L-O-V-E

I wonder what I'd write if I wrote here every day? Maybe some good things, undoubtedly some pointless things. Anyway I'm going to try it. I'll commit to a month for now and see how that goes.

Today I'm going to talk about my two brothers who will both be getting married in the next year. My brother Paul proposed to his girlfriend (now fiance) before we went on vacation. He didn't say anything to us the entire time because they agreed they wanted to tell us together and she wasn't able to come with him. He's been with Cassie for a couple years now (maybe more, I'm bad at keeping track) and I really like her. Since announcing their engagement they've both been around more so I've gotten to know her even more, she'll be a good addition. They are getting married 3/3/12.

Ken has been with his girlfriend Emily for almost a couple years as well. They are not engaged but apparently they already have a wedding date set for May. So maybe they're pre-engaged? I don't know all I know is that she was able to come to Priest Lake with us this year and I'm so glad she was because that girl is cute and super sweet. It is weird to see little Ken with a girlfriend, holding her hand, kissing her, walking with his arm around her...weird.

So, I love when people are happy, especially people I love. But as the big sister it's becoming a little more difficult to muster up all the excitement they deserve because I'm a little bit jealous. There, I said it. It's not pretty and I'm not proud of it but it's there. I don't want them to not get married or stop being happy with their person, but...couldn't I have found mine first? And now I'm going to go pout in the corner with my blanket.

Kennewick

This is my little house

Here is the view from my front porch.

This is my vegetable garden.

These are some very baby zucchini

And the cutest baby tomatoes you ever did see.

I don't care how many positive adjectives you use...I'm still not buying it

I was on craigslist looking for things I want here for my new place. One of those things happen to be curtains for my living room and bedroom, so I typed "curtains" into the search box. Do you know what came up? Shower curtains. People selling shower curtains on craigslist. Why does this gross me out? Probably because it seems about a step up from buying underwear on craigslist.

Summer Reading Program

Since turning the page on this new chapter in my life I have literally been turning the pages of book after book after book.

I have been here in this new life for a little over a month and so far I have read these books:

Which was good, and made me cry, and made me want to knit like a maniac although I didn't, I just continued to read instead.

Then I started on a run of chick-lit novels which were predictable, cute and only rarely made me feel mad or jaded which is good. They were perfect companions to the sunshine I was reading them in. If I had to recommend one over the others it would be Twenties Girl.

The cover of Godmother makes it look like it might be scary or creepy - not at all like what is actually happening on the inside which contains fairy's and magic. And also a few tears.

Someone at some point had already told me about Me&Emma (which I won't do) but it didn't stop me from wanting to read the book or get to know this sweet little main character.

I'd waited a long time to read this book. I knew that people I knew loved it, couldn't put it down...but that's about all I knew about it. I too could not put it down. In fact I was a big giant nerd one day and read it while I was walking home from the bus.

I finished reading this book just moments ago and it was....beautiful. I'm not sure if that's exactly the right word, but it's the best I can do. It too made me cry (apparently I cry over books a lot).

Finally, there was Bossypants which I want to recommend to everyone! Tina Fey is hilarious and awesome and I wish I could be her friend.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. It might be The Girl who Played with Fire I'll decide after I go put on my bikini.

Don't Stop Believing

The back-story:: I have been going to dance camps for the past eighteen years (yikes!), some of those times as a camper, others as a coach, and many many more times as an instructor. I have been to hundreds of dance camps, seems like an exaggeration but...it is not and this past week at camp at the University of Puget Sound with Hanford High School I had hands-down best experience ever.

The set-up::Along with dancers and cheerleaders at this camp there was also a Mormon camp (Especially for Youth) going on at the same time. We all had the same meal times which was crowded and meant for long lines.

The story::Last night at dinner we were sitting down already with our food when EFY started coming in. Because the lines were so long some of those kids sat down at the piano in the main dining area and started playing. One boy in particular was really good,, he sat there for a while playing beautiful music, then he played something that he was singing to but no one else could hear what it was. When he finished playing that song I turned to the head coach and dancers and said “If this were a musical everyone would’ve started singing along and everyone would’ve gotten up and danced. I wish my life were a musical.” Approximately 5 seconds later I hear the opening notes to “Don’t stop believing”.... and do you know what happened?

That’s right. Everyone- cheerleaders, dancers, EFY kids, coaches, everyone all across the dining room started singing along and clapping. There wasn’t any dancing (probably because there wasn’t room and unlike musicals real people don’t dance on tables) but the spontaneous singing was enough for me. That moment will be one of my favorite moments in life.

Lazybones

Some days I wake up in the morning and I think "I'm going to be super productive today!" And then I modify that by making addendum's like...."right after I have my coffee" or "right after I read this chapter".... It goes on like that until sure enough most of the day is gone and I still haven't been productive at all. There is a small (teeny tiny) part of my brain that feels guilty about reading an entire book in one day and not doing anything else, but it's so small and easy to ignore that I barely notice it's there anymore.

Here I am

I've been doing a lot of things since I moved. Some of them fun, others...not so much.

Unpacking - Not fun. Going through box after box that I felt like I'd just packed trying to figure out where everything was going to go was grueling. Eventually, one by one, the boxes were emptied and broken down. My place is now coming together...but there are still quite a few things left to hang and things without a home yet. Pictures will happen once I'm satisfied.

Sunshine - So much fun! I've been over to the pool at my brother and sister-in-law's house a couple of times and taken advantage of having a yard of my own. I love having a backyard, I can throw on a bikini, walk out my backdoor with a book and feel like I'm hidden away in a warm world of my own.

Bike riding/taking the bus - Meh.... I made a HUGE mistake and for my first bike ride in many, many, many years I decided to ride over 7 miles to my sister Kareen's house. It was horrible and not nearly as flat as I'd imagined in my head. I couldn't believe how much longer the roads seemed and to make matters worse my seat loosened up halfway through the ride and got so low I couldn't extend my legs and the seat kept swiveling. It took me an hour to get to her house and my bike is still out there until I can trick myself into believing the ride back won't be so bad.

Riding the bus has been surprisingly okay. Although it's quite a bit different than public transportation in Portland, it's also a lot less crowded so I never have to sit by someone and people generally leave me alone. However the buses don't run after 6:30pm...so hopefully I don't ever need to go anywhere at night.

Family - Fun! I had Claire and Abby over the other night to spend the night and they were just oh too cute. I should have just video'd the whole experience because some of the things they said and did are just not as cute when explained. Plus when they woke up in the morning I could hear them giggling for about 10 minutes before they finally came out. I have no idea what they were doing but it made me happy.

Work - Surprising. I've found myself with two jobs for the upcoming year. Both dance related and I'm so excited about both of them! I've only just begun with them but I think they'll keep me on my toes.