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...