Oh, the Artsy People

My older sister has an amazing artistic ability. She's into photography, painting, and making collages. I love the collages she makes- they are beautiful! Her big collage (which is the main piece of art in her living room) is my favorite. It consists of a black and white picture she took while in Paris. Around the picture is an array of colorful pictures she cut out of magazines. Framing that is a thin black poster fame. Here is a picture of it:

Nature's Symphony

Recently, my family took a camping trip to the Appalachian Mountains. Our first evening, we took a hike to watch the sun slip behind the mountains. There was a symphony composed of nature's sounds- the chorus of the trees rustling in the wind, the occasional hum of a cricket, and the music of the wind in your ears.

It's evenings like that that make me wish summer would never give in to fall.

Salad Anyone?

My family is all into gourmet salads. We experiment by adding everything from blueberries, apples, and grapes, to feta cheese, olive oil and sunflower seeds.

For some odd reason, I've never been a fan of salad dressing. One reason is because it adds calories to your salad, has MSG and/or partially hydrogenated oils. But another reason it it totally takes away the fresh taste of the lettuce. Instead of salad dressing like Ranch, I use olive oil. Olive oil helps bring out the fresh flavor of the lettuce and is totally natural. You should try it some time! When you shop for olive oil, get the darkest kind you can find. The kind we currently have was given to us by our Greek friend. He buys it from the island of Crete where he's from. He claims it is the best olive oil in the world- and I agree!

Island Life

I'm in love with island life. Waking up at sunrise to a hot cup of coffee. Grabbing my surfboard, strapping it to the roof of the van and driving to the beach with the windows rolled down, Jack Johnson blaring out of the speakers, the wind blowing my hair.

Carrying the board over the dunes and up the beach. Waxing the surfboard, then heading out to the sandbar to catch some waves.

Sunrise on the East Coast

Hot and Humid

Hot, humid, and sunny- that sums up the south in the summer . The past two days I noticed this film in the air that made everything look hazy. It turned out to be the humidity. The humidity is so dense that you can see it in the air. To top that off, it's been around 98 degrees and sunny. Not good weather when you have to sit outside in a lifeguard stand for hours at a time.

A Typical Day

I thought my life would slow down as summer aproched, but I was wrong. I'm a part time student, lifeguard, babysitter, and petsitter.

This is how a typical day goes:

Get up and go for a half hour run

Eat breakfast

Walk one set of dogs

Walk another dog

Grab lunch

Head to the pool to lifeguard for 4 to 6 hours

Go from work to friends house to babysit two kids for an hour

Get home after dark to eat dinner with the family

Go to bed to get 6-8 hours of sleep and do that all over again