so thankful

i know the best people. i'm so grateful to be surrounded by people who love me unconditionally despite my unfailing ability to consistently make an ass of myself. when i call friends to lament the tragic mistakes i've made, decisions that i'm sure will ruin my life forever and throw me into a deep spiral of self loathing, they respond with "it's a hairflip" or "everyone has their nights". they are honestly the best. i feel incredibly blessed.

my many true loves

have i mentioned recently how much i love my 717 friends?
because i do.
they're all so beautiful and quirky and strange and interesting and we all know each other so well. i wish i was around more often this summer to see them. but absence definitely has made my heart grow fonder of these nerds.

nicholas scott crull

last wednesday, my aunt gave birth to a beautiful baby boy- nicholas scott, 8 lbs, 10 oz- via c-section at 9:38 am. and dear god- that child is like a celebrity. our family is a little 'baby-crazy' and considering we haven't had any new babies in the family in seven years, we're all pretty much going ape-shit. my aunt teresa lynn said there was a steady stream of visitors to the hospital every day and the phone was ringing so much they had to disconnect it. baby nicky is the 23rd cousin on my mom's side (15 boys, 8 girls) and was kind of a miracle baby (my aunt is 42 and was undergoing fertility treatments when viola! she got preggers naturally! first baby! and he's totally healthy!) my mom and i went out to see him this weekend (since i won't get to hang out with the little man until december!) and dear god. he is the sweetest thing. i'm not just saying that either- sometimes, newborns look like weird alien things. but this child is gorgeous. big blue eyes, lots of inexplicably dark hair, and this crazy cheeks that look like he's storing something in them for later. he makes these crazy little skeptical faces that make him look like an old businessman. i am in love with this child. he's going to be so spoiled. welcome to the family nicksy.

adventures on the mighty susquehanna

helen has been on this kick recently about 'adventures'. that's all she wants to do- go on adventures. this usually translates into doing something outdoors, something that requires me to apply sunblock. but since her birthday was at the end of july, our family friend Wendy and I set out to plan an adventure for birthday Helley. most of the credit goes to Wendy who did the research and booked the kayaks; my main responsibility was the kidnapping. because we can't just tell her about the adventure; oh no. we have to make it a whoooolllllleeee ordeal. in the end, it went down like this:

i left the house, claiming to be going to my friend sarahs (even though i was wearing something completely uncharacteristic of me- shorts and t-shirt with sloppy keds), then picked up wendy, gary (her husband), and emma. the whole time i was fuh-reakin' out because my mother flat out refused to eat lunch. claimed she wasn't hungry. and i knew she'd be pissed if she went out on the river for three hours on an empty stomach, so i kept calling my dad yelling at him to make her a blt for the road (sidenote: my dad hates blts, and my mom thought it was realllly suspicious that he was making one which he claimed was for himself, but she still somehow didn't catch on.).

after picking up my accomplices, i called my mom and told her i left my bag inside, asking if she could bring it out to me so i didn't have to go inside (should have been another tip off because i never leave my bag). we rolled up onto the street blasting Wu Tang and whipped into the driveway (as my mother yelled at me slow down). my homies ran out of the van wearing thug hats (wendy) and panty hose (gary) then pushed helley in the van and blindfolded her. my dad came out at the same time, sandwich is tow, and hopped in the front seat. we forced her to eat the sandwich (we're pretty nice kidnappers) then drove her down to the river. she wasn't wearing any shoes and kept whining about it the whoooollleee time. when we got there, i proceeded to put on the pair of shoes i brought for her- what i thought were her water shoes- while she was still blindfolded. our exchange went like this:

mom: what are you putting on my feet?
me: your stupid water shoes! geez! be quiet!
mom: my water shoes?
me: yeah those goofy shoes that were in the dining room
mom: (ripping off her blindfold) those aren't my water shoes- those are your grandma's shoes!

apparently i had grabbed my grandma's suede slip on shoes- which, to my credit, look a lot like water shoes- that were chilling in the dining room after having cleaned out her closet. we proceeded to laugh hysterically (because that's generally how we handle screw-ups) and the kayak lady was kind enough to lend my mom some real shoes.

we all got life vested up, got dropped down the river, then had three hours to leisurely paddle back to city island. the water was literally only three feet deep (at the deepest- for the most part you could see the bottom.) and the current pretty much pushed you back to the island. harrisburg looked beauutttiful and the weather was absolutely perfect. we stopped on one of the islands in the river and ate some seriously smushed cupcakes and sang to the birthday queen. by the end, three members of our party had fallen into the susqu and we were all smelling pretty nasty (the mighty susqu has it's own special scent, reminiscent of the dumpster behind a long john silvers). we went home and relaxed and it was absolutely perfect.

on a much sadder note, half an hour after our adventure, gary had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the ER. the put two splits in his heart and he's getting better, but it was still very scary. gary's a hilarious guy and was still cracking jokes when we went to see him the next day. he claims it was the adrenaline rush from the kidnapping and claims he's turning in his doo-rag and sticking to more relaxing hobbies.

my heart belongs to knoebels

knoebels is actually the best amusement park ever. in the history of time. it's so incredibly tacky and goofy and obviously trapped in the 1960's that you can't help but fall in love with it. everything there is absolutely ridiculous. i went on friday with my parents and brother just to ride a few rides and get some ice cream. one of the things i love most about knoebels is that there's no admission fee- you just buy a ticket book and pay as you go. there's also no parking fee! baller! we got chicken fries, regular fries, pizza, & hot fudge sundaes then rode the phoenix (crazy wooden roller coaster where you fly out of your seat), the haunted mansion (still terrifying- i think i bruised my dad's arm from squeezing it so much), the round-up (my mom freaked out on this and kept yelling for them to stop the ride. we obviously made fun of her afterwards.), the cosmotron (indoor himalaya ride with crazy lights and fog and music. our song: bad romance.), and the twister. we also got to meet up with my dad's coworker who lives up there and his adorable 18 month old son matt. he was so shy and would look down whenever he caught you looking at him but by the end of the night he had warmed up and was smiling at us. my brother and i also took goofy pictures with all the weird statues they have around the park. seriously- knoebels is what an amusement park would look like if salvation army started one. uber tacky and absolutely wonderful.

free cake & kingball & a million guys named howard

i went to my first major league baseball game on thursday! and while i'm not really into sports, i am really into crowds and hype and yelling in unison and themed parties where everyone dresses a certain way and america. and somehow all of these things combined are kind of like a baseball game. we spent three hours in the parking lot beforehand playing games and eating food (a t-shirt seller man even played four square with us but he called it kingball. he then sold us the stupidest shirts in the world for half price ($5). the shirts say 'drink & go nuts' like 'dunk'n'donuts'. so ridiculous. i wore it all night.) we then went into the game, gave away the rest of our food (yelling 'free cake! free hot dogs!' is a great way to make friends), and watched the game. phillies won. yelling ensued. dancing after that. absolutely wonderful.

dear lord

there are so many things i need to put up on this blog. i've been doing so many fun things and documenting them all really well for you guys. now it's just a matter of going through the eighty thousand million pictures i've taken and picking ones to post. it'll all be done eventually.

in other news: family circus is the worst comic of all time. it is absolutely pointless. discuss.