officially summer {for me at least}

first year of grad school can be crossed off the to do list and it's officially SUMMER. my calendar is already jam~packed with big move to our new house, visits from family and seven, yes seven weddings. the beautiful thing is i am only working part~time this summer and for the first time in forever i have weekends off c: this is the summer for bridal party craziness, diy projects and friends. enjoy.

~~~~~

for my first post back, i wanted to pay tribute to my dear friend and beautiful graduate nicole.

this was us just one year ago at my graduation...

and now it's her time to shine c: 

i am so incredible proud of her, these past two years have been huge:

marriage, deployment and now graduation.

she is truly amazing and inspiring to be around

i absolutely cannot wait to see what God has in store for her,

and i am so blessed to be a part of it. 

congratulations nicole!

well, hello.

happy beautiful sunday evening. yes, i'm very guilty of not blogging for over two months. life has been overwhelmingly crazy but amazing at the same time. any ounce of free time i've had is spent with that pretty cute husband of mine. here are a few updates from the past sixty~something days..

~1~ we bought a new vacuum. yes this is both BIG and exciting news. we have needed a new vacuum since pretty much the beginning of our marriage...and the boy did some  a ridiculous amount of research, i saved up the coupons and we purchased a beautiful little number called the shark.

~2~ i'm about a month away from completing my first year of grad school {yikes} and i've been swimming in homework this entire semester... hence the two month absence from blogging.

~3~ the boy has gone on a couple of drill weekends and an additional training that gave us more details on the deployment status and dates...yay {said very sarcastically}.

~4~ i've been only listening to gungor radio on pandora and soaking it up.

~5~ instagram is now available for the android...about stinkin' time. so yes, please begin to enjoy my instagram pictures from now on :)

~6~ lastly...we are currently in escrow on a little house { :D } if all goes as planned we should be closing and starting the move a week from today. so needless to say, any spare moment we have has been packing up the apartment.

first insta ever..taking a picture of my boy and then my coffee and easter candy :)

the boy's trip to the grocery store..the essentials of course and my white lights in a vase, before i packed them.

my spring wreath..again before packing it and lynnee sandwiched between my shirts as i was folding laundry..always being a helper. 

lastly.. our guest bathroom is currently our storage unit..brilliant. the bathtub is full of boxes and now lynnee has her own jungle gym :)

happy rest of your week.

i heart homework breaks

i love decorating for the different seasons..it's just fun. i've had the valentine love'ness up since before school started..partially because i was excited to change the mood of our winter apartment..and also because i knew once school started it would be difficult to set aside time to bust out the hearts. anyway, the boy was gone for drill this weekend, which meant i had no one to pester on my sunday homework breaks. so i decided to be somewhat productive and take a few quick pictures of the valentines day stuff. happy looking :)

super bowl and baked brie

super bowl sunday...i spent the entire morning working on homework trying to get done in time for super bowl festivities, and yet i still had to bring it to the party. yes i was the lame one nerding out on a case study and only paying attention to the commercials :) but there was a beer in my hand and amazing friends around me..so i can't really complain :) any'who..earlier that morning the boy ran to the store for me to get the ingredients, then came home and helped me prepare my favorite appetizer my aunt taught me when i was younger. festive brie huh?? here's how you make it:

homemade habanero berry jam, brown sugar and chopped up pecans on top of the brie. cover it with crescent roll dough and use the left over to make fun design or picture. bake it at 350. i put these two in together and it took about fifteen or so minutes. depending on the size of the brie just adjust the time and keep your eye on it. i've also used regular jam or even just the pecans and brown sugar is pretty stinkin' amazing. if you're bringing it to a friends house, prep it at home and ask if you can bake it there...then it's warm perfect gooey'ness won't go to waste. 

sorry for the blurry pictures..took them on my phone

not to mention the boy and his friend kept waving hands and knives in front of it

so in my efforts not to get cut and have a good picture..it took about fourteen attempts. 

the boy helped with the football...i knew the shape, but lost when it came to the details.

can you see the knife in this picture..bottom left 

ha! attempt to fully ruin my picture..failed!

picture frame whiteboards

i'm a huge fan using the picture frame white board idea. extremely and ridiculously simple. all you need is a picture frame, scrapbook paper and a dry erase pen...amazing yes? it's works wonders the kids i work with  because they choose the design/color of paper to have in the background {love that the littlest things are the most motivating for kids}. you can also run lessons by printing pages in the back..identifying body parts, math or just practicing their name...it's fun to get creative with it. just remember that it is glass and most frames have sharp edges..my rule is it stays at the table. okay enough kid talk, here's what i did for my o' so grown up house :)

this idea has been floating around pinterest and i've wanted to do it every since i laid my eyes on it

the boy and i take turns, every so many days and write a new message

sometimes goofy, sometimes super mushy, always uplifting.

{i'm pretty stoked i got him to participate}

well school is back in session {and the boys home!} so we needed some organization for the meal situation

my schedule is different every day and night so obviously i pinned this idea off pinterest.

i super glued the wine corks at the bottom if i wanted to add a recipe or note to the boy

he's been helping out big time with our various dinners so it's not all on me :)

if it tastes bad..it's his fault ;)

eventually i want to put it on the wall..but for now it will hang out right here.

another tidbit...i forgot to mention if you're adding stickers put them on the paper not the glass

then you can save some mulu and reuse the picture frame

the scrapbook frame above was first used for a school project,

after i took pictures for my portfolio, i took it apart 

and wahla! a menu.

the kind of day off

thursday {as of now} is the day of no class, no student teaching, no work

it's a catch up/attempt to get ahead on assignments kind of day

it's a run errands and pay bills kind of day 

..i feel we can all attest to these kind of 'days off'!

on the flip side...i get to see the boy when he comes home for lunch

i get to smell candles, consume yummy drinks and sweets

and as a bonus...i can stay in my the boy's sweats 

all day long :)

day off  meets comfy productive day.

trading tv for worship

i love having background noise. while doing homework.chores.cleaning.cooking.crafting. lately my background noise has been tv shows on netflix...episode after episode has been playing the past few weeks while i go about doing whatever needed to be done around the house. a couple days ago i came home from work to the boy playing 'how he loves us' on his guitar. i felt a tug on my heart. a thought popped into my head, 'now this is background noise'. he continued to play while i cooked dinner and i reflected on these last weeks. there has been a difference in my attitude.thoughts.perspective. i decided to substitute my tv shows for worship music for a week...it's been four days now, and i can't even begin to say how much of a blessing it's been. i've added david crowder band's 'how he loves us' with the lyrics...i can seriously have this song on repeat for hours.