the story of a little caterpillar...

once upon a time a goodwill opened at the bottom of our hill. i was pretty excited. and i'm not gonna lie.... for awhile there i was going a few times a week. there is just so much there that i see and think to myself, "ooohh! wouldn't that look cool if i did [insert something crafty here]." it makes me happy. well.... this one time i was doing my typical walk thru and just so happened to stumble upon this beaut' for a whopping $10. 

i saw it's potential. needless to say it was in a quite a stained state of disrepair and i might have gotten a few funny looks from the parentals when i brought it home. well this little caterpillar has been sitting in my room patiently waiting for it's day to become a beautiful butterfly. 

that day was today. 

i love it. 

total project cost: 

$10 - chair

$5 - spray paint

$0 - fabric i had on hand

....

$15  :) :) 

can we say winner?! 

ps... it's my new desk chair. now i just need a real desk. i keep waiting for one of those. also... i've decided that i'll be painting the top with white board paint. brilliant, right? i'll let you know how that one goes :) 

also... i found this plate rack at d.i. back when i was working there. and i just finished painting the little mirror (also found at d.i.) and putting it all together. 

now if only the mama would let me paint the walls gray.... *sigh* maybe someday....

kentucky rain...

our good friend zac got called on a mission to kentucky. mom nominated "kentucky rain" by elvis as his theme song. haha... probably because it was the only song we could remember that had the word "kentucky" in it. hahaha...

anyway. he was set apart on monday night... and we were lucky enough to be invited. he reported to the mtc in provo on wednesday. and now we won't be seeing him for the next couple years. it will be such an amazing experience for him, but i have to admit... i'm already missing him. good luck, elder zac!

life is a storm, my young friend...

"you will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. what makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. you must look into that storm and shout as you did in rome. do your worst, for i will do mine! then the fates will know you as we know you: as albert mondego, the man!" 

welp, that was a tangent. i kinda had to keep going with the count of monte cristo quote though. haha... anyway. 

we've had more of the nonsoons than the monsoons this summer. and really we haven't gotten that many awesome storms, but this one tops the charts! it was super awesome! our street was flooded side to side, the back yard was flooded, the pool even filled up, and then within half an hour it was gone. just like that. it was fantastic!

here's proof of it's sheer awesomeness....

 do you see that?! you cant hardly even see the 

back wall! that's pretty neat!

the rain was coming in all types of crazy. 

that section of the wall never got more wet than that... 

but do you see all the water pooling?! 

a happy day...

today is a happy day.

the little brother went down to the dmv and took his driving test and passed :) also, on a completely related note, his eagle project has been approved. woot!

so... in celebration of all this exciting news (and because adrian had left over peanut butter frosting from this cake she made for dustin's birthday) mom & i made tino a little itty bitty awesome cake all for his own enjoyment. do not be fooled by it's miniature size. it packs one heck of a peanut-buttery punch!

congrats, little brother on this big day of yours. i welcome you to the world of independent drivers. and i look forward to splitting grocery-getting with you. 

ps. dont be stupid... or the parentals will ground you for the rest of forever. 

love ya!

it's a mystery....

so. once upon a time i bought these pretty plants... they had red flowers that are supposed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, but i pretty much killed them. well, my dad likes to revive the dead plants. for reals. we had this dead grass shrub thing. it was dead. multiple times... but every time he would bring it back to life. anyway... he planted these other dead plants in the garden before we left for our trip to washington (put them on the automatic watering system) and by the time we got back two weeks later they were alive and blossoming. literally. haha... anyway. i figured it was time to move the plants over to the bed by the grass. our other plants (the lantanas and vincas and jasmine) are doing really good over there. so that's what i did. i successfully moved the first plant and went back for the second when i saw this....

what the what?!! i have no idea what that thing is... or why there was a tarantula by it. my first initial thought was that it was an arachnophobia-the movie-type egg sac. but it doesn't make sense! tarantulas like cool dry spaces... not damp gardening beds. and the whitish mystery blob looks almost calcified.... so what is it? i have no freaking idea. and please... if you have any idea what it is, speak up. cause i'm not going near that second plant until i figure it out.... and i would really like to get the second plant moved over.

see how pretty and lonely this plant is? it needs its buddy. 

also. chowder is pretty much the cutest thing ever. still. love him.

monsoon...

we left to go to washington when our first big monsoons hit and we haven't gotten many other good storms this summer. but we did get a wicked awesome storm the other day... it was fantastic! there was lightning and thunder right on top of us. the pool was bubbling, the back porch was flooded and the front street was a running. classic. 

this is absolutely, without a doubt my favorite time of the year! 

birthday numero 24...

so... it was my birthday a couple weeks ago. i turned 24. it was a good day. we started with breakfast at the good egg. i spent some time shopping with danielle and then had a big ol' birthday bash that night... pizza, pizookie and a pool party. how does life get any better? haha... and! it didn't even monsoon! winner!

 

i got tons of "happy birthday" texts and comments on facebook. they all made me happy :) 

we actually didn't take any pictures at the party (fail), but i loved spending time with all of my family & best friends. 

thank you for a fantastic day!! i love you all!! :)