Back At It

I'm back!  I realize its been quite awhile since I've written.  My life has been crazy ever since Thanksgiving!  My boyfriend of 3 years proposed to me the day before Thanksgiving and our lives have been filled with wedding planning and preparing for our marriage.  Its been magical and amazing and hard and wonderful.  B has been the most amazing fiance and has taken on so much of the planning.  We are doing a lot of things ourselves, such as making the save the dates and its been fun to work together.  Also, this semester, I've been student teaching full time.  Its absolutely exhausting and I've never slept so much during my time in college as I have these past 2 months.  Its been hard to continue doing the things that I love, such as art.  I'm already looking forward to being done just so I can get back to creating and crafting.  Thankfully, I'll have a lot of wedding things to create!  I'm going to try to be more faithful in posting because I find the writing to be therapeutic and relaxing in the face of the stress of this semester. 

Relaxed and Refreshed and Yet, Stressed

I'm back from vacation!  I'll post a pic or two later but for now I just wanted to give a quick update.
1. The beach was incredible.  Perfect weather, amazing water temps, huge waves and perfectly calm days.
2.  B came all the way across the state to surprise me for my 22 birthday!  He brought me SUNFLOWERS!!!  They are beautiful and he is wonderful.
3.  I ate way too much ice cream on vacation.  Dieting begins again.  Sigh.
4.  I'm helping B clean and pack up his house to move this week.
5.  We are leaving again on vacation to Minnesota on Thursday-ergo, I'm super stressed out about that
6.  Due to my traveling, I'm offering free shipping on my ornaments until 3pm EST on the 18th!! Check it out in the widget to the left!!!

Vacation Time Again!

Oh boy!!  I'm headed home to the West side of Michigan today to go camping with the family at Holland State Park!!!  B is coming with me for this weekend and I'm excited to spend time with him at my favorite place in the whole world.  There is nothing like Lake Michigan.  Especially during the summertime, when the beach is packed and the water is warm and the weather is super hot.  I'm looking forward to taking lots of pics and coming back with lots of ideas for new art pieces and, of course, a great tan for Welcome Week!  I'm also hoping to knock a few more books off the list and get some more reviews up online.  So, I'll be gone until the 16th but I promise and updated blog post as soon as I get back!  For now, have a wonderful week! 

One of My Favorite Times of Year

Ann Arbor Art Fair time!  Yes, town is crazy and traffic is a mess and there are a million tourists crawling all over my city but I still love all of it!  My mom came yesterday and we spent 6 hours wandering around all 4 fairs that make up the whole festival and B and I went again today for about an hour and a half.  I came home with a new crock to hold my cooking utensils on my counter, a ceramic mixing bowl, a glass/ceramic wine bottle stopper, a blue headband, a cute tee-shirt and a bright print from Cady Watson.  All in all, it was a wonderful time! 

Michigan Love

I'm back from vacation!! More about that later but right now I have to gush about the new stadium additions!!!  B and I went to the open house at the Michigan football stadium today and it was incredible.  Beautiful.  Amazing.  Hail to the Victors.  Leaders and Best.  All that.  Seriously, I can't say enough things about the beautiful box seats and suites.  I guess the best way is to show you.  Enjoy the little sneak peak!!!!

Longing for Sunday

Ugh. This weekend is commencement and I should be graduating.  But I'm not.  Sigh.  I'm just getting tired of people asking me if I'm excited to be done and I have to explain, again, that I'm doing a fifth year next year.  However, B is graduating so my weekend is still going to be filled with graduation stuff.  I'm probably one of only a few who aren't that excited for the graduation speaker...none other than President Obama.  It simply means we have to get to the stadium at the butt crack of dawn to get through security and there is rain in the forecast too....yuck.  Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Sunday when all the guests leave and B and I can just go for a walk, eat a quiet dinner and curl up to watch a movie together at night.  Basically, I can't wait for life to get back to normal. 

Busy, busy, busy

Ugh, I hate this time of year.  Stupid finals and other end of the year stuff...ughhh.  Its all about checking things off the list right now.  I'm just looking forward to being done and having a few days to just work and chill and then begin my spring classes.  I'm really looking forward to my classes...I'm taking Women and Literature (English315), Geology of Michigan (Geosci311), Ethnic Studies of Museums and Tourism (Amcult311).  I cannot wait for classes that aren't education classes and I'm super excited for the Amcult class because its finally a class in the direction I want to eventually go in for grad school and career wise.  I also cannot wait to start working on my summer reading list, working on my painting and photography, do my homework at Dominiks and Ashleys (local bars with fun outdoor seating) and I'm also taking a pilates class once a week!  Oh, and I'm starting a job at the Clements library!!  You should check it out!  I'm so excited about starting this job; it is probably going to be kinda boring but its a foot in the door and a step in the right direction...also, yea for grad school apps/resume whatnot :)  I'm a little worried I'm going to be bored if I'm only working like 15 hours a week but I'm working a my list of things you can do, as you can see.  I'm also really looking forward to going to the local Ann Arbor Farmer's Market to get fresh fruits and veggies and cooking for B.  But, before all this delightful stuff can start, must. get. through. finals. 

Looking Ahead

I'm finally feeling better and looking forward to the end of the semester.  B and I spent the Holy weekend at home with my parents for part of the weekend and my grandparents for the other part.  It was so wonderfully relaxing :)  Grandma took me shopping and we spent Easter as a family.  It was such a blessing to be able to go home.  Now, we're back and catching up on homework.  Due to the public schools' spring break, I don't have field this week and am looking forward to a less hectic week.  I also got my placement for next year and I'm trying to get excited about it...I've never worked with third graders before so it will be an adventure!  All in all, I'm trying to be at peace with my educational situation and looking forward to planning my grad school adventures. 

Oh, Life

Well, its been a rough couple of weeks trying to figure out what to do about school and whatnot but life just keeps moving along even if I'm not ready for it.  I have a midterm on Monday and therefore, of course, I'm curled up on the couch, sick.  Ugh.  I feel so gross and nasty.  I spent most of the day on North campus, studying and grossing out the people around me with my box of Kleenex.  B took me home and made me a pizza and now we are watching the UM vs. NMU hockey game.  True love right there:)  I also decided tonight that I must pick knitting back up or risk losing my sanity.  So, my goal right now is to work my way through all the nasty acrylic stuff in my stash so I can get new, yummy, natural yarn for summer knitting.  B and I are going to plan our summer travels sometime this week and I need to make my summer reading list too.  All this nice weather has me excited and ready for summertime.  I also am in the process of finding a new job or internship for this summer.  And of course, in the midst of all of this, I''m sick.  Sigh.  Well, bed early tonight and more time in the library tomorrow and hopefully I'll be ok by Monday...fingers crossed!!

There's No Place Like Home

I ended up going home this weekend with B just to relax, go to a chiropractor appointment and get my hair cut.  I love being home, especially during these busy times of the year.  We went to the Unity basketball game on Friday and stayed for the Winterfest fun.  The varsity game was awesome as we won 50-48 in the very last seconds of the game!  After, off to Applebees for adult fun while the little high schoolers had a dance :)  However, best part of the whole weekend was going out to the Lake on Saturday.  The beach at Holland was amazing!!  Parts were still frozen over so B and I went hiking on the water and pier.  I got some amazing pics that  I will get edited and up on Etsy soon and I'll throw a few up here too!  I'm hoping to get some of this done next week because it's spring break and I'll be in Washington DC.  I am envisioning sitting in the Library of Congress and doing homework and working on my website stuff......sighhhh, I cannot wait!!

Why does this always happen!?

I had a wonderful day with B yesterday; I have an obscenely busy week ahead of me, and so, of course, I wake up sick.  Like, exhausted, headache, sore throat, 'B thinks I have mono' sick.  Yuck.  I really don't have time for this!  Don't the little sick buggies know that!?  I have lesson plans to write and teach, work to go to, and home to drive to on Thursday.  WHYYY?  Ugh.  Well, I gues the next few days will consist of dragging myself to class, rushing through my homework, trying to move as little as possible at work and letting B toss me in the car and take me home to let my mom take care of me.  Oh, and I am NOT missing trivia night at Charley's on Wednesday.  I don't care if my freaking spleen is falling out. 

Back to Ann Arbor

So, B is up to his fifth scheduled flight for this weekend.  He is incredibly frustrated and so am I.  It's just a little snow!  I ended up journeying back to the west side of the state on Saturday and got back an hour ago today.  I'm currently watching the Super Bowl alone in my room and working (and procrastinating) on my homework.  This isn't exactly how I envisioned tonight going.  Sigh.  Oh well, I also had envisioned the Vikings in the Super Bowl so I should have known something like this would happen.  At least I'll get the hw done and can go to bed early.  I have a twelve hour day tomorrow and an exam on Wednesday.  Ugh.  I hope this week improves when B finally gets home.  In the meantime, I hope to finally get some things up on Etsy this week!  Ekk!!  So exciting!!

ETA: He's driving home.  I'm so worried but I need him back and he couldn't get a flight until later this week. 

Winter Weather

I didn't want to start out with a sad post but unfortunently, this is what is on my mind right now.  Living in Michigan and growing up on the lakeshore of Lake Michigan has toughened me up when it comes to winter weather.  Lake effect snow can pop up at a moment's notice and we just sigh and head out in it anyways.  The boyfriend, B, is from Minnesota and has a similar outlook on winter.  However, he has been in DC for the past few days for a work conference and is now trapped until Sunday.  Ugh.  Really, its just a little bit of snow!  In fact, direct quote from the news tonight..."Snow like this is common in the Great Lakes region but it's shutting down DC."  I just want B back tonight like he was suppossed to be!  So, instead, I'm going to head home tomorrow to see the family and rest up before next week.  I'm teaching a lesson in my fifth grade class this week and I haven't written the plan yet so it will be nice to get away from the distractions of Ann Arbor in order to get that done.  In the mean time, DC, toughen up and give me my B back.