Saturday in the Park (Unintentionally).

Okay, so in the past three days so much craziness has happened, I'm going to have to split it up into a few different posts. But let's start with this afternoon.

I had quite the adventure.

I went to lunch with a couple of friends and had a great time. The craziness started when I was trying to leave.

I had parked in a parking garage to the left of a big concrete column. As I was leaving, I needed to go right. For those of you playing at home, that means that as I was backing out I was turning toward the column. Do you see where this is going?

I was looking left to make sure no cars were coming while I was backing out and turning right. As I turned my head to look right, I noticed how close I was to the column. But what I didn't realize was that I had not yet cleared it. I thought, That was close! and kept going. Half a second later I heard the screeching sound of my car scraping against the column.

Not knowing what to do, I then stopped backing out and went forward instead. My car screeched again as it scraped the column once more in the opposite direction. I straightened out my car and continued backing out, thankfully clearing the pole this time. And then I exited the parking garage, hoping the damage wasn't horrible.

As I was exiting the garage, I got confused about which way I was going and, though it really didn't matter, accidentally chose the more difficult way. Which I realized as soon as I turned, but it was too late so I was going with it. I knew what to do, so it wasn't a big deal.

Except I got distracted and missed the street I was supposed to turn on. Naturally, I assumed I could turn on the next street and it would lead me to the same place. Naturally, I was wrong.

I ended up on a weird street and was briefly concerned that it was going to lead me off a cliff. Instead, it led me to a park.

Side note: I have been to this park before but have never driven myself. It is across the river from where I work and I have always wondered how to get there. Now that I have figured it out...I really doubt I could do it again. Probably not even with a map.

Anyway, I pulled over in the park to gather my thoughts and come up with a game plan and check out the damage on my car and respond to a text message. My car looked like this:

Which was a lot better than I had imagined. So it's no big deal.

Anyway. This park is really confusing. Like, it has a bazillion roads to choose from. I wasn't sure what to do so I just went straight. I followed the road a little ways but it just led me to a dead end. So I turned around and turned onto a street that had this sign:

This photo is from google. I am not so crazy as to stop and take a picture of a sign just 

because I am already writing the blog post in my head.

I have no idea what this sign means. I have a vehicle and I'm pretty sure it has a motor...does that mean I drive a motorized vehicle? Wouldn't a de-motorized vehicle, like, not move? Confusing.

But there was a stop sign just up ahead facing me, and why would they have a stop sign if cars weren't allowed there? I decided that I was not in fact driving a motorized vehicle (even though I'm still convinced my car does have a motor) and that it was okay for me to proceed. I came to a turning point so I picked a direction and turned. I was sad for a minute because it led me to yet another dead end, but then I realized that there was an exit!! That led to a street!! That led to another street from which I knew how to get home!!!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was below empty on gas this whole time. And unfortunately there are no gas stations in the park.

Maybe that wasn't as crazy as I made it sound but it felt pretty crazy to me. Sometimes I don't even know how I manage to be so...I don't even know what the word is. Me. That's the word. So me.

And what will I be like when I'm 30? I'm sort of afraid to find out.

Stay tuned...

You Alone Can Rescue.

I know I exaggerate a lot, and so what I'm about to say will probably not mean much to you, but it's for real this time, y'all.

I almost died today.

It was a normal Sunday morning. I got up, got ready for church, and was in my car by 9:30 to arrive 15 minutes early for the 10:00 elementary girls' class that I help with.

I turned to the country music station because they do a top 40 countdown on Sundays. I backed out of my driveway, pulled out of my neighborhood, and got on the ramp to I-35.

I drove up the ramp, rocking out to Two Black Cadillacs by Carrie Underwood, I turned the corner -- freeway in sight -- and I felt my car start to drift to the right.

That's weird, I thought. I was driving straight and I knew my alignment wasn't off, so I wasn't sure why my car was veering to the right. So I lightly turned the wheel to the left to compensate.

But it went too far to the left. Which didn't make sense, because I had barely turned the wheel. I turned the wheel to the right -- again, lightly -- because I was in the far left lane and was getting closer and closer to the side of the ramp (which, by the way, was about 20 feet above the ground).

My car went even farther this time, taking me from the left shoulder to the far right lane (it was a two-lane ramp). As I veered closer to the far right side of the ramp (again, about 20 feet off the ground), I decided I was about to die. But I wasn't going to give up just yet.

I made one last left turn of the wheel to get away from the edge of the ramp and then slammed on my brakes. My car momentarily spun out of control before coming to a complete stop right in the middle of the two lanes.

My heart was racing and I couldn't really breathe, but I needed to get out of the middle of everything, so I very, very carefully pulled into the shoulder, turned on my flashers, and called for help (because I was NOT about to try driving again).

 This was almost me.

Thankfully, my mom was just about to leave for church, so she was able to come pick me up. My dad came by a little later to look at my car and move it into a parking lot where it would be safer.

I was late to church but I don't think anyone really cared about that when I had just narrowly escaped death.

The crazy part is this: when I turned the corner on the ramp, just seconds before my car TRIED TO KILL ME, there were cars all around me. When my car suddenly lost control, all the cars that had been near me had gotten ahead of me, and no one was behind me. The area was completely empty until I had made it safely to the shoulder. Once I was in the shoulder, there was pretty much a steady flow of traffic. I was all over the road; had there been anyone there, I would have absolutely hit them.

Had I hit the side of the ramp, there's a good chance I would have gone over the edge at the speed I was going at. I was incredibly close to hitting both sides, but in both cases was able to swerve back to the other side.

As I was sitting in our church service later, we sang the song You Alone Can Rescue. These are the words:

"You alone can rescue, You alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave

You came down to find us, led us out of death

To You alone belongs the highest praise."

I know that this song is technically talking about salvation and Jesus dying on the cross for us, but today I felt it had another meaning, because God literally rescued, saved, and led me out of death (or at least some severe injuries) this morning. And He definitely deserves the highest praise.

I wish I could credit my awesome driving/remaining-calm-in-a-crisis skills, but I can't. All glory goes to God on this one.

There is simply no other explanation.

Subway Adventures.

Today I had worship team training at church from 10am-4pm. And let me just say, the series of unfortunate events that happened at my lunch break had Kayla written all over it. In big capital letters. Underlined four times. With an exclamation point.

This is good, guys. Just you wait.

Unfortunate Event #1: The Elusive Subway.

We were on our own for lunch but a large group of people (my friends included) were going to Taco Cabana. Which I found really surprising because I didn't know people actually liked Taco Cabana. Like, seriously, if we're going to have tacos I'd much rather have Taco Bell. But then again, I'm probably not the most reliable judge of food.

Anyway, obviously I was not okay with Taco Cabana, but I did want to spend time with my friends, so I was going to get food elsewhere and then meet them there. I decided that I wanted Subway because a) Subway is kind of healthy, and I've been feeling guilty about all the junk I've been eating lately, and b) it sounded really good. So, I got in my car and set off for Subway. Only I couldn't remember exactly where it was, but I had a pretty good idea. So I headed that direction and figured I'd see it eventually.

So I'm driving. And I keep driving. And I keep driving. Because Subway is past all the other fast food restaurants. I know* that it's further up the road, so I just keep driving. And every once in awhile, I think I've passed it. So I start to turn around but then I see another group of buildings coming up and I convince myself that that's where Subway is. But it isn't. After doing this about three times, I began entering unrecognizable territory, so I decide to turn around for real this time.

*Me "knowing" where things are located is like a five year old "knowing" how to do calculus correctly

I'm driving back and looking for Subway. And I'm not finding it. And I'm like, "Are you kidding me? Was it seriously further up? Does Subway even exist anymore?" AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, I SEE IT. And I'm like, "SUBWAY! I see you! But...how do I get to you...?"

It was like behind a bunch of restaurants and...I don't even know. Like, it was there, but it was hidden. So I maneuvered my way through the Walmart parking lot and down a couple back roads and finally I'm in the Subway parking lot -- the actual Subway parking lot! -- and I park and get out of my car.

Which brings me to...

Unfortunate Event #2: The Door with the Sandwich On It.

I walk into Subway, ECSTATIC because I'm really hungry, and the first thing I notice are SIX bulky guys, about high school age, probably football players, sitting together and staring at me (quite angrily I might add) in dead silence at Subway. Just sitting there. With no food. Not standing in line to order. And I was like, "Do these guys know how Subway works? You have to go stand in line..." But then I looked up and realized that there was no one at the register. There were employees in the back (who saw me walk in), but no one at the front. So I stepped to the side and joined the awkward silence while these big scary guys just...stared at me.

While I'm waiting, I can't help but notice that Subway is a lot smaller than I remembered it being. Did they remodel? Why would they remodel and make the place smaller? Or maybe it just looked smaller because of the new design. But the counter looked way too small to hold all the sandwich fixins. And why did it smell like pizza in there?

And then I look at the door, and right below the picture of something that very closely resembles a SANDWICH (and sandwich = Subway) are the words "Little Caesar's."

Sandwiches > Pizza.

 

Little Caesar's. Last time I checked, that was different than Subway. And I'm completely mortified at this point that I have walked into and stood in for several minutes the WRONG restaurant. I have been stared at by creepy high school boys that totally had the ability to kill me. I have been acknowledged (but not served) by some very busy Little Caesar's employees. And I could feel the eyes of all 6 scary boys and all 3 employees on me as I silently walked out and never returned.

And before I walked into Subway, I read every sign from top to bottom just to make sure.

Unfortunate Event #3: I Give Up.

Thankfully, I was able to get my 6" tuna sandwich on Italian without a hitch, and I made it to my car and out of the parking lot without incident.

By the way, at this point our one hour lunch break is more than half over.

Anyway, I'm driving to Taco Cabana to catch up with my friends (for, like, a whole 15 minutes), but I was so...flustered, I guess is the word...from everything that just happened that I passed Taco Cabana. And at first I was like, "I think I just passed it..." but then I was like, "oh, no, it's further up here." But it wasn't. And by the time I was 100% sure I had passed it, I was almost back to church.

There just wasn't any point in turning around.

I was probably just going to pass it again anyway.

So I pulled into church and found a table inside to eat at while I recovered from the previous 45 minutes' adventures.

So yes, ladies and gentlemen, in 45 minutes I managed to:

• Get lost on a street I have traveled hundreds of times
• Share some delightfully awkward moments with 9 strangers
• Get so distracted that I just straight up passed my destination
• Just give up, because seriously, why do I even try to be cool? 

By the way, those first three things happen so often that I had to give them their own tags.

And to my friends who may or may not have been waiting on me to show up at Taco Cabana (I'm not even sure they knew I was coming, but just in case): I DID NOT ditch you guys on purpose. I totally intended on showing up, and wanted to...but, like, seriously...I just needed a moment to myself. To recover. Because...it was a crazy 45 minutes, y'all. Real crazy. Kayla levels of crazy. And Lord knows it takes time to recover from Kayla crazy.

Kaylzy? Oh, I know! Crayla. Wait, no...that sounds like a crayon.

Whatever. It doesn't even deserve its own word. You know what they say: when you name things, you just get more attached.

Which doesn't really apply in this situation but that's okay. The point is...well, actually there isn't one. (Other than to make you feel better about yourself, of course).

Sorry to have wasted your time.

Why Summer is Actually the Best.

 Summer provides once in a lifetime opportunities, like shark riding.
(Btw, this was me and my dad, circa 1997ish).

Usually when people refer to "the most wonderful time of the year," they are talking about Christmastime. While I am in complete agreement that Christmas is pretty wonderful, I would argue that it is not, in fact, the most wonderful. The following is a list of reasons which I would use to defend my position. (And it wouldn't be a list if it wasn't alphabetical).

Beaches.
Berry season.
Bright colors.
Butterflies.
Flip-flops.
Flowers.
Green grass.
Ice cream cones.
Lemonade.
Longer days.
Movies.
No school.
Painted toe nails.
Picnics.
Popsicles.
Running through sprinklers.
Sandals.
Sand volleyball.
Shorts.
Snow cones.
Sonic's Summer of Shakes!
Sundresses.
Sunshine.
Swimming.
Tank tops.
Vacations.
Water parks.
Weather that isn't cold.

Basically, happiness. Summer is just the happiest time of the year. And the most wonderful. And the best.

And if you're wondering why I think summer is the best, but back in September I called autumn my favorite season, it's because I go back and forth between the two. Usually by the end of summer/beginning of fall, fall is my favorite, but near the end of fall and all the way through spring I'm SO ready for summer. I'm not a liar, I promise.

Check out my lists for why I love fall and winter (mainly Christmas). There isn't one for spring, because spring is clearly the worst season and doesn't deserve a list (I have bad allergies, if you're wondering why I have a vendetta against spring).

A Rant About the Dentist and Miley Cyrus.

So, I had an impromptu dentist appointment on Monday.

It was scheduled for today, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, six months ago I thought it would be a grand idea to schedule my next appointment for 11:30am...right in the middle of the workday.

Which is totally fine for someone who works full time and really has no other option but to miss part of work to go to the dentist. But I only work until 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 3 on Mon/Wed/Fri so CLEARLY I do not need to miss part of my work day. Nor should I.

So on Monday, I called to reschedule, and literally the ONLY time they could get me in was 3:00 that same day. Right when I get off work. I told them I'd be about 10 minutes late, but they were cool with that so we scheduled it.

So, I get there at 3, and as usual, I sit around for about 15 minutes before they call me back. The lady calls me back to do some x-rays, and that takes like 10 minutes. And then she sends me back out to the waiting room because apparently she's not my hygienist. My hygienist isn't ready yet.

So I literally sit in the waiting room for 15 more minutes. Remember that they scheduled me for an appointment at 3...I didn't get back in the room until almost 4.

Then while I was waiting, a girl showed up who is apparently a new employee starting on Friday and so she was supposed to be visiting. Well, the head honcho dentist guy decided to put MY hygienist in charge of helping her out, so about 5 minutes into my cleaning, she leaves for literally 10 minutes. And I'm just sitting there with a bright light shining on my face, until a nice lady came in and moved it for me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE my dentist. I truly feel like they want what's best for me, and not what will make them the most money. But I had somewhere to be at 5:30, and I was starting to get concerned.

My teeth were perfect as usual, and my gums were puffy, inflamed, and unhealthy as usual. I don't know why I have had gingivitis since I was 7 but I have never had a cavity. But whatever. At least with gum infections they don't drill a hole in your face.

Anyway, they are genuinely concerned about the condition of my gums, so guess who gets to go back into the dentist in three months for another cleaning? Huzzah for me.

So, I leave the dentist with my sore and bleeding gums (because they are NOT gentle with those cleanings!) and OH YEAH my broken wire because she literally flossed right through my permanent retainer on the back of my bottom row of teeth....

I was meeting a bunch of family for dinner at 5:30 and didn't have time to go home, but did have time to run a quick errand. So I stopped at a store, walked around for 10 minutes looking for what I needed, got in a line with a broken register, got in another line, left, and got lost. Because I thought I knew where I was going, and I should never, EVER think that.

EVER.

So I was like...15 minutes late to dinner. But it's okay. We went to see Man of Steel afterward, which was good, but WAY too long, and the action scene at the end seriously could have been 30 minutes shorter.

And thus ends my dentist rant. Which brings me to my rant about Miley Cyrus. Have you seen her new music video?

Please don't.

Though you probably will now because I've struck your curiosity, but I must warn you: it is the WORST music video, in every way possible, that I have ever seen in my entire life. Including Lady Gaga videos.

Yeah. I know.

And what's even worse, is all the people in the comments who say "This video is so awesome!" and then say "Stop hating on Miley, she's a grown up now!"

Um...I'm sorry, but she looked pretty juvenile in that video.

Newsflash: being a grown up does NOT give you a free pass to do whatever the heck you want. It means you stop acting like a child, which is not -- by any definition -- what Miley has done in that video.

If anything, she was more mature when she was on Hannah Montana.

Sorry if you're a Miley fan, but unfortunately it's the truth.

Also...either Miley is really bad at twerking, or that dance move should never, EVER be attempted in public OR private. End of discussion. Outlaw the twerk.

Don't worry, I'll have some more coherent posts up soon. :)

I'm On A Boat.

Well...I was.

A BIG one.

For realz.

Look how big:

 

Not impressed? How about adding some perspective. Look a little closer in the photo (like at the thing circled in red with the arrow pointing at it):

That's me! The little itty bitty thing inside the circle! Looks a lot bigger now, right?

So last week I went on a Caribbean cruise! I've never been on a cruise before...in fact, my family never really goes on vacation...but it was SO FUN. I shall now relive it so you can all rage with jealousy.

We left early Monday morning (and I do mean early) to drive to New Orleans, where the ship was docked. We got there around 2:30 and boarded the boat, which left around 4. Monday and Tuesday were spent sailing.

The cruise line was Carnival, which is known as the party boat. So there were constantly activities going on. Dance lessons, parties, contests, games, karaoke, shows to name a few. There was also a swimming pool, a water slide, a mini golf course, hot tubs, ice cream and frozen yogurt available 24 hours (!!!), and more.

The first day we didn't do much. We hung out in our room, explored some, ate dinner at the restaurant and went to bed. The second day, we pretty much did the same thing except we went to a comedy show before dinner, which was pretty funny.

Day 3 we made our first stop in Progreso, Mexico. There's not much to do there so we mainly just did some shopping. We also grabbed lunch and got a massage on the beach. :) That night, we went to a dance class and learned the moves to Thriller. We also went to a game show and the crew talent show.

Thursday was Cozumel and the beach there was gorgeous. In Cozumel we went snorkeling and...

 

...SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

And you know what that means.

Yep.

I get to cross off my first bucket list item of 2013.

That was probably my favorite part.

After we got back on the boat, we had a little time for R&R before heading for dinner and the guest talent show afterward. I actually got really seasick after boarding the ship again. The boat was moving A LOT and apparently my stomach didn't like it. But I ate some Saltines and all was right again.

Friday was another day at sea, during which we just chilled. I watched some TV in the room, ate some ice cream. They opened up a chocolate bar and I got a piece of chocolate cheesecake that was really gross so I didn't finish it. Now that I'm talking about cheesecake I reeeaaalllyyy want to go to the Cheesecake Factory...

We went to a different comedy show that evening and then to our final dinner on board. We also went to an "end of the cruise" show which was pretty cool. Lots of singing and dancing and a lady making us sit far away because she was reserving seats that nobody ended up sitting in.

Now please enjoy a few more pictures so you can get the full experience.

 

 

I hate formatting pictures on here. It never works for me the first time. It always gets messed up and then I try to fix it and it still messes up and GRRRR. So because I had problems, you'll notice there are no captions. The captions you can find below, in consecutive order.

1. Looking at the Caribbean at the front of the ship.

2. Kissing a dolphin. Best. Day. Ever.

3. The dolphins did something called a foot push where they push you by your feet and you fly.

4. Snorkeling with a fish.

5. At the comedy show, drinking a non-alcoholic daiquiri.

6. My dad's zombie pose for the Thriller dance. :)

7. All the towel animals the turn down service did for us! So fun.

I highly recommend a cruise and swimming with dolphins if you get the chance. It's a ton of fun. Next time, I want to do a Royal Caribbean cruise. Just do a google images search for it and you'll see why. 

Also, as a side note, I think I'm going to expand my bucket list. Because there are a gazillion other things I keep thinking of that I want to do that aren't on there. And I may throw a few on there that I've already done just so it looks like I've done some. :) So if you want to check that out...then just click the tab at the top that says "My Bucket List." It's really that easy.

Until next time.

Peace out, yo.

And Then the Clouds Came Out.

My day was...stressful, mostly. Let me start at 7:00 this morning.

I had a speech today in speech class. A speech I was freaking out about. Especially since I had a dream the other night that I was COMPLETELY unprepared for it.

We had a lot of stuff to bring for it: an outline, a reference page, a visual aid, and a memory card so she could record us. I double checked last night to make sure I had everything I needed. And I checked again this morning.

Anyway, I got up early because I had to make sure I looked okay and everything, you know, cuz the whole class would be staring at me. My car was also out of gas, so I needed to stop at a gas station so that my car didn't break down or anything on my way to school.

So I leave earlier than normal to get gas and get there in plenty of time to prepare for my speech. It's 7:15 and I'm probably about 10 minutes away from my house when I remember a dream I had last night.

In my dream, it was speech day, and I didn't have my memory card. Thankfully, in my dream, the teacher had extra cards so it wasn't a big deal. But that got me thinking...did I pack my card? I didn't double check this morning to make sure I had it...did I pack it last night? I couldn't remember. So as I'm driving I have one hand in my bag digging around for it. And I can't find it. So I take the next exit, pull into a gas station, and do a thorough search of my bag. Nothing.

So now I'm starting to panic. I'm going to have to go home and get it. But what if it's not there? Then I would have just wasted about 20 minutes. So I decide to call my mom to have her check and see if it's still sitting on my desk. I call her twice, and there's no answer. So I start driving back. I decide to call my dad, even though I know he's at the airport dropping off my grandpa, just in case he's back already. But he's not. So, it's about 7:25 now and I run inside (leaving my car on because I don't have time to turn it off, and praying that no one steals it). Thankfully, it's still on my desk so I grab it and run. I'm in and out in about 30 seconds. Record time.

Anyway, I made it to school barely on time. I walked in right at 8, as opposed to about 7:30 when I would have gotten there had this little setback not happened. As you can imagine, I was a little frazzled the rest of the morning. And imagining everything that could go wrong. And feeling like I was going to throw up on the person in front of me (except no one sits in front of me, so I guess that's a plus).

But I think my speech went pretty well. Everything worked and I didn't forget anything and I stayed (barely) within the time limits. So, now I just have to wait for my evaluation.

By the way, I think the dream I had, and the fact that I remembered it before I was too far from home, was totally a God thing. Because He's awesome like that.

The next stressful thing that happened was one of my professors scheduled a test on a day that I'm not going to be in class...so now I have to talk to him and see if I can take it another time and then figure out a time I can take it which is going to be difficult because I have approximately 15 minutes of free time between the hours of 8 and 4 on weekdays. And I doubt he'll let me take the test at home.

And THEN to top it all off, I went to McDonald's for lunch and ordered my usual cheeseburger, plain and dry. PLAIN AND DRY. I go to eat my burger after I leave and it has ketchup, pickles, mustard, and onions on it. Not the definition of plain and dry.

So I had to wait until I got to work to eat it so I could scrape off all the gross stuff because it's hard to do that in the car. But by then, it was getting cold and the cheese was gross and the ketchup and mustard had absorbed into the bread. So, being the clever person that I am, I cut off the parts of the bread that I couldn't eat. And it still tasted terrible, and I almost threw up once (that's twice today, folks), but at least I wasn't hungry.

And then, as if it knew exactly how my day was going,  the sun disappeared and a billion clouds came out of nowhere and made the sky all gray and dark. I even took off my sunglasses. Y'all, I once wore my sunglasses while watching fireworks because they were too bright for my sensitive eyes. This is a big deal.

I kept thinking today was Tuesday, because normally these things happen to me on Tuesdays. (Tuesdays hate me, if you haven't heard). But thankfully, it is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday (Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...haha. Now it's in your head.) and then it's the WEEKEND. My favorite word. (After euphemism, of course).

On the bright side, I was totally having a great hair day. It was all soft and everything.

Almost a Good Samaritan.

The other day I was driving home and pulled into my neighborhood. And on the sidewalk was sitting a crate.

The crate had a sign on it. It had a picture of something, but I couldn't tell what. The only word I could make out was "FOUND."

I kept driving, but thought it was weird that someone would set out a crate with a found sign on it rather than just, you know, doing what most people do and taping the posters up on light poles and whatnot.

And then, as I'm about to pull into my driveway, the thought occurs to me: Ohmygosh what if there's a puppy trapped inside that crate!

Keep in mind that I live in Texas and it's like at least 100 degrees here. Texas heat + puppy - water = dead puppy.

So I pulled into my driveway, ran upstairs and quickly changed into some clothes that wouldn't cause me to melt into a puddle. Then, I went for a little stroll. You know, in the scorching, furnace-like, Texas summer heat. All the way to the entrance of our neighborhood (it's about, like, half a mile, total, going there and back to my house. Maybe less. I don't know. But it felt SUPER LONG.)

I was going to be the super hero. Save the poor dehydrated puppy in that crate. Take it home and give it water and if it was a chihuahua, name it Jorge (pronounced "hor-hay", not "George". Chihuahuas are Mexican and therefore deserve the Spanish pronunciation of the name).

So, I got there, looked in the crate...and it was empty.

Well, it wasn't empty...there were rocks inside. You know, so the crate wouldn't blow away. You know, because there's so much wind in Texas in the summer. (I wish...)

And in all honesty, as relieved as I am that there wasn't a puppy in there...I was also kind of disappointed. I wanted to bring home a puppy. (Plus it was SO not worth the walk).

So I trudged back another half mile (or whatever) in the scorching heat and then went swimming in my imaginary pool to cool off. Since, you know, this story is full of things that I wish had happened but didn't. 

So that's my I-almost-saved-the-day-but-didn't-because-I-underestimated-the-goodness-of-mankind story. I have a couple of those, now.

I have an active/slightly wild imagination.

But it's okay. My mom still thinks I'm great and that means I must be doing something right.

...right?

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger...

 ...or just really tired.

We slightly changed the words to Kelly Clarkson's song to fit HEART. But that's as far as we got, because we fell asleep after that. :)

Anyway...THIS is the post you have been waiting for!

Honestly, I have dreaded writing this post. Why? Because it was three weeks of constant activity...it wouldn't be a post, it'd be a book.

And honestly, I DON'T want to write all of that. So instead, I'm going to give a brief summary of what we did, why we did it, and I WAS going to show you a couple videos, but I'm giving up on that. I will post them in the future if I am able to. So please enjoy this picture-less, video-less, very, very summarized summary of HEART!

What is HEART?

HEART stands for "Hearts Eager and Ready for Training". It was the summer training program that my church's youth group offered to the girls this summer. The guys had one too, called SWEAT (Student Work Experience and Training). We love acrostics at my church.

The program was open to all students 6th-12th grade. Students had the option of going three weeks, two weeks, or one week. The girls renovated a lifeless house; the guys transformed a barren property. The first week we had 9 girls. We added 8 more the second week and 10 the third week for a grand total of 27 girls.

We had guest speakers throughout the weeks to come talk to us about things such as finances, relationships, dating, cooking, and first aid.

The point of the program was to teach young men and women a good work ethic, diligence, perseverance, and teamwork as well as important life skills, all while learning to live together and provide for each other.

We cooked meals together, cleaned together, tiled floors together, painted together, scraped floors together, ate together, laughed together, learned together, and most of all, we grew closer to God together.

There was a lot of togetherness.

What did we do?

• First, we ripped out the carpet. It was GROSS. Awful. And we couldn't move our bags in until that happened. That's how bad it was.
• We then spent the next three days scraping the brown moss of terror.
• We painted all the walls and ceilings. The people who had previously lived there were smokers and the poor dry wall was suffering from that.
• We cleaned. Because all the surfaces in the house were as gross as the carpet.
• We laid vinyl tile in the laundry room, dining room, and kitchen.
• We meal planned, grocery shopped, and cooked.
• We did dishes.
• We spackled with hot pink spackle that turns white when it dries. Awesome.
• We caulked.
• We did minor landscaping.
• We wrote songs.
• We saw the boys once a week (!).
• We made necklaces, hair flowers, trivets, soaps, bath fizzies, and other things that I don't remember.
• We worshiped Jesus.
• We learned, grew, and endured.
• We made new friends.

And, last but not least,

• We had fun!

Believe it or not, yes, we had fun.

What is "the brown moss of terror?" 

Well, underneath the carpet in the kitchen, dining room and laundry room, was this wonderful little brown carpet pad that was glued to the floor underneath. Literally. It would not come up. And it needed to. We spent three days scraping it. And it looked kind of mossy, so it was dubbed the brown moss of terror.

Songwriting? That sounds fun!

Yes, yes it does. One Friday the boys came over and had written us a song to the tune of "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. So we wrote them a song to the tune of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and sang it for them the following week. Unfortunately, I don't have a video of that.

I do, however, have a video of this song that Meredith and I wrote while painting the bathroom...which I was going to post, but now I'm not. So...sorry! haha

We also had a High School Musical dance party. It was epic. I know you're jealous.

What does the house look like now?

Awesome.

Amazing.

Beautiful.

It's practically a castle.

Well, compared to what it DID look like, at least. :)


So, now you know how I spent the last three weeks of my June (after my senior trip). Exciting right? It was a great time, and a great experience, but I'm glad to be home and back at work. About to start college. Oh, I'm a sophomore now, as of yesterday. Cool right? I'm probably the only freshman at UTA who's actually a sophomore. Hehe. I cheated the system.

My Week With Shamu.

Okay, so in actuality I only really spent about 30 minutes out of the whole week with Shamu. But it was a better title than "My San Antonio Trip," which was the other option. I'm not good with titles.

Anyway! I will now recount the events of my senior trip to the best of my ability. Don't worry, there's pictures, for those of you who hate reading.

We left the morning of Saturday, June 2nd to begin our epic adventure of initiation into adulthood in none other than the very city that marked the turning point of the war for our beloved state of Texas' independence! Others who journeyed here before us include Samuel Houston, William Travis, and Jim Bowie. In fact, I probably set foot upon the exact place where Davy Crockett's lifeless body laid...cool, right?

(Please excuse the history lesson. My mom's an American history teacher. Though I may or may not have had to turn to google to check the accuracy on a few of those facts...shh. Don't tell.)

Anyway, my faithful companions on this adventure were my good friends Meagan, Ellen, Christopher, Luke, and Stephen! Now, take a break from reading, and enjoy these pictures:

 

Ready for a week of epic awesomeness.

Remembering the Alamo...or, trying to remember, at least.

 This was Luke's idea. I think he was the only one who knew what we were doing. 

Something about a line...?

Okay, so that was day one! Well, and the second half of day two...we went to the Alamo at the end of the second day after we got back from Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. But I don't actually have any pictures of Schlitterbahn cuz, you know, it's a water park, and iPhones don't take very high quality pictures in water.

Actually, I didn't take any of these pictures...so you can blame the friends I stole these pictures from for not taking pictures at Schlitterbahn. Which is a German word, pronounced Sh-litter-bon. In case you read that, and thought I was crazy.

Anyway, day three, and my personal favorite day (:D) was dolphin day! Also known as Sea World day. If you don't know, my favorite animal is a dolphin. Shamu was cool too, but he is also capable of eating people. Dolphins just want to play with people. They're pacifists. And much less risky.

Also, there are about five killer whales at Sea World, and they are ALL named Shamu. Even the baby is "Baby Shamu". Such a scam. I hope the kids never find out. Because when I found out, it was like my whole childhood was a lie and I could never trust Shamu again.

Dolphins don't lie to little kids.

Anyway, picture time!

 

Waiting for scam artist Shamu(s) to come out.

 

So Shamu can pose. Big deal. Dolphins can do flips. BACKflips. That actually

requires talent. 

 

I look a lot happier in this picture. Probably cuz we were waiting for the DOLPHIN

show. 

 

Reason #52 why dolphins are better than Shamu: That mouth is open for a fish.

NOT a human being.  

I fell asleep in the car on my new pillow.

 And there's the pillow. It was too perfect that the dolphin one was purple.

Okay, I think I'm done ragging on Shamu now. 

Tuesday we didn't do much. We were going to a fancy steakhouse for dinner that night, so we didn't want to do anything that would make us look all gross for that. Sooo...we went bowling! And then the BOYS made us go SHOPPING for like TWO HOURS. First time ever I have been stuck in a mall sitting on a random couch in the middle of the building waiting for a boy to finish shopping. And hopefully the last time; it wasn't too fun.

They had to buy a sweater vest for Christopher, but it was some big secret so the girls had to go away. And it took them FOREVER to find one.

So then we got back to the hotel and had like 45 minutes to get ready for dinner. And then we went to Chamagaucha steakhouse which was AMAZING. I've never eaten so much meat in my life. It's one of those places where they just keep bringing out more and more and more and more meat until you're about to die from fullness and then they still bring more.

 

Bowling!

 

In the elevator in our pretty dresses :)

 

At the restaurant.

 

 We told them we were celebrating our senior trip, and they brought us a free

slice of cheesecake! It was gone in 30 seconds. So good.

 Us in front of the restaurant. Christopher is wearing the vest that took two hours

to find. I hope it was worth it.

Day four was Fiesta Texas day! I LOVE theme parks and roller coasters, so that was fun. It was really hot, though. I was so dehydrated by the end of the day...I think I walked around for about 20 minutes (or it felt like it) looking for a water fountain...only to find out there was one like five feet away from where I started searching. We left by mid-afternoon, and just hung out at the hotel the rest of the day. Then, that night, we went to the Chart House Restaurant in The Tower of the Americas for dessert. It's a really fancy restaurant in downtown San Antonio that overlooks the city and actually revolves so you can see the whole city and not just a quarter of it. I tried creme brulee for the first time and I will definitely be getting that again. It was so good.

 Waiting in line for a ride I don't remember the name of. But whatever it was, it

 gave me whiplash and a headache.

On "The Scream"! About to shoot up 5000 feet into the air! Or whatever a 

more realistic height is. I'm not good with numbers. 

 At the Chart House. Isn't that view amazing?

Our last day, we left in the morning and then spent part of the day at Schlitterbahn again before heading back home. It was sad that it was over. Because it was fun. And who likes it when fun ends? 

  The only Schlitterbahn picture we have.

All in all, it was a really fun trip. I especially appreciated it because I didn't get to go on my school's senior trip and I had been pretty bummed about that. Then I found out the possibility of a smaller senior trip with these great friends of mine and I was super excited! So glad it worked out, and that we got to do everything we wanted. :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering or concerned...we did have parents with us. Mine and Christopher's were there, but they didn't go anywhere with us. They were just there in the same hotel/city with us, you know, in case of an emergency. It was fun!

So yeah, great time with some great people! And then I came home, had about three days to re-coop, and then I had to pack all over again for the three week summer training program I went to next! I will have a post about that up...later. As in, like early next week later. Like Monday or Tuesday. More likely Tuesday, because I'm a procrastinator. But we shall see.

Did you go anywhere this summer?  

A Muddy Marathon.

Disclaimer: The title of this post is a misnomer. A 10K is not a marathon. I'm just a big fan of alliteration.

Today, I did something completely out of character for me and ran (well, walked) a 10K and hurdled over obstacles (the ones I didn't skip) and swam (waded/slipped/drowned) through mud.

I, along with several of my coworkers and their families, all participated in the Mud Run this morning: a 10K with obstacles, most of which involve getting muddy.

It was actually kind of fun. Exhausting, but fun. I would tell the whole story, but I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. (Note: I normally don't post this many pictures. But these are priceless.)

The before picture of our whole group.

 The high school crew--before, clearly. My hair is crazy.

 Before part 2. We look thrilled. Meagan looks like Gene Simmons.

 

 Ha, I still look clean, even though at this point I've been through several obstacles.

 

 I make an awesome model.

 

 There were literally about 10 of these crawling obstacles. My knees are so 

scratched up from that. haha

 

 

 Stephen!

  

 Jumping into about 8ft. of muddy water.

 

See how clean I look? 5 seconds later, muddy hands attacked my face. 

No more clean face for Kayla :(

 

 The after picture! Meagan looks like she's about to throw up...hahaha.

  

 I love the handprint on Ellen's face.

 

Afterwards, we got hosed off with FIREHOSES!

It was cold. I did not stay standing there very long.

Me and Christopher--happy to be clean!

 Me and Stephen!

Me and Tyler! He makes me look short.

I have girl friends, too, I promise...I just don't know what happened to the pictures I had with them...

Overall it was a good time. Though I have to say, I have never been happier to take a shower.

This is Getting Ridiculous, Y'all.

What's getting ridiculous, you ask?

Everything. The getting lost. The malfunctioning technology. I'm as tired of it happening as you are of hearing about it. But oh my goodness...there is seriously something wrong with the directional part of my brain. You know, the part that most people have that contains a map so that they usually have some concept of where they are and what direction they need to be heading in? Yeah, I don't have that.

I just have eyes that know how to read a map and street signs, but occasionally that method fails me too.

As many of you know, I got a GPS for Christmas. Which was really exciting, because I can't count how many times I've gotten lost in the year and a half I've had my license. I've used my GPS twice since I got it: the first time I was only traveling about 5 minutes from my house, and I didn't get lost (yay!). The second time was last night. This is essentially the SparkNotes version of what happened:

I had a church event starting at 7:15. I got out of school and had time to kill so I ran a few errands. Well, I had time to stop by the Northeast Mall (about 30 minutes from my house) beforehand. Yes, it was far away, but I was getting a free drink out of it (from my friend who works at Chickfila and promised me a free drink), so I thought hey, why not? So I pull out the trusty old GPS to get me there. And I got there and avoided traffic and everything. It was awesome.

I leave the mall and put my church's address in the GPS. ETA: 6:59. Please remember that the program starts at 7:15. So, I should have been early.

I went from being 16 minutes early to 3 minutes late.

So what happened? I honestly don't even know. My GPS kept telling me to turn, but I kept trying to turn earlier than I was supposed to and didn't realize it until I was in a turn-only lane and couldn't get over anymore. So, I would turn, it would re-route me, add a few minutes to the ETA, and then I'd screw up again and turn too early. And repeat. And repeat and repeat.

Finally, I just called someone, although the first two people I talked to had no idea where I was, either.

Then I hung up the phone and couldn't remember the directions I had been given. So I decided to give the GPS a second chance. Thankfully, it did not let me down and I arrived at church 15 minutes later.

So yes, it has finally happened: I got lost using a GPS. Didn't take long either.

Let's face it: I'm a lost cause. I'm completely hopeless when it comes to directions. I'm pretty sure that if I ever move to another state, the first time I go to the grocery store will be the last time I ever see my house.

Guess I can cross "taxi driver" and "bus driver" and possibly "tour guide" off my list of possible career options.

Worst. Babysitting Experience. EVER.

Okay, so normally I try to just post happy/funny/random/profound things on this blog. BUT last night was sooo frustrating, that I feel the need to tell everyone exactly what happened. And actually, there's a good chance it will turn out to be a funny story because it has to do with none other than more Kayla-deficient technology....

So, last night I was babysitting, as I often do. I mean seriously. I babysit a lot. Well, sometimes. It kind of comes in spurts. Like, there will be several weeks in a row where I babysit 2-3 times a week, and then there will be several weeks where I don't babysit at all.

Anyway, on to the story. I was babysitting a little 3-year-old girl that I probably babysit more than any other child. I usually don't have any problems with her. She did go through this one phase of, like, separation anxiety or something when she would randomly start crying because she missed her parents. But me, being the super-sitter that I am, figured out the cure for that: singing Old McDonald Had A Farm, over and over and over....

That phase didn't last long though. It was over almost as quickly as it started. But last night...I don't know WHAT happened...but she randomly started crying about 2 hours in.

"Why are you crying?" I asked.

"I don't know," she would reply. And then promptly stop crying.

"Do you want to play with your computer?" I suggested. She has a click-start Leap Frog computer or something. She was happy with that suggestion so we started it up, and I went to go make myself some toast because I had forgotten to eat dinner before I came. While I'm making toast, she walks in and says, "I'm tired!"

I look at the clock. It's 7. Her bed time is 9. I don't feel authorized to put her to bed THAT early, so I suggest she keep playing with her computer. She sits down but does nothing with it. She says she doesn't want to play it anymore. So I suggest watching a movie.

She likes this idea! Yay! A happy camper. So we pick out a VHS (or an old school video, in case you read that and went "what?") and I go put it in the VCR. As a side note, I have ALWAYS been able to work their TV in the past. But now, it's not working.

After trying various things to get it to work, I switch to a DVD. Well, guess what? The DVD player won't open. I try for a few minutes, then decide to try a different VHS. Still doesn't work. Try the DVD player again. Nope. The little girl starts crying. Fantastic.

Wait! I have a brilliantly ingenious idea! You can watch DVDs on laptops. They have a laptop. I have a DVD. Fantastic! I locate the laptops (there's two). This is so going to work and the kid will be happy and I can eat my toast that is still sitting on the kitchen counter.

Well...for some unknown reason that makes absolutely NO sense to me, the laptops wouldn't play the DVD. Neither of them. I tried both. TWICE. They wouldn't play it. I tried EVERYTHING. I opened 3 different programs on the laptops that should be able to play DVDs and I couldn't get anything to work.

At this point, the girl is FLIPPING out because she wants to watch Blue's Clues, which halfway through switched to Veggie Tales just making my life more difficult, and I'm frustrated and about to throw these laptops against the wall along with the VCR and the DVD player. But I refrain, because these items do not belong to me.

So, like I said, she's freaking out which stresses me out even more and I'm trying so hard not to yell at the poor child. I keep asking her why she's crying and all I get is "I don't know!"

I'm not even kidding, I was about to start crying. Seemed like the easiest solution at this point.

And normally, this would be the part where I tell you how I saved the day and fixed the laptop, we watched Veggie Tales and everyone lived happily ever after. But alas, that is not what happened. Instead, I gave up. Yep. I put the laptops away and the movies away and I said, "Okay, we're not watching a movie."

She wasn't happy.

Now this is the part where I save the day. She wanted to watch Veggie Tales so much, but we couldn't. So this is where my second brilliantly ingenious idea of the night comes in. I remember they have a Veggie Tales CD. Sooo I find it with my awesome scavenger hunt skills, pop it in the CD player (which is apparently the only technological item that is not part of the technology conspiracy against me), and she remains happy until bedtime.

Win.

So now it's an hour later, I've acquired a headache, and I still haven't eaten my toast. But at least the little girl was happy and there was no more crying--from either of us--the rest of the night.

I hope that ending was happy enough for you, because that's all I've got.

May all your babysitting adventures go much smoother than mine did last night.

Ever Wonder What It's Like To Be Me?

Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway.

I kid you not, all of these things have happened to me within the past week.

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At my church Christmas party last Wednesday night, we had a gift exchange. There were about 50 of us there and we all drew numbers to see what order we would go in. I was number 29. After the gift exchange, there was a pinata. The person in charge of the party (Stephen) told us to hold onto our numbers, as he would be calling them out randomly to determine who would get to hit the pinata. At this point, the following dialogue took place:

Me: (to Christopher) "I am totally okay with not getting to hit the pinata. I'm terrible at pinatas. I always miss or hit someone...or myself."

Stephen: "TWENTY-NINE!"

Me: "You have got to be kidding me."

Of all the numbers between 1 and 50. I totally missed the pinata, too.

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Thursday, I had gotten home from work and was working on some school work (yes I'm out of school...I still have school work), when I decided that I was hungry. So I made myself a nice bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk. When I had finished, I set the bowl (that still had some milk in it) on the table behind me as I didn't feel like getting up at the moment and rinsing the bowl.

About ten minutes later, I start playing with my hair. It's wet.

"Why is my hair wet...?" I say. Then I turn around. "Oh, because there's a bowl of milk behind me." Everyone started laughing at me as I ran to the kitchen to rinse my hair.

_____________________________________________________________

That same night, I am getting ready to leave for my senior class Christmas party when I had this conversation with my mom:

Mom: "What are they feeding you for dinner?"

Me: "I have no idea."

Mom: "I hope it's something you like. What if it's lasagna?"

Me: "Eww...I hope not!" (For anyone who doesn't know...I hate lasagna. With a passion.)

I arrive at the party. 

Meagan: "Where's Ben? Isn't he supposed to bring the lasagna?"

I didn't eat dinner that night.

_____________________________________________________________

Last one, I promise.

We all know that technology hates me.

This past Friday and Saturday I was in Kansas (I'll post about that later). I brought my laptop with me so that I wouldn't be bored if I had any random down time in the hotel. It's a good thing I didn't.

They gave me a code to access the wifi. Well, I start up my computer, try to connect to the internet, and it never asks for a code. So of course, it won't connect. After a few tries my mom calls the front desk to find out why.

After a loooooong time on hold and  lot of complicated questions from tech support, we figured out that the room we were in (of course, just our room) had an invalid IP address and we couldn't get the wifi. They were never able to fix it.

On top of all that, we should have still been able to use the wifi on our phones. My mom could. She connected, entered the code, and everything worked just peachy on her phone. But for me, did it ask for the code? No. Did it work anyway? No. I used sooo much data at that hotel...

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The good thing about all this stuff happening to me, is that it entertains everyone else. Which is the point of this post. So I hope you enjoyed it. haha

[Update:] So, apparently, there is a part two to this post from Christopher's point of view. Don't believe anything it says--it's all lies.