lemon frosting // 1st time driving

Okay, WHAT?! I seriously drove yesterday for the first time ever. Yes! I truly did.. I'm still in shock over it. Yesterday was my birthday, folks! And, such a lovely day it was. :) I woke up by my youngest, little brown eyed brother, whispering in my ear "Good morning, BIRTHDAY GIRL!". Oh yeah. He is adorable. ;) Then, later in the afternoon, Sarah and I suddenly got the urge to learn a duet! Lets just say, duets are amazing! My annoying fingers fumble so often though. Uhg! Well, practice practice practice. ;)

 I got so many amazing gifts, people! I couldn't tell you a favorite, but my brand new, adorable BLUE comforter may be ranking the highest right now. ;) And, Sarah! Okay, seriously, this girl knows how to make you feel special. She made that lovely sign BY HAND! And you see that paper flower??? Yup! She did that too. Don't ask me how, just don't. ;)

 Driving.... So, yeah. I didn't crash. I didn't speed and I didn't freak. Okay, I did a little when I saw a car coming towards me. ;) But, hey! I had only been in the car for a very short while and I had every right to have a stomach flop. haha! My dad took me on dirt roads (and Bree tagged along :D) and an empty parking lot. My dad was amazingly calm when he was showing me what to do! That really helped with my nerves. ;) I can't say there is one thing I really don't like doing...except for the blinkers and mirrors (thankfully I didn't really have to use them..but I will! :P). I've got so much to learn! lol!

My mom made THE BEST EVER lemon frosting for my vanilla cupcakes! Haha, I am not a chocolate person, so I requested vanilla. ;) Bree, Sarah, and I were doing our nails (girl fun! :D) when my mom came down with the cupcakes. My mouth seriously watered when I saw them! hehe! Oh, another request was that I didn't want to be sung the birthday song..... I just feel SO awkward. ;) I had such a great birthday!! Thanks all for your birthday wishes. :)

Have you started driving yet?

Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla??

And, the birthday song...how do you feel about it? hehe!

the magic of bayberry

(here is when we were priming. It is now a gorgeous bayberry brown. pics later)

About two weeks ago, my mom, sisters and I decided that a new paint job was needed on our first floor of the house. Is it just me, or is picking out paint colors is the hardest thing?! I practically walk away after 20 minutes of looking at different shades of grey, or tan, blue, green, charcoal black..ahg! I lose it after a while and suddenly all colors look the same. lol! Thankfully, my mom and Bree have a lot more patience! :D They were finally able to decide on the paint colors (one of which was bayberry lol) and well..we've been painting a lot. But after two weeks we are almost done! 

 We also discovered a new park with a lake the other day! No, it isn't the same as this one. ;) My family and I enjoyed a lovely picnic and loads of fun word games. Who knew trying to make people think of pumpkin was so hard?! lol! And my brothers had a blast trying to catch fish. They were kind of sad that they didn't get any though. :P Hopefully we will be able to catch some when we go camping for my birthday! Haha, yeah, I am the camping type. :D I'll have a blogpost up after our trip with load of photos. ;) Some of you may remember our camping trip last year? Yeah..it was an experience! :D 

 My piano playing has slowed down a bit with how busy I've been painting, but today I plan to try to finish learning "Autumn Leaves". I never thought I could get to playing with two hands, but I can do it! Nothing like a bit of a boost to your confidence, right? :D I really enjoy playing the piano, and once school starts, I know I am going to be more frequent in my time spent practicing. :) Maybe I will be able to upload a video of the song when I finish it, would you all like that? :D 

 Do you like painting??

When was the last time you went camping?

die for ice cream bars // stormy weather ♪

(who ever said chocolate was clean??? ;))

It all started with plans to go to a small beach that we found about 20 minutes from our house. Grab the towels, sunscreen, and swimsuits - LETS GO! 

That was basically our thought process yesterday afternoon. I mean, we are seriously living in the last days of summer bliss here folks. Let's go swimming on a whim! ;) After driving a bit, we noticed some dark clouds. We all held our breath. Well..at least I know I did! I really wanted to swim! ;) As we drove closer, it got darker..and darker. We were almost to the lake. After looking at the clouds again, we gave a little sigh, and said a decided "no..". 

Thankfully, we had a back up plan (because you always need a plan B!) to get ice cream if swimming wouldn't work out. Okay, ice cream or swimming? Who can really choose?! So! Bree, Sarah, and I ran into the store just as it started sprinkling..but as I could tell from the clouds, it was going to pour!! And boy, was I right. We walked out the doors to a drenching rain. And, not just rain, hail too! I, of course, video recorded us all scrambling into the car with hail being thrown (lol!) at us. Hahaaa, we were quite a sight, I am sure! But, hey, mission accomplished! WE HAD ICE CREAM! :D With our ice cream and the hail pelting our car we drove home. We stopped a bit away from our house because..well..the storm had travel directly under it! I'm serious, we all started joking that the storm was following us. My mom laughed and said, "well, let's go swimming I guess!". Yup, you got it. We got ice cream and swimming. Ah, what a day. ;) 

 Swimming was a lot of fun too! Sarah and I spent a lot of time in the deeper water teaching ourselves to "tread on water" as my dad calls it. I just call it "staying in one place". lol! My dad was a lifeguard, so I guess he knows his stuff. ;) After a while, Bree joined us and then we did some tricks on shoulders and that kind of goofy stuff. :D I've never really been a lake person, but seriously, I loved this one! There was zero seaweed and the bottom was pure sand. I sure hope we go back soon! :D 

Have you ever been "storm chased"? ;)

Ice cream or swimming??

Can you "tread on water"? 

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Colored Pencils // Anatomy

I'm the type of person that gets really excited about little things.. like getting new school supplies! I thought up the color coordination that I wanted this year and decided on bright and happy shades to lighten my desk. Once we got into the school supply section at the store (boy! Look at all of those S's. ;)) I let out a little squeal. I instantly grabbed the hot pink and bright orange before Sarah did (hehe, sisterly love, eh? ;)) and was delighted by how they brought happiness in color form. I knew that everyone would be surprised by my choice because I am usually a green and blue girl, but I cannot always have blue and bright green, can I? ;) I'm serious, I looked like a kid in a candy store when I was dancing about looking at all the different choices. How do they come up with all these adorable designs?! lol! I even was happy to get colored pencils for my anatomy course! Soo... I'm wondering, am I the only one who is obsessed with new stuff? :D

 I also snapped some random photos while shopping (even a few crazy selfies...but a little too crazy perhaps? hehe) because a friend of mine who lives way to far away, was wondering what the stores around me look like! We are an interesting pair..we seriously take pictures of so many random things  so we can get a gist of our surroundings. I do love this girl. ;)

 Ohh, and I just got a ton of my new school books! My geometry came a few days ago, so I don't have that included in the picture yet. Besides, why would you want to see boring math anyways? ;) I am tremendously excited to have a fresh clean start because I finished my ------- (you know, the word that I am NEVER saying on my blog again ;) ;)) and I got a 91% on my last test. YIPPIE! Now my summer has really started. :D

 Well, I had better pop off and get started on making my blueberry peach jam! And yes, I do read old English books. lol!  Oh, and this is my 123rd post!! :D

What colors did you choose for your new school folder?

Do you take random photos for friends who live far away?

defeated algebra // password

I've officially lost it. I don't know what happened, but a few days ago I forgot my password for my phone. It was one of those 4-digit codes and I blanked. Well...it wasn't like I've had this password for months and forgot it suddenly. No.. I had changed it minutes before because two of my younger siblings cracked my code (ahh they shall remain nameless. ;)). So, after 10 times of trying my code (and waiting 1 minute..then 5..then..10..then 60..then 60 again) my phone disabled and I freaked. I went to bed hitting myself of the forehead. At this point, I couldn't even TRY to find out my password!! I woke up the next morning with hopes that it was all a bad dream.. it wasn't. So after a call or two to Apple, some google searching for help, and problems in between (like clicking update instead of restore..so the update took 7 hours. And then a storm happened and we had to unplug the computer and I had to do it again. I once again clicked update and waited another 7 hours. I found out at 6 a.m that I did the wrong thing and had to fix that. :P)

 So I lost EVERYTHING on my phone. My photos since April..apps, contacts..the whole shebang. Oh, and I won't go into detail about how I forgot my Spotify, texting app, skype app, AND my google hangouts password. No.. I won't do that. :P Just sit back in wait...there is more to come.

Algebra. Most of you girls know what I mean when I bold that word. ;) But anyways.. I've been trying to finish my mine by Saturday. I had 9 lessons and 2 quizzes on Sunday - last night I had 2 lessons and one quiz. I've been staying up..late, early, whatever you call it - it has been cutting back on my sleep time. SO! This shall be the last time the word algebra will be put on my blog...just geometry now. :P lol

 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDD!!! Guess-y what-y!

I won the GRAND prize for summer reading!!!

 Sarah and I went to the pizza party and my librarian friend gave me this look and suddenly, I knew. I had won something.. maybe the big one! I waited while the teens were talking..waited until all the other drawings were done..then she said "Time for the GRAND PRIZE drawing! And the person who read the most this summer is.....Julia!!" YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY! I got up and received a $25 gift card (which I was even more surprised by. I didn't know what the grand prize was!!). I still can't believe I won the grand prize.. I haven't won anything, summer reading wise, in 5 years! That's a long time. ;) 

So now you know what has kept me from posting in a week.. I really missed it after posting so often last month! Don't worry, I plan to keep it busy like I did last month. :) I just need to start taking more pictures since I lost so many.. 

 Have you ever forgotten your phone code and lost everything?

When was the last time you won something?

Have you ever hysterically started laughing?? ;)