I Hereby Declare the Summer of Awesome Fun Begun.

Yesterday was the beginning of summer, according to the ninety degree weather and the surplus of fun that came with it.

Not only was yesterday the end of the stressful last couple of weeks I've had (with finals and helping my mom with her play), it was also the day of the Color Me Rad 5K. Which, if you haven't heard of it before, is awesome and fun and you should sign up to do one.

Basically, it's a 5K (that is untimed so there are no winners or losers and therefore no pressure to run) where you start out looking quite angelic (or albino, whichever) in your clean white clothes, and then 3.1 miles later you come out looking like a rainbow exploded on you. Which is basically what happens; every kilometer or so, you are coated with color. The entry fee is a bit pricey, BUT they donate a portion of the proceeds to charity and you get cool sunglasses and T-shirts and a cargo ship of fun (boatload seems too small a metaphor).

ANYWAY. Don't just take my word for it. See for yourself.

You also get cool tattoos. And you can put them anywhere you please. Including, ahem, 

"over your heart...." 

  Before: Looking fresh in our clean white shirts. Please excuse the innappropriate tattoos.

 After: Rocking the hippie look in our psychedelic tye-dye. Far out.

  Our backs. Mary didn't want you to see mine, apparently.

 Love these girls. Also, in case you can't tell, I have this awesome blue Robert-Downey-Jr-esque 

facial hair thing going on.

We make super cute rainbows, IMHO.

So, as you can see, that was a whole lot of fun. Minus the whole ninety degree weather thing. But one large Sonic cherry limeade later and that was quickly resolved.

Which brings me to another point. Have you heard about Sonic's new milkshake flavors this summer? My summer goal is to try them ALL.*

*Minus the ones with peanut butter, coconut, or bacon in them, because I do not like peanut butter or coconut, and bacon just straight up doesn't belong in a milkshake.

BUT I am greatly looking forward to trying their cheesecake flavors, their cream pie flavors, and their chocolate-covered banana/strawberry flavors. GREATLY. 

I'm also excited to make this summer the best summer of all the summers that ever were. Even better than the summer of '69, which according to that one song was apparently pretty great. But it will be nothing in comparison to the summer of '13.

Yesterday was a great way to kickoff the summer, and in a week and a half, I'll be officially DONE with college, which will be another great continuation of the greatest summer ever.

After that, I don't know what this summer holds in store for me. But whatever it is, it will be stupdendous.

How are you celebrating the Summer of Awesome Fun?

Happiness Abounds.

"Happiness abounds." That sounds so poetic. But it's true. The happiness has been abounding!

Here's why:

1. I turned in the final copy of my 42 page capstone last Saturday. That's happy.
2. On Monday, I found out that I made a -- wait for it -- 95 on my 42 page capstone. That's happy.
3. That means I made an A in the one and only college class I'm taking that actually counts toward my GPA. That's double happy.
4. Also on Saturday, I went to a friend's wedding. Weddings are happy. 
5. Today, I found out that my supervisor at work is engaged. Engagements are happy.
6. Today is also the last day of classes at UTA. That's happy.
7. Yesterday marked the beginning of May, aka the last month of me being a college student. That, my friends, is happy.

So as you can see, the happiness is in fact abound. It is so abound, and I hope it stays there. Because happiness is way happier than unhappiness. Does the word "happy" sound weird to you yet? It does to me.

Anyway, you all know that I want to be an elementary school teacher, right? If not, you do now. Over this past school semester I have slowly gotten closer to making that a reality and I am SO excited. I've been helping my mom out with her drama class, and got a couple subbing jobs for a second grade class (which was a lot of fun, but you know how kids are with subs -- I am really hoping they'll listen to me more when I'm actually their teacher, haha). And then after I graduate college, I'm going to take the summer off, and then start working on getting teacher's certification. I'll probably also look into doing some assistant teaching with an elementary school teacher.

I feel like I'm not going to know what to do with my life once I graduate. I mean...obviously I'm gonna work. But I'm not going to have homework. What am I going to do in the evenings?! Supposedly your life actually gets busier once you're out of school, but I don't understand that concept yet. I'm freaking out about not having enough to do. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I don't really have any big events to update y'all on other than that. In a few weeks I'm going to be participating in a color run. Remember the mud run? It's like that, but with colored cornstarch...we're supposed to look like rainbows after it's done. Awesome. I'll be sure to post pictures of that, and anything else that may come my way.

I also have a few random posts in my drafts that I know I keep talking about and not posting. I'm going to work on finishing those, too, haha.

Until then...

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.

My New...Uh, Hobby?

Several months ago, it finally hit me that I am a senior. That virtually everything I do this year will be my last time ever doing it. And then, upon pondering this thought some more, I realized that this meant that once volleyball season ended, I would never play another sport again, or have any way at all of staying in shape.

Well, I decided that this was unacceptable. I must have some way to burn calories, or I will get fat. And I'm not changing the way I eat. I love sugar too much. No, I needed something that would simply balance out the effects of my bad eating habits.

I considered my different options. I wanted something that wouldn't cost me any money, and something that I could do on my own time and at my own pace. I came to the conclusion that running was my best option.

Seems like a very logical solution, right? Ha! You're forgetting one very, very important thing about me: 

I DON'T RUN.

More than that, I don't like running. In fact, I don't normally like exercising in general. I'm not athletic. I'm more of an arts person. The only reason I stuck with volleyball all these years was because I actually (most of the time) enjoyed it, and it was a way of working off all those chocolate milkshakes I eat (drink?).

Seriously, almost everyone (okay...everyone) who knows me was really shocked when I told them I was going to start running, and super impressed that I haven't given up yet.

Of course, if you're expecting me to give up, then you're forgetting another very important thing about me: 

I'M NOT A QUITTER.

So, I'm going to stick with it. Volleyball ended last week, and so far, I've run 4 days. The third day I ran my maximum: 2.5 miles. I discovered I can run a mile in about 10 minutes, which I never knew. I also discovered that I can run (at least) 25 minutes without stopping. Next time I think I'll go for 3 miles in 30 minutes. I'm seriously surprising myself. If you'd asked me two weeks ago, I would have thought I'd be dead WAY before I got to this point.

Oh, yeah. And the great thing about running is I can drink (eat?) chocolate milkshakes now totally guilt-free. I often reward myself with one after my runs.