Summer.

Summer:  noun. the warmest season of the year from June to August. 

   My definition of summer: freshly cut grass, the beach, camping, summer jobs, frozen yogurt, lemonade, ice blocking, the most spicy adventures, and heat. Lots and lots of heat. 

   Some say that summer is the time of relaxation and rejuvenation, but let's be honest, it better defined as the most hectic and exciting time of the year. 

       A few highlights from my summer: 

Nannying

Visits to Grandma's house

Pinterest

Double baby shower

Samantha's 16th Birthday

Camping

REI tent sales

Late night craft sessions with Kayla

Runner at Smith, Larsen, and Wixom

Frozen yogurt

hang outs and goodbyes with friends

The Cosby Show

Many a library card fine

The Beach

Imagine Dagons

Leaving from a visit to see the most wonderful Samantha G. on her 16th Birthday. 

Adventure Friday: Ice Blocking

Science Tuesday: Springs Preserve

Science Tuesday: Coke and Mentos 

Science Tuesday: Vinegar and Baking Soda

I miss waking up to the woods. Sam's lovely bedroom view. 

Movie Monday: $0.99 Rout 44's at Sonic. 

I need a bookshelf. 

First time donating blood!

Adventure Friday: Building a fort!

Grandpa's old Indian

Science Tuesday: Corn Starch and Water, the only solid and liquid at the same time.

Kayla and Myself. 

The Grandmother's house. 

Craftiness for the Wynn and Emery

I wish this had been the hottest day. 128 degrees was :S

Mmmm, mmm, good. You can bet Kayla and I downed that thing. 

Williamsburg Academy

  I've already given the story of how I found Williamsburg Academy back in my post about my college essays but I haven't fully described what my experience has been like and the immense gratitude I have for the academy. 

  Over the last few years individuals have asked me what Williamsburg is and why I'm going there. I have told them that it is just like being in a classroom... but online. We have class at given times each day, give presentations, take tests, have study groups, etc. I tell them it is a lot of work but I've really enjoyed it and feel like it has been the right place for me. What I neglect to tell them is that these last two years at Williamsburg have literally been the hardest of my life.  I would spend between 50 and 80hrs a week on school work, the last two months of my senior year were much closer to 80 hrs, if not at it, and every second I wasn't working on it I would be thinking about it. I have been forced to grow and mature and take my education into my own hands. On-top of all of this, you have to do it utterly alone and no one around actually understand what you are doing, the kind of work you are putting in, and what amazing and constant epiphanies you are having because your legitimate friends  that go to school with you live hours, sometimes days, away and you very rarely get to see them. 

  But all of this, though it is extremely hard, adds to the sweetness that this education brings. The hard work forces your mind to expand and teaches you how to not just work hard, but play extremely hard on the rare occasion when you get the chance. The part about doing this alone makes you become an intellectually and emotionally strong individual. It teaches you look outside yourself, your world, to see the importance of those around you and what they are going thru. Yes, living away from the people that you admire so much and are so close to is hard, that part never gets easier, but it makes it all the more special and phenomenal when you see one another. You learn to never take your friends for granted. It teaches you what friendship truly is as well as shows you what you are willing to do and how far you are willing to go for them. You create life long friendships that, unlike most friendship you make in high-school, you will actually keep in contact with when you move around. It's a piece of cake because you have had a long distance relationship from the start and have already learned how to properly communicate so you  can fully understand and appreciate one another.  

  So when people ask me why I attended Williamsburg and I respond with something along the lines of  "I fell like it has worked out for me" or "I just wanted something different", what I mean is that I know it was the absolute perfect place for me and exactly what I needed.  

I have had mentors that are the best of the best and truly changed my whole outlook on the world (over and over and over again), curriculum that is designed to push to the breaking point to make you grow stronger so you can handle and understand more, classmates that are some of the single most amazing individuals I will ever come in contact with, and life lessons that will stay with me for the eternities. 

  

  I will forever be grateful for Williamsburg and the leadership education it has given me. 

Graduation, it's almost here.

Seven days from now I will be a graduate of Williamsburg Academy, a feet not a ton of people have accomplished. 

This last week I have had the last of each of my phenomenal classes and said goodbye to many, many amazing individuals. During it,  I have been overwhelmed with a giant dose of nostalgia, girly giddiness, gratitude, and excitement. All of these different emotions, coupled with a serious lack of sleep I have had with the whole "finals" thing going on, has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster (And when I say a "bit of" I mean a major one). 

I have been going through my house, taking pictures of everything from what I usually had for lunch to the chair I would typically sit in, to smiling all day long because I just couldn't handle the excitement that this new phase brings. 

Anywho, you get the picture. 

I do, however, want to mention a few of the many, many things I have discovered this last week of high school: 

1. Independence does not mean doing everything on your own. I recently come to realize how silly I have been in regards to getting stuff done; help is great! And your mom doing your laundry for you, that is the best thing ever! Why I didn't ask her to do it for me every once in a while long ago I will never know. (Also, Moms are amazing. More specifically, my mom is amazing and I am so happy that I have had the opportunity to be raised by her.)
2. Always ask your family to be there and support you.   For just about ever I have loved to be on my own and have really felt bad when people went out of their way to be at my events. Now, I am so, so grateful that they often ignored me and have been at a lot of them. They all may have sat through about every Suzuki violin piece about a 15 times but they still always showed up for mine in the line up. :)
3. I am a very nostalgic person. Who knew? I guess you could say that I have just embraced it (...and by embraced it I do mean I put I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan on my senior play list...don't judge.) 
4. Roll with the punches. Things don't always (and when I say "don't always" I mean hardly ever) turn out the way you thought, planned, and or wanted. Just go with it. Some things you just can't change and you need to adapt. 
5. I am ridiculously grateful for the time I have spent at Williamsburg Academy. I can honestly say it has been just about the hardest two years of my life but it has also been the most rewarding. I will forever be grateful for the education I have worked for and the lessons I have learned. I would go into it further but I have feeling nostalgia will require a post about it all on its own. 

Puddles: the best rat a girl could ever have.

When I was six my older sister Natalie brought home a rat to do a science experiment with (She was testing to see if music effected his intelligence but that is not the important part). The important information that you need to know is that from the moment that I set eyes on this rat I knew we were going to be the best of friends.




And I was right.




This rat became my constant companion, literally. I convinced my mother that Puddles (the name my sister had given it, I personally had wanted Prince Guinevere Washington the III) needed to stay in my room because he got scared at night and couldn’t handle being downstairs all by his lonesome self. I would play with him, watch TV with him, painting him different colors, chase my mom around the house with him, go to the grocery store with him (yes, that is right. I went to the grocery store with him. Well, I guess it was more that I snuck him under my shirt into the grocery store...but that only happened once because my mom got real mad when she found out from store manager while being asked to leave me and puddles at home next time). Oh yes, I have many fond memories of spending time with this rat.



However, there is one memory that I just can’t help but share.



One hot afternoon in summer I was playing with my neighbor's granddaughter at my house, we were playing Kim Possible (I was Kim (naturally) and she was evil green villain lad) but soon got bored with it. When my mom saw the bored look she immediately sent us back over to my friends house (because we had a tendency to do things that were a bit mischievous when we got bored...such as paint my bed with nail polish, call 911 to see what would happen and have fashion shows...on my kitchen counter). When we got to my friend’s Grandma’s house I politely asked my friend where I should put Puddles while we played. She decided that the best place to put him was in the toy chest by the back door. She also informed me that we should probably keep it a secret from Oma (that is what we called her grandma).




However, I really liked Oma and did not like the idea of keeping a secret from her.


Before I continue the story, there are a few things you need to know: 1.Oma is a very proper older woman that immigrated from Germany after WWII. 2. She had a lot of other old woman friends. On this particular day, they were all out in the backyard, wearing dresses that had way to many pastel colored flowers and shoes that were the loveliest shades of puke green and old lady tan available, having a lovely garden party.


Back to the story, so after about an hour of the most epic game of ninja princess out there, I was feeling to guilty about hiding puddles from Oma to continue. So while my friend was in the bathroom, I went of to the toy chest and found Puddles under the Polly Pocket dream house. After contemplating the best possible way to approach her I decided to just go right up and spit it out (I've never been one that successfully sugar coats things unless it is regards to baking). So I put Puddles behind my back and walked right up to Oma.




At that current moment, all of the ladies were sitting about a round table sipping their spots of tea and eating their crumpets. Abiding by my nature, I walked right up to her and said, “Oma, I like you. So I need to tell you something.” At this point all of the ladies we were watching me and looking at one another with that “she-is-just-so-cute-that-I-can’t-help-but-want-to-pinch-her-cheeks” kind of look. That look didn't stay to long. It is then that I brought the rat around in their line of sight...what followed is a vision that I will never forget.





Oma gasped, at least two ladies fell back in their chairs with their pudgy short legs and puke green shoes straight up in the air, and all the other ladies were screaming.

It was chaos.

But that is not the end.

When I saw the ladies fall backwards I couldn't help but start giggling causing Puddles to startle and leap out of my hands onto the table. This was followed by half a dozen handbags being flung onto the table causing the tea and crumpets to go flying.



The rest of this story is not that entertaining. I ran around her back porch and caught Puddles. Parents were called. I was grounded from puddles for a week which, after informing my parents that we were ruining my life and crying for about twenty minuets, was extended to two weeks and puddles usually hung out at home after that (not because of my desire of-course, but more because everyone was ordered to pat me down before I walked out the door form then on).



Anywho, that was Puddles. The best darn rat my six-year-old-self could have ever asked for.