my name is kirsten goodman,

i'm a seventeen year old girl & life isn't waiting.

i'm flawed and mistake-prone.
i believe you have to fight for the good things in life.
the right thing will almost always be the hardest thing.

i believe in change for the better; the unexpected kind of change.

i believe in charity & generosity.
my greatest ambition: to be completely selfless.

i am passionate and committed.
i love easily.

i believe i have an irreplaceable role in this life.

always give second chances & the benefit of the doubt.

i believe in bare feet and bright colors.

i'm outspoken & often misunderstood.
i believe in being who i am.
i am in no place to make judgments of another.
i believe in late nights and early mornings.
i believe in complimenting. lots.
never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.
i believe in learning & leaving somethings unknown.
i believe friendships and memories are life's gift to us. treat with care.
sing fearlessly, everywhere you go.

i believe in daydreaming.

smiling is contagious, never hold back.
i believe everyday is another page in the story of me.

meet my new best friend:

the bowl.

sometimes i have to take medication that makes me want to throw up.
but, my good ol' bowl is always there for me. what a good friend.

like autumn turns leaves.

blickenstaff's obviously.

strawberry days.

kiwanis for youth conference

youth conference sleeping on the tramp.

we spoon.

kiwanis & my girl angie.

rodeo, he doesn't smile.

my sunday temple trips & sunsets.

me, nini & angie.

my best friend in the world, lydia.

strawberry days rodeo.

excuse me, for the way i look at you - you remind me of someone i thought i knew.

three cheers for post titles that are almost as long as your actual posts and completely irrelevant.

but, YOU, yes you.

do this for me:

every sunday, leave behind the TV, facestalking, excessive napping,

and go to the temple grounds. take with you your scriptures,

patriarchal blessing, conference talks, and music (i prefer john schmidt & motab)

spend at least an hour studying and praying. learn something new. 

& if you haven't already read this book:

read it. it will change your life.

thanks.

an ode to fathers.

just my father actually.
that is my dad and my mom.
seeing as it is father's day,
i just wanted to say something.

my dad is better than your dad.
end of story.

this kid:

has been called to serve in Cleveland, Ohio mission.
Elder Nate Crosland, we love you.

cleaning: it's a process.

panorama is the greatest.

blogosphere blues:

i believe i've found us all a theme song.

be who you are & say what you feel.

because those who mind don't matter,

and those who matter don't mind.

- dr. seuss

welcome to the private blog. it's nice here.

today, he kissed me.

i was shocked, really, and flattered.
his name is Patrick, and he's from Australia.

accent & his enchanting hazel eyes. hard to resist.

he told me he had a secret and proceeded to kiss my cheek.

i might have blushed.
so i grabbed his hand & pulled him away from the pool wall.

i gave him the look. he knew just what to do.

he took a deep breath and did his tummy float.

oh. patrick is four & i teach him swim lessons.

adorable.

he might have kissed my cheek again, held my hand, and put his arm around me.

some people's kids these days.

goodbye public eyes.

i'm officially going private.

message me or comment if you want an invite.

kirstenchaseg_ (at) hotmail (dot) com

^ don't forget that sneaky underscore.

the blogosphere is my second home. i'll miss the public realm dearly.

because i live to blog, and i blog to live. we're the best of friends, and lets be real,

we may not actually associate past courteous hello's and warm smiles.

we blog because we need to vent. we blog for the sake of blogging.

we blog because we are clever & witty and everyone wants us to. (meg.)

we blog because, here, our opinions matter, and what we can say what we feel.

tomorrow night my blog goes private.
because i am not allowed to say what i feel.

so, forgive me if i said anything hurtful to you.
it won't happen again.
adieu.

because i need the spirit.

Maybe you like commenting on posts, maybe you don't. 

But, I need you to this time. I've been feeling empty for a while now.

The obvious truth is, the Spirit hasn't been around as much as I'd like it to.

I need more advice, and more than anything, I'm asking for help.

You might never see me ask for help again - I'm far too proud.
But, I realize, I can't do this one on my own. How do you feel the Spirit most?

What do you do and when do you do it? Is there a scripture or song that helps?
It seems I've lost touch, and I can't get back by myself.

things.

its a game.

the rules are like this:
get a group of people.
each person will take a turn to be the judge and choose a category.
for example:
things you shouldn't do in public.
things you never tell your teachers.
things that make you cry.
things that keep you up at night.
everyone will write down their answer on a paper and fold it up.
the judge will read each paper & everyone tries to guess who wrote it.
there are no boundaries when it comes to the responses on the papers.
no limits, no rules. it can get ugly, but that's probably the funnest part.
when someone matches the right response with the person who wrote it,
the person who wrote it is "out" and they can no longer match names & responses.

note:
when you are playing with kids like hayden anderson,
be prepared for some disturbing answers.

cool story, kirsten.
anyways.
it was another one of those nights.
the whole time, i wanted to crawl in bed.
i just wanted to sleep the day away.

oh, and my mom is making me get checked for skin cancer in a couple weeks.
what? yeah. she's way more freaked out than i am.
things these days.

ab workouts & poptart cakes.

okay. is it just me, or are there some nights that you really don't want to hang out.

you just want to go home, watch a sappy movie and crawl in bed.

definitely what i was planning on. except this kid, dallin, decided to make

my day a little better. we made a poptart cake. okay. it went like this:

step 1

make two circle chocolate cake things.

step 2

cook poptarts and put them in the middle

step 3 

put frosting all over it.

let's be real. it was the most disgusting thing ever. wayyyy too much going on

for just one cake. but it was super fun, and i think i might have had the best

ab work out of my life from laughing. for the first time in a long time, i felt

like i could actually be happy. we played piano. and by we, i mean, he. 

basically, he's crazy amazing at piano. so i watched and listened. i might have

wanted to fall asleep. piano music does that to me. his brother made me 

krafts mac n' cheese. i'd never had it before. it's pretty gross. but we laughed.

a lot.

i'm ready for carefree.

i'm tired of bad days.

i'm tired of crying a lot.

i think i'll smile instead.

please, do tell.

what are your go-to's and fix-me-up's for your bad days?
i think i'm on a streak of bad days. and i need some help.
usually poptarts & peanut butter get me through it, but
unfortunately, they've run their course and now i need a
new way to get through one of those days.

tell me,
what do you do?

because i live at the pool.

credit to joe for showing me this.

hello, skin cancer.

talking smack.

good news, i can talk trash. but when it comes down to it, i'll always get wrecked in halo.
also, let's be real. tonight definitely falls under the completely-unexpected-and-totally-unprepared-for kind of evening. not sure where it's leading & i'm kind of scared.

the unknown is fascinating.
but surprisingly intimidating.

here i come.

we held hands.

summer of 2011:

last night, i may have attended the graduation stomp.

i probably lost my favorite earrings, got punched in the face, and 

tossed out of the mosh pit at least 5 times.

i might have made arrangements to have a boxing party.

i played halo until 3:00 in the morning with people that are 8 years older than me.

there's a good chance i stayed up until 4:00 a.m. for the senior all-nighter to end.

and when it did, i may have packed sleeping bags and blankets for a cool night.

we slept on the turf field. scratch that. we talked on the turf field.

in our sleeping bags and blankets, until 6:30 in the morning. 

i probably wished on some shooting stars.

they may have unexpectedly come true.

its 7:10 a.m.

working on 24 hours without sleep.

am i tired? probably not.

we gonna party all night,

no sleep.

miss you, kiddos.

my best friends in the world. 

you know danny. he has a blog. 

the best friend. and her potential hubbies. 

lisa. you can read her blog too. 

and kassie. we love her. 

can't forget syd. 

 clay. we love him even though he never blogs.

 ahem. jesse. my secret crush.

and we love johanna.

it's been real.

it's been fun.

goodbye, class of 2011.

dear class of 2011,

[and anyone else that has already graduated high school.]
please, give this upcoming senior girl some advice.
the best advice, so that maybe her senior year won't be as awful as it's starting to seem. things you wish you'd done, things you wish you would have avoided, things that made your senior year worth while, things that make it easier, things i should not do. the works.
love, kirsten.
p.s. you guys are my favorite. i'll miss you.

copperman & the pond.

i'm the king of my mom's soup.

or something.

so tonight, i hung out with some of my favorite seniors.

i'm going to miss them dearly - tomorrow, they graduate.

but, not without wedding announcements and an

evening full of streaking & facebook stalking.

please, meet my best friend lydia andersen.

soon to be, mrs. moon. cause this is their photo for their

wedding announcement. i'll give you the real one when it's ready.

obviously, they are wonderful.

and as for the facebook stalking. here's what you do.

first, find one of your friends on facebook.

preferably a friend that you don't actually know.

read their info or about me section. proceed to stalk

one of their friends. repeat. 

really, you read some of the funniest things in the world.

people are weird.

we may have visited the copper man & my pond, too.

this one, remember?

except, it was night time.

oh, and the boys might have streaked.

really. it's not okay. we didn't watch.

[for the record, Ryan was not apart of the stripping.]

lisa and missy were there too.

last night before they graduated. so chill.

summer of 2011, welcome.

for the sake of my sanity

i'm considering going private.