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.

♥

2010, and looking towards the future!

I love the "year in review" blog that Naomi did at Rockstar Diaries.

I decided I wanted to do one, although I'm sure mine won't be as eloquent or detailed as hers. 

Not much happened in January, other than the fact that I worked until midnight on new years eve. Lame. But, we had had a rough year in 2009, and Jamie and I both had extremely high hopes that this year would be better. 

In February, we went to Olive Garden (an old fave) for Valentine's Day.

In March, my cousin's son Jackson was born, and I had my bridal shower!

 We celebrated Jamie's 26th birthday in april, and I finished block I, which felt like a miracle.

May was the big one. I had my bachelorette party on the 15th, and became Mrs. Rutan on the 29th!

We celebrated with our honeymoon in June, and my parents got the latest member of our family, Dexter, who has grown a lot, and become so special to all of us!

Baby Dexter

Dexter now
 In July I chopped 7 inches off my hair, Jamie and I took an impromptu camping trip, and we lost his Nan.

In August, we took a "one last hurrah" trip to Chicago, and school started again.

In September, Jamie and I sang at his cousin Bradley's wedding, and worked to adjust to our crazy schedules.

We celebrated Halloween in October, (and by celebrated, I mean passed out candy.)

November held my 22nd birthday, for which I was called onstage at my favorite bar and serenaded, and also my very first visit to the ER. 

And in December, we celebrated our first married Christmas. 

It's been a year to remember. Granted, it's been hard, trying to juggle school and work, but there have been so many blessings. I am looking forward to next year, and praying that it is just as good. 

I wish the same for all of you, 

and I hope you have a happy new year!

♥

I'll be there....

Listening to "I'll be there" by the Jackson 5.

Oh little Michael, what happened to you?

Love this song.

Got up and made Jamie and I pancakes this morning. 

It was so nice, we never get to do stuff like that anymore. 

Then we did homework.

I am really proud of myself, I got a lot done.

Then when he got back from class, I made us lunch.  

Lemon Chicken, 1/2 a baked potato, italian bread, and a spinach and strawberry salad.

It was great.

Oh, here's my dilemma of the day.
How do you tell your mother-in-law that she has the wrong date for your birthday?
I got a happy birthday phone call this morning, and a message saying she had a present for me.
My birthday isn't for another 5 days.
So, how do I tell her that without sounding totally ungrateful? Because I really do appreciate the thought, and that she took the time to call me and everything.
I am considering taking the cowards way out and letting her think that today is my birthday for the rest of my life.

Now that Jamie is at work, I am finishing off my meal with the best dessert in the whole wide world!

Turtle Trails Dairy-free ice cream.

It is unbelievably delicious.

And has a ridiculously small amount of calories compared to regular ice cream.

Yum.

I had a really horrible day at school yesterday.

To make a long story short,

Our classroom teacher vetoed our lesson plan on forensic footprint/shoeprint analysis that I spent 3 hours and $20 creating 10 minutes before we were supposed to teach it, because she typed "footprint analysis" into Google, and it brought up stuff that could possibly lead to evolution.

Seriously.

So, my group and my instructor stood up for me, and said that they thought that was ridiculous, it had nothing to do with that, and I got so frustrated and upset that I started crying.

It really, really sucked.

So, Emily, Amanda and I went out to the Japanese steakhouse in Avon to make ourselves feel better, and then came back to my house and drank wine. 

It was a really great ending to a really horrible day.

So blessed to have those girls in my life.

Have a busy day tomorrow! 

Working 9-3, and then to Matt and Emily's wedding at 4:30!

Super excited that they are getting married tomorrow, I love those two.

They are going to do great things for God together.

Then, Jamie and I are going to The Melting Pot that night, to celebrate my birthday!!

So super excited about that.

The Melting Pot is my absolute favorite.

Well, have to go get ready for work soon, I work 4-11, and then have a meeting at midnight (yuck.)

But, I wanted to mention one more thing:

Today would have been my dad's 50th birthday.

I've been kind of bummed about it all week, but I'm really doing okay today.

Been thinking about all of the good times.

And listening to a lot of Beach Boys. They always make me think about him and smile.

Happy birthday, daddy.

Daddy holding me in my strawberry bikini when I was 1. One of my favorite pictures.

Wish you were here so we could celebrate it.

Miss you.

I love you.

♥

Feeling Blessed and Honored

Yesterday started out really rough.

I was up until 2 AM the night before, doing homework,

And then had to get up at 6 AM.

Needless to say, I was struggling.

Then, when we got to school, our science group teacher told us that,

even though she's known our lesson objectives for the entire semester, 

She decided that a ransom note for COOKIES was inappropriate for her 4th graders.

Really.

That basically shot every plan we had made for the rest of the year, including our big finale.

So, my friend Emily and i, who are in her science group class, were having a really rough day.

And then, my friend Amanda dropped a bomb on us.

She said "I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks, but I have something I want to talk to you two about."

Emily said "your pregnant." hahahaha

Amanda said "No, haha, but will you guys be bridesmaids in my wedding?"

Stunned silence for two seconds.

And then..."OH MY GOSH!!! YES!!!!"

And then the tears came.
For both of us.

It just completely turned my day around!

It was awesome. 

It will be a first time experience as a bridesmaid for both of us.

 Emily and I already have all sorts of ideas,

even though Amanda's not getting married until December 30, 2011. 

I'm so excited about all of this.

These girls have seriously become so important in my life.

They get me through the craziness of the blocks.

I don't know what I would do without them.

I am super excited to be a part of Amanda's wedding, 

And equally excited that Emily will be with me in that.

It's going to be an awesome time.

Amanda, Me, and Emily.
♥

Awesome weekend...and then...not.

Awesome weekend....

This has been Jamie and I's first weekend off where we could just be together around home since our wedding.

It's been amazing.

I got my hair cut some more Friday morning,

and i love it!

It's got much more character now.

(sorry it's blurry, but you get the point.)

Jamie and I hung out during the day, and then went to Bradley and Maranatha's wedding rehearsal.

Bradley is Jamie's cousin, and we sang the music during the party processional.

Then we came home, and just hung out, ate popcorn, and watched a movie, which we haven't done in months.

It was wonderful.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and drove back to Rockville for a soundcheck and the real deal!

Other than the pianist being 15 minutes late,

it went great!

Then we went to the reception with the family,

and it was a good time.

Jamie mostly hung with his brother Shawn,

and I stayed with my sister-in-law Tami.

After the wedding, Jamie and I drove home, changed, and then headed straight to Broadripple to hang out with Joe and Amanda!

It was so great, Amanda is in my block at school, so it is great to get to hang out with her, and her fiance Joe is a sweetheart, and Jamie and I both really like him as well.

Amanda and I had an awesome time,

while the boys watched football.

It was also so nice to just have an evening with my husband, hanging out with friends.

we don't do that enough.

I love him.

.....and not.

Around 11:30, Jamie asked if we could leave because he didn't feel well. I had to get up and open the store this morning, so we hadn't planned on staying late anyway, but it was earlier than planned.

We got home around 12:30 AM, and he looked more and more sick every minute.

Around 1AM he got up and got sick.

Really, really sick.

Trying to be a good wife, I got up as well, and got him some water.

And then it happened again at 3AM.

This time we made him a sick bed on the couch.

And then again at 5AM. He woke me up even in the hall bathroom.

And then again at 7AM.

At this point I gave up on sleep, especially since I had to be at work at 8AM.

So, I made a 7AM run to Kroger to get him 7-up, saltines, chicken noodle soup, and lysol wipes for me.

And then, after 3 hours of crappy sleep, I went to work for 8 hours.

And this is where my husband has been for the last 14 hours.

Poor Guy.

He is definitely finally starting to feel better though, which is a blessing.

I have to get up and do homework and housework all day tomorrow.

Definitely taking a nap.

Right....now.

♥