Today was a good day. I don't know if it was for any reason in particular, it was just good. I got enough sleep last night (for the first time in forever), I had some good laughs with my friends, I got all my math corrections done, and my favorite song came on the radio right when I got in the car this morning. It's days like this that make up for all the other bad, crazy, stressful, tear-your-hair-out days, ya know? Days when everything goes right and you remember all of those little things that make you happy. It's like that song in The Sound of Music -- 

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Oh, and another thing that makes me happy? Watching my two year-old brother breakdance in the kitchen. :D

I had a doctor's appointment this morning (No, not the Doctor. I wish. though. That would be sooo much better than a trip to the endocrine specialist.) While I was in the waiting room I saw a copy of my absolute favorite magazine -- National Geographic. (In case you didn't know, I kind of want to work as a photojournalist for them someday) In this particular issue was an article about something that is AMAZING but that I had never heard about before: the Nazca (Nasca?) lines in Peru.

Basically they are these...drawings? I don't really know the right word.... Aha! They are geoglyphs (ancient geoglyphs) located in the Nazca desert in Peru. On the ground level they just look like lines of rock and dirt but from the air (like in a helicopter) they form pictures. like a monkey or a hummingbird or a tree. Apparently there are hundreds+ in shapes ranging from a simple spiral to more complex pictures of orcas or llamas -- all with one line, there aren't any breaks.

The really weird thing, though, is the fact (like I mentioned before) that they could only be seen from the air. When they were constructed there were no helicopters or airplanes or even (I'm pretty darn sure) hot air balloons. So why bother?
Some people think it was some kind of offering to their gods, other theories say that they were an attempt to contact aliens. (I also read a theory that they were roads, but seriously? Does taking 10 times as long to make a journey on foot, just so you can say "Oh yeah? Well I walked the monkey. Beat that." seem even remotely realistic? Didn't think so.)
Whatever reason it was, they are still AWESOME and seeing them in person (both from the air and on a ground level) is now officially on my bucket list.

As always, thanks for reading.

PS Here's the link to the online article. Not as descriptive, but still interesting. http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2009/08/visiting-perus-mysterious-nazc.html

So my last post about dreams didn't cover everything that I wanted to cover about dream meanings, plus I kind of said I would post one of my epic-dreams. Why not kill two birds with one stone? I'll summarize one of my dreams and then interpret it using a dream dictionary I found online. :P I mean, it's got to be correct. Everything on the internet is always true, right?
Just for fun I'll pick a dream from my childhood. We can see what inner turmoil I unknowingly had as a child that came through in my dreams.

Okay, so he has both eyes in this pic.
But the fangs are scary, right?

This is a dream that I had one night while I was at a sleepover with my cousin. I was probably about eight years old. The only reason I remember it so well nearly eight years later is probably that I've retold it and written it down so many times. There'e a monster in it that looked (I'm almost ashamed to admit) like a 50 foot tall Elmo, but with only one eye and fangs. (I was 8, okay?) I'm not saying this dream will make lots of sense, but it is one of my favorites because it was pretty darn realistic....you know, for a dream that features a muppet as the villain.

My family and I (at this point I just had two sisters and a baby brother, the other three were yet to be born) were staying at this resort place with an AWESOME waterpark (that somehow connected to the ocean but wasn't salty? I'm not sure...). While we were there I made friends with this boy who was about my age. We were best friends, despite the fact that his name was Ashley (actually, I think it is a boy name in Britain or something)  :D We would hang out at the waterpark every day and he would write in this yellow notebook (he wanted to be a writer someday) and I would play with these fish things that lived in a mini cave thing under the water slide and we would talk.

Then one day I was getting ready to go over to the waterpark when the ground started shaking. I ran outside to see what was going on and I saw the giant, terrifying, aformentioned monster. One of the screaming bystanders told me as she ran by that he had come for his annual meal. You see, the resort manager had a deal with the monster: as long as once a year he was fed one of the residents, he wouldn't crush the resort. (What I don't get is how he managed to stay in business once word of this got around)
My parents found me and the other kids and we all went and hid in a small white room until the roaring and screaming and ground-shaking stopped. When we finally went outside everything looked the same (meaning that Elmo got his snack), but I knew something was wrong. I looked around for Ashley, but I couldn't find him. I thought maybe he went to check on our fish, so I ran to the water park. The fish were all dead  (which really crushed me) and all I could find were ripped up pieces of his yellow notebook. Needless to say I was very upset and assumed the worst and cried all day. The next day, however, I had just finished giving my deceased pets a proper burial when I looked up and there was Ashley! He had indeed been kidnapped by the monster, but they had become best friends and he had been realeased and Elmo promised to find his meals elsewhere from then on. The end.

Now for the interpretation :D

The colors in my dream:
Red- is an indication of raw energy, force, vigor, intense passion, aggression, power, courage, impulsiveness and anger.
Yellow- has both positive and negative connotations. If the dream is a pleasant one, then the color yellow is symbolic of intellect, energy, agility, happiness, harmony, and wisdom. On the other hand, if the dream is an unpleasant one, then the color represents deceit, disgrace, betrayal, cowardice and sickness.
White- represents purity, perfection, peace, innocence, dignity, cleanliness, awareness, and new beginnings.

The people:
My family: To see your own family in your dream, represents security, warmth and love.
Ashley: dreaming of a friend indicates positive news
Elmo: To dream that you are chased or followed by a monster means that you may possess some fears or some repressed emotions.

The place:
(I couldn't find waterpark, so amusement park will have to do)
To see or be in an amusement park in your dream, indicates that you need to set some time for leisure and more enjoyment in your life.

Wow, I was one conflicted eight year old. Although some of this does make sense. This was right around the time when we moved from Florida to Missouri. So the anger, betrayal, repressed emotions, new beginnings, etc. actually kind of fit.

Anyways, now you know what I dreamed about as a child. My dreams these days do make a bit more sense, but are no less intense. (hehe, I rhymed)
Thanks for reading.

So here are two things I promised to post on a while ago and never got around to.
First, stake girl's camp:

I was super excited to go this year because last year I was unable to hike King's Peak because of my health. That is, I was excited right up until a day or two before it was time to go. Then, all of a sudden, sleeping in a tent and hiking everywhere (including the restrooms) and not being in my own bed for almost a whole week sounded a lot less fun. But I went anyways (I couldn't ditch, after all, it was my younger sister's first year going) and at first it was okay. I was in a tent with most of my good friends from the ward and hot dogs were nowhere on the weekly menu (yes, that's a good thing. Hot dogs are nasty.) I had a cot so I didn't have to sleep directly on the ground, and some of the more inactive girls in our ward were at camp with us this year which made me feel like a good Mia Maids president. Then came 3:30 am of the next day... it had been raining for most of the night and it was freezing and my cot was noisier than a large man with sinus problems. I was already awake when I heard someone gagging/coughing. At first I thougt Hailey was just bored and making gross noises, but then it sounded like puking. I found my flashlight and called to the girls. Tyller, one of the girls in the tent, had thrown up all over her sleeping bag. We all helped clean her up and got the leaders to take her home. I felt so bad, it was her first year and she was really excited to be there. :(

Okay, so maybe not this bad,
but it was pretty darn stormy.

Then it started raining again and our tent started to leak so we figured "what the heck, let's get soggy" and got our ponchos and danced in the rain. It was really fun until the thunder and lightning came. Then left. Then came back. ALL DAY. The worst was when my group was doing crafts (at a pavillion, thankfully) and it started pouring and hailing--seriously, the worst I've seen in a long time. It was a miserable day, but that night the stake presidency came. Our stake president promised that because of our faith and endurance that the storms would stop. Believe it or not, the rest of camp was perfect weather. How's that for the power of the Priesthood, eh?

Now to tamale making. This part's going to be just a couple of pictures. I got teamed up with Sam for tamale duty, and let's just say it didn't go as well as one might hope...

It started well...

but then he got that
mischeivous look in his eye...

and squashed our tamale-in-the-making!

The finished product... :D

So we went on a family outing last week to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. While you can imagine that an outing with a family as large as mine (9 people in immediate family only. Grandparents and cousins came on this trip) is definitely going to be a bit hectic, going to the Gardens always gives me the opportunity to get some great photos. It was a beautiful day and I think I managed to get a couple good ones. :) Enjoy.

The three chairs and the door are from the Secret Garden (my personal favorite), the arch with the roses was in the Rose Garden, and the picture of the daisies was just taken along the main walkway. I don't remember which garden the fountains were in. :)   

If you know me very well at all (and hopefully you do if you are reading this blog) you also know that one of my favorite things to talk about (right after Doctor Who, delectable food, and Mr. Darcy) is dreaming.  It's a subject that really fascinates me, especially a) lucid dreaming and b) the meanings of dreams. Yes, yes I know that this is a such an incredibly nerdy thing to even think about let alone post about, but I just couldn't resist.

Part of my interest in dreams probably originates from my own. I dream very vividly and I can usually remember most of the dreams after I wake up. I never thought this was weird until my friends revealed to me that they hardly remember any dreams they have, but the in the ones they do remember they don't have all five senses--whereas I can not only see and hear but also feel (especially pain and heat), smell and taste.

I've also had more than my fair share of super intense feature-film length and detailed story dreams. Sure, they have some plot holes here and there (no, I don't really see why I had to pass through Canada and Mexico to get from Virginia to New York while running away from my crazy hippie parents and their van filled with strange vision-bestowing vegetable juice) but they are some of my favorites. If you don't know what I'm talking about you're really missing out. Maybe I'll post a synopsis of one later so you can see what I mean.

So, lucid dreaming... This is basically a fancy way of saying that you gain consciousness while remaining in the dream state--realizing that you're dreaming. If this happens and you know what you're doing you can (99.9% of the time) take control of your dream and make whatever you want happen. Really helpful when you suddenly need superpowers or if you start craving the world's biggest bean burrito. Now I don't know about you, but I've actually done this by accident before. It was mostly when I was younger and mostly during nightmares. I would be running or hiding from whatever bad guy, giant rat, zombie or wicked witch was chasing me when I would suddenly realize that it wasn't real and if I could just wake up I would be safe.

I've read a few different articles on smart/crazy people's theories on how do this on purpose, so you can gain lucidity at any point in your dream. Most of them were strange and complicated and sounded like whoever wrote them was on that vision-juice, but one actually made some sense. It basically said that if you ask yourself several times a day "Am I awake or am I dreaming?" (the answer at this point should be "Awake, duh") and keep at it for a week or two that your subconscious will start doing it automatically. Then, when you start dreaming, your mind will wonder if you're awake or dreaming, you'll realize that it is indeed the latter, and voila--you are now consciously dreaming. Yeah, it admittedly sounds like a half-sized load of hoo-ha, but I've been trying it and it actually works; I've done it at least 3 times.

I know I also mentioned dream meanings but this post is getting long and my scrumptious taco salad from Cafe Rio is getting cold, so I'll do a part two sometime later, okay? Maybe tonight maybe tomorrow, but I'll get to it soon (whether you want me to or not MWAHAHAHA).

You rock.

P.S. Colin Firth IS Mr. Darcy, nobody else even compares.

Hey guys, sorry for not writing in forever. (Oh, and I'm not going to write again for almost another week because I'll be at camp, but I promise to write oodles of posts when I get back. :P)

It's just been a little crazy the past few days, I was sick and all that fun stuff. But I'm back now, so hopefully I won't go weeks+ without posting again. :)

So yesterday afternoon I looked out the window and everything was pink. It sounds weird and it's hard to explain but it was like the lighting in an older movie or the way they sometimes show flashbacks where everything's tinted. I'd never seen anything like it before, it was actually kind of surreal.

It was the most amazing sunset EVER. I tried to get some pictures, but sunsets are always kind of hard to capture perfectly on photo so imagine these only 10x more vivid. :)

Oh, and there were lots of clouds because it had just rained.

And this last one isn't the same sunset but I was looking through my pics and I think this is a sunrise from back in February... I thought the clouds looked cool. :D

Thanks for reading!