where in Shayla is a little late in posting..

yes yes, Halloween has passed, and yes I'm taking a break in the posting of my trip to make you look at pictures of pumpkins.



But she's so cute. and she's my niece :)
..one of em' anyways.



and she loves cats.

She looks a bit stumped...




yeah I know, that was a bad pun.



Honestly?! who knew pumpkins were so delightful. I just wanna put her in a pie an..okay maybe not. I keep forgetting that that's frowned upon these days.. Her mother might be a tad appalled. Must not eat little children-Must keep status as favorite aunt-Must repeat this over and over.




Cat. Girl. Pumpkin. Steps. yeah I simply can't sum these up.



admit it, you want a copy of her. just admit it. someday, she's gonna teach me that headless trick up there.
.

Lyrah Renee, October 2011

picture credit to: myself :D

cute child credit to: Jeanne & Floyd Ogden

The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered-is to miss the train before. -G.K. Chesterton-

It was to the train station for us. I watched graffiti splattered buildings, people, and the colorful array of structures I loved go by in a blur. The Moyles and us were on the train at this time, by the way. It was the train doing the zooming, not just a huge mass of buildings thundering by for their morning run.







Downtown Stockholm was pleasant, a bit nippy though. ....Or maybe I dont remember the weather at all, because im writing this two months later during a freezing September. Hmm. Anyway, we walked around, looked at various subjects, and stopped traffic a few times to take pictures.



There really isnt much left to tell about our day in Stockholm..
we went to a little cafe' and ate sandwiches. I tried to drink the cappuccino Gina got for me. My nose and my taste-buds wrinkled up in unison. However, I tried anyway.. and failed. I believe Nathan got his down, but that coffee was much to strong for me at the time. At the end of our trip, after regularly drinking and delighting ourselves in Swedish Coffee- that cappuccino would have tasted amazing.



ANYWAYS. ..somehow I always get distracted from writing what occured, and end up drawing insanely accurate pictures. It was time to go back to the airport for our next flight over to Vaasa, Finland. Since it was such a small flight, the airplane didn't connect to a gate, and we were told to wait in a specific area for a bus to take us to the plane. Well, that was all fine and dandy, but what happened while waiting was quite unexpected. Everyone who was going to board the plane was crowded in a small small room. Of course, it wasn't THAT that was unusual, but rather the utter, dead silence. well... somewhat silence.








Yeah. I kid you not, that was weird. It doesnt happen in America. Not that its a bad thing, it was just...different. The same thing happened while on the bus, and on the airplane. Obviously, Nathan and I didnt participate in this ongoing quiet contest, but neither did we blab incessantly. Atleast, not to our standards. Whenever anyone would say anything in Swedish, Nathan translated it into English. He's such a nice boy.












They totally adore us already.

In which Nathan and Shayla experience the underside of a dining room table.

Nathan and I arrived in Stockholm, and Stephanie Weeda was there to greet us. I gave her a big hug right away- which now is quite amusing thinking about. (I'll elaborate more on that later.) She drove us to the Skallebergs house. As she did so, I mentally drove us there, jet lagged and in complete wonderment that after two years away, I remembered how to get to the convention grounds. When we got there, Patty Skalleberg opened the door just wide enough to let us through, grabbed us, bolted the door, and ordered us to crouch under the dining room table until she was quite sure no one had seen us. You see, all of Scandinavia was jumping up and down to meet us, and there would have been a mob in Patty's yard if they knew we were there. Plus, she didn't want the flowers trampled. I love Patty. She's top on my list of favorite older ladies.

So anyway, we had a quick visit there, and then were whisked away again to another part of town. At an apartment, we met some Australians who moved to Stockholm from Alabama. I've always been quite infatuated with the Aussie accent. Plus they had two boys. I was lovin this trip already... AANYYWAYS, the names of the very nice Australian/Alabaman/Swedes are Chris, Gina, Hayden and Hilton. Truthfully, I would have LOVED to sleep. The Moyles however, seemed bound and determined to keep us up and moving. I suppose that was the logical thing, since we had another plane to board in a few hours. Sleeping may have made me more tired. Then there was the fact that Nathan had never been to Stockholm. I didnt want a bed to be the only thing he saw there.

This is all I have to say for now :) Tune back in to hear.. The Rest Of The Story- (Paul Harvey)

It's probably not the brightest idea to make fun of the people whose country you're visiting...

Ta-da :) I'm coming baaack!

Aren't you all just so excited for this?

I'm sure you are. It's weird though, whenever people find out that Nathan and I are going to Finland for two months, it's not a very excited facial expression we receive. Unless frantically widened eyes and whipped out brown paper bags is counted as enthusiastic behavior.. Even the people we DON'T know are skeptical! So we got to the motel last night, checking in and whatever, and Aunt Lu tells the guy working that Nathan and I are flying over-seas to Finland in the morning. And what does this man say? ''look out Finland...'' We just met the guy! Well... sort of. There waaas a teeny episode that occured beforehand that involved Nathan and myself trying to convince him to let us go swimming after the pool closed, (it was near closing time) So after I tell the man that we're mature 16 year olds, Nathan whips out his maturity and says; ''Yeah! We're really mature!... GAAAAH! A COCK-ROACH!!!''

That probably would have blown our chances, but the guy laughed and said sure we could swim whenever. He most likely had a secret fear of cockroaches and was so relieved to find that someone else shared his fear, that he would have done whatever we'd asked. Darn. And I really wanted some tootsie rolls. Oh yes, and I didn't even mention Nathan's feeling of bloated-ness. But he was definitely feeling a bit off or something, because it's not considered normal behavior to walk bent way over and head-butt elevator doors. Oh well. When have either of us been considered normal? Well I suppose it's possible, but we usually stomp upon any hopes within five minutes of meeting someone. Nathan and I are in Newark/New York at the moment. In fact, we'll be here until 5 hours is up. Oh the joy. You probably think it would be, knowing us and our plethora of outrageous ideas. I mean, by now we should have made at least 10 videos of various subjects including things like: The Deliciousness of Beef Jerky, 50 Reasons Why I Stare At Swedes, including answers like: ''Because apparently they all wear hand-me-downs from 12 year old girls, no matter how much older they are, or what gender.

And also, ''Isn't it strange how they all seem to have tripped in a puddle of bleach, managing to soak only their hair?''

How unfortunate of them.

SPRING, and all the niceties that come with it.

Well. now that Spring has finally decided to act like Spring and stop mimicking Winter, I think we're all pretty happy. ...Minus those people who still have more than a foot of snow wherever you live. That however, is not my point. My point is, is that Spring is here.

Spring:

A time when cute photos emerge of the earth tipping and girls running in fields of flowers~

Apparently also a time for lambs to wear tiaras.. my mistake, a BUNNY.

I dont know.. are you sure we didn't evolve from rabbits??

Spring is a very colorful time of year. When Spring arrives, the trees turn purple,

and Orange people roam the earth. :

Spring is probably the only time when this photo:

would be labeled as: cute-piglet-on-a-spring-meadow.

before that, peoples hearts arent as warm and fuzzy.

It would just be labeled as: possible-breakfast-option.

ah my little piglet, thou art saved for now.

Heres another nice thing about Spring:

It gives us something to appreciate about our government: At least it Looks good!

This post is brought to you by the ever sarcastic Shay, an American Female that is mostly found in the confinement of her home in Shelton Nebraska. Note: have a nice spring and stay clear of the orange. and the tiara clad bunnies for that matter.

In which I learn a lesson about Jumping Jovially

Oh hello beautiful notebook of mine :)
I definitely think you need a name...
How about Henrey Bogglesworth?
Good one. Yes that should do nicely.
DUDE.
GUESS WHAT?!
Laura, my lovely sister, invited Nathan and myself to Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
Here's me:




Another good shot:






This is incredibly crazy and nerve-wracking. Last time I traveled to Finland & Sweden, I left about four weeks after I knew I was going. And now?!
I HAVE TO WAIT LIKE A BILLION YEARS.
O.k. So only about five months.
Close enough. Psh.
I wake up in the morning, wide eyed, mind racing, frantically trying to figure which of my shoes I should bring. My sisters laugh at me, for planning so many months ahead. I highly doubt I'll have the shoe predicament figured out to satisfaction even then....
My bed is not appreciating me at the moment..
It seems that it does not enjoy being
jumped upon at frequent intervals
by a certain jovial young lady....
Um. OH.

I think I have it figured out now why that is...
Let me explain.
There are a lot of times when people say ''put yourself in their situation.''
It turns out, when one does that, one acquires an interestingly different point of view. As did I, when pondering this 'bed situation.' For example, I switched the characters in a paragraph I wrote about eight sentences ago. Observe:

My human is not appreciating me at the moment..
It seems that it does not enjoy being
jumped upon at frequent intervals
by a certain jovial mattress....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes. I definitely understand now.
I shall spare you my jovial jumping.

Where I discover that my talent for sarcasm is greater than my ''talent'' for plies~

Today is a day of randomness.
Random Def: at random, without definite aim, purpose, method, or adherence to a prior arrangement; in a haphazard way.
So just at the moment, I was thinking of my mom.
A happy mom means happy family. tired mom means uh oh you better run.
Yeah. I figured that all out on my own. With the help of my mother.
So thinking of my mother, made me think of coffee. Funny how that happens huh..
Anyway, so I was pondering, who was the 1st person to look at a bean and say, 'Maybe if I pound this with a rock, & put it in hot water, it will wake me up.' ?
I really have no idea, and as it turns out, no desire to look it up to figure it out.
You know, I never used to like coffee much...
Well, not at all.
(Besides being addicted to it when I was but a wee bald one.)
But, people change, and as they do, some of them start to like coffee.
Now don't even start about me turning out like my mother.
I'm not even close to leaving my coffee in the microwave after the 5th time of warming it up.
I like it too much for that.
No but really, its my mom, not me that I can imagine in the emergency room saying, ''Just put coffee in an iv an hook me up.''
Then she'd be oddly frowned upon, and I'd probably be asked to come into the next room and be interrogated by the doctor.
I can just hear it.
Doctor: ''Do any members of your family suffer from insanity?''
I'd reply, ''no, we all seem to enjoy it.''
That would go over well.

Well, enough with the coffee.
except for this ps.
I don't drink it more than once a day, usually not even more than once a week. And plusly,
I NEVER. EVER. drink it black. Not because I'm racist, my friends, but because that. is disgusting.

So who like's automatic doors?
IIII DOOOOO!!!!
I feel like a Jedi every time the automatic doors open.
I don't even know what a Jedi is.
It just sounds cool.

So. What's your most embarrassing moment?
Riiight. Like your actually going to post it on here.. that would be embarrassing. ...and extremely funny. So I'm thinking that you should. I just want to you all know, that I rarely am embarrassed.
Especially if I'm caffeinated. One time, my cousin and I decided to try out for a school talent show and dance our impression of ballet. It was pretty funny.
Practically all the judges took dance class.
We didn't get in.
Then I got asked the next morning if we were being serious...
I said, ''yes, weren't we incredible?, I did want to break dance on my head, but I decided that my talent for plies was greater. ''
I think I have a great talent for sarcasm. Maybe I should have done that instead.
But as amusing as that time was..
It was probably the time when I was most embarrassed..
If it weren't for the dance-class judges, everything would have been dandy.
So, until now I've put that little incident in the back of my head. In a box.
But sometimes its not enough to turn a page in life... you also have to rip that bad boy up and burn the pieces. Usually I don't do that. Because even the simplest things amuse me..
I really am hardly ever bored.
Sometimes I get a lot of raised eyebrows.
And so I march up to them and say "Are you insinuating that I should tolerate this diabolical insubordination from an individual whose mental capacity barely exceeds that of a Lima bean?"
That's when I discover they have a fateful eye-brow twitching disease.
Go figure.
That would definitely only happen to me.

That last part was made up.
In fact, practically all of this was.
except for the ballet part.
that was indeed true.
Life can be so cruel...
people who are cannibals, push doors that say pull.. judges who go to dance class, and blog posts that are all made up.
All along I was just practicing my lying skills for when I play the game of Mafia.
Its a confusing and mysterious world out there.

Anyway, I think this is about the end of my ranting randomness, I hope you all have a good day,
and that you aren't afraid to be a little weird.
I like weird people.
If I didn't I'd be a little bad off now wouldn't I?

The Road Less Traveled

"A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled", describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used. The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be on the road more frequently traveled and so couldn't hear him as he cried for help. Sure enough, that poet is dead."
— Lemony Snicket (The Slippery Slope)