going to meijer with $150

so we had a quest group time after dinner last night before our room mate workshop (which wasn't until 10pm) and our groups could do whatever we wanted to.

so our group (this pic is of the girls of the group) voted on going to our leader's house and having mass amounts of ice cream and candy. and each group had a budget of $150 so we went to meijer with junk food on our minds. there are 24 of us in the group, so we each got to get a pound or two of bulk candy (i just went with some jelly bellys and also grabbed some licorice). then it was off to the soda aisle, and then the ice cream and ice cream toppings. we wanted to spend as much of the $150 as we could, so when we were running a little short at the checkout, we stared grabbing one of every gum.

we got our total to $149.93.

much gratitude to sarah who remembered to bring her camera along!

and then when we got back to calvin after the party, we had our room mate workshops, which were fun, but late. i don't think me and my room mate are gong to have many issues..

well, thats it... long day ahead, as usual.

quest

late nights here at calvin... we have dorm meetings that start at 10pm. my room mate is an early sleeper like me, so we had a good laugh when we realized the late nights that we'd be having. quest is kind of like the second phase of orientation, so that's what's been going on lately. activities, informational stuff... so been keeping busy.

i absolutely love being in the dorm... it is sooo much fun... i am loving putting all my stuff up and having a fun little personal space. my first night on the bunk went well, didn't fall or anything. but as you can see, getting on and off is a bit of a trick, but nothing a few rock climbing skills can't conquer :)

hmm, what else... food is good. i enjoy te dining halls... and my favorite part... hummus and pita bread!! sooo good. gotta love it.

well, i have to be at my next quest station... so gotta go!

ciao

welcome to noordeweir vanderwerp

and welcome to our room. the bunk across the way is me, and my room mate has the same setup against the near wall.
i am un packed and everything, just still finding places for a few things here and ther, and still hanging stuff up on the wall. so that's my workspace ...
and directly behind me are my bookshelves and random stuff and pics...

this is in the basement... ping pong all the way!!! and pool tables and foosball and booths and stuff....

laundry room... very nice.

so that's a little glimpse of noordeweir. this is where i am. this is where i am gonna be. it's really nice to be here... oh, and i almost forgot.

did i mention, that our room has THE best view on the entire campus?? oh ya, it's beautiful... forget ocean fron, it's all about:

yes, the tennis courts!!! okay, so this is a bit bitter sweet. so, when we came here, i didn't even look at the courts because i believed they were completely torn out. turns out they left about four of them in. don't get excited... we can't use them. no nets, dirt, and machinery driving all over them. it really makes me sad to see all the heavy machinery driving all over them. so it's a construction zone. but, as i sit here at my desk, i look out the window, and i see the courts... and seeing tennis courts makes me stinking happy!!!! i'll take that over no courts at all.

so i hope you enjoyed the little tour!

and... i'd really like to know who amanda is.... it's driving me nuts, you have no idea.

i just got it...

it's 6:36 pm here, and i was just talking to my amiga jenny, asking if she was amanda... and then i read it again...
amanda keesandhugh... a man to kiss and hug.

so that narrows down the search... as does the fact that 'amanda' spelled my name wrong... unless it was on purpose to throw me off....

and the search continues.

only news for today... i am blue because the blueberry place has been closed the past two days... i was banking on being able to go and pick some more blueberries to have in the dorm...
bummer

...and the sunrise.

so, it's a good thing i decided to wake up for the beginning of the eclipse (only the total eclipse phase is veiwable here in the east... not the partial parts) so i woke up at 5:30 am, kind of hung out for a bit, and then went outside at about 5:45am. i couldn't find the moon, so i went inside to grab a sweater, and then was out like 5 minutes later, and there she was... the bright red moon. unfortunately there was a very thin layer of cloud, but you could still see the moon. and, within 5 minutes of looking at the moon, i saw this huge shooting star go across the sky above the moon. so awesome.

anyway, the reason why i was glad that i woke up for the beginning-- because of the clouds, and the fog that eventually rolled in, and with the sun rising, the moon was only visible for about 20 minutes... so i was up at the perfect time.

here are pics of the total eclipse, the sun rise, and me... well, too awake at 6:00 in the morning.

and this one all i did was hold the exposure for a long time... i dunno, it looks cool though!

i call this last one dancing in the moon light.. haha

so now i am awake and watching saved by the bell!!! i've got a busy day ahead of me...

ciao for now.

oh, and i have no idea who this amanda is, but i've got a few guesses...

caught the sunset!

i think i am getting better at this self-timer thing...

total eclipse of the heart

i mean moon. yup, a lunar eclipse tomorrow morning.

the moon shall pass through the shadow of earth from 5:52 am to 7:30am... and it's a total eclipse, so it should be a good show. i am expecting a better turnout than that meteor shower. and it's a lot easier waking up early than it is to stay up late, so i think this sky show is more for me :)

by the way, dont forget to subract three hours if you plan to watch it on the west coast.

and in case yall are interested...

where the streets have the same name

so the cali girls are all here. yesterday i saw sarah and her parents and showed them some bits of holland. it is so funny, because over the summer, this place has grown to be my home away from home, and i've developed a sense of pride. i loved showing off holland to them.
and then today, i got to do the same... although we were delayed by 2.5 hours.
let me explain.
shiloh and kristen were going to come down to holland today and we were going to have dinner. so i gave them directions from calvin. one thing i forgot... there is an exit about halfway between GR and holland that has the same name as the exit that they were supposed to exit in holland. so the ended up somewhere they weren't supposed to be... it was quit hilarious. when they said they were in hudsonville, i was like, okay, ya, you're way in the wrong place. so i got them back on the highway and they were on their way. okay, so i take credit for that first wrong turn, but how they ended up near saugutuk, i have no idea. so after 2.5 hours of hilarious phone calls and much laughter, they finally made it here.

so we went downtown and had some dinner. it was so much fun walking downtown, laughing, having fun, and with people. haha

i then took them to captain sundae. i started the summer with it, and now i ended the summer with it... and i must say, what a blast! and soooo delicious. we met a couple of hot ship mates, including the captain himself. then we were off to the ship to have fun with self timers. this first one i call shiloh's herbal essance shot.
this next one (and there are a few like it) we were trying to jump and have the self-timer catch us in the middle of the jump. well, we were a little slow, and, before someone else says it, i might as well... i look as though i am trying as hard as i can to let one rip.

good times were had tonight... good stuff. thanks shi for the pics!

move in to the dorms on wed!

say what?

tornado (or as my little bud paul would say "tomato") touched down about 20 miles north of grand rapids last night.
see, it's crazy, same thing that happened two nights ago happened again last night. all day long it's kind of normal... warm, humid... then night comes, big black clouds, lightning, STRONG winds... the whole shabang.
and, the same is in the forecast tonight, with a chance of another tornado... i mean tomato.
awesome.

RE-ING

the 23rd... marks two months... two whole months. i really can't believe how fast it has gone, and how much has happened.
awesome road trip cross the country complete with cows and roadkill, retracing half the trip on route to wyoming where i'd summit a mountain, time in michigan with friends, time in michigan without friends, exploring... so much.
it will probably be one of the times in life that i look back on and know that it was such an incredibly awesome experience and time. although the me on the night before orientation would have disagreed whole-heartedly, the me now says that i would not trade a single part of this summer... including the hard stuff. i've loved it so much cause, i just think about it, and all of it, every aspect of it... it's life. and the fact that that's life is just so awesome...
life. i am living life.
in fact, the hard stuff is where i learned (well, duh).
and the cool part, is that the stuff ain't over... causing the "learned" to change to "learning."
...
did you know that the book of ruth does not mention God at all... not even once in the entire book. i learned this at church a few weeks ago. however, that doesn't mean that God wasn't present at that time...He was just hidden. there is a huge difference between 'hidden' and 'absent.' you have to be present to be hidden... and God was not absent. so even though the book ruth doesn't say 'God' in it, He's there, He's working.

it's during times of transition, times of change that it's quite common to feel that God is absent. but you know what, it's during those times that we get to re-discover who God is.
i've got a whole bunch of stuff to go with this, but i'm going to skip it for the sake of length...

so on a personal note, that's part of what this summer has been about...re-discovering. it's also been about re-learning, realizing, retracing, reminding, re-thinking, re-reading,... re-ing. all of that put together has brought out a lot of growing.

but you want to know the cool part? the part the gets me really excited? actually two parts...
1) RE- means i am doing it again... and guess what... i'm probably going to do it again.... and again... and i am bound to do it again.
2) ING- means it's happening now... and to make beth moore proud, it's a present active participle... meaning it's continual, constantly going on. not finite.

put those together and it means that this doesn't end with the summer's end... all that stuff, and more doesn't end.

and do you know what that means? that this... this RE-ING is what life is all about. it's never done... there's always room for more to learn or more to discover or more to believe, about God, about yourself, abut life in general. it also assures, nay guarantees(haha, i have always wanted to use "nay") that we will have times where we won't be so sure, and that's where we go back and RE. that's life.

i can't get exactly what i have in my head out in words... but in my head, it just makes me think,"isn't that downright incredible?"

life is re-ing.

life is good.



comprende? honest, it makes sense in my heart and head.
i dunno.

on another note...
2 months without golden spoon... lifetime record for me, even if it is against my will.

and i thought this morning was impressive!?!

seriously, about an hour after that picture that i took of the lightning this morning, the skies were clear and blue. no joke.

it actually was insanely hot today.. 89 degrees i think... and humidity? wow-wee it was up to 87% at one point.

from 6pm-8pm i was playing tennis with clear skies and a nice gentle breeze... not too bad conditions.

got home, jumped in the shower, jumped out, and at 8:30pm, i hear, "cristina, come check this out, there is something funky going on with the weather!"

so i got dressed, ran up, went outside and holy guacamole... there was this HUGE BLACK CLOUD that had almost entirely coverd the sky. and, the best part, there was lightning going ALL over the place. i am talking multiple bolts at once, getting wiplash trying to see all of them. i was literally jumping up and down going, "this is what i live for!!!!!!" the storm was growing sooo fast, and the lightning bolts were so close... no joke, at one point, it was like, huge bolt not far away, and before you had a chance to say "whoa" there would be the LOUDEST and crack and thunder that i have ever heard/felt... even more so than in the mountains in wyoming. insane, i tell you. so, of course, i ran to grab my camera, but the battery was dead from this morning, so i used the brands' camera, and got a few cool pics. there was this part of the cloud south of us on the horizon, and it looked SO weird... it was like the edge of the cloud was frayed and falling to the ground. i don't know if the picture shows it to well, but it looks like it's peeling away. can you see it???
after capturing a good bolt on their camera, i ran to grab my buddy the video camera. i took in about 10 minutes of some awesome stuff.

forget college, i am going to live my life chasing t-storms!!!

haha, just kidding... but in the summers for sure!

i wish there were a way to get struck by lightning but not have any consequences or side effects.
does that worry any of you? haha

and, did i mention, i ate ice cream today.

if i had to name my soap box racer...

...i'd name it michigan lightning. i think it's kind of catchy.

anyway, it's the michigan lightning that woke me up at 6am... don't get me wrong, i am not angry at all. in fact, when i realized the frequency of the flashes coming in from my window, i grabbed my camera and ran upstairs. if ihad to put a rate of how owften lightening was flashing, at one point i would say about 50 bolts per minute, no joke. and y'all know me... i love lightning. so i sat there and watched it for a bit, and then i whipped out my camera. i caught myself a beaut... it's a fatty bolt. this one is in the backyard, and there were actually quite a few bolts that came across this clearing. suh-weet.

thunder was literally going constantly, and it was just absolutely amazing.

gotta love those summer t-storms!

the ultimate gift

so in case you thought that i have been looking at recall lists all day, i haven't.

i went to barnes and noble before lunch today to go see if there were any new books out there that might be interesting, and also to go read/browse through a few magazines that i didn't really feel like buying (magazines are getting sooo expensive). anyway, after a good amount of time of searching, i came across the book called "the ultimate gift." it's a book originally written by jim stovall, and according to the cover of this book, it was made in to a movie starring some big names (abigail breslin, for example, the girl from "little miss sunshine,".... and for some of you older folk, james garner, bill cobbs, and brian dennehy... and for the gals, drew fuller). anyway, so i evaluated the book by reading the back, and then, oh, look at this, a free dvd that had the movie trailer and some other bonus material on it. sold.
so i got home, had lunch, and cracked open that book. a few hours later, i finished that book. and i must say... awesome!!! so good soooo good. so then i went online to see when the movie comes out.
turns out it's was kind of an independant film, won two awards at the film festival, but didn't go in to theatres. instead it would go straight to dvd.
what's this? the dvd comes out on august 21??? and let me check the calendar... what? today's the 21st?
sweet!
so after failing to find the dvd at a few places, i finally came across it at blockbuster and rented it. came home, made some dinner, and watched it. and again, i must say.... awesome!!!
so, i am informing you... go to the bookstore, get the book. read it.
then, tomorrow, go to blockbuster, rent the movie.
now, i know the last time i recommended a movie it was little miss sunshine... and for a few, that may deter you from taking any more movie recommendations, but this movie is nothing like it. absolutely a great movie for all.
but you must read the book first. oh, and there are two versions of the book. i read the adapted version that was adapted to the movie, i guess. i am kind of curious though as to how different it is from the original. can't be much, cause the author was very pleased with the adaptation.

anywho...
read it, see it... let me know what you think.
and i'd be happy to mail my book to someone who want to read but not buy... let me know.

tootles

kind of fascinating...

http://service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp

so this link above... you see the word mattel. mattel is a company that has been in the family for a long time (also the place where i recieved my kindergarten degree :) first graduating class of mattel!) anywho, i came across this link that has the whole list of all toys that have been recalled by mattel and fisherprice (which i think mattel owns). i don't know why, maybe i am weird, but i found it really fun/fascinating to go through this list and see what toys have been recalled... the best part? is they totally describe in detail why each toy has been recalled. just click on the toy listed, and it tells you why it's been recalled and also what incidents have been reported in relation to this recall.
all hazards are tested and then found by the US consumer product safety commission, and they find the most nit picky things. but hey, when you're dealing with infants that have absolutely no control over what they're doing and children that actually will eat the magnets or lick their toys, they're doing the right thing i guess.

anyway, i thought it was neat.

and for a list of ALL items ever recalled, go to www.recalls.gov
even cooler

yeehaw

it may be kind of cheesy, and one of those stereotypical conversation starters, but the weather is such a fun thing to talk about!
i think each day i grow more and more fascinated by weather in general... i'm talking going on weather.com and checking forecast, looking at the radar...so much fun. and i love talking about it too.
so, the weather out here right now. the past few days have been rainy... it rained through the entire night last night, and all day today it was at least drizzling, if not, raining. and thunder... the thunder is different here. i finall put together what was different about the thunder.
back home in b-town, the thunder claps and then it kind of relfects off of all the concrete, whether it be the ground or the house next door... it kind of makes it echo a bit. thunder in the backcountry, while on the backpacking trip, at one of our sites during a t-storm, it literally sounded like the thunder was rolling down the mountains and toward us like a huge boulder.
here, specifically here in the house i am staying, the thunder is raw. it took me a while to come up with that word cause i couldn't place how to describe it in one word. here, there isn't a bunch of concrete around the house... it's in the middle of farm land, and there aren't mountains to add to the amplifying and echoing of the thunder. here, the thunder claps, and all you here is pure thunder. it's something else, and it's hard to explain, but i think i will leave it at raw.
also with weather... weather is so connected to emotion. weather is almost an emotion in itself. so with the weather right now, i'd say it's the type of weather that really gets your mind going... at least when you are out in it. if you are just staying inside doing nothing, its going to depress you... but when you got out in the weather, it brings forth an entirely new emotion...
which brings me to a few more things.
i went for a run tonight down by tunnel park again (which i have now discovered, with a little help, that there is a tunnel there, hence "tunnel park"). you see, i park at tunnel park so that i start there, but more importantly end there. i've kind of got this routine. as i am out and running, i let my mind go... i take whatever time i am spending running and i spend thinking and asking God my questions... ask ask ask... and then when i end up back at tunnel park, go up to the top to my spot, and then, i listen. and today, since it was kind of raining out (yes i ran in the rain, and it felt incredible... i haven't done that since cross country!), nobody was at the park... absolutely nobody. it was awesome. after my run and my questions, i ran up to the top. so i sat there, in the weather, and i felt so comfortable. for a moment, as i watched the low clouds blow fast westward over lake michigan, there was some peace. it's not a new thought, but a thought affirmed... the thought, "man, i love it here." i realized that what i have been doing this summer is something that i have been wanting to do for a long time, but also something i think i was supposed to do. and i have enjoyed every bit of it. all of that... answer number one.
then out of the corner of my eye, i saw a little flash of light... fireflies? was my first thought. so i looked to my left but nothing was there. i just stared hoping to see it again, and then when i saw it, i realized what it was. way down the shoreline was a lighthouse, and i am pretty sure it was the holland light house. i have never seen a lighthouse do its thing, and i have to say, i was mesmorized. i just sat and watched it... and watched it. it's not what i thought a lighthouse in action looked like. it's much slower in between flashes, and the light is super bright, and super quick... it caught me off guard every time. so i sat there in the rain, watching this light house.... answer number two.
God is good... life is good.

so with a bit of re-energizing and hope after tonight, all i feel like saying is "yee-haw, lets keep riding!"

a week and a day until i move in to the dorms (third noordeweir, woot woot!)

YAY!!!

I AM ON THIRD NOORDEWEIR!!!!

okay, now i seriously got every single prayer answered in relation to dorms... i was hoping for third floor (higher ceilings) , and i was hoping for noordeweir.

i'm on third with rebekah!

soooo stinking exciting. i move in a week from wednesday. crazt how summer is ending.

off the beaten path

alright, today i want to share some fun pics of michigan...
today was inspired by the book "Off the beaten path--Michigan".

so i went down to saugatuk to go check out a few things that the book mentioned. first was the saugatuk chain ferry which i think is actually really cool. made in 1838, it's this little ferry that has a chain that runs from shore to shore on this river (about 50-75 yards) and the chain runs through a crank thats on the boat. one of the workers actually has to crank it and the boat gets pulled to the other side of the river. it's fast, and its only $1 each way, and i have been dying to get rid of at least some of the $9 worth of quarters that i've managed to end up with over the summer. anyway, i personally think its really cool, and it's faster than driving around and over the river. plus, just walk a couple hundered yards down the road and you're at the huge staircase and sanddune (we went there when we visited two aprils ago... and now that i think of it, i dont know how we managed to get there on our own)

i thought this was cute.. an older couple with matching orthopedics.... adorable.

so this is the staircase (which was also mentioned in "off the beaten path") but like i said this wasn't the first time i had been here. however, when we came last, i just went to the top and came down, i never checked out what was past it.

this is a neat view of saugatuk from the top of the staircase. so then i headed down the sand dune to go check out the beach. fun hill to go down... super soft and deep sand. but on the way back up, you've got to go up... not as easy.

this is from the beach side of the hill, and what i was looking at going back up. the water tower you see to the left is where the top of the hill/stairs are... where i am headed... soft deep sand all the way.


a little glance down the dune...

i thought this was a cute little dock... i think i could pass a few hours just sitting there and watching the boats go by. plus there was a live band playing on a barge across the river.

here's the ferry again. i waited till it got close to the dock so you could see the chain when it lifted out of the water.

i know it's a bit weird, but i am fascinated by cemeteries, and this one in saugatuk was really neat... and it was super old... i saw some dates in the 1800s. crazy.

this is back in holland, lake macatawa... i like this pic cause you can see the nice houses on the shore, but i just absolutely love that sail boat! so colorful.

in memory of...

jessica, the lady who worked at heriatge photography, did all school pictures, sports pictures, and senior portraits (she came up with my senior portrait with the tennis balls). she was always fun to talk to during tennis pics. she would always call me christine instead of cristina, and she would always talk to me since she knew my mum.
unsuspected, she died on sunday of a heart attack...

i know she'll be missed greatly.

hugs come in all shapes and sizes.

well, i went to grand haven with my sign and did what i set out to do.
i have to say, after getting there, it took me about 20 minutes to work up the nerve to go out there and stand there, and hold up that "free hugs" sign. but i was tired of this whole "not so sure thing" and being embarassed and all, so i took the band-aid approach...do it fast... don't think, grab the sign, walk out there, hold that sign high and proud, then realize what you're doing, once it's too late.
so there i stood on the corner of 2nd and washington in the middle of a sidewalk sale in grand haven, holding a sign above my head that read "free hugs." honestly, i expected that after 10 minutes of standing there i wouldn't have any hugs and i would just walk away.
but the hugs started coming almost right away, and i was really surprised. i actually got a ton of hugs, and even had a few conversations. i also had the opportunity to observe the reactions. so i will share with you a few reactions that could have come from people walking by:
first, and most common, would be people walking by would read the sign (usually out loud so whoever they were with could hear) and then smile at me, or say "cute", or laugh in a "that's funny/thats cool" way. i didn't mind this reaction cause i would just smile back, and i figured i brightened someone's day a bit.
second, would be the people that walk by, and ask me, "free hugs, huh?" and i'd nod, and then they'd keep walking. that was pretty rare though.
now for the huggers... the huggers would come in a few different ways. i got a lot of "is this for a study?" one guy refused to believe that i was out there purely just to give out some hugs. and then after discussing with him why i was out there, and proving that i was not doing a project of some sort, he wanted a free hug. a lot of people would also ask how many i'd gotten so far or if i was keeping count (which i wasn't).
then there were the people that would walk slowly, and you could just tell that they were contemplating whether or not to get that free hug. there were others that would come running across the street with arms wide open. there were the younger teenage girls that would come in groups with cameras, and there were the older ladies that were just so happy to get a hug and would stay and chat with me for a while. little kids often just stared, and it was funny to see a lot of parents say, go give her a hug, and the kids nodded no. all i could think was, you expect your kid to give this stranger a hug when you won't even get a hug. one girl wanted to, but her mom said "you can't hug another girl, you can only hug your mother." one younger teenage boy walked up to me and applauded me then gave me a hug.
i had one lady walk up to me and say, "now, don't give me a hug, but i am curious, why are you doing this?"
the most common hug, was people reading the sign, then asking me, "really?" to which i responded with the a smile and nod and me opening my arms for a hug... and they'd take the hug.
one lady had just been through four surgeries and said she'd really like a hug.
people working the booths next to me wanted hugs.

hugs all around. i never went 5 minutes without a hug. i was surprised as to how many hugs people were willing to get.
i was out there for two hours, and people just kept on stopping for hugs.

it made me happy to hear how many people were really truly grateful.

i was pretty grateful myself.

i did not expect that kind of turnout.

that's it for today.
high school musical 2 premiere tonight!!!!

grand haven sidewalk sale... here i come.

world's happiest and cutest dog

go go power rangers

the past week or so i have been having a tough time falling asleep. i'm just not tired, and i have got this hyperactive mind, and my eyes won't even stay closed. so as i was trying to fall asleep last night, i figured, you know what i need? those eye cover things.


when i was a lot younger, like maybe kindergarten through third grade, i had this fascination with the courtesy pouches that some people get on long flights or in first class or something. my grampa had tons of them since he traveled a lot for work. so i would spend so much time just sitting in his closet and going through each little pouch, inspecting each thing that it came with... you know, soaps, socks, toothbrush, and sometimes even a shoe horn. but my favorite thing, and the things i always got to keep, were the eye covers. there was one that was green (my favorite color then) and i loved that thing. funny how easily pleased we are when we are younger. so, as a kid, i would play with those things, and even use them when sleeping. but there is one time i remember that makes me laugh.

i realized that the eye covers resembled the look and shape of the visor part of a power ranger's helmet (i was a major power ranger kid) so i would wear them when i played power rangers. we played power rangers at school a ton, and one day i brought my eye cover to show my friend how cool it was. he wasn't impressed, but i didn't care. so as usual, we picked out our "enemy" and used our power ranger "skills" to take down the enemy. our enemy on this particular day was a vacant tether ball pole. don't you love young imaginations??? before we got to fighting the ever so evil tether ball pole, i pulled out my green eye covers and put them on. i didn't care that i couldn't see, i looked like a power ranger! however, after we both yelled "go go power rangers", we charged the pole, and within about three steps at full 7 year old speed, my forehead became fully acquainted with the tether ball pole. of course my friend laughed, and i was upset, so i pulled off my eye covers. man that hurt.
how did i expect to fight that pole, i mean enemy, when i couldn't even see it?

how do we expect to overcome things when we refuse to even acknowledge them? just because we can't "see" them, doesn't mean that they're not there. in fact, if you can't see them, you're going to just end up running in to them, and it ain't gonna be pretty.

we aren't power rangers, and eye covers aren't the answer.

question for the michiganders:

muskegon...
would that be a good place to go check out? and, any suggestions of places to go/see if i go up there?

much gratitude

wow

my goodness, i hate taking school pictures... i am such a dork!

haha

i can't stop laughing. i look pretty happy for not being happy

i'm kind of bummed you can't see the chipotle part of my shirt.

oh well

:)

chippin' away

woke up this morning, looked out the winow at the pond, and there stood, drinking from the water, a deer and her two fawns! so incredibly awesome. by the time i reacted and grabbed my camera, i couldn't get a good angle without scaring them away, so you have to look really close to see them... left side... you can see their reflection too.



then i got to work and helped unload this trailer full of wood chips. it was such a big pile, but i shoveled all of it into buckets which she would pour in her garden... it was tough stuff... when the chips are packed, it's hard to get that shovel in there... so that's when i discovered a pitch fork! those things are fun!
i also helped them unload this huge moving truck too... soooo much stuff. again, tough stuff, but hey, it feels good to get some good work in. the weather was absolutely amazing today. incredible. as i was sitting on the porch reading, sitting in the sun cause it felt really good today, i managed to take a little nap. sweet.

i've been watching this show called "platinum weddings" where people have these weddings, and their budget (or lack of budget, if i might say) is enough to make you cry. the cake alone... o my goodness, some of them would equate to like $50 for every bite of cake you eat. and flowers!?
these people are insane... these huge elaborate weddings, costing $650 thousand... destination weddings where you travel to some resort and the wedding last 5 days...
you know what this show has done to me? no, not want a huge wedding... the EXACT opposite.
lets just say i plan on starting my own garden to take care of all the flower stuff whenever i get married. and i am going to learn to sew better.
and watch out people, i might be hitting you up for your backyard!
haha

good stuff.

ciao for now

a little disappointed

okay, granted that the most shooting stars i have seen in one night has been two, and that i saw a few rather large ones, i have to say this shower came up short of what i was hoping. when the article said "bedazzling" and "shower," i was indeed hoping for a shower of stars... maybe two at a time or something, every 30 seconds for a couple of minutes or something. well, i spent over an hour outside, from midnight-thirty to 1:40am, and i saw a few pretty stinking awesome shooting stars... but i dont know, i guess i was expecting too much.

and it certainly didn't help that i was scared being out there at that time alone, and had i not been on the phone with danielle the entire time, i probably would have only lasted 5 minutes due to the fact that i kept on looking at this one bush and thinking it was a person.

i was on such an edge, that the first shooting star that i saw literally made me jump and get that awful feeling you get when you get scared, or when you see a "jump" scene in a horror movie... that tingly feeling in your stomach... ya, i got scared by a shooting star.

anyway, i did enjoy the fact that there is hardly much light polution where i am at, and that the stars are so easy to see, even with the porch light on.

so, cool stuff. i think i just built it up in my mind too much.

tootles