intro to anthro

with the husband gone for drill this weekend, i was free of home improvements to this little house of ours with electrical wiring and shelf building. don't get me wrong, i love everything about making these walls our home in a functional way but it lacked color and warmth and every`day coziness. since we bought this house in summer the first round of decorations were the red, white and blue's, then fall came and finally the finale of season decorating with christmas. taking down christmas was hard, not only because i was dealing with the post christmas blues but our home became bare and i realized i had only decorated for seasons, not thinking of the other six months of the year. 

okay, so back to the part about the husband being gone...i spent an entire day experiencing hobby lobby, west elm and anthropologie for the first time and soaked up every second of it with one of my favorites. first off, let me remind you i'm from a smaller isolated city, where it was a big game changer for target to come into town. i never even knew about these places before i moved here. i had seen west elm and anthropologie magazines and every now`and`then on pinterest. i adored the style but could never bring myself to purchase at that price. until my dear friend informed me of their clearance section. usually i'm the queen of clearance, but i assumed the price cuts would not be enough for my cheap self...how i was ever`so misinformed. and let me tell you, i was ever`so happy to be wrong.

well, there are my purchases and here is my plan...a pretty plate wall and pops of color. no color scheme, just stuff found around the house and a few new things c:

ps. as for hobby lobby, i'm not sure if i have a good excuse for never going before this weekend...but am so thankful i did because it blows joanns and michaels out of the water.

thank goodness for instagram

here are the highlights of my week, courtesy of the most amazing instagram...

on one of my longer days i busted out the bracelet i wore at my wedding...and this little beauty got me through the day with a smile c:

first pumpkin patch field trip of the season...the students had a blast even though it was ninety out that day, note where i am standing while taking this picture c;

i spent saturday assisting/seconding shooting for this amazing girl...find her at www.sweetseptemberphotos.com

what i see when i jet home to accomplish some homework before actual work. and yes, that's my pumpkin from the field trip!

thank goodness for instagram catching all these moments that light up my day and thank goodness for Taingamala for hosting the link up c;

double blessings in psalms

last night as i was slipping into my covers 

and getting ready to say good night to the world, i was stopped. not physically stopped, but paused to listen to my heart. i heard a simple phrase, you should read your bible. hmmm...i thought, i usually don't read before bed {because i often fall asleep}, so i continued to wrap myself in my comforter but it just didn't feel right and i heard that soft whisper again. that's when i knew, this must be a God thing. i relinquished my sheets, jumped out bed and grabbed my bible. i began thumbing though the pages with this sweet girl, not really sure what i was looking for. i stumbled upon the book of psalms, david always seems to have good stuff to say so i began reading at psalm thirty`five. much of the next few chapters were beautiful and comforting reads about how big our God is. the verses were highlighted, underlined with squiggles and the occasional heart from my past reads. as i was going through psalm thirty`seven, i immediately had a dear friend come to mind and a tugging on my heart to share these verses with her. and i did just that, i shot her a quick text in case she was sleeping. ready for the God story? she wasn't sleeping, within minutes i received a response. at that moment she was looking up verses about giving fear to God and she had goosebumps that He laid that on my heart to share with her. how incredible is our God? how He goes out of His way to comfort and gently remind us that He is in control. ready for God story number two? then today on my break between student teaching and work, i read this passage again and God unraveled things in my own heart that needed change...double blessing. so glad i had faith in that soft voice and grabbed my bible instead of my pillow last night c:

psalm 37:1-9

do not fret because of those who are evil

or be envious of those who do wrong;

for like the grass they will soon wither, 

like green plants they will soon die away.

trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

take delight in the Lord

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

commit your way to the Lord;

trust in Him and He will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 

your vindication like the noonday sun. 

be still before the Lord

and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways, 

when they carry out their wicked schemes.

refrain from anger and turn from wrath; 

do not fret - it only leads to evil.

for those who are evil will be destroyed,

but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. 

psalm 37:23, 24

the Lord makes firm the steps

of those who delight in him;

though they stumble, they will not fall,

for the Lord upholds them with His hand. 

hmmm...how many times did he say, 'do not fret'? and how often am i fretting about everything. at the end of verse eight it says, 'do not fret - it only leads to evil'. the very moment i begin to worry and agonize is the same moment i begin to doubt, question, blame others and/or let it affect my attitude...all of which leads me farther away from God. i especially love and take comfort in these words, 'though they may stumble, they will not fall'  because i am an imperfect person and i stumble and get stuck in routines often. i am so incredibly thankful that God scoops me up and gets me back on my feet every time, every day. 

sparkling wine glasses

last weekend's bachelorette party was spent in napa {aawwhh. yes, it was beautiful}. the bridal party all chipped in, rented a house, then spent the weekend soaking up sunshine and wine tasting. unfortunately i had to leave a day early in order to make the wedding of my dear school friend. so it was only proper for me to excuse my short stay by crafting some fun, girly and very appropriate wine glasses. upon much research, here was my favorite tutorial i based this project on...{credit}

what i used:

~martha stewart multi`surface craft paint $2.99 {use michael's coupons}

~wine glasses {i bought a variety of sizes from the dollar tree}

~brush to apply the glitter paint

~scissors 

~tape 

~tooth picks 

step 1: wash all of your glasses and have them completely dry before you begin.

step 2: squeeze some glitter paint into a small container.

step 3: use tape to create a line circling the top your glass.

step 4: paint several layers, 3-10 layers depending on how concentrated you want the glitter to be. each layer should be light, so you don't have the clumpy look. each of our glasses were a little different, some more concentrated where the tape was then faded out towards the bottom...others we heavily painted the base and gave the faded look going up. 

for the bride to be, i wanted her's to stand out. first i used tape to outline a box, then i placed a sticker in the middle of my box to personalize it. i slowly added light layers {maybe 10} over the sticker and within my box. once the paint dried i used my tooth pick to carefully take off my sticker and touch up the 'N'.

step 5: time to cure. putting glass in a oven made me a little nervous, so i did A LOT of research to guarantee my wine glasses wouldn't shatter. here's what you do: place all your wine glasses on a baking rack, put the wine glasses in your oven, turn it on for 350 degrees and set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes. it's important that your baking sheet is cool and your glasses are in the oven WHILE it is preheating because it allows everything to heat up together. when your timer is rings, turn your oven off and leave the glasses inside to cool down {again we are avoiding dramatic temperature change}. once everything is nice and cool, feel free to take your glasses out. let them set for three days before you use or wash. after the third day you are ready to use, enjoy and throw it in the dishwasher {bonus!}.

craft and enjoy c:

what a weekend

this weekend... i began with some crafting

then celebrated at a bachelorette party

i did a little wine tasting

attended a wedding

big PLUS, i got to see my mustach`ed husband

{no picture available}

ha!

we then bought a couch

and concluding the weekend was a heart`to`heart with my dear friend. 

today {monday} my first day back to work and i'm beyond beat, but i absolutely can't wait to go more in depth with each amazing and truly blessed aspect of my weekend. but as of now, i'm calling it a night and catching up on some much needed sleep c;

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!

saturday night love

saturday night was one of those perfect nights. worship.laughter.friends.food.crafts. after work i rushed home to pick up the boy and we meet one of our most favorite couples at church for the evening service.  then we out to eat using a christmas gift card :) after our stomachs couldn't handle any more complimentary bread, we took our left overs {plus more bread} back to our place. the boys played video games, and we tried not to get in their line of vision as we crafted this together:

i love crafting with nicole because we finish each other sentences

and we get wayyy excited about everything

she's much more enthusiastic about my crafting adventures than the boy

...go figure! 

i had gotten these hearts forever ago on clearance

originally it was two sets of three that were connected together

but we cut them up and hung them from the ceiling instead.

branch look familiar? reused and wrapped in sparkly heart wire.

i made these last year

scrape book pictures cut up and backed on pink paper

then inserted in dollar tree picture frames.

{please excuse the dust..from poking holes in that lovely popcorn ceiling of ours}

this little section of the apartment makes me so happy 

not to mention getting to hang out with both of our boys home

life is good :)

weddings galore and a proud wife

the boy and i have four back to back weekend weddings this summer

bridesmaid in three..groomsman in two 

which means...

one wedding we will be in together :)

andrew and courtney

well this crazy duo made a wedding site..and this was the description for my boy

Ross is another life long friend of Andrew's.  He and Andrew grew up playing sports together, watching each others dogs, and trying to think of ways to out smart Jeremy.  Ross has always walked in integrity and would give you the shirt off his back in a heartbeat.  He will also rip the shirt off your back if you hurt someone close to him.  Ross is always putting others before himself and working his hardest to provide for those he loves.  When Ross is not watching Star Wars or doing pushups in the Coast Guard he enjoys "teaching" his friends very painful new wrestling moves.   

i couldn't be prouder to walk down the aisle again

with this boy.

christmas vacation

we spent nine days traveling down and then up the california coast. the first half our trip we spent christmas down in santa barbara because my sister couldn't get the time off to come home. so my parents, her boyfriend, the boy and i all met at her place to spend christmas together in her two bedroom rental that usually houses five girls...{yikes} her college neighborhood was a ghost town because every was gone for winter break..it was peaceful and gorgeous. christmas eve the kids taught our parents the art of beer pong..or as my dad calls it the pong. which as you could imagine, was pretty amusing.

the second half of our tip we went home and it was a little more fast paced. i ended up making a schedule for the boy and myself to just keep up with it all {yes and i love being organized} ...we had a wedding, coffee dates, dinner dates, friend time, visiting different sets of family, then there were more lunch dates...think you get the picture. pretty hectic but i enjoyed being able to squeeze everyone in and catch up with old friends. due to the craziness i didn't take as many pictures as i wanted...but i have a few that represent that section of our trip.

this picture pretty much sums up the first half of our vacation

relaxing.

lots of goofing off and playing with the sister's new fish eye lens

new profile picture..yes??

christmas afternoon we took our family photo..lovely bunch we are.

it was an awful five minute walk to the beach from her house
hard life huh?
as a fam we watched the sunset on christmas evening.

mom being the spunky and always prepared woman she is
brought a bottle of champagne and cups for toasting.

 we sipped and watched the perfect sunset.

christmas dinner was homemade chicken pot pies and dumplings

accompanied by a salad that had everything amazing in it.

a picture from one of our evening walks. 

................................

now for the less documented half of our trip

celebrating new years eve eve with some amazing friends

{because we spent the real new years eve at a wedding}

and yes we did the whole countdown and everything :)

the boy quickly traded in his pea coat for a sweatshirt that night

but i managed to get at least one picture with him :)

welcome 2012

we spent the real new years eve with the in~laws at a family wedding.

...and we drove home the next afternoon...

our relaxing.busy.perfect. vacation

recovering from vacation

so i've kind of spent the entire morning in bed..getting up only twice
first time was to get the essentials: chocolate, lap top and a candle
second time to make something for the boy to eat on his lunch break
yup...i'm recovering from vacation.

the boy and i managed to get nine days off of work and obligations

then spent it traveling up and down california with the kitty

celebrating the season with our favorite friends and getting some much needed family time in.

it was absolutely amazing and absolutely exhausting
each day jam~packed with coffee dates and familiness
needless to say i stayed very caffeinated the entire 1500 plus miles we drove.

i spent this morning catching up on some much needed blog reading
and even spruced up mine a bit :)
but now its time to start some crazy laundry business and make a grocery list
just wanted to say stop by and say...
happy new year!

our little traveling fam :)
ha...and the husband refusing to take another smiling picture.

absent much..

holy cow it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks

my biggest and best excuse is 

MY BOY IS HOME!!!!

so if there is any homework putting off to do...it's been spent with him :)

otherwise the usual school, work, student teaching stuff.

however we did somehow manage to sneak home for a bit for the holidays

and when i say bit...it's more of a bit of a bit

we drove a total of eleven hours to be in our home town for less than twenty-four 

it was a crazy, fast paced but much needed adventure.

the in-laws...aren't we a cute bunch?

here's our other 'christmas card worthy' picture

my parents were being beach bums in mexico

so we spent our quick thanksgiving with the boy's side of the family.

of course a trip home wouldn't be 'a trip home' without seeing all my favorite kids

henry and his so serious face :)

couldn't catch a picture of ty without it being blurry..haha what's new!

my sweet sweet god daughter.

thanksgiving morning the boy, his best friend and i ventured out to the brand new swanky safeway in town

picked up some doughnuts and starbucks for our good friends and surprised them with a 

'thanksgiving miracle' if you will.

first doughnut experience for peyton...she was a happy girl.

...alright...

well i did take the morning off so i could bust out some assignments

...weird that i somehow found myself doing the blog thing... :)

i can't wait to catch another break and catch up on my blog reading

and add some christmass'ness to the home

{currently there is candy corn, snowmen and framed leaves on my shelves}

poor apartment is confused. 

happy belated thanksgiving.

reuniting

things i love thursday

being reunited with your love

today was the homecoming for the husband of my favorite friend

the next best thing to being reunited with your own boy

 is seeing someone else being reunited with theirs

ESPECIALLY these two. 

{RECAP}

two years ago i walked into sign language and nicole was wearing a jeremy camp shirt

i always thought she was the 'cool' girl in class and that day i made my move

i asked, 'do you love jesus?'

she replied, 'yes'

that class we were let out early, so we went for a bite to eat and kill time till our next class

we ended up talking through nicole's lecture...oops!

just so happened we both loved jesus as well as 

her boyfriend {at the time} was looking into national guard reserves 

and my husband was investigating coast guard

....hmmm kawinkydink...i think not...JESUS.

since the moment our friendship blossomed 

she married that boy and together we got through

two sets of boot camp, almost two sets of a-school {one more day for me}

and for my dear friend survived one very very long deployment

which i believe gets a round of applause..so go ahead and clap away :)

happy reuniting mr. and mrs.

i am so proud and thankful for all you have done.