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Hello 2014! I rang in the new year with family, sparkling cider, lots of yelling/screaming, and of course the countdown. This called for some 2014 goals and looking ahead to the future! Head on over to that post where I created a link up for others to share their goal posts. This may have been a bad idea . . . we’ll see how it turns out. However it does end up, I will certainly continue writing monthly goals because it’s been a great way to focus myself on becoming a better person.

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It’s January, holy cow. Only 12 days until school starts again!! Yesterday I ordered my books (under $100 so far, whoohoo!). I also put together my weekly schedule and have been working on Ravens Respect Life shenanigans over the last few days too. It looks like this semester will not be much easier than last. BUT I feel better equipped to handle it. So bring it.

— 3 —

Have you ever seen this video?

Oh, and then this song made out of it?

I’m not really sure what to think about it except wow. That’s a whole lot of cat lovin’. As a non-pet person, I can’t quite relate, but I thought it was funny (even though she was totally serious). Thoughts?

— 4 —

California weather is the bomb. I was getting used to temperatures in the teens in Kansas but then I came home and BAM! It’s in the 60’s or 70’s. Hello sunshine. I could never live in Washington or any place that was overcast a lot.

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My camera is not here yet and I feel naked without it. Yup. I am so used to being the one taking pictures. But now I don’t have pictures from this holiday season. Good thing family members have cameras!

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What inspires you? I was thinking of writing a post of inspirational things . . . I really enjoy reading things about people who beat the odds against them. Motivational things on Pinterest are also awesome.

— 7 —

Have you ever gone back and read things you wrote years ago? Well, I started writing in journals almost 8 years ago and let’s just say my life has changed a lot (except for my penmanship *sigh*). It’s really interesting to read what went through my younger mind because I don’t always remember the little details I recorded. For some time I was set on being a broadway star which makes me laugh my head off now. But that’s a story for another day.

Here’s to ending break with sleeping in, family time, reading, and lots of other things before class picks up again 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

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Merry Christmas! You know one of the many reasons being Catholic is so awesome? We’ve got 12 days of celebrating after the fact. Woot! Happy Birthday Baby J.

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It’s lovely being home and not having classes to think about. I haven’t had too many sleeping in days, but have enough relaxing time that it’s been a real vacation from school (mostly). I have a growing stack of good books to dig into, and am looking forward on starting those before break is over.

— 3 —

Guess what decided to break when I got home? My camera. Uh huh. I am always the one taking pictures at school and love sharing them with people. And it broke. I didn’t drop it or anything. It just won’t turn on. Nikon has a weird return process where they force you to pay before the item is serviced and the base amount they were going to charge me was the same a refurbished camera would cost. So I bought a refurbished one which is on its way. Now hurry up so I can take pictures again!!!

— 4 —

I am so excited to bring this new pro-life film to Benedictine! We can’t announce the details on the time and location yet since they haven’t been confirmed, but I can tell you that THIS is what we’ll be showing.

Get excited!!!!

— 5 —

Baby fix of the week? Check out these 17 babies having (hilariously cute) bad hair days.

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I thought this was a pretty good video: 20 things we should say more often. Anyone want a corndog now?

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And now it’s time for more family time, visiting, family parties, cooking, and more. Posts are in the works and I’m loving getting back into writing. See you again soon!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

— 1 —

Hello from the other side of finals! It feels oh so good to be done and be able to chill in my pajamas at noon…quite a rarity in my book. A break was much needed after all the stress of this semester. Now I’ve been spending the last couple days babysitting, enjoying family time, baking (yum!), singing Christmas songs, and getting the festive spirit on.

— 2 —

Christmas cards . . . love ’em? Hate ’em? I absolutely LOVE getting Christmas cards. Sending them is not as fun, but I think it’s nice to personally remember people who are (or were in the past) a significant part of your life, and keep them in the loop with how yours is going. People have definitely cut down on them over the last several years, and I so wish this were something more people cared about. I mean, getting mail is just so fun! And who doesn’t love having a short little note that someone took the time to hand write? Well, I’m guessing people like this probably wouldn’t feel like doing it:

Don’t be like that, though! Christmas is a time to celebrate the joy and awesomeness of Jesus being born (like a boss in Bethlehem).

— 3 —

Have you been keeping up with the Duck Dynasty thing? Check out my latest thoughts on it here. It’s funny because the comments on articles (Yahoo News, etc.) are highly supportive of Phil, while most of the reporting is not. Hey media, maybe you should try to reflect the actual sentiments of your readers! Almost all the people say something like “It’s what be believes. Deal with it.”. It’s nice to see that for once!

— 4 —

Ever watch the show “What would you do?” Here’s a video from it that I saw recently:

Pretty neat, huh? There aren’t many shows I really enjoy watching, but this one is really interesting. I love seeing how people respond to crazy situations. Sure gives me a bit of hope for society sometimes!

— 5 —

Look at this beautiful piece of art I saw recently! Isn’t it beautiful? It’s almost time for Jesus to be born! Yay! Look at those smiles 🙂

— 6 —

Need some awesomeness to add to your day? Check out these 10 “Mind Blowing Images of Human Life in the Womb“. Life is pretty amazing.

— 7 —

And now It’s almost time for Christmas. Enjoy the time with your family and friends, and don’t forget the reason for the season!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

— 1 —

Finals….What’s to say? I had one yesterday in quantitative analysis, which wasn’t too bad. Yay! Then I had the time wrong for my accounting one today (oh my gosh nearly a heart attack), so I’m taking it with another class section on Monday. My macroeconomics final is on Monday as well. Management and Developmental Psychology are on Tuesday. So basically I can’t do anything but study (and eat chocolate) until then. Whew! I am going to be SO relieved to be on my way to the airport in less than 4 days.

These last few days have consisted in lots of stress (well, much less than it could be), chocolate, crazy dance parties during blast hours, a random jig on my desk, impromptu song belting, final dreading, and oh yeah. Lots of studying too 🙂

— 2 —

It feels really weird to be here this late in December, and I feel like I’m missing out on part of Christmas: the anticipation, traditions, celebrations, etc. 4 more days, 4 more days, 4 more days!

— 3 —

This Monday was my concert chorale performance, and here is a playlist of the songs. Snuggle up for some holy awesomeness!

— 4 —

Have you read “Heaven is for Real”? I haven’t, but it’s neat that they’re making a movie out of it. It’s not too often that you see a movie that completely breaks normal story-lines! Check out the trailer:

— 5 —

You know something awesome? We’ve broken our record for March for Life sign ups and will be bringing 8 buses! In just the last 10 days we’ve signed up nearly half of those people, and oh my goodness it’s exciting. Check out this neat clip about the March from an upcoming pro-life film.

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— 7 —

And now, back to studying. See you next week for a happy post-finals celebration!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

For the first time ever, I’m writing these ahead of time so I don’t have to take time away from my Thanksgiving break. Enjoy!

— 1 —

Ah, Thanksgiving. All the gratitude is refreshing to me, and it’s lovely to see people reflecting on what they are thankful for. Me? I’m thankful to have gotten through most of this semester. And of course I’m thankful for the requisite family, friends, job, education, etc. The last year and a half since coming to college have been a growing time for me, and I’m so thankful to have the opportunities here to strive to become a better person.

— 2 —

Let the holiday season begin! Today is the first day I allow myself to listen to Christmas music so you can rest assured that I will spend most of today belting songs because: joy. Christmas music is so joyful, and I love that. You can get all scrooge on me and complain about the crazy shopping and greedy people, but I’m gonna sit here singing about how happy it is that Jesus is going to be born. One thing my family has done for many, many years is the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. Pictured below, it is said 15 times a day (we would usually sit down and say them all together) from November 30th to December 24th. Just google it to find amazing stories of favors that have been granted through it.

— 3 —

Did you see Pope Francis’ letter this week? Evangelii Gaudium looks pretty awesome, and I’m looking forward to reading it (yeah, right after Lumen Fidei…).

— 4 —

Don’t nice people make you happy? I found this random acts of kindness compilation on Pinterest, and want to go out and do all them! The only issue is that most involve money. And I’m a college student. So I’ll have to spend some time compiling ideas that are not expensive.

— 5 —

Remember how I gave blood a couple weeks ago? (Nope, probably not. I was kidding. Who remembers things like that?) Well, my arm is just now recovered. Yes, it took about 2 weeks to fully get back to normal….the inner part of my elbow was rather sore, and I got to witness science by watching various stages of the bruise. Isn’t that just beautiful?!?! It was actually pretty interesting, so I took pictures. But I decided to exercise a little discretion by not posting them here because it seems a little TMI. You’re welcome.

— 6 —

What are some of your favorite unusual Christmas songs? One of my favorite (not really unusual though) is Breath of Heaven, which is one we’re doing for concert chorale. It is seriously so beautiful, and I’m writing a whole post on it. The arrangement we’re singing has a lot of dynamics, and we’re singing it in the large Abbey church. I hope to have a video to share, AND it will be streaming live!

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I will be done with this semester in just over 2 weeks! It’s terrifying and exciting at the same time. And I hope I don’t feel like the child in that picture. Suffice it to say that my media presence will be somewhat lacking during this time because I’d like to end the semester by doing okay on my finals. Which means  studying hard instead of writing things about random things. The challenge is looming, so I’d best be off to meet my match!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!