waterfall adventure.

I went on a very good adventure yesterday.
Sarah and Alex let me tag along.
After Sarah got off work we made our way up to the waterfalls in Willard. We didn't know where to go but we found the trail quick enough.

Everything was going pretty smoothly once we got past that first initial climb (Sarah, it really wasn't THAT bad!).
But then Sarah spotted something moving way up above one of the waterfalls. We thought it was a cougar but we weren't sure so we kept going. It was really far away anyway.
Our next challenge came when we reached the stream...wait, the river. I'm going to call it a river because stream just doesn't do it justice. We had to cross if we wanted to keep going. And the only way we could get across was by jumping onto a rock that was sitting in the middle and then wading to the other side. The water was freezing cold, it was deep and it was going way too fast. Me and Sarah sat there forever trying to decide what we wanted to do. I told them to go on without me. I'm not much of a jumper. Alex had already made it across and told us to stop being babies. We looked everywhere to see if there was a different way. Sarah went downstream while I tried my skills at rock climbing, but our attempts were to no avail.

Finally Sarah had a brilliant idea! We made our own bridge! We found a log downstream, pulled it out of the river and carried it back up the trail. And it worked! We were able to get onto the rock! Then poor Alex had to carry me and Sarah on his back from the rock through the freezing cold water to the other side of the river.


Speaking of the river, we found this guy by the river.

He was cute. I would've liked to meet him but he was on the opposite side. I think he would've liked to meet me too.

It was so pretty once we finally made it up there! Very much worth the hike. I only wish we would have been able to get closer.




I want to go hiking again.

selling textbooks can be dangerous.

So embarrassing things happen to everyone on a periodic basis, right? Like, say if you haven't had anything embarrassing happen to you for a few months, you know you're in for something sometime soon, right?

Well, I had my moment today.

Today had been great. I got to crochet and watch the Tale of Despereaux (which is so cute, by the way), catch up on Grey's anatomy, eat peanut m&ms and make a little money thanks to my textbooks and amazon.com.
And that is what caused my accident. Selling textbooks on Amazon.
You see, I was getting the package ready to send and I was in a hurry since the post office was going to close in about 30 minutes. So I'm in the house getting everything together when I realize that I left the packaging tape out in my car. So I run down the stairs and make my way to the front door. As I'm flying down the stairs I'm thinking to myself, "Why don't I just finish getting it ready and then I can just tape it up when I get to the post office?" As I throw the front door open, my brain is telling my feet two different things. It told my left foot, "Nah, just go get the packaging tape now. Might as well...you're halfway to your car already." And it told my right foot, "Yeah, turn around and finish getting the package ready. You can tape it up at the post office."
I'm sure you can imagine what happened next.

Next thing I know, I'm flying through the air, arms flailing. I trip on the first step and am airborne for what seemed like forever. Then I hit the next two steps and skidded to a halt on the grass. Yes, skidded.
Now, it really wouldn't have been that bad had all the neighbors not been outside doing yardwork. And had the cars not been driving by.
But they were.
Now did anyone see? Probably so. But I wouldn't know. I jumped up just as fast as I tripped and ran back into the house. My knees and legs had been skinned and so had the knuckles on my right hand. Blood was pouring down my right leg. But it didn't hurt, I didn't feel any pain...not right then.
The stinging and burning didn't start until awhile later...after the embarrassment wore off.

Three hours, two monster bandages and a lot of neosporin later, I'm feeling good.
And just so you know, I still made it to the post office in time. :]

Well hopefully this means I'm free of embarrassing moments for at least another couple months.

xo.

ps. I'd love to hear someone else's embarrassing stories. Just to make myself feel a little bit better.
Please entertain me.

neverland, please.

Um yeah, this is my first time ever participating in a challenge blog. I always check them out but have never actually done anything. When I saw that this one was inspired by Peter Pan I couldn't resist. I had actually just watched Peter Pan the day before (because I'm cool like that :] ...disney movies rock!) and was feeling particularly inspired.

Anyway, this is my take on the challenge:

this calls for a celebration!

I passed my boards today! Once I get the letter in the mail and pay for the license I will officially be ARRT certified.

Right when I walked out of the testing center I wanted to throw my arms up in the air and run around screaming.

But I restrained myself.

Until I got in the car. :]

Andy sent me flowers yesterday for good luck. They're beautiful and bright. They're just what I needed. They totally cheered me up.I swear, nothing could ruin this day.

mmmm...sunshine.

Today was perfect. I spent the afternoon sitting outside in the grass. It was wonderful. The sunshine and warmth was very much needed.

I finished my baby blankets and burp cloths this weekend too. My mom bought the fabric for me a LOOOOONG time ago and I'd been slowly working on them. This weekend I finished the airplane set. They're my favorite. :]

I don't have much else to say. All I know is that I can't wait for this week to be over! I take my boards this Friday and I just want to be done! Ah! I'm so nervous! Once I'm done with the boards I'll be worry-free until school starts again in the fall.

Wish me luck!

xo.

happy birthday mom!

I love you!

happy friday!

Well well well...its been awhile since I've shown this blog some love.

First off, I just have to say that Google Reader is the best.

I'm in love with this man's artwork.

I love this swimsuit that I just got yesterday!
And sketchbooks rock. I just bought like four of them and I guarantee I'll use them right up. Right now, I'm using one for my quote/picture book. I love quotes and I've had the hardest time finding a fun way to keep them (somewhat) organized. This sketchbook does the trick.

I just mod-podged some paper on the front and covered the spiral binding with some fabric and voilà! I love it!

Also, as of late, I've been obsessed with fabric. After much contemplating, I ordered this fabric that I've been in love with and I about DIED when I went to the mailbox today and found it waiting for me! Seriously, I've been in love with the Heather Ross Mendocino collection since it first came out. I finally splurged and bought enough of it to make a quilt with. I can't wait!
I had to control myself so I wouldn't buy anymore fabric...this store has the cutest fabric!
And can I just say that getting packages in the mail is the best! Its like Christmas all over again!

Well I'm out!

I'll leave you with my new favorite song at the moment!



i want her dress.
and i want to dress up in balloons
and white tights
and dance around in clouds of colored smoke. :]

Have a fabulous weekend! :]

spring break

Spring break is always a wonderful time of year. But this one didn't start out so good. 15 inches of new snow. Serious. But its finishing up rather nicely. Its pretty warm today. My brother and I went and played tennis and it felt so good to soak up some of that warm happiness. And good news: This week is supposed to bring us some more.
Now for even more good news: I'm finished with my clinical hours. And the very first thing I did was paint my fingernails bright red! We can have our fingernails painted while at the hospital but the polish can't be chipped. So of course I don't even attempt. My fingernail polish chips within the first two minutes of painting them. Anyway, now that my clinicals are done I have an extra twenty four hours a week. That is a whole day! I've been using my time wisely by placing at least two hours aside each day for some studying and flash-card-making time. I'll take my boards either the last week in April or first part of May so I've got to get cracking down on that studying. I don't want to deal with the procrastination or last-minute-cramming.
Besides studying, I've done some deep cleaning in my room. Some spring cleaning. And boy, have I gotten a lot cleaned out, a lot thrown away. I'm almost embarassed to say this but I still had my chemistry and physics workbooks from high school! What I was saving them for, I'll never know.
I've also been using my extra time to work on my art journal, my family history project and other random crafts. Here are a couple pages I did yesterday:

And this is a piece I made that was inspired by the wonderful film The Wizard of Oz. The colors are showing up a little yucky but I promise you there is a green, blue and purple stripe, even though it looks like blue, blue and blue.And this is what I'm going to work on this afternoon:

It is going to be my first attempt at a quilt. I'm so excited! My mom gave me this kit for Christmas and I am so in love with the fabric.

montana

I've been rummaging through old pictures lately. I've been trying to organize and scan them all. Like I've said before, its some big family history project that I'm working on. And its a very, very long, time-consuming process. But I've come across some old pictures that I love and some that bring back so many good memories.
So I'm planning on sharing some of them as I go.

The one from my last post was a picture of wintertime at my grandparent's cabin in Montana. They never would stay up there for the winter. They'd head South in their motorhome until the snow was pretty much gone. Like vagabonds. Oh, what a life!

My grandparents moved from Washington to Montana sometime in 1992.
We'd go up there every summer and spend a couple weeks. The days were long, carefree, and filled with adventure. We'd spend them outside underneath the towering pines. Laying in the hammock. I remember running around barefoot, wildflowers, garter snakes, feeding the deer, hummingbirds, going down to the lake with our picnic lunch, nightly campfires and roasting marshmallows. I'm pretty convinced that they were the best summers of my life. These pictures were taken in 1992. This baby owl had fallen out of his nest. We happened to come across him and I got to hold him before Rick, a nature-wildlife-forest guy who knew exactly what to do, put him back up in his tree.This picture is of a bear that thought he was a bird. Yes, he is just splashing away in the bird bath that is a little too small for him.I love bears.My grandparents moved to Utah in 1999 to be closer to us. It has almost been 11 years since I've been there. I'd go back in a heartbeat if given the chance. Even though I miss it like you wouldn't believe, I feel so fortunate to at least have the memories.

I hope this is what heaven is like.

this place is magical.

I was going through old photos again today.
I came across this one.
And I smiled. It made me really happy.Because yes, this place truly is magical.

More to come.