where we belong...

A couple of weeks ago, it was my Ann Girl's birthday! In honor of the day, we took a trip to the local zoo and partied it up with our animal friends.

Here we are, Ann, myself, and Adam, just chillin' with the elephants.

Monkey-in' around.

This is how we usually look. And that seal was a great bench.

Beautiful creatures.

Oh. My. Gosh.

See? There is a POLAR BEAR RIGHT. THERE.

Also a polar bear made out of Legos. I see what you did there, Coca-Cola.

Animal yoga, partner style.

Or - ANN - gutan!

And these are two of the many reasons why he is my best friend.

We're cute.

the hardest thing...

The hardest thing about being a foster mom for dogs isn't letting them go to new homes. Yes, there are tears shed, but the knowledge that your temporary baby is going to have a wonderful life makes it all worth it.

The hardest thing is not being able to save them all.

Knowing that there are animals who will never have a chance to have a family again, or a family in general, is killing me right now. I'm so grateful that Chels and I were able to take Lily, Bowser, and Teddy, and that we'll be able to provide a temporary home for four other dogs (a mom, dad, and their two puppies) this weekend. I wish, though, that I could do more. Just the thought of these wonderful animals being numbered on a kill list at the shelter makes me want to cry.

If you have room in your home for a foster dog, please take the time to check out Rescue Rovers and give these friends a second chance.

fish-ay, fish-ay...

One of my most proud moments in my life was when I conquered my fear of shoulder-deep water and the possible loss of fingers to sharks and stingrays at the Living Planet Aquarium touch pool. Ever since that day a few years ago, I wanted to go back and visit the little swimming critters.

What's one of the best things about being in a serious dating relationship? You always have someone who is willing to go with you to the random places you find. Like on Saturday.

I feel like we should look more scared right now.

Ermergersh, ERTTERS! Or otters -- probably the best part of the entire aquarium (besides petting the stingray). 

Somethin's fishy... 

Yup! Fishy...sneaky!

me with my stingray buddy (we had a nice conversation) and Adam with his shark friend

Yup. He's adorable. Not to mention he bought me a stuffed otter toy -- we named her Chloe. 

So much fun. I love, love aquariums. I think part of it is because I'm so fascinated with ocean creatures, but I'm terrified of the actual ocean. As in won't go in the water above my ankles terrified. But everything in the ocean? Awesome. As long as I'm not in there with them, I mean.

Aw. That boy. Otter-ly adorable.

my Dana friend...

I had to share this because it is too cute to keep to myself.

My friend and coworker Dana drew this picture for me -- I for one don't find this giraffe ugly at all, and he is now hanging on the wall next to my calendar. He makes me happy every time I look at him. Dana totally made my day!

(And by the way, Dana is the one who named him Steve, not me. She knows me well.)

santa jorge...

Okay, so I actually don't know how to say Saint George in Spanish (I Googled it and got three different ways to say it -- I don't know which one is right) but Santa Jorge is just so much fun to say!

Anyway. Last Thursday through Saturday I went to Saint George with Ann and Brianna. It was sunny and warm (dare I say hot) and beautiful. We found the Walmart, went swimming every night in the waterfall pool, made our own lazy river by running in circles around and around the circular hot tub (hence the circles we ran in), shot the heck out of each other with water guns, drove past the temple a couple of times, went mini golfing, played Deal or No Deal in the arcade, discovered that you can buy ice cream at the Dollar Tree, pretended to be Iron Man (or at least I did) while driving go-carts, made lasagna (frozen...haha) in our hotel room OVEN, took jumping pictures on the hill above the city, made paper cranes at the dinosaur museum, and did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted (except for when we ate breakfast -- you had to do that before 10am).

Here are some photos of the adventure:

Brianna with the lambs at the petting zoo near Scipio (how many prepositions can you use in one sentence, eh). They even had a zebra! It was a little guy.

Brianna's "hole in awesome!" Or in one, if you prefer.

Jumping downhill = a feeling very similar to when you tip your chair back too far and think you're going to die.

 

 

Driving the go-carts...just made it!

lately...

...thinking...
...it's unfortunate that someone so talented as you are can be so unkind. Just because you're one of the big names in the BYU music department doesn't give you a right to treat your students in such a truly rude fashion. That isn't teaching -- teaching is building, not breaking. Build trust, build talent, build excellence -- build people.
...people who are cruel to animals, even mice, make me sick. So sick that yes, I did start to cry during my Stats class today.
...what is it to love someone? Really. What is it?
...I'm not sure why I don't want to talk to people anymore, or go anywhere. It just doesn't appeal to me right now. At all.

...doing...
...why, yes, I did write an 8-page paper on the day that it was due. Happiness for first drafts. Time to revise it.
...wore flip flops to school today. Almost barefoot on a beautiful spring day.
...my dad told me that Pinterest was a waste of time. Then I made German pancakes. He asked me what I'd pinned this week, and if I needed him to go to the grocery store to get anything for a new recipe. #heartDaddy
...despite feeling (dare I say being) very against any social contact with people, I did text Parker last night, and he and I went to a movie. We Bought a Zoo. So cute. Little girl -- beagle -- Spar -- happy soundtrack -- good movie. Best part? Spending time with Parker. Love that guy. Best buds.
...too many bad dreams. Waking up to sunshine is a nice change.

...feeling...
...my Humanities professor said this: "Now, Georgie here really shows her purity and dearness with her comment about how people are all hypocrites but all doing their best despite that. You can tell she's a really sweet, dear girl." Turned a bad day around and I was all glowy inside. Still a little glowy.
...often near tears...not sure why...just the way it goes sometimes.
...back to We Bought a Zoo, let me say that I haven't smiled during a movie so much as I did last night. I've thought about it sometimes today and I just grin.
...tired. Very, very tired.
...empty?



PS Happy Pi Day

gratitude...

I am grateful for friends who...

say hello when they see me coming towards them,

sincerely ask me if I'm doing alright,

provide advice that I might not want to hear even though I need to,

dry my tears,

appreciate that I really am trying my best,

convince me to hang out with them after choir,

wrap me up with them in their jackets when I'm freezing cold,

make me laugh and smile like a maniac with their crazy and silly antics,

nearly tickle me to death while eating lunch at Taco Bell,

share their nachos,

think it's cute and not crazy that I talk to puppies and kittens like I do people,

find my amateur knowledge of betta fish interesting and not nerdy,

smile when I buy special gems for Leonardo's tank,

giggle with me about Captain America,

attack one another with hugs and squeals instead of just saying hello,

scope out the current crush scene,

wait with me to make sure I have a ride,

give wonderful hugs,

encourage me in my goals and dreams,

talk about everything and nothing all at the same time,

apologize for their mistakes and forgive me for mine,

offer to help me get my dress altered for choir,

swap nerdy facts,

call me to share their good news and happiness,

continually inspire me to be better by watching the way they each live.

while you were out...

My aunt sent me this video. I haven't laughed that hard in days.

day 66...

a picture of an animal I'd love to keep as a pet...

Well, the animal that I REALLY want is a beagle. But since this is more of an-animal-you-wish-you-could-have-but-can't, I'm going to go with a sand cat. It is so cute! Look at it! I just want to pick it up and cuddle it.

day 58...

a picture of my favorite animal...

This is a red panda. They don't really look anything like panda bears. They look more like a cross between a raccoon and a koala bear to me. I've loved these little guys since the first time I saw one at the zoo when I was a kid. They're so cute and cuddly, and kind of different, you know? A lot of people have never heard of them, so it's a cool conversation topic when asking people about themselves and favorite animals come up. That happens with me--I'm known for asking strange questions, like this one: 'if you were in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and could only pick one kind of candy to fill a year's supply, what would it be?' or 'you're stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, and you find one, and only one, restaurant--what is it?'. Weird. Anyway, back to red panda bears. They're cute. You should like them. ;)

day 41...

a picture of my pet...
In real life, I have one pet. She lives at my house with me, and I totally adore her. In pretend life (which has been the past week and a half and will last until Thursday [most likely], I have 5 pets and a tank full of fish. Pretend life is me playing house while my friends are on vacation. So all total, I have 6 pets and a fish tank. But that's only pretend life.


First is Misty. She is my sweet little Maltese-Pomeranian-Shi Tzu mutt, or Malteraniantzu, as we call her sometimes. She's the cutest little dog evah. You've heard a bit about her already. While I'm out playing house, she stays home, because a couple of the other pets I have might eat her. Not really, but she's tiny and some of them are rather large.


Second, Meg. She is my pretend life cat (or one of them). Brindled and petite, watch out. She looks innocent, but she's kind of not, especially when one walks past the pantry. Meg is into grabbing ankles and holding on for the fun of it. She's quite the little prankster, but is always ready to show and receive affection.

Third is the ever illusive Crissy, which is why there is no picture of her. She's white most of the time, but she has a habit of rolling in the dirt outside in the garden and so is usually half gray. This cat kind of has issues, aka she often times seems to be in a constant state of PMS. Tread carefully!



Fourth: the always silly, always lovable, juicy-dog Jade the boxer. Juicy because she loves to give kisses. It wouldn't be too bad, if it weren't for the fact that her tongue is the size of the Great Lakes (and just as wet). This dog is slightly dumb, and I'm not joking. She makes up for her ditziness with her fun loving personality, always ready to play or cuddle. Jason is her man, and don't you forget it!


Fifth: Tootsie, the chocolate Labrador with a rather round physique and patient, sweet temperament. All of these qualities hearken back to the Tootsie roll candy, her namesake. Her light brown eyes rimmed in gold and black give her a somewhat wild appearance (especially late at night when she has random spazz attacks of joy and wildness), but she's truly a sweetheart. Don't mess with her kids, though--you've never met a better babysitter.


The sixth member of this strange band is Chessie, Kyle's bird. All I'm going to say is this: I swear this bird hates me.


Last but not least is the fish tank. Complete with eel, little tetras, some kind of flowy black and white fish, a couple of other small fish, and a 23 year old algae eater (the fish is older than Jason), it is quite the hodge podge of scaled water dwellers. The algae eater is the crown jewel: it's huge!! It's circled in red in the picture, and that's only half of it. The rest is behind the rock. Huge. Old. Fish. Yep.

So this is who I spend my time with of late, while I play house and act like a grown up. It's quite fun, actually. I rather enjoy this, me and my motley crew of animals, birds, fish, and the occasional spider (although they are not invited and are eliminated on sight...last night there was a HUGE one and it was terrifying).

day 29...

a picture that can always make me smile...


My sisters and me.

We are crazy.

my happiness for today...

Paste this into your browser and prepare to laugh. Because it truly is so cute.

http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/animals/Cats_Confused_By_Treadmill/#308864

tod(o)ay...

1. Talk to my date (eek!)-check
Oh, Tyler. You're amazing.

2. Order boutonniere/talk to salesperson-check
White rose, green filler, pale yellow and pink ribbon done in double loops

3. Call UVU to drop class/talk on the phone-check
Don't want the class, don't need the class. Yet.

4. Call Mimi's Cafe to double check reservations/talk on the phone-check
On hold for ten minutes with some cool music that I realized kept repeating and repeating and then I started laughing about it. Was still laughing when person came back on the phone. Haha. Oops.

5. Complete 6.5 homework during "House" episode in Health Science-check
I've seen enough of that tapeworm episode to last me a lifetime. Blood, guts, and parasites...barf. I'd rather figure out 5!/3! (not factorials-5 BANG divided by 3 BANG is what my class calls it).

6. Be fought over in ballroom when boys are told to choose partners-check
Hill. Air. Ee. Us. This one deserves a full explanation: Kai (my first date ever [first date anniversary is on Tuesday], whom I asked to Preference sophomore year. they changed the date of the dance to 3 days before my birthday instead of 3 after, so I had to call him and tell him I couldn't go. Instead of being upset, he said that he was proud to have a date who upheld her standards and obeyed church guidelines no matter what [no dating before the age of 16-it's a Mormon thing]. SO...he took me out for my birthday. we went to see "Dan in Real Life" and then got ice cream at Coldstone. good times. :) ) wanted to ask me to dance in class today. So did Alex (Tony's younger brother). Kai got there first. Alex got "mad". Kai danced with me. Alex stole me the next time. Kai vowed to dance with me again. Alex told Kai he'd have to get through him first. I stood there laughing while another boy came and asked me to dance. Epic. Never thought it would happen to me though. That's for pretty, popular, skinny girls. Weird. Lol.

7. Sing "The Star Spangled Banner" at a wrestling match-check
Mitch, one of my choir friends, asked me to sing at the Varsity match because last time the person "made my head hurt". No pressure, I guess. I think it was all right. Still have problems with coming down from the higher note to hit the word "gave" properly, but apparently only I even notice.

8. Start to clean room and then...fail-check
Yeah.

9. Hear about Zach's role of Schroeder in "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and call him-check
I adore this boy. He's the coolest of the cool, and I'm so excited for him!! BFF or I'm suing. ;)

10. Try to be friends with friends again-check
It's working okay.

11. Random animal of the day: JORILLA!!
It's a game that my friends Alexis, Sarah, me, and sometimes Jasmine play together. We post a random animal each day on one another's Facebook profiles. Today I thought of two at the exact same time: jaguar and gorilla. It just came out Jorilla. I do not want to see what that would look like. Spaztastic much? I think so. :P

12. Do laundry-not so much of a check, but we'll count it
Kind of sort of enough to say I did some, yes?

13. Nap-check
:)

14. Kissing dream-check
FOURTH ONE IN A ROW. It's driving me insane. And I can never see who it is (actually that's a lie, I saw the last guy and right when he kissed me my alarm clock went off. I was so mad-I wanted to hit him-lol), but I always smack whoever it is then wake up. Grr...bugging me.

15. Space heater-check
My room is no longer a walk in freezer. It's the coldest room in the house this year (weird), so we moved the space heater from the living room into my room and took the spare one from upstairs into the living room. Now most of the house is warm again, and I actually woke up too hot instead of half frozen. Sweet.

16. Exercise-check
Too much. 1 hour + 20 minutes "Grease" in 1st period. 1 hour + 20 minutes in ballroom. 1 hour + 2o minutes calisthenics/yoga/Pilates/aerobics/Tai Chi in Health Science to show us what sort of things we can do to get our points for the physical fitness assignment. 3o minutes of "West Side Story". Total = 4 hours + 30 minutes. I'm really, really tired.

That was today's to do (hence the tod(o)ay). Planned or unplanned, it got done. :)

say cheese...

This little guy, or Mojo, frequently stopped at my campsite when I was at Mia Shalom. You could generally predict his arrival at mealtimes. Here he is after everyone had left for their hikes, feasting on a forgotten slice of cheese. Cute, isn't he? Or she. I never can tell with birds.

I read three books today. Impressive, isn't it? AND I found out that school doesn't start until August 20th, two days later than I had originally thought. Yay. I hate school. You'd think I love it from all of the classes I'm constantly taking, but, no. No, no. I really despise it. I just go because it gives me something to do and half the time it's "da yaw." Or the law. I used to say da yaw when I was yittle. :)

I'll post about Saturday's adventures (and early Sunday morning's) tomorrow. I need to go to bed now; mom has decided we need to start getting up at 8:00 instead of 9:00 to get ready for school. Ugh.

BYE!

21 hours later...

I planned on posting as soon as I arrived home from camp (after showering and starting laundry, of course) yesterday, but things didn't work out that way. After lunch provided by mom, I went into my room to take a short nap. The time was 1:00 in the afternoon.

10:00 in the morning today on Sunday, or 21 hours later, I woke up. That is why I didn't post anything yesterday. So, without further adieu, we will begin. This could take more than one day, because getting up at 6:00 in the morning and going to bed at 12:00 makes for a very long day. In fact, I won't start until later today. Right now it will just be my Camera Critter. :)


This is Slick, our resident Gold-Mantled Squirrel, not to be confused with the chipmunk. Slick was great at picking up crumbs, but he sometimes got in the way. I was sitting at one of the camp tables eating a granola bar, and he came around to pick up after me. He was getting two or three inches away from my foot-he must see so many campers that he's not afraid anymore. I shifted my position a little bit to get more comfortable and all of the sudden I heard an awful shriek. I looked down to see where it was coming from, and there was Slick, pushing against my foot. I had accidentally set my foot down on top of his tail. Poor thing; he was stuck! I let him go with an apology, after which he ran up a tree and began to berate me for several minutes. Still he didn't leave, and spent five days gorging himself on our forgotten crumbs. Slick will definitely have a good winter.

provo canyon adventure...

Since losing our little friend, my family and I have been making an extra effort to help Misty out. She's kind of lost herself. Buddy was her best friend, and she sometimes will be looking for him or sitting out in the yard staring at his favorite place to lie down. So, we decided that it was time to get out of the house and take her somewhere new.

Last Saturday we took a trip up to the Provo River Falls, way up the canyon on the way to Mirror Lake. It's one of my favorite places in the world, and was one of Buddy's favorites too. Misty had never been there without him, and I hadn't either. It was strange, but it was a good place to think and get things straightened out in my head. Here's a bit of a glimpse of our trip:

We stopped at the Fish Hatchery, mostly because I was so car-sick that I could hardly move. There was no one there, no tours going on, and not very many fish. So, Misty led the way to a wooden deck overlook. She was quite interested in the small, brown rock-chucks and red-winged blackbirds that were scampering about the ground and sky. See all of those little brown dots in the second picture? Rock-chuck playground!





I have been to the falls five or six times in my life, and never has the water been this high. It was kind of a bummer because we couldn't wade very far in, but it was exciting because it means that the drought is over! Utah has been in a drought for about ten or eleven years. This is the first year we've actually had our reservoirs and rivers full to the brim.





Misty wasn't phased by the high water. Once she saw me and Mandy up to our knees in the water, she took it upon herself to rescue us. The only problem was that the water was much colder than the little puppy expected. Here she is after her first shocking leap into the river. Smile pretty, baby!

wet...

It's rained most of the day today. I like it, but I sort of miss the sunshine. I have to really focus on not feeling down, and if a few rays slip through the clouds I find a way to soak them up.

My hair's wet, too. Being clean is great and it feels way good, but sometimes I just dread stepping into the shower and getting wet. I wonder why that is.

My sister, mom, and I went to the Teddy Bear Picnic today at the library. It was cute, but most of the magic has disappeared. It's like trying to play dress-up, house, or Cowboys and Indians. It just doesn't have the same feeling as it did when I was younger. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to remember how to be a princess or a school teacher.

Anyway, the teddy bears and friends visited the Emerald City, with tales of dragons and hippogriffs, frogs and princesses, bubble gum and contests. There were little kids dressed up in costumes; monkeys, lions, tin men, witches (good and bad), red shoes and gingham dresses, Munchkins, even a scarecrow with straw for a brain. No Totos though. I wish we could have brought Misty; she'd have done wonderfully.

I forgot my teddy. I was very sad-I wanted to bring Charlene, Sonya, and Cowboy to see the fun. Probably a good thing that I forgot though; I'd look silly with three teddies and me looking like I'm in college (to some people).

Blegh. Wet hair!

polka-dotted...

There comes a time in life when I copy the actions of one of my dear friends. I look in the mirror, throw my hands up in mock despair, and cry "AH! I'm all POLKA-DOTTED!"

It's true, really. Some days you just look like a dot-to-dot coloring page. Beware the child with the permanent marker; it'll just make things worse.

Have you ever noticed how schools run their heating and cooling systems? In the winter it's freezing cold outside, and inside all of the students have fallen asleep at their desks dripping sweat from the brows like wilted roses in a garden at 95% humidity. In the summer, it's burning hot outside, and inside all of the students have teeth chattering in their heads like jackhammers until the point that their brains no longer function and they can't hold a pencil straight. Can't we just find a happy medium?

Yes, ESHS was freezing, freezing, freezing cold today. And this winter, MVHS was burning, burning, burning hot. Except for the days that it was freezing in the wintertime. That was joyous. I wonder if ESHS will get burning, burning, burning hot this summer, too. Hm.

Buddy is much improved. The vet still hasn't diagnosed him with anything serious yet; the man said that he wants to let things play out and see how Buddy does. I'm so glad Buddy's himself again. There are things that are hard for him, like jumping onto beds or into the car. We have to pick him up and help him, but it's better than him not being able to walk or stand. He's eating his and Misty's food again, which is good because he's hungry but bad because he's really not hungry for hers-he just wants it because he's the "alpha." Silly, really. That's how it goes though.

I'm really rambling, aren't I? I 'spose it's because I have a lovely essay waiting for me to pick it up, and I'm not particularly interested in giving it a lift. It'll just have to remain stranded until morning, unless it sprouts legs in the night and tries to strangle me. Frightening, that.

Ta.

tastes like...

I will forever think that Tiger's Blood sno-cones taste like cherry and vanilla. Is that what it is? I can't tell-they just taste good. I'm currently eying (eyeing? eye-ing?) my historical fiction assignment (which has actually been on my to-read list for some months and i'm thoroughly excited) while chewing on my yellow straw and thinking about how great it is to be alive. My schoolwork is easy, I don't have to get up early, I've got a license and access to a car, it's sunny and warm, my dog is doing better, I have great friends and family. To top it all off, I have a loverly first sno-cone of the year in my now freezing hand. *sigh* Life is good.

I spent a few hours running around ESHS trying to figure out all of my schoolwork and my sister's. She's horribly nervous about this new packet thing. Don't know why. One of the teachers even asked me if Meghan ever talks. When I said no, Meghan just smiled and nodded her head. What I meant was that she doesn't talk to adults/strangers/teachers/kids her own age/anyone. At home she won't shut up. She's getting settled in though. Science is beginning to make sense again! As for me, I wrote a really, really good essay (seriously, it was), passed my test with an A, and checked out my next packet. Historical Fiction!!! YAY! I'm not being sarcastic, either.

The only bad thing about today was that mom blew up at my youngest sister. She kind of deserved it, but I don't think mom handled it very well. This time I kept my mouth shut until she cooled off, so my head is still intact upon my shoulders. I'm perfectly capable of having sno-cones. :)

Hm. My book wants me to read it. I think I shall. If I don't post later, well, sorry.

Not really.

;)

AAAAHHHH!!!!