Post Graduation

It's weird to say that I am now an ELCA Graduate. Crazy. I don't think I've blogged since Pendleton, which was a good time. But there were many more great times this year. My senior year started out pretty rocky, and I thought I would never make it, but I totally did. I had a TON of growing and maturing to do, but God was good to me. He let me make my stupid choices, and then picked me up when I fell. He put people into my life that helped me, encouraged me, and let me be me.

I will never forget this year. I made friends with people I never thought I would make friends with, and I lost some that I never thought I would lose. But I also grew more than anything to love and respect the people at ELCA and the people who make ELCA possible. That place is a wonderful home and my class was my family. I love each person soooo much! The senior trip was when I realized that everyone was leaving and we would cease to exist as a family. I love each of them so much. It was crazy. I was reminded at Graduation that I could look to my right or left and I know their first, middle and last names, what sports they play, how many siblings they have, if their parents are divorced, their siblings and parents by name and what their favorite colors are. I'm going to miss these people.

Rylee and Friends

Megan, Shelley and I were sold in the bondservant auction this year. We took a bunch of pictures for a slide show that was a failure, but at least the pics were fun to take. This picture was so much fun to take! Megan and Shelley decided to use my dollar-tree sward as a baton for their little race as i cheered on the side line! Lol. This was like take 105. Lol.

This picture was fun because Megan and Shelley were both really really really scared to jump off. But I told them it was going to be fun! Shelley barely jumped and basically just hopped down. And Megan... I don't know what she was doing.
I'm about a week late announcing my nephew's birthday. He tuned ONE YEAR OLD last Friday. It's hard to believe that it's already been a year. He is turning into one beautiful boy. It's been sooo exciting to watch him grow. Just look how cute he is!!!!! He's finally kind of walking and he's not really saying anything except for "BABA" which is soooo cute. Because he will just say it back and forth with you. He also does a lot of random jibber-jabber which is soooo cute! He apparently can say dog sometimes, but I've never seen it done. He'll soon be saying "Aunt Christina" which is going to be amazing! I love this little guy so much!

When I recorded this video he decided to stop talking.. so I'm sorry. But at least you kind of get the idea. Once he starts saying me name, I'll let you know. :)

T.G.I.F.

Today, at work there were some important visitors from Meridian Idaho. My boss was freaking out and we had to totally clean everything up for them. The cleaning started yesterday, and this morning was funny. When I trim the little plants, I always have a bucket there to let the trimmings drop into, but this time, we had to sweep everything up after that too. Aaaaand, I got to do the honors of sweeping the entire big greenhouse. It SUCKED. Today, while the visitors were in Virginia's office, we had to be really quiet. I had to tip-toe upstairs and down, and I took off my shoes when I got upstairs, careful to not make any noise, Lindsey Aitkin and I were totally bummed that this meant that we had to cancel our tap dancing routine for the day. Haha. No, it was really not too bad. Buuuut the worse part, is at our 10:00 break, when Virginia joined us for break. She said the visitors were from Meridian, and she didn't know where that was, and did any of us know where it was? I almost burst into tears, because I AM SUPPOSED TO BE THERE RIGHT NOW!!! My family was supposed to travel to Boise, well, Meridian to where my aunt lives, and stay for about a week, while checking out future colleges for me, and school shopping and just hanging out. Buuuut, there were some issues that came up that thwarted that. So, much to my dismay, I had to work all week, and then those humans showed up from Meridian and I wanted to punch them. All though, I did feel really bad for them, because I know how long of a drive that is, and they got there around like 8:30, which means they must have left there a little after midnight. Wow, that sucks.

In other news, I have my senior pictures on Thursday, and I'm totally stressed about them because I always look like poop in important pictures. I just know something BAD is going to happen, like I'm going to break a nail or something, so I'm going to look like a loser in the piano ones. Or, I'm accidentally going to catch my hair on fire the night before, and end up having to cut it, and wear my hair suuuper short for pics. I had a dream about that one.

I was sooooo happy it rained today. Because, not only did it smell suuuuper yummy, but I didn't have to ride my bike to the shop to meet my dad! :) yey! Well it's mostly a "yey" after yesterday's fiasco, with a crazy half way drunk guy on a bike chasing after me. Seriously, it freaked me out. I thought I was going to die. Fortunately, I had Devon's words locked away in my brain, that trying to capture me would be like trying to grab onto a tornado. And, now that I think about that, that may have been rude, but I thought she meant because of my cat-like reflexes and because I would be suuuper fast and he wouldn't be able to hold onto me. My dad always joked about how if I got kidnapped, it wouldn't matter, because they would probably have me for like 30 seconds and then bring me straight back. Wow, now that I think of THAT, that was RUDE too! Jeeeezzzz!

Senior year starts in like 10-ish days. Good grief. I am soooo not ready to not be at East Linn. That place is home to me. I know I have griped and complained about it, but really. I don't know where I would be without that place. Everyone there is forgiving and loving, and especially the faculty. Someday, I will give back to East Linn, and thank them for everything they've done for me. Someday, I will do something to make up for all the crap I gave them. I looked online for my tentative schedule this year, and I think this year's going to be very interesting. I haven't decided what I am doing for my other elective, besides choir, obviously. Right now I am signed up for the speech/drama class but who knows. I am kind of rethinking that. I would also like to have a free period where I could have study hall or be a TA or something.

Wow, I'm so glad it's Friday. It has been a very long week, and I'm sooo ready for this weekend. I think I'm going to the zoo tomorrow with some friends, but who knows. With Megan, you never know what's really going to happen. And that's exactly why I love that girl!! :)

The Crew!!!

So here is a picture of all the cool people I get to hang out with every day at work... well, chelsie, the second girl in just left us recently. She went to grad. school, I believe in Colorado somewhere. And her brother, Brad, who is standing directly behind her, is leaving on Friday for the University of Idaho. He will be a sophomore this year. Good luck to him! :) I suppose since I introduced those two, I will introduce the rest of the crew. Erin, is on the end. She's sweet and spunky and one of the most intelligent people I have ever met in my entire existence. She is pretty funny when you get her one-on-one. I just love her. Next is Chelsie. She's pretty cool, also very smart. Then Brad is behind her, he's also very smart. He's going to school to be a engineer and is going to make bank. :) Then in front of him to the right is Lindsey Aitkin. She's also freaking funny and a joy to be around. I just love her. She is inspirational and is just an all around great girl. She will be traveling to Chile to be with her Chilian boyfriend in September, and hopefully come home engaged :) She's soooo much fun!Then behind her to her right is Virginia. This woman is officially THE MOST INTELLIGENT woman I have ever met. She's sooooo smart, and I just look up to her and respect that about her soooo much! She is super nice, and has a big heart. The only downfall is that she LOVES cats, and owns 4 of them at the farm. But I am very honored to work for this woman. I couldn't have asked for anyone better to work for. Then in front of her is Lindsey Bellinger. This girl, I have had the honor of knowing all my life. She is HYSTERICAL. I'm sure you have all heard stories about this one. She's is just a joy to be around. She makes it very interesting out on the farm. She is constantly our comic relief. She's got a GREAT sense of humor. I just LOVE this girl, and she is the reason that we don't go insane around there :) haha. Next, is obviously me, and behind me is Antonio. He is very quiet but very nice. He speaks very little English, so things get very interesting. Like, the other day when he was trying to get my attention, and I had my headphones on, he was like jumping up and down making noises flailing his arms about. It was soooo cute :) hahaha. I just love this picture of all of us girls. We had such a great time when we were doing all the measuring (aka PVP) we just had a blast! I don't know why Lindsey B likes seed cleaning so much. I just loved hanging out with these three all day long. It was a BLAST!!!!!!It's crazy to think that all of this will be over in a couple of weeks. At the beginning of the summer it seemed like forever, but really it's gone by soooo quickly. I have enjoyed it very much. This is definitely and experience that I will want to have again. I cannot wait for PVP next summer! I know that sounds nerdy, and if Lindsey B is reading this, I'm sure she's puking, but really, it was a blast!!!!

MEGGO MY EGGO!

I totally called it. I told you all in the beginning that she would win. Of course I was right. I'm a genius. She totally pulled off the Whitney Huston song that I wanted her to do a LONG time ago. But I'm glad she waited until the finale because she basically kicked butt!!!! Holy freaking cow that girl is good. I don't know how they could compete with her last night. Like, she was the first act, which is always hard to be... but she totally deserved the win. Taylor got second, and the Danika girl who has a voice kind of like any Disney channel girl you want to imagine, got third. She was from Santiam Christian, and Mrs. Grove thought it was cool that the "Christian school kids" won. lol. Anyway, here are the links, if you're interested. Which I know you are. Taylor started out pretty flat and I was really worried about his choice of song for the finale. The first half wasn't very good-- but after he changed keys and hit that high E, I think it is, it was all good from there. I was the loudest voice screaming in the back ground when he hit that E, by the way. He totally pulled it off in the end and I was very proud of that man. Meggo is absolutely breathtaking as always. She is seriously way too passionate for her age. She just has a way with captivating the audience in most every song she sings. MOST every song. Anyway, she never ceases to amaze me. This girl is my best friend and I am extremely extremely proud of her. She is singing this song at my wedding. Just sayin.

Rain Rain Go Away

Okay, so I realize how lame of a title for a blog post that is, but I have been singing that all day long. ALL. DAY.LONG. Seriously. Tomorrow is the Fine Arts Festival, and it would REALLY suck to have to have it inside. Especially because inside means that it can't be OUTSIDE. That will NOT be okay with me, I don't think. Also, It is so pretty when it's outside because Brenna and Logan's parents always bring really pretty flowers and plants to totally make this campus look absolutely amazing. So yeah. Also, I don't like our gym very much... it has REALLY bad acoustics as all gyms do. Anyway that's why I've been singing about the rain all day.

Celia is playing basketball and softball right now. But she's totally good at that kind of thing. I would never be able to do that. I don't think I might actually go crazy if I had to do two different sports like almost every night. I suppose that's kind of what happens in the winter with basketball and music, but at least music isn't like a sport that is as physically exhausting as what she's doing. Like, for most people softball is kind of a chill sport, but as Celia is big into pitching, that's not exactly true for her.

Okay so all my friends around me have been fighting nonstop since formal, and I am totally sick of hearing about all of it. I just want them all to apologize and let it go, but so far all of the "apologies" have been something like this:
Friend #1 : I'm sorry, I wasn't looking at it from your point of view.... but you weren't looking at my point of view either."
Friend#2: "Then you're not really sorry. I AM really sorry, but I wish you would quit being so selfish."
Friend#3: "I really don't have anything to be sorry for."
Me:"Seriously guys, SERIOUSLY?"

So tonight Megan and I are going to be practicing for her teen idol song on Friday night, so it looks like my day might possibly get better. :)

This is my 'Ghost Runner' (on third) in place of my Journal

Right now I'm hanging out with my aunt and uncle at their farm house right outside of Corvallis.Yes, it's the cutest little farm house. I love spending time with my newly married relatives. They just recently got married in Reno. And are having another wedding in front of family and friends in August. I am sooo super excited for it! :) I love calling her "Aunt Joani" now after like 10 years! Woooo hoooo! The wedding is going to be here at their farm house and Emmi and I are going to be in the wedding as bridesmaids. It's going to be soooo awesome.

Now I'm going to pretend that I have millions of readers that have been wondering where I've been and why I haven't posted in forever:

Well, last week my family drove to cal-ee-for-nia!!We had a huge Barreto Family reunion. It was great. Kind of. :) It was HOTTT! Aaaaand I didn't know like 1/2 the people there, which is always fun. The good thing about it was that I got to see all of my cousins that I only get to see like once a year. And some that I had not seen in like 3 or 4 years. It was nice. The other thing is that I got to do a lot of shopping. We were in Redding, and honestly I didn't know what to expect, in terms of shopping, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. We also got to stop at Crater Lake on the way home. I hadn't been there in like a year, so it was nice too see it again. I love that place. I could sit there for hours and hours just staring into space. The water looks so peaceful there, and I always have a dream that I am swimming across, although I know that if I tried I would die of coldness. :)

So blueberry harvest has begun. I hate that part of the summer. It means that I have to wake up at the freaking butt-crack of dawn to pick berries. GGGGGRRRRR. I think that it has just been recently that I have hated it, because mom said that I used to love it. I think that was when all of my friends were losers like me and didn't have a job, so it was kind of a social occasion. Now I'm only going because I don't have a job and these people are really good friends of the family so I feel bad not going.

Next week is some kind of church camp that I'm going to help out at. I really don't know what to expect. One day at school I had a substitute teacher and she was very peppy...like really. Like she was excited about what we were learning in BIOLOGY... ewwww. What a freak. Anyway, she told me that I reminded her of her. hmmmm... Okay... Anyway, she said that I seemed like I would be someone that would be good with helping out little kids. Okay, that's just weird, because you all know about GS camp. Anyway, she asked me if I was interested in helping at this church camp this summer... and I, being the idiot that I am was like "oh...sure" thinking that she was only a sub. and that she wouldn't remember me the next day. Then it turned out that she was friends with my mom, and then I knew that there was no way that I was going to get out of this predicament. So yesterday I get a call from her, and she was frantically trying to get some high school helpers at this camp. I felt bad for her, and I said that I would be there. grrr... there goes my week of laying around, reading and getting a tan... like I need one. :)

So on Thursday night I saw Momma Mia, and I have to say, my friends told me before that it was cheesy... and I would hate to say it, but they were right. The acting wasn't exactly stellar, on the other hand, it was kind of cute. There was only one actor who's singing was particularly cringe-worthy, I don't even remember who it was, or what he was singing, but Devon had told me right before that it sucked, and she was right. But in the end, it wasn't all that bad. It was a cute movie. I'm glad I saw it. But it definitely not as good as the Mystery Science Theatre that we saw afterwards. I think that show is sooo awesome. But when I was trying to explain it to some of my friends the next day, they looked my like I was on crack and said that I was retarded. Well... apparently it's not for everyone.. :) which is really too bad.

I also saw Bat Man...The Dark Kight... or whatever it is... I don't remember... anyway, it wasn't worth remembering. Although it was nice to see Heath Ledger's last movie. I did enjoy watching him, but not all the time, obviously, because it was gross.I have a weak stomach... obviously.

So my friend Michelley-Ellie is living at her home in Lacomb again... which I am totally excited about. I have been able to see her this summer, and although it's not the same as it used to be, it's better than nothing. I miss the old Lacombie-Homies, but it's alright. Morgan promised that she would come back in August to jump off Larwood Bridge with me, so when she comes back, I hope we will be able to get the whole Lacombie group back together for a few days.... not counting Tucker... if you know what I mean.. :)

So I have finished the book, Plain Truth, I guess a while ago, but I loved it! I was so good. I love those kind of books. I have for a while been pondering the idea of maybe going to Law school, because there were a few people that told me that because I love to argue and read, that I would make a really good lawyer. However, the thing is, I would want to be a defense attorney. And the problem with that is, I would be representing people that are clearly guilty. And I have been taught my whole life that lying is wrong... right? But I thing that although maybe 90% of my clients would be guilty, I would be in it for the 10% that is innocent. Who knows. I don't know what it is I want to do anymore, which I am told is normal, but I don't like it one bit. I have always wanted to be an music teacher, but now I'm thinking Law, and I have also been considering English or Journalism... I hate this... grrr. I don't know... I suppose I'm only a Junior, but I want to know before I'm a senior... unlike a lot of people who change their major like 80 thousand times. But whatever.