#feelinghappy + I slipped [but survived]

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So tonight we just decided we wanted some cake. (I like basically everything surgery haha so of course I was like, “Yeah! Let’s do it!” ;)) So I went and whipped up a carrot cake (from the box...) with cream cheese frosting (and the only reason it was carrot was because I was like, “Ooh! Cream cheese frosting! Can that be with white cake?” [Which... I’d been holding in my hand. And I probably didn’t say those exact words. But something like it. ;)] And then I was informed you do that with spice cake or like carrot cake. So, carrot cake it was... [I love that stuff. <3]). And after I do my therapy, I’ll hopefully be able to have some while we watch The Croods. #feelinghappy :)

(Note: The cake looks nothing like the picture. It was just a picture of a cake and it looked amazingly yummy. =D Just thought I’d mention that... ya know... just because ;) On another side note concerning the cake: I’m pretty sure I just realized that those are pretzels on the top. Hmm... #random)

Anyway, so, earlier today I was walking, and it’s like seriously slick outside. (as in icy) The roads were all icy and so were parking lots and sidewalks today. So, anyway [again], I was stepping out onto a parking lot today and I just slipped. Like... I kind of almost did the splits. And the container of onions in the vanilla yogurt container (don’t ask... haha you can if you want ;)) came rolling out of my bag. Otherwise, I wasn’t hurt.

lol believe it or not, I was laughing. :D

I was walking with my friend, and immediately they were like, “Are you alright?! How’s your ACL?!” (Because last March I went and tore it... and I wasn’t wearing my neon yellow brace today...) I was just like laughing really hard (I suppose because it didn’t hurt and just seemed hilarious in the moment =P ;D) and was like, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!” So, note to self: Walk more carefully on potentially icy surfaces. ;)

Have a great day! :) God bless! :)

Be a hero,
Anna

The Musical Dunes of Narnia

My photo, please don’t pin or take or anything. Thanks! :)

Dear Readers,

This last Sunday as we were coming home from church, I stared out the window of the vehicle we were traveling in. The drifts of snow on the side of the road were pretty high, probably about a foot or so. The wind was blowing, making the loose pieces of snow fly and skitter across the ground. The way that the snow lay in the drifts almost looked like sand dunes, the way they skittered and lay. But I knew that if I touched them, instead of feeling the warm grains of sand, I would feel a bitter cold.

Today, the snow’s all crunchy around here, and some of it has actually melted off. (Except I think that might’ve happened before today...) It’s pretty cold out, but there’s not really any wind. It’s kind of funny, when the New Year came, I almost felt like it should be almost Spring again. But, really, winter’s kind of just started, though going closer and closer to the middle. (Weird to think it starts in like the middle of December. I feel like it should just start on December 1st...)

Lately, I’ve been listening to some “new” songs that we’ve found. (I put them in “”, because some of them aren’t really that new, I just haven’t told you about them. Of course, they’re from January, so I suppose they kind of are new...) One of my favorites is a song from a little short called Paperman, which is like one of my FAVORITE SONGS EVER to listen to now. =)

(And that’s it, right up there.^) Seriously, I love it so much. <3 It’s so like soothing and happy and sad all at the same time... Have you guys ever heard it before? :) I’m planning on getting this with some of my iTunes money so I can transport it to my writing computer. :)

Another song I’ve really been enjoying lately is Closer to Your Heart by Natalie Grant. OH. MY. GOODNESS. LOVELOVELOVELOVE. =D Seriously, though, the word’s are good and the music’s catching and.... yeah. I just love it. <3

(Have you ever heard it before? Do you like it?)

Anyway, so last night I was watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawntreader, and I just want to say... that movie seriously has some funny parts. (“This place just keeps on getting weirder and weirder!” haha one of my favorites lines. :D And then the one before it... “The pig!” bahahaha) I love the part with the seagull and the minotaur and Eustace and the sailor dude, too. (Eustace: *talks to a bird* Minotaur: “He’s talking to a bird! hahahaha!” Random sailor dude with no name apparently: “Mad as loon, that one!” [I realize that all of my quotes so far probably haven’t been perfectly accurate, but I guess they’ll just have to do... ;)]) And I always get so sad at the end because of Lucy. You can just see that she never wants to leave Narnia, and she wants to see Aslan again, and now she knows that she’s never going to go back. (OK, seriously, I like barely ever feel sad about stuff like that, because I always feel so... weird. But I had to hold back tears. Big time. *sniff sniff*....) Lucy’s always been my favorite. (Which is partly the reason why I was so ecstatic when I got her in a quiz I took...)

Anyway, hope you all have a great day! :) God bless! :)

Be a hero,
Anna

P.S. I was thinking about doing a quiz soon. Thoughts? :)

P.P.S. Remember when I told you that I usually do post titles after I’ve written the post? Behold the randomness. lol =D

me & old books

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yesterday, i went and volunteered at the library. (i’ve been doing this pretty consistently - except for about a month and some weeks because of traveling etc. for other things - once each week since the beginning of last summer, i believe. it’s been really fun.) one of my jobs that i’ve been assigned by before, and that’s one of my favorites, is barcoding the books. (you know those funny code stickers on the back that sometimes covers up the words? those things. [except we try not to put them on words/pictures/etc...]) i guess because it’s easy, and even if you have a lot of books to do, it’s just sort of a nice little routine to do, over and over, and it’s kind of fun and interesting, because you get to look at all of the new books before they’re out on the shelves.

while the librarian that i work with was busy doing something else they gave me a different job - barcode books. except these weren’t the normal kind of books that i was used to - they weren’t all new and untouched and just freshly off the print press. they were a private collector’s edition, all signed copies. they were old, and their covers were deep, dark, beautiful colors, decorated in what looked like gold engravings and edgings in different designs depending on the book. the title and the author’s name wasn’t even on the front, and there was no description or talk of “#1 new york times bestseller!” on the back, so sometimes it was hard to tell the front from the back. (one time i accidentally put the barcode on the wrong side, because the book was upside down and i hadn’t even known until i’d opened it up.)

they were just the sort of books that you would imagine in an old, dusty library in some kind of mansion somewhere in England, abandoned and alone. (one of the books, i believe, actually was dusty...) the kind that sat in a library full of secret passages and books full of tales and legends. the kind of books that you see in movies but almost think don’t really exist anymore. i had fun, barcoding those books.

while the barcode made it look rather more modern and less like they came out of an old, dusty library in a mansion somewhere, it still made barcoding that much more fun. :)

beautifully ordinary, ordinarily beautiful

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have you ever sometimes kind of felt like some special things are sometimes the kind of things that just seem more poetic and nothing at all like your life?

i just realized that might’ve not made any sense...

ok, redo:
have you ever felt like your life is really kind of just normal, and then there’s some things that just seem so... poetic? cool? different? in-a-book?

it’s kind of interesting, because those are some of the things that i like.

for example: i have like this image in my mind of this person - i think it was a woman (it must’ve been in a movie, what movie i have no idea...) - and they’re holding a brown paper bag of groceries, and sticking out of it is a bag of French (or Italian, or long bread, or whatever kind it was...) bread sticking out of the top.

there’s something about that, strange as it sounds, that just seems like so much in a story. i love French(etc.) bread a lot, like i almost wish i could just get French bread for like normal every day everything instead of like wheat and white bread and whatever. not only do i love it, but there’s something almost poetic about it, if you know what i mean.

or coffee and pastries. (first off, i love pastries and only souped up coffee.) but just the idea of like getting both of them from some little corner café and walking down a cold sidewalk on a snowy day... i get this picture in my mind, and i think, “that’s just like so... beautiful.” and wonderful. and out of a book, or a photograph that you find on pinterest or something. like you’re in an adventure.

or going to a new, foreign place. the idea’s interesting, because sometimes i don’t think i’ll actually ever see the places that i always see and hear about. like i just think that it’s that place on the postcard, the thing that the encyclopedia’s talking about, the place where people in stories and movies go but i’ll never go to. but what if i did?

i suppose it’s just a point of view. i suppose some people always get only French bread, always get coffee and pastries for breakfast, and travel all around the world. but there’s just something about it that, the thought of things that you could do, the things that you want to try, have always heard about, but never done or seen... beautifully ordinary, but ordinarily beautiful. it’s not really that big of a thing, but to me, is holds a certain beauty.

what about you?

be a hero,

anna

It's like a fresh new start

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a new year’s kind of like a fresh new start - it’s a whole new start, practically anything could happen. your slate’s wiped clean, ready to be filled up again. some people make a brand new start - new blog, new name, new url, new posts & ideas. it’s kind of fun, starting a new chapter and beginning anew without any of the old.

the 2014 year for me seems like any other. i’m excited about continuing this blog journey as i head towards two years of blogging in april. God has given me so many friends, new skills, and plans for the future through blogging, and i’m excited to see where He’s going to be taking me next, and the things that He’s going to be teaching me. so are there going to be any changes to hero, starting with this new year? i don’t really think so. but let’s go through a little q&a.

q: are you planning on changing the blog name, url, or something else drastic this year?

a: i’m certainly not planning on it, but i can’t say for certain. but if i have any choice or plan as of right on, the answer would be no. (unless, for some reason, i decided to buy a .com. but i’m pretty sure that .blogspot.com’s redirect to .com, so i don’t think it would be really drastic.)

q: can we expect new kinds of posts from you?

a: well, i’m kind of hoping to maybe incorporate a quiz sometime, because quizzes are always tons of fun. i always love taking quizzes, and they’re fun to set up, too, if you have the time. :) otherwise, i’m pretty sure it might just be the same as always. (i’m also thinking about maybe switching the stories on here, the continuing ones like Arawyn, Wyn, etc. over to dragonmaster. any thoughts?)

q: are you still going to be offering free blog designs throughout the 2014 year?

a: as far as i know right now, yes.

q: any other curveballs we should be waiting for?

a: lol not as far as i know. :)

there’s been a lot of things that are exciting about 2013 in the blogger world, and i would say that one of the climaxes of that, for me, was revealing my real name, back in august. (other then changing this blog’s name, but i think the bigger climax for me was writing my name out. just getting to write it. to say it. my name is anna.)

i wrote a post awhile back on dragonmaster, i believe it was, about this one story that i just couldn’t figure out how to write it. it was supposed to be kind of like some kind of Irish/Scottish [i think] kind of like magic story. well, i actually kind of figured out part of it. i’m in the slow stage where i don’t feel like writing on it, but i’ve got ideas. and i’ve got a name. and i’ve got a face. and for now, that’s a good start. :)

i know this is rather random, but i think, one day, i want to travel around the world some. not a lot - like i don’t want to have to visit everywhere. just a few places. i want to live for awhile somewhere else then where i do now. i want to experience other things. it’s kind of an interesting thing, when you think of your future as just something big and open, where anything and everything could happen. i usually don’t like thinking about the future - it involves getting older and everything changing. but, sometimes, i get this glimpse of the greatness that the future God’s set out for me could hold for me. and it makes me almost... excited. have you ever felt like that?

have a great day, and God bless you all! :)

be a hero,

anna

The thing you've all been waiting for...

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haha yeah, well, how about the thing that i’ve been waiting for, lol? :D (it was supposed to be this post... anyway) so, believe it nor not, i had planned to do like a new years’ post. haha silly me, right? (ANNA, IT'S JANUARY 7TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =P ;D) believe it or not again, i haven’t been able to get around to it. not even a day-after-new-years recap kind of a thing. either way, i suppose it was rather good for me to have a little bit of a bloggie break. ;) so, now, we are going to have a really, really, really long recap. lol :D

ok, so, where do we start? let’s start with new years, shall we? :) so, we all decided to stay home (yes, my dad is HOME and we are so glad!!!!!! thank You, Lord!!!!!! :)) for the new years and (little strange inserted thought: “years” is no longer looking like a word to me... oh dear...) and watch movies and such which, really, is a good way to stay up until 12. (though, of course, it is always lovely to play games and such ;) but we were all pretty tired, if i remember correctly...) so we rented two movies from redbox - man of steel and monsters university (we also got epic, but we didn’t watch it that night, i’ll probably mention that later...) - and watched both of them.

just going to say - man of steel about gave me a heart attack. =P like everybody’s life was at stake, and there were all of these explosions, and people were dying, and it was just like.... “AHHHHHHH! BREATHE, MYSELF, BREATHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” let’s just say... it was intense. and i didn’t really like any of the characters, so that didn’t help. (and Superman/Clark and Lois didn’t really know each other, and they kissed, and we were all just like, “Wha....???”) and it wasn’t like the other superman movies, but then it kind of was, and then at the end he started working at the newspaper (err, whatever it was... magazine???) place where Lois worked, but she already knew who he was, and... just going to say, i never thought in the first place that those glasses were a very good disguise, but especially not in this movie. yeah.

so, overall on that note about man of steel... not a fave. would not really want to watch it again. it’s like this meme off pinterest that says like, “I don’t always watch scary movies, but when I do, I stay up until 2 am watching Disney princess movies to calm myself down.” yeah. we quickly inserted monsters university and sucked on ice pops. =P (i think we might’ve had the ice pops before monsters university... yeah... anyway...)

as for monsters university... well... i thought it was kind of cute, and i would watch it again, but it wasn’t an immediate favorite like frozen was. :) it definitely helped us to calm down after man of steel... lol :D it was so sad like how everybody treated Mike and everything, and they really made you want to root for him. there was several twists that i wasn’t expecting, kind of like that feeling when the book goes off differently then what you thought from the book cover’s little explanation. but it was good. :)

i was hoping to get this blog design finished and up on the blog before the new years (or, i guess, kind of on new years... for the new year...), but as you can see, that didn’t quite happen. =P i was also planning on the new years post (like i said before) and then do the posting schedule that i’ve been talking about for what seems like forever now. and then i had a thought.

i seem to be able to get on and post at random times. so, though i was originally going to have like set days for everything, i was thinking that instead of like having to post on a set day and everything, that i would just try to post twice a week - not too much, not too little. (i hope, at least...) and i’ll try to spread them apart so it’s more like monday and friday, like ideas and hopes for the week and then recap or something. (i probably will not do that, but, yeah...) so, i guess that’s all i have to say on that. and as for dragonmaster and rubberboot girl? i’ll try and post when i can. ;)

i’ve been coming up with some ideas and story-hopping (randomly going through old story ideas to laugh and maybe continue them...) and i’ve again realized that i haven’t uploaded the first book about the generation gazette, the surface. because i finished it. (yes! :)) finally. lol ;D i’ve started the second one, but i haven’t gotten that far. i’ve also been working on another more emotional book (the surface is kind of one of those more serious and emotional books instead of funny) called the void (which, at least to me, isn’t as creepy as it sounds...) which is kind of interesting to write, because you can really put so much emotion into words. i’ve also uncovered a really fun, interesting, cute, kind of funny story about a girl named Janie. (i think i named it something like how i rescued a wizard and his crazy pet, though that title's not really official yet ;D) i feel like it has a lot of potential, so hopefully i won’t go and ruin it or something... lol =D i’ve also been working on several new ones, more updates on those later...

i suppose i should go and talk about epic a little bit, since i kind of hinted i would. it was really funny, because as we were watching it, i realized that the main character, MK (Mary Katherine), looks a lot like somebody we know, and i was like, “She looks like so-and-so!” and my friend agreed. so the whole time, we were like, “Oh yeah, go so-and-so!” (and then at the end when she kissed Nod - “So-and-so, you’ve gone to the dark side! NOOOOO!” or something along those lines haha ;D) it was pretty funny. :D (and yes, i liked it better then man of steel...)

well, i suppose i could on forever and ever with tales and stories and such, but i need to be off somewhere else, so i’ll have to bid ya’ll a fond farewell. ;) God bless! have a great day! :)

Be a hero,
Anna

p.s. i think i’ll kind of a do a more new yearsy post a little later... hopefully. ;) one thing that i want to do more, i think, though, is do more writings in lowercase. think that’s a good idea? :) have a great day! :) God bless! :)