New Local...

Hello all... just wanted to let you all know that I AM going to give this whole blogging thing yet another try. However, as good as Blogger has been to me in my first attempts and as much as I appreciate it for opening up this world to me... :) ... I've decided to try something a little different. So here's my new location:

http://hayhay321.tumblr.com/

I'm also renaming my new blog and reworking my concept so as to give myself a little more direction.  I'm sure you'll still get plenty of long, winding rants and random musings though, so not to fear :)

Hope to see you there. And with my new set up I can post directly to Facebook and Twitter as well, so feel free to follow along on either of those sites as well.

Check out A Love / Hate Relationship...

Another Catch Up

Ok. Thank you to my friends that have encouraged me to start this up again- Elizabeth and Sarah. It's already 10:15 and I don't want to be up too late tonight since I'm getting up in the morning to work out with my roommate, but if I'm going to get back into this, I might as well start now. So I'm going to (once again) do a quick life update. (That seems to be a trend here, huh? Several months off, one long update, a few regular posts, then I'm gone again. Oh well.) Maybe if I keep each update short it will motivate me to come back and elaborate (that word is sounding really funny to me right now, but I think it's right. lol) on them later. E helped me tonight to realize I'm a perfectionist blogger. Unless I know I have time to sit down and write out everything I want to write, I don't. And then my time away gets longer, and I have more to write about, and since we all know each post ends up about 2 1/2 times longer than I meant it in the first place, this quickly becomes an exponential problem. So I'm going to try to break that habit. We'll see. If you'll leave a quick comment and say hi when you stop by so I know my posts aren't just floating around the net unread and uncared about, it might help :) Just sayin'...

Ok, so, let's see.

First off, yes, you read right. I now have a roommate. 2, in fact. Moved into a new place with 2 girls from my small group in October and have been here since. No, I'm still not fully unpacked. It's more space overall, but I have to share it with 2 other girls who also have full kitchens and lots of bathroom stuff, etc, so my room is still a disaster.

Sad news: Gus passed away :( I still cry about it if I think about it for too long, so I'm not going to write much here. But I'll just say he had a good last day- spent in front of the fire at John's and he was buried with love behind John's shed. We've picked out a stone and are going to paint it to mark the place. This year's Christmas ornament was in honor of him.

I'm still continuing to consider/pursue photography. My wonderful parents got me a DSLR for Christmas and I've already taken one 1-day class for it. I took a (point and shoot) photography class through Chimpsy with Mom this past weekend, and I've signed up for an SLR class through the same company. And I'll be signing up for my first 6 week class through Showcase soon.  I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of time/money/which school, etc. I had a very good, looooong talk with mom over lunch after our class this weekend and talked about that, among other important things, and I was very happy to hear that, should I decide to just go for it, rather than saving up or trying to go part time, she understands and perhaps even agrees. As smart as being careful and financially responsible is most of the time, and as much as one of the "signs" that something might not be a calling from God includes anything that puts you in a financially difficult position, sometimes all you can do is jump. And I'm starting to think more and more that's what it's going to come to here. We'll see....

John was up in Nashville last weekend recording on Corey Crowder's first Sony album. That's right, my boyfriend was deemed good enough by Sony for them to use him instead of using their own studio drummer to do the actual recording for the album. I'm so proud of him and excited about what possible doors this could open for him. He's already mentioned in passing being open to the idea of moving to Nashville. I'll have to talk to him more about this at a later date sometime. Hmm..... :) In the meantime, rest assured that I will DEFINITELY keeping everyone updated on any shows or release dates for the album!!!!

Still working towards a closer relationship with God. In baby steps. I think I'm a perfectionist Christian too, sad as that sounds. If I can't get in my God time how I think I should every day, I just stop. I need to get better about this. I need to get better about making this the top priority on my "get better at these things" list.

Hoping to spend some more regular time with my sister, Sunny. She's 12, almost 13, and I think she could use a sister that shows an interest in her life at times besides when she's needed for babysitting, and who acts more like a sister than a surrogate parent.

A close friend of mine moved back into town from Miami, and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about this!!!!! (Despite the fact that I haven't seen her in the week and a half since she moved back to town except for her first night. Must get better about that too.)

John and I are heading back to the yurts at Fort Yargo for Valentine's weekend. I might possibly rent a macro lens for the weekend, as that's my major area of interest in photography. Hopefully I'll have some cool pics to post next week.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.... I think those are the biggest areas in my life that need updating. I guess technically, as it's been more than a year since I started this blog (despite the TOTAL lack of a full year's worth of posts) I should change the name of it. But I'm not going to. Now, anyways. Maybe later. Any suggestions on what it should be?

Make it a Freaky Friday to Remember!

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!

I'm not superstitious, so I'm not going to tell everyone to be careful or watch out for mirrors and ladders and black cats (I have a black cat and he happens to be very sweet!) But I will tell you to make sure that you make this a memorable day. Go do something crazy or unexpected. Meet a stranger, or try something new! Go out of your way to make sure that today is not a day that fades into the blurry background of your life.

I have a horrible memory- anyone that knows me well at all can testify to that. And it makes me sad every time I think of all the things that I can't remember! From childhood moments to time spent with John- little things that just slip away before I realize I should have taken the time to savor the moment and etch it into my memory.

Unfortunately I think that's the norm. Anyone who can vividly recall a majority of their days has been blessed in a very rare way. But we can try to make moments last. Donald Miller mentions this in his blog today, Creating Memorable Scenes. He mentions it in A Million Miles also, when he talks about knowing someone who wrote down everything they could remember.

Can you imagine how many pages you would fill if you wrote down every thing you could remember? If at the end of the day you sat down and wrote out a detailed description of your day? It might seem worthless at the time, but how much of that is stuff that would be gone within a day? A week? A year? To be able to pick up a journal or click to a blog entry from 5 or 15 or 50 years ago and read exactly what you did on that day- that just seems so precious to me. Sure, it will be filled with a lot of "Had another bowl of cereal this morning," but imagine the precious moments you could save that would be lost otherwise? Moments you were sure you would always remember but have since forgotten? Or even moments that seemed unimportant at the time, that you have since come to cherish? Your last interaction with a lost loved one? Your first day as a wife? A mother? A grandmother?

I want to challenge anyone out there to try something. Sit down tonight and write down everything you can remember from these past 7 days. What you ate, what you wore, who you spoke with, what you watched before bed. Then for 7 days, starting tomorrow, sit down at the end of each day and write what you remember just from that day. Then next Friday, on the 20th, I want you to compare everything you have written down from that week to everything you were able to recall today from this past week.

Then come back and tell me about it!

I know this is a tough challenge. I'm not sure I'll be able to stick to it myself. It means setting aside time to do this every day. But I'm pretty sure it will be worth it. Will I end up sticking to this for the rest of my life? I can guarantee I won't. But the exercise will most definitely make me more aware of what I'm doing, what I'm remembering, and most importantly, what I'm doing to make sure the moments I'm creating along the way are memorable.

Foooooooooooooood!!!!!!

Ok, this is kind of a random post, but I'm bored and I've got food on the brain, so I thought I'd turn it into something constructive.

I am totally psyched about this new cookbook I got the other day. It's called Frame-by-Frame Baking and it's AMAZING!!! Not only does it help you make sure you're doing everything right with pictures of each step (rather than just one picture of the finished product) but all those extra pictures actually make your mouth water that much more when reading through the recipes!!! This same line of books has at least one other(Frame-by-Frame Quick and Easy) but as I'm more of a baker than anything else, I got this one. I cannot wait to bake my way through it.

At the same time as I got this new book, I also purchased a tart pan. "Why?" you may ask. Not really so I could bake tarts. That is one added bonus, as I don't currently have a tart pan. But no, I bought this particular pan because it had what looked to be an amazing peanut-butter-banana tart recipe on the packaging. Yes, I'm that kind of person.

I have also come across (or been sent) numerous recipes online, or simply pictures of items which I plan on attempting to divine the recipe for.

Bottom line? I have A LOT of baking to do!!! So I think I'm going to attempt, among everything else I have going on in my crazy life, to start baking one new thing each week. I figure that's not too lofty a goal, and should be easy enough to work into my budget. No budget-breaking, career-interrupting craziness here like in Julie and Julia (Though that was an awesome movie! And one more thing that inspired me to start my own blog!)

So in order to keep track of my baking endeavors, I'm going to keep a running list (see new sidebar gadget) of every new recipe I attempt in the coming days. If I can ever find the battery charger for my camera, I'll post pictures as well.

Feel free to send suggestions my way :)

What if...?

So I know it's been forever. I totally f-a-i-l-e-d at the whole keeping this going thing. I thought a million times about coming back and posting, but either it had been too long and I had too much to say, or I felt so guilty for staying away for so long that I couldn't bring myself to write anything, or a million other reasons. But an email I got today has inspired me, so here I am. My small group is doing a short "What If" study for the next couple weeks and I am already IN LOVE with it. We read this post (http://donmilleris.com/2010/03/25/the-single-most-powerful-question-you-can-ask/) and were asked to come up with our own list of 5 What If's. Then we're going to read them to the group and follow up on them in coming weeks. Well, I got started, and just like everyone that commented on the post, I couldn't stop at 5. And I wanted to share. So here they are. I have a feeling I've just created a list I'll be adding to for years to come.

What If...
What if I started a journal and KEPT it?
What if I got up earlier (on time) each day?
What if I stopped watching tv?
What if I looked into painting at the children's hospital?
What if I started my newsletter?
What if I really started baking?
What if I painted a little bit every day?
What if I refused to jump to negative conclusions?
What if I ran everyday?
What if I called my family just to say hi?
What if I stuck to my budget?
What if I finally cleaned out my closet?
What if I wrote a book?
What if I went on a mission trip?
What if I volunteered at church again?
What if I went to church every week?
What if I prototyped my invention?
What if I learned Spanish?
What if I learned guitar?


(ps- if you want an update on all the things I originally started this blog for, here's the short list:
-I failed at keeping up P90X first time around but am ending Week 8 of my second attempt tonight- this time with a friend.
-I have marginally improved my eating habits, including a few crash diets, and am now roughly 8-10 pounds (depending on the day) lighter than when I started this blog.
-I typed out my budget yesterday and created a Google Doc to help me stay on course. Hoping this Friday (payday) will be the start of that.
-I renewed my determination to get to the doctor's today and printed off info about my health insurance plan.
-I have made 0 progress on the cleaning out the closet front or the church attendance/volunteer efforts. Hence the listings in my What If list.)


What would be on YOUR "What If" list?

Day 1- A Reader's Guide

To begin with, I need to clarify a few things. Set some parameters, if you will:

1. This blog is for me. Any readers and/or regular followers are appreciated. But I have no intention of trying to please any particular individual or group of people. I welcome any comments, and will more than likely respond to many of them, but debate is not a strength of mine, nor what I consider an enjoyable past time. If I offend anyone, I apologize ahead of time, as it was certainly not my goal. I'm just trying to get my thoughts out.

2. Regarding those thoughts of mine- I ramble. Ask any of my friends or family members. I'm famous for my 5-minute-long voice messages. I guess I just feel the need to cover all my bases before actually getting to the point. I've tried to curb that habit. It hasn't worked. I can almost guarantee that every posting of mine will begin as a short idea I just wanted to throw out there, and by the time I'm done will be a full-on short story covering everything from why I didn't have time for breakfast that day to my brother's girlfriend's theory on whether the moon landing was for real or not. Some days I'll probably be boring as hell. Others, not so much.

3. All that being said- I guess I should explain the few reasons I have for starting this blog in the first place. So now we come to the second set of bullet points. (In addition to rambling, I love being organized. I don't always succeed. But whatever. How those 2 go hand-in-hand, I'm not sure.)

• I've never been able to keep a diary. I can definitely see all the benefits in keeping them. I think part of the reason I've failed in the past is that since I ramble, my diary entries always tend to be pages and pages long. And my hand ends up hurting, so I give up after 1 day. I'm a much faster typist than writer, so we'll see if this helps. I know web pages and blog entries aren't exactly as mysterious or romantic as dusty old journals, but it's a start. (And yes- I do daydream of my great-grand-children one day running across my diaries and ooh-ing and ah-ing over all my adventures, or trying to solve some murder with them, and I do count that as one of the advantages of keeping a diary.) I'm challenging myself to keep this up for a year. Hence the "A Year in the Life of" part of my blog title. If it goes past that, I'll probably change the name.
• Like pretty much everyone else, there are several things about myself I would like to change or improve upon. I don't think I'm some awful human being or anything. I think I'm actually a very nice, sometimes funny, generally intelligent person and have no desire to change anything about my innate character. But there are somethings like changing my eating/exercise habits for the better, improving my budget, etc. that I should be better about by now, that I'm not. And I've come to the conclusion that the combination of all of these personal shortcomings might be part of the reason that I feel I'm failing at "being an adult." Granted, this is just a theory. I don't think any of my other early-to-late 20-something friends feel that they're really succeeding at that particular task either. And I'm sure they'd each have different theories as to why that is. I'd be curious to see the results of a nation-wide (heck- why not global?) survey asking people aged __ and up (when do you start? 16? 18? 21? 30?) when/if they ever truly started feeling like an adult. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there married with children that are still of the mind set "I'm not an adult. I'm not responsible or successful and I sure as heck don't know how I ended up where I am right now. How the hell do they expect me to raise a child properly!?" Anyways, this will be a place for me to document my goals for this year, as well as my successes/failures at each of those. And at the end of the year, we'll see if I've come any closer to being a responsible adult than I am now. And that should explain the last half of the title.
• Beyond those 2 overriding reasons, this is just something for me to do. A new hobby. I Facebook and Twitter on a start/stop basis. I Stumble and play computer games. I occasionally get inspired on an artistic level and break out the watercolors or oil paints or colored pencils. I also watch tv, read books, and nap a lot. You'll see when I lay out my goals for the coming months that hopefully very soon my life will be much less sedentary than that. But as my pirated cable recently got switched off, this will give me one more thing to choose from when I do find myself sitting at home.

4. And lastly, in case you haven't figured this out yet, I have no lofty overriding goal for my posts other than what I've already mentioned above. I have no political, religious or social agenda or message I'm pushing. I have no doubt those issues will pop up from time to time, but as those are the things that generally lead to heated discussions that I really have no interest in (see #1) I'll probably stay away from that for the most part.

So I guess that's about it. Now you know the what and the why. I doubt this will be a daily thing, but when I'm back next I'll give you more on the who (i.e.- a little more about me) and the when and the how (this will mostly be regarding the goals I've set for myself and trying to come up with a realistic timeline for them.) For personal and safety reasons, I'll probably keep the where a secret. But if you're cool enough to actually know me then you already have the where :P Consider yourself special.


Until then...