Changes!

I think that this amazing blog by a Youtuber I watch has inspired me a lot for my hopes for my own blog. She posts these hilarious descriptions of her designs and even gives a few insights to her life and opinions. But what impresses me the most is how personable her writing comes across. It feels like reading a personal email from your best friend rather than reading some strangers blog post. Her personality comes across so amazingly, just as well as in her and her fiances videos on Youtube. I should probably mention this is Kalel Cullen I am talking about. She is the fiance of Anthony Padilla of Smosh and they make videos on this channel http://www.youtube.com/user/WatchUsLiveAndStuff. It is easily my favorite vlog channel on Youtube. Their relationship makes me constantly laugh and I look forward to their videos more than any other channel I am subscribed to. Her blog is http://frillyandfancy.blogspot.com/ and if anyone out there is actualy viewing my blog for whatever reason, please take your time to go to hers and their Youtube channel, you will not be dissapointed.

But her topic in a post today was change, and I felt like that was a good one for me too. Its that time of year where I always start to look back at the past year and reflect on what happened and how much things are different. I am still growing up and I have had my fair share of learning experiences this year. Things are vastly different than they were this time last year, and even more different from the year before that. I have changed, my life has changed, the people around me have change, and you know what? I am so glad that it all did too. And even though I am not in the public eye like she is, I still get judged by people for the ways I've changed. Let's face it, as much as we'd like to think, nobody is perfect. This being said, there is always room for improvement.

Anywhoseits, those are my two main subjects for this entry.

 I really want to try and get more consistent and start doing more posts. I am thinking I am going to start doing more fashion things on here, like outfit of the day, hair tutorials, beauty product reviews and stuff like that. And once I have my room reorganized I might even do a room tour thing because I have to be honest, I have a pretty awesome room.

Well, thats all for now my dears.

Onwards and upwards!

Fall and Rise

Well, Fall has arrived, and as to the name I have fallen myself it seems.

Blogging use to give such a sense of accountability and release that it was something I consistently did, and for some reason I lost that. But, I am back and I intend to be better than ever.

This means not only in blogging, but in my life again. I know my own pitfalls the last few months, but its time for a new beginning again. No more of these things that I am so ashamed of I can't even bare to type. Tomorrow is a brand new day, and I am ready to face it as such and be a brand new person again.

I have so much planned for myself for the next year, and for the purpose of accountability I figured I'd share them here.

• Finish school. I know that seems pretty vague. But, I have three quarters (one of which is already under way) left and that is it. I am doing pretty well with my classes as it stand for the mere fact that my study habits have actually been quite good. 
• Lose more weight. I not really particular on the amount, I just know I am nowhere near where I need to be. 
• Better myself personally in other aspects as well. 

I know those are so very general and broad, but I promise they are broken into dozens of little goals. 

I honestly don't know what my blog is going to be any more, probably more of the same. 

Onwards and upwards!

Cooking and Baking

So far nothing particularly exciting has happened today, well minus me catching a stomach bug but that is more so sad then exciting.

I made a really delicious lunch out of some leftovers. It was Mexican Velveeta style mac and cheese with chopped up pork and green onions. It turned out really good and I was proud of myself for creating the concoction.

I suppose I can talk about my love for cooking and baking.

So, I enjoy doing both. Creating something tasty out of random ingredients does and forever will amaze me. As for the general cooking, I am not as good nor do I take as much enjoyment out of it. But put me in front of some sugar, eggs,  flour, and butter and I see perfection waiting to happen. Its such a chemistry experiment when you are baking something. If you don't get exactly the right amount of something it completely changes the dish (which I have learned isn't always a bad thing).

Cookies are one thing in particular I love making, especially gingerbread and sugar cookies. Rolling out the dough and cutting it into shapes and experimenting with the depth of the cookies is so much fun. I prefer a crisp cookie for these particular types, so I typically cut thinner, but my family likes soft ones so if you cut a bit thicker you get that affect.

But hands down my favorite thing to make is cupcakes. I can decide to make cupcakes and wind up spending an hour looking for a promising recipe. I haven't gotten to the point where I feel comfortable enough yet to just mix stuff together and hope for the best. I love the whole process though. Like, getting out everything, and measuring stuff, scooping into cupcake liners, waiting for them to bake properly, waiting for them to cool, and frosting/decorating. All of it is so much fun. My favorite cupcakes are spice, red velvet, and pound. All three are very different and complex but also very delicious.

I truly love baking, but I don't get to do it as often as I would like.

There is No Place Like Home

Okay, so it is time to let you in on a little secret. I am in love with the television show Glee. No joke, since the very first day it began I fell desperately in love with it and have never wavered. Tonight it returned from its summer hiatus and it returned splendidly. They did a wonderful job at showing how summer was and I am of course extremely excited for the rest of the season.

That was the main perk of the day.

I also cleaned my room. Speaking of which, lets me discuss that.

So for most people a room is just something that is natural. For me, it is something special. When I was nine I moved one town over with my family when my mom got back with her high school sweetheart/first husband. At first we lived in an apartment where, since there were three (and occasionally four) of us trying to live in a small two bedroom, there really wasn't room for all of us. I slept on the couch most nights while we stayed there.

Then we moved into Jack's (my step-dad) two bedroom house. The four boys (my two half brothers Brandon and Tim, and two new step brothers Josh and Dean) shared the master bedroom. And my mom and Jack shared the second bedroom. This left little old me stuck sleeping in the living room. My clothes and toys were in plastic buckets. We lived there for a year (or more).

Then we moved into Jack's parents house when they moved into an elderly community. Once again, it was really only a one bedroom home that was about a hundred years old. The attic had been half renovated, giving my mom and Jack a bedroom, while I was stuck living in the not renovated half. For about three months I lived in a disgusting and terrifying attic space. I could literally see the inside part of the roof, after all it was my ceiling. About three months in they decided to start renovating and I was once again stuck on the couch.

About six months later the renovations in my room were done. Don't get me wrong, the room was better. However, since it was an attic, putting up dry wall created an awkwardly shaped room and it was always really hard to work with. But the worst parts were a) there was a huge cut out to reach the filter thing for the heater and b) for the next five years I lived with a curtain (tacked nonetheless) as my 'door'.

On December 12 of 2007, just two weeks before Christmas, our house caught fire. This was sadly the second time I had lost my home to a fire in my life time. For six months we lived in a small fifth wheel, and I once again slept on the couch and used a small closet to store all my belongings (which of course were few since the house fire). But, then when our new mobile home was put in on our property everything changed.

I remember when they we really close to being done, just a couple weeks before we moved in and we were allowed to go inside for like the first time really since my parents had picked it out. I remember going in by myself after I got home from school, sitting in my bedroom and just crying.

Now my room isn't anything special. Its a rectangular, not even that big, room. But the fact that it was mine and had a door was something that just felt so oddly wonderful. And for the first time that I could remember I got brand new furniture, not the hand-me-downs I was use to getting.

For the last four years I lived in this home, and it is the first time I feel that it deserves that name.

From the time we moved in, to just recently, my room has been themed in neon spots and stripes. But, now that I am twenty, I matured it a bit. I went for wrought iron and damask styles throughout with an emphasis on keys and hearts. It still has pops of cotton candy pink and blue, but other then that it is mostly black and white. And I even have a chandelier. We still have one last thing to do to it and that is hang up tulle on the ceiling similar to the way they do it for dances and weddings.

But, anyways, moral of the story is I love my room. Most people don't understand what it is like to not really have a place to call you own, and after so many years of not I am so grateful that now I do.

Book Review: "The Selection" by Kiera Cass

Okay, so a book review it is.

I literally just finished the book "The Selection" by Kiera Cass, and I must say I absolutely loved it.

Lets start off with a brief synopsis. SPOILERS!

The book starts off introducing the main character America Singer, a poor girl in a future version of the world, and gives a basic outline of our imaginary future. To put things simply, everything that there is now in terms of division of countries and social classes is completely different. For instance, Illea, assumed to be the USA, is ran by a royal family. And as for social classes, there are eight of them. Each family is defined into a group. One's and two's are the wealthy and can have any job and anything they want. Three's are less better off, and fours even less. But five's and beyond are considered poor and often are barely making it day to day. Also, each class has a particular occupation. For instance, the Singer family, who are fives, work in the arts.

Anyways, America is secretly dating a Six named Aspen Leger. When the Selection, a competition which chooses girls from all over to compete for the hand of Prince Maxon Schreave similar to the popular reality show The Bachelor, Aspen grows weary of his relationship with America. Ultimately, he encourages her to enter, and breaks things off with her shortly before the picks are revealed in hopes of giving her a better future. Low and behold, America, who thought it would be impossible for her to be picked, does in fact get chosen to be one of the 35 girls to join the Selection.

America leaves for the castle, which is often attacked by enemies, and in an unexpected (well for her at least) turn of events, she finds herself enjoying her stay and even begins to have feelings for Maxon. Things get even more complicated though when Aspen comes to the castle as a guard after being drafted. And thus begins the love triangle. The book ends with Maxon surprisingly cutting down the girls to a mere six finalists, including America.

Now to get to the good stuff.

Characters:
I personally love the characters. America is a strong and vivacious red head and is easily relatable for any opinionated young girl. I often found myself saying "Yep, that is exactly how I would have acted." She is an underdog, which everyone loves, and is very easy to fall for as a story book heroine. And the two love interests don't fail to bring the excitement. Aspen, the iconic boy next door, is the epitome of the high school sweetheart but with a twist. Everyone has loved someone in their life that against popular belief, they shouldn't. Though he may be hard headed at times when it comes to what is best for the both of them, he truly does love America and does want to spend his life with her. And as for Prince Charming, he definitely brings back those feelings of wanting to become a princess. He is a rival to America's sass, and also a good leader in training. It is hard not to root for both boys.

Setting:
Illea is a bit confusing, and the set up is probably the only downfall of an otherwise amazing novel. I felt the book lacked a good explanation of how things worked. For instance, in the beginning they used the terms five's and six's without really explaining what it meant so for a good portion of the beginning of the book I was confused as to what was going on. Also, the fact that this was some post invasion world, it would have been a lot better to know more about how things became the way that they were. Hopefully, we will see that depth in the next novel.

Writing style:
Cass does a great job at writing this novel, especially for someone so young. Before purchasing this for my Amazon Kindle I read the reviews and many said that Cass did a poor job at writing and that the book was atrocious. I found a quite different opinion. As an aspiring writer myself, Cass's novel becoming such a quick sensation (even a movie/TV adaption) I found much inspiration from this novel. She showed that even though she was young, she could easily stand up with writers with far more experience.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and cannot wait until "The Elite" is finally released. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys young adult romances or just wants to once more feel like they could be a princess.

Changes

It has been a while oh beautiful creative outlet know at my blog. Though no one ever reads this, I feel partial to returning to the habit of posting. I love writing, more then just about anything, and blogging has sort of become this cathartic thing for me to partake in. Now, if someone actually was to read this, I would of course be very grateful, but even more so I would be surprised. Don't get me wrong, I have people in my life who care about me, but they are a small few and already know me well enough to not really need to read a daily blog about my life. But, hopefully someone who doesn't already know me this well may come across this blog and find themselves intrigued enough to read.

Now, since my last post many a thing has occurred to me.

First off, back in May I believe it was, I left University of Phoenix on a terribly sour note. For lack of a better way to put it, I was scammed, and ultimately wound up having over 5000 dollars in loans taken out that were not suppose to be all the while being told the money I was getting was a grant, when instead it was actually a loan. Not to mention the low grade education you get, all in all I would not recommend this school to ANYONE.

So, in just about two weeks I will be returning to my previous Alma Matter, Yakima Valley Community College, to gain my degree as a Pharmacy Tech. I am thrilled about this decision, both attending the former school I had actually enjoyed, as well as the career path I have finally decided on. And I am excited for a challenge again. I am taking three classes, all three of which my mom (who is getting her Medical Billing and Coding degree) has already taken. Firstly I have a Computer Literacy class which is mostly online, I only have to attend a class once a week and I am actually taking it with my best friend Sierra. My second class is a Legal Concepts class, which is all about medical law. My mom loved this class and as someone who for a long time considered a degree in law, I should as well. And my last class is Medical Terminology, a class that though my mom passed, definitely kicked her in the butt. Nevertheless, I cannot wait for school.

I also finally went to the doctors for the mysterious persistent headaches I have been getting for over a year now. After blood tests and a scan of my brain, nothing was discovered to be the cause. I began taking vitamins and it seemed to minimize them (though of course it could have been all in my head, pun intended). But, within about two weeks they returned and did so with a vengeance.On the positive side, I did find out I somehow lost twenty pounds. My mom suspects it may be MSG causing the headaches, but since there are several secret names it goes by and is in many foods I fear that it would be nearly impossible to eliminate completely. It would require me eating ALL fresh foods, which at my dads place is simple, but at my moms it isn't. Still, a healthier eating habit would not be bad at all because quite frankly I need to be in better shape.

I am still a social recluse, but hopefully with returning to school I will be able to change that. Though, I do a lot better around new people then I did, lets say in middle school. I can actually joke and talk to people I have never met before, which makes middle school me cringe of course. So, hopefully with that, I will be able to branch out.

Oh! I am also no longer a teenager. Back in June, on the 22, I turned twenty. It still feels weird to say, but I am an adult.

Okay, I think I have wrote enough. Hopefully I will get back into the needed habit of writing on a more regular basis on here.

Changes come frequently,
Make things anew,
But I know that in the future
Changes still won't be few.

Wow This Is Long . . . Thats What She Said

Time. It goes by slow and quick all at once. I am sitting here, wasting time of course, and just thinking. Thinking is something I tend to find myself doing a lot, there is not much else to do in my life. As fantastic as online college is, I do find myself lacking in the social department of life. I know I need to get out more, just go do something. This lack of a social life is probably why I miss high school so much. In high school your social life is why you wake up and go to school everyday, at least for most people it is. I went from having a fairly large inner circle of friends, to really only having one friend. I do want to get out, meet new people, get new friends, but I would be lying if I said that did not terrify me.

So how do I do this? Meet new people that is. Do I go to the mall and introduce myself to someone who I would think I would get along with? Or would that come across as weird? Is their clubs that I can join? Like a young adult book club or something like that?

Or is my best bet getting my associates degree finished and then transfering to a traditional university to meet people there? I know a handful of my high school friends would encourage me to transfer to their college, but is that what I want? I do not want to be a hermit, so I need to do something.

Anyway's, back to school. I finished my first set of classes this last Sunday. A 86 % in my financial planning class, and a 98% in my university studies class. Overall I am pretty happy with how I did during my first quarter. I should have started classes yesterday, however my financial aid was still in processing last week, so they bumped me to start next week. This does not really bother me all that much considering it gives me a nice week break. I am really looking forward to my new classes though. I am in my first communications class, which is the equivalent to any english 101 class, and I am also in a health and welness class.

Since I had an unexpected free week though I have been giving myself a head start on the upcoming reading material. The communications class text is simple enough, it is stuff I have read or heard in english classes many a time before. My health class is covering similar subjects as my high school health class did, but the text is actually pretty interesting. This health class is based upon the idea that health is more then your physical wellbeing, which I actually agree.

I want to do well in both classes, so I need to keep up on my reading this quarter. That was actually probably my only downfall last quarter was that I would get behind on reading and have to catch up before the midterm and the final. I still did well considering.

University of Phoenix is amazing though, I am really loving how it is set up. I still worry about the claims that employers do not even consider it a real degree and toss the applications in the trash with its name on it. However, I know people who have friends or family who graduated from Phoenix and are working and had a simple time getting their job. Still though, I think it might be best if I transfer to recieve my bachelors, then maybe transfer back for my masters and doctorite. I really do want to experience traditional University.

I went to the beach a couple weeks ago, and had a wonderful time. I was accompanied by my mom, stepdad, and my best friend Sierra. It was such a nice trip. We left on a Tuesday morning, bright and early. We drove along the Oregon side of the Columbia river, stopping at Multenomah Falls, and a Subway/Popeye's for lunch. It was about 1:30 PM when we arrived at our hotel in Seaside, OR. We were early so we drove through town to get a lay of the land, and then headed back to the hotel after getting the all clear to do so.

Once there we set all of our belongings down, used the restroom, and did anything else that we needed. Then we headed to the main strip and parked the Jeep and began to explore oneside off the shops. We looked at the beach for about five minutes knowing we would spend more time with it later. Then we went to the aquarium and fed the seals, which was just as fun and adorable as I remembered, and then ate dinner. The second day we travelled to Astoria so Sierra could see the town, and house, where "Goonies" was filmed. We also watched the wild seals on the dock. They just sit there in the sun, ocassionally bickering. It was adorable.

After the seals we climbed a hill and saw the Astoria towed. It was an amazing view from the hill, one of the prettiest I have ever seen. The weather was perfect up there too. It was sunny, but the alititude cooled the air and so did the slight breeze. The only downfall of the experience was an actual fall. Yes, I the master of clumsy, fell. And guess what, I re-hurt my weak ankle too. But it is better now, so it does not matter.

When we got back to Seaside we headed to the beach. Sierra and I spent the next two and half hours I believe, in the ocean. It was not cold like it had been so many times before, but the absolute perfect temperature. Neither of us had initially planned to go in the water, but it drew us out further and further, until we were waist deep. It was amazing. I love the beach so much. We ended up in Cannon Beach for a few hours, and had a very enjoyable time there as well.

Thursday we finished the Seaside walk. Also, we drove all the way down to Lincoln City, about a two hour drive, just so my mom and stepdad could gamble at the casino there. It was not a bad trip though, we actually had a lot of fun in the car and at all the site stops along the way. We especially loved seeing the marshmellow looking hay.

The next morning we headed home, sadly. On the way however we stopped at the Portland zoo, and ending the trip on an extremely high note.

Well, I have probably bored who ever, if anyone, reading this, so I will stop for now.