trying not to fall

Hello out there, FRIENDS!!!

Wow - I haven't posted since I was on my little summer break in August! Been missing you and all things blogland! What have I been up to this fall? Essentially... I have been getting my ASS KICKED in PA school! Legitimately. I have never in my life been in a higher stress situation. 11 classes + a clinic day makes it real difficult for this chick to work on life balance. :/ 

So, as you know, I started that Body For Life program in August. My first 4 or 5 weeks were phenomenal! I lost 8 lbs --- success! But then...I failed my first exam in life ever. So, I decided to spend more time on school, and less time at the gym. But that plan proves to be a problem as well, because when I don't have the gym to let out my excess energy and stress, I am just a big mess. Crying nonstop, gaining some lbs back, and not sleeping as well. It's super frustrating. It's like I'm a pendulum, swinging back and forth between school, and living a healthy life. And my momentum gets me stuck on one end of the spectrum, and it becomes difficult to land somewhere in the middle. 

The word of the season is balance. And I'm on a constant quest for it.

Amidst my normal causes for stress, I have a Naggie situation to deal with as well. She has started blaring her TV at night, and then falling asleep to it. So I can hear it all.night.long. At first, I thought she was intentionally trying to ruin me. Now I think it's just that's she's becoming more and more senile and losing her hearing, and not realizing how effing loud her tv is. So I've had to call her and ask her to turn her tv down just to be able to sleep. 

Sleep is totally at the root of my problems. I'm anxious about school, so I don't sleep. Then I'm tired, so I can't study. Vicious cycle. But on Tues I'm going to my primary care physician to get a sleep aid, and hopefully that will help get me back on the right track. 

If I make it through the semester, I will have learned a lot of lessons about coping with high-stress situations. I need to do well in school, but I need to do the little things like walk my dogs, hit the gym a few times each week, cook with my husband, go to church, see my family every few weeks...  And hopefully my quest for balance will be fruitful at some point...I'm hoping sooner rather than later!

Until then, my mantra is "4 week Christmas break, 4 week Christmas break, 4 week Christmas break..."

(I did take a 24-hour break in Fort Collins this weekend --- lounge on the couch, watched Monte Carlo, lunch with my family...refreshing!)

home sweet home --- fall is in full swing at my parents' house!

My mom even let me eat off of my baby plate :P

Cousins playing vampires with candy corn, haha. 

Sister time reminds me to laugh more often, it's therapeutic :)

Cheers :)

busy little bee

After posting about what a lovely, fun, and relaxing weekend I had... I must share with you what today has looked like for me:

• Gym for a run
• Target {didn't even get anything unnecessary, I swear!}
• Meal planning {Planed for 10 meals: Cashew Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Taco salads, Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells, Pear/Blue Cheese/Prosciutto Sandwiches, Curry Kissed Chicken, Loaded Potato Soup, Buffalo Chicken Paninis, Brie/Apple/Arugula Quesadillas, Italian Sausage & Bow-tie Pasta, and Hot & Sour Soup!!!} 
• Grocery store for ingredients
• Groceries put away
• Load of laundry
• Run dishwasher
• Put laundry away
• Cook pumpkin seeds {MMMM!}
• Buy/plan for bachelorette party on Thursday night
• Buy card/present & plan outfit for wedding Saturday night
• Shower
• Pay off credit card
• Pay car loan

And I still have to:

• Put dishes away
• Walk dogs
• Make dinner
• Interview prep

And then, after that long long day...I get to go to work from 7pm - 7:30 am. 

Wowza.

Good thing I bought some 5-hour energy drinks...

Cheers?

the attempt to donate to salvation army

Okay, so if you have been following lately, you'll know that Tyler and I are in a state of re-doing our living room. We have our new furniture, so we needed our old furniture to go bye-bye. This included an office chair, a coffee table, a TV stand, a TV, a bookshelf, and a couch. None of it is in bad shape at all, but it also isn't worth a whole lot. We didn't want to have a garage sale or anything like that, and no one really expressed much interest in taking the pre-loved furniture off of our hands (well, my brother-in-law is taking a bookshelf). 

So, we decided to make a donation to the Salvation Army! It's easy to schedule a pick-up, your donation is tax-deductible, and then we don't have to worry about finding a way to haul a couch somewhere. Today was donation day. I worked last night, so Tyler put out all of our donation items this morning around 7:40am. Then he left. Then I pulled up to our home around 7:50am. I saw our couch outside of our garage and nothing else. The first thing I thought was, "Great. Tyler left the TV and TV stand in the garage for me to move out. How the hell am I supposed to move those on my own?" I opened the garage and realized none of the other furniture was in sight. 

Apparently our neighbors acted pretty darn fast! In a 10-minute window they succeeded in swiping all of our Salvation Army donation except for the couch - I am presuming because they couldn't move it. Oh well. At least the SA will have a couch. I went to sleep for the morning pretty amused with the rapid snatching my neighborhood is capable of. I woke up around 1:30pm to the dogs barking up a storm in the back yard - oh the Salvation Army must be here! I open the garage expecting to see no couch. But I did see a couch.

Upon inspection of the couch, I realize 2 of the couch legs have been busted off, one cushion is missing, and one pillow is missing. Really? You attempted to take the couch, but it didn't work out, you broke the legs off in the process, and then took one cushion and pillow instead? Making it go from comfortable and well-used to complete trash? Thanks. Then there is a note from Salvation Army saying they came by but the couch was in too poor of condition to take. Frowny face. No shit. So someone had tried to swipe it, ruined it in the process, then the SA came by to get what I said was a fine couch, and they find trash. Awesome. 

Not only am I bummed we ended up not donating anything, but now we are stuck with a trashed couch. Awesome. So, I called Waste Management and apparently for $25 + fuel fees they'll pick it up next Thurs with the rest of the regular trash pick-up. So now we just have to keep it for the next week then it will go to the landfill. Which I hate because it was perfectly usable :(

Thanks for reading my grumbles. 

Have you ever had good intentions then they get ruined?

Frustrating.

sad week for my jewelry

Guys - my jewelry is in a state of dispair. Seriously, all my beloved silver and gems are going to gang up and riot against me for not taking proper care of them!


First of all, if you remember all the way back to December (I don't even remember December so I'll link it for ya ;) ), you'll know that I got a GORGEOUS ring for Christmas. My friend Katherine makes such lovely jewelry, and Tyler was so sweet and got me a ring of hers. I have adored this ring so much and wear it almost every day. Alas, in the last week, I have not been able to find it :(   Seriously, I am SO sad! I hate feeling irresponsible and losing things always gets me so upset - especially when it's not just a ring from Kohl's or something, it's a ring that was specifically handmade for me. Given to me as a gift from my love. Ugh, I am so down in the dumps about it. And I cannot find it anywhere.


Secondly, I bought a cocktail ring on Memorial Day in Estes Park at the Arts & Crafts show. I haven't purchased any large cocktail-esque rings before, and so I decided to get myself a cutsie summer ring! It is a large flower with each petal being a different color: blue, green, white, pink, and orange. Each of the bright colors are infused with glitter. It's so bright! It's so summery! It's so me! But of course, last night I accidentally whacked it on the wall (it does stick out quite a lot, to be fair), and one of the lovely glittery flower petals snapped right off and dropped to the floor. Where Gryffin then tried to eat it. I did save the petal from the mongrel, but what am I going to do - super glue it? *sigh* I guess I'll have to try!

Lastly, all my sterling silver (and I have quite a collection because my Grandma sells Native American jewelry) is looking awful. I have neglected it so much! I need to have some quality silver-and-me time and polish everything up nice and pretty.

And thennnn, Tyler informed me this afternoon that he broke part of his watch today. His multi-hundred dollar Seiko watch. Poor guy,  he has taken SUCH good care of that watch for the last 3 or 4 years, and he was pretty bummed. I know this last jewelry example wasn't my jewelry per se, but just another sad jewelry event in my household.

Okay, that is all. Cross your fingers and toes for me that my little special ring will turn up! Thanks!

Cheers (I guess) ;)