Celebrities!

Okay.

Departing from my typical "I'm all about me and no one else" kind of blog post, I'm writing about other people today. (But don't be fooled, it's still all about me and no one else, if you keep reading. Wow. I'm just not very philosophical or world-minded, am I? Rats.)

I've come up with a short list of my favorite celebrities, and am sharing them for the fun of it, so here they are.


1. Actress I most want to be friends with!

Jennifer Lawrence
(She just seems so down to earth and funny! My kind of person.)

2. Actor I would marry in a split second/have a giant, girly crush on.

Hugh Jackman
(Woosa! I just love his face!!)

3. Actress I think takes the cake for the beauty award.

Audrey Hepburn

4. Most adorably geeky actor.

David Tennant

5. Favorite comedian.

Jimmy Fallon
(He grew on me in the last 4 years.)

6. In keeping with my girl, boy, girl, boy trend, next is my favorite female comedian.

Tina Fey
(She definitely does the best impressions I've ever seen!)

7. The classiest gent ever to grace Hollywood.

Cary Grant

8. And she wins the classiest woman ever to grace the screens of Hollywood, as well.

Audrey Hepburn

Who are your favorites?

Juicing?

M's Topic: Your opinion on juicing. Are you for it? Have you ever tried it?

Here's the deal on this one. I wasn't sure what M was talking about when she gave me this topic, so I needed a little clarification.

"Like putting vegetables in a juicer to drink them instead of eating them?"

"Yep."

Here are my views on that.

I'm currently a speech language pathology graduate student. SLPs provide a wide variety of therapies, including dysphagia, or swallowing, therapy. So, if people have difficulty eating certain consistencies, we teach them strategies so that they can eat those consistencies. Or we determine which consistencies are safe for them to eat if the strategies are not appropriate for them. In other words, a large part of the scope of practice includes helping people eat from as many consistencies (thin, nectar thick, honey thick liquids, puree, mechanical soft, soft, and regular solids) as possible to have a full quality of life.

Therefore, I think people who limit their nutrition to JUICE are insane! No matter the length of time, be it one day, one week, or forever. We were born with the capability to develop teeth, for a reason. Our bodies need more than just the nutrition remaining in the juiced fruits/vegetables/what have you. We need protein and fiber, which will be lacking after juicing. Protein helps us maintain muscle and keeps our metabolism going, and we all know how important fiber is! Our metabolism will be compromised AND we'll be our weaker selves!

Ultimately, a juicing diet will lead to fatigue, blood sugar spikes, dizziness and headaches, and our appetites won't be satisfied. If we can't satisfy our appetites, we won't even stick to the diet anyway.

What's the point?? It just seems like misery to me.

I say no to juicing!!

If I have an hour to myself...

My church has a secret prayer partner program set up, in which ladies can choose to participate. They sign up, and upon signing up, fill out a form indicating some of their favorite things to do, read, et cetera. The forms are then distributed out among the women, and secret prayer partners assigned. For example, if I receive Judy McFinnerson's form, I am her secret prayer partner and I take it upon myself to gift her with various little items, cards, birthday and anniversary gifts, and daily prayers throughout the duration of the year. Then at the end of the year, there is a little party in which all of the women share who they've been praying for, and everyone feels nice and good and happy.

This year, the form that I filled out asked this question: "If you had one hour completely to yourself, what would you do for that hour?"

I think I said that I'd read. I had approximately 27 seconds remaining to complete the form and have it ready to hand over with a smile on my face to one of the most intimidatingly overbearing and no-nonsense women in the church, so I didn't put a lot of thought into what I was writing.

But. In real life, when I have more than 27 seconds to answer 14 questions.

I'm torn between two scenarios I have playing through my head. In the one, I'd cram as much as humanly possible into that one hour block of time. (Softball game, horseback ride, bike ride, picnic, see Troy and Da Vinci in a time-traveling spaceship, with all of my friends around me.) In the other scenario, I can see myself falling asleep in a tent in the woods, all alone, listening to the sounds of the woods. In the first, there's so much interaction and fun and movement, and in the second, just silence and peace.

I'm not sure what I would do. It probably wouldn't be read! I'd save that for when I have more than an hour to myself.

2016 Bucket List Goals

M's Topic: Do you have a bucket list? What one thing from your bucket list will you make sure to accomplish this year?

Yes!

I have several things to accomplish this year from this list of buckety items I have compiled in years past!

Here are a few of the things from my bucket list that I want to accomplish this year:

1. Learn yoga   --> Not even sort of done.
2. Run a marathon (Scary goal!)   --> Marathon selected, partners convinced, registration not completed, training NOT COMPLETED.
3. Receive my master's degree in communication sciences and disorders.    --> Accomplished, July 2016! Goal: 
4. Learn how to change a tire.   --I need to work on this one.
5. Have my annual family photoshoot with N.   --> Accomplished, May, 2016! Goal: 
6. Sign N up for summer swim classes.   --> I missed the boat with this one, this summer. :( 
7. Complete grad school with honors   --> You know, I don't know or care if I completed with honors. I felt honorable enough, managing to not drown in the last 3 years.  July, 2016, baby!!! Goal: 
8. Visit all 50 states with N. (Obvs, I don't plan to accomplish this in full during 2016. The plan is to check a couple states off the list.)   --> In progress!
1. We made it to the U.P. for a quick vacation in early July. 
2. We're visiting NY, PA, IN, and hopefully MD and TN by November!
9. Wear dresses more often.  --> In progress, but I could really twist my arm and get a few more dresses out of this summer! Still, Goal: 
10. Build a sandcastle with Magoo.   --> We've built few sandcastles, but filled MANY buckets with sand. I'm okay with this. Goal: 

My First Kiss

When I was in 8th grade, I was "dating" this really cute guy in my class. I put it in quotes, because by dating, I mean I had a giant crush on him, I assume he had a giant crush on me, he sat at my table during lunch, we held hands in the hallway, and he opened doors for me. I don't recall us ever actually going anywhere together. Although I may have gone to his house for his birthday party? Anyway, I really liked this boy. I mean really.

In eighth grade, he tried out for the school track team (and I use the words "tried out" lightly- if you went to my school and you tried out for something, it means you were on the team (although he was an extremely talented runner, so he would have made the team, no matter how enormous of a school he attended)). So, spring rolls around and he joins the track team (we were steady by then, we started dating in the fall, and this was late May or very, very, very early June). I want to be a good girlfriend (after all, he always held my hand in the hallway and opened doors for me), so I decide I'm going to his track meet!

I remember going to the track two or so hours after school was released for the day, and that it was kind of cool, but not too bad. Like the kind of cool where if you're running around, you'll get warm with a light jacket on, but if you take it off, you won't really be comfortable. The air is cold, but the sun is warm, you know? It was nice outside.

My dreamboat (haha) ran distance and middle distance, so he ran some of his events, and I watched him all proudly. (You guys, this was my boyfriend.) In between his events, he'd come racing over to me in the mid-field (not much of a bleacher for the middle school track, you know- all of the parents and siblings and friends and coaches and teammates all mingled together in the middle of the track) and we would giggle and say stupid things and flirt, and then he'd go run another event, and then come back all sweaty and stinky so we could giggle and flirt some more.

I remember that my dad was coming to pick me up that night, because I had a softball game or practice or something that I had to run home to change for, so I told my "special friend" that I had to go. And...

My sweaty, smelly, sweatpantsed, handsome, hilarious, lovely, DREAMBOAT boyfriend, leaned in and stabbed me on one corner of my mouth with his lips.

You. Guys.

I.

Was.

Over.

The.

Moon.

I was all, "He LOVES me!!!"

And, "We're going to get MARRIED someday!!!"

And, "He LOVES me!!!"

So I gave him a giant hug and I raced out to the parking lot, and I'm pretty sure I was beaming all night long. I got my first kiss, and it was from the cutest boy I knew! I could feel my little I'm-afraid-to-kiss-you-and-I'm-14-years-old kiss for hours. In fact, when I woke up the next morning, I could probably still feel my kiss, right there on the corner of my mouth, waiting for me to wake up and remember it.

Honestly, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's one of my favorite memories. :)

Ten Things I Believe

1. I believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible.

2. I believe a person may not remember what you said to them or did to them, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

3. I believe we should treat everyone as we would like to be treated.

4. I believe honesty, integrity, kindness, and respect are some of the most important characteristics a person can have.

5. I believe that the world is a beautiful place.

6. I believe in chances.

7. I believe in self-love.

8. I believe in my family.

9. I believe in N.

10. I believe in me.

My Why

M's Topic: What's your why? Why do you do what you do?

This topic's sort of killing me this week. I keep pulling up my blog, staring at the topic, and closing things down again. And I guess the reason for that is because I don't really have a why. When I was younger, I did what I did because I didn't know what else to do. Kind of like, "just pick something already and get on with it."

Instead of doing things just for the heck of it, I'm doing them for the heck of it while in survival mode. I have to support my son, and myself, and eventually get my life together well enough that I can provide my own source of food and shelter, so that my parents can get on with their lives, as well. This effort that you see me put forth is pure desperation, folks! ;)

I can't offer much else on this topic, at least for now, but take what I've got for what it's worth!

What was I doing on this day, 10 years ago?

Ten years ago.

February 2nd, 2006.

I was a junior in high school. I was thinking about cutting my hair short. I had just decided to try out for a school play for the first time ever (I had only ever worked backstage, but this time it turned out that I missed auditions by one day). I was still crying my eyes out from breaking up with my high school luuuuurrrrrve. I was returning college junk mail with my "sign me up for more junk mail from your university, please" information all filled out. I was signing up to graduate from high school a semester early (I just couldn't keep coming to school every day with my luuuuurrrrrve now that he hated me! -read with a dramatic flair-). I was babysitting a ton. And working at Four Season's Video. I was doing my best to stay out of the way of the planning for my oldest sister's wedding. And racing around in my little, seventh-hand, smoking, stinky, 1992 Ford Taurus. I still slept with my pound puppy, a gray poodle named Bonnie. I had my own little dog, Mac, who was just a little guy, 2.5 years old, and my grumpy, old-man dog, Roy. I was considering becoming a CPA. I was listening to Johnny Cash and the Beatles, daily. I thought I was pretty cool. Not much else was going on. I was in high school...