I need sleep...

Haven't been sleeping well again. 

This is becoming a recurring problem. 

I think it's because I've been stressed about school, 

plus I was up until 2AM on Tuesday finishing a paper, and had to get up at 7AM Wednesday morning.

But, i got that one turned in yesterday, and now I just have one paper between myself and student teaching.

I'm so ready to start student teaching, 

Graduation is so close. 

After we turned in our papers yesterday morning, we literally had discussions and presentations for the rest of the day.

Can you tell where my mind was?

This past Saturday we spent 10+ hours driving to Joliet, IL, to get Jamie's new motorcycle!

A lot of people don't know this, 

but he sold his first one to pay for my engagement ring. 

I love that man.

So we have been saving up, and he is more excited about his bike than he's been about anything in a while.

Unfortunately, it has been snowy and rainy and freezing since he bought it.

Which is kind of lame.

But, I just keep telling him he'll have every summer for years to come to ride it, so just be patient a little longer. 

He named it Mila, after Mila Kunis, hahaha.

Jamie and I are celebrating a belated Valentine's day this weekend, with a homemade fondue night!

We normally go to The Melting Pot (If you haven't been there, go, it's amazing)

but this year we just wanted to keep it simple. 

He also left this rose for me Tuesday Morning, which was very sweet. 

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day!

I'm off to cook some lunch. 

♥

These past two weeks...

Sorry friends, it's been a while.  

These past few weeks, I've started re-taking E341. 

That's right, folks, I lost my appeal. 

It's been incredibly stressful.

I feel like everything that should be easy comes with some massive complication that causes it to be 10x harder. 

I would just like to go one day without being super stressed and having a meltdown.

Just. One. Day.

But I'm not going to focus on the negatives, It's my night off, I want to enjoy it.

The few positives in my life lately:

I have been completely vegetarian for almost a month.

I'm pretty proud of myself, It's not been easy.  

Indiana isn't very accommodating to people with different eating needs.

I don't know yet if this is a lifelong transformation, but I just wanted to try it for a while.

I've been trying many different tofu recipes. 

Today's recipe:

Fried tofu. 

Pretty good, it could add some texture to steamed veggies, and would be good dipped in some sauce.

Also, my cousin got married this past weekend, so I got to get all dressed up and see a lot of my family, which was very nice, 

and spend the evening afterwards with the lovely Amanda and Joe. 

She has been a huge support to me, and even drove her book 40 minutes one way from her house to mine, because I couldn't find mine and was freaking out.

So thankful to have her as a friend.

And my last bit of good news, I love, love, love the painting class I'm taking to have enough credit hours to keep my financial aid.

Here is my first official still life, done in monochromatic form.

I'm not quite done, but I'm pretty happy with it. 

So that's life lately.

One giant ball of stressed out mess, with a little happy here and there.

I just have to get through 4 more weeks, and then it's painting for the rest of the semester.

Pray for me.

♥

World War III and Fridge art.

I've been waging war.

In my own home.

Fleas.

They are the ultimate enemy.

What started this was that Emma laid at the foot of my side of the bed on Sunday.

Sunday night, I went to sleep about 1AM, and kept dreaming that my feet were being eaten.

Finally, at 5AM, I got up, and went and looked at them in the bathroom under the light, and my feet and ankles looked like this:

 I had 12 of these bites. Ridiculous. And this was taken about 36 hours later, after most of the swelling had gone down.

I spent the rest of the night on the couch, and since then I've washed everything fabric in my whole house, and they've both had flea meds.

I will win.

Take that, fleas.

In more happy news, I got a new kitchen compost container!

 It holds 2.4 gallons, fits perfectly under my sink freeing up counter space,

 and has a great carbon filter to keep odor down, and came with 3 replacement filters!

I'm really excited about it, and the fact that I got it for about 60% off! It's also not clear, so you can't see all the yuckiness, which is kind of nice.

We had a cookout at our house this past weekend, for all of the people who play or sing in our church worship band with us, and their families.  We had a really good time, and I was left with some lovely refrigerator art.

The left side was done by Wyatt, and the right side was Jacqueline.
I love them, they make me smile.

I will leave you with a video of my crazy, funny dog.
She has been extraordinarily needy lately! She just wants attention all the time.
Turn your volume all the way up, and listen to how stinking needy she's been!

She did this for 30 minutes.
She's actually doing it right now.
 As I type this.
Crazy, crazy dog.
♥

Happy Birthday Husband!

Today was Jamie's Birthday!

He is now 27.

We slept in until noon, and then went to Elegance, a little restaurant in town. It was awesome.

And then we watched "The King's Speech." Also awesome.

This is where he spent the majority of his day.

I was glad to give him some personal time, he doesn't get to play for fun nearly enough.  

This is his birthday loot, on the counter.

He got some pretty good cards.

Then we went out for dinner and drinks with Amanda, Joe, and Dan, and had a great time.  We went to the Slippery Noodle downtown, and they had some really awesome bands there tonight.

While he was playing guitar for several hours, I was painting. 

Results:

I've developed a newfound interest in painting, and I'm considering taking some art classes in the fall.

Not much else has happened in the past few weeks, other than we've been planning for our garden! As soon as school is out we are going to break ground.  Here is my (to scale) plan. I'm pretty proud of it.

It's going to be some work, but I am really excited about it.  I'm also working really hard to keep them organic, and we won't be using anything other than natural gardening techniques. I'm really looking forward to getting started!

In other household news, the chore chart is working even better than expected! Our house has been perpetually clean for about a week now. It's been so great. 

Probably won't be blogging much, if at all, for the next two weeks.  They will be the last two weeks of school, and I have about a million things to finish up.  

Keep me in your prayers, I'm going to need them. 

♥

Thoughts

What's wrong with this picture??

Hahahaha, Emma.

She has apparently decided that it is okay for her to get in Minnie's crate.

I was cracking up.

Minnie didn't even seem to care.

They are so hilarious.

The kitties seem to be going over great, but no offers for homes yet.

I really hope I can help Emily find them some good families.

I'm going to the Penrod with my Husband in the morning.

I'm really excited.

We are thinking about taking Natalie with us.

I often read the blog of notes, I enjoy seeing other well-written blogs.

But...

These

would give me nightmares if I had them as a child.

They may still now.

However I love

This.

Absolutely Love.

Lastly,

I wish I could dance like this.

This dance is gorgeous and passionate,

and I love it.

♥