Trip Home: Graduation and Wedding Prep

I was home last week for Emma's graduation. She was Valedictorian of her class and gave an amazing speech. I have been watching the recording now and again for some continued inspiration to get me through my final summer of grad school. :)

I am so proud of her. 

I also wanted to share a couple of the great wedding finds my mom and I had while I was home. We went yardsaling, hoping to find wooden picture frames (hoping to paint them white, sand the edges for a distressed look, and hang with ribbons to make something like this). Anyway, we scored pretty big. We landed at the yardsale of an elementary school art teacher (who my mom happens to know), and not only did we find about 20 good frames for painting, we found an adorable old step ladder, some old window panes (for hanging pictures, as well), and an awesome vintage door, pictured below. Perfect little shelf there for setting the guestbook on. $30 for ALL OF THAT.  

Mom and I also worked on staining some old canning jars green...to make them look antique. Food coloring and mod podge does the trick. These look really cute with the pink daisies and colored ribbon and we'll use them for centerpieces.

I should have taken more pictures, really. But I will mention that we also found several lace curtains (they'll work for tablecloths to go over the colored tablecloths we've got) and a great easel on which to set the framed chalkboard I got at another yardsale. $3 for the tablecloths/easel.

Anyway, things are coming together and it's been so fun to have these little projects. I've spent some time hand-addressing my adorable kraft envelopes (brown-paper-bag style) for the announcements. A lot of people told me I was crazy for doing it by hand, but they're turning out so cute. 

Sigh. Most of all, the wedding is coming right up and I'm so excited. Sure, it is fun (okay, really fun) to have an excuse to execute all of my dream crafts. But take away all the crafts, all the projects, all the yardsaling. We could elope, and I'd still be elated. 68 more days!! 

Hopeful

My, oh my. Bothered that the new blogger isn't allowing me to separate my paragraphs out. 96 days til the wedding. I just checked. I have been working NON STOP on my thesis. Well, as non stop as I've ever worked on it, anyway. Something crazy came over me a couple weeks ago and I decided it was time to set a date for my defense, and when I mentioned this to my major professor, he suggested we shoot for April 30th. Even though I knew it was crazy, and I'm pretty sure he pulled that date out of nowhere, I decided to go for it. I need to have it submitted to my committee by this coming Monday, so I've done a ton of work on it these past several days. The whole thing (the thesis, I mean) has really transformed, even since I thought I was getting close with it last week when I sent it to my major professor. And the project is consuming--for as much as I've put it off so many times, I just love reading all the comments and remembering who said what and making connections and just...being there. (quick update: my thesis is from when I went to Aruba a few summers ago and did focus groups on marriage/relationship education). In a weird way, it'll be a little sad to be done with this project. It keeps me feeling connected to a place and people I love so dearly. But overall, I will be SO HAPPY to be done. I've got final projects due because the semester is ending, and I'm about to be done with my thesis. And then it will be summer. This summer is going to be great--it will consist of long-ish Tuesdays at the clinic (just like always), Wednesdays and Thursdays at my internship, and...that's it. No readings, no class, just clients at school and my internship, and supervision meetings (meetings about my therapy with my supervisors). This is fabulous. AND NO THESIS. It will be done! In less than 2 weeks, I will see Chad. He has a week off because his semester is ending, too, so he's coming down for a few days. We already have a beach/camping trip planned with some friends. I'm so excited for my first beach trip of the summer. And more excited to see Chad. I just can't quite get enough time with him. Once my thesis is done, I will probably launch into full-blown countdown mode. Countdowns to trips, and the countdown to the big day. I can't believe how fast time has already gone--we've been engaged for 3 months, already! Goodness. The day Chad leaves, I fly out to visit home for a week. I get to see Emma graduate and give her Valedictorian speech! I also get to see her either sing in her last choir concert, or play tennis at the Colorado state tournament. Or maybe both? I'm so proud of her! I can't wait to hang out with her and the rest of my family. This post is probably a little more boring and ME-ish than usual. I think I morphed into journal mode as I was writing tonight. It feels good to get some thoughts out, though. Good times. And tomorrow is Sunday! There is nothing like the anticipation of a nice, relaxing Sunday. Good night, world.

Math

124 days until my last day of work
125 days until my last day of class
129 days until the wedding
136 days until graduation

I can do ANYTHING for 4 months and a little. Anything!

Ok, so I'm a little worried about getting everything done, but I'm really trying to believe it can happen. It's got to. Right?

On Long-distance Relationships. . .

I really don't recommend them. Unless, of course, you find someone amazing who takes your breath away and is the sweetest and most wonderful man ever.





Which only makes it crummier that you don't get to see him but once a month. Miss him.

I Made Me a Shirt.

So, I came across this blog post for a DIY Christmas sweater a week or two ago, and have been dying to try making my own version ever since. Check it out:

I started with a plain tee-shirt, and I chose a graphic online to put on the shirt (this was the most time-consuming part--did I want a whale, a tree with heart leaves, or a bike? I ended up with none of those things.) I used parchment paper to make the stencil of the graphic, and layed it out on the shirt.




I used sparkly silver fabric paint to fill in the stencil.



And added some heart raindrops.



Voila!

a fire alarm fiasco, and other unrelated updates

Our fire alarm malfunctioned yesterday, at 5 in the morning. Actually, I think maybe it just needed new batteries. Unfortunately, neither my roommate nor I had an extra 9 volt battery on hand, and the alarm continued to shriek at me even after I took the old battery out. After fiddling with the thing for a good 20 minutes AND calling the "emergency" maintenance number (they have a lightning-fast turn-around rate of about 24 hours...I guess if there's ever a "real" emergency we'll call 911), and just as I had grabbed my keys and mumbled, "Well, I guess I could go to the store and get a battery," my roommate decided she had had it. "Maybe I should just rip it off the wall!" she said, and before I knew it, she had done just that. I stood paralyzed for the next few seconds as she marched straight out the door and threw the still-chirping alarm off the balcony. Probably just as well--I'm pretty sure the thing was possessed.

School is ending for the semester. I finished classes and finals last week, and have spent this week trying to feel okay about leaving clients for 2 weeks so I can go home for Christmas. Today is my paperwork catch-up day. Hooray!! (Not.)

I am reading an awesome book about the Sabbath by Senator Joe Leiberman. It is so interesting. He is Jewish, and I'm learning a lot about their Sabbath rituals. I have found it to be very applicable as it's gotten me thinking about how I can enhance my own Sabbath observance.

I made the best smoothie yesterday, and again today. I bought frozen cherries (the sweet kind) at the store. I blended those, a banana, soy milk, some ground flax seed, and some ice and YUM! I am in LOVE!

Tuesday is the big day--travel day. I can't wait. Chad and I are both flying out on Tuesday (he'll leave from Louisville, and I'll leave from Atlanta). We'll meet up in Houston, where we have a 3 hour layover. The great part is, his sister lives in Houston, so I think we're gonna meet up with her. For once, I'm excited about having a longish layover! Ah, and then we fly to Grand Junction. I can't wait to be home for Christmas. I've been dreaming about it non-stop for the past oh...month. At least.

Oh, one more update. I went to visit my friend Lauren this last weekend in Decatur, AL. We had so much fun. I'm gonna post a link to my favorite song I heard at the concert we went to. Happy December, and hope your Christmas is wonderful, wherever you are.

A braggy post about my life.

So, sometimes a blog seems like a good place to brag about how great your life is. I mean, if people don't want to read it, they don't have to, right? (Whereas I could seriously annoy people if I did all my bragging face to face).

This weekend I went to Louisville, KY for a visit. Some of the highlights included:


playing lots and lots of tennis


seeing Blind Pilot and Brett Dennen in concert


experiencing bits of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky in the fall



and mostly, just being with one of my favorite people. This man makes me soooo happy.


Oh, and tickets from Birmingham to Louisville are only $29 each way on Southwest. Have you ever heard of such a thing? AND I met the lead singer of Blind Pilot. How is life so good?!