Lucky Seven

My bithday is crazy being on the 4th of July, so every year I go out and do my own thing. I kept it pretty simple today. I started out by haeding over to the mall and getting some fantastic chicken avocado grilled cheese from Melty Way. I got some chips and a side salad as well. Everything was great.

I wasn't sure what I was going to get at first for my birthday present to myself, so I looked around a lot. I looked through Michael's craft store, around the various stores in the mall, and finally at Barnes & Noble. I decided to get some coloring books.

I remembered that I was expecting a package from Linda today, so I went home to see if I got it. This is actually why I chose coloring books.

I was lucky to get these as well! A fantastic present from Linda via Amazon. I think they are running out of the 42 count fineliners so I was lucky!

It was pretty relaxed today. I loved it.

Twenty Seven

We were going to make breakfast today, but decided to go out today instead. We went to Black Bear Diner. Today was my first time going and I'd definitely go again. We were going to make eggs, pancakes, sausage, muffins, orange juice and the works at home, but I am glad we went to Black Bear Diner instead.

Laura wanted to buy me a present, so we went to khols. I found this really awesome ring!

We went to Target as well after and I got this bag. None of the ones I had at home could fit books and that was what I was looking for.

I went to finding Dory, it was awesome. I also got a treat to bring.

We had an old fashioned 4th of July dinner. Hamburgers, chips, frog eye salad, etc. It was great. We had my custom Baby Ruth candy bar cake from Coldstone Creamery some time after. The ice cream was peanut butter cookie flavor. There was bits of candy bar in it too.

We went to fireworks in the evening. I had no glow sticks this year though. It was still fun. everyone got freaked out by this barn or something that caught fire. I think it might have been a planned stunt, but no one knows.

It feels weird, but good to be 27!

The Hourglass Turns

I am one year older at midnight. Sometimes I feel as if my body is aging while my soul and personality aren't. I am glad that in the next life we don't really age physically. I love being active and I'm definitely a high energy free spirit even though I'm so quiet. Those that are close to me know this side of me. I'm definitely high energy, but not so much that I'd burn other people out with my presence, like other introverts. I don't know if I still feel like a teenager, but I do still feel like I'm around 21. I go at my own pace and do things my way as much as I can, so sometimes I forget about time, or ignore it. I'm not as caught up in the flow of time as a lot of people. I find that if you want time to flow naturally you shouldn't constantly look at clocks. It messes up your perception of the world. I think we would be a happier world if we didn't revolve ourselves around clocks and dates. Age is definitely important for various reasons, but over thinking it is unhealthy for the mind.

Today in church I started using my artists tile sketchbook. There are six tiles on each page. I've been working on one that features stars of various number of points. I never knew that drawing three pointed stars was so hard, but I'm getting the hang of it. I also bore my testimony about fasting in sacrament meeting today. I usually go up there every month to do something like that on various subjects. In the second hour we talked about the requirements for going to the temple, and in the third hour I fell asleep I'll admit, so I've blanked out the subject of our lesson. I probably should have drawn in the third hour too because of course it helps me concentrate. I not only brought my artists tile sketchbook, but my pens, fine line markers, colored pencils, paper, oxford blank cards, coloring booksclip board, and pencil sharpener. I had no clue what I'd do today at church, so I came prepared.

After church I had forgotten my key, so I watched bald eagles on the livestream on explore.org until dad came home. I took a long nap and around 6pm I broke my fast with grilled cheese. We also had roast, potatoes, and carrots for dinner. I had cinnamon bread for dessert and watched Justice League. I've finished season two. I have been playing various games on my phone and listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix up until now. I got a new game from iTunes for $3 called Bloons TDS. It's basically a balloon popping game. You set up different kinds of monkeys along a map and they pop the balloons as they move along the path. If too many of them get to the other end of the course you lose the game and have to start over.

Artists Tile Sketchbook

Today I did not sleep in as much. I am so glad that Heidi decided to take her night shift instead of letting me have it today. I only had to work two hours and it wasn't busy. I would have had to work nine hours if she hadn't changed her mind about me covering. There isn't much to tell about work today. I rolled out some cinnamon rolls, took out dough sheets, cleaned the lobby, etc. Elis and someone else I'm not really familiar with were at work today. I feel like I am not such an outcast anymore. I've been getting along with everyone lately. I got a pecan caramel center of the roll and a tropical blast chillata after work. The center of the roll is basically cut up cinnamon roll and depending on which you get they have different frosting. The classic has cinnamon caramel frosting and the regular cream cheese frosting, and the pecan caramel center has caramel and caramel frosting with pecans. I know I shouldn't eat them because of the margarine, but sometimes it is nice. I am going to quit eating like this after my birthday celebrations next week. I figured t would be fun to eat something like that one last time. I am going cold turkey off of stuff like that after next week.

Since I got off early, after eating only half of each of the items I got at Cinnabon I went to various stores looking for a patriotic shirt to waer on Monday. I even walked to Old Navy which probably took me 30 minutes there and back. I didn't really find anything, but that is alright. I found out that Old Navy has overall shorts and I really want to try those on sometime. I think they might reach the knee. I've been wanting to get some new overalls for a long time but they are hard to find nowadays. I don't think I'll visit Old Navy very often since it is pretty far west of the mall and I hate walking past big parking lots. There is just something about that walk I find creepy. I am also pretty sure someone threw a loud firecracker at me on the way there, but not sure. Maybe it wasn't at me, just near me. I do want to go there some time again and look at their clothes again. I feel like I could find stuff I'd like there if I looked harder. Anyway, I made a stop at Barnes & Noble and finally got this artists tile sketchbook and album I've been wanting. It's basically a sketchbook full of little squares that you do small art on. I do sticky note and oxford card stock art all the time, so it's perfect. I find I can get more creative on small spaces.  I was also going to get a bird coloring book, but I think I'll wait until next week for that, or order one off of Amazon.

I am going to really enjoy using these in church and in school and various other places. I find that when I draw in church I pay attention easier.

I called Laura to pick me up when I was at Barnes & Noble and bought the books. I decided to go to Michael's craft store and look for markers, but didn't find anything I want right now. When Laura got to Michael's I almost accidentally got into someone else's car, but realized my mistake fairly quickly and found Laura then we left. I actually found some markers that I want on Amazon. they are the Staedtler 42 triple fineliner markers. I already have the 20 set and it's lasted me for years! I know they are great quality, so I'm most likely going to get them soon.

Anyway, On our way back home we went to Wendy's and I got a crispy chicken sandwitch. Kayla, Laura nd I all got one. When I got home I started my fast. I've been drinking water since 8:30 and I"m going to go dry after midnight until 6pm or 8pm tomorrow. I feel like fast Sunday's are becoming more enjoyable and I'm starting to gain more out of them. Before and after work I've been watching eagles, doing random stuff on facebook and playing games on m phone as usual. I guess the rest is history. :)

Just Another Friday

I got Spaghetti again at Villa Italian kitchen after work tonight. They give you so much of the spaghetti, I love it. I ate it at home after work. I actually got an extra bread stick. I also picked up my cake from Cold Stone as well. It looks fantastic! No pictures until my birthday though. Work was busy and enjoyable today. I got to help a lot of customers and one of my fellow employees didn't show up for work. I feel like every Friday something goes wrong n some way, or nearly every Friday at least for the past few.  I did so much I can't even recall it all because it went so fast. Some of the things I did were make caramel cinnamon frosting, make the regular caramel frosting, dishes, a little rolling, and filling the place in the lobby we put the utensils in. Other than this there isn't much to tell from today. I did clean out the photos on my phone somewhat, and other random things. I think I'll just leave a video today because it was pretty boring. Oh yeah, and Heidi told me I don't have to do the night shift anymore tomorrow. I am kind of relieved. I want to relax tomorrow.

Pop Rocks on the Ice

My day started out with playing games, watching bald eagles and napping. Nothing mch happened until the afternoon. I let myself sleep in after a late night last night. I got cleaned up and got my stuff together. Laura and the rest went swimming, so i was the last to leave. I decided to not eat anything before I left. I headed to the store to get some Take 5 candy bars for my custom cake from Coldstone Creamery. Harmon's didn't have any though, so i decided to go with Baby Ruth instead. I bought 3 king size and one normal sized candy bar for the cake because they don't have Baby Ruth at Coldstone. I walked around the store for a little bit before waiting for the bus. When I got to the mall I headed straight for where Cinnabon and Cold Stone are. I got things done pretty quick. I ordered a yellow cake with peanut butter cookie ice cream, buttercream frosting, Baby Ruth candy bar cut up and custom writing. I grabbed a raspberry blended lemonade before I went for a late lunch.

I knew what I wanted, and that was italian food from Villa Italian Kitchen in the mall food court. i decided to get spaghetti instead of pizza. It came with one of the amazing bread sticks, so it was more than worth it. After I ate I decided to do a bit of walking around town.

I listened to some of my stations on Pandora and walked around the mall a little before going to Michael's craft store Best Buy and Barne's and Noble. I didn't look at anything inparticular at Michael's, but I did look at laptops at Best Buy and I hung out at Barnes and Noble. I really want to get a new laptop and their prices aren't bad. As for the bookstore, I didn't do much besides look at some educational books and do some stuff on my phone because they have wifi and I wanted to see how the Bald Eagles were doing.

I went back to the mall where I noticed a new snow cone / shaved ice place called "Snowie". I got half mango and half cherry. Their stuff is pretty good and they got so many flavors! They even added Pop Rocks on top for free! Not long after this I was picked up by Laura and we went home.

Rain Shower

Today when it rained I just stood out in it for a fe minutes and let myself get soaked. It has been a long tie since I have done that. I remember times when I would go outside with my friends and we would do it together. There was numerous times when we would play in deep puddles and even one time hen we had one up to our knees close to what used to be the canal. Some people might say playing there was dangerous, but we were right below it 25 or 30 feet from the canal at the bottom of a hill. It was a blast when the cars would come and splash us. I love memories like that. There was 15 or 20 of us and we had so much fun.

Before it rained I was outside walking again and the storm came so fast. I actually did a live stream of me walking, but I don't think I'll post it here. It started out as just dark clouds on the side, but they came over fast and then the wind suddenly kicked in and decided on lap 3 that it was a perfect time to live stream. It was also getting dusty, so the mountains looked really neat. I don't like windy rain very much when it is cold, but when it's hot it is really fun. It didn't start raining until I was on my way back to the house though. It was just a sprinkle until a couple of minutes after I got inside the house.  I was back outside within 10 or 15 minutes and that is hen I stood out in the rain.

This rain felt especially great to me today because I walked to the store earlier to get a Fiji water. I got the 1.5 quart one and drank it in 10 minutes. I was so parched and really wanted that. I am not going to start buying ti every day obviously, but once a week doesn't seem to hurt. I might buy a couple of cases when I got o school again and drink them every other day, but not for a while. I actually stuck it in the ice cream freezers when I was at the store because I wanted to make it colder. It worked pretty well, but it made me laugh seeing a Fiji water with all the ice cream. I also looked at all the other water at the store. There is quite a lot of it and I want to try a few more. Before I understood that all water isn't the same I would never never done this, but it's so fun now.

We had chef salad for dinner tonight.

I've also been playing around with cam toy tonight.

I should probably mention that I went to Pottermore and got sorted into my Ilvermorny house. I am so glad that J.K. Rowling is expanding the Harry Potter universe. I sorted myself latelast night when I couldn't sleep. Turns out I'm in Thunderbird house. I might as well remind everyone that I'm also in Ravenclaw at Hogwarts, so it seems perfect. I love Harry Potter so much.

New Beginnings at Work

Today is the first official day we have a new manager at Cinnabon. Trever also works at Cold Stone so I alraedy know him. It's going to be interesting to see how he improves things. We got a new lemonade machine last week. I will miss Jan, but she has to move. I'm not afraid of embracing change, but it will be sad to see both of the people that hired me leave the job. Maddie has already left and now Jan is going.
I had to wake up early to get ready for the meeting. I chose not to have breakfast because I knew that we would have Jamba Juice at our meeting. Instead of waking Laura up I decided to just take the bus to the mall as usual. I made it just in time and clocked in. We get paid for going to the meetings. We all sat at tables and were handed a list of things we were going to talk about. I won't give too many details because I don't know how Steve, the owner would feel about it. I'd guess there was about 16 or 17 of us there including a new employee. I think his name is Marco, but I forgot so I might be way off there. When we got started we talked about the new sample shift, dress code, what to do with $100 bills, cleaning, and other basic functions of the store and how we can improve sales. There is a contest going on now to see how many packs we can sell this next month. The person who sells the most will get a bonus onn their pay or a gift card or something, I forgot exactly.  During the meeting Steve went and got our Jamba Juice orders. I got Panut Butter Chocolate Love. The funny thing was that most people got mango. I usually get mango too, but wanted something a little different this time.

After the meeting I hung around and looked at the cake book near the entrance. My birthday is in six days so now was the perfect time. I'm getting a large round cake that is made with yellow cake, peanut butter cookie dough ice cream, Take 5 Candy bar, and I haven't decided on the frosting or what coloring I want the Happy Birthday Liahna to be.I know that I will have it decided by later this week when I order it.

Sincethe mall isn't open yet after our meetings I headed to Barnes & Noble. Out meetings are from 8 to 9:30 usually and the mall opens at t10:00am. I looked at some coloring books and this artist tile sketchbook that I want along with it's tile album. It's basically what it sounds like, squares you sketch and color on. They are about 4 inches long and wide. There are a few different things in the sketch book, but I'll show it to you when  I get it in the future.

I went to Starbucks next and got a Passion Tango herbal tea lemonade with mango flavoring and an orange and cranberry scone. These items are probably my favorite on the menu right now. To be honest, i think the scone is more like a muffin in taste and texture but it's still great!

Instead of leaving after I got my order I stayed and used their wifi to watch some Bald Eagles. I am waiting until the eaglet I am watching fledges before I do an actual post about them.

After this I walked around the mall, went to Michael's craft store and walked around, and started looking around at laptops. I looked at R.C. Willey, Best buy, and even went on a lon walk south from the mall to PC Laptops. If I had a lot of Money I'd probably have PC laptops customize a laptop for me, but as things are now I think I will settle for a regular but sturdy 15 or 17 inch laptop from Best Buy. I did keep the card of the guy I talked to at PC laptops just in case though. It was a short visit, and a hot walk to and from, but I'm glad I went there anyway. I actually found one there I like, it's a 17 inch and is only $1200 dollars. I really want to get something like that after I pay off my cello and phone. my computer is really important for school and other various things. The one I am typing from right now is old and the battery is irreplaceable so I can't even bring it anywhere without a plug. This is annoying at school since I like sitting in the front middle of every class.

When I got back home I saw that J.K Rowling has revealed more about the North American school Ilvermorny. It's the north american school of witchcraft and wizardry. I am a huge Potter nut as most of you know so I love learning new things about that universe. Other than this I played Tetris, watched more eagles, random stuff on Netflix and had tacos for dinner. I actually nearly missed out on the tacos because I took a long nap and slept through dinner. I ended up making 2 in the end not to long ago.  Anyway, that's all.

(video) Why I Celebrate My Birthday Twice

Mini Panther

Today was a pretty normal Sunday. I actually don't feel any need to post what I did so I will just post A picture of Toast, out outdoor black cat. She is awesome. I'll get more pictures some other time. I took this picture right after i got home from church, we had our fourth Sunday feast after church today. We had chicken alfredo, fruit and really great strawberry lemonade.

Chemical Burns

I slept in again today until the early afternoon. I know I should stop it, but I also feel like I sometimes push myself too hard. I know I can't do this forever, but I feel like for now resting is the right thing to do. I will most likely pick up my activity again soon. I think I' going to start with my eating habits though.

I knew I was going to swimming after work for a ward party, so i dawned my new swim suit underneath my work clothes. I only had to work two hours today, so I got to the pool party just in time. NOthing really interesting went on at work, so I'll skip explanations. it was rather slow and I didn't have much to do. The one thing I will tell you is that I think my skin reacted to the new sanitizer in combination with the hand soap we use and the chlorine in the pool later. When I got to the house that the party was at I naturally went straight for the pool. In fact I was actually the first one in. there were some pretty cool floaties. I'm going to post a video at the bottom. There was a pretzel, a giant smarties, a whale, a donut some noodles, and a few others. There was a lot of people at the party and we all had a blast. I am glad that I got to go tonight. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, potato salad, and Shasta. I didn't drink the Shasta because it had splenda in it. We mostly just stayed outside, went on the slide, I sun bathed a bit (more like standing), and other stuff I don't have to explain. I prefer not to over explain things.

Near the end we made cotton candy and I ate four of them. I love cottonn candy, especially when it's free. I had to have a limit however. You can see it below, it's cool. 

Now, to the main subject of this blog. Like I said above the chlorine from the pool, the hand soap and the dish sanitizer from work started a bad skin reaction. At the pool my hands felt extra dry and they started to burn a little in the pool. I knew at that point there wasn't much I could do, so I just went ahead and kept swimming. I was going to stay at the party for a movie, but my hands felt really uncomfortable. They were burning and dry and I didn't feel like staying outside to watch a movie anymore. I went home and put some lotion on them, but this was a huge mistake. The lotion also reacted and my hands felt like I got a really bad sunburn. Washing off the lotion was excruciating. I had to clean up to make sure all the chemicals were off of my skin and then mom told me to put aloe gel on my hands. Mom pretty much confirmed I had chemical burns. The aren't super terrible, but they are uncomfortable. When I put the gel on it burns though. the gel makes them feel pretty good when it dries. Anyway, I've just been taking it easy tonight.

Dark Waltz

Chocolate Chip Waffles

Today was pretty laid back. I started officially working on my math. This is something I'm going to be doing all summer. One of the things I am happy about is that it looks like I'm starting to comprehend fractions a lot more now. I still have to be careful to have a cool head. There isn't much to tell today besides this actually. I did make chocolate chip waffles however. I have started playing around with the basic recipe I got off the internet from Allrecipes.com

The Deck is Complete!

Today I finally got my missing math book! I was missing the fourth one that I'll post below. I think the math books I have are cool because they have cards printed on the front. I think UVU was very clever when they thought that up for their special ones. It cost me over $100 dollars to get the book, but I want to be able to get to Math 1010 or higher without going through the classes. I am by no means done collecting all the math books UVU has, but I do have the ones that will help get me out of the lower math classes. Everything below Math 1010 doesn't count towards core credit. I was going to also fix my FAFSA (financial aid for school) so I could get it again, but I forgot to apply for it. Naturally I'm going to do that immediately so I can get it straightened out. Vocational Rehab has been paying for school, but they want me to at least try and get financial aid from the school again. I am glad I went to One Stop at school and asked then what I needed to do or I probably wouldn't have remembered I needed to apply again. For pictures of the books there will be some near the bottom.

So I got the book and decided to go walk around Walmart for a while for fun. I like to do this when I am around because they have a lot of interesting stuff. I've always loved walking around stores as you can guess from my usual high activity at the mall. I didn't eat anything before I left, so I looked at the food and even thought about getting a Fiji water when I was there, but decided against it because I felt like I'd like something at the mall or around that area more.

I ended up going to Cinnabon after walking a bit around town deciding what i was going to eat. I wanted to get a blended lemonade. It's basically a lemonade slushy. They put lemonade and ice in a blender. It's simple and amazing. I did end up getting Italian at the food court. I have fallen in love with Villa Italian kitchen. I got a bread stick and a Stromboli from there. The Stromboli was chipotle chicken and I got an alfredo dipping sauce. Everything was great. 

When I got home I removed the 5th book from the binder that it was in with number 3 and I put number 4 in. I still have to get a new binder for number 5 now. Here are the pictures.

I put book five in book four's plastic wrapping until I can get a new binder. For the rest of the night I've been just playing games like tetris, watching bald eagles, and listening to audio books. It was definitely an awesome day today.