Here Hits The Title Wave

*flops down into chair*
I am so. Totally. Tired.

Its days like this that make me realize that I don't really dislike summer after all. *shakes head and laughs* I knew I would start finding the reasons why I love summer again, it just took a little time. Like I said before, it always happens eventually. Cause I'm the optimist :-)

It was a horrible day for swimming. Only got to about 80 degrees and it was cloudy and slightly breezy, which makes it nearly impossible to keep your body at a comfortable temperature.

So I went swimming.


And it was GREAT. =D

(not that I'm really a fan of turning myself into a human popcicle)


It was the first day of the year that the local water park was open, and they were doing their anual freebie day to kick off pool season. I would have skipped out, cause as I said, the weather wasn't the best for a swim and I generally dislike free days anyway because it is so jam-packed in there that you're constantly bumping somebody in the pools. But Jake was going (no, not our resident thought-regurgitator) and I'd heard he was also gonna try and invite Emily & Ian along too, so I figured, "why not?" and headed down despite the crowds and weather.

Shortly after depositing the towels and whatnot in the grass near the wave pool, my bro and I headed off to try and find our friends. Fortunately that didn't take too long- I found Emily right off, floating along in the lazy river near Jon- Jake's older brother. A couple rounds through the LR, and Jake & Ian finally got their turns on the water slides and then came running over and found us. Horray! Only person missing was David and we could have had the whole Infamous Trio together (aka:Ian, David, and I...at youth group the three of us are practically inseperable).

Needless to say, we all had a blast.

Body surfing, water slide races, chasing/ambushing eachother in the lazy river, splash fights... oh and getting everybody in our group (and Emily's friend Katie) to hug my brother... LOL. Now THAT was entertaining. My brother is like Bo in that way- he doesn't like it when people touch him. It sorta freaked him out, therefore it was very funny seeing his expressions when we tried to hug him.

"Ugh...well that was disturbing!" - Nathaniel, upon being suddenly hugged from behind by Emily & Katie...hehe. (fyi, that part wasn't really their idea... Ian and I got them to do it XD )

Ahh yeah, fun day =D Even got some photos! (of course, when am I NOT toting my camera around getting pictures?)

Supa Heroes! Ooh yeah =)

hmm. I wasn't looking at the camera =P otherwise a great group pic!
(Jacob, Ian, Me, Emily)

Whatever Happened to Spring Time?

Man. It is crazy hot outside! 113 degrees, if you're in the sun. Ouch. So here I am, making another attempt to cool myself off a bit, eating a popcickle while I write up this post. Rather oddly shaped thing, this is.. Almost a pyrimid, but not quite, and its one of those kind where your fingers go numb hanging onto it while you squeeze it up outa the wrapper thing. But it's 100% cold and tastes like strawberry, so hey, I'll take it!

It's amazing how things that seem to take forever just suddenly jump out at us from seemingly nowhere when they finally come. Like summer. Just last week it was those lovely comfortable spring temps that I love and I was walking around outside in 65-75 degree weather. Then all of the sudden without warning, it's summer! Whoa there.
I find it the same every year- all winter I'm longing for summer to come, and when it gets here, I suddenly stop and wonder "Okay, now why did I want this again?"

Now I know this sounds like something that would be more suited for Bo's blog than what you would think for mine, but to be honest, I guess I'm just not really that excited for summer to come this year. I know, sad, right? I duno... It's not like I hate summer, but I'm not that overly happy for it's sudden appearance, either. It's too unbearably hot to go outside unless you're at the water park or the beach, youth group is ending after next week and won't start again until September, and the same with Teen Teams (the homeschool teenage sports weekly get together thingy). Despite what one would think, it always seems so much harder to hang out with friends during the summer months... The weekly cool activities are out 'till the school year starts up again and people are always leaving on vacations. *sighs* Yet, I guess I shouldn't be so down on the whole deal... there is after all still that glimmer of joy that sometimes seems like the only thing I ever look forward to in the summer (well, besides the water park) *glances at Camp Hope brochure*. I suppose all my anti-summer attitude will fade eventually though. Looking back on it, I seem to get slightly depressed at the begining of summer every year, and then by the end of August, I realize it wasn't all so bad after all and that I'll actually miss it. Happens every time. Seriously. I don't really know WHY...but it does. It seems like I should be able to look back on previous summers and see why it was that I ended up enjoying them after all, but I can't seem to. It's like it's there in the back of my head, but in a locked vault that I can't seem to open. In the archives folder, but the file is corrupted and cannot be accessed. I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel eventually. July 28th. Hope to see you there!

so much for optimist...

My guitar leans rested against it's amp to my right, while to the left the keyboard that I frequently borrow from mom rests across my bed. I'm a failure. A complete uncreative failure. The floor is a nice place to lie down... since heat rises, it's about the coolest place in my room right now. It's one of the hottest days we've had so far this year, I've been dying to run through a sprinkler all afternoon. So far that's not happening, though the tears running out of the corners of my eyes feel rather nice, leaving a cool trail as they trickle into my ears, while I lay on my back staring up at the rotating ceiling fan. Great frustration builds up inside me, willing more cooling tears to stream down the side of my head. Why can't I do this?? I'm pathetic. I have the lyrics, very well the greatest lyrics I've ever written. I have the metronome, holding the perfect beat to my song. But I have no music. Try as I might I just can't get it. Tune after tune I attempt on the keyboard, but nothing really works. I just CAN'T do this. ARRGH! Every song I have ever attempted to write has failed. Every single one. I can't let this one die too...

*slams face on keyboard*

Maybe some things weren't meant to be.

Sun came out/took over the sky/spring turns to summer/watch the time fly

Upon looking at the thermomiter, I'm sure my eyes probly bugged a bit... 80 degrees!? Wow. It's like seriously, the first summer day we've had. Which is a rather odd turn of events, considering the stormy cold winds that we got on Tuesday o_0 Crazy weather...eh, but I guess that's just Washington for ya, as a friend of mine once said.

After checking out Bo's new facebook album of random photos (and discovering that he's actually rather artistic & good at photography...learn somethin' new every day I guess!), I suddenly felt like taking a few photos of my own. So I grabbed my camera and headed out, only to retreat back to the house seconds later once I discovered the outdoors had suddenly taken on a blinding light. Ouch. I guess that's what I get for being oblivious to the world half the afternoon by staring at a computer screen. Shortly after recovering from the shock of the outside world, I headed back out to face the light of day (after grabbing my sunglasses, of course).

I managed to drag a walk that would normally take half an hour into like 45 minutes. Walking down the street looking up at the cloudless sky and feeling full force the 80 degree temperature pouring down on my shoulders, I remember this is only May...this is only 80 degrees in May. In a matter of weeks the temps are gonna be skyrocketing into the 90's and possibly 100's! Yikes. Scary. But on the bright side, that means the water park will be open soon =) yay!

Despite being able to drag my walk out for 15 mintues extra, it still felt kinda short. In seemingly no time I was back, standing in the driveway of that familiar blue tri-level house with the red rock front yard.

Now what? I'm nearly to both the end of my blog post and the peaches & cream milkshake I made myself for dinner. *sucks noisily on straw* ...yup. Milkshake gone. byebyes.

ho hum.

man. I want to make a post. It's been a week since I posted. But I don't know what to say.
But everything of recent is either too complicated to go into on blogger or too uninteresting to post.

*sigh*

Maybe this means I should just go back to my music and play a few rounds of Chain Rxn on facebook and try to beat Jacob's score, since nobody is online to talk to and I have nothing of any value to say to you. Blehhhhhhhhhh braindead.

Perhaps after 2 hours of volunteer work at the local water park tomorrow & going shooting all afternoon & having a bon fire tomorrow night, I might have something more interesting to say.

Until then, um. hm. yeah. something.

And the adventure begins

The trip is very nearly here... all your bags are packed.
You just woke up to your alarm clock going off at 5:00 am and after wondering why it is again that you're waking up at such a bizzare hour, it hits you and a good rush of adrenalyne pumps through your system and sends you flying out of bed the second it hits you.

Before you know it you're downstairs in the shower, not considering the fact that the sound of running water may awaken the rest of your family. Once out you wander around thinking "what should I eat for breakfast?" and after rejecting all possibilities that come to mind because nothing at the moment really sounds all that great to eat, ya head back upstairs and start dragging your packed goods out of your room and into the hall. You set down the last thing and wonder suddenly if you forgot something...but how could you? You've started packing when was it? Oh yeah... just about a week ago. haha. Easily excited much? Possibly :-)

There's nothing else to do now... you wanna go downstairs and check your email and see if by any freakishly weird chance anybody is on IM at 5:45. Har har. Like that is likely to happen. But then you hear the sound of a door opening and mom is up. Once she is awake enough to really comprehend much of what you say, you eagerly remind her that you've gotta be down to the meeting point in less than 45 minutes. She says "Yeah, I know" and heads off to grab some breakfast. You? Well, you do eventually think of something to eat. You sort of have to, since after that you won't get another chance for a while.

Before you know it, it's 45 minutes later and you're off in a van with a group of friends on a 7 hour car trip driving them nuts while you snap photos like the paparazzi.

Gotta love the first day of Camp Hope :-)

See you in 80 days!

(yeah I got my brochure in the mail today.....haha can ya tell?)

Off the ledge

I'm contemplating doing something totally crazy. Something that I before never saw myself doing.

No, contrary to the title of my post I do not plan to anytime soon go cliff diving. LOL.

But it will push me a bit. Making speeches always has made me nervous, and public speaking is definitely involved. More so if I do well with it. Before, I would have never even considered something of this sort...but I'm realizing after reading the book Do Hard Things that it can be good to go out of one's comfort zone. And there can be a lot of opportunity. Not only for me to face (and hopefully get over) my fear of public speaking, but of other stuff too. Learning interview skills, and of course an opportunity to possibly make some new friends. But those aren't the biggies... there are some great rewards involved too.

Now I'm going to stray from this current train of thought to say something, and post something for you all to pray for too. There is this 13 year old named Ron who is in my homeschool group, recently moved to the vally from Tennessee. Anyway, I don't know him that well, but we recently received an email he sent through the homeschool email chain. Turns out that he is extremely passionate about missionary work and has already gone on a mission trip to cuba. This summer he his going on one to South Africa, and feels lead that this is his life calling. Anyway, pray for him and his missions. He also is taking any financial help on this he can get too, and when I find the link for the missions website, I'll post it on the comment board and you guys can look into it.

Anyway, how does Ron's mission connect with what I migh possibly be doing? Simple. He needs money to be able to go on these missions he does, and if I have the opportunity to go through with what I am hoping and actually am any good at it, there are sums of prize money involved. The connection? If it's Gods will that I am able to make it into this, any cash winnings I get I want to send to benefit Ron's missions. It would be amazing. And hey, if God lets me into this and allows me to succeed any little bit, isn't it the least I can do to give back to Him?

So pray that my parents will give me the okay and that if I get permission and am accepted, that this may lead to something good.

Thank you! And when I get my answer, I will let you all know what this is about.