Never were there Such Devoted Sisters (MHU)

HERE'S THE THING. I definitely set this to post Monday morning, around when I'd be leaving for camp. I came home and it was never up.
But I worked hard on pictures for it and etc, so I'm posting it anyway. Happy Mutt Day, and sorry.

I know I have not been diligent on blogging OR keeping everyone updated on their holidays, and I apologize. I'd love to say I've been busy having the BEST HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER of my LIFE (as it is also the last, and that's more than a bit creepy), but really...I've been busy with school.

I realized Saturday (which is when I wrote this entry, actually. Look, I'm being all proactive!) that it's quite ironic; I'm taking two summer classes with full work-loads so I can take ANOTHER class during school with MORE summer work! But I'm done with Consumer Education, and I'm almost done with Government, so now I have more entertaining summer homework, like reading and arting and writing! Woot. And maybe, if there's time, I can go outside!! I hear the sun is really nice these days.

Next week is another week I will be busy...but this time for something fun that is almost COMPLETELY outdoors. Girls' Camp! The best 5 days of religious, female-only, insane and spiritual fun an Alaina can have. I intend to make the best out of every day and look as ridiculous as possible, because that's what a good Junior Staffer should do.

And another good way to be a good Junior Staffer is to know the holidays. I know I'D be excited if someone put a "happy holiday" card in my mailbox or gave me a present or something. And I feel the need, as always, to share these holidays with you in another MONDAY HOLIDAY UPDATEupdateupdateupdate!!!!

Today's holiday is one that sounds utterly ridiculous, but really is one of the easiest holidays you could ever dream of celebrating. It's Take your Pants for a Walk Day, and while this sounds like a holiday specifically designed to give those people who keep their clothing as pets something to be proud of, it's quite a holiday for YOUR FITNESS!!! Unless you're wearing a skirt, dress, kilt, or toga, I would really hope you plan on wearing pants today. Taking them for a walk is quite easy...just...walk! It's good for you, it's good for the pants, it's good for the environment. Sounds like a GOOD HOLIDAY to me.

Tuesday's holiday is a wonderful, wonderful one. Not QUITE as amazing as the holiday on July 7th, but close...it's Milk Chocolate Day!!! And while I prefer Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate is even better in some instances. Such as S'mores, which would be ~amazing~ with dark chocolate, but taste much more classic with good ole' milky. You know how to celebrate today. So, go, ye. And eat milk chocolate.

On Wednesday, both Garfield and I have the right to be sufficiently thrilled. Wednesday is, indeed, National Lasagna Day! They usually give us lasagna at least one night a week at camp, so HOPEFULLY it'll be Wednesday, elsewise my celebrating will have to get awfully creative. For you all with access to stoves, I suggest Stauffer's, or your local Italian bistro...mmmm....or home-made, if you REALLY wanna impress the neighbors and cause unnecessary heat in your house.

Emily D, if you don't at least consider Thursday's holiday, I will be legitimately disappointed. It's CHEESECAKE DAY and that is AWESOME. I can basically promise you I won't get cheesecake, and as it is the best non-chocolate dessert I know of (even better with chocolate), I pray someone will eat some in my honor. I can't even celebrate the OTHER July 29th holiday, Father-In-Law Day, as I have no such figure in my life at the current time. But for those of you who do, I suggest you send him a card, call him up, or...hey, how about this- bring him a delicious cheesecake! Double-word score!

Friday is a great holiday for people like me, who love dogs with uncertain parentage. It's Mutt day, and that means I will be watching "Lady and the Tramp" (which is still one of my favorites evurrr) as I fall asleep in Camp Recovery Mode. I have no mutt of my own and know no one off the top of my head nearby with a mutt, but I can still love them. And I'll spend extra time thinking about Rupee. Who is a mutt. (Aw, come on. It's a fun word. Mutt mutt mutt!)

Saturday is the first of August, but I'm going to save the month celebratory things for the next update. Because they are seriously AWESOME and deserve more attention than an afterthought in the middle of the weekend laydown. Just to let you know HOW awesome August is, the first of August happens to be Mustard Day (I know, it doesn't sound awesome...but if there's just an eensy bit it's really not too bad...) AND Raspberry Cream Pie Day. Which I've never heard of but reminds me of Bear Lake. Anything that reminds me of Bear Lake has my seal of approval. C:

And as much as I ADORE the August 2nd holiday (National Ice Cream Sandwich Day? Can it GET better?!) There are three connected-but-seperate "First Sunday" holidays that are even better for this Sunday. It's Friendship Day, International Forgiveness Day ANNNND Sister's Day. How much more love, joy, and tenderness can you stuff into one Sunday?! So make sure you get those special bonds with your sisters and friends today....your sisters are your friends, your friends are your sisters (unless they're dudes), and everyone, especially your sister-friends, deserve forgiveness. Awww, can't you just feel the rainbows and sunshine pulsating from the deepest creveses of the world? :D Not yet? Eat an Ice Cream Sandwich. I promise you'll get those unicorns and rainbows in places you didn't even know you HAD.



"Sisters" is from "White Christmas" and should be sung on Sunday, preferably with your sister.

Mother Dear, I Love You So

Before I get into this- a minor apology for not giving you any Monday Holiday Updates. Today's National Caviar Day, in case you were wondering, by the way. And tomorrow is National Ice Cream Day, which may be the best "3rd Sunday in the Month" holiday ever created.

NOW to more important matters...The thing about making a birthday blog for my mom is that it's ridiculously more difficult than it should be. See, I am a fan of images. You might not be able to tell that from my ridiculous wordiness in every entry ever, but I am. And my mom doesn't love having her picture taken. In fact, in every year on our hard drive, this is the closest thing we have to a "happy Birthday, Mom!" image.



I suppose, in a way, the picture's very fitting. One of the things about Mom is that she enjoys her family almost more than she enjoys herself. I know she loves to garden, photograph, read, cruise, sew, sleep, and other activities. But Mom spends a lot of her time cooking, cleaning, keeping up her calling, and listening to me, Emily, Emily, and sometimes even Mark prattle on forever. We're really not that interesting of conversations, but she knows it makes us happy.

Yeah....My Mom is the cool mom in my group of friends. They tell and retell stories about things she's said or done, they let me go watch movies or whatever with her, and they envy her ability to not just be a cool mom, but an awesome friend. I've had more than one serious conversation with certain friends as they try to figure just what makes our relationship so close. I think it's just my mom is that awesome she can manage it...somehow.


I'm not precisely good at these "birthday blog" things, especially when there aren't a lot of photos to use (and absolutely none in existence Mom wouldn't delete that I could make smart remarks about). But some things you should know about my mom- she's funny, smart, patient, beautiful, wise, and likes breakfast for dinner and cottage cheese on her toast. She can't play Mario Kart, but could whoop your tail at Mario Party. She makes the best lava cakes in the world, sings her own additions to songs where the composer wouldn't dream of putting them, and is currently painting her closet off-white.

Mom has a lot of friends, a lot of talents, and a lot of virtues. She's made decisions in her life that place her near the top of my "hero" list every time a church activity necessitates me to create one. And when I have kids, they'll go to her house to make sugar cookies, drink chocolate milk with too much chocolate, see the most amazing Christmas decorations in the world, and call her Grandma Margaret.

"Mother Dear" can be found in Primaries everywhere

Today's the Day the Teddy Bears have their Picnic (MHU)

I'm writing this entry while waiting for my Summer Online Consumer Ec Final to be emailed. My teacher said "I'll have it out Sunday Morning!" so I got up at 8 and have been sitting here, doodling about the Internet and frequently hitting F5 on my email to no avail. At least I can pretend to be productive by writing a MONDAY HOLIDAY UPDATE!

Today is National Fried Chicken Day, which I'm surprised I haven't heard more about. Surely KFC and Popeye's would love this holiday...then again, KFC is really pushing that Grilled Chicken ordeal, maybe celebrating today's holiday would be counterproductive for them.

Well, maybe they'll serve Fried Chicken at efy. I'll make sure to eat some if they do. C:

Heavens to Betsy, if you thought Fried Chicken Day was a good (if not ridiculously unhealthy) holiday, wait until tomorrow! Bless this day, it's Chocolate Day! Aaaaaahhh I know how I want to celebrate this holiday. Which may be the best one in a long while. :) As America's Favorite Flavor (and the best flavor ~ever~), it needs to be celebrated. Not that I need to tell you that, I hope!

Feeling unhealthy from all that chicken and chocolate? Well, Wednesday's not going to help you. THIS Summer holiday is...drumroll please...Video Game Day! They most certainly will not have any video games at efy for me, which is a darned shame. As many people know, I am a Nintendo girl, born and bred. I KNOW the merit of a good video game marathon day...so even if you don't have the time to hop on goombas and koopas for hours on end, maybe play a few rounds with your friends. Video Games can be a wonnnderful social entertainment. Whether they cause violence in young children or not.

Thursday's holiday is one that is full of fun and memories, as it is Sugar Cookie Day! We aren't able to make them often, but as everyone who does make them knows, those sugar cookies moments can be the best memories around. So today, I suggest you make sugar cookies in the most creative way possible. Get out those cutters you never use...who says you can't have a foot cookie? I think it's high-time for a Santa-in-July! And give those butterflies and palm trees some lovin'.

Yes, this is a lovely week of holidays so far. Really, it's disappointing I'll be missing the best part of celebrating them. Especially on Friday, as I doubt I'll be able to correctly celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic Day. I actually have fleeting memories of this holiday...seeing signs for it at our Park District or in Build-a-Bear or something. It's a great holiday, especially for little ones. Picnics are awesome, and sharing that with your best friend who never talks back, always wants a hug, and never hogs the dessert sounds just perfect.

Saturday is the very very last day at efy...which doesn't really count as a day because sign out is at 7:30. Eugh. Which means I'll have ample time to celebrate the holiday that, of all the previous ones this week, is most difficult to celebrate. It's World Population Day, a legit holiday sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund. I think I'll like this holiday, if only because of this awesome site. Did you know I may have been the 5,397,478,001st person living when I was born? And when I'm having Christmas at age 50, there will be 8,528,570,033 other people celebrating.

Sunday is the second awareness holiday this week, the noble Different Colored Eyes day! This is a good holiday to say "hey, you have blue eyes and I have green eyes; isn't that cool?!" but it's a great day to honor people (and animals) with Heterchromia, a condition where the two eyes are different colors, or the eyes include two different colors. Most notably seen in Siberian Huskies or odd-eye cats, but also seen in people. Such as Kate Bosworth, everyone's least favorite Lois Lane!

LOVELY. :) I finished putting in pictures just as I got an alert that my final is here! Ahh, I love convenience.

Teddy Bear's Picnic can be found sung by children on Friday, mehopes!

Things that Make Me Dad

I have many internet heroes. The lady who write Seriously, so Blessed, the AMAZING people at Holiday Insights, my mom, Brian Tiemann (the guy who made the website that, through The Lion King, got me back into loving art...even if I don't go there anymore), many many webcomic artists including Tracy Butler, the people who work at Cake Wrecks, and now this guy.

Monday, I discovered Lunch Bag Art, which is a field that is actually quite large and I had no idea existed. Okay, that's a slight lie...obviously lunch bag art exists, because lunch bags are awesome to draw on. But I didn't know it could be this ~awesome~.

Everyday, he makes lunchbags for his children, Dana and Dylan. Sometimes they suit their requests or what they like. Other times, he makes lunchbags to suit the requests of the people who live on the internet.

He's very much a dad, and his info is short, sweet, to the point, and with the limit of elloquation only a guy can pull off. It says "A new bag each day for my kids. I'm the dad. I make these during my lunch break." and his post descriptions are even shorter. He'd do very well on twitter.

He works as a video game artist, which suits him perfectly, I think.

They're updated daily, even now during summer, which makes me curious. But these bags are DEFINATELY for his kids and go with them to school, (one had Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes ranting about his hate towards school and was returned home with a note that said, "Drawings are very cool! But not the comments. :("

Also, you can tell he really loves not only what he does, but who he does it for.

Basically...awesome.

And that link again is http://lunchbagart.tumblr.com/.

"Things" can be found by Barenaked Ladies