money cant buy back the love you had then

It's currently 3:02pm and I am just now starting my blog post. *sigh*. I usually like to start around 2:15 and push the delightful "post" button well before 3:00. Or, even better, I write it in the morning and schedule it for 3:00pm. No stress, no worry, nothing. But, alas, I am late and considering I haven't given you an outfit in 4 days, I figured better late than never, right?

As I told you in the last post, I went rafting over the weekend. I wish I could say it soared above and beyond on my fun factor scale, but the stars just didn't seem to align for us. My mom got hurt on a rapid, we got stuck in the worst boat ever made, it rained and was windy, and the mood generally seemed tense at the end of the day. However, spending any length of time, even if I'm nearing the first stage of hypothermia on a raft that should not be allowed within a ten mile radius of a class three, let alone one, rapid with Niklaas is nothing to complain about. The first few rapids were fun, anyways, and there is absolutely no feeling like sleeping under the stars on a sandy beach next to a river. Plus I can't complain about being forced to snuggle for the sake of my health. Huzzah!

Oh, the other unfortunate part of rafting? The second we got into service, I got about a thousand texts from various friends and my sister informing me that our neighbors house burned down. Burned. Down. As in, the house is nothing. Non-existent. There are remnants of the walls, but you can see through to the other side and enormous piles of their burned belongings lay scattered throughout the yard. It's one of those things you don't think will ever happen to you, but as fate always reminds me, no one is an exception to horrible things like this. It could happen to anyone and it's the saddest thing. At least no one was injured. It was a huge spectacle in town as the streets were crowded with people who had seen the smoke and my dad was busy running around hosing off the lawns and fences to protect the other houses. So scary!!

Well. I leave in 3 days. I'm really insanely absolutely excited to be in college and move in to my dorm, but for the time being, I'm kind of sad. It's going to be strange to not have breakfast with my sister in the mornings and see her off to school. It's going to be strange to not talk to my dad in the backyard every night when he gets home from work and talk to my mom after her morning runs. And...it's going to be sad without my dearest Niklaas. We will be four hours away and we will see each other, but for the first two months, we won't have time to make the trip. I'm going to miss that kid so,so much! Two months!! I can't even think about it right now. But, college will be wonderful and you do what you have to, right?

I got this shirt last week at Salvation Army, which may be my new favorite place to thrift aside from Storm Cellar. Every single item no matter what type of garment or condition is $1.99! Woot! I got this "shirt" with the intention of it being a dress...but I wish it were just a few inches longer because I don't think I'll be wearing it like this in public. Too short!! But for the purpose of showing off these lovely tights I won from Alex's giveaway, I wore it as a dress anyways. You can't imagine my excitement when I got my giveaway package from Alex!! I was squealing and hopping up and down. Alex, you are my favorite!! She also gave me a dress, which I'm getting altered as we speak, and it was just the nicest thing :)

This is a little different than my usual floral/stripe pattern mixing. Polka dots and flowers. Hmm! I kind of like it. One of these days, I'll give you all a tutorial in my pattern mixing techniques. Haha! It's usually pretty precise :) Probably my favorite thing about this outfit is my bow, which I bought because I'm always so inspired by Jasmine from Transient Withdrawl's bows! It's so, so cute. But no one can pull it off quite like her! :)

Well, I'm off to do more packing. Thank you always for your comments! They are the BEST :)

Love,
Maggie