Lots of highly exciting, interesting, and completely worthwhile news about my life. :)

Aren't you super intrigued by this picture of Paul? Well, if you want to know what it's all about, you'll just have to keep on reading and find out. Before I explain the picture, I have to make an exciting announcement! We have finally, finally, FINALLY gotten Internet at our apartment!!!!!!!!! That means that I can actually post on my blog sometimes. That means that there no longer have to be months in between my postings! I think everyone we know should travel out to Kansas and have a huge party with us. We can get my dad to make jambalaya and we'll have fireworks and Mississippi mud cake. (Well, everyone but me can have the cake... I'll have some Diet Code Red Mountain Dew.) Paul will make sure to provide a massive salad, also-- and all of it will be in celebration of our home Internet access! Now that I think about it, I actually have all kinds of news because my life has been changing constantly these last few months. Let's see... I have stopped eating refined sugar, have finally started to get my apartment organized, and I have also recently embarked on two huge literary projects that involve typing up poetry and compiling. My uncle Edd chose me long ago to be the person to help him put his poems together. When I was thirteen and put my first finished novel into his hands, he gave me a long look and decided that I was probably the right person for the job. Ever since then, we've talked about it a lot and now it is finally happening. He's a wonderful poet, and I also just love him like a best friend. Seriously, I love talking to him, and it's great to have an excuse to call him all the time and talk to him frequently. It's a good project for me. At the same time, I have started re-typing the poetry of my great grandmother, Olen Bodily. In the 80s, my mom and aunt Lydia and Grandma Vadrus, and probably a lot of other family members, typed up books of her poetry and distributed them to all of Grandma Bodily's descendants. Even before I was aware of the existence of these books, I started to feel close to Grandma Bodily for no reason at all a few months ago. I thought about her frequently and then I learned about her poetry. I decided to re-type it all and make a new awesome book for everyone, including all of the new descendants that have been born since the 80s. I am really excited to make an artistic beautiful book of her work. Typing up Grandma Bodily's poems has brought me closer to her, and I have sometimes felt her presence with me. This is crazy because I have no memory of her from my own life. Yet, at certain times, I have been quite certain that she was right there with me. She is a wonderful person who loves us all so much, and I have learned a little about the connection between our world and the spirit world from typing up her poems. Now, to explain the pictures... :) We went on a trip over spring break a few weeks ago, and it was SO MUCH FUN! We threw caution to the wind and headed south into Oklahoma and then northern Texas. We stayed in Amarillo and then headed further south and west into New Mexico. The goal was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I will have to write another post soon about the trip, but I thought I would wet your appetite with just a few pictures. The one at the top is of Paul within the huge cave at the national park. We didn't get many good pictures because caves just don't have great lighting, but I was proud of that one. Below, we have a picture of a huge cow--because we saw literally thousands of cows on the trip. And of course, we had to stay at Roswell and go to the alien museum. Below is a picture of an alien model from the museum. Many more exciting alien pictures (and other pictures from gorgeous northern New Mexico and eastern Colorado) are to follow in my next post. Yes, they are real... aliens, I mean. :)