HARRY POTTER

So whatever reason, I have never, before these past two weeks, made an account on pottermore. Now I find this so weird because I LOVE Harry Potter. Like read the books ten times each love it. So I always knew pottermore was a thing, but I always thought it was just a game, which I wasn't super interested in. But it wasn't until recently that I found out JK Rowling posts new content on there. As in new writings about the wizarding world of Harry Potter!!! So I was like umm I need to get on this. So I did. I made an account and got sorted and it was sooo cool!!

Now I've never given any serious thought to which house I would be sorted into. So, like most people, I always just assumed gryffindor, because I thought it was the best. So when I was sorted into hufflepuff, I was a little surprised. But when I read more about the description, it seemed more and more like me. Here's the quote that really resonated with me:

"Hufflepuffs are trustworthy and loyal. We don't shoot our mouths off, but cross us at your peril; like our emblem, the badger, we will protect ourselves, our friends, and our families against all-comers. Nobody intimidates us."

When I took the little quiz to sort me, I was dealing with friend drama and I was in mother-bear mode. So these few lines really made me feel like this was my house and I could be proud of that.

Now, onto the new content. On pottermore you can go through different scenes in the book in an interactive way. This is where you can find the new content. In this screenshot, you can see that some of the scenes have little red feathers in the upper right corner. This means there is new content hidden in that scene somewhere. This has been SO MUCH FUN! Finding all the new writings and reading them is now my new favorite hobby. The new content gives me such a better understanding of the characters and the wizarding world in general.

If you love Harry Potter, and you haven't looked into pottermore yet, do it! SO, SO much fun! Also if you've been on pottermore for a long time, let me know other stuff about the site I might be missing out on!

-Natalie 

Procrastinating: part 2

*If you don't want to read this whole post, please read the last paragraph, I need your help*

So last month I wrote a post on procrastinating. You can read that here. I feel like since then my procrastinating has gotten worse. Much worse. So much so that on Monday night I got one hour of sleep. I practically pulled an all-nighter. This is something I had always told myself I would never do. Yet there I was, awake until four thirty tuesday morning. The worst part about it was that I had absolutely and completely no excuse. I was not busy over the weekend. I had no other homework. AND we had monday off for a teacher work day. Not only was I not busy, not only did I have no other work, but I also had an extra day to do it.  

At 3 in the morning my mom came into my room and found me still working. I was so ashamed. I was crying and telling her "I know I know I can't ever do this again!" "I never thought it would take this long!". You know, the usual excuses. But this time was different. What I did, or didn't do, has affected me this whole week. I am still yet to completely make up for all the lost sleep. I am unbelievably lucky and thankful to God that I didn't  get into a car accident this week. I was exhausted. Shutting my eyes at stoplights, feeling dizzy and lightheaded from lack of sleep. My simple act of procrastinating could have cost me my life. And because it didn't, I want to change. I never want this to happen again. If I ever get into a life threatening car accident, I do not want it to be my fault. Hell I'm worried about potentially losing my own life, I could have killed someone else too. This may seem dumb to worry about something so unlikely, but this is not something I want to joke about anymore. On thursday when this homework was assigned, I actually turned to my friend and said "you know I'm gonna be doing this on monday night." 

How would I have felt, if on tuesday morning on my way to school, I hit a car and someone died. And I would have known that it was because I was tired and my reflexes were slower. I would have known that someone died because I procrastinated. That I could have prevented this. 

I'm not writing this because I think that was likely to happen. I'm not even writing it because I feel guilty. Yeah, I definitely feel guilty. But thats not why I'm writing this. I am writing this to scare myself, my future self. This is for next time. This is for the time when I'm bored and I decide to check to see if someone commented on my blog instead of doing my homework. This is so I remember that actions have consequences that could be completely unforeseeable.  

There is one other reason that I'm writing this. Aside from the drama and scare-tactics, I need help. I do not know how to get out of this vicious cycle. I am calling it a vicious cycle for several reasons. One, whenever I procrastinate, I am under a time constraint so I am more motivated, I get it done faster. Two, I always manage to get good grades anyway. And three, I never see a reason not to do it again. For the few people who have read this post of gigantic proportions, I need your help. I want your help. I'm just going to assume that you have procrastinated at least once in your life. What I want to know is were you able to stop? If so then tips are greatly appreciated. If not then were in the same boat. It would be great to have some buddies in this boat. We can help each other, rescue each other when we drown. I don't know about you, but I wish there was a support group for procrastinators. Maybe we can start our own. Or maybe no one will read this. But thats okay, I'll start anyway. 

Hi, my name is Natalie, and I am a procrastinator.  

Deals Deals Deals

So the other day I went shopping and found a BUNCH of deals. So much fun!!

The first thing I found were these jeans from American Eagle. These are normally $40 but I got them for $14!

At H&M I got these necklaces for $1! It is two necklaces, a gold heart and a silver arrow. Both have really long chains which I like because I don't really have anything like that. 

Then I got this hat, also H&M, for $3. It's a really plain black knit beanie. I tried to find it on the website but I couldn't so here is a  similar hat I found. Just in case your interested! ;)

This purse is also from H&M (they were having a great sale). I got it for $5 and I love it because the texture is almost like felt and I also don't have a green purse. Haha.

Also from H&M were these little bags which I thought were really cute. They were only $1 and I thought you know, every girl can always use another little bag.

So in total I spent $24 and got all these nice things. I just looove bargains. So getting all this for so cheap makes me really happy! I also like to hear about other peoples deals (because I'm nosy!). So tell me if you got anything for a really good price lately!

xo

Natalie

Snow Day Chili!

It has been snowing here all day today so we had no school and it seemed like the perfect day for chili. Normally we make chili the lazy way from a can but today I decided to make my own chili. I used this recipe from Betty Crocker. Because my family (myself included) is pretty picky, we don't normally like a lot of chucks of tomatoes, onion, or peppers so I adapted this recipe a little so that there were less chunks. 

First, I defrosted 2 lbs of cooked ground beef (We buy a lot of ground beef at once then cook it all and thaw it when we use it) and put it into a (very) large crock pot.

Then I sauteed 1/3 cup of chopped onion and added it to the crock pot. 

Then I added three 15 oz. cans of plain tomato sauce, one 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes and green chilies, and one 16 oz. can of red kidney beans. Next I added spices.

Two teaspoons of onion powder,

one quarter teaspoon of garlic powder,

two tablespoons of chili powder,

one and a half teaspoons of ground cumin, 

and half a teaspoon of salt and pepper. ( 1 tsp each)

Then, after stirring it up, I covered the crock pot, turned it on low, and let it simmer for approximately six hours. 

Then we finally sat down to eat. It was delicious! Way better than the canned chili we usually buy. The only downside to this is the fact that it takes six hours. However, the ingredients really only need to be heated up because the meat is already cooked. So really the six hours only makes the chili a little more flavorful, it isn't entirely necessary. Let me know how it turns out if you make this and tweet me a picture @natt_beth. 

-Natalie

Happiness

Today I had a wonderful afternoon shopping (which I will write a post for soon) and everything was great until I picked up my brothers from the bus and went home. We walked in to discover our dog, Rita, had thrown up. Now I absolutely HATE everything to do with vomiting, to the point where I have had a lot of anxiety about it, so this was not ideal. So I left the room and went upstairs to take my mind off it. I had to ask my nine year old brother to try and clean the vomit up a little and take her for a walk. She seemed fine after that so we think it was probably some freak thing. Anyway this was just the start to a worse second half of the afternoon. Not long after that I had to get back in the car and go back to school to pick up my other brother from track practice. By now, because it rained today, I have a headache. So by the time we get back home, I'm pretty miserable. I lay down for a little while, take an advil, but it doesn't help much. When my mom gets home I decide to make dinner. I make (home made) chicken noodle soup because my mom has been asking me to make it the past few days. While I'm making it, my head still hurts and all the bad things that have happened the past two hours just start building up inside. I'm angry and I think about all the I'd like to yell about. But then, I think about it. I don't have to be angry. I don't have to be annoyed, anxious, sad, or mad about everything that happened. I can just let it go. On that note, to cheer myself up, I start singing "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?". Now, this may sound cliche or dumb but it really worked. My brothers came in the kitchen and we put on the real music from my phone and sang along to the whole Frozen sound track. By the time we sit down to eat, I'm happy instead of angry and I don't mind my headache so much. Even now, I don't feel 100% but I take heart in knowing that I did this. I chose to be happy, I could have let myself be mad but I changed how I was feeling and had a much better evening for it.

Whenever I do something along these lines, I want to reflect on it afterward and remember how good it felt for next time. I like knowing that I controlled my feelings and happiness. It makes me feel good about myself to know that I can do this. 

My Weekend

I've had a wonderful weekend and I wanted to write about it so I don't forget :)

Friday:
First, at school I had to take a placement test for when I go to the community college next year and I did really well. Then I had a really lovely evening with one of my best friends. She has never seen any of the Star Wars movies!!! So for a long time we've said that we would watch them together and on friday we finally started watching them. I decided we should watch them in chronological order instead of the order they were made in. (meaning 1-6 instead of 4,5,6,1,2,3) so we watched episode I: The Phantom Menace. It was hilarious watching her watch it and having to explain everything that happened. All in all, it was a great night, we had popcorn, my brothers were adorable, and the movie was excellent. :)

Saturday:
In the morning I went to a (sort of) college fair with my mom for the aforementioned community college. This was really nice and informative but the best part was that it happened to be held at George Mason University which is where my older brother goes to school. So my mom and I got to see him. :) Later, my mom and I went shoe shopping at DSW. Neither of us found anything but it was still just fun shopping with her. That evening I went out to dinner at the mall with one of my best friends (a different one from friday) at panda express. Afterwards we shopped around and I found a really cute beanie at H&M (pictured below). It was on sale for $3!!! I LOVE bargains so this was the perfect end to a perfect night!

Sunday:
In the morning my family and I went to church. In the afternoon we went to the first birthday party of a family friends daughter. They had the party at this amazing pizza place. The pizza was literally the best I have EVER had, it was that good. They also had these chicken wings which were so so good. And last, but not least, the milkshakes. They were TO DIE for. Wow, I can't even describe them. They were creamy and thick but not so thick that you couldn't use a straw, and the flavor was perfect. So that alone made for a really nice day.

Monday:
The only thing special about monday was that it was a snow day!

This is the best weekend I have had in a while (hence the reason I didn't want to forget it). Have you had any really nice days lately? Or have you found any bargains while shopping? Let me know and thanks for reading such a wordy post! xxx

Favorite Book

Paper Towns by John Green

One of my new favorite books is Paper Towns by John Green. I read it because the movie is coming out this year and because I love John and Hank Green. I watch Vlog Brothers, Crash Course, and Sci-Show on YouTube and I absolutely love them all! Particularly I love watching Vlog Brothers :) Definitely check them out: Vlog Brothers Crash Course Sci-Show.

Okay so now on to the actual book ;)
The description from the back of the book:

So obviously I loved this (or I wouldn't be writing this haha). It was captivating and mysterious and surprising...I could list more adjectives if you like. Anyway, if you haven't read this, I HIGHLY recommend it! I think this is great book for both guys and girls and appropriate for everyone older than thirteen. Please please read this book I promise you will not regret it :)

*now for the fun part where I talk about spoilers*

Okay am I the only who completely freaked when they almost hit those cows!? Before I read this, I had read most of John Greens other books and there is a theme that something bad or sad happens in them. So when I read when Q was like we're going to die I was just like no! this CAN'T be how it ends! and then I was like *phew* and then when they thought the beer was gasoline I was like NOOO and then when they realized it was beer I laughed at myself for about five minutes. (wow cool story) I felt this part was genius on Johns part, he had me completely invested in the characters and not ready for a twist like this which ended up not being a twist which is why I found it so hilarious! (I would like to apologize for the multiple run on sentences) Then they finally found Margo and she acted like such a bitch! (sorry if you care about cursing) But then she was acting okay and her and Q kissing was beyond adorable and bittersweet! It's the kind of book where you want another one because you want to know what happens to Margo but at the same time you don't want another one because it would ruin the first and just uh. Also it's more fun to decide what happens to Margo yourself.  Overall I loved this SO much I can't wait until it has been long enough where it's acceptable to re-read it :)

Sorry that was so rambly and I'm sure there are multiple grammar mistakes but thanks for reading anyway! x
-Natalie