Extreme Weather

After one of the coldest and snowy-est winters I've ever known, and the wettest spring (seriously, was there a track meet not affected by rain in some way?), we're apparently on to one of the hottest summers. Unfortunately, in Ohio, due to the lovely humidity, this means that it's hot nearly 24/7, not just during the day: Perfect swimming weather for people who have regular access to a pool :-l, and for everyone else? Well...let's just say it's going to be a long summer.

....and for me?

....It's going to be a long summer.

Dance at Grandpa's

I remember my dad reading Little House in the Big Woods to me when I was about 4 years old. The chapter in it that shares the title of this post was one of my favorites. It tells the story of how, in the middle of the winter, Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, and Baby Carrie bundle into the wagon and drive to Grandpa and Grandma's house. All the family is gathered there and there is fiddle music (from Pa of course), dancing, lots of good food, and fun times with all the extended family. It sounded a lot like some of our family gatherings (both my parents have huge families), but we don't usually dance. Well, this sunday, for the 3rd time in the last 8 years, my grandparents (and this time, my uncle Steve and aunt Carissa, who now live in my grandparents' old house) hosted a hoe down (i have no idea how to spell that..or what it even means) for all the family who could make it. Almost all the aunts and uncles were here and lots of other California family. We ate way to much, swam in the pool, made new friends, and danced until our feet were sore (really...my legs were killing me that night). My grandpa found a square dance caller who was willing to put up with the chaos of the 30some kids here, plus the adults that are somwhat...directionally challenged. ;) It was so much fun! Everyone danced with everyone else and no one was ever without a partner for long. One of the good things about the Luke family is that there is a fairly even number of guy and girl cousins, so dancing is made easy and only a few girls had to dance the guy parts. The whole evening was full of silliness, laughter, and family...overall, the best combination of fun. :D

Jesse got a reaallly interesting tan *cough* burn..

and daddy likes to pick at the leftovers before the party even ends ;)

Uncle Steve is too cool for the pool..or anything else for that matter

Braxton: one of my other california cousins and the most interesting,

if not best, dance partner I had haha ..i never knew you could move your hips while square dancing ;)

Aunt Carissa and her family (minus uncle steve..who's still being cool at this point):

the hostess of all our family reunion activities and one of the most amazing, fun, hard-working, loving ladies I know :)

Watch out! More posts to come!! :D

School, sleepovers, and skinny jeans

I can't believe school is about to start! It's ridiculous! I mean..I haven't even finished last year's work! Latin started last week, so I've been busy trying to remember how to decline nouns. grr. School starts this Tuesday, and we went to orientation last Monday. It was a lot of fun! I got my uniforms!!! (I need to stop using exclamation marks..I think I'm just a little too excited about starting school)

Anyway, after orientation..I went to a good friend's house for our 1st annual 'BM back to school bash'. (BM stands for Best Mate..unless you're a member and you know the secret meaning) We made t-shirts and died...no...dyed our hair with kool aid. It was fun..even if I had to sleep with tin foil in my hair all night..and even though I had to wash my hair right away the next morning because it was so sticky and greasy from the conditioner/kool aid mixture. Maybe next year we'll use real hair dye..but a week before school starts is not a good time to streak your hair red when the dress code says "No unnatural hair colors". We felt safer using kool aid, after being assured by several friends and cousins that it would rinse out on the first try. (and the BM budget couldn't afford real hair dye) Anyways, the only place it really showed up was my freakishly blond streak in the front..left over from my blond days (when I was little..).

And you might be wondering why the title contains 'skinny jeans'..some of you may remember, and I confess that I have been heard to say "I hate skinny jeans", "I'll never wear those", and even"We should start a flare rebellion against skinny jeans and wear flares even when they go out of style, which will hopefully be never!". *sigh* Yes, I did, in fact, say all of those things. And I'm paying for it now. I've been teased, tormented, and stared at (ok..maybe not the last two). But, while I was in VA..I broke down..and...and...and...I got a pair of skinny jeans. And the worst part is..I LIKE THEM! Anyways..you'll probably see pictures of me in them later, but I'm not a model (despite all my self pics in costumes) and I refuse to post pics of me in them specifically for the purpose of showing off my skinny jeans. HA. (if you look carefully in the upcoming "zoo" post, you'll see me wearing them.

So, now I'm off to keep writing up new posts (I got over a blogger's block all of a sudden and have about 50 posts planned for the next few days before school starts..oh....I guess that'd be only a day. *sigh*), but not before I post a few pics of the BM t-shirt I made. (pics of my uniform will appear sporadically throughout the year, I'm sure)

Summer Fun!

Photography on the last two pictures done by Charlie.