You're kidding.

Seriously, it's been a week?!

I need to get my act together, sheesh. I've been transitioning to the laptop lately, which came a few days back :). It's such an upgrade from my sluggish desktop. I'm still in the process of downloading my old applications, and transferring pictures and such, but it's useful just the same. I suppose my blogging has been so terrible because I've been running around like a busy little beaver all week. I've worked almost every day, coming home in the evening, too tired for writing. I need to take a breather and re-organize myself.

One day last week I saw a play with Julie, Once Upon A Mattress, the people in Youtheater did a really excellent job :). We went because our teacher's daughter was Lady Larken. Afterwards Kara bought us mcflurries and we went back to their house, until I had to be in to work. I've been getting alot of hours in lately, which is helping to seal the canyon created in my bank account from my new purchase, and the ridiculous internet expenses >:/.

I also went with Shayla to visit her sister's apartment. It was quite a drive, lots of highway time, and we wound up becoming lost when I got off of the wrong exit. I somehow ended up on a Dead End road by these railroad tracks, but by chance I made my way to a familiar road into civilization. We then pulled into a Starbucks to ask for directions. A very nice drag queen told us where to go :), hahah. I'm not even joking. It was epic.
I found the road fairly easily afterwards, and we hung out with her sister and her friends. It was a pretty good time. I enjoyed most of their company. Meeting new people isn't really difficult for me, I kind of like it. Of course I cherish the friends I have already, but there are SOOO many people out there to meet, to dig, as Neal Cassady would say.
Life is sporadic and frantic lately. Just as I was beginning this post I received a text from Julie asking to go out to Walmart to get the camera for our latest movie. So I drafted this, grabbed my work shirt, and drove over there and to Walmart, arriving back to her house just in time to shower and make it to the soccer park by three. Basically, everything is unplanned lately, which is interesting and unsettling at the same time.

Time is slipping by so fast, it's nearly August.
Jenna's graduation party was alot of fun, I couldn't stay off of the inflatable waterslide. I wish someone took pictures, but I for one was too soaked to touch my camera :). Shayla and I stayed and talked late into the night with Jenna, while everyone else was slowly thinning out. We didn't leave until 12:30ish. I was exhausted for work the next morning.

Give me a day or two, I might get myself back in the hang of things.



Just to remind myself.
Awhile back I posted some things I hoped to do throughout the summer, some "goals", if you will :P. Now I think I'll re-write them to tailor to what things are like nowadays.

• ** Continue writing. I did begin the story I've mentioned, the Josephine one. But I need to keep writing, even if I feel as it's going nowhere, because that may not be the case. Plus the practice is good for me.
• ** Purchase a laptop and wireless internet. Complete!
• Practice spanish until the point where I'm semi-fluent. Where I can atleast differenciate the verb tenses, and master basic vocabulary. I haven't done well with achieving this yet, so I need to try a bit harder :P.
• Become more knowledgable. There are so many things out there to experience and learn. I just hope to grasp as much as I possibly can, and make the absolute most of it.
• Give myself time to breathe and absorb everything.

Oh So Sincerely,
Olive :)

hellooo folks,



So, I was tagged by the lovely Natalie. Good thing, because I had no idea what I wanted to blog about these evening, haha :).

What have you been thinking about lately? What’s been on your mind?
Just a situation I'm in, and what I should do about it. I know what I want to do, but it's not necessarily the choice I should make. If I choose the latter new doors are open, which may lead to wonderful things. But I feel comfortable and happy where I am. Even with the knowledge that the roof just may cave in if I stay. I wish I didn't think things out so tediously. I want to just do what feels right, and throw caution to the wind, but that isn't exactly smart, is it?

What are you excited about at the moment?
I cannot wait for my Lenovo to arrive (: But I suppose I will have to, eh? Otherwise I'm excited to go check out schools at some point, because I like seeing new places. Then I'm excited to actually attend college and get out on my own.

When was the last time you made a difference to somebody?
I like Hannah & Natalie's answers, about even the smallest of actions affecting people who surround you, like a butterfly effect. But as far as a significant difference goes, I found a job for Julie, I guess :P. So now she can make some money.

Who are you really happy for at the moment?
I'm happy for alot of people, noone specific really comes to mind. Well, actually my Grandmother. She's been writing letters to politicans lately, (I love her, haha), about how awful the price of milk is, because the farmers aren't making any money. Then one man, I'm sure some of you have heard of him, Scott Murphy, contacted her. He was really impressed with what she had to say, and wanted to read a part of her letter when he appeared at a local fair. He had asked her to come and speak, but with her arthritis and all, that wasn't quite plausible. But it was still a great honor, I'm glad her efforts weren't wasted.

When was the last time you felt inspired?
Today while I was reading On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. Reading his adventures and way of thinking just gives me the urge to get out there and see everything. I wish we still lived in those times. Just living life for the sake of living.

If you could be in your dream place at the moment what would you be doing?
A London based Hogwarts sounds utterly fantastic. I'm afraid I'm unable to top Natalie's answer, haha. Nothing I can think of sounds that awesome.

If somebody was describing your personality what would they say?
Happy, haha. That's a bit bland, isn't it? I nearly always have this big smile plastered on my face. If they were going to get a little more in depth, they may say I'm compassionate, empathetic, and good humored. A little nerdy/awkward as well. Loving.I find it difficult to quarrel, I get along well with most everyone.

What are you most proud of?
I don't know, really. I'm happy with life, but I haven't conquered any magnificent feats, haha. I'm just glad to be living, and impacting the world to some tiny degree.

What’s been tempting you lately?
Just doing what I want and not caring about the consequences.
Oh, and cosmic brownies. They're sooo bad, but so delicious, haha.


What’s been the one most consistent thing in your life?
The characters, the setting. I've lived in the same house for all of my life, so I still know almost everyone from kindergarten, and I have done nearly everything fun there is to do around here. The friends I have are meaningful beyond compare, but I could really use a change of scenery. That's why college is so exciting to ponder.

What do you love about people? or
What do you love about (person’s name)?
I'll do both :).
The thing I love about people is their madness, their quirks. Unlike animals, we aren't motivated by the need to survive, we're inspired to do things from the pull of our heartstrings. It's near impossible to predict the path an infant is going to take throughout the course of the years to come.
(Person's name), I love how creative they are. Almost everything they do is original and refreshing. People like them make every day life completely worthwhile. I love the little things they do, to remind me that they care. Surprises make things all the better.
(Person's name), I love the way they listen and understand, always there for me. Out of everyone I feel we're the most alike. I love the time they take out of their day to write to me, and tell me about their life, so we never grew distant. I love that they are so happy, like they have always deserved. One thing I'm afraid to do is disappoint them.
(Person's name), I love them for knowing me so well, and showing me the kind of honesty I believe everyone needs. I love how they rarely judge anyone, they're just chill and accepting. I love them for being who they are, regardless of what anyone says, and for considering me the best friend they have. I also admire that they want to change the world. I hope they somehow do.
(Person's name), The sense of humor this person has is phenomonal. They can make me laugh in the roughest of times, and on a day to day basis. Another thing I really appreciate is the garbage they have taken from me. I have kept things from them, and I have made some idiotic moves, but they put up with my antics nevertheless.


And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground. So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns.

Life hasn't been too epic or out of the ordinary lately. Although, it hasn't been half bad either. Many of my evenings have been spent at work, which I do not mind. I have alot of time to think, while I fold shirts and tag new items. I have to pay more acute attention when I'm ringing things up on the register :P, but it's all relatively simple. I enjoy it, walking up the gravel path come nightfall, the field illuminated by large lightposts, my hands smelling of copper pennies, silver, and ink printed bills. Then I drive home, rarely meeting a soul on the way.
The other night I was able to see Shayla :), I always mention her, the good friend of mine who's off at college during the school year. Well, she invited us to come along to the drive ins to watch the new Iceage movie and meet her boyfriend, Greg. I approved of him, he was nice/polite, plus seeing him and Shayla together was adorable. Jenna, Amanda, and I sat in the back of her car and Shayla and Greg in his. We managed to converse though, she and I had a real good laugh coming back from the bathroom, hahah. Let's just say the facilities stunk, and she was unfortunate enough to determine the source of it all.. the woman who was in the stall that opened for her turn, hahaha. That lady had a serious perm-a-frown and waddled. I don't mean to be well, mean, haha. But she looked pissed, and poor Shayla had to suffer her wrath after she vacated the premisis. But anyways, the movie was pretty cute. We didn't stay for the second showing, Transformers, we instead stopped by a graduation party for awhile. We sat around the fire,talking mainly. One of the guys I'm friends with deliberately tried to annoy me, because I "always smile", haha, but it didn't quite work. I just continued laughing and smiling at him. In the wee hours of one or two in the morning, we decided to call it good and head back home.

Sunday we finally got ourselves to the theater to see Harry Potter, and the half blood prince. I cannot even say how ashamed I am for waiting so long. The movie of course seemed fantastic to me, I'm never displeased with them. I also haven't read the books, so I'm not effected by the things they leave out. Maybe the ending should have been a little more complete, but overall I thought it was great. I'm going to make it a mission to begin the books as soon as possible. I already have a pile to read, but once those are out of the way, it's Potter-time.

I loathe canker sores. I have one in my upper lip, like directly beneath my left nostril, but inside of my mouth. I keep accidentally bumping it, and it's incredibly annoying. Sorry if that's gross or something, but I can't stand it. Anyways. I'm just about ready to catch some sleep. I have the next two days off from work, so I imagine I'll squeeze some time in there for blogging :). Alot of things are on my mind lately, so maybe I'll come up with something thought provoking. Maybe not. Let's leave it up to chance.

Yours truly ;)
Olive

Fabulous :)

Look what should be appearing on my doorstep within the next couple of weeks, or sooner!...


I did some thorough investigating on my top picks, comparing feautures and pricetags, going through and pretending to buy each one, to get an idea of what they offered, and what the ending total would be. The Lenovo Ideapad Y450 was the winner. It's easily portable, has 3GB of memory, 250GB at 5400 RPM harddrive, gold energy star, and a good processor. Plus I like some of the feautures included like "veriface" recognition, which uses your face while you sit in front of the computer, as your secure password. And it has this "one key rescue" button, that automatically restores the system if it crashes/a virus attacks. So everything included, 1yr warrenty and tax, it cost me $700. Not terrible, I was pretty pleased. Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and helped me out with my decision :), I hope once it comes I'll be blogging like crazy! It'll be a nice switch having highspeed internet too, even though it'll come out of my pocket. Maybe I'll start creating and posting videos on here for your viewing pleasure, we'll see.

Hmm.. What have I been up to lately.. I have actually gotten quite a few hours in at work, which is cool because I need as much money lately as I can reasonably get, haha. I really do like my job. My supervisor's wicked cool, I know how to do all of the tasks I need to there, and there's a cute boy to see from time to time ;). Not a half bad deal I must say.
Also my friends and I have been working on our next movie project. I wasn't involved in the first one, but I enjoyed watching it. This time they want to tackle a more serious film, a horror movie we decided to call BURLAP. It's pretty interesting to work on. The script is finished thanks to the late nights of typing spent by brothers John and Greg. Their sister, one of my best friends I frequently mention, Julie, along with Dan, Jenna, and myself have been working on setting up the main scene. It's going to be shot in the woods, so we just needed to make a little "camp" area for the killer to reside. Julie and John each constructed a burlap sack mask for the killer, and I'm not sure if we've decided which one to use. I think Julie's version. But I'll let you guys tell me your preference if you'd like to. The look we're going for is creepy :P, obviously.



So I might have pictures to post once we start filming, and if not I'll atleast try to post snippets of the finished movie, or maybe the whole thing, for anyone who's interested in seeing it.

moose on the loose!

Hahah, we had a friendly visitor in town the other day. As I was driving home from Julie's, a crowd of cars was camped out on a random strip of my road. When I stopped to see what was going on, my neighbor explained that they were watching a female moose walk around in the field. So, obviously I grabbed my camera and captured a few shots. A few of my friends stopped by to see it too. We all laughed at ourselves for making such a big deal about a moose, but oh well.

Lately I've been contemplating some things. One of the decisions I need to make is whether or not to continue Varsity soccer this fall. I was planning on skipping out on it, and finding other things to do instead, but now I'm not sure. One of the major reasons for me being hesitant is that my best friend Amanda isn't playing anymore, and we always did it together, and she was my partner for everything. Soccer was alot more fun when Julie and Shayla played as well, but they're both graduated. Part of me wants to do it, so I finish what I started, and I've done it since eighth grade. Even though Amanda's not playing, I still get along with girls on the team, especially Jen and Sam. I could see myself having fun with those too, and others. But I'm hesitant. I don't want to decide to do it, and then not end up enjoying it. But I also don't want to regret not doing it. I signed up to work on yearbook this year as Editor in Cheif, so I know I'll be busy, but the meetings are all before school, specifically to accomodate student athletes. It'd still be slightly hectic to do both, but I know other people, especially you guys, are capable of juggling alot of different responsibilities. Another reason is that I don't want to miss out on stuff with my friends. But Amanda spends alot of afterschool time with her boyfriend Jeff, so I'm not sure if it'll be a factor or not. Soccer does take up alot of time on game nights.
My mom was disappointed when I told her I didn't plan on doing it the next year, she always did a good job of showing up to all of my games, and keeping track of the scores in the paper. I feel kind of bad for taking that away from her if I don't play. I know she wouldn't be mad at me, but still. Soccer's the only sport I've been consistently active in. I'm not sure what I want to/should do. Any thoughts?


I received the Honest Blog Award from Nicole, so thank you to her :), and if you don't already keep up with her posts, I reccomend that you do. So here are my ten truths.

I really dislike it when people are two-faced. If you dislike someone, fine. But It's really annoying when you see someone be sweet and nice to someone's face, and then go and say horrible things about them when they're beyond earshot. I also don't like it when people judge someone and refuse to get to know them because of their appearance, race, or financial status. Sometimes people disgust me.

I have stagefright. And I really wish I didn't. Theater seems so cool, and like so much fun, but the thought of the lights beating down on me, while hundreds of blank faces are watching me just sends me into my little turtle shell.

I've liked the same person for four or five years. We only officially dated for nine months of that duration. I desperately need to get over it, but it never seems to happen. I'm at the point where I could change things up, meet someone new. But that never happens, so I kind of remain at a standstill, left with memories that are hard to erase.

I'm addicted to cheese. Seriously :P. Like all of my favorite foods consist of this crucial element, such as Macaroni and Cheese, Au Gratin Potatos, Panera's Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup, ect. Plus I like to eat it alone, like string cheese. Someone should buy me a cheesehat.

I epically fail at video games. Growing up I never had the Nintendo 64 or anything, and I was never really interested. I did have a gameboy, but I always played the same 101 Dalmations game, never beating it. So whenever my friends get together and play MarioKart or anything, I either opt out of playing, or I loose terribly :P. I have no skills.

My car is probably my favorite possesion. Once my laptop arrives, it may have some competition, but for now it does not. It's a simple 2004 Saturn Ion, but I love it. It feels so freeing and powerful to be able to just drive, go wherever I please. Well, there are some limitations :P. But I take good care of this baby, washing it whenever there's a carwash in town, and I feel like I should do it myself soon. I vaccuum it when needed, wipe it down with lysol, and keep it de-junkified. One of the things that annoys me is when people leave trash in the backseat, hahah. I never call them out on it, because it's easy to forget, and I love my friends. But I grimace every time I need to pick up a popsicle stick or some other random article.

I'm having trouble coming up with more things. Atleast things you guys don't already know about me. Sheesh, why is this so hard. Honestly, I made this one to take up space :).

I think our country's in trouble. I feel like our generation doesn't care enough about wordly issues, alot of people seem absorbed in their own lives, not really caring what happens to us as a whole. I hope our economy doesn't crumble, but it probably will. I don't want us to be in Iraq. I think something needs to be done, and I hope Obama's the guy to do it.

I have a really soft spot for animals, especially kittens. When Tom and I are doing chores, if I see a cute kitten I'll drop what I'm supposed to be doing and head right for it :P. When I get older and have an apartment or house of my own, I plan on having one of those "angry" looking Persian cats. They're awesome.

I wish I read more than I did. I like reading, but it takes me forever to get through a book, it's pathetic. Thick books especially intimidate me. I unfortunately missed out on reading the Harry Potter books when I was younger, and felt like it was too late to start now. But I will, eventually. The pile of books I want to get through keeps getting higher on my bookcase.

Last call for contest enterees!

So, I hope everyone's having a good summer lately, and I'll catch up on your blogs as soon as I can :).
♥ Olive

She knows just what I like, the angel on my bike.

The Wallflowers put on a pretty stellar show, as I was expecting :).
We didn't get to be in the middle, but we were in front, just off to the left a bit. So the view wasn't bad. Shayla got caught recording part of a song on her camera though, so this big, annoying security guard yelled at her, and stood a foot and a half away from us on the other side of the metal rail for the entire rest of the concert. It was ridiculous, and kind of put a damper on the whole evening. The sign on the door even said "no flash photography", and she wasn't doing that. However, people around us were snapping shots left and right, which the guard must've obviously seen, or he's blind, but he did nothing, just continued to make us feel annoyed and uncomfortable, stalked, the whole time. So because of him I don't have any nice pictures to show you all, sorry :/.

"Brrraaappppp"
Hah, in case you didn't guess, that's the dirtbike noise. Since I've been spending a decent amount of time with Tom lately, the morning after the concert and today, I haven't been a stranger to these two wheeled speed machines. After going to the hardware store to pick up his shock, we went back to his house to work on it in the shop. As I've mentioned before, there's just something I love about helping him work on things down there. It's in the bottom of a barn, so it's alot cooler than the outdoors with the lack of natural light and the cement. So it's comfortable, and I just like learning about what he's doing, and testing things out myself. We had to take apart some things in order to put the shock in, which required unscrewing and screwing of bolts, I helped by greasing certain tools up, and finding him what he needed when he couldn't leave what he was holding/doing on the bike. So I was semi-useful. I even figured out where this one thing went, when he wasn't sure himself. It took quite a bit of tinkering before it was ready to start up again, but we finished it after awhile, and he took it for a spin around the house and back yard. Personally I've never ridden one :P, I've never had the chance to really, and I'll face the facts, I'm not a daredevil. Another thing I like about working on things with him, is that we usually wind up having good conversations. We talk about the government, how the direction we're headed in can't be good. And how a vast majority of the human race is well, stupid/ignorant. We talked about alot of good things, but I won't elaborate further because that would probably be a borefest. It was nice though.
The way he talks about his dirtbike, and how he loves riding, makes me think there's alot more heart behind the sport than the stupidity people generally associate these kind of things with. There's a science to it. You have to get a feel for the bike, and learn when to break, what pressure to apply, where to go slow, and when to just haul, hahah. He's had his share of failed attempts, and has to deal with the painful, nasty rashes and sores because of it :P. It requires alot of time and care too, and knowledge about what's best for the machine. I guess my point is that everyone has their passions, and even if it's a dangerous one, it's better than not having one at all. Also, there's science and reason behind all sorts of things, sometimes we just need to venture outside of our own safe, cozy box, and catch a glimpse from other perspectives.
As for me, I'll probably stick to the excitement of reading :). But I find it invigorating and fun to explore new ideas and test out different waters.

So aside from all that jazz and excitement, I've been keeping myself busy. This morning Tom came over and we fed the calves for my mom, since she had to take my Grandma to a doctor's appointment. Those chores were actually pretty easy. Then we went to the carwash so I could vaccuum out my car. It's ridiculous the amount of rocks, dirt, and junk that have accumulated into my floor. So I put in a dollar, and it allowed us four minutes to complete the job. We rushed, vaccuuming at top speed, and we had sucked the dirt from the last floor mat right when tht time ran out. Conclusion: We would dominate on a tv game show ;).
Then we went off to Home Depot for bolts, and I wanted to look at paint. In case anyone was wondering, I never got my bookcase, because the table saw he was using to make it broke, so my present is on a little hiatus. I'll get it eventually though. After a quick stop into Walmart we ate lunch at Subway, mmm :). I'm growing addicted to that place, I need to cut myself off, hahah.

It turned out that the weather wasn't good enough for hay today, so after Tom took a nap and I sat beside him watching an episode of Dead Like Me, I brought him home. Tomorrow we plan on unloading three loads in the morning, and however many they can bale up for us in the afternoon. Oh boy..
As promised, here's a picture of a parked haywagon that's awaiting us for the morning.



Once I was on my own I did a substancial amount of cleaning, that really needed to be done. I always feel accomplished when I get things nice and tidy. As farmers, that's not the top priority of my parents. They're good, hardworking people. A little dust here and there, and clutter, doesn't bother you when you've spent all day dealing with large, smelly farm animals. You just want a place to rest. So I kind of take alot of the cleaning on as "my thing" because it matters more to me.
I apologize if this post basically sucks. It's past midnight and I'm at the brink of complete exhaustion. I felt like I needed to update this though, and keep my blogging moving along at a more frequent pace. So if it seems like I've been droning on or rambling throughout this---whoops :P, I'm sorry. I'm just typing whatever comes to mind. I anticipate a more thought out, concious post in the near future :).

♥ Olive

Seven, Seven, Oh Nine :)

It's just unfathomable to me just how quickly summer is slipping by. It's only the "beginning" for me, but I realize soon enough will be the middle of July. Then it's only a few weeks til August, then September. I feel like I need to scramble to accomplish all of the ideas that have been swarming, spinning around in my head. So, like any dutiful blogger I'll go all out and list the things I want to do, right here in plain sight. That way, if I allow myself to fail to do them out of laziness, I'll have to shamefully inform you all that's what happened :P. Eh, just a little motivation I presume.

SUMMER PLANS.
* Educate myself better on the things they don't really teach at school. I want to research more about government and the economy, but I'll take a class on that next year. I still want to understand it myself, first. As Hannah was saying, as the next generation, we must be informed. Or we're doomed to epic fail. Also, I want to learn about different places, master geography, and just pick up on whatever interesting information I can. I want to learn about mechanical things too, so I can actually comprehend how things work.

* Purchase a laptop and internet. In doing this, I plan on being a smart shopper, not just getting what "sounds good", but I really need to understand about the processor, how much memory I should need, and what isn't going to screw me over. Plus I don't want to spend a fortune. Then I need to protect it an anti-virus program, a really effective one. Any suggestions for that?

* WRITE. I claim this is my future career. I'm so sure I'm going to publish books, yet I don't even write in my spare time. It makes me feel like an imposter. Just because I can rip through essays for school, always earning a mark high in the 90's, or a 100, doesn't mean I'll be a writer. I need to get creative, really own what I love. I think I'm afraid that if I try now, it'll turn out disasterous. But oh well, I need to do it anyways. I have an idea for a story, it's about a girl named Josephine. I just need to start it on paper.

* Finally get the Spanish language through my head. I can never separate the different tenses and their endings. This summer I'll put an end to that, so I can really understand spanish, and hopefully progress to teaching myself new languages. I want to eventually be multilingual :). I plan on travelling when I'm older, and when I do, I do not want to receive the "dumb tourist" treatment. I want to know how to speak, listen, and navigate my way through the beautiful countries in Europe. England will be a piece of cake, hahah.

Those are my "set in stone" kind of plans, the ones I really hope to accomplish, atleast to an extent. Otherwise, I really just want to enjoy my summer. I love seeing my friends pretty consistently, it's good to feel like there are people you can always call up and find something to do with. I've also been trying to better my health lately, eating more natural/organic products, trying to balance things back out from all of those appetizing graduation party foods I binged on. And I've been walking daily with Candy, whenever I've been home. If I don't take her out, I feel like I'm letting her down, and being "mean" :P, so that gets my butt outside. I want to go bicycling more too.

Time to recap :).
I really enjoyed my little trip out west. As in west, I mean the western part of the state, hahah. But it was nice. I actually like long car rides. I could look out of the window for hours, and I did. Plus I listened to my ipod, and let my mind just wander. Driving and having to pay attention to the road has made me forget the pleasantness of just riding, I always felt most insightful while I tuned everyone out, sitting in the window seat of a car. I finished Impossible by an author named Nancy Werner, I think. Something like that, Julie has the book or else I'd look. It was a nice little fairytale-esque story. With a modern setting. I thought it was a little stupid at times, but it was pretty okay overall. Now I'm reading On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. I've heard good things about it, and it's a pretty reknown piece of literature in history, so it's worth a shot. I'm liking it so far. Some of my absolute favorite books, like Water for Elephants, are told back in the early 1900's. On the Road is more towards the middle of the century, but still. I like reading about that era. Back when you could hop on railroad cars, and it was normal. When hitchhikers weren't assumed to be evil molesters/serial killers. Back when we had an ounce of faith in humanity.
The house we stayed at was nice. A log cabin on the lake, with a yard for the guests to pitch their tents on. We put outs up near the hottub. We spent alot of time playing games with eachother, the younger ones :P. Most of the people there were adults who all knew eachother. So Julie, John, Amanda, Julie and John's cousins Jack and Maggie, and myself played Palace, Kings in the Corner, Yahtzee, Mancala, Scrabble, and then some. I never knew how to play Yahtzee before, but I won the first time ;D. Pretty cool.. haha. I desperately want to teach myself how to play chess. I always knew checkers, but noone ever taught me chess. Unfortunately, LuLu didn't own a chess board, or Jack and Julie would've shown me.
It was freezing cold for the beginning of July. We expected to spend alot of time out in the water, but that didn't quite happen. It was a beautiful view, I'm awful for not taking more pictures of it. We did go swimming once, and it was fun. We jumped on the water trampoline and projected ourselves out into the dark blue abyss. I'm not a good swimmer. That's another thing I need to work on. Sure, I can manage, and keep myself above water. But if you dropped me in the middle of a lake, I probably would die :P. I guess it depends on the size of it, and adreneline would come into play. But point is, I need to swim more.
Being out in the woods persay, made me long to go camping or hiking. Being in someone's backyard doesn't constitute as the real thing, and I've never gone camping, for real. I think I'd like it though. I've hiked before, but not recently. I want to go again. I told Tom that, and now we're hopefully going to go one of these days :). I like adventure.
So the trip was good, the food was mainly organic, and delicious. And the people were all fun. It was basically a gathering of past/current hippies, alot of which used to go hiking together as a group called the "Sapper Knackers", hahah. I thought that was a cool name. Of course they used to do the typical hippie stuff :P, but I still think it was a cool idea. Being there made me think about friends, and how we'll be in the future. I honestly hope and believe we'll still be close, atleast my closest of friends, and I hope we have little camp out get togethers when we're older. It's nice to see examples of people who haven't lost eachother over the years.

My Independence Day wasn't too crazy/exciting. The night before, Lulu have us glow in the dark jewelery and wands, haha. But on the fourth, we went outside for awhile, and it was just too cold. So we went inside and watched Wall-E, hahah. It was still a nice time. We could see some of the fireworks through the window to the loft.
I was home Monday, just in time for the first load of hay! In case you don't understand, as farmers we mow and bale our own hay, so when they square-bale it, it's flung into huge wooden wagons, and we have to manually move it from these wagons into the barns for storage. Tom always helps with this, so he came over and together we tackled 4 loads, I believe. I'll post a picture of exactly how big these wagon loads are, eventually. Let's just say for now, it's alot of work. It was nice being able to hang out with him though, after not seeing him for awhile.
Tonight I'm going to go see The Wallflowers in concert, with Julie and Shayla. We're buying tickets at the door, I hope they won't be sold out. I'll tell you all how that goes in the next post :).

Pay it forward!

This is incredible overdue, but I just wanted to publicly thank the lovely Hannah over on Sixteen Going On Seventy..., for her wonderful gift :). She held a contest awhile back, and I entered and was selected, so she sent me this wicked nice journal. She has great taste, doesn't she? :D. I'm actually planning on using it to start the story I was talking about in the beginning of this post. So thank you, thank you, my dear Hannah :).
But anyways, as the contest goes, I'm the next one up to give a gift of my own choosing. So if any of you are interested in entering, just drop a comment saying "Count me in", or something indicating you're cool with being in the drawing. If anyone signs up for it, I'll probably put names in a hat or something :P. If you're not okay with the whole address thing, or you know your parents woudn't be, it's cool. I'll have you know I'm not an old man, and I lack the energy required to stalk someone, hahahah. Kidding, but really. I'd only use it to send you your gift.

So I guess how it works is I pick 3 names from the draw, although I'm not really expecting many enterees, because I don't have a huge following or anything, but I'll choose the winners at random. Then once you receive something, you then go and do the same :). Ta-Da.

Well, off to see The Wallflowers I go!
Have a wonderful week & such.
♥ Olive

Mini vacation of sorts.

As if my blogging habits weren't awful as it is..
Hahah :P. Yes, I'm going to be gone for four or five days. All of which I'll be alienated from internet connection, unless I get ambitious and use my cellphone. Anyways, don't expect a post in the mean time. I'm going with Julie to visit her Aunt, who isn't really her aunt, just a family friend, hahah, and they live up on a lake. It's nearly six hours away in a car, and I believe we'll be sleeping in a tent, maybe. I'm kind of excited :).

So it'll be me, Julie, her brother John, her father, and Amanda. I hear that swimming, waterskiing, and tubing may very well be involved. But I'm not 100% sure of what to expect. I suppose I'll quit guessing and just tell you all about it upon my return. So I'll be there for the 4th of July, I hope you all have an enjoyable one yourselves!

Oh, wow. I think today may have been the very first day all summer that I haven't seen my friends. Like not leaving their house in the morning, getting together during the day, or going to their house for the evening. Nope, I was completely alone today. I didn't really mind though. For me atleast, I need a day for myself every once in awhile. Just to chill, veg out, and not worry about anyone else. I watched a few episodes of Dead Like Me. I highly reccomend that show to anyone who hasn't already watched it :). Unfortunately, my internet connectivity has been less than stellar lately.. So it's a struggle and a test of patience every time I want to do something. Every day I want a laptop more, hahah. After speaking to my parents, we decided it may be possible for me to use my savings bonds to purchase one. Originally these were for college, but all together the oldest, most valuable ones have accumulated about $1300. So my mother atleast, doesn't think they'll add up to enough to really make a dent in the college funds, so I'm free to use them for my education in other ways. Now I just need to revisit the suggestions you guys gave me, read up on some reviews, and choose what I want. The vice about laptops here is the inaccessibility to cable. Therefore, in order to have highspeed, I need to fork over $60/month. Outrageous. :/. But nothing else is cheaper.. so hmmph. I'm thinking about getting a usb connector from Verizon, so I have internet wherever I have cell service. I need to learn more about this stuff though. Well, I'll blog again, and hopefully better, when I come back :).

♥ Olive