le balloon rouge

lets be honest,

how cool would it be that kid?

i think i love this.

thumbs up

happy hump day!

(story of my life.)

sorry.. i'm still working on photo credits :/

P.S.

coolest mug EVER!

hey adele, you are fabulous

rites of passage

may- a month full of too many events.

seriously, there is like a birthday for every day this month! 

and both my grandparents from my dad's side died in the month of may.

lets not forget graduations..

and weddings!

I love may though, despite it being busy. I just love birthdays, and celebrating them. Not just mine, but you know. Birthdays have always felt so special to me.. and I like making it special for others. I try to put out some effort. I haven't been too awesome on the birthday train lately though.. I've gotten a little lazy. But after tomorrow, I'm going to try and make birthdays special for everyone again! I got a 'happy gram' in the mail from one of my teachers in high school today- she's been a teacher for like.. 20 years- and has some big birthday book that she records EVERYONE'S birthdays in. Every year in high school she'd send you a 'happy gram' that wished you a happy birthday and wrote down your name on the birthday section of her chalkboard. Sounds elementary, but I liked it. And, I just found out that she sends 'em even after you graduate! What a woman. I want to be like that. ..Hmm.. I think I'll start my own birthday book! (;

This birthday will be hard though. My grams is gone, and I won't be getting one of her special hand-made (well, printed out) birthday cards- she'd spend HOURS on each one on her computer! She was cute. I'll miss those.. But I'll miss her more ): 

In fact, every birthday we have a carvel cake, and her and my aunt would always split a slice so she'd get the vanilla, and my aunt would get the chocolate. Little details like that keep popping up in my memory that I'll miss. It's hard to explain. Sigh. 

I still can't believe she's gone. 

It's been an experience, that's for sure. It's funny how loss can bring everyone together again. I haven't spent this much time with my aunts and my cousins in quite a while. It's really refreshing.. I didn't realize how much I missed it all. We have family gatherings allll the time, but I never felt like I was actually spending time with everyone, if that makes any sense. I miss knowing what is going on in everyone's lives (which, I mean, everyone kind of knows everyones business already, because no one can't keep anything a secret -but know what's going on everyone's lives first hand!).

Part of my birthday tomorrow is going to be spent with the fam (and I mean everybody). We're all going to meet at my grandma's house and have lunch, and we'll prolly look at all the old photos they've been scavenging through for a slideshow of my grandma. I'm kind of excited about it. 

..after that, I'm hittin the spa! 

they were all booked in the morning.. so i'm stuck goin round 5. Oh well. I aint complainin! 

weird. I'm going to be 19 in just a few minutes. 

doesn't seem like a big deal.. but I remember turning 7 (to my disbelief) and thinking I was SO OLD! I'm so old! Time has gone by so fast... and if anything, it feelings like it's getting faster and faster. Sigh. Life really is short. 

thats all I got.

Love,

michelle

p.s.

I'm singing at my grandma's funeral on tuesday with val and two of my cousins.

"wind beneath my wings" isn't exactly one of my favorites.. but it's my grandpa's song, and it was special to my grandma. I'm hoping I'll be able to get through it without choking up :(

p.s.s

and, because every post looks better with a picture:

I should have a 'stache bash next year. 

I mean, right!? 

(;

or

I want a cake with my face on it.. like this one. baha

classic!

call me crazy..

I'm redesigning my room. again.

actually, I could really still call this the first redesign, since it was really never finished.

It involves dividing my room up with  1.curtain panels which will create a walk-in closet (so to speak) 

2. this nifty lil guy:

(so i wont be doing work in bed anymore. I'm constantly drifting off.. it's just too comfy.)

and 3. walls with color!

and I'm sick of the previous color scheme I had in mind originally, and white walls aint cuttin it. Bump dat! 

(don't worry jessica, the new scheme wont involve pink walls.)

anyone have any color schemes they wanna share?

I'd like to thank ikea for their inspiration and the headaches they induce. Oh, and thanks for being so close to my house now. Actually, I take that back. This could be a future problem. 

Special shout-out goes to urban for giving me an idea on shelving involving crates.  Sounds ghetto, but its cheap, efficient, and I'm old enough to buy spray paint. 

(p.s. urban, don't put old furniture in your free section if it AINT FREE. And I'm glad I didn't pay 70 bucks for your crappy coat rack! overpriced son of a..) 

:D

goodnight all!

Love,

Michelle

p.s.

via cardboardlove.com

What is it with this week?

I just want to get away. 

news news news

My classes end June 10th- which means, after June 10th, I have no classes. Obviously.

So what does that mean? What willll I be doing until July 26th?

Well, I asked the same questions. And today, I got some answers. 

1. No more kids camp planning. Kids Ministry=Caput. Val and Dan have stepped down, because they don't want to do it anymore, and apparently have been telling people for 5 months, but no one had taken initiative to take over everything. And, we only have like 3 kids every Sunday. Two of them are related to me. So, Kids church is taking a break.

2. Camp Warrior is the new main focus. So, for 3 days a week, the interns will probably be working Camp Warrior.. if not Monday and Friday too. And it looks like we'll be getting paid. 

Not my dream job, but hey! $$cash money! ..More hours than I've been getting (; And, they go on tons of field trips! Looks like I'll be livin it up at skateland this summer...

No really, they'll be going to tons more places this year. I'm kiiiiind of excited about it. I wouldn't chooose to work it myself, but, since I kind of have to, it's not that bad. 

And part of our intern duties will still be helping plan youth camp. I'm hoping that things will be less stressful than last year.. 

3. I think thats it. I still want to hop on a plane and fly somewhere for my birthday, but I may just save that for another time (; Don't really have any alternative plans yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something fun. I just don't want to end up doing the same ol same ol. 

4. I'm thinking about getting another job on top of camp warrior. I need the dough- I need to start saving. For what, I'm not sure yet. All I know is that my savings account has a suffix of 0 dollars and 0 cents.. and my checking account aint that far behind. 

the end!

-michelle

p.s 

it is pouring rain outside right now, and I'm looovin it :)

p.s.s

paper chain countdowns!!!!

If only it was July

There are not enough hours in a day! 

I'm avoiding responsibilities right now:

-midterm for brett's class tomorrow. I really should be writing rough drafts for his THREE essay questions tomorrow.

-need to finish editing 8th grade pictures.. I got an extension till tomorrow.. but I still have a bunch to go! Here's one:

 

...in my opinion, graduating middle school aint that big of a deal. Cap and Gown? Really?

-read for val and g's class

-start reading a book that has to be read by next week...so i can write an essay on it.

and okay, I take back the whole "not enough hours in a day" thing. 

It's my fault I haven't done any of it yet. Sigh. There are just so many other things that I could spend my time doing! ^All that is boring (minus the editing. that aint so bad). I only live once, right? (;

oh and side note..

how many freakin May birthdays are there!?

tooooo many. 

..back to the grind :/

another beach day!

Akiya's 5th birthday party (Ft. DeSoto Beach):

(we share the same birthday (: they just decided to have her's earlier)

this is akiya's grandpa standing next to my shrinking grandma.
the tallest and the shortest (not counting the kiddos) members of our family.

and I have never been more entertained watching little girls open presents before today:

she loves hannah montana. 

one more thing.. on the way home my grandma told me all about how when i was little every time my grandpa saw me he would grab me and pick me up and sing to me the song "Michelle."

He passed away when I was only 3.. but I do remember him doing that. Sigh. Love that song.. and my grandpa was quite the man.  Apparently he could carry a tune like nobody's business, and wanted to be a conductor when he grew up.. but instead was a cop. In brooklyn. My grandma talked my ear off about him the whole way home... she really misses him ):

..All in all, good day. Not burned, ate good food, and the grams wore me out. I want to go to New York. 

Love,

Michelle