Ciao Italia!

Tomorrow we leave for Italy.  I am so, so, so, so excited!  I am packing tonight because although we have an evening flight, I don't want to be stressed tomorrow.  Tomorrow I think I may actually head out to Barnes and Noble to pick up a few books for summer reading...

This week I was definitely living it up--summer style!  Late nights, sleepovers, pool, movies.  It was a nice little preview of what's to come after I return from vacation.  When I return I will be starting my job as a camp counselor, but that's not all day, I still will have my summer nights!

Do you want a good laugh?  Picture me hobbling around with a grimace on my face while my friend just laughs at me for my misfortune...We decided to do this little 10 minute workout.  It's 1 minute each of 7 different ab workouts and then 3 sets of 25 jump squats/10 pushups.  I thought it sounded like a piece of cake so I went ahead and tried it on Wednesday.  My goodness!  I could hardly walk the next day!  Then, for some bizarre reason, I did it again on Thursday, and then again today!  I am incredibly sore.  Usually it only takes a day to recover from things like this, but I don't remember ever being this sore from a workout...  It's probably a combination of the fact that I have hardly worked out all spring and also because I did it 3 days in a row with no day off.

Anyway, despite having issues walking upstairs/downstairs (downstairs is the worst!), sitting on the toilet, sitting in chairs, sitting on the couch, getting up from a chair, getting up from the couch, and probably a whole lot of other things, I feel muscles under my squish! teehee ;)  This little workout reminded me that I definitely want to be super active this summer (and not just active as in busy, active as in fit).  

Also, I rode in my new saddle today.  It was a dream except for the fact that my stirrup leathers hadn't arrived yet so I used nasty, crispy, crunchy ones from a school saddle.  My butt just makes it because I took the risk in buying a half size smaller than usual.  Anyway, this saddle is extra motivation to well maybe not have such a large behind! haha  Oh, and because life just works that way, my beautiful new leathers arrived today in the mail...after I went riding... HAHA

I have to get packing now...I'm not sure what the computer situation will be in Italy, but I probably won't be able to post anything.  I will definitely return with great pictures, so get ready!  Arrivederci!

Pool Party

Yesterday I had some friends over at my house for a celebrate-the-end-of-school-and-beginning-of-summer party.  It was really fun!  Even though the weather was less than desirable I still had a good time.

The rain held off long enough for us to be able to swim before dinner (even if the air was cold, the pool was heated to 86 degrees!).  We had chicken fajitas for dinner which were definitely crowd-pleasers.  Then we watched Mrs. Doubtfire and made s'mores inside.  I had originally hoped to use the fire pit outside if it had been a typical summery feeling night, but alas, we did the winter style s'mores and made a fire inside.

It was a great way to get everyone together one last time before we go off on our own summer plans and don't see each other until September.  Inevitably, I do usually see my closest friends a few times over the summer, but this was a good kickstart to the summer festivities even if it was 60 degrees and drizzly...

Also, I'm basically in crunch time for packing for our family vacation to Italy.  We leave on Saturday so I really should get myself together...I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...

Summer Freedom

I officially finished my last bit of academics for this school year on Friday when I took my AC1 final.  As a whole, finals weren't bad this year (come on, we're freshman, how bad could they be??) except for Latin.  Latin was that bad...I won't even go into how I screwed up the easy stuff, completely blanked on the hard stuff, and basically drowned on paper.  BUT, it's over and done with now ;)

Now that I'm free I've been able basically enjoy life more.   Sometimes people forget that school honestly stresses out kids...a lot.  It's a full time job...even more so considering we can't leave it in the cubicle at the end of the day.  It's our life.  Yeah, I know, it's important, everyone does it, blah, blah, blah.  But, I can guarantee that what we do in school now is more pressure-filled than "back in the day."

Anyway, I've officially sorted through, packed up, and organized all of my school things and won't be seeing them until September.  That even inspired me to clean my room.  Basically, I'm feeling a positive snowball effect!

Here's my agenda now that school is out:

1. Hang out with friends I haven't seen in a while
2. Have a party to celebrate the end of freshman year
3. Prepare for Italy (shop, pack, learn Italian...)
4. Read Harry Potter like it's nobody's business
5. Spend time with the family
6. Be thankful I go to private school and don't have another month left like the public schools do...

Ok, I've basically done a lot of the stuff on this list already.  I've seen friends, I'm having a party Wednesday (small gathering), I've had umm..multiple shopping sprees to get ready for Italy (but haven't actually packed yet), read Harry Potter, went out to dinner with my family, and aren't I always thankful I go to private school?? 

Some other things on my mind:

• Horseback riding.   pfff...this is it's own post! Let's just say it makes me dizzy in the head thinking about it (ok, not really, but whatever, it sounded good!)
• I'm going to Boston tomorrow for a class trip woooohoooo!!
• I ordered new towels for my bathroom (random, but a total excitement for me nonetheless)
• I got a new saddle...finally after searching for a bajillion years (ok, maybe just a few months...)

So I know this a jumbled mess of a blog post, I definitely need to get better about focusing these things...I think it's partially because it's the first one in a few weeks.  But don't worry, they will get better, more organized, and hopefully more frequent now that I'm out of school.  I'll also be sure to put pictures and doodads besides just plain words.