this is what goes on at my house.

 jess and i are home basically by ourselves this week. mother and rachel are at girl's camp, father's at work. usually we are either yelling (usually instigated by me) at the top of our lungs (not at each other, just yelling random things loudly) or singing (usually instigated by jess) with each other. funny harmonies or just singing so so cheezy, or making up new lines to songs, and then just cracking up afterward, and then when we're done laughing we keep going. i heard this little beauty just now while she was putting raspberries in her cheerios. she was singing it to the tune of this video below, from my fair lady in her best cockney accent. haha!

all i want is a raspberry

to make my breakfast so yummy!

so big so round so sweet

oh wouldn't it be loverly

lots of cereal for me to eat

and i'll add a big red treat!

my goodness. we need to get out of the house.

sweet

(found here)

that's what the first blackberry i've had this season
plucked straight off the pokey vine
tasted like while i was running yesterday.
so sweet and juicy,
and perfect whilst running on a trail in the woods.
and then i obviously needed to have another one,
even though the pickings were slim
because it's early in the season.
but the second one was sour.

a superlative.

because i almost always hate them.

but i decided 

that a potential husband 

not liking goat cheese 

could quite possibly 

be a deal breaker.

image

flowers again!

this weekend's project was turning this bathroom full from the shower to the door with flowers, into over sixty arrangements

the bouquet and the transportation in this ginormous van, where i thought i was going to have eighteen heart attacks. good thing after the first time when the arrangements started falling over, i caught them, and my dad drove even more smoothly for the rest of the thirty minute drive out to the venue

because i was worried about these guys:

but you have to understand that i lost sleep over:

a. the engineering of these centerpieces

b. how the heck i was going to have time to do eight of them

c. their transportation.

they made it!

the centerpieces that seemed to go on forever. there were twelve of them:

the arch that became an entire family effort:

my dad wired all of the flowers at the top, jess made a million arrangements in little glass, hanging jars, rachel and i were sticking flowers every in every gap and putting rose petals everywhere, and my mom helping my dad know where to wire and putting flowers everywhere:

beautiful bride and her dad (and another arch decorated by some angel relatives of the groom ):

jess, me, rachel. pretty good considering five minutes before the wedding started, all of us were covered with lily stamen, and we were all sweating in the 95 degree heat and changed into these less embarrassing clothes:

success! and even though it was a lot of pressure...i think i'd rather be making these everyday than most other jobs. 

so...anyone getting married soon?

eight days after the day i really thought it would come...

i was very surprised when i opened my call on thursday night because i was called back here:

to the england london mission! i still can hardly believe it.

here is the uk:

 

according to this breakdown of the island, england london mission is mostly east anglia, and then the southeast part of the southeast region, plus london. i just read some things about it and apparently it's mostly rural (surprise), is flat, and is essentially a huge bog! yay. my middle school was built over a bog.

this is kind of the only region that i have not really been to at all--the east anglia part, so that's cool.

 

honestly, i was pretty surprised that i was called to go somewhere that's been kind of the focus of my studies for my college life. i was expecting anything that would be
random, that i had no connection with, like most people who open their mission calls. but, this is so good too.

so. back to western europe for the fall?

i realized i never finished reading this:

which is unfortunate. so i am reading it now, highly enjoying it while i picture these two beautiful people:

i also like to read my own name over and over. it's mildly exciting.

the results of freaking out:

25 hours of work later:

when i look at certain parts of the window i think either of harry potter seven read in jim dale's voice, or the lord of the rings.

and i'm about to get on a plane to go back to the forest like this and see this girl:

as well as the rest of my fam :)