Jared and I have lived here since we got married almost a year ago. We went hard-core apartment hunting before we were even officially engaged, and somehow we wound up walking right into an opening at a place that we didn’t know existed. It was close to campus, un-ghetto, and it even had a dishwasher—and the rent was under $600! “Fate,” we said to each other. And fate it was. Even though it’s just a quaint apartment, we love this little place we call home.
Since we’ll be moving away in just a few short weeks, I decided that the ol’ blog would be a great dumping ground for pictures of this place. Oh, the memories! Stay tuned after these images for some sentimental I Spy!
I spy 5 glass bottles that Jared and I smuggled into the states from Germany, 3 souvenirs from our European honeymoon, 2 works of art that Jared and I painted when we first started dating, 1 birdcage veil that I wore on our wedding day, 1 rose that Jared bought for me pre-engagement when he dropped me off at my flower shop job, 1 training schedule for the Bear Lake marathon, 1 vase of dried wildflowers as a sampling of each time Jared has gone running in the mountains and brought me back a bouquet, 1 cuddly sea creature that I gave Jared on the night of our unofficial engagement (his name’s Tofeln . . . cuuuuuute), and 1 win for Laura in the ever-present background battle. Brownies for whoever can find them all!
Since we’ll be moving away in just a few short weeks, I decided that the ol’ blog would be a great dumping ground for pictures of this place. Oh, the memories! Stay tuned after these images for some sentimental I Spy!
I spy 5 glass bottles that Jared and I smuggled into the states from Germany, 3 souvenirs from our European honeymoon, 2 works of art that Jared and I painted when we first started dating, 1 birdcage veil that I wore on our wedding day, 1 rose that Jared bought for me pre-engagement when he dropped me off at my flower shop job, 1 training schedule for the Bear Lake marathon, 1 vase of dried wildflowers as a sampling of each time Jared has gone running in the mountains and brought me back a bouquet, 1 cuddly sea creature that I gave Jared on the night of our unofficial engagement (his name’s Tofeln . . . cuuuuuute), and 1 win for Laura in the ever-present background battle. Brownies for whoever can find them all!
I'm supposed to be putting some finishing touches on a lesson I'm giving in church tomorrow, but as I was waiting for my special toast to be ready I kept thinking to myself, "Toast. Toast. Toast rhymes with blog post." And so here we are.
It all (all being Saturday . . . just Saturday) began at 7:02 this morning when my alarm went off, blasting Huey Lewis's classic The Power of Love. I leaped out of bed, ready to take on a ten mile run as a final preparation for next week's marathon. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, Jared was awake and I had somehow spent two hours scouring the internet for the perfect vintage swimsuit without so much as tying a shoe (because, well, Grenada).
The ten miler became a five miler and I rushed back for a training meeting for my church calling. Good thing I'm trying to use up five bottles of passionfruit body spray from when I was a tween, because there definitely was no time for a shower in that agenda. After said meeting, Jared and I packed up a couple boxes for our forthcoming move and then rushed to a nearby water park, anxious to use our season passes to their maximum water-sliding potential.
We went down exactly one water slide before retiring to a nice patch of grass to lounge on our inner tubes and read.
The next three hours of our day were spent eating hot dogs, smelling candles (it's our favorite activity--but really), and purchasing peach filler flowers for my Etsy shop. Jared loves going to Hobby Lobby with me because he's convinced that it's the place where people go to find a hobby? Yes. He likes the aisles with wood, paints, and leather. Shhh, nobody tell him it's a mom store.
Speaking of my Etsy shop, I'm going to fix it up and do a post all about it next week. But for now, it's called LavenderLark and you can visit it in its current state here. I'm all about corsages, boutonnieres, and bridal bouquets, but you already knew that.
I hope your Saturdays were lovely and that one of you will snag that gorgey bouquet!
It all (all being Saturday . . . just Saturday) began at 7:02 this morning when my alarm went off, blasting Huey Lewis's classic The Power of Love. I leaped out of bed, ready to take on a ten mile run as a final preparation for next week's marathon. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, Jared was awake and I had somehow spent two hours scouring the internet for the perfect vintage swimsuit without so much as tying a shoe (because, well, Grenada).
The ten miler became a five miler and I rushed back for a training meeting for my church calling. Good thing I'm trying to use up five bottles of passionfruit body spray from when I was a tween, because there definitely was no time for a shower in that agenda. After said meeting, Jared and I packed up a couple boxes for our forthcoming move and then rushed to a nearby water park, anxious to use our season passes to their maximum water-sliding potential.
We went down exactly one water slide before retiring to a nice patch of grass to lounge on our inner tubes and read.
The next three hours of our day were spent eating hot dogs, smelling candles (it's our favorite activity--but really), and purchasing peach filler flowers for my Etsy shop. Jared loves going to Hobby Lobby with me because he's convinced that it's the place where people go to find a hobby? Yes. He likes the aisles with wood, paints, and leather. Shhh, nobody tell him it's a mom store.
Speaking of my Etsy shop, I'm going to fix it up and do a post all about it next week. But for now, it's called LavenderLark and you can visit it in its current state here. I'm all about corsages, boutonnieres, and bridal bouquets, but you already knew that.
This post is not meant to be an "I want to complain about stuff!" post. It is meant to be an "I want to remember this weird summer and make my readers feel happy about their lives!" post.
This summer has been weird. Probably my weirdest one yet.
After graduating from college, I spent a week or two applying for editing jobs. I even got some interviews, but unfortunately, nobody wants to hire on an editor only to have her move to a tropical place before she's even finished being properly trained. So, I spent the next week applying for receptionist type office jobs. No dice.
At this point I tried to grow my Etsy shop, but that sort of thing takes time so eventually Jared drop kicked me back into the job hunt. J-Dawgs, Wendy's, and grocery store jobs were the apple of my eye. "All right," I pep-talked myself, "these people are bound to take you! My brothers who haven't even graduated from high school get jobs at these places!" However, I think these people realized that I was overqualified and probably wouldn't stay long, because I never heard a peep from any of them after applying.
I then spent a few more days just sleeping in and being sad because nobody likes rejection and I just needed to mope for a second. But alas, medical school is expensive and I knew I needed to pull myself together so that we could earn enough money to be able to move at the end of the summer. Jared doesn't like to see me sad (or broke), so he wouldn't rest until I had a job either. We spent an entire day applying to all the temp agencies in the valley. Not ideal, but it paid off. I landed a job in a mattress warehouse which started this last Monday.
The commute was 45 minutes each way, the pay wasn't hot, and the transportation was tricky, but at least it was something. And for about a day, it was something I really believed I could endure for a month or two. At the end of the next day though, I knew I wouldn't last. I had to borrow a car from my parents and the work days were eleven hours long. Eleven hours of doing the same assembly-line task over and over and over and over again. Never have my shoulders hurt so bad at the end of a day. But I could have dealt with that if the people I worked with were pleasant. The environment as a whole just dragged me further and further down, until even when I got home at the end of the day I couldn't pull myself out of the funk. In the past four days, I have heard more expletives, dirty jokes, drug conversations, and attacks on my religion than I have in the rest of my life combined. Everyone talked about everyone else behind their backs, and for some reason people thought it would be funny to show me their bums. I got along with these people and they seemed to like me, but the whole situation just wasn't working.
I jumped at the chance to interview at a local ShopKo and spend a few days next week doing a much pleasenter temp job in my city. I quit my warehouse job after only four days.
As much as I hate the idea of floundering around for the rest of the summer, grasping at any inkling of a working day, I know it'll be ok. It's sort of sad that Jared never wants this last summer before med school to end, and I yearn for it to be over as soon as possible. The lesson of the year for me is patience. Patience. It's going to be fine. And to prove that I'm really not a sad person, here are a few pictures of some happier summer moments:
And for the record, I would encourage all of you to get a college education.
Jared will be spending the next two years attending medical school on the Caribbean island of Grenada.
Aaaaand, I guess I'll come too.
The plane tickets are reserved (August) and we're looking for housing.
Should we live on campus (pictured above) or off campus?
How many swimsuits should I pack?
These are the struggles I have to deal with on an everyday basis.
This last weekend, we spent a day in Daybreak. Utah people, you need to go check out Daybreak if you haven’t already, because it is just right out of a storybook. The houses are all different colors, the walkways feel European, and there’s a cute little lake with bridges, geese, and a quaint beach.
If you’re super classy (like us), you can bring a McDonald’s picnic and play games like “let’s see who can get closest to the big goose before it hisses!”
It may be built on a landfill, but you might find us living here a decade down the road, because we can’t resist the cuteness factor.
(1) He throws me surprise birthday parties (wherein my parents gift me my dream camera--thanks parents!)
(2) He has really nice hair--the swoosh is all natural
(3) He only has one camera face, and it's fantastic
Well, hey.
I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here and I have so many posts I want to post.
Unfortunately, we accidentally lost our internet two weeks ago, and our good Fiber friends haven't swept in to save the day yet. Also, I'm done with school so the chance of me going to campus for internet access is slim.
So even though I have a boatload of good pictures and posts, for now you just get a corsage photo. Because it's prom season and I made 20 corsages in two days.
It was excessive.
For a surefire great spin to your day, you should probably definitely watch this lil' movie. The entire thang. It may change your life and everyone else's life.
Thanks to Jordan for introducing our family to great musics and youtube vids.
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