Graduation Time.

Ben's sister (my future sister-in-law) Jessica graduates high school this year, and we took some impromptu senior pictures while they were up for Ben's graduation. Here are a few of them.

Speaking of graduation, here is my own handsome graduate :)

Fabric things

I have this desire to create all these beautiful things with fabric. I think I have starved myself from sewing projects for too long, and now they are always on my mind. Recently I have been wanting to make fabric rosettes. Here is some of my inspiration...

Thankfully, I have a trip planned downtown with my mom tomorrow where we plan to hit up real fabric stores (and by that I mean not JoAnn Fabrics). I am practically drooling thinking of all the new amy butler fabric among other things. (Ben will roll his eyes when he reads this...he tries to be sympathetic with my love of fabric).

So until then, I must catch up on my sleep so Grand Avenue doesn't get the best of me.

a lovely day

My beautiful friend Justine took me around the cities for the day. It was such a fun day spent catching up on each other's lives. First stop was Anthropologie...aka the store where I can't afford anything but wish to pretend I live the beautiful eccentric life personified by everything within it. I did purchase a few items on clearance...such as a belt and two candle holders. Even though most of the items are way out of my price range, I still love getting ideas from the store and finding other ways to get the similar styles.

Next stop. Justine's lovely house which of course holds her amazing room. It was my first time seeing her place, but I definitely could tell it was her room right away.

Then we made our way to a cool little restaurant in uptown and had a nice lunch and then we decided to head to the downtown salvation army. That is where the adventure begins, at least I am choosing to call it an adventure when really it was us getting lost with no air conditioning in a HOT car for an hour or so. We managed to laugh about it along the way, all while sweating not so gracefully, ha. We finally arrived at our destination, and I managed to find some shirts for my latest project (that will be another post).

                   

               

Finally, we returned back to Justine's place for some delicious dessert and coffee. It was such a great day, and I am blessed to have a friend that is willing to plan such a thing for me.

Changes

Today was a day full of bittersweet things.

My lovely friends let me crash on their couch for the second night since my
old apartment is empty. Their couch was lovely and I slept blissfully. Then
I woke up and sleepily walked upstairs to help get the new apartment in some
 type of controlled chaos. It is getting better. At least that is what I keep telling myself. 
 It is amazing the amount of stuff one accumulates by living in the same place
for three years. Then we took a break from packing/unpacking/organizing to have
 lunch with our friends before heading out of town. I was struck at how comfortable
 it feels when we are all together, so right. And now things seem to be changing
in a way that doesn't slow down. For the most part they are all great changes, but it is
 just that the changes will make things different. Bekah moving to the cities in July,
which means I will see more of her until August, but then I will miss her dreadfully when
I return to school. I told her someone has to be the first one to move, and that we
will all be leaving eventually. At the same time I am grateful to have one more
semester before jumping into real life. And I will miss Ellie for most of the summer
 except when we plan visits (and yes Ellie, I will visit, as will you!) Usually when I go
 a weekend without these girls I miss them. But then I get to see her again after the
wedding and when we both start our student teaching. Part of me wants everything to
 go right back to normal after the wedding, with only the living situations changing, but
I know that college is ending...and our lives may need to be lived miles away from each
other. There are moments that I want to freeze and remember forever. Even if it means
 a simple lunch at a rather dirty local restaurant. I think I could have sat there for hours
 playing "would you rather", but last minute packing and then driving had to end it.
 Change is hard to swallow at times, especially when everything seems so right for the time
 being. Even moving out of my apartment of three years was rather odd. I am happy to be
moving home, and excitingly anticipating the wedding as it gets closer and closer, but I
can't help and realize how happy I am with how everything is right now at this moment.
What a blessing to be this fulfilled with the relationships I have with my friends. I should
be thankful that I have something that is so good I don't want to give it up...and I am. I just
don't want to let it slip away without realizing what a great year I have had. If you ever
have the chance to have all your favorite people a block away, take it, and love it.

Gone.

Moving out this week, which means our internet is currently shut down. So...no posts. I will be back, when things slow down and when I am done climbing stairs with heavy totes.

The weekend, briefly

I began my weekend by staying up way too late, and it only became later as each night passed. Saturday Night went until 2:30.

Our new apartment, and the unpacking of the first (of many) totes. It is pretty sparse right now, but by August it should be properly spruced to my liking.

We went to the Mason Jennings concert...good stuff :)

Due to the lack of furniture, we use the floor for pretty much everything. Notice the green laundry basket overturned...our kitchen table. Moving-out occurs in stages, which results in our apartments becoming slightly unwelcoming.

Here Comes the Sun....

Saw Mason Jennings last night. So good.  Sorry for the lack of better adjectives...not feeling like using my brain to its capacity today. I will load a picture up here eventually, but again it seems like too much work right now.

The sun has returned to our city today. We have missed it, and it was becoming to feel like Seattle. (Not that I would know).

Now, Ben's dad is in town today so we are moving more stuff into our apartment.  Oh yes! We got our apartment! It is the one we wanted, and...we get to start moving stuff in now. This makes the whole moving process a lot easier, because we just have to move it right to the apartment instead of to storage for a few months and then to our place.

So good things are happening all around, good music, I can feel the sun, and a new place to call home.

Life of the Party

I finished my last paper of the semester today.

and after printing out the tweny + pages of it I felt...

HAPPY

RELIEVED

TIRED (it's hard work actually sitting down and doing homework)

But mostly happy to be done. Now I just have to wake up tomorrow morning and go hand it all in to my profs. Oh good day. And then just maybe....


another Nap :)  
why not? ha

But for now, a late night Happy Cinco De Mayo! Since finals loom before us (well not me but I'll still sympathize with my friends) we felt a need to celebrate. But for lack of energy and money, our options were few. We decided on churros from Taco Johns, but they were closed.

So back up plan....

TACO BELL. for some apple empanadas, and cheesy fiesta potatoes
(how authentic right?)

Here is the photograph to prove it.

Joy

Do you ever have one of those moments where you are overcome with how many blessings you have in your life?

I hope you do because those moments remind of everything that is good in the world. I am thankful for the joy I have in my life, and I pray that I never forget the source of that joy...because if I have learned anything in my life so far it is that there is a huge difference between happiness and joy. Joy is more of a daily constant, the reminder that I am a child of God. Happiness comes with little things, and is more fleeting...but to have the best realm of happiness I believe you need to be swallowed up by a river of joy first.