All Grown Up

I am happy to announce - for anyone who cares - that  A got the job!

I am so proud of my boy and so excited to see where this opportunity takes him. He is the first of our friends to get a "real job" post college so we are incredibly overjoyed. He will be making pretty big bucks and getting all of the benefits that he should and it just all seems like so much from the point of view of us nearly broke college students. Unfortunately, it does not start until June BUT at least he has it locked in and now we can plan accordingly.

So so happy. I am literally bursting. He has worked so hard and done all of the right things. So as for now he will be working 45ish hours a week in addition to working on his teaching credential. I am sure he can do it and I am so thankful for all of these opportunities for him.

***

In other news, I am fully immersed in the last two weeks of this quarter. I am reading, writing, and working myself to exhaustion but I am hopeful that the results will be worth it. I am sick again but I am trying to power through it and not succumb to it. 

I also received an email from one of my bosses today that told me I would be taking on more responsibility at work concerning customer relations. I am kind of scared but definitely excited to be trusted with this new responsibility and I can't wait to jump right in and get my hands dirty!

What an exciting time in our lives right now!

***

Eventually I get around to posting some pictures from Thanksgiving but for right now all I can offer is a sneak peak...

Prayers

A got a call back from the prospective job that he has been pursuing and they want to meet with him at one of their stores half an hour away tomorrow. I am hoping it is a good sign that they want to actually meet with him because if they were going to tell him he didn't get the job they could have just done that over the phone... So fingers crossed and prayers please.
I really hope that he gets this job, and so does he.

In other news, I am trying to write a paper. So I will check back in later.

I found this picture recently of my friend D's birthday party last year. Thought I'd share :]

Thanksgiving Break

I just painted my nails, so I am sure this is going to be a really slow post...
Last week I had two midterms, one at the beginning of the week and one at the end. Needless to say, it was a rough week. I know that it was completely my decision to take on two jobs on top of being at school full time, but sometimes I think that A really is right. I do take on too much sometimes.
Right now is a very exciting but stressful time. I applied for graduation last week so in March I will officially be done with my Undergraduate degree. I am immensely excited to start this new journey in my life. Everything seems to be going right for me right now and I am so happy. A has been interviewing for a job and for Graduate School and both have been going very well. He made it into the teaching program he applied for and he had his final interview for the job that he is pursuing. We will find out in a week or week and a half if he got it. Fingers crossed. Everything just seems to be falling into place.
I am really thankful for this week off. For some reason my professors decided to cancel classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (instead of just Thursday and Friday) for Thanksgiving and I have this weekend off from my job at the Studio. So Monday after rehearsal I packed everything up and hit the road back to my hometown to my parents. The highlight so far was seeing one of my best friends from high school last night.

 Us our Junior Year of high school. This was actually the day I got my driver's license. Weird!

A few years ago on her birthday.

This past summer... I think...

C and I met in high school but were not friends right away. Funnily enough we really met on myspace. I know right? It sounds so ridiculous, but it's actually true. We became friends on myspace and we haven't been able to get rid of each other ever since. I love her because no matter how long we go without seeing each other or talking to one another (we are both absurdly busy and live over an hour apart) the next time we see each other is like nothing ever happened. No awkwardness, no weirdness. Just us. I appreciate that so much in her because I lost a lot of my high school friends as a result of scheduling and unfortunate geography. It was a shock to me when I first started college that people would drift so easily and I quickly learned that it took a certain kind of relationship to survive separation. C was one of the few that made it through with me and that is something that I so appreciate.

It seems almost ridiculous that we are adults now. Thinking about graduating, getting real jobs, moving out permanently, getting married, having families. All of these things have been happening around us and it is finally our turn to partake in them. I love that we are in the same places in our lives and that we understand each other so well. I am truly thankful for her and it was really good to see her, especially since I hadn't seen her in about three months. I am exciting to see where our lives take us in the next couple of years. 

Tomorrow I am leaving before sun-up (yep, that's how my family rolls on road trips) for family vacation. We are going to visit my mom's family and I'm so stoked. I love Thanksgiving time, especially the ability to see my family. The holidays just have such a magical quality to them. I'm definitely a fan of this time of year. The only thing missing will be, of course, A. It makes me sad that I still haven't been able to share my holidays with him, despite how long we have been together. Our goal is that next year we will be together for the holidays. I can't wait. It's going to be a very exciting year.

Okay, well happy Thanksgiving everyone. Don't forget to be Thankful for what you have, despite the temptations of Black Friday :]

Congratulations!

I just want to give a shout out to The Brockhaus Family who are across the world this weekend picking up their two newest additions Maria and Elijah. Theirs is such an inspiring and amazing story of love and adoption.
Please pray for them on this very exciting weekend for safe travels and courage for Maria as she leaves all of her friends and everything that she has ever known to come home to her new family.
I feel like I have journeyed on this adventure with them and I am so excited that they have finally reached this point.
Once again, their blog is here.

Our Version of a Date Night

Last week, A and I had a date night in. We went and picked up some cheap pizza and crazy bread, A picked the movie (Alien - What can I say, he's been trying to get me to watch it for 3 years now) and transformed his room into a wonderful fort. He knows that I can't stand scary movies so he built me a fort to make me feel better.  It was pretty dang cute, what can I say... He's a keeper.

Look how cute he is!!!

So that's what we call a date night. A lazy, cheap night in with each other. Sounds perfect when you're exhausted from work and school. Its always nice to cuddle up with really fattening food and a movie and just spend some time together.

For my Parents

This post will mainly contain pictures for my parents that I've been promising from this summer.
This summer was a summer with my man. We had a great time together and had some great adventures with each other.
The summer started off with a trip to Las Vegas, NV with his family.

Hanging out in the Hotel room

Posing with a shoe with his mom. I appreciate that she is almost as white as I am... Almost :]

Us in front of the Strip. 

Don't let my sweater fool you, it was crazy hot there! But I burn and crisp faster than bacon so I have to wear sunscreen AND a sweater. It was a lot of fun though. 

Next on the agenda was to visit my Grandparents out of state. I had a great time introducing A to the world of horses for the first time. 

Me lunging Hank, one of my grandparents' horses, to exercise him.

There are few things in life that make me as happy as when I am with my horses, and throwing A into that mix just about made my summer. I can't wait to take him back in the years to come.

So there you go Mom and Dad :] Sorry that it took so long to get these pictures, but they were on A's phone and I was lazy.

Happy Halloween!

I think that Halloween just gets better and better as I get older. For one thing, no parents are present to limit your candy intake (I mean, come on, that's a pretty big plus!) and for another the little kids all dressed up are just so dang cute!
To start off the Halloween festivities I had to work a party this weekend at my studio. I absolutely love my job. All of the staff brought snacks to share so this is what I made:

Caramel Apple Bites

Ingredients: 

Organic Apples from Trader Joes

Low Fat (Shhhh!!) Caramel Sauce

Halloween Sprinkles

Can you tell?! They are bones! How cute right?!

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Then just add toothpicks! They were a huge hit!

Step 4: Party!!

Dancing with one of my bosses!

Learning Thriller :]

And to continue on with the Halloween Festivities, last night my housemates and I dressed up and handed out candy while watching corny 90s Disney Halloween movies like the HalloweenTown series, pigging out, and studying for midterms (Seriously, who decides to make their midterm the day after Halloween? One of the biggest party nights in college?).

Aren't we adorable?

The highlight was definitely seeing all of the little kids in costumes though. Seriously I love that we have a house so that we get Trick or Treaters :]

Halloween is rapidly becoming one of my favorite holidays.