Quotes and Recipes

I love posting all of these quotes and kinda want to make those image quotes with the random backgrounds. Maybe with instagram photos???

In other news, I’m making a cookbook of all our family recipes. That’s mostly why my posting has diminished in the last week. I had no idea we had so many recipes!!! I’ll have to share some with you (: Or maybe just link you to the eBook when I get it finished!

To conclude this extremely short post, here’s a random fact:

Accordion to a recent survey, replacing words with the names of musical instruments in a sentence often goes undetected.

Have a wonderful day!!!

I hated Literature class.

True statement pal. I hated literature in both high school and college. Why??????

Wellll, it’s a bit of a story. I love to read. I’m currently in Year 4 of the Harry Potter series. I’ve read nearly all of Louisa May Alcott (more than once), all of Jane Austen, almost all of the “A” section of my local library (youth classics from ages long gone), all of L. Frank Baum, several Newbery Award books, Hunger Games trilogy, most of Ted Dekker, half of the Anne of Green Gables series, and the list continues. I loved most of my stories/books assigned to read in my high school literature classes. I love reading classic literature. I love children’s books. I love journals.

http://instagram.com/p/N_6-BtqiAf/

It may be a bit confusing, though, that I love to read, yet hate literature. Oxymoronish, if you will. Yet, truth has been declared. What I hated about literature was the dissection of books/stories/poems. I always felt very assuming, intrusive, and arrogant when doing this. Who am I to assume what the author was thinking?? Who am I to say that there was a hidden agenda underneath the story’s plot? That the characters represented major philosophical perspectives? It always bothered me that literature books and professors wanted me to think this. I didn’t want to be a paranoid reader. I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist.

Then I started thinking about how I would feel if someone made literary assumptions about me. I wouldn’t like it. Part of me, would really enjoy mocking the assumptions made of me. For instance, I chose to make a despicable character and someone decided that this represented the underlying disdain I have for whatever type of person or political system. In reality, I don’t actually think this far ahead. When I make a despicable character, it’s usually for good opposition. Nice people don’t usually make good opposition. But the mocking would get old, and then I would just be annoyed. Annoyed is not fun.

Like this situation:

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When stuff doesn’t come out of a can that is clearly MADE to come out of a can, one gets annoyed. Canned goods should come out of cans. Makes sense to me. That is my annoyed analogy for the day.

The point is that I don’t like dissecting literature and making assumptions. I prefer to enjoy the story and learn from it what I will. That seems kinder to me. Plus, it lets me keep loving to read.

Picture story book thingy mah bop. Whatever. I want one.

Soooooooo I have been inspired to make a picture story thing with a lego character and scenes. I don’t know what the story will be about. I don’t know what the character will look like. I don’t even know if it will happen. But I want it to. Seems like an adventure to me, yes? Yes.

This photo was my inspiration:

http://instagram.com/p/PlK74KPOFb/

Yes, that is Harry Potter. *sigh for awesomeness* Yes, that girl is my awesome friend. Her name is Katie. You just have no idea who you’re missing out on. If you were extra stalkerish, you could visit her at her blog though…. ahem…. My Eternal Voyage. I only suggest this for her awesomeness.

Shock face :O

Woah. It’s been a while since I last posted. Stuff’s happened. You know how it goes. Anyways, major shock face to come back and see that my views had jumped wayyyyyy up while I wasn’t posting. I’m not sure what happened, but apparently someone (lots of someones) really liked my post on embroidery in WWII called Beauty from Horror. I had completely forgotten writing it. :O

Some of the stuffs that have happened: First major thing is that I got a job!!! (skip if you don’t want to read about my accounting nerd stuff ;)) I’ll be an Expatriate Tax associate at BDO. Basically, my job will involve calculating and minimizing the amount of tax individuals living/working abroad need to pay the US and foreign governments. Filing out FBAR and Form 8938. *sigh* I’m so excited!!! Work starts on January 28, 2013, so I’ve still got some time to wait. Most people say “What?!?! Why do you have to wait so long??” I always respond “LONG?? That’s early! Most people have to wait a year before starting with a public accounting firm after getting hired.” I don’t know why it is that way, but that’s the way things work. Probably because I was a campus hire. I think experience hires get to work much sooner. I digress.

I’ve also been doing some volunteer work for the African Children’s Project. I don’t know a ton about Nonprofit accounting, but I do know how to organize the books. It’s been so much fun! My friend Melanie founded the organization a few years ago and is in Kenya right now drilling the first well for the site. Once the well is drilled, the village can be built and the HIV/AIDS orphans will have a home. Then they can go to school and break the cycle of poverty. Here’s the official description: “We build community-based, family-style homes in Kenya from which we provide compassionate, holistic, long-term care for children who have been orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.” :) We’re praying for water to be hit soon!

Other news, I found a really old computer (like Windows XP with Word 98) and got all my poetry off of it. It’ll be posted soon. I’ve learned to play xbox with my brother. Netflix viewing has increased. I went to Norfolk and made more bleach tees. I’ve taken more nail pics, but have been slack on posting. And…….

Oh yeah! Books. I’ve been reading a lot :D I read the Hunger Games trilogy in three days time. Not much sleep haha. I also read Game of Thrones. A friend recommended it. Not so great. I mean, there was a really awesome story hidden underneath. The language and sensual content was WAY more than I could stand. I had every intention of reading the set, but by the end I was so sick of it that the books went back to the library. The book Wicked was the same way. People were raving over it and I was so disgusted that I put the book down about halfway through. Ugh. Now I’m on to Harry Potter. It’s just so fantastic and I’ve never read them straight through before.

And I think that’s it. There is this game called Quelf that’s pretty awesome, but I’ll let you look that one up on your own.

[day 14] Thirty Day Photo Challenge: September 2012 Edition

Today’s post is completely on time!!! This is particularly amazing since I didn’t get to sleep until some time after 3am last night and was awakened by a lovely phone call from an accounting system sales person. I’m serious. It really was a lovely call. He answered all my questions. Sent me an email TWICE over the span of the convo because I wanted more information. I’m just impressed. I have had soo much help from competing customer service. I love it!! I’m use to dealing with companies with HORRIBLE customer service… Charter, Verizon, and Original Mattress Company. So all of these accounting companies are like a breath of fresh air… refreshing.

All of that has nothing to do with my pictures for today. Well, maybe. I was up until after 3am because of my pictures so I guess it does sort of relate. I’m in the Lost Circle Books by Ted Dekker. Here’s my picture!

Day 14:

Randomness because I felt like posting ;)

I’ve been doing random things in my vacation time. Recruiting begins next week and there are so many things left to do! I bought the Hunger Games trilogy yesterday so that needs to be read. (Before you slam me for having not read it yet, I was in grad school with a full load and studying for the CPA exam. Slack is deserved.) Tomorrow I want to make a glow-in-the-dark nail tutorial, because I found this really great neon green paint that promises glowification. Hopefully, I can rig up a way to record a video for you to go with the pictures and instructions. Harry Potter still hasn’t been read. AND I’m making my own swimsuit. I might post pictures of that if things turn out well. As of right now, I have some stitching to take out tomorrow. Sadness.

So things and stuff and things about stuff. I’m sure there is a balance between enjoying vacation and getting things accomplished, but I haven’t found it yet. Mostly I’ve just watched Sherlock, Dr. Who, Robin Hood, White Collar, and Psych on Netflix. And played Minecraft. Played a lot of Minecraft. Oh wells. This always happens so I should just keep trying, I suppose. Whatever gets done tomorrow, you will have a glow-in-the-dark nail tutorial, provided there are no natural disasters or unexpected tragedies. I do have an expected tragedy, but that is a whole other post that probably won’t be written. Just sayin’. That’s about it for now.

Ohhhhhh, and this is the picture I’ve been meaning to share with you:

It’s my face :) Now I’m done.

A slightly new story, bro!

This post is to introduce you to Amelia Price. She’s just an ordinary girl trying to figure out life. You know the quote in Lion King “Stuff happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.”? Well she doesn’t think so. First Amelia writes about it. Then Amelia tries to do something about it. She’s 13, kinda spunky and her journals are a part of A Childhood Story. Read what she has to say in From the Journals of Amelia Price.

Thoughts on the art of paper… sort of.

Sooooo since I finally finished up the CPA exam today (confidently assuming I passed haha) and grad school back in June, AND since recruiting doesn’t begin until September, a lot of free time lays before me. More than I’ve had in over a year. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while (since February really) and it kind of feels like a vacation. You know how you save up as much money as possible to go blow it on a specific and slightly random purpose while on vacation? (I did this in Cardiff once… bought a scarf and a cardigan. Not really a big spender.) Well, I feel like I’ve saved up three weeks worth of time to go spend on whatever the heck I feel like. I want to paint. I want to finish the Ted Dekker series I’m in the middle of. (Side note rabbit trail thingy: Have you read him??? He is amazing!! If his plot twists weren’t enough, the way nearly EVERY SINGLE book ties to all the others is incredible. Mind. Blown.) I want to read the Harry Potter series from start to finish in a single week. I want to make random tutorials/movies. I want to hang-out with my friends. I want to make more paper art. Let the time splurging begin!! (Does any one else save up time like this? Seems to be an odd way to think about it…)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth (aka Books on a Shelf)

This is another weekly photo challenge picture. The challenge was growth. All of the normal thoughts came to me… trees, flowers, other plants, people, babies, animals, height, construction projects… you know, things that can be seen and easily understood. Trees get taller. Flowers bloom. People grow up (and sometimes out). Normal.

Again, I didn’t want to be normal. So I picked books. Some of these books I’ve read dozens of times (the falling apart books: Ella Enchanted, Old Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Mara, and Witch of Blackbird Pond). Those are the ones I grew up with. You could also say