Monthly Recap: June

Posted from Starbucks, because our internet hates us. BTW, thanks for going with me Lydia!

Stats and other news from the blog:

First of all, I'd like to apologise for the finicky behaviour of my Google Friend Connect button. I have no idea what's up with it, but if anyone has any ideas about how to fix it, I'd be most appreciative.

1. 30 followers through Google connect, and at least two others through either email or Google+.

2. 20,971 total pageviews.

3. 763 comments published.

4. 126 published posts.

5. Post with the most pageviews: The Tag Masterpost at 169.

Entry Pageviews United States 1598 Germany 40 Ukraine 27 Canada 25 Ireland 19 France 18 Taiwan 13 Philippines 10 Australia 9 United Kingdom 6

Happenings of June:

1. I started Algebra 2 for the second time (I had been failing last year, so I did Geometry instead. Hopefully since we changed math curriculums I'll be ok).

2. College classes started June 6th.

3. Gabe and Dad had their birthdays.

4. Finding Dory came out.

5. Cabins opened for Camp NaNo. I must say, all the girls in my cabin are so sweet and encouraging!

6. Father's day happened.

7. The rooster attacked my foot. Mom ended up taking me to a Care Now a couple days later to get it checked out because it was swelling.

8. Darth Cluck croaked his last. (here)

9. Dad rolled a heavy tabletop right over his big toe, so now it's a lovely shade of black/purple.

Revelations:

1. I was writing down the rule for absolute values in algebra:

"The absolute value of a = a, and the absolute value of -a also equals a. In other words, absolute value has to do with the number [its identity], not the sign in front of it."

GUYS. Our absolute value is in our identity. What we do, who we truly are inside. Not our outward appearance or the things that happen to us.

Our identity as Christians is in Christ. That, my friends, is our absolute value.

2. Cherry flavored tea only tastes marginally better than cherry flavored cough syrup.

3. Clinic wait-time estimates are not accurate (found that out when when 45 minutes turned into an hour and a half).

4. Frappuccinos are amazing.

Awkward:

1. Drinking hot tea out of a Christmas mug in June. (it's the biggest one we have, ok?)

2. When you decide to count all your coins and the total ends up being nine dollars and thirty-five cents.

3. Hitting save multiple times after completing a sentence in a blogpost draft.

4. Signing into Lydia's google account so I can see if she has and blogpost drafts. (she had four, but one was empty)

5. When you can't remember what you were going to write two seconds ago.

6. Accidentally hitting publish on this post when it was nowhere near completed (it didn't go through though, thus saving me the embarrassment of trying to explain myself if somebody found it before I could revert it back to a draft).

7. Having a password 20 characters long.

8. Forgetting why you opened the laptop.

9. When you forget to grab a notebook before leaving for church, and long story short, I'm going to have remnants of bright blue ink on my arm for the next couple of days.

10. Starting to write out a comment, then switching to a different page (because I'm a scatter-brained pineapple sometimes), and completely forgetting why you even had that blog page open in the first place, thus closing it, then remembering what you were doing after closing the laptop.

11. When the internet goes out right after it's upgraded (ironically, that was when I had to do online homework).

Awesome:

1. Singing with all your might to the original broadway cast recording of Les Miz (how in the world did Javert hit and hold that last note before jumping into the river!?) and Frozen.

2. Seeing a deer eat fruit off of Nana and Grandfather's fruit trees in the middle of the day. Never during hunting season.

3. Seeing lightning bugs for the first time ever!

4. Seeing a four-point and a doe casually making their way along the fenceline closest to the house around the tail-end of dusk.

5. Eating at Rosa's with several families from church after the service.

6. The smell of a freshly mown pasture.

7. Flourless chocolate cake that tastes AMAZING.

8. When it doesn't get dark until close to 9 pm.

9. When your online teacher finally posts grades.

10. Re-reading comments on older blog posts. Honestly, hearing from y'all is like being surrounded with a pile of pillows. :)

11. Driving down the road with all the windows rolled down.

12. Finding a check you had misplaced.

13. When you experiment with your cookies (adding melted chocolate to this recipe) and it turns out amazing. Three forms of chocolate, who knew right?

14. Getting to ride after almost a month. (Conflicting schedules, weather issues, etc.)

15. Finally finishing Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. The villain finally showed up halfway through (coincidentally, that's when I felt like the book was starting to get good). Boy, was I getting annoyed with the author though. For all I knew, Galbatorix could have been a crotchety old man who enjoyed drinking tea and reading books by the fire.

16. Playing that little t-rex jumping game that Chrome provides when the internet connection is lost.

17. Studying at Starbucks when there's no internet.

Weird:

1. The weather had been really weird. It'd be cloudy when I first woke up, the clouds would start clearing out about 10-12, by early afternoon it will be gorgeous outside, by dinner the clouds would be coming back in, and by 11 pm there would an amazingly bright light show going on. By the next morning, the ground would be wet and muddy.

2. We have a pool going in right now, and it's already almost half filled with water just from the rain. (nasty icky green water that is classified as toxic because the plaster hasn't been done yet)

3. That moment when the inside of the car is so hot, your glasses fog up until the a/c finally gets the temperature to a reasonable degree.

4. When the wound from the rooster didn't start bleeding until about 30-40 minutes after he gave it to me.

Urg moments:

1. Cherry cough-syrup flavored tea.

2. When you have all but one chicken in for the night, and you are well on your way to getting the last one in, then *BOOM* everyone's out again.

3. Realizing that your barn boots have lost their water-proofness and are split after you step in the mud.

4. When you know you've saved a post draft, but when you have to restart the computer, the draft reverts back to the time you saved it before the last time you saved it.

5. When no matter how hard and how cold the air is blowing, the car refuses to cool down.

6. When the printer decides it doesn't like your laptop and thus refuses to print anything you send it.

Musical finds:

Blast from the past:

1. June of 2014, Mom, Lydia, and I went on a week-long missions trip to Haiti. (anniversary post here)

Last year:

2. We started the journey home from our DC trip here (more in the archives).

3. I did two movie reviews here and here.

4. I did a Q&A post here (note, one of the questions was "Do you have glasses or contacts?" I answered "no" but since then I've gotten glasses because apparently *rolls eyes* I really did need them).

5. Gabe turned 8, we went to Hurricane Harbour, and I learned about Malware here.

6. I did two tags here and here.

Wow, busy month!

Snippets of story:

From my Beauty and the Beast retelling under the working title of "The Inventor's Daughter" I haven't decided if I'm going to use it though. It would either have to go into a backstory section, or I could switch out the character.


She dashed through the underground, looking neither to the left, nor the right. She must not be late. Millicent clutched her coat tighter around herself. She had never been able to get used to the cold of Jukuvar. A transport clattered along the rails, screeching and whining towards the station. All around her, people waited to board the rusted vehicle. The closeness of the crowd drained her senses. These people knew nothing of personal space it seemed. The metal doors rolled open with a high-pitched squeak. Passengers flowed out while the new ones squashed themselves in. Millicent was nearly hit on more than one occasion. She barely managed to find a place to stand before the doors clanged shut, and the transport began moving. She nearly let out a sigh of relief, but was jostled by a passenger who had unexpectedly shifted before she got the chance.



(side note: I need a new name for it. I'm renaming another story that's in the same series "The Songbird," I have another story idea that I'm going to name "The Silverbird," and I have a third idea that I'm going to call "Caged Bird." So I need a name that follows a similar pattern, something that ends in bird. I would appreciate y'all's suggestions in the comments, or you can email me through the "Contact Me" page. Your email will not, under any circumstances be shared, so don't worry about that.)

What about y'all?