Once Upon A Time

A while ago today, a person was born that would change my life forever. A woman that would teach me so much. A woman that would mean everything to me.

This woman is my mother. Okay, so maybe it was a little bit more than 29 years, but only a little :).

On December 29th, an unnamed number of years ago, Martha Lorraine Workman( now Wallwork) was born. She was a precocious child, as all women in our family are, and delighted all that came into contact with her. Every morning the birds and neighborhood wildlife would braid her hair and help her dress for the day. Whenever she stepped out of the house, the clouds parted and the sun shone on her almost white blond hair. You wouldn't be able to tell now, but yes, she had blond hair. The wind and trees around her seemed to beat out a melody as she walked down the street.

You might ask why the world and its creatures extended themselves to be near her, to even catch a glimpse of her. It's because they knew what I know, and what everyone that knows my mother knows too. That she is fantastic. There is no other way to put it.

Smart? Nope, she's more than smart.
Funny? Not! She's hysterical.
Loving? Too small a word for what she is.

So the only word I'm left with is fantastic. FANTASTIC. F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C.

Below are listed the reasons I feel my mother is FANTASTIC.

1. She gave birth to me :).
2. She makes me laugh
3. She believes in me, and not in the way a mom has to believe in her children, but in a real way.
4. She's freaking intelligent, and has helped me with so many school projects it's ridiculous.
5. She took me out of school to go to the movies.
6. She should have been a rockstar in a former life. ROCKBAND tells me so.
7. She passed her love of reading on to me.
8. She makes wicked good punch
9.She understands the need of a good purse.
10. She always forgives me, no matter how many times I screw up.

As you can see, basically, my mom is better than your mom. :P

I would post a picture of her awesomeness, but I don't have a photo that could possibly contain it all, so I won't even try.

Happy Birthday Mamacita! I love you!!!

That Song in My Head

Do you ever hear a song and instantly just fall in love? With just a few notes a song can work its way into your heart, changing you.

I love songs like that. Songs that you hear and can't help but listen to over and over and over again.
Below are listed some of the songs that I can't get out of my head.

1. Anything I'm Not - Lenka
2. Just Dance - Lady Gaga
3. Come on Get Higher - Matt Nathanson
4. How I Could Just Kill A Man- Charlotte Sometimes
5. I Caught Myself- Paramore
6. Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco
7. They Weren't There - Missy Higgins

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Picture with Santa. It was Stephany's(bottom right) first time, she's Jewish.

Monday night I got to spend time with some of my friends from high school(We haven't all been together since last March!) and go to lunch and Christmas in the Park. It was great! I've inlcuded some pictures from that, and also from our late-night Jack in the Box run. It was fun!

Pictures as a tree

Gingerbread house inside the Fairmont

On the Light Rail(sp) on the way to Downtown SJ

Oreo and Vanilla Milkshakes

Mirror picture

The gang minus Brittney

Tasty

It Takes a Village

This past weekend I've had the opportunity to spend some time with close friends and family. Having been living in a new place where I know few people, it is easy to forget how it feels to actually be known by people. To visit with someone who knows you. Someone who knows your favorite color or what you want to be when you grow up, to just feel that connection.

I like that connection, and it might seem a little self-centered, but I like when people pay attention to me. Not like I'm-the-only-person-of-importance attention, but like I'm-important-enough-to-have-your-attention attention. Does that make sense?

When you talk to someone that knows you, not only do you get that conversation, but you have all the previous memories as well. Like being benched together, game nights, late-night sleepovers, jokes, and embarassing stuff too.

It's startling to realize how much the people around us influence and shape who we become, to really see how individuals impact a life. Every person in my life has rubbed a little of themselves off on me.

My family has taught me to laugh and respect myself. I've grown up in a family where if you can't laugh at yourself, you're going to be crying by yourself. There was a time when I hated that, but now it's one of the things I like most about my family. We laugh with and at each other.

Likewise laughing with my friends is my favorite. While Buddy the Elf says smiling is his favorite, laughing is my favorite. We can just laugh and laugh, but at the same time we can talk too.

I appreciate all those who have infulenced me. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a child, and I had one heck of a village.

Recent Additions to the Shelf

If you have been following my blog, then you know that said shelf I am referring to is my nesting shelf, the shelf that holds all the goodies I am anxiously awaiting to use when I move to Rexburg in the beginning of January.

In addition to the kitchen jems I've been collecting, I've had my eye out for things to decorate my space, as I will be a lucky college student who gets her own room.

For the past couple of years I've had this insatiable love for black and white photography. Especially old black and white photography. I just love the simpleness of it all, capturing a specific moment in time, a time that will never be again. It's beautiful. These pictures make me happy. It's indescribable. I just love the way they make me feel.

Each picture takes me back to a moment in my life, even if I wasn't around when they were taken. I feel blessed to live in a time where we have the technology to capture these moments forever.

A glimpse at my collection...

Good Read

So I borrowed this book from my Aunt Pat and I really liked it. I encourage everyone to go out and read it. It teaches a lot about perceptions and how we perceive each other. I've heard her other books are good as well.

Thoughts on Dreams and Fears

Do you ever think that we get in our own way? Like we hold part of ourselves back when we dream, so that we don't go full force and fail? Like the idea of success scares us because it is something unknown and mysterious?

I've been thinking about that lately as I have debated whether or not I need to change my major for school. As of now I have aspirations to publish novels and edit them as well.( hey, writing isn't very profitable at first, it's smart to have a day job) I love words. Always have.

I love the way ingenious authors string them together to form a sentence, and how they take those sentences and build a plot and develop characters that touch you. I love the obscure vocabulary that we don't use so often anymore( I admit that I have indeed read the dictionary, parts of it anyway)

It astounds me sometimes what a miracle writing really is. I've been an avid reader for all my life. My punishments were never no TV or no going out with friends, it was always no reading tonight. I used to take a flashlight to bed with me and read under my covers, only immerging when it got too hot and I needed fresh air.

I recently doubted that that's what I wanted to do. I was scared, I think, of trying to break into such an industry as publishing. I think me wanting to switch my major was an acceptable way of failing without really failing. I've never considered myself cowardly, and I'd prefer not to start now.

I'm ever so grateful to have a mother like mine. She thinks I'm brilliant, not in a my-kid's-smarter-than-your- kid way, but just in a she-knows-I-have-so-much-potential- and-could-set-the-writing-world-on-fire kind of way. And I'm starting to believe her. She's not lied to me before, she's told me the hard stuff I never wanted to hear, and she's praised me. I respect her opinion more than anyone else I know.

It's a scary thing basing a career on the tastes of others, but it's thrilling as well. I've thought and prayed about this, and haven't felt an urging to find another profession. I think I knew that this was the right one for me.

So I guess that this is the announcement that I'm not changing my major. I'm going to stick with what makes me happy...words

I hope you guys don't take yourselves out of the game because it's scary. Anything great is worth fighting for. So go and fight for your dreams, I'm going to.

If you're interested in some of my fave vocab, look below...

widdershins- counter clockwise
bailiwick- area of expertise
grok-comprehend
ennui- boredom

To fellow vocabulary nuts out there, Webster's Word of the Day emails are quite cool...

Nestingus Nonpregnantus

As my departure for Rexburg approaches, I find myself having this insane urge to nest. Nesting, I've heard is something expectant mothers go through. I'll tell you all right now that I am not pregnant, so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Especially you Edward Cullen, wouldn't it suck to get two human girls pregnant? Just kidding :)

Any who, I seem to see things everywhere that I think my apartment in Idaho HAS to have for me to survive there. A new bath mat, cute mugs, a crock pot etc. I even briefly thought about purchasing a quesadilla maker, I had almost added it to my cart when I realized that a frying pan works just as well, and is something that I already have. I also considered buying this mold that makes shot glasses out of ice, and I don't even do shots, or drink alcohol for that matter, but they seemed so cool. I mean come on, have you ever thought about how awesome it would be to drink a beverage out of a cup made of ice?? If you haven't I bet you are now aren't you? Come on, admit it. It sounds pretty cool...literally. I kid, I kid, a bad joke, I know. I also know I used a lot of commas in that last sentence. Hmm...

I just have this urge to purchase everything in sight that might be the slightest bit useful at my new place. I have a shelf in my garage where I keep my purchases in preparation for the trip to their new home in Rexburg. Over the past 5 months that I have been home, that shelf has slowly accumulated stuff. First it was a set of chic black dishes and leopard print silverware (be jealous), then it was a set of colorful mugs, then 350 thread count sheets, and a crock pot, and cutting boards, now I've added fun measuring cups and an apple slicer (they really are way better than a regular knife, I'll post a picture of the one I use) Oh, and an adorable polka-dotted bath mat from Target that I got on sale.

I don't know if this is how everyone feels when they move in to a new place, or if I'm suffering from some bizarre syndrome. Like instead of a sympathetic pregnancy, maybe sympathetic nesting. Of course no one I live with is pregnant, so who I am being sympathetic toward remains a mystery.

Does anyone else ever feel this way? Am I an anomaly? A non-pregnant nester? Who knows, but I hope it goes away soon. I'm running out of room on my shelf...

If you are interested in seeing some of my purchases and seeing how cute my apartment is going to be, here are some pictures...

Things on my Christmas list this year....

When I walk outside and feel the biting chill against my face I am reminded that Christmas and winter are forthcoming. The leaves are changing and falling to the ground, the sun sets earlier and the sky is no longer a sunny blue every day. Stores put up their Christmas displays and carols can be heard on the radio, heralding the ever approaching arrival of Christmas.

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Not just because of the gifts that I receive, although who am I to refuse that which my family wants to bestow upon me? :) But also because of the spirit it invokes in me. I love getting out the Christmas decorations and unwrapping things I haven't seen since the year before, when I unwrapped them last. The discovery of the ornament I made in kindergarten always makes me smile, likewise with my hand-print wreath. The dozen or so water globes that my mom has collected are an integral part of my Christmas experience. I love to walk around the room and twist the knob on each one and listen to the music play. Sitting in a dark living room, watching a blazing fire in the fireplace while Christmas tunes play in the background is a yearly thing for me. I love lining up in the hallway Christmas morning, youngest to oldest, before entering the living room. You can see how Katie, being the oldest, might hate this last tradition.

Christmas is all about memories. At least mine is. I love to remember Christmases past, the things we did, the people we saw, and the memories we made. Like the time my dad couldn't wait until Christmas morning for us to have our presents, so he woke me and Katie up at like 12:30 or something and told us that Santa had come early. I love the time when our family went to Disneyland for Christmas with the Condie’s. I loved their faces even more when we pulled up and they realized that we were coming too. I love reading the Bible story in Luke about the birth of Christ.

Sure, I love presents, but I love remembering more. So this holiday season, remember what makes your Christmas, or whichever holiday you observe, special. It's not the gifts, it's the memories you make.

Not to totally negate the idea of gift giving, here's what I'm hoping will end up under my tree this year.I am in college after all, and need all the help I can get... :) And yes I do realize none of these are really educational, although I've learned some pretty cool stuff from Bones...

I'm in love! I'm in love! And I don't care who knows it!

As my title alludes to, I'm in love. Not with a man, or even chocolate at this moment in time, but with Superficial by BEDHEAD!!! Inside this small purple plastic spray bottle, I'm convinced lie the secrets of the universe. Or at least the secrets to totally rockin hair!

It has the added bonus of smelling just like PEZ candy. Who doesn't like the way PEZ smells? This magical elixir goes on wet hair and does something miraculous, so that when your hair is dry, it's shiny and soft and really quite pretty looking. I want to kiss who ever invented it, because it's changed my life. I'm currently snitching from my mom's bottle( what are mom's for I ask you?), but am definitely going to buy a couple bottles for myself before I go back to school in January. It's hard enough having cute hair in Idaho. I mean if the snow doesn't get you, then it's the wind or having to wear a beanie all the time. I need all the help I can get.

I fully recommend it to one and all, you won't regret it. I buy it at CosmoProf, but you have to be a member(or have family that is a member :) ) to shop there. I'm pretty sure it's availabe elsewheres too. So go buy it, it's a must!!

Yee!!!

Only 5 hours and 5 minutes away from the awesomeness that is going to be Twilight!!!!! My friend Toni and I are going to the 12:10 showing tonight. It's going to be awesome. I'll take pictures and blog about it later tonight.

I'm just so stoked! It's going to be amazing!! :) :) :) :) :)

Generation Fruitcake

No, the title is not a politically incorrect dig at the current events in our country, it pertains to a pretty hysterical family dinner.
This past Sunday, my family and my grandparents went to my Aunt Amy's house for dinner. Some how our conversation turned to fruitcake and how much my grandparents love it at the holidays. The rest of us were a lot less definitive.

In the words of one of my favorite comedians, Mr. Jim Gaffigan. "Fruit good, cake great, fruitcake, nasty crap. What goes in to fruitcake? Anything but fruit?"

Anywho, my aunt brought up an interesting idea. She was wondering how successful fruitcake would be in the next 15 years or so, seeing as fruitcake is generally more beloved by our older citizens. Who, after these ilustrious fruitcake eaters are gone, would buy this treat?

Of course my grandparents protested that they weren't the only one's that liked it, and that a certain brand of fruitcake sells out in like October or something. So we went searching for this life-altering fruitcake , Benson's fruitcake,on the internet and amongst our searchings we found a nurse desperately searching for a Benson's fruitcake. She could not find it anywhere.

Fast forward a couple paragraphs and it comes out that this nurse wants the fruitcake for one of her patients, and elderly woman living in an assisted living home.

So we were pretty much cracking up. 10 minutes after we had laid out our thesis, evidence fell right into our laps. I'm sure it seems funnier to my family, but it will definitely go down as a Wallwork Classic moment.

Weekend Round-up

Hanford at sunset


So my blog friends, this past weekend I didn't do anything too exciting, as opposed to my friend Toni, who had her car towed while visiting a friend.

My Relief Society (church group) took a train to Hanford, CA, which is about an hour drive from my house and shorter on the train. We then walked from the train station to Superior Dairy to get ice cream. Apparently it's been around for over 70 years and is really good, and a community gem. The place looked kind of like a dive, but it was really fun. All the ice cream is made on site and served in huge portions. They don't have a ton of different flavors, and that bothers some people, but I like it. I think sometimes simplicity is best.

Anyways, after I told my parents about the trip, my mom immediately began making plans to go on a family Superior Dairy ice cream trip. She thought my family being a bunch of food connoisseurs, and Superior is a new discovery for us, that it might be fun to check it out.

Also I have to say that I kind of fell in love with Hanford, it's streets and greenery very reminiscent of Stars Hallow from the tv show Gilmore Girls. I kept hoping that Luke would ask me if I wanted frys at the Dairy, and for Kirk to offer me some ridiculous thing he's working on, and for Taylor to storm in and provoke Luke into a fight. It's always been my secret to desire to live in a small town like that, where everyone knows everyone and the people are happy.

Of course this quaint small town needs to be located within 20 or so miles of a big city where I can get all the essentials. Please, I'm a romatic, not mentally insane. :)

Book Learning

So as January fast approaches I'm getting excited to head back up to the great state of Idaho. Just Wednesday night I had the opportunity to register for my classes for the Winter 2009 semester.

It's crazy to think that I'm already a sophomore. Sometimes I think I should still be in high school and not on my own hundreds of miles away from home. Despite the distance from warm sunny weather, I love it there. The small town that basically has rolled up the sidewalks by 11, not your typical college town, and Walmart, basically the only place to shop in town. It pretty much has everything.

Anywho, back to my classes. I'm currently registered for 15 credits. I usually take 14, so we;ll see how this extra credit works out.

I'm taking 3 web classes, but one's only 6 weeks long and starts in February. Why web classes when campus is literally across the street from me? It will be winter in Rexburg and that means snow, lots of it. I've heard talk that this is going to be the worst winter in years. It's no fun walking to class in a snow storm. Cut to last year when it was -22 outside, and every other school in the area, and surrounding, was cancelled. Did we get class off? No, I vividly remember that day. I had the uncomfortable joy of having mt nose hairs frozen. Don't be schocked or disgusted, we're all friends here. Anyways if uo live in Rexburg during the winter it's only a matter of time before it happens to you. And I will be living at the top of a hill, where it will get rather frosty. Any thing I can do to make my trek to campus minimal, is okay in my book.

The most exciting part about my schedule though, is that I managed to get no classes on Friday. So 3 day weekends the whole semester!! Yee! And I have one class on Mon/Wed, that don't start until 12:45. I'm more than a little excited!!

I'm also going to be reunited with my sister, who's become my best buddy for the most part. I miss her mucho, especially being in a new place where I pretty much know no one. She gets me. I will also be reunited with my crew, who are nearly as anxious to be back as me. If you reference my first post, they are the 2 nerds sitting in the big blue tub, in our living room, in our COLLEGE apartment. Yeah, we'll never really grow up.

Do I Dazzle You?

So the movie that I have been following loyally since its early days of production is ready to hit the streets next week!

As a big fan of all 4 books, I can't wait to see the movie. Sometimes I get a little sad that Edward is not real. I think to myself, " I wonder what Bella and Edward are doing right now? We should be friends. I'm a pretty cool person." Hahaha no, but really, I get really involved with the characters in books that I read and they almost become like friends to me.

Which is why I can't wait to see these guys in real life! Twilight the Movie opens 12/21/08 on Friday, but you can get all four books, Twilight,New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer available now. Do it. It's kind of necessary. :)

Oops!

P.S Ignore the entire first paragraph that has some how turned itself into a link ( I take no blame in the situation) I'm not sure how to punish the computer to make it unlink. :)

Blog Gone It!

So I've started a blog. Not in the hopes that anyone will read it religiously or even care about my opinion ( although that would be pretty cool) , but because I want to be a writer, And that means that to be a writer, you actually have to write. About anything, anywhere, any time. I have not been doing that so well, so maybe this will be a way to help me. It will be a strange journey to be sure, but hopefully exciting,


I feel as if I am at a crossroads in my life. I'm not really a kid anymore, and although I am legally an adult, I don't feel as if I am ready to take on the "real world" A la' Britney Spears' song I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, an awesomely bad song if I ever heard one. The very idea of rent, and electrictiy bills scares the crap out of me! I would much rather just stay at home snuggled in my bed with a stack of fantastic books to read, and a yummy snack made from a recipe found on Bakerella.

Then I think about the amazing things the world has to offer. Relationships with people, the beach(good for books) See's Candy ( good for anything), shoes, necklaces, bracelets and so much more. I'm truly blessed with the things I have. Sure my life's not perfect and in a million years, I never would have chosen the path that I am on now, but moping gets us nothing. I've done that for too long, and can tell you that it a waste of time and cute jewelery. So in no particular order or degree of importance here are some of the amazing things my life has to offer me...