Update

Here are some updates that have been happening with me...
The subaru's transmission is shot, and would cost more to replace it then what we payed for the car...
So I bike to work now. Or walk home, but that one didn't happen fully cause mom happened to drive by and stopped and picked me up.
Heather bought a new car.
Nate is learning to drive heather's old truck, which is stick.
I'm trying to learn skateboarding. That started as in inside joke which has transformed itself into something I'm actually trying. I like it, it's fun.
Just about all of my friends have moved away to college, while I still have 3 weeks until I move out.
So to take out frustration I went on a 15 1/2 mile bike ride. Took me an hour and 8 min. It felt great.
And the next day I hiked to the timp cave and went through with some ladies in my ward and their kids.
And I just got called to speak in Stake Conference.

De-junking

I've been De-junking my room lately, getting ready to move off to college... and I found this paper I got in seminary back in 9th grade about Joseph Smith. It talks about how some people just can't swallow the story of Joseph Smith translating the Golden Plates. Well, here are some facts or conditions that must be complied with in order for someone else to produce a similar record under comparable conditions...

1. You must be between 23 and 24 years of age.

2. You cannot be a college graduate. In fact, you can only have three years of formal schooling.

3. Whatever you write must be on the basis of what you know.

4. You must write a book with 239 chapter; 54 of them about wars, 21 about history, 55 about prophecy, 71 about missionaries, and 21 about the mission of Christ.

5. You must include in your writings the history of two distinct and separate nations, along with histories of different contemporary nations or groups of people.

6. Your writings must describe the religious, economic, social and political cultures and institutions of these two nations.

7. You must weave into your history the religion of Jesus Christ and the pattern of Christian living.

8. When you start to produce this record, covering a period over 1,000 years, you must finish it in approximately 80 days.

9. When you have finished, you must not make any changes in the text. The first edition must stand forever.

10. After pauses for sleep and food, if you are dictating to a stenographer, you must never ask to have the last paragraph or last sentence read back to you.

11. Your history or record must be long, approximately 522 pages with over 150 words per page.

12. You must announce that your "smooth narrative" is not fiction, but true; yes, sacred history.

13. In fact, it must fulfill the Bible prophecies; even int he exact manner in which it shall come forth, to whom give, and its purpose and accomplishments.

14. You must publish it to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, declaring it to be the word of God.

15. You must include with the record itself this marvelous promise; "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask of God the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if these things are not true; and if he shall ask with a sincere hear, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."

16. Tens and hundred of thousands must bear record to the world for the next 175 years that they know the record to be true, because they put the promise to the test and found it to be true, the truth manifested to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.

17. Thousands of great men, intellectual giants and scholars must subscribe discipleship to the record and its movement even to the point of laying down their lives.

18. Your descriptions of the cultures in these civilizations of which you will write about is not known when you publish your manuscript.

19. There can be no flaw whatsoever in the entire body.

20. Yet, you must not make any absurd, impossible, or contradictory statements.

21. Even so, many of the facts, ideas, and statements given us as true in your record must be entirely inconsistent, even the direct opposite of the prevailing beliefs of the world. Very little is even claimed to be known about these civilizations and their 1,000 years of history.

22. You must invite the ablest scholars and experts to examine the text with care. You must strive diligently to see that our book gets into the hands of all those most eager to prove it's forgery and who are most competent to expose any flaw in it.

23. Thorough investigation, scientific evidence and archaeological discoveries for the next 175 years must verify your claims and prove even the minutest details of your history to be perfectly true.

24. After 175 years of extensive analysis, no claim or fact in the book is dis proven, but all is vindicated. Other theories and ideas as to its origin, rise, and fall, leaving your claims as the only possible ones.

25. Internal and external prophecies must be confirmed and fulfilled in the next 175 years.

26. Three honest, creditable witnesses must testify to the whole world that an angel from heaven appeared to them and showed them the ancient records from which you claim your record is translated.

27. You must call out of heaven the voice of the Redeemer to declare to the three witnesses that your record is true and that it is their responsibility to bear testimony, and that they do.

28. Eight other witnesses must testify to the world that they saw the ancient records in broad daylight and they handled them and felt the engraving thereon.

29. The first three and the second eight witnesses must bear their testimony, not for profit or gain, but under great personal sacrifice, persecution, and even to their death.

30. You must find someone to finance your book with the understanding that he nor you will ever receive any monetary remuneration from it. You must sell the book at cost or less.

31. Finally, after suffering persecution and revilement for 20 years after you finish the book, you must willingly give your own life for your testimony that the record is from God.

I'm Home!!

Yes I'm home now from Europe! I still can't believe how fast everything went. 2 weeks? No feels like I was gone for a day. Everything is slurred together. This was such a good experience for me. I loved being able to perform for the people of the different countries. You feel such a connection with them and you sing in these gorgeous cathedrals and churches that their ancestors built. The acoustics were every choir singers dream... oh my goodness it was wonderful. I won't post a lot right now because it's 6 in the morning and i should be trying to get over this jet lag but it's hard. It's 2 in the afternoon where i was... so i feel like i should be awake.

So just some random thoughts, Europe is obsessed with HUGE water bottles, they were everywhere. I only saw one public drinking fountain which was at the Louvre so maybe that's the explanation for the ridiculous size of water bottles. I never had to pay to pee! That was one of my goals for Europe and I accomplished... took some skill or just a bathroom in the morning and then one clear once you got back to the hotel that night... suckish. I discovered Paprika chips. Normal American BBQ will never be very good anymore compared to these... so good. Magnum ice cream bars, are divine goodness. Europe didn't have a huge variety of chips like America but they did have Pringles, everywhere. But sadly only 4 flavors. Original, Sour cream and onion, and 2 other spicy ones... paprika and something else, i don't remember. There were way to many girls in France who think they don't need to wear a bra. The people in Switzerland were my favorite, Switzerland is my 2nd home, after Hawaii. I tried fish and chips for the first time in London, pretty tasty but i liked the fish better then the chips. Chips in London convert to fries in America. Crisps convert to Chips. I also tried a crepe in France with nutella.. yummy yummy. I felt the most danger in Paris, and the least in Switzerland. London is so much better than Paris. I missed my ipod and normal electricity. I'm addicted to croissants... ahhh! Snickers are so much better in America, don't know why but they were not the normal goodness that they are. No tax was the greatest thing I kept forgetting. I'm for sure going to miss that.

Our first stop, Windsor Castle

Concert in England, they had sweet chairs.

Saw the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesties Theatre! So Amazing

On the boat heading to France!

Paris! The Eiffel Tower of course

Beautiful Switzerland. My favorite country

Rehearse Rehearse Rehearse

These all day rehearsals have been wearing me out. No strain on the voice though thank goodness! One more day rehearsal tomorrow and then a concert tomorrow night! Feel free to come, it's at Timpview high school at 7:00. I'm not sure how long it goes they haven't told us yet, but I think it'll be good. We have a lot of good singers.

But in 4 days and after a 9 hour lay over I'll be in London... :D oh the excitement that is bubbling inside me waiting to erupt. And I've been meeting a lot of new people. It's been so fun I really like the girls in my group, we already have become pretty good friends. It's fun and this is what I'm loving, doing something on my own not knowing anyone going into it. Just meeting so many new people. It's grand and Europe will be sick nasty.

Family Reunion

This is just about the whole Packard clan. I never got the picture like this one from our last reunion so I made sure to get one this year. And here it is...

Family Reunion

So we had our Packard family reunion this last week, approximately 120 people there for the reunion. Yes water bottles with every ones name on their own, and 9 watermelons for 3 days. We had so much fruit. I ate the most food for each separate meal then I ever have in my life. And if was delicious. And this year was special because it's the first year we've had all the families' there. So that was really neat. I'm really blessed to be in this family. Having so many cousins and we all get along so well. We have such a fun time together. Five of us are all going up to BYU Idaho this fall.

So this year the reunion was in Utah, at a campground near Fruitland. It was so gorgeous, I didn't feel like I was up in the fountains at all, maybe I wasn't, I don't really know where we were but I loved it. There was a river running through our campsite and I was with the first group to float down it. And was that an adventure... it was ICE COLD and shallow in many areas. So if you weren't paying attention your butt would hit the rocks on the bottom. And river would try and pull you right into the bushes so you're trying to guide yourself away while keeping your balance on these ridiculous tubes. It was so much fun.

We had our annual archery contest, and those bows are dang hard.. of course I'm just wimpy anyways. There were two 50 dollar bills up for the teenagers and if you hit one, it was yours. Nate the lucky dog hit one. I was nowhere near... Jared hit the other 50.

The cousins! Left to right, Mckenna, Quinton, Aubrey, Me, Nate, Kent, James, Jared, Emma, Spencer, and Ben. We were only missing Caitlyn whose in college right now and Steven but he came up later that day.

But the reunion was really good. I'm sad my mom wasn't there, she was the only sibling not there. But it was still good, my dad compensated for the difference. He brought up his spa stuff. So the aunts got facials, or foot massage, and he had his paraffin wax and speakers. The whole parade.

I love my family. Reunions are the best. The next one in two years will be different.. all my guy cousins will be on missions and I'll be 20! Scary!

Camp fire song

So at our family reunion there of course was singing around the camp fire. And one song that just made me laugh was our Sophisticated Row, Row, Row, Your Boat... this is how it went.

Propel, Propel, Propel your craft
Placidly over the liquid solution
Ecstatically, Ecstatically, Ecstatically, Ecstatically
Existence is merely an illusion.

I had to sit there and think for a minute of what it was really saying... had to refer back to the simple version!

LOST

I just love this show. I now own the first 3 seasons... and in a weak attempt to hook one of my friends... I managed to re-hook, I guess, myself. So I've started from the beginning again.

Oh and my no sugar... I'm weak sauce and only lasted a week. So.. try again? Sure we'll see how far I go.

Beauty and the Beast

Friday night I went and saw Beauty and the Beast at the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater. They did an awesome job. The set was so cool. It was all made of books, staircase walls. The books lining the staircase could be pulled out and opened into the walls for a new scene. It was very clever.

The actors who played Belle and Gaston were by far the best. They had awesome voices and did a really good job.

Schedule

College scheduling is a pain. And being the last to pick classes... makes it worse. I had everything planned essentially around my main most important class. And of course it's all full so I have to wait till next semester to take it and I had to re-do my whole schedule basically.
But here's what's happening..
I'm taking 15 credits total.
mondays/wed/fri include nutrition, choir and math
and tues/thurs include english, communications, institute and math on thursday again.