Summer Has Come . . . and Gone

*crickets*

Well, hello everyone! You may or may not have noticed my extended and unplanned absence from the blogging world. Rest assured that I have not forgotten about all of you, my wonderful followers! I'm dropping by today to recap my summer and attempt to justify my blog hiatus. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to accomplish in the coming seasons, but I truly hope that I'm able to post more frequently. I still plan on posting my blog birthday Q&A which has been mostly written for a month, just not finalized. For now, and without further ado, here is a taste of my summer months:

JUNE

Toward the beginning of the month, I was briefly reunited with my best friend from first and second grade. It was enjoyable to see her and catch up a bit. My grandparents came to visit one day, and we all were blessed to see one another.

I finished my sophomore year of high school midway through the June, and after that my family and I left on vacation to Lone Pine at the base of Mount Whitney, the same location where I attended the movie-making camp last November. I was relieved to finally have some time to relax and unwind after a hectic last month of school. We did a lot of sight-seeing, hiking in 110 degree weather, photographing, fossil hunting, and—of course—reading. :)

Horseshoe Meadows outside of Lone Pine. About 10,000 ft.

A creek near where we stayed while in Lone Pine.

The Alabama Hills where many famous westerns have been filmed.

The following week we spent focusing on cleaning the house, going through papers that have stacked up, etc. Near the end of June I had a marvelous time at my best friend's eighteenth birthday party. (Happy Birthday!!!)

JULY

The first week of July found me counseling at a Christian camp for kids aged 7-13. For five days I had a great cabin of nine and ten year old girls. I came back exhausted with lots of stories from my second time counseling. It was a fabulous week!

From there I had one day at home before I was whisked away with my sister to spend several days visiting my grandparents in Pacific Grove. The weather was lovely, (especially compared to the extreme heat back home) and we were able to participate in several fun activities. Whether playing in the sand, taking selfies, talking with my grandparents, going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or on a whale watching boat, I enjoyed my time immensely!

Whale watching. :)

The flag off the back of the boat.

Most of July was jam-packed with many smaller activities, so that looking back now I'm seeing that I was away from the house much more than I was home all summer; this has probably been the first year I've been away from my family this much in a summer. Of course, all the activities were good ones, like finally getting to go to the beach with my best friend and that family. (I had the best time! It was the first real time I'd gone to the beach all summer.)

Panorama of the beach I went to

To cap off my month, my family and I went back to my grandparents' and hiked around Jack's Peak. Then my parents went home and my sister and I spent a few more days there finding treasures at garage sales (I got a really nice tri-pod for a dollar!) and watching fireworks (it was my sister's first time seeing real ones).

The view of Monterey from Jack's Peak

My family and I on the trail

That's me. :) Always with my camera.

This was the first time I tried the fireworks setting on my camera.

AUGUST

Day one of August brought with it a new experience for my sister and me. We rode both our horses down to a neighbor's arena and, as much as I enjoy riding in open areas, the confined space gave us so much freedom. I absolutely loved our time together and with the horses out in the middle of God's beautiful creation!

I'm riding Baylie, my sister is on Dream.

Then . . . my mom made the "dangerous" mistake of leaving to go visit her family in Los Angeles. That left my dad and his crazy awesome ideas alone with my sister and me who pretty much go along with his insane ideas. Thus was born the newest addition to my family's collection of home movies. We planned and filmed a ten-minute western complete with Indiana Jones music, horses, explosions, and chase scenes. It is truly . . . epic. And didn't have to leave our property to create it. Hours upon hours were spent with planning, filming (in trenchcoats and 100 degree weather), and editing. We had it finished by the time my mom got back and surprised her with it. She decided to never leave us home alone again. :) It was such a fun time!

Lights . . . camera . . . action!

The day after my mom returned, my sister and I left again, this time for LIFE Camp! It is always one of the top highlights of my year, and this week at camp was no exception! I was part of the high school group which did additional amazing activities and had fantastic classes that I thrived on. We studied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in addition to how we can share our own testimonies to bring others to know God. The activities included watching The Nativity, painting Christmas sweaters, and making gingerbread houses. (Guess the theme—Christmas. :P) Non-Christmas related activities were traveling to the beach with the other high schoolers and best of all, just hanging out with my amazing friends. My sister and I recreated the Battle of Wits scene from the Princess Bride for the talent show. I was Westley and she was Vizzini. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to watch the movie! :) My cabin became the prank cabin of camp, and that was incredibly fun. I already can't wait for next year!

The Battle of Wits from the Princess Bride

Being in the high school group, I only got about five hours of sleep a night, (part of that was because the latest I got up was 5:30 and we didn't go to bed until around midnight) so I came home utterly exhausted. Two days later I began my junior year of high school. Yes, my junior year. I can't believe I started the second half of my high school years. So far, school has been going well. This semester, I'm taking Physics, PreCalculus with Trigonometry, American Literature, and studying worldviews and world religions. I am truly looking forward to the rest of this semester. I have a feeling it's going to go great!

 ~

And that brings you up to date! Now maybe you'll understand why my blog has fallen to the wayside over the last few months. I truly hope that I'll be able to get some more posted in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, and thank you for sticking with me through my crazy busy life! God bless you all!

Bethany

P.S. I updated my both my written profile as well as my profile picture. Let me know your thoughts!

I just recently made this from a picture my sister took.

I am an aspiring teen writer with enough ideas alone to fill volumes. I enjoy living in the country where I have many scenes to photograph and hardly a car passes all day. I love reading and blogging. Interacting with horses is another hobby. My newest interests include screenwriting, cinematography, and making movies as well as operating my amateur radio. I adore The Princess Bride, and if you don't that's truly INCONCEIVABLE! My imagination is one of my best qualities, and I'm definitely an introvert.

Most importantly, I seek to honor God in everything I do, say, think, and write. Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to have you join my wonderful group of followers! You all mean the world to me!

~

Another note: An idea I've been mulling over in my extended absence is possibly doing some posts regarding defending the Christian faith. It's a subject I've studied and my family is passionate about. The Bible says to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and I would love to share some of my knowledge with you. The Bible is true—from Genesis 1:1 to the end of Revelation—and there is evidence. It's not a blind faith. Please let me know your thoughts. I'd enjoy knowing who is interested, and if you have any specific areas that you would like more information on. Thank you!

February Highlights 2017

Pauses. Sighs. Scratches head. Sighs again.

How should I describe February? It was a relatively "normal" month. At least, as "normal" as my life ever gets. :) While I didn't get half as much done as I'd hoped, I still accomplished a decent amount and I'm pleased with the overall results.

~Summary~

Okay. I figured out how to describe the biggest portion of my month—stress. For the greater part of February I have been studying like crazy for my amateur radio test to get my operator license. The test was Monday night and I had the most amazing feeling going into it. Instead of being horribly nervous like I thought I would be, I had total peace. Even during the test and while waiting for the results, I wasn't very nervous. And guess what? I passed with 97%! I'm so thrilled. Yesterday morning I got my temporary call sign but I hope to change it to something more personal. I am officially an amateur radio operator! Yay!

Besides radio classes, studying, and lots of school, I've also been continuing to attend two awesome youth groups and build stronger relationships with my friends. My younger sister went to Hume Lake at the beginning of the month and had a wonderful time. While she was enjoying the snow, I had a wonderful time staying with my marvelous grandparents. I always love sitting and talking with them, and I had plenty of time to do so!

A few weeks later we went to Pacific Grove to visit with my grandparents again for a birthday. It was a nice time, and we got several more great sunset pictures. How can you not get good ones when the sun is setting over the ocean? #beautiful ;)

That's my Dad taking a picture. ;)

It was also an interesting experience in that because of all the rain and wind storms, trees were falling left, right, and center and power was out in Pacific Grove for over 24 hours! We toasted bread and heated water for coffee over the fire and managed just fine. By the time we needed to turn on the oven for our pizza, power came back on. Perfect timing. Can't go without the pizza. :)

All in all, it was a good month despite the stress. I would ask for prayers though for my Mom, who found out yesterday that she has to have some major dental work done. Thanks!

~Reading~

February started out as a very good month for reading, I was ahead in my plan for reaching 10 books despite the short month but then it came to a grinding halt as studying grew more intense. I managed to complete only three for a total of 738 pages plus about half of the book I'm in the middle of, A Time to Die, which will be added to March's book list.

1. Land of Shining Water: The Icecutter's Daughter, Tracie Peterson (331 pages)
2. Chiveis Trilogy: The Gift, Bryan M. Litfin (407 pages)
3. Ilyon Chronicles: The King's Scrolls, Jaye L. Knight (397 pages)

However, I can say that all three books were extraordinary! I'd highly recommend all of them and I can't wait to get book three in both the Chiveis Trilogy and Ilyon Chronicles. Hopefully March will enable me to get a significant amount of reading done now that the radio test is behind me.

~Writing~

While I still didn't write nearly as much as I'd hoped to, I did accomplish more than 4,000 words on my Dragon Chronicles, which is actually a lot considering everything else. I also set a record for the most amount of words I've ever written in a day—the new total is 2,612! That was a happy day. :)

I've also been continuing to edit for some friends, and I'm finding that I really enjoy editing. Another accomplishment was writing my first draft of a synopsis for my Dragon Chronicles. I'm really glad to have come up with something that I think I like for it.

~Photography~

It was a good month for photography! With all the rain, there were lots of rainbows and everything looked fresh. In addition to the sunset pictures I have above, I also got to do a brief photo-shoot with my sister and our horses.

In a "normal" year of rain, this river is half the size. (Taken in January.)

This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken! Isn't it gorgeous?

All the above pictures are © Bethany R.

~Great Quotes~

A found a few cool quotes this month that I thought you might like too.

“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” -Annie Dillard

"If you ask me what book I'm reading I'll either go into a long winded and enthusiastic summary of the entire thing or just lift the book to show you the title and keep reading." -I can't find the author

I don't think this counts as a quote but . . . here it is. :)

~Blog Posts~

I managed four posts in February, the most popular of which was my January Highlights post, followed by A Question of Honor Cover Reveal and Faith Leads to Understanding. I was delighted to find that I got several new followers this month as well—welcome to the blog! I'm so happy that you found me. You helped me reach 40 google followers!

As far as other blogger's posts, I'll just mention two things here. The blog tours for both A Question of Honor and The Princess and I have begun! Both books release March 3, so if you are interested, be sure to check those out! Click on the book title to view each author's first post of the blog tour. I've been too busy to participate in either, but know that if I could have I would have! Congratulations Jesseca and Rebekah! I'm so excited for you both!

Wow, I guess a busy month calls for a long post but I didn't anticipate this being THAT long. Well, if you read all of that, thanks! I hope you had a great February and have a delightful March!

Nature Shots

I recently visited my grandparents in Pacific Grove and pulled out my camera. I only got a few photos of the ocean this time, but I got several of a seagull and my grandma's flowers. To view them larger, just click on the picture. Enjoy!

Isn't the expression cute?

I was so happy with the clarity of this one.

Believe it or not, I didn't take these in sepia. Aren't they cool?

This is probably my favorite of the flower pictures.

I like the framing and colors on this one.

All photos are © Bethany R.

What do you think? Which is your favorite? Any tips for me? Also, as a side note, now that Camp NaNo is over, if you would like to enter the writing challenge but weren't able, I will still be accepting entries for a few more days. Thanks for stopping by!

4th of July trip: Day 3!

The Wave Maker

This is post number two in a series of posts that I will be sharing with you about my trip to Pacific Grove to visit with my grandparents for the fourth of July! The trip began on June 28, and went through July 5. I wrote a little about each day to share with you complete with MANY pictures! The posts will be tentatively broken up into groups of two days per post. To visit the first post, click HERE. Enjoy the next day!

Note: Some of the pictures may not be in perfect order, or have a caption, or have another issue due to blogger malfunctions.

Day 3: 6/30/15

The Kelp Fish

After another walk with Grandpa, I returned home in time to say good-bye my parents who were headed home. After they left, I relaxed while watching my sister watch cartoons. However, I was not still for long as Grandma, my sister, and I soon were on the road to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where my grandparents are members. I love visiting the Aquarium—it never grows boring and you can never see it all! One of our first stops was to check out the touch pools. Of the Aquarium's three touch pools, my favorite is by far the bay ray tank where you get rather wet stretching your arms into the water with hopes of a brush of a ray's smooth back along your fingertips. Once we dried off, we made sure to visit the wave maker, where a glass is curved over the top of you and every so often, a wave goes over you and falls down where you can watch it while staying dry!

The Albatross getting trained

A Leopard Shark in the Kelp Forest

An eel and a lobster

Another of our favorite exhibits is the penguins! We arrived at their tank in time to get a good seat for the feeding where employees discuss their different penguins, their food, and their habitat. I enjoyed snapping photos of the penguins ducking under the water and jumping on land reaching up for a bit of fish! When the feeding finished, we moved onward to another exhibit but passed by the Kelp forest where they were training an Albatross that they had rescued! When that finished, we visited a few other spots and then headed home for a good night's rest after a long but exciting day.

4th of July Trip: Day 1-2

Hello, faithful readers! Thank you to continuing to stay tuned to my blog even when I do not post regularly. But now I have a series of posts that I will be sharing with you about my trip to Pacific Grove to visit with my grandparents for the fourth of July! The trip began on June 28, and went through July 5! I wrote a little about each day to share with you complete with MANY pictures! The posts will be tentatively broken up into groups of two days per post. Enjoy!

Note: Some of the pictures may not be in perfect order, or have a caption, or have another issue due to blogger malfunctions.

Day 1: 6/28/15

Day 1: Digging Sand Caves!

Day 1: Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

After church, the whole family drove up to Pacific Grove for a visit with my grandparents. Once there, the six of us gave hugs all around and brought in all the luggage while lunch was made. Then we all sat around and chatted. However, my little sister and I soon migrated down the sand dune to do our own chatting and to play in the sand. We stayed in the sand for a good while digging under the sand building deep tunnels. When we tired of that, we returned to the house and discussed plans for the week. After that we enjoyed dinner and more conversation. After photographing a beautiful sunset, we all fell into bed happy and ready for the next day.

Day 2: 6/29/15

Day 2: Walking along the beach and through Asilomar

This morning I had requested that I be woken up at 6:15 to go on Grandpa's daily walk—our tradition for whenever I am up there from the time I was little. On our walk, we saw ten deer—three of them being little fawns! We strolled along the ocean and then through the Asilomar Conference Grounds. Shortly after we returned to the house, Mom and Dad left to attend to some business so Grandma, my sister, and I left to go to Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey. By the time Mom and Dad finished,  it was lunchtime so we all gathered at a Chinese restaurant. (Mmm! Don't you love Chinese food!) When we finished, the five of us rented two paddle boats and went out on Lake El Estero for an hour. We had races and fed the geese, ducks, and sea gulls. (Sssh, don't tell!) When our hour had expired, we returned to shore wobble-legged and sore but happy with quite the crowd of flying critters trailing! Our last stop of the day was at a thrift store. . . no surprise if you know my family! After a gorgeous sunset later that evening, we lit the fire and enjoyed each other until bedtime.

Day 2: At the Park!

Day 2: Chinese Food!