Ramblings

As of today I am officially 30. Whoa

Actually, it's just another birthday to me - you know, something to be excited about but not concerned about.

But even though that's how I feel, its sometimes hard to get past all the "to-do lists before I'm thirty," or "I've got to do so much before I'm thirty." And sometimes it creeps into my head, bugging me, making me wonder about the way I've chosen to live my life until now. I haven't had a to-do list. And when I'm feeling particularly frustrated with various things in life, I think I haven't really done much with this time.

Then I recognize that all those thoughts creeping into my head are from pressures that I refuse to let into my life for long. I'm actually excited about thirty. I know it may seem strange. But it's one more great year to look forward to.

In honor of my thirty years of life I've decided to share 30 of the best moments, experiences, people, etc - this list is not exhaustive by any means but some of those times and people in my life for which I am so grateful.

1. Getting my master's degree and working toward finishing my PhD without sacrificing the important times and people in my life
2. My husband, my partner, the man who challenges me to be everything that I want to be and who stands beside me with such determination and love
3. The beautiful, strong, brilliant, amazing women whom I call friends - my life has grown so dramatically because of these women
4. Celebrating the births of the two most beautiful children to two of my most favorite people in the ENTIRE world
5. Being called Aunt Liz by those two children, celebrating each of their birthdays, loving them dearly, being loved by them
6. My dad's unwavering support, be it as my soccer or softball coach as a child, or as someone I can go to about the frustrations of school or cars or really anything
7. My mom's steadfastness and quiet strength
8. The day the husband and I found Gracie and the monumentally positive influence she was in my life during the hardest times of the PhD program - she kept me sane, happy, and grounded
9. Seeing Gracie run through mud puddles at the dog park (some of which are deeper than she is tall)
10. Our dogs' fierce love for us despite all our imperfections
11. The weddings of our friends and family - it is more than special to share in such meaningful and joyful celebrations
12. Jenny - before moving to TX, we seemed to follow each other around, living in the same cities for 16 years and I am so lucky for those years. Our friendship started off rocky (I didn't invite her to my 6th grade birthday party) but has become such an integral part of my life - she, along with her husband, children, dog, occasional small furry creature, parents, and more are my family (the non-married and non-biological family) - they have a large part of my heart and I so look forward to the day they are back in my life on a weekly basis
13. Higher education - I know you question this, especially if you've heard me complain about the PhD program. Let me be specific here - the fabulous people, and I mean really freakin' fabulous people (mostly women in my programs) who I've met along that journey. And these women are Amazing - their dedication, strength, determination, resilience, intelligence, passion, and more - they are truly inspirational
14. Growing up with one set of grandparents living in the same city - and still having those grandparents in my life
15. My family, my entire extended family - their love for one another - all of whom have touched my heart in so many way
16. My mentor and friend Laura who has, at times, been the only shining ray of hope in the world of academia
17. NC State football game fun with college friends
18. Walking on the beach, preferably a NC beach, in the early evening
19. The south - and just to let you know, Texas proclaims that it is not a southern state.
20. Live music and all of the amazing concerts I've attended with good friends
21. The 6 years I lived in Raleigh, NC - amazing times, amazing friends, and amazing fun
22. Hearing about friends' babies (and bumps) :)
23. Traveling around Europe with Betsy and then studying in Vienna for two weeks with the Wake Forest crew
24. Teaching - the experience of observing someone learn something new is truly special
25. Learning. I know I've been in school forever but I really like learning and that's one reason why I really like counseling because a great deal of it is about learning about another person, their joys, their struggles, their hopes
26. Cheese fights
27. Living in a condo next door to a dear friend for a year - really, people, we should all live next door to our friends - it makes life sooooo much better
28. Grasshoppers and mudslides
29. Setting up a friend with a guy I met through another friend and then watching their relationship grow - they are now engaged!
30. Little moments - commuting with the husband and sharing about our days together, dinners with my mom every week during grad school, soccer games with my dad, driving 45 minutes to meet friends "half-way" for dinner, a drink after stats class, cold mornings that turn into beautiful days, and more.

Of course there are more but I don't want to bore you!  Have a great week!

A whirlwind of a week

Last week was rough to say the least. The car broke down. We spent two nights of the work week devoted to that problem. Then I made the unfortunate mistake of saying on our way home on Thursday how nice it would be to have a normal night. Yeah, well that's not exactly what happened. Poor Shadow had a bit of an upset tummy and 3.5 hours, one rented carpet cleaner, one empty container of Shout-Out and four loads of laundry later we sat down for thirty minutes before going to bed. Whew. Turns out Shadow's little upset stomach turned into what is likely a version of diaper rash for doggies and she is now on pain medicine and an antibiotic. Poor thing

But besides that, this week is looking up. First, things are a bit more normal (thankfully). Second, MY MOM IS COMING TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Third, the husband's birthday is Thursday. What a nice week and a nice change from last week. Did I mention that I'm soooo excited that my mom is coming??  Well, I am!!  We're going to do some shopping and some antiquing and some eating yummy food. Yay!!  Ok, I'm done. Have a great rest of the week!

Oh, and an update from a previous post - people, if you like to cook and you like things like butternut squash and sweet potatoes - that sausage (we used turkey sausage) shepherd's pie last week was AMAZING. And easy (once I learned from a co-worker that Costco sells butternut squash already cubed). Its a strange mix of things but oh so wonderful!

Temperamental teenagers

I have one of these

Toyota Corolla from here

But she's much more mature than this one. In fact, most days she's a very mature 15 year old. However, Tuesday she decided that extreme drama was the mood of the day - basically she didn't feel like leaving my office. In fact, she didn't feel like doing ANYTHING. So my very nice coworker drove us the 45 minutes home (even though she lives 5 minutes from our office). We dropped off my cranky car at the local repair shop before heading out to the suburbs!

Wednesday morning we were quoted the damage - $440. Not terrible but thanks to the amazing husband, we saved a bunch of money - he was able to do all the fixes last night, and in my work parking garage no less. Hooray for handy husbands!!

And now the solid ole corolla is back in good shape, acting like her same reliable self again. (Now all we need are the crazy drivers to stop wrecking at the entrance to the HOV lanes and we'll be good).

Yay for the weekend being here tomorrow after work!

A quiet mind

I've noticed recently that I spend a lot of time thinking - even when I'm sort of sleeping or should be sleeping. I have been sleeping fine, but I tend to wake up a few minutes before my alarm or earlier on the weekend thinking about all the things I want/need to get done. After thinking about my thinking I decided its the result of my attempt to maximize my time outside of work - trying to "get ahead" or finish something I started awhile ago or start something new. I think I need to find a bit of a balance in this. I'll keep you posted on the balancing but for now, here's what we did this weekend!
We bought the tile for the bathroom project! Woo-hoo!! To give you more of an idea of the bathroom look I'm hoping for, here's a picture of a bathroom I love. This is basically the basis for our bathroom, although we are making several key changes.

Lonny

Ok, so with that in mind, we did not buy the super expensive but loverly hexagonal tile we saw at Daltile ($35/sq.ft). Instead, we bought a 12x12 porcelain tile that will do the job. And instead of black walls, we'll likely go with a very dark blue with less gloss.

Back to the weekend...

Saturday we worked in the yard until about 2 and then ran some errands.

Our to-do list for Sunday looked like this:

Sometimes writing on a board discourages correct spelling.

The husband's part of the list was not numbered. Sunday is Raven's football day and thus much of his afternoon is spent on the couch. However, he did add to his list during the day - he cleaned the dishes and kitchen after all the cooking/baking, and demoed the half bath!

So the husband cleaned this (which is after some of the dishes were put into the dishwasher):

And he did this:

If you need a refresher on the bathroom prior to demo - check it out here.

I spent the day marking things off my list.

Sausage Shepherd's Pie with Sweet Potatoes and Squash

Molasses Wheat Berry Bread

Excuse the messy pan but the yumminess was overflowing!  Turkey Sausage Spinach Lasagna with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Pumpkin cupcakes with my mom's homemade cream cheese frosting.

So we'll be eating well this week! And hopefully meal-making will become easier and faster as the weeks move along.

Have a great Monday!