argh.

A story about a sweet little girl, friends:

 She was on her way to get her ears pierced. And so excited. Excited to wear all different kinds of earrings, excited to be grown up, and excited to show off her newly pierced ears to all of her friends. Once she got to the shoppe, the reality of the situation began to set in. Having needles go through her ears all of a sudden didn't seem so glamorous; it sounded like it would hurt. Nervous, but still determined to get the job done, she sat in the chair. The first pierce was horrible. It hurt, and she cried miserably. When she realized she was only half done with the procedure, she leapt out of the chair, and into her mother's arms begging to only have one ear pierced. Her mother, who hadn't been crazy about the idea of her little girl having her ears pierced in the first place, reminded her that this had been her idea, and she had to get the other ear done; or else she'd look like a pirate.

And with that, the little girl declared that she wanted to be a pirate.



I feel like that today, friends.

You know those days? The ones when you know what you should be doing, (homework, choreography, thesis research, etc.) but you've just lost the desire; at least for 24 hours? Somedays I feel like that. Except I'm already half done with grad school. I already got the first ear pierced. It would be silly if I didn't pull through and finish the other half.

...I guess we all just want to be pirates sometimes.


Now that I got that out, I'm going to finish my homework. 

mimi weekend.

Thanks to my sweet parents, I was able to run away to Indiana for the long weekend. 

Five days and four sleepless nights with my favorite (and only) 

sister Melody, and my favorite (and only) niece Naomi. 

She turned two, and I can't believe it, friends! 

Do you remember this photoshoot we had the day we brought her home from the hospital? 

Remember this party we had for her first birthday? 

It seems like only yesterday. I can't believe she's two.

I feel an extra close tie to mimi because I got to be with her right after she was born for a few days. Then, about five months later, we moved to Salt Lake (where their little family was located), and got to spend a year hanging out with mimi. She calls me Lala, and I dig it. My first nickname from a baby.

We read stories. 

We played hide and seek. We went shopping. We sang songs in french. We danced to mozart (her request). We went to the zoo. We rode escalators up and down a hundred times (and each time she'd holler and wave to the people behind us, "see ya later!") 

We had laughing contests. 

(She won that one.)

Favorite weekend I've had in a long long time.

Good luck this week, friends.

a valentines abroad

I love traveling. 

So so so much. 

I always find myself antsy to get away.

Even going for a road trip a few hours north south east or west. 

Bliss.

As a kid, my family would travel a lot during the summers especially. Some summers we'd go backpacking for a few weeks at a time. Others, we'd go to the beach and battle the waves. Everything was an adventure, and I loved every minute.


Since getting married, and especially starting graduate school, Gid and I have had to cut down our traveling budget down to holidays home. Which is fine; it's ok for us to be poor. We're going to look back on these years as some of the sweetest in our lives. I love that our apartment is made of cinderblock and eating out is a rarity.

But the adventurer in me has been stewing. She's antsy. She doesn't care about a masters degree. She wants to backpack around europe, or go bike riding in new zealand. She's tired of thesis research, sunday school and dusting the living room. And to be honest, she's starting to get a little cranky.

The other day I started expressing my feelings (a fancy way of saying whining) to gid about how badly I want to get away just for a day from salt lake. And then- the perfect idea for a valentines date hit me.

Friends, any of you heard of a staycation? 

I read about it on pinterest. All I had to do was basically make our tiny apartment (really just our bedroom) into a new place for just one night. I added a "night around the world" theme to our evening plans as well.

First we planned a nice dinner at the most wonderful indian restaurant ever. We pretended we were really in India. It was even stupid crazy busy that night, so we kept making comments to each other like, "wow- india is really busy tonight... and full of white people..."

After visiting India (which was beyond delicious). We took a quick trip to Germany and enjoyed some incredible chocolate treats made in Stuttgart.


Following europe, we came to a lovely bed and breakfast (also known as our apartment) which had been royally decorated for the occasion. Gid was stunned.

Preparing the room was by far the most complex part of this evening. I've simplified it to 5 steps:
Step 1: Get spare bedsheets, curtains and left over christmas twinkle lights. Make canopy on ceiling of bedroom with romantic twinkling lights. (Pretend the twinkle lights are stars.)
Step 2: Get vintage postcards/posters from around the world and tape them to the windows and walls.
Step 3: Rearrange the room a bit to make it look different. Change the bedspread.
Step 4: Make little sign on the bed that says "Welcome to your suite."
Step 5: Put gourmet chocolates on the pillows.

Oh friends, I really wish I'd thought to take pictures.
It was so magical to transform our tiny bedroom.

After revealing our honeymoon suite, I planned on us watching the french film Les Choriste, but to be honest, we were both too pooped to watch anything. This may or may not be a sign of us getting older. It was around 9:30 that we got in bed.

And there you have it, dear friends. A valentines abroad. 

Perhaps someday we'll actually get on a plane to go on an adventure. 

But I liked it this way too. 

Good luck this next week,

winter blues.

*As I write this I'm wearing four layers on my top half, three layers on my legs, two pairs of socks, and am wrapped in a blanket like a friggin eskimo.

__________________________________________

In college I had a roommate who would get incredibly depressed during the winter. She would go to tanning beds, eat lots of fruity treats, and even would watch movies that took place in the summertime to combat her sad feelings. This will sound terribly insensitive (because it is):  I thought it was super annoying. And that she just wanted attention. And that she was kind of really really dramatic.

I grew up in Texas, where weather below 90 degrees is welcomed graciously. I hated the long hot summers. I hated feeling chronically sweaty. I hated the hot wind, the dust and the sun in general. In fact, summer time texas weather made me grouchy in general. Especially when I had to be outside in it (which, in my family-- you were always outside).

I don't know why it never occurred to me that if long hot summers made me grouchy, long snowy and dark winters could make my roommate depressed. When I was in college the winters (even the long snowy idaho ones) were annoying at times, but certainly not a good reason to get weepy or sad.

Moving to today.

It's so cold. It's been cold for the past several weeks. There's a good foot or so of snow from last month that has turned into a block of ice where the usual grassy area in our front yard is. There are three days forecasted for more snow within the next week. I hate it. My feelings for this winter have transformed from an irritation to a full on loathing for the cold.
And I love winter accessories.

 A few days ago I found myself feeling blue, weepy, and totally unmotivated for the load I have ahead of me this semester. Unsure of where these feelings were coming from, I went to the closet to grab a(n extra) pair of socks, and a(n extra) blanket to bundle up in. I felt like watching something cheerful, cheesy and pathetic, so I looked for the bachelor on hulu.

And it hit me.

I was my roommate.

And immediately I felt a(nother) wave of regret for my insensitive attitude towards her seasonal depression. You know how when you judge people it always comes back to bite you? I hate that.


Wishing you all a warmer evening than my own,