The Past Year and a Half, Part 2

It took me long enough to get around to this, but I finally have part 2 of the past year and a half . . . So here goes.

Back in the fall, we moved. I think that was the first time I've ever seen my bookshelf empty.

That was quite a strange sight. And my poor books weren't too happy to be off the bookshelf. They tried to escape the boxes. I'd already taped up the boxes, but the next morning, this is what I found:

Needless to say, those boxes got re-taped. They actually stayed that time. The books were the first thing to get unpacked, though. 

Then we got to go to Chattanooga over Savannah and Zachary's fall break, which was awesome. We went to where you can see 7 states from one spot.

We also went through the Fat Man's Squeeze.

We went through the Fairyland Caverns (at my request; being an English major, the fairy tales always interested me). I got pictures of the Cinderella and Snow White fairy tales.

We also got to see Lover's Leap.

They even got me across this bridge, somehow, despite my awful fear of heights. 

It's a swinging bridge, so it was a miracle they got me across it, especially with Dad trying to make it swing more. I also got talked into going on a zipline, which was surprisingly fun. I guess I was pretty brave that day.

I got my first real fall in four years. Out at BYU, there weren't really any trees to change colors. So this was a nice sight.

I must say that I've really missed the beautiful fall that we have here. We also got to carve pumpkins. I just kind of etched a design on mine. It took less time than actually carving the pumpkin, but I think it turned out okay.

Then, in December, we had a regional YSA dance called the Celestial Ball. Here's a picture of me all dressed up for it.

So I guess that gets me caught up.

The Past Year and a Half

So, I just remembered that once upon a time, I had a blog that I updated every so often with morsels of what's been going on in my life. And I realized that I haven't updated above-mentioned blog in a year and a half. I figured it's about time to try updating it. So here goes.

In August of 2012, I went back out for my last year of college. Sometime last fall, I got to go to the Brigham City Temple open house twice, once with Carrie and Nathan and the girls, and once with my roommates.

At the end of April, I graduated from college, which was really weird. It does not feel like I should be old enough for that. Nevertheless, I now have my bachelor's degree in English, and I am done with school forever, which is a very strange thought. I don't actually have any pics from that, actually.

On May 15, we lost Brinkley. He passed away that morning. I still miss him, so I had to mention him on here. He was a good dog. Really, I'm still convinced that he was the best dog ever. It's weird not having him around. This was the last picture I ever got of him.

In the summer of this year, we got to go to Puerto Rico, which was amazing. It's a gorgeous place.

Savannah and I both brought our Brinkley stuffed animals, and one day when making the bed, the housekeeping people put them together like this, which Savannah and I thought was adorable:

On our last night there, there were random fireworks, so we stopped and sat on the grass and watched those.

But we finally had to say goodbye to Puerto Rico, all dressed in our Puerto Rico t-shirts.

And I'm starting to realise that more has happened in the past year and a half than I thought. I'll have to come back for a Part 2 soon.

July So Far

July has been good so far. We had a crazy heat wave, with temperatures in the triple digits for about a week or so.

I think this was the hottest that I saw on my phone. The average temperature during the day, though, was about 108 degrees. It was crazy. That lasted through the Fourth of July, which was fun. On July 3, we got to go see Grandpa's band, which was a lot of fun. It was good to hang out with family and see

Grandpa play in his band.

After that, we watched the fireworks with the family, which was a lot of fun.

Then, on the Fourth of July, we mostly relaxed at home. Brinkley is terrified of fireworks, so he was hiding behind us when we went outside to see the fireworks over the trees. Then we went inside and watched more fireworks on TV. It was really casual and relaxed, but it was a lot of fun.

Beach

For anyone who somehow doesn't know this yet, I love the beach. There's just something about walking on the beach and feeling the sand between my toes, smelling the salty ocean air, hearing the soothing sounds of the waves beating against the shore, and seeing the ocean stretch out before me that just relaxes me. So, needless to say, I was thrilled when we got to go spend some time on the beach as a family. And it definitely lived up to my expectations.

This was the beautiful view we got. The weather was really nice most of the time we were there. It was warm, but not too hot, and it was sunny, except for the last day, when the clouds came in.

Overall, though, the weather was great. We got to go in the water and let the waves pick us up and put us back down, which is one of the most relaxing things ever, and I got to read on the beach. It was great, and we had a lot of fun!

Finals, Birthday, and Home

Okay, so here's for the update on my life for pretty much the entire month of April.  I had the most stress-free finals week that I've ever had. For three of my classes, we just had to present on things that we had finished before finals week. For another one, we had an open-book, open-note, take-home final, which was way easy. And for French, there was absolutely no way to study for the final. So I had a finals week of no studying. So instead, I got to actually work on packing, which I finished on time, for once, even with my parents coming in a day earlier than I had originally expected.

So my Mom and Dad came and helped me move out of my apartment (a few days before I had to be out, which was nice), and we got to relax. Thank you, Mom and Dad! We went out to relax by going out to eat with Carrie and Nathan and their girls, which was lots of fun. And then we went back to the hotel.

So now for my birthday. It was really low-key. We woke up, got dressed, and then I got one of my birthday presents, a Kindle Touch to replace the Kindle that died on me. I was pretty excited about that. Then we went to go hang out with Carrie for a little while. It was good to get to see her one more time before heading back home for the summer. Then we headed to the airport, where our flight was delayed due to a malfunctioning airplane. We finally did get to fly out, though, and we headed home. Once I got home, I got to have some cheesecake, and Zachary had a surprise for me.

He got me a mockingjay pin, from The Hunger Games (which I wore when we went to go see the movie again as a family). 

It's good to be home. Savannah and Zachary are as entertaining as ever. I particularly enjoyed the fake mustaches that they got to wear at William's birthday party.

I am glad to be home, and I'm looking forward to a great summer!

Kindle

So my poor Kindle has decided to die on me. See, there's this dictionary that I really wanted (yes, I know, that's a bit nerdy, but it was the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage, which is a particularly cool dictionary), and I found the Kindle version, so I had to buy it. And then I pulled out my trusty Kindle to play around with my new dictionary. I turned it on, and this is what I got:

Yes, I know that this is not what the Kindle screen is supposed to look like. Usually, when I turn it on, I get pretty words that make up poetry, or novels, or dictionaries, not this. This looks like some kind of abstract art that I would really rather not see.
So I tried going to the Kindle troubleshooting site, and reset it just the way I was supposed to. I tried charging it. None of that worked. I emailed Amazon customer service to ask them how to fix my Kindle. Based on what I said, they said that the only option was to replace the poor thing. My Kindle, which isn't even quite three years old, is dead, and it has no hope of resurrection. I can't even turn it off. So I called Amazon about replacing it, and it turns out that it would be almost as expensive to get a refurbished replacement as it would be to just get a new Kindle. So I guess that I'll just get a new Kindle. It's still kind of sad that my old one had to die, but oh well. C'est la vie.

The Joys of Modern Technology

I am realizing today how amazing modern technology is. See, for our ward FHE tonight, we watched one of the old "Disney Sing-Along Songs" on VHS. It had some of the songs from "The Lion King" on it. So one of my roommates and I decided that we wanted to watch "The Lion King," since I have that one. I have that one on Blu-Ray, and it was really eye-opening to get to compare the Blu-Ray version to the old VHS version. I could really appreciate how clear the pictures were and how much better the color was. Technology has come such a long way even since I was young. It was just a cool experience to get to make that comparison.