happiness is:

staying up too late to read a book.

staying up too late to read a book while sitting next to your husband (who is watching a tv show). 

good books. 

really good books that make you cry. 

turning in a 20 page paper. (can you say accomplishment?)

getting a call from a professor about an open internship for next year. 

rocking the interview for said internship. 

getting hired for your first teaching job ever. 

as a real teacher.

not actually having to do student teaching. 

hugs from nieces and nephews. 

teaching sunday lessons that go well. 

finishing a final. 

birthday weeks.

eating ice cream from the container.

finishing a semester.

finding lists about your blessings you wrote when you were 13(ish).

best friends.

making birthday plans.

the prospect of summer bike rides and road trips.

things just working out and fitting nicely together.

that's the happiest of all.

looking up.

I was going through some pictures on my computer that I took with my phone and came across this gem: 

"I told him I was looking up at the sky. He said, "That's a misconception, Lennie, the sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet."

Does anyone else love that as much as I do? It's from a YA novel called The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I read it last Spring semester for a Young Adult lit class. 

Endless possibility in such a statement. I can't quite come up with why or how, but it's beautiful. 

"unexpected intrusions of beauty. this is what life is." (saul bellow)

"Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever present game of knowing." (Hank Green)

everything via

tumbling.

a few of my favorites from my tumblr as of late. 

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do,

xo

I want you to know.

"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

{the perks of being a wallflower}

as you would like to believe in yourself.

“He smiled understandingly, much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.”

--F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

A favorite of mine. 

I dream of this:

“they talked excitedly for hours: about the sound of the cello, silent films, and the memories they both associated with the smell of salt water.” 

“Holding hands, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together.” 

“If I had a camera,” I said, “I’d take a picture of you every day. That way I’d remember how you looked every single day of your life.” “I look exactly the same.” “No, you don’t. You’re changing all the time. Every day a tiny bit. If I could, I’d keep a record of it all.” 

“I found it almost unbearably beautiful.” 

all quotes found in The History of Love

a question

"I tried to write about real things. I wanted to describe the world, because to live in an undescribed world was too lonely."

"When the windows were open, and the wind was blowing in the right direction, they could smell the sea."

"Her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

The History of Love

by Nicole Krauss

via

because there was sunshine. (and the semester is over)

I love many things about summer. Especially since I've gone to BYU.
I love that for me, it starts in April. (Always in time for my birthday)
I love that I can read whatever my heart desires. (I even have an [unfinished] list)

**I've never read Jane Eyre but I feel like I should...

and rereading Harry Potter 7 seems appropriate??

Feel free to offer more suggestions.

There are certain things about Summertime that I just love. 

Sunglasses are probably my favorite accessory, to go along with bare feet and no makeup.
My mom and I like to sit on my driveway on beach chairs (and if we listen hard enough we can hear the waves...or at least we pretend to)
I like the way my skin smells after it has spent too much time in the sun and the way it looks as my freckles begin to pop out.
Being able to see the stars every night and gaze at them (without shivering) is the kind of magic I wait all year for.
Happy Hour at Sonic (Cranberry Limeade).
Bike rides up the canyon.
Reading outside in the sunshine.
Tubing down the ice cold river.
Driving around with the windows down.
Wearing sun dresses and jean shorts.

In the Spring air I can smell Summer.
And even though I love Winter (snow is kind of like family), I can't wait for the heat.