his wife had recently died.  You can imagine the pain he must have gone through having just lost a wife and now he has to leave his very young son.  He won't be able to see the first walk, the first talk and all the other firsts.  Thats always going to be tough on a father.  After his three years were up he was waiting for the train to go home he heard his name being shouted by a man named Willie who wanted Levi to be a co-captain of the Willie Handcart Company.  He didn't want to because he missed his son so very much but in the end he said yes.  So they gathered up everyone who wanted to go to Zion and started making handcarts.  They left two weeks too late and Levi knew that.  He had travled the very trail and knew that if you left too late you would be in rain, snow and many people would die.  So he spoke his mind.  He proposed that the saints stay until the following spring so that they wouldn't risk the suffering, but Willie went against Levi's proposal, even though Levi knows more than Willie about the trail.  Levi had many people publically criticize his proposal.  Willie and other high church leaders said that Levi needed to repent in front of a whole congragation!  How rude is that?  So, not listening to Levi's advice, they left and there was much pain and suffering on the trail.  On a side note Levi Savage was part of the Mormon Batallion which was in charge of handleing the Donner party mess.  They were another handcart company who got so desperate that they started eating the people who died just to stay alive for another day.  So going out of that experience and into another experience would have been so hard.  He kept looking for things that might make them do what the Donner party did and fix the problem.  But because of Levi they made it safe.  One time a little boy was standing in front of his family when all of a sudden two wolves (wolves were a problem on the trail) appeared and started stalking the boy and when Levi saw them he threw down his handcart and started running to the boy.  Fortunently he made it there and scared the wolves away and they never did return after that.  The pain that Levi had to go through was emmense and that is why he is my hero.  He thought of everyone in the company before himself.  He gave one of his best friends his one meal when his friend was starving to death.  Turns out that he had been giving his meal portions to his family.  He died the next day.  It is selfless acts like that that make me really look up to him.  He is a very Christ like figure.  When the long and painful journey was over Levi finally made it back to see his son.  He was so happy he couldn't hold his tears, nor could I.   

One more thing this couple right here has one of the best love stories ever made according to President Faust.  When President Faust heard this story he wept.  This young couple was deeply in love.  They decided to go to Zion together but chose not to get married before they got there.  They didn't want to get married before because they wanted to be sealed for time and all eternity, there were no temples where they lived so they decided to wait till they got to Zion, risking life and death to get there.  On the trail the girl (sorry I can't remember her name) got very sick with the fever and almost died and her boyfriend was always there for her.  He gave her all his food and he would have given his life for her.  But she got better and they journeyed on.  But then he got sick and cold and he died.  They were almost to Zion and he died.  He wrote her a letter explaining all the reasons why he loved her.  It was so cute!  The girlfriend didnt want to bury him in the ground so that the wolves would get to him so she decided to put him in a tree and cover him with her shawl.  They were eventually sealed in the temple when she died.  They were sealed for time and all eternity.  But the weird thing was that when people were traveling a few months later that knew the story saw the shawl but there was no body in it.  No bones or anything and the shawl was in perfect condition, the condition that it was in when he was buried.  There is alot of speculation of what happened to the body.  Was he resurrected?  I don't know but I personally believe so.  I mean the shawl was perfect and right where the body was.  If the body fell then the shawl would have to.  But who knows!

Overall this was a very touching movie.  I loved every minute of it and cried my way through the whole movie!  Thats it for now!
~Amanda~



"A Person doesnt have to be perfect to be exactly wat you need"- Sirius

On July 15, 2011 the final Harry Potter movie came out and can I say it was AMAZING!  I mean the last scene bugged me because Harry didnt do the spell he was sopposed to do with the elder wand, but only a true fan would notice something like that.  But over all I give it a A++++!!!!  I went with my best friend Kristina.  We wanted to do something out of the ordinary and unpredictable buuutttt we ran out of time so I went as Ginny Weasley and Kristina went as Cho Chang.



 Ohhh Harry Potter.  Words can not describe how this series has impacted my life.  It may seem weird, a book impacting a life?  HA thats funny.  But seriously, ever since the first book, Sorcerers Stone came out in 1997 there was no going back.  I remember sitting in my bed and my parents reading me a chapter a night (this was before I could read) and I would get so into the story that when that chapter was over I just craved more and more!  I once read the whole series, all 7 books in one week!  I read so much that week it was insane! 

Harry Potter, Ronald Weasly and Hermione Granger thank you for all the many adventures that we have had together over the 13 years we have known eachother!  We have literally grown up together!  All my childhood I have known you guys and now its the end, a closing to the childhood chapter!  Everything has an end but I can always go back and reread the books and rewatch the movies :)  btw I reali get annoyed when people younger than 17 say they have grown up with the book and its the end of their childhood not only because in some cases they werent even born when the books came out, but because they are still so young and have their childhood ending in years to come.... jus sayinnnn.... But yea thank you so much for the adventures you three :)  I will never ever forget our fun times from Ron being afraid of spidars and wishing they could follow the butterflies instead to the climatic moment when Harry finds out what Snape was really up to.  Every little thing is stiched into my life.  I love all of you guys :)



Thank you JK Rowling, with out you I have no clue how more than half my life would have been.  Because of you I got to get the 5th book in New York City, because of you I got to see the first four movies the day before anyone (besides the actors) got to see it, because of you I had a very memorable childhood.  You are definently one of my heros and role models!  Thank you for all your hard work!

And now it is all over, but i know that this is only the beggining of a whole different chapter.  This isnt goodbye, its simply hello.

Until we meet again (as my dear cousin {who isnt going to be mad cause I copied her tehe) would say}

"knox"

Amanda <3

GRADUATION!



I know this is an enseey bit late but as of June 3, 2011 I am offically a Rocklin High School ALUMNI!!!!  Oh how weird that is... Alumni!  Huh!  The ceremony was a very special one that will be held close to my heart forever.  Walking onto the football field (the class of 2011 was the first class to graduate on the new terf!!) for the last time as a rhs student was quite emotional!  Seeing the whole crowd stand while we walked in and cheer for us was spectacular!  Seeing my Mom and Dad in the VIP section with big smiles (and tears in their eyes) made me so happy and it finally hit me that in an hour and a half I would be graduated!  Then I heard my grandparents, cousin Kelsee and my brothers David and Chase yell AMANDA GARRETT!!!!  I looked over and saw them standing and waving with huge smiles on their faces!  I wove at them and kept walking!  Happiness overwelmed me as I walked through the crowd and to my seat!  My favorite speech was a speech given by one one of my good friends, Amelia!  Her speech was about our class history and of course she added harry potter!  HARRY POTTER!  Since we have literally grown up with that amazing series and we are so obsessed with it that it was our homecoming theme that it was obvious that she would mention it!  Then we had more and more speeches, it was endless!  Until finally it was time, TIME TO RECIEVE OUR DIPLOMAS!!!!!!!!!  This is what we have been waiting for since at least freshman year!  Then I heard, AMANDA GARRETT!!! I walked onstage shook hands with Mr. Kirk and then jumped for joy and went off the stage, that was it!  I was offically GRADUATED!!!!  After my whole class recieved our diplomas it was time to move our tassles from the right to the left then toss our hats!!!  Then it was over.  All over.  High school was offically over!  I went and hugged my friends then went off to find my family.  That was the hard part, it took me 10 minutes just to find my parents!  After I finally found them and my grandparents, brothers and cousin found us we took about a million pictures!  Picture after picture it was endless!  After about 45 minutes of taking pictures wit the fam and the friends I headed for home where there were more hugs and a couple more pictures!  After a while of talking about the ceremony my cousin Kelsee and I headed over to mels to celebrate!!!  Chicken tenders and fries is how we celebrate haha :) June 3, 2011 is a night I will never forget!  Class of 2011 we made our mark at RHS and we are the best class!  Till we meet again, have a good life Class of 2011 :)



A Night To Remember



Big fun, on the nights of nights.  The nights of nights, tonight. Lets dance!  On the night of nights!  You know we're gonna do it right!  Its gonna be a night to remember!  Come on now, big fun!  Its gonna be the night to last forever, we'll never ever ever forget!  What night is this high school musical song talking about? Prom, thats rite PROM aka Senior Ball!  This years senior ball is goin down in the history books :)  Getting all dolled up for a night of wonders is the best!  This year I donned a yellow cinderella dress that had flowers made from sequins all over it.  I got compliments that I looked like a princess, like Belle.  I felt amazing, personally I've never gotten compliments like I did at senior ball and on facebook the next day!  Definantly a self confidence booster! 



My lovely date, Tyler, arrived at four and we took our pictures, of course we only had one normal smiling picture, the rest were charlie angels, thumbs up and we had some foot popping action to!  But thats just us, we arent normal we are craaaazy :) haha



After we took our pictures I went to my friends house to take pictures.  It wasnt what was planned because I was sopposed to go in the limo with a different group but because somehow things were mixed up and my date and I had to find another group and we did but their car was filled so my dad and brother decided to do something crazy.  They dressed up as chauffers and drove us to the dance. 



 When we got into the car there was sparkling cider and all these snacks!  It was such a suprise!  Then we got to the place in downtown Sac where the dance was being held.  We were one of the first ones there so we got our pictures out of the way and we sat down at our table but we got board so we stood up and started twirling, my dress is so pretty when I turn so we turned until more people started arriving.  And until this one person in particular couldnt take his eyes off of me.... haha :) score!  No biggie!  Then dinner was served.  Chicken, tri tip, cheesy potatoes, tortallini and cesear salad was on the menu.  It was reali good, my favorite was the chicken and salad!  After dinner was dessert which was a chocolate fondue fountain which was ok, the chocolate wasnt the best.  Oh well.  After dessert the dance offically started.  We danced to songs such as You and Me by Lifehouse, E.T by Katy Perry ft. Kanye West, Born This Way by Lady Gaga and our theme which was Best Days by Graham Colton.  My date and I had fun slow dancing because we werent just being boring but he was twirling me and all that kind of stuff it was super fun!!!  And then it was over.  The night that we have been waiting for was over and it was amazing!   And to top it all off my dad arrived dressed up as a chauffer and in the back seat was chocolate covered strawberries!  Sooo good!  This night is a night I will remember, the beggining of the end.  Senior Ball, Best Days, Class of 2011! <3

~Amanda~



Senior Year

Its here.  Its Finally here.  The countdown to GRADUATION!  Yes its almost time to graduate and I couldn't be more excited!  20 days of school left, 29 days including weekends!  Amoungst my excitement, yesterday I was thinking about college, friends and my future life when I realized whats going to happen to my current life.  My friends now, here.  Over the past years I have made many friends from California to Florida and now that all of us are graduating I wonder where it will take us.  Yes I know that some friends are going to UCLA, Point Loma, BYU and Harvard but where will that lead?  Are none of us going to talk until our ten year reunion?  That scares me because I have grown so close with these people I can't stand to think that we wont talk for ten years.  We all will make new friends as we leave for college but these friends, now, got eachother through elementary school, middle school and high school and we wouldn't be the same with out them.  So I vow that I will keep in touch with them, no matter how many miles seperate us.