{Life} I Can Feel the End

Guys, I can feel the end of school work! It is so close, and I am so excited. It will be spectacular to have no more deadlines! But, the end of school work also means I have new decisions to make.

So, what's my plan for this summer? I have three things that are very important to me...and after that, I think I'll goof off!

-CNA class. I want to take a CNA class this summer for two reasons. First, because it opens up a whole bunch of job opportunities. Second, to see if nursing is a direction I could go and enjoy. I don't want to do something that I know I will hate. So, CNA class.

-Get a job. I plan to apply at Varsity Donuts, Paradise Donuts, all the Radinas, People's Grocery...I think those are the big ones. Possibly the library. If all of the above fail? I will be doing some serious reconsidering!

-Take ASL 2. Everyone has heard about my new found love for sign language. There is going to be an ASL 2 class at HCC this summer, so I'm hoping to continue with my little sign language adventure and take that! However, (I kinda hate to say this) taking a CNA class is more of a top priority for me.

Now, let's do what I would like to be doing:

-Going to Alaska. Don't make me think about it. I can't believe I'm passing up an opportunity to go. I mean, what am I thinking? *tears*

-I would love to see Colorado. I'm just one state away, but I have never seen Colorado. So, I'd go to Colorado and hike. Which sounds boring, but I really don't think it would be.


Happy almost summer!

{Recently} Things I Have Loved This Week

And by week, I mean an uncertain amount of time. But mostly recently.

Last night we went on a little hiking adventure with some church friends. By "some" I mean "25". Anyway, we got a little more than we bargained for. Lost kids (who didn't think they were lost), lost adults (who weren't actually lost), dead cell phones (which aren't very useful), and running through the woods in the dark (easier than I thought it would be)! Everyone was safe. We're still not sure how it all happened. But I really, really loved it!

Running with Tyler. During the above mentioned adventure, Tyler and I started running. I had not planned on running (neither had he) but once we got started he was determined to finish. And I wasn't too keen on letting him go without me OR being left in the woods by myself. We got lost. We ran for an hour. It was great. I think he's just a little bit sore today ;)

I also got to run the same above mentioned trail with Avery. Yes, I have been on that trail once a week for the past three weeks. I really, really love the terrain.

Superhero birthday party. Just to be clear, I did the most boring thing I could think of-I just wore a superhero shirt. But everyone else wasn't as boring, so it was great! Hide-n-go-seek with a bunch of people in a small place was pretty entertaining! :) (And there was ice cream. I LIKKE ice cream!)

I got to watch Cinderella in the theater. It was very cute, and very similar to the cartoon version. One change they made that I kinda liked was how "Ella" felt about her hardships. Her motto was "have courage and be kind" so she was very content with her circumstances, even when she was treated badly.

Can we just talk about spring break (even though that was 2 weeks ago)? Cause, man it was spectacular. See, I'm homeschooled, so I did school, but my classes had a break. It was the "best day ever!" But now I'll make a confession- I went to bed before 9 every night. I'm not kidding. I was so ahead on sleep, I would wake up before my alarm clock and just watch it ready to jump up when it went off. Trust me, I'm not always that much of a morning person. EVER.

That's some of the high-points of my week. :)

{Movies} Death Comes to Pemberley

I mentioned this mini-series as on the top of my "to-watch" list. My mom was my movie watching partner. It's three episodes long. We were going to watch just one episode.

When we finished the second one, we decided at that point we may as well just finish it.

At midnight it was finally over. Now I will share my two cents. I'll try NOT to have any spoilers.



This story is set post- Pride and Prejudice, the day before Pemberley's famous and annual Lady Anne ball. Pemberley is in a bit of chaos in preparation. Suddenly in the evening, there is a death in the Pemberlely woods. The movie tells the story of the death and its affect on the Pemberley household.

Let's start with what I considered to be the cons:
It was dark. Kinda a creepy Jane Eyre feel to it. It's a mystery story. I don't really love mysteries.

Colonel Fitzwilliam. I won't tell you all of it, but his character was not the same cheery, jaunty Colonel in Pride and Prejudice. I missed the happy-go-lucky Colonel.

There was a few really scary parts. Scary in my opinion. Seriously, I was afraid one part in the woods would give me nightmares.

Unfortunately, the actors were not the same. I'm partial to the old actors. I did get used to the new ones, but some of them just weren't quite right. I wasn't really in love with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, but I liked Jane, Wickham, and Georgiana.

Let's move to the pros (in my opinion)
More Pride and Prejudice, guys. Most of the characters kept their personalities really well. It was fun. I always want to know more about the characters after the book is over! This handed me three more hours of the Darcys and Bennetts. Thank you, BBC.

The story wasn't bad, I just so happen to not really like mysteries.

It had some good themes. Especially, I thought, between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. (although there was also a questionable seen. Just so ya' know)

(Okay, I've watched it, I'm writing a blog about it, and I JUST NOW learned it's a book. I didn't read the book, didn't even know it existed. But there ya' go!)



THIS IS A POTENTIAL SPOILER:

When you see that lady ^ you may just want to close your eyes and leave the room. ;)

{Life} Currently

READING...
Do you mean an actual book? Like, not an audio book? Sorry, I don't do that.

Kidding...sorta.
Anyhow, last week I read a novel by Liz Curtis Higgs called Mine Is the Night. She's a Christian writer I've sorta vaguely heard of before. Anyway, the book was "based" on the story of Ruth. Reading the Ruth story in a different setting really brought out some questions in my mind. I mean, I've always thought Ruth and Naomi were very forward in how they pursued Boaz, but I'd always credited it to a different culture. But this book had me wondering a little more about it...do you think what they did was acceptable in that time, or were they really being a little unusual? It wasn't an amazing book...it was just ok.

WATCHING...
I haven't watched any movies in days! :) But let me tell you what I have on my list! A friend suggested I watch a show called Death Comes to Pemberley. She didn't recommend it as off the wall good, just as something I might enjoy. It's supposed to come after Pride and Prejudice. The name sounds a little strange though, right? My curiosity is up! I'm going to wrangle mom into watching it with me soon :)

LISTENING...
How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack ;)
Harry Potter. When I was sick a couple of weeks ago I wanted to listen to a Harry Potter. That's just what I wanted to listen to. So I started through them. Do I love them? No. But I do think they are better than a lot of the books I can get to listen to. I certainly like some better than others. The Prisoner of Azkaban is probably my favorite.

MAKING...
Made some oatmeal bread this week, some granola. OH! We were given an 8lb. bag (Yes, BAG!) of plain greek yogurt, so I've been flavoring lots of yogurt. :) I love yogurt.

A crocheted rug for in front of Storm's dresser. He's been waiting about six months, but I finally finished!

FEELING...
Happy. This is my last school project for the day. So next? Listen to books and clean!

PLANNING...
A session with my personal trainer in the morning. ;)

LOVING...
Dare I say it? Guys, wearing shorts has been pretty nice! If we got four feet of snow tomorrow, I'd be more than excited. But as long as it's not too hot, the shorts have been nice. I'm ashamed to admit that. I'll had in my head of winter lover's badge right now.

{Life} Navy SEALS and Books

Guys, recently I got into this book rut. Everything I picked to listen to just had me disgusted. Usually I will at least listen to something once before I condemn it forever. But I was quitting books just because I was not enjoying them. Fiction failed me. I was tired of dystopian societies, tired of teen romance, tired of the same-old, same-old.

So I reached for a good dose of real stories. It started with Unbroken which I really enjoyed. I talked to my dad about it so much I got my mom to read it. It's a real story. It's courageous and heroic and it's history. Those are the top reasons I liked it.

Not long after listening to that story, I watched Lone Survivor with dad, mom, and Tyler. Dad and Tyler had seen it before. I wasn't so sure going into it. All I knew was it was an action war movie. I don't typically fall head over heels for those. There was some major problems with this movie. We muted one whole part. Most of the movie, every other word was bad language. (Just so everyone knows this isn't a run out and watch it on a whim kind of movie) It was violent, and sad. I learned part of the way through it was also a true story.

So, quick synopsis (SPOILERS BY THE WAY). Lone Survivor is based on the true story of Marcus Luttrell and a mission he did with his team. For all the team except him, it was their last mission. They were to watch a village where an enemy was camped. Just watch. But their hiding place was discovered by three men (one old, one military age, one boy) and their goats. They captured the three men, but decided to let them go (versus killing them and "removing the compromise"). The team took off intending to put as much ground between themselves and the camp as possible. The enemy came after them and backed them up against a cliff basically. All the men died one after the other except for Marcus Luttrell who managed to hide and was saved by natives before being later picked rescued by the army. When it was down to him and one other man (who was already severely wounded), the other man said to tell "Cindy" (his wife) that he loved her. Then he said to tell her, "died with my brothers". I had some tears. But that was the only part I cried during!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. So dad recommended I listen to the Navy SEAL story Fearless. Fearless is the story of Adam Brown, who was killed on March 17, 2010.

I liked this book. Why? It's the true story of a less than perfect man who got to the top (SEAL team six) only by the grace of God. He and his family were/are very open about that. He was at the bottom (we're talking prison and drugs) before God worked in him and his family to bring them to Him. He got passed substantial obstacles to be the best he could. He lost an eye and the dexterity in the fingers of his shooting hand, but passed sniper school less than a year after learning to shoot left handed. Stuff like that was pretty cool. But I won't kid you, I cried. Sheesh I'm becoming pretty tearful of late. But anyhow, I cried while I was making cookies, cried while I was running, cried while I was laying in bed. It's sad. (Just a note, there's some questionable things in this book. Drugs, some bad language, and a little bit of rough to crude humor. And, obviously descriptions of wounds.)

That's where I've been with books of late. Have you guys ever run into a book rut? What did you do to get passed it? How do you feel about true stories?

{Life} In sickness (and in health!)

I'm not getting married.

I just thought that was an appropriate blog post.

Three of us were sick last week, but we are now finally well! I'm so glad. You know how there's a few days of being sick when you would rather be anything else? ANYTHING? But then, there's a few days when it's kinda *ahem* not so shabby? I mean, you get to sleep (all the time!) and when you're not sleeping you can watch movies (all the time!)...there's worse things in the world. But eventually (it takes me quite a while sometimes) you just want to be better.

There was two days I would rather have been anything but sick. I was miserable. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't stay still because everything hurt so much. I laid on the floor, I laid on the couch, I moaned. I couldn't even watch movies it hurt my head too much. Tylenol was my sweet break from the aches. Mom would prefer we not take medicine unless we have to. So I stretched it out. But I got to a point when I had to have a break, I just couldn't handle it.

(My mom was an awesome slave....er...nurse the whole time by the way! I'd highly recommend her!)

But then it got better...I did at least. I didn't need to sleep on ice packs anymore. It was great. Kota got it. Kota never gets to a point where he is too sick to watch movies. So we watched all the movies. Twice. We watched Mirror Mirror twice in  a row. It was the good days of being sick. When you are still obviously sick, but not so miserable you can't enjoy being a couch potato.

I blame Tyler for the whole thing by the way. It was his germs that have been lurking around for two weeks just waiting on the rest of us. :)

Back in the Blogging World with {Pictures}

I'm kinda a failure as family photographer. NO REALLY. Two birthdays have passed and I didn't get a single picture of either. Not one. I'm really bad a capturing our everyday activities. 

That doesn't mean I'm not taking pictures...

They're just not of my family. 

Recently, I've been really taken with light. I know, I know, photography is all about light. But I mean lonely light, light surrounded by darkness type of thing. Maybe it's because it's dark early. Anyway, here's some of my recent picture "finds".

That windmill scene is one of my favorite scenes. I get to see it all the time. But it never gets old. Sometimes I just wish I could show better what I can see! 'Cause what I see is much more spectacular.

Moving on from pictures to sign language. I forgot to mention that I sat down to this post with no expectations or ideas. Just makin' it up as I go. Sign language, though! I think I've lost part of my hear to it. Which is not very practical, because sign language has never been part of my plan. I'm just really not sure at this point where I'm going with it. But I really hope and can at least continue to ASL 2 this summer. I really like my teacher. She's very laid-back and wants us to learn at our own pace. Three hours of sign language is really a brain overload but I haven't burnt out yet so I think it must be a good overload. It certainly keeps me awake on that 50 minute drive home, which I am very thankful for. I'll admit something embarrassing, though. Several times I've been signing in the car on the way home and started swerving all over the road. I sincerely hope my mom doesn't read that. Moral of the story: don't try to sign and drive at the same time. Especially if you aren't experienced at either.

That's my hurried blog post for the week. Hurried, unplanned, and unrevised. It probably makes no sense, but it will have to do for now! I have places to be :)