Soft Serve and Country Kids.

I miss my sister. I love you Moo Moo.

Tattoos, Sisters, and Resolutions.

Kelly, getting her Sims tattoo on her birthday

It's been a great couple of days. I am feeling very motivated and happy about the way 2011 is coming along.. Okay so we're 8 days in but nevertheless, I have a positive outlook and that's good enough for me.

Some good news to pass on to you.

1. My blog has been redesigned by my older sister, Moorea. For those of you who don't know Moorea, she is one of my favorite people and biggest sources of inspiration in this world. Her mind is filled with the most wonderful imagination that she draws, designs, and produces for the world to see. Not only is she a blogger, but she redesigns blogs, and she can redesign yours, too! She also has an Etsy shop where she designs and sells wonderful jewelry that I love.. I have a few of her pieces that I wear all the time. So go on over and check out her great sites, and pick up some lovely new jewelry for yourself!

2. I am piling my New Years Resolutions together.. And there is one I am particularly excited about. To give you the general gist of it, I am going through the year weekly. Each new week, a new adventure. But I need YOUR help in putting this list of 50 things to do for 7 days! More on this resolution in my next blog.

Question of the blog:

1. Do you have siblings?

2. What are your new years resolutions?

The Sun Sets By Your Side

Wonderful day, wonderful friends, wonderful photos.

View more of my photography here.

Propaganda

Giants won the World Series this year, so my friend Brian and 3 other nice kids got tattoos.

Ah, the therapeutic burn.

We went to Propaganda Tattoo on Voltaire Street in San Diego. Such a wonderful place with a great vibe and even better people. How small is this world? Well, Steve, one of the tattoo artists, heard Brian talking about the 5-3-0 (my area code) and said, "Oh, Grass Valley? I lived there for 13 years." CRAZY. He talked all about The Crazy Horse and all of his good times hanging out by my old work. He spoke about Scary Jerry and mutual friends, and the Del Oro theatre.

It was good to have a moment back at home.

Miles Ago

Harsh lines separate the night from day,

as I wake up in foreign places after long nights.

Paint drips like water falls,

my skin is wet from those days at the river.

Black to white and ash,

Smoke rises and dissipates into thin air.

My feet up on the dashboard while you drive,

I sing those songs to the rushing air beside me.

As I recall those days ago,

the best summer of my life.

Always coming back home to you.

Question of the blog:

When was the best summer of your life?

Interviewed! Analyzed!

The other day, I went in for a job interview for Valentina's. I'm not looking for a new job (I love working at Sushi Q), just looking for a second place to work so I can save money for my trip.
The interview was so interesting! This is how it went. I sat on the couch, and Ron brought me his lap top. On the screen, there were three columns of words, like rebel, organized, assertive, etc.. And I had to rate each one, 1-5, 1 being that's not me at all, to 5 being very me. After filling that out, he printed my results out and handed me a few pages of my personality according to my answers. It was so crazy how a person can be figured out just by rating a few words on a computer, and how accurate it really is!

Conformist is your strongest characteristic. This means that 60% of your personality is based upon this trait. As a conformist, you enjoy itemizing things, making lists so as to keep proper priorities in mind. You have a sense of fairness and decency, and are angered by things which you feel are otherwise. You have a strong dislike of criticism. You appreciate respect for your position. You like traditional things, and are very conscious of what is "right and wrong". You feel a loyalty and duty to those around you.
Submissive is your secondary characteristic. As a submissive, you enjoy a peaceful mellow environment. You prefer an agreeable atmosphere, without antagonism. You enjoy being given tasks to perform that are within your skill and ability to do. You prefer to act on decisions made by others, not making the decision yourself. (ANDY.)
Trustworthy. You can be counted on to keep your word and to perform honorably.
Cautious. You are careful, wary of anything which might possibly present a danger to your proficiency.
Agreeable. You are eager to work with others, usually willing to follow the plans established by management.
Modest. You are moderate in your habits, without extremes.
Gentle. You do not force your way. You try to deal kindly with others.
Steady. You act in a regular, constant fashion, not swaying between extremes.
Kind. You are of a friendly nature, generous or hospitable. You are warm-hearted.
Factual. You make your decisions based on raw data and available fact. You may make a decision contrary to your gut feeling because the facts say otherwise.

There were four pages of information, and I'm sure you aren't willing to read all of it, nor am I willing to type that all for you. But I think these are the most agreeable things presented on there, and the most interesting.. Unless you find submissive conformists like me intolerable, and uninteresting. In which case you can just ignore this and all my blog posts! Ha.
All in all, I think they really liked me, and that they liked the person I presented myself as, and the personality they surveyed on their lap top. If you're interested in taking the personality test, the website is called DrewSoftware.com.
I hope I got the job!

Question of the blog:
I know how I answered, but I'll ask you a few questions from the personality test!
Answer from a scale 1 (not at all) to 5 (very like you)
- Rebel
- Steady
- Cautious
- Outgoing
- Fluent

Life In Color

Apple pie and fireplaces,
warm my core and leave me feeling satisfied.
Days of thanks and warm cozy beds,
cuddle-naps and hot coffee in big mugs.
Late night talks with brothers,
searching for cat videos and new phones.


We have a very merry Franksgiving,
as babies chased kitties
who chase toys thrown by parents.
Couples dance as the men play their guitars.
I'll sing Beatles songs along with them,
the women follow with shakers,
baby Jaxson dances.


Late nights, early mornings,
this week sees little sleep.
So many outings, you see all from your past.
Who knew the bars in Nevada City held so much.
Dancing in the kitchen,
with fist pumps and booty shakes.
I missed you.


Sisters united, laughing uncontrollably.
Our serious faces never work,
and the longer we are together, the sillier we get.
Love knows no boundaries,
no matter how far away from each other,
we are always close.


Pick ups and drop offs,
bad church services and non-drowsy allergy meds.
You, me, and Food Network.
We're cute together, you know that?
A kiss goodbye,
and we're back on our countdown.


My life in color,
the autumn brings life with the fall of the leaves.
They come and they go,
but you are the ones that bring the color to me.

In The Spirit

Stina and I, with our school spirit shirts. Seniors '08

I just thought I'd share one of my many examples of commitment, when I point out I was dedicated to Senior Shirt Friday in high school. Every week, I wore that darn shirt. And just for kicks, I'm writing it up here so that I will remember it later on.

Question of the blog:
What was your favorite way to show your school spirit in high school? Wait.. College included I guess. I don't even know if my school has teams or colors..

So High, So Low

Today was one of those days that you just sort of had to spend some money. And I did so. Probably too much. But now I have two new shirts and a pretty sweater thing, and my belly is filled with Mediterranean goodness.
Schools stresses me out. That's the honest truth, and in my 19 years it has not gotten any better. After a very rough night last night, a couple hours of crying today, and a phone call to our insurance, I signed up for my classes. I guess I can now go to school part time and still be on my parents' insurance, which is nice. If you're in any of my classes, let me know, eh?

Chemistry 2a : Tues. Thurs. : 12:30-5:30 pm
Human Sexuality : Tues. : 6:30-9:30 pm
Beginning Guitar : Thurs. : 9:30-11:30 am

It'll be a decent semester, I think. I've never taken less than 12 units, so nine and a half will be weird, and I am hoping it won't feel empty.. Although I heard Chemistry is a kick in the ask. 5 units of pure death. And that ask reference is from this, by the way.



he's gonna come out of the mooo-vie!

Broken Arms and Head Injuries

Every week at Bible Study Fellowship, we get these little papers with our lesson on them. All week I have been smelling something odd in my room, something that reminded me of paper covered beds, long hallways, and butt-bearing robes. Yeah, it smells like the hospital. And it sorta weirds me out.

By the way... Most embarrassing moment of my week/month/life so far: I left Caroline's little store today with my iced latte on my roof. A guy drove by pointing and laughing, and I thought, "huh, I have never seen him before." I pull out, and reach down to get a sip. Eff, I said to myself, that's why he was laughing. Eff. Eff. I wonder if it's still on there. I pull in to the Holiday Lodge, and get out to see if it's still on there... Hoping that I could finish off the 14 ounces of the drink I still had left in my 16 ounce cup. Not there. Okay maybe it just flew off down by Caroline's... I'm not worrying. I pull around, and there lies my cup, with milk everywhere, and ice, and a straw. Gleaming in the sun in all it's glory. On the side of the road, and some random raggedy lady is picking up my mess. I pull by, make an awkward smirk of a face like, She knows it's me. Heh. Don't hate me? I wave and mouth, "THANK YOU." To her, and then realize how close "thank you" looks like "eff you" so yeah that's awkward. I pulled away as fast as possible, and I am pretty sure I haven't laughed as hard and as long since post-Luminaria nights at camp. I laughed all the way to school, and then cried in my car from laughing so hard. I must have looked like a psycho woman today. Scatterbrained Sally.

The Chic Chihuahua

Today at Caroline's, I was reading a few chapters from 1 Kings when an old woman with a flowery moomoo and pigtails came in. She asked Molly if she could bring in her Chihuahua, and went out to her car to get it. She came in with this older dog, as tiny as ever, but the spectacular part about it was that the Chihuahua had a beard! It was incredible.

(Simulation Chihuahua beard.)

Okay so maybe it wasn't that dark, or defined, but the dog definitely had some scruff going on. And it was great.

Glimpse Of Heaven

Tonight I saw the prettiest meteor I have ever seen in my life.

Lying on a tan lawn chair
My head resting on a shoulder I enjoy so much
A warm black blanket to keep the wind away
Looking up at the stars,
and I feel like I could look into eternity.
The stars shine and they move,
Like God is continually winking at me.
A father saying, "Good job."
"I love you."
"You are beautiful."
And it is beautiful.
As one small meteor was thrown across,
another passed.
They were here as fast as they were gone,
dainty and fragile like a child you just met.

What I love about meteor showers, is the unexpectancy.
You look and you search, but it is not you that's doing the work.
God will bring you the gift when He brings it to you.
I turned my head upwards,
and there it was. The most stunning piece of artwork I have ever seen.
The meteor was strewn across the sky so far and with such elegance, it left a trail behind it that took my breath away. I didn't expect to see such a beautiful sight tonight, and not at that moment.

God has placed some incredible moments in my life that were not expected. Some moments felt tragic, others felt like complete miracles. I'm not talking about moments in nature, but the experiences I have with other people, and the things I have gone through in life. As I thought, "Where have you been?" tonight, I know that God has spent a lot of time preparing me to be the person I am today, and that he put previous experiences in my life so that I could be this person.
I am learning how beautiful life is when you just open your eyes, with your face turned towards God. That is when you catch glimpses of heaven.

There's Always Room For One More On My Little Red Wagon.

Summer camp is over! I can't even believe this. My summer went by so fast.. This blog is not going to be me reminicing on the past couple months, I'm just going to focus on this week. I have yet to have a good solid cry about the fact that I'm not counseling at camp any more this summer. When I have had that good cry though, I will post a blog sort of summarizing my summer. Summer-izing, per-say.

This week was full of incredibly fun kids. I belayed the ropes course twice this week, which is one of my favorite things at camp. It's a great way to gain trust with the kids and to help them go a little bit outside of their comfort zone.

My girls and I at the slip and slide! We had a bunch of fun as always =]

It's incredibly how much unity a group of people can create just by having fun together. I didn't like to force cabin unity on my girls, but instead just give them opportunities to grow together, to have fun together, and to get to know each other better.

Counselor Hunt! I won!!!! Bugle's cabin dressed me, and it was so much fun to see how well they worked together. I have WAY too much silly string in my hair. It was great!

Christmas Caroling! A couple of my girls were so self conscious about caroling in July, or doing silly stupid things like that. I spent a lot of the week just acting like a complete idiot and making awkward moments available for them. Hehehe

High ropes! This is one of my babies being lowered from the catwalk. She did awesome. We did high ropes as a cabin one day, and all of the girls were so supportive of each other.

This was right after the most heartbreaking and serious Luminaria's of all summer. So afterwards, we ate too much candy, brought out matresses down to the ground and had a fake sleep-out. The girls made silly songs like "Old McMonty had a farm" and danced to their own karaoke.

Monty, Shims, and I spent our time off on Friday just having silly photoshoot adventures. This is Monty at the 22 range. I shot a 22! I think I have before, but I couldn't remember. It was really fun.

This is me doing the ladder jump. It was silly, and I carried a mallet up there with me for the photoshoot. Shims has those photos of me in the air though, so sorry I didn't get any epic action shots.

My girls and I. I'm going to miss all of them so much. We had a super fantastic week full of adventure and fun. Our cabin huddles were incredible, and they had so many questions. They are all such inspirations in my life and I am so glad God has built me up to be the person I am today. God prepared me for this week all summer, and I'm just so joyful for the opportunity to counsel these girls. Gah. This week was great. This whole summer was great, but I'll save that for next time.

Question of the blog:
Did you ever go to summer camp as a kid? What was your favorite memory from it?

Mail Call and Starry Nights

Another week has gone by... Only one more full week of campers and I am done for the summer. WHAT? It's gone by that fast? I was blessed with a great group of silly girls who loved Slip and Slides and too much candy. This week was great!

Crafts! I now have a new necklace and keychain thanks to my girls.

Counselor Hunt! giggles won again, and she looked incredible!!

More crafts. I love macro.

Slip and Slide! My girls made me go on it with all my clothes on, and we had a blast.

One of my babies was a gymnast and runner, and was incredibly flexible. She would hop onto the slip and slide and shoot down that thing faster than I have seen anyone go! ahahah

My girls and I at the Slip and Slide.

Magic Carpet rides. We sang Little Red Wagon too many times.. Including one round of 24 verses. I loved this week's enthusiasm and joy.

Low ropes. I did a little debrief about the body of Christ and working as a team, I would really suggest reading it if you haven't before. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12-26. I feel it is incredibly important that all Christians read and desire the knowledge that comes from these passages. It really changed me as a person and how I handle relationships in a Christian manner.

Yayyy my babies! They are all so cute and I am so blessed to have had such a stretching cabin.

Creek walk. What a beautiful adventure and a wonderful opportunity to bask in God's glorious nature.

This week was just so great, and I'm excited for this week to come. I'm going all out this week, and I think we're going to have lots of fun =]

Question of the blog:
While on the creek walk, I was bit several (maybe several is a little vague) times by mosquitoes. I do not like mosquitoes. First, don't you think it's weird that they have the word Toes in their name? And second, where do you think the most annoying place to get bit my a mosquito is?

Pistachios and Love Languages

Every week, God continues to stretch me in ways I know I need to be stretched. This week was awesome! I had a great set of 7 girls who all knew about the Lord, and had a fire to learn more and more every day.

This is my cabin and I. We went Christmas caroling one night, all around to every cabin. We had a great time being silly and making everyone laugh along with our awfully awesome songs.

One night, my cabin went with Kringle's cabin on a night hike, where we walked in the darkness along the road and up to the archery fields. Kringle did a little debrief concerning the light and the dark, and I felt the kids responded to the adventure really well.

My girls had a rough time getting out of bed unless you motivated them to do something, so almost every morning I brought out cards and they could play Go Fish once they were ready for the day. This gave them great opportunities to get to know some of the other staff as well as making us on time. Hehe =]

Counselor Hunt! Journey won this week, and oh man was he funny. I didn't get dressed up this week which was a nice break. It was fun helping out the kids and decorating everyone into hilarious costumes.

MC5 and Monty finally participated this week, and the girls went wild decorating them. I could not stop laughing during their model struts in the fashion show.

Man oh MAN it was hot this week! Goodness. My girls spent a lot of time at the pool and pond zip. We did a lot of crafts together and I made a really sweet hemp bracelet =]

More card games with my girls. And Cody. Cody was a silly kid this week, but we had a great time. It's so encouraging to know that we as staff have such power to comfort kids and make them feel better even with just a simple high five or remembering their names.

These are my girls! Such characters and all so full of joy.

Wa, another week is over. It was rough saying goodbye to everyone. I have already gotten emails and phone calls today from my girls this week. We had such a great week, full of incredible questions and lots of learning time in cabin huddles. I pray that I can continue to be a good example and that my future cabin girls will be as responsive as this week.
Ah! God is just so great. He has filled my life with some incredible people that have already made such a difference in my life. I am excited about the future and about what God has planned for me. Yay yay yay yay happy happy happy. I am so joyful, and so excited for each and every day. Forever and ever amen. Eep! It is nice to be silly and goofy again. Hehe. I am smiling right meow.

Question of the blog:
One of my favorite things in the whole world is seeing people walking all alone, and smiling. I love seeing that they are comfortable with themselves and so joyful that they just let their honest smiles out. Do you ever people-watch? What is one of your favorite things to see?

D.A.'s and Projectile Vomit

Oh goodness, this was a silly week. I am exhausted!

I like little things like this. It was a cute little bug that looked like a leaf! "Quick! Take a picture before he LEAVEs!"

Peanut Butter faceee! Shims and I had our faces painted with peanut butter and the kids threw M&Ms at us. Yeah, I totally won.

Word.

Card tower building. Yeah, we weren't very good at it.

This is our director, yoyo-ing while driving the Magic Carpet. He's so good at that whole safety thing.

Mikayla my BABYYYYY. I did Primaries this week (Which instead of my usual 9-12 year olds, I took care of 7 and 8 year olds for half the week). Mikayla was such a freakin cutie. Ah.

Field gamesss happiness.

We like to make small children eat with no hands sometimes.

Ahh the counselor hunt this week was so ridiculous. I got second place!

This is what we like to call a Camp Tan. Dirt, ohhhh yeah.

PS I love camp so much. Ah.