The Summer Highlight Reel
*casually shows up to the blog a month later, with Starbucks*
Just kidding, I dislike Starbucks and its overpriced-ness. I also detest coffee.
But yes, I have been virtually dead on here for over a month now. But I'm back! You can all cheer and jump up and down in excitement!
......
Or just scroll down and continue reading to hear about my awesome and totally unproductive summer!
You've probably heard this a million times and had the thought yourself another million, but man, where did summer go? It flew by ridiculously fast, more than ever before and I am sad to see it go. But also not, cause there are many exciting things happening this fall/winter and I can't wait for those. Ah, life is thrilling these days.
Speaking of which...
//GETTING OLD. The uber-hectic summer started out with...my 19th birthday! Meaning I am now, at the time of writing this, 304 days away from being 20. How terrifying.
I spent my actual birthday on a birthday date with Jonathan. Since our birthdays are three days apart we generally celebrate together. This time we went to the pub *le gasp* and ordered yummy food. I wore a hot red dress and after our food we went to the park and walked and there was rain and thunder and sitting in the car and it was wonderful all around. The next day I had an actual birthday party with some of my friends. We played a few games and then decided to brave the chill of the local lake, even though a thunderstorm was building. The water was numbingly cold and I couldn't feel most of my body by the time we climbed out, but it was really fun. Did you know that cold water sends girls into fits of high-pitched giggling?
After that we headed home and more or less hung out and later fell asleep to Treasure Planet on VHS (yes, I turned nineteen, not nine). All in all a fantastic time.\\
//CAMP. I have no idea how to sum up an entire two months of working out at a wilderness camp. So many different adventures and happenings and challenges, it'd take a whole separate blog post (or two!) But I definitely grew and changed over this summer and I am super thankful for all the experiences I had my fifth year of work. I so enjoy my fellow staff and seeing how we collectively shed the light of Jesus into so many lives. It's pretty amazing. Also, I didn't have another sketchy bee incident on horseback this year. Hooray!\\
//GOODBYES. Worst part of the summer was having to say goodbye to my lifelong friend, Mackenzie, for a year while she goes to serve as a missionary in Cameroon for a year. She won't be back til next July - which sounds like a super long time but it'll surely go by as fast as anything. I am and will be missing her, but I'm also very excited to hear about her adventures and see how she grows and changes over this next year. She's awesome and she'll be a blessing overseas just as much as here I'm sure. My last day with her and my other MacKenzie friend was very sad. Despite our stoic exteriors we all kind of broke down in the end and there were a lot of tears.\\
//RIVER TRIP. I went on my first canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan last month. It was quite a ride. My legs got super cramped sitting up front with the dog for hours, but I really enjoyed it. Even going over the whitewater - I was quite nervous at first. Thankfully the canoe did not flip and we made it safely downriver. I went with Jonathan's family and we had a pretty awesome day.\\
//WEDDING. Two of my friends got married a couple weeks back and I got to be part of the bridal party, which was pretty great. I haven't even been to many weddings, let alone been in one, so I'll cherish that memory. It was out by a mountain lake and the weather was lovely and everything was picturesque and awesome. Jonathan was one of the groomsmen so we got to be coupled up and I rather enjoyed that.
I rode with him on the way back, as we were both supposed to be heading out that night for our last week of camp, but a crazy thunderstorm hit us and stayed with us all the way out of the mountains home and we abandoned plans to go to camp and stayed just at my house for the night. The lightning and hail and rain levels were unbelievable. It was such a cool experience.\\
//BAPTISM and STAFF PARTY. At camp's end we had a baptism for Trina, Jonathan's sister, and a camp staff party. Both of which were excellent. Camp staff parties are always a great time, lots of games and good food and friends to hang out with. It's always a great way to end the summer.\\
//INTENSE HIKING. Jonathan and I went on a double date with another camp couple up a mountain near Banff. It was not an easy climb. I'm not even exaggerating to say that I nearly puked twice and nearly fainted even more. However, as you can tell by the pictures below, the view was very much worth it.\\
Some other cool life things, I tried trimming horse hooves this summer. So far I've done the equivalent of one horse. Trimming is when you take the horse's foot or hoof and clip their nails basically, but you have to do it so as to help not hinder the growth of the foot and then rasp it off and make it nice. It's a lot of squatting and holding up a horse's leg along with it, so it's a good work out, especially when you're slow and inexperienced like me and it takes a long time so you have to squat for a long time. Leg pain anyone?
I've also garnered a huge interest in photography over the summer. I've enjoyed the art quite a bit throughout my life, but I got really into the idea of making it a career over the summer. Writing is my favorite activity of course but I do enjoy photos and art a lot and I think it'd be a really fun job...
In any case, if anyone out there is interested, I have a VSCO page for photography that I've started. If nothing else it'll give you a glimpse into my aesthetic and life for sure. Check it out here if you like!
Well, in the busyness of six weeks at camp and all those other activities (plus many more unmentioned) above, I did not find much time to write. Like, at all. So much for my summer project story, I guess it'll have to wait til winter this year. Which I suppose is okay, since it's a winter-type story anyway.
I wrote a little bit of Faithless and I'm currently working through chapter twenty. That story is all over the place and I'm not sure exactly how to gather it up and streamline it to my prepared ending, but I guess I'll figure that out this fall as I get back into it. I've hardly touched it this summer so it might take me a bit to get my muse back.
The past couple weeks I've finally gotten the opportunity to start working through the beta-reader comments (thanks so much, Abby!) in my novella, The Sorceress and the Squid. I think after a couple more read-throughs and a grammar check or two it might be ready for *squeals* publishing! Super exciting stuff. I'm aiming to self-publish this one through Amazon, since it's not really a serious work of fiction. I have no idea whether anyone will actually be interested in it or not, but who know? I might make a little bit of money off of it. At the very least I'll be able to say I'm a published author, right?
So I guess we'll see what fall/winter bring. I know I'll have a full load between working, some college courses, writing, arting, horsing and running around to various hang outs and activities, as usual. But I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of writing goals I'll have accomplished by year's end.
The summer was terrible for reading. I know it shouldn't be, but there's definitely no time for reading anything other than your Bible at camp (unless you want to get up at like, five am, ugh) and the rest of the time was me scrambling to get other things done. So yeah, not much reading on my part. I did manage to read one novel however...
A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness. Jonathan bought this when we were out on one of our dates and once he'd read it, recommended it to me. It was an awesome read. Quite short - I devoured it in less than two hours - and hugely thought-provoking. Also very sad. I made the mistake of reading it to the end upstairs in the main room where everyone could see me start crying. The story is about a boy learning to deal with grief. I can't say more without spoiling, but it's very magically written and really gets down to your core. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for something short and simple, but deep and profound.
Another reading-type thing that I did this summer was make a Goodreads page (jumped onto that bandwagon a little late, I know). I don't have much up there yet but as I'm hoping to read more this fall/winter I should post some of the books I get through. Maybe that will motivate me...
You can check me out here!
As you might have noticed, I didn't really have one of those this summer. It's hard without internet most of the time. XD I'm hoping to get back into it with a little more vigor though. I've got some ideas for writing-related posts that I hope to spin out over the next few months.
Current blogger stats...
3134 pageviews
8 followers (slowly climbing, thank you so much!)
44 posts
Some new goals for the upcoming month since I didn't really give myself any for the summer...
///THREE CHAPTERS OF FAITHLESS. Keeping it small cause I have a lot of things happening here in September, including my cousins from Australia are coming!! Yayyy!\\\
///FINISH TSATS EDITS. If I keep at it I should be able to get through all my comments and the third draft edits fairly easily. We'll see if this happens in the craziness of harvest season and visiting cousins.\\\
///MORE READING. Like two books, at least. Doable right? Hehe.\\\
I'll keep the goals basic and short for now and see what happens once the snow flies I'll probably have a little more time for these things. It's only the first of September though (only - ha! It was like, January yesterday), so I've got a bit of summery-ness left.
Now that I've finally managed to spew out some kind of messed up blog post, I'd love to hear about your summer. What was one of the biggest highlights for you? Are you looking forward to the new school/work year? Tell me all about it below.
Just kidding, I dislike Starbucks and its overpriced-ness. I also detest coffee.
But yes, I have been virtually dead on here for over a month now. But I'm back! You can all cheer and jump up and down in excitement!
......
Or just scroll down and continue reading to hear about my awesome and totally unproductive summer!
You've probably heard this a million times and had the thought yourself another million, but man, where did summer go? It flew by ridiculously fast, more than ever before and I am sad to see it go. But also not, cause there are many exciting things happening this fall/winter and I can't wait for those. Ah, life is thrilling these days.
Speaking of which...
SUMMER LIFE OF CRAZY
//GETTING OLD. The uber-hectic summer started out with...my 19th birthday! Meaning I am now, at the time of writing this, 304 days away from being 20. How terrifying.
I spent my actual birthday on a birthday date with Jonathan. Since our birthdays are three days apart we generally celebrate together. This time we went to the pub *le gasp* and ordered yummy food. I wore a hot red dress and after our food we went to the park and walked and there was rain and thunder and sitting in the car and it was wonderful all around. The next day I had an actual birthday party with some of my friends. We played a few games and then decided to brave the chill of the local lake, even though a thunderstorm was building. The water was numbingly cold and I couldn't feel most of my body by the time we climbed out, but it was really fun. Did you know that cold water sends girls into fits of high-pitched giggling?
After that we headed home and more or less hung out and later fell asleep to Treasure Planet on VHS (yes, I turned nineteen, not nine). All in all a fantastic time.\\
//CAMP. I have no idea how to sum up an entire two months of working out at a wilderness camp. So many different adventures and happenings and challenges, it'd take a whole separate blog post (or two!) But I definitely grew and changed over this summer and I am super thankful for all the experiences I had my fifth year of work. I so enjoy my fellow staff and seeing how we collectively shed the light of Jesus into so many lives. It's pretty amazing. Also, I didn't have another sketchy bee incident on horseback this year. Hooray!\\
//GOODBYES. Worst part of the summer was having to say goodbye to my lifelong friend, Mackenzie, for a year while she goes to serve as a missionary in Cameroon for a year. She won't be back til next July - which sounds like a super long time but it'll surely go by as fast as anything. I am and will be missing her, but I'm also very excited to hear about her adventures and see how she grows and changes over this next year. She's awesome and she'll be a blessing overseas just as much as here I'm sure. My last day with her and my other MacKenzie friend was very sad. Despite our stoic exteriors we all kind of broke down in the end and there were a lot of tears.\\
//RIVER TRIP. I went on my first canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan last month. It was quite a ride. My legs got super cramped sitting up front with the dog for hours, but I really enjoyed it. Even going over the whitewater - I was quite nervous at first. Thankfully the canoe did not flip and we made it safely downriver. I went with Jonathan's family and we had a pretty awesome day.\\
//WEDDING. Two of my friends got married a couple weeks back and I got to be part of the bridal party, which was pretty great. I haven't even been to many weddings, let alone been in one, so I'll cherish that memory. It was out by a mountain lake and the weather was lovely and everything was picturesque and awesome. Jonathan was one of the groomsmen so we got to be coupled up and I rather enjoyed that.
I rode with him on the way back, as we were both supposed to be heading out that night for our last week of camp, but a crazy thunderstorm hit us and stayed with us all the way out of the mountains home and we abandoned plans to go to camp and stayed just at my house for the night. The lightning and hail and rain levels were unbelievable. It was such a cool experience.\\
//BAPTISM and STAFF PARTY. At camp's end we had a baptism for Trina, Jonathan's sister, and a camp staff party. Both of which were excellent. Camp staff parties are always a great time, lots of games and good food and friends to hang out with. It's always a great way to end the summer.\\
//INTENSE HIKING. Jonathan and I went on a double date with another camp couple up a mountain near Banff. It was not an easy climb. I'm not even exaggerating to say that I nearly puked twice and nearly fainted even more. However, as you can tell by the pictures below, the view was very much worth it.\\
Some other cool life things, I tried trimming horse hooves this summer. So far I've done the equivalent of one horse. Trimming is when you take the horse's foot or hoof and clip their nails basically, but you have to do it so as to help not hinder the growth of the foot and then rasp it off and make it nice. It's a lot of squatting and holding up a horse's leg along with it, so it's a good work out, especially when you're slow and inexperienced like me and it takes a long time so you have to squat for a long time. Leg pain anyone?
I've also garnered a huge interest in photography over the summer. I've enjoyed the art quite a bit throughout my life, but I got really into the idea of making it a career over the summer. Writing is my favorite activity of course but I do enjoy photos and art a lot and I think it'd be a really fun job...
In any case, if anyone out there is interested, I have a VSCO page for photography that I've started. If nothing else it'll give you a glimpse into my aesthetic and life for sure. Check it out here if you like!
WRITING THINGS
Well, in the busyness of six weeks at camp and all those other activities (plus many more unmentioned) above, I did not find much time to write. Like, at all. So much for my summer project story, I guess it'll have to wait til winter this year. Which I suppose is okay, since it's a winter-type story anyway.
I wrote a little bit of Faithless and I'm currently working through chapter twenty. That story is all over the place and I'm not sure exactly how to gather it up and streamline it to my prepared ending, but I guess I'll figure that out this fall as I get back into it. I've hardly touched it this summer so it might take me a bit to get my muse back.
The past couple weeks I've finally gotten the opportunity to start working through the beta-reader comments (thanks so much, Abby!) in my novella, The Sorceress and the Squid. I think after a couple more read-throughs and a grammar check or two it might be ready for *squeals* publishing! Super exciting stuff. I'm aiming to self-publish this one through Amazon, since it's not really a serious work of fiction. I have no idea whether anyone will actually be interested in it or not, but who know? I might make a little bit of money off of it. At the very least I'll be able to say I'm a published author, right?
So I guess we'll see what fall/winter bring. I know I'll have a full load between working, some college courses, writing, arting, horsing and running around to various hang outs and activities, as usual. But I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of writing goals I'll have accomplished by year's end.
READING THINGS
The summer was terrible for reading. I know it shouldn't be, but there's definitely no time for reading anything other than your Bible at camp (unless you want to get up at like, five am, ugh) and the rest of the time was me scrambling to get other things done. So yeah, not much reading on my part. I did manage to read one novel however...
Another reading-type thing that I did this summer was make a Goodreads page (jumped onto that bandwagon a little late, I know). I don't have much up there yet but as I'm hoping to read more this fall/winter I should post some of the books I get through. Maybe that will motivate me...
You can check me out here!
BLOGGING LIFE
As you might have noticed, I didn't really have one of those this summer. It's hard without internet most of the time. XD I'm hoping to get back into it with a little more vigor though. I've got some ideas for writing-related posts that I hope to spin out over the next few months.
Current blogger stats...
3134 pageviews
8 followers (slowly climbing, thank you so much!)
44 posts
GOALS
Some new goals for the upcoming month since I didn't really give myself any for the summer...
///THREE CHAPTERS OF FAITHLESS. Keeping it small cause I have a lot of things happening here in September, including my cousins from Australia are coming!! Yayyy!\\\
///FINISH TSATS EDITS. If I keep at it I should be able to get through all my comments and the third draft edits fairly easily. We'll see if this happens in the craziness of harvest season and visiting cousins.\\\
///MORE READING. Like two books, at least. Doable right? Hehe.\\\
I'll keep the goals basic and short for now and see what happens once the snow flies I'll probably have a little more time for these things. It's only the first of September though (only - ha! It was like, January yesterday), so I've got a bit of summery-ness left.
Now that I've finally managed to spew out some kind of messed up blog post, I'd love to hear about your summer. What was one of the biggest highlights for you? Are you looking forward to the new school/work year? Tell me all about it below.
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