Travis Daniel Birch

This is a post about Travis because he was offended that I haven't written a post about him. He is sitting on the couch next to me right now screaming in my ear and now my head hurts and my ear is ringing. I think he is having a baby. This picture is of him being a luchador. Travis and I are getting married. Travis is one of my best friends in the world. So here Travie, I hope you are very thrilled that I have dedicated an entire post to you.


The end.

Family Vacation

*WARNING* This post has many, many pictures. Hope you enjoy.

So about a week ago we got home from our vacation, which was wonderful. We left on June 26th and got home July 6th. We started out by going to Las Vegas for a few days. Here's my lovely brother and I on the way to Vegas.

To be honest, I basically hated Las Vegas. It suffices me to say this: Sin City is the perfect name for it, I saw a real pole dancer for the first time, there is porn literally covering the sidewalks, and I don't exactly call it a "vacation" when you go somewhere that's just as hot as the valley. Not to mention we stayed in a hotel called Circus Circus which featured many, many terrifying clowns that looked like they were capable of turning into real murderers at night. I hate clowns.

Anyways. This next picture features a very, very, very tall building called the Stratosphere. And by very, very, very tall, I mean 1,149 feet or 101 stories high. And Travis and I DANGLED OVER THE EDGE!!!!

There were three rides at the top. They were all actually pretty lame but the anticipation was a killer (as is demonstrated by myself in the next picture...Travis, however, was excited). One of the rides was just a short straight track about 30 feet long or so. You'd sit in the roller coaster and the track would slowly lower over the edge of the building. Then all of a sudden you'd shoot down (straight for the ground!!) and stop right as the coaster reached the end of the track. Another ride was like a giant swing that spun you in circles over the edge of the Stratosphere. That ride actually would have been awesome if it hadn't made me nauseous.

And here is my lovely family atop the Stratosphere.

We also saw a couple of awesome water shows outside the Bellagio. The Bellagio is the building in the background...giant hotel/casino. My dad called it The Great and Spacious Building. Accurate. It looked even Greater and Spaciouser when it was all lit up.

I found Batman and the Joker after the water show was over. (For some reason the Joker doesn't creep me out...just normal clowns.)

Inside the Bellagio, the ceiling of the entranceway was covered with giant blown-glass flowers...it was so pretty! Each flower was probably about the size of an umbrella.

Peace among the chaos and terribleness. The Las Vegas temple.

Here's a picture from the temple grounds.

And a cute pic of my awesome family on the grounds! :]

FINALLY we left Vegas. We headed over to Bear Lake, California. Let me tell you, the weather was absolutely perfect. I think this was probably my favorite part of the vacation. It was such a quaint little town. I think the population is only around 5,000. They had the cutest little shops and it was just such a great place. Our hotel was amazing too. Not to mention it had a heated pool and a lovely jacuzzi. On top of that, the few days we were there, there were hardly any other guests so we often had the pool to ourselves. Here are Travis and I in front of Bear Lake.

Our family went paddle boating/canoeing on the lake but no pictures from that. They're on my mom's camera. This next picture is in the little shopping center called "The Village." My brother is being mature and poking the bear's bum.

(Okay I'll admit it....I told him to pose like this.)

Another great part of Bear Lake was their alpine slide! This thing was so awesome. For any of you who don't know what it is, it's kind of like a louge but on cement. It was SO fun!!! I made a movie going down it...I believe I posted it (along with other movies from the vacation) on Facebook.

The only bummer: Mom went way too fast around a corner, flipped, and got quite a nice flesh wound! Please notice she is laughing hysterically. To this day, it still has not healed completely. Poor Mom.

Mom, Dad and I went to the lake one night to watch the sunset. Here are a couple of pictures from that. The picture that's the background on my blog right now is from this night too.

:]

After Bear Lake, we went to Costa Mesa. I think. Or Newport....I believe we stayed in Costa Mesa but we went to Newport Beach. From what I gather, Costa Mesa and Newport are the kind of like Mesa and Gilbert...no distinction. Anyways. Here's my family in a cool elevator at the mall.

One of the days we were here, Travis and I went to Knott's Berry Farm. My favorite thing about Knott's is all of the berry bushes that grow throughout the park. You can go along and just pick the most delicious berries off the bushes and eat them. There are also several little make-it-yourself milkshake and smoothie stands where you can use the berries you pick. (Joke. This is what I told Travis Birch and he believed me. No berry bushes or milkshake/smoothie stands unfortunately.)

I got this AWESOME lion coin pouch at Knott's!! Travis (my brother) and I were trying to name him but couldn't think of anything. So we decided to call him T until we decided on a better name...but T has stuck.

And here we are at the beach. Trav dug a giant hole. He was trying to make an underground tunnel, but about halfway through he decided it would be a better idea to have Dad and I bury him in it.

Brother and I. Travis is buried in his hole in this picture too. This is after I got my terrible burn which many of you saw the effects of...you can't tell that I'm fried in this picture though. (FYI my skin is STILL peeling. It's almost done though. And I have a nice tan now.)

Here is the Los Angeles temple.

And the Newport Beach temple. Actually I don't know if it's called that or just Newport temple. Anyways.

And here are some neat pictures I took at the Newport temple. I like this next picture because it just says "GROWTH!" to me. Look what you can aspire to be! :]

And I love love love this next picture. So awesome.

This was our last day in California I think. We went to the beach to watch the sunset.

Love this picture of my brother. I kept taking random pictures of him while he was talking to me and this is one of them. You can kind of see his racoon eyes from his sunglasses.

Here is his model pose.

And here we are.

And here is the sunset in all of its glory.

I put this next picture up because out of all the pictures I took, it most clearly shows my sunburn despite the blurriness. Let me tell you, it KILLED!!! I got blisteres all over my chest, arms, back, and knee pits (though some of them didn't surface til we went home). Every single time I would move at all while I was asleep, I would wake up because it hurt so bad. For 3 nights I believe. There was one point where I couldn't even take my shirt off because it hurt too bad to bend my arms in that manner. So I wore the same shirt for 2 1/2 days. Gross, I know. Said shirt is featured in this picture. My brother also got burned pretty badly, and due to these burns, we did nothing to celebrate the 4th of July :[ I was bummed.

I'm sure you'd all like to know that I also didn't wear a bra for two or three days. Hence the jacket. Haha.

Here's my brother and I just being goofy. In Bear Lake there was this little shop where everything was $3. That's where I got this hat (and another one in a different color...plus one for Travis Birch and one for Lacey). Don't ask me when I'll ever wear it....since winters are so cold and snowy in the valley...

Overall, it was a very awesome trip and it was a great chance to make new memories with my family and grow closer to them. It was so fun! But it was certainly good to come home....despite the 115 degree weather that greeted us. Ugh.

Help?

So I tried to change my blog background...and somehow everything got messed up so I have one of the backgrounds I was considering but as you can see it's mixed in with one of blogspot's templates ("denim")...does anyone have any clue how to get rid of the "denim"???? I can't figure it out and it's really irritating me. I just want my blog to look like the blog layout i chose from thecutestblogontheblock.com, nothing thrown in from blogger itself. Gah.

**Edit
Nevermind I figured it out. However my page is still under construction. Yay.

May I just say

that boys are irritating, and that a lot of times they let you down.

Of course there are exceptions. But not tonight. Ugh..

Archibald

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Lisa. Lisa loved new ideas. She'd make note of them, save pictures of them, copy instructions for them. One day Lisa happened upon an amazing idea in the form of a cake.



Now this cake idea had a twist. It was not just an ordinary cake. Sure, on the outside it looks like nothing spectacular. But on the inside....

So yeah I saw the recipe for this awesome cake....looks nothing like I had hoped it would look but hey it's still cool right? Click HERE for what I wanted it to look like....

Anyways I'd like to apologize for all of my negative blogs lately. It seems like I'm only in the mood to blog when something is upsetting me because it's an easy way to get it off my chest. I am rarely in the mood to blog when I'm happy. Haha. But here is an exception!

I really want to do an EFY post...but there are SO many pictures and I HATE uploading pictures to the blog! It's so annoying when you're trying to arrange them...ugh. Well for those of you who don't know, I guess I should tell you: Anamin and I were volunteer EFY counselors up in Showlow during the week of June 1st-5th. And it was a BLAST!!!! See my Facebook for pictures. I really want to write down all of the experiences...but at the same time I don't because it makes me "homesick" for EFY and makes me feel a little bummed if that makes sense. Hmm. I want to explain more about it and the amazing time we had but just thinking about it like literally makes me feel something physically that is almost like this weird pull to go back to the forest. Yes I am aware that sounds so weird! Haha I don't know how to describe it...

So about school. I wish that there was some way I could just dawdle my way through, taking interesting classes instead of required classes. There are SO many things I want to learn how to do! For example:

I want to become a PRO cake decorator and learn how to make masterpieces such as this:

I want to increase my cooking skills. I'd like to be like my great-grandma and never use a recipe, just know exactly what and how much of it a dish needs.

I want to learn more about photography.

I want to learn how to do hair. Yes, like hair school. Kind of silly I know.

I want to take voice lessons.

I want to take guitar lessons.

I want to take interior design classes.

I want to take more art classes. Last summer I took a charcoal drawing class and I really really enjoyed it. I'll have to post pictures of some of the stuff I drew sometime. I want to take more drawing/painting classes and 3D things like ceramics and metals and woods and things like that.

I want to take more Spanish. (Too bad I took the highest level Spanish class CGCC has to offer last semester.)

I want to learn more about graphic design.

I want to learn about cars. Like how to fix them and rig them. An automechanic class.

And I'm sure there's a lot I'm forgetting, but do you see why school is so hard for me??? There's so much I want to do that I'm not doing!!! Haha....maybe these will be "fun" classes I take after I get my bachelors in whatever. Muhh...

Well, for those of you who know him, I went to lunch with Jon Reyes today. Last time he came into OSP he was a jerk to Kaela. It was before she was married. She said to him, "Hey you'll have to give me your address so I can send you a wedding announcement!" AND HE SAID!!!: "No. I won't go." Rude. Well we were talking about Kaela and Derek today and everything that's going on with them and Jon said, "I feel really bad for being such a jerk to Kaela. Maybe I'll go to church with my mom so I can see her." !?!?!?!!?!?? CHURCH!?!? JON??? Yeah. "Actually I could just come into Organ Stop and talk to her." Me: "Yeah, you could. You'd have to hurry though, she'll be gone soon to have her baby..." Jon: "Yeah. Actually I should probably just go to church."

Then I asked him if he'd ever consider going back to church. Here was his response:

"I don't know. When I left the church, I didn't believe it. I still don't believe it. And it's not like there's anything new to learn that I didn't learn before. And I don't really want to make changes in my life. But yeah, I've thought about it. It would make my mom happy. Well, I probably should go back."

So. Jon might go back to church. I don't think I can explain how happy this makes me!!! For you OSP people it probably isn't as exciting to you because I know pretty much everyone didn't like him because he was so mean. It is beyond me how we were so close and how we're still friends. But we are. He used to be my best friend and hearing him actually say, "Yeah, I probably should go back to church" even after he said he didn't believe it is HUGE to me. I could kind of tell he knew it would help him, despite his denying believing it or being able to learn more. Ahh I really hope he does.

Speaking of which, tomorrow night (well I guess technically tonight), the missionaries are coming to my house...where my dear friend of 7 years, Steven Mobley, will be taking the discussions!! I'm so excited. We became friends in 8th grade. I use the term "friends" loosely. By friends I mean he had a crush on me (and every other girl in the 8th grade jazz band) and was super hormonal and I could not stand him, yet we still hung out every now and then. We got to be really close in high school though. We did a lot together. And now he's going to take the discussions! Yay!! He told me he's nervous and he's freaking out. But he's talked about how there's so much about our church that interests him and he believes a lot of the same things we do. So I have a feeling this will end well. Or begin well. However you want to look at it.

Well, I should head to bed....institute starts tomorrow and my class is at 9...we'll see if I get up in time haha. I really should. Yeah, we'll see.

Good night!

Summer is lame

when I have nothing to do.

I just feel sooo pointless! And discouraged! I've been doing a massive cleaning and reorganization of my room. And now I'm just stuck. I'm trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff but it's just not working. Then I get discouraged and have no clue what to do so my room is like stuck in a state of stupid. And when I try to put things away, it doesn't happen! Because nothing has a spot! Because my room has been so messy/cluttered for so long. Everything just belongs stacked in piles on the floor or on shelves. Nothing goes anywhere. So I don't know how to organize. I'm afraid for my future house, I fear I will suck as a wife and do a terrible job keeping the house clean. Then I'll be embarrassed and angry with myself.

I feel like I always do things...I start things...but then I never finish them. I don't accomplish anything!! I was doing a second job search and guess what haven't finished it. Like I mentioned, started reorganizing my room...2 weeks ago...and still haven't finished. And don't want to. I took forever deciding what I wanted to major in then finally chose elementary education. So I spent this last year working towards that. Surprise surprise I DON'T want to be a teacher anymore!!! When I think about having my own classroom and my own class of children and my own piles and piles of paperwork and angry parents and slap-happiness every day (not to mention all of the recertification and workshops etc that I'll have to do), I feel like dying inside. Which is not how I should feel about what I'm CHOOSING to study, right? And this presents a new problem: I am back to square one!!! I have absolutely NO clue what I want to major in. Let alone what I want to do with my life.

I don't know, I don't mean to sound like such a downer but I've just felt really disheartened lately. And I'm sure I bring it all on myself I just don't know how to fix it all. Gaahh....

On a happier (?) note, I was talking to my mom about all of this last night. Especially about the whole school thing and that I just have no clue what I want to study or what kind of job I'd like to have. And she was trying to help me think of things...she asked what I'd want to do the rest of my life if I never got married (ahh death). And I thought for a few minutes...what do I like doing that I wouldn't mind doing forever if I end up needing to support myself for the rest of my life? And then I realized, I'd want to travel around to all different countries helping people. Hmm. So what kind of major does that lead me to?? No clue...But my mom suggested joining the Red Cross. And I actually got excited about that!! BUT! Then I looked on their website and they have no job openings...ahh dead end again. At least for now. But I think I'd really like that....it's just too bad it doesn't look like it will work out any time soon. I need to find something else like that.

I kind of want to just take a semester off school and work full time to save up money. But at the same time I worry I'd lose motivation to go back to school. I want to get a bachelor's degree but it seems so far away since I don't know what to study!! Haha.

Completely different topic: my HAIR!?!?!?!?

I've decided I'm not a fan of it too much when it's down and just straight. Also not a fan of all the weight and insulation it adds to my head/neck/back during this warm summer. However, I love having long hair. So here's the poll: or is it pole?: Should I cut it or leave it???

Anyways sorry for this lame post. Laterrr

Why do I do this to myself...edited

I have edited this blog post because the original one was too stupid. So to anyone who may have read the first one please erase it from your memory. Here's what I kept from it though:

So. To skip a long story and tell you the ending, I realized that in a lot of ways, I miss Stephen as a brother, not a boyfriend. I remembered that towards the end of our relationship I mentioned to some of my friends that kissing him was so weird because he felt more like a brother than a boyfriend. Etc. And I'm fine with that, it makes this all a lot better. It made sense in my head why I still miss him but I don't want to be with him in that sense. Because he ended up being more like a brother.

On a happier note, I've been loving the rain! However scarce! Monday night when it was raining, Travis and I were hanging out. We originally were watching "Get Smart" on my laptop on the porch swing in my back yard. But then the rain started blowing onto the porch, getting my laptop wet. Because of this and the fact that the weather was too lovely to waste by sitting watching a movie, we decided to go on a drive (with the windows down!) and it was so perfect. And it was cold rain, too! Not hot monsoon rain. I wish it would rain more often!!! And it's so nice outside right now too...I am quite tempted to sleep outside. Hmm..