Christmas with Harry Potter

As a Christmas gift to each other, Justin and I visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando! Although we had a blast, it started out as quite the ordeal. We were originially scheduled to leave Huntington in the early afternoon on Thursday, December 16. After that flight was cancelled, we were leaving Charleston in the late afternoon. After THAT flight was cancelled, we got on a flight out of Charleston that night. You guessed it... cancelled.

So, we were again scheduled to leave Friday morning, which only got pushed back to late afternoon. When we finally got to Orlando, the weather was gorgeous! A beautiful, sunny, warm evening with the windows down (while it was snowing in West Virginia!).

On Saturday morning, we got up to buckets of rain. Unfortunately, due to our cancelled flights, we had missed the beautiful weather and had to visit Harry Potter in the rain. But, we had a great time! If you haven't been before, I highly recommend you go! It was amazing! In addition to Harry Potter, we were also there in time to catch Universal's Grinchmas (the Grinch is my other favorite thing!). It was a wonderful trip :)

Hogwarts

Justin and I braved the rain for the wand experience at Ollivander's

The details in the park were outstanding!

Me with some Who's!

The Reading Room

For my birthday, my wonderful husband bought me the Barnes & Noble version of the e-reader, the Nook! I was not expecting this gift at all, but I love it! I never thought I would get on the e-reader bandwagon (I always thought I would prefer holding and reading an actual book), but I have to say that this thing is amazing! You can get on the web to surf for and download books at the touch of a button. No more running out to the bookstore!

So, the first book that I purchased and read on the Nook is Jodi Picoult's House Rules. I had read Nineteen Minutes by Picoult, so I knew that this would be a good first purchase. And I was right! House Rules chronicles the daily stuggles of a single mother trying to raise a 15-year-old typical teenager and an 18-year-old who has Asperger's Syndrome. Theo, the 15-year-old, finds himself having a difficult time dealing with high school and the "stigma" of being the brother of a "different" child. Jacob, the 18-year-old, is fascinated with forensic science and (a hallmark of Asperger's) is obsessive about crime scenes. One day, Jacob's social skills tutor, Jess, comes up missing and is later found dead. Because Jacob is the last to be seen with her, all signs point to him as the killer. Yet, it's Theo who finds himself deeply involved.

I have to admit, this book really kept me on the edge of my seat. From one page to the next, new details emerged that made this one hard to put down. I will say, while it was a good book, it wasn't one of Picoult's best. However, I highly recommend it if you're looking for a fascinating read on crime scene investigation and learning more about Asperger's Syndrome. Happy reading!

Floo Powder... Anyone?

Today is the day that Justin and I go to Orlando to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I am so excited! There is only one problem....

This is the view outside my window at home. The roads are dangerous, schools are closed, and I want my flight to take off on time! So, grab your floo powder, run for a chimney, and hopefully I'll be seeing you Harry Potter fans (who know what I'm talking about) at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

All A-Twitter

I find myself becoming a Twitter junkie. My sister, Lindsay, was the one who got me started about a year and a half ago, and at the time I thought it was ridiculous. Who cares what I have to say in 140-characters or less? Since that time, I've tweeted more than 1,700 thoughts (some of them meaningful, others just rants!). Overall, I think that Twitter has proved itself as a force to be reckoned with. Although Twitter has about half the number of users as Facebook, it was one of the most powerful tools of 2010. Just today, Twitter released The 10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010, and although I believe there are more than just 10 that should have made the cut, you can view the entire list here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this list. (Should Ann Curry have been the top tweet? Is a Twitter account poking fun at the BP oil spill really appropriate or powerful? Which others should have made the cut?) Keep in mind while viewing this list that there was no scientific reasoning behind it's development. Biz Stone (a co-founder of Twitter) sat down with the team at the Today Show this morning, and to paraphrase him, it was basically his opinion on which were the most powerful.

Consider this: what makes a tweet powerful? It moves people to action? It inspires change? It makes people laugh? All of the tweets on this review do just that, and that's what we should aim to do as well. Should we be trying to get on the 2011 "most powerful" list? That might be a far stretch. But, my point is this: tweet, Facebook, communicate (whatever!) with purpose! Be the action and the change and the laughs that you wish to see in others.

If you're not already on Twitter, you should be. Don't knock it until you try it because it's one of the best social tools out there right now. It's quick, it's to the point, and it's an outstanding way to get breaking news fast! If you're already on twitter, follow me! I'd love to hear from you there!

Check out the rest of Twitter 2010: Year in Review!

She Did It!

This is a photo of my twin sister, Lindsay, as she graduated from the WVU IMC Master's program today! The graduation ceremony was held in the Coliseum on WVU's campus, so this is her on the big screen.

The Reading Room

I think that a love of writing and a love of reading go hand in hand. I love to write, but I think my love for reading far surpasses any other hobby I could come up with. I can't remember the first book I read, but I remember the first book I fell in love with: The Bridges of Madison County. I'm also pretty certain I was far too young to be reading it, but that's beside the point. Over the years, I think I've read thousands of books (I get this problem from my mother and great grandmother!), but my graduate school routine drastically got in the way of my reading regimen. So, since finishing grad school, I've been trying to catch up, and I thought I would share what I'm reading with you in this corner of my blog that I've titled "The Reading Room".

By show of hands, how many of you follow Heather B. Armstrong's blog dooce.com? Okay, I obviously can't see your hands, but thanks for playing along. Anyway, I first saw Armstrong on an episode of Oprah, and she was discussing her blog as a place for mom's to come together and discover that everything they fear they're doing wrong in parenthood is normal. I know I'm not a parent, but she also posts fun pictures and anecdotes, and she's a really great writer!

So, while I was visiting friends in Connecticut, I just happened upon Armstrong's book It Sucked and Then I Cried, and of course the title just sounded so riveting that I had to pick it up and start reading right away! The book chronicles Armstrong's pregnancy with her first child, which I have to admit, makes me never want to have children! But, I'm sure not all pregnancies are as gruesome as her's appeared to be in this blog-style account of her ups and downs. Beyond her pregnancy, the book talks about her struggle with postpartum depression. This is an interesting subject to me as I ponder children in the future. What if the baby blues attacked me as well?

I think the moral of Armstrong's book is simple: It's okay to ask for help. Although I'm not a mother (or even pregnant for that matter!), I think postpartum depression is a real thing that should be discussed openly. And, if you feel the blues coming on... ask for help! No one should feel ashamed that they've been hit with a touch of anxiety and depression. 

Beyond the somber moments of the book, this piece is laugh-out-loud funny. Armstrong's wit and humor were enough to get me through the parts where I felt like I wanted to cry for her! Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has children, is pregnant, or may be thinking about having children (somewhere in the distant future, of course!). (Just a warning though: watch out for a minimal amount of foul language, and her dislike for the Mormon religion from which she separated.) 

Winter Wonderland

This is the view from my office on this snowy morning in West Virginia! (Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was taken from my phone and not well lit!) I hope that you're finding a way to enjoy the cold temps (and possibly snow!) where you are today!

And so it begins...

About a year ago, I started a blog as a class project. Prior to starting this blog, I have to say that I was really against the whole idea. I mean, who really wants to sit down and read what I think? Blogging, to me, seemed like a forum for tech junkies to share their HTML code and talk about video games that no one really understands. After my class project, I was never the same.

I love to write. I've ALWAYS loved to write. I wrote my first short story when I was in grade school. My mom loved it so much that she still has it in our filing cabinet at home. It was called "Marcella's Exciting Day" and it was about a little girl that took an outing with her grandmother. I'm not sure why my mother thought it was so great, but I'm flattered that she still has it. After that, I wrote to a publishing company when I was 11 years old and asked them what I needed to do to write a book. They told me to write back in 10 years.

Over the summer, my husband and I took a trip overseas to complete some mission work. It was a journey that changed my life, and is also the root of my URL. My Chinese name means "beautiful peace", and that is how "beautifully peaceful" was born. Because I couldn't use my cell phone overseas, I chronicled our journey to family back home through emails everyday. It was during that time that I was encouraged to start writing again. My youngest sister told me she felt like she was reading a book the entire time we were gone. I think that was my goal.

The original blog that I started for class is no more. Although I wrote a lot of thought provoking things, most of them were prompted for class, and not things you'd want to read. So, I'm starting over again. I hope that you'll join me for the ride.