Flowers

So yesterday was a little hard. I was sore from my first day (the day before yesterday) of a heavy strength workout, tired, seemed like I made everyone unhappy at work, etc. So I'm up late playing phone games until like 1am... which I haven't done since high school... So, I slept in today, but I eventually got up because someone had texted and called me and forced myself to start my workout again. (No pain, no gain right?!) As I'm working out, Boy gets out of bed (before 9:00!! MIRACLE!) And he rushes out the door saying he forgot something in the laundry room. I just kinda think to myself... oooookay.... and keep working out. For helpers, we live right behind the laundry facilities... he was gone for a while. He eventually came back about 15 minutes later saying "I FOUND IT! 2 for 2 months." handing me two wild flowers.

I love flowers... Silly I know, but these are especially my favorite. He went out to the nearby field and picked them, but I don't care. They're cute and it made my day because he's never bought me flowers (besides last time I got roses from a boy, they went to target practice with my archery friends).

I really wish I could grow things. I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying. I try all the time. The only thing I've been able to successfully grow are black tulips, which I have never personally seen... Mom has only sent me pictures. lol Either way, I hope that I can grow something this next spring/summer. I better start now! Right? Or do I wait until the dead of winter? Oi....

Anime

I love anime.

Even before I went to Japan, I've loved reading and watching Anime. It lets me escape the world and my imagination and artistic mind just go. I love the art style and the stories that go along with them. I just recently watched an anime that I had been meaning to see, but completely forgot about. Boy brought it up on Netflix and though it was kinda creepy/spooky and the art was very different, I truly enjoyed this story. It's apparently based off of a true Irish folk tale which made it all the better. Always wanted to go to Ireland for their faerie tales.

There's a particular character whom I loved in this story, Aisling (almost sounds like they're saying Ashley in the movie). Either way, she's a faerie. A true faerie of the forest. Last of her kind. I absolutely loved the way she is portrayed in the movie. Mischievous, fun, a forest dweller, mysterious and cute. She doesn't have wings, but she doesn't have to. All in all, I fell in love with her. And you'll just have to watch to find out why.

Here's the movie to the trailer of the movie. The art is so different and fantastic! I love the Celtic knots and the way that they depict things so close, but then as soon as the character goes behind a tree, they are far away. Just so clever. Comparable to the great anime artist Miyazaki? I think so. 

Kids

(ugh... it's so hard to write something positive when everything you think is negative...)

So I've been thinking about what to write next and I've finally come to this.

Kids.

Not my own! (Not to say I don't eventually want kids, but right now is NOT the time...)

1. Our friend whom we will call Trace has a 2 1/2 year old little boy who we will call Jay. I had the opportunity yesterday to babysit him. Mind you, I have not babysat any kids in a very VERY long time... like over 3 or 4 years? (A little background: As a missionary, as to avoid legal issues, we aren't allowed to really get involved with kids. Soooo, coming back home to a job where kids come and paint and are all around, was kinda a kick in the face.) ANYWHOZ, it had been a long day at work, being only my second day of training, and I was completely exhausted. I had just enough time to go home and change clothes before going to babysit. When I got to Jay's house, it's as if my exhausting day was made a whole lot better. We watched Toy Story, played cars, made a fort and bridge for the cars, we played outside and Jay wouldn't stop asking me to tickle him! Every other care in the world went away as Jay kept asking me to play with him on the playground slides. Too stinkin' cute.

2. The reason I am posting this today, is because I had the opportunity at work today to speak to some kids. There were 4 girls and 1 boy and they were all gathered around the register waiting for their food. I started talking to them and asking them if they were hungry and it was a nice little chat. I like to talk to kids. They aren't crazy dramatic when they're little, easy to talk to and very easily amused. They will always be your friend if you'll be theirs and just plain fun. Not only do the kids get their little sweet tortilla treat in their meal, but they also have all the fun! I realized all this while talking to the kids at the register who totally made my night as they talked about the farm work that they do at home. (I also realized even more how much of a city girl I am...)

All in all, maybe I enjoy being around kids because I can't be one anymore. So being with them makes me forget the responsibilities in life. We always get so caught up in the drama, stress and responsibility of the world, we sometimes forget as adults to stop, smell the flowers, dance, color on the sidewalk or take some time on the swings at the park and feel the wind in our hair, close our eyes and pretend we are flying. It's as if everything will be ok. Because it will.

I did have a cute collage that I made of a few kids whom have made me smile, but it got corrupted somehow and I'm too tired to try making it again in Photoshop. So.... maybe I'll edit this page later with a real picture. For now, have a cute little anime girl who is proud of her two lost front teeth.... her name is Kaga, Rin. She makes me smile too.

EDIT: Boy fixed the pictures... So now you get a picture of Rin, AND some real kids!! 

More organization

So, yesterday and today were really hard for me to find the little enjoyable things in life...
But instead of dwelling on that, I'm going to name off my thing for today...

I've found myself taking a hobby into decorating the house and getting involved in how to better situate things and organize messes. So after making the calendar for the kitchen, I decided to make a "command center". For just the two of us, I guess we don't really need it, but it's nice to have it for meal planning and groceries and other things. Not to mention I needed somewhere to put my purse. So, I found this old dry-erase/cork board at the local 2nd hand shop. It looked ugly with the white worn and torn border, so I hot clued black fabric onto the edges and in the middle to split up the cork and dry-erase.

Then, I remembered, I HAVE A LAMINATOR! Yeah!!! So I cut out little ribbons for the day of the week and made the menu for the week. Also, Boy had been talking about helping out with chores, but really wasn't sure what needed to be done. So I drew out some little cards with things to do and each day he can choose one to do for the week. Then on the left on the cork, are monthly chores which we do every Saturday! It's the basic heavy duty cleaning. So far it's worked, being you see all the cleaning magnets are under "finished".

After putting up the cork board, I glued some little clips to the bottom for my coupons, cut off the lid to the cork pins and made that a little box to keep them in up there. Underneath the board, I got a little mail file thing and nailed it to the wall. And guess what the tube is! A toilet paper roll covered in blue duct tape for a pencil holder. If you notice next to that I have a hook to hang my purse on and hooks for our keys under that. Yay! I think it works out great. I'm never looking for my keys or have to walk across the room for a pen. It makes me feel better having organization. Yay.

Well, I'm going to dwell on how Boy likes that I make the house clean and pretty as I go to bed. Goodnight.

Organization

I've always been a rather organized person. Having endless "To Do Lists" and a planner almost as long as I can remember. What more, is when you go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, every 6 weeks, they give you a planner. You use it for 18 months to 2 years. I loved it. Being I was already using planners, this was fabulous in my opinion. Others didn't quite think so, but they didn't do much either. Just sayin'.

Welp, after my mission I have struggled to find the perfect planner. Moving out here, I got a 4 month planner and have kept it up to date as well as I could. What's even better is that I found this thing on Pintrest where I could create my own calendar! FABULOUS! (I love Pintrest.) So I did!

I went to the local Wal-Mart and gathered together some pretty different colored paint cards in the "Home" area. (I'm pretty sure the man working thought I was crazy laying out 35 cards on the table there taking up his space as I made a rainbow...) I then got some white poster and glue sticks. When I got home, I laid them out and measured them and cut them to create a 20"x30" square. Glued them all to the poster! Yay!

After which, I needed a frame. I bought a cheap plastic plexi-glass frame at Wal-Mart, but when I went to write on it with Dry Erase marker, it didn't come off so well. So I went to the local craft store, Porters? I think it's called? And I was browsing through their frames.... $40-$80... OUCH! Well, the guy working saw me and said, "All frames are 50% off today!"

So excited. So I went back with Bryan that day and bought a nice plain frame for $20. Glass and everything. Yay! Now we have a beautiful wipe-dry calendar in our kitchen which I love. Not only because I made it, but because it makes me feel more organized knowing what is going on and it looks pretty. 

It helps to have it in the kitchen being that is where everyone flocks to. lol I even wrote the days in Japanese for Boy to learn. Yay! Rainbow prettiness!