Beautifier

Hello Best APP EVER. We had too much fun with it.

Serious Blogging Fail

Sorry friends! I have not been keeping up with my blogging. Too much is going on and I am so far behind. I am not sure if I will end up blogging about every day that I have missed. I am going to start posting the pictures and maybe add a couple of sentences with the pics. I feel defeated. Sometimes life gets in the way. You know how it can be.

With that being said today is Friday July 12. It's 5:28pm and I am currently at TTV. I'm supposed to be working on the TTV blog but instead I decided to take a break to recover my damage of a summer blog.

Many things have been happening. I hopefully will get to share some of that with you by the blogs I do acutally end up posting. This morning I spelt in, something I haven't been able to do in a while. Between boot camp and babysitting my mornings are usually very early.

I cleaned my room and went through some of my clothes in my closet that I wanted to get rid of. Made lunch and showered before coming into work at 4:30. Tonight the plan is to go to 6th street in celebration of Hannah's 21st birthday last Sunday. I enjoy dancing in bars, so I except to have a great time.

Again so, so pissed at myself for now following through. Hopefully within the next week I can make up for some of my missing days. Love you guys, whoever you may be.

Celebration

Celebrating Hannah at Luster Pearl.

S'mores

How can I have some more if I haven't had anything.

Hannah's Birthday

My good friend Hannah turned 21!

Ring a Bowl 2013

Most interesting event I have ever been too. Seriously.

We Can't Stop

BEST TRIP EVER. DAY 2.

Where my BEACHES at

BEST TRIP EVER. DAY 1. HAPPY FOURTH.

Babysitting

TTV

TTV Volunteer Party. And these super cool photo frames made from tire tracks on sale at the store for only $7. I did buy one. 

Party Barge

This Saturday was spent on Lake Travis.

And at the Union for glow in the dark bowling.

6th Street

Good News. Bad News. The good news is that our house is finally getting treated for bed bugs. Bad news is that this Friday we had to be out of our house for over 12 hours. What do you even do when you are asked to leave your home for a long period of time? Well I'll tell you what we did. 

First we headed over to Foodheads because let's be honest we didn't have any where else to go. Sammie and I had never been to Foodheads and knew Theresa loved it. The place was so chill and their breakfast tacos tasted great. 

After breakfast we decided the best way to kill time is to see a movie. Theresa and I picked up Rey on our way to Monsters University. The movie was so cute but I also felt like a creeper for seeing a children's movie in the middle of the day. I had to be at TTV at 4:30 so I grabbed some fro-yo and hit up the Triangle pool before making my way to South Congress. Work went well and I managed to snap the sky on my way back to Central Market. I met Theresa and Kyler at Central Market for dinner. They had a band, lights and dancing. It was a pretty sweet atmosphere for a Friday night.

Then the rest of the events of the night occurred. By the rest of the events I mean. 6TH STREET. I am not quite sure how we ended up there but I was secretly excited about it. Even though 6th street is dirty and gross things happen, I still wanted to experience it at least once this summer. I put it on my summer of FUN list for that purpose. Naturally the night started at Rainey street, the cool, classy 6th. Mark and nine girls were at Bungalow for about an hour before deciding to head over to dirty 6th. We wanted to dance, which was the deciding factor. 

I had a blast. The drinks were cheaper and the dancing was dirtier. At Shakespeare's they were selling pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas for $5. So much cheaper than the drinks at Rainey. We all bought one. After that pitcher I was definitely feeling buzzed. 

Glad I crossed something off my summer of FUN list. It has been too long.

El Arroyo

Seriously El Arroyo's $1 margaritas will be the death of me. They are only a DOLLAR and they are so GOOD and worst of all so STRONG.

Sean, Theresa, Sydni and I all met there for dinner. I had volunteer orientation for TTV, which I dragged Sydni to, before meeting up with Theresa and Sean at El Arroyo. The food was great and the company was better. Sammie, Jeanan and some of their friends joined us after dinner for another round. I just love El Arroyo. I wouldn't hate if I was there every Thursday night. Actually I am thinking that should probably happen.

Lately Theresa and I have been into pool hoping. Really I am just into the sun, but it is nice to have a body of water to jump into when you get too hot. So we are into finding new pools to sneak into. This afternoon we managed to sneak into Theresa's cousins apartment pool. Sammie joined us. The pool was nice and had a volleyball net but got major deductions for its lack of a hot tub. Pretty much Theresa and I have become pool connoisseurs. We are thinking of making T-shirts.

If I had to describe a summer day this is what it would be. Pools, tanning and one dollar margaritas. 

Working and Campaigners

Welcome to my Wednesday.

I spent most of the day with Cameron and Cade, two children I nanny for. From noon to six the three of us had summer fun. First we went to the toy store. Cade bought some marbles and Cameron bought a little toy horse. We came back to their house and ate lunch before watching some Scooby-Doo. 

The kids seemed to be getting restless just hanging around the house so I remembered waffle cone Wednesday. Every Wednesday at TCBY you can get a waffle cone for $1. Many of my friends carve out precious time of their Wednesdays to enjoy a waffle cone. I took them there and watched as they got ice cream all over their faces. I had a raspberry and white chocolate mix. SO GOOD. 

Then I took the kids to Pease Park. I hadn't planned on the splash pad so naturally Cade ran right in. He got his clothes completely soaked. Cameron and I were not willing to get our clothes wet so we watched as Cade played in the water. I took them back to their house after that and left shortly after.

Tonight was the our first night of summer campaigners. I picked up some girls and met Alaina and all the other leaders at Covenant Presbyterian Church. We stayed for about two hours. The girls seemed to have fun being around all their friends from camp. I am not sure how much they actually got out of the talk though. Mostly I just think the leaders are still burnt out from camp. Hopefully we will regain our passion in the weeks to come.

Boot Camp

Today was my very first day of BOOT CAMP.

I have been meaning to get back into my workout routine. Sammie mentioned how she saw a Groupon for an outdoor boot camp she wanted to try. So on Sunday night she convinced my to sign up with her. I was secretly thrilled because I was hoping this would help boost start my workouts. The only part I was not looking forward too is the fact that the boot camp is from 7:30-8:30am. If you know me well then you know I do not like to wake up before 9am.

Boot Camp was pretty intense. Not overwhelmingly hard but it worked out so many muscles all at once. I'll for sure be sore tomorrow. I ended up burning almost 600 calories. Later that evening I took the girls to the park. It was way too HOT for them to be outside. We were the only people not in the pool. 

I headed over to Grace's for bible study after. It ended up being only Grace and I so we decided to sit out in her front yard and just chill. Hannah joined. We sat and talked about life. It was great. I love simple joys like hanging out with your best friends on summer nights. Simply Perfect.  

Easy Tiger

Easy Tiger Beer Garden and Bakery. 

This place is the coolest. A week ago we picked Sean up here before going to see Superman and we knew we had to come back. Every Monday night at Easy Tiger they have a Ping Pong Tournament. No entry fee, just fun. Plus you get a prize if you win. Not to mention the atmosphere is seriously sweet. The place is on 6th street and overlooks a small creek. 

So a group of us planned on meeting at Easy Tiger around 8pm. Theresa, Grace and I ate a sandwich before signing up for some ping pong. The tournament was double elimination, meaning we had to lose two games before losing the tournament.  Every one of us lost our first game because let's be honest we really aren't that great. Then our second round we were all matched against each other. I ended up playing Sean my second game. I realized I didn't even know the correct rules and he eventually beat me 21-3. It was sad. Then Theresa and Grace played each other. I think everyone lost either in the second or third round. The guys who play in the tournament are pros. They come every Monday night and try to beat each other. I am not sure why we were expecting one of us to win. We're amateurs.

Before we hit up ping pong a bunch of young life people met at Bailey Park for a little sand volleyball game. It was the first time I had played volleyball all summer. I would love to play more often but seriously the sand is way too HOT to play during the midday hours. We started at 6pm which was the perfect time.

Hopefully volleyball and ping pong will be repeated in the following summer weeks!

Grilli'n

Welcome to my Sunday. Every Sunday for possibly the rest of the summer I will spend five hours at TTV. So get ready for every Sunday to now be Free Trade Sunday. A day I share with you about what I learn interning with Ten Thousand Villages.

We are preparing for an upcoming event on July 6th. This event is in celebration of World Tibet Day. I actually am not quite sure what that is and am honestly not that excited for the event. The event itself is a event trying to break a world record for the largest number of singing bowls playing all at once. I did not even know what a singing bowl was. And if I had to bet, you don't know either. Basically it is a real expensive bowl that makes a high pitched hum when played. Not to extravagant.

So I spent the day hanging up posters and preparing tweets for the week. My favorite part about TTV is the actual store. I love seeing the products and reading the stories that have to go along with them. That is by far what I am looking forward to the most. Learning about fair trade and the products made around the world.

Later than night Sammie and I made a delicious dinner. Healthy too, minus the wine. We though we were super classy.

At about seven, Serena had a bunch of people over for a BBQ. Becuase I just ate a lovely dinner with Sammie I opted out of the BYOM (bring your own meat), though I did bring some wine coolers.

Many many of my friends were there. Including Emily, pictured to the left. Emily and I went to high school together and are actually good friends. It was honestly so great seeing her and catching up. I told her we needed to do it more often. Thank goodness some of our friend groups inter lap so we can be forced into seeing each other. We also happen to watch the guy walk on a tight rope over the Grand Canyon during the party. It was intense. He had no safety harness. What a man.  

Super Moon

Here is how I spent my Saturday. Laid out by the pool, went to lunch a La Villa with the family, had my brake pads and rotors replaced, drove back to Austin, ate dinner at Kerby Lane, swung at the park with my roommates while starring at the SUPER MOON. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I was sad that I couldn't spend more time with my family. I know my mom would have loved for me to stay longer. I have to work tomorrow so I needed to be back. Plus I really did not want to drive at night again, so I opted for the afternoon drive. The scenery is just great at that time anyways. I had the windows down and the radio turned up. Perfect weather for a drive.

The SUPER MOON was supposed to be awesome, which it was. It is the closest the moon will be to the Earth. I am not quite sure how often it happens, though I am guessing not very often.  I took a picture with no zoom. Not sure if you can tell or not. There is an outline of a tree in that picture if it helps you visualize how close it was. It definitely did look full and bigger than normal. Not to out of the ordinary though. My favorite part was swinging at the park right next to my house with Chan, Sammie, and Sydni. Those three are some of my favorite people. I was excited to just be hanging out with them on a Saturday night. 

Now that I am back in Austin and will be here for at least the next four weeks, it is time to start getting back to work. I have many, many things I need to be working on. My internship at Ten Thousand Villages starts tomorrow as well as another nanny job which starts next week. I need to research the GRE and start planning for grad school. I also need to plan for next semester. I haven't worked out since before camp which is NOT GOOD. Thankfully I have not gained any weight back and just maintained the weight I was right before I left for camp. I would really like to be another 15 lbs skinnier before I go to Colorado the second week in August. That is totally do-able. As long as I can stay motivated.

I also want to start getting back into my Summer of FUN list. It has been too long since I crossed something off. This week I am determined to start making plans. Plans for FUN.

That is all I have for this Saturday. Hope you enjoyed a day in the sun. I loved my day driving in it.

Retirement and Jet Sking

The day has finally come. My father is now retired. So many emotions were expressed today, by his co-workers, friends, my mom and himself. A chapter of my father's life has come to an end. It may be a little bittersweet, but I think for him it will be mostly just sweet. Like I said he still makes money just by sitting on his @$$. 

So I woke up and headed to the Houston Police Union Building where the party was being held. The morning did not start out great, especially for my mom. On her way to the Union Building she stopped by Walmart to pick up two full sheet cakes. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication between her and the bakery so both cakes were unprepared. She was furious. If you know my mother then you know she is not the angry type. In fact she is the most humble and selfless person I know. But ohhhh boy she was angry, and stressed. My brother ended up having to drive back to Walmart two hours later to pick up a different cake. Eventually it all worked out. However, then the caters showed up 30 minutes late. That also stressed my mother out. I think she just wanted my dad to have a great party because she knew he deserved it.

The party itself went well. A LOT of people showed up and ate barbeque. Many toasts and speeches were given. My dad was tearing up, my mom was tearing up (no surprise) and even some of my dad's co-workers were tearing up (a little surprised). He was presented with several awards including a proclamation from the mayor of Houston announcing a day in his honor. Murray J. Smith day will be happening sometime in September. Immediately my dad turns to the crowd and announces it a National Holiday. My sbilings and I cleaned up everything before heading back to Atascocita.

Three hours later I woke up from a long, much needed nap. My parents were already eating leftover barbeque for dinner and my siblings were on the couch half asleep. Around 7:00 my dad asked if I wanted to go jet skiing with him. I was so down. I hadn't been jet skiing in a long time. Long enough that I can't remember. My dad bought two Yamaha jet skies when I was 15. In high school I spent most of my weekends and all of my summer on the back of those Yamaha's. The best date I have ever been on was on the back of those jet skies riding off into the sunset. Cheesy, but true. Anyways, we choose the perfect time to go. Right before sunset when the sun is low in the sky. The water was calm and reflecting the sun. Just Beautiful. The rest of the night included TV, ice cream and family. 

This is the type of day where you appreciate all God has given you. I truly could not have pictured a more perfect earthly father. He does so much for me and for others, and days like today remind me of how blessed I am. So undeserving of how many blessings have been poured into my life.

Preparing

I was welcomed back to Houston with an early morning wake up and a stressed out mother. Honestly that is what I was expecting. My mom has planned a retirement party for my father tomorrow fit for 150 quests. I told her that 150 people is the size of a wedding. I think that freaked her out a bit more.

I came home a day early to help her prepare for this wedding, no wait, I mean party. I knew she would be running around like a crazy women if I didn't. Right after breakfast she had me searching through old pictures. She needed ones of my dad from his days in uniform. Unfortunately for her, my dad hasn't been in uniform since before cameras were invented so it was almost impossible to find any. Okay not quite that long but seriously the last time my dad was in a police uniform was the early 80s. 

After finding a measly three pictures and a bunch of random selfies of him on vacation, my mom had me go through old VHS tapes looking for recordings of him on the news. YES I DID SAY VHS. My mom is crazy. Not only did I find two recordings after searching through ten VHS tapes but without a converter there was no way of getting the recordings on the computer. So yes I did waste at least an hour of my life doing that. 

Really after a morning of getting nothing accomplished I was determined to make my trip home a favor to my bank account. I volunteered to pick up the prints at Walmart so I could get my oil changed and load up on gas with the generous financial support of my parents. Who are we kidding? The financial support comes straight from my father, who as of tomorrow will be unemployed. Actually unemployed is the wrong word. My dad showed me today how much he makes to lay around the house. Just to give you some perspective it is a 400% increase of what I currently make babysitting. So yeah he will not be unemployed, just on "vacation." 

Anyways pretty soon after my Walmart trip the entire family sat down and had dinner together. I think that my mom intentionally cooks when I come home just so the five of us can all sit down together. It really doesn't happen as often as it used to, especially since I live in a different city. Family dinners are one of my favorite things to do when I come home. It is a chance for all of us to sit down and talk. We ate lasagna and I told them about camp. The conversation went great. 

Dinner ended just as Game 7, Heat vs. Spurs came on. The four of us, minus dad, watched the teeth clinching game all the way through. We were all sad to see the Spurs lose. All of us are true Texans and always route for anything associated with our great state. The Spurs fought so hard and the game itself was so worth watching. We headed to bed after. It is another early morning tomorrow and we all need to be prepared. 

I'm excited to see my dad retire. From the time I was born until tomorrow afternoon he has been a Houston Police Lieutenant in the Homicide division. That has been his title. He upheld that title and served the people of Houston to the best of his ability. I know that whatever he decides to do next will bring him as much meaning and purpose. I personally cannot wait to see what happens.

SUN

I can't tell you how much I need the sun. I seriously started having withdraws because I just spent the last week soaking up the Arizona sun and then spent two days hibernating in my room. Today I woke up and needed to feel the sun touching my skin. 

Before quenching my thirst for sun, I made my first appearance at TTV. I had to complete a welcome shift before I started volunteering. I went in for about an hour and completed all the necessary paperwork. Then I came home and ate before heading to the triangle pool. I met Alaina and Meridith there, and Lauren joined later. I sat in the sun for two hours. I laid out and jumped in the pool and then repeated. It felt so nice. I also needed to catch up with Alaina who I spent everyday with at camp. Not seeing her for two days seemed like eternity. She filled me in while we tanned. 

I went home and baked brownies while I packed for Houston. We had a camp party with all the Reagan and Lainer kids and I planned on leaving right after. I picked up four girls and met everyone at Jackson's house. The party was good, but short. Jackson really didn't have much planned for the kids so everyone ended up leaving after an hour. I was glad because that means I was in route to Houston by 8:30.

Three hours later I found myself struggling to get in the front door of my parents house. Everyone was either asleep or in their rooms almost asleep. That's what I get for showing up at 11:30 at night. Sometimes I forget that people fall asleep before 2am. 

I am glad to be with my family for the next couple of days. My dad is retiring. Many things will change because of that. I actually think my mom will have the most trouble adjusting. Being around my dad 24/7 is a chore. A grateful chore but a chore none the less. 

I pray these next couple days will bring me some peace. Peace and perspective. It is time I start getting back to work on my summer goals. 

Ice Cream

This Tuesday was another much needed day of rest. Camp really did exhaust me. I've needed these past couple days to just catch up with life.

I woke up at 1pm. Which was crazy because I went to bed around 3am. That means I slept for 10 hours, gosh. Setting no alarm is dangerous sometimes. I did laundry and ate lunch before going to play tennis with Sammie. We decided to walk to the courts in the middle of the day when the sun is at it's highest. Mistake. The walk alone ended up taking 20 minutes. By the time we got to the court we only "played" tennis for 15 minutes before walking all the way back to the house.

I am really into learning how to play tennis. I seriously am thinking about making it one of my goals. Something about tennis seems like summer to me. I just think if there is anytime to pick up tennis it is in the summer. Sammie taught me some basic rules and how to serve. With a little dedication I could be good enough to play a real match by the end of the summer. 

As soon as we arrived back at the house, Sammie and I decided we needed snow cones. I love snow cones. SO MUCH. I need to start making a weekly trip to Snow Beach. After snow cones I headed to work. I took Vivenne and Ella to the park for two hours. IT WAS HOT. No other children were at the park because all the other mothers are sane. Vivenne and Ella's mom lets the babysitter take the kids to the park during the 100 degree weather.

I came home and did much of nothing. I ate, watched the latest episode of the Bachelorette (don't judge me) and took a nice nap in Theresa's bed. Soon my best friend Lauren came over and found Sammie, Theresa, Chandler and I all spooning in Theresa's bed. It was a classic moment. Lauren jumped on top and the five of us stayed there for awhile before deciding we needed ice cream. We loaded up into my car and headed to HEB. The night ended with Moose Tracks and girl talk. A perfect ending really.

Some of my favorite moments are just being around my friends doing simple things like laying in a bed. True fulfillment can be found when you want to do nothing more than lay in bed with your friends. Try it. If it is awkward then your aren't close enough friends with them. True friends can spoon together. That sounds bad, but it is so true.

I am still looking for stability in my schedule. Unfortunately I may not find it by the end of this week since tomorrow I leave for Houston. That is what I get for making the most of life. No schedules. Just FUN.

Back From Camp

Today, Monday the 17th of June, is my first full day back in Austin. Camp was wonderful, spiritual and exhausting. I have many, many stories to share with you. My blog has been hand written the last ten days. I will eventually update my online blog with pictures and memories from the following week. It may take a couple days since now that I am back I will be blogging more than once a day in order to catch up. If you have missed me this past week do not fear, I am back and will be filling you in shortly.

I woke up at 9am this morning to Kim the bug inspection lady. She was inspecting our house for bed bugs. Which by the way we have. But only downstairs. Let's just say I'll be spending the remainder of the week in my room before I visit my parents this weekend.  After she found no bed bugs in my bed, I went back to sleep until 2:30pm. What? Yes. Huh? That's Right. It may have been the tiredness from camp or the fact that I stayed up until 5am because freaking Jonathan. Anyways I seriously did nothing until 5pm.

At 5:30pm I met my boss Jessica from Ten Thousand Villages. I had an orientation with her and another intern. We met for happy hour at Botticelli's, which is a little restaurant right next to TTV. Ten Thousand Villages will now be TTV, just so you know. I will be talking about TTV quite a bit throughout the summer. After that I met Theresa and Sammie at Trudy's for Kyler's birthday dinner. I had some green chile chicken tacos. They were good, but not great. What I did enjoy was my strawberry banana maragrita. It literally tasted like a smoothie with a little alcohol. SO GOOD.

We left Trudy's and headed to the Easy Tiger bar on 6th street to pick up Sean. We stopped in for a bit and found out they have ping pong tournaments every Monday night. Next Monday my butt will be playing ping pong for prizes. Sean finished his game and then we drove to the Alamo Drafthouse on Anderson. We had a solid group of eleven for the 10:30pm showing of Man of Steel, the new Superman movie. My favorite part of the whole movie was the actor who played Superman. Ahh him in glasses. Couldn't handle it. I'm in love.

My emotions are drained right now. Camp wore me out. Hopefully I will find the energy to do all that I need to do this week. Including planning something for my dad who retires on Friday. Can't believe it. I am getting older. He is getting older. Everyone is getting older. I just need to be back on schedule with life.

Bus

Not much to say about this day.

Spent the entire day on the bus riding back to Austin from camp. We finally arrived at Travis High School at 6pm. By the time we got there I was so ready to be away from my girls. I may have even snapped at Teta because I was just so pissed off. I regret that now.

I came home and ate dinner. Then I slept for the rest of the night. Camp was exhausting. Great but so exhausting.

Seventh Day Sunset

On the seventh day of camp...

We woke up early and ate breakfast before cleaning. We had cabin clean up in the morning because we had to be on our buses at 3pm. Cabin clean up was followed by an outdoor lunch and our last club. It was a bittersweet moment driving by this sign as we headed back to Austin. At the last club kids stand up and do a say so. If they accepted Jesus they stand up and tell the entire camp. Really a great moment. None of our girls stood up, which was totally fine. Actually I know where they are at in their relationships with God and none of them are ready to commit. So when and if they do decide to dedicate their life to Jesus, I know their decision will have much meaning behind it. And that is what really matters.

Honestly I was not looking forward to the ride home. I was pissed and not ready to hear the kids complaining. By the time I got on the bus I really felt like I needed a break. A break from our girls and a break from camp. Alaina and I sat at the front of the bus with all the other leaders just praying the kids would be great for us on the ride back.

My favorite thing about road trips though is the change in scenery. Your window literally becomes a motion picture. The sky changes so often as you drive. This is a picture of the sunset that night we left camp. To me it symbolized the end to a magical and unforgettable week.

Sixth Day Sunday

On the sixth day of camp...

Santa came to town. Really though. Christmas in June, complete with an all out Christmas themed dinner. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries. etc. By far my favorite part was the parody of One More Day in Les Miserables performed by the program staff and the work crew. It was hilarious. Naturally our girls had no idea what the heck was going on. Urban Kids.... 

That night we went NIGHT SWINGING. The camp opens the swing and the zip line for the kids at night twice a week. I had not tried out the swing so I was thrilled to be doing it for the first time under the stars. I went with two other high school boys so that Tweetie, Sarah and Alaina could all go together. The boys were screaming like girls. Typical. It ruined my serenity of starring at the stars while falling 20 feet in the air. 

After night swinging we took the girls over to the whistle stop to try the Grand Canyon, which is a HUGE ice cream sunday. The five of us couldn't even finish it. I think the candy to ice cream ratio was too heavily favored toward candy. 

We definitely enjoyed our last full day at camp!