Summer Adventures

I ended up skipping last weeks post… so here’s a summary of the last two weeks…

On the 20th, my family went to the Emerald Village Mine for my brothers 20th birthday. It proved to be a fun place to visit and explore. It’s a good environment for families and the people working there were all very nice.

On the 21st, my 6 year-old brother started 1st grade. So far, he seems to be enjoying it… although I don’t think he understands that he still has 12 years left (including this one) before he can go to college. All he’s seen at my college is fun… so of course he would want to go!

Then on the 22nd, Torey and I went on a tour of Sierra Nevada in Mills River, NC. Talk about a cool place. The facility is beautiful and the process that goes into making their beer… all the machinery… it’s fascinating. Now, I’m not much of a beer drinker but that tour was still very much worth it. Another great thing about it? It’s free! Always a plus. (Slideshow has 7 pictures)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

My grandparents have been here for a few weeks from Colorado… it’s always nice to see family. We’ve gone on a few adventures. They went with us to the mines, to the North Carolina Arboretum, and down to Greenville, SC. It was nice to spend some time with them.

One of my favorite pictures.

Butterfly quilt garden.

Cousins watching the deer.

During this last week…

Our septic has been fixed. The yard is torn apart but everything is working and up to code now… so that’s great. I was getting very sick of using a porta potty. Haha. I’m glad that no one in the family is too “high and mighty” to suck it up and deal with the situation presented to us. You just have to kind of deal with stuff like that. Still, very… very glad that has all been worked out.

We’ve also bought a “new” washer and dryer after the dryer almost caused an electrical fire and the washer stopped working correctly. It seems to be a very nice set so far…It’s kind of hard to imagine how these people upgraded from this set.

The blog also just celebrated a year anniversary on the 27th. Yay! Here’s to another year of me writing about whatever comes to my mind!

 

The Last Airbender

Lately, my family has been re-watching “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Re-watching for the third time… I think.

It’s a great series. It’s appropriate for pretty much all ages (occasionally, it’s too intense for my littlest sister). It has the fighting and action… it has the love stories and enemies… it has the emotional heart-string pulling moments.

Aang, the main character and Avatar, is 12 years old for the length of this series.

When you really think about all they put this kid through during this show… it’s crazy. A 12 year-old whose responsibility is to help fight the fire nation in a war that has lasted a 100 years. Whose responsibility is to bring peace back to an entire world.  The amount of love and strength they gave this character is incredible.

The show will probably always be one of my favorites.

You can tell it’s one of my family’s favorites… our dog is even named Appa. You see that flying bison (the giant flying creature with an arrow on its head) in the background of the above picture? That’s Appa. An incredibly strong, protecting, loving, and loyal creature.

This is one of the few shows I feel I could binge watch and still want more.

*The above picture was from this website. According to the quiz, I’m Toph. Which Avatar: The Last Airbender Character Are You?

Raindrop Cake… ?

So… you may or may not have heard of a “raindrop cake.” It was all over the internet a few months back. If you search “raindrop cake” in Google, you’ll find tons of pictures of what it is suppose to look like.

I’m not sure what makes it a “cake”… it’s more like a flavorless gelatin.

It’s strange.

I wanted to try my hand at making them… so I used the recipe from The Cooking of Joy blog.

This was one of the first ones I made using this recipe  (or well… the first one that didn’t just deteriorate when it hit the plate).

It turned out pretty well, I thought. It was like eating water.

The next one I made, I added a bit of blue food coloring to help it stand out a bit.

The only thing different from the previous one is the color. It tasted exactly the same.

One piece of advice I have for those wanting to try to make these “cakes” is to let them set overnight. The first couple ones I made, I only let sit in the fridge a few hours. I’m pretty sure this is why they fell apart almost immediately.

I would also recommend topping the cake with something. It’s originally topped with black sugar syrup and roasted soy flour… maybe this improves the flavor/enhances the experience? I thought honey was decent on it, though Nate said it was “the worst.”

I also wanted to try my hand at making some weird flavored “Jello.”  I tried adding a little bit of Kool-Aid to the recipe. This did not turn out well at all. The flavor was very… off and it fell apart quickly.

I convinced Nate to try some of it by telling him it was goblin boogers…

Little boys are strange.

Bullet Journal: One Month

A month ago, I started a bullet journal.

So far, I have really enjoyed how it keeps everything organized. It is a great place to keep lists and use as a personalized planner.

*If you don’t know what a bullet journal is… there are a lot of helpful links on Google and Pinterest.

We will see how it evolves over time as I’ve already been trying out different designs.

I started off with a very rounded floral design and quickly realized that I didn’t have enough time to do that every day. For July, I am trying banners for pretty much every heading, although I might just end up with colorful squares again.

I’ve also already changed some of my daily tracker (June is pictured at the very top). I took out some categories that turned out to be unhelpful and changed some of the mood options. It’s a work in progress.

I would definitely recommend this style of journal for anyone who likes to make lists and keep track of  random things.

Have fun!