River!

So I am currently sitting at the river.. It's so great! That's my foot. Currently Emily and I are sitting here recuperating from our strenuous bike ride to pick up a sno cone and such. Oh these lazy days of summer

Random day

Are those what you think they are? Yes. Today Diana and I ended up in Idaho Falls and we adventured it up to the wind mills! They are so BIG! Ahhhh we love this place :) and our new friends!

Wisdom Wednesday

WW15- Roller Blade
So to end the school year with a bang, Diana and I decided to blade to school. It was great, really, and even though she "didn't like the bumps!", we lived to tell about it. Oh, and Anna Thorn scootered too... our method of transportation tomorrow. Oh, it shall be grand.
2 more days of school :)I am going to miss this a lot

I DID IT!

I finally found the PERFECT BIKE.

Meet the Silver Bullet.
As you can see, it was love at first sight.

So if you've been reading my previous posts, you know that I've been searching craigslist.com religiously every day for an old road bike to take to BYU with me in the fall. Much of my searching has been to no avail, but yesterday I found a nice black one I liked quite a lot, and when I e-mailed the guy about it, he actually responded! (Quite a feat, let me tell you) I set up a time to go see it, and today Anna Thorn and I trekked all over the city of Eagle looking for the place. Not easy. When we finally did find it however, I found the bike to be BEAUTIFUL and too big. :( I was sad- it was in mint condition. But alas, it evidentially wasn't meant to be, for on our way home going down State Street, Anna pointed to the side of the road. There were bikes! We turned around, went to the shop, and there was MY bike. And for a fraction of the price of the one I found on craigslist. His name is the Silver Bullet. Ahhh I can't wait to go riding. :)

The Latest Musings..

Mother's Day is never complete without the inevitable instruction from my mother after church to "keep your clothes on! We're taking a picture!" (or 12)It was a good mother's day.. well, at least I think so, even though I don't know if I am quite qualified to say that. We made dinner- I ALMOST ruined the rice- showered Mom with gifts (like always, of course) and went on a nice bike ride. Oh, I bet people get a good laugh when they drive by us all, a line of cruisers of every color of the rainbow, racing along the side of the road. It's fun though- especially the part when Mom's blood pressure spikes and she pleads with Payton to ride just a little bit slower. I love you Mom!

The most recent musing happened this weekend.
Ever wondered what the the end of the greenbelt in Boise looks like?
Like this! On Friday Emily and I went on a greenbelt journey. About 20 miles round trip past Garden City to the gravel at then end of the path I love. The best part about the above picture is the fact that to get it we perched my camera sideways on a tree branch, hanging by the strap, and then used the self timer for good measure. That 's why it looks so nice and crooked.. the branch wouldn't hold it straight. Oh artistry. After finding the end of the path, Emily and I continued to wander through a plethora of landscapes.. the path was jungly, then prairie-y and then toothpick foresty. We both concluded that we wished we would have known about this place when we were little. Haha and it's a good thing Emily is home now, because I don't know of anyone else who would want to go do something like this with me.. I think it is a good preface to summer? :)

And I'm still looking for another job. Anyone got any good ideas??

Wisdom Wednesday

So in English we're doing a music project, and Miss Roberts showed us this video the other day- Stand By Me recored by various street musicians of the world. I loved it! It's definitely moving and so today's wisdom is pretty simple.
WW14- Watch it

Insight

Deje el mundo cambiarle y usted puede cambiar el mundo
-Che Guevara

Translation:
Let the world change you and you can change the world.

Now that AP testing is done and over with, we've been watching some movies in Spanish. The last movie we watched, Motorcycle Diaries, was about Che, a Latin American revolutionist, and the events that led him to see injustices prominent through most of Latin America. Anyways, this quote was in there, and it struck me. Maybe it's just the peacemonger in me revealing itself? Haha I don't know. All I know is that it made me want to travel Latin America- in fact "want" is an understatement. It made me yearn to travel altogether! Studying/living abroad just can't come soon enough. :)

Talk About Perspective...

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female.
48 would be male.

70 would be nonwhite.
30 would be white.

70 would be non-Christian.
30 would be Christian.

89 would be heterosexual.
11 would be homosexual.

6 people would possess 59 percent of the entire world's wealth, and all
6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing.
70 would be unable to read.
50 would suffer from malnutrition.
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth.
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education.
1 would own a computer.

Wisdom Wednesday

So today I was able to breathe for the first time.
No more of the heavy, saturated AP Stress stuff, but weightless nothing. AP tests are done- it's so good. However, as good as it is now, I have some cautionary words.
WW13- You Can't Handle 2 AP Tests In One Day
A few months ago when I saw that both Spanish and Statistics tests were on May 5th, my stomach turned a little bit. One test a day is hard enough, and 8 hours of testing in one day didn't seem like much of a treat. However, because I can't tell myself "no" like I should, I signed up and prepared. I even tried listening to Spanish podcasts as I fell asleep at night, but I think all that did was hurt my ears and give me nightmares. (I had a nightmare about having to get knee surgery- the doctor was going to have to break my leg twice, then then I wouldn't be able to walk. Yep, my subconscious knew I had something terrible to do the next day, couldn't remember it, and instead likened AP testing to having my legs broken. How great and accurate!)
On Tuesday I took Spanish first, and after listening sections, reading sections, synthesis essays, letters, simulated conversations, and informal speaking presentations, I'd finished one test!! After this I went straight to Statistics, and it was borderline impossible. I had to restrain myself a few times for just getting up and walking out, and then had to stop myself from just drawing nice pictures in the margins of my free response sheet. It was great! I'm so glad it is all over.
Anyways, so as ridiculous as yesterday was, today was great! Now school is basically over, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Now every senior class is basically "Cinematic Studies". We watched movies in 3 out of 3 classes. Can things get any better? I submit that they cannot. :)