A Little Rambling

I haven't blogged in forever, not because there hasn't been much going on, but because I'm generally gone from 6:30am to 11pm, and those precious hours in between are all used up on trying to sleep.  Today was an exceptional day, however, and I feel like sharing the happy highlights with you. 1.  My 0 Hour class brought breakfast, so I got to school just to feast on doughnuts, blueberry muffins, fresh fruit, and mini-cinnamon rolls.  Yum. 2.  In one class, we played silly mind games the whole period.  Singing? What's that?  We needed a day to re-group, there's been lots of drama.  (and it's a class of all boys) 3.  My girls' choir (the only one I get to keep from bell to bell as my own) discovered my laugh.  All 60 of them imitated it at once, which produced mass hysteria for most of the period.  Throughout the rest of the class, I'd hear a "her hee!" squeak out from a corner of the room, kind of like popcorn, but never being able ...

The other night, mom cut up a fresh pineapple, and I looooooove pineapple.  I decided I needed to make a smoothie, but not the healthy kind.  It was perfect.  Light, fruity, delicious. Ingredients 2 or 3 scoops Haagen-Dasz pineapple coconut ice cream about 1/2 c of ice as many pineapple chunks as you want about a cup of pina colada mixer Directions 1) Mix it all together with a blender. 2) Genießen.  (enjoy!)

What could make me happier than time with some my favorite people and free pie on Pi Day? Time with ALL of my favorite people (which would, by necessity, include Rebekah ) and free pie. As it was, though, the evening was splendid, and I was quite happy indeed. Feeling a mite bad for descending on Village Inn mere moments before the end of the free pie period, and for being a group of 20(?), we wrote and sang a song to our marvelous servers Brandon and Mark. We also enjoyed lots of pie, and I am very sorrowful that I left my leftovers on the table. Alas.

I really, really dislike packing. If you haven’t been around my blog during travel before, this will show you just how much I hate it. Sigh. I think I actually did pretty well this time. I’m blogging after I packed, rather than during, which is an improvement. The only breaks I took were running stuff downstairs as I came across it in my room and going down again to check in for my flight. Not setting any records, but it took me less than 6 hours, so I say that’s pretty good. My carry-on is very heavy, and my suitcase is currently underweight, but we’ll see how long that lasts. I hate having to bounce things between both bags to try and even it out and make sure everything fits in the restrictions. Also – gummi bears are heavy!! So, my time here draws to a close. I finished the four videos yesterday and got them on DVD, and have started the interminable process of uploading them to youtube. Tonight is the last ministry night I will get to see. Yesterday, Debbie took me out s...

Today was Bex's 19th birthday, so I made her a cake. A rainbow cake. In a jar! I had SO MUCH FUN with this! I saw the recipe here , and proceeded to spend another hour or so browsing through some of the deliciousness contained in this blog. I have such a love for creating in the kitchen, and I don't usually get the time to enjoy that during the school year. I've decided it may be more important than sleep, so I stayed up making the cakes last night, and tonight cooked my own delicious spin-off of a king ranch chicken casserole. Spicy! I have another, less colorful but equally sugary, recipe to try this weekend, too. :) Anyways, these cakes captivated me. I lovelovelove bright colors, which is why I love flowers and dresses and markers and coloring books and sparkles and lisa frank and my little ponies and little kids. I was already delighted before the cakes baked, when they looked like this. I had fun playing with the colors and the batter, making ...

This week has been so much fun and chaos that I haven't had time to blog - and am now quite overdue to fill you in on my adventures! Rather than making one very long post, I'll just split it up - there is no rule, after all, governing how many posts I can post in one day! (Though perhaps there is one about how many times I should use 'post' in one sentence.) Tuesday night, we commandeered a room in Gammage for our own private swing dancing session. We were evenly matched girls for guys, although at the end, Ryan was dancing with both Rebekah and myself, and J.D. was left with the camera. (How he managed to only crash us once is beyond me, that much mental coordination must have been exhausting.) At the beginning of the evening there was a brief lesson on the basic steps for J.D. and Rebekah, and then we took off. I'm treasuring the time I have left do indulge in this fancy before school starts and my life is sucked back into the grind. The coolest part f...

1. Ice cream, with warm caramel and hot fudge 2. friends who don't need a lot of words 3. cupcakes, even just pictures of cupcakes, I love cupcakes 4. friends who sacrifice time and considerable mental effort to help me out with musical endeavors 5. little girls who are growing up 6. watching a lightning storm on the trunk of my car with my cat 7. Ryan 8. laughing until I almost wet my pants in the middle of the night with my sister 9. penuche frosting (made just to eat with spoons) 10. warm, scrumptious pizzookie, shared with someone wonderful

Ah, summertime, those eight months of the year where it is miserable to live in the Valley of the Sun! The break between semesters is dedicated to seeking as many opportunities to get out of the scorching heat as humanly possible - and I have only escaped for a matter of hours. Alas and alack, and woe is me! I miss the annual camping trips of my youth, 1o days every summer spent on the East Fork of the Black River with my family and some of our dearest friends. I miss wading in the creek and catching crawdads, playing cards and dice during the afternoon rainstorms, huddling in the tent every night with Larissa. I miss the silence of the forest in the morning before everyone else is up, the pungent smell of the campfire in the chilly air, the trance that falls around the flames, gazing up into a velvet black sky pierced with countless crystal points of starlight, and the warm gooeyness of s'mores. S'mores! That's the one part I can enjoy while stuck in the desert! ...

I love the fourth of July! I love red white and blue, I love America, I love fireworks, and I love time with friends. It always manages to be a memorable day. Last year was my first back in the United States, and I spent it with my parents and Amy on Coronado Island, enjoying life immensely and watching fireworks over the bay. The year before, I celebrated Army Style in Baumholder and Rammstein, lots of grilling and volleyball and fireworks. The year before that, we didn't really get to notice the 4th, as we were embarking on an epic bike trip , all along the Rhein and Mosel rivers in Germany. Last night, we went over to Shantel's house for a massive amount of food, including very patriotic desserts. Julia had never had a hot dog, so we introduced her to that most American mixture of miscellaneous meats. We played games (our favorite seems to be 'human knot') and went swimming, waiting for the sun to go down and the fireworks to start. While in the pool, being th...

Tuchetti's. Only it doesn't exist anymore. It was the most delicious Italian restaurant in the history of ever. Unlimited amounts of the best garlic bread you've ever tasted, and a salad bar that converted me from my days as a salad-hater. Oh, Tuchetti's, how I miss thee. Since my favorite place is gone, I'd have to say Oregano's - for the Vino Bambino, Jr. salad and the pizookie. Other than that, pretty much any Mexican food place, including the original Garcia's and Macayo's, and Carolina's. Apparently I like restaurants with possessive titles. how can you resist pizookie?!

It's Friday! My tests are over! The benefit of having Friday tests in two classes is not having weekend homework in either of those classes. :) Also, this sugar thing is apparently a problem. Let me show you what I've eaten today... Started off with my favorite morning drink - raspberry/pomegranate juice mixed with soymilk. Then there was Einstein's with Rebekah, at which I had a cheese bagel and shared this delicious strawberry white chocolate muffin. When I came home, my sister decided to bake cupcakes - for reasons unknown. After she was done, she insisted I try one, so I did. It was fabulous. However, she made two different kinds, so she insisted that I try another. I tried to refuse, but she won me over in the end, and I ate half of the other kind. Tonight, I went to a voice recital, and there were cupcakes after. I was going to resist, having eaten almost nothing but sugar all day, but they sparkled. As previously discussed, I just can't resist glittering ...

I was home, eating dinner, and done with my homework by 8 pm tonight! Delight! This means I can actually sit down, relax, and take some time to blog before studying, and I might actually get to sleep at a decent hour. I've got my steaming mug of creamy hot cocoa and a package of ho-hos, I'm good to go! I admit that today's blogging challenge left me quite perplexed. My first love? What on earth will I write about? There are so many answers! This is largely due to the limitations of the English language (which I mentioned in point #3 a few days ago), which allows us to use "love" for all manner of things and dilute its meaning. Yes, there are more options than exist for "sorry," but culture dictates that rather than saying, "I really enjoy, delight in, like, find charming," etc, we say, "I love it!" So, I started thinking. What are my options here? Well, the Sunday School answer is always Jesus. I don't mean that in jes...