The Weirdest Feeling...

There are tons of things on the internet that talk about how it feels to graduate high school and how it feels to start college, but it wasn't until this Tuesday that I realized that there's one feeling I've never read about or even expected to experience. Maybe it's because most people are friends with people in their graduating class. I am not one of those people. I have a few close friends in my grade, but for the most part, I'm surrounded by people in grades below me. My sister is a junior this year, my boyfriend is a senior, and all of my boyfriend's friends (who I hang out with a lot) are juniors and seniors. Not to mention a bunch of my friends from drama who are now sophomores, juniors, and seniors! My point is, the first week of high school has been really weird for this high school graduate! 

I woke up Tuesday morning and looked at Twitter, where I saw tons of tweets about it being the first day of school. My brain finally woke up and I had the sudden realization that it was almost 8, meaning I missed my sister leaving and tons of my friends were now back in school. I didn't know whether to feel awesome or just plain weirded out about this situation. There I was, laying in bed on the first day of high school. The first day in 14 years that I wasn't starting school the same time as everyone else. The first day in 3 years that I wasn't sitting in the cafeteria talking to my friends before class. The first day in 12 years that I didn't have to get up at 6 in the morning to go to a place that I dreaded 90% of the time. It was great, it was a relief, but it was also very, very strange. 

Michaela and I planned on doing a photo shoot that day, so I went to pick her up and fill my tank. On the way back home from the gas station, we passed the school. The parkinglots were packed and we both said that it felt a lot like we were skipping school. So I wasn't completely alone in this weird feeling. 

It's now the 3rd day of school, and it STILL feels weird! Maybe I'll get used to it. I hope I'll get used to it. Is this what stay-at-home moms feel like when school starts back? Without the driving the kid to and from school of course. 

On another note, the photoshoot that Michaela and I did was so much fun. We made a wall of Christmas lights and all these different set ups.

My favorite. You can see our light wall behind me.

For this one we had the white sheet closed in a door, draped over the top of the mirror, and pinned to the back of the mirror. The mirror was leaning up against two stools, and we draped icicle lights on the top of it. You can see the light wall a little bit better in this one. I absolutely love how all of these pictures came out. That was probably my favorite photo shoot of all time. Michaela is so talented!

Technology Fun

I've had my iPad mini since graduation, and just today I got this fancy little keyboard for it. I'm typing this basically as a test run. It works great! The only problem is that I have huge hands and this is very, very small. It'll probably just take some getting used to. I'm already starting to type faster with it. I think I just have to use 3 fingers instead of the usual 5. I'll figure it out, I'm sure. 

I also got a new case for my "new" phone in the mail. I ordered a ton of them because I like having multiple options. Two otterboxes (or knock off otterboxes) and 8 little polkadot cases. I know 8 sounds like a lot but it was all in one set and didn't cost nearly as much as it would have if I bought just one of them at a store. 

Amazon is my favorite place for cheaper things. Sadly though, I could only find one of my college books there. 

I really don't have much to write about recently. Hopefully that will change soon! 

I'm Back!

Oh gosh, I haven't written a blog post in days. I've actually been busy for some reason and didn't get the chance to post anything until now. So here's basically a little update on what I've been up to.
I got to see a really awesome musical called Legally Blonde on Friday! I was extremely impressed by everything about it; the dance numbers, the super quick costume changes, the singing, etc. It was so good, especially for a local theatre group. Usually I don't like ensemble songs where everyone's on stage dancing because there's so much going on, but the ensemble pieces were actually my favorites in this one. That's probably a sign of awesome choreography. That was great and so many people I knew were in it which made it even better.
On Saturday I went with my boyfriend to his company picnic, which was interesting. When I got home from that, no one was home, and I had no idea where any of my family members had gone. I texted my mom, waited a bit, no response. Then I texted my sister, still no response. Decided to call my mom, no answer. A little later on my sister texted me and explained that they were in the middle of getting new phones when I was texting them. My mom and sister both got new iPhones, and the next day I got my number transferred to my mom's "old" iPhone 4S. It still works perfectly fine, but smart phones are really darn confusing. There's so much to not understand. But we're all getting used to them. Tessa seems to be having a perfectly easy time with hers. Mom and I are still having some trouble. We're getting there though! It's so great to only have one device to carry around everywhere instead of two. I used to have my little cell phone that could only text and call and take crappy pictures, and then my ipod for social media and games and all my music. Now it's all in one place and I'm so excited about that.
Yesterday was the last day of summer for the high schoolers, so I spent pretty much the whole day with my boyfriend, who is now a senior in high school. We went swimming and played Mario Kart and pool and then we ended up going to La Placita with a group of friends like we do on Wednesdays, and then we all played more pool. It was a really long day, but it was fun.
I woke up this morning and checked twitter, which reminded me that it was the first day of school for them. On Facebook I saw my mom's pictures of Tessa from earlier in the morning. I honestly don't know how I feel about this. It feels REALLY WEIRD but also pretty great because I don't have to get up at 6 in the morning anymore. I still have two weeks of summer left, but the fact that a lot of people I know are back at school today is getting me all confused.
So that's my little update. Hopefully I'll start keeping up with this better.

Bunnies and Birds and Chipmunks, Oh My!

It's been so nice outside the past few days and I've enjoyed eating my lunch on our back patio. The best thing about this is how entertaining our back yard is. It's so full of life and nature. We have butterflies, bunnies, chipmunks, birds, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds. Oh yeah, and squirrels, but we don't like them as much.

On Wednesday I sat outside to eat and watched a little bunny hop all around, eat some grass, chase a chipmunk, and plop down on her side in the dirt. I read somewhere that bunnies only lay on their sides when they're comfortable in their environment. We do have a beagle, but she's twelve years old and going deaf and blind, so she's not much of a threat except to the newborns. I also watched some hummingbirds dive bomb each other, fighting over the feeders. 

Yesderday I sat outside again. No bunnies were out to play, but I was wearing a red shirt and a couple hummingbirds came very close to check me out. One of them buzzed all around my head. Another got about three feet away from me to look at me in between her trips to the feeder. 

I'm sitting outside again now, and so far I've encountered a bunny cleaning her face and then disappearing the next time I looked up, a huge flock of little birds that flew away at the same time when I moved my arm, three mourning doves that went to land on the patio until they noticed me and flew away, a red belly woodpecker that just flew by and landed in a tree, and some really loud dive bombing hummingbirds. They're so cute when they chirp! So yeah, we have a really active back yard. 

Mom and I are really happy that the hummingbirds finally showed up this summer. (Hello, titmouse!) We were worried the cold winter might have wiped them out. But now we have at least three that come and go. 

Titmouse enjoying the feeder:

The coolest thing ever just happened while I was out there! A bunny was literally in petting range. I heard a rustling behind me, and I turned around and there was a bunny just a couple feet away!

I couldn't get a picture of her so close, but she casually hopped across the patio until I turned the camera towards her and she got spooked and ran off. 

This is where she sat until I stood up and she ran further away. Sorry for scaring you, bun! That was crazy though, I'd never been so close to a wild bunny.

It's so ironic that it happened in the process of writing this post! 

I tried to get a picture of the hummingbirds, but they were too fast.