posted at scrapbook.com by bethanykartchner

this summer, i’m looking to make a scrapbook, but the more i think of it, the more intimidated i get. i spent all today looking at layouts on scrapbook.com, and i started to get overwhelmed. it seems like so much work goes into each page. i can’t decide where to start and which pictures to put in. anyway, i can’t even count the number of times i’ve tried to make a scrapbook and given up… but really, this time i’m determined to make one.

last weekend kelvin and i made a quick trip to the great smoky mountains national park in tennessee/north carolina. i couldn’t believe how gorgeous the scenery was. the smoky appearance of the mountains is caused by evaporation from the trees.

we got a chance to hike part of the appalachian trail. i was surprised to learn that the national park has a higher biodiversity than the entire northern europe. the trails were nicely covered and really well maintained.

we woke up an hour before sunrise to catch the mountain ranges at their smokiest. it seems like there were a ton of awesome hikes there. we only had a chance to hike two, charlies bunion and chimney top, but i would love to go back and explore more of the great smoky mountains.

on our one night stay, we got a chance to check out gatlinburg, TN, a funny little tourist town just outside of the national park. it was a fun trip to explore the candy shops, souvenir shops, and other little touristy gimmick stores around town.

i was checking out apartment therapy and came upon the idea of using a rain gutter to organize wires under the desk. i love how neat and clean the desk looks after the rain gutter was added to the bottom of the desk. check out this flickr album for more details. it looks pretty simple to do. i’m looking to add one to my new desk when i return to LA.

to my delight, kelvin and chastain recently moved into a new apartment in atlanta. after a weekend of ikea shopping (we went four times in one weekend!) and furniture constructing, his new place is definitely starting to feel like home. i finally feel like i have my own space, and i’m happy that i don’t have to deal with any more dirty fraternity bathrooms or sleepless nights caused by loud drunken drama. hooray!

saturday morning, kelvin and marvin competed in atlanta’s muddy buddy ride and run. the two person race consists of running, biking, and a number of obstacles including this mud pit at the end of the race. it was funny to watch the two of them climb through the mud.

their team, organic surprise, ended up coming in 21st out of the 46-55 (combined) age group. good job boys!!

i’m obsessed with this puppy (the picture doesn’t do her justice) at the atlanta humane society, where i’ve recently started volunteering. too bad i don’t have enough time to care for a dog right now. i think that if i did.. i might consider a chow chow though. they are just too adorable and fluffy!

if you don’t believe me.. check out dim sum the chow chow (shown above), who is probably the cutest puppy i have ever seen in my life. i want this little bear!

two weeks ago, i got accepted into the biomedical engineering product development and diagnostics program at the viterbi school of engineering at USC. after much consideration, i decided to decline my admission into Drexel and return to USC for graduate school.

i felt like i’ve been sort of blinded by the opportunity to travel over the realization that graduate school is still school over everything. i sat rolling pros and cons over my head for a week until i finally realized that in the end, the only reason i really wanted to go to Drexel was because i wanted to have the opportunity to explore the east coast and live somewhere besides california.

from a school standpoint, viterbi is a much better fit for what i want. the program is much more geared towards the industry, and i’ve been working in the diagnostics field of biomedical instruments for the last three summers. the program is a year and a half shorter, and the school is a top ten engineering school. after considering all that, i realized that i couldn’t give up USC.

so it’s back to los angeles for me.

i once again decided to change my blog layout. i decided i was looking for something a little simpler. i’m still in the works of fixing some stuff, but i’m pretty happy with what i’ve gotten so far.

kelvin, yvonne, david, and i went strawberry picking in loganville, GA last saturday.  we started off all excited to pick delicious strawberries, but we soon found out that picking strawberries at the end of the season is not an easy task.  we literally had to shuffle through the leaves of every strawberry plant in an entire row to earn ourselves 5 or 6 strawberries.  most were tiny and over ripe.

midway through, david and yvonne were asked to participate in a video interview.

two hours later, both groups only had half a bucket each.  defeated, we decided to combine our two buckets into one.  we ended up making delicious smoothies out of the strawberries we took home since they were all too mushy to be eaten alone.

thursday, kelvin and i visited the coca-cola museum. although i’m not a big coke fan myself, one walk through the coke museum, and i had myself craving a sip of that unique taste.

there was everything you could imagine coke. i really enjoyed learning about how coke is manufactured and reading about the history about the company (which originated in atlanta, GA).

there were two films in the tour. one was a 3D film about the secret formula in coke. outside the theater, i tried to take a picture of kelvin, but ended up with this accidental photo. my favorite part of the tour was the taste testing of different coke products from around the world. there were some that i wish we had here in the US and some that definitely surprised me.

today kelvin and i went river tubing in helen, GA. river tubing definitely brought back memories of cave tubing on our spring break trip to belize. despite warnings of scattered thunderstorms, it was a beautiful day.

we explored the cute german town of helen and visited the anna ruby falls. i can’t believe how huge the waterfalls are in georgia!

the river downstream from anna ruby falls

on our way out, we were lucky enough to catch some butterflies around these flowers.

at the end of the day, we hiked to raven cliff falls.