hasta la pasta.

To the 5 people who might actually check this blog, remember when I announced this? Well, the time has come, and I am leaving the world behind for the next 18 months. However, my sister loves me (and you) enough that she will be keeping everyone up to date with my journey in Portugal over here,  sistersamanthabrooks.blogspot.com. So go ahead and check it out if you wish.

Or write me sweet nothings to the following addresses:

Or, pretend I actually did fall off the face of the earth, and I'll meet ya back here in a year and a half.

mormon.org/missionary

EU TE AMO!

sometimes you just decide it's going to be summer, even if it's winter.

Because I have the world's greatest parents, I have been lucky enough to (quite literally) chill at home for the last 6 weeks. Sometimes people ask me what I have been doing--like if I have a job, or if I have taken up some sort of hobby to keep me busy, or if I even know what the word responsibility means, but mostly, this is the answer I give: Well...I wake up (hopefully before noon), go for a run, shower and get ready (by three), go on an errand with Darla, and wait for Big Dave to come home so we can go to dinner. Then the three of us watch TV on the couch for about 12 hours straight. Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it turns out that I fell into this laid back lifestyle quite easily. But I mean, that 6:30am wake up call is going to come soon enough right?

And fine, maybe that's not all I did. (Because well, I have the world's greatest parents.) Not only did I get to spend my 21st birthday in Ft. Lauderdale with Kelli and Kristan (#escapethecold2013), but I also have the greatest friends in the world and sweet Smelly pants flew down to go to the Justin Beiber concert with me. Because yes, we are 21, and yes, he is 18, but yes, I did fall even more in love with him during that performance. (I mean really, how can you not love him?) Then, I rode the Hogwarts Express to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for some last minute Muggle training. And in the car ride down, I received the happiest surprise phone call from K8 the GR8 telling me she booked a flight and was coming on the midnight train to Georgia. And what a dream it has been to have her here. I didn't show her Honey Boo Boo's hometown (because well, maybe I'm a bit ashamed that she can claim Georgia as her own), but despite that, I think she got a small taste of Georgia's finest. Between the Ringling Brothers Circus, World of Coke, Georgia Aquarium, and some fried pickles, I think she might just be ready to call herself a Southern Belle (even if she wears vans and hipster necklaces).

And now, all the sisters are in town for one last hoorah. I could not be happier to have them all together again. So grateful I am for my perfectly, imperfect friends and family that have made this little "summer vaca" an unforgettable experience. I look forward to a weekend sure to be filled with lots of laughs, tears, and of course...Pitch Perfect.