WaldenBooks

Saturday is the last day WaldenBooks in the Pine Ridge mall will be open. It is closing along with all 400 Borders Bookstores. I have worked for this bookstore chain for three years, and now it is gone. Tomorrow will be my last day of work at said bookstore. It's going to be a very odd and bittersweet moment. It will be sad to see the store that way, it is already depressing! So empty with people picking through it like a bargain basement warehouse. But at the same time it will be nice to have it over, to not be in liquidation... to be able to dedicate myself to my new job and to my house and things like that. Also, in a way it kind of feels like a new start to me... I've done this for three years so now it's a new path leading to different things. My job at Borders took me so many different places and my life is 100% different from when I started. So, who knows maybe now as this chapter closes a new one will enter that will take me through even more experiences.

60 16

So, I'm going to do something that I mostly stole from my cousin. Mine is a little different, but I got the idea from her. I am going to do 60 things over the course of the next 16 months... so starting today and going through the end of next year. Here is what I will hopefully be doing:

1. Buy a Christmas gift for a child in need

2. Send someone a kind letter each month

3. Secretly deliver cookies to someone

4. Do the 12 days of Christmas for someone

5. Go to the Playmill

6. See the Christmas lights on temple square

7. Go to Oregon

8. Go to the Blackfoot Fair

9. Go to Fightmares

10. Take Tyson to The Pie Pizzeria

11. Go Camping

12. Hike to three different places

13. Get weight under 110 lbs

14. Run a 10 minute mile

15. Stick to my meal plan for a month

16. Don’t cut hair

17. Visit the dentist

18. Learn to do eye makeup better

19. Learn to skateboard

20. Put hair in Liberty Spikes

21. Get a manicure

22. Learn to swing dance

23. Read all of D&C as well as the Book of Mormon

24. Have FHE every week for two months

25. Read scriptures with Tyson 5 times a week for a month

26. Finish project list

27. Plant a garden

28. Send out Christmas cards

29. Organize Computer Documents

30. Type journals

31. Get all pictures onto the computer

32. Stick to chore plan for a month

33. Make a pre-engagement picture book

34. Make a year two picture book

35. Make stars

36. Finish first draft of current story

37. Make a recipe book

38. Make myself a hair accessory

39. Make a woven bead bracelet

40. Try to fly a homemade kite

41. Update 101 things story

42. Learn Origami

43. Make a tree skirt

44. Finally take “Christmas pictures”

45. Beat Tyson at chess

46. Learn to make jam

47. Learn to Juggle

48. Pay off ISU

49. Start food storage

50. Read Wheel of Time

51. Work on Genealogy

52. Learn to play Magic with Tyson

53. Make Taffy

54. Get a 0 on wii disc golf

55. Make Pickles

56. Let go of 99 red balloons

57. Learn to write with the cool pens

58. Read a non-fiction book

59. Re-learn a song on the ukulele

60. Journal at least 4 times a week for 6 months

Lava

Yesterday I did one of my favorite things ever, I floated the river in Lava.

My good friend Jenelle came and got me and we drove up to Lava Hot Springs where we went to our usual stand (I always rent from the bottom so I don't have to walk the tub up and then walk down alone... I prefer to just ride down and turn it in).

Jenelle was feeling a little nervous so we didn't go over the first big water fall as we usually do because that is the one you most often flip on. However we found other adventures trying to figure out where you get in after that water fall seeing as neither of us had ever done it before. Finally we figured out where to get in and we got to do three trips down the river.

I loved it it was so much fun! Then again I enjoy almost everything that involves water. I haven't been outside as much this summer as I had hoped and I'm going to try to enjoy this last month of summer before I have to struggle through another cold Idaho winter.

So, hopefully here soon I will have some more fun tales to tell... but until then I highly suggest to anyone who gets the chance to go float the river for a fun relaxing time! : )

Closing, Lagoon, and Warped

Well, it has been a good long while since I've blogged, not really because I haven't been busy but more because I've just forgotten to blog.

We found out a few weeks ago that Borders Bookstores is officially closing! All 400 Borders and Waldenbooks will be gone before October. As far as losing my job I'm not super concerned about being out of work, many other companies have been sympathetic... I've been doing interviews... and all in all I think that everything is going to work out, I can assure everyone that the bills will be paid and everything will be okay. Being in the closing store hasn't been as easy for me. It is so depressing to walk in there and see all the signs throughout the store... "Everything Must Go" and even our fixtures are up for sale. I've been selling books for 3 years now and it's hard for me to watch it all fall apart.

Tuesday the 2nd of August Tyson and I went with some of his family, Jeff, Kati, and Ashley to Lagoon. Tyson and I always try to go down a few times a year and I love it! I'm a big rides girl! Bring on the roller coasters and High rides for me! My very favorite ride though is the Re-Entry. It takes you up just over 200 feet holds you for 10 seconds and then gives you a bit of a free-fall back to earth and even though I'm always scared and antsy while waiting for it to drop as soon as it does I just start laughing.

Yesterday Tyson and I went to Warped Tour. It was my second time and both times were extremely amazing and made memories I could have gotten no where else. I honestly right now am feeling better than I have in a long time. If you are the type who can handle concerts I highly encourage you to go if you ever have the chance! I hopefully will go again.... it is well worth the money that you pay for anything there!!!

So, yeah that's what has been going on with me... I was going to put up some pictures but they all show up weird so if you want to see pictures I will get them up on facebook soon.

Harry Potter

Last night I went, for the last time, to a midnight showing of a new Harry Potter movie. It's weird now, knowing it's over... for the past ten years I've constantly been waiting and excited for the next Harry Potter movie and now that is finished, I have seen them all.

However the movie was good, I think I cried through like the last 45 minutes of it... and in my book if a movie doesn't make me cry then it probably doesn't pull you in enough emotionally. So, that's good, because it defiantly tugs at my emotions for many reasons!

So, the new Harry Potter movie is good, and I was extremely happy to see it, but at the same time it was hard knowing it would be the last time.

But there are lots of fun things coming up in the next few weeks so hopefully there will be a lot more blogs and good things to come!

Theaters

When I was younger I always went out to the theater to see movies... as I'm getting older and paying for everything myself I've stopped going to theaters unless it is a movie I really really want to see...

Today I went to the theater to purchase my tickets to the final Harry Potter movie... as I paid I was excited to find out that they were only 12 dollars... due to the fact that my tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean were 15 each. Now... re-read that I GOT EXCITED because the tickets were TWELVE DOLLARS. That is outrageous!!

So, out of curiosity I went back to my journals/archives and found my ticket to the 6th Harry Potter movie which came out July of 2009... only two years ago and found that I paid 8.50 for the ticket that night. In a short two years prices have gone up 3.50 for a movie ticket.

That is crazy to me that they have shot up soooo quickly!!! And I just wanted to rant about that! Thanks for listening : )

Story Time

As many of you know for nearly ten years now I have considered myself a writer. For eight out of those ten I dedicated a large portion of time to doing such writing, mostly on my main trilogy... but some on other stories as well... just short stories. However for some reason over the past two of those years I've had some form of slight writers block... writing here or there but never following through on anything because I found too many flaws or didn't like my own characters.

Today however things may have finally changed for me... I have come up with something new... something that I feel has some promise... and I've started writing again... writing more like I used to... scribbling little portions of text as I talk to other people or do other things, just letting things flow from my fingers without them being forced. Not having to stop and debate what to do next... just knowing. So... I might be back, back to writing, back to what I really love! So wish me luck...