I must be trippin'

Well, this week I went out to Simi Valley again and had some more fun with the Mordues :)

On Monday after my meetings I left for Simi and had a great time hanging out with my cousin Gracie and her awesome parents as well as my Uncle Brent. I had an appointment with my Aunt Chris in the evening where I enjoyed seeing her and her family, I don't get to see everyone as much as I would like to. Later that night we went to see Wall-e for Family Home Evening and I LOVED it! I had heard that it was really good, but I didn't know for myself. It was an adorable movie that anyone can enjoy. It's sad, happy, cute, funny, and an all-around great flick :)

Tuesday I had fun finger painting with Gracie and then had some more appointments. The night continued with a delicious dinner prepared by Mindy and Wade and then a Frosty run after Wade's Scout Night. The next morning I drove home and now it is time for another trip.

Here are the masterpieces created by Gracie and I.
can you tell which is mine? ;)

Tomorrow i leave for Lake Powell! My brothers and I are carpooling with a few of the Wrights and we are driving to the border of Utah/Arizona where we will meet up with the Murdocks for our family tradition of vacationing on a houseboat on the beautiful water with the red rocks and lots of water sports! I am way excited :)

I'll take lots of pictures and let you all know how it went when I get back around Jul 23rd I'm thinking. So, I'll see you all when I'm [hopefully] a lot tanner! ;)

It wasn't a waste of 4 years!

Sunday morning I was awoken at 8 am by my phone ringing. The ringtone was my friend Gerald speaking Mandarin and telling me to pick up the phone. I was tired as I had previously pressed snooze on my alarm and very confused as to why he was calling me at this time on Sunday.

The first thing he says was this: "Holly? You got the IB Diploma!" Even if I wasn't half asleep I would have been shocked and in disbelief. I immediately woke up and got on the computer to check my IB test scores that were available for us to check for the first time on that day, July 6. He wasn't lying, I was one of only 6 in my entire IB graduating class to achieve the necessary requirements of test scores and sub-totals to qualify for the IB diploma. Needless to say- I was SO EXCITED! :D

Its really great because now I know that my 4 years of had work and procrastination- i mean dedication ;) - were not all for nothing. It actually made a difference and paid off :)

For those of you who do not have a clue what I'm talking about- IB is the International Baccalaureate Program that is offered in only 17 high schools in California. It is an international prograom, [hence the I in IB] so there are kids all over the world who participate in it. It is similar to the Advanced Placement program, but the easiest way of recognizing the difference is that AP is for a specialization in a subject or two of the students choice, while IB is a full schedule of rigorous courses that challenge the student and potentially provide college credit. There are also Creativity, Action, and Service [CAS] hours that must be completed by the students as well as a Theory of Knowledge [ToK] class where the student writes a 4000 word essay.

I took IB tests for my IB Math Methods, IB Psychology, IB Physics, IB History of the Americas, IB English, and IB Spanish classes. It was a tough program with lots of work, reports, and essays, but it paid off and im so excited! :D

Fourth of July

First of all, let me say that this year has flown by! I cannot believe that it is already July, that I have been graduated for over a month, and that I leave for college soon. Woah.

Anywho- I love fireworks. I'm not quite a pyro, but I do enjoy fire. Okay, so maybe I am a bit of a pyro ;) I really enjoy watching the fireworks and feeling the awe and amazement of the beautiful and grand creations in the sky. Almost every 4th of July of my life [at least those that I remember] I have watched the fireworks show that is put on at Palmdale High School. We usually sit on the lawn of the Stake Center across the street from the school, or a couple years I spent at the Scavo's house right behind the Stake Center. I feel its a tradition to watch that particular show, whether or not I am joined by family.
This year I had an appointment set up in the morning so I did my demo [and made a sale, woohoo!] read Harry Potter and then hung out with Kevin. We made dinner together, home-made spaghetti- yum!, and then went over to the Stake Center around 8:30 to watch the show when it got dark. I wasn't disappointed :) There were some really cool ones that looked like confetti, others that span in circles after exploding, great big colorful ones, large booming ones. I loved it. I tried to capture some of the thrills, but as you can see, you had to be there.

Kevin and I laying on the lawn of the church

a few attempts to capture a picture of the show

Another great thing was the cute little kid that was sitting near us. He ran a little commentary of his amazement that was really cute. Here are some things he said:
*"It looks like space!"
*"I've never seen anything like that in my LIFE!"
*"Woah! Woah!"
*"Its a rainbow!"

All of these were said in a cute little-kid-full-of-amazement voice. Precious and hilarious.

Sadly this year we didn't do any of our own fireworks, but it was a great 4th none-the-less. Happy Birthday America! :)

Recap

Well, I think the internet is finally up at my mom's house- of course it was fixed when i wasn't there anymore. But I'm at my dad's house now with some free time on my hands and I can now recap the happenings of the past week or so. [which has now turned into 2 weeks due to my busyness]

WORK:
I have a job! I received several letters this summer from a company called Vector Marketing and decided to give them a call. I went in for an appointment June 17, got hired on the spot by the manager through an interview process, and then went in for training the following Thursday Friday and Saturday.
The training sessions were 5 hours long, sitting in those metal fold up chairs- like the ones at church- but I learned how to do the demo and go through appointments, and started with my first appointment Saturday evening with Kevin's parents before going to Joy's birthday party [previously blogged about]. I've been setting appointments and doing demonstrations since then and have been pretty successful, to the surprise of my parents. At first I was a little skeptical and unsure if this was the right kind of job for me, but now I am very happy with it and actually having money to save up for college!

So, what I do for my job is this: I am a sales rep who goes to interested customers who are willing to let me demonstrate Cutco kitchenware in their homes. I do a basic demonstration, give them information, help them make purchases, and get paid whether or not they decide to buy anything. So- If any of you are in need of the highest quality knives and accessories, or are just willing to help me out by listening to my demo let me know! ;)

FAMILY:
During my first week on the job I thought it would be good to go out to Simi Valley to visit my awesome family. I'd be able to do some demos with my aunts and also hang out with them! I drove out Monday afternoon and stayed with my aunt Mindy and Uncle Wade as well as my uncle Brent and cousin Gracie. Upon my arrival Gracie promptly showed me her very cool trampoline were we jumped away and had a lot of fun. We played with her Play-do as well and made fun animal shapes with her cookie cutter pieces, and danced to Dora the Explorer's fiesta CD.
That night we went to Famous Daves for a delicious dinner celebrating Wade's and My birthdays in May, my graduation in May, and Gracie's birthday which was the previous Saturday. The restaurant wasn't very crowded so Gracie had plenty of room to dance to the music that was playing.
We had a great time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Gracie Dancing

The next day was Jake's birthday and he got his license, so congrats to him! I still can't believe my baby Jake is 16... not that much younger than me but it surprises me none-the-less :) So Jeanine and Jake stopped by Mindy's house and we played Lucky Ducks, I read Harry Potter [my way of passing the time until the fourth installment of the Twilight Series comes out ;)], and I did my demo for Mindy and Wade. The next day I did the demo for Jeanine and ate yummy Mexican food with the Mordues, then I drove back to Palmdale in the afternoon. I had a great time visiting with my great family and can't wait to go back soon :)

Gracie and I on our way to get lunch

Mindy and Wade

The AWESOME Mordues

ADVENTURES:
So, Ive been pretty busy going to work meetings, workshops, and appointments but I like to have my fun too. Jesi and I went to Target to grab a few items and on the way back squeezed in an adventure. It was like 4:50 and I had to be in East Lancaster for an appointment at 5:30 so we didn't have much time. We were driving down our street when we all-of-a-sudden saw a huge geyser shooting above some houses. In a split second decision we followed the geyser and tried to find its source. I was in a bit of a hurry, but it was so much fun. We discovered that it was coming from the neighborhood across and down the street but the entrance was very packed. It must have been a hit fire hydrant because there were firetrucks and ambulances on the scene. I felt bad for whoever hit it while we drove away- Jesi snapped some cool pictures. This this was so high! It flooded the streets as you can see in one of the pictures. good times :D

one of our first glimpses

look at that sucker!

the flooded entrance to the neighborhood

when we were right by it- SO HIGH!

Well, That sums up a good portion of what i missed the chance to blog about last week. But don't worry- there is more to come :)