63. Weekends

Nursing school makes you forget that these even exist. Or that they ever existed. Because in Nursing school, they don't. Between 12 hour clinicals on Saturday, the paper and hundreds (yes, literally, hundreds) of pages you need to read on Sunday, and the clinical that hits at 6:30am on Monday, the weekend passes by without even being acknowledged. Oh how I love and miss those blissful days of freedom.



7 more months!



Today's Sunny Thing?
Weekends

62. Crossing the Finish Line

It's been awhile since I've crossed a finish line. I ran cross country for one season and crossed about two finish lines per week. But I wasn't a huge fan of it. Running 3.1 miles just for the heck of it sucked.

Then I learned that crossing the finish line is a spectacular experience. Especially when it's 3.1 miles after 20 kilometers of biking and 500m of swimming. I've never heard of someone DISLIKING crossing a finish line. Not just the finish line of a race. But finish lines in general. Crossing things off of lists is a great experience. The finish line of a project is always exciting. Even the grand finish line of life is an exciting one, even if the world tends to view it as a bad thing (how can it be bad when JESUS is on the other side!?). But regardless, crossing a finish line is SUPER sunny. And thus...

Today's Sunny Thing?
Crossing the Finish Line

61. Catch Phrase

Catch Phrase is our family game. I mean... extended mom's side of the family. Every Christmas/Easter/Thanksgiving/birthday/Labor day/etc etc etc. It's sad that the little kids can play now (not that the 6 and 7 year olds are good at it, but they used to sleep right through it and now they want to join in). Anyway, Catch Phrase is pretty much the Kemmerling game.

We get pretty competitive. My grandpa is SUPER slow and the buzzer frequently goes off in his hands. Uncle Ken is like a cop. He will ALWAYS catch you if you go against any of the house rules. Uncle Matt is the official game organizer. He splits us up into teams, makes sure everyone knows who passes to who, and declares winner when no one can hear the machine over all the noise. Rose and Lauren are always on the same team. Grace and Brooke fight over who gets to be on my team and usually end up with someone else. My grandma never gets clues like "these people say 'Hang Ten'." My aunt gets embarrassed by my Uncle Ken making crude jokes. My aunt Chris is pretty quiet but a good teammate. Andrew and Stephen are unstoppable when they're on the same team. My mom laughs too much and my dad proves that he's too smart for his own good because no one gets his clues. Point is, it's a good time and I love family get-togethers. =)

Today's Sunny Thing?

Catch Phrase

60. Flintstones Vitamins

Flintstones Vitamins are an amazing thing. Almost every one of us took them as kids. Not only are they good for you... they're a great conversation starter. As a kid you either loved them, hated them, were forced to take them, got caught sneaking them, knew someone that took them, etc etc etc. Try it! Buy a few and put them in a prominent place. You'll find yourself taking one each day and might get a few interesting conversations out of it!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Flintstones Vitamins

59. Packing

I know, I know. Sounds ridiculous. But oddly, packing was, for me, a very sunny thing today.

I think it's the idea that in my experience (thanks be to God), packing has always been a good sign. We packed to move from our old house to the one my dad just built and again to move from that one to the one we've been in for the past 18 years. We pack for vacations... for Alaska and Florida and West Virginia and Italy and Japan and the Bahamas. We pack for the lake and we pack for school. More recently I packed to move into my first dorm room, and then to move home for the summer, and then to move back to school and back home again... and then into my first apartment. Today involved packing up to move into my next apartment... my Senior Year Place.

It's going to be an exciting year. I'm living with my friend Sarah & I'm super stoked. It's a two bedroom on the third floor and I get a bigger room but only pay about $50 more than I do now. =)

Anyway, I digress. Packing today was a little more sentimental than usual. Today I packed up what has been my favorite room of all time. My bedroom in this year's apartment was... to put it simply... Sarah. It just fit. It had all my favorite colors and mirrors and Christmas lights and glow-in-the-dark stars and bulletin boards and pictures ALL over and paintings and hallmark cards and my favorite quotes and fortunes from fortune cookies and church information and poems and soccer schedules and all sorts of things covering the walls. (And by covering, I mean pretty much covering). I LOVED that room. It was cozy without being cluttered... something that I treasured.

While I will miss that room, I look forward to having more space to live in next year. I'm excited to decorate again and make another room that fits me. I'm considering going for a more serene look this time around, but I know I'll end up with the polka dotted craziness that I love. Especially since I got polka dot wall mirrors this year from Kohl's!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Packing

58. Running

Let me clarify. Running is NOT a happy thing. Well, let me clarify further. Running is a happy thing if you do it like the kids do. Tag and Hide and Seek and Pickle... those make running fun. Running how grown ups run... "today's my 5 miler!" sucks. However, finishing a run is one of my favorite feelings. Feeling my lungs completely open up, my legs burn with a happy release, and the endorphins surging is one of my favorite things in the world. Don't get me wrong... I HATE to run and will come up with a thousand excuses not to, but when I force myself, the only thing that gets me through is remembering how I'll feel when I'm done. And I'm always right. Try it sometime!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Running

57. Turtles

I still remember the day that turtles became my second favorite animal. I was eleven years old and on crutches (again) and couldn't go up to deer camp with my dad and brothers. (Wooden trails are less than kind to a cripple). Instead, I sat around at home trying to occupy myself until they got back. When they did, they had a surprise for me. It was late at night and I was already in bed when they told me I HAD to go downstairs and see. So, twenty minutes later, I made it downstairs where Andrew came in with his hand closed over something so tiny that I honestly felt disappointed that they had found a rock for me. He opened his hand and said "His name is Art cause he's a Painted Turtle and in art class you paint!"

It was love at first sight.

This little turtle was the size of a quarter. He can't have been but a few days old. He was colorful and adorable and perfect for a girl that couldn't walk at the time. BUT he was the reason that I DID walk. My mom said that I could only keep him if I walked at school the next day. The doctor told me that it was still a little early but my mom was sure that he was just being conservative. And thus, on the way to Music class, I handed Stacy my crutches and attempted to walk. It was a terrible sight (not using that leg for so long had diminished all of my muscles to next to nothing) but I did it! And thus, Art was mine.

We kept him until he was too big and then we let him go (after intense training on how to eat minnows and fend for himself). I chose the Hidden Lake Gardens where he wouldn't get hit by a car. =)

A few years later, I adopted a little turtle from my biology teacher in high school. He came to soccer practice with me where my team named him after us... Usasem (pronounced You-Sass-Um). Usasem was a sick little guy but I got him healthy again and he lived for about 5 or 6 years before he went blind and eventually passed away. Now I've got Petrie and Little Foot. Petrie was from my grandpa and Little Foot is from Brian. They're adorable and so far, seem to be getting along better than when Little Foot first entered the picture in July!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Turtles

56. Air Fresheners

I'm not sure what it is about air fresheners that have always excited me. Perhaps it was just the thrill of being able to drive my own car, symbolized by getting to choose my own air freshener (as opposed to my mom putting them in her car). Perhaps it's just the fact that they smell yummy. But picking out a new air freshener for my car is always an exciting moment and this week, I got to do just that. =)

Today's Sunny Thing?
Air Fresheners

55. Daisies

Daisies are one of my very favorite flowers. Daisies and sunflowers. I never had a favorite flower but so many people have asked me what it was over the years that I started paying attention to the different types and those are officially what I've decided on.

Sunflowers were already a sunny thing, but I just love that they turn their faces to the sun. I always think of the hymn we used to sing in grade school.. "Like a sunflower who follows every movement of the sun. So I turn to You, to follow You, my God. In simplicity, charity, I follow. In simplicity, honesty, I follow. In simplicity, fidelity, I follow." Such a beautiful concept. Such a beautiful flower.

And then there's daisies. Daisies are just so HAPPY! Aren't they? I don't know what it is about them. They just... are! And if you want to, you can put them in colored water and see them change to all sorts of vibrant, almost neon, colors! Fields of daisies... wouldn't it make a beautiful photograph to put a little girl in a red dress in the middle of a field of daisies? Ah, daisies.

Today's Sunny Thing?
Daisies

54. Swinging

Swinging is kind of an official stamp of childhood. The sound of squeaky swings is a familiar one in summertime. An empty but moving swing is a symbol of childhood tragedy in the media. The motion of swinging is known to calm infants and be intolerable for extended periods of time for most adults. Thus, swinging is a relatively certain symbol of childhood and one that I enjoy very much. I can't handle swinging very high for very long, but every time I find myself sitting on a swing, I get nostalgic and deep and start thinking at a level that I don't normally fall into. Swinging. Dontcha miss it?

Today's Sunny Thing?
Swinging

53. My Ceiling

When I first moved into my apartment, I immediately began decorating. I love having a room of my own and the ability to decorate it how I want. Someday I hope to have a sophisticated house with well coordinated colors and silverware and china. But for now... right now I'm 21 with the world ahead of me. And right now, I can decorate my room as crazy as I want. Because I've got no one to impress and no one to answer to.

Thus, my room right now is a blend of lime greens and blues and pictures and paintings and mirrors and frames and teddy bears and bulletin boards and quotes and cards and coloring book pages. But the best part is what few people notice. It's what I see when I lay down in bed at night. It's my ceiling. =)

Halfway through the year I bought some glow-in-the-dark stars and put them up. Brian decided they weren't enough and got me a bunch more. Now I've got stars and planets and shooting stars and all sorts of glowing space things. And nothing makes me feel more at peace than laying under them in the dark just before I fall asleep.

Today's Sunny Thing?
My Ceiling

52. Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Brian was over for dinner tonight and noted that our family always always always has Hawaiian Sweet Rolls around.

Then I realized how much I like them. =)

If you haven't had a Hawaiian Sweet Roll, you ought to try them. They make them in wheat now if you're a health freak like me!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

51. My Eyes

My eyes... just one of hundreds/thousands/millions of things that I take for granted.

Yesterday I was babysitting for a 6 month old whose parents don't want him watching TV. However, like his mother, I don't like sitting in a silent house with a baby. SO I turn on the classical channel, which shows a slideshow of about 5 nature pictures and plays only classical music. It's quite the nice channel, actually. But that's beside the point.

The point is, that I was playing with the little guy and glanced up at the TV to see a simple picture that struck me somewhere deep inside. It was of a girl about my age standing with her back to the camera. She had her hands in her sweatshirt pockets, capri sweats and tennis shoes on, and a backpack on her back. She was standing on a cliff looking over the edge. The only thing we saw in the picture was the blue sky beyond her, a few fluffy white clouds floating by. But that picture hit me: I want to go there.

It took me a few years to truly appreciate all of the beauty in this world, but for some reason the Summer of 21 brought a newfound vision for it. The next picture was of someone sitting with their legs straight in front of them, ankles crossed, and mountains stretching in every direction. I wanted to be there too.

Today I went to the State park for a run. Now, our state park is questionable. Look one way and you see the coal power plant. Look the other way and you see the nuclear one. The lake will never have a green flag flying because of E.Coli in the water, and it's so murky that you can't see your feet more than 2 or 3 feet into it. However, today I was walking and all of a sudden the sheer beauty that surrounded me just hit me. I stopped. Literally stopped and turned to Brian and told him that I wished everyone in the world could feel the overwhelming sense of happiness at the beauty around us at that moment. It was wonderful.

So today, today I am thankful for my eyes. For the ability to truly appreciate all of the crazy beautiful things God had created and set before me to take in. I don't think I could ever get enough of it.

Today's Sunny Thing?
My Eyes

49. White Water Rafting

This week brought a full week of adventure for the family. Adventure Park in West Virginia, to be exact. Zip lining, paintballing, The Blob, huge lake toys, and white water rafting.

White Water Rafting was made the most entertaining by a few select people: 1) my mom, 2) Brent, and 3) Kyle.

1) My Mom
Anyone with a less-than-adventurous mother understands this one. I've gotta give her credit... she paintballed, swam in the lake, climbed the iceberg, rafted, swam in the river, zip lined, and probably faced every fear imaginable (except her fear of small spaces, as we were in some pretty huge spaces). However, her jumpiness and nervousness made for quite an entertaining adventure. =)

2) Brent
Brent, novice guide. He was our guide the first day of rafting when we were in our tiny Duckies, as they're called (aka blow up kayaks that you sit on top of, perched, ready to fall off). He was more entertaining the second day, though. He's newer to the rafting guide position and it's quite entertaining to watch. He dumped half his boat, spun in all sorts of circles, and basically left the rest of us laughing. =P

3) Kyle
Kyle was entertaining simply because he made fun of everyone else, including us. =) He's quite the experienced guide and thus, has earned the right to make fun of people.

Twas a spectacular trip. =) I'm SO sad to be back.

Today's Sunny Thing?
White Water Rafting

48. Monopoly

That age old game. Monopoly. Known worldwide, I'm sure, and loved by thousands. Millions even.

For my family, Monopoly is a game only played on vacations.

Years ago, we took a month long trip in the motor home, hitting several states, lakes, rivers, and, mainly, national parks. Early on in the trip we purchased National Park Monopoly. Ripping open the package, we eagerly searched the board for places we'd been. Flattop, Yellowstone, National Mall, Mount Rushmore, Yosemite, Petroglyph, the Great Smoky Mountains. Since then, it's lived in our motor home. And only in our motor home.

Every trip involves late nights of cut throat Monopoly. Monopoly in which we argue and bicker over Dinosaur, Valley Forge, Yellowstone, the Trails, and Free Parking (because yes, we play the out-of-the-book rules of Free Parking). Collecting $200 when we pass Go and celebrating when we avoid the tents and lodges and Yellowstone by getting sent to Jail. Paying each player $50 when we're elected Park Ranger of the Year and paying $115 for each lodge we've set up. Mortgaging properties to pay the $1200 on Agate Fossil Beds and sighing when we have no choice but to buy Edison even though the most it will earn is $48 a hit. Laughing when mom, with her two properties, ends up beating us all by making $2500 on Free Parking and trading for a Yellow Monopoly with Stephen (those lodges are a bitch!). Everyone getting mad at dad when he refuses to make a trade, mom frustrated that he's not using this "teaching opportunity" to its full potential. National Park Monopoly has been the cause of more than one swear word in front of the kids, several nights of going to bed angry, and lots and lots of teaming up against the previous night's winner (usually dad). Yet, every single year, we go back to it. Sarah as the tent; dad, the bear; mom, the cannon; Stephen, the canoe; Andrew, the hiking boot. Each night full of the promise of doubles, community chest, bargaining, trading, and losing.

Today's Sunny Thing?
Monopoly

47. Cowgirl Boots

Before we start, let's get one thing straight. I don't wear cowgirl boots. Nor do I think that they're cute on most girls my age. However, when I was 8, they were da shiz. I got a cowgirl outfit for Christmas & I wore it all week... even to sit on Santa's lap. I'm just that cool. =)

Today's Sunny Thing?
Cowgirl Boots

46. Cuddling

So cliche and stupid, I know. But it's worth mentioning. I sleep SO much better when I'm a little spoon. =)

Today's Sunny Thing?
Cuddling

45. Waking Up Without an Alarm

One of the many but valuable simple pleasures in life that can thoroughly improve my day is waking up without an alarm. I don't mean those days when your alarm is set to 6:30 and you wake up at 6:28. I mean the days when you don't have to set an alarm. The days when maybe you do set one, just so you don't sleep the day away, but you wake up long before that alarm anyway, well rested and ready to go.

Take today, for example. I have to leave by 4pm to get to babysitting on time. AKA I don't have to set an alarm in the morning because for ONCE I don't work at the hospital before babysitting. (Thank the Lord!). I got home from work last night around 12:30am and got to bed around 1:30am. Thus, I set my alarm for 10:30 thinking that I'd get more than the recommended 8 hours but wouldn't waste the day.

I woke up to a beautiful sunny day at 9:45am, feeling well rested and ready to face the day. =) I love that feeling!

Today's Sunny Thing?
Waking Up Without an Alarm

44. Cycling Class

Triathlon training is tough. I never know what to do... run? bike? swim? all three? just two? which two? how much? How do you go about getting ready for one of these?

At this point, my goal is to increase fitness as much as possible. I'm doing a bit of running and a bit of biking and once I get a little more in shape, I'll throw in some swimming as well. For now, I'd rather avoid making a total fool of myself. =P

This process has led to Cycling class at the YMCA. I've gone to 3 classes so far... two early morning ones and one yesterday evening. I tell ya... it's not an easy class & after spending all day yesterday running, playing soccer, going to cycling and pilates classes, getting out of bed for class again this morning was quite a challenge! However, it's super fun and it keeps me motivated. It gets me out of bed bright & early and leaves me all day to do anything and everything but sleeping, which I still view as a waste of time. =) Here's to getting back in shape! (darn surgery)

Today's Sunny Thing?
Cycling

43. Friends

Friends has long been the Osentoski Family Show. When we were younger, it was Full House (known to us as "Sarah's Favorite Show"). However, once we were 'of age,' my dad brought home all 10 seasons of Friends on dvd from China and it's been our show ever since.

Motorhome trips for years have been marked by a quick episode of Friends before bed. Rainy days and chilly winter nights have been spent curled up on couches with some TiVo'd episodes playing on the television (especially when the cable goes out). Friends has long been one of the only shows that the entire family can agree on, and the only show that we can watch over and over and over and still laugh every time, even if we've seen the episode a hundred times. We each have our favorite characters, our favorite episodes, our favorite seasons, but we all agree that it's among our top favorite shows. =)

Today's Sunny Thing?

Friends