Lot's of Stuff

Okay, I've got lots of  things to write about.  And I've got some pictures.  I'll try to remember everything that I've wanted to write, but we'll see.  I think I'll just write a bunch of random things and hope to include everything.

Lindsey, Steve's daughter, came to visit.  She was here for about two days.  She got here on a Wednesday and left Friday night.  On Thursday we went to Disneyland.  It was really fun.  We went on all of the big rides for Lindsey.  She informed us that she does not like the kid rides.  I still do. :) We got there not too early (I don't remember when) and left around dinner time.  It was kind of weird because we always leave after it gets dark.  Plus, it was also a bummer because I was such a grump all morning (seriously, ask anybody in the family and they will tell you how awful I was) and I was in such a good mood by the time we left.  I was skipping and smiling and everything you should do at Disneyland.  It's sad that I couldn't do it in the morning.  I am such a night owl.  I'm always like that at Disneyland. 

I have not gotten any reading done lately.  It's so sad.  I've always been the girl who finishes her book within a week, that picks up the book every spare moment she has.  Well, I haven't been like that lately and I am seriously feeling depressed about it.  It's not that I'm not reading a good book.  In fact this is the second time I've read it so it has to be good.  It's called Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.  I always got inspiration for my stories that I write from reading other stories so I also haven't written anything lately.  I've just been slacking it.  Now that school is out this is the time to do the things that were pushed to the bottom of the priority list during the school year.  The things that weren't as important as math and such.  But all I have done is watched tons of Little House, played tons of Paparazzi (Anna has mentioned that. I am learning Cruella Devil now, though, so I won't play Paparazzi as much) and done a lot of sitting around and thinking, "I should get up and do something."  I just need to tell myself that I can't get everything done and just do what I can.  I seem to also spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself because I can't get everything done.  So, it's this huge cycle that I just need to break.  It reminds me of something in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.  How the dad, Johnny, explains to his daughter that he drinks because he has two children that he can't support because he can't get a steady job.  So, he drinks.  He had this whole long explanation that just made no sense because he can't work to support his family because he drinks, not the other way around.  And speaking of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, I never posted about it.  It was a really good book.  I think overall I really liked  it.  There were just some parts that I really didn't like.  There was an entire chapter dedicated to the rapes in town.  I did not like that part.  But at the same time I found myself quoting that book a lot.  Mom and I will be talking and I'll say, "Well in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn-" because it is so relatable.  There is always something to relate to it.  Do you know what I mean?  It just has a lot crammed into that book.  A lot of good characters. A lot of cool relationships between the characters.  I talked to mom all about how Neeley was different and the same as Johnny.  Sorry, if you don't know who I'm talking about.  It doesn't really matter.  Anyway, I've gotten really carried away, I want to start reading and writing again.  As soon as I finish Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry I want to read the Aragon series.  Is that how you spell it?  Steve's niece mentioned it and it sounded really good.  She was here last Saturday which brings me to...

    Mom and Steve's sealing.  It was so nice.  A ton of Steve's family came.  That night and yesterday for dinner one of Steve's brothers and his fiance came over to hang out, along with his daughter Aubrey and her husband.  Steve's sister Sherri was also here because she stayed here for a night.  Aubrey was here before for one night in March.  She is so fun.  I just love her.  She is way into Disneyland and Harry Potter like we are.  We played Harry Potter Scene It? with her in March and she beat us.  She wore Cinderella glass slippers to her wedding.  She also loves to read.  She came up and sat in my loft to look at all of my books.  Anna and Gracie ended up coming up and the four of us sat up there and talked about books for a while.  She is just the coolest.  Steve's sister Sherri stayed with us for a night and went to church with us.  It was so fun having her here.  She had an ipad and Anna and Gracie really enjoyed taking pictures of themselves with the weird settings.  Some of them changed the color, but most just made your face look all twisted.  We watched Calamity Jane with her last night, which by the way is our latest favorite movie.  We had never seen it before and Steve got it for us for their anniversery because he kind of married us, too. :)  I sing the songs all the time.  I love it. 

I took out my cricut the other day.  It is so not fair that I have a cricut and four fun cartridges and I never use it.  I have a blast every time I do, but it is just such a pain to take it out and put it away.  So, I asked Mom if I could keep it on a table that gets bigger if you pull it out.  So I used it for Father's Day cards, I just did a fun little card yesterday and Anna wants me to help her with a birthday card today.  I'm excited about it.  About using the cricut more, I mean, not Anna's card. :)

So, after I posted about how amazing my scripture study is I kind of slacked a bit.  And whenever I do that I love scriptures more the next time I read them.  But I've noticed that the more days I miss the more I allow myself to miss.  If I'm in the habit and it's been days since I've missed then I don't want to miss any, but the more I miss the less of a deal it is that I do miss.  That's a lot of misses I just wrote down.  But I don't know any other way to say it. 

We have been watching Little House from beginning to end for a while now.  I've talked about how it takes up my time like it's a bad thing, but I love it.  It's so cool to watch them grow up and watch the order that all of the things happened.  We just welcomed James and Cassandra into the fun this morning.  They are both so sweet and fit right into the Ingalls family.  :)

We went to Disneyland with Lindsey, as I said, and I actually bought three things.  I have saved up my money for Disneyland forever.  Since we were in the stores there was so much more that I wanted to buy than I could have.  Before, we could always just come back.  But Mom said that after our passes expire in August that we're going to take a break for a while to try other things.  In the stores I would point to things and say I want to get that sometime and Mom would say, "If we have passes."  That thought just made me so sad.  To not be able to have passes to buy things and see things at Disneyland.  At first the break was for a while.  Then Mom said when she can afford to buy one meal at Disneyland every time we go.  Then she said when Gracie is brave enough to go on all the big rides.  She just keeps pushing it farther and farther away! :(

This is a glass cube that has engravings on the outside so you can see the picture when you look at it.  The corner on the bottom is flat so when you turn it there are three different pictures on three different sides.  Get it?

Sorry, they're not the best pictures.  The lighting in my loft isn't the greatest.  I did something on picasa and they look a lot better than they did before.

This is the wallet that Anna found for me.  It has three pockets and the blue matches my purse that Danielle made me perfectly.  I love it.

This is the Cheshire cat that I bought!  I love him, except his eyes are a bit big and bright for my room. :)

My friend Carrie came over and we made the most delicious chocolate mint cookies.  We used the homemade oreo cook recipe, only we rolled them up when we put them on the cookie sheet and we used coconut sugar.  The chocolates on top are Hershey's Bliss.  They are chocolate with some kind of mint in the middle.  The chocolates were so melty on top and it was so rich.  It was heavenly.

Well, I'm kind of tired of typing and everyone is begging for the computer so I'm going to go now.  I would promise that I am going to be regular from now on and that there will be no more of these catch up blogs, but I don't think that's gonna happen.  I'll always dream of being one of those bloggers that can do it regularly and everything, but I'm  probably always going to be trying to get there.  Plus, next week I have my trek and after that it's crazy for a few weeks.  So, I'll have a long catch up post about that.  But I will post again before my trek.  Love you all!