Craft: The Chalkboard

The chalkboard is complete! The days are ticking down until the house is ours, but I've already got a plan where I want this guy ;)

Before:

 and...

After:

I still intend on adding key hooks to the bottom and some sort of small board to the front part with the holes so it can hold mail. 

I'm very pleased with the results!

:)

I can go to bed tonight genuinely happy. 

It's only 2 days in and it's been a fabulous week. Old friends, new friends, and in a couple days, best friends. I don't need bells and whistles to have fun and be with people. Just their company and a few good laughs and I'm satisfied for days. 

All of the anxiety dreams can melt away tonight too...because I am now a registered nurse. :)

Friendship

Friendship is not supposed to be complicated. Sure, it's always going to be hard work, especially when trying to maintain it over time and distance. But it has to be a mutual thing. If one person doesn't contribute, it isn't a friendship; it's a one-sided obsession. 

Friendship is supposed to be simple. Compliment each other. Send each other random little texts or Facebook messages to let the other know you're thinking about them. Don't over analyze things. Work through the troubles. Because someone who is truly your friend is worth fighting for. 

"And I think the distance will be hard. And we might not talk all of the time. But I'll fight like hell to be your friend."

Life in Fast Forward

Big time changes are coming my way. Over the course of the next few months, I will be moving out of my apartment, half back into my parents, and half into the house that I will be buying with Luke. I hope to be hired for a job soon and then my career will begin. Once the house is final in August, the transition phase will begin. Furniture, painting, redecorating, and finishing projects to put inside and out. It will probably take just enough time to (hopefully) be proposed to. And then the wedding planning will begin :)

I welcome the hustle and bustle. I also hope to reconnect with a few old friends, and love the time spent with new ones. But we have to stop and enjoy the small moments among all of the big ones. Otherwise, the time is going to fly by and before anyone knows what happened, we'll be bored and settled in and won't know how we got there. 

So enjoy the little things. 

It's going to be incredible. 

Music: We Are Tonight

More music obsession. Every now and then you just stumble across one of those perfect songs that just makes you feel...happy.

Rescue!

Luke and I saved 6 baby mice last night! It was the weirdest experience because the mom was in a little nest type hole in the ground and when Luke went under the pool deck to get some supplies for a project we were working on, he spooked her. She ran from her hole but her babies were nursing and were still latched on to her! She dragged them a little and four of them fell off. 

I don't really know anything about mice, but these things were so sad and small, I didn't want to just leave them scattered. So I put the four of them back in their little hole and hoped for the best. A little while later, before we went in for the night, we went back to check on them. They were all gone. Mom must have come back to pick them up :)

Ahhhh Tomorrow

I've got my fingers crossed for a solid thunderstorm and a house to myself. I want to get lost in characters that aren't me and spend some more time reminiscing. 

Closure

In high school, I was a sad pathetic little girl that was too afraid to wear makeup or low cut shirts. I suffered from depression for years and it absolutely obliterated any friendships that I managed to make. I was the shy girl that sat in the back of the room who was never asked on a date and people only approached when they needed an answer to a homework question. 

Just a couple years ago, I looked back at my time in high school and thought that it was a big fat waste of my time. All of the people who I had spent so much of my time and effort on left me behind. I felt abandoned, hopeless, and like a bit of an idiot. 

But now? Now I am healed. The wounds that those people had inflicted on my heart are covered in scar tissue. I feel like I can finally step forward in my life to bigger and better things and if I saw any of them again, I could smile, and wave, and maybe even converse a little, because hey, I remember you, we had some great times. 

I can't believe it took me four years to finally feel comfortable in my own skin. But today, I finally finished out my high school scrapbook with graduation and post-grad photos before we all went our separate ways. I hadn't even consciously thought about it before, but I think my poor heart was still holding out for these people and that by finishing my scrapbook, I would be closing the door on that piece of my life forever; like I was giving up hope. 

But I realize now that there was no hope to be had. We are all different people than we were back then. And maybe now...we aren't misfits anymore. We don't fit together because we've all grown in confidence, beauty, and strength. So any friendships that we might rekindle from here on out will have to start fresh. And that is all I ever could have hoped for these people I loved with all of my heart, even though they never knew it. 

Setting things free and if they come back to you, they were meant to be...and all that crap ;)

So here's a toast, post-college-grad. To every friend who has ever touched my life. May you receive everything you ever dared to dream. 

Rummage Sale Finds: Round 2

Well, I swear to you my boyfriend is not a big fan if going to rummage sales, but on Friday, he was the one to insist that we go. I, of course, couldn't say no. 

We got almost as good of a haul together as I did when I went with friends a couple weeks ago!

Chalkboard shelf thing - $1

This thing was so cheap for such a cool thing, I couldn't resist. It's in the early stages of a makeover, so I'll post when it's finished!

Giant stuffed snowman - $2

Antique camera - $2

Picture (for my bathroom!) - $1

Soap dispenser - $1

Note: these were not bought at the same place! I love the little things. 

Shoes - $0.50

Do I need any more shoes? Absolutely not. But these were practically free. 

Dress shoes - $3

Luke has been looking for dress shoes...and instead of buying new ones for $80, he found used ones for $3. 

Plant stand - $3

This was new. Like, still packing taped into the box new. 

Antique Pepsi bottle - $1

This was a Luke purchase. But still worth sharing. 

Ahhhh gotta love a good day of not spending much money. The total was $14.50. Excellent. 

Epiphany

If you have ever written anything in your life, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, a paper for school, a love letter, or an essay to get into the school of your dreams, you probably know what it feels like to meet up with that giant red brick wall that is writer's block. When you reach the wall, you are given one of two options. You can either walk away and try to find a different way some other time or you very slowly, painfully, and meticulously dig your way through the brick. 

The best feeling in the entire world for those of you who know what I'm talking about, is plodding through and coming back to your work a few days later and re-read it, only to discover that HOLY-CRAP-ON-A-CRACKER-THIS-SOUNDS-AMAZING!

I'm a self proclaimed writer, and albeit not a very good one, but I had this exact thing happen to me just moments earlier. My eager, happy-go-lucky, passionate, heart-driven side said that I should keep writing because I was on a roll. But my rational, boring, responsible, brain-driven side won. It told me that I need to sleep so I can get up in the morning and study for the NCLEX. Some more. 

(And of course fit some writing time in between.)

Book Review: Ruin by Rachel van Dyken

Tragically, I think this book was "ruined" for me because I read "Maybe Someday" first.

"Ruin" was a tearjerker, no doubt about it. I am the queen of loving a book about impossible love and incredible miracles and not reading a sad ending. But as a critic, I have to admit that the plot was a little bit unfathomable. It was fast-paced, intense, and irrefutably romantic love...but really? The chances of a hot senior man falling for an 18 year old freshman within one chance encounter and less than a day of interaction? Maybe I'm a pessimist, but this kind of impossible didn't even cut it for ME. And I like impossible stories.

I would, however, recommend this book if you're looking for an easy read with cute characters and a happy ending. I give it 4 stars.