Friday, March 28, 2014

Five for Friday - March 28, 2014 edition

A short list of random things I'm into this week.

1. Sara's Not Quite So Mellow Playlist

2. This photo and video of Marge Simpson brought to life

3. "Oceans"  by Hillsong United. It's a beautiful song. You can watch a video below, or check out one of the many versions available on YouTube.


4. Cadbury Mini Eggs. OMG. I always forget how great they are until Easter approaches, and then I cannot get enough of them.

5. Savannah Smiles Girl Scout Cookies. So amazingly delicious! I just have a few left, and I just got them last Friday. I told my "dealer" I may need a whole case next year!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Around here...


I haven't really posted an update about our lives since sometime last year. Yikes! I think it's about time for such an update.

I am super busy at work right now. We missed 8 days this winter that we won't be making up - but staff must make up those hours. That means I'm working hard with my teachers to get our students ready for the CRCT exams I'm April and putting in extra hours to make up the 50+ hours I missed. I'm counting down the days until Spring Break in April, and I'm happy to say it's soon going to be in the single digits.

At home, I'm finally falling into a routine again. It was tough this semester because we didn't have many long stretches of school until March. After six months in our home, Crookshanks and Minerva are finally settling in. Minerva is mellowing out a bit and needing less attention, while Crookshanks is beginning to be very affectionate. I still can't pick him up, but he does climb in my lap at least once a day now.

The blossoming pear tree we planted two years ago is blooming. I'm planning my container garden and dreaming up long-term plans for our jacked up backyard. Sometimes, I can't decide if I want to put the work required into the backyard or if I just want to sell this house and buy one with a much better yard. Both options seem to require more work than I would like to put in at this point. 

Trevor is in week 7 of training at Spirit. He really just has one evaluation and a initial operating experience trip between him and officially be an A320 pilot! With luck, all that will be done within the next two weeks, and he will be home with me again for a few days before beginning his April schedule. It is really crazy how quickly all this happened. Training seemed to fly by for me. I hope it went as quickly for Trevor as it did for me! I feel like there are still a million things I want to get done before Trevor comes home, which is silly because he's been home three times since he started training. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Before 30 Bucket List

When I was just about to turn 20, I wrote a list of goals to accomplish over the next ten years. Those goals were mostly stupid, and I think I realized that they weren't all that important to me because I've lost the list. These are the things I remember from the list: I wanted to get a real job, buy a car, buy a house, get married, have a baby, get a tattoo, see John Mayer in concert, see Weezer in concert, go on a road trip through at least five states that didn't include the Dakotas, have my writing published, and go to Europe.

I've done seven of those things. I still plan to do two of them someday, and there are another two that are completely off my radar at this point.

The problem with the list was that most of my goals were not accomplishments. I didn't really have to work to achieve most of those goals, and so, there was no sense of pride in fulfilling them, and there isn't much heartbreaking in not reaching them. At 20, I wasn't looking for fulfillment. I was thinking about reaching the markers of adulthood. I didn't even list graduating college on that list because I took it for granted that I was brilliant and would have no trouble doing so.

I'm six months from turning 30, so I feel like it's time to start evaluating what I REALLY should have accomplished before I turned 30, as well as what I should accomplish before I turn 40. The fourth decade bucket list will be a work in progress over the next six month, but today, I'm ready to share my "Before 30" bucket list with you.

1. Run a 5K.
2. Make my office/scrapbook space perfect.
3. Pass the middle grades Social Studies GACE test.
4. Re-do/refresh our bedroom, including paint.
5. Make curtains for the guestroom.
6. Make curtains for the living room/kitchen.
7. Finish the second book in the Song of Fire and Ice series.
8. Complete our wedding scrapbook (okay, really this is a 5 year anniversary goal, but our anniversary is a month and a half before my 30th birthday, so it is part of this list, too).
9. Reduce my wardrobe to the pieces I actually wear and expand it to include more functional pieces.
10. Finish my home management binder (more about this later).

I'll be sharing my progress on these goals over the next few months. My birthday is September 15, so I'll be updating on or around the 15th of the month until then.