KSU visit

location: Kent State University

emotion: impressed

Yesterday was spent at the KSU campus for their discovery day. My mom and I went with our friends Alli and her mom Eileen. We took our van down there since it has more room. There was a lot of people there, so many there wasn't enough chairs to sit down for the welcome part of the day. From the welcome we went to look at dorms. They were mock dorms to preview different layouts. Alli said she didn't like the beds with desk underneath. I thought those were cool, I liked sleeping high up when I and Meli had bunk beds. Next we looked at the art building. It was under construction but we found a computer guy to show us around. He showed us the art education class rooms. He tried to show us the drawing room but his card/key didn't work. Since Alli's mom is an artist it was helpfull having her along to ask question I wouldn't of thought of.

From there we went back to the student center, where we started, and looked at a bunch of tables. The tables had a number of majors and some had information about admissions and those sorts of things. After viewing the tables and talking to the professors at the tables we went to eat lunch. Flash the mascot was walking around and my mom made me get a picture with it! The Kent people with Flash wanted a picture and had me write down my e-mail address to send it to me. So I got two pictures with Flash.

Since we had some extra time we went for a quick look at the bookstore. I saw someone from my school there. From the bookstore we split ways with Alli and my mom and I were off to the art tour. The art tour was really exciting! We went to all the buildings that housed art classes but weren't in the main art building. We saw the rooms for Jewelry making, Sculpture, Textiles, and Ceramics. We didn't get to see Glass Blowing, but that would of been awesome to seen.


This picture I took is of a huge planter made out of newspaper. Its biodegradable art that will change during time. It was large, maybe 7 feet high and I don't know how wide but in took some space. We looked at the sign for the Kent State shootings but I forgot about the camera so I don't have any pictures.

The last thing we went to see was the Wellness Center. It had a huge gym floor and a swimming pools. There was lanes from walking and running around the place. By this point we had walked so far we didn't feeling like walking back but we had to since the bus that took us to the Wellness Center was the last one. Overall it was a fun day with a lot to take in. :)

My butterfly picture I took this past weekend
My brother doing some weird nose thing

location: in the sunshine

emotion: awake

My brother is giving up all TV, computer time, video games, ect. This means trying to come up with stuff for him to do. These things are replaced with playing board games and Legos last night with him (yes I was playing Legos!!!). Now he thinks I'm going to play with him all the time. I only played with him because the rest of my family wasn't home. Sometimes a second brother would be nice at times, but then the thought of two Tims!! I don't think I'd be able to deal with that. :)

I've been running hills in my past few workouts. Its much harder trying to run up hill, but it gives you more endurance and helps for the hills in races. The best part is of course running down hill. I love feeling the wind against my face and the boost of speed! The other day my shoes got wet so I've had to run in my old pair. My old ones don't fit as well and I always have retie them.

Tomorrow I'm going college visting so I'm sure I'll have somethings the write about. Until then have a wonderful day.

Grrr...

location: my mind

emotion: annoyed

I'm bugged...no more than bugged, I'm flat out bothered. The worse part is its only getting worse! I ask myself, am I letting little things get to me? No Lauren, you should do something about it. Yes Lauren, just sit there and keep your issues to yourself. I believe in real. Real people doing real things. Not to impress people, or put others below themselves, but because it is being themselves as a real individual. I suppose it comes down to people and problems are put in this world to make life more interesting. Dear Lord, I think I just might need large amounts of peace and grace.

(Several months back I wrote a post of my thoughts. I chose to write from this perspective again to only help ease the overwhelmed feelings. The ideas and thoughts are a limited view to some daily issues I believe we all, as human beings share.)

summer of 08

location: indoors and outdoors

emotion: relaxed

Last night I spent some time taking pictures of my mom's flowers. I've been taking pictures over the past few months, you may have noticed the side pictures are all taken by me with the exception of the bunny (it looked like mine so I had to add it). One of the pictures that I will post when it gets downloaded on the computer is a butterfly on a flower! I would like to get a picture of a hummingbird on a flower but I haven't had my camera around when one shows up. There are a lot of pictures I haven't added but hopefully I will remember to include one with my posts more often.

The total miles I've run this week is 18. That's more than the past few weeks. Thursday coach had us run a five mile run around the town. He drives around to make sure we all are doing ok. It was a bit of a killer. We had one new kid come and run with us, hopefully the rest that signed up will show. CC is one of those sports its hard to get kids at my school to even think about it.

One thing I'm looking forward to is getting to watch the summer Olympics next month! Last time they were on I remember watching gymnastics, swimming, and some volleyball. I find both the summer and winter Olympics to be very enjoyable to watch. During the winter Olympics I like watching figure and speed skating.

hot summer day

location: bike trail, friend's house, my house

emotion: happy but a bit warm

I started my day trying to pull myself out of bed. I finally did and ate a quick breakfast then out to run. My mom and brother wanted to walk on the bike trail so that's where I ran. I really had to push myself to move after 2 miles I think I only did 3 instead of 4 like I wanted. Yesterdays harder run soreness was kicking in. blah. Even running has good and bad days.

On the way home mom said we should stop and see our artist friend and her daughter Allie. We passed up the road that we normally take so we took a less traveled road that I only have been part of the way down. Allie answered the door and told us her mom was down at the other house. Allie's brother lives there but her mom's studio is in one of the rooms. When we got there Allie's mom was outside by the flower garden painting a sunflower. She asked if I had been painting (gulp no....feeling guilty). Allie and I went inside since it was cooler. We drank cream soda and she showed me around the basement. Since boys live there it was messy and Allie said she got roped into cleaning it the other day. We ended up inviting them over since it was a warm day. So the rest of the day was on and out of the pool!

cute little post it!

My Cute Little Rabbit "Honeysuckle"

The Holland Lop

location: Surrounding towns

emotion: hungry (is dinner ready yet?)

I went all over the place today! From the library to Walmart to the pool place to the doctors to a different library to home. Tomorrow I start running twice a week with the cross country team. I'm looking forward to this upcoming season. Now I feel like sleeping or watching TV or reading. Hope you like my picture!:)

good times

location: my hometown

emotion: happy

Yesterday my mom, my sister, and I drove up to the nearby bike trail to go for a bike ride. The weather was perfect for it! We rode 4 miles took a break then turned around making it a 8 mile bike ride. During the ride, a nasty horse fly landed on my forehead, so now I have a bite there. You can't really see it but right now its starting to itch. I haven't gone on a bike ride in a while. By the end I was feeling sore from sitting. It was good to cross train, use different muscles other than running.

For the past two days Meli and I have been helping our dad stain the deck. Its all finished now and looks so much better. The sun beats down on it so it dried fast and we were able to swim within a few hours. We've been swimming a lot! The water isn't the warmest but on the hot days we have been having it feels so good! I guess I've been cross traing a lot.

Last night I had a friend over. We played the game LIFE with my siblings. Meli had a full van of kids and became upset when she passed a "baby girl" or "baby boy" space! I was soooo behind everyone on the board. I was still in college when everyone one else was married, had a house, and was beginning to land on baby spaces. When I finally got out I was a doctor (no wonder I was in college so long!). I started with the highest salary but it got taken away and I got the second highest. Meli took that away so I ended up with the lowest salary. Somehow at the end I won the game!! yippy!

4th weekend recap

location: Outside with cousins Mary and Issac

emotion: cheerful

I spent the holiday weekend full of activities. On the 4th we went to our family reunion, on my mom's side of the family. My dad's side of the family doesn't have anything like that, plus half the people I don't know (mostly likely never will) and are floating around in Germany or Yugoslavia. We haven't been to our reunion in a few years and people didn't know which one was Lauren and which was Melissa. The last time they saw us I think we were the same height, but even then they still didn't know who was who. I don't think I'll ever go to a reunion without getting called the wrong name. It doesn't really bother me any more, it did a few years ago. Some relatives came up from Arizona, the last time they were in Ohio I was really little and the lady asked my mom something about my mom's twins! Melissa and I were sitting next to our mom and started laughing. When my mom said 'These are my girls,' motioning to us 'and they are just sisters.' The lady looked surprised. I guess she was expecting to see two twin girls instead of the two girls that had been sitting in front of her the whole time.

The rest of the activities included the garage sale. We sold a few things, hopefully if we have another one it will do better. This one guy did buy 12 VHS tapes, so I was surprised. I went to see the Chardon fireworks. It was a very nice show this year. Afterwards, we went to DQ! Oh I love ice cream! On Sunday, I saw the newest Disney/Pixar creation Wall-e. So cute and a must see! It also had one of those short movies beforehand. I like watching those. They are entertaining. I also went to a friend's and watched fireworks there. Wow two fireworks shows in one weekend!

Happy 4th!

location: outside in the sun

emotion: crazy

Happy 4th of July everyone! I've had a wonderful start to my day so far, a three mile run. Exercise does wonders I tell you. There is so many benefits from it. I need to start doing some ab workouts and some weight training. I used to be one of those girls that stayed as far as possible from sports. I did try in swim and gym and later in gym class at school. So I can't say I never tried. I just lacked coordination in most sports, so I turned to dancing. Dancing really was perfect for me. During my homeschool years I spent 4 to 5 1/2 hours a week at the Grange. For a while dancing was my sport.

A few years later I started thinking about running after I heard my freshman English college prep teacher, who also was a track coach, had thought that I should run cross country. Before that I almost signed up to be on the track team but in was more of an after thought. My french teacher asked me to help with stats at some of the little meets. I agreed and got the chance to see how it works. So the fall of my sophomore year I signed up for CC. I had no clue what I was getting my self into.

Yeah well here I am now spending my summer mornings running. I've been running since March with a short two week break in between track and cc. Now with my run over with I can enjoy all the wonderful things the rest of the day brings. I'm not realty sure what those things are since being at Grandma's put me a little out of the loop but I'm sure its something.