Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Final

My final exam for Chemistry is tomorrow.
I'm trying to be industrious but as we all know by now... let's just say it's not working.
Well not fully. I am getting lots of other things done, just not studying.



I really just feel like joining this girl on her ride.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Pondering


At the moment I feel like I am running through the maze of my thoughts. Do you ever feel that there is too much to think about? And it's daunting but it's beautiful?
In any case I think this image is a good one to describe my thoughts at the moment. I'm chasing them. I need to capture them for completion. 
Tonight was the last bible study I will go to with my cousin this summer. We all went for pancakes afterwards. 
There are so many swirling thoughts to be attended to. 
Hopefully that'll get done tomorrow. 
For the moment, all is well with my soul. 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Gotta Swing!



This is a video of last night's swing dance. It was our third and, sadly, will probably be our last of the summer. Oh well! Hopefully we'll find places to go when we go back to school!
This time more of the family joined in the fun in honor of Aunt Ellen's birthday!

This whole video is pretty great but I'll try to give you a few highlights!
If you watch at 6:32 Hannah will appear in the right corner dancing with Glen, Aunt Ellen is dancing behind them. Stephanie (my cousin) is dancing with Brendan in the middle of the floor and my cousin Teresa and I are just barely discernible dancing by the door! (I was practicing my lead!)
At minute eight you can see my mom do a dip with Glen.
8:06 you can watch me dance with Brendan quickly followed by Stephanie dancing, quickly followed by Aunt Ann! You go ladies!
The last seven seconds of the video are us posing for a "picture." It's very amusing.

We're all in the video a bunch of other times as well. I keep seeing my mistakes but I'm glad to say that those are overruled by the good time I was having!

This is absolutely my favorite new hobby. I'm just going to watch that last seven seconds a few more times so I can see us all smiling together again. This summer is spinning to a close.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Bertie

Well my dears, my poor Bertie has died away.
No more decisions about where he will go when I leave for school.

Rest in peace Bertie.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Pondering

Right now I am lost in my imagination and childhood musings.
I have the urge to just ditch things and go paint.



It must be because I have a test tomorrow. We all know I am a horrible procrastinator... or rather a good one, depending on how you see it.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

friends meet friends | three

Todays edition of friends meet friends is about two of my friends who have been off adventuring.

Pictured above is my friend Anna. She came to our small German town in our senior year of high school, a crazy adventure of transition for anyone. This year she has followed that year up with another year of adventure and service that she chronicles in her blog, Looking at Birds. Her posts are delightful and thought-provoking. Also, it's a helpful news-letter for anyone who has had trouble keeping up with this adventurer. Now as a new year rolls to a new beginning she's starting another new chapter, returning to the states after two years abroad!
Second for today is my incredibly talented friend Ben (pictured here with his adorable girlfriend, Hanna, at banquet). After graduating in June, Ben has been spending his summer embarking on the adventure of teaching. But not only is he teaching; he's teaching in a foreign country he's never been to before, Korea. (Don't let him fool you though. He's definitely resourceful enough to figure it all out and laugh off any cultural mistakes.) This recent post of his had me laughing out loud. 

I miss having tea and long talks in the kitchen with each of you. I'm so glad you're out following what the Lord has for you and living your adventures. 


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Happiness.



I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately. I've been mostly tired and a little blah, feeling generally like this. But today I saw this Dove Camera Shy ad and it made me smile and feel like this (it's a Weepies song.) It makes me think of my mom too, when she tries to take our picture.
Hope it made you feel happiness too :)

Friday, July 12, 2013

Habachi and Michael

We went out to a Habachi Buffet and I may have gone overboard with Instagram a little.

I'm gonna miss this one while she's away at camp... sigh.
Right now we're chillin' and listening to Michael BublĂ© while we work on projects. I'm falling in love with our slow summer routine*. 
(*Disclaimer: I actually got stuff done today, but I like this relaxing part of the day.) 


friends meet friends | two

Here we are again. Meet some more of my friends who blog! Happy day!

Today it is time to meet some people from my high school days, though they weren't as long ago as that makes them sound. These two girls are two of my best friends on this spinning blue marble, and they started blogging alongside me. There's been a lot of elbowing and "when are you going to post"-ing to keep us motivated along the way.


Above we have the lovely Taylor. Her blog is a lovely, numerical, sporadic journal. Her posts make me feel like I'm right back with her. Spring break, when I went up for a visit, already seems so long ago.


And here we have Mikala. She also writes sporadic, thoughtful posts that make me miss her so much. I cannot believe it has been over a year since we hugged goodbye.

Both these lovelies are under the impression that I am the only person reading there blogs. If that's true it is a shame because they both make me laugh out loud (with the spitting and the driving.)
Writing this makes me miss you so much my heart aches. I want to be back on the basketball bus with you nuts right this moment, swapping jokes and making memories. I can't wait for the five year reunion when we get to open that paper. (And no, I haven't looked in case you were wondering; I am not completely incapable of keeping my curiosity under control.)

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Ideal

My lovely friend and I were just discussing the fact that you can now search your own pins on Pinterest. This might seem very uninteresting to you, but for those of us who spend a lot of time on there (like me) this is seen as a massive innovation, so please don't scoff.
This new trick is proving highly useful. It got me thinking. I search key words sometimes, wondering what I think.
{Isn't it curious to wonder how we think?}
Happy, adventure, letter... ideal.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 via Pinterest <3

So here is my apparently here is my ideal; a cool sunny day with friends, exploring and winding up in a countryside mansion, lovely teacups, perfect hair accessories...
What is yours?

Monday, July 8, 2013

I've Been Away

I got home to a letter and a facebook message from one of my best friends noting the fact that I have not posted in three full days.
I immediately got this song stuck in my head; really just because of the opening lines.
Still, it is time to return to the Weepies. They are definitely my favorite musical group. Deb and Steve, as we lovingly refer to them (my lovely Julia insists we love them so much as to be on a first name basis) not only have such an interesting lovable sound and wonderful, actually poetic lyrics in this age of meaningless tunes, but they are also a lovely love story.



So they are really all around fantastic. That is really all.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Progress Report

A month ago, I showed you a picture of my baby apple tree as it first sprouted. Well here he is again.



Isn't it amazing how many more leaves there are after just thirty days?
Since then he has been renamed Bertie, after Bertie Wooster from Wooster and Jeeves (books by P.G. Wodehouse and BBC series starring Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry.) He's been added to a pot where he lives with some tomato plants due to draining and size issues in his previous two homes. Soon we'll repot him again. There's also this lovely comparison, if you'd like to see the pictures side by side on Instagram.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

friends meet friends | one

Recently a two of my friends fired up brand new blogs. This got my thinking. I have a lot of friends who blog it turns out. (I hadn't realized how many until I checked.) So I thought that some of you might like to see some of them. That is: friends meet friends.

So here are two, the most recent to begin.

(photo courtesy of Joe)
Above is Joe, Joey, George, Bro... whatever. He's just started his blog Verschiedne Leute where he writes affectionately (so far) about the people he knows (and loves.) Now I never would have thought of this, but it's the perfect thing for him to be writing. Not only is he super loving and encouraging, but he is a noticer. I hope to continue reading great things!

(photo courtesy of Karen)
Now Karen's blog is a different flavor altogether. She has just begun over at Just Be Kren. The idea behind this one is to provide an outlet for Karen's extensive talents with photography and photoshop. She was a little bored this summer and her best friend suggested it.
Since she's a friend of my sister's, I've seen her work popping up on Facebook all year long. I'm so excited for it to begin populating the web!

Happy Fourth & Welcom to July!

Happy 4th of July!
In honor of the day, I've made a cake and resisted the impulse to spell "honor" with a "u." Now it's off to the parade and a baseball game later. Being in the States for this holiday sure has its perks :)

photo from here found via Pinterest

Also, welcome to July! I thought we might wait this time, to herald the month in with this special holiday that brought the birth of the great nation of the USA.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Julia Child, etc...

Lately, I've been listening to "My Life in France" by Julia Child (with Alex Prud'homme) on CD as I drive solo. It's very good but also makes me wish my life were a bit more exciting at the moment. This effect was compounded by reading this blog article. I don't know what it is but I feel as though I'm lacking in the doing department. Then I reflect a little and realize my life so far has been very exciting. With a little effort hopefully it will continue to do so.


Still, I can't help feel that I lived in Julia's time. Popping off to live in Europe sounds like it was much more simple in those days...
I guess I've had my time, though. New adventures and new places in store!

In other news, I've finally cut my hair again. (It was beginning to fringe up in the back.) Yesterday we popped up to Pennsylvania to retrieve the car we have dubbed "Hugo, the Bluebell." We've also named the other car Anna-Maria. And aside from these short adventures and a few plans, I've been unable to curb my excitement for three things:
1. our upcoming trip to South Carolina for the weekend!
2. my friends new blogs (more to follow on that)
3. the next swing dancing outing! I even spent the better part of a long indoor afternoon making an extensive swing playlist on Spotify. We've also managed to convince our father to come the next time if we teach him before we go. Hannah also sustained a blister on our last outing so we're thinking of investing in some cute shoes for our next adventure! What do you think?
Oh dear, my post-script has turned into quite an affair, but I think we shall leave it as is. I hope you're having a lovely day :)