So long.

Dear blog,

Thank you for being my blog. However, I've decided to retire you. It's nothing personal. I still think you're great, but it's time for something fresh and different.

Love,
Kellie

Dear Blog  Readers,

I have a new blog. I will try to update it more than I have been posting as of recently. I decided to go for more of a "family" blog blog, but I can't promise it won't just be me saying words. Because, in the end, I will be the one writing, and I will write words.

The .blog address is as follows:

timothyandkellie.blogspot.com

I hope you will come and read and love.

Love,
Kellie

Sometimes, life gets a little overwhelming. This isn't to say that it's bad or things are going wrong, just that sometimes there's a lot that seems to be pressing. So, sometimes, I have to make lists to make my head go on straight(er). Such as this list of accomplishments to make me feel better.

Things I am proud of:

• Keeping up on the dishes and keeping the kitchen wiped down/floors clean
• Keeping up on the laundry
• Making dinner most nights
• Going to work every day, even when I don't feel super great
• Cleaning out the fridge and wiping it down
• Cleaning the microwave
• Cleaning the windows
• Signing up for and attending yoga classes
• Finishing a box of spinach before it went bad

Also, side note: I am not confident the people who lived here prior to us did much cleaning... The grimy places that I have been cleaning since we moved in have had multiple years of grime underneath it. So, at least I'm doing better than that.

Happy January!

Our freestanding apartment that has a yard and is big and we own it

Updating has not been my forte. Oops. I blame that mostly on real life being super boring... or... something. Maybe I'm just a lazy bum.

Anyway, we bought a house!  

It looks like this:

Yay house! 

Anyway, it's super awesome. Living in a house is, that is. We don't share walls, people don't yell at their spouses in our drive way (which is the equivalent of a parking lot for a house), and we have a yard! 

It looks like this:

Negative post! (with some positivity following)

This is a list of my recent least favorite things

• Working 2-10
• I don't get to see my husband awake during the week.
• I get sleepy at 6 pm.
• I feel like a lazy bum when I sleep in until 10 am. 
• I end up waking husband up at three in the morning moaning about how I want Mac & Cheese due to thrown off life schedule. 
• Big, fat, stupid, huge, jerkish, mean, immature white vans
• Who park under covered parking and make parking difficult/impossible
• Who key cars that are pretty and new and expensive.
• And therefore make my day off with said husband more of a headache.

Here is a list of my recent favorite things:

• Used book stores that let me get cookbooks for cheap!
• A JOB!
• There is a lot of sanitizing stuffs.
• I also get to wear a lab coat. It's legit.
• There is hot chocolate and popcorn. 
• It's nice.
• My hair
• It's brown. Dark brown.
• Primary children ask me if I'm wearing a wig.
• Root beer scented candle
• It's nice. 

New Years Resolutions

I know a good amount of people who are opposed to New Years Resolutions. They're cliche, there's no point in waiting until the end of the year to change things, etc, etc.

I don't think they're mandatory. I don't do them every years, just the times when I feel ambitious. This year, with absolutely no plans except to find a job before I go completely stir-crazy, shave my head and spray paint in lime green, I'm feeling ambitious. Additionally, what's the point of not doing something to change your life at the end of the year? To prove a point that you're not cliche? Then why are you spending your time surfing the Internet? Isn't that cliche?

That being said:

New Years Resolutions:

Spiritual:

• Read my scriptures every day (I used to be a lot better about this one)
• Go to the temple at least once a month

Mental:

• Read something out of a book every day
• Pick a subject and learn about it (human development, chimpanzees, something.)

Financial:

• Get a big girl job

Social:

• Do something with friends twice a month
• Make a new friend

Physical:

• Exercise four times a week
• Run a long-distance race (10K or greater, preferably half marathon or more)
• Slow down and listen to my body when eating

Miscellaneous:

• Get and use a passport
• Go hiking

Catching Dreams in all the Wrong Places

Disclaimer: This post was written during an episode of my-brain-feels-like-it's-full-of-cotton due to some as of yet not diagnosed malady (presumably a cold, allergies, pressure changing, exhaustion, or acute sinusitus), so if the topic seems irrelevant or the argument ad absurdum, it probably is.

So, I was driving down the road....and I noticed a problem. I've noticed this problem many times before, but this time (see disclaimer above for a sensible reason why), I was bothered. Bothered beyond the fleeting annoyance I often have when I notice this gross misuse of something with which I have very little cultural connection. 

These items are designated for the bedroom. The activity they are used to protect is explicitly forbidden whilst driving. In fact, driving when participating in aforementioned activity is dangerous, harmful, and commonly deadly.

The item in question is, of course, dream catchers.

Dream catchers are items mostly associated with Native Americans and their culture. They look like spiderwebs encircled by a hoop, often with leather strings dangling from the hoop with feathers and beads adorning these strings. The purpose of dream catchers is alluded to in their names. They catch bad dreams and allow the good ones to sift through, providing those protected by the proximity of the dream catcher with pleasant (or at least not unpleasant) dreams.

However, the problem resides in the dream catchers that are hung from the rear view window with suicidal stupidity. These individuals, clearly, wish to sleep, uninterrupted by nightmares, whilst in their cars, presumably while driving. These people will find that the web-like net of their dream catcher will not protect them from the living (or possibly dead) nightmare their lives will inevitably become from falling asleep behind the wheel. Having a dream catcher adorn your car will not keep you safe while you sleep and drive.

I repeat: HAVING A DREAM CATCHER WILL NOT KEEP YOU SAFE WHILE YOU SLEEP AND DRIVE.

Additionally, what is the point of having a dream catcher somewhere where you do not intend to sleep? How will it protect your dreams if it is in your car while you are in your bedroom? The bad dreams will sneak right past it and haunt your sleep.

However, those who live (and therefore sleep) in their cars may keep their dream catcher on their rear view mirror without mockery from me as long as they do not intend to sleep while driving.

For those who are not aware of what I am speaking, here is a picture of a dream catcher. Please, use them correctly.

.

And so ends an era....

Today, fittingly, was my last of two things. It was my last day of classes as an undergraduate. It was also my last Christmas party as a Shelver. Now, this is fitting because I started my shelving job my first day of college. It's been one of the few constants in a college student's ever-transient life. The library has, more than any other place (including the Life Sciences building, which, admittedly has captured hundreds of hours of my time), been my niche on campus. I've nearly lived out of my work locker, lived for interactions with my coworkers, and found comfort and a home in the library these last four and a half years.

It's been a major part of my college experience. Some of my best friends have come from that job, as have some of the best memories. Besides, there is something inherently peaceful about a library. I find comfort from books, from being with books. Which probably explains the multiple shelf-fulls of books we have in our little apartment. 

College itself has been huge. I cannot deny that the person I am now, leaving college, is a very different person than I was entering it. I have changed, I've grown up, become more self-aware, and, I hope, more self assured. I've grown, I've matured, and I have learned more than I ever knew at the time, or that I even know now. However, it's a transient stage and as such, it must end. As cliche as this is, one door shuts, and another must open.

The only question is... where does it go?