Happy Halloween!!

This is one of my favorite versions, no this is my FAVORITE version of this song. Bette Midler does a fantastic job!!

I'm not that into celebrating Halloween. When I was a kid, yeah, totally. Now? Not so much. I won't always dress up (unlike today when I got 5 extra credit points for a class) and I'm not that big into candy.

You though.

You with the cuteness.

You will dress up.

You will get the candy.

I'm happy to help you with your costumes, it's just not my thing anymore. I'm more into Thanksgiving, Christmas (oh yeah!) and my birthday. Oh and your birthdays too. Yeah, we can celebrate those.

Apple pulled the plug on the iPod Classic....

As in the one that I own. The one that I was going to send in to get fixed.

Now they don't make the parts anymore so...now I'm saving to get an iPod Touch instead.

Which means internet. WiFi.

Girls, you don't understand. But you will. Someday, someday you too will want access to the all-knowing internet. 

But I'll make you wait until you're old enough.

Yeah. I'm going to be that mom.

In the meantime, the fact that I'll have a gadget that allows me near-constant access to the internet is a great thing! Social media for the WIN!

I like to think that I'll use it to promote blogging and other nonsense.

Because that's what I want to do with it.

I need to discipline myself first so that I don't spend countless hours playing ridiculous apps.

They're fun. That's why I play.

But they're also MAJOR time wasters.....

I've been doing a lot of reading.

Because I'm just that kind of girl. 

I like knowing what I'm going to do before I do it.

Okay, that's only half true.

I do like knowing BUT I also don't think before I act

85% of the time

But I'm trying to slow down, to take the time to actually do things right.

And actually try to make some kind of sense of this blogging thing. 

I know it's going to be part of the plan for me, being a blogger and all. 

I guess I should get back to reading and writing other projects.

Let's Pretend to be Grown-ups

I'm going to be honest. I'm not a grown-up. Sure by all legal and social purposes, I am very much a grown-up. Thank you birthdays!

In fact, when I worked in Florida, I had friends who told me

my age was wasted on me.

I could drink but I wouldn't.

They wanted to drink but couldn't.

It doesn't often happen that I have something or can do something that other people want to do.

Note: Girls, don't drink. Bad idea and not just because it's against the Word of Wisdom. 

I'm not talking about drinking though.

I'm talking about money.

Because girls?

I'm poor.

To be fair, I am a college student.

College Student (ˈkɒlɪdʒ ˈstjuːdənt) 

Definitions

noun

1. a student at a university or college 

2. one who is poor

Okay so that's not an accurate definition. I did pull from the Collins dictionary for most of the definition, but that 2nd point is mine. Also my roommate can actually read and understand the phonetic spellings...cool, right?

Yeah, whatever...

I'd like to not be so poor anymore. Living from paycheck to paycheck, not a fun lifestyle. 

There are things I want to do, things that I can't do due to lack of funding.

And right now? Right now I'm single. Single and childless which is actually a great combination when trying to gain control of finances. 

So I've been doing some reading and if I follow the steps

then by the time you arrive, maybe I'll actually have a penny or two 

to spend on you!

Look at that, you'll start off in this world with a penny to your names!

Now I just gotta stop with the fast food dinners....

So I'm totally reading "Blogging for Dummies" and other pseudo-professional thoughts

I've never actually read one of the 'For Dummies' series. Ever.

Partly because I've never felt like a dummy.

At least not one where there was book to explain it.

Anyways....I'm reading it.

While listening to Lindsay Stirling.

So a very productive time indeed.

Actually I came up with some ideas for my website. I'm so glad that I haven't created it yet. 

1. I don't have the money yet
2. I need to create some more samples first
3. I want to design possible layouts before I actually start working on it
4. I haven't finished my research yet.

The blogging book is more for fun really since obviously I struggle with this whole blogging thing. 

I did think about my future life though..

If I don't make it with Disney (that's still the plan!)

then I want to be a full-time writer.

Where I actually get paid.

And then I can just buy an annual pass to Disneyland

AND that annual pass? 

Mere change from my pocket.

What can I say? I dream big.

Getting out of this slump

I remember there was one day a few weeks ago when I got online and noticed that I had 23 views that day. Considering I usually get about 6-7 a day, that was a big deal. Still not sure what was up with that day...but ah well, doesn't really matter.

Maybe I'll get up to 10 views on a daily basis when you girls are here to read it.

Maybe.

I love this commercial. I thought it was really well done and of course made me only miss Disney more.

A terrible thing, this missing Disney. 

Absolutely terrible

Online presence and musical gifts

So it's a Wednesday and I should be in class. At least, this is the time of day when I would have class, but since I dropped it, I don't anymore. It's kind of nice. 

The other night I went over to talk to a guy in my ward. Partly because his apartment and mine were paired for "Apartment Dinner" this month and partly because he has a website and I want to be featured on said website. 

Just kidding. 

Actually it's true that he has a website, not true that I want to be featured though. Instead I actually want to create a website. An online portfolio of my writing so that I have something to show employers. That experience with the Laycock Center left me with a feeling of embarrassment. I had the desire but nothing to back me up. 

I've been researching websites and have narrowed it down to 

Wix vs. Squarespace

Let's just take a moment and admire the fact that I'm not jumping headfirst into this.

I'm so proud of myself!

That's not the only thing though. 

When I was talking to my friend, we started talking about performing.

Which is something I used to do. 

Something that I miss. 

So I'm working with Grandma and Grandpa to take voice lessons next semester.

Part of me doesn't want to, part of me wants to be like those people

who don't need to take lessons.

But then I remembered that your great-aunt takes lessons. 

If she can do it, so can I.

We're constantly learning and lessons are just one way of doing that.

I'm kind of excited by the idea of taking lessons again.

Singing is my strongest musical talent.

Followed by piano, flute and then guitar.

I'm already working on guitar, I play piano every now and then

Flute? well...I can play it but I don't often touch it.

Disclaimer: This is not a "maybe I should pick up the flute again as well" moment. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Hey, remember me, your mother?

Oh goodness, it's been far too long.

I am so not winning any award this month for blogging.

Alright, this past week or so has been really weird. I'm been busy and not getting enough sleep and trying to have some kind of social life (still not dating, though I did have an option to go on a friend-date tonight, but I said no) and work and church and yeah. It was taking a toll on my body and mind. I ended up staying home all day on Monday, sleeping and being miserable.

What has been done to help correct that? For starters, I withdrew from a class last Wednesday. I wasn't happy about it, I did like that class but my GPA was going to take a hit from that class at the end of this semester. So I'll retake it next semester when my load's a bit easier.

I haven't written in a while because I haven't had any idea of what to say. Okay that's not entirely true. 1) we'll chalk this month up as failed blog attempt.

I haven't written because I've been trying to work on other writing projects and yeah, I also just didn't know what to write.

What do you want to know? What do you need to hear from me?

This is the thing that I'm not good at, I'm not psychic so I have no idea what would be the best thing to write. So I guess it's still up to me. If that doesn't make sense, don't worry. It doesn't make sense to me either.

How do other people do it? The parents who write to their children. They seem to know something I don't. And yet I'm in the same boat as them. They don't have kids (eh...maybe they do) but they manage to write things like:

Don't do drugs. Live life. Reach for your dreams. Go to church.

You know, the important stuff.

So here's a short little bit to you:

No, I'm not going to do that. That's not my style. Ironically I'm the writer who can't write. I do better talking than I do writing and I do writing better than I do most everything else.

So you and I are going to take a step back. We'll try this again (the daily posts) and take it one day at a time. Because that, girls, is something that I have been learning and what I can share with you.

I guess that means that the new DAY 1 is complete.

Changes in my life

"...Never let the noise of the world overpower or overwhelm [the voice of the Lord in your life]."~Elder Perry

One of the guys in my ward posted this after Elder Perry spoke. It's such a great message and one that I really need to remember.

This weekend is General Conference Weekend. One of my favorite weekends during the year but I don't pay attention as much as I should. Not during Conference. I do read through the talks when the Conference edition of the Ensign comes out.

I'd like to change that. There are a lot of things I'd like to change, well I think improve would be a better word. What I do is "fine" but it's not good enough. Not anymore. It's not just the length of my attention span during Conference, it's everything. I bombed a test yesterday and I don't want to do that anymore, I don't feel like I was actually prepared for it.

"Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school work, television shows, video games and social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for scripture study. Do it!" ~ Elder Richard G. Scott

So I've decided to come up with a list. A list of somethings that I want to change and if I'm really good, I'll work on one thing a day, or improve one thing a day:

Read my scriptures and say my prayers EVERY morning

Get up on time (6 am or 5:30 for working days)

Tidy up my room every day (save deep cleans for cleaning checks)

Note: the above 3 are very worthy, but sound boring. Let me try again.

The New and Improved List!

Feast on the words of Christ every morning

Be an Early Bird going after that dang worm

Create a spacious and clean haven for myself

Enter that Imaginative world, writing down thoughts daily

Organize myself to allow creativity to shine through

Set aside time to just Relax

Eat healthier to enjoy more adventures

Take time to let my Best Self shine through

I think that's a very good place to start. Now my plan is to try to incorporate all of those in starting tonight but to really focus on just one a day. So I would try to do all 8 but do something special with the one that I'm focusing on. Like tomorrow I would start with the "Feast" goal and would read my scriptures as well as an article on lds.org. That way I don't try to slack on any but I still am focusing on just one. Maybe that will help. 

Well girls, we shall see!