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.

Past Tense To-Do List

Friday:

• Turned in two assignments that have been hanging over my head for a long time. *phew!*
  
• Had a super fun evening that included a picnic, a merry-go-round, playing with clay, great conversation, frozen custard, and an awkward comment from some dweebs on their bikes.

Saturday:

• Finished up white glove!!
• Made breakfast snacks for the rest of the week and put them in the freezer.
• Started my Russian paper... sort of.
• Went to the civil defense caves for the first time and played glow in the dark tag. Ohhhhh snap. Uh-mazing.

Sunday:

• Went to some most excellent church meetings. Our bishopric even came around to say bye to everyone. Love those guys.
• Put darts in Sam's dress so that it would fit her better. Helped Bethany put darts in the waist of her pants so they would fit her better. Hemmed Jenny's pants for her so they would fit her better. lol. Our apartment has a habit of buying cheap clothes even if they're too big. Made a hot pad that matches my spiffy apron.
• Borrowed paint from my neighbors so that Zach, Rob, and I can paint our sculptures tonight!!! Pictures soon to follow.
• Ate rice krispie treats made out of Cocoa Crispies. DeLISHious. And soon, I will be eating Sam's famous curry. Hoooooray!
  

Monday, Finals Week officially begins. But Sam and I don't plan on letting that get in the way of our last-days-together fun time!

Pretty amazing.

That's right, y'all. I made that adorable bag with my sister and her sister-in-law last night! Becca's amazing at getting me motivated to do projects like this. Even when they take about 7 hours to do, and we have to stay up until 0-dark-hundred to get them done. Sooooo fun!!! (Also, in this shot you can see my crimped/waved hair! Andrea did it for me. It felt like dreadlocks, lol.)

I'm feeling pretty adventurous lately. I made a homemade doll by mySELF (and altered the pattern), made that intense bag (again, had to alter the pattern), participated 100% in the ward closing social (human foosball, water balloon volleyball, human battleship, and a climbing wall), and went to school with super crazy curly hair.

Oh snap. Look out, world. =]

Newest Life Goal

Harry Potter in Russian.

I laughed out loud because a girl in the library read the title out loud as, "Fappu Nottep." I forget that those all look like English letters!

Slideshow!

We have wayyyy too much fun.

Napping with the Ducks

Nature Park is probably my favorite place in Rexburg! Friday was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, so Bethany, Sam, and I went on a walk! We saw 9 little baby ducks!!! Sooo cute.


I saw these guys all settled down and napping. Sam and I decided to be kids again and see how close we could get to them.


Remembering my lifelong dream of recreating that scene from Beauty and the Beast, I tried to get them to eat Cheez-Its out of my hand. It didn't work, but look how close they came!


When we ran out of Cheez-Its the ducks ignored us and went back to their naps. The ground was amazingly comfy and warm.


Bethany found this teeny tiny grasshopper! Look how small, compared to my finger!


Sam and I went different directions, found awesome flowers, and reported back. I thought for sure I'd win the prettiest-flower award... except we found the same ones!

After watching the old WWII planes practice for Saturday's airshow, we walked home. Oh yeah, we made a slight detour to Park St. because Bethany and Sam wanted to show me "Park Saint Park," lol....


Once we got home we borrowed Swan Princess and Beauty & the Beast, made cheesecake, and had a blast!

Best weekend ever, and Saturday is just starting!