Someday, we'll find what we're looking for.

A typical Hallin occurrence:

After a stuggle to pack snow gear and secure all Hallin family members in the Mazda, we were off to the mountain for an afternoon of sledding. Of course as we pull into the gas station to fuel up and snag a Redbox for the voyage, Mom says, "how about we just go to the beach?"

So we popped a U-ie and were now coast-bound.

Since 1997, in spirit of the New Year, Lincoln City, OR hides 150 blown glass balls along 7.5 miles of shoreline for visitors to seek out among the rocks and logs. Our determination to find one of these wondrous art forms lasted for about a mile and a half of shoreline. Our attention span sort of redirected and led us to simply enjoying the unusually warm weather gracing the normally overcast Oregon Coast.

We didn't find what we were looking for. But rather than finding the tangible beauty we initially pursued, we experience something much greater in value. We were nowhere near upset to go home sans a New Year glass ball as we had indulged in a peaceful, hakunat-matata* kind of day that met us with a few steaming hot bread-bowls of clam chowder and some spontaneity. And we enjoyed it as a family.

*a wonderful phrase: it means no worries...for the rest of your days

Sometimes life doesn't hand you what you want it to, but rather delivers an unexpected beauty that holds so much more worth than the original pursuit you had for yourself. Unpredictability is a beautiful thing. I don't know what 2013 will bring. I do however, have a plan not to make plans. I am looking forward to being surprised at what God has in store for me this upcoming year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

~

P.S. WHAT NOW, MAYANS?!

Someday, I'll learn the lessons before I need them.

The Thursday Thirteen
Things I've learned this week:

1. Always, always, always bring an extra memory card.
2. One should avoid navigating the streets of Springfield, Oregon alone...at night.
3. Stink bugs do in fact stink.
4. If you ask the balloon man at The Spaghetti Factory if he can craft you a narwhal balloon animal, he can...and will.
5. Macklemore makes for excellent running music.
6. iPhones have lifesaving features. Especially for those who lack adequate navigational skills.
7. How I Met Your Mother possesses extremely tasteful comedic qualities and thus is highly addicting.
8. If you politely ask {yell at} your upstairs neighbors to turn down their television, they will do so in a surprisingly timely manner.
9. It takes my roommates and me less than 24 hours to completely devour a box of Betty Crocker brownies.
10. My black boots have NO traction.
11. If I buy chocolate chips for baking, chances are they will get devoured before they actually become a part of any concoction. 
12. My usual running route doubles as a hot spot for a local elementary school's wildlife-study field trips. {Little. Kids. Everywhere.}
13. I have amazing parents {and grandparents} for too many reasons to list.

Someday, my prince will come.

Okay, so I love this video for two reasons:

1. Because I'm girl, so naturally I'm a sucker for sappy love stuff.

2. The makers of this video knew what they were doing. Amazingly powerful.

Patrick and Kimberly (The Proposal) from Shutter Life Productions on Vimeo.

Someday, Mr. Owl will make it past three.

For those of you who remember this one...

Warmer...

Still a little left...

SO. CLOSE.

Dang it.

How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

"The world may never know."

Someday, I won't walk 3 flights to do laundry.

Apartment living. Do I love it...or do I hate it.
Jury's still out.


Things I loathe:

1. My old bent key that picks a fight with the lock EVERY time I try to enter our humble dwelling.
2. The upstairs neighbors that disregard the fact that they have laminate flooring and seem to have mistaken their apartment for a basketball-court-fight-club-ring-ninja-dance-club-concert-hall-bowling-alley. They're loud.
3. The fact that maintenance can enter any time that suits them--even when you are in the shower and yell, "One moment, please!" as you hear them entering to fix your light that keeps going out & your bolt lock that fails to function.
4. My light that keeps going out & my bolt lock that fails to function.
5. The. Really. Slow. Internet. (I just want to get through one episode of Grey's Anatomy without it freezing...does McSteamy live? I guess I'll never know.)
6. Buying your own groceries = $KA-CHING$. On the verge of becoming an extreme coupon-er.
7. I have yet to meet my neighbors. I miss the dorm's sense of community. I did however, meet one neighbor across the hall--of course I was out of breath and sweaty as it was upon my return from a run. 
8. The classy cigarette burns in our coffee table and the lovely dragon chalk mural adorning our patio--courtesy of the past residents.
9. The sink faucet that doesn't fully turn off unless you jam the handle back in place.

Things I love:

1. My amazing roommates. Seriously, they're pretty bomb. Sore abs from laughing = success. (I think this point alone can outweigh all the negative ones.)
2. DECOR EVERYWHERE. Thanks, Pinterest.
3. No need for shower shoes.
4. My very own pantry. 
5. The seven minute walk to Starbucks. 
6. Buying your own groceries = Baked. Beans. For. Days.
7. The couch. I would have killed for one of those bad boys in my dorm room--not that it would have even slightly fit.
8. Sitting on our patio watching the sunset. 
9. Someone is always baking. Macaroons. Cupcakes. Brownies. Banana Bread. Rainbow cake. Zucchini bread. Cinnamon Rolls. (Although still undecided on the how good/bad this really is.)
10. Being able to say, "why don't you come over to my place?"

Oh okay. I can't deny it. I love apartment #234. Loud ninja neighbors and all.

Someday, I'll be a good bowler.

Just needed to express {complain} publicly that the gene for bowling technique skipped a generation--my generation. I'm lucky if I break 100. With bumpers.

It's bad.

Points for style?

Someday, they'll shed their mythical implication.

When they come up in conversation--which is quite often--people often ask me if narwhals are real animals.

My response:

*laugh*

*realize they're serious*

*want to cry*

Yes, narwhals are real. Please stop stupidly inquiring about the existence of a clearly tangible arctic dweller.

That is all.