Happy, August 16

Here's what has made me happy lately:

A new outfit that makes me feel skinny

Sleeping with my stuffed penguin, Skipper. (He smells like my boyfriend, hee)

A friend who lets me come over to her house, cuddle with her puppy and sleep in her bed

Old Navy's Perfect Khakis. (They're not lying about that whole "perfect" thing)

A new mani and pedi

Compliments - giving and receiving

A good night before I go to sleep and a good morning when I wake up. (Even if it is over the phone. I'll take what I can get)

Three-hour-long, man-free shopping trips

Adding items to my Life List. (Still forthcoming; getting to 100 is proving to be harder than anticipated!)

Dreaming and making plans for the future

A schedule for the fall that leaves my afternoons free

A new gym in town to join with Brittany and Jenna

Making birthday plans three months in advance

The fact that I decided to live at home this semester and therefore do not have to move into the dorm. (Read that again and imagine the Mormon Tabernacle Choir breaking into Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." Now you get the idea)

Funny t-shirts for Crohnies. Just can't decide which one I want, heh

The word "Crohnie." Makes me giggle

Season 2 of "True Blood" on DVD. Most especially Alexander Skarsgard as Eric Northman

Mmmm

My Lady Antebellum radio station on Pandora

Online shopping

Getting packages in the mail

Sending packages in the mail

Tweets and text messages

***

What's making YOU happy this week?

Wordless Wednesdays

Stalking blogs on the Interwebs is one of my favorite pastimes, and whilst doing so I ran across someone who featured "Wordless Wednesdays" - a pictures-only post every Wednesday. And I thought to myself, "Self? That is cool." So today begins Wordless Wednesdays here! I can foresee that this is going to be a challenge for me, knowing how much I likey the words. The goal, however, is to post a picture or series of pictures and keep the words to a minimum, giving only the location or date of the picture if it is pertinent. But now I am sensing that this post has too many words! So without further ado ...

Cumberland Falls in Corbin, Kentucky

Photo taken by me in May 2010 with my spanking-new, very shiny Nikon Coolpix S4000. I found out later that where I stood to take this picture is where one of my closest friends was proposed to in August 2009. So sweet!

Happy, June 14

Here are some things that made me happy yesterday:

Musical soundtracks (this one specifically)

Unexpected text messages

A lovely tweet from a dear friend

Journal pages filled with my handwriting

Sharing silly laughter with a friend

Grocery shopping

Concocting this massive bowl of pasta salad:

(yes, it was just as delicious as it looks, thank you)

Having a serious conversation with my little sister while we cook dinner together

Making plans for girls night

Being complimented on my cooking

Climbing in a hot shower when I’m cold

A phone date with the BFF

This video:



A sweet text message from the BF

...

The idea for this post shamelessly ripped off from Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl, featured on page 7 of her book No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog.

Guess who?

*tiptoes in*

Hello? Anyone? Remember me?

To begin, the obligatory apology and explanation … I just have not been able to get it together enough to post lately. I don’t even know, y’all. Being an English major has sucked all the fun out of writing, even for my blog. But I have been reading lots of other blogs and getting many many new bloggy-type ideas, so look for at least semi-regular posts to start up SOON! YAY!

Okay, to get all caught up:

• My health is amazing right now, you guys. I can’t remember when I’ve ever felt so good. The Crohn’s is completely controlled with Remicade once a month and a few tweaks to my diet here and there. Last month I had a colonoscopy (put that off as long as you can, trust me) and my doc confirmed that I am in remission, which means that most days it’s almost like there’s nothing wrong at all. There’s no way to know how long I’ll stay in remission – some people struggle and never quite get there, and some people stay there for years with no problems. But, of course, I prefer to focus on feeling good right now instead of the possibility that I might not tomorrow.

• School ended last month and with it what was probably my best semester ever – my class load wasn’t too heavy, I didn’t have any literature classes for the first time ever and I can’t tell you how enjoyable that was, I didn’t have to take any finals at all AND AND AND I got my best grades since freshman year. Now how ‘bout them apples? I brought up my GPA a smidge, and if I can keep that going I really won’t have to stress out over getting into a graduate program. I also walked in graduation in May, which felt really weird. It was kind of like a kid playing dress-up in Mommy’s clothes; I felt vaguely impostor-like. But, I walked across the stage and didn’t fall, so that was fun. I’m not completely done yet though, I’ll still be in college doing undergrad work in the fall, and then I’ll graduate really for real in December.

• Most of you already know this part I think, but just for the heck of it – I got myself a man. Trying to reign in the urge to gush too much I’ll simply say that we met through an online dating site and have been together for just over two months, and I think he’s kind of awesome.

So! That’s the past three months in a nutshell. What’s up with you?

For my next post I’m working on two lists: short-term goals, which I've done before but this one will be more funner, and a “bucket list.” I think this will be fun. Have any of you ever made a bucket list? Join me and let’s all share; maybe you’ll think of something I need to add to mine!

Saying Goodbye

A little while ago I went to a writing prompt generator and the question that came up asked, “What are you saying goodbye to?” Well obviously I had to answer that one.

Within the year I’m saying goodbye to so many things – the college phase of my life, living at home, my roommate, my family, my hometown. If you know me, then you can imagine what this is doing to my head. I hate change, and I’m scared to death of losing the people I care about – whether to circumstances, just growing up, being hurt, or death, I have lost too many people I love already to just sit back and let it happen again.

Ever the optimist, though – at least most of the time, during the day – I try to think of not only the things I will say goodbye to, but the things I will say hello to. I will learn my way around a new place and gain an independence I’ve never had before. A new school will become my school, new teachers will become my teachers. I will make new friends, some of which I will keep for the rest of my life. Most of all, I hope I will meet the man who will someday (soon, preferably!) become my husband, so I will gain a new family as well.

Although I know the good will outweigh the bad, at least after a while, it doesn’t make me any more anxious for the change to come. It does help, however, to sit back and look at how many more things I will say hello to than the things I will say goodbye to.

Birthday reflections

The past few years it seems like my birthday is changing in terms of what it means to me. It's still exciting, I'm not old enough yet to wish the birthdays would stop coming or anything like that, but my thoughts tend to get a little more serious than they used to.

I know this is going to sound strange but for some reason 22 seems so much older than 21 to me. It just sounds more mature or something, I don't even know. I woke up this morning with this feeling that I needed to hurry up and do something on my last day as a 21-year-old. I don't have any idea what it was that I needed to do, but it was just this feeling. I find myself wanting to be a little more "grown-up" now. Again, not sure what this entails, it's just this vague inclination.

I have a lot of things to do while I'm 22. Here in the next few months I have to work on boosting my GPA a bit, taking the GRE, and applying to grad schools. I will [hopefully] be walking in graduation in May, and actually receiving my diploma in December. I'll be taking my first summer classes. My roommate/very good friend is getting married in May and I really want to go to the wedding. When summer rolls around again I'll get to see my best friend (IN PERSON because as awesome as Skype is, it really just isn't the same) and, all fingers and toes crossed, meet my Mallows. I've also been doing a lot of thinking about taking action in some areas of my life where I've been feeling some dissatisfaction, so there's that as well.

Anyway, just some stuff running through my head on the eve of my birthday. I think I'm going to enjoy my 22nd year.

New year, new me

Happy 2010 everyone!

If you're reading this, then you know 2009 was pretty much the worst year of my life. Suffice it to say I wasn't terribly sad to see it go. ;)

Now I'm going to be a big ol' blog cliche and talk about New Year's resolutions. But keep reading, cause I've been thinking about this for a couple days and it's pretty good.

This week I was at Winter Xtreme in Gatlinburg, TN (aka My Fave Place) with my church's youth group. The Xtreme conference is a youth group event where thousands of kids come together for Christian concerts and speakers. When I was a youth, Xtreme was what I looked forward to all year long - everyone else went nuts about summer camp, but my thing was Xtreme. The music was what really did it for me; I've always worshiped best through music, so it's just been a perfect fit for me. This year I went as a chaperone (scary, isn't it?) and it was the first time I'd gone in about 3 or 4 years. This year was probably the best conference I've attended, and I've been to, I think, 4 of these things. Like I mentioned, this has been a rough year, and I experienced some of the best worship I've had in months over the past 3 days. It's amazing to be in a room with over 6,000 students and their leaders, every single one of them just rocking out, completely uninhibited, praising God in every way imaginable - you see singing, dancing, jumping, hands lifted, tears falling - and the only word to describe it is beautiful. Most of the concerts - if you follow me on Twitter then you know my feelings for Flyleaf, so I say most - were amazing, and I felt as if each speaker's message had been prepared especially for me. Every one of the four speakers (Tony Nolan, Ergun Caner, Matt Pitt and Johnny Hunt) said something I really needed to hear, and I know that was God working through them. I came home feeling like I'd been dying of thirst and finally given a drink of water.

~My first version of this post was extremely wordy, even for me, so I managed to cut it down a LOT. You are welcome.

So, here's my main point: New Year's resolutions. I have several this year, that I came up with during/as a result of the conference. One is to get closer to God. I seriously slacked off on Bible reading and prayer time last year, so this year I will do better. Another is to live more for others: leave off that pride, that self, and focus on being a servant. I'm going to work at looking past the end of my nose and doing all I can to be what others need me to be instead of focusing on what I think they ought to be for me. I resolve to stop obsessing over things that I can't do anything about and trust God to take care of me - along the same lines, if I can do something about it, I will try to take action. I resolve to be bold and speak up when I feel God moving me to do so. And I resolve to take better care of myself overall, physically, mentally and spiritually. I hope that a year from now I will be a different person, and all the changes will be positive ones, and I will be happier and more content and satisfied with my life.

One more thing - if you're reading this I want you to know that I am thankful for you and I pray that God will bless you beyond your wildest dreams this year. I just know 2010 can be amazing!