Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now the big 22! It was such a great day!

The roomies and I started out at the farmer's market. I got a Brazilian churro and free vegetables from Rosine.

Kaela and I went to listen to Mike's band and then we met up with a bunch of friends for lunch.

We ended the day with the football game and pizza.

Kimmi made me an awesome cake.

I am so blessed to have such good friends and family around me!

The End

This is my last semester here at USU and I don't know how I feel about it. I love two of my classes, but the other two just don't interest me at all. This semester is going to be long and I wish I was all done, but growing up terrifies me. I am still working on my Taiwan application and I have been looking at a few other grad school programs, but honestly I just don't want to think that far ahead yet! I have decided not to retake the GRE and just apply, I am hoping my letters and personal statement will make up for my lack of an awesome verbal score. I don't have the time to study for it again right now and I really don't want to stress myself out anymore. It isn't worth it to me. I am working through this semester as best as I can, and I hope to rock it!

Laundry

So I am sitting at a laundromat, for the first time in my life, and I have decided that I miss having a washer and dryer. It was nice having it upstairs when I lived in Bullen, in my apartment when I lived in Glenwood, and at the end of the building at Brooklane. Living in a house is super fun....but I miss being able to do laundry. Kate's parents supposedly have a washer for us, but I think it will be awhile before we get it. Laundromats are just kind of weird. I don't think I like them very much.

Summer

School is here and summer is gone.

Here is to:

• The Real game and seeing the boys from home.
• Rafting in Jackson.
• Fireworks in Logan.
• Fireworks in Lewiston.
• Fireworks in North Logan.
• And more fireworks in Logan. :)
• Floating the Oneida Narrows.
• Trisha's wedding.
• Rocking the math on the GRE.
• Moving into a house.
• BBQ's at the Needham's.
• Parties at the Needham cabin.
• Bonfires and burning the Love-O-Meter.
• Hanging with McKayla for a week.
• Scrabble matches.
• Drive-In Movie.
• Fishing.
• Bear Lake.
• Boating.
• Harry Potter.
• Making new friends.
• Geo-Caching.
• Washington for Kimmi's graduation.
• Shopping and Temple Square with the fam.
• Willow Park Zoo.
• Night Hikes and exploring Logan Canyon.
• Sunday walks.
• IKEA.
• Mountain Man Rendezvous.

Summer 2011 was good to me.

I am sad that it is now gone.

New Stuff

I am writing this post from my new best friend.

Yes. That is right.

I finally bought a new computer.

It is a Macbook Pro and I love it.

A lot.

The End of My Childhood

I have grown up with Harry Potter.

I remember reading the first book when I was in fifth grade and I loved it.
The books have always had a special place in my heart and I think it sometimes makes the movies a little frustrating for me.
But I have to admit, this last one was great.
They did such an excellent job tying everything up; it was fulfilling.
My eyes were closed for at least a third of it, dang Nagini! That snake gave me the chills.

We went down to Ogden because we didn't want to have to sit and wait all day.
Oh the joys of assigned seats.
And our seats rocked!

Brent. Brooke. Me. and Our girl Andi.

Andi and Lord Voldemort.

Our awesome costumes. Thank you Dumb for thinking of Pooh and Tigger. And thank you Needham family for letting us borrow them.
(In case you are super confused, the Winnie the Pooh movie came out this weekend as well and we were too cheap to make HP costumes.)

So long Harry Potter, thanks for making the last 10 years of my life amazing!

Gotta Love the River!

So here I am on a Saturday night, blogging instead of doing something crazy... but I think I need a break from crazy. Especially after today.

Up past Preston there is a river called the Oneida Narrows that is very popular to float down on tubes. I did it two summers ago and it was really fun. So today, Kaela, Karen, Alyssa and I decided to go floating. We got up there, put on our sunscreen, and were ready for some fun!

It is about a two hour float if you start from the very top and even though there are little rapids along the way, for the most part, it is a pretty relaxing ride.

So we are going down the river and we come to a fork. Kaela and I go left, Alyssa and Karen go right. Once we get to the end where the two reconnect, Kaela and I keep going and the other two are nowhere in sight. I guess the shallow water and bottom caused the little air openings to come undone and she had to stop to re-inflate her tube. They eventually caught up to us and at one part Alyssa even flipped out of her tube, but was able to get back on.

Now here is the fun part (yes, that is total sarcasm). We were coming up a long set of rapids and all of a sudden I realized my tube was going flat, and fast. I didn't have time to get over to the side, so I hung on to what was left of my tube and took the rapids with my body.

It hurt. Really bad.

I tried to find the bottom so I could stop myself by standing, but it was too deep. Then I would hit another rock and fumble around trying to find something to stop myself and then it would be too deep again.

I was so scared! But surprisingly calm. I am a confident swimmer and I knew that panicking would only cause me to drown. I figured as long as I kept my head up and didn't hit it, I would be fine.

I caught up to Karen and tried to get on her tube with her but didn't have the strength or footing to pull myself up. So the next rapid came and once again I bounced from rock to rock. Karen ended up falling out too and for a minute I thought we were both in trouble.

She was able to get back on and by this time, the rapids were pretty much done so I was able to swim over to Kaela and Alyssa and we got out on the side. A very nice family was fishing right where we got out and they drove me down to get my car.

The whole mess really happened in less than five minutes, but it felt like forever. I now have really nice scrapes all up my legs and on my feet, as well as my arm and my behind. I am sore, but I am alive and happy. My tube has a huge gash in it. I guess I feel better knowing that it really did pop, rather than going through all of that just because it came undone and let the air out. But I really don't ever want to do that again. I like floating the river, but next time I am getting a higher quality tube, I think it might be worth the extra $10.