where does the time go?

seriously, i feel like the summer still has months left in it. instead, there are just three short weeks between me and the beginning of a semester that i won't be participating in. maybe that's why i'm so lost. summer blends straight into fall for me, so there is no clear deadline for fun in the near future. my summer break extends clear into the fall break for my siblings.

so, where has the time gone? we made a weekend out of a stay in Grace, Idaho {aka the perfect small farming community.} i personally had a blast! we drove down friday night after show a few weeks ago and slept all over Momma Brady's house and lawn. we woke up the next morning to Momma Brady's delicious breakfast burritos and the discussion about some mexican salsa/pico de gallo. most of us spent the day wandering around Logan. i had some errands to run, so i went and saw Grandma Allen while i was there {but mostly to go shopping at Casa de la Grandma.}

once most of us were back from Logan, we helped Momma Brady with some outside chores as payback. because 20 hands make much lighter work than the two she was working with. ;) after the ground was good enough that she could lay seed, we went and did the only fun things to do in Grace: flooming and jumping at 60. what is that, you may ask? flooming is dangerously riding down the canal water down a floom {picture a slide suspended 200 feet above the river, and you have enough of an idea to get it} and then skipping across rotting boards laid along the top of the floom. jumping from 60 is about what it sounds like: jumping from a rock that extends over a spot in the river that is 60 feet deep. it was high enough, i probably could have attempted to tuck and roll, but i didn't get up the nerve to. a perfect summer bar-b-que and a sketchy game of kick the can later, we played a Bourne movie outside. one of those picturesque summer days full of dumb things you will probably never forget.

update on the love life: still sucks. Great Cuddler's missionary came home and i've been trying with futility to try and play it off cool. one of the girl's that i work with and Great Cuddler had a little stint, but they both agreed that it wasn't going to work and he apologized for dating someone after promising me that he wasn't going to date anyone because of the aforementioned missionary. a few weeks later, i get another cowboy to cuddle with. let's call him Cuddle Slut. he admits to it, so i don't feel bad about calling him one. Cuddle Slut is fantastic at the cuddle game. so good that i fell asleep in his arms for a solid week straight. no judgement needed. it was fantastic and i loved it. but then he stopped and we haven't cuddle since. so, please no judgement.

i got to ride a horse! and best thing about it: i got to do it for free! the resident Buckskin and i went on our day off and it was great. besides the saddle soreness that i had for the next three days. the views were amazing and the horse i had was pretty good. he seemed to really like the vegetation, but what horse doesn't?! let me just say, A-OK Corrals is the place to call up for a horseback-ride in Jackson. #shamelessplug

o yeah, and then this thing called a birthday happened. it's crazy, you wait all summer for one day to come, and then when that day comes, you can hardly believe it. and then the rest of the summer feels like it's running through an hourglass. nineteen was officially the dumbest birthday ever. except for maybe the gifts: birthday breakfast at Bubba's with Great Cuddler's cousin and Track Star {she's pretty much the best runner at ISU and is fantastic}, two new western shirts, a Jackson Hole t-shirt, a random collection of awesomeness from my friends, the most amazing orange Tennessee pants ever!, a "Home" t-shirt that my Momma made me and then a new belt for my new buckle! Momma Heather {the house cook} made me the most delicious Angel Food Cake with a strawberry glaze on it. i literally thought i was going to die of the perfection of it.

this past weekend was the Graves Family Reunion! this year, not at Lake Powell, but at Bear Lake. Grandma and Grandpa are on a mission, so we decided to do the reunion a little closer to them so that they could at least come up for the weekend. originally i was going to ask for the whole reunion off, but i decided to just take friday and saturday. friday i ended up spending as our "teenage outing" and driving around Ogden with Berkeley and Madeline and their EFY friend. it was different, but we had a lot of fun. Olive Garden, crazy selfies as we drove down the highway, and then a little bit of wasting time at Grandma and Grandpa's. i missed the sunny day at the beach, but we had a lot of fun. saturday we went up to Minnetoka Cave and hiked a 888-round trip stair cave route. 40 degrees constantly and up and down through the earth. i was originally nervous about hiking through a cave, but they have rock and metal stairs through the whole thing. we did end up spending a little bit of time on the beach, but unfortunately for me, it was in the evening on an overcast day. we played the cheeto-shaving cream-shower cap game with all the cousins and it ended up in a shaving cream-shoving fight. only a few people ended up with shaving cream in their eyes, but it was worth the little bit of pain. best fun that i have ever started with all the cousins. ;)




  

pinterest addictions

my life is a pinterest addiction. I have so many things pinned (over a thousand) and I have only really used it a little for actual real life problems/crafts/ideas.

this summer, I have decided to try and do what my friend has committed herself to do: do everything she has pinned on her boards. now, this is a lofty goal and there are some things that I can rule out (like my wedding and home based idea board) but I really want to actually use it. make some of those cute skirts, bags and such. actually read those books that I have pinned. build those cute outfits. check those items on my “to do list” off. I really need a buddy to do it with… any takers?

easter

so easter wasnt too special, at least it wasnt too out of the ordinary. i sang in the choir and sang a couple of really beautiful hymns, and then i got to see all the super adorable Easter dresses of my friends (mom and dad decided a couple of years ago that we would do away with the Easter presents because they distract from the true meaning of the season: Christ's glorious resurrection.) we went to a friends in the neighborhood for a lunch and Easter egg hunt. it was a lot of fun to hold my neighbor's beautiful little Joe. hes like 6 months old and he is soooo cute. hehehehe me and little kids are soo meant to be. but Happy Belated Easter!

yet another childhood flashback

so my brother and sister found me and Rachel’s old Autumn Harvest dolls. (they are like American Girl dolls, but not). and they really wanted to dress the dolls up in the outfits that fit them. so I spent about a half hour racking my brain to remember where I put the dolls and which outfits fit which doll (because Julie got an American Girl doll from a friend and the outfits are just slightly larger, so they don’t fit quite right) and what the outfits even were. but they loved it, and surprisingly, Spencer and Christian were even into it. they were trying to decide which outfit went with a little camping set that we have. it was pretty funny.

but that just reminded me of all the endless hours me and Rachel spent doing the exact same thing: fighting over whose doll got to wear which outfit, who got to brush their hair first and which doll got to do the honors of being the one to sleep on the hammock overnight. those were the simple days hahaha before we all worried about cell phones and whether a certain someone liked us back or iPods and such.

I WANT THE GOOD TIMES BACK

trek

youth conference is summer is a TREK!! for those of you that may not know what a trek is, it is a three to four day journey pulling a handcart about 4-5 miles everyday. by hand. in the middle of June. dressed as pioneers (aka those in the c. 1850’s).  near Pickett State Park.

for those of you, again, who don’t know what Pickett State Park is like, it is full of bugs and the humidity levels are atrocious. the dress is going to be exciting, but its also a lot of layering. in humidity. it definitely is going to be a challenge to keep hydrated. I hope we can bring a jug or something… because heat exhaustion really isn't on my list of things to learn about this year at youth conference.

but I am super excited about this trek. its going to be AWESOME!!! sleeping underneath the stars, acting like a Saint for a couple of days, spending time with some awesome people and of course strengthening my testimony. who wouldn’t love an experience like that?

my dress

this is my dress. I wore it last Friday and got loads of compliments. I absolutely love the thing. the pockets are amazing cuz you don’t have to carry around your phone in your hand of jacket! ahahaha I think I might make a floor length one with contrasting colors like the other floor length dress I have… hmmm next time we go to joanns, that’s what im getting! haha :)

this is just a new picture of me. I figured its been awhile since I put a picture of me on my blog…

sewing project #3

this is my newest sewing project. i started and finished it in the past two days. i did most of it myself, with the exception of the gathering. my mom gathered and pinned the skirt graciously. (thanks mom!) other than that i did everything else by myself. i put the side zipper, the pockets, the hook and eye and the hem in by myself. the pattern is roses, with brown centers. it doesn't look like it the picture, but its pink.

i am super excited about it. i just have to figure out what to wear it with. find a pink shirt to match? or find brown leggings and wear it with a brown shirt? or just wear it with a white shirt?? these are my questions. but im excited about it none the less. another sewing project that i did all by myself with a little help from my mom.

im super excited about the fact that i did the zipper once and it worked with a minor adjustment at the top. first timers luck my mom says. or maybe its just the way that the pattern had you put the zipper in. i don't know.

christmas and the new year

christmas was a success and a fairly small ordeal this year. my parents have been budgetting for the house so the gifts were small but homemade. the only really super big gifts given this year were the trampoline that my grandparents "bought" for us (they sent us a check and we bought it with the deposit) and my dad's router that santa got for him. the family got like 6 new movies (3 of them that we watched before lunch time!), two new games and then of course the trampoline. i got some new gloves, some waterproof playing cards (ive been asking for them for like ever!), the first three Percy Jackson books (rachel got the last two), a new wallet, a handy case for my Walkman, a rifle for colorguard (im soo excited!!!), and then an umbrella. but the umbrella has a story:

opened my gift from santa and was excited, my OWN umbrella, but then i was prompted to open the umbrella upside down. turned out that santa made it rain money! in between each individual prong, was a five dollar bill. so if you counted thats five prongs, so ten bills x five bucks = $50!! yep, i was allowed 50 dollars to go and spend on clothes that were badlly wanted and needed, mind you. monday i went and shopped the after christmas sales with rachel and i purchased a waist belt, a flowly sweater, and two new pairs of jeans (thank you old navy and jcpenney's!!) after our excursion, i then went to oldnavy.com and spent an addition 30 dollars on some fashionable scarves that were not in the store. they arrived thursday afternoon which is impressive seeing how i got the cheapest shipping (5-7 days). rachel was a little upset because she ordered a dress from downeastbasics.com on christmas that took until friday to show up. she was a little mad when i showed her my scarves to say the least. hahaha :)


the new year has been good to me so far. i spent the count down to the new year talking to my friend-boy that i would really like to be my boyfriend but there are age requirements on my side that prohibit that until my 16th birthday. haha cant wait for that! im only 6 months away from it! the old year was not exactly. the day before new years eve i was supposed to babysit this adorable little girl from the neighborhood while her parents went to a bowl game in nashville. unfortunately i got sick an hour before the job started and was forced to pass it to my sister. ugh i was soo not happy about doing that. but i didnt want to take the chance of getting her sick as well. luckily after a long, needed nap i felt better and was able to help in laying the hardwood in kitchen addition.

thats right! you heard me right!! the boxes that have been stacked in the living room for about a year, have finally been ripped open and the glue/sealant has been bought and both have been ripped into as we have started applying hardwood to the entire downstairs. as of the moment we have successfully floored the kitchen and family room and have crossed our way into the entry way and our small hall closet. we are down to the bottom of our fifth! (yes 5th!!) 5-gallon bucket of sealant/glue and are going to have to scrap to finish whats left of the hallway. needless to say, my father will be purchasing about three more buckets at lumber liquidators in the next couple of days. we still have about 15 boxes left of hardwood to use in the dining and living rooms that my dad thinks we wont need. we will just see how far they get us. it officially looks like we are moving if you are to look in through the downstairs windows, and taking everything with us. we have evacuated every piece of furniture, accessories, and more into the garage, fruit room, mud room, and shop as possible in order to make the rooms scarce and easy to empty when we shift rooms. needless to say, the house is an udder pig stye as me, my mom and dad, and rachel work our tails off to finish as much as possible before my dad goes back to work tomorrow. but unfortunately, that wont work seeing how we are down to the bottom of the glue. we will have to resume work tomorrow.

in the mean time, im getting ready for school! i cant believe im saying this, but im getting tired of the break! all the house work and the mindless hours of sitting down doing nothing are killing me and i cant wait to have something productive and educational to do. that is my life!! as you can imagine with all the house work, my social life has been paused in order to help, so i cant wait to see all my friends again. yipee!!


umm new years resolutions.. earn so mula! be more loving and helpful; make a list of things i will need for college and work on the little things (sheets, a quilt, a scrapbook of memories, my own clothes [none of the sharing business anymore], a cookbook, and things like that); get another honor bee (i had my interview yesterday and im getting it presented next week! im ecstatic! i finished the book of mormon on friday); and maybe build up a library of books for the college life. who knows its all news to me!

thursday begins the new semester for school and i will go into honors chemistry, lifetime wellness, accounting one, and concert band. wellness is like health and gym combined, so its pretty much a joke. and chemistry is going to be interesting, but seeing how i had algebra two last semester its supposed to be easier. (hopefully!!!)

thanksgiving weekend

this thanksgiving the school board decided to be nice and give the kids wednesday through friday off. thank goodness.

wednesday we didnt have any mutual so rachel snapped the opportunity to have a party. a just-for-the-heck-of-it party. we ended up having two dozen people show up to the house at one point and we had a lot of fun. we played catch phrase, capture the flag, mafia (upon popular request *cough*cough* **barrett** *cough*cough*), and then we settled down with The Princess Bride. yes possibly the greatest movie of all time... and ive only seen it three times. i know i know what a shame...

thanksgiving was a blast. the church girls got together to play powder puff football at the high school and it was a lot of fun. we were playing touch until becker showed up with flags which turned out to be soo much better. our team turned out to be significantly better at defense than offence. what a shame. ahaha but we still had fun. we had a family friend the raineys over for dinner and some horse play aka motorcycle riding for the little boys and some chatting for the female. hahaha sadly i must admit that the tom boy came out in me and i spent my time watching the rainey boys race around our yard on a couple of small motorcycles. soo adorable. hahahahahaha then we went for dessert to the giacalones and we were going to play games but that didnt work out hahaha too much chatting going on. plus too many people.


and lets see. whats left for this post? o yes! a list of thankful fors....

so i am thankful for...

this little goober that is a ball of laughter and fun one breath

and a raging tyrannt the next

but that is the fun part. always living on your toes

this little girlie who refuses to be called our little sister

and wants to be seen as my equal and nothing less

i just hope that she continues with her persistance

this little sweetheart who is the sweetest little girl ever.

she reminds me of rachel somedays so much i almost call her that.

shes adorable and the sweetest little mommy's helper ever.

this goofball i get to call my twin sister.

shes a freakball sometimes but my best friend too.

the coolest girl EVER

the oppurtinity to build onto our house.

i was trying to find a picture of the back of the house,

put that didnt work.

these amazing people. they are the greatest parents ever.

and the greaest role models. thanks so much mommy and daddy

the great moments in life like this. father and son bonding time...

even if the son doesnt enjoy it as much

nature.

the beautiful moments that can only be caught with a camera or your eyes

this goofball of a brother.

love the kid to death.

he should be a drama kid hes that funny

this little cutie.

he is a little boy who knows what he wants in the world.

even if hes about ten years too early :)

the gospel. for the standards it has set me with.

for the beautiful reading that it has filled my life with.

for good books that my mom has helped me choose.

as well as my grandmas.

a warm bed to sleep in.

even if i hardly ever make the thing.

make up and a toothbrush.

what would i do without hygiene.

for clothes! what a blessing

technology. if it is too slow for my liking sometimes.

shoes. boy o boy do i take them for granted.

and then friends. but i dont have a picture of that. hahaha there are too many friends to count and put into one picture. love you all

i think that is all. if i havent thought of it assume im thankful for it. unless its something like war... then its questionable. hahaha :)

band banquet number uno

amazing. the only word that truly describes the atmosphere and events of last night. the band has an annual banquet at the end of the concert season and that is were the directors give out superlatives and awards and the parents of Micheal David Greene present a couple of seniors with a scholarship in his name. if you want to know more about the scholarship, click here. This year my mom made my dress cuz we figured that it would be cheaper to make the dress and get all the sewing necessities for it, than to go and try to find a dress that would be modest and appropriate for the occasion. ill try and get a picture of the dress and me in it, on the blog soon.

after the "ceremony" was over, the directors allowed us to have a dance. party!! i enjoyed rockin out with some of my senior friends for the first and last time in some cases. the dj we had was really cool, but he only let some of the songs play for a couple of seconds.. total bummer. he did let us play through a bunch of "line" dances. i use line very lightly because they werent the hoedown throwdown and the cowboy one; they were the cupid shuffle and of course soulja boy. of course lol

we had a lot of fun and i look forward to the next one. but not without all my senior friends... :(

out with the unused, but not in with the new

in last weeks sunday paper there was an article in there about a family that had given up half of everything they had. they downsized from a three story house to a house about the same size as mine, but a little smaller. they gave away half of their clothes and even decided to give up half of all of their extracurricular activities. and over a year, just through the money they saved on their mortgage payment, they were able to pay for two epicenters in africa and were able to actually go out and see the families and communities that they gave a life back to.

my dad decided it was probably a good thing to do to our house and we decided to go through our closets and donate the clothes that we havent worn in a while, or were to small. me and my sister are now down to the fifteen shirts that we wear regularly and the clothes that are necessary for the upcoming season. my little sister ended up giving like three quarters of the clothes in our closet just because they didnt fit her or she didnt like them, or she was never going to fit her. but know i want to give them to those in haiti. but i dont know of anyone that is taking clothes for them. i guess that something i'll be doing to fill this otherwise empty, day. :)