Monthly recap: July

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134 posts
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Post with the most pageviews: again, The Tag Masterpost at 164.
Post with the most pageviews from this month: Apparently my sunglasses can fly at 99.
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Pageviews this month:

Entry Pageviews United States 1590 Latvia 94 Germany 86 Russia 39 France 33 Ukraine 32 Poland 31 Canada 24 China 12 Ireland 10

July happenings:

1. Camp NaNoWriMo happened. I did not complete my goal, unfortunately.

2. Independance day. I made apple pie.

3. Christian and I finished our first college class and promptly started the next one the following Monday.

4. We went to go see "The Secret Life of Pets" after Church. It was in 3D, and I don't think any of us can pull off 3D glasses.

5. Mom's birthday landed on a small group night, so we had a bunch of people over from church for a pool party/dinner.

6. Our pool finally got finished!

7. Dad, Lydia, Christian, and I laid three pallets of sod. Sod is heavy. Mia helped by running all over it.

8. Repairs were done on the civic. Thankfully they didn't total it.

Revelations:

1. Why is everything "easy as pie"? I mean really?

Take apple pie, for instance, you have to peal the apples, then cut the apples, make a pie crust (unless you are one of those people who buys it already made and rolled out and beautiful-looking raises hand). And come on! Pie takes a whole lot longer to bake than cake!

Take chocolate cake now, all you really have to do is throw all the ingredients into a bowl, stir, and bake it for 20 or so minutes. And if you really, truly what it, frost the chocolate goodness.

So I guess that's why somebody coined the phrase "piece of cake."

2. Sometimes the grass just needs water, sometimes it needs to be cut, and at times it has to be burned before it can grow back green.

Awkward:

1. Getting a strand of pineapple stuck in your teeth and not being able to get it out because you're in a classroom and don't want to go about picking your teeth in the middle of somebody's presentation.

2. When the lady at Chipotle mishears "That would be me" for "My name is Amy" so she writes "Amy" on the lid of your meal.

3. Apparently my name also sounds like "Lily."

4. Shaky hands during presentations. Just, no.

5. Accidentally forgetting your phone when you take Christian boot shopping.

6. Realizing that the pie you just got a sizable slice of was mainly comprised of bananas which you hate with a burning passion dislike immensely after you took a huge bite.  Grandfather rescued me.

7. Only having part of a fingerprint on your right ring finger because that was the only place where the sod was rubbing. I was also the only person working without gloves.

Awesome:

1. When Dad goes out to fill up the car for you even though you didn't ask him to.

2.Wordwars.

3. Homemade apple pie.

4. Going to see "Finding Dory" with friends, then going to Chickfila for dinner.

5. Listening to Hawaiian music and remembering Maui vacation time.

6. Experimenting with hot chocolate and crushed up ice. It turned out ok, but I made waaaaayyyyyy too much. (Not that I didn't like it, just brainfreeze O.o)

7. When somebody brings a "Happy Pool-filling!" cake to small group.

8. Finally getting to see the live-action version of The Jungle Book. GUYS I was almost crying at the end because it was so beautiful! Also, extreme nostalgia during the opening credits.

9. New story ideas. This'll be more of a "spy/undercover" story. I have a Pinterest Board so it's official, I have to do it eventually. Courtesy of the Chickfila visiting time with friends.

Weird:

1. That fight or flight mechanism that allows you to karate chop a spider when it makes an appearance on your bed, but doesn't let you ask the professor a question in front of your classmates.

2. When the internet goes out at least once a month for three consecutive months. I sure do hope that it doesn't become a regularity!

3. Eating pink frosting with cake, but then still having a bright pink tongue after three tooth brushings, two very thorough tongue scrubbings, breakfast, and a cup of coffee.

4. Getting hit with a wave of nostalgia in the middle of writing a speech about debate. Good times (here, here, and here). GUUUYYYYSSS I want to do it again! Too bad I already decided against it and now registration is closed and I won't be able to do it next year because I'll be too old.

Urg moments:

1. Walking face-first into a spiderweb in the dark.

2. When one of the half-grown chickens gets quite obviously frustrated with how fast you're going about feeding her so she flaps her way to the top of your head. Thank goodness for hats.

Musical finds:

"Can't stop the feeling" It's catchy, ok? Ok.

Tons of Broadway and Movie Soundtracks. Phantom (Broadway), Wicked (Broadway), Fiddler on the Roof (Movie), Les Miserables Live (2010 Cast, with the exception of a few songs, I'm sure you know which ones), Cinderella (Broadway), Into the Woods (Broadway and Movie), Newsies (Movie), Mary Poppins (Original Australian Cast), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Broadway and Movie). 

I've also been listening to the soundtracks of all four Pirates of the Caribbean. The fourth one used to really irritate me because the soundtrack didn't follow the first three hardly at all. It's not so bad now.

Blast from the past:

*looks through archive* Wow. I did a ton. I'll only post the main ones.

Lydia scared me here.

Hum-dum life here

Tea, etc. here

Into the Woods (here) and Captain America (here).

Montana here, here, here, here, here, here, and finally, here.

Snippets of story:

Too bad nothing I wrote for school counted, otherwise I would have gotten much farther in my Camp NaNo wordcount. So much of my work has been on the computer that I was really not motivated to write much at all, or I was just so tired of looking at a computer screen.

Anyways, here are a few snippets.

~

Before I go any further,” Mrs. Thrush paused, “there is something you must understand about the way time works between the realms. What could be five years in one world could be only five minutes in another. Time flows like water in The Between. The amount of time in Malentîr, where Millicent took up residence, is almost triple the time in Doriar. Three years in Malentîr would be one year in Doriar. Is that clear to you?” Mrs. Thrush asked.

~

“A straight answer! All my life people have avoided giving a direct answer to my direct questions, even when I ask what kind of coffee they want!” Reiyna’s voice grew louder with each sentence. “I just want to know the truth, for Pete’s sake!” She was standing now. “What were you thinking?” She whispered, her eyes filling with tears of anger and frustration.

“Thinking?” Mrs. Thrush sipped her tea. “I am not sure that is even the right word.”

“Then what is?!” Reiyna slouched back into her chair.

“I was wrong, you are not ready.” Mrs. Thrush slowly pulled herself up from her chair and hobbled out of the room.

Reiyna bit her tongue before a sharp reply escaped. Angrily, she finished the contents of her cup and stormed towards the library hoping to find refuge inside the pages of someone else’s story. She rounded a corner; her eyes blinded by her furious tears did not see the figure also making its way down the hall in the opposite direction. The figure saw the oncoming girl much too late to move out of her way. Reiyna slammed into the figure and they both toppled to the ground.

“Watch where you’re going, Mud-scraper!” Reiyna ground out, wiping her eyes. “Traffic is atrocious here!”

“I could say the same.” Uan replied gruffly.

Reiyna glared, not caring that she had insulted her host.

“What troubles you?” He noticed her tear-streaked face.

“Everything!” Reiyna spread her arms emphatically.

~

And that's all I can share right now. Most of what I wrote was a backstory filled with all kinds of spoilers.

3D or normal?

How was your month? 

Did you do Camp NaNo?

What's your favorite musical?

What do you think of The Jungle Book?