Do You Know What I Did This Summer?

Gosh, it seems like the minute I got out of school and went back in for the the Fall, this blog ceased to exist, but here I am ready to give you another great update. This past summer was long, particularly because I didn't do much.

Let me give you an over view of the summer. I used June to plan out Girls Camp for the Huntington Park West LDS stake. Well for the Maywood Branch anyways. I was called to be Camp Director for our branch. It real went well. A bit stressful while I was there, but it was a good time. Lots of hiking this year... Hahaha! You can see pictures from Girls Camp in my facebook pictures.

I was also called to go with two of my girls to Youth Camp. It was totally last minute, but I was needed. Here are my pictures from Youth Camp.

I also went to Disneyland in July for my Birthday!!! I had so much fun! You can see pictures of my Disneyland trip here.

I also did quite a bit of reading. I can't remember that well all of the reading I did, but I think I can track it.

• I finished up Chosen by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. The beginning was slow and I thought I was going to stop reading the entire series, but I'm glad I was persistent and that was thanks to a sweet assistant is Borders in Cerritos.


• Along with Chosen I also got to read Untamed by the Casts. It ended with a GIANT climax to the series and I was hungry for the next book, but alas I wasn't able to borrow it from my cousin. Yet...


• The same day I got the suggestion from the assistant at Borders to keep going with the House of Night series, she also suggested another series, The Immortal Instruments series. The first book is called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's was really good, but I had a slow first half start.


• I then started to read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and I had a slow start with it, and it kept going slow. I felt like I had to read it because it's a classic. It's just one of those books you have to read before you die. I don't regret reading it. I never got the chance to read it when I was in school, so thought I would read it on my own. I paused half way to read a different book...


• I was able to borrow The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold from my cousin Maritza, who borrowed it from the Long Beach Library. I told my cousin about the movie that's going to come out based on the book. We've both seen the trailer and it looks like the movie is going to match the book really well. You can see the trailer to the movie and a small featurette on the official movie website.


• For my birthday, Maritza gave me Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball. Actually my cousin and me have been having I Love Lucy marathons from our own homes. It was a lot of fun laughing at all of Lucy's crazy antics and schemes. Love, Lucy is Lucille Ball's official autobiography. I was so fascinating to know how she grew up to be the person she is now.


• A movie that I got to see during the summer was The Time Traveler's Wife with Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana as the main characters . When I went to see My Sister's Keeper I saw the trailer and loved it! The book was pretty good, but I ended up liking the movie waaaaaay more than I liked the book. It's up to you to judge though. Give The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger a chance. The DVD for the film comes out February 9, 2010.
  


• A year ago I started The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory after I heard that the movie that was going to come out with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. I loved the movie, but I saw it with without finishing the book. I don't think I even get a quarter in when I stopped reading it because of school. I decided I wanted to pick it up after I found out Eric Bana was playing Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife. I wanted to see The Other Boleyn Girl before seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, and I decided I should finish the book, so I did.


• I then sort of started City of Ashes, the second book in the Immortal Intruments series (I didn't get very far), but then I was able to borrow Hunted by the Casts from the library, so I figured I would stop to read the book that I had 3 weeks to read. I finished Hunted and then picked up City of Ashes again after I got it back from one of my girls from church that I had let borrow the book.
  


• I then started The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong with a book club that I was able to start with a couple of friends. The book club is called The Order of the Moon and you can check out our blog at www.theorderofthemoon.blogspot.com, though we haven't updated the blog in a looooong time.
  

I did a lot more reading than I thought I would, and I'm looking forward to a lot more reading. I then read more this past Fall and I'll post a list of books that I read during the semester later.

I saw a few movies this summer too. Like you remembered, I mentioned My Sister's Keeper, it was a good movie, but I didn't cry in at as much as I thought I would. I went with Maritza to watch that movie. My dear friend Carolina, or Carol like I call her, let me borrow 5 movies while I was in the Spring semester and I didn't get a chance to watch them before the semester ended. She let me borrow Too Many Girls, The Long Long Trailer, and Forever Darling. All 3 of them had Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in it. They both met each other when they were working on Too Many Girls. Carol also let me borrow Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. It was really weird to see Lucille with another man besides Desi. She also lent me Stone Pillow which was her last movie that she made before she passed away. It was a very sad movie and she was very much aged.

I didn't get much of a chance to watch to TV except a bunch of reruns of SpongeBob SquarePants during the summer. I also got rid of the cable in my room because I noticed that I stayed up to watch Nick at Night before I went to bed and I ended up sleeping late. I also noticed that I got sleepy a lot faster watching TV and I lost the desire to read before I went to bed.

Now lastly, music. I had a lot of tracks for the soundtrack of my summer, but I found out about a bunch of bands and music artists. Silversun Pickups became one of my favorite bands. They have a very unique sound and I love them now. I L-O-V-E LOVE Carolina Liar. Gosh, what's not great about him... uh... yeah... well I can't describe him, but he has an excellent indie sound to his music. I was looking forward to Muse's new album The Resistance all summer long. Their single from that album, Uprising, became one of my favorite songs of the summer. Pheonix's song 1901 also became another favorite, along with Fireflies by Owl City. I also got a chance to listen to Killswitch Engage. My Curse and Starting Over were part of the soundtrack of my summer, even though they are scream-o. I was also able to go and see No Doubt in concert with my cousin Maritza. Paramore was with them and I was happy they were there.

Well this is pretty much my summer in a nutshell. Better late then never. Stay tuned for more posts and an overview of my Fall semester. I'll be ending my Fall semester in about a week.

Winter break count down: 8 days!