Update (of sorts)

Guess what? I got a bike!! *throws a party* It's the awesomest bike ever :D (although I'm pretty sure each of my brothers would disagree with me hehe) It's a used Trek bike (which is an upper line one for those of you who don't know.... not that I'm an expert either) - it's silver and light green - and it's in great shape. I got it for a bargain too... God's so cool! :D I haven't been able to convince anyone to take a picture of me with my bike yet - but hopefully soon someone will be nice enough to do that. :)

In non-travel news - I'm planning on taking another college test on Monday. Introduction to World Religions is the name of it, and let me tell you, it has been a bear to study for. It's hard, for one thing, to keep everything straight between all the different religions... not to mention that I don't really care to dig into the false teachings of other wackos out there! Everything I read just makes me want to scream - no! that's so wrong! read the Bible! :P Especially the chapter I read on Judaism.... I mean, really. That's NOT how Jews are, people. The author was going on and on about all these socialistic, philosophical things about Judiasm - and it barely mentioned the traditions and rich -not to mention Biblical- history of that religion. Oh well. If you happen to think of me on Monday afternoon... a prayer that I pass and remember everything would be awesome.

Annddd...! It looks like we're heading out pretty soon so I'd better run. Today the plan is to go to Park City Utah - and play tourist for the day. The 2002 Winter Olympic games were held there, and apparently there are all kinds of neat things to see and do! Top of the list for my brothers and I is to ride the zip-line that's there. Whoot!! I'm totally excited. :D

Bad internet, Independence Rock, and Bikes

Ladies and gents, I am on vacation! Which explains my lack of posting *and* updating the song for Music Monday (sorry). The internet here in Utah isn't all that great either (although I just did a speed test and it gave me some good results... but the fact that it was so slow I could barely have a Skype conversation tells me otherwise).... which is a bummer, but hopefully that will help me take a bit of a computer break and spend more time doing 'stuff' with my family.

Soon to come will be pictures on my photo blog! {shameless plug: http://yakarphotography.blogspot.com/ }
If, that is, all my pictures take less than - say - a week to upload ha ha ha. We stopped to see a really cool site yesterday though, Independence Rock. Seriously! THE Independence Rock! For all you non-Oregon Trail freaks - you can read more about it here. My brothers climbed to the top (Mom didn't let me :sadness: ) - but it was really cool. An interesting part about it, was the fact that many pioneers had carved their initials or their whole name into this massive rock! Those were really cool to see. Dad saw he saw one dated 1890! The latest I saw was 1911 though.

We've got lots of fun things planned for this mini vacation - hiking, biking, white water rafting, shopping, touristy stuff... yeah! Really though, I'm not sure if we'll get to go biking. :(  (and no, I'm not talking about Motorcycles) All they sell back home are Huffy's from Target or Schwinns that are a million dollars. So we figured on buying them here. Seriously though, there isn't a used bike to be found in the whole state of Utah it seems! And I'm not rich, not at all. (plus, recycling is awesome!) We were bike shopping today (my family and I), and we found some Trek bikes for sale that were over $3,000. Really?! Who would spend that much on a bicycle! I mean, Lance Armstrong - yeah I can see that. But just for biking around for fun? I don't know who can afford it. If any of you know of some decent used bikes for sale in Utah though - do let me know. Thanks! :P

whew!

Today was spent sewing. All. Day. Long. Yayness!!! I got fabric in the mail yesterday for 2 Renaissance dresses - so I was itching to sew them up! Thankfully Mom washed the material last night, so it was done this morning and ready to go. I made a dress for myself, and one for a friend. Here are the stats:

-9 hours of sewing time
-15 yards of fabric
-4 spools of ribbon
-1 package of bias tape
-2 machines: a serger and a regular sewing machine
-the entire dining room
-newspaper (I had to make a pattern!)
-lots of pins
-lots of thread
-1 pricked finger (ouch!)
-my iPod + speakers 8-)

The end result:

The dress I made for my friend was the same, only in blue with white ribbon trim. Ya like? I do! My brother Noah says I look like a ranger..... that's one way to look at it I suppose! :D

Now on to some school... I really should do some work today... hehe!

"This video will self-destruct in 5 seconds."

Young Adult Blog Party!

Whoot! My good friend Jo has the best ideas ever! You can read about it HERE. Basically - she started a blog party for young adults! In her own words:

"The world has created a stereotype called a "teenager". Many youth (the Biblical word for this age group), myself included, don't particularly like this brand name. The general impression that the word "teenager" gives is that of a possibly lazy or bored, rebellious, TV watching, headphone wearing sloucher. Of course, that's not always the case, but that is pretty much the general idea."

So - the party is about listing 10 things you do instead of being bored, things you do in your free time that you enjoy! (and pictures were requested to be included) Here I go:

{1} DANCE! I know, I know, it's my job - but still - I *love* it. And it's great to just get my iPod and start dancing on the kitchen floor... until someone tells me to stop. :)

(senior dance en pointe - I'm the one in front with the tutu)

{2} EMBROIDER! Sadly, I haven't been able to do this in awhile, but I really do enjoy embroidering pretty things on fabric... to, hopefully, make it prettier. I have made a few too many pillows like this for myself (and others) - but it's just too much fun!

{3} PLAY GAMES! A favorite in my family's house is the Catan games. We have Settlers, Cities and Knights, and Seafarers.... when we put them all together we have one massive game going on! My three brothers and I are about at the same skill level, which makes the games lots of fun (and a fight to the end).

{4} SKYPE! ...I know, that might sound kind of lame, but as I only have one friend besides my family that is 'local' (and even she has gone off to college now :( ) - Skype is my way of hanging out with friends. Voice call, video call, just chatting - it's awesome! It's also really great to be able to Skype with my oldest brother... even though he resides in the bedroom right next to mine.

{5} ROLLERBLADE! There's not much better than strapping on some rollerblades, putting music on, and just going! It's even better when I get to do it with my family. Last summer, quite frequently my Dad would go running and I would rollerblade - that way we about kept pace with each other :D

(my brother - because - I couldn't find a
good pic of me rollerblading)

{6} HORSE..... STUFF! Hehe - I really enjoy working with horses. Riding them, helping other kids ride, etc. It's nice to be able to step away from life and play with a big teddy bear for awhile. (although, not all horses are nice teddy bears. :P )

(August is the Mom - Napoleon is the baby. sooo cute!!)

{7} BAKING! mmmmmm. Do I need to say more?

(banana bread! with chocolate chips on top)

{8} READ! I enjoy all sorts of books.... mysteries, drama, classics, fantasy (sometimes), "Idiot's Guide" books (don't laugh, I really do!), autobiographies... etc. Mostly anything that isn't horror or a romance novel.

{9} TRAVELING! I haven't been all over the world, but I'd like to! I think I've been in 33 states and Canada... but yes, traveling is awesome. Soo cool to be able to just hop in the RV (or the car, or a train, or a plane, or a boat) with my family and GO! Seeing God's awesome creation is wonderful and awe-inspiring - as is seeing all the interesting stuff that man has built.

(hmm. I don't remember where this was. Utah maybe?)

{10} WRITING! While I'm not so great at writing stories - I love to write essays. :D Yep - English major in the house. ;) By the way - this may be last - but it's definitely not least.

Now, it's your turn! Please join the blog party - just head over to Jo's blog (link at the very top) to read all the official rules, directions, etc. Have fun - being - un-bored!! :D

~dance~

I love to dance. Although that might be rather obvious... ha ha ha. :P But yes, I do love to dance, and I love teaching dance! I might be in just a tad over my head this year though. I finally have my dance teaching schedule for the upcoming 9 months... whew! I'm going to be busy. Here's what my boss gave me - now - these classes happen each week. From September to May. Ya! Busyness! Anyway:

-3 classes teaching Ballet to 4 year olds
-1 class teaching Modern to 6-7 year olds
-2 classes teaching Jazz to 8-9 year olds
-2 classes teaching Tap to 10-11 year olds
-1 class teaching Clogging to 10-11 year olds
-1 class teaching Clogging to.... adults


I'm so excited! Well, except for the adults. I'm not sure how to teach adult women. Teaching kids... I know how to do that fairly well (or so they tell me) - but adults? God - give me strength and wisdom.

I just wrote that - and went to do some laundry. As I was folding clothes... it hit me. I'm an adult. I shouldn't be worried about it.... just because I'm a younger adult. Do Hard Things!! ...there's my pep talk to myself for the day.

As it stands though, I'm super happy and excited about the classes I got. YAYNESS!!!! :D It's definitely a step up from teaching 2 classes last year and 2 classes the year before.... :)

But how on earth will I ever be able to wait until classes start on September 13th???

Yakar hath arrived!!!

My camera! It came! In the mail! Today! WAHOO!!! (...and yes, I named my camera Yakar). I got the Nikon D3000 - it's a DSLR with awesome specs.... that could take up this whole post if I listed them all. Anyway - I was taking a nap and my brother set this box on top of me....!!! Opened the box - charged the battery (waiting, waiting, waiting), set it up, and proceeded to take 400+ photos. Yikes! But, you must realize, that I took like 30 or so photos of one thing (more than once), to test the speed and all the cool settings. Needless to say though, after tinkering around with it for awhile, I like Yakar a lot. :)

Annndddd... because I know you all are just *dying* (not really) to see pictures, I have created a photo blog (otherwise this one will be clogged with photos). So feel free to visit  http://yakarphotography.blogspot.com/ to see all my shots! Enjoy! If you wish, you can follow it as well ;)