we had a tornado drill..

quite frankly, it is concerning to me that brianna even found it necessary to ask this question.

two more things.

number one. my father is so classy he uses a knife and fork even while driving.

okay, not really. but i really and truly love this picture. he's a shockingly good driver while cutting his food.

number two.

this is what i am one hundred percent grateful for:

attached garages.

living in an apartment in the windiest place in the world (that also happens to be freezing cold and snowy), aka rexburg, (and particularly on the top of the hill at the ridge), has opened my eyes to the beauty of attached garages.

and as i got out of the car at 1:30 in the morning when it was c.o.l.d. after driving home from the airport sunday night, i was immediately flooded with the thrill of excitement that i wouldn't have to walk across a snowy, cold parking lot.

freaking love attached garages.

sexy chunk.

that is what i call my baby sister. chunk. it's a long story. she calls me chunk, too. somehow it rolls off the tongue more easily than "bri."

yeah, we don't really get it either.

bri is fantastic. mainly, of course, because she is funny as heck. but also because i frequently walk into her room to find her sitting on her bed doing homework. which is fine...

...but if you're secretive, you can catch her simultaneously checking herself out in the mirror. it's wonderful.

and today we worked out. which, in the winter in minnesota, usually consists of any combination of the following three things: the weight machine, the elliptical, or workout dvds.

with brianna, it usually means workout dvds. she starts by pulling her sweatpants up ridiculously high. (and i mean ridiculously.) then she gets out her weights and starts moving. and, of course, talking back to the workout dvd people. "work it! work it!" they say. "iiiii'm working it!" she says back. "you should feel this one in your hamstrings," they say. "i feeeeel the burn!" she says.

it makes it very, very, very difficult to stay upright and refrain from laughing.

and that, my friends, is why i like my little sister.

it's time to go HOME :)

well.

i'm on the airplane from denver to msp.

i love minnesota.

and i'm very content right now to be watching music and lyrics

and facebook stalking in the sky.

it's a beautiful thing.

now i need to go home.

and i need to eat some fruits and vegetables

and a few home-cooked meals.

((ps i love drew barrymore..

and i wish i had a lisp.)

a flower named millie

eleven days until i can start organizing my room

ten days until idaho

six days until red robin

five days until cristina, bee and i leave for our roadtrip

four days until cristina comes

three days until my last sunday here

one day until mall of america

:)

i can't believe summer is already over. but it's not so bad because a) i looove idaho, and b) the next week is full of only fantastic things. most notably, cristina is flying out here so she can drive the corolla back west with brianna and me since i'm buying it from my parents. it's going to be the most wonderful roadtrip probably ever.

cabin last week.. super fun, as always. and i am crazy about my grandma.

i got on a wave runner for the second time since i was fifteen, when i smashed my head into my best friend's and got knocked out. for some reason those things still terrify me! but i didn't hyperventilate and i drove it for a good four minutes so i'm pretty solid now, right?

we played a ton of games.. that's an understatement, even.

the water was incredible a few of the days.

also i saw a mouse. and it was like one foot away from me. i almost had a heart attack. but we didn't see any bears, which was my dream :( except a wooden one at famous daves :(

since we got home i've been in an arts and crafts mood. namely i've painted the basement and made some notebooks. i'm a pretty big fan of them and would really like a hot glue gun all of my own.

also i miss my fish miracle who is in idaho without me.

that is all.

"how did YOU end up on bottom?"

i just read a quote.

"life isn't short. it's the longest thing you're ever going to do."

true.

i seriously like that quote. a lot. because life isn't short, but the experiences in it are short. that's why one of my biggest goals this summer is to just live in the moment. too often i've spent my life wishing time wouldn't pass so quickly, or wishing that the days on the calendar would fly past faster. but when it all comes down to it, a minute is sixty seconds, every time. and time will pass whether i want it to or not, so living in the moment is my only logical option.

it's been a pretty good week, all things considered.

i slept with brianna when my cousins were here, and it made me realize that sleepovers never, ever, ever get old. we laughed so hard we fell out of bed, which made dad come running up the stairs to check on my little cousins in the next room..but oops, that was just us falling out of bed :-/ no big deal. we still can't figure out how she ended up underneath me, since by all logic she should have crashed on top of me. so that's the puzzle of the week...

i lost my waterskiing mojo but i'm hoping it'll come back asap.

dad crushed his foot under the boat so that was scary but luckily it's not broken..

we went biking in minneapolis yesterday. what an incredibly beautiful city. there are lakes everywhere you look, even in the middle of the city. looking at sailboats on a pristine lake in front of green, green trees in front of the skyline is like nothing else. i like this state. except it's hot. and humid. so that's a buzzkill.

so hot we'll melt your popsiccccle

i sincerely believe that there is nothing more beautiful than a minnesota lake. we went to lake washington today, which is our usual lake. the water isn't crystal clear and every once in a while there are too many boats per square foot. but the trees are such an incredible, vibrant green, and the sky is blue and the clouds are nothing short of picturesque and i love that lake. no waterskiing, but we read and went tubing (for a very short period of time) and ate rainbow twizzlers (which i think it is safe to say absolutely nobody recommends) and it was a good time even though it was hotter than hades. probably literally.

bee and i went running after the lake. it was a fantastic run. the kind that is effortless. the kind where my legs could just keep going and going. the kind that i breathe in and out and in and out and it's not a chore, it's just breathing. the kind that makes me remember exactly why i run. it was great fun.

today i'm just thankful. is that okay, even if it's not thanksgiving? i'm thankful for brianna. i'm thankful for my mom and dad, who sometimes fall asleep holding hands on the back of the boat. i'm thankful for cristina, who is one of my very best friends. i'm thankful for ann and paige and kylie and abel. i'm thankful for zack, who didn't even say anyways the last time i said anyhow. i'm thankful for mint cow tracks ice cream and hot summer days and new cameras and the book of mormon especially mosiah. i'm thankful for driving with the windows down and tithing and air conditioning and sleeping in my own bed for six weeks. i'm just thankful for everything, for the big things and especially for the little things.

"lllaaaaamaaa! it's time for breaaakkfassst..."

i finally found someone who loves the zoo as much as me. of course, she's five, but that's not really the point. brianna and i took the little girl she nannies to the petting zoo today and we just had the best time. except that the llamas there are the strangest looking llamas i have ever laid eyes on so that was concerning.

and bri told me about her trip to tonga for about six hours this morning and it made me a little nostalgic for peru last summer. but mostly it made me glad that i have a baby sister who can lay on her bed with me and ramble on for hours and hours and just have the most fun ever.

grades were posted today and i'm mostly pretty happy about them.. beyond irritated with my spanish teacher who doesn't believe in grades so he just randomly posts grades at the end of the semester and viola! that's what you get. suuper bothersome. but that's okay, i never have to see him again..

it's official, i'm never seeing my rav4 again... sad, huh? i'll miss it. especially cause i like driving stick, a lot. buuut i guess that's okay cause i'll get a new car with wayyy better gas mileage and a functional transmission and a good engine. so that will be a nice change.

i miss my job!!

ummm.. i guess that's mostly all.

"i just wait for the 'yahoo!'"

i love positively everything about summer. but most of all i love waterskiing. and we went last night for my first time this summer. it was so worth the wait. the sun was setting and the water was glass and it was incredible. i'm so happy to be home but i am already counting the days til i go back to school (forty-three).

also, i am crazy about my father. he is the funniest, smartest, wisest, most thoughtful man i know. just for the record.

i love being home with bee. she is my best friend in the whole world and i adore her. yesterday we went on another cub foods run, and i am pretty sure there is nothing more fun than going to the grocery store with my little sister. silly, huh?

and today it's my birthday so i think i might like to turn nineteen today :) i woke up to a smiling bri holding a package from a certain boy that just put a smile on my face first thing. and we had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and i'm just ready to have a fantastic day. :)