Honest, I have a real post planned.

Pottermore is due to open in early April. I LOVE Harry Potter. Luckily for us lesser mortals who didn't get into Pottermore for the beta run, the bookshop of Pottermore is available to all. I think I know what I'm about to spend some of my savings on. This

YES! Soon they will be mine! And then, while I'm at Disney(!!!!!) next fall, I won't have to tote all of them with me for my annual reading. :)

Running

Running. I have really gotten into it. I love it. I love it much more than my fat ankle.

My fat ankle is a lovely thing. It used to be a regular non-fat ankle. Until, I found that stairs are not my friends. At all. So, when I fell down the stairs and heard sounds come from my ankle that should not happen at all, all I could think, besides a singular 4 letter word, was that this ankle is going to be fat as all get out forever!

Happily, my ankle is not this fat anymore. If it was, I would be depressed.

Now, several months later, my ankle is still fat. Though, it's not as fat as it used to be, it is still bigger than Aunt Marge after Harry made her float away.

There she goes. Only to be popped by the Ministry later. via

Back to my ankle issues. It needs some support and love from an ankle brace. I need to find an ankle brace though. One that doesn't look like it can't give my ankle the love it needs. One that isn't more than $20. One that isn't super obvious that I'm wearing it. One that is light enough for me to run in comfortably. The search is on. Do you have any suggestions?

A Fresh Idea

    I've spent a lot of time recently working on an excel spreadsheet of all the books I've read since high school. I'm not even up to 200 yet, and I am thoroughly disappointed in myself. I have got to stop re-reading so many books, and read some new ones instead! To work on that, I'm going to start doing posts on what I've previously read that's on my chart and hasn't been posted here. It'll be a pseudo-library feature. Except I don't loan my books out, and chances are high that I'll talk about Harry Potter a lot. Along with Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit of course. Now, I'm going to think about what book or books I should post about first.

My runs here lately

   Running has become a daily (well, weekday daily) thing. I never anticipated such a thing to happen to me. A couch loving, perpetual napper, book reading kind of girl. It did though, and I have to say, I'm happy every time I get my butt out the door to run. This week, I finally ran a distance (it's not a mile, but I'm a beginner, a slow beginner) that would be long enough to prevent me from getting eaten by zombies or trampled by Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup.
   This past week, I finally ran more than 1/2 a mile! I know, it's not a long way or even a race-able length. For me though, this is a big development. I've never been able to run more than 40 feet without wanting to stop. It was amazing! I have said about a zillion times that I never thought I'd love running, but I love it every single time I'm out there!
    Running all that way made me feel so much better about all the time I spend away from the house to run. It made me realise that all this time I'm spending isn't being wasted, especially since I'm able to go farther and farther. I just want to jump up and down thinking about it! I'm absolutely mental.
   Now I just have to think about my next pair of running shoes...

Oh Homer, you make me feel better about my running. 

York. The Old One.

   This past weekend, the boys had several days off from school, so Sara and I decided that a trip was just what we needed. Of course, we decided this while Robby was away. We have some entertaining ideas. If I were to list them, you might start to think that we need psychological assistance. We like to think that we have brilliant plans that should be put into immediate use. Sadly, we aren't in charge anywhere.
   On to our actual trip! We decided on Wednesday that we'd go to York and leave on Thursday. This is how all vacation planning should be done. Right before you want to leave, especially if when you want to leave is on a weekend that's also a federal holiday. I'll be a travel agent one day, and also a life coach (because my brilliant ideas should help you make your life better, and it'll be better when you do things the Sarah-Way.). So Sara called and made us a hotel reservation. This is no small feat considering there's 9 in our party. The 6 boys and the 3 grown ups. Though, I'm quite certain that the grown up title isn't really a good match for me. Maybe it's because I still live at home and such. Anyway, we had a hotel and were ready for travel.

Because of Doctor Who, I am now wary of any and all angel statues. 

A coffee shop that was right on the river. It was precious.

York Minster

I felt that the shop owner must be a good person. That means that she or he likes Harry Potter.

My first Christmas lights sighting!

Walking the Roman Wall.

A weeping statue! Scary! 

Shambles. It was adorable! 

The thing to gain from this. York is amazing! If you find yourself in England, make it up to York.

Pumpkin Time! It's only a week late.

We carved pumpkins here last week, and I scooped out pumpkin guts and cut the tops off and drew the intended design on them with sharpie. Not in that order, but we still managed to cut out some legit pumpkins.

Pumpkin guts. Delicious. 

Pumpkins with plans. Yes, that's my Deathly Hallows one.

Snaggle tooth and Scary Face.

Our other pumpkins by Benny and Isaac.

Harry Potter!! Win!

My 12 by 2012

I saw this over on The Small Things, and I thought it was brilliant. It's a list of goals to complete before 2012 comes around.

1. Be able to run at least a mile without stopping. I'm nearly there!

2. Don't get a drastic haircut. A hard one, because I love my hairdresser. A lot.

3. Have all my Christmas shopping done before December.

4. Have my list of books read up to 200.

5. Make my crazy just a little bit less crazy.

6. Wear crazy high shoes because I can.

7. Have a week of jean free outfits, and actually wear them.

8. Get better at crocheting.

9. Finish mine and Sara's scarves.

10. Re-read all the Harry Potter books.

11. Keep running every day.

12. Stay happy.

It's not a life changing list, but I think it's doable and will come with good results. What are you hoping to achieve before next year?