I Told Myself I Wouldn't Blog Or Facebook About This Like Everyone Else

But here I am.  Blogging about Harry Potter. Yes it's nerdy and dumb but I'm going to anyway. 

I saw the final Harry Potter movie yesterday.  I loved it.  I think they did an excellent job with it.  But I'm also really sad that it's over.  I feel like it's one more way that I'm leaving my childhood behind.  I first started reading the books when I was about eight.  Harry Potter has been a part of my life since then. (Get ready for a super long, run-on sentance...and go!)  I've stayed up late to read the books, read the books in a day, read and reread the books over and over again, stayed up and watched all the movies, I've played the music in band, I dressed up as Hermione, I've played Harry Potter Uno, Legos, computer/internet games, I had a stuffed Hedwig, I had my own "wand", and I waited when I was little for my letter from Hogwarts to come.  I've grown up with Harry Potter for twelve years of my life. It's sad that it's ending.  

These books and movies are part of what have defined my generation.  We were the kids to stay up late waiting for the books, reading as fast as we could to find out what would happen to these beloved characters, our friends.  We stayed up late to see the movies, hoping that they would stay true to the books.  We were the ones to grow up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  The first movie came out just before I turned eleven, so I felt like I was joining Hogwarts with them. 

I guess we'll have to see what life "post-Harry-Potter" has to hold.

Awesome weekend

This past weekend was amazing!

First my roomies came down to the sunny south to visit! They came early in the morning so we could play before I had to work that afternoon. We ha breakfast at Dennys and while we waited forever for our food we talked and laughed and caught up on old times. After breakfast we went to walmart to make a care packet for one of our awesome roomies who wasn't able to make the trip. While there we browsed through walkways super collection of $5 movies, played with the toys (so many tangled toys!) we stopped and smelled the candles, looked at the fake flowers, and took pictures with lamp shades on our heads! Yeah we're super silly! I had so much fun and it brought me back to last year! I love and miss those girls so much! I want to go back to my home away from home with my family away from family!

After work my family and I played an epic game of monopoly. I won for the first time ever! Yeah I kicked their butts! I was so happy!

Then on Sunday I got a ride to church with my super handsome neighbor and his friends sat by me during sacrament meeting. This is the first time since moving down that somebody has sat with me during sacrament and it meant more to me then they'll probably ever know. Then I taught my first Sunday school lesson. So intimidating! There were so many people in my class! I don't think I made much sense during my lesson I was kind of all over the place (it was kind of like random thoughts with Kelsi guided by the lesson manual and the spirit). And I was shaking like crazy during the whole lesson!  I learned a lot while preparing for the lesson, I just don't know that I was able to transfer everything I learned to my huge intimidating class. But it's over (for a week at least). I guess this is a chance for me to develop a new talent for teaching?

Goals and my "Quarter Life Crisis"

I've been thinking about goals a lot lately.  I've been thinking back to YW's, back when we used to have a lesson every year or two about goal setting and then set 1 year, 2 year, 5 year, and 10 year goals.  A lot of the goals that I set for myself back then didn't happen, at least not in the way I imagined they would happen, but it was comforting to have a "plan" for my life, even if I didn't follow it exactly.  It at least gave me some sort of direction.  The thing is that back then I didn't look at my life much past the age of 21. I mean really when you're a little kid you think of becoming a teenager and all the coolness that is being a teenager (haha), turning 16 and dating and driving, turning 18 and graduating high school and being an official adult who can vote and go to college and move out of the house, and then turning 21 and either being married and soon having children or if I was so dreadfully unlucky as to be an "old maid" who wasn't married by the age of 21 going on a mission and then getting married right after, and then graduating from college around age 22 and getting a job immediately.  Then I would be married with kids and a job so there would be no reason to plan out the rest of my life.

My perspective has changed a little since then.

I no longer think 21 is an "old maid" to not be married.  And I realize that I can't just "decide" when I'm going to get married and start a family at this point, because that takes two people and I don't have person number two just yet and I'm not sure when I'll have person number two.  So I'm moving marriage and family into my "lifetime goals" that I don't have a lot of control over.  But I realized that I am turning 20 really soon.  20.  That's 1/4 of the way to 80.  I can feel the wrinkles and gray hair coming on already. (just kidding!)  Anyway as I was pondering my upcoming birthday and just life in general I realized that I have no specific goals for my life at this point.  That realization made me feel nervous, because even if I don't reach specific goals that I set, it at least gives me a direction and a purpose for my life.  So I decided that I want to set some goals.

1 Year from now I want to:

• Have a job up in the Great White North
• Walk/Run a 5k (probably a lot more walking then running but hey I'll try)

2 Years from now I want to:

• Graduate from college
• Get an internship

5 Years from now I want to:

• Be financially stable.
• Have a real career as a Child Life Specialist

10 Years from now I want to: 

• Own a house
• Make a trip to England to visit/live.  I'll see all the sights, meet the people, and I want to do some family research back there. 

Long Term Goals that I refuse to set an age/date/time frame for:

• Marriage (in the Temple of course!)
• Children

Do you guys have any other good long term goal idea that you would like to share?  Pretty please!  :)

My Dear Husband,

It's true, I'm not married, yet, but I have seen cute letters to future husbands here and I thought I would try it, especially because she won't be writing letters to a future husband anymore.  :)

Dear Husband,

I hope you know I'm a hopeless romantic. 

I love rainstorms, I think they are so romantic.  If I ever text you this "Drop everything now. Meet me in the pouring rain, Kiss me on the sidewalk, Take away the pain." and it's raining, please do just that.  I know it's corney, but it's also cute (in my opinion) and that will make me so happy. (And yes that is from a Taylor Swift song.  Have I mentioned I'm a hopeless romantic?)

I love little kid movies like The Lion King and Tangled and Up and How to Train Your Dragon and Finding Nemo.  We will be watching those on a regular basis.  (I'll let you off the hook for my favorite chick flicks like Pride and Prejudice and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I may even let you off the hook for my cute but really old classic movies.  Maybe.)

I like to sing and dance.  I sing really loudly and badly and I dance really silly.  I hope you will sing and dance and make a fool out of yourself with me.

Sometimes I'm really sarcastic and I don't like being wrong.  I apologize in advance.

I love food, I love to cook, but I hate doing the dishes.  I hope you like to eat and do dishes.  :)

Sometimes I just have to have ice cream.  It's not a want, it's a need.

That's All!

Love,

You're darling future wife!

:)

What's a girl to do?

Everybody say that the teenage years are the awkward years in life.  And in many ways that's true.

 But I firmly don't believe that's the only awkward time in life. 

I think the "Young Single Adult" years or "Emerging Adult" years or whatever you want to call it are extremely awkward years.  Especially for girls.  Think about it.  This is the time of life when we have to make so many decisions.  And they aren't decisions that don't really matter like "What color of shirt will I wear today?" no their more like "Where should I go to school?" and "What should I major in?" and "Should I go on a mission?"  and "What about marriage (high pitched scream)?"  This is a time of life when you are expected to make decisions on you're own, because guess what, you're an adult now.  And you have to find a job, which isn't easy in these economic times, and provide for yourself. 

Wait, this isn't what I signed up for. 

I wanted everything to just fall into place.

 Options? 

Who wants options? 

They just make life more complicated. 

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's all part of the plan, it's all part of the learning process, it's a little thing we like to call agency.  And most of the time, I'm a huge fan of agency.  It's just on days like this that I get a little discouraged about how everything is going to work out and how I'm going to get through this lovely thing called life.  But then I read things like this and I remember that I need to have hope and faith in the future.  I know that I have gotten direction for my life in the past, and I will continue to get direction in life as I need it.  I just have to remind myself of that fact sometimes, when I realize that my life isn't turning into that fairytale that I always wanted.

It's been a long time

It's been a long time since I last blogged.  I don't know why I struggle with blogging so much, but I do.  Here is what is new since the last time I blogged.

1. My major - I changed from Pre-Med to Child Life Specialist.  Basically I'm going to be helping kids get over the emotional trauma of hospital visits and procedures.
2. I've moved back home for the summer.  Yay for no rent and free food!! And I get to chill with awesome people at home too.  :)
3. I turned 19.  That one sneaked up on me.
4. I've been working ALL the time, earning lots of money.  And I'll be spending all that money in late July and August.  Yay for college!!
5. I just got back from a vacation to Hawaii!!  It was gorgeous!!  I got to snorkel, kayack, visit Pearl Harbor, visit the Polynesian Cultural Center (and fall in love with a Maori warrior, but that's another story haha), meet up with old friends, and spend lots and lots of time on the beach, working on my tan of course.  :)

Yep that pretty much covers my life. I've decided to set a goal to find something to blog about at least once a week.  And I'm going to try to keep my camera near by so hopefully I can add some pictures to this blog.  But I'm not a very good photographer so we'll see how that goes. That's all.