Lipstick

Oops... so I forgot about the blog. Sorry. Good news, though: I was accepted to the credential program and have been in school for about 3 weeks. I love school :). Also, I got my camera charger that very day so I took many pictures of that cake I made for my mom:


I also had made a cake earlier that week (just for fun):

It's pretty much gone by this time, though. It was so cute!

I made some cupcakes recenty, but they weren't so cute. Tasty as heck, though! (no pictures for things that are so homely).

In other non-cake-related news I had a very fun summer spending time with family, friends, and Gary. I was able to go to Baltimore with my mom and we had a lot of fun together. I don't think we've ever spent so much time alone together before. I'm happy to know that we actually do get along for extended periods of time (not that I'm really that surprised, but it's nice to know).
Here we were after *gasp!* walking about a mile to Fell's point. A person who was supposed to help people know where the heck to spend their money was nice enough to help us out (I'm not sure who this person was but there were lots of people like her all over town... they looked very official). We did way too much to type about here so I won't even try. I can't even come close to Janie's blog prowess and her literary skills so I'll stick to my skill: brevity.

Our air conditioner broke at one point and so Gary and I did what all sane people would do: we bought a kiddie pool and made muchas margaritas!:
The air conditioner was fixed in about a week so we weren't suffering too much :).

I was also lucky enough to spend time with friends old and new. My friend, Tracie, from middle school and I happened to cross one another's path so we were able to spend quite a few happy times together. Here's a shot from her birthday party:
Tracie and her baby bro Michael are such wonderful people and I had fun with all the new people I met this past summer.

I've tried making sushi a few times this year. Here you can see Gary and Emily very patiently waiting while I took pictures. I need to make sushi again...
We went camping with Emily and Ryan. The campsite was wonderful after sunset, but during the day it was far too sunny for my taste. Gary and I are learning to be expert campers, though, so we'll do better next time. Currently we're proficient campers... working our way up. We loved spending time with Emily and Ryan and don't know if we would even bother camping with anyone else. They're great friends that we enjoy spending lots of time with in town and out of town. I'm definitely enjoying having my best friend as my neighbor. Here is a cute pic showing what a 'supportive' husband I have:
and another of our awesome friends:
On second thought, awesomely dorky might be more apropos. This is why we love them as much as we do :).

Later that same trip we all went to the Sierra Cat Haven. It was so freaking cool. Can you see how close those tigers are?!:
In other good news I'm still a dork:

Anyway... (can you tell I'm going through my pictures to help me remember everything? lol...)

My dad, Beans, and I went backpacking together and had a great time. I've never walked so far in my life but it was fun and beautiful. I mean, if Beans can do it, I can do it, right? Here is the one and only picture of both me and my dad:
A few other little things here and there, but I think I have the bulk of it done. I've let my camera battery die since this trip so I don't have anything from the last month.

So, without pictures: I started school and I love the education program. I feel like I've finally found what I'm meant to do because everything about this program just makes me happy :). Except the homework. Whatever, you can't win them all, right? I also celebrated my 22nd birthday and I had fun with family and some close friends. I even was able to see Melissa! It's fun to see her since she lives so far away.
Speaking of people who live far away, I was able to see my cousins yesterday and meet my cousin's baby for the first time! Chloe is very cute. I was happy to see them but sad that they'll still live so far away. Becky, however, is going to move closer so I hope to see much more of her next year. My favorite event of the evening was when Gary revealed to me that 4 year olds are liars. My cousin's kid wanted to play a game with him and they had clue out. Gary set the game up and tried to play, but then Kylan informed Gary that he didn't know how to read. Gary was so bummed. "Four year olds are liars! They said they knew how to play, but they don't even know how to read!". Lol... now he knows, though. Gary was very sweet and a fantastic husband. I'm so happy when he comes to these non-holiday family-type things because it gives me the opportunity to show him off :).

In knitting news, I've started some mittens. They may be mondo-mittens as I'm not sure I've guaged correctly, but at least they'll be pretty mondo-mittens, right?

On another note, I've been really into politics this year (relatively... especially compared to my interest in the past, which was not at all) and researching things that are up on the ballott. I feel empowered to know what's going on in our country and relish the opportunity to learn more about issues that affect my life and the progress of America. Go politics!

Well, that's all for now. Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is my long day so I'll need more sleep than I've currently allotted. Bummer.