Changes

My blog is undergoing maintenance, and it should be finished soon. I will be adding a new thing at the top of the right side bar called "Song of the Week", so be sure to check out the song each week. I decided I want to share my favorite songs each week because I feel music is so important, and the songs are too good not to share! It's just a fun extra thing for my lovely devoted readers (not that I really have any, but let's pretend for a while that I do haha). ;-) Also, I know I kind of just dropped the weekly goals thing a while back without a word. The reason: I'm just lazy. I'm still working on goals in my life, I just can't get myself to make time to post about them on here lol. I've been really working on my book as of late (Almost 150 pages now! :-D), so I put my extra time into that and playing my new game, Mass Effect 3 haha. :-D The Song of the Week will be much easier to keep updated because it only takes a minute to change the video. Anyway, I'll be messing around with my blog for a bit to change things up some, just so you won't be confused if things keep changing randomly. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Obsessions

Everyone has at least one obsession. Whether it's with something small and harder to notice, or with something that consumes your life, you have at least one. The degree of the obsession can vary as well.
My obsession?
DRAGONS.
I am completely obsessed with them. They are so awesome and powerful, yet graceful and intelligent. I draw them, I write about them, I talk about them, I read about them, I listen to music about them, I watch movies about them, I play games with them. I'm not obnoxious about it (well except maybe to my husband, but he loves them too, so it's not the worst thing to smother him with), but if you come to our apartment, you will see dragons just about everywhere. Drawings, posters, decorations, figurines, books, games, movies...and if you look on my computer, a large portion of what's on there are dragon pictures, songs, and my dragon book in progress.
Yes, my dragon book. If you don't already know, I'm writing a book that's heavily about dragons. I've yet to find a book with enough dragons in it to satisfy my craving, even books about dragons don't have enough of them, I feel. That is why I'm writing my own dragon book, and it has a lot of dragons in it. If you don't like dragons, my book is not for you. Or perhaps it is. Perhaps you should read my book to better understand them and maybe then you would fall in love with them. I am writing this book for me, mostly. Anyway, enough on my book. If you are intrigued and want to know more, go to my other blog: http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/
I wanted to share with my followers my one big obsession. I would love some comments with others' obsessions or make a post of your own even! I could go on and on and on about my obsession, but I'll leave it at that and put some of my favorite pictures of dragons up. Enjoy. ;)

New Look!

Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I figured I would change up my blog to fit the holiday. Hope you like it! Happy Valentine's Day! (Should be putting up another actual post soon so keep an eye out for it!)

Draig Battlehorn

I spent almost the entire day yesterday working on this drawing, and I think it turned out pretty well! It was done in charcoal (which is SO fun to use, btw!), and it was done for a Design A Dragon contest. I had to draw or describe a dragon I designed, and give him a personality (with favorite food, sleeping place, and an intense fear). Hopefully I will win, because I get a sweet dragon prize pack if I do, and you all know how much I love dragons...lol Anyway, this was my entry! :)

Hello apprentices! My name is Christina Strang, dragon expert, and this (*indicates photo*) is Draig Battlehorn, the most irritable and arrogant dragon in all the land. He is often seen circling the mouth of the fiery volcano he lives in, lounging on nearby rocks as his slaves shine his scales, or napping on the very highest point of his volcanic home. His eyes glow the color of molten lava, and his flaming red scales are so smooth and shiny, it appears as if he doesn't have any scales at all. The only way to distinguish one scale from another is if you are in very close quarters, and if you are that close to this angry dragon, you are probably not going to live to tell the tale. When Draig leaves his lair, a path of destruction and death is left in his wake. There is a rumor going around that the only way to escape this evil dragon is to claim that you see a scale that has lost its shine. He will be so distracted trying to find the dull scale, you will have a chance to escape. You see, an old witch looked into the future and told him that she saw he would die if any of his scales ever became dull, so he is deathly afraid of the vision coming true. If one should ever need to seek his aid, heaven forbid, bringing him his favorite treat (salamanders burnt to a crisp) might buy you some time to pose your question. I hope you never cross paths with this vile creature, but at least now you know how best to attempt to escape with your life if you ever do run into him.

$500 Shopping Spree = AWESOME :D

My husband and I got a phone call the other day, from which we learned that we were the winners of this drawing that we had entered in forever ago. We won a $500 gift certificate to a pawn shop! Unfortunately, we had to travel to Roy, Utah to get to the nearest of that particular store, but it worked out great! I had imagined the store to be a little bigger and have more things in it, but it was actually pretty small and didn't have exactly what I thought it would have. However, it was still a pretty nice store, and they did have a lot of awesome stuff in there for pretty reasonable prices. This is what we ended up getting:

An X-Box 360 Elite (with a second controller that they gave us for free)
A Nintendo Wii (with two controllers plus a nunchuk too)
A Nook
All Six Episodes of Star Wars (and for only 15 bucks too!)
Transformers 1 & 2 (also for only 15 bucks!)
And A Whole Bunch Of Games
               -Bully Scholarship Edition (Wii)
               -Borderlands (PS3)
               -UFC Undisputed 2010 (PS3)
               -The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (X-Box 360)
               -Call of Duty 3 (X-Box 360)
               -Two Worlds (X-Box 360)
               -NHL 2K6 (X-Box 360)
               -Fable II (X-Box 360)

We ended up getting a lot of stuff, and we didn't even have to pay for it! On top of all that, we also found a disc still in the X-Box 360's tray (NCAA Footbal 12, which is like a $60 game!), and ANOTHER disc in the Wii (Madden NFL 10)! Getting that certificate was like Christmas all over again, only we didn't end up broke afterwards! All-in-all, a pretty awesome day, I would say! Amid all this chaos and stress that is our life, we were blessed with this amazing gift, and I'm so thankful for it! You never know when something like this will happen to you. ;)

Weekly Goals #11: The Goals

Hello, Readers! *waves*
Okay, so last time's goals were kind of a flop, and this week is Christmas so it's gonna be a little crazy, so I'm going to set some easier goals and try to get them done if I have the time.
1. Get Christmas shopping done! I haven't even really started on it yet! We are kind of waiting for a check to come so we can go do it. So, if the check does come, then we can get it all done, but if not, we can at least buy some little cheap things until it does come if we need to. Either way, we need to get it done!
2. Get things ready for Christmas! We need to figure out what we are doing and get all of the stuff we need ready to go! We only have one week left! :)
3. Send those two missionary letters! I really REALLY need to send them! So, I'll write them today, and get them sent out tomorrow so they might have a chance of making it to them before Christmas. If not, at least it will be soon after.
And that's all I'm gonna do this week! I would like to get some writing done as well, but I'm not going to set that as a goal, since I'm not sure how much time I will really have this week, and I kind of want to relax and enjoy the holiday. Well, hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and gets everything they want! I'll probably post a Christmas post on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day. Somewhere around there. Have a great week! :)

Weekly Goals #10: Wrap-up

Yes, I know, this is a week delayed! I got so busy with other things I just didn't even have the time to post last week, so I decided to just wait another week and take a week off of the goals. Well, I pretty much took both weeks off actually...I kinda failed at the goal thing this week lol Pretty much the only goal I did was the Christmas Cookies when my friend came down to visit. I didn't even look for my piano books or write the missionary letters. *guilty* I did write a little on my story, but I've been in kind of a lazy funk lately and haven't really wanted to do much on it. I did, however, make my mom's Christmas present. I'll post pics after I get some taken, it's so cute! I also have been reading my book this week, and I got a new game so I've been playing that. How could I resist a How to Train Your Dragon game? It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I couldn't wait so I got it early lol I bought Matt an Orson Scott Card book that he hadn't read yet, and let him have it early too since I got one early. He loves it. haha Anyway, back to business. So I didn't do so well on the goals this week, and this next week's Christmas, so I might not get much done then either, but I'll set a couple of easier goals and try to find time for them.

Weekly Goals #10: The Goals

Woot! Into double digits! The big 1-0! I'm getting a late start on this week, so I made some goals that I could accomplish in the time that I have. :)

1. Write 4,000 words. Pretty simple. I need to keep myself writing, and hopefully will do more than that, but since I only have part of the week left, and I'm having a friend come for a couple of days this week, I will probably be a little distracted. So I'll set my goal there and see how it plays out.
2. We finally tore everything out of the closet last week and reorganized it all, and I didn't see my piano books anywhere back there! :( So, this week, I need to search the rest of the apartment and try to find my books. I'll make it my second goal this week to at least search for my books, and hopefully I will find them! I really need/miss them!
3. Write/Send off two missionary letters to my friends Elder Scott Crowther and Sister Shantel Tavoian. I need to get myself to keep up on writing them, because I know how much letters mean to them, especially when they don't receive many others!
4. I'll also add one more goal this week because it should be happening while my friend is here anyway: Bake/Decorate Christmas Cookies! It was always tradition in our house to make and decorate cookies every year during the Christmas season, and I want to keep it up! So, while my friend is here, we are going to do it together, since Matt is a bum and doesn't want to help me :P lol. I'll post pics with the wrap-up.
Also, Sunday is my birthday! We probably won't have much money to even do anything for it or even really get me anything else, but I already got a bunch of books and I don't mind just spending it at home relaxing with my husband. Not sure if I want to invite a few of our friends over to watch a movie or something that night or not, but maybe I'll post an extra post Sunday with how it goes. Alright, those are the goals! Wish me luck! And make sure you are starting/keeping up on your own goals! They are so important! ;)

Weekly Goals #9: Wrap-up

Week 9's results!
 1. The first goal was to write 8,000 words, but I didn't quite hit that I don't think. I can't remember the exact number of words that I had before I started writing this week...Should probably keep better track of that...Oh well lol I think I wrote around 5 or 6 thousand this week though, so not bad all in all. It seems like it's moving so much slower lately! I write on it like all day and I end up getting like two pages done instead of the 10 I was getting before. I think it's because it's taking more research time and careful calculations now. It's turning into an awesome story! :)
2. My second goal was to write in my journal every night! And I actually did all but like two nights! I need to really force myself to sit down and do it because I want my kids to be able to have my journal to read in the future once I've passed.
3. The last goal was to get some reading done in preparation for all the books coming to me in the mail. I finished the book I was reading, Brandon Mull's Beyonders (which was really good btw!), and started on Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck (loving it so far!). I received all but one of my books that I ordered, so I've been just swimming in awesome books! :)
Well, all in all, a pretty successful week, I'd say! I know I'm really late posting these this week, so I'll quickly get up next week's goals and get going on them ASAP!

Weekly Goals #9: The Goals

Again, sorry for posting a little late! But Happy Monday! (If that's even possible really...lol) Had a great weekend, and now ready to start some new goals! So, here are this week's goals:
1. Of course, my book. I need to get going on it again, but I'm still coming out of the holiday lethargy, so I'll set my goal a little lower but not too much lower this time: 8,000 words. I know I can do this, I just gotta get myself motivated again!
2. I said forever ago that I was going to start writing in my journal again...yeah...never happened. So, I'm setting one of my goals to write in my journal every night this week, even if it's just a sentence or two! I really need to do it!
3. Do some reading! I finally just got the third book in the Tiger's Curse series ("Tiger's Voyage"), so I am really excited to start it! I'm also going to be getting a buttload of books here in a couple of weeks, or should be anyway, so I need to get some reading done so I will be ready for them! I'm still in the middle of reading a book called "Beyonders" by Brandon Mull, so I need to finish it and get started on the next. Got lots of books to read in the next while! :)
Let's get those goals set and on the road! Let's DO this! ;P

Weekly Goals #8: Wrapup

I'm running a little late posting these because I completely forgot yesterday! Oops! Better late than never, though, right? ;) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours went fairly well! It was a little stressful doing all the cooking trying to get it all ready for a bunch of other people at our small apartment with not enough counter space, but it turned out really good!
Anyway, I have been kind of lazy this week and haven't gotten much done on my book...only about 3,000 or so words, so didn't quite hit my mark, but I am going to chalk that up to the holiday laziness. Let's go with that haha. The second goal went really well! I've been better about not complaining and about counting my blessings, even if it was just for this week. I really had an enjoyable week for the most part, but I think I'm ready to start back up in full swing in my goal setting! I love the feeling of accomplishment! So there is the wrapup of last week's goals, and next week's will be posted shortly. Keep an eye out! ;)

Weekly Goals #8: The Goals

"Let's get down to business..."

1. Last week, I WAY overshot my writing goal for 2000 words so I'm gonna set this week's goal at 10,000 words at least. It's gonna be awesome! lol I didn't do the National Novel Writing Month, but I did start my story pretty much about the same time. Like a couple of days after it started. So, I'm kind of wanting to push myself to complete the 50,000 word goal for the challenge, even if I don't sign up. I don't really want to do the challenge formally, but I do want to push myself to get it done. So hopefully I can get enough words done by then! It will probably be close!

2. So, in light of Thanksgiving being this week, I want to do something to go with the holiday. Every time I am complaining about something and I catch myself, I want to think of a blessing in my life. I really want to try to redirect my complaining thoughts and words to remembering things I'm thankful for. 

3. I'm not going to do a third goal this week. Since it's a holiday week, I want to just focus on those two goals and enjoy the rest of the time. :)

And there you have it! Week 8's goals! Keep up on those goals! ;)

Weekly Goals #7: Wrap-up

I made it! Week 7 is done! And it was a success!

The first goal was a HUGE success! My goal was to get 2000 words at least done on my book, and I got over ten thousand words done!! I am now at 16,468 words! I really worked hard all week. Apparently, 2000 words is really easy to do in a week...haha I had no idea how much i would be able to get done, but I've  enthusiastically dove in and worked really hard! The second goal was to figure out our finances, and we pretty much have that mostly figured out. I probably should have set a more solid one, but oh well, this works for now. I'll have to work out a more solid one later. The third one was to figure out Christmas presents, and that is mostly done! There are still a couple of people we need to figure out what to get for them, but we figured out a lot of it! So goals turned out well! 

For those new readers of my weekly goals and as a reminder for old readers, set those goals! Even simple goals can make all the difference! It really makes me feel good that I accomplish something during the week, and if I don't meet the goals, it gives me motivation to make sure I get them done the next time! I truly believe setting goals is important and will help us achieve our potential. So press on, fellow goal achievers! Next week's goals to follow.

Weekly Goals #7: The Goals

This week's goals!

1. I am going to try to really focus on my story this week, since I didn't get much done last week. There is another book that just came out recently that I have a hold placed on at the library and am just waiting for it to be my turn, so if it comes to me during this week, I might become a little bit of a hermit again for a while, but barring that, I should be able to get quite a bit done! I'll shoot for another 2000 words because I don't know how much I will be able to get done.

2. The second thing I really need to work on is a budget. I just need to try making a little more of a solid budget and figure out our plans for the next while. We kind of have one now, but I need to do some tweaking and solidifying. Budgets are important!

3. Christmas is right around the corner! We need to figure out who we are giving gifts to and what we are giving them. This kind of goes along with the budget goal, because then I can figure out how much we can spend on presents. It seems like we usually wait until the last minute to get things and I kind of don't want to do that this year. So need to figure that out! :)

Well, those are the goals that I want to focus on this week! The second and third ones aren't terribly hard ones because I want to make sure I have time to work on my story this week. See you next week!

Weekly Goals #6: Wrap-up

This week was a little hit and miss, so I didn't do as well as I had hoped. However, I didn't completely flop either haha. The first goal was to dig in my closet and find my piano books. I didn't get this done sadly, but I am gonna shoot for getting back in there tomorrow. The second goal was to write 2000 words. This one I didn't quite hit either, but I didn't take into account that the book Inheritance came out at the beginning of the week, meaning I was going to pretty much become a hermit for the next few days. All else was abandoned so that I could read the epicness that was the last book in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon books). Then, once I finished the book, I came back to work on my story and found that my free trial of Microsoft Office had ended! Meaning I couldn't do anything but view documents in Word! That was very frustrating, but I now have it back and am about to delve into that again. So, I don't think I got another 2000 words written this week, but I did get about half of it probably so at least I got some before I went into hermit stage. As for the third goal, we talked a bit about Thanksgiving and have tentative plans to stay here and just invite a couple of people to join us. If our plans don't change, I have also figured out what we would be having. So got about half the goals done this week despite my reclusive state most of the week haha. Next week's goals soon to come!

Weekly Goals #6: The Goals

Last week was successful, so here we go again!

1. I REALLY need to find my bag with all of my piano books in it because I think I would play the piano more if I could find more than two of the books. I think it is buried back in our closet, so I want to get back in there sometime this week to see if I can find them.
2. It's going to be difficult to set goals for my story now because I'm not sure how much I can get written in a week. I think I'll set a goal to write at least 2,000 words this week, though, and see how it goes from there.
3. For a holiday related goal, I want to figure out what we are doing for Thanksgiving, and plan out what food to make and how much to make (depending on if we are staying here or going somewhere else for dinner). I just want to get it all planned out instead of waiting until the last minute.

Okay, well there are this next week's goals! We will see how they go! :) Oh, and don't forget, I have another blog for my story (Heart of a Dragon), so make sure you go check it out as well! There are sneak peeks and info about it on there! I need some followers of that blog so click "Follow" please! ;)

 http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #5: Wrap-up

End of the fifth week of my goal setting! I survived! And I actually did really well this week! :)

1. I completely finished the story-line! I even started the actual story writing too! I've got about ten ish pages typed. I may go back and add or change a few things, but I'll probably wait until a little later to decide if I want to do that. So, goal #1 was a success this time!
2. Write/send another missionary letter: Completed! Got a letter all written this weekend and stuck it in the mail this morning so should be picked up sometime today to send out. I feel good I didn't wait quite as long to write back this time haha. Also, I told my missionary friend about my goal setting and he sent me some quotes and thoughts about the importance of setting goals! I'll post a quote he gave me at the bottom of this.
3. Before I finished my story-line, I did get quite a bit of reading done. Once I finished my story-line, I didn't get quite as much done because I've been working on writing more. At the moment, I'm reading a book called Bitterwood by James Maxey, and it's actually pretty good! It's about this society where dragons are the predominant species, and they use humans as slaves and pets. The character Bant Bitterwood is this legendary dragon hunter who kills the King's son, so the King wants revenge and begins sending out searches for him and then decides he wants to exterminate all of the humans in his land, but many of the dragons fight against it because they are fond of the humans. So it's a pretty epic book, and very well written.

So, the goals went well this week! I love when I complete my goals, it makes me feel productive haha. I will post this next week's goals in a little bit! As promised, here is one of the quotes my friend Elder Scott Crowther gave me about goal setting:

"There is a quote in Preach My Gospel p 146 that comes from Elder Ballard of the 12. It says, 'I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.' I can promise, just as Elder Ballard, that goal setting will help us reach our full potential as Children of God, even our Loving Father in Heaven."

So I encourage you to set those goals! It can be publicly in a blog as I am doing (works better to motivate me haha) or personally in a journal, it doesn't matter how you do it. Just do what works best for you!

Weekly Goals #5: The Goals

This week I need to work extra hard to accomplish more on my goals! Since I didn't finish last week's goals, I might try something else for a week, and come back to those ones the next time around. I might just need a break and to set some different goals to get me encouraged again. So, for this week:

1. Kind of an overlap - Finish out the ending of my story. I didn't get it finished because it's taking a little longer than I thought to get it done. I may not be able to finish it completely this week either, but I'll set my goal there so I will work hard.

2. Write another missionary letter! I sent out one a while ago to one of my friends, and another one recently to another friend, and I just got a reply from the first one. So, I want to make sure I get a reply sent out quicker this time!

3. Get some reading done! I didn't really do much reading this week, and I want to make sure I am keeping up on that, because it helps me stay inspired and encouraged to write on my own story. Right now, I am reading a book called Bitterwood, and I'm reading it at the same time as my husband so that we can discuss it together. He keeps getting ahead of me because he reads faster than me and has more time to read than I do usually. So I need to get some reading done so I can stay caught up! haha

Okay! Those are this next week's goals! We will see how they go! Hopefully better than last time haha. Make sure you shoot on over to my other blog and check it out too! I'll be posting something on it in just a bit! And please click "Follow" so I know people are reading it, and don't be afraid to comment too! Helps me stay encouraged ;)

 http://heartofadragonseries.blogspot.com/

Weekly Goals #4: Wrap-up

One more week down! I really didn't do so hot on the goals this week though...In fact, I pretty much failed this week. But hey, at least I survived the week, right? I really didn't do much on reading scriptures like I wanted. :\ As for the piano? Again, didn't really do much lol. BUT...I have been working on my story. Figuring out the ending is proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be, so I didn't finish, but I have been working on it pretty much all week. So some progress was made, even though a lot of the time was spent imagining the epicness that will be the battles at the end. Can't wait to write that part haha. Anyway, so I really didn't do very well on the goals this week, which means I have to step up my game for this next week. Next week's goals to follow.

Weekly Goals #4: The Goals

So, I'm a little slow getting these posted, but late is better than never right? haha Anyway, here are this next week's goals:
1. Overlap from last week - Read the scriptures at least once for ten minutes a day. I pretty much failed this one last week, so let's try this again and see if I can do better, hm?
2. Well, I've got all the colors of the dragons finished for my story, so now setting a goal for it will be more difficult, but how about I try to finish out the last of the story? I don't know if I will have time to completely finish it, but that's where I'll set the goal at and go from there haha.
3. We went to a concert Saturday night for Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Daniel Beck, and it made me want to practice my piano skills more! I'm REALLY slacking off in that department as well, so this week I want to work on practicing on my keyboard a bit. I just need to get my fingers on that keyboard, even if it's just once haha.
Well, that's it for now! Might post again on the blog this week sometime, but if not, until next weekend!