#32 - Have A Quadruple Sleepover

Yep you read that right. Quadruple..as in four. As in Rachel and I together for over 96 hours (which really isn't anything new but still). In the past our record has been a triple sleepover, but nothing ever this crazy. We predicted that we'd be sick of each other by the end and we couldn't have been more wrong. Hah time flew by, and it didn't even feel like we'd been living together for the past 4 days. We alternated - my house, her house, etc. so that we wouldn't get cabin fever. :P

Saturday: Splatter painted shoes. Cruised around creeping on people. Drank ICEE's - it's like my life source. Played a joke/prank whatever on our youth leader because that's just what we do. Went on the swings at a park and discussed the wonders of love. :P

Sunday: Drank Cherry Limeade Sparklers from Taco Bell (those things are THE BEST). Shopped at Kohl's since it was tax-free weekend. Rachel got the best deal ever because of my sister's ridiculous amount of coupons - a perfume set that was usually 30-something dollars, she got for 55 cents..hahah the cashier looked so angry. Watched the movie Kick-Ass which was BRILLIANT. I really want to watch it again because it is that good.

Monday: Went to the Science Museum in Raleigh..yeah, yeah laugh all you want but at least we'll admit that we're proud nerds. Watched the stupid movie Role Models...however a guy from Kick-Ass was in it which made it tolerable! Did some major prank calling - hahah except everyone immediately knew that it was Rachel. :) Did facials, painted our nails, and hair treatments.

Tuesday: Feasted on Oreos, Rootbeer, and Freeze Pops! - aka Fla-Vor-Ice. Washed my VW bug, my dad's van, and Rachel's mom's minivan...we plan on starting a business so that we can get filthy rich. Watched an amazing, inspiring movie called To Save A Life that you have to go see right now.

There was stuff in between but I'll leave that up to your imagination. I could go on and on boring everyone to death with all the little details of our quadrupleness.

#13 - Splatter Paint

Rachel and I have been wanting to splatter paint something for a looooong time now. And finally we made it happen! :) Over the weekend (since it was tax-free!) we bought canvas shoes for seven bucks at Target and then proceeded on setting up in my driveway. We took out my stash of paints that I took from art class - yep, my teacher just handed them over to me at the end of school - and covered the ground in newspaper. Then, because I couldn't find a single paintbrush anywhere in my house, we had to use these weird thin wooden craft stick things instead. Note of advice: don't use weird thin wooden craft stick things; they look like they'd work but they do not. Instead, you'll just wind up with more paint on your body than on your artwork.

So anywho, we plugged in my iPod speakers, started blasting music for the whole neighborhood to jam out to with us, and began splattering away. Rachel's shoes were the black ones (left) and mine were the white (right). They actually turned out a lot better than they look in the picture. My friend said they even looked like they were bought at a store. Hah it was awesome! I am definitely going to be splatter painting more in the near future - if only I had some things that needed a new paint job. Hmm...my car perhaps? Bedroom walls? NOT my body. Dude, we were covered in paint for the rest of the day and day after. Which by the way was a Sunday. Yeah...my dad wasn't too happy to see me leaving for church with blue and red paint all over my legs. :P

#7 - Skinny Dip

....yep.
:)

#44 - Sara Contreras Day

Meet the amazing, one and only SARA CONTRERAS. Ever since the first day of summer, Rachel and I have been trying to set a date when all three of us can hang out. And finally...WE DID! *insert applause here* So we picked Sara up in Rachel's hardcore mini-van, and set out for Raleigh. After getting there and dodging all of the construction workers (every single time I go to Raleigh, there's street construction which is pretty inconvenient), we parked on the side of the road, beside a house with a purple/blue/lavendar door (we all disagreed on the color) hoping that we wouldn't get towed.

We first went to SchoolKids Records again, since Sara had never been. She bought a Yeah Yeah Yeahs album (yeah!) aaaaaand some other album that I can't remember. :P But it was on sale for 4 bucks! On our way out, Rachel and I saw this basket with stuff inside; the guy at the counter said it was free - so what do you think we did? Yep, the three of us stocked up with our hands full of freebies. We got a CD in a nifty, cute little indie case, Arcade Fire postcards!!, Wolf Parade magnets, and bumper stickers.

Then we just ambled around downtown Raleigh, stopping in a cute coffee shop and bought some goods from a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts place. We passed this pretty small building wedged between all the other stores that had a sign saying "Bowling Alley". Our curiosity kicked in - I mean who ever heard of a bowling alley in downtown?? So we went inside, up the stairs, and were greeted by this adorable old-fashioned bowling alley! There was only one guy working, and the rest of the place was completely empty. He let us snoop around, and we've already made plans to get a big group together and come back to go bowling sometime.

We were originally going to see that movie Date Night at the dollar-fifty theater, but decided to drive to Southpoint instead and check out Urban Outfitters. On our way there we decided to check out what was on the free CD we took from SchoolKids. The band is called Scraps, and I tracked down their myspace here. We all actually liked it and I think listened to the whole CD twice hah. Soooo we finally made it to Southpoint and headed straight to the huge Urban that has its own building. Since none of us had any money, we had to window shop which SUCKS and made us all cry (not really, but I felt like it).

Overall a pretty good, well spent, Sara Contreras-filled day! :)

#36 - Go To Camp

Every summer our church's youth group goes to Camp Caswell. It's probably the highlight of my summer; within one week I've grown so much closer to God and my youth group family, and have a ton of fun. Caswell is right on the beach and it takes us a couple of hours to get there. So super early on Monday morning, we all loaded up onto two buses and a few vans and were off. I read and listened to music the majority of the ride there; but as soon as I saw the first signs of beach houses and the air changed to that unmistakable beach smell, Rachel and I were hyped up. When we finally got there, everyone poured out of the buses and we took a gigantic group photo (above) - I'm pretty sure there were 88 of us, that's just our high school youth group, not including the middle schoolers. We were the biggest church there. Others had just like 20 kids!

All of the girls stayed in one huge building, in one big room. It was crammed full of bunk beds and it was like a mad house as everyone claimed their space. Just another part of Caswell you grow to love. In a row at the top, there was Rachel and I, our best friend Amy, and our lovely friend Amber. We unpacked and then headed straight to the beach. Everyone spent their free time there and found it hilarious at how pale we were. Ha ha ha. I even managed not to get sunburned the entire week!! :) After eating dinner, it was time for worship service - one of my favorite things about Caswell. I know that while singing, it's not important how awesome the music/praise team is or how great the lighting effects are, what matters is that we're praising God - but can I just say that my favorite place to worship is at Caswell. It is...unbelievable! The praise team chooses great songs, has amazing talent, the lights are fantastic, and I experience God's presence in ways that I don't back at home. Our speaker was Adam Robinson, a very fast-talking and funny dude who touched some great topics throughout the week. He stirred up thoughts in my head and led I think over sixty people to Christ!! :D

So our schedule throughout the week was waking up at 7 a.m. (ahhhh!), doing a quiet time, breakfast, and having a morning celebration - everyone got together in the Hatch, where we have worship, and we sang and watched videos. Afterward, we split up into our small bible study groups, then had a big bible study with our speaker, and then had lunch. Half the time I don't even know what it was that they were feeding us... my one and only complaint about Caswell is the food! :P And it doesn't help that I'm a picky eater - maybe that's why I lost six pounds haha. So after lunch, we had free time until 5:30, which was dinnertime. During free time, we did all sorts of things. We sometimes went to the beach, and other times explored the forts around the campus. It's awesome - there are forts there that soldiers used forever ago during wars, that we campers now get to adventure in. We also went to the gift shop, smoothie shop, played frisbee, watched Amber climb freakishly tall trees, and took walks. After dinner would be worship service, and then all of the churches would split up and have church devotions (another thing that I LOVE). Our youth group would come together as one and share things on our hearts, growing closer to one and another. A lot of people made some great decisions and commitments, including yours truly. :) I'm going to try to spend more time in the Word. The speaker, Adam, opened my eyes at how often we take the Bible for granted; many of us just have it sitting on our shelf collecting dust, while others across the country are dying to just have the privilege to read a couple of verses. So I'm going to try to read one chapter a day out of the New Testament, until it becomes a habit.

The whole week was terrific - and that's a huge understatement. Words can't describe my love for Caswell and the great experiences we have there. I already miss it and can't wait for next year! :)

#38 - Take A Class At The Gym

DITCH THE WORKOUT, JOIN THE PARTY!

Rachel and I are members of the Lifestyle gym in Apex. We usually just go a few times a week, on the treadmills, zoning off with our iPods blasting. There's a big studio room in the gym with half the wall covered in windows, so you can easily see inside at all the sweaty old ladies taking a class. Not the best sight, but they do always seem to be having fun. So Rachel and I decided one day that we would take a class. Not just any class....but ZUMBA! We read this little pamphlet thingy about it at the gym and it looked pretty fun, yet extremely hard. It's basically Latin dance incorporated with hip-hop music, and super energetic and fast. Hah yeah...imagine US doing that. :P

So we showed up to the class one night at exactly 5:30, not sure what to expect. We inched into the studio, full of mirrors and older women, and took a spot near the back where we were hoping not to draw attention to ourselves. We were the youngest ones in there, too. The instructor stood on this little stage in the front and started blasting Shakira and shaking her hips. Rachel and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started copying what everyone else was doing. We were pretty lost, but eventually got the hang of it - or at least pretended to. It was kind of strange being the youngest in the class; there were old women there really getting into it, which Rachel and I were laughing about later. Zumba was so much fun, though! So much better than just walking on a treadmill. It was full of fast cardio, hip shaking, foot work, twirls, and chest popping. We even lasted a full 45 minutes! (Believe me, that may not sound like much, but I was sweating like a mad person afterwards). We plan to go to the Zumba class on Tuesday nights throughout the summer.

#42 - Stand On Top Of A Building

Yep, the picture to the left that your eyes are currently resting on is indeed a satellite image of Apex High. And it's where Rachel and I were standing at midnight - well, on the roof that is. X marks the spot!

Around 11:45, while everyone else in this lame town of Apex was asleep, Rachel and I were driving towards the school. We turned off our loud music, turned off my car lights, and began looking more sketchy than we normally do. We pulled into a parking space beside all of the empty buses (so as not to draw attention to ourselves, of course). :] And from there, we began sneaking to where the ladder attached to one of the walls was (Building B), that the maintenance people use. We climbed around the fence/wall, up the ladder - which I HATED by the way...something about ladders just makes me cringe - and stood on top of the roof of our dreadful school. Wow what a sight. But we weren't quite happy yet. So we climbed another ladder, and then another, and soon we were on the highest of all the other roofs! I'm not sure how long we stayed up there but it was awhile. Rachel danced, we stargazed, hid as cars drove by, and were able to see Apex from new eyes. It was really cool. Before we left, we each took a rock from on top of the roof. Yeah, who knew the roof of Apex High was covered with thousands of rocks?! Mine is currently sitting on my dresser right now. It's weird how just a normal, boring rock will hold in so many memories.