Dear Readers,

I have been a horrible blogger for about six months, so horrible in fact that you've probably all given up on me and will see this post only months after it was written. Nevertheless, I would like to tell you that I have moved to http://baileyhitch.wordpress.com, where I would love for you to join me!

Family

This has been a hard three weeks. On August 4th, my grandpa passed away, which, although expected, was still extremely difficult. He had such a presence in our family, it's hard to imagine us without him. Despite this though, these past weeks have been such a rich family time. It's been so good to be with my parents, grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins as we miss him together. It makes it more real, but more bearable as well.

Hiatus

I haven' t posted for a very long time. I wish I had a wonderful excuse like this, but I really can't think of one that would warrant my absence for almost two months. So the truth? I just didn't feel like blogging. Now that I am back, I am having trouble deciding what to write about. Graduating from college? Turning 21? Two sun-drenched weeks of swim lessons? Or how about the wonderful, slow paced summer I am having in SLO? I think I will settle on the latter. Although it was difficult to leave Oakdale, and family, and Sarah, for the majority of the summer, I think it was a good decision. My life in SLO keeps me active, where at home I am too prone to while away the hours reading and watching Grey's reruns. My days have been full of babysitting, chatting with friends, frozen yogurt, reading, games, puzzles, and a smattering of Gilmore Girls, all of which are contributing to a different, but wonderful, summer so far.

Peanut Butter Shake Day

Once a year, something special happens. It is called a Peanut Butter Blast with banana. Sounds pretty exciting, right? It's this smoothie that they make on campus that Caitlin and I discovered Freshman year thanks to a fellow peanut butter-lover. This "smoothie" is more like a shake; a perfect, peanut buttery, banana shake. Yumm. Unfortunately, it is one of those things that, after you eat, you dearly regret eating it. So we have a rule: only get one a year. This way when I get it, I don't feel too terribly guilty. As you have probably guessed by now, today was peanut butter shake day. To celebrate the last time we have to speak Spanish in a classroom setting (and let's be honest, probably the last time either one of us will speak more than two sentences in Spanish ever) Caitlin and I went to get the shakes. They were delicious. I still haven't fully recovered.

Yet another story

One of the biggest gifts my parents gave me was the ability to laugh at myself. Without that ability how would I share all of my stories with you? I'm convinced it would be impossible. This morning I was presented with an opportunity to practice this important skill. I was up at 5:00 am in order to make scones for the leadership meeting. I had made the batter and shaped the scones the night before, so all I had to do was pop them in the oven. Easy right? I thought so too. When I opened up the oven door I noticed that it was a tad smokey, but the majority of the scones looked alright. About two minutes later though, I was snapped out of my sleepiness by the sound of the fire alarm. I would like to take a moment to remember that, a) My scones were not that burnt, they definitely did not deserve the fire alarm and b) I live with fifteen other people, so when the fire alarm goes off at 5 am I am potentially waking up a small army. I was so embarrassed! Once I realized that I was the one that set off the alarm I ran around for a few seconds alternately waving a towel in the air (hopefully near the alarm) and searching for the whole-house fan. Luckily Emma woke up after a few horrible minutes and showed me where the fan was, and the alarm went off almost immediately. Half an hour later at my meeting, as everyone was sitting around happily munching on scones, I tried to convince myself that the whole ordeal was worth it. I'm not quite sure it was...

Return

I abandoned you. I apologize. It's just that I haven't felt like I have anything interesting or funny to say for awhile. I still feel like that, but I am going to try to muscle through, for all my faithful readers...or for my few faithful readers, I should say. I could talk about goodbyes, which I am getting a small taste of right now, or my mom coming, which I'm so excited for (!!!), but instead I think I'll talk about books, or one book to be exact. I've started reading The Help, and even though I'm still less than 100 pages in, I want to recommend this book to you. It has that wonderful good book feeling of To Kill a Mockingbird and Where the Red Fern Grows. I can attest to this because, in the midst of my senior project rough draft, midterms, and 15 roommates, I am still trying to eek out enough time to read a chapter or two a week. Should I have held off until summer? Most definitely. But now I consider it too late, so instead of regretting beginning this book I will recommend it to all of you.

P.S.

Do you like the new background or should I keep looking?