Yesterday morning, bright and early (about 9:00), I answered my phone to my whole family (parents and little brothers, at least) cheering, "Happy Birthday!" on speaker phone as they drove to Stake Conference in Santa Fe. "Your life is now officially 1/4 over," my dad assured me.
Yes, yes, I am now 25 years old.
I never thought it would be a big deal, but it turns out this "milestone" of a birthday really made me stop and reflect on what I have and haven't accomplished in my life.
I'd just watched an episode of "Friends" where Everyone Turns Thirty, and I thought it was kind of funny how everyone had such ridiculous reactions. I mean, it's just a number, right? But I guess at these milestone birthdays, you automatically start to take inventory of your life. Even though I've never made a list, I'd always assumed I'd accomplish certain things by the time I was 25.
I've done some, and I'm still working on others. In fact, I'm starting a few things that should make my life quite a bit busier (which is a good thing). Tomorrow evening I start a job at a ballet studio accompanying a ballet class on the piano. I'm hoping that this will help me get some good contacts to start teaching piano lessons. And I'm also thinking about getting a teaching certificate or continuing my education in some other way.
We'll see about how all that goes. Hopefully I'll have some sort of update next year, when I turn 26 on the 26th!

I love reading my friends' blogs. I check them, oh, every couple days or so. I just go down the list and check if people have anything new... which is SO HYPOCRITICAL. I have slumped, and it's time to do something about it.


So not only will I post, but I will post pictures!
Here are some before and after pictures from my garden.
Before:

After:
I must say that this is not as impressive as it looks in real life. The biggest change you can see on this is that the surrounding field went from green and growing to dead. But I've harvested about a hundred zucchinis so far, and just this morning I picked 23 bright red tomatoes off of those two tiny bushes. It's been a good little garden so far!

And here's another before:

And another after:
It's not exactly the same angles, but man, these bushes--especially the tomato bushes-- have taken over the area! :) There won't be room for them next year, since the other bushes are trying to make themselves a presence, and they're supposed to be the permanent ones.

And my camera died before I got a good shot of the "lawn." It's trying.