REMINISCING!

I was looking through junk in my room tonight. I'm SLOWLY cleaning it out with my mom's help. It's quite the job. I hate to admit I have some messy moments. oye.. ANYWAY... I found some random stuff from England. Simple little things that brought me right back! Like this receipt:

OH THE JOY OF POUNDS. I want to go back so badly.

Jen and I are dreaming about a trip this spring break. OH PLEASE LORD, LET IT HAPPEN! How fantastic!

Then there was this:


I bought it at an outdoor shopping area in Brighton. I didn't need it. I got two big packs for £2. I thought they were little gift bags for Christmas, but they're little gift cards to place on the gifts. I actually didn't give a crap about them. I bought them from a really hott guy. LOL. No joke.
The QE2 had just come in. He asked me if I had been aboard. I said no. He was good with kids. Yeah. It was basically love.

In a nutshell... GET ME BACK OVER THERE!
****♥****

Catch up

Hey Friends! Oye, so I haven't been as caught up. But it's ok because I'm writing this for my own personal blogging, ya know?
I got back the other day from LA. My grandpa turned 90 years old. GO PAPA! He's getting old, and sadly it's starting to show. He was in the the hospital on his bday. We have long life on his side of the fam. His great grandparents lived to 98 and 102. That's CRAZY TALK- I know. That must have been in the 1800s. madness. We are getting the idea that this is last bday. His spirits are a little low. His brain is doing great. It's just his ears and eyes are doing terribly. He can be in a room full of people and feel completely alone..... He's a wonderful man. I hope he's just happy.
It was great seeing the family. Everybody got along surprisingly well. My family loves eachother, but they don't always like each other. yeaaahh. one of those situations. They're crazy people, but I love them. They make me laugh. Garrett asked my Uncle for a restaurant suggestion, and he gave the longest and most rediculous directions to some place somewhere.. As we drove off Garrett was like "JEWS ARE SO CRAZY!" I laughed. We're aloud to say that, I suppose. I mean. We were laughing at ourlselves.

It's funny 'cause the relatives most of my family tends to stray from and warn me about always tend to be my favorites.

We went through family pics so Shiloh could have some kid pictures of himself. I found the ones above. They cracked me up. I think it's from 1988 or so. Me and the bros. =)

EUREKA!!!! I have a job! Well, it's not "real" job, but it's the best job I could ever think of for me right now. It's super easy and I'm good with it. I'm babysitting my little siblings Samuel (8) and Claire (10 [pictured after a makeover] ). It's great. I watch them 9am-5pm on weekdays. The pay's really good too. It's awesome 'cause I get to hang out at my house and play with my siblings. They love it when I help them beat video games, take them to movies, play board games, go to the park. It's awesome work and I couldn't need the cash more. $$ CHA CHING!! $$ =) I'm SOOOO HAPPY! Tomorrow we're going to Wildlife Safari. My dad's covering all the costs, and I still get payed the whole time. Holly's coming too! We're really excited.




This Tuesday I'm not working. Holly and I are going to Portland to the Rufus Wainwright show. YES!!

I'm working really hard to budget myself right now. REALLY HARD. I'm rewarding myself with a small bday gift though. On Sept 6th Jen and I are going to see Brandi Carlile at the WOW Hall. It should be SO fun. We're gonna go get cocktails I think too. She's one of my only "of age" friends. Arlie might come too! That'd be awesome. That weekend Noel said he'd take me out too. Fun times. =)

Right now I'm watching a show on the discovery channel. It's Shark Week. The show's on that ship that went down and hundreds of men were attacked by Sharks for 5 nights. 1,200 on board. Just over 300 survived. True story. ... yipes.

My mom's helping me clean my room out 'cause I'm messy and a baby.

I think that's everything. Good night all!! God Bless

what i like to call a "summer moment"....

I love summer. It's the season without stress.

The other week Molly and I were riding our bikes by the river. The sun was shining. At one point I turned to her and I was like "Do you realize that this right here right now is an afternoon we're gonna look back on and miss so much. We're riding our relaxing bikes, the sun is out, we have no homework or midterms to study for, we're listening to Regina Spektor, and we don't have a stress in the world." She was like "you're SO right." It was true.

On Saturday I drove up and visited Jen for the weekend in Hood River. It was so nice. The city is really cute and her family is so welcoming. =) One of those summer moments though was on Saturday night. We went to see a movie in the Park (picture included). The movie was Maverick with Mel Gibson and Jody Foster. We laid out our blankets on the grass on the hillside and reclined back on our pillows. The weather was perfect. The sun was just beyond the horizon and the temperature was perfect, neither cold nor hot. Yeah, I fell asleep, but that's not the point. That's expected with me. The moment is the point.

I wish there were more moments like that. I should make more happen. They don't have to just come along... I can plan for them. =)

My mom and I are driving to LA tomorrow. My grandpa is turning 90. I hope it turns out to be fun. I plan on relaxing with the fam and swimming in the pool a lot. That seems like a summer moment just waiting to happen.....

I ♥ random acts of art

The best pepsi I've EVER had

Today was fun! simple and fun.
I woke up (after sleeping on the couch because my room's a melting pot) and went with my mom to meet up with Garrett at Bagel Sphere. I hadn't been there before, but it was REALLY good. I tried V8 and gave it to Garrett after 3 sips. NOT SO MUCH!
Mom and I then went to the Library using Garrett's card and got books on Cd for out car trip to LA next week. My gramps will be turning 90. woah man...
Next we went to Circuit City and Best Buy. My mom's getting him a camera as a gift for getting his masters. Rock on. I told her it was my "new reason to graduate." Rachel, Garrett's gf who's moving with him to Hawaii, came with us. She's sooo sweet. I really like her. I think of her as somebody who I'd hang out with even if she wasn't dating my bro. She's giggly and speaks well with people. I think she evens my brother out well too. I think he's nicer to me now that he's dating her. That's a good quality, ya know? I think that maybe since we're less than a year apart he's realized that people who are my age, or are where I am in life, are cool too. we have PERSONALITY... and... are WORTH your time. yay to brothers who give me hugs now. JOY <3
I went home after that and watched Oprah and Ellen simultaneously. A little talent I've picked up ;)
Next.... I slept. I'm sure you're really enjoying reading about this low key day.
However, MOLS called me! I was super excited because she's been in Wyoming for EVER. ha. Well not forever, but we hang out so much that it was a long time. We caught up on good stuff. It was really neat to wake up to. ** =)
Later on I became even MORE social. I should set daily social goals or something. Otherwise I'll get nowhere. It'll be just me and Oprah (and Ellen when I wanna spice things up a lil). 9pm or so I got to hang out with my friend Noel. I hadn't seen him since fall term. It was REALLY fun hanging out. I took him to my favorite playground! FYI-It's the best playground in Eugene. It's a wonderful place. If you ever visit me we can totally go there. It makes me want to design new playgrounds and make them out of recycled wood. "That was a very Eugene thing to say"-Noel. We hung out there 'til about 11:30.
We went to the Steel Head next. It's a bar/restaurant place. No minors aloud. However, I guess I look 21. I mean, I'm less than two months away. I ordered a pepsi and they didn't card me. "THIS IS THE BEST PEPSI I'VE EVER HAD". I asked for lemon in it. He put lime in it. No, not just put it in, but took time to squeeze it in. SO GOOD. why? I know not. The second one didn't even compare
Next we headed home... took some pics on his computer... looked random stuff up online... like if "disclude" is a word... it's not.. "preclude" is. Pics of his neice were cool too.
Now I'm home talking with Molly on AIM and getting Rufus Wainwright's newer CD from Holly via gmail. I love him
Tomorrow I'm giving blood and going to Hood River to spend the weekend with Jen. =) CHA CHING!
ps. i got this pic from mols today. It's from when we went bike riding by the river and listened to regina spector and the spice girls from her bike =) SO FUN! people gave us "what the-?" looks. I love those =)

the brazilian way

Hi Friends!
Recently I was given the opportunity to join about 9 of my peers on a missions trip to Brazil! What an opportunity, no? There are so many wonderful things about this. I'm not going to lie though. I'm worried. My fundraising hasn't gone so hott... at all. I need to trust God and see what His will is. This may end up coming from my own pocket. $2,500 from my pocket? I don't know what pocket that IS exactly. ha.
Well, here's exciting stuff about the place. We'd be on an island on the South East coast of the country called Florianópolis. It's the surfing capitol of the WORLD! We'd play soccer with the local, surf, help build up the local church, love on the peeps, etc. It sounds awesome, scary, intense, and ultimately a wonderful growing experience and opportunity. ;) Carly (pictured with me) and Chels are going to be living in Brazil all next year, and I'd really love to visit them/send them off. <3
The scary stuff: money. It would be nice to not spend that money. I could use it tons of other ways. Honestly, if I didn't use it on Brazil I'd save it to help me go to Europe in the next few months. I'm going to visit Mols in France this Christmas. Ideally Jen and I want to travel around in Spring Break. I wouldn't mind staying home from the trip and blessing the church in Flora with money they're trying to raise for a van to pick up kids around the city.
At the end of the day the Lord is bigger than everything. I was talking with Chelsea Foss today. She was telling me how she was in my shoes last year. Each day she changed her mind on whether she should go or not. However, throughout all the worries of our day God isn't worried. He's at peace with everything. Good word, Chels! I need to pray more about it. Big time.
Regardless of what goes down.... No matter where I am.... God can/will use me =) and that brings me SO much peace. NO JOKE. Jen reminded me of that truth today. Any time or place God can use you. HE WANTS TO TOO!!
Bless

let's have a go!

I've never been great a keeping a journal. nope. I tend to get ahead of myself. It starts out simple. "I should keep a journal!"... then it builds..."I need to write EVERYDAY!"...and then... "I need to write nicely.no..PERFECTLY..and the lines have to be perfectly parallel. I need to impress myself when I look back on this." lol. What a thought. Soon enough I get overwhelmed. That's what happened when I went to England. I wanted to write down everything, and eventually the very thought of catching up on my day wasn't appealing.
My great friend, miss Jennifer K. Abbott, has inspired me. She does this often (inspire.. and blog too I guess) I'm going to try this blog thing out. It's a creative outlet. I'm not going to over edit. I'll just write, ya know? It'll be a little self-documentary I suppose. I love looking back on my old journal entries. I become flooded with "remember when" thoughts, and then the common "when did that happen?" thought, but nothing out numbers the "do I really talk like that?" thought. No deadlines are on this bad boy. I'll write to write.
Here goes nothing..... No... Here goes something =)