November Highlights

This was an insainly busy month. I cannot believe we packed so much in and Decemeber is just getting busier. 

This was my tenth NaNoWriMo! Honestly, this was one of my favorite NaNo’s yet. I challenged myself to write 2k a day instead of the 1,667 words you have to, so I was able to take every Sunday off without ever falling behind. It also came a lot easier than I have ever had before. I rarely found myself at a lack of words, just a lack of time. I wrote during a lot of late nights, car trips, and between events. I also got to have a few writing parties with my sister Grace, and my friend Hannah! I came out with a complete Novella, some poetry, and a handful of short stories, including my (apparently annual now) Star Trek Fan fiction! 

I got bored one day at an event, so Rebekkah showed me some of the basics of knitting. I was amazed at how much fun I had! This probably isn’t going to become a new hobby, but I’ve had fun practicing. Rebekkah’s lets me use the end of her string a lot as long as I take it out when I’m done. I did make a perfect little one-inch square that she let me keep and that made me insanely happy. XD 

I’m not really into puzzles, but I got the Mysterious Benedict Soucity puzzle book and stayed up late after doing NaNo to finish it one night. I normally don’t stick with puzzles that long, so I was so excited when I cracked the final code and was able to get my certificate online. That was fun! 

Sarah and I finished Star Trek Deep Space Nine. It was very bittersweet because it was the last new show I had that we were going to watch together. We always have re-watching, but still, it’s not the same. Anyway, it was fun to watch together, even if the ending was not super satisfying. Now we just have to decide what show to watch together next! 

Our kitten Shadow. 

So for a few months, Rebekkah and I trained to run in a 5K. I am not a natural runner, but I had gotten to where I could run a fair bit of it and I was pretty happy about it. It had been nice and warm up until the day of the race. Actually, it had been 80 the day before, and it dropped to 40 the day of. So we drove to the Zoo with chattering teeth, and about five minutes in… I had some of the worst leg cramps in my life. So we managed to run a bit, but mostly it was walking/limping. We never figured out if it was the cold, dehydration, or what, but anyways, we still had fun. Rebekkah was super epic and stayed with me even though she could have run ahead and we got free entry into the Zoo after, so that was fun!

We decorated for Christmas over the course of a week (We have a LOT of decorations), but when the day we were supposed to decorate our tree came Sarah and Scott surprised us by coming for the evening! I had been really sad that so much of the family was gone, so it was just about the best surprise. <3 

I had to get a lot of cavities filled, so we just went in and got them all done at once. I am so grateful to have it done, and I’m hoping to never have to do that again. It was hard to chew for two weeks solid and that’s not an experience I want to repeat. On the awesome side, I now should have much less discomfort eating hot and cold foods! 

I decided to make a lot of my own Christmas presents this year, so I spent a few evenings binging crafting. One night I watched straight through Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 while working on it. Movies and painting is such good therapy.

For Thanksgiving, we were able to get about two-thirds of the family together, which was awesome! I missed having the whole family, but we still had a delightful time. We had a lovely meal, and then just all sat around talking and catching up with each other. <3 

Us at the top of Enchanted Rock.

We have a tradition of going to Fredericksburg every year around Christmas, so we made it a girl's trip. We did some shopping, had epic Tex-Mex, and then we hiked Enchanted Rock. It was a beautiful day, and it was awesome because my mom fought her fear of highths and made it all the way to the top with us! We enjoyed the top, then got hot chocolate and looked around at Christmas lights on the way home playing a very long version of the alphabet game. Believe me, you are never too old for that game. 

Because we were prepping for our annual Christmas cookie party, Rebekkah and I spent a lot of time baking cookies. We spent one whole day baking, and so we put the Netflix Carmen Sandiago show in the background, which was awesome (we were trying desperately to finish it before my subscription ran out). We had a lot of fun, killed our feet standing that long, and managed to somehow double an already doubled recipe so we spent three hours baking those off. We took a huge plate to our community night, served them at the party, and we still have a lot. XD 

My favorite new read was The Mysterious Benedict Puzzle book, and my favorite re-read was Grace by Contract. The only book I didn't enjoy from the month was On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It just wasn't my style. 

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Sarah and I finished watching through this. Overall, it was my least favorite of the three series I've seen, but I did enjoy it. Dr. Bathsheer was by far my favorite character, and I enjoyed his ending. 

Merlin: I had seen this show around for a long time so I decided to give it a try and watched the first season. It was cute, and I enjoyed the characters a lot. But the magic was a bit much, and I didn't like it enough to continue it. 

Enola Holmes 1&2: They came out with the second movie, so Kate and I watched it together. I was super impressed. The mystery kept me guessing, and the character development was amazing. I ended up re-watching them again on my own and I cannot wait until they release a third. 

Carmen Sandiego: Rebekkah and I re-watched this show. While it's not what I thought of as Carmen Sandiego as a kid, I enjoyed it, and it was very well done.  

Finding Father Christmas and Engaging Father Christmas: These were adorable. I'm a sucker for a good hallmark, but the ones that don't make you gag are few and far between. This was a sweet movie with good characters, without a lot of unnecessary drama in a lot of hallmarks. 

Aladdin: I have never seen the animation, and honestly never been interested, but after hearing a lot of the music from the live-action I wanted to watch it and was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen a sweet, clean Disney live-action in a long time so it was comforting to know they still make them, even if I didn't agree with everything in the movie.

The Christmas Card: This is by far my favorite Christmas movie. It is just delightful from beginning to end. <3

Mcgee and Me: Classics, these never fail to warm my heart and make me want to do better. The simple conviction in these stories was amazingly well done and now I want to rewatch the whole show. 

It was a crazy month, but I enjoyed it too. How was your November?

October Highlights

Well, this is a little late in going up, but better late then never, right? Thankfully October was busy, but not nearly as much as September. 

My mom went on a retreat to get some time by herself but ended up catching a stomach bug we had been passing around, so we had to go and pick her up. It was a four hour trip one way, so it was quite the day, made even longer by the fact that I got a flat tire when we got there, so we had to get that replaced before heading home. But it was good to get mom since she wasn't feeling well. <3 

I then picked up the stomach bug, but only lightly, so I just spent a couple days on the couch watching movies, and snuggling my mom. For safety sake I stayed home a whole day after I felt well, which meant I missed our churches annual picnic. That was really disappointing so I spent the whole day cleaning out my room to keep myself distracted. Thankfully I never got over it quickly, so I didn't miss work. 

I had a rare day where I went to do babysitting and the kids were all amazing. Good mood all around, fun play time. No tantrums. It's worth noting because this rarely happens. It was epic. O.o

We made it to the pumpkin patch as a girls day. I got a couple tiny ones for my room, and had a blast just going around enjoying the patch!

We got the chance to go up and spend some time with Rose and her boyfriend Stewart. Since Rose was staying over at his parents house, we got the chance to know them to, which was awesome. While we were up in the area, we got to see Michael and Liz for the first time since the wedding, and got to celebrate Michaels birthday!

As a bit of a late post-wedding wind down we found a little airbnb and spent two nights down at the beach. The bad part being, our cars transmission broke so we had to baby the car the last few miles to the airbnb, and then get it looked at, and baby it for the drive back, which made it take eight hours instead of three and a half. the good news? We had an amazing time in between. My mom had set up a little treasure hunt for us in the house, which was super fun, we got to spend our nights watching movies together. On our full day down there we set up lawn chairs right on the beach, and just read, walked, and enjoyed a chill day. I had an insainly good time doing that. It was 100% worth the crazy drive home. 

Our church participated in a Trunk or Treat, and my sister Sarah being the epic person she is put together my cars activity for me since I didn't have the time. She made a huge i-spy board, and I dressed up as Miss Frizzle, which was super fun! I had a blast hanging with the kids, handing out candy and just hanging with Scott and Sarah. =) 

My youngest niece had her birthday this month, so we got to take her out to celebrate! She wanted to walk around Hobby Lobby, so we did that for a few hours, just looking over everything, grabbed ice cream, and introduced her to the Hallmark store! 

We had to very eventful weeks in a row at my bible study, the first being a sudden storm that hit with sure force that I got drenched even while holding an umbrella. As we started driving away, we got a tornado warning, and I could barley see the road so we pulled in and weathered the worst of it in the worlds weirdest Walmart. The next week was Halloween, and I don't normally dress up, but they said anyone could come in costume that wanted to. So I pulled out my Miss Frizzle dress again, and my sister did my hair all curley this time (Using rollers for the first time was way more fun then I thought it would be). My niece was Carmen Sandigo, and was born for the role. 

Lots of new books this month! My favorite re-read was The Girl Who Could See, and my favorite new read was City fo Ember. <3 

I don't recommend The London House at all, which is sad because I love some of her other books. XP

Robin Hood Disney: This is forever one of the sweetest Robin Hood storys. It hits on all the major ledgons about him, but I think it made all the characters a bit more likable. 

Milo Murphy: Rewached a view episodes while on vacation for fun.  

National treasure 1&2: We watched this on vacation because it had been years since we had seen it. I still don't aprechite Ben's character since he is a jerk, but the movies are a enjoyable watch. 

Surprise island: I needed a soothing movie, and if you've ever watched these you'd know they are some of the most calming things. I think they did a great job adapting the book into a movie. 

City of Ember: This remains one of my favorite movies. After reading for the book for the first time, I was eager to see it again, and I think it was a great adaptation. Other then a few minor changes, it is very true to the book and I think they added some really good drama. 

Midnight Mascurade: This is an adorable hallmark. It's a gender switched cinderella story, and perfect for fall. <3 

The Chosen my mom and I rewatched this when we got sick and man, i just love it more every time. 

How was your October? 

September Highlights

It was not an incredibly busy month. A lot of it was just spent prepping for the wedding, and getting back into the swing of fall activitys. 

It was my oldest nieces birthday this month, so we got pizza then went to Main Event. We played tons of Laser Tag, and arcades. It was a fun, long night of celebration!

So one day at lunch, my tooth just chipped off. A whole forth of it. O.o So I had to get it filled, which was uncomfortable, but not as bad as I had imagined. I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to eat afterwards for a few hours, so Sarah sat with me while my mom went and got lunch until I got to get food. <3 

The Cameron Park Zoo has hosted a running challenge for years, but this year my sister and I decided to join. So I started a 5k training program, and have actually been able to stick to it really well! I'm excited to see how the last month of the training goes. Hopefully I'll actually be able to run it. At the moment I'm still in the stage of wheezing through most of the running. XD

Our kitten, Scruffy. She's the runt of her litter, and is just about the sweetest thing. 

Bible Study Fellowship started up again. This year we are studying a lot in Kings, Chronicals, and some of the minor prophets. It's not my favorite part of the Bible, but BSF always does such an amazing job with their study's I'm excited to see how it goes. 

I got a game called Nancy Drew at Magnolia Gardens and it was incredible. It was like an escape room in a box. We had to read a lot, solve codes, and make a timeline of where everyone was. There was even a locked box we had to get into. O.o It was a blast! 

So my brother and his fiancee (Liz) were getting married up in the Dallas area, so we traveled up there for the wedding! On the way we got to go to the biggest Half Priced Books in Texas. It was so awesome! We toured Michaela and Liz's new house, and got to attend a prayer breakfast for Liz. We stayed at a lovely little house by a lake, and got to see an absolutely amazing sunset. We helped set up for the wedding, and spent an lot of time in the kitchen joking around. The day of the wedding we had to get up insainly early, so I was part of a slightly later crew that brought breakfast for everyone. We were in charge of a waffle bar for the reception, so we set that up, and then were in photos. None of us were in the wedding, so it was a little easier making time for things. The wedding was in a beautiful little chapel, and went off amazingly well. They were married! My whole family spent the next 45 minutes serving waffles, keeping things refilled, and making sure everything ran smoothly. It was hectic, but we did get amazing chocolate cake with chcoclate covered strawberries for our trouble. XD Needless to say, but the end of the reception, we were pretty tired, so after clean up, we packed up our AirBnB and came home. 

Rebekkah and I took an evening, set up our hammocks, with tikki torches, and read for an evening. It was the perfect way to chill out after a busy month. Now that it is finally cool out again we definitely be doing this more often!

No re-reads. Someone should be proud of me. XD But my favorite new book was a toss up between Findinging Gods Life for My Will and The Extraordinary Education of Nicolas Bennidict. Both epic books. 

Paddington 2: I loved this even more than the first one in some ways. Paddington is such a sweet soul. <3 

Newsies: I missed this after seeing it in person, so I had to watch it again. This music, the dancing, it's all incredible. 

Bad Hair Day: This is such a cute movie. It reminds me of the Disney movies they used to make like Radio Rebel, or Starstuck. It was cute, innocent, and a bit sappy in places. A great movie to relax with. 

Mission Impossible: If you ever see a month without MI listed, you probably need to ask after our mental health. XD 

MacGyver: This show is just fun, and it's cool to see MacGyver's ingenuity. 

Bluey: Kid shows just do not get much cuter then this. It's fun, it teaches kids good lessons, and I don't think there's much better after a long day then Bingo's little giggle. 

DS9: My sister Sarah and I just finished season six! Just one more season to go. =) 

It's crazy how fast this month went! How was your month? 

August Highlights

It was... a crazy month. O.o 

In preparation for my brother's wedding, we have been pretty busy. We have gone up to the Sherman area to see Michael and Liz's new house. We helped pack up Michael's apartment and went shopping for dresses. We had a shower for Liz and Michael, which involved a lot of watching them open presents and trying not to eat too many cookies. 

Michael and Liz at the shower

Rebekkah and I started back at the Classical Conversations nursery. We have almost a whole new class, so it's been an adjustment, along with a new routine as the classes have changed. But so far it's been really good! We've also started up work house cleaning once a week for an awesome family in our church. 

I continued to sort through photos, and let me just give you a piece of advice - never let your photos stack up for two years. It is a pain. But I'm wadding through it and am almost caught up. Then I just have to get it all put into the right folders. 

Grace and I went to see Newsies again before it left the theater. This time there were no mic outages (thankfully), so we got to get pictures with the cast, and that was awesome! I am so sad that this show is over. I have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat since we saw it. 

Grace and I with the two main actors in Newsies!

A babysitting job I have had for a year now ended as the family moved away. After going over every Friday for a year, I'm missing those kids way more than I ever thought I could. I might just need to take a road trip pretty soon and see them. ;) 

My adopted Grandmother went home to be with Jesus. We had all just been with her, talking and hanging out, and I got one last, lovely hug before she drove away and was in a car wreck. Grandma Letha was the best, and it's hard to know I won't be able to see her again down here.

We had our annual siblings retreat. This year we went to a really cute house in Belton. We visited the lake the first day and stayed up late watching movies. We made it a goal to play through every game we brought (around 20), so we raced and got in at least one game of each! We did a lot of swimming and filmed our yearly comedy video. It was a busy few days. =) 

Us siblings on our retreat

My mom surprised me and got a zoo pass for the two of us, so we went to the zoo for a day. It was rainy, so not many people were out, but we had our rain jackets and had a blast. An otter came right up to the glass and swam near me for a long time! We also got to go to a couple bookshops nearby and I got TobyMac's new album. Faithfully and Cornerstone are some new favorites by him.

As must be done yearly (It's a rule somewhere I'm sure) I jumped into the pool in my regular clothes because I felt like it. =)

So, again with a lot of new books. The only thing I re-read was the Sarah Plain and Tall series. <3 My favorite new book was Me, Myself, and Bob. It was an incredibly encouraging book (even as a non-veggie tales fan)

Pirates of Penzance: Definitely one of my favorite movies of all time. The comedy and music in this is just the best. If you have not watched this, do yourself a favor and find it. It's amazing. 

Milo Murphys Law: Since I loved Phineas and Ferb I decided to try this out. It was pretty cute, I enjoyed the characters, but it just doesn't have the same charm as P&F. I do love how cheerful Milo was. 

North Avenue Irregulars: This is one of those old Disneys that I just love and I can't even explain why. It's just epic. 

Sand Dollar Cove: Such a cozy Hallmark. No drama, no breaking up only to get back together. It was really sweet!

Star Trek Cartoon: Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the original series, but I thought most of these were pretty cute!

Sight and Sound Noah: We got the new DVD of this and it is so much better than the original. The songs are updated, and wow it is good!

New adventures of Heidi: This is one of those childhood movies that I had such a hard time finding, but my mom finally found it and we had a blast re-watching it after years. It's a really sweet continuation of Heidi's story. 

How was your month? What is your favorite thing you read this month?

July Highlights

July was FULL, and almost all of it was awesome. =D

I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo and went for 10,000 words. I worked on a short story for fun, and managed to get a pretty good start to a novel I'm hoping to write at some point! I really need to work on editing, but I... don't want to, so it's going to wait. XD

My brother proposed to his girlfriend! This will be the second marriage in our family within a year, so I am really excited! Michael and Liz are perfect together and are already knee-deep in wedding planning since he proposed at the beginning of the month. It's already so crazy!

Liz, Michael, and I.

My birthday was on the fifth! I turned 23, and my mom took me to the L.B.J. presidential library. I had a lot of fun exploring it as it had been years since I went last. We hung out with Sarah and Scott and got my birthday Starbucks. =) So many friends sent me super awesome gifts, it was like a party all month! I normally do a lot more for my birthday (like a photoshoot, writing a letter for the next year) but this year I just didn't feel super enthusiastic about it all, so I gave myself a break. 

Rebekkah and I worked a lot of jobs together and got to do one overnight, which was really fun! We got to watch the dog, swim in their pool, and just chill out. After a lot of long days at work, it was really nice.

Me with a moon rock from the L.B.J.

My sister Grace's birthday is only six days after mine, so I took her to Main Event and we did arcades, bowling, laser tag, and mini golf. It was incredibly fun, and it was hard to pull myself away at the end of the night. We made a late-night run to Mcdonald's to end it off. =) On Rebekkahs birthday, we went out for a nice lunch together and went shopping. =) We have Burkes that just moved into town, so we had to go and look around! 

Some of the kids I watch were in a musical, The Seussical, so my niece and I went to see it. I didn't love the plot, but the kids did an amazing job, and I was in the front row, so I got to have the actors walk right in front of me! 

Some of the girls from our bible study got together and watched the long version of Pride and Prejudice! We did Jane Austen bingo and themed embroidery. It was a blast and we got through the whole thing in an afternoon! 

There is a company in Austin that does a free musical each year, so Grace and I went and saw Newsies. It was incredible! It's an outdoor theater, so we set up on blankets and had an awesome time. The sound went out during the production, and was delayed by an hour, but the actors and production team did great, got the show going again, and wow, it was amazing. I love live musicals, and seeing Newsies was a dream come true! 

A photo from Newsies

I decided my room was in desprate need of a thoughal cleaning, so I took a day and went through every part of my room, and got rid of two trash bags full of stuff. It felt good to get it all nice before my work starts up again for the fall. 

A friend of ours got engaged, so we went to a surprise party for them in the park! I got to catch up with some friends I haven't seen all summer and celebrate the engagement! 

I also spent my fair share of the month working jobs, hiding away in corners during partys, having meltdowns, but I have been so grateful to God for showing me some of my pitfalls lately. 

My favorite (and only) re-read was True Valor (Such a good book), and my favorite new book was The 40 Day Social Media Fast. That was an awesome bible study!

Paddington: Cute and with the same idea as the book. Paddington himself was adorable, and I loved how family orientated the whole movie was. Some of the humor was not my favorite (I've got a very sensitive stomach, and any humor that's remotely gross is hard), and the movie was a bit bland. But it was happy, and I enjoyed the characters.

Last Chance Detectives: This series was a huge part of my childhood, and is just about the best. <3 The characters, the mysteries, they are just amazing.

Ellery Queen: My dad and I have been watching through this together and this month we finished it. I love these classic Who-done-its. It has some bad content, (references to affairs, a few crude references.) but overall it's awesome and Ellery is an amzing detective.

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys: This was my favorite show as a kid, and I wanted to revisit it. The characters are not nearly as lovable now as when I was a kid. XD But the mysteries are solid, and I enjoyed seeing them again, even if I wouldn't watch it a lot anymore. 

Pride and Prejudice: I watched this with a group of friends again. It's always good to go back to the best movie version. <3

Robin Hood: This is such a fun, happy show. We watched it to unwind after a long day. 

Bionic Woman: My favorite show. Jamie is epic, and the whole show just has a fun premise. I always enjoy unwinding with it. 

Prince of Egypt: I had not watched this since I was a little kid, and I really enjoyed re-seeing. While it's not perfectly accurate, it's still an awesome way to introduce kids to the story of Moses. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: I was having a bad day, so I rewatched this to wind down. It isn't anything amazing, but I love the main character, and how quirky he is. 

Greatest American Hero: This was another re-visiting from my childhood. It was about what I remembered: epic main character, fun romance, annoying side characters, and some violence I didn't like. 

Overall, I had a pretty good July. How about you? 

June Highlights

June was a complete mixed bag of both amazing, and bad. It's one month I don't really know how to define, but I am so grateful for my friends who hung with me through it. 

Since the beginning of June is not horribly hot, I took a day and read in my hammock. Which was a win-win since I needed to read the book for review and it was awesome to spend time outside. Sometimes when work is super busy, it's hard to remember to spend enough time outside, so it's nice to take the summer and hang outside more. 

Since we live pretty far away from everything, I have three library cards for the library along my work rout, so my mom and I took a day, and renewed all of them, which was really fun! We went to the Austin central library, which is huge, and that was a blast. 

I'm working on sorting through my old photos, which is a lot. In June I sorted through most of my backlog from 2017-19 that was unsorted, and in July I'm hoping to tackle 2020-22. If I don't sort, and get rid of the useless photos, they become unmanageable really fast. 

A few months ago my favorite Half Priced Books was destroyed by tornado damage, and this month they finally reopened! I was so excited, I magaed to get a stack of books for an epic price. =D 

My sister and I starting babysitting for two new families, one with four kids, which was fun and chaotic. Rebekkah played an elaborate game of monkey in the middle for hours on end with them, and I read a lot of books to the younger kids. =) The other which was just one baby, which I rarely get the chance to work with, so I loved it!!

For fathers day, we had a family lunch at Whataburger, since that is his favorite restaurant. Then we hung out Sarah and Scotts apartment, and just enjoyed some time as a family. 

I decided it was high time I took back up biking, so I pulled out my bike. After cleaning a pound of dirt off of it, I took it for a ride which was awesome. I have missed it emencely, so I'm hoping I can get back into the habit of going on a regular basis. 

A dear friend had us over for a swimming party. This pool had a diving board! It was pretty epic. We enjoyed a day of swimming, and hanging out. We did a lot of "sycronyized" jumps, and had fun coming up with wacky ways of jumping into the pool. On a simular note, we finally got a pool again! It is an epic above ground one, and we are still working on setting it up, but I am very excited!

Rebekkah, Grace, and I made a time capsole together. It's some letters and a SD card to be opened in ten years. It was weird writing something that I knew wouldn't been seen for a long time! 

Well, to end the month off, my sisters and I passed around a cold. I spent four days curled up on the couch watching movies, and listening to books. I dug out an game of Rollar Coaster Tycoon and played that. Thankfully it was a light cold, so it didn't interrupt to much. =) 

My favorite new book was Kate's Informant by Sarah Holman. <3 That book was amazing! My only re-reads were the Romeo and Juliet code books (I'm getting better) and they were an enjoyable re-read. 

I got a month of Netflix to watch a movie with my friend Kate, so I tried out some stuff on there!

Carmen Sandiego: This show lived up to all the dreams of childhood. I loved playing Carmen Sandiago games as a kid. While I was a bit sceptical of making her a good guy, they totally rocked it. They kept with the fun education, and awesome puns. I would definitely recommend this show!

Bookworm and the Beast: I needed something one night and this looked very hallmark-esk. It was. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with it, but there was also nothing to make it fun. 

Captain America: Okay, so unpopular opinion here: I'm not big into superhero's. After high recommendations though, I decided to try Captain America and it did not live up to the hype. Cap was a good guy, but that's about all that's good about this movie. The bad guy had no definable motive, the supporting cast was either annoying, or quickly "killed" off (I say "killed" because I know no one truly dies, so it's hard to get sad). I found the bad guy to creepy, and the magic cube's abilitys to undefined. Also, the overarching theme was pretty bland. *Shrug* I didn't hate it, I just didn't find anything to like. 

Enola Holmes: I watched this with Kate, and really enjoyed a movie with the fourth wall broken so much. The plot and mystery were very enjoyable, and the characters fantastic. I found the violence to much, and some of the repeated actions a bit annoying (How many times does she need to swap clothes with someone??). But otherall, it was a cute movie! 

Magic Schoolbus: I revisited a bit of childhood here. Some of it was better then I remembered, some of it just downright weird. I remembered how much I hate them pasting kids faces on to animals. XD

Magic Schoolbus rides again: I thought this was an adorable re-boot series! They kept with the originals fun, while adding some new elements that made it even better. But I do miss the original catchprashe. "Be what you see" Just isn't inspiring like "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" 

Home: Kate watched this with me when I was having a bad day, and it was a cute little movie. Nothing hugely moving, but the music was epic, the characters very cute, and the ending sadusfying. 

The Railway Children: I loved this as a kid, so it was fun to re-watch and enjoy the characters journay all over again. 

How was your June? 

May Highlights

This month has been crazy packed, but it was awesome! 

We started off the month in Texas, but by lunch time, we had arrived in Colorado Springs, and went to Garden of the God's. It was amazing, crawling over the rocks, and just admiring God's creation. That night we got to the YMCA and wow, it was jam packed but epic from there. The next day it snowed, but we had already signed up to do archery, so we did it in the snow, and nearly froze. XD They have a craft hut, so we all enjoyed some time there. I made a few small mosaics, my favorite being a big H done in purple and white. We did a space themed Escape room and made it out with nine minutes to spare, but it was intense! We did a lot of swimming, and enjoyed their adorable library on site. On our third day there we woke up to really deep snow (For us Texans!) We had been planning on going out for my mom's birthday, so we all cheered when the snow plows came and dug out the roads! After lunch we walked around Estes Park, and just shopping for fun. The whole stay was delightful, we did a lot of hiking, and some rollar skating. We also narrowed Bannagrams from the Y and played for hours while snowed in. We when were driving home we went by Focus on the Family, which was definitely a highlight of the trip because I love Adventures and Oddesy and was able to get Wooton's mail cap! Also they had Last Chance Detective memorbila! The road trip was definitely very long, and the whole trip had it's up and downs, but overall it was awesome! 

Rebekkah and I have a tradition of walking down to a nearby tunnel every year in May, so we got out kind of early and walked down. It was an hour a half of walking and picking wild blackberry, which was super fun! The only downside was it being hot. XD 

My sister and I bought hammocks when they were on sale, and now we have been setting them up in the evening and reading since it's pretty nice once the sun starts to go down. I'm trying to spend more time outside this summer, so the hammock has been a very nice, easy way to move myself out there. 

We've started having family nights on Tuesday's, and we cycle through who organizes them. I was first, so I made steak, and we played a bible triva game. It's fun to have suspific time to spend with family! 

As most of you know, my brother Michael is a nurse, and this month he received a humanitarian award at his work, so they snuck us into the hospital so we could surprise him when he received the award. It was so much fun to sneak around and see him honored for all the amazing work he has done. 

For the full lunar eclipes we set up a card table down at the end of the drive as we watched the eclipes while playing spicey Uno. It was a ton of fun, as half the time we couldn't see our cards and were having to hold up lights just to be able to play, or having to make new rules up as it progressed. the eclipes was beautiful, and I wish my camera had been able to document it better!

My Mom and Rebekkah went camping for two nights, which left Grace, Dad, and I at home alone. So we went to the library and grabbed some movies (My mom doesn't love movies, so we try to watch them while she's not gone so as to not annoy her). That night I took my niece and we met my brother at an arcade and spent a few hours. The next two days we just binged movies, my personal favorite was watching all three new Narnia movies in a row. 

I finished off a couple jobs for the summer, which I will definitely miss, but I am loving the time off! Now that my work is down to about two days a week, I am taking the time to work on more projects at home, and my (hopefully) my writing. 

Rose came home from Africa!! She moved out a year ago to go to YWAM, and has only come home for brief visits. But after going to two semesters of school, Panama, and Africa, she is home for the summer! After so many people moving out, it's nice to have Rose home for a bit as she raises support to go back. <3

A local church hosted a movie night of Encanto. We brought blankets and set up on the floor. They provided snacks, and hot dogs, and we all got to sing along! It was chaotic, but fun! 

In a lot of ways it's been an epic month, but some things have been going on in my life that had just made me feel my own weakness in acute ways. For that reason I'm stepping back from social media for a month to let me refocus on God. I'm also stepping back from some movies, and books that have just been pushing me further from God. I would love your prayers as I work through some things! 

I watched a LOT this month. All of vacation I only watched one movie, but over the last three weeks of the month I watched through a ton. We finished our watch through of Emergancy, and I re-watched a lot of old favorites. Some new movies I watched: 

Curious George: Somehow I had never seen this! It wasn't quite what I imagined, but I enjoyed George and his adorableness. 

The Amazing Spiderman: I really loved Peter Parker, and some of the drama was just amazing, but the plot was rather full of holes, and unessasary sadness. Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of superheros. XD 

The Man who Invinted Christmas: Wow, this movie was fun! There was some unexpected language, but otherwise I loved the portrayal of a writer writing his book. Also, it gave some more depth to A Christmas Carol. 

I read a lot of new books this month! My favorite new one was The Van Gogh Deception, and my least favorite was Written Off. It didn't live up to the others in the series. My favorite re-read was Red Rain and Pride and Predudice. <3

How was your month? What is your favorite vacation you have ever gone on?