Yesterday.

Yesterday was the most fantastic day I've had in so, so long. It was definitely one of the best days of summer (:
my mother had to tutor in the morning, then she had a doctor's appointment so my sister and I went over to my grandparents house to swim and such. When we've been going over there, usually I just hang out and read and then jump in if I get really warm, but Megan and I ended up swimming for four hours straight! It was loads of fun(: first, we [attempted] to take fun pictures of us jumping off the dock.


After we failed with that, we went all old school and played games that we hadn't played in years! First, we did some 'water gymnastics' and made up fun routines of flips and twirls and handstands and backflips etc, etc. I haven't done that in SO long! Then, we got this giant tube out and just swam, and paddled on the tube, and counted how many seconds we could stand and stay balanced on it. It was just loads of fun (:
besideds the sunburn i recieved (ow!) yesterday was a fantastic day. words just cannot begin to explain.

After we got home from my grandparents house and my father came home from work, we went to meet his cousins that are visiting up here from across the country. we went over there a few days ago for dinner a few days ago and it was fun, although a bit awkward because we had, really, just met everyone for the first time. I played with the little girls though, and they are so adorable (:
so yesterday, we went over again for dinner and had a blast. when we first got there, I entertained the younger girls again. Then, we had dinner which was hilarious! The youngest girl was talking about how she had a baby in her hip named Charlotte (we have NO idea where she got that name from!) and a baby boy in her other hip named Braces Umbrella. Very interesting... she was just adorable! After dinner, the older kids put on our bathing suits and went down to the lake. I guess earlier that day, John, Joe, and Katie found an orange... and named it Kyle. They also tied rubber bands and a string around it and attached it to a rock at the bottom of the lake... hahaa. After jumping off the roof into the water a few times, we went and rescued Kyle. We took him back up to the deck over the boat house and jumped off with him. It was hilarious! We also tried taking pictures jumping off the roof, but that didn't work out too well since there were five of us and jumping backwards (so that we were facing the camera) was a bit scary! Anywho, we threw Kyle, then we jumped in to save him and so on. It was a blast! But finally, when my parents called us to go home, we threw our little friends out into the lake to have a nice little vacation... hahhaa.
We got out and as our parents talked on the driveway, we made up stories about Kyle, and I honestly had a blast! They are so funny! So now, we have code names and everything. It's hilarious. I'm so glad we went!

Family

I am so lucky to have what I have. I have an incredibly supportive family, not just from the people living in my house, but from cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and distant second cousins, and fifth cousins three times removed (however that works...) that i just met but a week ago.
I'm surrounded by my mother's dysfunctional, hilarious family full of step cousins, half aunts, and crazy emotions, and my father's all catholic, tight knit, oddball relatives from all over the country.

Today, my mother, sister, dog, and I drive about 5 minutes west to my grandparent's house. We spent a lovely day swimming, boat riding, talking, and reading. My grandparents live on a beautiful, tiny lake. Their house is on the spot my great grandfather's camp was (although it was already renovated by the time I was born), where my mother and her sibling spent hours on the lake, doing the same thing we did today. I find it so wonderful to have something like that still in the family, making new memories while sharing old ones.
A similar thing with my father's side, also. A teeny, tiny town only about 2 1/2 hours from our home, sits my father's family camp right on one of the most beautiful lakes i have seen. (Though I've only seen a few.) The small house that my grandfather grew up in with his siblings, has turned into a renovated, extended (and even a new building a few feet away) family camp where each of my father's three other brothers and sisters (and their families) take two weeks to vacation. Again, old memories are shared while new memories are created on the sandbar, the tasty freeze, and in the middle of the upper lake surrounded by mountains. Always joking about how there is no civilization for miles (it's very true) I actually bask in the relaxation of no annoying neighbors, and phones not constantly going off (though i do miss television and internet!) But sitting at the massive dinner table, with sometimes over 15 guests, sharing old stories of my father's childhood. (My favorite stories are the ones about my grandparent's meeting (over 50 years ago on that same lake), how my grandfather bought my grandmother's engagement ring (in europe while he was in the army) and stories about my father's childhood pet (when he jumped out the car window while they drove down the highway! they got him of course, but they had to run down the shoulder chasing after him!))
In entertainment world, the stereotypical teenager hates their parents, and is embarrassed by them constantly, never wanted to be seen in public shopping with their grandma or having dinner with their dad, but i embrace every chance i get. My friends think I have the coolest parents ever (which I, actually, completely agree with... most of the time) and even when they do do embarrassing things (my father...) I just laugh along with them. How can you be embarrassed by your own family? I could go on and on about how much I love my mom, who is my best friend, my father, who is the oldest teenager I know, my cousins, who, without them, I would not be the happy person I am, and my sister, from whom I have learned how to control my anger (sometimes being only 19 months apart is TOO close in age..). Also how much I don't take them for granted at all. Again, the 'stereotypical teenager' will go on a spree when they receive money from their parents. Me? They gave me life, pay for my housing, food, (most) clothing, and put up with me day and night, so why should they be the ones who buy me everything my little heart desires? well they don't. and even when i got enough money to buy my first 'real expensive' something, a digital camera, my father helped me pick out the best brand, and when we finally bought it online with his credit card, when I went to pay him back, he wouldn't take my money. The money I worked hard to get. Not that I was complaining that he should take my money, but I'm just saying that he didn't need to do that. It was something I wanted, not needed, and i worked hard for. My father's just like that sometimes. But when I bring up the words CELL PHONE? absolutely not. which, I've learned, I've become alright with. Now, I pay for my own phone, I don't have to worry about using all my dad's minutes, and spending his money, and I feel more independent being able to pay my own bill. (So, even though I said I wasn't going to go on and on and on, I did anyway...)
Anyway, I just wanted to say, thank you Mom, Dad, Megan, and the rest of my family for giving me love and support for everything I do, for comforting me when other people get me down, for always being there for me when I need advice, and for encouraging me to be the best person I can be. At least, for now.
I love you.

Dear Guns, Germs, and Steel,

Dear Guns, Germs, and Steel,

I am interested in reading you, but I have to admit, you are stressing me out a bit. Your words are so small and your pages are so long, and you are full of so many intricate details, I sometimes can't keep up! And with the questions from my teacher piling up, reading you has become even more stressful! I would love to sit down and just enjoy you, but highlighting and looking up vocabulary has just overdone it. I feel like I can't handle it which makes me wonder if I'll be able to handle the class during the school year with all of my other work. Now that I think about it, though, maybe you're just preparing me for next year. Thank you for that, I guess. But still, I really don't want to be stressed during summer, and I really don't want to do work during summer, and I really don't want to even think about school during the summer.
So GGAS, maybe one day I'll find you, and reread you and think of what and idiot I was for complaining about all of your intelligence, but right at this moment, I would love to just shove you in the back of my closet, or maybe bury you in my backyard and never see you again.

Love (kind of),
Hayley

Just Listen

So.
I have decided to make a new blog (:
just to find a home for all the lovely photos i've found, and all of the quotes i've collected.
i'll make my first real post soon.
So, don't think or judge. Just listen.
(:

TRUE LOVE.

i was reading this blog for my daily love photos and quotes when i read the story written by the blogger herself. (her blog is mostly just for lovely pictures.) This definitely caught my eye.
read it.

"One time, i started bleeding nose blood out of nowhere. And i have a napkin in my pocket so I start to wipe the blood away, and right away he yells "No what are u doing!?" And then he puts the whole napkin in my nose. I felt so stupid sitting there on the bench next to him with a whole napkin stuck up in my nose. About a minute later something falls down from the tree above us. And you know that second when something has just happened but none of you can figure out what? We had a moment like that. Until we realized that a bird just pooped on my forehead/jacket. We both started laughing our buts of. "STOP LAUGHING!" I said. He stopped laughing saying "I'm sorry! But... You would have laughed just the same way if a bird pooped on my face..." And he was so right. So there we were. Me with a napkin in my nose and bird poop on my forehead, and him wiping the poo of. Now he will always remember me as "That girl who started bleeding nose blood at the same time a bird pooped on her". We have stuck with each other for 9 months now. I know that I don't show it that well, but Holy fuck - I LOVE this man."

this is DEFINITELY the perfect man. i can tell just by this story (: