Catching Up

In case you were wondering, I haven't died.

Although if you thought that, you had a lot of justification. I haven't blogged in a long time. Life has been a little busy for this high schooler, and between choir tour, AP tests, and big projects, my time has been stretched pretty thin! So, here comes a quick catch up on Jessica's life. :)

On April 17, some of my very best friends and I headed out on choir tour to Washington D.C. My Mom got to come along with us as a chaperone, and we pretty much had a party the entire time. We had some pretty amazing experiences, including a VIP tour of the capital building, singing in the Hart Senator Office Building, visiting Arlington, walking around the D.C. Temple, and just having fun with our friends! My friends Brianna and Breanna were on the same bus as I was, and we had the most epic bus driver--er, professional motor coach operator--ever. Basically, he was so awesome that I had to name my souvenir stuffed panda after him. (Dave the Panda is pretty adorable by the way :D) At our choir festival, my choir took first in gold, which was pretty amazing!!! We had a wonderful time, and we've been having "choir tour withdrawals" ever since coming home.

 

Some of my favorite places and people in the world!

 

  

The Washington D.C. Temple was absolutely stunning.  

 

 Just hanging out in D.C. with some great friends... :)

 

 

 

It POURED on us in Arlington. Do you like our new hairdos? ;)



 

Sigh. Finding these pictures made me miss D.C. even more! Anyway, I had a lot of catch up work to do after tour, so I didn't get to blog about it until now! My birthday passed, and I had a ton of fun thanks to my incredible family and friends. Then it was suddenly time for AP tests. I took the AP Calculus AB test and AP English Literature and Composition test...and now I have to wait until July to get my scores back. It was kind of anticlimactic, to be honest. :) Well, that's what I've been doing the past month! Hopefully I can get back to blogging somewhat regularly from now on.

 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll come back soon! 

Seventeen Years and Counting...

Wow. Recently I turned seventeen--an age I thought I would never reach when I was six. Seventeen was so "old" back then!  I remember looking at all the high school kids in my neighborhood and thinking that they were so mature and grown up and ready to take on the world. Now I've reached this age, I'm suddenly realizing that I'm not as "mature" as I thought I would be! I still love my old stuffed animals, half of my favorite movies are Disney cartoons, my attention span is about as big as a five-year-old's, and my favorite snacks are flavor blasted goldfish crackers. And do you know what? I like it that way. So, during the next 360(ish) days I have left of legally being a child, I'm going to do a ton of childish things. I'm going to play Barbies with my younger sisters (if they'll join me... :D), teach my brother to use the slip-n-slide, visit and buy something at the Disney store, hold a final tea party with all my dolls and stuffed animals and maybe a few friends, color outside of the lines, get sunburnt because I played in the backyard for too long, play dress up with my childhood friends, and maybe even get a little bit muddy after a rainstorm. I'm going to remember how to not be afraid for tomorrow. I'm going to forgive easily. I'm going to smile and laugh every chance I get. And most of all, I'm going to dream. I think too often we forget our loftiest goals, the dreams of our childhood. I'm going to remember those dreams, and who knows? Maybe I'll figure out what I want to study in college, or be able to decide if I'm moving out or not. But until then, I'm not going to stress about it. Answers will come. While I wait, I'm going to enjoy every single precious day I have. After all, you're only a child once. :)

Spring Break

I love vacations. I love them a lot. For a few days, I get to completely forget about homework, hang with my friends and family, and just have a fabulous time! :D For the past few days, my family and I have been in Bryce Canyon--a beautiful National Park in Utah. We hiked some pretty amazing hikes and saw some pretty amazing sights--other than that, I really don't know how to describe it! So, to make up for my inablitity to use words, please enjoy the following pictures!

 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll come back soon! :)

An Interesting Day & the YW Broadcast

     Yesterday was kind of a rough day. I was feeling kind of sick and grumpy, and then I made the mistake of going shopping. My sister Emylee and I spent several hours searching for an Easter dress for me, and my dear Mother spent several hours trying to fix the only thing we could find into something I liked. Meanwhile, I had a sick/grumpy/frustrated mental breakdown.... it was great. (Please note the sarcasm :D) I wasn't very kind to myself, and it was kind of a miserable day! Anyway, it was suddenly time to go watch the General Young Women Broadcast! In my grumpy state, I did not want to go. But somewhere in the back of my head, I heard "Jessica, Satan obviously doesn't want you to go tonight--which means you REALLY should go!!!!" So, I miserably headed upstairs and drove myself, Emylee, and my Mom to the Stake Center.

     Let's just say, everything that I needed to hear that day was said. The text of the talks have not been released online yet, but there's one quote I memorized right after President Uchtdorf said it. (Just in case you're wondering, yes, he is my favorite apostle. :D) He simply said:

"Stand tall. You're a child of God."

 

     I know he probably wasn't thinking of a 6' 3" girl when he said that, but I was! :D I am so grateful that on a day I was really struggling, Heavenly Father would inspire one His servants to give that specific message with that specific wording. It reminded me of my divine nature-- I am a daughter of God! I am not a mistake. God designed me to be tall, and so I need to stand tall!

 

     That meeting completely turned my day around. My poor family was probably confused by my dramatic mood shift, but oh well. :D It turned out to be a good day!

 

     Thanks for reading, have a wonderful spring break, and I hope you'll come back soon!



Chamber Choir and Parenting Techniques

A funny thing happened this week.

First of all, it was the end of the quarter, which means STRESS. Secondly, Thursday was Chamber callbacks. And that's where my story begins....

I have wanted to be in Chamber since I was in ninth grade. It's the top choir at my school, and only a little more than 30 people can get in. When you have a school with 2,000+ kids, that's not a lot. This year, I made it to callbacks. So, on Thursday, I found myself in the choir room singing for my choir teacher and most of the current Chamber members. I also happened to be standing next to a gorgeous, but short, girl. My teacher loves it when I'm next to short people, and of course she had to point us out to everyone in the room. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed--me or the poor girl next to me. Fortunately we got over it and decided to be friends. After I sang and made a complete fool of myself, my teacher excused us all to go home.

Now, apparently there's a tradition that if you make Chamber Choir, you're kidnapped the next morning by current Chamber members and taken to breakfast. I knew about this, so that night I began to frantically clean my room. My parents stopped me, however, and informed me that I had not made it into Chamber. They told me that my neighbor's parents had received a call soon after callbacks informing them that their son had made it. One of my best friend's parents had also gotten a call--but my parents had not. I cried on my dad's arm for about an hour and tried to figure out what else to do with my life. In the middle of a discussion about my writing talent, which was frequently interrupted by my sobs and hiccups, the phone rang. My mom answered, and a girl's voice informed her that I had made it into Chamber. (My parents have since decided that their parenting skills need some fine tuning. I told them they should just count the entire experience as an early--and successful--April Fool's joke.)

The next morning, a few girls from Chamber kidnapped me, and, to my delight, when we got to the breakfast, I found out that some of my dearest friends had made it as well--including my new short friend! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It was a strange twenty four hours filled with awkwardness, unnecessary sadness, and lots of partying!

Well, thanks for reading and celebrating with me, and I hope you'll come back soon!

Change

So, after a lot of feedback and thought, I'm going to tweak Beautiful Heights a bit. This main page is no longer going to be solely dedicated to "tall fashion," but to pretty much everything to do with being tall, as well as snippets of my daily life. Hopefully this will make this blog more interesting for all of us! I also have started a twitter account. I'll tweet every time I write a new post, or just when I have a quick thought to share, so follow me! @JessHenson0425

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you'll come back soon.

Gratitude

So technically this isn't a "tall fashion" post, but I'm going to post it anyway! Today I just feel so grateful for all the amazing blessings I've been given. I may not have everything, but what I have is more than enough. I have a fantastic family that loves me, I have wonderful friends who support me and know how to have fun (catch phrase!), I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and I live in an amazing place surrounded by amazing people. I'm so grateful for all I've been given.
Thanks, reader, for reading my happy rambling! :)