My summer adventures

Ready for picture overload? I have finally gotten around to putting pictures on my computer of my summer adventures. A few weeks ago, I took a trip to an amusement park.

This is a ride called The Rocket. You slowly rise to the top (which is insanely high) and then you drop. And you scream. And it is terrifyingly awesome.

I'm the one covering my head with a white looking thing. This is Rattlesnake Rapids. You get wet.

My small hometown does fireworks every August. We have the best fireworks, just saying. We were so close to the fireworks as well. You could see the fireworks being shot into the air, leaving bright orange gold cinders falling to the ground. We even got hit by ash and small pieces of firework. How much closer can you get?

And finally, my favorite pictures. My friend, Emily, is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She will be serving for a year and a half in Russia! I am so proud of her! Before our missionaries leave, we have farewells. They talk in one of our church meetings and after church, we usually eat food and gather together as friends and family to support them. 

These are my wonderful friends! Our soon-to-be missionary is in the middle, wearing the purple dress. 

Me and Emily! 

My summer adventures are coming to a close. Fall semester begins in two weeks from today. I move into my apartment next Wednesday (and I now know who my roommates are...well, I at least know their names) and the days are slowly beginning to be shorter. Who knows what this next year will bring?

You have no new messages

I have decided I'm not very good at waiting.

If I'm waiting for a phone call, I can't leave my phone anywhere and it becomes an obsession.

If I'm waiting for someone to come, I pace around the front windows and open the door once or twice.

But today, I'm waiting for an email.

Since the end of July I've been waiting for an email, and yesterday, I got one. This email told me the real email I'm waiting for will come today. 

This email will tell me the time I can get my key to my apartment on August 22. It will also tell me who my roommates are. 

I am so nervous to find out who these girls are, nervously excited. 

But until I get this email, I will be nervously waiting until my email account says, "You have one new message."

Retail

Working in retail is both enjoyable and horrible. It depends on the day.

The people can also be enjoyable and absolutely horrible. It depends on the day.

Now that it is August, back to school shopping is in full swing and there is never a quiet moment in the children's department. You can basically forget about trying to keep clothes looking tidy. The moment you have your back turned after straightening a stack, it has turned into a mountain of mess.

Oh and count on people dumping piles of clothes wherever they feel like it:  the floor, the swim suit section, shoes, on top of racks, even in other departments (such as the home department, women's, or dresses). 

But here is my question. What do you do when you witness something completely horrible and wrong? Or at least hear it? You see, today, while I was cleaning out the boy's dressing rooms, there was a mother and her son school shopping. Her boy was in a fitting room when he said, "Mommy I need help. I can't get it on." The mother went back to the room and I assumed she was going to help him. I assumed wrong. I heard her yell, "You know how to get it on! Just do it!" Then I hear what sounded like the boy getting spanked very hard and he starts sobbing. I felt sick to my stomach and didn't know what to do. Soon, they both walked out and the little boy had tears running down his cheeks. He reached for his mother's hand and she said, "You don't need to hold my hand!" And she yanked her hand away. 

I felt sick inside and I wanted to cry. What are you supposed to do in that situation? Did I do wrong by not doing anything?

But could I have made it worse to say something? Could I have gotten into huge trouble by doing something that wouldn't even fix the problem? 

To end this post on a happy note, I'll tell you about the bracelets. For back to school, we're handing out free bracelets to the kids. They're those simple jelly kind that come in multiple colors. I love giving these to them, especially if they are very young (still toddlers). They get the biggest smiles on their faces and in their cute toddler voices, they say thank you as if I've given them a million dollars. It is very sweet and I wished we were able to hand out bracelets all the time.

One of those days...

It's one of those days when your morning starts out pretty awesome. Homemade French Toast for breakfast, some Harry Potter reading, and enjoying a warm summer day.

But it's Wednesday, the middle of the week and therefore, not the beginning of the week. I had a job interview and they were supposed to let me know about their decision at the beginning of this week. Now we're approaching the end! 

I have a feeling I'm not getting the job, but the week isn't over yet.

And if I'm not getting the job, couldn't they at least call me and let me know and put an end to my angst??? 

That's okay, I'll be glued to the phone tomorrow, no big deal.

And to top it all off, my immune system has decided to play a trick on me. Maybe I'm not really sick though. Maybe I'm just stressed out about this whole job hunting thing that it's making me physically sick.

On the bright side, tomorrow I'll be doing water aerobics with friends. I've never done this before. But hey, why not?

Summer!

This summer, I've found myself having adventures with friends and family and becoming sunburned along the way.

Recently, I went out of town with my family for Memorial Day. We became distracted and discovered Indian hieroglyphs nestled among smooth rocky structures. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the hieroglyphs site. There were several more paintings there that were amazing to see.

Not only have I been seeing ancient history, but I've seen history in the making. I was able to watch a solar eclipse on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

This was the solar eclipse at it's maximum point. If I had been further south, I would have seen a complete ring of fire.

 The solar eclipse caused crazy shadows! I mean just look at my hand in this picture! I can assure you, I have five fingers, not three! 

During the solar eclipse, the temperature and light changed. It was cooler  and the temperature was the same in shade and also in the sunshine. It was a bizarre feeling. 

 Some wonderful friends and I went on a Saturday hike to see an amazing waterfall. We were all sweaty and tired but once we got close to the falls, it became extremely chilly.

Near my home, there is a canyon with a hike that is more like a nature walk. It only takes about fifteen minutes to get there and it is worth it. You are surrounded by towering rocks with a waterfall right in the middle of it all. Below the waterfall is a pool of water.

Besides going on adventures, I have also been job hunting and I even have a job interview this week! I'm very excited to have a job and also have time for mini adventures.

Happy summer!

Creativity of Walmart

My painted thumb-tacks

I have a creative side, believe it or not. It doesn't show very often, but when it does, I am quite proud of what the end result is.

Since I was about 12 or 13-years-old, my very good friend and I have always taken pictures in the picture booths you can find in malls. I own a plethora of these pictures and I wanted to display them. I usually keep these pictures in a stack on my bookcase. 

Today, I went to Walmart when inspiration struck. Why not purchase a cork board and thumb-tacks and display my pictures? But the thumb-tacks there were boring: white or silver. But, aha! Inspiration strikes again! I already own bottles of paint that I could use to make them fun and colorful.

As I was heading towards the check-out lines, I saw buttons that had images and sayings on them that I fell in love with and cost less than a dollar! 

My only wish is that my cork board was larger because I still have a large stack of pictures on my bookcase.

But now, I can display my favorite pictures with friends and family and feel creative.

The finished product!

My car

I drive a car made in 2002. It's gold and pretty and I like it.

It's also a stick shift and I drive this car a lot.

And the other day, I was put in an automatic car.

After driving a stick shift for months, you tend to forget how to drive an automatic car, weird as it sounds. Automatic cars are supposed to be easier, right? You don't have to worry about the clutch, shifting, or killing or car at a stop sign. An automatic car just does things...well, automatically. 

But the other day, I found myself driving an automatic car instead of my trusted car. My left foot inched towards the non-existing clutch and found the break instead. Luckily, I was only in a parking lot so I wasn't thrown forward too badly.

After that, however, I kept saying out loud (even though no one else was in the car with me), "There is no clutch. There is no clutch. That is a break, there is no clutch." 

You drive a stick shift and nothing else for months and you'll understand what I'm talking about.