The End

I have successfully made it to the end of NaBloWriMo! Wow, I can't believe this is the last day of November! What a bittersweet moment. I am happy that its over so I no longer have to post insignificant, time-wasting posts. I can just post when I have something to say! Today I learned that I cannot pick up any hours at work this week, unless someone calls out, because its the end of a cycle so all the spots are filled. I also bought the last two books to the series I'm reading. The Uglies Series. I like them. Its a YA series and so weird I can't fully explain it, so I won't waste your time. You can google it if you're interested. As a parting note, I have decided to do a "12 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge" leading up to Christmas! I'm looking forward to it. I just finished this art project and figured I'd share it....it'd look nicer with a colorful wall, but thats okay :) The middle picture says "Brighten every day with fun finds that make you happy" and thats what this piece is....things I've found that all have happy memories attached.

#Numbers#

2:Hours I slept last night

Hours spent today playing "Extreme-Reality Life": 2.5

3: Hours spent today playing new Wii SuperMario

Number of 'continues' used in Wii SuperMario: 22

3: Hours reading today (so far)

Days left til NYC: 13!

76:Days left til Peru!!

Percent of money I've raised for Peru: >50%

13: How badly I want to take myself to Europe

(0=not at all, 10=can I leave tomorrow?)

Number of days to finish reading challenge: 32.1

28.3:Number of books to finish reading challenge

Number of girls it took to destroy a bag of Bliss chocolates: 3
2:Books left to read in the Uglies series

Estimated number of times I wanted to learn to salsa during Tough Love 2: 14

I Heart Lazy Days!

Today was a nice, lazy day. I slept for 14 hours straight....I don't even think I moved; I woke up in the same exact position I went to sleep in! Then I decided to stay in my footy jammies all day (they aren't technically footy jammies....its a one piece with separate slippers, but you can't really tell...)

Did some reading, watched Cellular with my brother and his friend. Now, reading some more while they're out buying the new Wii Mario game for us to play. This is a great relaxing day! I needed this :)

Black Friday

After working 11-7 last night, I headed straight to the mall to get a new camera and a....Christmas gift for my brother ;) I am in love with my new camera! Its bright pink and takes great, fast pictures! And I bought it at Ritz and got their 1 year protection plan which covers literally ANYTHING that could happen to it, no matter whose fault it is! So if it falls into the Amazon River and is trampled by a herd of monkeys, as long as I bring the pieces back, they'll replace it! Yay! After that, I went to the Festival of Trees with my parents, sister and some family friends. I love the Festival of Trees! Hundreds of pretty Christmas trees all decorated in different themes....and you have a chance to win one! I put a bunch of my tickets into this one tree that was plywood covered in bottlecaps and jewelry. I really wanna win it! It was sooo me! After a far-too-short nap, I went to youth group, only to leave early when I nodded off many times during worship. Now, after being awake for roughly 32 hours, I'm going to bed!

Good Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Never let it be said that my family doesn't have a traditional Thanksgiving. We had plenty of friends and some family over. There was an over-abundance of turkey, stuffing and all the fixin's. There was music, you tube viewing and poker playing. Holiday poppers with paper crowns and corny little toys. And, of course, we lit some non-dairy creamer on fire in the backyard...

What? Like your family doesn't do that at Thanksgiving?

This year I am so thankful for a wonderful family, great friends, a crazy-loving Savior, a real-life grown-up job, and all the exciting events coming up in the next year. Be blessed and "elevate the silly" =D

Thanksgiving Eve

I'm glad this NaBloWriMo is almost over. Then I won't have to make insignificant posts. Well, I'm almost finished with orientation (tomorrow nights my last shift as an orientee!). And since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have tonight off (since tonight's 11-7 shift is technically the holiday). Now, I have to keep myself up all night, though. I guess I'll read...do some little organizing-type stuff...catch up on my book reviews...make plans for Peru...research a solo trip? We'll see. Typical Thanksgiving-type post to come tomorrow.

Creepiest. Commercial. Ever.

Seriously. Its this guy (who I assume to be on a CBS show) against a plain gray background saying, "Want to get your lady something really special this year? Schedule her pap smear." No joke. That was the commercial. Well, it did go on. He also said "Pap smears save lives. So give her the gift that even Santa can't deliver". Ummm.....does anyone else think this is a gross commercial? Seriously! In my opinion, its right up there with the one where three friends are sitting around a living room talking about the NuvaRing. I don't wanna think about these things when I'm watching NCIS!!

Challenging Challenge

Well, at the beginning of the year I challenged myself with a reading challenge for the year: 100 books in 2009. I took the idea from one of my favorite websites, LibraryThing, that I discovered the end of last year. Along with the challenge to read, I've been keeping track, and keeping a journal where I review the books. I've enjoyed it and I've read some great books this year! But, I realized today that I am falling short. I have 37 days left and have only read 69 books. If I want to reach my goal I have to read 31 books in just over a month's time....Sadly, I don't think this will happen as I do have a job and other commitments. Thus, I will see how close I can get, and take this same challenge next year! I love books :D

**Side note**

I am in love with 100 Layer Cake's blog and this tablescape! My fav shot here is that amazing one with the huge grey wall behind it. Gorgeous! Plus, that chandelier? sa-weet!

Nothing to Say

I really don't have much to say today, but its still NaBloWriMo so I can't skip a day. The Blind Side was a great movie! Saw it last night. Then I stayed up all night, went to bed at 6 this morning. I'm working 11-7 this week, so I figured that would be the best way to adjust. I feel all discombobulated because I woke up as the sun started to set. Not fun. But, its only one week. I can do this.

Gosh I Wanna Go!

I really really wanna go! Someplace! Today we raked all day to raise money for our Peru trip and I spent most of the time thinking about how badly I want to travel. I kept thinking about the stories in Rolf Potts' book Marco Polo Didn't Go There and on his website's blog. And I kept singing this song (of course, I'm always singing this song lately).

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I love the line in there "Its crazy, I know, to count on this road to give me what I need. But with every state line somehow I find another part of me". Thats sorta what travel is to me. Even when all I do is a day trip somewhere, it relaxes me and revives me, and in some small way, I learn something about myself and God, even if I don't realize it right away. Each trip I take changes me in some way.

Here's what I have planned for the next year or so, minus random daytrips:
December 2009: NYC day trip with my cousin
February 2010: Peru!
June 2010: Hershey, PA as chaperone for a senior class trip
Fall/Winter 2010: solo trip to Europe?
Summer 2011: Greece with my girl Erin =D

I'm seriously thinking about this solo trip thing. For alot of reasons. I've heard alot about it lately. I want to go someplace and don't have many friends who can/will just pick up and go. Plus, I really don't mind being alone and I think a solo trip would be fun and a great learning experience. Learning about the world, learning to make new friends in strange places, learning to be really self-sufficient, learning to take "risks" and get outside of my self and my little bubble. And it would be a great time for me to be outside of myself and totally relying on God and experiencing Him in a totally new way. So I think I'm gonna do it....Thoughts?

New Moon Fever

Since I need to unwind before going to bed, I shall blog.

The movie was A-FREAKIN-MAZING!!! Soooo much better than the first (thank you, new director!) and completely lived up to the book! Plus all the gorgeous shirtless werewolves. What more can you ask for in a movie? It was great! I LOVE the midnight premeire experience. Its way better than just seeing it regularly. Everyone in the theater is super excited, and its perfectly okay to screech, yell and freak out when someone takes off their shirt or does something Twilight-mazing! And it totally stayed true to the book! Obviously, there are minor changes, but there was only one that I didn't like, and even that was minor and forgiveable. Some of them I really liked, for example, throughout the movie Bella writes e-mails to Alice (that all go undelivered). Its an awesome way of getting her thoughts throughout the book into the movie. Great work, director person! All the graphics were great; the wolves looked real and awesome. They even improved Edward's sparkling abilities (Now he looks sparkly, not sweaty! Thank you, thank you, thank you graphics people!). It was great and I can't wait to see it again!

Twilight prep

Well, New Moon comes out tonight!! I spent the morning finishing my cake pops, which aren't as elaborate as they could've been, but I still like 'em

And don't worry, I made more than this, but a few for a pic is much prettier :D. So, I'm getting ready for work and I'll head over to the theater from there. I've got my ticket, meeting friends there, made some little Twilight-themed snack bags for us, and will be home late late late! I guess tomorrow's post will be all about the movie. Yay! New Moon!!

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

I've become a pro at lying to old people. Its the nature of my job. So if one little old lady is telling me she's ready to go home and tells me to get her things, I tell her we're about to eat dinner and then the bus will come pick her up. If the old man is telling me there's a convention in the lobby he has to go to, I tell him its not til 3 and we'll bring him down then. I have to, otherwise they get agitated and combative. If someone honestly believes this is a hotel, you're gonna make them really angry by telling them they're wrong. So, I've become pretty good at lying.

P.S. Did you notice the crazy frost or the beautiful starts tonight? What a nice clear, almost-winter night!

P.P.S. New Moon is tomorrow! In exactly 24 hours I will be sitting in a theatre with one of my best friends (plus Twilight accoutrement's such as homemade Bella-bracelet, homemade. Twilight-inspired cakepops and Edward/Jacob chocolate) waiting for the 12:01am showing to start!! Yay!! So exciting :)

Catch a Falling Star....

I'm sure NaBloWriMo posts aren't supposed to be just a few hours apart, but I wanna write this while its all fresh. If you weren't aware there was a meteor shower tonight (this morning, whatever). Since I haven't tried to see one in longer than I can remember, I headed outside a little after 1:30am. I spent the better part of an hour staring at the sky, scanning and seaching the stars for meteors. And I saw a few! Not a whole shower, thanks to the lights of the city and a weird skinny cloud, but a few, and each one made me smile :) I would've stayed outside longer if it hadn't been for my numb, frozen toes and utter exhaustion!

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away..."

I had a few songs and one central thought running through my head during this experience, such as the one above. I don't know any other part of this song, as all I've heard of it was in Princess Diaries, but it kept going through my head. I wanted to take a part of this experience and tuck it away so the beauty and awe and wonder wouldn't fade. Then I kept thinking of the song by Rebecca St. James that says

"You said the words, and made the heavens,You breathed the stars and put their place in the sky.You waved your hand, painted a sunset.You smiled and gave a heartbeat life,Craziest thing,That your holy hands made everything I see."

How amazing is God?!? He created it all! Everything we see and everything beyond that. This morning (well, I guess yesterday morning) I watched this video. (Go watch it. Its short. I'll wait.)Feel puny yet? But the amazing, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring, worship-invoking thing is that God loves us! He pays attention to us! Not only does He know whats going on with us, but he died for us! And just staring up at the sky, watching more and more stars pop out, its impossible to not see how HUGE God is! How much room there is in Him! How tiny our brains are and how impossible it is to fully understand Him and His motives.

"How deep the Father's love for us, How vast beyond all measure. That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure".

Take time this week to catch a falling star- a moment that makes you say "Wow. God is AMAZING" and put it in the pocket of your mind to remind you of the amazing crazy love of your God.

Sudoku in the City

I like sudoku. I forgot how much. The other day at work it was pretty slow, so I did the one in the paper. It took me about 40 minutes. So today, I brought my own sudoku, just in case. And I did use it! I got through 1 and 1/2 puzzles in my downtime...the second one was a toughy so I'll finish it later tonight or tomorrow, we'll see what kinda mood I'm in.

I also realized I should start carrying my checkbook. I forgot it yesterday, so I couldn't pay my tithe. I didn't have it today so I couldn't pay for a trip. Along with this observation is the exciting announcement that I am almost-officially going to NYC next month with my cousin for a day of fun, sightseeing and photography! (I say "almost" only because I still have to give them the check). I'm sooo excited! Plus, I think it just happens to be the day they do the tree lighting! YAY!!!

Sunday Date Night

I love date nights! And no, not that kind of date. These are date nights with the girls. After the busy morning at church, I indulged in a bubble bath (something I do frequently) and started reading some of the books I bought at CBD (Crazy Love, Jesus Mean and Wild, and Miss Invisible). So far they're all good, so look for reviews soon. After Ashley-time, three of my friends came over for our standing date night. We ate yummy salad and shepherds pie, watched The Ugly Truth, and just hung out until it was time for the main attraction: Tough Love. I love this show! Combined with The Ugly Truth it seems our date night stood to show us why we're all single (or in M's case, the exception that proves the rule). We have decided- half jokingly- to buy Steve's book and study it together. Of course, we came up with several other crazy plans...some of the tamer ones being to take dance classes with random men and stand in elevators.....Gotta love date night with the girls!

November CBD

Today was the CBD Warehouse sale! The last one of 2009. So, after roughly 2.5 hours of sleep, I loaded into the car, in the rain, with three guys, and headed to Peabody! We had a very wet wait before the doors opened, but it was totally worth it! This sale was one of the best ever! I don't know if it was the selection, the small(er) crowd, or the fact that I actually had money, but I found soo many things I wanted on the bargain tables! And then one of the guys and I dug through the free books and traded awesome finds (we kinda sorta even got in trouble for this....). After the sale, we headed over to Sonic! Word of advice: Cranberry Limeade is yummy :) All in all, a great but tiring day. Too bad I have to wait til March for the next sale!

TWLOHA Day

Today was "Write Love On Your Arm" day, sponsored by TWLOHA. Its a day to raise awareness and show support for people who cut or self-injure. Since I have known several people who cut and work with teens, where self-injury is so prevalent, I did my part.This is an issue that is close to my heart, something I, for some reason, am really interested in and have read alot about. If you or someone you know cuts, don't suffer alone. Talk to someone. It does get better. Someone cares. You're not alone.

Birthday Plans

Well, I just decided what I'm going to do for my birthday! I know its not til January, but I just saw a trailer for the new Amy Adam's movie Leap Year and it looks like exactly my type of movie ("You are exactly my brand of heroin".....sorry.) So, since it comes out the day after my birthday, I shall be taking myself to see it! I did that recently for her other movie, Julie and Julia, which, conveniently enough, I also blogged about here! I'm sure I'll throw in some other plans, too, but thats definitely on the list :) Happy Thursday! And yay for a Friday off!!

Uncreative Title

Well, not much going on today. I slept, read, worked. Some interesting tidbits from the day:

...I shocked myself so bad getting out of the car that I could see the bright blue flash....With the box truck gone from our driveway its hard to give directions to our house, although we can all park in the driveway now!....I think Lady Antebellum's song "I Need You Now" would be good for the soundtrack of New Moon....sorry for the abundance of Twilight-related comments lately, but I'm re-reading the books in preparation for next week's movie (OMG its next week!!!!)....I ate way too much today....but that chicken garlic pizza was just soo yummy!...A few of the residents had the CMA awards on in their rooms so I could hear some of the performances. I sang along while popping pills....I wanna do another picture week. I'll have to come up with something other than colors to do. Hmm.....

Disappointments

• Today at work I kept passing these beautiful yellow daffodil-like flowers that had orange stripes though it. When I finally stopped to look at the amazingness I found out they were fake.
• Yesterday at work they paged the owner of a silver volvo parked out front. I had a fangirly moment where my heart stopped and I looked around for Edward, only to be reminded that I live in the real world, not in Stephenie Meyer's Forks.
• It seems to be C. diff week at work. Ick.
• Facebook won't let me upload my pictures from the weekend.

Thats all I got for today, blog world! I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with something more exciting and uplifting!

White Monday

Well, today was my first day of working 3-11 (which wasn't too bad, actually. It went by quickly and was more laid back than 7-3), so I didn't get out today. Here's my pic for Monday! The whiteness of my giant Bible. This color week was alot of fun! But now what am I going to do for the next three weeks of NaBloWriMo??

Purple Sunday

Purple Sunday was a busy, fun day. It started with a semi-crazy KIDS Church. I felt pretty unprepared when we got there...especially when I saw that the room was completely un-preped and empty! But it all turned out ok. Then I rushed home to finish setting up for a surprise party I was throwing for one of my best friends. We pulled it off and had a good time. This straw was from the party. It was Disney princess theme :) From there, we all went to a hockey game. I know, me? At a hockey game? Yup. I was there. Not my favorite thing, but I had a good time before my camera died. And we won, so its all good. The day ended on a nice note: tv and coloring with my friends. All in all, a wonderful day!

Blue Saturday

Welcome to Blue Saturday! I can't believe color week is almost over! I'm having soo much fun color hunting! Well, there were many blue things in the world today, the sky was a beautiful blue, plenty of things at walmart were blue, my mom's new car door is blue...but this picture of my sister's shirt was my favorite. Now, back to lunch and party plans!

Green Thursday

I got an awesome pic for today! I loooove it!! I'm cutting it close with the time here, since its almost midnight, so hopefully picnik speeds up and I finish editing it in time....gaaaah!! This is taking a while!! btw, colors aren't edited at all! I love her bright colors :) and the surprise green on the bottom of her sneakers pretty much made my night!

So here I am editing this post on saturday because I re-edited this pic and I really like it and wanted to share!

Yellow Thursday

Well, I'm watching Twilight with my brother, so I'll keep this short. Here's today's yellow picture, taken with my cell phone :)

Orange Wednesday

I saw an orange traffic cone just inside the door at church, but forgot to take a picture before I left :( So, I settled for a picture of the pumpkins on my front step...and had a little fun with picnik.

Red Tuesday

Today is dragging on for FOREVER! The fact that I'm tired and came home with a headache didn't help matters. That being said, I didn't go out today, so I looked around for something red. This is the first thing I saw....I think they're only a year old.Well, there's my red day. Now....I think I'll eat cake. See ya tomorrow!

14 Random Ramblings

• I was glad to see Mrs. R (not her real name) doing better today at work. When I left Friday, I didn't think she'd be alive today, never mind happy and drinking chocolate milk. God must still have work for her here.
• My arm is itchy. I don't like the whole change of seasons thing. Only because it gives me eczema. Everything else about it I love, though.
• I get to go to the other side of the world with the Lover of my Soul for Valentine's day :) Can't wait!
• Hmmm.....I need to pay some bills.....
• Can we please just ban the Gosslin's from the media?? Seriously. Let those kids get a chance at childhood!
• I have 20 days to re-read a certain book....oops! Make that 18. Its already November 2nd!
• My mom's birthday is coming up very soon. Now that I have money, I'm getting her something special that I think she'll love. I just need to buy it....
• I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! Its almost over and it feels like it just started!
• I don't think I'm going to make my goal of reading 100 books this year. I think I'll be about 20 short :(
• I think for the next week I'll do something similar to what I saw on another blog. Each day will be assigned color. I'll find something that color, take its picture, and post it here.(Tuesday=red, Wednesday=orange, Thursday=yellow, Friday=green, Saturday=blue, Sunday=purple, Monday=white)
• I wonder how I can make this blog prettier?
• Elijah and Elisha were pretty cool dudes. It would've been fun to know them. To follow them. To have been there and witnessed first hand the things they did. And to be bold like Elisha and ask for a double portion of what Elijah had? That'd be pretty awesome.
• I read this passage the other day and thought, how cool would it be if we all introduced ourselves like Paul did? If we just came right out with our life's philosophy, our beliefs, our mission. We'd be a lot more mindful of how we acted and spoke, that's for sure! There'd be no mistaking who's just talking the talk and who's truly walking the walk.
• My big accomplishment for the day? I did the entire morning med pass! Granted, I had someone to do vitals for me, and she actually did one person's meds, but still!! I did it, and did it on time!! woo-hoo!

Happy NaBloWriMo!!!

Well, here I go! Taking part in the National Blog Writing Month. Its a "spin-off", for lack of a better description, of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is also held in November. Last year was the first I heard of NaNoWriMo and toyed with the idea of participating this year, but just didn't feel like it. Too overwhelming. But when I heard of NaBloWriMo, it sounded just right, so here we are! For the month of November, I will make a post here every day *gulp*. Posting isn't the issue. Finding something post-worthy is. Can't wait to see what fun tangents take place this month :)

Today's interesting post: I got my hair cut! Short, layered, with long bangs, instead of the old long and straight hair that I woke up with. So, Happy November! I'll be back tomorrow with something interesting to entertain you!