Countdown

July 21st - 27th

Sunday was Skylar's Farewell! I was planning on going to just his talk, but Zach talked me into going to his open house, too. I got to actually SEE and talk to Zach in person for the first time in two years... boy was he awkward!! ;) haha it's that whole recent RM thing, but it's alright since he's only been home for a few days. Still so weird! I'd just stare at him. There is no way that that was two whole years! That went by WAY too fast, yet it was so slow because I feel like I haven't seen him in forever at the same time. But he's still the same old stubborn Zach, that's for sure! ;P I'm happy he's back because I have another guy friend I can talk to! And I'm thankful for each of my guy friends, simply because they aren't a whole lot of drama! ;) we'll see about Zach though. ;)
Oh and it was Cal's last Sunday as a Primary teacher... man am I sad to see him go!! He was the one who kept my head on straight when I was so frustrated! He always reminded me that I just needed to love them, and listen. Which is hard for me to do sometimes. But he taught me those valuable lessons, and hopefully the short time we had together in there will prove to last me a long time. I loved how he'd sing all the Primary songs like thirty octaves lower than the rest of the kids, and he always made me laugh and give me a hard time when I forgot the words to the songs. He made it easier for me to be happy! But now I've gotta be happy on my own, and I hope I can make it through without going too crazy. ;)

Oh and my family went out of town again, but now they're back. Just in time for school to start on Wednesday. Tuesday I went to the QCHS open house to help them find their classrooms and teachers and whatnot, plus I guess I just needed a bit of closure! It was great walking down the hallways and thinking HALLELUJAH I AM D-O-N-E AND I NEVER HAVE TO DO THIS AGAINNNNN! But at the same time I was a bit sad that this is all I've known and it was over just way too fast. I'm such a walking contradiction. :P But! I ran in to Lauren, Sam, Ryan, and Meghan all at the same time and we had a joyous group hug (which I hate but I didn't even find because I missed everyone so much which was weird because normally I don't miss people like this, but it made me really happy!). I EVEN MISSED SAM, DUDE WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME. Haha! ;P but it was a nice little walk around the halls that used to be ours! I still have a hard time believing high school is over, but I'm ready to start college! I have been for a while, but now it's officially over and officially beginning. Just a strange feeling of nostalgia. :)

Well, Ashlyn left for the MTC today! So crazy! But I'm absolutely happy and thrilled for her! I always thought I'd be the first Clark girl to serve a mission, but looks like she beat me to it. But that's a good thing because she can give me a tip or two, because honestly I don't really know what I'm getting myself into, but I'm completely okay with that! I've got that art down. Thank goodness. I remember I used to be SO self conscious and iffy on just about everything, now I jump into pools without testing the water and I welcome in adventures and the unknown with open arms. I kind of love it.
Oh and the kids all started school! It was so strange being in the house alone. On a Wednesday. It's gonna take some adjusting, but I think that already happened! I played piano all day long and tried to take my mind off of things. Cal leaves in a week from today. Holy moly.

For a while now I have been putting off the whole college thing for forever... well, honestly I forgot about it for a few months, (oops) and just because I had no idea where to start, I had all of these restrictions and to-do queues with big and fancy codewords I had no idea what meant.. so I just went down there and within like ten minutes my favorite counselor comes out telling me she took care of everything, and now I just needed to buy my text books, sign up for the orientation, and show up for classes. THANK YOUUUU. Seriously though, why did I wait so long?! :P
Katie came over!! Yay! Love it when she visits me all the way from big-town Mesa. ;) We watched the House at the End of the Street and Secret Window, and make brownies, and of course caused some mischief... what good are friends for if you don't get into a bit of trouble?? ;) We also had the missionaries over for dinner, which is always a good time. ;) Elder Kreuger is my favorite!! But he goes back home on Wednesday, which will make me sad, I really liked him! He's a cutie! ;) I also earlier went to Chea's and got some more design work to do! Yay for design work! Haha that's my kind of "work", it's actually play.

It being Cal's last weekend in AZ I was promised our families would get together at some point to hang out one last time. But no official plans were made, and while I was trying to be patient and understanding, I was slightly freaking out because I really really REALLY was looking forward to something, no matter how small it was.. but I got the better end of the deal when I got a phone call reserving the night for a double date with Cal, me, Kayla, and Porter. HECK YEAH. This is what pays off for patience and understanding. ;) They picked us up around 5:30 and we went to finish running some last minute errands for Cal's mission. We went to Deseret Book to get him some gospel artwork and pictures that he can hang up while he's gone. It took us forever to find the pictures, and we ran across some strange things while looking for them! We then went to Nielsen's for dinner, (haha my third time going with him there this summer... I'm thinking he likes this place..) and we just talked and laughed there for a few hours. I LOVE talking with the four of us, we have this intellectual witty sense of humor which I love, it's the best thing ever. :) Later we went to Wal-Mart to get some other things for Cal, and then we decided to play hide and seek in the store! I've never done it before (on purpose) and so we split up girls against boys, and it was SO fun!! We had the whole store, we could move around, and apparently we had to tag our date... or at least Cal didn't think he was found until I was chasing him throughout the aisles until I tagged him. ;) It took the boys a lot longer to find us than it did for us to find them. At one point me and Kayla even walked the entire length of the store up in the front and they didn't even see us! And a few times they were in the aisle right next to us and we could hear their voices, so we booked it out of there. We finally just sat in some patio furniture by the garden section and waited for them to find us. It took them about 18 minutes to find us! We then played a game where we times ourselves to see how long it would take us to find an item beginning with the letters A-Z in order, that took us about 8 minutes.. not too shabby! After a while of just roaming around and talking in the store, we came back to my house and then watched half of How to Train Your Dragon before they had to go home. It was the perfect date! I love laid-back dates more than any other kind, they are so much simple fun that always make for great memories! I'm really thankful he chose to spend many of his Friday nights with me, but especially his last Friday night. :)

Saturday I did pretty much nothing. Oh, I did get some awesome skirts from Goodwill that'll be good for my mission!