The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

Hello! I am writing about my happy thoughts today.

Provo is so pretty with all the leaves! Or it was, until they all fell off the trees. But it's still lovely to be outside, when it's not snowing.

Someday I want to learn to oil paint. I will paint beaches, water, trees, mountains, castles, and other things that I love. I will paint them with so many pretty, vibrant colors that I will just be able to look at them and imagine a story. Hopefully someday I can learn how to illustrate princess books. That would be magical.

I will also learn to sing musical-style music. Like Show Boat or West Side Story or Les Miserables or The Music Man or other things that I love to sing. I would love singing them even more if I could sound wonderful! I am always looking for more musicals to fall in love with.

I want a big dog. Like an Australian Shepherd or a Border Collie or something big and fuzzy and cozy and loyal and smart like that. A dog that can learn tricks and run around herding sheep (and wayward children) and will snuggle with you by the fireplace while you read a book in the winter. It would have to be a sanitary dog though, or there will be no snuggling.

Speaking of snuggling, hopefully my children will be snugglers. Well, and my husband. We can just have big snuggle parties next to the fireplace and read stories and learn about things.

When I am a mom, I want to learn more about wild animals. I love learning cool facts about safari animals, tropical rainforest animals, and things like that. I also want to learn more about other cultures. That is really why I am doing Elementary Education. I want to learn all sorts of fascinating things while I get paid to teach kids! And, of course, I will have to do a lot of laughing when I am working with 1-6 grade kids. They will probably make fun of me and play tricks on me all of the time, so hopefully I will have a good sense of humor! I hope my kids learn how to entertain themselves by learning about things that they love. It makes my mind so happy to learn about things.

I am learning how to cook right now so that I can have dinners every night with my family. I want to be able to make yummy things that are well-balanced. And I try, of course, to keep a good food budget. I am always excited to learn how to make yummy things that are good for you! I also love making not so healthy things. Like awesome desserts and breads and comfort foods. They are good too.

Sometimes I wish I lived in the olden days. When people made traditional holiday sweet rolls with a wooden spoon and a hot fire. And when families got to be home together a lot more. And when there was always a fireplace in the winter, and homemade quilts. And when people lived on apple farms and learned how to really work. And when girls could teach at school without having to become certified. ;)

I get lonely sometimes. When I am grown up, I will have lots of children so that I am not lonely. And a dog. We will listen to music and cook pies and things.

This real world is hard sometimes. Being in college and having difficult family situations. And having to spend all day away from home to support myself and prepare myself for the future. And not having a lot of time to just paint or read books. Of course, working is very fulfilling too. But the world is just so huge, and it's easy to get lost in it. It's easy for anyone to feel confused or out of place or inadequate or lost. And we can't always have magical days, or magical times in our lives.

Sometimes I get annoyed with people and with myself. I am pretty impatient. Sometimes I am unreliable. Sometimes I am shocked at how much I think about me. Even though I don't want anything more than to think about other people all the time, and take care of them. I hope that people know that. That even though sometimes I am thoughtless or rude, it is just because I am not very good at something. But I am wanting so much to be kinder to people. If I do something unkind, it is most likely because I am not thinking hard enough about it.

Another thing I love is missionary letters. I got a few this week! It's fun to have friends far away that think about me and care about me.

This week a girl in my ward, Clarissa, took a bunch of fun pictures of me. It was so nice of her. I never took senior pictures, so this was pretty exciting. I wanted to climb a tree and send the picture to Curtis, because he still thinks I can't climb trees. But the problem is that I really still can't climb trees!

I want to live in a house next year. I think it would be magical to live in a house with a fireplace. There are lots of cozy places I could live next year. I kind of want to live in a place with people that I know. There are so many girls that I really like but don't know super well, that I think it would be fun to live with, so I could get to know them better. Just think - I could live in a house with a bunch of girls that I know and like, and we could all have a party. I don't really know at all where I will live next year.

I love taking adventures. Whenever I date people, I end up liking the boys best that are creative and love having adventures. Like my leaf collecting adventure with two of my roommates last month. We had a heavenly time. Literally. We went on a walk one evening and collected leaves and rolled down a hill and felt completely happy. Or just something like a waffle party with too much whipped cream. Or pumpkin gut wars. Even washing dishes or singing a song with someone is an adventure. There are lots of other adventures I have had with different people. I guess that is something that brings me closer to people.

Well, this was completely a long post. Goodbye for today!

Oh also, I like poetry.