Day 213

I have nothing for ya. Sorry. So far this week has been CRAZY. I don't know how much I'll be able to keep up.

Basically, math is killing me. 

Only two more weeks. Hopefully I can make it. 

yep. 

Day 208

 I've been working on math most of the day. Let's just say that I am SOO ready to be done. I took my test today, but it didn't go so well.
We haven't had much internet this past week (seriously, it's worse than Ecuador internet) so I had to go to the library to take my test. Let's just say all the noise and distraction didn't help me with the test. Sigh, oh well. I should still easily pass the class.

(f/ 3.5; 1/80s; ISO 100; 18-55mm lens)

Day 183

Today we celebrated Andrew's birthday. His birthday was on father's day, and we didn't do much other than go out for lunch with the family after church. He was super excited about having friends over.

(f/5.6; 1/30s; ISO 800; 50mm lens)

Also, today I finally took the math test for this week. This week was especially hard. I was behind after camping, and I also had to do waaay more. For the most part, the class only requires about one chapter a week. This week I had two chapters... and they were both very hard. There were a couple of moments throughout the week where I didn't know if I would make it or not. But I took the test (which was SOOOO hard) and I'm still passing the class. I'm ready to get some sleep again :)

Also, thanks to my wonderful mom who worked with me on all the problems I struggled with. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be passing this class without her. I'm so thankful I have a mother who is a math teacher.

Day 174

I went from seeing this little cutie,

(f/1.8; 1/1250s; ISO 200) 

 to seeing this little crazy cutie.

(f/1.8; 1/1250s; ISO 200)

And I finished my day off with this wonderful sunset. God is definitely a creative creator. 

(f/9.0; 1/60s; ISO 200)

It was a beautiful day indeed. (other than the 4+ hours of math that I did, but I'll just forget about that).

Also, I am back to (semi) working! Although I don't have regular hours, I'm making about as much as I would have been making if I had kept my other job. So, I am very thankful for that. This week I worked about 15 hours... babysitting and nannying combined.

God is good.

mononucleosis makes you go crazy.

I really, really enjoy taking pictures. I love getting out of the house, and attempting to capture beauty.

My new lens has made it even more fun! I feel like I have a whole new camera!

My favorite things about it are:

• The aperture can open nice and wide :) 
• It's smaller, so it's easier to carry around with me. 
• If the settings are right, the pictures are SO sharp, and clear. 

Mmm, yes. I love it! 

My favorite little Micah Moo 

Haircut time! 

Johnny loves Poncho

Poncho is now groomed... and is healed after his rattle snake bite 

Boys come in on a regular basis and show me thier muscles... haha. not really. 

Love it! 

Friendsies

Flowers in the park 

Here's a game:
It's called planking. You choose a place to lay flat as a board, and you take a picture. I love being weird :)

Anyway, that's about the most fun I've had all week. I'm going crazy being at home so much, but there's not much I can do about it... since I'm SO tired all of the time. 

I just want mono to go away. 

I finished my first week of my math class! I took the pretest today and I actually got an 85%... that's impressive since I'm bad at math... and I haven't taken math in a year! And, my calculator broke right in the middle of the test. 

That's about the extent of my productiveness today. 

Update.

June 4 has been a good day... for at least two years in a row. Last year I interviewed for the nanny job that I now have, and enjoy very much. This year I had my open house, and it was very enjoyable (albeit tiring).

I thought I would post some pictures...

Yearbook, senior pictures, diploma, certificate... 

I chose some of my favorite pictures and my mom printed them for me. I had a couple people ask me to do senior pictures for them... woo! I'm excited for the experience. 

My cake. Isn't it gorgeous?

My mom even got balloons... that's a first. ha. 

We had so much food... and now so many leftovers! Yum! 

I love this picture. :) 

Me with la cake. 

Little Madilyn

My sister and Madilyn

friendsies

Mis amigos

I sent my sister around with my camera... so she took many of the pictures with people in them. 

My wonderful mother, and Shirl Lee. Shirl Lee lived with my family in Ecuador for a few months, but she also took care of Poncho for awhile. 

Johnny

When Caiden walked in he instantly asked me about my fish. I showed him my fish and he fed it. Later he found the fish food upstairs and dumped it all over the bathroom... boys, I love them :) They find the smallest things to be so entertaining. 

A few people decided to go swimming in our pool

Madilyn was the star of the show

And this is what we were left with. I'm so excited to eat the rest of it :) 

I think the pictures do a pretty good job at explaining yesterday. Since my dad is still in Ecuador we skyped with him through out the party and he was able to say hello to a few people that he knew. 

I think yesterday did tire me out, because all I want to do is lay in bed. I think I have finally accepted that mono will not be going away in a few days, so I'll just have to deal with it and hope that it doesn't last forever. 

Thankfully I feel so much better than I did a week ago. SO MUCH BETTER. 

Today, the family that is renting the basement while my family is here arrived. They seem very nice. They have two kids: a boy who is 1 1/2, and a 3 month old little girl... so I think I will have a new family to babysit for soon! This is nice, especially since I don't have a job this summer. Also, whenever they need me to babysit I'll just walk down to the basement! So easy. :) 

When my family leaves, I'll move back to the basement, and the family in the basement will move upstairs. This family just moved to Colorado Springs and they are working with HCJB (which is the same mission that my family works for). It will be nice to have fellow Christians around. 

On Monday I start my math class... boo! I have to take Statistics.... I'm hoping it is easy, but I doubt it. Maybe because I am not that great at Algebra, I will be able to understand Statistics better? But, this is my last math class for my degree! I would just prefer to take an English class or an Early Childhood Education class instead. It will be good to have something to do this summer since I am not working. It's completely online though... so that may make it hard. This is also the first college class that I have to pay for. It's kind of a pain to graduate from high school ;) 

I'm Free Indeed

So, my entire summer I felt as though I was working a 30 hour a week job... but not getting paid. Okay, in a way I did get paid... but not in the money sense of being paid. You have all read at least one post about me complain about having to do math, and trying to avoid it in. Also, some of you have heard me talk about it in a normal conversation. And there are also a few of you (mostly my immediate family) who have seen me cry, complain, and struggle through this math class. Although some of the time I probably overreacted, it was definitely one of my harder classes. Math is not for me, nor will it ever be. Also, this was a very quick semester, so EVERYTHING is crammed in. I was probably doing close to 30 hours of math a week. By the end of the semester I was even dreaming of math (GROSS), and Math was coming up in EVERY conversation that I ever had (ok, it was left out once in awhile).

BUT

I'm DONE!

I finally have my life back, and it feels SO good. :) I now have four more credits going towards my degree, and I have 2 1/2 weeks left of my summer. I cannot even describe how good it feels to be done. It will just be so nice to wake up in the mornings and not have to rush to do math. I also don't have to miss out on anything anymore because I am no longer in class, and I have no more homework!

I also found out tonight after taking the final (a very easy one at that) that I have a very nice grade in the class :)

I know I should expect to have a good grade, because I am naturally brilliant (ha ha), but there were a couple times where I didn't think I could do it. But I did it and I am done. And I just had to tell you all how wonderful it feels to be done!

In other news, I do start 3 more classes on the 23rd, but for now I will be happy to be done and I will enjoy it!

Thanks for letting me tell you all how glad I am to be done! I'll post a hopefully more interesting post in the near future.

The Big City

First, I would like to start by saying that the reason why I am writing a post now is because I am trying my hardest to avoid math. I should really be working on math homework, and studying for my test on Thursday, but it really doesn't sound all that fun. So, I will sit here and write about my fairy tale life so that my wonderful fans can read about me.

July has been a very busy month, but a really enjoyable one at that. In my previous post, I wrote about being able to spend time with some of my closest friends, the Brdickas. That was only the beginning of July. So much has happened since.

My family has almost finished getting ready to leave for Ecuador (Almost is relative though, because there is still much to do).

The basement is now ready to be lived in (I've actually been living in it for almost 3 weeks now). We painted the whole basement, set up the kitchen, and just turned it into a more apartment like place.

The upstairs is also close to being ready for the renters (who come in August 5th!). As I write there is someone above me painting the whole main floor. Also at the end of this week we are getting new blinds! Furthermore, we just got some wood floors put in upstairs. They will be wonderful! no longer do we have to avoid eating in the dining room because we don't have to worry about the carpet being stained.

Here is a picture of the wood floors in our

living room and dining room.

Also, the white walls are being painted

a somewhat gold color, and the dining room (or the green/blueish wall)

is going to be painted another color, although I am not sure what color.

All that we are doing to our house is so exciting, because we haven't done much to the house since we moved in. So it's going to be like a brand new house to us!

Although I have been busy with fixing up the house, and helping my parents pack, I've also been busy in other ways. July 14th I flew out to Chicago to visit my sister, and to go to a family reunion. Going to Chicago was probably the most exciting thing I have done all summer. I arrived Wednesday afternoon to a lot of heat and a lot of traffic! I will admit that after being in Chicago, I am very very thankful for Colorado's weather! It was hard to do anything but sit in front of a fan all day to try to stay cool in Chicago.

Being in Chicago was very relaxing for the most part. Thursday, the day after I got there, my sister (Rachel), her husband (Jason), my nephew (Judah), my older brother (Steven), and my younger sister (Julianna) and I went jet skiing on lake michigan. Okay, my nephew didn't go jet skiing, but he did sleep in the shade while the rest of us went jet skiing. On Friday, Rachel, Judah, Steven, Julianna and I drove (five hours) to Spring Hill Camp in Michigan for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. (My parents and 4 of my younger siblings had left the day before to visit some friends). At the camp, we spent a lot of time eating, swimming, zip lining, and doing other activities. I also spent a lot of time on Math. Probably about 14 hours.

My adorable little nephew, Judah. (2 1/2 months)

This face always makes me laugh :)

Judah with a couple of his loving uncles. This was soon after I arrived in

Chicago and I had just recently met Judah.

My entire family on my mom's side. I believe this is the first picture that we have

ever taken of all of us.

Sunday afternoon, we got back to my sister's apartment and from then until Tuesday we pretty much just lounged around and relaxed (I did some more math). I flew back to Colorado on Tuesday with Julianna. (Steven flew out the day before). It was a really good trip. It was great to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, and celebrate my grandparents anniversary. My cousins on my mom's side are all at least 5 years younger than I am, and we have never been too close with them due to being in Ecuador for most of my life, but we all get along for the most part.

Well I better run, because I have a 3 hour math class that I need to be at this evening, and I still have more homework to do!