Well, so much for blogging.
Seriously.
I'm terrible with this thing! I can't seem to stay consistent or keep up with this as I get busier, most notably during the school year. Considering the spring semester has been over for at least three weeks now, I really don't have any excuse for why I haven't returned other than that I've been relishing in my free time and indulging in other desires...
...cooking, baking, exercising, sewing, cleaning, organizing....just to name a few of those things....
So, here I am.
Again.
Trying to write.
Again.
Trying to keep up and updating to keep up with life.
Again.
Let's dive right in, shall we?
Lately...
- I was incredibly stubborn and refused to go to the eye doctor regarding blurriness and impaired vision in my right eye. After a couple of weeks of complaints, Justin finally got so fed up with said stubbornness that he drove me to go to Urgent Care the Saturday before exams week, where I was diagnosed with corneal kerititis. Justin documented the whole ordeal quite well, which you can read about here. I had to push back all of my exams, which resulted in taking all four in one day = so ridiculously stressful. Lesson learned: TAKE OUT YOUR CONTACTS AT THE END OF EVERY DAY AND DON'T LEAVE THEM IN LONGER THAN EIGHT HOURS AT A TIME. Period. Done. I refuse to go through that ever again!
- The Saturday after finals week ended I co-hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Jamie at our church. It was so nice to celebrate the little nugget of a guy who will be making his appearance in just over a month now! Since I'm still learning how to operate my camera (another summer item on the to-do list), I'm more than slightly ashamed of the quality of the few photos I managed to capture so I think I'll be refraining from posting any of those...
- Working at a retail store downtown when a certain annual festival is going on is hectic....very hectic. I don't recommend it...especially when you're super duper OCD very organized and anything out of order drives you completely bonkers. I'm fairly certain my customer service skills just plummeted that week due my blood pressure skyrocketing through the roof as people rifled through hangers and racks and stacks of clothing. Sheesh. Good thing I'm not going into the retail industry permanently and rather into a field where attention to detail and having your ducks in a row is basically a necessity.
- Justin and I celebrated our third anniversary this past weekend! It's amazing how quickly the years go by! We started off the celebrations by taking the day off on Friday and heading to the beach and acting like tourists, riding the chain ferry across the river and walking through the quaint town of Saugatuck in and out of various shops. The next day, Justin drove us down to good ol' Ohio to visit a particular outlet mall that housed a certain brand of purses that I just happen to be quite fond of...where Justin, being the fantastic and utterly amazing husband that he is, allowed me to choose one to take home! Considering the fact that the third anniversary's traditional gift is leather, this choice of a gift was quite appropriate and made me one extremely happy wife. He also surprised me with the purchase of two new dresses and a pair of earrings, making me feel all the more spoiled! This was followed by a trip to the Bose store, leading to the early-birthday-gifting for the husband of a pair of a noise-canceling headphones to aid in his med school studies starting in the fall. We drove to a city an hour away (since the FOUR hotels in the outlet mall's city was completely booked) and stayed the night at a hotel that was oh-so-conveniently located just a mile down the road from an IKEA (another store whose website I happen to stalk and dream up decorating ideas about on occasion). We made more than a few purchases the next day to outfit our apartment and returned home late that night. Tomorrow we will have a low-key celebration of homemade breakfast and a relaxed morning, perhaps going through our wedding photos and reminiscing our big day from just three years ago...I love you, Justin! Thanks for a memorable and wonderful last three years - here's to many more to come!!!
Until next time (which who knows when that will be...hopefully sooner rather than later!)...
NPR
Yesterday I hoped to write a huge long post outlining the past few weeks, chock-full [ ...chockfull? Chockful? Chock full? Spelling, anyone? ] of photos and whatnot, but alas, I felt totally uninspired and devoid of motivation after a slightly irking incident involving UPS and my textbooks [ which turned out to be my own fault after all - cue tears of embarassment and shame... ].
So here's my little update to say that I'm still alive.
Our apartment isn't quite completely organized yet, but at least we only have about two or three more boxes to unpack and put away! And then despite slipping on a hill two miles from the end [ and straining / spraining my wrist in the process ], I survived the backpacking trip up north. I also managed to successfully stand up in my friend's wedding even on less than six hours of sleep and feeling more than slightly lightheaded and quite warm at least twice during the ceremony.
Boom.
There.
Update: done.
Just kidding.
I'll get pictures and a more detailed post up later this week. Justin and Josh are way ahead in the game with their fancy shmancy [ but not negative Nancy! That was dumb. Sorry. ] edited photos and lengthy posts, but I will catch up! Advanced apologies for repeats, though.
NPR
P.S. On a random note, everyone needs to go out and read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants [ click the link for the NY Times review ], right now. Seriously. Once you get past all the swear words [ 'cause there are lots in there ], it's absolutely hilarious. I finished it in a day and a half. Read it. You won't regret it.
The lack of posts has a reason: life is C-R-A-Z-Y as of late.
For one thing, we're moving.
Again.
Justin and I realized that this will be our fourth living space in the span of two years. That's right - by the time we settle into our new abode, we will have lived in FOUR different places since tying the knot in 2009.
That is four times of packing boxes, crossing our fingers that nothing gets damaged in said boxes, breaking down furniture [ or not...because it's sooo not worth it to attempt to reconstruct those IKEA pieces sans the original instructions...], loading / unloading U-Hauls, re-assembling non-IKEA furniture, unpacking those mountains of boxes, figuring out how to best organize new spaces and places, and waiting for weeks until our new home actually feels like home.
However, this time we're doing things a little differently.
We always knew that at some point we'd have to do a major purge of our possessions since we've been planning on paring way down once Justin heads to med school. However, we didn't expect that to happen until at least next summer, so now we're scrambling to purge unnecessary items. Due to renting an actual house, we've I've gotten into this nasty habit of -ahem- acquiring [ and creating ] more items than we I maybe should have. Some vintage Ball jars to use as vases? Sure, I'll take four. Perhaps a decorative wall hanging? I'll craft some and then also take one for free from my mom! This has resulted in a few too many items than we actually need and I'm feeling just a bit overwhelmed at the sight of them as I mentally pack items into imaginary boxes.
Yes, I went to thesaurus.com and looked up synonyms for hot and chose my favorites to name this post. This is what happens when I don't have any schoolwork to be tackled as I sit at my desk at work [ because why yes, I do sit on my tush for eight hours each shift at a place of employment where my boss encourages me to "exercise my brain" and do homework...all the while getting paid... ]. Even as I bask in the climate-controlled heaven, the sun has now started to stream into the gigantor windows that make up 1/3 of my "cubicle" and I'm starting to doubt my decision to wear black.
I know I've mentioned a time or two about how very warm our house gets due to its lack of A/C, but I really had no idea what I was talking about then. In fact, I laugh at my past self, writing those posts. This week has been ridiculous, as anyone who isn't living under a rock and ventures outdoors would confirm. Last night, we reached a recordbreaking 89°F inside our home, no breeze from outside to be found. In fact, it got so bad that I was standing in the bathroom, innocently brushing my teeth, when [ advanced apologies for the sheer gross factor of the rest of this story ] I felt a drop sliding down on my leg. Yes, I was literally dripping sweat just from lifting an arm in attempt to do the simple act of brushing my teeth. Horrific. I still don't know how we managed to fall asleep. Aaaaand then this morning, I turned on the oven to do some baking and cooking, just because I was that crazy determined. How sad / ironic / funny...in the winter months, I moan and groan all the good long day about wearing three pairs of pants, two sweatshirts and four pairs of socks to bed to counter the looming threat of frostbite, just dreaming of warm and sunny days. Now, in the throes of summer, I want to just sell my soul for even a hint of cold air in the house...
Since deciding to go back to school as well as moving into our church's house, Justin and I have become more aware of our finances and how we can possibly live more simply. In this post, he actually wrote about our attempts at living a greener lifestyle, which also translates into a "budget-friendlier" lifestyle. Along with this topic, over the past year I've been struggling to live more minimalistically and environmental-conscienciously [ try saying THOSE last five words fast 10X ]. Maybe it's being married and starting a new life with someone, maybe it's the fact that my money is not solely my own anymore, or maybe it's just me going through some changes - as I wrote in my "About Me" section, I'm learning to be content with less.
I'll be honest, sometimes it is really tough. With social networking grabbing me left and right via Facebook or all the blogs out there, it's difficult to not get turn into the green-eyed monster. So-and-so has the cutest clothes, why can't I just make over my wardrobe? So-and-so's house and its furnishings are so beautiful, why can't I have that, too? Oh, how I wish I could have X, Y and Z just like so-and-so. The list goes on, and before you know it, I'm feeling all down in the dumps when in reality, I'm surrounded by mounds of blessings, both physically and emotionally.
But then I shake my head, remind myself of those blessings and I realize how much I truly have to be thankful for. Along with that, I remind myself how much joy I get out of doing some of those things that are considered "simpler" or not very extravagant. They actually really are just better for me because they bring me a sense of peace, being okay with the littler or more basic of things.
