welcome to burraston ponds.

so i finally fulfilled my craving. i got a chocolate banana marshmallow cookie dough shake.

wow that's a mouth full. not to mention a stomach full.

i got it in a little town by the name of mona. 

now one wouldn't simply walk into mona,

(i almost said mordor for all you lord of the rings fans)

to just hang out. 

you go to mona to a place i would like to refer to as tarzan's tree house.

we spent the whole day sipping lemonade, snacking on lunchables, swinging from the rope into the pond, swimming out to the middle and having treading water contests, oh and hopefully getting some sun because quite frankly put... i look as white as casper the friendly ghost.

today.

 today i am craving a: chocolate banana marshmallow cookie dough shake from a stand in a little town called mona. i realize that three bites of this shake will probably end up giving you a heart attack, but its a risk i am definitely willing to make.

today i thought for three seconds about cutting my hair, because i saw a girl at church who pulled off a lovely pixie cut. but then i remembered the halloween where i wore a short wig, and looked like a boy. and ugly one at that.

today i watched life in a day. the documentary youtube put together of footage they collected from 200 countries. i decided i want to be a vegetarian again after seeing the cow shot twice and then decapitated. if i close my eyes tight enough i can still see it, which is rather disturbing.

today i watched the solar eclipse. my dad bought these specialty viewers from the planetarium a week ago, and lets be honest it was pretty dang awesome. won't be seeing that again for another twenty years.

today i started reading the book theif again for the second time. once wasn't enough.

also, i can't stop listening to: abba, supertrooper.
suprised? so am i.

dr. byrd.

this past semester i had a professor who taught me so much more than educational psychology, or literacy methods. she taught me how to handle situations in life that may be deemed as unwanted. the last day of class, after the final i was in her office having a pity party. i was crying from the daunting tasks that lay ahead for me in the next 8 months, when she said something that turned my frown upside down.

she told me that one of her hobbies was memorizing poetry. 

she said that she has memorized 88 different poems, 

and numbered them all in her head so she could retrieve them when needed.

she said i needed to hear number 10.

and this is what she told me:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

so although my summer now is sitting inside a air conditioned classroom, taking tests weekly because i'm on the fast track, and it doesn't include a fun trip to europe, or even a road trip to the beach, i'm ready to finish up this college career of mine. i'm ready to have my own class filled with fifth graders. i'm ready to teach them, just as dr. byrd taught me.

grandma turns 75.

grandma haws.

she is one of the few people who actually read my blog, and she recently turned 75.

 my family is from a little place called star valley wyoming.
when i went to grandma's house we would:
walk to pipe, have picnics in the backyard under the big oak tree with her pretty china, eat honeysuckle plants, play croquet, wake up to to sour dough waffles and dutch honey syrup, play the piano, read stories (jillian jigs is a personal favorite), make pigs out of socks after reading the book, play dominoes, climb down the laundry shoot, go to the one theater in town that played only one movie at one showtime, ride really old bikes, sled down the giant hill by the cemetery, fish only to catch a log, go to the fair and eat cotton candy..

the list is endless. i have so many memories of my grandma.
she is the person you would go to if you needed a lesson in knitting.
she made me a raggedy anne doll with a special stitched heart.
she has served multiple missions with my grandpa.
she would send me letters with zebra striped gum because she knew it was my favorite.
she is an amazing cook and mother.
trust me she raised 7 kids, 6 of them being boys.
 and you have to try her christmas candy.

it was so great to have all the family down to celebrate her birthday. i won't ever forget the tearful toast grandpa gave, and i won't ever forget how special grandma always makes me feel.

a picture says a thousand words.

happy birsday.

last night we threw a supposedly surprise hawaiian birthday party for my friend mark.

we had a snow cone machine, tiki torches, tres leche coconut cake, grilled pineapple lalalala...

i spent most of the night riding a little scooter around the town. 

lets just say that there were major improvements from the last time i drove it,

no tipping on the corners, and no bloody knees.

and did you know that it get 120 miles to the gallon?

sign me up.