some thoughts as of late

• I am somewhat engrossed craft wise in making pillows. I currently have 3 homemade ones on my couch (and 1 store bought) and have the material to make 4 more. You can't have too many pillows right? Uh...

• I was thrilled to find out that my scanner will save each photo on the screen as an individual document. That saved me a ton of time.

• The days have been FLYING by. Seriously 5 p.m. has come ever so quickly the last week or so. Maybe it's because I'm only working two days this week and I set some goals to get a ton done

• My little basement apartment is coming together so nicely...and I'm loving it! It's so cute and screams "Karianne."

• My favorite sweat pants have recently convinced me to fall in love with them again. And my electric blanket is doing some hard core persuading but it's not quite time for it yet. (I'm really not as much of a homebody who just wants to stay home and cuddle up in my sweat pants with my electric blanket as it seems...really.)  

• Pinterest has quickly intrigued me. Right now I only use it for bookmarking things, but think it will become a cool social media tool for certain markets. (For example, I posted my Taylor Swift word art and it's so cool to watch it be "repinned" and posted and shared.)

• I was hit by the realization today that my view on dating is definitely reflective of my age...I don't think I had even thought about it changing, but "it" has. (Yea I hate my usage of "it" but you get the point.) And a full post on this topic will be coming soon.

• I read a chapter in the book "Clean" about cleansing and detoxing our bodies and eating whole, natural foods. Then I sat down and ate Chinese food. I've felt too guilty to resume reading...

• I shared some advice today about writing college application essays....it was good. And makes me think about things. (cough HS2College cough) 

• My love languages have confused me lately (despite this post). I know the idea is a theory or way of explaining our natures and is not an exact science (or any science at that), but I'm not finding that I actually fit as nicely into a category as I might like. 

I thought of a million other random thoughts I wanted to share as I was showering tonight (TMI, sorry), but they have all escaped me.

Hmm.

• I got called to be an FHE instructor (yea, they have those), and taught my first lesson yesterday. While I wish we had individual groups rather than ward FHE every week, I think this will be a fun calling for me. It doesn't take much time (I only teach once a month) and is pretty easy, plus it's a good opportunity for me to study whatever topics I'm teaching, and openly share my thoughts and testimony. I'm not great at doing that without outside motivation.

• Usually, I'm not very good at following through on assignments I give myself. But I'm doing better. On my day off Monday, I told myself the one project I HAD to complete, was cleaning off the top of my dresser and organize my earrings, necklaces, etc. I actually stayed up late to finish (...start and do) it and now I'm all proud looking at its awesome cleanliness and organization. 

• Living in the Deerhaven complex (my last ward) has definitely given me a more positive perspective on age. I moved in there at 23 and was one of the youngest in the ward. Now I am able to embrace my age (i.e. not feel old) and look at the cute 18 year olds transitioning to college and know (and be grateful) that I have grown and learned so much since I was there. Aw, cute.

• My dad gave me the book "Don't Believe Everything You Think," a year or so ago. When I tried to read it, I couldn't get past the first chapter before losing interest at the time. (I want to try again.) Lately, I've been thinking about how skewed my thinking can be and how wrong my assumptions of some things can be. After having dated a certain boy during my freshmen year at college, I learned how important being open minded is to me. Recently I've enjoyed really analyzing my thoughts on certain subjects and questioning the assumptions I've formed. It's been quite liberating

With that my friends, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is my last day at work this week. We have two committee meetings in the morning, and then a Leadership Development lunch and lecture (with someone in MY field and whose career I admire: Jeanette Bennett). Plus it's a Wednesday which is usually my busiest day already because that's when I send the weekly newsletter. And, since I'm then gone, I need to finish, get approval and make some print orders, continue working on our website, work out plans for this semester's potential interns, and undoubtedly a few random projects that I know will need to be done before I get back. (In fact, I just checked my work email and, guess what, a new project assignment is sitting right on top.)

:)

Oh, and did I then mention that I need to actually pack and get everything ready for my trip out east for my sister Julianne's wedding. And that includes finishing up their photo slideshow. (Which, btw, is going to have some great music.)