Peace out, 2015.

2015. I cannot believe it's already over! **Insert squeal**
How? I feel like just yesterday we started working on our LCC entry!

2015 has been an awesome year, filled with awesome times and fun adventures! Definitely a year of change and learning.

I am thankful for all the times family from GA got to visit us this year and that we were able to fly to GA and visit!
I am thankful for all the things the Lord has been showing me throughout the entire year.
And I am thankful for all the awesome, funny, crazy memories from the summer with our friends.

I am really excited to see what 2016 has in store for me and my family!

Here is a little video I made of 2015 according to my Instagram account. Unfortunately it doesn't have any pictures of our adventures with friends, but that's okay! :)

Click this link to view the video. :)

Well, my friends, this is my last blog post of this year, but I will be back next year! :D :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

PS- Random fact: 2015 filled up about 500 pages in my journals. :)

Last day in GA

Today is our last full day in GA. We'll be waking up at 3AM tomorrow morning, and heading to the airport.

This whole time since we got here, we have been going, going, going. From visiting people we use to know, to buying and decorating Christmas trees, to having Christmas dinners, to visiting old places we loved...including our old house. 

The person who owns our old house is a really nice lady, and she let us walk around the property and then she showed us all the work they have done inside the house and the little cabin we owned. 

The house is really different inside. They've repainted all the walls upstairs, replaced bathroom sinks and light fixtures, they fixed the broken window in the room Yul and I use to share, and they changed the closet up, and so on. 

The basement looked the same, except that is was empty and clean and they added one shelf on one wall and a new water heater. 

When we got to the basement I immediately went to the back to my room. (The one I only lived in for two months before moving to WA.) 

It was exactly the same. I was so glad they didn't change it. I actually teared up when I walked in because I have missed that room so much. I walked up to the middle of the room and tons of memories went through my mind; Harry Potter marathon with Callah, nights when I sat on my bed playing guitar and writing songs, me eating crackers while watching movies at night, and so on. 

I put a lot of work in that room. It was a stinky room that had mold and rat poison in it, and a ton of boxes full of costumes and fabric were there too, before I turned it into a clean and cozy room. 

It wasn't the same seeing where we use to live, and all the other places. It didn't have the "home-sweet-home" feeling, like I thought being in GA might have.
Actually, I kept thinking about WA, and all the people I know in it.

I'm just going to say this; the trip has been fun, but I want WA.

Washington is home. 💜💚

Busy, busy, busy

I thought I could do it. I thought that I could write a blog post everyday about my life in GA, but Thanksgiving happened and then yesterday we were making snowflakes and decorating the house and the trees for Christmas, and I wasn't able to do one.

Our remaining days in WA will be really busy with packing and whatnot, so I don't think I'll be able to sit down for long periods of time to write long blog posts then either.

I don't know if I'll be able to blog any this week, but I'll see what I can do.  :)

Days until Ga: 5

hey everyone, today I won't be doing a story because IT'S THANKSGIVING!! Yay!

So, happy thanksgiving everyone! Have an awesome day! 

Days until GA: 6

Today I thought I'd go with a story from when I was 6 years old, but first a quick history "lesson.":

My sister and I were going to a gymnastics in Dahlonega at the time, and we met the Davidsons there. 

Hannah and Abby Davidson both took gymnastics classes, but Abby was Morgan's age, and in the same class as her, and Hannah was two years younger than me and was not in the same class as me. 

But Hannah and I became buddies pretty much instantly, and eventually we ended up in the same class together. 

Hannah and I were very competitive with each other in class, but we never let that stop us from being the goofballs that occasionally got in trouble with our gym teacher. Unfortunately for our gymnastics teacher, who had to get onto us, we were the best in her class. :) 

Outside of class, though, we weren't competitive and we played Polly Pockets or annoyed the boy who ran the concession stand (my brother and Hannah's brothers were friends with the boy), and so on.

We, uh, also got in trouble a few times. And thus begins the story:

We were in girls bathroom (which was also the locker room) because it was the only place that had air conditioner and we were playing a game. Not with toys though. 

And in the game I was pretending I had a beard and was shaving it off. I was at the sink putting water on my face, pretending it was my beard, and was "shaving" it off with a paper towel. 

Then Hannah wanted to join in, and then things got a little messy with the water. 

Actually, really messy. 

Then we decided, "hey, there's water already on the floor, let's pour some more on the floor." 

At first we soaked paper towels and squeezed the water out of them on the floor. I don't mean we squeezed it in one spot, I mean we squeezed it over the entire floor.     

Eventually soaking paper towels became "too much work," so we cupped our hands and filled them with water and threw it on the floor. 

We did that until the entire floor was one giant puddle, and we added a finishing touch: Soap.

Then the real fun began. 

We started running and sliding across the floor, slamming into the walls, and pretending we were ice skating.

A girl (actually, one of Morgan's teammates) walked into the bathroom, but Hannah and I didn't even care. We just continued sliding across the floor, but then the girl left without using the bathroom, and I figured it was because she didn't like all the water everywhere.
But a few minutes later she came up and said, "Mrs. Shannon wants to see y'all." Mrs. Shannon was the owner of the gym and she was also Morgan and Abby's gymnastics coach.

We walked down the stairs, and Mrs. Shannon said, "I don't know what you guys were doing--" Hannah immediately pointed at me as if I was the only one who made the mess. But then Shannon continued, "--And I don't really care who did it, but you both are going to get the mop and clean it up."

And that, my friends, was the day I learned how to mop. ;)


P.S- Mrs. Shannon liked both our families, though, so she didn't hold our naughtiness against us, and she continued to allow us and our siblings to be the only kids that were allowed on the equipment even though we weren't in class. :)  

P.P.S-I didn't think about it until years later, but they probably sent that girl up there because water was dripping down to the downstairs area. Oops. ;)

Days until GA: 7

March 2014. (Two weeks before my family moved to Washington)


Harry Potter.

The Johnson girls came over for a spend the night, because we wanted to spend as much time with them as we could before we moved.

That night, Callah and I prepared ourselves for a long Harry Potter marathon by making frozen yogurt cookie dough. :) No spend the night or movie marathon is complete without having something to eat that is terrible for your health, right? ;) :P

We started the first Harry Potter at 7pm, finished it, decided the cookie dough was making us sick, so we put it back in the freezer, then we started the second Harry Potter.
When the second Harry Potter ended, our tailbones were hurting from sitting for so long, and it was already midnight.
But no matter, who needs sleep when there are still movies to watch?  ;) Plus there was the cookie dough to give us energy. :)

But what about our tailbones? Well, after the second movie, I randomly jumped up and started running in place like the football players do, and urged Callah to join me.

During the third movie, our tailbones were hurting again, so we had to pause the movie multiple times to run in place. :)

When we finished the fourth movie, it was, like, 4 AM, so we decided to turn the movies off.
Then we "went to bed" which actually means we stayed up until 5 AM talking, then went to bed.

We made a lot of fun of the fourth Harry Potter, even though it was, like, our favorite one, and we have a lot of inside jokes about it. ;)

When we woke up at 9 or 10 AM, we ate breakfast and were going to start the fifth Harry Potter, but Callah had to go.

I made her promise not to watch anymore Harry Potter without me, and she kept her promise, even after I moved to WA.
Then a year later, her family moved up here to WA and her family decided to have a Harry Potter marathon and she broke her promise. ;) No worries, Callah, I forgive you! ;) :P

I guess it was better to watch it with people who don't constantly say, "That didn't happen in the book, what actually happened was..." or "Ugh, it was better in the book," and so on. :) ;)


                                                                              ***

So, I'm getting pretty excited about our trip to GA! I finally have an idea of what our itinerary will be while we're there, so yay! :)





 

Days until GA: 8

The next memory I have is a short one because it happened so many times I can't tell one from the other.


2013 summer:

Morgan's car, Bessy, was an older car and had no AC, and that is the worst thing ever in GA because summers are evil there.
And it always seemed like Morgan and I would make our library/Starbucks/grocery runs on, like, the hottest days of the year, which was not cool because we always took her car.
However, our "jam out sessions" made me usually forget that the heat was melting my skin. Which, by the way, I've had this conversation with a friend before and we decided skin would not melt. Just thought I'd share that bit of info there. ;) :P

What our jam out sessions were:

Turning Morgan's Taylor Swift CDs on and turning the volume almost all the way up and dancing to the songs...As much dancing as one can when they are strapped to the seat of a car. :)
We would sing (more like scream) at the top of our lungs too.
I feel bad for all the people that had to witness/hear our singing and the music blaring. Hehehe! :)

This is a tame version of what we looked like.  Haha! 

We have videos of our dancing/singing adventures, and I tried to find them for this blog post but I couldn't find them anywhere. :(

Can any of you guys relate to this story? :)



PS- I made a packing list for GA today!!

Days until GA: 9

In 9 days my family will be leaving for Georgia and I thought I'd do a post everyday until then.

What will I be posting about?

I'll be posting random memories I have of living in Georgia! Some will be short, and some might be long posts! :)

The memory I chose to write today is *drum roll, please* THE TWO DAY SLEEPOVER WITH OUR BESTIES. :)

So, in 2012 my uncle got married and the Johnson girls came the day before the wedding.
Why? Because Morgan, Sarah, and Anna wanted to dye their hair before the wedding (they were going to be the camera crew at the wedding) and all, so we invited all 3 Johnson girls to spend the night!
When the Johnson girls piled into our van we immediately were chatting away and laughing. :)

No idea what I'm doing with my face. hahahaha! :) Callah's looking at me like, "Ehhhhhkay." 

When we got home Callah threw her bags in my room and Sarah and Anna dumped their bags in Morgan's room. Then Morgan, Sarah, and Anna asked Mom to start dyeing their hair. Callah and I watched and laughed the whole time during the dyeing process. We were laughing because all three girls were, like, squealing and really nervous every time mom applied the dye. It was pretty entertaining. ;)

After their hair was dyed, Mom, Morgan, Sarah, Anna, and Yuliya left to go help set up the wedding. Callah and I stayed home. I don't remember exactly what we did. We probably swam in our pool, ran around the yard like horses, played dress up in the basement, and all that jazz.

That night Callah and I were on Netflix searching for a movie to watch. That took forever. We finally chose Heartland because we couldn't decide what to watch and because we'd never seen the show.
So we did. We watched many, many episodes while eating chocolate chips and cookies, and drinking coke. :) A healthy diet, right? ;) :P

The next day, Callah and I ate "pre-breakfast" (AKA chocolate chips and cookies), then we ate actual breakfast (waffles). Callah and I spent the morning running up and down the stairs to Morgan's room for various things and to watch the girls apply their makeup, then we took our showers, we put our dresses on, and did our hair.

At the wedding (before the ceremony), Callah and I helped a little bit, but there wasn't much we could really do, so we walked around the place, watched the bride get her makeup applied, did  a quick photo-shoot of each other, drank a good bit of punch, then seated ourselves in the chairs outside.
Then the wedding began, and it was really hot (It was an outdoor wedding, in the middle of summer, and there was no shade) but it was pretty.

Callah took this picture of me. 

Once the ceremony was over, it was time to eat, watch the cake cutting, and the speeches.

Callah and I left about an hour after the lunch, while the other girls stayed until late to help clean up and all. We thought that the Johnson girls were going to leave after the wedding, but by time the girls finished helping at the wedding it was too late to drive to the girls' house, so they spent another night!

When Callah and I got home, we immediately ditched the dresses and put our jammies on. Then we watched more episodes of Heartland. :) Mom called and asked if we wanted to go to the 10:30 showing of "Brave" with her and the other girls, but Callah and I decided we didn't want to be at a movie theater until midnight, so we continued eating cookies and watching Heartland. :)

The next morning I helped Callah pack up all of her stuff, then we drove them home. :(


I had a lot of fun that weekend! :) :)

Cold weather and Georgia

 

I wanted to write something poetic about the cold weather and November, but no. I'm not going to. Why? Because I'm blunt and I like getting to the point ASAP instead of making everything sound "magical." And because in reality, cold weather isn't always "magical." It actually kinda sucks. Well, sometimes.
While I do like having the fireplace on and wearing warm clothes and all, I hate the constant struggle of a runny nose, stiff hands, and honestly, jeans don't offer much protection from the cold, which results in a cold bum down to cold feet.
Like I said, I'm blunt. ;)

With November almost being over, Walmart has so graciously put up a sign that says "Christmas: 37 days" right when you enter the building. (*Insert Luke Skywalker, "Nooooooooooo!"*).
Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and Christmas-y stuff, but can we at least get to Thanksgiving first? :)

So, on December 2nd my family will be flying to Georgia and we'll be there for 10 days. I look forward to the flying part because I love airplanes and flying, and I also look forward to seeing our family. It will be my first time in Georgia since moving here to Washington. (We've been here for a year and eight months.) Actually it will be everyone, except for Morgan and Mom's, first time going to Georgia since our move!

I'm not quite sure what our "official" itinerary is while we're in GA, but we plan on going to some of the restaurants that WA doesn't have and to some of the "classic" places. Like our favorite little park that is by our previous house.

We're going to try to visit our librarians, our old coworkers, etc. I know that may sound strange, but in Georgia your librarians, coworkers, etc. become your friends. Heck, the gas station dude might even be your friend! ;)  ;)

It's kind of funny getting on Google maps and going into street mode and seeing all the places I use to go to and all the memories that come to my mind when I "passed" by them.

I saw one house on Google maps and I remember that there was an elderly lady in GA that was always mowing her lawn in the middle of summer and dad was driving by one day and wanted to help her, so he pulled his car over and asked her if he could help. She wouldn't let him because she had to do it for her health, but she really appreciated the offer.
I remember seeing her a few times.

I remember at the gas stations while you were pumping your gas you would have a conversation with another person pumping their gas and in a matter 5 minutes you could know a good bit about the person's life.

Georgia's like that. :)

The more I think about it, the more excited I am to go back. :)

What's your Thanksgiving/Christmas plans? 

PS- the pictures above were taken in our yard. I love all the bright reds!

October memories and November so far

Every October 1st I get really excited and I think, "This. This is the year I'm going to make lots of fall decorations, carve pumpkins, buy autumn clothes, and bake fall-y stuff!"
But like all the other years, I didn't make a single fall decoration, I didn't carve a stinkin' pumpkin, I am too attached to my money to spend it on expensive fall clothes, and I didn't bake anything even remotely fall-y....unless buying a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice (iced) latte counts? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. But whatevs. :)

I may not have done those things, but the memories I made with my friends and family are way more fun to me than making fall decor.

October 1st- We helped some friends paint and clean their new house. I stayed for a few hours, but I had to leave because I was running a fever and I felt like a zombie.

Okay, not quite like that ^^ but you get the idea. ;)

When I got home from helping out with the new house, Callah and I messaged each other pretty much the rest of the evening because Callah was also sick in bed. :(


October 2nd--

I spent the whole day in bed messaging Callah, begging Morgan to go to the store and buy me some hot soup for my sore throat, and reading most of my 7th journal (it's 400 pages long).

Callah was also trying to convince Daniel to get her some soup and I was trying to get Morgan to get me some soup. XD. We both succeeded. :D

That night was "Reading Night" with our friends, but I stayed in my bed and almost watched an entire season of my TV show. (That's a lot of episodes....but oh, well!)

October 3rd- I was still sick, but it was the day of the LCC judging! I couldn't miss it!

During the morning, before going to the Polings' house to watch the live judging, Callah and I were messaging each other (again), but this time we were "competing" over who'd gone through the most rolls of toilet paper from blowing our noses, and who had blown their nose the most.
I sent her a picture of my overflowing trash can and of my bedroom floor which was covered in used tissues. I think I may have won. ;)

I'm there. The wall is just covering my entire body. 

The judging went really well and we got compliments on our entry. The judges just preferred other entries' choreography. We got 4th place, though! I was happy with 4th because all I cared about were the memories and fun I had with our friends during the whole filming process.

October 4th-

Everyone except for me and mom were busy and out of the house. So we (mom and I) decided to go get some groceries (I got a to-go salad) and a Starbucks coffee.
If you read this blog post, then you will understand why I wrote "Only the LCC crew will understand."

October 12th-
The Johnsons came over and we decided on what we were/are going to do with our zombie movie. :)
I'm not going to say anything else about the meeting. ;)

October 15th-

Callah and I worked on our story that we just started working on.
Callah and I are having weekly meetings to work on creating a book. We haven't come up with a story idea yet, we've just been building the world. :)

October 17th-

Maris Farms.

My family and all of our friends spent pretty much the whole day at Maris Farms. :)

Corn maze.

The slides....were wet. :)

The "Jumping Pillow." It was super slippery and I was barefoot. That was kind of gross. ;) 

Callah, me, Anna, and Yuliya. 

After we did the daytime activities at Maris, everybody came back to our house to eat pizza and chill. :)

This is a beautiful image to me. ;) In case ya didn't know, I ♥ pizza.♥

After we all ate, all of us (except the parents) went back to Maris Farms to go through the Haunted Woods.
We waited in line for two and a half hours. I know some of us didn't enjoy the long wait, but I did.
The Haunted Forest was disappointing this year, but it was still fun/entertaining.

After going through the Haunted Woods 

October 18th-

We went to Micah's race for the day. Max and Micah gave us a ride on Micah's dirt-bike. That was pretty awesome. I want a dirt bike. :D

521

My mom took a good bit of pictures from that day, buuuuuuuut in every single picture someone is making a weird face or chewing their food, or putting food in their mouths, and I don't know if everyone would like those pictures posted so, sorry!

October 25th-

I was P.A for Josiah's short film he made. I made a "Day on Set" video, but I don't know if I'll post it. It still needs a lot of work.

I'm under the white thingy. ;)

October 26-30th I was exhausted. I was having to wake up at 6 every morning to take care of Sydnee. (Sydnee is a 7 year old who lives in the neighborhood and I babysit her sometimes.) And I had to get her ready to get on the school bus, which comes at 8:30 every morning.

I also wasn't getting much sleep during the night...There was one night during that week I woke up at 2 in the morning and didn't get back to sleep, then I had to take care of Sydnee.

There was one night (I'm still surprised I did this) that I went to bed at 7:30pm. I didn't get to sleep until 8 or 9 of course, but still, I was in bed at 7:30.

That was really weird because I'm always up until 12:30-1:30 almost every night.

Anyway, enough about sleep.

October 26-

We went to Maris Farms with Callah and Anna (we had free tickets, so we decided to go again. Plus, the 11yr old boy Morgan was nannying wanted to go).


Before going to Maris, Callah and I decided to play chess, but we never got to finish.

Me and Callah on the toddler pedal carts. Ouch.

Me and Callah...and the creepy pumpkin.

While we were at Maris Farms, we wanted to go through the Haunted Woods (it's not open during the day and we knew that, we just wanted to see what it looked like during the day), so Yuliya got permission. (She worked at Maris this October. And so did Morgan). :)

I think it was sort of creepy to go through the Haunted Woods during the day because Yuliya's boss told us to be really quiet so other people that didn't work there wouldn't be trying to go through it.

One of the "rooms" that you go through that has creepy stuff in it :)

So, Callah and I kept running ahead of Morgan, CJ, and Anna. So there was one room that Callah and I hid in so we could scare the others. Actually, Callah hid behind the nightstand and I stood near the door by a blood covered couch acting like a dummy. And there was a real dummy in the far corner in a rocking chair.

Morgan entered the almost completely black room...let's just say I scared her pretty good.

October 28th-

I turned 16 years old.

Mom and I went to Starbucks and were there for almost two hours. Then we went to Target and were there for about an hour. I got a new pair of jeans and a new shirt.

At Target. 

When we came home from Target, we ate cake (I made a Reeses cake this year), and opened my birthday cards and presents!
We chilled for a while, then we got ready to go out to dinner (I wanted Subway).
After we ate, we went to the skating rink and skated for 2 hours! :)

Me and Faith.

The skating rink had some games that you could play, so that's why everyone is lined up.

I had a really good day! :)

So far the sixteen year old lie is treating me well. ;) :P :P


October 30th--
Yuilya's birthday.

Yuliya had to go to work in the morning. When she got back from work, she went out with mom for most of the day, so the rest of us just chilled.
Actually, Matt and I went to Starbucks because I got 2 Starbucks gift cards for my birthday.. :)
Pretty much since my birthday I've had a Starbucks coffee every other day. :)

Anyway, when mom and Yuliya got back, we all went to Wally's for dinner with the Marshalls and then all of us (except mom and Cynthia) went to the Fright Factory...which was really fun.
Haunted houses/woods don't scare me or make me really jump, but I still really enjoy going through them. The Fright Factory had some great actors, too! :D

My eyes are terrifying.

October 31st-

We went to the Polings' Halloween party! :) It wasn't a costume party, it was just a "hat party."

Well, I didn't have a hat, but I had a "better" idea (thanks to Morgan!). I present to you my "hat." ;)

Anna didn't have a hat, so I she did what I did. :) 

I didn't use any hair gel, hair spray, or anything else. I just stuck a big coke cup on my head and flipped my hair over it and boom! My "hat." 

There was a lot of candy and food, and lots of talking with everybody. :) 

I had a really good time! 

So that's what we did during October! 

Time to share some random pictures from October: 

My first attempts for my Halloween "hat" were not so successful... 

So the picture below is my conversation with Callah about my Halloween "hat." 

When I wrote "broke people" I mean, "I have money but I'm not going to spend $20 on a real Pophead." ;)   

"Only Lauryn, only Lauryn." That's my "trademark". ;) 

Frankie, Frankie, Frankieeeeeeee. :) The neighbor's dog.

He's so sweet!

Before I decided to do my Halloween "hat," I was going to do this one. A steampunk hat with a black wig. 

November...so far:

Coffee is important to me. ;)  BTW, the "Y" is short for "YMCA." ;)

The next day Callah messages me and said, "I sneezed and now I'm sick. So I won't be coming to Writing Class tonight. :'("
I was like, "I'm sorry! Dat sucks. ;( :("  Then I wrote:

What are friends for, right? ;)

That night the Marshalls came over and we ate pizza and watched some of the new Cinderella until 7, which was Writing Class.
I have found some entertaining selfies from a particular person on my iPad recently which I assume were taken when I went to the bathroom during "class."

Thank you for the entertaining selfies, they are most appreciated. :)


That night, when everyone left our house, Ashley and Matt arrived. They came to M.INT this weekend and today (Monday) they left. They were at M.INT 90% of the time, so we didn't really get to see them much, except on Thursday (the first day). Morgan, Ashley, and I went to Target and to Starbucks.

Baby Tall, Mama Grande, and Daddy Venti. (Daddy Venti is mine. Hehehe)  

This is pretty much what my November has looked like so far:

• Starbucks.
• Studying about traveling and trying to pick my German back up.
• Playing The Last of Us for Callah. 
• Ashley and Matt.
• Being Morgan's "personal assistant" on one of her photoshoots. (I really enjoyed meeting the couple that Morgan was taking a photoshoot of. They were really cool and nice.)
• And deciding what other language to learn. I'm thinking I'm going to start learning Norwegian because I really want to go to Norway. :)

Oh yeah, and Callah and I have been planning a date to finally do something we've been planning to do since August. And tomorrow (November 10th) is the day we are going to finally do what we've been planning. 

I'm not going to tell you what we're going to do yet, because we're going to make a Vlog about it and I'll probably post it the 11th or 12th, depending on how fast I can edit the Vlog. :)

Last note before I close up this post:

I've been thing a lot about traveling, and I decided two places I want to go first are 

Norway (I want to explore most of Norway, but currently Tromsø is the place that comes to my mind) and England.

 

That's all for now! 

Thanks for reading! 

Lauryn G. 

   

"And I'm already missing the summer..."

  

                "Oh the bitter winds are coming in
             
                And I'm already missing the summer"
                                         
                    -Emmylou by First Aid Kit

Hair dyeing party!

That's how my summer started; with a hair dyeing party.

June was the "Lightsaber Choreography Days."

We went to our friends' house multiple times a week from 10am-5pm working on fight choreography for our LCC entry.
The choreography days worked like this:  I would wake up, quickly eat breakfast, change clothes, and we would go to Safeway on the way to our friends' house and I would buy a to-go salad, a Cliff bar, and a Starbucks Frappuccino, then we got to business. :)

A goofy moment during the day.

I love this picture. Everyone else is being all serious and working hard and then there's me with someone's shirt on my  head. 

At the end of June, my grandparents came to visit for 10 days and they got to come to the July 4th party with our friends. I was glad that our grandparents were finally getting to meet our Washington friends after a year of hearing about them.

The Poling family singing for everyone.

We got to business and had a water fight with water balloons, hoses, buckets of water, water guns, etc!

Here's my dad throwing a water balloon at Matt, my brother.

Things calmed down a for a minute, but then we all went back to pouring water on each other.

Our community of friends.

While we all waited for the sun to go down, everyone visited.

Fireworks!

I think this picture is really cool!

When we went through all the fireworks, we opened all the glowsticks and sparklers.

During our grandparents' visit, we went to Mt. Rainier, XXX Root beer, and Snoqualmie Falls. 

Mt. Rainier. 

XXX Root beer drive-in.

Snoqualmie Falls.

We went to a few other places with our grandparents, which I can't remember really well because most of the time I was in bed with what we believe was pneumonia.

When our grandparents left and I was on the mend, we got back to work with choreography:

Choreography (10am-5pm), book meetings (7pm-11pm), script meetings with the Johnsons (7pm-11pm), happened weekly, and then we had location scouts, movie day with our friends, a dance night, we had friends over for a fun day, then we had a photo-shoot for our LCC project, and finally, the film days.

We would wake up at 6am to pack our lunches and get ready, be at the Polings' house at 7am, do makeup and hair, then leave for our film location at 8:30am. At 9:30 or 10 we would start filming until 5pm, and then go back to the Polings' house for almost an hour before we went home for dinner.

                                                                 Choreography photos:

Here, they are doing a quick test. 

Last day of choreography. They were asking me when it was time for lunch. ;)

Photo-shoot for LCC (the first time the actors put on their full costume and did their hair and makeup:

Getting their costumes dirty by having a "dirt bath."

How they look in the movie.

Non LCC stuff:

We went to see Inside Out with the Johnsons, which was a lot of fun!  

The Marshalls came over for a few hours before we had our photo-shoot at the Polings'. The girls were doing their hair and nails, and I played Xbox with Noah.

Book meeting. Where Kathryn reads her story to us and we critique it.

Shooting days:

Morgan getting her hair ready.

Lizzy getting a bruise applied.

Eye makeup.

Annie talking to me and Noah about how we could work better together as the director and assistant director.

Hectic makeup and hair moment.

Good guy and bad guy helping each other with their costumes. :)

Matt.

Lizzy checking to see if Matt's "dirt" is applied evenly.

Matt getting "dirt" applied.

Morgan getting her hair teased.

Loading up all the film gear, about to leave.

                           9 AM. Walking to film location and setting the first scene of the day up:

Walking to our location.

Yep, that's me; the short, red head in the sweater... Pulling the mini wagon. :)

Base camp.

What an actress does when she's not in a scene. lol! :)

The picture below was the last shooting day. Well, we thought it was, but the next month we had to film pickup shots.

While this was happening ^^, mom and dad were at the airport picking Ashley and Matt up:

Ashley and Matt...and a random lady with a massive Starbucks coffee. lol!

Ashley, Matt, Mom, and Dad came on set to see us film for a little while, but left about an hour later.

Less than two hours later we finished filming and we headed back to the Polings' house where there was a lot of clapping and whooping and Noah gave his "inspirational speech." 

Okay, there is a story to that. See, when the Marshalls came to our house before the photo-shoot, I jokingly said to Noah, "Lizzy wants you and me to write inspirational speeches because we're the director and assistant director." I thought he knew I was kidding. And as they were leaving our house I said, "Don't forget that inspirational speech!" 

And Noah was like, "Oh yeah. When does Lizzy need that again?" 

Me: "Tomorrow." 

I thought he knew I was joking, but when they left I was like, "Hm...I don't think he knew I was joking." 

Later that night I asked him if he knew I was kidding and he didn't know.

We all laughed a good bit about that, and for the next few days we joked about the "inspirational speeches" Noah and I were going to give.

On the last day of shooting it was brought up again and Noah stood up and gave a speech. :) 

When we got back from the Polings' I was really happy and bursting to tell every last detail about the day (because I had, had a blast), but Ashley and Matt were finally at our house visiting, so we wanted to visit with them and hear about their flight and so on. :) 

I don't know what's up with my hair. ;)

The next day, everyone went to Deep Lake to celebrate Morgan's birthday (which was in two days). 

I look so confused with the world. XD

This was my schedule for the month. 

Where it says "Polings'" that was code for, "Fight Choreography."

Oh, and our grandparents were not here on the 8th and 9th. They drove up to Port Angeles, but were back on the 10th. :)

August: 

Ashley and Matt were here the first week of August  and we did a lot of stuff with them, which I covered in this blog post HERE.

Since I already did a blog post about August, I'll just post pictures in place of description. :)

We've been making mini movies with the Johnsons.

I would post more of the Johnson movie pictures, but I don't know if some people would approve of some of the pics. :) ;) 

Another day of shooting our LCC entry. (Total numbers of days we filmed: 5)

I've had more Starbucks this summer than I have ever had in my life...and I'm okay with that. ;) 

I don't know what store this is at, I just know it's in the Tacoma Mall.

Sarah has been very nice, letting me ride her horse, Scarlett. I missed riding.

We had a movie night with the Johnsons which involved a lot of popcorn and some cookies. We watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean. :) 

We also had a movie night with the Marshalls and Swets which involved a lot of popcorn, and Micah giving me a cooking lesson on how to pop popcorn in a pot....which I burned.



My family went to Dash Point Park for a day and we found tons of sand dollars!

Trust me, this is not all that we found. :)

September...So far: 

Dad took me, Morgan, and Yuliya to Pizza Hut

The Polings invited everyone to a Labor Day BBQ where there was some dancing and a lot of talking.

I'm in the front.

Talking to Kathryn about video games. I'm acting like I have a PS4 controller in my hand. lol!

Red Solo Cup. ;) 

The Johnsons came over for another movie night. But we didn't watch the movie until Daniel arrived, which was two hours later...so in those two hours all of us girls plus Matt went on a walk, and made a spur-of-the-moment Safeway trip to buy brownies and ice cream. When we went back home, we popped three bags of popcorn and made the brownies.  Daniel arrived soon after and we started the movie. (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace). 

 I don't have any pictures, but dad won free tickets to the Toby Mac/Chris Tomlin concert at work, and he took us girls plus Anna and Callah to the concert/Puyallup Fair this Sunday. We had a lot of fun! 
 I didn't ride any of the fair rides because:

1. I don't enjoy fair rides...I just don't find them fun. :(
2. Some rides make me sick. :-/
So while everyone else rode the rides, I stood on the sidelines and watched.


On Monday, the Johnsons came over and Matt read the first finished draft of our zombie movie out loud.


Yesterday Sarah invited me to go with her to the horse barn to ride Scarlett. That was a lot of fun, even though my thighs are a little sore from the sitting trot. :)
Yesterday was also our writing "class" at the Polings'. That's something else we've been doing with some of our friends. It's where we bring any writing that we have to the Polings' house, and Kathryn reads it out loud. She gives us grammar corrections and teaches about writing/grammar. :) 


Today is the first day of fall! The weather has completely changed here in Washington. It's really cold in the mornings, then warms up a little bit during the day! 
I really hope the weather stays this way this week, because my grandma is coming to visit us from GA! In a few hours she'll be on an airplane headed up here! :) 
Anyway, again, today is the first day of fall. That means summer 2015 is already over.
I wrote what I did this summer, but I didn't write my thoughts on this summer, so here we go:


This summer has been incredibly, incredibly busy and super fun. It's also been very educational in more ways than one. 
I've learned a whole lot about being A.D and how to work better as team. I've learned a lot about our friends and our relationships have grown in a big way. My relationship with all of our friends before the LCC project was completely different from what they are now. I can't wait until we have a new project that will make us all grow even closer together. :)

There were moments during the summer that were a little tough, but I can hardly remember the tough moments because all the fun and good memories overwrite the tough ones. :) 


I hope you all had a great summer also, and happy fall! :)

Lauryn G.