Life = more than homework

... right?

It's hard to keep a long-term perspective on things when you're bogged down with homework. I just feel like this:

But ya know. Life goes one.

Anticipating the holidays!

Okay, so I promised my roommates I wouldn't put up my Christmas tree until mid-November. But it's going to be hard to keep that promise!!!! It's cold and wintery and I just want it to be Christmas.

On the other hand, it's still pretty exciting seeing all the Halloween and Fall stuff everywhere! We found a jack-o-lantern tablecloth in our closet, and we freaked out. Hooray for being festive! The only real problem is... I don't know what will I be for Halloween! =]

Last night Zach and I went to the Spirit Week rodeo. Sooo fun. We brought apple cider in a thermos, and ate homemade fried burritos on the way there. Delish. We both agreed we were jealous of the riders' skills, especially the five year old in the barrel racing competition. =] It was kind of funny though, they didn't play country music in the background! It was Black Eyed Peas, Jimmy Eat World, etc. lol. College town.

I decided I love kids books a lot. I've been reading a bunch of young adult books from the Jr. High library as part of my internship hours (I know, awesome, right???), and they are so much fun. I was rolling my eyes a lot at first, but... come on. Who can resist slipping back to the hope and innocence of being 13?

Armageddon Summer, by Jane Yolen & Bruce Coville

"Did we do wrong in believing, Marina?" Mom asked suddenly.

"Never in believing, Mom," I said. "Just in what we believed."

Half Moon Investigations, by Eoin Colfer

"All eyes were on me again, and not in a nice Oh, look at that handsome young man in the shiny shoes, I wonder if he's single kind of way. It was more of a nasty If he doesn't come up with the goods in ten seconds, let's lynch him kind of way."

Once Upon a Marigold, by Jean Ferris

"Whose idea is this?" she demanded. "In the first place, I don't care if Christian is royalty; I'd marry him if he were a goatherd. And in the second place, he hasn't asked me. And in the third place, I'll not have him railroaded into something he doesn't want to do. Where's Mother? I'll tell her myself that there's going to be no wedding today."

"But I want one," Christian said, trying to get out from under the pile of dogs. "The only thing I want in all the world is for you to be my wife. We can sort out the rest of the stuff later."

"Oh," Marigold said.

Her sisters grabbed her and dragged her off to get dressed.

Competition?

Today Enoch picked me up to babysit Emma Leigh. As soon as I walked in the door, the first thing she said to me was, "Where Set [Zach]?" He came later because he was taking a test.

I brought cookies to share with her, one for each of us. She made sure to set aside Zach's cookie on a special plate from her tea set. The whole time it was on the coffee table now, she kept reminding me that it was "For Set." lol.

A few minutes ago we had a little argument. It went like this:

"That's my Zach."

"Nooo, my Set!"

"Um, no. MY Zach."

"NO, MY Set!!!"

Needless to say, he has made a good impression. lol.

We love Emma. Babysitting is our favorite time of the week

Happy in Love!

What I Learned Today:

Rhetorical means more than "don't answer that."
My only class today was Eng 450, Rhetorical Studies. (Which sounded like a funny name for a class that gives exams, until I thought about what "rhetorical" actually means.) I love my teacher, and the people I sat next to are very friendly and easy to talk to. It sounds like an intense-but-worth-it kind of class. The only real thing that I'm worried about is how time-consuming it will be, and the fact that the teacher wants us to bring our laptops to class. (I have enforced a strict no-folding rule on my cracked laptop. That means if I want to take it to class I'd have to hold it open on my lap while riding my bike. lol. Doesn't that image make you think of a circus?)

Word of the Day: Super
After class, I coasted on down to Main St. to the Jr. High for my internship. I was super excited, and I wasn't disappointed! The atmosphere is super laid-back. I don't have to dress up too much, my supervisor is super nice, and I get to spend all day organizing, labeling, checking-out, and recommending books to super cute kids. Hooray!!!!

Tomorrow's Forecast: Partly sunny with a high of 19 textbooks and a low of 2 class periods

Summer Summary

My break ends this weekend! I've been too lazy to go online much, so here's another list-blog.

This summer I read:

1. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
2. FableHaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary
3. The Lightning Thief (#1 in a series called Percy Jackson & the Olympians- Thank you Kristen!!!)
   
4. The Sea of Monsters(#2)
5. The Titan's Curse(#3)
6. The Battle of the Labyrinth(#4)
7. The Last Olympian(#5)
8. A Day with Wilbur Robinson (The picture book Meet the Robinsons is based off of. I bought it for $3!)
   
9. 
10. Anastasia's Album. Found it for $1 at Half Price Books. It has old photographs of the Romanovs, a biography for children, etc. My best find of the summer!
    
11. Currently in the middle of Brisingr (#3 in the Eragon series) and Rules

I sewed:

1. A baby sleeper, which has an unfinished neckline because I ran out of ribbing
   
2. A toddler dress. Turns out it's extra long... my bad!
   
3. A fully lined jacket... Cute, but bigger is not always better, even with kids' clothing!
   
4. A nursing cover for my aunt Peggy, and a matching wet wipes case.
   
5. A little girl's nightgown
   
6. Another Margaret Sling Bag in super cute paisley fabric, with matching wet wipes case.
7. Tomorrow I will be making another lined jacket and another nightgown. Let's hope I can get the sizing right this time. =]

I saw:

1. Terminator #The New One. I hadn't see any of the other ones, but it was pretty good.
   
2. Imagine That-- loved it!!
3. Harry Potter #6 - liked it a lot!
   
4. Race to Witch Mountain (ended up getting a $10 fee from Redbox because I forgot about it...oops)
   
5. A Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers game! I'm the Diamondbacks' most ignorant fan! I don't know anything about baseball, I just like to yell. We each picked a random player to be our favorite. I lucked out and picked Ojeda, who happens to be one of their better ones. We also discovered that I am good luck-- the Diamondbacks won!
6. "The Magic Flute," broadcasted from the Met. Awesome.
7. Knowing, with Nicholas Cage. Prettttty creepy, but interesting
   
8. Hannah Montana the Movie. Ohhhh yeah. I'm half adult, half kid. I've got the best of both worlds.
   
9. Wizards of Waverly Place the Movie, in conjunction with a wizards party with my girlies (see photo below).

AND, best of all, I wrote:

1. The first bits of my newest story! I'm going to put up a super rough draft of the opening on my writing blog. It's historical fiction with a bit of a time travel twist.

So pretty much, I've been having a blast.

The end.

No place like home

I'm right there with you, Dorothy. But there's also no place like Rexburg. I really miss my friends, the way of life, my friends, my new bike, my friends, everything within walking distances, my friends.... did I mention my friends? Shout out to all of them, who are moving onto bigger and more exciting things.

Someone asked me today what I'm doing with all my time now that I'm home. I had to think pretty hard before figuring it out. lol. Most of the time the day is over before I realize that I haven't done anything. Pretty much, I've just been acting like a kid on summer break. Filling my days with a whole lot of relaxing nothingness.

1. Playing with my nieces/nephews/sisters
2. Running errands and hanging out with my mom
3. Goofing off with Steph (see picture above)
   
4. Earning frequent flyer miles with Redbox. (Do you think they do that???)
   
5. Doing odd jobs for my grandma
6. Reading books (Just finished the 4th Fablehaven and the sequel to The Mysterious Benedict Society. I love young adult fiction!)
7. Jogging in the mornings with my friend Corinne from Institute. It's only the second day, and I'm sore.
8. I got to meet two Ukrainian kids! They came with a foster children's group a week ago and are staying with a family in my ward. They called my dad and asked him to help translate, so I went with him. It was pretty exciting, but Alyona was really hard to understand.
   

Even though I have been productive in some ways, I know I need to earn money for next semester. Luckily, I found an opportunity! My aunt (who lives about three hours away) is having her baby next week and needs someone to drive her around, so my Grandma hired me. I'm leaving for Snowflake in a few hours to hang with her and my four cousins for a week. We'll also try and crank out the birth announcement.

Wish me luck!

P.S. The Critical Language Scholarship (that sends students to RUSSIA to learn RUSSIAN for FREE) is opening up applications for next summer's program soon!! Eeeeep! Since I'm already planning on going, I can't wait to apply. lol.