okay folks. I just watched Julie Julia and am completely and utterly inspired. I am going to cook tomorrow night and it is going to be fabulous. I do love cooking and have missed it very much this last year.... cooking is time consuming, expensive and difficult when the kitchen available is inconvinient and pots and pans are not provided. But now that I'm home, in a nice kitchen, with the necessities and staples provided.... let the cooking begin! Bon Apetite!

Let's just hope I have time to cook..... All of this rain is making our grass grow like muscles on steroids!

I am getting busier.... A fundraiser at my former high school, bible school dramas, organizing my life (very very slowly), mowing lawn..... is it okay to need a break from summer break?

But............. Good news--- my computer has been restored and renewed and replenished by my wonderful brother. I don't know how he does what he does, but he sure is good at it! :) yay for Nate!

aaaahhhh... Being home.
It is so nice.
Mowing the lawn, though I did get a sunburn.
Selling Cheese.
Bible School Drama.
Helping Mitch Move.
Seeing Old Friends.
Having Care-Care (the nickname I dubbed to be my mother's) whip my butt into shape.... [that last one is not always so nice].
It's good to be back, Iowa.

I have officially moved out of Haury Hell forever!!! Never again will I smell that smell... never again will I have to look down those dark and dismal hallways.... never again will I have to use the laundry room that never actually cleans clothes... never again will I stuff all of my things in that tiny little room no bigger than a box... never again will I have to go into that nasty shower room to get privacy to talk on the phone... never again will I have to feel bad for all of my neighbors because of those paper thin walls...

never again will I live with that same group of wonderful people.... Never again will I live in Haury Hall... how bittersweet.

Going to Maggie's house to spend the weekend before traveling HOME on Monday.

Oh, how I cannot wait to get home. IOWA... I will spend time with my wonderful loved ones, organize and simplify my life and have a jolly good summer... I cannot wait. Joy is making my cheeks red.

Cleaning up and moving out

I never thought it would feel this good to get all of my crap out of this tiny room... I am overjoyed to be able to do two of my FAVORITE things this week: Cleaning and Organizing. I'm serious. Some may take that comment as sarcastic and disgusting but I actually find so much joy and pleasure in cleaning and organizing. I think it makes me feel like I'm not only physically cleaning and organizing but I am also mentally and emotionally cleaning and organizing. Is this ironic that I enjoy housework and I just got the role of 'Cinderella' for next fall's production of Into the Woods? I did dishes and laundry until 4 am last night and then all of this today... Coincidence? I think not! Today was so fun because I got to get some of my favorite iced coffee and then come back and clean/organize/pack our entire room from top to bottom. It was glorious.

Oh, summer, you bring such exhilarating prospect.

Oh, Mr. Sun

I stayed up all night and got to see the sun rise. How beautiful it was. I can't remember the last time that happened...

those are my rose colored glasses on to the fact that I didn't sleep a wink thanks to coffee and homework.

couldn't have said it better...

"When the life of people is unmoral, and their relations are not based on love, but on egoism, then all technical improvements, the increase of man's power over nature, steam, electricity, the telegraph, every machine, gunpowder, and dynamite, produce the impression of dangerous toys placed in the hands of children."—the diary of Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)