Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is on Beach Reads!

Since I think of contemporary novels when I think of beach reads, I'm going to list ten contemporary books that I actually want to read!

1. Scarlet Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

Not entirely sure WHY I want to read this one because I used to read a lot of Cosmopolitan articles by this author and I hated every single one of them.

2. Dreamology by Lucy Keating

3. Confess by Colleen Hoover

4. November 9 by Colleen Hoover

5. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

6. The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

7. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

8. Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

9. All The Feels by Danika Stone

10. Wrecked by Maria Padian

Do you have any recommendations for a good beach read? Or maybe for an easily-burnt recluse, just a good summer-y read? :)

DNF Review: Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: March 31st, 2015

Rating: N/A

Source: ARC Trade

Pages: 368

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

A new historical thriller masterpiece from New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth Wein

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?

In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit.

DNF at 20% (ARC page 68 of 343)

I picked this book up for a couple reasons:

1. I ADORED Code Name Verity. It was such a fantastic book. The characters were great. The story was great. It made me cry and that was great. I can't think of anything I didn't like about that one.

2. It's historical fiction and lately I have found myself being mildly obsessed with historical fiction. I love it.

I started reading this book a couple days ago and I simply cannot get into it. I have tried so so hard and it makes me sad. I'm certain that if I could just get further into this book, it would get better. But the thought of picking this book back up to try again has filled me with dread all day. So I'm going to have to put it down.

My reasons for putting this book down:

1. I don't love the format it's written in.

It seems to be a dual point of view between the two main characters, Emilia and Teodros. It's written in the form of letters and school assignments and little stories that they wrote.

2. I don't think I have learned really anything useful yet.

I don't believe I've learned anything about the two main characters. I practically know the life story of Rhoda, Emilia's mother and the woman both kids call 'Momma'. But all I think I know about Em and Teo is that they like to make up and act out stories.

3. I don't feel like anything is happening.

I'm just so bored reading it.

I could possibly pick this one up at a later date, but I don't know. The idea is still making me sad. I really wanted to love this book! :'(

Have you read this book before? Does it get better?

Discussion: My Degree in Human Services

Hello everyone! Today for my more personal topic discussion post, I'm going to talk about what I went to school for! I don't *think* I've talked about this too much before, so this will be something mostly new and exciting for you, I hope!

**WARNING: THIS IS A LOOOONG POST!!**

Anyway, I attended a two year technical school and received an associates degree as a human services technician! The program I studied had two parts: developmental disabilities and mental health. I took the mental health option as well as a few classes on youth offenders!

Generally when I talk to new people about what I went to school for, they automatically ask something like, "So, is that the same as human resources?" No, it is not. Let me tell you about my clinical/internship experience so you can get the idea of what I would like to do.

So my first year at school was the year that we did basically all of the training and internships. The first semester we had to do 120 hours of on the job training, doing 40 hours in three different places.

The first of my clinical experiences was at the centerbase (or rather the special education classroom) at the high school I went to! I didn't do a terrible lot there really. I sat in on and observed their lessons. I played a LOT of dodgeball. Those kids were RUTHLESS! They also did special olympics bowling and I helped the kids who couldn't throw the balls themselves! That's about the extent of what I did there. I was able to look through their behavior records and such which was really interesting.

The second place I volunteered at was a nursing home! While I was there I mostly helped out in activities. Some of the duties I had there were:

-Helping set up and carry out bingo, helping some of the residents cover their spaces, etc.
-Helping set up movies and make popcorn and pass it out to the residents.
-Wrapping Christmas gifts for the residents.
-Helping decorate the nursing home for Christmas with one of the more mobile residents.
-Making a gingerbread house. (I was supposed to get some residents to help me, but they only strolled over long enough to ask me for some of the candy and then left)
-Making valentines.
-Passing out snacks.
-Visiting with residents who were stuck in their beds.

That's about the extent of what I did there. It was probably my favorite of my three clinical experiences!

My final 40 hour clinical was at the Boys and Girls Club! I helped out in the homework help room. Basically I just helped little kids with their homework. I could venture off to other rooms and occasionallly helped in the art room. But mostly I stuck to the homework room because that was the lady in charge of me who would fill out my review sheet.

I didn't enjoy this placement because the lady I helped out did NOT like me for some reason! She gave me horrid marks on my review sheet (which my teacher figured something else was going on there because I am a delight). But I think she thought I didn't do anything because I sat at the same table all day everyday with this group of little girls. But they had to read to someone for a little bit everyday and have them sign off on their homework sheet. So I had like 4-5 little girls read to me everyday and I guess that wasn't good enough for her.

Then for the second semester I had my legit internship! For some reason, I had the most horrible time finding a placement for this! I got rejected seven times! But I finally ended up at a resource center, which I absolutely loved.

The resource center was a large building that doubled as a women's shelter and supervised visitation center. Most of my time was spent helping conduct supervised visits. They took place in a playroom with a camera in it so that the person coordinating the visit can observe from a different room and record it for Child Protection Services. A transcript also needs to be typed out of everything that is said and done in the visit.

So for visits, basically this is what I did:

-Pick up kids from school/home and take them to the resource center for their visit.
-Drop them back off afterward.
-Handle the camera controls.
-Burn DVD's of the visits.
-I got to type out the transcript once.
-Clean the ENTIRE playroom.
-Sit in on a meeting with a new parent being initiated for visits.

Other tasks I got for this internship:

-Organize the donation shed.
-Sort new donations.
-Sit in on a court trial for a victim of sexual assault.
-Sit in on a meeting with someone requesting a protection order.
-Organize the entire food pantry.
-Clean and organize the cupboards in the women's shelter.
-Sit in on a meeting with the police department to set up a schedule for who would be on call when if an emergency arose.
-Typed up people's handwritten documentations of interactions they had with people while on the job.
-Searched addresses for people to send donation requests to.
-Addressed a zillion envelopes for donations.

I really did a lot there. I loved every minute of it. Maybe not so much my time in the donation shed, but everything else was so much fun.

My second year, I had to do a 28 hour service learning project. I ended up doing my time at a summer camp for people with disabilities. Anyone can use this summer camp for whatever they want it for, but it was designed specifically to be accessible to people with disabilities. It's really great! It wasn't open for business yet when I did my hours, but I did a lot of office work and helped clean the church on the grounds and a tack room/office in the barn where they keep their horses.

So, I hope that gives you kind of an idea of what human services entails!

But none of that explains the youth offenders thing I mentioned! I think that was mostly just for us to see if we wanted to go on to more schooling to deal with that, but I loved my classes dealing with that!

First, I took a sexual offenders class! It was interesting and probably the thing that stuck out the most to me was that fetishism does NOT deal with body parts. So when people say they have like a foot fetish, that's wrong. That's called partialism!

I also took a criminal justice class and a youth offenders class. Criminal justice was my favorite class! I hated youth offenders because the teacher was horrible. We took a combined field trip for those classes and went to the South Dakota state men's prison. It was fascinating! The maximum security prison was like a zoo. As soon as we walked in and they saw us (my class was all girls) they started like barking and stuff and generally being creepy, but I think it just added to the experience.

At another point, we were walking through a lower security area and we heard someone call out, "Get out of my way! I'm window shopping!" I thought that was pretty funny!

About a month after we visited the prison, a guard was killed by two inmates that briefly escaped. Scary.

I had so many other awesome classes that I took, I could go on forever, but I shall spare you.

The only thing I can say that I really dislike is that I basically just went to college for the experience. I haven't found a job that I want in that field. I have heard of some, but it wouldn't be practical for me to drive so far for the job everyday. So I'm still waiting for the perfect job. So I spent $12,000 to take up space at college basically.

I wish someone would have talked me out of it. Because of this wish, I have talked three people into dropping out of college. They're all so much happier and I talked them all into it before it was too late for them to get their money back! If you know someone who needs to be talked to about dropping out of college, send them my way! I'm three for three!

This is my class. I think the picture is missing on person, but that is everyone who remained in my class through the second year. Plus the teacher is in the picture too.

This girl was my college BFF!

So! If you're still here reading this, thanks so much! I hope you learned something interesting! In the comments tell me: What did you go to school for? Did you just love it?

Waiting on Wednesday: June Releases

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I decided that I'm going to change up Waiting on Wednesday. Instead of doing one every week, I'm just going to do one once a month and feature all the books coming out the next month that I'm salivating for.

Here are the books I'm looking forward to in June!

And I Darken by Kiersten White

The Conqueror's Saga #1

NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL. 

And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who’s expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes the first book in a dark, sweeping new series in which heads will roll, bodies will be impaled . . . and hearts will be broken.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

For fans of The Princess Bride comes the comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is about to be married to a total stranger—and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But that’s the least of Jane’s problems. She’s about to become Queen of England. Like that could go wrong.

Never Ever by Sara Saedi

Wylie Dalton didn’t believe in fairy tales or love at first sight.

Then she met a real-life Peter Pan.

When Wylie encounters Phinn—confident, mature, and devastatingly handsome—at a party the night before her brother goes to juvie, she can’t believe how fast she falls for him. And that’s before he shows her how to fly.

Soon Wylie and her brothers find themselves whisked away to a mysterious tropical island off the coast of New York City where nobody ages beyond seventeen and life is a constant party. Wylie’s in heaven: now her brother won’t go to jail and she can escape her over-scheduled life with all its woes and responsibilities—permanently.

But the deeper Wylie falls for Phinn, the more she begins to discover has been kept from her and her brothers. Somebody on the island has been lying to her, but the truth can’t stay hidden forever.

The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele

Marked Girl #1

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Los Angeles)…

When Cedric, crowned prince of Caelum, and his fellow royal friends (including his betrothed, Kat) find themselves stranded in modern-day L.A. via a magical portal and an evil traitor named Malquin, all they want to do is get home to Caelum—soon. Then they meet Liv, a filmmaker foster girl who just wants to get out of the system and on with her life. As she and Cedric bond, they’ll discover that she’s more connected to his world than they ever could’ve imagined…and that finding home is no easy task… 

Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

Ivory and Bone #1

A prehistoric fantasy—with allusions to Pride and Prejudice.

Hunting, gathering, and keeping his family safe—that’s the life seventeen-year-old Kol knows. Then bold, enigmatic Mya arrives from the south with her family, and Kol is captivated. He wants her to like and trust him, but any hopes of impressing her are ruined when he makes a careless—and nearly grave—mistake. However, there’s something more to Mya’s cool disdain…a history wrought with loss that comes to light when another clan arrives. With them is Lo, an enemy from Mya’s past who Mya swears has ulterior motives.

As Kol gets to know Lo, tensions between Mya and Lo escalate until violence erupts. Faced with shattering losses, Kol is forced to question every person he’s trusted. One thing is for sure: this was a war that Mya or Lo—Kol doesn’t know which—had been planning all along.

Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan

Witch's Child #1

Julia Vanishes Julia has the unusual ability to be . . . unseen. Not invisible, exactly. Just beyond most people's senses. 
It's a dangerous trait in a city that has banned all forms of magic and drowns witches in public Cleansings. But it's a useful trait for a thief and a spy. And Julia has learned--crime pays.
Her latest job is paying very well indeed. Julia is posing as a housemaid in the grand house of Mrs. Och, where an odd assortment of characters live and work: A disgraced professor who sends her to fetch parcels containing bullets, spiders, and poison. An aristocratic houseguest who is locked in the basement each night. And a mysterious young woman who is clearly in hiding--though from what or whom?
Worse, Julia suspects that there's a connection between these people and the killer leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city.
The more she learns, the more she wants to be done with this unnatural job. To go back to the safety of her friends and fellow thieves. But Julia is entangled in a struggle between forces more powerful than she'd ever imagined. Escape will come at a terrible price.

What books are you looking forward to in June?

Top Ten Tuesday (#45)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is Top Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed!

1. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

This one, when I initially got done with it, I loved it. It made me bawl like such a baby and any book that can make me cry is a good book to me! But when I started to really think about it, I realized I didn't really like this book all that much. It felt like a completely different book from the rest of the series. I felt like basically the only things that this book had from the rest of the series were the characters and I hated it.

2. Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

This is another one that I really liked initially. I don't really dislike this book now, but now that I think back on it, it really wasn't as exciting as I made it out to be.

3. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

For this one, my opinion changed really fast. As soon as the audiobook got over I was like, "Woah, that was awesome." Then, about two seconds later, I changed my mind. The ending didn't have the same shock value as the movie did and the main character was FAR less enjoyable in the book because he just struck me as stupid! I know he's a nine-year-old boy, but STILL!

4. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

This one I originally liked. But I absolutely HATED the sequel with a passion. And after reading that book, I realized that I couldn't remember ANYTHING about this book. So it must not have been very memorable.

5. The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

This one I didn't really like when I read it. I was confused. I didn't understand a lot of why the characters did what they did. But I thought maybe it would be fun to read the second one and maybe things will clear up for me. But now, a couple of months later, I just don't care if I read anything else in this series or not.

6. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

This is one that I liked in the beginning, but as the series progressed, I steadily started to like it less and less. And now I'm almost sad that I even bothered to finish it.

7. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I LOVED this book in high school. I bought all the books as they came out and everyone in school wanted to borrow them (which, in hindsight, was a bad idea because I never got any of them back). I liked the first movie, but I absolutely detested the New Moon movie and ever since that movie, my enchantment with this series has just kind of gone away.

8. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

If this series had just been a trilogy, I think that I would have liked it. But I hated books 4-6. Especially City of Heavenly Fire. That ruined Cassandra Clare and Shadowhunters in general for me.

9. Looking For Alaska by John Green

This was my first John Green book. I really enjoyed it as I read it! But then I read the rest of his books and I liked them a little bit less with each book as I realized that ALL OF THE CHARACTERS WERE EXACTLY THE SAME!

10. In Real Life by Jessica Love

This one I did enjoy. But maybe not quite as much as my review would have you think. I gave it 5 stars. I think I was riding a super cute book high when I wrote that because thinking back, I don't think I liked it QUIIIIITE that much!

What are some books that you feel differently about now that time has passed? Do we share any books on our lists?

Review: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess

Death Sworn #1

Publisher: Greenwillow

Publication Date: March 4th, 2014

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: ARC Trade

Pages: 344

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.
But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

Ileni was once the most powerful sorceress among the Renegai until she realized her magic was not permanent and it began to weaken. Left with nothing and being as disposable as she is, she is sent to teach magic to a cave full of young assassins after the previous two sorcerers sent there ended up dead.

Ileni uses her time and the last dregs of her magic to attempt to figure out who among the assassins killed Absalm and Cadrel before they come for her next.

I really liked Ileni. She is kinda sassy. She basically knows that she is sent to this cave full of assassins to die. She has a very limited amount of magic left so the Renegai have no use for her except to fulfill their part of an agreement with the assassins to have one of their sorcerers teach their students magic. She is pretty much terrified the whole time, but tries her hardest to cover it up with her attitude. She hates being amongst these killers because she doesn't believe that what they do is right, no matter what the purpose the deaths serve is.

Sorin is one of the top students in the assassin cave and is given the responsibility of keeping Ileni safe at all costs. He pretty much goes with her wherever she goes, walking with her to meals and her classes and back to her room everyday. Despite the fact that he's generally just kind of cold, they start to build up kind of a relationship. They start to care moreso about each other since they spend so much time together.

There isn't a LOT in the way of romance in this book. Before coming to the assassin camp, Ileni was in a relationship with another sorcerer named Tellis. Now that she has lost her magic, he is the strongest sorcerer among the Renegai. Not wanting to hold him back, she suggests they break it off. That's about all you learn about him.

Sorin and Ileni build up a relationship throughout this book that I quite liked. I knew from like the first few pages that they were gonna end up together, but it's definitely not insta love or anything like that. A lot of the book passes before anything happens between them and I felt like I spent a lot of this book going, "KISSSSSS!!!!"

I wish that there had been a bit more emphasis on the romance in this book. I think there are maybe two parts where the romance takes place and I feel like it was more brushed over than I would have liked, moreso having Ileni reflect back a little bit on what happened rather than reading about it as it happened.

It really didn't feel to me like there was a whole lot going on in this book. Ileni gets sent to the assassins and then day in and day out she wanders the caves, teaches her classes, talks to Sorin, and tries to figure out what happened to the previous sorcerers. Probably right around the middle of the book or so the pace seems to pick up a bit and things get a bit more exciting.

Another thing that added to the feeling of not much going on was the fact that the entire book takes place in the same location. Everything happens in the assassins' underground cave. The next book should definitely be more exciting than this one as Ileni is off on an adventure!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I read the whole thing in a day and while I wasn't totally enthralled in it, I really liked it. If you like fantasy or books about assassins, you will probably enjoy this book.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Stacking the Shelves (#43)

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to highlight books received each week!

During the week of May 14th - 20th, I got...

PURCHASE:

I am excited to have finally gotten a copy of The Crown's Game! I have been looking forward to this one for a long time now! It's so pretty! :')

TRADE:

Thank you @AstridPizarro for the trade! I'm excited to read this one since everyone seems to have loved it so much!

What kinds of goodies did you get this week? Anything super exciting?

Discussion: Throwback Thursday

Today, for my discussion post I'm going to share some Throwback Thursday memories! I just scoured my Facebook page and saved a crap ton of pictures from high school and such! And to make this post not just a photo album, I will share a little story to go with them.

This photo is a throwback to last spring! It was calving time and it was cold and dreary and we were trying to get all the cows and calves into the barn to keep warm, but a lot of the calves didn't want to move (and of course they were as far from the barn as they could be). So we (we being the BF and I) each had to take a separate ranger and haul the calves one at a time to the barn. I was trying to hoist one into my cab when this particularly nasty cow came looking for her calf and I panicked and fell into the enormous puddle this calf happened to be standing in. Good times. Good times.

I think this is a throwback to summer of 2012! There was a lady in the town we live in offering her photography services for old time photos. I had tried to get the BF to take these photos with me for my 21st birthday when we were in Deadwood, SD. He said we could do WHATEVER I wanted, but he managed to drag his feet just long enough that we didn't have time to do it. It was the only thing that I absolutely WANTED to do while we were there and he foiled my plans. But I finally talked him into it. The lady who took the photos didn't cash my check for almost a YEAR and it made switching banks when I moved from home really difficult because I couldn't completely close my checking account.

I think this photo is 2011! It was my first time going to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally! We went to a concert (Toby Keith) at the Legendary Buffalo Chip and we happened to meet Rupert from Survivor! He was always my favorite!

This is from 2011! This was the night I met the BF! The top photo is our first picture together! He quizzed me all night on the information he gave me about himself. What was his name? Where was he from? What was he going to college for? It was interesting! The bottom photo is my friends and I after we stuffed ourselves into the bathroom closet to take pictures... Why did we do that? I don't have a clue.

It's not really a throwback unless you include a baby picture, is it? I'm the one in the blue. So this is probably like 1991-1992! :)

This photo is from 2010-2011. It was the first and only dance I went to at my college. We had a blast and then we went back to the friend's house that we were all staying at and decided we were hungry. So we waited until almost 4 am to drive back to town (like a 20-25 minute drive) so that we could get breakfast from McDonald's. Fun fact about this night: I had just been to the dermatologist to have some warts or something removed and I had one on top of my foot and it managed to get hideously infected and someone stepped on my foot at the dance and by the time I got home, it was so swelled up that I could feel it jiggle when I walked. I RACED to the doctor's office the next day for antibiotics!

These two photos are from 2009! This was my senior keg party! The top photo is my dad with one of my friends! The bottom photo is me helping another one of my friends use the potty when I showed up to pick up my dad. Yes, I picked my dad up from my own keg party. I have never really had any interest in drinking.

These two photos are probably 2009 as well. I think they're from my senior year spring choir concert! The bottom one is my little group of friends (we called ourselves 'The Fabulous Five') posing after the concert. The top one is what we usually did after a concert. We'd head to the local bar and grill and grab supper and hang out! I was SO SKINNY BACK THEN!

This is my junior prom! The theme was Passport to Paris (this was my suggestion, I was pumped). Interesting facts about my junior prom: The lady who altered my dress over altered the halter top part. So the straps were too short and the girls didn't sit where they were supposed to and it just felt WEIRD! Also, the guy I went with was the third person I asked! I was like scared of boys back then, but I really wanted a date. Haha! The first person I asked was the new kid because I was like 90% sure no one would ask him and I was 100% wrong. The second one was a freshman who was friends with the date of one of my friends so she suggested I ask him. He said he'd think about it, never got back to me, and went as a waiter. I finally asked this other freshman and he said yes. THANK GOD! I was running out of options!

This was, I believe, 2014?? The BF took me to the barn to show me something and it turns out that something was my very own calf! It was a twin calf and the mother only wanted the other one so this one became a bum (bottle fed calf). She she was a twin with a bull, apparently that means that she wouldn't be able to have calves herself so it was suggested that I sell her. I hated it!! But dang it, I loved the check I got. :((((( SHE WAS SO SWEET! Even after she got put on a cow that lost her calf, she would still come up to me and sniff my hand!

This was my first time halter breaking a colt. Probably 2011? I didn't realize at this point in my life how terribly much I would come to hate horses and halter breaking them. Somehow I managed to get suckered into helping with ALL the stupid colts now that I live here. I absolutely LOATHE this time of the year.

This is my graduation party in 2009! One of my friends got me a goldfish as a gift! Her name was Shelley!

These two are from my senior prom in 2009! My date picked me up from the grocery store because I wanted to show off my dress to all my coworkers before I left. So my first prom pictures from my senior year were at work! The bottom photo is my corsage. It's SO COOL! I loved it!

I think this was my first time visiting my mom after she moved to Indiana... maybe 2008?? We were tubing at like Sugar Creek or someplace similarly named and we came across this interesting group! This picture cracks me up and I had to share it.

This is from sometime when I was in HS. I'm gonna say 2007! This girl was my best friend at the time. We were wandering around town at an indecent hour and she was snatching various little tricycles out of people's yards to test them out on the biggest hill in town. I was just the photographer because I was scared of getting in trouble. Don't worry, we returned all the toys!

These two are from my 8th grade trip to Washington DC! I think it was in 2005! The top picture is one of my friends and I in the stocks at Williamsburg, VA!

The bottom one is at one of the memorials. This is all the girls from my class that went. I'm right smack in the middle! My dad made me carry a fanny pack with me!! I hated it with a passion so I carried it around like a purse! At this particular monument, I didn't get the zipper on my fanny pack all the way zipped and my wallet with ALL of my money in it fell out! Thank GOD some really nice girl saw it happen and gave it back to me! My friends were all giving me crap and telling me how stupid I was for taking all my money with me everywhere. Who was stupid and didn't have any of their daily money left when we got to the place all the trips get their souvenir DC sweaters from? It wasn't meeeee! So I had to help out most of my friends with their sweaters because they didn't bring enough money! HAHA YA JERKS!

I would have picked better photos from my trip, but I didn't put very many of them on Facebook I guess.

Well, I think that's all for this Throwback Thursday post! I hope you enjoyed my stories!

Do you have any fun stories to share? Did any of you have a class trip to Washington DC in school? Share something interesting with me in the comments!