saturday

here are some random thoughts:

- i love my husband. im crazy about him. he did laundry this morning, put away all the clean dishes, and made the bed while i was away this morning at a meeting. oh. AND he put a mountain dew in the fridge for me to have when i got home. yeah. as he said 'i know you like the back of my hand'. really. that mountain dew surprise in the fridge... all it takes for me to be a happy girl.

- i talked to sara on the phone today. made me miss her. i wish i were with her! cake tasting, beach bumming, dress shopping, being besties.... oh well. im so grateful for phones and ichat.

- i was driving into durham today and noticed the city sign. it says "welcome to durham. the city of medicine". dang. what a place to live & study medicine. i live in the city of medicine. sometimes i forget how lucky i am. im going to be studying something i love and enjoy at the BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD to study it. dang.

-its a rainy day. i love rainy days. makes me want to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie. maybe we will do that....

-or maybe i will sand and paint our new kitchen table and chairs.

yeah... im going with the later.

off to do a bit of home stuff... with my sweetie.

"makeover"

the before:

unorganized. messy. wasted space. and NO WHERE TO STUDY. (even if the sewing machine was not in the way)

AFTER:

calm. white. small lamp. stack of books (that will soon be replaced with school books. more space to spread out study materials (as you can see the stats book & calculator) and yes. a mountain dew.

so the desk: its the old desk, i just removed the top piece (which opened up a lot more room) and covered it in plain white contact paper. it works PERFECTLY. there are a few bumpies here and there, but i dont mind. the white is SO MUCH BETTER than the nasty fake DARK wood.

a shadow box is where i have my fun stuff. instead of taped to the wall- i put it all in here. its still fun and has lots of good things in it, its just a bit more grown up. :) ps it was 10 bucks at TJ max!

next up the lamp. it was a salvation army find. it was HIDEOUS gold and was missing a shade- so for a dollar i bought it, painted it blue for another dollar, then bought a 10$ silvery/gray shade. i like the smaller lamp instead of the big overhead light. especially on the nights that i'll be staying up late studying and writing! of course a candle is a must. and the pencil holder was a fun color and 2$ at TJ maxx.

lastly the overhead shelf. I can't put much weight up there, but its perfect for holding my MASON jars full of my colored pencils & highlighters. My corner study nook has a beachy theme- so i have the beach picture and a mason jar filled with sea glass. the shelf we had. mason jars were 10cents each at a secondhand shop.


underneath the desk i redid the 3 drawer container that you can see in the first picture. it was full of crap... really. so i emptied it out and put only essentials for bills, and school.

this was a simple weekend project that i did a few weeks ago and i LOVE.
it makes my lil study nook so much better-- and more inviting!
hopefully i'll feel this way in a couple of months when school is in full swing!!

next house project is this weekend: we are repainting our kitchen table & four chairs!
they were a hand-me-down from some friends- in great shape, just a bit on the blue side. so we are hoping with a lil TLC we can make them even better!

final

you may remember... two months ago i took my statistics final.
i finished my project.
i was DONE! and was soooooo excited.
until last week.

my statistics final was somehow lost.
either by a person- or in the mail.
so last weekend (ok on sunday) i got back out my book to look over what i studied for TWO MONTHS AGO.

its one thing to take a final at the end of the semester... you've been preparing for it!
its totally different if there is a two month hiatus, and then BOOM.
i must take my final.
ughhhh.

so yesterday i studied for several hours.
looked over my old tests.
and today im doing a bit of studying again.

my final is tonight at 7:00.
online- so it can't be lost this time.

im not going to be prepared.... but as long as i make a 37 then I'll pass the class.
yes. a 37. i feel totally confident i can make that.
and maybe just maybe the teacher will give me some 'pity' curve.

who knows. oh well. such is life.
love & peace

blindside

ryan and i ate pizza. drank sodas. watched blindside. and ate oreos.
it was a FABULOUS night.

here it is...

... the new blog.
it was in need of a makeover.
its the new blog... for the new chapter in my life.

school starts in a month.
i had a statistical disaster... and am re-taking my final (due to an idiot who lost my test)
i have a few house projects to do in the next month.
i finished my amazing study/desk area.
next need to tackle redoing our dining table & chairs.
and will be reorganizing our 'junk closet' thats approximately 10 feet long and 4 feet deep.
its huge.
but right now a huge disaster.

ive set up my phone to be able to blog from it...
so hopefully ill post more.
pictures. random thoughts. whats going on.
we shall see how it goes!

especially when school starts.
simply because ill be a tad bit on the busy side.

well love & peace to you all.
:) bort

pics

it never lets me post pics when i want to.
darn blog.
maybe ill get a new one... maybe not.

hope life is well.
off to work.
peaceeee

....

Anniversary Tickers

nothing better

... than getting to leave work 3 hours early.
come home to my sweet husband.
and get to cuddle up during a nasty storm outside.

oh yeah. and cookout milkshakes on top of all of that.
speaking of milkshakes: i tried the "fresh watermelon" one. which has FRESH WATERMELON in it. it was interesting. ry liked it more than me. there was just something about watermelon and vanilla ice cream though, that i couldn't do.

alive

im alive. don't worry.

ive just been away for a whole week--- loving life.

i got to spend a few WONDERFUL days with my family.

eating lots of good food. laughing. playing games. playing in the woods. and exploring new places.

i had a blast with them. it made me so happy to go home and spend some good quality time with the brothers & mom & dad.

i also got to spend some great quality time with my bestest friend from elementary school... amy beth. we go back to kindergarten. she is one of those friends i am blessed to see about twice a year- but thats all we need. we stay super close. still have our fun secrets. still eat lots of icecream. giggle about life. time with amy is something i cherish deeply. :)

then i went to the lake for a few days to visit sara & her family.

and her awesome fiancee! (thats for you john. although im pretty sure you dont' read this)

we had a blast-- playing on the water. eating more food. playing. talking. wedding planning. lots of realllllly great times with my favorite other family (after my two families of course)

i had such a wonderful time at home. i miss it so very much.

i miss my family. and being close to my lifelong friends. and my other adopted families (the foshee's and brasher's) its always so good to go home.

the last two days ive enjoyed some fabulous husband & wife time.

went out and picked blackberries, went swimming, laid out, talked, went to a movie, watched a movie at home, had dinner with our neighbors, went shopping, and just spent time together.

it was also WONDERFUL.

i missed my husband so much while at home-- so two days alone- just us. was PERFECT. :)

anyway... im working now for the next few days.

countdown to our anniversary has begun!

can you believe we've almost been married a YEAR!!! i can't even believe it! we are going to the outer banks for our anniversary/ colin's wedding. i have FOURTEEN DAYS OFF WORK!!! for us to travel- relax- and have a REAL vacation all while celebrating colin's wedding! then we will start school. ekkkK!

anyway. one month until vacation & our anniversary. wooohoo! :)

well thats an expediated update on my life.

love & peace to you all

off

im flying home to georgia tomorrow...
for a quick trip (well until wednesday) to see my family- and sara & her family. :)

im so excited.
and so grateful for such an unselfish husband.
man i love him so sooo much. :)

yay for georgia!

thunder

the thunder erupted my nice quiet peaceful day at the pool.
yes. i spent another quiet day at the pool with friends.
and again it was wonderful.
laying around. talking. sipping on lemonade.
nothing is more like summer than lemonade and toes in the pool.

the sky has since turned black- and the thunder is shaking our house.
good thing i have a good book to read!

daily thought

Dont ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. because what the world needs is people who have come alive― Howard Thurman

soaking

i am just soaking up this summer.
today i relaxed poolside with a friend from work.
laying in the sun, sipping gatorade and talking about life is just perfect.
it might have been 102 degrees (no exaggeration there) but it was wonderful.
i love the heat... but only when i can dip in the pool to cool down.
it was amazing.
perfect way to spend the afternoon.

summer

saturday night we decided to host a party.
so we did just that.
we grilled out. played corn hole. sat around for hours and hours.
talked. lingered over really good lemonade & berries & yogurt. & we kept eating cookies.


we sat around citronella candles and caught up with friends who have been far and wide doing ministry all summer. it was so good.
so fun to have a house full of people.
laughing. smiling.

sunday was the perfect north carolina summer day.
sunny, warm and beautiful day.
topped off with a seventy degree- starlit night sky.

we had such a wonderful night.
the perfect ending to a perfect weekend.
(we actually went to the zoo yesterday! and had a blast! ill post more on that later)
so tomorrow is monday. the start of another work week.
luckily ive got this great weekend to push me through!
then saturday im FLYING HOME TO GEORGIA!
five days with the family & sara
I. CANNOT. WAIT.
can you believe that i haven't seen sara since she has gotten engaged!?!?!

let's just say our reunion--- its going to be epic.

lots of love & peace from our home to yours tonight.
hope you had a safe and wonderful weekend.

love. joy. peace.

the sniders

PS this would have been full of pictures- but blogger wont upload any pics! ughh