The Stuck Elevator

You know those movies where the hero kicks out the ceiling of the elevator and escapes? It's as made up as Santa Clause. There aren't actually escape hatches in elevators. Only "Emergency help" buttons.

Have you ever been hanging out with a large group of friends and then had a really bright idea that is actually really stupid? Basically, that's what happened today. It seemed like a really cool idea at the time, what other college can say they can fit most of their college in one elevator? Not many! Turns out, neither can Providence.

23 people. One glass elevator. 20 minutes. Turns out, even though there might not be a plaque that says "Caution: You Cannot Fit Everyone in One Elevator" there is a limit on how many people can fit in one elevator. (There probably will be a plaque put up in the next few weeks . . .you can thank us later.)

It got really hot in the tiny elevator really quickly. Jokes about the next breath being the last you where allowed to take, and no farts allowed abounded. As the glass began to fog up people played tick-tack-toe and wrote messages to the laughing, instagram-using hipsters in the parking garage that where staring at us. (While staring is rude, you can't really blame them. 23 good looking people in a glass elevator? What are the odds!) All of this reminded me of Cast's "The Lost Elevator"

As it turns out, while acting in "The Lost Elevator" we all did a poor job of showing just how stuffy and crowded an elevator is. (I am SO glad none us decided to take an "een fische!" along in that elevator.) For those of you who weren't at Combo night last year, I'm going to just say you missed out, sorry you don't understand what I was talking about. That really is to bad for you . . .it was a great night.

Of all the things that happened on that trip the elevator is definitely a highlight. It comes in a close second to the Korean BBQ lunch. I can say that I have at least accomplished something on my bucket list. "Get your college stuck in a glass elevator" I can cross that one off the list!!

I cannot even being to describe all what went on in those short 20 minutes with the amount of battery I have remaining on my computer, so I'm just going to leave this little bit of advice for you: TAKE THE STEPS.

Photo credit: Will G.
The elevator is WAY smaller then what it looks like in this picture. 

Needed: Peace

I don't know about you, but I cannot wait for Thanksgiving break. A little relaxing and de-stressing would be amazing right now. My plans for break? Day 1: Sleep. Day 2: Sleep. Day 3: See day 1 and 2.  (repeat until Monday after Thanksgiving)

This week is absolutely nuts. Everything is crammed into the final few days before break, with very little room for sleep. There is so much on my mind, my planner is full for this week, I have "sticky notes" with to-do lists all over my computer, and I'm trying to cram everything into the last three days here. And as I sit here typing I realize I have to pack for the week that I won't be on campus. 

I hate packing.

Although, as of two minutes ago, half of my stress just disappeared  That's right, my humanities paper is done and turned in. Now that's out of the way I can fous on my English paper. Oh joy. It is only Tuesday and all ready I am longing for the homework free weekend. After studying for BTS exam, writing the HUM paper, trying to write the English paper, multiple senior photo shoots, library work, visitor weekend, choir, piano, thinking about next semester, and all the other crazy stuff going on my brain is ready to explode.

And then it hit me. Standing in chapel making a mental list of what I would be doing every hour of the day tomorrow, it hit me.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

It had nothing to do with the actually chapel, but I could feel the stress become less and less. I realize that there is no way on earth I could possibly get through this week without prayer. All these burduns, all this stress, I want to replace it with peace that passes all understanding. Peace from God. 

Shalom

Thankful for: Soccer

Today I am thankful for Soccer. 

Mhm, yep. I play soccer now. Midnight soccer to be exact. Tonight I played for two hours, I'm surprised I managed to stay standing upright on the walk back to the dorms. My feet KILL right now. But, it a good way.

Before I came to Providence, soccer was just a stupid sport where people chased a ball up and down the field and nothing really excited happened. (Sorry to you soccer fans if you feel insulted. My views have changed, no worries.) There is something about chasing the ball up and down the field at midnight that builds a stronger community of people. 

Another part of the midnight soccer is the fact that it forces me to run around, which makes me feel not guilty for all the halloween candy I've been eating. Can I help it if a bag of candy corn is only 89 cents?  

Playing soccer on the field has one draw back. My dorm room is covered in grass. The field gets super wet around midnight, huge muddy puddles right in your way. Tonight this huge bubble formed under the grass . . .it was so weird!! It looked like something was about to erupt out of the ground, and at the same time, part of me just wanted to run and jump on it to pop it. There really is no way to avoid getting your shoes covered in grass and mud, however, it is totally worth it in the end.

I feel like this is super short, and it is. But, after playing two hours of soccer I just want to collapse on my bed and fall asleep. Instead of an extra hour of sleep tonight, I got an extra hour of soccer. I'd say that's a pretty fair trade.

Due to the fact that Soccer is still new to me, I have almost no pictures of said sport. This is the only one. 

Thankful for: Chapel

It's November. Crazy isn't it? November means Daylight Savings Time, leaves changing colors, sweaters and jeans, boots, pumpkin pie, half-price candy corn, and Thanksgiving. I love the Fall!

This year is different. I'm not in Iowa where there are dead, smelly, wet leaves laying under piles of snow. I'm in California where there are palm trees un-willing to loose their leaves (thankfully!) and no snow. That being said, I want to start this month off being thankful for the main thing in my life right now: Providence.

Every day (depending on homework, obviously.) I want to post about one thing that I am thankful for here at college. Accompanied by a picture. You probably guessed that. I don't think I could do something like that with out some photos tossed in. : )

Today I am thankful for Chapels. Singing praise to our God with the students is amazing. There might not be hundreds of students, but listening to all of the students lifting their voices high unto the heavens is an amazing sound. I especially look forward to Tuesday night chapels every week. There is something about ending the first day of the school week praising God in chapel. It helps me to relax at the end of a normally super stressful day.

What are you thankful for today?

God's Glorious Creation

I just want to start by saying God is good. He is amazing. It's never been so plain to me before, He is in creation! Open your eyes and look. He's there.

Tonight I drove up a mountain, a windy, wet, mountain road, through clouds, fog, and rain to stare at stairs that weren't even visible. The intent was to watch the Orionid Meteor Shower on top of the mountain  but the weather did not want to cooperate. Regardless, that was a blast. The cold foggy night reminded me of home, right after one of those really pretty snowy day. It was amazing. My camera had a blast too. :)

Coming to Providence has opened my eyes to what is out there. The world isn't just one vast corn field to me anymore. There is so much more out there. God's creation is so amazingly beautiful I can't even describe it. My camera can't do it justice. Words can't tell of it. You need to see if for yourself to truly experience it.

I've been in California for over two months now. I'm looking back at everything I've done and am amazed at the beauty of everything. Overwhelmed by it. I have done so much more then I ever would have thought I could do. For example:

1. The Ocean
2. Hiking Eaton Canyon
3. The Getty
4. Exploring Hollywood
5. Exploring Pasadena
6. Exploring Los Angeles
7. Santa Monica Beach
8. Camping on the Beach in Malibu
9. Hiking in Malibu
10. Star gazing on the Beach
11. Sailing in Long Beach
12. Watching for Meteors on top of Mt. Wilson.

Monday I go to Hollywood again for the Avadah: Homeless in Hollywood.

Life is amazing people. Open your eyes to God's beautiful creation. It's astounding and superb. Step out of the corn field (which, I guess, is also pretty amazing) and look at the world. Every inch of this world was created by God. Upheld by God. Creation shouts God's name. There is a world out there to explore, open your eyes and explore it!

 I have some pretty sweet pics from tonight as well, but since it is almost 2 the morning and I have to get up to go to church . . .I shall load them on later!

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Beach Camping

And I'm back! I took a break for awhile because I decided that doing the writing and reading for these hard college classes was more important than blogging.

Okay. So, that's only partially the truth. But it makes me seem less lazy. 

Anyways. I went camping over reading break. It wasn't like camping in Paulina or Okoboji or Yankton. This was CAMPING. Spot-a-pots and all. This was camping on the beach. Ocean in front and mountains in back. 

After a 2 1/2 hour student senate meeting I was ready to get outside and enjoy God's creation. We drove along the beautiful coast on the PCH to Mugu point beach (or something like that) just outside of Malibu California. After setting up the 16 person tent and exploring the rocky beach, a couple of us decided to hike. As we trudged up a narrow, sandy path that basically went straight up the mountain, I was struck by just how beautiful the view was. You could see out over the ocean for miles. The sky and ocean blended together, there was no distinction between the two. 

After forging our own path and trying not to fall down the mountain side we made it safely back to camp. Hot, dusty, and a little scratched up. 

Later that night we sang songs around the campfire. It was an amazing experience. There is something awe-inspiring about singing about God's wonder and his amazing creation while staring at the Milky way and listening to the ocean waves crash against the rocks. Afterwards, we laid on the beach watching stars shoot across the milky way, listening to funny, some times embarrassing stories. 

View from the mountain 

Another view from atop the mountain

The Majestic Ocean

I spent the whole morning watching the waves and dolphins. It was amazing. Breathtaking. I can't wait to do it again! But for now, I need to finish the 5 loads of laundry and a Humanities paper. After the beach . . .that's just blah.

From Elizabeth, the Providence Rock!

Beach Day!

I am once again a beautiful shade of lobster red. Gotta love the beach. No, really, I love it.

Santa Monica Beach

(The beach, not the sunburn, just so we're clear.)

All college beach day is my new favorite day of the year. I spent the whole time in the water. It was so amazing. As soon as I swam out (okay, waded out) we saw two dolphins off to the side of us. How cool right? But it doesn't  stop there! We then saw sting rays, a school of fish, a lobster, and a sea lion. Now there's something you don't see in the midwest. The water was so clear, and once you got used to it, not all that cold.

I also learned to body surf today. Riding on top of the wave is an amazing feeling. One moment you are swimming so hard to get that wave and the next you are being propelled along trying not to get a mouthful of salt.  I also managed to hang on to my sunglasses the whole time! Although, now that I look back at that .  . .I have raccoon eyes.

I don't get why everyone complains about Mondays. Monday's really aren't so bad. Granted, not everyone spends Mondays at the beach, but they should. I could get used to the whole three day weekend. Sadly, the realization that tomorrow there is an 8:45 am meeting is starting to sink it. (Who schedules a meeting for that early in the morning? Oh yeah, Justin Bleeker. What was he thinking?) Ah well. Such is life.

Alright. That's all from this ocean lover. Watch for sting rays and don't forget sunscreen.



No really. Sunburns suck.

Living the College Life

 I want to blog to let you all know that I'm alive over here in CA, but of all the amazing things I've done this weekend, I can't come up with a good blog post to save my life. I've written and re-written close to four times now. Fifth time's a charm??

Providence doesn't have class on Mondays, which basically means, three day weekend/do what you put off until now. Here's the gist of what I stayed occupied with this weekend:

• Sand Volleyball. SeaBeggars natural habitat seems to be the sand volleyball courts. It's awesome.
• Flying Dutchmen. Basically a wet, wild, fast game of duck, duck, goose. 
• Played volleyball in the dark. That was, interesting, to say the least.
• Signs. This could be a Ms. VanDyke game. It's hard to explain, but it's similar to silent football. Basically, lets say for example, you wave your hands. You then have the sign and try to pass it by doing someone else's sign. (standing up) They then receive it by standing up, and then continue to pass it until caught by the person in the middle. You'd think it was easy, but then you'd be wrong.
• Went to church, and then had lunch at Ruby's. Back at my dorm I started reading/napping. Read a page, to tired to turn the page so I'd close my eyes for ten minutes, finally turn the page, and continue. 
• Played more volleyball.
• I did laundry today. But that's boring and now my black shirts are covering in lint. At least I have socks now :P
• Cleaned my room . . .even though I should have been doing other things. 
• I started Choir and Piano, the two Monday "classes" that I have. It's been to long since I last got to play a piano. I still haven't actually gotten to play . . .I tried but it was a rather scarring incident. that piano was so out of tune it hurt. 
• I payed for college. Biggest check I've ever written. Won't be the last one. Bummer, huh?
• Played more sand volleyball. It was rather warm out there . . .builds character right?

(we really like sand volleyball here)

Okay. That'll work for now. My creative juices were pretty much all used up this weekend. I'm either going to go to bed like a good little college student . . .or read the next Harry Potter. 

Let's Go Running!

I went for a run.


Let that sink in for a moment.

Yep. Went for a run. And I have the sore legs to prove it!

Could have finished my Doctor Who episode, but Nooooooo, I went on a run.

I ran for an entire half mile before stopping. Oh, you don't believe me? I understand, I still don't believe it and I actually was the one doing the running. Granted, that first half mile was all down hill . . .baby steps people. (Running baby steps, but baby steps non-the-less)

I did almost fall flat on my face, but had I not almost done that I would be worried about some strange Doctor Who character who abducted me and turned me into some weird running machine. Stupid bumps. But to be honest, it was dark. Plus, its hard enough to breath and run at the same time, and now you expect me to watch where I'm going at the same time? Crazy.

I'm going to give you a chance to let that sink in for awhile. In the meantime, I'm going to sleep, because tomorrow we are going to hike Eaton Canyon. Good thing I have tennis shoes that are meant for marathon runners.

(Don't get ideas. I am NOT running a marathon.)

Day 2

Welcome to the end of Day Two! Pretty crazy if you ask me. Today was Saturday. I know that sounds really obvious and it's like, "Oooh, look, Billie learned the days of the week in college!" Yeah yeah yeah. Whatever. My point is that today did NOT feel like Saturday.

I was up way to early for it to be considered a Saturday. But, we had a load of stuff to do today!

There were sessions to attend, one which sadly included an essay. Good news: I survived.

This afternoon was a blur, so we'll skip all that. Besides, who wants to hear what my dear brother-in-law talked about or what I wrote about for an hour. (It was on "community" just in case you where wondering) So, moving on to tonight's activities. We walked downtown Pasadena, on Colorado avenue. Turns out, if given ample funds and more hangers, I would be a shopaholic in CA.  We enjoyed Pizza in the park, while listening to some interesting Jazz music. At least I think it was Jazz. Either way, it was pretty good.

Other then all that adventure going on, I think I'm all settled in. Or, as settled in as I'm going to get. Okay, I need to end this before I fall asleep mid-sentence. Sunday is church, Monday we are going to hike Eaton Canyon, and I'm sure a bunch of other amazing fun stuff. For now, good night!

In the Park: This is the Class of  2017

For Lack of Better Title: Day 1

Alright, Day 1 of the my college adventure. I've been in the great state of Cali since Wednesday morning where I promptly broke my new sunglasses, went to the beach, fell asleep and fried to a crisp. I assure my new classmates that I am not normally this shade of red. Hopefully . . .

Anyways. I'm getting ready to move in soon. I still can't believe that I managed to fit everything I wanted/needed (mostly wanted) for college in two suitcases. Southwest airlines lets you take two suitcases for free. Granted they are under 50 pounds of course. Which, mine where not. Both suitcases were a pound over weight. Thankfully they let it go, which is good because I had no room to take anything out and put it in my carryon.  But honestly, I have a lot of stuff. I'm surprised it wasn't more overweight.

Landed in LAX with no problems, other then being a little sore and cramped for sitting for roughly 4 hours. Nothing was stolen from my bags, which is always a good thing. Although, TSA did search my one bag. You would think that they know how to work a zipper, but according to all my inside pockets, they don't.

Switching into my swimsuit we headed to the beach for a picnic lunch, a swim in the ocean (which tastes terrible, just to let you know) and a nap. According to my sister I was out cold, and even the seagull by my head couldn't wake me up. Other then the beautiful sunburn I have, that was an amazing nap. :)

Thursday was shopping day, where I pretty much doubled my belongings in one afternoon. Now, I just have to relocate it from the trunk of the car to my dorm room. Let's get this adventure started!

No Judgement

Ask yourself this question, "Where would you be with out your best friend?" What would your life look like? Would you like the same books and movies? The same food? The same activities? Would someone else be your best friend?

I've known my best friend for almost 13 years. I have very few memories that don't involve that crazy girl. But, if we had moved somewhere else, would we have ever met? We didn't go to the same school. We where never on the same Summer Rec team, and even if we did meet somewhere like Dordt Discovery Days, or Unity, I don't think we would seek each other out and be friends. Acquaintances maybe, but not best friends for life.

I wonder, what would my childhood look like? Neighborhood plays, circuses, lemonade stands, barbies, slaves, Doctor Evil Fluffy Face,  the game show or that newspaper? (My childhood was rather, um, creative and unique. Crazy maybe. But hey, as best friends, there is no judgement here!) Would we have done any of that? I honestly can't imagine the last 13 years without her. Growing up would have been so different, and today I would be so different. I don't think I would have ever watched Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride and Prejudice, or Doctor Who. (typing that all out, made me realize what a big influence she has on me!) I don't think I would know what an amazing brownie tastes like, or share the same hatred of mold and love of sweatpants. (I'm crazy, okay? Just accept it. No judgement.)

So, what would your childhood and life have been like, if your best friend didn't exist?

No Judgment. It's pretty much our motto. With friends like these, it has to be.

Having fun at Life-Light in our new sunglasses

Woah, we look completely normal. Didn't think that was possible . . . 

Sometimes I question our sanity. But for the record, we are one good stick band. 

To me, It would be a whole new universe. A horribly boring and normal world. I would be a completely different person, and I don't think that would be a good thing.

Little White Dot

I hope you where all outside tonight, because the moon was absolutely gorgeous. Big and beautiful, it seemed so close you could almost touch it! Earlier this evening the clouds where also really cool, and you know what that means: Camera time!

However, the moon is about as photogenic as a brick or a rock. No, I take that back, some rocks are actually very photogenic . . .anyways, back to the moon. Who is not photogenic, and hates having pictures taken. (sounds like a certain sister I know . . .) Again, besides the point.

(This one I googled, hence the mountains and actual moon, not the stupid white "dot")

That is what I think the picture is going to turn out looking like. (Obviously not the snow covered mountains since I live in IOWA) But the detail and size of the moon, you get the gist of it. And below is how it actually turns out when I attempt a picture of the moon.

(This one I actually took tonight)

Yeah, mhm. $1,000 camera and the stupid moon still seems so tiny. So, I sat outside for about ten minutes messing around with the focus, shutter speed, apature, zoom, manual mode, flash, and . . .you don't know what I'm talking about, do you? Well, to simplify, I pushed several random butons and still didn't really get anywhere. Oh well, somethings are just to beautiful to photograph.

Not going to lie . . .this one looks more like the sun then the moon

I messed around with the focus, so you can't tell its the moon . . .but still, I think it's cool :)
And it's not photoshop, because, well, that's super expensive and I'm trying to go to college

At least this time the white dot is a little bigger . . . 

And back to being a black background and white dot. Yippee. 

I guess what I'm getting at here is you should get out of bed, and look out your window because it was super pretty. You might not believe me . . .but I'm telling the truth here. My camera just didn't seem to agree with me tonight, go figure!

I Graduated and Other Lies Like That

I am exhausted. I graduated, but I am exhausted. Also, I am an absolutely horrible liar. Especially when its late at night and I can't come up with a good defense to save my life.

Mafia is a great game. But playing with your family, everyone knows who's a good liar and who isn't. I'm not a good liar. I'm also really bad at telling the "truth". Basically, I'm really bad at this game. I would begin what I thought was a good defense, and then stop half way through because I realized that I was actually some how condemning myself. I was also innocent, but they killed me anyways because I was to hesitant when telling them I was the nurse. I just sort of blanked out for awhile.  Sorry if I can't remember things right away! For example, on my way to work the other day, and I totally blanked out on where I was going. Sat at the stop sign for a couple minutes racking my brain to tell me where I was going. Three years every day at the same time and I can't remember where I'm going. I worry about myself sometimes . . .

Graduation was Thursday. I'm all smiled, congratulated, and thank you-ed out. But, so thankful for everyone who came to my open house to congratulate me on my high school graduation. I'm not going to lie (we all know I'm no good at that, so trust me on this) I made some absolutely amazing friends, and part of me wishes I could keep going to school. Yeah, told you I was bad at both the truth and the lies. (And people wonder why I'm always so quite!) I'm going to miss Art, Choir, Comm II, and all the students and teachers, but not PE or Health, or Science or stuff like that. It's been one crazy year. Still can't believe its over, and my summer cleaning job starts Wednesday already. So crazy. But back to work so I can go back to school! This time, in CALIFORNIA!

After telling me congratulations, the next thing to follow always seemed to be "You're so tall!" But that doesn't surprise me. I'm always told I'm tall. Tina said I was taller then all the guys who graduated . . .mostly because I wore really big heels. Yes, I wear heels, no I don't need them. But I like to wear them. And no, I didn't trip. Not even close. Have some faith in me, people!

Okay, its 12:25 in the morning and I'm so tired, so we are going to call this good. I would love to put some grad pictures in here, but I haven't uploaded them and I am not going to go find my chord this late at night. well, um, early in the morning I guess. So, be patient, pictures later, and I also have a video I want to share with you in another post. But, save that for tomorrow. Or Sunday . . .or Monday . . or, yeah. I'm not really doing that everyday thing anymore, but, we all knew that wouldn't last long anyways.

Stem fest 2012

Yes, I've been busy. Five jobs is a lot to work in 3 days, so obviously this isn't going to be my first priority.

Yeah, that's right, five jobs. Don's food center, OCCS, Pizza Ranch Corporate, I clean for a lady who broke her hip, and I clean for another lady who has a cat. (Hate cats, shed like crazy) Oh, and during Tulip festival I work for my aunt. This weekend so many people have been asking me, "Oh, you work here too?" Yes, Yes I do. I work everywhere. Only problem with that however, not a whole lot of time to sleep.

As much as I hate taking off work, I did make sure to take off so I could see the Night Show, My Fair Lady. Both Kaytee and Ms. LeMahieu did an AMAZING job. I went two nights in a row!! Actually, everyone did a fantastic job, especially the guy who played Alfred P. Dolittle. He did a great job.

Alright, It's been about a week and a half since I've been to bed before midnight. However, I don't have to get up for school tomorrow morning!!! Hooray! Friday was the last day of school for the seniors, but I still need to go back and work on my art mosaic. I ran out of pieces again, so tomorrow I need to go in and make some more. blah. I was so close!! Can't wait until it's done, it looks really cool!

Rae and Me in our Dutch Costumes

Kaytee in the Ascot Chorus

Ms. LeMahieu as "Eliza Dolittle"

Working hard at Tulip festival

Class of 2012

I know what you're thinking. But I have a valid reason for not posting on Friday or Saturday. No, really, why would I lie about such a thing?

This weekend was so crazy busy, and next week (which I suppose is now considered this week) promises to be just as busy with Tulip festival and all that. But, Friday night was the Spring Concert, and the Spring Dance. (Read as: I didn't go to bed until 12:30am.) Saturday morning was the Senior class trip to Mall of America/Waterpark of America (creative names, huh?) and a Twins game at Target Field.

Getting up at 6 in the morning after such a late night actually wasn't that bad. Until three hours later on an un-comfy buss. But, five hours, four pop-tarts, and an angry driver in Saturday noon city trafic later, I got to go shopping at MOA.

Another five hours of attempting to get comfy and sleep on the way home, basically with everyone freezing because Ms. VD wanted a window open, and me pretty much taking over the isle with my long legs, was quite the experience. To be honest, I was a little worried about Ms. J. At about 11pm or so she had some sour patch candy . . .and a few hours later she hit a wall so hard I'm not sure she's coming back. Everything was funny, and her laugh, combined with Ms. VD's laugh, was a whole new level of noise.

All and all, fun times. I'll tell you about our Mother's Day adventures tomorrow, because I need to sleep right now. Definitely suffering from lack of sleep right now. As well as the first sunburn of the year!

Ms. J looking at a Map of Iowa. That'll help find MOA

Stuck in traffic!

Target Field. (sorry abou weird angle . . . Won't rotate. Odd)

Walmart Run

Orange City can be super boring. Sioux Center on the other hand . . .

That's right, WALMART TRIP! I needed photos printed for Photography class, and a new (and bigger!!) memory card. Now I can hold an unreasonable amount of photos. :) While at Wally world I spotted this:

Gorrillapod Joby flexible tripod. It might also come in different colors. ISN'T THAT SWEET!? 20 bucks for the little point and shoot cameras, but I would need the ones strong enough to support a DSLR camera. Which, of course, Walmart doesn't have. Graduation/birthday/you love me so much gift?? 

I tried the little joystick machine game thingy on top of all the other fun stuff we did in Walmart. I came so super close, after 3 tries. I had one quarter left and my dear little sister dragged me out of the store before I got a chance to use it. :| Next time. Next time I will get that frog. Or elephant. Or something. I don't really care. :)

But, all this is besides the point. I promised to show you the other pictures I took that one rainy day. So, as promised, here they are:

The old rusted pickup that now runs. 

Our new tree! After all those storms took down the "Hammock" trees

Rose bud

48 Cupcakes Later

Friends, Family, followers of the blog, please listen closely. I am an idiot.

Yes. Really, I just called myself an idiot. You see, they are serious when they say don't grocery shop on an empty stomach. After work I decided to make cupcakes inside ice cream cones. So, I went and bought two different kinds of cupcake batter, frosting, and ice cream cones.

Whoa, back up! Ice cream cones?? Thank you Pinterest!! Yes, I'm aware that the inception cookies from pinterest where a major fail, but these worked. Oh they worked great. If you didn't over fill them . . .or under fill. There's one or two cupcakes that have a rather excessive amount of frosting on them, but you can't tell they're smaller anymore. :)

These are the cupcakes from Pinterest that started all of this

Last "Yearbook Food Thursday" tomorrow, so we are all bringing food. I will be bringing 48 cupcakes. What am I going to do with 48 freaking cupcakes?! Okay, just shy of 48. I had a couple. So did my sisters. So a little closer to 40.

So two hours and 48 cupcakes later, I'm exhausted and never making cupcakes again. Okay, maybe not never, but definitely not anytime soon.

However, while the kitchen is clean, and I found enough containers for them, I have problem. How in the world am I going to transport 48 cupcakes (which translates to two round containers and a paper plate full of cupcakes and ice cream cone cakes) to school tomorrow. This wouldn't be a problem if I was still home schooled, they'd already be there. Then again, probably wouldn't have a yearbook food Thursday to bring cupcakes to . . .or a yearbook for that matter.

But no worries. I have learned my lesson. And don't you ever let me make that many cupcakes in one night ever again.

These aren't the ones I made tonight . . .not going to take pictures of those!

Spring Rain

At last, bed time. Well, almost. What a day. I have a pounding headache that is out of this world. But that would be my own fault for not putting stuff away where it belongs. I was feeling rather stressed and tired when I got home from working at the grocery store and sat down on my bed. Being so tired from working so hard tonight I just flopped backwards. Good idea, really, I do it all the time. Not tonight, oh no. Tonight I hit my head on my camera.

Why did I even put that on my bed? Probably because as soon as I got home from OCCS I had about five minutes to myself before I had to go to Dons. Since it had freshly rained, I decided to take pictures because of the water droplets and sunlight and green and all that cool photography stuff. Of course instead of putting it back where it belongs, I put it on my bed. Partially because I was in a hurry, partially because it doesn't actually have a place to belong to . . or a name. It still needs a name, that is rather important.

I'll come up with a name later. For now, some more sweet pictures :)

This didn't turn out quite how I was picturing it in my head, but it worked. What I really need is another lens that is especially for close ups. (If anyone wants to chip in, its somewhere in the price range of over $500)

I love how you can still see the storm clouds in the background. Makes a great contrast with the bright springing green leaves. 

Mom's rose!! Can't wait until they bloom, but for now I'll settle with the water on the leaves. 

These where all taken about half an hour after that really weird pounding rain/hail. I feel bad for those soccer kids today . .glad I was inside!! Also glad I drove this morning. I was going to bike . . .but just didn't feel like it. And good thing to! For those who don't know why its a bad idea for me to bike in the rain . . .It's really not a pretty picture. There's this one car that is sometimes parked on the side of the street that has a dent in the back. I think that's from my bike, but not sure. 

But, changing the subject . . .I have more pictures from this little photo adventure that I'll share tomorrow. Now, I am going to relax and forget about all this random stressful junk I have to deal with over the course of the next couple of weeks. Blah.