Three Terrible Email Signatures

Sometimes I get really tickled by little things that probably aren't that funny. The other day I got an email from someone (someone who was doing a huge favor for me at work) and his automatic email signature was
Thank You,
Joe Shmo 



And that was so funny to me. Like he automatically thanks people for reading his emails even though he's just doing his freaking job. It's kind of like when you bump into someone and you should say "excuse me" but instead you say "sorry." And I thought it was funny, and I dreamed up a few email signatures that woule entertain me to no end. 

1. I'm so so sorry, Kirby Darden
2. Hopefully, Kirby Darden 
3. Please believe me, Kirby Darden  

Friend, Not Entertainer

I used to think it was my responsibility to make sure the people I care about weren't bored, mad, sad, annoyed, or anything like that. Like I had to be some sort of doctor/magician/therapist/entertainer and make sure all was well in their world when they were around me.I can't make everybody happy. I'm no fun park.



For most problems, there is no quick fix, and even if there were, that would be an unfair expectation to place on a friend.

For little problems like boredom, that's not my responsibility either. If someone is bored and not having fun around me, then frankly it's half their fault too and they're just as boring.

I recently was getting anxious whenever Brian was sitting around relaxing. I'd ask him repeatedly, "do ya wanna play a board game?" "Do you wanna go for a walk?" "Do ya want a snack? A movie? A  puzzle?" And he would always try to calm me down that he's totally fine doing nothing. And now I'm fine with that. 

Beatitude Attitude

This summer I get to teach Sunday School since all our usual volunteers are busy with summery vacationy things. We're slowly going through the beatitudes, one sentence per week. I'm planning ahead and reading and re-reading and re-re-reeading this short passage over and over. And it has brought me some encouragement and maybe it will for you too!

Matthew 5:1-11
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
He said: 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So week one of summer, we spent an entire hour discussing verse 1, that a crowd followed Jesus and he sat uphill from them. 
You can follow anything you want, up any mountain, and sit at its feet and hear what it's saying. Maybe that thing is self-doubt. Or gossip. Or maybe it can be Jesus. This is the abbreviated, kid-friendly quasi-translation that our students are memorizing:

Happy are the poor, happy are the sad, happy are the gentle, happy are the justice-seekers. Happy are the merciful, pure, and peaceful. 

Enjoying Little Things

Last Week's Goals
 1. Plan Camp. (B) I got a lot planned and sorted out and I ordered t-shirts. Just gotta get the rest of the supplies and order tickets to the water park!
2. Go to the pool twice. (C) Totally forgot this was a goal until just now. I went once.
3. Watch less TV. (C) We did okay throughout the week and really well on Saturday. Once we even played Jenga instead of watching TV. But Saturday was so exhausting that we recovered by watching an overload of Downton Abbey on Sunday, so I feel like a bum again.

This Week's Goals
1. Enjoy dinners. I've been getting annoyed by cooking so much so often. But this week I picked out a couple new interesting healthy recipes and I'm gonna do my best to enjoy the cooking process, which makes the eating process even more rewarding.
2. Start a Lettering Instagram. I think I might be addicted to calligraphy, brush lettering, and watercolor lettering. But I don't like posting my stuff on my Instagram feed, for fear of annoying my followers. I'll take a note from Kelli's book and start a separate account.
3. Go to the pool twice. I enjoy lounging around on my couch... why not get some vitamin D while I'm laying like a statue?

Go Braves

This story takes place one the day Brian asked me to be his girlfriend, during the summer in 2012. That day we took a selfie together, but I cannot find the file anywhere, so here is a picture that we took a few weeks later, just so you can see what babes we were and how we were not exactly comfortable with each other yet, hah!


So on the day Brian asked me to be his girlfriend:
It was near his birthday, and we planned to go to a Braves game together. He came over to my house early in the afternoon so we could hang out and carpool. We were putting a puzzle together when he stopped to ask me to be his girlfriend and then admitted he hates jigsaw puzzles and we put that away forever.

We went to the Braves game and had great seats, close to the front and in-between home plate and first base. I distinctly remember joking, "If a foul ball comes my way, you better save me."
About an hour later, exactly that happened. A foul ball was literally coming directly at my face. 100% directly to me me me. Normal people would stand up to catch it, but my first instinct was to cower and cover my face. Brian stood up to catch it, and it landed directly in his hands, but bounced off, and flew about five feet to our right. An old man picked it up and kept it. He didn't even give it to the cute little boys sitting nearby us.

Brian was ashamed, embarrassed, and wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear. Literally it's not that big of a deal, but it was only like our fourth official date so he was definitely on edge!

Here's another picture of us, from a Brave's game we went to last night! Go Braves!



Beachin'

The first image is sent in by someone anonymous to PostSecret.
The second image is by me, inspired by the first.


Aloha, Aloe

Happy Friday! Woohoo!!!!!

This week at work my coworker walked in with an aloe plant and said, "I don't know who this is from, but it's for you." As soon as he walked away I regretted missing out on the amazing pun aloe-ha to say goodbye. 

Apparently there's a church member who does this for all the "new" staff every once in a while. I've been there almost a year and a half but I guess she hadn't don't the plant gesture in a while so I was included in the round. I texted this to Brian and thought it was funny. 

Now the little plant is sitting pretty (and upright) in our living room. I've never kept a plant alive more than a month or so, so we'll see. 

Three Wedding Day Mishaps

Planing a wedding is freaking stressful. Our engagement was almost a year long, which practically drove me to insanity. I was able to spend too long deciding each detail, and felt a ton of pressure leading up to the big day. Thankfully, on our actual wedding day, once I got to the venue and saw my handsome groom, all the stress melted away and I didn't let anything bother me anymore. A lot went "wrong" but those exact same things were also blessings in disguise.




Unexpected things that went "wrong" on our wedding day.
1. It was very drizzly and humid, so my hair stylist couldn't get my hair to be in a tight enough mound smaller than my actual head! I felt like so much of a diva making her take it out and try again. Oops. After the wedding, when I finally took out my hair pins, there were 97.
2. Our ceremony was much shorter than we though it'd be. We planned 20 minutes to serve communion to all 200 guests, but it only took 5 minutes! So the caterer was scrambling to get the appetizers out in time.
3. The flowers. I asked for pink, peach, and orange flowers, with a little bit of a red accent. Like these inspiration pictures I showed the florist. But I made it very clear I did not want an overall red bouquet. Then I literally got a bouquet of red roses with a few little pink spikey things-- what?! Before I saw any of the flowers, my photographer said, "Wait 'til you see your bouquet, it's awesome!" and that really helped me from breaking down in a bridezilla moment when I saw my red bouquet.

Unexpected things that went RIGHT on our wedding day.
1. It was very drizzly and humid, so we skipped our original plan of taking photos at a local park. We went straight to the venue where there are fewer picturesque options. But our photographer worked her magic and it turned out amazing! Skipping the additional location drastically cut down on travel time and stress.
2. Our ceremony was much shorter than we though it'd be. Directly after the ceremony we took some formal posed family pictures and then Brian and I got to hide out in a little room and eat dinner together privately for twenty extra minutes! It was maybe the most special moment of the day, savoring our first minutes as married partners.
3. The flowers. As I said before, I didn't plan on red flowers being the focal point in the bouquets and arrangements. But the flowers got more compliments than anything else that day! Besides my gorgeous dress of course :)

Anti-Jeans

In college I noticed many of my peers talking about how much they disliked wearing pants, especially jeans. I heard about a thousand times, "As soon as I get back to my dorm I change into PJ pants," or "People give me compliments on my skirts and dresses, but I'm really just avoiding pants."

At the time I totally did not get this. I wore jeans every day, and I kid you not, I took naps in jeans too. During finals week when I failed to take care of my body I would fall asleep in my clothes, including jeans. I thought jeans were really comfy and didn't understand why people complain about them. In my eyes, denim was soft, stretchy, warm, and therefore perfect.


Now I get it. I wear jeans every single day to work, since it's a casual environment and the office is way too cold for shorts or skirts. And every single day when I get home I immediately change out of my jeans and I feel like my legs can finally breathe again. Maybe this is because I finally invested in some better quality jeans that actually fit me and are made of thicker material than just Old Navy's. Maybe this is because I'm getting old and my body needs breathing room when it didn't before. Maybe I'm just better at noticing things to complain about.

All I know is that at the end of the day when I finally peel my skinny jeans over my sweaty feet (sometimes taking three of four frustrating minutes of wresting denim over my clammy hooves) I can hear the angels singing.

Own the Place

Have you ever noticed some people walk around everywhere like they own the place?

People who block doorways and hallways because they just think it's a good place to be- nevermind others trying to get by. People who play their own music incredibly loud at the public pool- nevermind others who can't even hear their own music through their headphones. People who cut off others in traffic. People who expect waiters to bend over backwards to cater to their every need. People who bring up personal problems and opinions in large group meetings. People are ballsy.

I'm here to remind you that you own the place just as much as they do.

You can ask them to move out of your way in the hallway, even if they're deep in conversation, feel free to interrupt. After all, they interrupted your walking path. You can politely ask them to turn down their music or aim it in a different direction. You can honk at other cars. You can raise your hand and redirect the meeting in a more professional, efficient and meaningful direction.

You own the place too, but your kindness, observations, and thoughtfulness will make the place better not worse. You can walk up to people gossiping and change the conversation. Yeah, just walk up like you own the place. You can see someone upset and even if you don't know them very well, say, "Hey tell me what's wrong." Yeah, like you own the place. You can see trash on the ground and pick it up, like you own the place. Own it. Work it. Improve on it.

Full Bloom

Last Week's Goals

1. Plan the other camp. (C) Last week was busier than I thought it'd be so I didn't get as much done as I wanted. But I planned our meals and I am almost done ordering t-shirts with final numbers, so that's something. 
2. Practice lettering again. (A) I got a cute giant journal for $4 at Tuesday Morning and I've practices lettering every day. 
3. Watercolor something. (A) I watched a million instagram tutorials and attempted to copy. A couple of my flowers turned out pretty, and I tried to scan them as clip-art with transparent backgrounds This is the so-so result:

This Week's Goals:
1. Plan Camp. now that our first church daycamp is over I need to really focus on the next one coming up. It's starting to get really overwhelming.
2. Go to the pool twice. I need to enjoy the quiet little pool in our apartment complex while I can! Also I'd like to not be so ghostly pale.
3. Watch less TV. I annoy myself when I realize at the end of the day I watched 2 hours of TV but spent no time exercising or reading. The TV is just a really easy way that Brian and I can unwind and casually chat for a couple hours before bed, but I want to find better ways to do that, like taking a walk or cooking together. 

The S-H- Word

I was playing Lincoln Logs with two girls, one in Kindergarten and one in 3rd grade. It always feels like a little bit of a personal victory when I can get two kids from different age groups to have fun together. But also it can present its own set of problems.

Older Girl points across the room at another girl her age, "She's a really bad kid. She said the S-H word." I try to quickly change the subject. Older girl gets a coy smile, realizing I'm uncomfortable. She asks Younger Girl, "Do you know the S-H- word?"

Younger Girl figures out that it's something bad, and looks at me silently pleading for help. I step in, "It's not important and it's certainly not appropriate for church. You don't need to repeat bad words, ever."

Older Girl won't take no for an answer. "I'll give you a hint... it means shhhh---" She drags out the noise and revels in how anxious it makes me that she's about to say a curse word to a Kindergartener. I ask her to please stop and not teach bad words to others. Older girl continues, "Shhhh.... shhhhhh."

Kindergartener is hooked. She looks at me and says, "What's the bad word?"
I am about to reply, "It's a very naughty word that means poop."
But Older Girl interrupts me, "It's Shut Up. Oops, I said it! It means shh."
Oh thank God.



Acceptance in Church

The first image is sent in by someone anonymous to PostSecret.
The second image is by me, inspired by the first.




Pretty Little Letters

This week was packed full of Vacation Bible School at church! I was planning to share a cute photo of it for Photo Friday, but I just checked my camera roll and as it turns out, I took zero photos!

So today is my day off and I took the morning to play with my new aquabrush. Here's the result.

Three Delicious Dinners

Here are the top three recipes we absolutely loved when we tried them.

1. One-Pan Balsamic Chicken and Veggies
We just used asparagus and potatoes as our veggies and we loved it. Also I went through a ohase of cutting stripes in all our chicken so that marinades can have more surface area to get more flavor in. Who knows if it really made a difference.


2. Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
We followed this recipe exactly and it was DELISH.


3. Toasted Pecan Chicken
We made a few substitutes for this one and loved it. We used almonds instead of pecans, and we used honey instead of orange marmalade. The sauce is so delicious and we renamed our version "Honey Mustard Almond Chicken." Will definitely repeat.



Accepting Favors

1. Is it seriously still only Wednesday?!?
2. Here's my When-I-Was-a-Dummy Wednesday post.

I used to really have a hard time accepting help, favors, and gifts that were offered to me freely from people who care about me. I'd feel guilty for not pulling my weight, and for others to go out of their way, spending time and money to make my life better. I felt obligated to repay with another favor, or to somehow make our friendship more worthy of such a generous gesture. But recently I've gotten my mind changed about carrying the guilt, because I've recently been spending a lot of time on both sides of the fence.



I've been busy and tired and sometimes under the weather, which just makes me a little sad. But my sweet husband gives and gives and gives. He cooks me dinner and gets me the heating pad and makes sure I have a lunch packed for the next day. He tells me jokes and he turns of the TV when I get a headache. I just can't really repay every little favor he does for me. And he doesn't expect me to. That's what love is- doing what you can to meet the other's needs, and never keeping score.

The past few weeks I've also gotten to be on the giving side of things, at work. As I've mentioned, this week is VBS and there is an ungodly amount of prep work that goes into registration, organization, volunteer recruiting, and training and safety measures. Somehow my awesome coworker got stuck with like 80% of the responsibilities so I would try with all my might to take some of her workload from her. She was constantly thanking me and feeling guilty and writing me notes. But I didn't want or need thanks! I just wanted to make her life better!

When people offered to help us move, I felt guilty. But they wanted to help to make our lives easy, knowing we couldn't truly repay them.
When somebody invites us to dinner, they're not keeping score for us to pay them back.
When someone does you a favor, they don't want you to feel guilty, but just valued and important and a little more stress-free.

Be Salty

When I was a student teacher in 2013 I accidentally developed too much of a friendship with some of my students. They felt like they could joke with me since they knew I'd never get mad about it. They purposefully never pronounced my name correctly and they would always make fun of me because I admitted to using Twitter, which apparently makes me ancient. Usually I loved it except when I was trying to get them to buckle down and learn something. Then, about half the kids thought I was just kidding that they really needed to listen and do work. Oh well. All those kids did fine on their standardized testing, so I know I didn't completely fail them as a math teacher.

Anyway... one day in the hallway a substitute teacher walked by and gave me a major evil glare and I had no idea why. Still don't know why. But the kids were like, "Ms. Rawjaz did you see her stankin' you? Want me to beat her up?" And I politely declined.

Another time I randomly commented, "It sorta smells like pizza in here," because it sorta smelled like pizza in there. And a kid was like, "You smell your hearts' deepest desire, sweetheart." And I should have given him detention but I laughed to hard.

And another time they were making fun of me for being old and not knowing slang, and they were like, "Hey Rawjaz, you salty?" And I was like "What does salty mean?" And they were like, "I'm not telling. But... are you salty?" And we went back and forth with them trying to get me to say yes or no, but I wouldn't say yes or no. Eventually a sweet girl explained it to me. Basically its just angry/upset/bitter, sometimes referring to an embarrassing situation. So I responded in some very teachery response, probably like, "No I'm not salty, but don't make me salty- do your work." Yes I'm very lame.


Matthew 5:13
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Stay salty. Jesus was talking about us preserving the world. Any maybe some of that can happen through our outrage. We should be outraged and salty and up-in-arms over the tragedies and injustices around us. We should teach kids about it and teach them how to help. We should stay bitter. Stay salty. Stay angry. Outraged and energized, we can do more, serve more, help more, teach more, be more. 

Back in the Saddle

Last Week's Goals:
1. Get all crafts organized for VBS. (A+) Crafts are going great.
2. Learn all the words and dance moves and skits for VBS. (A-) It's fine, I'm fine, it's fine.
3. Get to work by 8am each day. (C) It probably averaged out to be about 8:00 or 8:15. My schedule is so what these days sometimes I'm coming to work at 7:00 and sometimes 9:00.

This Week's Goals:
Vacation Bible School is finally in motion and it's actually running smoothly. So now that my mornings are consumed by VBS but my afternoons are not, I wanna get back in the saddle with a few things:
1. Plan the other camp. This is the most daunting task by far. The summer day camp I run at church is in only 3 weeks. I have kids signed up, willing volunteers, and a rough outline of each days' mission activity excursion. But I have to order supplies and figure out meals, which is not my strong suit.
2. Practice lettering again. I put a hold on lettering because of the worst excuse ever: I ran out of paper in my cheap scrap paper journal. I think I'll run by the dollar store today and get the most paper I can so I can practice lettering again.
3. Watercolor something. Five days ago, Brian's family came over to see the new apartment. So I cleaned up all my water coloring supplies and haven't touched them since. Time to take over the dining table again!

Twin Couples

Truth be told I couldn't think of an entertaining story to tell today on Storytime Sunday, so I just scrolled through my photos on my phone for inspiration. Instead of a story, you get a cute family photo with a tiny little anecdote.

My sister and I grew up wearing matching clothes all the time. Like, every single Sunday we wore matching dresses until she got to middle school. Apparently over time it becomes instinctual. And SO instinctual that we in fact dress our husbands alike as well. (Disclaimer: I do not actually pick out my husband's clothes.)

My sister lives in California so I rarely get to see her, But she was in Atlanta on New Year's Day, and we walked into our mom's house and did an instant double-take.

You probably don't even believe me that this was unplanned. I promise though. Yes, my husband and my sister's husband are wearing the exact same shirt from Target. Really truly a coincidence. (Shout out to Emily whose husband also owns that shirt.)


Food Fights

The first image is sent in by someone anonymous to PostSecret.
The second image is by me, inspired by the first.



Crafty Week Done

As I may have mentioned before, one of the things I have to head up for VBS is crafts. So this whole week was running supplies between our two buildings, getting last-minute paper towels and googled eyes and tinsel pom poms, and begging volunteers so come cut, sort, count, and organize supplies. 

All was going really well until yesterday afternoon, another ministry at our had "borrowed" our classroom and rearranged all my tables and chairs and placed all my supplies on the ground out of order. I almost blew a fuse. 

Anyway... Here's a cute little picture of one of our crafts. On Monday the lesson is "Jesus is the light of the world" so we're making tiny lanterns out of tea lights. Pretty adorable if I do say so myself. Here are the examples I made with a teen volunteer. 

Three Places on my Bucket List

Traveling is fun, exciting, exhausting, and expensive... but definitely fun to daydream about! Brian and I have talked about some dream vacations we'd love to do one day... One realistic list and one not so realistic.

Places we will are determined to visit together, one day:
1. The Grand Canyon

I've only seen pictures, and I've heard that pictures can't eve do it justice. I took a geology class in college and we watched a documentary that followed a bunch of geologists on a journey around the Grand Canyon. It looked great but I wouldn't want to be "roughin' it" like they did.


2. New York City
I went to NYC once when I was in 7th grade with my youth group but we would love to actually see the place without an agenda that was predetermined by my choir director! Also since we love The Mindy Project, each week we are reminded of how cool it would be to visit. 


3. Clearwater Beach (again)
Our honeymoon was soooooo nice. In November, we loved our cottage and the empty beach and nice weather and nonexistent lines at Busch Gardens. We will go again, hopefully on an anniversary trip one year, since November was perfect for it. 

Places we can DREAM about visiting together:
1. Santorini, Greece

It's so pretty I want to see it in person.


2. New Zealand
Brian loves this idea but I don't love the idea of that much jet lag!


3. Myan ruins
We both too Spanish classes in high school and college, in which we were forced to learn history of Spain and central America... so these ancient ruins would actually be super cool for us to see.


Where would be your dream vacations!?

Watercolor Wonder Women

I follow a lot of impressive water colorers and calligraphers and modern letter era on Instagram. They're amazing. Dazzling. Mesmerizing. And they make it look easy.




A photo posted by Joly (@jolypoa) on


So I got some brush pens and I got a water brush and liquid colors and fancy paper. And it was not easy. My first 1000 attempts immediately went in the garbage. My lettering was embarrassingly childlike. My water colors look like mushy wrinkly gray-brown globs. Stuff that looks easy is not easy, it's practiced.


So I'm kinda learning how to water color, using tutorials I find on Pinterest. And I'm kinda learning modern brush lettering, just by copying stuff I see on Instagram. I'm getting better, but BOY was I a dummy when I thought it'd be easy. 

Very Busy Season

Two weeks ago, my goals:
1. Eat healthy. (C) Well I definitely am eating healthier than when I set this goal right after vacation, but I'm still never saying no to a sweet treat in my path. Gotta get better. We did learn how to roast garbanzo beans, which is turning out to be a delicious alternative to snacking on chips before bed. 
2. Sleep more. (A-) I'm pretty good at getting enough sleep, since we are usually fast asleep by 11pm and I don't have to get out of bed til about 7:45. But a couple nights I slept terrible, then took naps in the day, then slept terribly at night again... still needing a little recovery. 
3. No unnecessary expenses. (B) Out of two whole weeks I only spent $21 extra dollars. It was on craft supplies and one trip to the coffee shop. So typical of me. 

This week, my goals:
This week at work is chaos because next week is Vacation Bible School! In case you missed this face- I work in a very large Children's Ministry. VBS is definitely our biggest and most complicated event of the year. This last week before the big show is such a whirlwind, and we're now insisting that "VBS" stands for "Very Busy Season."
1. Get all crafts organized for VBS. Getting all the supplies pre-cut, counted, sorted, etc is no easy feat for 500 kids x 2 crafts per day x 4 days. I have a volunteer team coming tomorrow for three hours, but whatever they don't finish I'm all on my own to get done.
2. Learn all the words and dance moves and skits for VBS. This keeps slipping to the back burner and I haven't even started. But the joke will be on me if I don't learn this stuff, since I have to stand on stage and teach song and dance and Bible stories to hundreds of kiddos. 
3. Get to work by 8am each day. My boss is usually pretty flexible since I have to sometimes work non-traditional hours. Sometimes I come in at noon and work til 8:30pm, sometimes I work a normal day, sometimes I have to work 5am to 1pm. So I always keep my own flexible schedule, but this week I have to keep myself coming in early so that I don't get stuck here late at night. 

Be One

Today driving home from work I heard the radio deejay say a cheesy little line to introduce a song. He said, "The world is full of kind people. If you can't find one, be one." Then he somehow related it to the current hit, "Humble and Kind," which is a pretty good song if you ask me.

Cheesy, and normally the kind of thing I wouldn't think twice about, but for some reason it hit me in a way that I thought its cuteness outweighs its cheesiness. Maybe it's a quote or a lyric, I dunno, but I liked it so it's today's topic for Pep Talk Tuesday!


First, the world is full of kind people. I had never noticed the kindness of strangers until a couple years ago when I got in a terrible car wreck and about ten people pulled over to check on me. That car wreck changed me in two ways: I always dart my eyes to the left when entering an intersection even on a green light, and I have a little more faith in humanity. The other day, a woman at the pool asked me, "Excuse me, can you watch my daughter for 2 minutes while I use the restroom?" And I was happy to keep an eye on her adorable kid who was safely playing on the pool steps. But that woman had faith in humanity and it made me feel proud to live in the same world as her.

Second, if you can't find one, be one. If you can't find kind people around you, I am SO sorry. I hate that for you, and I can't believe how hard it must be for you to not have a strong close community to rely on. I urge you to reach out to an old friend, visit a church, or ask your coworker out for lunch. Your own positive attitude, kindness, understanding, and smile can be the start of a caring community. I share an office with two other women, and we usually are good about working in silence and not bothering each other. But we have to coordinate and work together so much that it really makes sense for us to share an office so I'm totally not complaining. Anyway, I always used to feel awkward when they walk in and out of the office throughout the day, like am I supposed to say hi and bye every time? I started goofily, overly-cheerfully yelling "welcome back!" whenever they walk in, and it makes them laugh and now they do it to me. One dumb little smile caused a beautiful little inside joke, which puts us in the category of friend, not just coworker. Be a friend and you'll make a friend.


Dribbling Queen

Very short story today, from this morning... also, I can already tell it's a "you had to be there" kinda story, so I'm sorry it'll be boring to read.

This morning at church we were playing with some Kindergarteners and a large lightweight plastic ball. You know, the kind that they sell in those giant towering bins at Walmart for $2.50.


Anyway, this cutie patootie little girl named Kendall caught the ball and decided she wanted to be casual and cool and sporty, and give it a quick little bounce before she threw it to her teammate.

She leaved over, slammed the ball on the ground, and it came back up and hit her in the face so hard that she fell backwards. I know i'm not supposed to laugh at the kids but I literally started crying laughing.  Right now you are maybe imagining a slapstick cartoon version of this tiny moment, and I am here to tell you that is EXACTLY how it looked in real life. It is replaying over and over in my head and I'm laughing again right now.

She got back up quickly, smiling and trying to be calm, but clearly embarrassed. She said, "Don't worry. I'm okay. That happens all the time." What? It happens all the time and you still haven't learned from that terrible mistake? What if next time you're playing with a basketball on concrete and you literally smack yourself in the forehead and then fall back and get a concussion? Dang gurl.

We Are Never Ever

The first image is sent in by someone anonymous to PostSecret.
The second image is by me, inspired by the first.


I became more and more confident that Brian was "the one" when he memorized all the words to Taylor Swift's RED album despite him not being a big fan, just so we could sing and dance like crazed Swifties in the car together.

Chair Makeover

I got a "new" chair today!

I love it but I'm pretty sure Brian will hate it when he gets home. Oh well... he pre-approved the fabric so he cant be too mad about it! It's very bold, that's for sure. It's been sitting in my apartment for about 30 minutes and I already like the whole new feel the place has.


I'm digging the whole organic prints and blues and greens kinda thing. Once I get some art on the walls I'll show you guys the whole living room, complete with our big green couch and bundles of dried eucalyptus.

Three Things I Can't Wait For

I am a short-term very patient person. Maybe that's an oxymoron but let me give you examples of what I mean. I'm cool, calm and collected in rush hour traffic. And crazy children don't make me lose my temper. And waiting in grocery lines is fine by me. I can wait for dinner to cook, no problem. I can wait for the bathroom if someone else is in there. None of that irks me.

I am NOT a long-term patient person. Like, I constantly daydream about my next vacation, next job, next home, growing family... and I ask Brian every single day if we can get a dog yet.

Three things I am having a really hard time waiting for:

1. Getting a dog.

Even though Brian and I are 100% absolutely not getting a dog while we still live in an apartment, I check petfinder.com every few days. My dream dog would be a beagle mixed with something a little bit larger than a beagle. A month ago there was a litter of beagle/lab mix puppies and I almost died because they were so cute. The one I picked out as "mine" was named Patsy, which is endearingly terrible.





2. Paying off student loans.

Brian and I don't exactly live extravagantly. We think twice or three times before spending on any expense that could possibly be avoided. Neither of us has gotten new clothes (except for using gift cards) in over a year. We only eat out at restaurants about once a month. Our most major expense is that we are paying five times the minimum amount on my student loans, trying to get them gone as quickly as possible. Once they're gone, we'll fell like our income has magically almost doubled! Maybe we'll be able to save up for a little vacation... or a puppy...  or at least I can get a new shirt.




3. A niece or nephew. (siblings' kid or friends' kid)

I am not anywhere near ready to have my own child, but I want a baby in my life! Just to hang out with often, but not to live with, ya know? None of my nearby friends have babies, and neither do my siblings. When I tease my brother or sister about having a kid, now that I'm also married they tease me right back. Ugh. Since Facebook and Pinterest know that I'm a newlywed, I get advertisements for baby stuff all the time, which makes me wish I was going to somebody else's baby shower soon!



The future is fun to think about, ammirite?

Brave Enough to Shower

I'm still not great at trying new things. But as a kid I was REALLY terrible at trying new things. I hated new foods, had trouble making new friends, and wore the same striped shirt for my yearbook picture three years in a row. Also I was a butterfly every year for Halloween from age 3 to age 9.

Anyway. As a kid I had a really hard time transitioning from baths to showers. For some reason I thought showers were scary? I specifically remember being a tiny toddler and taking baths with my brother and sister, and then they graduated to showering and I tried to shower with them and I hated it. So I pretty much refused to step in the shower for like ten more years. I didn't like the water splashing on me; I think it felt out of control. I strictly took baths until about 5th grade. That is so incredibly old. Twelve years old, still uncomfortable showering. 

This photo is from todaysletters.com blog post today. I had already decided to write about showers and then I saw her CUTE CUTE CUTE original photo and decided to borrow it. Go read her blog!

Around 6th grade I started transitioning to showers and by 7th grade I was strictly a shower kinda girl. And now, the thought of taking a bath kinda grosses me out (sitting in warm filthy water as it gradually cools? No thanks you!). 

When I was a dummy, I thought showers were scary and baths were the better way to go. 
Now I'm probably still kinda a dummy because I don't know how to sit and enjoy a good bubble bath. But I'm smarter than I was in elementary school!