Meeting Miss Molina

Before the trip out to CO I made a few crafts for my new baby niece:

I knitted this hat

I made this blanket

hearts on one side

Star Wars on the other

When we flew in Christmas night, my brother, sister-in-law, and Molina were there to pick us up.

This was my first peek at her sweet baby cheeks

Here is baby girl wearing the hat I made:

And at her first Christmas

I ran out of time before the trip for my other crafts, so while the family was babysitting tonight and Joel & Michelle went out on a date, I finished up a few more projects:

I could not resist these super cute fabric prints

And then this hat was a too small fail, I think I was supposed to use "knit" fabric that would stretch, whoops

But the jammies fit

Me and baby girl

Tonight, while her parents were gone, Molina made us some cookies:

Then she cleaned up after herself

And then she settled down for a bottle and to watch the Michigan game with Grandpa

Love this little girl!

camping date

Last night I went over for a date, I was told to bring a sleeping bag and pillow, um.... I asked if I was going to be held hostage, haha

Anyway, I get to his house and I see this:

He'd talked about wanting to camp together, and so he'd set up a tent in his living room. We laid our sleeping bags inside and relaxed by the "fire"

He had downloaded a crickets/howling wolves app, and lite an outdoorsy scented incense stick.

It was actually quite wonderful.

He'd printed off questions to ask each other by flashlight, and we laid there and ate pizza and talked and it was really such a great time. Things are going really well and I am tentatively excited :)

Weekend Update

I'm not the biggest fan of this working every weekend. It was what worked best with this semester of classes, and what it's looking like for the next 8 weeks as well unfortunately. It's just hard school and work all week, and still more work on the weekend. Oh well, be thankful for a job right?!?

Saturday it snowed quite a bit here. So I worked till 3:30, then had my friend from nursing school's wedding at 6 in a town about an hour away. (an hour with no snow, that is) Anyway, I didn't want to get ready in the bathroom at work, so I went to a friend's nearby. I'm glad I did, but I dawdled a bit and then was running late because of the snow. I had a dress and heels, but I didn't want to be freezing or walking to the hall with open toed shoes, so under my dress I wore my scrub pants and work shoes. I ran into the hall, the concierge lady pointed the way to their ceremony. I asked the bagpiper guy in the back if there was a side door so I could sneak in, and he just said something like they were about to come out so I should hurry and run in there. So I just pulled my pants down right in the hall, kicked off my shoes, threw on my heels and ran in. I got to see the last several minutes of the wedding and when my friend came down the aisle, she never knew that I wasn't there the whole time, haha!

This wedding was super fancy.

The reception venue:

Our table:

The cake:

The couple:

My friend isn't a Christian, and has been living with her fiance, I'm really interested to see what she'll have to say about actually being married now and to hear if anything is different in her mind or what. I don't really expect her to say anything either way, but it's just interesting to hear other's perspectives on topics like that.

My other friend from nursing school and I

It was really fun hanging out with her, we had so much fun talking, joking around, and dancing together. It was really a great wedding. But at the end of the night I was exhausted. I had been up since 5:30am, worked 8+ hard understaffed hours on my feet, drove 3.5 hours in snow and icy conditions, then at least 2 hours of dancing to awesome music, and was aaaalmost home, when I hit a curb. I think my car is fine, but it made me cringe, especially thinking of those snobby Belle Tire guys asking if I hit curbs a lot, yeah so? yeah so!!

Anyway. Then Sunday slept in, listened to like 4 awesome sermons of my friend's CA church, did my new butt video (pretty good), worked all day on my quilting project, and then had a girl's night with a friend who was in town. So that was really nice. And back to the grind!

*Sidenote- how awesome would it be to take bagpipe lessons someday?! How does one get to learn that?? Bucket list!

I'm freeeee!

This morning I took my last exam of the semester. Grades aren't up yet, but I think I did decently.

Before class I made myself a veggie burger, breakfast of champions

I also made a little one for my classmate so she could see how good they are :)

Then I spent a few hours doing errands and Christmas shopping. It was starting to feel like 'one for someone, one for me...' for a bit. Not too much, but I did get myself a new exercise dvd. Since I exercise at home, I like to have a variety for not getting too bored and keeping different muscles 'confused'. I'm excited to try it.

one perfect butt please!!

I resisted this gorgeous scarf at Target

I've been wanting a white with polka dots scarf, and this one had pretty silver dots, but they wanted $17, yeah right!! Not worth it at all. The profit margin on that thing has got to be outrageous.

I also had to exercise some restraint around the super cute baby stuff I saw everywhere, I just wanted to get it all for my baby niece!!

so adorable, I probably would have gotten this one if they would've had the right size.

Last night I made this super tasty soup, Chicken and Gnocchi in the crock pot. Yum.

(and of course night-before-exam-cookies, not pictured)

I am excited for a little break from school, although I'm betting it will still be crazy at work, I will enjoy working on a few of my crafty projects today!

Weekend Update

One more week of school and then break for 4 glorious weeks!! I can't wait for our family trip to Colorado and to meet my baby niece. Everyday it seems I see a picture of her on facebook with her other aunt who lives an hour away and I feel kind of sad. Well, happy that she has other family that loves her and can be a part of her life, but sad that it's not me.

This weekend flew by, as usual.

I think Thursday Jill and I watched the Sound of Music the tv version with Carrie Underwood. NOT AS GOOD. But I forged on. Jill kept turning around to look at me with a little smirk on her face as Carrie pranced around on an extremely fake set complete with painted mountainous scenery. She said "the real one had the real Swiss Alps, and this is paint!' and later the children give the dad's gf a flower, and she turns to me and says, 'a plastic flower!?' and I had to agree, surely NBC could have afforded one real flower. Haha. Anyway, it was nice to lay around and relax and spend a bit of time with Jill.

And my buddy Mr. Becks. He was just getting deliciously shaggy with his fur, so soft and rabbit-like, but today he is sporting a haircut, tear.

what we thought of the movie

"encouraging" Becks to look at the camera

his sweet little face

Earlier this week I got this hummus, and thought surely it's not that spicy..

I mean, don't get me wrong, I could handle it, but it was pretty spicy. Supremely spicy even, haha. And every now and then I'd get what felt like a mouthful of red pepper seeds and it would be pretty hot, but good

And I went out on another date.

These were waiting for me in the car when he came to pick me up.

We went and got Thai food and then went rock climbing, it was fun. Had a good talk. Then the next day my friend cancelled her craft night that I was planning on going to, and so I hung out with him again and went to dinner with him and his friend who was in town from China. It was really fun, and neat to hear the friend's perspective of him. Then today was church, we are doing an 'Awkward Christmas' series and today was 'the ugly sweater' and we had a photo booth brought in, so went in with some of my church girlfriends that I love:

(apparently you could borrow an 'ugly hat' if you didn't have a sweater)

And then tonight was my parent's Christmas choir concert and then dinner with their friends back at the house. It was really fun. I'm glad to have such wonderful people and relationships in my life.

time for an update

Thanksgiving break was wonderful. I spent the break in Wisconsin visiting my mom's sisters (2 out of 3). I slept in, I ate, I hiked, I worked on my knitting, I didn't do a bit of studying, I visited with family, I watched movies, it was great.

My uncle is quite the host, there were fresh roses in my room, and in the bathroom there was a Thanksgiving card for me, more roses and a fresh fruit bowl, very thoughtful.

My aunt gave me this from Cambodia

I'm going to use it as a pen holder to help keep my backpack orderly. It's perfect!

This morning I was awoken by barking from the living room, so this guy was brought back to bed to sleep with me for 45 more minutes. Look at that little sleepy face.

Today I studied a lot, made dinner, and got stuff in order. I saw this new bill (or new to me, apparently this technology has been around since 2009). Anyway, in the bill is one of those holographic stickers (the kind that always has like a horse running thru a field when you wiggle it side to side). This one has a little '100'. Very cool.

It makes me wonder, is counterfiting still a big problem?? First there were colored threads in the bills, then when you hold it up to the light there is a strip, and also a little face that appears, and now the hologram. Crazy.

Anyway, I have been out on a few more hangouts/dates. Last night we walked downtown for the light show my city puts on. We ran into a friend of his from high school, who happens to live in the apt next to mine. So he was introducing me and then we were just like 'oh hey!'. So then my neighbor was asking him how he knew me and he stammered for a bit and said I was an old friend and we 'were just catching up' as he was clearly holding my hand, it was funny, I teased him all night about it. Even this old guy that was walking in front of us heard us, and teased him too. Haha. Anyway. Going good. It's nice, I don't have to ask myself how I feel or talk myself into anything like I felt like I was doing on dates some this summer. He has said a couple things to me, unbeknownst to him, that have been like little band-aids to the cracked parts on my heart. It's been a bit surprising actually.

Over break I was talking some to my cousin about the divorce. She had asked me what has been the most influential in my healing. So it was nice to share about how good God has been to me. I remember in my divorce class someone said 'time doesn't heal people- Jesus heals people' and it is totally true. Time does help make things sting less, but Jesus has been the one mending my heart and who gave me strength. And I am so thankful for my other friends and family that loved me and cared for me. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!