This meteor shower is a sham.

Well my friends, the summer is over. I am sitting at my mom's house and I will not be returning to NRH in the foreseeable future. Right now, I could not be happier that I am home.

My first night back was spent hanging out with Ben (shocking, I know). I ate dinner at his house and we hung out there until his niece broke the recommended decibel level for humans to hear before she went to bed. Then we got ice cream and went to look for a place to watch the meteor shower in Harrah. The usual place we all used to go look at stars (I really like doing that - weird... perhaps) is now closed at night and the rest of Harrah is filled with womens correctional facilities and rednecks with shotguns. So, back to Ben's neighborhood we went. An hour later, still no shooting stars. Lots of mosquitos, though. The same thing happened last night when we went to the middle of nowhere Norman to see them. Tons of mosquitos, no shooting stars. Don't get me wrong, I still had fun, but all I wanted was a single meteor. I think i'm going to try it again by myself tonight. I am determined.

I also got to pretend to be a hipster at Big Truck Tacos with some friends. It was good! You should check it out... they even have a cows tongue taco. I'm serious. It was sold out. The only way I would try that would be to get tricked into it. Which I feel like Kailee might try to do.... I'm on the lookout.

Ben and I also went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World after the taco adventure. I'm really glad that this scenario doesn't always happen in real life. I would have some crazy people to deal with. It was a pretty good movie regardless. I might have enjoyed it a tad more were I a nerd, though. One of my favorite parts of this trip to the movies was the crowd. I love theaters full of nerds. The preview for the new M. Night Shaymalan movie came on, and at the sheer sight of his name. the nerds were laughing. The best quote was "the secret is... there IS NO ELEVATOR". Be it comic book nerds, Harry Potter nerds, or even the ridiculous Twilight nerds, I love it.

In summation, it's been really nice to be at home with my friends and family. I've gotten to see a lot of the people that I love, and soon i'll be at OC and the rest will show up. I'm ready to just move in to school. The whole learning, homework, 8:00 classes thing can wait though. By the way, your welcome for every link ever in this post. That's my replacement for no fun pictures.

- Steph

EDIT: My sister got a new puppy! I took a picture of it (she has no name, I can say it) and I can share that so this post is not boring.

It's a baby german shepherd! I call her Olga.

This is how she sleeps... which is all she does.

You're gonna need a storage unit for your lock box.

Wow.

This week was crazy.

Monday was one of the longest days i've had in a long time.

I was, at one point, sort of homeless at a Subway, with everything I own in the back of my car, which was leaking transmission fluid. I wasn't sure how bad the car thing was until I sent Ben a text about it, and immediately got a call about it while he was on a mission trip... never a good sign. But it was very nice of him to make sure I was ok even though he was busy.

Don't worry, the car is fine now. And I am no longer homeless.

I'm staying with Jason and Cori for the remainder of my time in NRH (roughly 5 days). It's definitely a change from a house with no kids to a house with 2. But I love these kids, so it's totally ok.

Sometimes i'll just start asking the 2 year old questions to see which answer she'll give me. Usually she is stuck on a string of "yesh" or just "no" over and over, so asking "is this chair blue" followed by "is this chair red" can often get confusing answers.

I have watched more Nick Jr. than I ever imagined possible. But I have seen the girl on tv who supposably looks like me... I don't see it.

Marina from the Fresh Beat Band. According to the website, her favorite colors are teal and purple. So maybe we could hang.

Marina on the show... she's the drummer (PS this picture of me was a joke)

She's apparently a country singer in real life? This picture of me was halloween, so that's why it's strange.

Well I got bored and that picture hunt killed some time. Judge me. One of the kids I lived with last summer (whom I would adopt if given the chance) thought I moved away from their house to be on tv when he saw this show. Weird.

Perhaps one day i'll be walking through the airport and hear whispers of those who have confused me with this superstar. Maybe kids will even ask me to drum!

I have totally drifted away from whatever I intended this post to be about.
We had the girls sleepover last night, and I maybe got 4 solid hours of snoozing in, so you'll have to forgive my scatteredness.

As the summer is coming to an end, i'm finding myself more and more ready to be at home. I miss everyone. I miss Oklahoma. And everyone being in Oklahoma. Very soon, though, that will not be a problem anymore! Woo!

Next week will probably go a little something like this:

Sunday - Church and hang out.

Monday - Office work then Ben will stop in on his way to Oklahoma for a visit to Ikea!

Tuesday - Office work followed by a Ranger game against the Yankees.

Wednesday - Office goodbye followed by preparation for then the end of summer party (me getting thrown in the pool while still in my clothes).

Thursday - Pack up and head out. Then Oklahoma!

It can't be much crazier than this week was, though. I hope...

- Steph

Just use it like a cigar.

This past week was the junior high mission trip to San Antonio. We worked with Urban Connection, a day care in the state funded housing downtown. It was an... interesting trip.

The kids did great when we worked all day at UC, from like 8:00am - 3:30pm. They worked hard and were respectful. 

The rest of the day, from 4:00pm - 1:00am was mostly a different story. It was a fun, good trip, but man it was hard! I do like those kids a lot, though.

I don't have too many inspirational stories from the week to make this blog awesome (what's new). One of the girls made me a bracelet during craft time which was cute. The legacy kids seemed to have a small realization about how much they have by how little the UC kids had. Most of our kids came to the trip with an average of about $70 of spending money, which they promptly spent all of. I think that for junior high kids, realizing that you have more than other people and are lucky is probably a good first step.

I got to pet a dolphin when we were at sea world! It was awesome. One day I will swim with one.

We made it home with minimal injuries. Only a lost tooth on the van, nobody got punched in the face. I could only find a tampon in the first aid kid, no gauze, so we suggested he just use that. Telling a junior high boy to get anywhere near a feminine product is hilarious, just for future reference.

Ben and the family he is staying with for the summer were in Dallas when I got back to Legacy, so they waited for me to get in town and we all went to lunch. It was great to see him, but also terrible since it was just an hour. I miss too many people!

While sorting through the medical release forms before we left for the trip, I came across a really old one and this girl has the luckiest combination of allergies I have ever seen...

Food Allergies - Tomatoes, Spinach, Broccoli, Mushrooms

She must have had a great excuse to not eat her vegetables as a child.

I have one and a half weeks left in NRH for the summer. We don't have any big trips or events left. This next week will basically be wrapping up the summer. How strange! It went so fast, and so slow at the same time.

I need to find a place to host the girls sleepover I planned. Apparently someone is having a rehearsal dinner in our youth room? Sort of a strange place for that, but oh well. Hopefully I can get someone with a pool, that is always fun. Since we have only office hours left in the summer, i'm sure you'll get a few updates.

- Steph

P.S. Dear Red Robin,

If you are going to randomly put watermelon as a side with your sandwich, please put that in big letters on the menu. Even bottomless french fries doesn't make up for that

The juice got on at least 60% of my fries. What a waste.