Happy New Year!

Okay, so this post is a day late, but I spent most of yesterday playing Hyrule Warriors and feeling like I was going to die. (It was a very bad day.) Anyways, since it's a new year, that means there are new things to discuss! Mainly, What do I want to do with myself this year? 

1. Concentrate on my GPA. At the end of last semester, I was left with a pitiful 3.766 GPA. (I had a really hard time in two classes this semester, and I got Bs in those.) This semester, and on every other semester in my future, I'm going to really focus on bringing that GPA up to at least a 3.85, if not a 3.90. I know it's going to be really difficult to do that, but I'm hoping that if I get all As my next three semesters, I'll graduate with as close to a 4.00 as I can. (I had a 4.00 my freshman year, but my sophomore year classes were some of the hardest I've ever had to take.)
2. Devotionals. When I graduated high school, my pastor gave me (as well as all the other graduates) a book entitled "My Utmost for His Highest." It's a devotional of sorts that you read once a day - it has every day of the year in it, one reading a day. I've never had a strict reading plan, so this year I'm really going to try. I got a few journals for Christmas that I'm going to use to write in every day. (I also bought an Apologetics bible on Christmas Eve as sort of a let's-do-this to myself.)
3. WRITE. I've been absolutely terrible at writing lately, and I really need to get myself back into it. I know it's going to be hard, mostly because of the previous two resolutions, but this book is never going to get finished if I don't do something with it. I even tried writing a death scene for one of my favorite characters, but I'm not sure if I'll kill him off yet or not. 
4. Money. I haven't been very good at saving money this year. I did the "dollar a week" jar, and ended up with $595 at the end of the year (I was supposed to have $1396, but due to my hours being cut at TreeTop, I didn't make it past August). I spent nearly $300 of that on Christmas, so I was left with $120 to give to the church and $125 to put into savings. I haven't put anything into my savings account since the summer, and I really  need to get it big before the end of the year. My goal is to put $1,000 in my savings by the end of the year. Since I get paid twice a month, I figure I take out $50 immediately and transfer it to my savings account. Shouldn't be too difficult, I wouldn't think. I'm also going to try the money-jar thing again (and actually finish it this year!!)

So, there you have it. The things I'm going to be working towards in 2015. I mean, this is the year of Back to the Future II's hoverboards and flying cars! Anything should be possible!

Here's to a great year, a year of laughter and happiness, one of fun times, and one with much less heartbreak than last year. Happy New Year, everyone.

It's Been a While

Wow. It's been over five months since I lasted posted anything here. I bet most of you thought I was dead - if anybody even reads this blog at all. I got so caught up with living life that I had no time to write about life.

So, to play catch-up, here's a quick rundown of how the previous five months went:


August: In August, I turned 20. My mother took me out shopping for my birthday, and we had a fantastic time. I moved back into my dorm at Montevallo the second-to-last week of August, and this year, my bed is lofted. Same roommate, but this year we've got everything figured out.

In September, Matt introduced me to Skyrim, and that's what I did with my life for the next few weeks. I'm an Imperial, and I decided to join the Stormcloaks, and I'm a vampire as well. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm DOING in the game, but I'm having fun.

September was also the month where I realized that taking all English classes was going to go very badly for me. And I learned that Philosophy is SO not my forté. I'm still trying to figure out how I passed the class, to be honest, because nothing that I "learned" in that class made any sense to me.

October was the month that meant the most to me. I QUIT TREETOP and am now working at Books-a-Million. Yay! I also went to two weddings, each very unique. I dressed up as Raven for Halloween, and I have no pictures ready-to-go on my phone for that experience. Sorry! My room didn't win the door prize contest, but we did get honorable mention. Matt & I celebrated our one-year on October 29.

In November, I got a cold that kicked my butt, and had to make my first 'adult' purchases. I bought Publix-brand DayQuil & NyQuil (generic stuff that's just as good, if not better, than the name-brand!), some tissues, and a cow-shaped thermometer. It's a kids' thermometer, but it was also cheaper than the regular thermometers by about $10. The cow was $5, the plain adult ones were $14.99. And since I'm all about not having boring things, I was super-excited about this.

November was my most stressful month, school-wise. I had projects and papers and deadlines like nobody's business. I'm still not sure how I did all of them on-time. Next semester, I'm not going to be NEARLY as lasseiz-faire about them!

Matt celebrated his 25th birthday on the 14th, and I got him a Killing Joke statue - which he flipped over.

And now we come to December, where I passed my classes with a 3.8 GPA still (two B's and three A's this semester - I'm hoping to get that to ALL A'S next semester).

I've been working about 24 hours every weekend, eight hours a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's really wearing me out, but the paychecks are really nice. About $280 every two weeks. It means I had plenty of money to go Christmas shopping with.

Christmas was amazing -- we had more presents under the tree than ever before, mostly because of things I had bought my family. The present I enjoyed the most was the cross-stitch my sister made me; I'll have to put it up at some point!

Now that Christmas is over, I'm hoping this next semester is going to calm down a little so I can continue to blog - I miss it.




It's been an interesting few months, that's for sure! I still can't believe everything I accomplished in such a short amount of time - obviously, this list isn't comprehensive, or else I'd be here all night.

But as it is 1:30 a.m., on the last night of the year, I'm going to wrap this up and go ahead and publish it. 

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! (And happy birthday to my best friend, Hunter!)

100 Happy Days - Week Two

Well, I guess we know the answer to the question I asked last week - will I make another post before Saturday? Nope. I'll try to do something this week, but no promises. Anyways, let's get on to the pictures!

 Day 6: Waves! I wore my hair in twin braids all day, and when I took it out that night, my hair was really wavy and pretty. I wish I could do this every day, but alas, my hair has to be washed in the morning. Were I to do this at night, my hair would be oily and gross by the end of the next day.

I bought myself some sea-salt spray from Wal-Mart, because I heard that's a good way to get waves, and so far it works a bit, but nothing like braiding my hair does.

You'll notice that Day 7 is missing: for whatever reason, my phone wouldn't upload the picture. If you're curious, it was a Chickfila cup. I absolutely adore Chickfila.

 Day 8: Headbands! I went shopping with my mother on Tuesday, and after picking my cowgirl boots up from the shoe repair shop (I had to get the heels replaced), we went by Claire's and I got two new headbands. I really like them. I don't know why I've recently gotten into headbands, but they're easy to wear and I can wear them with most anything.

I never liked headbands when I was little because they always seemed to pinch. I don't know why I like them now.

 Day 9: Quilting! Mom and I are making an appliqued kitty cat quilt, and today we cut out the hearts and the panels. We cut out the cats a few weeks ago - we got ten different types of calico fabric from Hobby Lobby, and cut out two of each type, one facing left and one facing right.

We started this quilt as something to do while we waited for the stencils for my other quilt to come in. It doesn't look like they're going to be coming in any time soon, so this quilt is going to be the one taking over our time...if I'm able to get it all put together by the time school starts again, it'll be a miracle! I'm really excited, though!

 Day 10: Baby Bunny! We had this baby trapped in our garage for a whole night. It ran in Wednesday morning while dad had the door open, and we couldn't get it out.

Dad set traps for it on Wednesday night, big steel cages that have weight-sensitive springs. He put carrots and lettuce and water in each cage. Wouldn't you know it? The bunny ate every bit of the food and drank most of the water, but he was too light to spring the traps!

We were finally able to corner him on Thursday afternoon, and it took all four of us! Eventually, the bunny was caught and returned to the garden, where he hopped away. (I think he's out of the nest now, though. Which is how he got trapped in the garage.)

Day 11: Hope Chest! A few months ago, I bought a picture at Home Goods that I wanted to use for my future home. I had a trunk in my room, but it was full of middle school junk that I just didn't want to deal with. Fast-forward to yesterday, when Mom and I went shopping at Home Goods again. I found some Italian Crystal glasses, $8 for 4 (I bought two boxes) and some washcloths to match my picture.  Once we got home, I decided to tackle that trunk. It was full of the most ridiculous stuff - why did I keep any of this? I'm sure it was treasure when I was little, but now it's just junk. I bagged and trashed it, and after vacuuming out the trunk, I turned it into what my mother calls a "hope chest." It contains stuff I hope to use in my future home.

Day 12: 100 Reasons. My nine-months with my boyfriend is coming up soon, and it's going to be a BIG DEAL. This marks the longest relationship he's ever had with somebody. (Before me, his longest was eight months.)

I decided to do something special in addition to the claddaghs we're exchanging on the date. (Promise rings. He can't afford an engagement ring right now, so we're doing the next best thing.) I found a little printable online for a booklet, so I printed it out (I wish it wasn't pink!) and filled it in.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would. I couldn't figure out how to word a lot of things, but I got all 100 completed tonight. I can't wait to give him this booklet! I bet he cries.





How did your week go? Did you have anything particularly happy or exciting happen? Please let me know! I hope to see you sometime this week, but I don't know if I'll be able to blog before next Saturday. See you soon!

100 Happy Days - Week One

Day Two: A Cat and Her Bowl.  At some point, we started feeding our cats the leftover milk in our cereal bowls. I guess we started this when they were still kittens, so they have had plenty of time to learn, like Pavlov's Dog. 

Now, every time a spoon clinks against something, the kitties come running, and they stare. I think it's cute. A little irksome at times, but it makes me happy. The cats come up and stare at you until you give in, lower your bowl, and let them sniff whatever you've been eating.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, they look at you with unrivaled disgust, like How dare you presume I'll eat that?, flick their tails, and saunter away.

I love cats.

 Day Three: Fireworks. Every third of July, we go to my parents' friend's house to watch the fireworks that the City of Chelsea puts on - The Big Kaboom. The Kaegals do a cookout (hot dogs and hamburgers), and everyone else brings a side dish and dessert to share. The little kids swim in the pool, and the adults socialize. My sister and I usually end up walking around the big green where vendors are set up and see what kind of free stuff we can get. (I like free popcorn.)

Then we settle down in camping chairs in the Kaegals' front lawn to watch the fireworks. Their house has the perfect view of the show. We've gone for four years, and I don't think we'll be stopping any time soon. 

Fireworks make me happy.

 Day Four: Libba Bray. I love this author, and not just because she's replied to me on Twitter before. She really captures what it's like to be a teenager.

I've read two of her series: the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and That Sweet Far Thing) and the first book of the Diviners trilogy (The Diviners). She's a brilliant writer, and her female characters are strong and, well, different. They're not constantly pining over what man they should date. They're not worried about fitting into society. They're different. They're strong. They're amazing. 

In short, if you'd like a beautiful Victorian series to try, pick up A Great and Terrible Beauty. If you're in the mood for something more flapper-ish, The Diviners will do that for you.

Day Five: Papa John's. Ah, pizza. I love pizza. And Papa John's is my favorite. It's always been my favorite, I guess because they use the right amount of sauce, they don't do funky things to their crust, and their garlic butter sauce is absolute divine. 

I've never really liked other pizzas: Domino's does weird things to their crust. Little Caesar's tastes like cardboard. Pizza Hut is tough. Papa John's is the best delivery.

Now, the best restaurant pizza is a tie between the little café in the Wiesbaden, Germany commissary and Nick & Al's Pizzeria in Meridian, Mississippi. (If you're ever in either place, CHECK THEM OUT!!!)







So there you have it! My first week of the Happy Days challenge is complete! Are you going to do it? What made you happy this week? Sound off below! I'll see you next week for the Week Two wrap-up, and hopefully I'll have other blog posts before then!

100 Happy Days - Begin!

Today was a phenomenal day. 

Absolutely incredible.

Today, Matt and I went to Splash Adventure. It's a water park near Birmingham that's been having problems ever since my family moved to Alabama. It's gone through a couple of owner changes and the conditions have just degraded to the point where it's been overrun with...unsavory characters. (It's not in the best part of town, you see.) However, a new set of owners bought it out in March, and they've been working their hardest to make things better.

I've been to this water park about five years ago, when it was still called Alabama Adventure, and it was...meh. Over-priced and really boring, to be honest. But today...

TODAY.

I picked Matt up from his hotel at 10:00 sharp, and we went on an adventure to find this place. (See what I did there? ... Sorry.) My GPS led us to the wrong place (not where the signs did), so we had to do a lot of adventuring to find it. We did, though, and got to the park before it opened, and managed to get a first-row parking spot.

The day was just awesome from then on out. Once we got inside, I rented a locker (it was easy - everything's on a digital barcode on your entrance wristband!), we took off our outer clothing (leaving just our bathing suits), and went to try out the Aqua Maze.

Then we did a really crazy water slide - a halfpipe thing...terrifying really - and started out our day on a good note.

After that we did the wave pool, then the tube slides (there are four of them!),  then we did the lazy river. And we repeated those three things (really the only three things, besides the kiddie area, the terrifying half-pipe slide, and the ultra-fear-inducing almost-straight-down plummeting slide) for the next seven hours.

It was heaven.

We put on sunscreen every hour (the park offered free sunscreen!!), and neither of us got burned, although we did get a little red from where the inner tubes rubbed off the sunscreen between applications. Lunch and the snacks were good, and there was practically nobody there the entire day. It was nice.

Matt and I celebrated our eight months on Sunday, but this was really our celebration day. We had a fantastic time. Although the park was a little pricey, it was a great special occasion date for the two of us. 

Anyways, I'd better get to bed. I have to get up really early tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great day as well! 

(Also, I figured I'd better make it clear that I won't be posting a Happy Day picture every single day, at least not on here. On Instagram, yes I will. Here, I'll just be posting a weekly wrap-up. Every Saturday, I'll post the week's pictures and go over them. If you want to keep up with me daily, click on the Instagram link I just posted and follow me!)

Headrush

It's been a while since I last posted.

I could offer a lot of excuses to you. 

I could tell you that I've been busy with work.

I could tell you that I've been busy reading Game of Thrones.

I could tell you that life in general has just gotten in the way.

I could tell you that the words have stopped coming.

And while all of those would be true, the last one is truer than most. I guess since I got out of school for the summer, I haven't had many things to write about, if anything at all. Sometimes there are days when I want to sit down and blog about what's happening in my life, but then I think back to what I'm only going to refer to as the incident, and I'm scared to write on this blog.

It's been almost a month and I'm still scared to write about my life and how I'm doing.

Which is why I'm writing now. 

I'm going to be starting this thing called 100 Happy Days on Instagram, hopefully very soon. Maybe around the first of the month, so that I can start on an even number. Basically, it's a challenge to find one happy thing a day, for one hundred straight days. In this busy world, can you even find one happy thing a day? Considering how down in the dumps my life has been lately (I'll see if I can get over my fear at some later point to talk about those things), I'm going to try and use this as the motivation that I need to get back into the world of blogging.

I may not do a blog post every single day, but I'll certainly try to at least do them once a week, with all the pictures that I've taken from that week. If people who have been around since my last blog remember my weekly updates, that's kinda what this is going to be. A weekly update of the happy pictures that I've taken and what made me so happy. That's a series that I'm going to start in July.

I've been going through some things lately, and these things have been hard. Sometimes all I do at the end of the day is cry into my pillow. I need to turn things around. I need to get some things straight in my life. And I need to show people that I'm not afraid.

I can't tell you if I'll be back with blog posts before my 100 Happy Days project starts in July, but I'm certainly going to try my hardest.

Thanks for still being out there, guys :) Thanks for believing in me. You're the greatest.

I'm Going to Get Hurt For This Post...

...but I really don't like John Green's writing style.

Don't get me wrong - I like him. I've only seen a few YouTube videos (mostly things that mental_floss has had him do), but what I've seen, I've really liked. I've also seen all the .gifs on Tumblr, and those have made me respect him. I love what he's doing for people who feel like they're alone in this world. I just don't like his writing style.

I guess it's just me. A few years ago, I had Looking For Alaska handed to me, and was told it was the greatest book I was ever going to read in my life. So I read it. And I hated it.

Maybe it's because I kinda can't stand slice-of-life books. The same thing happened with me while reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn't like it. I've been told time and time again that the book is a life-changer, but I could never see it.

I appreciated 13 Reasons Why, but I didn't come away from it thinking it was the greatest book in the history of the world.

People used to look at me funny when I said I loathed Nicholas Sparks books. They're all the same story, just with different names for characters and events. They're sappy and unoriginal and stale. There are so many books out there that give much better character development (the Game of Thrones series, anyone?) and twists like you wouldn't expect (the Gemma Doyle trilogy). They're imaginative, funny, thrilling, and heart-wrenching in ways you would never get from books like Sparks'. 

Maybe it's because sappy books make me yawn. There's no thrill in them. Okay, so she died. Okay, they're going through a rough time, and look - there's an accident, and he doesn't come back home. He leaves. She falls apart. Something happens that makes everything all right again. Same storyline. Where's the adventure? The excitement? 

Give me a book like The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien), Leviathan (Scott Westerfeld), The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor), Airman (Eoin Colfer), Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling). Give me an epic world and a masterful storyline. (The world doesn't have to be fictional, either. Airman is a beautiful book.) Let me watch the characters stumble and fall, then pick themselves up (or get picked up) and continue on their journey. Give me unforgettable locations and battles. 

It's the same thing with manga - I tried things like Ouran High School Host Club and other Slice-of-Life mangas (as well as animes!) but nothing ever stuck with me. I'd read a few chapters and get bored with the repetitiveness. Now, FullMetal Alchemist? Attack on Titan? Cowboy Bebop? Brilliant. 

Of course, everyone's going to have differing opinions. That's the beauty of books - there's something out there for everyone, for every single soul on this planet. You may enjoy Nicholas Sparks, you may enjoy clichéd storylines and recycled material. There may be joy in having real life thrust upon you in books. None of that holds anything for me. I try my hardest to stay away from all that. Books are there for me to escape into when the real world, with cancer and car wrecks and divorce and suicide, becomes too much for me. Give me a heroic journey with an epic finish. Let me know that there's still some good in the world.