New Baby!

First I would like to welcome to the world little Luca James Whittlinger :) This cute little thing was made by my friend Terry and his lovely fiance Amelia. It's about time he got here. He just wasn't meant to be a Halloween baby I guess :)

Nextly, it is freaking cold. Too fast for me. That's all I have to say about that.

Lastly for this extremely "long" post, I finished The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness and it was awesome! I still liked the first book The Knife of Never Letting Go a little better, but for anyone looking for a good dystopian read, this one is a go. Now I'm onto the third book Monsters of Men, which is actually going to be the first book I read on my Nook (that I bought in April :/). My first ebook woo!

WARNING: Extremely Long Post

I realize that I haven't posted anything for my oh so "wide" array of readers since June, and since then a TON of stuff has happened. I guess I'll just have to go in order :)

JUNE

In June, two friends (David and Brianna) and I made our long journey (where David almost KILLED us by falling asleep at the wheel) to Edmonton, Canada where we spent 5 days at the largest mall North America. They had pretty much EVERYTHING in that freakin' place! An underground aquarium, sea lion shows, a huge pet store, an indoor ice skating rink, an amusement park, and a water park with several slides and a full sized wave pool! We spent a lot of time in that wave pool. Waaaaaaavvvesss. The best. I really wanted to go ice skating in that enormous rink but I thought that I would look pretty ridiculous compared to the figure skaters that were practicing in there. Probably for the Olympics or something. That was pretty cool to watch though. I also had the lovely experience of someone have a seizure practically right next to me while I was watching the skaters. That was pretty exciting I guess.. no. Overall though, that trip was pretty awesome. It was also the first time I had used my passport :) but they didn't give me a Canada stamp.. what the hell?

JULY

Not a whole lot here. A lot of packing and working. That's it.

AUGUST

John and I moved into our new place and it was super stressful, but I really enjoy having control of my own stuff :) Sofi likes it, and Peeko is indifferent because he lives in a cage. It has been a huge adjustment, but we settled in quite nicely.

Also, my mom and I took an AMAZING trip to Mexico! The first and last days were all travel, but the rest was awesome! I found that the people there live completely differently from us. I'm not sure I could do it, but I really enjoyed visiting. It was also super hot there, another reason I would probably die. We did so many cool things while we were there. We boated out an hour both ways to see whale sharks which was one of the most amazing things I've ever done, but we were both so seasick that we couldn't get in the water and snorkel with them :( I wish I would have so badly, but I hope to do it again someday when the water isn't so choppy. We spent one day swimming and playing with dolphins, sea lions, and manatees. That was really cool! I've always wanted to swim with dolphins. They are so smart and cool :) Another day was spent zip-lining through the jungle and down into senotes which are freshwater lakes down in caves. I had the pleasure of meeting lots of bats in the caves and the senotes were really cold. It was relieving because it was really hot that day (like all the days). We also went on a turtle walk one night where we saw one sea turtle come up to lay here eggs and then we had the amazing opportunity to help release a ton of babies into the ocean! That was an unforgettable experience. On our last day, I had my most eventful snorkeling experience. I saw a ton of cool fish and a stingray that scared the heck out of me because he came right up out of the sand. Then I was looking for sea turtles that were feeding on the turtle grass. I did find one but I think I scared it so it started to swim away really fast. I tried following it but decided it was time to be done when I came face to face with a barracuda! That was kind of scary even though I know he wasn't going to try to eat me. This trip was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I really hope to go back again sometime.

SEPTEMBER

In September I started my first year of college at NSU. I am taking General Biology 1, Physics, Intro to Soc, and Speech online. I also decided that I want to stay here and be a biology major and eventually a zoologist. I'm also going to minor in Spanish. It's been a pretty big adjustment from having almost no homework last year to having a ton of stuff to do all the time. It's been intense but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

At the end of this month, my parents and I took John to his first Renaissance festival. He really enjoyed himself and was talking the whole time about what he wants to do for next year. It was funny. That weekend was also my parents' 10 year anniversary so congrats to them :)

OCTOBER

This month I turned 19 and John got me a kitty! Her name is Stella and we adopted her from the Humane Society. She's such a sweetheart. Also this month, I have been figuring out what I want to take for next semester. As of now, I have decided on taking Gen Bio 2, and then Computers, Composition 1, Music Appreciation, and Wellness all online. It's going to be awesome only having to go to one class a day at 11, especially since I have to go at 9 every morning :(

Lastly for this post, I have found a really cool internship that allows you to go to South Africa to capture and tag Great White Sharks. Sounds amazing, especially since sharks are my love :)

That is all for now. Hopefully this 4 month absence won't happen again any time soon..

We Signed the Lease!

Yesterday John and I signed the lease to our first apartment! Exciting stuff. We get a washer and dryer, dishwasher, patio.. I'm very happy with the choice we made. It's also in the same building that my grandma lives in so hopefully I will be able to spend some much-needed time with her. I'm really looking forward to be able to do my own thing with my place. John has pretty much agreed that I get to decorate :)

It's a little stressful at the beginning because I am now starting to realize how much money you actually need to spend to live comfortably. I definitely won't be doing much unnecessary spending at all. Not for a while anyway. I'm really happy that we chose to do this, because some of the places we looked at were kind of scary and I couldn't imagine myself living there, but this one I think we're really going to be comfortable living in this nice apartment.

I Chipped My Tooth...

That's right.. I chipped my friggin' tooth. And I am NOT happy about it. I managed to accomplish this by biting down pretty hard on my metal lip ring while I was chewing, which I've done several times before with no consequence other than a scare and a sore lip. But this time a whole chunk of my tooth broke off! I'm making it sound a lot worse than it is, as in you only notice it if it's pointed out, but still. Now I will have to file it down, which I'm not looking forward to. I'll just do it myself, because I don't really feel like paying the dentist 200 bucks to do something that I can do just as easily myself. I just have a feeling it's going to be painful so I'm definitely waiting to do that until it stops being so sensitive..

So this is just a warning to everyone who has their lip pierced, especially those who wear a stud in their bottom lip. If you end up biting it a lot like I do, I was seriously consider switching to a plastic ring instead of the metal ones. I did, and I think it's actually way more comfortable and I'm not so worried about biting it all the time and ruining my teeth.

New Pupper!

This is Bo, short for Bolyne. She's our new baby :)

But she has been called a bunch of other names. Bubba, Pup, Pupper, Bubs, Baby, Puppy.

Yeah, that usually happens.

She is a britney spaniel and is an aspiring hunting dog. I can already tell that she's a very smart girl.

It's funny when she conks out because once she decides she's going to sleep it doesn't really matter where she is, she's out. And she gets very floppy. I like me some floppy puppies.

She has also decided that she likes to eat pillows.

:)

Nook Color!

I have finally decided on an eReader. I bought myself a Nook Color! And it's super-cool :) Plus it's pretty much a tablet so it mostly quenches my severe lust over an iPad2 :/

It's like a completely new reading experience. I didn't think I would ever want one for the longest time because I love the feeling of books and I have so many, but my Nook is so convenient plus I can do a lot more on it than just read. AND it will read to me! It has apps and I can connect to wifi so that's pretty much all I need for total happiness with this thing. I'm glad I bought it. It doesn't mean I will stop reading regular books, but now if I read a book in a series and I don't have the next, I can get it and start reading easy-peasy.

I can also blog on it! Yeah!

Graduation!

Well, it finally happened. Myself and all of my amazing classmates are finally done with high school! Yesterday was so fun. I never knew how good it would feel to graduate knowing that I have worked hard for this and I don't have to go back. It was amazing except for the fact that everyone let me walk around with a crooked hat!

Here's to the class of 2012! We did it!