thankful for you today.

for sharing a love of music (especially musicals, soundtracks, and KEYCHANGES)

for being someone who i can be outrageously ridiculous around :)

for answering every suggestion with a "sure why not?"

for being my most cheerful friend

and for sticking with me to the end :)

i would not be where i am or who i am if i had not met you four years ago. and even though we hated each other way back when, i am so glad that we were able to discover that we share a brain, however crazy and sometimes irrational it may be. you understand me when it seems like no one else possibly could, you stand by me in good times and bad, and i can't even imagine my life without you in it. you are forever my roomie, my best friend, and my other half, and i am thanking God today for allowing our lives to intertwine in such a meaningful way.

movie quote.

"When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be interested in getting whatever it is you've got left."
"when i figure out what that means i'll come up with a crushing reply."

this was in my head the other day and it took me a good 20 mins to place it. lets see how you do :)

a day for celebrating.

Father's Day. check. i remembered this one. in fact, i remembered it so well and was looking forward to it so much that i thought it was last week. thank goodness for calendars.
First Day of Summer. almost check. when i was looking at the calendar to figure out that fathers day wasnt last sunday, i also found out that june 21 was also the first day of summer! what a surprise. especially cuz its cold and gray and rainy here in the 'burg.
My Parents Anniversary. oops. completely forgot this one this year. thank goodness for grandmas :) unfortunately i still cannot remember if this is 28 or 29 years... how many years ago was the new england trip? i am risking my reputation as the good daughter by posting this for the world to see, but hey at least im honest and i do plan on calling home later this afternoon to compensate for the two hour time difference and to avoid church and small group time.
party hard today. theres a lot to celebrate :)

there were never.

such devoted sisters.
miss you guys.

i should have been a boyscout.

so i'm working with my Pap this summer until i find a more permanent job. i'm already learning a lot of interesting things and its only been a week :) the problem is, i feel like a lot of these things i would have already known if i had had a slightly different upbringing. while being a girlscout up through fifth grade did in fact prepare me very well in the methods of hot chocolate making (i've made blends from several different countries) and muffin baking (i have a distinct memory of both apple and blueberry) i feel like there were some key features of scouting lacking from my camping-in-a-platform-tent and starting-fires-with-varnished-wood-or-gasoline-soaked-egg-cartons experience.
1. i learned the other day that birch trees smell like spearmint when you peel the bark off of them.
2. that same day i also learned that i am not much of a lumberjack. when it comes to chopping down trees, as pap puts it i am like lightning. i never strike the same place twice.
3. i have no idea how to use a compass and a map in conjunction with one another. this could have serious consequences since today we began cutting a line through a heavily wooded area on a line that is supposedly 10 degrees east of north. i was in charge of telling pap which way we should be going. we stopped partway through today, and tomorrow we will find out how good i did. i am afraid that we will end up being off by a country mile and a half and i will be disowned for my lack of compass skills.
i dated a boyscout once. little good that did me.

want more?

i have a TON more pictures than just what i posted on here. check out my latest facebook albums for more pics of graduation and my life as a vagabond :)

photoblog: maryland

photoblog: vegas

photoblog: tee-ball

photoblog: graduation

posting from the 'burg

Ebensburg, that is.
and so begins the next phase of life as a vagabond. i have food to eat, a gram who is willing to do my laundry, a room to sleep in (i took the one with the big bed but i hear im going to be kicked out over july4th when uncle michael comes) and a job for as long as pap can use me (and judging from the length of his to do list i could be here til christmas!)
the funny thing about having a home base is that i still have my car packed full of stuff! i pulled out a few duffel bags of clothes and my computer bag, and just left the rest in the car :) i havent opened my trunk in almost a month. ive been living out of two duffel bags worth of stuff. i am beginning to realize just how little you really need to live. i am SO blessed that i even have stuff to fill my little car cuz i dont really need nearly that much.
the good news about unpacking the car a litle is that i have also unearthed my camera cord! unfortunately though the process of uploading and posting my pictures is way more involved than i could have ever imagined and is taking FOR-EV-ER! but i promise there are pictures of all sorts of cool stuff and eventually they will make it to the internet.
as far as the giveaway goes, i have not had nearly the response that i had imagned i might - but the peeps seem to be the most in demand out of all my sweet prizes :) so here's what im thinking - ill keep the peeps around until an interested party shows up at grams or gram decides that we're going to head north to visit them when pap doesnt need me to work. sound like a plan nancyann?
ok so my poor lil compy vanilley (counterpart to milley) is working SO hard to handle all my pics, but is having a tough time finding space for them all... its not looking like pics are gonna happen at this very moment (or anytime in the next few hours at this rate) so i think im gonna go for a run.
please dont stop reading because of my pictoral dry spell... if anything, KEEP reading so you dont miss them when they get here!!!

the saga of the vagabond continues.

wanna hear a funny story? so i had a job all lined up for the summer. it was a really sweet deal that would be a good learning experience, a steady income, and was close to lots of people who love me. so i called them the other day to get some more details about where i would need to find a place to stay and where i'd be working and all that stuff that would be nice to know, and Tessa tells me that they filled the position with someone else so that means no job for me. isnt that just great news? i was ready to find a place to be. i was ready to start being my own grown up person. what im not ready to do is go back to the drawing board and start all over. ive been there, ive done that, and i have nothing to show for it not even a lousy tshirt. so much for having a plan. guess it just goes to show that i am not the final authority in plan making for my life. i'm confident that there is a plan... its out there somewhere and i can only guess that its better than the plans i had, it would just be really nice to know right about now. i used to know where i was going. i used to have a direction. now im just left with a carload of stuff and nowhere to unpack it.

in amongst all that stuff in my car i have found a few candidates for my giveaway to promote comments - i have three boxes of yellow marshmallow peeps, a mislabeled copy of the latest installment of the keychange series ("where's my ring by spring i did NOT find it" misleadingly labeled as "I FOUND IT greatest hits") and a free button from the Hoover Dam proudly proclaiming the wearer to be a "Dam Proud America." based on reader response and level of interest i will decide which prize will be given away, or if all three prizes will be given to three lucky winners, or if all three will be given to one lucky reader.

what i would like to find in my car is my camera cord.